Hello Fellow Travelers!
I was going to write something serious this week: Brain tumors: Food for Thought? Would Zombies still want your brain if you have a tumor? Then I heard about this:
2014 is starting off in a positive direction with a real boat disaster we can all get behind and worry about: Tell me that you've heard about this! Fifty some odd people of science, journalists, and tourists locked to the bottom of the planet by ice. In contrast to the Carnival Cruise disaster from a year ago, after several days they're still reportedly in good spirits, and there are no reports about raw sewage dripping down the walls! Since these people are braving the worst Antarctica can dish out, I'm going to re-watch "The March of the Penguins" and investigate "Penguin Research" online. They can only be rescued by helicopter, but they will be rescued! (at the time of publication, all 52 passengers were airlifted to an Australian ice breaker ship; 22 Russian crew members will stay behind until the ice breaks up.)
This is another example of how random the content we're being spoon-fed by the news media is. News ought only be as good or bad as the news itself. It just didn't resonate with me when it was a "stinky cruise" liner in the Gulf of Mexico, ironically named "Carnival Triumph." It just confirmed everything I had always suspected about hotels in general and cruise lines in particular: a nasty hotel room is only slightly better than a stateroom on a cruise ship.
Was I surprised when the "floating buffet" started to vomit raw sewage down hallways and into kitchens? Amused, absolutely! Surprised? Not so much. I was surprised it doesn't happen more often! Maybe it happens all the time and we're mercifully unaware of it! The adult passengers looked a little sheepish disembarking the "Vessel of Stench," but their kids were hilarious in their description of every disgusting detail!
The research vessel in the Antarctic? Full of good people doing good deeds with other good people trapped by bad, old, ice! A shipwreck we can be proud of! The survivors (all) airlifted off the ice-locked vessel, but it got me thinking about what, exactly, defines a disaster and what is a punchline?
Disaster or punchline? I was online and had to watch a series of Humira ads to load an app. Humira, apparently, is used to treat IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or Crohn's Disease (also requires close access to a bathroom). Why couldn't I get one of those embarrassing-but-understandable afflictions? But noooo I get a brain tumor! And just not any brain tumor either, I get a brain tumor only little kids should get (because their brains can grow out of it, not that any demographic should get this, no one should ever get this) and it's cancerous. I mean, WTH? Shingles sound really painful, so I don't want that! Any condition that Humira helps, I probably don't want. But a cancerous brain tumor? Come on! Seriously? The big "C" right out of the gate? Go Big or Go Home, I guess. OK, I went really big, so when can I go home?
PS - I watched a few minutes of "The Walking Dead". You know what's not very scary? Zombies! I even saw a teen movie ("Warm Bodies") where a girl falls in love with a "walker". The boy gets a lot better, less Zombie more Justin Timberlake as time goes on. In "The Walking Dead" the zombies start out scary but by Season 3 they're mostly annoying. They can be in any state of decay but their basic qualities have not changed - they eat brains and they move slow, really, really slow. The humans that have to deal with "walkers" start off being in abject terror and were herding "walkers" by season 3 into spaces with chain-link fencing. The programs that use zombies as a theme? I only have seen one, and the humans on TWD don't even like to waste a bullet on a "walker". They slowly shamble (and I mean slowly) along looking for more brains to snack on. So unless your Post-Holocaust friends throw you at some zombies or they sneak up behind you zombies are just not that scary!
I was going to write something serious this week: Brain tumors: Food for Thought? Would Zombies still want your brain if you have a tumor? Then I heard about this:
2014 is starting off in a positive direction with a real boat disaster we can all get behind and worry about: Tell me that you've heard about this! Fifty some odd people of science, journalists, and tourists locked to the bottom of the planet by ice. In contrast to the Carnival Cruise disaster from a year ago, after several days they're still reportedly in good spirits, and there are no reports about raw sewage dripping down the walls! Since these people are braving the worst Antarctica can dish out, I'm going to re-watch "The March of the Penguins" and investigate "Penguin Research" online. They can only be rescued by helicopter, but they will be rescued! (at the time of publication, all 52 passengers were airlifted to an Australian ice breaker ship; 22 Russian crew members will stay behind until the ice breaks up.)
This is another example of how random the content we're being spoon-fed by the news media is. News ought only be as good or bad as the news itself. It just didn't resonate with me when it was a "stinky cruise" liner in the Gulf of Mexico, ironically named "Carnival Triumph." It just confirmed everything I had always suspected about hotels in general and cruise lines in particular: a nasty hotel room is only slightly better than a stateroom on a cruise ship.
Was I surprised when the "floating buffet" started to vomit raw sewage down hallways and into kitchens? Amused, absolutely! Surprised? Not so much. I was surprised it doesn't happen more often! Maybe it happens all the time and we're mercifully unaware of it! The adult passengers looked a little sheepish disembarking the "Vessel of Stench," but their kids were hilarious in their description of every disgusting detail!
The research vessel in the Antarctic? Full of good people doing good deeds with other good people trapped by bad, old, ice! A shipwreck we can be proud of! The survivors (all) airlifted off the ice-locked vessel, but it got me thinking about what, exactly, defines a disaster and what is a punchline?
Disaster or punchline? I was online and had to watch a series of Humira ads to load an app. Humira, apparently, is used to treat IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or Crohn's Disease (also requires close access to a bathroom). Why couldn't I get one of those embarrassing-but-understandable afflictions? But noooo I get a brain tumor! And just not any brain tumor either, I get a brain tumor only little kids should get (because their brains can grow out of it, not that any demographic should get this, no one should ever get this) and it's cancerous. I mean, WTH? Shingles sound really painful, so I don't want that! Any condition that Humira helps, I probably don't want. But a cancerous brain tumor? Come on! Seriously? The big "C" right out of the gate? Go Big or Go Home, I guess. OK, I went really big, so when can I go home?
PS - I watched a few minutes of "The Walking Dead". You know what's not very scary? Zombies! I even saw a teen movie ("Warm Bodies") where a girl falls in love with a "walker". The boy gets a lot better, less Zombie more Justin Timberlake as time goes on. In "The Walking Dead" the zombies start out scary but by Season 3 they're mostly annoying. They can be in any state of decay but their basic qualities have not changed - they eat brains and they move slow, really, really slow. The humans that have to deal with "walkers" start off being in abject terror and were herding "walkers" by season 3 into spaces with chain-link fencing. The programs that use zombies as a theme? I only have seen one, and the humans on TWD don't even like to waste a bullet on a "walker". They slowly shamble (and I mean slowly) along looking for more brains to snack on. So unless your Post-Holocaust friends throw you at some zombies or they sneak up behind you zombies are just not that scary!
Great post Jan. Have you seen Sean of the Dead? It's hilarious and you will get a full portion of zombies!
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