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As the winter months wear us down, it takes the spring to remind us how lucky we are. I'm lucky to be living in one of most beautiful cities on the planet. Boston has so much fantastic history and culture that we pass by everyday without observing. I enjoy traveling so much, probably much more than I should, but I hope I'll always come home here.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
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Day 12 – HOME (331 miles, 2544 total)
Well, we made it. Unfortunately, we ran out of energy today and decided against doing any touristing in Wilmington or Philadelphia. We did stop briefly in Philly for a real cheesesteak (Pat's) before heading on our way.
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Day 11 – Wilmington, DE (426 miles, 2213 total)
Our last night in a hotel. Tomorrow, we will drive the last six hours or so home after making some brief stops in Wilmington and Philadelphia. That's the plan for the moment, but we'll see how things go.
This morning, it was rainy in Raleigh when we arrived and so we opted against making our customary downtown walk and instead just hit the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. It may seem an odd choice, but they have the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit which was “supposed” to end last week but has been extended until January 4 and we were lucky enough to catch it. This itself is a bit of a cheat on my part-- in each city, we've tried to hit something relatively unique to that city while also not repeating ourselves too much. While there have been a number of museums, we've done different kinds of museums: history, art, natural history, children's, science, etc. The aquarium in Chattanooga, for example, may not have been as nice as the one in Atlanta, but we had different things to see in Atlanta and wouldn't want to see more than one aquarium on the trip. But here, the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is just one that I really wanted to see and was glad for the chance of it while we were passing through. The rest of the museum was nice, too (I love learning about each of the states from their own museums, I really do), but we spent most of our time with the Dead Sea exhibit.
After leaving, it was still raining so we went to Durham's Museum of Life and Science. This was 80% a kids museum, but we really enjoyed it and it was done well. There were fun exhibits on technology, music, the space program and an extensive outdoor area where we got to watch bear cubs wrestle and lemurs look displeased. (And unique to mini-zoos that I've seen, they had a sort of “Big Brother” system where there were cameras in the animal enclosures that could be controlled, pan and zoom, from a kiosk. So, even if the animals weren't in a location easily visible, you could get up close and personal.) There was really a ton to see here and the exhibits, except for a few, didn't talk down to the children much and there was plenty that adults could learn.
We considered going back to downtown Durham and explore a bit. We had some shopping in mind, but ultimately the clock and the weather beat us into an early exit. The drive north was long anyway.
If all goes to plan, I will be home tomorrow evening. That's one day earlier than planned, but we need the rest before returning to work! Besides, I have homework to grade.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, January 1st, 2009
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Day 10 – Benson, NC (386 miles, 1787 total)
Are we home yet? This is the part of the trip that wasn't supposed to happen. Not that I'm complaining, of course, but the initial plan was to drive south in a rental car, drop it off in Atlanta, and fly home. In that plan, we would head down the Carolinas, rather than via Tennessee and Kentucky, get to Atlanta, do a small circuit (Savannah and Birmingham, probably), and then get back to Atlanta and fly home. Different itinerary and it would have given us more time in the southern cities at the expense of a longer drive. In this case, I'm at least glad for the flexibility and I'm pleased that we saw Chattanooga which wasn't on the original trip.
Last night, we celebrated New Years with fireworks on River Street. Savannah is nice, but they don't do “organized” well. There was very little good planning for New Years on their part, no one at the hotels had any idea where things were going on at, and online information was poor. From what we can tell, there were concerts and partying in City Market (we caught the beginnings of it earlier in the day) and then separately there were fireworks along the river. These are what we saw, but there was no loudspeaker system on the river (they had one set up in the market) and so no countdown or any clear indication exactly when the new year started. The fireworks were great, but very brief, and then the crowd dispersed. There was an incredible amount of drinking and if anything that's the one real black mark on the city. I get that they are liberal (there are no restrictions on carrying open containers of alcohol, I'm told), but there was more public urination and public puking than I really needed to see. For a party town, you'd think they'd have a better idea how to hold their liquor. So, great night, but not a perfect night. I don't regret the choice, but I won't do New Years in Savannah again.
Today, we checked out of our hotel somewhat later than we expected (due to difficulties resolving an old problem from a hotel in Tennessee) and so we got to see less of Charleston, SC than I had hoped. In any event, it hardly mattered because most of the attractions there were closed for the holiday. It was like Kentucky all over again, but this time it was expected.
Our first stop was actually south of Savannah, Tybee Island. We drove to the lighthouse there. The museum and lighthouse were closed to tours, but that was expected, but we enjoyed walking the grounds and then hit the beach for a short walk. It's the only ocean we've seen on this trip, but it was horribly cold this morning (high 30s, but the wind was killer and chilled me like it was sub-zero) and I marveled how the sea birds didn't become sea popsicles. We had hoped to see the annual Savannah “Polar Bear Club” do their thing at noon, but we either just missed them or we went to the wrong part of Tybee. We were both bemused that they could call it a Polar Bear Club since it's so relatively nice in Savannah, even in early January, but when we got to the ocean and froze our asses off, it made some more sense. (But Boston was 8 degrees and certainly colder on the water. Their Polar Bears know what cold is about.)
Departing Savannah, we drove to Charleston. It's a great city, but we didn't get to see enough of it and there were some problems. For starters, the “Visitors Center” has a building next to it, also prominently labeled as the “Visitors Center”, but which isn't. It's actually one of those evil places where you go and they offer you reduced tickets to things if you listen to them try and sell you a time-share or something. We used their bathroom, grabbed their tourist maps (they made it look like a real visitors center), and zipped out of there. We went from there to walk around the French Quarter and the Marketplace, a long strip of Faneuil Hall-eqsue shops and open air stalls that sell overpriced art, snacks, and other similar things to tourists and locals. Actually, some of the shops were nice and we haven't done much shopping on this trip, but some of it was too tacky. We bought some art and taffy. We ended the day by having a nice dinner at a crab shack, talking a walk at Waterfront Park, and then heading off for our drive north.
Tomorrow, we see Raleigh and environs. After that, we could decide to brave a 12-hour drive home from there or split it across 2 or 3 nights. The obvious cities to stop in we've seen or we're not interested in on this trip. We'll be back in New York probably in a couple of week and we did Washington, DC and Alexandria in a much less harried fashion last year. Baltimore is an option, as is Philadelphia, or we could go and see Wilmington. No one ever sees Wilmington, so that sounds like a good idea to me.
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Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
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Day 9 – Savannah, GA (92 miles, 1401 total)
We finally made it, and not a moment too soon. We've reached the southern end of our tour. We have two more “tourist” days before the end, but for the most part this is it.
And Savannah is everything we hoped for. It's a beautiful city, it has great walking, great history, and great restaurants. The little public squares all over the historic district are fantastic. I'm really pleased by all of this and only regret that we couldn't have gotten here a day or so sooner so that we could spend more time here. It really would have been worth it, but our trip has been so fun I'm not sure what we would cut out. (Kentucky? Naaah. That was great too, just closed.)
The morning was spent walking, for the most part, visiting the City Market, and having brunch. I have been really looking forward to trying collard greens and grits on this trip and they were easy to find. (I suspect the ones I had at the restaurant were a bit up-scaled, but that's okay.) We had intended on visiting the Savannah History Museum, but it was closed for “roof repairs”. We instead went to the Jepson Center for the Arts and saw some great glass displays. Afterward, we drove out to Old Fort Jackson and toured that (I love historical sites) before heading back into town, checking into our hotel, talking a long walk down River Street, and eating at a nice restaurant.
So, it's been great. The thing I will miss most, by far, will be ready-access to sweet tea. I need to import some to Boston or find the secret of making it myself.
Anyway, off to see the fireworks in a bit. Tomorrow we begin driving north. We're not looking forward to the snow.
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Day 8 – Swainsboro, GA (246 miles, 1555 total)
Next time I come to Atlanta, remind me to make sure there aren't any really important bowl games imminent. For example, a Chick-fil-a Bowl (what a god-awful name, someone should be very embarrassed they thought that was a good idea) between Georgia Tech and LSU tomorrow. The city and the tourist stuff was even more crowded than it might normally be during this time of year and we were a bit stymied by all the crowds.
What we did see was great and makes me wish we stayed longer. We spent the morning wandering in and around the Olympic Centennial Park. It's an attractive place with fountains (turned on even in late December) which were open for children to play in, monuments, and statues and such. After lunch, we went to see World of Coke. The World of Coke is like what you would get if Coca-cola were to get an Epcot pavilion where you had to pay $15 per person to watch an extended Coke advertisement, except only slightly less tacky. It is a huge Coke advertisement, but one with some history to it. There are some good exhibits on the history of Coke, the use of Coke in pop-art (Andy Warhol would cry, I suspect), on how Coke is bottled, and etc. For the kids, there's a couple fun little movies which have no educational value at all except to reinforce how great Coke is and how happy everyone that works in a Coke-related job really is. At the end of the museum, there's a nice “all you can drink” sampling area with Coke-family beverages from all over the world that you can try to your heart's content. Lots of weird Fanta flavors, different fruity colas of other stripes, and some weirder things that we couldn't identify. I rather enjoyed drinking “Simba” from Africa which takes a bit like cream soda. I'm not really complaining-- I did pay my money and I knew what I was getting into. I actually enjoyed it for what it was. I was tempted to tell one of the employees how much healthier I've been just by dropping my six-pack a day soda habit, but that wasn't worth it. Besides, I'm a Pepsi boy anyway.
As an aside, there was as far as I can tell only a single exhibit to New Coke, one hidden in the pop-art section explaining that there were only 79 days when Coke was out of production in favor of New Coke. The exhibit reinforced that New Coke was preferred in blind taste tests, but that there was just so much unexpected loyalty to the brand that they just had to switch back. A positive spin on a somewhat negative aspect of their business, I suppose. (I had really hooped to see New Coke in the "Coke of the World" sampling area, but it wasn't there. Ah well.)
After World of Coke, we intended to go see the Terracotta Soldiers on exhibit at the High Art Museum, but we were unable to get tickets and were turned away at the door and instructed to try again after the 1st. Oh well. (I found tickets for sale on line for the 31st, but we're not staying in Atlanta that long.) Instead, we saw a wonderful Muppet exhibit at the Atlanta History Museum and that used up the remainder of our day. We had dinner with some of Dorie's relatives and then started off on the road to Savannah.
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Monday, December 29th, 2008
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Day 7 – Calhoun, GA (220 miles, 1309 total)
The morning was spent in Knoxville, Tennessee. Did you know Knoxville was the site of the 1982 Worlds Fair? Neither did I. But, it was, and there's a very nice park on the site with one of the original center-pieces, the Sunsphere, still standing. The Sphere is a tower about twenty stories high or so with a large gold sphere on top to represent the sun. You can take an elevator up onto an observation deck and it's a nice view of that part of Knoxville. The rest of the park was also attractive, but there were almost no tourists or locals there. It's a shame really, because it's a nice park. We also visited Market Square, sort of a Knoxville Faneuil Hall with lots of restaurants and open air plaza with musicians and things to do. It was relatively early, but there were already kids in the ice skating rink (which appears to be temporary for the holidays) and one street musician desperately trying to ply his trade. We walked around a bit, then around the downtown area, and had a bite to eat.
Knoxville was nicer than I expected and I would really enjoy getting to spend more time there. We didn't get to see any of the museums or the Old City for lack of time, but maybe on the next trip.
