for you '30 Rock' fans like me.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Back from Jamaica, Regrettably
j and I just came back from vacation on Saturday after spending a week in the Caribbean sun. The break was great, as we calculated the last time that we went on a full blown vacation with just the two of us alone was almost 6 years ago, when we still lived in Louisville. I don't advise this type of delay, it can strain your sanity and your marriage.
1. The week
We were up before 4am to catch our flight at 5:35am. After a layover in Houston, going through customs, and a 1.5hr tour bus trip to Runaway Bay, we were checking in to the Royal Decameron All-Inclusive by 4:30. The number one reason we chose this place was because of the availability of individual cottages as opposed to a standard hotel layout. Naturally, these were overbooked, and we got bumped to a 'Court Yard Rooms,' which amounted to a normal motel like layout around a garden in the back of the resort. A cottage would be available on Tuesday.
While this was frustrating, we weren't going to let this ruin our vacation. So we dropped off our stuff and wandered the resort landscape, ate dinner, and we were in bed before 10pm. Unfortunately, the 'Court Yard Rooms' included on the second floor the residence of the resort entertainment staff, so we awoke a few times that night to the sounds of a party on the second floor, but we were so tired we prompty fell back asleep.
On Monday, we were comp'd a trip to Dunn's River Falls (due to the cottage problem). This is a national park in Jamaica and, in the list of things that you would not be allowed to do in the US due to litigation, they let you start at the beach and hike up the falls. We started with a group, but that was pretty slow so we mostly forged our own more interesting paths. A couple pictures from that trip are below.
We went on a resort guided bike tour off of resort grounds. We went to a public beach and stuck like bright orange thumbs. On the way back we were allowed to stroll through the remains (once again, probably not encouraged in the states) of a bar and grill that was wrecked by Hurricane Gilbert. I was able to get a couple pictures of the wreckage as well as j's picture with a ocean cruiser over her shoulder.
We also went scuba diving. There was another couple (he was Polish, not sure where she was from) that did the first dive with us. We went about 60' to see the wreckage of about a 100' long boat and 2 ganja planes (drug running planes that crashed into the bay). There was a 3rd plane with no explanation, so I think they were on too much ganja to count the correct number of planes. After that dive, the couple we were with apparently partied hard the night before, and were too sick for the second dive. The second dive was only 30' deep and the visibility was down, but it was good to get some bottom time since we hadn't dove in 3 years.
We were finally moved to a cottage on Thursday (naturally), but as some compensation, we were given a cottage on the beach, actually next to our favorite pier on the resort (complete with a large 'sofa' on the end). Like I said, we were annoyed by the delay in the move, but we weren't going to let it ruin our time. We spent most of our time being lazy and reading (I actually read 2 and a half books over the week, j read like 5) or using the sporting facilities and boats of the resort. All-inclusive means I ate like a fat man all week.
On our final night, we had a comp'd taxi ride to the city of Ocho Rios to eat at an Indian restaurant. I have declared this a tradition whenever we go the Caribbean after we did the same on the last day of our honeymoon. The food was good, and I think I more there than I did at all of the buffets we had eaten the whole week. We were dressed up and j look beautiful, so it was fun night.
We flew home on Saturday, got our luggage at 11:20 and our cabbie reached 90mph to get us to our house and Max by 11:30.
2. Sociopolitical Implications of the Trip
This is related to t's post on his recent trip to Jamaica.
It's hard not to feel at least a little guilty living this way in Jamaica. When you fly into Montego Bay Airport, you board a tour bus on your way to your resort, the first thing we saw was a significantly large shanty-town on a nearby hill. On our nearly 1.5 hr trip, I saw several incomplete houses and signs of poverty on one side, and huge resorts and gated communities of mansions on the other. Once on resort property, there was a gate with a guard, and you weren't really encouraged to wander off the property (unless with a representative of the staff).
Other than those trips mentioned above, I only went off of the resort once to look at what was behind the resort (a 3rd fllor sports bar and a general store). I was approach by several people as I went towards the store for a taxi drive at a fairer rate (possibly true, but I wasn't very likely to hop in an unmarked car with my wife to go joy riding across Jamaica). I was also asked if I was looking for anything 'special,' which I took to mean pot.
Also, I was able to avoid the tourist trap souvenir shops except when we went to Dunn's River Falls, which put a market between you and the exit. My problem with these places is that the shopkeepers have apparently been taught the hard sell, and not that many Americans enjoy browsing at their own pace to find something of interest. They were like sales associates at a Victoria's Secret the way the accost you as soon as you walk by their booth (on a side note, I looked all over for an article I read years ago online from a guy that threaten his wife that the next associate that approached them was going to be greeted with him present the 2 nearest thongs asking "Which of these will get me harder?" if he wasn't allowed to exit immediately. I can't help but laugh every time I uncomfortably enter a Victoria's Secret and am instantly confronted by a worker. Leave me alone!).
