What's cool on the internets?

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a list of cool things on the internet? Like, if you were just wasting some time online, and you had already checked your email and made sure there wasn't anything new at the Gap (yes, yes, tan chinos, white dress shirts, plain t's, we get it!), and you still had some time... but how do you stumble upon that cool stuff? You know, the stuff other people dig? It seems like someone had already read it they cold tell you about it...hmmmm....

Ha ha- so anyway, I found this site (look at my striped shirt) after reading something on reddit- so I guess everyone who is cool already knows about it, but whatever. I guess it is really an ad for a book, but it reminded me a lot of the op-ed pieces the Onion does.

Coolest Letterhead Ever

If you remember, I wrote earlier about the unexpected email I received from the Army that said that I had passed the first astronaut selection board and that they were going to send my application on to NASA for the next phase of selection. Well, I was surprised again to receive this awesome letter from the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center:



For those that can't read from the photo, it says:

Dear CAPT Springer:

We have received you application for the Astronaut Candidate Program from the U.S. Army. You will be notified of any decisions concerning your application.

There's more there about updating my application, but nothing of interest.

So there you have it. I'm in the running to be an astronaut. We'll see where this goes...

Less depressed...

It has taken me a while to get on here and post- for a few reasons.

#1, It was pretty depressing to pack up and leave Italy any earlier than we were supposed to be there. I know, I know- I should be thankful that I had the opportunity to live there any time at all, but I am having a hard time focusing on the positives. Which brings me to...
#2, Germany isn't that great. The weather is so weird- I was ironing the other day, and I thought, "It must be getting close to the end of Daylight Saving Time" before I realized that, due to the chilly weather here, I subconsciously thought it was fall. I think I've only worn shorts three or four times in the past month we've been here. Mannheim is kind of famously unattractive as far as posts go- I'd send some example pictures, but, you know, opsec and all.

Also, let's just say it, #3, Germans are pretty difficult to love. My friend's baby was crying at a restaurant- not a fancy one- and I think you could hear every person drop their fork on their plate and collectively gasp as they turned to angrily stare at her. Rude! Maybe this is why Germans don't like their babies (and if you follow the link, we live in Baden-Wuerttemberg).

#4, Unpacking with two kids is even less fun than it sounds. You know, they try to cheer you up with promises of daycare for your kids at the childcare centers here, but it took me three visits to the registration center, three trips to the hospital for shots and record updates, and an hour long orientation at the center for my kids to be eligible for this supposed respite care, so, thanks for nothing, jerks. I've pretty much got it under control by now.

In the interest of being fair and balanced, here are the pluses of the move.

#1. Smaller apartment means less to clean! (Click this link- it has the floor plan of our actual place)
#2. Was getting tired of knowing where everything was in my town.
#3. Didn't really want to finish my Master's Degree this fall (moving has delayed my student teaching... again)
#4. Had eaten enough gnocci and drunk enough prosecco

OK, for reals... four things that are actual pluses:

#1, The post is like a giant playground with some housing spoiling the view. There is a pirate ship playground, a teepee playground, the sports park... and many, many more. We can see two huge ones just from our apartment. So, Aidan is totally psyched.

#2, We have a new home base for Northern European travels. I think Amsterdam is only 3 hours away, and we're close to Belgium, Switzerland, France, etc. Plus, I guess there are a few cool things to see and do here in Germany.

#3, Living on post is a new experience, and I would feel remiss if we had somehow managed to try so many new things during Joel's military career and not ever live on post, be it good or bad.

#4, Joel has a new job that he seems to really like- ok, it's only been one week, but it looks promising. He shouldn't have to go away as much as he did in Italy, which made it hard for us to travel around and see/do stuff there anyway.

So, I'm breaking even. I think things will turn up as the days go by- we're pretty settled in, my in-laws are visiting, and I'm getting a very special 30th birthday present from Joel... more on that in a week!! Yay!

Who saw this coming?

