Hooray! Back in touch! (and more Overheards)

[resonant]

Turned out that my computer problems were much less serious than I had thought, so I am once again in touch with the world, and I just have to ask: How the hell did we get along before we could Google things? I mean, seriously, it was only one weekend, and I can't tell you how often I desperately needed to know something that I couldn't find out without my sweet Google.

Meanwhile, Questionable Content comic explains the law of Quantum Fetish Mechanics.

And here's my latest batch of the fruits of my eavesdropping. Apologies for its being so kidlet-heavy; they've been amusing me more than most things lately.

On Halloween:
Me: My head feels funny.
Kidlet: How much candy did you eat?
Me: None.
Kidlet: That explains it. You're suffering from candy deprivation.



Kidlet: I'm going to trick-or-treat further than I've ever trick-or-trett before!

Kidlet, gently: Try to be smarter in the future.

Jenny: How was your weekend?
Elizabeth: It was good, because you weren't here.
Jenny: You mean it was quiet. Quiet is different from good.

I don't want to be well-adjusted. I'd never write another word.

(In the gym locker room) It proves that just because you have artificial joints, it doesn't mean you can sit on your butt all the time.

I'm disrupting your life and I don't care.

Me: Why does the witch want to kidnap the princess?
Kidlet: Because it's traditional.

Kidlet, doing a jig: Well, a kid's gotta move.

Look at John Wayne.
He's dead. What kind of example is that?

Old lady at the gym: And he's on television talking about family, family, family, family. And I'm thinking: Suppose we elect you to Congress. How much time do you think you'll be spending with your family?

edited 2020 to retroactively correct the kidlet's gender pronouns

Comments

[coreopsis.livejournal.com]

hee. Your kidlet is very funny, but I also love that old lady.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too! I wanted to cheer.

I know the candidate she's talking about. I said to the spouse, "He has a kind of irritating way of targeting kids in his advertising -- like he was handing out balloons at the fair, and he gives away kid-size T-shirts, and I think he's probably --" and before I could say, trying to get people to vote for him based on the cute factor rather than on what he actually stands for, the spouse filled in the blank for me: "A child molester. I know."

[eruthros]

We stored information differently before google! This is my theory, anyway. Because I remember that, before I owned a cell phone, I remembered the phone numbers of about fifty friends offhand, and could dial most of them without thinking. Now I sometimes have to confirm my memory of my own land-line number by looking at the entry for "land-line" in my cell phone. *facepalm*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I have noticed that I mostly don't bother to try to remember things, on the theory that when I need them it will be easy to look them up.

I wonder what a person from Homer's time would think of my memory? "I can remember entire million-word epics, and you have to look up your parents' address?"

[indywind]

half of knowledge is knowing where to find it

[ecaterin.livejournal.com]

Gawd - tell me about Google! I was in a library recently going, holy crap! We used to have to come down and either search in 10 year old Encyclopedia Britannica or microfiche. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Teh horror! When I was doing medical transcription for the past 3 years I was just boggled to think that the zillion arcane surgical instruments or procedures used to have to be looked up in a dozen different books. Books costing about 120 bucks each. Books in which you couldn't run your search by hitting crtl+F or simply rephrasing yourself 1001 different ways :P

*clings to Google*

The kidlet only gets more charming as she gets older. Smart kid comments just crack me up, especially when they've used their brains to come to a completely logical but completely incorrect conclusion :D My 6.75 yo does that all the time :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

We have an encyclopedia, but it's from 1996, and if you want to know something about, oh, Russia? or, um, computers? It's pretty much useless.

And, wow, your thing about the medical books reminded me of working at the jeans store when I was in high school, where we'd get this printed book of invalid credit card numbers, and every time someone used a credit card, we'd have to look up the number in the book. How medieval is that?

[temaris.livejournal.com]

re: Googlelessness: Once upon a time, I actually *used* the reference books that sit, collecting dust, on the top shelf of my bookshelf. I'd be sad, only that might involve moving ;-)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I haven't cracked a dictionary in about five years.

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

A couple of guys in my office used to have the following exchange every once in a while:

A: What did we do before we were able to look things up on the internet?
B: Speculate wildly.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[laughing] It used to be a lot easier to win a bet!

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Why don't my kids bring home friends that are more like your kidlet?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't the kidlet have friends like your kids instead of the fashion-and-boy-obsessed Phoebe and the extremely rough, bruise-leaving Carmen?

[not-sally.livejournal.com]

your kid is amazing.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Well, of course we think she's superior to all other kids, but other parents, oddly, disagree with us.

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

I. Oh gosh. I love this whole entire post, elbows and all. Not like that!

Okay, a little like that.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[beaming at you]

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

your kidlet is awesome. Welcome back!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. Alas for my not-done vacuuming, but it's so good to be back!

[celestialcuming.livejournal.com]

Candy deprivation - hmmmmmm... The Kidlet is a wise one