Grandma and Gibberish: Tech Talk Today

Did you ever notice how different our vocabulary is now that we have all of this technology?

My 87 year old grandma is pretty tech-savvy for an older lady. After all, she uses Yahoo! and emails us all the time. She even used to have a cell phone (though she thought for a while that you could only call a cell from another cell).

But no matter how quick she is the words I use are not registered in Grandma's dictionary.

Consider this sentence: “I tweeted about the blog and subscribed to the RSS feed.”

Me: total sense. Grandma: gibberish.

Next consider this: “I RT'd @qtpie with a link to the twitpic and she said LOL.”

Me: total sense. Grandma: gibberish.

Or: “I googled the FB app and downloaded the update but I don’t like the new user interface.”

Me: total sense. Grandma: gibberish.

So my point is how much the tech world has changed our language and how large the generational gap is with the new advancements. Even my parents don't quite get it, though they are closer than grandma! I find it quite comical.

Kingda Ka Killer Adventure Part 2

This is the picture I took of the killer ride I took...

Kingda Ka Killer Adventure

On Sunday I had the pleasure of going to great adventure with my husband, brother in law and niece. We went on lots of fun and scary rides. Roller coasters can be scary because while we are taking a thrill ride we all know deep down that just one slight malfunction could be deadly.

You never want to hear a ride operator say the word "OOPS."
Every ride has a sign next to the operator that says "Do Not Distract Ride Operator." Does that mean that one rowdy teen can determine my fate?
So you can imagine my shock and horror when I got up to the gate on the Kingda ka ride and it was "temporarily out of order." what is it I thought- a loose screw? A snapped steel beam? A rowdy crew so distracting that the operator joined in their games?
Luckily the girls in front of me were on round 2 of their Kingda ka excitement and they were here when it was announced.
The ride was closed because someone on the last trip wet himself in his seat during the ride. Now was clean up time.
Oh thank g-d I thought. Nothing so serious!
WAIT A MINUTE!!!
A man wet himself in fear while on this ride and I am saying thank g-d?!? I am thrilled it is nothing seriously deadly or dangerous?!?

This ride is insane and I know why that guy was afraid. You and the other crazy riders get shot 456 feet into the air by hydraulic power at 128 miles per hour. You make one twist till you reach the peak where you edge over the top hanging there with no sense of gravity. You cannot see the track anymore- just the blue sky, clouds, and great expansive parking lot.

Finally you head back down at what feels like 300 mph twisting as you shoot straight down like an arrow heading for the enemy’s heart. This is the link to the description from Great Adventure’s website. I hope I did it justice: http://www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/rides/KingdaKa.aspx

After all that, you finish off with a small little bump in the track that makes you thankful that you are no longer at a 90 degree angle, and then you come back around to the starting point wondering where you lost your lunch along the way.

Dirt

Yesterday my husband Jeremy bought dirt. A lot of dirt. To fill a gaping hole in our backyard.

When we moved in we had 2 sheds, a tree stump, a fence and a lot of junk which we cleared out. And we now have a massive hole. So tonight he has to pour the dirt and put down seeds.

When we filled our first hole after removing the tree stump, we researched which grass seeds to buy. The guy at Home Depot was like an infomercial. He told us that one brand claimed it could grow on concrete, without any sun, in just one week. So Home Depot put an inch of dirt on the concrete and "planted" the seeds. Well, they watered them day in and out and on day 8--or so the guy claimed-- grass began to appear.

I am usually very skeptical but with the promise for grass in our gaping holes and the excitement of the infomercial, we took the risk.

We watered and watered until day 8 when I thought it had failed. But on day 9 Jeremy said he saw grass. And indeed he did!

It grew in nicely and you wouldn't know there was ever a hole. My father in law even asked us where the tree stump used to be- he honestly couldn't tell.

After that experiment, we are going to fill yet another large hole tonight. First with dirt, and then with the famous seeds that grow on concrete.

At the risk of sounding like an infomercial... I highly recommend this product, which can be purchased at Home Depot... (But I forgot the exact name of the product and will check and post when I get home.) Just water and it will grow.

