Fist Pumping Action

http://www.alpha-male.org/pics/fist_pump_guy.jpg



First things first. I'm on a mission over here in indonesia. It's a mission to return "fist pumping action" as a means of expressing excitement. This is a one handed fist pump. You all know it. American culture (not our politics) is generally quite reverred, especially that of hollywood, music, etc. So i'm using my american influence to bring this fist pumping action to southeast asia. I credit Aaron with bringing it to the american west. Aaron credits some guy named Glenn in chicago for spreading it to KC. Look for tons of Asians to be doing fist pumping action at the Olympics in 2010.

World cup action took place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia beginning at 1 am the other day. Jen and I woke a sleepy bekack driver (easy to do, i believe they live/sleep in their bike/carts 24-7) and paid him handsomely to to drive us to a street where a giant screen had been erected to watch the match. We met with chaos, since every scooter in a 50 mile radius was there. Any event this big in the states would have warrented about 30 policemen and a news crew. In indonesia this warrented zero policemen and a lot of people selling cigarrettes. The street was blocked, taksi's were honking, and people were in trees, on fences, etc to see the screen. When a team would score, people not only cheered but revved scooters to rediculous levels, causing the greenhouse levels around the earth to double (penalty kicks caused the melting of antartica).

AFter the cup, we slept an hour and then told a taksi driver "airport." He took this to mean "drive me to the airport like you are Chuck Yeager the NASA test pilot." Fortunately, i had recently used our bathroom/hole-in-ground so i didn't need to chage my shorts (for the record, we buy our own toilet paper, and then have to throw it away, ecuador-style).

Now we are in Bali, the capital of Australian Spring Break and home of the infamous Bali-Bombings (we saw the memorial today, over 100 dead). It is supposed to be a beautiful paradise, but in reality it blows, so we are leaving. If you enjoy being harrassed every 30 seconds fo buy t-shirts, sunglasses, mangoes, massages, etc then Bali is for you. If you enjoy playing frogger vs. Aussies who are riding scooters for the first time in their lives, Bali is for you. In defense of Bali, Jen and I did get awesome massages. However, i couldn't help from laughing, because for those of you from Columbia, MO, it was nothing like what you've heard of The Hong Kong Spa or the Foxy Sauna or any other such american massage parlors (no "happy endings" you sickos).

Now we are booked to leave here tomorrow morning to explore some tiny islands and stay in a bungalow. then we are on a boat trip for 3 days to eventually see Komodo dragons. afterwards, we will continue exploring the more remote islands of eastern indonesia. in other awesomeness, there will be no more atm's for the rest of our trip, and 1 Rupiah is worth about half a cent, so Jen and I will have to withdraw about 5 million Rupiah to carry around (literally). awesometown.

Look for my next post to be the ceremony where Indonesia renames the three Gili Islands as "Fist", "Pumping," and "Äction"

PS - check out Ayo's blog and Jen's (the Manila folder) both now linked to mine
- yes, that is probably the most awesome internet picture i've ever posted, that is the look and enthusiasm i strive for