After The Party, It's The Afterparty.....

Click here to see how Obama rolled after his speech.

Peeped from the creator of Stuff Black People Hate.

Dancing Democrats

Let the guy from approximately the 17 second mark take you on a sweet escape for this Labor Day weekend.

Notes From The Bahamas-Monday

Monday was a public holiday in Nassau: Emancipation Day (which is sort of like celebrating Independence Day in the United States). Mostly everything was closed, so we took a taxi over to Paradise Island to frolick. We visited picturesque Versailles Gardens and the Cloister. Here is some interesting information about the Cloister, copied from nassauparadiseisland.com:

This Greco-Gothic masterpiece stands high on a bluff overlooking the harbour. It is a popular spot for wedding ceremonies and is especially beautiful when illuminated at night. Augustinian monks in France originally built the stone structure in the 13th century. In the 1920s, William Randolph Hearst bought the Cloister and had it disassembled and moved to the United States. There the stones lay in a warehouse for years because the contractors did not have the plans needed to reassemble it. Huntington Hartford, the millionaire developer of Paradise Island, purchased the structure and reconstructed it on the island in 1962. It is located in the Versailles Gardens.

The Cloister and I.

Poinciana trees were all over the Bahamas.

We then headed over to the Atlantis for aquarium-visiting, beach-lounging, and inner-tubing. I made friends with this fish; video evidence right here:

In the various lagoons in the Atlantis, I got a little video of indigenous Bahamian turtles, manta rays, and sawfish, among other marine life.

And just because they're awesome, here is a clip of some seahorse(s?).

Cabbage Beach at the Atlantis.

I also saw this bird on the Atlantis grounds........does anyone know what kind of bird this is?

We took a water taxi back to Nassau at the end of the day and ate at Conch Fritters Bar and Grill again. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I had the best (virgin?) strawberry daiquiri ever in life.

Yum to the nth degree.

We and some family members then ventured (via taxi) into Fox Hill Village to see any Emancipation Day celebrations. We were hoping to see the Junkanoo Rushout but we missed it. Instead, there were just local Bahamians hanging out eating, listening to music, and other "festival" activities. We did catch one of the traditions, where there is a greased pole climbing competition. Check out this brief clip I got of it:

When we were ready to leave, the police had to call for one of their own vehicles to take us back because taxis/tourists don't really come out to Fox Hill Village.

Monday was probably the most enjoyable day I had in the Bahamas.

Capped off the night with a Goombay Punch. Tastes like lemon-lime bubblegum soda.

*Dates are incorrect on the picture....all of the pictures/video here are from August 5th, 2008. Stupid digital camera.

Notes From The Bahamas-Sunday

Sunday, we went to 2 hour long Bahamian church service (Religion is a mandatory subject taught in schools) and the accompanying family luncheon. I waited way too long to review this day; as I have nothing more interesting to say about Sunday. But Monday was awesome and that review is coming soon!

Bahamian Slang: The Happening=The Event

More slang bottom left.

Cute Bahamian houses

Japanese Poodle Workout

.......I need answers. I'm not sure what questions I want to ask, but I need answers. Let us pray.

*Peeped at What Would Thembi Do?

John Edwards Is....

Disgusting. An earthworm. A coward. A failure to Democrats (could have been a much more catastrophic failure if he had actually been the nominee). During the primaries, I just plain didn't like him (this is a medical fact, ask my husband). You should always trust your judgment when your nose involuntarily scrunches into the "stank face" when you see someone.

I hope you didn't come here expecting some new, insightful, objective, or even somewhat coherent or intelligent view of him. If you did, your bad. :-)

Notes From Bahamas Trip-Saturday

*I forgot to note that Friday night, as well as every night we were in the Bahamas, there was lightning. One night there was just silent, cloud lightning that we watched from the hotel beach (possibly a liiiiiiiiittle unsafe).


Saturday morning, we rose and stretched and I looked out the window at the activity below.

View from hotel window


We walked down Bay Street and ate breakfast at Cafe' Skans (I couldn't find a good link to this place). ZOMG, this place had the Best. Strawberry. Pancakes. Ever. I don't even like pancakes but unicorns and rainbows and sparkles happened when I ate these pancakes.

