Brrr: London, Day Seven

I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year. When you read this in the US it'll be well past New Year's here. Five hour time difference after all. The promised cold weather has arrived, and the temperatures are in the upper 30s already and continuing to fall with snow expected in the small hours. It should be in the 20s overnight but sunny on Saturday though still in the 30s.

We woke up and went to The Stockpot for breakfast, somewhere I first went with Maury many years ago, because we were desperate for something different. It's chain of London eateries that's inexpensive (for London) with decent food at least for breakfast. Nobody would call it "good" but it was different. I had eggs, bacon, and baked beans with toast. Karen had a bacon and egg sandwich. With two coffees and tip it was about £13 total.

We then walked to the National Portrait Gallery (near St Martin In The Fields) and killed some time at the Costa Coffee waiting for it to open. We went in and did the "Beatles to Bowie: 60s exposed" exhibit which had some fantastic photos, a great backing soundtrack, but all-in-all didn't actually teach me much new. Nice time though it only killed an hour. We looked around the gallery and found an exhibit on Twiggy which had some fantastic photos. After that, we walked to the British Museum (check a map -- it's not so close) as the temperature dropped.

We arrived and realized it was packed. Gamely, we trudged in and made it to the Rosetta Stone, one of the most famous archaeological pieces ever. If you've ever seen the Mona Lisa at Musée de l'Œuvre you will know what i mean. You know it's there, you're quite certain in fact, only through the throng of people you can't actually see it. I've seen it before, so I stood back and let Karen work her way in to see it. From there we went to see the Parthenon and then the Portland Vase before going off to see the mummies, including Cleopatra. (She would have said "hi" if she were alive.) We wanted to get to the Samurai exhibit, but due to issues with Karen's knee and the lift, we couldn't get to the fifth floor. Instead we went to the money exhibit on the third before finally leaving.

We took the tube to Knightsbridge so Karen could stop at Burberry. We then took a quick stop at the Harrod's writing department -- way too crowded for me. I was just a bystander at these two stops before we walked back to our hotel, eschewing the overcrowded tube. Once again, the tube is free from 1130pm to 430am this year.

I came back, checked email and had a call from Rules trying to confirm our dinner reservation, which I called and did. We left around 445 for Little Italy (Frith Street, not the chain) for our New Year's Eve dinner. We passed the theatre on the way and collected our tickets. Dinner was superb, and nobody I know has ever had a mad meal here. I had Fettuccine (homemade pasta) with Scotch Fillet Ragu. Karen had spinach gnocchi. We skipped desert and walked around as the temperature plummeted. We went in to the play (Les Miserables) and it was fantastic. The first play afforded a standing ovation since we got here. In London, a standing ovation is rare unlike the states where they are handed out so often, they become meaningless. They did a special final bow and wished us happy new year before the lights went up.

As we exited, all streets were closed to traffic and the mobs were phenomenal and if anything like last year, there will be a quarter million people. The tube stops in the Westminster, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden box, are all closed as is Embankment, and all other stops along the Thames (some are open as exit only or transfer only). I wanted to walk through to Holborn but Covent Garden was impassible due to the mobs so we walked up Charing Cross Road (to be specific, right down the middle of the street) to Tottenham Court Road. We then backtracked one stop to Holborn and changed for our line. The tube was mobbed through Piccadilly before it opened up. We were able to sit the rest of the way. Part of our journey included a number of pissed people (some locals trying to get to a party before 11 -- good luck and some Slovenians) who we chatted with. Very nice camaraderie and such. It's 1136pm here, and I'm ending this post here so we can go have our own celebration.

Happy New Year! (and good riddance to 2009)

ADD-ON 826AM BST: We had our little celebration with lemonade, scones, and clotted cream to ring in the new year. Following we watched the news reports of various celebrations around the world on Sky and BBC1. Here's a report on London's New Year's Eve http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8436065.stm

London Day Six (Cold Rain)

Today we got up and exchange our room keys. We're moving from paid nights to free nights for the balance of the trip. Everyone here's in a tizzy over VAT changing back because of the computer ramifications. They're going to make the entire hotel check out 1-1 and check back in at the new rate. Bloody hell. At least you don't actually leave and just go down and make a paperwork change and a key swap. That'll be two key swaps for us.

We went to breakfast and just had eggs and toast. I stopped at Paul's and got a café eclair on the way to the Natural History Museum. Our first stop was the Annual Wildlife Photography Competition which was fantastic. I didn't buy the guidebook and now I'm sorry. I may go back and get one before I return. Anyone who is here before this is over, must go. If you can't, peruse online. After that we went to the dinosaur exhibit, full of bones and such. I thought of William, of course. I'll burn him a set of the photos from that part of the trip. After that, we popped onto the tube at South Kensington to the Sir John Soane Museum (Holborn Tube) which was swamped -- which isn't hard since it's such a small museum. While there were only 30 in queue, that could have easily been an hour. You can't go in until someone comes out.

We also stopped at Eat for a quick snack before taking the Central line to Bond Street and changing to the Jubilee for St John's Wood tube, the nearest to Abbey Road. I usually do this first thing in the AM and not mid-day, and that would have been for the best. The traffic jam was because of idiot tourists taking photos in the world's most famous crosswalk. We took a few photos and bailed on idiot-city and came back to the hotel via Westminster where Karen was distressed to find the escalator wasn't working and it was a long staircase at the interchange.

After a rest, we headed off to the O2, where we saw the Official Michael Jackson exhibition -- for those who don't recollect, the O2 was to be the site of his 50 comeback shows before he died. While overpriced at £15 but was worth it as it turns out. We then went to the British Music Experience also in the O2 because they had an offer to add it on for an extra £5. Real music fans will really like this, though staff were not very organized. The BME gives you an RFID ticket that collects bits of what you do and lets you review them and the related music on the website after you're home. It also includes three free iTunes songs as well. Sadly, photos were totally forbidden in both, so these won't be posted. It's easier if you follow the links for full descriptions on what these two exhibits entail, but if you're going to the O2 for something else, tack this on for sure. Book directly at the box office and save quite a bit.

Karen had this burning desire for a burger, so we ended up at Cheyenne Spur one of several faux-American burger place in the O2. The burgers weren't half bad for over here.  I had a Hawaiian burger, and Karen had a bacon cheeseburger, which was made with Irish Back Bacon (as opposed to American style bacon). Speaking of bacon, Paul sent me this link to a comic showing six reasons bacon is better than true love. If you're at the O2 and feel like a burger, this place seems decent. The "Oriental" restaurant across the walk had a great typo on their menus "Poluty" -- yeah the R had gone missing from all their poultry.

Lastly, we went to the Vue movie theatre and ended up seeing Sherlock Holmes after a bad experience with the automated ticket machines. As you may recollect, many theatres have assigned seating here. We were unable to pick seats with the automated system. There are no humans running the box office, so we had to find someone to ask what to do. As it turns out there were no assigned seats for this showing because the 500+ seat theatre was nearly empty. What a fantastic theatre. One of the nicest ones I've ever seen though the seats were fixed back which wasn't so nice. The movie was 2-1/2 hours long and didn't seem very long at all. I fully enjoyed it, as did Karen. The acting was decent, and they left it open for a sequel. There are some gory scenes, and one in particular with big carcasses. That was sort of amusing though, because earlier I was watching Gordon Ramsey's "F Word" and they slaughtered, gutted, and cleaned a pig (gross BTW) so I had already seen it. I think the movie version might have been worse. We figured Holmes was the movie to see since it takes place in London. Some of the sets are recognizable and others aren't. I was impressed with the effects. We saw previews for Iron Man 2 as well as yet another remake of Robin Hood, this new one with Russell Crowe.

The O2 was freezing cold, and we were wearing jackets inside, though at least the theatre was comfortable. We took the tube back and went straight to the hotel in the rain, which is expected to continue through tomorrow before the temperatures plummet into the 20s. Not that we trust the weathermen.

Let It Rain (London Day Five)

We met Jan and Anna at the Patisserie at about 830am for an English Breakfast. We enjoyed it and had a nice time. Thanks for picking up the tab, Jan! It was raining lightly as we headed to the tube station and down to the District line platforms for our ride to Westminster where we changed for the Jubilee line to Southwark. Happily the Jubilee line is running through Friday before closing again for the duration of the trip.

We came up and it was raining a bit harder and we walked over to the Tate Modern, arriving at 958am, just before opening. We went in and bought our tickets to the Pop Life exhibit. We did something we normally don't do and actually used the cloak room because we had gloves, jackets, scarves, jumpers, umbrellas, hats, and backpacks.

