My annual rant against Half Price Books

Or is it "Get PLAYED"?

Yesterday I took a full load of used books and magazines to Half Price Books for resale.  I had to wheel 'em in a cart to my car, then from my car into the store.  Check in, wait until they called my name, then they gave me the news:

CONGRATULATIONS!  WE'RE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE WE CAN OFFER YOU THE WHOPPING SUM OF $5.50  

Big f__king whoop!

"We're kinda overstocked right now."  (How come every time they see me walking in the door they're suddenly "overstocked"?)

Every year I do this, every year they insult me, every year I swear I'll never go back.  I told K this was the absolute last time I'll ever darken their door.  Of course she launched into her goody-two-shoes "it's not about the money but keeping things out of the landfill" spiel.

OK, fine.  Next time I'll just run 'em through one of those tree limb shredders and turn 'em into mulch.  See, I can be an environmentalist, too.  Or I'll take them to the doctor's office.  His magazines are really old.*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm guessing we still have about another month of summer left before we begin to see the first signs of autumn (in Texas).  Miserable as it still is, I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And I have football season to take my mind off the lingering heat.  Yes, football is a wonderful thing.   ;)

S

* Or the library.  I think they give their old ones away for free.

High tech pooping

Presenting...*drum roll*...the iPotty.  TaDa!

Really?  Most people will just look at this and chuckle or maybe shake their head and think "whatever."  I look at it and think, "The little fucker has his own iPad?"  So now even 2-year-olds have blown past me on the technologically savvy scale.  OH....THE SHAME!  And does the little tyke have one of those Bluetooth thingys stuck in his ear, too?

Whatever happened to that universal fixture of every well furnished bathroom, the magazine rack?  For that matter, what's happened to magazines?  Have you bought a Newsweek magazine lately?  No?  That's because they don't print it anymore.  Pfffft!  Gone.  Online only.  Every month my magazines seem to contain a few less pages of reading material and a few more pages of ads.

But back to the immediate crisis in my life.  The annual Consumer Electronics Show is now underway in Lost Wages...er...Las Vegas.  Nerds from all over have assembled to show off all their newest gizmos, things that to me look like more nails in my low-tech coffin.  They've even taken over that most holy of passions in my life....cars.

Nowadays most mainstream cars (the kind that I can afford, ie: no Ferrari's or Maserati's or Aston Martin's) no longer talk about performance.  All buyers care about today is a car's iPod connectivity or it's Bluetooth capability or it's ability to electronically parallel park itself.  And getting 60 mpg from their 3-cylinder skinny-tired hybrid "mobility device".  Where's the fun in that?

I read somewhere that a majority of kids these days don't even get a drivers license until they're pretty much forced to.  They just hole up in their rooms with their iThis and iThat and text back and forth to each other, avoiding personal contact (and daylight) at all cost.

Is this what the Apocalypse looks like?

S