Sitzblog

Meat Loaf Monday: "Come Back To Sorrento"

2012-02-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome again to Meat Loaf Monday! I have some good and bad news, so I'll start with the bad news. I realized that I probably can't do Meat Loaf Monday every single Monday because if I did, I'd run out of videos and songs eventually. He's obviously got a limited number of songs, and many of his greatest songs were made before music videos got popular, so there are only live concert videos of them. That's OK, but after a while many of them start looking familiar (largish man in a white pirate shirt, waving a red scarf and singing the crap out of a song). So while I may not be able to do Meat Loaf Monday every week, I will be doing it on occasional Mondays, as a kind of treat. That's the bad news.

The good news: Today's Meat Loaf Monday!

I chose this video because it's pretty weird, even for Meat Loaf. It's more focused on Luciano Pavarotti, since it's taken from the concert video of Pavarotti and Friends. Apparently it was to benefit Bosnian children. Well, it will also benefit you, too:

I imagine that before they sang this song, the two singers appeared at a press conference with their respective managers for a weigh-in and a measurement of cumulative hair mass (CHM).

Let's get to the song itself. Pavarotti can certainly belt out aural awesomeness, I'll give him that, but Meat Loaf's definitely giving the bearded guy's lungs a run for their money. I like this because it's not a typical Meat Loaf video or song but still, would it have killed the Loaf to at least wear a frilly shirt with his tux? I suppose he's representing with the skeezy pony-tail, but I've come to expect a bit more flair from Meat Loaf, even if he's singing at a benefit concert. Also, it's hard to understand what Pavarotti's singing on about (the words being in Italian and all), but I have a feeling it's not got to do with Rock and Roll. Also somewhat unfortunately, Meat Loaf doesn't ever really go nuts on this song, increasing the tempo and blasting his vocals like the proverbial bat out of hell.

So why did I choose this song? I'll answer that with a Zen Koan to start your week off right:

The Meat Loaf that can be defined is not the Meat Loaf.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

"Travel Hacking": General Introduction to Earning and Using Frequent Flyer Miles

2012-02-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, be that guy.

A few days ago in my South America trip's "Logistics" post I mentioned that I'd talk more about frequent flyer miles. This post is just an introduction to that whole world, since it is sort of a mini-world. I'll include a few practices that I've picked up, and I'll also include some links to good resources if you want to get more into this. I'll do it in a Question and Answer format, to make it easier to navigate.

What's "Travel Hacking"?

"Travel Hacking" is a semi-serious term for any techniques, practices, or skills that you can use to optimize your travel experiences. These days, some people associate the word "hacking" with people who break into web pages or do things of dubious legality online, but that's not what it means here. Here it just means to alter or fix things so that they work better.

How do YOU travel hack, Ryan?

When you use it as a verb like that, it sounds kind of dirty, actually. But anyhow, it's not! When I say I've gotten into travel hacking, I just mean that I've been following websites and blogs that are dedicated to improving people's traveling experiences. Many of them also talk about frequent flyer miles and how to use them to your advantage, in order to get free flights, hotel rooms, and other rewards.

But does it work? Or do you spend so much time trying to figure out how to build up frequent flyer miles for a free flight, that it's not worth it? Time is money, man!

Good point, Titan of Industry! I think it's definitely worth it, since I enjoy traveling, blogging, and looking at stuff on a computer screen all (almost) equally! For me and other travel hackers, it's all a fun hobby. It definitely can save you money and time, but it's not like you'll get a free ticket just by reading a blog for a few minutes. Unfortunately, it's not that easy, but once you get into it, travel hacking can be rewarding. For example, we took our trip to South America last year, as well as our trip to Germany in 2010, using only frequent flyer miles (well, we had to pay a $30 per ticket booking fee, but for tickets that are normally around $1,000 per person, that's a huge difference). We'll also be taking a trip to China later this year using 100,000 frequent flyer miles I got from British Airways, and I've never even been on a British Airways flight --but I do have a British Airways credit card from Chase that came with a ridiculously high 100,000 bonus miles offer! So an investment of time and curiosity can pay handsome rewards down the line.

Wait, man! There's a better way to get free flights!

What other kinds of things are travel hackers interested in?

If you start to follow some travel hacking blogs, you'll notice that the majority of them talk about:

-Trip reports (ie, where they've traveled lately, and the logistics of how they got there)

-General travel tips

-Frequent flyer programs and other loyalty programs, like for hotel chains

-General airline services like flight routes, airport lounges, and airline policies

-Using credit cards to maximize miles and points (I'll go into this a bit more in a separate post)

-How to actually redeem all the miles and points that you've been accumulating

Why or how did you get into travel hacking?

I believe it started when my friend Brad referred me to Chris Guillebeau's site, The Art of Non-Conformity. Chris is a guy in his early 30s that's trying to go to every country in the world before he's 35 (he's very close to accomplishing it, with something like 10 or 15 countries remaining out of 193 total). He's a very interesting writer, person, and traveler, and his site is more focused on how to generally improve one's life. Since much of his life is based on traveling at the moment, and since much of his travel is with free reward tickets from frequent flyer programs, he also gets into that subject at times. He even has a few pages dedicated to this topic (here, here and here, for example).

What other travel writers do you follow?

My other favorite travel sites/blogs include:

-One Mile At A Time by Ben aka "Lucky" - He's a young guy who talks a lot about the "fancier" side of travel (he works as a travel consultant and is frequently able to fly first class and stay in nice hotels).

-View From The Wing by Gary - He talks about similar topics to the first blog, but with different perspectives. He also has a service that helps people book reward tickets, so he knows a lot about how the systems work.

-Frugal Travel Guy and The Points Guy - Two more general travel blogs, but with slightly different topics.

-Mommy Points - I'm not a mommy, but the woman who runs this blog is. She does a really good job of making some of the weird ins and outs of miles and points less complicated, and her blog is very clear and practical.

-If you notice, some of these blogs are connected to "Boarding Area," a forum for frequent travelers. There are many more blogs there to check out, but it may be a bit full-on for people just getting into this. Flyer Talk and Milepoint are other similar forums but to be honest, besides the blogs mentioned above, I don't use any of the forums, since it's simply too much information for a casual hobbyist like me to take in.

That still sounds like a lot of sites to keep track of.

That's not technically a question, but I'll allow it. You're right. If you've not tried Google Reader, I'd highly recommend it. It's a way to keep track of all kinds of blogs and websites that you like (I currently follow over 100 sites, including my own blogs!), while only having to go to one place to read them. Here's what it looks like:

Google Reader, a blog junkie's best friend. This is my "Travel" folder.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch (like I do), I'd recommend "FeedlerRSS," an app that displays your Google Reader subscriptions in a very convenient and readable format. There are other sites, programs, and apps to help you organize blogs and sites you visit, but Google is one of the most well-known.

I'd also recommend Award Wallet. It's a site that keeps track of your frequent flyer miles and points in all your programs. It's got a free version, or you can also pay a few dollars to upgrade to get more information (like reminders if your points are going to expire, and more detailed historical tracking). If you're interested, tell me; I think I can send you an email to get a free 6-month premium trial, and it'll also give me a few months for free if you sign up. Here's what the site looks like, more or less:

I covered the account details, but you get the point.
Oh, and the 500 miles on Alaska? Free bonus just for signing up.

There's a lot of jargon and weird terms I don't understand on these blogs. What if I'm confused about some of this stuff?

It can be complicated, but these bloggers are very passionate and dedicated to traveling and travel hacking; in some cases, it's literally their job. Most seem genuinely friendly, to boot. I've exchanged a few emails with both Chris and Lucky, and in addition to being very quick about responding, they were also very friendly and helpful with questions I had. Most of the other people on these sites will also be like that, assuming you put in a little effort on your side, too. If you have problems, though, there's usually someone able and willing to help. There are also general information pages like Chris'.

What are other ways to earn miles? I don't fly that much.

Most of my miles aren't from actual flying, and that's the case with most travel hackers. There are some good ways to use credit cards to your advantage (I'll talk about that in a separate post), and there are weird, random promotions. That's why it's good to follow these blogs: they'll tell you when you can get 250 Starwood Preferred Guest points just by "liking" some hotel in Charlotte on Facebook, or how you can get 100 American Airlines miles for watching a 3 minute video about Bose headphones. They'll also usually mention fare sales, promotions, and other special offers, so it's a good way to keep your bases covered.

Also, if you're in the market for buying almost anything, especially online, then you can also check on the site evreward first. You can put in the name of the website or store (like bestbuy.com or Barnes and Noble), and it'll tell you of any offers related to that site and any rewards program. If you're going to be buying anything, even a $10 book, it's a quick way to know if you could get extra miles--and sometimes some airlines offer up to 10 points per dollar if you start off on their shopping sites. The sites lead you to the same online store (like bestbuy.com, for example), but you get extra miles just by starting at the airline's shopping portal. Pretty nice.

OK, I'd like to do this. So what do I do?

You should start by setting a goal. If you do that, it'll help you focus your efforts in the right direction. For example, your goal could be to take a trip to Japan, with free flights and hotels. Or maybe you want to go on a round-the-world ticket. Or you may just want to take the whole family to visit granny in Hawaii. This obviously depends entirely on who you are and what you want to do, but when you know what you want, it can motivate you to reach it, and it's also easier for others to help you along the way. My personal goal is to go to one new country for each year of my life. I'm 31 and I've been to 32 countries, so I'm OK so far, but I may have to "load up" on extra countries while I'm still relatively young, so I won't have to work out the logistics of getting to Cambodia when I'm 80. It's your goal, so you might as well make it amazing and ambitious!

Next, you should sign up for some frequent flyer programs, if you haven't already. Big ones to probably consider are American, United/Continental, U.S. Airways, and possibly Delta, although the consensus on the forums seems to be that Delta's miles aren't as useful or valuable. It also depends on what your home airport would be, since you'd eventually be using miles for tickets, presumably. If you get thousands of miles on Hawaiian Airlines and live in Podunk, Nebraska, which is only served by AirTran, then you've not been doing things right. That's why I also have Frontier miles, since they offer the only direct flight from Denver to Costa Rica, a trajectory that's obviously very convenient for us.

There may be promotions for signing up for some programs (Frontier and American seem to have these bonuses once in a while), so just Google the program's name + "sign up" first. You can also consider some hotel programs like Starwood Preferred Guest (they have a good American Express card), Hilton Honors, Priority Club (which includes hotels like Holiday Inn or Inter Continental), or Best Western. Again, it also depends on your own personal location and needs.

Finally, you'll want to start finding ways to earn miles. Follow some of the blogs above, fly, shop using an airline's shopping portal, or apply for credit cards that have large sign-up bonuses in the form of frequent flyer miles.

Yeah, about that: what's with all the talk about credit cards on these mile and points sites?

Good question. Many of the blogs talk a lot about credit cards because using credit cards is simply one of the fastest and most effective ways of earning lots of miles. You must be careful, though! If you have bad credit, you may not get approved for credit cards anyhow, and if you do get any cards, you should be sure to pay them off in full each month. Otherwise the points benefits will very quickly be cancelled out by late charges or interest fees.

Having said that, though, if you can sign up for a few credit cards to get miles or points, then they can be a great tool.

That's a whole other topic, so I'll address credit cards specifically in the next post.

With that, I'll end this post. I'll be posting the credit card section in a day or two (maybe Tuesday, since Monday is Meat Loaf Monday). The post is almost done, but including it here would have made this post gigantic!

Thanks for reading, and please comment if you have any questions or if you want to share a thought or a story. Have a great weekend!

Fresh Air

2012-02-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there must have been hundreds of websites and blogs with titles like "Fresh Air," but it's hard to know what else to say when there's a new Air album. But who cares? Check out the video!

I just got the album on iTunes today, and it's pretty sweet. The album is a "score" to "A Voyage to the Moon," the 109-year-old movie by George Melies, with some additional songs included (the movie itself, which is included with the download, is only about 15 minutes). The movie is pretty funny, although I guess a century ago they must have had to include a lot of rising action in their movies, since the first scene, depicting a bunch of scientists dressed like Dumbledore, goes on for a few minutes, despite the fact that they mainly seem to be standing around and waiting to go to the moon. After that, we see the shipyard where the lunar rocket is being built by a team of workers that look like Huck Finn clones. Finally, they launch and land on the moon, only to... go to sleep? Really? Yep.

Fortunately, the group of wizards eventually finds some aliens, and they promptly proceed to kill the creatures by smashing them with their umbrellas. It's a good reminder to be appreciative of how far film-making technology and storytelling practices have advanced in the last 110 years.

But the music's great! Air is always great whether in the background or foreground, and the general Frenchiness of the band and the movie really complement each other. Check it out if you've not already.

And speaking of Melies, don't forget this Smashing Pumpkin video for "Tonight, Tonight," which was a tribute to the filmmaker:

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

January 2012 Pictures of the Day

2012-02-07T23:55:00.001-07:00

I'm a bit behind on my picture uploading, but I've gotten the Pictures of the Day from January up:

You can check out more details by clicking on "Show Info" (in full screen view), or by looking at the pictures on Flickr. Here are the leftovers, if you're interested.

Thanks for reading/looking, and have a great day!

Meat Loaf Monday: "Dead Ringer For Love"

2012-02-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome once again to the highlight of everyone's week, Meat Loaf Monday! Let's get right into today's song, "Dead Ringer For Love," featuring Cher:

I normally don't really like Cher at all (just something about that hair coupled with that voice), but I'll definitely make an exception for this song. The video's not half bad, either. Then again, it's not half good, either, but it's still a pretty decent way to start off the week.

Speaking of starts, the video starts off well, also. I love how Meat Loaf comes into the bar wearing a Meat Loaf shirt. Few singers could pull that off, with notable exceptions being David Lee Roth and probably Lady Gaga. As usual, Cher's costume looks like something an alien would use as a disguise if it landed on Earth and quickly needed to look like an early-1980s hooker. But nevertheless, with a flick of Meat Loaf's magical hair, that very T-shirt disappears, and it's replaced with his signature swashbuckling shirt and a red scarf in his hand. This, in 2 seconds, is why Meat Loaf is great.

The rest of the video is full of Meat Loaf's elaborate hand gestures and Cher chewing gum with her mouth open. It's also noteworthy that the bar patrons keep singing for another 30 seconds or so after Cher and Meat Loaf have already left, but that's the power of Meat Loaf. The lyrics are pretty good, but nothing too amazing, considering some of the lyrics Jim Steinman's come up with for other Meat Loaf songs. It's weird this song doesn't get more mention as a classic duet, along the lines of "Almost Paradise" or "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart," but I guess it could have to do with the inherent manishness of Cher's voice?

In any case, that's about all I've got to say about this video. I hope you liked it, and I hope to see you again next week for another slice of Meat Loaf Monday!

South America Trip Report: "Logistics"

2012-02-06T00:08:00.001-07:00

Yes, this guy actually laid down and rode the conveyor belt up into the plane.

Taken at Jorge Newberry airport in Buenos Aires.

1 - Buenos Aires

2 - Uruguay

3 - Ushuaia

4 - Western Argentina

5 - Santiago

6 - Logistics
Trip Pictures

This report is a bit behind the other ones, but I suppose that late is better than never. I normally wouldn't do a post like this anyhow, but I thought that since I had gotten the plane tickets and one of the hotel rooms using frequent flyer miles, some of my readers might be able to benefit from a few tips on how to do the same. But then I also realized that it'd take more than one post to do that. So within the next few days I'll put up a post dedicated only to frequent flyer miles and some tips about how to effectively accrue, monitor, and use them. This post will only focus on our South America trip.

FLIGHTS

Panama City, seen from the plane.