Chattanooga was our primary goal today and we managed to get a lot done. We visited the Children's' Discovery Museum, which was okay but small. Not as nice as some of the others we've been to, but it was aimed at younger children for the most part. We also spent a couple of hours at the Tennessee Aquarium which I recommend for anyone. It has two buildings: a river aquarium with wonderful information on river animals and especially the Tennessee River and an ocean aquarium with more general fish of the ocean. Either of them would be the equal of the Boston aquarium both in terms of size and in how well put together their exhibits are. It's one of the best aquariums I think I've ever been to (and I've been to a few, though I can't name them all right now). After the aquarium, we had dinner at the Chattanooga Choo Choo (or rather, at the hotel that is there now with some of the original sleeper cars as novelty rooms). The service was terrible, but the food was good enough. I had considered trying to stay at the hotel, but it was quite expensive to stay in one of the novelty rooms and not really worth it for this trip. Maybe someday.
We ended the evening with the Christmas light display at Rock City. I had heard of Rock City before I came here, but I regret to say that their advertising didn't actually tell me where it was and so I was surprised that I'd stumble into it. But, stumble we did. Rock City is just south of Chattanooga, in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. It's in Georgia, but I believe the only way there is through Tennessee along a windy mountain road that was more than a little scary in the dark. The light show wasn't at all what I expected. We did one of these displays in Columbus last year and that was nice-- very large number of lights over a relatively small area. Here, you were put on a walking trail around the park with a reasonable number of lights around, but some areas almost without any. The walking trail loops around through some easy walking sections, up and down some hills, through some long cave-like tunnels, and through very narrow gorges. At one point, I-- a small person-- needed to walk sideways because the path between two rocks was too skinny for me to stand in directly. Dorie had a worse time of it and was a bit claustrophobic, but it worked out okay. The lights were nice, as were the other displays. At the far end of the park, there's a lookout point where you can supposedly see seven states (Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Kentucky), but distant lights all looked pretty much the same to me so I had to take their word for it.
At the end, we drove almost an hour into Georgia to make tomorrow's trip to Atlanta easier. That's our only stop and we'll try our best to get closer to Savannah tomorrow night.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, December 28th, 2008
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Day 6 – Jellico, TN (338 miles, 1089 total)
If I could sum up today, it would be like this: “Closed on Sundays”
We drove this morning from Columbus to Frankfort, Kentucky-- that state's capital. It's a beautiful little town of shops (closed on Sundays), museums (closed on Sundays), wildlife education parks (closed on Sundays), and beautiful scenery. But, that didn't really stop us from seeing what we could. Dorie and I did a walking tour of the downtown and residential area, visited the outside of a Frank Lloyd Wright house (the Ziegler House, tours by appointment only), and visited a historic cemetery where Daniel Boone was buried and there's a monument there to him. Actually, Dorie stayed in the car since she doesn't like cenetery, but it was on a beautiful ridge overlooking the city.
Frankfort reminds me of the capitals of Vermont and West Virginia. Nice rural state capitals with unique architecture and that “Old Town America” feel. I really loved it. Too bad the museums were closed.
After Frankfort, we went to Lexington. It's a nice city also, but we didn't see much. Triangle Park was small and the fancy shopping mall adjacent was closed (sometime prior to 6:00 PM; the sign just said “Sundays variable” so I have no idea what the real hours were.) In the end, we just walked around the city a bit, saw some tall buildings, and left a little underwhelmed.
We've started into Tennessee now and since it's a weekday, something should be open there. Thus far, we were almost unable to have any dinner (at 8:30 PM) because we couldn't find anything but fast food open, but there was a pizza place that turned out to be passable. (And I got my best ever score at Ms. Pacman while I waited for my order to be ready. Go me.)
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Saturday, November 1st, 2008
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Jade Bardwell (nee Bluin) passed away this week, a cat among kittens, and I already miss her dearly. For those of you not fortunate enough to have met Jade, I want to tell you a little bit about her. Some of Jade's story after she left my company is unknown to me, but I will do my best to hit the high points.
Jade has a difficult kittenhood. She was born of a poor family, her mother cat left her for adoption shortly after birth and she was forced to learn to fend for herself at a young age. She came into my life when she was adopted by my downstairs neighbor and his girlfriend. Although they had the best of intentions, parenthood was not for them and Jade did not have a happy childhood. She spent many months being locked in my neighbor's bathroom, dreaming of a large world and how she could make that world a better place.
In time, her adopted parents understood that she had needs that they couldn't fulfil and I agreed to care for the feisty little kitten. Jade was never a bad cat, but she was a willful cat, and I loved her for it. We had many happy weeks together, but I was already caring for four and the stress of having a teenager was nearly too much. We held it together, but my quaint suburban life was not close enough to the city for Ms. Jade and she requested to be allowed to live with our dear friend Shani (and her roomates and roomcats). Shani was everything that we weren't: refined, dignified, and intelligent. In short, American gentry. She was a good influence on our Jade and with a heavy heart we allowed her to go.
Not long after moving in with Shani, Jade began to take the world four large feline strides at a time. Taking advantage of their distance-education-for-cats program, Jade quickly completed her undergraduate work in Feline Studies from Auburn University. And while Shani was supportive of her desire to have an education, this caused severe friction in their household, especially on Saturdays. And, within a year or so, when Shani and her roommates went their separate ways, Jade had arranged to go her own way for the third and final time.
With Carrie (and later her husband, William), Jade had her greatest accomplishments. With a little push from her own feline connections, William was offered a job in Tokyo, Japan and Jade was finally the jet-setter that she had always known herself to be. While many American cats could find themselves overwhelmed in Japan, Jade took to it like a fish to water. Within weeks, her Japanese was flawless. (And her knowledge of bathrooms ensured that she knew what all of the buttons on the toilet did.) In the evenings, she organized social groups of Americans abroad, spreading her love of Japanese culture and building bridges that could span our cultures. I had the great fortune to have been invited out to see her in Japan, shortly after she received her honorary doctorate from Tokyo University. She was so proud, but it wasn't the paper that she was most proud of. That's when she introduced me to the true joy in her life.