As for Pop Life it was heavy on Warhol and Haring and that's not a bad thing.  There were other artists that weren't as famous but equally good. There were quite a number of over 16 only exhibits because of explicit content. They work it differently here. Each one has a docent that warns the guardian of the content and sends them in. The guardian then has the choice to bring his/her child into the exhibit. Simple nudity wasn't protected but there were some more graphic details that were. And one room was so graphic, the four of us all left quickly. Who knew that was art?

There were also exhibits with dead calves and horses (ew) and a really cool one with twins sitting and doing identical things under colour polka-dots. I know it sounds weird but it was really good. We then did the rest of the fourth floor galleries and I rather enjoyed it so far as did Karen. I'm not sure that they did, though and after running through those galleries, they decided to go shopping but not before we took some photographs. After they left for Oxford Circus in the deluge, we finished the museum before walking across the Millennium Bridge, nearly being blown off in the high winds. Karen's umbrella committed suicide halfway across. We stopped at Costa Coffee (like Nero's, it's a local place similar to Starbucks but better) to warm up, before popping on the tube to Holborn and changing for the Piccadilly and off to Harrods.

Whilst this wasn't the plan, due to the weather we felt we had no other choice. Apparently every other person in London had the same idea. We went to the top floor (5) and worked our way down. We bought nothing except in the pharmacy (knee bandage and ice pack for Karen) and the food halls (scones). We rested until it was time to go, and I called my office. My employees seem to spend a disproportionate time whining about other employees and and making assumptions based on things they've heard, much of which isn't even true. Blech. We also were looking for a fountain pen for one of Karen's clients but were unable to find the appropriate one.

We hopped the tube and went to Covent garden for dinner at Belgo Centraal, a fine Belgian restaurant that is always tasty. The food was excellent, but they brought our bread, starters, and mains at the same time, followed by our drinks a little later. Very confusing but we enjoyed ourselves. We thought we'd see a movie and walked to Leicester Square but we missed the current batch, and didn't want to kill two hours hanging around. We walked through visiting the shit shops* looking for a particular item.No luck.

Karen wanted to walk, so we continued to Piccadilly Circus, continued on to Green Park, had some coffee, continued on through to Hyde Park Corner, then Knightsbridge, where we stopped at Marks and Spencer's Local (that's the supermarket part of their chain). After that we went up the street to Lord's to pick up some crisps before continuing on to South Kensington, and then almost through to Gloucester Road where our hotel was. Take a look at the walk from Covent Garden to Gloucester Road following the tube on city streets. That's a hard walk in 45ªF in the rain and wind.

Tomorrow is subject to the weather.

There's an article in today's Daily Telegraph (one of London's many daily papers) about lions in South Africa facing slaughter. It's a horrible article. I won't mention most of it except to quote one of the guys breeding lions: "We don't breed lions to kill them, we breed them to hunt them." How the hell is that different? They take £20,000 for someone tu hunt and kill a male, £8,000 for a female.  More on the dodgy logic here.

I don't find myself in agreement with Tom Ridge very often, but I do agree on this point. The ex-Bushie doesn't think Terrorists should have the same range of rights as the rest of our citizens, and quite frankly I agree. Here's the comments. I am not in total agreement but am in agreement on the sentiment as a whole. And along those lines, why are privacy concerns about seeing your privates such an issue? The technology to find those concealed packets already exists, but what is everyone worried about? A screener might see your tackle. Seriously. They use these overseas and it's not a big deal. You'd rather blow up? Nice.

* These are those shops selling all those London and Union Jack souvenirs.

London Day Four (Food From Hell)

Today is a legal holiday so things are still closed sporadically. More importantly, all shops are filled to the gills. Last year, to help the economy, the VAT tax was lowered from 17.5% down to something lower (maybe 12% or 15%) and on 12-31-09 they are returning to its former level. The weather is beautiful, though we woke up to 0º (32F) before it warmed up to 5ª -- very sunny and a light breeze so it felt warmer.

We started by finishing the Oxford Street walk, figuring that we would do the museums on days which have bad weather. In fact, tomorrow the weather is supposed to turn ugly from tomorrow on. We went to the Photographer's Gallery which was still closed but now there was a sign indicating its new opening times so we'll try yet again later. We then walked down Regent Street towards Piccadilly Circus, seeing a National Geographic store that was due to open later in the day. It looked pretty cool.

We came back to drop off some minor purchases then left almost immediately, to try to get on the Eye on the last nice day of the trip. The queues were hours long so instead we walked along the Embankment, across the bridge to Charring Cross, and through to Trafalgar Square. From there, we went through Leicester Square, through Piccadilly and back up Regent to the National Geographic store. It's pretty cool, too. They have three floors. The top floor is 'designer' clothing, furniture, knick-knacks, travel guides, many photos om display, and a video screening lounge. The ground floor has a coffe shop, some toys, a selection of maps on display, games, and whatnot. The basement has tons of professional clothing and optics for real explorers. We're talking £500 jackets suitable for Polar expeditions, high-quality optic items, and whatnot. They also have a polar freezer where you can go in and get real experiences with Polar temperatures and winds. (See this article from last year)

After a rest, we went off to Porter's for dinner. I met my friend Jan who flew over from Germany to spend today and tomorrow with us, and he introduced us to Anna who's very nice. I liked her very much. It was great to see Jan again. He asked about quite a few of you back home.

Porter's (Covent Garden) was recommended to us by the Pirate Radio guy (see previous post). The menu looked good, the restaurant looked good. Everything should have been good. Only the food really sucked and this was the third* worst meal I've ever had in London. Karen disliked hers too. To be fair, Jan and Anna liked their food and it looked way better than ours. So did the food at the other tables. Maybe we were just unlucky, but I shan't give it another chance. I ate less than half. The meat was gristly as all hell, the Yorkshire pudding was repulsive and soggy, and the chips were cold and flavourless. How do you screw up chips? I am being serious in saying that if given the choice to eat what I was served here or the dog I was unwittingly served in Taichung, I'd go with the dog without hesitation.

We had to end promptly at 630 to head to the theatre to collect our will-call tickets. Today's show was We Will Rock You. A few changes since I've last seen it, most for the better. It's still a three hour play (start to end, interval included) which was a good hour longer than the Vegas version and rivalled only by Les Miserables in length. I enjoyed the music, the lady who played Scaramouche was absolutely fantastic and had an awesome voice. And she was the understudy. Galileo was weaker, and Killer Queen disappointed as she didn't have the range of the lady I saw last time. KQ should be a fat bottomed girl (song title, sorry) and this lady reminded me of Cher. Not that it's bad but she was just miscast. I have no fault with her except she was wrong for the part. Did I mention Scaramouche had the best voice I've heard in ages.

We took the tube back to the hotel arriving near half past eleven and begged some ice for Karen's knee which is growing considerably worse. I'm encouraging her to seek medical attention for it, but she's refusing. It's not looking good at all. I hope she feels better tomorrow especially since the weather's expected to turn shite, and that rain will make it worse. (Doctor Eric suspects she has a torn meniscus and that her doctor hasn't properly diagnosed her. Having had one myself, I recognize all the symptoms.)

I am amused that all the local stations are doing decade-end specials. I've referred this decade as the "aughts" as have many, but here they're calling them the "noughties" and I find that tres amusing.

* Second worst was the Italian restaurant from 6 or so years ago near Angel tube, and the worst was the chip shop on my very first trip near Victoria tube. In fact that chip shop may have been one of the five worst meals I've had anywhere on the planet. Seriously. That's some scary shit. (Sea Cucumber wins as the worst meal I've ever tried to eat.) See previous blog posts as I shan't go over it here.

Day Three (London Trip Journal)

Another rough night of sleep, but that's par for the course. Woke up and watched the news. The bomber is the big news, of course. Flight delays from London to the US are running on average over 3 hours. I'm going to have to try to figure out how to pack to come home or arrange to ship some stuff back. We left around 815am for breakfast which went without incident today: a nice, proper English breakfast. It was colder today (high was 7ªC) but nice and cloudless.

Our first stop was Petticoat Lane, located between Aldgate and Liverpool tube stations. The best way to do it, is just go to one and walk through to the other. We started from Liverpool Street simply because it's easier to get to from where we were. Petticoat Lane is by far the most famous market in London, one the most famous in the world perhaps. Not nearly the best in London much less the world, in my opinion, though if you're looking for absurdly cheap clothing, it's the place to go. It's got a long history and was banned several times before Parliament finally allowed it. We grew bored rather quickly and headed off to Camden Market which was far more fun. We spent some time there, did some people watching, because there are some really interesting people there.