*Unicorns, rainbows, and sparkles not pictured.


We then joined other members of our family on a ferry cruise to Rose Island. On the way there (and while we were there) we could see beautiful Sandy Cay, or Honeymoon Island. Before we got to Rose Island, some of the boat passengers went snorkeling, including my younger sister and I.

I am the snorkeler right above the person nearest the bottom of the picture.


It was too big of a group to get individual help and guidance, so after almost drowning (in my mind, but really just swallowing some water) I made my way back to the boat. Once the ferry stopped at Rose Island, much merriment ensued. Frolicking in the water, and banana boating were the main highlights.


Back at the hotel, despite my futile and desperate efforts at applying SPF-frickin-55 sunblock, I realized that I had what you young folks like to call the sunburn. Not a severe case, but enough to cause my melodramatic self to proclaim that the stage had been set for skin cancer.


We ate dinner right across from the hotel, at Conch Fritters Bar and Grill. We sat by the window much to my people-watching delight. During the course of the evening, there were a lot of police officers on the street, one of them carrying some sort of assault weapon. I wanted to get a picture, but my husband and I had really over-the-top dramatic visions of the police officer then crashing through the glass of the window at the restaurant and gunning us down. Yes, this is how we entertain ourselves.


At my younger sister and cousin's request, the four of us took a taxi over to Atlantis on Paradise Island to walk around. The opulence at the Atlantis is insane. The drunk teenagers we saw were insane. The fake boobs tra-la-la-ing around the casino were insane. The high-end retail stores were insane. The SIZE of the Atlantis is insane. Did any of this stop us from returning there the upcoming Monday? No, it didn't. Shut up.


On our way back, nature treated us to more silent lightning. The Bahamas treated us to a taxicab driver whose dilapidated taxi-van was for whatever reason tricked out with TVs that seemed to only run two rap videos on a continuous loop. I also saw a gem of a sign on the way back that said 'Protect Your Tings. Use A Rubber At All Times' or something to that effect. Oh, how I wish I had gotten a picture of that. I feel like I missed capturing a Pokemon or something.

Bernie Mac Is Dead

Wow, this shocked me. I hadn't been reading the reports of his pneumonia too closely because all of them conveyed the message that he was not on his death bed and expected to be released soon.

By far, my favorite comic memories of him are and will be from Kings of Comedy. Here is a clip of him talking about his sister's kids.

Notes From Bahamas Trip-Friday

Overall, I had a great time getting to know certain family members better and making connections. I got an extreme tan. I miss the beach. I will do a separate post for each day I was up there to make things easier for all (but especially me).

*

Friday, we flew from Houston to Ft. Lauderdale. We ate in the airport. Here, I noticed most of the airport staff had Caribbean-sounding accents. There was an Eastern-European looking/sounding couple who were extreme assholes to one of the hostesses. The woman in the couple even told the hostess she needs to go back to school. It is amazing to me how disgusting some people are and are either oblivious or are just content nesting in their rudeness....but I digress. We then got in a small propellor plane to Nassau. Upon landing, I thought how glad I was that we didn't check any bags on this leg so we could just frolick along without stopping for the luggage claim. We rode in a taxi to the hotel.

View from the taxi window

*


We arrived around 4:30pm to the British Colonial Hilton. We then ate and walked around a little bit and promptly crashed from jet lag/flying so early in the morning (we had only slept about 3 hours before waking up for the flight).

*


I will post on the other days of the trip soon.

Gone Sunnin'

I am enjoying Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas until further notice.

Bag Lady

I really don't want to be that bag lady. I really don't want to check any bags this Friday. I need your help, if anyone actually is reading this? *crickets*

If anyone has flown recently, can I get away with this larger suitcase as a carry-on or am I stuck with the smaller one?

Great Journeys Books

I was reading a blog I love, when I came across a posting for a book series called Great Journeys. Aside from their collective aesthetic value, I would really enjoy reading books from this series. I am a sucker for a good travel book or stories from around the world. They're only 10$ each and about 100 pages. I wish I had known about these sooner so I could take a couple to the Bahamas!

Black Children with Blonde Hair and Crocodile Scars

In Melanesia (also referred to as the Black South Pacific?), a sub-region of Oceania, there are black people with blonde hair. This is seen more frequently in children. Click here for an article about the blondism trait in genetics and some theories on the isolation of this occurence.


