hail, driver, guilt, experiment

As I got out on the road today, the sky opened up and started to pelt my car with rain and hail. I almost typed "me" instead of "my car" but that wasn't the literal case. It had been, however, pelting the poor soul on a motorcycle before he got under the cover of an overpass. I slowed down as a I went past, thinking that excessive splashing would only add insult to his injury.

I reached my destination, accomplished the tasks I set out before me, and attempted to leave the parking lot.

Now, I don't like parking lots. Rather, I don't like the other people that use parking lots - as they usually do it wrong.

1) They park as so to take up multiple spaces. I freaking hate. Either learn to park more accurately or don't take your fancy pants car out into the world if you are that scared.

2) Lots are designed so that humans not paying attention to their world are forced directly into the lane of traffic right in front of the store.

3) People that cut across the spaces and don't pay attention.

It's that last one that really torqued me to today. I was traveling down the lane as I was supposed to and this car came screaming diagonally across the spaces - headed right for where my car was going to be. Since I'm not an idiot, I slowed down to a stop and so did the other car. The driver stuck her hand out the car window and I expected that she was doing so to wave me on or perhaps flick away the cigarette ash.

Instead, she flipped me off - then put the accelerator to the floor and took off in front of me - still going diagonally across the lot. Since she was still diagonal, she decided that the stop sign didn't quite apply to her so she ran that as well.

Ironically, I caught up with her at the next stop light. She was one car up and one car over - putting me ironically diagonally from her car. She didn't notice me - or if she did she chose not to acknowledge me. In any case, I thought some unpleasant things about her and considering myself lucky I both saw her in time to stop and that I don't have a baseball bat in my car since I would mostly now be in jail.

Speaking of guilt - there are two things I am guilty of, and they are both internet memes. Now, I am normally disdainful of overly hyped things. Example: I still haven't seen Titanic nor do I care to. So, appreciating anything that is defined as hype should be impossible for me, but there are two memes that I really enjoy.

1. LOLcats. I know, I know. It's terrible. These damn things just crack me up. I mean, there's some really stupid shit here, but there are a few gems in there that sometimes make me LOL. The best I've seen so far is a cat in a box, looking up at the camera. The caption says, "I'm in your Quantum box. Maybe." That's funny on several levels.

2. "Do not want" and "All your base are belong to us". The first is a mistranslation of the ending Darth Vader shout of "Nooooo!" from Star Wars episode 4. The other is another mistranslation - this time from a video game. I really like how they have taken on a life far beyond their orginal forms. Also, the "Do not want" has a decidely Zen quality to it which I'm just really starting to appreciate.

Finally, I tried an experiment today. Over the weekend, I tried something called Cashew Crush - which was a really excellent snack except that I got seriously congested and spent the rest of the afternoon sneezing. I ended up having to take an allergy pill to get it settled down - and I really don't like to take any kind of medicine until it's really serious.

Thinking that I might be developing an allergy to cashews - which would really bite since I enjoy them - I tried a bit more cashews today in the Cashew Crunch to see if I would start sneezing again. I haven't. So, that wasn't it.

That's it for now... later...