Coming to Vadodara

We rented a car+driver combo to take a short tour through Delhi.  Our driver was super friendly but only spoke some pretty broken English so via pantomime and lots of nodding we hit a few major tourist sites before leaving for Vadodara.

India Gate is a major national pride.  12 people said this to me verbatim.  It must be printed on a coin or something. 

At the Humayun's Tomb we were joined by 6.5 million kids on school field trips.  One of the flickr pictures shows them in an endless line.  As I was walking by one of the little Sikh boys reached up and hi-fived me which I reflexively replied to.  Immediately 400 little arms also went up so I high five-d the entire line like a Jonas Brother which was awesome.

We got suckered into a Kashmiri museum.  You see the Kashmiris have lots of trouble right now so they pay cab drivers and hotel van operators to kidnap people and drop them by to hear about how Kashmiri rugs are awesome and Turkish/machine woven are just offensive garbage .  Oh and by the way you seem interested ma'am, maybe you would like to purchase a handmade rug...free shipping?  I knew this little scam existed but thought having the hotel driver would keep us out of the flim flammery.  I now know better.  Also Kashmiris are kind of rude and dismissive of women.  Tina is not down w/ that sort of business.  After sales dude shushed her 1 too many times, I removed the sheep shearing tool she stuck in his eye and we left.


There are some pictures over on the Flickr site but not much was remarkable.  I mostly get bored touring around famous landmark type places.  The fun of travel is in the travel and the people you meet on the way.

Off to the airport w/ our huge stack of luggage which caused a little stir but we convinced Jet Airways that because we were continuing on from an International flight we should get to carry the 40 metric tons of crap in our little trolley tower.  After seeing the plane later I understood why they were concerned.  I think we took the whole carrying capacity of the stupid little prop plane. 

In the airport we just had time for lunch, Sophia and T got Indian.  J got some 'fried chicken' at 4 Fingers according to the signage it has something do with New York, cause you know.....NY makes fried chicken.  The chicken wings were bone in and were the whole wing including the tips.  They were fried and served w/ a huge scoop of plain rice.  Awkward to eat but mostly ok.  I ate at McDonalds.  I don't eat much McD at home but figured I should try it out and see the difference.  Fries are the same, coke is served no ice and kinda warm and there is no beef.  Instead you can feast on the awesome sounding (and > Big Mac) Royal Maharaja Mac Double Chicken Spiced Meat Sandwich.  I also grabbed a paneer wrap which has no analog and was just good.

Flight was fine but we left late because a fat NRI dude inexplicably had to go back and forth from the bus that took us out to the tarmac 3 times.  I learned later that an NRI is a Non-Resident Indian and that this is 'NRI Season'.  Everyone comes back for weddings and such which explains the exorbitant rates on our plane tickets and the general feeling of sold-out-ness I got in booking accommodation and travel.  Most NRIs are fine but a few display a nice blend of rich, pushy Indian and ugly American which is a nuclear meltdown of manners.

We collected bags and were met by the house driver who remembered Tina from previous visits.  He launched into 1,000 kph Gujarati to which Tina replied "Si".  It took her a minute to change gears but thank god she does still speak it fluently making everything smooth for us while in Gujarat.  Tina's cousin is the one w/ the 2 kids having weddings and she is putting us up in an empty flat across the road from her place.  The building is under construction but this one tower seems done and its a nice place.  The shower is a bit mystifying but we have a Western style toilet so by definition are happy.

Arrival in Delhi

292 from ORD to DEL (link,map) is long, longer than I thought it was possible to go in the air.  We left about an hour late after some de-icing which I’ll always gladly wait for.  After take off and all we were served a nice meal, of which T and the kids hardly ate anything so I had like 4 portions because I am a gluttonous idiot.  A few hours later all the lights were shut off and they passed out some sack lunch type things so that everyone could nosh on their own sleep/wake schedule. 

I did manage about 4 x 20 minute naps along the way which for me is pretty good.  The thing is that the seats are not tall enough for me to be able to really settle in and even w/ the super specialized neck pillow I bought it was near impossible to get comfortable.  I made the decision to sit with the family even though I could have gotten an exit row or bulkhead.  That is not a mistake I’ll make again.  I love hanging out w/ T and the kids but sitting in regular coach seats for 15 hours is not something I’ll ever do again.

To pass the time I watched a pile of movies but most notably my first 2 real Bollywood productions.  I had seen pieces before but never invested the time to actually sit through one start to finish.  Up first was Dabanng (link) and it was great.  I don’t mean great as in actually great but great as in I was equally entertained and puzzled for like 3 hours which on a flight like that is what you want.  Dabang is about a cop with RayBan Aviators (amazingly similar to the ones I brought), a top button unbuttoned to show off his muscle-y hairy chest and one of the top 5 mustaches of all time.  As far as the story goes, I don’t have a clue what happened really.  He may have been a dirty cop, or a slightly less dirty cop but I know he took money from robbers and shot people sort of indiscriminately.  There were some good ‘bullet time’ action sequences and the big main theme song has him doing this dance w/ his belt that you can find here:.  Since I have the sunglasses I will do the dance for you upon request (link note the pit stains starting at :39, :55 begins the very very very famous belt dance, 1:12 he dispenses some foot-race justice and it just keeps going)

Up next was a movie I enjoyed un-ironically.  3 Idiots is silly and good without being too much.  Not gonna go into the plot cause it doesn’t matter but know that there is plenty of the quirky 'Indian' english, lots of singing and a big kiss scene at the end.  If you are going to watch a Bollywood flick, watch this one.  The English is great and full of ‘the needful’ but my favorite was rusticated.  I took it to mean expelled but it could have meant constipated, no way to know.

The girls behind me were white, 16, in a church group and silly in a very familiar way.  Evangelical Christians teens are awesome in their hardcore earnestness and loud declarations.  All that scripted language about being a servant, maintaining purity blah blah blah and truly believing they have the world figured out.  Without commentary on religion I'll just say that Christian or not, 16 year old humans are ridiculous.

With 3 hours to go we passed over Iraq and Afghanistan and it kind of tripped me out to think there were wars going on 35,000 feet below me and I said a little prayer to the flying spaghetti monster that the Mujahadeen didn’t have any SAMs left over from the Charlie Wilson days.

Breakfast was delivered about 2 hours before landing.  Some clever chef came up with a orange, white and green main dish (India flag..get it?) that I think had some green beans, paneer and some dahl or such.  Again, the family ate a fraction so I finished everyone’s food.  We got the customs forms and were glad to find that we didn’t need to declare anything.  Passport control was no problem and getting our bags took some time but no trouble.  The 3 trolleys loaded w/ the baggage were an impressive sight and we rolled through the ‘green lane’ at customs without even a second glance from the very bored looking old man taking the forms.

In the reception hall we found the Hilton representative holding a sign w/ my name and the drivers took over from there handling all the bags.  We had some tug of war over who was going to carry what but in the end I just relaxed and let them do everything.  It’s a tough thing for me to just let people handle stuff but I am making a commitment now to try.

We wheeled the carts around and tried to check them in w/ Jet Airways but Jet had just cancelled/rescheduled a bunch of flights and had no interest in holding onto our bags.  Fortunately the Hilton people brought 2 mini vans and with a bit of engineering everything got loaded.

Out of the airport I finally got the first taste of India, and it tasted like smoke.  Despite being 11 PM there were people everywhere and the constant din of horns honking.  I'll do a whole article someday on cars and driving but the shrill little 'beep' that every rickshaw and bike uses to signal all manner information is the soundtrack for this trip.  The Hilton was super nice and as with everywhere we've been in India, the service was totally over the top fawning by 3-4 people at all times.  Security is very tight, they checked our cars throughout when we came in the barred front gate and all our hand luggage went through an x-ray machine.  Surprisingly there were Christmas decorations including giant snowmen in the lobby and a snack shop decorated as Santa's workshop selling gingerbread and paneer panini.  The room was great and we all loved the shower room walled in with glass that faces in toward the bedroom.  Curtains are there for modesty but its odd and we agreed it must be setup this way to allow someone to watch TV while shampooing.  I also loved the 'magic' button on the phone.

