This Whole Reader Thing....

Trying to get people to read this thing lol started an account on Technorati because I'm told that's a good way to do it.... Here's the code I'm supposed to paste: CVD97B239NDB so just bare with me! hahaha thanks

Philosophization after a Weekend of Beachin' Revelry

After spending a night with some interesting folks (who shall remain nameless), we've come up with an interesting array of philosophical thoughts:

-Sublimity is the overwhelming nature of nature. That said, what happens when someone views the ocean for the first time? How do people in the Midwest react to it, for instance?

-Fair skinned Irish people only get tanned when all their freckles band together.

-Abortion can be wiped out by remaking the adoption system, making it easier to give up a child for adoption, while also making it easier to adopt. However, for that to change, it needs to be okay for a girl to be pregnant in the first place, and not be ashamed, as is so prevalent in today's world. Think Juno, but in real life.

-Being an illegal immigrant means more than just working in this country without pay, it means not becoming subservient to a government that won't respect your needs whether you're a citizen or not. It also means being able to keep more money for yourself b.c you don't have to pay taxes, but that's more or less beside the point.

-Affirmative action is a way to make the ends justify the means. The only way to do away with affirmative action is to consolidate the funding of schools, especially inner-city schools. Level the playing field for middle- and high-schools, force states and towns to work together to come up with a plan to cover the funding for educating our future leaders.

-The biggest difference between being in the military and being able to drink (as the two are often compared) is responsibility. In the military, you are instilled with a sense of responsibility not just for your own welfare, but for the safety of those around you. This comes about in boot camp, where you're constantly supervised, round the clock, 24/7. This is in stark contrast to drinking, especially underage, where there is hardly ever any supervision, and where one's opinions of responsibility change with the more you drink. Besides, the good doctors tell us you're brains are still developing at the lowly age of 18, just sayin'.

Sports and Politics: The Great Divide

Howdy y'all, or whoever actually reads this. Just saw Toy Story 3 so I'm feeling pretty deep atm, and reading this article on FP made me start wondering, albeit in a totally different direction, about the relationship between Americans and Sports. Basically the article (read it first, and correct me if I'm wrong) says that the rest of the world holds up sporting events as a canvas thru which they view the state of their nation. The writer doesn't want to see that (amongst other things) happen here in the U.S., and fair enough, I agree with him.

But at the same time, the U.S. views their sports differently than most of the world. In the worldwide world of sports, most countries have one major sport, sometimes two. This can be soccer/football/futbol, rugby, cricket, whatever. The U.S. has 4, baseball, basketball, (American) football and hockey. That's a lot of passions to keep in check, and a lot of teams over which to spread out all your passion. When's the last time there was a sports riot in the United States? I'm talking actual riots here people, just because theres a mass of people and some numbskull decides to climb a streetlight does not make it a riot. I'm talking cars and buildings torched, people trampled, cops out in full riot gear, shields, maybe water hoses, hardcore RealTV shit. It's been awhile since that's happened, thankfully.

Normal occurrence in the rest of the world, where hooligans have so much invested in their one team that any failure at all is a huge emotional upset.

Tony Kornheiser (really not a huge fan, but this just occurred to me) said it best. He was talking about the fallout of the Tiger Woods scandal on PTI. Or maybe this was on SportsNation (when I actually watched it once or twice before saying "oh wow cool" and moving on), Regardless, someone on ESPN said this:

Americans are good at compartmentalizing. They can separate the man from the sport he plays, and say, for example, that you can respect (insert professional athlete here) as an athlete, but loathe him as a man/human being/female, whatever.

My point being thus: sports are on one side, politics are on the other. True, Obama might go to a Cubs/White Sox game when they play the Nationals, sure W. owned the Rangers at one point, but that's about as close as politics and sports ever get to mixing.

Except in September, 2001. September 17th, 2001, saw the return of baseball to Yankee Stadium, and helped heal a nation. Through sports, a nation began to heal. Here are some pictures from that day.

