I recently started watching TV again. It's amazing. I have three particular observations:

1) Cable TV actually has more advertisements than regular TV. This doesn't make any sense. What am I paying for?
2) They relentlessly show the same advertisements over and over and over, so there are 4 or 5 ads that you see almost every single commercial break all day long.
3) Comcast (my cable company) constantly advertises for itself. I guess the idea is that once they've got you as a customer, if they constantly tempt you you'll upgrade more easily. Or perhaps they just fill empty ad space with house ads.

Sorry about the spam... but!

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There is a "church" in Kansas led by a "Rev. Phelps" who claims that the United States is falling apart as a result of homosexuality and he aims to solve it by, and this is the really weird part, showing up with a bunch of crazed zealots at the funerals of US soldiers to mock their deaths as being punishment from God. If it weren't so utterly evil it would almost be funny for it's complete insanity. (CNN Article). My always optimistic take on it is that this kind of idiot will help to discredit the religeous right in general, and in the long run make reasonable religeous Americans come to their senses.

Today's linguistic challenge: I was having a long, complex conversation last night and was observing how the topic slowly mutated from one thing to another, sometimes waiting long enough for an issue to be resolved before moving on and sometimes bouncing several degrees away in rapid succession. So, the question is - what's a word to describe those jumps in conversation? Themes? Iterations? Issues? Acts? Let's call it the 'X' for now.

The sense that I am thinking of is this: "Several Xs ago, we were discussing such and such... i'd like to go back there and talk more" or "let's hold on to this X, and send the tangential Xs over to the other table to talk more"...

Does such a work exist in English? Perhaps some other language?

Despite being dismayed at the banality of having the same cloned store everywhere, I kinda like Starbucks once in a while. But I've always been annoyed at their silly terminology for cup sizes: Grande, Venti, and whatever the other one is. I always proudly ask for a medium. Turns out, this behavior makes me an "antiventi". I'm also a bit of a "hesitipper" unless the change is so small (two cents for example) that the tip would seem insulting and I actually wait for the guy not to be looking so I can just toss the pennies in the jar. You could do some serious psychological studies in a Starbucks. Banterist has more.

Ahh, the global marketplace. The World Cup will be hosted by Germany in 2006, and Budweiser, America's favorite swill, has managed to become the exclusive beer of the tournament by forking over a whopping $40Million marketing deal. It just seems like sacriledge to me. What's next? The Hofbrauhaus starts serving McDonalds?

Amusingly, they are still not allowed to use the name "Budweiser" in most of Europe, as that brand is owned by the older, and many times sued, Czech brewery by the same name.

I had meant to post this photo a while ago as a testament to civic pride, but I forgot about it. Tonight's extraordinary Game 7 of the American League Championship reminded me of it, as does Andrew Sinclair's discussion.

Anyway, for those to whom it's not obvious, this is the famous sign on Storrow Drive in Boston that used to say "Reverse Curve", but now refers to Boston's desperate plea to win a world series, prevented from happening since 1918 by a vile curse. The game has just begun...

Everyone knows that Spanish is the second most popular language in the United States and is growning in importance year after year. As a result, signage, product labeling, and paperwork is often written in both English and Spanish, especially in the Southwest. This trend has been going on for years.

But, recently I keep coming across products that are labled in English and French! Over and over again I'm noticing French on my shampoo, razors, dental floss, cookie packages, everything. I'm not living in Canada either, I'm in Arizona for goodness' sake, and French is outshowing Spanish on products 2 to 1.

I'm totally confused. I don't know if Arizona shares the same supply chain as Quebec, or if mad francofiles are making a last ditch effort to reclaim the lingua franca.

I'm covered in scratches from Chollos and Prickly Pears because I spent the last 3 days with the legendary Cody Lundin in the Superstition Wilderness, on an aboriginal living skills course. Fantastic experience, I'll never bother with a tent again.

It's one of the introductory excercises at the design program in which I am enrolled, the idea being to stimulate a roots level understanding of the natural cycles and basic materials that go into ecologically consious design, be it architecture or otherwise.

