I went to the video rental store this morning as soon as it was set to open. I arrived at 9:55a.m., and the parking lot was already nearly full, and there were people lined up at the door in 7° weather, waiting for it to open. Seems everyone thought to beat it to the video store before the snow storm. Considering how busy the video store was this morning, I shouldn't like to have seen the grocery store, so I did not venture near any of those.
I myself was anxious to get the next dvd of episodes in the CSI series, to watch while snowed in. After watching the 'Pilot' episode of CSI in hopes of better understanding the whole Visine on Nipples myth, I've since fixatedly rented and watched every episode out on DVD save for the last 2 volumes of the 3rd season. (Oddly enough, there were 2 other episodes which make reference to that particular storyline from the Pilot, so I feel it's been good "research".)
I really would've liked to go out walking in the snow storm this afternoon. But with the temperature not going much about 10°F today, that really didn't seem like a good idea. In 25°+ temperatures, walking around bundled up in the snow is fun... In 20°- weather, it would be not so fun.
And so I was snowed in for the duration, and just took photos of the snow from my back porch.
And then I took the camera into the refrigerator. Clearly a sign of cabin fever.
Further evidence of cabin fever. I concocted a fruit juice mixture using various liquid beverages in my refrigerator. After having drank it, I decided to see exactly how many different things were in the concoction by reading the labels of the various bottles.
The drink contained orange, banana, apple, pineapple, mango, kiwi, lime, broccoli, spinach, barley grass, wheat grass, blue green algae, dragon fruit, lemon, sunchoke, green tea, cream, milk, chai tea, blackberry, boysenberry, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, tamarind, and something called Nova Scotia dulce.
Quite a variety to have in one glass. It was pretty good. I think I might do that more often, actually.
What in blazes was under the car seat all that time?
I've taken a lot of heat over the past 5 years since becoming a motorist & car owner, about the condition of the interior of my automobile. It's been generally cluttered, at best. But I decided to actually make a New Year Resolution this year, upon purchasing another vehicle last week, on account of the Hit & Run in the Snow and a Stapled Hand episode. My general rule before is that I "cleaned my car once a year, whether it needed it or not", or at least that's how some pals put it.
Upon being forced to clean out my old car, before relinquishing it, I found a rather disturbing object underneath the driver's seat...
A plastic zip-locked storage bag with contents immediately unidentifiable.
I have a pretty good memory for most things, but I honestly cannot even imagine, let alone remember, acquiring this... this... thing.
What on earth could this be... these dark brown spherical objects in matching brown moistness?
I know it must've came from someone else, because I don't use that style of zip-locking storage bags in my own home. I have been, for years, using those fancy shmancy zip-lock storage bags with the slide tabs.
The thing is, if it were food... I wouldn't have accepted it unless it was something I truly would've wanted to eat.
For example, my pal Ronny gave me zucchini back in the summer, and I not only ate mine, but I also ate the one he gave to Bri, which she left in my car. I wound up eating Bri's zucchini because I brought it in from the car with me. Which goes to show I normally don't leave good food in the car... even in the case I'd intended to give it back to Bri. I'm pretty grateful for offerings of food normally. But I'm generally pretty firm, and even blunt, if someone offers me something I know I have no use for or won't eat. In other words, I'm pretty fanatical about not wasting...
So if this was some forgotten gift of food, it's surely an anomoly for me. Unless, on the outside chance it could've once been something I had intentions of eating in the car. But this hardly looks like "travel food", which normally would be something along the lines of candy, animal crackers, or granola bars.
It is possible, although perhaps unlikely, that it was planted in my car, on the sly. I'm not sure if I have any friends who've ridden in my car that are quite that cheeky.
But it could've, possibly, on the outside chance, been planted by person or persons unknown, since the driver's side lock on that car had broken some while back, making it necessary for me to unlock the car from the passenger side and reach over to unlock the driver's side door; which meant that for the past several months, since that lock had broken, I had taken to leaving my car almost invariably unlocked at various and sundry locales. My reasoning was that my car was so cluttered and messed up with junk and 'honest to god' rubbish, that theives would find it too scary a prospect to rob, or at the very least, too much work to actually find anything of worth inside. And indeed, they could've searched for hours and not found anything of any value. Indeed, upon cleaning the car out, I myself found little of any real value to me.
Though I have saved this thing, I have not actually opened the bag.
I'm afraid.
Yet strangely allured by the mystery.
My Bodyless Animals...
The Bodyless Bunny, and The Bodyless Cat.
I've been drawing these characters since the 1980s.
Though not usually on styrofoam cups. That's a recent thing really. I think I did before this, and gave it to somebody at some point, but that was awhile back, and I don't remember who I gave it to actually.
I've done a few comic strips involving my Bodyless characters, but never got serious about it. Perhaps I will at some point.
Until then, you'll just have to enjoy my silly little Bodyless Animals on a styrofoam cup here for now.
