Archive for December, 2008
Australia Day Three
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Today the weather has turned humid, alternately rainy and gray and sauna-like warm. It was a good thing we took the Ferry across the harbor to Manly Beach yesterday when it was hot, windy and clear. The harbor is carved out of hillsides all around crammed with homes facing the water. It reminded me of pictures of Crete in a way (I’ve never been there). It’s rocky and mossy-looking, with squarish homes punctuating the surface.
The Sydney Harbor Bridge provides a focal point for Sydney much in the same way the Statue of Liberty does for New York City. You can see it from everywhere and orient yourself that way. My sister has implored me to do the Bridge Climb across the top of the bridge. I am a weenie and terrified of heights and I really do NOT want to do this. They hook you to a cable and you’re stuck walking in line until the thing is over. There is no way off. There is no way out. Did I mention that I’m afraid of heights? Right now, I’ve assented to try it, but I can’t think about actually doing it or I’ll freak out.
Within sight distance of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the most iconic Australian structure, The Sydney Opera House points toward the ocean, full sail. It is dazzling and dramatic and calls to mind a new American feat of engineering and art the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. I’m curious to see the Sydney Opera House up close. Where the Disney Concert Hall is tactile and beautiful even microscopically, the Sydney Opera House strikes me as a piece of art best viewed from a far-off perspective. I don’t know if that’s true yet. We plan to go while we’re here–maybe to see Madame Butterfly. If not, hopefully at least a tour. The engineering must be incredible. There are three pieces of architecture that I’ve most wanted to see and this is one of them. The Disney Concert was another–I was so moved just by it’s beauty and magnificence that I bummed a weekend off an LA friend to go see it. The Sydney Opera House is now going to be checked off the list. The last building I doubt I’ll ever see in person.
I have lots of pictures for you, but I’m having trouble with uploading them. Growl. Hopefully, I’ll figure it out.
Today, we laid low. Took walks down town and walked/runned the Bay Walk/Run an 8K loop around, you guessed it, the bay.
Well, I’ll finish here. Frustrated as heck about the picture deal. I’ve got lots of them. Tomorrow I’m getting together with an old college friend and a colleague. Two separate meetings. Should be fun. One, at least, will involve generous amounts of alcohol. The other will involve exploring the town Double Bay.
Latest Pajama’s Media Article: Pointy-Toed Shoes
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Hey guys, you got the story first, but a more expanded version of the Men In Pointy-Toed Shoes article is here (with an indictment of Santa’s femininity, too!). It went up two days ago, but I’ve been out of the flow.
It’s Okay To Be A Slutty Feminist
Monday, December 22nd, 2008It’s Okay To Be A Slutty Feminist
As long as you don’t get paid for it and you’re ugly. [Linked fixed]
Michael Leahy to Mike Duncan: Take Your Hat Out Of The Ring
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Michael Leahy to Mike Duncan: Take Your Hat Out Of The Ring
The RNC needs new blood.
George Bush Is Not Evil
Monday, December 22nd, 2008George Bush Is Not Evil
We’ll hear more like this after he’s out of office.
Travel Blogging Part Trois: We’re Here!
Sunday, December 21st, 2008Sydney, Australia is quite simply gorgeous.
Birds sing. Trees blow in the breeze. It’s in the low 80s. There’s water everywhere. Stunning! The little town, Rozelle, reminds me a bit of San Fransisco, a bit of Grand Haven, Michigan, and a bit of some vague European city with the twisty-turned streets, brick everywhere and crammed together business and housing. It feels familiar enough that I don’t feel like a tourist, but I look like one. I have my Superman backpack (they’ve run out of them, but this is the style, and they work great!) and a camera in my hand and I don’t give a hot damn that I look like a nerd.
