Well folks, it's been fun. A few months ago I was sitting at home thinking what to write to say "good bye" to Wisconsin. Now I sit here thinking about what to say to London. I didn't get to do half what I wanted, there are so many famous places I didn't see or barely saw. On the whole tho, I have no regrets. I met some great people (who'll hopefully keep in touch). I got to see Belfast a city which I have fallen in love with I think and hope to get back to some day and pray that they may continue the path towards peace. I discovered having the RPG habit in London costs twice as much as in Wisconsin but they have bigger, better stores here so as with everything in life, it's a trade-off.
I will miss the friends I've made in the group. Some I might see regularily, others I may see never again. I miss the people back home and can't wait for Tuesday when I can see them all again! Not sure I miss work but it will be nice to get a paycheck again even if it's in piddly American dollars.
I have thought a lot about travelling and I think (although woe to anyone who leaks this to my parents) that before I graduate I will take advantage of these trips and sneak over here again. I'm thinking Ireland. For now though I am going to relax as all my homework is in and I have only token classes tomorrow. I even managed an A in the first of my WE classes. Fancy that.
In the meantime I am enjoying being able to laugh at the British humor of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, enjoying Regent's Park (and its subsidary Primrose Hill), and late night movie/Risk sessions.
The iPod did hold up for 3 months but barely so I guess my one worry has been answered.
After this entry, this will once again return to the frozen wastes of Wisconsin, hope you all enjoyed the pointless commentary. If not well Exalted: Fair Folk came out Monday so pick up a copy (and harass White Wolf to hurry up and send me mine) and read that instead. Until Wisconsin, cheers!
01 December 2004
25 November 2004
Most Memorable Turkey Day
So many firsts including: first Thanksgiving away from family, having classes on Thanksgiving, enjoying said classes, spending the entire afternoon traipsing on the London Underground, going to Camden for the first time (with two lovely ladies, whee :D ), and generally having a fantastic Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully it'll get better from here. Not quite sure what I've got on tap but go figure. Today is just kinda legendary to me already! Anyhow I said it already but Happy Thanksgiving to all, I will see you all sooner then you think (muwahaha!)
24 November 2004
23 November 2004
Almost Undisputed Trivia Champs
And we were the only international team too. The joint US-Canadian (UW Stevens Point and U of Quelph) effort brought a close second place! It would help if the guy doing the trivia knew his Star Wars quotes correctly. Which movie do you think "You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home" came from? Anyhow...
Almost done with the World War 2 paper rough draft. Then I've only got the 10-20 page Brit History paper on the IRA and the Shakespeare paper all 6 or so pages of crap I need to turn out for that lousy class. I don't like it much, can you tell?
Exalted: Fair Folk is almost out. The artists/authors have gotten their copies. Finally got to see some art and charm trees (technically art) and they look very cool. Fae (er Raksha is technically what we're supposed to call them now) nobles are incredibly bad-ass. They start out with 3 dots in all attributes and get a 10/7/4 breakdown (max of 7 starting in any attribute) so they can do a heck of a lot of damage from the get go although I suspect there are some serious drawbacks to keep them from maruading freely across Creation. Regardless running around with beginning characters who could easily have Str + Ath of 12 (that's strong enough to throw a Volkswagen around folks!) from the get-go should make a ST or two a bit nervous. At least I'll have another fun thing to toss into my game I am theoretically running this spring. Need to work out details whence I get back home to all my beloved books but if you are a Pointer and want in let me know! (Lars ya count even though you technically graduated several decades ago. ;) )
Not much else to talk about on the England front at the moment. The farthest I have gotten away from ISH or MTH is for walks with Trisha into Regents Park (which at max is a mile and probably not even that far away). I am happy cause I found someone to walk with! It has also managed to warm up appreciably here from last weekend which is nice. Jeff took some iniative, which itself is not unheard of, and figured out to turn our radiators on, although they aren't very warm they help. Plus Jeff didn't kill us all in turning the radiators on! Luckily his girlfriend sent him something to warm the place up but he can't open it up to see what it is til Dec. 1st (hehe I know what it is!).
I should return to my paper now. I am enjoying reading about the Russian front in World War II which I think is seriously under covered in American classes. The Russians could have beaten the Germans without us and what do most Americans think the major turning point of the war was? Normandy. Don't get me wrong that was quite important for post-war things but the Russians coulda rolled right to Normandy if need be. That woulda been one heck of a Soviet Union then!
Almost done with the World War 2 paper rough draft. Then I've only got the 10-20 page Brit History paper on the IRA and the Shakespeare paper all 6 or so pages of crap I need to turn out for that lousy class. I don't like it much, can you tell?
Exalted: Fair Folk is almost out. The artists/authors have gotten their copies. Finally got to see some art and charm trees (technically art) and they look very cool. Fae (er Raksha is technically what we're supposed to call them now) nobles are incredibly bad-ass. They start out with 3 dots in all attributes and get a 10/7/4 breakdown (max of 7 starting in any attribute) so they can do a heck of a lot of damage from the get go although I suspect there are some serious drawbacks to keep them from maruading freely across Creation. Regardless running around with beginning characters who could easily have Str + Ath of 12 (that's strong enough to throw a Volkswagen around folks!) from the get-go should make a ST or two a bit nervous. At least I'll have another fun thing to toss into my game I am theoretically running this spring. Need to work out details whence I get back home to all my beloved books but if you are a Pointer and want in let me know! (Lars ya count even though you technically graduated several decades ago. ;) )
Not much else to talk about on the England front at the moment. The farthest I have gotten away from ISH or MTH is for walks with Trisha into Regents Park (which at max is a mile and probably not even that far away). I am happy cause I found someone to walk with! It has also managed to warm up appreciably here from last weekend which is nice. Jeff took some iniative, which itself is not unheard of, and figured out to turn our radiators on, although they aren't very warm they help. Plus Jeff didn't kill us all in turning the radiators on! Luckily his girlfriend sent him something to warm the place up but he can't open it up to see what it is til Dec. 1st (hehe I know what it is!).
I should return to my paper now. I am enjoying reading about the Russian front in World War II which I think is seriously under covered in American classes. The Russians could have beaten the Germans without us and what do most Americans think the major turning point of the war was? Normandy. Don't get me wrong that was quite important for post-war things but the Russians coulda rolled right to Normandy if need be. That woulda been one heck of a Soviet Union then!
20 November 2004
Regged
Yay registration went off without a hitch for me for the spring! Sadly I have an 8am class 4 days a week which I had no choice on taking (only section of a required CIS course). However I have only one class on Fridays and it's done at noon so going home will be easily facilated if need be and otherwise I have long weekends. In general my schedule will be pretty busy during the week tho so all my fun will be moved to nights and weekends. Maybe I will get more homework done tho if I am stuck on campus and can't play around on the web as much. I can dream at least!
