The Scattered Thoughts of Me

Not that anyone reads this, because why read a blog I never update? But I put some new pictures on my flickr page. Some are from a soccer game I went to last night between Mexico and Ghana. I never saw Mexico play while I was there, so it was a bunch of fun to go see them here in England. Plus they won 2-1. Sweet!

I went to France last week on a business trip. I'm glad to report that it wasn't all business though! I had a fun time in Paris and Albertville. I really liked France! Paris was a neat place. The Eiffel Tower was really neat to see close up. That was my favorite touristy thing I saw in Paris. I also liked the pastries and chocolates and espressos. Albertville was a nice little town on the edge of the Alps. It'd been a long time since I'd seen mountains.

If you want to see some pictures, you can see them in my Flickr page. Click here. And enjoy!!

The kebab shop where we normally get lunch on Mondays always has its soft drinks imported from the strangest places. The Coca Cola we’d been drinking for a while was from Georgia. Not Georgia as in Atlanta, the home of Coca Cola, but the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The Georgian Coke was as good as the normal British Coke, I suppose. But last week the Coke was from Azerbaijan. It was not good.

Yesterday was four days before the first of June. The high temperature yesterday (according to my thermometer) didn't get above 45 degrees. "What?" you say, "That's ridiculous!" You're right, it was crazy!

I don’t normally do these things, but since Greta (one of my long-time heroes) tagged me, I will respond to her tag this time. But for my part, the chain ends here, because I tag no one. I will remain “it” until the day I die, or until the world forgets about this blog, whichever comes first.

Four jobs I’ve had: Teaching loser kids in Mexico (Just kidding, Kathy and Cole!), waiter in a restaurant for two or three weeks, official scorekeeper at youth softball league, grocery bagger

Four places I’ve lived: Mexico City, Nashville, the London suburb of Redhill, Shelbyville

Four movies I watch over and over: Star Wars (1-6), Napoleon Dynamite, Rushmore, The Godfather

Four favorite foods: tacos de bistec, Kathy’s Mom’s chop-chay, chicken wings from Toot’s, Baskin Robbins ice cream

Four favorite TV shows: The Simpsons, Futurama, Atlanta Braves baseball, Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN

Four places I’d rather be right now: Mexico City, Shelbyville, Chicago, Hawaii

Four things I wonder about: How long till this broken world is made right? Why not now? Who is like He who will accomplish it? What is my part in the grand scheme?

And actually, I already know the answer to one of those things I wonder about. No one.

So I guess I should revise the title to this post to "Twenty-nine Answers to Eleven Questions, with Four Answers in Question Form." But that might be too much.

A long time ago, I read something about how to know if you're a really big nerd. The funniest one was that if you snicker at people when they talk about centrifugal force, you know you're a total nerd. I had a nerd experience today while eating lunch. I was reading the ingredients on a bag of potato chips, and at the very end of the list were these two: salt, potassium chloride. And I kid you not, here's the thought that came to my head, "Don't they know that potassium chloride IS a salt?" At that moment, I realized yet again that I am a big nerd.

I got back from a little vacation on Thursday. If you want to see a few pictures I've posted on my Flickr action, you can click here.

I had a fun time; maybe I'll write something about the trip at some point in the near future.

Did I forget to post this? Oops!! Well, here it is now... retroactive to late November.

I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for at least three months, maybe four or more.

It's not for any specific reason; maybe I'm just being lazy.

Q: What do they call English Muffins in England?

A: Muffins.

As an added bonus, I've also posted a few more pictures from the area, including this picture of a funny road sign. You can find the link below in a previous entry.

Hey, that's Big Ben! If you've ever wondered what I'd look like pondering the deepest questions of like while standing near the enormous clock tower, see my new profile picture!

And if you'd like to see a few more pictures from London, click here.

The highlight of last Saturday's venture into London: getting cursed at by a very angry Scot with a very dirty mouth. Why it happened is of no consequence, so I won't mention it here. Well, okay, you convinced me. On the train ride home, I picked trash off the seat to sit down, and set the trash a little bit too close to his Kentucky Fried Chicken (not Tennessee Fried Chicken, because they were closed). That angered him, and he used a few choice words to describe that anger. Then he offered me some of his chips. That's french fries here.

