Houston Observations for 8/12/07
1. IT'S EFFING HOT. Like, break a sweat just by looking outside, hot. Why did I move to a place where the humidity is almost always 100%? The forecast for today is 101 with a heat index somewhere between 110 and 115. And, naturally, today I have errands to do, so I can't just relax in the A/C. Grr.
2. I'm in a big city now. In Austin, no matter where you were, you could look someone in the eye, nod, smile, say "hi," and they'd return the gesture. Here? People look at you like you just insulted them. Or like you were talking jibberish. So sad. No wonder that people who visit here don't find Texans friendly. Then again, as Heather pointed out, most of those living here are transplants from elsewhere, which would explain the attitude problem.
3. There was a total douchebag at The Cheesecake Factory. See the helpful "How To Spot A..." here. Couldn't have been more than 16. Drove up in what was most likely Daddy's Large SUV (Hummer or Escalade... I can't remember... big gas guzzler). Pink polo two sizes too large on his 100 lb, 5'4" frame. With the collar popped. Saggin' his khaki shorts. White sneakers. Baseball cap. Walking like he was black and so much cooler than he actually was. Then, after about 30 minutes, he went back outside... to smoke. He looked about 12. His friend had a fake-n-bake tan and was wearing a white visor. I was surprised he didn't have it on upside down and sideways/backwards. My my my.
4. People here are stupider than I'm used to. Examples: 1) We went to the camera store to get Heather a shutter release for her camera. You know, so that she could trigger her camera to take a picture without her having to touch it. We were asked if we could be helped. Heather asked about a shutter release (which makes the shutter - the thing in your camera that closes and opens and therefore stops time for a brief moment to create the picture - move). The answer? "Like, for the flash?" Yeah. A shutter release for the flash. So obviously these people had no clue about cameras whatsoever. Thankfully, there was another store within a 30 minute drive (which is close by Houston standards, I'm learning) where the guy knew which one to show Heather and all about her camera, etc. Whew. 2) We were headed out of town to go watch the Perseid meteor shower last night. We thought we were lost, so we stopped at a gas station. I knew what highway we were on, so I asked Heather to find out what the little cross street was. The woman behind the counter? Didn't know where she worked. She had to ask someone what the cross street was for the store where she worked. Is it just me, or is that a little weird?
5. As I said, we went to look at the meteor shower last night. We went out to Brazos Bend State Park, and the George Observatory there. The meteor shower itself? Eh. Okay. I've seen better. What was annoying? The PEOPLE. Oh. My. God. First, the general public: those who continued to take flash photos or use flashlights/cell phones, thus ruining both their night vision and mine in the process. There should have been someone at the bottom of the stairs around the telescope domes that told everyone going up and down, "No flashlights/cell phones/flash photos - you'll ruin everyone's night vision and screw your chance of seeing small meteors and piss others off." The volunteers showing us stuff through the three telescopes? Not educated. The one in the dome nearest us didn't know how to position it, or the names of the four main moons of Jupiter. Sheesh. Others couldn't pronounce easy constellations nor point out the correct stars. My favorite, however, was this one guy. Came out of the closest telescope dome exclaiming, "I could see the rings!!" He was looking at Jupiter and its four largest moons - Io, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto. As some of you might know, Jupiter does in fact have rings. BUT, they can only be seen from the backside of the planet when the spacecraft camera is pointed back at the sun. You cannot in any circumstances see the rings of Jupiter from a terrestrial scope. I also enjoyed people asking "Did we miss it???!?!?!?!?" like meteor showers are only available during the hours between 10p and 2a on 8/13 and if you miss that window you will not see one. In reality, the Earth is passing through the dust of the comet Temple-Tuttle which is what causes the meteors. They have a peak time - which was when we went - but can be viewed for usually up to a week with variances in how frequently they appear per hour.
2. I'm in a big city now. In Austin, no matter where you were, you could look someone in the eye, nod, smile, say "hi," and they'd return the gesture. Here? People look at you like you just insulted them. Or like you were talking jibberish. So sad. No wonder that people who visit here don't find Texans friendly. Then again, as Heather pointed out, most of those living here are transplants from elsewhere, which would explain the attitude problem.
3. There was a total douchebag at The Cheesecake Factory. See the helpful "How To Spot A..." here. Couldn't have been more than 16. Drove up in what was most likely Daddy's Large SUV (Hummer or Escalade... I can't remember... big gas guzzler). Pink polo two sizes too large on his 100 lb, 5'4" frame. With the collar popped. Saggin' his khaki shorts. White sneakers. Baseball cap. Walking like he was black and so much cooler than he actually was. Then, after about 30 minutes, he went back outside... to smoke. He looked about 12. His friend had a fake-n-bake tan and was wearing a white visor. I was surprised he didn't have it on upside down and sideways/backwards. My my my.
4. People here are stupider than I'm used to. Examples: 1) We went to the camera store to get Heather a shutter release for her camera. You know, so that she could trigger her camera to take a picture without her having to touch it. We were asked if we could be helped. Heather asked about a shutter release (which makes the shutter - the thing in your camera that closes and opens and therefore stops time for a brief moment to create the picture - move). The answer? "Like, for the flash?" Yeah. A shutter release for the flash. So obviously these people had no clue about cameras whatsoever. Thankfully, there was another store within a 30 minute drive (which is close by Houston standards, I'm learning) where the guy knew which one to show Heather and all about her camera, etc. Whew. 2) We were headed out of town to go watch the Perseid meteor shower last night. We thought we were lost, so we stopped at a gas station. I knew what highway we were on, so I asked Heather to find out what the little cross street was. The woman behind the counter? Didn't know where she worked. She had to ask someone what the cross street was for the store where she worked. Is it just me, or is that a little weird?
5. As I said, we went to look at the meteor shower last night. We went out to Brazos Bend State Park, and the George Observatory there. The meteor shower itself? Eh. Okay. I've seen better. What was annoying? The PEOPLE. Oh. My. God. First, the general public: those who continued to take flash photos or use flashlights/cell phones, thus ruining both their night vision and mine in the process. There should have been someone at the bottom of the stairs around the telescope domes that told everyone going up and down, "No flashlights/cell phones/flash photos - you'll ruin everyone's night vision and screw your chance of seeing small meteors and piss others off." The volunteers showing us stuff through the three telescopes? Not educated. The one in the dome nearest us didn't know how to position it, or the names of the four main moons of Jupiter. Sheesh. Others couldn't pronounce easy constellations nor point out the correct stars. My favorite, however, was this one guy. Came out of the closest telescope dome exclaiming, "I could see the rings!!" He was looking at Jupiter and its four largest moons - Io, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto. As some of you might know, Jupiter does in fact have rings. BUT, they can only be seen from the backside of the planet when the spacecraft camera is pointed back at the sun. You cannot in any circumstances see the rings of Jupiter from a terrestrial scope. I also enjoyed people asking "Did we miss it???!?!?!?!?" like meteor showers are only available during the hours between 10p and 2a on 8/13 and if you miss that window you will not see one. In reality, the Earth is passing through the dust of the comet Temple-Tuttle which is what causes the meteors. They have a peak time - which was when we went - but can be viewed for usually up to a week with variances in how frequently they appear per hour.