Yeah, these three travelers share something alright, a profound stupidity worthy of being selected against by evolution...

Who in their right mind thinks that hiking along the Iran/Iraq border as an American is advisable?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/04/iran.americans/index.html

Seriously, I have no compassion for these idiots. Iran can keep em as far as I'm concerned.

Sept 5. Update:

Confirmed Date: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 in LONDON
Confirmed Location: CANTALOUPE in the East End (off Old Street), starting from 8:00 pm

Location on Google Maps

We have five confirmed participants so far: BreaksTheEarth, gwiz665, ornthoron, haldaug and maatc

I have reserved a corner for eight people hoping some more local London sifters will show. The more the merrier!

Here is an accomodation suggestion for out of towners
... more inside ...

According to a "a survey of 1,500 European hotel managers conducted in April for Expedia.com" Americans are the best tippers. full article.

From the article:

Americans are the best tippers at Euro hotels, by far, the survey says. Also good at spreading around the pounds and euros -- Russians and Japanese. Least generous tippers: Germans, French, Israelis.

Americans also are considered the third most polite hotel guests, behind Japanese and British travelers.

Least polite, according to the survey: Russians, followed by Israelis and the French.

Who's best dressed: Italians, ahead of the French and Spanish.

Worst dressed: Oh dear. It's Americans, by far, followed by Brits and Germans. Maybe it's time to ditch the tell-tale baseball caps, baggy shorts, running shoes and T shirts.

And noisiest: Americans again, behind Italians.

... I will be taking a leave of absence from the sift for a while. I know I haven't been on the sift too too long, but it feels big because the sift(ers) has really helped to keep my sanity during my trying times trying to lock down my masters degree.

About to join a documentary crew as a cameraman, starting up in Maine, and ending all the way down in the Keys. If you haven't guessed, the doc is about route 1. I guess they are aiming to sell it to travel or discovery (if they are lucky)... otherwise, you may see it on PBS or something within the next year (will keep you posted). After that (a month) I am going to be moving up to rochester, NY, and will be starting on an Art History PhD in the fall. Whew. it never ends.

In any case, i wish you all the best during the rest of the summer. See you soon, and keep those quality embedz flowin', kids!

The Chicago Sun Times announces a fantastic upgrade to the Sear Tower skydeck

The Ledge

Soon, an inch of glass with separate brave Chicago tourists from a 103 story drop and a short stop. FANTASTIC!! "The Ledge" will be available in June and will consist of multiple solid glass rooms extending 4.3 feet into the thin air around the observation deck of the Sears Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world.

... more inside ...
So today I went to Georgia Tech to start my transfer ball rolling. After that, I came home and had a nice relaxing day with the gf.
A friend of mine was turning 21, so we went to Taco Mac in Decatur, a 25 minute drive from downtown. Luckily I was chosen to be DD for the night. Around 2, we get back to Atlanta. My gf decided it was time to go home, and Marta closes about 1, so I am charged to drive another 30minutes*2 to take her to her car. gdgdgd, i was already irritated. Everyone had gone back to my house to finish the night.
Back in downtown, I was about a mile from my house, getting off of the interstate, when I saw an unfortunate soul in the middle of the intersection of Moreland and Memorial with an old chrysler van bleeding oil on the road and with the airbags deployed. I pulled over to see if I could help.
Enter Mel:
Mel, a 42 year old, overweight, bearded, tattooed musician, riding about a 5 on the sketchy scale, had "hit a pothole." His car was crippled; he was piss ass fuck shit damn titty "drunk." I helped him push his car to the nearby gas station then offered him a ride home. As it turned out, he lived about 30 minutes north of Atlanta.
For clarity, I was in constant correspondence with my girlfriend, though in retrospect, bad idea.
Our ride North consisted of his constant thanks and pondering repayment (he only had a benjamin, and I only had a million dollar bill that the nice evangelists had given me in the park). I really wasn't concerned about it. He also could not half of what we spoke about, and about 3 miles from his house, decided he needed a Natty, which he pulled from his mysterious bag (which i am extremely suspect of).
I dropped him off at HIS MOTHER'S house, drew a map of where his car was, and returned home again.
On top of this, 75-S was blocked on all lanes. I don't know why, but I had to find my way home halfway on back roads.
I come home to my belligerent room mate on the couch watching SG-1, who then proceeds to tell me that Wes, the recently 21, had had quite the eventful night.
Wes' night consisted of getting drunk at Taco Mac, then coming back to my house. Once here, he drank more. Next, he found gasoline on the back porch (wtf, why?) and decided it would be fun to play with. He then found my shirt, drying on the porch, and decided to combine them. He also decided that my sandwich supplies (ham, turkey, cheese, lettuce, and where the hell is the mayo!?) did not have enough shit/crap/poop/literal feces in them; so he did what any decent American would do, and shat in the tupperware, then distributed the remains about my neighbor's and my back yard (my back yard belonging to the people downstairs).
Also, the mop was in too few pieces, so Wes made sure that was promptly fixed as well.

I am shrugging it off now, and will soon have help coping with the tremendous toll this night has had on me.
If you've gotten this far, I commend you, and apologize for wasting your time.

Just wanted to set all our differences aside and wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. It's been snowing a lot where I'm on vacation, so it's going to be a white Christmas yayyyyy! We're going to make like a 100 Christmas cookies, over frost them and listen to happy holiday music. May your days be merry and briiiiiiiiight...

Calling all west coast Cannucks!

Do you have any recommendations for a visitor to Vancouver, BC? What are the sites to see? What are the best restaurants? What should not be missed? Any stage shows worth seeing? Etc.

Thanks!

Bit of a silly request, maybe, but this year I might be able to take a couple of days off to go to Guca (www.guca.co.yu), but I don't feel like going on my own (somehow none of my friends are even remotely interested in Balkan music). Are there sifters out there, Eklek, Kulpims, maybe, thinking of going?