OK, technically, the previous post was the last one on Paris. However, I’ve had a few people who have seen that I usually take more than 3 photos of a place mention that they’d like to be able to access these photos outside of my apartment. Now I could easily do this with flickr or ofoto or a million other sites that I have no control over. Instead, I’ve set up an area where I’ll try to dump my photos on a regular basis for all the world to enjoy. While I’ll not upload really shitty pictures or ones where I took 7 trying to get the right angle or focus, it’ll pretty much be raw. The photos are about half their original size (otherwise, it’ll load veeeery slowly) but they’re still quite large. If i feel like a photo needs an explanation, I might add one, but that’ll be it. And i’ll just add a link to the blog when a new one is created. So, without further adieu:
So, I’ve been saying for months that, once my hair was more than 10 inches long, I’d donate it and finally bite the bullet and figure out a hair style instead of the default ‘don’t get a haircut’ mode I’ve been in. Well, today was the day. Here is me before (my hair is wet as I’d just showered):
And here I am 2 hours later:
So what became of my hair? Well, it’s currently sitting on my kitchen table, drying. Soon, it’ll be in a ziplock bag and I’ll mail it to one of those charities that makes wigs for kids with cancer or early balding. The length was about 12 inches:
I managed to find a reasonably priced place with a guy who knew what he was doing. It looks like the cut he gave me should be flexible so, if I don’t like how it looks now, I can just tousle it around and it’ll be different.
This is just short note to point out that, in a very short while, Carolyn will be arriving in London. Alas, it’s not for good, but she’ll have her first chance to see London without the tourist thoughts. It’s a very different city when you look at it as a potential place to live. Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to her arrival.
Plus, she’s bringing me a new camera, so I’ll be able to document things again. Lots of excitment!
OK, there are a few of you dedicated types who haven’t given up on me. I’ve been busy/tired and I’m finally getting a chance to catch up. I have at least 5 posts (yes ‘timber’ one of those involves my kitties!) that I’ll start putting up on Wednesday. In the meantime, my friend Dan is an artist. He has been drawing as long as I’ve known him (which is about 25 years). He’s made some cool shit that’s been put on the web and he published something recently. Sooo, here it be:
Howdy. It’s been a silent week for me. That would be because, since returning to the UK, I’ve essentially been working. I worked 30 hours this weekend alone. If I can make it Friday, then I can catch up on all the fun things in my life (my Chicago trip has been woefully under-reported). More later this week!
Well, I’m back in the UK now and only somewhat jetlagged. I had a wonderful time in Chicago and I’ll be trying to add entries about some of the more interesting things/days of the trip. For all the fine people I was able to see, it was tons of fun. Hopefully I’ll be back sooner rather than later!
Most of you who read this site have at least heard about Carolyn and many of you have had the pleasure of getting to know her. She’s the wonderful woman I’ve been dating for almost 3 years. We’ve been separated by my move to the UK, which has been very difficult. But it’s actually made our relationship stronger.
In the four months we’ve been apart, it’s become clear that no matter what our future holds, it will involve both of us. So, on Tuesday 17 July 2007, we went to a beach we visited on our first date, had a nice picnic brunch and I proposed to her. And, for some strange reason, she said yes! Woo Hoo!
Anyhoo, for those of you I haven’t been able to talk to, let it be known that Carolyn and I are engaged (chances are, you didn’t hear it directly because I lost all my US phone numbers. Doh!). Here’s a picture of the happy couple:
And here’s where it happened:
There’s not much more to add aside from the general happiness. Life is good and you’ll be able to hear plenty more about it as the details (when, where, ETC) develop. Joy!
Hello all you lovely Chicago readers. Just a quick announcement before regular posting continues, but I wanted to make it be known that, barring an emergency at work, I’ve got a ticket to head to beautiful Chicago in less than two weeks. I’ll be in Chicago or visiting the family in Michigan from the 13th of July until the 23rd at which point I’ll be heading back to finish my marathon project at work.
Hopefully, you’ll all be around and I can see you and break bread and drink beer and enjoy a little bit of summer in Chicago with you. Exciting!!
