non-casual fridays

busan international fireworks festival

2010-10-25T02:51:00.012+01:00

i am the type of person that can get really concerned about things. though i go through my life mostly looking up i can experience moments of worry, moments that can keep me up at night watching action movies to stay distracted. i can settle into a life and start new very easily but fragments of doubt can shuffle up to me quickly and without notice. i was the kind of kid that was happy but also had the potential for unmatched levels of moroseness. despite my overall state of mental well being here in korea, i have spent a few nights wondering if i was doing all i could here. to offset creeping notions i spent this weekend in busan with friends for the international fireworks festival. sadly angela stayed in daegu due to a nasty sickness.

dongdaegu station

click through for more!

the busan international fireworks is apparently a big deal in south korea. i hadn't really heard much about it and sort of assumed that when i did it was because i was just some westerner looking to appropriate some culture: with some "major" festival happening on a weekly basis around the country it can difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff: the onggi pottery show, for example, is coming up soon and is sure to be a hit. or not. but it sure is getting the shit advertised out of it. who knows? but when a foreigner hears of something like an International Fireworks Festival happening on the most popular beach in the country they sort of have to go. especially if they have awesome friends willing to put them up for free.

gwangalli beach, busan. before the crowds arrived in our area.

so ann, ryan, colin, kristen, sam, jesse and myself bought from a streetside vender a bunch of beach mats that look like the UV shields californians put in their parked cars: you know the type, foil on one side, vaguely padded, insulating. proud and feeling adventurous we took our newly acquired spacesuit material down to the beach. i was informed that there would be a lot of people there. what i wasn't ready for was the sheer amount of bodies. when i saw metallica many years ago i knew what i was signing up for. when i happily strolled into a crowd umpteen times larger and umpteen times more prone to exploding than that which was crammed into qwest field i was completely unprepared. we waded into the mob with another group of festival participants and got no further than 20 feet before we were utterly stuck in the quagmire. sam was up front and got thoroughly harassed and handled by a little old lady who seemed to have much more power than her hunched frame would have cared to admit. i was choking on my backpack and the five friends between us were beginning to lose their minds. the noise got louder and louder as those koreans behind us shouted to move forward and those in front of us shouted to move back. i cracked. screaming and panicked i turned around and tried to get back. more old ladies pushed me aside and i nearly fell over as the shoulder checks became increasingly violent. the last time i felt so enraged was 8 years ago when security guards didn't let me through the gates to see mudvayne. i thought those days were behind me but to my immediate horror they were staring me in the face, daring me to stand up straight and keep my knees from buckling.

eventually we all made it back out onto the street and were informed that down the beach a click we'd find a more open area. sure enough we found space to lay down our mats and then our bruised egos. it was 4:30pm. the fireworks wouldn't start for another three and a half hours.

close to show time, the space between individual mats becomes null

8:00. showtime.

from left: jesse, sam, kristen, colin, ann, ryan

so, am i doing all i can here? no. the answer is that simple. it will be impossible to do everything and get the sense of accomplishment that comes with living somewhere for years. i will never fully conquer south korea but as long as i make these efforts and spend time with friends and challenge myself there is no telling where the rewards end. maybe the notion of never being able to see everything is exactly what i need in my life, after all.And the rest of your post here

-e

gnarly.

2010-10-20T05:16:00.003+01:00

i just ate three things i never would have imagined eating in one sitting:

quail eggs. they're exactly what they sound like - the hard shell has been picked off and the eggs hard-boiled.

mini sardines. these were the "dressing" for the quail eggs. in sesame oil and the size of a large sliver they were served in a big pot with the eggs.

black soup. the only other foodstuff that's as descriptive as this is hot ham water. soup. black as the devil's clogged toilet. viscous and chunky.

-e

bathroom etiquette and personal space and how the two are very closely related

2010-10-15T06:38:00.007+01:00

though only a month and a half have passed since i began my fledgling teaching career i have already run full steam into several awkward moments with my students. dynamic korea is a place with infinitely different notions regarding personal space than most countries i've been to; i.e. there isn't much to be had.

the first came not long after i started at seopyeong. the one that caught me on my walk home after school as i was stalled in an intersection looking for a hotspot to download a podcast insisted on touching my arms. he was prattling on about something or other and due to my lame korean at the time (not to insinuate my korean has since magically turned conversational) i could not tell him that i didn't understand what on earth he was on about. i gestured to him with my arms folded in an X across my chest, universal hangul for "No." he kept smiling and chatting and brushing my arm hair and seemed pleased to finally be able to talk without being interrupted. this carried on for a minute or two before the old folks in the neighbor hood began looking. nay, staring. i felt sharp darts in my back: every time i pulled away from the young boy he clung on tighter, touching my arms and pulling my non-iPod hand down to hold. after feeling the snare of stares from surrounding koreans i finally had to be rude and walk away from the kid as he was in mid sentence. i can only imagine the headlines in the local hofs and restaurants, did you see that giant white man? did you see how close he was with that child? well, i never...

about two weeks ago i was caught in the bathroom between classes. classic rookie mistake. the equivalent in the marines is volunteering when Gunny asks for a private to check out what's up over that there hill. that private, everybody knows, never comes back. so i was caught at the urinal when a few 2nd and 3rd grade boys came running in. they all started shouting hello at me presumably because they all have amnesia and forgot they had already done so every other time they saw me that day. it's cute when you're not in the middle of a transaction that requires more quiet space than stage time. i made the second mistake of replying to them and out came a half-cocked hello. if Gunny had heard it he would've made me a stretcher bearer thinking i'd lost all my nerve and gone all gutless on him. they started screaming and when i waved at them to go away they all came and gathered round. what i'd forgotten is that in korea, and most asian countries, what i know in western cultures as the "GO AWAY" hand gesture is actually "COME HERE." if this were a movie an adult would have walked by just as i was waving them all to go away and i would have comically lost my job. eventually i actually shooed them away, though and all was right with the world.

and then there was last week in one of my after school classes. as i was handing out worksheets to be completed two young boys got in a scuffle which ended with boy A laying boy B out, cold cocking him once and then giving him a right hook before i had the chance to get in between. once he regained his composure boy B reached out his hand to shake on it to settle matter. boy A's refusal to meet halfway seemed only to strengthen the initial physical wounds by bruising B's dignity: kid gets beat up then wants to shake hands on forgiveness and is shut down. a sad sight indeed.

but today was perhaps the strangest thing to happen between me and a the kids. i found myself bursting for a trip to the squatters (if you don't know, they're exactly what they sound like) around 12:15. lunch time is 12:20. thinking i could fit it in like the invincible bank robber feels like he can get in just that one last perfect heist i made a dash for it. but lo, disaster struck. a few boys were already in the bathroom and they were, both tragically and hilariously, the same motley crew as the urinal incident just two weeks prior. enter: shouting hello. knowing better this time i only nodded at them and kept moving briskly across the always-wet bathroom tile-floor to the opposite wall to gather my hurried wad of toilet paper from the wall dispenser before seeking the haven of a stall. one boy's voice stood out and he was no longer saying hello but actually talking at me in hangul. the rest of the boys had gone silent. i resisted for as long as i could until, at the very last moment before entering the safe womb of the squatter i turned to see what he was saying.

what spread before me was a scene more majestic than the last supper. more powerful than turandot. more suggestive than a PG-13 rated teen sex romp. the boys, five in total, had constructed a scene of what they presumed my next few minutes to include. two were on either side of the one in the middle, the one that was trying to get my attention, wildly pointing at him while giving me giant little kid cheek-to-cheek smiles. the one in the middle was in the squat position pointing at me and squeezing out what little vocabulary was in his english arsenal: teacher! son sang nim! teacher dookie?!

not knowing what else to do (i wasn't going to tell him no! teacher no dookie! because that's a lie) i just turned and locked the door as quickly as i could. not moments later, just as my afternoon's events began to unfold, there was a rushed knocking at the stall door. it shook and little boys laughed. i forcefully told them to go away. but why would they? they have no idea what "go away" means. all they heard was the panicked cry of a rookie teacher at his most vulnerable. a stupendous feat of psychological warfare the boys had raged. but they weren't done.

the door in the stall behind me shut and this made me nervous. not two nights previous i was out with a couple guys and one had brought a story of elementary boys hellbent on keeping him company in the bathroom. i had to believe it was a myth and that my worst nightmare was not about to come true. i braced myself with the kind of fortitude one reserves for life's most trying moments and looked up and behind me. a boy was climbing over the stall and looking down into mine laughing and waving and shouting hello. with very few options available i began yelling at them. i rushed. i got out of the stall and the kid was still on top of the dividing wall laughing. i very strongly told him to get down and this he seemed to understand. his friends were laughing and they all crowded around the sink because it was right next to the door and it was my next stop. they watched me wash my hands as though it seemed strange that a white man would wash his hands in their sink.

i turned to them, hands dripping wet and not necessarily clean for lack of soap. they shouted hello and all ran off down the hall cheering about their victory, their conquering of a fragile giant. a foreigner in a strange land.

-e

the myriad difference between hospitals and clinics

2010-10-13T10:01:00.004+01:00

well, it finally happened. today i went to a korean hospital for the first time. this, i guarantee you, is far less dramatic than it appears. here hospitals are called hospitals and clinics and walk-ins are called hospitals: there is zero differentiation between the two in discussion with koreans. you sort of realize you're not going to a hospital-proper when you're walking up a flight of stairs and a couple 13 year old girls in school uniforms are walking down, leaving their hagwon for the day.

after a lovely trip to neighboring gwangju, i managed to finally contract the epidemic that exists only in elementary schools. starting sunday morning i have felt like a dozen mice are running around inside my head. my nose won't stop running and it feels like my lungs are filled with soot. it doesn't matter if you teach at an isolated little town in the pacific northwest or a dingy metropolis on the other side of the world, you will get sick. this is why flu season starts. this is why doctors are rich and hated.

a note on the former. actually, a complete digression on the former: medicine here is cheap. and not cheap like insurance-cheap. i mean really cheap. i was resisting my co-teacher's attempts to get me in for a check up because i was afraid of the bill. i had seen angela go to the clinic and get treated for strep and she ended up paying about $80 USD for a pretty slick medicine drip (more on my costs later). as per usual, and being the cheap bastard that i am, it was difficult to get me to pay to pay for something i knew would just go away on its own in another few days. also i hate needles. they can just go sod off, thank you.

my co-teacher, mun su-eun (that's sue to you, by the by), finally got tired of watching me blow my sorry chapped nose and took me to a "hospital" today for a check-up. she asked if i had brought my insurance card and i told her that no, i wasn't planning on making a trip to the hospital today so i hadn't packed it with my lunchbag. "okay, no problem. just bring your ARC." from the time i entered the waiting room of the clinic, on the 2nd floor of a non-descript building on a non-descript street very close to where i live, to the time i was walking back out with a prescription notice in hand was less than the time it took for the battle scene on the bridge in mission impossible 3 to run. i was in and out in less than ten minutes and was informed that i wasn't as sick as everyone thought i was. it's tough to say i told you so sometimes. the doctor lady told me to take three and call her in the morning (actually quite literally), handed sue a bill and showed us the door. at the front counter i paid 3600won (just about $3.19 USD) and was out the door. there were no extended forms and liability waivers to fill out. there was no waiting for 20 minutes. dynamic korea comes through in a positive way here.

downstairs was the pharmacy. not across town like in the united states. apparently clinics and pharmacies work together in a federally-run health care system so that the crippled, or merely coughing, patient doesn't have to go on a vision quest halfway across the state to get their damned pills before collapsing in a heap on the side of the road due to exhaustion because they've run out of gas money and can't hitchhike because if they stuck out their thumb their crutches would fall out. i found this convenient. someone of more dire circumstance than myself might find this downright helpful. it took the people behind the counter less than 3 minutes to fill my prescription and for 9 doses of 3 pills each i paid 1700won ($1.50 USD). once again, no forms, no request of address, phone number, social security number, second piece of identification and the serial number of your first mountain bike. just in and out. later in the evening i would buy a pack of halls throat drops that cost more than my entire prescription.

as david sedaris so elequently put described his own habits while living in france, "now i can finally afford to be a hypochondriac."

...or maybe it's the air here?

-e

one of the best days/nights here: pt. I

2010-10-04T02:12:00.016+01:00

to be in a country where everything is new and unusual it would be pretty special to have a day/night combo that would stand out. this is especially the case for me, a chronic optimist stuck in 5th gear because everything new seems to be, to quote a very special mexican friend, "really amazing. really, really amazing." jump for more...

