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Belgian Political Misinformation

Before I forget, this is what I misremembered about learning of Belgian politics while I was there:

Belgium is broadly divided into two parts, French and Flemish. Neither can really agree on anything, and each have their own political party. Currently they have been without a federal government for some months due to a collapse in spring 2010, I guess because they do not allow a minority government. Brussels is further considered a Capital Region and has another seven layers of government controlling it. In addition, Belgium is also currently hosting the EU’s six month presidency while not having any actual government itself.

I am impressed that the whole mess continues to function over there, headless or not.

I encourage anyone who is interested in this stuff to read up on what is actually occurring rather than my faulty second-hand recollections.

Fort On arriving back at the coast I stayed on Sullivan’s Island, about twenty minutes north of Charleston proper. As it turns out, Sullivan’s Island is home to Fort Moultrie, a critical spot in the start of the American Civil War. And as luck would have it, 2011 is the beginning of the 150th anniversary of the war so there was plenty of reenactments going on. We went down to the fort and watched as some enthusiastic reenactors successfully fended off a ship. Or something. After finishing their official duties, and as they prepared to camp for the night within the fort, they politely answered our questions for about an hour as we were locked in from the outside. I don’t really remember much of what they told us, and I’m sure if you are interested there are far more reliable sources of information on the internet than me. I just take pictures, and even those are manipulated. Anything I hear goes in one ear and rattles around a while until it merges with the rest of the misinformation in there. All I remember was that the reenactment stuff was fascinating. The South Carolina flag is usually a palmetto tree (in remembrance of the original fort constructed of palmetto logs, which absorbed cannon shot rather than being destroyed by it) with a crescent mark in the top left corner. However, the reenactment flag was white with a green palmetto and red star. Basically the best flag ever for a fort.

Fort

On arriving back at the coast I stayed on Sullivan’s Island, about twenty minutes north of Charleston proper. As it turns out, Sullivan’s Island is home to Fort Moultrie, a critical spot in the start of the American Civil War. And as luck would have it, 2011 is the beginning of the 150th anniversary of the war so there was plenty of reenactments going on. We went down to the fort and watched as some enthusiastic reenactors successfully fended off a ship. Or something. After finishing their official duties, and as they prepared to camp for the night within the fort, they politely answered our questions for about an hour as we were locked in from the outside. I don’t really remember much of what they told us, and I’m sure if you are interested there are far more reliable sources of information on the internet than me. I just take pictures, and even those are manipulated. Anything I hear goes in one ear and rattles around a while until it merges with the rest of the misinformation in there. All I remember was that the reenactment stuff was fascinating.

The South Carolina flag is usually a palmetto tree (in remembrance of the original fort constructed of palmetto logs, which absorbed cannon shot rather than being destroyed by it) with a crescent mark in the top left corner. However, the reenactment flag was white with a green palmetto and red star. Basically the best flag ever for a fort.

Battery Hidden in the weeds along the shore of Sullivan’s are several old batteries. Roxy explores one of the odd cupboards in this one. Apparently Sullivan’s suffers from accretion rather than erosion, and the beach continually builds out. Homes that were once waterfront are now set back from the ocean, with often significant vegetation also filling in on the new land.

Battery

Hidden in the weeds along the shore of Sullivan’s are several old batteries. Roxy explores one of the odd cupboards in this one.

Apparently Sullivan’s suffers from accretion rather than erosion, and the beach continually builds out. Homes that were once waterfront are now set back from the ocean, with often significant vegetation also filling in on the new land.

Wonders Way Chris and I went for an early morning run along Wonders Way, a mixed use sidewalk bolted to the outside of a fancy new bridge in Charleston, SC. If you click the title link you can read about how the state didn’t want to pay for any sidewalks at all, but it put one in after much petitioning by local recreation groups. Now it is championed as one of the great recreational paths in the southeast, and they wish they had put one on the other side of the bridge as well, to increase the capacity. Or something. Anyway it was freezing cold and the wind was sharp and brutal, my eyes and nose were leaking all over the place and my jaw wouldn’t move. Good times were had by all. Speaking of ridiculous winter weather, I’d left Atlanta the day before I shot this photo, and the day after it locked up with snow. The following week the stat that has been floating around happy Floridans is that this is the only state without snow. I guess I have succeeded in outrunning winter, but just barely.

