I guess my trip to Atlanta went pretty well. As expected, the airport and the inside of the hotel were the only things I saw besides this lovely view from my window. But the flights went smoothly, the meeting was moderately interesting, and I met some cool people. Plus, I get to check off one more state on my map. :-)

I did come to realize a few things, though.

1) At every meeting, there will always be one person who asks one stupid question after another, much to the chagrin of the speaker and everyone else in the room. The questions will be either completely irrelevant, or about something that was already covered. Sometimes the questions will not even be coherent.

2) There should be mandatory training before anyone is allowed to give a PowerPoint presentation. The training should expressly forbid the use of things such as an image Superman standing in front of a giant American flag, or the words “Thank you” in a rainbow of colors, flashing, spinning, and flying in from ten different directions.

3) No matter how perfect I try to be, I’ll at least find some minor way to be an idiot.

As many of you probably saw in the news, this past Saturday was the 20th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. It’s staggering to me that it’s been so long.

I remember the anniversary of the Challenger every year. I’m not really sure why, but I never need to be reminded by the media. Still, this time I was surprised to hear them say “twenty years.” How could so much time have passed?

The memory is still vivid, even though I was quite young. It hit me particularly hard, because already at the tender age of six, I had decided that I wanted to be an astronaut. I knew all about NASA and the shuttle program, and I fully understood the impact of the disaster.

Although I clung to my childhood dream for a long time, reality sadly and inevitably prevailed in the end. But I never lost the wonder or the fascination with what lies beyond our tiny little corner of the universe.

I was traveling and in meetings all day on Friday and Saturday, but I did catch little bits of news here and there—from the radio, newspapers, television. I was a bit saddened to hear people talking only about Christa McAuliffe, as if she was the sole person to perish in the tragedy. The other members of the crew are treated like a footnote.

While it’s true that she didn’t follow one of the traditional paths into the space program, it does not make her death any more tragic than those of her six crewmates. Perhaps I’m wrong, since I didn’t really get any complete news coverage.

But just in case I’m right, let me remind you that the Challenger had a crew of seven: Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. Take a minute to remember them. All of them.

This Week’s Leg Bloggers:
-DaveT

Well I’m off to Atlanta. And I’m taking the Pod with me, so here’s a random sampling of what I’ll be listening to on the plane.

1) Holiday - Green Day
2) Red Light - U2
3) Mustapha Dance - The Clash
4) Got to Get You in My Life - The Beatles
5) I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - The Ramones
6) X & Y - Coldplay
7) Helicopter - Bloc Party
8) Just Like Heaven - The Cure
9) Sleeping In - The Postal Service
10) Don’t Be Cruel - Elvis Presley

BONUS: Ma-Ma-Ma Belle - The Electric Light Orchestra

You arrive at work, and after searching in vain for your ID to swipe it through the card reader and open the door, you remember the last time you saw it: this morning, sitting on your desk at home.

Cursing yourself, you trudge down to the public entrance and get on with your day.

About an hour later, on your way to get coffee, you quickly check your appearance in the mirror (you can never really be sure that you remembered to screw your head on properly, and you wouldn’t want to scare anyone).

And there’s your ID. Around your neck. And you have absolutely no idea how it got there.

Apparently, there’s some controversy over what to call the 2006 Winter Olympics. Both NBC and the Olympic Committee are using “Torino,” the city’s actual name.

But American media has traditionally used the Anglicized version, “Turin,” so this whole “Torino” thing has turned their worlds upside down.

Evidently, there’s a whole contingent of people who can’t seem to wrap their minds around it. The Shroud of Turin is the only thing they associate with that region, so “Turin” it must be!

Being a native of that region, Edo deals with this quite often.

“I’m from Torino.”

“Huh?”

“Turin…?”

“Oh! Like the Shroud of Turin!”

Never mind that identifying Torino with the Shroud is like defining Philadelphia by the Liberty Bell—that is, if we kept the Liberty Bell hidden away and only allowed people to view it a few times a century.

Okay, I realize that it’s not what most people are accustomed to hearing, but it’s not as if “Torino” was just pulled from someone’s ass. We don’t typically say “Roma” or “Milano,” but we know what they mean… right?

Maybe I’m not the best person to pass judgment, since the words are interchangeable in my household, but come on! Are Americans really SO stupid that they can’t figure this out?

More Reading:
-NBC Says Torino, Others Say Phooey [Early Word]
-Turin or Torino? Depends on whom you ask [AP]
-NBCOlympics.com

‘Ben Station’ a no go [Philly.com]

Previously at the Landslide in my Ego:
-Can’t They Just Leave Well Enough Alone?

Well, since we’ve been having so much fun with maps, I thought I’d keep it going.

Larakin did this a while back, and I just thought it was so cool that I decided I had to make one for myself.

So put yourself of the map. Well, my map.

Whether you’re a casual visitor or an everyday reader, a lurker or a regular commenter, I want to know where you are. You can remain anonymous if you want.

At World66, you can create a map of the states you’ve visited.

I know I did something like this in one of my surveys a while back, but this visual representation is way cool.

They also have one for countries of the world, but there’s really no point in me trying that one, now is there?

The states in turquoise are the ones I’ll be visiting within the next month. Kinda rounds it out a little to include them.

UPDATE: Everybody’s doin’ it! Check out these other maps:
DaveT, Holz, Larakin, Lushy, Stan

UPDATE #2: Y’all should probably just save the map image and host it yourself instead of using the code they provide. It’s taking forever to load on your sites.

…you wish you never got out of bed. This is going to be one of them for me.

Ugh.

I’ve had this post sitting around as a draft for like two months now. Partly because I was saving it for a slow day, and mostly because I started it and then never got around to finishing.

