Ah, if only Americans were told the same thing...

Japanese workers are being told to go home and make some babies. Allegedly, correcting the low birth rate in Japan is a way to help their failing economy.

Does just practicing help our failing economy?

I know why they call it the "Crackberry"

So I was at a meeting this morning for my graduate assistantship. It was the second in a series put on in part by the city of Indianapolis and INHP (Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership) to decide what to do with 29 million dollars that the city has been given by the federal government to help with the foreclosure problem.

Aaaanyway, I don't want to get bogged down in the technicalities of WHAT I was at, the point is that a lot of movers and shakers in urban planning/housing/redevelopment were at the meeting. But you would think it was a class of 17 year old high school seniors! It looked like everyone was texting, and not paying attention to a damn thing that was being said.

In reality, they were all probably working while at this meeting, rather than being 100% devoted to the meeting. Almost *everyone* was on their Blackberries, emailing the whole time. I counted, and at one point 10 of the 30 some attendants were typing on their Blackberries all at once.

Just made me think about what a place we are in our society...how we can be reached at any moment by anyone. It's crazy. Does anyone remember what life before cell phones and the internet was like? I'm sure they do (especially since these people were all MUCH older than me.) But it definitely makes me understand why movies like Eagle Eye come about...

The black hole of shipping that is Indianapolis

I'm not entirely sure why, but as indicated by my title, Indianapolis is a shipping black hole.

Let me explain. Three times now, when I have ordered purchases that I am highly anticipating, I have tracked their progress either through USPS or UPS online. And in all three cases, the items made it from various other states (Ohio, New York, or Pennsylvania) in less than 36 hours. 

I'll be there, at the computer, looking at the screen...and that screen would be telling me that my package was IN Indianapolis...arrived. Here. This state. This city. That I live in. In less than 36 hours.

And yet...somehow  in each case, once they reach my state in record time, they immediately stall from there. It makes no sense what-so-ever! If they can make it across multiple states in one day, why would it take multiple days to then get to me! One package got to Indianapolis from New York really fast, but then took ONE WEEK to make it from one point in Indianapolis all the way to my front door.

I wish the online tracking would just tell you which USPS/UPS office they are at and allow you to go pick them up from there. That would take me all of 1 hour round trip MAX instead of 1 week.

In this case, I'm talking about my laptop. Which I would really like to have, since my other one died an extremely unfortunate death after only a year and 2 months of use. 

Oh Indianapolis...despite my love for you, you have failed me.