Moving Toward the Dark Side

I've actually be thinking of going Macbook or Macbook Pro for the next laptop. I've been a PC person since college, but what can I say, it's a beautiful powerful machine.

Comments always appreciated.

Laptop Dying By Inches

Okay, my Dell laptop is dying by inches. So far the parts replaced have been:

• Screen (within weeks of first getting it back about 7-8 years ago)
• Battery (just a few months ago)
• Internal keyboard (just a few weeks ago)
• Hard-drive (waiting for parts)

I'm torn between trying to get the damned thing fixed again or getting a new one and tossing in a new hard drive, so that I can try to use the old laptop to install Linux or something.

Lord only knows what's going to die next.

My New Neighbors

I've told people that my new flat is near a farm. The Mudchute Park & Farm to be exact.

Here are some pix of my neighbors that I took last night and this morning.

That's right. I live near cows and goats. There's also foxes and horses. (Though this is London, which has foxes like other cities have wild cats and dogs roaming free.)

London Time Adjustment

Unfortunately, not a friggin' problem.

My last night before I head back to London and suddenly I'm awake and sitting up in bed. I'm wide awake and totally friggin' hostile about it. It took me a moment to realize what the hell was going on. A glance at the clock by the bed confirmed that it was about one in the friggin' morning. If a noise had woken me up, it certainly hadn't been repeated.

Then it hit me. It was six o'clock London time. The time I normally wake up to go to work.

Almost an hour later, I'm still awake. Still pissed off about it.

If nothing changes, I'll go see if there's an all night diner in the area or something.

Leavin' on a jet plane....

Apologies as always to the Mamas and the Papas. In a few hours, I'm heading back to Mass. to visit family and friends. Woo! Had a nice few days with a friend from New York, wandering around. We saw the Lord of the Rings show in London's West End. It was really impressive. More about that when I get some time.

(And today, the fact of the day is that Leavin' on a Jet Plane was by Peter, Paul and Mary, not the Mamas and the Papas. Their single was California Dreamin'. Sorry.)

Zoom! (Not to be confused with Zoom.)

Silly New Gadget

Over the holiday weekend, I picked up a silly little toy - the wifi rabbit. I saw it on ThinkGeek and wanted it instantly, but I held out.

It reads me the headlines from RSS feeds, can play podcasts, can let me know about email, weather, etc... Can play various internet radio stations and it's just so gosh darned cute.

Breakfast you can blog about...

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/05/ctrlaltdeliciou.html

CTRL-ALT-DELicious. The Corona-Matic Keyboard Waffle Iron

What do you do with a junked Corona typewriter? If you are designer Chris Dimino, you use it to make breakfast. This beautiful typewriter/waffle iron hybrid looks like it actually works, although if you study the picture you'll see the waffle has been spun 180º for the product shot.

I don't really know what else to say, other than that I really, really want one. And make sure you hit the Gizmodo post, where I found this. Some of the comments are hilarious.

Product page [Chris Dimino via Gizmodo]
Credit for the post title [Spybreak on Gizmodo comments]

Posted by Charlie Sorrel 10:37:03 AM in Food and Drink, Hacks
Reddit It | Digg This | Add to del.icio.us

Update on the Flat Situation

As of Wednesday afternoon, we had water in the flat. (This is why this was important.)

The downside is that we need a new boiler or the boiler fixed. The boiler can be fixed on 24-May. (I do not know why everything takes so long in this country. It was weeks before we had broadband switched on in the flat after my flatmate changed providers.)

---

In other news, I may have found a new flat with my friend, Zeke. Here's a map of where it is. I may be moving there on Saturday. (And our office is moving this weekend as well.)

Don't Mess With London Pigeons

This morning, on my tube ride to work, I saw an odd sight:

a pigeon flew onto the train. Pecked at some crumbs, walked the length of our train car. And at the next stop, it flew out the open door.

No word on whether it was able to make it's bus connection to get to the zoo.

Mayday! May Day!

I couldn't resist the pun. Especially after the last few days.

The hot water heater had been dripping for weeks. I chalked it up to condensation and would blot up the few drops every day. On Saturday, the hot water died. Sunday, I took a cold shower before heading to volleyball and decided that that would be the last time that that happened.

Yesterday, my flatmate let me know that he contacted a plumber. The bad news is that it wouldn't be fixed until Wednesday afternoon. (I got a day pass to a gym last night, so I could take a shower on the way home.)

I thought I was set and looked forward to a wonderfully relaxed evening of an engaging book, maybe some writing, and a podcast or two or a DVD. Au contraire. I got home to a torrent of water splashing out of the hot water heater onto the floor in the kitchen. There was already several inches of water there and it had spread to the living room. There was no knob by the heater, so I pounded on the door to my neighbor's flat. I hoped he'd have an answer as his place was a mirror of ours. No answer.

Upstairs was the only other neighbor that I knew in the building. I lucked out. Not only was she there, but there was a board meeting for the three buildings in the complex. My flatmate was even there. He came downstairs with me, rolling his eyes at my call of a 'flood'.

He opened the door and saw that I had downplayed the problem. The good news is that he knew where the water valve was. And after initially turning off our neighbor's water, was able to turn off the water to our flat. That left us with clean up.

(As an aside, when I buy shoes for work, I tend toward waterproof, warm and comfortable. Usually that means that they aren't very pretty. After last night, I say 'ha!' to the women in my life that are trying to reform me.)

An hour and a half of alternately blotting and wringing four very absorbent towels, we ended with a extremely clean kitchen floor, a damp living room rug, a pile of dry furniture that gave the stacking ghosts in Poltergeist a run for their money and my confirmation that we didn't have a mop.

Brushing your teeth, washing your face or hands with bottled water is just a joy.
I feel more than a little grungy this morning and I'm really looking forward to a shower after work today.

In other news, looking into other flats. Saw a hovel that I could move into immediately: 13' by 18' studio with an incredibly small bathroom and a kitchen that consisted of a mini-microwave, dorm fridge, and four burners — no oven. The bonus was that it was reasonably priced.

You Know It's Not Good, When *I'm* An Expert

On Sunday, a friend from work had us over to his flat for celebrate his and his wife's birthdays, as well as to watch the London Marathon pass by underneath us as they crossed the Tower Bridge.
He's American, his wife is Australian. So the brunch was full of ex-pats of various stripes as well as many locals.

One of the women that I chatted with was from Boston (okay, Winchester). I think the funniest thing was when we were commiserating about what we miss from home. We waxed poetic about Dunkies.

I also got to share some of the knowledge that I picked up about getting local credit cards as well as sending money home via PayPal. I guess I'm getting settled here.

Homeland Security Wants TRON

Just when I thought the Bush administration couldn't do anything more stupid, I'm surprised anew.

Homeland Security Classified The 1982 Movie Tron 'Sensitive'.

