Dregs and Debris

A Delayed Introduction

serendipitousaries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:44:02 +0000

Typically, personal blogs are introduced via a short description of the blogger or an outline of the general focus of the blog, yes? I seem to have bypassed that rite of passage in my haste to expound on the merits of Engrish.com. So here is a (what I hope will be) a relatively painless introduction:

I’m Claire, currently residing in the limbo known as the summer between high school graduation and college matriculation. However, all of that will change very soon when I head up to Chicago (a.k.a the White City, the Windy City, Chi-Town, and various other seemingly senseless nicknames). Hailing from a small suburb in metro Atlanta, I’m pretty excited for the next four years! I like to think of it as a journey into sleepless nights spent in the library/dorm in front of the keyboard, typing as I do now, but with a much more urgent and much less pleasant purpose.

Now, as for the blog, I honestly have no focus for it. I’m usually up-to-date with pop culture, but not obsessed with it as some other prominent bloggers seem to be. I don’t like it too much not because it’s superficial (it is), but rather because it seems so lacking in actual content and somehow manages to capture viewer attention even though some of the premises and plotlines are, to put it lightly, inane. Entertainment does not have to come at the cost of intelligence. Backtracking from this tangent, my obscure blog will mostly serve as an outlet for thoughts and opinions on any and everything. Talk about personal life will be restrained to a great degree, since random Internet users are not likely to be interested and I prefer the paper-and-pen method anyway. Call me old-fashioned; I think anything incriminating about oneself had better be destroyable (can’t destroy the web, now, can you?).

Stereotypical ‘Grumpy Old Man’ Taken to a Whole New Level

serendipitousaries — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:16:42 +0000

This came out on AOL News just about a day ago: “Police say a 61-year-old man annoyed with a crying 2-year-old girl at a suburban Atlanta Walmart slapped the child several times after warning the toddler’s mother to keep her quiet.” First and foremost, I feel oddly in touch with this piece of news because I used to live a few miles away from the store in question; in fact, I still visit that Walmart occasionally. As your typical media-saturated and fame-addicted citizen, I’m pleasantly surprised that one of the local places near me made national news, despite the rather embarrassing nature of the story itself. However, my reasons for talking about this are not completely (maybe just 90%) asinine and driven by my proximity to the scene of the crime. Many a times on long and tedious international flights, I have considered asking the mothers of those crying children to make a better effort at quieting the little brats; but in my brief mental picture of such a scenario, my request would always be polite and non-aggressive. Never in my most irritated state did I dream of physically punishing a stranger’s child. Now, maybe the man thought that all his 61 years gave him some sort of right to discipline random kids in supermarkets. I’m not even half as old as him, but even if I were, I would not have the crazy in me to do such a thing. Of course, slapping isn’t the worst type of violence possible and will not cause any permanent damage, but you have to wonder what was going on in Mr. Stephens’ head. Anger management exists for a reason, folks!

See article here.

A Proposition

serendipitousaries — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:07:57 +0000

Last night, I was intensely watching this morbidly interesting show called Inside American Jail. The shining personalities of the incarcerated gave it a rather surreal feeling, as if the prostitutes and drunkards were merely characters in a crazy play. Sadly, the situation in which they found themselves was no joke. The bright lights and hard white floors of the holding area and the severity of the police officers offered a stark contrast to the colorful clothing and offenses of those being taken in. Because I know that I am not the only one who loves these shows (I know many others who get a kick out of the ridiculous insanity of it all), I am proposing what I will term a “Fascination Factor” for the aforementioned show and others of a similar nature (e.g. Operation Repo, Cops). The Fascination Factor, or FF, will consist of four components, each rated on a scale of 1-10:

1) Funkiness of the hair of the arrested person, judged by both color and style

2) Amount of shame the charge would theoretically bring to the family (assuming he/she has one)

3) The race/ethnicity of the criminal; lighter skin will earn a higher score

4) Amount and type (verbal or physical) of disobedience to officers

Thus, a supremely fascinating criminal-cop show would have a FF of perhaps anywhere from 35 to 40. Of course, the components are all quite subjective and difficult to define numerically, so I won’t even attempt to sort it out.

I do wonder, though, about the amount of truth behind these types of shows.

Engrish

serendipitousaries — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:14:50 +0000

Ah, the joys of the language barrier. It provides great fodder for a few awkward laughs and many strained hand gestures attempting to get what seems to be the simplest idea across to the befuddled foreigner smiling politely at you. Though English, albeit minimal amounts of it, usually works in most countries, so I suppose it’s not too much of a problem anymore. But Engrish.com has revived this lovely tradition of cultural comedy via large compilations of photos of funny English signs taken (largely in Asian countries) by those lucky enough to stumble upon those hidden gems of hilarity. I have burst out laughing on quite a few occasions thanks to this site, but sometimes my ability to read the sign in the original language hinders the effect of the ‘Engrish’. As I’m sure many realize, the signs actually are serious warnings, similar to something like “Please do not lean on doors” notices inside American subway trains. Dull stuff, really. It’s only the shoddy translation by some random Asian company employing a 20-year-old dictionary that gives it that flare we find so entertaining. After all, other people’s silly mistakes are the greatest source of comedic relief since Shakespeare’s drunken porter. While I appreciate the site’s effort, I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for whoever commissioned the signs. It’s not hard to imagine a harmless government bureaucrat getting it from his superiors, who are going on about how this piece of shame is being pasted all over the Internet for a good laugh. I’ll be honest and say that I’ve thought about submitting a few pictures to the site, but never got to it, either due to sheer laziness or a vague sense of guilt over poking fun at the linguistic inadequacy of some unknown Asian. I really think it was the latter reason, because my memories of being unable to speak or understand a word of English are fresh enough for me to cringe when the line between amusement and cruelty becomes too thin.