Credit Score

So, without having any credit history you can get an almost $15k loan for a new car but cannot get a mobile subscription unless I put down $400 per line (adds $800 to my $500 order for a 2 line subscription with a monthly fee of $124.99). It explains the credit crunch very much :D I'll try again around my birthday when I'll be using my secure credit card for 4 months already. I still need to apply for one... Three more days for that paycheck to come.

Btw., isn't she a beauty?

Family Guy

Brian and Stewie at the 'North Pole' theme park (Brian told Stewie that it is the real North Pole)
- Brian, why is everything so small?
- Because of the elves.
- Oh, that makes sense. And Brian, why does the North Pole have black teenagers?
- Because of, err, Kathrina.
- Oh, that makes sense. Brian, can I have one more question?
- Er, sure
(Puts a huge gun in Brian's face)
- Do you think I'm an idiot?!

Merry Christmas, American style...

Oh my God

Somewhere, there should be a limit, innit?!

A little bit of Hungary

It was good to see, that some of our things that we're so proud of is available even in California, and that is our beloved paprika. I found two sources.

One is in Sprouts Farmer's Market, where you can by your spices to measure out:

At Safeway you can even buy it packaged. It claims to come from Szeged, so it supposed to be one of the finest (the pörkölt (description) is already cooking, let's see how it passes the test):

And IKEA also counts Hungarian as one of the world's languages:

BTW if you plan to bake bejgli (click here if you want to now what it is) for Christmas go to Smart & Final. They have poppy seeds in a 425g packaging and it is not that expensive. I paid a bit less then $3. Considering that poppy seed here is a spice it is hard to find generous packaging for a reasonable price. It seems Smart & Final will be my source for spices for now on. It is half as expensive as anything else I've found so far.

How to fly with Delta AirLines

If you can avoid, please do so! So far my only domestic experience to compare is with Delta AirLines and US Airways. I consider myself an average person (190cm tall and a bit overweight about 98kg right now thanks to the American food).

At Delta AirLines, my legs can hardly fit in if I'm not sitting in an exit row, with US Airways I had no such problem. I had like 5cm (2 inch) space between my knees and the back of the seat in front of me. No it wasn't an exit row.

In the USA you can choose your seating as soon as you have your ticket confirmed. Unlike in Europe, where you can do that only while you're checking in providing better options for people checking in early. That means if your ticket was booked 'last minute' (1-2 weeks before departure, which is always the case if you're travelling because of business) you have the possibility of choosing from a set of 2-3 middle seats.

Now you really have to consider that you are in America, meaning that you might see huge people more often that in Europe (170cm tall about 130-150kg is not shocking to me any more). Now if you sit in the middle seat, then you have about 70% chance (Murphy's law applied) that both of your travel companions will belong to the weight group that should be forced to buy

• First class tickets (seats are bigger)
• Two seats (they use two anyways)
• Or airlines should consider introducing a new class for overweight people where the seat size is about 1.5 times bigger then on coach (economy) and your waist should be measured upon boarding and if you didn't buy the appropriate class your booking should be subject to cancellation if no upgrade is available. Otherwise forced upgrade is required.

According to all that information your ideal body is like this:

So if you are not a 160-170cm tall emo boy weighting around 45-55kg you're in trouble and most likely you'll have an unpleasant flight where you have the following options:

• request a seat change (you can forget this option since it is most likely that the plain is booked full if not overbooked, that's why you could only chose from middle seats, remember? And yes you should be thankful to God that you at least have a seat and didn't stay at the airport with the rest of the people having 'flexible travel plans'.)
• request an upgrade (very unlikely to have seats available in first class)
• lean forward during the whole flight because your shoulders don't fit in your seat, since the other two's fatty shoulders took up your shoulder space too. Having a portable gaming console or video playing device requires this position anyways.
• be comfortable with cuddling up with unknown obese people for a couple of hours, when your arms on the armrest will touch their side-belly fat, your shoulders will be pushed towards their fatty shoulders, and your thighs are pressing nice, soft human ham of your travel companions, and get familiar how they smell. That's why I'm most of the time thankful for the long years of allergy treatment with nasal sprays: most of the nerves in my nose are dead (Yeyy!).

You most probably remember this picture below as a reference when Ryanair announced to introduce overweight charge on their discount flights:

(Btw. I love Daniel Tosh's program on Comedy Central. For being there for us and making our lives happier, Daniel, we thank you!)

Imagine that you're the guy in the middle and you have two of the guy on his left; one on each side... Yeyy!

That's a fact that large number of Americans are overweights if not obese; thanks to processed food they buy in supermarkets that you don't have to cook, just microwave for 5 minutes or pour into boiling water and stir for 5 minutes (maybe add some butter, too), fast food restaurants (you'll hardly find any other kind of restaurant, especially in the suburbs where 80% of the urban American population lives), huge portions in restaurants belonging to 'fine dine' category (see picture below taken of a portion served in Maggiano's Restaurant), lack of exercise, and possibly having growth hormone in almost every kind food you can buy.

On the picture above it's not a bowl of food for more than one person, it is one serving. Yes, a single plate would be enough for dinner for a family of four... And this is all true, I've been to one restaurant of this particular chain...

And now I feel much better after writing all this.

I let my frustration from yesterday out... Peace.

And where the Hell is that?!

When people ask where I'm from (yes, my accent tells me I was born somewhere else) I always tell 'From Hungary'. And then (judged by the look on their faces) I always add 'Europe'. And then they're humming as it is obvious to them. Liars! The helicopter pilot in Las Vegas was the first honest man I met:

- Where're you guys from?
- Hungary.
- And where the Hell is that?!

I know it's a small nation and although it gave the world Zsazsa Gabor, the rubik cube and the modern computer no one ever hears about it (except if they're finance experts focusing on emerging European markets, then they here a lot about Hungary these days :P) I don't expect people to know my country. Just don't call it Romania, please! It was always fun seeing people acting like they know Hungary and me knowing they haven't got a single clue where it is; so this honesty was nice for a change :D

Yes, my father was Hungarian

On my last trip to Detroit (when I reached Gold Medallion status at Delta (I'm not sure I can call myself lucky), so now I can go through the priority lane for security _and_ for check in) there was a lady sitting next to me. I was reading my book 'Live and work in the USA' (Amazon) and the lady on my left asked me where I was from. I told the truth, and she told me that her father was Hungarian and he left the country around WWII. She didn't speak one word in Hungarian. I think it's a shame, someone should never forget his/her roots. Anyways, it was a nice chat. It still freaks me out that people want to chat with their unknown neighbours on a flight. I saw such a thing only here.

Driving a Mustang is freaking awesome

In the land, where a Volkswagen Jetta a comes with a 2.5 litre engine and full gas tank costs only $35 (7000HUF) and you can get a luxury sport car for around $30'000 (6'000'000HUF) or for $3500 (700'000HUF) down payment and $300 (60'000HUF) monthly lease you can still get this luxury even if you belong to middle class. In Europe if you want to drive a Mustang you need to be rich. (Twice the price for the car, three times the price for petrol and no charming leasing options: you have to be rich or at least way upper middle class!)

Driving a mustang is sweet. It is not that kind of a sport car like a BMW Z4 that makes you to be an asshole on the road, driving with full gas and full breaks all the time. It shows what it has so it doesn't have to prove it to everyone all the time. It comes with built in confidence as standard feature. Yes, you can screech the tires easily, and sometimes you want to. But it will not make you that reckless driver you hate on the highway. It passes its confidence onto its driver, too.