The Deets

1. I had two cars die while driving, resulting in tows of over 100 miles . . . in the same summer. One died around 150 miles North of Fairbanks, AK. The other near Denali National Park.
2. I went tanning in a tanning bed. The first and only time I did it, I ended up with red stripes on my back like the American flag. It was very relaxing until the burn set in over night. I still have two more free tans at that place in Green Bay.
3. I flew a Douglas DC-3 North of the Arctic Circle. No take-offs or landings. But I did bank my way between light clouds on a mostly sunny summer day.

4. I was the photographer for a photo shoot of two men in jock straps. The outtakes were awesome. The expressions on the faces on the photo developers were even better.

5. I helped edit a book for a guy I had never met or even spoken on the phone with. We met on a stock message board, had a common interest in Google, and we clicked. Carly thinks it’s strange that I have “online friends” but I wouldn’t be writing this right now if I hadn’t been tagged by an “online friend” I hope to meet sometime over a Reuben Sandwich.
6. I invited an Internet porn star into my apartment. I used to live on Excelsior Blvd. in Minneapolis near the Whole Foods. One night, I swung down to pick up the mail at the front of the building and noticed a woman standing in the entryway. I let her in, only to find out that she didn’t live in the building (security breach). She seems like a total character so I invited her up to the apartment I shared with a friend, Ben. Ben was surfing the web when we entered the apartment. I grabbed beers for all of us and she started talking to Ben about how she had a web site. Ben looked it up, and sure enough, she had her own porn site. She wasn’t exactly attractive. Eventually, I went to bed, leaving Ben to deal with the porn “star.” He decided to drive her home, but she was having a hard time remembering where she lived so it took a looooong time while I was cutting zzzzz’s. I believe this was on a Monday night. Moral: don’t bring porn “stars” home.

Time to tag some other folks: Kenneth, Mike, and Tim. Let’s see what’s unusual in your past.

Airborne is #1?, originally uploaded by edkohler.

Help me out with this one. When Airborne says it’s #1 in the USA, what are they comparing it to? Other overpriced effervescent multivitamins?

If that’s really the case, it’s a pretty lame claim.

Airborne is Da Bomb, originally uploaded by edkohler.

I took an Airborne last night and haven’t been sick since. This stuff is da bomb. I’m such a believer in the stuff, I got my picture in the Airborne booth.

Airborne to the Rescue, originally uploaded by edkohler.

Ben crashed hard after last year’s Las Vegas trip to CES, so this year he’s taking extra precautions, such as no kissing hookers, only drinking beverages with safety seals (like corked wine), and popping two kinds of Airborne.

Ben loves the zesty orange taste!

Approaching Las Vegas, originally uploaded by edkohler.

This was almost the last picture I ever took based on the landing we had today only minutes later. The plane tilted to the right as it was about to land, came down on the right wheel, pivoted right, and almost left the runway.

The pilot got the wheels down, leading to a series of high speed S-turns down the runway while people lost their cookies in coach.

I opened my air vent once it was clear that we were going to live, only to smell a fresh bile scent blasting through the vent.

Memorable, to say the least.

Flying Dallin, originally uploaded by zelph.

One of my favorite photo pools on Flickr is the WOW! pool where only photos with a WOW! factor are supposed to be contributed. While that’s a fairly subjective thing (cats? please), there really are some gems. Some of the most impressive photos to me come from places I’ve never seen before, such as exotic beaches, hiking trails, and small cities around the world.

You can subscribe to a pool’s photos by adding the RSS feed URL found at the bottom of each pool’s page.

Cute kid photos are a really questionable submission, but flying kids have serious WOW! factor.

Another interesting feed is photos tagged with the term Minneapolis. Photos of cool stuff going on around town come directly to me in Bloglines through this feed. Cool stuff.