Jersey Boys 2013 - Photos

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Portland is known as one of the most bicycle friendly cities

But to my astonishment I discovered that with death staring him in the face Abner Perry was transformed into a new being. From his lips there flowed—not prayer—but a clear and limpid stream of undiluted profanity, and it was all directed at that quietly stubborn piece of unyielding mechanism.
"I should think, Perry," I chided, "that a man of your professed religiousness would rather be at his prayers than cursing in the presence of imminent death."

"Death!" he cried. "Death is it that appalls you? That is nothing by comparison with the loss the world must suffer. Why, David within this iron cylinder we have demonstrated possibilities that science has scarce dreamed. We have harnessed a new principle, and with it animated a piece of steel with the power of ten thousand men. That two lives will be snuffed out is nothing to the world calamity that entombs in the bowels of the earth the discoveries that I have made and proved in the successful construction of the thing that is now carrying us farther and farther toward the eternal central fires."

I am frank to admit that for myself I was much more concerned with our own immediate future than with any problematic loss which the world might be about to suffer. The world was at least ignorant of its bereavement, while to me it was a real and terrible actuality.

"What can we do?" I asked, hiding my perturbation beneath the mask of a low and level voice.
"We may stop here, and die of asphyxiation when our atmosphere tanks are empty," replied Perry, "or we may continue on with the slight hope that we may later sufficiently deflect the prospector from the vertical to carry us along the arc of a great circle which must eventually return us to the surface. If we succeed in so doing before we reach the higher internal temperature we may even yet survive. There would seem to me to be about one chance in several million that we shall succeed—otherwise we shall die more quickly but no more surely than as though we sat supinely waiting for the torture of a slow and horrible death."

I glanced at the thermometer. It registered 110 degrees. While we were talking the mighty iron mole had bored its way over a mile into the rock of the earth's crust.

"Let us continue on, then," I replied. "It should soon be over at this rate. You never intimated that the speed of this thing would be so high, Perry. Didn't you know it?"

"No," he answered. "I could not figure the speed exactly, for I had no instrument for measuring the mighty power of my generator. I reasoned, however, that we should make about five hundred yards an hour."

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Polish Tragedy: Warsaw Uprising Of 1944.

German soldiers hiding behind the pillars of the Grand Opera in Warsaw as they crush the uprising.

The Polish are a very fiercely proud people. So when the Treaty of Versailles gave birth to an independent Poland in 1919, it delighted the Polish heart. But not for long. In 1939 Germany and Soviet Russia swallowed it up after partitioning it.

1944. The Germans are being beaten thoroughly by the advancing Red Army. The Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, the non-communists) thought the time was ripe to throw the Germans out themselves so that they could claim the right to rule Poland in a post-German era.

The Home Army thought that the Red Army on the other side of the Vistula would lent a helping hand. But the Russians just watched as the Uprising was brutally crushed by the Germans.

Many say Stalin did not help the uprising because he wanted a pro-Soviet communist government in Poland. This is partly the truth. The Red Army had been on the heels of the retreating Germans for months after Operation Bagration. The supply lines were stretched. The Russians soldiers were tired.

But one must admire the bravery of the Polish who took on the Germans themselves in 1944. What happened is a heart-wrenching story of how the Germans squashed the Warsaw Uprising and eliminated the brave men of Armia Krajowa.

Warsaw insurgents put up a barricade on a Warsaw street. September 1944.

A SS non-commissioned officer inspects the bodies of two of the Warsaw insurgents killed in the Old Town. November 1944.

A group of German prisoners captured by Warsaw insurgents near the building of the Polish telephone company. August 1944. Don't be confused by the guards wearing German Stahlhelm helmets. The Polish fighters used them too.

Moments of despair. Polish Home Army fighters  with a 7.92 machine gun (A Polish version of the American Browning gun) in October 1944 sometime before surrender to the Germans in the center of a devastated Warsaw.

September 7, 1944. Representatives of the Polish Red Cross arrive blindfolded to meet German military policemen to negotiate safe passage of civilians.

Armia Krajowa fighters ride a captured German armored carrier on the streets of Warsaw. August 1944.