After that, we headed towards Saint Paul's which is a short walk to one of the better museums in London, The Museum of London. While we enjoyed it, half of it was closed for refurbishment, and unfortunately it's my favourite half. The balance is due open Spring 2010. Everything from c1350 forward was closed. We stopped at the museum café for a drink and a slice of cake. After that it was back on the tube to Holborn where we opted to walk to Covent Garden instead of transferring and taking the tube.

We went to the London Transport Museum which I love because I am a subway nut. They have a lot of dioramas on the construction of the tube, simulators so you can drive the tube, lots of maps from the past, present, and future. They've got omnibus and other modes too. Naturally I enriched the museum's coffers in the gift shop. After that, we walked to Forbidden Planet because it was easy to knock off. I bought Karen an autographed copy of Little Brother as a gift for just £7.99, quite a steal. Forbidden Planet is a great bookstore devoted to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic books. They have tons of autographed copies of books* and regular visitors. You wouldn't know book readership is declining by looking at this store.

We got on the tube at Leicester Square, went to Gloucester Road and walked to the large Sainsbury's on Cromwell Road. I bought some grapes and a Limeade (not fizzy) and Karen bought tea and cashews. That left us time to chill before dinner. We left the hotel a bit after five for the tube to Notting Hill Gate, where the famous Geales is located. It's been redecorated since my last visit, and it's much nicer. The food remains good and I enjoyed my dinner though it seemed a little saltier than it used to be, but Karen said it was all in my head.

After that, we saw Nowhere Boy (see yesterday's blog). I didn't realize it was a Weinstein film, but it was. It was a good film, but it's very difficult to watch. Lots of depressing moments, very little joy. You will meet three of the four Beatles as teens. But you won't hear any Beatles music, nor even hear the word uttered. The film stops as the group is formed. It's hard to have spoilers in a bio-pic, but if you don't know Lennon's early life, it's possible so I won't discuss it. Over the closing moments you do hear Lennon singing. But all the other music is what inspired them and not what they recorded.

In unrelated news, one of the funniest articles you will ever read about Spandau Ballet was in the Toronto Sun. Apparently there's some chance they will be the first band to perform in space on one of Virgin Galactic's flights. The classic line it ends with is, "just long enough for someone to accidentally open the pod-bay door and turn Spandau Ballet from The First Band to Suck in Space to The First Band to be Sucked Into Space." If you like Spandau Ballet, don't read this article.

Also, a bit of oddity: yesterday my blog got a slew of hits from Turkey.  All were searching for "My Name is David" an excellent movie I reviewed some time ago. My blog will hit the magic 1/4 million mark within a fortnight. Maybe not a big deal to you, but I am quite impressed that this flight of fancy has turned out to be so damned popular.


*Jose, Jasper Fforde will be there on the 18th.

Boxing Day In London (Trip Day Two)

Boxing Day, a true English tradition brings the legendary sales with tens of thousands of people mobbing every store, most notably Harrods. So, of course, we avoided most of those places.

We woke up to a dreary, wet, cold, day and went to our usual breakfast place only to find that their cook had done a no-show for work and so it was coffee and a croissant. We beat a hasty retreat to the tube station where we purchased our seven day, two zone tube pass. It's now approaching £30 for one of those beasts.

Our first order of business for the day was the London Eye, and the weather was clearing so we were hopeful. Due to the fact it was Boxing Day, they opened 30 minutes late only to come out and tell everyone who was queued up that it was broken and to come back "later" and they hoped it would be fixed, and of course "we're sorry for any inconvenience" After that we were scheduled for Greenwich Foot Tunnel but due to Karen's knee that has been cancelled for this trip, so instead we walked around Westminster Abbey. As I've said before, I still find it horribly inappropriate to have a coffee shop and gift stand on top of someone's grave.

We then hopped the tube, went to Covent Garden and found the Patisserie Valerie there and had a proper breakfast -- at least I did, Karen having lunch instead. We walked to the London Transport Museum but it was, as expected closed. We popped back on the tube and went to Holborn for the John Soane museum whose website indicated they were open, but the sign up front said they were closed for most of the week. Since we were there, we walked towards the British Museum but it was, as we suspected, closed. We then swung by Forbidden Planet, the most awesome sci-fi bookshop on the planet, but it was closed. We then continued on to Foyle's bookshop which was open and spent time perusing, though I didn't buy anything. Really. I don't care if you don't believe me.

We then went to Berwick Street, at the recommendation of John. Indeed, as many of the shops are mom-and-pop variety, most had signs indicating they were closed for the entire week. A few were open and I perused all the ones that were open. Then we decided to take our chances on Oxford Street, which was a tragic error. We popped into HMV to grab some more music, and ran into the nearest tube station (Oxford Circus). John, I spent £80 on CDs and it's pretty much your fault. I hate you. Thanks for the recommendation.

After a short stop at the hotel, we walked the 1/3 mile to Sainsbury's which had a sign yesterday indicating they would be open Boxing Day, and indeed the Sainsbury Express we saw earlier was open. We arrived, the parking lot was full of carts so it was a good sign until we got to the door which had a sign on it saying they were open until 6pm, our watches showed 330pm, and there were others who were also irate. Apparently the closed early and a number of people were in the car park muttering discontentedly, though not as much as the lady with the pram who was furious. Back to the hotel we went, for a rest.

Watched the news about the attempted destruction of a Northwest flight as it landed in DTW. If someone put me on a plant to Detroit, I'd probably try to kill myself too. Seriously, though, it's put a spanner in the works for our return trip as all flights to the USA have extended check-in, so we'll have to leave at the ass-crack of dawn to LHR for 'extra security' -- if that means a body cavity search, there's going to be an incident, let me tell you. I'm glad it all worked out okay.

We left the room at 430, took the tube to Piccadilly Circus, walked to the theatre, picked up the tickets to tonight's play The Misanthrope, which is the second hottest ticket in town behind Billy Elliot.

After that, we went to dinner at Pizza Express, a restaurant that is a chain but quite serviceable.  Not nearly as good as my last few trips here. Not sure if it was an off-night or it's slipped. The service was good but the food's slipped. Our starter wasn't as good and neither of our mains were as good as last time either. The dessert, however, was awesome: Banoffee Pie with coffee gelato; I never had it before but it was bloody fantastic. I'm in love.

We walked around Leicester Square and environs to kill an hour until play-time. We saw an advert for the film Nowhere Boy and have decided to try it if we can get tickets for Sunday night. It's a story about the boyhood of John Lennon. We saw Pirate Radio (Boat That Rocked) is out on DVD here already but isn't available in the states yet, nor has a date been announced. Sadly, UK DVDs can't be played here in the USA. (Okay, I can play PAL DVD without a problem on both my Mac and my Pioneer LD/DVD combo-player, but the region encoding is a bit tricky, so I opted not to buy it.)

Finally, off to the theatre. I learn that this play is the theatrical premiere of Keira Knightly, she of Pirates of the Caribbean fame. She's hot, but unnervingly thin. And while she tries her hardest, I am sad to report she is the weakest link. She doesn't act as well as the rest of the cast. It's her pacing that's off.  She will say five or six words, throw in a random pause for no good reason, and then continue. While it's only one thing it was maddening. The rest of the play was really good, though I personally didn't care for the ending. Damian Lewis does a fine job as does Tim McMullen, Chuk Iwuji, and Kelly Price. It's a quick paced two hours including interval and curtain call, and you won't be bored. There are some laughs, the random self-referential jab, and it's a good time for all. Even if the cow behind you keeps chewing her ice and rattling her cup to the consternation of everyone around.

After that instead of popping back on the tube at Piccadilly Circus we walked to Green Park tube to get a stretch before we headed back to the hotel. We popped into Tesco Metro for some crisps (chips) and water, and I got the 'grilled steak' flavour because when you're here, you have got to try their weird flavours, though I cannot bring myself to try 'prawn cocktail' as a crisp flavour. Yuck.

Christmas in London (Trip Day One)

We left Miami Christmas Eve, 20 minutes early because everyone was checked in and on board. We waited in Club America after breezing through security *ZERO* people in line. Club America really sucks but it's where Virgin Atlantic sends you in Miami since they only offer one flight per day.

There were 113 on board including all passengers and crew -- this on a stretch A340. Lots of room on VS006. We taxied down for takeoff and there were over a dozen emergency vehicles lining the runway along 836 lights flashing -- not sure what that was about. The flight was uneventful -- the best kind. Food was decent for airline food. We were talking to the flight attendant and it turns out she was the same one we had on our last trip, though we didn't remember each other, we were on the same flight.