Reports are emerging from members of the movie industry that the Department of Homeland Security has designated the 1982 film TRON as "sensitive", and ordered Walt Disney Studios to turn over all copies of the film in its posession. Retailers are also receiving notices to remove all copies of the film from stock shelves and turn them over to Federal officials. The reports have industry insiders bewildered and outraged.

What the hell?

WTF?!

For the second night in a row, I was awakened by a dream (I think) a couple of hours after I went to bed. And once again, I can't get back to sleep.

I vaguely remember someone shouting and then when I woke up, the flat was silent. Last night, may have been the same, but I'm not sure.

Oh well, I futzed around for an hour. Back to bed to try and wrestle Morpheus into submission.

It's Started

Woo.

Update: That blurry image is Kevin Smith. Sorry for the quality from the upper deck. It was an irreverent, foul-mouthed blast. We learned far more than I really wanted to know about a variety of subjects. As always, Smith was entertaining and hilarious in a four-plus hour Q&A with his fans.

The Line to See Kevin Smith

Just shoot me. But after a few minutes, I wasn't at the end anymore.

Bad Tech Week - Week Three Redux

As much as I hate doing it, I guess yelling at the poor sales person in India actually did some good. They sent me the part next day air. I got it this afternoon and six minutes later, I had a working laptop again. Go Dell.

Now I just need Palm to be working.

Dans Le Noir — Post-Dinner

Last night, a couple of co-workers and I went to go to Dans Le Noir for dinner.

To our left, you see one co-worker and her boyfriend and to the right, another.

The four of us settled in at a convenient pub for libations before dinner — it's London, they're on every corner. I, for one, am looking forward to July when London's smoking ban kicks in. Soon, the UK will be smoke free in public buildings.

In time for our reservations, we walked to the restaurant. We found a nearly empty lobby with a maitre de, a bar and a bank of lockers. We were asked to put any of our light creating devices in the lockers: cell phones, blackberries, etc... After a quick toddle to the loo, we were ready to head to our table.

First, we chose which surprise menu we wanted: Red - the full surprise; White - the meat surprise; Blue - the meatless surprise; Green - the vegetarian surprise. Then they asked if we had any allergies. Once that was sorted, a few minutes later we were introduced to our blind waiter. (All the servers at Dans Le Noir are all blind.) He had each of us put our right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and then led us down a dark hallway through thick curtains, under a blast of hot air, and into a dark room.

It was pitch black. The only light was a luminous watch face that one of us had forgotten. At this point, I felt more than a little silly wearing my glasses in the dark.

Our server was very solicitious to make sure that all of us weren't too badly discomfited by the transition. Then he led us to our table. The women on one side, the men on the other. It was a long table, though narrow and we sat close to one another. The table settings was utilitarian: a tall blocky glass, a shorter blocky glass, a heavy fork, a heavy knife, and a napkin.

It was very disconcerting. I couldn't tell what the others were doing, but myself, I was busy familiarizing myself with what was there. Almost as soon as I had explored my little area, the server was back with our glasses of champagne (again, in small blocky glasses), a bottle of water and two bottles of wine, as well as the bread. There was no butter, which I was kind of glad for because with the bottles and glasses that I, at least, was feeling a little overwhelmed.

The bread was fantastic. Crusty, warm and flavorful.

The others were talking about a musty smell in the room, but with my allergies I could barely smell the bread. We chatted to try to keep everyone relaxed in the dark. Those of us on the ends stretched our arms to see how far the table went. My side stretched at least two seats farther, but the gentleman on my right was at the corner of his part of the table. There was another couple (or group) in the dark with us — they weren't at our table, but often when we were chatting among ourselves we couldn't hear them.

The starters were interesting. Some of our party chose to eat with their fingers, trusting that things would be easier that way. I used my fork that often it would come to my mouth empty. Our table was punctuated by surprised exclamations of taste and texture. "Ooh, I had bits of sausage." "There's hummus in mine." "Rocket." (We call it arugula.)

Mine had a big piece of fish that I later found out was herring. (Proving that their definition of no meat is much like mine, as expected.)

Nerd that I am, I was careful to put my fork on the left and the knife on my right, so that I could find everything with a minimum of fumbling.

Our server came by to collect our starter plates, which I am proud to say I got mine to him without a problem. I was also able to pour my water without splashing it all over the table (granted, I only poured a couple of glug glugs into the glass and I had my finger in there to make sure I had a gap at the top of the glass).

Then came out entrees. Again, we played the I wonder what we're eating game. The food was fantastic. My meal had bits of prawn, potatoes and veg in a sauce. The chef was able to do something interesting with presentation, so that it was all small and bite sized. I would have loved to see what it looked like.

Around this point, I had my big faux pas of the evening. I poured myself some water and was surprised to find that I'd accidentally poured wine. I finished my glass and wasn't too thrilled about it. I explained what happened to the table to chuckles. This was quickly followed by the co-worker sitting across the table wondering where her wine glass was. Happily, I read enough mystery fiction to jump in and figure that one out by myself.

When the server came back, we all decided to add dessert. It was some sort of creamy, cold and warm dessert with bananas and a crispy shell. Very good.

For me, the main shock was when we got outside and found the price. For four people, a three-course meal, two bottles of wine, one bottle of still water, and four glasses of champagne was £240 (without gratuity). I thought that was a little excessive. I think the three course meal without drinks was £37 or so, so clearly the wine and champagne picked was better than a non-drinker is used to.

Even with price as a consideration, I definitely recommend it as an interesting dining option.

Celebrity Spotting In London

I saw about one a month when I was in New York.

In London, I've seen two:

Dexter Fletcher from a few of my favorite UK flicks: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake.

Last night, I saw Kevin Smith, who was in town for a couple of shows. He's shorter than I thought and personally, I think it was way too cold to be wearing shorts beneath his long "Silent Bob" coat.

Bad Tech - Week Three

Gotta love Dell. I was told again that my delivery date is going to slide.

So instead of getting my new internal keyboard (that I was told was in stock, when I bought it) on Mar 28. I'm now going to get it on Apr 12 (maybe).

Still waiting on my new LifeDrive stylus.

At least I have a long weekend.

Woo! Bank Holiday Weekend

I didn't realize it, but this weekend is a bank holiday weekend. We have both Friday and Monday off.

Not sure what I'm going to do, but I'm hoping to embrace one of the seven deadly sins and sloth out for at least one of the days.

Leading up to it should be a lot of fun: Tue, going to see 300 with a friend; Wed, going to Dans le Noir with some co-workers; and Thu, going to see Kevin Smith.

Fri, will probably be slugging out in a big way.

I'm all excited this week.

Bad Tech - Week Two

I love tech companies. Not.

I bought my replacement internal keyboard from Dell instead of getting it from the States, because I had been told by the tech support people that they had it on site. The woman in Sales swore up and down she'd expedite things.

