Gotta Jet
April 30, 2002
Sorry that I missed Friday (he says, wishing that anyone cared. Besides Scott. Scott does. Scott is very hard on Scott when he does not manage to make five posts a week. Skipping a weekday is like skipping practice, or overeating, or biting my nails. It is indulging in bad habits. Letting self-control slip. And I do not have that...
Sorry that I missed Friday (he says, wishing that anyone cared. Besides Scott. Scott does. Scott is very hard on Scott when he does not manage to make five posts a week. Skipping a weekday is like skipping practice, or overeating, or biting my nails. It is indulging in bad habits. Letting self-control slip. And I do not have that...
Snooker
April 25, 2002
Can't talk. Ronnie O'Sullivan's on TV. Day two hundred and sixteen or so of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre. The big snooker news today is that Jimmy White was having a bad day and missed a particularly easy shot on the black ball and in frustration smashed the white into the black, popping both balls off the...
Can't talk. Ronnie O'Sullivan's on TV. Day two hundred and sixteen or so of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre. The big snooker news today is that Jimmy White was having a bad day and missed a particularly easy shot on the black ball and in frustration smashed the white into the black, popping both balls off the...
Mail Call
April 24, 2002
The "ZIP" in zip code stands for Zone Improvement Plan. There is a relatively fascinating history behind it. I was surprised to read that zip codes were only instituted in the 60's. I would not have thought that it took that long for business correspondence to take over the mail. And then to read that that computers were pinned for...
The "ZIP" in zip code stands for Zone Improvement Plan. There is a relatively fascinating history behind it. I was surprised to read that zip codes were only instituted in the 60's. I would not have thought that it took that long for business correspondence to take over the mail. And then to read that that computers were pinned for...
Chock Full o' Irrational Desires
April 23, 2002
For the last three years I have wanted a nice bike. Not an insanely beautiful $5k bike, but just to have $1,500 together at the same time to spend on a pretty 10-speed that was actually my size and had cool swoopy handlebars and maybe weighed less than me. Every time I might have had the money, rational thinking always...
For the last three years I have wanted a nice bike. Not an insanely beautiful $5k bike, but just to have $1,500 together at the same time to spend on a pretty 10-speed that was actually my size and had cool swoopy handlebars and maybe weighed less than me. Every time I might have had the money, rational thinking always...
Quiet
April 22, 2002
Listening essentially makes you a spectator. The day I devoted to listening, despite the benefit of better tuning me to my world, left me feeling very detached from everyone and their activities. It was a lonely day. The essence of listening is silence. By the end of the day, I was dying to talk. In conversation, you can at least...
Listening essentially makes you a spectator. The day I devoted to listening, despite the benefit of better tuning me to my world, left me feeling very detached from everyone and their activities. It was a lonely day. The essence of listening is silence. By the end of the day, I was dying to talk. In conversation, you can at least...
Anti-Climb Paint
April 21, 2002
I finally figured out what the clock issue was. It turns out that in England (and really, we should have expected this from the county that refuses to go metric, and that up until about thirty years ago did not even have a base-10 monetary system), it takes about 80 seconds to make up a minute. The pendulum swings back...
I finally figured out what the clock issue was. It turns out that in England (and really, we should have expected this from the county that refuses to go metric, and that up until about thirty years ago did not even have a base-10 monetary system), it takes about 80 seconds to make up a minute. The pendulum swings back...
Of Meat and Men
April 19, 2002
Some questions are not meant to be probed by the mind of Man. If there is anything Indian Jones taught us, it is not to mess with the Arc of the Covenant. Psyche instructed us in the wisdom of resisting the temptation to check out your husband when he is nakie if you marry Cupid. And I am here to...
Some questions are not meant to be probed by the mind of Man. If there is anything Indian Jones taught us, it is not to mess with the Arc of the Covenant. Psyche instructed us in the wisdom of resisting the temptation to check out your husband when he is nakie if you marry Cupid. And I am here to...
Another Four Weeks
April 18, 2002
Here I am, twelve days from leaving (and maybe I have not been counting every day remaining), when my London boss pulls me into a meeting and tells me they are keeping me here for another month. Apparently they have been talking to Seattle, and Seattle has nothing for me to do right now, so they are going to keep...
Here I am, twelve days from leaving (and maybe I have not been counting every day remaining), when my London boss pulls me into a meeting and tells me they are keeping me here for another month. Apparently they have been talking to Seattle, and Seattle has nothing for me to do right now, so they are going to keep...
Lucky Birds
April 16, 2002
"So what kind of clothes do you got now?""I... got the kind of clothes I am wearing.""So you go no clothes."-joe versus the volcano That is me exactly.____ There are fewer pigeons in London than the last time I was here. When you go to Trafalgar Square, the pigeon population is dramatically down. The old people on the benches are...
