<lj-entry>

[active_apathy]

This is likely to be my last entry for a few days; I'm planning on an early-ish night (around or shortly after midnight, just to really scare you), and I don't think I'm likely to feel another post coming in the next 2 hours.

So, my day. I did my washing today, and again marvelled at the way my washing machine turns ordinary fibres into cheap felt. The only thing I like about it being an automatic was that today I used its powers of set and forget to get out for a bit.

It seems to be a universal law that when you find a Coke machine, it will not be operational. The chances are doubled if it's an outdoor machine. This rule struck again today - three seperate machines, each selling 600mL bottles, each about 20-25km from the next, were non-functional. Defunct. Kaputt. The first two had sustained serious damage and had a number of apologetic signs taped on them assuring fast and efficient repairs, but the last had a rather more insidious problem.

It was unplugged. This one was outside, and it was a bit windy, but you think I'd have noticed; however, between windy!noises and wind-blown!hair, I didn't notice until I put a coin in and it fell out of the bottom of an unmarked, speedily-repaired machine. This was confusing to me. The thought occured to me to just plug it back in, but the drinks within rely upon that very electricity to stay cold.

This all leads me to wonder what happens to them. I'm imagining some kind of kids with skateboards going about the place in upturned garbage bins, saying things like "It's a Coke machine. Let's break it, hey."

My other scrap of musing tonight is that I heard on the radio earlier that this year, the 31st of December will be extended by one second to bring the atomic clocks into line with the Earth's rotation. You'll be able to pick the scientists - they'll be the ones who say: "10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 1... Happy new year!"

In other news, I now have a pirate!icon. With a dragon. Yarr!

Comments

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

You guys get Jolt?

Not only is that stuff one of the three most significant societal contributions ever to come out of Rochester, New York (the personal-use camera and the Xerox machine being the others), but their corporate headquarters is in my office complex.

And would you believe that in our basement, a mere 6 buildings away from the center of the Joltiverse at 130 Linden Oaks, there's no Jolt machine in the vending area?

That's just cruel.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Some places do. I wish every place did. There's no Jolt machines, though.

Personal-use camera? This is not a name I'm familiar with.

Could you convince their headquarters that I'm the loveliest person ever and deserve a lifetime's supply of free Jolt? Please?

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I think I have seen Jolt machines on a college campus someplace. If it were me, I'd design it on the gas-pump model with a squirthose to stick right into the piehole and a dinging bell to charge by the gallon.

"Personal-use camera" was my bad genericizing of "Kodak," sorry. Before George Eastman came along, there were cameras, but every one had a professional photographer nailed to it. His innovation was turning the process into something everyone could use but his company could still make millions from. And did, until about 2 years ago when members of the company's research and development department suddenly discovered the "pixel" and all simultaneously jumped to their deaths from the top floor of Kodak Office.

As for the marketing campaign: I have no doubts about your loveliness, but we might want to start with a case or two first. You might consider making a Jolt icon so they can watch the sales skyrocket.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

And then they got into making those affordable and desirable, but they lose! For I want a digital SLR, to which I can mount my lovely and expensive lenses that live with my film SLR. Optical zoom that, Kodak.

Hmm... a Jolt icon. *muses* This shall have to wait until I get back.