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 quintaff cuenta) 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.

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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As you all know I love time-travel, and while never being a Doctor Who fan this new (started in 2005) series is just brilliant! In case you didn’t know, the new Doctor Who is produced (and sometimes written) by Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk and Torchwood) so it’s not your grandpa’s sci-fi show (and neither is Torchwood which runs later at night). Steven Moffat wrote this week’s episode as well as several other episodes, some older shows (but I’m not sure if they were specials or radio shows), many episodes of Coupling (US and UK) and more.

This week’s episode is just full of non-stop action and non-stop paradoxes and is just excellent! It’s kinda scary too(!), I think that’s what makes it seem so non-stop. This episode barely shows the main characters and instead focuses on a woman from London outside the normal time-line of The Doctor and Martha. As she’s piecing things together it’s very entertaining since you know it’s going to all going to tie up neatly by the end. But one of the best parts is when he’s explaining the non-linerarity of time and says “it’s like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff” and it makes complete sense to the viewer; it’s then you know the writers are doing something right..

The other good line is when Sally’s talking about talking pictures of old things (which makes her sad) and her friend asks her “What’s good about sad?” and Sally responds with “It’s happy for deep people”…

And the extra bonus is that starting next week (for 3 episodes) we have the return of Captain Jack Harkness!

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HA! Never heard that one before!!!!

“The early bird may get the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese”
– Wendy’s MySpace Page

I Googled it and found all sorts of references but didn’t see an original source.

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“If you want a better world…
…you’re going to have have to be better people”

Found on the chalkboard at Trixie’s coffeehouse in Roseville, MI.

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I liked this

Plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.
- Winston Churchill

I stole this from Sizzle’s…

It reminds me of

Man Plans… God laughs…

But I’m not sure who said it. Einstein?

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A new season and it’s still a great show! I’m getting used to the new theme song (actually same lyrics but a different band or mix).

"Now maybe other people would say they’d never install a tracking device in their significant other’s car. But I think that’s just because they don’t know how."

— Veronica Mars

I just love Veronica Mars!

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I just really liked how this sounded so you get get to hear it too.

‘‘There’s something sort of magical about putting flour and sugar and eggs and chocolate chips in a bowl and having it turn into cookies that taste this good.’’
— Mi

Mi from Le blog d’une voyageuse de femme said this and it stuck in my head (and now I want cookies).

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At a certain age
you’ll find it extraordinary
the compromises
one is willing to make
for even the possibility of love.

That’d be Denny Crane from Crane, Poole and Schmidt in Boston.

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In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

Robert Heinlein

For a science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein has a lot of great short quotes that have nothing to do with Sci-Fi.

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“I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every
other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the
locks, they are always locking three.”

–Elayne Boosler

Here’s another…

“Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I’m halfway through my
fishburger and I realize, Oh my God….I could be eating a slow learner.”
–Lynda Montgomery

From Don’t Forward.

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Bumper sticker that I was just behind:

Peace on Earth for Everyone.
No Exceptions!

Or something close to that meaning. And I agree!

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"Someone will invite you to a Karaoke party."

And my lucky numbers are: 49, 5, 33, 17, 23, 7

The food was pretty good too! :)

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CNN says Rita becomes third most intense hurricane on record:

“Rita — the powerful Category 5 storm plowing across the Gulf of Mexico – has become the third most intense hurricane on record, according to National Hurricane Center data. Long lines of cars Wednesday headed out of coastal Texas towns and Houston — the fourth most populous city in the country. Evacuating parents were told to take photos of their children and to give them identification in case they get separated.”– CNN.com

Now that’s a nightmare, worrying about getting separated from your babies while during the storm, I can’t even imagine. What the heck is going on with the weather these days?!? I can barely remember any weather disasters compared to any of these hurricanes and tsunamis in the past year. I remember occasional hurricanes and tornados in my life, but it’s just been non-stop lately. They’re having to relocate the relocated people from Katrina. This is like Irwin Allen / Movie of the Week kinda stuff…

My thoughts go out to everyone who’s in this mess. The same for those worried about friends and family.

Tuesday night, the sheriff (from Louisiana) wrote a check for $2.5 million out of the department’s bank account — which only had $23,000 in it — to reserve 150 trailers for his staff.

I’m not sure how long NOAA will have this photo up (551k), but it’s amazing… They keep current events up for about 60 days, check out some of the archive.

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One of the last of my painted rocks entries (see some other painted rock posts).

So when I first saw this rock and noticed the way it was written I thought that something happened to Meghan, maybe she died or was in a coma or something, but later when I was looking at the images I didn’t think see it that way so much. But now as I’m writing this post I feel it again. Something about Meghan makes me feel like she’s in the past tense (especially the last sentence), I get the idea that Meghan was never going to see this rock and it made me wonder why? What do you think when you read it?

As you all know I had that sad Avril song running through my head as I was climbing along (and I thought it was sad when she sang it at the concert). But that hasn’t been as all-consuming in my brain lately.

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Another painted rock from my trip to Illinois (click picture to enlarge). If you haven’t seen them I’ve posted of few of these since the last weekend in June. It was really crazy how much I enjoyed walking along the shore reading these rocks. At least I’ve finally got that darn Avril song out of my head….

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So here’s another painted rock with a quote on it (click image to enlarge) that I saw down by Lake Michigan. As I was walking along all these rocks (which really means jumping precariously from rock to rock) I had the darn Avril song running through my head. It was really kinda sad as I’m reading these rocks with different inspiring and sad messages running through my head. There were some really great ones but they were too faded or just too difficult (lighting/angle/shadows) to get a photograph of.

It was an experience to see the beautiful peaceful water on one side and also be climbing all over the rocks and then pausing to read some of the writings or to see some of the pictures. And then that darn song which always makes me feel little was running through my head.

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