I've decided that there must be some all-mighty Hollywood guru who really likes his or her pets. Why else would so many 'action/thriller/suspense' movies involve having to go back for the family fish? One of the ultimate examples of this is Dante's Peak, where Pierce Brosnan and company rescue their little dog, Muffy (or Scruffy, or Muffin, or something like that), while driving an old pickup truck through a lava flow. Then there's the more subtly stupid examples, like Alien, where Ripley spends a good five minutes chasing the cat, Jones, around while listening to her crewmates die over the intercom. I'm sure there are tons of other examples I could think of given more time, but you get the point.
Today and yesterday have been the two hottest days I've experienced since I've been home. Lindsey was lucky enough to duck out of town again before this heat-wave hit too, the brat.
As far as weather and such is concerned though, I must say that the Pacific Northwest has the best summer environment. When you consider temperature, humididty, availability of water and rectreational facilities (and by those I mean outdoor adventure opportunities: biking, hiking, skiing, etc.), and overall scenery, I think we have a superb mix that could possibly only be contended by Northern Arizona, Northern Minnesota (you're welcome Jack), and parts of Northern and Eastern California.
Now, keep in mind I'm referring to the area in general. There are plenty of isolated spots that could contend (Santa Barbara, for example, has a great mix, but that's restricted to the coastline there, between say Oxnard and San Louis Opisbo), but no geographical area as large as the Northwest can boast such widespread environmental beauty or massively comprehensive recreational facilities. The State of Washington alone is extensively covered in National Parks, Forests, Reserves, as well as State Parks and Forests. Then, when you consider Oregon, Idaho, and Western Montana, you've got an immense setting for just the environment I'm talking about.
Incidentally, although Lindsey is gone now, I will be travelling for about the next week or so until she returns. Posting may remain spotty at best until around the 18th of August when we have to be back at school for the freshman orientation. Sorry Ladies.
Check this out. Now there's a "conservative alternative to Ben and Jerry's," as I know many of us have been anticipating for a long time now. It seems that someone with some means to mass produce ice cream finally realized that B & J were showing too much support for small-scale farming, the global environment, general social betterment, and the like. Instead of pouring our hard earned money into useless causes such as these, we now have an ice cream that puts our money where it counts: the US Military!
That's right, and not only do ten percent of the profits go towards the men and women of the US Armed Forces, but we also get to help maintain such creative flavors as "School Prayerleens and Creme," "'I Hate the French' Vanilla," and "Gun Nut."
Take that Cherry Garcia! I'm just glad I have a new ice cream cause to stand behind that's NOT helping to put new, safe playgrounds in my neighborhood. ZING!
Boo!! : one of Ben and Jerry's associates
Whoop!! : a cause that I can really stand behind
The problem with summer is that it not only cuts me off from any exciting or otherwise newsworthy events, but it also limits the amount of social contact I even have, thereby limiting the number of amusing or otherwise interesting stories I could use for this site.
Yesterday, my brother and I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (for the first time that I had seen it in many years). That's a really interesting film, as far as social commentary goes. It seems to me that Charlie was really no better than the other kids, with the exception of his final deed (giving back the Gobstopper). Wonka liked him the whole time though, which is why he probably showed Charlie so much respect. I mean, seriously, did Augustus Gloop do anything more harmful than Charlie? He didn't even get a chance to recieve a Gobstopper, and his drinking from the chocolate river wasn't much different from Charlie and Grandpa Joe having some of Wonka's Fizzy Lifting Drink. I think there's some fishy stuff going on around that place . . .
Just click here. You know you want to.
I hope that where my site lacks in quantity, I'm able to make up for it in quality.
That said, the graphics still suck - just look at Furstie's and Matt's. In my opinion, they have a much more professional look to them. Of course, they have been at this game a bit longer than I.
Also, I have very little to write about, except to relate a small story that may amuse those who know my family at all. This was first related to me by my mom actually. It seems that at one point while I was gone, she and my brother and my dad were all chatting while riding along in the family van. The discussion turned to the topic of 'emotional maturity' on which my mom had a few opinions. After she was through with her lecture, my dad and brother actually teamed up in a surprising turn of events, and responded by exclaiming that they both felt the whole 'emotional maturity' idea to be a fabrication.
Ahh, the amusement of having that come from two of the most obstinant, adolescent people you know is amazingly satisfying.
Well shit. I gotta start writing things down I think. I get these ideas for things to write about, but it always seems to be when I'm farthest from a computer.
In other news, I had an interesting conversation with the gardener for my new house. See, Mark and I (and a couple others) signed a lease that started the first of June, and one of our housemates also signed on a subletter for the summer (who actually left - or was kicked out more like - in mid June). It turns out though, that before he left, our subletter was sharing the (then) empty house with six of his friends.
So when I met the gardener for the first time yesterday, he asked me about the 'previous' tenants. I told him that I didn't know much about them, to which he responded 'Oh. Well, it's only that I was working here a while ago, when this dude came out onto the porch in womens clothing.'
See, this subtenant was definately gay, a fact I knew already. What I didn't know, however, was that a few of his friends were also. They were also seen by the gardener in womens clothes.
This was just before they nearly burnt the house down with our dryer and promptly dissapeared . .
Recently, a debate has arisen concerning the conversion of a pint into ounces. After some searching, I think I've come up with a reasonable answer.
Interestingly enough, there is a difference between a British pint and an American pint. In round estimation, a US pint is 16 ounces, though I think I've seen it more accurately displayed as 16.6. A UK pint, on the other hand, is more closer to 20 ounces, I think it rings in at about 20.2 or something like that. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find sources that really agree on this whole thing, thus the debate between 16 and 16.6, but that's about as good as I can estimate things.
Last night I saw Peter for the first time since January. The two of us and Mark went to see the Pirates of the Carribean, which was a good flick (it had it's bad moments, but for the most part it was entertaining and a solid story). After, Peter and I headed to the Swiss for a late sandwich and some drinks. It was good to see that guy again. I think over the course of the semester, I forgot what it felt like to have a variety of friends to just chill out with.
Tonight, I may be heading over to Jared's Dad's place in Puyallup. I've heard that there's a pool, a large stereo, and a barbeque waiting for me there.
In short, I'm glad to be back.
Unfortunately, my appearance on Insomniac was a bust altogether. I may still hold out for the Special Edition DVD (you know it's going to happen), but I doubt that will be fruitful either. My guess is that they don't allow strongly violent content on the show.
Also, last night Mark and I went to see Counting Crows in concert with John Mayer. We met up with Joel from high school and his friend from Western, and carpooled together out to the Gorge. First of all, the Gorge is a pretty incredible venue. On top of that though, Joel had gotten us tickets for the floor: we were dead center in the twenty-second row. Some sweet seats for a good show.
Incidentally, I have nothing more to say.
In the midst of the recent discussion on the meaning of the word 'savory' in reference to food, I came across an article in the local paper that gives a totally new spin on the word (sort of).
As far as I was concerned, savory has always been a qualitative thing: like tasty. In saying that something is savory, it doesn't necessarily describe the type of flavor you're tasting, it's more that whatever you're eating is yummy. This definition was called into question when the word was used in front of me to describe something as 'not sweet.' In that estimation, savory refers to a certain flavor of foods that aren't sugary.
According to the News Tribune, however, savory is 'a multidimensional, subtle taste that blends well with others.' As the article explains, there are five primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and a recently acknowledged taste, umami (also known as our friend, savory). If these are primary 'tastes,' then the 'flavor' of any food is a mixture of these.
Therefore, savory is actually a distinct taste that you'll never find, or be able to describe really, on it's own. As the Trib says, it's mostly known to 'expand and round out flavors.' Supposedly, it's strong in Italian food as it's found in parmesan cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes. It also makes up a good part of the flavor in steak and seafood, and can be distinctly noticed in seasonings like MSG and soy sauce.
To me, it sounds like an invention of the same woman that decided 'baby's breath' would be an appropriate name for a color of housepaint.
In about a half-hour, I'll be heading to the airport to pick up Mark who's flying in from Flagstaff. I haven't seen the guy in the last six months, so this is a much anticipated reunion. Tonight, we'll be helping our friend, Jared, break in his new ability to drink in public (he turns 21 today), which is a nice way to catch up with my old buddy. We've always said that drunken bullshitting is the best kind.
For those of you who haven't been aware of the recent attention Furst has been getting to this post he made nearly four months ago, you're missing out on some of the most randomly focused internet flame I think I've ever seen.
I like that it's people with email addresses such as 'liddleshorty240' and 'starletteburst' who find that they need to enhance their virtual penis size by using gangsta spellings of words like 'skerred' and 'werk.'
Keep in mind with what I said before about the 'ignorance' of Americans that nowhere am I making absolute statements.
