The Politics of Burning Sacred Books

All 1st amendment arguments aside, I find the recent ruckus and international outrage over some rabble-rousing Florida pastor's plan to burn Korans on 9/11 utterly hypocritical and revealing. That's because what's not being said about this situation is that he also plans to burn Talmuds. Why is no one denouncing the planned burning of the Talmud? Is it ok to burn Jewish sacred texts but not Islamic? Is it acceptable to insult Jews but not Muslims?


Why didn't Obama speak out and denounce the intention of burning Talmuds along with the Koran? What about the Pope? Why didn't he mention the Talmuds along with the Koran in his statement? The UN, the UK government, and on and on and on.


Why?
Well, I'm pretty sure I know why. I suspect you know why. I know no one is going to say it because, well it's not politically correct to say these things, is it?


Actually, Fidel Castro says it. Fidel has even spoken out and told Iran's leader Ahmadinejad, "Stop Slandering the Jews". No other world leader has even whispered it.


It is Rosh Hashanah today and although I am a secular Jew, I am in a reflective mood.

Nurse Jeffrey - The Bitch Tapes

I've just discovered this hilarious little digital spinoff of the excellent House MD TV series.
It's available on the Fox website for US based viewers I've been told. I found it on YouTube. A quick search will get you the whole 13 episode series.

Basically Nurse Jeffrey was a very minor bit character on a House episode where House fleetingly mocked him with the old canard about male nurses. The totally psycho but lame disproportional response by Nurse Jeffrey is the basic premise of the spinoff series.

Very clever, very amusing, very evil, and very politically incorrect. Dontcha just love that?

Children

 Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of
 Children."

 And he said:

 Your children are not your children.

 They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

 They come through you but not from you,

 And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

 You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

 For they have their own thoughts.

 You may house their bodies but not their souls,

 For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

 You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like 

you.

 For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

 You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are 

sent forth.

 The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He 

bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

 Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

 For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also 

the bow that is stable.

-- Kahlil Gibran

Inception

I've tried 3 times to watch this film and see why people keep raving about it. I'm sorry but I just can't see what they see in it. I think it's BORING crap. I guess I'm not all that impressed with CGI and I've read too much good literature and seen too many brilliant films to be fooled by the Emperor's New Clothes any more.


Don't get me wrong, I do have a taste for crumby movies sometimes - but the one thing I do demand of them is a coherent storyline. And Inception simply does not have that. Huge plot holes all over and not in any forgivable way. You think blurring the lines of real and not real in a film to deliberately confuse the viewer makes it deep and meaningful? Nah, in this case it's smoke and mirrors to cover bullshit and lousy values. And finally, you should never, never, never need Cliff Notes for a film.


My idea of a film which does a marvelous job of spinning a compelling story where you don't know what is real and what is not, in a dreamlike way, is "Picnic at Hanging Rock". Compelling is the appropriate word for the film, the story, and the experience.  Sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, aboriginal dream-time - beautiful film-making.


So, I'm sorry but I give up on Inception. It's terribly overrated. 

Wedding Invitation!!

Today the invitation to Joanna and Andrew's wedding finally arrived in the mail! It's been a long and fraught process getting them ordered, assembled, addressed, and sent out and I'm very relieved to to see that task completed.

That said, the invitations are beautiful and elegant.

(Of course the idiots at UK Customs/UK Mail felt required to open our invitation before delivering it, just to make sure there was no terrorist threat inside.)

Bussels

Asti and I drove to Brussels early Tuesday morning to apartment hunt for her prior to her starting a new contract there on the following Monday. She was incredibly lucky to find a charming place in a stylish elevator building in the medieval part of the city. The area is filled with cafes offering inexpensive but good food and drinks daytime and music at night. Also a vast selection of excellent restaurants, artisanal shops, antiques, and museums. Streets are cobblestone and immaculate. You can smoke in bars and cafes and outdoor restaurants so it's all extremely civilized.

Photo of breakfast we had at local boulangere:

Frites stand along the boulevard:

You can see the rest of the photos I took in Brussels here

Blame Canada

June 23, 2010, 2:41 PM
Earthquake Shakes New York:

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck north of Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon, rattling buildings as far away as Vermont, Albany and even New York City.


CNN

5.5 magnitude quake strikes Canada; no major damage

[Updated at 2:55 p.m.] There has been no major damage reported so far from an earthquake that hit Canada today, the city of Toronto said in a press release.

"In our initial assessment, there has been no major damage to City infrastructure. Further investigations are taking place to confirm," the statement said. "The Toronto Transit Commission and Transportation Services have reported that there has been no damage to their infrastructure or interruptions to service.

"The City’s Emergency Operations Centre is up and running in preparation for the G20 so the City is uniquely prepared to respond to the event. We will continue to monitor the situation and will report as necessary."

Wales

Just returned from a holiday/shake-out trip to North Wales in the new car. The Honda handled it with grace and comfort and really good mileage. I think I want to replace the wiper blades but that's fussiness on my part.


The photos can be seen here:     http://www.flickr.com/photos/37159912@N00/sets/72157624253518622/

Shrek Forever After

I just saw Shrek Forever After and it was a happy ending to the series. They pulled the quality back up and regained the snappy humour of the original. Just a good, funny, clever film. Plus, as far as I'm concerned, the kitty still steals the show!

Advice

Hot Tub Time Machine

Since this film was released, I've thought, what a piece of rubbish that must be. But tonight I was bored, so bored that I started watching it. And it was amusing, and a funny ending that I enjoyed. 


::sigh::


Yeah, I'm easily amused. But this film turned out to be surprisingly good.

Holiday in Praia da Rocha, Portugal

Asti and I just returned from a few sunny days in Praia da Rocha, Portugal in the Algarve. Great vacation - great sun, great food, great wine. Beautiful place with lovely people.

