meanwhile, back in america

the jeff gannon story, or non-story given the lack of media coverage:

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=65&contentid=1941

it's mostly smoke, undoubtedly, but it seems like an awful lot of smoke. leftist, as opposed to liberal, ie. mainstream, media are having a field day with this one, hoisting various self-proclaimed christian media watchdogs with the petard of hypocrisy, given their propensity to work themselves to a lather over issues like the supposed gayness of cartoon characters such as Sponge Bob and Buster Bunny.

incidentally, i've tried numerous ways of putting in a clickable link to the web page i referenced, but none of them worked. :(

on an unrelated topic, audrey on the apprentice coined a new word when she decribed another contestant's remarks as demeaningful. that's not quite as comic as the earlier occasion when brian stated, "You gotta be tough in business or you'll be cut by the juggler," but brian was probably one of a kind.

trip report

resuming the blog after a vacation hiatus with a sentence fragment. for ease of composition & comprehension, i may break up my report into sections, in which case this will be the first of several parts.

this latest vacation was my most ambitious yet, involving two main destinations, pohnpei in micronesia and tokyo, japan, plus a brief side visit in the vicinity of nara, japan, over roughly two weeks. considering all the logistics, the trip went amazingly smoothly. for the long flights between LAX & narita, japan, we managed to get bulkhead and exit row seating, meaning 1st class legroom in economy class, thanks to singapore airlines' online checkin. singapore air's meals were xlnt by economy standards, their inflight entertainment was better than ever--dozens of films and around 100 cds to choose from--and they provided a great beverage selection, from which we sampled the non-alcoholic fruit spritzer, and the spiked singapore sling that tasted just like punch. weather was fine, as well, except for intermittent rain on one day in pohnpei; in particular, japan was much milder than i expected it to be; and as my constant reader, FG knows, i coincidentally missed some stormy weather back home in southern calif. we also had good to xlnt food basically every day of the trip.

the biggest surprise of the trip was our 2 stopovers in guam. people seemed genuinely friendly there, and from what we picked up in conversation with them, it appears guam has way lower cost of living and housing than hawaii, the other US tropical paradise. given our propensity for travel, and guam's relative closeness and ease of access to numerous Pacific rim destinations, such as australia, indonesia, hong kong, and japan, we're seriously considering guam as our retirement, or even relocation, destination. the only drawback, and it is a significant one, is the frequency & intensity of typhoons there.

the other big surprise was snorkeling. i had tried this with little success in two earlier trips to jamaica and australia, but gave it another shot in pohnpei, given that it's one of the main recreational activities there. i had some difficulty the first time in keeping water out of my snorkel, but i got the knack, or else a better snorkel, the next time, and had great views of numerous tropical fish & corral. i even managed to tread water at one point. the remarkable aspect to all this is that i'm basically a non-swimmer, but i will be a swimmer by the next time we visit a tropical destination. oh btw, another attraction of guam is the presence of reefs; it may not be a renowned snorkeling/diving spot, but it should suffice between trips to the spots in nearby micronesia.

this does it for part 1. part 2 to follow as time permits.

word for the lexically inclined

floccinaucinihilipilification

far be it from me to spoil the reader's pleasure by providing a definition. but if you need a hint, it's something i tend to do.

taxation

Scraping the bottom of the barrel of topics, I found something amusing in filing my tax return. I've used TurboTax for years. One of its idiosyncracies is a rebate that covers the cost of eFiling the federal return--idiosyncratic, to the extent they make you pay first, then get a rebate for the same amount, instead of the more efficient alternative of simply letting you file one return for free, but perhaps it's an IRS requirement, which wouldn't surprise me too much, given that government agencies are not always characterized by efficiency. (to give an actual example of IRS inefficiency, I watched a cable show yesterday that detailed the Mustang Ranch fiasco, when the IRS seized a legal Nevada brothel and tried to first sell it, then tried running it, and finally sold it for less than it could have collected in the first place by settling with the original owner, who turned out to be a silent partner with the firm that wound up buying it at about 1/4 the price the IRS originally wanted.)

this year, Intuit, the firm that manufactures TurboTax, streamlined the rebate process a bit by providing an online rebate form, which you fill out online, but then need to print it and mail it rather than merely submitting it online--another IRS requirement perhaps? Anyway, I'm about to print the form, and the second line of the form says, in bold type: "Print this page prior to mailing." Maybe the IRS required it, to prevent people mailing in an envelope with nothing in it?

quitting while ahead quizwise

I am 3% Idiot.

I am not annoying at all. In fact most people come to me for advice. Of course they annoy the hell out of me. But what can I do? I am smarter than most people.

Take the
Idiot Test
@ FualiDotCom

I am 24% Asshole/Bitch.

I am not an asshole or a bitch, more like an asshole and bitch target. I have no backbone, and fold at even a slightly insincere look. I need to stop crying, I am such a wuss.

Take the
Asshole/Bitch Test
@ FualiDotCom