But the most profound (if unintended) excercise here in Prescott is dealing with live in the American suburban condoplex. Although the town of Prescott is pretty nice, we've been lodged in this god-awful complex 15 miles away, in a small strip mall near the airport. For the first time in my life, I am completely powerless without an automobile, although there is a circle-k a short walk away that is well stocked with junk-food and Budweiser. Welcome to America. I accept this situation on philosophical grounds that to understand the problems this country faces sometimes you have to experience them first-hand. Anyway, I'm doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles.

I've been taking advantage of the free wifi at my neighborhood cafe for the last week, to the extent that I've practically moved into the place. Despite the myriad benefits of such an arrangement, there is one drawback: Using the bathroom requires packing everything up and carrying into the facitlities with you. Argh.

Periodically, I read books whose authors choose to eliminate certain character's names and replace them with single capital letters, presumably the first letter in that person's name: "On Friday I met K for dinner...we had pizza."

Is there a name for this technique?

I've seen it done in both modern books and much older ones, so I can't say it's a historical thing. It always throws me for a bit of a loop, because I can't figure out what the point is. Is the author downgrading the importance of the character because it's the scene that matters? Is it supposed to evoke an air of mystery? Is it a way of keeping real-life people anonymous whom the author fears would be embarrassed by his including them?

Quite interesting. Well, I'm waiting in the office now for B to show up so we can go cycling, perhaps that will ease my mind.

Never having gone to law school, I had no idea what a tortfeasor was until the always creative Andrew Sinclair came up with his tortfeasor T-shirt idea. I'm now proudly sporting one on the streets of London. Comments so far: None. But that dosn't make them any less amusing! [full explanation]

According to this article, the $2 bill may be making a comeback.

I've always been a big fan of the double-dollar, as well as the $1 coin, but before you get too excited, it seems they're only planning to print a negligible number of them.

I'm trying to understand the motivation behind this. The $1 coin was basically a failure because they hardly minted any. As a result people kept them all as souvenirs. I've only received a $1 coin once in my life! And naturally, it's now sitting in my drawer as a keepsake.

Perhaps the government calculates that there's some kind of economic benefit to printing money that no one will ever use. Kind of like those souvenir stamps that people buy and just keep.

I would love to use $2 Bills and $1 coins (think vending machines). But unless they print enough, I too am more likely to pocket them as souvenirs!

The "giant games" craze sweeping the UK has taken an unprecidented spin.

"Giant Jenga Chair" combines the British passions for Jenga, schadenfreude, and alcohol consumption.

The rules: The challenger must construct a sophisticated chair out of Giant Jenga blocks and sit on it. Then the players take turns removing blocks until the chair collapses and the unfortunate challenger falls to the ground. The challenger who engineers the longest lasting chair wins!

Giant Jenga Chair was invented by a decorated member of Mensa, so it's clearly a wise thing to do. Hmmm...

Thus... the explanation for the dearth of postings lately. A major overhaul of the website. 95% done, but good enough to be released. Like it? The pictures on the top change each time you visit the page. Hopefully dosn't load too slowly.

This revision will be followed shortly by a revision of Beyond, Beyond and a general clean up of some of the disorganized junk around here.

I would have a bunch of cool photos of Wales to show off, had my camera's battery not died a horrible death. I take back everything good I ever said about Sony cameras. Never buy a camera with a proprietary battery.

In other news, I highly recommend checking out the band Mercury Rev. They're great. It's late. Out.

St. Louis: I am rather bummed to see that my old college radio station (for whom I dj'd for 3 years) has yet again been refused a wattage upgrade by the FCC.

KWUR (at Washington University in St. Louis) is one of the only things worth listening to in St. Louis, and the only station playing anything other than top 40 music. Unfortunately, their 10 watt transmitter only broadcasts to a radius of about a mile or so. They've been trying for years to get approval to go up to 100 Watts, but for one bureaucratic reason or another keep getting refused. The FCC has once again done a disservice to St. Louis listeners.

If these people really want to accomplish something, they should take their protests to Walnut Creek. Repeatedly disrupting downtown San Francisco will not stop the war, it will only encourage ordinary people and their businesses to move to suburbia. That not only damages San Francisco but it entrenches what they see as "the establishment" in places that are much harder to influence.

A far more effective protest would be to get everyone in cars and stall 'em all on a major suburban freeway. At least it would be non-violent. Idiots who think smashing windows will accomplish anything deserve what they get.

