Not sure if this is where to post this but just thought I'd share a funny and almost tragic story that happened to me the Sunday of Halloween weekend at TRF.
So, after the amazing and crazy all Hallow's eve fire circle, I was understandably a little low on energy for Sunday...no problem. It was a nice slow day. great weather, etc. :D
So my friends and I are kicking back in Sherwood Forest, listening to CircaPaleo (sp?), which is a great group (I went to college with the drummer). And I buy a Dr. Pepper from a vendor and am just sitting there listening to the finale.
Now, along comes this rather large family with a few boys and girls. One boy in particular is around 10 or so, and he has a pair of green mardi gras beads that were left over from the day before. Junior is enjoying the music, just like me and he decides that he wants to dance around. Fine, no problem.
While he's dancing though he decides to start swinging these mardi gras beads at warp factor 8. So, I see this happening, when my spidey sense kicks in and I think....maybe I should put my hat in front of my fa.....SMACK!!
Lo, and behold, a feel a sharp and rather unpleasant sensation in my right eye. Regrettably I let loose with some foul language that I shouldn't have uttered so near to children and grabbed my eye. Then I notice blood. My first thought is, oh god, I just lost my eye. So I take off for the nearest privy.
Thankfully, the bead lodged itself directly (and I mean centimeters) below my eye. Mind you, I wouldn't mind an eye patch as it woud make my pirate more authentic...but I've grown quite attached to my right eye.
So, I go back to my waiting friends who are understandably worried and by this time I've calmed down as, no real harm done...
When I find out that the family is gone. Apparently, the mother saw what happened, grabbed her kid and told the husband that they needed to leave immediately....
Now, THAT ticked me off. For all they knew I could've lost my eye!!! And then to make matters worse, the vendor that I had JUST bought a DP from, wouldn't give me ice for my eye unless I bought another drink!!!
So, moral of the story - Beware of fat children with mardi gras beads. And if you do get smacked....expect sympathy from no one.
Yeah, the whole vendor thing really pisses me off, you could be bleeding to death and they wouldn't give you a napkin unless you bought something... which is why I don't spend a penny with those bloodsucking bastards.
Except the Queen's Pantry. Ronnie always has an awesome crew. And great food. And the hot cider to get me going in the morning so I actually have a voice for morning gate.
Indeed that doth sucketh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't forget about Lady MacArthur and her snack crack. I love me some salsa.
Yegads ... what an unfortunate experience (and I agree with Capt. Fletcher - that vendor was a real tool). I'm glad you are OK knightofistari.
lol, thanks!! I got lucky...as that bead was really flying...it even had a hard plastic part sticking out left over from what connected it to the rest of the beads...thats what scratched up my face the most...dont' want to imagine what it would've done to my eye...
Quote from: Mouse on December 05, 2009, 04:08:29 PM
Don't forget about Lady MacArthur and her snack crack. I love me some salsa.
Oh, Carolyn doesn't count as a food vendor, as she has SAMPLES of items for sale.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that she lives 3 miles down the road from me. ;D
As a parent of an overly rambunctious child, I am disgusted that the parents ran from the responsibility and didn't stick around to apologize profusely, buy you the ice, apologize profusely, make sure you were ok, teach their child to apologize profusely. Maybe they were scared by your cursing? That is no escuse, maybe you are now afraid of wee bastards flinging warp speed blinding projectiles. I hate irresponsible people. I hate twice as much irresponsible parents. I understand the kid playing, and unfortunately an accident occurring, but they need to stick around and make it as right as they can.
Have you considered reporting the vendor that refused to give you ice to management?
Glad you didn't lose an eye! Although pirates with eye patches are sexy ...
Quote from: Betty Munro on December 06, 2009, 10:23:26 PM
As a parent of an overly rambunctious child, I am disgusted that the parents ran from the responsibility and didn't stick around to apologize profusely, buy you the ice, apologize profusely, make sure you were ok, teach their child to apologize profusely. Maybe they were scared by your cursing? That is no escuse, maybe you are now afraid of wee bastards flinging warp speed blinding projectiles. I hate irresponsible people. I hate twice as much irresponsible parents. I understand the kid playing, and unfortunately an accident occurring, but they need to stick around and make it as right as they can.
