Category Archives: Off Topic

Lufthansa Ducks- What’s The Big Deal?

Off Topic, Travel Articles,
a yellow rubber duck with a bear and a glass of beer
Our Berlin drinking duck

Back in August Lucas Finally Got An Airline Duck. Now it may have not been one of the highy sought after Lufthansa Ducks but Lucas didn’t seem to mind. (We also got another duck, this time from art’otel Berlin Mitte (shown above) as an In-Room Welcome Gift during our trip to Germany back in September.)

I started hearing a lot about Lufthansa’s Ducks from my friend Dennis, the Lufthansa Flyer a couple of years back. If you have a moment, check out his extensive and awesome Lufthansa First Class Duck Registry.

For many, the main reason and highlight for visiting Lufthansa’s First Class Lounges & Terminal in Frankfurt is to get a duck. Some will even visit multiple First Class Lounges to try to get a couple of ducks! If you’ve checked out the First Class Duck Registery above, you’ll see that the ducks can come in a wide variety of styles. 

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Crazy Video: Base Jumping Off 1 World Trade Center

NYC, Off Topic,
a tall building under construction in a city
image credit: onewtc.com

Back in September three men BASE jumped off One World Trade Center, the tallest building in America. (For those of you unfamiliar with BASE jumping, find out a little about it here.)

If not for video surveillance footage of their landing in front of the Goldman Sachs building, those involved may have never been caught. According to this NY Post article, the NYPD didn’t even know where the men had jumped from when they initially saw the footage.

After months of investigating the jump and hours after it was reported, the 4 men involved (3 jumpers and a lookout) turned themselves in to the police.

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Can You Identify US States By Their Outline? Take the Quiz

Off Topic, ,

a screenshot of a map

I feel that I have a decent sense of geography but I’m certainly no expert. With the internet at our fingertips, it’s so easy to pull up a map when needed.

Just about any time that I book a flight or am in the process of planning a trip, I’ll pull up a map to see what’s close by. Add in a little research with Google Maps and you might find yourself a little side-trip or a completely different itinerary.

Buzzfeed posted a fun quiz last month. The topic was something that I didn’t expect to do well with- Can You Identify The U.S. States By Their Outlines?

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A New Face + Trip: Thailand Extreme Makeover

Contest, Off Topic, ,

a woman with her hand on her chin

This has to be one of the craziest contests that I’ve ever heard of and it’s being brought to you by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

There is currently a search  for a candidate to take a $1 Million Trip Around the World and Australia ran the Best Jobs in the World Contest where six winners got a six month working vacation in Australia paying $100,000. Now, Thailand wants to give 3 winners Facial Surgery and a Trip around the country.

Thailand wants to get the word out that it’s a hub for medical tourism and is running a special project (contest) called Thailand Extreme Makeover.

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Wonder What Flights Are Above? Ask Siri

Off Topic, ,

a close-up of a logoI’ve had an iPhone for years and find it to be an invaluable device.

Since I teach kids 1:1 in various locations and don’t have a physical office, my phone also serves as my computer (so to speak) throughout the day.

When Siri was first introduced, it sounded like it had the potential to be a useful addition to the iPhone. At first I played around with it but I gave up bothering with it within a couple of weeks. I find Siri to pretty much be a gimmicky, useless app. And it’s not like Siri understands what you ask her most of the time!

However, I just came across a really cool trick that Siri can do thanks to Yahoo Tech.

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Weirdest Things You Never Knew About Each State

Off Topic, ,

a map of the united statesAs many of you may know, I definitely go out of my way to visit odd and weird sites. One of the strangest that I’ve ever visited would be The Shit Fountain in Chicago.  We also visited An Odd Site on Easter Island and the gigantic Rolling Rock in Fall River, Massachusetts among others.

I’m sure that there are other odd/ weird sites all over the country waiting for us to explore and find out about.

Sticking to the topic of weird, I came across an interesting list from The Huffington Post. The list isn’t made up of tourist sites although some of them can be visited.

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European Town Available For FREE

Off Topic, ,

a stone town on a hill

How would you like to own your own town for free?

I think that it would be really cool! Just imagine inviting friends and family over.

MW: Hey, I’m having a little get together. Why don’t you stop by?
Friend: Where at, your home?
MW: My home, HA! Come stop by my town!

That could be you and for the bargain basement price of $0… If you’re willing to move to a rural area in Spain.

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Should You Move To Australia? Take the Quiz

Off Topic,
two kangaroos in front of a sunset
image credit: Buzzfeed

I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Australia. Kim and I went there on our honeymoon and had an amazing time visiting a good amount of the country. While we feel like we saw lots of great sites in a variety of areas, there is just so much that we didn’t get to check out.

Just to name a few- I’d love to visit Tasmania, Brisbane, Kangaroo Island, Fraser Island and more of the Outback.

Hopefully one of these years we’ll make it back OR maybe we should move there?

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A Few Apps For When You Just Gotta Go

Off Topic, Travel Articles
a black rectangular sign with white text
image from amazon.com

Sometimes you just gotta go. You’re out & about and all of a sudden you need the bathroom… real fast. There isn’t a Starbucks or fast food restaurant around.

What do you do? You could always go into a Public Library if there just so happens to be one close by.

Most of us have smartphones so why not try out one of these potentially life-saving, I mean potty finding apps.

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Should You Move To NYC? Take the Quiz

Off Topic,

a city skyline with a crescent moonI was born and have lived in Brooklyn, NY my whole life. When asked where I am from, I don’t usually answer New York. Even though Brooklyn is part of NYC, most of us native Brooklynites are happy to identify more with being from our borough than the bigger city.

I came across a Buzzfeed quiz with 11 multiple choice questions which will answer the question: Should You Move To NYC?

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