...I'm sorry. T_T

I think?

I feel like this is something I should watch now.

It's actually one of the very few Mel Brooks movies I've never seen. I should probably fix that.

Yes.
Mostly. There are a lot better films in his library, but it's solid and sets up some running jokes that you might not have otherwise gotten in some of his other movies.

Very true. That, plus your typical "mediocre Mel Brooks movie" is still well above average.

* * *

So, I'm walking to work this morning, and it's raining. Because the road drainage in Cambridge is horrible, big puddles have accumulated along the gutters.

In particular, there is one very large puddle which juts out a ways into the road. As I'm getting closer to it, I'm watching the cars go past, and their tires are spraying water out over the sidewalk like it's a flume ride or something. And I think to myself: "Oh no."

So I wait until it looks like there is a lull in the traffic to make my move, and, when I do try to dash past the puddle, I hold my umbrella out between myself and the road, like a deflector shield.

A couple of cars go past, and they each slow down and shift a little towards the center of the road, to avoid splashing me. I send their drivers silent prayers of thanks, and am feeling good about the human condition.

Then a third car comes through. This car speeds up and shifts towards the gutter, so that it drives right through the puddle, leaving me looking like I just lost a physical challenge on Super Sloppy Double Dare. And the driver clearly did it on purpose, which is the part that just kills me. A little act of malice, randomly applied.

So, as I sit here, squelching in my desk chair and with my wet socks air-drying on the edge of my desk, I find myself thinking that kindness is criminally undervalued as a virtue.

Also, I am reminded that functional drainage systems are unappreciated as a public utility.

I thought most people around here would have already seen the movie...

Anyway, at Ruwin: It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't put ****loads of spaces everywhere. There were at least 70 singular spaces put in-between paragraphs, and several times where there were six or seven spaces hanging out in that unused area. I'd also wish you'd decide on a single method of indentation (though the only one that works on these boards is the [p] tags).

@OL: Kindness is soooo last year. Being a jerk is what's in right now.

...

In all seriousness, I'm sorry to hear you got soaked by rude people, which drastically overshadows my envy of the fact that it's raining where you are. (I love rain.)

I'm going to work extra hard on the last installment of the Fisco/Jackie story just for you! T_T

@LordLuna: See, I port over my works directly from google docs. I don't know WHY it adds all those spaces/indentations, but it sure does. Now, normally, I'm capable of fixing the problem myself, but recently, every time I delete an extraneous space or indentation, or even add new ones, when I post the work itself, not only does it completely remove anything I added, but it returns all the previous mistakes when I go to edit the post.

Tension was particularly frustrating in this regard, so I ended up giving up after a while, which is admittedly not something I should have done considering how much work you put into organizing the archives. I'll endeavor to do better in the future! (Do we not have a saluting smiley? Hmm... Drastic oversight.)

@OL Sorry to hear that. Is that sort of treatment usual? One in three drivers a complete ass? I'm not sure, since I live in Arrakis (Southern California) and rain is a slowly fading memory.

Ah, shut up and enjoy the already ridiculous weather. It has rained more in the last month than it's had any right to.

How about something even better?

Uh... something weird just happened to me.

I clicked Submit to submit my post, then I just kind of waited a ridiculously long time while it decided what it was going to do with the post. Then it said that new posts have been made to the topic, and showed me the very post I wrote as well as OL's post.

I've had something like that happen before, when my internet has a hiccup just as I hit submit. Hey, it's better than the postatog, I figure.

Mercifully not. I'm used to getting sprayed by passing cars -- it's just one of the hazards of being a pedestrian in this particular city. But this was the first time when someone clearly went out of their way to do it on purpose. Even by the standards of Boston drivers -- who generally appear to have no regard for human life, either their own or those of others -- this kind of shocked me.

I had to remind myself that, for all I know, the person driving the car is having the worst day of his or her life, and so I shouldn't judge too quickly.

That's still a pretty arbitrarily crappy thing to do though. I don't think you have to judge them too slowly either

@History of the World, Part I: Turns out my parents have a copy, so I borrowed it from them last night. It's not bad, but hardly my favorite Mel Brooks movie. At least it was better than High Anxiety... There were a few very funny moments which I appreciated, the Spanish Inquisition section was tremendous, and now I feel the need to put Denner Fabellian on a plane based around the French revolution.

@Orcish's story: I'm sorry, if I'd have known that was you, I'd have thrown my empty Starbucks cup at you, too. Just kidding, of course. In reality, that is too bad that people think that way, and it validates my personal decision to try to never intentionally make anyone else's day worse, no matter how much the more primal parts of my mind might want to. I'm not always a strong enough person to succeed, but I try. Sorry to hear you're having a less-than-fantastic day!

@Rain: I love rain to an admittedly obsessive degree. I once ran out on a pseudo-date with a beautiful girl in college to go stand in the rain, because it hadn't rained in months, and I missed it. Admittedly, I don't always make good decisions...

@Where in the World is Carman Sandiego: I loved that show. I still have the theme song on my computer. I always sang long with the deep-voiced guy.

You should have taken her with you to stand in the rain.
It would have given you a point of commonality if she enjoyed the experience.
(and she would have been in wet clothes which could have led to more interesting times.)
I can hardly listen to it these days, as much as I love it.
It's... complicated, but tied to something in the past.

I assure you, if I could spend an hour talking to college-age RavenoftheBlack, this would be just ONE of the many things I'd tell that idiot. I'd probably smack him around for a bit, too. That dope.

Anyway, she and I are still good friends (although we live half-way across the country from one another...) and I have learned that she's not all that fond of the rain. Oh, well.


That's too bad. I won't pry, though.

Oh my God, yes. I would love to get my hands on College OL and explain the facts of life to him.

O....O...K. wtf? Jinsen22 shows up in the sig of every single post? Is this just a glitch on my end? I'm tired of looking at him... should that pic be deleted?

Seems like it's a quirk on your end, as I don't see it. No idea how to fix it, though. Sorry.