The Zombie Chronicles

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay

2012-01-12T13:32:00.003-05:00

Taking a break from diaper and laundry duty (seriously, two little people sure make BIG messes and have lots of needs!) to do a post I've been thinking of doing for almost two weeks now.

I've known K for more than 6 years now and ever since we first got to know each other, she has encouraged me to try and grow a beard, just to see. As most men, I've experimented with the idea in my head and from time to time, have grown various facial hair styles. However, whenever I've tried for the full beard, I've always given up after no more than 4 days b/c I always think I just look homeless and/or I have to go back to work and don't want to have to answer the "Did you forget to shave?" look and opinions while going past the 3 day beard look.

But since I am on the longest break from work (and public opinion!) up to now and probably until I retire, I thought I'd go for it. I shaved Christmas day and even though I wanted to do an almost daily chronicle of the growth and some cool ass time lapse animated gif or something, real life (ie babies) literally pissed in my face. I took these pics on Jan 7, thus allowing for a full 13 days or two weeks of growth. Although I've had sideburns since about 11th grade, it seems my father's hairy genes more or less skipped me since he has a 5 o'clock shadow around 9:30 am and generally keeps some sort of beard/mustache combo just so he doesn't have to shave every day (and if you've seen him with his shirt off, we're both happy his hair genes did skip me). Alas, two weeks is a fairly good indication I think of how well a beard might look. So, here is the evidence...

So, what say you, dear reader(s)? How would you classify my beardness; foreign born, Beatnik, homeless or Cliff Clavin?

By the Numbers: The Twins

2012-01-04T15:57:00.002-05:00

This is a segment I have been thinking of doing for a few months, but never have gotten around to it even though K thought it'd be a pretty fun and clever recurring post. Basically, I use numbers to talk about what I see/do/encounter over a period of time or during certain events. Yeah, it sounds better in my head and hopefully spelled out below than I've described it and hopefully, it actually happens again.

Anyways, obviously I/we've been busy with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Yes, I can call them that b/c I change their diapers, fund their college savings account, and they have the shirts that say that exact thing (picture to come, eventually when both are clean for a period to necessitate a photo op.

1, as in 1 month. BL and PJ will be one month old next week. Crazy! Time flies, yet it certainly feels like they have been keeping me busy for longer!
2, as in 2 babies, 2 mouths, 2 breasts, and 2 double headed electric breast pumps. You haven't lived until you've seen you wife use one of those things!
3, as in 3 hours. The maximum number of consecutive hours of sleep we have been able to have at any one time since Dec 13. But yes, it is slowly getting better.
5, as in 5 times the boy has peed like a fountain on me while changing him. Often, this occurs around 3am for added amusement and use of my "French".
8, as in 8 pounds. Last week both were closing in on the 8lb mark quite quickly. The wife could feed an army with those things!
10, as in 10 diaper changes. That is the minimum number of changes each one needs per day, which means,
20, as in 20 diapers per day we go through with the two, which means,
340 total diaper changes since we brought them home from the hospital about three weeks ago.

As you can see, it is a lot of eating and diaper changes here going on. Speaking of, the one is freaking out. Gotta go, will post again soon!

Twin Xmas presents

2011-12-23T11:13:00.004-05:00

Hey! It's been awhile. While I was away, we added 67% to our family size! haha.

Bradley (BL, going forward on here) and Piper (PJ) were born Tuesday, December 13th. He and she are doing well, aside from being party animals at 2am every night! Maybe I should start being (milk) drunk as well at that time to truly enjoy it. Aside from a lack of sleep for us and little SA being a little annoyed with the change to her attention quotient, everyone is well. I wish you all a great and wonderful Christmas.

How I love America, let me count the ways.....

2011-12-06T10:46:00.001-05:00

Well, my last post wasn't quite Thanksgiving enough themed, but I was kind of in a rush and love that sign, haha.

I'm back in America getting ready for Thing 1 and Thing 2 to drop. I came back a week earlier than planned and have been able to have a sort of mini vacation before the end of days, er, the birth comes. After that, it'll be babies, babies, and babies, plus SA, all the time, so prepare your Google feed!

I've been back for about a week and it's the first few days, when still trying to get over the 24 hours of travel, not sleeping for two days, the jet lag, and the airplane/port food that you really start to appreciate America.

In no official order, these are the things I am thankful for in America:

1. Crunch Berries. Who knew that Cap'n Crunch and Trix would be so good together?!? Also, have you seen they now sell "Oops! All Berries". Brilliant. But I prefer by berries with some Cap'n.

2. Chicken Wings. Had a dozen chicken wings (while watching SEC football, mind you) last night for dinner. The chicken wing supply in America probably kills more chickens per capita and uses enough chickens to feed the rest of the world. And for that I say, God Bless, America. Yes, chicken wings do exist elsewhere in the world, but no one does them as big or tasty.

3. 100 mindless tv channels. Where we are staying only has the "basic" tv package, so we only get about 100 channels, hahaha. But now I am getting caught up on all kinds of important things and people I didn't even know existed. Storage Wars, The Virgin Diaries, and did you know there is an ESPN3? We don't get it, but I wonder how many hours of poker they must show a day?!?!?

4. Almost instantaneous Netflix turnaround times. No more waiting a full month from watching to receiving a replacement movie. Now, as soon as I place the movie in the mailbox (sometimes I swear before the mailman even comes!), Netflix sends me an email telling me my next movie is coming! I'm tempted to just mail back movies I'm just not in the mood for tonight to get them back by the end of the week it's so fast here! 'No, not feeling Bridesmaids tonight, but mail it back and we'll just get it again and watch this Friday!' Maybe Netflix should run the ENTIRE postal system!

5. Walmart. Ok, I hate Walmart. Walmart is like the hot, popular girl/guy in school who sometimes seems like your good friend and might hook up with you, only to disappear for weeks or months before talking to you again, then totally convincing you that being too busy for you for all that time is no big deal. I mean, where else can I buy my Crunch Berries, underwear, Pepsi, shampoo, a dvd, stockings (for hanging on the mantle), and Legos all under one roof? And those prices! I feel like the Target Lady in those SNL skits every time I walk in there now. "Look! They have peanut butter covered socks and a DVD of the Cars' Greatest Hits Videos for $4.99! Yippee!"

6. Cheap food. Two blog posts down, I talked about eating for $2-3 per meal in Cote d'Ivoire and how great the food was. This is true, but the wide selection of cheap food, not to mention the quantity you can buy all at once here is so disgusting it's awesome again. Food in this country is SOOOO cheap. Yeah, yeah, most expensive since like ever, unemployment, etc. But when I can buy a gallon of organic milk for $6, that is still a steal anywhere else in the world. In Dakar, I pay about $8-9 per gallon for the non-organic, gross long-life milk. And produce! Apples and oranges for less than $2 a pound?!?! That is practically free! I'm embarrassed to say how much I spend on imported South African Granny Smith apples in Dakar. And don't get me started on cheese. Sure, we Americans don't know a thing about cheese, but I'm pretty sure that most of it must bleed it. It's on everything we can buy. And it is oh, so good!

7. Wendy's new hamburger recipe. I read an article about this several months back about how Wendy's had spent untold time and money trying to make their burgers better over the past few years. They had tried just 20 different pickle combinations alone. I had my doubts b/c I loved Wendy's burgers. But let me tell you, the news ones are easily the best you can get from a chain east of the Rockies through a drive-thru.
There are more, but I should finish by adding that I did find a gym here! haha. After my last visit back where I gained 5 lbs in 20 days, I knew I'd need it more than ever, even if I have to do curls with a baby in each arm. Oh, and get this...It's only $10 to join and $10 a month! Sure, it isn't the coolest gym I've ever joined, but $10 a month? That's less than a $1 a visit! It's almost free, which is what my work gym in Dakar is. Although, this one does have more than one tv (20 I think), running water, a place to change, and not a funky smell in the air.

This must be how Eddie Murphy's character felt in Coming to America!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T05:17:00.001-05:00

You say Ivory Coast, I say Cote d"Ivoire

2011-11-21T11:37:00.000-05:00

I spent the last three weeks in Cote d'Ivoire. Everyone knows about the six months of civil unrest after the last Presidential election there early this year and many others remember the bloody coup that occurred just over 10 years ago. On the surface, it sounds like many other failed African governments over the past 50 years. However, that is mostly only recent history. For a long time, Dakar was known as the "Paris of West Africa". I'd wager that Abidjan should have been known as the "New York City of West Africa". Although settled by the French in the deep lagoon area of the coast, it wasn't until national independence in 1960 did the city grow from a large fishing village. Today the city has nearly 4 million people and one of the most famous skylines in all of Africa.

As usual, even though I spent half the time in Abidjan, I was forced to do work and unable to do any sight seeing or experience much of the city. Thus, most of my pictures are from traveling through the country. We were visiting locations where children who were affected by HIV, usually because a parent or guardian has or had it before dying, were receiving some support from these social programs. Here is the path I covered, in red...

The first part of the trip was a four hour drive to Bouake. There, we stayed at the new, nice, and modern Hotel du Stade, aptly named because it is right across from the stadium of Bouake. Of course, the night we checked in was the same night a quite famous woman singer from Mali was playing there and this being West Africa, the show didn't start until after midnight, but luckily there was air conditioning and it mostly drowned out the crowds and music from outside.

After a day of work, we took a seven hour drive out to Man. Much of the drive was across a mostly flat, fertile area of Cote d'Ivoire on a road like this...

But after passing through a marshy area...

We started to enter the mountain area in the western part of the country...

And after a long day on the road, we arrived in Man to find out that there were no rooms available at the few hotels. Luckily, the organization we were working with, had a guesthouse we could use. As you can see, it was a step down from the hotel in Abidjan and Bouake...

No a/c or running water, but a fan and buckets! And this view in the morning!

However, it was time to do work. This was the cute kids, beneficiaries of the program, that performed a welcome dance routine for us.

After a few days of work out west in the cities of Danane, Guiglo, Bangolo, and Duekoue and eating poisson/poulet braise (essentially fish or chicken cooked over charcoal and served with a side of a starchy couscous type substance) for virtually ever meal, we made the day and half drive back to Abidjan. Along the way, we stopped to buy some of the local produce; plantains, bananas, peppers, some things that I really didn't know what they were, and of course, fish...

These cost about the equivalent of $2-3 each! Amazing. Then it was back to the La Licorne Hotel in Abidjan, The Unicorn! I still say I do my best work by the pool!

And these were my usual breakfast companions...

In general, I liked Abidjan and Cote d'Ivoire as a whole, quite a lot and would gladly go back. Great food, nice people, and a country that still gives you hope for the future. Case in point, the country is able to grow and provide food for most of the country and keep it quite affordable (local food cost us about $2-5 (with beer!) per meal) and they have an infrastructure that is strong. Case in point, the internet was faster there than in Dakar and the electricity didn't go off once in three weeks, including way out west. In contrast, the power has gone off twice here in Dakar in the 48 hours I have been back. If the country can once again find the peace and stability it enjoyed for decades, it will no doubt rival Nigeria and Ghana as the hub of West Africa business and growth.

Why my heart is with Occupy Wall Street, but not my head

2011-11-13T06:02:00.002-05:00

Like all populist movements by definition, they appeal to social, ethical, and/or socio-economic sensibilities of its supporters. The current occupy Wall Street and even the Tea Party movements are no exception. Both appeal to well defined and imbedded American values (equality and private enterprise, respectively, among others), neither is economically feasible. Both want extremes to the current economic that has created the modern global economy.

The biggest complaint against the OWS movement has been what are they fighting for. Here is how I see it. Answer this question. Would you rather live in a scenario where (a) you make $110,000 and your neighbors make $200,000 or (b) you make $100,000 and your neighbors make $95,000? If you answer b, then you essentially agree with the premise behind the OWS movement. Even me, who more or less is about as socialist as they come in this country, I can't help but want to live in a world like b.

Does that mean I'm not a pure socialist? Or that the current OWS supporters are? Not necessarily. In economics, like a lot of things in life, relativity is either a strength or weakness of the human condition. In economic terms, it means that we compare ourselves (rightly or wrongly) to those around us. If we are ONLy voting with our wallets, then scenario A makes the most sense! There, we have 10% more income, which allows us to buy 10% more house, food, car, toys, education, etc. However, from a socio-economic perspective, we are unhappy because everyone else is doing "better". Generally, we measure our success (financially, intelligence, professional life, parenting, etc.) against others in our peer group and those we know of in society. Thus, if we are unhappy with where we stack up against our friends and neighbors, essentially the easiest fix is to get new friends and neighbors, ideally those that are worse off than us! Although this would make us feel more secure and happy with our lot in the world, it isn't practical to move everytime we get more affluent neighbors nor ditch our friends every time one of them gets a promotion or better job. This would create a downward spiral to the bottom where just as we find people that we are better off than to be friends and neighbors of, they would leave us to improve their relative happiness.

This premise is at the heart at both the OWS and Tea Party movements, yet both have polar opposite means to achieve relative happiness in regards to this issue. The Tea Party essentially wants the free market to allow the cards to fall as they may and each individual sink or swim accordingly. Any economist will tell you, the more free market capitalism is employed, the more income disparity will increase. Whereas the OWS, which has largely occurred in response to the Tea Party movement and due to the unhappiness due to the current economic situation (high unemployment, large education debt, growing income inequality, etc.) as more and more people have become unhappy with their socio-economic standing.

So how does society rectify this disparity in beliefs and relative unhappiness? Simply, this is the role of government and always has been. What happened when large landowners in England wanted some say in what happened to their land, the Magna Carta was written. What happened when the ruling, wealthy class in France continued to exploit (most importantly in appearance and in relative happiness)? Heads rolled and a republic was formed granting voting rights and the beginning of social programs there. What happened in the US when the haves began to control an ever increasing majority of the means of production, mass increases in wealth, while the majority of workers' plight did not improve? The progressive income tax was introduced (ie to (and from) each based upon their need) and everything from the Departments of Commerce, Education, Labor, Interior, and the FBI were created to provide steps to attempt to rectify lack of fairness in a free market, capitalist society.

Over 100 years later, after many tweaks left and right, where are we? No matter how you splice the data, the rich are getting richer (both in relative and real terms) while the lower percentiles are getting farther and farther behind them, and now reaching a point similar to where we were 100 years ago, trying to determine how best to encourage economic growth, while also not discouraging the vast majority of the have-nots from giving up on joining the haves, thus grinding the economy to a halt.

No matter your opinions on the role of government (more or less), the biggest issue facing our country right now is the combination of the current world economic crisis and the US budget constraints. So, what is the solution?

If we were to follow the Tea Party stance, less government and regulation (including taxes), it will only exasperate the problem. The rich have resources to exploit, or at the very least opportunities, to improve their resources. Others do not. Any business major (and hopefully even high school math students) can tell you the benefits of the time value of money. Money generates money in a capitalist society. However, one needs money (income > expenses) to take advantage of this system. The average college grad graduates with $30,000 in debt. This not only is a mental drag, it is an economic drag as well, taking money out of the economy that could be used for consumption and/or wealth creation in the form investments. Additionally, lower taxes and government cuts will require the government to reduce assistance in the form of Social Security, education (already sadly low), and other social supports.

However, if we were to follow the OWS plan, however idealistic they and me think, well, we'd most certainly bankrupt the government and probably further slow the wheels of our economy. Essentially, we cannot afford the demands.

So, where does this leave us? Obviously, this will all be resolved to some extent with time and political elections. But the proverbial "kicking the can down the road" is likely regardless of who wins the presidential election next year on either side unless the following concessions are made to either side.

For starters, a slight income tax increase for those that "won't miss it" along with tax code reformation will greatly provide the feeling of relative happiness for the "other 99%" and those that dislike the IRS as a whole. Essentially, a more progressive tax with less loopholes, thus lowering the tax burden for the vast majority while, in relative terms, barely raising the tax on higher earners. Also, government cuts must be made. Simple tweaks in the FICA ceiling limits (ie even though my benefits will increase over the next 30 years I put money into the system, the amount I contribute will not!) and other austerity measures with clear focus (reducing the bloated Defense budget for instance, and other wasteful and redundant programs government wide, can and would appease both deficit hawks and social engineers alike. For instance, taking just 10% of the defense budget would not weaken our national defense (simply ending the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan could almost accomplish this feat!) and imagine if that money went to education and employment growth!?!? You would create a human capital investment that would again provide the means and ability for the American worker to compete on the global stage, especially in the future technological, medical, and engineering demands. All areas where education is the key component. Imagine how many nearly graduated students might take a research or create their own business (ie Facebook) if they weren't burdened with a monthly student loan bill?!?!?

So, although I agree in principle with the OWS movement, what really needs to happen is for politicians to understand the burdens inherit in the system and take the steps to reduce and eliminate them where needed to allow the market and individuals to achieve those goals without falling farther and farther behind those already with a head start.

When Gaddafi met Lady Gaga

2011-11-01T11:13:00.012-04:00

Last night was Halloween, of course, the best night of the year. This year was a bit sad since K and SA are in the States and got to do REAL Halloween without me and I had to catch a morning flight today. But neither would dampen my spirit for getting dressed up.

I settled on my costume about a month ago. It was going to be so funny! See, Gaddafi was on the run in Libya and no one knew where he was. He came to Senegal at the hotel next to my work (I saw his tent during my lunch breaks, along with some of his handlers, that had these 'cool' Gaddafi t-shirts that I was very tempted to ask how to get one (could of, should of...)). He has also kept a fairly good relationship with President Wade of Senegal, thus the humor in that "Where is Gaddafi? Oh, driving around and going to an American Halloween party in Dakar, of course!" There was much rejoicing.

However, fate dealt its ugly hand to not only Gaddafi himself, but my Halloween ambitions a couple weeks ago. I actually seriously considered falling back on an old costume, but a couple people said that with Gaddafi, there is no such thing as 'too soon' and truth be told, he'd probably be all for it.

Anyways, long story short, sorry, here is Gaddafi living it up at last night's Halloween party! Forgive the poor picture taking quality, it was very dark at the party, thus it was trial and error for everyone taking photos.

Here he is, pre-party seriousness. Note the lovingly thought out accessories. Sunglasses. Check. Drapey cloth. Check. Little hat. Check. Green book. Check.

Gaddafi with Catwoman...

A post, premonition of things to come in his future?!?!?...

And last, but not very least, chilling with the Little Monster herself, Lady Gaga, who knew she was so shiny in real life too?!?

Lots of good costumes at the party, but I must say, the winner of the night in my book was this co-worker who, well, it's better if you just see it for yourself...

Awwwww, another Halloween in the books. Only 364 more days until next year!!!

Here we are now, Gen (blank)

2011-10-25T04:36:00.002-04:00

As is one of my amateur hobbies with socio-economic proselytizing, I love the correlation (or not) of cultural generation definitions. Simply put, I love lumping people into fairly clear cut characterizations based simply on the year they were born. You have the Baby Boomers, the Gen Xers, the Millennials, and now the post-Millenials for all of us with kids now. Knowing how to relate to each group is essential for career advancement, in my opinion. There has been some writings about "cusp generations", those born near the end or beginning of a generation who can relate to two generations in a row. Essentially, the bridge between the generations that can get the 25 year old to work with the 40 year old effectively.

I fall into this category. Born in 1978, I am "officially" at the end of Gen X, but I don't subscribe to all their angst and pessimism, yet I'm also certainly not a Gen Y/Millennial since I came of age pre-wide-spread internet usage and cell phones. Over at Slate, they have an article up that attempts to define us born during the Carter administration and first year under Reagan, Generation Catalano. As K said, who also falls into this group, it isn't the most profound tryst on people our age, but it does raise a few questions. Namely, what makes this group (including most of all of you that read this!) different enough to not feel a shared conscience with Gen X or Y.

To me, I think the main thing that separates us is the fact that we were the last set of people to go through high school before mass and instant communication became a part of our lives. When we were in high school, NO one had a cell phone and about the closest thing you could do to communicate with a large group of people at once, besides sending an email to your two or three friends with one, was post a message on your local BBS. Yeah, remember those? If you wanted to flirt with someone or ask them out, you physically had to be in their presence and use actual words. In other words, we are like the last cavemen before fire was discovered or the people that turned 20 in 1492 and had to realize that the earth was officially round.

Also, look at the shared pop culture references we shared. For the most part, we all watched the same cartoons on Saturday morning (ie when they still had cartoons on Saturday morning), the same music videos on MTV, the same handful of teenage marketed tv shows on the THREE basic channels and the new one, Fox. Fox WAS to us what CW is to kids today. Remember how cutting edge it was?!? The thing is, we all do share these memories, thus we can quickly bound over these shared experiences. But Gen Y had about 100 channels to watch, the internet to play on, text messaging, and other economic benefits bestowed upon them by a booming late 90's economy that many of their parents benefited from. Case in point, how many of our younger siblings got more stuff or "entitlements" than we did?

So, here we are now. But what do we call ourselves? If not Gen X or Y and I hate "cuspers", sounds like a STD, what do you think should be our name? Does the fact we don't have one unite us more, essentially giving us the shared angst of Gen X and shared entitled unity of Gen Y? What do you think defines us?

Bill Maher used my joke!

2011-10-17T07:39:00.002-04:00

On Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, he used my Herman Caine joke I made here last month!
He made it during his New Rules segment at the end of the show, seen here and below at around the 2:10 mark. Me make funny!

Math + Porn = Fun

2011-10-11T10:43:00.003-04:00

At first I thought someone over at Blackboards in Porn had beat me to the punch on my plans to be the most successful author of the math mixed with porn (or is that porn mixed with math?!?) sub-genre, but no worries. Just an epic, and SFW!, time waster and slightly dirty feeling knowing that said people in photo were naked and doing things illegal in 27 states seconds after this photo still. s/t to BoingBoing (not a porn site, name and subject matter simply a unfortunate coincidence!) for the link and the following summary from BBIP:

AFTER SCHOOL:

- math

1 + 1 = 2

1*

Mathematics - university/nursery school level.

This is clearly an extremely advanced level mathematical course, focusing on the Peano axioms for the natural numbers which formalised mathematics in the late 19th century. This course would culminate with Gödel's second incompleteness theorem which shows that the consitency of the Peano axioms cannot be formalised within Peano arithmetic itself.

Alternatively, it could be that the pupil, even at her advanced age, hasn't grasped that 1 + 1 = 2, and that all the after school one-to-one lessons in the world aren't going to work. Indeed, she probably won't even understand what 'one-to-one' means.

8/10 - loses two marks for 'math'.

New season, New Hartnell Jersey

2011-10-06T05:37:00.003-04:00

Today is one of the biggest days of the year; opening night of the NHL! For me, the only sport that is still worth watching. I bailed on baseball in the mid-90's and football at least five years ago. If I watch any football, it's college football due to family alum maters. My fantasy hockey league is back and bigger than ever this season and we ran the draft late last week!

Also, in preparation for the new season, I thought it was about time to buy my favorite player's jersey. I haven't bought a new Flyers jersey in about 10 years and seeing as how the Flyers updated their jerseys a couple seasons back, I figured it was about time I splurged on a customized jersey! Here is the result!

And in related news, via Broad Street Hockey, this from SB Nation that combines three of my favorite things; hockey, Flyers, and Back to the Future jokes.

Go Flyers!

The next new Olympic event, pole dancing!

