Twitter

This new craze amuses me. I'll admit, I bought into the social networking stuff for a while, though at this point I just use it occasionally to reconnect with people and respond to people that message me. This twitter thing makes two very bad assumptions for internet surfers such as myself.

1. That I want people to know what I'm doing.
2. That I care what anyone else is doing.

I much prefer a blog that someone writes that has some sort of historical update to a person's life (though most of my blogs are rants, which I also enjoy reading). The fact that so and so is getting ready to go to the gym, or so and so can't decide what to make for dinner is so incredibly irrelevant. If you update your status or whatever the site calls it multiple times a day, do you REALLY think that your "friends" care that you "are tired" then "ate too much fruit" then "are napping" and then "are wired from red bull?"

What's wrong with emails to your friends?

Wut 1S wif peeple

I keep looking at forums and youtube and I am just trying to understand why everyone is too good for proper grammar, spelling, or even to keep numbers out of words. Anyone that is able to provide some sort of reason will be my new best friend, or BFF 1F i wanna stik wif dis new slang. I think that the part that's the most confusing to me is it has to take longer to write a response with numbers and random caps than not, so it can't even be laziness that causes this.

Don't buy a dyson

Well, they look cool and they work very well, but it turns out they're made very poorly. From an Engineering perspective, it's like a Hyundai without the warranty. Functionally, it's very good, but it's likely to break, and it'll be from something that is the result of poor design, not misuse.
The main canister is held on by two points, and is how you pick the machine up to move it (assuming you can't roll it). The top point is a small plastic clip. It's weak plastic- not well reinforced. Really, it's OK to use plastic, but if it's going to be a piece that is stressed a lot, at least make it thick or out of a good plastic. When I received my vacuum, another plastic piece had already been broken (in shipping) but it wasn't as critical, so I just blew it off. It makes me wonder what's next...

It puts things in perspective

In recent weeks, I have lost my job (which I moved to ny for), gone to the ER for a significant injury, soaked my guest room due to a pipe freezing, and a multitude of things that I feel entitles me complain a little and not be a really happy camper. This morning I am at a doctors office to get my finger examined after some fighting with HR and insurance some (again something I could complain about) when I observed something in the waiting room. There was an old woman sitting in a wheelchair with oxygen who was having her (presumably) daughter help her to fill out forms. She was asking her about health history then got to a question asking "what are your hobbies and interests.". I recalled when I answered that question how I was upset and answered "piano" since I have an abundance of time no but can't physically play well. Her response was "well, nothing now. I can't knit or crochet". I couldn't help but feel a bit like an ungrateful jerk inside. Sometimes it takes only a few seconds of observation to humble a person and rind them how lucky they really are.