Yuck

Huge bummer!!!

I've been out of work for two days now.  Fortunately, this is not a permanent situation.  Just waiting for my contract to be signed off on and I'm back to work.  Without further ado:

"What am I suppose to do with my free time during the day?"

I've always felt that if I didn't have to work a real job that I would get so much more done, but I'm starting to think that this is a fallacy.  Taking a day off of work to get caught up on things is quite different than taking a day off for vacation.  With a vacation day you are expected to do nothing all day, but with just a day off you are geared up to do chores or other things that need done.

What happens though, is that you end up doing a couple chores, but then you decide it's time to relax.  This is a bad situation to get into because then you don't finish the other tasks that you set out to do on your day off.  I guess a free day off isn't really a day off after all because you end up not accomplishing anything.

How do you feel about non-vacation days off of works?  Do you think you end up wasting more of the day or are you productive?

The Road Less Traveled

Lately I've noticed people doing U-Turns just about anywhere on our roadways, leading to today's question:

"What ever happened to finding a driveway or a business parking lot to turn around in?"

On more than one occasion I've seen drivers pull U-Turns in the middle of the road.  It's obvious that they are oblivious to any other drivers around them and they seem to not really understand the issues they are creating for other drivers.

My only thought on this, is that it is probably a by-product of GPS.  It's a wonderful device, but I think driver's have gotten overly reliant on GPS.  They are driving along, miss their turn and the GPS devices tells them that they need to do a U-Turn.  At this point the driver stops thinking and is just going along with what the GPS device told them to do.  The driver doesn't think about where the safest place to do a U-Turn is, they just do a U-Turn wherever is convenient for them.

Have any of you noticed more people doing U-Turns in ridiculous places lately?  I'm waiting to see someone pull a U-Turn on I-95 sometime in the near future.  Do you think that GPS has lead to unsafe U-Turn practice or unsafe driving practice in general?

White wall tires!!!!!!

As I was walking through the parking lot at work the other day I got to thinking:

"What ever happened to white wall tires?"

No car in the parking lot had white wall tire and on rare occasion I may see a car with "white walls" while driving around.

I'm not too young to actually remember my parents owning cars that had white walls. I even remember my mother contemplating white walls when purchasing new tires. What I don't know is if white walls were more expensive than tires that didn't have white walls?

What was the allure of white walls? Did they just add a certain look to the car or did they serve a real purpose? When did the white wall fad fade away? I can't seem to put my finger on a time frame when white walls disappeared, but it happened that's for sure.

More Cell Phone Etiquette

I always see people using their cell phones while pumping gas at the gas station and I always look at the sign posted on the gas pump that reads no use of electronic devices around the pumps.  This leads me to ask:

"Do these people think they are above the law?"

I guess the may reason the pumps say not to use electronic devices while pumping gas is on the off chance that an electrical charge sparks the fumes from the gas pump.  The odds of this must be extremely slim or I would see people catching themselves on fire every time I fill up one of my vehicles.

Given that the odds are slim, I can understand that most people are likely to ignore the sign that says not to use electronic devices while pumping gas.  This however, is certainly not fair to the other drivers at the pump.  It's one thing to take responsibility of our own actions with regards to safety, but it is unfair to risk the safety of the other customers at the gas station.

Ultimately, this leads me to go back to my standard cell phone question:

"Do you always have to be on the cell phone?  Can't you just put the phone down for one minute and enjoy life as it should be enjoyed? "

All this being said, have any of you ever witnessed anyone catching on fire or starting a fire from using their cell phone while pumping gas?  Isn't it more of a burden to "always be connected"?  Just put the phone down for one minute and let life be.

And on the 6th day God created Google

Yuck, no question for today.  I decided not to do a question today because I wanted to inform you of the wonders of Google Reader.

If you aren't using Google Reader than you are missing out on a wonderful tool to conveniently read all of your favorite blogs or RSS feeds without visiting all of the sites throughout the day.  All you have to do is subscribe to your favorite blogs or feeds and Google Reader does the leg work for you.  The next time you visit Google Reader any new posts to your favorite blogs or feeds will be displayed for you to read or just skip if you aren't interested in the topic.

