This one’s a mixed bag

I don’t have a clear topic for this post per se, so I’ll toss out some nuggets and things I’ve learned this summer. And we’ll see a lot of .gifs along the way!

1) How fun was Inception? Super fun!

2) Attorneys don’t know how to use PowerPoint. It seems like a simple enough task, but I recently had to put together a presentation for an attorney at the law firm where I’m spending the summer. It’s an inconvenient truth, but he’s no Al Gore. (I hate myself.) Not only did he not know how to use the program, but nobody on his “team” was able to do so either. This means that while he was in Dallas trying to make final edits to a slide, the people who work directly for him were unable to help him out. Yikes. This made me think of my seventh-grade computer class, in which Mr. Banka made us give presentations on different kinds of fishes (it was also at this point in my life that Becca Cope taught me when it’s correct to use ‘fish’ and when to use ‘fishes’). For the record, mine was on the puffer fish, more colloquially known as a blowfish (can’t resist linking this, too). Mr. Banka impressed upon us the importance of being competent in PowerPoint, to the point of insisting that we’d be using it on the reg in every job we’d ever have. Well, that knowledge is paying big dividends now. Thanks, Mr. Banka.

3) Mad Men is back. That means it’s time for the plethora of internet supplements are beginning to make the rounds. There’s a brilliant video showcasing Betty Draper’s skills (or lack thereof) as a mother, one featuring Roger Sterling’s snappy one-liners, the “Mad Men School of Seduction”, and the never-gets-old GIF of some Sterling Cooperites’ reactions to Guy McKendrick getting his foot all chewed up by a lawnmower. Oh, and there’s always Pete Campbell dancing or Pete and Trudy Campbell dancing or Joan cracking skulls (and a few other assorted goodies).

Anyway, I thought last night’s episode was great! This probably isn’t supposed to be a TV show blog (although Lilah might go easy on me since she’s a fan), so I’ll refer you to Slate’s TV Club. It’s fun to read and updated frequently.

4) Don’t Ride the Ducks. Philadelphia, being a city on the Delaware River, is home to a chapter of the “Ride the Ducks” franchise. The same company owns and operates amphibious vehicles in Missouri, Georgia, California, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. Similar operations exist in Cincinnati, Boston, and Toronto, among others, but they’re not owned by the Ride the Ducks company.

As you may or may not have heard, two Hungarian tourists, a sixteen year old girl and twenty year old man were killed on the duck boats recently. There was a small engine fire on a boat in the middle of the Delaware, causing it to be dead in the water, for lack of a better expression. Then, a tugboat pushing an 800-foot barge struck the duck boat, causing the amphibious vehicle to capsize. Two people were stuck inside and subsequently died. It was a really big deal when it happened locally, but I haven’t heard much about it other than that.

The Ride the Ducks are notorious in the city for tying up traffic and generally being a giant tourist trap. When you take a trip with them, you get a stupid yellow duck bill that makes a quacking sound when you blow into it. There are few if any reasons left for me to like or respect the Ride the Ducks company.

That’s all I’ve got, I think. I’ll be back soon.