Mishmash Musings

Remember the woman who got attacked by a pet chimp in February of this year? Her name is Charla Nash, and a chimp named Travis mauled her, ripping off her mouth and eyes in a savage attack.

Well, Charla miraculously survived, and sat down with Oprah for an interview. Her injuries are so severe that she usually wears a veil so she “doesn’t scare people”, but at the end of the interview, she takes the veil off to reveal her face.

In the video below, that moment comes at about the 4:03 mark. It’s a real quick cut and it’s not a closeup shot, though, so you can’t really see much unless you pause the vid at that moment.

Wow, I cannot believe the woman survived. That’s just amazing.

I just read a very interesting, detailed article about the success of Subway’s $5 Footlong promotion. The link is right here if you want to check it out. It’s a very good read.

Anyway, who would’ve thought that such a seemingly simple idea like offering a footlong sandwich for the nice, round figure of $5 would lead to massive sales increases? Especially when you consider the fact that the sale price is only about $1 cheaper than the regular price. Is that such a big deal that people scramble for it and form lines out the door during lunchtime? Apparently so.

I like Subway, so I love the promotion. But seriously, I would still be eating there anyway.

Well, my time in seclusion proved to be very productive after all. I finished off all the work I had to do, and can now take a bit of a breather this week. Then it’s right back to the grindstone as I have another big project due before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I have to admit that I’m surprised I did so well. I usually can’t perform like that unless I’m under extreme deadline pressure, but that wasn’t the case here. I was actually able to stick to the task at hand and accomplish everything that I wanted to do. Sure, I’m coming out of the weekend feeling exhausted and exhibiting dark circles under my eyes, but I guess that’s to be expected. As a reward, I’m going to do nothing tonight except veg out in front of the television with a big bowl of popcorn!

I have a research paper due on Tuesday, so I’ve been in seclusion most of today, trying to go through a bunch of books and articles related to the subject. The paper only has to be three pages long (double-spaced), which amounts to only about 750 words, so length is not going to be a problem. The real bitch about this paper is choosing the right sources, quotes, and data to use. The prof is big on persuasive arguments, and will be grading from the standpoint of whether or not he’s convinced by my presentation.

Anyway, I’m going to continue working the rest of tonight, and again tomorrow morning. I’ll take a break for the Bears game, of course, but will get right back to my paper after that. I want to finish by tomorrow night if possible.

I’m sooo looking forward to Thanksgiving break right now! I don’t want to say grad school was a mistake… but it has proven to be a heck of a lot more work than I bargained for.

Wow, this sounds just awful! You’ve probably heard by now of the shootings at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, right? The story is all over the TV and Internet news sites right now. Details are still emerging, but at this stage it seems as though at least two gunmen opened fire at different locations on the base, killing up to 9 people and wounding at least 20.

It says that one of the gunmen has been apprehended, but the other one is still at large. No word yet if the gunmen were soldiers or civilians.

This is just terrible news. You’d think our soldiers would at least be safe on our own soil, but then something like this happens. Thoughts and condolences to the families affected by this tragedy.

Ok, this happens quite a bit, but I still don’t understand it. I just read that actor Nicolas Cage, who has earned more than $100 million in his career, is nearly broke and is suing his former business manager, Samuel Levin, for about $20 million. Meanwhile, Cage is scrambling to unload some of his properties and other possessions in order to maintain living expenses while his lawyers try to track down the money. Pretty soon he’ll be reduced to pulling out copper wiring and selling off expensive light fixtures just to make ends meet.

How does this happen? Sure, Cage obviously placed his trust in the wrong guy. But even beyond that, how do people put themselves in this position. If I ever suddenly started making mega money, I would immediately stash around $10 million in a bank account that only I had access to. That would be my “emergency” money, and then I’d invest and live off everything else. That way, if the investments go bad or if employees embezzle from me, I’d still be able to live comfortably.

Well, whatever. I’m not about to start feeling sorry for Cage. I’ve sat through enough of his crappy movies and contributed enough to his coffers to worry about his problems!

I can’t believe I’m writing about a record-setting rubber band ball — again. Yes, nearly three years ago, one of my first posts on this blog, in fact, I wrote about someone who created a 4,594-pound rubber band ball. That was a world record at the time, but now a Lauderhill, Fla. man has shattered the record with a 9,032-pound monstrosity of his own.

The new record-holder is Joel Waul, a Gap stockroom clerk who for some reason decided to create the world’s largest rubber band ball. Apparently, Ripley’s Believe It or Not actually liked the thing so much that they paid for it to be hauled off to their museum — which again simply begs the question “why?”. No one’s saying how much Waul got paid, but the price was probably in the five figures. Hey, maybe the sale even included a free directory submission on the Ripley’s website so people can look up Waul’s “accomplishment” online. Who knows.

Seriously, there are some folks out there with waaay too much time on their hands!

(AP Photo/Alan Diaz)