BLOGS OR ADS?

I was just checking out the page of recently updated blogs here at Blogger, and I noticed that most of the blogs are bogus - random junk with a lot of ad links. Why doesn't blogger nix all the spam blogs? How do you cut through through the dross to find the silver lining here?

OVERHEARD

Last Tuesday, I accompanied my nieces on a field trip to the McWayne center. While we were there, I noticed that a couple of the six-year-olds were fighting. You'll want to know a little of the conflict's background to really appreciate the story. The little girl is the teacher's child. That morning, while her mother wasn't looking, the girl hit the little boy and pushed him out of line. Then she tattled on him to her mother (the teacher) for being out of line, and the teacher scolded him. By lunch, he'd had plenty of time to brood. He sat down across from her and began his revenge:

He: "I'm gonna' kill you as soon as you're away from your mom."

She: "I'll just stay by my mommy, then."

He: "Well, you're a big chicken!"

She: "I am not"

He: "Oh, yes you are. Look at yourself! You're growing a beak!

She: "Shut up!"

He: "Oh, I'm eating chicken nuggets. Sorry about eating your relatives!"

Brings back memories of childhood, doesn't it? Oh, to be young and in love.

EXPATRIATE

This morning I cancelled my credit card. I've had it for eleven years, and now I don't. This month I also gave up my cell phone. As you can imagine, I feel strange. It's more than that; I feel un-American.

FUN WITH EBAYGLISH

Turns out eBay is not just a great place to buy and sell grilled cheese sandwiches resembling the Virgin Mother. It's also the perfect place for non-native speakers to learn and practice English. I take the following as a lesson in why nobody should trust Babel Fish. My sister ran across it on another buyer's feedback profile.

I wonder what the buyer thought when he read this comment from a seller: "put your mother's fart,the item is same to the picture, your eye is blind!" I dare you to read it aloud without laughing.

MANSPACES AND MONORAILS

This week, I got emails from two of my married friends. Both of the guys are setting up spaces at home that are entirely their own. Jack is converting his shed/workshop, adding all the ammenities of the main house (minus a bed). And Kevin is reworking his upstairs spare room/home office into his very own, "Fortress of Solitude."

As it turns out, Jack and Kevin are following a new cultural trend. Today's MSN home page features a link to this article about "Manspaces." And, come to think of it, this topic reminds me of a rerun of "Yes, Dear" called "Space Jam." In the episode, Kim wants to clean out the garage by throwing away all of Greg's college memorobilia. He lies to Kim about donating the junk to the thrift store and actually rents a storage unit for it. When he gets there and starts unpaking his stuff, he finds two other husbands, a record collector and a star wars junkie, using their units as hiding places from their wives. At the end of the episode, Kim confronts Greg about lying to her and convinces him to move his junk back into the garage. Of course, the episode wasn't funny, but it does tie in nicely with this blog (also unfunny and pointless).

You know how I tend to end my blogs with a question? Well, I don't really want to know how you feel about manspaces. So I'll ask you this instead: How do you feel about monorails? Are they just a passing fancy, or are they really the world's most modern transportation system?