So tomorrow we set out for LA. We leave tomorrow around 1 o’clock and head to somewhere about half way between here and Missouri. We talked to some friends that a good place to stop would be Richmond, IN which is just over the Ohio-Indiana line. Saturday we drive in to Missouri and spend a couple of days there visiting Cris’ parents and doing some wedding planning stuff. We leave MO on Tuesday to drive to Denver to visit some of my family for a day or so. From there we head down to spend a day at the Grand Canyon. Next Saturday we drive in to LA from the Grand Canyon.
We will be updating our progress and posting pictures as Internet access allows.
Zinedine Zidane is a badass. Very straight foward and simple, he’s one of the greatest to ever step on a soccer field. He’s one of the most calm and composed players I’ve ever seen on the field. He looked like he wasn’t even trying when he was on the field, but scored some incredible goals, made some incredible passes, and made some defenders look incredibly stupid during his career. I’m only disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to see him play more during his career.
Apparently his kid Enzo is already starting out on his road to being a superstar, as well. I thought this video was pretty cool though. Zidane playing in the back yard with his kids. Pretty funny how their picking at him and arguing with him about calls.
I was reading posts over at Talking Points Memo about the whole Gas Tax Holiday goofiness and I had a couple of thoughts I had to get off my chest. For anyone living under a rock, essentially the Gas Tax Holiday (GTH) is a suspension of the tax on gas for the summer months to try to save consumers some money. To make up for the money lost from the tax, the profits of oil companies would be taxed.
Hillary is for, Barack is against.
Since stating she is for the GTH, there’s been a lot of talk in the press, with policymakers, and from economists basically saying the GTH idea is a waste of time and wouldn’t truly bring relieve to drivers for a variety of reasons. One argument is that the oil companies would just raise the price of gas 18 cents per gallon, the amount of the tax, and make more money, b/c they know the market can sustain that price. When asked what she thought of the fact that not a single economist thought the GTH was a good idea, Clinton basically said she didn’t care what economists think. What the hell is that? Would she rather have the opinion of pharmacists or clowns when dealing with economic issues. Its really hard for me to wrap my head around that response, and the thing that bothers me the most about it is that its a very W-like response, which really scares me.
I think Barack isn’t taking full advantage of the opportunity that she’s presented him with. He’s been hitting her pretty hard on the fact that she’s not offering a worthwhile long term solution, and she’s making the politically expedient move. What I think he’s missing or isn’t saying is that she’s trying to promise something there’s no way she can deliver. Even if she introduced the GTH today, a good number of legislators said they wouldn’t support it, and even if there are enough that do support it, when does Congress move fast enough on something like that to get it passed by this summer.
As much as I don’t trust her and hope she doesn’t win I have to give Clinton credit. She doesn’t have anything to lose. She makes a promise she probably knows she can’t keep that will likely get her votes. She tries to get the GTH passed in Congress, but it fails and she can blame it on people like Obama for not supporting it and not caring enough about the working man. It could backfire on her by bringing the ire of other Democrats in Congress, but given the scorched earth policy her campaign seems to have taken on at times, I’m not sure she’s not blind to everything but trying to win the nomination.
I had a mini-freak out today. I just realized that I’m leaving in less than two weeks to live and work in Los Angeles for a month. I mean, I’ve known for a while that I was going, but I just realized that we’re scheduled to leave in two weeks. I’m really not sure I’m ready. There isn’t a lot for me to do to get ready, but I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared.
Its sort of a weird situation. My fiancee is working at a firm in LA for the summer with the possibility of being offered a job at the firm after she finishes law school next year. Since I’ve only spent a couple of days in LA in my life, I got a 30 day assignment to work out of our office in LA to help my fiancee and I get an idea of whether we’d be happy living in LA. Given that we’re going together, I’m not anxious about missing her, but I feel a bit weird about leaving my apt. behind for a month. Not like its going to get lonely not having us around, but it still feels strange. Maybe its a little bit of the control freak in me that wants to make sure things are fine around here while we’re gone.
The other thing I am a little anxious about is the fact that we’re driving out to LA. My friancee needed to have her car out there this summer and since her first day of work is my 30th birthday we decided to make the trip or combined “get her to LA/30th birthday road trip.” I’ve always thought driving across the country would be one of those adventure/self-discovery kinds of trips that would bring about self-evaluation and personal growth and a new wonderful outlook on life. Given the limited time we have to make the trip, I’m not sure there’s going to be enough time for self-exploration. We’re going to have hard days of driving broken up by days visiting family and friends in W.V., Missouri, and Denver, with a stop at the Grand Canyon thrown in for good measure. It should be a really interesting trip, but I’m sure I’m going to be ready to be out of the car by the time we get there.
