prod & ponder

In case there was any doubt that Maryland still has a rural side…

Ok, so this is the least exciting promotion I’ve heard from California Tortilla yet, but if you’re regular and enjoy their Chips and Queso combo (mmm, chips and queso), it might be the most valuable one yet.

This went out yesterday:

I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow, Wednesday, May 16th is Reusable Coupon Day! (Could I call it anything more sleep-inducing?) Just purchase an entree at any California Tortilla in the land tomorrow and the spunky cashier will give you a coupon that entitles you to a Soda, Chips and Queso (or salsa) combo for only $1 anytime you purchase an entree between May 17th and June 16th. (Does that make any sense at all?) Use it as many times as you like for the next month.

And even if you don’t understand what I’m saying (most people don’t), I’m telling you, this is a great deal — it’s like you’re getting 31 days of half priced combos.

So come on in tomorrow and get the coupon that keeps on couponing!

It’s the last week of Spring classes, which means one more heavy week of teaching-related work, primarily involving marathon grading sessions punctuated by faculty meetings, and then, summer! Ah yes, summer: that wondrous time of year when faculty get to enjoy lounging about with copious free time to pursue ridiculously obscure hobbies, drink up a storm, and catch up on plenty of well-deserved nap time. Yeah, well… not so much.

I should, at least, finally get some interesting pictures to share. Over the next 30 days I’ll be in Tajikistan, Russia, Mexico, New York, and (the big finale) Delaware.

In the meantime, all I can offer is the ridiculously mundane. Take, for example, my walk home from work tonight. Well, technically, it’s really just the walk to my car, but it’s not as if taking footage of the hour’s drive after that would have spiced things up.

(Quick summary of what ya’ see: shakey-cam of University of Baltimore’s student center, the Lyric Opera House neighboring campus, random shots of the blocks between campus and the garage, obligatory schlepp up the staircase, my car (an ultra-low emissions vehicle, for those concerned about all that driving), and the two prominent views from the garage: the corner liquor store and the evocatively named “Odorite” cleaning supplies shop.)

Spielberg, look out.

The thing is, I’ve actually had a film in SXSW and briefly had a side business doing professional video editing, and yet I still slapped something together that utterly dull and pointless. That’s how insanely far video technology has come. What used to require hours of work with a bulky camera and $12k+ fancy editing system, I now can shoot with a camera that fits in my pocket, edit on a laptop, and throw the mess up on the web, all in 10 minutes time. And that’s not even half the crazy of it–the pointless thing was shot and edited in 720p high definition and could have just as easily been tossed out to a HD broadcast ready DVD.

Sure, we’re still woefully behind on the promised personal jet packs and ubiquitous robot butlers. But, at least on the video front, count me impressed.

Michelle had a spat with a misbehaving metro fare gate, so we enjoyed a night in the hospital. Everyone’s ok. I remain in gobsmacked, forelorn awe at the bureaucratic juggernaut of modern healthcare.