I’m in Las Vegas, and it’s been a few late nights in a row (hello to my new friends from Nine Fine Irishmen!!), so my apologies for being late with today’s AI.
Since I’m in a vacation-y kind of mode, I’m wondering what constitutes the perfect vacation: is it time to rest and unwind or ramp up a new project? Time to get away from the webernets, time to spend ON the webernets?
For me, it’s ever changing.
What’s your dream vacation?
It’s a False Dichotomy. You’re suggesting I have to be on vacation to be dreaming. Ha. I dream every night.
My prediction is validated.
http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=3068#comment-36251
Now that my soothsaying abilities have been firmly established you must believe all my future predictions.
I am a Hedge
(Oh, yes, and I would like to visit Greece.)
I am a Hedge
A couple of weeks at work with “Lasgne Day” extended to every day, also without having to put up with students in any way, not having to share equipment with other people, and getting all my work reviewed as “no changes required”
And a return of the Tea Lady with her Trolley of Delights
Following the summer around the globe.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060371/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109729/
Interesting question… my “dream†vacation used to be time alone, because I didn’t like my room mates.
Then I dreamt of a vacation full o sleeping and relaxing and not “doing†anything… because in real life I had very very little time to actually take a breath and stop running around like a crazy person.
Now, however, I tend to have very relaxing weekends (lets hear it for Santa Cruz and The Man) and so when I went on vacation last month I wanted a place where I could relax, not be ona tight schedule and where I could experience new things, learn, explore, etc.
I think that the ideal vacation is one that gives you the aspects of your life you are either missing or not getting enough of in your regular life. And that is subject to change as life takes you in different directions.
@russellsugden: Ahh yes, ok, add “Trolley of Delights” to any vacation I go on from here on out.
Dream vacation. Hmm….
How about somewhere that harbors zero idiots. Is there such a place?
@Im a Hedge:
I don’t think you win the prize for “first to cry logical fallacy” because you were only kidding. You need to be seriously outraged and refuse to answer the question to win.
Though I give you props for trying.
Japan, China, Most, if not all of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Much of South America, Russia, and possibly a return trip to Israel would be ideal. I would also like to go to Alaska at some point as well.
Perfect vacation itenerary:
4:30 am foreplay
5:45 am sex
7:45 am nap
9:00 am 5K race
9:30 am long hot shower
10:00 am foreplay
11:00 am sex
1:00 pm light lunch
2:00 pm good book along with a wet bar within arms reach
5:oo pm foreplay
6:00 pm sex
8:30 pm supper
9:30 pm walk along beach
10:00 pm sex on the beach
Midnight drink sleep
Repeat daily for two weeks.
no phone
no internet
no running around
no shopping
just a beach, me, the sun, and Mr. Writerdd
@Kaylia_Marie: I’ve been told in the old days they used to bring the Tea Trolley into the lab and people drank their tea in the lab!
In the place I used to work, they had a Tea Lady and people were always genuinely excited by the prospect of a cup of tea and a bun in the afternoon.
@Gabrielbrawley: All that action on 4 hours sleep! For two weeks! Frankly I’d need a holiday to recover :-)
@russellsugden: Ahh but it is a very deep and resful sleep. The sleep of the justly laid.
@Gabrielbrawley:
Remind me not to go on vacation with you. I’d have to be able to walk back through O’Hare at the end.
—
My perfect vacation is somewhere I’ve never been… or exploring areas I’ve never been in a place I know well.
I want to experience new things, eat good food, drink good wine, learn and rest. I still need to touch base with the internets twice a day though… so it can’t be far from civilization.
@Elyse: But imagine the big goofy grin on your face and the sense of utter bliss and relaxation.
I’d like to take three weeks to visit some of the prominent (and/or just-plain-cool) temples in Asia.
Temples?
Yes, temples. Not for a religious experience of any kind, but because, for my money, they have the most pleasing aesthetic. …Plus, it would be a good chance to brush up on my Hindi and Japanese.
What I don’t like about that idea is that the Green in me says “that is wasteful: the fuel you would spend getting there, around, and back would be a very poor use of resources”.
So, barring that, I would like a vacation where someone pays off all my debt. Do they have those? No? Shit.
Alright, barring that, I suppose I would enjoy a “sabbatical” to some interesting University (one that I could get to without wasting travel resources), so I could study something random for a semester.
Yeah, that would be ideal.
So the Hedge already turned this into a False Dichotomy… now I’m just waiting for Seth to twist this into a libertarianism ideal… and then I’ll be free to inject a debate about feminism! It’ll be like a mini-vacation, only with flames!
For me it’s a camping trip, 5-10 days traveling through the back country. It’s beautiful and all that but for me the best thing about it is the lack of decisions that have little or no consequence.
Were am I sleeping? Do I have enough food? Will I stay warm? These are important things to deal with.
How much will gas cost today? What shirt should I wear? What’s on TV tonight? Why do they keep playing that @#$#’n song so often? These are just a few of the things I never consider while camping, there is simply no reason to.
Removing the minutia of civilization frees up a great deal of real estate in my brain and allows me to relax and chat with friends, enjoy a book or a good meal, have a drink by the fire as we discuss whatever comes to mind.
Some get this lying on the beach and I can understand that but for me I like to be mobile, seeing a different place, exploring a new place, maybe catching some dinner on the way (maybe being the operative word).
vay… kay… shun?
