Holy shit.

I am *still* at home, following a crazy issue with some Excedrin.  And while nothing interesting has really happened, I stumbled across something in my internet wanderings today that kind of disturbed me and also made me giggle.  That thing is the Nabaztag.

The army of bunnies with ears that look straaaangely like something else.

I saw a picture of this thing and had to click the link because...c'mon, it's shaped like a cute little bunny and I must know what it is.  And then..WHAT THE HELL.  Okay, let me start by saying that I do have a rabbit.  One that is alive and eats and goes to the bathroom wayyyy too much and hippity-hops about twitching his nose and wiggling his ears.  He's gorgeous.  See?

"I am a bunny on a cell phone.  Please drop everything and tell me how effing adorable I am!"

So upon first seeing this thing, I assumed it was like the new robotic dog.  People who can't be bothered to take care of animals but still want to experience some (extremely) basic level of cuteness and companionship adopt these things so they don't have to accept responsibility and learn to co-habitate with anything.  But then the music and the flash started.  This bunny.  Is INSANE.

Things the Nabaztag does include, but are not limited to: telling you the weather, letting you know when you have an e-mail, receiving text messages from your friends, playing a song to suit the situation, reading you news stories as they are posted online, playing a radio station upon request, wiggling its ears like a real rabbit, and...Tai Chi.  Yes, the robotic bunny does Tai Chi with its ears, as if it needs to insist upon its cuteness.  All of this is capable by connecting the thing to your existing Wi-Fi connection.  Oh and it doesn't have to talk if you don't want it to; it can communicate to you using its own special flashy light language.  And it "sniffs things" with its bellybutton.  What...the fuck.

This is crazy.  I don't know whether it has gone too far or just far enough.  I don't know whether to go "awwww" or run for my life.  And I also don't know if I prefer the plain matching white ears or the ones I can choose in any color I like.  All I know is that I don't see myself paying 99.00 USD for a super-intelligent rabbit, no matter how damn cute and helpful it is.  

Here is my final analysis:

Upside:  The thing is cute and it does tons of shit for me, thus enabling me to be so lazy that I don't even have to type anymore.

Downside:  Seeing as all of these bunnies are connected using the interwebs, I am a little afraid that there may be a robotic bunny uprising that puts all that zombie bullshit to shame.  No thank you.

Comments?  Questions?  I am very interested in the arguments for or against this thing.

Oops.

So I have neglected to post anything lately because I have been home visiting the family and things have been relatively boring.  Most of my time here has been spent doing family things, playing with my beloved pet bunny, running little errands, and watching Frasier.  Really.  Frasier.  At least 4 episodes a day.

The only real news I have is that I'm volunteering at the Charleston Harborfest this year.  It's going to be quite fun I'm sure and I will have lots and lots of photos.  But that is not until the end of June, so for now I really don't have much to offer.

Next week I return to Charleston and hopefully will be taking a little fun day trip that I can share before returning to college for a month.

Annnnd that is all. 

I am a crazy animal lady.

At least I admit it.  I haven't really done a whole lot in the past two days other than watch movies.  Particularly the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I know.  I didn't leave home for THIS?  Yeah.  So other than staring at the screen and such, I've been spending some time with the dog and cat.  Not that I ignore them any other time, but sometimes they don't get as much attention as they deserve.  Here!  Look at my babies!  *opens wallet*

The baby, Oliver.  Also known as Ollie.

Lounging....as he often does.

"Mommyyy, what is the flashy thingyyy?"

And then Chrissy pops onto the scene.  She needs attention desperately.

Nibbles.  "Mommm she's biting meeee!"  95% of the time, yes.

Chrissy leaves and Ollie gets curious.  He wants to play the internets too!

"It wasn't pr0nz, I swears!"  (It really isn't.)

So there you have it.  Those are the babies.  I don't love Oliver more, he's just easier to take pictures of.  Chrissy has always hated the camera and will do anything to avoid getting her picture taken.  I think it's because she doesn't want anyone to have hard proof that she's not a Great Dane.  I promise I'll have more interesting stuff (at least in my opinion) sometime soonish.

Charleston, what a little tease you are.

Monday was a very good day for me.  And really, I didn't do a whole lot.  Of course, the normal housework was accomplished, but in the afternoon I decided to take a little trip to downtown Charleston.  I have kind of been avoiding downtown during my semester off, just to skip the annoyances of traffic and parking.  And honestly, there's not really much going on downtown that is relevant to my interests, and I didn't think I was missing out on much.  But anyway...

So I headed downtown for one purpose and one purpose only - to find this:

There are lots of these downtown, mostly on King Street.  They all say different things and I think I've got most of them that are there right now, but you know how graffiti comes and goes.  So anyway, someone told me where this one was and I was going to take a picture for my own personal nerdy collection.