Donut Wallah or the Trip Begins

 Up at 3:45 I packed the truck with 6 suitcases averaging 47 pounds each, 2 moving boxes tied with Dilip’s special knots and filled with gifts and wedding stuff, 3 carry on suitcases, 4 backpacks and 4 x 2.5 lb trays of Costco baklava Jackson had wrapped up in a bag and tied off with para cord to make a sort of hammock style carrier.  Luckily I still have my gold status with American so we got to shortcut a few lines along the way.  The lady next to us was shipping either a small camel or a large dog in a kennel big enough to park a motorcycle.  The old man in front of me turned to the old lady with him and said ‘I can’t believe  she is putting her kid in there’ to which she responded with a medium length tirade about how unsafe and scary that would be for the kid.  I think I understood them to be siblings and from the deadpan delivery I guessed this was not the first time the brother had wound up the sis, either she was playing along perfectly or was very dense and he never delivered the punch line.

A bit of breakfast in the terminal and then the 6:45 flight to Chicago was very unremarkable.  TinaB had been working nearly round the clock for the last 2 weeks to get all her paperwork in for school and the night before we left she worked the whole night through.  She passed out for the vast majority of the flight.  The kids were tired and did sleep some but were so jacked with adrenaline that it took a while before they zonked out.  I never sleep on planes.  It’s a curse to be both tall and unable to turn off one’s brain in the necessary way to suspend disbelief that somehow 2 small engines can produce enough force to keep driving this huge machine full of meat and gear through the air.  I have always believed that it is my will alone keeping us flying and so to sleep would be totally irresponsible.  This of course does not bode well for the long flight coming up.

Knowing we would be in Chicago for 8 hours, the AA Admiral’s Club (link) was an easy decision so we could have some quiet and a little more comfortable place to recline.  A few annoying guys on phones but mostly quiet and we had fun playing board games and eating.  T had our Christmas cards done so we put together an assembly line to stuff, address, stamp  and seal them to be sent from the little mailbox dropbox in the terminal.  During the morning me and the kids wandered up to the food court to get coffee and donuts at the Dunkin shop.  The guy behind the counter was a Patel and had this little sing song Gujarati/English thing going where he would confirm your order and try to upsell everything.  He sang us a song that ended with me getting a free glazed in the bag with a wink and the wobbly head (link, link = about the 11 second mark you'll see 2 of them going together) that means…well….something or nothing, definitely that or maybe.

India for me started at the gate to board the plane, I had several people smelling like body odor and odd spice mixes start the kind of vague pushing and personal-space-crowding in line that I keep telling myself isn’t rude, just Indian. 

India - Mysteries of Elimination

I thank this guy for posting pictures of an element of this trip that has me mildly freaked out and makes Soph threaten bodily harm.  I have so, so many questions.  Among them: do men squat to pee? does one take off all one's clothes so as to avoid any kind of blowback/overspray situation from the provided (I hope) hose? does one bring one's own soap, towel and hand sani w/ one each time? I don't want to know but isn't there a whole female hygenie realm complicated by this system? How do old people w/ lack of quad strength deal with this?

I'm not going to link but there are lots of internet-loud arguments about the advantage of the rinse and wash vs. wipe systems.  I guess I'll soon be able to decide for myself.  Remember not to shake my hand for a while, k?

http://www.pbase.com/jtodhunter/indian_toilet

India - Interstitial

2 weeks until we leave and we are on schedule for most of the planning stuff.  Christmas gifts are pretty well finished, still not sure how we are going to get everything over there with us but it'll work out.    

There is a about a week between the weddings and so I've put together a little side trip to see some of the touristy spots.  Tina's been to all these places and a part of me didn't want to see the Taj Mahal fearing that it would just be like seeing it in a picture but Jackson wisely pointed out that its a little crazy to go to India and not see 1 of the Wonders of the World so we are going.  

This is what I'm thinking so far.

Good site with train info for US/UK types:
http://www.seat61.com/India.htm

Tuesday 12/28 (evening?)

Leave Vadodara for Jaipur by train

12-16 hours, some of the boarding times are at odd hours of the morning but all would include sleeping on the train.  We definitely want to take a train at some point, its something the kids have never really done.

Train:
http://www.cleartrip.com/trains/results?from_city=Vadodara&to_city=Jaipur&class=2A&date=28-12-2010&adults=2&children=2&male_seniors=0&female_seniors=0

Wednesday 12/29

arrive Jaipur, check into hotel etc

some hotels I'm looking at: http://goindia.about.com/od/wheretostay/ss/palace-hotels_2.htm

3 nights, the normal sightseeing stuff and something with elephants

Thursday 12/30 play in Jaipur

Friday 12/31 play in Jaipur and New Years

Saturday 1/1 Train to Agra

Train is 4-6 hours sleep in Agra

http://www.cleartrip.com/trains/results?from_city=Jaipur&to_city=Agra&class=2A&date=1-1-2011&adults=2&children=2&male_seniors=0&female_seniors=0

Hotels:
http://goindia.about.com/od/citie1/tp/top-5-agra-accommodations.htm

Sunday 1/2 Taj , Train to Delhi Fly home

We might extend this a bit, but from what I've read Agra can mostly be seen in a day.

