One Last Charlotte Thought

Watching the city in the afternoon, focusing on no particular car but paying attention to their grouped motion, done while listening to Gaucho, approximates Sim City rather well.

Good job, Danny Clinch

You have created my favorite picture of the day.

Moooresville

I found sweet things in Mooresville! And I found unsweet things.

Pictures when I have a camera cable.

One of the dudes out here tells me that 5 years ago, this whole town was boarded up. Annnd now it's all strip malls. But sometimes there's leftovers...

Like the Abandoned house across from a boat dealership. It's on the main strip of town? Why not.
Explore it? Why not. I parked at the end of a nearby dead end road (the road just... stopped. had a big barrier.) I walked through the long grass and walked over the fence where it had fallen/been pushed over. The roof of this house was uh... not there. just the frame. so the ceiling's on the floor, there's "a skylight" in the kitchen,
and, as it always somehow happens in abandoned houses, there's a tumult of debris in random areas (the front hallway was particularly bad.)
I couldn't resist climbing the stairs to the second floor, which was only 2 little rooms. There was surprisingly little destruction there. The floor there felt strong, in opposition to the bathroom floor, which... wasn't there. I was looking at support beams and dirt from the bathroom doorway.
The property had various other farm-looking buildings which were not too destroyed. A lot of corn was in one corner of one hutch though.

I'm frankly surprised that there were no signs of vagrancy in it. Maybe there's no homeless here. With the love of meat in this town, I'm not surprised...

I drove out to the big, industrial-looking, steam-spewing pillar I saw when I drove into town yesterday. It turns out to be a "Steam Plant." The buildings/structures around it were way better than the steam stack itself. Lots of lattice, modules, ladders, and fences. The four-or-so giant tubes feeding into the steamstack were my favorite features.

Then I found the Goodwill. You know... a record called "He Touched Me"... yeah Jebus is a little strong out here. Also I found a copy of Nilsson's "The Point," but it didn't have a sleeve. I did find a forty dollar upright organ with an internal "drum machine." Not that I have space for it; I did not buy. But I did buy Aqua's Aquarium. Woo 3 dollars.

A final point: They have a Saladworks. I'd not heard of this before. Saladworks is like... everything bad about fast food salads... but they only serve salads. Apparently Mooresville has enough of an elderly community to support it. for now.

Fuck you widescreen TV stretch mode

You can't give me a widescreen tv and not give me a display button. This shit is stuck in stretch. there's no button on the bullshit hotel remote and the menu button on the tv is... deactivated? I dunno, but it doesn't do anything when I press it. stretched people is not how to watch tv. people look uglier this way. celebs should be pissed about this.

The world doesn't care about aspect ratio.

Mooresville

Mooresville, you are not a town. You are a travesty.

The NASCAR. The meat. Joel's... Sushi ("In the same shopping center as Xtreme Tans.") Big Daddy's (with NASCAR vehicles on the roof.) The strip mall with the chinese place and the japanese place, and the subway, with the quizno's across the street.

At least your Marriott-run Spring Hill Suites is pleasing. Not as good as that Sheraton though.
Go Marriott go:

Free cookies in the lobby in a fairly sanitary container!
Free wireless internet (setup can be a bit kooky though.)
Free Chupa-Chups! (oh man it's like high school spanish class all over again.)
Room with a big wall half-dividing the bed area from the "living area."
Two TVs (living area, bed area,) microwave, empty fridge, cabinet, two sinks in the room!
I'm tired of exclamation points.

I hear new TV shows are debuting tonight. And I'm in a hotel with cable in a shite town. It's TV time.

Hey scammers.

Do better.

email at 1:44:

"Hi there,

I'm Lisa i saw your posting on craigslist.com that you have a place for rent, I really do
appreciate the breakdown details of the house due to what you have on your posting but i
will love to know more about the room and the neighbours expecially you.....

Anyway,i will like to let you know little about me, My name is Lisa, i'm a british,am 25years
of age,i don't drink and smoke,am a cool,quiet and easy going person to live with,am cool
living with people.I swim for fun and sometimes play video games.. I lost my dad in an auto
accident 4years ago...i live with mum and my elder brother here in London,I love going out
and like clubbing once in a blue moon,i Studied the medical and surgical treatment of
animal(veterinary) here in Royal Veterinary College . I hope to end my current assignment
by 20th of September 2007....I'm planning to work on my medical course and to get a job as
soon as i arrive in the state.

However, i will want you to get back to me with the details about the room,the total moving
in cost,and the all the utilities included as well as the pictures,if available....


I will be awaiting your reply soon....
Lisa ........"

----------------------

Ok. This could be real. Weird, but real. Well...

Email at 3:07:

"Hi there,

I saw your posting on craigslist.com that you have a place for rent, I really do appreciate the breakdown details of the house due to what you have on your posting but i will love to know more about the room and the neighbours expecially you.....

Anyway,i will like to let you know little about me,My name is marissa,i'm a british,am 25years of age,i don't drink and smoke,am a cool,quiet and easy going person to live with,am cool living with people.I swim for fun and sometimes play video games.. I lost my dad in an auto accident 4years ago...i live with mum and my elder brother here in London,I love going out and like clubbing once in a blue moon,i Studied BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology(Unisex) here in London College of Fashion . I hope to end my current assignment by 10th of September 2007....I'm planning to work on my area of specialization,to establish a fashion centre over there in the states.

However, i will want you to get back to me with the details about the room,the total moving in cost,and the all the utilities included as well as the pictures,if available....

I will be awaiting your reply soon..

marissa!"

Yeah ok. If you're gonna scam, this is not how to do it. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with the "how do I know this isn't a scam" issue later on, because this is just... so poor.

Hotels: good for internet

You can do a lot of maintenance on your online presence when you're stuck in a hotel with free wireless internet and you don't know anybody in town.

Thanks, Sheraton, for doing hotel internet right.

the business

In response to the NYT article about Rick Rubin and the music industry: I don't care if the labels collapse. Music isn't going anywhere. Systems change/things fall apart. The rather-flawed music industry could probably stand to have a reboot, and we may be looking at that chance.

edit:
upon finishing the article, i see that rick rubin agrees with me: "Too many people make and love music for it to ever die. It will never be over. The music will outlast us all."

Thoughts Dump

They cut down the trees behind my apartment a few days after I moved in. Now there's construction all day. Good thing I work all day.

Time Warner cable: why u gotta not be available by phone in non-working hours? u wrong for that.

Fuck the frail shit. Cuz when my coke come in they gotta use the scales that they weigh the whales with.

Sometimes I think I look like someone I don't want to associate with. I don't know how to feel about that.