Ephemera

I noticed a billboard today. It was for some sort of cigarettes. I don't remember the brand, just the Surgeon General's warning. It was something like: "Medical studies show that quitting smoking can help prolong your life." Yes, they called that a warning. I guess we don't want too much of that going on. If they're going to print "warnings" like that, they might as well go ahead and print lucky lottery numbers on the back.

Also, a lot of you may already know that I'm in the process of moving to Lawrenceville, GA. What I didn't realize until I saw it on a city limits sign today was that Lawrenceville is "Crape Myrtle City." I guess all the good nicknames were taken. But I guess there are worse things for a city to be known as.

The company I've gone to work for in Lawrenceville is headquartered in Sweden. We have a lot of Swedes working with us which has one advantage (at least in my opinion) when working in a cubicle environment. You can always hear the conversations going on around you, which can be quite distracting. But at least when those conversations are in Swedish, it's pretty easy (for me) to tune them out.

Posted by Hitch at 03:51 PM | Permalink

I'm in the habit of sending out messages on daily basis of an amusing nature; at least I hope they're amusing. Today's was a bit of whimsy about hanging a "kitchen witch" being an example of persecution of an alternative belief system. One recipient of the message wrote back that they weren't familiar with the term "kitchen witch."

The actual "kitchen witch" referred to in the message was a bit of folk art that used to be quite popular. It was a plaque or figurine of a witch hung on the wall of a kitchen to bring good luck. I seem to recall having seen these things made out of dried corn husks. It's a Cracker Barrel gift shop sort of item.

Strangely enough, when I attempted to search the internet for a picture of what I was talking about I was thwarted by the fact that Wiccans have in fact co-opted the term for themselves and almost all the kitchen witch links pointed to pages of Wiccan practices and recipes.

Posted by Hitch at 03:47 PM | Permalink

Something interesting I've noticed around here - or to be more accurate failed to notice. Or to be even ore confusing by way of clarification I've noticed something interesting by it's absence. There don't seem to be any bars or nightclubs around here. I haven't really looked for any, but it just struck me that I haven't seen any in my wanderings trying to figure out where I am.

Posted by Hitch at 03:45 PM | Permalink

I don't feel like writing too much tonight. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this one might be worth a chuckle or two. I apologize if anyone's sensibilities are offended by the graphic nature of this.

When I found this it had the caption "How lazy can you get?"

Posted by Hitch at 03:41 PM | Permalink

It stuck me that a particularly effective means of suicide (if one arranged things right) would be to get a strong but slender rope, determine the appropriate length, tie one end to the guard rail on a highway overpass, the other end around your neck, and time the jump so you reach the end of the rope just before a semi truck passes through the space occupied by your body. The length of the drop should be enough to crush your windpipe and snap your spinal cord. The semi provides the added bonus of finishing you off if everything else didn't work just right. With any luck, and a slender enough rope, you'd stand a good chance of decapitating yourself. Of course, it'll probably traumatize the driver of the truck and scar him for life. But what do you care? You're dead. On the incredibly off chance that you accidentally survive this, your life is bound to get better. After all, what could be worse than going through this ordeal? If there's some reason for you to stay alive after this, you better live life to the fullest.

Okay, I won't do this to you very often. ;-)

Posted by Hitch at 03:39 PM | Permalink

I've discovered that you can't (even if you have a prescription) go out and buy contact lenses that you want. No optician will fill a prescription with any lenses other than the exact type and brand that are on the prescription. The place that wrote the prescription can modify it, or another place can examine your eyes and re-fit you, but nobody can do anything for your convenience. :-[ I guess I can make do with these for the rest of the week, and I'll see about getting something different while I'm in WR this weekend.

I've been a bit surprised by how expensive apartments are around here, but not as much as a friend of mine was. I was telling him what I was looking at and he couldn't believe it. The last time he was in the market for an apartment was about 8 years ago on the other (cheaper) side of town. You can't get into anything for anywhere close to what he paid unless you want a real rat-hole. I wish I could find something cheaper, but I can afford these that I'm looking at -- and at least they are nice.

Posted by Hitch at 03:37 PM | Permalink

The thing that has struck me really odd about staying in a motel this week is the soap. Not the soap itself but the motel's behavior towards it. I'm here for a week at a time. Every day when housekeeping comes in and cleans the room they take the bar of soap I opened that morning and used once, and throw it away. There's always another bar to unwrap the next day. It's not like there isn't a bunch of my stuff in the room so they think maybe I checked out and someone else will be in here. I guess they just like wasting a lot of soap. Admittedly they're tiny little bars, but they'd last several days at least. Oh well.

Posted by Hitch at 03:35 PM | Permalink