This is going to be the penultimate post. I think. chizzyandbryan was set up to be the blog to document the stories of our time in Europe. I guess it kind of did that in the beginning. But as we settled in here and life became routine I lost the material and the will to keep it updated regularly. I made a couple half hearted attempts at a true blog but it never materialized. I’d like to try that in the future but it will not be on chizzyandbryan.
So, yeah. We are returning to Seattle next week. I plan on doing one final post that reflects on these past three years.
But for now, one final political post.
I’m going to follow through and cast my vote for Ron Paul in the Washington State primary coming up. In fact, I’m really looking forward to voting my conscience, getting some closure, and starting to look for other ways I can contribute to the cause of freedom and personal liberty.
Our country was founded with the goal of creating the smallest government the world has ever seen. A government whose primary purpose would be to preserve and defend the freedom of the individual. We’ve failed in this so catastrophically that, over the course of only a couple hundred years, we now have the largest government the world has ever seen.
We don’t debate whether or not the government is allowed to steal from us or invade our privacy. We only debate how much they are allowed to steal from us and how much privacy they are allowed to invade. Our courts consistently rule that the government isn’t actually obligated to protect the citizens it claims to serve. Law enforcement agencies are advised that when attempting to identify “domestic terrorists” one will often refer to “their rights” or to The Constitution when being questioned.
And, yes, the one presidential candidate who firmly stands for the basic tenets of our founding ideals is so marginalized that a casual observer will either never have heard his name at all, or can only associate him with derogatory terms.
How did we get here?
“Bryan”
“What, Shelby?”
“I don’t like the Ron Paul posts on your blog site”
“That’s fine. Just go out shopping in Zurich with your worthless American dollars and continue to hate Freedom and Liberty then.”
Yep, Shelby has made a second trip out Zurich to hang out and eat as much cheese as humanly possible. It’s been a super-fun time as expected but I’m still not in much of a blogging mood so this post will be short.
The highlight was the weekend trip we made out to Prague. The city was as great as we remembered and the Czech people were as bothered as ever with our tourist presence. I’m sure some people would argue it is a cultural thing but people employed in the service industry in Prague are pretty damn rude. And they hate Americans more than most people we have encountered. Still, the city is so amazing it is easily forgivable.
I was shocked I was able to get a photo of the clock with no other random people in the photo.
This is a much more typical representation on the size of the crowd the clock draws each hour.
Chiz introduced me to this pose and I really enjoying doing it sometimes. I’m sure she’d be honored if you ever want to give it a try in your picture poses too.
We found “The Experienced Guide” again and got a personal tour for a couple hours. Immediately after this photo was taken he becomes very upset with himself that he mentioned the architectural use of flying buttresses in the construction of the cathedral but is unable to point one out when pressed by Shelby. This is because he is very knowledgeable about everything Prague and is particularly interested in architecture. If you ever visit Prague and see this guy standing by the clock with his handmade sign I can recommend him as a pretty decent guide. Just be warned that he hates stupid people and he hates that American soldiers never made it all the way to Prague at the end of WWII to fight alongside the citizen uprising. I’m not sure he fully realized there wasn’t much the three of us could have done about that.
We also went on a little Pub Tour that ended up just being the three of us and two American gals. The tour guide was some Czech college student who hated Americans as well and especially how we all think we are so great. I tried to probe as to why he even cares about it but one of the other American gals was too busy apologizing for Bush, reinforcing the idea that all American actions reverberate world-wide, and stressing how she is personally solving the problems of the world in her PhD program. Immediately after, the guide declared Czech beer was the best in the world and there was no rational debate to be had about it. But it was all water off a duck’s back and we all ended up at a dance club after the official tour concluded where he showed his hatred doesn’t run so deep that he would rule out making out on the dance floor with American Imperialist girls.
Charles Bridge. The ladies made several undergarment and wardrobe upgrades on the first day to deal with the very cold temperatures. Here we see a fun little hat atop the head of Chiz.
The closest thing we have ever seen that made Shelby seriously question her strict vegetarian diet. Never gets old.
Another amazing room find by Chiz. The hotel was Metaphorphis and Chiz was taking the concept very literally here.
Anyway, we are having a great time and it was very cool that Shelby could make it out here again.
I'm not using this blog for anything else at the moment, so you're getting this.
I was furious that the offices of the Liberty Dollar were raided by the FBI a couple weeks ago. They barged in and STOLE all the gold, silver, and copper that was backing the largest competing currency to the Federal Reserve Note.
Government borrowing is out of control and the dollar is falling fast. It might be too late already. You don't have to agree with Ron Paul on every issue (nobody does) but he is the only one talking about the root causes of these monetary problems.
This is a very long (one hour) interview with Ron Paul. This interview touches on many of the issues important to the people of America and Paul is given ample time to explain his positions. This is the type of environment where Ron Paul is at his best. Nobody looking for sound bites, no interruptions, and no time limitations.
If you are the type of person who is really interested in politics and want to understand where Ron Paul is coming from, this is the interview I would suggest you watch.
Grabbed this from the Nashua Telegraph.
Or for those who just prefer the sound bites and the emotional angle.
Chizzy and I just got back from a few days in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Mostly just a photblog here. If you want brutally long commentary, check out the special edition podcast Chizzy and I recorded about our visit.
“Our Saviour on-the-Spilt-Blood”. A mouthful of a name, but a very cool looking structure.
Tired of coming to the site and not seeing updates? So are we.
So, what we're going to try next is Podcasting. I've named it Nine Hours Ahead.
Subscribe to us at Podcast Alley!
As most of you know, I had the opportunity to visit our Singapore office 2 weeks ago. I’ve never been to Asia so I was super excited to have this experience. I arrived around 7am on a Sunday morning and it was probably 80 degrees and so humid. It would only get hotter and stay that way for the entire trip.
I stayed on the 48th floor of the Swissotel.
Here are some views from my room.
I’ve been told that Singapore is probably one of the most westernized locations in Asia so this was a good introduction for me. Lots of shopping malls and fantastic food. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to shop but I walked through several giant air-conditioned malls to get to work everyday, passing no less than 5 Starbucks on the way.
The office is actually located on the 8th floor of this mall.
The first day I met up with a colleague and his wife who showed me around the city. We ended up in Little India.
My first coconut
I’m here. Sorry for being gone so long. No good reason for it. We haven’t traveled too much recently though so I’d just use that to diffuse any talk of my general procrastination. Chiz did, however, fully roll the whisper of her maybe going to Singapore on business into actually being there as I type this. It’s a business trip in pretty much every sense of the term but she is staying right downtown with a walk to the office so seems like a good place to find the pulse. A couple Yanks will be showing her around but I told her that is no excuse for her coming back without having eaten something she normally wouldn’t. She’ll be back on Thursday and if you are half as excited as I am that she might regale us with her tales on this very blog then you are one third as excited I am about Ron Paul.
The main inspiration for this post though was to document my experience at the Zurich Street Parade this year. For my complete, yet very brief history, with this event check out the post from last year and see where I was coming from.
Continue reading "Street Parade 07"...Was talking to some guy in the guild from The Netherlands today. He told me his Grandfather was from the USA so he is quarter American. I've never heard it work in that direction before.
I'm kind of sad to hear you guys are heading back and the Europe journey is over. Anyways, have a safe trip home. I'm glad to hear another Republican is returning to the states. I've been debating doing a political post on our site so stay tuned.
Perhaps you'll blog again more after you return to the states and are bored without all the travels.