In Japan, Jade adopted Pengu, a "street kid" like herself. Jade gave herself the responsibility to train him to continue her work. But, more than that, Jade worked to ensure that he had the stable and supportive kitten-hood that she could never have. She taught him English and he taught her to love. From the day they met, the two were inseparable. And when it was time for Carrie and William to return home, Jade insisted that Pengu be allowed to come as well.
A few days before leaving to return to the United States, the United States Ambassador to Japan, Howard Henry Baker, Jr., spoke fondly of Jade at her farewell luncheon, calling her a "good cat" and saying that "No cat has done as much for Japanese-American relations in so little a time since Misty Malarky Carter", refering to her now-famous famous 1980 visit where she coughed up a hairball on one of Emperor Hirohito's million dollar rugs.
Since returning to the United States, Jade has enjoyed a quiet retirement with her humans, Pengu, and her books. She passed away this week. She will be missed.
She was a good cat.
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Monday, September 29th, 2008
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(A draft of a thank-you note that I am writing to Dorie's brother and his wife.)
Dear Dave and Abi,
Thank you very much for the thoughtful collection of gifts that you have sent me. While I haven't quite figured out the best use yet for all of the items, rest assured that I will keep working at it until do. When the first box that contained one-hundred superballs arrived, I was excited. Had I only of known what pleasures were in store for me in your second box!
I'm not sure what I'm going to enjoy the most, so I'll just list them all:
Three Garfield "I Love Grandma" magnetic bookmarks
One "Mom" memo pad box
One "Grandma" memo pad box
Five boxes of thumb tacks
One wooden turkey head with eight wooden feathers
One stuffed dinosaur
One police car keychain
Three "dinosaur cardz you build into 3-D scale models"
Approximately fifty Winny-the-Pooh plastic gift bags
One "jumbo key holder"
One "puzzo tube" pen holder
One pair of broken headphones
Two die-cut woodcraft picture frame kits
One shower cap with pictures of steaks and USDA logos
Three light up tops
Three glass snowman candles
Three decks of "animals on safari" trading cards
Two boxes of wall hooks
Three red and green "Happy Holidays and Happy New Year" magnets
One stick-on reflector (for a bicycle?)
Two fluorescent-green "accupressure grips"
One red "PicTails, picture frame with a twist"
One cubicle picture frame
One sheet of spider and snake glow-in-the-dark temporary tattoos
One power outlet safety guard with built-in nightlight
Three suction cups
One 12-page mini photo album
Five sheets of "Deadtime Stories" stickers
One bottle of "Champagne Party" bubbles in a champagne-bottle-shaped container
One mini "Antiquing for Dummies" book
One box of adhesive felt circles
One holiday card registry book
One box of "Sign Here" sticky notes
One female shoe stretcher (foot-shaped), size "8 1/2 N"
One male shoe stretcher (foot-shaped), size "10 F"
Two inflatable barbells
Nine beachballs with mice and cats
Three "slime eggs"
One blue "electroluminescent wire"
One container of glow-in-the-dark maggots
One-hundred superballs
Dorie's personal favorite is the showercap covered in beef so I'm not getting that back any time soon!
Thank you again,
Joe
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Sunday, September 14th, 2008
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I'm not going to say "Spore Sucks", but it is a deeply flawed game. Which is sad, but I bought it for myself for my birthday (and a Tivo and a "free" HDTV) and I was expecting something more or different.
Right now, I'm on the space stage after enjoying the first several stages. The game is divided into several modes of play as you shepherd a specie into an intelligent, space-faring race. First, the cell phase is like a tutorial. It's very basic, just gets your creature onto land as a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore and with initial customizations. The creature phase as your creature exploring a 3D world, fighting with other creatures, gathering food, and gradually getting new body parts and intelligence. This plays like the cell stage: you control one creature and it's largely about exploring your environment and finding new tricks. The next two phases though are completely different: After your creature becomes intelligent, you enter the tribal stage where you have to conquer or make peace with other tribes. It plays like an old copy of "Warcraft II", except more basic. You control groups, not individuals, and mob combat rules. Once you unify your tribes, you repeat the same in the nation phase except now you have planes, ships, and tanks at your disposal. And finally, you unify the whole world and head out into space.
Space is where the game falls apart. That's not to say that there aren't problems earlier, but overall the game feels balanced and good for its difficulty level. The play style (and, annoyingly, even the controls) are different from phase to phase, but on the whole it's a nice experience. The stages aren't too long, the goals are fun to reach, and the world mostly works. Sure, by the time you get to civilization stage (where you are designing tanks instead of your specie), the previous several stages feel an awful lot like a complicated process for creating a Spore "Mii" (the avatar system used in the Nintendo Wii), but at least you had fun doing it.
In space, you are back to controlling a single ship. You explore other stars, do missions for alien species, terraform planets, sell "spice" to many different markets, etc. And that's fun. But, inevitably, you don't please a nation. Or, worse, you provoke one, and then it's an insane amount of having your home planet beaten to a pulp every few minutes, losing colonies to raiding parties, and spending all your time defending instead of doing the things the game makes fun. And this is on the EASIEST LEVEL. (And, although you are bound to a single ship for warfare, none of the races that you compete against are bound to the same. It's just wave after wave of ships much more powerful than you. And there are upgrades out there for the weapons, but I die well before I unlock any of them.)
There is hints of greatness here, but ultimately it falls flat. The stage is longer than the entire remainder of the game combined. And, if you get yourself locked into a spot where you can't win, you need to re-play all the other stages to get the bonuses that you had. (You can start at the space stage without the bonuses, but at a disadvantage. And since it's so difficult, I suspect you need them.)
