Explosion in my head.

I just found out from my friend's blog, that Hugh Laurie, better known as House, was Jasper in 101 Dalmations.  

   

"I'm not, at this moment, exactly sure where the puppies are."

Found: My New Internet Addiction

I recycle.  I reuse, I reinvent, and I buy used as much as possible.  One of the highlights of my Presidents' Day was checking out the 50% off sale at Savers (two skirts and a shirt for $8).  And I want to do more.  I want to make tables out of magazines, funnels out of the tops of plastic bottles, and decorations out of old books.  And then, last Friday, I found out about "freecycle."  Basically, it is a national network of people set up to get people with extra stuff in contact with people who might want it.  I joined the Provo area group on Yahoo groups, and I'm already in love.  There are over 3000 members in the group, and all throughout the day, people post things like "OFFER: box of canned foods."  It turns out that they were given a box by a friend who was moving, and now they don't need it.  The first person who emails them is welcome to come pick it up: free.  There are posts like "OFFER: Antique grand piano, cracked soundboard." Pay to move it and it's yours.  "Wanted: Odds and ends of yarns for scrap project."  When an item has been spoken for, the offer-er will post a quick "Taken" notice.  When a needed item has been given, the recipient will post "Received."  

   

So far today I have 1) found someone who wants the two or three ghastly-colored half skeins of yarn I have in the top of my closet, 2) found a free 3rd Edition Turabian style manual, and 3) found a lady who is cleaning her garage out and just giving the stuff away from 4-5:30 today.  I intend to stop by on my way home.  

   

We all have times when we'd give our extra stuff away if we just knew who needed it.  We all find times when we need something we know someone else is wishing wasn't taking up room in their closet (like a breadmaker, baby or maternity clothes, sunday coupons, etc), but we don't know that person.  Freecycle is one step ahead of and twelve steps more personal than the thrift store.  It's a chance to give your stuff away before someone has to buy it.  Also, the person who wants your item is usually willing to meet you somewhere or come to you to pick it up.  So go ahead, clean out your closet and your garage.  Now you can give the stuff away to someone who needs it directly.  

   Freecycle.

Bookbag Timecapsule

I admit I'm one of those people who analyzes people based on the contents of their grocery carts, glove compartments, and the items found in their purses.  Corndogs and bananas...college-age bachelor, but post-freshman because he's buying fruit.  Today, I reached into the small pocket of my bookbag, a place where I pack things I think I might need and then forget about.  And then I laughed, because I had forgotten about so many things that have been in that pocket for a year or better--some of which I use, some of which I've never touched.  Here is the list, along with a rough estimate or guess of where each item came from and how long it's been in there.  I leave the personality interpretation to you.  I was aware of the existence and location of items 1, 4, 6, 12, and 13.  The rest were trips down memroy lane, like some kind of accidental time capsule.  

   

1.   My wallet--black with red trim and a skull and crossbones.  It's only been in there since this morning.  Purchased in a gift shop in Germany.

   

2.   A Great Value breakfast drink mix given to my sister by her visiting teachings superivsor and that she gave to me be cause I drink breakfast shakes.  It's been in there since around Thanksgiving?  You never know when you're going to need a meal.  Or the address of her visiting teachees....

   

3.  My last paycheck stub.  It's been in that pocket for a little less than a week.  You know, for my "records."  That I keep.  Really.  ... But I can't throw it away right?  They're taking over my room.

   

4.   Four packages of Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix, three with marshmallows, one without.  One week.  For after school.  

    

5.    A temporary tattoo of a death-metal looking skull with black wings.  I remember purchasingi it... but I have no clue where or when.  Was it at a hockey game?  Sometime this fall.

   

6.    A small bottle of "Passion Rose" scented lotion, given to me by my sister for Valentine's Day...two years ago.  You should always have lotion with you.  