We had an interesting itinerary for our flights on this trip. Our main ticket was obviously the one from Costa Rica to South America and back again. We used United/Continental miles to get the free tickets on Copa Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance. We flew into Buenos Aires, traveled overland, then flew out of Santiago. Our itineraries were:

San José--Panama City--Buenos Aires

Santiago--Panama City--San José

Amazingly, this whole ticket cost us only about $35 each, to pay for the online booking fee and some sort of tax. Of course, we did have to use the frequent flyer miles, which were 40,000 per person. That still seems pretty good to me, though. I believe I priced a similar itinerary online around the same time, and it would have been well over $1,000 per person.

Copa Airlines also turned out to be pretty decent. Then again, if you're comparing any airline to one in the U.S., most any foreign carrier can make the American companies seem fairly crappy. The service has just steadily declined on American airlines since... well, since I can remember. But even on Copa, which appears to be based out of Panama and Colombia, had much better service in coach than I imagine some American carriers have in business class. We were even served a sandwich and drink on our Panama-Costa Rica flights, which is even more remarkable considering that the flight was only 50 minutes! And on the longer flights to and from South America, the very outgoing and professional crew served a few meals, all of which included free alcoholic drinks. You just don't see that on United or American these days.

The only bad part was the Panama City layover. I'm sure the city itself is nice --you could see the canal and hundreds of shining towers on the coast-- but the airport itself is pretty dumpy. It's sort of like a huge outlet mall with airplanes. Seriously, there was much more commerce than travel going on, but I guess it must be cheaper to buy electronics and plastic crap in Panama than the rest of Latin America. I'm just not sure how you'd take a 42" LCD TV on a plane as a carry-on. Anyhow, the airport part of the airport wasn't that nice, either. The seats at the gate waiting areas were upholstered in stained green fabric, and even though there were open jet-ways, we had to board and deplane outside and get on buses to be transferred into the airport. All in all, kind of chintzy, but at least I was able to get a donut and some coffee on the way home to Costa Rica.

Tocumen International Airport in Panama City.
If you think it looks more like a mall than an airport, you're right.

Oh, and that's another "tip," I guess: Panama's official currency is the U.S. Dollar, although they call it the "Balboa." The bills are the same ones as used in the U.S. If you have American coins, they're also legal currency, but the Panamanians also mint their own coins; they're exactly the same size and color as quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies, but with different, "Panamaniac" designs. And they apparently frequently use a different dollar coin (the lady at Dunkin Donuts had to wait to for some more customers to pay before she could give me change in bills). Basically:

Panama City International Airport = Bizzaro Miami International Airport!

Buenos Aires (Jorge Newberry)--Ushuaia

Ushuaia--Buenos Aires (Jorge Newberry)

Jorge Newberry airport in Buenos Aires.

This was our flight to and from Ushuaia, obviously. We flew out of Jorge Newberry, the airport in Buenos Aires which is used mainly for domestic flights (the international airport is called Ezeiza). We flew on LAN, which was a new experience. We paid for these tickets, but accrued frequent flyer miles on American Airlines, since both AA and LAN are part of the oneworld alliance.

LAN was pretty nice. We had actually thought of taking buses for this part of the trip, but we're definitely glad we didn't. The flights were about 3.5 hours one-way, but I'd heard that the same trip on a bus can take over three days, if you ride almost non-stop. I paid my sitting-in-a-bus dues when I drove buses at CU, so for me it was definitely better to fly. The flights were nice and rather uneventful, although on the flight down Angela and I had the window and middle seats, respectively; when both of us got up to use the bathroom the weird old guy who had been in the aisle was now sitting in the window seat. He asked if we could "trade." I think both of us were taken aback by his audacity and so we confusedly agreed. Only later did we realize that we should have just told him "No, sit in your own seat, you tool." What a magnificent ol' bastard, but oh well.

LODGING

I believe I mentioned in my Buenos Aires post that we found the apartment we stayed in through airbnb.com. If you've not tried it, you should at least check it out. Basically, you type in where you're going and when, and then you see a list of people who are renting their places in the area. Some are entire homes, some are apartments, and some are even just single rooms in a house (don't worry, though--it tells you which are which). The apartment we stayed at was in San Telmo, a historic part of Buenos Aires. It was big, quiet, and very comfortable, and it was definitely cheaper than most any other hotel option I can think of (except a youth hostel, but we're getting too old for that). It's just nice to have a "home" to come back to at the end of the day, where you can make your own food, relax, watch TV, shower, etc, just like at your own place. If you're traveling soon, check it out. I've also heard good things about a similar service called homeaway.com, although I've never tried it.

The view from the pool on the Sheraton's roof.

During our later stay in Buenos Aires, we were at one of the two Sheratons downtown. This was also a pretty good deal. I had some points in Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), the hotel alliance that Sheraton belongs to. I was able to combine some of those points with $40 per night with their Points and Money option; otherwise you'd have to use a lot more points (or pay a lot more money) for a room. I think this was also a pretty good deal. According to SPG.com, a room at the same time was going for $175, and the rates at the hotel's sign board were over $300 per night (!), so either way, we got a pretty good rate for a really nice room.

Angela at the hotel hot tub and pool.

OTHER TRANSPORTATION

(You know, if this is getting boring, you can just stop reading; I'll put up more about how to get the frequent flyer miles in a few days. Some of this stuff is actually more just for my own reference, so I don't forget it in the future!)

Angela and I on the bus.

While in the city, we occasionally took taxis, but more than anything, we walked like crazy. We felt safe basically all the time, but later in the evening we did tend to get a "radio" taxi just to be sure. Such taxis are dispatched when you call them, and it's a safer system than just hailing a cab on a random street corner.

We also used the bus a bit when we went from Buenos Aires to Neuquén. Buses in Argentina are something else, I tell you. Ours wasn't even the nicest class, but it included seats that reclined nearly flat, movies, two full meals, a bathroom, and they even served champagne. Not too shabby, but I guess some of the fancier buses have lie-flat seats, personal DVD players, and other even fancier amenities. In any case, our trip was something like 13 hours, and it cost around $100 per person. Also not too bad, all things considered.

An even-fancier bus.

Well, that's all for the moment, I guess. If you have any questions about any of this, whether out of curiosity or for your own trip, I'll be happy to try to help in any way I can.

Thanks for reading, and check back soon for more Sitzblog fun!

It's Groundhog Day

2012-02-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

And here's our weatherman Bill Murray with the forecast:

Sitzbook: Great Short Movie

2012-01-31T15:55:00.002-07:00

In the comments section of a recent Sitzbook post my brother Paul included the link to this excellent short film about books. If you've got about 15 minutes, it's pretty wonderful:

Thanks to Paul, and thanks to you for reading!

Meat Loaf Monday: "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through"!

2012-01-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

It's Monday, so you know what that means: no, not work, but the inaugural edition of Meat Loaf Monday! You might have thought I'd start off with "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" or "Paradise By The Dashboard Light," but if you thought that, you'd be wrong. Meat Loaf Monday is all about throwing my readers curve balls... or should I say curve meatballs! Watch and be amazed:

One of the reasons I decided to start with this song is because I heard it on my alarm radio the other morning, but there was one major difference: it was a cover version of the song, but it was subdued and laid-back. Almost country music-esque. That struck me as strange; if you're going to cover a Meat Loaf song, you need to try to be louder, more exuberant, more over-the-top, and even more full-on than the Meat Man himself, and that's a pretty tall order. You don't cover Meat Loaf songs, he covers your songs, and he sings the hell out of them. That's just his M.O. (a Latin abbreviation for meatus operandi).

So that got me into this Meat Loaf Monday idea, but this song is also pretty good. OK, I'm not going to bullshit you: the song's spectacular. It's got a sweet opening line ("You can't run away for ever / but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"), and in classic Meat Loaf fashion it builds up more and more grandeur with each beat.

The video is great, too, but in a weird way. I guess it's about... hmm, Rock and Roll being awesome? The redemptive power of sweet music? Motorcycles? It's hard to tell what's going on. Frankly, if I had about $500,000 and the rights to a Meat Loaf song at my disposal, I'd probably make a pretty similar video with similar bizarre crap: random explosions; a sexy cyborg that appears to be half juke box, half supermodel; dangerously flying radios; fog machines; flashy-light necklaces; and Angelina Jolie. I'm pretty sure the idea of the video is that Meat Loaf saves some kids, but at the beginning he looks like he's trapped in a Zoltar machine, and later on he seems to be some kind of homeless wanderer/warrior (and are those prosthetic ears??). It's hard to tell if he's trying to save, seduce, or kidnap Angelina Jolie. In any case, it's certainly her best acting role ever, although not Meat Loaf's (that'd be his role in Fight Club).

So, happy Meat Loaf Monday! I hope it starts your week off with a nice, meaty bang, and we'll see you next week!

Sitzbook: "The Old Patagonian Express"

2012-01-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

Paul Theroux is surely one of the most excellent sarcastic travel writers out there. I'm glad Lucy pointed him out to me. If you've not read any of his books, this could be a good first one. In this, as in many of his books, he journeys to some interesting place and provides the reader with a thoroughly dry running commentary, focusing not only on the destinations, but often just as much or even more on the journey itself. The first quote I shared from this book a few weeks ago is a good example of that.

In this book Theroux travels almost exclusively by train from his home in Boston to Argentinean Patagonia. The book was written in 1979, so it's older than me, even, yet aside from some references to the controversy around giving the Panama Canal back, the book doesn't seem dated. That's remarkable, considering that very likely many of the very train lines he traveled on in his trip are no longer running (the Costa Rica ones from San José to Puntarenas and Limón certainly aren't). And the political situation has surely improved in most of the countries he visited, but that wasn't as much of a focus anyhow; regional culture and the train system itself are front and center in most of the book.

I especially liked the section where he was traveling in Costa Rica, mainly because I live there and because even though the trains no longer run, many of the aspects of Costa Rican culture are still true and relevant today. That part maintained my interest and my attention, but it had already been caught at the very beginning of the book and held to the last page. He's just a good writer.

Since Theroux is a good writer, there were many quotes that I wanted to share, many of them fairly long. I actually put up one of them in the comments section in my previous book review, since it was about an overly loud church service in El Salvador, and it worked well with the topic of that review. Still, I'll put up a few of them here, but I'd definitely recommend you check out the book if you're interested in travel and culture in Latin America.

This quote from page 8 puts the whole flag-lapel-pin debate in a new light:

“[I saw][…] American flags—the Stars and Stripes flying over gas stations and supermarkets and in numerous yards. […] But the flags puzzled me. Were these the pious boasts of patriots or a warning to foreigners or decorations for a national holiday? And why, in the littered yard to that rundown house, was a pretty little flag flapping loyally from a pole? On the evidence here, it seemed an American obsession, a kind of image worship I associated with the most primitive political minds.”

This one from when he's in Laredo (page 40) seemed great, since what he makes fun of here is something that I can't stand in many writers (although I probably do it myself sometimes):

“That was the first time on my trip that I spoke Spanish. After this, nearly every conversation I had was in Spanish. But in the course of this narrative I shall try to avoid affecting Spanish words and will translate all conversations into English. I have no patience with macaronic sentences that go, “’Carramba!’ said the campesino, eating his empanada at the estancia…’”

And this one from page 80 points out the great irony of many Spanish place names:

“We came to Tierra Blanca. The descriptive name did not describe the place. Spanish names are apt only as ironies or simplifications; they seldom fit. The argument is usually stated differently, to demonstrate how dull, how literal-minded and unimaginative the Spanish explorer or cartographer was. Seeing a dark river, the witness quickly assigned a name: Río Negro. It is a common name throughout Latin America; yet it never matches the color of the water. And the four Ríos Colorados I saw bore not the slightest hint of red. Piedras Negras was marshland, not black stones; I saw no stags at Venado Tuerto, no lizards at Lagartos. None of the Lagunas Verdes was green; my one La Dorada looked leaden; Progreso in Guatemala was backward; La Libertad in El Salvador, a stronghold of repression in a country where salvation seemed in short supply. La Paz was not peaceful, nor was La Democracia democratic. This was not literalness—it was whimsy. Place names called attention to beauty, freedom, piety, or strong colors; but the places themselves, so prettily named, were something else. Was it willful inaccuracy, or a lack of subtlety that made the map so glorious with fine attributes and praises? Latins found it hard to live with dull facts; the enchanting name, while not exactly making their town magical, at least took the curse off it. And there was always a chance that an evocative name might evoke something to make the plain town bearable.”

There were a few that I liked regarding Costa Rica:

“The only characteristic Costa Rica shares with her Central American neighbors is a common antipathy. You don’t hear a good word about Guatemala or El Salvador; and Nicaragua and Panama—the countries Costa Rica is wedged between—are frankly loathed.” (p. 160)

“Costa Rica has a large middle class, but they go to bed early and rise at dawn; everyone—student, laborer, businessman, estate manager, politician—keeps farmers’ hours.” (p. 193)

Both sad but true. There was also this one about Costa Rica, but the secularism that he mentions is something I've never really noticed here. But then again, he's comparing it to the rest of Central America, which I've seen very little of. I guess I can mostly compare my own experience with what I've seen in the U.S. and Germany, both of which I'd argue are more secular than Costa Rica:

“We were passing a church. In El Salvador or Guatemala, the passengers would have blessed themselves, made a slow sign of the cross; and the men would have removed their hats. Here, the church was not an object of much interest—and it was an imposing church, with two Spanish towers like plump thermos jugs, and scrollwork and stained glass and a pair of belfries. It aroused no reverential gestures among the train passengers. It might as well have been a barn, though a barn that size would certainly have had the train passengers crowing with approval.

Costa Rica is considered unique in Central America; prosperity has made it dull, but this is surely preferable to the excitements and urgencies of poverty. What is remarkable is its secularity. I was not prepared for this; I had never seen this commented upon; and I naturally expected, after my churchgoing in Guatemala and El Salvador, to see a similarly priest-ridden society, genuflections, the poor wearing rosaries as necklaces, and Never mind those huts—look at the cathedral! […] But a free election was like man’s answer to the bossy authoritarianism of a religion that demanded humility and repentance; it seemed to prove that competition was possible without violence or acrimony. The Costa Ricans’ dislike of dictators had made them intolerant of priests. Luck and ingenuity had made the country prosperous, and it was small and self-contained enough to remain so.” (p. 197)

Finally, these last two were from the Colombia section, and they both made me laugh out loud:

“I had thought I was the only foreigner on the train. I was wrong—I should have known the moment I saw his cut-off dungarees, his full beard, his earring, his maps and rucksack that he was a fellow traveler. He was French. He had a sore throat. A French traveler with a sore throat is a wonderful thing to behold, but it takes more than tonsillitis to prevent a Frenchman from boasting." (p. 244)

“So I contented myself with the posters. They were of Bolívar, Christ, and Che Guevara; but they were hard to tell apart. They seemed like versions of the same person: the same sorrowing eyes, the same mulish good looks, and heroic posture.[…] The other posters were of blond nudes, Joseph Stalin (bearing a warning about “Yankys”), Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, and Donald Duck. The one I bought was the best of the bunch. It showed Christ on the cross, but he had managed to pull his hand away from one nail, and still hanging crucified but with his free arm around the shoulder of a praying guerrilla fighter, Christ was saying, ‘I also was persecuted, my determined guerrilla.’” (p. 249)

That's all I have to say about this book, but you can check out my Sitzbook list to see what I'm reading or give me suggestions. If you'd like to join in on the conversation, please feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Wow! Wow! .... Um, Wow!

2012-01-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

For anyone who's "lucky" enough to be my friend or to have been in one of my classes, you probably know that I love Star Wars. So a few months ago when my brother Paul mentioned Star Wars Uncut, I was pretty interested. It's a project that divides the movie into 15-second segments, and then different fans re-make the segments however they want.

