For reference purposes

Some day, I plan on going somewhere. This is more exciting than it sounds, I've only ever been on a plane 3-4 times in my life, and always within North America. To help me decide where to go, my plan is to play Carmen Sandiego (Deluxe!) until I catch Carmen, then go there.

Just so I don't die, I decided to check out international travel advisories and cross off some destinations. I'll just have to come up with a plan B if/when I catch Carmen in one of those countries. I also crossed off a couple of places I don't feel like going to yet. This is my list of Carmen Sandiego travel destinations, for reference purposes.

Here's a list of possible travel destinations(thanks, Wikipedia!):
ACME HQ (San Francisco)
Kabul, Afghanistan Conflict Situation
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sydney, Australia
Vienna, Austria
La Paz, Bolivia Civil unrest? Violence against foreigners? Meeep.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Montreal, Canada Not boring but I want to go international
Santiago, Chile
Beijing, China Olympics might be kind of nutty... Err and human rights?!? This could be a no.
Havana, Cuba I might even have friends to stay with!
Copenhagen, Denmark Remind me to tell you my Cophenhagen Dutch cabbage story some day...
Quito, Ecuador
Cairo, Egypt This would be super cool, but a bit dangerous
Paris, France A little cliché? I might get a job there next term!
Berlin, Germany 1: I don't like beer 2: I would go to all the museums and get depressed 3. I'm not cool enough
Athens, Greece
Guatemala City, Guatemala Might have to cross this one off, there's a warning against using public transit.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Reykjavík, Iceland Woo volcanos!
New Delhi, India What if I get lost?
Jakarta, Indonesia
Baghdad, Iraq
Jerusalem, Israel Not so interested in religious tourism
Rome, Italy
Kingston, Jamaica
Tokyo, Japan Oh, this would be extra nerdy <3
Phnom Penh, Kampuchea "should have comprehensive medical and travel insurance policies that include provision for medical evacuation by air" Iffy!
Nairobi, Kenya
Bamako, Mali
Mexico City, Mexico
Ulan Bator, Mongolia
Yangon, Myanmar I don't think they'd let me in, anyway.
Kathmandu, Nepal Kind of a bad situation right now.
Wellington, New Zealand Birds! Vacation full of birds!
Lagos, Nigeria Armed attacks against foreigners.
Oslo, Norway
Karachi, Pakistan
Panama City, Panama
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Lima, Peru
Manila, Philippines
Warsaw, Poland
Kigali, Rwanda
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Cape Town, South Africa
Seoul, South Korea
Moscow, Soviet Union Hm, not exactly what I would think of as a tourist destination, but I bet there's lots of neat architecture
Madrid, Spain I kind of want to watch a bullfight... yeah, morbid.
Colombo, Sri Lanka Avoid non-essential travel
Stockholm, Sweden
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Bangkok, Thailand
Istanbul, Turkey
London, United Kingdom Kinda pricey
New York City, United States Broadway + wallet = death
Caracas, Venezuela A little too close to Columbia, maybe...
Hanoi, Vietnam
Kinshasa, Zaire Is Zaire even a country anymore?

Best. Day. Ever.

The other day I was walking back from work and a bus drove by with an ad for Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. I LOVE that show (the British version), but I don't have cable so I rarely get to watch it. As I opened the door to my house, I saw some friends on my couch, drinking beer and watching Kitchen Nightmares! TV on psyhic demand, that's better than Tivo. And it gets better, they had just ordered pizza! Friends, pizza, and British TV... life doesn't get much better.

Too much beer

A drunken engineer was trying to convince me that it was impossible for a person to lift more than their own weight due to the laws of physics. I can't recall the details, but I do remember finding it absolutely hilarious. He even drew a free body diagram. Dork.

What do other people talk about when they go drinking? Does it involve free body diagrams?

Pokémon OCD

Here's my dorky revelation of the day:

I can't stand having a Pokémon party where the Pokémon are at different levels. They have to all be at the same level, or at least within 2-3 levels of each other. Also, I can't have more than one of the same Pokémon in my party, and it has to be properly balanced between types to minimize any weakness. I even go so far as to level up my friends' Pokémon if their party is really unbalanced (starter Pokémon or a tank at a really high level, all other Pokémon at low levels).

Me engineer. Must optimize ALL!

English for Enginerds

I had to write an essay about how trebuchets make me feel. Seriously. I appreciate the effort to umm, tailor English to engineers, but seriously... The feelings I have for my trebuchet are private. PRIVATE.

I fully expect a zombie invasion by Tuesday

Wow, what a strange week. People say I have ADD because I'm always off on a tangent and coming up with non-sequiturs (even though that's not really what ADD is all about). It's not that I don't try to pay attention to normal things, it's just that there's usually something more interesting going on that other people might miss out on. Or, it's that I'm a product of my environment and some days my environment is screwy. Case in point:

Saturday: A gangsta got on the bus, sat down next to me, put his arm around me, and started smoking a joint.
Sunday: Dug up a road sign in my garden.
Monday: Watched police find a dead body
Tuesday: While riding the bus, watched a man kick in the window of an apartment building and steal a TV.
Wednesday: Saw someone subdued with pepper spray after trying to assault a police officer who asked him to stop sitting in the middle of a busy road. Can you say craaaaaack?
Thorsday: Saw what was nearly the world's first roller disco casualty (but ended up only being a concussion and an ambulance ride).
Friday: Went to a Rocky Horror screening, hehe. On a related note, bought lingerie from a Salvation Army and a Goodwill store. They give you weird looks.

I manage to find something strange and amusing in every day, and this pleases me.

Unspoken rule: Whenever there's someone crazy, and I mean absolutely mental on the train/bus, they will ALWAYS come sit next to me.