"Rude Food" and Too Many Choices
For the inner twelve year old within us all, this is an old site I dug up out of bookmarks I imported from the Win98: Rude Food.
It hasn't been updated since 2004, but cheap larfs are hard to find sometimes.
In other news, I had the mother of all headaches today. The kind where you think you might actually throw up. I am loathe to call it a migraine, as I had no light sensitivity nor did I see flashing lights or other happy fun migraine symptoms, but I was hating life and wanting to yank my eyes out it hurt so much. I suspect some Simply Limeade, as I like it but it doesn't like me much. I can have a glass or two without getting a headache, but if I go on a tear and have a lot, I seem to get a headache later. The tipping point is not well-defined, alas, so occasionally I try to enjoy the limealiciousness. Then I pay, in spades. OUCH.
On the other hand, it could just be garden variety stress. I have so much to do and no time to do it. I still need to replace my lightning-smote (lightning-smitten?) appliances, for instance. Every so often I go online and try to find consumer reviews and so on, and end up getting overwhelmed by choice.
This seems to be a constant stressor in this country. You can't just go into a grocery store and pick up a tube of toothpaste without being faced with an entire aisle of choices. Tartar control? Sensitive tooth formula? Whitening? Vanilla, cinnamon, citrus, bubblegum or (a wide variety of) mint? Pump, squeeze bottle, or tube? Small, medium, or large? Store brand? On sale? Rebate coupon? Old package art or new package art? Flip top or screw-off top? I just want clean teeth. Sheesh. Choice sounds like a great thing, and competition in business is wonderful, but at some point all the choices are just too much to bother with.
I get annoyed with all the choices available, and partially it is because customer service and planned obsolescence are the pits. I want to buy stuff that will not need to be upgraded or replaced for a long time, because I'm fairly tight with a buck, at least when it comes to big ticket purchases, and don't actually enjoy a prolonged bargain hunt. When it is just one item, I thrive on the challenge for a while, but replacing five or six big ticket things just irks me. Also, items that are sold "broken" or "impaired," like most DVD players, also bug me. Technically, almost every DVD is capable of reading media from all regions. Manufacturers deliberately disable all-region capability on most DVDs. Supposedly this is to keep Americans, for example, from buying much cheaper movies from another region like China (even though they are probably bootlegged and subtitled in Chinese, they are also dirt cheap). Some cheap DVDs don't block other regions, and all-region DVDs are not uncommon, but unless you want to poke around online for "converting your DVD player to an all-region DVD player" tips and codes, risk voiding your warranty and/or doing it wrong and messing up your machine, it's a hassle.
When I bought my stereo system, it was not impossible to find an all-in-one system that was of decent quality. It wasn't audiophile quality, per se, but it was quite good and had great sound. I had to buy the turntable separately even then, but it was an option offered by the manufacturer. You could buy the all-in-one with or without, and it included a phono jack. Now there are a bajillion CD-only systems, and another kajillion iPod-cradle speaker systems, and a handful of CD / radio combinations, but getting a true all-in-one with a turntable is apparently impossible, unless you want a crappy Emerson with crappy sound and shitty needles. So I'll need to buy a turntable separately. Not a big issue, right? Well, I have to decide between direct drive and belt drive (I prefer direct drive) and make sure I can find replacement needles / cartridges (I like to buy a few spares in advance to have them on hand when I buy a new system) and whether I want 2, 3 or 4 speeds (I only actually have vinyl that requires 3 speeds (33 1/3rds, 45s, and a handful of 78s) and do not own and have never seen anything that requires the occasional fourth speed I see, 16), whether I want the ability to spin vinyl in reverse (now I can hear all those awesome satanic subliminal messages that don't really exist!), and whether the needle / tone arm can be dropped automagically or only by hand, and on and on. This is fucking complicated.
I suspect I will have to go to a Best Buy or Circuit City and buy each farking component individually. I still use a dual cassette system to record cassettes for preview in my car. My MP3 player works with an existing cassette-shaped adaptor, even. I don't have to worry about carrying CDs around in my car (tried that in Atlanta and had $1000 worth of CDs stolen out of my locked car when it was left unattended for a ten minute period as I was unloading crap after spending Christmas with my family, so, for Christmas, I got a slit in my convertible roof and was left with a bunch of empty CD cases...some kind friends dubbed the ones that were actually replaceable, but it still pissed me off). When I buy my next car, it may have CD capability, but I doubt I will give up the cassette feature. I can be sure no one will ever steal them!