2011-09-28T08:22:00.003-04:00

When I was just a wee lad, I sometimes would enjoy a good lunch at a local establishment within walking distance from my first job in DC. There were the obvious reasons to go there; the nudity and good lunch, but you could always get more of both in DC and another local favorite from my Pitt days. The reason I enjoyed CCR so much is because there were a few dancers who really excelled at their chosen profession. No matter how you personally feel about women (and men, to be fair!) taking their clothes off for money, it is a lot harder to do it than you would think and most importantly, in the money making scheme, doing it well. I challenge anyone not thinking pole dancing is a sport, submit proof of you doing HALF of what these two do in this SFW (for real) video. Matching attire optional. Even I would break something trying to do this routine!

EMBED-Hottest Dance Battle Ever - Watch more free videos

Math and Taxes are hard for Barbie conservatives

2011-09-26T07:52:00.003-04:00

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about taxes, both in the news, and on this blog. Hmmm, wonder why? Oh, right, there is an election coming up. No matter who wins, there won't be much talk about this issue around February 2013, guaranteed. But regardless, since the Conservatives, er, GOP, have been hogging the news cycle due to their debates and the show down in Congress this week, there has been a lot of talk about taxes, especially with Obama's "proposed" 'Buffet rule'; that is accelerate the already historically low graduated tax brackets for higher (upper 2-5%) of income earners.

Conservatives HATE the IRS, except when they can quote it by twisting their data to support their claims. The latest one has been the "10% of individuals pay 70% of income taxes". Anyways, I could go on and on here, but I really want you to see what Chris Hayes (new MSNBC show host, which I haven't seen since AFN only plays about 1-2 hours of MSNBC news per day) says and shows how the much conservative and GOP ballyhooed "flat tax" and other "flatter taxes" have the same effect or even WORSE effect on this statistic.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I like me some Schweddy Balls!

2011-09-22T05:52:00.002-04:00

When will right-wing "nanny state" conservative groups realize that whenever you complain and call for a boycott for something, it just draws more attention to the product/service and people unlikely to know of it are now WANTING to get there hands on it?!?!

Anyways, the paranoid moms from the equally repressive American Family Association have called for a complete boycott of beloved Ben and Jerry's ice cream due to their new flavor, "Schweddy Balls". Obviously, this is in reference to a somewhat dated, but still hilarious SNL skit from about 10 years ago parodying NPR and starring Alec Baldwin. This is the description from the Ben and Jerry website:

"vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and is loaded with fudge covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls."

I mean, who wouldn't want some "Schweddy Balls" in their mouth right now?!?! I know Sherpa will love these!

Although, I do have sympathy for this group, I mean if you can't pick out ice cream without being reminded of that horrible night you and your husband put his 'thing in your most holy of wholies', how can you face grocery shopping ever again?!? Seriously, lighten up people! First of all, how did you EVER have children in the first place to become a mom to join this group? My guess is it has something to do with a sheet with a hole in it. Secondly, elitist ice cream named after a tv show skit that you probably haven't ever watched, let alone catch all the irony and parody within, is the most pressing concern to you and your children at this point in American history? Wow, if that is true, then Obama MUST be the messiah you keep claiming he isn't!

Is my longest relationship, gulp, over?

2011-09-19T11:13:00.002-04:00

K and I have been married for four plus years and known each other for about six (any day now actually!). Otherwise, I had a checking account with Chevy Chase Bank for six, maybe seven years, before horrible Capital One bought them out and turned what was quite possible the best bank and even business I have ever put my money and faith in into your typical fascist, just a number customer service queue. Although, I still get great one on one service INSIDE a former Chevy Chase Bank, that's obviously not possible from Senegal and I have to rely on the outsourced phone bank for Capital One's at the Island of Misfit Toys. I think the Vikings in their commercials would be more responsive to my needs. Moving every 2-4 years also made it difficult to foster any long term relationships.

But this morning, like many of you, I received what might be the ultimatum letter in my email. It seems my relationship with Netflix is in the dumps and we are at a make it or break it stage. This is sad for many reasons. As I mentioned, I've been a member since 2004. Sure, not the first, but hardly the last person to join. I've probably personally encouraged about 50 people to join.

Even in the early days, it wasn't easy. I had the big, dreaded Blockbuster down the street, almost walking distance away, and the awesome, now recently closed, Video Vault in Old Town Alexandria that still has thousands of movies locked in someone's basement that Netflix will never carry. But slowly, like all successful relationships, I slowly cut those distractions out to focus on the wonderful opportunity sitting in front of me.

Then when I had to move to Germany, I found a way for you to come! In fact, you've traveled to me with way more countries than even K has and may ever. I always did wonder if my Netflix discs had them than most, part of an exclusive Netflix frequent flier club.

But the move to overseas was nothing compared to having to merge my queue with K's. Yet, we managed just fine. I do miss the way you used to let me share my reviews and ratings with friends, but in the end, you are about providing movies, not making friends or reviews.

And then I was there with you for your first big day, the day you started streaming. I got my Wii disc even so I could use that, and you know what, it was everything you promised me it would be and more.

So, with all of that worked out between us, we went to Africa together. I expected our relationship to suffer, at least have some adjustments. Sure, now it takes two weeks ONE-WAY for me to get or send back a movie, but we are making the most of the distance. One new part of our relationship that I pretty much had written off was your new streaming service. I always supported it, but in the states with three day turnaround time on dvds and other easy streaming options, it never seemed like your future. But here in Africa without a movie theater, we capitalized on your new abilities via our VPN service and stream stuff periodically directly to my tv which has your interface built in! Even little SA has learned to love what you provide.

But then today, you tell me that it's just not working for you the way you thought it would. You tell me your new plans. Your take it or leave attitude. Essentially, you get to go on and do whatever you want with your streaming business, but if I still want to do the old things together, I have to jump through these hoops to fit into YOUR new life?!?! I'm just not sure if it is worth all the trouble. I mean, you may have become the biggest fish in the sea to me with your selections, but now that you are tossing that aside, the competitors now can easily compete! Why should I have to do all the work for us to continue?

Tune in next week to see if Steve and Netflix call it quits or live happily ever after.

The GOP candidate predictions

2011-09-14T07:21:00.002-04:00

So, there have been three major GOP Presidential debates, and two just in the past two weeks with another scheduled for next week. I think it is good for them to have them close together because it keeps them and their comments fresh in people's memories and like sports teams that are constantly facing each other, things begin to get testy and snarky! The way politics should be!

So here are my slight reviews of Monday's (Sept 12th) GOP debate and where each candidate is probably going to end up in the coming weeks and months. Forgive me for appearing to be about a day late, but with the time change, I'm sleeping when most people in the US are eating dinner and have to watch replays of the debates the next day.

Romney - He looked strong last week and did a good job continuing his beat down on Perry. But he was certainly taken back when Perry had one or two good jabs back. The last election and this is making Romney (who should have won the nomination in 2008 or the VP nom) an even better candidate. To me, he is still easily Obama's toughest potential opponent.

Perry - This guy looks weaker each time. This week, even Bachmann bested him. He is a dead ringer for the "compassionate conservative" mantra that Bush used in 2000. Hopefully, America isn't still as dumb now as we were then. And the Tea Party people didn't seem to like a lot of his answers Monday night. He'll stand strong for a few more months, but outside the evangelical, Southern vote, he will flounder in upper Midwest and NE primaries.

Bachmann - She was DOA last week, but she came out strong this week. It's clear she masturbates to/with the Constitution daily. However, even though this gets "her" Tea Party faithful just as hard, outside a few pockets in some states, she won't get the plurality of votes in most primaries to win them. She'll be the Hillary of this year, finishing a strong second many times and even stealing one or two away from the front runners (see Iowa Straw Poll), but she is too vacant (not just in the eyes) on details for economic reform and really solving problems.

Huntsman - This guy is getting more desperate than a guy nearing last song at the high school dance. Also, why can't he just tell me his plans instead of always telling me to go read them! American voters don't want to read! They want a bumper sticker phrase so they sound smart the next day to their liberal friends. His "jokes" were poorly timed and not funny. He's gone in two weeks, along with his tanning membership.

Paul - Wow! Ron Paul looked kind of crazy in the last debate, but he made the most intelligent comments this week. Although, nothing he said is new for him or to his supporters, so I doubt he gained much, if any traction. If he'd compromise on some of his more extreme views on the Federal Reserve (*see aside below!) and maybe even the drug laws, he'd pick up a lot of votes. But of course, if he did that, he wouldn't be Ron Paul and everything he stands for, so there you go. The Adlai Stevenson of GOP politicians for this generation.

Santorum - Aside from raising money to feed his seven kids, I'm not sure why he is there. People in PA hate him, so not sure where he has any support. Although, I must say there were times where he made the best sound bites and logical conclusions, which frightened me a lot! I'm sure he'll be back to bombing abortion clinics by Halloween.

Gingrich - What can I say about Newt that hasn't already been said about him in the past 20 years. Let me know when he actually answers a question.

Caine - I want a slice of what this guy is selling! Ok, I know he has some far out there ideas and even though he keeps yelling "9, 9, 9" which sounds an awful lot like another slightly less mustached fellow that yelled "Nein, nein, nein!", I'm not sure exactly what his plan is. And why "9"? He made a very interesting point about healthcare plans for sectors of the economy instead of the highly fragmented, state based, ones we have now. It is also refreshing to see that now in 2011, the lone black GOP candidate isn't always referred to as "the black one" like in previous election cycles.

*All this talk of the Federal Reserve by the GOP is quite hyperbolic. For all the talk of "free market", "private enterprise", and "state's rights", does anyone else find the fact that the majority of GOP candidates want MORE political and DC influence at the Federal Reserve?!? Long story, short, in lieu of a central bank ala most of the individual European countries, now the EU, and China the US government 'allowed' the establishment of the Federal Reserve many decades ago. The Fed is more or less run by all the private bankers (the board) with a providentially appointed Chair (Chair of the Federal Reserve Board). Essentially, to ensure politicians didn't get involved with macro economic planning, the government agreed to let those that "own" the money in our society to "control" the money flows and make corrections (for their mutual benefits) as needed. They have always controlled the printing and amounts of money flowing at any one time into the system, especially since the end of the Gold Standard under Nixon.

Monday night, there was a lot of discussion for "auditing" the Fed and pairing back on its role. As for the audit, the Fed is audited. I have a friend that does JUST that! As for the scope of the roles the Fed has played in the past few years, perhaps that could be discussed, but the role and actions of the Fed are some high level macro economic theory that even those that sit on the Board struggle with each day. Even average bloggers like myself have a hard time determining their best course of action or even understanding what result their actions are trying to accomplish, and I took several econ classes and almost became an economist! Only one or two of the candidates can intelligently even talk about the Fed (I'll let you figure out which!), but it is a much more detailed and nuanced understanding than can be understood at a debate with 30 second answers. If you really want to understand the role of the Federal Reserve, read Allan Greenspan's tremendous autobiography. I bet more than half the candidates haven't even done that!

Funny true moment, when all this discussion about scaling back the Fed's role in our economy came up during the debate, I paused it and said to K, "Right, I want Congress to be MORE involved with economic planning! I can't wait to see the debates when they have to decide on whether or not to raise interest rates!" Not 60 seconds later, Mitt Romney echoed my sentiments!

So with that, I toss my hat into the 2016 election! haha.

From Dakar, with love, Hurricane Lee Maria!

2011-09-02T13:41:00.000-04:00

Big storm came through very early this morning. When it becomes Hurricane Lee (I've gotten good at predicting them from here!) and it rains on the US, just think, 7-10 days ago the same storm was raining on me! :)

Update, 6pm GMT: They named that little rain cloud in the Gulf Lee just now, so now it looks like "my" storm will be Maria. That sounds scarier anyways!

Mine is bigger than yours!

2011-08-29T10:34:00.000-04:00

I've kept the camera at my office for when this opportunity would finally arise. I've been waiting for this moment for almost a year. Friday, I had given up. So, I took the camera with me in my backpack to the gym. Then, when leaving, it happened better than I could have hoped! Although, to be honest, this one isn't even the biggest one I've seen or hope to show you! And yes, that is my hand and foot in the pics, to try and give you some perspective...

What is it I do all day?

2011-08-26T09:14:00.002-04:00

The question I probably get most often is "What is that you do?", especially from friends and family. I've gotten it down to a pretty good, two or three sentence summary after these years. After that, they either look at me slightly less confused and assume I work for the CIA (seriously, family members think this!?!) or in the unlikely event I actually explained it well that day, the next question is "Why?" and "Why do you want to do that and live overseas?" That part is always a lot harder to answer. However, this piece by Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides says it better than I ever could. Granted, this is just WORK related reasons, but if only half of Americans actually understood this and realized that the return to America for such a relatively small investment, we'd be a lot better off as a country. Bon weekend!

If you support lower taxes on the rich...You Might Be A Redneck.

2011-08-22T11:46:00.005-04:00

Hopefully, this is my one and only Jeff Foxworthy mention on this blog. Ever. Although, I bet you never thought I could use Jeff Foxworthy to illustrate self-inflicted class warfare!

Related to SJ's comment on my last post about wealth distribution in the US, this fascinating article in the Economist cites specific examples where Americans, particularly lower class Americans, generally prefer to cut benefits to the poor and do NOT support taxes on more affluent Americans.

The article goes into some details into this, but if you want the key points, there are two. One; poorer Americans still believe that they can and will strive to reach the upper classes and obtain wealth (which we know is a statistical fallacy based on the previous post and other studies, most people gain ONE income bracket at most per generation), thus they don't want their hypothetical riches to be taxed when they have them. And two; in a strange twist on American ideals, people are ok being poor as long as someone else is poorer. The article cites a very telling study regarding how individuals would voluntarily redistribute their money to those MORE well off to themselves than to help those that would become more their equals, thus keeping the poor poor and making the rich richer.

This article supports most of the elitist tax and government policies that I support! haha. But more importantly, it shows that much of the "anti-tax, anti-government" rhetoric we hear these days will only continue to keep the status quo at best, and at worst, continue to widen the income and wealth gaps past even more 3rd world countries (as shown in this Jon Stewart clip from just last week).

"Middle class" in America is a ponzi scheme

2011-08-19T05:36:00.001-04:00

This is a couple days old, but in case you haven't seen it...All I can say is "Yay?!?! Capitalism?!?" If you don't have a problem with these stats, then you really have nothing to complain about right now regarding unemployment, the housing market, the stock market, and especially taxes since you are most likely a prime cause of these stats...

The Tea Party is the Moral Majority in Sheep's Clothing

2011-08-17T05:05:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of things that bug me about "The Tea Party". First of all, let's begin with the name. Supposedly, the idea is to incite the fervor and patriotism of the original "tea party" that occurred in Boston harbor when we were just colonists. In fact, it is about an incident, not a political grouping. This incident "the tea party" refers to was just as much anti-corporation as it was anti-taxation. The looters were not that much different than the ones hitting up London this last week destroying corporate products (ie the tea) in retaliation of a government's policies (ie The Tea Act/taxes), which as the ruling body, they had the right to do. It escalated when the government tried to hold those responsible for their actions. Before you all tar and feather me as a Redcoat, I'm not trying to diminish the role or importance of the Boston Tea Party, just trying to paint the picture of reality when your strip out all the kindergarten, 4th of July patriotic, fife hat costume party, symbolism from it.

But incorrect semantics aside, there are also a lot of other things wrong with The Tea Party. There have been several third parties in the history of the US. The Republicans started out as one, but since then, no third party has remained a strong force in American politics for more than one or two political cycles. Often they are formed on populist ideals that either fade away due to the realities facing Americans (see Bull Moose, Socialists, Reform Party, McGovernites, etc.) or forever remain a fringe party in America's winner take all two-party format (see Libertarian Party, Greens, etc.). Granted, the Tea Party has done the right thing by getting into bed with the Republicans (or vice versa depending on who you believe placed the Rohypnol into the drink). This prevents the 'party' from actually having to stand alone and try for change from within; much in the same way the Socialists of the 1920's and Leftists ever since have tried to influence the Democrats from within.

But like all movements, there is some ground work and defining ideological frameworks that allow and spread the influence. If you've followed libertarian policy development and politics in America for the past 15 years like I have, (even being a member of the Libertarian Party for a brief time in college) you will see that this 'libertarian' value set being bally-hooed by the Bachmanns and Palins (and now Rick Perrys) is a far cry from libertarian philosophy. Case in point, I refer you to Jon Stewart's excellent review of last weekend's Iowa Strawpoll coverage by US networks. He says it better and funnier than I ever would, with hypocritical media clips to boot! Case in point, Ron Paul is the Johnny Appleseed of what is and should be a libertarian and populist movement within the current political system. Although this may true based upon his support during the 2008 elections and his 2nd place showing in the irrelevant in the big picture strawpoll over the weekend, somehow it is Bachmann and Palin that get the credit as the "leaders" of the Tea Party. Why is that?

The reason is because the Tea Party isn't the "small government, anti-tax" party that it claims to be. Sure, they want that, but this is where their Libertarian values stop. Libertarians believe in less government interference in ALL aspects of governance, including social issues. This is why Paul (and REAL Libertarians) is for legalizing marijuana usage, pro-gay marriage at the state level, pro-choice at the state level, and ensuring religion and government let individuals and corporations decide what they want in simple supply and demand mechanics. Or are isolationists to the extent of Peter Thiel and his fanciful Waterworld plan. However, if you look at Tea Party polls, you quickly realize that isn't at all what "they", or at the very least their 'leaders' want.

A recent poll showed that potentially as much as 40% of Tea Party members are Democrats OR Independents. However, if you go beyond the headlines and TV news soundbites, you'll see actually only 13% of Tea Party members are actually 'former' Democrats. But no matter how you slice the 40%, that still leaves about 60%, ie the majority, as Republicans. Hmmmm, what type of Republicans would be moved to abandon their party to support otherwise 'fringe' candidates?

Well, as with any major third party, populist movement in American history, it is those that tend to be at the extreme edges of the established parties. As part of a five year study, begun in PRE-Tea Party days, it seems that the Republicans MOST likely to be a supporter of the Tea Party today are those that don't feel the Republican party is doing enough to see their beliefs instituted. This 60% majority consists of an "overwhelmingly white" majority, "had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president", and wish to see religion play a "dominant" role in how our country is governed.

These aren't new ideas nor even a group of newly politically charged activists. It is simply this generation's Moral Majority. It is the same exact thing. You have self-appointed zealots that are trying to influence government and most importantly, American society, by riding a tide of populist citizen angst to power to essentially turn back the clock on the separation of Church and State, which is so clearly an essential part of American history and success. Ironic then, isn't it, that they cite the Founding Fathers and the Constitution so much in their rhetoric when, if they were to be the 'new majority', they'd do everything they can to reverse those core values?!? Like Ron Paul says, "Be afraid, be very afraid."

Losing my virginity in 3D!

2011-08-11T05:16:00.003-04:00

So, like most of my crotchety opinions, I think 3D tvs and the like are kind of lame and a gimmick that will last about as long as they have in the past and Day-Glo shirts from the 80's! The tvs give me a seizure and I already feel movies are overpriced by about 100%, so to pay another 75% on top of that to see a movie I could just as easily watch more comfortably in a few months for essentially free via Netflix, seems even more pointless. However, I am willing to make an exception for the following...

Is it possible for this movie to not only be the best comedy of the year, but best 3D and Christmas movie of all time?!?! I have four words for you; Neil Fucking Patrick Harris. Enough said. See you in line.

Now, with further clarification

2011-07-28T07:17:00.002-04:00

I loved this song in 1994 (still do!), even bought the single (remember doing THAT?!?!). Remove the second "s" and it all comes full circle and makes sense!

Last seen in 1997...

2011-07-22T09:34:00.002-04:00

MTV hasn't been this good in almost 15 years!!! The boys are back...

Get More: Beavis and Butt-Head, MTV Shows

Can't wait to see Daria again...cha, cha, cha!

Follow up post on new direction...

2011-07-20T08:28:00.005-04:00

So, it seems I need to reconsider my position as a lead singer in a rock/rap band! No one seemed to buy it!?!?

And in these trying times, I glad we can rely on The Chosen One to help us through (reposted from BoingBoing)

What's been going on...

2011-07-13T10:27:00.004-04:00

Been a busy couple of weeks, but here is a hint of what more is to come around here...

Stay tuned...

Update from the US

2011-07-06T13:04:00.002-04:00

Hey, just real quick. Great op-ed piece from the NYT, David Brooks specifically (via K!) that clearly shows that the Republican party has been hijacked by the "protest movement" within the party and, to the detriment of the party, government, and country, refuse to compromise to look "tough". I actually look forward to getting away from US news here and that stupid Casey Anthony trial stuff.

American Grindhouse

2011-06-14T08:38:00.001-04:00

We had a three day weekend here, so I took advantage of our VPN connection and streamed American Grindhouse via Netflix. I highly recommend this movie for both anyone that is a fan of that broad genre of movies or anyone that is into any sort of film history.

As the name suggests, roughly half of Elijah Drenner's documentary centers on the exploitation flicks and the circuit that supported the 'grindhouses' from the 50's through the late 70's. He covers everything from sexploitation, blaxploitation, the educational films, teen violence movies, and gory horror movies that make the exploitation genres infamous. However, he also spends much of the first half tracing the history of exploitation and film in general from the very beginning. He credits Edison, yes Thomas Edison, with making the first film with nudity, thus starting the trend of "seeing what movie makers can get away with" and "giving the public what they want". This not only helps the viewer learn about the history of the movie industry and effects industry changes had on movies and the movie going public, but also highlights many of the well before their time and progressive movies from the first half of the 20th century that still hold up well today (ie Freaks).

What really lends this movie to almost anyone is the superb narration and editing. He uses fairly well known, at least exuberant, film historians to provide the much of the narration and stories behind the movies, mixed with actual interviews from some of the more famous directors from the era. The movie never lags, quickly moving along a historical timeline and evolution of the genres, while also introducing the viewer to at least 100 different influential titles in less than 90 minutes. He provides just enough information to explain why a movie is considered influential to give a curious viewer enough information to search it out, without droning on in detail about sub-genres the viewer might not be interested in. In summary, anyone looking for an Exploitation 101 lesson should start here.

As I mentioned above, the real gems in this documentary are the interviews with some of the legends of the genre. My favorite interviews are those of Jack Hill and Don Edmonds, whom I could watch a whole 90 minute interview of. John Landis is also in rare form throughout. Listening to these masters craftsmen reminded me of why I originally loved this genre in the first place and its still importance on movie making today.

The documentary does jump abruptly from the very early 80's, when several era ending circumstances brought the grindhouses, thus their industry, to an apparent end, when mainstream movies started adapting many of their techniques and formulas, pornography became mainstream, and the invention of the VCR became a doubled edged sword for these directors, to the modern day directors of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's latest movies. An interview with either one of them would have been icing on this cake and brought the history full circle. Also, by skipping roughly 25 years of films, it undercuts the fact that exploitation films are still being made and available via the direct-to-video (now DVD) market and in recent years, the "success" of recent Sci-Fi Channel made-for-tv movies, not to mention any discussion of major studios of the modern era such as Troma or Seduction Cinema, among many other in-house studios.

As most of the people involved with the grindhouse era pass away (Russ Meyer, Edmonds, etc.), this important era of movie making and its influences risk being lost. I could have watched a three hour documentary on this, however, I realize most people will find the less than 90 minutes more than sufficient and as an introduction to rarely discussed (or found since the days of Blockbuster (haha, RIP suckers!)) films, this movie provides scores of titles that will, and should, find new fans.