Didn't sleep (what's new?) and watched Pirate Radio aka Boat That Rocked. You will remember from a previous post we met one of the guys this film was based on. It's a fictionalized account but based on a true story. See previous post for details. This movie was absolutely awesome. I was sure I'd fall asleep but it was so good.  I recommend this film to everyone. The soundtrack rocks too.

We arrived Christmas morning (nearly an hour early) -- we had FastTrack to speed through customs but it was pointless as there were three agents and *ZERO* people in line. Our luggage came off almost as soon as we got to the carousel. We exited baggage claim and we went to the Virgin sevice desk and our driver was waiting. As there is no public transport on Christmas in the UK, we used frequent flier miles to hire a car and driver to take us to the hotel. Owing to deserted roads it was a quick trip. We landed a little before 9 and were at the hotel before 10am. That's got to be a world record.

Our rooms were ready, another shocker, so we checked in. My heat was broken (dear lord was it cold in my room). Unlike last time, my room was a proper size and all was well. I unpacked, and posted a Happy Christmas on Facebook and my message board. I should have been tired and jet lagged but wasn't and neither was Karen, so we decided to go eat. There's a nice little café run by some Pakistanis near our hotel, and we knew they'd be open. They were and it was crowded, but we had a nice proper breakfast. We then walked towards Lord's (24/7/365 convenience store) to get some supplies and were crushed to learn, as we passed by Patisserie Valerie has closed its Brompton Road location. So very, very sad. There are plenty more but this one was near the hotel. After securing provisions (water and chocolate) we returned to the hotel and unloaded. The room was still sub-zero and called for maintenance and prayed it would be taken care of.

We then cruised the neighbourhood to look for restaurants that were open for dinner Christmas night. We found about a dozen within a 1/2 kilometer walking distance of our hotel: Italian, Indian, Lebanese. We decided we'd try one of the Italian ones when we got hungry. We were going to do the Dickens walk at 2pm but there was a scarcity of cabs and by the time we saw any empty ones, it was too late too make it to Trafalgar square. We then walked to Hyde Park -- which was crowded as hell.We saw the Princess Diana Memorial because Karen had never seen it.

We made it back to the hotel just in time to watch Her Majesty's annual address to her people which she has done every single year of her reign on Christmas Day. Seeing it live isn't quite the same as seeing it on YouTube. She's a great speaker, very regal, etc.

The room is warmer -- still cooler than I like but liveable. Take a 30 minute nap as the jet lag hits full force. We then take another walk, exploring the back area of Gloucester Road to South Kensington Tube stations. Uneventful as should be expected.We went to the Italian row (3 restaurants on one block) and we picked one. The waitress -- who we suspect was one of the owners -- was less than pleasant and less than efficient, but being London we expected the latter but not the former. The pasta e fagioli soup arrived and was fantastic, giving us great hope for the rest of the meal. My food was okay, but not what you'd expect from a homemade Italian meal. Karen's wasn't so good at all: lasagne and neither of liked it. We took a short walk, came back to the hotel and are calling it a night.

Christmas Stuff

Just a quick post as I kill some time. The Christmas Party at work was a success. We had it catered by Boston Market instead of Stephen's Deli for the first time in decades after two disappointing performances in a row. It was more money but very well received. Turkey, brisket, ham, corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, turkey/potato gravy, brisket gravy, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. Plus a few employees brought food, plus add chips, fruit punch, lemonade, and a plethora of sodas along with iced tea, and you get the picture. I'm overly full.

I ran across an amusing site yesterday, but don't remember who to give credit to. This is for all you curling fan(s) out there. Coolness.

Want to see a seriously pissed off cat? Click here and here. This is Annie's cat (Bolli) who is clearly not pleased at being asked to be a model. I'll just link as I don't know how she'd feel about a thumbnail here.

Many of you celebrate Christmas, and Sue posted this in her blog today. Rather educational for all you religious folks. Hell, it was rather educational for me. Who knew?

I hope you all have a happy, festive, and joyous holiday season (insert holiday name here) and a healthy and prosperous new year. Or, if you prefer, MFC and Bah Humbugs, as appropriate :) And let's all hope 2010 is better than 2009 which I hope fades in to a distant memory as fast as possible. Hopefully it's all uphill for everyone and the economy with it.

Spectacular Fail

I had a nice early holiday at Grandma's. Me, Mom, and my Aunt all chipped in and got her a 26" LCD flat screen to replace her 21" tube TV which was slowly dying. Sophia (a vendor of mine in China) sent a beautiful walking cane for her. By far the nicest gift of the lot. Sophia has adopted my grandmother and she's very sweet. Everything went swimmingly well.  Then we were to go to Houston's for dinner but somehow the ladies decided Outback would be a better idea. And that was a decision that will be forever rued. Been to the Outback in North Miami Beach a number of times and while the service is often slow, it's never been bad and certainly not incompetent.

There was a 20 minute wait for the table which is what they promised us, so there's no valid complaint there. We sat down and some 10 minutes later our waiter blew by and said he'd be right with us. A few minutes later he was. He took our drink and dinner order since we had plenty of time to decide. He brought back the drinks and the bread in a reasonable amount of time.

My drink ran out -- those of you who know me, understand that's an issue -- and I pushed it to the edge of the table hoping he'd actually stop by and do something. He did come by the other tables but not ours. I accidentally knocked Mom's wine glass and my drink glass off the table (making a spectacular save on both glasses, leaving my ice still in the cup and half her glass of wine still in the cup). Several waiters came, walked around it, pretending there was no puddle of wine on the floor. We asked the bus boy at the next table to clean it up and get our waiter. He cleaned it up. No waiter.

Some 20 minutes later (too long for what we ordered) someone else brought our food. Or I should say my Grandmother's food and my food. Mom's food didn't arrive. We waited a few moments, figuring he'd at least stop by. Mom told us to start eating so it didn't get cold. After about five minutes, I had enough, went to the maîtress d' and said we had a problem and to find the manager. She moved quickly to the back to fulfil my request.

The manager showed up, we explained what had happened so far and she acted suitable appalled and asked what was missing. Within two minutes, the drinks were there along with mom's food. She apologized again, with our waiter standing over her shoulder saying nothing. She said that she'd comp Mom's food (I thought she should have done the wine too, but that's her choice). Now, if you know someone's complained to your boss you figure you'd be on your best behaviour from thereon out. We finished and waited. And waited. And waited. He finally showed up, we asked for a box and our bill. Quite Some Time later he brought a box -- a small burger sizes box for quite a bit of food so he had to go get another box. While he was gone I noticed the bill was wrong and told him so when he returned.

Mom mentioned to him how bad the service was, and he blamed the kitchen and then I mentioned had he come by the table he'd have noticed there was a problem. He was unapologetic, and we waited on the manager (again). She fixed the bill, gave grandma a coupon for a free bloomin' onion, and we paid. Grandma wanted to leave a tip anyway and a fight ensued. We ended up leaving a dollar over my objections, so I wrote in pen on the store copy -- REALLY BAD SERVICE. And that concludes that story. A perfectly good day ruined by a shit-ball waiter. If anyone from Outback reads this, fire the waiter. Seriously. If it were my restaurant and the manager had to visit a customer's table TWICE, the whole meal would be comped. Seriously. I rarely decide to leave zero tip, maybe 3 or 4 times in my life, so you know how bad this was. (It was bad compared to European service mind you.) Enough of that.

If you read yesterday's post on Overstock.com you should read the comments as there are additional developments. I am checked in for my flight but I am still not packed properly. The balloon boy's father is getting jail time. I don't care technically, but I am pleased anyway.

DirecTV did not call me back as promised over my signal issues (dish alignment). When I return these is going to be a very big fight. I'm going to tell them I'm cancelling and switching to Dish if they don't do it. I've been a subscriber for 14 years. Every time I call they're impressed by that. I did the math on how much money that is and was apalled. 

Finally, let's talk about Liz's cat (technically it's Liz and John's cat, but as you know the final determination is made by the cat and therefore it is Liz's cat.) Prudence is a cute, soft, attention-whore of a kitty with the attention span of a gnat. Actually, I'm not sure her attention span would outlast a gnat but I like Prudence. Now you can see Prudence in this video, running time just under four minutes. Please leave a nice comment on the video.




Liz doesn't like my idea of teaching Prudence to ice skate. I don't know if she realizes I'm only half joking. (She being Liz and not Prudence as I am not daft enough to ever try to actually train a cat. Some things are doomed to failure.)