I am not familiar with this word. It seems to suggest that some people can to do things other than work and sleep for days at a time. I don’t believe this is really possible. Show me some extraordinary evidence! ;)
Im a SCUBA nut, so my dream vacation involves alot of diving.
I am thinking South Pacific, a mostly deserted island with beautiful reefs and unlimited diving.
The rooms are isolated at the end of those long docks, out over the calm flats of a protected lagoon.
Plenty of drinks, delicious foods, no phone, no internet, no nagging.
@russellsugden: They just installed a coffee stand here at work, which is cool, but a trolley would be way cooler.
I sort of want to be a tea lady now, just for a bit.
We like to go to Sandals, in Jamaica. It has beautiful beaches, great food (even for us veggies), awesome view of the ocean from your balcony, sailing, snorkeling (SCUBA, too, but we don’t), para-sailing, bars you can swim to(!), bars you can walk to, a bar in your room. Its all-inclusive, but we don’t view all the decedent delights available as “free”, but rather, “pre-paid”. That reminds us to indulge as often as possible.
Anywhere the wife and kids are and no one else is!
This is an easy one:
Two weeks on a well-stocked but deserted island in Fiji with 23 naked 18 year old tarts with no moral standards and a irresistable desire to please me!
Ah yes, that would do nicely thank you very much :)
So far my 2 favorite vacations have been Greece and Ireland (the later I also visited England, Scotland and Wales), but since this is fantasy I would love to go in space, and if I could bring a second person that would be all the better. Seriously, why aren’t we all going to space with this question?
@Elyse:
I’ll take it.
I am a Hedge
A lovely cruise with Rebecca who of course insists on pretending she likes older men. :) Hey, its my dream!
I predict that tomorrow’s A.I. will present a False Dichotomy. I further predict that I will be seriously outraged and will refuse to answer the question.
Then I shall learn what is one step up from “props”. (I hope it’s not “kudos”)
I am a Hedge
I would like to take a music-themed tour. I am somewhat astonished that, as near as my Googling skills can tell, they don’t exist.
1. Brazil — I want to visit the famous Samba schools in Rio, hit the Bossa Nova clubs at night, hear Capoeira on the beach. Go to Sao Paulo for more Bossa, maybe hit Brasilia for Forro or head into the northern provinces and take in the music there.
2. Hawaii — traditional (i.e., not tourist) hula; Hapa Haole music in the clubs, visit the ‘ukulele luthiers during the day. I want to spend a week or two in Hawaii digging on Hawaiian music and avoiding the beaches and tourist traps.
My dream vacation is a perminent one. Cruise the oceans, exploring the world. If I get boored, I’ll read books on biology and physics. I would write long letters in exotic ink on fine paper to scientists, politicians, and theologists. I would stay in Holand for a fiew years, Finland for a fiew after that. Maybe try out Paris for a fiew months in the autumn…
Sigh……
A remote, isolated and silent location with an unlimited supply of books. No humans = fun.
@LBB: I think it’s just an urban legend. My cousin’s friend’s hairdresser said she knew someone who once had a vacation, but I’m not sure.
Space, the Final Frontier.
Failing that, St. Croix or one of the Lesser Antillies. I’d also like to visit Australia, the UK, Germany and the Antarctic (while it’s still covered with ice).
I think the Europeans are right when they say that Americans (U.S. Americans, that is) have forgotten how to live. As you get older, the feeling of being a hamster running in a wheel only intensifies.
When I lost my job in 2001, I was about to hit the 5 weeks off a year level of seniority (21+ years), with over 450 hours of sick time banked. Now, I have 2 weeks of leave a year that includes sick leave. Of course, I wasn’t “administratively terminated” because of my seniority…ri-i-i-ght.
@elyse: not every flight in the world goes through ORD (O’Hare). It just seems like it sometimes. Do the zen thing when you fly – you get there when you get there (A travel tip from the airline employee who has been bumped so many times that there are benches named for him in most major airports).
I would like to take a world cruise on QM2. Of course money and time are against it. If I can find the time though, I would spend time driving through Europe following F1.
Dream vacation? Mountain cabin looking out at the fall foliage, laptop on … er, laptop, writing my latest story. *sigh*
Well, my BIG dream vacation would probably be Italy. By myself. But um, I like doing things by myself.
However, honestly, right now I’d be happy if I took a vacation — even a short one — anywhere BESIDES Arizona (where I live), Nevada (waaaay too many trips to Las Vegas, and I don’t even gamble!), and California (I grew up on the border and have been all over SoCal and a few places in NorCal). TIME FOR A CHANGE OF SCENER, for sure.
Next year I should have some time and, budget willing, I hope to either go to Austen or Chicago to visit friends. Have yet to decide which, though. It’ll probably only be a 4-day weekend jaunt, tho.
There’s a thing you can do where you go to a place like Florence and stay in monasteries. I think that this would be pretty rad.
Alternately: Patagonia.
There are a lot of scenarios that I would love…everything from laying on a beach and not getting up for two weeks, to backpacking, to a city vactation full of interesting things going on all the time.
There is one thing that all my ideal vacation drams have in common…NO CLOCKS. I want to live in a world with no clocks for two weeks. Then it wouldn’t matter how busy or relaxed I am. I would be happy.
Has anyone said ice fishing in the Amazon yet? Ah, what a dream…
Any place without Rebecca