As I mentioned, American Grindhouse is available streaming from Netflix and also on IMDB.

Ghana update and a witty title about not posting for a long time...

2011-06-06T06:23:00.017-04:00

Yes, yes. Welcome back. After much time away, here is a decent attempt at a blog post, ha. Try not to get used to it!

Last week I returned from two and a half weeks in Ghana. In short, Ghana is the nicest country I cover for work in West Africa. Actually, it is probably the nicest country in all of West Africa, even more so than here in Senegal, although Nigeria may be catching it quickly (will let you know after I go there). Case in point, the electricity only went off three times the entire time I was there (as opposed to daily here), the internet was the fastest I've seen since leaving the states (yay, Netflix via VPN streaming and NHL hockey borderline legally!), and Ghana has the only movie theater I am aware of in West Africa. Oh, and they have bacon and breakfast sausage! I seriously need to start some sort of Steve Quotient for Civility in a country that factors in these important aspects, which as an expat tend to be more relevant than freedom of speech, civil rights, and democratic elections!

Blah, blah, blah. You want pictures. Pictures you shall receive....

I spent most of the trip in the capital, Accra. However, I did spend three nights in the Northern Region for work. The Northern Region is best described as hot, flat, and hot. We flew into Tamale. This is often the airport safari/nature seekers land at when going to Mole National Park. Of course with my work schedule, I didn't get any closer than seeing the turn off for the main road that goes there. On this map, you can see where I went, red being the two cities and the gray shaded area the areas I traveled in around Tamale.

As I have explained to many of you, the worst part about traveling in West Africa is traveling in West Africa. It often takes at least 12 hours and more than one stop to travel between two countries via air; not to mention the flights tend to leave in the middle of the night. To avoid my usual 2am departure out of Dakar, I opted to take Ethiopian Airlines from Dakar to Accra, Ghana. Why does Ethiopian travel between these two cities? Beats me!, but the once a week flight left at a much more reasonable 8am on Sunday morning, so Ethiopian I picked. Of course, it was not a direct flight. We had to stop in Lome, Togo to transfer. As bad as Lome looked coming in (no buildings taller than a couple stories, one paved road, generally a big town built in the middle of a jungle along the coast), their airport was kind of nice and organized. However, we had to take the 35 minute flight from Lome to Accra on an ASky flight.

ASky is this relatively new airline that is managed by Ethiopian Airlines. They try these conglomerate airlines here periodically. They all usually end unceremoniously. Anyways, the flight wasn't that bad. Although, prior to take off, I was having serious doubts...
Fixing a flat during boarding...

And note the "Ethiopian" showing through the ASky paintjob!
And the cockpit's sun visor...

But the flight was pleasant enough and they didn't lose my main bag nor my carry on that I had to check due to the small plane, so I'd probably take them again without too much worry.

After my unpleasant experiences at the Accra airport before, I figured it could only get better. I was wrong. The hotel shuttle was not waiting for us as requested and long story short, after getting into a shouting and shoving match with an airport attendant (who turned out to be right and me wrong!) we paid our over priced taxi ride to the Holiday Inn next to the airport. This is the nicest hotel I've probably stayed at since moving to West Africa. It's not perfect and isn't any better than a nice Holiday Inn in the States, but I was content. However, there is some serious strange artwork here. It's like they did all their shopping at a bad African artist market. For instance, this was the painting that greeted me every time I walked out of my room.

However, I couldn't help but notice that the artist seemed to spend a lot more effort making sure he got certain parts of her body to look good, but not as much effort with her face.

Anyways, so why was I in Ghana? I was there to review a US government funded program fighting malaria. Thus, this meant as usual, going to villages and areas where the actual funded activities are taking place. I saw villages that were benefiting from indoor spraying (they spray long lasting insecticide on walls to kill the mosquitoes when they land), people who received bed nets to sleep under (the cheapest and easiest way to prevent malaria), and some local government/health officials.

So, here are some of my favorite pics from the trip. All of these are from the Northern Region.
This is my co-worker and I reviewing spraying data in an open air "office". The temperature was close to 100 degrees (note my big hair already at 9am!) and we had about 10 people on the other side of the room watching us do math for three hours, haha.

Here are some pictures of the people we spoke to and met (the sun was so intense that I had to wear that borrowed hat!)...

The road we drove on getting to a village...

One thing I got to do that was completely new to me was visit a funded insectorary where they breed mosquitos to test insecticides on and for tracking different strains of malaria. Not only do they catch live ones in the field, at night, from paid "bait"/volunteers with these...

The also grow them from eggs up through adults...

And finally, it never fails, I always find amusing people and situations when out in the villages; like this DNC supporter...

No news is good news.

2011-05-11T12:24:00.003-04:00

At least that is the adage that we always went by growing up. Things have been good here, I guess that I've been MIA for the past two weeks. Oh, and the Flyers were (were the key word) in the playoffs. Anyways, not much to update with on and I'll be spending the majority of time for some time in two other countries, so expect some somewhat topical and relevant posts soon.

All 30 NHL arena goal horns!

2011-04-22T05:24:00.002-04:00

Since we are in midst of the greatest sports event outside the Winter Olympics (ok, and the World Cup), via Puckdaddy, here are the 30 goal horns for each team in the NHL. This ought to keep you pumped up for a three day weekend (here at least, yay Jesus!) and lots of Stanley Cup Playoffs hockey watching!!! I wonder how I can make the Flyers one a ringtone or if K will divorce me if I use it as my alarm clock tone...

I want my VPN!

2011-04-19T04:32:00.002-04:00

The biggest question I get from people about living so far from "home" is what do we do here. Honestly, it isn't much different than what you do in the States, which shows that people are more or less the same everywhere and infrastructure aside, there is no such thing as a 'better' country to live in. For instance, Friday night we were invited to a small dinner party with a few other couples with kids. Actually, that happens MORE overseas than in the US, I think. Mostly because in the States, people would rather go out to eat, but here we all have staff who cook and cook better than most of the restaurants. It's a win-win-win, especially when you factor in how much drinks and wine cost when eating out here.

Also, I took Friday off from work and hooked up our VPN network. What is a VPN you might be asking? In layman terms, it's like logging into your email account, but then surfing to other places on the web from that server. It makes the subsequent websites think you are "at" wherever that server is located. In our case, we are using one in NYC, thus that gives us access to Netflix and all the other on-demand streaming content that is limited to people only living in the US. As for the legality of this, I have no issues and if they were illegal, these companies, there are many, would be shut down. First of all, I'm an American and consume American tv shows and movies, including watching AFN with American shows and movies here, and I pay for my Netflix account, so now I'm just getting access to what I have already paid for. The internet her does make watching this stuff frustrating at times. So far we have only really used it to watch kids shows for SA. Although, I am annoyed that Yo! Gabba Gabba! isn't on Netflix's Watch Instantly playlist.

If you are in a similar situation, I can't recommend enough the companies I'm using to do this. The first is StrongVPN.com which has servers all over the world. This access costs only $55 a year. Then, maybe even more importantly, was Sabai Technologies. I bought the pre-programmed router that was so easy, I spent more time taping down the 150 feet of internet cable than I did setting up the network connection. It took less than 10 minutes from opening the box to when I started downloading our first episode.

Glenn Beck is even too crazy for Fox News

2011-04-07T06:50:00.002-04:00

So, finally, after what has seemed like the longest two years in the history of television 'journalism' since "The Gong Show" went off the air, Glenn Beck and Fox News Channel are parting ways. It appears the decision was mutual as this gives Fox News a good time slot at the end of the year to start focusing on the Presidential primaries and Glenn Beck can spend more time with his food storage bins, zeitgeist pop news info lords, and the barrels of money he made off the rest of the crazies in the US. According to the release, he'll spend more time on 'documentaries'. He said on his show Tuesday "How many times can I tell the Soros story?" Which just goes to tell you, just because you make a lot of noise, stand in front of a chalkboard, and talk in circles and riddles about conspiracy theories, doesn't mean people will believe you, as his ratings have shown. If his 'documentaries' are anything like his show, he better just spend his barrels of money on his bunker and buy more cans of pork and beans.

Random Two week catch up with pics!

2011-03-30T06:39:00.006-04:00

Geez Louise, where does the time go? Been busy with work and keeping busy outside of work as well, thus no blog posts. But it's almost been two weeks, so here is a little catching up, Random 10 Style...

1. Hooked up the downstairs wireless network this past weekend and

2. Ordered a VPN router yesterday, so in about two weeks we will be streaming Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon On-Demand to the big screen from Dakar!

3. Got a haircut also last Saturday. With the increasing heat here now that winter is over, I was totally getting the Seth Rogen Jew fro again.

4. Friday, we had an intramural, office-wide soccer tournament for 'team building'. First time I've played since gym class in high school, but I think my hockey playing paid off as I assisted on a goal in the first game and when switching to defense, we got 2nd place and lost the championship only 1-0. See awesome World Cup-esque pics below. BTW, yes, that is my Russian Aeroflot shirt I was wearing...
Look at the speed, it flattened my fro...

Seconds before my assist...

(In)action shot...

5. I got my body fat measured while in Liberia. 6%!!! That's always been my goal. It was 9% last summer and with all my traveling and different diets here (ie having a cook, per diem at hotels), I was initially worried about maintaining that. I have to give a lot of credit to this new workout I started the last week of December. I think that dropped the last 3%. Contact me if you want any details.

6. Saturday night, we also went to a masquerade party that a co-worker was hosting. Got to use those Venice masks for something other than decoration for once! It was a fun idea...

with my co-worker who usually doesn't have these crazy eyes, but did make her own mask

7. Traveling again next month. Hint, it's another English language and non-Muslim country, so I'll be hitting up the movie theater (we still don't have one in Dakar!) and eating bacon at the breakfast buffet!

8. This coming weekend is Senegal's Independence Day, so no work on Monday! City will probably be fairly quiet with everyone going back to their hometowns/villages to visit family, so we will probably do a couple city things we've been meaning to do and take advantage of an extra day to go to the park and fly a kite and play with SA.

9. Speaking of SA, she's growing like a weed. She talks up a storm, sings songs, and learning how to use the DVD player much too well. Here are a couple pics from Saturday at the hotel where we get our hair cut at their playground area...

10. We've been doing a lot of family history research lately. For both K and I, we are the first ones in our family to really ever do this, so it's a lot of fun. We both have family that was here since and fought during the Revolutionary War! In fact, I haven't found an ancestor that wasn't already here pre-1800!!! Hard to believe with the idea that America is a melting pot and we are all immigrants. I guess technically, my family was all colonists, haha. One very cool line on my mom's side I've found dates back to New Amsterdam and pre-NYC days to Anthony Janson van Salee. Sure, a million other people can claim him as well, but it's nice to have someone besides boring old farmers from Pennsylvania and Germany. Some bad news though, my line that goes through him and another line on my mom's side is prominently from New Jersey. Sad, but true. haha. The coolest part is sharing all the information with family, especially my grandmothers, one who didn't even know anything about her own mother that I found.

Talk to you all soon!

Happy Monday with Death Metal Friday

2011-03-21T07:38:00.003-04:00

I already find too many things to waste my time, so I tend to avoid YouTube, but between my and my coworker's brief re-obsession with MXC last week and this below, I might be going back more often. Awesome!

BTW, I have no idea who this singer is or the original song, but I'm pretty sure this version is a million times better!

Liberia Recap

2011-03-09T04:09:00.007-05:00

So, the internet blackhole I fell into the past three weeks was in Monrovia, Liberia. Actually, that is a bit of a misnomer; the internet worked well, the first three days. Then after that it mostly did not. One bright side is that I was spared the Charlie Sheen channel since international news (BBC, Al Jazeera, etc.) did not even mention it! Imagine that, news channels talking about the biggest thing to happen in about 10 Middle Eastern countries in the last millennium! Plus, getting caught up on investing news, especially related to the Middle East, although maybe Charlie Sheen does affect the stock market too! BTW, if you listened to me back in Oct 2009, you'd be up more than 30% in the past 16 months. Just saying.

Anyways, before I forget, just wanted to share on impressions and pictures of Liberia. First of all, it is HOT there. Even during what is still the winter and dry season, it was 90 ever day with 85% humidity! During the wet season, that jumps to 100 degrees and 100% humidity. The walk to the office each morning made me question why I bothered to shower that morning. In total, I liked it there, but it would be quite boring to live there. The hotel we stayed at, Mamba Point, is very nice, and has great food, thus makes it tough to find anything at that level or better outside in the city. I'm sure there are, it's just that being there for only three weeks for work made it seem unnecessary to venture out. And for the record, no one suggested to us there was a must eat at or see place, even when we asked. Although, one of my favorite things about Liberia is that they had bacon! Most of the countries I go to are Muslim, thus no bacon. but Liberia is mostly christian, thus every morning the breakfast buffet had REAL bacon! Even more real than what I got in Benin! I'm not ashamed that I ate it EVERY morning.

Communicating in and out of Liberia was probably the most difficult thing. Most of the country, including much of the capital, Monrovia, must use generators for electricity since the entire infrastructure was destroyed during the 15 years of civil war that ended about six years ago. However, the people seemed hopeful, hard working, and had it not been for the war, I think it would be one of the best countries in West Africa. Right now, the only expats investing private capital appear to be the Lebanese. It can't be easy for them, but they are reaping their hard work (and risk), but others need to come in to really make the country prosper. I think the country can make incredible strides in the next five years. There is a lot of amazing beachfront, but it is considered "public land", thus there is zero development on it, not ONE hotel until you get about 30-45 minutes outside the city at a couple very expensive resorts. Thus, you have beautiful beach like this that no one is ever on. Actually, I take that back, the locals use one very nice area to wash their cars!?!?!

I didn't take a lot of pictures, mainly because there really isn't much to take pictures of. I did get the chance to go through the Firestone Plant the largest employer in the country for decades, and travel outside the capital. In fact, for work, I traveled all the way to the Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire border. You can see on this map where I went.

The country is the most forested as a percentage in all of West Africa. And given the year round temperatures and humidity, it is literally a jungle everywhere. Here are a few pics from driving...

As you can see, the road was a bit rough for major portions. So getting anywhere takes a lot of time. We stayed two nights in Ganta (Gahnpa on the map). For $50 a night, we got to stay in what was billed as the nicest place in the town, the Hotel Alvino. Although, there is no electricity during the day and only at night when the generator is on. Ok, fair enough, but they always shut it off at sunrise, thus I'd always have to get ready in the morning in the dark. Oh, speaking of, there was no running water. AT ALL. So it was bucket washing. So, combine high temperatures, no electricity, no shower, and high humidity, you can just imagine how my hair looked by the third day! haha. If you still aren't sold, let me show you my room...
Note the lack of a toilet seat...

That bed and pillows were much harder than they look, but isn't the bear pillow quaint!?

And the kitchen, which was just a sink with no water running to it, which is actually what I used as my 'bathroom' sink since there was more room and sunlight.

Ah, the memories. On the way back to the city, we stopped at some roadside stands to buy local fruit, dirt cheap compared to the city and US. They were selling this giant, I'd guess 2-3 lbs, easy, container of little peppers for $1!!! I've seen this type of pepper in the US, it's at least $5 or more a pound. They also sold live caterpillars in water in a baggy. They were white colored with red ends and about two inches long. Our driver said they are a delicacy! Although, even at about $1 each, I passed.
Liberia is a unique place. It is almost as if it is a country starting from scratch again. The potential is there, but there is a long ways to go, with no help at all from its neighbors, but they appear determined to make it. Now I get to spend some time with family here back here in Dakar! It could have been worse, I could have been this guy...

In Transit Hell

2011-03-03T16:56:00.004-05:00

Hello, dear three loyal readers! I can't really blame you for abandoning me. I've been in Liberia since the 13th of last month. Just to be clear, that is Liberia, not Libya. I haven't been hanging out with Gaddafi!

But right now, after almost three weeks away, I am trying to get home and to do so, I must survive the Accra airport. Although, I guess it isn't that bad, the internet here is about 10 times faster here in the terminal than in Liberia. But this isn't about my trip in Liberia, that is another post.

The airport in Accra was either designed by preschoolers or it is the perfect example of African (incomplete) planning. Just for the record, what I am about to say isn't meant to expose any security risks on purpose other than to expose the ineptness and lack of simple common sense.

Getting into Accra without a visa is extremely easy! When you deboard the plan and you are in transit, such as me, you go to a random person in the green shirt who will look at your passport and write, yes WRITE with a pen, your name and passport number in a book that probably has never been looked at for any possible reason. Then an airline employee, along with the others in transit on your flight, walks you PAST passport control. From there, you claim your bag, even if you ae on teh same airline. Fun. You and your group then walk through customs together, they may check your passports, but who knows exactly why. Then get this, with no visa, nothing other than being "in transit" you are taken outside, while carrying your bags, mind you. You walk past about 25 guys trying to give you a taxi ride and it'd take about 3 seconds to disappear, since your escort only meanders and looks back to make sure you haven't gotten lost every so often. You walk across a parking lot, up a large ramp, then back into the terminal! Then, guess what, you get to check in again! If you are lucky, that is a fairly painless 30 minute or so delay. Then if all has gone well, you get to spend your time at the over priced "duty free" shop where everything is overpriced.

So, instead of arriving at 12:40 am, my Air Nigeria flight, which should be changed to Late Nigeria since every flight I've taken with them has been late, is delayed 4 hours and I should arrive about 5 or 6 am! Awesome.

Oh wait, I shouldn't complain, I'm one of those government bureaucrats that are overpaid and pampered and per the GOP and Tea Baggers, shouldn't even probably have a budget to do my job, which by the way, is to check and make sure tax payers' money is used the best way; the measly 1% of the national budget, that foreign aid is. I mean, why not cut foreign aid 100% which a lot of people say, I mean, b/c then it'd save a whopping $8 billion! That really takes a big chunk out of the $141 trillion deficit! So cutting foreign aid would cut, get this, just over 5 hundredths of a percent each year! I can't even put that into a comprehensible comparison. The closest I can think of is it'd be like you losing ONE hair off your head, which is still a huge over estimate. That really seems worth all the goodwill, saved babies, pregnant mothers, education opportunities, electrification, providing adequate food, and HIV and malaria medications in the world.

Yay, just got word the flight will only be leaving 5 hours late! I get home just before sunrise and being up for 24 hours; all this to go a few hundred miles!

Picture round up before going into internet blackhole!

2011-02-09T09:05:00.007-05:00

As promised, here are some more pics from the safari and other things that have been going on the past couple of weeks. I finally got around to looking at our pics last night. So, without further ado, the boring slide-show......
Antelope (maybe!)!...

Something like African Deer...

Ostrich! (not pictured, me chasing one for about 1/2 a mile down the road with the SUV, those suckers run fast!)

And warthogs! Not nearly as cute and cuddly as Disney would try to have you believe!

Moving on to somewhat domesticated wild animals, SA had her 2nd birthday last weekend. Because of this, there were several loud cheers for "CAKE!" As you can see below, it lived up to the expectations!

In this picture, she not only voted in the Iraqi elections, but also finger painted a picture I have hanging on my office wall.

In more family news, last night K signed up for a free trial of Ancestry.com. I always getting email offers from them, but never bite. Turns out, in about 30 minutes of work, she was able to get about as much accomplished as me in several years of on and off research the "old fashioned" way. So, hopefully during my next trip I'll maybe find some time to do some work on mine and see if I find any new rocks to look under.

Speaking of the trip, I'm going away for a bit, so you might not here from me on here until I return, if generalities and assumptions are to be believed. However, if you don't hear about any Egypt-esque news stories from West Africa, assume "Mission Accomplished", haha.

"Leeegi-leeegi!" That's "see you later" in Wolof, the local language for most of Senegal. I've started learning that to add to my list of languages I can barely speak and/or understand since I'd already proven the Americans who try to speak French stereotype. Triste, mais c'est vrai! Zut alors!

Last week's fun vacation pics

2011-02-03T10:34:00.004-05:00

As promised, here are some of the more entertaining pics from last week's excursions! Sorry for the somewhat bizarre style and quality, but blame Shutterfly and my father-in-law's (usually) lack of photography skillz. You should see the ones that aren't good enough to upload!

The most exciting thing we did is go to a safari park about 90 minutes from Dakar. It's not like a safari in southern Africa (where all the REAL safaris are), more like a very large zoo without any fences or cages. It was actually fun. Although, for whatever reason, after driving around for two hours and everyone taking lots of pics, they only shared with me this one of a giraffe (of several) that we saw. They were always one of my favorite animals growing up and look majestic in a 'natural' habitat.

Later in the week, while on our way to Lac Rose, we stopped at a local tortoise/turtle rescue park. Well worth the $6 admission! Don't look now, but I think this one is making a run for it!

At the safari park, we bought this traditional drum that S (and me!) sometimes likes to play. Maybe I'll channel my inner Matthew McConaughey sometime soon! (alright, alright, ALL Riiiight!)

The rest of the week was just tooling around town, the beach, going to dinners, etc. Thus, random eating and posing pics abound like these.

Scarlett Out!

Steve: Unplugged

2011-01-31T06:19:00.002-05:00

As a coincidental follow-up to the last post, I was on vacation last week. My in-laws are in Dakar with us and we did several day trips and general vacationesque nothingness that was awesome (pics to come later this week!). In doing so, I was only online to check my emails once a day, so no blogs, commentary, news pundits or even fantasy hockey since they were on the All-Star Game break. It was refreshing. I did watch the news, especially a few hours of the excitement in Egypt, since not only is it newsworthy, but I have friends and colleagues there in our Cairo office. Also, had we not gone to Dakar, we would have probably ended up in Cairo.

But back to my point, it was nice to be away from the world. Even though I found myself laughing at Mitch McConnell's comments on Meet The Press yesterday, at least I was only laughing and not getting angry like I would have a couple weeks ago, ha.

Anyways, I missed my fellow Bloggers and look for me in your comments soon! Will have more info regarding the fun last week asap!

The Longer I live outside the US...

2011-01-19T05:45:00.002-05:00

So, this just sort of dawned on me today. I think it is a culmination of the shootings in Tuscon, seeing certain blogs and commenters online, and finally being able to compartmentalize my thoughts and feelings.

I like my country, but I hate Americans! Obviously, not ALL Americans, but so many of them! Sadly, because of the great 'democracy' of our country, it allows the people I hate spread their hatred and bigotry (and ignorance), but also allows many people to prosper and become wealthy and popular while confusing and flat out lying to the public.

Don't get me wrong, I like healthy debate, love it actually. I just get tired of doing it with people that have no facts or logic in their debate. If the person talking makes up 'facts' and believes them, how can you correct them. If I said that Germany bombed Pearl Harbor and I disagreed with your facts that Japan did, thus I blame Germany for all the problems even though they didn't directly cause it, how can you get me to focus on the real problem of 1942 Japan?

Generally in society, it is partitioned into the battle between the Haves and Have Nots. But lately, at least for the US, I think it is becoming the battle between the Facts versus the Opinionated. Coincidentally enough, this appears to fall a lot across class lines, further substantiating the Haves and Have Nots theory. In fact, and maybe in an upcoming post I will expound upon this, the US has taken a lot of steps that Marx, yes Karl Marx, said capitalistic societies would go down before imploding. Marx couldn't imagine today's disinformation overload in his age, but it is leads to a class of disenfranchised and increasingly desperate and, not so much violent exactly, but active and motivated to act with force.

