Saturday but not in the park
Today will be my last Saturday in the office for some time. I'm excited at the prospect of weeks and weeks without having to go to work. I need the rest. I am only now realizing just how weak I've let myself become by ignoring the messages my body was sending me.
I saw the strangest thing yesterday. A Korean man and his young child were in line in front of me at the movie theater. When the clerk asked him what movie he wanted to buy tickets for, he said he wanted to see the free movie. He insisted that this theater had shown free movies befoe and he wanted to take his son to one. I only know that he is Korean because I overheard him cursing in Korean as he walked away. If he isn't Korean, he definitely speaks the language fluently.
The movie was pretty good. It was also crowded. Mostly an older audience. Now I'm 53, so if I'm saying the audience is mostly older folks, that should paint a pretty clear picture. I hate generalizations for the most part, but this is one that I happen to believe in. The older the audience of a movie, the more likely that people who came to see it together will talk to one another without even attempting to whisper. I had to shush several people, some of them more than once. I was ready to pull out the old, trusty, "this is not your living room" but I remembered I'm trying to avoid confrontation. So I stuck to a few strategic "shhhhhhhhhushes", said softly but loud enough to be heard.
Hopefully next Friday will be the last time for a long time that I leave here before 8:30 in the morning and don't return until after 10:00 p.m. in the evening. It's just not healthy behavior. Rather than insisting on squeezing in that movie between work and a social thing, I could have come home and rested for four hours. I won't make that mistake next Friday. Whatever movie I want to see can wait 24 or 48 hours.
A Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers had his laptop stolen from an unlocked room on campus. He's offering the thief a $1,000 reward for simply returning some of the data on the computer. It's five years of work for his thesis and he needs it desperately. In reading the comments on the news story I was struck by how there are two schools of thought on this. One filled with people being critical of the victim of this theft for failing to have backed up his work in at least one, if not multiple places. The other filled with people talking about how awful theft is and that the victim shouldn't be blamed for not backing up the data.
He should have backed up the data. But piling that criticism onto him in comments on this story accomplishes nothing. He (and hopefully others) will know better next time. But we live in a nation where theft runs rampant and worse yet, in some instances, people look the other way. That TV show "What Would YOU Do" did a piece on people not turning in a mother shoplifting in a supermarket when she tried to excuse her theft because she had hungry children to feed. We have food stamps, soup kitchens, pantries for the poor and more. There are alternatives to stealing for people with children to feed. Or themselves to feed. If you want to look the other way at someone stealing food, just reach into your wallet and buy it for them.
I felt bad that Dionne Warwick had been forced to file for bankruptcy, due to more than $10 million in unpaid taxes. Until I read that even though she's bringing in $21,000 a month, and that the outflow of her income includes $5,000 in housekeeping and a personal assistant she pays $4,000 monthly. Either increase the income or decrease the expenses. Lifestyle is a choice.
A thief who stole a bicycle to get home after getting drunk on the night they graduated from college returned it with a note and a coupon for a free dessert. Of course the coupon was expired and the thief's not wasn't really all that apologetic. My question is, what the hell does the phrase "straight white girl drunk" mean?
Martha Stewart considered signing up for Match.com to try to find a new Mr. Stewart? Wow. Did she put down "looking for a man who likes cooking and crafts but never engages in insider trading?"
This Date in History:
On this date in 1521, Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.
On this date in 1565, Cebu is established as the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
On this date in 1667, John Milton sells the copyright of "Paradise Lost" for ten pounds.
On this date in 1861, President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeus corpus.
On this date in 1865, the steamboat SS Sultana sinks, killing 1,700 passengers, many of whom were survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
On this date in 1904, the Labor Party gains control of the Australian government.
On this date in 1936, the United Auto Workers gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
On this date in 1961, Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom.
On this date in 1974, thousands march in Washington, D.C. to call for the impeachment of President Nixon.
On this date in 1978, John Ehrlichman is released from prison after serving 18 months for his Watergate crimes.
On this date in 2002, NASA received its last telemetry from space probe Pioneer 10.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Mary Wollstonecraft
Samuel Morse (his birth announcement was published in code)
Ulysses S. Grant (so who was buried in his tomb when people were first asking that question?)
Rogers Hornsby (the only man to hit over .400 in the majors for a five year period)
Walter Lantz (http://free-loops.com/3300-woody-woodpecker.html)
Horace Stoneham
Luz Long
Jack Klugman
Coretta Scott King
Anouk Aimee
Sandy Dennis
Judy Carne
Cuba Gooding Sr.