So, I'm frustrated. I like what they've done, but I wish they had waited a couple more months to release the game. They could have made space a more balanced and fun experience. As it is now, it's just damn frustrating and you waste so many hours before you get yourself killed with no way to go back to a safe point.
My recommendation? Wait a month or two before buying. It's possible that the insanity that is the space level will be fixed in a bug release or something and it'll become more playable. Perhaps not, of course, but I can hope.
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Friday, August 29th, 2008
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I've been thinking about the nomination of Mrs. Palin for VP and there has been lots of news coverage about her lack of national political experience. Well, that's true enough, but what I wasn't sure if that was typical. So, I decided to do some digging. I haven't quite made up my mind what this all means, but the data's here for you to make your own decisions.
Note that the "Senator for ..." lines are years BEFORE the candidate was first made the VP candidate for a political party.
In short: 10 VP candidates without prior national political experience, 6 of those were governors (like Palin), 2 were state Senators, 1 was military, and 1 was academic
The most recent was Spiro Agnew, and we all know how that worked out. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt is also on that list, and he worked out okay.
No promises I didn't make an error someplace. I'm just throwing this together quickly.
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Joe Biden - Democratic - 2008 - Senator for 35 years
John Edwards - Democratic - 2004 - Senator for 6 years
Dick Cheney - Republican - 2000 - Secretary of Defense for 4 years, Congressman for 10 years, Chief of Staff for 1 year
Joe Lieberman - Democratic - 2000 - Senator for 11 years
Jack Kemp - Republican - 1996 - Congressman for 18 years, Secretary of Housing for 4 years
Al Gore - Democratic - 1992 - Senator for 8 years, Congressman for 8 years
Dan Quayle - Republican - 1988 - Senator for 8 years, Congressman for 4 years
Lloyd Bentson - Democratic - 1988 - Senator for 18 years, Congressman for 6 years
Geraldine Ferraro - Democratic - 1984 - Congresswoman for 6 years
George H. W. Bush - Republican - 1980 - Congressman for 4 years, Ambassador to the U.N. for 2 years, Director of the CIA for 1 year
Walter Mondale - Democratic - 1976 - Senator for 8 years
Bob Dole - Republican - 1976 - Senator for 8 years, Congressman for 8 years
Sargent Shriver - Democratic - 1972 - Director of the Peace Corps for 5 years
Spiro Agnew - Republican - 1968 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Governor of Maryland)
Edmund Muskie - Democratic - 1968 - Senator for 10 years
Hubert Humphrey - Republican - 1964 - Senator for 16 years,
William E. Miller - Democratic - 1964 - Congressman for 12 years
Lyndon B. Johnson - Democratic - 1960 - Senator for 12 years, Congressman for 12 years
Henry Calbot Lodge - Republican - 1960 - Senator for 13 years, Ambassador to the U.N. for 7 years
Estes Kefauver - Democratic - 1956 - Senator for 8 years
John Sparkman - Democratic - 1952 - Senator for 6 years
Richard Nixon - Republican - 1952 - Senator for 6 years, Congressman for 4 years
Earl Warren - Republican - 1948 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Governor of California)
Alben Barkley - Democratic - 1948 - Senator for 22 years, Congressman for 14 years
John Bricker - Republican - 1944 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Governor of Ohio)
Harry S. Truman - Democratic - 1944 - Senator for 10 years
Henry Wallace - Democratic - 1940 - Secretary of Agriculture for 7 years
Charles L. McNary - Republican - 1940 - Senator for 23 years
Frank Knox - Republican - 1936 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (military, Spanish-American War & WWI)
John Nance Garner - Democratic - 1932 - Congressman for 30 years
Charles Curtis - Republican - 1928 - Senator for 20 years, Congressman for 14 years
Joseph Taylor Robinson - Democratic - 1928 - Senator for 16 years
Charles G. Dawes - Republican - 1924 - Comptroller of the Currency for 2 years, Director for the Office of Management and Budget for 1 year
Charles W. Bryan - Democratic - 1924 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Governor of Nebraska)
Calvin Coolidge - Republican - 1920 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Governor of Massachusetts)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Democratic - 1920 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (New York State Senator)
Charles W. Fairbanks - Republican - 1916 - Senator for 8 years
Thomas R. Marshall - Democratic - 1912 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Governor of Indiana)
Nicholas Murray Butler - Republican - 1912 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (President of Columbia University)
James S. Sherman - Republican - 1908 - Congressman for 20 years
John Worth Kern - Democratic - 1908 - NO NATIONAL OFFICES (Indiana State Senator)
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Dear friends! I have lost your phone number. Sadly, all of my numbers were in my cell phone which has now gone to the great maker. (Motorola?)
I have replaced this with a new phone and now need to rebuild my copious library of friends and family phone numbers. (I do have a little book with some numbers in it, but mostly for family. I regret that many friends numbers have now been lost.)
(The phone actually broke two months ago and never had all the numbers from the phone before that, so this is really a rebuilding process.)
So, if you wouldn't mind sending me your number (to my gmail account, if you have it, or Facebook) or by responding here, I would appreciate it. (Gmail is first initial last name at gmail dot com)
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Saturday, June 28th, 2008
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It figures that the first day that I am able to go out an be a tourist on this trip, it would be a hot, rainy, humid, sweaty day. But, that doesn't stop me. If I could tourist in Jeju city with a nearby typhoon, a little hot air doesn't get to me. Though, I wish it had been nicer.
As you you, I'm a big history buff and since I've already been to most of the places in Seoul that scream TOURIST on previous trips, I wanted to do something different by going to places either of historical importance or about historical events. And, since I am in South Korea, you can probably guess what wars still get the most attention.
