Essential Christmas Gifts for ME!!! and Geeks

My soul has been your playground.
I have and will share relentless details of semi-interesting anecdotes.

I have poured my heart out to the web. Now, all I can ask in return is for you to fulfill my electronic dreams

Bluetooth Watch with Color ID $79.99

There is simply no way to do without the convenience of seeing the caller id of an incoming call. No more not hearing the cell phone ringer. The only thing better would be display of text messages, but we've got to give geniuses as NASA (or Taiwan) some time. I also questions why a geek watch wouldn't be digital, but who cares? It's got Bluetooth. And Bluetooth gets the babes (I'm married, but I need to retain the adoration of my adorable wife - I'm not letting myself go, electronically at least).

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/c16c/

BlueTooth Ring Bracelet $59.99 to ring or show caller id

http://www.thinkgeek.com/clearance/on-sale/9e31/?cpg=cj

Wireless N adapter $40 - this is actually a good deal for a wireless N adapter

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travel-outdoors/bd55/

Scrolling LED belt buckle or name badge $30 or $40

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7c54/

Video watch with 8GB storage

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/a442/

They call this one the lecture-killer. The car driver-killer. The attention killer. I can watch Oprah all the time. Civilization has hits its peak. Head for the hills and get a shotgun; it's only downhill from here.

No Plate and the blood drive

This is more of a diary type post that I'm just not sure of being of interest to even everyone sitting on this couch, so I'll start with a more fun story of what happens when cops write down "No Plate" for citing a car without a plate and you have a vanity plate of "NO PLATE."

An urban legend that is acutally true:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/noplate.asp

By the way, Snopes.com is the place to visit before you forward any desperate sounding e-mail.

Last Friday's visit to Duke

I woke up unusually early today (early enough to get a free parking spot on Anderson St. Free or illegal - the signs are confusing, but there are other cars parked there). I walked a little through Duke Gardens and then onto Campus. I feel the opposite of elitist there. A townie. I don't even know what they call a townie. No one is mean, yet.... Although OU's football team has national prominence, I don't think my Oklahoma degree stacks up favorably to Duke. Anyway, its price tag shows in the beautiful campus. Duke "Chapel" is more of a cathedrał, the kind that would be busy with tourists in Europe. Here people don't seem to notice. An iPod is more interesting than the organ.

I wandered around into a student center. I don't know the name because building signs don't abound, excepting the somebody engineering school in the somebody building in the somebody center. Maybe the New York system, like PS # 15 would be easier. Again, I digress.

I saw a sign for a blood drive. Donating blood has been on my to do list for 3 or so years. The Red Cross would call on the three past donors in our house frequently. But it never happened, even with a lot of free time. I tried in France, but just like we worry about potential donors spending too much time in Europe, they worried that I had not spent enough time in Europe.

Today, I couldn't claim it was inconvenient, and I probably wouldn't faint, just get close. Dozens of IVs at Duke, and I still almost faint.

Lying on the stretcher, I remembered blood drives at OU, a source of much of my T-shirt supply. That made me think of a campus ministry meeting more than 10 years ago. Melinda, a nursing student, told us that she and other nursing students were giving vaccine shots nearby. "Come on out - we really need the practice!" Um, we all really like you, but no. She is gone already. Things aren't as they should be. She was the first girl , married to the first guy, I can remember at OU.

The nurse saw me squirming and asked if we I wanted something. Yes, please. Can we get an orange juice OVER HERE! Rang out across the room. I wanted to hide: don’t look at the ready to faint weak who needs orange juice.

Overheard from a nurse:

"Roy can't help because he's busy getting ready for the short bus." [the bus for special education kids] I wanted to stand up and say, "Us short bus people are proud!" But I was still in the stretcher and had a needle in my arm, so standing up would have been disastrous. The first part of my two bus trip to my magnet high school involved a short bus that was free at the moment. It had the handicapped symbol and the lift, and it added additional stigma onto going to the nerd school.

Everyone was friendly, and I was called sweetie a lot.