I also like to monkey around with balance and tone and whatnot, especially if I occasionally sit near one speaker and then work near another. If I can move the majority of the sound to the far speaker, it fools the brain into hearing true stereo, even if the sound would be unbalanced if you were sitting in the ideal sweet spot midway between the speakers. Some media I own needs the bass tweaked up or down. I like being able to drop vocals out or pull them into the foreground. My dead stereo could do most of that. I could compensate for fuzzy live music recordings, pull good sound off an old cassette, and drop hiss out of most ancient vinyl (mine sounds great, but some donations I have received were not treated very well).
I prefer a five CD carousel that allows me to shuffle, repeat a track with a button press (good for getting an earworm out of your system) and it has to accept homeburned media because a lot of submissions I get for the radio show are homeburned. I've even gotten MP3s thrown onto a data disc. The old stereo couldn't handle the data disc, of course, but it was pretty good about homeburned media. Two of the decks at the studio are cranky about homeburned items and one takes almost anything, even scratched CDs. (I should see if it is available for sale at a store near me in a five-CD model, it's pretty impressive.)
As for a radio tuner, you can now get them with the capability to pick up XM and satellite radio. One day I may want to do that. For now, I am disgusted with the options in Savannah and I never listen to commercial radio here. I didn't listen much in Atlanta, either, except to the college radio stations. Even then, it's been about eleven or twelve years since I listened to radio even semi-regularly. Clear Channel Communications and Susquehanna SUCK. Internet radio can be great, but I'm on dialup at home, and usually too busy when at school to tune in WOXY or similar stations.
TOO MANY CHOICES. And not one electronics site online has specified whether their systems or components include a phono jack for turntables. VITAL information for me, and not one mention anywhere.
VCR / DVD-r combos are fairly straightforward. I just need to buy one that works and decide if up-conversion is important to me, and do I want HD-DVD or Blu-ray (I have that on my laptop and am angry with Sony at the moment due to SecuROM issues and other things, so I don't really want Blu-Ray on another system, no) and blah blah blah. However, there do not seem to be any that are all-region, so if I want that, I'll need a separate all-region DVD player. Another plug to futz with. Still, this is going to be the easy purchase. Of course, I have no use for a VCR / DVD-r until I have a TV set to plug it into.
TV sets are another headache. All I know at this point is that I'm leaning towards an LCD as opposed to a plasma or old-fashioned heavy CRT-type tube, and I'd like the option to mount it on a wall later. Beyond that, the choices are endless. What size? What manufacturer? What model? What pixel response rate? Does it have a 120Hz refresh rate? Should it function as a computer screen, too? Is the remote a universal remote? Does the TV have decent built-in speakers or do I want to spend another mint on a Home Theatre system? (I certainly don't need or want one right now, but what about when I move?) Does it allow PIP (or come with it)? Does it have closed captioning on mute (or at all)? Do I want an LED backlight? Does it accept two-way cable cards? What's HDMI 1.3 mean to me? 1080i or 1080p, what's the difference? Am I going to want to show home video or digipix on the screen? (With a new niece, I probably will.)
I'm also hoping to upgrade my ancient and crappy mobile phone. After months of dithering, I'm pretty sold on a Motorola RAZR2 V9m. It seems to be popular enough that I should be able to get accessories for it if I need them, and finding service for it should it go tits up should also be fairly simple. Lastly, it seems popular enough that it probably won't be obsolete in a matter of weeks. One can only hope. The aspects that are most important to me, namely service, fewer dropped calls, good clear sound, and voice recognition/speaker phone are all present. As far as camera capability and music player capability, I care less about those, but if a phone has them, I want them to work well. I already have a digicam and an MP3 player, so I don't NEED a phone that does triple duty, but if it insists on having those functions, they better work okay. Still, the important thing is that the phone works. My current phone drops calls, wants to roam constantly, gets shitty reception, doesn't alert me if I have a voicemail, doesn't ring most of the time when I have a call, and the charger cord jack is loose now. Bleah. It annoys other more than it annoys me, and I'm quite annoyed! I need it to communicate with my professors and peers and family, and in case of emergency. If it rarely gets service (even when it should!) and has shitty reception / call quality and drops calls, it does me no good if I have an emergency. I downloaded the Rarz2 manual and it seems to have the features I need, along with some bells and whistles I don't need or want, but won't be paying for. I don't mess with text messages, for instance. Maybe if I was dating someone who did mess about with those I'd change my mind, but none of my friends bother with them. SCAD does have a text message alert system, though, and I can't receive them thanks to my ancient technology.
