Notes from Vacationland

Well I am not in Maine the so called Vacationland as seen on their license plates, but I am on vacation (if the unemployed get vacations?) So there's lots to talk about so I'll try to be focused and brief now that I have the Internet - I will also try and keep up with my postings now even though I am away. I've been doing lots of people watching - funny babies at the beach and other interesting characters, young girls with weird eyes distracting lifeguards as people die (well not quite as dramatic, but still annoying).

The beach has been quite smelly this year, so much so that I may start calling all of New Jersey the armpit of America even though I thought I would never have to... I wonder where the EPA is and where the dead whale is or whatever it is smelling up the beaches.

Tonight, we played Cranium, a pretty good game, the more people the merrier like most games. I have been listening to some This American Life on the beach via iPod. Some interesting stuff about dream homes and saving lives. One story that sounded a lot like some of my ethics education. The scenario is: would you have someone pull a lever to stop a train that would otherwise kill 5 railroad workers if pulling the lever meant 1 person would die (but you would save the 5 workers). What if there were still 5 workers and a train coming but you were on a bridge and could push the fat man next to you - stopping the train and saving the 5 workers but killing the fat man that you pushed off the bridge? Well a man is currently doing a study at Princeton to try and figure out why 9 in 10 people think it would be ok to kill one person to pull the lever and save the 5 workers but that 9 in 10 people would say they wouldn't push the fat man? Same number of people involved each time but people wouldn't push fattie... My reason - seems like a lever has a little bit better of a chance of stopping the train than the fat guy. Also how many people could actually push the fat guy over the bridge at the right time? I don't know seems silly, but certainly is interesting.

Stay Tuned for Tomorrow's post about Top Chef and Food! Yum.

Lesson #14: Althought I am totally right on with my life lessons, I may have been a little off about lesson #3, NJ may fully smell funny...