Personally, I feel the internet has fueled and actually made things worse. In fact, I'm starting to get to the point where aside from news sources and friends' blogs and emails, I hardly read anything on it regarding the US because it is so derisive. You can't even read E! News these days without being annoyed by people making crass, pointless, and beyond Ricky Gervais mean. I mean, if you don't like one person or topic, it seems that now everyone feels they have a right, no an obligation, to speak their mind and all that disagree are WRONG. What kind of person is that? And what kind of world does these people create? It makes 1984 seem pleasant.

Case in point, the healthcare debate in Congress today and this week. One said hates it, so they are going to waste a lot of time (ie taxpayers' money) to vote on something that has no chance to become a law. Why? Not only that, they are just voting "No", not even offering a counterpoint. And people are encouraging this!?!? I really don't understand, nor do I want to.

Sorry for the rambling point and to some extent I feel this blog is just an extension of "the problem", but I needed to get it off my chest and have a discussion with people (the handful of you that read this!) that bring lively and open debate to topics. And also maybe help me have faith in our fellow citizens. Do we have any hope?

33

2011-01-13T09:30:00.000-05:00

I've always had a fascination with the number 33. Maybe it's how 3 is the only number to end in an "e" sound, making it fun and easier to say. Maybe it is the fact that it was Larry Bird's jersey number and for a good part or the late 80's and early 90's, the ratio of shirts I owned related to him or the Celtics in general was probably, you guessed it, about 33%. Fifteen plus years later, I still get shit for my Starter Celtics jacket I owned then. It's not like it was OUT of style during that time. Plus, it was one of the warmest coats I've ever worn; something key when the temperature hit -20 usually at least once each winter.

Maybe it is the symmetric asymmetric curves of two unfinished 8's (math porn alert!). The idea of having 33 of something seems altogether exciting and like too many. It's like the kegger of the number system. In fact, I can't say, as a former applied mathematics major, that 33 has any sort of connection to me; although I did have a pretty serious fling with a hyperbola once. Approaching zero for infinity, indeed!

But I think 33 seems like a significant age to me because I consciously recall my parents celebrating their 33rd birthdays. I think it is because I was finally old enough to understand the significance of birthdays (more than just a day to eat cake and get presents) as celebrating getting older, often times reluctantly. And also that they were my parents, but also individuals going through life. Obviously, my parents had my brother and I at a much younger age than K and I had SA and any future tax deductions. So in some ways it is hard to imagine them being me and going through what I experience as a spouse and parent at this age, since they had years of practice at this point. But then I wonder, does it get easier, harder, numbing?

But one thing is for certain, which I think can only be accomplished this way, is that the older I get, especially with raising children, the more I want to know my parents and think of them how they raised me. Nothing too metaphysical here, I had a normal childhood with what I would consider normal parents with normal parenting skills. But to assume that they felt the way I do about my family about their family and the sacrifices and hard work they did, generally much more so than me due to THEIR good parenting, it really makes you sit back and wonder about your role in the lives of others, as both someones child and also a parent. I don't think I would have ever understood how my parents feel about me without having a child myself.

So, this Saturday, is the big 33 for me. I wonder if my parents knew when they turned that age, that yes, everything would work out, and quite well at that with their young family. It's this sort of generational passing of the torch and hope that makes me more grateful for not only where I am, but where I came from each year. No one and nothing is ever perfect, but we certainly can be grateful for it all.

My African Morning Commute

2011-01-12T03:58:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, things happen here that remind me that, 'yes, I do live in Africa.' For instance, my morning commute is nothing like my DC commute was. For starters, I walk to work. It is a 15 minute walk. Very few people, even those living in DC proper, walk the whole way to work, often needing a bus or metro to cover the many city blocks they need to go. On top of that, if they do walk, they have sidewalks, crosswalks, red lights, and paved roads on their way. Not me.

I start out on our all dirt road. When I make it to the main road, which has been under construction since we arrived, I am often greeted with a very dusty and blowing attack of air that threatens to rip my contacts out. The dust is so bad that I often can pat the dirt off my when I get to the office. On top of all of that, I'm walking on/over big rocks, sand, semi-dry/broken bits of concrete, asphalt, and gravel. And try not to get hit by any of the taxis or car rapide that view you as a bump in the road as you cross the street.

Anyways, this morning there was an added bit of amusement. Three talibes were taking a break from their morning begging routine and were tossing rocks at a vulture perched on a wall. It was so amusing and such a "where the eff do I live?" moment that I laughed out loud. One of the kids, seeing me laughing at them, laughed as well. I guess you had to be there.

One on 1/11/11 at 11:11

2011-01-11T11:11:00.000-05:00

Because it's my blog and I can post if I want to. Also, after the events this weekend and the 'firestorm' the new Congress is already making, I think it's a kind reminder that American politics is mostly overblown rhetoric with very few trying to do the right thing, besides what is best for their pocket. Interesting repost from 9/11 about this weekend on BoingBoing yesterday related to this too. Personally, if this means anything, it shows that lax handgun laws do nothing to prevent these potential acts from occurring and only make them more likely. Enjoy!

Others agree with me Re: "Dragon Tattoo"

2011-01-05T07:00:00.003-05:00

K just forwarded me this hilarious pile on against "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" much as I did yesterday. Was yesterday the international day to come out against these books? haha. Anyways, it seems I am not in as big of a 'minority' as I thought, so I guess that does make me cool!?!? haha.

First Dropper, Eccentric, or Just Plain Old?

2011-01-03T04:26:00.004-05:00

Happy 2011 everyone! Hope you all had a safe and fun weekend. We attended a party that a colleague was hosting and it turned out to be much more fun than we anticipated, a good start to the year.

Today and this past week, I've been reading a lot of people's Best of 2010 lists and other things related to what is 'highly' anticipated for 2011. Most left me, uhm, bored. Either I found the things to be over hyped, pointless or a waste of time, space, and/or money, depending on the item. Others I barely understood (ie Washington Post's 'In and Out' list).

At one time in my life, that is when I was younger and single, I WAS on the forefront of stuff. I knew bands before radios and Rolling Stone did. I knew plaids (flannel) was coming back three years before it finally did mainstream. And even though I started this blog after the initial wave of blogging, having lasted for five and half years while Facebook and Twitter have tried to destroy it, I think does count for something for the millions of us that still do it.

The problem with any pop culture phase, it generally follows a clear bell curve. That is goes from being non-existent, quickly gains wide acceptance, before peaking and almost as quickly, loses that acceptance. There are all sorts of 'adopters' of pop culture, including the hipsters, the trend setters, the followers, the haters, and the first droppers. Most of us have probably been all of these at one point or another, unless you are a girl who still insists that Uggs with a skirt is cute post 2007 and that American Apparel tights under long shirts is so "now", then you are probably a life long follower. No harm there, as the majority of advertisers, tv shows, movies, music, and marketers cater to your demands.

But what to do if you aren't in this semi-monopolistic demographic? At what point have you just become eccentric or at least comfortable and trustful with your opinions and not swayed by the mainstream ebb and flow (my thoughts on Facebook and Twitter, for instance) or just old and out of touch (mine and Andy Rooney's thoughts on Facebook and Twitter, for instance). How do you maintain your individuality without becoming a Hater, that person that never tries anything that is popular for the simple reason everyone else is doing it?

I've been giving this some thought lately. Again, due to the Best Of lists I mentioned above, a birthday coming up, and recent brushes with American culture while living abroad.

Let's discuss lists for a second. For starters, a good gauge of pop culture is the biggest grossing movies of the year and 2010 is no exception. Here are the Top 10....
Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2, Twilight:Eclipse, Inception, HP and Deathly Hollows Pt 1, Despicable Me, Shrek Forever After, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Karate Kid. I saw ONE of these (IM2, on DVD). I do have two (AiW and Inception) on my Netflix queue. Most of these are kid movies, which as I am not part of that movie going demographic, I have little to no interest in them. I would have been there for HP though, had I been in the states. So, of the Top 10, at most I will see four of these; with the expectation that Inception is probably going to be the most interesting from a movie experience. Who is paying $10 a person to see most of the other drivel? You have to go all the way down to #25 for another movie I have seen. Most of my friends generally consider me a movie buff based on my knowledge of film history and my opinions on movies, but what does that mean when I have seen two of 25 (8%) of the most popular movies of the year? Out of curiosity, I looked to see what my top rated movie on Netflix was for 2010...It was a two-way tie between Up in the Air and Zombieland. Does these facts point to the fact that I am hip, a first-dropper, eccentric or old?

The other thing that got me thinking about this is I just finished reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". I admit I'm not a huge reader, mostly due to time restraints and I'm easily distracted by other things to do. Thus, I'm really late coming to this party and although I don't regret coming, I'm pretty sure I could have found a better one. This book not only is one of the most popular books STILL after being originally published 8 years ago, but there are TWO movies about it, one Swedish and an American version in the works. Clearly there is a lot of interest with this, but honestly, I didn't find the book that great. It's written awkwardly, strange translation at times, takes too long to develop and fails to know how to end (I know it is a trilogy, but still), seems to cash in on a few key sensationalist scenes, and my bet is that no one will even remember this book in five years! I just don't get why it is so popular. But I never do. Why do hacks like Baldacci continue to make the list? Even Franzen appears too contrived for my liking, but the only other "great" American author I really found I liked a lot was Henry Miller and he wasn't really popular until he was past his prime. In fact, the last three books I have really enjoyed have all been written by British authors. Go figure. So again, does this make me unique minded, uneducated, well rounded or just old?

And then there is TV. I won't even get started on this topic. Since Seinfeld went off the air, I don't think I have been a fan of any show in the Top 10 aside from LOST, if that even was in the end. Although, Mad Men is amazing (up to Season 3 now!) and worth every word of hype. Again, what's my problem here?

And then there is technology. Almost once a week, someone makes a comment to me about Facebook. I've made my thoughts on FB and Twitter here before, so I won't repeat them. But I think both are maxed out and in two years, both will be replaced by something. Wish I knew what that was, but chances are, I'll be here blogging about it and not partaking, haha. Hater, old or too cool for school?

We all want to think we are individuals, but there can't be a 'mainstream' if we all act seperately. A movie can't bank $100 million in a weekend if we all think we have unique tastes and opinions about it. But the culmination of what we do with our spare time, how we present ourselves, and how much we care about those two things does tend to lump us into these demographics. It's just that at this point in my life, I don't know which one I am nor do I think I care. Which, by definition, probably just makes me old (relative, of course, ha). But you know what, I'm ok with that as long as I continue to enjoy and find the things I find enjoyable. I'm also ok with the idea that I am no longer in any marketer's target demographic for the majority of things I enjoy. I don't think either one of us will lose sleep over that.

Do you ever think about where you fit into pop culture and your role in its evolution?

Avoiding Direct Fire

2010-12-22T04:41:00.002-05:00

There are many negatives with living overseas, especially during the holiday season. First of all, it is 80 degrees during the day, thus no 'White Christmas' here. Also, being a predominately Muslim country, Christmas gets about as much attention as say Cinco de Mayo in the States; it's one of those days that some people celebrate. Although the new addition to our neighborhood is the Niel(sic) store selling Christmas decorations. But having our tree up for the past few weeks and getting box after box of gifts (95% for SA) has really helped foster the mood.

But one thing I won't miss about this holiday season is trying to dance around, bite my tongue or be forced to instill some reason into a family political discussion. For matters bigger than this blog, politics in the US and to a greater extent, discussions OF politics is not only maddening, it's pointless. Since the caveman had their first tribal leader to lead them to the woolly mammoth, there have been second guessers and wanna-be leaders who never step up to the plate. The Europeans have turned it into an elegant art form and fun hobby over the past 2,000 years. However, in the US, this is usually about as much fun as banging your head against the wall and sometimes less productive. For this, I am sad.

You see, discussions of politics is what creates change and evolution of society. It's the ability to not only recognize that there is a problem or a better solution to the status quo. Simply stating "This sucks!" or so and so is doing that wrong accomplishes nothing. The real art is presenting a solution or counter solution to the problem and getting your colleagues, and better yet, your opponents, to agree that it is the best way forward.

Obviously, there can not always be a unanimous decision. Especially on major issues. But that doesn't mean there can't be some sort of compromise. And this is where I feel most Americans, from the elected Congressmen down to my racist 'friend' who sends mass AOL emails from five years ago are lacking. The inability to put together a cohesive ORIGINAL thought on an issue. Now, I don't expect anyone, certainly even myself, to be an expert on something in order to have an opinion or idea on a subject matter. But simply repeating stuff heard on ideological propaganda shows (both sides are guilty!) is neither showing any effort or thought to this time honored tradition.

And this is where holiday discussions, especially in the US, usually end up. Thus, we have been regulated to either 1) avoiding the topics altogether or 2) ending up either angry with or upsetting a family member during what is supposed to be a time to enjoy spending time together.

This is sad for several reasons this holiday season as just in the past week there has been so much exciting and important news stories that will ultimately affect most of us one way or another in the coming few years. There was the result of the census and what that means to our electoral college and Congress, the Senate passing the START treaty, the opinion of the Virginia judge regarding the healthcare mandate, the issues in Korea, which could affect the whole world, lots of economic news, both good and bad, and maybe most relevant to anyone reading this, the FCC's actions on Net Neutrality which could change the Internet (in the US at least) forever!

All of these are important issues that invite some nuance and deep thinking with the development of an opinion and solution. A perfect political discussion. However, when I do see American news, it's still mostly all fire and brimstone and about some missing 14 year old white girl or movie star smoking a bong! Nothing that matters to you, me, the country or the world. Not news or politics, just drivel.

So this Christmas, I encourage you to actually try to engage your relatives and friends into the more traditional and time treasured past time of discussing politics and coming to some sort of friendly dialogue, not bumper sticker, knee jerk, stock sayings and encourage them to use facts and their common sense to come to a solution. At least do it for me since I won't be able to.

Or when your weird uncle mentions Sarah Palin, just stuff another piece of ham in your mouth! Something else I won't be able to do!

The trip to Eastern Senegal

2010-12-15T17:30:00.000-05:00

Last week I took a work trip to eastern Senegal. This was my first trip outside of Dakar in this country. The combination of it taking a few hours to get anywhere kind of significant and the fact we aren't supposed to drive with our temporary plates outside the city has kept us here. So this trip would allow me to see real Senegal. Before I organized this trip, I knew hardly anything about Senegal's geography. For others like me, here is a map and the path from Dakar to Tambakounda, our final destination.

In total, the drive took about 7-8 hours, including ONE pee stop and not stopping to eat. In actuality, there are only a couple places to stop regardless. The first couple hours of the trip is just getting out of Dakar and its suburbs. Then you drive through the closest resort area near the ocean. From there it is an almost straight easterly drive. After Mbour/Saly, there is very little until you get to Kaolack. Here you can stop for gas, food, and pee. From what I saw of it, that is about all you'd want to do here. The city is a cross between a giant intersection (the roads connecting Senegal North and South and East and West converge here), truckstop, and a landfill. It's one of the dirtiest cities I have seen in Africa thus far. Just prior to Kaolack, however, was one of the most beautiful areas, the salt plains.

Here, salt is harvested from the water. I'd love to see this area during the wet season as well since it is wide open and flat in all directions. It must feel like you are driving through the ocean when it is filled with water. East of Kaolack, it quickly becomes more scenic and rural with many villages and eventually, baobab trees lining the horizon. What is a baobab tree? Glad you asked...

As you can see, in Senegal at least, they are generally giant trees that produce the baobab fruit which can be eaten or the pulp and fruit can be used for a variety of other uses. I've had the juice and enjoy it.

I was out there to meet with some producer groups in various value chains in the region. blah blah blah, the highlight was of course the people. I'll never forget the first village we went to. I swear everyone in the village, man and woman and even many children, came up to greet each one of us. Suddenly, I found myself sitting in the middle of about 100 villagers directing a meeting to learn about what they had accomplished. Quite a unique experience that over the rest of the week I truly started to relish. Here are some more pics from the villages...

Even donkeys are smart enough to stand in the shade. It gets HOT out here...

The "road" to one of the villages!

Here, I was meeting with the women in the foreground when all the teenage girls returned from the field. They all came over, many saying hi, and clustered around to see what I was doing there. Since polygamy is common here, I think they were auditioning to be Wife #2! I was very popular, haha.

With some kids from one of the villages. I think they were as amused by me as I was by them.

As always, driving itself is an adventure here...

Sunset in Africa is beautiful in its own way.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Xmas?!?

2010-12-03T04:10:00.003-05:00

Brrrr, the chill is in the air here. This week it got down to 74 degrees the other night! Where is my three quarters length t-shirt? hahaha. Seriously, the only thing freezing around here is my pay! (bump-chhhh!) Thanks, I'll be here all week, try the veal!

On a personal note, that stinks, but from a political move, it was a smart and easy decision. Although, sadly, like in the private sector, the people hurt the most are the rank-and-file government employees, especially new hires in an effort to replace a much older and retiring workforce. It'll be interesting to see if we lose many more of them back to private sector, especially since that IS recovering and will continue to do so during this two year pay freeze. Thus, putting the government in a shortage of skilled, younger workers still/again. Time will tell. Besides, not getting the usual cost of living adjustment is more or less like paying 2% or so more in taxes, which I'm fine with if the social programs and other benefits promised by this administration continue/start to be provided. What can I say, tax and spend, baby! And as I 100% expected, Congress will pass the tax compromise before the end of the year. Personally, I think we both need program cuts AND tax increases to fix the budget, but that's like jumping on a double edged sword for every politician.

But back to Xmas here in Senegal. Actually, if it weren't for people from the States asking me for Christmas lists and the fact my Dilbert desk calendar says December, I'd have no clue that the holiday is three weeks away. The two biggest holidays finished up last month, so most of the locals don't have big plans for our typical holiday period. Although, some do celebrate Christmas with family members that are Christians. One funny thing is that on the drive home, I go past a new Christmas store, ha. It just sprouted up overnight the other day and there was a giant blow-up Santa out front. I think they are mostly selling Christmas decorations. It looks odd in between the creperie and rotisserie chicken place.

We did put up our Christmas tree yesterday. Will have pics soon. Definitely the first time I've put up a tree while wearing shorts and a t-shirt with the air conditioning on! In fact, I think K and I are going to the golf range tomorrow! haha. Slightly better weather here than what you all have been experiencing in the States and Germany/Netherlands! But we'll be thinking of you when we probably go to the pool Christmas day! hahaha. K said I wouldn't miss the change in seasons, especially winter. I think she is right!

Thanksgiving in Africa

2010-11-25T16:16:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all had lots of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pie, lots and lots of pumpkin pie. We had none of that! But it's not because we couldn't get it. We actually got a turkey from The Gambia frozen in the freezer, but decided to keep it until Christmas. We also brought canned pumpkin with us, but didn't feel like making a pie. Actually, we were invited to a couple Thanksgiving dinners with colleagues and stuff as well, but just wanted to spend the day together as a family. In fact, K had to work for a bit today. Yes, we sometimes work holidays, especially overseas when someone important is visiting from the US or other local things that occur on American, but not local holidays.

So what did we do today? Well, while K went to her meeting, I went to the driving range with a friend for about an hour and took a golf lesson. Not a bad way to spend $16, eh? haha. Hate to think how much that would cost me in the States. We then had lunch at this very nice resturant for lunch (real hamburgers by the sea!). We then went to a park with SA and had the place to ourselves. We did have a bit of Turkey, K made some homemade pasta sauce with turkey in it!

So what else has been going on? Well, we got the swingset up and SA loves it! Here is some photographic proof!

Here we were last week at a new grocery store that opened up here, one of, it not the, nicest one here now. SA loves these carts. I don't blame her as I wish they made them in my size.

And last but not least for this week, this was a giant bat that was/does fly around our outside balcony in the evenings. As you can tell, it is bigger than the papayas hanging in the tree! I estimated its wingspan at easily two feet! So it appears Dracula lives in my neighborhood as well!

Sorry for the repeats here for some of you. Only so much happens here in a week, especially with us being quite busy with work. In the next couple of weeks, I'll be traveling around Senegal for work, so something to look forward to here, for us all!

Happy Tabaski!

2010-11-16T06:51:00.004-05:00

So tomorrow is Tabaski here in Senegal, thus a day off! I think this is the third Muslim holiday I've had off since arriving here. I love them, haha. I could try to explain what Tabaski (El al-Adha) is, but Wikipedia would do a much better job. However, the short version that affects me mostly, aside from the day off from work, is that everyone buys and kills a sheep on the day of the celebration, so there have been tons of sheeps and rams available for sale everywhere. Also, the goats that have been tied up in my neighbor's yard for the past couple months are probably about to have their last meal. It is the biggest holiday of the year here, so nothing is going to be open. Funny story. The other day when walking home from the gym, a woman stopped me on the street, that in of itself is kind of rare here, so I was a little surprised. She asked if I wanted to buy a "mouton". However, I thought she said "moto". They do sound similar in French, especially if you are tired from you workout and just walked in the hot sun for 15 minutes. The conversation ended with her asking if I understood what she was saying, me offering a non-convincing reply, and her laughing to herself as she walked away. Suffice to say, I did not buy a sheep nor a motorbike. These sort of conversations happen to me almost everyday here. For instance, my gardener may or may not have invited me, and I may have accepted, to spend a weekend in his village.

So what is a non-Muslim family going to do on the biggest Muslim holiday of the year where they live, well we are going to put up a swingset in the backyard! haha. Pictures to come should we be successful and not drink too many beers in the process. BTW, the weather today (and everyday lately), clear, sunny, highs of 86, low of 76. Any concerns of 'missing' winter seem ludicrous at this point!

And as promised in the last post, here are two pics from the Marine Ball! Aren't we just the most handsome family, EVER! hehe.

All dressed up with no gas

2010-11-08T04:35:00.005-05:00

This past Friday here in Dakar was the annual Marine Corps Ball. What is the Marine Corps Ball, you might be asking? Well, each year at military bases with Marines and Embassies worldwide (the Marines have security detachments at them), the Marines host a formal birthday party to themselves. There is some tradition and cake, etc. It's typically the most formal event for the embassy community of the year. K and I decided to go this year!

But before we get to that, there was an unforeseen problem that is all too familiar when living here, something does not go according to plan! You see, when I left work early on Friday at 4 to get home to be ready by 6, I figured I'd have our newly hired driver pick me up at work to save the 15 minute walk. When I hopped in, I noticed the "low fuel" light was on! So I said to him in my best French, of course, 'uhm, Mbaye, we need gas.' To this he replied, 'Oui.' I was fairly pissed! I mean, did he intend to just drive around until we ran out of gas without telling us? Plus, we needed the car in about 2 hours to go to the Ball! So, once I got home, I sent him to go get gas, hoping that he actually makes it to the station because the tank of a car we have is about as fuel efficient as a Winnebago (yay American SUVs!). About 90 mins later, he shows up and says calmly, 'I didn't get gas. There is no gas.'

Now we are in a bit of a panic. So, we have our car, that somehow got back to the house (thankfully), but has no gas and we need to leave in about 30 mins!?!? I'm thinking that maybe he is mistaken and in an attempt to cover up one mistake, not getting gas on Thursday or Friday morning, is attempting to lie his way out of it by saying there is no gas in the whole city, which did happen about a year ago, but no one had mentioned it to me all day.