Ace Frehley
George Gervin
Larry Elder
Sheena Easton
Ari Graynor
I saw the strangest thing yesterday. A Korean man and his young child were in line in front of me at the movie theater. When the clerk asked him what movie he wanted to buy tickets for, he said he wanted to see the free movie. He insisted that this theater had shown free movies befoe and he wanted to take his son to one. I only know that he is Korean because I overheard him cursing in Korean as he walked away. If he isn't Korean, he definitely speaks the language fluently.
The movie was pretty good. It was also crowded. Mostly an older audience. Now I'm 53, so if I'm saying the audience is mostly older folks, that should paint a pretty clear picture. I hate generalizations for the most part, but this is one that I happen to believe in. The older the audience of a movie, the more likely that people who came to see it together will talk to one another without even attempting to whisper. I had to shush several people, some of them more than once. I was ready to pull out the old, trusty, "this is not your living room" but I remembered I'm trying to avoid confrontation. So I stuck to a few strategic "shhhhhhhhhushes", said softly but loud enough to be heard.
Hopefully next Friday will be the last time for a long time that I leave here before 8:30 in the morning and don't return until after 10:00 p.m. in the evening. It's just not healthy behavior. Rather than insisting on squeezing in that movie between work and a social thing, I could have come home and rested for four hours. I won't make that mistake next Friday. Whatever movie I want to see can wait 24 or 48 hours.
A Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers had his laptop stolen from an unlocked room on campus. He's offering the thief a $1,000 reward for simply returning some of the data on the computer. It's five years of work for his thesis and he needs it desperately. In reading the comments on the news story I was struck by how there are two schools of thought on this. One filled with people being critical of the victim of this theft for failing to have backed up his work in at least one, if not multiple places. The other filled with people talking about how awful theft is and that the victim shouldn't be blamed for not backing up the data.
He should have backed up the data. But piling that criticism onto him in comments on this story accomplishes nothing. He (and hopefully others) will know better next time. But we live in a nation where theft runs rampant and worse yet, in some instances, people look the other way. That TV show "What Would YOU Do" did a piece on people not turning in a mother shoplifting in a supermarket when she tried to excuse her theft because she had hungry children to feed. We have food stamps, soup kitchens, pantries for the poor and more. There are alternatives to stealing for people with children to feed. Or themselves to feed. If you want to look the other way at someone stealing food, just reach into your wallet and buy it for them.
I felt bad that Dionne Warwick had been forced to file for bankruptcy, due to more than $10 million in unpaid taxes. Until I read that even though she's bringing in $21,000 a month, and that the outflow of her income includes $5,000 in housekeeping and a personal assistant she pays $4,000 monthly. Either increase the income or decrease the expenses. Lifestyle is a choice.
A thief who stole a bicycle to get home after getting drunk on the night they graduated from college returned it with a note and a coupon for a free dessert. Of course the coupon was expired and the thief's not wasn't really all that apologetic. My question is, what the hell does the phrase "straight white girl drunk" mean?
Martha Stewart considered signing up for Match.com to try to find a new Mr. Stewart? Wow. Did she put down "looking for a man who likes cooking and crafts but never engages in insider trading?"
This Date in History:
On this date in 1521, Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.
On this date in 1565, Cebu is established as the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
On this date in 1667, John Milton sells the copyright of "Paradise Lost" for ten pounds.
On this date in 1861, President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeus corpus.
On this date in 1865, the steamboat SS Sultana sinks, killing 1,700 passengers, many of whom were survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
On this date in 1904, the Labor Party gains control of the Australian government.
On this date in 1936, the United Auto Workers gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
On this date in 1961, Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom.
On this date in 1974, thousands march in Washington, D.C. to call for the impeachment of President Nixon.
On this date in 1978, John Ehrlichman is released from prison after serving 18 months for his Watergate crimes.
On this date in 2002, NASA received its last telemetry from space probe Pioneer 10.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Mary Wollstonecraft
Samuel Morse (his birth announcement was published in code)
Ulysses S. Grant (so who was buried in his tomb when people were first asking that question?)
Rogers Hornsby (the only man to hit over .400 in the majors for a five year period)
Walter Lantz (http://free-loops.com/3300-woody-woodpecker.html)
Horace Stoneham
Luz Long
Jack Klugman
Coretta Scott King
Anouk Aimee
Sandy Dennis
Judy Carne
Cuba Gooding Sr.
Ace Frehley
George Gervin
Larry Elder
Sheena Easton
Ari Graynor
posted by me at 8:08 AM
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