I'm also looking at realtor websites. Not this week, mind you, as I have enough choices to stew over, but every few weeks or so I get curious and go look. Talk about choices! But, hey, I know what "three bedrooms, two bathrooms" means. No translation required, and no need for me to worry that bathrooms or bedrooms will go out of style in five years when "Better Bedroom 2.0" or "eXtreemBATH!!(einz!)" is released that makes plain ol' bedroom and bathroom obsolete. They are boxes you put furniture and plumbing into, and your choices may be endless, but the basic structure remains fairly standard. You may have no, one, or several windows. You may have a "terlet" and a shower, just a toilet, or a toilet and a shower/bath and dual sinks. They can be square or shaped funny. But they are still "bedroom" and "bathroom," and I appreciate that simplicity. In fact, I apparently have a rather british sensibility when it comes to houses and cars. Too much space makes me itchy. I need just enough space to live in and hold my stuff. I don't want to have a lot of empty space that seems to need furniture to fill it (and takes more time to clean). I don't like or want a huge vehicle that costs the world to fill up with gasoline. A cozy little townhouse or condo and a minimal yard (I like trees but am not excited about mowing grass) and a small car that gets me from point A to point B is all I want or need. No McMansions or Hummers for me!
It's all about nesting, making a better cave to retreat to, with conveniences that work, a cozy bed with fluffy pillows and blankets, enough storage space, and a refrigerator/freezer and cabinets that are full of food. Then, bring on the feng shui and candles! Heh. It's easier to face the world on a daily basis when you know you can recuperate at home after dealing with rush hour and mobs of strangers and maybe a crappy day at work. I am persnickety enough about my belongings to want what I want, but then I am happy with my choices and resist upgrading them or moving them around. There was an episode on The Practice (I think) about two neighbors who liked each other but had a conflict over how the female neighbor had to start her day. He liked to sit quietly and read the paper and drink some coffee. The female neighbor, conversely, felt the need to warm up her vocal chords and belt out "One Moment In Time" by Whitney Houston every single morning. Without fail. At top volume. The male neighbor argued that he had the right to the quiet enjoyment of his home. The legal wrangling went back and forth, and the women won the right to annoy her neighbor with her singing because she had some psychological issues that were alieviated in some mysterious way by singing the same song every morning. The lawyer argued that we as a society are too isolated and lonely these days, and that hearing our neighbors and knowing them better was a good thing. Oh really? If the female neighbor had a dog that whined and barked for ten minutes every morning, would the case have ended the same way? I don't want to hear my neighbors on a daily basis, sorry, and if that makes me a misanthrope, I can live with that. I'd want to kill the Whitney Houston fan, no matter how nice she was, if she tormented me every damn morning. Unacceptable.
Right now I live in a very friendly neighborhood. I can go outside and wave to the neighbors or sit on their porches with them and be social. There's a strong Neighborhood Watch in effect, and the occasional tiny little petty crime waves that trickle over into our 'hood are quickly resolved. The downside is that everyone knows your business and your comings and goings. On the whole, though, the illusion of safety (no strangers are going to cruise around in unknown cars casing houses or wander through your yard, and nothing untoward will happen without a neighbor spotting and reporting it, and you're unlikely to fall and break your neck and die only to be discovered when you have decomposed into muck...someone would notice you hadn't checked your mail in a few days or moved your car(s) and initiate an investigation) is worth a little nosiness. And even though I'm not naturally sociable or extroverted, I occasionally enjoy having a conversation with my neighbors. If I'm lucky, I'll find a similar neighborhood back in Atlanta: settled enough that neighbors are somewhat aware of what's normal and what's not and wave at each other, but not so super-friendly that I'm constantly being barraged with drop-bys, neighbors who know all my personal business and who I've had over for a visit and kids wanting to sell me cookies and giftwrap. I already have friends to tell my business to (or not) as I please.
