Toastie Timeline's Dandelife : The story of Toastie Timeline's life

Start new permanent job in Durham

Toastie Timeline — Tue Jul 08 04:16:18 UTC 2008

...

Purchased first home in Durham

Toastie Timeline — Thu Dec 20 03:56:05 UTC 2007

Leave Raleigh; Move back to Durham (yet again)

Toastie Timeline — Mon Feb 26 20:53:35 UTC 2007

I'm done with cookie-cutter apartments built on sprawl and now renting a small home near Duke's East Campus, where there are lots of pretty areas to walk Herman, and I'm just two miles from work.

Leave Durham; Move to Raleigh

Toastie Timeline — Mon Feb 26 20:42:04 UTC 2007

A lot of people think Raleigh-Durham is one place just because there's an airport with that name. They're not. While they do border each other, their downtowns are probably a good 30-40 miles apart. I only moved about 12 miles, though, near the RDU airport. I wish I hadn't. I don't like Raleigh. I remedied this a couple of years later (by moving once again).

Leave N Virginia; Move back to Durham

Toastie Timeline — Mon Feb 26 20:39:10 UTC 2007

Had no job to go to, but Fairfax lease was up; too expensive to keep lease without roommates. Went back to Durham.

Leave Durham; Move to Northern Virginia

Toastie Timeline — Mon Feb 26 20:33:01 UTC 2007

Moved first to Falls Church, then to Fairfax a couple of months later (and then back to Durham within a year)

High school graduation

Toastie Timeline — Wed Feb 21 16:44:10 UTC 2007

We had a hyper-competitive class. There were five statistically tied for valedictorian. I was a few hundredths of a point behind and was named salutatorian, having opted against taking AP Bio senior year just to keep pace with the others. At the graduation ceremony, we all were given equal time for speeches, each one to two minutes in length. I spoke first, and I think the consensus was that mine was the best. Given a lifetime of low self-esteem, no one can ever accuse me of being arrogant. But during my one minute up there in front of my 300 classmates and hundreds more in the bleachers, I kicked ass. This probably was the high point in my life, this one minute.

Dave becomes Toastie

Toastie Timeline — Wed Feb 21 03:50:37 UTC 2007

"Henceforth, you shall be known...as Toastie!"

And, henceforth, I have been.

Leave Knoxville; Back to Durham

Toastie Timeline — Wed Feb 21 03:30:57 UTC 2007

(like many other entries, I could certainly elaborate much more; I just want to get some things out on the timeline)

Leave Durham; Move to Knoxville

Toastie Timeline — Wed Feb 21 03:29:00 UTC 2007

I had to move to Knoxville for a contract job, as I couldn't get a job in North Carolina. I convinced myself I could make a life there. I was fooling myself. I couldn't stand Knoxville.

(like many other entries, I could certainly elaborate much more; I just want to get some things out on the timeline)

Aremid injured

Toastie Timeline — Tue Feb 20 21:31:08 UTC 2007

Aremid had outdoor privileges until October 2001, when a nasty scratch on his ear turned into an abscess. He and Zellouisa have been strictly indoors ever since! If you let your cats go outside because you think they enjoy it, you are probably right, but they really can adjust to staying indoors. They adapt to whatever environment you place them in. Aremid is currently 11 years old and still going strong.

Toastie Radio debuts

Toastie Timeline — Mon Feb 19 17:59:16 UTC 2007

Begun as a way to listen to music from home while at work without having to bring in CDs

toastieradio.com

Zellouisa rescued

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 21:32:28 UTC 2007

Aremid arrives

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 21:30:19 UTC 2007

For some reason, I always consider Aremid's birthday to be February 1, even though he was clearly older than 3 1/2 months old when I picked him up from his first home, a rural residence in the outskirts of Durham. No, I didn't rescue Aremid. He would've been thrilled to have lived the life of an outdoor cat. He probably wouldn't have lived for very long, however.

Graduated from Duke

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 21:25:35 UTC 2007

BS in Psychology. Minor in Computer Science. Looks good on paper, but I know the enormity of my wasted potential. Yeah, I know that sounds a bit melodramatic. Perhaps I'll elaborate more someday.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 21:24:15 UTC 2007

6/10 of a second too slow for the first fastest-finger question.
3/10 of a seocnd too slow for the second question.
Fractions of a second separate the path that my life has been on since November 1999 and the path my life could've taken had I just been slightly faster. I know I would've won $32,000 or $64,000, maybe more.
In the end, what I got was a free trip to New York City for a couple of days, a split-second of my face on a nationally broadcast program seen by tens of millions, and a five minute spot on the local news. In a lifetime, there are many "what-if"s. This represented one of the biggest.

Herman adopted

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 01:34:38 UTC 2007

I've got a blog and Flickr photos and YouTube videos all about Herman. But I just want to play with the timeline widget right now.

Born

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 01:33:09 UTC 2007

I imagine this is a fairly common entry. Need a beginning point for the timeline.

I'm looking at Dandelife's suggestions. As if I give a crap about the time someone laughed so hard that milk came out of his nose. I imagine that 99% of the "stories" posted here will be of absolutely no interest to anyone except the author. Seriously, even your friends or spouse probably don't care about your "most embarrassing moment". That's a stupid question that uninteresting people ask on first dates because they lack any creativity in their conversational abilities.

EDIT - See my comments for my evolving thoughts on Dandelife.

Dandelife

Toastie Timeline — Sun Feb 18 01:28:56 UTC 2007

I saw an article about Dandelife in one of my Netvibes feeds. I created an account. I initially wondered what the point was, since it just seems life a site to blog on, except that you're encouraged to write about past events. Then I saw the cool timeline widget and decided that the widget alone made the site worthwhile. One big problem--they ask you for your first and last name when you sign up, and then it appears you can't disassociate that name from your account even if you change your account details. I don't go to the sites like this and tell the world exactly who I am. Seriously, Dandelife, I can't think of another similar website that publishes your actual name without giving you the option to hide it.

So I deleted my first Dandelife. I just created another one with a different name. I'd like to play with the timeline feature. It might help to organize my life story. I could print it out and take it on first dates with me...