Author Archives: bizzle

Meh Dot Com

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One theme over the last twenty years or so has been One-Deal-A-Day sites. In the past, I’ve blogged about Woot. Woot.com was bought out by Amazon in 2010 and slowly turned into Amazon’s clearance machine. The previous owner of Woot (Matt Rutledge) left and started a new version of the same concept – meh.com – in 2014.

I’ve always liked saying “meh”, which I’d guess I picked up from Futurama in the early 2000’s. When meh.com launched, I was hooked. In the decade since, I’ve made 298 purchases, a large majority of which are “meh.” branded merchandise. I’ve certainly worn their shirts a lot.

I think what’s fun about the website is they’ve done a bunch of novel things. During the pandemic, they started a website called PastaDrop.com. For $20, you’d send someone 20lbs of pasta. The trick, however, was that some people got significantly more pasta. Everyone was randomly given either 20lbs, 40lbs, 60lbs, 80lbs, even up to 100lbs.

40lbs of pasta delivered to a coworker.

Another concept is the IRK, or Instant Regret Kit. It’s how meh.com cleans out it’s warehouse – an IRK is just a box of random junk. The concept originates from Japan where it’s known as a fukubukuro. I’ve actually stopped ordering them, since I’m sick of throwing stupid stuff away.

The company itself is pretty cool. They’re based out of Dallas and never given me a problem. When the George Floyd protests ended up burning down my post office in 2020, meh.com gave me a full refund for my purchases. Having two houses has slowed down my purchasing, but there’s been some gems. As for my favorite purchase? It’s gotta be Party Bot!

PartyBot: a bluetooth speaker that lights up and dances

Life Lesson 1: The Backyard Patio

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One of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever undertaken was installing a paver patio in the backyard of our new house in MInneapolis in 2012. We bought the raw materials from Menards, found a book at Barnes & Noble, then got to work.

It wasn’t too expensive, especially given the size. But it was before I lost weight and athletically, I wasn’t ready for that much digging.

More importantly, I’ll never do it again. Where as professionals would have completed the job in a weekend, this patio took half a summer. We spent the rest of the summer struggling with what to do with all the dirt.

While the last two bricks were very satisfying to put in, take it from me – hire a professional to install a patio.

Let’s Talk About Drag

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I’m not sure how to write about this, because this is my personal and professional website. I’ve always been nervous about combining this side of me with my Drag Queen persona; when I’m in the office or doing Data Science, I don’t wear a flower in my hair, I don’t dress crazy, I stay focused on the work.

But I think being a well rounded person is healthy too. When I started performing drag on stage in 2017, I was stagnating in my Data Scientist career. I was working on personalization for Target.com and the product had matured to the point where there was not obvious “low hanging fruit” for improvement. IE, it was harder and harder to develop a novel personalization algorithm that would beat our current champion algorithms. So there was some “creativity” missing in my life.

But since I turned 28 in 2013, I had been going out and exploring the Minneapolis night scene, of which drag was a huge part. And if you read my fashion post, you know I was really getting into not blending into the crowd. I’d also started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, which was a blast.

Performing at Sister’s Sludge in 2023

I guess I could have tried a hundred other creative hobbies, but I was most jealous of the performers that had people coming to talk to them all night. It seemed like an art form that made you “cool” instantly.

So, in spite of being a terrible dancer and not knowing drag makeup styles at all, I went to the Monday night amateur night at The Saloon and tried it out.

Easter Costume 2024

It was awesome. I did terrible, did not make the second round, and there were a 100 things that went wrong. But I tried. And it gave me something to work on, and made me feel like I was putting myself out there.

I’m still a terrible dancer/performer, but mostly the crowds feed on energy, and I really try to put it out there. There’s not many heterosexual drag queens out there, but at least there’s me – Tilda Nextime. Check out @MistressTilda on Instagram for a ton more photos.

On a float during the Twin Cities Pride Parade 2024

My Favorite Photo

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This photo was taken by Andrew Berns in New York (on the Brooklyn side) in about September of 2008. It’s easily my favorite photo of all time.

There’s not much story behind it: Alicia and I were posing for a photo with Manhattan behind us and I leaned back to grab the rail behind us. Whoops, I grabbed bird poo. With no bathrooms or hand wipes near by, I did what anyone engaged to marry would do – I threatened touching Alicia with it. I guess she didn’t like it.

Thus, this magical photo was born.

It’s been posted to Facebook ever since and usually accompanies any “about me” slides I present at work.

Garden Trends

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I’m not much of a gardener, but I really like a well put-together space. It gives you a sense of control.

About three years ago (2022), I was accompanying Alicia at Michael’s Crafts while she shopped for Halloween goods. Since it was October, they had a ton of fake flowers from the summer season on clearance. On a lark, I bought about $25 worth, which was a LOT of flowers on clearance.

The yard was pretty much put away for the season, so it looked bleak. I decided to spruce it up with my newly purchased fake flowers!

Surprisingly, they lasted the winter! Even covered with a foot of snow, they popped out in the spring looking fabulous.