It's gotten chilly over here since it started raining on Thursday. It has to be close to freezing out there and it's that damp chill which cuts through just about everything. I am not real upset that it is raining today because I need to do homework (I am doing some at the moment) so this will keep me motivated to stay in and do it rather then going finding Trisha or someone else to go for a walk. I wasted a good hour and a half doing that yesterday but Trisha hadn't been to Primrose Hill so it was well worth it. Ironically we got there about sunset (which is 4pmish or earlier here) so the whole city looked pretty damned cool.
This whole week has been rather unproductive and we've been staying up til 3AM watching movies on Jon's laptop. The group varies somewhat but it's usually me, Jon, Jeff, Leah, and Trisha. Other people occasionally show up. Jeff and Jon (lightweights!) never make it through the second movie. It's good fun and we found a decent pizza place that delivers too. Gotten some quality Risk games in as well. It's funny how Filteau tries to make everyone think he is not out just for himself and that when he is feeling like he's in a bad position how he tries to diss other people so he looks better. Greatly amusing :D Jeff did well last night but Jon has managed to be in second place the last two games which is pretty good considering that he has hardly played. It looks like Risk and Axis & Allies will become a mainstay of our getting togethers back home. At least I found people who'll play those games it had been forever since I had played them previously!
Time to return to the homework. Going to try and complete the geography paper so I only have a Brit history, WW2 history, and Shakespeare paper left. The long ones which require actual quoting of sources and such. This week is gonna involve oh so much typing!
It's gotten chilly over here since it started raining on Thursday. It has to be close to freezing out there and it's that damp chill which cuts through just about everything. I am not real upset that it is raining today because I need to do homework (I am doing some at the moment) so this will keep me motivated to stay in and do it rather then going finding Trisha or someone else to go for a walk. I wasted a good hour and a half doing that yesterday but Trisha hadn't been to Primrose Hill so it was well worth it. Ironically we got there about sunset (which is 4pmish or earlier here) so the whole city looked pretty damned cool.
This whole week has been rather unproductive and we've been staying up til 3AM watching movies on Jon's laptop. The group varies somewhat but it's usually me, Jon, Jeff, Leah, and Trisha. Other people occasionally show up. Jeff and Jon (lightweights!) never make it through the second movie. It's good fun and we found a decent pizza place that delivers too. Gotten some quality Risk games in as well. It's funny how Filteau tries to make everyone think he is not out just for himself and that when he is feeling like he's in a bad position how he tries to diss other people so he looks better. Greatly amusing :D Jeff did well last night but Jon has managed to be in second place the last two games which is pretty good considering that he has hardly played. It looks like Risk and Axis & Allies will become a mainstay of our getting togethers back home. At least I found people who'll play those games it had been forever since I had played them previously!
Time to return to the homework. Going to try and complete the geography paper so I only have a Brit history, WW2 history, and Shakespeare paper left. The long ones which require actual quoting of sources and such. This week is gonna involve oh so much typing!
17 November 2004
No Side
Well the election is over. Bush won. I actually spent quite awhile thinking and working on a response which now I don't think I am going to use despite working on it a fair amount. Thus this will be less eloquent then what I had written so sorry about that. Maybe if I am motivated I will put that up sometime later (it is ensconed in my actual journal somewhere).
Anywho...
Bush won. It's not the end of the world. 59 million Americans are not stupid, not bigoted, not whatever. They voted what's right, that's democracy. Be glad we don't have another 2000 fiasco! And the seperation of church and state means that the church does not directly rule (ala Church of England and/or the Catholic church), the fact people vote along the lines of their religious beliefs probably just indicates they actually believe in their said faith! Pretty sure ol' TJ (Thomas Jefferson) said something along those lines back in his day.
Right, so those are my short comments on the whole mess. Randon and scattered cause I am writing this late over a game of Risk (which Filteau is screwing up!) These last 2.5 weeks are heavy with homework. Very heavy. I have nearly 30 pages worth of stuff to write!
I've also been trying to get out and do stuff with people outside of our group (ala the people I game with who are fun but can tell some tales of NHS) and with other folks as well ( :D ).
Now if I can just figure out about a place to live back home and Salt then life will be good. Oh I'd like the Wales trip to run Sunday too.
Politics and my life, what a weird post.
Anywho...
Bush won. It's not the end of the world. 59 million Americans are not stupid, not bigoted, not whatever. They voted what's right, that's democracy. Be glad we don't have another 2000 fiasco! And the seperation of church and state means that the church does not directly rule (ala Church of England and/or the Catholic church), the fact people vote along the lines of their religious beliefs probably just indicates they actually believe in their said faith! Pretty sure ol' TJ (Thomas Jefferson) said something along those lines back in his day.
Right, so those are my short comments on the whole mess. Randon and scattered cause I am writing this late over a game of Risk (which Filteau is screwing up!) These last 2.5 weeks are heavy with homework. Very heavy. I have nearly 30 pages worth of stuff to write!
I've also been trying to get out and do stuff with people outside of our group (ala the people I game with who are fun but can tell some tales of NHS) and with other folks as well ( :D ).
Now if I can just figure out about a place to live back home and Salt then life will be good. Oh I'd like the Wales trip to run Sunday too.
Politics and my life, what a weird post.
03 November 2004
01 November 2004
Vote
So yea, go vote. Despite what the idiots may say it doesn't matter who you vote for so long as you vote. And if anyone tells you that you voted the "right" way smack them. Seriously that ticks me off. And also, every election is equally important. This one is no more so. But like I said what matters is that you vote.
I voted awhile ago, if you are wondering who then you need to reread this. What did I do on election day? I watched "The Girl Next Door" which I highly recommend. So after you vote go do that.
And those of you with a significant other, be happy. You're lucky.
Jolan Tru.
I voted awhile ago, if you are wondering who then you need to reread this. What did I do on election day? I watched "The Girl Next Door" which I highly recommend. So after you vote go do that.
And those of you with a significant other, be happy. You're lucky.
Jolan Tru.
29 October 2004
Life, News, and Swedish Monarchies
Sooooooooooo, I finished rough draft numero uno of my 8-10 page paper for World War Two in Europe so I am taking a break now for the night to give a long entry with lots of nicely planted links to various things you might want to check out.
First off, the lively, lovely, can we get it over with already(?!?) elections. I was pointed to a curious site called Slate where I found one of the coolest things. An election scorecard (please note the one linked to here is for the morning of October 29th, to find the latest one, go to the Slate frontpage, then Campaign 2004 and look for the newest scorecard in the list of articles given) is given for the nation. Now currently they have Kerry ahead for the first time since I started looking. This is amazingly part of Wisconsin. Never thought our paltry few electoral votes would count for much but apparently the cheese-heads may help decide the election! Scary thought there eh?
