Jackson Oak

On a quick reprieve from the grey European winter (which actually wasn't that much of a reprieve, because Alabama was a little grey, too), I met the Jackson Oak in Daphne, Alabama. I guess Andrew Jackson gave some big, rousing, inspiring speech there en route to New Orleans in the War of 1812. This picture doesn't give an adequate sense of scale, but it's still majestic and moss-covered.

 

I also noted a Rapture Preparation Center in Mobile..

 

.. and a funky little sci-fi statue in Tuscaloosa.

 

A Quick SoCal Trip

In contrast to the Christmas markets of Germany, I flew to LA and Santa Barbara just before Christmas for some, shall we say, "business." (No quotes necessary, actually.)

Santa Barbara is very pretty, with the Santa Ynez mountains in the backdrop and the Pacific Ocean front and center.

There's a bike path that follows the ocean, and the town itself is very bike-friendly.. even to beater beach cruisers.

The old Mission is beautiful, with a sort of park and flower garden out in front of it that people hang out in.

The harbor was packed...

.. and the view from Inspiration Point was a very welcome reward for a good hike.

A Whirlwind Trip

Back in the fall, I visited the States in a pretty major month-long whirlwind tour, with something like 1,600 miles driven and over 30 people visited in 7 states.

Major crops seen from the road: tobacco leaves, corn, cotton. Major cities visited: Springfield, St. Louis. Minor cities visited: Athens, Chattanooga, Hamel, Vicksburg, Mobile. Major holidays celebrated: Halloween. And when I got back to Germany, my neighbor had left her stove on, so I called the fire department while super jet-lagged and exhausted to keep the building from burning down. Whew.

Bulldog in front of the electric company building in Athens, Georgia

The Tree That Owns Itself in Athens

Oljiata Bridge, with a view of the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Corn en route to Illinois

Conservatory at a park in Springfield, IL

Abraham Lincoln mural in Springfield

Rolls Royce get-together in Springfield

Frank Lloyd Wright house (Dana Thomas House) in Springpatch

Farmer humor in Hamel, IL

The Arch! in St. Louis

Cotton en route to Mississippi

View of the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, MS

Memorial at the Vicksburg National Military Park

Abita Brewery in Louisiana

Pumpkins!

Down by the bay in Daphne, AL

The Things You Take for Granted

A short list of things you take for granted living the States that are simply not a given in Germany:

• No Netflix, Amazon prime, or Pandora: You might be able to access shows and movies on Netflix or Amazon, but your content will be limited by geography. There's a German Amazon, but your American account won't transfer over any gift card funds or stuff like that. Also, Pandora is right out. You'll need a smart DNS or VPN to get around the limitations.
• Unlimited texting/calling with your phone plan: You'll probably have to pay per text or call-minute. Although plus-points for the high availability of no-contract phone service. It's been over 10 years since "long-distance calls" were a thing in the US, with calls between different area codes and states becoming irrelevant as everyone got cell phones. Well, in Europe it's a concept that's still around for calls between countries with different country codes. Suck it up, buttercup, and just use WhatsApp to contact your international friends instead.
• Using credit cards: There are a lot of cash-only places, and even in shops where you can use your debit card, sometimes you feel a little judged for holding up the line if you have to type in your PIN. With that said, my debit card is a touchless "contactless" one, so you don't even have to put it in a chip reader, just kind of waft it by a scanner, which is neat.
• Coffee sizes: are not sufficient by American standards. I have a moka-pot Bialetti-style coffee pot in my apartment whose box says it's a 3-cup pot.. but I would struggle to call it a one-cup pot. Maybe this is because it's more espresso-style coffee, but maybe it's just because I think a solid cup of coffee is one that could make a dent in a pint glass. As it is, I fill up a cup with equal parts milk and coffee to make it a reasonable cup. The presence of teeny tiny coffee mugs in my pre-stocked apartment makes me think it's not a one-off thing.
• Everything's just a little inconvenient: Opening a bank account is a pain.. you'd think they want your business, but not exactly. (N26 for online banking is the best.. although it means I have to withdraw money from certain shops, which is awkward and weird.) Apartment-hunting with German contracts is ridiculous, and what you get in the end sucks. If you want to engage in online shopping and have a package delivered to your apartment... just don't. Someone has to be there to receive it, and if it doesn't fit in your mailbox, you're SOL. (I have stuff delivered to my office, although that's probably against the norm / rules.) German fridges are generally tiny, so you have to go shopping more frequently. No Uber.

