blog.benschumacher.com

"TSA ... Vigiant, Effective, Efficient"

I haven’t blogged in forever, but I couldn’t let this pass. On this day of an allegedly busted terrorist plot against US airlines, this little bit of brilliance from the folks at TSA.

They’re supposed to be protecting us… right? [via Boing Boing]

Serenity now!

(I’m a little ashamed of myself for titling this post with a quote from “Seinfeld”, but what the hell, right?)

I just got home from watching Joss Whedon’s Serenity, and I must say, I’m impressed. It seemed to be a really well thought out story than fits well within the universe Joss created for the “Firefly” series, and it had all the humor and fun that I’ve come to expect from Whedon’s work. (Part of me wonders if what doomed “Angel” wasn’t the fact that it was so dark.)

I’ll probably write more about it, but right now I’m going to go get some dinner.

And now to Paris...

So the girl and I are now in Paris. We’ve already travelled quite a bit, and we still have roughly 9 more days of travelling ahead of us. That means we’re about half done with this trip and it’s been great.

So far we’ve been to Brussels, my chum David’s wedding (near Jemeppe—in southern Belguim), Brugge, Amsterdam (with a day-trip to Alkmaar) and now Paris. Any tomorrow we’re flying to Ireland to visit Allison’s (recently engaged) friend in Galway. To this point, we haven’t stayed anywhere longer than 2 nights. That’ll change tomorrow, and I can’t wait. We’ll be in Galway for (get this) 3 nights. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a fantastic trip, but man, is my body tired. Moving all the time is quite unsettling. You never have the opportunity to really nest. (Did I just use the term “nest?”)

At some point I’ll figure out a way to download some of the photos off the digital camera and post ‘em up, but I’m not convinced that’ll be possible before we’re back in Denver.

Allison is writing an extremely detailed account of our trip to date, so I’ll just link to that when she’s done on this post, but until then, here’s my brief account of the events:

Brussels
- Landed in Brussels early Wednesday morning (the 24th)
- To the hotel—had to call to be let in the door—they weren’t even open yet
- Napped, wandered around the city some—visited Manneken Pis, the Brussels City Museum, did walking tour of city’s comic murals
- Next day: went to Flautist concert, wandered around city, drinks at Cafe Delirium (which carries 2500 beers, but only guarantees the availability 2004 of those at any one time)
- Next day: packed up and took train to Namur
Wedding (Namur/Jemeppe)
- Met up with David’s folks and sister at train station, rode with them to very small town (one tavern—Cafe de E’glise, across the street from the Church), chatted with Holly for quite a while, napped for a bit, got up and chatted with Pearces and then went with Pearces to the Cafe de E’glise for some beers
- Next day: woke up late, walked around town a bit and then got ready for marathon wedding celebration. Ceremony started around 2PM, followed by cocktails at 4PM, dinner at 6PM and finally partying at 9PM to around 1AM—long day
- Next day: woke up late (again), packed up and headed back to Namur, took train to Brugge
Brugge (Bruges)
- Arrived in afternoon, headed to our B&B to drop off stuff and then headed back to the Market (Markt) Square and went up stairs of the tower in the center of town—around 366 (?) steps on a winding and narrow staircase, took canal tour, had some drinks on terrace near canal, fantastic dinner and slept
- Next day: woke up and headed back into main area of town, slowly wandered around, visited canals, some place that I can’t recall the name of but where nuns went to live a contemplative life without a formal tie to the church, wandered more (it’s a beautiful village/town/city) and pondered the possiblity of buying a place to open a B&B of our own
- Next day: woke up and headed back to the train station to go to Amsterdam

Alright… so I still have Amsterdam and Paris to cover, but I’m running our of internet time. Maybe you should just read Allison’s account of the trip to date. Her writing will be much better than mine (no doubt) and will have quite a bit more detail. Until next time…

Update: Allison has posted another update.

"That dude does not feel remotely as stupid as he looks."

That quote was brutally ripped from the comments of this post featuring this image:

It just seems to fitting…

Something to remember me by...

As my girlfriend will no doubt attest to, I have a terrible memory. It’s really awful. It’s so bad that I think she believes that I intentionally try to forget things. I don’t, just FYI.

What can I do about this? I have no idea, but I might give this a try. Why not? It can’t possibly cause me to be worse off, and it could make it better. That’s my theory anyway. Wish me luck.

Gotta love The Boondocks

It is, without a doubt, my favorite.