Overstock.com and doing the right thing

So, I was on-line today and noticed a banner ad (hey, it was flash and I couldn't block it) that actually interested me because it said "free 1 day shipping" and it was from overstock.com which, I assumed, was a reputable company with whom I had previously done business. The item in the ad was one I wanted, and I figured I could have it here tomorrow in time for my vacation. I clicked it, filled in the details, and got to the final page. Free shipping is quoted as 5 to 10 days with 1 day shipping at around $15 -- almost half the value of the item. I clicked on the live chat button and explained the situation to the nice lady (Anne) who told me that particular item did not qualify for free one day shipping. I told her that the ad clearly said that right under the item's image in question. I told her that was false advertising and all she would do was say she'd make a note of it even after I offered to send her a screenshot. Bottom line is they lost a sale and a customer. I'm not going to make a big deal about it, I'm not going to report them to anyone, because, quite frankly, don't need to get worked up over a small purchase. It just speaks poorly of a company that is sending ads that aren't true. To hell with them and their business practices.

(You can click the ad if you want to see it. It's the one on the left, clearly marked. On sale for $46.)

I am not the only one who's reported false banner ads from them. This guy has a nearly identical complaint except his is about the price of an item.  And this gem as well. And a litany of others here.

Also a brief note on a book I got from my friend Paul over a year ago, but just now got around to reading. It's called The Fair Tax Book by Neal Boortz. It's boring yet interesting at the same time. I hate the current tax code and Fair Tax is an almost better plan. I had argued with Maury over this in the past. The concept is great except that I feel food and medicine should never be taxed. I like that it taxes absolutely, positively everything. It's close to a VAT tax except it's only charged to the ultimate purchaser of a new product or service. So used goods are exempt because the tax is already paid on it. It might work for awhile but you can count on the politicians to screw it up like they do everything else. As you all know, I'm not high on politicians of any party.

Weather report:

The Wienermobile Dogs My Steps

I am avoiding packing by wasting time on today's blog post. At least I have a cool experience to relate. I saw, live and in person, the legendary Wienermobile. Words and photos do not do justice to the awesomeness that it represents. The Wienermobile has been an obscure icon until raised to legendary status by Dave Barry, the pullet-surprise Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, and thanks to the Internet, you can even read it here before the lawyers make it go away. I took three photos with my mobile phone.

It's times like this I actually wish my mobile phone didn't have a shit camera. Still, it's better than nothing.

In other news, here's a picture of Gatwick taken today as part of a SkyNews story:

That certainly looks like a White Christmas to me.

I got a Google Alert today, as I often do, when my name appears somewhere new in the Google search engine. Most of those entries are either not me (the photographer, the stock scam artist, the musician, and so on) or updates to profiles at various sites. Today's match was a site that estimates the worth of your site based on your site's Google rank. It said darsys.net was worth about $48,000 (hahahaha) and darsys.com was worth $42,000 (still laughing), and my work is worth $40,000. I am not sure what the scam is but it has to be one since they think panthershockey.net is worth $45,000 and Umbrella Hat Society is worth $49,000. I know the traffic levels of these sites and relative worth of that traffic. Those numbers are absolute rubbish and meaningless. But it's fun, so plug in your own site. I was unable to get any site below $40,000 no matter how obscure. If anyone wants to buy my domains for that sum of money, let's talk. (I've typed in domains that don't even exist and get random numbers in the $40k to $50k range.)

I want to thank Dan for this URL which is a compendium of cool signs from the Tokyo subway. This is for Liz and Maury especially because I know you'll appreciate it being subway geeks like me. The site is in Japanese and will not display properly if you don't have the appropriate character set installed, but if you click on each picture you get a larger version with English on it as well. The blue box under each picture is the "back" button. This isn't a joke URL and is the real Tokyo Metro official website which makes it all the more double-plus awesome.

Everyone needs a story of revenge. I am not referring to Kenny, either. I've mentioned LameBook before but this is the best post I've ever seen there. Maybe one of the best anywhere. It's just perfect. I want to be friends with this guy. He's awesomely clever. It's the perfect crime.

I have discovered I have been blocked by someone I thought was my friend. Most confusing. Her loss I suppose. Today is the first day of winter. I guess that's appropriate.

Old Mother Hubbard

This is another post in my series of titles that has little or nothing to do with the content. While it's bad for traffic, it greatly amuses me. Or maybe it's a gentle poke at Grant. You decide for yourself.

I just finished dinner. I made almost a pound of burger meat (extra lean) and minced it into small pieces. I also made Kraft Dinner because I was too lazy to make real mac and cheese. Then, I mixed the meat into the Kraft Dinner. That will be enough food to take me until I leave on holiday. I had some grapes for desert but they weren't very sweet. I may bring them to work for the employees. They're like Mikey -- they'll eat anything.

RIP to Roy Disney, nephew of Walt, who passed away on the 16th of this month. He was the last Disney to maintain any control at the Walt Disney Corporation. I expect things to go downhill from this point on. He was a champion of hand animation, and I like that. Sadly Disney really lost their touch with that art form and their few remaining hand-inked films weren't very good. Roy will be missed by me and the Disney faithful out there. I'm sure he'll use his Golden Pass from the great beyond. A new Disney park is slated for Shanghai, to open by 2014 or 2012 depending whom you believe; too bad he won't be there for the opening.

I am expecting to have a white Christmas this year as snow is forecast for my holiday destination both Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and possibly through to Boxing Day. I am oddly apprehensive about the whole thing, but expect to relax and have fun upon arrival. Originally we had planned to take Eurostar to the continent for New Year's Day to see Brussels, Paris, or EuroDisney but due to the fares we decided against it. It's a good thing, as the entire Eurostar system has been down for three days and, as of today, has been shut indefinitely until they figure out why the trains are all breaking. They're claiming it's the freezing cold in France at the chunnel entrance coupled with the warm tunnel is causing ice to melt and short out the electrical systems. Except the other French TGV trains (also made by Alstom) don't have this problem at other tunnels.

Sue sent me this URL and it's an amazing video I must share:




The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. You really need to watch this, at least until the Earth vanishes from your screen a few minutes in. If you make it that far, I bet you'll finish. Click the video to go through and view it full size on YouTube.

While I rarely link to FAIL Blog, this one's worth it. It's a rare WIN and made me think of Timmy (the friend not the character).

The NFL's Dolphins lost because they started out weak, and though they managed to tough it out and catch up, made another critical mistake that cost them the game. Interceptions kill.

Private blog has an update for those reading. E-mail me if you are interested in the URL, which is available to qualified parties only. :)

20 - 12 = 7 (The New Math)

If you want to figure out that subject you'll have to read all the way through to nearly the end. I'm going to start with Thursday when I went off to Grandma's after work to meet her and Aunt Barbara for dinner. I rarely see Barbara (Grandma's baby sister), so it was a rare treat for her to be in town even if it was for one day. We visited for a bit, went to dinner (okay food, horrible service -- bad service seems to be endemic around this part of the state), and then parted company. I'm sure you saw our part of the country in the news, as it turns out we got 12 inches of rain in Grandma's part of town in 5 hours (and 16 in 24) so my drive home -- which is normally 40 minutes, was much longer. Other people never got home, including many people who slept in the mall because they couldn't escape. Needless to say my sleep Thursday night was cut short by half of what it should be, forgetting whether or not I actually slept.

Friday, I went to work knowing it would be a long day, and far more tired than I planned to be. I was secretly hoping the evening's movie would be cancelled because I was totally wiped. But I wasn't going to be the one to mention it, hint at it, or cancel it. Friday brought more bad weather, and in fact, a tornado removed a gas station near Grandma's house. Left work early to meet Pablo and Andrea at my house and then go to the game. Ended up getting home late due to an accident. Remarkably, there was no traffic on the way to the arena. On Sunday it's a 40 minute drive and on a weekday at 5, it's usually a 75 to 90 minute drive. We did it in 48. Shocking. We went to Rosario's which was there years ago, vanished, and has now reappeared. My food was good but I was most irritated that the lasagne was swimming in the sauce. That's not a proper lasagne. Flavour was good, though not evenly cooked. Evan loved his as did Pablo and Andrea. Kathy didn't seem to like hers as she barely ate any. The garlic rolls were phenomenal.

We went to the game and the rain has vanished, finally, by then. We got to witness a rare home win by the Panthers despite their efforts to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory in the final period of play. So far the day was proving to be a success. While at the game, Greg asked me to film his son playing goalie at first intermission, which I was glad to do. I tested the video camera at our seats by filming the Ice Cats (nothing like soft core porn to amuse you). I went down to 103 -- centre ice -- to film Greg's kid and was stopped by the usher as they were letting the kids on the ice. The usher was actually nice once I explained what I was going to do. He let me stand behind the handicapped section and film. Then the supervisor Nazi came over and started yelling at me, causing me to miss finding out which goalie was which. Then the two ushers and the supervisors argued over whether or not I could film. (Filming of the NHL game is prohibited. Filming a friend/relative/etc at intermission is permitted but they had trouble figuring it out, and I kept getting jostled about.)

