Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
10 reasons you should come party on April 20th
Background - Bryan and Jacob put a bug in my ear about having a party before I left. This is the result of those discussions. It'll be April 20th from 7:00 PM until whenever we go home at Uptown Pub (3605 McKinney Avenue Dallas, TX 75204).
If you're reading this, you're invited. Show up. No need to bring anything but yourself and some friends.
Now the fun part -
(read #1 and realized it made me sound old. Shit.)
In all seriousness - I would love to see everyone that could make it.
If you're reading this, you're invited. Show up. No need to bring anything but yourself and some friends.
April 20th.
Uptown Pub.
7:00 PM.
10 reasons you should come party on April 20th:
10. It will be a good chance to see everyone you haven't seen in awhile.
9. You get a chance to go to Uptown Pub - seriously overlooked and overshadowed by all the douch-y bars nearby. But it's not douch-y. Just surrounded by douche.
8. You can do shots again, several of them, and not feel guilty. You're just helping me train for Georgian Supras (all night drinking / social gatherings)
7. We can go to the loon afterwards and laugh at SMU undergrads (and maybe a few grad students too).
6. You can ask fun questions about Georgian language and culture and what I'll be doing and blah blah blah blah - I know you quit listening.
5. Cougars tend to prowl around Uptown, especially Lemmon bar. I'm not saying you're interested . . . but they probably are.
4. You can make all kinds of jokes about me going to Georgia the state (Chik fil A, sweet Tea, Deliverance, Sherman's march to the sea) instead of Georgia the country.
3. You can tell me how you really feel and NEVER have to see me again. Seriously - Love, hate, spite - its all fair game.
(except for you, Mom and Dad - save it for dinner the next night).
2. You can tell the stories I swore you to secrecy about. Just know that Stalin was from Georgia, so I may learn a thing or two and come back for you.
And the number one reason you should come to the party on April 20th at Uptown Pub is . . .
You're 26-29 years old. You may or may not be married. You may or may not have a kid. You may or may not need an excuse to drink and get out of the house AND you can still be home by a reasonable hour so you can wake up the next morning and clean the garage or plant flowers or whatever it is grownups are supposed to do. Just come say hi and have a drink.
(read #1 and realized it made me sound old. Shit.)
In all seriousness - I would love to see everyone that could make it.
April 20th. Uptown Pub. 7:00 PM
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Seeing Wisconsin
Note: My apologies, this is another lazy post. 15 hours on the road yesterday and another trip today means very little time to write anything extensive. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have a party invite I can send out to all of you with location, timing, reasons to come, etc.
After 8 weeks here and only a few weeks left I wanted to try to quantify exactly how many miles I had spent on the road with Gov. Thompson. At last count it falls somewhere between 2800 and 3000. That is a hell of a lot of time in the car. I've been tracking cities for another (unrelated) reason, so below is what you get when you plug all of them in.
As I've said before, I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of awesome people and had a chance to learn a lot. Maybe someday I'll put something up about it what exactly it is we do on the road, but not tonight. Instead I'll let you look at the map while I catch some sleep before we get on the road again tomorrow. In the meantime just know that the point at the northern part of the map is really frigging far up there (5 hour trip, one way) and there is NOTHING up there aside from some really good people, a lot of snow (still), a lot of trees and a bunch of snowmobiles (seriously, they're everywhere, it's amazing. They use them for daily commutes, errands, etc. Biggest disappointment of my time in Wisconsin - no snowmobiling).
View Campaign Stops in a larger map
Hope you enjoyed it.
J
After 8 weeks here and only a few weeks left I wanted to try to quantify exactly how many miles I had spent on the road with Gov. Thompson. At last count it falls somewhere between 2800 and 3000. That is a hell of a lot of time in the car. I've been tracking cities for another (unrelated) reason, so below is what you get when you plug all of them in.
.JPG) |
| Lake Superior. Seriously, we were that far north. |
View Campaign Stops in a larger map
Hope you enjoyed it.
J
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Staging / Training / What the hell you pack for 2 years
Several of you have been asking what I plan to pack and what training will be like. Obviously I don't know a ton about it (yet), but Peace Corps Georgia has set me up with a current in-country volunteer, Gus, who is giving me a heads up about what to expect.
Staging - Staging is April 23rd in Philly. From what I've learned you're in your staging city for all of 48 hours and it is really just a chance to a.) meet everyone b.) make sure they have control of you so you don't miss your flight the next day and c.) give you a chance to go drink one last time on American soil to make sure it lasts you the 2 years you'll be gone.
