John Milito's Amazing Adventures

Next Level Beats

2010-03-04T00:04:00.004-06:00

My friend Seago has introduced me to some interesting music videos. A couple of them are rap videos with the requisite bad language and sexual themes, so don't watch them at work or you will probably have to go to jail for blowing your coworkers' minds. The main theme that strings the following four videos together is that it's hard to tell if the artists are serious.

The first group I present is Die Antwoord, which apparently means "the answer" in Afrikaans (google translate thinks it means "the reply", but whatever. These guys hail from South Africa. I'm not going to try to describe them or compare these people to anything. There's no point.

This video has some dancing in it that I wish I could emulate.

Another video from Die Antwoord.

I pretty sure that Jack Parow here is also South African. He raps while switching between English and Afrikaans, and his way of speaking makes it hard to sometimes tell which is which. His little gimmick is a hat with a cartoonishly long bill. Is he serious? I'll let you decide. He sounds good though.

This is some weird 80's synth pop group called Bronski Beat. I include them only because this song is referenced in the first video I posted by Die Antwoord.

Enjoy.

Beware the Prickly Pear

2010-02-13T18:16:00.006-06:00

I was recently browsing in the produce section of my local Meijer store, and after grabbing the usual grapes and oranges I had a quick peak at the "weird" stuff section. You know, the little area with the odd coconut, pomegranate, or starfruit; the stuff you may have heard of but still don't buy too often. Well they had something I'd never tried before: prickly pears!

I've never even seen these things sold anywhere, so I just jumped right in. Didn't know how they are eaten, or what a good one looks like, so I just started squeezing them and giving them a good looking over. They were 3 for $2, so I did a good amount of fruit moving around. I put the three winners in a provided plastic bag and that was that.

But, these little guys aren't called prickly pears because they used to be prickly. This diabolical plant has two types of spines. The big mean ones are removed by the pear technicians, but there are also very fine, transparent, hairlike spines to deal with. These detach and become embedded in the skin. So after touching countless of the little things, my hands were covered in little bits of pain. It was like having 15 or so splinters at the same time. I definitely looked like someone to avoid, walking around a supermarket, staring intently at my own contorted hands and mumbling painful expressions to myself. I got most of them out, but I'm typing this with a band-aid on one finger. Shouldn't those things have a warning label or something?

Well in case anyone would like have a little taste test at home, if you avoid hurting yourself you've won most of the battle. Peeling and eating the fruit is pretty straightforward.

How to eat a prickly pear:

The culprit. Use a rag or gloves or something while cutting to avoid being poked a bunch by invisible pricklies.

First cut off either end of the fruit to get rid of the stem and other inedibles.

Then make a slight cut towards the center, and simply peel the rind off of the fruit with your hand. It separates easily.

Ta-Da!

The fruit is nice and juicy. There are seeds throughout but they are edible. It has a bit of a watermelon sort of taste.

Prickly pear fun fact: the eagle eating a snake on the flag of Mexico is perched on a prickly pear cactus. The legend is that the Aztecs built their capital city of Tenochtitlan at its location because they were told to look for the eagle by the god Huitzilopochtli(whose name is hereby declared unpronounceable). Tenochtitlan(present day Mexico City) literally means "the place of the cactus fruit" (source here).

Colombian Candy Bars

2010-02-09T21:13:00.005-06:00

While I write a bit more on Colombia, I thought this was worth sharing by itself.

The name of this delicious Nestle treat is Beso de Negra, or "Black Kiss" according to Google Translate. The African American woman pictured blowing a kiss on the wrapper is a bit risque by American standards. I think it's a nice little illustration of how race is treated differently in other countries. The treat is like a chocolate covered marshmallow atop a cookie. The tagline is "delicious chocolate flavor... delicious cookie".

Here is a much more attractively named ripoff of Baby Ruth sold in Colombia: Baby Johnny's!

Rail Line to Machu Picchu Destroyed by Floods

2010-02-03T14:30:00.003-06:00

There aren't a lot of pictures to show of my current adventures, which include job hunting and MBA night classes, but I've still got a few little things up my sleeve.

In the mean time, I've been following the dramatic events in Peru. Haiti is obviously where the world's attention is rightly focused at the moment, but many of the areas I visited just a few months ago have been destroyed by heaving rains and mudslides. The PeruRail line I traveled on from Cusco to Aguas Calientes was damaged to the point that the nearly 1,300 tourists that had come to see Machu Picchu needed to be airlifted out.

As the train is the only way for tourists to get to Machu Picchu aside from mountain hiking, the city of Aguas Calientes is being evacuated of its residents as well. With tourism at zero for the near future, there's no money coming in and no reason to stay.

BBC News reported that "some tourists had to rely on locals for food after cash machines dried up and prices for some goods soared."

An MSNBC blurb on the evacuations.

Moray and My Last Days in Peru

2010-01-04T17:48:00.003-06:00

The latest installment of my month in South America.

I last left off while enjoying the view from the top of Inca ruins in Ollaytantambo. I trod back down the numerous stone stairs and explored a bit more of the city below. The patchwork of souvenir stands looked pretty basic from above with rusted metal coverings exposed to the sky, but on ground level there was some fun stuff to look at.

Its funny because I love markets to death, but I don't ever buy very much. For me, it's the colors and sounds, the fast paced atmosphere, and the people watching that necessitates a trip to the market.

I was very tempted to pick up one of these dancing terrorist clown masks, but I knew there was no possible way I would ever wear it in public.

My least favorite souvenir from the trip. The bites weren't from mosquitoes because whatever it was left an open wound that then scabbed up. Not only did it look awful but it was quite scratchy.

Here I walked into an amusing scene. Someone apparently saw a big fish swimming through some sort of a drainage ditch. A group of locals was very interested in catching this fish, but the little guy was too smart so he stopped swimming while in a part of the ditch that was covered by pavement. With 5-8 people excitedly talking about the fish and holding a bucket or something to catch it in, a little girl threw rocks into the large ditch opening to scare the fish towards the waiting group. It was great entertainment.

