Counting by Cameron
July 5th, 2006 12:46 PMIn that kitchen, there is a drawer.
In that drawer, there are bottlecaps
Lots, and lots of bottlecaps.
Since we moved in, in 2001, bottles of beer and/or soda have deposited thier caps in this drawer. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's the drawer with the bottleopener in it, so it makes it convienent. It has been emptied only once before and only by half. But recently, it's been over-flowing again. Instead of just throwing them out, I have decided to count them.
I took them into a box at first, and began to lay them out, one handful at a time. It became clear that the vast majority were Pabst bottlecaps, and so I began to count them seperately. It was like archeology, or geology. The brands changed through the strata. We used to drink a lot more Pabst when we made less money, but now the layers are permeated with more expensive bottlecaps, including several Chimay corks.
It took me quite some time, but in the end, this was the count:
Pabst: 521
Non-Pabst: 1474
Total: 1996
10 Corks
2 hand washes
19 waves of counting
averaging 3 handfuls each
and 2.75 hours
When I told my roomate the total count of 1996, he threw his hands in the air, and loudly proclaimed:
Four More Beers! Four More Beers!
I took a picture of him.
When finished returned only the Pabst caps to the drawer, to create a good seed for the next fill. The rest, I am keeping, for now.
The Box
The Counting Table
War of the Brands
A constellation of Pabst
A Galaxy of Pabst
1,474 bottlecaps in a bag
The Tally Sheet
The New Drawer
FOUR MORE BEERS!
11 vote(s)
Rubin Starset
5
Aaron
5
Gabriel Roland
5
ambitron indifornian
5
SNORLAX
5
Fenton Crackshell
5
Stone Saints
5
Spidere
5
Lincøln
5
HFXØ Sponty
5
Francois Zimany
Terms
(none yet)12 comment(s)
You're on to my evil scheme for sure.
Also, I almsot died laughing so hard at my roommate. I don't know how I took a picture.
Party at your place. You seem to know how to throw them.
I suppose that's true. We have drifted away from beer when my roommate built a full blown bar with some 20 odd types of whisky alone. I'm trying to work pictures of that into a task somewheres.
Here's some more counting and math.
4 years 10 months in residence
At least half the beer bottlecaps don't make it into the drawer
it's been cleaned once.
I estimate 6000 beers consumed in that house
over ~252 weeks
Average of 23 beers a week
between an average of 4.5 people (3 roomates, 1-2 guests)
Average of 5 beers per person, per week.
Sounds about right...
i had to vote because i love pabst.
and because you are insane.
shit i started collecting caps too, thinking i might do the evil scheme you are planning, but alas, i will not repeat an implementation when the task affords so much flexibility.
Hey, don't let me stop your master plan. I haven't decided on how it's gonna go down yet.
1. Thank goodness you're cleaning out that drawer! It has been bugging me for years. :)
2. My g-d, who has 2.5 hours to count bottlecaps?
3. We've been dating since 1996! Numerology is nifty.
4. Strata! Cool!
5. Hmm.... you do drink a lot of beer.
6. No NO! Please, don't keep that box!
7. Other things to do with the 'caps: a bottle cap map of the US would be kinda cool....
When finished returned only the Pabst caps to the drawer, to create a good seed for the next fill. The rest, I am keeping, for now.
Yeah, I bet. I see another task completion coming up...
Also: your roommate's response made me grin.