Coincidentally, two recent-model Corvettes this morning.

The first was riding up I-85 here in Atlanta. It's tag said "I WORK". Not
sure I like this one very much. Is this man's entire essence wrapped up
in working, and his car? Hope not.

The second was here in the parking deck at the office. It said "HI OFCR".
Very cheeky. If I was a police officer then I'd pull this guy over just
on GP.

The third wasn't a Corvette. It was a Honda Accord coupe. Tag said
"BLAZIN". Blazin', huh? Blazin indeed.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Some interesting stuff going on this morning, peeps.

• Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is now an honorary member of the Las Vegas Police Department's K-9 Unit.
• The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is once again available to residents of China, after over a year of being blocked by the Communist Chinese government because it contained content the government labeled "subversive." Certain Wikipedia entries are still censored, like information pertaining to June 4, 1989, the date of the "incident" at Tiananmin Square.
• The Institute for Science and Halacha, in Jerusalem, is taking advantage of "loopholes" in the Torah. In today's modern world, many Jews are finding increasingly difficult to observe the Sabbath, which lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. The Torah prohibits any activities fitting into any of the 39 biblical categories of "work", and the original 39 categories have been extended to apply to the current way of doing things. For example, while "lighting a fire" was one of the original categories, that category has been extended to include using a light switch or starting a car. A pretty interesting article, actually.
• Emmitt Smith won Dancing with the Stars.
• Mindsight - Something from the Idea Festival Folkz. Only read this if you are prepared to spend 5 or 10 minutes on it. It's not that long, but it will make you sit and ponder things and probably read back through it one or two times.
• Finally, a Tech Tip for you. Have you ever felt a need to rearrange the programs on your Windows XP Taskbar? I know I have. Now I can with Taskbar Shuffle. Broght to you (and me) by the folkz at Download Squad.

Y'all have a great day.

That's right. You read that correctly. I read license tags. If I happen to see a tag that's a few digits off of mine, I think "That person and I were probably in the tag office just about the same time. We've crossed paths before." I'm very into the concept of this being a very small world, and the paths crossing and such. I also get a very small kick out of words or consecutive letters or digits showing up in license tags.
The other side of license tags is "vanity" or "prestige" tags. I find them fascinating. The reasons why people get them, as well as the reasons why people don't get them. The way I see it, for some people, a vanity/prestige tag is their one way of adding just a little bit of individuality to an otherwise pedestrian and ho-hum Honda Civic.

For other people, a vanity/prestige tag can be a testament to what you spend your days doing. Remember "ASSMAN" from Seinfeld?

The last thing I'd like to discuss why some people DON'T get vanity tags. These days I often see people spend thousands of dollars customizing their cars. You see paint jobs, sound systems, custom wheels and custom interiors. So, tell me. After one spends all this time and thought and energy (not to mention money) making sure their car is "one of a kind"? Why not spend an extra $100 bucks to give it unique tag? Just a waste, if you ask me.

With that, here are a few tags that I've seen lately. Some I have pictures for, some I don't.

TNDRONI - Saw this one just last night, on a Mini Cooper. I found it nostalgic, and cute.
BIGPERM -This one was a while ago. Found it hilarious.
THEATL - Gotta love anyone that supports the The ATL.

You probably can't even see this one, so don't even try. It says MOEJOE.







LFEZGOOD - I caught this one in North Carolina this past weekend.













PATENTS - Was I jealous when I saw this one? No. Envious? Yes.














NALEDGE - Caught this one today. Another cool thing about vanity/prestige tags is that it uniquely identifies cars. I really think I've seen this one before.










You can't really see this one, either, because I took it from my car after the light had turned green. I'll let you off the hook. It says ILVMATH.











I've honestly used the camera on my phone more for this post that I've ever used it before. If' it's somehow against the law to put other people's license tags online, then someone let me know, okay? I'll see you in the streets.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I'm currently visiting Raleigh, North Carolina. A charming city, really. One thing that Raleigh's downtown has that Atlanta does not have is older buildings downtown. You know the ones that I'm talking about. Very old, brick buildings that have been there what must be forever, and keep being repurposed for different applications. Sometimes someone will put a nice restaurant in the bottom floor. Maybe you'll see a law firm or an architecture firm occuping the space. These days, you may see a complete renovation, leaving a nice loft building in it's wake. These are all signs of a progressive, thriving, always-changing city. Right? Right.

Why is it, then, that in a three-block span I saw no less than three shops selling pimp clothes, and three barber/beauty shops. What's more, each one had at least one person milling about on the sidewalk out front. They could almost carry on conversations with the employees from their respective shop on the next block.

The pimp clothes are...classic. 3/4 length yellow suits with brown pinstripes paired with patent leather day-glo yellow shoes, in the perfect matching shade. In the next block I saw the same suit, only it was yellow pinstripes on a brown suit, with the same shoes. One shop had this shirt in the window with such a wild pattern that I swear I saw it scare away a couple of pigeons. They were coming in for a landing on the sidewalk, and got just level with the shirt, and veered off in a totally different direction. I saw this lady going back into one of the stores after just finishing a smoke break in an alley. She was having a conversation with a coworker, and she got so much nicotine out of that last puff that she was still exhaling smoke with each word even after walking like 40 feet and talking the whole time! Quite disturbing.

Each of the barber shops had an identical set of three dudes standing out front. There was a taller large guy that probably goes by the name "Big Mike", a shorter guy with bright white tennis shoes that looks like he's never done a day of honest work in his life, and an old guy that everyone calls "Doc."

The thing is, all of this was going on outside. On the sidewalk. There was very little work being done. No body trying to convince a guy that he wanted the yellow hat instead of the brown one (because everyone knows there's no such thing as too much yellow), and I guess all guys in Raleigh have fresh haircuts because the barbers were wearing white smocks, and they were spotless!

Anyway, that's my first impression of Raleigh, North Carolina - Pimp Clothes and Barber Shops.

Know What I'm Sayin'??