Happy Saturday!

[susandennis]

This is a really random entry.

soapbox\ Cellphones are really wonderful miracle tools.  I spent many years waiting by the phone - waiting for a call.  I love that I can empty the garbage, run an errand, go to South Carolina and still be available if someone needs to reach me.  And I love that I can get stuck somewhere and help is an easy phone call away. 

I have read recently blog entries, news articles and seen two news stories on TV about how horrible cellphones are.  Life was so much more simple before technology.  No.  It was not.  And cellphones are miracles.  People who don't know how to use them appropriately should be the target - not the technology. \soapbox

A bunch of months ago, I stopped using a top sheet on my bed.  I use a fitted sheet and my duvet with cover.  I am now very pissed.  I spent years - years - doing unnecessary laundry, buying sheets I didn't need and waking up in the middle of the night tangled up in that stupid top sheet.  The experiment is a total success.  I'm thinking about how to take two of my now-not-needed sheets and sewing them into a nice bed coverlet/light kind of duvet for Summer.

treebreeze called this morning - he's in Seattle and is coming over tomorrow to see Susan Dennis Head Quarters.  He's also going to get a nice shot of Seahawkiness.

TV news has been covering Seattle trash talk and the culture of 'Carolina'.  Apparently there is no need to differentiate between North and South.  And the various definitions of and supposed derivations of a tar heel are hilarious.  Our local NBC affiliate last night actually really explained that a moon pie was what Southerners called a pie that is so good it 'sends you to the moon.' 

Very sad.

From last week's Seattle Times about my Mr. Seahawk:

Fan on wheels
Just beyond the entrance of Qwest Field's north lot, Jerry Martinez will have parked his Seahawk Express motor home. A rolling billboard illustrated with all things Seahawks, the decorated RV definitely stands out. And with a 24-foot boat behind it and a giant blow-up doll of a Seahawks lineman above it, it's also impossible to miss.

"If somebody did, they'd need a proctologist because they would have to get their head out of their posterior," said Martinez, 56, a retired federal worker.

Martinez of Sequim drives the RV to every home and away game, having logged 130,000 miles over the past three years. When the Seahawks played at New England last year, a local police officer graciously escorted the Seahawk Express to a parking spot.

He returns the goodwill, offering his extra tickets at Qwest Field to visiting fans from opposing teams. He has given three tickets to today's game to Washington's famously flamboyant "Hogettes," whose costumes include dresses, sun hats and pig snouts.

"I have this philosophy: I root for my team but I never, ever knock the other team," Martinez said.

I have work to do... doesn't have to be done today but why not?!

Comments

[machupicchu.livejournal.com]

.
.
I totally concur regarding your point about cell phones (loud people on the bus? Not the phones' fault -- it's the idiotically loud people!). The same could be said about a ton of examples of culture-changing technology . . . such as, say, the Internet.
.
.

[kyrielle]

Yes. I don't like cellphones in two contexts:

(1) I don't want to carry one because they're expensive and my coworkers tend to, if they ever get a personal cell number, treat it as a company cell number. One guy even had his listed on the company personnel list by mistake (I hope it was by mistake!) The expensive part is just economics and how important the phone is(n't) to me. The other is a people problem. (Plus, since I carry an after-hours cell, they're kinda linked to the trauma of having my off-time interrupted.)

(2) I don't like it when they ring in inappropriate places or people are talking in inappropriate places. This is entirely a people problem. It may be the biggest barrier to cells, the people who don't know when to shut them off. For example, the other day I went to the restroom and the woman in the stall next to me was on her cell chatting away. She did tell the other person (from the tone, a husband or lover) that she had to go before flushing, but it was still ridiculous.

The problem is, if you have cell phones, you can't stop the idiots from being idiots with them very easily. Which is true of a great many other things as well, sadly. If we someday figure out how to control the stupid factor (in general) I will be very surprised, but glad.

[susandennis]

Yeah, sorry, I should have been more clear...

I truly resent the fact so many people like you are forced to wish that there were no such things as cellphones because that is really the only recourse against stupid people.

I have a cellphone. I love my cellphone and all of the convenience it affords me. My life is better because I have one. But, that's just me.

The reality is that my feelings about guns are much like yours about cellphones. Idiots abuse the use of them and those idiots harm people with them. So I really would like to see guns evaporate. Again. Me.