Having no choice I tried to film BOTH goalies at opposite ends of the ice but doubt I succeeded in doing anything but filming a bunch of shaking about. I feel bad, but that fiasco wasn't my fault. The arena folks don't communicate and none of them know the rules and this is a common occurrence. Feh.

We left and went to Cinema Paradiso where we would see Rocky Horror Picture Show. The entrance to the parking garage was closed, so we drove in the exit and up the exit ramp. We watched other cars have the same challenge trying to park as we did. Finally Liz arrived and had similar trouble, nearly removing the automatic gate when it refused to open.

We went in, realized we had time because they weren't on schedule. Liz and I let them know that Pablo was a virgin. (In this context I refer to one who hasn't seen RHPS and beyond that is outside the scope of my knowledge thankyouverymuch.) They tried to put the red lipstick "V" on his head, but I forestalled it until we returned from our coffee adventure because I was feeling kind.

We piled in my car and went in search of caffeine. Sadly, all the Starbucks we passed were closed, and we ended up at the Floridian Diner on Las Olas where Liz and I had coffee and key lime pie. Andrea had coffee and Pablo just watched. We finished, headed back to the cinema via the tunnel (Pablo was apparently a tunnel virgin as well). We parked, coming in through the out door* again. We bought our tickets and Pablo immediately got the "V" mark on his head. He was a good sport about it.

We entered the theatre just past midnight. My day is eighteen hours old already at this point and I'm operating on four hours of sleep. The coffee isn't helping. I like the theatre: comfortable seats, some friendly staff, and even some friendly fans. All RHPS shows have some form of 'virgin games' wherein the 'virgins' are embarrassed gently. I got 'ring around the virgin' in high school. Other casts make you introduce yourself at the front of the theatre, proclaiming yourself a virgin. Stuff like that. This cast made everyone introduce themselves while grabbing their tits or tackle (as appropriate) and shouting their name loudly. Pablo did himself proud and we laughed. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn't.

Now, I've seen some casts do spin the bottle wherein you take the virgins in two groups, spin the bottle, and then kiss the virgin from the other group. It's a chaste kiss and you can pretend kiss if you really want. Harmless enough though creepy in these times.

This theatre they collected money and for every dollar they collected the virgins had to hold the kiss that long. That's a bit over the top and definitely a little past the point of sexual harassment. Most people were faking it, though. Anyway, poor Pablo was the victim of a "substitution" where they picked someone of a clearly different orientation. I shan't go further other than to say, I sincerely and formally publicly profusely apologize to Pablo -- had I known I'd have never outed you as a virgin. You might have a sexual harassment case against the theatre. I hope you can walk again in a few weeks. (I'm kidding about the last sentence, but not the rest. Way too over the top. One day they will get sued, and they will lose.) If Pablo wishes to elaborate, he may. That's all I'm going to say.

The only amusing part of this part was this one kid -- 14 at best** -- who raised $31 and got a nic, long French kiss with a very large older woman, and he appeared to enjoy it immensely. No faking there. He'll probably need therapy and turn gay. It was a great laugh because when asked by the MC how he liked it, he was really breathless and had trouble answering it; the smile on his face was priceless.

We bought prop bags. I got three at $4 each. That's $12 and handed the lady $20, and waited for change. "That's seven," she said. She repeated it again. I corrected her, and she said "seven" again. I ended up getting eight, but I'm not sure she believed me. Seriously. Epic fail. She wasn't even a blonde.

The film started a little closer to 1am than midnight. They showed the US cut which has a missing scene/song and is about 3 minutes shorter than the UK version as I recollect. I could look at my last RHPS review but am far too lazy. The atmosphere here was way better than at Flippers where we saw it last time. But they had the movie volume down too low to hear, and the lighting people were incompetent causing the spotlights to blank the screen numerous times. The cast was enjoyable except for poor Rocky who was miscast due to his very tiny stature and it was very, very, very distracting.

We got out well past 2am and I flew home at warp factor ten, at one point being passed by a little Acura doing warp twenty and at another point being nearly run into by a DUI. We got home a little past 3am, and then Pablo and Andrea went on their way. I was in bed around 330am, and was up, sadly, at 740am. That's two nights in a row with four hours of sleep. Today was harsh. Really harsh and I am not functioning well. Tomorrow I have to be up at 7ish to head to the flea market with Timmy, Liz, and John. No reason, just fun.

And a bit of random news: if you think the Queen is not normal, here she is taking public transport. It's pretty cool that she'd do this. It's so normal yet not. A very short video so feel free to take a peek. And now I'm off to bed.


* Gratuitous Prince reference. Name that song for one pence.
** No idea how he got into an R rated movie 

A Special Hello to Wiley, Rein & Fielding

A special hello to Wiley, Rein, and Fielding who still visit my blog. Today someone at WRF actually Googled me by name. W00T! I'm sure they know they're leaving digital footprints that are recorded. One would hope so, but judging from their high quality research in their first Nucor filing, perhaps not. I think Nucor should get a refund.

That's the record of their visit. It's probably Mister Price, but I don't care. I just thought the polite thing to do would be to say hello., or maybe to piss off. One of the two. Please note WRF, I could be petty and block your static IP address give you the distinction of becoming only the second IP banned from my domain, but you're not worth the time. But, if you need friends, I'd like to introduce you to Kenny Hill and Michael Yormark. I'm done with you for today so you can stop reading.

Courtesy of Suzie-Q we have "God Hates Protesters" a very humorous blog. I encourage you to read it. This shot particularly took my fancy:

Please click on it and visit. It's good for a laugh or ten. Right up there with Lamebook, which I have previously mentioned. Another funny site is FML -- one of today's was especially good: Today, I set up a miniature nativity scene in my apartment. Three hours ago, my dog decided it would be a good idea to eat baby Jesus. Two hours ago, the vet laughed and said not to worry because I would 'have him back in time for Christmas'. FML

Tomorrow is a very, very long day. I hope it's as fun as it appears to be. Dinner, Hockey, and RHPS with friends. Yay. In unrelated news, the BA strike has been postponed courtesy of a court order and parts of the tube are not running because it's snowing in London. Mid 20s and cold and wet. Joy, joy, joy.

The Blu-Ray consortium has released a final specification for 3D Blu-Ray discs using the H.264 codec so a 3D film only requires 50% more space instead of double the space. It is backwards compatible with the current 2D specification.

The Return of Alan Price -- and more on Kenny

For those of you who wanted to find Kenny Hill, I only remember his icon was 'red' and he was from Detroit, Michigan. He's blocked so I can't see him. But it's "Kenny Hill" if you want to look him up. Yo! Kenny! Speak up, I'm sure you'd like to share your side of the story. And we'd love to hear it. But, Kenny, as much as you think I hate you, I don't. You aren't worth my time to hate. You are worthy of no notice except for me to mock. I like you far, far better than Alan Price who makes a return to my blog. Between Price and Yormark, I think I might like Yormark better.

Nucor Fasteners, as expected, has filed an appeal with the US Court of International Trade, claiming the USITC was wrong in their unanimous ruling that Nucor was not injured by dumped andor subsidized imports from China and/or Taiwan. Alan Price called the decision "clearly erroneous and .... is arbitrary, capricious...." Well, you get the idea. We all expect this appeal to be shot down and then they'll have to refile. Why do we expect it to get shot down? The reasons are twofold. First, Alan Price's record with the ITC indicates he's going to lose. Second, it's my opinion his firm's sloppy-ass research helped sink their case. How Nucor was dumb enough to retain a lawyer who lost them the case 6-0 indicates Nucor enjoys throwing their money down the toilet. Nucor can make a winnable case but this isn't it. They're beating a dead horse. They will refile. When they do, I have a very small but devastating surprise objection to their new filing. I will very much enjoy it. I can guarantee based on what I've observed of Mr Price, he'll make the same mistake again. I let it go the first time but I won't let it go the second. People are very predictable. I fully expect Mr Price to refer to this post in his filing. In fact, I'm counting on it. (I don't have it in for Nucor, but if they're going to be greedy twats that are trying to put honest distributors such as the company where I work out of business, it's my job to fight them to the death. That's what's at stake.)

I think I mentioned this site before, but if you haven't visited ted.com it's worth a look. What is it? Quite simply, in their own words: Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.