Orientation - Once I actually get to Georgia we will be in a hotel for the first 3 days before we move into our training village of Telavi. Apparently we get met at the airport by some of the local media, so if you hear of an international incident caused by an American make sure to turn on the news that night to see if it was me. After the airport we head to a good restaurant to have a nice (Georgian) dinner before heading to the hotel. I've been primed to expect the next 3 days to be filled with a lot of training covering safety, security, transportation, the culture and the host families. Oh and shots. Not the drinking kind, but any vaccines we may need in country that we havent already received.
More on training after the jump
Staging - Staging is April 23rd in Philly. From what I've learned you're in your staging city for all of 48 hours and it is really just a chance to a.) meet everyone b.) make sure they have control of you so you don't miss your flight the next day and c.) give you a chance to go drink one last time on American soil to make sure it lasts you the 2 years you'll be gone.
Orientation - Once I actually get to Georgia we will be in a hotel for the first 3 days before we move into our training village of Telavi. Apparently we get met at the airport by some of the local media, so if you hear of an international incident caused by an American make sure to turn on the news that night to see if it was me. After the airport we head to a good restaurant to have a nice (Georgian) dinner before heading to the hotel. I've been primed to expect the next 3 days to be filled with a lot of training covering safety, security, transportation, the culture and the host families. Oh and shots. Not the drinking kind, but any vaccines we may need in country that we havent already received.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Madison vs. Austin - An objectively biased comparison
Note: I've queued up a few different posts in case I wasn't able to put a new post up due to work. After putting in 15 hours and 500 miles yesterday I decided now would be a good time to run one. Sorry for being lazy.-JM
After I made plans to move to Madison, I kept hearing how much Madison was like Austin. For those of you not from not familiar with the great city on Lady Bird Lake, you're missing out. All the live music you can handle, more bars than some small european countries, killer barbecue and texmex, texas university, the Texas State Capitol; you get the idea. And that doesn't even include the lakes, or the hiking, or the hill country just outside of town. So needless to say, Madison had a lot to live up to before I even got here.
Both have great reputations as judged by people who spend a lot more time writing about these things than I do (GQ, Mens Health and Esquire), but I wanted to at least take a stab at it on my own after the greatness Madison has shown me so far.
Round 1: State Capitol and <more> liberal outpost than the rest of the state.
Both of these cities have there fair share of liberals (not passing judgement - just saying). But Madison? Holy hell. Blows Austin out of the water. Austin-ites don't hold a candle to some of the people up here I have met. But when compared to the rest of the state, Austin/Texas and Madison/Wisconsin is pretty close.
Don't forget though, the Texas Capitol is taller. Those 24 feet make a difference.
Round 1: Austin
Round 2: College campus
Obviously they both meet this one. But I definitely prefer UW to texas (the university, not the state).
Round 2: Madison
Round 3: Raunchy, reckless strips of bars (aka State Street vs. 6th Street)
After I made plans to move to Madison, I kept hearing how much Madison was like Austin. For those of you not from not familiar with the great city on Lady Bird Lake, you're missing out. All the live music you can handle, more bars than some small european countries, killer barbecue and texmex, texas university, the Texas State Capitol; you get the idea. And that doesn't even include the lakes, or the hiking, or the hill country just outside of town. So needless to say, Madison had a lot to live up to before I even got here.
Both have great reputations as judged by people who spend a lot more time writing about these things than I do (GQ, Mens Health and Esquire), but I wanted to at least take a stab at it on my own after the greatness Madison has shown me so far.
 |
| Without further ado - Texans vs. Sconnies |
Round 1: State Capitol and <more> liberal outpost than the rest of the state.
Both of these cities have there fair share of liberals (not passing judgement - just saying). But Madison? Holy hell. Blows Austin out of the water. Austin-ites don't hold a candle to some of the people up here I have met. But when compared to the rest of the state, Austin/Texas and Madison/Wisconsin is pretty close.
Don't forget though, the Texas Capitol is taller. Those 24 feet make a difference.
Round 1: Austin
Round 2: College campus
Obviously they both meet this one. But I definitely prefer UW to texas (the university, not the state).
Round 2: Madison
Round 3: Raunchy, reckless strips of bars (aka State Street vs. 6th Street)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
64 days left
Several of you have asked what I am planning to do before I leave for Georgia, so instead of pumping out another 1500 words on Madison politics (and having my sister send me a critique about begin insensitive to members of the public unions here in Madison) I thought I would publish my plans. I am trying to see as many people as possible and am definitely open to any invitations people send my way, so if you have an idea, please shoot it my way.
More after the jump (and there is a party invite too - keep reading).
More after the jump (and there is a party invite too - keep reading).
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Small town politics
When I planned on starting this thing I made the goal to post at least on a regular basis, and once in the past month isn't on par with what I had in mind. I apologize - things have gotten pretty crazy here.
What is in Madison, and what I'm up to (after the jump) -
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| Cap at night on the walk home. Beautiful. But 24 feet shorter than the Texas Capitol. |
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