After searching the Battery for 20 minutes or so trying to find a parking space, I finally stumbled upon one at the right time, and started on my little stroll.  Walked around the Battery, which is always pleasant - I love the wind coming in off the water; it smells like the ocean and it kills the humidity.  But once I stepped down onto East Bay Street, the humidity reared its ugly head and I resigned myself to being sweaty and nasty for the afternoon.  Gross.  However, E. Bay Street also introduced me to the smell of blooming magnolias and honeysuckles, which were crawling all over the trees.  It was a smell I'd kind of forgotten about, probably because I wasn't here to experience it last summer.  But I enjoyed it much and will definitely be returning to enjoy it soon.

From East Bay, I took a left on Broad taking in the air conditioning from the art galleries and law offices, and took a few minutes to pass through St. Michael's Churchyard.  Another place I haven't visited in two years or so, I was kind of happy to see that they are trying to repair a lot of the old gravestones.  Many of the stones here are old enough the it's nearly impossible to read them, but it's a beautiful little graveyard.  Here, look at old but not sooo old things:

After Broad, I headed down King Street and took pictures of at least 10 new little graffiti things that weren't there before or that I hadn't seen.  I got a lot of strange looks while I was squatting/kneeling on the sidewalk, but was worth it.

When I finished with all that fun stuff, it was time to head back home.  So I looped back around and I think I found my new favorite Charleston house, located in Rainbow Row on East Bay.  I've never been a fan of Rainbow Row, but this house just grabbed my attention today:

It's the blue house!  I guess you could call it blue.  Anyway, I like it.  And that's really all I saw and did downtown.

Even though I didn't really have some extraordinary experience downtown, it was enjoyable because it reminded me of the things that I do like about Charleston.  Although I'm still not extremely overjoyed about being stuck for for two more years or so, I think if I keep having little experiences like this, I could come to terms with it.  At least I hope so.  

Dear Charleston,

Even though you are boring and filled with rich, snobby people, sometimes you pull a little trick on me and I fall a little in love with you.  Now if only you could ditch your annoying habits and stop being generally lame.  I want to give you a chance.  Really, I do.  But every time I think that I love you, you do something unforgivable.  I mean, how can you expect me to stand loyally by your side when you bring Darius Rucker into the mix?  No idea?  Exactly.  I'll give you another chance, Charleston, but you'd better not fuck it up this time.

Love and ...benne wafers,

Courtney

Columbia in 2009: Lame As It Ever Was

When I found out about the '2nd Annual Greater Columbia Record Fair' (longest fucking name EVER), I was really excited.  I marked it on my calendar, invited a friend, and saved the address in the GPS.  Seriously.  But after yesterday, I really kind of wish I had forgotten to mark it on the calendar.  Or that I had followed my gut instinct, which was this:

Columbia blows.  I have been to only one place in my entire life that blows more than Columbia.  It is a poor excuse for a state capitol and can pretty much rest in hell as far as I'm concerned.  

When preparing for said Record Fair, this thought did pop into my mind a few times, but I had convinced myself that it would be worth getting out of Charleston for a bit and that, although Columbia does indeed blow, the Fair itself would probably not.  Assuming this was also kind of a mistake, I guess.

So as the big day approached, I made plans with my traveling buddy, and then last minute she decided she was unable to come.  I wasn't at all upset with her - it was a legitimate reason.  But it kind of would have made the day suck less.  I decided to push on and go anyway.

Sunday morning I was up and on the road by 10:30 as planned and was having a good time in the car listening to music and such.  Until I reached Columbia.  Things immediately went downhill.  From the fuck-me-in-the-face awful traffic, to the GPS system trying to tell me to go the wrong way down one-way streets, and the stupid anxiety issues I have recently developed in cities, it was just ridiculous.  It took me a good 45 minutes to travel the 4 miles to my final destination.  And once I got there, I could not find parking.  Anywhere.  I failed to notice that the location of this event was in the middle of USC's campus.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, it was a small hurdle and eventually parking was found.  And after trekking to the place, I was a little surprised to find that it was a bar.  Little, tiny bar.  But I still gave it a chance.  And was even more disappointed by the lack of things that captured my interest.

I don't know...I guess when somebody uses the word "Fair" - with a capital F, ok - I assume the situation to be kind of large and varied and maybe even a little fun.  And maybe I'm just too old in the mental department to enjoy standing in a little bar with a bunch of kids who are way cooler than I am because they are art students.  I don't know what it is.  But anyway I had a ridiculously unfun time and found myself leaving soon after I got there.  Let down?  Yes.  But I learned my lesson.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that you shouldn't give boring cities a chance to be unboring, because they will only let you down, possibly kick you in the ribs, and most likely steal your wallet.

And before I get told I shouldn't be bitching, I will...

a) ...remind you that I do what I want.

and 

b) ...kindly tell you that today made up for yesterday's tremendous suckiness.  But, that I will save for tomorrow.

This is a blog...

Odds are, I will post things here.

Just sayin'...