This would open some eyes. Going to a "name" destination is overrated. I like to think I could happily have my honeymoon in any city on earth and find a week's worth of things to visit. Toledo, Spokane, Jacksonville, Liège, Omsk, Huddersfield, wherever.
"Open your eyes to WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA!!!!"
Upon further inspection, Huddersfield seems like a great place.
I was disturbed by the sentence "Huddersfield is notable for its abundance of fine Victorian architecture." before realizing that it said "abundance", not "absence".
These trips would seem appealing, but it would be tough to explain them to others. You would need to get some celebrities to do it first.
I think I'd be reluctant out of the fear that I might wind up someplace I've already been... "Aw, crap, not Dubrovnik again!"
2: If you include day trips, sure. I used to work in a travel bookstore, and tourists would often ask, 'So when you're in Portland, where do you go for fun?' The answer: 'Seattle.'
Powell on Pioneer Square?
This would be a good way to finally get people to experience the wonders of Fargo.
People would do this, no?
I was about to answer "Hell, no," but then I remembered that there are a lot of people not like me. I'd take an travel experience like that as a license to bitch and moan, but yeah, I can see a lot of other people being up for it.
A similar experience can be had by joining the armed forces.
"Where are we?"
"Dunno. I was asleep. I only woke up when we landed."
"It's raining."
"Hmm. Must be Wales, then. Who's got the map?"
"The captain."
"Where's he?"
"Dunno."
Powell on Pioneer Square?
Ayup.
This would be a good way to finally get people to experience the wonders of Fargo.
You could arrange tours for New Yorkers to take in all the real-estate wonders from Fargo to Elgin.
I could see someone returning to Longuyland owning 2 or 3 extra homes just because they couldn't resist the bargain.
Fargo isn't terrible cheap.
Wheeling is kind of lovely. Really.
I prefer Mary Daly's concept of "the sisterhood of man."
I just got back from Rugby TN which was, content-wise, basically a blind trip. Was offered the use of a home, took it, drove there, asked questions later. Those questions were perhaps better asked before. I can't say I'd jump on this wagon.
"Listen up, singletons. If you've given up on the dating scene and resigned yourself to a lifetime of solitude culminating in a fatal fall in the shower and subsequent consumption by starving house pets, here's something else to fret about:
You're a member of the only minority subject to officially sanctioned discrimination--call it singlism.
Wheeling is kind of lovely. Really.
Clearly, Rachel is a pot-smoker.
That should be [blockquote] of course.
Also, wankers are the last minority it's OK tostigmatize.
16 and 17: We must not let our threads merge into an undifferentiated mass!
People would do this, no?
Hell, no.
the travelers would only be told what kind of clothing and necessities to pack
Long pants, you say, bring long pants? (stare of incomprehension:) What kind of long pants, for god's sake?
Doesn't work for me. The last time I did something sort of like that, my wardrobe was all wrong, I'm telling you. A friend of a friend's wedding for which I was told I should bring some dress-up clothes wound up being attended by barefoot people wearing gauzy fairy-type clothing, with sparkly glitter on their cheeks. Dress-up. You know.
On these trips you will be informed as to whether the trip will be to an area populated by humans, fairies, norns, orcs, or other sentient species.
Oglebay is a truly lovely place and the Wheeling Dog Racing track is sort of neat. Beautiful scenery, etc. Further, people there respect my (reluctant) use of of a pseudonym.
Let's stop stigmatizing wankers and all start pulling together as one! What say you, brothers?
Some people enjoy having the license to bitch and moan. They even bond over it. Why else would those extreme endurance excursions be popular?
People would do this, no?
When did bloggers start ending sentences with this "no?" thing? For the most part, the bloggers I read tend to use a relatively conversational, informal style of writing, but this weird tic never fails to stick out like a sore thumb. Nobody talks like this. When you're asking a question and looking for outside confirmation, the expression you're looking for is "right?" As in, "you don't really talk like a stock foreign character from a bad adventure serial in real life, right?"
