Ok... So when my friends Duncan and Anne finally decided to make their joint commiseration official and get married there was a lot of planning that had to go on. Thanfully, I didn't have to do any of it. Although now in retrospect I should have been retained as an outside consultant. :-) We had a blast and except for a couple of CLOSE calls everything seemed to go off without a problem! Everyone looked great, the weather was perfect, the kids behaved, the food super tasty, the alcohol flowing... what more could you ask for?! Oh... yeah... Pictures. Here are a few for you...
To see the rest go to: http://cid-9ee511bbcbf792bd.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Wedding%20pics
Blessed be those who get enough rest at night.
Jumpn2nsanity
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Cruising town in Baires
My next bit of advice on travelling to Argentina: Make sure to check your cholesterol before coming here. The diet here consists of Steak. Nothing else, just steak. Ok, I may be exagerating, but not by much! It does deserve it's place though as some of the best in the world, and that is no joke.
After making it through customs on Wednesday we headed for home in a taxi. Next tip: don't drive here unless you have been practicing in downtown LA for the past decade. The roads seem like a free-for-all! I didn't notice any speed limit signs, merging consists of telepathically informing others as the turn signals on cars here don't seem to work, and I have seen a few stop lights but no stop signs (the brake shops must do good business here). Good thing though is that, aside from the buses, the largest vehicle on the road is a Ford F-100, and that is a bit rare. Lots of Citroens, Puegots, Chevys, and even more motorcycles, cooters, and mopeds. So, if you're hit, at least you won't die immediately. :-)
We started off the afternoon by going for a cruise downtown. Very reminiscent of New York City. A little bit dirtier in places (not that NYC can get much dirtier), lots of people, and stores, hawkers, and musicians all over the place.
Old Guy Playing Bandoneon
Vegetable Stand
Normal Looking Street (Anne, this one is for you. I'm trying to get more pictures of people, but I ended up with a butt. At least it's a start!)
Lunch Consists Of: A big ol' hunk of meat and beer. The salad was an accident and the salsa and chimichurri were for topping, but everything tasted AMAZINGLY great!
It's Not All Hustle and Bustle
So all in all a good start to my stay here!
Keep your nose clean,
Jumpn2nsanity
After making it through customs on Wednesday we headed for home in a taxi. Next tip: don't drive here unless you have been practicing in downtown LA for the past decade. The roads seem like a free-for-all! I didn't notice any speed limit signs, merging consists of telepathically informing others as the turn signals on cars here don't seem to work, and I have seen a few stop lights but no stop signs (the brake shops must do good business here). Good thing though is that, aside from the buses, the largest vehicle on the road is a Ford F-100, and that is a bit rare. Lots of Citroens, Puegots, Chevys, and even more motorcycles, cooters, and mopeds. So, if you're hit, at least you won't die immediately. :-)
We started off the afternoon by going for a cruise downtown. Very reminiscent of New York City. A little bit dirtier in places (not that NYC can get much dirtier), lots of people, and stores, hawkers, and musicians all over the place.
Old Guy Playing Bandoneon
Vegetable Stand
Normal Looking Street (Anne, this one is for you. I'm trying to get more pictures of people, but I ended up with a butt. At least it's a start!)
Lunch Consists Of: A big ol' hunk of meat and beer. The salad was an accident and the salsa and chimichurri were for topping, but everything tasted AMAZINGLY great!
It's Not All Hustle and Bustle
So all in all a good start to my stay here!
Keep your nose clean,
Jumpn2nsanity
Thursday, September 16, 2010
A few words on international travel
Ok, I am finally here in Baires! I know that everybody has been waiting for this day and not just me... (Makes me wonder, were you all just trying to get rid of me?) Well, first things first: if none of you have ever had the chance to use a Spanish keyboard, I would strongly suggest that you don´t even bother and definitely don't try and cram in a 3,000 word paper in the night before using one of these bad boys. Granted, it has all the same letters, but none of the punctuation is in the right place! And for those of you that don´t know, I have this obsessive/compulsive thing about correct punctuation... even when texting. So yeah, I´m starting the day off with a bit of stress...
Anywho, so here are a couple of tips for those of you that have decided you want to follow me down here:
#1 - Get a storage locker. Selling all of your wordly posessions SUCKS! That and it makes cramming everything into the allowed number of bags difficult.
#2 - Make sure to take the same airline from your origination to your destination. I was told by a number of people I would have to pick up my bags in DC and then re-check them. Well, after sitting at the baggage carousel for a while I decided to ask the information people: "Oh no, you´re checked all the way through!"
#3 - Just go ahead and pay the extra $ for the upgraded Economy or Exit aisle seating. I, unfortunately, did not and got a window eat that somehow had a 'little extra' something in the way of a metal box underneath the seat in front of me. Thankfully I was next to this midget Japanese woman and was able to stretch my legs a bit over on her side.
#4 - Get the suitcase type bag for your luggage as opposed to the duffel bag/hiking pack type. You willl spend hours packing it just so and the inspections agents will inevitably want to see that thing on the very bottom of the bag. And no, they will not take the same care as you in repacking it, if they even repack at all...
#5 - Get the rolling cart for your bags. I don't care how tough and bad-ass you are, standing in line at customs with a coat on and your worldly posessions hanging from you (all 90+ lbs of it) gets heavy when you are standing in the line for Customs. Not to mention extremely hot in the middle of that herd of cattle.
And finally - Don't hesitate to hire a taxi! They'll take you right to your door as opposed to carting things around on the bus for multiple hours on end...
Don't forget to wash before eating...
Jumpn2nsanity
Anywho, so here are a couple of tips for those of you that have decided you want to follow me down here:
#1 - Get a storage locker. Selling all of your wordly posessions SUCKS! That and it makes cramming everything into the allowed number of bags difficult.
#2 - Make sure to take the same airline from your origination to your destination. I was told by a number of people I would have to pick up my bags in DC and then re-check them. Well, after sitting at the baggage carousel for a while I decided to ask the information people: "Oh no, you´re checked all the way through!"
#3 - Just go ahead and pay the extra $ for the upgraded Economy or Exit aisle seating. I, unfortunately, did not and got a window eat that somehow had a 'little extra' something in the way of a metal box underneath the seat in front of me. Thankfully I was next to this midget Japanese woman and was able to stretch my legs a bit over on her side.
#4 - Get the suitcase type bag for your luggage as opposed to the duffel bag/hiking pack type. You willl spend hours packing it just so and the inspections agents will inevitably want to see that thing on the very bottom of the bag. And no, they will not take the same care as you in repacking it, if they even repack at all...
#5 - Get the rolling cart for your bags. I don't care how tough and bad-ass you are, standing in line at customs with a coat on and your worldly posessions hanging from you (all 90+ lbs of it) gets heavy when you are standing in the line for Customs. Not to mention extremely hot in the middle of that herd of cattle.
And finally - Don't hesitate to hire a taxi! They'll take you right to your door as opposed to carting things around on the bus for multiple hours on end...
Don't forget to wash before eating...
Jumpn2nsanity
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Old Home, New Home, Red Home, Blue Home...
Just so you know for future refrence: House hunting, when you are nowhere near any of the houses you are looking at, is pretty hard. Thankfully the people I've been emailing speak English! (Well, they email in English at least...) We're looking at finding a place in the Palermo District of Buenos Aires because it's safe, near the Subte (subway), got lots of parks (for doggles), and is fairly cost effective. It also happens to be right near the Zoo, Botanical Gardens, and the River. Pretty much smack dab in the middle of everything. (Just my luck I'll get a job on the other side of the city.) Helena went and looked at the neighborhood and sent back a couple of shots...
Map showing where Palermo is situated...
Street view of some of the apartment buildings...
The Boulevard...
Neighborhood sights...
So hopefully the apartment is as nice as the neighborhood and fits the budget! Wish us luck!
Map showing where Palermo is situated...
Street view of some of the apartment buildings...
The Boulevard...
Neighborhood sights...
So hopefully the apartment is as nice as the neighborhood and fits the budget! Wish us luck!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The end of an era: A Remembrance
We are here to pay tribute to a friend that is gone, but not forgotten. Red Rover and I spent many years together and this past Friday passed on into the hands of another that hopefully will cherish and care for her as I did.
Red and I came to know each other in North Carolina. I was living with my then girlfriend and we were driving a white Nissan SE V4 4x4 pick-up and a blue Pontiac Sun Bird convertible. Liz, always being one for the style and trimmings of the "Haute Couture" thought that these vehicles were not up to the standards which we should be living. That is actually how we cam across the Beamer in the paper, went and looked at it and drove it off the lot the next day. Well, since it was a stick was a bit uppity that I got to drive it most often (she was not a big one for driving a manual, but that's another story in and of itself) so she decided that we needed something else to compliment this.
Since the BMW was leather with only a little room in the boot and I was an aspiring musician, she decided that we needed something along the lines of an SUV. Her very first suggestion was that we get a Land Rover. I on the other hand, being more frugally minded and having a much better notion of what our budget could handle, suggested that we look around the area to see what there was to offer. We spent roughly 2 weeks not finding anything that we liked. Toyotas, Nissans, Fords, Chevys... nothing piqued our interest.
Then one day we happened to be on the Mitsubishi lot in Hickory when out of the corner of my eye I saw a thing of beauty and potential sitting in the back lot. "Is that a Land Rover I see back there?" "Yes, but we just got it in today and it hasn't even been cleaned yet." "Can we take it for a ride?" And it was all downhill from there...
Red was not immidiately thrown under the hammer and saw to become her present incarnation (HA! inCARnation... Im so funny.) No, someone wanted to make sure that both cars were shiny and clean eac week so that the other preppies in the area could point us out. (If you haven't met me you likely can get the image that I am not a big one for washing one car, let alone 2 and DEFINITELY not on a weekly basis!)
No, Red's first encounter with carnage (HA! Again!) came when Dad decided to visit the same day that the GF and I were heading down to see her mother in GA. I was working in the repro shop and while I had tried to get off early so we could split town, that didn't happen. Just as I was getting out of work I get a call: "Hey, your dad just showed up at the door with his wife and camper." Oh great. "Chat with them real quick I'll be there soon." Yeah, bad idea. Can you start to see where this is going? If not, imagine a man on his 3rd wife and my GF who just didn't seem to like a person if they couldn't do anything for her together.
Long story short, get home breaking only 4 or 5 traffic laws, defuse WWIII, apologize that we weren't going to be in town to spend time with Dad and we jump in the BMW and get ready to leave. Dad starts to pull the camper out of the drive which happens to be in front of Red. All I see next is him mutely screaming and cursing in the front seat....... He had backed into the Rover. Hence the beauty mark she had by her left eye from then on.
After a nasty breakup with the NY city socialite, Red and I decided to move to AZ where we could bum room and board off of Mom for a while. It took a while to get our bearings down here but then one night as I was working in a bar the infamous Druncan Scottsman walks in and proceeds to loudly announce:
"Hey! Who's Rover is that outside?"
Mine."
"Ever take it off-road?"
"Not yet."
Thus is the true start of a very expensive love affair. We will need to have more remembrances like this in the future... So long old friend, you will be missed.
Red and I came to know each other in North Carolina. I was living with my then girlfriend and we were driving a white Nissan SE V4 4x4 pick-up and a blue Pontiac Sun Bird convertible. Liz, always being one for the style and trimmings of the "Haute Couture" thought that these vehicles were not up to the standards which we should be living. That is actually how we cam across the Beamer in the paper, went and looked at it and drove it off the lot the next day. Well, since it was a stick was a bit uppity that I got to drive it most often (she was not a big one for driving a manual, but that's another story in and of itself) so she decided that we needed something else to compliment this.
Since the BMW was leather with only a little room in the boot and I was an aspiring musician, she decided that we needed something along the lines of an SUV. Her very first suggestion was that we get a Land Rover. I on the other hand, being more frugally minded and having a much better notion of what our budget could handle, suggested that we look around the area to see what there was to offer. We spent roughly 2 weeks not finding anything that we liked. Toyotas, Nissans, Fords, Chevys... nothing piqued our interest.
Then one day we happened to be on the Mitsubishi lot in Hickory when out of the corner of my eye I saw a thing of beauty and potential sitting in the back lot. "Is that a Land Rover I see back there?" "Yes, but we just got it in today and it hasn't even been cleaned yet." "Can we take it for a ride?" And it was all downhill from there...
Red was not immidiately thrown under the hammer and saw to become her present incarnation (HA! inCARnation... Im so funny.) No, someone wanted to make sure that both cars were shiny and clean eac week so that the other preppies in the area could point us out. (If you haven't met me you likely can get the image that I am not a big one for washing one car, let alone 2 and DEFINITELY not on a weekly basis!)
