Five things make a post
Aug. 15th, 2007 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrab1. The East Columbia branch of the Howard County library has put in a huge chess "field" - a chess board with squares about a foot square each, and large vinyl-covered foam pieces. When we were there yesterday, several teenage boys, of the sort that one would ordinarily think would be on a basketball court, were playing chess, coaching each other, generally treating it as a team sport - but doing all the stuff that chess is supposed to make you do, like think ahead to consequences and what other people are likely to do, etc. Yes, it's sort of noisy having a basketball-style chess game going on in the library, but clearly it is working to make chess an attractive option for kids who probably would otherwise ignore it. So, go chess!!
2. We were at Panera for lunch today. I went to fill my iced tea cup, and a little kid was batting at the ice dispenser on the soda machine. I said to him, "Hey, that's not a toy" and he said "But I'm trying to get ice" and his mother, who had been elsewhere, came over, looked mad at me for talking to her kid, and told me that she had asked him to get ice for her - with his hands. I was dumbfounded. (A) getting ice by putting your hands right up to the ice dispenser and pushing it is unsanitary. (B) even adults have trouble catching ice from one of these dispensers in their hands instead of a cup (C) the five year old wasn't tall enough to even reach the dispenser properly to push it, and when he did succeed, of course he was scared of the noise and the ice cubes flying out, and pulled his hand back immediately. What the heck was this woman thinking??
3. We gave away one of our bookcases through freecycle, yesterday. It wasn't very effective as a bookcase; it was one unit of a set of three, and it was the one that had only 2 shelves at the top, with the rest being drawers and a sort of flip-down writing surface and pigeonholes. Because of its height and depth, there were very few places it would even fit at all in our house, and we really didn't need the desk-y part, so the whole thing was living in the critter room, being a haphazard repository for pet supplies, blocking other stuff and serving as an attractive nuisance for dust. The room looks better now, and the people who took it are ecstatic with it. (Long story on how we got the set of 3, but let's say that she got for free what would cost somewhere between $200 and $500 on eBay these days, depending on condition, based on the famous brand and all.)
4. Our waiter at the diner last night was a young man (18) who seems very likely headed for schizophrenia; he reminded me way too much of my cousin E, who was just like that at that age, and who has been institutionalized since he was 20. I hope I'm wrong, but people who are convinced that they are vampires, tell their customers about it, and describe their "symptoms" such as having their skin burn if they walk into a church, are clearly not normal.
5. Why am I so mean about people? I don't know. Not like I'm a prize myself.
2. We were at Panera for lunch today. I went to fill my iced tea cup, and a little kid was batting at the ice dispenser on the soda machine. I said to him, "Hey, that's not a toy" and he said "But I'm trying to get ice" and his mother, who had been elsewhere, came over, looked mad at me for talking to her kid, and told me that she had asked him to get ice for her - with his hands. I was dumbfounded. (A) getting ice by putting your hands right up to the ice dispenser and pushing it is unsanitary. (B) even adults have trouble catching ice from one of these dispensers in their hands instead of a cup (C) the five year old wasn't tall enough to even reach the dispenser properly to push it, and when he did succeed, of course he was scared of the noise and the ice cubes flying out, and pulled his hand back immediately. What the heck was this woman thinking??
3. We gave away one of our bookcases through freecycle, yesterday. It wasn't very effective as a bookcase; it was one unit of a set of three, and it was the one that had only 2 shelves at the top, with the rest being drawers and a sort of flip-down writing surface and pigeonholes. Because of its height and depth, there were very few places it would even fit at all in our house, and we really didn't need the desk-y part, so the whole thing was living in the critter room, being a haphazard repository for pet supplies, blocking other stuff and serving as an attractive nuisance for dust. The room looks better now, and the people who took it are ecstatic with it. (Long story on how we got the set of 3, but let's say that she got for free what would cost somewhere between $200 and $500 on eBay these days, depending on condition, based on the famous brand and all.)
4. Our waiter at the diner last night was a young man (18) who seems very likely headed for schizophrenia; he reminded me way too much of my cousin E, who was just like that at that age, and who has been institutionalized since he was 20. I hope I'm wrong, but people who are convinced that they are vampires, tell their customers about it, and describe their "symptoms" such as having their skin burn if they walk into a church, are clearly not normal.
5. Why am I so mean about people? I don't know. Not like I'm a prize myself.
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Date: 2007-08-16 02:13 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I've met people like that before who, given a few years and a strong dose of Real Life, turned out to be perfectly sane. And generally mildly embarrassed by their misspent youth.