What actually makes me wonder more though is when you look at the map notice just how much of the country is red. Yup, you got it, well over half (about 30) states are solidly for Bush. This means if Kerry wins territorily he will have taken it with a small chunk of America. Let's face it, Bush controls the Midwest, the Great Plains and the South. All Kerry has is the East Coast and the West Coast. Does it feel like a gyp to those of us in the middle that he has much less territory that wants him? Granted the land doesn't vote but well if Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas would have a few more kids we wouldn't see a Democrat in the White House for decades. Funny thing I noticed too was that Alaska is completely in for Bush. I guess the Alaskans don't mind his enviromental policy. Funny thing too since it's supposed to be really bad or something right? Then again maybe there is a secret Russo-Canuck Alliance who want to annex them and they would prefer a strong leader.
Who are did I vote for you may be asking? I think I said already so go look. Right now I would probably vote differently so I am hoping things work out well however they turn out. I really have no clue. Irony cannot be stated enough my first presidential election and I don't like either of the two canidates the two parties have provided. Where is John McCain? By the way, why do we only get two viable canidates and why is Ralph Nader so evil? All the pro-Kerry people actually bash his running simply because it hurts them. Apparently if you don't help the party (whichever of the two it may be) then you are anti-American, yadda, yadda, yadda.
POLITICAL CRAP DONE!
Well sorta, apparently Osama bin Laden is alive and well. I wish him the best and hope he can personally speak to some of our US soldiers during rifle practice on how they can help make America safer. The nice thing is he can help out and be a rifle target at the same time. Who says he doesn't care? He gets on tv and tells us that both canidates are dopes (which we already know but nice to see that even radical Muslim terrorists can see it) and that we need something better plus he helps our soldiers by giving a moving target to aim at. What a guy! And I love the turban too, very classy :D
Meanwhile if your head is in the ground you've probably missed the most important stories of the week!
Apple has announced new iPods this week! Specifically the iPod Photo! They have increased battery life (12 and 15 hours) and huge memories (40 and 60 GB) and massive price tags (600 and 700 dollars). Plus color screens, did I mention the color screens? If I didn't they have pretty color screens. Now my poor iPod has a battery life of about 3 hours left in it when fully charged. Yes that's down from the meager 4 it had when I got here. Canti's dying slowly but surely poor little guy. So I have been keeping an eye on the iPods. Whilst this is wonderful news it'd be more wonderful if it cost less so I didn't spend nearly half what I spent to purchase my iMac! Over half if you count the costs for my first iPod. There is also the U2 iPod which aside from the deal to get $50 off on the entire U2 collection (whose total price remains a mystery so as to whether this is a good deal or not is a mystery) does not offer much to buy it. It costs more as well so not real interesting. I await hope that the older original type iPods go down in price so I can get a 12 hour battery lifer for under $200. Doubt I will get that lucky but I can pray.
Star Wars fans please take note this paragraph is for you. If you wasted money on a Hyperspace subscription (not me!) then you will get to see the Episode 3 teaser trailer on November 4th. The rest of America and Canada: if you go see The Incredibles on November 5th you will see the teaser trailer there. People who are too cheap to pay just to see that first little trailer (me!) you can see it online at StarWars.com for free on November 8th. See the SciFiWire link or the teaser poster link here. It's still more then 6 months away but time is ticking down!
I finally used the Tube on Monday. Probably right after I posted the my last entry. I used the newer Jubilee line so they sadly didn't say "Mind the gap" because there was no gap. I was sad. I may have to go in search of that because it amuses me greatly.
Otherwise this week has been totally focused on attempting to do homework. This was greatly hindered when I churned out half the paper mentioned above and then found out that because Mertz doesn't actually help much even tho he assigns us outlines to do, etc that nearly everything I had could not be used and as a result had to start from scratch. Plus we only have one book as a source so I need to find some more sources (mostly non-internet because like many Profs he does not trust it) which is rather hard since in London every library but the smallest crappy ones require enough Letters of Recomendations from Important People (ie the Space Pope, God, members of the Swedish Royal Family, Reverend Coaches, and others whom are so important I am not allowed to even mention their names in this blog). As a result my research abilites are limited (I don't have my super library at home or the admittedly decent library at UWSP to use). Life is tough for researching over here and frankly this is the first time I have had to write many papers at all in college. One does not need to do much of that when you program computers! So I am going through an interesting time academically. Hopefully I can pull out a higher GPA then a B but I am worried at this rate.
Much excitement as White-Wolf will be releasing Exalted: The Fair Folk in just about a month. I really wish we could get Nephilpal to leak us some more juicy tidbits. He is after all writing both on the Fair Folk and Alchemicals (granting that there are NDA enforcing hamsters of death, with death-ray lasers attached to their little heads to keep him from spilling any Alchemical goodies, all he can do is mess with our heads).
Is there more I can write now? Prolly. However I should stop as this is incredibly longish already. I needed a good vent. Life is stressful here and I don't have anyone to walk with. Also in violating my original plan of not trying to find a girl here although the girl in question seems to be more then committed to me not failing (at least that is my pessimistic outlook, let's face it I haven't a clue at all what she thinks!) Paper writing sucks. The EU is a mess, there's a general election insanity which seems to grip all of Europe now as well, and we've discovered that Titan is one giant combustable Molotov cocktail. Which makes me wonder, if we drop Hyugens into it, will we cause the entire surface to ignite or is there no oxygen in any significant form to allow for that? It would really such if we whiped out this great scientific wonder (and great source for volatiles in the future, I've been reading Jovian Chronicles some more, I could go onto that too if I wanted) by the dropping of our first probe there? Tune in Christmas Eve for me on that!
Anyhow I miss Wisconsin, it feels very Octoberish here which makes me rather homesick. At least I have nice parks to walk in (I am in love with them if you haven't already noticed) if noone to walk with. I miss all you folks and Eric you better be ready for that first Tuesday night I am back because I am gonna school you all in Mario Kart.
That's all folks.
Really.
First off, the lively, lovely, can we get it over with already(?!?) elections. I was pointed to a curious site called Slate where I found one of the coolest things. An election scorecard (please note the one linked to here is for the morning of October 29th, to find the latest one, go to the Slate frontpage, then Campaign 2004 and look for the newest scorecard in the list of articles given) is given for the nation. Now currently they have Kerry ahead for the first time since I started looking. This is amazingly part of Wisconsin. Never thought our paltry few electoral votes would count for much but apparently the cheese-heads may help decide the election! Scary thought there eh?
What actually makes me wonder more though is when you look at the map notice just how much of the country is red. Yup, you got it, well over half (about 30) states are solidly for Bush. This means if Kerry wins territorily he will have taken it with a small chunk of America. Let's face it, Bush controls the Midwest, the Great Plains and the South. All Kerry has is the East Coast and the West Coast. Does it feel like a gyp to those of us in the middle that he has much less territory that wants him? Granted the land doesn't vote but well if Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas would have a few more kids we wouldn't see a Democrat in the White House for decades. Funny thing I noticed too was that Alaska is completely in for Bush. I guess the Alaskans don't mind his enviromental policy. Funny thing too since it's supposed to be really bad or something right? Then again maybe there is a secret Russo-Canuck Alliance who want to annex them and they would prefer a strong leader.
