Two men are punching each other until swollen and often bloody. Everyone is just standing around, but no one is doing anything to stop the violence.  Then one of them falls to the ground, seemingly knocked unconscious or nearly dead.  Did they get arrested? Was it on the evening news? Yes, but in the sports segment.

I went to my first boxing match in Chicago recently.
Before I even went, I started thinking about this ‘sport’ and asked my friend about it.

“But isn’t it barbaric?” I asked. “Two men just beating each other to a pulp, hurting their bodies?”

“In some ways yes,” Mark said, “but it’s also like the most real sport…just man against man and nothing else.”

I understand his point, but I personally don’t really like it…just watching two men beat each other up. Yes, I know there is intense training and strategy involved – I mean I have seen Rocky and more recently, The Fighter (“Head, body, head!”). But it still seems nuts to me.  But I do think it’s still not as bad as any kind of chicken or dog or bull fights where the animals don’t even have a say in the matter.

My friend Elizabeth, who was taking boxing lessons, invited me to watch her trainer fight in a Chicago tournament.   Since I’d never been to a boxing match, I figured ‘what the hell.’

The Chicago Golden Gloves boxing tournament has been held since 1923. Over the years, a few boxers, whom you may have heard of, have won the prestigious “Chicago Golden Gloves Champion” title including Cassius Clay, Joe Louis, Sonny Liston and numerous other U.S. Olympians.

Chicago Golden Gloves Charities believes “that training in boxing instills a sense of self-respect and accomplishment in the youth of our community who, at this impressionable age, are choosing their path in life. Thousands of young men, and now some young women, have learned discipline, self-esteem and how to realize goals through daily training at various boxing clubs throughout greater Chicagoland.”

Here’s my video from that night.
Click through to You Tube and select Full HD for best quality

What do you think? Is boxing a good sport or too violent/barbaric?

Warning: If you are squeamish or prude or don’t have genitalia, this post may offend you.

If you read the title as “big on bid-detz” then this is going to be a hard sales pitch.  But hear me out.

The poor, little bidet.  It gets a bad rap and is probably the most misunderstood bathroom fixture this side of the Atlantic.

Well, I think bidets (bih-DAYS) are awesome.

(more…)

Remember the days when uncle Bob (okay, I don’t actually have an uncle Bob!) would force us through his slide show of the family road trip to the Grand Canyon?  Or then a decade ago we had to sit through that work Power Point presentation on Diversity Training?

Recently I discovered Pecha Kucha. I loved it.  This isn’t any ordinary slide presentation.  In Japanese pecha kucha (usually pronounced as “pe-CHA-k’cha”) simply means chit chat.

Pecha Kucha Night was started nearly 10 years ago in Tokyo, Japan by a couple of architects.  Most Pecha Kucha Night events follow this format:

• About 10 presenters
• Each presenter has 20 slides
• Each slide is shown for 20 seconds

Therefore, each presenter has just 6 minutes & 40 seconds to explain his or her ideas before the next presenter takes the stage. That’s it. Share what you got and move out of the way for the next presenter.  It moves fast and most speakers were entertaining and had some pretty interesting ideas to share.  Originally it was conceived as a platform through which young designers could meet, show their work, exchange ideas, and network. One of the attractions of Pecha Kucha Nights is the wide range of the 20×20 talks. Most consist of design professionals showing their creative work, but presenters often speak about their travels, research projects, collections, or other interests.

In 2004, PK began running in a few cities in Europe, and has since become a worldwide phenomenon, now running in more than 300 cities in almost every corner of the globe.

During our evening, I learned about “Pop-Up Art Loop”, Chicago’s initiative to turn empty retail spaces into temporary galleries.  I was introduced to an amazing new start-up website that tracks all the world’s buildings with maps and GPS coordinates.  One presenter focused on the real life Baltimore people that the characters in the HBO show, The Wire, are based on (I don’t even watch this show and yet the talk was fascinating).  And I was very entertained by, Yuri Lane, an amazing beat-boxer and performer.  The whole night was like a poetry slam meets a power point presentation meets a Ted talk.

The format keeps presentations concise, fast-paced and entertaining.  It was totally entertaining and informative. I learned about a number of things going on in Chicago that I had no idea of  and I am already looking forward to the next one.

I am thinking of presenting! Should I do it? Check it out and go to one in your city. I promise you will at least be informed if not thoroughly entertained. Interested?  The next one in Chicago is on June 7th.  Check out their website for other cities and more info.

This post is sponsored by Insure and Go.  Feeding your passion for travel – Insureandgo.com.