Ollantaytambo was the starting point of the most interesting little journey of my time in Peru. If I had been alone, I most definitely would have simply hired a ride from one of the many cabbies constantly harassing me. Angelica's Spanish ability really shined at this point. She asked around and got us a ride on the public transportation of the area, a cramped little van.

This was super cool. Until this point I was in places that, while interesting, were pretty usual places for tourists to go. Here we rode on several little buses and vans to get to our destination, and it really started to feel like an adventure. There were no other tourists around, and a ride cost (if I recall correctly) like 25 cents. I love sort of seeing a small peak in the lives of average people from other places, and this was it.

It was funny, because I had only been out of Japan less than a month. In Japan, I experienced many instances where locals would avoid sitting next to "foreigners" on the train. In Peru it was pretty close to the opposite. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like people I met on my little expedition here had no issue squeezing into the seat next to me. One person on a jam-packed bus was practically sitting on my lap.

One time I will never forget was sitting next to an older man with a worn face. He talked to me in high speed Spanish until the van came to his stop. I understood maybe one out of 50 words that he said, but that didn't seem to bother him. He would pause, I would say something so painfully basic like "Do you live in Cusco?", and he would start back up again, probably giving some philosophical excellent answer to my question. Angelica, who had previously interjected in moments like this, didn't say a word. I'm sure she was laughing to herself.

Our game of musical vans brought us to this little bus station. I bought a Gatorade from a couple of very cute kids running a snack stall. They were very good salesmen.

Many of the sodas sold in Peru still use returnable bottles. These dead soldiers are a couple of my favorites, Fanta and Inca Kola, which is a fruity Peruvian soda.

This Gran Mustafa chocolate covered marshmallow bar is made by the Peruvian candy company Winter's. I think it's interesting that although Colombia and Peru border each other and are both small relative to the US, their candy, beer, and snack selection seemed like it didn't overlap much at all. There were certain industries that felt pretty nationalistic down there, but whether that is due to consumer preference or some sort of government intervention I don't know.

This little ad on the side of an ice cream freezer is a good example. It reads "experience the Peruvian flavor". I think it's interesting because I don't often see these sorts of patriotic appeals in American food advertising.

Our public transporting took us to this little three walled, bus stop in the middle of nowhere, also known as Maras. Here Angelica's bargaining skills were put to the test.

There were only two cars nearby. This really felt like swinging from one vine before we could see the next. What if there hadn't been anyone waiting here to pick people up? My cellphone didn't work, and there was no other evidence of the presence of humanity in sight. And we still got a good price. Baller.

We stopped as the road was engulfed by a funeral procession. Notice many of the women wearing the tall hats. No one in the city wore this sort of dress. An excellent reason to go to the country.

As we drove, the road became more basic, and the scenery more beautiful.

We were forced to a stop by livestock crossing the road several times.

Our destination was Moray, an Inca ruin thought to be an agricultural testing ground. "A series of inscrutable ringed terraces sculpted in the earth, the deep-set bowls formed an experimental agricultural center to test new crops and conditions. The different levels produce microclimates, with remarkable differences in temperature from top to bottom," reads an article in the New York Times.

We walked down into the rings to check things out, although honestly it all looked much cooler from above. I haven't been able to find a reliable reference, but Moray's wikitravel page hypothesizes that the Inca might have used their superior knowledge of seed technology to entice neighbors into peacefully joining the empire. A bit of Inca imperial soft power.

There wasn't much in terms of amenities at the site, but who cares?

We hired the same guy that drove us from the bus stop to drive us back to civilization. Not only was that probably an excellent bit of work for him, but his family could ride in to town on the gas I was paying for.

So we stopped at his house and picked up his wife and daughter.

Somewhere during my numerous transactions I was passed a Peruvian nuevo sol note that had a bit of tape on it. It was worth a significant amount, because I bought Angelica and I some last snacks with it the night before we were due to leave the country. We were out of the store and in another store several doors down when the shopkeeper found us. He was holding that nasty bill and asking for different payment, because he was sure that one was fake. Fake? Wow. I'd never had that happen before. I futiley tried to get rid of the crumbled paper once more before heading back to the hotel. Dirty taped bill in hand, I decided that Peru had given me this fake money, and before I left Peru was going to take it back.

But we had an early flight back to Colombia, and few chances to buy anything along the way. The next morning Angelica and I packed up our bags and paused at the front desk for check out and payment. Most people pay for hotels with credit cards, but today I was paying in cash. I handed the man at the front desk a small stack of money for the hotel, a mixture of both soles and dollars. He counted the money slowly, probably calculating the exchange rate simultaneously. Angelica and I both glanced at eachother nervously. Was this going to work? "Wait a minute. This one won't do. I need a different note," said the man at the desk. I thought the ruse had failed, but no! The man was holding one of the US twenties I had given him. "The bank won't take them if the edges are torn," pointing to a tiny little ruffle in the paper. I quickly retrieved the newest, crispest 20 I could find. He said that were settled, and Angelica and I quickly and quietly walked out the door.

Amusingly, according to this Reuters video, Colombia once accounted for 70% of the world's counterfeit US currency, but crackdowns there have caused the printing business to move to Peru.

Go check out Peru. It's a nice place.

Wendy's Gives Up on Japan

2009-12-21T16:16:00.008-06:00

America's No. 3 burger chain has ended it's 29-year presence in Japan. Zensho Co. Ltd., which operates the restaurants in Japan, will end it's agreement with Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. and close its 71 locations by the end of the month. I couldn't find the exact reason for the decision, but in an AP article(here), a Zensho spokesman gave a canned response to reporters. "[We] will focus our resources on beef bowl restaurants and others." An article in Newsweek points out that Japan is going through a bit of a food crisis: it imports 60% of its yearly caloric intake, 90% of its corn comes from the United States, and 70% of its farmers are over 60 years of age. Those are all interesting figures, but Japan would do well to consider that 100% of Wendy's hamburgers are square and juicy. Surely that could solve a problem or two.

