Gary Said...

The Simpsons Mock Apple Stores and Products

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:11:35 -0500

I found this over at MacRumors. It's the Simpsons at the "mApple" Store. The more you know about Apple the more inside jokes you might catch (including a poke at a 20 year old commercial).

Direct link to the mApple Simpsons video.

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Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:10:33 -0500

At Flowing Data they posted a great flowchart on the current financial crisis (it's way to big to reproduce here. Informative and easy to follow.

I think they got it from here.

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Meals I've had in Costa Rica

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:53:26 -0500

Just some photos of some of my meals from the lower Nicoya Peninsula. I thought they looked and/or tasted nice.

Sesame Chicken (Chicken dipped in Lime and Honey and rolled in sesame). La Narango resurant in Montezuma, Costa Rica. $7.50-ish

Big breakfast from the Soda Monte Sol in Montezuma, Costa Rica (2200 colones, just under $4). There is cheese in them Scrambled eggs! Server very fast!

Shrimp and Rice (Camarón y arroz) from a place in Cobano, Costa Rica. It was delicious, had lots of shrimp and it was cheap ($5 if I recall).

Click for larger versions of the food photos (I may add more photos to the album later).

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Cobano, Costa Rica

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:07:45 -0500

So Cobano is a nearby town of Montezuma it's about 7 km away. It's kind of the centralized place for the bus transfers, a few more restaurants, way faster Internet and some larger stores. Also it's the nearest bank, ATM, pharmacy, gas station, hardware store, appliances, bicycles, etc. Even with all that, it's pretty small. I was waiting for the bus the other day and shot this time lapse footage of the main intersection.

Here's the direct link to the above video.

I also shot this photo of the sky as the sun was setting. I thought the colors were great!

I wish I had a few more photos from around town...

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Dial-up speeds

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:33:08 -0500

It's a great ad, but I'm wondering if everyone looking at it knows what the dial is for? Click for the full ad.

When I talk to younger kids at school they don't actually know what "dial" means since all their phones have buttons. Sometimes I'll find a kid who says their grandparents have a phone like that (actually they usually say "Grandma").

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Bikinis are Like Socks...

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:41:49 -0500

In my opinion, you don't wear mismatched socks and you shouldn't wear mismatched bikini tops and bottoms. It's just weird. A swirl of a dozen colors on the bottoms and then the top is a solid color ("but the blue in it matches the blue on the bottoms") just doesn't cut it for me. I wouldn't wear a blue sock and a white gym sock with a blue stripe and say they match because they both have blue. They do sell these things in pairs, don't they? I don't have much fashion sense but my socks do match.

Did you lose your top and had to substitute a bottom from a different pair? Or lose the bottoms? Couldn't find both pieces in your size but bought the one part because it was cute? These aren't serious questions but when I get too much of the hot sun I start to come up with bizzaro blog post topics.

The exceptions might be Christmas (red and green) or Halloween (black and orange) or Homecoming (school colors) or something similar, but statistically you wouldn't be wearing a bikini on those days. But since obviously this rule would also include lingerie you can also use the holiday mismatch exemption for that (at least I hope it's obvious).

I guess if I wasn't traveling alone I'd have someone to vent about these important issues with.

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Taking the Bus in Costa Rica

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:41:20 -0500

So riding the bus in Costa Rica is cheap and it'll take you anywhere. The problem is figuring out when the bus is going to be running.

In the bigger cities this doesn't appear to be a problem, if you miss a bus another one will be by soon and if it's not the right bus it's still heading in the correct direction, just hop on. In the more remote areas (such as Montezuma) they probably don't come more than every two hours so if you miss the bus it's a pain.

The people closest to the bus stop seem to have the most reliable information. Restaurants and internet cafes have it written down, but they wrote it down ages ago. My trickiest problem is asking "when is the next bus?" and they tell me "it's in 20 minutes" but that's too soon for me so I try to find out about the bus after that and it's no good; I have to come back in 25 minutes and ask again to get the info for the bus after that :)

The appears to be no schedule posted, even at the bus station in Cobano (a central town in the lower Nicoya Peninsula). I did notice the bus that goes from Montezuma to Cabuya to the National Reserve does have a schedule taped to the window (4 trips a day) with pricing and everything; as an added bonus, it generally seemed to be leaving Montezuma at the correct time! More info below.

Pricing is cheap though. In San Jose I took a bus for about 150 colones (28 cents) but honestly I don't know far that would have taken me, it was in front of me heading the right way and it kept going once I got off. In Montezuma, it's 300 colones (55 cents) to go to Cobano which is 7 km. away (a very hilly/dusty walk).

You can get a direct bus all the way to San Jose from Montezuma, but you might not get a seat and there isn't any A/C but I think you can do it for about $8-ish (maybe $10 including the ferry ride).