While spending a few days at my cousins’ place in Bloomington, I met a new and wonderful man. His name was Flat Stanley.  It turns out he was a traveler just like me. *Sigh*

In 1995, Dale Hubert, a 3^rd Grade teacher in London, Ontario, Canada, began the Flat Stanley Project based on the 1964 book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. The project connects children and classrooms around the world via a character who, in the original story, gets squashed accidentally by a bulletin board (ouch!) and then discovers he is flat enough to fit inside an envelope and travel the world (hmmm…where can I find a big bulletin board?!).   Students who participate in the project read the book and then design their own flat character and send him to children, friends, or family in other states or countries.  Those children then write about their special visitor and his adventures with his hosts.

Now teachers and their students around the world are getting to know Flat Stanley and each other.  In 2005, more than 6,000 classes from 47 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project

Back in Bloomington, Michael and Nancy received their very own Flat Stanley from their goddaughter Faye, a second grader at Increase Miller Elementary School in Golden’s Bridge, New York.

We took him around town, photographing him in front of the Indiana University Stadium and other local landmarks.  I think I scared my cousins with my crush on this two-dimensional, mini-man and maybe got a little ‘too’ creative with my ideas.

I asked Michael, “Why don’t we photograph him lying on the ground next to an empty bottle of Jack Daniels or exiting a strip club with a black bar superimposed over his eyes?”  Perhaps Flat Stanley got into some trouble here in B-ton. He is a bit of a bad boy, ya know.  Yeah, I guess not the message we wanted to send back to the second graders.

Okay, so instead of in front of local landmarks, I thought, why couldn’t we be different and photograph him in front of the suburban mundane: Flat Stanley in front of ‘our’ local pharmacy. It’s a place called C-V-S, kids!  Or Flat Stanley in front of the local Hooters or in front of the Kinko’s Copy shop—where he actually feels quite at home for some reason.

He was cute, a tad petite, but still huggable just the same.  He was a little two dimensional for me, but so are some of the guys I date. Ba. Dum. Bum.

But in the end, we had to bid ‘Flat’ farewell as he had to go back into his manila envelope, back to New York, and back to the classroom.

Thank you for making me laugh. I will miss you Flat Stanley.

Here is Nancy’s letter that she sent back to Faye with Flat Stanley.

Dear Faye,

Hello to all of the Second Graders at Increase Miller!! We had a great weekend with Flat Stanley!  Michael’s cousin, Lisa, was here and she fell a little bit in love with him.  I’m sorry we didn’t get any pictures of her with Flat Stanley.  She has traveled around the world and has a blog called, www.LLWorldTour.com.

He came to visit us in Bloomington, Indiana—the home of Indiana University.  So we went to the football stadium.  It was empty now but is filled with thousands of screaming fans and students in the fall.  We aren’t sports fans so usually try to avoid it.

Flat Stanley really wanted to see where Michael keeps his sailboat.  No one can believe that we have such a wonderful, large lake for sailing.  It’s called Lake Monroe and is a reservoir that has the City of Bloomington’s water supply.  They flooded a small town named Paynetown about 50 years ago to make the lake.  They moved everybody to new houses first, though.  As you can see, there are no boats out yet, but Michael will put his boat out in a couple of weeks.  Yeah!

We were so happy that Flat Stanley got to see the buffalo.  They live on the way to visit my father, who was just 94 years old.  The buffalo are very large and hairy.  I’m sure they get really hot in the summer.

Next to the buffalo is Flat Stanley in front of the entrance to the Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist Monastery.  We actually have two Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in Bloomington.  The Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhists, has family here and comes to Bloomington when he is in America.  I’m taking a class with him in May.  This is very special.

The last picture is Flat Stanley in front of the Monroe Country Court House.  We have a lovely square around the court house with lots of stores and restaurants.  The inside of the court house has a wonderful painted ceiling.  It was too dark for Flat Stanley to see so we’ll have to visit when you come to see us in Bloomington.

Lots of Love,

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Michael

Craigslist has gotten several mentions on this blog.  I sold a lot of my belongings through Craigslist when I first set off on my travel adventures.  I sold my car, my condo, and even my coffee table on Craigslist. If you gaze to your right…you will see their link proudly displayed in my “cool sites” column.

Well, now I have learned of a nifty spin-off site to Craigslist sweetly called: You Suck at Craigslist.

It’s a compilation of crazy, weird, odd, and just plain stupid REAL advertisements found on Craigslist.  It’s good for a laugh every now and then.

Here are a couple examples.

Bees!

selling ford truck – $1200

$1200 obo this has been a good truck for me but i have to sell it because i cant ever get to it with all of the bees around it they have been in and around it for almost 2 months now and i havent been able to get near 5 feet or else i get stung and im sick of it i still have welts from months ago stingings and i cant even get to work because i cant get to my truck so i have to sell it test drives at ur own risk i cant go with you too many bees.

1991 integra shell minty – $650