Blog Master G

We all have the occasional brain fart — the moment when you’re trying to think of something and you just can’t find it. That little something that you should really know, but it’s just slipping your mind… it’s right there… on the tip of your tongue… but you just can’t bring words to it.

So what about the physical brain fart? This is when you’re completely sober and you suddenly forget what’s happening and what you’re doing. And you catch yourself doing — or about to do — something that makes absolutely no sense. Jen and I each had one of these physical brain farts yesterday.

I picked up the dogs’ water bowl and carried it to the sink. I filled it with water. I carried it to the fridge, opened the fridge door, and had it halfway inside, ready to put it down, when I came to and realized that what I was doing made absolutely no sense.

While preparing our dinner last night, Jen was at the sink getting ready to wash some tomatoes. She reached for the hand soap and nearly scrubbed the tomatoes with the soap when she started laughing, realizing that she had had a physical brain fart.

And we’re not even 30 yet!

What’s your favorite physical brain fart moment?

If there’s any country that should be on every American’s list of countries to visit, it is England. It’s mind-boggling how much of the world’s history is in England (thanks to that funny little thing known as the British Empire) — from the Rosetta Stone to the Magna Carta to the oldest existing copies of the Bible (dating back to AD 100). All that history, combined with its accessibility (no language barrier for those of us not gifted with bi- or trilingualism) and ease of getting around (da Tube), make London, England a no-brainer for international travel.

England has long been on my list and I’m finally able to check it off. Also on my list of countries visited outside the U.S. include Italy, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, and Germany (only in passing), though the latter four only sort of count since I was too young to appreciate being there (I was 13 and in those countries for a month playing soccer with an organization called TeamsUSA).

Jen and I were joined by her parents for our action-packed weeklong trip, which focused primarily on London, along with a day-trip to Leeds Castle, Canterbury, and through Greenwich. We got to spend time with my cousin Sararose and aunt Suellen. And we even got to hang out Friday morning at GP and CM‘s London house with Rose and Apple (yes, that Apple)… It was an amazing trip; I’m still trying to process everything we did and all the history and sites we took in… read on for all my observations and fun facts about our trip (or skip right to the trip photos)!

The People
Consistently, the English people impressed me with their politeness. Wednesday night after we saw Chicago, I noticed a fellow theater-goer kneeling on the wet sidewalk next to a man sleeping in a sleeping bag. With her hand on him, she spoke with him softly. There was something incredibly compassionate about her body language, and unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed in other cities.

Another night, while heading to the Camden neighborhood of London via Tube for drinks with my cousin and aunt, I was approached by two teenage boys. “Can you spare 5p for my mate, please? He’s short for Tube fare.” Having lived in San Francisco, where one must always be on guard, I cautiously agreed and dug through my coat pocket for some change. I handed one of the boys a 20-pence coin and said, “There you go.” I was ready to go on my merry way, when the other boy said, “Here you go,” and actually handed me three 5-pence coins. It was the first time I can recall that someone asking me for money on the street actually gave me change.

The Accents
I’ve always been a sucker for the British accent. While viewing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London on Wednesday, Jen and I were tickled silly when we heard a 10-year-old British schoolboy lean over to his friend and say (insert British accent here), “Charlie… bling-bling!”

The Diversity
London is a very international city. Almost as common as hearing English is hearing other languages — French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish. (We had a drink with a Swedish couple Monday night at the Pride of Paddington.)

The Pubs
Beer. Oh so good and so fresh. Much better than here in the States. Long-pull ales attached by long line to kegs in the basement are the hallmark of British pubs. These ales are cellar temperature and pretty bitter. I enjoyed them all. The glass is filled not by hitting the tap and letting the beer flow, but by pumping the tap until the glass is full. In one case, an ale I ordered at the Museum Tavern (Old Peculiar) had to sit and settle, much like a Guinness. Other ales I tried included Greene King IPA (my favorite, Guinness notwithstanding), Bombardier, Black Sheep. The ales are amber and dark amber in color. The draft Guinness was more fresh and smooth than here in the States (closer to the source). Imperial 20-ounce pints and half-pints are standard. A “proper drink for the ladies,” according to Rick Steves, is lager shandy. My mother-in-law drank mostly this sweet mix of lemon soda and lager.

Liquor bottles in pubs are mounted vertically upside-down with spouts at the bottom for easy pouring. Gordon’s gin seems to be the standard. I tried it one night in a G&T at the hotel bar and wasn’t too impressed. Video lottery machines are in every pub, as is smoking. All my clothes that I brought on the trip now reek of smoke. Select pubs — like the Jugged Hare and the Silver Cross — have small non-smoking areas in the back; they’re the least populated and least lively. We were fortunate enough one night at the Sussex Arms to hear a group of women break out in drunken song, a tradition at British pubs.

The menus at most pubs we hit were very similar — they had the same cover design in most cases. Fish ‘n chips, ciabatta bread with brie and pesto, lasagne, crisps, vinegar, baked pie with sweet potato and spinach filling. Overall, the food was much better than I had anticipated.

The Loos
Aside from being small and downstairs through a maze of doorways and hallways, most loos were incredibly clean. I was blown away by the 50p public toilets near Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. The company that maintains them (City Loo) won the “Loo of the Year Award” recently (see photos).

As with other international trips I’ve made, just being there is an experience beyond description. Rick Steves’ back-door travel philosophy sums it up best:

Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity. It helps you understand and appreciate different cultures. Travel changes people. It broadens perspectives and teaches new ways to measure quality of life. Many travelers toss aside their hometown blinders. Their prized souvenirs are the strands of different cultures they decide to knit into their own character. The world is a cultural yarn shop. Back Door Travelers are weaving the ultimate tapestry.

Here’s how we spent our week:

Friday 11/25
drive to Kinderhook at 1pm
leave for Newark
5 hours at airport (Sam Adams Brewhouse)
peruse duty-free shop
7-hour red-eye flight to Heathrow via British Airways

Saturday 11/26
arrive London @ 830am local time
Hotelink to Royal Eagle (near Paddington Station)
drop off bags
breakfast @ Raffles (beans & toast English vegetarian breakfast)
looked @ the London Eye
Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Circus via Regents Street
drinks @ The Dickens (first tast of long-pull ales)
dinner @ Sawyer’s Arms

Sunday 11/27
Original Bus Tour tour from PIccadilly Circus
Thames cruise
Harrod’s
drinks @ Sussex Arms (near Paddington)
dinner @ Garfunkel’s

Monday 11/28
bus trip:

• Leeds Castle & clotted cream
• labyrinth
• White Cliffs of Dover
• Canterbury, fish & chips
• Canterbury Cathedral
• Greenwich, Meridian line (marked by green laser in the sky)

Pride of Paddington & Swedes

Tuesday 11/29
Buckingham Palace / Victoria Monument
Changing of the Guards
Westminster Abbey (kings & queens, Elizabeth I, poets’ corner, The Unknown Soldier)
yummy lunch @ Pickles’
London Eye
Internet cafe @ Waterloo
British Library:

• Magna Carte
• Gutenberg Bible
• Beatles
• Mozart/Handel sheet music

shopping @ Oxford St.
drinks with Sararose & Suellen (Angel Tube stop)

Wednesday 11/30
bought Chicago tix @ Leicester Square
Tower of London:

• Crown Jewels (bling*bling)
• Henry VIII’s armor
• weapons
• White Tower
• ravens
• Bloody Tower
• Guy Fawkes exhibit
• Jane Gray

Trafalgar Square
National Gallery:

• van Gough: Sunflowers
• Seurat: The Bathers
• Leonardo Da Vinci: Madonna of the Rocks & Mary & St. Anne w/Jesus and John the Baptist

dinner near Trafalgar Square: Silver Cross
Chicago @ the Adelphi on The Strand

Thursday 12/1
British Museum:

• Rosetta Stone
• mummies
• Lindow Man
• Egyptian art
• Syrian art
• wounded lioness
• Sutten Hoo Treasure
• Parthenon sculptures

Museum Pub for drinks (mmmmulled wine)
Vinapolis: wine tour.. 5 tastings, 2 premium, Absinthe (yup), Sapphire cocktail
walked across Millenium Bridge
Blackfriars tube to Notting Hill
The Swan for dinner
drinks @ hotel bar with Santos from Portugal

Friday 12/2
up @ 630am to visit Rose and Apple
240pm plane back to the States
arrived in Kinderhook @ 11pm local time
too tired to drive home to Saratoga

View all London 2005 photos

I woke up yesterday morning to one of my favorite things: The white, fluffy blanket of the winter wonderland that is now Saratoga Springs. It snowed overnight the night before Thanksgiving and throughout the day in the season’s first real snowfall. When all was said and done, Mother Nature had blessed us with 7 inches of wonder.

Being the Malamute mutt that she is, Stella immediately bounced around and started biting at the snow the moment we set foot outside yesterday morning. She loves to frolick about, burying her snout in the white stuff, eating chunks of ice, and acting like her puppyself at heart. Stella and I love the snow; Jen and Happy aren’t so fond of it.

We hit Kinderhook and then Poughkeepsie yesterday for an early Thanksgiving dinner, then briefly returned home last night before ending our Thanksgiving 2005 extravaganza with a second dinner and dessert with Anne and Tom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

View all White Thanksgiving 2005 photos

View Stella snow video

Today feels like a true transition of seasons. The rain changed to a light snow not too long ago. I just got back from picking up the WRX from the shop, where it had its 68,307-mile oil change and a new set of the same ultra-high performance tires installed — the Continental ContiExtremeContact that we’ve had and been extremely satisfied with for the past 42,389 miles since shortly before we moved cross country. The air feels really chilly and all the fallen leaves are nearly gone.. though neighbors still have piles from the weekend waiting to be picked up.

Snow is in the forecast for the rest of the week. Bring on the winter!

I hit SF for a couple days last week for work and play, followed by three nights in LA to visit my bro and my mom. It was my third SF trip of the year, and my first to LA.

While in SF, I had the fortune of spending time with the likes of James, Enoch, Ben, Jevaun, and Megan, and even ran into Miguel and Aniko. In between my working hours, I packed a lot of San Francisco pleasure into not a whole lotta time. Adventures included Juan’s, Zeitgeist, Thirsty Bear, Rotee, J. Foley’s, House of Nanking, and Cha’am Express. It was awesome kickin’ it with the guys (and Megan!), and there’s never enough time for it all.

I zipped off to LA Thursday night for a long overdue trip to see my little bro Pete and the fun life he leads there. Pete, Becca, and I rode cruisers, the official bike of LA, along Venice Beach. It was a glorious day. The 87-degree sunshine was a far cry from the high 20s and snow we were having back home in Saratoga. We enjoyed some refreshing heifeweizen-like brew at On The Waterfront Cafe. I partied at a local bar with Pete and his gang. I got a taste of LA. We headed south for an early Thanksgiving with our mom. It was an awesome trip. I miss my bro and my mom. I’m grateful for the time we had together, and look forward to doing it again soon.

View all SF Trip III / LA Trip I photos

I don’t often comment on religion in this blog, but it’s in order today. It seems that about 70 million Americans — 25% of the population — believe that the Rapture is imminent, according, at least, to an extensive article in the December 2005 issue of Vanity Fair:

204 | AMERICAN RAPTURE Best-selling author and evangelical leader Tim LaHaye has contacts that extend to the White House. That could spell trouble, Craig Unger discovers, since his theology espouses a bloody apocalypse in Israel.

Referenced in the story is a site that’s not a joke (at least not to those who believe): RaptureReady.com. On this site is the Rapture Index, where you can find, on any given day, the likelihood of whether the Rapture will occur today. As of November 14, the Rapture Index is 157, which is really high. Good? Bad? Who knows… but apparently anything higher than 145, according to the VF article, means “get ready.” The Rapture is coming. It seems this is good for those who believe… ’cause who needs to save this planet when eternal bliss awaits?

The Rapture, of course, refers to this passage of the Bible: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (ASV):

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

According to Evangelicals led by the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Tim LaHaye (author of the best-selling Left Behind Rapture series), those of us who believe in silly humanist ideals like equal opportunity, gay rights, pornography (find a same-sex prayer partner if you need to be freed from this sin), and a woman’s right to an abortion are minions of the Antichrist, doomed to be defeated by Lord Jesus with a sword protruding from his mouth creating a river of blood (they’ve done the math, according to the VF article, to calculate that something like 2 billion of us will be slaughtered when the Almighty comes to whisk them away to Heaven to live the everlasting life) when he descends to do battle after having saved those who believe in him.

Because I’m sure that separatist Jesus doesn’t want those evil gays and supporters of human rights and pornography on his side when he comes to kick our collective ass to the curb.

