Have a morning blog post of things that have recently amused me

[andrewducker]

It seems that the USA is quite sensitive:


I particularly liked the mouseover on this:


This was _not_ my first date with meaningrequired. Honest.


A rant about Pachelbel that I've probably posted before, but remains very funny:

Which led me to a video where the pianist from The Axis Of Awesome is asked to play Knights of Cydonia while selling tickets in the street, and does a fantastic job:

And finally, have some Star Wars burlesque (unless you're in work, of course. Unless you work for somewhere a lot more understanding than I do!)

Comments

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

My home happens to be Chicago . . .
On the way to Worldcon, I flew to San Francisco. that's about the distance from London to Moscow. Very few Europeans can grasp the scale of the United States without having been here.
On the way to the first Glasgow Worldcon, I spent a week in London. There were London fans who refused to travel the enormous distance of 400 miles to Glasgow for a Worldcon (at least that was their excuse). 400 miles happens to be a benchmark of mine, since it's the distance to Minneapolis. I travel that, occasionally, just for a party.

I sat down with a map, once, to see how far I'd have to go to not be among English speakers. the nearest were central Quebec and central Mexico . . .

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

Aye :)

I should, of course, included the all important exception of American's who /travel/, who are an entirely different breed.


this I am very much aware of, having a few deeply beloved American friends. All of whom, not coincidentally, wanted to escape the closed American mentality I alluded to in my previous comment.

Having lived my entire life in or near Edinburgh, I can confirm that I have absolutely no concept of the scale of America, or for that matter Europe. I'm flying to Moscow this month, though, which will no doubt be a vastly enlightening experience.
perhaps ironically, I am of Dutch decent - a nation, I only recently realised, smaller than my own.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

*laugh* If it wasn't implied clearly enough, I'm something of a map freak. When I was making my plans for the Dutch Worldcon, I remember the shock of realizing that the Netherlands was maybe six times the size of the Chicago metropolitan area. The best single decision I made in planning my trip through the Netherlands was renting a bike to bicycle from Amsterdam to the Hague. Actually, in my original plan, I added a dogleg to make it longer so it would take two days.
One day in Amsterdam, I had nothing much to do, so I phoned a friend in Utrecht, and asked if she were free for lunch. She was boggled at the thought of riding the train for forty-five minutes! just to have lunch and turn around . . .

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

As a career cyclist, I would *love* to take a bike tour of the Netherlands.

it's actually something I need to plan now, possibly for next summer.

yeah, since Scotland and Netherlands are both very contained countries [not discounting that the Highlands are relatively remote], travel that seems very common to you would be somewhat rarer.
My partner took me for a road trip to Newcastle recently, and I was *stunned* how close it is. Basically one road. And it took her a while to convince me it was doable.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, it's pretty awesome that you can get to Newcastle or Penrith in 90 minutes by train.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

indeed.

kinda funny, I've been a colossal travel-phobe for pretty much my whole life. I hit Glasgow a few times over summer, went to Newcastle last month, and am going to Moscow on the 26th.

the strange things love can do to you.