Then I get an email saying that my order is delayed and I should get it on April 2.

Woo!

Last night, the stylus on my Palm LifeDrive disappeared somewhere on the tube home. One of the unusual features of these styli is that they have a spring and pop up when pressed down. Esthetically, it looks neat. (There is a downside when stuffing your hand in your pocket on the train, though.)

So I went to the Palm site this morning. Unfortunately, they no longer sell LifeDrive accessories on their site. They were able to bounce me to a couple of sites that still sold accessories. I tried the first one. They sold me the product. Later, I found out that they didn't have the product and would have to order it. It won't arrive until next Friday — April 6 or so.

On the other hand, the Sales guy was pleasant and local rather than being in a call center, so I was willing to stay with a local business and keep my order.

Still going to whine about it, though.

Update: AIGH! Dell just delayed my keyboard again. Now they don't have it in stock and I have to wait another three or four days. I called them and they said they have to order the keyboards special. And if I get a UK keyboard. That'll take three to five days. (Because obviously, they don't have one of those keyboards as well. I guess.)

Andy Barker, PI

If anyone's seen this show, please let me know what you think.

I'm a big fan of Andy Richter and heard lots of good things about "Andy Barker, PI". The mix of hard boiled accounting and slapstick detective stories is enough to make me giggle. It was even better, when I heard an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air with Andy Richter about the show. He considers the show a Quinn Martin comedy.

Sadly, that sounds right up my alley.

Bad Tech Week

Okay, what the hell happened this week?

I come into work on Monday and find that my mouse — brought here from the States died. It would click, but not move. No amount of cleaning the ball or loading the driver would help. It was a wonderful mouse: thumb roll bar, three buttons and a scroll wheel. My carpal-tunnel loved the damned thing.

Even better, I can't find one here. I'll look in other stories over the weekend, but I ran around to four places on Monday at lunch and couldn't find one. I have to make do with something less useful, proving again that The Man is out to get me.

My laptop's keyboard went nuts. The ';/:' key didn't work when I pressed it, but would randomly spray them throughout anything I was typing — usernames, passwords, text — clearly nothing that a few extra semi-colons would affect adversely. I tried the can o' air and prying the key up to clean out the goop. Didn't help. I tried reloading the driver. Didn't help. I checked the other keys and found that the '[/{' key was odd, too. The [ would come out, but the { wouldn't: which implied that it wasn't physical.

Dell tech support was very helpful. They sent instructions on how to replace the keyboard and told me the part number that I need. (And if I was in the States, it would be especially useful to me.)

Dell's parts number was less helpful. Before you could get a quote, you had to open a new sales account and they couldn't use your old sales account to do this. AIGH! Then they couldn't send me a US keyboard, because I was in the UK. Happily, I only needed to be indignant for a little while to get that one sorted.

End result I should have my new keyboard soon. I just hope that it takes care of the damned problem.

Update: Followed the instructions to remove the laptop's internal keyboard, blew out the dust and checked the connections, before reconnecting it — no difference.

TMNT - Review

Was wandering through Leicester Square on Saturday, trying to avoid the roving bands of Drunken Idiots wearing their best Guinness hats, and I spotted a theater that was showing a preview the new TMNT movie before it opens officially next week.

It was certainly cute and a movie built for kids. The computer animation was reminiscent of Pixar's "The Incredibles". I hadn't seen the trailers, but I had thought that it would be darker based more on the original Eastman and Laird work than the cartoons and previous movies. They played it fairly straight with cartoon violence and martial arts mayhem, but it was of the bloodless kid friendly sort.

That's not to say that there were characters and situations that could scare the hell out of children. Some of the secondary villains, etc... were serious SOBs.

The jokes ranged from adult to childish, but as usual in today's animated fare, nothing that reached to the peaks of the best of Chuck Jones or Jay Ward.

It was a pleasant romp, largely kid-safe and certainly worth the price of a matinee showing. (I don't think it was worth the price of the additional popcorn, but I'm a harsh judge, I guess.)

Odd Sights That Make You Pause

I saw this last week, but I had to put up the picture. It certainly made me do a double take on the way to work.

Eating in the Dark

Woo! Reservations to go to Dans Le Noir here in London in a few weeks.

I can't wait.

You Miss Everything Good, When You Sleep...

I got to work this morning and found that Kevin Smith will be in London next month.
This was posted at 7:58p EST (2:58am here). I got the message at 8am GMT (5 hours later) or so and tried to buy a ticket. They were all sold out.

Damn rabid fans.

Update: Woo! They added another show and I scored a ticket to the next one. I'm going on 5-Apr. Will post more after the event.

Note to Self... Amish Beards Don't Look Good On Me...

I wanted to see how I looked with an Lincolnesque Amish beard.

Not a good look.

I think it's a cry for help.

Dexter

I loved Michael C. Hall on "Six Feet Under", so when I saw that he was on "Dexter", I was intrigued. I read a couple of the books: Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. (The new one Dexter in the Dark isn't out yet, but I'm looking forward to reading the next installment.)

A couple of my friends had told me how good it was, but it wasn't until I was able to see a few of the episodes that I fell in love. The producers, writers and directors had a difficult act with this show. They had to show a psychopath as sympathetic and managed to pull it off. They took the characters and plots from two books and both stayed close to the cannon and expanded it for dramatic purposes thanks to a stellar cast.

The first thing that they did was throw out the standard view of compacting things down. They took the story of the first book and stretched it. They kept the wonderful scenes and inventions from the book and gave us more of the day to day in between scenes from the book. Secondly, they decided to fluff up the secondary characters that were given short shrift in the books where the main attention is rightfully on Dexter himself. With flashbacks to Dexter's foster-father, Harry, and his interactions with the younger Dexter (with his horrible haircuts), they have given even more depth to young Dexter, so that we can see how he came to be what he is today and how the lessons have strengthened him.

While this isn't an ensemble series, such as "Lost" or "Six Feet Under", the juicier secondary roles have gotten a handful of good actors that bring the series up to be something special.

I just wish that broadcast TV would learn that lesson. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of all the best shows being on cable.

That said, I recommend this show highly.

Update On My Life...

Other than that, not much to report: Still plugging away at work. Went to volleyball over the weekend, which was a lot of fun. I may end up on a BBC documentary that was filming at an exhibit I went to with some of the guys from the group. Reading Woodward's "State of Denial" and getting more and more depressed. I have some work from my writing group in New York to read and comment on. And this week, I've got a GURPS game coming and and then tickets to go see Equus on Friday.

We Export Boston Drivers?

One of the hardest things about living in another country is the homesickness. It comes at odd moments: a light blue jacket, a glimpse of someone with glasses, or a flash of blonde hair will remind you of someone or a trip to the grocery store will make you miss your favorite junk food. You know it's bad, when you hate cats and you actually look forward to seeing the black outdoor cat on our way home, because it reminds you of someone else's.