Wonders Way

Chris and I went for an early morning run along Wonders Way, a mixed use sidewalk bolted to the outside of a fancy new bridge in Charleston, SC. If you click the title link you can read about how the state didn’t want to pay for any sidewalks at all, but it put one in after much petitioning by local recreation groups. Now it is championed as one of the great recreational paths in the southeast, and they wish they had put one on the other side of the bridge as well, to increase the capacity. Or something.

Anyway it was freezing cold and the wind was sharp and brutal, my eyes and nose were leaking all over the place and my jaw wouldn’t move. Good times were had by all.

Speaking of ridiculous winter weather, I’d left Atlanta the day before I shot this photo, and the day after it locked up with snow. The following week the stat that has been floating around happy Floridans is that this is the only state without snow. I guess I have succeeded in outrunning winter, but just barely.

The Sadness About six months ago, I heard of the Friendly’s Burgermelt (click for tantalizing promo photo) through the usual channels that poke fun at the ridiculousness that is American fast-food. I felt that a first-person impression needed to be made, but at the time nobody I knew was within waddling distance of a Friendly’s. While in Florida I was looking for some lunch and a Friendly’s came up in the search results. Destiny awaited me, as this was my chance to go have a burgermelt myself, and see how it compared to the other burger-shaped craziness I experienced recently at Ann’s Snack Shop in Atlanta (and I suppose the undocumented burger at Voodoo, also in Atlanta). I thought I was going to go blob it up and eat something over-the-top as a proper American experience. When I pulled up to the Friendly’s, I started heading toward the restaurant and saw a black Escalade ESV (the 222” long monster one) in the parking lot. As I passed by I noticed nobody was inside, but it sounded like something was running, so I doubled back to confirm that it was indeed the Escalade. For the next twenty minutes while I was eating the Escalade continued to idle, and I’ll presume it was so the owners could leave the AC running to keep their gargantuan black vehicle cool in the Florida sun. Finally a middle aged couple left the restaurant and drove off in it. I can only guess that they ate at least two burgermelts each, and totally outdid me by burning an additional gallon of gas while they were at it.

The Sadness

About six months ago, I heard of the Friendly’s Burgermelt (click for tantalizing promo photo) through the usual channels that poke fun at the ridiculousness that is American fast-food. I felt that a first-person impression needed to be made, but at the time nobody I knew was within waddling distance of a Friendly’s.

While in Florida I was looking for some lunch and a Friendly’s came up in the search results. Destiny awaited me, as this was my chance to go have a burgermelt myself, and see how it compared to the other burger-shaped craziness I experienced recently at Ann’s Snack Shop in Atlanta (and I suppose the undocumented burger at Voodoo, also in Atlanta).

I thought I was going to go blob it up and eat something over-the-top as a proper American experience. When I pulled up to the Friendly’s, I started heading toward the restaurant and saw a black Escalade ESV (the 222” long monster one) in the parking lot. As I passed by I noticed nobody was inside, but it sounded like something was running, so I doubled back to confirm that it was indeed the Escalade. For the next twenty minutes while I was eating the Escalade continued to idle, and I’ll presume it was so the owners could leave the AC running to keep their gargantuan black vehicle cool in the Florida sun. Finally a middle aged couple left the restaurant and drove off in it. I can only guess that they ate at least two burgermelts each, and totally outdid me by burning an additional gallon of gas while they were at it.

True Grit I was curious to check out the new Coen Brothers film, but thought I’d better watch the classic first. In some ways the new one is better by playing things more straight than campy, but the original has John Wayne as a drunk and it is hard to beat that. Actually to tell the truth I watched both versions three weeks ago, and have a memory of enjoying them but all the particulars have been rinsed out of my head. On further reflection what I had wanted to mention was that the common landscape of both interested me the most. I first learned that Oklahoma used to be called Indian Territory last month when I saw an old train route map of the US at a place I was staying in South Carolina. These movies cemented the natural beauty of the area, and I can’t wait to head west to check it out. After winter is done there, of course.

True Grit

I was curious to check out the new Coen Brothers film, but thought I’d better watch the classic first. In some ways the new one is better by playing things more straight than campy, but the original has John Wayne as a drunk and it is hard to beat that.

Actually to tell the truth I watched both versions three weeks ago, and have a memory of enjoying them but all the particulars have been rinsed out of my head.

On further reflection what I had wanted to mention was that the common landscape of both interested me the most. I first learned that Oklahoma used to be called Indian Territory last month when I saw an old train route map of the US at a place I was staying in South Carolina. These movies cemented the natural beauty of the area, and I can’t wait to head west to check it out. After winter is done there, of course.

