South Of Someplace

Monday, December 7, 2015

Stupid Ideas

As we age, we lose patience with stupid ideas. This is unfortunate, because people keep thinking up new ones.

Friday, December 4, 2015

I never met Scott Weiland. I'm sad to say that I never saw him perform live. But I have spent countless hours listening to the music that he wrote and recorded with Stone Temple Pilots, amazing, unpredictable, sometimes challenging music that was always fresh, deeply felt, and never, ever marred by clichés or an adherence to trends.

Every minute listening to Weiland's music was a treasure. His songwriting was as impactful for its inventiveness as for its emotional gravity. He marched to his own drummer, in the words of Thoreau, and he did it beautifully.

I winced each time I saw one of those headlines: Scott Weiland arrested on drug charges. I feared that one day the news would be worse.

We lost Scott last night. We lost his person. We lost his talent. But we'll never lose his soul. It pours out of the bits and bytes burned into the CDs that he recorded as a solo artist and with his bands Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Underground.

"Leaving on a southern train

Only yesterday, you lied

Promises of what I seemed to be

Only watched the time

Go by"

Scott Weiland was 48.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Good Deeds and Postal Codes

Good deed for the day: my not terribly fluent linguistic skills came in handy this morning as I helped a couple of tourists from Spain buy their first Metro Card for the Subway.

Why is it that European credit cards never work in automated kiosks in the US (and vice versa)? The machine asked for a ZIP Code, which you're supposed to enter on a numeric key pad. Other countries don't have ZIP Codes. They have Postal Codes, and in many cases they contain letters as well as numbers. Luckily, the couple had a $20 bill. It's much easier to pay in cash!

Friday, November 27, 2015

Ultimate Black Friday Savings

Here's the best way to save money on Black Friday: Buy nothing.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

At The Intersection Of Fate And Absurdity

It seemed like a straightforward plan.

1 - Leave work a little early (shouldn't be an issue on the week of a major holiday).

2 - Pick up a rental car for the weekend.

3 - Stop by a favorite restaurant for a quick dinner.

4 - Park the car in a garage where I can retrieve it when I'm packed and ready.

5 - Catch a train back home.

6 - Use the rest of the evening to take care of trip preparations.

Let's see how it worked out.

A. At the office, my expensive computer glasses decide to self-destruct.

B. The trip to the drugstore to buy replacement reading glasses causes me to be late to an important meeting.

C. People keep asking me for details about a meeting that is supposed to occur at 8 am tomorrow. The guy who's supposed to set it up procrastinates.

D. As I'm getting ready to leave the office, Meeting Procrastinator Guy makes an urgent request for information. This yields an hour delay in my schedule.

E. As I leave the office, I see one of my colleagues limping. She has injured her ankle and has to go somewhere for an emergency MRI.

F. When I get to the rental agency, they have no cars left in the size that I requested. They take me to another office where they have a car with the specifications.

G. The car smells strongly of tobacco smoke. And it's almost out of gas.

H. I drive around with my windows down. I'm looking for gas stations and trying to air out the car.

I. The two nearest gas stations are closed. Permanently closed, as in no longer gas stations.

J. The restaurant that I wanted to visit is closed for renovations. I go to a pizza place instead.

K. I get to the train station twelve minutes before the train arrives. It should be plenty of time to park, but a massive traffic jam in the pick up and drop off area prevents me from entering the garage.

L. I watch my train go by - right on time! - as I remain idling in my car.

M. I finally get into the garage and park the car. The next train isn't due for nearly an hour, so I relax and listen to music.

N. On the way to the train, I just need to stop by the rest room. Unfortunately, another train has just let out, and now the men's room is mobbed.

O. Concerned that I'll miss the train, I race up to the platform. An announcement indicates that this train is running ten minutes behind schedule. (If the last train had run late, I might have CAUGHT it.)

If I'm arrested for assault, destruction of property, or pyromania in the next 24 hours, you'll know why.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Make A Mistake - Change Your Life

Try something. Make a mistake. Mistakes provide information. Information will help you to do better when you try again.

If you fear mistakes, you won't let yourself try. When you don't try, you don't learn. When you don't learn, you don't get very far. Fear wins out. Opportunities pass you by.

Give yourself permission to make a mistake, to make a bunch of mistakes, to goof up, to fall on your face, to suck, to look stupid, to endure rejection and even ridicule. Mistakes are painful, but they are also powerful. Inaction is paralyzing. We don't get anywhere by standing still.

Conclusion: Detroit has room for 1,150,000 refugees.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Refugee Dilemma

Think of the dilemma facing the refugees who might be relocated to the USA. They can try to survive in a violent country full of hard liners with guns. Or they can just stay in Syria.