No T-shirt at the end, but did I really need another? Can you ever have too many T-shirts, given stains and the compelling need to avoid laundry cycles less than a month? To my shame, I have actually started to buy shirts. I am growing up. But I'm still cheap. The last purchase was 3 shirts for $10.

Garlic Fries and Economic Ethics: An Historical Perspective

It's Sunday night after night church. It's our only church - we don't get up early.

(Not necessarily worth a blog post, I thought but the people who were there said it deserved commemoration. Concerning the horrid events last night post church at what was supposed to be a love feast at Tyler's. Trigger earns a fry-strong wrist band for not backing down on his fries to J--. Yet...).

Not but an hour past a message of scarcity being a done thing at the communion homily, scarcity hit the fan at dinner. Let us take guidance from the witnesses of the past.

From "A Faithful Understanding of Economics," 1261 AD, Saint Rusty of the Shack:

The fundamental question is not are there enough fries? This is an etherial gnostic issue. The incarnate question is why were there not enough fries that night? The solution to the fries shortage, some puritans may say, is to sacrificest thou fries for another. But this misses the truth that more fries layeth 100 meters away in the kitchen, where an abundance of fries, rotting in the putrescent opulence of their unused quantity, just as the parable of the two barns predicteth. Petty fighting and stealing amongst the masses, a total breakdown in social order, imposition of mandatory tips, skirting the rules on splitting tabs doe large parties, near rioting - these are the results of rationing arbitrarily based on green pieces of paper or worse still paperless remuneration, a sign of the end times as sure as the Olsen twins reproducing.

This leads certainly to the conclusion - the means of fry production belongs to the eatertariat! The masses must claim what is theirs.

The them is us: Your insistence on paying off student loans, my insistance on not draining our 401k, certain women's insistence on wearing clothes other than those boughteth at the Costco, music fans who must pursue music made after 1998. Selah. We give the power to the beast by returning our riches unto his lair and bely the truth that scarcity is no longer amongst us.

In the short term, fry stimulus may soften the shortage. However, only a benevolent, authoritarian state directly representing and controlling the masses can reprioritze the creation and distribution of fries to relieve this artificial fry shortage. Eaters of the world unite! The streets will flow with the ketchup of the non-believers!

This is part of one an 1800 part series: the author embarrasses himself.

UC Protest

'Some police carried beanbag-firing shotguns.' I love technolgy. I
love this country!

Get to know the risks before reading this blog

The lawyers from IGDP - Risk Management in Hong Kong require us to post these warnings:

This blog contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Side effects include dementia, explosive vomiting, and in extreme cases, death. Printing this blog will result in exposure to toner, a known carcinogen.

OMB Political Disclosure: BE FRIGHTENED! This blog contains outlandish claims of imminent disaster if you don't do what I want. As such it will be evaluated by an Obama Catastrophe Czar, who may choose to award it the Threat Level 3000 award if it can be shown to scare the tar out of people, leaving them cowering in their highly leveraged houses, waiting to hear the next Obama announcement.

NC Cost Disclosure: 57,000 copies of this blog were prepared at a cost of $0.04 per announcement to the taxpayer. 36,994 copies were lost in a violent incident involving a goat and a shredder. Another 20,000 copies were lost when we stored them in the dumpster, which led dumpster divers to believe they were free organic toilet paper. "It hurts, so it's green."
16 goats were slaughtered as part of our preprint rituals at a cost of $0.90 per announcement. Those receiving kosher posts cost an extra $0.03 per announcement. NC state residents should send a check for 7.75% of these amounts to the state Treasurer.

Safe harbor statement: This release includes forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. It is thus 28% safer than blogs without this information.

IRS requirement: Reading this blog may require an amortization of viewing expenses accelerated at a 5 to 1 ratio if viewing began before Aug 7, 1934. Viewing beginning after that time may require an amortization rate of 3.7. Use form 109-blog to calculate your calculations. See subsection C for more important details. Subsection C will be published July 1, 2010. Estimate the effects of subsection C using form 109-C-temp as you will be liable for all charges at the end of the current tax year. Substantial penalties for early withdrawal.

