Regular Life

Picture taken on December 11, 2008
(click to enlarge)

There are new occupants in the space made almost-famous by Blue Straw (and, later, Red Straw).

Some of you read the saga — including photos, video clips, and a letter to local government — culminating in a rescue mission that I’m still not sure was the right thing to do. Perhaps the letter was the real mistake, because it was what left me no choice.

The new residents have been there at least six months, through several downpours, and recently I noticed a visitor.

continue reading…

(Note: This is the sixth in a series of posts about the first meeting of three online friends.)

Did I forget to mention that Moonshot and Norah left Saturday morning, so we guys were on our own? Wouldn’t it be funny if we took advantage of that to use the cups as props in public without embarrassing a spouse?

Saturday after the City Museum we stopped at a liquor store and grabbed a bottle of 12-year-old Single Malt Scotch. As Simon and Moksha poured from the bottle of The Balvenie Doublewood, I thought maybe I was on a roll with my tastebuds, so I asked for a small taste.

continue reading…

(Note: All of you reading “Bernie,” please go on over to my story blog for Part Two.)

For something a little less serious than my current work of fiction, I present today the next chapter in the cups’ post-drain life. It wasn’t the second installment I had envisioned, but a viewing will make it clear that circumstances dictated it.

This one is about five minutes long, and has a few (attempts at) jokes that only readers here will understand. Please give it a moment to start playing before you get worried that something has gone wrong. There’s no vulgar language or n*dity, but I wouldn’t consider it work safe — because someone might will think you’re weird.

If for nothing else, watch it for the twist (because we all know a good shocker can elevate a film from horrible to mediocre).

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then may God have mercy on your soul (and click here for related reading/videos/pictures).

continue reading…

Give it just a moment to start playing after you click the “play” button.

This is just the beginning of adventure for these guys.

If the above player either isn’t there or doesn’t work for you, then you may download the video here (I suggest saving it and then playing it):

• Windows Media Format
• Quicktime format (still trying to get a decent output for this one)

For those already up-to-date on their story…

The local street department forwarded my e-mails to a Texas Department of Transportation official, who summarily ignored my calls and e-mails regarding the persistent trash.

Everyone else…

For the full story, with more pictures, video, and reader commentary, see:
http://blog.markwill.com/blue-straw/

Music
“Sophisticated Maybe”
by beatbox flutist Tim Barsky. Other free downloads are available at his site.

Equipment
Sony DCR-HC30 miniDV Camcorder
Olympus D-20 Digital Voice Recorder
Core Sound Low Cost Binaural Microphones
Homebrewed Computer

To see the whole story up to this point, click here.

I first saw this late one night, and my brain refused to accept it. I was just driving into work for a planned hardware upgrade, not expecting earth-shattering kabooms. The next morning I captured the image above, where a truck had barely beat me to the first spot at the red light.

It just couldn’t be. The light turned green and I followed the truck toward the intersection.

continue reading…

A rival shows its face.

continue reading…

Well, I videotaped it.

continue reading…

Hello, my name is Mark, and I am obsessed with a cup in a street gutter.

To catch up anyone who didn’t see last Friday’s post, the cup with the blue straw has been lodged there since at least as long ago as June 2006. It has survived many hard rains, which led some readers to believe the engineers didn’t do such a good job of predicting water flow at this intersection.

The debris indicates that something’s getting washed down that hole, so there must be some cosmic force holding the cup in place. Its being plastic no doubt increases its chances of surviving (did everybody notice no apostrophes in that sentence? Good. Bonus points, too, if you caught the gerund.).

Incidentally, the Styrofoam cup on the left has been there for at least a week, but without anything more than a sprinkle of precipitation. I don’t think it will last through a downpour.

continue reading…

I first noticed the cup on the right back in June, 2006. It didn’t surprise me that it could hang on during one of the worse droughts north Texas has seen in decades. Since then, however, we’ve seen many heavy rains of significant duration. Gulley-washers, even. No, better make that toad-stranglers.

I’m reminded of a line from Daffy Duck

I’ve heard of stick-to-it-iveness, but how sticky can you get?

Every day on my way to work, I check this storm drain for what has become a steady, albeit confounding presence in my life. When the light at the intersection is green, I catch a glimpse as I scuttle by on my way to the office, just enough to confirm it’s still there. On the rare occasion that I’m first in line at a red light, I get a good look and wonder, How does it hang on like that? Is it by now bottomless, so that water passes through it unchecked to the depths below?

This cup is like Rocky Balboa; it keeps hanging on long past its prime and somehow I always end up cheering for it. Unlike the fictional heavyweight champ, the cup is very real, and it remains stoic, oblivious to the thousands of self-important wanderers of the world that pass by it each day.

continue reading…