Click on the photo to see the whole photo collection.

Flood of Spam Comments from China

I've resisted setting a word verification (captcha) on my blog for several years despite the increasing amount of spam posted as comments. In the beginning, the spam were comments with links to commercial sites ie porn, meds, get rich quick however, that's all changed now and for the past year or so the comments posted were solely Chinese ideogram spam. I'm tired of it and there's no other way to stop it than to require all comments be verified.

I hate spam and profoundly loathe its senders.

Speak Out for Freedom of Speech

Overheard in New York - on the subway

Angry commuter on cell phone ...

What the hell do you mean my flight has been cancelled?!?!
What kind of dog and pony show are you running with this airline?!?!
Give me one good reason…… did you just say a cloud of volcanic ash is spreading over Europe… seriously?
Okay, that’s good enough for me! Thanks for your time!

I thought Avatar was crap but this review details it so eloquently ;)

I hate Thunderbird

Curses upon Thunderbird and Mozilla! I hate them both. I wish them and all their minions 1000 years burning in hell. I trusted them when they told me I needed to update Thunderbird today, let Thunderbird update itself - and the bastards lost a mail folder's entire set of subfolders - which were where I stored ALL the emails from family and close friends. Arrrghhhhhh!!!!!They completely deleted them, they are gone, disappeared, not there - and yes, I checked in the application date area where Thunderbird stores mail.

Bastards. I hope they fry in hell.

Mothers Day in the UK

Astrid took me to Bath for a Mothers Day outing on Saturday. It's a 2.5 hour drive each way but we'd never been there before, always wanted to, and it combined 2 of my favorite things - an archeological site and a spa.
The archeological site is interesting - a surprising amount of the Roman baths remains including of course, the natural thermal springs. The modern spa built on part of the old site was an interesting experience but more suited to couples. The lavender steam room was really nice and their "lobster pot" style foot baths were amusing - Asti tried that but I don't know that it was a particular sensation. We didn't linger in any of their pools or whirlpools etc as there was too much couple action going on.

The Oscars

I was genuinely surprised and delighted with the Academy Awards this year. Of course, that's because I agreed with almost all their choices, the exceptions being mild and a "fair enough" imo.

I was hoping the Best Animated Film would go to The Secret of Kells - because I'm utterly smitten with this exquisite film. However, I liked Up and it was a charming film of the big-budget/major studio genre. It's just that The Secret of Kells is in the special and unique/haunts you forever genre.

I'm a fan of Sandra Bullock and consider her a class act all the way. So happy to see her get an Oscar.

And then we get to Best Film & Best Director and that was the big but delightful surprise. Hurt Locker is not and never will be "my sort of film" but it was a worthy film and an impressive and touching film. I watched it when it came out because my friend Bo said it was a must see. I trust his taste in films; he's had an almost 20 year successful run in good recommendations to me and hasn't steered me wrong yet. I agreed with his take on the film. I am just so pleased the film and moreso its director received the Best of award.

And now the time has come for my little reservoir of venom. I loathed Avatar and I am immeasurably pleased that neither the film nor its director won the award. When I watched Avatar I had a niggling feeling that it was somehow familiar, a real deja vu feeling. And I was right, it's a tarted up 3D, high end CGI Ferngully - and I loathed Ferngully when that came out, too. I won't continue because I truly thought this film was a piece of crap and the revenue it earned was just one more proof of H.L. Menkin's immortal words, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." Except in this case I would modify it by removing "American" because it applies to all people, everywhere. It was The Emperor's New Clothes. Etc, etc, etc.

Thus ends the lesson.
You may all go.

In other news, my father-in-law is driving down to London at the end of May to spend a few days visiting. We plan to take in a West End musical and have a family dinner somewhere nice afterward. And when he returns home, he will take the coach because he is leaving me his car! Yay! The people rejoice! I will be retiring my little 2 seater Mazda MX5 and driving his Honda from now on. Yay! Comfortable driving. Yay! Easy to get in and out of the car. Yay! It seats 5 in spacious comfort. Yay! It has a truck (boot) that can take an entire major grocery shopping or the normal luggage for 2 people going on a trip (actually it can hold generous amounts of luggage for 4). Yay! It has automatic steering - I'm ok with manual but my daughter only drives auto so finally we can share the driving on our road trips.
Yay!!!!! We can go out and offer friends a lift, we can invite friends to go with us. We can be sociable again.

My little Mazda MX5 is a sweetie. Dependable, thrifty with fuel, pleasant to drive. But we're getting too creaky to climb in and out of its tiny frame. Frankly, it's designed for short people, if you have long legs you are in trouble. And it's a convertible so it leaks a bit in heavy rain and the plastic back window is sort of a dead loss most of the time. I will miss driving with the top down on those rare warm, sunny days but not much else.

Do you speak English?

Exquisite - watch this video immediately!

Words for Women to Live By

1. Aspire to be Barbie - the bitch has everything.

2. If the shoe fits - buy them in every color.

3. Take life with a pinch of salt... A wedge of lime, and a shot of tequila.

4. In need of a support group? - Cocktail hour with the girls!

5. Go on the 30 day diet. (I'm on it and so far I've lost 15 days).

6. When life gets you down - just put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

7. Let your greatest fear be that there is no PMS and this is just your personality.

8. I know I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here.

9. Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself.

10. Don't get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and makes you walk funny.

11. When life gives you lemons in 2009 - turn it into lemonade then mix it with vodka.

12. Remember where ever there is a good looking; sweet, single or married man there is some woman tired of his bullshit!

13. Keep your chin up, only the first 40 years of parenthood are the hardest.

14. If it has Tires or Testicles it's gonna give you trouble.

15. By the time a women realizes her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she's wrong.

Australian Bush Poetry

Where the Dead Men Lie
Barcroft Henry Boake

Out on the wastes of the "Never Never,"
That's where the dead men lie,
There where the heat-waves dance forever,
That's where the dead men lie;
That's where the Earth's lov'd sons are keeping
endless tryst - not the west wind sweeping
feverish pinions, can wake their sleeping -
Out where the dead men lie!

