Greek Cultures

I need someone to please explain to me how the Greeks are in financial trouble. Have you seen how much they're selling their yogurt for? I was in the grocery store and was appalled. They've gotta be making a KILLING.

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Why Did We Ever Learn Cursive?

Took the GRE on Tuesday -- I'm excited about the future opportunities this will allow me to have; but mostly, I'm just that it's over and I can go back to doing things I enjoy (reading, blogging, nothing) without feeling guilty that I'm not cramming worthless words into my brain that I will never use in a normal conversation.

They're quite strict about admission to these tests (understandably), but all the signed forms and presenting of IDs and having my mugshot taken made it feel like I was being granted access to Area 51.

Oddly enough, perhaps the most formidable challenge to my success on the exam came before it even started. I had to fill out a form on which I gave my agreement to not disclose details about the test and say I understood the testing rules. I then had to copy down an entire paragraph, verbatim,to verify that I understood the agreement. In cursive. When was the last time you wrote in cursive? I have no recollection of the last time I wrote in this archaic script. I'm pretty sure I looked like I had arthritic hands as I unnaturally and uncomfortably fumbled my way through writing an entire paragraph in cursive English. The end product probably looked like a drunk 3-year old's attempt at writing a statement. I'm surprised they admitted me to take the exam, but I suppose they took some pity on me since I did pay them $160 to take it.

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Bonnie, Bonnie Scotland

Mrs. RoSA and I are recently returned from a 10-day trek to Scotland. It has always been at the top of my Top 5 Countries to Visit List, and it did not disappoint. In fact, it greatly surpassed all of my highly-inflated expectations of seeing rugged green mountains with beautiful lochs, centuries-old castles, and historical sites.

All of my expectations prior to going could really be distilled down to this video clip:

Essentially, I wanted my Scotland experience to be me scampering up rocky cliffs in the Highlands, shaggy and overgrown hair blowing in the wind, claymore broadsword strapped to my back, bagpipe music playing as my soundtrack. This led me to demand of Mrs. RoSA that she not only learn to play the bagpipes, but that she learn to play them whilst running behind me, minstrel-like, as I scampered up cliffs. Here's an approximation of how the dialogue ensued:

Mrs. RoSA: Josh, I don't think I have the lung capacity to simultaneously play the bagpipes AND scale mountains; in fact, I'm pretty sure I would pass out.
Me: Isn't this one of those things we implicitly agreed upon when we got married?
Mrs. RoSA: Eyeroll.* I'll consider it if you wear a kilt.

I think we eventually settled on listening to the Braveheart soundtrack on our iPods while running up the Highland mountains. Technology makes things easier.

*When we're chatting on Gmail, Mrs. RoSA actually types out her eyerolls.

I will leave you with a few photos of my choosing from the trip. I have to add that the frustrating thing with Scotland is that the natural beauty is on such a scale that it was difficult to recapture. This, of course, had me blaming my camera, my lenses, and the brightness of the sun -- basically everything but my own lack of photographic acumen (As you can tell, I'm more of a blame others, "shoot the messenger"-type of guy).

1) The Table, part of the Quiraing -- an awe-inspring group of eroded basalt cliffs on the Isle of Skye. The most beautiful natural scenery I have ever seen:

2) Edinburgh Castle -- A huge castle built out of a black, volcanic rock overlooking the city:

3) The Lost Valley -- We took a steep hike up between two of the Three Sisters...mountains near Glencoe. In between these two mountains is 800-yards worth of flat valley where clans used to store stolen sheep. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't capture the scale of the valley. Stupid camera...

To read about our trip in more detail and to check out some pictures, you can check out our blog, The Rogue and the Fury, here.

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Dispatches from the Political Warzone

Being the educated readers that you are (a recent survey found that the average education level of RoSA readers was a dual MD/PhD -- so if you haven't educated yourself to that level, my sarcastic "thanks" for dragging down the average) you probably know something about the political struggles taking place in our nation's capital. It turns out that our sleepy little neighborhood in suburban northern Virginia is in the midst of a similar upheaval. Political machinations are afoot at The Compound. See exhibit A, a two-sided letter slipped under my door sometime in the middle of the night:

 

Basically, what I can discern from this is that a new, power-hungry "Coalition" of owners is trying to seize power from the incumbent Board Members of the Compound, and the incumbents (the people who left this note under my door) are trying to rally support to their cause with a mostly pointless letter with fear-mongering phrases like "checkmate," "smug with power," and "hidden agendas." (To their credit, the math lesson of 459 minus 40 equaling 419 was educational and enlightening. Thank you, Letter Writers, for the crash course in advanced subtraction)

Yes, my friends, the Compound -- which I half-jokingly view as the homeowners' association equivalent of something between a debtors' prison and Fascist Italy -- is apparently in the midst of a legitimate coup d'état and possible revolution: think Napolean in 1799, Iran in 1953/1979, or Chile in 1973. Although, admittedly, you wouldn't know it by looking outside. Just a bunch of nice-looking old folks out walking and enjoying the spring weather.

This felt like a Taliban night letter had been delivered to my door while I was sleeping. I admit that the letter contains no explicitly-stated threats, but were there implied ones if I don't do what the letter-writers want me to? Are my kneecaps going to get broken? Am I going to get beat up and thrown down our garbage chute (which is totally fine with the Compund rules so long as it doesn't happen between 10PM and 7AM) if I don't comply?

I enjoy watching the chess game of political maneuvering take place between countries, but having it so close to home is kind of exhilarating. I can only hope that this feud culminates into some sort of Machiavellian bloodbath and Mrs. RoSA and I get to spectate as these idiots tear each other apart a la the battle at the OK Corral. Viva la Revolucion, everyone (maybe)??

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Reasons to Visit Utah

I suppose one could speculate that the real reasons we went were to visit a new nephew, see family, see the awesome mountains, and eat some, in my opinion, overrated Cafe Rio (<-- Mrs. RoSA will kill me if she sees this) -- and those were our stated objectives -- but that person would be wrong. I was there to eat the best chips in the world:

...and to drink the best root beer in the world:

...and then to procure and bring them home in ridiculous enough quantities that security at the airport wants to look in your bags and confirm that, yes, all those large bags they saw in your carry-ons are actually full of chips. I can't blame them, really, as three large, "party size" bags of any kind of chips are anomalous enough to raise suspicion.

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