Happy New Old Year

Once every 365 days we all get the privilege to shove a new old year off the cliff, or crush it beneath metropolitan balls while the phrase "ageless Dick Clark" gets bandied about. Let's face it. We're glad that 2005 is gone. Dead. Never to rise again.

It's been a tough, angst-ridden year. But now for 2006 we get to look forward to more political bruising during an election cycle. Another year to denigrate and bring down, only to be hopeful that the next one will somehow be better than the last.

Well, anyway, Happy New Old Year!

A Quick Thought

I purchased the soundtrack to the movie Garden State for my wife for Christmas. It is an excellent soundtrack, very mellow, and very fun to listen to, even better than the movie. In listening to the cd, however, I got to thinking back about the movie and how it really didn't have a plot and wasn't really about much. I also recently watched the movie Napoleon Dynamite, which is very similar in that there is no plot in the traditional sense. In both of these movies, the story is really about the interaction between characters and the emotional (or lack thereof) connections that they have with each other. It got me thinking about how many movies are becoming more and more like that, with the nihilist/absurdist humor. Which got me thinking about how similar these movies are to the blogging phenomenon. Blogging is very much the same thing, many people don't really have a "purpose" for writing in the sense that an author does in writing a complete story, but the blogger often writes about what happened that day, how she feels, or whatever random topic might occur. Do you think that the movies like these two that are being put out would be possible without the "blogger" type of culture?

Holiday Eve

Ah yes, it comes once a year that special day when we look forward to Holiday Day tomorrow. For my family it has long been a tradition that after the hustle and bustle of last-minute gift acquisition, we would gather around the television and watch our favorite Holiday movie: Die Hard.

Tonight, we maintain that tradition. Our gift buying is done, we'll go to services tonight, and when we come home, we'll remember the true meaning of the Holiday as buildings explode, terrorists die, and families are brought together.

Happy Holidays to you and yours! (or Yippie-Ky-Yah...)

And yes, it is a Holiday movie, because it all takes place on Holiday Eve at the company's Holiday party.

Interesting Fact...

I heard on NPR the other day in an interview with Dava Sobel about her new book The Planets, that if you made a scale model of the universe, the sun would be a bowling ball and the Earth would be a peppercorn 78 feet away.

Just thought that was an interesting factoid.

Profile: Holiday Ornament

This ornament is a tribute to the 2004 election from a friend of ours named Jaudrey Aones. This person would send me short messages about what was going on down in Florida and ask about how the wedding plans were coming. She wanted to know what to get for a wedding gift, and I told her the State of Florida in red column would be the best.


So a few weeks later once the craziness had subsided, we got a box in the mail with a few nice gifts and this particular ornament, which we now hang on our Holiday tree. Fitting, because most of the other decorations are White House holiday ornaments that my grandma gives me every year, with a few Congressional ornaments sprinkled in. This person, a true politico, also gave us the timeless formula for building a nation-state:

Phillip's
Orange
Juice.

Short Update

A certain un-named travel specialist called me earlier this week to let me know that he was in San Antonio Texas and that he just consumed a Margarita and a Fajita (pronounced fah-juh-tah). This was good news because it is the first time in a while that I had first-hand verbal confirmation that he is alive.

Also, CC is now past her due date and we are awaiting news on the Indianapolis front about CC the Next Generation.

We're also wondering if Mark is ever going to update his blog.

That is all.

In Repsonse About Savannah

It has come to my attention that some individuals have been offended by my recent post about Savannah. I have to say that I was very disappointed that what I thought was a straightforward post about what an enjoyable city Savannah is had to be twisted to say that I was supporting unwholesome lifestyles. Yes, I'll admit that there was some lighthearted satire or ribbing about that, but no, I was not promoting an agenda other than possibly encouraging people to check out the city for themselves.

As for charges that I am supposedly helping leave poor people behind, I don't think you can say that a general revival of the city is economically harmful to its poorest members. In fact, what was one of the more "poor" sections of town was overhauled and is now the most desirable part of town to live. I don't know all of the economic facts on the ground from a one weekend visit, but it appears that Savannah is once again becoming a city of opportunity for all its citizens, and this helps the economically disadvantaged as well as those better off.

