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I like technology. I like watching it bring in new day-to-day rituals for the american public. I like the easy or messy transitional period and how it eventually gives way to a time when such and such technology is implicated into our lives as something we do without thinking -- like coughing between movements at Roy O., putting the stick between my groceries and hers, swerving to avoid the smashed up squirrel.

So, yes, yes, Google has changed library sciences and IMDB is an indispensible party tool ("what other movies has Emilio Estevez been in?") Somehow, more is known with books being opened less - thank you, Internet. Not everyone can be as cool as you...Still:

The other day i was in my car, driving out of the labrinth underneath Best Buy and Target (near La Brea) and there was an express line for people who'd already paid for their tickets at kiosks. You get a ticket going in, you pay a dollar into a machine on your way out, you find the lane with no operator and stick your card in, the bar lifts, you look at the guy with the walkie talkie helping out drivers trained in their old way of life -- (the way that still involves a minimum wage parking attendant, sometimes smiling but often not, who slides your magnetic strip through a card reader, takes your money, tells you to have a good day) -- you're amused while you look at walkie talkie guy cuz you're smart and you don't need his help but America (California) ((Los Angeles)) (((West Hollywood))) will continue to need him for probably at least another half a year (actually maybe shorter if Best Buy higher-ups eventually realize they can streamline the process with bigger signs, cashiers reminding shoppers to pay for their tickets and more strategically-placed kiosks. But either way) a whole category of boring employment will have been phased out on the corner of Santa Monica and La Brea. You exit the parking structure. Culture evolves in small and mundane ways.

i went to a party a month and a half ago. it was public, well-attended and at somebody's apartment so smoking was allowed cuz the whole operation was illegal to begin with. It all flooded back. how "going out" used to mean coming home with clothes that were permanent pressed with a gross amalgam of sweat, smoke, and vaporized beer. sore feet and odor were the price you paid. and then you got used to it... same way you're now used to california, the producers leaving bad tips, atkins keeping bread off the streets, TJ's herb salad mix, band friction, band release, traffic patterns on beverly, strawberry crepes, things happening slower than you expect blah blah bluh bleh buhhhhhhhhhh...

-a talon