Is our world turning into a Planet of Vegans?

Planet of Vegans
Thai Peanut Noodles
Ingredients: Whole Wheat Noodles, Scrambled Tofu, Purple Cabbage, Broccoli, Carrots, Organic Peanut Butter, Bragg's Tamari Sauce, Sesame Oil, Cayenne, Sea Salt, Onion, and Garlic.

Prepared by Chef Cod of the Olive Tree Kitchen
6713 New Hampshire Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
202-413-5969

Free photo paper and 4x5 film holders

Dismantling a Polaroid copy stand bellows

Lapis Lazuli under long wave ultraviolet light

Lapis Lazuli under daylight balanced light

Lapis Lazuli under long wave ultraviolet light

A video showing the lapis lazuli under daylight balanced light and long wave ultraviolet light.

Calculators are great tools, but they don't turn us into math geniuses.

This is the point that I have been trying to make about technology and education for YEARS:

The authors explain it this way: Calculators are great tools, but they don't turn us into math geniuses. They don't expand our brain's natural limits. Neither do Facebook or Twitter.

See article at:

Social networking 'utopia' isn't coming

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/06/27/limits.social.networking.taylor/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

Preparing for the Mongol Rally 2011

John and I are participating in the Mongol Rally for charity.

July 23rd to August 30th, we will be driving a 1 L Nissan Micra from England to Mongolia.

Planned countries to be visited include: England, France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Russia (again), and Mongolia.

The name of the team is Doha, GC, for Doha Garden City.

Disabled/Hadicap Person's table in library

How is a person with a disability such as being confined to a wheelchair or afflicted with cerebral palsy suppose to use this table, if two heavy wooden chairs are pushed into it and there is a hand crank to move the table up and down?

The table is for persons with a disability such as wheelchair users. It has a hand crank so that the legs can be manually lowered to the disabled persons height in the wheelchair.

7 Day or Novena Candles

I did more research on the religious candles that I bought at Target and I came up with these links and information.

Here is the Candle company that makes the candles that I bought:

Continental Candle Company

Here is a link to another candle resource:

Hoodoo, Santeria, Catholic, and Mayan Votive Candles

Here is a link to novena.

How to Percolate

Religious candles at Target

I have always been fascinated by these types of religious candles.

Growing up Roman Catholic in Arlington, VA in the 1970's and 1980's, this was not part of my Catholic identity.

It appears that these candles are part of the ethnic Catholic community, especially the Hispanic Catholic community. The back of the candle had Catholic prayers in both English and Spanish.

As Catholic ethnic communities grow in Northern Virginia, their members' ideofacts have become more prevalent in local stores.

I found these candles in a Target in Alexandria, Virginia.

God or the World keeps reminding me that I should have visited Amsterdam when I had the chance in 2005.

Back in 2005 when I was moving from the US to Qatar, I took KLM airlines which gave me an 18 hour layover at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

I should have left the first-class lounge and taken a day trip to Amsterdam.

The problem was that I was carrying my carry-on bag and my computer.

I never asked if I could keep my bags in the first-class lounge.

I also saw that the airport had lockers, but I didn't have any Euro's to use for the lockers and I didn't think to exchange US dollars for Euro's.

Anyways, I was exhausted from the weeks leading up to the move, so I decided to sleep in the first-class lounge.

I have regretted ever since not getting out of the airport and taking a day trip. The airport even had services that would allow you to take day trips from the airport.

Every once in a while, something, like this receipt, for book recommendations from Barnes and Noble, comes up to remind me that I missed out on a side trip to Amsterdam.

If I was to plan a trip there now, it would be expensive, but I definitely want to see Amsterdam at some point in my life.

For now, I just have God or the World to remind me that I once had the chance.

If you can't teach, then show video?

One professor consistently checks out the same videos every semester for his classes.

Hopefully, he is not just showing videos in class instead of teaching/lecturing.

Here is a group of them after he returned some of them one day.

Icelandair plane ticket ordeal

I booked my tickets to London for the Mongol Rally on Icelandair. They were the cheapest flight and allowed me a stopover in Iceland. But now I know why they were the cheapest flight.

My initial flight had me flying from Dulles arriving at LaGuardia at 11:55AM and flying out of JFK at 2:05PM.

That is ridiculous.

There is no way that I would have made that second flight at JFK.

Two hours and ten minutes to get my bags from the domestic flight, get from LaGuardia to JFK, check my bags at the international terminal at JFK, go through security, and make my flight to Iceland.

No way.

I called Icelandair's "customer service" phone number.

The first "customer service" representative that I talked to blamed me for not seeing the "change of airports required" on the reservation. CHANGE AIRPORTS???

Here is the line that I was suppose to see on the entire reservation page.

It was smaller than this and this is small:

Change of airport required. Time between flights = 2:10.

Don't confuse it with:

Change of plane required. Time between flights = 4:35.

The "customer service" representative told me that I should have read it before I confirmed the reservation.

Read to change airports???

What airline does that?

Apparently ICELANDAIR.

Apparently, according to the "customer service" representative the airline code states that that 2 hours is the minimum allowable time to get from airport to airport that an airline can make a booking with. Apparently, no one from Icelandair has ever tried to get from La Guardia to JFK with luggage. That is just crazy.

I told the first "customer service" representative that I would call back after she told me that she would hold my "options" for one hour and 30 minutes.

She gave me two options: (1) take an earlier flight or (2) take a later flight.

Option (1): Take an earlier flight that STILL flew into into LaGuardia. If I took that option, I would STILL have to make my way to JFK in NY traffic AND pay an additional cost of a taxi or shuttle.
Option (2): Take a later flight and arrive the next day in Iceland. This is after I just made non-cancel-able hotel reservations for the night of July 18th. If I took that option I would have to pay for a hotel night where I did not stay at the hotel at $125 a night and they would probably cancel my hotel reservation when I didn't show up until the next morning, so I would also pay a cancellation fee.

I hung up the phone called my sister and my father to vent my frustration. I was mad at myself for not reading the fine print AND I was mad at Icelandair for creating a booking with such stupid connecting flights and then calling it policy.

When I called back after a few minutes, another "customer service" representative could sense that I was not happy.

I asked what would happen if I cancelled the flight from Dulles to La Guardia and made another flight from Reagan National or Dulles to JFK with another airline. The "customer service" representative said I could not partially cancel a ticket. I could FULLY cancel a ticket, but then I would only get a refund of half the ticket price. HECK NO!

She asked me what I wanted to do.

I told her what I wanted to do was fly from DC to Iceland without having to change airports. I would be willing to fly from DC to JFK and then fly out of JFK, but I didn't want to fly from DC to La Guardi, then CHANGE AIRPORTS and fly out of JFK to Iceland.

After putting me on hold for what seemed like a long time, the "customer service" respresntative can back with an earlier flight that left Dules and flies into JFK with JetBlue, then flies Icelandair (I guess) to Iceland. The whole problem appears to dela with the use of multiple domestic airlines by Icelandair that fly to different airports.

You would think they could find a flight that flew from DC (either regan National or Dulles) to JFK. There are probably a hundred flights a day that fly that route.

Finally, this "customer service" representative changed it so that I am now going through to JFK. Dulles to JFK, JFK to Reykjavik, Reykjavik to London. With a three night stopover in Reykjavik.

All is OK now but I was livid.

So before you leave this blog post, don't forget to read this on the page, it is very important:

Change of airport required. Time between flights = 2:10.

What it should have been on the page was:

Change of airport required. Time between flights = 2:10.
YEAH, WE SAID AIRPORT!!!

Bug(s) in the office

My entire department had to be fumigated today. We were able to get rid of all the bugs, except one.

Even swatting it with a rolled newspaper had no effect.

Space age mobile on stand

Another find at the Arlington, VA Civitan's monthly flea market.

Liquid Water Enhancer

Drinking regular water is dull (and flavorless), therefore grocery stores are selling liquid water enhancer.

Now, in order to drink water, people feel the need to "enhance" it so that it tastes less like water???

Get out of church, run you over in the parking lot

Gas-guzzling SUV parked in a non-space in the parking lot of the Catholic Church, so that the occupants can be closer to the church even though there were plenty of other spaces further away from the church; also, blocking in the people who have parked in the handicap spaces.