I wondered that myself until I started keeping one. I enjoy it for the exercise. Writing every day helps keep the mind sharp and the skills intact. As an editor, I don't get to write as much as I'd like.
I've received a lot of feedback since starting the journal. My
friends and family tell me they enjoy it. I get email from folks
around the world asking me about various things. It's nice.
Mostly, the pre-1960 shorts are better due to the writing efforts of Michael Maltese. However the production process was different as well. Before 1960, WB produced cartoons to play in movie houses in front of features. The animation had more frames per second than current TV-centric cartoons.
Warner Bros. shut down the animation wing for a short time and
the animators went to other shops. In the 1960s, they cranked
up production again, but now the features were made for television.
The process was streamlined and (in my opinion) horrible.
In Murfreesboro (my current residence) there was an effort to get into the Guinness Book of World Records during the Tennessee Bicentennial celebration. Across the state, several smaller towns made it.
Rover, a speck on the map along State Route 231, is listed as hosting the worlds largest pajama party.
But Murfreesboro has in its possession the world's largest wooden bucket. It stands at around seven feet tall and is kept in a replica pioneer village (which used to also serve as the chamber of commerce).
Local high school students like to tease the uninitiated by asking
them if they've seen "the biggest." This might go on for months
before the newbie is blindfolded in the dead of night and driven
to the site where the biggest wooden bucket in the world sits.
I'm not sure. It is said that the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt kept cats so that they might pet a tiger on their couch. I think they're less trouble to keep than dogs. They're clean and don't mind the baby too much.
I like the fact that the only physical difference between my two
cats and the tigers at the zoo is size.
The microwave oven works by bombarding food with radiation. Essentially, the food (which is made up of molecules) gets pelted by tiny particles. This causes the food to vibrate at the subatomic level. These vibrations heat up the food and (sort of) cook it. Containers such as glass and plastic have a tighter bond between their more-stable molecules. So they don't vibrate as much.
Think of the microwave as playing a song. The food starts to tap
its foot, jump around, and dance. But the plastic can't seem to
get the rhythm.
This is something with which the online community will be wrestling for years to come. Salon recently ran an article refuting the NYT story. I spend a great deal of time online. Sometimes its enjoyable. Other times I feel like I've wasted an entire day trying to sift a tiny bit of substance from the Internet.
There is a dichotomy within the online paradox. A room full of people at the local cyber/coffee/copy shop will be on the computers feeling connected to other rooms full of people hundreds of miles away. Individuals in this group will not afford a simple greeting to the person sitting at the next table (who wouldn't notice anyway).
We're at one more connected with the planet and less with our neighbors. Is that depressing?
Sometimes.
Copyright 1998, Thomas L. Mangan
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