T.I.L.T. Things I've Learned Thursday XII

It's time for another edition of Things I've Learned Thursday, in which I share knowledge and the internet says, “Well, duh...”

* Eating half a carton of vanilla ice cream with Splenda® before bedtime will always seem like a good, certainly delicious, idea at the time, but I promise you'll be regretting it by the next morning, if not sooner. Trust me.

* Stargate Atlantis will be ending once it concludes the current, fifth season. Bummer. I'm a little behind, working my way through the beginning of season 4 now, but I've really been enjoying it these past few weeks. The good news is that movie sequels are planned, which will hopefully be as good as the SG-1 DVD movies that came out this year.

* Many corporations offer “Lunch ‘n' Learn” presentations, in which people from different departments explain exactly what it is they do. They can be informative and offer insight into how the pieces of a process fit. After attending one this week, I learned a lot about how my company's buyers go about selecting and obtaining the various products that I'll eventually have to design ads for, once marketing approves their selections. I also learned that it's a good idea to get to these meetings about fifteen minutes early so I don't have to stand for an hour. Finally, I learned that the “lunch” portion might not be as good as the “learn” portion, especially if the latter runs long resulting in the former going cold.

* After the “Lunch ‘n' Learn”, we were invited to leave the conference room and head down the hall to the dining area where boxes upon boxes of pizza awaited. In hindsight, I realized I probably could have used one of the microwaves to heat up my slices, as cheese is kind of nasty after it re-solidifies. However, this brings me to a lesson I learned a few years ago at my old job, that one should be careful when microwaving food at work. I learned the hard way that my old company had switched to microwaves with a convection setting, and that a single burnt slice of pizza would be enough to set off the fire alarms, evacuate two office buildings, and summon three fire trucks. Recalling that lesson, I realized I was better off with the cold pizza.

* The more movies one watches, the more contrived and predictable movies seem to be. At this point in my life I've seen over 2,000 movies, and I'm almost starting to understand why critics get so jaded and picky. Almost.

* Cats are fine with ignoring people when they feel like being left alone, but they don't like being ignored when they want attention. This can result from behavior ranging from jumping up to the top of the refrigerator, to walking across a keyboard while one is playing a game causing one's character to miss a jump and die, to standing on a desk at 3 AM batting loose change on to the floor until you wake up. And when you do, and carry the little purring furball back to his resting place, he's won.

* Mixing ketchup with mayonnaise creates a tasty dressing. It's rare for condiments to play together as nicely as those two.

* The art club that I co-founded in college along with Rey and another friend is not only thriving after well over a decade, but has an online presence as well. It's amazing to see that something we did predominantly as an excuse to throw parties or barbecues and meet girls evolved into something legitimate. What are the odds?