BURKARD'S BLOG
I searched on the Internet, and found no one keeping a blog about events in Columbus, Georgia. (Well, other than a 15-year-old high school student, and who knows how much he pays attention to the news?) So being the hip web-savvy guy that I am, I decided to start a blog of my own - chronicling happenings in the town I've called home for some six years, as
well as my experiences in it.
But be warned.... I used to have a humor service called LaughLine.Com, so my views may be a bit amusing. And the views are my own; no one has paid me to present theirs. Pressured, yes - but paid, no.
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7 JUL 03: CYBER-CLEANING
It was sad to learn today that Buddy Ebsen of "Beverly Hillbillies" fame has died. We won't be surprised if Georgia's Senator Zell Miller now demands all copies of the old TV series be burned.
On the other hand, it felt great to leave the library Sunday afternoon knowing I'd accomplished something. In three intensive sessions over a couple of weeks, I reduced my Yahoo e-mail account by about 20 percent. The total number of messages now is a bit more than 800.
Am I the only one who's piled up more than 1,000 e-mail messages in his In-Box? They come from a variety of sources - everything from cute religious stories to inquiries about my old "dot-com" business. And you'd be amazed how many buried offers I uncovered, to look up your driving record.
I've been so busy with other projects that it took a long time to get to In-Box cleaning. And I'm glad I did it - because some of those "24-hour only" spam offers actually DO expire.
So why did I go to libraries to clean out my e-mail? Mainly because the library computer connection speeds are faster than my dial-up at home. When I'm online at home, a "Flash" page is more like a loaded truck on a two-lane highway.
When I first moved to Columbus, the Bradley Library had only about five Internet stations open to the public. Now it has more than 20. This should settle once and for all whether the Internet is addictive....
Another big change has hit Columbus libraries only in the last year or so - a big increase in the number of Spanish-language books and magazines. I think the one titled "TV y Novelas" has something to do with television.
Be warned, though: some of the Hispanic magazines have a history of showing women in skimpy bathing suits. So if you can't get past the library's computer pornography filters.... well, maybe I shouldn't have brought this up.
(I have NOT checked the Phenix City library, to see if it's joined the Spanish-language trend. If you go there and see it's filled with right-wing conservatives, you'll know it hasn't.)
My personal housecleaning moved offline today, with a recycling trip around town. I surprised the cashier at Publix by pointing out the store's bins for recycling plastic bags do NOT allow blue ones. She guessed it was a matter of discoloration. I suspect it's a way to avoid reminding customers of Wal-Mart.
As I drove home from Publix, I drove behind an unusual sight - a construction truck of some sort, with a "Pet Porter" in the rear holding a live dog. And I thought only blondes like Reese Witherspoon did that, in the movies....
BLOG UPDATE: As of this afternoon, I'm wearing new glasses - but I had to call the optician, to ask if they were ready. Over nearly two weeks, no one called me about them. If I hadn't used a credit card to pay up front, things probably would have been different.
I didn't time my trip to the optician very well. After all, it's the Monday after a holiday weekend. A group of children were active in the lobby, and the small parking lot on Woodruff Road was busy - but thankfully not so busy I had to park at Ryan's Steak House and walk.
As I filled out a little sheet at the optician's desk, one of the desk assistants was on the phone describing the crowd: "We're getting killed up here...." Immediately I raised my hands, not wanting to get in trouble. "Figurative, figurative," the woman quickly added.
The new glasses seem to be working well so far. After all, I looked in the optician's close-up mirror - and it looked exactly like me.
To verify the quality of the new glasses, "Jenny, Licensed Optician" had me read tiny type on a card. I quickly became aware that I was reading advertising copy for Rodenstock. At the end, I was using an announcer's voiee - just in case Jenny was taping me.