In Ashikaga, the smallish city where I lived, McDonald's and KFC were the only American fast food places available. My frequent trips to Tokyo were my only chance to see other familiar fast-food chains from home. I ate at the restaurant near Ebisu station lots of times on the way to and from parties and whatnot. It's the only place in the whole country I knew of where I could eat chili, so on a cold day that was the place to be. Add in frosties and those spicy chicken sandwiches, and you had gold. Gold! Why does Japan hate deliciousness?

Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

2009-12-16T13:27:00.003-06:00

Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice, has popped up in a couple of my favorite places to get news. His life story appeals to me as being both very entertaining and inspirational. He picked up and moved to Japan, living for three years in a Buddhist temple, then working as an English teacher and part time as a Swedish massage therapist, then eventually becoming a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, credited as having the largest circulation in the world. At Yomiuri he worked as a crime reporter and his book reveals the depth of his knowledge on the Yakuza, or Japanese mafia.

His little interview on the Daily Show was my introduction to his work. The interview is a bit offbeat and has a few amusing bits. My favorite quote is "[Liver Damage] is the number one cause of death for yakuza.... other than being shot or beheaded."

One of my favorite newsy podcasts is NPR's Planet Money. Here Adelstein "talks about how the business of the yakuza groups has changed over time and how tighter government restrictions have pushed the Japanese mob into more "traditional" investments." You can listen to or download the podcast here. My favorite part of this one is the story of how the Yakuza hired actors to pose as Japanese bank execs in order to trick Lehman Brothers into loaning a front company $300 million. It's pretty golden. Fresh Air has another longer program with him as well as an excerpt from his book here.

And finally, Jake edits the blog www.japansubculture.com. A notable recent post here is entitled "Eating sushi off a naked girl: yay or yuck?"

I'll be putting his book on my Christmas list.

Greek Cookies at St. Anthony's

2009-12-07T23:30:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday, the 5th of December, was the annual holiday sale in the basement at St. Anthony's Hellenic Orthodox Church. It's a small building but on this one day a year it is packed with delicious. For lunch you can choose from among steaming gyros, poorboys, and spinach pies. The reason I love this place enough to return every year, though, is the cookies. Greek cookies are freaking awesome.

A volunteer stood behind the table and packed a box full of all the unpronounceable honey and nut laden treats I over-indulgently pointed at.

I should have someone read the cookies' names to me next time. I've eaten enough of these that at this point we really should be introduced.

By the time I'd gotten them home the honey from the baklava and one or two others had pooled in the bottom of the box. I couldn't hold that against them.

The other reason I like visiting St. Anthony's is that it is a cozy, good looking little church. I'm not at all familiar with the orthodox tradition so the patriarchs and the pictures and paintings are all interesting to admire. Everything is written in Greek, and there are a couple of giant golden chandeliers with pictures of saints 'n friends on them.

This little festival only happens once a year as far as I know so if you've missed it you're SOL and most likely Greek cookie-less until 2010. If you'd like to attend a service though, I'm sure St. Anthony and the gang would be happy to see you.

Here's the program and-

View Larger Map

-here's their location.

I think my work here is done.

Ollantaytambo

2009-12-04T17:50:00.001-06:00

"Continuously inhabited for more than 700 years, Ollantaytambo is one of the few settlements that 16th-century Spanish conquistadors had trouble sacking, thanks to its magnificently preserved Incan fortress", writes Paul Brady in an article on the New York Times website(here).

Once out in the Ollaytantambo station we started walking. There were plenty of offers of taxis to be sure, but after sitting for so long I think we both wanted a little exercise.

The empty taxis would always slow down or honk their horns at us to drum up business. I laughed when I saw the dreaded tuk tuk style taxis that are popular in Thailand. I hated these especially because they never have meters, making the fare open to interpretation.

Ice cream apparently makes people in Peru very happy.

Many of the gift shops in the area were these awesome mud hut looking structures. It was exciting to see a bit of Peru that's more rural.

Here I finally got a picture of this little object. I'd been seeing these little bulls and crosses all over the country. Usually they were on the tops of buildings. I couldn't find much about them online, but it's a mix of Catholic and indigenous religion apparently. People pour wine in the little holes as an offering.

This man was maybe the only beggar I gave money to in the whole country. I'm against it in principle, but this guy was blind, playing an instrument, and had a little sign in English. I couldn't resist.

When I saw what we were in town for, I may have said some bad words. My legs were still jell-o from a ton of ruins walking the day before and this place had stone stairs galore. The view of the town below and the ruins on the neighboring mountains was worth it though.

In the US we would probably deck this thing with handrails. If someone slipped on the top step they'd pretty much be hamburger by the time they got to the bottom. You're welcome for that little image.

At least when walking in a real desert, there aren't any stairs.

The ruins.

This was one of those moments. I was walking and doing my tourist thing when all of the sudden the world shows me a few seconds of perfection. It feels a bit like walking into a postcard. There's a bright sun overhead and this cactus on a dusty dry Peruvian cliffside. A bird of prey with wings outstretched was flying so low and directly overhead that I could see its shadow wingspan moving around on the ground in front of me. A prefect little moment.

Once back on the ground, I met these people. I get the feeling that this little group was a bit overdressed in order to attract tourists, but otherwise they were the real deal. Everyone was speaking so fast that I couldn't tell the difference, but Angelica said that one of the little girls was translating Angelica's Spanish into Quechua for the others. I gave the few little coins I had to the woman on the left, sort of assuming she would share the wealth, but one of the little girls later motioned for money so pathetically that I wished I had distributed the money myself.

