Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance.  - M. C. Richards

Ok, funny story. I was at The Quotations Page looking for a quote to start off my post for the day, and I was having trounle deciding which quote to use. There were several good ones on the page, but after I encountered the Richards quote I knew I had to use it. You see, when I read the quote, I had to sound out the word "irrelevance". When I first glanced at the word I read it as "irreverence", but when I read it again, I knew that wasn't it. So I tried again, but didn't think I recognized the word. I finally resorted to sounding the thing out and realized what a sad little person I am. Alas and alack, my lack of activity due to the summer months has obviously resulted in my losing my ability to read.

Anyway, the reason I was looking for a quote about poetry was because I was remembering when I first named this blog, and I recalled the reason(s) that I named it what I did. As I recall, my inspiration originally came from a poem by Shel Silverstein, the title poem from his book A Light in the Attic. It wasn't really the content of the poem that gave me the idea for the title, but the picture on the cover of the book and the title of the poem. Those things reminded me of the phrase "the lights are on, but nobody's home", and since I'm rather ditzy at times, I decided this was the perfect name for my little blog. You're probably wondering why I bring this up, so I'm going to tell you.

Thinking about Silverstein and his many writings reminded me how much I loved his books when I was little. In particular, I loved the book The Giving Tree. (It's a great book. If you haven't read it, you should.) A touching story about a little boy, his tree, and being willing to give up anything for people you care about. But what I really want to share with you today, is my favorite poem of all time, (Well, that is to say, if you call most of my childhood "all time".) It's not just a cool poem, it's good advice.

Warning*

Inside everybody's nose
There lives a sharp-toothed snail.
So if you stick your finger in,
He may bite off your nail.
Stick it up farther inside,
And he may bite your ring off.
Stick it all the way, and he
May bite the whole darn thing off.

*Where the Sidewalk Ends, Copyright 1974, Harper and Row Publishing, by Shel Silverstein

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.  - Farmers' Almanac, 1978

I am about to throw this blasted contraption out the window.

Since I got a new tower in January, my computer has been a sheer joy. The thing ran faster, smoother, and better than ever before. But alas, I think the honeymoon is over. In the last few days this computer has been running so flipping slow. I used to be able to double-click Trillian, ITunes and Internet Explorer in rapid succession and have them all open with ease in a fairly short time, but those times seem to be a thing of the past. Now when I try open those programs quickly, my poor computer has a horrific freak-out and one or more programs doesn't open properly or takes forever to get started.

At this point I'm very frustrated with this machine. All I know about the problem is that it started 1) about the same time all of my Microsoft Works programs started freaking out and displaying a window titled "End User License Agreement" and calling you to "agree" or "disagree" to the terms and 2)  around the time my dad started using this computer often to look at a golfing and exercise website. I have a feeling either that website has some evil pop-up that infected the computer, or Works is corrupting it.

So, if anyone could help me with my computer's (hopefully) temporary mental retardation, it would be appreciated.

Edit: 8:44 PM

Well, the problem seems to have solved itself. I ran ad-aware and restarted and everything seems to be fine now.

Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored. - George Saunders
 
Well, I'm not actually leaving, but I am rather bored. But I find some comfort in the fact that I am not quite as bored as these people. I really don't feel the need to alleviate the tedious misadventure I now call my existence by hanging my body on meathooks on a public beach. Personally, I don't find that entertaining as much as I find it painful-sounding and completely disgusting. Oww....
 
I don't know if anyone else noticed, but Blogger totally messed with the "create new post" page. They make it so easy, you don't have to know any HTML at all to have a blog anymore. It kinda takes away from the pride of blogging. Now anyone can do it! Stupid folks at Blogger...

Cow.

Edit: 7:43 PM
 
Now I can't decide which story makes me cringe more, the meat hooks article, or this one.

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts. - Mark Twain

Hence.

I was out driving with my dad yesterday and I almost got in an accident. A lady was walking across the street (where there was not a crosswalk) so I slowed to a stop so she could cross. I slowed down gradually enough, that I assumed the person behind me noticed, but as I looked in the rearview mirror, the big Dodge Ram van behind me was coming up fast. They obviously weren't paying attention, so I had to jump back onto the accelerator to avoid being rear-ended. Somehow I avoided an accident with both the lady crossing the street and the van, but I'm still unsure of how I accomplished this.

The real kicker in that situation was what ensued mere minutes later. The same van changed lanes to my left, then cut on front of me without signaling, and finally changed lanes to the turning lane on my right. (Crossing over a solid white line I might add.) Some people just do not know how to drive. In any event, I will perhaps begin checking my rearview mirror more frequently.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. - Western Union internal memo, 1876.

I got a cell phone! Yay! I've been meaning to get one for a while, since i"M going to be driving and doin' all kinds of stuff next school year. This way my parents can keep track of me.

My mom actually bought the phone for me, but I'll have to pay for the service. It's a Tracfone so I think I can handle it. My phone is a cute little Nokia 1221. The only lame thing is that I can't compose new ringtones, and I can't seem to find a place to download them for free. Oh well, it's still cool.

In other news, I'm doing some work-ish thing for our family friends, the Southwicks, this weekend, so I may have cash for once! Joy. Also, I am a White House Staffer.

Cool.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. - H. L. Mencken

What the...?

Yeah...Wow...

So anyway! Still not much goin' on. For the 4th of July my family (minus Nathan) and the Davis clan made our way over Blue Lake Park that evenin' to watch the fireworks. We got there at about 7:00 PM and since the display wasn't starting until 10:00 PM, I walked around the park a bit with Jenell and we did a bit of catchin' up. Suffice it to say, the fireworks didn't compare to the conversation that night.

Yesterday we (my mother and I) met up with Jenell and her mother for a grand shopping extravaganza to celebrate Jenell's birthday. We shopped for close to 7 hours, first at Lloyd Center Mall, then Gresham Station. I bought some stuff and that was cool, but once again, my conversations with Jenell easily out-stripped the actual shopping experience.

I have found power in the mysteries of thought. - Euripides

Sitting and thinking gets old fast. Especially when you get distracted every five seconds by random family members or modern technology you hope will rescue you from your near comatose state of boredom. I've got things I want to think about, but there's just too much going on around me to be able to really wrap my brain around anything of importance. Yuck.

In other news, our family just purchased a brand new truck to replace or dying van. It seems pretty nice. Joy.

Ugh, I'm so bored I had a dream about school last night. It was the first day or something and...stuff happened. I really don't remember too much except that it was the first day and my schedule was all screwed up. It's weird to think that I'll actually be getting my class schedule in about a month and then shortly after that, the new school year will be started. Summer is going by fast. Monotonous, but fast.

*sigh* I need a vacation...far far away...