November 24, 2003
stinky fridge
Why is it that no matter where I sit on a plane, there is guaranteed to be people sitting behind me who are intent on talking for the entire flight? That's really something alien to me - the whole concept of sitting down next to someone you've never met before and talking to them for, like, a long time. I can barely sustain a conversation with someone I know.
I guess it's the little things that make me a luser.
Of course, who's the luser here? Most of the conversations I hear other people having on planes are soo stoopid. It's inevitably either some loud mouth business guy who you want to kick or some smelly grad student talking about his or her research. Either way listening to them is about as interesting as clipping your toenails.
Speaking of lusers. I forgot to mention that last week there were some guys in the gym (divx guys to be precise) who were actually having a serious conversation about the matrix. And not a serious conversation like, "wasn't that one scene in the movie cool?" But serious conversation like, "wow dude, there's like 10 levels of the matrix and it's all controlled. Whoa, that's so, like, mind blowing." I haven't come that close to weeping openly in a long time.
Also related to the airplane story above - is there a gene or something that determines whether you're a door slammer or not? It always amazes me that so many people just SLAM all doors, gates, etc. I noticed it again this weekend - people were showing up at the hotel at like 1am and just SLAMMING doors. I don't even slam doors in the middle of the freaking day. Never have. Do people get a thrill out of hearing them slam, or do they just not even notice??
Me no understand.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss and sometimes it's dangerous. And where exactly the line is between the two is not always obvious. This weekend for instance we were in Tucson (hence the plane and hotel references), and we were at Saguaro national park. In one of the visitor centers they had an exhibit on dangerous desert bugs. The boss and I quickly recognized every single one of them from our house in New Mexico. We had known that one or two of them was poisonous, but not all of them, including some that we saw on a daily basis. Now on the one hand this makes one feel incredibly tough, right? I'm king of the desert, surrounded by dangerous creatures. On the other hand though, it's hard not to feel a little bit scared. Hence the question - is it better that we didn't know, since most of the bugs never bothered us? Or would it have been better to know, and live in more fear??
Maybe I can capture some of these bugs and throw them on people who slam doors or talk on planes....
Where do people come up with this stuff? Brilliant.
All Boing, all the time. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie.
They're asking all the right questions, but I'm not sure about their answers.
Yes!
Posted by minor at November 24, 2003 07:40 PM