When I finally have to make a choice about where to live, it will be more of those choices, and the quality of living and intrusive but possibly friendly versus respectful of privacy but possibly unpleasant neighborhood scale is an unknown factor. Then there's the conservative / yard art / NASCAR and Calvin peeing / giant Nativity scenes / six vehicles of unusual size parked all over the yard and along the curbs / super-religious / pro-war neighbors versus liberal / organic gardens and compost piles / obscure indie bands and pro-hemp stickers / recycling bins / bikes and one car that is either a hybrid or set up to run off of french fry grease / New Age-y / peacenik neighbors scale. I prefer the latter. They tend to be artistic (or amenable to artists) and harmlessly eccentric (if a bit fond of windchimes) rather than aggressively in your face and hanging flags and/or making toilet bowl grottoes. Yeah, I'm exaggerating a wee bit. :) And here I thought shopping for a new car was a pain in the butt. At least I understand 90% of the choices I am being asked to make and am familiar with the manufacturers! (And I know not to buy a "KB home", whatever that is. Apparently they are cheap, but they also use very cheap materials and require upgrades that negate any savings. I'm not planning on buying a brand new house, but it's still nice to know when looking.Thank you, Internet!)
Add that to school stress and family stress and household stress and I suppose it is the lesser of all evils. When I finally make the decisions, I can at least afford to purchase them. Two years ago, I'd be shit out of luck in that department.
The ferret has been moody lately. I think it is the changing seasons and the fact that he's getting old and cranky. He still bounces around "like a retarded kitten" (according to the Fat Obstreperous Jerk at MATY), but his bounce lacks the usual spunk and verve. We all have to get old sometime, but I'm not ready for him to be old. He's a good boy. I keep debating about getting another ferret to keep him company, and/or a cat. I am pretty sure I don't want to uproot a cat when I move sometime next year (if all goes as planned, anyway), but caged animals like ferrets are pretty good about handling moves.
It hasn't been updated since 2004, but cheap larfs are hard to find sometimes.
In other news, I had the mother of all headaches today. The kind where you think you might actually throw up. I am loathe to call it a migraine, as I had no light sensitivity nor did I see flashing lights or other happy fun migraine symptoms, but I was hating life and wanting to yank my eyes out it hurt so much. I suspect some Simply Limeade, as I like it but it doesn't like me much. I can have a glass or two without getting a headache, but if I go on a tear and have a lot, I seem to get a headache later. The tipping point is not well-defined, alas, so occasionally I try to enjoy the limealiciousness. Then I pay, in spades. OUCH.
On the other hand, it could just be garden variety stress. I have so much to do and no time to do it. I still need to replace my lightning-smote (lightning-smitten?) appliances, for instance. Every so often I go online and try to find consumer reviews and so on, and end up getting overwhelmed by choice.
This seems to be a constant stressor in this country. You can't just go into a grocery store and pick up a tube of toothpaste without being faced with an entire aisle of choices. Tartar control? Sensitive tooth formula? Whitening? Vanilla, cinnamon, citrus, bubblegum or (a wide variety of) mint? Pump, squeeze bottle, or tube? Small, medium, or large? Store brand? On sale? Rebate coupon? Old package art or new package art? Flip top or screw-off top? I just want clean teeth. Sheesh. Choice sounds like a great thing, and competition in business is wonderful, but at some point all the choices are just too much to bother with.
I get annoyed with all the choices available, and partially it is because customer service and planned obsolescence are the pits. I want to buy stuff that will not need to be upgraded or replaced for a long time, because I'm fairly tight with a buck, at least when it comes to big ticket purchases, and don't actually enjoy a prolonged bargain hunt. When it is just one item, I thrive on the challenge for a while, but replacing five or six big ticket things just irks me. Also, items that are sold "broken" or "impaired," like most DVD players, also bug me. Technically, almost every DVD is capable of reading media from all regions. Manufacturers deliberately disable all-region capability on most DVDs. Supposedly this is to keep Americans, for example, from buying much cheaper movies from another region like China (even though they are probably bootlegged and subtitled in Chinese, they are also dirt cheap). Some cheap DVDs don't block other regions, and all-region DVDs are not uncommon, but unless you want to poke around online for "converting your DVD player to an all-region DVD player" tips and codes, risk voiding your warranty and/or doing it wrong and messing up your machine, it's a hassle.
