If the royal family were to be outed tomorrow, for whatever reason, what would their last names be?

As of 1917, it seems to be Mountbatten-Windsor, which is pretty much made up any way.  Technically, any of them can chose whatever last name they want.  King George V created the name in the first place.

http://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalFamily/TheRoyalFamilyname/Overview.aspx

hearing the talk about Queen Elizabeth being in Canada and then speaking at the United Nations made me remember the time I saw the Queen.  In May of 2007, Keren was spending a semester in Italy, so the whole family decided to take a trip over to see her.  While I was over there, I was fortunate enough for work to foot the bill for me to stay in London for a few days and meet everyone I work with on a daily basis.  While I was there, my friend Penny took me to see Equus, staring Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame (yes, I saw him naked).  Anyway, on our walk home at night, past the London Eye, we hear all these sirens behind us, and then a cop (bobby?) on a motorcycle pulls up and blocks the intersection we were walking past.  I was a little scared, but we kept walking, and then saw some more bike cops roll on by, finally followed by an old style brown car, in which i could easily make out the Queen.  They just zipped right on by.  Penny was shocked.  I think she had never even seen the Queen.  I fumbled for my camera, but it was too late to snap even a blurry pic.  I’ll see if I can get Penny to back me up on this claim.

There’s a bunch of lists out there, and I’m sure you’ve heard how geeks are great lovers, but I think I have a few things to add to the list.  Geeks are great.

10.  Getting to know a geek is easy – just google their name…or sometimes, their alias…or aliases.  You can find pictures, blogs, forums, newspaper articles, anything they’ve done or been involved in.  Throw in some myspace and facebook stalking, and you’ve got a good sense of what they’re all about and their friends.  You can make a pretty good judgement of how interested you should be based on these alone, and you didn’t even have to meet them in an awkward place!

9.  It works both ways – rest assured, they’re going to do the same google stalker on you too.  Geeks want to know what they’re getting themselves into while satisfying their stalker tendencies.  Geeks are thirsty for knowledge, and this time it’s about you!  You should be flattered at how much they want to learn about you and be able to have a conversation with you right off the bat instead of just having small talk.

8.  They leave an audit trail – If your geek shows up with a tan one day…you know something is up.  They’re life is well documented, email use, text messages, new facebook friends and wall posts, twitter updates, blog posts, etc.  They great thing is, even if you can’t get an idea of what’s going on in their lives from all these things, if they stop activity…you know they’re distracted by something…

7.  They’re easy to please – All you have to do is smile at them and they’re in love.  If that fails, just buy them a new gadget like an iphone or some GPS thing-a-majig.

6..  They’re devoted – Geeks like reliability.  Once they spend all their time in building a new computer, they don’t want to see that hard drive crash.  They’re the same with their relationships.

5.  They’re connected – So you want to take a trip to London, but don’t have the money for a hotel?  Don’t worry, your geek probably plays World of Warcraft with someone from London, and you can crash at their place.

4.  They’re only 1 click away – Email, text, call, IM, facebook, and probably lots of other ways should make for an easy way to get in contact with your geek.  Alternatively, you can find out which one they check least often, and send a message there, then you can say, "oh, i facebooked messaged you that, didn’t you get it?" and you’re home safe.

3.  Full of potential (too) – Let’s face it, you’re geek spends a lot of time on his or her computer.  This doesn’t (necessarily) mean they’re an introvert or misanthrope though.  Chances are, they’re just waiting for someone else to come along and see if they want to do something.  They’ll probably be full of ideas of things to do that they read about on wikipedia or digg, and you can do them together!

2.  Mr Fix it – Yeah, they can fix your computer.  Yeah, they can figure out why your wireless router isn’t working.  Yeah, they can hook up your new HDTV for  you.  They can also do some awesome research on webMD or How stuff works or any other resource out there to do what you need done.  Like I said, they’re thirsty for knowledge because they believe human knowledge belongs to the world.

1.  Dropped connection – If you decide it’s time to end the relationship, just tell them that you’re going to South Africa to live in a hut and you won’t have any internet.  They’ve read stories about those places, and they don’t want to go there, or be with anyone who could live there.

As we reach the end of 2007, I’m going to cross that line into the cliche "here are the highlights of 2007 and here’s what I’d like to see in 2008" post.  Last year, I called it the year of "new things".  If I were to create a label for this year, I’d consider it a year of traveling.  I went to philly at least twice, crossed the atlantic for the first time to italy with my family and then to london for work, I went to vegas, I went to florida, took trips to cleveland to see rachel, took a trip or two to DC, stopped taking daily drives to work and started walking to work,  and i took a few other road trips as well.  I definitely enjoy traveling, and i definitely consider myself blessed to have the means, time, and friends that make it all possible.

So, I’m graduated with my bachelor degree in professional communicated and information systems from robert morris university…finally.  at least i finished before Keren.  Serah officially made me an uncle by giving birth on the 20th.  and I don’t really have too much to complain about at all.   But, I’ll share with you my new years resolutions and we’ll see how well I do with them.

• Call each sister at least once a month just to talk.
• put at least 100 CDs in the hands of strangers
• Pick up 1 new hobby. (haven’t decided yet…)
• READ ALL THE BOOKS I HAVE BUT HAVE NOT READ
• Compete in an urbanathon or some sort of race.

That’s all i got so far.  Should keep me busy.  I forget if the idea is to make goals specific so you know you reach them or not, or to keep them vague so that you don’t get frustrated and quit…oh well.  I’ll be off to DC this weekend to meet my niece, then back to ring in the new year.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I updated the gallery software today, lots of cool new features to check out.  I also finally got around to uploading the pictures from italy and london and i also threw up the pictures from my recent jaunt to las vegas for my birthday.

2 more weeks of classes and I’m all gradiated!  gotta do some major work before that happens, but should be cool to finally be done with it.

I went up with jordan otto and tim mudrick to my uncle kenny’s studio and recorded come over and we’re going out with them playing bass and drums.  The tracks aren’t perfect, but there’s a heck of a lot of potential there.  I’m really excited about playing more with those guys.  They’re great people, friends, christians, minds, musicians, and company.  Can’t go wrong with that.  Hopefully we’ll play more together and play out.

one of deirdre’s cats got stuck in some western pennsylvanian hick’s trap and he lost his front left paw.  about $1000 to cut it off and save him, and deirdre was very willing to pay that to save his life.  the trade off now is that he’ll be moving in with me in the city.  I’m a little worried to have him living here in the city, because it’s a whole new world if he gets out on the streets.  But i guess he won’t be going far with 3 legs.  Really sad.  I’ll take pictures when he’s here.

not all that much else to report…serah’s about to burst out a pesce, rachel and i are at eachother’s ends in terms of our long distance relationship and that struggle, we got a nintendo wii, i have tons of beer left over from a party, work is slowly going along and no news of a permanent position, no news on j’aime’s kids, and that’s about it.  hmmm, wish there was something more insightful and deep to say, but i guess it’s just not there tonight…

Wee!  So, Trip is all set now.  Leaving pittsburgh may 16th headed for a quick stop in new york then over to rome.  Then, first class to london on wednesday may 23rd.  Back to rome on the 25th, then back to the states on saturday, the 26th.  Work is paying for my room & board while in london and i’ll get to meet everyone there in London.  Good times!  I ended up redeeming my credit card points to help with the flight to london, so that was pretty cool too.  Hopefully the whole trip will go on without problems.  So many of us going, all never having been there, depending on keren, trying to organize events and such.  I’ll admit, i’m a little worried.