\
nom.

so let's start with the andong mask festival. angela and i met up with good friends ann, ryan and kristan to take the 100km bus ride from here in daegu to andong. we started successfully enough by walking 15 minutes south to the subway, heading east for 20 minutes on the red line and then finally taking a 20 minute taxi ride north and west, effectively making a really nice looking circle around the busy part of the city. we found these directions and took them as read without doing any sort of research thus were led to spend 950won on the subway and 9000won for the cab. we ended up at the bukbu (literally "north area". buk: north. bu: area) terminal, a place only 10 minutes, and 3000won, north of my apartment by taxi.

the bus stations here seem to be easy to deal with. after being ruthlessly queue barged and cut-off a few times by citizens of dynamic korea i was able to walk up to the ticket counter and get two tickets to andong with relative ease. there are a lot of places in korea that look like they should not accept bank cards that do, the bukbu terminal being one of them. the tickets there were 6900won with buses leaving every 40 minutes. on a sidenote, there is something to be noted here about the architecture in south korea: while the city centers develop and become notably glassier, suburbs and outskirts become more and more derelict. many buildings here are eerily reminiscent of a time when this area, daegu specifically, sat on the precipice of the PROK war line. daegu was within the pusan perimeter so was never actually breeched by the communist forces in the korean war but was definitely under threat of siege or bombardment. the older buildings of the region reflect military architecture. most are grey tiled or concrete slab constructions, squat and void of any character.

angela enjoying some of the more edible snackyfairefoodz. can't go wrong with fried dough and sugar.

it seems the mask festival itself serves as a massive boon to the area's local market economy. as we approached the festival's center we had to walk through a huge row of vendors that were slinging wares and goods not often associated with traditional cultural events and celebrations. next to the fried dough/elephant ear/churro vendor was a booth selling tools and household hardware. a few booths down from them was a sale on cheaply constructed leather shoes. strings, electric wires and tattered canopies were strung every which way. pungent smells of wildly differing levels of appeal wafted in and out like listening to seven different versions of puccini's nessun dorma by a norwegian death metal band, sigur ros, 2PM, et. al: some were good, some were very, very bad. beware the fool that keeps walking while taking in a brainful of sweet dough smell because the boiling silkworms will sneak up on your blissfully unsuspecting olfactory receptors. it's like getting hit in the face by a 2x4. on fire. with a nail on one end. the end that his you, to be more exact.

a vendor selling bibimbap, a classic korean rice dish.

but there was a mask festival behind the thick curtain of strange korea fair food. a traditional mask festival that had a free beer wagon and a massive stage and a pop music concert replete with pyros and smoke. the grounds the festival was being held at appears to be a permanent installation. the shape of a stadium but about 10 times the size and without the bleacher seating, the andong mask festival was massive. there was a mask dance stage, vendors and mask making booths. the latter was probably the best part about the whole day for me. ann, ryan, kristan, ang and i bought a blank paper mache/cardstock mask for 3000won. with this we got a 5-color pack of floam, that stuff you had as a kid and always wanted to eat but if you had you would've died because the shit's probably more toxic than the columbia river near hanford.

raw materials.

the five of us were crowded around a small little workbench under an awning. the day was plesant and we spent an hour and a half on mask making and talking. i can't say i would have had a better time doing something else.

finished product.

playing in the bubbles area.

perhaps one of the strangest things we bore witness to over the course of the fantastic day was on the stage. the barbecued squid, the strange fair food, the green spiders the size of my palm, all of this was more or less expected. the day took a turn for the surreal, however, when we were in the main plaza area with our backs to the stage. i was procuring a cup of disgusting coffee while the other four stood in a circle contemplating our next move when we heard something, to understate the point, unexpected. not traditional korean chanting or pansori...

...but something totally different and, dare i say, perhaps not exactly the most true expression of the rich culture the land of choson has to offer. no, what we turned to see were korean elementary schoolers yodeling. i can't really offer any more explanation or vitriolic remarks to make that clever or, at a long shot, humorous. there was an oompa band consisting of a tuba, stand up bass and guitar, all played by the kids the same age.

stunned, i wandered away nursing my cup of wretched coffee.

more to come.

-e

imprisonment in the real madrid camp

2010-10-01T08:17:00.007+01:00

is this some elaborate commentary on why the Special One has some of the best attacking players in europe but insists on formatting his teams on defensive superiority? is this a metaphor for the underperformance of those attacking players over the last half-season's time - does mourihno have them locked away in their own brains?

or is it only funny because i like soccer and don't know spanish or portuguese or brazilian?

-e

seoul for chuseok

2010-09-26T07:56:00.003+01:00

an excavated river in city center.

admiral lee.

guard at gyeongnambuk palace.

lovers locks at seoul tower.

-e

alien registry; the wall in my apartment

2010-09-08T07:25:00.001+01:00

Eight business days after applying for my Alien Registration Card (and four business days after Ang), I have finally become a perfectly legal and partially contributing member of Korean society.* Considering the nuts and bolts of the application process and the complications that can arise unless it gets briskly taken care of:

The ARC is your lifeline during your stay in South Korea. It is the next best thing to a Korean passport we can get and we can only get it if we are working in country. I can only compare the importance of the ARC here with the (relative) non-importance of having something of the sort while in England: much more so. For example: during my five months in England I was able to get a phone and internet service (separate from the university's) without the UK-equivalent to the ARC. One day I stumbled into an O2 store and, 15 minutes later, stumbled back out with a phone and a buttload of minutes and texts. I've seen some forums that say you can have a pay-as-you-go phone with just a passport but those plans tend to be exorbitant in price and leave you feeling like a penniless husk at the end of each call. Some would say But Elliott, they're great if you don't use your phone much! This is something I would agree with but if you don't use your phone much you're going to be broke and unable to use your phone because you ran out of minutes trying to re-up. Also you can't re-up on weekends. Also there are apparently something like 17 million cellphone stores in the country of South Korea but only 2 deal with pay-as-you-go-plans and they're located nearer the DMZ than the 18 year old kids patrolling it.** So then, for all practical purposes no card, no phone.

The same goes for both internet and TV. You don't get either of them until you've received your ARC. In England you don't get TV (legally) until you've payed the licensing fee (it was something like 150gbp/annum when I was in country two years ago). Here in Korea the licensing fee supports the Educational Broadcasting System and the Korean Broadcasting System (both public programming) and will run about 30,000won - roughly $30 - per annum and is billed through the electricity fees your home or apartment accrues. Easy. Though it doesn't matter if you don't have an ARC.

And, for those of us stuck paying US bills while overseas, the fact that you can't start a new bank account until you receive Precious Card can be particularly worrying. EPIK, our recruiting agency and the overarching governing body for English language in country schools, signed Angela, me and about 700 other green teachers up with an account at Nong Hyup Bank. Seems perfectly fine until you realize that the account has been set up with your passport and you can't get paid until you set up an account with your ARC (because everything here works on direct deposit and your schools don't actually pay you money until they see that you're a legal registered alien and not just a rubbish collector living in the woods scraping off the good people's hard labours). Also Nong Hyup Bank doesn't give your money to banks overseas which means that you can't freely transfer money between Korea and the States. The only bank that Angela and I know of that does cheap, easy international funds transfers is KEB Bank and to set up an account there you need an ARC, a lowly official passport and E-22 working visa being insufficient and simply insulting, thank you very much.

So, the moral of the story: without your ARC you will find yourself between The ROK and a hard place.

-e

p.s. Playstation 3 consoles seem to be very expensive here so consider this a distress beacon: SHIP MINE NOW TO *message garbled*.

* The whole not paying taxes thing is a bit of a bonus, it must be said.
** I didn't have time to fact-check this one. Pure conjecture.

a bit of south korea

2010-09-07T08:33:00.004+01:00

angela with new friends jesse and samantha.

my classroom!

classic korea.

re: this is why you're fat: double dipped corn-dog with more distinct layering than the cross section of a doug fir with french fry batter. ah, yes, traditional korean fare. (thisiswhyyourefat)

downtown on a slow night.

gogo with ted and ang!

-e

the night sky in trout lake

2010-08-20T04:01:00.003+01:00

since i just spent nearly five whole weeks in trout lake looking up at the night sky i feel a bit obligated to share with you some photos i took of it.

looking directly at the galactic center, here. sagittarius A* is about 26,000 light years away in the center of the picture.

ursa major.

trout lake school.

langfield falls with angela. not the night sky but still beautiful and quintessentially trout lake.

stowaways

2010-08-20T03:59:00.000+01:00

in jeonju, south korea and missing my luggage.

-e

team ricky rides mt adams

2010-08-11T20:07:00.005+01:00

and in a more tender ricky moment...

-e

team ricky goes tubing

2010-08-06T01:49:00.001+01:00

-e

williams mine

2010-08-05T22:10:00.004+01:00

as my departure date for korea draws inevitably closer, something i will miss, very definitely miss, will be the road riding here in the trout lake valley. it's not often that i get out on the road bike when i have the option to head to the mountains but since i'm without a mountain bike of my own it's what i have to work with.

i waited until yesterday evening around 6.30, when the air at home at 1200' was a nice 80 degrees. the ride into trout lake takes about 15 easy minutes. you wind up highway 141 and reach trout lake school, where i spent 2nd grade through senior year. about 160 kids still go here, K-12.

just past monte pearson's farm there is a fork in the road. to the left is the grocery store, the post office, the mt. adams ranger station/gifford pinchot national forest headquarters and, eventually, the 88 Road that can take you out to the gorgeous lewis river.

to the right is the south climb road, various snow parks and the 23 Road. my original plan was to take the 88 as far out as my desperately knacked legs wanted to and then, bravely, turn around and get back to town before dark. but, knowing that my brain is substantially less intelligent than my legs and lungs and wouldn't know a good stopping point from a hole in the wall, i decided to drift right and head for the 23 Road, directly north, staring up at the 12,226 foot summit of Mt Adams. williams mine, the first major summit of the 23 Road, would give me a definite stopping point and a place to rest my lung-twang before giving it the beans back down into the valley.

uphill, turn, uphill turn, uphill, uphill, 100' reprieve, uphill turn, etc., etc., etc. it didn't take long to begin hitting inversion layers and the full length zipper on my discover bicycles jersey was going up and down faster than wonka's great glass elevator. patches of deep, dark forest road were punctuated by little hot spots where sunlight was able to penetrate the canopy and it was here that i would end up regretting to wear even my Risky Business sunglasses: gnats only like to end up in cyclists faces, crammed into the corners of your eyes.

about 45 wheezing minutes later i was sitting at 4000 feet hacking up post-wisdom-tooth-removal-blood-clot and wishing i had not tried to fit in with the rest of the sophomores at evergreen by smoking that one cigarette about 5 years ago. the air was noticeably thinner and cooler here and i was urged by the arguably more sinister side of mt adams, the landslide/sulfur mine side, to get down the twisty 23 before the earth decided to rotate us any farther away from the sun.

i dipped into my pockets for a sweaty pack of little chocolate donuts that i had forgotten to pack and realized that i could probably make it to the country store in town before closing time.

so down i turned. on the way up i had come down what was then in my mind a pretty quick decent into a valley before climbing back out of it. i was taken around a hairpin left and into a long straight decent. as it was getting dark this decent troubled me: my leg-gah was much more apparent now that i had just stopped and started and a climb out sounded, well, really miserable. in fact each little reprieve i had on the way up was seeming like yet another climb out. but as soon as i turned down, all these concerns evaporated in a whiff of carbon. my TCR Alliance made quick work of the twists so was able to save my legs for the climbs that lay ahead. about two minutes later i came to the downhill hairpin left, now an uphill hairpin right. this signaled the end of the section i was concerned about - i hadn't even noticed it. so on and on the decent went: each turn dipping and leading me past the mileposts telling me i was getting indeed close back into the valley. but i didn't need those. my jersey that was zipped to my neck at the top was now plunging to my navel.

i saluted the "Leaving Gifford Pinchot National Forest" sign, knowing it very well could be the last time i would see this particular one for quite some time. to my right the trees opened up and a valley spread before me. the sun, just tucking itself behind the ridge, lit the area in an amber only these skies can produce. i smiled to myself, i laughed out loud and told the trout lake valley i loved her.

so from williams mine, 10 or 12 or 53 miles later and with more bugs in my grille than a long-haul trucker i rolled up to the store and grabbed only the essentials for the quick ride home south on the 141: hostess mini donuts, fig bars and a pound of spaghetti. less than 10 minutes home, all downhill. hands off the bars eating donuts and fig newtons.

next i'm going to head out the 88 Road to the lewis river.

View Larger Map

-e

crazy but awesome.

2010-06-10T01:24:00.000+01:00

"k time for my meeting
bye
scout says ruff
and moxie is waving
oh now he is hitting scout
frankie and ralphie are wrestling
and daisy and ella are grounding everyone
grk4rj4k4jgtjgt
that was from scount
scout
'sheesh mama, spell my name right'
herrow?"

5:19pm Angela is offline.

-e

tastings from different cultures.

2010-02-16T19:31:00.004Z

a road safety advert from england ===>

snooki explains the differences between guidos and guidettes ===>

god, the differences...

