WikiTravel.org as a source of humor

Since I enjoy travel and reading I matched them up at wikitravel.org. I've spent a good number of hours perusing the anecdotes and tips that they offer. Some of them elicit a response but it would be rude for me to add my notes inline so I will do it here.

In the spirit of quoting them and their Creative Commons Sharealike license I release this post under the same license. or whatever.

Here's the way this will work. I'll quote them. then I respond. Try to keep up and I want to remind you in advance: this is it folks, I don't dance.

*A common belief in Iceland is the hidden people, such as Elves or Dwarves who live in rocks and caves. Their road workers often avoid large rocks as to not upset the inhabitants. Approx 80-90% of Icelanders believe in the hidden people, and many have seen them. There is even a museum in Reykyavik devoted to the hidden people.
**Peggy Hill is collecting them. They have names like winklebottom. they have left your cold conditions and moved to more inhabitable continents. Perhaps you should consider following suit.

*However, low traffic in areas outside Reykjavik makes hitchhiking in Iceland an endurance sport.
**Just ha!

*Hitchhiking into the interior is tough, but everything works if you have enough time - calculating in days, not in hours. For longer distances or less touristic areas be prepared with some food, water and a tent or similar. The weather can be awful and sometimes spoils the fun of this way of traveling.
**Reminder: this is freaking ICEland. Ya think they brought that name out of a hat? No, Einstein. where we would marvel at the Mississippi river (ol' miss, deeeeeep river) they might enjoy staring at so and so glacier. Yes, GLACIER. camp on that, boy scout!

Did you know the Bahamas are just east of north carolina? According to my wall atlas the distance would be less than the drive from Memphis, TN to Pittsburgh, PA. But ya know what, that's a small bit of island to find. 20 square miles. Pretty much out in the middle of no freaking where. You run out of gas before you find it, you die. Ah paradise islands. We should equip more people with boats.

I'm a bastard like that

So I just finished up a pretty droll email to some coworkers regarding statistics to a website I kind of help keep up with. For some reason I was feeling all "USA Today!" and made some charts and very little text other than what was necessary to convey the main points.

Being a bit of a bastard, I included this gem:

Currently 33% of our users are using some version of Internet Explorer and 16% use firefox. The other 51% are chinese hackers decoding the ones and zeros in real time.

The Golden Compass review from a bystander

I finally watched The Golden Compass. I still couldn't put it together with a god theory. I have my own version of what's going on inside my head (the grand scale) and it just doesn't jive with my figures to go replacing the magisterium with the church and whatever whatever. I just like the story the way I understand it.

The movie is excellent. The only problem I had is that when I bought and listened to the audio books, it was all in a row. I have no idea where one story stops and the other ends. So while I was expecting the story to take a very interesting turn credits rolled. no biggie, I'll just listen to the books again while I wait for the next movie.

I realized very quickly in the movie that while listening to the books I never put a face on Lyra. I guess she was just "nondescript little girl" since there was very little in the book that described her other than her hair during the brushing and some mentions of tomboyism. What interests me is that not only did I not put a face on the main character, I didn't even realize I did that. The only other novel I recall doing that with is Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Luckily I enjoyed The Golden Compass unlike the more dour counterpart, Crime and Punishment.

so in short...
Forget all that god nonsense about this movie and book. Just go by my original description of the book and you'll be fine.

It's Huck Finn, it's Harry Potter, it's Lord of the Rings. It's every little boy's adventure. But surprise, it's a girl!

Baiting scammers for fun and profit

So here's how a scammer begins their attack, in case you've been wondering. You'll note that I twart all efforts as I've grown rather jaded with baiting scammers. But this is what you can look for if you want to get into the hobby of baiting scammers for fun and profit.

This particular instance is brought to you by the good people at myspace and their myspace im but I've had similar conversations on Yahoo messenger as well. For some reason the scammers have left me alone on my icq, aim, and other messenger protocols. Yahoo messenger and chat is especially easy to find a scammer of one sort or another. Some offer multiple scams so you really get your money's worth.


Conversation with peggyarmstrong on 2/14/2008 11:27:57 AM:
(11:27:57 AM) peggyarmstrong: hi
(11:28:00 AM) peggyarmstrong:how are u today
(11:28:04 AM) peggyarmstrong:asl pls
(11:28:42 AM) johncub: I agree, asl. After Sex, Leave
(11:29:43 AM) peggyarmstrong:what do u mean
(11:30:12 AM) johncub: asl (After Sex Leave)
(11:30:16 AM) johncub: see, it's an old guy joke
(11:30:23 AM) johncub: and as I'm an old guy I think its funny
(11:30:36 AM) peggyarmstrong:]yes
(11:30:40 AM) peggyarmstrong:it is funny
(11:30:47 AM) peggyarmstrong:sdo how is family
(11:30:56 AM) johncub: good, how is the scamming business?
(11:31:26 AM) peggyarmstrong:what do u mean by scamming bussines
(11:31:45 AM) johncub: it's a theory I have.
(11:37:33 AM) peggyarmstrong: pls
(11:37:45 AM) peggyarmstrong: u can mail me at peggyarmstrong_22@uymail.com
(11:37:51 AM) peggyarmstrong: bye and take care

== end transmission
In case you care, this particular's myspace page is here. Anyone want to take bets on the sex being a male and him not looking nearly that pretty?