Another State of CA disclosure: This blog contains products know to the state of California to cause cancer. Wearing sunglasses or standing on one leg may mitigate this risk.

FDA disclosure: This blog is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. However, it really really works. Sham-wow! away your ear wax.

PETA disclosure: The goats (or mountain kittens) killed above were really mean, almost evil. They had it coming.
No, I'm gonna say truly evil. They would give you the stink eye like you can't imagine - it was like they were eating
your soul.

Patriotism disclosure: This blog is not now, nor has it ever been, a member of the communist party.

This disclosure cannot be disclosed, and we can't say why.

Full side effect disclosure: In a randomized, double-blind clinical trail, readers of this blog reported nausea, severe
projectile vomiting, rash, emotional confusion, dementia, a constant hunger, inability to eat, itching, chills or fever,
fatigue or hyperactiveness, extreme hair growth or loss, sterility, hyper-fertility, mild brain damage, or death.

Organic statement: This blog has been published using fresh, free-range, cruelty-free, ionized Heisenberg brand electrons.

Medicinal Announcement: Certain medicines may reduce your ability to safely read this blog. If it takes more than 4 hours to read this blog, talk to your doctor.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog

The trip is over, and one week later I can now climb steps without pain. Before I regretted having stepped onto the gas pump island instead of going around it.

The trip went well, the Grand Canyon was great, but I am ready to be home.

Trip Summaries

A link to a Google map of the journey is below. Going west is flying. East is driving. It counts 5100 miles in 7 days.

• http://tinyurl.com/tripOutWest2009

By Modes of transportation

Lara's car (Greensboro)-->AA Plane (DFW)-->AA plane (PHX)-->Lisa's car (dinner and Clothes Depot for the belt)-->Avis Rental Car (Flagstaff hotel, Grand Canyon)--> On foot hiking (View of the Colorado River)--> Lisa' car (Kansas)--> Vicki' Dad's tractor (briefly)-->Lisa's car--> (Kentucky)-->Budget Rental Car (Durham)-->Durham bus,route 1 then 3 (home from rental car)

So we've got a personal car, rental cars, airplanes, a bus, and lots of hiking

By Location (see Google Map)

Durham-->GSO-->DFW-->PHX-->Flagstaff-->Grand Canyon-->Scottsdale-->Tucumcari, NM-->St John KS via TX and OK-->Junction City, KS-->Richmond,KY via MO, IL, and IN-->Home @ Durham via Knoxville, Wytheville, Winston-Salem-->Budget Car Rental in Durham-->Home

Let's compare that to a normal day: stay at home and a maybe a car ride to McDonald’s and maybe a few minute walk if I'm motivated. I enjoyed the trip, but much recuperation lies ahead.

The lone drive - Friday

Normally eight hours of driving plus stops wouldn't be a big deal. But after 6 days of averaging over 8 hours/day of traveling, I was a little worried. I don't remember doing more than 8 hours of driving alone since 1999, when I drove back to college in Oklahoma from a summer job in Minnesota.

I took I-75 to 81 to 77 through Tennessee instead of the West Virginia I-64 route because I had been through West Virginia many times while going to Indiana and I was tired of the steep mountains and tolls.

It was different with beautiful mountains, but at some point, the mountains become like the fields of Kansas and deserts of Arizona: more of the same.

By dinner I was ready to be done and not ready for road food. I saw a Super Walmart, pulled off the interstate, and scavenged for quick but not fast food. A memory bloomed. That new Walmart in Texas was in the news for Sushi. Suddenly I craved sushi. I’m not high class enough to worry that it’s Walmart sushi. It’s not to be found in rural Virginia. Next best choice: yogurt with mix-in oatmeal, tapioca pudding, orange juice, and a box of Kix to snack on.

Dear Budget Car Rental,

Sorry for all of the crushed Kix in front of the driver’s seat. My Kix accuracy was less than stellar. On the other hand, if you had the amenities that Avis had for the same price, like cruise control and XM radio, I might have taken the trip more quickly and avoided a hasty, ill-conceived Walmart meal. No cruise control! For shame.