India - Ensure Your Luggage Will Fit

As I post this we are now at 16 days, 16 hours and 16 minutes until our plan leaves Tucson and we are getting very close to ready I think.  The Visas are done and the passports are now back.  I've gotten some money and travelers cheques (an antiquated spelling for an antiquated product)

We have arranged for a guy w/ a sign that will pick us up in Delhi to take us to the Hilton where we have a quick overnight.   The Hilton lady said we could rent a car w/ driver the next day to do a few laps around Delhi.

Luggage is a minor controversy.  We fly American to Delhi and then switch to Jet Airways for the flight the next day and found out that the 8 (!) 50# suitcases we are checking can be left with Jet Airways the night before once we clear customs.  I was worried about having to haul them to the hotel and back along with all our carry-ons but there is happily a system in place for this.  On the topic of 8 suitcases, we are trying to do the family a solid and volunteered to bring some stuff over.  Tina's pop has taken the opportunity to claim 3 of our 8 bags.  We are still in negotiations on this point.  To do some planning I had J and T do a prospective clothing dump so I could weigh it out.  50# is the max I get free for each bag (thanks for the status AA) and we plan to use it all.  J's clothes weighed in at 22#, Sophia's a bit less and Tina's and mine at just under 50# each.  This doesn't include gifts or toiletries which aren't heavy but take up tons of room.  The net of it is I'm projecting 3.5 suitcases for clothes, 2 for toiletries + gifts and 2 for the family tax with a bit of leftover.  So far her pops has delivered 1 full suitcase plus odds/ends and promises 2 more full boxes.  I keep telling him '2 boxes totalling 100#s', we'll see.

India - No running off to Mexico for a while

A Visa is required for Americans visiting India.  It's all the paperwork you'd expect including an application form to which is attached (oddly required to use glue) 2 passport type photos, copy of drivers license, copy of birth certificate, all along with the ACTUAL US passport.  They say they'll send it back in 7-9 days, lets hope so.   Because T's dad and by extension the kids granddad is originally from there we also had to provide her Dad's naturalization paperwork and her birth certificate proving they are all related.

The whole thing is handled through a company called Travisa that does some kind of middleman role I don't fully understand.  Again, I just hope they send me back my passport in the near future so I can leave the country if I decide to rob a bank or such.

India - Just a dash of virus please

Immunization is a probability game right?  I personally believe that I'm invincible so none of it is really necessary but if I were to get scabby-ebola-typhus it would be in India right?  Planning to go somewhere where the microbiology will actively try to kill you requires some prudence.  The kids it seems are routinely given sufficient vaccination now that they only have to take some typhus and malaria pills close to when we go.  No shots was a big selling point for them.  T just had a couple on account-a she's been before (and plus she must have some like racial defense right?).

I've had to get the Hepatitis A and B (B was a series of 2 so that was awesome) and Tetanus (that bastard hurt for a week, I think it had actual flakes of rusty metal in there).  Getting Polio on Friday and we take the typhus and malaria tablets closer to go time.

45 days to go, its coming fast.

India - What to Wear

So we don't have the formal invite yet but did get a hilarious email inviting us to what sounds like several weeks of awesome.  The table below is very intriguing to me for many reasons but not least because I have not been to an Ascot Goat Race, much less in a tuxedo.

India - Travel Data

We have been hovering over buying the tickets for a while and looking at all the angles.  The complexity of the trip is a function that looks like C = (HxTxB)^S where C=complexity, H=Humans x 9.73 (the universal constant of how much more work it takes going places with people), T=Total trip hours, B=# of bags, carry on and check and S= # of stops.  So the math tells us to change plans as little as possible and leave 1 of the kids at home (sorry JB). 

We settled on the itinerary below.  Outbound its as good as we can make it, returning we just could not get straight to Delhi without making things way more expensive so we'll have to cope.

• The Chicago to Delhi flight is the longest AA has, and I wonder if its the longest ever.  15 hours in the plane is pretty remarkable. 
•  We have an overnight in Delhi and I found a Hilton nearby.  I wonder about handling all of the bags during this portion but in any case we may get a chance to see a bit of Delhi in the morning.
• I have never heard of Jet Airways and I can't help but think of this
  
• 8 hours in Bombay airport with a ton of bags will suck, nothing to be done about it
• The return flight is a little longer from Delhi to Chicago, anything over 14 hours I guess is a wash

Outbound:
   
Tucson to Chicago

	Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time AMERICAN AIRLINES 374 TUS Tucson Dec 16, 2010 06:50 AM ORD Chicago Dec 16, 2010 11:15 AM McDonnell Douglas Super MD-80(S80)
	Travel Time:  3 hrs 25 min  ~ 1450 miles Economy Class Meal:   Food for purchase

Chicago to Delhi

Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time AMERICAN AIRLINES 292 ORD Chicago Dec 16, 2010 07:35 PM DEL Delhi Dec 17, 2010 09:45 PM Boeing 777(777)
	Travel Time:  14 hrs 40 min ~7500 miles Economy Class Meal:   Dinner  Breakfast

Delhi to Vadodara

Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time JET AIRWAYS OPERATED BY JET AIRWAYS KONNECT 2601 DEL Delhi Dec 18, 2010 05:25 PM BDQ Vadodara Dec 18, 2010 07:40 PM Aerospatiale/Alenia ATR72(AT7)
	Travel Time:  2 hrs 15 min ~500 miles Economy Class Meal:   Beverage service.

Return:

Vadodara to Bombay

Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time JET AIRWAYS OPERATED BY JET AIRWAYS KONNECT 2006 BDQ Vadodara Jan 09, 2011 11:15 AM BOM Mumbai Jan 09, 2011 12:10 PM Boeing 737-800 Passenger(738)
	Travel Time:  0 hrs 55 min ~250 miles Economy Class Meal:   Beverage service.

Bombay to Delhi

Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time AMERICAN AIRLINES OPERATED BY JET AIRWAYS 7839 BOM Mumbai Jan 09, 2011 08:05 PM DEL Delhi Jan 09, 2011 10:05 PM Boeing 737-900 Passenger(739)
	Travel Time:  2 hrs 0 min ~750 miles Economy Class Meal:   Beverage service.

Delhi to Chicago

Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time AMERICAN AIRLINES 293 DEL Delhi Jan 10, 2011 12:55 AM ORD Chicago Jan 10, 2011 05:00 AM Boeing 777(777)
	Travel Time:  15 hrs 35 min ~7500 miles Economy Class Meal:   Breakfast  Snack or brunch

Chicago to Tucson

Carrier Flight Number Departing Arriving Aircraft Type City Date & Time City Date & Time AMERICAN AIRLINES 1637 ORD Chicago Jan 10, 2011 09:25 AM TUS Tucson Jan 10, 2011 12:20 PM McDonnell Douglas Super MD-80(S80)
	Travel Time:  3 hrs 55 min ~1400 miles Economy Class Meal:   Food for purchase

India - Step 0

I've never been and it's time to go.  Tina's oldest cousin in Vadodara (aka Baroda) has 2 kids getting married over Christmas break and we've decided now is the time to make the big trip.  Me, T and the kids (7 and 11) will be flying a little under 20,000 total miles, celebrating Christmas, 2 weddings, New Year, J's birthday and our 2 anniversaries over the span of 26 days from 12/17 to 1/10. 

It seems far off now but starting up the lists of shots and clothes and packing logistics tells me that we need to get thing moving.  My plan is to chronicle all of it here (including the trip of course) and to use this as a forum to complain about things and offer observations on the process. 

Know 2 things:  I am mildly terrified/super excited about this trip and I can say whatever I want here cause T doesn't read it.  Boobs.

Infinite Summer - Uncountable

Obviously I gave up on the blog posts viz. the reading. It was easy on the days that I was reading near a computer but this time through I've been reading on the Iphone Kindle and the bookmarks feature is 'ok' but frankly not great so I've resorted to some brief notes in the notes app marking the kindle location and some nonsense words. The notes are obvioulsy just for me.

