On Bots, Baked Goods, and Half-Baked Murder Mysteries

 Bots, Baked Gods, and Half-Baked Murder Mysteries

    When I started this blog, I didn't anticipate it would accrue the following that it has. I'm not saying that my blog is huge by any means, its still tiny, but I have over 200 views, which surprised me. I supposedly have viewers from around the world, which I highly doubt and is probably bot traffic. But if not, shoutout to my 11 international viewers, hailing from Ireland, India, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Portugal. 11 is also the number of viewers I have on Linux and Unix, the operating system that bots are likely to use, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence and my international viewers are definitely real people. So, my German, Indian, Irish, British, Portuguese, and French Friends, reach out! Comment, and I'll give you a shoutout in the next edition. 

    Speaking of my blog's success, how about its monetary success? I recently realized that I had the opportunity to turn on ads for this blog, perhaps make some extra cash. Then I realized that you have to pay ten dollars for the privilege of turning on ads, which is more than I'd make in 1,000 years. So, you don't have to worry about me selling out anytime soon.

    Recently, I travelled to Canada to cross-country ski. It was a fun time, but I also realized something important about myself. While trying to take a photo of me for this blog, I realized I don't know how to smile in the cold. Every photo I took, without a doubt, I looked absolutely nuts. My face muscles would freeze up and I would be incapable of forming a smile. So I decided that in cold weather, smiling without teeth is the way to go...

Isn't my Hawaiian shirt awesome?

    Other than that, we had a great time. On thanksgiving my family played a murder-mystery game where we had a bunch of documents containing clues, and we had to solve a cold case for several years ago. I was expecting some elaborate crime, with an elaborate solution. Something extraordinarily difficult, that would expect us to go to great lengths to find the killer. The final clue? The killer lied about being left handed. That's it. It took us about thirty minutes. It was way too easy. I mean come on, you build up the hype for some unsolvable crime by constructing a fake town, with newspaper clippings, photos, police reports, and the dudes just left handed. Needless to say, next time I will source my murder mystery fun from another vendor. 

    When I returned to school, I found out that 4th period Calculus had cookies. They also had an Elf on a Shelf. This is unacceptable. I will not allow 4th period to become the fun period. So, I decided to make cookies for 6th period! Honestly, I'm glad that this cold war started between the periods, because I had been meaning to make cookies for a while and this finally gave me the push I needed. So, wanting to up the ante in the great cookie bake-off (which is probably only a competition to me) I set out to find a somewhat hard cookie recipe. I settled on Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies from the New York Times. Looking back at it, it probably shouldn't have taken me as long as it did, but I'm not the most efficient in the kitchen. 6th period still doesn't have an elf on the shelf, but I've got other ideas.... Perhaps a moose on the mantle, or a tiger in the treetops.... Maybe we will call it Hobbes..... Stay tuned....

Happy Holidays,

Calvin