I arrived in Durham at 10 PM. It was very good to be home.

The next morning I relaxed and dawdled until I realized at 11:50 that the rental car was due. I arrived right at Noon, when it was due. I walked across the street to the bus, which goes downtown and then out our way. This is the only bus route I know because I used it once before to see Toy Story at the mall. It’s strange how random ideas (did I really have to see Toy Story when I was without a car? Yes, it was in 3D and could leave theaters at any time). That’s why some tech companies allocate time for employees to work on weird ideas - you never know what useful information it may bring.

Arrived Durham 10 PM EST Thursday

Happy to be back. More stories soon about cereal for dinner and a third-world rental car on the way back. Lara is happy I'm back too, as are at least on of the kitties.

The Long Day and the Long Post - Wednesday

Kansas is like Indiana, only more so.

I didn't mention everything in my last post as I tried to get to sleep
last night. After a lot of food and a lot of dessert (about 3
servings of Honeymoon Delight), Vicki also gave us 2 loafs of pumpkin
bread and some special Kansas flour. An excellent gift for a road
trip the next day lacking in home-cooked goodness amongst fast food.

Enter the dog, Cameron. On a previous trip from CA to IN, we stopped
in Phoenix to visit Lisa. Cameron got through a zippered bag and into
our stash of individually sealed Fiber One bars. Fiber One. One. You
don't eat a lot of these at once despite their tastiness. Given the
amount she ate, gastronomic disaster was imminent. Lara and I took her
for a walk, and things played out like we expected, on the sidewalk.
To put it delicately, a doggie bag wasn't going to clean this up. It
doesn't rain there often enough to naturally clean the sidewalk. So
far the first time in my life, I returned to the house, got some 409
and scrubbed the sidewalk. More than the sidewalk was dirty. Lisa
found a nearby in-ground sprinkler, which was malfunctioning in a way
that made it into a doggie bidet. Sorry, but I am telling this story
for a reason.

Back to Kansas: We didn't have an impenetrable Lucite case for the
bread, so if we let our guard down, the bread would go down like a
case of cheap beer in a freshman dorm room.
We got to the hotel around 10. It was a decent place, Great Western
Hotel in Junction City, KS. It was pet friendly and had super fast
Internet. Pet friendly is good. A dog in a hotel turns out to work
well. Pets friendly doesn't work as well. Cameron quickly discovered
that two dogs were one wall away in the next room. She gets very
anxious/crazy around other dogs. Barking, squealing, scratching on the
door to the next room created a non sleeping condition. Benadryl
wrapped in pumpkin bread worked well. Score one for the pumpkin bread.
I had a little bit using a plastic spoon to scoop it out before sleeping.
At 7:30 AM, Cameron was awake and very aware of the other dogs. Time
to abandon ship! No shower or shaving. Lisa put Cameron in the car
briefly to avoid disaster. I was still sleepy and my brain was still
rebooting. Then I thought of the pumpkin bread. Even triple wrapped
bags won't stop Cameron the Hungry. I rushed to the car. It was gone.
No bags or crumbs even.

It reminded me of a radio show I heard yesterday saying it was better
to suffer intense loss after deep devotion than to never have had the
relationship (they used the example of CS Lewis in Shadowlands). I had
a plastic hotel cup full of warm pumpkin bread from Vicki, heated in
the mini-microwave. That was enough. The saying goes, now that my
barn has burned to the ground, I can see the stars.
I would rather just walk outside knowing that my barn was secure
behind me as I looked to the stars. But that's just me expecting too
much. It's like asking the genie for more wishes.

Then Lisa walked out with the bread. We were both tired last night. I
didn't want to go back to the car. The closest thing to a hotel safe
was the microwave, so I put it in there to keep it from the dog. The
next morning the brilliance of the idea vanished from my mind in the
hurry to get moving. I need to carry a pocket pack of post its. Maybe
a cross between Post-its and tissues, so you could use a sheet for
either purpose without carrying two packages. What's the e-mail for
the patent office?