Have you considered reporting the vendor that refused to give you ice to management?
Glad you didn't lose an eye! Although pirates with eye patches are sexy ...
LOL, I agree that eye patches can be sexy...heh.
I don't know if they were scared by my cursing...as it wasn't too loud, I wasn't screaming but then again maybe I'm rather an imposing pirate?? I can hope.
I reckon that the mom was probably scared that I was going to sue their butts off and its sad that in this day and age people are afraid of any responsibility because of things like that.
I didn't want reparations, I just wanted an apology or atleast common human decency of being concerned if I lost my eye. But yeah, now that kid has been taught a valuable lesson to NOT take responsibility for his actions.
My only hope is that maybe, just maybe the mom has a guilty conscience about bailing like that...
and about the ice vendor...no, I didn't even think about something like that..
Have you reported this to fair management? They need to know that the beads can pose a hazard in the wrong - stupid - hands. Also that the vendor was such a jerk about providing ice to an injured patron. In addition to the whole possibly losing an eye thing, you could have gotten an infection or scarred.
There are people in this world for whom it should be illegal to breed. Unfortunately, those are often the ones who are the two-legged versions of rabbits.
Please do this old legal secretary a favor & contact management asap. They really do need to be informed.
Quote from: Taffy Saltwater on December 07, 2009, 01:18:32 PM
Have you reported this to fair management? They need to know that the beads can pose a hazard in the wrong - stupid - hands. Also that the vendor was such a jerk about providing ice to an injured patron. In addition to the whole possibly losing an eye thing, you could have gotten an infection or scarred.
Please do this old legal secretary a favor & contact management asap. They really do need to be informed.
Since this post, I actually have been contacted by an associate on TRF management that said she would take care of the vendor that refused to give me ice...
I hadn't thought about reporting the beads as a hazard.....as it being ren faire....I'd think mardi gras beads would be the least of my worries about certain things being in the wrong hands....but I might see what I can do.
LOL, you can be assured I am wary of children with beads now!!
Quote from: Taffy Saltwater on December 07, 2009, 01:18:32 PM
There are people in this world for whom it should be illegal to breed. Unfortunately, those are often the ones who are the two-legged versions of rabbits.
Yeah...I agree. Ever see the movie "Idiocracy"? It's not a great movie, as it gets its point across in the first 15 minutes and then the rest is just fluff......but its point mainly is that stupid people are breeding more and faster then people with a decent IQ.....
Which I just chalk it up to today's "reverse darwinism" as I call it....but thats another topic for a whole nother day...heh.
I'm glad they're handling the basic people-need-first-aid part of it. I did see Idiocracy - have to agree w/you re the 1st 15 minutes and then - a nap. Unfortunately, I'm reminded of this movie on an all too frequent basis. I'm glad it wasn't any worse.
Yeah, me too....I mean, again, I like eye patches but wasn't in the mood for having one on a general basis :P
Quote from: knightofistari on December 07, 2009, 01:41:58 PM
[ Ever see the movie "Idiocracy"? It's not a great movie, as it gets its point across in the first 15 minutes and then the rest is just fluff......but its point mainly is that stupid people are breeding more and faster then people with a decent IQ.....
Which I just chalk it up to today's "reverse darwinism" as I call it....but thats another topic for a whole nother day...heh.
Go read the story that it's based on (but which it gives absolutely no credit to): The Marching Morons, by C. M. Kornbluth. It's a much more succinct (and better told) version of the story.
Quote from: will paisley on December 07, 2009, 03:23:24 PM
Quote from: knightofistari on December 07, 2009, 01:41:58 PM
[ Ever see the movie "Idiocracy"? It's not a great movie, as it gets its point across in the first 15 minutes and then the rest is just fluff......but its point mainly is that stupid people are breeding more and faster then people with a decent IQ.....
Which I just chalk it up to today's "reverse darwinism" as I call it....but thats another topic for a whole nother day...heh.
Go read the story that it's based on (but which it gives absolutely no credit to): The Marching Morons, by C. M. Kornbluth. It's a much more succinct (and better told) version of the story.
I will def. have to do that. Thanks for the info!
