One (or more) of our cats peed on the kitchen counter this afternoon. If I weren't the one who had to live here, that'd be funny. As it is... not funny! Bad beastie! I just wish I knew which.
I have no funny stories of my own (first day of classes here; OMG) but I give you scary-looking bikers who rescue cute critters (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/nyregion/thecity/24pet.html). The photo slideshow made my day.
Man, those are some scary-looking people. Not the kind of folks I'd want showing up at my house, two spread out behind their point, who rumbles, "Pardon me, ma'am, but we hear there's a hungry kitten in there."
It reminds me of a story a friend told me. Years back his 'local' (pub, public house) was a place few 'ordinary' people went because it was the meeting place for a group of bikers. You know the type: mostly big, black leather, studs, chains, tattoos, etc. Most people were afraid to go in there, even though there was never any reported violence, they weren't that type og gang. My friend knew several of them.
I say most people didn't go there. Well, there was an old people's home (sorry about the lack of Political Correctness, but that's what everyone called it then) a little way up the road, and one elderly lady used to walk down to the pub once a week to have a half pint of Guinness, chat a bit and walk back. The bikers were used to seeing her.
Then she didn't turn up for a couple of weeks, and the bikers got worried. So a group of them drove up to the home (in full gear, they were bokier, right?) and asked the attendant to see Mrs. X. The attendant was scared. Several big bikers, in leathers, chains, tats, etc., wanting to see one of her patients. Well, it turned out that Mrs. X had suffered a fall and couldn't walk for several weeks, so when the bikers found out they brought her the half of Guinness every week -- and several of them also visited other people there, and did jobs around the place.
Way to go, folks! The media likes the "Hell's Angels" image, because bad news sells, but bikers I've known are really good people. Maybe they release their aggression and energy on the bikes and the clothes and the image, I don't know, but if so then maybe we'd be better off if more people did that instead of letting it overflow onto other people...
As we were leaving a restaurant, we saw a Jeep painted Pepto-Bismol pink with large Barbie logos and drawings all over, and a license plate of "MATTEL". dianyla wondered what the driver looked like...Mattel executive? Bleached blonde with lots of body mods, or a total hairy burly biker dude!
For this story to make the most sense, you'd have to know me, but the relevant facts are: I'm in fandom, but I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I don't sell drugs, and neither do my friends.
A number of years ago I went to a ShadowRun (cyberpunk-fantasy genre) LARP (Life Action Role Playing game) at DexCon in New Jersey. Of course we took lots of costumes and props, including lots of toy guns, briefcases and a 6-foot long glitter staff. The staff didn't fit in the trunk of my car, so it was propped inside the car running from the left-backseat to the passenger foot-well.
Sunday night we (myself, my roommate Tad, and some guy Chris who needed a ride) headed back to the DC area. We got a late start, and as was typical for that time period, I-95 was under construction so a 3-4 hour drive had turned into a 6 hour marathon. Around 1AM I needed a break, so I pulled off the highway and into a 7-11 to get some snacks and clear my head. While parking, I notice a police cruiser in the lot, but think nothing of it (there weren't any donut shops around).
Before I go into the 7-11 Tad asks me for some Ibuprofen, because he had fallen asleep and now had a stiff neck. So I go round to the trunk of my car, pull out my briefcase, get out some ibuprofen, give it to Tad, and put the briefcase back in trunk. Then I go in the store to get some chocolate and something to drink.
A couple of minutes later we're ready to leave, but as soon as I pull out onto the street, the police cruiser lights up like a Christmas tree. The next thing I know, two more lit-up cruisers appear and I'm surrounded by cops.
As the first cop comes up, I roll down my window and ask "What's the problem, officer?" He says, "Please step out of the car." That's always a bad sign. After a few iterations, I'm outside of the car, but still have no idea what I did wrong. Eventually the cop asks "Can you explain why someone might think you were dealing drugs?" At this point I realize that (1) some 'concerned citizen' must have seen me getting painkillers for Tad, and (2) to avoid getting arrested, I'm going to have to open up a trunk full of toy guns in front of 5 cops.