Ashikagans in Springfield

2009-11-25T13:31:00.005-06:00

Some time ago I was bragging about one of my students winning a speech contest in Ashikaga. Well the prize for that contest was a free trip to Springfield and a bit of Chicago to see the sights. It was very cool to see both sides of the circle, plus I got to see my student and several other people I know from Japan. It was fun to speak some Japanese after what feels like a long time as well.

I actually saw everyone on three different days. There was an informal little reception at Floyd's, a downtown bar, and there was a fancy(and long) gala at the Illinois State Library.

This was at the third little event I attended held inside the Old State Capitol. There were again lots of speeches, including remarks from Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin, Ashikaga Mayor Minoru Omamiuda(seen here singing some Elvis at an earlier welcome party in Japan), and Illinois State Senator Larry Bomke. Each one of the winning students then stood up at the podium and recited the Gettysburg Address. While this is not the place where Lincoln gave his famous speech, this is where he gave his "House Divided" speech that is also very well known.

Gettysburg Speech Dream Team

We all had Subway at the nearby but not-yet-open National Museum of Surveying(website). While they didn't have a ton of exhibits in place yet, they did have something pretty awesome called Science On a Sphere(website). It was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and it's pretty much a big ball with several projectors playing on it to create the illusion of an animated sphere. It's a pretty cool way to see global weather patterns, earthquakes, and even sea turtle migrations take place on a round earth.

I took a couple of little videos of the thing in action. The whole setup was controlled with a Wiimote, which just made it that much snappier.

The whole thing made it into the State Journal-Register here.

Take Me Down to Ollantaytambo

2009-11-17T23:28:00.010-06:00

Before I went to Peru, I knew next to nothing about Pre-Columbian civilizations. I don't think I realized how much of the ruins still stand, and I certainly didn't know that the language of the Inca, Quechua, was still spoken. Now that I have been exposed to these things a bit more, I find them extremely interesting. I'd say that is a large impediment to the speed of my posts on this blog. I start to research a place I went, get sidetracked into Google Books reading about battles between the Inca and the Spanish, then look at the clock an hour later and realize I haven't written anything! I am very grateful to live in the age of the internet. So much awesome information is available at a whim. Anyway, onward!

Speaking of information, useful or otherwise, I read in a travel guide that Huttese, spoken by the big fat Huts in the Star Wars movies, is largely based on Quechua. I'm sure the Peruvians think that's swell. It's probably best that I didn't learn that until I left the country.

After a very eventful day on the PeruRail train and then exploring the wonders of Machu Picchu, we had a much needed sleep. This next day might have been even longer than the one before it.

While on our way to check out of the hotel Angelica noticed this parrot chilling out in an open area at the center of the building. Parrots in the US are always pets or jailed in zoos, so it was cool to see such a nice bird wild.

We got to the train station a bit early, so there was a bit of time for us to explore. We played a bit more of my favorite game: White guy picka souvenir from a distance and latin girlfriend buya souvenir at much lower thana white guy price while white guy isa hiding. I'm still working on the name but you get the idea. Here are a couple of little things that I bought in Peru.

A lovely Inca Kola t-shirt. The guy at the airport metal detector referred to me as Inca Kola, so Angelica and I thought that was pretty funny. I might need a new hat. This one has been just about adventured to death.

This might turn out to be one of those things that looked super cool in Peru but back at my house it looks stupid. I'm not sure what I am going to do with this and the other one I bought. It's made from alpaca fur, though, which is kinda interesting.

Just next to the fancy tourist train station was the line for the local train.

The train ride back was much less fancy than the previous one. We got these little lunch boxes instead of the fancy breakfast with silverware from before. I opted for the coca tea this time. Everyone said it was supposed to help with altitude sickness.

At one stop of the train I saw this old woman out the window. Her motions to the passengers were hilarious.

First was "oh I'm surprised to see you" from the woman standing right next to the train tracks to the people on a train that likely comes by the same time every day.

Then it was "oh I'm too embarrassed to have pictures taken of me".

Next was "well I'd be a little less embarrassed if you all put coins into this hat I happen to have here with me".

And finally "wow, those coins really did the trick. my shyness is cured!"

The train was pretty calm until he showed up. I didn't catch his name, but he was like a dancing mix between a clown and a terrorist. Obviously I took some video of the performance.

Sorry about the letterbox thing going on here. The iPhone's video and YouTube aren't the best of friends.

In the video there's a man just to the right of me looking at his laptop and roundly ignoring the odd performance. Well, he was watching several episodes of himself on his travel show. It was none other than...

Oliver Steeds! He's best known for his work on the Travel Channel's Mark & Olly: Living with the Tribes.

Well I was worried Mr. Steeds might have not welcomed an intrusion to his intent watching of himself, but he seemed pleasantly surprised when we asked him for a picture. Honestly I wouldn't have even known who he was if he hadn't been watching his own show, so maybe we're even.

Here's Olly and his co-host being forced to adopt a baby monkey after the tribe eats its mother. I laughed and laughed. (Not really. I'm a good person).

Eventually the train stopped and we had to say goodbye to our new famous friends. But we didn't just ride back to where we came from. That's for quitters. Our train ride ended in the Peruvian town and Inca ruin site of Ollantaytambo (yeah, it's a long name, but recall Bangkok's name in Thai?). The city is notable for being a temporary capital for the Inca resistance during Spanish conquest. Very cool. More on the city later!

This Year's Halloween Costume

2009-11-05T21:45:00.009-06:00

I didn't have too many ideas on what I wanted to be for Halloween this year. After the resounding successes of my Indiana Jones and beetle costumes(hehe) the last two Halloweens I spent in Japan, what could possibly compare? Angelica and I did a bit of Halloween shopping at a few of the party stores in town but everything felt really overpriced and we didn't see anything striking.