]]>Montezuma to Cabuya to the National Reserve info: When I saw the schedule it said 600 colones to the Reserva and 500 colones to Cabuya (just over or under a $1.00). It leaves Cabuya for Montezuma at 7:20 am, 9:20 am, 1:20 pm and 3:20 pm (not sure what time it actually leaves the park). It Montezuma for Cabuya at 8 am, 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm. Obviously they get a long lunch hour or maybe it doubles as a school bus?

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Me Jumping in at the Montezuma Waterfalls

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:39:27 -0500

Just me getting into the water and climbing the big rock in the background and jumping into the water. Nothing ultra-exciting but should give an idea of the pool and jumping area...

I'm not the first person you see. I'm the guy who walks in front of the camera a few seconds into the video (and gets in). There is a larger version of the video if you go to the direct link (below). It's not the best quality, it must have lost something in the encoding to YouTube :(

Here's the direct link to the video of me.

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Child-Like Learning

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:39:02 -0500

So I think part of what makes Costa Rica (and other places I've traveled to in the world) so interesting to me is the learning that's going on. Just going into a restaurant is a new experience, almost like when your parents let you order your own food for the first time. And many other basic things becomes a learning experience.

In Costa Rica if you don't ask for the check (la quinta) they'll never bring it to your table. In England, in a pub, you have to go up to the bar in order to get drinks or food and many places will let you sit until you figure it out. It's part of the fun at least to me it is.

When I travel, I don't just want the sights, I want the learning that goes with it. I'll hit the local places off the beaten path specifically to figure things like that out. In Costa Rica, taking the bus (the bus another post to come) or getting a driver's license is an experience that lets you figure out how things work in that country. I find all those parts particularly interesting and enjoyable...

UPDATE: Usually, I don't update a post as much as I'm about to...
But I'm reading a Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson, a humourous book about traveling in Europe. And he said.

And I just thought that kind of exactly fit what I was saying a few days ago.

I'm going to change the date on this so it floats up to the top, so if you saw it already, you'll see it again for the new content...

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Free Christmas Album from Oprah

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:19:29 -0500

Here's a free Christmas Album sponsored by Oprah.

Faith Hill, "Joy to the World" from the album Joy to the World

Tony Bennett, "I'll be Home for Christmas" from the album A Swingin' Christmas

Il Divo, "O Holy Night" from the album The Christmas Collection

Josh Groban, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" from the album Noel

Brian McKnight, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" from the album I'll Be Home for Christmas

Amy Grant, "O Come All Ye Faithful" from the album The Christms Collection

Harry Connick Jr., "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" from the album What a Night! A Christmas Album

Aretha Franklin, "Silent Night" from the album This Christmas

Don't miss the cover art links too!

It says it's only available for 48 hours, but I don't know when the clock started ticking...

THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED!

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Northern Beach Waterfalls in Montezuma, Costa Rica - Part Two

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:53:25 -0500

Here's part two of the video from the waterfall video from last Saturday (Nov. 22, 2008). This is the view from the top of the falls taken a few minutes after the first video.

Here's the direct link to this waterfalls video (sometimes the embed codes don't work); be sure to notice that under the right-hand side of the video you can "watch in high quality".

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Official Bus Schedule for Costa Rica

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:40:34 -0500

Does anyone know where the Official Bus Schedule for Public Busses in Costa Rica is? A million sites list bus schedules but they're all different (and mostly wrong).

I understand the busses don't run on time. But there isn't any reason for me to be at the bus stop at 11:30 if the bus isn't until 12:30 (especially if it's going to be late), it's certainly not going to leave early.

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:09:11 -0500

While my life has been pretty cRaZy this past year it's been awesome lately. I'm very happy with most parts of my life and I am looking forward to the future. It's looking very promising with lots of things to be thankful for :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

On this holiday note, I have no idea what I'm having for dinner today. Probably not turkey since there doesn't seem to be any in this part of the country :)

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Just some photos from the Beach

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:53:15 -0500

Haven't been doing much the last few days. I've been experiencing the other Montezuma so I've been under the weather. Here's a few recent photos all from the Montezuma, Costa Rica area.

This was my view from where I sat and had my lunch.

One of the water outlets to the Pacific Ocean.

I always like trying to catch photos of birds flying, but I'm never close enough.

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A new canyon that I found :)

The waterfall two hours up the north beach.

You can't click to enlarge these, larger versions will probably show up in some other album later...

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Costa Rica Blogger - From my feed reader

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:31:09 -0500

So one of the many sites I read is the Costa Rica Blogger. It's humorous, has great tips and interesting reads. In particular, today I read a post titled Legal Ages in Costa Rica which lets you know the legal age is for drinking alcohol, buying cigarettes, etc. And related to that he talks about the issue of him trying to get his son into see the latest Batman movie.

In general it's a blog about Costa Rica covering all sorts of useful information and humorous anecdotes. For example recently they've talked about pricing for a dental cleaning, trips to the national park, cost of living and more...

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