I spent this New Year's Eve with family from California. My brother-in-law was particularly excited to shoot fireworks because they are illegal where he lives. The family put on quite a show.
Conversation turned to other California laws like the San Francisco law against free Happy Meal toys. It seems that California is against anything fun except when that fun is below the belt.
I'm sure glad I don't live in California.
Want to know how to get from Japan to China? Google Maps has your solution. Click to see the full sized image and check out item 43.
Pottiesville Road, Bumpass, Virginia
This is the 21st Century, and technology has changed our lives. While we do many of the same things our forebears did in the 20th Century, we do them with 21st Century sensibilities.
While urban areas expand, and rural areas shrink, city has become the new country and parking lots have become the new fields of mischief. With fewer cows to tip, ornery youth seek out new unsuspecting targets upon which they can act out their mischief.
Enter the Smart Car. It's called a "smart" car because it obviously isn't pretty. While we have been able to overcome many prejudices, our prejudice against ugly is alive and well.
These ugly little beasts are the urban cow--waiting to be toppled over by urban cowboys.
click for larger image
Unbelievably, young ruffians are actually tipping Smart Cars.
In Amsterdam, Dutch punks take it a step further by tipping them into bodies of water.
Smart car tipping should not be attempted at home or with a neighbor's car.
Typepad offers a Question of the Day to help bloggers find something to blog about. Most of these questions seem serious and I answer them on my "But_Seriously" blog. Today's question struck my funny bone so I decided to post the answer on Mockazine--even if I am a couple of days early for my regular schedule.
If aliens beamed into your house from deep space and asked for a 24-hour tour of Earth, what would you show them?
Submitted by Writer's Notebook.
If I were an alien's tour guide for a day, I would start our tour of Earth in the old U.S. of A. We would begin with New Mexico because the people there are accustomed to alien visitors and even advertise for them.
Leaving New Mexico, we would shoot through the Grand Canyon. If they are coming all the way from deep space, they should see something grand.
At this point, we would have to make a choice. We can go East to Louisiana and eat some of the best food on Earth, or we can travel West to California where the state is already extremely friendly to aliens and will pay for thier schooling and healthcare. If they don't plan on staying for a while, East is probably the way to go.
At lunch we would talk about what interests our intergalactic visitors most. If they want to see more scenery along the lines of the Grand Canyon, we could stay in the south and visit Monument Valley or Window Rock. If they are interested in water, we could visit Nigara Falls. Maybe they are more interested in indigenous life forms -- if so we could visit a South American rain forrest, the African Savannah, or the Austrailian Outback.
I imagine they came looking for adventure, so I would try to secure a shark dive off of Hawaii.
After the shark tour, we would continue east to stay in daylight. We could visit Japan, see the Great Wall of China, or shoot south to check out a polar ice cap and then make our way back to the US so they could abduct some cattle and (hopefully) return my home to my plot of land.
I spent the past 5 days in Las Vegas at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals annual West Coast Photoshop World Expo. It was a great conference. I have learned a lot, and I can't wait to apply some of those lessons learned.
In the meantime, an image to burn in your brain:
We stayed at the Excalibur and my family spent the entire time at the pool. During that time, we saw a number of such "banana hammock" men at the pool. They did not go to the adult-only relaxation pool and they typically arrived in pairs. As a result, my wife and I came up with a game: European, Gay, or Both. We think the above gentleman was just gay, but their were a number of other "couples" who, we are convinced, are also European. Now you have a new travel game to play with your family next time you are on vacation.
Fortunately, my son was oblivious to the perverts by the pool. He was too busy spinning around in a tube.
A word to the men: My wife laughed as she said, if you don't have the package, don't put yourself on display . . . or at least put a sock in it.