-e

ipad ponderings

2010-02-04T21:43:00.003Z

But there’s another reason why Apple created this new external process architecture for web content plugins in Snow Leopard: it was the only way they could ship Safari and the WebKit framework as 64-bit binaries. Flash Player is only available as a 32-bit binary. (This is true for other third-party web content plugins, like Silverlight, but Flash is the only one that ships as part of the system.) 64-bit apps cannot run 32-bit plugins. Apple doesn’t have the source code to Flash, so only Adobe can make Flash Player 64-bit compatible. They haven’t yet. So if Apple wanted Safari to be 64-bit in Snow Leopard (and they did), they needed to run 32-bit plugins like Flash in a separate process.

according to Apple's PR hack the majority of crash reports related to internet browsing actually sent to the techs from regular jack-offs involve plugin bombs: the flash programs freeze up the OS and your browser has no choice but to puke and die. if this is happening fairly commonly on higher powered laptops and desktops, how can we expect a phone or a tablet, with a fraction of the processing power of your 48-core tower, to run any smoother. and these little devices are, for the general public, purpose built for internet browsing when on the tube, on your couch or on your toilet. how sad would it be if your new $600 toy kept crashing everytime you tried to watch lenny loosejocks retrieve his beloved donga from the depths of some australian cave? pretty sad, really.

because it's a new apple product, the ipad has come under an intense firestorm of cosmically large pro-con lists. at least there are those out there still giving it the benefit of the doubt (i.e. the quote above, the link for which is below), unlike responses to recent microsoft releases - it seems if they were able to make their operating systems as reliable as their xbox 360s they might actually move some product. but, i suppose, they would require every Vista machine to have a little red LED somewhere visible and demoralizing. but i digress.

one of the major complaints against the ipad/phone/touch is the absence of that wonderful little internet plugin, Flash. this plugin runs most internet streaming video (read: most) so, for example, i can't watch much of footytube or play my lenny loosejocks walkabout game. sad stuff. this was my biggest complaint regarding the mobile iproducts but, after some help from angela, i actually learned what is behind much of this apple/flash debate.

here are some pretty cool articles (again, thx ang):

http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/apple_adobe_flash (for the explanation of what is going on behind the ongoing apple/flash conflict)
http://kitsunenoir.com/2010/01/28/apples-new-ipad/ (a neat article just throwing out some interesting pro-pad points)

-e

fall city with the rude boyz

2010-02-02T20:57:00.002Z

here are a couple snaps i took with my new g11 while riding with spencer, will, goudi and big ike at fall city.

spencer's kitchen/workshop

beers at the pump track

big ike

ill will.

-e

a sampling of images from the last few weeks

2010-01-11T08:07:00.002Z

spencer and angela in ballard

best carnitas tacos at taqueria in hood river

shane and julie in hood river

at home in trout lake

brother gabe, aka doctor doolittle

brothers sherburne

back in bellingham

-e

strangely enough.

2009-12-31T23:43:00.003Z

everybody is writing their end-of-the-year and end-of-the-decade thoughts down. some are eloquent, some are heavy handed (i'm looking at you, james cameron). some are honest and some are embellished. the 2000s were a big decade for some of us. i, for example, graduated from both high school and university. it is now, still in the 2000s that i begin planning for the next stage of my life: south korea with a lady i love.

but what nobody seems to want to write about is the loss. everybody i know has lost someone recently: my own grandmothers passed early in the decade. friend's family members have passed and, most recently, a man who was very important to how i am today.

i strongly believe that, no matter how indignant of a student you are, at some point during middle and high school an influencing factor directed you towards who you are today. i was lucky enough to have two such teachers. two weeks ago, my friends and i who were lucky enough to share our extremely formative years with a genuinely funny guy, lost Jeff Agar. without him i would not share the sense of humour i have with others. and though music is something i mostly appreciate rather than participate in anymore, he kept me involved long enough to experience san francisco, victoria, and numerous competitions.

the 2000s have been topsy-turvy. i'm very proud to have grown up during them.

one year ago today:

aarhus, denmark

cheers to the 00s and in with the 10s.

-e

one year ago, today, christmas eve

2009-12-25T03:04:00.001Z

ice skating with angela at canary wharf

happy new year!

-e

2009-12-23T04:28:00.000Z

we were just talking about you...

...cheers

-e

how angela and i spent our 2 year anniversary

2009-12-22T22:53:00.002Z

with spencer in ballard!

with each other!

at the pacific northwest ballet's Nutcracker!

<3 the holidays.

-e

movies of 2009

2009-12-16T19:20:00.009Z

a partial list of things seen within the last calendar year, in no particular order. asterisks indicate favourites.

district 9*
coco before chanel
g.i. joe: rise of cobra
the collective: seasons*
terminator: salvation
inglourious basterds*
gran torino
star trek
away we go*
x-men origins: wolverine
valkyrie
confessions of a shopaholic
watchmen
the day the earth stood still
the wrestler*
frozen river
the spirit
gigantic
public enemies
punisher: war zone
zombieland*
the international
rachel getting married*
monsters vs. aliens
defiance
revolution road
seven pounds*
observe & report
max payne
synecdoche, york
quantum of solace
taken
where the wild things are*
transporter III
twilight
this is england*
year one
yes man
sunshine clearning
indiana jones & the crystal skull
what just happened
moon*
harry potter VI
the hangover
up*

-e

where the day takes you

2009-12-16T02:35:00.001Z

from here...

to here...

...and back again.

-e

winter inventory

2009-12-14T21:16:00.005Z

inventory
orage air project shell pants
holden hokkaido jacket
686 fleece
OR cold weather puffy
iTouch (brief list of aktion musics to follow)
black diamond polartec liners
dakine rover gloves
smartwool above-the-boot thermals
smartwool crewneck longsleeve
nikepro base longsleeve base layer
smartwool pHD ski socks (2)
dakine heli pro pack
smith variant brim helmet
smith fuze goggles
line prophet 90s (180)
lange fluid FR boots
scott poles
flask
pb&j (not pictured)

skis. boots. poles.

-e

one year ago today.

2009-11-11T21:24:00.002Z

it has been a very long time since posting. as a result my brain deems it necessary to just think about where i was a year ago today.

dan and jimmy, 3 euro red wine in a park, montmartre, paris.

view to the south from the eiffel tower.

a shine on the cobbled streets near the seine after a dounpour.

metropol hotel in "beautiful" calais. staying the night, waiting for the first ferry to dover in the morning.

happy travels.

new in life:
- exactly one month from today i will graduate from college.
- angela and i have begun the application process for teaching english in south korea!
- my intramural soccer club, Sherburne United F.C., has made it to the playoffs.

-e

introducing...

2009-09-18T06:45:00.001+01:00

http://bikeportland.org/2009/09/15/introducing-the-hopworksfiets-beer-pizza-music-and-true-portland-spirit-all-on-one-bike/

thanks to katy m. this is such a fantasic idea i won't even bother to shorten the url.

-e

transport

2009-08-29T00:34:00.002+01:00

as promised a few days back, here are a few cool vehicles i have spotted lately...

no need to adjust your monitor settings, the subaru sambar dias II "super charger" is that small. and 4WD! that's a drift machine, there.

something i've always wanted myself, a 60 series toyota land cruiser. not specifically unique but always perfect.

you can't get any classier than a pearl white 1972 jaguar e-type series III.

possibly the world's sexiest saloon car. mercedes-benz's CLS 550. four seats and nearly 400 horsepower in a rolled sheet metal frock. this isn't even the mentalist AMG version my roommate in england had but still just as pretty.

-e

tides

2009-08-21T00:19:00.006+01:00

angela and i just returned to bellingham after a three day vacation to the oregon coast. the nature of our trip was two fold: 1) it was angela's birthday on the 17th and 2) it's a yearly thing, our coastal haunt. we camped for two nights and traveled a total of just over 1000 miles. on our journey we discussed teaching in korea, the nature of a car's exhaust pipe and its relation to human anatomy, met up with jill for dutch tacos and decided that it would be best to own a small bookstore. here are a few photos from our lovely roadtrip...

angela being radiant at nehalem bay beach

rockaway beach

le chateau du dignity at nehalem bay state park

incidentally, i saw a number of special vehicles that i will post en homage to man on the move.

-e

night shift

2009-08-14T03:29:00.002+01:00

other than the sounders and their rubbish gameplay of late, good things have been happening in my world.

i'm the newest employee at bellingham's coolest video store, film is truth!

-e

transport

2009-08-12T16:27:00.003+01:00

here are some of my favourite sightings of late...

maserati granturismo - one of the most beautiful cars i've ever seen in person.

lancia 2000β - not terribly glamorous but rare enough to find with all exterior trim in tact.

alfa spider - classic, full stop. especially when in this good of condition.

jag xkr - along with astons these are some of my favourite pieces of automotive architecture. lovely, even in drophead form.

sticking with the automotive theme, the perseid meteor shower is passing by our humble little planet. the perseids come from the Pleiades, aka Seven Sisters. the japanese call this cluster Subaru and today we can see it represented on the automotive company's badge. welcome back perseids! hope you get a chance to find somewhere dark to watch the showers.

-e

rediscovering the magic of things before my time

2009-08-10T00:52:00.004+01:00

recently i decided that all the skinny jeans in my wardrobe might perhaps be lowering my sperm count. functionally this is something i take no particular issue - i'm not terribly keen on pregnancies and those closest to me know this very, very well (i'm looking at you, koala). as a condition, however, it is something totally different and it has caused me to reevaluate my wardrobe and my daily wearings. along with rediscovering my active-lifestyle roots and this, admittedly, thinly veiled previous excuse, i have found myself in a bit of a fashion/lifestyle paradox.

i should stop here and add a But. a healthy, well-rounded, enthusiastic But.

But, despite using the word paradox, i am completely happy. at one point i would have considered myself a hipster. at one point i would have considered myself a mindless outdoor enthusiast. neither fit and i have been rediscovering the magic of things before my time. (and now, since the title has appeared in the body, just like a novel, this entry should end - but it won't. sorry.)

henley t-shirts. herringbone trousers. birkenstock london clogs. a 1966 alfa romeo spyder. a 1973 lancia 2000 coupe. sure, in their times most of these things were complete rubbish. the cars couldn't have had more character but they also would have been hard pressed to be of poorer quality. most henleys and herringbone trousers are poorly cut and do less to make a gentleman look good than a broken bottle scar on the face from a bar fight.

and that phrase "in their times..." brings me to my point. i have found that it is possible to make a pair of birkenstock clogs look good in the 21st century. unlike my trusty old taupe suede arizonas, a sandal as exciting as a poorly stacked pile of rocks, these new londons of mine are rather special looking with decent trousers cleanly draping over the top. and, as far as comfort is concerned, they thrash my roughed up brown brogues seven ways to sunday.

i purchased my only henley t-shirt last year because angela told me she really liked them. never had i considered even trying one on before hearing this - they're too frumpy and plebeian, something a haggard old rancher would wear until the day he shot himself because of a freak early frost that ruined his crops for that last time. they're rarely flattering...until you find the right one. paired with nice trousers and those birks i was on about one ends up with a rather nice little sunday afternoon outfit. it's nothing i would consider taking out to dinner but then neither would i take that alfa on a cross-country trip without a support vehicle and a credit card with no limit.

but then that's not what we're talking about. we're not talking about driving across the states and we're certainly not talking about heading out to a ruth's chris. we're talking about being comfortable, confident and, most of all, very, very entertained. to bring a little smile into your life doesn't mean labeling yourself a hipster or outdoor junkie - it means discovering the magic of things in your time and sometimes that means leaving your time.

-e

new movies

2009-07-23T20:07:00.002+01:00

in the last week angela and i have seen two movies, each the polar opposite of the other.

first came...

rarely has an on-screen couple seemed more true to me. maya was lovely and it was nice to see john turn in a performance other than his beloved jim of Office fame. alexi murdoch produced a fabulous score, both cuddly and straining.

...and last night...

what a difference this viewing experience was. basically the Sam Rockwell Show, Moon was at once claustrophobic and agoraphobic. kevin spacey, as gerty the suspicious shipboard computer, provides nearly the only comedic relief in an otherwise tense and quiet exploration of metaself. mindfuck. solid and spooky original tracks from clint mansell, same composer of solid and spooky original tracks for The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream and π.

i recommend both.

-e

wedding nite

2009-07-19T08:51:00.004+01:00

angela and i went to amy mcmahon's wedding tonight at the edgewater hotel in seattle. overall a very nice evening. lovely reception including open bar, steak dinner, old money and very poorly cut suits. beautiful bride and a touching speech from the groom's youngest brother.

STP 2009

2009-07-14T17:05:00.002+01:00

ang and i made it through the seattle to portland ride. all 206.? miles.

angela and chris.

-e

when did YOU start smiling for pictures?

2009-07-07T21:45:00.003+01:00

me: did most people in the 50s look that stern?
all the boys look like they're about to grease your ass
Tim: here's my question: at what point did people start smiling for portraits? I mean, in the history of photography?
what prompted people to start smiling?
look at a portrait from early 20th century... no smiling there...
me: i'd say when pictures like this started getting developed...http://bikehugger.com/images/blog/sv_victorian2.jpg
Tim: wow
say is that a belgian gazelle?
the bike, i mean
me: HAR!
Tim is typing…

different

2009-07-07T20:04:00.002+01:00

i'm going to be changing my posting style in the coming days/weeks. there should be equal parts outdoor interests (cycling, soccer, skiing, etc) and fashion/guys' style. i'm not particularly sure where this will lead but it's an interesting direction.

not much new for a week or so with the STP coming up this weekend.