Here we are moments before leaving....(Pic to come when internet is working again at the house. Yes, it's not working, again. Welcome to Dakar, when one thing is fixed, another breaks.)

So, we decide to risk it and drive the car to the gas station on our way to the ball. No big deal. If you have a Ford like us, it has that "X Miles to Empty" message, sort of taunting you with every hill, redlight, and stop along the way as it slowly ticks down. Like I said, I was surprised he even made it back to the house without getting any gas. So when I started the truck up, guess how many miles to empty I had??? Oh, close, but the correct answer is 3. Yes, 3! Some people would be like, oh, 3 miles, that is plenty. Again, assuming you live in the US where there is a gas station on about every block (except for the DC area!) and the gas gauge is accurate, which I didn't know if it was because I had never driven it that low!!!

So, we decide to roll the dice, dressed in our fineness, and embark to our soiree! On the way to the gas station, the message begins to taunt us. K thinks there is a gas station on the way to the hotel where the ball is being held. We've only had the car for about a week, remember, so our landmarks and local knowledge is kind of meager still. We drive to where she thinks it is, about two miles away, and guess what? No gas station, only a US gas station-esque sign for a hotel!!!! Now we must turn around and drive to the only other gas station we know for sure, 2 miles BACK the way we came!

As we turn around, the message light taunts us further by showing "1 mile to empty" in it's calm and cool green LED display. At this point, we realize we have fewer and fewer options. We don't have enough to probably get to the ball and home, we might have enough to get home, but then need a ride, and we might have enough to get to the gas station, but probably not enough to get home if they indeed do not have enough gas, thus having to abandon the SUV along the side of the road and us wearing non-car pushing or walking appropriate attire.

Against our better judgement, we decide to try the gas station. We must pass our street on the way to said gas station. Before we even get to our street, however, the message on the dash beeps and says '0 miles to empty'. We tempt fate even more and drive the additional mile to the gas station! When we pull in, it is clear something is wrong. There is only one car getting gas, only one attendant, and he waves us off. So K gets out to talk to him, in her nice dress, which obviously kind of confused him. Turns out, there is a strike by the truck drivers, so no gas in all of Dakar.

So now, we are at the gas station, about a mile and a half from home, with no gas and nowhere else to go. Naturally, we do the only thing we can, try to drive home. Miraculously, we make it home (clearly on fumes) and bum a ride from a colleague to the ball. This actually worked out well, in a way, as then I didn't have to drive home and could enjoy the libations without a care, which greatly attributed to my bad hangover Saturday. Win some, lose some.

Supposedly the strike is over (I walked to work and when passing the gas station, talked to an attendant), so we can drive again! Hurray!

The one where we go trick or treating and get our car in Dakar

2010-11-02T05:12:00.014-04:00

It's Election Day! I planned on doing a big election day prediction guide, but I have a day job, so not this year, haha. Suffice to say, I predict the GOP will take a slight majority in the House, albeit not as large as the Dems have now. Also, if enough Tea ~~Baggers~~ Party members win, there will be a majority formed with Dems and Tea Party types, which on many social issues, they agree on! Tres interesante! As for the Senate, the Dems hold, barely, their majority. There you have it, my official prediction. Feel free to come back and bash me or stand in my glow Wednesday morning, haha.

But what we all want to really talk about is how life has been going here in Dakar. To be honest, finally, after more than 2 months, it is finally on the upswing and looking good. As I mentioned before, the last of our stuff arrived from the States a couple of weeks ago and we are down to only one or two boxes left in various corners of the house! The painting is done, so really all we have left is to hang stuff up!

The other HUGE news is that we got our car, finally, last week! It's so liberating here to finally get the car. We were finally able to go to the grocery store when we wanted to and not have to bum a ride. Also, we drove to a dinner party AND to the beach yesterday, a holiday here!

But before we get to that, it's Picture Pages time! First up, house stuff. So here is what happens when you put an American SUV in an African garage. As you can see, it barely fits! The gardener, the guard, and I had to clean the garage to get it in!

Also, we have a banana tree in the backyard. Eating fresh bananas from your own tree puts even organic bananas to shame! Best bananas I have ever eaten! Our cook makes some pretty good banana bread too!

And remember how BLAH our place was when we moved in; white walls, floor, and ceilings with our old issued furniture...

Well, we painted most of the rooms and checkout how SA's playroom turned out...

Yes, we added a little bit of color!
Saturday night was trick or treating at a few other Americans' houses. Can you guess what SA was...

Then it was time to add the whiskers...

And considering this was only her second Halloween, she figured it out really quickly...

Especially that walking is overrated and why wait until you get home to eat your candy...

And as I previously mentioned, yesterday was a holiday here (All Saints Day), so we went to a nice hotel pool for the day. This is what SA thought of the place...

And actually, this is where I often eat my lunch...

Not a bad view, eh?
Well, that is about it for now. As you can see, we are settling in nicely and little SA is growing like a weed. To quote her..."Nooooo, what?"

Where's Steve? & extra Benin pics

2010-10-22T07:13:00.006-04:00

Came across these pics after having done my post, so enjoy more, or not! Have a good weekend!

Remember "Where's Waldo?" I like to call this one "Where's Steve".

That's from the visit I did at the port. Interesting and dangerous place, ha.

Here are some more snake pics!

Trip to Benin

2010-10-19T10:31:00.014-04:00

Finally, I have some time to do this post some justice with pictures!

So, for three weeks, I went to Benin. Where is Benin? Good question, because two months ago, I didn't really know either! I could type a link here, but since you found this blog, I assume you know how to use Yahoo and Google. But for those of you too lazy; picture Africa and you know how it is shaped like a backwards P, well, almost where the loop meets the straight part heading south is where Benin is. Not exactly since that is Nigeria, but to the west of Nigeria is Benin. It's one of the small, skinny ones that you probably never bothered to learn in 7th grade geography either.

In the week and a half I have been back, I have probably forgotten half the interesting tidbits about the country that I had probably intended to share with you. This is probably a win-win, now my post won't be excruciating long and I'll get to the pictures sooner, which is all any of us really care about. The short version is that I liked Benin. My only real complaint is that the internet is VERY slow. Like almost dial-up slow. I think this is because like a lot of Africa, until the fiber optic cable running along the coast down to South Africa is completed, the connection literally runs from Europe across the desert! Thus, I couldn't do any posts from there.

Cotonou is a relatively small city, only about 700,000 people. But everyone rides mopeds. It's like SE Asia in Africa! I honestly don't understand how people aren't killed all the time there. This picture doesn't do the scene justice because there are generally about four lanes of traffic going in both directions on a more or less two lane road! Add in pedestrians, giant potholes to avoid, and other randomness that was hard to believe, and well, you get something like this...

And that was a quiet day! The fact that we only got into one minor accident while there is probably just dumb luck.

As usual with these trips, I didn't have a lot of spare time to do tourist things. However, I did get to do some fun things. The first weekend, we visited a voodoo temple. According to my guidebook and from my keen observation skills, 50% of the country still practices/believes in voodoo. In fact, the voodoo that is prominent in Haiti, Brazil, and New Orleans is derived from Benin, since those places are where the slaves exported from Benin ended up, generally. You can tell if someone comes from a family that worship voodoo by the scarred markings on their face. At first it is quite noticeable, but after awhile, you get used to seeing it and in some ways looks kind of cool, kind of like tattoos or piercings do. Each tribe/sect (don't know the exact correct word) marks their face differently. The temple we visited was the infamous Temple of the Python. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but when else do you get to get pics like these...

There were a bunch more pythons inside the actual temple.

Later that day, we had lunch at one of the premiere hotels along the coast. Seriously, the beach looked like this for as far as you could see in either direction! Clear, wide, and no one on it. Well,except for this village of fishermen who were pulling in the giant net with today's catch!

They were almost as interested in us as we were with them.

About six hours drive into the interior of the country, there was a welcoming party for me...

They didn't have time to complete the sign and the ladies were a little rigid, but it was a nice gesture all the same.

One thing I was able to do while in the countryside was eat a local delicacy, agouti. What is "agouti" you ask? Well, the layman term is "bush rat", but that isn't really fair and is very general. To be specific, at least with what I ate (and only because there were no other options at the places we ate (including other local staples like maize made into this gelatin like substance and yummy hand mashed yam that tasted like mashed potatoes)) and only figuring out what it was after I returned to the capital (the locals with us didn't know how to translate it even into French!). Anyways, I ate cane rat. It looks a lot like a woodchuck. Turns out, per this BBC article, it's actually a very healthy meat (high protein, low fat and cholesterol) and the Germans (na klar!) have been teaching people how to raise them as livestock to be sold as food, instead of relying on the traditional hunting methods. All I can say is "YUM!" It tasted like a good roast beef.

Everyday I was pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity of the people. For instance, I bet you'd never be able to fit this much stuff even into your SUV...

Or move your desk and chair across town with such ease...

Use your primary job as the main means of support for your second job on the side...

Yes, he is loading pineapples onto the top of his trailer, filled with gas, to deliver on the way! Brilliant!
And why not take the family out for a nice drive...

Actually, this is far from the most cringe worthy sights on a moped I saw. The ones that made my heart skip a beat as a father were the ones with a family of four; father, mother, toddler straddling the tank between his father's arms while he drives, and the baby wrapped (in only the way they can do it here in Africa) and strapped to the mothers back, just cruising down the road.

In general, I highly recommend going to Benin. The people are nice. The food is good. There is a LOT of untapped and unexplored (from a Western traveler point of view) coastline and interior of the country to keep you busy for days or weeks there. Oh, and try the agouti!

Belated Post?

2010-10-15T08:12:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I promised to explain why this blog has been MIA the past few weeks. And I meant to do it days ago, but it's not even probably going to happen right now as I am writing why I can't write about it now? Comprendez?

So, long story (to come later, I PROMISE), short is that I was traveling for work for three weeks (photos to come when me and colleague are in the same place again (next week!?!)) with 1999 internet speeds and then this week, we received the rest of our stuff from the States, thus 350+ boxes of "Why did we send this?" has been keeping us busy this week. And I think my netbook is probably buried under a few piles of random stuff as I type this.

So, good news, bad news. Good news, life has been good, if not stressed, bad news, blog suffers, as usual. Good news, next week will be better?

Oh, and before I forget, this is for you "Annonymous commenter", please stop it already. Either sign in, email me directly (if I even know you) or stop it. Your messages are creepy in a "I'm watching you from your neighbor's bushes as I touch myself" sort of way.

Time to drop the puck!

2010-10-05T08:52:00.003-04:00

That's right folks, it's that time of the year. The air is getting cooler, people are debating what to wear for Halloween (only 26 days before!), and here in Dakar, the rainy season is just about over leading to 6+ months of sun and 80 degree weather!

In 48 hours, or is that 54, er, uhm, 56 since I am in Central African Time right now, but Dakar is Greenwich Mean Time, or back to Eastern Standard Time!?!?! In TWO days, hockey season starts again! It's been a whole three months since the season ended and I've had to sit through no sports (baseball is not a sport, it's a reason to eat unhealthy food while sitting in the sun; football isn't a sport since it's mostly standing around for three hours with the occasional play; and college football is just a reason to drink and have an excuse to pretend you are young/cool/relevant enough to talk/hang with people currently at the same college you happened to shell out thousands of dollars to also attend). My fantasy draft has been completed and I have the Tivo set to record the Flyers opening night game!

Oh yeah, where have I been the past three weeks? More to come later...

The Venice Zoo?

2010-09-14T06:43:00.005-04:00

This past weekend was another 3-day weekend here! We had Friday off for the end of Ramadan! Still without a car, we are fairly limited with our exploring. Thus, we spent most of the weekend at the house. However, as always, there were several surprises throughout the weekend!

First of all, there was a large rainstorm Saturday morning, which is now headed toward you all! Funny to think the hurricanes mostly originate from here. Sorry. It rained and rained hard for a few hours. I've told you before how it floods here when it does this. Well, now I have proof. Here is my "street" while it was raining...

Kind of looks like Venice, no?

Also, there were also a bunch more critter discoveries at the house. I think the rain has encouraged them to seek higher and dryer ground and also they are all just more active this time of year.

First up is every one's favorite insurance salesman, the Geico Gecko. Ok, these ones aren't green, but otherwise they look like him!

We've spotted at least three in the house ranging from 1 inch to one big white one that was about 6 inches! SA is smart enough to know these guys are out of place...

But also can't help but be enamoured by these new, strange inhabitants in her life...

Also, I saw the LIZARD again this weekend; remember the one my staff were so scared of! Well, I saw him walk around the edge of the yard and leave under the front gate! He vanished across the street. I tried to cover the hole that I thought he came out of with cardboard (all I had). Also, the gardener we hired starts tomorrow, so I'm going to have him cover the holes with dirt. After doing some research, I think it is some sort of monitor. There is a type that is common to this region. Either way, a 2 foot long lizard is not welcomed at Chez ZombieChronicles!

While still reeling from the lizard spotting, I noticed something else in the backyard. I watched it for several minutes out the upstairs window before I yelled to K to bring the camera with the telephoto lens! Honestly, I couldn't figure out what it was without it. Seriously, I was about 95% sure it was an alien lifeform. But then you see this....

Hmmm, yeah. Appears to be some sort of GREEN, ugly crab. I think. It's living in a hole by the back wall. #2 on the gardeners To-Do List tomorrow! We've nicknamed him Tank McClaw.

I also did a couple odd jobs around the house, tearing out some bookshelves the previous guy had installed and fixing the kitchen sink. The plumbing skills appear to be somewhere around my level, which is to say barely novice! There wasn't even a proper seal between the sink drain and the pipe leading to the septic tank. It was just one pipe going into another, not even a proper clamp or washer connecting the two! haha. It made it easy to fix, but my faith for the long term is pretty shaky.

The Ghetto Entertainment Center and Fun with Electricity

2010-09-10T06:21:00.000-04:00

As I said in the last post, we received our airfreight, all 700 lbs of belongings, last week. We had preshipped an old tv with a co-worker, so we included our dvd player, new to us TiVo, the Wii, and the Playstation 2, which I'll probably take with me when I travel (3rd world hotels can be very boring!). We also have the AFN receiver so we can get some American tv. Some people use Hulu and other online services here like Slingbox, but so far the internet at our house has appeared far from reliable or fast no matter how many times they 'upgrade' it!

Also, the house came with some furniture. Mostly just basic needs, much like a hotel. So we have a couple beds, couches, chairs, dressers, etc. But often times, you have to get creative, which is what the picture below shows. Behold, my ghettoized entertainment center!

Yes, I built it on a sideways dresser and an end table! Like how I used two different styles of furniture! haha. It's all we had extra around the house. At least it is temporary. Note the shelves in the background. They were there when we arrived, I think built by the previous person, but they kind of suck. Some are too crooked to hold anything and they are only about 8 inches from the wall, so even the DVD player is too big to sit on it, especially since they didn't build wire holes in the shelf. I'm thinking of taking all or some of them out when we get new furniture.

The other great thing about this setup I have is how to deal with the electricity here. First of all, like most of the world outside the US, they use 220v lines instead of the 110v we have in the US. Obviously, most of our electronics are 110v since we purchased them while living in the US. Thus, we need transformers to 'dumb down' the electricity from 220v to 110v so we can plug a US plug into them without frying the entire thing! However, here in Dakar, the electricity is some of the worst I have experienced. Not only does it go off at least once a day (more on this later), but there are very unsafe spikes of 400v! Obviously not good from a personal standpoint, but also very bad for ANYTHING plugged directly into the wall. Luckily, we do receive a couple voltage regulators with the house. These attempt to prevent the spikes from overloading your electronics. However, with the peaks, come low valleys where the lights even dim! The sudden increase back to regular levels can surge your equipment! In anticipation of this, I purchased several surge suppressors before coming.

The suppressor is more advanced than a surge protector most of us used in the US. In all honestly, the protector is almost worthless. It'll fry itself once and might in the process prevent the current passing to your electronics. Suppressors actually have circuit breakers which trip if the surge is too high, saving itself and your stuff. Granted, over time or a large enough surge, these too can be fried. So, how to wire a US based entertainment center with all these components?!?!

It was actually kind of easy. Out of the crazily unstable 220v plug from the wall, I run that into the voltage regulator. I then plug the 110v step down transformer into this. I then plug the 110v surge suppressor into the 110v transformer. Now I have ample plugs and as best I can protect safe 110v power for my boxes and tv. See below...

Luckily, the strange choice of furniture actually helps to mask this conglomerate of wires and boxes. One BIG warning though. Do NOT ever plug your suppressor into a regulator! You might not fry your suppressor, which I almost did, but you will certainly trip it AND see fire shoot out of it. Luckily, I didn't have anything plugged into it at the time!

Unfortunately, this setup isn't even complete. What I really need is a UPS battery backup arranged in this lineup. You see, when the electricity goes off, there is a ten second pause before the generator fires up (sounds like a tractor revving its engine!). Thus, everything goes off. The UPS would prevent this. The only reason we care so much is that the TiVo takes like 5 minutes to reboot (the only serious drawback to it we've noticed), thus if we are recording a show, we pretty much will miss it. Also, it saves on the surge from cutting power to the electronics and then receiving the power again once the generator kicks in. So this line of wires and boxes will only get bigger and longer!

Africa: Now with Pictures!

2010-09-08T05:19:00.003-04:00

I could talk about living here in post after post, but obviously pictures relay the scene a lot better!

First up, here are a couple pictures of the 'hood from our second story terrace. Note the unpaved, muddy, water logged 'street' with no name we live on. And yes, that is a swamp next door in the two empty lots. The end of the rainy season can't come soon enough!

One nice thing about being so tropical and living near the water is the wide variety of wildlife. Some nice, some not so nice. The not so nice are the 2-3 inch cockroaches you see occasionally. Also, yesterday when leaving the gym in the rain, I started to step over a big rock in the sidewalk that wasn't there when I went in and in doing so, realized it was the largest SNAIL I've ever seen. Seriously, I'd need two hands to pick it up and the slug part was about a two inch diameter! Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera on me. But the one really nice thing is the birds. They really are lovely and sing songy here. Below is this little fellow that likes to sit in our bedroom balcony glass doors. He isn't scared of SA and sometimes even knocks on the glass with his beak looking for us.

And last but not least, I had to leave with some adorable pics of SA playing. She has adjusted fairly well. She didn't even cry this morning when we left her with the nanny! Here she is playing on her rocking dinosaur. Obviously, she gets her hair from her mother! haha.

We did get our air freight shipment on Friday last week, so the house is very slowly filling up and feeling like 'home'. But more on that in the next post!

Things I never thought I'd have to deal with...

2010-09-01T05:25:00.002-04:00

Each day here brings something somewhat unexpected. Whether it be a situation where I have to rely on my seemingly dwindling French capabilities, seeing something I don't comprehend, trying to understand the mindset of how things are or aren't done here (drainage systems for instance!) or just a situation that I'm not really prepared to react to. Two such instances occurred last night.

Last night, shortly after getting home, the maid and nanny made all kinds of racket in the kitchen. Then the maid came running into the room I was and said "Steve, come!" Worried that someone got hurt or something serious had happened, I ran to the spot they wanted me to stand. Not understanding, I asked what was the problem. The one responded "Il y a un grande lezard!" Honestly, I didn't understand at first since "lezard" isn't something my office related French classes taught me. Then I thought I saw something move where they were pointing. Then they explained that they say a giant (1-2 feet long) black, lizard in the yard! They were scared b/c they say this kind bites. Like I said, I wasn't exactly sure what to do. Living on the east coast never taught me how to deal with mini dinosaurs living in my backyard that apparently might want to eat my child. I'll keep you posted.

On a related sidenote, there are big bugs here. So far I have seen at our house a praying mantis, a green stick bug, several little lizards, a couple very large beetles/roaches (2-3 inches long! and very fast), but not tons of mosquitoes. They have increased, but tend to be slow and dumb moving, not like their swampy, Kamikaze brethren in Alexandria. I'm actually yet to get be bitten.

The other incident last night was also frustrating. Our internet has been out at our house since Saturday. Before that, it never quite worked right, since K's computer could never connect. But some internet was better than none. So I called the company here. This is always frustrating in the US, even when both are native speakers. Try doing computer troubleshooting in a second language. I'm not sure who was more frustrated, me or the technician on the phone. In the end, I didn't have the information HE needed, another frustration for me since I'm not the one that set up the connection in the house, thus didn't have the info. So, still no internet, which is why there are still no interesting updates here! haha.

However, hopefully things will change tonight! Also, with the three day weekend coming (and hopefully the first of our things!), hopefully I'll have more interesting news and pics asap!

And the final thing I have to deal with on an almost daily basis is lunch. I'm not a big leftovers or make my lunch ahead of time guy, preferring to go out and be spontaneous with my choices. However, there are unique challenges here. The first is that in my office building, there are ZERO food options. Not even a vending machine. Thus, we must walk to get food. It's very hot and humid. Thus, not pleasant at noon to walk around the dusty and wet streets. (Yes, dusty and wet both occur at the same time here!) The other unique challenge right now is that it is Ramadan, thus 95% of the country isn't eating during the day. Some places aren't even open for lunch. I did find a charming little tapas place near the house on Monday, but again with the walking! So yesterday I went to what my office refers to as "the fly place". Basically, it's this woman in a 'tent' down by the beach that serves traditional Senegalese food for less than two dollars a giant plate. It's called "the fly place" because of the flies, obviously, but also b/c it is hot and sitting there is just miserable. But to be honest, the food wasn't half bad and for less than two dollars, how can one really complain.

Today I brought leftovers.

Almost a week...

2010-08-26T09:50:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe that we were just heading to the airport about this time last week. In some ways, it feels like hours ago, in many ways, weeks or months ago! Our life in DC seems so distant already. We miss our cute little house and neighborhood. (Sidewalks and pavement, who'd miss that?!?! haha)

But seriously, things are getting better. We had several things break or need fixed in the house since we arrived, but most have been fixed. SA is acting like her old self, having finally gotten over her jetlag and the nanny seems really good. Oh yeah, we hired a nanny and a housekeeper/cook. So far we are very happy with both.

Work has helped create a life for us. We at least have a routine from 8-5ish. My office is HUGE. I found out the day I arrived that I got a promotion, not dependent on me going here, but from the people in Washington! That's always nice. But seriously, my office here is bigger than anyone's in Washington. I think it might be the size of our bedroom! But it's not a big deal really, but nice to have my own space and some privacy. I even have a window. Nice view of a wall with flowers and vines growing on it. Although, it's raining hard today (rainy season here), so looking outside makes me sleepy.

We haven't decided what we will do this weekend. We did get our AFN hooked up last night, so now with TV and internet at home, we are pretty set up. Just need our stuff to show up to make it feel more like our place. Oh, and we've been able to do something here in the first few days we never had time to do in the States; we started watching Arrested Development. We're only about 2-3 episodes in, but I'm enjoying it a lot. I actually never realized all the famous people that were in it, although I think most got MORE famous b/c of AR or after. Probably do some painting over the next couple of weeks or so.

