A bit of randomness...

I've got a paper to write before six tomorrow evening, so I need to be brief, but I wanted to give you all a little something in a special early edition tonight.

- It's no secret at this point that The New Kids on the Block are re-uniting for god only knows what. So does this mean their name has to be changed to "Those guys who moved away, but came back home to the block because they ran out of money"? Plus, if they're now an all growed-up boy band, does that make them the first "Man Band"???

- For some odd reason, I'd love to go fishing somewhere. Granted, I don't know crap about baiting hooks or anything like that, but it sounds like fun to go out somewhere, rent a rowboat, and drink beers while sitting on a lake with some of my good friends. For all the wonderful things there are to do in SF, we lack a good fishin' hole.

- Does anyone else find it disturbing that you can now buy DVDs with a special "digital copy" disc as well? What this means is that you can buy the DVD, watch it at home on your giant TV or on your computer with a DVD rom, and since you shelled out some extra cash, you can also get a disc formatted specially for iTunes, so you can watch it on your computer with DVD rom, or on that teeeeeeeny little screen on your iPod. Yes, the new iPods have bigger screens, but not by THAT much. Come on now, isn't this a tad redundant? Have we as a society lost the ability to just sit and watch a movie from start to finish? Or is that something else we have to do on our commutes so that we can more effectively ignore the outside world?

- Do you know what our generation lacks? Handymen. Those guys who can do a little bit of everything when it comes to home repairs. They know how to fix your toilet, they can install shelving or hang sheet rock when needed, they can make shit out of two by fours and plywood if need be. What do we have instead? The Geek Squad. Sure, they can re-configure my wireless router, but can I call up a friendly Geek Squad employee and get him to come help me cut some lumber down to size, or ask his opinion on modular storage units? No. I'm not saying that one is any better than the other or has a different value. Granted, I wouldn't want someone running in with a tape measure if my hard drive was seizing up. Still, I think our consumerist society has fallen victim to what I call "Ikea syndrome": we get stuff of only moderate quality, and as soon as something goes wrong with it, we throw it away. Can you imagine how many of those "frundi" paper and wire lamp fixtures must be laying in tatters in landfills across the US? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anything against Ikea - I'd never badmouth anything conceived of in the motherland. They really do provide a great service to people like myself in that they make things even I can afford. I'm just saying that I have a basic crafty know-how, and I have the infinite wisdom of my dad, an engineer and relentless tinkerer, both of which come in very handy when that caster falls off my rolling cabinet or a shelf is about to give way. Stuff like this makes me wonder: what will happen in another generation? Will the old "workbench out in the garage" be replaced by a treasure trove of USB cables and memory cards? Will the old mason jars and cigar boxes filled with random bolts, washers, screws, and nuts be replaced with a box full of RAM sticks and microchips? I can say with a great deal of certainty that the answer is no, because unlike screws and nails, technology becomes obsolete in no time, so it doesn't make a damn bit of sense to hang on to anything once you stop using it, because it's probably already antiquated in comparison to whatever the computer companies are churning out now.