Things with Rachel continue to go well.  Hung out with her family at her cousin’s wedding on saturday.  The reception was at the Carnegie museum inside the hall of architecture.  really classy!  lots of statues and columns and stuff around the room.  Acoustics left something to be desired, but still a cool event.  We do a lot of social activities, like with other people, but we don’t do too much just the two of us.  It has it’s a good thing and a bad thing, but i’ve told her that i want to have some date nights too.  Relationship builders for the win!

lots of city news going on.  Pittsburgh was rated most livable city.  In response to Pittsburgh having the 2nd highest population drop (1st was post-Katrina New Orleans)  Mayor Luke Ravenstaul (27 years old) announced the Propel Pittsburgh Commission, a group of 37 people, from ages 20-34, who will meet and talk about what they wantlikedislike in the city.  I threw in my application.  Hopefully I’ll hear something back soon!  I would really like to get more involved in the city, and the Hill District.  In unrelated city news, Pittsburgh eats more ho-hos than any other city.

Roommates are going well. Alex is cool.  I have someone coming in for may 5th-25th, and then from june 1st – august 6th.  Deirdre will probably move in shortly after that and then we’ll see where we can go.  I’ll admit, i’ve had good luck with finding people and such on craigslist.  hopefully i’ll be continued to be blessed there.

no more word on the merger yet.  2 summer classes, starting while i’ll be in london…oh well.  Dallas is coming back from Vegas, and flights were too expensive to go down to see him a second time.  bummer.  new songs recorded and posted.  estate is finally closed!  lots of stuff to do with figuring out how to pay for it now though.  We gotta start cutting the grass too, and the tractor is broken.  Bleh.  I’m a city boy, not a farmer! 

April fool’s came and went yesterday.  I didn’t do a single joke or prank.  eh, next year.  Rachel and I went to DC to hang out with Serah and Mike.  Had a great time.  We saw Mount Vernon saturday, then spent some time at the Mall for the cherry blossom festival, then just chilled out at their place.  I uploaded a bunch of photos to the gallery, including some of a hidden tunnel/room thing that Rachel and i broke into at mount vernon.

Looks like I will be working from London for may 24th and 25th.  should be a good time.  I’ll probably go over a day or two earlier and sight see.  Still a lot of planning going into the whole Italy trip, but time is flying!  6 weeks!

So here’s a weird story.  Got a laptop last week from work and i took it home wednesday to work from home that night.  Half way home, I stopped at walmart and ended up taking a nap for a bit before going in and head home.  When I start back home, a few minutes away I smell something burning like plastic or rubber.  I forget about it until i get home and i see smoke coming out of my hood.  I pop the hood and the belt is smoking, and it’s dripping.  The belt is so hot it is melting.  Since i can’t do anything with it hot, i leave it cool down.  Later on, I come out and notice that the engine coolant is pretty much gone.  I fill that, and start up the truck again.  It is squealing really badly.  I am thinking it just has to wear away the dried melted parts and the squealing will go away.  Its gets quieter and quieter and finally does stop.  Satisfied, i turn the truck off and get out to shut the hood, but i notice that the belt is broken and that would be why it is no longer making noises.  So now my truck is disabled.  Luckily, I had an appointment already in place for friday to get emissions and state inspection.  Luckily, I don’t need to go to work because i can work from home.   Luckily i stopped halfway home or else i could have been stuck on the side of the road.  So i just got it towed back home on thursday, got a lift home on friday with my stepdad who works in the city, and i’m borrowing my mom’s minivan until the truck is done.  It’s going to cost $700.  They have to replace the entire air conditioning unit/system thing or else the belt will just melt again.  I had just used the air conditioning for the first time on monday, and it didn’t work, so i knew something was wrong.  sucks though, i could REALLY use that money with italy coming up.

Alex is pretty cool.  He’s got an architecture internship downtown.  haven’t had the chance to do anything with him yet, but we’ve got a while.  Still trying to find someone to rent the basement room out too.  Craigslist for the win!

Getting really proud of the city.  here’s a cool article on on the new building projects for the city. www.post-gazette.com/pg/07091/773880-85.stm So much to be excited about!

off the boot and back to 90% normal. Still can feel the ankle being a little weak, but i like to push it. Probably try and run a little later in the week. Not working out for the past 2 months is not good!

