Midnight Musings

I don't know if it's the season or what, but I'm just having one of those days when looking in the mirror just scares me silly. My hair is insane, my eyes are puffy. I don't need a mask in order to scare people. Or maybe this is a mask. Yeah, that's it. I'll convince myself of that and then maybe my dreams can be my real life. I like it.

'night.

This was part of an e-mail I received from the Hotmail Staff. No further explanation is necessary - or possible. "MSN® Hotmail® Plus is available in 15 languages. Please select English if yours is not one of them."

'night.

Mount St. Helens in May 1980

Watching and waiting is a little scary.

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

E-mail from a friend in Washington state: "I wouldn't worry about Mt. St. Helens. It's media hype. Basically, the mountain has a little indigestion and is clearing its throat. They like to make it sound like the world is ending. Most people out here aren't even interested in it." I hope he's right.

'night.

Is this really the message we want to be sending our children?? ;)

'night.

Like most people's machines, my computer will tell me the date if I look in the right place. It will even tell me the incredibly accurate time, thanks to the atomic clock. It's important for me to check in to this accuracy because my neighbors have had Halloween decorations up for the past two weeks. I was completely disoriented when I came home from work in late September to face jack-o'lanterns and scarecrows.

Many of us have already had this musing conversation. Back in the day, Halloween costumes didn't even go on sale until two weeks before they were needed. Thanksgiving wasn't celebrated until the week of the holiday, and Christmas still seemed far away when Santa appeared at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations all compete for shelf space by the second week in October. Valentine's Day and Easter apparently arrive at the same time. And don't EVEN get me started on what Christmas is supposed to be all about to begin with. A pagan holiday redressed to celebrate the birth of the Son of God, whose name barely even appears on holiday cards anymore. I am so confused.

Speaking of confused, my son made a call on my cell phone and then when he was finished, went to hang it up on the wall where the land line phone belongs. Confusing the cell with the land line is a bit like trying to take a sip of your pen instead of your tea. One forgets which is in one's hand at the time. It happens.

Oh, and before I forget, Happy New Year.

'night.

Yawn

'night

When I first became connected to the internet it was a social thing. I spent an inordinate amount of time in believers' chat rooms and instant-messaging people I didn't know. I gradually learned to use the internet on my own and quit the original service, spending more time answering e-mail, shopping and researching questions than socializing with masked strangers.

Suddenly, I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time surfing - this time courtesy of Spurl.net and StumbleUpon. The former is basically an online bookmarks site, but their "just in" feature sends me checking out all kinds of sites I wouldn't have come across on my own. Which is how I found the latter, ultimate time-waster (yes, it beats out the Perpetual Bubble Wrap page, conveniently listed in my selected weird sites links). It uses a Stumble! button in their toolbar which will take you on a magical mystery tour of as many web sites as you want to see, with subject matter you can choose. If you rate sites, random people who like your choices can send you messages and let you browse sites they've rated, it lists the member names of the random people who visit your home page with links so that you can visit theirs, it goes on and on. I can't decide if I'm complaining or advertising, since there are so many more practical things I could be doing. It is fun, though. Just sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time...

'night, Otis.