And in other news, I got in a car and drove Saturday afternoon. I sat in the right side of the car, shifted with my left hand, and drove on the wrong side of the road. That'll take some getting used to.

A one-question quiz:

Q: Where am I?

(a) England
(b) 30 minutes by train from London
(c) Redhill
(d) Surrey
(e) All of the above

A: (e)

If I were forced at gunpoint to rate the performance of my water heater over the last two years, I would give it a 3 out of 10. It earned 2 of those points by keeping its pilot light on all night about 25% of the time. The other point is for the fact that it does heat water quickly. But that's only one point, because it should heat that water quickly; it's such a small amount of water. It's not enough for me to take an entire shower without feeling the cold at the end (or at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle). So in light of its poor performance, I haven't been on good speaking terms with my water heater. And a week ago was the last straw. I ripped out that thing's pilot light assembly and downright replaced the whole thing! Showed it who's boss!! Over the last week I would rate its performance at 7.5 out of 10. That's 6.5 points for keeping the pilot lit 100% of the time, even in the blinding rain. The other point is for the fact that it does heat water quickly.

My car broke down yesterday. The guy who drove the tow truck said that it was a hose. That explanation makes sense to me. I was driving along, when suddenly these horrible noises started somewhere in the engine. I pulled over and got out, and saw that a lot of liquid was pouring onto the ground. I pushed the car back a little bit to get a better look... it was green... anti-freeze. I was trying to go a back way out to the school for our July 4th party when the car broke. I decided that I wanted to be in an easy place to describe for whoever might come help me, so I started the car back up and turned around to head back to a main road, but the engine shut down before I made it. I ended up calling the insurance company, and they called a nearby tow truck that took the car back to the office neighborhood. While I was waiting for the truck, I saw a three-legged dog hobbling down the road. It was running after a guy on a bike, who I guessed was its owner. It was funny, I noticed while watching that dog, that it seemed as happy with three legs as any four-legged dog. I know it’s just an unintelligent dog, but could we intelligent people learn a lesson there?

1. I am excited to officially welcome into the group of "faithful readers" a long-time hero of mine in Mexico. Welcome, Greta! One of these days I'll read your blog!
2. I saw one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time yesterday. Sorry, Greta, I'm not talking about you anymore. Although you are one of the coolest people I've seen in a long time. Yesterday I was on the metro going to Xochimilco (my favorite place in the city), and inside one of the dark tunnels some company has placed all these signs that, when the train is moving, work together to make a movie. I marveled as I watched two Chrysler Voyagers drive into the picture while staring at the normally dark tunnel walls. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. What genius!
3. It took two hours to get to Xochimilco on public transportation. It took three hours to get home in private transportation. Xochimilco is about 25 miles from my house.
4. How confusing is the English language to people who aren't native speakers? Why do we "get on" public transportation but "get in" private transportation? How many times have I heard non-native speakers talking about getting on the car? Okay, not that many. But it does give me a funny mental image.
5. I was looking into other cars while stuck in traffic on the way home last night. One reason is that I wasn't driving, so I didn't have to watch the road. Another reason is that I was riding in a big van, so I was up high enough to see into most cars. I was looking into this fancy Audi, noticing the fancy navigation and entertainment systems and stuff. It reminded me of the little personal entertainment system on the plane I flew on to Korea last year. It had games, music, movies, news, and stuff like that. I watched a few movies and listened to some music. Honestly though, how much J-pop can a person listen to before it all starts sounding the same?

I have many vague memories. Here's one of them. When my brothers and I were kids, we were eating at Taco Bell, and my little brother went up to the register by himself to get something (for dessert, or maybe another taco or something). I remember either my older brother or I telling him to make lots of noise and bang the coins on the counter so the person working the register wouldn't ignore him.

We don't have to do that anymore. We've gotten older. I thought of that vague memory when thinking about the latest thing that happened to me and told me that I'm continually getting older.

Mexico is full of street vendors, sidewalk vendors, church vendors, and vendors in just about any place where you can find people to buy things. One of the lines they've been using ever since I got to Mexico (especially the ones selling flowers and cruddy jewelry) is, "For your girlfriend." I was in Xochimilco two weeks ago, and a canal vendor was selling some junk (I don't even remember what it was), and when I said I didn't want anything, he came back with, "For your wife." Arrrgh!! I'm getting old!!