07.27.05
Happy Birthday Hanne!
It’s that special time of year again: Hanne’s birthday!
Hesam is also in town, and we’re off out for dinner, so i’ll write more about our recent exploits later on.
Hasta luego!
07.17.05
Blog Survey and the IA
If you’re a blogger, check out the MIT Weblog Survey.
One of the questions it asked was about when I started blogging. Although I know it was about 2 years ago, I lost the original content because I was using a different database and never bothered to export any of the data (lazy me)… so I wandered over to the Internet Archive (someone took those jokes about “downloading the Internet” seriously). The “Way Back” feature is quite useful for going back in time, just as long as you don’t want to go back before 1996 that is. So for example, you can relive the frontpage of the BBC news on 9/11/01 (just the first example that came to mind, but maybe not the best one). The first recording of garethwestern.com was January 15th, 2004, although I started the website a few months prior to that. This led me to wondering about how often they take a snapshot of a site. You may notice there are way more archives for 2001 (notably from September 11th onwards) than any other year, so I wonder if Internet traffic is a factor… but I suppose they just archive more when they’ve got the space to spare, and give the larger sites the higher priorities. The price of storage space per GB has, obviously, dropped rapidly over the past couple of decades. As if to prove the point, the Internet Archive recently received over a petabyte of storage space. Now that’s a crazy large amount of storage space! I bet that could probably even hold Nikolai’s infamous porn collection… 
07.15.05
Over the Pond
I’ve been back in England for almost 2 weeks now so I guess it’s about time I wrote about the trip because, as Paul McCartney (or John Lennon… whichever you prefer) once said: “the more you stir a turd, the more it’s gonna stink”.
So…. one fine English day back in June I packed my bags, kissed my lady good bye, and made my way to the bright lights of London town (using the no-frills megabus… you get what you pay for: not much! :-\). My brother put me up for the night in his shanty-house, giving me ample time in the morning to get over to Gatwick. I arrived with a couple of hours to spare (as is recommended for long-haul flights) so when I got to the check in line I was pleasantly surprise to find only a short queue. As I checked in my bags the hostess lady informed me that regular economy was fully booked, so I was to be upgraded to economy-plus (like economy, but with a few extra inches for the legs and sides) for free. Woohoo! So I milled about in the departure lounge for an hour or so then made my way to the gate, where I was informed that I was to be upgraded AGAIN to business class! Yeeeeeeeeeehaw! In case you haven’t ever seen British Airways business class, it looks like this. And it was awesome. I even managed to get a few hours of sleep, which I hardly ever do on planes anymore (ever since I grew too large to sleep on the floor beneath everyone else ).
Hesam met me at the nicely refurbished terminal D of IAH (Houston Intercontinental Airport), and operation “Surprise Lina” was underway. She still didn’t know I was coming to Houston, so the plan was for her and Hesam to go out for dinner to one of their regular Sushi bar haunts, at which point I would make my surprise arrival. The surprise went off without a hitch, and hopefully Lina was pleasantly surprised. With the shenanigans out of the way we got down to the main business of the holiday: eating and drinking! I can’t name all the restaurants, bars, and eateries we ate in over the following 9 days, but they all shared one thing in common: oversized servings of Texan proportion (note to self: the Cheesecake Factory is NOT the place to order Chicken & Biscuits!). One of the cuisines I do miss dearly over here is decent Mexican food! So Hesam took me to Pappa Sitos a couple of times, and Taco Bell. We also got some decent BBQ from Pappas Bar-B-Q… boy, that Pappa sure gets around.
When we weren’t stuffing our faces with grub Hesam was kind enough to drive me around various shops, stores and malls to get a few new shirts, jeans (wayyyyyyyyy cheaper over there!), shoes, electronics (Hanne got a blue mini-iPod and some accessories), and salt-water taffey (by request from Nikolai, though I can’t promise I won’t eat it before he gets his arse back from Russia in September! Sorry dude!). We also managed to go running a couple of times to try and shed some of the weight I was rapidly gaining. There’s a really nice track near his house in Sugar land, known as Oyster Creek. They even have real wildlife, something I rarely see in central Brum anymore, unless it’s on the end of a shish-kebab. We even managed to swing by our old high school, which has seen a fair few changes (for the better) since our day.
After the days came the nights (thank you, Captain Obvious). The day after I arrived in Houston Hesam, Lina, Jacques, and I went to see Ferry Corsten live at M-Bar in downtown Houston. He played some awesome choons (“nice set, Ferry!” *thumbs up*) and the crowd was heaving (in a good way). That had to be one of the most enjoyable nights of my sojourn. We also visited quite a few other bars which I had not had the chance to visit when I lived in Houston, due to the funny drinking laws over there (who hasn’t had a drink by the time they’re 21?!). Two bars I really liked are the Flying Saucer, and the Ginger Man. Both had a large selection of beers (both foreign and national) and friendly atmospheres, as well as the customary pub games such as darts! 
Unfortunately we’re all way too light (as in “not heavy”… not “white”) to be any good at darts. One night we went to… uhm.. some bar down town, and I even managed to meet up with Ariana and Nikole (and Ariana’s fiancee, Dillon)! Although it was only one night it was great to see them again and catch up. On the night before Lina’s birthday we went to Drink Houston. Hesam & Lina had never been there before, but Hesam’s DJ Friend (DJ Mike Anthony) was playing live and broadcasting on 104 KRBE, so we decided to check it out. All I can say is $1-you-call-its are a dangerous thing. It’s no wonder that many pubs in the UK are cutting down, or even banning happy hour drinks promotions. I think I even started dancing, which is NEVER a good thing. I apologise most sincerely to all the people I stepped on or stumbled in to as I bumbled my way around. *sigh*.