Sometimes however, the familiarity makes you feel at home where you are. For me, that happened over the weekend. I was crossing the street and some jackass turned without blinkers (or, to give them the benefit of the doubt, the signal wasn't visible from the front of the car) and almost ran me down. This was followed by the same waving gesture that you see in Boston. It's half-apology, half-shooing you off their road and it's all selfish belief that they own the road, because they're driving on it.

Spam Fritters

Okay, I'll admit that I will try silly food just to see how bad it might be.

At the grocery store this morning, I spotted Spam Fritters in the semi-fresh processed food aisle. They looked awful, but I had to try them. Much in the same way that people try cheese straws and the like, I guess.

I heated up the Spam Fritters (different link) for dinner. I didn't expect much and the pool of grease that had bubbled out of them hadn't helped.

And unfortunately, they tasted pretty much like you expected. The batter was the same sort of fairly tasteless batter used by generic processed fish patties. The spam inside was, well, Spam (tm). I think the only way that Spam has ever tasted good, was when it was fried so that it had the tang of the grill (or the frying pan) on it.

Next, I tried it with a little bit of brown wholegrain mustard. That fritter didn't taste half bad, once it had a tang of mustard to give it a bit of bite and more importantly some sort of flavor.

All in all, I don't think I'll be running out and getting these again, unless I'm having someone over that I don't particularly like.

Hot Fuzz

"Hot Fuzz" is absolutely hilarious. Definitely worth full price in a first-run theater.

Parody films are tough. They're usually done one of two ways: the "Epic Movie" route, where the film is a tenuous connection of gags thrown at the screen in the hope that enough jokes would work; the other route, seen in this film is to understand the genre well enough to keep to the tropes, yet still inventive enough to subvert them. Of the later, I felt that "Scream" did a similar job, though that film for all of it's humor, was primarily a horror film, even as it skewered the genre.

This film was clearly a comedy with just enough of a nod to the action movies to check off the various genres involved: the cop movie, the mismatched buddy film, the fish out of water film, and a bit of a mystery.

A brief plot synopsis for anyone interested: Simon Peeg is Nick Angel, London's Metropolitan Police's top cop. Within the first few minutes, he's reassigned to Sandford, an English country village. Once there, he becomes intrigued by a series of curious events that may prove to be foul play. He's partnered with the Chief's oafish son, Danny Butterworth, played by Nick Frost.

Culinary Chaos

I tried to make something different for dinner tonight. I shredded a potato, an onion, some mushrooms, a big clove of garlic and diced up a handful of plum tomatoes. I sauteed them up, before mixing them all together with a couple of eggs, some shredded cheese, along with salt and pepper. (The plan was to make some of a veggie meat loaf.)

All of this was tossed into a heated oven and baked.

The good news is that it tasted fantastic. (Sort of a potato heavy frittata taste, though that wasn't really a surprise as with all my favorite ingredients mixed together.) The bad news is that it ended up looking like an omelete left on the stove far too long — slightly burnt. The inside of the loaf wasn't the fluffy egg and veg mix I was hoping for; it was more broken down. Savory and tasty, but not quite what I was expecting.

More food experimentation in the future.

What the Hell?!

For the past three days, there have been letter and parcel bombs in an around London. The companies being targeted all seem to be connected to traffic companies: Monday, the office of Capita, the company that managed the congestion charges; Tuesday, the office of the accountants for the Speed Check Services; and now today, Wednesday, the main Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency office in South Wales.

Clearly this is some nut with a grudge, but still...

Here's a link to the BBC's coverage.

Weekends Are Made For Friends

Busy Friday and Saturday. I ran around like a wild man getting ready for having some friends over for an afternoon of boardgames and dinner on Saturday. It was silly stuff mostly, getting a little food processor and a larger mixing bowl for the kitchen, as well as the makings for my friend, Katyia's guacamole. (Who knew that they call cilantro, coriander here.)

Then I had to clean the apartment, run to the library and the post office (not necessarily in that order), before everyone showed up.

We played the Order of the Stick game, showing once again that I tend to try games based on web comics that I like, no matter how they rarely live up to the comic.

(So far, the only successful game based on a web comic is the Girl Genius game, but I keep hoping to add more to that list.)

This is a fun game, the players play characters from the Order of the Stick (OOTS), as they dungeon dive in pursuit of the Big Bad, Xykon. It's fairly standard: find rooms, beat monsters and pick up loot, skills (or schticks) as you go. The players get to play what monsters the other players will have to face, as well as zapping them with 'Screw You' cards that make them less capable.

All in all, it's simple to pick up, playable and fun. The downside is that it is a very long game. We played the short game and that still took almost six hours. Now granted, that was three players playing for the first time. I'm willing to admit that after the first hour or so, game play got much faster. But it did tend to go on a little long.

eclecticism: March of the Sinister Ducks

eclecticism: March of the Sinister Ducks

Oops, I realized that I never put this up last year. Here it is for the people that asked for it.

Idiot in Motion

Now, if you've done better on your SATs than the average rutabaga, then, you'll probably see the problem earlier than I did.

I've had problems with carpal tunnel in the past, though luckily not bad enough to need surgery. Just bad enough that sometimes I have to wear a brace and sleep with a different brace.

On Sunday, I played volleyball. And served the ball, as I had been taught in High School—which is to hit it with force, underhanded on the heel of my hand. We practiced for three hours or so, so I served the ball repeatedly.

Monday, surprise surprise, my wrist felt like someone had hammered a spike into it. The sad part was that it took me nine, ten hours to put the cause and effect together. I figured it out just before bed and dug my night brace out before going to bed and followed that with some ibuprofen. I don't know if it was one or the other or both, but in the morning, I could probably even have juggled without needing an EMT on standby.

More stupidity is surely to follow...

Me and My Big Mouth...

Just got a phone call from someone from Paris. He introduced himself, I said bon jour and he launched into a rapid stream of French. When he took a breath, I had to admit that I only knew bon jour.

Once he stopped laughing, I was able to get the message for a co-worker in English.

Caffeine Monkey on My Back

The insomnia's been driving me nuts, so I wanted to go caffeine-free today. The good news is that I didn't have a caffeine headache this, but with only four hours of sleep last night, I really need the damned caffeine.

I finally broke down and had a Diet Coke with lunch. Here's hoping that the weekend detox will help me. I'm hoping that the only monkeys on my back will be the kids jumping up and down on the Uncle Jungle Gym. (I think I got that from my friend, Al, but I don't see the text on his blog. Must have been an email or something.)

*Yawn*

Dresden on iTunes

Okay, I can get access to US TV for $19.95 for a season pass to various TV shows. For that, I get my TV shows in easy to digest half a gig iTunes format. That'll take about a half hour to download and almost forty-five minutes to watch. The picture will be tiny (though it can be expanded until the picture looks more than a little off) and the sound (at least in the one iTunes episode that I've watched) will be a little sketchy.