Finished up the book Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
on the trip. Yes, it’s good. Nothing that’s going to give you extra I.Q. points, mind you, but a great story with interesting characters and all the angst of adolescence on full display. Some reviewer here in Sydney said the book was just like Harry Potter. I’m wondering what sad planet of I-didn’t-read-the-book he was from. Whatever. The book is entirely different in tone, setting, and focus. Where Harry Potter is epic good-evil with a dash of growing pains thrown in, Twilight is a “first love/true love” story with vampires thrown in. Sheesh! Sometimes, I think I should be a book reviewer. Anyway, it was good enough that I’m finishing the series, maybe while I’m here. We’ll see how much time I have to read.
Tomorrow the ferry and Mandalay Beach. I expect to fry like a marooned baby seal. I don’t exactly intend to fry, mind you. I have the sunscreen and cover-ups, etc., but Australia has a monstrous ozone hole over the continent, no doubt created by the tiny Australian population using excess resources and being big, fat, wasteful consumers since they are a Western Democracy. Or, it’s the Chinese fault, kinda like it’s Detroit’s fault that all parts Toronto are polluted, or rather, it used to be Detroit’s fault back when they had factories, back in the olden days. Anyway, there’s a big ozone hole and it’s easy to get burned. I’ll do what I can to prevent that. Don’t want to prematurely age. Too late, I have kids. Comes with the territory.
Strange thing about technology: I’m in America. I’m in Sydney. My Twitter and blogging friends are so ass-backward body-clock wise, it’s like I’m home. And so, in a weird way, technology plays along with the normal-seeming yet strange sensation of being 14 hours off my body clock’s time.
I’ll be updating, if I can get the Australian data network to work, on Twitter with pics and all. Hope you’re having a great break, if you’re on one.
Best New Conservative Site: #TCOT Report
Saturday, December 20th, 2008Hey guys, you HAVE to check out this site for all things conservative. It’s run by Michael Pleahy who is on Twitter, too. He’s someone to know.
Adventures In Travel: Part Deux
Friday, December 19th, 2008Here’s what I’ve learned today, just now: Oriental people are early birds. Like this very Anglo-Saxon gal, these people are way too early for their flights because they aren’t going to be left behind. No siree. The rapture folks ain’t got nothin’ on these always prepared Buddhists. They are ready. Like now. They are also hogging every single outlet in the Tom Bradley International Terminal. I’m wigging out. I need power, baby, and no aggressive Chinaman is going to put me off. Oh, hell no. You have your Sun Tzu? I raise you a General Patton, sucka.
I’m juicing up for the long flight. One outlet is mine. All mine, precious. An upside of Continental Airlines being run by a bunch of apathetic boobs is that we got upgraded today, plane-wise. We are now on the Airbus A-380. Yes, it’s a plane made by the French and that worries me. Italians are troublesome, too. (Whew, I’m being all kinds of politically incorrect tonight. Let’s just go for another continent and say right here, right now that Robert Mugabe is a despicable human being and the rest of Africa needs to stop covering for leaders who work over their own people.) The upside of this glorious plane is that 1) it’s quiet and 2) it’s quiet. Oh, and I hear the seats are wide–a benefit for wide-assed corn-fed Americans. (I’m on my way to a politically incorrect ringer.)
Anyway, today was a good day. Gorgeous, if brisk, and the kids got to see the Pacific, a lack of experience that has excessively bothered them for some time. I don’t get why. One theory: they know too much. The downside of home schooling is that they now know world geography and feel deprived because they haven’t been to say, Singapore. They figure everyone goes to Singapore (the oil industry means that lots of kids have lived lots of places) or Europe or Russia or the UAE. It’s a different, more connected world, that’s for sure.
Google Earth freaked us out today. My daughter was fooling with my iPhone, found the street we were on, looked at street view and hello, there’s a car. There’s a couple layers of scary. She knows how to use the technology, no problem. And Google knows how to find us, no problem.
Anyway, in 17 hours or so, I should be in another hemisphere, on another continent. I’ve decided to not disparage the Australians because they seem like really nice people and plus, I’m going to be there for a couple weeks and I want to make it back home alive. Because you know what? Now that Kevin (I’m sorry) Rudd is in charge, Australia isn’t as America friendly and I might be dropped in the “outback” to be eaten by “dingos”. That is just scary.
