Tourist-ing

With my aunt in town for the weekend, we finally did some more exploring of our city.

First, we took in the war memorial, which reaffirmed my fascination with wartime propaganda posters. My favorite, which I haven't been able to find online, suggested that by walking, those on the home front could help the war effort (presumably by using less gas). "Walking is a healthy and patriotic recreation." I should also say that the war memorial itself was very impressive.

Next, we headed to the new central library, which is competitive with Seattle for kickass downtown libraries. Apparently, it was a long time coming, but for us new residents, it was certainly worth the wait (um, we didn't have to wait). A three part blogged review of the renovation can be found here, here, and here.

Our last tourist destination (if you don't count The Flying Cupcake) was the zoo. Of the three, I only managed to remember my camera for the zoo trip, hence the pictures of animals. There was a nice variety of animals and it was easy to get around. One difference we noted from the Seattle zoo was how much more kid oriented it is...perhaps we are realizing that couples like us (no kids, like zoos) are easier to find in Seattle.

We have a lot more on our tourist to do list...we need to go inside the art museum for one, and I want to check out the WWII home front exhibit at the Indiana Historical Society.

Barack Obama Calypso Style

This song is by 73-year-old Calypso superstar Mighty Sparrow. It starts off pretty ridiculous, but if you stick with it there is some clever wordplay. Calypso rules! Originally culled from this article on Salon.

Elevate

I work on the 11th floor...which means that I have to ride the elevator several times a day. I've discovered that I don't like riding the elevator. I don't like 'push the close door button 10 times really fast guy' or 'take the elevator up 1 floor woman.' I find it odd that people you don't know share things with you when you are alone with them (e.g., "I really don't want to go to my kid's performance this weekend").

To honor my daily routine, I thought I'd share some elevator etiquette, courtesy of the state, with you.

• Whether you're entering or exiting, whoever's in front goes first. Move to the back to make room for more people.
• If the car's crowded, ask someone to push the button for your floor.
• Keep elevator conversations to simple greetings and comments. And don't talk business unless you and your co-worker are alone between floors.
• Put your cell-phone calls on hold until you get to your floor.
• Resist the urge to preen in the mirror.
• Wait until people get off the elevator before trying to get on to the elevator.
• If the elevator door is closing, do not put you hand in the door to stop it, wait for the next elevator.
• Do not keep pushing the elevator call button once it is pushed. The elevator will not arrive faster.
• If the elevator is full, wait for the next elevator.
• If your floor will be the last to be reached step to the back of the elevator cab.

All this elevator talk gives me the opportunity to post perhaps my favorite Sesame Street sketch.

Walk the Walk

During a slow day at work (hmmm...not sure which days aren't slow), I spent some time on this website. It calculates the walkability of your address.

Here are ratings for our recent residences:

Indy house: 71, very walkable
West Seattle house: 35, car dependent
Fre-lard apartment: 65, somewhat walkable
Columbus apartment: 43, car dependent
Feeling Fine on Vine: 62, somewhat walkable

Even though Indianapolis only made 37 on their top 40 of walkable cities, we ended up with a high walk score for our house. We can walk to some pretty kickass places (exhibits A, B, C, D, E). I must complain that the city of Indianapolis in general is lacking sidewalks in key pedestrian areas.

If you haven't yet discovered walking, you can check my aunt's blog here. Walking rocks! Just ask Ramona.

In other news, Americans are obese. Indiana ranks 9th in obesity with 26.8% obese and 62.5% overweight! Yikes!

They Might Be Giants...

Ben Davis Giants, that is! This morning I had an interview at Ben Davis High School for a 10th & 11th grade English teaching position. I must have been a little more Josh Hamilton and a little less Dan Uggla in the interview, because they called me two hours later and offered me the position! This is not only a huge load off of my mind because I finally found work, I'm also excited because it's an ideal job. If I could have picked any job, I don't think I could have done any better than this one. They even have an open assistant speech coaching position that the principal is pretty sure I can walk straight into, so it keeps getting better and better. Furthermore, I'll get a bit of a pay bump, which, combined with the lower cost of living in Indianapolis, means I can have a porterhouse steak three meals a day for my board--that's more than any loafer in this town can afford!