But there are of course good things to balance out the inconvenient.. like public transit that runs all night long, even if it only runs once an hour. No fear of getting shot walking around late at night. Pedestrian and bike-friendly cities. And so forth.. but that's not the subject of this post.

Southern Winter

Things got a little chilly in the South this December and January, reminiscent of the Polar Vortex of 2013-2014... which I like.

And when I say chilly, I mean there were days where the high was below freezing, which is a big deal for the South. (Heck, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Mobile all got snow! Cue the massive freaking out.) The nice part about winter in the South is that even when it's cold out (and maybe even -especially- when it's really cold out), the skies are clear and the sun shines bright, unlike the gloomy grey European winters we all know and love.

 Obligatory picture of the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattavegas.

Mushroom Rock on Signal Mountain, that Evan and I took a very chilly ~20 degree hike to.

My first animated GIF

... which I refuse to pronounce "jif."

Melanoides tuberculata, or red-rimmed melania, for your viewing pleasure.

Baton Rouge: Life in the Big Greasy

I'm trying to make "The Big Greasy" stick as a nickname for Baton Rouge. Despite the fact that Baton Rouge is generally cleaner than it's more cosmopolitan neighbor New Orleans (The Big Easy), Baton Rouge's relationship (dependence) on the oil/gas/chemical industries is on full display with its skyline as you cross the main I-10 bridge. It's half city skyline to the south and half Exxon refinery to the north.

 Anyways, this post is just a mish-mash of some of the different things I took pictures of in BR.

I didn't believe some redneck telling his little kid that Huey P. Long was buried under the massive statue in front of the capitol building, but it turns out that guy was right. (Geaux Tigers!) Despite ol' Huey's stated desire for a small, simple grave marker, he got a whopping statue on a pedestal with tended flower displays. (He allegedly requested a very simple grave, so maybe this was another middle finger from his political enemies.. but maybe not.)

And of course, here's the capitol itself (not to be confused with the Old State Capitol that I shared a picture of previously), the tallest state capitol in the US as of 2017.

View from the top, of the grounds below, with Huey P. Long's memorial in the hourglass-like shape in the middle.

Three ships side-by-side here: the USS Kidd on the left, whatever that boat that played the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean is called, and one of the casino riverboats (Belle, I think) on the right in the distance.

Hilarious old photo of a researcher from the 1970s measuring trees at one of our sites in the Atchafalaya River basin. No shirt, no problem.

Great example of Cajun ingenuity on the swamp: just work with what you've got (especially if what you've got is an old school bus and some empty drink syrup barrels), and voila, you've got your floating houseboat/fish camp!

Zoom in close to the pier, and you can see a logjam's worth of lumber strained out of the river (unintentionally).

Long-horn cow at the LSU Rural Life Museum.. definitely a place worth checking out, and not just for the cow.

Someone decided to speak for our lab truck and declare to the world, "I'M DIRTY".

And speaking of Cajun ingenuity, just DIY your own home repairs: grab a bobcat and rip up that annoying concrete-slab driveway.

Hitting the Pause Button

I have a couple posts in the wings about what I've been up to for the past few months, but I just need to get this on the written record.

Donald Trump is a blithering idiot. My god. I'm listening to his joke of a press conference, talking about relations with Russia. I hate that our country is being dragged through the mud by a man who spews word vomit and has the attention span of a goldfish (my apologies to goldfish for the association). All his talk of "making a deal"... what? What is he even talking about?

A giant toddler, with tiny toddler hands (and other), whining about how everything is the fault of people who take a stand against him or give him negative press coverage. God bless the journalists who continue to attempt to ask real questions, despite never getting actual answers, and thank heavens for politicians like Elizabeth Warren and even (can't believe I'm going to say this) Lindsey Graham, who are willing to voice their opinions against idiocy.