-e

hey.

2009-07-04T02:27:00.000+01:00

-e

incidentally...

2009-07-03T07:13:00.000+01:00

turning down whistler trips kills me...

-e

MLS 2011

2009-07-02T19:33:00.002+01:00

sp.timbers.168.cdb.jpg
Originally uploaded by oregonianphoto

2011 will be a difficult year. in 2012 the mayan calendar expires and, theoretically, so does the world. if you're the sort that invests any more than a passing thought in this notion, 2011 could perhaps be rather nerve wracking. you could spend the year taking adventures you never had the chance to. you could spend the year looting. you could spend the year learning a skill. you could spend the year a nervous wreck, locked inside your room with only a full bedpan as company.

or you could spend the year following the cutthroat new MLS rivalry here in Cascadia. in 2011 both vancouver and portland get their football clubs and join seattle's sounders in major league play. with major teams stretching from british columbia to southern california, the west coast will be brimming with talent and passionate competition.

this is my biggest problem with 2011. because i'm not invested in the apocalypse of 2012 i am burdened with having to support the sounders fc while the portland timbers, essentially my home team, go MLS. first and foremost i am a sounders fan but i am also very attached to portland. the most difficult part of this situation, however, is that only now am i picking sides in a rivalry that extends back to the mid-1970s when NASL was the only semi-major league in the US. the timbers and sounders have been swinging at one another for years and now it is all coming to a head.

however i watched the sounders go major, bought a scarf and will never look back. season tickets next summer.

-e

undergrounds

2009-06-15T19:14:00.003+01:00

it seems that a city is only a City® when it has a fully functioning below-surface transportation system. london has the tube. paris and tokyo have their metros. new york has the subway. there are few exceptions that immediately spring to mind save the L in chicago and perhaps the rickshaw/pedicab system in shanghai. here are massive urban centres that function as cultural, political and societal hubs of their surrounding regions. they are the largest metropolitan areas that embody all of the traits of their country or state and they represent this polity to the outside world - these are the figurehead cities, the shining examples of an area.

some of my favourite cities want to be Cities® but don't know how to be. portland has been battling Light Rail implementation for as long as i can remember. the MAX is available downtown and, to some extent, in some major attractions outside of the city centre. seattle will never get a monorail capable of anything practical because, apparently, everybody there has seen that episode of the simpsons. the latter city, however, does have a leg up on the former.

of the two major metropolitan centres of the northwest, seattle appears to be pursuing Cityship® with the growing usage of a widely unknown tube system. the system is not terribly expansive. yet. it is not terribly easy to use. yet. it is not terribly easy to find. yet. however the tracks are growing and the buses that use the tunnels travel at reliable intervals. i am reading an article in the Seattle Times, "A light-rail wonder", and it shows new tracks being laid as another passenger platform for a stop in Beacon Hill is completed.

seattle, with its so-far-successful incarnation of "the world's game" via the Sounders FC, wishes to become a City®. they are getting closer with the installation of a reliable, practical, culturally, politically, and socially friendly transportation network. the seattle underground is a secret weapon. my own experience with it is limited but it was the tool that enabled me to get from north seattle, near fremont, to the airport in just less than 30 minutes (with a change, btw) with a ski bag. there will undoubtedly be teething problems but, i guarantee you they won't be as severe as Springfield's monorail.

-e

finals week, round 1, &c.

2009-06-08T20:39:00.004+01:00

today: physics final & darwin final paper.

physics went well enough. we were given two hours to complete the final but i had the 35 multiple choice exam finished in under 20 minutes. it's always nervewracking to be the first done. am i missing something? did i not get a page? am i just an idiot? but even after checking the five pages of answers all seemed in its place. talked to the professor on my way out and she guaranteed me an A if i didn't massively blow the final.

darwin was another matter. the final paper has been giving me troubles for the last two weeks. motivation has been rare and not even knowing that this is my last full course in my major seemed to provide the impetus needed for a real burst of divine inspiration. my thesis was muddled and the conclusion weak. the paper's organization was implicit, not explicit. i think this is due to the professor swearing off writing like a sociologist (i'm going to tell what i'm going to tell you, tell it to you and then tell you what i just told you - it's boring). i was more engaged in the writing language but i got lost in the structure. even working alongside my outline proved confusing because the words never exactly matched up. hoping for a B.

excited about fall quarter next year, though. after england credits have been counted i'll have 59 total credits, with 60 needed to complete my major. in the fall i will be taking a two credit directed independent study with a great WWII professor i've had in the past. he told me to pick out "five or six books, the subjects of which are my prerogative." my readings are focused around the sabotage, resistance efforts, conspiracies and spy cock-ups of WWII. shane gave me a book two summers ago, operation jedburgh, and this inspired the subversive topic for my course of study.

communications final tomorrow at 6pm. good thing i haven't studied at all for that. philosophy final wednesday at 10.30.

-e

hull city fc

2009-05-24T21:10:00.003+01:00

it has been a long, hard season for the tigers. the premiership rarely grants any favours but, in the end, their fate rested on the relegation of newcastle. every hull city fan looks forward to one more year in the top flight for a 105 year old football club.

-e

pop quiz

2009-05-13T18:28:00.000+01:00

your death race car of choice.

go.

-e

good luck on 23

2009-05-06T04:42:00.003+01:00

things will get difficult.

but.

i am anxious.

-e

there have been 22 before today

2009-05-04T19:53:00.003+01:00

on a yearly basis i am nagged by the thought of growing older in a time that is not kind to geriatrics. it comes around once a year in the springtime and with each consecutive day of celebration i am concerned less than the previous year's. though my care about birthdays decreases at a geometrical rate my aging increases at an arithmetical rate: logic follows that, by my 30th birthday, i'll wish i were dead and by my 40th i'll wrap myself in wet blankets in a room that i haven't left for three years.

though this trend is not necessarily reversible there are preventative measures one can take to quell the headache caused by the blunt force trauma caused by birthday wishes from people whom you speak to once or twice a year (one of those times being on your birthday when they wish you happy birthday). by the time i am writing this i have heard "happy birthday" from just about everyone i would expect/want to hear it from.

[unfinished]

gourmet my ass

2009-04-20T23:02:00.005+01:00

it is my belief that those who claim there are such things as gourmet hamburgers and hot dogs are the same people that should be made aware of recent advances in the fields of mental health. in my researches one of the more understated gourmet dogs is served up by the GHC in London. good dogs, sure, but their mantra states: "We've taken the humble hotdog and reinvented it." why?

we may label extravagant and overpriced items of cow and pig as gourmet but it is up to the true purist of summer grilling to maintain the blue collar status of these foods. most gourmet burgers and hot dogs are garnished with enough sides and toppings that the real joy of the hand held meal is lost: the meat. want a good brat? don't smother it in almond paste, sprigs of romaine, peanut oil and salmon chutney. poke some holes in a fresh link from a vendor like hempler's or otto's. put the link in a pan of boiling beer and give it a few minutes. the beer shouldn't be too powerful - when you're dealing with this type of flavouring you will quickly lose the lovely individual spiciness of the meat if boiling in a really strong IPA or Porter (though a simpler pale ale from a brewer like full sail should be just fine>. instead stick with the classics like pabst or rainier. this will also carry the "everyman's" aspect throughout the entire cooking process - a simple meal requires a simple drink. but beware beers like budweiser or coors unless you enjoy eating what will end up tasting like scrapings from the underside of a wheelie bin lid from behind tesco's. once the link has had time to soak up the beer, toss it on the grill for marks or fry it in the pan after straining the beer out.

or, and in my opinion this is reaching, you can put together what i ate myself not twenty minutes ago. get a healthy red onion, cut width wise around the onion's latitude and create quarters out of the resulting onion rings. begin to fry those in a small amount of oil (the onion will create most of its own cooking oils as it sautees). wait for the onion to brown but make sure the centers of the larger slices are still a bit crunchy. next toss your link of choice in, the simpler the better - a spiced link such as a chorizo or a louisiana hot will work nicely for our purposes. let this cook on low heat for a while and in the meantime prepare your buns: pull them out from the fridge and put them on your plate. once the links are finished cooking let them sit in the onions and, while the pan is still hot, pour a bit of worcestershire sauce over the mix. finally, and this is really what makes this a little different, put a bit of chevre on the buns. a good chevre will go miles with just a few crumbly bits but beware the bad stuff. as a good former roommate told me, good chevre is irreplaceable as a meat accompaniment but bad chevre will taste something like turpentine. there are a lot of varieties out there but for this type of application i tend to go with a basil & oil flavoured cheese. put the links in the buns, garnish with those lovely sauteed onions, eat until you feel like bursting and remember that never do you need to pay $8 for a gourmet link. this is the essence of hot dogs and grilling - these simple recipes that will liven up an already respectably simple food. it's like giving a Lamborghini ray guns: it doesn't need them to go faster but it sure might make the experience more enjoyable.

enjoy the nice weather.

-e

mind-travel

2009-04-19T11:47:00.002+01:00

i have been wandering around the outer limits of bellingham's downtown area. out into fairhaven and the sehome haggen, through campus and back to my apartment.

all i can think is god, i wish i were in london right now.

thanks to all of you that made this evening a lovely one!

-e

check it out.

2009-04-14T04:36:00.001+01:00

-e

influence

2009-03-14T08:43:00.001Z

i know i've shunned the stuff.

no matter how much i consume, i love you. i'll bring you your pillows, no matter how late.

bad paintings of obama

2009-03-10T04:04:00.001Z

follow the picture. refresh as many times as you care to giggle.

thx tim.

-e

etc.

2009-03-07T11:08:00.002Z

saw m. ward tonight at the showbox in seattle. joel, ashley, ted and angela were present and, along with the sigur ros show in london, has become the best live performance i've seen.

returned to the parking garage to find my car's rear left window smashed in. the dash compartment's contents were all over the place and glass covered the rear bench ashley and joel were to be sitting on. inventory missing: ipod touch and samsung cellmaphone. police didn't show after an hour-plus. we left and stopped just north at the lynnwood station where we were told to get plastic bags and duct tape from wal-mart because that was "all they could do for us at that time".

at least we weren't shot.

-e

inspiration, university, skis

2009-03-03T22:03:00.005Z

it requires a great deal of inspiration to continue through a prolonged 5th year of undergraduate studies. by this time in your college career you have either completely blown past the required 180 credits to graduate or you have swapped majors seven or eight times. the people in the registrar's office eventually tire of your questions and accusations and the career counseling center begins offering career counseling to their employees who have seen you countless times.

tired in big sky

one spends most of their 5th year in college swearing and drinking, two habits that have formed with vicious efficiency over the past four years. papers and studies get lost under dinner plates and friends and onlookers eventually begin to wonder why their friend (who is still in school) hangs out at the library: they never talk about schoolwork. they never talk about class. are they just creeping on the freshers? no, they are not. they are still in school, suffering through and hoping that this quarter or the next will be their last. either this or that the world will come to some fiery end.

spencer, crashed on his bespoke mattress system in byron's shed

inspiration alone can combat swearing and drinking for so long. eventually the white blood cells of everyday life breakdown and the virus begins to take over. once this process has begun it is nearly impossible to reverse. antibacterials such as nights out at the bar don't work anymore. this is, after all, a virus that we're talking about. a virus that has sat dormant and patient for the past four years is never keen on being dispatched by trifling distractions. you become lazy, angry with school and academia. work slows. there may even come a point where you don't care if all there is to sleep on is a box spring cot sans mattress so long as you're afforded peace and quiet.

line prophet 90s

ah, but there is hope. don't you remember how good it felt to go purge the system? to bootpack for 20 minutes up a run where you're rewarded with maybe four or five sweet turns? remember how good deep snow feels under the p-tex?

bootpacking up bone crusher

yeah, yeah you do. school? no problem, all i need to do is make sure that my credits from study abroad come through and i'm all set. work? that's alright, at least i have a job that pays for my active habits. drinking? if it's an occasion but otherwise i just can't be bothered. sleeping? it is rather necessary but there's nothing wrong with early mornings.

ben & spencer at the lodge

aye, so cheers! gather your mates. work hard. burn yourself out. see if you can make the last tram of the day. try that steep line. get haggard and bask in the lactic acid buildup and remember what it feels like to crash and come out on the other side unscathed and giggling. this is the antiviral. this is the purge. this is the proverbial leech for letting the bad blood.

anybody heading to mt. baker on sunday?