We crossed the Mississippi River without incident. Lisa feels like she
is officially back in the East.

We ate at Culver's, a regional chain famous for butter burgers and
shakes. I had enough road food, so I opted for another salad. Two
salads for a main dish in a week may be a record for me. There was
outdoor seating, so we didn't have to sit on the curb with the dog.
The marble benches at 47 degrees were a little chilly. The marble acts
like a pizza stone in reverse.

Driving went well until construction east of Louisville where traffic
merged into one lane. I had to keep my foot on the break because the
car wanted to go more than 2 MPH. I thought of a modern analogy to the
barn story above. My traffic having slowed to a crawl, I can see the
stars through the sun roof. It was a nice view. Lisa complains
,screams, and braces herself in anticipation of a crash less than most
of my passengers, but looking at stars out the sunroof instead of
watching traffic makes her unhappy.
(The screams are often helpful and necessary. I want to be a good
driver. I want to be a good singer and dancer. We'll see if that
happens).

We got in to Richmond, KY around midnight. Due to a change in
circumstances, I went online and booked a rental car . The plan to
spend the weekend and head back to NC on Sunday with L and E fell
apart due to some family and friend problems including a funeral and
cancer involving family and friends. I drive back Friday. Prayers
appreciated.

Drive Strong

Looking at it on the computer, it looks more like modern art than a picture of band on my hand. But the meaning of the art of the art could be:

This is my drive strong bracelet ™. Okay, it is actually a rubber band
I found on the floor in Lisa's AZ house. But still it's nice to have
something you can't lose in your cavernous luggage, hotel room, car,
or the dog's mouth.

Last leg home to Durham

Heading to Lexington for a rental car then home via Knoxville and I-81 for some new scenery. Leaving 11:15am

Made it to Richmond, KY

We arrived at Lisa's parents. I'm renting a car and driving back tomorrow to some changes in circumstance that are preventing a fun weekend in Kentucky.

2018 est mile 21 east

2018 est mile 21 east of Louisville on I 64. You can't speed through. 2 mph so everybody sees you. Ugh.construction .

I'LL side of Saint Louis at 1517 cst

One way to (not) fix a door lock that doesn't work.
5-6 hours to go.

Vicki in Kansas - Tuesday

Tucumcari to St John passes through NM,TX,OK, and KS with no interstates. It's not necessary. There are stop lights, but it feels like and interstate because there so few cross streets. Most towns we passed were a few blocks long, smaller than the Phoenix airport.

About 2% of the nation's workforce farms for the rest of us and some for-ners too. This is amazing but devastating for the population of the Midwest. It's a shame to have empty business, houses, and churches in one part country with other
parts lacking. But there are still plenty of wonderful people.

We toured the main square, seeing where Vicki's Aunt Vida has owned a building (here name is still there) and where Vicki's sister works. There were not street performs like Indian look-a-likes playing Celine Dion on a wooden flute (AmericaA few blocks away is here childhood home. We met Vicki and her 95-day year old Dad at the grain bins. Where he showed us a tractor. Just the climb up into was a bit difficult to me, and I wasn't sure what I could hold onto amongst all of the gadgets in the John Deere.

We headed back to their house, and we talked as Vicki finished an elaborate dinner with a family recipe mac and cheese, Priba in a Bowl™ named after iconic Oklahoma entertainer and accountant Kevin Priba, and Honeymoon Delight™, an ice cream dish wish I accidentally named in a PG-13 comment at our campus ministry. Yes my honeymoon was better than the cake, but with Lara as a good cook, I get it all.

We had to say our goodbyes to head to Junction City, where we start a long leg to Kentucky tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from the visit:

Vicki in Kansas

Vicki in Kansas

We finally made it after a lot of NM,TX,OK,and KS driving.

8:15 leaving Tucumcari for St. John,KS!

Vicki!!

