My car – a Honda Civic Hybrid – costs more than one with a conventional engine. To help make up for the the extra cost, the manufacturer included a few extras from the nicer trim package as standard items: in-dash CD player, power windows, power locks, power mirrors, and so on.
Tuesday, for the second time in three months, I found myself pondering the irony that despite all those little add-ons, the one feature I personally seem to need is a buzzer to let me know when I’ve left the headlights on again.
Category Archives: Pointless Posts
No, I don’t know why I wrote it either.
Where's Abe?
A couple days ago I noticed that I had a $5 bill with www.wheresgeorge.com stamped around the Federal reserve seal. If you’ve never seen the site before, the general ideais that you can participate in tracking the migratory habits of money. I’ve run across similarly marked currency a time or two and was honestly a little surprised to learn the site was still around.
I went ahead and entered my bill’s information and learned that so far I’m only the second person to log its travels. So far, it’s still in my possession, it could be mildly amusing to see where Abe winds up next.
More bills to watch:
Sex-cams at the Beach
It seems that in Palm Beach they have a problem with people having sex on the beach. All sniggering aside, from a tourism standpoint, that’s probably not the sort of image they’re trying to project. Likewise, I rather imagine any responsible parent would have concerns about the kids getting an unexpected “education.”
Still, the response that County officials have come up with is one I can only describe as “unorthodox”: They want to set up cameras to automatically record the action.
As if the plan wasn’t odd enough by itself, the details are unintentionally(?) even funnier. According to the news story, one of the suggestions from the head of the county commission is that the cameras be set up so 911 dispatchers can watch the scene on the beach and call deputies if they see problems.
If implemented, this plan would no doubt decrease any motivation for local 911 dispatchers to use county funds for porn site subscriptions.
Alas for the 911 dispatchers, it appears that wiring the cameras to continuously upload to the internet isn’t practical. Instead, the news story says the plan is for county workers to periodically visit the beach and download the video from the cameras.
Here’s how I see this playing out:
- Morning drive-time DJs all over the country are going to be making jokes about this story. If not for the writer’s strike, it might even make it onto Leno or Letterman.
- The cameras will eventually go into place.
- A month later, Palm Beach will have it’s first scandal involving a county employee who couldn’t resist the temptation to take one of the tapes home and upload it to a video sharing site. “Palm Beach Nights” will become an instant online hit.
- The county government will promise an immediate investigation with a promise that appropriate action will be taken against those responsible for the release. No significant findings will be announced.
- A second scandal will occur, this time with a prominent community or political figure being caught on tape.
- A short time later, amid as little fanfare as possible, the cameras will quietly vanish.
The Alternate Universe Lost and Found
Listening to Tom Smith’s “Alternate Universe Lost and Found” just now, it occurred to me that the idea of a Lost and Found like that ought to be a rich source of short story ideas. (As the song points out, it’s more than just socks that slip away between dimensions.) So always looking for something new to read, I went onto Google and typed in, “alternate universe lost and found”.
At first glance, the first search result seemed a bit surreal. But then again, when compared to the idea of an interdimensional lost and found, this “found” ad seems downright normal…
LOOSE PONY FOUND IN MARSDEN PARK AREA
How do you lose a pony?!
A New Milestone
Tonight I let the same pan boil dry for the fourth (or was it fifth?) time in just one week. Either way, it’s a record.
Consistency is supposed to be a good thing, but this may be pushing it a bit.
Party Girls Gone Wild
I don’t generally follow (or even care about) what’s going on with the celebrity crowd. People I actually know, such as AJ, Squish, John or even Z, are far more important to me. (That being said, would someone please give Jennifer Aniston my phone number?) Despite this lack of interest on my part, sometimes the celebrity news is hard to avoid.
Take for instance the recent case of Lindsay Lohan. She was arrested for DUI over Memorial Day weekend and checked into rehab. Two weeks after getting out of rehab, she was pulled over again. This time along with DUI, she was also charged with driving on a suspended license and possession of cocaine.
In California, a second offense so close to the first means automatic jail time, so despite a police video tape showing her jumping out of the driver’s door and attempting to flee the scene, her lawyers have taken the tack of claiming that it wasn’t her driving.
Silly policeman. It must have been Paris Hilton.
Grrrrrrrr
I freely acknowledge that my reputation for not sleeping is more than a little deserved. Some of it’s choice. Some of it’s insomnia. But I really am trying to do better.
Contacting me at 1:00am to let me know there are changes that must be on the website the following morning before people go to work is not a good way to make me happy. Adding that the updates aren’t quite ready yet does nothing to improve the situation.
It all comes about because of the ages old problem of “stuff happens.”
But I’m getting tired of everything being an emergency.
Cynical? Me?
A former employer used to regularly accuse me of being overly cynical and negative. I’ve never agreed with that assessment. The world we live in does however require a healthy dose of skepticism.
