Life

[DanJW]

Back into your gi? So you practiced some Japanese budo sport as well?

Yeah I practiced Shorin Ryu Karate-jitsu* for several years. Unfortunately that style is pretty rare here in the UK and I couldn't find a new club when I moved town; most karate clubs are mainland Japan Karate-do descended from Shotokan style.

I'm going to have another look around, if there's still no karate club I like then I'll consider some other martial art. I think there's a White Crane Kung Fu club in the area, which is the martial art with the most similarity to Shorin Ryu, but I'm also tempted by Tai Chi Chuan.

*jitsu ie not really a sport

[Roderick]

Nice. But you could try kendo, as it has -as Sean Connery would say- S-words.

[Squid Division]

Did a motorcycle trip today around the James River in Virginia. It's the river and the place where the English sailed up and settled Jamestown, the first British colony in America. Pictures here but my favorite is:

That's the actual James Fort archaeological site, where the soldiers/colonists landed. The big obelisk is to celebrate the 300-Anniversary (1907). The brick building is the chapel which held the first representative legislative assembly in America.

[Scrobbs]

.

Very cool. Sid Meier's Civilisation made flesh!

Railroad Tycoon as well if I remember correctly - Jamestown was one of the first towns if you founded your railroad on the east coast area.

[Squid Division]

Thought I'd go ahead and post the Colonial Williamsburg armory here as well as people might be interested. Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia after Jamestown until Thomas Jefferson moved it to Richmond. The armory played a fairly significant role in the equipment of the revolutionary army regiments from Virginia.

This place is bittersweet however, as I have to drive through Colonial Williamsburg every day on the way back from school (I go to William and Mary, second oldest college/university in the US, alma mater to Thomas Jefferson and several other US presidents), and god damn every tourist slows down to look at it.

The white building on the right is the court house, they have stockades out there you can still use to punish siblings.

[syntheticgerbil]

As for the cockroach:

I bought a bag of hard candies, they were black hard candies and they came in a paper bag, you know the ones the put lollies in, and I didn't eat all of them on the first day so I put the bag in the pantry.

Anyway, went to bed, in the morning I grabbed the bag and went to watch TV, so i'm sitting there bag in the right hand, using my left hand to grab candies and shove them straight into my mouth while I put my complete attention on watching TV.

So at some point I must have grabbed a cockroach that was hiding out in the bag and put it in my mouth, and chewed, and swallowed, then I felt something in between my lips, i grabbed it and it was a still twitching leg. I realized what I had done and ran to the toilet and vomited a cockroach.

I hate cockroaches.

Still makes me get that 'about to throw up' feeling even RIGHT NOW as I type this, so wrong.

You have the best stories!

I think I have a similar one from a couple of months ago, but from what it sounds like, my cockroach wasn't near as big and it was also dead. I keep an inhaler on my nightstand since I have asthma and I have always had the bad habit of throwing away the caps since I was a child, since they are pretty useless.

Well I don't do that anymore since puffing on my inhaler sucked the nested dead cockroach inside right down my throat. It was awful, I could feel it's little legs on my esophagus. I didn't completely upchuck, but I had to run to the bathroom and vomit a little in order to get it out. I was actually trying to swallow it since it seemed more ideal, but alas, my spit was not strong enough to flush it out.

My girlfriend thought this was hilarious.

[Thompson]

My girlfriend thought this was hilarious.

That's because it is.

I have a surprising number of stories considering my age including but not limited to: The 3 times i've almost died, my bike disaster, my disgusting knee injury and the time I spotted someone who at least looked a lot like Boost Remo when I was in SF.

[James]

That spider thing is fantastic. Don't worry though, I won't quote it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

That's the actual James Fort archaeological site, where the soldiers/colonists landed. The big obelisk is to celebrate the 300-Anniversary (1907). The brick building is the chapel which held the first representative legislative assembly in America.