So, first thing this morning, I hit the subway and go to the "War Memorial of Korea". Which, contrary to the name, is actually a museum that has a war memorial in it. It's a very nice museum with a great history of the Korean War in it. That was probably a good third to a half of the exhibits. There was one floor (of four) devoted entirely to historical wars of the last roughly thousand years, but I didn't get much out of that section because there was no context. If I knew Korean history well, I'd probably know that during such and such dynasty, Korea was invaded by such and such or under the control of Japan or China or whomever at the time. But, instead, all I got was a jumble of names and lots of good pictures of Korean soldiers on horseback, cannons, some large military ships, etc. I don't really have a clear outline of Korean history until around 1900 when it was subjugated by Japan. (I know it spent a good amount of history being subservient to the Chinese, but that was a little less about cultural destruction and more about empire building.) The museum skipped ahead to post-Korean War conflicts including a section on Korean involvement in Vietnam and one on subsequent, smaller conflicts, including Darfur and Afghanistan.
The strangest thing about the museum wasn't what was in it, but WHO. There were dozens and dozens of little "cub scout" packs all running around in groups. I say "cub scout" because they were about the same age, wore a uniform quite nearly exactly like a cub scout/boy scout (including Western-style hat and funny necktie thing) and they had older boys (and girls) in similar, but different uniforms leading the smaller kids. As I would walk through the museum, I would hear someone from behind me or to the side call out "Hello!" and "How are you?" at me, and it would be a little kid, beaming and laughing. Some asked me where I was from and seemed to understand, others seemed like they really didn't. It was pretty fun.
My next stop was at "Seodaemun Prison History Hall". This prison serves as a testament to the 45-odd year period under Japanese rule where many prisoners were held there in horrible conditions. During those years, the Japanese rulers tried to stamp out Korean culture in its entirety: banning the Korean language, setting up Shinto shrines, making people change to Japanese names and speak Japanese, etc. Those who fought against this often ended up in a prison like this one. I have to say, walking through it and looking at the photos of the conditions and how inmates were treated and killed, I was reminded of the holocaust. I know it's not at the same scale and not the same situation (after all, they *could* just convert to Shinto, change their names, and speak Japanese -- Hitler didn't give the Jews those options), but it still turns my stomach to think about it... and what might have happened to the Korean people if Japan had not been defeated.
The big downside to this museum is that it had scouts too, except MORE of them. Insane amounts. Clogging up all the narrow hallways and blocking the exhibits. (This was a converted prison complex after all. It wasn't exactly designed for this.) I don't know if today was a holiday or if every Saturday is like this, but it was almost impossible to enjoy (if that's the right word) the trip. Everywhere I went was "Hello!", "Hello!", "Hello!". "What's your name?" "Why are you here?" "Where are you from?" "I'm fine." (That one was a little confused.) "Hello!" I'm completely serious. I couldn't get away from the kids and they ALL thought they were being creative by trying to start up a conversation with me. And by the 500th "Hello", I was getting ready to respond with "Das tut mir leid, Ich spreche keine Englisch.", except that I would have had to do that to every kid that came by and that doesn't really change anything.
Escaping the swarms with my life, my third stop today was significantly farther afield: Incheon, about 1.5 hours by subway. Incheon is a separate city from Seoul, on the coast. During the Korean War, that's where General MacArthur and the US troops landed successfully to recapture Seoul from the North Koreans who had invaded. It's separate, but Seoul has pretty much expanded to reach it, so it's urban all the way there. (Incheon is also where the international airport is, although in a different part separated from the city of Incheon itself on a little cape or peninsula.)
On my way there, I stopped in a large underground "wedding mall". Imagine store after store, except every one of them is a jeweler or a tailor. Probably more than a hundred little stores, pretty much identical. I did find a delightful little sapphire pendant that I might have bought Dorie except 1) that specific store was closed 2) it was probably a lot of money and 3) she doesn't want me to buy her jewelry unless it is one VERY SPECIFIC type of jewelry that you give someone on a SPECIAL OCCASION. And even then, she doesn't want something store bought. (Oh, the pressure, the pressure. I'm just going to start buying boxes of cracker jack soon, I swear.) Above the mall with the tailors and jewelers (and dress makers, now that I think of it), there were shops that sold ONLY ribbons in hundreds of types, shops that sold only lace, shops that sold only flowers. Very weird and specialized. Dorie might have liked the fabric stores, actually. And the tailors downstairs generally had bolts of fabric on display that you could pick from for them to make your suit out of, though they had pre-made suits also.
In Incheon, naturally the first thing I did was completely go the wrong way and since I had a tourist map that was roughly two inches square in the back of a guidebook about Seoul which didn't include Incheon except as a footnote, I was off the map. I wasn't discouraged, but what I saw there was really different than whats in Seoul. I think many of the buildings are older since Incheon wasn't destroyed during the war as much. There are sections of TIGHT houses, one story, with the "roads" between them being hardly as wide as a modern sidewalk. I didn't go back into those sections since they looked more run down-- actually, everything in Incheon looked more run down than in Seoul-- but it was interesting and matched descriptions I've seen. I wandered around for a while longer and found what I thought was a bookstore, but after finding a book that I wanted to buy (a Korean "One Piece" for Anastas), I realized that it was a library. I had just never seen a library that only carried comics/manga and DVDs (some pornographic, but very few) before. Oh well. I guess he'll have to go without, unless I can find something at the Korean bookstore in the COEX Mall tomorrow.
