Ram it

Today...
If you think you're full...
When you can't imagine eating another bite...

Just Ram It.

Thankful fest 2009

Everyone in Charlottesville used to leave town for Thanksgiving. It's one of those towns where no one is from -- so everyone has somewhere else to go.

During my time in Charlottesville I had somewhere better to be on Thanksgiving too -- I just didn't go. The appeal of "working" on the day after Thanksgiving was just too great to pass up in exchange for a 600+ mile drive home to frozen Indiana.

So those of us yupsters (yuppie hipsters) who stayed around created a modified non-familial version of the day: Thankful Fest. Here was a typical agenda during Thankful Fest's glorious 3 year run:

1. Wake up at 7am. Drive to Boar's Head.
2. Participate illegally in the Boar's Head Turkey Trot 5k. Be advised that race officials will not let unregistered runners cross the finish line. Protest nonviolently by eating free race bagels, donuts, juice and fruit in the race tent.
3. Drive to Harris Teeter. Buy frozen pizza.

For the next 6-8 hours:

4a. Eat the pizza. Watch football on TV.
4b. Or throw football outside.
5. For dinner: Chinese Buffet.
6. Find the saddest bar in town, filled with the most depressing people.
7. Drink Guinness.

Throwing the football really does fill the day. Especially when you're surrounded by friends who can invent games on the spot that become competitive immediately (see SkyRise Ball and Guava Ball). I don't remember the name, but we had a Hail Mary type game that lasted 2 Thankful Fests.

Hope all of you Americans have a great Thanksgiving. And I'll have a blessed Thursday.

I forgot again

The November 22 death prophecy.

Another year of immortality!

Feast or famine

I'm starting to realize that I've entered a strange routine that rotates between periods of uber productivity, as characterized by things like:

- nonstop travel
- social hyperactivity
- not sleeping much at all
- eating meals at irregular hours
- spending lots of cash

... and extended periods where I fail comprehensively at being a human being:

- sleeping in, then waking up but staying in bed until I fall asleep again, only getting up eventually so that I can enjoy a nice afternoon nap on the couch
- can't be bothered to see anyone really
- not eating anything that can be classified as a complete meal
- spending 40 pence on a hard-boiled egg on my only trip out of the flat

Part of it is the cold, part of it is the darkness, part of it is that I'm getting soooo old. Good old London winters.

Shambles

Life really is so predictable, in that everything will never go right at the same moment.

Maybe work is going well, but socially things have dried up. You have time but not money or money but no time. When everything around us seems to be falling apart there are always small inspirations to lift us up, and when life is beautiful there are always hassles and chores to temper things.

Obama may get elected, but then Arsenal and Notre Dame will be in shambles, as an example.

Last trip of the year before my last trip of the year

YTD (year to date)

New York, USA
Philadelphia, USA
Charlottesville, USA
Gibraltar, UK
Malaga, Spain
Granada, Spain
Bristol, England
Cannes, France
Nice, France
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Paris, France
Sofia, Bulgaria
Varna, Bulgaria
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Barcelona, Spain
Madrid, Spain
Paris, France
Istanbul, Turkey
Bodrum, Turkey
Milan, Italy
Stresa, Italy
Menaggio, Italy
Bellagio, Italy
Varenna, Italy
Lecco, Italy
Bergamo, Italy
Berlin, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Edinburgh, Scotland
DC, USA
Lancaster, USA
New York, USA
Damascus, Syria
Beirut, Lebanon
Sidon, Lebanon
Beittedine, Lebanon
Byblos, Lebanon
Charlottesville, USA
New York, USA
Frankfurt, Germany
Stockholm, Sweden
Paris, France
Zurich, Switzerland
Interlaken, Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland
Cairo, Egypt
Budapest, Hungary
Pecs, Hungary
Zagreb, Croatia
Pula, Croatia
Stockholm, