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Thursday, 31 December 2009
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Bon Voyage to 2009!
Happy New Year's Eve Tripcrazed! Today marks the last day of the year for 2009. Grab the streamers, blow your horns and get ready to count down to January 2010; a new day, month, year and decade! Besides the obvious changes in dates, a new year can mean many changes.
Closing the curtains on anything is always an emotional experience. Not only do you reflect on the past, but you think about how to improve on the future. But, opening doors to new challenges can also be worthwhile.
Often the instinct is to start fresh with a new year; to take new challenges and better yourself in many possible ways.
Not only are we celebrating New Year's Eve here as individuals, but today marks the last day Tripcrazed will be updated. This post will be the last post for Tripcrazed. More Here... -
Will Tightened Security Ruin your Vacay?
On Christmas Day we unfortunately experienced another (almost) terrorist attack on the United States and now has airport security on a heightened alert once again. This has now wreaked havoc in airports and ultimately results in long lines and makes unruly, frustrated travelers.
This small incident made one giant catastrophe for airplanes and is steering me away from flying yet again in the future. Although I am thankful that security is taking necessary steps to protect fliers and our country's safety, but when it comes to time constraints, it can really put a damper on your vacation.
No one wants to wait three hours in line so they can do a body scan on you, scan your luggage to make sure you are not carrying any weapons, and especially not for all 75 people in line. How do you handle airports during rough times?
Does the current heightened security for airports put a damper on your traveling? -
My Top 10 Posts of 2009
More Here...My New Year’s Resolution: To be happy & healthy in mind, body & spirit. And travel a crap load more.
I started A Pair of Panties & Boxers as a reminder to myself to never conform to society’s norm in the daily grind of a 9-5. I didn’t want my job to be the reason I stopped seeing beyond four walls and I didn’t want the burden of saving for grad school keep me from seeing the world. I figured the best way to travel as much as I can is to start a travel blog because in order to write about my travels, I’d actually have to go and travel. When I start running out of things to write, that means I need to get on a plane, train, bus, boat or any type of transportation fast – not that I don’t get that urge to just jet every single day. But sometimes, we do what we have to do and not what we want to do.
It hasn’t been a year since I started blogging but I thought I’d still wrap up 2009 featuring my top 10 most popular blog posts of the year. I hope all my readers enjoyed growing this blog with me these past 6 months. Thanks for sticking around.
So without further adieu, here are the top 10 posts for 2009.
1. Photo Friday: Kaifeng, China
Kaifeng, China: The beauty of traveling through China is that sometimes, I feel like I’m in two places at once – the past and the present. Read more…
See #8 for related post.
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
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Mac vs. PC Israeli-Style
I guess we know which one Israel prefers...
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW--MAC LOVERS BEWARE
Israel Border Police officers shot at an American student's laptop as she entered Israel via Taba, Egypt, two weeks ago.
Lily Sussman, 21, wrote on her blog that border police subjected her to two hours of questioning and searches prior to shooting her Apple Macbook three times.
"They had pressed every sock and scarf with a security device, ripped open soap and had me strip extra layers. They asked me tons of questions," Sussman wrote, describing the experience.
"Who do you know? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he Arab, Egyptian, Palestinian? Why do you live in Egypt? Why not Israel? What do you know about the 'conflict' here? What do you think? They quizzed me on Judaism, which I know nothing about," she continued.
Sussman said that she then heard an announcement on the loudspeaker. "It was something along the lines of, 'Do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passenger luggage,'" she wrote on her blog. More Here... -
When It Rains or Snows You Better Let Your Headlights Glow PSA
I don't know I guess its a pet peeve. But I despise when I see people who refuse to use their headlights. I mean to me its like asking to hit someone.
So what did I do? I made a PSA (Public Service Announcement about it. More Here...
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
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2010 Will Bring Actual Change We Can Believe In
One year ago this time I was in New Orleans ringing in the New Years in Jackson Square, with what seemed to be millions of fellow party-goers and Mayor Ray Nagin. To the young, partying traveler, NOLA is one of few places in America where one can booze it up in public, so there was plenty of champagne popping and corks flying on the momentous occasion. It was turning 2009, Barack would be our president, he was going to fix the economy, we were going to find jobs, finish school, people were excited.
As midnight approached and that fleur-de-lis began to drop, exaltation was brimming and the heights of spirits were plateauing and the actual countdown came to a hurdling stop, the DJ at the public forum began blasting what seemed to be the anthem of the south: T.I.'s "Whatever You Like."
French Quarter, New Year's Eve 2009
More Here... -
Greatest Travel Movies of the Decade
(in awesomeness order)
(the best travel movies in recent history)
(according to me)
Official Winner: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo BayMaybe it's the holiday spirit, maybe it's the NJ cold and snow melting away miraculously just in time for skanky New Year's Eve outfits, or maybe it's just my unending stoner love that makes watching this movie hit the spot for me; regardless, I truly believe this is the greatest travel movie of our decade, and possibly even our time. It embodies the spontaneity and purpose of traveling when one is young, when it may be for seemingly shallow and selfish reasons and culture and growth is acquired accidentally. It even captures the spirit of the American roadtrip, rife with hitchhiking and crashing at friend's places and crashing at stranger's places and lying and hustling and stealing and running away, all with love, lust and desire at the heart of it.
More Here...
Monday, 28 December 2009
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Remembering your best trip in 2009
Even though the travel industry has taken a hard hit because of the economy, it doesn't stop travel lovers from some sort of vacation. 2009 was the year of desperate attempts to sell travel deals to get people moving and shaking.
My best trip has to be the one I literally, waited all year for. In early 2009, I booked a ridiculous travel deal from NYC to Barcelona for travel in November for $220 Round Trip. This included all fee's.
Any international trip abroad is bound to be full of exciting new experiences. I fell in love with the rustic streets, the kind natives and the delicious Sangria in Barcelona.
Whether you had amazing trips far away or the best weekend ever with friends in your area, recall your favorite moments in 2009.
Where did you go in 2009? Any memorable trips worth mentioning? -
The misunderstandings of Jihad
A post that many may not expect from me. I read something today where someone was talking about "Horrible Muslims and their call for Jihad."
Jihad seems to be a very misunderstood word. Jihād is a noun meaning "struggle."
Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)"
"Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad) ".Sahih al-Bukhari 4:52:41
"O you who believe! Choose not your fathers nor your brethren for protectors if they love disbelief over belief; whoever of you takes them for protectors, such are wrong-doers. Say: if your fathers, and your children, and your brethren, and your spouses, and your tribe, and the wealth you have acquired, and business for which you fear shrinkage, and houses you are pleased with are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah brings His command to pass. Allah does not guide disobedient folk."
(Quran 9:23, 24)
Mahatma Gandhi's struggle for Indian independence is called a "jihad" in Modern Standard Arabic.
Granted Jihad can mean violence but it does not always mean violence. More Here...
Sunday, 27 December 2009
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Where Are You Headed this New Years Eve?
I usually don't travel anywhere far for New Years Eve. I mainly stay close with friends and family but the occasional party at the friends house happens every few years. I love the feeling of heading into a new year. It's like a new beginning. Like you're starting all over again.
After the countdown, I go through my cabinets, get out the pots and pans and a wooden spoon, and bang the pots outside on the patio. And if I feel up to it, I'll put on my car alarm hehe.
Do you go anywhere on New Years Eve? Do you have any traditions?
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