That is my hand.

That's also my porch.

GG SCOTUS

Chuck: good to see Pens and Guns are on the same level

me: They are mightier than the sword.

Chuck: yeah, my cousin died from a grammatical error

Addendum: Loath as I am to say it, I partially agree with Scalia.

The 10:40

Seriously, HAM radio is worthless. It's not a viable method of communication. Sorry. For fuck's sake, you have a cell phone, and the internet, and land lines. Is it some kind of nostalgic thing? Do you get some thrill from perpetuating the existence of the most anachronistic technologies this side of the steam engine? Maybe it's the communication aspect. I, too, wish to talk to complete social deviants who just pine for company, and find it by talking into a box, but I just go to a bar. But thanks for posting your HAM call sign on the back of your car with stick-on mailbox letters. I'll give you a ring with my portable HAM.

Redefining warning.

Caption: An officer warns a resident to back off at a checkpoint in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I would love to see the statute that says "you can't cross this with invisible line, and we are completely licensed to point a gun at your head to get the point across". Seriously. A warning.
I'm warned, and alarmed.

Edit: I like the hand on the hood. It's a nice touch. I guess the gun pointed at the head is, you know, a backup, a last resort, in case he can't physically stop the car using his SHEER MUSCLE POWER. Also, Ving Rhames in the background is a terrific addition. Why have the gun when you have Ving Rhames?

Meddling with HDR

Pretty crappy examples, but I haven't had the opportunity to take new pictures yet.

Things look cooler with high speed cameras.

Valencia Pictures

Bizarre Valencian architecture.

That there is some kinda view.

Bird on head.

Apparently it means "for rent". I maintain it's an oddly flavored Mexican liquor.

Little girl was adorable.

The frame thingy looks pretty surreal.

Showing Jon how to do color swap and color accent on the camera was a bad idea.

última

When you wake up hung over in Valencia, the sun kisses your body, and a cool breeze washes over you. I want to do it every day.

Spain has been wonderful. The nightlife is terrific, the football is great, the people are excitable and friendly. The buildings are amazing, the city is packed, It´s just terrific. The smaller towns are great, the beach is phenomenal. I have tons of pictures that I haven´t put up yet, seeing as though I haven´t had access (see before). It´s been absolutely wonderful.

And now I´m exhausted. Very, very tired. Waking up at 445AM tomorrow will be murderous.

Things We Lost In The Fire

Or, in the process of this trip.

1. The hat Marian gave me for Christmas. Presumably on the plane in Berlin.
2. An umbrella I found in my car. Presumably in some restaurant in Berlin.
3. My North Face hoodie. Presumably in Hotel Valencia Park, Paterna, Spain.

Let´s try to limit it to THIS.

Valencia - Day 3

Fighting off a cold, but it´s subsided with time, sleep, and beer. Got a bunch of pictures of cool shit, but no way to post them right now, so they´ll wait until I get back into the States. Wednesday night was the last night of Las Fallas, a crazy city-wide street party where they light these enormous statues on fire. It´s pretty wild, need to find the pictures of those. Yesterday toured the city, saw la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, a good portion of the city. Also saw a guarantee that neonazis still exist, so it´s always refreshing to see that racism is alive and well. Today went to Xativa, a small town outside Valencia. An old castle was on a hill there, so we hiked up, walked around for a while, hiked down, had a lovely 2 hour lunch, and rode back. Tomorrow night is do it big night, and tonight is lie low night. So, since the pictures is all everyone cares about, I´ll grab a few for you.

Whoops, just kidding.

Berlin - Day 4

Berlin - Day 3: Diesel

For some reason, there's a ridiculous fascination with combining beer and sodas here. This doesn't as much apply to today, as much as last night, when a friend of Jon's ordered "eine diesel". I had seen it on menus before, and thought it was a brand of beer.

Stupid.

It's beer and cola. Together. In the same glass.

The weather today was less than stellar, and again we woke up late. So we walked up to Prenzlauer Berg, which is apparently the "hipster" area of Berlin. Hit a flea market in Mauerpark, which has part of the Berlin Wall running through it still. Walked around, saw a bunch of places, walked back, and then planned the night, which was going to be spent predominantly at Potsdamer Platz; specifically, the Sony Center.

