Far East Cynic

I got this from a friend. I liked it-so I am sharing with you.

Profound statements.

1.  I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2.  Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3.  I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4.         There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5.         How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6.         Was learning cursive really necessary?

7.         Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8.         Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the Person died.

9.         I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10.       Bad decisions make good stories.

11.       You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything    productive for the rest of the day.

12.       Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13.       I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14.       “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this -ever.

15.       I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16.       I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17.       I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18.       I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19.       I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

20.       I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

21.       Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

22.       I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

23.       The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

24.       I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

25.       How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

26.       I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

27.       Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

28.       Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

29.       There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

30.       As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

31.       Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

32.       Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

As mentioned earlier-last Sunday we went to Peles castle in Sinaia:

I guess you could call it a castle-but to me it strikes me as more of a well appointed hunting lodge. It was built in 1881 by King Carol of Romania:

I paid the 32 RON for a photo pass and took some pictures of the inside. It was well appointed all right:

This is the room where Romania signed its declaration of neutrality in 1914. It did not last however and in 1916 Romania was drawn into the war:

Evidently, it was good place for state dinners though:

Another shot from the outside-nestled as it is in the Carpathian Mountains:

See the entire gallery of the castle(s)-Peles and Pelisor here.

As is my custom on August 6-I try to honor the day that life changed forever in Japan, in an event that haunts them still today.

Today is the 6th of August. It was the day in 1945 when the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the B-29 Enola Gay. In Japan, today is known as Genbaku no hi. That also began a 9 day period when Japan was literally and figuratively on the brink of the abyss. I wrote a detailed post about that time a couple of years ago. GI Korea has a pretty good history of the Atomic Bomb here.

Japan Probe has some pretty good coverage here.

As the “Teflon General” gets settled in and takes charge of America’s on going war without end in Afghanistan, Raymond Bonner asks the question we should have asked ourselves a long time ago:

I was reminded of this when I read Jim Fallows post in which he said he would be examining the AfPak Wikileaks documents with one question in mind: Can the Afghanistan project work? In other words, can we win?

It’s the wrong question, Jim. (We’ve been friends since our days as “Nader’s Raiders.”) The question is, should we be there at all?” (Emphasis mine).

Bonner then goes on to rip apart the core argument that neo-cons advance over and over again, that we have a moral imperative to be bogged down forever in a country that cannot or will not help itself. Regardless of the cost in dollars, the end of America’s leading position in the world,the empowerment of Iran and Pakistan; the deaths of hundreds of thousands or the wounds of countless more. Because a “moral imperative is a slippery slope-unless you are prepared to deal with all the injustices in the world-what makes this particular one more important than say, the countless tragedies that are happening in Africa, for example.

Many would argue that the United States now has a “moral obligation” to the Afghanistan people. We intervened to help defeat the Soviet Union, then withdrew, leaving the Afghans at the mercy of the Taliban. Do we withdraw again because we have required our objectives, leaving the country in shambles, at the mercy of the Taliban.

In law school, they teach, “ask your question, get your answer.”

If the question is, do we have a moral obligation, to insure that little girls can go to school, that women are not stoned to death, most would answer, “we should be there.”

But what if the question is, are you willing to send your son or daughter to die in Afghanistan, so that children can fly kites, women can work outside the home?

These are different questions than “can we win,” and the answers won’t be found in any of the 92,000 Wikileak documents.

And maybe, just maybe there is a limit to what we can do abroad. Perhaps the only way to win-is not to play. And by turn-spend our energies fixing up America so it really can be that “beacon of light” we so often talk about. (Without understanding what it really means.)

To be covering an airshow.

Under the category of, ” I picked a bad week to take up airshow photography“  is this little gem from the Oshkosh air show.

Everbody else is hauling a$$-but it looks like the guy in the brown is trying to save his gear before he runs. Probably not the best move…………..

Sunday was a much better day. On a whim at breakfast, we decided to go see Peles Castle in the mountain town of Sinaia. So at breakfast-I made my leave and went over to the Hotel Intercontinetal where Stefan and Valentina work……the people with whom I have been horse trading SUV’s and getting them and their intended drivers in the same chunk of real estate, for the past four weeks. I knew they could hook me up!

(If you ever need a car in Bucharest-these are the people to go see.)

Sure enough they did-a brand new VW Golf. Only 44KM on it!

So off we set to the town of  Sinaia up in the Carpathain mountains. It was worth the expense-the scenery is nice, its a lot cooler than in Bucharest-and there were two great castles to see.

All in all a good day. Pix will follow when I get some time to post them. In the meantime the S.O. and I are on the “one a day” plan trying a different Romanian wine each night. The wines here are suprisingly good-I’m suprised it does not have more of a reputation with wine snobs. We have not had a bad one yet-and we have had a couple that were really great.

Work beckons me now though-so its off to work I go. Somebody has to bankroll this excursion. More later.