Well, the project is finally complete, and it's pretty amazing, actually. You can check it out here:

As you can see, it's about 2 hours, which is no small investment of time if you want to watch the whole thing. But really, what else do you have going on this weekend? A few of the segments are lame, half-assed, or just plain bad, but I'd say the majority of them are actually outstanding. It's just really cool to see people who are such big fans of something have a sort of field day, and many of them are very creative and funny.

Some of my favorite bits are cheesy cat inserts (like 11:30) and two cowboy/Civil War segments (the first around 1:01:00). A few other of my favorites are the Japanese comedy show (24:15), the creepy My Little Pony part (37:20), and the Kill Bill reference (46:10).

The other great thing about this is you can watch it for a few minutes at a time when you're not busy, and you don't lose what's going on--if you're a true fan, of course!

If you check it out, enjoy, and whether you do or not, have a great weekend!

Sitzbook: "Jesus Wants to Save Christians"

2012-01-28T00:29:00.000-07:00

This book was a departure from my normal Sitzbook fare, which seems to consist mostly of novels; if there is any non-fiction on my list, it often seems to be more leisure-oriented, and very few to zero of them tend to be Christian manifestos written by pastors. But while visiting Brad in Iowa --which I still need to blog about!-- he gave me quite a few "handouts." He said that he was trying to get rid of a lot of stuff, so he gave us a colorful variety of cables, some stickers, T-shirts, a few books, and many great memories. He gave me this particular book after I commented on the cover (it looks like a bunch of indistinct boxes, but if you look closer at the individual boxes' corners, they actually form letters that spell out the book's title).

I was also interested in the book's description on the back cover, since it seemed to be focused on social criticism; it said, for example: "It's a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity [...] it's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate, and participate in the very things that Jesus came to set people free from."

That definitely caught my interest. Without going into my own beliefs, I can say that those words struck a chord with me and how I view things. And I did read the book very quickly, in fact. Much of it is actually about these themes, but a lot of it is also a sort of biblical history which, although not "disappointing," wasn't exactly what I was looking for or expecting when I picked up the book. Much of the book reads like a general history of Judaism and Christianity, and although I understand that much of this information is necessary to set the stage for the commentary on modern times, the balance was definitely tilted towards the historical part.

Another thing that I noticed was that it did indeed have some criticism and frank assessment of modern religion's failings, although it didn't really provide much in the way of concrete ideas or suggestions about how to change things. But that may just have been an impression that I took away. In fact, the more I think about this book, the more I think I should read it again just to get my mind around what I think about it.

In any case, my goal with these individual book reviews wasn't to blabber on, but to give a summary of a book and include some interesting quotes or impressions, and I've gotten off track on that.

So, here are some quotes that stood out to me; you can interpret or read into them what you will. I do apologize that they are so long, but if I had kept them to "sound-bite" length, they might not have made much sense out of context. And I guess if you weren't into long-winded-ness, you'd already have stopped reading a few paragraphs ago. A comment about the format: the quotes actually look like that in the book, with paragraph breaks even in the middle of a sentence, sometimes. It looks strange here on the blog, but it's not so weird in the book. Finally, keep in mind that the book was written in 2008, so it's been around a few years.

From page 17/18:

"On the news are sound bites from a speech by the president of the United States. He's on the deck of an aircraft carrier, proclaiming victory in a recent military effort. Not only was the mission accomplished, according to the leader of the world's only superpower, but American forces are now occupying this Middle Eastern country until peace can be fully realized within its borders.

This puts Christians in an awkward place.

Because Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day.

The first Christians often said 'Jesus is Lord.' For them, Jesus was another way, a better way, a way that made the world better through sacrificial love, not coercive violence.

So when the commander in chief of the most powerful armed forces humanity has ever seen quotes the prophet Isiah from the Bible in celebration of a military victory, we must ask, Is this what Isiah had in mind?

A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage."

From page 123, after citing some depressing statistics about global wealth distribution:

"Now, when many people get a glimpse of how the world really is, whether it's through travel or study or reading statistics like the ones just cited, it can quickly lead to guilt. We have so much, while others have so little.

Guilt is not helpful.

Honestly is helpful. Awareness is helpful. Knowledge is helpful.

Guilt isn't.

Human history has never witnessed the abundance that we consider normal. America is the wealthiest nation in the history of humanity. We have more resources than any group of people anywhere at any time has ever had. Ever.

God bless America?

God has.

And we should be very, very grateful."

From page 160:

"When the goal of a church is to get people into church services and then teach them how to invite people to come to church services, so that they in turn will bring others to more church services--

that's attendance at church services.

And church is not ultimately about attending large gatherings.

Church is people.

People who live a certain way in the world.

People who have authority in the world, but authority that comes from breaking themselves open and pouring themselves out so that the world will be healed.

The authority that the church has in culture does not come from how right, cool, or loud it is, or how convinced it is of its doctrinal superiority.

As Paul says, 'We don't fight with those weapons.' A church's authority comes from somewhere else-- it comes from how we've been broken open and poured out, not from how well we've pursued power and lobbied and organized ourselves to triumph. This is why when Christians organize politically and start flexing that muscle, making threats about how they are going to impose their way on others, so many people turn away from Jesus."

From page 163/164:

"Our standing in solidarity with the single parent, the unemployed, the refugee, our joining the God of the oppressed to work for jusice in the world, doesn't just make a difference for those who are suffering.

It rescues us.

Have your ever heard someone return from a trip to a third-world setting and talk about how the 'people there' have nothing and yet they have so much joy?

Our destiny, our future, and our joy are in the Eucharist, using whatever blessing we've received, whatever resources, talents, skills, and passions God has given us, to make the world a better place. Disconnection from the suffering of the world, isolation from the cry of the oppressed, indifference to the poverty around us will always lead us to despair.

We were made for so much more.

The church, the Eucharist, says no to religiously sanctioned despair. The Eucharist is an invitation to be the new humanity. To suffer, to bleed, to open the heart, to roll up the sleeves, to have hope that God has a plan to put the world back together, and it's called the church.

In the Eucharist, there's always hope.

Hope for the poor,

and hope for the rich.

Hope for the bored,

hope for the restless.

The Eucharist confronts its culture with the question,

If we can spend a trillion dollars on a war,

what else could we spend a trillion dollars on?

Water?

Food?

Medicine?

Education?

The Eucharist is about converting all of that ability and energy and entrepreneurial skill and can-do attitude into blessing for those on the underside of power.

Those on the margins.

Those who aren't in the game.

The Eucharist is about people with the power empowering the powerless to make a better life for themselves."

So, that's it for the moment, but I'd be happy to hear any comments from people who have read or heard of the book, or also from anyone who wants to say hey or comment on the quotes... but let's not start a holy war here!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

South America Trip Report: Santiago, Chile

2012-01-20T18:01:00.002-07:00

Angela and some new friends. Almost everyone we met in Santiago seemed very friendly --and some almost too friendly. Nacho commented that if you don't cut a conversation in Chile short, the person you're talking to will go on and on forever. Even our taxi driver to the airport gave us a very detailed history of Chile (although I must say it was interesting).

Our time in Santiago was short but sweet. We were only there for two nights. When we first started planning our trip months before we left, we thought we'd split our time almost evenly between Argentina and Chile, but due to different scheduling considerations, we decided to just concentrate on Argentina for this trip. But we'll have to go back!

We did manage to see some interesting stuff in our time in Santiago, so here are some pictures. You can also check out my other Santiago pictures on Flickr.

After crossing the border.

Based on our brief time in the country, we got the impression that Chileans really like guacamole, as it was on nearly everything offered at a food court (including hamburgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, and even French fries).

Another thing I thought was interesting was this cafe, where they had about 4 people doing the work of one person. After you order at the entrance, a greeter gives you a ticket that you take to one of the girls in the dresses. She then gives your order to a guy whose only job is to run the espresso machine, and he makes your drink and gives it to the girl in the dress, who in turn gives it to you. When you're done, you can then go pay the cashier. They do this a bit in Costa Rica, but the Chileans seem to have perfected this art.

Another interesting food thing: wheat in juice with peaches.

Angela and I at one of the parks in Santiago. We were a bit sad to realize that compared to many Latin American capitals, Costa Rica's San José is pretty crappy.

A building near our hotel.

This recipe for milanesas (like schnitzels or breaded beef cutlets) was on a chalkboard at the final place we had supper in South America. It was fitting considering the staggering number of milanesas we'd eaten during our trip.

A cool plant that looked quite a bit like the metal flower sculpture in Buenos Aires.

More employment: have cops directing traffic, even if they have to stand under stoplights to do it. (By the way, the hat was cool and I thought it was interesting that male and female cops had completely different hats).

The President of Belgium happened to be visiting the same time we were, so there were lots of Belgian flags.

Our hotel was pretty old school, but it was central and even had a nice TV.

So, that's about it for my Santiago report. Like I said, it'd be great to go back and see much more of the country and not just a little of the capital, so we'll have to see if that's in the cards for us.

That's also it for the actual traveling part of my trip report. Within the next few days I'll try to put up a separate post about the logistics of the trip, including information about the frequent flyer miles we used to get the trip for free, and a few other tips like that.

Thanks for reading these, if you've actually been reading them! Have a great weekend!

1 - Buenos Aires

2 - Uruguay

3 - Ushuaia

4 - Western Argentina

5 - Santiago

6 - Logistics

South America Trip Report: Western Argentina

2012-01-20T10:26:00.003-07:00

More tasty mate. Nacho makes a mean mate but then again, he's an expert.

Hello! Here's the fourth part of my South American trip report, although this one has mostly pictures. After we returned from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, we stayed in a hotel for a few days, then finally caught a bus to Neuquén, in western Argentina. There we met up with our friend Nacho and stayed with him for a few days until his girlfriend Carla got to town. From there, Nacho --an excellent host, it must be said-- drove us all the way from Neuquén to Santiago, Chile, stopping in a few places on the way to visit and sleep. Here are some pictures:

On the bus from Buenos Aires to Neuquén. As it turns out, some parts of Patagonia aren't as majestic as magazines might have led you to believe; in fact, some parts of it look like Nebraska.

Angela eating some of Nacho's delicious food.

Nacho, El Nuevo Libertator, consummate host, CIA-trained extreme chef, and King of Deep Cuts on CD mixes. And Angela, who is also pretty great but who lacks such auspicious titles...so far.

We stayed at Nacho's place for a few nights and hung out in Neuquén, a pretty calm provincial capital. It was a bit like parts of Colorado, in that it was really dry, warm, and flat. After a few days, Carla arrived from Buenos Aires, and the four of us set off towards the north in Nacho's car.

Carla making mate in the back seat.

Our first stop was Mendoza. It seemed like a pretty nice city, and it would be nice to go back sometime and spend a bit more time there.

Angela and I in Mendoza

Nacho and Carla

For our second night on the road, we stayed in a town called Uspallata, on the road between Mendoza and the Chilean border. We also stopped at the Trapiche winery to see how the wine was made.

Carla and Nacho in front of the vineyards

Angela and a llama

Finally, after Uspallata, we made our way up the mountains to the Chilean border, relatively high in the Andes. We stopped on the way to take a look at Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas.

The four of us

Aconcagua

Someone had problems, so they had to do a helicopter evacuation. Angela likes helicopters.

Our captain and his trusty Jeep.

The road after entering Chile. I wanted to take this picture earlier since we had already passed about half of the curves at this point, but there wasn't a good opportunity before this. But I think you get the point: it was curvy.

Once we crossed the border, we went down an incredibly twisty and curvy road with something like 32 switchbacks. The landscapes were very interesting, a mixture of Alpine, Mediterranean, and Desert scenery depending on where we were at the moment. And finally, we made it into Santiago, or at least the area near Santiago. It's probably good Nacho was driving, because he was fairly patient, but the roads were not clearly marked, and it was a bit confusing to find our way into the city itself. Once we were there, we also had to find a place to stay, which was another pain. But in the end, we found a hotel at a tourist info center, we actually got to the hotel, and then we went out to have a final dinner together.

The perpetually short Angela and her two gentleman heroes.

At dinner in Santiago

The next day, Nacho and Carla headed back to Argentina, and Angela and I hung around the city. That just goes to show you what great folks Nacho and Carla are, going all that way just to keep us company and spend time with us.

Anyhow, there are a few more posts coming up but if you want to look at more pictures from this part of the trip, you can check them out on Flickr in the meantime. Thanks for reading!

1 - Buenos Aires

2 - Uruguay

3 - Ushuaia

4 - Western Argentina

5 - Santiago

6 - Logistics

South America Trip Report: Ushuaia, Argentina

2012-01-19T22:38:00.005-07:00

All over Ushuaia you'll see references to it being "el fin del mundo," or "the end of the world." But why so negative, I ask? Why not call it "the START of the world"? Who says the world starts in the north? Maybe it starts in the south and works its way up.

When most people see the name "Ushuaia," they think, "What the hell's an Ushuaia?" Good question, although it should be formulated "Where the hell's an Ushuaia?"

Ushuaia is the world's southernmost city, at the very tip of South America. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to go there when I was planning the trip, but the more I read about it, the more interesting it sounded. And there were penguins!

Here I am, working on my Ushuaia street cred.

Since it's the southernmost city in the world, you'd think it would be cold. It is cold, and we weren't even there in the winter, but it wasn't as bad as we had thought it would be. To put things in perspective, if you look at a map or a globe, the city is actually about the same amount south as Copenhagen is north. I guess there's just a lot more "stuff" in the northern hemisphere, and it gets all up in the North Pole's business, but that's not really the case with the southern part of our charming little planet.

I've never been to Alaska, but I have an image of Alaska similar to this in my mind.

But yeah, it was cold. The main thing we had planned during our visit was a tour to a penguin colony, and it was a definite highlight of the trip. After a visit to Estancia Harberton, one of the first European settlements in the area, we took a small boat to an island where the penguins nest and we were able to walk among them for an hour. Many tours go on larger boats, and since the island's administrators have a tourist limit, the people in the larger boats have to take pictures from the water, and the boats only stop for a few minutes. The people from those boats aren't allowed on the land. But the company that ran our tour is the only one with a permit to land on the island, and it limits visits to something like 80 tourists a day. Anyhow, enough talk! Check out some penguins:

Angela making friends.

The boat we came in on.

One thing they don't tell you about penguins:
They often come with penguin crap.

The lone king penguin. The guide said he goes back there every year, even though he's the only of his kind on the island, and everyone's smaller. Like Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused, maybe?

Me with penguins.

They have advanced moisture-wicking technology, apparently.

Angela (in a jacket borrowed from the B&B owner) laughs in the face of Mother Nature.

So, the penguins were great, although the day we went it was windy and chilly. What else is there to do in Ushuaia? Well, that's an issue, as it turns out. Because of flight times and based on online reviews, we had 7 days in town, and the forums I'd read indicated that wouldn't be too much. But we kind of ran out of things to do after a couple days. We went to the nearby Tierra del Fuego National Park, which was beautiful. And we walked around town a lot. But we mainly went through stores in town, or stayed at the B&B and read to pass the time. It was relaxing, but we had the feeling that we should have stayed a few more days in Uruguay and cut out a few days in Ushuaia. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

In any case, have a look at some of the National Park pictures:

A friendly German couple that was staying at the same B&B as us. We went to the national park together. The B&B was a great alternative to a (very expensive) hotel, since we got to meet quite a few very nice people from all over the world.

An inlet in the national park.

Angela and the Germans on the trail.

This repulsive-looking stuff turns out to be a kind of weird, spongy fungus. I guess when it hardens, you can even eat it.

Nice flower.

And here are some pictures I took while around town:

Angela walking in a former prison we toured. It was pretty interesting, actually.

Docked ships.