Oral Roberts the deeply religious man who was quite famous passed yesterday but I didn't know what to say. I thought I should say something. Whether or not you liked him, he was an important note in history.  My friend John Carney has an excellent blog post about it, and I'll let him do my work. John is a religious man, and I deeply respect this post because he's (unlike Fox News) fair and balanced. It's a well thought out memorial. If all religious people were reasonable, there would be a lot less war, a lot less friction, and a lot more friendship and understanding. I give John full credit.

Steve's got a follow up post to yesterday's talk with Randall Stephenson which is funny but not as much as yesterday. FSJ is also in hot water with the FTC for trying to bring down the ATT network and they have ruled that would be an illegal act. So I hope he succeeds because that alone is reason enough to do it. How the hell does ATT complain that people using smart-phones (not just iPhones) are overloading their network? If you pay for a service, you're obligated to provide. It'd be like Comcast charging you for 200 channels and then complaining if you actually watched them.

Apple's won their case against Psystar. It's over and done for all intents and purposes.

YouTube has released its most popular video list for the first time. YouTube's 2009 star was Susan Boyle. While she ended up taking second place in that competition, but no one came close to outshining her on YouTube. Her "Britain's Got Talent" videos attracted more than 120 million views worldwide. That was more than the next three most-watched videos combined. Read More here.

My local fishwrapper, the Miami Herald, is throwing itself at the mercy of its online readers. It's asking for donations from people who use the site. It can't afford to be free but it's afraid that if they go subscription people will run to other, free, sites. More here on their plan.  I am undecided but do support the Herald even though they are a shadow of their former selves.

We got a visit at work from Dave Aronberg. He's running for the State Attorney General. I hope he wins. He seems to be a nice guy as far as politicians go. Yeah, I suppose that's a left-handed compliment but after so many years of corrupt local politicians it's hard to get excited. I did have one serious bone to pick with him, and you all know me, and of course I did. One of his most famous cases was taking down "Miss Cleo" -- now I do not dispute that her Psychic Network was clearly a fraud and was fleecing people from their money. But you know what, sometimes people deserve it. That's not my complaint. As we all know, those commercials were awesome (in a bad way) and I resent that he deprived me of their entertainment value. After a good laugh, I gave him a tour, he hit me up for a campaign contribution (I'll give), and went about his merry way. It was nice half-hour visit.

For The Arsemunch, Kenny Hill

Hate mail is fun -- even when it comes to your inbox on Facebook. The inbox, conveniently, has a report button. Which I used. I do want to thank Kenny Hill, the moronic author for giving me a good laugh and the lead topic for today's blog post. That proves he's a little better than a shit-stain on the road to progress. First, here it is in its entirety:

Kenny Hill has the IQ of a brick, and a pretty small brick at that. Kenny shows he's an idiot because he reacted to the title of that infamous blog post and clearly didn't read it. The very first line of that post says OK, that's not true but it certainly got your attention. You're here reading, aren't you? That leads me to make some amazing assumption about him here.We can conclude he's got a double-digit IQ, a small penis, is a liar, and never made it through elementary school. And he clearly didn't make it to the first sentence. It's quite possible he can't read because he certainly can't spell. Kenny, when you're going to flame someone, at least use spell check, okay? And don't say you read the post when it is quite obvious that you didn't. Kenny, I don't like you and you raised my ire which as most people who have done so will tell you is a very bad thing. I've won and you'll figure that out in a day or two. I've blocked Kenny and didn't dignify his message with a reply. Have a nice life Kenny Hill-- actually I prefer you don't. Pick on someone your mental equal: try your local kindergarten. Oh, and you've got your own tag so when people look for Kenny Hill on Google, they'll be able to read this post. Enjoy.

Next up is a fantastical spelling error collection all one menu courtesy of Annie Mole, who's one of my favourite bloggers:

Annie runs the Going Underground blog. This awesome menu includes items such as Steack, Letuce, Peper, and Smocked Salmon. (I think maybe Kenny Hill wrote that menu.)

What? You want more grammar issues? Okay, since it's Kenny Hill Day, we'll continue to point out morons spotted in the wild. This one is courtesy of Office Max. I bought a new calculator for my office because sometimes it's the fastest way to get a quick calculation. The insert speaks for itself. I wasn't aware Kenny worked for Office Max, but apparently he does. Highlighted in red. There's a phone number if you wish to complain. It's not Kenny's phone number, though I may do some research on that if he thinks contacting me again is a good idea....

I've often blogged about the 787 but have been silent as the project has imploded this year due to poor management. I am pleased to finally be able to report that today was first flight. The 787 took to the skies today for the first time and it went well. This article includes a video and a collection of photos. I hope Boeing didn't ruin the 787 project with this delay. They're playing catchup to Airbus, a position Boeing should never have been in.

Speaking of things that think -- that doesn't seem to include Kenny Hill -- this article from the fine folks at IBM is quite interesting. IBM has produced a computer that mimics a cat's brain (AI) and to do that, it they needed a machine with 147,456 processors and 144 terabytes of main memory. And remember, that doesn't include life support functions. This is why replicating a human's brain is many years off. Unless it's Kenny Hill's brain. My understand is they can do that with an old Z80 processor. Kenny, just think how many people are reading this. Was it worth it? Ask yourself that.

I'm still toying with that ring from my previous post in the back of my mind. I found the ring on the left at Overstock.com (thanks Jace) but it's just not quite the same as the one I previously mentioned which is the one on the right. That's really the one I want, but at nearly $1000 I don't think so. I found this one site online today that lets you design your own ring and I can copy the ring above using gold and platinum combined with the titanium and two diamonds and a black diamond at around $1100 but that's about $900 more than I want to spend. Ugh. (Some people have said the rings are lining up Top/Bottom instead of Left/Right -- not sure why. Black is the 'left' ring and Silver is the 'right' ring.)

There's been a lot of publicity about ATT and the iPhone and who's at fault for the recent shitty service. The bottom line is that the phone is working fine in every country in which it's being sold except one. The USA. That pretty much rules out the phone and points to the carrier. TAUW reports that FSJ is asking everyone to participate in Operation Chokehold: On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time (3pm Eastern), we will attempt to overwhelm the ATT data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour ... The idea is we'll create a digital flash mob. We're calling it Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power! I don't have an iPhone but I hope those of you who do will participate. You deserve better.

Adweek Media, the icon of the advertising industry has given out its awards for the best advertising of the decade. In first place for Campaign of the Decade is Apple's Get A Mac campaign that everyone took notice of. Even the PC people were amused, though Microsoft retaliated with a much lamer campaign. The best outdoor advertising (out-of-home in industry speak) of the decade was the legendary silhouetted iPod ad that became ubiquitous in record time.  So congratulations to Apple for adding to the legend of awesome advertising. They also have 1984 under their belt, considered one of the best advertising spots ever created.

Moving on to holiday news you can use. Adam Sandler stopped being funny pretty much thirty seconds after the Waterboy vanished from theatres. He did record the Chanukah Song which is much loved by Jewish folks everywhere as well as Goyim the world 'round. Neil Diamond has re-recorded the song for his new Christmas Album, and I almost didn't recommend it but I did like the video. You will too.

Next we have a woman who received an ASBO for having noisy sex, was cited again and will be sentenced in court.  Sunderland City Council told the court they had recorded noise levels of up to 47 decibels using equipment installed at Cartwright's neighbour's house. I have nothing to add to this, nothing I can say to make this any better than it already is. You have got to admire her for doing this every single day. She's enjoying life. An ASBO for loud sex. I laughed.

Finally, because I think Kenny Hill might worry that I've forgotten him midway through the post. I assure you, sir, that I have not. And I've got one last salvo for today. I like trains. I can't provide a link for this article because it's a Usenet bit, but I shall post it here for your amusement:

From:     John Band

Subject:     Re: Liverpool Street's open cesspit

Date:     15 December 2009 08:09:16 EST
On Dec 15, 11:55 am, Tristan Miller wrote:


Greetings.


I often take the train between Liverpool Street and Stratford and have noticed that at the former station the higher-numbered platforms reek of decaying human excrement.  Apparently the tracks in question serve as an open cesspit for waste flushed from the train toilets.


This surprises me; surely in this day and age it is possible to build train toilets which either use septic tanks, or whose flush mechanisms can be disabled while the train is at a station.  Are there no local or national laws or regulations concerning the construction of train toilets, and the dumping of human waste in indoor train stations?  Perhaps the problem is purely cosmetic rather than a public health issue, but in that case couldn't the station at the very least apply some deodoriser to the affected tracks?  I have been in pit toilets which smelled better than those platforms.