Are you sure about that? Having done a lot of sight-seeing in the US, I'm very sceptical of what tour guides tell you (if a tour guide did tell you, that is).

http://www.archaeology.org/9611/newsbriefs/jamesfort.html

[Squid Division]

The remains of a church tower built between 1608 and 1609 sit on the walls of the first fort.

The church tower is the brick structure in the picture. Like I said, it's the archaeological site, not the actual fort, the first fort is in the river from the change in coastline. According to the site you linked all that stuff in the picture would be the second fort.

This wasn't a tour, I was out in the middle of the river on a ferry. This is the site I used to supplement what I had already heard.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The church tower is the brick structure in the picture. Like I said, it's the archaeological site, not the actual fort, the first fort is in the river from the change in coastline. According to the site you linked all that stuff in the picture would be the second fort.

This wasn't a tour, I was out in the middle of the river on a ferry. This is the site I used to supplement what I had already heard.

Very cool

[Hermie]

So a volcano on Iceland decided to start erupting, spewing ashes that will eventually reach Northern Europe. This means that every plane in Scandinavia, Finland and Northern Britain is grounded until further notice. How much further? Well, the last time this volcano erupted, it lasted two years, from 1821 to 1823...

Luckily I don't have any travel planned in the nearest future, but I am studying in a different town, and would like to get home this summer. <.<

Apparently we'll start seeing the clouds/ash rain later if it keeps going in this direction. Anyone getting affected by this?

[Roderick]

Not directly, insofar as we won't go extinct because a shroud will cover Europe in a blanket of darkness for the next three years.

I am postponing any hysteria until I actually see the fog of war descending upon me though.

[toblix]

So a volcano on Iceland decided to start erupting, spewing ashes that will eventually reach Northern Europe. This means that every plane in Scandinavia, Finland and Northern Britain is grounded until further notice. How much further? Well, the last time this volcano erupted, it lasted two years, from 1821 to 1823...

There won't be a two year plane grounding, though. It all depends on the winds and all sorts of weather related phenomena which I don't know anything about because I'm not a weatherman. Another reason there won't be, is that that would be a crazy thing that changed everything, and that never happens.

[Hermie]

There won't be a two year plane grounding, though. It all depends on the winds and all sorts of weather related phenomena which I don't know anything about because I'm not a weatherman. Another reason there won't be, is that that would be a crazy thing that changed everything, and that never happens.

Yeah, I know. How crazy/annoying/awesomely weird would that be, though, if you just couldn't fly in Scandinavia anymore?

[Roderick]

It would at least decrease the viking threat with some 80%.

[toblix]

But there would still be wikings.

[Squid Division]

It would at least decrease the viking threat with some 80%.

I disagree. How did the Scandinavians get around the world before there were planes? By dominating all those in the way and walking a road of skulls to their next destination.

I'm watching you Scandinavia...

(Does Finland count as Scandinavia? It's up there but it's people are not Scandinavian, correct?)

[Hermie]

(Does Finland count as Scandinavia? It's up there but it's people are not Scandinavian, correct?)

Nope! Scandinavia is Norway/Sweden/Denmark, and even Denmark is a bit iffy, since the name comes from the half-island Norway and Sweden is on.

There is a "Nordic" grouping though, that includes Scandinavia, Finland, Iceland, and a couple of the island nation that is in the area.

(And you're right, we'll just come by land or with our longboats, until our dragons can take off again...)

[Erkki]

The ash cloud will reportedly reach Estonia by tomorrow morning.

[brkl]

Thanks, Iceland. Way to fuck things up for everyone.

[Patters]

Thanks, Iceland. Way to fuck things up for everyone.

I'm gonna go up there and kick Bjork right in the teeth!

[brkl]

How?

Taking the boat takes goddamn ages.

[miffy495]

With enough slaves rowing, everything goes faster.

[monkeyarmada]

I'm gonna go up there and kick Bjork right in the teeth!

Better put some training in, Bjork goes at it football fan style...