scattershot 8: technology edition

1.  by my estimation, between 71 and 88% of the time "lol" is a big fat lie. these people are not even laughing, let alone doing so out loud.

2. holy mother of god, our library just added a little feature whereby you can, by clicking on a little button, have call numbers and locations texted to your cell phone. i've been using it all morning long. i may well still prefer the paper version when on the library portion of the hunt, we'll see about that.

3. the new gym on campus, which JM and i don't go to because it's further away than the other new gym, and because it is so gargantuan that it's like being in a multi-level mall, but which i have been going to this week because the other new gym is closed for break, has all new cardio equipment with individual televisions attached to the machines, and squat racks as far as the eye can see. it is total and complete workout nirvana.

4. facebook is glutting my inbox, but for some reason i don't really care.

5. i am quite fond of looking at people's photos on facebook, but if those same people were to send me these photos directly, i would find that extremely offputting. what is that about?

6. ebay bids on items i am selling seem to go up only during the night. i'm not sure whether this is because a) people wait until they get home and put the kids to bed, or b) people have a few drinks and lose their sense of restraint bidding for items that are not all that exciting.

7. i once did 6 b) with a women's denim jacket that i hardly ever wear and haven't bid on anything since. i feel certain i was in a bidding war with another size XL tipsy woman, or maybe a drag queen.

8. visual medical technology is INSANELY, unbelievably cool, the feminist critiques of it notwithstanding. in fact, the next time i see a paper that is dismissive of the medical gaze, i am going to raise my hand and say "but they can SEE STUFF INSIDE YOUR BODY, WITH LIGHT!!!" and i will expect the nearest person to give me ten dollars for raising this insight. okay, maybe fifteen. my copay has recently gone up.

Comments

[bonnie kyburz]

fun to read :)

i pretty much owe my life to CAT and MRI scans, fwiw.

[Dr. Juice]

Regarding number one: we have to remember that the so-called "laff box," the device invented for canned laughter for sit-coms after the studio audience disappeared, was not created to make people laugh or to make an un-funny joke seem funny. It was not a priming device, nor was it a prompt. Rather, the laff box was designed to laught for viewer, so the viewer didn't have to bother. I see "LOL" in much the same way; it's an internalized laff box that labors for our diaphram.