First Day of Driving Phoenix to Tucumcari, NM- Monday

I got some real sleep last night, and I feel generally feel good. My
calves, however, are very soar. I am avoiding steps, even single ones,
as much as possible. Mostly, I am glad that the feeling of total
exhaustion is gone.
We got an early start, so we rearranged hotels to travel farther today
and less on the dreaded long Kansas to Kentucky leg of the trip on
Wednesday. There's no great way to avoid either 3 too long or 4 too
short days. The Motel 6 in Albuquerque canceled with no problem since
we called before 6 (industry standard I thought, at least when we
traveled more a few years back). The independent hotel in Kansas put
Lisa on hold. Or at least tried to put her on hold because Lisa heard
the lady yelling at somebody else for a while. She then angrily told
us that she would let it go this time, but we had better not do it
again.
It's okay to have cancellation policies and even penalties, but I
hadn't considered it a moral issue. I guess first they allowed hotel
reservations to be abrogated, and that led quickly rioting, looting,
and a general breakdown of the social contract. In Kansas they keep it
pure.

The picture I sent was the closest I've seen to an urban sombrero
(from Seinfeld), but it wasn't dark enough. It was cheap, but Lisa
said it wouldn't fit in the car. I pointed out that she had a sun
roof so that I could just wear it while driving. She was not
convinced. I'm not sexist, but I think a male traveling companion
would have found a way. And then he would convince me to wear it
around town and to church. Okay, maybe it's for the best. To put it
spiritually, sometimes God doesn't give you what you want because you
sometimes want stupid things. Said by a guy who spent dozens of hours
to cheaply set up a used cell phone to take and send sombrero pictures
from the New Mexican dessert.

Grand Canyon Pics

New Mexico

On the road to Albuquerque

Bon voyage at 1015 mst

Grand Canyon Day - Sunday

The drive to Flagstaff went well. It turned out the car had XM
satellite radio, which helped the drive. As L can attest, the music
is nice but the constant action of switching between stations is what
keeps me interested. Blues,80s,50s,NPR,comedy,90s,etc.

The Best Value Inn was nice enough. I was issued a key card and TV
remote control on a friendly checkin. The location was a little
problematic. Flagstaff must be a transportation hub because the train
whistle went off all night. It's not immediately present, but like a
housemate's alarm that rings when he is away, it's hard to ignore. I
slept on and at 5:30, I went with the early departure. Around 7, I
was at the south rim entrance. For complex yet legitimate reasons, I
am entitled to a lifelong national parks pass. I just recently
discovered this. I pulled up to the gate, showed the ranger a couple
of documents, and had the pass in a minute. It is worth thousands of
dollars, but the transaction was the quickest politest federal
interaction I have ever had.

After some wandering, I found a space next to the Bright Angel
trailhead, in my family's tradition. It was a little, so I started
with a fleece and pants, but I progressed to shorts and a shirt by the
middle of the day. I started at about 7:39
Top at rim, elevation 6860 ft
25 min first rest,shaky legs
50 minutes first rest house 5729 ft
1:40 second house, 3 mile mark 4748 ft
I noticed I had much less professional equipment than the standard:
hiking packs, ski poles-like walking sticks, shoes, fancy water
systems

2:30 campground 3800 ft 4.5 mile mark
Plateau point 1.5 miles more. I saw the Colorado river! I didn't get
to touch it because would have required a lot of hilly climbing. That
was a very good choice, as proved by the next few hours.

3:15 plat point saw Colorado river
3:50 Back to campground
4:53 2nd Rest house 2000 ft up to go

I finished lunch, with the aid of kind strangers with water. They
implied I looked like I was at death's door.They also wanted to give
me some electrolytes. The truth is that I always look like I am at
death's door when I do intensive exercise. But the water was awesome.
I had planned to fill up at the taps I saw at the rest houses, but
they did not work (although they were not labeled as such).

6:12 1st rest house, 1000 vertical feet left
7:50 back to rim

The beauty and grandness of the descent into the canyon are that are
always new vista-you can't see everything. This is also the tragedy of
the ascent-you see a top and then a next top and then a next. You've
got a thousand vertical feet in between rest houses and it's hard to
know if there's 100 or 400 feet left. So when it's done, you are
elated that this isn't another trick.