Today, We Joughoned!

Today's Joughonian moment came as my wife and I went into Best Buy to purchase a digital camera.

We found the camera that we wanted, but alas, it was $38 more expensive in the store than on their website. So we talked to the cashier about it (and the supervisor whose interactions with the female members of the staff seem to make him a lawsuit waiting to happen), and they said "we don't compete with ourselves," but after awhile said that they would work something out. The first solution they came up with was allowing us to purchase the merchandise at full price and receive a $25 gift card. My wife protested with the obvious point that $25 does not equal $38 and that we could just go home and buy the camera online. They recanted and told us they would give us the full $38 discount and pretend that it matched a price at Wal-Mart.

So after all that, they rang it up and the memory card.

Then, we pulled out a $5 reward zone certificate and another coupon offering 10-12% off the purchase of digital camera accessories. Well, they had to re-ring the purchase because of how their register worked, but we stood firm and got our full discount.

Afterwards, we noticed our receipt that had a $10 rebate on our memory card -- something we didn't even realize, so we got that bonus too.

Walking out, we were satisfied with ourselves and the prospect that perhaps somewhere Moel Joughon would be proud.

BTW - I'll post a picture of the camera as soon as I can figure out how to get it to take a picture of itself.

Till then, happy shopping.

New Perspectives

I have been working with some local people here assisting them with installing custom concrete pools and decks. The work is actually somewhat interesting, and I have enjoyed the opportunity to be outside, learn something new, and get paid to do it. I'm now at the one week mark, and getting a temporary reprieve because of weather (you can't work with concrete when it is raining all day).

Doing some blue collar type work has really given me a new perspective on myself, yuppies in general, and the whole spoiled-rotten whiney DC set. It's very interesting to look at your self and friends and former co-workers with a new set of eyes. And no, I don't miss DC at all.

Savannah, GA

Savannah is a beautiful city built around 21 Squares, which are like miniature parks scattered throughout the city. You can see below the basic layout of the town from this map provided by the good folks at Oglethorpe Tours of Savannah.

One of the squares is where Forest Gump sat on a bench waiting for his bus to come in the self-titled movie. Apparently Julia Roberts’ movie Something to Talk About was also filmed in Savannah.

Savannah is also

one of the earliest planned cities, so everything is laid out in a grid, making the city easy to navigate and beautiful to look at. Savannah also benefits from a bit of good fortune in that it was spared from Sherman’s fires during the necessary but heartbreaking conquest of Georgia. Now its allure is that it is both modern, but coupled with historic charm (i.e. there is Spanish moss in the trees, but there is also a Starbucks in the downtown section).

It is currently the third largest container ship port on the eastern sea board and fifth largest in the United States. It is also considered one of the most haunted cities in the US, and has lots of tours designed around the ghost theme.

However, the city is currently most famous for being the setting for the phenomenal best-seller, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil that is both a book and a movie (I have not read or watched either yet).

In other words, it is famous for being the city where, as our tour guide told us, “the queen shot the b1tch.”

Happy Holidays

I think that it is very interesting how once again there are big fights over what we ought to call the large tree in front of the capitol building in Washington, DC. Should we call it a Christmas Tree, a Holiday Tree, or some other name?

I think the issue is largely overblown, and I am also not quite sure why, given the tree's origins, Christians are always so quick to assert that it is in fact a Christmas tree. However, listening to Bill Bennett's Morning in America radio show program the other day, I was struck by his observation that every year a menorah is also erected on the Capitol lawn. But no one calls it "the holiday candle thing..."

Season's Greetings!
Karl

32 Cups = Free Flight

Just a reminder out there for everyone that if you buy 32 medium-sized or larger drinks at Wendy's that you can get a free one-way ticket on Airtran. For 64 cups, you get a round trip. Just a public service announcement, but it does make us wonder, what would the Moel Joughon say?

"I'll have 32 cokes with fries on the side. Hold the ice and soda...just need the cups."


Let's all raise a glass to free travel...

One Year

Happy Thanksgiving!

Karl A. Kilgore's Blog...

More to come soon.