The following night was Lina’s birthday (and also July 4th, but who cares about that, really? 
), so she took Lisa, Hesam, and me out for dinner to a nice restaurant down town. The excellent food was matched only by the beautiful wall decorations and fast’n'friendly service Hmmm sarcasm doesn’t translate that well when it’s just written down. But really, I kid. It was a very nice meal and the company very pleasant. By the time the meal was over we had just missed the fireworks display (doh!), and as it was a Monday night, and both Lina and Lisa had to go to work the following morning, Hesam and I decided to head back to Sugarland for some casual beers and late-night Texas Hold ‘Em (I now see what had Trond so hooked during that time I spent with the Norwegians in Leeds).
The next day I packed up my bags (now several pounds heavier from all my purchases) and we headed back to the airport, stopping on the way for a quick “martini lunch” (minus the martinis) with Lina. Upon check-in I was again upgraded to economy plus, however I didn’t make it all the way to business this time… bah. I also had the misfortune of sitting next to an extremely odorous man, which meant I didn’t get any sleep AND I was on the verge of throwing up for most of the way.
And so I made it back to London and back up to our foxhole of an apartment in Brum, where I promptly fell asleep for the rest of the day, waking just before sweet Hanne got home from work. I had a wonderful vacation and I cannot thank Hesam and his familiy enough for their hospitality, as well as Lina, Jacques, and the others for showing me a great time. Next time i’ll be sure to drag Hanne along with me so I can show her how great it is in “the promised land”, which will hopefully convince her to follow me around the globe some more
The gallery of my pictures from this trip can be found here. There’s pitifully few, but I kept forgetting to take my camera everywhere and even when I brought it I forgot to take lots of pictures. Bleh.
Hesam will be coming to Europe in 8 days! Hopefully I’ll be able to return the favour and show him the sights, sounds, and tastes of Britain. Mmmmm spotted dick!
07.10.05
This Is Not A Drill
As I was driving down Broad street last night at about 8pm I noticed that there seemed to be quite a few more people than usual, even for a Saturday night. At the time I assumed there was a “celebrity” in town or something, as I had already seen a few limos cruising around, but in the end it turned out to be slightly more sinister. The “suspect package” found in the hotel on Broad street turned out to be a false alarm, but there were several controlled explosions just over in the Chinese quarter which were later described as a “real and credible threat”…. *gulp* .
During the night Hanne received several text messages from various friends in Norway asking if she was alright, causing her a bit of panic, but that was about as much as we heard of it. I guess everyone’s still a little edgy after what happend in London a few days ago, but for the most part things have gone back to “normal” very quickly. Maybe it’s because it’s been expected for so long that it doesn’t seem so surprising, or that it wasn’t a bad as it could have been (that’s not to say it wasn’t tragic, but the bodycount could have been far higher under different circumstances), or maybe it’s just the British approach, to life to take-in-stride whatever fate deals our way and to carry on as best we can.
07.07.05
Nil Desperandum
Following a day of dreams coming true, today was a nightmare. It has generally always been assumed (at least by myself) that a terrorist attack on London was inevitable, and it looks like today was that day. The bombs rocked the heart of the city, and although the fatalities seem relatively minimal thus far (when compared to other atrocities such as the Madrid bombing and 9/11), the psychological damage to the citizens and social reprecussions could be immense. The attacks seem to have been fairly well orchestrated, timed to go off during the morning rush on the day of the G8 summit opening, indicating that there was a good deal of planning behind all of this. Fortunately the London emergency services have also gone through many hard hours of training for exactly this kind of situation and are coping well, from what I can gather.
My primary concern was for my brother. Although the attack was in the morning (my brother, being a student, knows little of life outside of bed before noon) he has been doing occasional volunteer work at the Shadow Robot Company (the location of which is fairly close to where today’s events unfolded), and the thought went through my mind that he could have gone in to do something today. But, as you may expect in such a crisis, the mobile phone networks were jammed as people tried to contact loved ones in the capital. He doesn’t have a landline at the moment as he’s currently living with friends while searching for a new house for next semester, and there was no sign of him on MSN. I tried calling the robot place, but they hadn’t seen him today either. After a couple of hours and several more attempts at communication (including SMS, email, and smoke signals) I finally received a text message from him along the lines of “fine thanks. how are you?” It turns out he had slept through the whole thing and had woken up to find several messages on his phone, without having any idea of what was going out just outside his door.
Hmm… this is the 2nd time i’ve travelled from Texas to Britain on a day surrounding a terrorist attack, the previous time being when I travelled from Houston to London on September 10th (landing in London on the 11th), 2001. Coincidence? I think so.
My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone else in London, and their families.
Actually, i’ve just remembered my cousin is also in London, though I don’t think she lives in the very centre nor has any business to be there in the morning rush… but i’ll go and double check.
07.06.05
London 2012
I just got back from my stealth-visit to Texas, but i’m a little jet-lagged to write everything about it just yet.
I just wanted to cover one particular event of the day:
That’s right! This victory over Paris is just that slightly bit sweeter given the recent jibes.