3:10 to Yuma (Original)

I just saw the original 3:10 to Yuma with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. I've seen the ads for the remake for several weeks and as soon as I found out that it was a remake, I wanted to see the original. (I'm a nerd that way.)

I have to say I miss the old westerns from that golden age of cowboys. Long sprawling cinematic shots of the stark plains, actors that effortlessly hoped on and off horses in a way that showed how much time they spent on horseback, and the rooftop shootings that remind you the difference a good stunt man can make to a movie.

Glenn Ford was incredible, but that was to be expected. I had never seen him play a heavy before and he played as only he could: principled, direct and absolutely deadly when need be. Van Heflin was a cypher. I had never even heard of him before. He had a fantastic role—a rancher pushed to his limit by drought and forced to go against Ford's character. And Heflin played that to the hilt in a few tense cat and mouse moments that reminded me of some of the brilliance of Infernal Affairs.

I recommend it and look forward to seeing the remake.

Black Sheep premiere

It's going to be so baad.

Update: Website. And I recommend this movie. It was nonsensical, silly, and hit absolutely every sheep shagging joke that I've ever heard.

Only in London

Yesterday morning, I stopped by a cafe for breakfast before running some errands. On the menu was the Jolly Roger breakfast platter: a fried egg, baked beans, a fried tomato, toast, four fish fingers and a ration of chips.

Who the hell eats this sort of thing for breakfast? (Well, outside of me.)

Maxjet

Heading from NYC back to London. This time, the company put me on Maxjet, which I had never heard of before. Checking out the web site, some of it seemed almost too good to be true: large comfortable seats and what seemed to be good food. (That's pretty much all I could hope for.)

Then I got to the airport after an initial worrying moment, when the terminal that I had been told to go to turned out to be incorrect things have been wonderful. Plenty of room, access to outlets, and free wifi. There's also snacks and beverages, but I haven't sampled them yet. At the moment, I'm blogging, checking my email one last time and then curling up with a book and my podcasts to just relax a bit before sampling what's available.

And from what I was able to find online, it's all business class and not horribly expensive. I may fly them again, if everything onboard is as good as this.

Update: Two things: I can blog with my Palm and everything in the lounge is free. Free, I tell you. Soda, pretzels, water and possibly even the chair massages. Okay, that's not here, but I expect to find it.

Update II: The plane... First, we sat on the tarmac at JFK for about an hour, but I think that's more of JFK than MaxJet. The seats were large and there was about a yard of leg room. Seriously, the guy next to me had to unbuckle to put his book into the pocket behind the seat in front of him. While we were on the ground, the flight attendants came around with canapes to see if we wanted a snack, while we waited.

The food was wonderful. A real glass and real metal flatware rather than the typical airport plastic. For dinner, we started with a mozzarella, tomato and lettuce salad with a nice vinaigrette. The mozzarella wasn't horribly fresh, but it was very good. The fresh hot dinner rolls and chilled butter was nice, but I prefer my butter a little easier to spread. I did make a faux pas with the entree. It was chicken stuffed with goat cheese and herbs served with artichoke spears and peppers. The food was nice, but it was cold. Figuring that it hadn't been cooked, I asked for it to be heated up. The French flight attendant told me that the meal with served cold, but if I would like a hot meal I could have the sea bass or the sirloin instead. Feeling like an idiot, I said I was happy with my chicken.

Our dessert was coffee in a real mug and a cheese and fruit plate.

The entertainment center was a bit lacking. The good was that it was full of movies and TV, as well as having the ability to pause, fast forward, etc... The bad was that it was free standing which made it fairly impossible to use while eating and they were a bit buggy. It took me two or three of them before I got one that reliably worked.

The biggest bonus was that I had room to stretch out and really sleep for most of the night.

The downside is that the plane went to Stansed so it took another 15-20 minutes to get into the City than Heathrow. Not horrible and the queues were large and the trip back home from Liverpool street was an absolute bear — Liverpool was crushingly full and my transit pass had expired, so I had to wait in those horrible lines.

NYC Subway — cool addition

I saw this on the train last night and I saw this was the coolest damned thing. It's an electronic panel that changes as the train movies telling you what's coming up, where you are and where the end of the line is.

Yes, I'm a geek, but I love this stuff.

Clearly, I've been out of the States for too long....

I just had to pay a buck fifty-one for a pack of gum. What the hell is going on?

