Treehouse
I’d trade in my hypothetical airstream for one of these.
Too Many Meetings
I’m not sure excatly how it’s going to happen, but I’m damned certain that when the end of the world does go down, PowerPoint will some how be to blame.
Funky Cold Medina
I heard a story recently about some DJ’s in San Antonio who were loosing their job because the station was changing formats, so hijacked the broadcast for several days straight, and played nothing but Tone-Loc’s Funky Cold Medina, unitl the police finally caught up with them. Apparently this is not an uncommon prank – from XHTO-FM in Ciudad Juarez/El Paso:
In an unusual opening, the station played the song Funky Cold Medina for 76 straight hours.
That’s an intresting marketing strategy.
Arrested Development
The Movie. Coming next year-ish. About damn time.
More Trains
With gas price quickly reaching new leves of absurdity, Amtrak ridership is rapidly growing.
Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month.
But the railroad, and its suppliers, have shrunk so much, largely because of financial constraints, that they would have difficulty growing quickly to meet the demand. – NYT
Apparently, if you don’t invest in a prticular national infrastructure for, say, thirty years or so, at some point on down the line, you’re goign to run into some capacity issues. Case-in-point: it only costs $46 for a round-trip ticket from houston to austin, but it would take about 8 hours of travel time (ususally a 3.5 hour drive). Sadly, not very pratical. (via kottke)
Time Travelers Forum
A short-story-via-message-board from the future.
In Jamaica
A week ago, we packed our swimsuits, our sunscreen and our extra livers and headed off to the Caribbean to watch B and Amber get hitched. Some observations from the adventure…
In Jamaica, you should not expect any kind of ground transportation to leave in a timely fashion. This small problem is offset by the fact that you can not only drink on the bus, but its actually encouraged as you make a stop at a bar on the way to the hotel.
Also, Jamaica is just stinking beautiful.
In Jamaica there is apparently a national shortage of shirts. This is confined not only to the locals, but also, sadly to the tourists.
Jamaican driving is interesting – whether its a suzuki death-box or a 50 foot bus, the locals have no problem driving into oncoming traffic. They do it in such a friendly fashion too…If i were driving in the states and found myself wedged between a bus a dump truck and and oncoming semi, I might become upset, perhaps even have an episode of mild road-rage. These guys just look imminent traffic-death in the face and shrug it off. There’s probably a life lesson there.
In Jamaica, German tourists always forget to bring real shorts can often times be found videotaping your friends wedding. Creepy.
Rum is a whole different creature in Jamaica. Go rob a bank and buy some Appleton Rum, you’ll see what i mean. I like manly drinks – whiskey on the rocks, vodka tonic, etc. This trip found me kicking back Pina coladas as if they were water (hence the packing of the extra liver).
Did I mention that it’s beautiful there? This whole Island in the Caribbean thing is not such a bad deal.
Speaking of Rum, the all-inclusive resort thing is an interesting beast mostly because of the magic wristband. Present your wristband, with wirst-and-the-rest-of-you attached at any of the restaurants and you get fed. Present it at any of the 125,000 bars at the resort and you get booze. It’s an interesting concept that sadly doesn’t work once you leave – the day after we got back i was stuck in budget meetings for five hours. I kept pointing to my wristband, but no one would bring me a drink – very sad.
Reggae is not only the music of Jamaica, but it is actually the only kind of music they have there. I like me some Bob Marley, but holy shit, you can only listen to Exodus so many times before the seizures start.
Speaking of music, in Jamaica, no matter how hungry you are, never ever ever eat at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Shockingly Mr. Buffet is and even poorer restauranteur than musician.
It’s a pretty cool thing to watch your friends get married in such a spectacular place. Glad we got to be there.
Portugal
Having no oil or nuclear capability, Portugal is leading the way in renewable solar power.
Places I'd Rather Be…
…besides the office. From the X-Bar ranch in Eldorado, Texas.