As a whole, I think we are all warming up to the house, neighborhood, and country as a whole. It seems it takes most people here months to really adjust and be 'ok' with the fact that they live here. So we aren't feeling bad that we aren't quite there yet after only a week. Our neighborhood actually seems kind of cool, so hopefully when the giant pits and dug up streets are repaved and filled, it'll be fun to walk around and see more of it. Right now it is just too messy with dirt, concrete, holes, rain filled puddles, mud, and hot to really be adventurous with SA in tow. But I think we might do some exploring this weekend.

Alright, hope all is good with you all everywhere! Maybe we'll get some pictures this weekend.

Bonjour from Dakar!

2010-08-22T16:25:00.006-04:00

Well, after what was about 2 years of planning, jumping through a few hoops, including actual French hoops, buying half of a Costco, having movers in our house for three days, moving to a hotel, and taking a relatively short 7 hour flight Thursday night, we arrived in Dakar Friday morning.

First of all, the flight wasn't great, aside from the fact it is faster to get here than most of Europe. We flew on South African direct from Dulles. Luckily, I found a very nice guy who was willing to switch seats with me so I could sit in the aisle across from K and SA, even though the woman checking us in ASSURED us we were sitting together! SA was fine for most of the flight, but when it was time for her to go to sleep, she wasn't having any of it and was sick of her seat by then. As was I, but as an adult, I know there isn't anything me or anyone else can do other than wait out the remaining few hours. Eighteen month olds lack, unfortunately, this logic ability. So there was some crying and sleeping passengers woken. But there were also two other babies within a row or two of us, so she wasn't the only one that woke people up at times. Also, I wasn't sleeping much anyways. It was just way too uncomfortable. Usually I can make it work out, but not this trip.

We arrived in Dakar around 5am, so it was still very dark. Luckily, we had an expeditor who helped us with our family of five sized luggage pile and took us to the waiting car to drive us to our new home. We were all very tired and it was very early, so I tried not to make any opinions just yet. Plus, immediately we were having to put our French to use, so I was too busy thinking of verb conjugations than about the ramshackles we were driving by on the dusty, bumpy road.

Once at the house, my boss met us with keys and a quick tour of the house. Finally, we were able to lie down (about 24 hours since last getting out of bed) and the three of us slept for about 4-5 hours and woke up to make some lunch. The rest of the weekend has been a combination of going to the grocery store for things, unpacking, getting short little visits and tours from new friends and co-workers, interviewing potential household staff (en francais, bien sur!) and just trying to get over the jetlag. Also, I got some sort of weird heat rash from I think the plane (not sure since I've never had one before) and only tonight is it starting to maybe get better. Awesome way to start living in a new country!

The house is HUGE. I'd guess at least 3,000 square feet. There are five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a terrace, a living room, a dining room, a family room, a screened in back porch, and lots of closet space. It's actually nicer than the pictures made it out to be. Aside from the drab government issued furniture and initial bare, white walls, I'm generally pleased. The neighborhood could take some getting used to. It's a relatively new neighborhood, so there are lots of houses being constructed nearby, a few empty lots, and the roads are dirt at best, and bogs at worst. Although, once the rainy season ends in a couple months, we've been told the bogs will at least go away. The house next door has a kind of sad looking white horse that meanders its way around the neighborhood. Also, we often hear goats bleating from either the empty lot next door or only God knows where. We are very close to a very nice (though expensive) grocery store and supposedly I can walk to work in 15 mins. We'll see. The best way to truly describe it is like a gentrifying, bombed out neighborhood. It's hard to tell sometimes if the houses are going up or coming down and even the main road is not paved or barely paved in spots with lots of construction. But once out of our neighborhood (a mile at most), things become to appear a lot more civilized. Thus far the household seems mixed on whether or not we got a raw deal with the housing assignment.

Tomorrow will be a full day of orientation, which means lots of paperwork to fill out. Also, SA will spend her first full day with the nanny. I think it will be promising, but still a little exciting/scary for us all.

Ok, I'll leave you with a few pics of our place. Here's to fresh paint and our stuff arriving quickly! At least these give you a good "before" canvas to draw from.....
The living and dining(behind)combined room....

The kitchen...

The family room...

The master bedroom...

A tout a l'heure!

I speak French, now what?

2010-08-04T15:52:00.003-04:00

Ah, it's over! I took my French oral exam (2+ hours!) yesterday. I did alright. Wish I did better, but if six months ago you would have said I would speak this much French, I'd be fairly happy. My final score was 2/2+. Not exactly the "fluent" 3/3, but good enough for my office and enough to keep me out of most trouble.

So, now what? Well, I wish I could say I get to relax and hang out with you all before I go, but alas, that isn't the case. Now in the span of two weeks (including K's test on Friday!), we have to finish buying the rest of our 'provisions' for Dakar (even though we have enough to open our own latin american owned corner store!), organize our entire house into store vs ship, sort out 700lbs of clothes and other things we ship airfreight so we don't have to wait the full two months for ALL of our stuff, spend three days with the packers and movers, get the house ready for the renters (cleaning, painting, etc.), pack 5 suitcases of stuff for the flight, check into the hotel, and a bunch of other little things that if I don't look at my running list of I will probably forget. Although I'm feeling a bit better now since today I was able to change our insurance stuff on our car and house, get my airline ticket, cancel the cable, and start the process of getting the internet hooked up in Dakar.

Oh, that reminds me, I need to update my Netflix queue for the trip! Always something else!

So, am I back? No, not yet. Sorry fellow bloggers. But soon, I promise. In a couple weeks, I'll have pictures of our new house and all kinds of stories, I'm sure, of my first couple days of living in Africa.

Teeth and the 4th

2010-07-05T20:29:00.006-04:00

Uhm, hello. Remember me? Yeah, I didn't think so. I've had a few things I have been planning on posting, but something always comes up and "the post" gets put off until 'tomorrow' and well, now it is the last hour or two of my three day weekend vacation so I'm going to try and eek out a post.

After almost two years, I finished my Invisalign! A couple weeks ago I got the buttons off my teeth and now I just have my retainer I have to wear daily for six months and then only at night. My orthodontist offered to go another round with the Invisalign, but he said I was about 95% as good as it gets, so I pulled the plug. Mostly because I wanted the buttons off my teeth, which I felt made my teeth look worse, and I didn't want to have to go to a dentist in Dakar to get the buttons off later. I'll try to post before and after pics soon.

So for our three day weekend of the 4th, we decided to leave SA at home with her grandparents and great-grandparents who are visiting. K and I decided to have an adult weekend, which for us means sleeping in and having cocktails in the mid-afternoon. We settled on Atlantic City as a place that was within a four hour drive, kind of beachy, and had lots to do, including fireworks.

The place that seemed to have the best deal was Harrah's Casino. Long story short, the fireworks were pretty great, there was a party with Sean "Puff Daddy" "P. Diddy" "Diddy" Combs, the pool water smelled like dirty clothes, Lady Gaga was in town, and I taught K how to play roulette. Sunday we spent the whole day down at the 4-mile long Boardwalk. The best way to summarize a casino in Atlantic City is to imagine that America threw up all over the building. There is a little bit of everything and nothing looks that great. Plus, you just wonder, where are these people from?!?! It's quite entertaining to just watch them and make up stories for them.

Anyways, here is a pic from the Boardwalk yesterday after we had just spent about 10 dollars on 175 tickets from Skeet-Ball, Let's Make A Deal, etc., and cashed them in for a big bouncy ball and yellow 10 cent car for SA.

Here is a view from our room:

And just to get bonus points, here is an adorable pic of SA that K took a week or so ago:

The Pre-Africa Diet

2010-06-13T20:29:00.002-04:00

So, like all big things in life; graduation, summer beach season, weddings, magazine cover offers, in order to get ready for Africa, I have upped my diet to prepare. However, like the previously mentioned reasons to diet, this one is slightly different.

You see, instead of losing weight, I'm actually not even considering my weight and consider any weight gain a GOOD thing! The reasoning is that I will have the next four years to get any number of a variety of stomach illnesses to lose any bit of weight I happen to put on in the next couple of months. Also, there are some things that I know I will most likely just have to go the next four years without. For example:

Bacon: Senegal is a mostly Islamic country, therefore bacon isn't high on their list of priorities. I do think I will be able to find it at some supposedly infamous 'Belgian Butcher' shop, but for what price and quality? Therefore, in the interim, yes to adding bacon and the thicker the better!

Chocolate: This was something I wasn't worried about when I moved to Europe. Again, chocolate will be available in Senegal, most likely of the French variety, which will be good, but costly. But finding US companies like Hershey's is a rarity. My best bet is to find some stale M&M's in one of the underwhelming duty free shops I will be often passing by.

Meat, in general: Ok, I haven't really eaten MORE meat, but I tend to not consider it a meal if meat is not served. Thus, I haven't even begun to worry about eating too much or too many varieties in a sitting. Again, meat will be found in Dakar, but skinny chickens and tough beef aren't the same as our steroid and anti-biotic fed animals here!

Chips: Truth be told, I don't actually eat a lot of chips anymore. Well, at home. I do tend to have a nasty sandwich and chips habit I can't kick thanks to years of eating at Subway. But I very seldom actually buy a bag at the store. However, I did buy a bag of Doritos for the first time in a year or two a couple weeks back. Even though they now seem to give me stomachaches, I will finish the bag b/c who knows when I will get to have that chemically goodness caked onto my fingers anytime soon!?!

Beer: Although I'm not having binges like the good college days, I am enjoying having a fully stocked fridge with my usual go-to's of Miller High Life or LaBatts, neither which will be in Dakar. Funny cultural reference, the other night I opened the door up while drinking a High Life to see two Morman missionaries standing there. I think they knew I was a lost cause from go.

Random typical American eating: Our schedule at French is pretty crappy, 8-1pm without a break for any lunch. Thus, there is lots of snacking going on during our breaks. Aside from eating more trail mix than an actual hiker, I've been sucking down Fig Newtons, Teddy Grahams, various '100 calorie' snack packs, and whatever else looks like it'll subdue any famine induced rages for an hour at a time. Although I am eager to discover new snacks in Dakar, I just expect to be underwhelmed by the selection.

Produce: This is something that all Americans take for granted, although we should less and less, and that is of clean, ready to eat produce. I've learned from my travels that as bad as Iceberg lettuce is, sometimes there is nothing better. Salads, at least what we refer to as salads, are quite hard to find overseas. So I've been enjoying my 'large salad' while I still can before our maid has to start bleaching our produce and we are limited by the seasons.

Obviously it won't be all bad. In Dakar there will be tons and tons of fresh seafood, some seasonal items we can't really or wouldn't normally eat here, but will end up loving, and Dakar is becoming more and more metropolitan, so eating out options continue to grow. But just in case, please pass the bacon.

Random 8

2010-05-25T20:22:00.004-04:00

Well, let's see; it's been a month since my last update, so instead of droning on about this and that, let's get brought up to speed Random 21 style!

1. A la francais! Since it is the main reason my blogging is in the toilet, but I'm not really complaining. I had a recent progress test and in the past three months, I've gone from "Bonjour!" to more or less (depending on how much sleep I get, seriously!) a 2/2, which I'm kind of proud of. Now I have 60+ days to get to a 3/3. It gets harder and harder to graduate to a new level. Also, now I can read french GQ and it counts as studying! (Shhhhhh! They have better pics!)

2. In the only other thing I have been really paying attention to besides French, how about those Philadelphia Flyers! If you don't know what I am talking about, then you are missing out on one of the most amazing North American sports stories in years. Oh, and if we do win the Cup next week or so, I AM skipping French class and driving up to Philly for the parade and most likely rioting!

3. Sunday night was the season finale of Lost. If you didn't see it, let me just say quickly that they are all aliens from that show V. Well, you deserve that for missing the best serial on tv during the past decade. I was pleased with the ending, especially after being kind of bored with this last season. I feel content with how it wrapped up, even though it was sad to see it end.

4. From the how old am I? Department - Lately I've been taking note of famous people and their ages and roughly comparing their place in life to mine. Why? I don't know, but just recently I became aware or aware of becoming aware that I place famous people into certain categories; i.e. 'those that are older than me and I like' see George Clooney/Brad Pitt/Tina Fey; 'those that are about my age that I'm starting to respect' i.e. Ashton Kutcher/that Gray's Anatomy girl that does all the guy movies/Rachel McAdams, and 'People that got famous in the past 2-3 years and/or I don't know who they are and/or why they are famous' i.e. those girls that have that E! show, that boy that sang on SNL when Tina Fey hosted, every actress on the CW, etc. Which leads me to...

5. Get off my lawn! Department - I just don't understand the role of technology in our lives anymore. I've lamented about MySpace (home of teenage girls and pedophiles), Facebook (home of people that still care what their college friends think of them and that anyone cares to see their vacation pictures), and Twitter (home of people that think others care what they think, whoops, no, that is Blogger...Twitter is home of people that think others care what they think that can't think of anything longer than 140 characters to say). But now we have those things that Spock and Bones carried around on Star Trek (iPads, which sound like a feminine hygiene product to me!), phones that do everything except make decent phone calls (basically every phone except for mine which looks like it fell out of a Miami Vice episode), but still cost you $100 a month to worry about losing and breaking, and now 3D tv! First of all, I don't even own a HDTV! Mainly because living overseas makes them almost worthless, but also b/c I don't like how it makes non-HD channels look and I also don't like to see the giant pores, layers of makeup, and sweat on people I used to think were attractive which HD tends to accentuate. One day in Best Buy they had a Faith Hill concert playing on a 60" HDTV and I thought they were showing the moon landing! Who wants to watch that? And what happens the first time someone is watching 3DTV and that damn Proactive commercial comes on?!?!?! I'll tell you what, those $50 special glasses you have to buy (sold separately!) will fly across your living room so fast you will be scared to put them back on for a week, not to mention the nightmares!

6. Speaking of technology, we did get new toys this week! We both bought new netbooks here. They are mainly for when we go overseas, but K's Mac is starting to churn like an Apple IIe and my desktop is 6 years old already. Getting a new computer is like having sex with someone new after a long monogamous relationship. Everything happens so fast, you're not sure on the exact buttons to push or places to click, you don't know which slots you are able to put your USB stick into yet, you almost get too excited and can't even do what it is that you wanted to do because you keep getting distracted by something else and realize you need to breath and slow down, and suddenly everything is all wet and sticky. This will only be my 3rd computer in 15 years, so you can probably understand my excitement and need for paper towels. Plus, I've brought K back from the dark side (Mac) and back to Windows. So see people, at least I can get them to switch teams! Wait, are we still talking about computers?!?!

7. Oh yeah, there were primary elections last week! In summary, the non-Democrat lost the Democratic primary to an authentic Democrat in PA, the liberal Dems will most likely push out a too moderate Democrat in Arkansas, and the Tea Baggers finally got what they wanted, a totally unelectable candidate on a ticket in Kentucky to ensure a Democratic victory. Tea bags all around!

8. Speaking of tea bags, there is that whole oil spill thing going on! Funny, I haven't heard that 'Drill, Baby, Drill' woman around during this whole debacle!?!? Let's hope is the worst one we'll ever have to see and it is finally enough to make this country finally convert over to wind, solar, and nuclear power.

And if you read this whole thing, you deserve a cookie! I promise to try and post more in the future so these don't end up getting so long!

Ketchup!

2010-04-27T20:32:00.002-04:00

Now I would like to present to you my 5,000 word rambling diatribe about the virtues of ketchup. Hahaha, just kidding. Actually, since it has been forever and a day since I last posted, I thought I'd just do a quick catch up (HA, get it!) of what's been going on. Sorry, seriously, the lack of using my blog as a creative outlet has severely retarded me.

So, let's see. You've seen the car. What else has happened? Well, we did a bunch of work in the yard one or two Saturdays back. It looks great, which is good since we took some pics to get it rented whenever we may leave. A little more on that later. Lately, and actually ever since we moved here, I've been astonished at how much I LOVE working in the yard. Sure, the idea of mowing the lawn doesn't get me out of bed on a Saturday morning, but I just like being outside and getting dirty. Maybe it is because my day job is usually so sedentary, who knows. But I sort of see the deeper meaning of the end of Office Space more and more.

In a similar vein, I've been thinking about life and work in a broader sense lately. For instance, I like to glance at the obituaries in the paper. I love reading about all the cool stuff people have done and often wonder what mine would say if I were to die or what it WILL say one day. Sure, anyone can say 30 nice words about someone, but I'd really like one of those long write ups that make people say "Geez, the guy that yadayada died!" or "Wow, what an interesting person that died, so sad." You get the picture. I've also been thinking about what I would do when I retire in 20ish years. Like you know, what would you do if you didn't HAVE to do anything. No worries, it's not like I am having a mid-life crisis (did you see the boat (figuratively!) we just bought, no one is going to mistake that for a sports car! haha). I think it's just all the retirement planning we've done the past few months with our 'advisor' and having drawn our wills up and the fact having a kid makes you think about things slightly differently. Not in a bad way or in a way that Republican friends promised me it would, but just the benefit of enjoying the here and now more and more and trying to make it last for as long as possible. Don't worry, I'm not about to quit my heavily benefit ladled job that is paying me to live overseas with a staff of domestic help and learn French. Oh oui, French! Let's get to that....

As French goes on, I've been pleasantly surprised by my ability to retain some. I'll never be mistaken for a real French person, but more and more is starting to come into focus. Ah oui, le francais est le francais, donc c'est tres difficile. Mais, quelquefois je l'aime et je le trouve amusant! Si vous lisez tous ce, filicitions, vous problement connais plus francais que moi! :) Bien, je pouvais utilizer un tutor! hahaha.

But seriously, this are going fine. Going everyday, all day, is very tedious. Not to mention the admin BS we as student are also forced to deal with in addition to our studies, but my violin just broke, so I'll stop.

In hockey news, my rec league hockey team had an over .500 winning percentage for the first time EVER and we even won a playoff game, the first for me! I'm sad this coming season will be my last, but I need to start to figure out something for Africa. And for those that think hockey in Africa is a silly idea, check out this! That's right, they already have the jerseys, now they just need someone to show them what to do with them, haha. I can't wait to go out to some BFE village and get some pics of them in their old Jets or Whalers uniform. In fact, I think I will always carry my Flyers one around with me so I can pose in pics with them and/or create a reverse market buying these old and sometimes hard to find jerseys and selling them back to the North America market, hahaha.

Well, that is sadly all that is new for now. The plan is still for an August departure, but it wouldn't be a HUGE surprise nor a big deal if we get delayed by a month. Nobody's fault, just the way this stuff kind of works.

Until next time, kiddies!

New Wheels

2010-04-04T10:42:00.005-04:00

Hey there! It's been a very busy past 10 days or so again. There was the usual stuff, but on top of French, K's parents came for a visit! That's actually a good thing in terms of time since the adore SA, thus it's like having free nannies and housekeepers. However, K's dad always keeps me busy with projects and "ideas", so the visits are still quite productive for me and sometimes K when she gets roped in or has to pick up the slack from my business with 'the project'.

This visit was hardly any different. Although, to be fair, the 'project' was self-initiated by us and started before they even got here. Since we are leaving the urban jungle of DC for the more literal urban jungle of Dakar, we need to get an SUV. Truth be told, I never wanted to own an SUV and are only third to Hummers and mini-vans on my list of 'will never own' list. Although, after evaluating the space and needs of a family, I no longer 'blame' larger families for minivan use. Seriously, most SUVs aren't much if any larger than full size cars in their ability to hold more than one carseat plus an adult or two in the back.

Luckily, we had down a lot of legwork and research and had it narrowed down to a couple car brands. Let me say this up front; dealing with car dealers is a lot like going to the dentist. You know it's not going to be fun, you spend 2-3 times longer than you planned on (or should!) and you end up leaving wondering what the hell just happened and annoyed. We did meet some nice guys, but the managers, the ones who make any real decisions, are dicks. Plain and simple, haha. Anyways, after literally laughing out the door at as offer on the trade in of our trusty 02 VW Golf, we decided to sell it on Craigslist. I listed it about 20% above Bluebook and still had over a dozen inquiries and a buyer with 72 hours (yea diesel!).

We were quite sad to see the VW go. It was sort of mine and K's Love Boat. We had our first 'date' in it when we drove it to Prague. Plus, over the time we actually dated with it in Germany, we drove it all over from Berlin, to Austria, across the Alps, to Paris, and Amsterdam. Plus, it's the car we brought little SA back from the hospital in and what we've had this first year with her. There are many more, but I will stop boring you. Suffice to say, the car is with someone that not only will appreciate it, but already owns a couple other VWs and knows more about taking care of it than we do, and he bought it for his 16 year-old daughter, which we thought was really sweet, hoping the car will be off for some more exciting adventures instead of the boring small family commuting we've been subjecting it to lately.

Thus, with the car days away from being sold, we needed to buy one last weekend to ensure we'd have a way to work come Wednesday morning! After spending all day Saturday driving around the 'fine' suburbs of Northern Virginia, we picked up a car that we felt would not only work well for us here the next six months, but will be a good vehicle for the flooded streets and potholes of our non-paved road in Senegal. So, without any further rambling, here is our new, to us, 2008 Ford Explorer!

Ok, not the best picture for showing off a car, but if you really care, you can always look up a pic online. We were hesitant in buying a Ford for overseas, but they actually have a dealer there, sell Explorers even, and after talking to a Senegalese guy who told us they are one of the hottest cars in Dakar right now, we got a good deal and liked this one a lot. Also, to go along with the new car, we got SA a new carseat. She was outgrowing her first one and now that she meets the qualifications to face forward, we thought it was time for her to look out the window instead of staring at the backseat! As you can see, she loves it!

So, now that one of the biggest "to do" items is off our list before we do the actual move, hopefully we will have more weekends like this one where we can go to the park, enjoy the lovely spring weather here in DC, and actually blog post! (Oh, and maybe learn some french quelquefois (sometimes)!)

BAD, Blogger!

2010-03-18T20:34:00.002-04:00

Ah no. I've turned into someone I vowed never to become. Over five years, I've been a pretty good blogger, hardly ever going more than 7, let alone 10, days without a decent post. Even in 3rd world countries where I paid as much for internet access just to upload a couple paragraphs and pictures as I do for a month of Comcast monthly now. I've always thought bloggers who went more than a few weeks and definitely a couple of months without blogging, or at least telling their readers why they haven't posted should be deleted! haha.

So how did I end up here? Well, it's mostly French. I went from having about 9 hours of internet time a day to now about 30 mins. I barely even reply to the emails I do get. Thus, blogging has taken a backseat to learning French (not a 9-5 job), spending as much time with K and SA in the now warmer weather, and the numerous other random things I either found time for around work or whenever. Now, all that random stuff is sneaking into my 'free time', thus making my free time less and less open. Seriously, one must make time for Project Runway, LOST, and 30 Rock. I even half put my foot down to adding any more tv shows to our dvr!

Anyways, suffice to say. All is good here. We've been learning a lot, having fun with an ever impressive and fast 13-month old, and slowly getting that "To Do" list down before our big move. Isn't a financial adviser supposed to make your life easier? But I digress.

I haven't commented on any blogs the past two weeks not b/c I stopped reading, but b/c I haven't read ANY blog since my last post. I miss talking to my blogger and real 3D friends. Hope to be talking to you all soon!

Reburied en francais

2010-03-04T20:10:00.003-05:00

Bonjour! Well, technically, it should be bonsoir since it's after 8pm as I write this. Why the heck am I writing a blog post at 8:10pm on Thursday night? My one FREE night of the week when I have wreckless abandon to run around sans (FRENCH!) pants and not have anyone give me a look?!?! Well, because sadly, this is just about my only free time to do anything all week.