A trip to the local Meijer, though, was the jackpot. They had haunty festive stuff but because it was already so close to the big day, everything was 30% off! It was a rare procrastination-based victory. There were only a few lonely racks of stuff left, so that made choosing easy.

The both of us and a couple of my friends all went down to St. Louis for some haunted house and downtown festivities.

Seago was Shawn from Shawn of the Dead (I think he just wanted to get fake blood all over his work clothes), Brandon was a zombie cowboy, I was a Ghostbuster-

-and Angelica was a bumblebee. We had talked earlier about coordinating costumes, but the supermarket sale ruined that. She wanted me to be a flower to match her bee, and I wanted her to be Slimer. It didn't work out.

This costume was funny because the proton pack was inflatable, and part of it wouldn't inflate. I ended up having to repair it with electrical tape. Very classy. I loved the Ghostbusters growing up, and I had several of the action figures. My mom put those little orange flavored Ecto-Cooler juice boxes in my lunch until I was about 18. It was all a nice temporary return to the 80's for me.

Since I just bought my costume at a normal store I was worried there would be copies of me everywhere, but surprisingly that didn't happen. People were constantly giving me congratulatory "Who you gonna call?" or theme song greetings, so that was funny. I did see one other Ghostbuster while we were out, but he had made his costume. His backpack lit up and everything. Show off.

It was too dark in the haunted house for pictures and by the time I got downtown my phone was dying, so I don't have many good shots of other people. My favorite was a group of people going as characters from the Mariokart games. They had little boxes around their waists with wheels taped on, plus some balloons tied on. Then they ran around in circles in little races with each other. It was awesome. It was nice to see the amount of effort some people put into their outfits. Costume parties really are the best.

Next I'll get back to the end of my Peru pictures. Stay tuned!

Halloween Preparations

2009-10-31T02:30:00.000-05:00

Angelica is fun because she hasn't done a lot of Halloween stuff before, like make a jack o lantern or go to a haunted house. Plus, this is my first Halloween back from Japan, so we are doing some classic stuff that I haven't done in a while. It's been good times so far. We are planning on doing a haunted house tonight and then go to a costume party, so I will report on that later.

We did a bit of costume shopping, which is pretty much the funnest sort of shopping that I can imagine.

I'm happy that these Guy Fawkes costumes are still popular. Did you know that the word "guy" meaning "man" or "person" originates with Guy Fawkes?

The interesting little entry in The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories.

We put our pumpkin outside one little day before we wanted to carve it, and the next time we checked it had been chewed up by squirrels. Angelica drew a face so that we could cut out the parts with the little teeth marks.

I thought it came out pretty well.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Lunch at Cozy Dog, Birthplace of the Corn Dog

2009-10-27T02:39:00.001-05:00

A fun thing about being back in the US after such a long time is I feel like a bit of a tourist even in my own hometown. There are a few interesting local spots in town that I've never had a chance to check out, and thats why we decided to go to the Cozy Dog Drive In. This little Springfield restaurant claims to be "the home of the famous hot dog on a stick".

The story is in the true spirit of the American inventor. I might paraphrase the timeless story as "This guy saw this thing, and it sucked, so he made it better". You might want more details than that, though, so I humbly offer the tale as told by late founder Ed Waldmire, Jr. to his son Bob on January 30th, 1959.

In Muskogee, Oklahoma, I saw an unusual sandwich called “corn-dog.” This sandwich was a wiener baked in cornbread. The corn-dog was very good, but took too long to prepare. The problem was how to cover a hotdog with batter and cook it in a short time.

In the fall of 1941, I told this story to a fellow student at Knox College whose father was in the bakery business, and then gave it no further thought.

Five years later while in the Air Force stationed at Amarillo Airfield, I received a letter from my fellow student, Don Strand. To my surprise he had developed a mix that would stick on a weiner while being french-fried. He wondered if he could send some down that I could try in Amarillo. Having plenty of spare time, I said ‘yes.’

Using cocktail forks for sticks, the U.S.O kitchen in which to experiment, we made a very tasty hotdog on a stick, that we called a “crusty cur.” They became very popular both at the U.S.O. in town, and at the P.X. on the airfield. My friend continued to send mix and we continued to sell thousands of crusty curs until I was discharged – honorably – in the spring of 1946.

We decided to sell them that spring. My wife did not like the name “crusty curs.” Through trial and error and discarding dozens of names, we finally decided on the name “Cozy Dogs.”

Cozy Dogs were officially Launched at the Lake Springfield Beach House on June 16th, 1946.

This story and a bit of additional history and news is available on the Cozy Dog website here. Apparently Cozy Dog was also featured in National Geographic's Traveler magazine, but the magazine's website guards its treasures a bit too jealously for this lover of truth.

And here's the magical food people come here for. It's the only place I know of where you can get a good corn dog when the State Fair isn't in town.

I think this little eatery would be pretty cool even without its claims of corn dog genesis. The restaurant sits on Historic Route 66, the old-school patchwork of roads that led from Chicago to Los Angeles before the advent of the Interstate Highway System. It has lots of memorabilia everywhere that was interesting to look at while I waited for my food.

It's the only restaurant I can think of that has a library available to customers.

They have a few cases of souvenirs, mostly involving Route 66 and/or anthropomorphic hot dogs.

View Larger Map

If you want to be cool and experience some quality Midwestern culture, head to Cozy Dog Drive In and look for the sign with the giant embracing corn dog people.

And the Winner is...

2009-10-22T21:46:00.002-05:00

The winner of the Uprinting.com 250 Business Card Giveaway is.... Angelica! Enjoy! Thank you to everyone who entered.

A Day at Machu Picchu

2009-10-13T22:55:00.001-05:00

When we left them, intrepid travelers John and Angelica had completed their journey on PeruRail and were weaving their way back and forth up the side of a mountain by bus.