Oh! And this is the strangeness of the universe. We met a guy suffering our same plight. He was Australian, didn’t know the area and frankly looked a wee bit terrified of finding his way in LA. So, I suggested he come with us even though, at 1 a.m. we didn’t know where we were going. He came along. We ended up at the Hilton which gave us nice hotel at a very good price and very late check out. Today, we saw him on the streets of Santa Monica. He’ll probably be next to us on the plane. This is where people’s beliefs about coincidence and fiat come into play. I tend to start thinking there is something I should pay attention to when I trip over the same person or idea multiple times. Others would say that I give chance too much credit.
More adventures coming forth with.
P.S. Is this travel blogging boring you? Rush Limbaugh’s readers always give him crud when he talks about football, but I’m like, get a life, football is fine. And so, today, I haven’t blogged about the UAW Bailout or Ann Romney’s breast cancer or Sarah Palin for Senate or Democratic corruption or Congress’ pay raise (even though they suck and are the reason the economy is imploding) or Princess Caroline (wow, even Kos is talking about her lack of voting, snort). I haven’t talked about any of that stuff because well, I’m sick of politicians and politics. By this time last year, I was so fed up that I “quit” for two whole weeks. And then, like a big sucker, I came back during the most hideous election year ever. I didn’t think it could get worse and then, it did.
I want to go on the record here about something important. Yes, it’s Friday night and no one’s reading this anyway, but I’m saying it:
I’m glad John McCain lost.
There. I said it. And I voted for him, by the way. The next four years are going to stink in ways only B.O. can stink and and it’s a relief that it’s him and not McCain. It is bad being worked over by your opponent. I’ve been on a losing team before and it’s no fun. But there is nothing worse than being on the winning team only to have the “star” not live up to one shred of his potential. What is worse, is to find out that the star of your team is throwing the game because he’s in on some gambling scheme. I’m not saying that John McCain would be a cheater. I’m just saying he would completely disrespect his voters every, single day of our existence. The Left would hate him, but that wouldn’t stop McCain from trying to curry their favor. It would be a tortured experience.
Watching the Left endure their version of voter colic has been nothing if not entertaining. Seeing Obama stumble through a press conference and chastise his sycophants makes me giggle. Reading the far left’s bloggers try to explain their savior’s betrayals makes me all warm inside. Oh, I feel their pain. I know what it’s like to actually believe something and to be rolled by the guy you voted for. It’s not fun. I’d rather it be them than me.
We’re all going to suffer the next four years. It’s going to be awful. It would be awful with McCain. It would be awful with anyone. The environment is just bad right now. Way back, I wondered what kind of lunatic would want to be president during such a difficult time. Well, we’ve got one, Barack Obama. May the force be with him. In the mean time, it’s been a lot more fun than I expected…..so far.
Airline Service: This Time It’s Continental
Friday, December 19th, 2008Airline service is a non-sequitor. I sit here listening to my daughter sing in the shower, in the Hilton LAX where I’ve been residing since 1:30 a.m. I should be nearly to Sydney, Australia by now. But no.
Airplane travel sucks. As if you don’t know this. Continental, the current baddie, is usually better than this. Although, I’ve battled a bad attitude ever since they started charged $15 a bag. That was for high gas prices and extra weight. Yeah, gas prices have dropped. No, the fees didn’t go away. But still, at least they would give you a drink and throw you some pretzels. On U.S. Air recently, they wanted to charge me $2 for a cup of water–not even a bottle of water. I opted for dehydration.
Yesterday though, was irritating. We had a 7 p.m. flight to LA. At 11:45 p.m. California time, we were to board a plane to Sydney. Three hours should be plenty of time to layover, right? Um, no. When I boarded the plane to CA, after waiting with no sold information for 2 1/2 hours in Houston, I told the main Stewardess, “It’s going to be close, can you call Qantas and tell them?” I could tell by her reaction that she didn’t care. And she didn’t. When we ran to the Qantas counter at 11:45 p.m., the flight to Sydney was delayed, but they had closed up shop. There was no getting through. It was also the first they’d heard of our late flight.