Quote from: Taffy Saltwater on December 07, 2009, 01:18:32 PM
There are people in this world for whom it should be illegal to breed. Unfortunately, those are often the ones who are the two-legged versions of rabbits.
Yeah...I agree. Ever see the movie "Idiocracy"? It's not a great movie, as it gets its point across in the first 15 minutes and then the rest is just fluff......but its point mainly is that stupid people are breeding more and faster then people with a decent IQ.....
Which I just chalk it up to today's "reverse darwinism" as I call it....but thats another topic for a whole nother day...heh.
[/quote]
A random but scary fact. For a certain culture to sustain its period there is ratio 2.11 per child to sustain. If it falls under 1.9 it is irreversible.
even scarier is America the last I check was at like 1.5..
The world is overpopulated, we can stand a 1.5 birth rate for a few hundred years.
Yeah....but if all the smart/people with common sense and deceny only have 1.5 and all the idiots and prols have 2.5 up to 5 kids....then the world really will be idiocracy...(or we'll just blow our selves up....)
That makes me NOT want to have kids seeing how they'd be more frusterated then me about the situation....
eh, I tend to agree with this take on Idiocracy (although I enjoyed the film)
XKCD (http://xkcd.com/603/)
But, I am a fan of retroactive birth-control technology research . . .
This really is absolutely true... the movie Idiocy is truly coming to pass!!! Almost every intelligent person I know is waiting to have children OR is unmarried, and even at that will unlikely have more than 2 kids! Yet the much much less intelligent people are having billions of kids! Why OH why do these people have so many, they don't have tons of $ and yet they just keep having kids! Birth Control is NOT that expensive, you can get some for only 10$ a month!!!! Kids cost way way more that per month! Common sense AND intelligence both have seemed to have skipped a good portion of the populace!
I think Idiocracy should be a required viewing for young adults. My generation and the ones to follow need to understand the risks of letting the ill-bred continue to breed! Even if taking a pill every day isn't their cup of tea, there are implants that don't cost a lot, last 5 to 10 years, and are SUPER effective!
Idiocracy scared me because I see it happening.
I digress. My whole rant was supposed to be about how Mardi Gras beads can be used as murder weapons. Those things are insanely dangerous. I'm convinced the first Mardi Gras krewes were trying to kill the local peasants, not reward them with shiny baubles. :P
In related news, Mardi Gras is 2 weeks away. Anyone coming to N.O.?
DNA,
My wife & I spent this past New Year down on Jackson square and that was more than enough for us!!!! Even though the police and locals said this was the worst crowd they had ever seen I would be scared to think how much worse it would be for Mardi Gras!!!
It was also a bit of a culture shock for the wife. I'm a sailor (6 years active and 10 years reserves) and in my worldly travels I seen some things. She grew up in the only city in a county of the North Country of New York. She was prepared for our first street in the Quarter to be Bourbon St. It was a bit of a shock. Add to it the crowds and she was a bit out of her element.
Drac
It's so funny to see that other people have actually watched Idiocracy. I actually watched it when I was on maternity leave and got a HUGE kick out of it. I was one that made a point to my husband when we met what I had time lined for my life, what age I wanted to be married by, what age I wanted to have a child by, how many (one was enough as I do also have a step daughter) and so on..
My husbands ex is definitely one I would point out to be on the idiocracy level. After her second divorce (every husband ends up leaving her...hmm should she take a hint?) she still is out there having unprotected sex and now has a second child when she can't even afford to pay child support for her first!
As for the Mardi Gras beads...Why on earth are we so impressed with getting these junky little beads that are sooo worthless! My step daughter has collected them over the years and I keep having to throw the darn things out b/c they are just laying around her room never touched again once she wore them the day she got them! I do wish faires would do away with them, maybe give the kids little plastic tokens instead on those celebratory days?
I'm definitely up for doing away with mardi gras beads....although, I'm now much more on the lookout for pudgy little kids swinging them around....lol!!!
yeah, case in point, the two idiots that live next to me, have two or more kids, he works oil fields but doesn't get any work, so instead of finding a dif. job, he works maybe 4 hours a week and then gets unemployment compensation. She just got fired from her job. They just had their car repo-ed and their stereo system from RAC repo-ed.