-e

big sky, (un)employment and cupcakes

2009-02-17T20:57:00.004Z

tomorrow night i'll head down to seattle. spencer and i will fill ourselves and souls with dank sushi and warm sake before catching a noon flight on the 19th to big sky, montana. here we will meet up with estranged professional long-distance best friend ben. good enough to let us crowd the floor of his apartment, byron will supply the means for not sleeping in the snow. five days. skis, friends, snow. i really need to get my planks waxed, though, as it has been at least two years.

angela and i are kicking around the idea of a move to seattle/portland/hood river. i'm comforted because even if things go completely pear shaped we will still manage to stay in the pacific northwest, not far from the I-5 and I-84 corridors. it remains worrying, however. these are some sort of scary times but it certainly helps to have somebody to go through them with. everyday i think about how glad i am to be home: despite the current climate i have somebody to get through them with. there have been some pretty startling work-related developments over the past five days and ang and i just spent a weekend back home in (surprisingly) snowy trout lake discussing how to handle it all.

the only solution we were able to reasonably conclude on was "meet up with jill and her friend molly for cupcakes at cupcake jones in portland". here are two pictures of the cutest solution in the world:

cupcake, out of control

molly, jill, ang and cupcakes of varying species

the sun was even out! evidenced by my shadow:

-e

home (usa)

2009-02-06T17:42:00.004Z

i have been back in bellingham for three days now. my room is starting to take shape and the apartment is lovely. joel, i must say, has done a fabulous job with the little place. we have a great view of south bellingham and the bay. the weather has been classic pacific northwest with rain and clouds today. i can hear the train down by the bay that is so familiar to town.

it is difficult to construct a summary of my experiences in england so i should probably not even attempt to. rather i can just say that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, i learned more there than i have in the last four years here. a little laundry list:
-i learned what type of people i want to surround myself with
-i learned that you can communicate with people and not speak the same language
-i learned the card game trumps
-i learned that the bigger the dinners the better
-i learned that staying up until 5am every night weeks before departing severely reduces jet lag
-i learned the underground to the best of my abilities
-i learned how to cope with travel hiccups, both small and large.

major discoveries:
-i discovered that truly amazing hospitality comes not with money but hugs and family
-i discovered i could live in london
-i discovered who i truly love (and i would not have been able to had i not gone)
-i discovered that nothing is permanent (doubly true with the unfortunate news regarding siggy)

it has stopped raining outside. the clouds are starting to burn off, i think.

lovely mrs. banerjee

la familia

-e

[edit] for those of you overseas here are some fotos of my new room:

hull v. millwall

2009-01-24T20:08:00.002Z

four months later and ten days before coming home i finally went to my first proper english football match. i have to say it's everything i thought it would be, replete with riotous fans. here are some fotos of the hull city v. millwall match. it was hosted here in hull at the KC stadium.

you'll have to forgive the brevity & low-fi quality of the video. i took it on a bad camera without trying to look like a foreigner. they say that american football matches are loud, notably denver's mile high coliseum. the KC stadium only seats 20,000 (as opposed to larger clubs like manchester united's old trafford with 80,000+ capacity) but i guarantee it gets louder than any football stadium in the US.

the pitch. hull city are in orange & black and millwall wears blue. it was the tigers vs. the lions, respectively.

home stands.

away stands. click on the photo and go to my flickr to see a larger version of this: the millwall fans are plagued by riots and post-match fights (instigated by them). four mounted police arrived after half-time and a line of police had to create a buffer between millwall and hull city fans.

the gang.

hull city won the match 2-0, giving millwall and their shit supporters a decent thrashing. the millwall fans are, if you're familiar with american football, similar to the fans of the oakland raiders. they're not so much there to enjoy a nice saturday match as start fights with the other team's fans. their motto is something like "if you can't beat 'em, kill 'em in the parking lot." they were allowed to leave the stadium after hull city fans left and under police escort to a private parking lot where they boarded coaches. pretty funny stuff.

-e

loose ends

2009-01-23T15:12:00.004Z

a random selection of photos i've been keeping from everybody for no good reason at all.

thank god they're high class.

ice skaters at the tower of london.

white tower church.

den gamle by village in århus.

danish posters.

target practice at blåvand.

-e

intifada, globalized

2009-01-21T20:00:00.010Z

courtesy zombietime.
this photo does not represent my thoughts but instead is meant to illustrate the increasing intensity of messages being fed into public view. it is so important that people not just treat this as another che t-shirt slogan and pay attention to what the implications of a globalized intifada are.

in the past months the united states has peacefully elected the most socially liberal president into office. barack has so far managed to maintain the image of one of the clearest thinking men in power anywhere and one can see this with the variety of people whom he has chose to serve in his cabinet. this, one would think, might reflect the maturing thoughts of a concerned peoples. if only it were that easy. across the states, however, there are contradictions and misgivings. gay marriage rights were voted down in california just after obama had won the elections in 2008.

earlier this month violent anti-war demonstrations broke out across the nation and indeed across the world. we are lucky in the united states to have not suffered from some of these more serious afflictions of belief. but that does not mean that we are less subject to a complete misunderstanding of the situation at hand. from california to florida to new york there are people compelled to replace the star of david with the swastika. it is impossible to separate opinion from this type of discussion, no matter how neutral you want to remain. i hope that, just for the moment, my orientation will be more translucent than usual. i also want to note that i am well aware that the vast majority of people either don't care (a sadness in itself, yet far different than the sort of sadness that over-zealousness often results in) or they don't feel the need to throw bricks through windows. i am perfectly aware that those who express extreme-left or right opinions often earn the spotlight but that doesn't mean that these issues should be disregarded. by dissecting what exactly people on the far left or right are saying it becomes easier to see that neither side fits everybody.

in the united states there has been an increasing amount of demonstration against the war in gaza. some of the more eager events appear pro-hamas. these often turn, however, less into pro-hamas gatherings and more into anti-israel demonstrations calling for, among the more polite suggestions, jewish businesses to be boycotted. there seem to be a great deal of palestinians at these rallies but what's truly frightening is the amount of middle-class white americans present.

feeling that they are making a difference in the world these people show up with little more than the desire to throw a brick through the nearest starbucks' window under the guise of campaigning for equal rights. some of the strangest phenomenon appears to be happening among other oppressed groups such as the LGBT organizations that are in support of a free palestine. a free palestine would result in a middle east that is completely intolerant of gays, to a point where homosexuality would be punishable by death (as it currently is under hamas). israel, despite a grotesque show of military force in the presence of civilian populations (air force strikes, etc. - though this is another issue entirely as hamas factions will use said civilians as human shields), is the last bastion of gay equality in the middle east. tel aviv was even named a new great place for gays to visit by out magazine.

this is really just scratching the surface of this argument and i can already feel some people's blood beginning to curdle. i'm not here to start fights. i suppose this post really is just me trying to figure out for myself just what the fuck is happening in that region. many thoughts here are only partially hashed out but i hope that by getting them in text form i can further understand what is going on. my own opinions are, for the most part, irrelevant but becoming better educated is not. there will always be more to learn and more listen to.

while discussing the topic last night my saudi arabian roommate said this: "hamas, PNA, israel, whoever. it doesn't matter. it's the people. their lives are ruined. how could you support anybody who ruins lives and knows they're doing it?"

-e

the beginning.

2009-01-21T18:53:00.003Z

i'm playing with several different stories right now, each pretty different from the next. they're all only finished up through their introductions and i'm having a hell of a time getting past that point. i just arrive there and...nothing else after that. hopefully i'll get the energy to actually make a concerted effort at some of this stuff.

There was a smashing and crashing. Loud crunches erupted from the treeline and birds long extinct were rudely excavated from their still nests. Unborn chicks in unhatched eggs lay exposed, swaddled in sprigs and shoots. Bugs on the ground, now fossils, burrowed to avoid the shaking and snapping of twigs. Something looking not entirely unlike an aardvark slothed away, rolling its big eyes in its big head that had nothing much else in it (save the big eyes, of course). Monkey-type critters howled and leaped from trunk to trunk, avoiding the daily routine of not getting killed by something big. Green leaves were turned to paste and branches crumpled under forces rivaling most modern day hydraulics. Brontosaurus lifted his head above the canopy, chewing a mouthful of leaves, each larger than it ought to be. How come nobody ever wants to stay for dinner? He picked up his tail and plodded to another tree some distance away. What else was there to do but be selective about your eating? His feet made imprints that would last longer than him. They would last another several thousand years. Until the comet came, even. Until no piece of dust or dirt or bone or plant or shell was left unmoved or unburned. His feet sank heavy into the soil, pressing his presence into the world as a great author does with their opus. Maybe nobody will read it in years to come but that’s not the point. His close footprints reveal a creature not in a rush, a relaxed being content with finding just the best leaf. But nobody would be around to see his footprints and know the importance of them: know that a living thing made them, an animal with warm blood and bones. They would all get burned away, but not until he was gone. But Brontosaurus didn’t think about this. In fact it didn’t even occur to him that his footprints meant anything. Well, to be totally fair, he didn’t know he made footprints. He just was.

-e

this isn't supposed to make sense

2009-01-19T00:16:00.004Z

angela
...i ate all the cake batter btw the way...

elliott
ALL OF IT?!
DID NOT YOU GET 700 PINTS FOR ME JUST BUT THREE DAYS AGO?

angela
i've been really craving ice cream!!

elliott
HOW DID YOU EAT ALL OF IT WITHOUT YOUR GUTS TURNING TO BLOWN OUT TUBES OF CREAM?
I LOVE CAPS
THAT IS O.K. AS WELL

angela
THE SAME NIGHT I ATE MCDONALDS WITH ALLY
I ALMOST DIED THE NEXT MORNING

elliott
THIS IS HOW I USED TO STAND OUT IN CHAT ROOMS AND PEOPLE WOULD ALWAYS SAY: "SPYEYES_01 PLZ STP YLLING @ UZ"

angela
HAHA
SPYEYES_01??

elliott
did we talk?

-e

already planning

2009-01-17T15:59:00.006Z

this is great. february is looking to be a wonderful little month. here are some reasons:

1) finally get to see home and my favourite lady is picking me up from the airport on the 3rd! hopefully we will get to meet up with spencer in seattle.
2) i get to move into a cool ass apartment with a cool ass roommate and catch up with very missed friends in bellingham.
3) ang and i are heading to trout lake for a nice quiet valentine's day weekend. we will probably be in portland for at least one whole day. enter: jill. we'd love to meet up for cupcakes here if you want!(?)
4) ben, spencer and i are taking four days to go skiing in montana with byron. badly needed time with the boyz.
5) won't be going to school for winter quarter!
6) i'll be working and paying off credit cards and living and enjoying everything i can. i see absolutely nothing wrong with this.

february is, and i'm not even speaking in hyperbole here, going to be the best month in the universe.

-e

pulling up sticks, pt. ii

2009-01-16T01:09:00.008Z

i now know what to do when you're getting ready to leave a country. a while ago i made a post asking the question of what a person is to do when they have to leave something they have only recently become accustomed to. in this case, what am i to do now that i'm leaving england in three weeks and i have just started to feel like i'm living here. i have a solution and it depends on the individual's denial-level. if you're, say, a novice and usually find yourself admitting defeat before you're given the chance to succeed at something, this may not be the route for you.

if you're like me and have become rather accustomed to pretending you'll never have to return to the real world then do i have the whet for your whistle. leave where you are and go home, just like you're supposed to. unpack your bags. take a hot shower. check your mail. doddle around the kitchen aimlessly for a day or two. pretend everything is normal.

and then pull up sticks and go on vacation.

in my case, plan a ski trip to bozeman with your chums and neglect to really think much farther beyond that. i know that, especially these days, we all need to be a little more careful and plan ahead. we don't know what's around the corner anymore so we have to choose our steps and be aware of over-zealous behavior. or not. or we deal with what may come with the awareness that we will be okay, even if things will get hard for a time. but there will always be something to be said about spurs of the moment. i.e. i can go without living what i think of as, oh, decently and respectfully for a few weeks if it means a couple days skiing with two of my favourite people in the world.

being overseas has taught me many things. don't get in a cab drunk and forget your address. don't tell a northerner he sounds like a southerner. don't miss your flights. but most importantly, don't pass it up. whatever it is. don't.

so, take a vacation. the economic crisis will still be here when you get back.

-e

ben, aubrey, bobby, than, myself

video(s)

2009-01-09T16:34:00.006Z

because i have actually spent a lot of time recently watching music videos on chuffing youtube, i'm interested in what others are listening to. and this seems to be something about which everybody has something to say.

embed your favourite pop (or not pop) song video in a comment.

-e

underworld 3

2009-01-09T15:02:00.004Z

the third installment of everybody's favourite vampire saga, underworld, is due to hit the states on january 23rd. all the folks that pitched in and made the first two so entertaining are coming together again for the prequel to the heavenly selene years. len wiseman, bill nighy, michael sheen and...not kate beckinsale.

what a damned shame that is. selene's non-involvement with this chapter is, chronologically speaking, correct as viktor has not yet adopted her as his daughter after killing her family. the only footage with beckensale's character will be bookend clips from the original underworld. a prequel. i can't imagine this franchise taking a more disappointing turn. too bad nighy signed on again because i have a hard time thinking that this isn't the end for the careers of all involved.

oh well, i'll see it anyways. for a laugh.

i just applied for a job at film is truth, too.

