Japanese Tradmill

Run Forrest Run!

How Great is Texas?

HOW GREAT IS TEXAS ??!!!
 
    Here is a list of actual places to travel in Texas .
 

    Need to be cheered up?
 
    1. Happy, Texas 79042
    2. Pep, Texas 79353
    3. Smiley, Texas 78159
    4. Paradise, Texas 76073
    5. Rainbow, Texas 76077
    6. Sweet Home, Texas 77987
    7. Comfort, Texas 78013
    8. Friendship, Texas 76530
 
    Love the Sun?
 
    1. Sun City, Texas 78628
    2. Sunrise, Texas 76661
    3. Sunset, Texas 76270
    4. Sundown, Texas 79372
    5. Sunray, Texas 79086
    6. Sunny Side , Texas 77423
 
    Want something to eat?
 
    1 Bacon, Texas 76301
    2. Noodle, Texas 79536
    3. Oatmeal, Texas 78605
    4. Turkey, Texas 79261
    5. Trout, Texas 75789
    6. Sugar Land, Texas 77479
    7. Salty, Texas 76567
    8. Rice, Texas 75155
    And top it off with:
    9. Sweetwater , Texas 79556
 
    Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!
 
    1. Detroit, Texas 75436
    2. Colorado City, Texas 79512
    3. Denver City, Texas 79323
    4. Nevada, Texas 75173
    5. Memphis, Texas 79245
    6. Miami, Texas 79059
    7. Boston, Texas 75570
    8. Santa Fe, Texas 77517
    9. Tennessee Colony , Texas 75861
    10.Reno, Texas 75462
 
    Feel like traveling outside the country?
    Don't bother buying a plane ticket!
 
    1. Athens, Texas 75751
    2. Canadian, Texas 79014
    3. China, Texas 77613
    4. Egypt, Texas 77436
    5. Turkey, Texas 79261
    6. London, Texas 76854
    7. New London, Texas 75682
    8. Palestine, Texas 75801
    9. Paris, Texas 7546
    10. Nazareth, Texas
    11. Scotland, Texas
    12. Iran, Texas
    13. Dublin, Texas
 
    No need to travel to Washington D.C.
 
    Whitehouse, Texas 75791
 
    We even have a city named after our planet!
 
    Earth, Texas 79031
 
    And a city named after our State!
 
    Texas City, Texas 77590
 
    Exhausted?
 
    Energy, Texas 76452
 
    Cold?
 
    1. Blanket, Texas 76432
    2. Winters, Texas 79567
 
    Like to read about History?
 
    1. Santa Anna, Texas 76878
    2. Goliad, Texas 77963
    3. Alamo, Texas 78516
    4. Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147
 
    Need Office Supplies?
 
    Staples, Texas 78670
 
    Men are from Mars, women are from
 
    Venus, Texas 76084
 
    You guessed it * it's on the state line ...
 
    Texline, Texas 79087
 
    For the kids...
 
    1. Kermit, Texas 79745
    2. Elmo, Texas 75118
    3. Nemo, Texas 76070
    4. Tarzan, Texas 79783
    5. Winnie, Texas 77665
    6. Sylvester, Texas 79560
 
    Other city names in Texas , to make you smile..... :
 
    1. Frognot, Texas 75424
    2. Bigfoot, Texas 78005
    3. Hogeye, Texas 75423
    4. Cactus, Texas 79013
    5. Notrees, Texas 79759
    6. Best, Texas 76932
    7. Veribest, Texas 76886
    8. Kickapoo, Texas 75763
    9. Dime Box, Texas
    10.Telephone, Texas 75488
    11.Telegraph, Texas 76883
    12.Whiteface, Texas 79379
    13.Twitty, Texas 79079
 
    And last but not least* The Anti-Al Gore City
 
    Kilgore, Texas 75662
 
    Have a Good Day!
    P.S. Whoops, left out
 
    Muleshoe, Texas 79347
    Cut n Shoot, Texas 77303
    Hoop And Holler,
    Ding Dong,
    Clyde
    and don't forget......
    Farewell , Texas 79325

Shoot an Iraqi in Real Time

Most of the time I forward crude jokes or funny pictures but in this case I thought you may find this political art project of interest.  This Iraqi performance artist has a bedroom setup with a paintball gun attached to the internet where anonymous people can shoot at him.  The political and social subtext is not very subtle but still very effective.  Checkout the Chicago Tribune slideshow for commentary from the artist, Wafaa Bilal, himself. 

http://gridskipper.com/travel/chicago/shoot-an-iraqi-in-real-time-259733.php

Compelling food for thought as you head into the weekend.....
Be safe

- A

Sawadee from Thailand!

It's been a while and a lot has happened! Here's a vid from my new year's trip to Thailand with my MBA class. Good time and great memories.....

South Beach Video

A video I put together of our labor day weekend (Sept 1 - 4) trip to South Beach (a.k.a. SoBe)

Austin City Limits Recap

Well ACL is over and done with and it was tiring as all hell but was still a blast. This year they did a much better job of containing the dust bowl effect of last year. This is a good thing. This prevented the whole black stuff coming out of my nose and ears. Yuck. Apparently they installed a sprinkler system and planted more grass this year which helped keep the dirrrrty dirt where it belongs.

The one thing they really need to improve for next year is the damn food court. There was never a time when the line for food wasn't 50 people deep. On top of that they were constantly running out of food (or they didn't have what you wanted- hey I wanted a slice of pizza not a microwaved pizza roll!). If they had more than one food court, that would probably help the situation, but what do I know about controlling 60,000 people?

Anyway, enough whining, a little recap:

Gnarls Barkley: Unfortunately they didn't live up to my high expectations. I wanted to be blown away but I wasn't. It may have been the heat (they played at 4:30PM on Friday) or it may have been the crowd (obviously most of them were there to hear them play "that Crazy song"), but whatever it was, it wasn't as high energy as I wanted it to be. They were very good live and even played some obscure cover songs (one 80's song and one Doors track). I liked Storm Coming the best.

Thievery Corporation: Easy one of the best performances of the festival. I think they increased their fan base by an order of magnitude based on their performance. Being on a bigger stage this year surely helped but they sounded better this year for some reason. I think the crowd really dug their international fusion vibe that mixed reggae, hip-hop, South-Asian, and vocals. Tres cool.

Massive Attack: Another one of my personal highlights. They really didn't fit into the "ACL theme" this year since they were one of the only electronic acts on the playbill. Still I was really psyched to see and hear them and they lived up to my massive expectations (pun intended… is that even a pun?). I really liked "Tear Drop" and "Angel" but almost all their songs were amazing. The lighting backdrop was also really cool and fit the ambience of the show perfectly. Opposite to Gnarls, I think Massive was on at exactly the right time of the day (or night as was the case). Great weather and a cool crowd helped as well.

Flaming Lips: Admittedly I knew barely anything about this band. I knew they sang that "Jelly" song but other than that I was clueless. They rocked the house! Starting with a Christmas theme they had a bunch of people (fans obviously) dressed as santas and elves jumping around on the stage. They also fired "snow" on to the crowd. Their energy level was astounding and they were just really positive. An orgy of happiness is how I would describe their show. From the lead singer walking over the crowd in a big plastic bubble (think man in a beach ball) to the way they got the audience involved in singing they were astounding.

Tom Petty: The headliner to the whole festival actually exceeded my expectations. I never thought that Tom Petty would be so sing-along-able but the songs really do lend themselves to just that. "Learning to Fly" was probably my favorite along with "Mary Jane's Last Dance". They didn't play "You Wreck Me", but that's ok since the rest of the show was great. Halfway through it started raining like crazy…. lightening and all! The band, for fear of electrocution (wusses!) took a 45 minute break while the storm blew over. I had wanted it to rain all weekend long since I'd never been to a concert in the rain and figured it would make a good story sometime later in life. It did feel really good after the heat of the weekend and it did change the whole vibe of the crowd (mush of whom left as soon as it started to rain). After the rain stopped they finished their set with American Girl, Refugee and a few other songs. Good stuff!

Now I have Shakira w/ Wyclef this Friday in San Antonio and Rolling Stones next month. Phew! Going to be an active live music fall in Texas!

Cutest Pics ever!

ps. I haven't updated this in a while but I will soon!