Feb two nine

Not sure where this ranks in the bad idea pyramid, but for the flatwarming party tonight, we pre-filled water balloons.

Cartoons can be depressing

Anyone want to read a cartoon strip about a desperately lonely middled-aged man?







Ok... looks like we'll have to give him a cat or something.

More depressing Garfieldless cartoons at: http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/.

Seising up England

At 1:30 ante meridiema there was an earthquake north of London which I totally missed. I was awake but must've mistaken what I was doing for this Justin Timberlake dance move I've been working on.

The last, and only other time (to my knowledge), I was in the vicinity of an earthquake was in Charlottesville, Virginia on the 4th floor of my company's headquarter offices. That was a few years back. It was a nice distraction to my work day.

I wouldn't mind if earthquakes happened a little more often. It's good to shake things up every once in a while.

The more you know

You can bet legally here in England. There are betting (punting) shops on every street.

There's only one thing you can't bet on: the date that the Queen will die.

My guess: 30 November 2174.

Where's Wally?

It just doesn't sound right, does it?

Turns out Waldo is only Waldo in the US and A. Here in the UK where he was created, he is Wally. And in Germany he ist Walter.

I always thought Waldo was American. In hindsight, it's obvious that he's not:

1. He's not easy to pick out of a crowd (as we all know!). If he were American you'd hear him talking really loudly on public transportation and could spot him immediately.
2. He travels to exotic locations.
3. Where's Waldo ranks 88th out of the 100 most banned and objected to books in the USA. The most common reason for banning is that, in one picture, located on a beach, a female sunbather is seen with exposed breasts. Shocking stuff. Walmart's not going to stock that garbage.

Pictures of Bruce Lee and my flat

You ask -- you receive! Here are pictures from Bacon Street.




Sometimes I fix my bed. Actually I do more often than not. How about that mom?!

BONUS PIC:



If anyone wants to see the flat in person, there's a flatwarming this Friday evening.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHhhAhh!

One thing that I've noticed since moving to the city is that there's nowhere to yell. There's nowhere I can go and just say bad things really loudly when I need to let off steam. Those of you who know me to be mellow have never seen this side of me. Those of you who have seen my temper will hope that I find a small soundproof area or a wide open space to vent sometime very soon. Maybe I'll rent a car next time; in years past that was my refuge.

Having nowhere to go can be a good thing. If I can't make loud noises I can at least wander around and watch Bangladeshi kids play soccer and browse at the vintage shops down Cheshire Street. And eventually I'll have distracted myself or just realized that what I was so angry or frustrated about wasn't really that important anyhow. 

In theory at least. 

But really there's no getting around the fact that Arsenal blew that game and it may well cost us the league. Unbelievable.

Might be a good idea to give me some space tonight. And people in positions of perceived but false power (bouncers and doormen especially) beware.

Dinner party

Tonight I'm going to Zone 5.

I know.

If there's no blog tomorrow -- just wait longer.

Getting my hair did

Tonight I'm getting a haircut at KungFuCuts.

Normally I'd go to Hair by Fairy but I need a haircut tonight and Hair by Fairy is across town and closes at 7 and gets kind of crowded. Last time I went there it was too full and Fairy turned me away at the door. I wandered around and had to walk next door and pay way too much money to a "junior sylist" who did something to my hair that I'm not proud of. She did wash my hair before AND after the cut though, so that was nice. Still wasn't worth the cut though.

So KungFuCuts gets a chance. Hi ya!

An important website

www.ericreinford.com

I'd encourage you all to browse around and tell me about your favorite and least favorite parts. Let me know your thoughts on how easy/difficult it is to navigate, etc. Your feedback is important to me.

Enjoy.

Stuff I like

There's a whole blog about it: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com

At first glance though it doesn't look terribly accurate. I only like a few of the things mentioned. Specifically, of the 70 listed, I only like these ones:

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Happy US-only holiday

Slow day at work as we didn't have the normal stream of emails coming in from 2pm onwards. Can only mean there was a US holiday. Didn't mean much to me as the UK doesn't take time off to celebrate Washington's Bday (or the 4th of July -- strangely -- or Thanksgiving for that matter).

Then again, you'll all be in the office when I'm celebrating "Bank Holiday"s 1, 2 and 3 this May and August.

Speaking of Banks, does everyone know Banksy? I've got one on my block.

Seven adorable sins

One of the seven deadly sins is sloth. Did anyone do research into sloths before naming this sin? Did he go and meet a sloth, perhaps find one crossing the road in Costa Rica somewhere like my brother just did?

All I'm saying is, if he had, surely he would've ended up naming the sin after a less lovable creature, like a cat.

Didn't do much today. Pretty much just laid in bed til the afternoon. Finally got up and moved to the couch. Laid around there for a while until it was time for bed.

I'm too old for html

My website is coming along pretty well. 