-e

pop music

2009-01-07T19:44:00.011Z

i am tired of indie music.

i don't mean for this to make me sound like some salty old geezer, bent on destroying all that matters to people who most likely buy everything they can get their hands on that says "organic". i also don't want it to sounds like i'm a jaded hip kid trying to out-ironic the next guy who thinks it's cool to wear an iron maiden t-shirt and not be able to sing, or even name, one track of theirs. no, i just want to make a point.

so perhaps i should rephrase myself: i like disposable music.

having ended up in a country that really does take quite seriously celebrity culture, gossip mags, x-factor and take that i can't quite see what's wrong with pop music. unless, of course, it sounds like most of what is on x-factor or take that. but that is beside the point because there are plenty of decent top-40 bubble-pop club hits that don't sound like the backstreet boys but make you want to dance more than, say, elliott smith. comparing artists such as elliott smith to throwaway stars like rhianna is a bit like comparing your 4 year old nephew's recent finger painting to a 15 foot tall portrait of Charles I - you're not really supposed to do it. and i'm fine with this. except for that elliott smith can't make me dance like rhianna can. and, let's face it, sometimes finger painting is much more fun than stuffy portraits that are so old that if they touch air they catch fire.

no, i love disposable music. i love having this one song stuck in my brain, rattling around like the marble in a spray can. of all the groups in the world to remind me how fun it is to listen to a song that just, well, has fun with itself, sigur ros blew me away. "gobbledigook" is some loud, crashy, shouty 3 minute romp in a forest or a dance hall or an empty city street. it can be listened to through headphones or live in an arena but it should never be quiet. just like kings of leon's "sex on fire" or mgmt's "kids" or rhianna's "disturbia" it should be as loud as fucking possible. it should be so loud that if the family cat were to blunder in front of the speaker it would find itself suddenly confused and making sick on the new carpet uncontrollably for the next week. these songs should be played with friends around. or while you're alone. naked. and dancing.

i have my andrew birds, my m. wards, my band of horses...eses. but i don't necessarily want to listen to my favourite songs from each of these artists for fear that they will wear out (it should be noted, however, that i have been listening to post-war a few times a week for a couple years now and it has not wearied). but with this pop crap you can just listen to "black and gold" 85 times on repeat, throw it away and wait for the next one to come along. but this, and this is important, is the distinguishing factor: good music makes you dance, memorably good music has staying power. that is the difference between my sigur ros and sam sparro.

just because you listen to pop doesn't mean you like axe body spray or are a business major (i have yet to conclude my study on whether the inverse is true: does using axe body spray make you a business major?) - it just means that you probably like to have a good time. and most of the people i've met over here like to have a good time.

-e

sam sparro's black & gold

black & gold on bbc radio 1

spoiler alert

2009-01-06T14:18:00.009Z

there is a big problem with being named game of the year by umpteen gaming sources. you may have the physics engine perfected (for now). you may have gotten liam neeson, malcolm mcdowell and ron pearlman to voice act. you may have gotten scorsese to write and direct the storyline. you may have created one of the most mind-bogglingly immersive worlds created since the first seven days. you may have all of these things.

but, eventually, as most good and decent things do, the game must end. what then? not so "game-of-the-year" now, are you you fucking assholes? two major complaints: 1) how dare you place the level-up cap at 20 rather than, say, 3029.1? or at least 30? i understand the initial logic: eventually people will cap out, explore the map, finish all the side missions, etc., lose interest and the game will burn itself out. however, 2) this directly results in the game ending with the storyline. maybe this works with games like gears of war or halo, the types of action/adventures reserved for guys who spend most of their time shooting cans in the backyard with a .22 rifle, but it sure as hell doesn't fly with the kind of character creation one encounters in fallout 3. i had schematics for the railway rifle and bottlecap mine as well as many of the nuka-cola quantums for sierra petrovita saved up. i was going back for the t-51b armour. i was going to be somebody, not just some paradigm of humanity. i coulda been a contender!

the whole storyline is very well constructed, the world realized beautifully. the map is easy to get lost in and does require a little attention paid (for the first time ever i actually used the in-game maps provided. thx pip-boy). the atmosphere shines when the sun is out and when you're inside little specks of dust float by, just out of soft focus. the report of the shotgun is different than that of the pistol. there are details in this game beyond comprehension but it means nothing when you can't keep going.

...

what should i name my new character?

-e

ps. i have been doing homework and the new andrew bird album is tugging at my heartstrings.

pulling up sticks

2009-01-05T20:48:00.005Z

how do you begin wrapping something up which you have only just become accustomed to?

-e

[edit] and on that very poignant note, i just finished fallout 3 and have simply no clue what to do with the rest of my life. except for write that paper that's due on the 22nd. but god, i won't stop thinking about that game. too bad there's a massive consequence at the end. bethesda keeps you from just wandering aimlessly about the wastes...

to honour a resolution (or make a new one)

2009-01-01T18:57:00.004Z

2009 is, for a single good reason, the International Year of Astronomy. it has been 400 years since galileo became weary of looking at the bird feeder in his backyard and decided to have a poke about the heavens. he turned the brass, lathed the wood and polished the mirrors on his telescope. galileo mapped the moon, found saturn's rings and opened up one of the most curious endeavours in all of humanity.

this year take some time, even if it's just one evening, to have a look up. turn off the lights and learn a new constellation, find your favourite star or memorize the order of the planets if you didn't bother in 3rd grade. just look (and marvel) at everything that surrounds us.

fox coat, the unicorn & the christmas tree. can you find them all?

-e

new year's eve

2008-12-31T19:03:00.010Z

it's just after seven in the evening and i'm sitting in a friend's living room in denmark. the new year will trundle along in a few lazy hours and the fireworks will continue well into the morning here in arhus. the living room is quiet and dinner will be served shortly. i suppose the time has come perhaps to take stock of the last twelve months, for they have been eventful.

i sold the best bike i've ever had; lived with morgan; drank with morgan; got a tattoo; turned 22 in the best of company; worked at a shoe store with matt hatch; rode in whistler twice with shane & spencer; got a new road bike; played frisbee at boulevard park with ang, joel and ashley; spent too much money at old town but made unforgettable connections; made a secret getaway to the oregon coast; thought i was having a heart attack; got to celebrate a year with somebody; watched a good friend get married; finished my thesis; watched my best friend grow from one person to someone completely different in a year; realized credit debt is not good but nearly unavoidable; played in seattle; strengthened connections with those whom i love and missed dearly those who i don't ever see; imploded and watched others implode; taught myself that positivity is the best way; supported and got support; learned that some people didn't get the memo about assault and that education should be the first priority; met kurt halsey; watched my love leave on a train only to spend christmas with her; went to england; studied medieval history where it happened; saw sigur ros in london; found my favourite pub in the world; studied the tube; made lasting friends abroad; traveled north france; visited denmark; made plans; changed plans; watched the united states make a choice that delighted the world; contracted; relaxed; learned to deal, learned to deal, learned to deal.

i'm missing some things in that list but i don't really care. there was one valuable lesson to come out of 2008: letting myself love. love friends, love a girl, love the world for whatever it has to offer (even if what it has to offer is nothing but hardships at times). my friends mean more to me than anything in the world and that realization is the most amazing part of the year.

happy new year.

-e

[edit] i would like to try and describe århus while she bends and twists, shaking from the explosions of massive non-state sponsored fireworks displays. this is the city during new year's celebrations. streets fill with the sulfur stench of lit powders and spent fuses, the yellow vapor lamps barely penetrating the thick odious cloud that wavers about with the little breeze that makes downtown. it's 23:50.

mom, abby, steffan and myself stood surrounded by small buildings that were just enough to block our view of the surrounding skyline - we were in some square in the city center. across the rooftops and chimneys the occasional flash of light penetrated the darkness and drowned out the stars on this -4c night. the frosty grass was loud underfoot but, come 00:00 2009, the crunch was drowned out. the madness that ensued for the next 45 minutes can only be described as an air raid from 1940 without the craters and flattened buildings. the body count and fires remained just as high, however. across the skyline, all we could see were flashes of incredibly bright light followed immediately by cracks and booms. my guts rattled and if i had a metal plate in my head i might just have had an aneurysm. searchlights stabbed through the smoke and night. there were screams coming from every direction as people seemed to flee the chaos, yelling and drinking and carousing their way into debauchery. windows rattled and the mass of sirened vehicles blazing through the streets gave the distinct impression that the nazis had just began shelling central london again. the smoke coated everything and you couldn't just smell it, you could taste it, the foul rank clinging to every surface that didn't have frost on it. homemade fireworks were causing rubbish bins to reach a state of explosive instability on a regular basis. cars full of youths and elders alike roared by. the bolder drivers passed the fire engines from time to time, attempting to avoid the rockets in the streets by dodging and swerving, marking serpentine tracks in the sulfur and frost that had settled on the street. they were the fleeing remnants of a people stuck in a place they didn't want to be with no choice but to give their damnedest to work together to get out. this is the last chopper out of 'nam! i imagined taxi drivers yelling to their dawdling fares standing drunk and confused on the sidewalk, half deaf from the shelling and crackling and screaming and pandemonium coursing through the streets like heroin through the veins of someone taking their first stab. champagne bottles exploded against buildings and sidewalks. people dressed for balls and galas joined in with the frenzy. everybody on the streets seemed lost but not a single one seemed to care. no one dashed for the bomb shelters and there wasn't a single prophet urging us to repent - if there was we could never have heard him.

århus exploded tonight. instead of sitting on a hill, watching some choreographed fireworks show i was part of it. i walked through the smoke, felt the caustic taste rest on my palate. everybody was a part of it. the state organized no event so the people filled the vacuum. there was no sense of finalé, just the relentless pounding and drumming of illegal german fireworks announcing our presence as the human race and greeting the new year with open arms, look at us! look at what we can do! we can build bridges and construct buildings taller than mountains! we can dig tunnels and create massive transportation networks that whisk people across miles in minutes! we can logically theorize on the origins of the universe and deduce the motion of all celestial bodies to three simple laws! we can cure polio and make corn healthier and easier to grow! we can do all of these things and more and we do everyday of every year since we first learned how to cause a spark! but tonight is the first of january and we'd just as soon get drunk, laugh, shout, be attracted to one another, have sex, eat food, play games and make colourful fire in the sky! god it's great to be alive and human.

canary wharf

2008-12-24T22:34:00.004Z

angela and i went ice skating at canary wharf and neither of us fell down. tonight is christmas eve and on our balcony we have a bottle of sparkling wine.

london is lit up like a christmas tree. beautiful...

regent street

-e

fallout 3

2008-12-13T04:18:00.004Z

i don't game often. i really don't. just when i've had a really stressful day or if beto or kristan are around the apartment and fancy a match on Fifa '08. but when i game. i game. hard.

today i picked up a copy of fallout 3. once again, fallout 3.

i'm 20 minutes in and 10 years old and i can't wait to let you know how this fascinating game ends.

[edit] i want a ps3 of my own.

-e

m.ward

2008-12-12T03:42:00.002Z

pack yer bags. m. ward at the showbox friday, march 6.

-e

for your visceral pleasure

2008-12-07T04:19:00.002Z

powdered sugar bomb'd
-e

first snow

2008-12-02T15:28:00.003Z

the sky, in hull, sparkles for the first time in months. snow frosts everything.

hwy 141

the first snow is an important marker during the year for me. there's never anything such as the first "nice day of spring" or the first "rainy day of fall". the first snow holds a special place atop the pantheon of memorable days. it's baffling to me how the cold fluff imprints itself on our imaginations as something worth assigning memory to, how it can shimmer on the coldest mornings or make people run around laughing and screaming with joy. what's the magic that it holds? how can it possibly mean so much to everybody across the world? what makes something so miserably cold, and in most cases completely impractical and inconvenient, worth anything?

for me it's trout lake, my hometown the size of a peanut to washington's football stadium. every winter i look forward to the first snow because no matter where i am and how charming the surroundings are they always take me home. i am always inclined to think about freezing toes and sled runs that would mom and dad nervous. the clearcut behind ben's house and ill-fated attempts to build forts. iced over ponds that break under the weight of skis and ski boots resulting in premature trips back to the warm confines of the paxson home.

ben & spencer, 2005

i don't believe that i default on these memories every time it snows because of some simple maudlin nostalgia. i think the trigger is something deeper, something in my upbringing, my blood. something to do with the fact that i've only experienced two "dry" christmas' in all my life and one was in california. something to do with the fact that we got so much snow in 1996 that the town flooded and the vending machine at the local gas station was torn up and carried down the raging rapids that was once an irrigation ditch. something to do with the fact that i've shoveled snow four or five deep.

i miss the winter in washington, i think. this is a beautiful season and even bellingham held onto a bit of that magic for me whereas north england seems content to wallow in a sort of grey sadness. there are christmas "decorations" on the street and i have lights up in my room but there is an element of shine that is missing here.

despite the obvious lack of snow to romp around in with mates, of course.

-e

IT vs. idiots, round 1

2008-11-29T18:04:00.007Z

courtesy angela s.

