Heute Ha Ha Habe Ich Geburtstag

Today I am 23 years of age.

Lustig. Lustig. Tra-la-ra-la-ra.

“I’m Not Here To Make Friends, I’m Here To Win.”

I am convulsing. I am foaming at the mouth. I know I used this to describe Baltimore and Micheal Phelps, but now, it’s my turn. Why? What has got me so excited? Everyone has their show- ER, Seinfeld, LOST, Power Rangers, whatever. My show? The Amazing Race. I love this show. Season 13 starts on Sept. 28 at 8pm. That’s 37 days, 9 Hours, and 48 minutes as I write this sentence.

It is my dream to be on this show, and watching the team videos here only makes me more excited. I haven’t chosen my team yet, last season it was Azaria & Hendekea, but they lost in the last episodes and crushed my dreams. Once I see the first episode, see how the teams work out, then I will choose. I can tell you right now, the guy that says “She wants it her way, I want it my way, and if we can’t do that we argue.”, is not a good sign, and will not help win The Race. I am so excited!

I considered trying out for TAR13 when they were having audtions in Seattle last spring, but the wheels of fate were in motion and I decided against it.

I leave you with this little ditty about reality shows: Cliches all around!

A Grasshopper Walks Into A Bar…

So work has been busy. It makes the day go by much faster. Almost too fast, like, eerily fast. We have our production meetings at 9:30, and before you know it, it’s 1:00! To quote a comic I LOATH: “AAK!”

MARC Book of the Week has slowed significantly. I am just too tired when I get on the train. As soon as the train starts to pull away from the station, it’s like someone presses a Decompression Switch, and BOOM. I am out. MARC gave me a bit of a scare the other day. All trains on the Penn Line were delayed. Amtrak, MARC, Regionals, everything. Why? I couldn’t find out at the station, they would not tell me anything. I had to jump on the light rail to Camden Yards (which really made me want to go to an Orioles game) and hop on the Camden Line along with 500 other people.

Why the delay on 3 tracks? Was it a tree, a power failure, a flood? No

I didn’t find out until I got to the office, (who had all heard about the delay because they own televisions): An Amtrak train hit a rail inspector at 5AM that morning. Yes. They hit. a. person. (Mom, I know you just made that “*tsk” noise.) He is okay, as far as I know. He was not killed. I am sure he is probably not too happy with his employer at this time though.

UPDATE: According to a conversation I overheard between an Amtrak employee and a customer waiting for the 6:40 MARC train, the 22-year-old Rail Inspector was hit by a non-stop strain, and “esploded”. I am sorry for his family. RIP.

Well, that makes the rest of the post a little awkward…

I would like to say Happy 49th Anniversary of Union Ascension (Unionization?) to the State of Hawaii. On this date in 1959 you fine folks were admitted as the 50th State in the Union. Whoop it up.

RANT/IDEA DUMP: There is talk going on of many college presidents calling for the drinking age to be lowered to 18 rather than having it remain at 21. This is to prevent binge drinking escapades and promote healthy responsibility. I am for this measure for a few reasons.

1. If you can hold a rifle for Uncle Sam, you should be able to hold a beer.

2. I myself never drank in high school. Some of my friends did, not a big deal. I did consume alcohol once I got into college however, well before I was 21. I also made myself sick being a little overzealous with the drinking at times. Now, I am not talking “*groan* my head hurts, I can’t go to class.” I mean borderline alcohol poisoning. This happened once, and I was smart enough to recognize it, and avoid it in the future. I felt ill for 3 solid days. I can attest and stand as proof that binge drinking is a legitimate danger to college age kids. I still have friends that have not gotten out of the mentality that in order to “have a good time” that means slamming as many drinks as possible as quickly as possible.

3. I don’t know if I am the Odd Man Out on this, but I am going to be 23 next week and rarely drink. Don’t get me wrong, I love beers. I like to try many from all over the world, but I don’t over-do it. Hell, I barely do it. I think if “the European approach” of alcohol responsibility was in place, it would be a much better situation here. In Germany (and I may get this slightly incorrect because I was told it by my host sister many years ago) it is very difficult to get a driver’s license. Alcohol may be consumed “as soon as they can see over the bar”, but if there is even the slightest infraction while driving, especially under the influence, there are severe punishments. I think up to having a license revoked forever plus jail time.

If alcohol wasn’t made out to be a forbidden unicorn that could only be attained by living for 21 years, then kids would not freak out come midnight of year twenty-one. Of course, this does not mean that you should hand your infant a bottle of Merlot and say “Alright kid, it’s time to grow the hell up” , Responsibility and Good Judgment are friends and like to hang out; let them.

1,030 Pages To Go

MARC Book of the Week: Leo Tolstoy’s WAR AND PEACE.

Yep, that’s right. The Motherload of books. Granted, I don’t think I am going to be able to chop that many pages up in a week, but we’ll see. I started it a few months ago before I moved, and am already 423 pages into it or something like that. It’s actually a pretty good book, once you get past the opening character developments. Once finished, I think I will be one of 13 normal people to willingly read the book.

The Feast of St. Gabriel was fun, there was lots of food and laughter and yelling across bars. I should have brought my business cards.

Baltimore is going crazy. People are foaming at the mouth and convulsing in the streets over the excitment of the hometown boy Mr. Phelps. Congrats to him, but congrats to all atheletes that make it to the Olympic level. I am glad to see that the Men’s Basketball Team is doing well. God knows you guys should be better than you were in recent olympic showings. Basketball is your job you get paid millions of dollars to play basketball. Earn your millions. You are nothing like the TEAM USA that adorned so many Burger King cups of my youth. Earn your jerseys too.

“Press! Press! Press!”

Okay, so I am not really up-to-date on the Georgia-Russia conflict, so I am not going to discuss who is right and who is wrong yadda yadda.

I will say this: I am outraged at both militaries for their treatment of the Press in the area. I have seen 4 videos now showing both Georgian and Russian troops firing at press groups that are CLEARLY press. There was a Georgian reporter shot in the arm by a sniper while she was doing a LIVE report, and she still continued reporting! The Poor Turks

Good luck to anyone in the region.

InshallMTA – Long As I Can See The Light

“California, you would not believe the week I’m having.”
(© In Ink Please)

“The Fugative Resembles A Potato.”

Armenia sounds like an interesting place to visit. Granted, all places sound interesting to visit to me, but today it is Armenia. I really have no interest in visiting Western Europe, save for the major battlefields of WW1 and 2. It all seems so “overtourist-ed” to me. I have never been west of the German border, so I cannot speak with utmost certainty, but I do not discount it completely. I think it is just the major cities that turn me off. A week in the French country might be wonderful! I have no idea where I am going with this.

The MARC Book for today anyway, is still Tough Jews. I am almost done with it. It was a very dense read. Not so much that the writer was writing over my head, but that the descriptions, situations, and names all formed into an intricate web of information that had to be dissected with utmost care in order to get the most out of what the pages were telling you. It kind of turns into a “Jewish fist-raiser” book. I don’t have any problem with this, because it explains why it did this. It talks about a time before “Jews didn’t know they couldn’t fight back” meaning pre-holocaust. It explains that this breed of Jewish Gangsters never once considered the fact that they could be considered weak in another person’s mindset. Most of them were killed, captured and then killed, or arrested, tried, then electrocuted before WW2 ended and the full scope of Germany’s doings could be revealed, but it is an interesting look at an era that, according to the book, even Jewish scholars don’t like to talk about, as they say the trials of the war years formed a new generation of Jew both in mindset and demeanor, and that a “Jewish Gangster” never existed.

It’s a neat book. I promised Vanessa I would read DUNE next, if only for the fact that I can then reference Sandworms without her reprimanding me for not reading the book and referencing things I have no business referencing. She’s like so many bad Vietnam War Vet Jokes. (example: “How many Vietnam Vets does it take to screw in a light bulb?” [' I don't know, how many Vietnam Vets DOES it take to--']“YOU DON’T KNOW YOU WEREN’T THERE!”*

Well, I am going there, cue the CCR.

*DISCLAIMER: I am putting this in to soothe my own conscience. I admire and respect all veterans of all wars on all sides. In my travels I have spoke with many of these folks and hear the same story: ” It was just business. They were trying to do what they were supposed to do, and I was trying to do what I was supposed to do.”

YES.

Get Your War On

I love this comic strip so much, and now, it’s an animated series! Allah be praised.

Check out the original strips here.

Since When Is Matchbox 20 Considered Classic Rock?

My life is forever altered if this is true. I heard a Matchbook 20 song on an online “radio station” that was supposed to be pure classic rock. I now know how my parents feel. The songs of my youth are deemed old. However, Matchbox 20 is neither “Classic” or “Rock”. Ugh. I’ll be doing the “mom dance” while driving and saying “Matchbox TWENTEEEEE” as my child looks on in amused horror.

Actually, check this out: pandora.com it is associated with the Music Genome Project. It’s free! Just sign up, tell it an artist or song that you think is really neat, and it will compile a list of songs that are similar in quality, tone, melody, a whole gaggle of conditions. You can also tell it if you like the song or not, and it will alter the upcoming songs accordingly. Pretty neat. Only couple of bummers: The music is licenced so you can only skip so many songs on one “channel” an hour. BUT! You can have as many channels as you like, so you can just jump to another one! Also, if you like a song and want to listen to it again, there is not an option to restart. meh, could be worse.

I was not at the bus stop at 6:13 this morning, and was resigned to missing it. I was on my stoop as the driver pulled away from the stop. To my surprise he stopped right in front of my house and picked me up! I was so pleased. I guess there is a bonus to being the only person the bus that dresses up in business casual at 6:13 in the morning. You get recognized. That is another neat thing: the people that ride the bus that early are the same people everyday, with the same driver. It’s handy for situations like the one described above.
Hope everyone is having a grand Friday. Congratulations to my Mother and my Stepfather on their 15th Wedding Anniversary yesterday! Here are some neat facts about July 31:

1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.

1954 – First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.

1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.