January 22: CIA Day

Well, I don't know about you, but I am so deeply comforted to know that the CIA is out there - watching out for us, watching us when we're sleeping and knowing when we're awake.  I'm just so comforted by their presence and, as an only child, well, they're like the sibling I never had.  An older sibling - who can keep me safe.  Protective and vigilant - like an older brother of some kind.

On this day in 1946, President Truman signed the executive order to establish the CIA and NIA out of some of what used to be the OSS during WWII.  SO MANY ACRONYMS.  Read about it.  I honestly find this stuff completely fascinating.  Back in 2010, on the original project, I took a trip to DC to visit the ever amazing Ben & Lisa, and we all went to the International Spy Museum.

What we learned as delightful and somewhat colored the holiday celebration this year.  For one, most codes are NOT hard to crack.  Spies seem to rely on the presumption that no one will know they're spies and therefore their code will just sound like the angry ravings of a depraved lunatic.  We took to Facebook to give it a whirl.

I blurred our names so none of you people would know who we are.

I talked in code to a couple of coworkers for a few minutes too, but mostly that was way too disruptive to be an actual work choice.  That and since we didn't actually have any secret messages to convey, it was more me saying "Look left against the wind" and coworkers saying "What?".  

Seriously though guys - SPIES ARE SO LAZY.  Detailed and classified information that could be devastating to the US government if it fell into the wrong hands?  Just throw that shit under a bridge*.  No one looks under bridges!  BRILLIANT.

Later, Justin and I practiced barrel rolls behind our furniture when we got home because at home NO ONE CAN JUDGE US.  Then we iced and took Aleve because we're not teenagers anymore.  

Last, and most central to the celebration, we watched an intensely serious and perfectly realistic CIA thriller.

Yup.  "Realistic".

Our inner nerds are loving the shit of out these historical holidays.  We've both been getting more into just... learning... in general.  I don't know if that's weird or not, but it is easy to not learn for a little while and forget how fun it is to discover new knowledge.  So thank you, benevolent government overlords, for your delightful and intricate history.

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*So, this is completely unrelated to the holiday, but holy shit google hates America.  I wanted to put a picture of a bridge to make a joke about an information drop so I went a'googling.  Check it out:

This is what I get when I google "country bridge":

Gorgeous.  Serene.  Beautiful.

And this is what I get when I google "American country bridge":

'Murica.

Nice.