I have been asked to shed light on one of London's most hotly debated topics. No, nothing about war. The question is: When is a "giant game" an altogether new experience, and when is it simply a larger version of the smaller original?

An obvious example is checkers, err draughts. Giant draughts is simply a larger version of the traditional tabletop game. The fact that the pieces are a bit more cumbersome to move makes no difference as the outcome of the game is entirely mental.

Giant Jenga, on the other hand, introduces profound physical changes to the gaming experience, in addition to a significant risk of injury. It is, in effect, an entirely new game.

The implications of this debate are that one cannot just walk naively into the realm of the gigantic expecting nothing more than a magnified version of traditional reality. Strange, unpredictable, and sometime dangerous differences await. What do you think?

For some examples of what the hell I'm talking about check these websites.

London has finally done it to me. After 6 months of somehow maintaing a fairly constant bank balance, I'm now heading downhill fast.

The power of this city to suck money out of your pocket is simply incredible. I paid $50 for a minicab ride across town last night. That's beyond obscene. The worst part about it is that I'm starting to accept this sort of thing as normal.

Very pleased to see that moving companies are finally getting hammered by the law. I have had more than a few friends totally ripped off by these shady punks.

Article: 74 Indicted For Alleged Moving Company Fraud, Extortion

The BBC is reporting an upcoming terrorist attack in London "on par with September 11th".

I'm flying out of Heathrow on Friday. The whole place is crawling with soldiers and tanks, yes tanks. That and this "orange alert" thing have actually gotten me a little nervous. At least more so than in the past. Still, there's nothing I can do about it is there? The good news is I'm flying Aer Lingus and no one's after the Irish yet.

Normally, these kinds of statistics are pretty meaningless, but the geographic breakdown of the "10 fatest and 10 fittest" cities in the US is quite extraordinary. It's 100% East (fat) vs West (fit), with the exception of Virginia Beach, which I explain because of the huge military presense there (keeping the recruits slim). The criteria is explained here.

FIT

2003
1. Honolulu
2. Seattle
3. San Francisco
4. Colorado Springs, Colo.
5. San Diego
6. Portland, Ore.
7. Denver
8. Virginia Beach, Va.
9. Tucson, Ariz.
10. Sacramento

FAT

1. Houston
2. Chicago
3. Detroit
4. Philadelphia
5. St Louis
6. Cleveland
7. Atlanta
8. Columbus, Ohio
9. Dallas
10. Charlotte, N.C.

A summation of the strangeness of the new global economy: The green beans I have been buying at my local shop come from Zambia. They are very cheap too at only 99p for a pretty big bunch of them. The most amazing thing is the label says "flown in for freshness." In other words, it is cheaper to grow beans in Zambia, then crate them up onto a cargo plane and fly them to London (at least 8 hours flying time), than it is to grow them locally. It would be really fascinating to follow these beans from field to plate. Anyways, I hope at least a few Zambians are making a decent living off this scheme.

At the gym, I was originally dismayed to see you have to pay 50p every time you use a locker. (you know those lockers where you put a coin in and the key pops out?) So, I have been hoarding 50p coins and dutifully using one to get the key every time. Then I discovered that one of the lockers returned my coin every time! I was very excited and kept trying to use the same locker, thinking I was a real smartass. Yesterday I was informed that ALL the lockers return your coin. It's just a deposit. I've been leaving 50p in the slot without noticing.

I seem to have hit a wall in productivity, quite the opposite of yesterday. Hate it when that happens.

I've been staring at this computer too long. But I actually feel productive. I'm learning a bit about XML and the amazing things you can do with Moveable Type. Been making some updates to the new blog, and drinking lots of Coke. I would like to redesign this website tonight, but it's already 7:30 and I think my eyes might fall out of my head. Perhaps I'll drag the laptop home this weekend and work on it there.

Oh yes, Dave Galbraith seems to have a nice new weblog. Quite a good job, I must say.

I'm very pleased with the frequency with which I've been going to the gym lately. Could be I've got nothing else to do, could be a new era of vision and self discipline. 3 times this week already! Not bad.