Being back in town now has prompted some thought (on my part) about the 'worldliness' of Americans in relation to the rest of the world. Now, to some people that have done some travelling overseas, they come back to find that people here in general are somewhat ignorant of goings-on abroad. In my own experiences, I've found this to be true, but I'm not convinced that this is a sign of America's ignorance.
An example of American knowledge of international politics from my own experience abroad took place just recently, while my brother and I were touring Ireland. On the bus, we played a game that involved famous peoples names. Each side of the bus was a team, and each person had to write down five names that they thought everyone should know or at least heard of. Then the names that one team had collected were passed to the other team, jumbled together in a hat. The object of the game was for people on each team to take turns pulling names out of the hat and give clues to get the rest of the team to guess who the person was. Everyone had thirty seconds to get their team to guess as many names as possible.
If a person came across a name that they didn't recognize, they could pass, and if the name was judged to obscure at the end of the half-minute round, they got extra points. Vice-versa, if the name was judged to be 'general knowledge,' then the team would lose points for not knowing it.
It came time for Alec to pull names, and he was moving slowly along when he came to a name that he immediately scowled at and passed on. At the end of the round, the name was announced as John Howard, at which point all the North American kids gave puzzled looks, while the Australians threw their hands up in frustration. Being Irish, and therefore more worldly I suppose, the judge (our driver) decided that we should know who the Prime Minister of Australia is, seeming that we got him to fight in our war recently.
This example proves that Americans (and a Canadian too) are quite possibly focused too much on our own political doings that we neglect to consider what's happening in the rest of the world. But isn't this true of almost anywhere you go?
In all my exposure to the youth of Britain and their ideas on global politics, I found very few that could relate their opinions (or even knew the details) of the ongoing 'Tibetan' debate. I had a few very enlightening conversations with a Chinese guy I befriended about the current political state of China, but no one I encountered from outside Asia could discuss the same topic.
At the same time, I had numerous debates with locals about George W's crusade, at one point almost getting in a bar fight with Barry from Dublin for simply being American. It seemed that while no one knew the latest news from Russia or Chile, they could all easily discuss Western Europe and North America.
In the end, it is my humble opinion that Europeans aren't 'worldly' just because they know a thing or two about American politics. The expectation that Americans should be fully knowledgable of the world we live in seems a bit excessive. An analagous situation would be like Trent expecting Cheryl Crow to know what's going on in his life based on the fact that he knows what's happening in hers.
What we need to realize as Americans is that the only reason we get this reputation is because we put ourselves out in the world so much. No matter where I went in the last six months, the majority of poeple that I encountered as fellow travellers were Americans. Send a buch of Germans to Thailand and they'll look just as stupid as we normally do.
That's what I've concluded so far anyway. Maybe that's just as big-headed as the next motor-home sporting, deer hunter, but what the heck: it's out there now, I can't take it back . .
It's now been nearly 48 hours with only 3 hours of sleep in there. I'm thinking with those stats behind me I'll get a good nights sleep tonight, but I thought I wouldn't have trouble last night either, so we'll see I guess.
Speaking of sleeplessness, it turns out the Dublin episode of Insomniac is going to be out this coming Thursday. We'll see then if I made it on or not. Frankly, I'm a little nervous that it would just be an unfunny moment where I look like an ass or something. Nothing I can do about it at this point I guess.
I think I'll be heading to bed right about now though: the words on the screen seem to be becoming slightly blurry . .
Pleasant dreams.
After a full 16 hours in the air, I finally arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International last night at about 8pm. Of course, the first contact I have with my family is hearing my dad yell 'Hey Boogus!' from across the terminal . . . so wonderful to be home.
Incidentally, on our last day in London, Alec and I visited the Tower of London, where we saw the greatest mullet I have ever seen on the head of a ten-year-old in real life. It was beautifully spiked on top, and the tail must have gone over halfway down his back. It was so exceptional that Alec and I were forced to walk casually past the kid at least three times.
Because of jet-lag, I only got about three hours of sleep last night. That was after I had gone a full 24 awake too.
In the end, the three weeks with Alec was a really good time. Although I was reluctant to at first, the bus tour options were a great idea for what we wanted to do and see. That said, I'm definately renting a car the next time, especially now that I've seen some of the glimpses of the places that I have.
I think my favorite spot over the whole semester was Norway. I had some great company with Darcy on that trip, the scenery was beyond incredible, and the culture was nice and chill (though expensively so). I also thoroughly enjoyed Scotland, Ireland, and the Alps (in both Austria and Switzerland).
All in all, the study abroad was a good experience. Trying at times, but good.