All of this makes me feel very uneasy with the general public of Jamaica, which I think is a bad strategy. The resort setup makes you feel unsafe when your off the resort, which I'm sure most of Jamaican's will be more than pleasant people to interact with. When everyone accosts you, it makes you not want to go all the way up to the 3rd floor sports bar to see if they have ESPN2 so you can watch the Louisville-Providence game. I liked that there was almost always 'Jamaican' style food available at our buffets and one of the sit-down restaurants on the campus. I would be curious how much of the food is actually imported, I would imagine most of it, which also doesn't benefit the general Jamaican public. It just seems like there are better ways to benefit from vacationers without setting up small fiefdoms where tourists don't feel very comfortable leaving.
3. Usain Bolt's High School
We past Usain Bolt's high school on the way to our resort, complete with a grass track. I don't know how much of a start he got there but it's interesting to see the facilities that spawned such a great talent, while high schools in the states have composite track surfaces for much slower athletes.
It was a fun trip, nice to get away for a while. Unfortunately, now it's back to work.
1. The week
We were up before 4am to catch our flight at 5:35am. After a layover in Houston, going through customs, and a 1.5hr tour bus trip to Runaway Bay, we were checking in to the Royal Decameron All-Inclusive by 4:30. The number one reason we chose this place was because of the availability of individual cottages as opposed to a standard hotel layout. Naturally, these were overbooked, and we got bumped to a 'Court Yard Rooms,' which amounted to a normal motel like layout around a garden in the back of the resort. A cottage would be available on Tuesday.
While this was frustrating, we weren't going to let this ruin our vacation. So we dropped off our stuff and wandered the resort landscape, ate dinner, and we were in bed before 10pm. Unfortunately, the 'Court Yard Rooms' included on the second floor the residence of the resort entertainment staff, so we awoke a few times that night to the sounds of a party on the second floor, but we were so tired we prompty fell back asleep.
On Monday, we were comp'd a trip to Dunn's River Falls (due to the cottage problem). This is a national park in Jamaica and, in the list of things that you would not be allowed to do in the US due to litigation, they let you start at the beach and hike up the falls. We started with a group, but that was pretty slow so we mostly forged our own more interesting paths. A couple pictures from that trip are below.
We went on a resort guided bike tour off of resort grounds. We went to a public beach and stuck like bright orange thumbs. On the way back we were allowed to stroll through the remains (once again, probably not encouraged in the states) of a bar and grill that was wrecked by Hurricane Gilbert. I was able to get a couple pictures of the wreckage as well as j's picture with a ocean cruiser over her shoulder.
We also went scuba diving. There was another couple (he was Polish, not sure where she was from) that did the first dive with us. We went about 60' to see the wreckage of about a 100' long boat and 2 ganja planes (drug running planes that crashed into the bay). There was a 3rd plane with no explanation, so I think they were on too much ganja to count the correct number of planes. After that dive, the couple we were with apparently partied hard the night before, and were too sick for the second dive. The second dive was only 30' deep and the visibility was down, but it was good to get some bottom time since we hadn't dove in 3 years.
We were finally moved to a cottage on Thursday (naturally), but as some compensation, we were given a cottage on the beach, actually next to our favorite pier on the resort (complete with a large 'sofa' on the end). Like I said, we were annoyed by the delay in the move, but we weren't going to let it ruin our time. We spent most of our time being lazy and reading (I actually read 2 and a half books over the week, j read like 5) or using the sporting facilities and boats of the resort. All-inclusive means I ate like a fat man all week.
On our final night, we had a comp'd taxi ride to the city of Ocho Rios to eat at an Indian restaurant. I have declared this a tradition whenever we go the Caribbean after we did the same on the last day of our honeymoon. The food was good, and I think I more there than I did at all of the buffets we had eaten the whole week. We were dressed up and j look beautiful, so it was fun night.
We flew home on Saturday, got our luggage at 11:20 and our cabbie reached 90mph to get us to our house and Max by 11:30.
2. Sociopolitical Implications of the Trip
This is related to t's post on his recent trip to Jamaica.
It's hard not to feel at least a little guilty living this way in Jamaica. When you fly into Montego Bay Airport, you board a tour bus on your way to your resort, the first thing we saw was a significantly large shanty-town on a nearby hill. On our nearly 1.5 hr trip, I saw several incomplete houses and signs of poverty on one side, and huge resorts and gated communities of mansions on the other. Once on resort property, there was a gate with a guard, and you weren't really encouraged to wander off the property (unless with a representative of the staff).