It all started a couple weeks ago. First I appeared as a small speck in a couple photos in the Saratogian and had my hand and mug featured briefly on the local ABC station, along with Jen and my Dad, when we walked in a peace vigil to honor of the 2,000 American troops killed in Iraq. Next it was the back of my head, along with Justin and Ken, featured in the Go section of the Post Star. Next, Jen appeared on the front page of the Post Star, just a few days ago.

Today, the trend continues. On the front page of the Life section of today’s Saratogian (section C), you’ll see me mentioned and quoted in Thomas Dimopoulos’ column:

Political parties are polls apart as votes come in / A half-mile of city separated them at sundown Tuesday afternoon:

Across the street, at the Inn at Saratoga, the Democrats gathered. Hank Kuczynski looked like the most relaxed man in the room. ‘After you immerse yourself in the meat grinder, then you’re away from it, you get a different perspective,’ he explained.

A few feet away, Gabe, a prolific blogger, was attending his first local political campaign since relocating here less than two years ago.

‘I’m here to support the party, and the change in leadership,’ said A_nderson, who had earlier offered his selection of seven candidates at www.blogmasterg.com/life/. He went seven-for-seven on the night.

A couple years ago after I was quoted in Wired, someone referred to me as a semi-famous blogger. And now I’m prolific. Not bad. Of course, I’ve also been told that my blog is “pretty bland,” so I suppose it goes both ways.

Thanks, Thomas, for the reference! I enjoyed your column.

In other news, it’s a beautiful day this morning, but we had our first hint of winter yesterday, when the first snow of the season briefly appeared (almost exactly the same day as the first snow last year). Bring on the snow! I love the white stuff.

There’s a new local blog in town that aims to keep the new Democratic control in Saratoga Springs in check: Saratoga Dem Watch. The blog’s only been around for two days so far — it launched yesterday, following our sweep of the elections — and already has a number of posts analyzing what happened in the election.

I always appreciate hearing what the other side has to say — especially when it’s rational and makes statements supported by facts and research rather than sweeping, simplistic statements, as I see all too often from the right — and, so far, this blog seems to be a good resource for getting an intelligent perspective from local Republicans.

One of the posts from yesterday, however, did seem a bit dramatic:

If the Republican Party stays ontop of them here, then two years from now, the Republicans can show the voters that they got exactly what they voted for. Two years from now, you can show those that stayed at home that their “statement” harmed the city. Saratoga Lake will be drained, there will be Section 8 housing on North Broadway (exagerating), and Property Taxes will not have gone down. If the Dems try to implement Rent Control, you’re going to see every landlord in the city put up a For Sale sign, thus crushing the real estate market across the city. When the real estate market crashes over the next year, Affordable Housing will be the least of our concerns. You want to vote for them again?

I look forward to watching the debate unfold on the antithesis of this blog.

(Thanks, David, for the heads-up on this.)

Well, I wasn’t quoted in it, but here’s the top story in today’s Saratogian, which says it all: Dems sweep city / The Democrats cleaned house at City Hall, and now it belongs to them:

‘Clean sweep — holy shit!’ McTygue exclaimed, then added, ‘How about the water now, boys?’

McTygue was the only candidate who brought the party on stage last night, with beer in hand. Now that’s a man not afraid to party.

Congratulations to all the Democratic candidates for City Council and Board of Supervisors, who swept the election tonight! Each of the candidates I endorsed this morning won his or her seat. Congrats one and all!

My hands are sore from all the clapping at the Democratic Party HQ tonight at the Inn at Saratoga. From the first precinct through the 25th to report (District 19), the packed room clapped and clapped. We won it all. It was an exciting evening to be a Democrat. I was proud to be there and feel good about having done my part to help all the candidates win. It was my first time attending a celebration where the results were coming in live. They were literally run in through the door and typed into an Excel spreadsheet by a man at a laptop connected to an overhead projector. It was very cool to see democracy in action.

My endorsements are now the official results:

Mayor: Valerie Keehn
Accounts Commissioner: John Franck
Finance Commissioner: Matt McCabe
Public Works Commissioner: Tom McTygue
Public Safety Commissioner: Ron Kim
County Supervisors: Joanne Yepsen & Cheryl Keyrouze

Congrats, Val, John, Matt, Tom, Ron, Joanne, and Cheryl! I’m sure you’ll continue to make us all proud.

I was interviewed briefly at the event by Saratogian reporter Thomas Dimopoulos, who recognized me from my blog, so stay tuned for a link to the story… maybe I’ll even be quoted.