It's Random Friday again

Man, this weeks seems to have flown by. Which is perfectly fine with me, considering the weekends feel like they last for approximately twelve minutes. Now on to the randomness. I've been holding on to the first one since Sunday, when the thought first occurred to me.

1. Do you think other cultures have storage units? Uncle Bob's Storage. U Store It. Climate controlled, pretty little boxes where we can store all the stuff we've accumulated that won't fit in our current residence? Or are we the only culture that is arrogant enough to need more 'things' than we actually have room for?

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't valid reasons for storage units. Temporarily between residences? Need to put your pool table somewhere while you refurbish the basement to look like a kickass bar? Knock yourself out.

I simply can't believe the sheer number of storage units we have in Florida. Which is ironic, given the fact that a decent percentage of our population actually has a SECOND HOME somewhere up north. For some reason I can't see a Frenchman paying perfectly good money for a place to store crap. And in Japan, their residences are smaller than our storage units. I'm sure it would be considered a ridiculous extravagance. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong.

If you've lived in a foreign country (or know someone who does), fill me in. Does Uncle Bob have a chain in the Ukraine?

2. (You're only getting two today, because they're long.) You know how your voice sounds different in your head than it does to everyone else? You know, you hear your voice on a voice mail message (or on a cassette tape, in the olden days), and freak out at what you sound like to everyone else?

Well, yesterday it occurred to me to wonder how this phenomenon affects comedians and actors who do impressions. Those guys (and gals) who can do spot-on, can't-believe-it's-not-the-real-person-talking impressions. Since they would sound different in their heads while they're practicing new impressions, how do they get them so spot on? Do they have to record themselves and constantly go back and listen to what they sound like to everyone else? That seems awfully tedious.

Makes me appreciate Kevin Pollack's Christopher Walken all the more.