Thermoworks Because I have too much curiosity and not enough other things to do with my copious spare time, I’ve really wanted to measure the water temperature of all of the cold showers I’ve been taking since I was somehow convinced that they might be a good idea while I was in Minneapolis. To support that, I bought a couple of thermometers from Thermoworks, a great company that makes all sorts of thermometers, primarily for the food service industry. I order all sorts of junk off the web and have it delivered to the hotel in California, so it is typical for the clerks at the desk to have something waiting for me when I arrive to check in. This is the first time that anything I’ve ordered has come with some completely unrelated bonus item1 that I hadn’t, though. Imagine my surprise to find included in the box a single-serving sized bag of jellybeans. I don’t know how much this personal touch costs Thermoworks each year, but it really adds a human element to an otherwise relatively inhuman shopping experience. I’m impressed. So far in my California and Florida cold showers, I’ve discovered that quite often ‘cold’ water from the tap is actually just room temperature, even though what is a comfortable room temperature (20°C) to sit around in is what most people would consider a cold shower. The warmest cold showers have been ~22°C (Florida), and for whatever reason the hotel in California can fluctuate from a not so bad 18°C down to getting brisk 12°C. So far the coldest thing I’ve been in since I started measuring is the pool, which was a chilly 9°C. I feel like I’ve gone soft in the past two months, and a return to proper cold next month is going to be a bit of a shock. Showers aren’t really cold if you can stay in them long enough for a haircut and nothing goes numb. I did order a book from a Buddhist store that included some incense, but that was more like a sample of an item that they sell. ↩

Thermoworks

Because I have too much curiosity and not enough other things to do with my copious spare time, I’ve really wanted to measure the water temperature of all of the cold showers I’ve been taking since I was somehow convinced that they might be a good idea while I was in Minneapolis. To support that, I bought a couple of thermometers from Thermoworks, a great company that makes all sorts of thermometers, primarily for the food service industry.

I order all sorts of junk off the web and have it delivered to the hotel in California, so it is typical for the clerks at the desk to have something waiting for me when I arrive to check in. This is the first time that anything I’ve ordered has come with some completely unrelated bonus item1 that I hadn’t, though. Imagine my surprise to find included in the box a single-serving sized bag of jellybeans. I don’t know how much this personal touch costs Thermoworks each year, but it really adds a human element to an otherwise relatively inhuman shopping experience. I’m impressed.

So far in my California and Florida cold showers, I’ve discovered that quite often ‘cold’ water from the tap is actually just room temperature, even though what is a comfortable room temperature (20°C) to sit around in is what most people would consider a cold shower. The warmest cold showers have been ~22°C (Florida), and for whatever reason the hotel in California can fluctuate from a not so bad 18°C down to getting brisk 12°C. So far the coldest thing I’ve been in since I started measuring is the pool, which was a chilly 9°C. I feel like I’ve gone soft in the past two months, and a return to proper cold next month is going to be a bit of a shock. Showers aren’t really cold if you can stay in them long enough for a haircut and nothing goes numb.

  1. I did order a book from a Buddhist store that included some incense, but that was more like a sample of an item that they sell. ↩

Fist Bump

For the past week I’ve been back at my favourite geriatric-frequented work spot in south Florida, Big City Bagels. This is a goldmine of all of the best parts of retirement Florida wrapped up into one location.

Things I’ve learned so far:

  • Wear sunscreen. Seriously. Old white people tanning so dark that they look like a minority is scarily not right. Neither is liver spotting so thorough you look like a hyena.
  • Drinking beer from a paper bag before lunch is OK if you’re over sixty five. So is just about anything else that might be unacceptable for younger people.
  • Pastel clad retirees shouldn’t fist bump. I’m not sure why, but it just looks plain wrong.
Mazda 5 Finally a rental car that I actually enjoyed. If I had a family that I had to tote around, I would definitely have one of these things. It had pearlescent paint and totally unnecessary but surprisingly not too offensive swoopy creases detailing the side panels. The part that really sold me however, was the dual rear sliding doors. I think I could really get down with a three-series sized station wagon with sliding doors, although I’m probably the only person in the world who would buy such a monstrosity. Throw in an S65 and I’d even buy one new at retail. The only thing that really continued to annoy me on the Mazda 5 is the keyless remote buttons which continue to be impossible to figure out which button is which without looking at the thing. Oh yeah, and my favourite, the American-style lack of automatic (or always on) headlights. I think if the California DMV is going to implement ridiculous $20 token fines for driving while talking on cellphones, they should sprinkle $20 fines all over the place for driving with highbeams on or lights off within city limits, not signalling while turning, and general traffic annoyance jackassery.

