At the Movies

Recently, while at the movies with friends, we made the traditional post-movie pit stop as a herd. As we squeezed into the restroom with all the little old ladies, who had come to see Ocean's Thirteen, I saw it. There were glow sticks for sale in the tampon dispenser. Yes. Glow sticks. Could there be a more unfit thing to sell in the restroom?-- aside from, perhaps, kittens. On first thought they seem very ill-suited for the slot, but there are similarities:

• the size and shape is nearly identical
• dogs and small children should be discouraged from chewing on them
• they change color with use
• they're fabulous for 3D mixed-media work
  

Ultimately, I had to see one. I had to own one. A Women's Room Glow Stick.


I rummaged about for the quarters, put my change in the machine, and turned the lever. Out came a small white box not unlike a pack of cigarettes. There were three tiny glow sticks inside. They weren't even at a size where the logical progression from tampon to glow stick could be imagined. They were a complete non sequitur really. I can only guess what the stock folks were thinking.


"You know what would make the movie going experience even better?"
"What?"
"Teenagers with glow sticks."
"I know just the place."

Cars & E. Coli

On the topic of cars: I drove my Dad's stick-shift yesterday. My hands were shaking almost the whole time. Toward the end I sort of got the hang of it though. I stalled out a couple times at almost every single traffic light and at least 3 times I didn't push the clutch all the way in so I got stuck in neutral when I was trying to downshift to 1st. Augh! It was surprisingly okay though. I thought that I would totally lose it if I stalled out with cars behind me.


Last night we ordered a pizza from the Loop which just so happens to be in Cary. We got there and they had all these signs warning about the e. coli of which we were totally ignorant. Apparently, they got the order to close down just a minute or two after they took our order. They still gave us the pizza! The water was contaminated before the health department had time to test water and organize themselves to call all the restaurants in Cary dumbass! Anyways, my Dad was all nonchallant and decided in his infinite knowledge that because the pizza was cooked, we'd probably be fine... At first we weren't going to tell Mum because she'd freak out, but our consciences got the best of us. No nice tasty Loop pizza for us. She made us order a fresh pizza from someplace in Apex. Hmph.

The Loop

Stream of Consciousness

Montreal---shoes---sleep---tinfoilhatstoprotectusfromthealiensandthegovernmentbutisn'the
governmentamoreseriousthreattotheworld?they'reassociatedwiththePOSTOFFICEsohow
couldtheypossiblynotbeevil?evilforthemisabsolutelyrequisite---absolution,interestingwordyeah? Ithinksotooreligionsingeneralgivemethewig---conspiracy---yeahsoreligion---ooo,nah---so
VladimirPutin,there'saguyItrustasfarasicanthrowhimcuzreally,throwingtheoppositioninjailetc.
badness.hasn'trussiaalreadyhaditsshareofcrappypoliticalissues?everyoneistreadinglightly
thoughbecausetheyareneccessarytostopnorthkoreaandiranfromdoingallkindsofcrazystuff
butwhatdoworldleadersreallythinkrussiaisgoingtodotostopthem?wewouldappeartobedoomed
forrealthistime---goshthisisarepetivesongseetherispretteymuchallaroundlameidon'tknowwhy
i'mstilllisteningtothembleh---greenportfolio---whyisgreenassociatedwithwealthandenvy?when
reallyitoughttobemorerelatedtoearthynaturalstuffandhippieslikeme.idon'treallygetit.wow,i've
beendoingthisforsometime...

Pistachio Pudding is God

My week in the wilderness was awesome. There were breath-taking views etc etc... It's more fun to talk about what bugged me though. The younger girls were slowly but surely killing me. One randomly whacked another in the arm and then they started going at it. Their ridiculous argument continued on loudly for several minutes. Several minutes too many. I shan't claim that I have a high tolerance for loud, short creatures. "STOP IT RIGHT NOW! What is wrong with you?" "She started it!" "Yeah, but she continued it." "I don't CARE I'm finishing it." Another girl pretty much latched on to me. It was constantly "Jessie come over here." or frantic hand gestures to come closer whenever I was talking to somebody else. It was just plain weird.... "I can give you a foot massage!" "umm.... no thanks... that's really nice of you though..." or "Gosh, I keep talking to you like you're my sister!" "um..." Her sister is quite pleasant. Go figure.

