2010.08.10
Two Years
Hard to believe two years have passed since I stepped up to Farley’s Cafe and met Rosa for the first time. Two amazing years. Traveling to Colorado, Virginia and Spain (not to mention around California), introducing you to surfing and skiing, learning new languages (and some we should apparently already know), discovering what we like, moving in together, getting married.
Two years. It’s not that long but we’ve done so much already… It give some insight into the cliche that a moment can last a lifetime because that’s been two years, and we have a real lifetime to have the continuing adventures.
T’estimo, Paprikafrita, sempre.
2 Comments | Catergorized: life2010.06.16
The Anachronism
I like small films, and I like some of the steampunk stuff out there (though too much is punk, and not enough steam, or visa versa). The Anachronism strikes a fine balance and is worth watching if just for the great acting of the kids. Usually child actors are annoying, but these two are quite good.
No Comments | Catergorized: movies technology2010.06.07
News and World (Cup) Report
I’ve been neglecting this blog. I’ve been busy… Heck, I even got married to a pretty amazing woman. I’ve been needing to write but because of work (ask about that offline!) and everything pre- and post-wedding I’ve been suffering brain drain and motivation to write.
Photo by Jerome Abellar
So let’s get back to it, shall we? Yes!
World Cup is starting up. Here’s all the games, here are the game times set to Eastern Standard time and finally here is a map of where you can watch in the Bay Area. USA plays England first… Let’s make them suffer!
Meanwhile, while I haven’t been writing a whole lot, I have managed to watch the entire three “seasons” (Brits having a different idea of how many episodes constitutes a season than us) of an amazing BBC series called Black Books. See it. It’s comedy gold that will probably not be remade here in America (like The Office) because there’s too much smoking, drinking and swearing without any (well, only once) sex, murder or blowing things up. Brilliant. I need to find out who wrote the opening theme song…
Speaking of explosions, can anyone explain to me why they can’t simply blow up the hole in the Caribbean leaking all that oil? Or pour several thousand metric tons of concrete over the top? Seriously, it seems ridiculous they build these things without some sort of failsafe or cutoff valve.
Anyways, off we go!
2 Comments | Catergorized: family friends life photos thoughts tv2010.05.07
The Rise of Violence
I’ve been reading a number of books lately on writing. Currently I’m reading Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Linda N. Edelstein, Ph.D. Aside from being an amazing book and a mini-guide to psychology, it has a number of interesting facts. This one struck me hard.
Innately, people do not like to kill. … In World War II, for instance, only 15-25 percent of combat infantry soldiers were willing to fire their guns. By the time soldiers went to Korea, 50 percent were willing to shoot. In Vietnam, the figure was up to 90 percent.
I find this staggering. Maybe there is some sort of correlation between violence depicted in our American media (exposure and desensitization) and the rise of various forms of violent crime.
Regardless of that topic, though, it got me thinking about how someone from 60 or 70 years ago, teleported through time to our present, would find the world. Aside from the technological, scientific and medical changes that would make our world so very different, the levels of violence must be astonishingly high. If less than a quarter of people in a war are unwilling to fire their guns, imagine what it was like in a time of peace? No wonder the Mafia’s use of weapons was so shocking back in the 20s and 30s. We would seem almost callous in our disregard for the violence we see almost daily on the news.
How the world changes. And how different will it be in the future? Perhaps, instead of a statistic that says less than a quarter of the population was willing to shoot their gun in a time of war, we’ll have a statistic that says less than a quarter of our population actually killed another person in a time of war. And our descendants might look on that statistic and think, “How quaint.”
No Comments | Catergorized: books thoughts2010.04.30
American Ex-Pats Giving Up Citizenship
More and more expats are giving up their citizenship. This is not a good thing, but I had no idea we still had to pay Federal taxes when living abroad, nor did I realize that various recent (post 9/11) laws make it very difficult for us to live abroad, especially if we just happen to need a bank.
Stringent new banking regulations — aimed both at curbing tax evasion and, under the Patriot Act, preventing money from flowing to terrorist groups — have inadvertently made it harder for some expats to keep bank accounts in the United States and in some cases abroad.
Hopefully something is done about this in our government, but I’m certainly not holding my breath. It makes me rather happy I earned so little money (relatively speaking) when I was in Prague; they can’t come after me for tax evasion!
2 Comments | Catergorized: political2010.04.29
Gustav Skippone
I don’t normally drool too terribly much over motorcycles… Well, fine, I drool a lot if the machine is worthy and the Gustav Skippone from Yuri Shif is definitely… Worthy. If anyone wanted to get me something nice, now you have an idea.
Via Bike EXIF, one of the best sites about motorcycle design.
2 Comments | Catergorized: motorcycle2010.04.08
Obama and Some Polls
I’m not a big fan of polls. However, some that aren’t designed to weigh in on whether a person should do a thing but rather what a population’s perception of the person is can be illuminating. This Harris poll is rather scary, because they are all about how Americans view President Obama.
He is a socialist (40%)
He wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns (38%)
He is a Muslim (32%)
He wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (29%)
He has done many things that are unconstitutional (29%)
He resents America’s heritage (27%)
He does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (27%)
He was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (25%)
He is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of (25%)
He is a racist (23%)
He is anti-American (23%)
He wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (23%)
He is doing many of the things that Hitler did (20%)
He may be the Anti-Christ (14%)
He wants the terrorists to win (13%)
Unsurprisingly, the percentages for Republican are much higher than these averages, as are the percentages for the less educated.
I’ll refrain from extensive editorializing aside to say: What a freaking pack of idiots we have in this country.
2 Comments | Catergorized: grrr political2010.04.02
Here We Go
I’m just minutes away from a super exciting and very mysterious weekend. Early bachelor’s party. No idea what my best man has cooked up. Wish me luck!
1 Comment | Catergorized: food-drink friends life2010.03.25
Mudblood Graffiti
Without a doubt, Harry Potter and his world are very popular. But you know you’ve hit the big time when terminology from your books is used in everyday settings. Like “mudblood” in this graffiti found on Valencia Street in San Francisco.
2010.03.23
Childish Things
“When I grew older I gave up childish things. Then I got married and my wife made me give up more.”
-J.E.G.
I ain’t married and I can still attest to the truth of this quote!
3 Comments | Catergorized: friends life thoughts