Now, it’s a tradition. They require no watering, are always in bloom, and add so much color to my back yard. Yay!

I Won a Chili Cookoff

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Back in November 2021, Sister’s Sludge hosted a chili cook-off. About twelve people entered it, each bringing in a crock-pot of chili for tasting. The judges were three of the cooks/staff from Northbound Smokehouse.

I’ve been pretty proud of my chili, it’s Alton Brown’s Pressure Cooker Chili, but in a pot on the stove for 6 hours (since I don’t own a pressure cooker). It’s pretty unique for a chili:

  • There’s three different animals (cow, pig, sheep).
  • It uses cubed meat that maintains its fibers (instead of ground meat).
  • It usually comes out a pretty dark brown, if not black.
  • It’s beanless.
  • ….in fact, there aren’t other discernible ingredients, it’s very meat forward.
  • It’s rich as hell.

The competition was two types of chicken chili, a veggie Verdi chili, at least three classic ground beef chilis, and a few interesting ones (with one going really heavy on cocoa).

The contest was judged without toppings (to the detriment of a few of the chilis that counted on sour cream or tortillas) and was judged separately by the judges and the crowd.

I’m proud to say I won both contests handedly! Woo!

Dressing to Impress

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One of the biggest changes over my last 39 years has been my style. In high school and college, I dressed to blend in. I wore clothing from the Gap and usually pretty boring t-shirts.

Sometime in my early 30’s, I started wanting to stand out. Life can get sorta boring and the people that dressed differently really made life more interesting. So I doubled down on dressing to impress. Or, if not impressive, I at least want to turn heads.

First off, I almost always have a flower in my hair. My hair has gotten long and curly, so a flower sorta balances it out. It also draws a lot of compliments, especially if I can color coordinate it with something else I’m wearing.

I also don’t wait for Halloween anymore. Here I am dressed as a light up, inflatable chicken at the bar across the street from my house in NOLA. There wasn’t a special occasion, it was just a Saturday night.

Sometimes it’s just unexpected. For the record, I definitely don’t pee in pools. But wearing the above t-shirt around, people go out of their way to either fist bump me or tell me I’m not invited to their pool. It’s awesome to see a wide variety of reactions.

More often than not, though, I dress for the occasion. This was my face paint for a concert on a recent Saturday night – “LSD Clownsystem”, a clown-based LCD Soundsystem cover band. How can you go to a clown show without clown face?!?!

That said, I wouldn’t have done it 20 years ago.

“What are the odds?”

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My favorite drinking game is called “What are the odds?” It features a 20-sided die. Players say a number aloud between 1 and 20, then roll the die. If a player rolls the number they called, they take a shot. Simple!

It’s also dangerous. So many people see the 5% odds of hitting and throw caution to the wind and give it a roll. I’ve seen a table roll the die 50+ times without hitting, but also seen the same person hit three times in five rolls.

Everyone just gets captivated with how 5% plays out in real time. “I just took a shot last round, what are the odds it’ll happen again?!?”

My 20-sided die currently lives at Sister’s Sludge, tempting bar patrons with it’s mystery.

COVID-19 Hot Tub

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Early summer of 2020, it became pretty clear no one was doing much. So I went on walmart.com and found an inflatable hot tub for about $400 (Intex brand if you’re curious). It was so great.

Downsides:

  • It only heated to 104 degrees.
  • It was constantly getting new holes in the lining and subsequently deflating.
  • The latches that held the lid on broke at a rate of one per 3 months.
  • It fit four people, but I wouldn’t say comfortably.
  • It cost about $1 a day for the filter/heater combo.

Upsides:

  • About two months after I purchased it, prices rose at least $200.
  • It only required a 120 volt outlet!
  • It was WONDERFUL in the morning with coffee.
  • The replacement liner was only $150.
  • It was a destination during the pandemic, friends would come over just for the hot tub.

No regrets. Reviews on the internet said we’d get 3 years, which was exactly right. The heater was leaking heavily and not getting the water to 104 anymore by late summer 2023.

Hopefully, it’s not the last hot tub in my lifetime, I love a hot tub!

My Go-To Satchel

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About eight years ago, I stumbled upon an N64 carrying bag at a garage sale in South Minneapolis. I remember when this bag was sold in the mid to late 90’s, specifically that it was bizarrely impractical. This bag is the size of a single N64 console, not including the cables, controllers, or any games.

That said, I love this thing. It is the first bag I grab to go out the door all the time. It holds sunglasses, sunscreen, a backup battery for my phone, and a few more small things. Or it holds my USB keyboard, a stand for my phone, and a journal.

I haven’t really gotten sentimental for video games yet. Around the time I turned 28, I sorta stopped being a “gamer.” Which is weird, video games were a large part of my life from as early as I remember through grad school. I still have all my original NES + SNES + N64 games, as well as PlayStation + Sega + others. I lugged those systems to New York City and back because they were a core part of my identity.

…now-a-days, not so much! But carrying this bag around is a fun little nod to my older self. If you see me out walking around, there’s a good chance this’ll be on my shoulder.