It had to happen, eventually.....

Resistant as I may be to many technological "advances", I do enjoy the benefits of most forms of electronic communication. Well, to clarify, the ones that don't require active participation in real-time conversation. Okay, I guess I just mean that I hate the telephone.
But I do like keeping in touch with my friends scattered around the world, and I have been lucky enough to have visited some incredibly interesting and beautiful places, and have often wished that I had a more user-friendly way of sharing them than multiple emails or Facebook.
So, I'm launching a blog---probably more for me than anyone else, but we'll see where it goes.

Today a friend pointed out that he had never seen a Subaru with politically right-wing bumper stickers. Subaru is the "official" car of Colorado, which despite being the home of Tancredo and some other Tea-Baggers, is generally a Blue state in and around populated areas....except Colorado Springs. But he pointed out what I've known for a long time. It is possible, I think, to make some very broad assumptions about a person's likely political persuasion based on the mode of transportation they employ. I say "mode" because for many of my friends in urban areas, their choice to rely on mass-transit or a bicycle is in itself a politcal "marker". Some seem obvious, as I posited that the car most likely to be driven by a Republican  is surely the Hummer. In fact, I'd wager that less than 10% of Hummer owners vote Democratic. Similarly, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a Republican piloting a Prius, although there might be a few who simply want to take advantage of tax-credits while simultaneously decrying big-government "giveaways". Virtually all Mercury drivers are Republicans, while nearly all VW Bug drivers are Democrats. (and, for some reason, large women...) Dodge Chargers, or really any of those shitty 60's throwback cars (boy did they ruin the GTO!) are likely to be driven by young, poorly educated Republicans with blue-collar jobs that pay well. Mini's would be their opposite.....well educated, poorly paid Democrats paying off student loans but moving up the ladder quickly.
Okay, I'm boring myself.
In two weeks I'll be in Vietnam with my baby brother Richard....celebrating Tet, and getting ready to embark on our bicycle trip from Saigon to Bangkok via Cambodia. I'm going to try and upload LOTS of pics.