When I bought my stereo system, it was not impossible to find an all-in-one system that was of decent quality. It wasn't audiophile quality, per se, but it was quite good and had great sound. I had to buy the turntable separately even then, but it was an option offered by the manufacturer. You could buy the all-in-one with or without, and it included a phono jack. Now there are a bajillion CD-only systems, and another kajillion iPod-cradle speaker systems, and a handful of CD / radio combinations, but getting a true all-in-one with a turntable is apparently impossible, unless you want a crappy Emerson with crappy sound and shitty needles. So I'll need to buy a turntable separately. Not a big issue, right? Well, I have to decide between direct drive and belt drive (I prefer direct drive) and make sure I can find replacement needles / cartridges (I like to buy a few spares in advance to have them on hand when I buy a new system) and whether I want 2, 3 or 4 speeds (I only actually have vinyl that requires 3 speeds (33 1/3rds, 45s, and a handful of 78s) and do not own and have never seen anything that requires the occasional fourth speed I see, 16), whether I want the ability to spin vinyl in reverse (now I can hear all those awesome satanic subliminal messages that don't really exist!), and whether the needle / tone arm can be dropped automagically or only by hand, and on and on. This is fucking complicated.
I suspect I will have to go to a Best Buy or Circuit City and buy each farking component individually. I still use a dual cassette system to record cassettes for preview in my car. My MP3 player works with an existing cassette-shaped adaptor, even. I don't have to worry about carrying CDs around in my car (tried that in Atlanta and had $1000 worth of CDs stolen out of my locked car when it was left unattended for a ten minute period as I was unloading crap after spending Christmas with my family, so, for Christmas, I got a slit in my convertible roof and was left with a bunch of empty CD cases...some kind friends dubbed the ones that were actually replaceable, but it still pissed me off). When I buy my next car, it may have CD capability, but I doubt I will give up the cassette feature. I can be sure no one will ever steal them!
I also like to monkey around with balance and tone and whatnot, especially if I occasionally sit near one speaker and then work near another. If I can move the majority of the sound to the far speaker, it fools the brain into hearing true stereo, even if the sound would be unbalanced if you were sitting in the ideal sweet spot midway between the speakers. Some media I own needs the bass tweaked up or down. I like being able to drop vocals out or pull them into the foreground. My dead stereo could do most of that. I could compensate for fuzzy live music recordings, pull good sound off an old cassette, and drop hiss out of most ancient vinyl (mine sounds great, but some donations I have received were not treated very well).
I prefer a five CD carousel that allows me to shuffle, repeat a track with a button press (good for getting an earworm out of your system) and it has to accept homeburned media because a lot of submissions I get for the radio show are homeburned. I've even gotten MP3s thrown onto a data disc. The old stereo couldn't handle the data disc, of course, but it was pretty good about homeburned media. Two of the decks at the studio are cranky about homeburned items and one takes almost anything, even scratched CDs. (I should see if it is available for sale at a store near me in a five-CD model, it's pretty impressive.)
As for a radio tuner, you can now get them with the capability to pick up XM and satellite radio. One day I may want to do that. For now, I am disgusted with the options in Savannah and I never listen to commercial radio here. I didn't listen much in Atlanta, either, except to the college radio stations. Even then, it's been about eleven or twelve years since I listened to radio even semi-regularly. Clear Channel Communications and Susquehanna SUCK. Internet radio can be great, but I'm on dialup at home, and usually too busy when at school to tune in WOXY or similar stations.
TOO MANY CHOICES. And not one electronics site online has specified whether their systems or components include a phono jack for turntables. VITAL information for me, and not one mention anywhere.