A boat that was grounded and simply left in the harbor because it looked good.

Angela

The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at was really nice, and the owners were very friendly and welcoming. Although we probably budgeted more time than necessary in the town, it was relaxing to have a place to hang out after Buenos Aires, and before continuing on our voyage.

And there were penguins!

So, that's it for Ushuaia. Thanks for reading and looking; if you feel like seeing more pictures, you can check out my Ushuaia set on flickr here. And if you want to see any of the other sections of this trip report, follow these links:

1 - Buenos Aires

2 - Uruguay

3 - Ushuaia

4 - Western Argentina

5 - Santiago

6 - Logistics

South America Trip Report: Colonia, Uruguay

2012-01-17T22:13:00.006-07:00

Colonia, whose complete name is Colonia del Sacramento, won us over very quickly. Just across the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires, it's amazing that after an hour-long ferry ride, you can find yourself in a world with a completely different vibe than the Argentinean capital.

Our biggest regret about our trip to South America is that we only spent two days in Uruguay. To be fair, it's a lot easier to say that with hindsight. When I was planning our trip I didn't know what there was to do in Uruguay, and like most of my readers, the only real previous information I knew about Uruguay came from this Simpsons reference:

I take that back. I guess I did know that it was really close to Buenos Aires, since I had been to Buenos Aires in 2006. When I looked on the map, I kicked myself for not having just crossed the stupid river for at least a day trip (I also realized that in that same 2006 trip, I came incredibly close to Bolivia when I was in northwest Argentina. Stupid me). I had already missed one chance to get another country under my belt, and this time I was determined to not let it happen again.

As I mentioned before, it's just an hour-long fast ferry ride (or three hours on the slow, "loser" ferry) from Buenos Aires to Colonia. It's a bit expensive for the fast ticket; I think it was around $100 per person for the round-trip, but it was very nice service, and the new Buenos Aires terminal for Buquebus (the name of the ferry company) was really nice:

Angela in the Buquebus terminal, complete with a wall-sized waterfall.

The ferry's economy class waiting area. They were even playing classical music.
Why can't airport boarding areas be this nice?

Compared to the hustle, bustle, and full-on hugeness of Buenos Aires, Colonia is much more relaxed. A few people we talked to in Argentina expressed that they didn't like the city because it was a "typical Spanish colonial town," but neither Angela nor I had been to a typical Spanish colonial town, so it was cool for us. There's an older section of town that fills up with tourists from Buenos Aires during the daytime and especially during the weekends, but we found it wasn't too crowded when we were there. We spent the first day mainly wandering around town, and eventually we made our way to the beach.

I guess old towns attract old cars, because there were lots of old cars in Colonia, like this Studebaker.

Some columns on the sidewalk between the old town and the harbor.

A flower from the beautiful ceibo tree.

On the second day we just relaxed, ate delicious greasy food, and made our way to the beach again, this time to hang out a bit. The beach is close to the Atlantic, but it's still on the river. Although there's nice, white sand and the beach is clean and welcoming, the water itself isn't that nice since the Río de la Plata is a bit muddy with sediment. For a few hours of relaxing in the sun, though, it certainly was more than sufficient.

Angela at the beach. It sort of reminded me of the beaches near Copenhagen in Denmark.

A tree in the water.

Before we went to Uruguay, people told/"warned" us that Uruguayans drank a ridiculous amount of mate, and that we'd see people even carrying thermoses under their arms while walking down the street. We thought we might see one or two who fit this description, but nearly every other person on the street seemed to be drinking mate. It was kind of cool.

When researching our trip most of the forums I came across said that even a day trip to Colonia was more than sufficient, but with two days we felt tempted to hang out in the town a while longer. However, we had a flight out of Buenos Aires coming up and we weren't able to stay. It was a curious town, in that it did have a sort of tourist-town feeling, but once you leave the historic core, it's a "normal" city, and a nice one at that. Most places were very clean, the houses were really nice, food was cheaper than Argentina, everything seemed pretty relaxed but not too relaxed, the weather was wonderful, and everyone was very friendly with us. I actually kept wondering what the catch was; I was sure that there was some sort of dark secret that the town was hiding, but maybe it's simply a nice place to visit and live. Then again, maybe they sacrifice a bunch of tourists on the 15th of each month at the boat docks, and we just missed it by a day or two. Who knows.

Sure, it probably doesn't hurt tourism, either, but houses covered in plants and flowers added to the city's charm, and they seemed to be all over the historic center of Colonia.

In any case, I left Colonia intrigued not only by the city, but by Uruguay itself. It seems like it's the South American country that everyone forgets about, or at best confuses with Paraguay. If I make my way back to South America --and I certainly hope I will-- I will definitely have Uruguay on my list of places to go to.

Thanks for reading, and if you feel like checking out the rest of my Uruguay pictures, you can check out the Flickr set here.

For the rest of the trip report, you can check the links below:

1 - Buenos Aires

2 - Uruguay

3 - Ushuaia

4 - Western Argentina

5 - Santiago

6 - Logistics

2011 Complete Pictures of the Day

2012-01-16T13:32:00.001-07:00

2012 is here, and I've started on yet another "365 project," wherein I take a picture a day. Back on December 1, I completed two years of the Picture of the Day project, and it's been a lot of fun. Have a look at the 2011 pictures if you'd like:

If you want the captions and explanations for each picture, you make the slideshow full-screen and then click on "show info." If you've got a quick eye, you'll see that the first picture is one from February, since the actual first picture is of me and my Decembeard, which is a gross way to start off a slideshow. You may also notice that there are more than 365 pictures in this set; that's because I included December of 2010. For some reason, I started right in on the project on December 1, 2009, so I was always a month early with the milestones. If you're really bored, you can also check out the 2010 pictures here. Maybe there's some evidence of progress and growth in my photography, but I'm not sure. In any case, it has been a great way to motivate and push me to think of new ways to take pictures, and I do feel like I've enjoyed the hobby more and more through this project.

Thanks for reading and looking!

Sitzbook: "Quicksand" by Nella Larsen

2012-01-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Author Nella Larsen. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

I won't write a big review about this book, but I did say that I wanted to at least mention each book on my Sitzbook list this year. If you remember, that's a book a week, i.e. 52 books, and if I do 52 big book reviews, this blog may become a bit dull. But we'll see...

Anyhow, let's look quickly at Quicksand. I found this in one of the Norton anthologies of American Literature that I had around the house. I left it in Fort Collins when I was visiting my family over Christmas, though --it was getting mold here in Costa Rica-- so I'm not sure if I made any notes or dog-eared any pages so I wouldn't forget any important piece of information.

But I don't think so. I was a short book, as was the other book I've read by Larsen, Crossing Over. Both deal with a half-black, half-white protagonist trying to cope with the pressures of society in the early 20th century. Larsen herself had a Danish mother and an African-American-West Indian father, and apparently both of her books have somewhat autobiographical overtones. If you want to know more, you've gotta roll up your sleeves just read the Wikipedia article about her, like I did. Lazy readers...

The book was good, although other than Crossing Over, I'm not sure I've read too many other pieces of literature to compare it to. The main thing that I noticed was that no matter where the protagonist Helga Crane found herself, whether teaching in the south, living in poverty in Chicago, living with a friend in Harlem, or living with relatives in Copenhagen, she seemed to suffer from discontent, restlessness, and anxiousness. But I suppose that may have been the point of the book; that a person in her circumstances, with her background, at that point in time, couldn't truly feel at home and in peace anywhere in the world.

I was glad I read this book, although I couldn't really say I "enjoyed" it, since it was a bit of a downer when all was said and done. I did like the Copenhagen part, if only because I hadn't expected that at all, and I also have found myself staying with Danish relatives outside of Copenhagen for a while (that sounds strange, but it's true).

So, that's all for the moment. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

South America Trip Report: Buenos Aires

2012-01-14T00:28:00.005-07:00

The gate at the Congress building in Buenos Aires.
No one I asked seemed able to explain why the national seal featured a hat on a stick.
While I'm sure a quick internet search would tell me, I'd prefer to let the mystery be.

Hello! I'll finally start writing a bit more about our trip to South America in November and December. We were gone for a month, so in a way it was like we had three or four little "trips of a lifetime." I'll divide to report into six sections:

1 - Buenos Aires

2 - Uruguay

3 - Ushuaia

4 - Western Argentina

5 - Santiago

6 - Logistics

When I get each section finished, I'll link each post in the list above. I also realize that the "Logistics" section may seem a bit weird and not necessarily self-explanatory. In that part, I just intend to talk a little bit about the traveling itself, like how we got tickets (the tickets to South America were basically free because of frequent flyer miles, so I'd like to explain how that worked, in case some of you can benefit from the information).

So, let's get into it!

BUENOS AIRES

Ah, Buenos Aires, city of tango, gauchos, Evita, legendary cafes, and monetary crises. Sort of. Of those five things, it seems we only saw Evita's grave, but perhaps we're just crappy at planning tours.

I guess we also saw Evita rocking the mic on this skyscraper. She lit up at night.

We used Buenos Aires as a sort of "base" for our whole trip. For the first week, we stayed in an apartment I'd found at airbnb.com. I suppose this could also go in the logistics section, but it's just a quick note. For about 450 dollars a week, much less than a hotel would have cost us, we got a flat in the heart of Buenos Aires' historic San Telmo district. The apartment had a bedroom, kitchen, living room, full bath, wi-fi, and even a cell phone to use. I mention this not only because you could benefit from the site, but also because it fundamentally influenced the nature of our trip, letting us to feel like we were "experiencing" the city more. It was obviously not as "full-service" as a hotel, but it allowed us to relax and feel at home in a way no hotel can.

Angela with a graffiti mural near the apartment we stayed at in San Telmo.

Our time in Buenos Aires was spent on three main activities: visiting, walking, and eating. But most of all walking, it seemed. Although we could have taken cabs, buses, or subways, spring was in full swing when we were there, and the beautiful weather pushed us to walk. That is, it pushed me to walk, and I in turn pushed a slightly more reluctant Angela to walk. On one day we even apparently covered 76 blocks, but I only told her that after we were back in the apartment and I checked it out on a map. I thought she'd be proud about how much distance we'd covered, but instead I think she tried to use the information as an excuse to call for a walking hiatus the following day.

Our first day, our first walk. It was also the only day it rained a bit, so we waited it out in front of a huge, golden bank door.

The two of us in the Plaza San Martín. The trees and blossoms were beautiful.

The "generic flower" sculpture. The park is really nice, and the sculpture apparently opens and closes while following the path of the sun.

We also were able to see various friends. It was Angela's first time in South America, but I had previously been to Buenos Aires in 2006 to visit my friend Andrés, who I had met when the two of us were exchange students in Germany in 1998/1999. In that 2006 trip I also met some of his friends, and we were able to see some of them on this trip, as well. For example, I had met Leandro and Vicky on that trip, and on this trip they were living in a lovely apartment in the city. They kindly let us crash at their place after between our jaunts to Uruguay and Ushuaia, and they were very gracious hosts. We also got to see some of Andrés' family and met a friend of his name Paula, as well as the two enormous dogs living at the house Andrés and a friend are renting.

Andrés (left) and Leandro with a diminutive-looking Angela. It was great to hang out with them and other friends.

One of the glorious beastdogs that Andrés uses to guard his house.

Oh, and eating. We ate a lot of beef, empanadas, ice cream, and Italian food, as well as anything else that we happened to come across and that was too slow to escape from us. Of course, we also drank copious amounts of mate, which is basically a tea made from an herb called yerba mate and drunk from a gourd through a metal straw.

Angela drinking mate in the apartment where we stayed.

A provopan, a basic sandwich made with grilled provoleta (provolone) cheese on a bread roll. The dark parts are grill marks (they actually put the cheese itself on the grill) and a bit of herbs and oil. It looks a bit revolting, but it was absolutely delicious.

I think the best part of Buenos Aires was probably the people, and not just because we knew some friends there. I know that everyone says the best part of a trip is "the people," and I'm sure I'll also say it when I do the reports for the rest of our trip, but at least in this case, it's true. The people in Buenos Aires can be loud and suffer from a slight superiority complex at times, but they're nevertheless very welcoming and friendly. And they know how to make delicious food, especially grilled beef, so for me that goes a long way after spending over five years in Costa Rica, which is a bit of a culinary boondocks.

In the end, we ended up staying in Buenos Aires at three different points. The first was in the apartment we rented, the second at Leandro and Vicky's, and the third was in a Sheraton (I'll include more about how we managed to swing this in the Logistics post). Normally this would have been very well out of our price range, but I was able to use points and money for the stay, which reduced the cost substantially. We loved the hotel and our room, but the best part was possibly the pool and hot tub on the hotel's roof, which gave a scenic view of most of the city.

The view from the hotel's rooftop pool area.

So, that was Buenos Aires. If you want to see any more pictures from Buenos Aires, you can check out my Buenos Aires set on Flickr. I'll try to put up the other reports in the next few days, so look for them if you're interested.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Sitzbook Preview: "The Old Patagonian Express"

2012-01-12T20:45:00.001-07:00

I've been busy lately uploading pictures from Iowa, Colorado, and Arizona (if you want to check them out, click on the place names), so I've not had a chance to write trip reports or book reviews in the last few days. I've also been reading, though, and I came across a passage in Paul Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express that I thought was interesting. The book is from the 1970s, and it's about a train trip he took from Boston to Patagonia. I'm only on page 50 or so, but it's very entertaining so far. He really does write about traveling and the trip itself, while most writers would just focus on the destination. On page 4 he says:

"My usual question, unanswered by these--by most--travel books, is, How did you get there? Even without the suggestion of a motive, a prologue is welcome, since the going is often as fascinating as the arrival. [...] we have become used to life being a series of arrivals or departures, of triumphs and failures, with nothing noteworthy in between. Summits matter, but what of the lower slopes of Parnassus? We have not lost faith in journeys from home, but the texts are scarce."

In any case, I've run across quite a few quotes already, and I'll share more of them with you when I'm done with the book. In the meantime, have you read other books by Theroux? If so, which ones do you recommend?

Thanks for reading!

2011 Sitzbook Wrap-Up

2012-01-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

At the start of 2011 I decided to try to read a book a week, and that I'd call my project Sitzbook (click here for the Sitzbook page, which has the list for 2011, along with links to books I reviewed). I'm happy to say that I accomplished my goal, and that I'm not sick of reading. I decided I'd do it again for 2012, and I'll try to do at least a brief review or mention of each book, which is something that I wasn't able to do with my 2011 list.

Before we move on to 2012, though, let's look back on 2011. One thing I think I'll do with this year's list is count the page numbers, at least out of curiosity. Some books that I read were quite short and fast (like Daisy Miller or Illusions), and some were longer (like Crime and Punishment or Captain Corelli's Mandolin). A couple were gigantic (like 11/22/63 and The Stand, both by Stephen King, the former over 800 pages, and the latter around 1,100!). It's difficult to have an accurate page count because some are on the Kindle, which doesn't have "pages" for some books, and a few were from literature anthologies, which number things differently. In any case, I'll try for that this year.

So, how about a few winners and losers?

FASTEST BOOKS:

I read a few of these books within 24 hours, but I think the champion(s) must be the three books in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series. I read all three of them in less than two days, much of which I spent on our exercise bike. So in addition to broadening my brain, I hopefully worked against the broadening of my waistline. The three books were all great, of course.

SLOWEST BOOK:

Probably The Stand. It seems to have taken a good chuck of March and April, partly because we were working and traveling, and we also had house guests (Henni and Andy). Plus it's 1,100 pages or so, and I read it in German, and I'd already read the English original, so it wasn't as suspenseful as some other books. It was still really good, though, but just slow going. Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian was also a bit difficult to get through, albeit not especially slow.