French technically started last week. The first two days were filled with admin stuff I won't bore you with. Then the first day of class was only 2 hours b/c it was an admin training day for the teachers! Bonus. Thus, our first real day of class was last Thursday. Class goes from 8am until 1pm (no lunch break) and we cover more in one day than I would in a week in college German! Kein Scheiss! Yes, it seems that I have random German that creeps out into my French. Although, this seems normal as two people in my class of five know Spanish and occasionally revert back to that unconsciously. But luckily, I think I have most of the pronunciation down! Which if you know French, is HUGE! Seriously, they don't pronounce half the letters in their words so 20 different words all sound the same! I haven't decided if they are the laziest people in the world or the most ingenious! Time will tell.

I shouldn't really complain. I'm getting paid my normal salary to learn a language that there is no way in hell I could have devoted a tenth of this time to and learn it properly. When we are done we will be considered fluent, which means my dreams of retiring to the French countryside might just land fat in my lap! I just have to take a long detour via West Africa first.

So all this time in class, not to mention a couple hours of studying to review the stuff we get in class means I have time to check my email once a day before we head home with SA and do the normal everyday have to do at home stuff and it's off to an early bed (hopefully) since we have to get up earlier now. This leaves little to know time (or creativity) for blog posts or to even read others' blogs. I miss all of you, my Blogger friends! Hell, I don't even time for fantasy hockey hardly, so you know how serious I am being. But hopefully, I'll still keep up with you all and likewise the best I can for the time being.

A tout a l'heure! (I know, but I haven't figured out how to do accents in Blogger yet!)

Unburied, both ways

2010-02-23T11:30:00.005-05:00

Don't fret few and varied readers. I did not get lost in a mountain of snow two weeks ago nor am I still trying to shovel my driveway. So yeah, like everyone else and which is very old news now, DC got about 3 feet of snow around Feb. 6. Here is some of the fun:

These were before the final amounts and I have more, but I'm tired of looking at pics of snow, ha. Once we got unburied (had to shovel the 100ft driveway THREE times!), our vacation flight was canceled. However, we did get out on Monday instead of Sunday. Southwest did a brave job trying to get people out of BWI with only half the airport open in between the two giant storms. We got one of only a handful of flights out during that 36 hour period, where we traded above with this:

Yes, we made it to Florida! We had a great view of the bay, as you can see above, and the ocean out the other side. Truth be told though, we didn't leave much from our palace in the clouds (3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, giant kitchen and living room with big screen tvs!) b/c believe it or not, it snowed in Florida! Anyone that says climate change isn't real can blow me! Snow in Florida isn't supposed to happen. But we did spend our first EVER over night away from SA! She spent three nights with her grandparents while we lived it up like honeymooners a bit.

It was also SA's FIRST birthday during the first part of the trip, so there was much rejoicing, cake, and gifts for SA; so much so her grandparents have to drive them up in a month or so!

But now we are back to the land of ice and snow. Actually, a lot of it is all melted. We also started our French training this week. Oh la la! I'll have more on that later. But hopefully I'll be back to posting and commenting as life starts to slow down a bit.

In case you missed it...

2010-02-07T22:36:00.002-05:00

Because you were either still digging out from the 20 plus inches of snow we got here this weekend (oh, my aching back! haha (seriously shoveling the 100 foot driveway three times in under 24 hours was not something I envisioned when we got this place!)) or you watched the ~~high school class president debate~~ Tea Party car wreck, you may have missed the last two, and arguably the best, skits from SNL. Leave it to Ashton Kutcher, who I also found out via this episode is only 22 days younger than me, to make one of the best SNLs of the season. Enjoy:
This made me cry I was laughing so hard...

And I seriously hope the wedding I go to next weekend turns out half as awesome as this...

Best news of the week, new ketchup packets!

2010-02-04T14:20:00.002-05:00

After decades of biting, squeezing, glopping, and licking it off fingers, Heinz has finally redesigned the ketchup packet! This must be the "Change" Obama promised to come! I'm a fan since the new design looks quite like one of those jelly packets.

Your cell phone and Wi-Fi are killing you!

2010-02-01T12:48:00.002-05:00

In an effort to combat Salty's comments that GQ only writes articles about "Lady Gaga's boobs", which to my knowledge, that phrase has never been published in GQ nor even referred to, and to show that one doesn't have to look too hard to find major news that the mainstream media doesn't cover; I'm writing the longest sentence ever and providing a link to this article by Christopher Ketcham from the February issue of GQ:

Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health
The article presents a ~~conspiracy~~ capitalistic disregard for humans at the levels well beyond that of the tobacco and asbestos industries. The sad part is, it's probably already too late for must of us.

When is Naked too Naked?

2010-01-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

I thought about making this one a Man Tip, but realized it does work in reverse. You'll see.

So, there is no mistake of my love for being sans pants. I've exhorted the enjoyment and naturalness of nudity in this space on several occasions. But lately I've been wondering, is there a time when nudity is no longer ok? (Like when the cops show up! hahaha) But seriously, this has to do with your own kids; ok let me explain before you call child services or register me under the stupid Megan's Law!

The bond between a parent and child is something that cannot be measured nor explained easily with words. When babies are first born, much has been written about forming a bond with the baby, especially with the mother, by having skin to skin contact. We did this at the hospital, both of us with SA. Everyone loves naked babies; they're like little drunk people with their slurring, incoherent talking, wobbly walking, and pissing themselves. What's not to love?!?!

But even before SA came into our lives, there was naked time. Sure there was Naked Sundays, but even simple things, just like in every one's life like getting a shower and getting ready in the morning all require a dearth of clothing. When babies are young, they tend not to notice or may even think it is funny and/or preferred. For instance, show me a baby that prefers wearing clothes to running around in just a diaper or even bottomless and I'll show you a female Fox correspondent without bleached hair and an appropriately long enough skirt. It's just more comfortable (assuming they aren't outside in the snow!), which backs up my belief that nudity as adults should be more accepted as natural. Also, the bathing process with babies is always fun. And what mother/father has NOT bathed with their child at least once? Not only is it more efficient, but usually kind of fun. And I recall a funny picture of my brother and I, butt nekkid, trying to get into the bath with my mom when I must have been about 2 years old. This leads to my main question, when does being naked in front of your child become an issue or should it?

Obviously, if the child and parent are the same sex, I guess it makes less difference? I mean, chances are, boys for instance will see their fathers and other men naked through much of their life at the pool house, gym classes, and other appropriate change in attire situations. I assume the same can be said for girls growing up. But what about opposite sex parent and child nakedness? In my story above, I mention being about 2 and bathing with my mom (again, I only remember b/c of the photo my dad took) and I know other moms with boys that have done the same thing and I don't think any of us or society would find anything wrong with that or probably even vice versa with fathers and daughters.

However, at what age do we cut this off? When do I need to be conscious of getting dressed or ready in the morning in front of my daughter? Is it even relevant?

I have a co-worker, now in her late 40's, who was raised by hippies. Her parents were self-confessed nudists and even when my co-worker was a teenager, her parents still often wore their birthday suits around the house. My co-worker did not adopt their lifestyle, but still remains quite liberal (think European) with her views on nudity and life. My point being, even in this extreme example, my co-worker turned out normal.

However, that upbringing is probably far from the norm, at least to my knowledge, and at some point, we were all taught to be 'modest' or not see people, family or not, of the opposite sex naked. But for what purpose? What has it gotten us? If anything, our society, American society specifically, is oversexed, oversensitive to the slightest bit of nudity (ie Janet Jackson) that essentially cannot separate the difference between nudity and sex. Now a bare breast, buttock (you can't even show the top of a butt crack here (seriously, what is sexual about that?!?!)) is as sexual as Cinemax after midnight! How did we go from an essential and important bonding moment with child to sex?!?! Doesn't THIS more aptly confuse children and do more harm to our society and how we view skin as sex?

Case in point, I'll use my experience in Germany, probably the biggest fans of public nudity. I've written about the co-ed saunas in Germany many times. Sure, there may be an underpinning of sexuality there, but ONLY if an individual wants it to be. The nudity is required to keep the facilities more hygienic since showering before is required and clothing often introduces chemicals and potential allergic pathogens to others (one of the many reasons I won't use a sauna in America, so gross). Plus, there is even a guy, admittedly slightly mentally disabled, that has a permit to walk about Frankfurt with no clothes! Seriously. I don't even think Vegas would let that happen. But my point is that, in general, Germans and Europeans via topless beaches and stuff, have a much more rational and non-sexualized view of nudity. They CAN separate the two, unlike Americans. It's the equivalent of being able to enjoy peanut butter OR jelly in different ways instead of assuming they MUST be squeezed tightly together. In my opinion that is a much more nuanced and evolved societal norm than our Puritanical obsession with Hollywood side boob photos!

So when is naked too naked in relation to kids? There is (usually) no such thing. I think being able to educate your child on the differences between nudity and sex is important and will only help your child adjust to their inevitable confrontation with their own sexuality when they are older. As with all things with kids, making something off limits, taboo or saying "NO!" only encourages them to seek it out by curiosity. One only has to look at the sky rocketing teen pregnancy problem escalating every where in this country to see that our traditional confusion between nudity and sex is doing more harm than good. Maybe if more parents were like my co-workers', that would solve a lot of the teen sex problems, because education via abstinence and all this talk about abortion on both sides sure isn't!

So be sure to knock real loud if you come to my door on Sundays.

New Rob Zombie Video - "Sick Bubblegum"

2010-01-23T10:26:00.003-05:00

The new Rob Zombie video for "Sick Bubblegum" was released on Friday night. They played this live at the show back in December and I think it would have been better if they used live footage, but whatev. It's not like there are any music video channels anymore for this to air on. Anyways, enjoy and pick up the new album with me on Feb 2 (I don't even remember the last "album" I actually bought, but RZ always has lots of cool little extras in his, so I'll make an exception!)

Germs!

2010-01-21T11:38:00.003-05:00

I'm a fairly healthy guy. I exercise, eat my vegetables, and take my vitamins like all good Hulkamaniacs were taught to do. I also have Wolverine-esque healing properties (see my ability to have mosquito bites disappear in under 2 hours, lack of bruising, and lack of bleeding (much)). In fact, prior to this past cold and flu season, I hardly ever got sick. I can count the number of times I've had a cold or flu bad enough to be "sick" on one hand since 2005.

This season, in preparation, I did the usual and got my seasonal flu vaccination. Also, I got the H1N1 shot as well. Everything was going as planned. However, this winter has been very different. No, I don't think it has anything to do with mutant flu strains or the fact I am a couple years removed from my 20's. The main perpetrator of my sickness is this:

Ok, to be fair to the little monster, it's not her fault exactly. The cycle goes like this: some kid in her class gets sick, a few days later, SA gets sick, who then a few days later, gets K sick, and every other time K gets sick this year, I get sick, which has been about once a month this winter. Granted, I don't get as sick as K does (see Wolverine abilities above!), but still, I'm a guy, thus every sniffle and ache is nearly the equivalent of childbirth to a woman. Hey, I don't make the rules, I just follow them!

So as I sip my Power-C Vitamin Water (crappy stores around work don't carry my go to getting sick beverage SoBe Liz Blizz) and try to get the weird lotion from my Kleenexes off my finger tips, I'm contemplating if I should go the rest of SA's daycare life wearing a bubble around my head.

One year older!

2010-01-19T10:02:00.003-05:00

So now that both K and I are one year older after celebrating birthdays this past weekend, I think we should order these Grady Wilson instructional videos I've been eyeing....

I've always loved this skit, especially this one with Sigourney Weaver, and this is probably the best one from last week's episode. This season has been really boring. Hope we don't have to wait until 2012 for another good SNL season.

New year, new design!

2010-01-14T19:49:00.005-05:00

Ok, we're only two weeks into 2010, but I feel like I need to give an update due to my bit of MIAness. This past week I have been in a Fraud Detection class, thus not online much. The 10 mins or so I have been online each day has been dedicated to cleaning out the junk from my inbox and checking on my fantasy hockey team; yes, we all need priorities!

K's parents left last weekend after visiting for 10 days, which also kind of perpetuated the lack of free time. When they visit, it's like having indentured servants since they cook, clean, and watch SA as much as we'd like. So when they left, it was like zero to 60 back to real life for us, haha.

But one thing we have been mulling over was redesigning our upstairs. We've knocked around a couple ideas, originally beginning with K's to make a new Wii area up there. After running our errands and going to the gym Saturday, it was about 5pm and we had nothing to do the rest of the weekend, so we decided to start moving stuff around to see if our plan would even work. It only took about 90 minutes, even with SA being in the room and we realized we had just about doubled the living space of our bedroom! All we needed to do was go buy the chair we saw earlier in the day at Pier 1.

So Sunday around noon, I headed over to Pier 1. Long story short, what I thought would take about 15 mins took an hour. The chair we decided to get was a double papasan chair. I measured the stairway to make sure it'd fit all well and good. Although, I should have realized the car, the VW Golf of all things, is smaller. So I take the top part out to the car and sure enough, no matter how I tried, it was about 2-3 inches too big to get in! Not to mention I spent about 10 minutes in very cold, very windy weather in the middle of the giant parking lot trying to figure this out. I eventually give up, go inside and ask for some twine. The place is super busy (I guess, no recession for people that shop at Pier 1 (my first time BTW)), but eventually they locate some twine and some scissors. I go back out, put the chair on top of the car and load up the rest of the pieces in the back of the car. Luckily, it's about 5 minutes away, so I didn't have to drive far with our new chair attached to the top of the car held on with two pieces of twine! (It was too damn cold to put anymore on it!) I get home and we get the chair up with no problems!

We're admiring our work thus far, including hanging a few more pictures up on the wall, and I realize that we have a bigger tv in the front room that we hardly ever watch that I could switch out with the older one we have upstairs. The tv downstairs, even though it is only a few years old, is an old big CRT style (ie not a flat screen). We haven't upgraded to flat screens mainly b/c overseas, HD doesn't exist and our tvs are large enough in screen size to keep us happy. I know I can carry the tv from room to room, but going upstairs is another story.

Ok, let's back up. Let's talk about the stairs. Our upstairs used to be an attic. The stairway is about 36 inches wide and the stairs go up at about a 45 to 60 degree angle (sorry, I haven't gotten out my protractor to get a more precise measurement). I get the tv the 20 feet or so over to the stairs no problem. Obviously, since the screen is wider than the stairway, I have to turn it sideways. Problem one is that the tv isn't meant to be carried this way since 90% of the weight is in the screen and the handles are behind the screen where it gets narrower where the tube is. I get it up about two stairs, basically waist height and realize I'm in a predicament with a 150lb+ tv in my hands. I call Kelly to come over and try to help. We slowly, by me lifting from the bottom while she pulls it up and back at each stair, we slowly ascend the stairway.

After several minutes of swearing, sweating, saying we can never do this, we find ourselves on like the 8th step and halfway up. With each step, it has gotten harder b/c it's hard for me to get under the tv, plus holding it steady this whole time, thus getting more and more tired, and her lifting at such an awkward angle. But now that we are halfway, we realize we probably can't go back DOWN without dropping the tv down the stairs. The only option is to keep going UP. Many scrapes and a couple dents in the wall, sore arms, shoulders, and backs later, we get the tv up the stairs. Seriously, it took probably 15 minutes to get it up the 15 steps. But once we caught our breaths and I got it in place and hooked up, we couldn't be happier! Here are the results:

SA loves what we call the 'cuddle chair'!

Aliens will eat the fatties first!

2010-01-08T11:10:00.003-05:00

My Gold's Gym often has clever, motivational posters up around it saying such grin inducing things as "Showing up is half the battle" on the door as you go in and "If it hurts to tie your shoes, you are doing something right" near the bottom of the lockers. But this gym in Britain is getting into trouble for a new advert shown above. Personally, I think it is funny and probably 100% true! I mean, no one wants to eat the skinny cow, pig, chicken or turkey first! We are all motivated to workout for various reasons; good health, recover from injury, look good for husband/wife/self, going to the beach, get a date, etc. If this gets someone finally motivated to be healthy, mission accomplished!

What a difference a year makes!

2010-01-04T13:38:00.002-05:00

In some ways, the changing of the calendar is so arbitrary. Seriously, was Friday really any different than Thursday, aside from being able to sleep in!?!? I've never been into the whole new year celebration and the "new year, new me" thing with creating resolutions and stuff. Seriously, if you want to do something or make a change, just do it already, don't wait for some make believe date based upon how many revolutions and placement of the Earth to the sun! But we DID go out for New Years Eve this year, so that was very nice! And fun!

Aside from starting new desk calendars and a new daily planner, I can't say much is different here. Although, I have been thinking about all that has happened in the past 12 months and what the next 12 will entail! It's quite remarkable actually. We bought our house more than in the past 12 months, but by this time last year, we were quite settled in it. Also, we were in prime 'baby waiting' mode, even though beautiful SA didn't arrive for another month! We barely remember life pre-SA. That's both good and bad! haha. Work was good for me last year (mini-promotion) and I had a job with no worries, so can't complain there! And even though we didn't have any super big vacations like we did in 2008 (see SA's arrival above), we did go to NYC, VA and the Outer Banks, and even down to Alabama with SA in tow. As for the blog, I admit, it's definitely had it's least interesting year aside from cute SA pics. My political ranting was slightly tempered with Obama's election and even though I have been disappointed (mostly) with how little he has done to move the country to where I'd prefer it, he has done enough to make me happy he is our president, so any political rants I have had were mostly kept to in-person or thread jacking on my few fellow readers' blogs! Thanks for continuing to indulge me with comments and posts!

The new year, though, DOES seem to have lots of potential for change for us. SA is clearly already here and everyday is fun and hard as she continues to become more and more herself. I just sit back in awe as I see her walk around the house, 'talk', and play with us when she didn't yet quite exist at this time last year. We still love our house and neighborhood, probably even more as we've gotten to know the neighbors more and more and aside from still debating on finishing the basement, we have no projects or worries and look forward to warmer weather in the yard and porches with friends and family. As for work, that is the big change this year that affects everything else! As previously mentioned a couple months back, our new assignment is in Dakar, Senegal, so we'll be going there in August, but have lots to prepare for that. Luckily, the move is kind of the 'easy' part; it's the prep work that takes time and planning. We need to get the house ready for renters, buy things we want for there that we can't get there (SUV, food, household items, etc.), and the biggest thing, learn French. This leads to probably the biggest change affecting you dear readers. Since I will be online WAY less beginning in February, I'm not sure how much I will post. I'll go from 8+ hours a day in front of a computer to only when I make the effort in my 'spare time'. I'll be in a classroom and studying eight hours or more a day trying to become fluent in French (paid for by work!) from February until we leave in August. Then, upon arrival in Dakar, this blog will more or less revert back to what it was 2005-2007 when I lived in Germany, that is a blog about living overseas and traveling to various countries, just this time in West Africa. So the blog should at least become more interesting for you all around that time, but no worries, as I will continue to post and comment on all my dear blogger friends' posts in the interim, when I can.

For all the change in the past 12 months, it's pretty exciting to think of what I will be saying at this time next year!

Good Christmas Music!

2009-12-23T10:32:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big fan of Christmas music. Sure, I enjoy it from about December 22-25, but that is about it. Plus, most of it is trite and boring like elevator music. There IS some good stuff out there, but to get us all in the spirit, I will just post my top three favorite Christmas songs. Enjoy!

Mistress for Christmas - AC/DC, who else would rhyme those two words?!?

Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses, to Xmas light show, Bonus!

Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney, probably my favorite!

Merry Christmas!

So yeah, it snowed in DC...

2009-12-21T12:02:00.003-05:00

And we are still snowed in. Sort of. Yesterday we unburied the sidewalks and the driveway into the street. The biggest drawback of a driveway, when you get over a foot of snow and is when you have to get your car out! It would have taken hours to shovel the whole thing, so I just drove up and down the driveway a few feet at a time plowing the snow with the bumper of the car. We got out to go to the store with no problems last night, even though our street hasn't been plowed yet and now everything is turning into inches of ice on the roads. Also, no work today, since the government was closed! Well, as always, pictures are more interesting than merely talking about it.

Are you an Ayn Rand Asshole?

2009-12-18T13:19:00.002-05:00

You know who is to blame for the current economic crisis (and ultimately Obama being elected and now all this (I wish!) "socialism")? Ayn Rand. Are you an Ayn Rand Asshole that brought this upon us? Good article from the December GQ!

Populism and Obama

2009-12-15T09:48:00.002-05:00

Normally, I mostly scoff at the Politico article titles and even guffaw outloud when Wonkette picks up one of them to review. Seriously, my little group of non-contented bloggers I know and comment with are more relevant and deeper in thought on these issues than the mom's basement dwelling group that appear to make up Politico's core writing bloc. However, today's piece on how Obama shouldn't turn to populism to make himself 'popular' again is slightly more nuanced than normal. Although, I don't agree with all their 'populist' warnings and can read between the lines on their agenda.

But the piece does at its core bring up a very important point, not only for Obama, but also Congress and the direction of this country. Populism, by definition, is "a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite". In addition, in recent years, mostly with the advent of neo-conservatism popularized and later destroyed by former President George Bush, it's been a call to gaining popularity with masses on topics not simply reserved for against the 'privileged elite'. Populist conservative topics over the past several years include the Iraq War, immigration reform, and gay marriage prevention. Being conservative and for or against any of these and other issues doesn't make it a populist ideal, but basing the policies and using fear to drum up support for your personal crusade is at it's root the same as what drives the traditional populist tirades against the 'elite' (see John Edwards during the 2008 primaries for a traditional populist stance).

This has only been magnified during the past 12 months with the victory of Obama and the rerise (always occurs during Democrat controlled Congress/White House) of conservative pundits. Celebrities such as Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and new kid on the block, Beck, use simple, divisive populist topics to push their personal agenda. They take a stance and generalize it down to the most basic point, much like Edwards and other traditional populists have done for centuries, that strikes an emotional chord with the listener/voter to generate a physical response, instead of an intellectual response.

Gone in our political atmosphere, not to mention cable news, is good old fashioned debate between left, right, and center on what is ultimately best for our country; instead replaced with everyone "afraid" of this policy, politician, law, and political party. Populism has it's good sides, as it can quickly bring change when needed, ie women's voting rights, the end of the Vietnam war, but most often, it leads a country down a dangerous path, see Hitler's ability to get democratically elected, fascism in Italy, most laudable French economic policies over the past 30 years, the Clintons attempt for national healthcare in the 1990's, and Sarah Palin on almost every issue today. All carried serious consequences to not only the short-term political culture of the country, but long-term effects on the citizens of that country, sometimes irreversibly.

What needs to occur today, especially by Obama and Congress, is for them to do their job. They need to represent not just the most vocal and egregious members of this country, but those that elected them based upon their beliefs and goals to do what needs to be done to make this country better and continue to be in a position to lead the world over the next several decades. Sure, we will disagree on how best to do this, but that requires serious, rational, and intellectual debate by experts, leaving emotions and fear mongering (not to mention bumper sticker politics) out of the room. Otherwise, these populists will continue to steer the wagons from one short term and ill conceived topic (yet good for ratings) to another until we all get so bogged down in petty skirmishes, that we lose sight of the big picture, which ultimately prevents our country from moving forward, thus passing on our role in the world.

