Jersey: Part 1

I've lived in New Jersey for 2 years, and I still don't get this state. Granted, I live in Princeton, which isn't really Jersey from a purist's perspective, but I'm certainly not in Virginia anymore. I guess I figured New Jersey would be something in between Massachusetts and Virginia (in the cultural sense - I'm aware it actually is geographically).

One of the strangest things I have noticed is how people behave with shopping carts. Where ever I have lived, Virginia or Massachusetts, the vast majority of people would return their shopping carts to one of those fenced in cart depositories in the parking lot after loading their car. In fact, in Germany, all the carts actually lock together. To get one, you have to insert a Euro, and in order to get your Euro back, you have to neatly replace your cart once you have completed your shopping.

But in Jersey, people just leave their carts where ever they load their car. Sometimes they stick the front wheels up on a curb so that it doesn't roll away, but that's about the extent of the effort expended by the majority of people. The first time I pulled into a shopping center, it was kind of bizarre to see the parking lot littered with carts. Having never seen something like this, I just figured something out of the ordinary had happened, like a freak hail storm. But I was soon to learn that this was the modus operandi for people in Jersey (or at least the Princeton area).

Maybe this is normal in other parts of the country as well, but based on my experiences, it is pretty localized. I really just don't understand it - there is a reason they put those cart depositories in the parking lot. Now the Wal-Mart employees, or whoever, have to wander all over the parking lot collecting carts, instead of getting them, already (somewhat) neatly stacked from their depositories. But this presents somewhat of a dilemma. Most people are leaving their carts all over the place, so what difference do I make if I actually return my cart to the proper location? I mean, the workers will still have to wander about the parking lot collecting carts, so what is one more that they will almost necessarily have to walk by anyways?

Nevertheless, this whole concept of leaving your cart wherever you feel like strikes me as somewhat selfish and lazy. Now I confess, I am only about 50/50 these days, but when I go home, or basically anywhere else, I am sure to return my cart. Otherwise, I will be disturbing the social order. At least when I don't return my cart in Jersey, I make sure to place it in between cars. Some people literally just leave them where ever they feel like, maybe even in the out of the way of a parking spot. Now granted, their location is not inherently fixed, so they may be rolling around, especially if it's windy or the parking lot is sloped. Which brings me to another point - it's somewhat dangerous - I'm just waiting for some little girl or old lady to get slammed by a runaway shopping cart and have an arm broken or to fall down and break a hip. Or, heaven forbid, some one's BMW 7-series get a fat dent in the door. So maybe I'll try to improve my 50/50 shopping cart returning habit. I don't want Jersey to seep in too much, after all.

Spring Rain

So I've decided to post the lyrics to the one song I've actually completed (more or less). It seems appropriate for the season:

"Spring Rain"

Why do I play these games
I'm just tryin' to find you
My head is spinnin' in circles
I'm holding so tight to nothing

Chorus:
And you girl
Just like spring rain
You girl, cold but you're warming
You girl, sending shivers down my spine
You girl, feel like summer coming

Was Helen really worth,
Clearly you never saw her smile
Just a glance transfixed Paris
Meet her eyes and all is lost

Chorus:
And you girl
Just like spring rain
You girl, cold but you're warming
You girl, sending shivers down my spine
You girl, feel like summer coming

I know, you're pretty unlikely
But how can I know, standing over here
I'll walk over, see what you're thinking
You probably won't give a sh*t, but I'd rather be sure

Chorus

Here I'm sitting, staring at the wall
I'm missing someone I don't even know
It's been quite a day, and I can't think straight
And I'm wishing I was in your arms

Photogenic

I'm sure you have heard someone whisper, jealously, "she's just so photogenic". Some of us even hide from the camera because we simply think we aren't photogenic. But we've also probably heard, or come to the realization, that's it's not just that we aren't photogenic. There is something behind being photogenic - beauty. But I think I may have taken it too far - some people simply do look better on film than they do in real life, and presumably the reverse. I realized this when I was looking at some pictures of someone I know. She is a good looking girl, but almost always looks terrific in photos. Something about her shape makes her appear even more attractive in pictures. I suppose this is why people often say movie stars don't look as good in person. Two dimensions just don't capture everything in the three dimensional. But still, the "I'm just not photogenic" excuse gets old after a while.
But perhaps most importantly, there should be a noun for photogenic, like "photogenocity".

April Fools

After seeing, and almost falling for, several April Fools websites, Google takes the prize this year:
http://www.google.com/tisp/. I was about to inquire into their new, "free", wireless internet, when I read a little closer.

I watched "Thumbsucker" today. Solid movie - Keanu Reeves even did a good job (who knew?). Although not as laugh-out-loud as "Little Miss Sunshine", I think it was actually a deeper, more exploratory film about the "human condition" (I hate that phrase, it's so postmodern, but it's growing on me nonetheless). And yes, this is a very postmodern movie - not to give it away, but Keanu Reeves' character's dialogue at the end sums a lot of the movie's premises up rather neatly (too neatly?). Of course, I'll give the writers some extra credit here, because at the end of the same dialogue, he also alludes to the underlying absurdity/contradiction of postmodernism - namely, that a rejection of objectivity is a rather challenging position to take, especially when you must maintain the objective position of there being no objectivity. But I digress - it's a great ride, and points out that no one really has it all down, and sometimes people suck at communicating and relationships, but underneath it all, they are trying really hard.