Shrink Wrap

Why is it that the shrink wrap over food items is so difficult to remove, but the stuff around cleaners is not? To open medication all one usually needs to do is push down and turn. To get into a tub of ricotta cheese there is a thin layer of plastic. To remove that one must pain-stakingly peel back the non-existent edge. Why should eating food be so difficult, but any non-edible item be so readily available? Aah the baffling wonders of technology.

Literary Predicament

Last night after reading Charles Dickens 'Great Expectations' I noticed a change in my speech. This isn't the first time this has happened either. When finding oneself in a situation where their ear is trained to understand the speech of another, they then begin to adopt said habits. Sometimes this will happen after watching a movie, but the occurance is rare. I find that books are more likely to be the instrument of my instruction in a new tongue than anything else. Perhaps this is an oddity reserved only for myself, but I have an inkling that given the opportunity I may perchance to run into another individual with such a predicament.

Twilight Dreams

The recent trend of weird dreams has got me thinking about how the mind creates dreams. I wish I knew more about it, especially the types of dreams which you know are dreams as you have them. The ones where everything looks and acts like it does when you are awake, but the colors are off. They are either brighter or darker, that twilight zone feeling begins to creep around the edges letting you know that you can end it whenever you choose to wake up. It would be neat to see how the different channels in the brain send around random information, some surface and some buried, that are able to come together and make sense in the dream (usually they are preposterous once I have woken up). Perhaps one day when I have time I might actually read up on the science of dreams, but for now I am content just to have them.

Talking to oneself in public

I have noticed the frequency to which people have seemingly personal conversations in public. These are taking place more and more without seeing the other person face to face. Cell phones abound everywhere. The thing that still catches me off guard are the handsfree sets, so you can't tell if the person is rambling to themselves, you, or just whoever will listen. Now I understand people have had private conversations in public for hundreds of years. But there are some difficulties in keeping the nature of information private which cell phones have introduced. For instance reception, if the person can't hear you, then one begins to shout without realizing that they are not the only one in the room. Mouthing the words just doesn't work over the phone either. Same goes for head nods and diverting one's eyes towards the foolish stranger. It is a lot harder to talk about someone without them knowing, when you are within earshot if one is on the phone. Perhaps code, or lingo will evolve to fill the private gossip gap, but for now people with cell phones need to be on their guard.