Ticket bought for italy with the family. I’m flying over wed may 16th and leaving saturday the 26th. during that time, i plan on taking a trip to paris and london as well since it’ll be so cheap to do so and i won’t want to spend so much time in italy. I’m excited!

took a road trip with friends to philly this weekend to a beer fest. Not really my scene, but we ended up having a really great time. Lots of friendship bonding and such. I need to get a camera. I wanted to wait until right before italy, but as soon as i pay off money that i owe to the estate and to j’aime for the italy ticket, i’ll get one as soon as i see the need and a good deal.

Rachel met my mother and Deirdre last wednesday when we went back home to see Deirdre as Mame in the musical Mame. So much talent there. It was weird seeing Rachel hug my mother though……..heh. Hi mom

One of the new housemates, craig, moved in yesterday. Pretty cool dude. He just proposed to his girlfriend of 5 years over the weekend too. Both are from Morgantown, transplanted to chicago, and now moving back. Craig will stick around til at least sometime april as they both find new living quarters, and I’m glad to have him/them. The other dude, Alex, has an architecture internship from march 17th-june 17th, and he’ll live across the hall from me. ’bout time that room got some good use.

I’m just sitting here thinking how fast money goes down the drain. since i’m not taking classes this semester, my school loans picked up payments, then i have the truck registration and inspection coming up, estate money i owe, tickets to italy, doctor bills from the ankle, blah blah blah. Why am i always feeling like i live paycheck to paycheck? I shouldnt have that.

good night for cool dreams last night. I dreamt that I was living in new york, and it’s like 2010. I was going to london for a vacation, and my flight left late at night, and i got out of work early, like noon. So instead of going home and waiting around for my flight, I jumped on this tunnel/train thing. It had a name, but i forget what it was called. Basically, it was a train that went through the atlantic ocean and arrived in London in about an hour and a half. And it only cost like $20. The plan was to just hang out for a few hours there and then go back for my flight with all my stuff. So i got through and called my friend to meet me and i met up with other friends that were there.

now, the second part of the dream probably stems from reading about the philadelphia experiment. Apparently back in the 1940′s, a big navy ship was teleported from philadelphia to virginia, and when it got there, crew were embedded into the hull of the ship and stuff. It’s all about electronic camoflauge and stuff. So back to the dream, I dreamt that I was talking to a guy about me taking that train and how cool that was and how i never knew about it before. He then told me there was another way to travel, but I had to be sworn to secrecy. He was like a government guy, and said that i could never tell anyone about what I was going to see, atleast not for 9 years, because after that, it becomes declassified. So he takes me out with a few other people out in the middle of no where, and there’s this big circular stage like thing about 30 feet in diameter. he tells me to lie on it. after a few seconds, I start to float around, next thing i know, I’m going down a slide in new york, like i got teleported there and landed on this slide to help my fall. I’m hoping that it was a dream…I don’t want to break a promise to some government guy that knows how to teleport people…

ugh, kinda in a bad mood. I officially hate my public speaking class. It’s way too intense and the guidlines are to strict. My incompetence doesn’t help much with that either.

I’ve got poison ivy from working at the estate this weekend too. kinda draining. We did make good progress on the yard though, mike was going with a chainsaw cuz i am too much of a pansy to trust myself with one. There is still an unfathomable amount of work to do though.

speaking of poison ivy, my heart was broken yesterday when i found out Alicia Silverstone got married last week to some rocker. How cliche. So leanne and Alicia are off the list, now i’m down to mandy moore. She’s been out of the spotlight for a while, so i might be able to use that to my advantage. I might try and get her an address and send her a nice letter…and a vile of my blood…

no new word on the house at all. waiting games suck. Might have an interview for the London job this week as well. 2 more weeks of classes. and 3 weeks until my 2 week vacation to canada and around the east coast. fun fun fun.