Who are did I vote for you may be asking? I think I said already so go look. Right now I would probably vote differently so I am hoping things work out well however they turn out. I really have no clue. Irony cannot be stated enough my first presidential election and I don't like either of the two canidates the two parties have provided. Where is John McCain? By the way, why do we only get two viable canidates and why is Ralph Nader so evil? All the pro-Kerry people actually bash his running simply because it hurts them. Apparently if you don't help the party (whichever of the two it may be) then you are anti-American, yadda, yadda, yadda.
POLITICAL CRAP DONE!
Well sorta, apparently Osama bin Laden is alive and well. I wish him the best and hope he can personally speak to some of our US soldiers during rifle practice on how they can help make America safer. The nice thing is he can help out and be a rifle target at the same time. Who says he doesn't care? He gets on tv and tells us that both canidates are dopes (which we already know but nice to see that even radical Muslim terrorists can see it) and that we need something better plus he helps our soldiers by giving a moving target to aim at. What a guy! And I love the turban too, very classy :D
Meanwhile if your head is in the ground you've probably missed the most important stories of the week!
Apple has announced new iPods this week! Specifically the iPod Photo! They have increased battery life (12 and 15 hours) and huge memories (40 and 60 GB) and massive price tags (600 and 700 dollars). Plus color screens, did I mention the color screens? If I didn't they have pretty color screens. Now my poor iPod has a battery life of about 3 hours left in it when fully charged. Yes that's down from the meager 4 it had when I got here. Canti's dying slowly but surely poor little guy. So I have been keeping an eye on the iPods. Whilst this is wonderful news it'd be more wonderful if it cost less so I didn't spend nearly half what I spent to purchase my iMac! Over half if you count the costs for my first iPod. There is also the U2 iPod which aside from the deal to get $50 off on the entire U2 collection (whose total price remains a mystery so as to whether this is a good deal or not is a mystery) does not offer much to buy it. It costs more as well so not real interesting. I await hope that the older original type iPods go down in price so I can get a 12 hour battery lifer for under $200. Doubt I will get that lucky but I can pray.
Star Wars fans please take note this paragraph is for you. If you wasted money on a Hyperspace subscription (not me!) then you will get to see the Episode 3 teaser trailer on November 4th. The rest of America and Canada: if you go see The Incredibles on November 5th you will see the teaser trailer there. People who are too cheap to pay just to see that first little trailer (me!) you can see it online at StarWars.com for free on November 8th. See the SciFiWire link or the teaser poster link here. It's still more then 6 months away but time is ticking down!
I finally used the Tube on Monday. Probably right after I posted the my last entry. I used the newer Jubilee line so they sadly didn't say "Mind the gap" because there was no gap. I was sad. I may have to go in search of that because it amuses me greatly.
Otherwise this week has been totally focused on attempting to do homework. This was greatly hindered when I churned out half the paper mentioned above and then found out that because Mertz doesn't actually help much even tho he assigns us outlines to do, etc that nearly everything I had could not be used and as a result had to start from scratch. Plus we only have one book as a source so I need to find some more sources (mostly non-internet because like many Profs he does not trust it) which is rather hard since in London every library but the smallest crappy ones require enough Letters of Recomendations from Important People (ie the Space Pope, God, members of the Swedish Royal Family, Reverend Coaches, and others whom are so important I am not allowed to even mention their names in this blog). As a result my research abilites are limited (I don't have my super library at home or the admittedly decent library at UWSP to use). Life is tough for researching over here and frankly this is the first time I have had to write many papers at all in college. One does not need to do much of that when you program computers! So I am going through an interesting time academically. Hopefully I can pull out a higher GPA then a B but I am worried at this rate.
Much excitement as White-Wolf will be releasing Exalted: The Fair Folk in just about a month. I really wish we could get Nephilpal to leak us some more juicy tidbits. He is after all writing both on the Fair Folk and Alchemicals (granting that there are NDA enforcing hamsters of death, with death-ray lasers attached to their little heads to keep him from spilling any Alchemical goodies, all he can do is mess with our heads).
Is there more I can write now? Prolly. However I should stop as this is incredibly longish already. I needed a good vent. Life is stressful here and I don't have anyone to walk with. Also in violating my original plan of not trying to find a girl here although the girl in question seems to be more then committed to me not failing (at least that is my pessimistic outlook, let's face it I haven't a clue at all what she thinks!) Paper writing sucks. The EU is a mess, there's a general election insanity which seems to grip all of Europe now as well, and we've discovered that Titan is one giant combustable Molotov cocktail. Which makes me wonder, if we drop Hyugens into it, will we cause the entire surface to ignite or is there no oxygen in any significant form to allow for that? It would really such if we whiped out this great scientific wonder (and great source for volatiles in the future, I've been reading Jovian Chronicles some more, I could go onto that too if I wanted) by the dropping of our first probe there? Tune in Christmas Eve for me on that!
Anyhow I miss Wisconsin, it feels very Octoberish here which makes me rather homesick. At least I have nice parks to walk in (I am in love with them if you haven't already noticed) if noone to walk with. I miss all you folks and Eric you better be ready for that first Tuesday night I am back because I am gonna school you all in Mario Kart.
That's all folks.
Really.
25 October 2004
50 hours in Belfast
Spent the weekend in Belfast. Despite the general paranoia of people in this group it is an absolutely safe city. Lowest crime rate on the continent (wonder why eh?). The murals were beautiful and I got really lucky when I took a turn off Shankhill Rd and found some of the more famous murals. Sadly didn't make a lucky turn like that off Falls Rd. The Botanic Gardens were wonderful too although I in general love parks and finding another one was a good deal for me. The weather was fantastic, usually it rains alot there like everywhere else in the UK but Friday was cloudy and Saturday was sunny. Rather chilly but that just made it feel like home. Actually the entire city gave a feel of the midwest, maybe a little less well off but they are much more down to earth there then in London. I loved being able to walk down streets and know their history (troubled as it is). Anyhow if you go to Europe don't discount Belfast, Northern Ireland is a wonderful place.
19 October 2004
Legality
While those of you who are pro-Kerry may wholly support any efforts to covert people to your cause this article in the Guardian rather frightens me. Now I am not quite sure how old this so maybe it already made major news in the US, maybe not, but anyhow. I'm just going to copy what I wrote to someone in hopes of clearing things up a bit.
This article
( http://guardian.assets.digivault.co.uk/clark_county/ ) is an effort by the newspaper to get its readership to persuade Americans in Clark County, Ohio to vote how the readers want. Each reader who signs up gets the e-mail of one registered voter of Clark County, Ohio who they can then e-mail. There are several links from that page also arguing why Europe (and the rest of the world) should get as much a say as the US.