So I’ve really been enjoying messing around with this whole google map hack I’ve thrown together. Kind of an intellectual exercise that people seem to enjoy. Anyhoo, this post is just to remind people that it’s a work in progress, so every day or so, something (either more points or a feature or two) is added. The most recent additions would be non-London locations: Brighton and Leeds (Stockholm is coming soon!). So hop over to the map if you wanna see how things lay out and play around with it!
Maybe you’ve seen some websites which use google maps to have a little more interactive feel to it. Well, I got an idea to jump on the bandwagon last night and whipped together a page that takes some of the places I’ve been and puts it into a map that you can click on and see pictures related to the location. It’s a work in progress and is only for a fraction of the places I’ve been (no restaurants yet and some sights haven’t been added either) and it’s only for London, but I think, as I add entries to this, I’ll also add it to the map to get some perspective of where I’ve been. Check it out and give me some feedback:
This being the middle of a work week and all (no bank holidays this time around!), I thought I’d just throw a couple of pictures of things that are in my daily life.
Here’s the bus that took me home from the office today. I like riding on top of the doubledecker buses. It provides a nice perspective to take things in.
This is my local pub. Nice people behind the bar, the crowd seems nice enough, they have real ales and they even serve burgers. Never fear, I don’t live there, but it’s nice to go in fo a pint once in a while.
This is Newington Green. Believe it or not, it’s actually just a big ass traffic circle. But there’s this nice park in the middle.
Anyway, just a little something to show you what I see everyday. This is all within about 3 steps of my bus stop.
PS - I’m trying so hard not to make any comments on Jerry Falwells death. I’m trying to be a good boy, I swear!
So here I am in a foreign country. One thing I always love is internet access. I have been internet-less for a month now when I’m not at work. In and of itself, it’s not deadly. I can do what I need when I’m in the office. But, there are things I like to use the internet for: skyp-ing loved ones, posting pics to this blog, watching my class and not having to lug my laptop to work and then download the whole thing which lend itself to having a network connection at home. Plus, as an IT person, I have times where I need to get back into my office during odd hours (like tonight, for example). I can’t do that from home which means I have to come into the office.
Anyways, Britain has deregulated the telco world here. In a nutshell, it means, instead of one company gouging you for crappy service, there are multiple. Doing my research, I found the most freedom I would have would having a BT phone line. It was an hour long ordeal of being on hold waaaaay to much to get a freaking phone number.
Once I had that, I thought I’d have a million choices for internet (if I’d kept my Virgin media line, I’d have been stuck with their internet as well and not have any other options). Well, one company didn’t have my telco exchange set up for internet (I live in a middle of freaking London!). Another one insisting on hijacking my phone service when I’d just set up new service. A third would be hooked up in my exchange, but not until the end of May. So I left for Stockholm all pissed off, assuming I’d be stuck with BT and their 12 month contracts and still without internet.
I was then turned on to this nice site, The Broadband Resource. They allow you to look up your local exchange and get all sorts of cool geeky info. I looked at my exchange today, and saw this note:
Be Unlimited has enabled the Canonbury exchange for their service
Well I’ll be damned. These were the people who claimed that they wouldn’t be ready for me until the end of May! So I checked their site and now I can have internet from them if I want. I do believe i’ll be signing up tomorrow!
So the internets showed me info that is publicly available but in a useable format and, hopefully, I’ll have internet — in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, I just set myself up with cheap ass international calling (again, through the internets). Let’s see if it’s as cheap as they claim and make some calls
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Add to that the fact that I have no internet at home and I’m working until 7 and 8pm every night, and there ain’t much time for updates. I assure you, I have lots of fun to share and it’ll all get dumped on those of you who read this soon. For the moment, here’re some random things:
Tomorrow, I take my first trip back to the Continent. Alas, it’s not all fun and games. It’s to Stockholm, which isn’t exactly warm in April and it’s for work. But hopefully, the work will only be done at 7am on Saturday and a little bit of work really really early on Sunday and I can enjoy myself some of the time
I’m rich! Well, not exactly. But the British pound is now worth double the US dollar. So all you people still living in the US with it’s high trade deficit, flat incomes/savings and treasury bonds being sucked up by foreign countries, enjoy!
hee hee. I’ll have tons of pics and andventures posted this weekend, i hope.