I'm not sure if I want to do that again. I think I may be happier whining about missing a show I want to watch and catching it on DVD next year.

That said, I liked The Dresden Files. Much like the TV show, Bones, it varies in many major areas from the books that the series is based upon. That said, I think I like it and I think it could stand on it's own well. The main character was easy to look at and the character has a similar mix of hard-boiled and caring to the character of the same name that Butcher has written.

They removed some of the things that I loved about the character in the conversion to the small screen: difficulties with technology, the beloved VW, and the sort of wizard's cave of an apartment. Hell, they even changed Bob, the skull. But I can see why some of these changes had been made and I'm certainly willing to see where they go with this.

Fun With Bush

I'm listening to the NPR coverage of President Bush's State of the Union address last night: it's much more fun to listen to at double speed. He's no where near as annoying when he sounds more like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

And it won't take anywhere near as long to listen to the damned thing with all the applause breaks.

Snow!

I woke up this morning to a crisp tinge in the air. Glancing out the window on the way to the bathroom, I spotted a surprising whiteness. Confused, I leaned against the window and blinked at the darkness. There was snow on the ground. Not much, but enough to pull a flimsy blanket over garden and cars.

I tried to take pictures on the way to work with my camera phone, but the drizzle in the air and the long shadows managed to defeat the meager light of my phone's flash. You'll have to make do with my description.

At quarter after six, the snow was still mostly pristine, only a single pair of prints marred my path for a block or so until bikes, commuters and luggage crushed the snow to slush. It wasn't much snow by New England standards, but by Old England it was enough for drivers to slow to single digits and for the tube to ground to a halt.

Ah, winter.

Update: Added a picture and a link to a BBC story about it.

RadioTimes linking to Randi

RadioTimes is basically the UK equivalent of TVGuide. I was checking to see what would be on tonight and found links to interesting sights online. One of the three or so links for today was for James Randi's exposing of Uri Geller and Peter Popoff.

I just love how this stuff actually gets a higher profile over here than in the States and wish the States would catch up.

(They also had a link to Stephen Colbert at the Washington Correspondents Dinner last year.)

Made my morning.

Other New Glasses

What do you think?
And over my shoulder, if you look closely, you can see my Ryan monkey. (My nephew and I both got them.)

New Glasses

These are my new glasses, which unfortunately, can't do anything for the vacant and vaguely confused look on my face.

Next Saturday, my other pair of new glasses comes in so you can see me in that, as well.

Update: Changed the picture, because it looks like it was compressed a bit and I suddenly look much more angular.

More Monkey News!

The TSA has put out information about how to deal with monkey helpers:

TSA: Service Animals

But I think the Daily Kos sarcasm is far more important here:

Daily Kos: Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!

Monkey Helpers

· The monkey handler should carry the monkey through the WTMD while the monkey remains on a leash.

· When the handler and monkey go through the WTMD and the WTMD alarms, both the handler and the monkey must undergo additional screening.

· Since monkeys may likely draw attention, the handler will be escorted to the physical inspection area where a table is available for the monkey to sit on. Only the handler will touch or interact with the monkey.

· TSOs have been trained to not touch the monkey during the screening process.

· TSOs will conduct a visual inspection on the monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey during the visual inspection.

· The inspection process may require that the handler take off the monkey’s diaper as part of the visual inspection.

It's also important to check the monkey's shoes for explosives and make sure they're not on the DHS "No Fly" list. And if your monkey misbehaves, well...be creative.

Podcasts

Okay, of late, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts. (The joy of a long commute on the tube to get to work.)

A friend asked for which ones I listen to and I wanted to give a list.

• Food
• Jaime Oliver -
  

  http://www.jamieoliver.com/podcast.xml

• Funny
• Russell Brand - http:
  //downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/6music/russellbrand/rss.xml
• Ricky Gervais - http:
  //www.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/comedy/rickygervais/mp3.xml
• Radio/Radio Theater
• Girl Genius - http:
  //switchpod.com/users/studiofoglio/feed.xml
• Penn Jillette - http:
  //penn.freefm.com/pages/podcast/431.rss
• News
• WNYC's On the Media -
  

  http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia

• NPR's Here and Now - http:
  //www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510051
• Advice
• Savage Love - http:
  //www.thestranger.com/podcasts/savagelove/index.xml

Dresden Files

Yet another reason, why I wish I was home with my ReplayTV:

The Dresden Files on the SciFi Channel.

I am so going to be bugging my friends regularly to find out how this is turning out. :) Expect my calls.

Secretive US Government? Where did you get that idea...

Your tax dollars at work:

Bush Admin Makes White House Visitor Records Disappear
By Paul Kiel - January 5, 2007, 4:43 PM

What do you do when there are public records showing the details of visits by a corrupt lobbyist and his associates? If you're the Bush White House, you do what you do best: make them disappear!

Full article

And following that link, you can follow another link to see all of the once public information that's now blocked and the reasons (judge how spurious yourself).

(And yes, I did get a word of the day calendar, why do you ask?)

Heaven

On the flight back to London, British Airways upgraded me to business class. More space. More comfortable seats. It almost made up for the fact that I had to wait an hour for my luggage to make it down to the little merry-go-round.

Back in the States and Heroes...

Let's see — made it to the States without a problem.

Well, I was a little late, an hour or so, but not the end of the world and I was able to spend the evening with my friends. The perfect response to a long and arduous day of travel.

The hotel that we stayed at has high speed broadband access. Which means, I can watch the episodes of Heroes online.

Everyone that said that I would love the show wasn't kidding. This is friggin' incredible. AIGH! And I'm in the UK.

Still Foggy

It's still foggy today.

I'm hopeful, but still have no idea whether I'll fly out on time.

Update: Made it out — relatively on time. We were about an hour late after sitting on the tarmac for close to two hours at Heathrow.

Worries About My Holiday Plans...

BBC News story: Fog causes more UK flight delays

Thick fog has forced British Airways to cancel all domestic flights from Heathrow and many European ones.

I'm hoping that this will be sorted before Saturday at 4pm, but to be honest, I have no idea.

Worst case, I'll see about having myself a holly jolly London Christmas and see what it'll take to mail presents from Western Mass. (I really hope that doesn't happen.)

Update: I forgot to add how bad it was this morning. I walked by the Putney Heath on my way to the doctor's office . The fog was so thick that from across the street, I could barely see the shapes of the trees bordering the roadway. If Heathrow was half that bad, I can understand the delays and cancellations.

Foggy Morning in London

As I walked to work this morning, I wanted to take a picture of the dark and foggy street. It's nowhere near the horrible pea soup days of Jack the Ripper, but then again, there's less coal and gas smoke in the air now.