It’s about a little ordeal I had a couple of years ago, so it’s not really time sensitive or anything.

As some of you may remember, my pal Holz actually blogged about it back then. After I had emailed him about my experience, he asked my permission to publish it on his Stomach Pains, and I agreed.

The source of the email was left anonymous, presumably to protect the stupid (i.e. me). Well, now that some time has passed, I wanted to give the story a rewrite and claim it as my own.

So it’s really, really weird that just when I was getting ready to publish it, Holz pulled his old post from the depths of his archives to be included in his “Past Lives” section.

It must be our 7/11 twin telepathy working in mysterious ways.

UPDATE: This post has been blogicized. [Philadelphia Will Do]

Anyway, here’s my story…

(more…)

This Week’s Leg Bloggers:
-Holz
-DaveT

I had way too much fun with this.

You can make your own here:
Reasonably Clever Mini-Mizer

As reported by Edo, since he has the evil device:

1) Team Mate - Kaiser Chiefs
2) I Don’t Know What To Do With Myself - White Stripes
3) You’re the Reason I’m Leaving - Franz Ferdinand
4) Innuendo - Queen
5) Nothing Better - The Postal Service
6) Dirty Dancehall - The Zutons
7) No One But You - Queen
8) Tu Principe - Daddy Yankee
9) Musique Automatique - Stereo Total
10) Enter Sandman - Richard Cheese

Well, I’ve finally gone and done it. I’ve succumbed. Given in. Been beaten. Broken down.

However you want to look at it, there’s no going back.

Yesterday, I bought an iPod.

*cringe*

For years, I swore I would never own any Apple technology. But over the last year or so, I felt that conviction slowly slipping away.

And then last night, it was gone.

Okay, so technically, I still don’t own any Apple technology. Edo does. I bought it for him.

But let’s face it, folks… I’ll be using it on occasion.

I’ve turned us into pod people.

What have I done?!

UPDATE: Heya Phillyist!

I have about six posts started, and not enough time today to concentrate on finishing any of them. So… I thought I would take requests. Ask me anything you ever wanted to know about me. And if you’re lucky, I might answer.

Farscape, Season One.

Or as we like to call it, “Fire Escape.”

A word of advice to those of you who don’t have to walk everywhere…

On a day like today (heavy rain with wind gusts up to 40+ mph), do not act surprised if I show up at the office looking a bit wet.

Do not act like you’ve never seen a rain-soaked person and ask “Don’t you have an umbrella?”

And when I say “Yes, I do have an umbrella,” do not look at me like I’m an idiot, point out the fact that my upper torso is wet, and try to use that as some sort of proof that I didn’t use an umbrella.

Furthermore, if I’m not wearing a hat, and there is no hood on my coat, yet my hair is still somehow dry? You can probably interpret that as a sign that I was indeed using an umbrella.

You see, that little phenomenon we know as “wind” tends to affect the rain and sometimes, causes it to blow sideways. And unless you have some sort of special full body umbrella, it’s only going to protect against the rain that comes from above you.

I know, I know… it’s hard for your little brain to comprehend. I’ll give you a minute to recover…. Okay then.

Yes, I’m a little wet. And yes, it sucks for me. But you know what? I didn’t need you to tell me that.

UPDATE: I’ve been “Blogicized.” Thanks! [Philadelphia Will Do]

Bad: Spilling your coffee.
Good: You don’t spill all of your coffee.
Bad: You spill the coffee right over the crack in your desk.
Bad: It leaks through the crack and onto your pants.
Good: Your pants are dark in color and don’t show the stain.
Bad: Your pants (and therefore you) will smell like coffee for the rest of the day.
Bad: You spill it on your pda case.
Good: Your pda wasn’t inside the case.
Bad: Your pda case now smells like coffee and vanilla.

The score:
Good: 3
Bad: 6

Bad wins. Spilling coffee is bad.

I’m really happy that the Sci Fi Channel has decided to air the first season of the new Doctor Who series.

It looks like the BBC is happy, as well. Check out their intro page (if you are at work, you might want to turn down your volume before clicking the link). It’s the silliest thing I’ve seen in ages.

Anyway, I encourage all of you to watch it (starting in March). And if you’re not convinced at first, it definitely gets better after the first few episodes, so stick with it.

See Also:
-Doctor Who checks into SCI FI [BBC]
-SCI FI To Air New Doctor Who [Sci Fi Wire]

You may have heard that the Pew Charitable Trust has been trying to convince Amtrak to rename 30th Street Station after Benjamin Franklin, and offered to cover all the costs involved.

Upon hearing this I wasn’t very happy, but I figured, “At least they are proposing to name it after someone who had a major historical impact on Philadelphia (unlike last year’s renaming of West River Drive to MLK Drive).

Though I didn’t want them to change it, I thought maybe I could learn to live with “Ben Franklin Station.”

Except people won’t call it “Ben Franklin Station” or even “Franklin Station.” The will inevitably call it “Ben Station.” The newspapers are already doing it.

Ben Station.

Which of course sounds nothing like Penn Station. There’s no chance for confusion there.

(more…)

This Week’s Leg Bloggers:
-Lushy
-Stan
-DaveT

1) Antony And The Johnsons - For Today I Am A Boy
2) Franz Ferdinand - Fade Together
3) Green Day - St. Jimmy
4) Sufjan Stevens - The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders…
5) The Arcade Fire - Haiti
6) The Killers - Believe Me Natalie
7) The New Pornographers - The Jessica Numbers
8) The Cure - Pictures Of You
9) The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost
10) U2 - Drowning Man

BONUS: Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead