A Whole New World

I've never been to California until now.

I've never seen such an incredible sight as the endless lights of Los Angeles and the surrounding suburbs stretching out to the horizon at midnight.

I've never thought how comfortable I could be at 72 degrees all year round.

I've never woken up at 4 AM to catch a flight and see the sunrise from an overcrowded terminal.

I've never waited 5 1/2 hours in an ER waiting room so my friend could see a doctor who essentially told him to remove his post-surgery suturing himself.

And with that last thought, I've never realized how poor the state of American healthcare is right now. We sat in that room for hours because it was the closest hospital to LAX that would take my friend's insurance. Meanwhile, the rest of us in VoiceMale were trying desperately not to stand out in a room where we were the absolute minority. It was so strange to us, driving around in our yacht of a van that we would have to wait for so long to have a simple operation like suture removal done. I know that this single experience is no way to judge an entire system, but watching that people in that crowded and unclean ER waiting room made me wonder how they viewed what their taxes were getting them. Or what their time was be wasted for.
I only saw an ambulance come in with emergency patients twice. That isn't a condemnation or praise, but it seemed strange to me how much it set everything back. It seemed strange that our friend had to fill out forms, go to triage, fill out forms again, then see a totally uncaring and apparently incompetent doctor and between each step, wait an hour to an hour and a half.

Mooninites

Unbeknownst to me, much of Boston was apparently in a tizzy over what appeared to be bombs on bridges, buildings, and other public fixtures yesterday. Two men were arrested and then, released today. Essentially with no charges pressed.

The "bombs" in question were LED signs advertising the Adult Swim cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force and officials here in Massachusetts are talking about pressing charges and calling the thing a "terror hoax".

Now I don't know about you, but I would think a bomb would look, well, dangerous. Not like this (Yes, I'm linking to a blog. Yes, I'm essentially violating unspoken laws of blogiquette. Deal.) I also think that it's funny that nobody noticed them for what I understand to be 2 weeks before the entire state went into an uproar and people like Boston Mayor Thomas Menino began demanding hat the FCC revoke the broadcast lisence for Cartoon Network parent company Turner Broadcasting. That's just absurd to me.

How paranoid are we going to get? Is every little thing going to set us off and is this really the appropriate response? Who's to say that this is really the appropriate response as well? Sure, the devices were under bridges and in subway stations and that's not really appropriate in the post-9/11 world considering that the devices could, possibly, in the right light look something almost but not quite a bomb. Maybe. And I'm suspending a lot of disbelief here.

I'm personally surprised at the threats being leveled at the two men who put up the devices. In terms of a viral marketing scheme, it's great. These little, ubiquitous, shiny things that "flip you off" as you walk by are exactly the kind of irreverent humor that Adult Swim propagates, when they aren't playing anime, and of which I think we could all use more in our lives.

In the pursuit of humor, it seems that the funny are losing more and more.

P.s. No, I do not count myself as funny. I try too hard.

P.P.s. Narf.