I've had to take two cats to the pound from them as they were abusing them. They have a third now thats a little tiny kitten they keep in a box outside their house, forcing it to stay in the box and yelling at it when it meows or tries to climb out, that I just called animal control about.
As arrogant as this may sound, I know I'm at least 5 times or more smarter then them, and even if I wasn't I'm way more humane to animals.....yet, I'm unmarried and have no kids and they have two or more from more then one marriage.....
I recommend 'Idiocracy' to people all the time! I think it should be required viewing in highschools!
But on the damn beads, My wife goes crazy at the sight of Mardi Gras beads! We go to a big formal Mardi Gras party every year where they will throw beads every hour or so, whenever they stop the music and say anything about beads she stops whatever she's doing, hands her drink or food etc. to whomever is closest and runs for the floor to whore for beads!
Here's a picture from last year, after the first of several of her bead expiditions.....I don't have a picture, but by the end of the night she had more crap around her neck than Mr.T !
(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg301/olmark/HPIM1262.jpg)
She likes this party better than going to parades because they have "a better class of beads than you get in the street" ::) She currently has two large Sears shopping bags full of Mardi Gras beads.
i've done TERRIBLE things to get beads....
Quote from: blue66669 on January 29, 2010, 10:26:54 PM
i've done TERRIBLE things to get beads....
you should send me an email, and tell me what you've done. HAHA
You'd have to pay for the privilage to know LOLOL!
Mardi Gras beads are like the Date Rape drug. They make you lose your clothes and eventually, you wind up completely confused and hungover with a crapload of them bout your neck.
I, too, have done many a shameful thing for those dumb things. ><
(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg301/olmark/MardiGras%202010/16837_1239888995613_1180926956_3062.jpg)
OK, last Saturday we went to the same Mardi Gras party I mentioned above, (this years theme was 1940's USO) and my wife's bead addiction reached a new low....She went with a friend to the ladies room to help said friend with her costume. When the 'bead music' came on, she promtly abandoned our friend and ran out with friend's purse still on her shoulder. Our friend didn't know were the purse went, so we spent 20 mins looking for my wife and the and the purse in this melee;
(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg301/olmark/MardiGras%202010/2010MardiGras030.jpg)
LOTS of people do terrible things to debase themselves for little bits of plastic. What goes through your mind when I use the term "credit card"?
Quote from: Rapier Half-Wit on February 01, 2010, 11:05:56 AM
LOTS of people do terrible things to debase themselves for little bits of plastic. What goes through your mind when I use the term "credit card"?
;D I get a mental picture of a safe, that's where I keep our credit cards !
Quote from: blue66669 on January 30, 2010, 09:00:19 AM
You'd have to pay for the privilage to know LOLOL!
Do accept beads as payment? ;D
Why YES! Yes, I do! I also accept Tiffany charms and jewelry, precious stones from around the world, and in some extreme cases, shiny bits of tin foil.
Wait, wait.. if we're talking about bead & bauble FANATICS, you must be introduced to McKayla (posing here in revelry with the haul from her first Mardi Gras parade a couple years back):
(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs28/i/2008/127/8/9/Mardi_Gras_Treasures_by_Knottynymph.jpg)
Quote from: Gwen aka Punstergal on February 13, 2010, 09:10:53 AM
Wait, wait.. if we're talking about bead & bauble FANATICS, you must be introduced to McKayla (posing here in revelry with the haul from her first Mardi Gras parade a couple years back):
(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs28/i/2008/127/8/9/Mardi_Gras_Treasures_by_Knottynymph.jpg)
lol, as long as she doesn't start swinging them into my face.....then thats a really cute pic.....if she decides to start swinging them in faces.....its a really scary pic. :-)
Who would think little shiny balls of plastic could be so dangerous?
My sister had a string of bead in her mouth once that were accidentally caught and launched one of her teeth from her mouth.
They disappeared from our household for a very,very longtime after that lol.
Hu. Maybe bead twirling at warp speed is how they invented the bedazzler... ::)
Note to self- ditch the barbarian idea and go with full plate this year, including a full-face bascinet...
0.o
Bead Flails, thats all im sayin'
Violence makes her clothes come off?