Calculating Total Distance Hitchhiked

Having obsessive compulsive behavior, I keep several thorough lists. One list lists all of my hitchhiking adventures and the routes I used, which helps me calculated the approximate distance I've hitchiked since I participated in this dangerously addictive sport about seven years ago at the age of sweet sixteen. Since then, and adding my most recent trip, I have hitchhiked a total of... wait for it... 26,847 mi (43,206km), give or take a few miles (or kilometers.

To give you an idea of this distance, the circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 kilometers). In the past seven years, I have hitchhiked an approximate distance surpassing one trip around the Earth! Normally, I dislike bragging, but even I must admit that the total distance hitchhiked can't be dismissed as an insignificant feat. Now, if I successfully hitchike to Stockholm and back this week and next, it'll add up to an additional 2584 miles (4159kilometers) under my belt.

Perhaps the limited amount of free time has me daydreaming of hitchiking or perhaps the prospect of handing in a completed 100-page (25,000-word) thesis soon and going on a short vacation for Midsummer sparked this post, but I really need to do something other than writing, reading my paper, and looking over my mountainous pile of books and papers. I suppose I should let you know that I most likely will not post anything for a while after this one. I need to finish my thesis, then I will visit Sweden for 2-3 days (the total trip hitchhiking to and fro will take approximately one week), then, I just heard back from my guest lectureship application at a university in Korea, so I will fly to Seoul on June 30th for 3 months of work. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Today's Random Picture:

Zones of Unparalleled Interest

International borders and crossing them by means other than a car (such as walking or swimming across them), provide a source of newfangled preoccupation in my life. The derivation of my new interest probably dates back a few years ago, when I attempted (successfully) to walk from Poland to Germany. Yes, whilst it is true that I misunderstood heavily armed Polish border control officers who were yelling at me in incomprehensible Polish and had to undergo scrutiny once again once on the other side in Germany, that moment made me realize that border-crossing can provide a very different source of entertainment. Thus, my last unusual border crossing involved swimming from Germany to France, across the river Rhine. During this near-fatal last attempt (I nearly drowned), it dawned on me that this trend could very well turn into a new sub-category of "must-do"s on my list of things to do before I die.

Many areas of exceptional borders exist throughout the world, the famous swim across the Channel from England to France (or vice versa) being a very popular one. Yet, that comes off to me as too much of a cliché goal to add to my list. Thus, I have decided on making it my mission to cross (or attempt to cross... or just visit in case of certain death) some of the most bizarre international borders on the planet. Below are some of the most daring ideas (listed in order of increasing difficulty to cross):

1.Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog: the Netherlands/Belgium

Baarle-Nassau belongs to the Netherlands. Baarle-Hertog, completely surrounded by Baarle-Nassau, belongs to Belgium. Some zones in Baarle-Hertog also contain parts of Baarle-Nassau. The result? An extremely complicated border between Belgium and the Netherlands in which sometimes even a single building may lie half propped in Belgium, the other in the Netherlands. (In the picture, NL = the Netherlands, B = Belgium) 

2. Derby Line: U.S.A./Canada

Similar to the situation in Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Herzog, Derby Line, a small town in Vermont straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. A very interesting border since, some buildings were intentionally built on the border. For instance, both the Haskell Free Library and Opera House both sit right on the border. The Opera House's stage is in Canada but the entrance and most of the seats are in the U.S., making it have two separate addresses, one American, one Canadian. Again, as with the Belgian-Dutch border, there exists a chance that someone takes a shower in one country and sleeps in another.  

3. Ceuta: Spain/Morocco 

The autonomous city of Ceuta, politically part of Spain, sits on the border with Morocco. Separated from the rest of continguous Spain in continental Europe, Ceuta and the autonomous city of Melilla can be found in North Africa, facing the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco, since these cities sit so closely, claims them as its own. This led Spain to erect a 3meter-high, barbed wired border fence around Ceuta.

4. Tumen River: North Korea/China/Russia

The Tumen River runs on the border of North Korea, China, and Russia, immediately south of Lake Khasan. It starts in North Korea, runs up through China and ends in Russia and you could walk along this path, crossing three different countries in just a few kilometers. You could hypothetically do it, but it would be extremely dangerous and attempting it may result in getting shot. North Korean military guard this area very carefully to make sure there are no defectors, since North Koreans frequently attempt to escape using this border.

 

5.  Korean Demilitarized Zone: North Korea/South Korea

The Korean DMZ divides North and South Korea. The most heavily militarized border in the world and attempting to cross it would be unthinkable if not near-impossible. What makes this border particularly interesting, aside from the near-impossibility to cross it? Since the actual border is 160 miles (258km) long and 2.5 miles  (4km) wide and since no people live there, it has developed into a nature reserve. Many highly endangered species now live in this area and some speculate that their populations may actually be increasing. Technically the DMZ can't be called a "border" since the two Koreas merely agreed to a ceasefire in 1953 and a peace treaty was never signed between them. So they are still technically at war. A MDL (Military Demarcation Line) is the "de facto" border, completely surrounded by the DMZ. At the MDL, a one-room building for rare North and South Korean military/official communication straddles the "border", with one half in South Korea and the other in the North. This "room" is the only "room" where anyone can be in both Koreas at once and soldiers hold on to each other while there to prevent being pulled over to the other side.

Today's Random Picture: 

Jell-O-Like Control Center

The brain, which is primarily composed of water moreso than actual tissue mass resembles Jell-o (gelatinous dessert popularly colored with vivid articifial tones) rather than a solid mass often represented in unrealistic movies.

Here are some more facts about our Jell-O-like control centers.

Today's Random Picture: 

Nursing Creativity Back to Health

20,000 words later, with still 5,000 more words to go, all academic writing no less, can really make the imagination sterile. Thus has my imagination suffered over the years of continued academia and now, I feel as though my brain, which in my elementary through high school days had once flourished with creativity, now lacks any such imaginative appeal. Perhaps aging and maturing imposes this destruction of creativity as an unavoidable eventuality? It can't be denied that children, despite their lack of knowledge and manners, usually have minds that seep with creative juices while the staler, senescent age groups tend to lack such vivid gusto. 

So have I wondered at myself, with 5,000 more words (or approximately twenty more pages) remaining, staring at the glare of the computer screen reviewing my surgical steel language, "How far have I really come since my first fictional tale written at age five?" In some ways, I feel as though my earlier written musings merit more praise than the well-researched, highly structured and overly academic writing of today. Does a way of nursing one's creativity back to health exist? While engulfed in such musings, I befell upon a list of ways to (at least attempt to) nurse creativity back to health. Below you find the list and for those of you wishing to gain your own creative juices back, by all means, attempt it and share your trials and successes with me. 

1. Make lists
2. Carry a notebook everywhere
3. Try free writing
4. Get away from the computer.
5. Quit beating yourself up.
6. Take breaks.
7. Sing in the shower.
8. Drink coffee.
9. Listen to new music.
10. Be open.
11. Surround yourself with creative people.
12. Get feedback.
13. Collaborate.
14. Don't give up.
15. Practice, practice, practice.
16. Allow yourself to make mistakes.
17. Go somewhere new.
18. Count your blessings.
19. Get lots of rest.
20. Take risks.
21. Break the rules.
22. Don't force it.
23. Read a page of the dictionary.
24. Create a framework.
25. Stop trying to be someone else's perfect.
26. Got an idea? Write it down.
27. Clean your workspace.
28. Have fun.
29. Finish something. 

Today's Random Picture: 

In a Perfect World...

English Words Lost in Translation

So last time I made a list of foreign words that translate badly into English. This time, I present you with a list of words that translate poorly into other languages. Love it or hate it, feel apathetic about it or bored of it, English remains one of the richest languages in the world with (arguably) the most number of words. Whether they are borrowed and butchered, coined or meshed together, some English words truly have no worthy equivalents.

