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lunar orbit rendezvous The other day when I was visiting with my parents, I tried to explain to my six year old niece where I had been on my vacation. To help her understand I pointed out on a globe where Milwaukee was located and moved my finger over the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. She didn't seem to be that interested in what I was showing her. Instead of listening to me, she wanted to spin the globe. Sigh. Of course I have no idea what my mental image of the world was like when I was six. In fact I vaguely remember that I thought that when someone went somewhere all of the scenery was changed just like they do in a play. Let me explain. When I would fall asleep the car would be placed on a treadmill next to a scrolling screen while people changed things in the background. Then when I woke up it would appear as though I were somewhere else when in "reality" everything around me had been changed. Obviously the logic behind that idea is incredibly flawed, but I was just a child at the time so it made sense to me. Part of me wonders if I saw something like that on television or if it was something that I made up myself. I have no idea anymore. ... Confession time. I downloaded some Shakira songs the other day from a Russian web site and surprisingly liked them. Somehow that struck me as funny. By funny I mean the idea of getting songs by a Colombian singer from a Russian site and not the fact that I liked them. Foreign singers or people who speak English as a second language always fascinate me. They do some interesting things with inflection and syntax. Quite honestly I have yet to really listen to her lyrics because I am so caught up in the way that she pronounces some of the words in her songs. Then for some odd reason there are times when her accent makes me think of Elvis. Yes, I am strange. ... Lonely Planet says to stay away from Colombia and I am inclined to believe them. Murderous drug cartels are usually the first thing that comes to my mind when someone mentions the country of Colombia and I don't need to experience that firsthand. Shakira would be a distant second when it comes to thoughts about Colombia. Maybe that will change in a few years, but I doubt it. ... Before I went to work last night I got drawn into a two hour episode of Nova devoted to the early days of the American space program. Some of the footage I had seen before, but there were other parts that were completely new to me. Listening to Pete Conrad, Gene Cernan and James Lovell talk about what they did was the best part of the program. It seems odd to think that no one has been to moon in thirty years and as some of them said in the program we probably won't see anyone go back in the next thirty years. ... Somewhat cautiously I turned off the air at my place. I wasn't sure if it had cooled off enough to rely on a breeze to keep cool. Thankfully there was enough air movement in the house. It was good to open the windows again. Cool air is nice, but fresh air is even better. As I ate breakfast this morning after work I watched the episode of Globe Trekker that I had taped Tuesday night. Justine was in Central America exploring Mayan ruins and she almost convinced me to go there. I still have my doubts though because people tend to act on their best behavior when there is a camera around. Plus some of the people that she spoke with had less pleasant things to say about that part of the world. For me Belize seemed to be the least frightening of the places that she showed us. At the very end of the program there was a short segment about world markets and Riga appeared on the screen. Suddenly as the old Zeppelin hangars appeared I started shouting at the television, I was there, I was there and I had been there less than three weeks ago. I clearly remember accidentally wandering through the market that Ian showed us and then standing alongside the river at four in the morning waiting for a bus to take us to Lithuania. ... Late this evening I found out that The New Yorker liked the film Minority Report. I agree with most of the review, but some of the tongue in cheek stuff about the cars of the future started to wear on me. They didn't impress me either, but I doubt that I would have compared them to a hair dryer. Actually they look as though they were borrowed from the now defunct late night cheesecake science fiction program Cleopatra 2525.
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