Travel Notes...Texas

[ Clearing the draft archives. Great trip. I should do it again. Note: in the "Fifth" part, I say paraphrasing, but from what my dim memories tell me, this was pretty accurate. The "taste of a mule" I definitely remember. The exchange was particularly memorable because it was broadcast as not part of a blooper reel. ]

Some remarkable things on a trip to Austin.

First, I find it a sign of the times that neither I nor my friend I was visiting mentioned directions in any of our conversations/emails. She (presumably) assumed I'd be okay since I had been there once before. I had, but I had flown, she had done all the driving, and I certainly hadn't been memorizing anything (this is not to say she should have known that since she has many visitors, I'm just saying that I didn't know where I was going because of the previous trip). But, even if I had been there before, it has never been the case before now that I was visiting anyone and "Do you know where you're going?" or "Where do I go now?" or a variation thereof was not brought up. It was just assumed by both of us that I'd find my way via google maps or similar.

Second, for the first time ever, I saw something being hauled under a vehicle. Someone had a van with some sort of long bar(s) attached via rope to the bumpers. The bars were longer than the van by some inches and bowed quite a bit in the middle, but seemed secure enough. Apparently, they didn't want to crush the roof of the van so they strapped 'em underneath.

Third, a guy (or gal) passed me on I-35 in Dallas doing about 90 mph in a 70 zone. The odd thing was that they had their hazards on. I don't know if this is code for "Hey, I'm (she's) about to give birth, get outta the way" or just to help people notice that someone's screaming up on their tailside or what, but certainly peculiar.

Fourth, Oklahoma had signs on the interstate saying "Don't drive into smoke." Where does that even come from? The brain boggles on the origin and target audience implications.

Fifth, I was listening to some humorous fellows on the radio who were reporting from Cowboys camp. One guy was wandering around on the field looking for interviewees and another couple of guys were up in a booth somewhere. This is a paraphrasing of a part of their conversation:

Booth Guy A: "Hey, talk to her"

Field Guy: "You have the taste of a mule" (!!)

Booth Guy A: "Gimme a break, I can't tell from way up here"

Field Guy: "She works for the Cowboys, what are you thinking?"

Apparently, there is no attractive woman that works for the Cowboys. Maybe Jerry keeps 'em ugly cuz he's so nasty looking.

Also, Field Guy apparently likes to run the gags on players, since one guy was looking at his ID, and when called on it, said something like, "Well, I'm trying to see if you're that guy that was asking the weird questions before." Booth Guy made it seem like he was busted. Booth Guy also likes to tell Field Guy weird questions to ask while Field Guy is in the middle of interviewing.

Sixth, saw a great limestone cavern. I highly recommending caving whenever possible.

Will the next John Hughes please stand up?

[ Another unfinished posting from my draft archives. But, to keep you entertained, I give you this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvAYNw8r9o#t=138. So many classic moments from that movie. ]

I was walking thru the mall today on my way to unlock the front door so we could all get in for African drumming/dance class and my ears perceived the dulcet tones of that fantastic 80's cheese-pop tune, "Escapade" by Janet Jackson. I was then dumbstruck by the epiphany that those weird dancing-in-the-mall moments from cheesy 80's cheese-pop movies were a normal way of thinking. I actually wanted to dance down the hallway and jump off the plant stands and railings and do goofy white-boy spins and (gods forbid!) do some cartwheels or some such nonsense. Could it really be that those directors/choreographers were tuned in to some primeval force of nature that spurs us on to dance like idiots down an empty mall corridor?

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!

Stunning! Amazing! Apalling!

After xx number of years, I've finally found a soccer play-by-play announcer to listen to. His name is Phil Schoen. I'm not saying he's great, but I can actually listen to him. I've probably heard him before, but just didn't put it together. I listened to him do the US-Mexico match on Mun2 and he was actually cogent.

((( PLEASE NOTE: This post was started a long, long time ago and I had lots of thoughts at the time that I didn't get in here so I think it sucks but I decided to throw it up in mid-creation. Read/interpret at your own risk. Phil Schoen is apparently at BeIN now. OUT. )))

So, I've decided that going to the World Cup in South Africa would be very bad. Apparently the entire cast of Killer Bees (trailer) has descended upon the country and have evolved the ability to look like people!!! It's people!!
Just listen to their horrible screaming!
Of course, the flipside is that I'll have to listen to the monkey-sucking cheese doodles that they toss up onto the airwaves over at espn (at least, I assume they'll cover it).

Ray Hudson rocks:
http://hudsonia.blogspot.com/

I don't have a problem with "onion bag." It's better than "could this be the one that puts xxxxx in the win column" or whatever by Ian Darke. A bit apples-and-oranges, but still.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/apr/15/tommy-smyth-us-soccer-espn

A semi-anti-English take:
http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/accented-english-spoken-here/

Here's a current (7/13) note: I can't stand J.P. Dellacamera and I just saw his name in an above link and realized I haven't heard him for quite a while. He must have moved on or something. So I got that going for me.
Update 7/29: Speak of the Horrid, I think I heard him doing a Women's Euro game or something I was watching on ESPN a week or so ago. He's one of those word swallowers. That's mostly what bothers me about him.

Boiling Coach Syndrome

Brad Stevens was hired today to coach the Boston Celtics. He comes from a remarkably successful six-year run at Butler. The first video I saw of this had J.A. Adande analyzing the move. He talked about the hiring process in general for a few sentences and then pulled the dreaded "saw the opportunity ... and jumped at it" soundbite.
I find this 'bite very misleading. We see and hear it a lot, and it's always implied to me that someone was called and offered something and before the caller could finish the sentence, they replied, "Yeah, I'm in." We do get the occasional, "wanted-guy did his research and discussed the freedoms/responsibilities/franchise direction/etc." before taking the job, but "jumped at it" is, to me, rather typical media-speak on the side of extremism. I'm not calling them out or complaining about this one since it's well down the list of extremist media-speak, but "took it" seems much more apt to the scenario barring extended information. There was bound to be a couple days of talking with the fam and breaking it down and coming up with follow-up questions to be answered and all that. But "jumped" just seems to me to be too active of a term for this process.
Of course, in his first news conference, Mr. Stevens may drop the "this was my dream job, I rejected Michigan, Illinois, Duke, Moscow Dynamo, Ajax, ManU, the All-Blacks, Vikings, D-backs and the Bad News Bears Celebrity Traveling Nostalgia Giggety for a reason. I was waiting for They'll-never-get-a-peek-into-my-head Danny to drop a dime and I'd be on the next bus."
It also may be that the guys in line for this type of job have a little card in their wallet that they can pull out and check their compiled info and get the process over with in a few ticks. But I don't understand that type of person anyway, so I'll ignore that possibility.

Zanzibar Red

I guess I still live. I have a half a dozen posts in my drafts section whose destination is currently unknown. Some of them end in partial sentences as if my brain will simply pick up their meaning and drive them home in the back of a luxury yacht. Yeah, right.
The good news is that we've been dumped on, 20 inches or so in the last couple weeks. It's truly glorious, except for the broken tree limbs part. But, as the old saying goes: with beauty comes death. Or maybe that's just my new saying. Copyright Me, so no stealing.
Meanwhile, I really need to find a band again. I still do the african and the pipe band, but I need to play the regs. I'm finally steaming ahead on the bagpipes also. We're doing a class to expand our group, so I go to that. Makes it easy.
Well, just wanted something up here. Hopefully, I'll get back soon.