Best Concert Ever = Rob Zombie in DC!

2009-12-07T08:49:00.003-05:00

I've been to a few good shows in my life. There was RATM in 97, Pantera (RIP) in 97, the Beastie Boys (twice in three days!) in 04, Andrew WK, Juliette Lewis and her band the Licks, the Scissor Sisters, and many other great shows, many I've probably forgotten in my advanced stage of being a parent. While in Germany for two years, I didn't get to see many shows and since being back, K and I have mostly gone to mutually agreed upon shows, all of which have been fun. However, when I got the email a few months back regarding the presale for Rob Zombie coming to 930 Club this past Saturday night, I dropped everything and immediately went and purchased two tickets even though I knew I'd have to find a friend to go with. It is a good thing I did, since it was a sold out show.

I've been a Rob Zombie/White Zombie fan for a long time. I do admit I was probably a little late (~1996) finding them out, but this was in the days before mass home internet access and I lived in the sticks. But after purchasing AstroCreep 2000: Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head, I was hooked for life. Obviously, the band broke up shortly after my interest was growing. I did buy every one of Rob Zombie's solo albums in the next several years, seen each of his movies, bought some shirts from his wife, and saw him at OzzFest 05 where he headlined the second stage. It was hot (August afternoon in Virginia), crowded, and being an outdoor arena, I was a good 100+ feet or more from the stage.

Obviously, things were a little different Saturday night. This was the last night of their 30 city tour. I picked Easy E up at 645, doors opened at 7, and since we got a winter storm in DC on Saturday afternoon, I didn't want to wait in line outside, but we still needed to get there in time to stake out a good spot. We got a great spot in the balcony (about 40 feet from the stage!) so we could see the whole stage and still only a few steps away from the bar!

The opening band, Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures, was quite entertaining. I'd definitely see them again. The second band, Nekromantix, wasn't exactly my thing, but they started to set the tone and were a good build up to Rob Zombie. You knew as soon as the second band was finished and the roadies started setting things up, we were in for a treat. I've never seen so many uses of screens and visuals, especially at a club show. I wonder if 930 Club had some sort of electricity waiver for this show?!?! First of all, there was a giant white screen that covered the entire back of the stage where two projectors from the ceiling showed various videos/cartoons/montages/images throughout the night. The raised drummer sat above and between at six foot by six foot giant screens which also played a similar image to what was being shown on the big screen. At the front of the stage, there were monitors also showing what was projected onto the big screen. Oh, and there were also numerous strobes and other typical lights. Seriously, if you have ever thought about having a seizure, seeing all this going on at once is about as close as you'd get to getting one! To give you a slight idea, here is the opening from the Philly show the night before...

After all the tests and everything was set ready to go, the band and Rob came out. It was quite intense! It's one of the loudest cheers I have ever heard at 930. I was so excited, I was actually a little bit nauseous, which probably wasn't helped by the visuals, my pad si-eew dinner, and two cheap beers. The show was like nothing I expected and everything I could hope for all in one!!! It was literally like a religious experience. He played all of his big hits, most of his greatest hits, and a couple off his upcoming album. Not only that, he also knows how to entertain. So often bands just come out and play and are afraid to talk or interact with the crowd, which is crucial in a small venue. He and the whole band were great at it. In fact, there was this hilarious exchange between Rob and the deaf interpreter. She was this young (early 20's) woman with brown, curly/fuzzy hair. She had been there the whole night at the far edge of the stage. Each band noticed her, but no one said anything. But at one point, Rob who is already talking to the crowd and explaining how to sing along with a song, starts speaking directly to the interpreter. He says something like "Ok, I'm going to say a word that I bet you've never had to say before". Meanwhile, while signing this conversation she is having with Rob, she gives him a 'yeah, right' kind of look. He then says "motherfucker" which the interpreter translate without hesitation. Rob was literally laughing outloud on stage at this. He then lets out a long, fast list of 'swear words' and the interpreter motions each one without a pause. Rob cheers and the whole crowd erupted in applause and cheers! The interpreter gave a little curtsy after which Rob tells her she has "dirty, dirty hands", haha.

Rob played for about two hours, but I and the crowd would have easily stayed for two more. Only a handful left before the end of the second encore. And in one of those 'should of, could of, would of' moments, I walked within 10 feet of his wife, Sheri after the show outside. As you may recall, I've raved about the couple of shirts I've purchased from her line of clothes she designs. She seemed, as does Rob, quite approachable and I should have gone up and shown her that I'm a fan of her work, since I was wearing one of her very first designs. Who knows, maybe it is one of only a dozen or so out there (it was one of her first designs and no longer made), she would have been excited to see it, posed for a picture, and then asked if Easy E and I would want to go to the tour wrap party with Rob and the band!?!?! Or I made had been like the 200th dude that had done that in the past two months they have been on the road and she would have been all of "uhm, thanks" while motioning towards security! haha. Oh well.

Although the ringing in my ears has finally passed, the excitement and joy from that night is still present. In fact, leaving and yesterday, I kind of felt sad like one of my friends had permanently moved away or something. It was THAT good of an experience and I was sad that it had to end. So, whatever you do, go see Rob when they probably start up the tour after the New Year in support of the new album. You won't regret it. Oh, and be sure to show Sheri your shirt for me! ha.

A reminder of the end of innocence (ie I am old!)

2009-12-04T16:15:00.002-05:00

As any boy growing up in the 80's and going to college in the 90's, I grew up watching wrestling. At first it was when it was only a fringe occurrence as Saturday Night's Main Event when SNL wasn't on and then there was the Saturday morning cartoon. Eventually, wrestling probably was as mainstream as ever in the late 90's when it seemed every guy between the ages of 15 and 24 watched it. My friend Nick and I even wrote the scripts for a couple leagues during college. Oh, what my life could have been if we took an offer to go to the 'big leagues'! No regrets. Especially, when I view this slideshow of all the great entertainers that have died tragically this past decade. The worst part, these childhood 'heroes' died very young (most in their 40's!) and usually depressing ways. Anyways, I found it interesting and also some "oh yeah, I loved him, oh, how sad." memories relived. Even if you weren't a big wrestling fan, there are probably a couple names you'd still know.

Thanksgiving week

2009-12-01T09:46:00.001-05:00

In case you hadn't noticed, things have been quiet around here the past week or so and I didn't even comment on anyone's blog! In fact, I only got online the past 10 days to check on my fantasy hockey team! haha.

On Saturday, the 21st, we headed out early south to Alabama. We split the 12-hour drive up into two days, mainly b/c we figured SA would be very upset with us otherwise. It was a good idea, both for her and our aching bodies, since we all arrived well rested and in good spirits. The larger car we rented, sorry Golf, also provided much enjoyed leg/play room during the drive.

Birmingham was fairly uneventful, how every holiday visit should be. SA was the main attraction with lots of relatives stopping by to check her out throughout the week. Her grandparents were thrilled to death to have her in their house, so K and I had a slight reprieve from parental duties at times. SA was also the star of the Thanksgiving dinner where she single handily entertained the 20+ family members. Thinking back to the week, I don't remember much! SA got some new toys, we watched some tv (before 8pm!!!), including the Alabama/Auburn and Pitt/WV games on Friday, ate some real yummy food I didn't have to cook or clean-up from all week, and played around with our awesome new camera a bit. All in all, a great visit!

The twelve hours of driving on each end of the trip wasn't much fun, glad we are flying next time! Listening to talk radio a bunch in the car really has cemented my views on issues and thoughts of much of the people that avidly listen to those wingnuts, which is typical whenever I am surrounded by that talk outside of the east coast and moving through the Bible Belt. It really makes me eager to separate myself from a lot of these people via an ocean in the coming year! There was even a self-proclaimed and proud of it neo-con at Thanksgiving dinner! I thought they all went the way of the Dodo bird! But thank goodness for other talk radio shows dealing with technology, home improvements, and even a fascinating legal/lawyer show that saved us from Baptist broadcasts and more crazy conservatives (I'm talking about you Monica Crowley, blech!).

December is looking to be a fairly calm month, believe it or not. We have our great friends from Germany coming in next week, my family for Christmas, and K's around New Year's! Other than that, my hockey season winds down and we only have to do a bit of Christmas shopping (prob mostly online like usual), so it should be a good month to finally find that babysitter so we can party like it's 2007 again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T04:15:00.000-05:00

Via Someecards.com, one of my favorite sites!

Let's Go Flyers, clap-clap-clapclapclap!

2009-11-17T15:54:00.005-05:00

About two months ago, I ordered a Flyers outfit for SA. It took like a month to get here (it was a new item and Reebok was slow to release it). Then, the Flyers had a crazy schedule playing like once a week and then three times in four, so it was hard to plan for. But last night, after finally getting the outfit a couple weeks ago and knowing the Flyers were on Versus, I planned ahead. I even made sure our shopping trip on Sunday was adequate for the festivities. Once getting home, I got to work on making the pigs in a blanket! K has always resisted my attempts to make this as a meal, but after a VERY long day at work, she rejoiced! Once they were in the oven, it was just time to get dressed for the game. If you recall, some stupid co-worker of K's got her a stupid baby shower gift and we put the stupid thing on SA during the playoffs in an attempt to jinx the stupid co-worker's stupid team. SA was not amused.

But as you can see, she had a completely reaction to wearing Flyers attire!

SA was even happier when I told her this morning that the Flyers won and beat the Devils. Her 8pm bedtime really wrecks havoc on her hockey watching!

The Orange Guy has left the building!

2009-11-12T09:45:00.002-05:00

So, Lou Dobbs up and quit CNN yesterday! It seems the feeling was mutual. Now I can take CNN off my block list at 7pm. Now, we just have to get Nancy Grace to go away at 8pm so I can actually see NEWS on Headline News in the evenings.

Man Tips: Let's Talk About Socks, Baby

2009-11-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

Let's talk about you and me,
let's talk about all the things that could be,
let's talk about socks!{/end bad Salt N Pepa puns}

It's that time of year again. It's dark when we get home, it'll soon be dark (again) when we wake up, and it's getting cold and colder. Typically, this time of year we all bust out our dark wool pants and suits. We become basically extras in Night of the Living Dead, shuffling blank faced in various tones of grays, blacks, and whites.

So what's a guy to do to liven things up, yet still dress appropriately for the season and the office? Sure, a bright tie might do the trick, but do you really want to look like your boss who busts out his Santa tie the day after Veteran's Day or the chap looking like a doorman in his black suit, white shirt, black tie get-up circa Men in Black days. One only has to look a little farther south to add a splash of color and a lot of personality to your wardrobe. Obviously, I'm talking about socks.

Socks are often the last thing we think about when it comes to dressing. The basic rule is foolproof, match your socks to your pants, put on shoes. Done. But the great thing about socks is that no one is expecting anything different. So if you add a bit of color to a gray suit (and almost anything goes with gray, see George Clooney), you'll stand out and look a lot sharper without any extra effort. The other great thing about socks is that they are relatively cheap! Most pairs cost less than your underwear.

Ok, so now you are all set to add some colorful, flair inspired socks. But hold on, don't go all Dr. Seuss on me! Depending on the occasion, you might want to still keep it subtle. Here, I'll list out some great alternatives for each situation...

Conservative office/Formal Wedding/Funeral - Here you want to keep it classic, but show that you actually thought about what you put on. A simple dark argyle sock will work here. Breaks up the black/gray between your pants and shoes. Works especially well for bringing more attention to the nice, shiny shoes you've got on.

Shirt & tie office/formal church/big date/Thanksgiving Dinner - Here is where you can still fit within the rules, but show a bit more of your personality. You can get a little creative with your argyle or better yet, opt for a solid striped sock. This is often unexpected and looks great shoes on or off. Goes from 9-5 to after hours without looking like you came from the office. A great trick here is to match the strip with your work shirt, especially blues, reds, or greens.

Jeans/weekend wear - Here, anything goes, albeit try not to look like the Cat in the Hat. Unfortunately, Halloween is over and you aren't Lady Gaga.

SA's First Halloween

2009-11-02T09:48:00.003-05:00

As with each year, I started thinking about Halloween in August! K and I debated costumes for a few weeks and this year I was further challenged by having a 3rd party, SA for the first time. Thus, I had to think of a theme for all three of us. After looking through ~~dozens~~ hundreds of adorable baby costumes and trying to think of a way for K and I to work with it, the following idea came to me...

She should be a lobster, of course!

Here we are just before dinner...

But in the end, we decided she was too cute to eat!

Suffice to say, the neighbors loved us and hopefully, she won't outgrow this costume by next year b/c I think they'll love us in Senegal!

My kind of charity

2009-10-28T10:43:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again. Just before the holidays, charities, and everyone wanting your money, put it into high gear to help you make the most of your 501(c)3 form! (tax joke!) As a federal employee, we are now being inundated with CFC info. Each year at this time, the Combined Federal Campaign kicks off and encourages employees to donate, even via automatic payroll contributions, to a charity of your choice. It's fairly pushy, not to mention overwhelming. There are literally thousands of charities you can donate to. Although K typically has donated in the past, I usually haven't mainly because I can't decide on who I want to get my money the most. Thus, I typically just make sure to renew my memberships and stuff in the 'charity' organizations I agree with the most.

Coupled with this, now that we have a child, it seems that direct mail charities know this and love to try and milk you the best way they can, which is to make you feel guilty for having a healthy, beautiful child! We've already donated to the cleft pallet organization, because afterall "what if she were your daughter" (tear, tear); although there is no way I will watch the DVD that comes with our donation! Depressing, jeez!

I think the key with charities is giving to things that you feel strongly about. One thing I did get excited about is my electric company now allows us to offset all of our kilowatt hours with green technology. It's only about 10 years behind from Pittsburgh, where in the late 90's I was able to switch to 100% wind technology as my supplier, but at least it is something. For an extra 1.5% per month added to my bill, they buy the equivalent kilowatt hours in green electricity for the grid. Greening our electrical grid is something I have studied and been a huge advocate for since at least my Pittsburgh days. Ultimately, what I would like to do is make our home 100% sufficient on solar/wind and sell back our extra generation into the grid. A person in our neighborhood did just this over the summer.

However, we got a brochure from a charity the other day that we are 100% going to donate to. It's the exact type of thing that I fully embrace on so many levels. As you may recall, I and we, have a slight affinity for llamas. And to be fair, alpacas more so. We'd love to have one ourselves, but that doesn't seem practical for many reasons. What is the next best thing to do? Give one to someone else, of course! This is exactly what the Heifer International organization does! Well, not exactly. Actually, yes exactly, but not for the reasons I have presented. Let me explain...

So, Heifer (awesome name as you will soon realize!) takes your monetary contributions and buys livestock and/or supplies for poor families throughout the world which they use to generate income over a long time period. You can donate as little or as much as you'd like of course, but they make it easy to really feel like your contribution makes a direct impact, which is the exciting part. They define specific gifts that you can designate to families! For instance, you can buy a goat for $120 for a family in Kenya or Albania, a $120 pig in Cambodia, a trio of rabbits for $60 for a Nepalese family, a $20 flock of chicks for Sri Lankans, not to mention bees, trees, water buffalo ($250), a milking menagerie, and most exciting for me, a $150 llama for a family in South America!!!! The best part, is you get a picture and story of your gifted animal and how it helps the family. The idea is the age old adage, "it is better to teach a man to fish to feed him for life than give him a fish to feed him just once." Or to quote the 'Thai farmer', "If I die, my family will weep for me. If my buffalo dies, my family will starve." Kind of makes our 'troubles' here in this country seem fairly insignificant, eh? I hope you get as excited about this notion as I am! Now I finally found my CFC contribution, since I just found out that Heifer participates (CFC # code, 12079)!!! So now I can finally get the CFC coordinator off my back and feel good about it!

Au revoir, bitches!

2009-10-20T13:46:00.002-04:00

I hardly ever talk about work, but it is offical (although some of you have known this unofficially for some time); next year at this time we will be living in Dakar, Senegal. My office finally released the assignments (only about 9 months after K's) and our plan worked like a charm. We'll start French training in February and then ship out in August. We'll have space for visitors and already have a few lined up, so get on our schedule! They have direct flights from Dulles and Atlanta!

Man Tips: Bet on Black

2009-10-14T09:38:00.003-04:00

I grew up just north of where the first oil well in the US was established in 1859. For 150 years now, this area in Pennsylvania has been sustaining itself off the sweet, easily refinable crude that goes into such famous products as PennzOil and QuakerState. Even my father and Steve T still make their living off the petroleum industry that still exists up there. I still enjoy the smell of crude in the morning! haha.

No matter what your political persuasion, environmental savvyness, understanding of alternative technologies, belief in peak oil or total disregard to the issue, the US uses MORE oil than any other country in the world. But not only that, we use way more than we create. This will always be true.

First of all, as was discussed during the Presidential debates to mostly deaf Palin supporters, no matter how much oil we 'find', it isn't going to affect the supply of refined oil (gasoline) because all US refineries are at 100% capacity. There is no where to ship it to within the US to convert it into usable products. If you want to go the route of "drill, baby, drill" then you first need to acknowledge this fact and find a solution to building more refineries. This is complicated by two things. The first is time. If we agree today to build a refinery, it'll take about seven years before the first drop of petroleum can be processed. That is if you can even find a community willing to allow a refinery to be built. The chances of this are near zero, since it's nearly impossible to get a windmill built in any neighborhood without the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) folks complaining. Thus, like most things in this country, it is a problem, just not "my" problem. I'll say this now, we as a country will not be able to build enough, if any, refineries to make any difference to our demand for oil, thus the price. There are just too many hurdles between regulation and simple community activism preventing it.

The second issue is based on the fact that in my life only three commodities have continued to outpace growth of other commodities. Gold, gas prices, and chicken wings. The latter will have to wait for another post, but just like 25 cent wing night we all remember well, 99 cents for a gallon of gas (which we paid about 10 years ago) will seem like a fairy tale to our kids. Even if we increase the MPG of cars, switch to electric/hybrids, and do other 'gas saving' techniques, this will hardly make a dent in the demand for oil. One big reason is that petroleum is used in millions of different products. From the tires on your electric car, to your vinyl dashboard, plastic water bottle holder AND bottle, rubber soles on your sneakers, and the nylon in your clothes. In fact, it is hard to find products that don't rely on petroleum in some way. Not to mention the need to transport these products to and from you to purchase and dispose of. The other problem is that world demand is growing at a pace that can no way be matched by the best scenario decrease of the US's demand. China, India, and much of Africa are becoming more and more industrialized, requiring petroleum not just for their billions of vehicles, but also for many of the same products we enjoy that they are just beginning to get a taste of. Demand will continue to grow dramatically over the next 20 years, mainly driven by these two continents.

So what does the average guy do? Again, regardless of how you feel about oil, globalism or politics, the writing is on the way. You should capitalize on this zero sum, no win game in about the only way an individual can by investing in oil. Some part of your long-term personal investment portfolio should be betting on black. There are various levels of risk to wait for Mad Max to become a reality.

If you want low risk options, go in on the two giants in international oil, yet are controlled by western financial rules. Buy stocks in BP (up 25% the past six months) or ExxonMobil (+4.2%). If you can tolerate medium risk, you can opt for an index fund of the Gulf States sold by Market Vectors, currently up 45% during the past six months. These oil dependent, government controlled economies will continue to keep prices stable, yet rising over the long-term. However, if you are looking for the biggest possible reward, not to mention risk, consider investing in places where the future of the petroleum industry could switch to, especially if you believe in peak oil in the Middle East. Russia is sitting on one of the largest reservoirs of oil in the world. However, it is under Siberia, which means not only is it expensive to get out of the ground, it is expensive to get out of Siberia. Prices will have to rise to over $100 a barrel (we were at $150 not long ago) permanently for this to be profitable. But in the long run, this seems likely. To bet long on Russia black gold, you can get in on a Russian Index Fund, one I own, which is up 79% the past six months. Other countries that could benefit from sustained high prices and increasing extraction technologies are Norway, China, and Canada (depending on how the Artic Ocean claims play out with Russia).

And you know what they say, once you go black, you never go back!

Where in the world is Scarlett San Diego?

2009-10-07T11:52:00.007-04:00

So I'll take a break from Man Tips and political ranting to talk about something we all can agree on, SA's cuteness and filling in what we have been up to the past few weeks.

The third weekend in September, we headed over to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Neither one of us had ever been, but had always thought about it. We decided to bite the bullet and take the short hour drive out to it. It was a lot of fun and hard to fit everything into one afternoon. We also decided that we should wear or at least rent costumes if we ever go again. The crowd was maybe 50/50 in costume and it was great seeing the ones that donned the proper attire. Plus, people loved to talk in silly accents. I highly recommend the joust and there was a hilarious comedy/sword fighting show called Hack and Slash. That alone was worth the price of admission.

The following weekend, we headed in the complete opposite direction to the middle of BFE to a lovely country wedding out near the VA, Maryland, and WV border for Ruggle's and Arno's wedding. You may have followed Ruggle's blog from the link to the right or recall us hanging out with them at their home in Amsterdam (although in hindsight, I have a 100 more memories of that trip than made into that sadly short blog post). Rain and all, the bride and groom looked amazing and we all had a fun time. SA got to stay up late and even dance with us! We're so glad we were able to be a part of this day and look forward to seeing them when we get back overseas. Here is some photographic proof of what a beautiful family we were that night...

We took a weekend off from trips outside the Beltway, but went to our neighborhood's annual art festival, Art on the Avenue. The weather was perfect, our good friend Susan who is permanently back from Togo was staying with us, we ate great barbecue, yet somehow managed not to buy anything from many of the amazing vendors we talked with.

SA also is getting well adjusted to daycare. She has even stopped crying when we leave her in the morning, which is great for everyone. She even seems to be having fun, as evidenced by this pic of one of her trips outside...

A huge bonus of daycare has been how quickly SA is learning. When we first started taking her, just over a month ago, she was hardly crawling. But as one of the younger students in her class, she sees and observes all the older kids moving around more. Thus, in less than two weeks, SA went from not crawling to us chasing her around! Not only that, now she is constantly pulling herself up to standing positions, on her own, and will stand for long periods on her own. However, this has created lots of us running around the house saying "Scarlett, noooooo!" as she quickly gets into or goes after the most dangerous/fragile/important thing in any room she happens to be in. Seriously, do the babies share notes about the specific things they are NOT supposed to touch?!?! SA rivals any electrician with the ability to find wiring and mess up a tv by chewing on the remotes.

On Monday night, while SA was put to bed for the first time by a non-family member (yeah, 'Aunt' Susan!), K and I drove out to the 'burbs and saw Andrew WK and the Calder Quartet. I've been hyping up Andrew WK to K since I met her. I talk of my first time seeing him back in 2003 like a religious experience. This wasn't his typical show, as he is doing what can best described as 18th century heavy metal mixed with interpretive and improvised instrumentals. Plus, he played accoustic versions of his hits. So take your grandfather (there were two at our show!) and your punk brother/nephew. All will find it interesting.

This weekend, we are heading out on a little adventure (thank you, Christopher Columbus). We're going to Pennsylvania Dutch Country. I hope to churn some butter, hit on underage Amish girls at a barn raising, have K learn how to make some quilts, and get some good pics of SA in the country with the leaves changing so that the next SA update actually includes some good pics! Until then, SA says...

Peace Out, Holmes!