"So what kind of clothes do you got now?""I... got the kind of clothes I am wearing.""So you go no clothes."-joe versus the volcano That is me exactly.____ There are fewer pigeons in London than the last time I was here. When you go to Trafalgar Square, the pigeon population is dramatically down. The old people on the benches are...
The Symphony of Static
April 15, 2002
When did modems start taking so long to connect? Somewhere around 14.4, we got so impressed with how much better this was than 2400 (or even 9600 baud for those lucky bastards who could afford it), which in itself was an amazing improvement over the 1200 baud modem we were using because 1200 bps seemed like more than sufficient when...
When did modems start taking so long to connect? Somewhere around 14.4, we got so impressed with how much better this was than 2400 (or even 9600 baud for those lucky bastards who could afford it), which in itself was an amazing improvement over the 1200 baud modem we were using because 1200 bps seemed like more than sufficient when...
Sweet/Salty/Sweet
April 14, 2002
You take the four base elements of taste, right: sweet, sour, bitter, salty. Only the first surprise is that in this wacky new world we live in where you can know Pamela Anderson's position or her velocity but not both, is that there are now five basic elements of taste. Number five is MSG, which gets an official taste name...
You take the four base elements of taste, right: sweet, sour, bitter, salty. Only the first surprise is that in this wacky new world we live in where you can know Pamela Anderson's position or her velocity but not both, is that there are now five basic elements of taste. Number five is MSG, which gets an official taste name...
Evolution? Ha!
April 11, 2002
If evolution is for real, why are the monkeys not getting smarter? Where are the smart monkeys? Where are the monkeys in preschool? I mean. I am not expecting them to be graduating high school yet, they would probably drop out in the second grade. But how are we supposed to believe in evolution when the monkeys cannot even sing...
If evolution is for real, why are the monkeys not getting smarter? Where are the smart monkeys? Where are the monkeys in preschool? I mean. I am not expecting them to be graduating high school yet, they would probably drop out in the second grade. But how are we supposed to believe in evolution when the monkeys cannot even sing...
Walking a Mile is a
Prescription for Sore Feet April 10, 2002
It is more fun to just be judgemental. Or at least it is a whole lot less work (which is the same thing. An equivalent result for half the work is much a better time than the result for the full measure of work). At lunch today, I was talking with E~, who has decided he does not like London....
Prescription for Sore Feet April 10, 2002
It is more fun to just be judgemental. Or at least it is a whole lot less work (which is the same thing. An equivalent result for half the work is much a better time than the result for the full measure of work). At lunch today, I was talking with E~, who has decided he does not like London....
Tick Tock Tick Tock
April 08, 2002
It is the small things which end up driving you mad. My flat (for three more weeks) has a grandfather pendulum-type clock on the wall. It needs to be wound every eight days. As the pendulum swings, it does this very reassuring tick-tock action. It is a nice sound to fall asleep to. I have no idea what tick-tock clocks...
It is the small things which end up driving you mad. My flat (for three more weeks) has a grandfather pendulum-type clock on the wall. It needs to be wound every eight days. As the pendulum swings, it does this very reassuring tick-tock action. It is a nice sound to fall asleep to. I have no idea what tick-tock clocks...
Smelling Almost Got Me Killed
April 06, 2002
Last weekend, I had this idea that I would spend the four-day holiday weekend doing a sense-a-day gig. Something to break the patterns that life falls into, y'know? Nine days out of ten, I just drift through my day -- I get up, I brush my teeth, I shower, I dress, I have a glass of orange juice, I bicycle...
Last weekend, I had this idea that I would spend the four-day holiday weekend doing a sense-a-day gig. Something to break the patterns that life falls into, y'know? Nine days out of ten, I just drift through my day -- I get up, I brush my teeth, I shower, I dress, I have a glass of orange juice, I bicycle...
My Room 101
April 04, 2002
I am completely angry and anxious, with that jittery heart-attack feeling thrown in, just in case I might have otherwise missed how terrible I feeling. I just got kicked out of Hamleys, the toy store where I play DDR many a happy afternoon and evening! There I was in the arcade area -- video games flashing, MTV playing from ceiling-mounted...
I am completely angry and anxious, with that jittery heart-attack feeling thrown in, just in case I might have otherwise missed how terrible I feeling. I just got kicked out of Hamleys, the toy store where I play DDR many a happy afternoon and evening! There I was in the arcade area -- video games flashing, MTV playing from ceiling-mounted...
Death Lurks at Every Corner
April 02, 2002
Confession Time
April 01, 2002
The weight of my guilty conscience can no longer be borne. I have to confess the lie that I have been living. In truth, I have not been living in London these last eight months. It has all been an elaborate ploy to avoid receiving my redundancy notice (just one of the many "British" terms I have had to learn...
The weight of my guilty conscience can no longer be borne. I have to confess the lie that I have been living. In truth, I have not been living in London these last eight months. It has all been an elaborate ploy to avoid receiving my redundancy notice (just one of the many "British" terms I have had to learn...