Starting to freak out

What with buying all the things I'll need for my dorm, finishing up Ellen Foster and working on the essay for it, and still working at the paper, I haven't had much time to blog. This morning, I started to feel slightly scared about starting college, which is weird, because since graduation I've been looking forward to college like January 20, 2009.

Vacation season

It's mid-July. Seeing as how a lack of foresight has led to the US depending on resources from the same country that picked a fight with us, gas is really expensive. If you can afford a good old-fashioned vacation, I've got some personal experiences here.

Washington DC (Spring '98, Spring '04): I like it there a lot. The Metro is the best public transportation in the world, now that Los Angeles doesn't have any anymore. Plenty to see there, too. A few tips:
*You want to schedule your visit to the Washington Monument on a neither hot nor rainy day, and have a lot of patience.
*The best hotels are out in Arlington and Alexandria, just across the Potomac.
*Make time to shop. Plenty of good shopping there. I recommend Union Station and Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, though there is plenty more where those came from.
*You'll probably have to go twice to see everything. Something there is always being renovated. In '98 it was the Washington Monument. In '04 it was the National Portrait Gallery.
*You don't have to drive there at all. You can give Amtrak some much needed business, or fly into Reagan National, Dulles, or BWI. Reagan National is directly connected to the Metro and is right in Arlington, so I recommend that one.
*For good tours of the Capitol, contact your local congressman's office. If you're in NC district 2, ask for Dan Cunningham.
*Don't get your hopes up about the White House, tickets go fast.

Yellowstone (Summer '03): Plenty to see and do out there. The best way to go is to fly in to Salt Lake City, rent a car, and drive the rest of the way. Stop at Smitty's pancake & steak house in Idaho Falls, they're great. If you're interested in a tour, try The World Outdoors. Ask for Sue or Greg. If you're going it alone, make sure you see Old Faithful. The best way to do that is to stay at the Old Faithful Inn. At the Old Faithful Inn, the bison can come right up to the window, there aren't even radios in the rooms, but it's a beautiful building. If you go whitewater rafting, don't get in the front of the boat unless you need to be woken up or are very thirsty. If you're staying in Jackson, the town itself is really nice. It's like, the only town for miles. The Quality Inn 49er is pretty good for those on a budget, but if you're willing to splurge, go for the Snow King Resort. Right next to the Snow King is the Alpine Slide, where a ski mountain in the winter becomes a slide where you can slide down on a little car thing you can make go really fast or make stop.

Atlanta (Fall '04): First off, avoid the MainStay on Sidney Marcus Blvd. When in Atlanta, you have to make time to see everything, but if you only have a weekend, at least go somewhere big, like Six Flags, and make plans to go again sometime. Traffic can be a pain on Friday afternoons, but on Saturday and Sunday, it's not too bad.

Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN (Spring '92, Fall '03): I have only vague memories of my trip to Dollywood in '92, as I was three, but going there for thanksgiving in '03 was good. I saw Ripley's Believe it or Not! and it was good. I really didn't see much else there, as it snowed the day after Thanksgiving. Plenty of outlet shopping out that way.

Helen, GA (Spring '03): The Alps in the Appalachians. This bavarian themed tourist trap is okay for a few hours, but all the German stuff gets old eventually. If you're in northern Georgia and feel a need to get out of the car for a while, this is good.

South of the Border (Spring '06): Like Helen, it's a tourist trap with a consistent theme, in this case, dated mexican stereotypes. It's good to look around, but it's gotten a bit seedy. Try the ice cream. When I was there, I saw a few hispanic groups there who, as far as I could tell, weren't offended.

Bristol, TN/VA (Summer '04): Where else can you jaywalk across state lines? That interesting bit aside, Bristol doesn't have much, unless you're into country music. Try stopping there en route to somewhere else.

Myrtle Beach and Virginia Beach (Summer '00, Spring '04; Spring '03, Summer '05): These are basically ordinary beaches with lots of tourist attractions along them. The thing about Virginia Beach is the city itself goes beyond the beach and into the mainland. My family always did this: Grandmom would rent a beach house at Sunset Beach for a couple weeks and all us Nelsons would make time to get there at some point.

So there you have it. If gas prices are a serious problem for you, try making a trip to your local Toyota dealer and getting yourself a Prius.

Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike

I know I don't normally review episodes of Monk, but I felt the need to do this one. This week's was the best ever, even better than the one with the monkey.* The directing was excellent, like the scene in Dr. Kroger's office where trash bags fall intermittently from above outside as Dr. Kroger accuses Monk of sending him his own garbage in the mail. Also, there was the scene where Monk fills the captain in on his theory in secret but the acoustics of the rotunda they were in told a nearby gang of reporters everything and when Stottlemeyer realizes what he just did, he lets out a very exasperated, monotonous, expletive just before the reporters start babbling. There was also when Monk loses it completely and accuses Alice Cooper of the crime while trying to be San Francisco's sole garbageman, or "garbage vigilante" as Disher put it.