No, Red's first encounter with carnage (HA! Again!) came when Dad decided to visit the same day that the GF and I were heading down to see her mother in GA. I was working in the repro shop and while I had tried to get off early so we could split town, that didn't happen. Just as I was getting out of work I get a call: "Hey, your dad just showed up at the door with his wife and camper." Oh great. "Chat with them real quick I'll be there soon." Yeah, bad idea. Can you start to see where this is going? If not, imagine a man on his 3rd wife and my GF who just didn't seem to like a person if they couldn't do anything for her together.
Long story short, get home breaking only 4 or 5 traffic laws, defuse WWIII, apologize that we weren't going to be in town to spend time with Dad and we jump in the BMW and get ready to leave. Dad starts to pull the camper out of the drive which happens to be in front of Red. All I see next is him mutely screaming and cursing in the front seat....... He had backed into the Rover. Hence the beauty mark she had by her left eye from then on.
After a nasty breakup with the NY city socialite, Red and I decided to move to AZ where we could bum room and board off of Mom for a while. It took a while to get our bearings down here but then one night as I was working in a bar the infamous Druncan Scottsman walks in and proceeds to loudly announce:
"Hey! Who's Rover is that outside?"
Mine."
"Ever take it off-road?"
"Not yet."
Thus is the true start of a very expensive love affair. We will need to have more remembrances like this in the future... So long old friend, you will be missed.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Musings on "The American Dream..."
So let's get started with some real Blogage here...
As a budding social psychologist, one of the things that has come to interest me is the concept of the American Dream. So much to the point that I am looking to really get into the research and potentially write a book about it. I hope that you guinea pigs will help out with some insight and random paths for me to wander down...
At current the thesis for this study will be a comparison between the American dream and it's application to humanity at present with that of a litteral "dream" and how we as individuals are affected by them upon waking. I'm starting work on a potential outline and need to start doing my research. Hopefully I'll be able to really work on it down in Baires and that the "non-american" surroundings will help me get an outside perspective on things. But right now it's all a lot of gibberish floating around in my melon.
The whole idea stems out of my thought that the American dream is flawed. I feel that in the beginning it began as a beautiful concept: freedom, opportunity, equality. But, like most great ideas (Communism, television, children...) it has become either corrupted, outdated, or both. This used to be a country that people looked to come to in order to raise themselves to a higher level of some sort whether it be spiritually, mentally, or economically. But it seems now that people have taken this as license to raise themselves by stepping on the backs of others instead of being lifted up by others. Wall Street greed, the American "superiority complex", and our seeming cultural view that "bigger is better" is promoting the individual over the group. Even the way that we are beginning to remove ourselves from those people around us is encouraging this: we each have our personal space to live (fenced in back yards so no one can see us or get in our -ish,) our personal modes of travel (isn't it something like a 1:1 ratio of cars to people in this country now?), even our own personal communication, music, and computing devices. We as Americans are becoming independence junkies. Nice idea but for application: big fat 0 in my book...
So how does this equate to the "dream" model? Well... it starts out as something good, but once we wake up and start our day off the dream becomes more and more vague and we can't quite remember the details so we start making it up as we go along and suddenly it is totally diferent than the original. The question then becomes: as "responsible" human beings, how should we respond the lessons put forward by our dreams and stick to the true meaning of what we as humans are here to accomplish?
But I'll leave those thoughts for next time...
Keep on dreaming,
~jumpn2nsanity~
As a budding social psychologist, one of the things that has come to interest me is the concept of the American Dream. So much to the point that I am looking to really get into the research and potentially write a book about it. I hope that you guinea pigs will help out with some insight and random paths for me to wander down...
At current the thesis for this study will be a comparison between the American dream and it's application to humanity at present with that of a litteral "dream" and how we as individuals are affected by them upon waking. I'm starting work on a potential outline and need to start doing my research. Hopefully I'll be able to really work on it down in Baires and that the "non-american" surroundings will help me get an outside perspective on things. But right now it's all a lot of gibberish floating around in my melon.