Good luck all!

Letter from my bank

Here is a letter we received from our bank... the one we trust with our mortgage.

"Your ending balance, from the last month of the accounting history, is
$4672.99. Your required balance according to this analysis should be
$4673.00.

This means that you have a shortage of $.01. This shortage may be collected from you over a period of 12 months or more unless the shortage is less than 1 month's deposit in which case we have the additional option of requesting payment within 1 month. We have decided to collect it over 1 months."

It cost the bank 61 cents to mail this letter! Are you kidding me?!?

Secaucus Junction and the NJ Transit

So here I am at Secaucus Junction- the train station with the best radio station. And sitting to my right is a woman with one of those mini tehillim/psalm books. Now this is not the first time I have ever seen her. She seems to take my train each morning and we sit next to each other on this same bench waiting for a transfer. I admire her for reading psalms every morning (the English translated side no less). As u can tell, I am a real people watcher. This helps keep me busy when I am alone and gives me something to talk about with strangers or in awkward situations.

Anyway, here are my general thoughts on Secaucus Junction and the NJ transit:

1. As mentioned above, they have best music streaming. I wonder who the DJ is.

2. You are not a good conductor unless you call it SEEEcaucus.

3. The early morning trains are consistently announced on one track but arrive on the opposite track… without fail! Why even announce a track when there are only 2 possibilities to NYC and they share a platform? And should I trust the signals and information at this station if they are always wrong when they make announcements?

4. “Track 3/Other Way.” That is an actual sign…! Wait, which way?

5. I pay $4.25 for a nice sit down ride and the MTA subway users spend $2 less (yes, the fare for the subway is now $2.25) and get to be cramped, pushed, sweaty, and solicited by random blind men with dogs playing “Country Road” from what looks like an old transistor radio. Thank goodness for the NJ Transit!

3 Couples and a Bowl of Pasta:

Last night I went to Va Bene, a dairy Italian restaurant in NYC - www.vabenenyc.com. I highly recommend the restaurant and the food was delish and the experience was great. Here is my take on the three couples sitting in my row.

Couple 1: Seriously right out of a movie! I saw a woman at one table to my right and a man at another to my left. They each begin playing w their phones, texting to find the other. After a few texts, they finally realize the other is there. And only 4 tables away! So they look up, laugh and he moves over to sit with her. I feel like I'm watching, “You’ve Got Mail” or another chick flick like that.

Couple 2: Intense restaurant experts… They say hello to the maitre de and you can tell they know the menu by heart and have it all planned out to a tee. They begin w salads for each and share the appetizer personal pizza. Then the main dish arrives- a large bowl of pasta for each. They know the best dishes and even how to twirl their pasta with a fork and spoon and they make me feel like I should have ordered exactly what they did.

Couple 3: They REALLY need a new shadchan aka whoever set them up doesn't really know either of them. He is a straight guy wearing a white shirt & black pants and sporting a scruffy beard. She is caked up in foundation and wearing a bright pink and orange shirt and short skirt. They are barely talking... I could have held a better conversation with a goldfish! I'm pretty sure they will never trust the friends who set them up ever again!

Well at least my company was nice as I was with my brother, sister in law, and husband. I am just hoping none of the above 3 couples decided that MY table was so strange that they would blog about the weird couples in their row at Va Bene.

Blogging?

I have just begun this blog, inspired by my fellow Twits. From what I understand, you are nobody on Twitter if your tweets don't lead to a more interesting and expanded blog. And I am fed up with being nobody on Twitter. SO HERE IT IS. You may notice that it is entitled, "Is anyone interested in what I have to say?" and that is because I am truly skeptical about this. I mean, with millions of bloggers, who will be interested in what I have to say?

Answer to that: my husband promised me that he is!

Well at least I have 1 person I know who cares about what I say. The rest of you out there are just nodding your heads and smiling, thinking that the title to my blog is in fact quite apropos.

So, here's my very first attempt at blogging. You can be sure this is going right up on Twitter and Facebook so at least my friends will read and comment.

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more of my rants...

Toodles.