Wonderful and inspiring views, yes, but the ascent makes everyone look
drained and sullen.

I was tired at the end. I drove to the nearest food place and drank a
lot of Coke.

Got the rental car returned with 17 min to spare (not counting 29 min
'grace' period).

First Light at Grand Canyon

Just the start

On my way to GC at 515 mtn

How often does the train come? So often you won't notice. More on that later.

Flagstaff at 2300 mtn time

Got in tired but okay. Details at turf.igdp.org . Hoping to get up
early tomorrow to see the Grand Canyon.

What To Expect at the GC Saturday

I'm going to a bit of trouble to see the Grand Canyon. It's four
hours from Phoenix, and there's no cheap hotels near it. So I am
staying midway in Flagstaff. That means getting up as early as
possible to make it there with enough time to hike a bit and then
drive back to Phoenix to return the rental car at a very solid
deadline (you pay for entire extra days not hours). I am not good at
getting up early, but it's the Grand Canyon!

My most extensive hiking at GC was when I was 19. I wanted to go to
the beach for Spring Break. Everybody else wanted GC. I've seen
small ditches before; I can imagine a big one, was my thinking. 5 of
us piled to Brad's Mom's car and drove from Norman, OK to the GC. Brad
briefly picked up a hitchhiker, so with six of us, Kim had to sit on
my lap (in the most decent manner possible - church lap).

I was amazed at how the views kept changing as we went down and the
vastness was more than I could comprehend. My spirits lifted. It was a
very tough time, and I needed some lifting. We got halfway down, and a
couple of us thought we could make it down and back up in a day (never
mind the signs saying not to attempt this under any circumstances).
However, it was obvious that the group as a whole was barely going to
make it back up. It's not good to be semi-delirious on narrow paths
with big dropoffs one guy discovered: I'll walk on the edge-it's so
much smoother.

Well, I don't have the same mental and physical stamina I did 13 years
ago. And I have a rental car to return and night's sleep to have
before driving to Albuquerque on Monday.
So can this little jaunt by myself meet my expectations?
I'd prefer to not have expectations, like the first time, but even my
memory is not that bad (for that time period anyway). We'll see.

Phoenix has a big airport. I had to tell Lisa to pick me up at
Terminal 3 on the North side, which was completely out of vie of the
South side. We went to Sonic because we couldn't think of anything
else. She is excited about moving back East.
I remembered I needed a belt after we left Durham, so we stopped at
the Clothes Depot in what seems roughly equivalent to the Holloway
street area of Durham. I ended with a belt, a buckle that is either a
gang sign or a sports team emblem (I'm not really current on either),
some cheap gloves (another thing I forgot) and 3 T-shirts for $9.99.
They are nice shirts, for me, but that just means they aren't free and
emblazoned with a corporate logo.

We then drove to the car rental place, which is as big as the
Greensboro airport. You could hold concerts in there or put in a full
sized basketball court. I had to wait until 8:30 pm because the due
time is 24.45 hours after the rental time.

PTI/GSO

We arrived at PTI airport with plenty of time at 11 am. I was
momentarily panicked to see it labeled GSO. Oh no, Greensboro has two
airports. Okay I guess they changed the name to include the whole
triad. It is amazingly not busy with no waits at checkin or security.
You don't have to be in such a hurry with the laptop,toiletries, and
shoes. They even had chairs to take off your shoes. Chairs! I haven't
seen that in several countries. Other parts of the airports have
rocking chairs.
They even have free wifi, with a few technical glitches, which seems
to be the norm. You spend 20 minutes connecting and 15 minutes
surfing. Either way, you are killing time.
I am very tired. Like don't put in the contacts because they'll fall
out tired. I got less than 2 hours of sleep last night because of
pre-trip adrenaline. I was even already packed, but doing so much in
one day keeps my brain running. I hope this insomnia thing wears off
before the Grand Canyon trip tomorrow . If I don't sleep then, I can
just start the trip at 4 am.
L dropped me off and is visiting an old friend in Greensboro for a
sleepover. She wasn't happy to see me go for a week, but Chinese food
and girl movies beckon.