I've decided to take a departure from featuring Christian religious styrofoam cup art, and go with something rather pagan.
Actually, I don't know if this is a Pagan symbol. But it certainly isn't Christian. If anyone knows what this symbol is, if anything, let me know.
Erick is the styrofoam cup artist featured here.
I realize his work doesn't quite compare to 'the Jesus face on a styrofoam cup guy', what with his elaborate nativity scenes and such. But art is in the eye of the beholder, right?
Unfortunately, the styrofoam cup is rather damaged because Erick created this piece on Wednesday, and it was in my crowded handbag through the entire Hit & Run in the Snow and a Stapled Hand episode.
Intersection of Linden St. & Wyoming Ave. in Scranton, PA, January 5th 2005
On Wednesday evening, I picked up my pal Kim in Scranton, & met my pal Erick in the parking lot of Thomas' Market in Shavertown. I was leaving my car there in the parking lot, because we were going with Erick. After I parked, since it was snowing, I decided to move my car... and I parked it next to a pole, thinking nobody would be going near the pole and accidentally hit my car, since most people would avoid poles during a snow storm.
We returned about 2½ hours later, at about 9:15pm or 9:30pm, to find that my car had been hit on the driver's side, which was only about 3 feet from the pole!
There was no way anybody could've thought they could fit to pass their vehicle between my car and the pole. The grocery store cart return was on the other side of the pole, so they couldn't have been aiming to pass the pole on the other side either. The tracks in the snow showed that the car had turned to head towards my car & the pole! There were no other visible tracks in the snow to explain why they would've turned to head toward the pole and my car. No sign of another car being involved.
The dent in the driver's side back door of my car was not all that bad actually. But the impact of the hit caused both windows on the passenger side of my car to shatter & blow out! I'd never heard of such a thing. An impact on one side causing the windows on the other side to break. Though the Kingston Township police officer who filed the report didn't seem to think it all that strange.
But I find it a very unfortunate coincidence that a vandal had smashed out my back window just 7 months ago. (That happened in Scranton.)
Worse yet, the bastards didn't even leave a note or anything. Hit & run. The grocery store was closed at that point, so there were no witnesses to be found. I wonder if the guilty party must've hit the pole & messed up their own car. If they did, I have not one ounce of sympathy for them.
By this time the snow storm was in full swing. So I took my car to Erick's place, and we were trying to figure out some way to block the open smashed out windows for the drive back to Scranton, since it was cold, and the snow was still coming down.
My car had no window frame (the windows shut up into the car). Erick, with his hunting season beard quite full, in my opinion, should have had a roll of duct tape at least. But he didn't. And nothing was going to stick to the outside of the car. So it being an old car with a pretty messed up interior anyway, I suggested stapling the plastic bags into the window openings on the inside.
Erick & Chloe, June 2004
Erick, upon getting out his staple gun, proceeded to accidentally staple the palm of his hand! So there we were in the middle of a snow storm, Erick with a bleeding hand... It took forever to get the windows blocked.
(Note: Erick had just been in a motorcycle accident a few days before this. Earlier in the evening Erick spent 15 minutes looking for his keys before realizing they were hooked to the belt loop of his jeans. So stapling his hand just seemed a natural turn of events really. And I did insist that he should get a tetanus shot as soon as possible, but I doubt he has. So if he gets tetanus or whatever, it's not my fault.)
Intersection of Linden St. & Adams Ave. in Scranton, PA, January 5th 2005
The drive back to Scranton was rather uneventful, though very long and arduous in the snow storm, of course. My car was very good in snow, actually, and I've become quite proficient at driving in snow. Which makes it all the more irritating that my car was messed up by someone else who obviously could not drive in snow, and had a vehicle that is particularly bad in snow.
Though I have a suspicion it was someone who willfully drove toward the pole, fooling around and then lost control. As I've said, there's really no other reasonable explanation why they turned & headed towards my car. I hope this will be a warning to those people who fool around in parking lots during snow storms trying to scare their passengers by aiming towards a pole, thinking they won't lose control. I've seen people doing this, and it's plain stupid. And the fact is, most accidents in the snow happen because of carelessness & speeding of motorists in snowy conditions, and most are avoidable.
And now because of someone else's stupidity and carelessness, and deliberately & criminally leaving the scene, I'm out a great deal of money which I don't really have to spare.
Luckily my garage, Sokolowsky Bros. in Pittston, happened to have just aquired a car they'd sold 4 years ago, (same time as they sold me mine - I think I recall looking at it back then), that the woman who owned it could no longer drive, sadly because of health issues. Her misfortune was lucky for me. The car probably cost about the same amount as all the repairs my car needed (including things I was meaning to get fixed, but mostly the damage done to the car in the hit & run).
I'm still sad and pissed about my old car, since it was a good car - never had any internal organ mechanical issues at all in the 4 years I owned it, and was great in snow despite being 2 wheel drive, and fit me like a glove.
