Sunday, August 18, 2013
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Why the hell are Americans the stereotypical "rude and stupid tourists"?
I left Arlington this past Friday, completely disgusted with the way we, as Americans, represent ourselves in public. On my off hours, I like to explore our capitol's monuments and the Smithsonian Museum. During my mini adventures, I have noticed that every single American tourist I see does pretty much the same damn thing over and over again, while people from other countries are getting pushed out of the way by their overbearing nature. The American tourist are dressed like crap. (Baggy jeans, t-shirts, dirty clothes) While the nice French woman I met this past week pointed out that she could identify people from her country just by the way some of the tailored dresses were worn. (It was weird but pretty much dead on)
Side note: Americans have this need to touch. Oh look a priceless artifact from the Paleozoic period, lets rub our grubby hands all over the glass and hope that we can share how dirty we really are with the rest of the world. If the sign says don't touch the glass...DON'T TOUCH!
Now, I am not the best dresser in the world. I wear 12 year old blue jeans on my days off, I regularly wear combat boots that have been worn so many years that I have replaced the sole on them twice, and there are quite a few shirts in my dresser older than all but one relationship I have ever been in and are still the most comforting to wear ones I have. But, when I am out in the public eye and am going to be seen, I at least try my best to be an example of proper behavior. American's have this mentality lately that it is okay to cut in line, litter, and act like a jackass to some in need. The only other nationality I have noticed this behavior from are Indians (dot head). I love travelling the world, but there is no way in hell that you would ever get me off the plane in that country and have to deal with their interpersonal issues there....
Sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant.
If you are at a museum, don't run your hands over the glass. If you are walking through town and see a group of foreign nationals coming down the sidewalk your way, at least pull up your god damned pants. If you see a nice couple with their kids trying to take a picture in front of a monument, stop trying to barge your way in front of them. Just give them a second, this is could be a trip the kids remember for the rest of their lives. Do you really want another generation of people to hate Americans as much as we are hated now? Speaking of monuments, how ignorant do you have to be when you think it is a good idea to climb up onto a national memorial and take a selfie for your FB feed. And one last thing, please.....If you are in a crowded touristy area, don't light up a stinking Marlboro red!
This shit pisses me off! Show some respect for yourself and your own country!
I left Arlington this past Friday, completely disgusted with the way we, as Americans, represent ourselves in public. On my off hours, I like to explore our capitol's monuments and the Smithsonian Museum. During my mini adventures, I have noticed that every single American tourist I see does pretty much the same damn thing over and over again, while people from other countries are getting pushed out of the way by their overbearing nature. The American tourist are dressed like crap. (Baggy jeans, t-shirts, dirty clothes) While the nice French woman I met this past week pointed out that she could identify people from her country just by the way some of the tailored dresses were worn. (It was weird but pretty much dead on)
Side note: Americans have this need to touch. Oh look a priceless artifact from the Paleozoic period, lets rub our grubby hands all over the glass and hope that we can share how dirty we really are with the rest of the world. If the sign says don't touch the glass...DON'T TOUCH!
Now, I am not the best dresser in the world. I wear 12 year old blue jeans on my days off, I regularly wear combat boots that have been worn so many years that I have replaced the sole on them twice, and there are quite a few shirts in my dresser older than all but one relationship I have ever been in and are still the most comforting to wear ones I have. But, when I am out in the public eye and am going to be seen, I at least try my best to be an example of proper behavior. American's have this mentality lately that it is okay to cut in line, litter, and act like a jackass to some in need. The only other nationality I have noticed this behavior from are Indians (dot head). I love travelling the world, but there is no way in hell that you would ever get me off the plane in that country and have to deal with their interpersonal issues there....
Sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant.
If you are at a museum, don't run your hands over the glass. If you are walking through town and see a group of foreign nationals coming down the sidewalk your way, at least pull up your god damned pants. If you see a nice couple with their kids trying to take a picture in front of a monument, stop trying to barge your way in front of them. Just give them a second, this is could be a trip the kids remember for the rest of their lives. Do you really want another generation of people to hate Americans as much as we are hated now? Speaking of monuments, how ignorant do you have to be when you think it is a good idea to climb up onto a national memorial and take a selfie for your FB feed. And one last thing, please.....If you are in a crowded touristy area, don't light up a stinking Marlboro red!