I wonder how old you need to be to read the book, I think I am about the same age now as DFW was when he wrote the book and while I don't think there is a mid-life crisis as such there is a sense of grown-upness, maturity and seriousness about what things mean and what is important.

I have read alot of books and this is one of the very few book that affected me, literally spoke to me directly. In a way that is almost uncomfortable but so fantastically good, I honestly can't talk all that much about it.


The remaining notes.

7385

Marathe on USA vulnerable, ashamed re: belief

Gaudemeus Igatur

"How do trite things get to be trite? The truth is not just un but anti interesting"

8596 She wanted only tall cold bottles that spoke of proof

8726 special children's second world of chairlegs and tile that exists under long tablecloths
8833. Lamont chu and fame "The truth will set you free. But not until is is finished with you."

8839 escape from a cage requires awareness of cage

Post storm sad

8851 Lyle tells Blott not to let the weight he would pull to himself exceed his own personal weight.

8867 warm and close

10119 Old fish asking young fish how's the water

10142 Vapider the cliche the sharper canines of truth

He has that rare spinal appreciation for beauty.....those without native words

11319 my fathers mood filled a room

11470 ubrippable fabric

You are what you walk between

14961 clattering bleachers

We are more perceptive re: our lovers family than our own

25171 hot showers and toilets

25317 16s are strange

25493 endnote 337 hamlet graveyard scene

19450 Radiated vulnerability

20400 Black Nurses

Infinite Summer - 2

So I am nearly caught up to pace. I'll need 60 page or so by the weekend, should be no problem.

I guess I can start adding more thoughts about context once the pace slows for now I've got:



Schitt - "We are what we walk between"

1920 - fn32 ETA motto "They Can Kill You, But the Legalities of Eating you are quite a bit Dicier"

1946 "this diagnate infinity of infinities of choice and execution, mathematically uncontrolled but humany contained, bounded by the talent and imagination of self and opponent, bent in on itself by the containing boundaries of skill and imagination that brought one player finally down, that kept both from winning, that made it, finally, a game, these boundaries of self.

Cantor of tennis....I love this section (not getting the whole math part of course though I did slog it through Everything and More) as it makes me think of basketball...a guy about to make a move has infinite options bounded only himself not as a shape but as a pattern. beautiful blobs of patterns sliding around.

1965 "A U.S. of modern A. where the State is not a team or a code, but a sort of sloppy intersection of desires and fears, where the only public consensus a boy must surrender to is the acknowledged primacy of straight-line pursuing this flat and short-sighted idea of personal happiness."

1963 - "without there is something bigger. Nothing to contain and give meaning. Lonely. Verstiegenheit - FN 36 "wandering alone in blasted disorienting territory beyond all charted limits and orienting markers"

1984 "The true opponenet, the enfolding boundary, is the player himself. Always and only the self out there, on court, to be met, fought, brought to the table to hammer out terms."

Tiny Ewell

Marathe in Tucson (area code 6026?) a tripling or quadrupling agent?

personnes qui on doit ?

Steeply - OUS

Rodney Tine - architect of ONAN, sr. cheif of Unspecified Services

ETA - little things I love like 'waiting for his feet to get dry enough to put on socks'

2334"sometimes he finds out he believes something that he doesnt' even know he believed until it exits his mouth"

Pledge

Back to Tucson

2532 'make amusement all you wish. But choose with care. You are what you love. No? You are, completely and only what you would die for without, as you say, the thinking twice."

FN FN 304 feral annulaized babies, wheelchair assassins origin and the Endless Kiss game

Big buddies lectures

USS Milicient

Lyle, Yogi w/ sweat : 3031 "He's like a baby. everything he sees hits him and sinks without bubbles."

yrstruly, Poor Tony, smack and its perils

Infinite Summer - 1

The schedule laid out by the organizers is below. I am behind the curve after a disastrous 4th of July trip to Mexico left me near comatose from heat exhaustion and all the reading I got done the Fwd by Dave Eggers.

Hit it hard Monday including re-reading the Fwd and the first week's assignment (something past Kindle location 1530 at the end of part in the hospital).

I should mention here that even though I own the 10 year anniv. edition in paperback I tested and loved the $9.99 kindle edition on the Iphone. The endnotes alone make it worthwhile. I like the Kindle setup so far but the subjective (?) location as opposed to page number thing is annoying.