~~take some time out of your day to enjoy this little nugget of IT-comic brutality. if you've ever used, or seen, a computer you just might find some humour in this.~~

sod it, i need to start my paper for australian history.

-e

helmsley castle

2008-11-29T01:37:00.004Z

my medieval yorkshire class visited helmsley castle in, surprise, helmsley today. it was almost a two hour drive on a massive coach via windy and sadistic little country roads. wonderful countryside - from what i could see, anyways. it was a great deal foggy limiting vision to no more than a hundred feet or so for the entire day we were out. fotos:

spooky ass mist & south curtain wall.

main guardhouse.

south wall of main keep. the gentleman on the soapbox is dr. john walker, one of the best professors i've ever had. he makes tea for us in the middle of our seminars.

cairns, or the remaining bit from the auxiliary chapel.

helmsley.

-e

spiderman 3

2008-11-28T19:41:00.003Z

spiderman 3 is a phenomenal, heaping, coiled pile of steaming shit. raimi tries with the evil dead-esque camera motions and lighting but all he's able to do properly is keep bruce campbell around for the french waiter.

-e

on a lighter note

2008-11-27T02:10:00.001Z

if you at all value small british cars getting turned into stretch limos...

-e

thought for food.

2008-11-27T00:45:00.005Z

this following has nothing to do with the books. psyche.

it has recently been occurring to me that i will be going home in just over two months. this is strange. when i first arrived here and told people i was to be in hull for only a semester i would preface the statement with "unfortunately". the idea not being that i didn't want to return to bellingham and the US but rather that i wanted as much time abroad as i could get. but now it's as if i am feeling more prepared to go home and finish uni at WWU. sure it saddens me that i won't get to fly to france for £5 after the 3rd of february. but it also saddens me to be away from the people i love.

over the past few weeks i have spent a great deal of time on my own, wandering northern europe, sodding about, attending concerts, missing flights and generally making a worthless slouch of myself. i have spent more time on metros and undergrounds than i have in front of books or computers and as a result i have taken more pictures than will fit on my laptop. aside from visiting friends for an evening in paris i have spent the last two+ weeks figuring this area out for myself. i have seen notre dame, the eiffel tower, the french countryside via auto tour, big ben, the tower bridge, hyde park, parliament and train-toured all of england. the experiences have been, in an overused word, unforgettable.

but this is selfish. i have found that, over the long term, this type of living isn't sustainable. depsite my best attempts to prove to the world that i don't need anybody i have only shown myself that for days at a time i am content to not speak to anybody. the difference between not having anyone you love close to you and not doing a great deal of speaking to those people has become shatteringly clear. the time i went out and spent on my own was enlightening and i would never dare replace it with any other experience but at the same time i cannot help but miss those who i love. angela, joel, ben, spencer, morgan, mom & dad, brothers...there are countless people in the US that i find myself thinking about daily. it doesn't matter where i am but inevitably the thought crosses my mind that boy, they might really like this place.... i want everybody i know to be able to visit me. i want everybody i know to be able to see everything i see.

so in the end i simply find myself thinking of my family. my friends in bellingham. my friends in olympia that i don't speak to anymore. my friends in bellingham that i don't speak to anymore. the people i don't speak to anymore wherever they are. when i return to bellingham i want to rekindle what i've lost with some. i want to make new friends and meet new people. i want to see new things in the united states, things i never thought i would want to see. and i want friends to share these experiences with me.

life is good. but it's hardly worth mentioning if you don't have people you love.

-e

in which our hero get his head exploded for a second time

2008-11-21T00:57:00.003Z

sigur ros. it must be embarassing to open for these guys unless, of course, you're icelandic. over the last seven years the quintet has been opened, mainly, by two groups of icelandic musicians: first was amina, the irresistable group of women that included one who was rather resourceful with a saw and others that could turn zippo lighters and door latches into beautiful little trinkets of melody. they warmed up the audience with curious rhythms and counterrhythms punctuated by adorable clinks and plunks from bells, keyboards and violins. it was as if you had opened up a child's jewlery box and instead of finding a spinning ballerina inside you discovered a world of colours and light. they warmed up the audience the first time i saw sigur ros in 2006 at the arlene schnitzer in portland.

tonight was a little bit of a different story. the alexandra palace is a venue perfectly suited for sigur ros and any acts you might think proper enough to open for them. this is evidenced in the very title of the establishment (read: palace) and tonight was almost no exception. let's start with the band's name: "for a quiet reflection" or "for a moment's consideration" or something along those lines. okay, moving on. how about the band's image: four skinny white guys bent over standard instruments, somehow shrouding themselves in light. hmm, still not really seperating themselves from anything much here. well i guess that leaves the sound, hardly the most important aspect of a live show (sarcasm, etc.): oh, wait, they stole the pedal boards from one of austin's most prestigious musical groups. if you know me you know that explosions in the sky is and has been standard go-to material for me when i'm not quite sure how i'm feeling. it's always there and has acheived "comfort-music" status. so when these four guys started swinging over their guitars and jabbing their feet at pedals and delays and violin-effects and tube-screamers and overdriveXXX9000extreemes i began feeling a little nostalgic over material i hadn't listened to in a while. and, like most prog-rock/post-rock the 11 minute tracks begin getting lost in themselves. i always find it interesting that i know that there are songs i like by these bands but i can never remember the melodies and distinguish them from other tracks from even the same album until i hear it. and that's how this opener felt: like a nice road trip that is plesant enough, engaging and all, but when you get back home you can't remember where you visted.

sigur ros played for two hours. they ripped my chest open, removed every organ, polished them and carefully replaced each, bit by bit, rearranging here and there so as to make me a more efficiantly functioning human being. there was a giant waterfall, fans blowing fake snow and finally, in an orgasm of light, sound and gutwrenching kick drum from "Gobbledigook", confetti was blown out into the palace in the fashion one would expect from a ticket tape parade. it looked like we had just won the war all over again.

more to come. my internet time is up. too much time ranting on the opener and not on sigur ros.

-e

nantes & beyond: days 2, 3 & 4

2008-11-13T20:52:00.004Z

day 2:

i just had to make sure i was at john lennon airport in liverpool for my flight at 7:05am. had i not slept until 6:30, i probably would have made it. to the cabbie's credit he had me there in 15 minutes but, despite his best attempts, it was still 30 minutes too late. they were no longer taking check-ins at 6:50 and from the parking area outside i watched my flight, and for just a short moment my dignity, leave without me. after catching my breath and getting past the idea of "just not going and grabbing the first bus back to hull" i rearranged my flight to beauvais and alamo was able to comply and adjust my car rental from nantes to the new location. this, however, resulted in me not getting the citroen c1 like i was originally promised but instead the citroen berlingo. this frumpy little thing with a rattler of a 1.6 HDI diesel engine would take me across 700km in less than 48 hours with zero complaints. the five speed only required a half-tank of diesel for the trip and that included getting hopelessly lost on the peripherique exterieur in paris. (i was initially distraught at the sights of the vehicle but by the time i was dropping it off at the ferry port in calais today i found myself wondering what the tariffs were for importing one to the US.)

so after much difficulty i made it to jimmy's flat in paris and, i have to say, the most nervewracking experience i've ever encountered was the massive roundabout at the north end of avenue de la place d'italie. there are no markings and it's wider than two city streets. the french, apparently, would rather just play super mario kart than drive real cars like real people. but the cars weren't the most frightening aspect of the ordeal - the scooter drivers have less respect for their wellbeing than most unwitting junebugs that get caught in the grills of semi trucks on desert roads. i almost hit three in my four passes around the roundabout. i felt precisely like clark griswold in national lampoon's european vacation when he can't turn right.

jimmy and his friend dan welcomed me at 3:30 and straightaway i was heading off towards the notre-dame with dan. we caught the metro to the cathedral and then attempted a walk to the eiffel tower before we were caught in a vengeful downpour - even the seine seemed to pull at its seams before the rain was finished. we ducked into a totally parisian cafe and had little espressos and french onion soup before trekking back out, in between torrents, and grabbing the metro to the tower. the eiffel tower is fucking cool, i don't care how much of a tourist/non-parisian object it is. unfortunately i can't post any photos (i have a shitload) but since my new laptop is on the way i will be able to veryvery soon.

jimmy met up with us at 9:30 and we drank two bottles of wine in great little park in montmartre, a real version of the better parts of disneyland. a note on the wine: surprise! even the cheap wine in paris is good!

day 3:

we met up with ciara at jimmy's boss's for a great parisian lunch repleat with beautiful leg of lamb, breads, cheese, rose, butter-like beans and soup. afterwards i left for calais (but not before receiving a parisian parking ticket! super good use of €35!!!!!!11). this day was pretty uneventful really. lots of driving across the french countryside north to the port city.

day 4: (today)

today has been fast. after catching the ferry across to dover i have been on the go, stopping only for 30 minutes in camden town to unpack my bag at the smart camden hostel. i have walked through the camden markets and all around piccadilly circus and leicester square. tomorrow i plan on visiting some of the more classic tourist spots such as the london eye, big ben, harrods and...

shit my internet time is up.

-e

nantes & beyond: day 1

2008-11-10T18:25:00.002Z

today was, in a sense, kind of a wreck. all i had to do was get from hull to liverpool and it took all day. which is weak. but, again, in a sense, totally okay. here's why:

my train out of hull departed on time and all was going along swimmingly until 30 minutes into the trip. before we were half way to manchester, where i had a connection bus to liverpool, the train encountered mysterious "technical difficulties amounting to a major mechanical issue". you know, not to make any of the passengers too uncomfortable. we were hustled off the train at some godforsaken rock in the middle of the hedgerows and we're told that our connector train to Leeds is on platform 3. i only see one platform. there is more oxygen on mars than there were platforms at Kingston upon Whereverthefuck. but we get on this tiny two-car shuttle thingy that takes us to leeds where we're to wait for a connection to manchester. in leeds we switch trains again and i get to man city at 4:00, 15 minutes after my connection bus left.

(upon a brief but american complaint i get a train ticket to liverpool for the price of my missed bus connection. which is nice. i didn't even raise my voice - just mention that you've been vaguely inconvenienced to the english and they're cut to ribbons.)

so i am now in liverpool at the nightingale lodge, a very cool old building outside of the city center. i have three other roommates, one of whom i have met: julie from belgium. we are probably going to a pub downtown for food and a couple pints.

tomorrow morning i fly out of John Lennon Airport at 7am for nantes. in nantes i will pick up a rental car and drive to paris where i am meeting up with jimmy and ciara from western. jimmy has, graciously enough, offered his couch/floor/bathtub for me to sleep on/in tomorrow night. the morning of the 12th i am heading north to basse normandie.

i'm taking many pictures and collecting many postcards.

forward ho!

-e

the coming weeks

2008-11-09T15:09:00.004Z

a few brief things and then on to business:

-school is going well. reading week is next week and it will be time for me to start constructing the papers that i have due for three classes. i am looking forward to working on them and getting them out of the way because it's taken all of my will power to keep my brain in hull when europe is so close.
-looks like mom is going to visit at the end of december. the plan so far is that she'll be here for a week and we'll get to spend the new year in denmark with a family friend.
-my computer is still broken (like it's getting any better on its own) and i haven't come up with a solution. the ideal situation is the one where i bite the bullet and take some of my educational loan monies and apply them towards the new macbook. i really do need to get this fixed because it has seriously disrupted my lines of direct communication with some very important people.
-still haven't seen quantum of solace.
-hsbc still hasn't given me my money. thx.

but in more immediate news, the next two weeks are going to be very eventful.

this week i will be travelling nearly non-stop taking time to sleep in assorted hostels in england, france and possibly belgium. my five day trip will take me through manchester, liverpool (exotic, i know), nantes, paris, carentan, caen, rouen, calais, bruges, dover and london. it's nearly not enough time to go all of these places and it's certainly not enough time to acutally absorb paris or london. truly absorbing these larger cities, however, isn't necessarily the point. it's the smaller cities, countrysides and coastlines i'm really trying to focus on and lodging, as usual, will take a backseat. i have two nights in france where i have no hostels reserved so far and i am considering just sleeping in the car-for-hire that i have reserved at nantes airport. my trip will end with an overnight in london and a train back to hull late on the 14th. i'm kicking myself for not having a decent camera. d'oh.

when i get home i'll have to do laundry quickly (because we don't have a dryer, just an iron. fucking student housing) as i will be heading back out on another three day trip exclusively to london. this is the one that i'm absolutely quaking with excitement over because here i will be seeing sigur ros on the 20th. i have paid a little more attention to the accomodations for this trip and i booked a hostel in piccadilly circus, 30 seconds from the piccadilly tube stop. it will be noisy and i'm not anticipating a great deal of sleep. this doesn't bother me due to my frighteningly skimpy hours of rest during the last week.

after the london trip i leave for edinburgh. actually, i will go straight from my arrival back in hull via train to a coach on campus departing for the scottish city. good thing i'm used to wearing the same clothes for a week at a time.

the winter is settling in nicely here and the leaves have all turned to a sticky paste on the sidewalks. nothing on the ground isn't coated with tree detritus and my runny nose insists that i'd rather be spending my time sick than healthy.