Now I've got a couple questions here, some of them somewhat disturbing for me: First, why are the e-mail addresses for listed voters available to the entire world to access? (I will grant my knowledge on laws in this area in very limitied, but if the Guardian can get it, who else can?) Secondly, when did Europe start believing that they have as much say in US elections as the US? I have heard people over here actually say they wish they could vote for us to make sure we vote the right way. I personally believe if you voted, you've done the right thing you cannot vote right or wrong, your duty is simply to vote!
I probably shouldn't be writing this stuff at 2 AM but it bother Jeff too, so it ain't just me (maybe just us tho). For better feelings read the previous entry and for those of you who made comments I responded see that entry.
This article
( http://guardian.assets.digivault.co.uk/clark_county/ ) is an effort by the newspaper to get its readership to persuade Americans in Clark County, Ohio to vote how the readers want. Each reader who signs up gets the e-mail of one registered voter of Clark County, Ohio who they can then e-mail. There are several links from that page also arguing why Europe (and the rest of the world) should get as much a say as the US.
Now I've got a couple questions here, some of them somewhat disturbing for me: First, why are the e-mail addresses for listed voters available to the entire world to access? (I will grant my knowledge on laws in this area in very limitied, but if the Guardian can get it, who else can?) Secondly, when did Europe start believing that they have as much say in US elections as the US? I have heard people over here actually say they wish they could vote for us to make sure we vote the right way. I personally believe if you voted, you've done the right thing you cannot vote right or wrong, your duty is simply to vote!
I probably shouldn't be writing this stuff at 2 AM but it bother Jeff too, so it ain't just me (maybe just us tho). For better feelings read the previous entry and for those of you who made comments I responded see that entry.
Gray and Green
Walked through St. James', Green, and Hyde Parks today. London has such wonderful green spaces, I will surely miss them for years to come. They make me rather nostalgic for when I was a little kid wondering around state parks in Wisconsin and Minnesota (especially one very misty, foggy, and cloudy morning). If you ever go to London you must take some time to check out the parks, they are fantastic. I guess I am just in one of those sombre happy moods I haven't been in for awhile. Everything just seemed to focus it today though, maybe the only thing which could have made it better was snow but that doesn't happen real often. Hope everyone managed to get as nice a day out of today as me, if not go out and walk in Schmeekle (or whatever greenery you local affords you) and enjoy some peace and quiet.
13 October 2004
Measure for Measure
I voted today. Now most of you have to wait til November 2nd but you sure as heck better vote. If you miss because you are out playing cricket and watching (real) football and do not you should be ashamed and I hope the bowler sends a wicked googly your way! :P Anyhow exercise your constitutional rights before the Democratic and Republic parties take them away altogether.
It exists. Enough said. Next time sing the whole song.
A curiousity, have people been getting my Gmails? We have been having browser issues on this end, John's IE being so thoroughly ridden with spy,ad,and pornware that it is virtually unusable, we switched to Fire Fox which has had issues with UWSP e-mail, the tendency being to forward messages and deleting their replies. For instance I sent a survey to a couple people which I think UWSP mail replaced with the original. I am fairly positive I am not Allison I am not good looking enough and I'm the wrong sex if you got that one (and it was messed up as I suspect). I use Gmail pretty religiously now but I am not sure whether UWSP Spamblocker knows I am not a spammer. Right that was a preponderously long and confusing paragraph.
So any news over here? Well my family is visiting this week so I we had a mini-reunion over here. That is really about it. Just the regular old routine. Jeff is shaving using the broken bathroom mirror he "borrowed". It's cooler then ever temp. wise. I have been trying to get out and do stuff with people, mostly within our group cause I am still not really extroverted enough to get to know other people.
It looks like I might have an apartment whence I return to Point so hopefully Twism's finances will hold thru so all I have to do is come back and sign the papers and hand over some money from my already thinned bank accounts. Really hope that works.
Anyhow consider this a randomly pasted (which reminds me, I had a pasty Allison) together attempt to update the two people who occasionally read this blog. Adoring fans or lost websurfers you ask? I'll leave that for the philosphers to decide.
Try tiramisu chocolate truffles, your life will be better for it. Or read 1st Corinthians. Or both.
It exists. Enough said. Next time sing the whole song.
A curiousity, have people been getting my Gmails? We have been having browser issues on this end, John's IE being so thoroughly ridden with spy,ad,and pornware that it is virtually unusable, we switched to Fire Fox which has had issues with UWSP e-mail, the tendency being to forward messages and deleting their replies. For instance I sent a survey to a couple people which I think UWSP mail replaced with the original. I am fairly positive I am not Allison I am not good looking enough and I'm the wrong sex if you got that one (and it was messed up as I suspect). I use Gmail pretty religiously now but I am not sure whether UWSP Spamblocker knows I am not a spammer. Right that was a preponderously long and confusing paragraph.
So any news over here? Well my family is visiting this week so I we had a mini-reunion over here. That is really about it. Just the regular old routine. Jeff is shaving using the broken bathroom mirror he "borrowed". It's cooler then ever temp. wise. I have been trying to get out and do stuff with people, mostly within our group cause I am still not really extroverted enough to get to know other people.
It looks like I might have an apartment whence I return to Point so hopefully Twism's finances will hold thru so all I have to do is come back and sign the papers and hand over some money from my already thinned bank accounts. Really hope that works.
Anyhow consider this a randomly pasted (which reminds me, I had a pasty Allison) together attempt to update the two people who occasionally read this blog. Adoring fans or lost websurfers you ask? I'll leave that for the philosphers to decide.
Try tiramisu chocolate truffles, your life will be better for it. Or read 1st Corinthians. Or both.
30 September 2004
The Erupting Debate Which Killed Fae
So some randoms news for you all. First off, Mt. Saint Helens keys off on the debate later tonight by stirring up the west coast. I guess mother nature isn't satisfied with driving all Floridians out of Florida she seems to be trying to drive more Americans from their homes. Will it help make the elections saner? One can only pray. Maybe it can be debate hot seat on St. Helens :D
I watched Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 last night. Very good stuff, each movie had its strongpoints although I think overall I preffered 1. Some of the blood spraying could be scaled back and the whole hospital scene (you know which one) probably didn't need to be included. Anyhow glad I got a chance to watch them.
Finally, check out the Fae who are the latest Exalted hardcover. Def. the prettiest cover yet. I am excited although I'll prolly get it right after I get home. I'd give you a close up but the ISH cyber cafe computers are being crappy so maybe when I am back in our room. Anyhow, that is all. I wish I could see SNL's version of the debate!
I watched Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 last night. Very good stuff, each movie had its strongpoints although I think overall I preffered 1. Some of the blood spraying could be scaled back and the whole hospital scene (you know which one) probably didn't need to be included. Anyhow glad I got a chance to watch them.