Mazda 5

Finally a rental car that I actually enjoyed. If I had a family that I had to tote around, I would definitely have one of these things. It had pearlescent paint and totally unnecessary but surprisingly not too offensive swoopy creases detailing the side panels. The part that really sold me however, was the dual rear sliding doors. I think I could really get down with a three-series sized station wagon with sliding doors, although I’m probably the only person in the world who would buy such a monstrosity. Throw in an S65 and I’d even buy one new at retail.

The only thing that really continued to annoy me on the Mazda 5 is the keyless remote buttons which continue to be impossible to figure out which button is which without looking at the thing. Oh yeah, and my favourite, the American-style lack of automatic (or always on) headlights. I think if the California DMV is going to implement ridiculous $20 token fines for driving while talking on cellphones, they should sprinkle $20 fines all over the place for driving with highbeams on or lights off within city limits, not signalling while turning, and general traffic annoyance jackassery.

Literature, after all, is not there to reassure us; it’s supposed to reveal us, in all our contradictory complexity. The fact that it makes us uncomfortable is part of the point — like all great art, it demands that we confront our half-truths and self-deceptions, the justifications and evasions by which we measure out our daily lives.
David L. Ulin on The Expurgated ‘Huckleberry Finn’, in which this choice quote is taken quite out of context from a knee-jerk uproar about replacing the word “nigger” with the word “slave” even though the people complaining do not seem to realize that without updating, old text will slowly become unintelligible to contemporary readers due to the malleability and inevitable evolution of language (which is not to say that the specific choices made in this edition are necessarily right or wrong, but only that the motivations for modifying texts may be more complex than they initially appear).

(Source: eslingby)

A while ago Jeremy and I were having breakfast and began to wonder why it is that humans often eat chicken eggs (mostly un-fertilized and un-developed, but sometimes embryonic) as well as chicken, but not chicks. It seems like we are missing out on an entire segment of the chicken life cycle as a foodstuff. And since everything is better deep-fried, we figure you could just deep fry a chick whole. Cute things are always tasty, right? In other news, IHOP is now serving chicken and waffles in a decidedly non-Southern interpretation.

A while ago Jeremy and I were having breakfast and began to wonder why it is that humans often eat chicken eggs (mostly un-fertilized and un-developed, but sometimes embryonic) as well as chicken, but not chicks. It seems like we are missing out on an entire segment of the chicken life cycle as a foodstuff. And since everything is better deep-fried, we figure you could just deep fry a chick whole. Cute things are always tasty, right?

In other news, IHOP is now serving chicken and waffles in a decidedly non-Southern interpretation.

(Source: clarked)

The Fountainhead Again with the context-free quotes. I guess I should read this next.

The Fountainhead

Again with the context-free quotes. I guess I should read this next.

(Source: hikikomor-i)

2 DAYS I’ve always wanted one of these days-without-accidents signs. This plastics supply place doesn’t seem to be doing so well of late.

2 DAYS

I’ve always wanted one of these days-without-accidents signs. This plastics supply place doesn’t seem to be doing so well of late.

SFO-YVR-LHR-CPH-SFJ-JAV Damn, if I’d known I’d be flying directly over Greenland on the way there, I would have arranged to have them drop me off on the way. I guess I should have organized this trip a little more carefully. Roughly 13560 km or 23 hours of air time over four days should be a lot of fun, and this doesn’t take into account the weather-dependent [ferry|dogsled|helicopter|?] final leg.

SFO-YVR-LHR-CPH-SFJ-JAV

Damn, if I’d known I’d be flying directly over Greenland on the way there, I would have arranged to have them drop me off on the way. I guess I should have organized this trip a little more carefully. Roughly 13560 km or 23 hours of air time over four days should be a lot of fun, and this doesn’t take into account the weather-dependent [ferry|dogsled|helicopter|?] final leg.

Query

And to make it easier to correct any and or all of the misinformation that I dump here, I’ve turned on the query functionality so you can contact me directly through tumblr instead of having to send an email. Have at!