"WORST" BOOK:

I honestly can say that all the books had something I liked, but if there were one or two books that failed to catch my attention, they were Thomas Mann's Death in Venice (dreadfully dull, no real plot) and Germs, Genes, & Civilization by David P. Clark (a free book from Amazon).

BEST BOOK:

With 52 very different books, it's hard to choose one. So I won't. Perhaps because they're still fresher in my mind, I might say 11/22/63, Stephen King's time-traveling story about a man who tries to stop the Kennedy assassination, or Chuck Klosterman's The Visible Man, a story about a psychiatrist whose voyeur patient has developed a way to hide himself. I'm a big fan of both authors, and both books were a bit of a departure from their normal styles, so that also gave these books an air of novelty. Plus they were simply well-written and very entertaining. Although I'd love to read 100% "deep" books about "important" things, it's nice to have a distraction, especially if you're trying to get through a book a week.

So, that's it for the moment. Have you read any of the books on the list? If so, what did you think? Do you have any suggestions for 2012?

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

South America Trip Pictures Are Done!

2012-01-09T18:21:00.001-07:00

It's taken me a while, but I finally finished uploading our pictures from our trip to South America. You can check them out on my Flickr page, or you can also look at them here on the blog. Remember I also put up pictures from Uruguay, Ushuaia, and Buenos Aires in a previous post, if you want to see them.

I'm still planning on writing a sort of "trip report" for these places, but for the moment, you'll have to just use your imagination by looking at these pictures. So, thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Neuquén, Argentina to the Chilean Border:

Santiago, Chile:

Cool Video About Airplane Food

2011-12-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

No one really likes airplane food, yet we all complain if we end up on a flight that doesn't serve anything. Weird.

Well, lest my blog turn into a stand-up comedian complaining about air travel, I'll just share this really interesting video about the massive food production for one airline:

Thanks for reading, happy new year, and safe travels if you're traveling now!

More and More Pictures

2011-12-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've been uploading a lot of pictures from our trip to South America (I'm in Colorado now and it's pretty cold, so there's sometimes not much else to do). You can check out the newest ones on my flickr page, or you can also look at picture sets from the different places. Below I'll put up some slideshows of some of the finished places. I'm still planning on writing more stories and observations about each of these places, but that'll take more time. So for now, you can at least check out some pictures:

Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay:

Ushuaia, Argentina:

Additionally, I've uploaded all the Pictures of the Day from November, so you can check those out, too. At the start of December I officially completed two years of my Picture a Day project, which is pretty impressive, at least in my mind. I'll write another post about that soon, but for now you can check out November (most of them were in South America, obviously):

So, that's it for now. As I mentioned, I'll write some more about these places soon, but we're still visiting with family and friends, so it may take a while. Thanks for reading/looking, and have a great day!

Some Trip Pictures

2011-12-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

Hi there! I've been slowly going through our pictures from our trip to South America. I've got the first week up on flickr, so you're welcome to check them out here if you'd like. The first week is basically all in Buenos Aires, but there's also one day of Uruguay pictures (like the one above and below). Other highlights include various pictures of street art/ graffiti, some lovely flowers, and Angela feeling uncomfortable next to an enormous dog!

I'll upload more pictures and get them organized soon and when they are, I'll tell you. The whole thing is a slow process, though. In the meantime, if you look at the flickr widget at the top left of this page, you can see if there are recently uploaded pictures.

Thanks, and have a great day!

Story Problem

2011-12-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

Pretend you need to build a road. You need 100,000 kilograms of powdered cement to do the job (the exact numbers aren't that important). Which option do you choose:

A. Order 10 trucks with 10,000 kilograms of cement each. Have the trucks dump the cement where you'll do the job.

B. Order 10 trucks with pallets. Each pallet will have 400 paper sacks of cement weighing 25 kilograms per bag. Have workers pass the bags one by one from the trucks and distribute them around the site. Once in place, have workers open the individual bags and pour the cement powder out of each bag. Make no plans to deal with either the dust or the thousands of heavy-duty paper bags.

So, which would you choose? There's no "correct" answer, but if you said, "Obviously, I'd choose A. What kind of numb nuts would choose option B?" then you're probably not in charge of building highways in Costa Rica.

G'day, Mate

2011-12-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today we've been visiting more with Angela's family, but I've also been working on "curing" a mate that we brought back from Argentina. Here's some general information (link), and here's a video explaining a bit more about it (all in Spanish, but at least you can hear a nice Argentinean accent):

...and here's one talking about how to cure the mate:

In any case, that's what I'm up to today. How about you?

A Few Newer Pictures

2011-12-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Pretty soon I'll be putting up a lot of pictures on Flickr, but for now I thought I'd share a couple recent ones.

Here's short Angela with some traditionally tall Buenos Aires businessmen, Andrés and Leandro. We met up with them for lunch a few days ago, just before we left Buenos Aires.

After leaving Buenos Aires, we took a bus to Neuquén, where we met up with Nacho. He made's been making us delicious food non-stop, and it's been a great time so far!

Finally, as you may remember, the guy on Uruguay's 100 Peso bill had a startling resemblance to Tom Hank's theoretical dad. I also stumbled on another shocking discovery when I saw Argentina's 50 Peso bill:

That's right: it appears that one of the Founding Fathers of Argentina may have actually been a mafioso, since he bears a more than passing resemblance to Frank Pentangeli's brother, Vincenzo:

Witness Protection Program, anyone?

So, that's it for now. I'll tell you in a few days when I've posted more pictures, if you're interested. Until then, be sure to frequently check Sitzblog: your number one source for South American currency conspiracies!

In Your Arms - Amazing Video!

2011-11-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Check out this video:

If you look closer, you can see that it's done entirely in stop-motion animation, and that the background is thousands and thousands of jellybeans. The Making-Of video is pretty amazing, too. It turns out that it took them nearly two years to shoot the video above. Check it out:

I like the song, too. It's probably now my second-favorite song with the phrase "in your arms":

...and it's even pretty close up there with "In These Arms":

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

In Ushuaia

2011-11-19T14:03:00.001-07:00

Just as an update, we left Buenos Aires early this afternoon and now we're in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. It seems very nice, and quite a lot cooler than up north! I'll try to put up some more pictures in the coming days, but like before, you can check on Instagram and find some there, probably. Here are a few from yesterday and today:

The "generic flower," in a park in Buenos Aires. We did yet more walking yesterday and stopped in the park for photo opportunities. This sculpture opens and closes with the sun.

At Aeroparque Jorge Newberry, the Buenos Aires airport primarily used for domestic flights. It's really close to the city itself, as you can see.

Thanks for reading!

More Pictures, Less Confusing

2011-11-16T17:04:00.002-07:00

We're currently in Uruguay, and I'm here to tell you, it's a real country.

Just joking... It IS a real country, and it's a beautiful country, based on the little we've seen of it, at least.

I've been taking quite a few more pictures on my camera, but I've also been taking a lot of pictures on Instagram because-- as its name indicates-- it's instant. That way I can immediately put up some impressions from our trip without having to find a computer, transfer the pictures from the memory card, shrink them, upload them, etc. The biggest drawback is that I have an iPod, not an iPhone, so the camera isn't very good and the quality of the pictures generally isn't great if you're looking at them on a screen much bigger than a cell phone.

Anyhow, here's a link to see all the Instagram pictures I've been taking:

http://web.stagram.com/n/sitzman/

As I mentioned the other day, you can see the six newest ones in the widget on the left, but apparently you can't see more than that. With that link above, you can see all of them. So, check them out if you're curious about Uruguay, aka "The Hermit Kingdom"!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Pictures

2011-11-12T17:34:00.002-07:00

If you want to check out some pictures from our trip, you can see the ones I've taken with Instagram (just go to the widget on the left). When we get back I'll upload more, higher quality pictures that I've been taking with our camera. In the meantime, enjoy!

Somewhat Unemployed

2011-11-09T20:42:00.006-07:00

What a herd of boludos.

I realized recently that I'd not told many people that I had quit my job. I actually gave my one-month notice at the end of September (here you have to give a month instead of two weeks, if you've worked at a job longer than a year). I liked my job and the students I was teaching, but there were also things I disagreed with, and it was time to go in a new direction. That direction? Well, for now: Argentina! Then after that, we'll figure something out.

As Andy's brother is rumored to have said, "I'm not too worried about it. We'll be fine."

Thanks, and have a good one!

Danger 5!

2011-11-05T17:06:00.000-06:00

Wow, I almost think this may not be real, simply because it looks like it's going to be so amazing:

But according to their website (which has a pretty hilarious spoof on a 60s action magazine complete with clickable articles), they're actually going to produce this, starting November 21st. I'm pretty sure the guy who says "Domo Arigato" is wearing the same wig I wear for most Halloweens.

I'm gaining more and more respect for Australia and Australians.

Thanks!

2011-11-04T01:24:00.000-06:00

Just a quick re-cap from Blogtoberfest: It was awesome! Many thanks to everyone who checked out the posts. I actually got up to 31, which is one more than last year. We'll have to see what I can get done next year!

I'll also include the Pictures of the Day from October if you'd like to check them out. You can see larger versions of them and the October Leftovers on flickr, or you can just check out the slideshow here:

Box

2011-10-31T22:07:00.000-06:00

I originally had combined this post with the last post about the Animal Sanctuary, but it became really huge so I divided them since they're not related, anyhow.

I put a message on Twitter the other day talking about an app called Box giving away 50 GB of cloud storage to iOS 5 users. I've not got an iPad or an iPhone, but I'm sure a lot of you do. Still, I do have an iPod touch, which is basically like an iPhone without the phone (and with a crappier camera, unfortunately). Nevertheless, I downloaded the app and I indeed have 50 GB of free cloud storage now. It's a pretty good backup option for documents and pictures, quite similar to Dropbox in many ways. In any case, if you're interested, check out this link. It does say that it'll only be doing the free 50 GB offer for 50 days, which means there are probably 40 days or so left. I don't get anything if you do or don't go for this deal, but I thought I'd share it since it seems pretty cool.

So, that's it for now... We'll have a Blogtoberfest wrap-up in a little bit, though!

Wild Animal Sanctuary

2011-10-31T21:12:00.001-06:00

I recently saw this picture on Stern.de:

At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but then I read the caption:

"Keenesburg/Colorado, USA. Noch feiern die Amerikaner zwar nicht Erntedank, Truthahn gibt es für den Löwen aber trotzdem schon. Der gerupfte Vogel wird dem Tier im Wildtier-Schutzgebiet serviert, in dem rund 290 Löwen, Tiger, Bären, Wölfe und andere große Fleischfresser leben. Das Gelände ist das älteste und größte seiner Art in den USA."

That more or less means:

"Although Americans aren’t celebrating Thanksgiving yet, the lions already have turkeys. The bird is being served in a wildlife reserve area, in which around 290 lions, tigers, bears, wolves and other large meat-eaters live. The reserve is the oldest and largest of its kind in the USA."

I noticed the Keenesburg, Colorado part and I realized that it was talking about a wildlife reserve where my dad volunteers sometimes (he's a veterinarian). I found their page online and it's pretty interesting. I thought I was going to just look at it for a minute, but there's so much information that I spent about an hour there, and now I'd really like to go visit the facilities next time I'm in Colorado. You can check the website out here if you want: The Wild Animal Sanctuary. (It's also got more information if you're interested in visiting).

My dad also mentioned that the reserve has trouble keeping things running since it's a pretty expensive type of place to operate. We always complain that our two cats (aka Our Little Crap Factories) are expensive to maintain, but I can't imagine how much it must cost to keep a bunch of wild tigers, panthers, and bears.

I considered making a donation, although when I checked it out more I saw that they also have an online gift shop, and the products are pretty cool (I like this picture of a lion that looks eerily similar to 1980s Steve Perry, and the lion in this poster reminded me a bit of our old cat Cucho... with Steve Perry Lion behind him). Even better, the proceeds from online purchases are tax deductible and support the Sanctuary. Or, if you're so inclined, I think it seems like a good place to make a donation. I myself bought an item in the store and made a donation to help out the Wild Open Spaces project today. That's a program to buy land surrounding the reserve to expand it and build the "Mile into the Wild Walkway." It seems like a great idea because it combines animal protection and expanded open space, both of which I strongly support. It'd be cool if you'd consider it, too. Thanks!

That's all for the moment, but now that I've asked for your help, in a few minutes I'll put up a link that may help you!

The Ghosts of Halloween Costumes Past

2011-10-31T17:22:00.000-06:00

They don't really celebrate Halloween here in Costa Rica. Well, I guess they do have some parties, but since it's not part of the cultural background here, it feels a bit like forced cultural imperialism. But in this case, it's strange because the country is forcing the cultural imperialism on itself, if that makes any sense. As long as they don't try to adopt Thanksgiving, possibly my favorite holiday, I'll probably be OK. But Thanksgiving is ours, man!

But hey, Halloween's OK by me. We didn't go to any Halloween parties this year, but I have been to some pretty fun ones in the past. In fact, one of Angela's dreams is to be in the U.S. for Halloween so that she can wear a costume. We'll see if we can get that done one of these years. But in the meantime, I thought I'd show a few pictures of my favorite Halloween costumes that I've accumulated through the years... enjoy!

This is from Halloween 2008, I believe. I was working as an English teacher at a call center outside of San José, and I figured that I should at least dress as something, so I decided to go as "My Arch-Nemesis, Bryan Fitzman." That bastard! In any case, one of my students took this picture, and I liked it so much I decided to use it for my Sitzman ABC site's logo.

I think this is from 2004, when I was a grad student. It's at the faculty party. Obviously (can't you tell??) I'm going as Axl Rose. I also had a very similar costume a few years before that, when my roommate Himal went as Slash. It's a cool costume, but all too literally... we went out afterwards and I was incredibly cold walking around in the late October snow.

For all those in the know, my 2005 costume was Prince, but a few thought I was a pirate. Their loss. In any case, it was much more comfortable and warm than the Axl costume, but on the downside I had to put some kind of makeup on my eyebrows and skeezy facial hair... eyeliner? Whatever that makeup's called that women usually use on their eyelashes. That was the stuff.

I happened upon this one when looking for Halloween pictures today. It's me and my friend Miss Thang (now Mrs. Thang) in Regensburg in 2001. I can't remember who took the picture or how I got it, because people didn't even use digital cameras then. It must be scanned. In any case, I think I just wore random crap and called it a costume. I know I borrowed the wig from Matt (thanks) and the shirt from Miss Thang (also thanks), and then called it a day in terms of costuming. As usual, I also included my "Smart Guy Glasses," which are actually construction goggles I got a long time ago.

This was 2004, I think? I think I also wore a costume in that house where I dressed up as Tom Cruise's character from Risky Business (it's probably better I couldn't find a picture of that costume, since its main components were sunglasses, a dress shirt, double-bagged tighty-whities, and a smart-ass smile). But time-wise, my math may not work out. In fact, this may have just been a costume party, and not actually for Halloween. Who knows. All I know is that Jesse, Zach, and I dressed up as the undercover cops from the Beastie Boys' Sabotage video (I think I'm supposed to be "Vic Colfari as Bobby, 'The Rookie'":

Now, prepare yourself...

Finally, we come to my favorite costume, "Sitz-man"! I think the idea of this picture is that I've just saved Cowgirl Katie from some kind of danger. It's my favorite costume because it's the most original thing I've probably ever come up with. Plus, due to the long underwear it was really warm, one of the two prerequisites I've come to adopt in my Halloween costumes (the other apparently being a wig). It took me about an hour and a few drafts to color in my chest insignia. I then found a baby blanket, some long underwear, and some blue underwear, and I even put together a pretty awesome utility belt! The very next year after wearing this costume, I was in Costa Rica, so maybe subconsciously I recognized that my costuming had reached its apex, and I semi-retired after that.