I figured it would be wise to have a bathroom break before entering, and even that was interesting. There was an attendant accepting 1 sol per person to use the facilities. Fine, be that way. The good part was that I was given a receipt for this 30cent transaction. My toilet paperwork is dated, has a serial number, is itemized, and even has a little "thank you for choosing us" at the bottom. Golden!

Machu Picchu is the most famous remnant of the Inca Empire. Nearby Cusco was the capital of the empire, but Machu Picchu's obscure location left it undiscovered and so undisturbed by Spanish conquerors. I can't find a straight answer on the purpose of Machu Picchu, and that's because all we have are theories. There are no surviving examples of an Inca writing system.
Mysterious! oooOOhh

Some important advice I'll give to anyone out there considering a trip to Machu Picchu: buy a guidebook! The little, few page brochure provided at the ticket gate is really weak. Only after returning to civilization and reading about it online do I have any idea what I saw out there. I might suggest joining a tour, but two or three of the English-speaking guides I eavesdropped on didn't impress me. Buy a book about Machu Picchu. You will have plenty of time to read it on the way up.

Pow!

There's a cool exploratory quality about Machu Picchu that I don't think I've found anywhere else. It's a bit like walking around in a Tomb Raider video game. The whole place is a multilevel series of very narrow terraces. Often the way to the next terrace isn't apparent, especially when going downhill.

Here's a good example of that. This little rock staircase juts out from the wall just enough so that it's difficult to see until you are standing right over it.

These alpacas were tagged and probably not wild, but it was still fun seeing them walking around the ruins.

Machu Picchu had a few staff doing various things. This poor guy's job was blowing a whistle at people who weren't obeying the rules. He was far up on a perch, so I doubt if the offenders even knew they were being scolded.

Speaking of scolds, I have another little bit of advice: bring plenty of water and a snack. The literature states that only water brought in a canteen is allowed inside the park, and I believe food was outlawed outright. Before entering there are a few small opportunities to buy food and water, but they are supremely overpriced. Inside Machu Picchu there is nothing. I'm usually one for following the rules, but this rule is a bit too strict, and enforcement seems to be close to zero. I saw water bottles and sandwiches all over the place. Just be a good person and don't litter and I don't think anyone will mind.

Angelica with one of the workers.

Up this high, there wasn't much wildlife to be seen. I was surprised to see a bunch of lizards running between the rocks. There didn't seem to be many bugs around for them to eat.

The Intihuatana is some kind of clock or calendar. It is believed to tie the sun to the earth.

One section of the little city was in ruins. I wondered why this area was so bad while everywhere else looked so good. I would be interested to see how much restoration has gone into Machu Picchu over the years. Did the whole place previously look like this and has been rebuilt?

Then the stone work itself raised a question or two. Why is the quality so uneven in places? Did the good stuff stay up while the bad stuff has been reassembled by modern hands?

Another example of a wall that seems to have two different levels of workmanship.

The bus fares for the trip back to Aguas Calientes. Fair or not, fees for things in Peru were often different for nationals and non-nationals. The rates span $7 one way for adult foreigners down to $2.60 for a child national.

The police station back in town had a cool coat of arms.

These are electrical boxes for a nearby produce market. The yellow stickers are notices from the electric company about failure to pay bills.

The next day we saw more ruins, met more people, and took many more pictures.

Don't forget to enter to win a free block of custom business cards. You aren't signing up for anything and there's no strings attached. Just free cards for your business or amusement. Check it out here!

250 Free Business Cards Giveaway!

2009-10-08T16:33:00.008-05:00

I'm excited to announce JMAA's first prize giveaway! Up for grabs is a block of 250 business cards printed custom for you by the good people at Uprinting.com. Free business cards, free shipping, free.... bubble wrap?

The Prize:

250 business cards for One Lucky Winner (Free UPS Ground Shipping in USA)
Sizes: 2 x 3.5”, 2 x 3”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (skinny card)
Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
Specifications: Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing

How to Apply:

Leave a comment to this post with your name, email address, and describe what you would do with the cards if you win. All entries must be submitted by October 21, 2009. The winner will be chosen on October 22 and contacted shortly afterwards. I'll email you a coupon code, and then you can doll up your own personal cards over at http://www.uprinting.com/Business-Cards.html

Restrictions:

Free UPS Ground Shipping in the USA. Canadian Residents must pay shipping and taxes. Residents of other countries are not eligible. To avoid looking shady, this drawing is not open to family members. Sorry!!

Why the heck am I doing this?:

I mean, the best gift of all is a smile on my loyal readers' faces, but I get my own set of 250 cards just for hosting the contest. I'll probably use them to promote my blog. If everyone seems to like this sort of thing I will do more in the future. Good luck!

Google Wave Looks Freaking Awesome!

2009-09-30T12:58:00.005-05:00

Google Wave has me excited. I can't really explain what I've seen, so I'll let Google tell you about it. "Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more." The website is over here.

This demonstration video is pretty long but it's really cool.

It's funny because I've felt the need for an application like this lots of times. When I am planning a trip with another person, say to Thailand for example, we are both doing lot's of research and trying to find the best places at the best prices. Then we have to dump links into email and hope the other person reads them or likes them and just wait for a response. Then after an amazing adventure, we'll have pictures on several different devices that we want to share quickly. These little snags are compounded when your travel group is four or five people. Google Wave sounds like it will make this process smooth like butter.

Now the question is, who is going to be a pal and give me an invite to Google Wave?

Kanikosen Slated for 45th Chicago International Film Festival

2009-09-30T00:01:00.005-05:00

Kanikosen, the movie where you can see me for about 10 seconds if you don't blink and know exactly where to look, is coming to the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival(website). The movie's playing at the New York Film Festival was cool, but CIFF is very exciting for me because it's close enough that I can attend. The special screening I saw in Ashikaga was all in Japanese, so this might be my only chance to see the film on the big screen and actually understand what the heck is going on.

