Mysterious and Misplaced Logic of a Maniac Gone Awry

Jul

20

2008

Once Upon a Time in China Part 7: King For The Day

by Gabrielle at 2:24 pm

During our May Week vacation in Xiamen, China, Phil and I went to the Taiwanese Folk Village. If you missed the original post about it - you can go here . There are several pictures of the place, but much like the video I am about to show you, many of them have that wretched cloud in the center. Somehow moisture got into my camera. I did everything to dry it out, but Xiamen’s humidity won.

We really had no idea what the show was about, but since the admission to see it was included in our ticket price, we decided to watch it even though we probably wouldn’t understand anything they said. Phil told me that we shouldn’t sit on the front row because we’d be easy targets and probably get asked to participate in something. I wanted a good view, so we sat on the front row anyway.

A few minutes into the show, a man came over to Phil and asked him to participate - in Chinese of course. They tried to get me to go too, but I wanted to stay behind so that I could record it. I laughed so hard that I had I tears streaming down my face.

I really have no idea what important story they were acting out , or why they had Phil drink three shots of liquor. Phil later said that it reminded him of Everclear. I just thought it was funny, and that you might enjoy watching it. You gotta love China. They think of the craziest ways to amuse people. They really do.

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Jul

19

2008

Trip to Atlanta Part 2

by Gabrielle at 8:21 pm

I wish there were more things to take pictures of at a baseball game. The Braves have tried to make the stadium interactive, but it’s more so for the kids than anything. And don’t you dare say, "That’s what the beer is for, Gabe!" For some reason, my German blood disagrees with it.

The one thing I noticed as we sat in bumper to bumper traffic for what must have been an hour or so after the game, was how run down the area is around the stadium. I was pretty shocked. I can’t count the number of buildings I saw marked by spray paint. Several buildings were boarded up and looked like they hadn’t been occupied in many years. I know Atlanta isn’t the best city in the world, but I guess I just expected it to look more sophisticated than it did. Those few blocks looked down right slummy. This is not to say that the people living in those areas are bad people. I just wish they cared more about the appearance of their neighborhood. I’m sure it’s been like that for many years and that I’ve seen it before, but I only truly noticed it this time around because we were going so slow.

I wonder if other MLB stadiums are in similar areas? If so, I wonder why.

And now for a few pictures.

You wouldn’t know it from this picture, but I was sitting very close to the left field foul poll when I snapped this.

I was very disappointed in the firework show at Turner Field. It may partially be because of my firework experience in China, but I really felt it lacked the "WOW" factor.

As the fireworks were going off, some guy next to me told his buddy that now would be a good time to shoot someone.

I had a friend who once taped a roach to some sort of firework. He wanted to to see if it would survive the blast. I was very surprised to find the roach alive and well after the pretty show.

Looks sorta like the sky is reigning down some serious lighting.

And here is a video of the less than spectacular firework display put on at Turner Field in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Jul

17

2008

No Blood

by Gabrielle at 4:13 pm

Yesterday, I decided it would be a great idea to donate some blood. I think it was a commercial that prompted me to do it. I’ve never given blood before because people can’t find my veins. They are so very small that you can’t see them through my skin. In the past, when I have had to have blood drawn, they’ve had to stick me multiple times. I’m not afraid of needles or anything, but it hurts! And the bruises I get afterward are horrible. The bruises I get look like someone beat me. But despite all that, I still thought it would be a good idea.

I slightly remembered someone telling me that I couldn’t sell plasma for a while because I had been out of the country, so I decided to check out the information on the Red Cross site. I thought it might be a year or something, that seemed fair. Would you believe I have to wait a full 3 years before I can give blood? It’s because China hasn’t gotten rid of Malaria yet. I totally get it, I do, but three years?

I remember Malaria was one of my top concerns when I went over. Phil and I even considered taking some pills to stay immune, but in the end we decided against it. When we got there, we asked several people about Malaria, and no one knew what we were talking about. I thought that was strange.

Well, I guess i have to wait another 2 years before I can give back to the world. And if I do some more traveling before then(which I probably will), I’ll possibly have to wait even longer to give blood. It really depends on where I go. Hopefully, my blood doesn’t hold some secret cure or something.

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Jul

15

2008

Trip to Atlanta

by Gabrielle at 10:32 pm

My trip to Atlanta was a good one. Everything went pretty much as planned. We had good weather despite the threat of showers pretty much all weekend. It rained once for about 20 minutes right before we went to Stone Mountain, but then the skies cleared up. An hour later, you never would have known that it had rained. The temperatures were even reasonable for July. Well, at least for me. Sometimes I think 100 degrees is cold. Yeah, I’m crazy, I know.

The only slight downside of our entire trip was the Econo Lodge we stayed at for two nights. It wasn’t anything fancy, but I didn’t expect it to be, so I wasn’t disappointed that our room felt like a shoe box and looked 30 years old. Yeah, I know, I’m livin’ large. Next time though, Phil and I are going to upgrade our hotel and stay at one that is right by the stadium so we don’t have to deal with the rotten traffic after the game. I think the extra 50 or so bucks a night that we’ll spend will be worth it.

The best thing all weekend besides watching the Braves beat the Astros was finding thinly sliced lamb at the Super H Mart. It’s an Asian grocery store that Phil and I go to everytime we go to Atlanta. We never thought we would ever find lamb like that in America after we left China, so you can imagine our surprise. I think we may have done a dance of joy. :) It was fairly priced, too - $5.99 a pound. We were so excited about our find that we bought about 6 meals worth and put it in a cooler to take home with us.

Okay, and now some pictures.

Odd picture, I know, but I really like it. I think it would look really good in black and white for some reason.

Driving 75 mph made it a bit difficult to snap this picture. The first one I took was even worse, though. That one had a big, stupid speed limit sign smack dab in the center of the shot.

There was nothing else to take a picture of at the rest stop, so I figured I would make use of my macro setting.

I think they call this character Homer or something like that. I’ve never walked on stilts. I imagine that I would fall flat on my face if I tried. I mean, I can barely walk down the hall in my bare feet without banging into the wall or door frame. I’m such a klutz.

Hey, check it out, Bloo is an Atlanta Braves fan! Sweet!

I must say, this is the biggest American flag I have ever seen. I wonder how many shirts you could make out of it?

I thought this was pretty funny. The Astros were portrayed as British soldiers. I guess they were doing this because it was 4th of July.

And here is Chipper Jones defending his country with his bat.

Here we have the Chic-fil-a cow doing the chop. How cute.

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Jul

13

2008

The Magic Oil Change

by Gabrielle at 7:43 pm

I got my oil changed right before I went to Atlanta. At the time, I had 58, 284 miles. Usually, Wal-Mart will give me a sticker that reminds me to change my oil again in 3 months or 3,000 miles - which ever one comes first. Apparently, Wal-Mart is now using a special formula of oil. According to my newest sticker, I need to change by 09/26/08 or 588,284 - which ever one comes first. I think September will get here before my car surpasses the 500,000 miles mark - but I could be wrong.