Entering Guyville
Liz Phair does Stuff Magazine. I find her attractive, but this smells like a cry for attention. Why, Liz, why?
European Vacation 2001: “Here we are in Copenhagen. Very nice.”
8/3/2001
07:10 Iceland!! 48°F in summer. Cool. What time is it?
12:50 Danish time!! Jumping and dancing in the sky. Not to much sleep so far. Land this sucker. Icy stewardess.
14:15 Denmark time. Danish Kronar. Simon is our guide. Mom’s hand carry is on the other bus. Bye. Bye. 4 billion bridge!!
14:50 Radisson Hotel. Confused because too much to do. It’s a beautiful hotel. Getting registered for the cruise.
15:50 We’re going out to town. Mistaken as a porter by some guests. Porn on TV. “Log Jammin'”
19:00 Tivoli Gardens is nothing more than Busch Gardens in Denmark. Can’t wait until Duff Gardens opens. Feet sore. Tired. Dinner at Shanghai Garden. Farther from home, the more we eat Chinese. Gerry is sleeping.
We went through European customs in Iceland, and then in two hours, we caught our transfer to Copenhagen, Denmark. This was the proper start of the cruise. We would stay in the city for a day before boarding the ship.
Now Copenhagen is a fine city from what I have seen of it. Tivoli Gardens is there amusement park featured in the center of the city. Some Filipino maids told us how to get there by walking. Almost all maids or hotels workers we ran into were Filipinos. The main attraction is a shopping promenade which we walked and found a Chinese restaurant. The waiter was from Canada and complained about the taxes. Across the street was the a large Tuborg Beer sign. The suite we had in the hotel must have been the business man special, because we got porn movies. We did not watch much because I thought we would have to pay for it. The porn was not on the hotel bill I paid.
Riddick… You murderer!
Like Van Helsing, before him, the hero of this movie needs only one name. Riddick. He makes his return from the darkness of Pitch Black in this sequel. I must confess I have not seen the first movie. It would help you if you did, because some of the characters and all the emotional weight seem to be embodied in the relationships and interactions of those that survived the blackened hell of the first movie. But since I didn’t see the first movie, I could care less about that. The Chronicles of Riddick is not bad. I was confused as the action scenes are a jumble of bodies and spaceships in motion. You can hardly tell what is going on, especially when the movie in the second reel turns into a jail house flick. Why’d they switch up the plot on us? Sci-fi I like. Riddick is cool. The movie so-so.
3 of 5 stars.
European Vacation 2001: The flight continued…
Aug. 3, 2001
0:30? -> I don’t know the time. Walked around the plane. Drunks in the back. When do we land? listening to the oldies channel. Better than really bad Euro film, “Russian Doll.” Naked Mariah Carey on the screen?
??? 2 hours to go. The kids in the front ringing the stewardess button. Hot stewardesses. Blonde!
??? Greenland on the left and the sun’s coming up. That’s so cool. The kids up front finally losing their energy and going to sleep. Waiting for “start me up.”
It was a six hour flight to Iceland where we had a lay over before continuing onto Copenhagen, Denmark. We left around 8:30 pm, which would have put us in Iceland around 2:30 am EDT or about 6:30 in the morning. Smokers and drinkers were in the back. The movie was atrocious and must have catered to the Europeans on the flight, so I didn’t bother to watch it. Greenland was a darker shade in the dark shadows of night. I think there was no moon during the flight. Greenland loomed rather large in the plane’s window or was it just the Artic Ocean? The onboard radio station had only one good channel of music and also, I believe, a comedy channel. I remember listening to Neil Young’s “The needle and the damage done” at least 10 times during the trip if not more. Made me want to learn the song on my guitar. Can’t wait to see Iceland’s airport. I want to see land soon.
European Vacation 2001: The flight.
Aug. 2, 2001
Iceland Air
20:00 -> plane to Reykjavik is late will board @ 20:20
22:45 -> served dinner. stuffed shells & spinach, salad, bread, choc. cake. bland but good to fill stomach
I was raring to get this vacation going. Nervous, because of flying. Anxious to see Scandinavia. Was dying to see Iceland. Interesting that I noted the airline food. Iceland Air was not a major airline. I think that it is somewhat a budget way to travel to Europe. The best thing is that they have direct flights from BWI. No need to stop at Newark or JFK for an international flight; it’s just one airport to Europe.
European Vacation 2001: A Sea Tour!
In August 2001, my mom, younger brother, aunt, cousin and I took a cruise through the Baltic Sea during which I kept a short journal of the daily events. I am gonna blog a post for each entry in the log which usually was a short account of where we were and what we did. Hopefully, I won’t put any weird commentaries from me like I would do if I kept a diary. Here’s the itinery:
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Helsinki, Finland
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Tallinn, Estonia
- Gdansk, Poland
- Oslo, Norway
This was one of my favorite trips even though cruising is not my cup of tea. If I can figure out how to post pictures you may see some of what we saw. Hopefully, though this will give you, the reader, motivation to see Europe.
Get Your War On!
This comic strip makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Sums up my feelings about the War on Terror.
Faster Pussycat Kill Kill
Slate has an article I think my cousin Angelie should read. Her cats, before they were put in a kennel outside, constantly peed all over my mom’s basement. It still reeks of cat urine. Her cats have me really on the verge. I feel like poisoning them with some of the pool chemicals. Cats suck.
Internet Jukebox
Around 1998, when I was toiling away at a web design firm (if they still exist), I had brought up an idea that was ahead of its time. See, one of my co-workers was all about downloading mp3. He always seemed to have a connection to the ftp/warez site with tons of mp3 for the taking, this before the advent of Napster. My idea was to combine the internet with music on demand, an Internet Jukebox. Radical at the time!
I always thought people would want to hear a tune (which could be bouncing in there head), surf to a site, select it, and stream it to his computer all for a quarter. Yet my idea always died when I thought, “Who would pay a quarter to listen to music once when you can download it free?” With the success of iTunes, it seems that my idea really was way ahead of its time.
Next time I’ll run with my ideas.
The Iron Sickle!!
Once again Slate has a terrific article on the legacy of Ronald Reagan. He helped usher in the era of great Russian wrestling villians. How can anyone forget the epic battles between Dusty Rhodes and Nakita Koloff. The American Dream versus the commie ruskie. This was truly Reagan’s legacy.