Now the trick is to ease back into the "having a job mindset." Luckily, my first day is still three weeks away!

Soviet Metal

This was first brought to my attention by Stallings, and I think everyone should probably watch it. It somehow starts off pretty cool, and then just keeps getting more and more awesome.

http://www.vimeo.com/1223566

Back From Exile...

Andy here, glad to be back in the blogosphere, and more importantly, glad to be back home. I last slept in my own bed on Tuesday, July 1. I was kicked out for Elizabeth's girl-gathering, then I was in Florida for a very fun week with my parents. Now that I'm back home, there is a lot to do. The lawn, for example, is in dire need of mowing. I bring this up really as an excuse to use the picture to the right.

In other news, I don't think it has been reported here yet that Kerns, Narwold, and I have decided to start a band. Last weekend Narwold and I got together and recorded our only five original songs, and he has made them available to everyone on the band's newly created myspace page. It should be noted that Kerns plays the drums, so the drum work on the tracks Narwold and I layed down is a drum machine (due to our lack of kerns/a drum kit). Check it out if you dare: Manjohn!

A Boat that Rocks

Update on Schooner (the fantastic indie rock band that played our wedding).

They've announced some shows! So far no Midwest dates, but those are expected in the fall. Check here for updates. Even if they are not coming to your town, they will be playing live around 4 pm this Sunday (the 13th) on WXDU out of Durham, NC.


August 6: Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD w/ Regina Hexaphone
August 7: Manhattan Room in Philadelphia, PA w/ RH
August 8: Piano's in NY, NY w/ RH
August 9: Pete's Candy Shop in Brooklyn, NY w/ RH
August 10: Galaxy Hut in Arlington, VA w/ RH
August 15: Lump Gallery benefit in Raleigh, NC w/ the Loners
August 21: Tir Na Nog in Raleigh, NC w/ RH
August 22: Soapbox in Wilmington, NC w/ RH
Sept. 26: Rocketclub in Asheville, NC w/ RH
Sept. 27: Wonderroot in Atlanta, GA w/ RH

Half Staff

A tip from a friend led me to this article about a man retiring rather than lowering the flag in honor of Jesse Helms. In case you didn't know, Jesse Helmes was a 5-term senator from my home state, and he was a bad guy.

From The Onion: August 29-September 4, 2001

Brunch in Indy

This past weekend I celebrated America's independence by kicking Andy out of the house and spending the weekend with three of my closest girl friends (all of whom I've known for about 15 years or more). We had a fantastic time. Through the course of this three day weekend, we visited all three of my favorite brunch spots in Indy. Since I managed to visit all three in such a short time, I thought I'd rank them.

3. Hoaglin to Go: The newest addition to my brunch favorites, this one has the potential to move up in the standings. The omelette was exceptional.

2. Taste: Super fresh ingredients and amazingly taste-y food. Plus, they sell my favorite kind of sweet chili sauce!

1. Petit Chou: The Broad Ripple location of the Patachou restaurants. This one wins for the following reasons: 1) it has tasty crepes and omelettes, 2) it's an easy walk from our house, and 3) the cinnamon toast!

Technological Irony 1, American Family Association 0

Tyson Gay is fast, American, and unfortunately named according to the AFA.

I found this nice article about a right wing Christian group that uses auto-replace to change certain words in news stories they post. This poses an obvious journalistic ethics problem for a variety of reasons, but this time it was offensive and funny. For whatever reason, they don't like the word gay, so they always replace it with 'homosexual.' That ends up being very bad for anyone who makes the news and happens to have the last name Gay. Right Wing Watch reports.