Photo Credit-John Friedlander



Found at this link




Found here.


I saw this interesting episode of Taboo on National Geographic about Rites of Passage. Featured were boys from Papua New Guinea who "become men" through having their skin cut thousands of times to then heal and scar over to resemble the flesh of the crocodile. The boys featured were aged 14-18 years old, and they must go through with this ritual to be considered men. One man interviewed said villagers will refer to a boy/man who has not gotten cut as a man-woman. It is said the blood from the cuts represents the bleeding out of the mother's essence, so that all that is left is manhood. Below is video from the show. If you are squeamish, then sweet, minty Jesus don't watch it. Also, NSFW.



I would love to learn more about the Oceania region of the world, so I gotsta find some good reading material.

Death Rituals

Click here for the 5 Creepiest Death Rituals, courtesy of cracked.com. I just LOVE the one where Hindi widows throw themselves on the funeral pyre to be burned alive with their husband's corpse. (/sarcasm.)

Indifference Is One of the Worst Forms of Cruelty

Wow. Two Roma/Gypsy girls drowned in Italy, and their bodies were covered with towels, waiting for police collection. Italian beach-goers were photographed going about their own beachy-business; indifferent to the CORPSES LAYING RIGHT THERE! There is apparantly tension between Italians and the Roma/Gypsy minorities (many who are illegal immigrants).

How does this even work though? Even if some Italians hate Gypsies, how did they know that those bodies were Gypsy girls? Or did they just not care either way and refused to let dead bodies interrupt their merry day?! Did the Italians go up and look under the towel and said Gypsies! Bah! And then go back to sun-bathing? Did they sun-bathe and someone informed them that there were dead Gypsies? My mind is boggled. What hurts more than random sunbathers/onlookers is the fact that the bodies weren't at least cordoned off in some fashion---this part is where thoughts of racism/discrimination really seep in.

Here is an interesting excerpt from the events:

In a statement published on its Web site, the Italian civil liberties group EveryOne said Saturday's drowning had occurred in an atmosphere of "racism and horror" and cast doubt on the reported version of events, suggesting that it appeared unusual for the four girls to wade into the sea, apparently casting modesty aside and despite being unable to swim.
"The most shocking aspect of all this is the attitude of the people on the beach," the statement said. "No one appears the slightest upset at the sight and presence of the children's dead bodies on the beach: they carry on swimming, sunbathing, sipping soft drinks and chatting."

Click here for the full article from CNN.

Cat-Oh It's Like That?

This was peeped over at the blog of Qucifer. The music. The cat's expression at the end. I can't.

National Geographic-Places of a Lifetime

National Geographic has compiled a list of places of a lifetime; cities all curious travelers should consider. They include very detailed information and amazing photos of each place. Here are my favorites from the list (click the destination name for info about it):

Amsterdam
Budapest
Istanbul
Moscow
New York

Click here for the full list.

Pampers Commercial

Dudes, I told my husband that I thought this commercial was kind of racist a while ago, but I don't think he saw it at the time. Click here for the Sociological Images website's take on it. The website states some of the same issues I had with the commercial: The Western white woman is envisioning all the Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, and Latin babies she will be saving by purchasing Pampers. Just disregard all those other races/ethnicities that are just as representative as the white woman of the United States. Oh, and of course there aren't any white babies from any other poor or developing countries in need of the magical life-saving powers of Pampers-purchasing. Don't forget to show the babies and mothers the white woman will be saving in "native attire" for the most dramatic effect!

Sociological Images also brings up something else important. Why can't these companies just buy life-saving vaccines or other *insertgoodcausehere*? Why do we have to buy their junk to have a portion go toward the vaccines?

Food Suicides-California Raisins

My friend Alex mentioned another food suicide to me: The California Raisins. This is especially twisted because the Raisins sing about how good they are. I bet it is cutthroat in the Raisin world. One Raisin messes up on a note, and game over. Eat or get ate for real.

Click here for my original Food Suicides post.

A Murder....

Did you know that a group of crows is called a Murder of crows? True story.

Oh, and this fact just makes the movie, The Birds even more awesome.