So, when you get some time, checkout Google Reader.  Hopefully, you will thank me for it.

Fancy Cat

Every once in a while when I'm outside I have the pleasure of seeing my neighbor wheeling her cats around in a cat stroller.  This can only lead me to say:

"WHAT?"

Let me say it again, what?  What the hell is going on here?  Are we in that messed up of a society that pets deserve this type of pampering?  I guess you could jump to the other end of the spectrum and ask how anyone could be so awful to abuse a pet.

Either way, I've got to think that the concept of cat strollers is way out in left field.

What is your take on treating your pets like "Fancy Cats"?  Have you ever gone out of your way to treat your pets in a special way that is above and beyond the normal animal care?

Car Window Decals (Part 3)

 A lot of my post have to do with driving or vehicles, but when you are on the road for a majority of your life this can be expected.  Once again I have a great question about car window decals.

"What's going on with the "I Love My Wife" car decals?"

I mean seriously, you are using your vehicle as a medium to tell the whole world that you love your wife and you this display is in big bold lettering.  My next question is:

"What did you do to your wife to deserve this kind of punishment?"

Don't get my wrong I love my wife, but I also don't have to put this on my car for the world to know.  I'm guessing that the guy(s) with this display did something horribly wrong to their wife(ves).  My only thought would be that at some point they cheated on their wife and this is what they have to do to make it up to her.  That's probably about the worst thing that you could do to your wife to deserve this type of punishment.

Anyone else have ideas about this strange show of affection.  Would you use  your car as a means to tell the world that you love your wife?  Would you only do it to make up for something terrible that you did to her?  How long would you leave it on your vehicle?

Social Networking Rocks, Maybe?

I'm not sold yet on social networking sites.  Sure I've been trying to blog and I recently got a Facebook account, but I'm not sure I see the allure to social networking.  This leads me to ask:

"Why is social networking so popular?"

About 10 years ago, before social networking was even invented, I thought for sure that the Internet would be the death of the English language and the end of face-to-face communication.  I guess I wasn't exactly right, but social networking has taken it to the next level.

I'm not convinced that I always need to let my friends know what I'm doing at all times or if I care to know what they are doing.  Sure, it's a fun way to check up on people that you haven't heard from in a while, but overall I think I'm missing the point of social networking.

Why do you use social networking sites?  What benefit do you get out of social networking?  Is it safe to say that social networking fuels one's self assurance that they are in fact popular?  Do you ever feel anxiety over your social networking skills or lack there of?

March Madness

March Madness officially kicked off yesterday. For those of you that aren't familiar with March Madness, it's the time of year when 65 NCAA Basketball teams compete for the National Championship and it usually spans a 3 week time period. This leads me to today's question:

"How does anyone put up with us March Madness fanatics?"

During this time honored tradition, anyone who follows college basketball basically becomes completely useless over the course of the tournament. At work, talk quickly turns to last night's games, who you have winning it all, and how are you doing with your bracket picks. This talk could go on for a few hours depending on how many people have gathered around the "water cooler."

I believe some large companies have even analyzed how much time is wasted by their employees during the NCAA tournament. It would be interesting to re-read the data, but I think on average it is believed to be somewhere around 2 hours daily are wasted on filling out brackets and discussing the games.

What is your take on this wonder time of year? Have you filled out your brackets? Who do you have winning it all? Do you think it's best to have this kind of release from work, if only for a short time?

Car Window Decals (Part 2)

"What's going on with the practice of having big white letters on car windshields that designate the make or model of the vehicle?"

To me this is a silly practice.  More often than not I can tell what make or model a vehicle is just by glancing at the vehicle.  If I'm really stumped I'll just look at the back end of the vehicle to read the markings that the manufacturer has put on the vehicle.  I don't need big white letters on the windshield to tell me I'm looking at a "Pontiac", a "Ford", a "Camaro", or a "Firebird."