-e

looking forward

2008-11-05T04:35:00.003Z

well done, sir. well done. i feel a strange sense of pride right now. i am proud of the people back home who have allowed something like this to happen and i feel strong being abroad right now.

they've passed us the ball. let's not drop it.

-e

dark streets late at night in malta are as unfriendly as a murderer

2008-10-30T18:48:00.002Z

it's late a few nights ago. the streets are dark and wet. no cars. i'm walking a friend home.

me: wow, it sure is dark tonight.
maltesian: in malta we have a saying...
me: oh?
maltesian: yeah. "it's so dark you could kill somebody and bury the body."
me: ah. this must be one of those clever multiple-meaning phrases, huh?

-e

poladroid

2008-10-29T00:59:00.004Z

be a cool kid and check it out if you haven't already. poladroid.

thanks for the link, ang.

revised trip

2008-10-25T14:28:00.003+01:00

View Larger Map

or.

View Larger Map

loves it

2008-10-22T14:03:00.003+01:00

i'm in my room, upstairs from the main living area in our flat. i'm quietly minding my own business and reading about mesoamerican commerical relationships in the chaco canyon, as you do, when, blaring from the downstairs hi fi comes the baywatch theme. beto, flat as always, sings along while cooking something. i know he's cooking because i can smell curry. it's always curry. good curry, though. not the shitty stuff.

baywatch and curry.

thank you, mexico.

-e

two things

2008-10-19T03:57:00.002+01:00

a) the US is missing kabob shops. jesustits, even after a dozen visits these things are amazing.

b) i had a friend who's wonderful curly hair was lit on fire tonight after leaving a club.

-e

not shot or stabbed but weightless

2008-10-18T12:13:00.004+01:00

turns out that during the past week there has been one of the largest fairs in the uk happening near KC Stadium here in town. Hull Fair, as it is aptly titled, is a massive sprawling travelling carnival with all of the accountrements that come standard to a life that only a five year old would think glamerous.

though there were plans to go today, the last day of the fair, an election celebration led a group of friends and officials from the International Students Association and myself to take one of the late buses down to the fairgrounds. beto, my roommate, ran for the position of representing the Americas on the ISA Decision Committee and won. we slouched about at the Sanctuary on campus and waited with the other runners and existing officials waiting for the results and by 8:00 everybody had a couple drinks. about ten or twelve of us finally decided that going to the fair might be a good idea.

earlier in the day mentioned to a friend that i was planning on checking out the fair and his response was "ah, that's a good way to get shot and stabbed at the same time." (i had an acid-like-flashback to nick swardson's stabbing routine) i still can't quite figure out if chris was kidding.

kristan and i rode this scary thing first. when you got up to the top, assuming the swiveling seats you sit in weren't whipping about and pitching you upside down, there was an amazing view of hull, the fair, KC and the Humber Bridge. really cool, actually. and then the arms threw you back down towards the platform and it felt as if no amount of restraint was going to keep you from simply melting out through the safety harness. it also creaked the whole time. nice.

then we went on one of those tower freefall contraptions. cleverly titled Big Ben, this tower was the shortest "ride" of the fair but also the most frightening. four sides of seats are rigged to a giant hydraulic press in the center of the tower which pulls the chair platform upwards at slightly more than unnerving speeds. once the chairs are loaded at the bottom there is an indeterminate amount of time before the platform is slung up and, once at the top, one has to wait and wait and wait before freefalling back down. i tried holding onto the metal handles on the ride up but my hands slipped off - the handles were covered, conveniently, in some sort of grease. so for the drop i didn't hold onto anything and this is the closest thing to that feeling you get when you're bungee jumping. there's a moment when after reaching the apex of the parabola on the return trip up you're weightless. this is one of the eeriest feelings i've ever had, it just sinks into your gut and you realize that you will be dead in just a few seconds.

yeah, except this was a carnival ride so i trusted it less than a couple canadien guys rigging naked-me up to a big bouncy rope on a bridge 200 feet up spanning a thin canyon in february.

har!

-e

banks

2008-10-15T14:51:00.006+01:00

the banks in england, for now, seem stable. my holder, HSBC, appears to have a solid foothold in the quickly crumbling mountainside that is the financial world. the other two major banks in england, and greater europe, Lloyd's TSB and Barclay's, also look to be in the relative clear. the latter bank, Barclay's, sponsors the UK's Premier League so their insurance policy is, in a way, the millions of fanatics who religiously attend matches with easy preference over such things as weddings, funerals and job interviews. (fun fact: Hull's F.C. just made it into the Premier League this year as a total dark horse competitor. go Hull City!)

but i digress.

HSBC has been a decent bank so far. none of the large banks in the UK charge ATM fees, i.e. there are no withdrawl fees on a Lloyd's TSB atm if you are withdrawing from a Barclay's account. each major bank has a wide ranging fleet of branches and teller machines across not just the west half of the country (think about it, wells fargo) but across the whole of europe. their staff is helpful and HSBC offers a solid checking/savings for students with their Passport program (the only drawback being a £6 monthly fee for the first 12 months). and with the oversight of the Bank of England, inflation is kept low due to preset interest rates. these are all good things.

but. a bummer occurs. i deposited my US loan checks to, you know, pay for school and live and stuff, only to discover that it takes HSBC up to ten weeks to pay them into a checking account. this means that i will have my monies over half way through my stay. hmm. something doesn't add up. so i went into the local branch this morning to talk with a representative, the same nice woman who helped me set up my checking account in the first place. she informed me that there are actually two ways that banks can cash these foreign checks: negotiation and another that i can't remember. the short of the yarn is that the teller who i initially deposited the checks to assumed that i would rather wait for ten weeks as oppossed to wait about two days for the negotiation method. i wasn't even informed about the option. the only difference between the two methods is that with negotiation your account is credited the amount and once the check clears (usually within three to five days), the money is yours. with the other method the check actually gets sent to your home bank for confirmation, to pakistan for target practice and then finally buried in soft peet for three months and recycled as firelighters (R.I.P.) before getting deposited in your account. so, if you're at least 10% sure you have the money in your account, it's worth the negotiation route.

one check is still waiting for deposit via the long method and one check was deposited by negotiation this morning. this will actually be good, spreading the money out over a longer period of time with the bulk coming in the latter half of my term here, when i'll need it the most.

other than this little hang up i have had relatively few problems still. classes are humming along and i am rather enjoying two, War & Memory in 20th Century Australia and Medieval Yorkshire: from the Norman Conquest to the Wars of the Roses, while the third is a little tedious, America: from Colony to Republic. with the latter i was looking forward to getting an English account of colonial history after being imbibed with the US version for the last 22 years. so as luck would have it, and it usually does, my little plan backfired and i have a canadien who studied in the US as my professor. all classes will end with a final essay. i have encountered a great deal of interest among professors who find out what i was studying last spring as there doesn't seem to be a great deal of russian history available here (i.e. none).

i keep forgetting to mention that the director of the international office gave me his Hull University Faculty tie when i asked where i could purchase one. i thought that was neat.

on a somber note, not many people here have seen or know about the big lebowski. as a result they seem to miss the importance of a good white russian.

-e

change

2008-10-13T18:30:00.006+01:00

so i have officially changed my return flight from 25 december to 3 february. i have the same flight times but it's a month later. i approached the international office coordinator here again and she gave me the same answer, under no circumstances am i going to be able to take my exams early in order to return to the states in time to apply for winter quarter at western. if this wasn't going to work for me i should not have applied for study abroad.

*shudders with something resembling but not exactly quite like rage*

i'm not upset about being in europe for an extended period of time. i'm upset that the people who were to be helping me here at hull have been, well, not. i have heard conflicting reports from several sources, including my professors here who have told me that students have taken their exams early, on whether or not i would be able to return home before the official examination period. i need to be less upset about these things. and i am. three months ago this would've sent me through the roof with panic and a white hot fit of anger. in fact, it did send me through the roof. but now, after all the shit that it has taken to get here, i just don't have the energy to hassle with them. instead i have to approach the situation with the most positive manner i can.

it's a pretty fortunate deal, if you were to think about it. other than hemorrhaging massive amounts of money and losing school time in bellingham, i will end up with a free month from school. in europe. that's cool. plus i will be able to be in either paris, london or munich for christmas and the new year, one of my original ideas for the holidays. also, mom will be able to have time to fly out during her christmas break to visit and see some of the country.

so really, i need to stop pissing and moaning because it's not often one gets the opportunity to take a rescheduled flight and apply the situation to the rest of their life. this is one of those adult moments where you have make the choice between a life constantly unsatisfied and a life where flexibility becomes a quality, not a chore. it's time to make the choice and just, i don't know, be happy for fuck's sake. necessity is the mother of invention and it is necessary for me to stop being so hard to please.

months ago i wrote up some pages on problems i have with perspective and my internal debate which argues that people, in a sense, don't have it and how that really pisses me off. so, here is a perfect example of my hypocrisy. treat this like a smaller event, a rescheduling and a remarking of the calender, and step away from it. step away from the preconception that this is turning the whole journey on its head because it isn't. my flight home is the last thing i do so why would it ruin this?

pretty slapdash but i don't feel like i should explain it. people wouldn't read this anymore if i did.

here are some pictures if you just scrolled past my monologue:

a mexican and an american play backup for "hotel california". rock the fuck out.

york, old town.

-e

nuts & bolts (in progress)

2008-10-09T14:02:00.002+01:00

nantes to calais.
kings cross to camden inn.

still in progress and for my own reference.

-e

COOL!

2008-10-08T15:15:00.003+01:00

the cost of a new ticket home because of hull's unwillingness to negotiate will be something like ~~$4000~~ $500! thanks guys! awesome!

the university of hull loves international students!

-e

[edit] okay, i just had to get that out. it probably won't be that bad. *winces*

scarborough

2008-10-07T11:55:00.005+01:00

on sunday a group of us took a little trip out to scarborough, about 70k north of hull. yes, i believe it is scarborough as in scarborough fair. as in simon and garfunkle. or some shit.

fotos.

stairs and gardens.

scarborough southern beach, village & marina. their waterfront really reminded me of beaches from the northwest (think seaside, for those of you who know).

busted ass cribs.

northern coast.

pretty ass building & regina victoria statue.

-e

first day

2008-10-07T02:11:00.003+01:00

classes officially decided to start today. after two weeks of slouching about and generally making a poor example of myself it appeared that it was actually time to do something productive. here's my schedule:

monday.
War & Memory in 20th Century Australia. 2:15pm to 3:05pm.
America: From Colonies to Republic. 3:15 to 4:05.

tuesday.
America. 10:15 to 11:05.

thursday.
America. 9:15 to 10:05.
Medival Yorkshire: From the Norman Conquests to the Wars of the Roses. 1:15 to 3:05.
War & Memory. 3:15 to 4:05.

yeah, i know it looks slack but damn do i love having finished with my thesis work last spring. i'm taking a full load, despite the apparent thinness of the timetable, but just barely. i had all of these modules today and they all seem interesting with the only possible exception being Colonial History. it may be a rehash of a course i had taken at WWU but i'm still going to try and get credit for it. but it could be redeemed by a possibly fresh view on our colonial history - to hear a UK professor's take might be interesting.

two trips around england and europa planned so far:
-sigur ros in london during 19, 20 & 21 nov. (!!!!)
-three days in nantes and the normandy coast during 11, 12 & 13 nov. (no classes)

funny bad translation of the day! an italian to me, asking after bad words, "cunt! is not that the lady of the cock?" i'm sorry, i couldn't resist posting that.

-e

interrupted lives

2008-10-04T21:01:00.000+01:00

not only have i been maintaining homespunyarns to convey my life in england and abroad but i also intend on pointing out interesting bits of news that occur. being so close to some of the educational points of organizations like Western Men Against Violence this news seemed particularly important.

clubgoers in Hull drugged.

the sugar mill is a very popular night club in the hull city center - most of the returning students have suggested it to myself and other international students or freshers as a hell of a place to go with mates. hmm.

for the sake of cross-referencing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7646103.stm.

the local police here in Hull have been handing these interesting little pieces of self-protection out during all of International Students week and during all of Freshers Week. i'd love to see these getting handed out, or at least available at the WOC throughout the year, at Western Washington University.

-e

ryanair

2008-10-04T20:52:00.000+01:00

fuck. let's hear it for £5 flights from liverpool to nantes! i'll pay ten US dollars to fly anywhere (with the strong exceptions being anywhere in the midwest, deep south, and the south eastern seaboard - erm, most of the States, i guess), let alone a destination i've been waiting to visit for quite sometime.

dear faa/corporate demigods/america,

get your shit together or go to jail.

love,
elliott

the immediate area

2008-10-03T19:14:00.000+01:00

my street, cottingham road. campus is farther on (west).

my alleyway off of cottingham, newland park ave.

main lawn, front entrance: east.

main lawn, front entrance: west.

main walk, north.

-e