/peeve
I'm not trying to just be this way about it or anything, but I tend to use "no," "right," and "yes" as finite interrogatives pretty interchangeably.
I figure if someone managed to make money guiding trips up Mt. Everest for $65,000 where people have a one in four chance of death, this idea would work and probably get written up in the NYT styles sections as soon as someone could coin a trendy new name for the phenomenon.
Parsimon's comment reminds me of a big divergence that emerges between me and most others whenever something hard to plan for, or that forces a sudden change of plans, occurs. A snowstorm, or a flood. I experience these things as profoundly liberating: they break routines, call for a physical response, and put a premium on improvisation. But in contrast to my great happiness, my companions are very stressed, and I need to be careful of their feelings.
"Well, we've lost our transmission. But this roadside in Nebraska is really beautiful, with an endless sky and the wind blowing grasses with such patterns. Let's just walk in it for awhile, to savor the moment."
This is me talking. I invite you to suggest responses.
So August 24, 2007 is January 1, 1 B.O.M.? That doesn't compute.
27: Let's do it, Cala. I don't think that we're organized enough to run the venture for real, but we could certainly try to write an article for the NYT style section and coin a trendy name for it.
re: trendy name
Take A SerendipaTrip.
28: Interesting. I tend to get very agitated about changes of plan. I plan things very carefully and it upsets me when those plans go awry.
what ogged is describing is the opposite of plan-free travel, it's a completely planned trip albeit planned by someone else.
if you really want plan-free travel, just pick a place, buy a ticket there (get a visa if you need it) and show up. that's how i prefer to do it. spending two weeks alone or with a good friend winging it is my perfect vacation.
24: I really talk with the trailing "no?" I don't know if it's a NY thing, or if I'm just odd.
I've actually had a lot of people tell me that it's very Humanities Grad Studenty speak to end many of one's declarative sentences with "right?"
I'm the same as SV in #26, except I also use "yeah?"
I've been wondering if it would be lame to start ending sentences with "KWIM," like, pronouncing it phonetically, I mean. Would people cringe at that? Or does it already happen and I missed it?
I use "right?" "you know?" "no?" "eh?" And in French, I had a really bad verbal tic with the trailing "quoi" but was able to mitigate it by substituting with "hein?" In German, I would have picked up a trailing "oder" if I'd ever gotten more fluent.
28:
I experience these things as profoundly liberating: they break routines, call for a physical response, and put a premium on improvisation.
Interestingly, I tend to respond this way to such situations as well; at least I like travelling, winging it. However, said travelling must be supported by quite a lot of contingency supplies. I begin to freak out if I feel trapped.
I'm afraid that doesn't make much sense, but I'm at work and shouldn't be commenting in the first place.
I would consider doing a trip like this, especially if it was all planned and I just had to show up. Sometimes I feel like I want to go on a road trip or get away or whatever but don't feel like taking the energy to plan something. And sometimes even picking a place requires too much thought.
This may just be my exhaustion speaking.
Right, I'd go anywhere if it were well planned by someone else and I just had to show up. I consider this the reward of going to my mom's, where all of my time is scheduled by her for various visits. The surprise element, however, is still, to me, utterly unappealing and mutually exclusive.
Plan-free travel?
I thought that was why people did cruises?
There is a difference between mindless travel and plan-free travel.
When we travel, we get the flight to and from the destination, and maybe we have the first two nights reserved at a hotel. After that, you go where you want to go. Passport. Toothbrush and paste. deodorant. One pair of pants. Maybe two pairs of shorts. Some shirts. Underwear. socks. the shoes on your feet. Go.
31: And those taking the SerendipiTRIP could be called 'trippies.'
24: I tend not to use 'right?' when looking for confirmation bc I don't like the way it sounds. I do use 'no?' in this way. Or start the sentence off with 'Do you not think...?'
35: I've noticed that business about 'right' at the end of sentences, but it's often sounded final to me, not questioning, as trying to get across, 'All right then, let's move on.'