I also learned an important lesson about taking pictures in fog with a flash. They were horrible, but they did look kind of cool, though. The invisible water in the air is reflective:

Damp Room Redux

Thank you to all the people that offered ideas or recommendations on how to fight the damned mold and mildew.

I spent last night, after work, scrubbing the walls with a bleach solution. Unfortunately, I found that the corner of the room is only the tip of the iceberg, the black yuck has spread behind the headboard and also all over the window behind the curtain. I got the walls last night. The window will be tonight.

Yuck.

An evening of scrubbing. And I don't even have a DVD of Battlestar Galactica to distract myself afterwards.

Just When I Can Be More Appalled...

Saw this article in the Times this morning.


Former US Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

While that's appalling enough, this is from a US citizen. A US citizen that called the Embassy about what he thought was not on the up in up with the company that he was working for.

Karaoke—Japanese for delusional drunken singers

Last night was supposed to be the office triathalon: snooker, darts, and karaoke. It was for team buiding, morale building and a spot of fun.

The pub didn't have a dart board.
The other pub didn't have an open pool table (though they call them billiards tables here).
But the karaoke bar was open.

It was a mad house with a bar full of drunks, a miserable sound system, and a forgetful staff. Nonetheless, it was a blast. All of us sang. And I even got the others to enjoy it.

We chatted up some of the regulars, sang over the really bad ones, which is probably why it was a good idea that they had a lousy sound system.

The Joy of a Damp Room

I knew my room was damp. Which is why I started taking my clothes to the laundrette rather than letting it hang dry. (Well, that and the line of mold or mildew that crawl the corner.)

I hadn't realized how bad it was until this morning. Yesterday, my shirt had a spot in it. I thought it was from something I'd bumped into. Today, I noticed that this dress shirt had a spot on it as well, in about the same location. I tried to wash it off and realized that it wasn't dirt. It was mold or mildew and it doesn't wash off.

Sonuva... And the more I hear about this — the better it friggin' sounds. Yay.

Update: Added the photo. Initially, it started as a small mark by the headboard, that I assumed was from the wood scrapping the wall. Then it started climbing. Now it's all over.

You know when a technology has arrived...

It begins with a crackly connection from a mobile phone in the rain, moves to the local cell tower, is shunted to routers, where depending on the load and the end result, the call is routed over satellite, cables or radio where a network of repeaters carry my words across the Atlantic, ending when my friend hears my voice as "Is your refrigerator running? You better catch it."

Intercontinental ballistic prank phone calls. Is there a better use for technology?

Flat mate back

My brief foray into living alone is over, my flatmate is back from his ski holiday for another few days before he heads to the States.
It's funny, I missed having someone else in the flat. I'm kind of glad that he's back.

Documents to Go v9.0

I just upgraded to DataViz's Documents To Go 9.0, this is really kind of slick.

One thing that I like is that it's a got a great data entry tool, TextPlus &tm; from Smart Cell. which basically works like the text entry tools for your cell phone, where a letter or two will kick up a handful of possible words, so that you can click on it and save more keystrokes as you try to write the longer words.

We'll see how it works as I go back to writing on the Palm.

Socialized Medicine

Okay, I'm sure a big part of this is that it's working in my favor, but to be honest, I have to say that some of the nationalized health care is a good thing.

1. Certain medical conditions allow you to get your medicine for free. One of them is hypothyroidism, which is what I have.


2. Your GP (General Practitioner, I think) is always in your neighborhood, so you don't have to schlep all the way into the city itself when you're sick.


3. They actually put you at ease and take a moment to chat with you when you come in, rather than giving you the precise four and a half minutes of face time, followed by a few minutes with a nurse.

The not so good, the waiting, etc... I haven't really had to deal with yet. We'll see what happens next. I'm just happy that I have a 3 month supply of my meds.

You can't make this stuff up...

Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week - washingtonpost.com

Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week - washingtonpost.com

Scariest Swiss Army Knife...

I saw this article online and just had to share it. Who would want something like that in their backpack or back pocket?

Going to Harrods

After work today, I'll be girding my loins for retail and going to Harrods. I shudder at what I'm going to find. But hopefully, I can find some Belleek or Waterford tree-toppers for my sister.

Here's hoping I find something nice and get out of there quickly.

Update: Well, I survived. I found something nice for my sister and it wasn't anywhere near as crowded as I feared. I could have come back on Saturday and gotten a Waterford engraver to personalize whatever I got for my sister, but just the thoughts of Harrods on a December Saturday brought out a cold sweat. *Shudder*

Christmas in Covent Garden

I can't wait to see what this looks like at night. It does kind of look like stage dressing for a West End show, though, doesn't it?

Why I love Dork Tower

Unfortunately, this is more accurate than I'd like to think:



Now I have to find Leisure Games, now that I know about it.

Thanksgiving in London

Thanksgiving here was really a lot of fun.

Daniel and Zeke (friends from NYC) and I went out to dinner at the Texas Embassy and then went to see "Avenue Queue" on Thursday. It was absolutely a blast.

Then on Saturday, Zeke invited me and others over to his place for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner with his friends. It was an absolute blast: good food, good conversation, and board games.

It wasn't my family, but it was a lot of fun, cat and all.

Update: Added the picture of Daniel and Zeke. (Normally, Daniel's head isn't that big unless he's just won a board game and done the happy dance.)

Thanksgiving Week

I'm kind of bummin' this week.

I miss turkey, cornbread stuffing, a day off and getting to torment my family.

The good news is that I get to see them next week. I just wish it was sooner.

Here's something I saw that made my morning:

Praise the Lord and Pass the Laptop...

Broadband at home is FINALLY turned on today. Hopefully, this weekend, we can get the damned wifi portion of it working.

I'm not holding my breath.

Update: We have access to the Internet at home.

YES!

Mark Fiore's DemoGlad from 11/15/06

OMG. I normally, look forward to Mark Fiore's new cartoon every week, but this one really made my day:
DemoGlad 11/15/06

There's Nothing For Free

Well, I learned an important lesson.

When your mobile phone company says, "no, it's included in your plan; don't worry."

When you check your first bill and don't see any charges.

They don't mean it.

My charges for three weeks of using my mobile phone to dial up to the Internet was absolutely astronomical.

Suffice to say, I'm very very happy that we'll be getting broadband wireless in the flat on Thursday. I'll be able to go online again.

I'm also going to chat with O2 to find out just WTF is going on.

A New Look

Unfortunately, it seems more George Michael in the bathhouse than anything else. As such it probably won't last the day.

Update: It didn't.

Best Morning In Years

Went to bed nervously reading the Talking Points Memo and Salon's War Room; both had been reporting some sleazy behavior going on in and around the polls. (My personal favorite was in Maryland. Busing in homeless from Philly to misinform voters—that's in a class all by itself.)

Very very glad to get up at 5am and to read/listen to the returns, as I got into the office early.

