CarrollBlog 7.30

According to the UCLA linguistics department, the following are the newest, hippest, most used slang among US college students today:

CarrollBlog 7.29

The "Everything for 1 Euro" store across the street has gone out of business. For the last few days, movers have been taking boxes out of there and loading them into a beat up, dodgy looking truck. I kept wondering what do you do with 200 boxes of stuff that didn't sell for 1 euro? Even when the place was up and running it was always a little sad to look inside and see one or two people in there looking over the plastic flowers, miniature garden dwarves, and piles of socks in various strange colors. How often are you in the mood to wear cyan blue or road cone orange socks with your outfits? But if the store was sad before, you should see it now: All over the floor are things that obviously fell out of the boxes as they were being loaded but were not considered valuable enough by the movers to bend over, pick up, and throw back into the boxes. The rejects at the 1 euro store. How humiliating is that?

CarrollBlog 7.28

Gathered in front of the two tattoo parlors on my street, almost every day I see different bunches of teenage girls fluttering and chirping about making the move to actually enter these establishments and find out what a tattoo or piercing costs, how much it hurts, etcetera. Invariably as I pass these girl gaggles, they always seem to be talking about the same things-- Should we? You go first. What if I don't like it later... What's interesting is members of a group almost always hang outside, hesitating, daring one another to go first. But a lone girl approaching the places invariably goes straight in, either determined or fearless. No more talk-- just do.

CarrollBlog 7.27

I like those small stores in the middle of side street nowheres that sell obscure things like ceramic tile or bathroom fixtures. The kind of place you need maybe once or twice in your life. The best ones though are those that have colorful banners in the windows announcing things like "Big Sale ends in 3 days! Hurry because stocks are low!" I passed a store like that this morning that looked like no one had gone through the front door in five years. It was easy to imagine though the owner of the shop taping those signs in the window and then waiting, hoping that at least a few people would turn up in the next days to buy his discounted toilet seats.

CarrollBlog 7.23

You've got to see this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

CarrollBlog 7.22

The Heart Under Your Heart
by Craig Arnold

CarrollBlog 7.21

The evolution of today's baggy surf/swim trunks, as told by Greg Noll in THE ART OF THE SURFBOARD by Drew Kampion:

from KM:

CarrollBlog 7.19

When reading, there is something wonderfully preposterous about a line or a passage that says something like this: "with a start he registered what he had failed to before: that she was extraordinarily beautiful..." I don't care who you are, but for sure it is virtually impossible for the vast majority of humanity NOT to notice a very good looking person when you come into contact with them. Particularly when you have spent some time in their vicinity. Whether it's our genes, physical desire, the need to breed or other factors, beauty always makes us sit up and pay attention at least for a little while. It's like a visual itch that no matter how much we try to ignore it, eventually needs to be scratched.

CarrollBlog 7.18

Doesn't this look like something you want to see immediately?

CarrollBlog 7.7

In a furious summer downpour, a woman is walking down the street with nothing to protect her--no umbrella, no hat, nuthin'. She's absolutely dripping drenched. The expression on her face shows how she feels about that. If you wanted a photograph of utter misery, take her picture. She's wearing a T-shirt that says LIVE, LOVE, AND LAUGH LAUGH LAUGH
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I'll be traveling for the next week. I'll check in here when possible if something interesting bites my eye.

CarrollBlog 7.6

from DL:

CarrollBlog 7.5

from Mikaela in Sweden:

CarrollBlog 7.4

While I was waiting at the airport for someone a couple of days ago, I see Marilyn Manson of all people come through the arrivals gate. He's hand in hand with a pretty young woman. A bunch of fans stop him for autographs. What's most interesting is he looks very tired, a word I wouldn't normally associate with the King of Evil. Once many years ago I was leaving the building in New York where John Lennon lived. At that moment a limo pulled up in front of the place and suddenly there he was-- Lennon and Yoko Ono got out of the car and started to walk into the building. In an instant they were surrounded by a hoard of teenage girls all hooting and jabbering their love and requests for his autograph. One girl even had a large cake which she kept trying to hand Ono. Lennon stopped and very nicely signed whatever they wanted signed. As I approached them, for some reason he looked up and we exchanged a glance. His eyes were so sad and tired. I remember that very vividly. I nodded at him, trying to say in my look I love you too but I can feel (a little of) your pain. It must be very hard.

CarrollBlog 7.3

Just because you're smart doesn't mean you're right
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The more you talk about yourself, the less people listen
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If you ever start thinking a little too highly of yourself, write for five minutes with your wrong hand. It's a nice instant-humbler.
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Never *ever* try to catch a sharp object when you drop it.
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Don't try finding shelter from the rain by walking close by a building. That's where all the big drops fall.
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You can divide most writers into those with messy desks or those with creepily clean ones
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Try and do as much handwriting as you can. It reminds you of who you really are. If your handwriting is lousy, write slowly. Legibility with your hand is like thinking before you speak.

CarrollBlog 7.2

At the neighborhood butcher they have a new feature-- free postcards of meat. On one wall near the front counter is a large selection of postcards with photos of different cuts-- steak, roast, chops, etcetera. All of them shot against stark white backgrounds so you get the real oomph of the delicious looking heartiness of the...meat. You can have as many of them as you like. Standing on line waiting my turn, I think who the hell would send someone a postcard with a picture of meat on it? "Having a great hamburger. Wish you were here."

CarrollBlog 7.1

A woman is walking down the street talking loudly to herself, gesturing dramatically, shaking her head. I'm sitting at an outdoor restaurant watching. My first thought-- uh oh-- here comes a nut. Then I see a man walking a few feet behind her. He's looking at the back of her head very intently. I wonder "what's *he* doing, staring at her like that?" Suddenly she plunks herself down at a table near me. The man sits down across from her and she goes on talking-- to him. I realized that in seconds I've thought three entirely different things about these people, two of them dead wrong She's a nut. He's a stalker. Oh it's okay-- they're a *couple*.