I've never heard anyone end a sentence with "no?". I would associate such behavior with French immigrants or something.
One thing that I find really weird is when people say "I know it" instead of "I know".
"Hey, your dog is getting pretty fat."
"I know it."
I've known two people who say this, and I can never get used to it. It sounds so archaic.
31: Serentripity, perhaps?
When speaking I end nearly every sentence with "...no?" or "or..." or "so..." or even "... or maybe not". I aim to sound terminally uncertain.
Look, the trailing "no" - and for that matter, the trailing "yes" - just sounds incredibly stilted. So stilted, in fact, that I couldn't bring myself to believe that real people actually used it in real speech (Mickey Kaus doesn't count). I'm just going to assume you people are body snatchers and leave it at that.
In German, I would have picked up a trailing "oder" if I'd ever gotten more fluent.
Trailing Oder: Another name to add to the pile of Great Unformed Band Names.
One thing that I find really weird is when people say "I know it" instead of "I know".
I do that sometimes, I think because it sounds more like an agreement. "I know" can seem like you're pointing out that they're not giving you any new information, which can come off as a bit rude.
When I use the trailing no it's ironic, OK?
What would you do about getting visas, etc.? Or would this include only trips to non-visa countries?
I only use the trailing no in non-visa countries.
I'm curious about the mechanics of this. Do you fly or take a train to where you're going, and the destination written on your tickets has to be specially blacked out or something? One way to get around that might be to have a private, chartered plane, but I imagine that would get expensive. Do you drive or take a bus? Do you hire a driver who is the driver in on the secret, or is the driver a member of the group and only gets to see one stage of their directions at a time? (What if they get lost?) If you're going by car/bus/train, is it such a long trip that getting there could become annoying and frustrating? If not, what are the chances that the participants will already be familiar with a vacation spot only a day or two away?
I picture a couple dozen rich people signing up for "outdoors in temperate climate or warmer" or something, getting on a private jet with a luxurious interior but the windowshades sealed down, and not finding out which way they went until they are released from the plane, whether in the Mexican jungle or the Pacific Northwest.
I assume this sort of trip would inevitably end up at the Island of Dr. Moreau
56: And then each one gets a finger chopped off which is then wrapped in the ransom note and sent to their worried relatives?
People would do this, no?
Has the good ole US of A avoided the plague of the package holiday?
About 25 years ago, Spanish TV sent a reporter to interview some of a few hundred Swedes who had been flown into a converted military airfield, the bussed to a tower block hotel in a near beach development where all the staff spoke Swedish. He asked them if they knew what continent they were on. They didn't.
The scenario in 56 is less Dr Moreau and more A Handful of Dust.
There are cheap charter flights too. I took one when I returned from a French homestay.
Ogged's gone now, right? Let us plan a surprise trip for him. I'm thinking somewhere warm. An island in the Caribbean, say. Somewher he'll fit right in. Oh, and let's keep it within 100 miles of Florida to save on fuel costs.
59: heh! I had a friend who was the tour DJ for one of those, heading from London through eastern Europe; they travelled through various cities in Hungary and Czecheslovakia, going to nightclubs every night and hearing the same three DJs they'd brought with them every time.
No, just say a tropical island. I hear Diego Garcia is lovely this time of year.
Ogged's gone now, right? Let us plan a surprise trip for him. I'm thinking somewhere warm. An island in the Caribbean, say. Somewher he'll fit right in. Oh, and let's keep it within 100 miles of Florida to save on fuel costs.
I've heard the standards for admission are really low.
Perhaps CharleyCarp can help us make the reservations.
I like to think that Ogged and Teva girl are on vacation together at Sandals.
The Finnish travel agency PeterPanMaailma sells these kind of trips. Details here. Basically just a package holiday with an unknown destination, ~2500 euros for two weeks.
Details here.