Anyhow, if you're going out tonight, have fun and be safe! Eat some candy for me!

Swissta Rican Quiz Answers!

2011-10-31T15:49:00.000-06:00

I meant to post the answers to the quiz last night but our power went out a couple times over a few hours. If you've not checked out the quiz, it's easy: all you have to do is decide whether 9 pictures were taken in Costa Rica or Switzerland. Go here if you still want to try it.

So, here are the answers:

1. Switzerland

2. Switzerland

3. Switzerland

4. Costa Rica

5. Costa Rica

6. Costa Rica

7. Costa Rica

8. Costa Rica

9. Costa Rica

So, how'd you do? Thanks for reading, and check back later today for more Blogtoberfest fun --it's our last day of Blogtoberfest, after all!

Swissta Rican Picture Quiztravaganza!

2011-10-30T00:29:00.000-06:00

After the post from the other day talking about the similarities between Costa Rica and Bosnia-Herzegovina, I felt like I should mention that at least on the surface, there are some similarities between Costa Rica and Switzerland. So let's have a little quiz, shall we? I'll put up some pictures, and you decide if I took them in Costa Rica or Switzerland --it's just that easy! But remember that looks can sometimes be deceiving! Check back tomorrow evening for the answers. Good luck!

So, do you have your answers ready? If so, great! If you want you can leave a comment with your guesses, or you can just check back tomorrow (Sunday) night for the answers.

Thanks for reading and guessing! Have a good one!

Not Feeling So Hot

2011-10-29T00:26:00.000-06:00

I had planned on writing a longer blog post today (it's still Blogtoberfest for three more days, after all!), but I'm not feeling too good right now. I had a bit of a sore throat earlier, but now my teeth and eyeballs have started hurting, and that's never a good sign. So for now I'll leave you with this picture, which previews what I'm about to do:

Costa Rica: The Bosnia-Herzegovina of Central America

2011-10-27T23:43:00.000-06:00

Can I just say something? This flag is awesome.

I came to Costa Rica in 2006 and it wasn't long before I heard one of Costa Rica's unofficial nicknames: "The Switzerland of Central America."

"Hmm," I thought, "That interesting." Coincidentally, the only time I had been to Switzerland was just a few months before I got here, and I was curious about the comparison because frankly, I didn't see it. (See here, here, and here for more details and ideas about this nickname). I asked a few people and apparently it got this reputation because both countries are sort of peaceful and democratic in areas that are frequently neither. And both have lots of mountains and cows. Sure, I agreed with those points but beyond those, I didn't see many more similarities to Switzerland. A safe haven for banks where trains run on time? Not exactly. A reputation for transparency and efficiency? Yeah, right. Watches? No. Pocketknives? Well, they do have a lot of machetes here, but they're hardly discreet. Yodeling and shit? Try again. The more I thought about this, the more I became convinced that it was just a ploy by some Costa Rican tourism agency.

But then one day while eating cereal I was reading the statistics in the back of my atlas (as I like to do) and I noticed something: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Costa Rica are almost the same size (Bosnia is the 127th-largest country and Costa Rica the 128th). Then I started noticing a few other similarities. Let's break a few of the main ones down, shall we? I found some general stats for each country on Wikipedia (Costa Rica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland). We'll consider it a contest-- the closest country to Costa Rica for each category wins!

AREA OF COUNTRY:

Costa Rica: 19,653 square miles (128th)

B-H: 19,741 square miles (127th)

Switzerland: 15,940 square miles (133rd)

Winner, Bosnia vs. Switzerland: Bosnia-Herzegovina!

POPULATION (2010/2011 estimate):

Costa Rica: 4,608,426 (123rd)

B-H: 3,843,126 (129th)

Switzerland: 7,866,500 (95th)

Winner: Bosnia-Herzegovina!

GDP* (Per capita, nominal, 2010/2011 estimate):

Costa Rica: $7,843

B-H: $4,702

Switzerland: $75,835

Winner: Bosnia-Herzegovina!

Intentional Homicide (aka Murder, 2008, per 100,000 people):

Costa Rica: 11

B-H: 1.8

Switzerland: .71

Winner (aka Loser): Bosnia-Herzegovina!

(Sad Fact: The USA's score was 5.4 on this)

FIFA World Cup Appearances:

Costa Rica: 3

B-H: 0

Switzerland: 9

Winner: Bosnia-Herzegovina!

TOTAL SCORE:

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 5 : 0 SWITZERLAND

So, as you can see, Costa Rica may have cows, but in the end it's got more in common with Bosnia-Herzegovina than the famously-neutral watchmakers of Switzerland.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

*As indicated, this is using nominal GDP, not PPP GDP; if PPP were used, neither Bosnia nor Costa Rica would look as impoverished on paper... but I don't really know much about PPP since I'm not an economist.

Fast-Talking Explanation Videos

2011-10-27T01:20:00.000-06:00

If you remember a recent post about coffee, then you may remember an interesting video in that post. It basically explained more about the whole coffee production process. It turns out that the guy who made the video, someone named Grey, has made some other videos that I think are pretty cool. I actually put this one on Sitzman ABC since it explains Daylight Savings Time (they don't do it in Costa Rica, and it's a weird thing to describe or justify to classes sometimes):

And I also liked this one about continents, which is incidentally another controversial topic in my classes here:

The reason it's a controversial topic is because, as the Grey notes in the video, in the US they generally count 7 continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica). However, in a lot of Latin America, Costa Rica included, they count North and South America as one continent, and from there the confusion begins.

Anyhow, I thought they were cool videos, so have a look if you'd like. Grey's YouTube page also has some explanatory videos related to the United Kingdom and different electoral systems, most of which are fast, entertaining, and educational. Have a look!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Ants!

2011-10-25T01:11:00.000-06:00

This picture shows the telephone jack in one of the rooms in our house. As you can see, for some reason it's being swarmed by hundreds of little ants. In fact, many of the outlets in our house are currently being swarmed by ants, and we can't figure out why. Most of them seem to be carrying and/or laying eggs, too. It's pretty depressing.

At least with some plagues like cockroaches, crickets, and millipedes, the animals are easily identifiable and so is the solution (step on them and/or just clean your damn house), but in this case, we're baffled. We cleaned the outlets with a mop to get rid of the ants but within about an hour they'd somehow swarmed to other outlets. Of course, it all somehow happened when we were at work, and when we came back our friend Gina was with us, since she's staying at our house. Now she probably thinks we're just filthy.

It's sad living here sometimes.

Keirsey

2011-10-24T00:32:00.000-06:00

With only two options per question, you wouldn't think I'd have gotten so confused.

A while ago I was talking with Bobby, and he said that Chris had mentioned something about a "Keirsey" test. That sounds very similar to the name of a town in eastern Colorado that I don't have a very good impression of, so I was skeptical at first. But Bobby explained that it was a sort of personality test, and that Chris had correctly predicted what category Bobby would fall into.

For me, "personality test" also calls to mind images of Scientology, although it's not like that at all, either. In fact, you can take the test for yourself. I thought it was pretty interesting in the end, although some of the questions were very confusing for me (but maybe that's just part of my personality--getting frustrated at weird questions on personality tests). Here's a link to the site, and here's a link to the test. Here's a link with a bit more of an explanation on the different "temperaments."

Just so you know, if you do take the test, it'll get you into a temperament, but not into one of the 4 specific categories in each temperament. I guess you may have to buy the book if you want to do that, but Chris (a "Rational Architect") has had quite a lot of experience with the test (you know, party tricks), so we were quickly able to nail down the fact that I'm an Idealist Counselor, or an "INFJ"--just like Alec "Obi Wan Kenobi" Guinness! Angela then took the test and discovered that she was an "Artisan Composer," aka "ISFP" aka "just like Michael Jackson"!

For me the most interesting part was to consider how much Costa Rica had affected my personality, or at least my own perception of it. For many questions I was saying things like, "Well, for Costa Rica, I'd be ___, but for the US, I'd be the complete opposite." I also didn't see the logic of many questions, and many of them didn't seem to offer two conflicting answers. It was a good thing that I had Chris to talk me through it, and it's a good thing that Skype calls are free!

Well, I thought it was kind of cool, so check it out if you're interested. Thanks for reading, and don't worry, Blogtoberfest is continuing, no matter how much crappy weather or bad internet Costa Rica throws at us!

The Dead Pants

2011-10-21T23:50:00.000-06:00

I know I've mentioned Die Toten Hosen on this blog before (here's the post to prove it), but I wanted to put up a few of their videos because they're still one of my favorite bands in any language. Their name, as the title of this blog indicates, means "The Dead Pants," but "toten Hosen" can also mean that nothing's going on somewhere (maybe like "the boondocks" in English?).

When I was looking around the internet doing "research" for this post, I also came across this. It's got a good general overview of the band and it's in Spanish. It also seems that they actually came to Costa Rica in 2009! I wish I had known about it, but then again, I'm not sure I'd have gone, since my concert-going days seem to largely be a thing of the past.

Anyhow, here's the video I put up in the other post, for "Steh auf, wenn du am Boden bist," which means "Get up when you're on the ground." It's actually a pretty motivating song, and I played it in my German class this evening. My students seemed to like it:

But wait, that's not all! Here's "Walkampf," a sort of play on words that literally means "Whale-Fight." It's definitely one of my Top 5 German Punkisch-Rock songs featuring a bagpipe. It's not necessarily got a positive message or anything, but it's fun to listen to and the video's pretty cool, too:

This one definitely doesn't have much of a message at all, except for that the Bayern München football team is crap. Die Toten Hosen are from Düsseldorf and they're big fans of the local team, so the chorus says, "So many things can happen, so many things can occur, only one thing I know 100% for sure: never in my life would I go to Bayern!":

And they even have some pretty good songs in English! This is one of my favorites:

So, there's a very basic primer to this group. If you like the songs, I'm sure you can find more just by following the YouTube links at the end of each video, or you can also go to their website to find more information about them.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

I Now Officially Have Plans For This Evening...

2011-10-20T16:18:00.000-06:00

As one of the YouTube comments says, "You´re wrong, this movie are too much complex to your limited mind."

Happy watching!

El Regreso

2011-10-19T22:56:00.000-06:00

This afternoon Angela and I went to the movies for the first time in... well, in a long time. We saw a movie called El Regreso:

As you can see, it's actually from Costa Rica.* It's the first Costa Rican movie I've ever seen, although it can't really be argued that there's a huge catalog of them to choose from. It's about a young writer who comes back to Costa Rica to visit his ailing father after living in New York for 9 years. For the first 10 minutes or so I had some strong doubts about the movie, since it seemed to highlight all the things I find annoying about the country (an abundance of bars on the windows; overweight, fruit-eating bureaucrats; the general shittiness of San José; and family members completely freaking out and overreacting to everything). Plus, there were some people in the movie theater that wouldn't shut up at the start (another thing I don't care much for here). But after that point it seemed to shift and get better, the people in the back shut the hell up, and Angela and I both ended up enjoying it.

Angela and I were picking apart some of the details, and we think that it was pretty accurate when it came to depicting the capital, the weird shifting of address forms between Usted and vos (but never tú, of course!), and the strange abundance of Dos Pinos products. We joked, though, that the most implausible part was that not only was the protagonist a writer (in Costa Rica!), but that his father was also a writer, and a popular writer, at that! Also, there's one thing that occurred to me about two hours after we left the theater: the movie's got a lot of similarities with Garden State. I'm going to have to investigate this more and watch Garden State again, but I can say that there are also enough differences that it's far from a rip-off.

In any case, if you happen to see this playing at a movie theater or a video store sometime, it's worth checking out. It does shed some light on Costa Rica's positive and negative social aspects, and it's pretty entertaining, to boot.

Thanks for reading!

*Not Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico can ram it.

October Rain

2011-10-18T23:34:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned in a few posts and emails that it's been raining a lot here, but we should probably be thankful that we're in Costa Rica, since it's been a lot worse in other parts of Central America. As this article notes, it's been especially bad in Guatemala and El Salvador, and around 90 people have died. It's even washed out bridges and houses in a lot of the isthmus. So, maybe keep the people here in your thoughts. I also wanted to post a few rain-related pictures, although they're all older pictures.

On the upside, the rain has slackened today, at least in Berlín and the nearby area, which is a good sign.

A picture from last year. These types of landslides are unfortunately common in the rainy season.

I don't have much else to add today, but since it's Blogtoberfest, I wanted to make sure I posted something today. Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

A picture that Dustin took when he and Sam visited a few years ago.
When I see this, I realize how remarkably the Formerly Crappy Casita has transformed.

Wait, 10 Blogs?

2011-10-17T23:34:00.000-06:00

As I was writing yesterday's post to commemorate Sitzblog's 700th post, I mentioned that I had 10 blogs. That does seem like a lot, so I thought I'd explain.

Blog 1: Sitzblog. This blog.

Blog 2: Sitzman ABC. The up-and-coming whippersnapper in the Ryan Sitzman internet conglomerate. It's a blog that I've set up mainly for my students' benefit, and I post things related to language learning there. I've also mentioned this blog here a few times because I sometimes post about cultural issues.

Blogs 3-7: Class Blogs for my Advanced Students. (Levels 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6) OK, this is cheating a bit, possibly, since I usually never have more than one going at once, and in fact none of them are active at the moment, but I still put some work into them. I can also use them as an example for other teachers who are looking to start class blogs. I guess.

Blog 8: Sitztoast. This blog is still active, although I've not posted to it too frequently of late, since I've been concentrating on Blogtoberfest (and work, I suppose).

Blog 9: Gringiticasa. I made this blog when we were building the house, and it actually has quite a few posts. Now it's mainly got a slideshow of the construction process from start to finish. I guess I check it out every few months to reminisce.

Blog 10: Gringo + Tica = Love. I started this mainly to give information about our wedding, which was upcoming at the time. As a result there's not too much there.

Bonus! Website: ryansitzman.com. I've not updated this very recently, but I'm hoping to do so in the near future. But you know what they say about good intentions...

Anyhow, that's it for today! Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

The 700 Club

2011-10-16T21:50:00.000-06:00

When I think of Sitzblog, I think of this picture José took of me in Argentina.

But when I thought about it, I went to Argentina after I started the blog, so it must

have been a later addition. Anyhow, it's been the Sitzblog "mascot" ever since.

Wow, this is Sitzblog's 700th post! When I saw that this milestone was approaching, I went back to some of my earlier posts to see how in the world I could have held on this long. Maybe I have a bad memory --OK, not "maybe," I do-- but it was actually a lot of fun for me to read through the old entries.

I started this blog at the very beginning of 2006 with a not-so-promising one-line post ("So this is a blog, eh?"). In fact, looking back, I probably was confused when I wrote that and genuinely didn't know what a blog was. How much I've learned in the years --I now have 10 blogs, believe it or not! I also don't know why I even started the blog in the first place, but I'm glad I did. I know that it's not as personal as a journal, since a blog is by its nature open to everyone, but it is a nice way to look back and reminisce.

It seems like in its early stage I mainly used the blog to complain about buses and people on them (here and here) or else to tell true stories (like picking up a hitchhiker). The weird thing is when I read most of these old posts, I have almost no recollection of ever writing them (and some of the events I've even forgotten, as well). So I guess it's nice to have some kind of record. Plus, the blog really seemed to hit its stride and take off once I got to Costa Rica. It was especially fun to re-read the first posts I put up about Abuela and Angela.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone who's read this blog through the years--I appreciate all of you! In this case, you're literally the reason I do this because if no one read my blog, there'd be no reason to have a blog. So thanks!

More GNR

2011-10-15T23:47:00.001-06:00

A sign I saw in Portugal.