Show times are: Oct. 18 at 8:15pm, Oct. 19 at 6pm, and Oct. 20 at 3:30pm. Tickets will cost you $9 if you are a student, senior, or a cinema/chicago member and $12 if you aren't. The Oct. 2o showing is $5 for everyone because it's a matinee.

Also, if you happen to be flying into Chicago with American Airlines you can use the promo code A18H9AB for a 5% discount. The festival's website isn't clear how long the code is good for, so don't blame me!

The Ex-Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich Extended Interview on the Daily Show

2009-09-28T12:44:00.005-05:00

Maybe you caught the Blago interview with Jon Stewart when it aired, but it was edited for time. Watch it here in its entirety. I CANNOT WAIT for this to go to trial. This is either the biggest conspiracy ever or the most delusional man on the planet.

PeruRail to Machu Picchu

2009-09-26T01:16:00.001-05:00

We woke up to an early morning in Cusco and took a taxi to the train station.

We drove way out of tourist land and saw some real life happening. Here some small time farmers were having a little market with big piles of vegetables on the side of the road. My ears were already popping as we were steadily driving upwards.

The PeruRail line runs from Machu Picchu station to Lake Titicaca. Machu Picchu station is actually located in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes. Machu Picchu is an unpopulated ancient city perched on a cliff, so it understandably doesn't have its own train station. An additional bus ride is needed to get to Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes.

View peru in a larger map

There are several classes of train listed on the PeruRail website (here). The tickets prices make it pretty obvious that the train is not meant for locals. We took the mid-level Vistadome train one way and it cost us $71 per person. The most luxurious train, the Hiram Bingham, costs travelers $334 one way.

We chose the Vistadome service in part because the extra windows were meant to enhance our Peruvian mountain viewing experience. I'd say they delivered.

We were served a nice breakfast on a fold out table. Unfortunately that meant two rows of seats were facing each other, which really killed the legroom. We had our choice of several breads and drinks. I had some coca bread, which had a greenish tint to it, and and Angelica chose the coca tea. I couldn't fully enjoy my breakfast, though, because by this time I had a serious pressure mounting in my head. I had caught a small case of the sniffles a couple days prior and it was now becoming a problem. I think because my head was already a bit stuffy from my cold, I was having some trouble adjusting to the change in elevation. Everyone's voices sounded like they were underwater. Luckily I snapped out of it by the time we reached our destination.

The train stopped a couple of times, but not really long enough for us to buy anything. I felt bad for the people who were here selling things despite that fact.

When I wasn't teetering on the verge of head explosion, I enjoyed the view as we wound our way through the mountains.

The train stopped in Aguas Calientes and my throbbing head and popping ears were grateful.

On the path from the train station to the rest of the town was a cleverly placed maze of souvenir shops.

By the time we left Peru, we had learned that when it came time to buy things, it was best if I waited around the corner while Angelica bargained. Prices were always lower when the sharks couldn't smell their delicious American prey.

The railroad runs smack through the middle of the town.

You might have to give it a click to tell, but this mountainside was covered in lots of little red and green cactusy plants.

Many people return to Cusco on the same day they arrive. We though that might constrict our time to enjoy Machu Picchu, so we got a room in Aguas Calientes. I would recommend the same to you.

Angelica and I carried all of our things in two backpacks. We did alot of moving around and didn't want to lug heavy luggage all over the place. I was really happy with how it worked out. It was funny though, because everyone kept asking us where our luggage was, like we were the only people with small bags. The people at the airline, some taxi guys, and some people at the hotels were all impressed with our rugged outdoorsiness. If we both know what it means, it counts as a word.

I saw a lot of these "secure earthquake zone" signs in Peru. This one was right across from our hotel room. Lucky us. I wonder why they don't have signs like this in Japan?

We had a nice little lunch before heading to Incaville. There are several restaurants along the main sidewalk parallel to the railroad. The people working there were fairly aggressive about getting customers. They waved menus in our faces and quickly rattled off how cheap and wonderful their foods were as we walked on by. Part of the reason for the competition might be because all of the restaurants seemed to be serving the exact same thing. Someone got the idea that tourists like pizza, because pizza signs were everywhere. I didn't come to a different continent to eat the same old thing though, so I shunned the pushy Peruvian pizzerias (hehe). When we finally picked a place to eat, I had mostly vegetables. Wikitravel had an interesting little tidbit that I didn't read until I had already left the country:

"These restaurants are not up to the standards of those in Cuzco or Lima, but are generally satisfactory. They tend to be moderately high priced. Some guidebooks report an unusually high incidence of food poisoning in the area, possibly attributable to the fairly common power outages (with loss of refrigeration). Cooked pizza and bottled beer or soft drinks are safe bets, salads and Pisco sours (made with raw egg whites) are best avoided here."

Maybe pizza isn't such a bad choice after all...

Prices fluctuate on everything in this city except maybe train and bus tickets (the price is already printed on those). The "tourist menu" didn't even list prices, making the whole thing potentially expensive for the unwitting traveler. Even professional bargainer and Spanish speaker Angelica had to have a little conversation with our waiter. The waiter apparently didn't agree with the low price we had been promised by the menu holder outside. So shady.

We watched this little boy play with magnets on display at a souvenir shop. He kept moving them around in different patterns, and I think he may have even "borrowed" a few for some fun magnet games at home. I wonder what it would be like for a little boy to grow up in a town like this.

When we finished eating we hopped on a bus to the ancient, lost, amazing, stoney, and Incan city of Machu Picchu. I slept most of the way, but Angelica said it seesawed in switchbacks up the side of a mountain.

Secret of the Incas

2009-09-17T14:21:00.009-05:00

Lately I've been reading a ton about Peru, Machu Picchu, and the Incan empire, and this little gem caught my eye. Charlton Heston stars in Secret of the Incas, a 1954 adventure film. It was filmed on location in Cusco and Machu Picchu. Heston's character is a proto-Indiana Jones, sporting the now iconic leather jacket and fedora. Apparently its copyright has expired, because the whole thing can be found on Youtube. If you squint while you watch, it looks just like my trip. Give it a gander.