Other than those trips mentioned above, I only went off of the resort once to look at what was behind the resort (a 3rd fllor sports bar and a general store). I was approach by several people as I went towards the store for a taxi drive at a fairer rate (possibly true, but I wasn't very likely to hop in an unmarked car with my wife to go joy riding across Jamaica). I was also asked if I was looking for anything 'special,' which I took to mean pot.
Also, I was able to avoid the tourist trap souvenir shops except when we went to Dunn's River Falls, which put a market between you and the exit. My problem with these places is that the shopkeepers have apparently been taught the hard sell, and not that many Americans enjoy browsing at their own pace to find something of interest. They were like sales associates at a Victoria's Secret the way the accost you as soon as you walk by their booth (on a side note, I looked all over for an article I read years ago online from a guy that threaten his wife that the next associate that approached them was going to be greeted with him present the 2 nearest thongs asking "Which of these will get me harder?" if he wasn't allowed to exit immediately. I can't help but laugh every time I uncomfortably enter a Victoria's Secret and am instantly confronted by a worker. Leave me alone!).
All of this makes me feel very uneasy with the general public of Jamaica, which I think is a bad strategy. The resort setup makes you feel unsafe when your off the resort, which I'm sure most of Jamaican's will be more than pleasant people to interact with. When everyone accosts you, it makes you not want to go all the way up to the 3rd floor sports bar to see if they have ESPN2 so you can watch the Louisville-Providence game. I liked that there was almost always 'Jamaican' style food available at our buffets and one of the sit-down restaurants on the campus. I would be curious how much of the food is actually imported, I would imagine most of it, which also doesn't benefit the general Jamaican public. It just seems like there are better ways to benefit from vacationers without setting up small fiefdoms where tourists don't feel very comfortable leaving.
3. Usain Bolt's High School
We past Usain Bolt's high school on the way to our resort, complete with a grass track. I don't know how much of a start he got there but it's interesting to see the facilities that spawned such a great talent, while high schools in the states have composite track surfaces for much slower athletes.
It was a fun trip, nice to get away for a while. Unfortunately, now it's back to work.
I'm still alive, and plan to post soon
But until then, listening to Appetite for Destruction in lab today reminded me of this, remember when autoreverse was one of the greatest inventions for audio devices? You could finally listen to your favorite tapes without flipping at the end of side A. I think I wore out my brother's copy of AfD listening to it while playing video games back in the day.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
This is my friend d, he quotes movies...
This is how t used to introduce me to his friends when we first started hanging out in college. He will still use it occasionally in a disapproving tone when he feels that I am quoting movies too much.
Well, I was in rare form today at lunch. Ranting from how bad the subplots were in 24 (to the point where I stop watching) to the fact that HAN SHOT FIRST! Yeah, I know, I need to use my brain for the powers of good.
Well, I was in rare form today at lunch. Ranting from how bad the subplots were in 24 (to the point where I stop watching) to the fact that HAN SHOT FIRST! Yeah, I know, I need to use my brain for the powers of good.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Math is a difference of opinion...
This is unbelievable. I can feel his frustration with the fact that these people are idiots and there's nothing he can do...
UPDATE:
So apparently this from a few years ago. You can follow the sequence of events here. With perhaps the best reply here from xkcd.
UPDATE:
So apparently this from a few years ago. You can follow the sequence of events here. With perhaps the best reply here from xkcd.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Sports Perfection Can't Last Forever
So, my the great run of my favorite sports teams had to end at some point, and that was yesterday when UConn beat the crap out of Louisville. More on that in a minute.
1) Steelers win the Super Bowl!
So I went to a CHEGA (Chem Eng Grad Assoc) Super Bowl party decked out in my 1980's Steelers knit cap (complete with poof ball on top), Greg Lloyd jersey, and Starter Steelers windbreaker (the last two from my high school days). j and I were the only ones with team colors and an active cheering interest in the game at the party but it was lots of fun.
I don't know about the greatest Super Bowl ever, but it was a great 4th quarter and the return by Harrison has definitely the best defensive play I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. It was great to see Roethlisberger lead the Steelers back in the 4th quarter as he had several times this year (just ask the Ravens, Cowboys, and Chargers). It was also nice to see him pick a secondary apart in that drive as much as he did my Louisville Cardinals in the 2003 GMAC Bowl.
2) The Kurt Warner Fumble
I was surprise during the game that the play wasn't reviewed on the field, but I thought it was a fumble. I just figured they'd take a look in order to make it look good. They didn't, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are now all these conspiracy theories on how the NFL phoned it in for the Steelers.