We now transition to a

We now transition to a travel blog, featuring my trip to Phx to NM to KS to KY back to NC. I leave GSO around Noon Sat.

Our own crazy cell phone fake tree tower

This one is fresh to N NE Durham. Could this be a trend?

Fourth Floor, A Dump Truck, A Video Camera, and an Obvious Conclusion

"It's just like, it wants out. We're getting it out of here." It's weird that this logic doesn't get you arrested.

It wasn't just a one drunken night, prank - it took several days over a few months and a lot of beer to get the dump truck out of the abandoned factory and onto the ground. According the article, "Detroit has 80,000 abandoned lots and buildings," and the police are busy enough with the ones that aren't abandoned, so it's kind of a tourist wasteland.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125745924791631907.html

Fortunately, a videographer was passing by. It's actually decent quality video.

So what do you do with all of these abandoned buildings? Most cities eventually bulldoze blighted properties, but 80,000 is a big number.

East Campus and the wall

I actually stepped foot on Duke's East campus for the first time in 8 years. I forgot I my OU shirt was on, but I actually got a friendly comment.The transracial comment left me feeling less divided by the 3 foot wall surrounding the East campus. I saw a little girl climb on it - it's not really keeping anybody out. But it is still a divider that proclaims an us and a them - those that afford, somehow or another, to pay tuition that is more than "them" bring home in a year. Those that need tall Police contact poles and suggesting at those that make the poles necessary.

It kind of reminds me of an article on how deer still know the iron curtain border is there, even though many of them have been born after the fall of the USSR:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125729481234926717.html

North Durham's Cell Phone Curiosity

A Durham landmark: the cell phone tower / tree at Roxboro and Murrary Aves. It looks better in this picture than a wider zoom, with one "tree" sticking out. See the usual stuff, like Duke Gardens, but don't miss this (failed) attempt to blend technology and nature.

A map for those who want to trek to North Durahm is on Google Mapps on http://tinyurl.com/celltree . Satellite and street view just pick up a gravel lot - I guess they haven't captured the new tower yet.

First, Good People

Before you can really listen to us at Turf Management Ethics: The Blog, we need to establish that we are Good People. So here is an example of our ever-abiding love for all things good: A Susan G Komen Debit Card. What does that even mean? I called up the bank because they would give a little money to breast cancer research. But how do debit cards and breast cancer connect?

I am not pro-breast cancer - a fact I repeated, under oath to the grand jury during my indictment. I have a friend who died from it, a friend who had a scare, and a friend who battled it and won. I overcame my squeamishness about buying a stamp with the word "breast" on it. I have supported products and walks and such.

But the sheer proliferation of related products is amazing. The list of products is amazing, from pink lint rollers (thank your 3M), Huggies diapers, checks, a 5K walk on a cruise ship, a pink Kitchen Aid, and a renegade non-Komen-endorsed Snuggie. Maybe this is capitalism at its best, helping a little with every purchase. But couldn't we just give the money quietly with one hand and but what we need with another. Instead we end up with marriages not made in heaven, like the Pepsico Fitness Center on Duke's Campus.

We are defined by our consumption - still conspicuous but now a littlemore auspicious, with our economic (or uneconomic) choices describing us as good or bad people. Thus we defy the idea that it's not what goes into us that counts; it is what comes out of us. If you use a PETA cobranded Visa to purchase a fair trade,organic, cruelty free soy latte in a 100% post consumer content, compostable cup made from wind power and carbon offsets from a company that advertizes its support of Venezuelan orphans, and you then insult the waiter and forget his tip, how good of a person are you? Whatever you learn from this blog, tip the waitress well. Brad taught me that in college, and it's stuck more than Calc IV (Gentle ladies close your ears: Calc IV don't stick to the ribs so well - it's just as likely to come back up as it to come down).

Not that we can't purchase positively, but at some point, we are either declaring ourselves externally to be wonderful peope or we are justifying our shortcoming to ourselves. Try giving without the bumper sticker or taking off the bumper sticker after a few years.

-D Rant Ended