(I highly recommend Subarus. And I also recommend Sokolowsky Bros., who sell & fix used Subarus. I decided to purchase the car sight unseen, so you can imagine I have some faith in these guys.)
So I now have an almost identical car - same year, same make & model... But it has less mileage on it, is in better overall condition, obviously in better shape generally, and has ABS (which should put down my insurance). And it's 4 wheel drive, which is very useful considering the driving I do in the mountains. (It's actually "all wheel drive", which I'm told is different than 4WD.) Oh yeah, and it's a different colour. (Though as is well known, I've never really cared what a car looks like, just so long as it runs, doesn't break down, and gets me where I'm going, comfortably.)
"Google" as a verb - probably not common among global vocabularies
Before I first heard of Google, from my mother, before Google was at all popular...
The word "google" conjured up visions of googley eyes. Like those moving eyes sold in craft stores, that I used in making my sock puppets.
The only other use for the word was by my mother, throughout my childhood, she used the word "googles" to refer to those bits and pieces of stuff that hang around in the basket of kitchen sink drains.
Or even sometimes referring to those pieces of lint-like material developing on worn clothing - also known as "pilling" or "pills".
But now apparently CBS News has deemed the word "google", as a noun or even a verb, to be "part of the global language". CBS News | Defining Google | January 2, 2005 20:01:07
"Has there ever been a brand name like Google?"
Considering a significant portion of the United States uses the word "Coke" to describe all forms & brands of soda, I think the answer to that question is highly debatable. Generic Names for Soft Drinks by county
I mean, I'm imagining most people who do use "google" as a verb, are actually using Google, not using some other search engine and calling it "googling".
But what strikes me most is this "it’s now a part of the global language" nonsense...
I've thought about this...
I have at least one blood relative who has never used the internet, ever. I have 6 personal friends who do not use the internet at all. (At least 2 of them have never used the internet.) I have personally known, within the last year, at least 4 people who were not using the internet. I have a relative who uses the internet while this person's spouse does not use it, never touches the computer. I have 2 friends who do not use the internet, even though their spouses use it. I have met 2 people who have told me that not only don't they use the internet, but they have "nothing with screens" in their home.
That's 15 people right there, in the U.S., who are definitely not using the word "google" in relation to the search engine, in their language. Some of whom probably wouldn't even recognize the brand name. And this isn't including the 20 or so people that I am acquainted with, that I suspect do not use the internet at all, and it isn't even including the many people I know who barely ever use the internet, and certainly aren't using "google" as a verb in their vocabulary.
So then we have to look at places such as Borneo, the Amazon river basin, the Congo, the rural areas of India & Bangladesh, just to name a few...
The latest asserted statistics my pal John D. found on the web, at Article Hub, about 2 years ago, which claimed almost 94% of the world's population had no internet access whatsoever, and that of the about 6% of the world's population that had internet access, only about 1/3 (one third) of those people with internet access were actually surfing the web.
I had asked someone else about how many people in the world were on-line. The statistics he found were that about 1 billion people are on-line, in the world. That would mean only about 15% of the world's population is on-line.
Even if the current stats on this for today showed in increase... say 25%? Even counting those who use the internet but don't surf the web or engage in searching at Google.... It's not a lot. Even 33% wouldn't be "most", after all.
It's just not a lot, by any stretch of the imagination. It means internet users are in the global minority. And those who use Google on the internet are probably a smaller minority. And I'm sure yet an even smaller a minority - those who actually use "google" as a verb in their vocabulary.
So where do they get off using this "global language" statement?
Of course, I'm sure a lot of 'bloggers' wouldn't notice this, since many bloggers seem to think the whole world is watching them, hanging on their every word. And considering that most people I know who do use the internet, don't even know what a blog is, or have only seen mine, that's even more inaccurate an idea. I wouldn't like to give myself a headache with those statistics.
But of course far be it from me to spoil anyone's delusions of grandeur.
I think I'm fairly far from being anti-internet, or anti-technology. Obviously, considering this, here, right now. But yeah, Google kind of disturbs me. And I do succomb to a bit of paranoia every time I type something potentially seemingly odd out of context into the Google search engine, wondering if someone's watching and taking note.
Apparently I'm not the only one since that little movie 'EPIC' exists.
I'm not the most efficient web searcher, I'm sure. But for some reason, almost everything I put on the web gets a rather relatively high Google ranking. I used to think this was particularly useless really. But now I'm generally rather amused by it.
So yeah, Google remains the web search engine entity I love to hate. But they haven't taken over the world... even I can't make that scale of paranoia funny, damn it. But you better believe that news televisions shows, and blogs alike, will find some sensationalism somewhere.
(CBS link via Bag & Baggage) (a wee bit on another little inaccuracy and bloggers @ kottke.org)
superficiality >>If the facade is what's important to you, all you wind up with is an illusion. Disillusionment is the gift of substance.
-- Chloe<<
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