I know I wrote about Guns N' Roses a few weeks ago for the 20th anniversary of the Use Your Illusion albums, but they've come up a few more times lately and I thought I'd mention them.

First of all, thanks to Eric for tipping me off about this article called "Sweet Pie of Mine." Apparently Axl's been packing on the pounds recently, although who really knows. In the pictures he's wearing a big yellow raincoat, which I can't imagine would be very flattering for anybody. Although it may be just an unfortunate picture angle, the coat does make him look creepy, if not necessarily fat.

Also, I recently happened upon this article from a series in Decibel called "Justify Your Shitty Taste." It defends Chinese Democracy, the latest Guns N' Roses album, which came out in 2008. I wrote a post with a much briefer statement of support back in 2009, and it was nice to know that I wasn't alone in my sentiments. Obviously, the current incarnation of the band hasn't got all the original members, but I definitely agree with the author that it was actually a good album that was doomed from the get-go because it could never live up to the expectations that had built up over so many years. As one of the article's commentators said, if you want to hear Appetite for Destruction again, go listen to Appetite for Destruction (and keep in mind that Appetite is one of my top 3 albums of all time).

Anyhow, that's it for today--I've got an appetite for some Rooibos tea, so I'm gonna cook up a cup. Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Another picture, this one promoting a GNR tribute band in Spain.
"Gansos y Rosas" means "Geese and Roses."

A Nightmare On... Wait, Streets Here Don't Have Names!

2011-10-15T00:41:00.000-06:00

I'll haunt your dreams if you conjugate your verbs incorrectly.

I got this sweater last year in Germany, but for some reason it wasn't until I put it on today that I noticed something: "Whoa, I kinda look like Freddy Krueger!" I brought this sweater back to Costa Rica because I may need it in Argentina, where it's likely to be a bit cooler. I hadn't worn it here, though, since it's always too hot to wear anything more than a T-shirt. But the weather has been awful lately with near-constant rain and wind (which knocked out the internet for a few hours, hence the late posting... but I'm not sure anyone cares anyway).

Anyhow, to prevent colonies of mold from forming on it, I decided to wear the sweater to my evening German class, and the first thing that my friend Lidio said to me was, "You look like Freddy Krueger!" So when I got home I scrounged up some Freddy-like accoutrements for the Picture of the Day. I know with the hat and work glove I sort of look like a fisherman version of the famous movie killer, plus my face and sweater aren't quite as tattered as gnarled his, but oh well.

So, thanks for reading! Wind, rain, sleet, hail... ALL of these can definitely slow down Blogtoberfest and keep it from performing its duties, so keep your fingers crossed for nice blogging weather for the second half of the month! Have a great day!

Your Challenge, If You Should Choose To Accept It...

2011-10-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

I DARE you to try to find something about this video that isn't awesome:
(Note: "Like all good things, it must eventually come to an end, and that isn't awesome" doesn't count)

You're Welcome.

Kitsch Close Reading

2011-10-12T23:36:00.000-06:00

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to do another duck-related post today, and I wasn't joking. Look at this picture:

I took it back at the end of June, but I've been wanting to comment on it since then. The more I look at it, the more bizarre it becomes.

First of all, what are you looking at? Answer: It's a wall decoration / plaque thingy hanging in our TV room. It was given to us recently by my grandma. It's made of gold-colored plastic mounted on wood. To be honest, I thought it was strange when I first saw it, but Angela loved it (but wouldn't she, though??). But I have to say it's really grown on me. Why? If you look closer (click on the picture if you want a larger version), you start to notice really weird stuff:

1. The deer. Two deer, right? Wrong! There are three. The third one is hiding below the one on the right. What is it hiding from? Could it possibly be hiding from...

2. The duck. I don't know how they roll in the forest, but it seems to me that this duck is scaring the shit out of the deer. I just imagine the one deer saying to the other, "They found me... I don't know how, but they found me... Run, Marty!" But what is the duck doing, anyhow? Could it possibly be trying to escape from...

3. The hunting blind. Yep, maybe this scene isn't so tranquil, after all. I'm not certain that that thing on the right is a hunting blind, but it sure looks like one of those towers that hunters hang out in while they wait for animals to kill to come along. And maybe it's just because a possibly distant relative worked on the Zapruder film, but I can swear I see the shadow of a rifle against the golden glint of the pine tree. Oh, and speaking of the pine trees...

4. The stumps. Sure, it's got trees, but I also count four stumps-- how about you? I'm starting to think the title of this might not be something like "Idyllic Nature," but rather something along the lines of "Deerpocalypse."

Suffice it to say, this is probably the coolest decoration we have in our house at the moment. To quote the end of the Guns N' Roses video for "Don't Cry":

There's A Lot Goin' On.

Nice Weather...

2011-10-11T22:37:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid, I think I must have seen a T-shirt, Happy Meal joke, billboard, or TV commercial that said,

"Nice Weather... if you're a DUCK!"

Because every time the weather gets as crappy as it's been the last few days, that phrase always pops into my mind. It's been raining so much it's hard to be motivated to do anything except sit around inside. I guess that's bad (and really boring and repetitive) for my Pictures of the Day, but it's probably just as well for Blogtoberfest!

So for today's post I'm gonna put up some duck pictures. I was looking for a picture to illustrate this post and I came across a couple that I liked. Plus, ducks are pretty cool and funny. Additionally, it's 10:20 PM as I type this and I want to get this posted by midnight.

So first we have the picture above. I took it on a trip to Stockholm in 2005. It's not as nice as the next picture, but it's more reflective of the weather and the mood here today. Next!

I took this picture in the outside garden area at Domo restaurant in Denver on a recent trip to Colorado. It's a great place to eat. I guess technically this isn't a duck, but rather a "ducky," but oh well.

Finally, we have my favorite duck picture, taken of a statue in a fountain in Regensburg, Germany:

You can sort of see from this picture that the front of the statue is a priest, preaching to a flock of ducks. But it turns out he's really just a wolf in priest's clothing. That's how I feel about Costa Rica's weather this time of year. When you think "Central America," you think, "Ooh, nice, warm, sunny, etc.," and that's true for a few months of the year, but once it's got your interest, it grabs you by the neck and rains for months on end.

Anyhow, it's not that bad, but I had to blog about something, since it's Blogtoberfest, after all! Stay tuned tomorrow for another Blogtoberfest duck post!

Jon Beyoncé Jovi

2011-10-10T23:46:00.001-06:00

I've been talking about conditional tenses lately on my Sitzman ABC language learning blog. If you're curious, I've talked about both first and second conditionals, and you're welcome to check them out. But that's not why I'm mentioning them now. I'm mentioning them because of Beyoncé:

The reason I used this video on the ABC blog is because it shows really good and interesting use of the second conditional tense, which is used when you talk about something unreal or unlikely (like Beyoncé being a boy). It's interesting, because I've had students use this video in two different presentations lately, but I'd not heard the song six months ago. I guess in addition to living on top of a mountain, I'm also living under a rock, apparently. The song's lyrics, grammar, and message are good, and Beyoncé's looking pretty good as a cop, I have to say! That girl could slam me again a police car and beat the crap out of me with a nightstick any day! Wait, that doesn't make any sense...

Also, Bon Jovi and/or Jon Bon Jovi have come up multiple times in both student presentations and textbooks, strangely enough. One student played this song (but not the video... I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though):

Alright, never mind, it was definitely a good thing she didn't show the video. I remember thinking even in 1994 or whenever this video came out that it was ridiculous and frustrating and that it didn't make any damn sense. Is the point supposed to be that if you're a cheating jerk, you should also be a hypocrite and go blow up your ex's new boyfriend's apartment? Because that's what it seems to be about.

Don't get me wrong, I really like both Bon Jovi (the group) and Jon Bon Jovi (the lead singer's handle when going solo), but they were best around the time of New Jersey and Slippery When Wet, when they seemed more like a trashy, glammy, East Coast version of John Mellencamp times four or five (evidently I like Bon Jovi, but not enough to know how many people are in the band).

Hmm, where was I going with all this? Oh yes, music and videos in class. Well, guess I got off on a tangent there, so I may as well put up a few more Bon Jovi videos. Here's what I'm talking about:

And here's the video for what's probably my favorite Bon Jovi song. If you're feeling like a Monday (and today is a Monday, after all), then it's got some good advice for you, my friend:

I guess my second conditional phrase of the day is this: "If I were Beyoncé, I would call up Bon Jovi to collaborate on a concept album about a rocket-powered Chevy full of single ladies rocking in space."

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Mold, Either

2011-10-09T21:39:00.000-06:00

I took this picture of Angela just a few days ago:

She was cleaning one of the drawers in her part of the closet because some of her clothes had gotten mold. In the past I've written about the myriad things around here that have gotten mold, so it's hardly worth mentioning at this point, except that when I was reading more of Paulo Coelho's Brida this afternoon I came across the following quote from p. 138 (It also shows how weird written quotations are in Spanish-language books, as the only two quotation marks are ones I put in):

"...Wicca le preguntó si usaba todas las ropas que poseía.

--Claro que no --fue la respuesta.

--Pues, a partir de esta semana, utiliza todo lo que esté en tu armario.

Brida creyó que no había entendido bien.

--Todo lo que contiene nuestra energía debe estar siempre en movimiento --dijo Wicca--. Las ropas que tú compraste forman parte de ti y representan momentos especiales. [...] Las ropas siempre transforman emoción en materia. Son uno de los puentes entre lo visible y lo invisible. Existen ciertas ropas que, inclusive, son capaces de hacer daño, porque fueron hechas para otras personas y acabaron en tus manos."

I don't know about you, but that seems to me like a pretty clear justification and argument for my Ryan's Patented Clothes Rotating System if there ever was one!

Ouwraight Poudafinga!

2011-10-08T20:49:00.002-06:00

About five or six years ago my brother Paul went to Australia for a while. I only say "my brother Paul" to set the stage, and so you know his name. I've not got any other brothers. Anyhow, I think Paul was in Australia escaping the law or hunting wallabies or something (I guess I truly am not my brother's keeper), but the gist of it is that he was gone for a year or two. He did come down/up to Costa Rica for my wedding, though, which is pretty great, considering that he had to fly around 138 hours to get here, and he had to layover in Atlanta three times for some reason.

OK, I jest a bit. But he did go to Australia for a while and he did come to our wedding, and when he got here, he gave me an mp3 CD of various music. One of the albums that was on it was Tea & Sympathy by Bernard Fanning. There are about four things that seem a little weak about the album title and the singer's name, but I assure you that it's a great album and has become one of my favorites. My favorite song on that album is probably "Sleeping Rough," but since it's not got a video, here's the video for "Songbird," so you can have something to look at (you'll have to watch it on YouTube, since embedding has been disabled).

Good stuff, right? So I told Paul I really liked this guy's music, and he told me about Powderfinger*, Fanning's band. Apparently they're from Brisbane, which is really close to where Paul was living/ hiding out. He mentioned that he should let me listen to some of their albums, since he had a few, but we kept forgetting about it every time we were together in Colorado. So I started checking them out more by myself on the "Internet." If you've not used it before, it's a really neat place for music and stuff. I'm really liking Powderfinger, so I thought I'd share this nice video from their last album (from 2009):

It's a great song, a great video, great lyrics... all in all, it's pretty, um, "lovely"(?) Is that what Australians say, or is that British people? Lucy, you're the only Australian I know: can I get a little help here?

Anyhow, I'd highly recommend both Fanning and Powderfinger if you're looking for some good music. Unfortunately, they're no longer together, but they did leave quite a few good songs and albums to check out.

Thanks for reading, and keep your eyes open for more Blogtoberfest to come!

*Powderfinger: OK, maybe "Powderfinger" is some kind of drug reference, an Australian slang word, or an Australian slang word referring to drugs, but did anyone else think of skiing and powdered snow when they heard this name? Or is it just me because I come from Colorado?

Some Flaky Puns

2011-10-07T22:17:00.000-06:00

We ran out of cat food last night and there's obviously nowhere in Berlin that sells it. What to do, what to do? I wonder if cats eat cereal?

They do! Or at least Chubby does!

In fact, he turned out to be a veritable cereal killer!

No?

Too corny?

Too flaky?

Was that pun a catastrophe?

I myself thought it was purrfect!

A pun you could really sink your teeth into.

I chuckled so much that now I'm feline fine!

Just try to stop meow!

Only don't be catty--there's no claws in the blogger contract that prohibits puns.

OK, I'm done.

What's In Your Bag?

2011-10-06T23:53:00.000-06:00

I recently found a picture contest on Photobucket, a website where people dump their pictures. The contest had expired, but I liked the topic: "What's in your purse?" The winning photo can be seen by following this link, but the premise of the photos are simple: arrange all the stuff you've got in your bag for a picture. So, I decided to do it for a Picture of the Day about a month ago. I'd meant write a blog post commenting about it, but I never had the time... until BLOGTOBERFEST, that is!

So, here's my bag, all packed up and ready to go (I don't have a man-purse, let alone a woman-purse, so I just used my backpack instead):

...and here's my "neatly-exploded-bag" picture:

If you're some kind of a creep or something, you can check out a larger version here.

Remember that this is the backpack that I take to work, so there are obviously a lot of job-related things. Let's have a look, generally from left to right, top to bottom (just pretend you're reading my junk like a cheap romance novel you picked up for a dollar in the checkout line at Rite-Aid):

1. Mini tripod, small camera, regular camera, and plastic bag: Because you never know when you'll find a Picture of the Day, and the plastic bag is because you never know where you'll find mold in this Godforsaken country.

2. Ipod and charging cable: Because music is important.

3. Cell phone: I should probably also have a charger for this, since it's usually dead. I think there's one in my car, but in any case, it's really only for emergencies.

4. Flash drive: That's how things get done around here.

5. Re-filled bottle of water: Small enough to carry easily and look cheap.

6. Folders and books: I do teach, after all.

7. Paperclip: Like free-range prairie dogs, they seem to be ubiquitous in my bag unless I'm trying to find one, in which case there's not a single one to be found.

8. Pens and whiteboard markers: More tools of the trade.

9. Two of those little "do not eat this" packets: I think they're supposedly made to keep moisture out of packages, and I'm crossing my fingers that they'll do the same for my bag.

10. Earphones

11. Medicines: Hand sanitizer (the water goes out here more than you'd imagine), generic "anti-diarrheal," "pink bismuth," "ibuprofen," and "gas relief" pills (to counteract traveling classes or horrible food).

12. Toothbrush and toothpaste: I was surprised that everyone here brushes their teeth after lunch, just like they say you're supposed to. When in Rome...

13. Gum, mint, and more gum: For when the water goes out and I can't brush my teeth.

14. Belt: I have no idea how I manage to forget a belt so often--maybe I don't think I'll need one when I get dressed, and my pants stretch out throughout the day?--but it's good to have one on hand.

15. Mini-notebook: Old school solution for carrying phone numbers, and allows me to avoid learning how to program numbers into my phone.

16. The Book of Questions: For use when I need a fast warm-up in class.

So, what's in your bag? Have you ever shot a picture like this? It seems like I've come across quite a few of them, most of them nicer than mine, but oh well. By the way, here's the set-up for this picture:

...which made it by far the most complicated Picture of the Day I've shot in these nearly two years.

So, that's it for now, but stay tuned for more Blogtoberfest fun, coming soon to a Sitzblog near you!

