The Column
Preamble
Ads Part 2
Great news! The ads are gone immediately!
I thought I’d have to run the experiment for 6 months to gather necessary data… but my $0.03 over the past week beg to differ! There’s some disconnect between the numbers Cloudflare is showing for traffic to this site and the numbers Google was saying they were able to serve ads to. Possibly ad blockers. More likely bots. Regardless it’s fine! IT’S FINE I SAY JUST DROP IT.
Miscellany
Cursed Business Locations
Doesn’t it seem like some buildings simply refuse to house sustainable businesses? Some locations just… don’t work. For seemingly no reason businesses in certain buildings around town (every town I’ve ever stayed in) seem to fail. It’s not that the businesses themselves are to blame, in fact they are often quite good… but there are some sites that absolutely refuse to succeed… while business right next to them can draw heaps of customers.
The plaza around the AMC 28 in Olathe houses several eateries. There are two buildings in that immediate area that have housed a number of equivalent dining establishments - and for whatever reason they simply die out.
Several places have tried to make this building (and the one directly north of it) work, and all have failed. Despite the fact that they’re incredibly prominent in one of the most highly-passed through intersections in town.
It just feels like the entire surrounding population learns to look past certain locations and the location becomes cursed. You’d be better off to raze the building to the ground and put an apartment there or something, because nobody’s going to that particular structure otherwise… no matter what you put in it.
Life
Life is great. My 6 and 3 year old recently turned into a 6 and 4 year old. I’ve run into a problem wherein I’ve not used enough vacation at my job, thus I’m forced to use-it-or-lose-it… which means I actually have some time for a change. It’s weird! I’m, of course, finding ways to eat that up to make it feel like it’s gone before it starts. Such is life, I suppose.
Project 1-Liner Status Updates
- PDW re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-rewrite: more or less done - there’s always “one last thing”, though.
- New Art - Done.
- 2024 Puzzle Box - large progress after a reduction in scope un-writer’s-blocked me
Top 5: Free Foods You Get for Free Before the Meal
Aka “Top 5: Foods Most Likely to Make Aaron Lose His Abs”. Aka “Top 5: Salt and Butter Delivery Devices”
5. Chips & Salsa
Any Mexican restaurant. It’s half the reason you go to Mexican restaurants. If you aren’t greeted at the table with chips & salsa when you sit down, go find a better place to eat.
4. Breadsticks
Whether I’m at the Olive Garden or at a Fazoli’s, the real meal comes before whatever I pay for… and I reckon I get more calories through the 8+ of these I eat than whatever comes after them.
3. Cinnamon Butter Rolls
A staple of Texas Roadhouse. I go through no fewer than 4 of these before ordering too large of a meal but finishing it anyway. Making my belly Texas-sized.
2. Cheddar Bay Biscuits
I don’t do Red Lobster often, but when I eventually go back there it will be 100% because of these delicious terrible incredible awful delights.
1. Chips & Queso
Actually getting chips & queso for free is an extreme rarity - but the El Potro in South Lawrence does it. That place rocks.
Quote:
Mom just tickled me so ticklishly
- My 6 Year Old