We were at the airport until 1 a.m. sorting out luggage. The line for Continental was at least 250 people deep. The misery index high. Three planes had missed connections by less than 10 minutes. How is it economical for the airlines to fly half-full? I’d really like to know how that’s a good business model.
Continental failed at communication, empathy, efficiency and humanity. They knew we’d miss our connections and didn’t inform us so we could plan ahead. They made it seem like we still could get where we needed to go, so we tried to find a solution when they knew there was none, but it deflected immediate pressure. They alternately told us that the problem was one of the engines and the weather. So, we weren’t sure if we should be worried about the plane’s safety.
Here’s how bad the service was on the plane: Another Continental pilot was connecting to a flight he was going to be captaining to Hong Kong. His new plane was 2 minutes from lift-off. (Of course it couldn’t go anywhere without him.) The stewardess didn’t arrange for him to get off the plane first. The workers on the plane were absolutely rude to him and the rest of the frantic passengers. They didn’t care.
You know it’s bad when the flight crew disrespects one of its own. What is wrong with these people? The pilot said, “I don’t know how much longer I can work for this company.”
And I don’t know how long these lame ass companies can stay in business. A year from now, they’ll be barking about wanting another bailout and wondering why no one flies. And if all goes the way it usually does, they’ll be bailed out by the very tax payers they defecate on every day.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Obama Offends Gay People
Thursday, December 18th, 2008Leftist bloggers are all upset over Mr. Obama’s choice for the inaugural prayer. The gay community is crying foul. Why?
Barack Obama said consistently throughout the election that he’s against gay marriage. Wink. Wink. I didn’t believe him. Neither did his voters. I still don’t believe him. Especially after his acceptance speech in Chicago when he spoke of rights of all people and pointedly mentioned gays.
Picking Rick Warren to give the prayer is throwing a “clever” bone to the moderate middle and the Christian conservatives. Remember, people, 85% of American citizens believe in God. Nearly 100% besides the fringe lefties view Rick Warren and Joel Olsteen as the Wal-Mart of religion–everyone shops there, everyone buys. View them as red-pronged devils if you want, but anyone who knows about the evangelical movement knows that the purges won’t come from these mega churches.
Here’s another thing: blacks are overwhelmingly against gay marriage. How do the Prop 8 folks think that law passed when a 1/2 black man was on the ticket? Black people had to vote for the President and then go and choose to vote for Prop 8. It wasn’t a passive choice. The fact is that most blacks do not view gay marriage as a civil rights issue. So gays can get all hot and bothered about the mean Mormons and evil evangelicals but there’s a whole race of people who know oppression when they see it and they don’t see it.
What is really offensive to me, though, is that I don’t believe that Obama is against gay marriage at all. The prayer deal is no skin off his nose. It’s a win-win. He appeals to the vast middle and burns little political capital to do so. Oh sure, the gay brigade is peeved, but their rancor will calm down once they see the gay-friendly policies roll out of this administration. And then it will be the stupid moderate middle who will be shocked. But Barack Obama had Rick Warren pray! But Barack Obama said he was against gay marriage!
Uh huh. Mr. Obama has said many things to get himself elected and he’ll say and do many more things to seem appealing. But the real proof is in the pudding and the pudding ain’t the prayer at the inauguration. It’s symbolic. Remember Maya Angelou boring the entire country with her inaugural poetry? It was symbolic. Black people swooned and saw themselves in Bubba. Bah. Bill Clinton was seizing the moment to make a statement. A year or two later he was slashing welfare benefits.
A year or two from now, we’ll find out what Barack Obama really believes because we’ll have actions to judge him by and I don’t mean the kind of symbolic emptiness that Rick Warren represents. We’ll see proof of his beliefs whatever they might be. The fact is, no one knows for certain, right now, what that means.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
