I'm sure plenty of other people are saying the same thing right now, but I'm still going to join in anyway: Obama has won the US election. It is virtually certain now, once Ohio was declared for Obama (not officially, but predicted by everybody) there is NO WHERE Obama can lose, except if he didn't get one of the West coast states, which isn't going to happen. Even if he didn't get one of them, he's been 'giving' New Mexico already which puts him over the 270 number anyway.
So my point is, Obama will be the 44 president of the United States.
In my opinion, what a relief. What a great moment for the USA, and potentially for the world as a result.
It's just unfortunate that everybody has to wait 3 months for things to start.
I'm going to go celebrate somehow now.
Have a good night.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Decision Time
I'm about to board my plane to Washington, DC. It is election day today; people all over the US are voting right now (hopefully...) The general phrase is "Vote", but really we all know that it should rather be "vote for Obama"
And that's one of the few times I'll actually make such a statement.
It's fitting, in a way, that the election is today and yesterday I was cycling around the flood-decimated areas of New Orleans. The biggest thing about it was the way I just turned off the main rode, went maybe two-three blocks and was immediately surrounded by vacant plots. There are a few houses here and there, some fixed up and some falling apart, by the vast majority of the land in that area (Ninth ward) is just empty sections. The house numbers are often painted on the ground in various places because there is nowhere else for the number to be attached.
This is three years after the event. Three years.
Something to consider.
And that's one of the few times I'll actually make such a statement.
It's fitting, in a way, that the election is today and yesterday I was cycling around the flood-decimated areas of New Orleans. The biggest thing about it was the way I just turned off the main rode, went maybe two-three blocks and was immediately surrounded by vacant plots. There are a few houses here and there, some fixed up and some falling apart, by the vast majority of the land in that area (Ninth ward) is just empty sections. The house numbers are often painted on the ground in various places because there is nowhere else for the number to be attached.
This is three years after the event. Three years.
Something to consider.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Leaving California again
Well, not quite yet, but soon.
I'm sitting in Sargon's living room at the moment, waiting for Stefan to arrive for us to begin the road trip. But I won't quite be leaving CA just yet, since we'll be driving around in along the coast and in the parks for the first couple of days.
I'm in California? But the last time I made a post I was in New York. How did that happen? I want to say "ah, the magic of air travel", but that's only partly the story, and to be fair it was over three weeks ago when I last made a post so the fact that I'm now, "suddenly" in CA three weeks later isn't really that astounding.
I left NY on Friday 10th, and spent 18 hours on a greyhound bus getting to Chicago. I quite liked Chicago, especially since a) There was the Chicago Marathon the day after I arrived, and b) on that same day I happened upon a small Science Fair(NextFest, I think) that was being held and it made me think about doing Science/research again.
From Chicago I flew to Seattle, and as soon as I landed there I jumped in a rental car and drove up to Vancouver. My flight into Seattle was fairly late in the evening, so I didn't arrive in Vancouver until 2am. The benefit of this was that it meant I went over the border at 1am, and hence there was absolutely no line. I didn't realise the significance of that until a few days later, on the way back into Washington, when I had to wait over 90 minutes to get through.
I went to Vancouver to visit my Aunty and Uncle and cousins who live there, and while there I finally managed to go for my first "real" run in a number of months - 10km. And I really felt that 10km too. I've got a bit of work to do to get back to where I should be.
I also finally made it to Victoria on Vancouver Island, on my third visit to Vancouver. I felt kind of bad for not going there on my first two visits, but after discovering how long it took I don't feel so bad about that anymore -> 1 hour to drive down to the port, an hour and a half on the ferry, and then another hour on the bus from the port on Vancouver Island down to Victoria, EACH WAY. When you add in the extra time to ensure you're not late, etc, it meant that I left the house shortly after 7am and didn't get back until 21:30, and yet I only really had 5 hours 'in Victoria'. 14 hour day, 5 hours actually exploring. That's not a good ratio.
I was in Vancouver for about 3 days, then on Saturday I hopped in the car and headed out to Spokane. I was by myself, so I could go where I wanted, though it also meant that I would have to cover the cost of the gas myself. My original plan was to take Highway 20, which goes through top of the Cascade mountains and closes in Winter time [Google Maps will NOT let you plan out this route even if you try to force it, presumably because the pass closes], however I didn't leave as early as I had intended, and after the extra hour and a half lost going through the border, I decided it would take too long to do that route so I drove a little further south and went along Highway 2 instead. It was still a nice drive, and I saw some nice scenary - I even stopped briefly at Leavenworth, which is a German-orientated town somewhere near the middle of the mountains. Almost predictably, they were having an 'Oktoberfest' festival on that day. They've all the buildings to a strict style code, so one could almost imagine one was no longer in the USA - all the Starbucks and 7-Elevens have non-corporate-standard frontages.