I received this email in my inbox on Monday morning:

Congratulations. The Army has submitted your application to NASA for consideration for the Astronaut Candidate Program. You will receive an official letter from our office, but with the closing date coming up I wanted to let you know as soon as possible.

Here's some background: I received an unsolicited bulk email from the Army back in February notifying everyone that the Army was holding it's Astronaut Candidate Selection Board in June. At the time, I hated my job and I was trying ANYTHING to get out of it. I thought, "this might work," and submitted my application for the program. I didn't expect it to go anywhere. While I do have the educational background that they wanted, I didn't think that I had the professional experience that they were looking for.

I guess the Army thinks that I have the "right stuff" and pushed me to the NASA selection. I don't really expect it to go any further, but I didn't expect it to go this far either. Who knows? Maybe I'll have to change the name of this blog to "I Heart Freeze-Dried Ice Cream"?

Aidan-Wan Kenobi

Some fooling around in After Effects and Premiere created this masterpiece.

Economic Fail

This guy needs to have his econ degree revoked. Fail!

From the abstract, published in 2003:

Can the euro ever challenge the dollar as an international currency? This article argues that Europe's new money is fated to remain a distant second to America's greenback, for four reasons...

Har-de-har-har. I wish ol' Benjamin J. Cohen had an email address on his article so I could ask him how he's doing after this brilliant bit of inductive reasoning.

Fat Germans

Yesterday I had to make a late night milk run for our baby. So at 9:45, I went down to the Real (like a German Wal-Mart that is open late) to pick some up. I grabbed my milks and got in the only check-out line that was available. As I'm waiting, I took a look at the couple in front of me and behind me and what they were buying.

I know it's popular to bash Americans for their increasingly casual dress, poor eating, and rampant obesity, but the Germans aren't that far behind if the two couples that I saw there were any indicator. The first couple was in their mid-to-late twenties. They looked like they had been living out of their car for the past week. That may have been the case, but either way they looked like bums. T-shirts, old shorts, flip-flops; an overall disheveled appearance. Among their "groceries" were:

- a six-pack of 1L Fantas ("with more orange taste" on the package)
- 4 or 5 bags of those Haribo gummi candies
- 4 or 5 large sized candy bars
- several packs of gum
- two additional 1L bottles of soda
- some assorted types of chips

Yum. That rung up for 38€, or almost $60. For junk food. Of course, there's places in the American marketplace where this isn't so outlandish. But you won't find me ordering the Junk Food Junkie anytime soon.

The second couple was a little better dressed than the first couple. At least their clothes didn't look visibly dirty and wrinkled. However, there was one big distinction: their size. The second couple were both well over 6'4" or more. The woman was bigger, easily 6'5" and +250 lbs. They were giant specimens of human beings; more stout than fat. Their groceries consisted of:

- two bags of Haribo gummi candies
- a 1L tub of ice cream
- a large bag of assorted cookies
- a bag of brotchen-style rolls
- another package of cookies
- a large piece of meat (I believe it was pork)
- a stick of butter

Clearly these people love carbs and meat.

After seeing what other Americans buy at the commissary on post, and now seeing the caliber of shopping that these two anonymous German couples did, it's not hard to see why obesity is so rampant. I think people have forgotten how to prepare and cook real food. So they buy this "ready-to-eat" mess and their body slowly breaks down as it's deprived of the nutrients that it needs.

I realize that my "field study" of Germans and their shopping habits is fairly limited, but I've just gotten here and there's plenty of time for me to accumulate more data. In the meantime, eat a salad.

Wir wohnen aus Deutchland

It's been a couple of weeks since our last post; for that I apologize. However, I think everyone can cut me a break considering that since our last post on 23 May, we received orders to move to Germany, packed up all our things and drove up to Mannheim. It's been a fast-paced couple of weeks.

We currently live on Sullivan barracks, located in the city of Mannheim. Here's a overhead from Google Maps for those that don't know where that is:




It's a pretty industrial area, but there is a large city park and lots of bike trails around. And there's plenty of smaller, quaint German towns nearby and we're just a short drive away from the famous Black Forest (Schwarzwald in German). We've just gotten our house somewhat in order from the unpacking. The movers were here just last Tuesday, so there's still a fair bit of work to be done.