Mitä kaikkea matka sisältää? Sekin selviää sinulle lentokentällä kun saat matkaohjelma. Lapasia et tällä Jokerilla tarvitse. Jos tarvitset ennalta hankittavan viisumin, haemme sinulta tarvittavat tiedot ja kuittauksen peitettyyn viisuhakulomakkeeseen... ;
Fascinating!
Oh, stop whining Matt. Is there no Finnish-English babelfish? Summary: the "Jokeri" trips seem to be sold by a rough geographic region (Asia, the Americas), it is implied that cold weather clothing is not needed, you get the destination and tickets at the airport, possible visas are filled in advance in such a way that the destination is not revealed, the trip is marketed as an adventure holiday, there is a group of a maximum of 12 people and a guide, the price includes accommodation and some of the food. Satisfied?
Finnish to English translator:
I would presume that machine-based translation is substantially easier for Romance or Germanic languages than a very inflected language like Finnish where every word has like 45 different forms.
But anyway, it's fascinating that these trips actually exist.
I would presume that machine-based translation is substantially easier for Romance or Germanic languages than a very inflected language like Finnish where every word has like 45 different forms.
Not necessarily; it could even be easier, because there's potentially less ambiguity. This particular translator doesn't seem to work very well, though.
Easier for Finnish compared to Germanic or Romance languages, that is.
Translating the text rather than trying to do the whole webpage:
Muista seikkailuistamme poiketen Jokereille ei voi ostaa lentolippuja erikseen. Matkatoimisto Area varaa lennot ja lähettää sinulle laskun heti kun ryhmä on koossa. Lennon maksuehdot saat Arealta, reittilennot tulevat kuitenkin yleensä maksuun heti varaamisen jälkeen. Saat Jokerien lentoliput lentokentällä. Matkan maapaketin hinta on matkan kokonaishinta vähennettyna lennon hinnalla, ja se erääntyy maksuun kaksi päivää matkan päättymisen jälkeen.
becomes
Retain seikkailuistamme deviate Jokereille no butter purchase lentolippuja apart. Matkatoimisto Area margin eloquent and off thee score immediately while team is together. Eloquent maksuehdot satan Arealta reittilennot future nevertheless usually pay immediately varaamisen after. Satan Jokerien airway lentokentällä. Distance maapaketin charge is distance kokonaishinta less eloquent margin , and it maturing pay twain daytime distance expiration after.
Hopefully this will inspire someone to go by the pseud "Eloquent maksuehdot satan".
Ned killed the Finnish translator.
73: It kind of seems like it's not paying attention to the inflections at all (and has a remarkably small Finnish lexicon), which is insane for a language like that.
I agree with teo upon further thought. If it could just recognize the conjugations and declensions, then it should be able to automatically figure out what the word is, whether it's a noun or verb or whatever (often not easy in an isolating language like ours), and what the case or tense is. It might not be able to translate into coherent English sentences, but it should at least be able to do a word-by-word gloss.
Ridiculous that it works so badly in this case.
Probably the translator was just drunk at the time. Time difference, you know.
Correct, they have a large corpus of location-based noun cases. Into, onto, towards, away from...along with the ones that replicate our definitionless prepositions that mean hundreds of different things in different contexts, like "at".
I am giggling helplessly at the pronunciation guide.
Utmost care must be applied when interpreting the grammatical terminology. If you encounter the word 'accusative,' it can mean nominative or genitive, but never the real accusative. The term 'nominative' can mean accusative or, possibly, nominative. 'Genitive' can mean accusative or simply genitive, while partitive is always called partitive, although it may be accusative.
79: It's all the directional stuff that Latin collapsed into the ablative, right?
You know what that reads like? It's like an outtake from 1066 And All That.
1066 and all that is a great book.
The author is a Brit who is now a business consultant and translator.
Has anyone linked to the Finnish YMCA?
I can't believe my 66 is getting no love.
I'm just going to assume it's because the idea of Ogged getting a date is so incredulous that it ruins the joke.