I finally made it into Spokane at about 21:00, a little tired and a little crazy after driving nine hours by myself.
Ok, have to leave pretty soon, so I'll try and be brief(er): In Spokane visiting friends; did a bit of hiking; main museum in Spokane is closed on Mondays, the day I had intended on going. From Spokane I drove back to Seattle, this time taking the I-90 and with a passenger. People had told me that was a 'boring' drive, and the road is fairly straight for quite a bit of it, but there is still some nice scenary, especially around where the road crosses the Columbia river.
In Seattle, as a rarity, a bought a 'Citypass' to let me go to a bunch of places (only 5 actually, but it was still kind of worth it). I paid another $5 extra to finally see 'The Dark Knight' - at the IMAX. It was a fairly good movie, I suppose, and I much more pleasant IMAX experience than my first one - which was, coincidentially, 'Batman Begins' at a place in San Jose, I believe the Science center. After all the talk of 'the disappearing pencil trick' I was expecting it to be something slightly different. Didn't go up the Space needle - that was another $16, and to be honest, I've been up a few taller buildings recently: The needle isn't even the tallest building in Seattle. And despite what people might have expected, it didn't rain once in the 4 days I was there.
I flew from Seattle to San Francisco on Friday night and Sargon picked me up from the train station. We went out just down the street on Friday, which was fun but 'nothing to write home about'. On Saturday we went to a BBQ at Stefan's old host family's place - where Stefan was staying while here, and a number of the old IBM guys were there. It was kind of strange to be back here in San Jose (and especially in that area of it). Somewhere I am so familiar with but yet different at the same time. After the BBQ? We went to Mt Charley's. That was entertaining. I spent most of the night just laughing at the fact we were back there. Good fun.
Now? Road trip, terminating in Vegas for Halloween. That should be interesting.
I'm sitting in Sargon's living room at the moment, waiting for Stefan to arrive for us to begin the road trip. But I won't quite be leaving CA just yet, since we'll be driving around in along the coast and in the parks for the first couple of days.
I'm in California? But the last time I made a post I was in New York. How did that happen? I want to say "ah, the magic of air travel", but that's only partly the story, and to be fair it was over three weeks ago when I last made a post so the fact that I'm now, "suddenly" in CA three weeks later isn't really that astounding.
I left NY on Friday 10th, and spent 18 hours on a greyhound bus getting to Chicago. I quite liked Chicago, especially since a) There was the Chicago Marathon the day after I arrived, and b) on that same day I happened upon a small Science Fair(NextFest, I think) that was being held and it made me think about doing Science/research again.
From Chicago I flew to Seattle, and as soon as I landed there I jumped in a rental car and drove up to Vancouver. My flight into Seattle was fairly late in the evening, so I didn't arrive in Vancouver until 2am. The benefit of this was that it meant I went over the border at 1am, and hence there was absolutely no line. I didn't realise the significance of that until a few days later, on the way back into Washington, when I had to wait over 90 minutes to get through.
I went to Vancouver to visit my Aunty and Uncle and cousins who live there, and while there I finally managed to go for my first "real" run in a number of months - 10km. And I really felt that 10km too. I've got a bit of work to do to get back to where I should be.
I also finally made it to Victoria on Vancouver Island, on my third visit to Vancouver. I felt kind of bad for not going there on my first two visits, but after discovering how long it took I don't feel so bad about that anymore -> 1 hour to drive down to the port, an hour and a half on the ferry, and then another hour on the bus from the port on Vancouver Island down to Victoria, EACH WAY. When you add in the extra time to ensure you're not late, etc, it meant that I left the house shortly after 7am and didn't get back until 21:30, and yet I only really had 5 hours 'in Victoria'. 14 hour day, 5 hours actually exploring. That's not a good ratio.
I was in Vancouver for about 3 days, then on Saturday I hopped in the car and headed out to Spokane. I was by myself, so I could go where I wanted, though it also meant that I would have to cover the cost of the gas myself. My original plan was to take Highway 20, which goes through top of the Cascade mountains and closes in Winter time [Google Maps will NOT let you plan out this route even if you try to force it, presumably because the pass closes], however I didn't leave as early as I had intended, and after the extra hour and a half lost going through the border, I decided it would take too long to do that route so I drove a little further south and went along Highway 2 instead. It was still a nice drive, and I saw some nice scenary - I even stopped briefly at Leavenworth, which is a German-orientated town somewhere near the middle of the mountains. Almost predictably, they were having an 'Oktoberfest' festival on that day. They've all the buildings to a strict style code, so one could almost imagine one was no longer in the USA - all the Starbucks and 7-Elevens have non-corporate-standard frontages.
