Gonna Go Back in Time!!!

It's really hard to imagine the days before computers, cell phones, and all the gadgets upon which we rely on a daily basis. In fact, i was listening to the radio the other day when I heard something that really got me thinking. There was a poll taken in london about what it would take to give up your cell phone. It turns out the british REALLY love there cell phones, over 1/3rd of the people polled would rather pass on a cool £1 million pounds (close to $2 million for folks on this side of the pond) than give up their mobiles. I know the British are known for some wacky stuff like Benny Hill and Monty Phython, but that is just plain looney, or perhaps i have a misunderstanding of their "high tea" tradition. For $2 million dollars, people I want to get in touch with would be getting a boat load of singing telegrams. (see related article i found http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/cnet/story?id=3313826 as well as the singing telegram company that would become my make-shift cell http://www.bubbygram.com/ ).

I imagine that most of you, while reading this, are taking that much deserved "5 minute break" to check your email, much as i'm spending my 5 minute break to bring you this blog. I have to ask the question, what did people do at work without the internet? Its crazy to imagine there are actually people, to this day, working jobs without that constant connection. On one of our recent trips to the burbs stephanie and i discovered a person with just such a job. Now, I believe that this person's actual job was to sell apartments, but just like the rest of us, he deserves his "5 minute break" (as a side note, why would the apartment complex think that this guy would entice me into purchasing one of their units...see picture below for my confusion). Can this picture be considered a fair representation of what life is like sans technology? Because if it is then........... count me in. (ps. sorry for the poor resolution, its the best my cell could do).

Just in case you can't make out what's actually going on in this picture, i have zoomed in a bit for you


Ok, just to make this clear, if i did in fact give up my cell phone you guys might benefit from the excitement of receiving a singing telegram from your favorite celebrity impersonator, but you be missing out on bunnyman sliding down the hill on his "for sale" sign. So tobey mcguire played Spiderman, and Clooney, Kilmer and Keaton played Batman, I wonder who this masked crusader is?

Lunch Last Saturday

Stephanie and I went out to lunch last Saturday at Luna, a nice little restaurant just outside of Dupont Circle on 17th and P. Perfect day to sit on the patio. We were finishing our meals when i had a russian man walk by on the sidewalk and ask me what i thought was the question "do you speak russian"? i was taken aback by this so I asked him to repeat himself and sure enough he repeated "do you speak russian"? Seeing as the only russian i actually know are the following seemingly useless words:

Stolis as in the vodka,
Yasinya (yelled by Rocky in Rocky IV, unfortunately no clue what it means),
Da (i actually know this means yes),
Gorbachof (meaning map of eastern europe on forehead).
Das Vidanya ( i think it means goodbye)
Nostrovia (my understanding is this means to drink)

So now unless this guy wants to drink stolis while watching Rocky V with spit shining Michel Gorbachof's birthmark and then leaving, which by the way I am always up for, then he probably didn't want to talk to me. So i answered the only appropriate and truthful answer, "No". Apparently this was not the answer he was expecting at all because he looked at me in disbelief and responded "REALLY?", like he actually thought for some reason that i could speak the language of Mother Russia. I had worn my "hey, i'm from russia T-shirt" the day before so that was at home in the hamper, so stephanie and i couldn't figure out why he asked me (and there were about 10 other people around, but he chose to ask me, good ol' mother russia how i miss thee).

Welcome to My Blog

Ok, before you comment on the title of the blog, first read my rationale for the naming. You know that old saying that "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?" I guess the answer the answer to that question for me is yes, i guess i would. Now on the surface that statement seems to imply that jumping off a bridge is a dangerous activity, or that is the impression you get when your mom uses it anyway. But if you think about it, you really don't know anything about the "bridge" so you really can't judge the safety of the jump. Perhaps the bridge isn't really all that high, and perhaps there is water or pillows at the base of the bridge. Maybe my legs are bound with bungee cords, who knows. On top of that, my friends aren't really That stupid, so if ALL of my friends were jumping off the bridge, i think that i'd be compelled to join them and jump off that bridge. Besides, i'd be really bored up on that bridge by myself. So to that end I have named this blog "Jumping Off a Bridge." Sometimes you have to take a risk in life, or "jump off a bridge", otherwise life might seem a little boring.

I can't promise that this blog is going to be too entertaining, or even updated that often. What i can promise is that there will be limited speling misteaks (thinks two bilt-in spill chicker) as well what will appear as a limited knowledge of proper grammar. I'll do my best not to offend anyone, but i can assure you that is impossible unless all of my blogs go something like this: " ". just the fact that you say anything at all almost guarantees that somebody is going to be offended/disagree, but i'll do my best. In reality, i imagine that there are only about 10 people who might actually Ever read this blog, and at best probably 2 who will check back to see if I have written anything clever or witty on a regular basis.

They say there are two types of people in this world, the "glass is half empty" kind, and the "glass is half full" variety. I don't really know what kind of "glass" person I am, that really all depends on what's in that glass. If you're talking Sweetwater 420, then I prefer to be a "Half Full" type of guy (really All full), but in reality i end up being an "Empty" kind of guy, or in college a double-glass kind of guy. And if we're talking about beer, i actually prefer mine out of the bottle, you can keep the glass. But if, alas, the glass if filled with cough syrup or rubbing alcohol then i'll be leaning on the "half empty" side, assuming I don't have a cold or any urgent need for rubbing alcohol. Basically the point I am bumbling to get to is that I know what kind of guy I am, a over-thinker. Now the good thing about that is that I've read a blog or two and most of them seem to be written about really stupid things people observe, it worked for Seinfeld. The bad news is that I am neither Larry David or Jerry Seinfeld, but I did stay at a holiday inn last night (side note: I feel that line is Way underused). But hopefully my wondering thoughts translate into some good blog material.

With all of that said, I welcome you to my blog.