3191 Random stuff

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved.

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Ever since the big swine and avian flu scares, people here and there have been wearing surgical masks. They're especially popular in Asia.

But --- something I don't understand --- when you see large groups of people in surgical masks, at least half of the people don't have them over their noses. They wear them over the mouth, but below the nose.

Why bother at all?

I've noticed that since the radiation leaks in Japan, more folks in the photos now have them over the nose. Uh, that doesn't fix radiation....

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Tyra Banks is suddenly all over the TV talk shows, but she doesn't seem to have anything to say. What's she selling? What did I miss?

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A few years ago I went to a friend's 40th wedding anniversary. They had at least 150 guests, and little containers of bubble stuff as favors on the tables. Most people didn't take them, so when I helped clean up, I collected about 5 of them.

I found them a few weeks ago, and brought them south. I've had fun blowing bubbles on the porch. They last a very long time, especially when it's cold outside, and when the wind is right they drift high into the trees behind the houses across the street.

Well, I'm running out of what's in the little bottles. I saw large bottles of bubble stuff yesterday, so I bought some.

Inferior! The bubbles pop so close to my face they mess up my glasses. And when they do manage to get a few inches past the wand, they fall straight to the ground and pop. Like they're heavy or something. Yeah, I checked. I got one of the little bottles and blew some test bubbles, and they floated merrily out to the street.

Sheesh. How do they make heavy bubbles?

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Some of Daughter's friends threw her a baby shower on Sunday. There were 21 people there. Daughter has so much stuff! She's more got for that kid now than I ever had for her. (She slept her first four months in a laundry basket, and I made all her blankets, sleepers, and kimonos myself.) She and Hercules have one small kitchen, one small dining room, three bedrooms, and a small patch of hall. What the heck are they going to do with four baby monitors?

She's making noises at me now about getting baby seats for my cars. Are you kidding? I suspect that kid won't be allowed in my car until the kid is holding a learner's permit.

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Something that has bothered me for a long time, brought to the fore with the disappearance of a semi-local wife....

Local police always look first at the spouse or the parent when an adult or child is missing. Yeah, ok. I can see that.

But the part that bothers me is that they don't seem to also gather all the evidence they can, and then see where it points. What it seems like is that they first decide on a theory, and then look only for evidence that supports that theory. And if they find even the tiniest bit (Neighbor: "Oh, yeah, they argued a lot.") then they tighten in on that theory and not only look at nothing else, but will reject anything that doesn't fit the theory.

To the point of actively hiding it at trial.

The first few days are critical to solving a disappearance or murder. Evidence that might be useful disappears quickly. Forming a theory, and then focusing only on evidence that supports that theory and missing (and thereby losing) other evidence is how innocent people get convicted.

How do you fight that?
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