Now, I know what your saying.  The big white letters are put on by the manufacturer.  That's a fine argument for me, but don't you think that some people have these markings put on after they have purchased the vehicle?

Would you buy a vehicle that had the big white letters on the windshield sporting the make or model?  Would you ever add this nice touch to any car that you purchase?

Two for one day - Thinking about next year.

Back in 1999 everyone was worried about the Y2K bug and I was thinking about how odd it would be to say "2000" instead of something like "I graduated in 96."

Well, once we got into year 2000, this thought faded rather quickly and thoughts of what would we call the other years of the decade soon followed.  Somehow we transitioned nicely into saying things like, "oh went to the Caribbean back in 'oh' 5."  This brings me to my second question of the day:

"How are we going to reference the year 2010?"

Recently I heard someone say that their friend is graduating in 'oh' 10.  Somehow I don't think this is the proper name for 2010, but saying 10 doesn't really make sense either.

How do you think we are going to reference the year 2010?  Does it make sense to say, "I will graduate in 10?"  This to me just sounds silly.  Any ideas?

The Short Bus

While driving into work yesterday I spotted a short school bus, which got me thinking:

"Why is there more than one design for school buses?"

If you aren't familiar with school buses there are at least three different designs.  You have the "standard" school bus, the short bus (which is just a mini "standard" bus), and the "snub" nose school bus.  Who would have thunk that the school bus could have so many different forms?

The major goal of a school bus is to transport kids, which the "standard" bus does to perfection.  In school bus design you can't get much more exciting than that.  Pile a bunch of kids into a hollow tube with wheels and an engine.  Simple, right?  Apparently not as simple as I thought.

Do any of you know of "other" school bus designs, perhaps I missed one?  Is there a need for a handful of different school buses that I just don't know about?  What say you?

Car Window Decals (Part 1)

Every once in a while I'll drive past a car that sports a window decal dedicating the car to a deceased friend or family member. My question is:

"What enticed you to dedicate the purchase of a new vehicle to a deceased individual?"

I mean, you'd think there would be a better way for someone to memorialize a deceased friend or family member than displaying it on a vehicle. I guess maybe the deceased individual really liked cars or really wanted to own the particular car that you purchased, but I have to say this is kinda cheesy.

First off, you are spending at least $100 to $200 for all the lettering and the installation. Then, it's not like you are going to own this vehicle for the rest of your life. This leads me to another question:

"What are you going to do with the memorial once you decide to sell the car?"

I can't imagine wanting to purchase a vehicle that has a memorial on it for "Ed" or "Steve" or "Grandma Mabel". Maybe that's your thing, but not me, kinda creeps me out.

Do any of you have memorials on your vehicles for a deceased family member? Have any of you seen cars with these memorials? What are your thoughts on this practice?

Cell phone etiquette

Whenever I'm in a public restroom and someone in the stall is using their cellphone, I wonder to myself:

"What phone call is so important that you can't wait to leave the restroom to make?"

Then I think I should sit down in the next stall and make the loudest noises possible to make sure that the person on the other end of the phone knows that they are talking to someone who is sitting on the crapper.

I also think about whether or not the person on the other end is truly fooled and doesn't know that they are having a phone conversation with someone that is in a public restroom.

Do any of you have these same thoughts when you encounter this situation? Are any of you guilty of using your cell phone in a public restroom? Did anyone else in the restroom go out of their way to tip off the individual on the other end of the conversation?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

Welcome one and all

Welcome to my new blog "The Nothing Blog".

Previously I was blogging at "I'm Not Dead Yet" and I basically decided that I don't know enough about Columbia to blog daily or even weekly for that matter about all things Columbia.  With this in mind I knew that I still wanted to blog, so I came up with a new idea.

The television show "Seinfeld" was always touted as a show about nothing.  So, I thought, why not a blog about nothing.  Well, not really nothing, but about all the little life mysteries that occur during the course of the day.  Basically, I feel the need to use this blog as a means to ask the questions that others have not consider asking or are too afraid to ask.  All in all, I hope this blog encourages others to ask questions and challenge the "norms" of daily life.