38: "KWIM," like, pronouncing it phonetically
Oh, you're a wily one, Sybil Vane! This sounded like such a good idea when I read it at work, that I started ending all my sentences with a chipper "KWIM?" I got a few knowing laughs -- there must be other Unfogged readers at work who caught the reference -- but a few of the conversations ended in stunned silence. Well, to make a long story short, before I knew it I was called back to the manager's office, where one of the ladies from HR was sitting, and subjected to an excruciating interview about just what had I been thinking by picking this particular question to ask my coworkers? I explained over and over again that it was a neat idea I'd picked up on a blog, and I think they finally accepted that, but it was pretty rough going there for awhile, and if I wasn't so tight with my manager, I think I might have been screwed. And it's not over yet! Do you know what the last thing the HR lady said was? "See you next Tuesday!"
84: You mean this?
Important Note: The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and vice versa)
In fact, I was thinking of exactly that passage, but couldn't come up with it more clearly than 'the bit where they're talking about the Scots(Irish)'.
I just googled picts scots 1066
Do you fly or take a train to where you're going, and the destination written on your tickets has to be specially blacked out or something? One way to get around that might be to have a private, chartered plane, but I imagine that would get expensive. Do you drive or take a bus?
You get a plane ticket to a major hub, where your real tickets are distributed.
If you want to get REALLY adventurous you're going to need to tell them what immunizations to get, & the visa thing might be a problem.
Airline travel is such that I wouldn't recommend adding in gratuitous plane flights to keep the destination secret, either.
There's got to be a market for a "plan my vacation for me" service that isn't lame, though.
tell them what immunizations to get
If you're really adventurous, you won't get immunized.
Another difficulty: I would want to know when I signed up whether I was getting a good deal or not for the price. This seems hard without knowing where you're going. But your target audience is probably easier going & richer than me.
I think maybe an even better wrinkle would be to just drop people off somewhere with an inadequate map, and let them work out their own way home.
Baffin Island. Yemen. Northern Myanmar. Eureka, Nevada or Devils Tower WY for domestic options.
So this is kind of like human trafficking, only you get to come back in a certain amount of time?
98 -- "Get to"? Only if you figure it out.
I think maybe an even better wrinkle would be to just drop people off somewhere with an inadequate map, and let them work out their own way home.
That was a reality TV show, wasn't it?
97: Basically it's E & E training, then? Holiday finishes when you make it over the Alps into neutral Switzerland...
Channel 4 in the UK used to do a show like this.
They'd tale two groups of people (2 or 3 people in each group) and randomly drop them somewhere and they compete to get back. They have limited money, etc.
One episode I saw they dropped them somewhere in Central Africa. The contestants were jumping freight trains with Congolese tramps, etc. Hitching a ride through the Sahel, etc.
Also, my dad says E & E training is the most fun he had in the army. Being dropped other side of the Penines and being told to make it to Liverpool while being chased by Green Jackets.
The w-lfs-n variant reminds me of a business trip I once took; the client didn't want to reveal where we were going , so we reported to Heathrow Airport and met their representative who handed out the tickets...the destination was actually Bratislava, but the route was Vienna and then a vehicle with blacked-out windows over the border.
re: 104
! That's a fairly mysterious business trip.
Can you reveal what they were buying/selling without putting your life at risk?
"business trip" is a euphemism here; Alex and his mate were on an Elite Hunting trip.
Put it like this; it involved driving around near a nuclear power station with a vanload of laptops, GPS, and funny-looking radio equipment (shotgun antennas, spectrum analysers, and such). We were there to see a new OFDM radio network launched.
(Funny: I mentioned our suspicious appearance to one of the engineers, who remarked that they *had* had a radio planner arrested...but not in Slovakia, in Washington D.C....they built a radio net for the various emergency services there, and one day this guy was driving around doing a drive test - taking measurements every x yards. It was a while before he noticed the black Chevy Suburban following him, but he paid it no mind, and then three more pulled out of sidestreets and boxed him. The G-men locked him up under the Patriot Act until the big boss showed up with the head of police comms to vouch for him.)