Half-demolished Kitchen of the Soul

Who's bad now?

I figured it was time to escalate my weaponry in the war against wisteria. I bought a machete today. Much more viscerally gratifying than clippers. 

Take THAT! (thunk) Leave my (thunk) trees (thunk) alone! (thunk thunk)

Me no engañaron.

If I'm going to learn more than restaurant and tourist Spanish, I'll have to be less, oh, haphazard. 

Rosetta Stone is supposed to be the bomb for learning languages, but it's also expensive. So I checked out Craig's List and, bingo, there were some Spanish (Latin American) sets for sale. I struck a deal with one seller and met to exchange money for goods.

After I got home and tried to install the software, I realized there were supposed to be two disks, one for the application and one for the language materials. I had the latter but not the former. 

Was it a mistake or had I been ripped off? All I had was the guy's e-mail and name. If it was really his name. We met at a Starbuck's. I gave him cash. Crap.

But I e-mailed him about the missing disk and crossed my fingers. He apologized and said he'd deliver it to me. Okay, let's see what happens.

When I got to my computer at 7 a.m. and fired up e-mail, there was a message from the seller saying he'd left the disk hanging on my front doorknob. There it was. My faith in humanity restored. Gracias.

Good news bad news

Good news: Smoking has declined in the US to the point that Philip Morris USA is closing its big cigarette factory in the city next door.

Bad news: About a thousand Philip Morris employees will be out of work.

Well, now I know

When Billy Mays died, I wondered what the various advertisers he shilled for would do. I got two answers yesterday.

The OxiClean folks made new commercials. Omni Dual Saw is running its Billy Mays infomercials again.

You betcha

TED Tuesday: Brain magic

The best magic tricks are the ones you can't explain. 

I don't do this

This is part of a lap at the Isle of Man motorcycle races. Those of you who suffer motion sickness might not want to watch.

 

Music Video Monday: Elvis Presley

Curmudgeon's Driving Handbook: No Favors for You

So, someone wasn't paying attention and realized he's in the wrong lane but needs to turn. And because he's the kind who doesn't pay attention, he's also the kind who believes other drivers should stop and let him maneuver into the other lane.

Sorry, Bozo, we're not going to reward your inattention. Why should we? You made the mistake, therefore you suffer the consequences. We don't care how contrite you look or what supplicating gestures you make. That might work elsewhere in life, but not now.

There's one exception to this. If a passenger was giving you directions and didn't tell you about an impending turn until you were right on top of it, then the proper thing is to kick that person out of the car.

Pay, I dare you

A few years ago I got a little time-wasting shareware game for my computer. I used it a bit then forgot about it. I started using it again this year and thought I should pay the $7 the creator wanted, if only to disable the message  that kept popping up begging for payment. But the link didn't work. No way to pay. Evidently the guy went out of business because he didn't get my seven bucks. Sorry.