   

7.   A sandstone-colored plastic spoon that says Delta on it....   ....  ?  

   

8.   A reciept from the Courgareat Taco Bell dated 7/23/08.  I got a chhesy double beef burrito.  It was probably gross.

    

9.   A package of multivitamins...probably a few months

   

10.   Two mini-handwarmers.  A stocking stuffer?  Stolen from Mom during the Christmas ski trip?  Yeah, probably.

   

11.   Five dollars worth of nickels.  You know.  For the nickelcade.

   

12.   The broken shards of another plastic spoon.  The two must have had a duel.  The Delta one, being stronger and more widely travelled, seems to have decimated the cheap, flimsy, white one.

   

13.   The reason boys don't go looking through ladies purses.  

Conclusion of Research

I will not get dreadlocks soon.  I may never get them.
   
But I think that they can be gorgeous.
   
And I might get them someday.
 
Okay?

Respect

Say what you like about classic rock, but mindless it is not.  Pink Floyd quotes T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" and Dreamtheater covers James Joyce and Shakespeare.  Rush quotes Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.  

    

Sometimes I think the rockers are not the destroying angels and the forces of entropy personfied they are made out to be.  Sometimes I think they are the strongholds of civilization and art.

     

So, from an English teacher and lover of poetry, Rock On.

"Thank You Shadow-Self--I'll Do Battle With You Later"

In today's fastmoving pop culture world, I have traditionally stayed out of the fast lane. Usually one of the last to know of a new fad, I barely considereds showing it to all of my friends before finding out that it was already passe. Take Rickrolling for instance. I don't know how long it's been around, but I heard about it the first time when xkcd mentioned it, and I had no clue what it was until a friend explained it to me in December. Two weeks later, MSN declared it a technology trend that needed to be "laid to rest." *sigh* I never even got the chance to Rickroll anybody. Although, it might not be dead yet: this website has just declared an official Rickrolling contest with prizes from amazon.

I completely missed music trends like nsync or Brittney Spears. I went through my life, singing songs from the 1940s and knowing more jokes from Jack Benny than Saturday Night Live. That's why I was surprised when a quirky site my brother-in-law showed me my sophomore year in high school gradually grew in popularity until it was plastered all over young adulthood with t-shirts, stickers, window clings, plushies, and dvd releases of the site's videos. Status could be obtained by mentioning how much paraphenelia one owned. I am talking, of course, about Strong Bad and the rest of the Homestarrunner crew.

Suddenly, I was one of those high-popculture snobs scoffing at those who liked it only because it was popular. "I've liked it since way back," I'd say with a condescending smile. "I was introducing other people to it and talking like Strong Bad with my friends long before you knew it existed. It's cute that you're trying to get in on it now." Although I couldn't afford the accessories that would proclaim my superiority, some part of me felt it. And it was true. When the makers of Homestarrunner were just barely starting to go full-time, over a hundred emails ago, Di and I had already lost consciousness of how often we talked like Strong Bad.

Now, the site has long since faded in popularity. I have met one person in over a year who still follows the site regularly. The t-shirts and window clings have disappeared, and those still sporting them are quietly pitied as the oblivious souls who probably don't realize when their romantic relationships are "over" either. Except for the occasional, "Sewiously guys," or a cheerful "Deleted!" no one is talking about it, or making it their default page anymore.

But......

If the secret truth is told, which it is, since I'm blogging it, I still keep up with my old friends at Homestarrunner. That's right, it's still there. And there's still new material every week. I never really stopped, and keeping up takes less than five minutes a week. I still think it's funny. Homestarrunner.com has been around for nine years, and has never once sold advertising space and the site. No text adds, no popups, nothing. It's no longer the only thing like it on the internet, so it's lost the fresh hilarity of a new idea, but it still makes me laugh. So there. I liked it before it was popular, I liked it while it was popular, and I like it after. And, if someday it goes through one of those periods of retro popularity that suddenly and breifly vaunts an obscure subgroup of long-time nerds into the position of popculture leaders who have "liked it all along," I may be one of those nerds. But even if that happens, I won't triumph because my vehicle for popculture superiority has returned, I can live without that, but because watching the world fall in love with it again would be watching an old friend who deserves the attention and praise as "one of the originals" finally get it after being harshly discarded by fickle friends.

"Turn off your computer and go outsite or something--nerd!"