Here's the quick and dirty on my trip to Boston last weekend, including some 100% must-see videos.
1. Tom and Jane were delightful hosts. I kept them up past their bedtime, and probably behaved worse than the title character from Problem Child, but they graciously absorbed my antics and returned them with nothing but kindness and an ample supply of Cherry Coke.
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2. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Association can bite me.
I had a lovely Friday planned with my friend Curt up in Gloucester. Basically, we were going to play video games all day long. Wii, Guitar Hero, probably some Martian killing games... it was going to be awesome. But then my bus was wicked late, and which made me just miss my subway connection. So then I forked over $25 to have a cabbie drive me Dale Earnhardt style through the streets of Boston to the commuter rail station... where I missed my train. By 3 minutes. The whole day was shot.
A curse on both your houses, MBTA. A curse on both your houses.
3. Clutch Hitting Saves the Day. Tom pulled some strings so that I could rejoin my old co-ed softball team for one more glorious run. I repaid him by muffing a two-out line drive... an error that ultimately led to 5 more runs for the other team. Oops. BUT, our team came up with a bunch of clutch hits, including the game-winner by my good friend Amy who laced a walk-off single into left.
4. I will NEVER allow myself to be videotaped while singing karaoke. Fortunately for us, others aren't nearly as shy.
5. Tara was a gorgeous bride. Corey was a gorgeous groom. The bar was open. Wheee! Congratulations guys!
6. Hurray for guy time. Here was the line up for Sunday at Jeff's house: Watch football, eat, drink, play football, eat, drink, watch baseball, eat, drink, play poker, eat, drink, drink, drink, drink, play Wii, drink, watch rugby.
7. Sometimes you just have to get up on the roof and dance. It looked like these people were warming up for Brazil's Carnival. Boys in white playing some sort of mamba rhythm. Girls dressed like peacocks shaking what god gave them. Bless them all.
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Ah, Boston. I miss your musk. |
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New Job |
Not much time to write tonight... just thought you all know that today was my first day at my new job. It's a super cool preschool that provides great wrap-around services, including medical and dental help for the kids and ESL programs for parents that need it. I'm sure I'll write more about it later, but here is the link to their website. (A website I'll soon be improving.)
One other thing. Our office is right by a music venue. Today's headliner? Wailin' Jennings. Tomorrow's is Micheal Bolton. Sweet.
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Football vs. Soccer |
For almost a year now I've been meaning to write about my trips to see the Xelaju Super Chivos, the football team that calls Quetzaltenango, Guatemala home.
(FYI: "Chivos" are goats. "Super," I think, means super. Put it together and you get the Super Goats.)
Really, my goal was to translate all of the incredibly filthy things that the crowd yells/chants/sings about the opposing team.
I mean, I could just paraphrase and tell you that in the crowd's mind, all the opposing player's mothers are... um... women of ill repute. And so are the player's sisters and wives. And also the players themselves. Except the players are all attracted to men. Especially the goalie. He's REALLY attracted to men.
But that really wouldn't cover it, because the beauty is in the details. And in the passion with which these messages are conveyed. A passion that sometimes includes pyrotechnics and flaming, airborne objects. (Fire brands for everyone! Now throw them! Huzzah!)
It's a passion that is fueled by a lot of booze.
But it looks like I'll never get the chance to write that all up. So here are some videos that you should compare and contrast. The first is from a recent D.C. United soccer game that I went to. The MLS is getting better. The game was actually pretty good. And a few hundred - maybe even a thousand - of the fans were very passionate. We joined their midst for the second half of the game and had a jolly good time.
But HERE are the videos that I pieced together from my trips to see the Super Chivos. See the difference?
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September 17 is A Good Good Day |
That's two "good"s.
One good for being Nicole's birthday. A second good for being the date on which we met last fall. (We didn't start dating until mid October, but what the heck. We'll just celebrate then too.)
We had a little party to celebrate, with Nicole whipping up some sinful truffles and surprisingly potent espresso martinis to wash them down. Merriment was had.
Then, after a somewhat sluggish morning, we zipped out to the Shenandoah valley again, this time taking the Skyline Drive south towards the center of the valley.
Semantics aside, it was a lovely to get away from the city together. A LOT has happened over the last year, and it was great to sit in a nice, quite place to think about it all and to be happy.
Oh, and we saw this Preying Mantis! To this and all other bugs I say "bleh."
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Read It. |
Vast sums of taxpayer money are pouring into the coffers of US contractors in Iraq -- but that money isn't being used to make things better for anyone but the ultra-rich in the US.
Link to the Rolling Stone article.
(Discovered on boingboing.net.)
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And While We're At It... |
...here's another post from BoingBoing.net for all of you still interested in Guatemala.
James RodrÃguez: revisiting genocide in Rabinal, Guatemala
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A Good Summer Read |
I'm adding this book to my reading list.
Speaking of which... have any of you watched The Good Shepherd? If not, give it a shot. It's more methodical than suspenseful and you'll need some snacks to get through it, but it's fascinating none the less.