Obama's Healthcare Plan

2009-09-14T12:50:00.002-05:00

I am doing my best to keep up with American politics during my travels.

Here is President Obama's speech to congress last week if you missed it.

I recently read an article in the the Wall Street Journal entitled "Fact-Checking the President on Health Insurance" (here). It picks apart a few of the claims Obama makes in his speech.

An article I really enjoyed reading is "5 Myths About Health Care Around the World" in the Washington Post(here). As there are several nations that have already gone the route of public health care, I think it would be wise to review how things are working for them and adjust our actions accordingly. Here's my favorite paragraph:

In many ways, foreign health-care models are not really "foreign" to America, because our crazy-quilt health-care system uses elements of all of them. For Native Americans or veterans, we're Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we're Germany: Premiums are split between workers and employers, and private insurance plans pay private doctors and hospitals. For people over 65, we're Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule. And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we're Burundi or Burma: In the world's poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can't pay stay sick or die.

Is the United States on the verge of something great that will improve the health of our country, or another inefficient government policy that will force us to shoulder an ever greater tax burden? What do you think?

Peru Part 1: Lots of Planes and a Guniea Pig

2009-09-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

I had barely been in Colombia two days when I packed a backpack with a few sets of clothes and headed for the airport to catch a plane to Peru. Angelica and I mainly wanted to see what everyone wants to see in Peru: Machu Picchu. There weren't any direct flights, though, so we had to fly from Bogota to Lima, then Lima to Cusco.

On the flight to Cusco the clouds were so thick that we couldn't land. We flew in circles for an hour or so waiting for the weather to clear, then returned to Lima. We got a free lunch for our trouble, but we also got another good size layover.

I figured it was a good time for me to plunge into the local fare. This is a tamale but much different than those I can get in Springfield. This was salty and had raisins in addition to the chicken inside. The dark purple drink is called chicha morada. It is made from purple corn and who knows what else. It was super sweet and so rich that I couldn't drink more than half a glass.

Later on I bought this little bag of gum drops. I thought it was interesting that purple corn was listed as one of the fruit flavors.

Our second attempt at landing in Cusco was a success. Here you can see the lonely little airstrip.

That first taxi ride from the airport in a new country has become a source of excitement for me. It's like a free tour of the city.

The Cusco Cathedral. There were several grand churches in a fairly small area. Even a couple of schools I saw had high stone walls and other imposing attributes.

We were super tired from the long hours of traveling. As much as I wanted to get out and see everything right away, nap time was necessary. By the time we had our showers and everything, it was dark outside.

Cusco is super touristy. There was a band playing some local sounding music on a little stage nearby. I wouldn't be surprised if a band played there every day.

This donkey statue stands in front of a school. It even has books strapped to its back. I told Angelica it reminded me of Pinocchio. I don't know if it is meant to be a reference or not.

Cusco started to get more interesting as we walked down the side streets. Cusco's main square is tourist territory. A large percentage of the restaurants were pizza places or other food obviously aimed at foreigners. In addition to that, many of the restaurants have touts with menus out front who got to be very annoying. I was much happier down the streets that seemed to be for the locals. Everything was cheaper, authentic, and no one was shoving things in my face to buy.

This beat up Pikachu slot machine stop just inside a barber shop. I couldn't figure out how to get it to work, and it seemed to be missing a few buttons.

There were several little arcades and internet cafes with kids playing games. I guess these places are a ton more popular when the average kid can't afford to buy a home system. We stopped in at a quaint little arcade. There were about ten machines smashed together in a little room. The owner sat in one corner and watched a tiny tv while several kids played. Many of the cabinets were fighting games. All of them were old.

The tokens looked homemade.

At the end of the night we stopped at one of the touristy places called Bar Cusco. Here are a couple of local things, a Cusqueña beer and a pisco sour.

This place had a few "traditional" things on the menu, so we went for those. I had "Oven made Guinea Pig, pepper souffle with potatoes and creola sauce" for 49 soles. I'm pretty sure it was the most expensive thing on the menu. Angelica had some alpaca meat.

The little guy looked ready to strike so I quickly gave him a little taste of the Bush Doctrine.

Was this a meal or an anatomy class? All of its teeth were still in its little mouth, and its claws were still on its little hands. I had to peel back its skin to get to the food part. The meat was chickeny (you probably could've guessed that, right?). The waitress said I was supposed to eat it with my hands, but I thought staying just in fork range of it was a better plan. When I had finished picking at it I asked for it to be taken away immediately. I didn't need it staring me in the face for a single minute longer.

In Colombia, McDonald's Delivers

2009-09-09T00:04:00.008-05:00

You might think it very tourist-American of me to write about McDonald's in other countries, but I think the fact that McDonald's delivers in Colombia is newsworthy. I had assumed that the United States was on the cutting edge of sedentary over-consumption of calories, but I'm afraid we have fallen behind. The learner has become the master.

I was thinking it might be cool to pick something strange that is only on local menus, but having to order over the phone put the brakes on that plan for the time being. I stuck with a classic, the Quarter Pounder with cheese combo. You can't go wrong with that. There's actually a location extremely close to Angelica's house, so it didn't take long at all for the food to arrive.

The box everything came in was pretty serious about not accepting the food if the seal was broken. It's the symbol of the trust shared by myself and Ronald.

The fries came in a little box so that they didn't spill everywhere in transit. The Spanish is "Like in McDonald's, but in your house".

Speed holes so you can eat faster.

Dessert was something from the supermarket. Arroz con leche is rice pudding with cinnamon as far as I am concerned.

I just got back from the Incan ruins of Peru Monday evening, so I've got some coverage of that brewing. Stay tuned.