Bonnaroo Recap -- Part One: The Journey

Okay, so I'm back. I landed in Westford at like 6:30 this morning, and by the time I had gotten most of the grime (to get 100% clean will take quite awhile) it was 7:30, and I slept until.... 2:00.... go figure, but it was a long ass ride home.
I figured I'd do things a little different for this post, since Bonnaroo itself is a little different. For us especially, the biggest factor is the car ride. Luckily, we cut back the ride home to about 20.5 hours, but still, all told thats 44.5 hours in a car.... yikes. SO before I talk music, I wanna tell you about the ride.

• CT - It really is a blend of both Mass and NY. It's mostly suburbia, but without any major cities? (C'mon, Hartford? West Haven? Sorry guys, not when your competing with Boston and NYC). We knew we were back in New England when we saw 3 cars swerving around eachother like typical Massholes lol

Addendum: CT also wins the "Most Patriotic Road Names" Contest. Each highway is named after "Sgt This" or "Lt That" or even after whole Units. Way to be, CT.

Sunrise in CT

• NY - Always a great state to drive thru, this year we really did it right and hit the tappen zee bridge at nite with no traffic, it worked out well.

The Tappen Zee Bridge, Early Morning

• NJ - Fuck. THE worst. every thing is dirty. the highways are huge. the neighborhoods arent nice. it sucks getting lost. they close important exits without detours. fuck you jersey, you need to get your act together. the garden state? more like the garbage state.
• PE - After the mess that is Jersey, Pennsylvania is like a breath of fresh air. Even the frickin road signs are polite, telling you to make sure you don't tailgate! and watch out for heavy truck traffic! Def my favorite state on our trip. No trip would be complete without a stop at Hershey right as the sun was rising, it's pretty awesome. Some early morning frisbee on the lawn of the Hershey hotel, then just watch the sun rise.

Sunrise in Hershey, PA

• MD/WV - the last two states in the Union before we hit the south, we're in both of them about 20 minutes total. WV has the nicest rest area, probably because 84 is the only highway that actually gets out of staters so they try to make them stay as long as possible.... Nice try West Virginia, but I know what you're up to.
• VA - quite possibly the worst state to drive thru. Our route takes us along 84, which goes along the entire spine of VA, most of it in the Shenandoah valley. AKA we're in this state, on this one highway, in this one valley, with zero change of scenery, for 6 hours. it sucks. its a nice state, and u actually get to hear legit southern accents, but once you hit Tennessee you think you're in the home stretch.

Flipping off VA

• TN - But you're not. It'll be at least another 5 hours before you hit Manchester, where Bonnaroo is at. On the ride home, our route took us all the way down into Georgia before going back north to come home, annoying. Found the cheapest gas here too, $2.35/gal. Booyah.

For an important state, you would think we had a gotten a better picture....

• GA - At least I got to experience it, even if it was for 5 mins. Now I can say that except for the Carolinas and Delaware, I've been up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

You're pretty cool, Georgia. I'll be back again sometime.

Bonnarooooo! & Traffic Wisdom

Welp, I'm off for a hippie fest for a week. Bonnaroo 2010 is gunna be even better than last year, with a totally different dynamic. Three better prepared guys, vs. seven total noobs. I'll probs try to hit this thing up, spouting some wisdom, but more than likely I'll just lay on all the Enlightenment after this crazy, crazy week.

In honor of this 24 hour roadtrip, two little things to ponder the next time you're driving:

1. The real winner out of this past recession has been the road paint companies. Think about it. Every time theres new paving, they get to redo all the lines, both yellow and white, but also all the dotted lines too. With any luck, there'll be a lane shift or a lane split, meaning whole new sets of lines that won't last anymore than a few months.
2. You know those big flashing signs that'll say like "PAVING BEGINS 3/17 -- SEEK ALT'N ROUTE" etc and so forth? Those things really just evolved out of road signs, right? But have you seen how many roadsigns we still use today? Think about how much bank some companies made when they innovated the normal road sign into something that flashes whole messages!? And now these things are so important there are even whole companies just type in messages and place these things where the highway dept want 'em! Strange, to say the least.

Anywho, I'm off to see the Wizard. Peace and love Cubscouts.