*About the monkey thing: In that older episode, Monk refers to a chimpanzee as a monkey, and my Dad reacted to that line strangely, saying that Monk should have said it was a chimp. Nowadays, Mom and I always jab him about that, as we can't think of anything else to jab him about other than his tendency to get Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver confused and his male pattern baldness that I know my kids will jab me about in a few decades.

One second theater

So I was just watching a commercial for GE (the one with the elephant) and saw something go by really fast at the end. As my Dad had the foresight to invest in Time Warner's DVR Cable Box a few years ago, I rewound and examined the commercial frame-by-frame. I saw it say "GE One Second Theater." It gave phony career bios for the elephant, the two flamingos, and the gecko, then directed to onesecondtheater.com. That's weird. I mean, not everyone's gonna have DVR at this time, but I guess this is a perk for those who do: see fast-moving easter eggs in otherwise boring/repetitive commercials.

Kanki

Today I went to Kanki, a Japanese-style restaurant where they cook the food right at your table, with the guys from TEACCH. It's a real show, the way the chefs cook right there in front of you. They juggle the knives a bit, chop the vegetables real fast, toss the bowls into the top of their hats, and even socialize with the guys they're cooking for. Not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but it's really hard for me to try new foods, especially "exotic" foods. I mean, I tried apricot Jello for the first time about three weeks ago. It was okay, but I like orange better. I just had some steamed rice.

Afterwards, I went over to Sears and saw a compact fridge that fit the description that SAPC wanted, i.e. no more than 2.7 cubic feet. I bought it and lugged it home. I wasn't exactly sure if it would fit in the Geo, but the salesman said it would if it was put sideways in the backseat.

Girls Just Want to Have Sums

Must have missed this one during the year. I don't really know how to review this one. I'd say the sole good joke was the "27!" gag. I'll just give my reactions:

1. So, who is being sexist here? Principal Skinner, on the one hand, was being sexist about that one B not being important. On the other hand, Ms. Upfoot not teaching the students evenly is a deeper sexism. I mean, she was causing both sexes to be separated, and they wouldn't know each other. Do you get the feeling that this will lead to some kind of problem upon reaching middle school? And if you're wondering why there were more male mathematicians in the first place, it's because women were treated like dolls for so long. The men never gave them a chance, just made them do all the so-called women's work.

2. Yes, Lisa named herself Jake when in disguise. Remember blaxpoitation? Forgive the paranoia, but I'm starting to feel the Jakesploitation here. My parents gave me that name in the late 1980s, before it became popular the way it is now. Seriously, what is in a name? For example, imagine how all the Freds in this world feel about their name being shared with that megajerk Fred Phelps? I doubt any of the other Freds are that evil, but they must resent their parents right about now, even though it's not their fault.

3. I don't mean to be rude, but people can be such jerks sometimes. I mean, I agree with Skinner on one line: "What do you want me to say?" Well, which would they have liked better: equality or diversity? Not just adults either; kids too. Guys and some girls tormented me all through school. I was accused of being gay in fifth grade, before I even knew for sure what "gay" meant. The guys kept trying to trick me into saying stupid stuff, like they'd say "under there" in an attempt to get me to say "underwear" (For the last time, quit snickering); point to my head and say "LoHa" backwards, which yielded aHoL, but they meant backwards phonetics, which would have yielded HaLo; literally hold my tongue and try to say "Apples" and inadvertently curse; say the fifth month then spell "icup;" or some other humiliating trick.

In closing, there was this chant during those summers at the YMCA day camp (which was just about as much torture as school) where the girls would say "G-I-R-L-S! You know the girls are best!" and the boys would say "B-O-Y-S! You know the boys are best!" Well, one day, Kenny Ferber said "E-Q-U-A-L! You know we're all equal!" And now, I appreciate how right he was.

Getting ready for college.

I've been a bit busy the last few days. I have a summer reading assignment for college. The book I'm reading is called Ellen Foster. From what I can tell, it is set in the rural South in the early 1960s, due to a mention of Castro. Racism still runs rampant and the heroine, Ellen, was raised with the belief that sharing anything, such as a cup with an African-American will make her sick. A friend of hers is African-American, though, and is dirt poor to the point of literally eating dirt. She spends the night at their house, and she realizes in the morning that "it did not feel like a colored house." Ellen's mother dies near the beginning, and her grandmother and her father don't get along.

One thing about the writing of the book itself is that Kaye Gibbons wrote the text in "state of mind" or whatever it was. There is no punctuation in the book except for periods and question marks. If you've read my previous posts, you'd know how my Mom raised me as a punctuation stickler. The lack of punctuation in this book is making me a bit dizzy.

Anyway, after finishing the book, I have to write an essay about what Ellen's teen years will be like. This is my plan so far: As she is 11 in the early 60s, she will be a teenager during the civil rights movement. I think she may not understand why they are rebelling so suddenly. I will have to read more to see what side she would be on.