Oh, the humanity! Wait...it's humanity! Scanner that sees through clothes!

The new airport scanner that supposedly shows the "the body's contours with blush-inducing clarity" is shown to be "controversial". People are worried that their ~gasp~ body will be visible!

Let's step back a second and put your ego in check. Your body is just like everyone else's body. Who gives a flyin' flip that your body contours will be visible? I'm sure after seeing hundreds of bodies each day, even the scan operators will yawn when they see your visage, too. I feel that so much of the fear of losing body-privacy in this instance is due to some sort of malformed belief that "we are all individuals." Sure, we're all different right down to our DNA, but on the scan-screen we're all pretty much the same. Most have two nipples. Most have two arms. Most have body fat. Most have two legs, etc, etc. There's nothing sooooo unusual from body to body. So, again, to those of you worried about getting ~exposed~ -- get over yourselves and realize that your body is boring just like all the rest of 'em.

Not surprising...

Anna Nicole Smith dies at 39. I'm guessing a drug OD, but what do I
know? It's a tragic end to a tragic-filled life.

A couple of eBay whines

1. The greedy bastards are hiking up the costs...again. As if the billions and billions they're raking in wasn't enough. It's really pretty pathetic.
2. I received a notice the other day that they were not able to automatically withdraw funds for January's fees directly from PayPal due to "technical difficulties." Excuse my pointing out the obvious -- PayPal and Ebay are one and the same company now. How f*cking hard is it to withdraw your own f*cking money. Can't a technogeek within the gold gilded walls figure out how to turn on the switch so that Ebay's database speaks with PayPal's across the room?? Maybe the fee hike mentioned in 1. is to buy a clue? Or to buy a new network admin? In any event...BOOOOO.

Hotel Life vs. Real Life

I'm almost in a panic state of mind right now. Every time I walk through our house, my eyes have been focusing on clutter. Some areas are worse than others, but I've found myself really, really needing to free my life from clutter. My eyes catch on anything that isn't truly necessary. I spent almost three weeks in hotel rooms free from clutter of any kind. (The one I spent the most time in was full of poorly managed furniture and horrific pattern combinations, but that's a different story...) The closets had very little except for the few items I brought with me. The bathroom drawers and cabinets were only filled with essentials -- one only ~really~ needs what one can fill in that ziploc allowed on the plane -- toothbrush, floss, paste, lotion, deodorant, etc. Really very minor things.

So, in the scant few days I've been home, I've started ridding myself of crap that is cluttering our lives. I've got a pretty big pile of DI/Goodwill donations going. I'm sure it will be much larger by this weekend when I have time to go through more stuff. I've thrown some books on Ebay. When I get to my closets, I'll throw clothing on ebay, too. I've tossed a bunch of crud in the garbage. It's very freeing!

I've never really been a huge clutter-bug, but what I've found is that I really do have more than I need. More of just...stuff. And it's really not as organized as it could be. Most of it is stuff I never use, or used once. Or stuff I planned on using but never did. I'm sure ya'll can relate. The way that ~stuff~ is marketed to us to buy, buy, buy much more than you need, you'd think that everyone would be swamped. Well, some people are, I guess. The panic I mentioned earlier is directly related to the feeling that I could become one of those people...and have my stuff fall on me and kill me...either physically or metaphorically. Right now, it's just a thorn in my side which I'm digging at with a really big tweaser.