Although we were sad to leave Italy, we're trying to make the best of the German experience. I will say this: they certainly know how to make a beer around here. I've had some incredible beers already, and that not even going out and looking for a good German beer. So although I am going through Italian wine withdrawals, I'm trying to explore the alcoholic traditions of our new host country.

Once we get some picture of the area, we'll through them up here for you to gawk at. I guess we'll also have to get a new name for this blawg too.

What's this blog about, anyway?

I was telling someone the other day about a comment someone posted on the blog, and she said, "What do you even write about on your blog?" Except, that's not exactly correct... I am not sure what kind of punctuation or italics or whatever you could use to convey the subtext of her comment, relayed through her facial expression combined with the tone of her comment, which was what would I, personally, have to say on my blog, that even one other person in the whole world would care about? Why would anyone- anyone at all- care about the lame, "Dear diary" musings of a stay-at-home mom, she was clearly asking?

So, hurt feelings aside, I wasn't really sure how to explain. It's a lot of kid stuff, for family back in the states, and travel photos to make you all sorry you don't come visit more often, but... how do you describe Joel's post charting his job satifaction against our location? Or the look at government spending you were lucky enough to see this month? We're no Perez Hilton, but we have some Miley Cyrus coverage. We're not Fox News, but we do have quite a bit of campaign coverage.

Hmmm... looks like the odd ones come from Joel, so I guess I'm off the hook for explaining them.

Hyper Coasting

Well, those of you that know Joel know that he can be a man on a mission when he makes up his mind about something. Take hypermiling. He comes across this information, and then the next thing I know, we are coasting all over town- down overpasses (acceptable), into right turns (scary), and 100 yards away from stops (boring). Basically, you use extreme driving behavior modification to increase your gas milage. Like, take all day to get up to fifty, and then immediately shift into neutral and coast. And keep on coasting, right through turns and down exit ramps and whatever else you encounter while you still have momentum.

I don't know if it would be so bad in the U.S., but here, the Italian drivers will pass you if there are six feet of space between you and the car in front of you. They have no patience for this snail's pace driving, even if it is eco-friendly, which the Euros usually go for. And, I am terribly afraid of going over 15 mph around curved overpasses, so I lose on that end as well.

I'm planning on showing him this anti-hypermiling article, and see what happens. If he doesn't go for it, at least I have his Christmas gift picked out- as hard as he is to buy for, putting up wth his nutty driving may be worth it.

Your Tax Dollars at Work!

The Military-Industrial/CounterTerror-Industrial Complex is alive and well. The below chart is the enacted discretionary funding for 2008, as reported by the OMB. Specifically, it’s tabulated from “Table S–3. Discretionary Funding by Major Agency” of this document.

By the way, this doesn’t include any “supplemental” funding that Congress authorized for the Global War on Terror. For 2007, that was $173.6B. That’s 19.7% of the $880B Discretionary Budget, except that 19.7% isn’t included in the $880B Discretionary Budget; it’s additional spending. For 2008, there is a proposed supplemental funding of $108.1B dedicated for the GWOT. That’s in addition to the $479.5B that’s already slated for Discretionary Spending, for a grand total of $587.6B to be spent on defense this year.



Oh, and we’re operating at a deficient of -$410B this year. That’s an increase from the -$162B deficit that we spent last year of $248B.

I wish there was a joke here somewhere, but I can't seem to think of one.

Enjoy!

Puppets, as promised

These pictures kind of stink, admittedly. I took them in a dark theatre of a brightly lit stage full of fast-moving puppets, from six rows back. Not exactly ideal conditons. But forgiving that, check out these crazy puppets- what kind of show are they staging with these characters??