Can't wait to see how it falls out in the senate.

Update: Texas politics at their best.

It's All Down To Today!

If you haven't already voted, get out and vote today.

It couldn't matter more.

*Head shaking moment of the day* You just have to love the GOP last minute stuff. Nice to see the lessons learned from the New Hampshire phone-jamming case.

Another Manic Monday

Thrilled to be at work today. Fighting with Visual C++ and the joy of complilation issues. My day is going to be the best day ever! (Okay, probably not.)

This weekend was nice, saw my old flatmate from Dublin, her cousin, his wife and friends on Saturday. Had a lot of fun. Saw her again on Sunday morning. And then crashed in the afternoon.

Felt bad that I didn't make it to the gym over the weekend and didn't have time this morning before work. Have to go tomorrow. (Feel free to pile on the guilt—any further push to go will help.

Talk to you guys later.

Trying the Whole Gym Thing Again...

I've been on a spending spree since I got my check last week. (Picking up essentials like non-flattened by time and countless heads pillows, new pants for work, and extravagences like an electric shaver, replacement batteries for my laptop and paying off major chunks of credit card bills or paying for rent and utilities.) When you only get paid once a month, you budget or die. (Or don't budget and float.)

The other thing that I've wanted to do was to join a gym and try to get into a non-oval shape. Not that there's anything wrong with oval—I'm familiar with it—but I'd still like something a little more greyhound than basset hound.

Found one that I like in Soho Gyms. Knowing my usual slug-ness, I got a weekly membership, so that I could check it out, find out how difficult or not-difficult it would be to get to. This morning was the first day of the week. Getting to the gym at 6:30 wasn't a problem, but the train to work was much more crowded 45 minutes later than I usually take it.

I also found out—when I got to work this morning—that the new building that we'll be moving to in Blackfriars has a gym in the building. It might make more sense to get something on a month to month basis for the couple of months until we move—if we ever do. After all, free is better than cheap.

Fireworks...

Guy Fawkes day is still a few days off, but the explosions have already started. Boom, baby; boom.

Another Fun Weekend in River City

The weekend was fairly low-key: laundry, checking out gyms, wandering along the Thames and looking at the sites, before meeting with two people from my fledgling GURPS group for dinner and cards at a local Starbucks in the West End.

We had a lot of fun, which is always a good thing, and I got home in time to watch "Torchwood".

Here's some pix of things that I saw over the weekend: an escape artist (or amateur bondage monkey) by the London Eye. I was only able to see a little bit due to the huge crowd, but he was actually pretty good. When I went back later, there was another fellow that escaped from a strait jacket.

And here's a picture of someone blowing massive bubbles. There was a gaggle of children clustered nearby charging back and forth so that they could try to capture or pop the bubbles floating through the air.



And lastly, the student march on Parliment to argue for less money spent on Iraq or nukes, and more money spent on education.



Can't argue with that sentiment.

The Lovely Lori

My first visitor from home. Lori's here with her bf for a few days before heading to Barcelona. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet her for more than a quick lunch.

My Bedroom

This is my bedroom. You don't get to see the window overlooking the garden, the desk or the closet. Trust me, I have it pretty cushy.

It's Enough to Restore Your Faith in Mankind...

I got home from work last night and found that I had a letter from the Lost Property office of the London Underground. They thought they might have found my Palm LifeDrive. I headed over this morning and found that they did indeed have it. (Unlike in the States, you have to pay to get your lost property back here; £10 later, I had my old Palm in hand and headed back to the office.)

The person that returned it didn't leave a name/number or anything. As far as I can tell, the only thing that the faceless person (or the Tube staff) did was diddle with the Palm enough to see the menu of programs.

Now I've got two of the damned things to schlep around. It could be far worse. (I did make sure that I set up both of them to secure themselves and need a password to log back in. I thought about using the data encryption office on the LifeDrive, but the damned thing is just way too slow to encrypt due to the hard drive (versus the flash drive on the other Palm, the T|X.

Getting everything up and running while trying to get some work done this afternoon.

Gaming!

Went to the London Gamers group last night for their usual Monday night gaming. I know that I said this last time I was here, but damn... I do like the way they do things here.

We meet at the Black Horse pub, where we're ensconced at the upstairs bar/events room. It's quiet, well lit, pleasant, and the staff is fantastic. Want something to eat? Pop downstairs to the pub and order your dinner or something to drink. Either carry up your drinks or wait for them to be sent up in the dumb waiter with the food orders.

Periodically, the staff will come upstairs to take away empties, plates and the like. You can't complain about that sort of service.

When you have a room full of gamers, at times, it can get loud, but for the most part things are much quieter here than they are in the States.

I joined a new game recently and last night was the first table top game. The GM is an Italian web designer/programmer/writer (he writes cyberpunk stuff) and the other players are his girlfriend and a German that works for Yahoo! in marketing. We're playing Star Wars, which was a lot of fun.

Due to scheduling conflicts, we won't be playing again until November. I did hear about a GURPS player over the weekend. Hopefully, I can find a game for my GURPS fix, soon.

National Insurance Number Interview

Had fun with the NHS bureaucracy today. Woo. Get there early, find paperwork is lost, fill out the paperwork again, smile, nod, correct things, smile, nod, correct things again, smile, nod, sign the paperwork (initially all corrections), and head back to work two hours later.
Rah.

My coworkers

The first post on my week in the life of Jp in London series of blog posts. This is a picture of two of my co-workers as they discuss a problem. Unfortunately, it's not the best picture but that's more me than them.

Test of my New Phone's 'Blog This' Functionality

Ceiling in my bedroom. What can I say, it's a test. (My new mobile phone allows me to take pictures and send them to my blog. Ta da! It works. Expect to see more of London, as I do in the future.)

What a Difference a Night's Sleep Makes

I woke up at a few minutes before 5 again this morning. Happily, for the first time since I got here, I was able to roll over and go back to sleep.

Rolling out of bed an hour later when my alarm went off was absolutely fantastic. Today, I felt like a million bucks (about £539K), when I rolled into the shower. Yesterday, I barely made it to 16.00; I was so tired.

The weekend is here and hopefully, I'll have some fun. Maybe a long hike through the Putney Heath, some people gawking in Trafalgar Square? We'll see...

Insomnia

There's nothing like waking up at 2am and spending the rest of the night staring at the ceiling. Even worse, when you go to bed at 11.

I don't even know why. Is it stress? (I don't feel stressed. I've got a project, my boss wants answers that I don't have, but we're moving along on that front. I have money in the bank, a job, a place to live. *Shrug*

We'll see, I guess.

At some point, I'll be able to sleep through the night again. In the mean time, I can read, play mindless games of solitaire, etc... until I fall back to sleep during the night and then go to work when the alarm goes off.

Ex-Gays

I'm listening to yesterday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. It was about the ex-Gay ministries.