The whole idea stems out of my thought that the American dream is flawed. I feel that in the beginning it began as a beautiful concept: freedom, opportunity, equality. But, like most great ideas (Communism, television, children...) it has become either corrupted, outdated, or both. This used to be a country that people looked to come to in order to raise themselves to a higher level of some sort whether it be spiritually, mentally, or economically. But it seems now that people have taken this as license to raise themselves by stepping on the backs of others instead of being lifted up by others. Wall Street greed, the American "superiority complex", and our seeming cultural view that "bigger is better" is promoting the individual over the group. Even the way that we are beginning to remove ourselves from those people around us is encouraging this: we each have our personal space to live (fenced in back yards so no one can see us or get in our -ish,) our personal modes of travel (isn't it something like a 1:1 ratio of cars to people in this country now?), even our own personal communication, music, and computing devices. We as Americans are becoming independence junkies. Nice idea but for application: big fat 0 in my book...
So how does this equate to the "dream" model? Well... it starts out as something good, but once we wake up and start our day off the dream becomes more and more vague and we can't quite remember the details so we start making it up as we go along and suddenly it is totally diferent than the original. The question then becomes: as "responsible" human beings, how should we respond the lessons put forward by our dreams and stick to the true meaning of what we as humans are here to accomplish?
But I'll leave those thoughts for next time...
Keep on dreaming,
~jumpn2nsanity~
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
"Been a long time, been a long time, been a long..."
Ok, so it has been many a year since I have done any kind of writing. Those of you that are partaking of this "re-visited" adventure with me are going to have to suck it up and deal with my mediocrity until I get back in the swing of things. Those of you that know me should already be aware that there will be good things to come... :-)
I guess I should start out by stating my intentions for this literary exercise... It's just that: exercise. Well, that and communication and a way to get some mental release from the insanity known as the inside of my skull. Many of you know by now (and those of you that don't but are reading this will shortly know) that I am once again picking up and moving... It actually seems to happen more often than not. Hawaii -> Virginia -> Germany -> Kansas -> North Carolina -> Arizona and now Argentina. Buenos Aires to be exact. Throughout all of my travels one of the true regrets that I have is not having kept up with the people I have met along the way and I have neglected to keep in as good of contact with others as I should. So this is my lazy way of reaching out to everyone and keeping you all in the know with what is going on with me.
Secondly, since many people are not fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit where I am going this is your chance to live vicariously through me, to enjoy the great things that I hope to do, and not have to suffer through any of the nastiness that I will most likely also endure. My gift to you, enjoy. It also gives me a way to chronicle some of these things for when I finally do go off the deep end and need to remember just who's body I am occupying at the time.
Nextly, I hope to start on a couple of projects while I am down there and I hope to use this as a testing ground for many of them. Foremost of which are a couple of books... For the Helena's out there, one with words. For the Missy's out there, one with pictures. :-) I am a huge proponent of criticism both encouraging and critical... only stipulation is: keep it truthful. So bring it on.
And finally of course you are going to have to deal with the typical ranting, raving, and general contemplations that come with the Blog medium. Love it? Hate it? Deal with it. I don't have proof that you are reading this or that you even exist. So :-p
See you around...
~jumpn2nsanity~
I guess I should start out by stating my intentions for this literary exercise... It's just that: exercise. Well, that and communication and a way to get some mental release from the insanity known as the inside of my skull. Many of you know by now (and those of you that don't but are reading this will shortly know) that I am once again picking up and moving... It actually seems to happen more often than not. Hawaii -> Virginia -> Germany -> Kansas -> North Carolina -> Arizona and now Argentina. Buenos Aires to be exact. Throughout all of my travels one of the true regrets that I have is not having kept up with the people I have met along the way and I have neglected to keep in as good of contact with others as I should. So this is my lazy way of reaching out to everyone and keeping you all in the know with what is going on with me.
Secondly, since many people are not fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit where I am going this is your chance to live vicariously through me, to enjoy the great things that I hope to do, and not have to suffer through any of the nastiness that I will most likely also endure. My gift to you, enjoy. It also gives me a way to chronicle some of these things for when I finally do go off the deep end and need to remember just who's body I am occupying at the time.
Nextly, I hope to start on a couple of projects while I am down there and I hope to use this as a testing ground for many of them. Foremost of which are a couple of books... For the Helena's out there, one with words. For the Missy's out there, one with pictures. :-) I am a huge proponent of criticism both encouraging and critical... only stipulation is: keep it truthful. So bring it on.
And finally of course you are going to have to deal with the typical ranting, raving, and general contemplations that come with the Blog medium. Love it? Hate it? Deal with it. I don't have proof that you are reading this or that you even exist. So :-p
See you around...
~jumpn2nsanity~
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