Serendipity - good luck or good fortune, usually referring to the aptitude of befalling such luck by accident

Googly - a bowled ball that swerves in one direction and breaks in the other

Inchoate - rudimentary, not completely or fully developed; just begun or incipient; unorganized

Awe - a profound feeling of reverence or admiration; fear; usually produced by something that is sublime, powerful, or grand (archaic definition: power to inspire fear or reverence; obsolete definition: fear or dread)

Copperhead - a Northern Democrat during the U.S. Civil War era who opposed the war and supported peaceful reconciliation of the Union even at the cost of continued slavery

Skite - a quick, oblique blow or stroke; a shopping blow; butt of a joke or prank; a joke or prank (Australia: to boast or brag)

Jaywalk - to cross the street at a location that is outside the regular crossing lines for pedestrians; or, to cross heedlessly as against a red light or diagonally

Quaint - eerie, strange, peculiar, or unusual in an amusing, interesting, or pleasing way; cleverly or skillfully made; having an old-fashioned attractiveness or charm; oddly picturesque

Blaxploitation - exploitation of Black people, especially in movies that feature or intend to appeal to the Black population

Today's Random Picture:

Words Lost in Translation

When you learn a language, sometimes even the best of dictionaries can't fully express the meaning of a single word with another single word in the target language. Sometimes, a word that is foreign can only be expressed in a phrase or sentence in another language... one of the many fascinating aspects of the language learning process. Today, I learned one such word from a Korean language exchange partner, 정 (pronounced "jung"). It took about 5 minutes of explaining and looking things up in dictionaries to finally comprehend its meaning, which, doesn't have an English equivalent. Then I started pondering about other words in languages that can't easily be translated into English. Below is a list of words/phrases that are found in other languages but whose concepts are not fully expressed in one English word.

French:

Dépaysement - The feeling that comes from not being in one's home country.

Frotteur - People who get pleasure from rubbing their crotches against the buttocks of women in crowds.

L'appel du vide - The instinctive urge to jump from elevated places. Literally: The call of the void

L'esprit de l'escalier - The feeling you get after leaving a conversation when you think of all the things you should have said but didn't. Literally: The spirit of the staircase.

Mépris - A combination of contempt and pity

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German:

Drachenfutter - A gift German husbands give to their wives after having stayed out late or have committed some other type of inappropriate behavior, i.e. chocolate, flowers, perfume, etc. Literally: Dragon fodder

Fernweh - A longing to be away from a place

Schadenfreude - Happiness or pleasure from seeing another's misfortune or suffering (This word is actually directly stolen and is used is English)

Torschlusspanik - Fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages. Literally: Gate close panic

Waldeinsamkeit - The feeling of being alone in the forest 

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Italian:

Culaccino - The mark left on a table by a cold glass

Magari - An expression meaning "if only it were true!"

Mollica - The white inside part of bread

Ponte - An extra day off taken to make a national holiday that falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday into a four-day vacation (Literally: Bridge, it is also the word used for an actual bridge - across a river, etc.) 

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Korean:

정 (Jung) - A feeling of attachment that is stronger than "love" and can only often be proved by surviving a huge argument with someone

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Russian:

Похмеляться (Pohmyelyat'sya) - The act of sobering up by drinking more (to ease the pain of hangover).

Почемучка (Pochemuchka) - A person who asks a lot of questions

Разлюбить (Razlyubit') - To stop liking or loving; to fall out of love

Разлюли-малина (Razlyuli-malina) - Free and easy life, great, wonderful, very well, wonderfully, super, terrific

Тоска (Toska) - At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom  (Credits to Vladimir Nabokov for rendering it in English)

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Spanish:

Duende - Mysterious power that a work of art has to profoundly move a person

Ser/Estar - Both verbs mean "to be" in English, but one is used for more permanent things or certain situations; the latter is used primarily for more temporary conditions, some idiomatic expressions, how you feel, and where you are (There are equivalents of this in other languages as in Italian essere/stare) 

Vergüenza ajena - Embarrassment you feel while watching someone else's humiliation

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Swedish: 

Lagom - Not too much or not too little, just right; enough (not always referring to quantities or amounts) 

Today's Random Picture:

Ice Cream, Beer and Pizza Diet

Funny thermal physics joke, courtesy of the University of Sydney's School of Physics: 

As we all know, it takes 1 calorie to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree centigrade. Translated into meaningful terms, this means that if you eat a very cold dessert (generally consisting of water in large part), the natural processes which raise the consumed dessert to body temperature during the digestive cycle literally sucks the calories out of the only available source, your body fat.

For example, a dessert served and eaten at near 0 degrees C (32.2 deg. F) will in a short time be raised to the normal body temperature of 37 degrees C (98.6 deg. F). For each gram of dessert eaten, that process takes approximately 37 calories as stated above. The average dessert portion is 6 oz, or 168 grams. Therefore, by operation of thermodynamic law, 6,216 calories (1 cal./gm/deg. x 37 deg. x 168 gms) are extracted from body fat as the dessert's temperature is normalized. Allowing for the 1,200 latent calories in the dessert, the net calorie loss is approximately 5,000 calories.

Obviously, the more cold dessert you eat,the better off you are and the faster you will lose weight, if that is your goal. This process works equally well when drinking very cold beer in frosted glasses. Each ounce of beer contains 16 latent calories, but extracts 1,036 calories (6,216 cal. per 6 oz. portion) in the temperature normalizing process. Thus the net calorie loss per ounce of beer is 1,020 calories. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate that 12,240 calories (12 oz. x 1,020 cal./oz.) are extracted from the body in the process of drinking a can of beer.

Frozen desserts, e.g., ice cream, are even more beneficial, since it takes 83 cal./gm to melt them (i.e., raise them to 0 deg. C) and an additional 37 cal./gm to further raise them to body temperature. The results here are really remarkable, and it beats running hands down.

Unfortunately, for those who eat pizza as an excuse to drink beer, pizza (loaded with latent calories and served above body temperature) induces an opposite effect. But, thankfully, as the astute reader should have already reasoned, the obvious solution is to drink a lot of beer with pizza and follow up immediately with large bowls of ice cream.We could all be thin if we were to adhere religiously to a pizza, beer, and ice cream diet.

Happy eating!

Today's Random Picture: 

Unbelieveable 9-1-1 Calls

This entry is exactly what the title says... unbelieveable (but asserted real) 9-1-1 calls that were made in the United States. 

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is your emergency?
Caller: I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the brown house on the corner.
Dispatcher: Do you have an address?
Caller: No, I have on a blouse and slacks, why?

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is your emergency?
Caller: Someone broke into my house and took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich.
Dispatcher: Excuse me?
Caller: I made a ham and cheese sandwich and left it on the kitchen table and when I came back from the bathroom, someone had taken a bite out of it.
Dispatcher: Was anything else taken?
Caller: No, but this has happened to me before and I’m sick and tired of it!

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is the nature of your emergency?
Caller: I’m trying to reach nine eleven but my phone doesn’t have an eleven on it.
Dispatcher: This is nine eleven.
Caller: I thought you just said it was nine-one-one
Dispatcher: Yes, ma’am nine-one-one and nine-eleven are the same thing.
Caller: Honey, I may be old, but I’m not stupid.

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What’s the nature of your emergency?
Caller: My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart
Dispatcher: Is this her first child?
Caller: No, you idiot! This is her husband!

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1
Caller: Yeah, I’m having trouble breathing. I’m all out of breath. Darn….I think I’m going to pass out.
Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?
Caller: I’m at a pay phone. North and Foster.
Dispatcher: Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?
Caller: No
Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?
Caller: Running from the police.

Today's Random Picture: