Did You Know?

My 9-year old is a wealth of knowledge these days.

It's not unusual to hear him proclaim, "Did you know?" and then spit out some random fact to me and his older brother.

This is largely in part due to one of his favorite games that he plays on his iTouch: Fruit Ninja.

The basic premise of the game is to slice fruit with your blade.

But there is one element of the game that warms my heart - it is educational. At the end of various levels, a little box of info will appear with facts about fruit.

For instance, did you now that you can use the inside of a banana peel to soothe a mosquito bite? Or to polish a leather shoe?

Fascinating isn't it?

Even more fascinating was the little nugget of information he dished out the other day.

"Dad," he said.

"Did you know that the space from your wrist to elbow is the size of your foot?"

"Um no," I said looking at my forearm and then at my foot.

I wasn't feeling it. I had my doubts... and then Shazaam!

As you can see, it is a little difficult to take a photo of this phenomenon.

Keep On Truckin'

I sing the praises of living life with a pick-up truck over at Chevy Culture.

Did you know?

I’m excited to announce that I’m now contributing to Chevy Culture, a
lifestyle and auto site sponsored by Chevrolet. Click through for the
full post on Chevy Culture, and come back in the next few weeks and
months for more.

My previous post over at Chevy Culture, about the Anatomy of the Modern Music Fan, can be found here.

Get out of the house, get in your car and get into life.

Oops! I Did It Again

I did something last week that I hadn't done in quite some time.

I bought a book.

Brand new.

I buy a lot of books but usually they are from thrift stores and library book sales.

I'm not sure what compelled me to do it.

I originally went into the book store to get coffee. Soon after consuming some joe, I decided to browse the periodicals. I wanted to see who was still printing magazines and if any of these magazines might provide an outlet for some freelance writing ideas.

Nothing inspires me more than reading some of my favorite authors. So I began to browse the fiction aisle for new works from some of them (to get inspired). In the letter H section, I came across Jim Harrison, one of my all-time favorites and a constant go-to writer of mine over the years.

I spotted what appeared to be his newest book and picked it up.

I got home, cracked it open and read two pages before I realized I had read this book already. A scan of the bookshelf and I realized I had the hard back version of this paperback book The English Major.

So I bought the same book twice.

This phenomenon has happened to me many times with records, but this was the first time it was with a book. Actually, I've passed on buying books I was convinced I had only to find out I didn't possess them.

When I returned the book the next day, I told the clerk I felt silly buying a book I had already read. "Don't worry," he said. "It happens all the time."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, like two or three times a week," he said.

I don't feel so bad now...