So I explained about getting Ibuprofen for Tad out of my briefcase. Then, moving v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, I put my car key into the lock of my trunk, explained to the cop that there are lots of toy guns, but no real guns, and yes, I would be most happy to stand back while he opened the trunk, so that he could look through everything.
Eventually the three of us showed that the contents of all (4) briefcases were innocuous and none of (12+) guns were real. At the same time we explained LARPing to the cops, and demonstrated the 6-foot glitter staff. After about a half hour, we were back on the road, no harm, no foul.
I'm just really glad that two things were missing from my car:
1) Frank, the Uber-Libertarian, who would have stood on his 4th amendment rights and gotten us all hauled off to jail, and 2) The broken alarm clock duct-taped to a bundle of plastic dynamite sticks.
Re: Well, there was the time I got stopped for 'dealing drugs' with a car full of LARPers...
LARPing can be fraught with misunderstandings. I think we has a problem once on campus with a game of Assassin or similar and one of the players running with a plastic gun past the bank branch on campus.
mom has to go to work for couple hours, dad watches 3 year old daughter who asks dad to have tea party with her. after 6 or 7 cups mom comes home to find dad drinking daughter's tea. she says does he realize that the only place daughter can reach water for tea is the toilet bowl!
Okay, now I have to ask. I get stopped in stores and asked for directions, recommendations, and such all the time. And I usually play along, and scratch my head trying to figure out why they think I work there?
In a book store, I can sort of guess -- I know where I'm going, when I get there I scan the shelves methodically, and I will put books where they belong, so maybe I look sort of official. But this also happens in grocery stores and other places. Heck, I've been stopped in mall crowds and asked by strangers. So what is it?
I will admit, I look at people and smile. But where's the "Store Employee" badge? And I want a bonus for all those extra hours :-)
I happen to work at Wal-Mart and this actually happened to me in the days when all Wal-Mart employees wore those vests with the Wal-Mart logo and a name badge. I am working Sunday morning, usually a quiet time until church services are over. About an hour into my shift a lady pushes a cart up to me and asks "Excuse me. Do you work here? Are you a K-Mart employee?" I look at her, so startled by the question I can't answer. Thinking I a little slow, she rephrases her question. Do you work here at K-Mart?" My brain finally kicks in and I say "Ah.., No mam' This is Wal-Mart, can I help you?" It's her turn to look startled, "Oh! No, never mind," and off she goes.
A group of local bikers (Baltimore County in Maryland), the S.O.B.s - that's Semites On Bikes - are trying to help the Humane Society of Baltimore County (that I do volunteer work with) to raise money for a new, more spacious cat house. One of their efforts is a calendar of the S.O.B.s posed, yes naked, with their bikes, and some furry feline friends, some live, some stuffed. Believe me, the calendar is not for the squeamish, and I am truly impressed by the bikers's courage - If I were a naked guy I'm not sure I'd want a cat or kitten, that might get upset at being forced to pose, poised around my crotch. Still the cats do look well behaved.
Here's the HSBC's website with the calendar http://www.baltimorehumane.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20:cat-house-project&catid=25:projects
Thought I'd share ... Have a better day. Barbara in Reisterstown, MD.
ok, my funny story. a number of years ago we were being moved from DC to Colorado in a corporate move (i.e. the company plans and pays for the movers). so they tell us what day to expect the guy to come and inventory our house and see how big a truck and how may boxes we're going to need. we tell them we have a lot of books.
the guy arrives, looks at the six foot high by five foot wide shelf of paperbacks in the entry hall, and smiles politely. "people tend to think they have a lot of books, but really, once you box them it's not so much." he tells us.
so we take him on into the living room with the seven foot by six foot built-in shelves full of hardbacks. he continues to smile, and marks off a few more book boxes on his clipboard. next is the dining room, with the three foot by six foot built in shelves for cookbooks. "gosh," he says, "you all DO have a lot of books." his grin fades as we walk through the basement rec room with the three bookcases full of children's books, and he gasps as we walk upstairs and he sees the built-in paperback bookshelves covering a twelve foot by six foot wall in the stairwell. "okay," he says shaking his head, "you were right, i've never seen a house with this many books"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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No, really, it could happen.