..although this may belong in my other blog, I have to say that there are few things more stupid than buying Lottery tickets, which I just did with a bunch of my co-workers, 10 tickets each. Though it was quite amusing. We hade a good laugh scratching them off, we recovered 25% of our investment which will be promptly re-invested in more tickets. Was it worth the £10? Well, maybe this time, but i'm never doing it again, I swear.

Well, i've finally got a new apartment in London. [click here] to see it on a map. It's really nice, what you might call Euro-chic, where everything is ultra modern and electronic. Nice roommate, and a really nice living room. The size of the bedroom brings it all back to earth though. I may have to get dressed in the hallway... in other news, t-minus 3 days till Fest Pest 2002 begins!!! A colaborative blogging project has been established here. Check it out!

Oh yes - here is an aerial view of my neighborhood, with my building circled.

I'm waiting for the opportunity to unpack my stuff and display the cool photos I took on arrival into London. Will happen soon enough. Today was the first day in London that I felt tired in the morning. Getting back to my old lazy self. hmm..

Strange fascination with Mayo here in London. Seems you can't get a sandwich without it swimming in mayo. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just amused at the cultural differences.

Anyways, flat hunting is going pretty well. I've decided to suck it up and pay a lot of money. There is a nice flat that looks like it might work out. Fairly astronomical rent, but hey, what can ya do. It should be really nice!

Countdown to London has really begun. And what am I doing to celebrate? I'm at work. It's almost midnight. At least I'm getting a lot done. Mostly personal stuff anyways. Jesus, I should be playing hookie or something. I may have to roll in a bit late tommorow just to avoid the madness, but I have apartments to phone in London. Looks like I may just luck out and get something close to work. Prices are beyond outrageous though, makes SF look cheep.

For some reason, these photos came out rather blurry, but then again, so are my memories of Sturday night. 'twas a rather successful party at the old 995 house. Something of a going away event for myself, and something of a regular old party. Just about everyone showed up. Anyways, [photos here]

Fabulous idea! I can't believe no one thought of this sooner, would have been worth a million dollers in the dot-com heydeys. So - you can order pizza, chinese, thai, indian, almost anything to your home. But San Francisco's number one take out food has never been available for delivery, until now - BurritoDelivery.com. Of course, I don't know how tasty they are! I'll try it this week.

Well, the new Moreover site is done. Not that I had much to do with the design, but I had to implement the whole thing and re-write large portions so they worked with our CGI scripts and showcase. I'm also on a quest to get my tube map recognized in google. If you have a blog and are itnerested in transportation, copy this hyperlink! Geographically accurate London Tube Map.

Thank god our security personel disarmed this potential threat.

Yes! I finally worked out the bug and commenting works. Now the thousands of people who come here daily can leave their comments behind! I still have to make the comments section look nice, but at least it works. By the way, the problem was a totally careless mistake on my part. Very retarded. Gotta be mindfull of even the smallest details when working with scritps...

Ugh, what a disaster. The GMAT shouldn't be that hard, but I took a practice test and performed abysmally. I am demoralized. Well, gotta keep practicing. If I can do well, it should outweigh my lack of experience in other areas. Oh well, time for lunch.

The dentist always says to never use anything but a soft toothbrush. So why to they make the hard ones? Perhaps they are just for scrubbing toilets and bicycle chains.

Well, that's it for my big 2 day work week. I'm off to Juneau, Alaska tommorow morning! Will take may photos and have many stories for sure. Also Recursive Technology's website is finally done, at least the first edition. I still have to fix those darm commenting functions. Out.

Sorry that the comments are not working. I'll fix 'em later. I have been having one technical problem after another today. Why did microsoft come out with windows XP? There was clearly room to improve, but XP appears to accomplish nothing but take up more memory, cost more, and introduce more annoying cartoonish elements that do nothing but elicit frustration. Ugh... what a day. Thank god I only have a 2 day work week.

Alright - I'm making this announcement publicly because, that makes me more tied to it. By next year I shall be enrolled in a masters program in either Urban Planning, or an MBA program. Here it is said. Oh yes, and another thing, I'm going to try and blog daily. So if you have any comments (if anyone is actually reading) please harrass me as you like!

Alright. Finally, this thing is working (more or less). Check back frequently for new news. Archives of the old blog are still at top!