The uprising was brutally broken by the SS, Police, penal battalions and Russian collaborators. Men from the Russian People's Liberation Army are seen here with SS men.

German collaborators included the Russian Cossacks. Seen here are Cossacks (the one with a helmet on is an officer) watching the suppression of the uprising.

August 1944. German prisoners led by a Home Army soldier.

A Polish civilian woman killed during a German air raid at 10 Moniuszko Street, Warsaw. September 1944.

German prisoners marked with swastika line up by the insurgents against the wall of the ghetto on Bonifraterska Street. Were they shot later?

The Germans used massive 600 mm guns to flatten insurgent positions. Here the Prudential building is hit. It collapsed in seconds.

Germans use the Wurfrahmen 40 multiple rocket launchers against the Home Army positions. September 1944.

 Warsaw burns during the Uprising

 Polish general Komorowski rides to surrender to the Germans. October 4, 1944.

Komorowski after surrender with Obergruppenfuhrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski

 Bach Zelewski welcomes back captured Germans.

 Home Army fighters surrender.

 Germans pull out a Armia Krajowa man from a man hole

The Polish insurgents hand over their arms.

Armia Krajowa fighters march into captivity. Very few were left alive by the Germans.

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Riding the Rails: Ottawa to Montreal

August 17, 2013 -- After spending the morning and early afternoon in Canada's clean and friendly capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, I took the VIA Rail Canada train back to Montreal. In order to get to the train station, I needed to take a bus rapid transit (BRT) -- Ottawa's bus system that runs on dedicated bus-only lines, thereby avoiding traffic and providing a fast and reliable ride in and around the city.

The train originated in Toronto so already had many passengers when it arrived in Ottawa to pick us up. It reminded me of when a New York or Washington-bound Amtrak train picks up passengers in Baltimore, Wilmington or Philadelphia.

Once we boarded, it was time for a relaxing and scenic two-hour ride through the Ontario and Quebec countryside.

Here are more photos:



And here is video of the train ride from Ottawa to Montreal:

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DECEMBER 1 = Rosa Parks Says "No."

On today's date - December 1, in 1955.  Rosa Parks said "No." when she was directed by Bus Driver James F. Blake to give up her seat in the "colored section" of a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger when the "white section" of the bus was filled.  Perhaps my readers can feel some of the utter absurdity of such things as a"colored" and a "white section" of the bus when reading it as I feel in writing it. But there it is -- this idiotic arrangement was not only acceptable here in at least one section of America (and not so long ago, either), but it actually held the force of law.  Well it was decided by some leaders of the civil rights movement in America that the time had come to challenge such nonsense right up front.  And today was the date that they did it, and Rosa Parks was the person that they chose to make the statement.  That's her up there being "booked" at the police station for her "crime".      

The Past Becomes the Present for Rosa

Ms. Parks had had a "run-in" with the Montgomery bus system before.. in fact with this very same bus driver. Once on a rainy day in 1947, she boarded a Montgomery bus, paid her fare and took her seat. But bus driver James F. Blake told her to get off the bus and follow the "city ordinance" (yet another idiot law!!) by re-entering from the back door.  So she exited the bus, but before she

could get to the back door, Blake drove away, leaving her to walk home in the rain. Needless to say, there would be no bandying about with such compliance the next time that Rosa met up with this bone-head. The black citizens of Montgomery had complained that the segregation of  buses was unfair, but it was definitely was a part of city ordinances passed by voters in 1900.  So NAACP officials decided that Rosa Parks would be the best person for seeing through the long court challenges to the ordinances which would follow her arrest.

The Moment Comes...

The ordinance gave the bus drivers the authority to re-arrange the seating on buses to achieve segregation, and this meant that if the "white section" was filled, he could require black passengers to stand and/or move from the "colored section" in order to seat any white passengers.  So it was that day in December when, after a long day at work, Ms. Parks (who by now was the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP) boarded a bus and sat in the "colored section" that bus driver Blake directed her to move in order to accommodate some white passengers that she refused.  Rosa did indeed move, but only towards the window seat. "Why don't you stand up?" Rosa replied "I don't think I should have to stand up."  Parks later recalled that "When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up, and I said 'No I'm not.' And he said 'Well if you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.' I said 'You may do that.'" Years later in her autobiography, "My Story" Ms. Parks would write:

"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Rosa was indeed arrested, and jailed.  But she was bailed out the next evening.  Her case was tied up in the courts, but Parks' action lead to the boycott of the Montgomery Bus System by the black citizens of Montgomery which lasted for 381 days.  This economic action caused such a mess in the finances of the Transit Company that they repealed the law requiring segregation of city buses. Rosa parks became nationally recognized as one of the leading pioneers of the civil rights movement in America.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

"Rosa Parks - My Story" by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins, Puffin Books, New York, 1992

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You Must Never Be Fearful

Happy Rosa Parks Day, friends! On December 1, 1955, Rosa was detained in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up a seat in her bus’s colored section for a white passenger. Though she wasn't the first black commuter to rebel against discrimination, her act of defiance signaled a decisive turning-point in the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa has subsequently earned the designations “First Lady of Civil Rights” and “Mother of the Freedom Movement.”

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The Very Merry Gobble til ya Wobble Weekend!

...Well actually, I did not gobble a lot, because I lost 5 pounds this week! I did not mean to lose that much, but I will so take it. 

Thanksgiving weekend for me started at 3PM on Wednesday. My President randomly walked up to me at one o'clock and told me I could leave early. Man, I will take it! You do not have tell me twice. Since I was able to leave early, I was even more excited to go kick some booty at the gym.

I had my game face on!

After, I picked up my favorite salad from Panera; the black and bleu.

aka "Heaven in a to-go box!"

Then a little shopping ensued. 

I love Ulta. They reward loyalty like no other. I bought those curlers and the foundation primer (shown on the left) and the total was over $50, however, with a coupon and my reward points, I saved $20 bucks! Then, all of the stuff you see pictured in front of those two items were free! I was stoked. I love being frugal.

The rest of the evening was spent packing for the weekend and my move that happens in 6 days!

Thursday morning, I woke up early, and hit the gym for 50 minutes of preventative damage control cardio, ha! It was a great workout. Afterwards it was time to get ready for the 3 hour drive back to my hometown.

Marty was not happy about me leaving. I wish cats loved to travel and were easy like dogs. It would make me going out of town so much easier. Sigh.

I was all decked out in my pink and black jumpsuit - pink for days!

I packed my survival kit and hit the road.

Electrolytes. protein bar, and protein shake are my must have roadies.

I arrived in my hometown around 5PM and stayed with my dad and step-mom. I spent time with my sister, her boyfriend, our neighbors, and we had a great time. My sister and step-mom are very big health nuts so we kept it easy food wise - turkey and roasted vegetables, but we did a delicious sweet potato pie. Since my dad has terminal cancer, I put away my phone and focused on spending time with him. I do not see him a lot, so when I do, I want to be as attentive as I can. 

Friday, I left my dads early then picked up my sister-in-law and nephew so we could all go to my mom's for my second round of Thanksgiving. When we arrived at my mom's, she watched my nephew so Amber and I could go see "Catching Fire". Wow that movie was SO damn good. However, I think my favorite part about the movie is all of the incredible fashion! I wanted every dress Katniss was in.

The movie was a lot longer than we thought so when got back to my mom's, it was time to have dinner. Oh my, it was so good. We had so much food!

The pool table makes he best Thanksgiving table, ha!

Me and Amber; my sister-in-law.

Mama and Amber!

My nephew using my suitcase as his own personal slide.

We had the best time! Also there was my step dad and his parents, my 2 step brothers Nick and Zack, and my brother Christian.

Saturday morning I left my mom's bright and early. I had to be back in Charlotte by noon to do a small project for my boss. I hit the gym, purchased groceries, then finally came home to a needy cat, and a mountain of things to do. I did two loads of laundry, dishes, prepped food, and made my weekly meal plan. Some Saturday night,  huh!

...but then Marty said "that's enough" and to rub him since I left him alone for two days.

Today mirrors yesterday, fun fun. I have been lazy this morning so I thought I would blog a bit. Next up is gym followed by more cleaning and packing. I am excited about my new place, but damn I hate moving! It's taking not only all of my money, but my time!

Dun, dun, dun...

Have a great week guys!

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