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I say most people didn't go there. Well, there was an old people's home (sorry about the lack of Political Correctness, but that's what everyone called it then) a little way up the road, and one elderly lady used to walk down to the pub once a week to have a half pint of Guinness, chat a bit and walk back. The bikers were used to seeing her.
Then she didn't turn up for a couple of weeks, and the bikers got worried. So a group of them drove up to the home (in full gear, they were bokier, right?) and asked the attendant to see Mrs. X. The attendant was scared. Several big bikers, in leathers, chains, tats, etc., wanting to see one of her patients. Well, it turned out that Mrs. X had suffered a fall and couldn't walk for several weeks, so when the bikers found out they brought her the half of Guinness every week -- and several of them also visited other people there, and did jobs around the place.
Way to go, folks! The media likes the "Hell's Angels" image, because bad news sells, but bikers I've known are really good people. Maybe they release their aggression and energy on the bikes and the clothes and the image, I don't know, but if so then maybe we'd be better off if more people did that instead of letting it overflow onto other people...
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Adham kills Atgah; Akbar kills Adham for killing Atgah.
ARGH the names!
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The fourth one ducks.
maybe not quite what you meant, but.....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23974478@N07/2797237021/
(
todayyesterday I am Old. I gots no funny)Re: maybe not quite what you meant, but.....
*loves the airplane*
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Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon
Virgin sturgeon's a very rare fish
No good sturgeon wants to be a virgin
That's why caviar's a very rare dish...
Well, there was the time I got stopped for 'dealing drugs' with a car full of LARPers...
A number of years ago I went to a ShadowRun (cyberpunk-fantasy genre) LARP (Life Action Role Playing game) at DexCon in New Jersey. Of course we took lots of costumes and props, including lots of toy guns, briefcases and a 6-foot long glitter staff. The staff didn't fit in the trunk of my car, so it was propped inside the car running from the left-backseat to the passenger foot-well.
Sunday night we (myself, my roommate Tad, and some guy Chris who needed a ride) headed back to the DC area. We got a late start, and as was typical for that time period, I-95 was under construction so a 3-4 hour drive had turned into a 6 hour marathon. Around 1AM I needed a break, so I pulled off the highway and into a 7-11 to get some snacks and clear my head. While parking, I notice a police cruiser in the lot, but think nothing of it (there weren't any donut shops around).
Before I go into the 7-11 Tad asks me for some Ibuprofen, because he had fallen asleep and now had a stiff neck. So I go round to the trunk of my car, pull out my briefcase, get out some ibuprofen, give it to Tad, and put the briefcase back in trunk. Then I go in the store to get some chocolate and something to drink.
A couple of minutes later we're ready to leave, but as soon as I pull out onto the street, the police cruiser lights up like a Christmas tree. The next thing I know, two more lit-up cruisers appear and I'm surrounded by cops.
As the first cop comes up, I roll down my window and ask "What's the problem, officer?" He says, "Please step out of the car." That's always a bad sign. After a few iterations, I'm outside of the car, but still have no idea what I did wrong. Eventually the cop asks "Can you explain why someone might think you were dealing drugs?" At this point I realize that (1) some 'concerned citizen' must have seen me getting painkillers for Tad, and (2) to avoid getting arrested, I'm going to have to open up a trunk full of toy guns in front of 5 cops.