Yeah, I realize a part of that is the welcome to New York, bend over and accept the taxes and the mark up on damned near everything. That that certainly seems like there's something else going on, too.

Wait... Not Back to London...

Turns out that I'm not going back to London as quickly as planned. I found out that I'll be working on a project out of the NYC office. Which means, that I go from Philly to NYC and I'll be working out of that office until the 10th of August.

In classic good news/bad news fashion, I'll be busy, but on a different project than expected and I'll be in New York for two weeks. At least it'll be on someone else's dime and I got to show that I'm a team player.

Settled into Philly

I got to Philly and I'm settled into my hotel. There's a lovely view of the city, which is even more spectacular right now while I can look out across the city as the sky is lit up with lightning.

Today was one of my synchronicity days. I had a hankering for Mexican and walked past El Azteca II Mexican Restaurant. It was really good. Then I happened to walk past a theater that was playing "Sicko". Even better, it happened to be starting, as I walked by. I popped into the theater and enjoyed it immensely. It was really a good, painful, horrible film.

And the coolest thing is that my room is on an actual 13th floor. I love when they do that.

Back to the States

My third trip back to the States in as many months. And unfortunately, pretty much the last of my vacation time for the year. Going to Philly for a wedding on Saturday and a few days with friends — assuming, of course, that I don't get bumped. (That happened on my last flight to the States and gunshy of it happening again.

Sure, they compensated me well for my time, but that doesn't mean that I want to go through several hours of sitting on my tucus at the airport. I'd be much happier at the hotel in Philly napping in my room or lounging poolside.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Okay, what the living hell have I been doing? All the mania. All the stressing out. For a book. I was very happy that I gave in to the hype but not crazily so.

I went to bed last night at a reasonable time. I headed into the city centre this morning to pick up the book and have some breakfast. Happily, a store that I like was in the grips of Potter induced craziness and had the doors opened at 7:30am, so I was able to buy the book earlier than expected. Unfortunately, though the owners were hoping for legions of fans, the store was empty other than two twenty-something clerks chatting to each other at almost 9, when I showed up. I picked up the book, headed over to a cafe for a nice little breakfast. And then headed home to curl up with a book and listen to the radio.

All in all, it's been a nice day. And look, no spoilers to ruin anything for anyone.

The Word for the Day — Resistant

*Mutter* *Mutter*

This has happened before. And I always find it out to my detriment when the sky opens and the heaven dump a boat load of water on my soggy butt.

The pullover is attractive and made out of hemp and PET (recycled plastic), I was told it was water resistant. I must have heard proof, thinking of the plastic. It was really coming down today when I ran out to get lunch. Once I felt the water running down my back, I knew I have chosen unwisely as they say for today.

Hope everyone else is dry and well.

New Camera and New Flat Tour

I'm back from my holiday in the States. Saw family, friends and there was child tormenting enjoyed by all.

First off, I got a new camera, a Canon Powershot SD850 IS and it's fantastic.

And because people have asked to see the new flat, here are some pictures:

Walking inside, you see the closet and the hidden water heater, respectively.
The hallway and a fleeting glimpse of my elusive flatmate.
Look! A bathroom. Imagine that. Hot water and a single shelf.
My spacious room - scattered and filled with crap during my flurry of post-trip unpacking.
Our kitchen with our washer and oven dominant. There's also a dishwasher.
Our living room with TV, couches, coffee table and another glimpse of the elusive flatmate as he reads on the couch.
The dining nook, flatmate's desk and the elusive flatmate.
And lastly, me at the new office in my new desk. It's not a cubicle, because there's not enough psuedo walls to be a cubicle.

Circling Toward Boston

Got up this morning bright and early, finished packing my bags, sent out a last email message and was ready to face the day. HA! Ha, I tell you. Ah, how naive and foolish I was.

I got to the airport the requisite three hours before my flight. (Okay, it's two in the UK, but what can I say, I was used to this in New York and in Boston. And I'm a morning person.) Only to find out that the airline overbooked the flight.

Now my first thought was that they had switched to a smaller plane. Because like Jerry Seinfeld, I couldn't understand the concept of a reservation that led to nothing to show for it. Nope, it's still the same plane. Basically, what airlines do is run sophisticated profiling systems that tell them how much to overbook their flight, so that they can fly out with an optimally full aircraft with a minimum of disgruntled passengers.

I was gruntled.

