Apparently I go nuts without internet when suffering severe culture shock.

[baratron]

US SIM card not all that helpful. Reception in the house is flaky at best. Yesterday it took me a full 3 hours simply to post (a) one message to a web forum giving the people I'm supposed to be meeting up with my address & US phone number, & (b) one LJ private message with the same details. ARGH!

I have no idea whether any of these meetings are actually going to happen, as I haven't heard back from anyone yet.

Also, this SIM card is locked down somehow so I can't use my phone as a WiFi hotspot for my computer, like I do at home when away from a modem. So it's tiny screen phone internet only.

And just to add insult to injury, T-mobile, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to put a "Web Guard" on my phone. This blocks access to LiveJournal & deadjournal, but not *actual* dubious content - I had no trouble viewing the NSFW webcomic Menage à 3!

Currently I am sitting in the sun outside the Walmart on the 192 at W Vine St and Oren Brown Road (feel free to look it up on Google Maps if you want to stalk me in the next half hour). I got so "claustrophobic" in the house that I had to get out, even though it meant trundelling along the grass verges of main roads. Claustrophobia isn't really the right term because that's a fear of open spaces, and there's nothing BUT open space here. But I felt totally trapped and panicky in a place where you need a car to get anywhere.

It's bloody weird here. Apparently Floridians don't believe in pavements/sidewalks. They exist, but only in actual housing estates. You go along the pavement & suddenly it vanishes, to be replaced with a naked grass verge. WTF? This happens over and over again down the length of a road. I have no fucking idea why, because the weather is so glorious here that walking or cycling in the outdoors seems a way better option than being stuck in a metal box, but go figure.I am also having severe environmental rage, all the time.

They don't recycle here. At all! EVERYTHING goes into the normal dustbin for landfill. ARGH! What a waste! Just add all the overpackaging issues (e.g. tons of disposable plastic bags, handed out like sweetie, even for things like 1 gallon drinks bottles WITH THEIR OWN HANDLE), and you can see why it's making me angry.

Anyway, going to try unbarring my phone again now. Hopefully will be able to read LJ again soon.

Edit, 22:06 Couldn't get my phone unbarred since T-Mobile's system was "being upgraded". However, I am now in HOOTERS of all places, using their free internet :D

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> Menage à 3!

I love it. And you are now reading it in Hooters? Wonderful.

As for recycling it is possible that their rubbish gets sorted through by machines to extract recyclables. This is slightly more expensive to set up (which is why UK councils don't do it) but supposedly works ok.

Hope you have a great time

[erik]

"As for recycling it is possible that their rubbish gets sorted through by machines to extract recyclables."

I would be shocked of that is what is happening here. Then entire culture in the US is that recycling is an odious task imposed by the government at the insistence of busybody hippie freaks.

[bob]

2 months ago the web guard can only be removed if you have a social security number. even when i tried to use a valid one it barfed because either it sucks or it didnt like the names not matching.
I even went into a store to ask and they said they couldnt do it.
I gave up trying to talk to a human on the helpline.

[pir.livejournal.com]

Apparently Floridians don't believe in pavements/sidewalks

If you don't have a car you don't exist, walking and buses are for poor people who don't exist.

[erik]

"tons of disposable plastic bags, handed out like sweetie, even for things like 1 gallon drinks bottles WITH THEIR OWN HANDLE"

And generally everything is double-bagged. Because the bags have been made thinner to save waste and cost. So they tear easily. So you have to use two, for a net increase in waste.

Till clerks look at me like I'm insane when I tell them I don't need a bag to carry my gallon of milk (has a handle) and bag of cat food (it's a single item) the 20 meters to my car. "are you sure?"

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

We've cut down on bag waste considerably here by requiring stores to charge 5 cents a bag. It's amazing how fast people got into bringing reusable bags with them to shop. That said, they still offer you bags, and like you, I'm entirely baffled by many of the circumstances. I'll buy a bag of chips and be asked, "Would you like a bag for that?" For... my bag? You're offering me a bag with which to carry a bag? It's already a bag. WTF? I'll also get offered bags for singular packaged items small enough to put in my pocket. Buy a single-serving bag of M&Ms, and... "Would you like a bag with that?" A bag, for the item I just bought that comes in a bag, that's physically smaller than my hand? Seriously?

[johnckirk.livejournal.com]

I'm disappointed to hear about the environmental problems over there; I suppose that they're more obvious to an outsider, and people who live there may not even consider alternatives. Regarding pavements, do you see anyone cycling on the road over there?