And while I’m at it… Can I get a “WTF?” for the [tag]TSA[/tag]?
Highlights on my trip down and back…:
- Trip down: “Take your shoes off…” - - what’s w/ the shoes? I mean really? When have you ever hidden anything in your shoes? And so one guy does the plastique soles trick but did you get a look at that guy? Would YOU have let him on the plane without searching him?
- Trip back: “Leave your shoes on…” - - when everyone else is taking them off? So you can do what? Pull me aside and SWAB MY FEET WITH A GIANT MUTANT Q*TIP??? I’m sorry, I don’t get it. At least I got to sit down.
- Trip back: After my feet get swabbed I’m “free to go” - - except that the rest of my carry-on things went through the regular conveyer. So not only were they not where I could see them but when I was told I was free to go and I go back to collect them, my phone is missing! A. retorted that I shouldn’t have worried about that because when they were collecting the phones passing through the X-ray machine that they held it up and asked “Whose is this?” and she (A.) told them to go ahead with it because it was her husband’s. Except that HOW WERE THEY SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT? I’m sorry but my phone could have disappeared. If they were going to pull me aside (see above) why not skip the whole X-ray machine business and personally inspect all my crap?
- Trip back: All our bags/boxes had “prizes” in them when we got home. (See image above.)
And what’s with the additional “TSA tax” on all my airline tickets? Weren’t we paying for security before all this nonsense? I feel safer every day, don’t you?
currently playing: Nitzer Ebb “In Decline”
As promised, the post-holiday personal update…
Our trip to B’more was a shining success. A nice holiday reprieve from the assorted malaise of what constitutes the day-to-day. It was sure nice to be in the same place at the same time for a solid five days for change. (Even if two of those days were spent traveling.)
it’s us
we ate sushi
impromptu Trueschler 3 reunion
old friends are good as new
WATCH OUT FOR SNAKES!
I tried to stay out of trouble but it didn’t work
Short version? We had a great time. Thanks to the friends and family that put up with us for those couple of days and made us feel at home again down there. Even if the many sirens didn’t.
currently playing: Bernard Leon Howard III feat. 80 “Marscarter (Debo & Porter’s Deported vocal mix)”
I’m in this huge stadium-like space. This gigantic, sodium lamp-lit, Lego-built [tag]American Gladiators[/tag] arena from hell. Each end has teams of people that are forced out into this tremendous playing field that is littered with these obstacles (tightly packed in some places, sparse in others) that appear to be fashioned from Legos the size of of a [tag]Buick[/tag] [tag]LeSabre[/tag]. It’s this elaborate game of capture the flag, a bit on the [tag]Unreal[/tag] side of things with [tag]futuristic[/tag] weapons, body armor, and other, similar accoutrements. I can’t really tell if there’s an audience or a crowd but the walls around us seem to curve upward into infinity and it’s loud-loud-loud. Crowd-noise loud. This competition frightens me out of my wits. In addition to the combat between each other and the obstacles, fucking DINOSAURS are unleashed into this pit. Velociraptors and T-rexes and dromiceiomimuses rampaging through those Lego-like snap-together obstacles of American sedan proportions. Narrowly, I escape getting eaten. Once in a while I manage to save myself by burning a descending reptile with my plasma gun. But ammo gets more and more scarce and it isn’t long before the dinosaurs have reduced the playing field to me and (maybe) a handful of other contestants. A little luck is on our side, however - - we’ve managed to reduce the dinosaurs to one last resistor - - a giant Tyrannosaurus rex. But all the ammo for every weapon is gone. Even the chainsaw is out of gas. So I grab the only item left that I think will do any good - - I grab a length of [tag]monowire[/tag] and start wrapping it around the obstacles, creating as dense a weaving web as I can. Maybe I can catch the [tag]T-rex[/tag] in that web. Snare him. Capture him. Escape. But he just kept coming.
[tags]dinosaurs[/tags]