I finally made it into Spokane at about 21:00, a little tired and a little crazy after driving nine hours by myself.
Ok, have to leave pretty soon, so I'll try and be brief(er): In Spokane visiting friends; did a bit of hiking; main museum in Spokane is closed on Mondays, the day I had intended on going. From Spokane I drove back to Seattle, this time taking the I-90 and with a passenger. People had told me that was a 'boring' drive, and the road is fairly straight for quite a bit of it, but there is still some nice scenary, especially around where the road crosses the Columbia river.
In Seattle, as a rarity, a bought a 'Citypass' to let me go to a bunch of places (only 5 actually, but it was still kind of worth it). I paid another $5 extra to finally see 'The Dark Knight' - at the IMAX. It was a fairly good movie, I suppose, and I much more pleasant IMAX experience than my first one - which was, coincidentially, 'Batman Begins' at a place in San Jose, I believe the Science center. After all the talk of 'the disappearing pencil trick' I was expecting it to be something slightly different. Didn't go up the Space needle - that was another $16, and to be honest, I've been up a few taller buildings recently: The needle isn't even the tallest building in Seattle. And despite what people might have expected, it didn't rain once in the 4 days I was there.
I flew from Seattle to San Francisco on Friday night and Sargon picked me up from the train station. We went out just down the street on Friday, which was fun but 'nothing to write home about'. On Saturday we went to a BBQ at Stefan's old host family's place - where Stefan was staying while here, and a number of the old IBM guys were there. It was kind of strange to be back here in San Jose (and especially in that area of it). Somewhere I am so familiar with but yet different at the same time. After the BBQ? We went to Mt Charley's. That was entertaining. I spent most of the night just laughing at the fact we were back there. Good fun.
Now? Road trip, terminating in Vegas for Halloween. That should be interesting.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
USA USA
I'm in New York (again (again) ). Flew in two weeks ago, then jumped on a bus to Toronto the next day. Following that I went to Ottawa, Montreal, and Boston before going back to New York. Now I'm figuring out how I'm going to get across the other side of the country.
I took a tour to Niagara Falls while in Toronto. It was 'nice', but I've seen a lot of waterfalls before. It wasn't that special to me. Instead of 'admiring the beauty' of the falls, I was more struck by the development that has occured around it, simply because it's something people want to go and see - the number of Tourist crap around - hotels, fast food places, casinos... - all because people want to come and watch water falling over some rocks.
This also lead to another thought - do other animals stop and 'admire a view'? It would seem anti-darwinian for animals that are prey, lower in the food chain, to let themselves be distracted by scenes of 'beauty' (of course, beauty is a human standard), but perhaps large predators. It was pointed out to me that cats like to sit up high on things and look down on a place, but I reckon that's more to observe, than to admire.
I took a tour to Niagara Falls while in Toronto. It was 'nice', but I've seen a lot of waterfalls before. It wasn't that special to me. Instead of 'admiring the beauty' of the falls, I was more struck by the development that has occured around it, simply because it's something people want to go and see - the number of Tourist crap around - hotels, fast food places, casinos... - all because people want to come and watch water falling over some rocks.
This also lead to another thought - do other animals stop and 'admire a view'? It would seem anti-darwinian for animals that are prey, lower in the food chain, to let themselves be distracted by scenes of 'beauty' (of course, beauty is a human standard), but perhaps large predators. It was pointed out to me that cats like to sit up high on things and look down on a place, but I reckon that's more to observe, than to admire.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
New York City Tomorrow
This time tomorrow I'll be sitting in New York. One big city to another.
But I'm not going to stick around there for very long - the next day I'll be heading up to Toronto, either by Bus or by organising a ride in a car, depending on how things work out. Haven't figured out many plans about what to do while over here; just figured I'd make it up as I go along. Unfortunately it's a little more difficult in the US (or perhaps just expensive) to jump on a train to another city if I get bored of a place than in Europe. One can do that with Buses, to some extent, but these are LONG journey times. We'll see.