Eventually, I did find the park that I was looking for, overlooking Incheon harbor. On a clear day, it would have been nicer. But, there in the center of the park, was the statue to General MacArthur that I was hoping to see, near (but probably not very near) where the US landed. An elderly Korean man who was also visiting the park, possibly around 80 though it's hard to tell, INSISTED on telling me, in Korean, exactly how great a man MacArthur was at great length. I know this because another Korean man there helpfully translated for him, apologizing because despite my protests the old man refused to notice that I didn't actually comprehend a single thing he was saying. But, it made me feel pretty good to be an American. It's nice to know that there was a simpler time when our intervention in a country was seen as such a positive thing. There were Good Guys and Bad Guys back then, it seems. Today, there are a lot more grays. Or, maybe it's a different perspective.
My biggest disappointment with the whole thing was that the park wasn't called "MacArthur Park". (It's "Jayu Park".)
I rounded out my trip with a visit to Chinatown, near the park. It's Seoul's only Chinatown and it's not that large and looks pretty much exactly like Chinatown looks in San Francisco except with more stairs ad the Chinese words are subtitled in both Korean and English. I bought a doughnut-like concoction from a street vendor, but I regret not eating at any of the restaurants. They have "Chinese" food there that was invented in Korea and highly recommended by all the guide books. (Sort of their own "Chicken Tikka Masala", which was invented in London.) But, I wasn't hungry. Oh well.
And that was pretty much my day. No idea what I'm doing tomorrow, but I'll try and do as much as I can because I only get two days.
The biggest disappointment is that the camera that I took, which is the backup camera anyway because the charger for my real camera went missing right before the trip, more thoroughly broke. Most of the time, it simply won't focus. Not a slightly-out-of-focus issue, but "multi-colored blur" for all the pictures. I managed to get a few shots before it went to hell and a few more if I would reboot the camera a couple times, but in the end nothing I could do would get it to focus. (And yes, I had it on the right settings.) No pictures for me this trip, I suppose.
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Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
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I think that I may have just solved one of the fundamental mysteries of mankind: the origin of the believe in the supernatural. Naturally, I did this by observing my cats.
Joshua, you see, has developed his own feline religion. He can't talk, so he can't easily communicate this religion, but by observing him, I think I have the gist. It involves my bathtub and the everyday miracle of "the water coming down". Now, I don't mean when I take a shower (he's watched that a number of times and mostly he thinks its just loud and damp), but other times. Times when I'm not home. I've now several times found him sitting in the bathtub, face of innocent contentedly, staring at the faucet or the shower head. He'll look up at me if I walk by and meow at me, but when he has his special time with the water faucet, that's his special time.
And the reason why this works is that SOMETIMES, just SOMETIMES, because of the way the water sits in the pipes or something the neighbor does upstairs, the water drips just a little bit and he can drink it. More often, it doesn't and he sits and waits hopefully, sometimes falling asleep in the tub, waiting for the miracle to happen. (I admit that at times I've helped it along, but not in quite some time.)
Sometimes Simba joins him in the waiting, but never seems as interested. Maybe he just does it for the community.
And this may be where religion comes from. It's not too far off. A long time ago, we can dimly remember that SOMETHING happened that we didn't understand, but we liked it. And, ever since, we've been sitting in the bathtub wondering what it was and whether it will happen again. Hopeful. Optimistic.
And that's religion.
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Friday, February 22nd, 2008
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First, a disclaimer: This post contains the worst picture of me ever. It severely needs cleaned up, having the red-eye removed, etc. But, I'm posting it now as a matter of expediency. And even if it were cleaned up, it would still be a horrid picture. But, it's one that you only get one shot at, so I'll live with what I get.
Today, Litte Nell met Teller, from Penn & Teller.
Now, you might not know who Little Nell is or why you should care. You see, Little Nell is one of my pocket frogs-- a habit I picked up when I started dating Dorie, though I have taken it to a new and ridiculous extreme. My first frog was one that I discovered in a jacket that Dorie had lent me after we started dating. I named him Murray and he traveled with me everywhere. Dorie and I got some great pictures of Murray at Niagara Falls, in Disney World, etc. Unfortunately, through an abundance of love, Murray became a bit weakened. He has lost some of his stuffing/sand and so he's been able to go out less recently. (We may do some surgery to help this.) In his place has been Little Nell, my green pocket frog. I took her on somewhat reluctantly-- she was a stowaway on my trip to China (and we still have no idea how she ended up in my luggage) but recently she's been going out with me instead of Murray. We have some pictures of her on the Great Wall and in Washington DC and now in California and elsewhere. She's not a replacement for Murray, but I'm glad to have her. (And yes, she is named after Little Nell Campbell, the actress who played Columbia in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.)
And tonight, Dorie and I went to the Penn & Teller show. And afterwards, we managed to get this picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpranevich/2283513892/
Oh God, it's such a horrible picture of me, but that's Little Nell perched contentedly on Teller's shoulder. (We had about five seconds to get this and it was taken by some random lady who was also waiting for an autograph, so it's not very good. But we're very excited for getting it.)
So tonight, I can sleep happy. When I get back, I'll have to send Mr. Teller an apology for putting a frog on him. (His question: "It's not a live frog, is it?")
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Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
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And finally, I'm home. Those last couple of hours are the worst, aren't they? I'm all for driving into new and unexplored territory through the wilds of Virginia and beyond... but that same four hours between New York and Boston just exhausts me every time. It's the familiarity of it all, perhaps.
My cats are excited to see me, which is good. There's a special limit with cats: if you aren't gone long enough, they're mad at you for leaving. Gone a bit longer, and they are just glad to see you again. And a bit longer than that, they disown you and think they belong to your cat-sitter. For every cat there's a different limit and 10 days seems just about right for mine. (Shani's cat Mitzie seems to get into the lonely and glad stage within 3 days, I think.)
Time for refreshing sleep in my own bed. Sure, the bed isn't magically made every day while I'm gone, but I can overlook that minor failing. (I suspect that at 29, if I haven't learned to make my own bed every day, I'm not likely to ever learn.)
Night! Happy new year.
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I haven't been actively scared of fireworks since I was four, but last night was pretty terrifying... and fun.
