Delusions #3
This is a new delusional blogpost. Learn about key chain cameras, Kodak, and good shitty pizza.
Art - My Key-Chain Camera
I recently spent way too much money on a tiny key-chain camera and I’ve been taking it around with me taking pictures. The camera is easy to use but also very difficult to use and what I mean by that, is that it’s pretty easy for anyone with articulate fingers to press a small button three times, but the camera has no image stabilization, nor a mounting screw-hole thing (camera people know what I’m talking about) thus making taking a clear image difficult. These are some of my favorites:
The quality of the images [in a technical sense] is bad.
The quality of the images [in an emotional sense] is good.
I enjoy them. I hope you do too.
Commerce - My Kodak ‘Charmera’ Key-Chain Camera
The Kodak Charmera is an overpriced toy sold under the oh so common marketing strategy of gambling. The Kodak key-chain-charm camera, or, Charmera, is sold in blind-boxes, lootcrate style, with different color options available, hidden behind the packaging. I can admit, I love gambling. I also felt myself wanting the more rare ‘color’ option, the clear Charmera, more than any other.
I paid $50 for this camera on Amazon.com. I didn’t want to buy it from Amazon but I also wanted to take it with me to the Billy Strings concerts in Asheville, and it was the only place that didn’t look like a scam. Note, the only pictures I liked enough to share here from Asheville are the ones of the shitty hotel room coffee maker and the decent hotel room clothes hangers. I think I had to pay for shipping since I don’t have Amazon Prime, and before shipping, I think it was $37 which is still ridiculous for this gimmicky toy. But, it’s fun. I’m glad I wasted that money.
Food - IN & OUT PIZZA SLICES NY STYLE
A few weeks ago my coworker Bryan and I were trying to find new places to eat lunch near the laboratory. Bryan asked if I’d heard of “In and out slices” over by the Food Lion on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, to which I replied that I had, “Yeah, I’ve seen that place,” I said to Bryan. And so we decided that we would try “In and out slices” (upon further research, we discovered that it’s full name was IN & OUT PIZZA SLICES NY STYLE as we would refer to it going further, as we should). My boss and another coworker ended up joining us.
It turned out, IN & OUT PIZZA SLICES NY STYLE was not really a sit-down and enjoy your pizza type of place, it was a little bit different than we expected. We weren’t greeted upon entering, in fact, we got weird looks as we walked through the strip mall parking lot, and even weirder looks from the cashier, cook, and patron waiting on their order.
After ordering our slices, we sat down at the two high-top tables with two seats each and waited on our pizza. It seemed as though these tables were meant to wait for your takeout order, as three or four other customers came and went (in and out) as we ate. Also, while we waited, a different cook walked in and mean-mugged our table, straight beaming his eyes at us like extendable telescopes, each lens molesting each of us up and down, smothering us in eye-ball juices. We left soon after that.
Bryan and I returned with a new coworker and everything was pleasant. They smiled at us, we received our pizza quickly and it was delicious (not that it wasn’t the first time), and the cashier even gave us a couple of free slices. We were not mean-mugged. Perhaps it was my boss’s fault. I give IN & OUT PIZZA SLICES NY STYLE on MLK Jr. Dr. a 17.4 out of 23.
I learned the next morning why they call it “IN & OUT.” It definitely does both.