Zoe (one of the leaders) was driving me crazy. Once, she walked up to me just as I had finished putting up my tent (complete with groundcloths and nigh-impossible to drive in stakes) and started saying "well... I don't know about this spot. that tree might come down any second."
"No, Zoe, I don't think it will. I shook it myself and it's also alive." "well, I still don't know." "Zoe, I'm pretty sure we'll be okay here." "well... If it were my tent..." "okay, where do you suggest?" "ah, ah,ah! don't ask me! You're supposed to be doing this on your own!" *Jessie thinks to herself: God damn you, you crazy old lady!* I take down the tent and move the whole shebang to less desireable rocky spot where she says: "This looks better!" "uh... Zoe? See that monster log caught in the crook of those limbs? There is no way in heck I am putting a tent under that. It sways in the wind." "oh. Why don't you move it back a bit" I do so... "Good" says Zoe. "Umm.. actually this is surrounded by a bunch of dead trees. They're wobbling." "Well, that looks like a good spot over there." Zoe points at the spot where I originally had it. She wasted a good 15 minutes of my precious time before dark. Time that I needed. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE CUTE, YET STRONG-MINDED LITTLE OLD LADY!!

All in all: Good times were had.

Disillusioned with Disillusionment

A couple days ago, I was enjoying an indulgent lunch at the Bear Rock Cafe when it occurred to me that I had a beverage packaged in a glass bottle. I got up and upon being unable to locate a recycling bin, I queried the cashiers,

"Excuse me, do you have recycling facilities?"

"Uh... no.... sorry..."

"Do you have a suggestion box?"

"Uh... no... YES- yes we do. Right over there -->"

I must say that it was a pathetic excuse for a suggestion box and only had space for postal information and one's favorite sandwich. I ended up carrying the bottles home. Normally, I don't really think about recycling while I'm at restaurants- not even fast food joints, but the Bear Rock Cafe sells almost all of it's beverages in glass or plastic bottles. It seems like a logical step to get recycling facilities. Most people don't really doubt the value of recycling these days, so why wouldn't this have come up previously? M'Colleague Kat and I have both e-mailed the all powerful BRC and received the same form letter:

Thank you for taking the time to email us your feedback. We agree that it is important to recycle in our restaurants. I have forwarded your comments to our Vice President of Operations and we will work on this matter. Please accept the attached coupon and enjoy your next sandwich or salad on us. Thank you for your patronage. I hope you will visit again soon.
*Best regards,* *Deneen* **

*Deneen Nethercutt*
*Vice President of Marketing*
*Bear Rock Services, Inc.*

Hardly a satisfactory response. Worse than that is the unsettling truth that not for one second did I expect success from this venture. I assumed that my note would go unnoticed. This is a microcosm of a much larger issue. Things that should be shocking or outraging have become ho-hum and commonplace. Our nation has been lied to? Big Whoop. Since childhood, I have been taught that politicians lie and that they never to what they promise they will. We have made the mistake of becoming pessimistic realists with every ounce of idealism squeezed out. We have adapted and learned to accept and function in a world where our efforts are completely worthless.

Recycle at home too kiddies!

Today was miraculous. We visited my grandparents house where we also saw my Uncle Doug, Aunt Susan and cute little cousin Caroline. Although he still made his signature unpleasant remark about my clothing, he was very polite throughout the visit. I was stunned! Aside from the,"Schroedinger's cat is dead? Is that some kind of goth joke?" "No Uncle Doug, its a nerd joke", he was totally reserved. I showed Caroline how to make paper airplanes, sneak up on her parents, etc. She was doing lots of 'drawings' and using up sheet after sheet, only using one side of the paper, so I suggested that she write on both sides. She said no. I told her she would be helping the environment, and making the world a better place. She said,"I only do that at school". It was hilarious. She only recycles etc when shes at school. Just before we left for home, she ran out and said she had to give me a drawing. She plunked down on the floor and scribbled on a piece of paper. It was soooo cute. Awww...

So a Girl Walks into a Post Office

On October 12 2005, the day of the PSAT, I had been discussing the USPS with Meredith on our way out of school. Just as I made a statement, a post truck went by. My mother and I went to Cameron Village to check out the shops. We stayed for a while. When we returned to our car, there was a postal truck parked next to us. As we left the shopping center, we pulled out onto the main street. Some of the parking is parallel to the road. There was yet another postal truck parked in such a way as it had perfect view of the road.

One day, I was sitting in the front room, when the mail truck came by to “deliver our mail” and I looked out at the fellow at the wheel. He had a general shifty appearance, and furtively shoved mail in the box. After doing so, he made direct eye contact with me.

The post office already sees all of our written (hard copy) communication and knows with whom we correspond. It also has an excuse to send operatives to each and every American household, everyday aside from Sundays. This is merely to give us the illusion of them being normal people. They can easily keep an eye on everyone without raising suspicion. One can find a conspiracy theory about almost anything. The USPS is a natural thing to jump to. There isn’t a single thing listed on the internet. Why? They are suppressing the facts! The reason we can find theories about other things it that they aren’t deemed worthy of suppression and merely make the public contempt all conspiracy theories. They actually help the postal service’s true purpose remain hidden and unsuspected.

Here are several things I noticed on their website:

-“We deliver more than mail-we deliver community service.” --like every plot every, they claim to be helping society and making it better. They admit that they do more than deliver mail. They meddle.

