With her usual impeccable timing...

[vulgarweed]

Mom's going to Turkey in November.

I'll just reiterate my usual advice, which she knows well: flash the green passport, not the blue one. And if you stub your toe, make sure to cuss in Portuguese, not English.

Me? Well, I'm still broke, but G installed Google Earth on my computer this weekend! I am consumed by travel fever. Google Earth is exactly to real travel as cybersex is to real sex.

Comments

[qtheallpowerful.livejournal.com]

Your mom is Portuguese?

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

She's Brazilian. She's lived in the US for 40 years, but she's a dual national and carries two passports. Nowadays, she de-emphasizes the American part in certain parts of the world.

[qtheallpowerful.livejournal.com]

Understandably.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

When it comes down to it, she'd rather argue about football than foreign policy, which is what you get by playing up the green-yellow-and-blue rather than the red-white-and-blue. :D (Especially since defending US foreign policy is something she has less than zero interest in.)

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing your mom has that green passport! (Though Turkey is still a safer place than most, I think.) Being an American in the wrong environment can get you into a hell of a lot of trouble nowadays, I suppose. (Makes me glad that Germany is alsmot as neutral as Switzerland nowadays.)

Google Earth is exactly to real travel as cybersex is to real sex.
*lol*

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Yup. Well, with Turkey still spazzing about the Armenian genocide resolution and threatening to invade the Kurdish portion of Iraq, for once not all the sabre-rattling is on our side. But then, you run into the issue of why shitting in the international punch bowl is OK when we do it. Short answer: it's not, and what "moral authority" we ever had was pissed away long ago.

I don't mind sitting around in bars in other parts of the world and apologizing profusely all night as long as they keep buying me drinks. XD

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

shitting in the international punch bowl must be the best term anyone has ever brought up for it.

I had the "moral authority" discussion with an American exchange student a while ago. He insisted the world still owes America for putting an end to the nazis in WWII, so everything else, including Iraq and anything that may come in the future is by default okay. I mean, WTF? I told him he was a moral authority to the same degree that I was a racist mass-murderer. (Not at all.)

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

The Russians did as much as we did to stop Hitler, but that didn't mean Stalin was an OK guy.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

Good parallel! And I generally hate people who pretend there are "good" states and "bad" states and moreover, as if that wasn't bad enough, take whatever arbitrary criteria they have for that view as a given historical constant. *eyeroll*

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

And in thinking about it more, I've figured out why that "argument" incenses me: it's so childish!

"I got on the honor roll that one time, so I can do anything I want from now on!"

[ladyblack888.livejournal.com]

You speak portuguese, too?

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Nao, sadly. When I was ickle, she was working on improving her English, and didn't have anyone to speak it at home with. When I'm in Brazil I pick bits up fairly quickly, and sadly forget them just as fast. I've been meaning to take a class for years. :(

[ladyblack888.livejournal.com]

*nods* You can pratice with me, if you want. :)

[schwap23.livejournal.com]

You will *love* Google Earth! Have you played with some of the magnification tools? (Disclaimer: I have only read how to do this, not actually done it) I don't mean the slide, which is nifty enough, but through some magic involving something called a "keyboard" you can do super-duper zooms, essentially letting you see right up people's noses. Only from above. Not sure how that works really, but it's damn impressive...

Now that I have rambled myself into a corner, I will provide a link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=elephants&sll=13.923404,22.324219&sspn=95.079531,168.925781&ie=UTF8&mrt=kmlkmz&ll=10.903681,19.933167&spn=0.000104,0.000161&t=k&z=23&om=1
Hey look! Elephants!

[divinetailor.livejournal.com]

Google Earth is exactly to real travel as cybersex is to real sex.

oh, goodie! there's one GRE verbal analogy question down! :D

[telperion1.livejournal.com]

Completely unrelated to the post, but - your new icon gave me a definite *gigglesnort* this morning. Priceless!