Rob, Rambling - A lot of things interest me...

Lauren’s series of posts about the “ice cream of the future” have reminded me about my first (and so far, only) experience of ice cream in dot form.

It was during my first trip to America, when I was about eight years old. We’d stayed with some friends in West Virginia, and then driven down to Florida to do all of the DisneyWorld parks and so on. During our time in Florida, there happened to be a shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

We drove out that way, and ended up pulling over to the side of the road to watch the launch, along with everyone else in the area. The shuttle was pretty much just an orange glow at that distance, but it was cool to see it heading up into the heavens, disappearing into the sky as we watched.

Of course, being so close to the space center, we had to go in. Again, along with everyone else in the area. I remember it being stupidly busy, but also absolutely amazing. Hell, I was a space-geek then, and still am now.

The point of this story though, is that that day brought me my first experience of Space Dots, or real astronaut ice-cream, as it was marketed there. I distinctly remember my little sister (around four at the time) thoroughly spilling her ice cream everywhere, and all these tiny ice cream balls rolling around before swiftly melting on the hot concrete. That meant me having to give up some of my ice cream to her, which at that age is just unfair.

Anyways, if you haven’t yet tried space dots, or astronaut ice-cream, I can highly recommend it. I can also highly recommend the Kennedy Space Center, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

(photo via TechRepublic)

Lacey is one funny, funny woman.

It was a great comeback from the USA team, to be fair. And they probably should’ve won the game in the end, as I didn’t see anything wrong with the disallowed “third” goal. At least the World Cup has finally got into its stride.

Is “connection” a word that is used way too freely? Maybe so. I’m feeling a bit disheartened by its rarity. Sometimes it seems so easy to connect with people and other times, impossible. Regardless of the ambiguity, I’m intrigued by the late David Foster Wallace’s philosophies on the subject, so I decided to look beyond the daunting task of reading 1000 plus pages of fiction and well, just do it. I’ve heard all about this literary journey some call an “infinite summer,” and I’m hopping on board. I’m so curious to where it will take me.

brieflynoted

I’ve almost finished this book, nearly three months after starting it, and I’m still amazed at just how good it is. Yes, it’s a bit of a slog, and the 4-page endnotes can be a pain, but the sheer depth of the world Wallace has created is astounding. I want to write more once I’ve finished it, but even only 7/8 of the way through I can highly recommend this book (although maybe not the backache that comes with carrying it around everywhere!).

Infinite Summer is a good resource when you’re starting the book, but after a few hundred pages I was so engrossed that I didn’t really need any extra encouragement to get through it. The motivation from the website is helpful for the first couple of hundred pages though, as you are thrown into the deep end with barely any explanation.

I already feel that I could write reams and reams about this book, and this is before I’ve finished it. Stay tuned for a series of posts in the coming weeks once I’m through with it.