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Pulled directly from Boingboing.net:
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Psychological "torture bible" published in 1961 reappears onlineHombre sin nombre tells Boing Boing:
If you were to begin researching interrogation, interviewing, and brainwashing techniques, you would eventually notice that one particular interesting-sounding volume appears over and over again in the relevant bibliographies: something called The Manipulation of Human Behavior, published in 1961 [by John Wiley & Sons].
Based on the compelling title and the fact that just about every publication in the subject area cites it, you would then probably try to seek it out for yourself--only to discover that it has never been reprinted.
Then you'd find out a bit more: the book is a compilation of seven research reports, and funded at least in large part by the United States government. You can even track down the table of contents online, and your jaw may drop when you read the chapter titles:
* The Physiological State of the Interrogation Subject as it Affects Brain Function
* The Effects of Reduced Environmental Stimulation on Human Behavior: A Review
* The Use of Drugs in Interrogation
* Physiological Responses as a Means of Evaluating Information
* The Potential Uses of Hypnosis in Interrogation
* The Experimental Investigation of Interpersonal Influence
* Countermanipulation through Malingering
These articles were written by the people who were paid by the US government, mostly in the 1950s, to research brainwashing and interrogation techniques by giving people drugs, placing them under sensory deprivation, hypnotizing them, etc. etc. Many of these experiments essentially involve torture and are likely to be widely regarded as highly unethical. This is fundamental research, and if there was any followup research done, it has not yet been published for public consumption.
This book is of enormous historical importance, and yet is largely unavailable. If you live in the United States, this is some of what your government was up to in the fifties. I doubt that their funding of these ideas stopped with the publication of this volume.
Link to copy of the complete text.
This book was referenced in a popular post from 2006 on the political blog Daily Kos: Link to "Frankenstein's Children: Modern Torture's Scientific Bible."
It's also available in scanned form on Questia.com, but I find that website a total pain in the butt to use.
Amazon shows a few used copies if you're so inclined.
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Oh, Shenandoah. |
One thing that keeps striking me about DC: all these famous Civil War era locations are just a stones throw away. This weekend's destination was the Shenandoah valley. It's only 60 miles from DC but it was a key strategic piece in the war, and man is it gorgeous.
We got off to a late and stupid start.
Late, because we both had work stuff to wrap up. (Nicole was winging the last few pages of a grant proposal and I was submitting my resume to a few dozen more openings.)
Stupid, because we somehow managed to take all the things we didn't need (namely, all our camping gear even though we knew we were staying in a hotel) while forgetting to take the one suitcase with all the things we did need (clothes, toiletries, shoes, etc.)
I don't know how this happened. Nicole doesn't know how this happened. It just happened. But it made for a fun moment in the hotel parking lot.
Me: Hey, you know what we forgot?
Nicole: Um, pretty much everything?
Me: Yeah. Everything.
Luckily, the lovely town of Front Royal comes equipped with a Big K, which met all our needs. And right next door to the Big K was a Dollar Tree. I don't know if this makes me a grownup or what, but at some point I became very impressed by all the deals at the Dollar Tree. Nicole's right there with me. Actually a little bit ahead of me. I was just browsing around with my jaw down (A pizza cutter is only a dollar? What country's kids made that?) and the next thing I know, she's prancing down the isle toward me giggling maniacally, eyes all dilated, whispering "A dollar! It's all only a dollar!"
Twenty bucks later we set off for a walk around Front Royal. We hit a sweet bookstore and got these two gems for 10 cents each. This Hunter book is the one where he goes underground after a radical on the run - and comes up with murder. That should be fantastic.
And if you can't tell why this book is awesome, well there's just no helping you. (America's fastest growing racquet sport! Man, I love that part.)
Once we hit downtown, there were lots of memorials honoring the fallen Confederate forces as well as the Confederate victories. Anyone interested in learning about what happened in the valley during the war should check out this site.
The next morning we returned downtown for breakfast at a wonderful little diner by the name of L'Dees Pancake House. And by wonderful I mean 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon and 2 sausage links for $4.50. In DC that's like a $35 dollar breakfast. For those of you from Michigan, this was basically a Virginian version of Duane's... except at Duane's you can't get scrapple and at L'Dees, you're almost obligated to.
The hike was gorgeous. It was about 10 miles long, with a healthy amount of elevation change, but nothing too crazy. The forest was open hardwood that had recently been thinned by a fire. The Overall Run stream ran over a rocky bed from the ridge to the valley floor. There was a beautiful overlook towards the end of the loop, and then a chance to swim right at the end. Awesome.
(It's the Overall Run / Heiskeell Hollow trail at the end of VA 630 if anyone is interested in replicating.)
Here are a few photos I took.
Two less-than-ideal events occurred towards the end of the hike. First, I developed some lovely blisters from my sandals. Second, I must have stepped on a ground wasp nest or something because I was stung by three wasps in quick succession. (I haven't been stung by a wasp in quite some time... that freaking HURTS!)
So we went on a brisk, arm-flailing, 5-minute jog to wrap up our hike. (I'm not above running from things that frighten me. I'm not. I have no shame about this.)
But then, in what may be some karmic swing, as we were driving away from the trail-head we saw a fox. It trotted across the road about 30 yards in front of us, and then stopped about 10 yards deep in the woods and stared at us as we stared back.