First of all, if they had phoned it in for the Steelers, then the first TD would not have been called back and they would not have called a holding penalty in the endzone. Secondly, it was reviewed in the booth, by a veteran (retired on-field NFL official) official, whom I have met several times, during a long break between the plays due to the change of possession and the administering of the celebration penalty, he just determined that it was a fumble and didn't buzz the on-field crew. Nothing wrong with that, just would have looked better if they had look at it on the field to confirm.
Then I come home to this shit:
It is very easy to dispute. The VP of NFL Officiating, Mark Pereira, actually does a great job discussing that play and several others (like explaining how the officials missed the celebration using the ball as a prop). Basically, you see the ball shift in his hand when Woodley hits Warner. Even though his arm moves forward and the ball goes in the same direction, doesn't mean he has control anymore. More like a basketball pass (at least for me since I can't palm a ball).
It should have been reviewed, but the call would not have changed.
3) Louisville finally lost again last night to a UConn team that was way better. It was TWill and 4 guys playing like I would against a 7'3" center, clueless. I read some fans complaining about the discrepancy in fouls, but when you settle for forced, fadeaway, outside jumpers instead of attacking the rim, you are not going to get fouled. Louisville is still a flawed team, since we can't shoot all that well, and we're relying on so much youth in the post.
I'd like Scott Padgett to teach Samardo Samuals his jump hook while leaning into the shot blocker to take away the space that a shot blocker needs to operate. Padgett was only 2 inches taller than SamSam, but had far superior footwork and post moves. Then again, Padgett was raised by a basketball coach and Samardo has been playing organized ball about 5 years.
TWill still looks great. Clark still looks like he's trying to discover what he does best. I had hoped he figured it out during the NCAA Tournament run he had last year, but he still needs work. He had one really good drop step move yesterday, didn't finish, mostly he settled for long range jump shots.
Oh well, enough for now. I'm going to bed.
1) Steelers win the Super Bowl!
So I went to a CHEGA (Chem Eng Grad Assoc) Super Bowl party decked out in my 1980's Steelers knit cap (complete with poof ball on top), Greg Lloyd jersey, and Starter Steelers windbreaker (the last two from my high school days). j and I were the only ones with team colors and an active cheering interest in the game at the party but it was lots of fun.
I don't know about the greatest Super Bowl ever, but it was a great 4th quarter and the return by Harrison has definitely the best defensive play I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. It was great to see Roethlisberger lead the Steelers back in the 4th quarter as he had several times this year (just ask the Ravens, Cowboys, and Chargers). It was also nice to see him pick a secondary apart in that drive as much as he did my Louisville Cardinals in the 2003 GMAC Bowl.
2) The Kurt Warner Fumble
I was surprise during the game that the play wasn't reviewed on the field, but I thought it was a fumble. I just figured they'd take a look in order to make it look good. They didn't, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are now all these conspiracy theories on how the NFL phoned it in for the Steelers.
First of all, if they had phoned it in for the Steelers, then the first TD would not have been called back and they would not have called a holding penalty in the endzone. Secondly, it was reviewed in the booth, by a veteran (retired on-field NFL official) official, whom I have met several times, during a long break between the plays due to the change of possession and the administering of the celebration penalty, he just determined that it was a fumble and didn't buzz the on-field crew. Nothing wrong with that, just would have looked better if they had look at it on the field to confirm.
Then I come home to this shit:
It was obvious even at full speed that his arm was going forward. I hate to be the “NO ONE CAN DISPUTE THIS!” guy, but honestly, no one can dispute this.
It is very easy to dispute. The VP of NFL Officiating, Mark Pereira, actually does a great job discussing that play and several others (like explaining how the officials missed the celebration using the ball as a prop). Basically, you see the ball shift in his hand when Woodley hits Warner. Even though his arm moves forward and the ball goes in the same direction, doesn't mean he has control anymore. More like a basketball pass (at least for me since I can't palm a ball).
It should have been reviewed, but the call would not have changed.
3) Louisville finally lost again last night to a UConn team that was way better. It was TWill and 4 guys playing like I would against a 7'3" center, clueless. I read some fans complaining about the discrepancy in fouls, but when you settle for forced, fadeaway, outside jumpers instead of attacking the rim, you are not going to get fouled. Louisville is still a flawed team, since we can't shoot all that well, and we're relying on so much youth in the post.
I'd like Scott Padgett to teach Samardo Samuals his jump hook while leaning into the shot blocker to take away the space that a shot blocker needs to operate. Padgett was only 2 inches taller than SamSam, but had far superior footwork and post moves. Then again, Padgett was raised by a basketball coach and Samardo has been playing organized ball about 5 years.
TWill still looks great. Clark still looks like he's trying to discover what he does best. I had hoped he figured it out during the NCAA Tournament run he had last year, but he still needs work. He had one really good drop step move yesterday, didn't finish, mostly he settled for long range jump shots.
Oh well, enough for now. I'm going to bed.
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