Canio, from Pagliacci:A James Bond villan:
The Gay Chinaman (he has a chinese-style skull cap with the long braid and wears a vaguely Asian tunic):Most racist puppet ever- I'll leave the specifics to you:

It's really a surprise that France is having immigrant trouble, what with their refined views of other cultures that they are imparting to their young, via PUPPET SHOWS. Dang.

Happy First Birthday, Princepessa

That's "princess," of course, although I'm not sure I spelled it correctly. I hear the Italians say it all of the time, but they don't exactly write it down for me. Anyway, here are some pictures from Ava's first birthday:

I'm Aidan, and I approve of these cupcakes.

Our Italian neighbors came by: This is reckless misuse of helium in a time of worldwide shortage:
I'm not sure why he's wearing a knight costume, either.

Ava tests the waters- "What is this pink smooshy food they are shoving at me?".....

....and decides it is yummy!

It was Bring Your Own Baby (of course, that's any military function):

Taking a ride on her brother's bike.My guess is she's calling her friends to report on the motherlode of pink dresses stacked up in her shopping cart. Also note the cute dress I made for her to wear (and my friend made the bow):
So, now it's like you were there! Without the 8 hour flight! You're welcome!

Fake Outrage

What's going on in America since I left? I turn my back and leave for a couple of years and the wheels are about to fly off the whole enterprise. America! Get your shit together!

Case in point: the Miley Cyrus photos in Vanity Fair.

In case you missed it, and I'm sure you didn't since it's the top story on all the cable news networks, teen singer Miley Cyrus of "Hannah Montana" fame posed for a Vanity Fair photo shoot. One of the pictures shows her with a bared back, covered with a sheet. According to the news, I'm supposed to be outraged by this picture:



Well, I don't get what the problem is. Is she exposing anything to make this picture lewd? No. Is she being exploited by the photographer, Annie Leibovitz? If so, Miley wasn't letting on in the article:

“I think it’s really artsy,” Cyrus says. “It wasn’t in a skanky way.… And you can’t say no to Annie. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look and you’re like, O.K.”

The issue people have with this picture is the feeling it brings out in them, in Americans. Americans can't accept the fact that a 15 year old girl would want to express some measure of her sexuality. Everyone wants to believe that children are innocents until they're 18, at which time they become adults and are capable of making every adult decision of what to do with themselves and their bodies. The truth is that kids, people, are in a constant state of growth and discovery. Everyone is always entering a new stage of their life that they have no prior experience with. This picture is good for Miley. It shows she's growing and adapting as she gets older. If she continues her (and I'm biting my hand to force it to type this most hackney of phrases) "tween-queen" image, she'll soon find herself in the irrelevant category with artists like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. Gibson's later career can be summed up in this entry from Wikipedia:

In January 2006, she joined the cast of Skating with Celebrities on Fox Television, partnered with former Canadian World Champion figure skater Kurt Browning. She was voted out in the third episode.

I'd like to turn your attention to another former "teen queen" that should be raising the ire of the American public for her assault on decency. I had seen the following picture while I was in Paris, riding the Metro. Except there it was 20 ft tall and plastered on the walls. It made me throw up in my mouth a little everytime the train would zip past it. There's nothing "shocking" about this picture, although I'm sure the artist would like to think that there was. This picture is simply an assault on aesthetics. It's like seeing a grandmother in her underwear, then having her come onto you. Actually, it's almost exactly like that. Behold!



Yes, Madonna, we get it. Just because you turn 50 this year doesn't mean that you're not sexy. Oh wait. No, that's exactly what that means. I'm so tired of the "40 is the new 30, 50 is the new 40, 60 is the new 50" horse-shit that continues to be trotted out as Americans get older. Whatever happened to "aging gracefully"? Whatever happened to becoming distinguished as you get older? We're suffering from a distinguished-deficit the likes of which we've never seen. Madonna turns 50 this summer, and she's in her underwear giving the world a crotch-shot while she licks(?) a ribbon or something. Oh, and there's "HARD CANDY" plastered across her chest. Mistress of subtlety, thy name is Madonna. Of these two photos, there's no contest as to which is more inappropriate. And if I have to tell you, then you lose.

