I thought facecrime was totally stupid and made-up. But here it is. It’s how Parsons was caught by the Thought Police, despite being a loyal Party member for decades.

I still remember the first time I watched a Dutchman eat a wedge of cheese like it was an apple.

I still remember the first time I ever discovered soul food. I was beside myself.
You can…*deep fry *pork chops? With collard greens and scalloped potatoes, got it to-go in a styrofoam box. Incredibly juicy, full of flavor. To this day one of the top 10 meals of my life. Aunt Kizzie’s in Auroroa Colorado never forget.

I was scared shitless when I heard the director of “The Frighteners” had been put in charge of the new LOTR movie.

Read the books already. Movie-only fans are the worst. They miss the best part of the story, the Scouring of the Shire, when the hobbits come back to find that a bitter Saruman (he lived) has come to The Shire and chopped down all the trees. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin then set about putting things to rights without the help of Rangers, elves, wizards or anyone else.

There were half-orcs in the books, which were conceived in exactly the way you think of. D&D banned them for a reason.

This is Paris syndrome. The Copenhagen she imagined was not the Copenhagen that exists. She felt let down and betrayed. Just like those Japanese tourists in Paris who come there thinking it’s the city of love but find this instead: And worst of all, she was forced to the conclusion that going back to the US was the best choice. That’s going to hurt any liberal. Imagine the twinges of cognitive dissonance she’s going to get the next time the Air Force jets fly overhead at the stadium.

I lived in LA for a year and the weather was just boring. I like seasons. LA was a pleasant sunny day every single day. Drove me nuts after a while. I want a thunderstorm! Or maybe a tornado alert! The moment it drops to 60 everyone in the city puts on a black leather jacket.

OOf, boring, Beijing is like Houston, it goes on forever. And the city kind of sucks, it’s not China enough to be China and it’s not western enough to be Shanghai. Plus there are a lot of diplomats, journalists and other unsavory types in the foreign population there. And it’s a stinking lie Beijing speaks the most standard Mandarin, they sound like they have marbles in their mouths. It’s a desert climate, hope you enjoy dry windy cold winters.

There are people out there who are not happy unless they are complaining. Living in a foreign country gives them plenty of opportunity to do it, all the time. I’ve had to cut friends off because they wouldn’t shut up about how stupid the people are and how much it sucks here. I came out and asked one who complained she couldn’t leave, “oh, you can leave right now! Nothing’s stopping you!” Without missing a beat, she answered, “student loans.” I supposed part of being educated is making intelligent choices about which major to pursue that would get you a lucrative career afterwards. Unfortunately they let in anyone with a degree and so many are wildly unqualified, feel frustrated, and complain all the time. Another one, a good friend, tried my patience too many times and I told him the same thing. He looked downcast and said, “what am I going to do, go back to Holland and be a clerk in a convenience store?” He did eventually go back home and last I heard he was managing a children’s amusement park.

China isn’t the old China, not even the street vendor China you watched all those youtube videos about. China is highly regional and every city is different. Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen aren’t much different from Dallas, except sparkling clean and no crime. I guess you’d study Chinese, there are private language schools that do that all over and give student visas. It’s basically a 3 month party time. As long as you paid, nobody cares if you show up for class or not.

most Americans can’t stand living anywhere but America. They’ll say they hate it and want to leave, but they won’t. If they do, they have a glorious honeymoon period, and after that is over, the reality sinks in and they throw a temper tantrum the first time they can’t get Froot Loops[tm] at the grocery store.
“My recipe calls for duck fat, where’s the Whole Foods?” There isn’t one. Then you get to see liberals turn into raging racist bigots before disappearing and never coming back again. We even had a term for it, “doing a midnight run.” They feel they’re not in control and can’t stand it. Written over 20 years ago but still applies: “The expatriate mentality is a tough thing to explain easily. Any affluent or even middle-class American who renounces the good life of sushi delivery and 50-channel cable television to relocate permanently to some third-world hole usually has to be motivated by a highly destructive personality defect. Either that, or something about home creates psychological demons that in turn create the urge for radical escape.” – Mark Ames, The Exile: Sex, Drugs, And Libel In The New Russia

If you want to be into that stuff, fine! have kids! It’s what they’re for ! You can buy all the legos and visit all the dinosaur museums you want and nobody can utter a peep about it. That’s why everyone got creeped out by Micheal Jackson having that Neverland ranch with a carousel and all that. His dad had five kids, for Pete’s sake!

Adult fans of Disney. They have days at their parks where no children are allowed. My favorite was when they had that starship hotel where you had a phone app that would assign you missions, you could be a rebel or an imperial. They complained there weren’t any windows. Like, you’re supposed to be on a journey between the stars, moron, what do you want, a pool view? Yes, apparently.

Oh wow. I think it was the first time I ever tried shrooms someone put that movie on and OH MY GOD

Started a love affair with Philip Glass that lasted the entire 90s. After listening to Music in 12 parts, all six CDs, over and over for years, finally I had had enough. Powaqqatisi was meh but way too third world. Naqqatasi was forgettable. I can’t even remember anything.

UNIX v1

You can find sets of it on ebay or boxes of cards at dealers like Rudy from Alpha investments.

Yes, I remember that it was known that Oswald had been to Russia. That’s why he killed JFK, see? They reprogrammed him as a Manchurian candidate to come back and kill the president. Totally had nothing to do with the fact that JFK got the US Treasury to print its own money instead of Federal Reserve Notes. I still have one, it has a red seal instead of the usual green. It says UNITED STATES NOTE instead. LBJ quickly discontinued the program and these bills are little more than collector’s curios now.

Ouch…

Holy crap that shit would NEVER fly today! The whole print run would get recalled and pulped.