As an expert in blogs, I can tell you that one key to having a successful blog is to incorporate a “series” type post that the author can reliably put out and that readers will look forward to seeing on a consistent basis. To name a few, there’s Weird Science on Neurotopia, Friday Fermentable on Terra Sigillata, and Sprog Blogging on Adventures in Ethics and Science. It’s like the Web 2.0 Web 3.0 or Web 2010 or just Web <<wink>> version of the Sunday funnies or the Science Times.
And so is born, the FOUND at the Internet Garage series. My inspiration for this series is two-fold: 1) To commemorate the magnificent FOUND MAGAZINE, the brain child of Davy Rothbart who runs the operation out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the city in which my fondest memories were made, and 2) To put my massive collection of random amusing crap found at the Internet Garage to good use. And there is a LOT of it — you wouldn’t imagine the shit people lost in there on my watch, which was usually intently focused on my computer screen. Every night closing up there, I would pick up items left behind on counter tops, in the scanner, in the printer tray, and (most unfortunately) in the computers. I’ve probably encountered 50 abandoned USB flash drives in my time there.
But perhaps the thing that has most compelled me to collect pieces of other people’s lives was the event that led to my employment at the Internet Garage. I went in one summer day to scan my passport and social security card to apply at a temp agency and left them in the scanner. It’s a good thing I couldn’t bring myself to stuff envelopes for a living and forfeited the $18/hr wage at the stock holding company to work at the IG for $8/hr instead. Because it wasn’t until a month after I had been working there that I found my identification items, which I had given up hope of ever finding, shoved in The Drawer of Random Crap. Why is it always the most important things that I am most likely to lose?
So, for the first installation, I present you with this sign, which was made by a member of the IG staff in response to one of the greatest finds of all: A ranting 3-page complaint about me from a woman after she stole $30 in color prints from me and threatened my life. You can bet you’ll encounter that as part of this series in the future. Enjoy!
If you would like to submit something to the FOUND series, please email it to justarikia@gmail.com. I don’t hyperlink email addresses because I hate it when mail programs like Outlook accidentally open.