I cannot believe that anyone voted for this Sack. It makes me ill to think that the United States is full of so many stupid people who are so easily deluded. I just... I can't... no.

Trump sucks.

Thus Always to Tyrants

I spent 5 months in Virginia Beach, and I can say with certainty (and as the understatement of the year) that it is NOT my favorite place I've ever lived. I know how toxic a bad attitude can be, so I tried to keep an upbeat mindset while I was there. In keeping with the positive vibes, here's an assortment of some cool or interesting things I saw in the Virginia Beach area, in no particular order.

Poseidon is a centerpiece of the Oceanfront and boardwalk area, and a fairly charismatic one at that. However, I preferred to spend time at the Chesapeake Bay beach rather than on the Atlantic, mostly because of the lack of crowds and ease of parking. At the Aeries Way beach entrance, there's a funny sign regarding cigarette butts.

Over the course of my time in VAB, I made several road trips to Georgia and Tennessee, each totalling over 1,000 miles each time. I think I averaged one major road trip each month, with some "smaller" ones to Blacksburg (only 650 miles). I'm now an official Road Warrior (note: not official), plus my car hit 200,000 miles on my spectacular 1,200 mile 5-state journey in June.

The state seal of Virginia is pretty intense. SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS indeed. (Fun fact: John Wilkes Booth shouted this phrase before fleeing the scene of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The more you know!)

Virginia Beach is a big military area, to say the least. Home to 6 military bases or JEBs (Joint Expeditionary Bases) and numerous other military-affiliated labs and companies, some days if you make a wrong turn on the beach at First Landing State Park, you might be face-to-face with a battleship or helipcopters practicing official maneuvers.

To move back South, I used ABF's U-pack service to avoid having to drive a moving truck hundred of miles while towing my car. The U-pack is currently sitting in a storage facility somewhere in southern VAB, so time will tell how the contents fared once it gets delivered.

Probably my favorite place to visit in VAB is First Landing State Park. The last time I visited, there had been a lot of rain over the previous week, and basically every mushroom you could ever want to see was out, including this stinkhorn that was attracting flies.

 

Perhaps as a precursor to Hurricane Matthew or perhaps totally unrelated, the Chesapeake was super choppy and windy on my last day in town. Instead of sunbathing, I had to shield my face from flying sand with sunglasses and a scarf. But the upside to the high tides and rough waters was that there were several horseshoe crab remnants along the beach.

And lastly, my favorite thing about the apartment complex I lived in was all the ducks. There were mosty mallards and muscovies, and one of my favorite little lady muscovies had some ducklings with her as I was moving out.

There ya have it: Virginia Beach.

It's a Trap!

Danger! Danger!

What kind of deranged person leaves such a booby trap as this in a public bathroom?

Wild Rumpus-ing

... or All Hallow's Eve: Athens Edition.

This year's house pumpkins: a sexy lady pumpkin and some goober reddit meme

It's pretty cool living in a town where people take Halloween very seriously. And by Halloween, I mean Halloween costumes. People in Athens take their Halloween costumes very seriously.

The first year I was here, I vaguely dressed up for the Wild Rumpus parade on Halloween night, but only when I arrived at the parade did I realize how horribly under-dressed I was. People had been working on elaborate costumes for days, weeks, or even months before the parade! There was a giant papier-mache Dolly Parton with moving arms, a very convincing PeeWee Herman, Cheetah Girls on the aerial silks, and Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) leading the parade and heading the band for the after-party. Just to name a few. Evan made an awesome Wild Man costume and had his picture taken with some random Japanese tourists. (...?)

Our billiard room, with Ms. Peacock and the Confidential envelope in the background to the right.
From the Athens FotoFlower man.

This year my personal favorites were Richard Gene Simmons (Richard Simmons clothes and personality with Gene Simmons KISS makeup) and David Bowie from Labyrinth (complete with abducted baby). And my costume this year was part of the Clue Crew, that is, Clue the board game. We had characters, rooms, and even the lead pipe. Evan still had the best costume, going as the Confidential envelope. How does he always win?

As for me, I take pumpkin carving very seriously. Here's the house's pumpkins from last year (mine's Paul Stanley from KISS).