I Heart German, Germany, and Germans

2011-10-05T23:43:00.000-06:00

I heart German, Germany, and Germans, but you have to admit that they do often provide fertile ground for some good-natured joking (after all, when most people think of Germany, the first thing that comes to mind is "humor"). Additionally, Blogtoberfest is inherently Teutonic in nature due to its name, so on that note, I wanted to post my two favorite not-necessarily-German "Funny German" videos. I originally saw both of them via my friends Brian and Barbara quite a few years ago, actually, so you may have seen them, too. If not, enjoy:

This one really makes a strong case for Germans' rights. Now, here's another classic, and although it involves German, it's actually more of an English-oriented video:

So, that's it for now... but you can hold off the incredible onslaught of blogging that is Blogtoberfest for only just so long (till about tomorrow, probably). Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Sitzbook: "Death in Venice"

2011-10-04T23:27:00.000-06:00

The cover of the book indicates that it's been made into a movie by Warner Brothers.

I've not technically seen the movie, but I can tell you this: It's boring as shit.

As part of my ongoing Sitzbook project I read Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. I actually read this when I was in grad school, but Bobby offered to loan it to me, and it seemed like a quick read in a time when I'm trying to get closer to hitting my goal of 52 books by the end of the year.

Well, it is a quick read, but it's also a bit of a dull read. The most remarkable thing about it is that I actually read it in German the first time around; it's been scientifically proven that books in German are 37% more depressing than books in other languages. If you don't believe me, you should have seen the reading list for the German MA program. Over half the books ended with the protagonist dying, committing suicide, and/or murdering someone (usually a lover).

But I digress. I guess the best thing I can say about Death in Venice is that it has a very succinct title. In fact, it pretty much tells you the plot of most of the book. A guy goes to Venice, sees a boy, and dies. Sure, he also walks down to the beach a bit and eats some meals, and Mann's sure to recount those events in excruciating detail, but that's really about it.

It was a quick read, at least, but if Mann had had a sharper editor, he probably could have pared it down to pamphlet size with the same end result.

So, that's it for now. Thanks to Bobby for loaning me the book, even though it wasn't my favorite one ever. And thanks to you for reading, and please stay tuned for more Blogtoberfest fun!

Pictures of the Day: September 2011

2011-10-03T23:25:00.000-06:00

Blogtoberfest continues! The Pictures of the Day from September admittedly start off a bit dull, but they get better as the month goes along. It was a pretty long, boring month with lots of rain and fog and lots of hanging out inside. That seems to translate into taking lots of random pictures of crap around the house:

Thanks for reading, and be sure to stay tuned for more Blogtoberfest fun!

Content Warning: Literary Nipple!

2011-10-02T00:30:00.001-06:00

Blogtoberfest continues! Willkommen!

If you've been following my Sitzbook book-a-week project, you may have noticed that there was a nipple on the cover of one of the books. And it wasn't just any old disembodied nipple floating in space (as nipples are apt to do, I'm told). No, my friends, it was a female nipple, on a female breast! For shame! I would normally just have made a short joke or comment about this, but then I started over-analyzing things, and eventually a blog post became inevitable.

Before we go any further, and so we're all on the same page, here's the picture of the book cover in question, from the Spanish-language version of Isabel Allende's Inés del Alma Mía ("Inés of My Soul"):

As you can see, the picture on the cover is old-looking; in fact the credit says it's called Desnudo/"Nude" and it's an 1890 photo attributed to Leopold Reutlinger, whose name sounds suspiciously German (the plot thickens: Germans just love nipples on book covers, billboards, and bus stop ads!). But what's it doing on the cover of a historical novel about Inés Suarez, a Spanish woman who helped found the nation of Chile through the conquering and suppression of its native tribes?

I know that this book cover nipple isn't just an isolated phenomenon, since at one point we had three Latin American-published books in our house that had nipples on their covers (The other two were Paulo Coelho's La Bruja de Portobello and Gustavo Bolívar Moreno's Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso). I think that if these books were sold in the U.S., someone would strategically put a "15% off!" sticker over the nipples in question. Either that, or else there'd be a controversy called "Nipplegate* 2011."

Let me make one thing clear: I think it's fine that there's a nipple on the cover of this book. I don't care. In fact, I think that most books should probably have nipples on their covers, just in case (except cookbooks... that would be weird). But I have noticed that the nipple aspect makes this book more interesting. For example, Angela read the book after I did, and so did our friend Adriana. Both seemed embarrassed to be reading such a tit-ilating book in public, but they weren't able to explain why exactly they felt that way.

So I guess this leads me to a series of questions:

1. Did you know the German word for "nipple" is Brustwarze? Did you know that literally translated, that means "Breast-wart"? Isn't that wonderful?

2. Is a cover like this "indecent" or even simply "problematic"? Do people still get offended by an exposed nipple or breast these days? If so, do such people fan themselves, swoon, and then experience fainting spells when they see nipples?

3. If nipples aren't problematic or indecent, is it because this is a novel? Does that have anything to do with it? What if it were an advertisement for margarine?

4. Would a book like this be sold out in the open in the U.S. and if so, would anyone comment about it (besides me, of course)?

5. How is it that a proportionally higher number of "nipply" books seem to be published and sold in Latin America, a region that at least to me seems to be more prudish and prohibitive than the U.S. when it comes to general public nudity?

6. Is this non-controversial because it depicts breasts and nipples, and not the "junk" of one's nether-regions?

7. If this is OK, then why aren't there topless beaches in Latin America?

8. Is all of this just a ploy to try to trick people into reading?

Please answer the questions in complete sentences, using a number 2 pencil, on a separate sheet of college-ruled, loose-leaf paper. You have 30 minutes. Please begin.

Oh, and by the way, the book was really good. As the Brits might say, "It's the tits!"

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more Blogtoberfest fun!

*The only thing that should be called "nipplegate" is a door that leads to actual nipples, like the entrance to a strip club.

O' ZAPFT IS!! Blogtoberfest is Back!!

2011-10-01T00:46:00.002-06:00

It's now officially October, but before we get into it, I'll let the gents from Earth, Wind and Fire dance September out of the room; hold on to your brain to make sure the horn section doesn't blow it out of your skull in a aural blast of awesomeness:

Thanks boys! Alright, now it's time for October, but more importantly, it's time for BLOGTOBERFEST!

Sitzblog isn't in the business of promoting beer, so while you may have expected to see a picture of drunk idiots in a Biergarten in Munich, this creepy/hilarious cat is much more wholesome for the whole family. Plus, I took this picture in Germany, so it counts!

If you remember last year's Blogtoberfest, this humble little blog managed to put up 30 posts, a new Sitzblog record. Let's see if we can get 31 this year!

I've been getting some blog ideas ready in my brain in preparation for this month, so I'm pretty excited here--I hope you are, too! If you prefer to follow these posts on Facebook, just click "Like" in the Facebook box to the left, or go to Sitzblog's Facebook page--I'll be posting them there, too.

Thanks for reading, and bloggoms up! (That's "drink up" in blogspeak!)

Sip On This, Nissan Leaf!

2011-09-27T11:52:00.000-06:00

If you thought a car that ran on electricity or water or air or whatever was cool, then evidently you've not seen a car that runs on coffee:

I guess it's also set a land speed record for this type of vehicle. In any case, it reminds me of the Simpsons where Homer hears about a car that runs on alcohol. He imagines filling up the tank, saying, "One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me..."

It sounds like it's time for Costa Rica to get into the car manufacturing business!

7 Big Ones... If A "Big One" Is A "Thousand"

2011-09-23T01:19:00.001-06:00

My 7,000th flickr picture. Angela was working in the flowerbed the other day
so I took a picture of this hand shovel.

I realized tonight that my flickr account now has 7,000 pictures, which is pretty ridiculous by most any standard. Then again, I can sort of justify it because I've got about 7 years of pictures, plus a pretty questionable infrastructure down here in Costa Rica (I try to have an online backup of everything in case of earthquake, landslide, fire, theft, hurricane, and/or cat vomit).

In any case, I mainly keep the flickr account updated for me and my mom, since I think we're the two people who seem to be most interested in it. But if you'd like to see some pictures, you're welcome to go check them out. You may find the following sets or collections to be interesting:

Various Trips

Life in Costa Rica (including Traditional Costa Rican Food, Coffee, and the Formerly Crappy Casita)

My Current "365" Set (where I take a picture a day... this one is less complicated than looking for each month or its "Leftovers")

So, there is obviously a lot more, and you don't have to check out any pictures if you don't want to. But I just thought I'd mention it...

My 7,001st picture. If I had known I was nearing a round number, I would have uploaded this as #7,000.
Some cats are quite a bit more interesting than a hand shovel.

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Using My Illusions

2011-09-21T01:17:00.001-06:00

I took this picture in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year. It demonstrates the awesome
staying power of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion albums... and trampy wedding dresses.
Stephanie Seymour would be proud.

Mike recently pointed out that September 17th was the 20th anniversary of Guns N' Roses' albums Use Your Illusion I and II. Rather than wallowing in self-pity because I'm getting older, and rather than mourning and my lost childhood/ youth/ innocence/ hair, I decided to be positive and say what I like best about these memorable albums. But just as a disclaimer, I still prefer Appetite. As long as we're clear on that, I can talk about how great the Illusions are.

Use Your Illusion I

I guess I was introduced to these albums a bit late, since I bought them when I was in Germany as an exchange student in 1998. I know I'd heard some of the songs before, but I was pretty late getting on the album train, and most of the music I had until about 1993 was on cassettes that I recorded while listening to radio. We didn't have cable, and the internet didn't exist yet in any comprehensible form, either. We had to work hard for our entertainment in the early 90s.

In any case, I believe I bought these two albums at a Saturn store in Hannover, Germany in 1998, and listened to them over and over on my Discman. At first I preferred UYI II over I, but within a few years I'd switched and started to prefer I. It's hard to argue with; It's got "November Rain," the better version of "Don't Cry," and the lyrics "I ain't superstitious but I know when something's wrong" (from "Garden of Eden"). I also had a long period where I was into "Bad Apples," calling it the "quintessential distilled version of a GNR song" or some such nonsense. It is a good and underrated song, though. But the best point on the album is certainly on "November Rain."

At seven minutes and nine seconds into the song, Slash begins the first note of his second solo in this song. Based on that one note, around 10 years ago I came up with a theory based on the excellence of that note. The theory is called, simply, "The 7:09 Theory." I've also been known to shoot my mouth off and say that this is "the greatest moment ever in music" and that "everything before it led up to it, and everything after this note was just music going downhill." Sure, I'll stand by those statements.

Use Your Illusion II

As I said before, I've gone back and forth regarding which of these albums I like better, and I'm currently in a II phase. It's just got such a jam-packed opening ("Civil War," "14 Years," "Yesterdays," and even "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"), the likes of which is unlikely to be found on another album (except maybe U2's The Joshua Tree, but the three songs there sound too similar anyhow). Plus, it's also got the under-appreciated songs "Breakdown" and "Locomotive," as well as "Estranged," which, despite its weird, dolphin-infested video, is a great song. The only down note seems to be "My World," but since it's such a bizarre track, we can almost write it off as an Axl rant instead of an actual GNR song.

II doesn't have anything as memorable as 7:09 into "November Rain," but it does have one thing that I think is really great, weird, and hilarious. On the song "Pretty Tied Up," which is possibly about a dominatrix, the perils of rock n' roll decadence, and/or finding money in the street, there's a strange line near the end of the song. After Axl sings "It's days like this that push me over the brinks," a deeper voice comes on and says "Kool Ranch Dressing." That didn't make sense when I first heard it, so I looked to the lyrics sheet in the liner notes. On the lyrics, it said "Cool and stressing" but then literally underneath that, it said "(Pronounced: Kool Ranch Dressing)". I just remember reading that on a train from Hannover to Munich and being blown away, since neither the original line, nor the attempt to explain the "correct" pronunciation, made any sense whatsoever. Obviously, I was dealing with Advanced Rock Music. And it's been a great ride ever since.

So, that's it for now. If you liked or like those albums, feel free to go to the comments section to chime in. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back in 2031 for the 40th anniversary blog post!

And OK, sure, why not:

Names, from Sitzman ABC

2011-09-19T13:07:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about common names in the USA on Sitzman ABC, my language-learning blog. It was ostensibly for my English students, but I thought some Sitzblog readers may like it, too. Plus, some of the vocabulary--like ostensibly--may be a bit difficult for some of my lower-level students. In any case, feel free to check out the article on Sitzman ABC or here:

Common Names

A few weeks ago I wrote two articles about naming customs in the USA and Costa Rica. I mentioned that I also wanted to talk a little bit about common names in both countries, but since the posts were already so long, I decided to do a shorter post later. This is that post.

Common Last Names in the USA

First of all, let's look at last names, since they're the same for both men and women, obviously. According to this list, which seems to be available in some form on more than one site, the two most popular names are Smith and Johnson. I had actually thought it was the other way around, but they're both very common. The top 5 is rounded off with Williams, Jones, and then Brown, which didn't really surprise me much. In fact, of the top 20 names the only ones that surprised me were Garcia (18) and Martinez (19), mainly just because they were the first Hispanic last names on the list, and I expected Hispanic names to be a bit higher. I'm sure that a lot of last name statistics also depend on geographical regions, though.

I also noticed that "Sitzman" was conspicuously absent from the Top 20... and the Top 100. So I searched for it, and apparently it's number 24,083... that's right, my last name is the 24,083rd most popular last name in the US! Believe it or not, but it's even less common than the last name "Pizza" (ranked 24,007th). But still: Pizza! I'd have a more common last name if my name were "Ryan Pizza." Ouch, that hurts.

Common First Names in the USA

Now, first names were the ones that surprised me a bit more. I discovered that the Social Security Administration (the agency in charge of retirement and pension payments in the US) keeps statistics related to baby names. I spent a while looking at different names, charts, and statistics on their website, and it was pretty interesting.

According to this table, the most common first names in 2010 were Jacob, Ethan, and Michael for boys and Isabella, Sophia, and Emma for girls. Hmm, not too bad, I guess, but then I saw that for boys Jayden is #4 and Aiden is #9. Are those even names? (Disclaimer: I'm a mean, grumpy man.) I suppose that it's cold comfort that it's not as strange as the list of top baby names in Great Britain (seriously, England: "Alfie"? What's going on over there?).

Still, I guess the names don't seem so strange if you look at this chart, which displays the top 5 names for each year from 1911 to 2010. It also explains why I know a lot of Jennifers, Ashleys, Matthews, and Christophers.

So how does "Ryan" fit into these numbers? Well, in 2010 it was number 23, just above "Samuel" and "Jackson" (and probably even further ahead of babies named "Samuel L. Jackson"). Sadly, it's still below Mason and Logan. Brian and Bryan don't seem to be on the top 25 list for 2010, but maybe they count them as two different names because of the two spellings?

On the SSA site you can also search for popular names from the year in which you were born, so I did that. I had always imagined that my name was pretty common and boring, since I know a lot of Ryans, Brians, and Bryans. I was right. In 1980, Brian was #12 and Ryan was #15. The #15 name for girls in 1980 was Christina, and that seems about right.

There is one part of the SSA baby names website that is very disturbing, though. It's the "Change in Popularity" section, which lists names that have gained in popularity recently. There are some really ridiculous names on this page, especially for the boys. Seriously, who in their right mind would name a beautiful baby boy Bentley, Knox, Jax, Zayden, or Ryder?

Anyway, that's my names post. I hope there was something interesting for you. And if any of my friends who read this have children with those "strange" names, then of course I was just kidding! Your baby and his name are both wonderful and special!

Thanks for reading. If you want to join in on the discussion, say hi in the comments section. Take care, and have a great day!

Didn't Prince Write A Song About This?

2011-09-18T19:45:00.000-06:00

The other day I got scratched up pretty badly by Boner, our evil backup cat:

Unfortunately I only found out after the fact that I could have scientifically predicted this attack. Check this page titled "How to tell if you cat is plotting to kill you." It even has a little quiz that you can take to verify the results:

I came through this alive, but I was lucky. Don't let it happen to you!