I swear, every time I hear about these people, I just shake my head. Part of it is having dealt with the whole coming out thing and realizing that I had to be who I am, rather than wallowing in the shame and all of the things that these ministries prey on.

All I can think of is how lucky I am to have had the people in my life (both family and friends) to help me when I needed it so that I could become who I am today.

Keeping Homesickness At Bay — One NPR Show at a Time...

It's really funny, thanks to the Internet and listening to my favorite radio station no matter where I am, it doesn't feel like I'm as far away from people as I am.

When I come into work, I listen to the previous weekday's Talk of the Nation and Fresh Air, before turning on WBUR and listening to the live broadcast from Boston. The time zone difference does make for some discomforting things: everyone at work is asking about lunch, but because the radio is talking about the drive into work, I don't even think of food at the moment. Then at the end of the day, the radio is talking about lunch time.

*Shrug* Anything that makes missing home a little easier is a good thing, I guess.

You Know You're Settling In When You Get Sick

I think it was a one day cold or flu or something. Fever, rampant ooginess, and a burst of whining. (Though, I think the British call it whinging.)

Happily, it wasn't anything that a 14 hour coma couldn't take care of. I woke up this morning, feeling refreshed, happier and once I did my laundry and hung it out over the mud flat in the back (I couldn't help but thing that this was a disaster waiting to happen, but it's got to be better than the smell of wet clothes for four days that I'd get otherwise), I was ready to face the day.

A quick shower, a run down to the village centre to the library to check my email and I'm ready to see if I can do anything else today.

BTW, new writers that I have to share with people: Mark Billingham - I just read a couple of his books on the way back and forth to work this week. He's really good. Gritty crime dramas that take place in London.

Things to do to Polish friends that visit...

Last night, my flatmate and I went to the Polish Social & Cultural Association in Hammersmith for dinner with a friend of his. I had been to a Polish restaurant in Dorchester, back in Boston, with friends and figured I'd get some potato pancakes and maybe some borscht or something.

Big mistake.

The menu was only in Polish. I think the only word that I recognize was pierogi. (Not speaking Polish, we had to defer to my flatmate's friend.) He ordered what he told us the women behind the counter said was good.

Pierogies, pork loin with potatoes, sauerkraut, and pig's knuckles. *Shudder*

The pork loin, potatoes, and the bread were very good. The pierogies were all okay. I really only needed one taste of the pig's knuckle to decide that the others would like it more than I would.

I can't wait until my Polish friends come to visit, so that I can inflict this on them.

Jp Live at the Barbican

I work near the Barbican Centre. (All I had known about it was that Billy Bragg had played there.) The other day, I went out for a walk at lunch with a couple of my co-workers and we explored. From what I was told, originally it was an idea for community housing. There are high-rise flats, above ground walkways, gardens, etc... all above the street level below. There is one spectacular place where you can see the hanging garden of ivy, etc... reaching down to the man-made water garden below.

I hope to put up some pictures of it soon.

Still getting up to speed with things at work. Other than than that, things are going well. Met with some friends, saw my ex, meeting new people. Life is proceeding and the homesickness is decreasing.

Gaming

Went to the London Gamers group last night at the Black Horse Pub by Tottenham Court Road. Saw some familiar places and apologized to the people that I thought I had said good-bye to when I was here a couple of years ago, but hadn't. The tables were full, so I figure I might need to start my own GURPS game.

*Shrug*

I'd rather play, but with my books, I can definitely run something.

More as events warrant them.

Sunday Debrief

I had an absolutely fantastic day on Sunday visiting with a friend from Boston's cousin. We ate, wandered the City's market's, went to a pub for the traditional Sunday roasts, and in general had a lot of fun, chatting, laughing and walking around.

Outside of friends of friends from grad school that I met in New York, I don't think I've ever met such open and welcoming people.

London Gamers

Off to the London Gamers meeting tonight. Probably just for a few minutes to look for familiar faces, but I'm really looking forward to getting plugged back into gaming groups again.

Woo!

The Long Wait for Wireless

*SIGH*

It looks like it's going to be even longer until I have wireless in the flat. My flatmate and I spent the morning backing up his computer before getting ready to start the installation of the new wireless router.

Today's the last day for his broadband access and he's going to be on dial-up for a week or two until the new broadband starts. Then we'll install the wireless modem/router.

Such is my life.

On the other hand, my package from my brother came, so I have GURPS books, games, hiking boots, and more clothes. I'm pretty settled and worst case, I can schlep over to the library like I have been doing and go online there.

Not what I want to be doing, but not the end of the world.

More when I have something to report (and can get online to report it).

Landed and Settling

Well, I'm doing better now.

I found a place to live in Putney (the London neighborhood near Wimbledon) with an expat American.

I spent the latter part of last week exploring Putney and getting my Oyster pass (London's T or subway).

I started work this Monday. The people seem nice. This week has been slow, as I get used to things. Trying to get my machine up, looking at various projects, etc...

Tuesday, I got a UK bank account. I started the bureaucratic chaos to get the money to my account from the US.

Wednesday, I gave up. It was just easier to take out money via the cash machine every day and hand deposit it into my account. Three days later, I had the money I needed and today I was able to pay my long suffering flatmate.

The low point of the week was over the weekend when I lost my damned Palm LifeDrive on the tube. I had to buy a new Palm. (Yes, I realize that this is a luxury and not a need -- sue me.) The new one works much better and works with all of my peripherals.

I had thought of switching platforms, but had too much invested in Palm.

The new Palm T|X is really good. No where near as clunky as my LifeDrive had been. With the flash memory, it's as fast as any of the older ones and doesn't have that same lag as the LifeDrive did. So far, I'm very happy. I even have all of my alarms again. (We'll see how that goes.)

More updates, hopefully, this weekend, when wireless is set up at home.

Landed and Lost

Welcome to my first post here.

I wish I had something pithy or clever to say, but no. I arrived at Heathrow yesterday morning and took a cab to my hotel. Calling ahead helped, because there was a room on the third floor for me. (Carting my belongings up to it was a joy as I stumbled along in terminal sleep deprivation — I wish I was the type of person that could sleep on a plane, but other than an hour or so, I was up for the entire flight.)

After a couple of hours of a nap, I was up and ready to try to find housing. Unfortunately, there was nothing available at the letting agent that I knew. I spent the afternoon checking web sites and making calls. I saw a nice place that was looking for roommates, but haven't heard back yet.

*crossing fingers and toes*

Today, I was an absolutely beautiful place that cost more than the gross national product of Peru. It was an incredible place though: 24 hour concierge service, on-site gym with a sauna. It came furnished with a huge plasma TV. Pity, I couldn't afford it.

This afternoon, more running around and talking to letting agents to see about getting a roomshare or an apartment. I have hope. (I sort of have to, I need a place to live.)

-J