The profile was wrong. Not enough people got off the damned plane.

My 10:55 departure will be leaving at 16:55. The funny thing is that I told my friends that I'd be flying in at 19:40, because I misread which leg of my journey that I was on. I'll actually be flying in at 18:40. (Hopefully, anyway.)

What do I get to show for it? Nine quid worth of coffee vouchers and either $400 in cash or £550 toward my next flight with this airline. I fly enough that I went for the more money. Especially, as I have a year to use it.

Several more hours to kill. Hello, mp3 player and my book. They go nicely with uncomfortable chairs and more overpriced beverages.

(At the moment, I'm settled into the first class/business class internet cafe/business center recharging my electronic devices. Who says being polite and friendly won't get you anywhere in society.)

See everyone soon.

New Office

Work moved to our new offices by the Blackfriars tube stop. Coincidentally, much closer to my old apartment. And if we had moved offices months ago as planned, it would have really helped me. But no, I'm not annoyed about it.

The move over the weekend was hellish, but now it's over and the computers are set up and everyone is somewhat happy.

The new office is by the Blackfriars Bridge and here's a great statue of Queen Victoria on our end. Just around the corner is something that I like a little better than good Queen V. The woman with the grecian urn. I expect that she should be pouring water, but that remains to be seen.

Mass Rocks!

Since same-sex marriage has become legalized in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention brings anxiety and stress. First there are people that descend on Boston, the conservatives that rant about how same-sex marriage is a sign of the devil or worse. Then there are the news stories about where the amendments that ban same-sex marriage and where things stand.

I'm a single, gay man. I don't even have a boyfriend, never mind someone that I want to share my life with. So for the most part, the marriage equality issue affects me more theoretically than practically at the moment.

What does hit me is the arguments and the bile that some of those that oppose same-sex marriage use to make their case. It's just so damned depressing to hear all of that nastiness again and again. It brings up all of the guilt, alienation that I thought had been put to rest in my life decades ago. I can only imagine what they're doing to some closeted kid that's struggling to come out.

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon with a window open to Bay Window's Blogging the Con Con coverage. I rushed home to find out how the vote went down.

I had been reading articles about how people weren't sure how it was going to go. And I'd read articles a few months ago about whether it made political sense to let the vote go to the public, so that Massachusetts would become a money sink in the culture wars which -- supposedly -- would have helped the Democratic party in the 2008 presidential election. Neither of which helped my anxiety level. No one wants to think that their rights could be thrown under the bus to help the greater good.

When I got home and found out how the vote went down, I couldn't believe how good it felt. I like to think I'm an optimist, but I had doubted and had given in to fear. To find out that the Commonwealth had done the right thing, when I was afraid that they wouldn't was a gift without price.

Thank you, Mass. legislators.

Update: Found out that there's a bit in the Mass. constitution that stops people from offering a constitutional amendment without a cooling off period. This would be able to go before the voters before the 2012 election. At best.

Best Cubicle Doodad

While I was home, I picked up a Philips Digital Picture Frame that I had my eye on. (I think I got a better deal than the listed price, though.)

I have it sitting on my desk, taking the place of the wall of pictures of friends, family and their kids that had been there before.

I should check to see if Philips will kick some cash back to me. At least three people in my office talked about getting them either for themselves or for gifts after they saw (and played with) mine.

So fire off digital pix, if you think I'd like them in rotation in my cube. (Of course, you know me, that would probably be any pictures of you guys.

I Love Living On The Thames

Another ship to gawk at on the walk home.

Things I've Seen In The Docklands

Here are some of the sights around the new place that I've seen now that I'm there...

A three-mast ship from Sweden. It was only there for a few days while I was there, but it was neat to be able to see it. (Even if I was too cheap to pay to go aboard.)

We've also got the obligatory guy with a kite on a beautiful day.

Lastly, we have rampaging sheep. Seriously, that's got to be cheaper than having to mow the whole field. And it is kind of nice to walk through a field beneath the big towers of Citi-Bank, Lehman Brothers and the like and see sheep. So far, I haven't seen them cavorting, just eating, but I assume that may be happening too.

It is kind of weird to pass crowing roosters on the way to the train in the morning, though.

Firmly in Mac Country

I totally want one of these. :)

At the Apple Store now.

Update: Okay, I did it. It'll be at my brother's house in a week or so and hopefully I can pick it up in 3 weeks when I get back to Boston.

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.