Where brown Summer and Death have mated,
That's where the dead men lie,
Loving with fiery lust unsated,
That's where the dead men lie;
Out where the grinning skulls bleach whitely,
Under the saltbush sparkling brightly,
Out where the wild dogs chorus nightly,
That's where the dead men lie.

Deep in the yellow, flowing river,
That's where the dead men lie,
Under the banks where the shadows quiver,
That's where the dead men lie;
Where the platypus twists and doubles,
leaving a trail of tiny bubbles;
Rid at last of their earthly troubles,
That's where the dead men lie.

East and backward pale faces turning,
That's how the dead men lie;
Gaunt arms stretched with a voiceless yearning,
That's how the dead men lie;
Oft in the fragrant hush of nooning,
Hearing again their mother's crooning,
Wrapt for aye in a dreadful swooning,
That's how the dead men lie.

Nought but the hand of Night can free them;
That's when the dead men fly;
Only the frightened cattle see them -
See the dead men go by;
Cloven hoofs beating out one measure,
Bidding the stockman know no leisure,
That's when the dead men take their pleasure,
That's when the dead men fly.

Ask, too, the never-sleeping drover,
He sees the dead pass by,
Hearing them call to their friends - the plover,
Hearing the dead men cry.
Seeing their faces stealing, stealing,
Hearing their laughter pealing, pealing,
Watching their grey forms wheeling, wheeling
Round where the cattle lie.

Strangled by thirst and fierce privation -
That's how the dead men die
Out on "Moneygrub's" furthest station,
That's how the dead men die;
Hardfaced greybeards, youngsters callow,
Some mounds cared for, some left fallow,
Some deep down, yet others shallow,
Some having but the sky.

"Moneygrub" as he sips his claret
Looks with complacent eye
Down at his watch-chain, eighteen-carat,
There in his club hard by:
Recks not that every link is stamped with
Names of the men whose limbs are cramped with
Too long lying in grave-mould, camped with
Death where the dead men lie.

Crazy Cats

Charles Manson was 5'2"
That says so much, explains so much

SysAdmin appreciation day

Brilliant Ad Campaign by Frontier Airlines

Watch them all!!

W8ing4Godot

W8ing4Godot from 15 Second Film Festival on Vimeo.

This is the cutest commercial I've seen in a long time - for Tea

Funniest video I've seen in ages

The Downfall of Agile Hitler

Secret video footage of the Nazi's last agile planning meeting: Hitler goes crazy when he learns that his team has not been following the tenets of the agile manifesto..

Top 50 job interview questions answered the way they should be

With many thanks to Examiner.com (where you can find this and much, much more!)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the world of ambiguity.

Job interviews are often filled with unnecessary questions and ambiguity. The problem is so common that I often dream about the opportunity to apply for a job I don't want just to see how it unfolds. Based on the top 50 interview questions available at Trader's Psychology (the undisputed leader of all things Job Interview), I have provided an example of how that interview might go down:

1. Tell me about yourself:
Do you want the whole thing or just bits and pieces. I have a very 'storied' past.

2. Why did you leave your last job?
I didn't. It left me.

3. What experience do you have in this field?
I have worked in it.

4. Do you consider yourself successful?
Yes.

5. What do co-workers say about you?
I've never asked them to talk about me.

6. What do you know about this organization?
That you have a job opening.

7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
I have read the news and I watch public television and listen to public radio.

8. Are you applying for other jobs?
Not at the moment, but I applied for tons of jobs earlier this week.

9. Why do you want to work for this organization?
I don't recall saying I did. Do you already know why you want me to work for you?

10. Do you know anyone who works for us?
No, if I did, I probably wouldn't have to sit through this BS.

You can read the rest of the questions & answers at http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3040-Minneapolis-Life-in-the-Cubicle-Examiner~y2009m4d1-Top-50-job-interview-questions-answered-the-way-they-should-be

It's been a long crazy month since I last posted on here. My son Andrew & his fiance Joanna visited us over the long Thanksgiving Day weekend. Great to see them again, pity the weather was lousy but that's London in November for you.

My manager at work - ugh, less said the better. She's an obsessive micro-manager/backseat driver/passive aggressive bully type who fills empty time with endless pressured make-work. I'll leave at the end of my contract (or sooner if I can). No amount of money is worth that sort of abuse.

Today is my birthday.

So starts the holiday season. I need to send emails to friends to catch up since I've gone silent lately. Need to send out Christmas cards.

I really need to get a new desk chair.

And now, good night.

Woke up this morning to a working internet connection and the news that we have a new President. I'm hoping for the best now.  Especially because Obama has majorities in both House & Senate. (One wishes the Brits would learn a lesson from the US and throw out Gordon Brown and Labour - but it would take energy and effort, putting your money where your mouth is, and Brits don't do that. Their forte is moaning, blamecasting, and bullying.)

People generally get the government they deserve.  I think this political sea change in the US has brought us back to where we should be.

Arrgh! My ISP is having a DNS "major issues" so I can't connect to US sites - or maybe 80% of the internet or something horrible. Nightmare.

YES!!
My residence visa was approved - passport (and documents) arrived in the mail today.

You need to watch The Secret Life of Bees. Exquisite film. And Queen Latifah once again is magical.

So finally "only" three months after I applied for my new visa under their premium same day service for £950 (almost $2,000 for you in the states), the UK Border Agency admitted to my MP's office that they had made a decision on my application and would contact me with the result in due course.

This comes after they told us the day I applied that everything was in order and I should just go have a cup of coffee while they glued it into my US Passport. 15 minutes later everything changed as they admitted they had "misplaced" my file and couldn't do anythign without it. Of course the concept of looking for it never occured to them until weeks later when my MP's office demanded something be done about locating the file. Then it became a major case of CYA and try to pretend it wasn't anything to do with them, that they needed to make further inquiries to assure themselves that Alan & I were genuinely married, etc.

Do you miss the old Soviet State? Pine no more, welcome to socialist Britain.

Oh my god! This is so amazing and fantastic - I found my best friend after we'd been separated and lost track of each other for 30 years. And, like real best friends, it's as if we were never apart, it's still exactly the same. Oh my god - it's Barb & Irma again! Yay!!!

I'm almost stunned with delight. She is, too. We've been looking for each other and checking the internet and finally luck was with us and we found each other again.

We've both traveled far away from our roots in the Bronx, New York. Irma ended up in Buenos Aires and I, of course in London.

We've already exchanged long middle of the night catch-up emails and plan a long phone conversation on Saturday. And yes, I'm already checking air fares to Argentina - it's the ideal trip for this winter since it will be warm and sunny there in February.

I'm too overwhelmed still to write more but had to shout it this morning.

What a surprise, another 5607 crap emaiils downloading now. This is getting really ugly

Ugh, finally got all the crap mail downloaded, marked, and removed to the trash. The final tally is over 20,000! All returned mail from some bastard spammer who spoofed my address. You would think sysadmins would know how to check the real sender address by now. But no, lazy, slovenly mail is the rule of the internet.
What a time wasting nightmare that's been. And probably more to come.

Thunderbird is currently downloading over 10,000 emails for me right now. Yes, 10,000 emails - all SPAM related. Someone spoofed my email address on some spam and voila, I'm getting 10,000 undeliverable notifications.
I really believe in the physical punishment for the people who do this. Very psinful physical punishment.

OMG! I just -finally- watched Frequency. What a film, fabulous. For years friends have told me to watch it and somehow I just never thought it was my sort of film. What an idiot I was. But at least it was a perfect choice for a quiet Sunday night. If you haven't seen it, you should. Really excellent.
IMDB review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186151/

I've been watching a lot of films this summer since with the 2 eye surgeries my ability to read print has been severely limited. I'll be fine once it's all healed but in the interim, reading is not fun-damental. I save my eye strength for work where I must read or die- no choice if I want to keep my job. Although on that front, I have had 2 successful job interviews for a very exciting new position that I want very badly. I'll probably know on Tuesday if they are going to make a job offer. The suspense is killing me. This is a permanant job, not a contract. It's a significant upward step for my career and it's simply the most exciting opportunity. Per their HR dept both interviews produced very good impressions. They interviewed 4 people including me on the first round and then only me on the 2nd. I will be very stunned if I don't get the job. HR said the reason for the decision delay was that the woman who would do the HR paperwork for the hiring was on vacation through Monday and back Tuesday and my agent would get their decision then. Oh man, oh man, as they say, I can almost taste it.

Fingers crossed for this one, boys and girls.

City of Memory

http://www.cityofmemory.org/

City of Memory is an online community map of personal stories and memories organized on a physical geographical map of New York City.

It's a great deal more but it needs a lot more people to add their stories. Please add yours!

So, home from Moorefield Eye Hospital after repeat surgery to reattach the edge of my retina. No tears is the good bit and it looks like that edge simply didn't reattach fully the first time. So extra careful this time to make sure all goes perfectly. 

Phoeey, hate this stuff.

LHC Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment Webcams

There are currently two webcams online

Camera 7: looking at the Underground Experimental Cavern from the Saleve side.
Camera 8: looking out of the window of the 1st Floor of the SCX building that houses the CMS Control room.


http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Just when you thought life was settling down it rises up and smacks you upside the head.

I came home from work today and noticed a few black specks in my right eye's vision. This is a bit frightening for me because that's the eye that just had a detached retina and I just had surgery to correct in July. At 2 follow up visits the doctors assured me it was healing beautifully, perfectly, I was the one who beat the odds and was going to get a full recovery.

Until tonight when I saw those specks. An hour later I suddenly saw a familiar shadow in my right eye's vision - that was it, game over. I knew that shape - it's the retina detaching again.

I did all the sensible things. Called the eye hospital A&E (emergency room for us Yanks). They said come down right now. So I grabbed a cab and went. Two hours and a lot of bright lights and eye drops, etc later, the eye doctor confirmed the retina was starting to detach again. So being a UK hospital they sent me home at 1 am. I have to be back at the hospital at 8 am in the morning when I'll find out if and when they'll re-operate. It's a queue here - who knows if they will take me right into surgery or make me wait days (while the eye gets worse).

I just can't believe this bad luck.

And just when I was going to post how life had settled down. Life was starting to go well. Work was going well, contract was going to be renewed. Who knows what will happen now.

Damn.

So it seems the world didn't end today ;)

Scientists fire up giant atom smasher
Deep beneath the border of France and Switzerland, scientists Wednesday fired up one of the most ambitious experiments ever conceived, firing protons around a 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel to try to unlock the secrets of the universe.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/10/lhc.collider/index.html

Go Science! CERN rocks!

So much for the idiot-brigade doomsayers. The sky is not yet falling.

Three weeks now since I expected my agency to deposit my paycheck. Arrgh, what complete incompetence. This is wrecking my budget. It doesn't matter how much you make if you can't rely on them to deposit your funds promptly and reliably.

Food Meme
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating..

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin - only once and it was disgusting. Never again
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips 61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill 76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare/Rabbit
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Tuesday was Alan and my 2nd anniversary. We talked about it and are pleasantly surprised at how well it's worked out. Yes, the usual snags and spats and complaints but we have been friends for so many years I guess we're used to that part by now. On the other hand, reflecting back over 2 years, we're still happy about our decision. We decided to celebrate with a long weekend somewhere in Sept - budget realities and my eye is still healing so this week was not a goer.

Slowly, slowly my eye is healing and recovering from surgery. Vision is still fuzzy. I'll know more when I see the consultant on Tuesday. I have a list of questions for him. But, so far, so good.

In other news it's miserably hot and humid here. So oppressive one wants to do nothing at all. Perhaps sip iced tea, take a shower but that's the limit of ambition.

Give credit where credit is due - the NHS has a few (miniscule but they are there) things right - the Moorfield Vitroretinal Emergency Clinic is one of them. It's absolutely no-frills, low comfort, no amenities BUT, and here is the diamond, the consultants are brilliant, the nurses are top notch, they actually have reasonably up-to-date equipment, and they class ALL retinal detachments are genuine emergencies which need same day surgery. Bravo them! (I'm bringing them a huge box of chocolates to say thank yoou when I go back next week for my 10 day progress assessment)

My eye is healing slowly but steadily. I've started driving locally. No idea how completely restored vision will be yet.

Tuesday I had surgery for a detached retina. Totally unexpected, unplanned.

Had some fuzziness in my right eye on Monday, went right to my optician after work. She spotted the problem immediately and made arrangements for me to be seen by a specialist that night. She insisted on my going then and there - well done! I would have waited till morning normally or gone to the local hospital which is next door to where we live. But she was insistent on my doing it right. Of course, that was the one night Alan wasn't coming straight home from work. He was over in east London sorting out some computer problem for a friend. I phoned him to let him know but being London, he was over 90 min minimum mass transit trip home - I would have to go on my own if I intended to see the doctor before closing time. So I managed to carefully drive home and park, call a taxi and wisk off to St George's Hospital.

The ophthalmologist at St George's confirmed a detached retina and arranged an appointment for me for 8am the next morning at Moorfield Eye Hospital for surgical evaluation. The trick with a detached retina is that it all happens fast so you need surgery immediately to halt further damage and hopefully repair what is already damaged.

Tuesday morning at 7:30 am Alan & I were at Moorfield at the emergency vitroretinal surgery clinic. By 8am a specialist Opthalmologist was confirming I needed immediate laser surgery and scheduling me for the first appointment that afternoon. Three hours later I had the surgery - under local anaesthetic - and by 3pm I was phoning Alan to let him know I was ready to go home. The actual surgery took less than 45 minutes.

So such is my merry week. My right eye will have distorted vision while it slowly heals. It sort of looks like seeing underwater. The itching drives me nuts at times. The 5 different kinds of eye drops used 4 times a day drives me nuts. The head positioning I need to keep in mind and conform to drives me crazy. Etc. But all worth it if I can come out of this with vision restored to normal.

Life's a bitch. And there's no viable alternative. Soldier on, there's nothing to see here, those aren't the droids you're looking for.

Everybody Hates Being Outvictimized

(Native American cop is arresting a black man)
Black man: Fuckin' discrimination, man! Leave me the fuck alone! I ain't done nothin wrong!
Native American Cop: Fuck you! We were oppressed first!
Black man: Apache motherfucker!

(Overheard in New York ---82nd St, Queens)

I passed the "Life in the UK" test today.

Yes, ladies and gents, that is a real, official UK gov't required test you must pass to get a resident visa/citizenship here.

They made me swear to secrecy about the questions. really. ( To protect the guilty, I suppose - I could have played Vegas with these questions and had them rolling in the aisles)

Conductor: This is 81st street. Get off here for the big museum of dead stuff.

--Uptown C Train

Just got an email that an old friend of Alan's has died. Funeral next week. We'll go to the memorial afterwards at the pub to toast her memory. I remember her as a rather nice, funny old woman. She was a local Councillor and stood for the environment in a very practical and sensible manner. She was a smoker, a fellow exile. (No she didn't die from smoking!)

Update on the burn. I've never had a burn like this before. Usually the skin gets a bit red or at worst, I get blisters, which usually break) and then it gets scabby and starts to heal. This time, no visible blisters. The skin is a dark reddish brown and swollen where it was burned and I suspect the blisters are deep below. It hurts. It hurts a hell of a lot.

So, deciding to take advantage of the much lauded NHS "free" medical care which I pay vast amounts of my tax money into, I stopped at the A&E walk in clinic. The so-called medical person who looked at my hand advised me, "that's burned innit?". No shit, Sherlock. So what did he propose to do about it? A nice perscription burn cream to take away the sting and pain? Oh no, he suggested "don't do anything rough with it" and "let nature take its course". And that I should take some paracetomol is the pain kept me from sleeping. Nothing else, not even some sensible advice like wash gently to keep it clean.

Waste of my time. This is a serious burn. The NHS can be good at times but sadly, most of the time they are little better than the witchdoctor.

It took over 5 hours of iced wraps and painkiller tablets to bring the burn pain down to function level. It's 9:30 pm now and the hand still hurts and is stiff. There aren't blisters yet but the skin is swollen in the pattern of the boiling water inpact.

damn, damn, damn! I burned my right hand this morning making coffee. Splashed boiling water all over the top of my hand.

I stayed calm and grabbed for the "cooling burn spray" we keep handy on the kitchen counter. What garbage! Useless and didn't work. I turned on the cold water and stuck my hand under the running water as fast as I could. Now that is relief. I don't know why the spray didn't work but it didn't. So here I am an hour later, after soaking the hand in bowls of ice and water to cool down the skin and prevent further damage. And it still hurts like hell.

And so tomorrow my little "vacation" comes to an end. Wednesday morning at 9am will find me at my new job. That's the good news. The bad news is that my agency has a monthly pay schedule. I know that a monthly pay cycle is the general rule in the UK, especially for higher level jobs, but I've been lucky in that, up till now my jobs paid on a weekly basis. The money is obviously exactly the same either way. The only difference is that I have to wait a l-o-n-g time for my first paycheck and have to budget a bit more carefully.

In other news, the time has come for me to make a decision on my name. Do I switch over to my married name completely or do I keep using my former name which most people know and use? If I intend to switch, I need to call the US Embassy tomorrow, sort out the details, and overnight my passport to them to replace. Then at the end of July, I will be able to renew my visa in my married name - the UK authorities will only issue a visa in the name on my passport.

Whatever I decide, July is going to be a very tight financial month and August only a little less so. In August I'll have the pleasure of paying the UK gov't £1000 (yes, one thousand pounds sterling) to issue me my new visa. All so that I can continue working and paying that same UK government my obscene taxes for which they provide amazingly little in return. (Other than the opportunity to loathe Gorden Brown.)

Despite Alan's ambitious plans for spending my salary, I plan to pay off my credit cards as fast as I can and do some serious saving to create a reasonable safety cushion. I've already made a mark in the sand on IBgames. I'm not putting a single penny of my money into it. I know the annual company taxes/business license/whatever it is will soon be due. Last year, we paid half the cost because the claim was made that the company's income was only barely enough to cover its expenses and no funds were being used to pay the CEO a salary. This is bullshit. She is actually withdrawing a small but tidy amount every month. (An interesting point to me since ALL income in excess of the data center monthly charge were supposed to be divided evenly between the CEO, Alan, and me but I've never seen 1 penny out of it.) So I've informed Alan that when the bill arrives from the Isle of Man for the annual company accounts, the CEO will have to fund the £2-3,000 it runs. If she can't, then the company will have to dissolve or find some other source of funds.

Anyway, I had a lovely day in Calais with Asti on Saturday. We had lunch in a restaurant that I would happily recommend to anyone - La Sole Meuniere in Calais, old town near the yacht basin.

I start a new job on Wednesday as a project manager in Disaster Recovery at GlaxoSmithKline. The offices are a 5 minute drive from my house - astounding!

The night too quickly passes

And we are growing old,

So let us fill our glasses

And toast the Days of Gold;

When finds of wondrous treasure

Set all the South ablaze,

And you and I were faithful mates all through the Roaring Days.

Henry Lawson, "The Roaring Days"

How can they not have cottage cheese?

So here I am trying to move to a healthier diet. More fruit and vegetables, less bread and pasta, you know the drill. So I was shopping at Tesco's and for crying out loud, they don't sell plain cottage cheese.

They sell disgusting low-fat cottage cheese with it's plastic texture and taste. They sell plain low fat cottage cheese, low-fat cottage cheese with cheddar, with pineapple (and lots of pineapple juice to make it a soggy goo), with alien vegetable combos, and with corn and tuna and sweet chili - I can't even begin to describe how revolting that sounds to me. And yes, they do sell one variety of regular cottage cheese - with added creme fraiche - which makes it a loose, liquidy, creamy strangeness, tasting like you are eating lumpy cream, forget the cotage cheese.

Ugh! All I wanted was some plain regular cottage cheese to provide protein for my lunches.

But no, not in 3rd world Britain.

You can't even trust your familiar old brands to be safe here - they "localise" the recipes. Thus Cheerios that are sweet from the box, 7UP that is tooth achingly sweet, Heinz ketchup and Hellman's mayonaise that have strong distinct vinegar tangs.

It's not that I am being jingoistic about American products. It's quite a different story on the other side of the channel in France and Belguim ( not to mention Switzerland). Asti & I routinely do day trips over the Channel and shop in the French Hypermarts or the Bruges farmers market and their food is gorgeous.

I've heard a lot of talk about the "New British Cooking" all full of self-praising accolates. It's rubbish. Whatever they make might manage to look pretty but by and large it tastes pretty mediocre or gross. (We won't even start with the cost of food here because that itself is enough to sicken you!)

Not to say you can't go to some restaurants and find fantastic food. You can. We do. I just had dim sum at Yauatcha in Broadwick Street, Soho, London. Oh my god it's fantastic. Must orders: baked venison puffs, almond prawns - and the beef ho fun is to die for!

But sometimes all you want is some cottage cheese for a simple lunch with sliced fresh fruit on top. And fuggeddaboudit, it ain't happening here.

Went to see Cabaret at the Lyric theatre with Asti today. Awesome, awesome, awesome production. The actress playing Sally Bowes was no Liza Minella, not in her dreams; she was adequate and passably good in a few bits. The rest of the cast was ok. The orchestra was great. And the MC, ah the MC...the MC -was- the show and he was fabulous. From the moment he peeked his head out of the dilated iris in the wooden front "curtain" and said Wilkommen! he drew in the audience and had us eating out of his hands - and replying to his demands. No way to describe it, but he was sensationally good. Wow! I am so impressed. And the ending of this version of Cabaret was stunning - they slowly drop their clothes and walk naked into the showers as the clouds of zyklon B swirl. Wow!

In the middle of the night on Thursday (Friday morning at 3:30am) I woke up with terrible chest pain. It was as if someone wrapped a belt around my upper chest and was pulling it tight, along with that I had difficulty breathing. I felt clammy and slightly nauseous and light headed. So of course I thought to myself - is this angina/am I having a heart attack? I also considered, was it just a bad reaction to the aspirin I'd taken about an hour before at 2:30 am? Should I wake up Alan and have him drive me to the hospital just to be safe or should I risk dying rather than feel like a fool with a false alarm. Then the pain got bad enough I didn't care about feeling like a fool. I poked Alan awake and told him I was having chest pain and take me to West Middlesex Hospital (which is basically next door to our estate). Alan was dressed in a flash, and in moments I was in West Mid's A&E where a jobsworth behind the counter nevertheless took my details, slowly found them in the database, printed them out and alerted a passing doctor that I was having chest pain and trouble breathing. (Hold onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen) Within literally 2 minutes I was in a spotless emergency room being hooked up to a EKG machine and other state of the art kit we Americans take for granted but the NHS seems to regard as indulgent and optional. Technicians were taking blood, Emergency room technicians/nurses were getting details and prepping for the doctor who arrived in short order. And - they were all serious, listened to details I had to say, gentle, careful, thorough. The doctor on call that morning was a young woman with fantastic bedside skills who listened and explained lucidly. I'll skip to the end now..it turns out I was not having a heart attack. After 3 hours of intensive checking, testing, 4 sets of blood tests, x-ray, etc they could finid nothing wrong although it was clear to them I had been in extreme pain and brathing distress. The doctor referred me for further testing with a specialty group. However, she explained in detail they could find nothing wrong except that I was anemic as I had told her.
So false alarm? Not really, the pain was absolutely genuine.
Not the way I like to spend my nights. I was exhausted when I got home about 7am and slept most of the day on and off. Of course Alan stayed home - his night was also disrupted. I am unkind enough to have wished he went to work anyway since I just wanted to be alone and quiet.
Anyway that was how I spent my night. I was very impressed with West Mid's A&E staff.

And after all that, it might well have been the aspirin.

Andrew - graduation day

Wow, long time since last posting. So much has happened. Adam and his partner Geri were here for a long Easter weekend visit. They managed to catch the most miserable weather of the year here - sleet, freezing cold, snow. Hopefully they enjoyed the holiday trip anyway.

Then Andrew came over at end of April for a week or so during spring break. We had a ball - he lucked out with generally warm and sunny weather. The last full day of his visit was gloriously warm and sunny and Asti, Andrew, and I left at 6am for a day trip to Bruges. Fast drive down to Dover, the P&O ferry across the English Channel, then another quick drive and we were sitting back, basking in the sunshine, drinking excellent crisp pilsner at a street cafe by the T'zant plaza in Bruges. Lovely little place where we had grilled steaks with Bearnaise sauce and sizzling fites.

It was a really excellent day. We dragged Andrew to our favorite chocolate shop and loaded him down with some goodies to take back to NYC.

At work, I finally completed the dread London Disaster Recovery Test. Nightmare! Four weeks+ for what should have been simply an intense 5 days. That's what happens when you neglect your DR environment for over a year, possibly close to 18 months. I ended up expanding an EVA into a 2ndary cabinet, reconfiguring another EVA, building our first DR ESX system (a descent into IT hell!), and building 14 replacement servers for ones that could not be repaired with simple parts replacements. Ugggh! I just finished the Gantt tiimeline chart and the Issues matrix on Friday and handed them in just before the bell at 4pm.

On a lighter note - I found this website sweet - http://colorwar2008.com/submissions/youngnow?page=1

In 9 days we fly to New York for Andrew's graduation from CCNY. He's getting a Research Honours BA in Chemistry and even won a prize. He's been accepted into the Chemistry PhD program at CUNY so school resumes in the fall. We'll all be at Capsuoto Freres Friday night celebrating after the commencement.

I'm looking for a new contract this week. My contract with A&O finished a month ago and was extended but it was only covering a secondment of the regular DR guy so now it's finished. Such is life for the IT contract worker.

Ringing changes at Bishops Square, Spitalfields

Going off to Oxford tonight after work to meet Alan at the annual ACCU conference. Tonight's the "Speakers Dinner". As usual the food will be utterly horrible and generally inedible and offend meat-eaters sensibilities with their uncanny ability to turn protein into reinforced cardboard with extra carbon on top. And to add insult to injury its £50. Ouch.

Tube to work

Amazing, a gentleman on the Tube offered me his seat this morning. An
almost unknown custom in the UK these days.

I'm so sick of gray skies and winter. I need sun!

So, sketching in the most recent void of silence, in no particular chronological order but more that of importance to me and interest:
1. Andrew will graduate from CCNY on May 30
2. Andrew was admitted to the CUNY PhD program
3. I'm working (yes, I know I mentioned this previously). So I'm still working - for an International law firm. Doing Disaster Recovery work - planning and testing.
4. Asti has a new job with a prestigious EU agency
5. Adam is flying to London with his fiancee Geri on Thursday night for a long Easter weekend visit.
6. Andrew will fly to London for Spring Break in April
7. Alan and I (and Asti, too) will fly to NYC in May for Andrew's graduation
That's all the good news
On the minus side, I'm going completely nuts in our small apartment. Gotta move, no choice. Seriously, seriously awful tiny place.

Boulogne

Finally made it to Vicomtesse Jeanne's home town!

The end of week 1 at my new job. What a relief to successfully complete the first week. My timesheet is signed and ready to be sent to the agency and hopefully produce a salary deposited into my checking account next Friday. I really like this job and I think I'm settling in and producing some value for them already.

Well, Happy New Year! I didn't realize I hadn't posted here in a month. Main reason is, my contract at work wasn't renewed and I think I sort of freaked. Thing is, it wasn't renewed for the worst of reasons. It was due to some nebulous corporate push-back in Houston. Nothing to do with me, gov. I got work ratings of "superb" from my manager and director. My manager was actually in tears when she told me. They even managed to get me an extra week to run my work up till Xmas by sheer balls and deceit. I know, I know, that's what contracting is all about. But, I was still shocked. Everyone I worked with sent me emails at my personal address asking to keep in touch, inviting me to meet them for drinks, etc. But still, I went off to my Xmas hols feeling miserable.

So, a week in Vienna at Xmas - Alan's idea, not mine believe me. I like to be home for Xmas but if I had to be away it would be someplace warm and sunny. We managed to have a good time in Vienna and I'll eventually post some photos.

So the new year starts and I started job-hunting. If you know me, you know how soul-destroying I find job hunting, Hence the absolute silence here.

But, voila, the silence is over. I have found a new job. Bigger and better! And I start on Monday. The people rejoice. Solvent again. The proverbial wolf chased away from the door.

It can't be 23 degrees - It never gets cold in England

There's a widely held belief here among the natives that it never gets hot or cold, hence there's no need for air conditioning in the summer nor any need for central heating in winter or heating on public transport. There's absolutely no shaking the locals from this belief, even as they slowly turn blue from the cold, shivering and frost forming on their noses.

So this morning I had the joy of commuting in to work, at 23F, on buses with no heating. Not just not turned on or broken, but non-existent. Two hours, three buses, no heat.

The joy.

If It's Friday, This Must Be Bruges

Today is my birthday. To celebrate, Asti took me on a day trip to Calais on Friday. At least that was the original plan. On the channel ferry from Dover to Calais, we decided to drive through to Belgium for cheaper cigarettes. Once in Belgium, the friendly cafe owner recommended Bruges' Christmas market as only a short 30 minute drive away ... so it was on to Bruges for the day! And what a lovely city it is. We shopped and strolled and looked and ate Chateaubriand with Bearnaise sauce and drank beautiful Bruges Blond beer. We bought gorgeous Christmas presents at really low prices and had an absolute ball.

Thanksgiving!

I'm off to Asti's house for a massive joint family Thanksgiving dinner. Stayed up late last night baking homemade apple pie and pumpkin pie and making chopped liver and other savory bits. Now off to Asti's where the real cooking begins.

Rumour has it that Katz's deli is for sale/about to be sold. This is too cruel to contemplate.

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.
- Shana Alexander

Left Luggage

from the reviews - A beautiful, warm picture filled with compassion and humanism.

This is true but the film is so much more. It's exquisite. It's worth watching. Please just watch this film.

As far as I am concerned, today is the first day of winter here. It dropped below freezing last night and this morning my car's windows all needed serious scraping. It took the car a noticeable 5 min to really warm up well - at 10 minutes before 6am.

Tonight, I made myself matzah brei for supper. A little drizzle of honey over the steaming plate and it was perfect comfort food. OK, it wasn't the Virginia Slims, coffee, and a bagel I heard Andrew order from the cart while we chatted on the phone, but then, I'm in a 3rd world country.

We have a brand new bus on the route to my office but no heat because the transport company hasn't enough mechanics to turn the mechanism on. They decided to save money on the buses by ordering them without standard turn mechanisms (a little handle!) to switch from heat to fresh air (forget about air-conditioning!). So now they need to have a mechanic dig into the bus innards and turn the heat on or off with a spanner. Charming, eh?

The matzah brei is fabulous.

Wagons East

I just watched a theretofor unknown to me film starring John Candy. What a little gem, a delight. No, nothing world shaking, but a classic warped comedy that had me snickering for almost 2 hours. I understand that John Candy died just before they completed the film. What a loss, I love his films, all of them including the serious dramas as well as the hilarious comedies.

Anyway, watch this film. Especially if you are a New Yorker or other Big City Slicker.

In Civilized Countries they have traffic lights. In Third World UK, they have traffic circles and pedestrians cross any road at their own risk. The joy.

The Shoulds

You know what they are. They're all the gratuitous, unhelpful, obvious, passive-aggressively hostile comments people make under the guise of helpful advice.

You should lose weight
You should stop smoking
You should get more exercise
You shouldn't spend money on that
You should buy a house
You shouldn't take drugs for that
You should ask for a pay raise
You should get a new job
You should cut your hair
You shouldn't take a pram on a crowded bus at rush hour
You shouldn't take 2 or more children by yourself on an airplane

You should. You shouldn't. You should have this, you shouldn't have that.

Yeah, well, woah! Let me write that advice down. Why didn't someone tell me this sooner. I'd never thought of that myself.

What sort of unsolicited advice is more unwelcome than "you should believe what I believe" or "you should act as I would act?"

John Ferriby - passed away Tuesday, October 2nd

I am sorry to report that John has passed away after fighting a Glioblastoma Brain Tumor for almost one year.  At the end, he was very peaceful and I was able to be with him.

Barbara Ferriby

Thank heaven for aspirin and codeine. The pain and swelling in my hand got so bad last night that I woke up about midnight with pain shooting up to my elbow and the finger swollen to immobility. The bandaging the hospital put on my hand became too tight and exacerbated the problem, so I cut that off and took 3 aspirin and codeine tablets. It's not just a matter of pain control, the aspirin brings down inflammation which is almost as important and gives great relief.

Anyway, what a miserable thing this broken finger is.

I'm working from home today because - drum roll - I sort of broke or fractured some tiny bone in the base of my pinky finger. It's in the joint where the finger connects so it effects the entire hand. Of course, the timing is perfect because Monday is my UK drivers license road test - and with this broken finger it's almost impossible to move the gear shift lever without excruciating pain. Assuming I can get it to move at all - sometimes I simply can't. Gonna be a fun test.

Anyway, my thought for the day - some simple obvious rules for life:

Do not touch a hot stove.
Do not to reply to an email message from the wife of a deposed Nigerian ruler.

(Note: no stoves or deposed Nigerian rulers were involved in breaking my finger.)

What do you say to a friend who is dying? A friend and professional colleague of mine just went into hospice with end-stage brain cancer. He and his wife decided not to do the desperate-crazy-witchdoctor-alternate therapy route, thank goodness. Part of John's immense charm was his intelligence and rationality.

But what do you say, what do you think, what do you feel when you must face that you are losing a friend? (I won't even try to get into what John is facing)

Damn! Damn!

Goodrich Castle

I'm still alive. But I never quite regained the level of well-being I was at prior ro falling ill in May. Perhaps it's exhaustion. Once I have my driver's license here I will save over 4 hours commuting time a day which may be the factor to regain my life.