Thursday Thirteen Things I Wonder About (#19)

My mind works in strange and mysterious ways…

Thirteen Things about N. Mallory

1. How often do other people change out the underwear in their underwear drawer? I mean, so they schedule a regular amount of time? Twice a year maybe to go through and throw out all the ratty old underwear they wouldn’t wear on vacation or on a date or in front of their cats and replace them?
2. Speaking of underwear, am I the only one who’s ever bought new underwear just so I didn’t have to wash clothes? Or whole new outfits even? Or a couple of days-worth of clothes?
3. What do other people think about during their commute to work? Do they just space out and not remember how they got to work? Do they think about the AIDs issue in Africa, last night’s Daily Show, what they’re going to make for dinner? Am I the only one who has whole imaginary conversations and arguments with myself that I might have with other people that just piss me off further when I’m already pissed off or help convince me more that I’m right about something?…What?
4. Do other people worry that they might look up and find someone staring in their window at them, especially at night? Every night? Even on the second story? Or driving in their car? Especially when looking in the rear view mirror?
5. Why can’t someone invent a spray that discourages my puppy from poo-pooing on my rug? They make stuff to clean it up. They make stuff to “neutralize” the smell. Can’t they make something that makes him sniff that spot and think “naughty!”?
6. Why can’t all my pets learn to use the toilet like me? Is it really that difficult? I mean, they’re always watching me, studying me when I use it. Surely by now they’ve figured it out.
7. Why do people think South Park is funny? Seriously. I just don’t get it.
8. Why don’t Target or WAL-Mart carry white floating shelves? Do people really only decorate in dark colors anymore? Don’t the people who order stock for them watch HGtv or TLC at all?
9. Was my old apartment building filled with mold like my crazy old neighbor claimed and was it making me sick? I have to say that I’ve had a reduction in headaches since I moved into the house. Though before I moved into the apartment, I suffered from chronic migraines for 20+ years. However, the fibromyalgia did become a problem while I was in the apartment and it’s been better too. Granted, I’ve been eating my strict pseudo-vegetarian diet and doing aquatic physical therapy. It’s hard to tell. But the mildew problem on my furniture and in my kitchen is gone now that I’m in the house. (The allergist said I wasn’t allergic.)
10. If my mom isn’t coming for my gall bladder surgery, who is going to drive me to and from and take care of me and is it wrong to be annoyed at my grandmother for taking up my mother’s time? My grandmother isn’t actually physically ill, but she is bipolar. She has to be watched because she won’t take her meds or eat like she should because she’s decided she doesn’t want to and she didn’t like the nursing home she was in. She demanded that my parents take her with them from Ohio to New Mexico for a visit after Thanksgiving and she shows no signs of wanting to go home. My dad shows no signs of wanting to take care of his own mother so it falls on my mom. So, now that I have surgery scheduled in February, I don’t have my mommy to take care of me and I’m a little disappointed. Does that sound too selfish?
11. Has TNT been showing a 3rd season of The Closer and I’ve missed it? I think I missed this season of Monk too. They don’t seem to be showing them regularly. When will there be a new season of Eureka? There are simply too many shows I like now. It’s too much to keep up with and they’re all on at odd times and their seasons are all weird and even the DVR is getting confused.
12. Has anyone else noticed that Amazon’s Prime shipping is not worth the price anymore? Very few things are covered as “free shipping” and very few things are included in their “expedited” 2-day shipping either. I almost always am paying added shipping costs even on some books and for standard shipping, some things aren’t shipping for weeks, even two of the books I ordered (that I don’t have time to read). Since I usually buy $100-worth of stuff at a time, I don’t understand why I never qualify for free anything. Why am I paying for this extra service?
13. Do people only come here to read the Thursday Thirteen? My uncle told me that one of those news channels said that most blogs have only one reader. Am I posting to myself the rest of the week?

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, blog meme, meme, bloghopping, WAL-Mart, Target, the puppy, South Park, underwear, The Closer, Monk, Eureka, T.V., Amazon.com, mold, mildew, fibromyalgia, migraines

WAL-Mart Won’t Sell Granny Pics

O.K. I don’t have any pictures of my great-grandmother. I don’t really have that many pictures of family at all and I’ve been trying to get at least one photo of each family member over the last six or seven months. I haven’t decided where to hang or put all of the family pictures in my new house yet, but it’s important to me to have this anchor for memories.

Anyway, my mother found a really nice one of my great-grandmother taken 15 years ago or so. It looks like she had it done at a Sears or something. You know, it looks like a school picture or maybe it was one the church did. Anyway, it looks professionally done, but it doesn’t say anywhere who did it and we don’t have negatives.

So, we took the picture over to WAL-Mart to the magic copying machine and made two copies.

The staff at WAL-Mart refused to sell us the copies and confiscated them. We were told that WAL-Mart’s policy is not to duplicate copyrighted materials but that if we come back with a release form, we could make all the copies we want. They were not sympathetic or understanding that my great-grandmother has been dead for years and that picture is 15 years old and that no one knows where it was taken.

I bet if it had been in black and white and looked about 30 years older, they wouldn’t have said anything.

Anyway, my dad and I suggested to my mother that she make up a name of a photography studio and send an email to herself telling her that it’s O.K. to reprint the picture.

Really, I understand WAL-Mart’s policy. After all, anyone could come in and reproduce their school pictures, etc. However, I figure that once you’ve paid for those pictures, they’re yours to do with as you want. No one should own your image or your great grandmother’s image and who’s to say that I‘m not a professional photographer. Do I need to bring a release form to print all of my digital photography in WAL-Mart?

Tags: WAL-Mart, photo duplicates

Work Your Brain — 10/31/06

Travel In America

• Homeland Absurdity – Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that the difference between life and death is a ziploc bag apparently…
  

  There you have it: Tiny containers of hand sanitizer in zip-lock bags are harmless and approved. Those not in zip-lock bags are dangerous contraband. Meanwhile, the TSA still cannot justify its methods of confiscation: If certain liquids and gels are taken from a passenger, the assumption has to be that those materials are potentially hazardous. If so, why are they tossed unceremoniously into the trash? At every checkpoint you’ll see a bin or barrel brimming with illegal containers. They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are thrown away. In effect, the agency readily admits that it knows these things are harmless. But it’s going to steal them anyway, and either you like it or you don’t fly.

What the Fuck Are They Thinking?

• UK retailer to little girls:”Let’s have a lap dance over here, luv!” — Twisty @ I Blame The Patriarchy has a commentary on Tesco’s plans to market a striptease toy to five-year-olds for Christmas this year. Kid you not. How sick is that. I thought thongs for four-year-olds was bad enough, but you’ll be able to buy a toy sexy chrome pole, a CD with sexy music, and ”Peekaboo Dance Dollars” to stuff in a toy “sexy dance garter” to “Unleash the sex kitten inside” (quoth the Tesco website). More

  Tags: WAL-Mart, Ziploc, TSA, Tesco, airport security, U.K. striptease, Voting Irregularities, Texas, Florida, Virginia, James Webb, Democrats, Republicans, Missouri, Arkansas, censorship, bloggers, Iran, Tunisia, China, Vietnam, Amnesty International, human rights

  3 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World