[kyrielle]

I think I can agree with that. Not with laws because they just leave the guns in the worst possible place, but if they could actually evaporate altogether. And guns in idiots' hands are a lot worse than cell phones. I'd rather be annoyed than shot.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were some kind of magic device that could be affixed to things like guns and cells, that would recognize if it were about to be misused/used at the wrong time/place, and shut it off. Mind you - it would have ot be a magic device - so it would never shut it off at the wrong moment or anything. Alas, that we cannot do things like that.

I don't want to see cell phones gone, because I know they are very useful to many people, as they are to you. But I really wish there were some way to de-idiot the cell phone idiots. I'll probably give in and get a phone, some day. If the phone were important in my life, I probably would have gotten one long since. They are little miracle devices and I think it's great we have them. Doesn't keep me from occasionally saying "I hate cell phones" when what I actually mean is "I hate idiots with cell phones" or "I hate getting work calls when I'm asleep, even if I am on call". Both of which are much more accurate.

I benefit from cell phones indirectly anyway: while I don't carry one, they make it a lot easier to reach people I know, both for work purposes (when they have a work cell, and during reasonable work hours, as I try not to be a total pain) and calls to friends and stuff.

[keelamonster.livejournal.com]

Well, in their defense, the Panthers belong to both North and South Carolina. They really are the Carolina Panthers, not the North Carolina Panthers. Which is why they're in Charlotte and not the Triangle area.

That being said, I grew up in Montana, and even I knew before I'd ever had one what a moon pie was. When I was in the south finally, I was required to have a moon pie (new to me) with an RC Cola (not new to me, but still enjoyable).

Good times. Good times.

i am sure ...

[henare.livejournal.com]

that the people who want to ban cellphones also want everyone to carry handguns.

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

I have read recently blog entries, news articles and seen two news stories on TV about how horrible cellphones are. Life was so much more simple before technology. No. It was not. And cellphones are miracles. People who don't know how to use them appropriately should be the target - not the technology.

I totally agree. They've transformed life in developing nations. They've saved lives. As much as having to overhear one side of someone's banal conversation on a bus is very annoying, the benefits of cell phones far outweight the nuisance factor.

I know people who claim that because of cell phones, people are now routinely late because they can just call ahead and say so. Back before phones, they say, everyone showed up on time. My response: bullshit. People were still late, you just had no idea where they were or if you were at the right place, and you wound up wasting time.

[(Anonymous)]

Let me guess...a Toll House cookie is a cookie that is so good you'll take a trip over a toll road to get one. Some people's children!

M

[kitashla.livejournal.com]

The trash talk has been going on plenty around here too. Normally, I wouldn't care because I don't exactly pay much attention to football. But when 80% of the area are wearing Panther Wear you start to take notice that something big must be going on.

There have been a couple of blurbs on the news of interviews with Seahawks fans, making them look silly by asking them to locate Charlotte or not knowing who the quarterback is. But it's been pretty good natured all in all.

[susandennis]

I wondered what they were saying about Seattle. Sounds like they are on the money. A lot of people here are fairly clueless about East Coast geography. Funny.

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

This is aa idiot comment.
Yay!
Seahawks!

[artisanal_xara]

Point 1.

I hate cellphones because stupid people become rude stupid people in their presence.

I also hate them because cellphones and pagers represent a place that my husband very much does not want to be in his career. In some fields of work, and in some locations it's considered a luxury not to carry one.

Unfortunately I have apparently been elevated to status of "Mother" and this requires, in the opinion of my Mother-in-Law, that I be in contact every moment of my life. I am no longer allowed to make a quick trip to the grocery store without my cellphone *just in case* something might go so incredibly wrong in the half hour that I'm gone that neither my husband nor both of his parents could handle it. What this situation might be I have no idea, nor what I would be able to do about it, but I was severely chastised for suggesting that I wouldn't need my phone.

Do I hate cellphones? Hell Yes!

Point 2.

I spent the last 7 years or so -the entire time I've been living with George- not using a top sheet because he shared your opinion. By my magical pregnancy powers I convinced him to let us try the top sheets when we got our new bed, and for the last 6 months have been enjoying the soft smooth snuggly goodness of a top sheet. I don't mind the extra laundry. It's worth it to have a nice smooth sheet against my feet instead of a rough comforter.

On this point I am happy to disagree with you.