2 posts tagged “laughing”

I haven't written much here in a while and I'm not feeling so inspired, so I'll quote another web page:

"You're running around with your friend, laughing your head off, when suddenly you trip over a rock and hit the ground." (http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/talk/yucky/scab.html).

Read the kids article about platelets and scabs if you want, but be sure to say the word "scab" repeatedly.  Doesn't it drop out of your mouth and into the air nicely?

Yes.  I still have the urge to rip healing scabs off cause they're stiff and itchy.  Maybe I'm still a kid with no self control, though I've managed to prevent myself from indulging so far.

The Day After Thanksgiving (Black Friday) is Hell, Even if You Don't Go Shopping

No, I didn't go shopping (except to get a couple things at Longs, but that doesn't really count, does it).  I decided to go visit someplace green, leafy and far from my ugly neighborhood.  I went to the Presidio.  Getting there was actually almost not too bad.  But coming back?  The trip from the Palace of Fine Arts to Washington Square (down the hill from Coit Tower) took 40 minutes and we were stuck in traffic jam traffic.  Finally the bus driver announced that he thought it would be faster to get out and walk to Market Street, but people could stay on the bus if they wanted to.  I got out and walked.  Actually, not that big of a deal since it was only like a 25 minute walk to Market Street.  It's just annoying that the shopping frenzy along with the "Critical Mass" biker morons disrupted things so much.

I don't even own a car and my life was disrupted by those soon to be sterile biker bastards.  Maybe one of these days one of them will get run over by a car and the ambulance won't be able to get them to the hospital in time because the other biker morons have managed to create an impassible traffic jam.  Yes, I'm evil.  Oh and did I mention I about got hit by a biker that was running a red light on the street I was crossing?  Bikers want to be given special privileges but insist on acting like spoiled brats.  And then there was the biker riding on the wrong side of the street last weekend. These aren't kids, either, they all looked old enough to drink.  I know a lot of drivers are assholes, but bikers are often just as bad, but they just think they can act like assholes since they're self-righteously saving the earth while being asshats.

The Joy of Teens

Incident 1: self-describing ghetto teens on the bus

There was a group of kids on the bus behind me that started a conversation with some random guy about thanksgiving.  He said he cooked a 24-pound turkey.  One of the girls asked about his girlfriend.  He said he didn't have a girlfriend and liked men.  They had a long conversation about how he should visit different places in Oakland.

One of them "Have you been to the ghetto?"
Gay guy: "I've been downtown, I've been to 65th st"  (some other places)
kid: "Have you been to international"
guy: "huh?"
kid: "International Blvd"
guy: "yeah, I sorta know where that is."
kid: "You should go there sometime."
(There was some other stuff in there implying that it was their neighborhood and ghetto.  I wish I had a recording of this conversation it was quite weird.)

Other conversations they had.  One of their friends who was pretending to be pregnant to screw with people's minds.  The first time they smoked dope (8 years old was the youngest).  Though they were a pretty friendly bunch (at least to gay guys who cooked 24-pound turkeys).  I actually felt sort of bad for them, being teen-agers and all.

Incident 2: The nerdy kid asking for money for food

Walking back at around Broadway and Columbus I was waiting at a corner for a light.  This kid who looked like he was about 12 and sort of nerdy asked me for money for food.  It was actually very weird since I usually don't get asked for money by nerdy-looking kids.  Plus he was way younger than the usual rebel kids that want money. He seemed sort of embarrassed to ask (not like the grimy, hipster, pierced, Orinda and Concord kids you see wandering Telegraph and demanding your money).  He claimed he usually didn't ask for money and I actually sort of believed him.  I gave him a pocket full of change (mostly nickels, dimes and pennies so it probably wasn't much more than a dollar if that). I actually might have given him a couple singles in addition so he could afford a slice of Blondie's or a cheap burger or something, but I only had "yuppie food stamps" in my pocket from the ATM in paper form.  I felt a bit guilty for not giving him a bit more.  Either he really did need some money or he was a pretty good scam artist.

Afterwards I wondered what was he doing wandering around San Francisco alone in the dark?  I mean when I was his age there is no way in hell my parents would've let me wander a strange city alone.  I mean maybe I could've gone out by myself in my own neighborhood or home town.  I don't know, maybe he lives in San Francisco, but I didn't get the San Francisco vibe from him.  He seemed very NOT from San Francisco to me.  There were all kinds of questions I had when I thought about it. Was he bumming while others were shopping?  Was he the newest runaway in the city? Was he scrounging money while his mom applied to work in a strip club?  I have to wonder these things.

What do old Chinese men laugh about in the back of Muni busses?

I became curious since there were two older Chinese men on the back of the #1 bus while I was going to The Presidio.  They were talking fast and furiously and laughing a whole lot.  They were evidently telling various anecdotes and laughing through each story.  I don't know why it struck me as unusual.  Maybe I'm just used to the ancient worn-down looking Chinese men on the Chinatown busses who seem like laughing is the furthest thing from their experience.  The other thing that struck me as odd is that they seem to be laughing in a very American way.  I don't know why it struck me that way, but it did.  I mean their laughing tonalities were very American even though they were speaking Chinese furiously. It seems like different cultures laugh differently, but they were laughing just the way that chummy English-speakers of their same age might laugh. I don't know, maybe all cultures laugh exactly the same way and it's only me who thinks that different cultures laugh differently.

I Hate Circuit City

They sent me a letter rejecting my rebate because they have a fun little trick.  They put up a rebate for one week (say Sun 10/21/2006 thru Sat 10/28/2006) and then put the exact same rebate up again for the next week (Sun 10/29/2006 thru Sun 11/5/2006).  The only difference in the two rebates is that they change the dates in super tiny print at the bottom of the form.

Same item, same amount, form with one piece of text changed. Then they make it so that the item links to the current rebate where you go to get your rebate form on the site on Sunday after buying it on Saturday.  Are you getting the idea here? (hint: you fill out the exact same rebate only for the week after you bought it).  Luckily I kept scans of all my forms and UPC symbols and everything.  I got the fun of writing nasty letters and resubmititng everything again.  If they don't give it to me, then maybe the FTC will care.  I doubt it, but the FTC did seem to care when CompUSA kept pulling rebate shenanigans.