So I explained about getting Ibuprofen for Tad out of my briefcase. Then, moving v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, I put my car key into the lock of my trunk, explained to the cop that there are lots of toy guns, but no real guns, and yes, I would be most happy to stand back while he opened the trunk, so that he could look through everything.
Eventually the three of us showed that the contents of all (4) briefcases were innocuous and none of (12+) guns were real. At the same time we explained LARPing to the cops, and demonstrated the 6-foot glitter staff. After about a half hour, we were back on the road, no harm, no foul.
I'm just really glad that two things were missing from my car:
1) Frank, the Uber-Libertarian, who would have stood on his 4th amendment rights and gotten us all hauled off to jail, and
2) The broken alarm clock duct-taped to a bundle of plastic dynamite sticks.
Re: Well, there was the time I got stopped for 'dealing drugs' with a car full of LARPers...
joke
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(Anonymous) 2008-08-26 12:09 am (UTC)(link)http://community.livejournal.com/customers_suck/26025844.html
--Susan
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I must say, though, that none of "our" customers were as clueless as That Woman.
Advertency counts...
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In a book store, I can sort of guess -- I know where I'm going, when I get there I scan the shelves methodically, and I will put books where they belong, so maybe I look sort of official. But this also happens in grocery stores and other places. Heck, I've been stopped in mall crowds and asked by strangers. So what is it?
I will admit, I look at people and smile. But where's the "Store Employee" badge? And I want a bonus for all those extra hours :-)
And then there's this lady
I am working Sunday morning, usually a quiet time until church services are over. About an hour into my shift a lady pushes a cart up to me and asks "Excuse me. Do you work here? Are you a K-Mart employee?"
I look at her, so startled by the question I can't answer. Thinking I a little slow, she rephrases her question. Do you work here at K-Mart?"
My brain finally kicks in and I say "Ah.., No mam' This is Wal-Mart, can I help you?"
It's her turn to look startled, "Oh! No, never mind," and off she goes.
Re: And then there's this lady
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(Anonymous) 2008-08-26 01:10 am (UTC)(link)http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml
B. O'Brien
And for the cat lovers among us -
(Anonymous) 2008-08-26 01:21 am (UTC)(link)http://www.metacafe.com/watch/879238/kitty_wake_up
B. O'Brien
Bikers and Cats
(Anonymous) 2008-08-26 12:27 pm (UTC)(link)A group of local bikers (Baltimore County in Maryland), the S.O.B.s - that's Semites On Bikes - are trying to help the Humane Society of Baltimore County (that I do volunteer work with) to raise money for a new, more spacious cat house. One of their efforts is a calendar of the S.O.B.s posed, yes naked, with their bikes, and some furry feline friends, some live, some stuffed. Believe me, the calendar is not for the squeamish, and I am truly impressed by the bikers's courage - If I were a naked guy I'm not sure I'd want a cat or kitten, that might get upset at being forced to pose, poised around my crotch. Still the cats do look well behaved.
Here's the HSBC's website with the calendar
http://www.baltimorehumane.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20:cat-house-project&catid=25:projects
Thought I'd share ... Have a better day.
Barbara in Reisterstown, MD.
lots of books
the guy arrives, looks at the six foot high by five foot wide shelf of paperbacks in the entry hall, and smiles politely. "people tend to think they have a lot of books, but really, once you box them it's not so much." he tells us.
so we take him on into the living room with the seven foot by six foot built-in shelves full of hardbacks. he continues to smile, and marks off a few more book boxes on his clipboard. next is the dining room, with the three foot by six foot built in shelves for cookbooks. "gosh," he says, "you all DO have a lot of books." his grin fades as we walk through the basement rec room with the three bookcases full of children's books, and he gasps as we walk upstairs and he sees the built-in paperback bookshelves covering a twelve foot by six foot wall in the stairwell. "okay," he says shaking his head, "you were right, i've never seen a house with this many books"
then we took him into the library.