But I'm not going to stick around there for very long - the next day I'll be heading up to Toronto, either by Bus or by organising a ride in a car, depending on how things work out. Haven't figured out many plans about what to do while over here; just figured I'd make it up as I go along. Unfortunately it's a little more difficult in the US (or perhaps just expensive) to jump on a train to another city if I get bored of a place than in Europe. One can do that with Buses, to some extent, but these are LONG journey times. We'll see.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
That Icy Place
Long time since I last wrote anything; getting close to two months even.
Wow, I've done a fair bit since then - including going back to London at least three times (four?).
After 84 days away, I finally flew back to London from Carcassone. It wasn't that exciting. In fact, whenever I'm back in London now I seem to simply be waiting to leave again. Probably because of the lack of home and job thing.
I'm not sure what I should write about.
I went to Iceland, for 10 days. That was pretty fun, though it rained quite a bit, and it was rather cold, especially for summer. It surprised me somewhat that a country that is 1000 years old can still only have a population of about 300,000. Especially given how much they like to have sex there (so I was told...) - there's not a whole lot else to do. However after spending some time there I can kind of understand why people don't stick around - it's a really beautiful place - like New Zealand taken to the extreme, except no trees. But Summer is pretty shitty (for Summer), and I imagine the Winter is bloody freezing. I understand why people want to bugger off somewhere else. Given the choice of lying on the beach in Spain or freezing in Iceland, it's a pretty easy decision.
I make it sound like it is a horrible place. It's actually really nice, and I would like to go back there some time and do the whole Ring Road, either hitch-hiking or renting a car with some friends. But I wouldn't want to live there.
Still, it was definitely somewhere 'different' to go. Iceland isn't on the Kontiki route. :)
I'm going to the US in a couple of weeks. Don't really know where I'll go or what I'll do yet; take it as it comes I guess.
Wow, I've done a fair bit since then - including going back to London at least three times (four?).
After 84 days away, I finally flew back to London from Carcassone. It wasn't that exciting. In fact, whenever I'm back in London now I seem to simply be waiting to leave again. Probably because of the lack of home and job thing.
I'm not sure what I should write about.
I went to Iceland, for 10 days. That was pretty fun, though it rained quite a bit, and it was rather cold, especially for summer. It surprised me somewhat that a country that is 1000 years old can still only have a population of about 300,000. Especially given how much they like to have sex there (so I was told...) - there's not a whole lot else to do. However after spending some time there I can kind of understand why people don't stick around - it's a really beautiful place - like New Zealand taken to the extreme, except no trees. But Summer is pretty shitty (for Summer), and I imagine the Winter is bloody freezing. I understand why people want to bugger off somewhere else. Given the choice of lying on the beach in Spain or freezing in Iceland, it's a pretty easy decision.
I make it sound like it is a horrible place. It's actually really nice, and I would like to go back there some time and do the whole Ring Road, either hitch-hiking or renting a car with some friends. But I wouldn't want to live there.
Still, it was definitely somewhere 'different' to go. Iceland isn't on the Kontiki route. :)
I'm going to the US in a couple of weeks. Don't really know where I'll go or what I'll do yet; take it as it comes I guess.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Still alive, but missing a few things
I thought I should make a quick note just to let you know that I'm still alive, just in case somebody was concerned. I "ran with the bulls" on the second day of the running - July 8th. It was fun, but not particularly thrilling. I considered getting up again the following morning, but decided to get some sleep instead.
The missing things are what I managed to lose while in Pamplona. After all my previous travels, and the two and a half months up to this point, I have lost very little, but during those 5-6 days in Pamplona I had my camera stolen, left my torch in the bathroom after showering and then left my pillow (which I've carried around everywhere) on the train out of Pamplona as I rushed off to get my connection.
Nothing major really. I still have all my fingers and all that. But still quite annoying. So many times in the last week I've wanted to pull my camera out to take a photo. I'll get a new one soon.
Currently I'm in St Pierre des Champs, which is somewhere south of Carcassonne in France. I'm here until Thursday before finally returning to London for the first time in almost 3 months (although only for the weekend...)
The missing things are what I managed to lose while in Pamplona. After all my previous travels, and the two and a half months up to this point, I have lost very little, but during those 5-6 days in Pamplona I had my camera stolen, left my torch in the bathroom after showering and then left my pillow (which I've carried around everywhere) on the train out of Pamplona as I rushed off to get my connection.
Nothing major really. I still have all my fingers and all that. But still quite annoying. So many times in the last week I've wanted to pull my camera out to take a photo. I'll get a new one soon.
Currently I'm in St Pierre des Champs, which is somewhere south of Carcassonne in France. I'm here until Thursday before finally returning to London for the first time in almost 3 months (although only for the weekend...)
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