Still Funny After All These Years

Ok, this in no way means to discredit what we're doing here as it's very important, but I do have a point, and I'll make it after this.



I'd like to draw your attention to the gentleman in the front row at 2:47 yells "Yea, get things out of the i-Rack".  What he means is "Get Kristin Russell out of the i-Rack".  I've been really enjoying going to the gym and writing papers a week ahead of time, but it's time for me to go.  We'll see if perhaps one day, some far distant day from now, I actually get a flight :)

Lost In Translation, or, Harks of the Deep Blue

There are bazaars on base that you can buy movies at.  Lets call them gray market movies.  I've avoided buying any this long, but I had to look.  Here's what I came home with.  The first and last DVD were free.

You may have noticed I purchased the 2010 Disney collection (800 movies promised).  Why would I do such a thing?  Because of the amazing a) selection b) spelling.

Managed to put Pixar in there, buuuut left the essential 'N' out of Monsters.  Also, who is Trazan?

It's hard to tell but on this part I log 2 misspellings of Nimh, 2 of Heaven, a google search of Dogal is fruitless, I think Pinochio  with 1 C is wrong and my spell checker just confirmed, and I'm docking more points for 2x Jungel.

This one is a mess.

And the real reason I bought this collection, Team America.  If anyone wants an entire season of Street Fighter II, please let me know.

Last one, and truthfully I'm pretty anxious to see what's on it.  

The Movie List

Some movies are good, some movies are nostalgically awesome and must be loved by all when mentioned because they were previously forgotten.  I got into a convo last night with some friends about great movies of our childhood (and great tv shows) which I am going to try to recreate now.  Poorly.  I'll be checking out the Haji shops to see which compilations exist.  You'd be surprised what shows up on a dvd-looking thing full of 32 movies.  I'll post pics at the end of the post.

I don't recall which flick kicked it off, but I think we were talking about the animated shorts at the beginning of Pixar movies and started working back from there.  I should caveat we're not neccesarily looking for the obvious 'best movies' of the 80s or early 90s, this was more a nostalgic treasure hunt if you will.

1.  The best Disney movie ever is the Lion King (Kristin)
2. Ok but the ones from our childhood were awesome too like, the Rescuers, The original Parent Trap or anything Hallie Mills was in, Aladdin, Mulan, Robin Hood, then newer ones like Toy Story, Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo
3. Muppets everything?  I especially love Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island
4. Into TV shows we went, quickly: He-Man, Smurfs, Snorks, Gummy Bears, TGIF and SNICK lineups (Family Matters, Full House, Perfect Strangers, Dinosaurs, Step by Step, and I'm missing something), (Are you Afraid of the Dark, Roundhouse, All That, Clarissa Explains it All)
5. I have to admit I'm a bit hazy at this point, but I know a bunch of amazing films like Gremlins, Batteries Not Included, Short Circuit, Tremors, Indiana Jones (thumbs down to them making a 5th one since Crystal Skulls was sub-par), The Last Starfighter, Flight of the Navigator
6. Then I mentioned, and I think everyone should know this - that the American Film Institute's Silver Theater is in Silver Springs, MD and plays all sorts of crazy shit, including, when I first got to DC, Muppets movies for their Jim Henson theme, then later the original 3 Indy movies as part of a Spielberg theme.  It's worth checking out if you live nearby.
7.  Sarah says that apparently in Austin, TX they do a movies on the river thingy where you float in tubes while they play Deep Blue Sea and Jaws themed films.  Lovely.
8.  Followed by a promise on my part to buy as many of these as Haji Films for $2 at the shop if possible today.  Fun!  I guess that means I have to wake up and walk to the cadillac to grab a shower.  More to come.

A day in the life - Part I

I'm almost done here, so I thought I'd give an average look at a day in my life, with comments.

Good morning.  No longer reading Beating Goliath.  I've been reading Atlas Shrugged since the beginning of January.  It's long.  Thanks Knouse.  The egg is my alarm clock.  It beeps at me angrily.  I hit it ~4 times before actually getting up.

Good morning bike!  It takes me 4 minutes to get to work on this.  Amazing.  Note the rocks everywhere, they SUCK and make it like you're walking through sand all the time.  Hate the rocks.

First part of the road to work.  If you don't turn you end up at the coffee place, so its not a lost situation should that happen.  This is a huge base, not a tiny forward base, so yes, we have things like a coffee thingy.

At the desk.  Actually took this while on a telcon.  I spend at least 1-2 hours every morning sipping tea, eating Breakfast #2 (almonds on this day), and staring unconvincingly at my outlook inboxes.

On this particular day, I had to go to the palace (background).  This is the way.  I like the palace because they have real bathrooms (indoors!)

Ok folks, thats all for the first installment.  Maybe next week I add a picture of the toilet.  For someone dreads going to the port o potties every day, the indoor toilets are a big deal.  Plus they're really weird looking.  You'll see.

Ten Websites I Check

I spend a lot of time webcamming here, and a lot of time just killing time when not at work (which is almost all the time).  There isn't anywhere to go per say (except a few restaurants, which I'll detail in my next post).  So I've discovered that I enjoy the interesting-ness and laughs generated by the following sites, which I generally check at least weekly.  I've divided them up into HA and OOOH which should give you an idea of which ones are meant to be hilarious and which are... not so much.

HA
www.passiveagressivenotes.com
failblog.org
www.epicfail.com
probablybadnews.com
itmademyday.com
epicwinftw.com

OOOH
www.peopleofwalmart.com
postsecret.blogspot.com
mentalfloss.com
www.theonion.com
fmylife.com

To round it out, I've also managed to read 3 years of  Savage Love columns, no, wait... 5 years.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll either be enthralled or disgusted, but he's good at what he does (advice).

On Exercise

I have to run a lot, because I make myself do it, and I engage in a wide variety of mental activities to distract myself from the fact that I still have miles to go and I'm tired.  I considered the other day what makes someone decent at working out, or makes someone do it at all.  For me, and I speak only for me, I've found that its equal parts self loathing and self love.  I am running because I am not good enough, fast enough or strong enough.  Yet, I can finish the distance I set because I am powerful and able to do so.  It's a really strange balance that essentially equals optimistic masochism.

Camel Spider Jr.

Expeditionary reporter slash photojournalist slash entomologist Kristin Russell took one step closer this week to discovering the legendary Camel Spider, or Syndaesia sp.  

At a meeting over tea with some Iraqi counterparts in the Kurdish Capital of Erbil (it would be Irbil on our maps, but I defer to their spelling...) a terrifyingly fast, although not camel-looking, spider appeared from under a leather couch, proceeded to sit still for a few minutes, then ran directly at my boots, then under the couch I was sitting on.  This caused a little panic as I pictured it scurrying up my pants leg and plunging its sword like jaws into my jugular, but I managed to sit still and focused on the tasty tea biscuits and pistachios instead.  Also, I made up what the guys were saying in arabic.  

See specimin below.  Lindsay, do I get half credit for this one?  It was impressive enough that the Iraqi guy on the couch asked for a copy of the pic.  My zoom isn't that amazing, so this thing was about the size of a silver half dollar.  You know, the ones with Kennedy on the front that you have like 50 of and don't know what to do with?