One way or the other, it should be a fun time and I’m looking forward to it. At least I will be when I get my mind wrapped around the fact we’re leaving so soon.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to ask this question, but I can’t refrain asking it anyway. I’m a huge college football fan and I’m coming to realize that there are more than the traditionally thought of two seasons of college football: regular season and recruiting season. There is also summer season and the mini-season between the end of the regular season and bowl games where incredibly talented athletes do incredibly stupid things to get themselves in trouble with the law or in academic trouble. This usually ends up with the player ineligible for varying lengths of time or kicked off the team. This article is the catalyst for this post. For those too lazy to click: Preston Parker, a rising star athlete, at Florida State just paid a $200 fine incurred in 2006 for trying to steal a $10 DVD from Best Buy, after getting arrested for illegal possession of a firearm and marijuana last week.
Let that sink in for a second.
First, he tried to steal a $10 DVD. Do you really have to try to steal something that is only $10. If you can’t afford to spend $10 on a DVD, you probably should be saving your money to buy important things, like food.
Second, it took him at least a year and a half to pay off the fine. Did he think it was just going to go away if he didn’t pay it?
Third, its kind of funny to me that now that he’s in a whole lot more trouble for possible felony gun possession he worries about paying the fine.
Last, why the hell would you do really stupid stuff like this when you’re on your way to possibly being a star in college football and having a shot at the NFL? What goes through your head that tells you its a good idea to carry a weapon that’s not correctly permitted, particularly when you have a shot at playing a game for a living? Is it really hard for you to stop and say, “Hey, I could carry this gun around, but if I get caught I’m probably going to get into a fair amount of trouble and I might not be able to play football anymore. If that happens, I’ll have to depend on making good grades and getting a degree to get a job after school, which isn’t nearly as cool as playing in the NFL. Let’s forget about the gun.”
Maybe I’m a jerk, but that doesn’t seem like difficult math to me. I know this isn’t a question that anyone can answer, and I’m sure I’ll have to watch this happen over and over, but its so angering to see kids throw away the amazing opportunities they get. I’d kill to go back and re-live my college soccer days, even without a real possibility of playing professionally. I can’t imagine how someone wouldn’t take better care of their athletic career when they do have a shot of playing in the pros.
I’ve played soccer since I was five. Still love the game and every once in a while I get stuck on YouTube watching highlights of players or just random stuff. Below are two videos of pretty sweet highlights.
The first vid is of highlights of goalkeepers making some pretty incredible saves. Anyone who’s played soccer for any length of time or at a competitive level know that goalkeepers are a little weird in general, and definitely a little crazy. You kind of have to be crazy to throw your body around like keepers do, and to stand in front of a netted rectangle while people rip shots at you. To me, a great save by a fully extended goalkeeper is one of the most beautiful things in sports to watch. The second vid is of some pretty sweet goals scored by bicycle, scissor, and scorpion kicks. Hope you enjoy.
Okay, I’m about to reveal how much of a dork I can be. I love Wikipedia. I know its not the be-all-end-all of information resources, but its great for learning basic information about random stuff you’re curious about. I’ll see something on the Discovery channel or History, want to know more about it, and then go look it up on Wikipedia. Yes this is something I do for fun. It also helped me get bragging rights over my fiancee by correctly naming Gemini as the second manned space program to win Trivial Pursuit.
My friend showed me this comic today, and I had to share, b/c its so true…and sad in a way. The other comics on there are pretty funny as well, but some of them are a little too computer or math geeky for me to get. If you look at them, hover your cursor over them and a message pops up that may add to the comic.
There are a lot of really smart people in this world. Article’s like this one, suggest to me that I don’t fit into that category. Engineers at Samsung claim they’re on track to put a cell phone on the market in the next couple of years that will be powered, essential, by water. According to the article the water would react with metal to create hydrogen, which would then create the needed power to run the cell phone. I’m sure someone will find a technological hurdle between now and when they want to have it on the market, but the idea is pretty sweet. Maybe the research that has gone into this cell technology could be used in other areas to produce hydrogen power.
Was just goofing off on the Internets last night and found these clips. I think the Simpsons is a really great show even thought I haven’t watched it a ton. Its really weird to hear all the voices of the characters coming out of the voice actors that do the voices. Each clip is almost ten minutes long so all together they’ll take a while to watch. Hope you enjoy.
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Travel | Tagged: cross-country drive, DC, LA | 
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