Instead of seeing the DC fireworks, we stayed in the "family friendly" Alexandria, Virginia first night celebrations. We were supposed to need $15 badges each to get into the events (which we didn't go to anyway), but the hotel gave us a pair for free. After some initial frustration because we couldn't figure out where the events were, we took a free bus to the other end of the Old Town, had sushi, and then walked back. It was great and not too cold.
There were two odd things about the fireworks display.
First, rather than have them in front of a government building, they instead were done near (an extremely well-lit and attractive) Masonic Temple. (The wikipedia article on Freemasonry might be a good diversion right now, if you're not familiar.) That wasn't a problem, of course, I just thought it a little strange.
The second thing that was odd was that the fireworks were shot from right in front of the building and were *exceptionally* low. Really low. Insanely low. So low that the ones that burst in the air seemed to send embers quite nearly down into the crowd. I'm sure they didn't, but it seemed that way. The show started fairly slowly and they strangely used only one type of firework at a time, but once they heated up it was fast and furious with explosions everywhere (and since they were so close to where we were sitting, we had to turn our head to keep them all in view). Great scene and well worth it. And then we were able to walk back to our hotel rather than trying to navigate the insanely crowded metros for hours.
And now we're getting ready to leave. (Or rather, Dorie is sleeping and I am writing. But that's a lot like leaving.) 8 hours or more of driving along one of the most heavily populated long strips in the country on a holiday. I can't wait!
(And thankfully we picked up some more books on tape from Kit since we will be finished with "Melting Stones" by Tamora Pierce today. We've already listened to two Shannon Hale books on the trip: "Princess Academy" and "Enna Burning".)
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
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Continuing my story...
Richmond was supposed to be the souther-most point on our trip, but we instead decided to visit one of Dorie's friends in Williamsburg which made *that* the southern-most point. In either case, Richmond was fun, if brief. We spent the morning at an excellent Civil War museum (where it didn't even call it the "war of northern aggression" once. I was disappointed, but clearly just not far enough south.) We also visited "Monument Avenue" to look at some monuments and had lunch at a great restaurant in the neighborhood they call "The Fan".
From there, we were driving again to Dorie's friend's house. That went very well (I have to track down Kit's LJ at some point) and they treated us to Mexican for dinner.
I really think I could live in southern Virginia. The climate may actually be perfect for me. It has seasons, like real places for people to live in should, but it is also relatively warm in the winter. Cold enough that hats and gloves are nice, but no so cold that your nose freezes off. To me, that's probably a perfect middle ground. Sadly, I don't think there are jobs there doing what I do... but I can see why Ed loves it so much. (But I couldn't possibly be as out of the way as he is.)
The remainder of the evening was driving to Alexandria where we are staying for the three nights in "DC". That was actually a pretty long two days of driving between the weather and the unexpected size trip (an hour each way) to Williamsburg.
So far in DC, Dorie and I have spent a tremendous amount of time in the Holocaust Museum (yesterday evening and this morning), the Modern Art museum, and the Air & Space museum. I had wanted to see the zoo again, but we did have a zoo in Columbus and all four of our collective feet were about to fall off. Today was actually an amazing, beautiful day. Just perfect for sight-seeing. (But since we've both been to DC before, we didn't do too much-- just headed straight for the museums that we were interested in.)
Tonight, we're going to the Arlington, VA "old town" for a street fair and fireworks to ring in the new year. (And this year we'll be able to speak the language and count down with everyone. Last year, I wished I had a French phrasebook.)
And although I didn't visit the zoo this trip, I did visit there a number of years ago and collected this bit of wisdom which I've been holding onto ever since. It sounds fairly silly, but roll it around in your head for a while and think it over. It's actually pretty deep. (Especially for things you learn in a zoo.)
- Don't sit on the fake rocks-- they're hollow.
- Don't sit on the real rocks-- they're hard.
Happy New Year everyone!
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You should all be proud of me. I only sang the infernal John Denver song *once* while visiting the "Wild and Wonderful" state of West Virginia. (That used to be their slogan, but now it's "open for business". I liked "Wild and Wonderful" quite a bit better.)
Here's some facts that you might not know about West Virginia:
- The whole state has a population less than 1/3rd the population of the Boston metro area.
- Of those, 96% of the population is white. It is the least diverse state in the nation.
- It has the lowest median income of any state.
And that said, Dorie and I spent a night in a hotel outside of the exceptionally beautiful city of Charleston and we had a great time. We didn't do too much sight-seeing in that city (mostly because we slept in), but we did a bit of walking around the state capital grounds. I think it would be better to come back in the summer.
The real item on my agenda for WV was to take Dorie to the "New River Gorge Bridge" which is the highest bridge in the Americas (and formerly the highest in the world). I had many raised eyebrows at work when I announced that I was taking Dorie to a bridge, but I think we both enjoyed the view and it had a nice gift shop. If you want to see the bridge yourself, just find a WV state quarter because that's the view on the back of it.
Because of the weather, there were a couple of things I wanted to do but were unable. We didn't get to stop in Morgantown to visit West Virginia's own monorail. (And, as far as I know, the only "subway-like" mass transit system in the state.) Also, I had hoped to see one of the ancient Native American burial mounds, such as the one at Moundsville, but I wasn't able. Perhaps on my next trip. (And you'll note I have no interest in the casinos at Wheeling.)
I bet you didn't even know West Virginia had that many interesting things, did you?
After West Virginia, and in a horrible downpour, we made our way to my former coworker Ed's place in Standardsville, VA. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) oedstero). It was nice to see him, Peggy, his sons, and her daughter while there. We also discovered an amazing toy (the "eye-clops" or something similar) which I need to buy for Dorie as soon as I find a convenient excuse.
And from there, we went to Richmond, VA. (Which is another post.)
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