Take for example this claim from the bottom of a carton of Diet Coke:
It’s true. Research shows that all beverages contribute to proper hydration. That means whether it’s your first can of the day or your afternoon pick-me-up, Diet Coke helps you stay hydrated all day long. So stick with the Diet Coke taste you love. Your body will thank you for it.
They even have a web site dedicated to this sales pitch.
I call shenanigans on this claim. Oh, I suppose the statement is true enough. There’s certainly nothing in it you can point to and say, “That’s a lie.” All beverages do contain water, and getting water into your body is what hydration is all about. But there’s some vital information missing.
Most Coca Cola products contain caffeine and caffeine is a diuretic. Putting it as politely as possible, what this means is that caffeine causes your body to lose water by causing you to visit the bathroom more frequently. I don’t know whether the net balance leaves you with more water or less than if you’d skipped the Coke; but if dehydration is a concern, a nice cold glass of water would be a far better choice.
So I don’t agree with the claim that I’m overly cynical. I’m just a little less likely to be taken in by a marketing pitch.
AFI Top 100 U.S. Films
I don’t often play along with the memes (If everyone’s posting the same stuff, how can it be interesting?) but just this once, why not? (This is clearly DDMD’s fault.)
I’m somewhat surprised at how many of these I’ve seen. Friends may be surprised at how many of the ones I’ve seen are not Science Fiction.
The idea is to bold the ones you’ve seen. I think I have some ideas for more movies to watch. 🙂
1. “Citizen Kane,” 1941.
2. “The Godfather,” 1972.
3. “Casablanca,” 1942.
4. “Raging Bull,” 1980.
5. “Singin’ in the Rain,” 1952.
6. “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
7. “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962.
8. “Schindler’s List,” 1993.
9. “Vertigo,” 1958.
10. “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
11. “City Lights,” 1931.
12. “The Searchers,” 1956.
13. “Star Wars,” 1977.
14. “Psycho,” 1960.
15. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968.
16. “Sunset Blvd.”, 1950.
17. “The Graduate,” 1967.
18. “The General,” 1927.
19. “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946.
21. “Chinatown,” 1974.
22. “Some Like It Hot,” 1959.
23. “The Grapes of Wrath,” 1940.
24. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” 1982.
25. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962.
26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939.
27. “High Noon,” 1952.
28. “All About Eve,” 1950.
29. “Double Indemnity,” 1944.
30. “Apocalypse Now,” 1979.
31. “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941.
32. “The Godfather Part II,” 1974.
33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 1975.
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937.
35. “Annie Hall,” 1977.
36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” 1957.
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” 1948.
39. “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964.
40. “The Sound of Music,” 1965.
41. “King Kong,” 1933.
42. “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967.
43. “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969.
44. “The Philadelphia Story,” 1940.
45. “Shane,” 1953.
46. “It Happened One Night,” 1934.
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1951. (I turned it off halfway through – it was boring – but I’m counting it anyhow.)
48. “Rear Window,” 1954.
49. “Intolerance,” 1916.
50. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001.
51. “West Side Story,” 1961.
52. “Taxi Driver,” 1976.
53. “The Deer Hunter,” 1978.
54. “M-A-S-H,” 1970.
55. “North by Northwest,” 1959.
56. “Jaws,” 1975.
57. “Rocky,” 1976.
58. “The Gold Rush,” 1925.
59. “Nashville,” 1975.
60. “Duck Soup,” 1933.
61. “Sullivan’s Travels,” 1941.
62. “American Graffiti,” 1973.
63. “Cabaret,” 1972.
64. “Network,” 1976.
65. “The African Queen,” 1951.
66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” 1981.
67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, 1966.
68. “Unforgiven,” 1992.
69. “Tootsie,” 1982.
70. “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971.
71. “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998.
72. “The Shawshank Redemption,” 1994.
73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969.
74. “The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991.
75. “In the Heat of the Night,” 1967.
76. “Forrest Gump,” 1994.
77. “All the President’s Men,” 1976.
78. “Modern Times,” 1936.
79. “The Wild Bunch,” 1969.
80. “The Apartment, 1960.
81. “Spartacus,” 1960.
82. “Sunrise,” 1927.
83. “Titanic,” 1997.
84. “Easy Rider,” 1969.
85. “A Night at the Opera,” 1935.
86. “Platoon,” 1986.
87. “12 Angry Men,” 1957.
88. “Bringing Up Baby,” 1938.
89. “The Sixth Sense,” 1999.
90. “Swing Time,” 1936.
91. “Sophie’s Choice,” 1982.
92. “Goodfellas,” 1990.
93. “The French Connection,” 1971.
94. “Pulp Fiction,” 1994.
95. “The Last Picture Show,” 1971.
96. “Do the Right Thing,” 1989.
97. “Blade Runner,” 1982.
98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” 1942.
99. “Toy Story,” 1995.
100. “Ben-Hur,” 1959.
Important Phone Tip
When calling a business, it’s a good idea to make sure you copy down the correct phone number. Fax machines don’t generally know how to speak to a human.