Jumping Jon

Consistently (and this has nothing to do with the Guest post below) Japanese culture baffles me. Don't ask how, but I stumbled upon a Japanese McDonald's site today that allows you to upload a picture of yourself (or your brother Jon) and turn it into a Fast Food themed avatar --- in this case, a hash brown. Mmmm, could anything make you want to eat at a Big Mac more than seeing Jon's face with a red-dot-nose dancing around to Japanese children singing a Zelda song? I submit it could not!

You can sign up here, they'll email you your password.

Clarification

I kind of hope that it's obvious who you all are going to vote for here in a few days. Maybe I'm wrong, and I don't really know any of you, but as a Crum I'm pretty confident... Anyways, I've been seeing Obama's campaign posters on television, and I realized I could maybe help clear up what he really meant to say:

Remember to vote early and vote often.

Anonymous

Recently I (an anonymous user here on the Crum Family's Blog) saw a list of currently acceptable 'politically correct' terms for everyday use. I say 'currently' accepted because this list seems to change every week or so adding a new term to the list of 'non-correct' terms or rendering one of the previously accepted modified terms now unacceptable.

Here's how it works. Christopher Columbus landed on a continent he believed to be Asia, thus he referred to the native people as 'Indians' (persons from India), though, he would have been better off calling them Chinese since there are more Chinamen on the Asian continent than Indians. Since then we (white people) have called the natives to this land 'Indians'. This is wrong. We should only call people what they want to be called.

So, wanting to know the truth behind this, I searched for 'Politically Correct Terms' and came up with this list:

Mentally Challenged instead of Retarded / Retard
Little person instead of Midget
Jewish Person instead of Jew
Native American instead of Indian
Inuit instead of Eskimo
Homeless Person instead of Bum

There is also the word niggardly" which means stingy or cheap. Although it is not considered offensive by definition, it sounds way to close to the racial slur for blacks. You should probably avoid using it.

Chink is another word th[a]t means a crack or chip. It is also a slur for a Chinese person. I'd avoid using it.

What? Jewish person instead of Jew? I didn't know Jew was derogatory! And we can't use words because they sound like a word that is offensive? What in the world! What about words and gestures that sound like/look like offensive gestures in other cultures? Aren't we supposed to be culturally sensitive? This is just ridiculous... we're going to politically-correct ourselves into slavery.

Well, I hope this video helps stem the tide: Enjoy!

victoria, continued

The General Council convened this morning. Since I am not a delegate or an alternate I have no obligation to attend any of the meetings. So, this morning I window shopped my way up to Roberta's Hats, the shop I was interested in visiting. I tried on a myriad of hats of all sorts, mostly to find one to purchase, but some for fun. Unfortunately, there was a store policy against photography, otherwise you would be seeing me in a rather elegant tri-cornered captain's hat--which really was stunning and quite becoming. I bought a more sedate blue wool winter hat which may appear later in the blog. I made reservations in a nearby town, Oak Bay, for tea this afternoon at the White Heather Tea Room. It was lovely, even though I was by myself. I went prepared with a book, so I wasn't really alone after all. One of the hotel staff drove me to Oak Bay, but I walked home (3-4 miles) by a scenic route through a residential area. The pictures here are of the gardens in the Government House, the residence of the Governor General, which was on my way. I was told this is where members of the royal family stay when they are in Victoria.

416 Walnut Ave.

I have a tendency to be nostalgic on here and want to take a few seconds of your time to inform you of a new (to me) feature on Google Maps… Street View. I did not research the technology behind this feature, but basically my guess is that a vehicle of some kind drives around cities, primarily in the U.S., with a panoramic camera attached, and records still images as it goes. This has led to the following discovery, our old house on Mare Island. It has the address wrong, but it has been almost 20 years since we lived there. As I took a virtual tour of the island I stopped by several memorable locales - St. Peter’s, the park with the gazebo and bunkers, the field where we played soccer, and the golf course. I found other houses, in Creve Coeur and Valrico, but this feature has its limits and houses in Landisville, Camp Pendleton, and Catonsville did not make the cut. I Hope this opens a new realm of searches and brings back many good memories.

victoria, part 3

Our walking tour today began in the Beacon Hill Park which is a center of controversy regarding the rights of the the homeless to use public space for camping. The park is large and beautiful, with many small lakes. We didn't see the tent city; I believe for now the tents may not go up until 9 pm and must be down by 6 or 7 am. At the far side of the park is a wide bay with mountains to be seen in the distance. The shore is pebbled with large round stones and littered with driftwood and seaweed. Coming back into Victoria we pass the government building. I don't think the pictures are in order, but I'm sure you can match them with their descriptions.

Victoria, part 2

These are pictures from Victoria, BC, including a view of the Reformed Episcopal Church of Our Lord, which we can see from our hotel room window. We are close to the Inner Harbour, but that view is blocked by other hotels. The other two pictures were taken in Victoria's Chinatown.

Victoria, part 1

Unaware that our (apparently mistaken--see Peter's post) scientific philosophy could land us in Victoria, BC, with just a few well-directed hops, Pop and I slapped down some cold cash for airplane tickets to get us here yesterday. We boarded planes in Baltimore, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle and spent time in each of those airports, too. Now we are on a beautiful island off the western coast of Canada.
I have done very little world traveling, so it still surprises me to find my romanicized views of other cities shattered by traffic, shopping malls, McDonald's golden arches, and all of the other mundane symbols of my usual suburban economic life. I expected Victoria to look Elizabethan (not even Victorian), with quaint shops and thatched roofs. I didn't expect 20-story hotels that block the views of the harbor and mountains.
One thing I especially enjoyed yesterday was flying over the Rockies. You get one view of the grandeur from the ground, another from high in the air. The mountains appear almost as wide from that bird's-eye perspective as they seem when traveling by car. The land seems smooth and desert-like as you fly across the plains. Then, suddenly, it folds up in front of your eyes, like crumpled suede, dusted with evergreens and snow. Although there was some cloud cover, for the most part the view was clear and awesome. I was amazed at how few roads there are, and conseqently, how much unvisited land there must be.
We are enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning. We got up before 6 after a good night's rest. We had breakfast Pop bought last night--bread, cheese, and pears plus tea. Now he's at the "gym" and a little later we'll walk to church. This afternoon we'll explore the Inner Harbor area which is just a short walk downhill. I've got Sayers and Woodhouse and Tey to read, so I'm set for a relaxing week.

Efficiency

Jess, the kids and I went to a car dealership this morning. We were looking around at different SUVs, sort of thinking that one with third row seating might be nice. Of course when you go from two rows to three it makes the vehicle itself longer. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

On the way home, my mind got to working, and I thought I'd share my epiphany with you all... Obviously we should choose the longest car possible. Let's say that the Expedition is 1.5 feet longer than the Explorer. That means that for every mile the Explorer travels, the Expedition has gone an extra 792 feet. That might not seem like much at first, but believe me it'll add up. If it takes someone in a Jeep Liberty 14 hours and 21 minutes to get to Bloomington from here, it would only take us 12 hours and 49 minutes. This is one of those ideas that I'm suprised I haven't seen exploited in televison commercials before!

Then, while my mind was on the subject of efficiency of travel, I had another brilliant flash of genius... We've been living a lie. The scientists, schoolteachers and mothers of the world have all pulled the wool over our eyes. The Earth is standing completely still. The Sun, Moon and stars are obviously rotating around us at a constant speed. How do I know this? How am i so sure that I'm willing to state on this blog that this is absolutely a fact? Let me tell you. If you jump up in the air, what happens? Nothing right? You just come right back down to where you started. If the Earth was really spinning at the rate suggested by so-caled experts, a one second hang-time in Colorado would land me somewhere in Utah (of course I'd do my jumping on the Western Slope so as to avoid smacking into the mountains). Sure you'd always have to travel in a westward direction, but you'd get everywhere so fast. A few years back my friend Rob saw a pickup truck drive past our apartment complex. In the back of the truck was a medium sized dog. As the truck flew by it hit a dip in the road, and consequently the dog bounced up into the air. The dog stayed put, the truck continued on down the road. The dog landed on all fours in the middle of the road. Case closed! If the Earth was really moving then that dog would have stayed with the truck and landed down exactly where it had taken off from, but no it landed in the street. Think of it this way; if the Earth were really spinning around at 1000+ mph, then no standard commercial airliner could keep up, and all Eastbound flights would be cancelled. I'm actually pretty tired of coming up with all this evidence, especially since I know that I have alrady proved my case well beyond your average scientific theory. Therefore, until I see one of you Easterners or Midwesterners hopping by my house at 1000 mph I'll stick to this newfound belief.

Tuesday Tunes

Hibernaculum

It's getting cold here in Colorado. The weather started changing last night, with clouds and cold air blowing in over the mountains. The first weeks of Fall were beautiful, with crisp bright mornings and golden sunny afternoons. Temperatures have been reaching 70s and not dropping below the 50s. But todoay the mountains can not be seen, which means there's snow accumulating up high. The first freeze could happen tonight and for sure tomorrow night. This all concerns me after almost stepping on a Rattlesnake the other day...

it concerns me because I've always wondered (with a slight bit of apprehension) how these cold blooded creatures survive in these cold climates durring Winter. Now if I were Mom at this point I might reconsider reading any further. I did post that picture, which may have been enough to get a shriek and a quick shutting of the laptop, but just in case, this is a verbal warning.

When I almost stepped on the Rattlesnake I was working up in Cedar Heights, a gated community up on the mountain side above Colorado Springs. I hadn't seen a Rattlesnake in the wild here in Colorado the whole time I've lived here. I had heard that they couldn't survive over a certain altitude and thought the 6,500ft + location I was working at would be safe. Of course this turned out not to be the case. This led me to a information search, and here's a little condensed version of what I found: Rattlesnakes have been found at altitudes above 9,000ft. They can survive the winter by hiberbenating below the frostline (10ft deep at those higher altitudes). A snake Hibernaculum can consist of a single or a few snakes, but it has also been documented (Mom would love this) that up to 1,000 snakes will hibernate together. Rattlesnakes and Garter snakes will even sometimes hibernate together.

People who know me know that I like snakes and have always been fascinated by then. But, the idea of Rattlesnake(s), especially a lot of them seriously scares me. At the same time I would much rather there be Rattlesnakes slithering all around than having a world overrun by rodents, so I guess I'll just have to watch my step when Spring comes back around. I'm thankful that God kept me safe the other day, and I am thankful for His creation, even when it's a little creepy.

Björn the Bear

A W. Henry C. Comic

Obscure Reference - 10 Points

I promise not to do this on a regular basis (unless you want me to) but I just got glasses and I had this quote in my head all night.  See if you remember where this is from.

"I can't see a thing without my specs."

YearBookYourself.com

The latest craze to sweep across the Facebook landscape is the trend for people (myself included) to alter their profile pic as if it were found in a yearbook from yesteryear. I stumbled upon the website where many a fine pic can be created... www.yearbookyourself.com. Having spent minutes on the site I was able to produce several creepy yearbook pics, and hopefully a few laughs. I have taken this thinking a step further, utilizing the sites resource to determine what a baby will look like when it is older (and if it were to grow a mullet)... I give you Zion Bjorn Crum, lead singer of the Journey coverband "Bjorn-nee."