-“The Postal Service works with the community to have an active voice on facility matters regarding relocation, expansion, or a new Postal facility.” --They think about expansion? They want to expand? Is this not reason for worry?

-“We’re nothing but convenient.” --Convenience eh? Well doesn’t slipping into doing the easy thing usually turn out badly? As a general rule that is the road to apathy and lack of original thought. Think about it.

-“Learn how to identify and respond to threats in the mail center – a major gateway into any business or government agency.” --GOVERNMENT AGENCY!!! Hello!! Yes!

-“Find out what you need to know about aviation mail security and hazardous materials.” --Now they’re trying to alarm you. Spreading panic among the people is the best way to manipulate them. Give them a fear of terrorist threats and they become mindless patriots. This has happened repeatedly throughout history. For example, we have the Red Scare, we have the post-9/11 scare, anthrax and the danger codes on the Fox news network. In 1984 (the book) people are so brainwashed that even their own children will ‘inform’ on them. The slightest thing is reported. In my neighborhood, a person received an unmarked Halloween letter that they reported to the police because they thought it was anthrax. This is not merely human stupidity. It was triggered by this shameless fear-mongering!

-Their PCC or Postal Customer Council has all the warning signs. They have an ‘education’ system, ‘operations’ and ‘recognition’. So… re-educate the people, put them on special ops and then when they do well for the organization they are internally recognized for it. Sound like any, oh say, communistic creepiness for example?

-They have a ‘Rapid Information Bulletin Board System’. Need I say more?

- M. Intelligent Mail

In 2003 the Intelligent Mail and Address Quality (IMAQ) organization was established to focus efforts in moving the enterprise toward an Intelligent Mail system. This system envisions collecting information about mail that will allow the Postal Service to leverage the information to influence mail processing and delivery and allow customers to leverage the information to better serve their business needs. *Two of their ideals are to have “end-to-end visibility into the mailstream” and to have “an information rich code on mail”. This should be setting off alarm bells. They want intelligent mail collecting information and being tracked!

-“deploy business applications that respond to emerging customer and internal needs.” -- Aren’t ‘deploy’ and ‘respond’ sort of military type terms?

-“ Data Communications and Storage Infrastructure” --okay. Why are they communicating and storing data about customers (customers=us)? Shouldn’t they merely be delivering mail?

-There’s about 74 pages of this stuff. Need I go further? You can view the “Postal Operations” and much much more at : www.usps.com/strategicplanning/cs04/

Are you scared? I’m scared.

The USPS is an extension of a secret government agency engaged in suppressing and manipulating the people!!!!!!

"The Man"

I went to the gigantic Wake County book sale. The Wake County Library system has a weekend each year where they get rid of the old books that are tattered and messed up or they have too many copies. They sell them for really cheap depending on which day you go. The day I went paperbacks were 50cents and hardcovers were $1. I got about 42 books (great number eh?) My bookshelf is now overflowing with gorgeous musty old books. I love getting old books, they have history. New books don't have the right smell and the right feel. With old ones you feel like you're holding a piece of the past and when you read them they hold more meaning. I don't as a general rule like getting new books unless I can really break them in. (not that I abuse my books or anything)


Turkey day was just as bad I thought it would be. After my grandfather hugged me, the first thing he asked was: Do you want to see the bird? My response: Uh... not particularly....mmm dead animal.
Then I had to eat at the same table as Uncle Doug. This was pretty much torture. He spent the entire time asking me questions about Marilyn Manson, self mutilation, "Are you still doing that 'goth' thing?", piercings, tattoos, weed, cigarettes, boys in eyeliner and intentional asphyxiation. Oh Rapture. Oh Joy. Fun. Gosh how I love spending time with my Uncle Doug.
Uncle Robert and his boyfriend Claudio gave me my birthday and Christmas gifts early and made be open them because they wanted to "see my face". I got two really weird hats, a puffy, shiny, plastic, black jacket, a Judas Priest t-shirt and a two disk Iron Maiden essentials set. The Iron Maiden isn't so bad. All of the lyrics are pretty self-indulgent and silly. They really take themselves seriously when they are making absurd songs like, "Bring your daughter to the slaughter" and "The Number of the Beast". I crack up everytime I hear them but the guitar riffs are pretty damn cool.
I spent the rest of the day (Thanksgiving) babysitting for my cute little cousin Caroline. She is so sweet. I played trains with her and read her stories, danced with her and we went for a walk down to the turtle pond. She refers to my father as "The Man" instead of Uncle Stephen. It is soooooo cute. When we were playing with the trains, I told her that Henry had kidnapped Thomas the Tank Engine and so she ran over and grabbed Henry in her teeth and shook him around like a little dog and then carefully deposited Thomas in my hand. Then for good measure she growled at my dad. Awww....