11.21.08
Cat Power, Google Maps, and Star Trek… I love the Internet. Mammoth update.
I dislike describing music immensely. Rather than painfully watching me stumble over words AIM, my friend Johnny decided to Google my newest musical obsession, Cat Power. The search yielded an interesting Urban Dictionary response… with an ad for that new online Star Trek movie on the side.
I will say this much about Cat Power. Her music doesn’t reference any paritcularly talented felines, and in fact it has nothing to do with cats at all. She (being Chan Marshall, a completely human and talented singer) never erupts into choruses of meows or anything. But it’s still fun to shout “CAT POWER!” as if advocating feline rights…
Although we all know I’m still very much a dog person.
So… Star Trek… What happened here? The trailer made me giggle. Okay, I’m way too exhausted to giggle. It made me snicker. The shirts-flying-off, stuff-blowing-up attempt to make Star Trek edgy… well, they failed. At least on me. I possessed no interest whatsoever in Star Trek ten minutes ago, and still have no interest in it. As of now, I’m just scared. I know this particular incarnation is independent and blah-blah-blah, but… I don’t know. It’s like trying to make Barney appealing to teenagers. There are some things you just don’t attempt.
On to new business. I absolutely love Google Maps… I’ve wasted many a valuable study hour mapping out trips I probably won’t take for ten years. I also like to go back and map out trips I’ve taken…This, for example, is the mammoth Discovery trip I took with the entire Teaching Fellows Entering Class of 2007 (498 of us roamed the Old North State in dress clothes for a week…)
Also, any North Carolinian who just can’t quite take the Old Crow Medicine Show… But still has some attachment to this place… Check out Against Me!’s cover of “Wagon Wheel.” YouTube it yourself. I’m sleepy.
Yeah, I know, no updates for… months? I don’t even know. I’ve been extremely occupied being freezing cold and absolutely exhausted up here in the mountains. We’ve had highs in the low thirties all week… And a good chance of a nice snow tonight! I here y’all might get some, too. Strange weather, so… wintry.
And that’s the bulk of my news.
p.s. The Culbertson family is up to 8 dogs now. Spike, the American Bulldog/Boxer/Something Big mix, Leo the Toy Poodle, Max and Angel the Shih tzus, Muffy the Mutt, Snowflakey the Cocker Spaniel, Jesse the Wheaten Terrier, and Scruffy the Schnaunzer-Something who lives at my Grandma’s.
07.28.08
Back to School Shopping, part II
I’m doing a story on back to school shopping in Sanford. Anybody have a creative way to save money as you buy your kids all the new shoes and jeans and crayons?
Coming from a family of four, we always wait for the big sales at Walmart and then buy an entire years worth of paper and notebooks (that’s an incredible amount, as, in addition to being in school, we’re all writers and artists of sorts).
The tax-free holiday is this weekend. I, for one, am avoiding the chaotic shopping event. I might, just maybe, buy my computer this weekend… But I think it might be worth 100 dollars to avoid the drive to the Apple Store in Raleigh.
Anyone else’s thoughts?
07.09.08
Vertical licenses: the answer to underage alcohol sales?
North Carolina’s jumping on the vertical license bandwagon.
Huh, what? Yeah, that’s what I said, too.
Essentially, those under-21 will have vertical driver’s licenses, which will prevent store clerks from accidentally selling alcohol to minors.
While I think the idea has its merits, I’m not sure it will significantly slash underage drinking rates. Remember, I’m 19, a college student — not even old enough to go to the ABC store to interview somebody for this article. I have encountered plenty of underage drinkers, but I’ve never known any of them to waltz into a liquor store, gas station, Walmart, or similar booze outlet and walk out with alcohol. I don’t think I personally know anybody who’s even attempted it.
Furthermore, those minors I’ve heard of who’ve purchased their share of alcohol and cigarettes in public knew the clerks personally and would have gotten away with it even if their license was shaped like Mickey Mouse.
Like many people I spoke with today, I think most teenagers get their alcohol from older family and friends, and don’t bother trying to get away with purchasing it in stores.
I know I get hassled enough when purchasing Powerball tickets, and I think I come off as fairly mature. Granted, I still have my red-bordered “UNDER 18″ license because I avoid the DMV like pickles or frogs or trips to the dentist.
Between the ages of 15 and 21, we’re supposed to make a lot of trips to the DMV to keep up with various beuracratic movements. First we get our permits at 15, then our limited licenses 16, then our full under-18 licenses at 16 and a half, then our under-21 licenses at 18, then finally, we’re 21, and we get a completely normal (and now horizontal) license and are spared these excessive trips. It’s a lot to keep up with.
Hmmm. What do you think? Will this law do anything to quelll underage drinking?