And by coming along I mean I copied someone else's code (thank you www.conorwelch.com) and simplified it down to the level of code they're teaching in first grade these days, so that my site consists of one line of code. Or it would except that I haven't managed to figure out where/how to save/post the .html file in my ftp directory so that it actually generates to the site. Instead if you go to my site you just see the code. The fact that I don't really understand what I just tried to say or what any of the acronyms I used actually mean might be a reason why. 

I don't know if I can do this. I think I might be too old.

I'm thinking about joining an exclusive and expensive private club

Thoughts?

VD

Valentine's Day used to be the day when I'd write a heartfelt email and send it out to every girl I knew using the BCC (blind carbon copy) email option. I used to cast a wide net.

These days I'm probably too picky for my own good. Thankfully for many of you, if we're just talking about friendship, I have almost no standards at all.

Thank you for being my friends and I plutonically love or like you all right back. Many of you have thanked me for being your friend and for keeping you updated on my life via this blog. In the interests of efficiency (like BCC only even less personal), if I were to respond, I'd have sent you this:



With love.

Check out the poll.

No, not the Polish person. I meant the new voting mechanism at the top of this page. It's in the spirit of the democratic process. Voting closes on November 4th or probably way before that when I get tired of it and no one is voting anymore. Every vote counts!*

*Due to the antediluvian nature of the Electoral College 'every vote counts' may not apply to every vote.

Prolificnessly

I wonder who the most prolific blogging family is in the history of blogging? It may well be the Reinford bros. For a quick test I googled "most prolific blogging family" ... NO MATCHES! So I guess it's official.

My brother has a great music blog called Café Eclectica music. Today he linked it to his new travel blog, Nomadically Speaking.

I may be relatively new to the business but I try to write something every day that I'm not traveling. I just produce content. Prolifically. I like that prolific has nothing to do with quality.

How to be cool for the whole year

It's easier than you think. Just buy a Stendig Calendar.


A big one. Trust me.

Roadtrip

Yesterday I went to Bristol for no good reason with three Swedes. All three were guys and none are brunettes. On Friday night I did meet a brunette female Swede. Those are extremely rare.

The real reason for the trip was that one of the Swedes bought a motorcycle on eBay and needed to go pick it up. It was a fun trip and Bristol seems a decent town. Not that I'll ever go there again.

Bananana's

Today I was walking to Liverpool Street Station whilst eating a banana. Trying to do two things at once so early in the day was probably my first mistake.

My second mistake was peeling the peel too far down from the start. I realized this as 3/4 of the uneaten banana tumbled to the pavement.

Next I concurrently yelled "NO!" and kicked the banana. It went pretty far and hit a wall.

A crowd of people walking behind me were laughing out loud.

This year, things are gonna change for me

The Year of the Rat started yesterday. Now you know.

"People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists. They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful. They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox."

How was I not born in the Year of the Rat? (1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996). That's so me! (minus the acquiring possessions and quick to anger bits, although those I was admittedly proficient at both in my teens.)

Andalusian picture show

First ones are of Gibraltar. See: Rock of. Those monkeys hang out up there and steal things.



Hanging out, like I said.



Next few are Granada -- around the ciudad and in the Alhambra.




Last one is on the beach in Malaga. There wasn't much worth taking pictures of there.

New shoes on

So the big news today is that I'm wearing my new shoes for the first time. These are nice leather Ollie Sweeney kicks -- I've been in the market for a nice pair of dress shoes for something like 6 months... never found anything I liked until I browsed upon these.

Anyhow they're a bit pointy, which is the style these days. So today most of my time was spent walking around and noticing that I'm still a bit pigeon-toed, but in an endearing way.

Easter

I'm going to one of the following places over Easter weekend (Easter Monday is a UK holiday. Sweeeet.):

1. St. Petersburg/Moscow
2. Reykjavik
3. Istanbul
4. Somewhere else

More immediately I'm going to one of the following places:

1. Home.
2. To the gym.
3. To the grocery store.
4. Out to eat with Gabe and his parents on Brick Lane.

Fatigue hangover

So I did watch that great comeback win last night, and I also watched the Super Bowl. Seeing Tom Brady and his comrades lose was almost as good as seeing the Colts win last year.

Schauenfreude is delicious.

Unfortunately, the game started at 11.50pm here and I got home at 3.30am. I woke up feeling alright but throughout the day I've developed a pretty severe fatigue hangover. I reckon a fatigue hangover is worse than a regular hangover, in that things get worse before they get better.

I'm going to go take a nap, followed by going to bed.

Giant killers

How awesome was that?

I mean Fulham coming back to beat Aston Villa when they were down 1-0 late in the second half is incredible. Thanks for the ticket Ollie.

Impersonal ads

I just realized that I mainly communicate with my best friends -- people scattered all over the world -- through blogging. We hardly ever talk on the phone and the quantity of our emails has fallen precipitously since blogging became all the rage.

So... what's everyone up to this weekend?

Kind of interesting.

Tomorrow is moving day.

It's really happening.

Plan your trips now -- I have a big couch.