Good news for book lovers

It looks like the Gub’ment is finally starting to listen to the Americans who don’t want their privacy invaded under the guise of homeland security. Check it out

The US House of Representatives passed a measure curtailing the federal government’s access to library and book shop records by a 238-187 vote on Wednesday.

US Representative Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) sponsored an amendment to the House Justice Subcommittee appropriations bill. The amendment prevents the US Department of Justice (DoJ) from using appropriated funds to obtain library patrons’ and book shoppers’ records without a search warrant, a practice previously allowed under Section 215 of the so-called “Patriot” Act.

That makes me proud to be an American.

Helsinki... First Thoughts

So I’m travelling for work and will be spending the next 2 weeks in Helsinki, Finland. I arrived here yesterday, late in the day, and so far it seems fine. The city has this sort of relaxed feel to it. It is strange though, since Albert and I landed around 6 PM (er uh… 18:00) and then headed out for dinner around 8:30 PM and it was still light out. In fact, after dinner we headed back to the hotel around 10:00 PM and it was still quite light out… not sunny by any means, but about the way it is at 7:30 to 8:00 PM in Denver during summer. The sun had set, but there was still this glow from the sky. Odd, only because it was so late.

Alright. I need to go get ready for the day. Not sure what we’re going to do today, but I do know that I’m getting hungry.

Update: More of my Helsinki-related notes.

"I have Pop-Pop in the attic"

If you haven’t watched “Arrested Development”, then you’re missing out on the best writing on television. The fact that those writers can consistently come up with such strong jokes, some of which span several episodes, is just plain impressive.

The premise of the show is as follows. George Bluth runs a construction company that builds homes, not unlike the ones you’re likely to see in the suburbs of any major city. Unfortunately, however, George has been dipping his hand in the company kitty (and other things in his secretary Kitty) and becomes jailed for an accounting scandal on the first episode of the first season. After that tramatic event, the family starts to fall apart. It’s up to the only responsible member of the Bluth family, George’s second oldest son, Michael, to try to keep the family in order.

Michael’s older brother GOB is a failing magician and “gigolo” who seems to have never worked in his life. Lindsay is Michael’s twin sister who married a failed (and possibly gay) psychiatrist named Tobias Fünke as a rebellion against her parents. Lindsay used to spend all her time (and her family’s money) supporting causes that she didn’t fully understand, like HOOP—an anti-circumcision group, but now she spends most of her time whining about how she can’t go shopping for new clothes anymore. Tobias, who has lost his license to practice psychiatry, is an aspiring actor who has done a stint as an understudy for the Blue Man Group.

Lindsay and Tobias have a daughter Maeby who is supposed to be around 15 years old, but has now scammed her way into a position as a studio executive where her father was (at one point) a security guard. Michael’s youngest brother, Buster, is a mama’s boy in the strictest sense of the phrase. His mother has groomed him to the point where he doesn’t function without her nearby. Speaking of their mother, Lucille is an alcoholic who never has a kind word for her children, except when she’s trying to play one off another to serve a personal purpose. Finally, Michael’s son George Michael is the classic nice guy… stepped on by everybody except his girlfriend, Ann who is the daughter of a pastor and a tightly wound Christian.

As you can see, it’s a dense show. It’s only been around two seasons, but there hasn’t been an episode that hasn’t made me laugh out loud. The point of this extremely long post? I’m just hoping to encourage people out their who haven’t seen the show to TiVo it and check it out—you won’t be sorry.

Expose yourself to get your vote counted...

Normally I tend to ignore the silliness that pops up on April Fool’s Day, but I thought this bit from the EFF was just too good to let pass. Check it out:

Alpharetta, GA - Diebold Election Systems and Choicepoint, Inc., today announced a joint venture that could revolutionize the voting market. The concept is simple: combine Diebold’s demonstrated expertise in voting systems with Choicepoint’s superior data-mining techniques to produce PredictaVote™ – the first 100 percent voter-free, predictive voting system.

“The beauty of this approach is that it is self-correcting,” explained Choicepoint CEO Derrick Sithe. “If someone wants to increase the chances that his or her vote will be counted correctly, the voter simply needs to open up more of his or her life to our data-collection methods. Apply for more credit cards. Register for more grocery loyalty cards. Purchase more subscriptions. Fill out more warranty cards. Compare that to today’s paperless e-voting machines, where voters have no way to determine whether votes are accurately counted. There’s really no comparison.”

There’s more here. (I figured you’d appreciate this one, Jon.)