VCR / DVD-r combos are fairly straightforward. I just need to buy one that works and decide if up-conversion is important to me, and do I want HD-DVD or Blu-ray (I have that on my laptop and am angry with Sony at the moment due to SecuROM issues and other things, so I don't really want Blu-Ray on another system, no) and blah blah blah. However, there do not seem to be any that are all-region, so if I want that, I'll need a separate all-region DVD player. Another plug to futz with. Still, this is going to be the easy purchase. Of course, I have no use for a VCR / DVD-r until I have a TV set to plug it into.
TV sets are another headache. All I know at this point is that I'm leaning towards an LCD as opposed to a plasma or old-fashioned heavy CRT-type tube, and I'd like the option to mount it on a wall later. Beyond that, the choices are endless. What size? What manufacturer? What model? What pixel response rate? Does it have a 120Hz refresh rate? Should it function as a computer screen, too? Is the remote a universal remote? Does the TV have decent built-in speakers or do I want to spend another mint on a Home Theatre system? (I certainly don't need or want one right now, but what about when I move?) Does it allow PIP (or come with it)? Does it have closed captioning on mute (or at all)? Do I want an LED backlight? Does it accept two-way cable cards? What's HDMI 1.3 mean to me? 1080i or 1080p, what's the difference? Am I going to want to show home video or digipix on the screen? (With a new niece, I probably will.)
I'm also hoping to upgrade my ancient and crappy mobile phone. After months of dithering, I'm pretty sold on a Motorola RAZR2 V9m. It seems to be popular enough that I should be able to get accessories for it if I need them, and finding service for it should it go tits up should also be fairly simple. Lastly, it seems popular enough that it probably won't be obsolete in a matter of weeks. One can only hope. The aspects that are most important to me, namely service, fewer dropped calls, good clear sound, and voice recognition/speaker phone are all present. As far as camera capability and music player capability, I care less about those, but if a phone has them, I want them to work well. I already have a digicam and an MP3 player, so I don't NEED a phone that does triple duty, but if it insists on having those functions, they better work okay. Still, the important thing is that the phone works. My current phone drops calls, wants to roam constantly, gets shitty reception, doesn't alert me if I have a voicemail, doesn't ring most of the time when I have a call, and the charger cord jack is loose now. Bleah. It annoys other more than it annoys me, and I'm quite annoyed! I need it to communicate with my professors and peers and family, and in case of emergency. If it rarely gets service (even when it should!) and has shitty reception / call quality and drops calls, it does me no good if I have an emergency. I downloaded the Rarz2 manual and it seems to have the features I need, along with some bells and whistles I don't need or want, but won't be paying for. I don't mess with text messages, for instance. Maybe if I was dating someone who did mess about with those I'd change my mind, but none of my friends bother with them. SCAD does have a text message alert system, though, and I can't receive them thanks to my ancient technology.
I'm also looking at realtor websites. Not this week, mind you, as I have enough choices to stew over, but every few weeks or so I get curious and go look. Talk about choices! But, hey, I know what "three bedrooms, two bathrooms" means. No translation required, and no need for me to worry that bathrooms or bedrooms will go out of style in five years when "Better Bedroom 2.0" or "eXtreemBATH!!(einz!)" is released that makes plain ol' bedroom and bathroom obsolete. They are boxes you put furniture and plumbing into, and your choices may be endless, but the basic structure remains fairly standard. You may have no, one, or several windows. You may have a "terlet" and a shower, just a toilet, or a toilet and a shower/bath and dual sinks. They can be square or shaped funny. But they are still "bedroom" and "bathroom," and I appreciate that simplicity. In fact, I apparently have a rather british sensibility when it comes to houses and cars. Too much space makes me itchy. I need just enough space to live in and hold my stuff. I don't want to have a lot of empty space that seems to need furniture to fill it (and takes more time to clean). I don't like or want a huge vehicle that costs the world to fill up with gasoline. A cozy little townhouse or condo and a minimal yard (I like trees but am not excited about mowing grass) and a small car that gets me from point A to point B is all I want or need. No McMansions or Hummers for me!
