A Disgrace

Gasp! Preparations, chaos, Bryson-directed irritation. And then, this interview (Thanks, Danielle). Listen to it and see if you aren't choked up by the end. Pay special attention to what he says about God, and to the name, "New Orleans" sparking international recognition.

At least all the Americans I'll meet on this trip will be my kind of people. Nearly all backpackers are open-minded. They have to be, to do what they do.

This brought tears to my eyes. ..
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/vol/

And have you seen this yet? I'm astounded! Appalled!

"The images below are screen shots of two different 'Yahoo! News Photo' pages posted on Tuesday. Although the captions are provided by two different services (the one on the left by the Associated Press, the one on the right by AFP/Getty Images), I found the wording used to describe two identical scenarios (with one obvious variable)... 'interesting.'"

1st Image- http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blackloot7wf.jpg

2nd Image- http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitefind3hi.jpg

Wow, is really all I can say. Wow, wow, wow.

One of the headlines on MSN today announced, "Gas Prices Leap 50 Cents in a Single Day".
I saw it and freaked out. I hurled Sky(my dog) in the car and took off to my trusty Arco station, expecting the worst. Luckily, unleaded prices were still under three dollars, hovering in the mid three-nineties. It's very sad to consider those prices "lucky", but that's where we stand today.

Luckiest for me: I ain't payin' for gas for an entire month! I just hope I don't arrive back in California faced with five dollar gallons.

My next car will be a hybrid. I'm such a hypocrite, with my SUV. I have these boycotts I take so seriously (only cage-free eggs; only spayed pound mutts, like Sky; no meat other than fish and free-range chicken; no killing of anything that's not directly biting me or my dog; no leather; no Procter and Gamble; no WalMart) but I'm still contributing to global catastrophes in my own quiet ways. I drive an Explorer. I only buy organic if it's inexpensive or more convenient. The other day, I bought a cheapie watch to take to Thailand. It's leather, and it came from WalMart. Strike one, strike two. Although I did visit Target, Savon, BigLots and Longs before I entered the devil's doors---all in the same day---the sinister whistling happy face got me in the end.

And I just learned, within the same minute than I am typing this, that Proter and Gamble now owns Iams dog food. I just bought a big sack of it. If you don't know what these guys do, click here. They own about half of everything, from Clairol to Pantene to Vidal Sassoon; from Cover Girl to Max Factor to Oil of Olay; From Pampers to Secret to Gillette; from Folgers to Pringle to Sunny Delight; from Tide to Febreze to Mr. Clean; from Scope to Ivory to Crest (full list). They own so many brands that the only way to truly boycott them is to remember to check the back of every single product you buy. There is always an alternative, and I mean that in multiple ways.

All this madness can seem so overwheming cumulatively that I want to go crawl in a cave, somewhere, and shrug it all out of my existence. Then again, maybe we should all crawl back in caves, initiate a new cave-culture. Maybe the entire world would be better off.

Did I Tell the Potatoes Story Yet?

Because the digital camera I recieved for christmas last year is malfunctioning, and I have about twenty-five bars to shoot pictures of for AOL before I leave in one week, I went to staples.com a couple days ago and bought myself a brand new digital camera. It's one of the nicest things I've ever owned. I'm serious. I'm a Target Clearance shelf/ Buffalo Exchange/ coupon clippin' shopper for the most part, and I never purchase anything state-of-the-art. I usually think it's a waste of money to do so, since everything tends to depreciate. Plus, I'd rather work that much less and write that much more.

This is also the first time I've ever owned some kind of electronic that beats out Bryson. Bryson, although he has what I consider a very good attitude about money (he saves, budgets, invests, and only splurges on stocks and sushi), is spoiled more rotten than a six-month old sack of potatoes. True, he has worked since age sixteen, serving pizzas, handing out fliers, dancing to "Wild Wild West" and handing out bibs at Joe's Crab Shack. However, when it comes to electronics, Bryson owns at least one of everything, and somehow he always gets around having to buy these things himself. I'm talking about a guy with three laptops, four servers, two desktop computers, a Microsoft media center, two flat screen monitors, a tablet PC, a PDA, an XBOX, a digital video camera, three digital cameras over the last few years, and so on and so on, blah blah blah.

Out of all that madness, he paid for half of one of the laptops.

But am I bitter? No! Because I get to play with everything!

And I have a new camera! 6.2 megapixels! In-camera red-eye removal! Panorama mode! 24x total zoom! A nice piece of equipment! Which I bought all by myself, simply by serving martinis to creeps, teaching English to kids who don't speak English, and taking notes in dodgy North Park bars. Problem is, Bryson's trying to convince me to bring it to Thailand. He brought his to Central America, and these past couple weeks it's been malfunctioning as well. I argue that his mommy bought him his, no holiday necessary, so it was much easier to gamble. Losing mine would be simply tragic. And I got it for a simply stellar deal, a $377 camera for $229, limited time only. I couldn't get that again, not until after a couple years of depreciation. Anyone have an opinion?

A Tempermental Gila Monster

In honor of our trip, Bryson and I watched The Beach tonight. Have you seen it? On movies-mecca site www.rottentomatoes.com, the film scored a pathetic 18%.

I have found that I usually agree with the aggregate consensus of the critics. War of the Worlds, for example, scored 72%, which correlates with how I feel about the film. Parts of it were so spectacular I found myself saying, "Wow!" out loud (nerd). However, the end was absurdly sweet, tied up with a nice plump bow. I really wish they'd killed off the son. I could have handled it.

I would not, however, have given The Beach an 18%. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Maybe because the whole time I was watching it, ecstatic emotions were percolating inside my chest. I saw madcap Khao San Road in Bangkok and thought, I'm going to be there. I saw the pale green lagoon at Koh Phi Phi and thought, I'm going to swim in that. How could I help it?

Besides that, the premise of the film (or book, which I began reading at sixteen on a Europe trip and left in some hotel in France, half-finished) is so innovative and fascinating, I feel actual anger that I didn't come up with it. A Thai beach peopled by jaded backpackers, accessible only by following the scrawlings on a esoteric map. Crazed weed farmers. Red-hot red tide hanky panky. Death by shark bite, gunshot, nose plugging, wrist slitting, and sharpened bamboo booby trap.

I do recommend this film, if you haven't already seen it and despised it of your own accord. I also recommend this, to ameliorate your experience: Tune out most of Richard's voice-over, and space out during the middle chunk where he temporarily loses his mind. Make sure you leave the room as soon as the video game sequence commences. And for the love of God, bite your cheeks when Leo hisses at the backpacker girl in the marijuana field., just like a tempermental Gila monster.