7 Quick Takes


1. Thanks to twitter, CherylSmith999 to be exact, I have now discovered the comedy magic that is literal music videos. For example, they take this video of Rick Astley singing, Never Gonna Give You Up 1987 (man I’m old) and they voice over it literally describing what is happening in the video. Watch it here. If you can’t figure out how that could be funny just wait until, “enough of me, let’s cut to my shadow.” I also recommend Total Eclipse of the Heart-The Literal Version and With Arms Wide Open – Literal Video Version. You can manage on your own from there, I’m sure. Hours of free entertainment.

2. I just found out that people pay anywhere between $200 to $400/month for cable/internet. That kind of shocked me. What’s more shocking, to me, is that that people in my neighborhood who are on a fixed income, unemployed, on public assistance, etc, are the ones paying these bills. Yikes.
I pay $25/month for highspeed internet. The wireless modem router was about $200. That’s one month of cable, for the lower cost. In six months of paying your $200 cable bill you would be able to purchase a brand new MacBook and download your TV for free. Add the cost of a netflicks membership, which is way less than $200/month and you have all the entertainment you need, don’t you? Why would you pay that much for cable when you can’t afford gas or groceries or laundry? How do you have time to watch it enough to be worth it? Did you fail math?

Mind boggling y’all.

3. I got to go to SummerFest Under the Stars at The Cove in La Jolla with the GH last week. It’s a free outdoor classical concert on cliffs overlooking the ocean for those of you not wanting to click the link. It was lovely, even though there was no sunset. It may be the first time I’ve ever been at the cove in the evening that there has not been a spectacular sunset. But it was too overcast. The music was good though, and hearing the waves crashing below and the cry of seagulls in the silent places was a really beautiful combination. A friend who plays viola in the orchestra told us about it. I think it may be the first classical concert I have attended without needing to run after children since the Boy was born. Totally worth the hour long train ride to meet the GH after work, just for the pleasure of sitting and listening uninterrupted. Having a handsome guy for a date wasn’t that bad either.

4. I keep meaning to find out if there is any reason humans shouldn’t eat birdseed. I keep thinking this because a 5 pound bag is only $4 or so at Target and from what I can see it’s all really nutritious grains and seeds like millet. That stuff costs a lot at the grocery store. It looks like if you washed it and cooked it it would make some really good porridge. Now wouldn’t that be a healthy frugal tip. Perhaps I’ll try it and let you know.

5. The GH came in this week and collapsed into a chair in that way that lets me know he’s messed up. He was listening to PBS on the way home and they aired, from a documentary, a domestic violence call, made by a child. He said he was wailing all the way home. The worst thing he has ever heard. I can’t find it online, though he assures me I don’t want to listen to it even if I did. Did anyone else hear it?

6. Number 1 reminds me of a conversation that was relayed to be by a friend who was at that time the director of a nonprofit in Vancouver Canada known as Jacob’s Well. (It’s a really cool story how it started so you should click over and read about it.) One of the street guys she was friends with asked her for money one day so she answered, “Is it true that on a good night, Friday or Saturday, panhandling you can make over $100 bucks?”
“Yeah, sometimes.”
“And even on a bad night you still make a little right?”
“Yeah.”
“So you can make up to $400/week doing that. Right?”
“I guess.”
“And you get your assisted living check so when you add that all together, you actually make more money than I do. I should be asking you for money.”
“But you have a car.”
“Yes, I do. That’s because I don’t smoke all my money up a crack pipe. When you’re ready to quit that you know you can come and talk to me and I’ll help you.”
“Yeah.”
She qualified that by reminding her listeners that she was actually friends with the guy, and that’s the kind of conversation you can have with someone if you are in relationship with them and they know you care about them that you couldn’t as you are trying to ignore them when they approach you on a street corner.
I’ve always remembered it for some reason.

7. The GH and I joke around about how we should start a Husband for Hire business. He’s really good at all those little things that wives hate nagging their husbands about; repairs, maintenance, taking out the trash, foot rubs… All we need is a catchy slogan and paying customers and I think we’re set. Of course if this were to happen I would probably end up like the cobbler’s wife, you know, rubbing my own feet, or something, while he takes out someone else’s trash… (Man I tried writing that without it sounding suggestive and there is just no way to do it. You can see the trouble we’re having coming up with the slogan.)

And that completes the mind dump for this week. Thanks Jen for hosting 7 Quick Takes Friday.

all content © Carrien Blue

11 thoughts on “7 Quick Takes

  1. You got a pretty good laugh out of me on #7 🙂

    I agree with you about paying for cable. It just doesn't seem worth it – completely unneccessary.

    And I'm so jealous of you going to the concert on the beach cliffs! That sounds amazing. *sigh* Missouri has no such beach cliffs 🙂

  2. Regarding the birdseed: I suspect you could eat it, but it is probably far dirtier than allowed for food for human consumption. That would range from particulate matter to pesticides to grease/oil to bugs. Of course, all of those things can be found in human food as well, but the percentages allowed are much lower. (For instance, maybe you are allowed something like 15 ants per pound of human food but maybe 50 in animal food.)

  3. I love the literal version of Take on Me by Aha, so funny :o)

    Don't start me on the choices people make for their families, children going hungry but they have 3 large screen tv's, a wii, a playstation, a pc, a lap top, and so on. So sad, it teaches the young nothing but to want more. That and what it is like to be truly hungry :o(

    xc

  4. Really enjoyed your quick takes this week.
    Regarding cable, I had a conversation once I'll never forget. I worked with a woman who had one of those husbands who never could hold a job while she held three. Their house wes being foreclosed on. She was taking her break time to call the cable company to renegotiate her bill so they'd leave the cable on.
    I was amazed — if you can't pay your mortgage, why have cable?
    Well, if you can't pay your mortgage, why not have cable? If the really good, substantial food of life is denied to you for some reason, seems somehow unattainable, but you can have the cheap cr@p, why wouldn't you take it?
    I really see this as a metaphor for much that is American, we have denied ourselves or feel like we've been denied the right to have nutritious, so why not go ahead and enjoy the junk. I do realize there's a self-fulfilling element to it, but I also see it as a sad kind of cultural hopelessness.

  5. I have definitely read of people eating millet bought through feed stores, but would probably pass on a mixed bag from Target.

    Can't wait to show my husband #1. He is a little older than I am, so it's great fun to laugh at his oldies music together.

  6. So you want real bragging rights that you eat like a bird?!

    The thought of eating bird seed would NEVER occur to me. Maybe that's why I'm always complaining about my weight.

    Enjoyed your Quick Takes. Have a good weekend.

  7. #1, thank you so much! I know what the hubby and I will be doing after the kids go to bed tonight! 🙂 This is our music after all. But it might be even better if we knew the original video. (I don't know a lot of them. . . ironically, my family didn't have cable or food when I was growing up.)

    #5, no, and no thanks. 🙁

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