The things I'm pondering this morning....

include a strange experience from the movies yesterday.  I went to an indie film at a theater in the Valley and it was the first show of the day.  It was scheduled to begin at 10:45.  The box office was supposed to open 15 minutes before the first show of the day.  They were late in opening the box office, but only about five minutes or so.  There were only four people in the auditorium when the lights went down.

So why were there no trailers at all?  Just their little "don't talk, text, etc during the movie" and then the feature rolled.  Aside from press screenings or test screenings, there are always trailers.  As I've grown older, more trailers are being shown before movies.  On Saturday I saw seven trailers before that bad movie "Playing For Keeps".  I don't mind.  I love trailers.  Especially when I've seen one for a movie I'm looking forward to, and a new trailer for that film is released.

When did they put up lane divider poles on the 101 Westbound when you transition onto that freeway from the 405?  I haven't been to the Valley in forever and those are new.  Are they to prevent people from trying to get all the way over to exit at the first exit after the transition road?  There is no possible other reason for them to be there.

Does common sense start to go away as you reach a certain age?  I had to step in between two of the residents today, and they were actually about to engage in a physical confrontation.  One was swinging her arms wildly and the other was swinging some kind of necklace or something as a weapon.  After I got them separated, I stood there at the desk helping the receptionist properly word the incident report.  Management requires an incident report for everything like that.  As I stood there, one of the two women involved was griping about the other.  What had prompted the confrontation?  Apparently the woman who had left was complaining loudly that a good friend of the other woman whines too much and too loudly.  What was really driving her anger wasn't the complaining though.  It turns out that she's pissed that the other woman was once elected "Queen".  They have some kind of annual contest where a Queen is chosen.  A fistfight over being bitter you weren't chosen Queen?  I can't remember who wrote "old age is a trainwreck", but more and more I'm convinced they were very right.

Why in the world would a gas station have two different signs with two different sets of prices for their gas on them?  I saw this and just shook my head.  I pulled in to get gas because I saw the sign readying $3.57 per gallon and then started to pull out when I saw the other sign and that amount on the pump, which was more.  Bait and switch?

What makes John McAfee think he could ever live a "normal life" back in the U.S.?  He's a multi-millionaire who has acquired more noteriety than he ever wanted.  He has a 20 year old girlfriend from Belize.  What kind of normal life will he ever have, anywhere?

In the wake of the prank done by two Aussie DJs that may have led to a woman killing herself, now it's been revealed that two students at the University of Colorado at Boulder pulled a prank of their own. Their prank resulted in their professor and some students being hospitalized and the prankers now face felony charges.  What did they do?  On a "bring food to class" day, they brought brownies laced with cannibis.  Do people not consider the consequences and negative things that a prank may create?  Guess not.

When will the news media learn that when they're told a SEAL that died was a member of SEAL Team Six, they're being lied to?  The Navy doesn't use that designation any longer and hasn't for a long time.  The actual designation currently in use is classified.  The media seems to think all SEALs are from Team Six.

Today in history:

On this date in 1520, Martin Luther burns his copy of papal bull Exsurge Domine.
On this date in 1799, France adopts the meter as its official unit of length.
On this date in 1817, Mississippi becomes the 20th state.
On this date in 1868, the first traffic signals were installed in London.
On this date in 1884, Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is published for the first time.
On this date in 1898, the Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War.
On this date in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
On this date in 1936, King Edward VIII signs the "Abdication Document".
On this date in 1965, The Grateful Dead performed under that name for the first time.