Jon and I were feeling under the weather the whole day, which was oddly appropriate with the weather, and the fact that I haven't gone to sleep before 7AM for three days now, while drinking heavily.

Potsdamer Platz has some of the coolest modern architecture and design I've seen...ever? Yeah. The buildings around and including the Sony Center are massive and unbelievable looking. Again, the Berlin Wall ran through Potsdamer Platz, and it was flanked beautifully by Miss Yummy Yummy (see below). The bottom of the sony center is covered by a roof, but it's still outdoors. Ate dinner at a brewery, sampled several beers, walked around, caught a showing of There Will Be Blood, and headed home.

Tomorrow is historical sight seeing, and Saint Patrick's Day.

Prenzlauer Berg

Potsdamer Platz

That's the Berlin Wall there, in front of Miss Yummy Yummy.

Bad in high rez, cool in low rez.

Roof of Sony Center

Bottom Floor of Sony Center

Holocaust Memorial.

Truth in Advertising.

Ok, this place looked AWESOME. Wide open, barren, signs VERY vibrant. Wanted a better picture.

A short word

Two things.

One:
John Terry scares children.

Two.

Please, feel free, and encouraged, to leave comments on any post I put on here. Anyone with a Gmail account can do it, and if you don't have one, you can still create an account on Blogger to put comments. I want to hear your sarcasm.

Berlin - Day 2: Enschuldigung

Waking up at 2:30 in the afternoon isn't something I've done in years. Noon has always been the tipping point; you wake up by then, period. But 2:30 was the hour of waking today; my body clock, and the eastern seaboard of the United States thinks it's still 9:30 AM though. The first night in Berlin was tremendous. Rehash: we went to a variety of small bars, talked to people in German and English, got turned away at Panormabar, got into Watergate, watched the sun rise over the rivers of Berlin, and went to sleep at 7AM.

So waking up, we finally shook off the hangover at 4PM, at least enough to leave the flat. We walked around the commercial areas of Berlin near Alexanderplatz, and checked out the German version of Best Buy: Media Markt.

Jon was asked to play for two hours at a hostel right down the street from his flat, so he started around 8PM. I went looking for dinner, as I had only eaten at 6:30AM and a small panini at 4:30PM. 2 kilometers later, I was still unable to find anything that really spurred me to buy it. I went back to the same doner place I went at 6:30AM (there will probably be an entire post about doner, and about German interior design; stay tuned), grabed a falafel doner, mowed down about half of it, and went back to the bar he was playing at. Took a few pictures, and people he knew/worked with started showing up.

We went out for a few drinks because of a coworker of his got laid off recently. After leaving the hostel Jon was playing at, we drank for a bit in his flat, and then left to go find another bar. We drank there until 2:30AM, when we finally left, and Jon, Inti, Max and I left to find an Amercian ex-patriot bar. It was closed by the time we got there, but prior to going there we went to a very special place.

White Trash Fast Food.

Not a cultural statement, but a name of a bar. The upstairs plays 50's, 60's, and 70's American rock music (Elvis Presley, etc.), but the downstairs is "my shit": electrohouse. DJ's spinning with Serato Scratch, two Technics SL1200mkX, and a Pioneer DJM600. KILLER music. It's no Watergate (I really didn't do that club justice, I'll write more on that in my off time), but the music was great for a basement. Shot the shit with one of the DJs for a little bit, and took some pictures of them spinning. We left White Trash Fast Food looking for Hairy Mary's (the American bar); by the time we got there, it was closed. So we started walking back, and when we got to Rosenthaler Platz (the U-Bahn station near Jon's flat), we stopped for Asia Box, or greasy street vendor Chinese noodles. There we discussed American politics with questionably straight Irish and English kids who were hanging out around the area. I usually wouldn't say that the British accents made me think they were gay, but the comment that "if we were oil wrestling, I wouldn't let you go" swayed my usually temperate opinion in a certain direction. Nice guys; they wanted me to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Barack Obama. I argued, they didn't listen, we ate noodles. Good time.

More tomorrow. Sight seeing, probably.

So now, more pictures...

The TV tower. Space Needle-like thing near Alexanderplatz.

U-Bahn station near Jon's flat. Cool crazy Converse ad.

Same U-Bahn station, same Converse sign, larger exposure.

Outside of one of the bars we went to. Again, large shutter speed = awesome picture.

DJ inside White Trash Fast Food.