It's all about nesting, making a better cave to retreat to, with conveniences that work, a cozy bed with fluffy pillows and blankets, enough storage space, and a refrigerator/freezer and cabinets that are full of food. Then, bring on the feng shui and candles! Heh. It's easier to face the world on a daily basis when you know you can recuperate at home after dealing with rush hour and mobs of strangers and maybe a crappy day at work. I am persnickety enough about my belongings to want what I want, but then I am happy with my choices and resist upgrading them or moving them around. There was an episode on The Practice (I think) about two neighbors who liked each other but had a conflict over how the female neighbor had to start her day. He liked to sit quietly and read the paper and drink some coffee. The female neighbor, conversely, felt the need to warm up her vocal chords and belt out "One Moment In Time" by Whitney Houston every single morning. Without fail. At top volume. The male neighbor argued that he had the right to the quiet enjoyment of his home. The legal wrangling went back and forth, and the women won the right to annoy her neighbor with her singing because she had some psychological issues that were alieviated in some mysterious way by singing the same song every morning. The lawyer argued that we as a society are too isolated and lonely these days, and that hearing our neighbors and knowing them better was a good thing. Oh really? If the female neighbor had a dog that whined and barked for ten minutes every morning, would the case have ended the same way? I don't want to hear my neighbors on a daily basis, sorry, and if that makes me a misanthrope, I can live with that. I'd want to kill the Whitney Houston fan, no matter how nice she was, if she tormented me every damn morning. Unacceptable.
Right now I live in a very friendly neighborhood. I can go outside and wave to the neighbors or sit on their porches with them and be social. There's a strong Neighborhood Watch in effect, and the occasional tiny little petty crime waves that trickle over into our 'hood are quickly resolved. The downside is that everyone knows your business and your comings and goings. On the whole, though, the illusion of safety (no strangers are going to cruise around in unknown cars casing houses or wander through your yard, and nothing untoward will happen without a neighbor spotting and reporting it, and you're unlikely to fall and break your neck and die only to be discovered when you have decomposed into muck...someone would notice you hadn't checked your mail in a few days or moved your car(s) and initiate an investigation) is worth a little nosiness. And even though I'm not naturally sociable or extroverted, I occasionally enjoy having a conversation with my neighbors. If I'm lucky, I'll find a similar neighborhood back in Atlanta: settled enough that neighbors are somewhat aware of what's normal and what's not and wave at each other, but not so super-friendly that I'm constantly being barraged with drop-bys, neighbors who know all my personal business and who I've had over for a visit and kids wanting to sell me cookies and giftwrap. I already have friends to tell my business to (or not) as I please.
When I finally have to make a choice about where to live, it will be more of those choices, and the quality of living and intrusive but possibly friendly versus respectful of privacy but possibly unpleasant neighborhood scale is an unknown factor. Then there's the conservative / yard art / NASCAR and Calvin peeing / giant Nativity scenes / six vehicles of unusual size parked all over the yard and along the curbs / super-religious / pro-war neighbors versus liberal / organic gardens and compost piles / obscure indie bands and pro-hemp stickers / recycling bins / bikes and one car that is either a hybrid or set up to run off of french fry grease / New Age-y / peacenik neighbors scale. I prefer the latter. They tend to be artistic (or amenable to artists) and harmlessly eccentric (if a bit fond of windchimes) rather than aggressively in your face and hanging flags and/or making toilet bowl grottoes. Yeah, I'm exaggerating a wee bit. :) And here I thought shopping for a new car was a pain in the butt. At least I understand 90% of the choices I am being asked to make and am familiar with the manufacturers! (And I know not to buy a "KB home", whatever that is. Apparently they are cheap, but they also use very cheap materials and require upgrades that negate any savings. I'm not planning on buying a brand new house, but it's still nice to know when looking.Thank you, Internet!)
Add that to school stress and family stress and household stress and I suppose it is the lesser of all evils. When I finally make the decisions, I can at least afford to purchase them. Two years ago, I'd be shit out of luck in that department.
The ferret has been moody lately. I think it is the changing seasons and the fact that he's getting old and cranky. He still bounces around "like a retarded kitten" (according to the Fat Obstreperous Jerk at MATY), but his bounce lacks the usual spunk and verve. We all have to get old sometime, but I'm not ready for him to be old. He's a good boy. I keep debating about getting another ferret to keep him company, and/or a cat. I am pretty sure I don't want to uproot a cat when I move sometime next year (if all goes as planned, anyway), but caged animals like ferrets are pretty good about handling moves.