By the way, while all this Miley picture BS continues to distract everyone, don't mind the fact that we just rolled another carrier(!) into the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran. Looks like John McCain is going to get his wish! But don't mind that, America. Here, look at this young girl's photo, watch American Idol, here's a shiny piece of foil and a bit of string...

Les enfants en Paris

Last week, we went to Paris for spring break. Before you get too jealous, we ALL went to Paris. Somehow, even Paris loses some of its luster with a crying baby strapped to your side and a hungry four year old begging to go to "Uncle Donald's." Again.

Well, I'm really exaggerating... the kids did very well, considering. It really was beautiful, although the weather didn't quite cooperate. It was still a little cold- in fact, it started snowing while we were on the top of Notre Dame. Proof:

I'm including this one of me only because I really like it, and it's my blog, so there.We did all of the big things, but we also tried to take some breaks for the kids. We took Aidan to Luxemburg Gardens for the puppet show (and little sail boats, but it was closed), which he liked enough, but it was really no match for the huge, awesome playground right next to it. They also had a super-cute track and old-style pedal cars for a euro a ride (U.S. $2.80)- here is Aidan taking a trip around the track.
The puppet show is a whole other post, to follow. Eventually. And I was kidding about the exchange rate- it probably won't be that bad for another couple of weeks.

Another big highlight for Aidan was the impromptu canoe ride at Versailles. I am so paranoid about the children drowning, it is a miracle that Joel convinced me to get into the boat at all, let alone without a baby lifejacket. At least this little boy was wearing one:Joel is bending down so I can get Aidan's picture. It was actually a nice ride once I calmed down. My mom said that my grandfather was at Versailles after the war, so I am anxious to talk to him about it.

Of course, the big news was that Ava decided to start walking in Paris! What a fancy baby. We thought she might do it while we were in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence a few weeks ago, which would have been a good enough story, but she was holding out for Paris, I guess. She isn't quite doing it in this picture, but it gives you an idea.

Enough for now, I suppose. I will work on the puppet show info...crazy French.

New Recruit

Sadly, there is a line of maternity clothes available at PX stores all over the world called, "New Recruit," and the logo is a dog tag with a pacifier on the chain. Putting aside the fact that anyone using a pacifier is a little young to be thinking about a military career, let alone acually signing the recruitment paperwork, I think it would make more sense to have the children's line be named "New Recruit." Are they insinuating that pregnant women are being targeted as potential soldiers, or are they reaching out to the yet unborn?? Sick.

Which brings me to my point: today was "Dress like Mom or Dad Day" at Aidan's school, as a part of the Month of the Military Child celebration for April, and this picture made me think that perhaps they had child recruitment in mind when they orchestrated this:

Still, the worst "celebration" of military children was a t-shirt I saw a kid wearing on Ft. Campbell that said "Military Kids ROCK/When mom and dad have to ROLL," showing the stick figure kids cheering as their stick figure parent drove off in a tank. Or, is this the worst thing attempting to celebrate military children? What'chu think about that? Or, perhaps this is the worst- I guess they've got the war all figured out there at the Pentagon, so they took the afternoon off for sand art and t-shirt making. And yes, Aidan is wearing a Pentagon t-shirt in the photo, eagle eyes.

Worst Cover Ever

If you'll recall, we went sledding in Asiago with the kids Back in February. It was fun, and you can read all about it here. Anyway, we took a lunch break while we were up there, eating some packed sandwiches that we brought with us. As we're sitting there on a bench, enjoying our lunch, I look over and see a conspicuous truck parked beside us. At first, I thought nothing of it. But after a minute, something about the truck struck a cord with me. Here's the truck in question:



Is it me, or is there something strangely familiar about that logo? Hmmm... Where have I seen that logo before? Maybe some government agency? It's got that eagle and all. Wait a minute! Could it be the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY!?!?



