Pyat and the $5 haircut

There's a little hair salon near my house, built in the front of a house. It's the sort of place elderly women go for perms. In the window there is a little frame with a hand-lettered sign reading "George The Barber." George, it seems, runs a single chair babrber shop out of the larger hair salon.

I first saw him one cold February morning, around 6 AM, while waiting for a bus. There was a light on in the hair salon, a single lamp, and three men. One, a very elderly barber, the second an even older customer (perhaps 90), getting a buzzcut, and a man in his 60s, who I presume was the customer's son.

Today, while waiting for my car to get an emissions test, I walked in to get my haircut. George is very old indeed, at least 80. He's stooped, and his hands were fluttering gently. He's rather deaf, but kept up a pleasant conversation. His set-up was extremely basic - a normal chair, disposable razors instead of a straight razor, and kleenex instead of towels. Still, he gave me a very precise and neat haircut, and at the end, I was surprised to learn he charges only $5.

Nice and sunny day out, today. That is all!

Webkinz is evil

I just spent an hour playing Elizabeth's Webkinz.

In my defense, I was earning Webkinz Dollars for her, so she can buy pointless in-game crap that doesn't do anything except occupy pixels in her virtual real estate. She's not very good at Tetris or Checkers, and doesn't read fast enough for most of the games.

You try earning $900 for a pink hammock, when your best efforts at the arcade games win you a buck at a time.

She can get a job in-game, but she has to pass exams to get it. And if she make a mistake, she gets laid off. Way to raise a new OCD Generation of wage slaves, Webkinz!

Poor Claire lost her Webkinz toy, but keeps showing up at the computer with random stuffed animals (I will not call them "plushies") and hoping they can play, too. "We put my cow on computer now?" Poor kid.

Stupid Webkinz.

Elizabeth logged in on her birthday. She got a "Wish Token" and a special message telling her to go the "Wish Factory" to get her birthday wish. We hurried over. Maybe we could wish for a pony!

The cruel Pandagirl who runs the place informed us that we need just nine more Wish tokens to redeem the birthday wish! Yay! Come back in 2018, Elizabeth!

Webkinz. Bah.

*Keeps playing "Booper Gets an A", relentlessly adding numbers together until the screen inevitably fills and the game ends...*


Also, it is totally wrong that I should have a crush on the Pandagirl who runs the Wish Factory. Creepy!

I think velvetpage would look good in that jacket!