Finally, check out the Fae who are the latest Exalted hardcover. Def. the prettiest cover yet. I am excited although I'll prolly get it right after I get home. I'd give you a close up but the ISH cyber cafe computers are being crappy so maybe when I am back in our room. Anyhow, that is all. I wish I could see SNL's version of the debate!
23 September 2004
Avoiding Karaoke
Yea, that's what I'm doing. Not really up for a re-hash of "I got you babe". I did my hard time already. Prolly will go, everyone else seems to be heading in that direction from our group, rather find the Canadian girls (cause they're cute and quiet!!) even tho I can't remember their names. Called Claudia Clare and they don't even have a Clare in their group, that had to go over well. Oy. Anywho, we seem to get louder and more insensitive to the people around us as we go. I was hoping as a group that this trip would be fairly strong proof that Americans usually aren't that loud, rude, arrogant, or whatever most of the time. We seem to be doing the opposite. Granting even I've said dumb things a couple times, there are days I seem incapable of saying smart things, alas now Europeans (and Canadians) have to put up with it. Poor them. At least I know why the continent hates us so much, we get real breakfasts not a single roll and some random spread. They could just ask and we'd airlife over a couple thousand Egg McMuffins a day. Or better yet their McDonalds on every other corner could make them for them!
Right. So a couple things to get noted, both AmbrosiaSW and White Wolf have gotten new webboards as of late. I haven't hit Ambrosia's in awhile due mainly to growing out of that type of group except at random bored moments (such as late) but their olds boards were always impressive and these new ones are quite good as well. WW has slowly been ironing the bugs out of their boards considering how major an upgrade they have made. I am happy with both although I don't have much to say or read on either these days.
Fair Folk will reportedly come out a whopping 328 pages in length second only to the core book for Exalted. No wonder ProductionBrian had all but dissapeared.
BTW I was going to try and upload some pictures to the blog which happily support such things these days but it requires a program to do that directly and I can't do that on John's comp. John has about half the group's pictures so he has a nice collection to work with posting wise. I may try and dump them onto my old geocities page and link from there. Kinda depends on how motivated I am.
I have picked up 4 or 5 books now for Jovian Chronicles so I have some side reading to do since I have pretty much finished all the books I brought barring the 9/11 Commission Report which I have gotten bogged down in just about halfway thru. JC is a pretty interesting concept but I am frustrated you need SilCore rulebook to know the system or use OGL D20 which is hardly supported outside of the core sourcebook. It also needs a decent spell check run and slightly better layout in regards to combat stats for ships and exos (ie mecha). It's impossible to figure out how many exos the ships carry! I guess I am rather spoiled by WW's fantastic editing and art departments although this is mainly ProductionBrian. However it's an interesting setting as I said and very cool mecha. Gundams in space which observe the laws of physics! Kinda annoying to have to explain it to each and every other person in our group when I am reading one of the books in class. It's so incredibly hard for people to grasp for whatever reason not using a computer or anything! But I did figure out why I enjoy RPGs so much even if I don't get to play them, it gives my, at times, over-active imagination a new world to play in so it's kinda like a new jungle gym for it to swing around on.
Speaking of gaming I did find a group that plays here, they actually meet literally right next to ISH at a pub called The Green Man. So I am in a d20 Modern game with a bunch of Brits. The GM, Rob, is hilarious. It'd take too long to explain but his accent really helps.
Is there anything else I can ramble about now I wonder? I think I am gonna go over to the ISH pub, where karaoke is at, around 10 and just slip quietly in for a bit. I should go see if Lindsay wants to go but she was complaining about a headache so I don't want to pester her. I am so indecisive when it comes to the opposite sex :/
I adjusted my post times to GMT-Greenwich time so I think it now now on London time but not quite postive, see when I went to post tonight it said I started at 8:05 PM which isn't exactly right, I was sprawled out on my bed, in the dark, listening to my iPod at the moment. Maybe some more fiddling will be involved.
Tommorow we go to the Globe theatre to see "Much Ado About Nothing". We're going as groundlings so it better not be raining or super chilly or I'm gonna be pretty darned unhappy. Standing for 2-3 hours in cold wet conditions are not on my top list of things to do in London. Boo! Plus it's a long walk back too. I should note I am holding off on using the Tube here as long as possible because it's far better exercise to walk places here and I'll always have enough time to get anywhere in Central London on foot so I can save money and be in better shape! However when we are told we have to be out at a tour at the Globe 3 1/2 hours prior to our performance it's rather annoying especially when we just found out we're standing! (Yea I am complaining for no reason at this point, if it was really bad I could take the Tube. I'll live, I am just venting a tiny bit.)
I have succeeded in beating Mindsweeper 3 times in my life now. The things you do when trying not to type papers. As for taking so long in my life to beat Mindsweeper I will remind you I prefer Macs and the school computers only have Hearts. So that is my excuse, got it? :P
I've learned the basic rules to cricket too. I can't bowl (pitch) because they do it crazy but I could do the rest. It's crazy to watch. I got to see an ametuer match at Lord's Cricket Statium and also got to see the home of the English cricket team who upset the Aussies (alas not there so no live game) whilst I was on the tour. Four fours and they were up 85-1 with only 14 overs! Anyhow you all must cheer for the English going into the world championship versus West Indies. Not sure who's favored but if the English do as well as they did Tuesday they've got it in the bag! BTW if you are wondering they won 262-4 (England) 258-9 (Australia). The number after the dash is a bad thing. I have still not found out if the term "wicked googly" relates at all to cricket.
Right, this must be incredibly long but I don't care much at the moment. I needed a good ramble here and I won't be getting out to Regent's Park anytime soon to write in my journal in the rain (because it always mists/drizzles when I go there to write but I have a good hiding place) so needed an outvent. Whee, rambling, it's not an art, it's a freaking professional sport!
Right. So a couple things to get noted, both AmbrosiaSW and White Wolf have gotten new webboards as of late. I haven't hit Ambrosia's in awhile due mainly to growing out of that type of group except at random bored moments (such as late) but their olds boards were always impressive and these new ones are quite good as well. WW has slowly been ironing the bugs out of their boards considering how major an upgrade they have made. I am happy with both although I don't have much to say or read on either these days.
Fair Folk will reportedly come out a whopping 328 pages in length second only to the core book for Exalted. No wonder ProductionBrian had all but dissapeared.
BTW I was going to try and upload some pictures to the blog which happily support such things these days but it requires a program to do that directly and I can't do that on John's comp. John has about half the group's pictures so he has a nice collection to work with posting wise. I may try and dump them onto my old geocities page and link from there. Kinda depends on how motivated I am.
I have picked up 4 or 5 books now for Jovian Chronicles so I have some side reading to do since I have pretty much finished all the books I brought barring the 9/11 Commission Report which I have gotten bogged down in just about halfway thru. JC is a pretty interesting concept but I am frustrated you need SilCore rulebook to know the system or use OGL D20 which is hardly supported outside of the core sourcebook. It also needs a decent spell check run and slightly better layout in regards to combat stats for ships and exos (ie mecha). It's impossible to figure out how many exos the ships carry! I guess I am rather spoiled by WW's fantastic editing and art departments although this is mainly ProductionBrian. However it's an interesting setting as I said and very cool mecha. Gundams in space which observe the laws of physics! Kinda annoying to have to explain it to each and every other person in our group when I am reading one of the books in class. It's so incredibly hard for people to grasp for whatever reason not using a computer or anything! But I did figure out why I enjoy RPGs so much even if I don't get to play them, it gives my, at times, over-active imagination a new world to play in so it's kinda like a new jungle gym for it to swing around on.
Speaking of gaming I did find a group that plays here, they actually meet literally right next to ISH at a pub called The Green Man. So I am in a d20 Modern game with a bunch of Brits. The GM, Rob, is hilarious. It'd take too long to explain but his accent really helps.
Is there anything else I can ramble about now I wonder? I think I am gonna go over to the ISH pub, where karaoke is at, around 10 and just slip quietly in for a bit. I should go see if Lindsay wants to go but she was complaining about a headache so I don't want to pester her. I am so indecisive when it comes to the opposite sex :/
I adjusted my post times to GMT-Greenwich time so I think it now now on London time but not quite postive, see when I went to post tonight it said I started at 8:05 PM which isn't exactly right, I was sprawled out on my bed, in the dark, listening to my iPod at the moment. Maybe some more fiddling will be involved.
Tommorow we go to the Globe theatre to see "Much Ado About Nothing". We're going as groundlings so it better not be raining or super chilly or I'm gonna be pretty darned unhappy. Standing for 2-3 hours in cold wet conditions are not on my top list of things to do in London. Boo! Plus it's a long walk back too. I should note I am holding off on using the Tube here as long as possible because it's far better exercise to walk places here and I'll always have enough time to get anywhere in Central London on foot so I can save money and be in better shape! However when we are told we have to be out at a tour at the Globe 3 1/2 hours prior to our performance it's rather annoying especially when we just found out we're standing! (Yea I am complaining for no reason at this point, if it was really bad I could take the Tube. I'll live, I am just venting a tiny bit.)
I have succeeded in beating Mindsweeper 3 times in my life now. The things you do when trying not to type papers. As for taking so long in my life to beat Mindsweeper I will remind you I prefer Macs and the school computers only have Hearts. So that is my excuse, got it? :P
I've learned the basic rules to cricket too. I can't bowl (pitch) because they do it crazy but I could do the rest. It's crazy to watch. I got to see an ametuer match at Lord's Cricket Statium and also got to see the home of the English cricket team who upset the Aussies (alas not there so no live game) whilst I was on the tour. Four fours and they were up 85-1 with only 14 overs! Anyhow you all must cheer for the English going into the world championship versus West Indies. Not sure who's favored but if the English do as well as they did Tuesday they've got it in the bag! BTW if you are wondering they won 262-4 (England) 258-9 (Australia). The number after the dash is a bad thing. I have still not found out if the term "wicked googly" relates at all to cricket.
Right, this must be incredibly long but I don't care much at the moment. I needed a good ramble here and I won't be getting out to Regent's Park anytime soon to write in my journal in the rain (because it always mists/drizzles when I go there to write but I have a good hiding place) so needed an outvent. Whee, rambling, it's not an art, it's a freaking professional sport!
21 September 2004
Home
Yea, right now I'm a little homesick. It's tuesday night and no Chi Alpha and no mario kart. Frankly tho I miss everyone tho right now, somehow I just feel very alone in this city of 16 million in my group of 29. Kind of silly isn't it? Anyhow I am thinking of you folks back home and seriously wishing I could be there.
Wholly unrelated here but I need to link it for myself later. Not exactly pleasant either but worth a look. However this is not for the weak hearted.
Wholly unrelated here but I need to link it for myself later. Not exactly pleasant either but worth a look. However this is not for the weak hearted.
19 September 2004
Thames Festival
John got his laptop working in the room with internet so now heh I guess I can be on more which is prolly a bad thing. I don't intend to be on much tho but it is nice to be able to check things. NFL scores at my fingertips! w00t!
Anyhow instead of going to the sports bar to watch the Packers lose to the Bears (but how about them Lions, I guess whilst the Dolphins suck I can cheer for them) I went down to the Thames festival with John, Filteau, and Beth (who got to be doted on by 3 guys but hey she's got John so us others are redundant). It was great, we heard a little live reggae by the Top Cats, I think was what they were called, watched a huge parade where the different elements basically competed to be loudest, and then watched fireworks on the Thames river. Very cool. Ton of walking but I don't mind, I've decided to try and not use the Tube much this semester and instead walk it.
I have found a decent tasting alcohol called Strongbow. It's kind of a cider I guess so that is why I think I enjoy it, it doesn't taste like alcohol. Dun worry I am not becoming a drunk or anything.
BTW you all missed my single and hopefully only kareoke performance. Too bad (or good?) for you. I however was forced :P
Anyhow instead of going to the sports bar to watch the Packers lose to the Bears (but how about them Lions, I guess whilst the Dolphins suck I can cheer for them) I went down to the Thames festival with John, Filteau, and Beth (who got to be doted on by 3 guys but hey she's got John so us others are redundant). It was great, we heard a little live reggae by the Top Cats, I think was what they were called, watched a huge parade where the different elements basically competed to be loudest, and then watched fireworks on the Thames river. Very cool. Ton of walking but I don't mind, I've decided to try and not use the Tube much this semester and instead walk it.
I have found a decent tasting alcohol called Strongbow. It's kind of a cider I guess so that is why I think I enjoy it, it doesn't taste like alcohol. Dun worry I am not becoming a drunk or anything.
BTW you all missed my single and hopefully only kareoke performance. Too bad (or good?) for you. I however was forced :P
13 September 2004
Arrival
London. Finally.
Somehow by hook or by crook or by a fairly absurb amount of incredibly dumb luck I have made it here. Can't say a whole lot about the city itself yet, as I haven't really gotten a chance to explore alas. This due mainly to the fact we stumbled into London late last night due to two simaltaneous flats on our coach right off the Calais-Dover ferry. So while we did see it rain several times already within the 18 or so hours we've actually been here, noone as far as I know has actually gotten a chance to explore the city. I, myself, am hunting for a bookstore, a grocery/convience store, and a gaming place of some sort so that I can maybe get something in whilst away from GASP. I have got quite a bit of time tho so I am not massively rushed. The best thing I have to admit was to be able to unpack all the way and enjoy the view from our very spacious room, with balcony, into Regents Park. Never thought I'd get a room with a nice view of the greenery but can't complain I guess.
Classes have already started today and my first half of the week (Monday/Tuesday) are light but Wed/Thurs are packed for me. Lots of history though so I am hoping I will enjoy this semester. Speaking of history, Normandy was by far my favorite part of the trip. We stayed at a small village college Benerie s/mer (that's nowhere near correctly spelled) right on Juno beach. Literally it has the first house liberated by sea-born Canadian forces. In general I just enjoyed being in a small local place rather then the hustle and bustle of huge cities which was where we mostly were. Reality is that I think I am a small town person and the 12 million odds Frenchmen of Paris have the same big city attitudes of New Yorkers, etc to foreigners and strangers, ie they aren't usually that polite.
Visiting the sites in Normandy was very impressive. I have to say that going to the Omaha beach cemetary for Americans nearly broke me down. The little white crosses just go on and on and on. Most of those men buried there were my age or younger. A number of them had no identification, their crosses reading (this isn't an exact quote sorry) "This honored comrade's indentity rests only with God". A very sobering expierence.
I wished we could have spent more time there but alas only a day and a half on the coast. Never got to St. Lo or any of the places I would have wanted to putter about. I did get to see the Aure River which looks frustratingly hard to cross even though it appears to be 10% water 90% mud. The vertical drop is a problem tho.
So anyhow I am in London now, getting settled in and then I'll try and write a little more. Internet is fairly cheap here (£10 for 6 hours which is approx $20 US I'll admit but that is not bad for England believe it or not) so I may write with a decent regularity if time permits.
Somehow by hook or by crook or by a fairly absurb amount of incredibly dumb luck I have made it here. Can't say a whole lot about the city itself yet, as I haven't really gotten a chance to explore alas. This due mainly to the fact we stumbled into London late last night due to two simaltaneous flats on our coach right off the Calais-Dover ferry. So while we did see it rain several times already within the 18 or so hours we've actually been here, noone as far as I know has actually gotten a chance to explore the city. I, myself, am hunting for a bookstore, a grocery/convience store, and a gaming place of some sort so that I can maybe get something in whilst away from GASP. I have got quite a bit of time tho so I am not massively rushed. The best thing I have to admit was to be able to unpack all the way and enjoy the view from our very spacious room, with balcony, into Regents Park. Never thought I'd get a room with a nice view of the greenery but can't complain I guess.
Classes have already started today and my first half of the week (Monday/Tuesday) are light but Wed/Thurs are packed for me. Lots of history though so I am hoping I will enjoy this semester. Speaking of history, Normandy was by far my favorite part of the trip. We stayed at a small village college Benerie s/mer (that's nowhere near correctly spelled) right on Juno beach. Literally it has the first house liberated by sea-born Canadian forces. In general I just enjoyed being in a small local place rather then the hustle and bustle of huge cities which was where we mostly were. Reality is that I think I am a small town person and the 12 million odds Frenchmen of Paris have the same big city attitudes of New Yorkers, etc to foreigners and strangers, ie they aren't usually that polite.
Visiting the sites in Normandy was very impressive. I have to say that going to the Omaha beach cemetary for Americans nearly broke me down. The little white crosses just go on and on and on. Most of those men buried there were my age or younger. A number of them had no identification, their crosses reading (this isn't an exact quote sorry) "This honored comrade's indentity rests only with God". A very sobering expierence.
I wished we could have spent more time there but alas only a day and a half on the coast. Never got to St. Lo or any of the places I would have wanted to putter about. I did get to see the Aure River which looks frustratingly hard to cross even though it appears to be 10% water 90% mud. The vertical drop is a problem tho.
So anyhow I am in London now, getting settled in and then I'll try and write a little more. Internet is fairly cheap here (£10 for 6 hours which is approx $20 US I'll admit but that is not bad for England believe it or not) so I may write with a decent regularity if time permits.
07 September 2004
Paris...
Well I am currently hiding out at the FIAP (sp?) in Paris. I have managed to avoid any major diplomatic incidents so far. I visited Napoleon today and got to see the French musee d'le armee. Frankly I want to head to Normandy but most of the rest of the group is thrilled with this city. The metro is nice but people need to take baths cause apparently people stink massively here. This is blog is coming courtesy of Andy's laptop. So go check his site out or something. Also I have the LJ from Casey another member on this trip. So you can get another opinion of this jaunt. Going to keep this short cause I want to get some sleep before we head to Versaille, looks more and more like I will have fairly easy web access this trip just not sure about Gmail unless Andy gets internet with his laptop.
01 September 2004
Lost I Was
Yea so yesterday I managed to get lost by myself in Venice. Italians need cities which have normal streets and no canals! Thankfully, by the grace of God, I managed to end up where I wanted to go. I say by the grace of God cause I sure didn't cause myself to get there. Anyhow I am not enjoying Italy as much as Austria or Germany, it's just not as well managed here in all respects and things are rather ragged not even around the edges but even in the center! So if planning to go to Europe stay in the nice cool north!
So Apple released iMac G5s those punks! I want one! And they did it in Paris a week too early! Boo! Another reason to hate the French (sorry Nathan). Two days and then Switzerland and someplace I'll rather enjoy. I have to admit tho I am excited for Normandy as well not so much Paris tho. Big cities are kinda meh at the moment (London will be different however).
Lesse anything else to talk about whilst I kill time waiting for the girls to get done (since this place denies both Gmail and UWSP mail, try turning ActiveX on when the controls are in Italian! Or switching Languages!). Hoping that I can get Gmail to work in London if not I may have to hold out hope that anyone who'd e-mail me with it checks the blog and uses my UWSP e-mail which has to work in London.
Good news for Teng, I am a lighter-weight then he is. It only took 3 glasses of wine to give me a buzz. Wasn't trying too or anything so it was a major surprise. I didn't like the feeling either so I am seriously surprised that people do this and worse to themselves. Dumb. I found a white wine which isn't completely disgusting so finally have something I can drink with other people and not hate it.
I am gonna head out now supper soon. See ya.
So Apple released iMac G5s those punks! I want one! And they did it in Paris a week too early! Boo! Another reason to hate the French (sorry Nathan). Two days and then Switzerland and someplace I'll rather enjoy. I have to admit tho I am excited for Normandy as well not so much Paris tho. Big cities are kinda meh at the moment (London will be different however).
Lesse anything else to talk about whilst I kill time waiting for the girls to get done (since this place denies both Gmail and UWSP mail, try turning ActiveX on when the controls are in Italian! Or switching Languages!). Hoping that I can get Gmail to work in London if not I may have to hold out hope that anyone who'd e-mail me with it checks the blog and uses my UWSP e-mail which has to work in London.
Good news for Teng, I am a lighter-weight then he is. It only took 3 glasses of wine to give me a buzz. Wasn't trying too or anything so it was a major surprise. I didn't like the feeling either so I am seriously surprised that people do this and worse to themselves. Dumb. I found a white wine which isn't completely disgusting so finally have something I can drink with other people and not hate it.
I am gonna head out now supper soon. See ya.
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