License Plate Watch 2

Saw the following personalized license plate on a car while driving to work a couple days ago: "AND 4WOT".

I'd assume that translates as "And for what", and that the owner is making a statement with it. But I can't imagine what that statement might be! Hmmmm.

An explanation

I realized that I should explain something related to this blog.

In order to help shut off the blog spam I had been starting to received, I decided to activate a new optional feature of Blogger. Namely, that in order to leave a comment, a person has to manually type into a form the content of a graphic that displays a series of letters.

I realize it might be seen as a nuisance, but I hope the need for it is understood.

(Side note on a totally different topic: I just ran the Blogger spell checker on what I had typed above, and it flagged "blog" and "Blogger"! That's hilarious!)

Mystery phone use

Image via Wikipedia

Needed to make a Costco stop on the way home from work today, and during that I was really struck by something I'd just vaguely been noticing in previous Costco visits. Namely, the number of people in the store who were using their cell phones and actively talking to someone.

These were not people just walking around between putting items in their carts. They were stopped, faced towards an item or items and using the phone.

What can be causing that many people to be making calls while shopping in Costco? Some possibilities that occur:

• Needing to clarify exactly what item or items need to be bought.
• Finding an item that was supposed to be bought is not there and checking if something else that is there is acceptable.
• Checking if the other person is also interested in an item that was not planned to be bought but caught the attention of the person who was in the store.

Any other possibilties occur to you?

"Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" - A Movie Review

I have a weakness for British comedy, both visual comedy (Monty Python's Flying Circus, for instance), and written (such as the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, one of which I have previously reviewed on this blog.)

A new British comedy film I have seen recently is "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". It was made by part of the team that had created 2000's marvelous "Chicken Run", so I was keen to see this new movie based on having a great time seeing that earlier one.

That these movies were made by stop-motion animation (minute frame-by-frame adjustments of physical figures to show, for instance, walking, talking, and changes in faces) is nothing short of amazing.

The characters Wallace and Gromit have previously appeared in short films; this is their first feature length movie. They operate a humane pest-control company called "Anti-Pesto" in a British village. Wallace, the human half of the pair, is an inventor of highly bizarre and wacky gadgets, some of which are used in the pest-control business. Gromit, his dog, though always completely silent, readily comes across as the generally brighter and more reliable half of the pair.

As the new film opens, the village is preparing for it's annual giant vegetable contest, which is a major passion for everyone. But the place has many rabbits that are wreaking havoc with the vegetables and Anti-Pesto is scrambling to collect them all.

Then what seems to be a giant rabbit starts rampaging through the village only during nights. That is when the fun really starts.

And yes, I am leaving this review at that!

Getting shot

Last autumn and winter were somewhat unnerving on the health front because of the severe shortage of flu shots that occurred at that time. Due to the shortage I skipped getting one of the shots at that time; I had been getting them for several consecutive years prior to that.

But for the currently approaching flu season, I have not seen or heard anything about such a shortage occurring again. So, today I looked up local places offering the shots, found one occuring today, and got it done.

Of course this vaccinates only for human varieties of influenza. The potential for a pandemic from the avian influenza problem that is currently mostly in Asia is still present; read up about that from the National Geographic article I just linked to.

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Costco: Keeping you alert

Image via Wikipedia

One thing that is consistent about shopping at Costco is that every so often when you go in you will find the placement within the store of some categories of items has undergone major shifts.

I assume this done at least partly to improve sales numbers of certain categories by bringing them into the areas that have heavier foot traffic. I can understand that.

It can be a momentary irritant having to at times hunt down where an item I consistently buy there has been moved to. But I try to think of it as an exercise in staying alert.

The scum also rises

Ah, spammers.

I've been fortunate for some years to have virtually zero spam. But they've started to catch up with me in the last 2 or 3 months. (Damn it.)

One particular tactic of theirs that is beginning to irritate me about this is what I have been getting is very frequently set up so that my email address shows as where it came from. I received one of those today; it also has my email address as the only content of the subject line. Sheesh.

Despite my irritation, I'm not feeling like I have the time and/or energy to pursue means to get these persons shut down. So, I'll likely continue to just delete their emails and at times wonder why they can't find more constructive ways to spend their time and make money.

Terry Pratchett's Thud!: A Review

Thud! is the latest Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, and is one of several in the series that feature the police force of the city of Ankh-Morpork, the City Watch, with emphasis on their leader, Commander Sam Vimes.

Early on Vimes and the Watch are alerted to the murder of a prominent dwarf; his head was smashed in and a troll's club was found next to the body. The murder leads to a sharp escalation in tensions between the city's dwarf and troll populations.

Vimes does everything he can to keep that situation under control while at the same time directing the investigation of the murder. And all the while he must remember he has a requirement from his wife to be home every day no later than 6:00 PM to read Where's My Cow? to their infant son , complete with appropriate animal noises.

Much as I'd like to I won't get into any more details of this book, to avoid possibly revealing too much. But as he demonstrates repeatedly through out the Discworld novels, and does again in Thud!, Pratchett is a master at analyzing the circumstances and foibles of existence and giving his readers many chances to have a hearty laugh at those circumstances and foibles.

Hangs Ups (Follow-up)

There was nothing on my answering machine when I got home yesterday afternoon, hang ups or otherwise. That was nice to see, and here's hoping for only legitimate messages being on it from here on!