Here are my notes and some quotes that stuck out. Locations where available:

Foreward -
I should someday read Proust I guess. I suspect it might not be worth the effort but still.

? "Your heart is sturdier"

? "Its long but there are pleasures everywhere. There is humor everywhere."

139 "a thing that will outlast him and you and me, but will help future people understand us - how we felt, how we lived, what we gave to each other and why"

Chapter 1(actually nothing is numbered) Year of Glad

Hal at UofA, flips out taken to the bathroom and the ER. Flashback to eating mold.

215 - "Right and center Deans have inclined together in soft conference, forming a tepee of skin and hair."

303 - "I can picture deLint and White sitting with their elbows on their knees in the defecatory posture of all athletes at rest"

452 - "Not for nothing did Orin say that people outdoors down here just scuttle in vectors from air conditioning to air conditioning. The sun is a hammer."

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Eredy freaking out waiting on pot

690 the whole thing about ideas floating, too long to quote.

1 April Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad

Hal with the professional conversationalist (gotta be Himself)

Entertainment stuck in Himself's brain? and accusations about Moms

9 May Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

831 "my head is filled with things to say" ... "I don't mind....I could wait forever"

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

medical attache (moms connection?) pkg from phx, this can't be Orin I don't think

Year of the Trial Size Dove Bar

Ebonically written Clenette and dem

Bruce Green and MIldred Bonk and Tommy Doocey living in a trailer

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Hal and Mario at night talking about god in sports and the mom's not sad about himself dying "with me so tired my hair hurts"

October Year of the Adult Depend Undergarment

Orin and the awfulness of phx (heat, malevolent plants, sewer roaches), time lapse fetal salt shapes

first howling fantods

1136 'These worst morning with cold floors and hot windows and merciless light - the soul's certainty that the day will have to be not traversed but sort of climbed, vertically and that going to sleep again at the end of it will be like falling again off something tall and sheer"

Interlace of the paranoid re: radioactive fluids being pumped w/ radioactive fluids

Subjects

1317 Hal gets secretly high, "Like most north Americans of his generation, Hal tends to know way less about why he feels certain ways about the objects and pursuits he's devoted to than he does about the objects and pursuits themselves."

medical attache is stuck on

Autumn - year of the dairy products from the American heartland
- screw the chapter headings, they are meaningless for the notes anyway

Gately w/ the toothbrush and accidentally kills a guy

Troeltsch get sick, fever dreams

The dreams of new kids, face in the floor....'and then you wake like that quivering like a struck drum'

Himself's history (note the Tucson-ness....not particularly meaningful but its where I live so it makes me unnecesarily happy)

The f-ing list of Himself's movies, part slog, part important, part funny

Pemulis w/ little buddies and shroom presentation, dream of unmanageably huge tennis court

Gompert's in the hospital...description of depression after DFW himself's death kinda has me in a funk. That section was hard to read knowing now what we know.

1779 "I've thought sometimes before like the feeling maybe had to do with Hope'

Infinite Summer - 0

http://infinitesummer.org

Sergio pointed me to this last week and I couldn't resist. I'm 1/3 of the way through Gravity's Rainbow for like the 3rd time and was making actual progress so this distraction was unwelcome but I am a) a sucker for an interesting challenge and b) a huge-er fan of D. Wallace and Infinite Jest.

Publish Post

IJ is a top 3 book for reasons I guess I'll go into later but reading it the first time was long, incredibly pleasurable and work. Given the ruinous time-sequence, multitude of plots/characters and my unfamiliarity with Quebecois Separatists politics I've always said I'd want to go back and re-read it to put things in order in my brain.

So I am starting a couple of weeks behind but its slow at work right now so I should be able to catchup.

Tyler Hansbrough NBA Career - Long Bet

The debate here is if Hansbrough (link) will be an NBA player for more than 4 years. I say no, G$ says yes and so we will begin to track long bets here on the rarely used blog.

G$ has OVER 4 years (any 5 years pays) on an NBA payroll as a player betting 110 to win 100.

Spelling Bee

13 kids 4-6 grades
6 girls
1 black girl, 2 hispanic boys

1 girl crying 10 mins before start

JB in 2nd position

Words:
Balcony - 3 down this round

Tutu - tons of giggles, she offered to define and JB says sure, more giggles. 2 more down this round

Hassock (missed the K at the end) 3 others gone in that round









Crier gone in round 1 ghphel for gospel

Larry King Style

• Found the UA line vs USC is +15, that is very enticing. I'm officially pretend betting 100 virtual dollars. My concerns are numerous but I'll be at the sold out homecoming game screaming my head off as we try to keep a streak of homecoming upsests alive against a top 10 oppenent for first place (?!?!?) in the Pac 10 with my sonand I defy you to name a better thing than that.
  
  Concerns:
  1. Actually 1-25 are variations on: RUN DEFENSE which means time of posession.
  26. Grigsby getting back his confidence
  27. Remembering to throw the ball to Gronkowski on every play.
  28. Jordan Hill foul trouble, I know this isn't football as such but I'm getting an early jump on worrying about this.
  

• If you are a nerd you should look at xkcd every day, if you are not a nerd you should still look at it and will probably appreciate 50%.

• I'm new to the Facebook and I am fascinated by many things but today's headscratcher is the status update feature. The following from a married couple who as far as I can recall do live in the same house...together, you'll notice I cleverly replaced their names with pronouns (or something).
  
  Husband is finished putting up Halloween decorations.
  11 hours ago - 2 Comments
  
  Wife: at 9:34pm October 19
  and you did a fantastic job :)
  
  

  Husband:
  

  at 9:37pm October 19

  Thanks :)
  
  

• Old people sometimes embarrass themselves through their own bad ideas and sometimes by listening to people around them. I'm glad to know Lute isn't the craziest coach in bball right now. Click the pictures for links and the context is that this is Midnight Madness celebrating the 1979 Final Four run.
  

• I'd like to celebrate our 1997 National Championship run with a throwback day where DJ's on Campbell would reopen, wing guy would make me wings, beer guy would pour me beer, my order would be hopelessly screwed up and I could watch the most exciting 3 nights of basketball of all time with good friends.
  

El Tour Training Ride #1 9-28-08

Did the El Tour training ride with Chill and GABA on Sunday. I had never ridden in a pack before and it took some getting used to. A big upside was in always having someone to chase and set pace from. I still believe that drafting works but can in no way prove it. If I ride on someone's wheel I spend more time thinking about not crashing into them than riding.

We rode with some people Chill knew and I did what I could to keep up but the Craycroft hill climb dropped me badly. I am still learning about optimum gears to use and I think

Data

Up at 5 to have enough time to get dressed and have time for a bit of food. I take a silly amount of stuff on bike rides but I don't think there is any I would leave behind. Before I ate I weighed in at 257 (252 on the return).

I'm guessing I had about 280 calories right at an hour before exercise consisting of a small bagel and 3/4 cup of yogurt. I also probably had half a bike bottle (11 oz ish) during the morning.

I took a Camelpack with about 50 ounces of water of which I took in about 34 ounces during the ride. I had an extra 24 oz bottle just in case but didn't touch it.

I figured 3 hours for the ride (40 miles ~15 mph with some reserve) is 7.5 scoops of Perpetuem (per the chart for a @ 250 lbs. dude) and filled the bottle with about 10 oz. of water. It combined pretty well as long as I shook it up well before drinking it. I took a gulp about every 15 minutes and chased it with water. The taste was fine but the texture was a little gross. Chasing people faster than me throughout the morning was hard work but I never felt out of gas. I can compare this against the first time I went ~40 miles and took 0 calories during (yes, I am a moron) the ride and bonked badly at the end.

I'm happy with the overall pace I rode and definetly happy with the gear I brought in terms of water and fuel. In fact another 40 miles I could definetly do without the camelback and instead just fill the bottle at the turnaround point.







View Larger Map

Who is the famous-est?

Today I had luch with James van der Beek. He was very polite and we had a brief conversation about an available table. So this summer I've bumped into 2 famous people (see the Morgan-freaking-Spurlock episode from Vegas) and im wondering who is the most famous. JVB has the teen thing from the Dawson Creek but MS had a movie about big macs. MS is certainly better known to me but I assume JVB would famouser. I had no intrest in asking for an autograph so I took a sneaky phone pic from a mile away so there would be n doubt this happened.

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?eosr=on&q=wiki+james+van+der+beek&source=m&hl=en&ei=1vDPSLC6EYLkmwOW7Z_SAg&sa=X&oi=blended&ct=res&cd=1&rd=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJames_Van_Der_Beek