There aren't any specific regulations on the, erm, dumping. There are regulations on construction, which mean that all new trains with toilets for the last 20 years have retention toilets.


Unfortunately, the long-distance trains running out of Liverpool Street - loco-hauled mk3s and 317s - are 30 and 25 years old respectively, and hence discharge onto the track. When they expire, they'll be replaced by trains which don't.

Kenny, if you can't figure out what that last post has to do with you, let me assist you by pointing out the word 'cesspit' and the phrase 'human excrement'. Have a nice day :)

The Struggle Of A Blog Entry

Many days I have nothing to blog, so I don't. Usually when I have something to blog, it's hard to know what post to start with. Officially, I don't care who reads or not, but I still feel obligated to be interesting. As a writer, you want to grab people with the first thing you say, so they want to read the second sentence, then the third, and ultimately suck them in so they read your whole post. If you're good, maybe they'll come back or even click on some of your related advertising. I don't care about the money because I couldn't even miss a week of work with what this blog has paid in my lifetime. Mostly, I try to entertain. Sometimes, I try to provoke thought. And occasionally, I try to antagonize because I'm spiteful like that.

Today, I'll start with something I find interesting, and a few others will find interesting, but most of my readers won't give two shits about. In London's Farringdon Station, a remarkable thing happened. A station worker was reprimanded by his supervisor for not communicating well enough with his customers (passengers). The results are fantastic. There's the news story which focuses on the fact he suggested the passengers kill themselves (not seriously), and one intrepid passenger even managed to record a bit with his mobile phone. I find this interesting because (1) it involves a subway -- the tube in this instance, (2) it involves an unusual reaction by an employee to his supervisor's reprimand. Honestly, this story is funny in a very quirky sort of way. But few of you will 'get' it and that's okay because it's here because I like it. If someone else likes it, that's good too. If not, I'm okay with it.

A Day in the Internet is a great graphic which puts things in perspective. Each day: 210 billion emails, 5 million tweets, 3 million photos posted on Flickr (that's 41 petabytes of data or to put it another way one petabyte can hold 500 billion pages of text, and 5000 petabytes will hold every word ever written since the dawn of time), and so much more. This is a fun exercise in numbers that are beyond the comprehension and visualization of most people. Perspective is important. My first hard drive was 10 Megabytes. It cost $999 and was called the Sider II for the Apple II series. I thought I'd never fill it up. On my current 4.5 TB of storage, I have single files that are larger than 10MB. My 2TB drive was under $200. I have under 2TB remaining of storage out of the 4.5TB. A decade from now, I'm sure I'll be writing about my 1PB drive and laughing at how I thought I'd never fill up the 1TB drive. If you dig through my blog, I did indeed make fun of that first 1TB drive I bought not very long ago.

I have to thank Dave Higgins for posting this to my message board. Have you ever seen silent monks singing Hallelujah (Handel's not Cohen's? Hard to believe but here it is:




This is one of the most awesome videos of all time in term of just being clever. You will be amazed at the creativity of the kids who did this. It's amazing how petty some of the idiot commenters are. I suggest not reading them.

I love Lego® and so do you. So does everyone. I haven't owned any in three decades or so, but I still like to play with them. I never bought them because, well, I never can get kits made the way I want with the parts I want. Along comes this software which Lego themselves have produced (Mac and PC). First, you can play with Lego on your computer to your heart's content. For free. Forever. But if you build something you really like, you can get a custom Lego kit with your parts delivered to your door. And there are extra colours, and parts, and damn it's fun and addictive. I'm going to try and build a subway or something and then order it and try to re-create it.

Google Maps. I'm sure you all have used it at one point or another. You've probably searched for a company or a restaurant. The company where I work is listed, and we even keep our listing relatively up to date which is more than I can say about many companies. I really never kept specific track of it, lumping it all in with standard Google traffic. It is cool because there's click-to-call where people can call right from the listing. Today we got this letter in the mail from Google:

It came with a very awesome window decal, now on our reception window, and the letter. The letter has been edited to remove some personally identifying details but is otherwise unaltered. Getting real mail from Google is weird and cool at the same time. Being named "A Favorite Place" on Google is very cool. I'm not sure how they determine it, but it's not on traffic unless nobody clicks through on Google Maps. I suspect it's by business category. (Speaking of Google, the GooglePhone rumours continue with the new one that the phone will be distributed by Google leaving out the mobile people all together.) Our page still uses MapQuest by default but we do have a link to GoogleMaps now.


* Fact check here: http://www.whatsabyte.com/

A Very Not Beatles Christmas

First, this oddity from Stevenson. These are the rantings of someone who said he went to a parallel universe where the Beatles hadn't broken up and he ran into someone who told him all sorts of stories and whatnot. He came back with a tape of an album of unreleased Beatles songs. These songs, are indeed, posted on his website. It's pretty clear this is the Beatles without any doubt. In fact, a real Beatles fan will recognize all these songs are edited solo works mixed in with some new music. It's weird, for sure, but it's not a tape from the past, future, or other dimension. So you know. But it's still worth a look, a read (the story is priceless), and even a listen. Someone has way more time on their hands than most people will ever have in their lives.

I'd like to wish all of you a happy holiday season weather* whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Winter Solstice, or any other holiday you celebrate this time of year.

I hope you and those who you hold dear -- be it friends, family, pets, partners, neighbours, co-workers, or any other loved ones -- have a safe, happy, and joyous holiday full of whatever makes it happy be that family, friends, or some combination thereof. 

I also wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

This animated GIF cycles in about 30 seconds. You are more than welcome to steal it. Only frame one of the 19 needs to be changed to suit your needs. Google Chrome will not display this image properly.

I had an enjoyable breakfast with Liz and John, though the guy from Iowa who was outside the restaurant ranting to his friends about how immigrants are ruining this country and how they ought to learn English had a hugely poor sense of irony. He was standing in front of a Cuban Restaurant. He was also double-parked in the middle of the street in an almost empty-parking lot. So much for the fine folks in Iowa. I hope enjoyed his immigrant cooked food. Idiot.

We had our skates sharpened and the heightened our enjoyment of the session because if you aren't slip-sliding away, it's so much more enjoyable. I did some food shopping and whatnot, and ate dinner at the (almost) new Las Vegas Cuban Restaurant in Doral. Tasty, reasonably priced, and good service. I like Cuban food, thank you. I don't mind immigrants, and as long as someone can communicate with me, I don't much care what language they do it in. Do I prefer English? Sure. But I will gladly muddle through in Spanish or French, or even Spanglish (the official language of Dade County).


PS: A hello to my stalker who has returned with another IP address. What? You think I wouldn't notice?

* EDIT: See, even I make idiotic typos.

Gordon Ramsay and The Secret Diary Of Steve Jobs

This article about Gordon Ramsay's restaurant empire is a good read. It's weird because tonight on BBC America's Late Night With Jonathan Ross, who was the guest? Gordon Ramsay, discussing his recent facelift. And tonight on Jay Leno? Gordon Ramsay. (The BBCA show is one week behind, so we get last week's show a week later here in the USA.) The article discusses how his empire almost went bankrupt but he saved it. What it doesn't mention is many critics say the reason his restaurants started to falter and fail was that he didn't spend enough time in them because he was so busy with his shows: Hell's Kitchen (USA), Kitchen Nightmares (US and UK), and The F Word (UK).

Fake Steve Jobs today has a rare serious type post: a discussion with Randall Stephenson of ATT. This is satire mixed with a serious statement on the state of the American corporation: a real business lesson.  I don't want to spoil it all for you but there's some revelations in there. But I'll include a very small excerpt:

... When I say that “we” have a hit on our hands, I’m really giving you way too much credit, because let’s be honest, the success of iPhone has nothing to do with you. In fact, iPhone is a smash hit in spite of your network, not because of it.... An American company creates a brilliant phone, and that company hands it to you, and gives you an exclusive deal to carry it — and all you guys can do is complain about how much people want to use it. You, Randall Stephenson, and your lazy stupid company — you are the problem. You are what’s wrong with this country ... There was nothing on the line. Silence. I said, Randall? He goes, Yeah, I’m here. I said, Does any of that make sense? He says, Yeah, but we’re still not going to do it. See, when you run the numbers what you find is that we’re actually better off running a shitty network than making the investment to build a good one. It’s just numbers, Steve. You can’t charge enough to get a return on the investment.

That is a sad but true statement of corporate America. And it'll be why Apple doesn't let ATT have the exclusive anymore.

I will continue to ignore Tiger Woods in my blog. His sole contribution to society was to make golf interesting to a wider group of people, to which I say: yawn.