Category: random

Windows

The front of my parents’ house is pretty much all glass. My apartment in Harrisburg had a big sliding glass door in the living room and two large windows in the bedroom. My rooms here at my grandmother’s house are in what used to be the attic and have only two tiny dormer windows each; those in my bedroom face complete darkness at night.

I just went downstairs and opened the front door to find that it was snowing. Not a lot — maybe a centimeter or two of accumulation — but I had no idea it was supposed to snow, and had no clue from my warm room that it had started. What a strange combination of disconnectedness, isolation, and safety that was.

Pink Fedora

After deciding that I thought Marty’s hat was impossibly cool, I started searching eBay for a pink fedora (Marty’s isn’t pink, but I wanted mine to be). There was one real match, but I, for some unknown reason, didn’t bid on it.

Now, just over a week later, I search for the same string — pink fedora — and there are 36 matches, all touting the pink fedora as the hottest hat of the season. Did my initial search set this off? Am I *that* cool???

Now I’m glad I didn’t bid on that first one (although it was pretty damn cool). I though having a pink fedora would make me unique. Apparently it would just make me extremely trendy.

Fundraiser

For those of you who live in the Harrisburg area — on December 17, 18, & 19, if you shop at the Borders on Jonestown Road and use the certificate below, they’ll donate 15% of your sale to The Circle School. I don’t normally post stuff like this, but I’ve been procrastinating on my holiday shopping and plan to do some of it at Borders. So if you’re in the same boat, print this out, and take it with you next weekend!

BordersCertificate.jpg

A little bit more

Clive Thompson at Slate has played JFK Reloaded so that we don’t have to. It’s a decent article.

Also, in some much needed feel-good news:

A pod of dolphins circled protectively around four people swimming 300 feet off a New Zealand beach to fend off an attack by a great white shark, according to a report Tuesday by the New Zealand Press Association. The four were swimming when several dolphins began herding them by doing tight circles around them. When one swimmer, Rob Howes, tried to drift away, one of the larger dolphins herded him back. It was then that Howes spotted a 9-foot great white shark swimming toward the pod. “I just recoiled. It was only about 2 meters away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face,” Howes said. “They had corralled us to protect us.” If the report is accurate — and a spokeswoman for the environmental group Orca Research says the behavior fits these marine mammals — then dolphins are treating us with a lot more respect than we’re treating them these days.
— Tony Long

It would have felt better without the dig at the end, but still, pretty cool.

Wrath of God?

Florida’s Desperation Growing After Storm (washingtonpost.com)

Things like this make me understand the South a little bit better.

In Amarillo, TX, I saw a storm that came on so suddenly and with such fury that I thought I’d probably believe in a vengeful God if I lived there, too — there was nothing to do but pray as hail pelted the car and the water level in the streets rose to six inches in five minutes.

If I were in Florida now, as it gets slammed over and over, to the point that Dunkin’ Donuts trucks are being commandeered, I’d probably feel a need to believe there was a reason for that, too.

It’s all well and good to explain the scientific reasons storms develop, but science doesn’t do any good while it’s happening. Even if praying doesn’t actually do any physical good, well, you know what they say — any shelter in a storm.

Fireworks & Gmail

I’ve been such a slacker. Excuses: burn out after the trip, home very infrequently so internet access is scarce, taking classes full time stifles my brain, etc., etc. Two quick things:

1. Went to see the fireworks last night in Harrisburg. Pyrotechnic display itself was pretty good, even worthy of our quest to be considered a real city. The music accompanying the fireworks, though, seemed to be of a “Places I’d Rather Be” theme. Each song highlighted a different US city or region. IE, “New York State of Mind,” “Country Roads,” “Viva Las Vegas,” etc. I’m sure this was meant to be patriotic, creating a portrait of our entire beautiful and diverse country, but instead it just kind of felt like we didn’t have anything closer to home worth celebrating. It’s time to start acting like a big dog, even though that might, in some cases, seem even sillier.

2. I have 6 gmail invitations and can’t think of a single person to give one to. This makes me feel like I don’t have any friends. If you’d like one, or would even take one from me just to make me feel better, email me and I’ll hooketh you up.

Aboriginal woman puts curse on Australian PM

CNN.com – Aboriginal curse put on Howard – Apr 20, 2004

Why on earth is this on the front page of CNN? That’s not a headline! News organizations have some responsibility to only report actual news. If I run up to the president and yell, “Woe unto thee, thou breaker of the commandments, for you will be pursued into the mountains by sex-mad baboons!” it’s NOT NEWS. Neither is this. But you already know that. Right?