What the crap? Do we have the laziest spies ever? Is this some sort of lame CIA collection van strategically placed in northern Italy to spy on the ski conditions? And if it is, could they have picked a little more surreptitious cover? How are we supposed to win the "War on Terror" with this kind of sloppy intelligence operating abroad? I guess we won't this election cycle.

Campaign Songs, Part 3

The past two posts have focused on the Dems, but I'm sure many of you are wondering, "What about Johnny Mac?" Don't worry folks; today's his day.

Now I'll be the first to admit that it hasn't been as easy to hunt down the McCain songs as easily as it has been for Hillary and Obama. I've got my theories on why that is. For starters, he's an older guy and probably not in touch with the whole "intertubes" thing. Probably saw Andy Rooney saying something about it on the 60 Minutes. Perhaps, when you're 70+ years old, it's difficult to embrace the greatest information sharing medium the world has ever seen. It's understandable; I'm sure he's having a hard time figuring out these new "cellular telephones" too. But I digress. For whatever reason, there isn't the deluge of supporter made songs out there for McCain. There was this gem, written and sung by a loyal supporter in his living room:



I'll give him an A for earnestly, but that's about it. [Insert "don't quit your day job" joke here]

Next there's this one, which has a pretty good production value and makes parody of the Obama "Yes We Can" video. Unfortunately for McCain, it also parodies him. Still pretty funny, though.



Now this one I'm a little stumped on. I'm not sure if it's pro-McCain or anti-McCain. There's not a lot of substance to it; like the first Hillary video, it's just a song played over a slideshow. Now this particular one uses some more elaborate transitions and some special visual effects on the pictures, but it's nothing groundbreaking. Let me caution you before you give it a listen: it gets stuck in your head easily. You've been warned. Having said that, on with the video!



going insane for the McCain campaign, going insane for the McCain campaign, going...

Campaign Songs, Part 2

So that last Hillary song maybe wasn't the stuff of legend. Just a crappy voice over a slideshow with some boring campaign stills; nothing really wow-ing me. Good thing there's a lot more Hill-dog supporters out there! I guess I would ask you to watch this through first, in its entirety, before reading down "after the break". PS- using "after the break" on you blog is totally played out.



Now that you've seen that, consider this: someone had to conceive of that idea, someone had to write that song, someone had to organize the singers/musicians/"dancers", someone had to set up a practice, someone had to get those "Hillary" t-shirts made, someone had to set up the lights, someone had to film it, someone had to take that film and edit it, and finally someone had to load it up on YouTube. And what was the end result of all those people's effort? A load of crap. I'm torn between wishing them all the most violent of deaths, or endlessly pitying them for being involved in that abomination. I guess I'll go with the former.

For comparison, here's one of the more popular Obama campaign songs. I could give two craps about celebrity endorsements, but if you're making a campaign song it helps to get will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas to do it. More so than whoever made the Hillary one.



Looks like Obama wins this round. But in the name of fairness, I think I should show the "Obama girl" video to illustrate that it's not all Grammy-winning production in the Obama camp. They've got their sleazy-side too.

Campaign Songs, Part 1

With election season in full swing, Jessica and I have been following the campaigns pretty closely over the past couple of months. One aspect that always fascinates me about them are the campaign songs. How does a song get selected for a candidate? Is it by committee? Does the artist get paid royalties? Would a Democratic candidate select a song by a Republican-leaning artist? Would Obama pick a Nugent song, for example?

But the most interesting, and I believe telling, part about the songs aren't the "Official" Campaign ones that the candidates select. It's the unofficial, supporter-generated songs that I really love. Jessica and I had wanted to do a big post comparing and contrasting all the campaign songs out there (we've become somewhat of a campaign song aficionado), but I think we'll need to break it up into a couple of smaller posts to get all the goodness in.

Here's a little gem from the Hillary Campaign that I think you'll recognize the tune to:



Atrocious. And yet, there's something insidious about that tune. It gets into your head and causes you to perhaps perform it in an embarrassing falsetto. Not that I would know anything about that.




Damn you Hillary Clinton!!