This shit pisses me off! Show some respect for yourself and your own country!
Friday, August 16, 2013
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Stories:
Many years ago while at UGA, I had a pretty tight group of dorm mate friends. After our freshman year, we all moved around town but remained close enough friends that we would still hang out on the weekends and special occations. Every 4th of July we would pool our pittances together and a few of us would make the journey up to South Carolina for as many fireworks we could muster to pack into my truck cab to put on our own show in my or another person's backyard. I'm talking about when it comes to a home display, we did a HUGE show. The last year before we all dispersed across the country, the count was three mortar boards with 8 tubes each, around 30k firecrackers which we hung up in the pecan tree branches, hundreds of the saturn rockets, and everyone had at least 10 boxes of roman candles to shoot from my back porch at Gumbo as he and I set off each bank.
So, after a afternoon/night of..... many PBRs, smoking out the neighborhood, and terrorizing every single squirrel within range of the roman candles the party started to wind down. Neal, Amelia, and I took the ones that had partied a little too hard back to their homes and came back to the house to clean. It was around 2 in the morning when everything had been cleaned. Myself, was still drunk, and in my infinite wisdom thought that it would be a great idea to not keep the leftover fireworks and instead light the last string of 500 blackcats out in the street. Amelia and I went out into the road next to the house to see if anyone was still around. I lit the fuse... Just as the sparks started to fly, then around the corner comes one of ACPDs finest.
The first firecracker goes off just as his car pulled up in front of our driveway. I remember seeing the first explosion throw up the whole string and loop it on the front of his bumper brush guard. As we stood there in the gravel of my driveway, I could see the cop's face each and every time one went off. The shredded paper was spraying all over the ground, the lawn, and on the hood of the cruiser. The blue lights from the bar on top made it strangely pretty as the smoke wafted in the night air. As the last pop went off, the cop rolled down his window and gives the two of us this look. Like a, you can't be that stupid, look.
Cop: What are you doing?
Me: We had some leftover fireworks from a party and wanted to get rid of them.
Cop: Do you realize what time it is? People are sleeping.
Me: Yeah, I knew I was in trouble as soon as you came around the corner.
Amelia: We could of run.
Me: We live right there!
The cop at that moment started laughing and asks if that was all we were going to shoot and tells us to get to sleep.
That was the last time I ever set off fireworks in a city limits.
So, after a afternoon/night of..... many PBRs, smoking out the neighborhood, and terrorizing every single squirrel within range of the roman candles the party started to wind down. Neal, Amelia, and I took the ones that had partied a little too hard back to their homes and came back to the house to clean. It was around 2 in the morning when everything had been cleaned. Myself, was still drunk, and in my infinite wisdom thought that it would be a great idea to not keep the leftover fireworks and instead light the last string of 500 blackcats out in the street. Amelia and I went out into the road next to the house to see if anyone was still around. I lit the fuse... Just as the sparks started to fly, then around the corner comes one of ACPDs finest.
The first firecracker goes off just as his car pulled up in front of our driveway. I remember seeing the first explosion throw up the whole string and loop it on the front of his bumper brush guard. As we stood there in the gravel of my driveway, I could see the cop's face each and every time one went off. The shredded paper was spraying all over the ground, the lawn, and on the hood of the cruiser. The blue lights from the bar on top made it strangely pretty as the smoke wafted in the night air. As the last pop went off, the cop rolled down his window and gives the two of us this look. Like a, you can't be that stupid, look.
Cop: What are you doing?
Me: We had some leftover fireworks from a party and wanted to get rid of them.
Cop: Do you realize what time it is? People are sleeping.
Me: Yeah, I knew I was in trouble as soon as you came around the corner.
Amelia: We could of run.
Me: We live right there!
The cop at that moment started laughing and asks if that was all we were going to shoot and tells us to get to sleep.
That was the last time I ever set off fireworks in a city limits.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
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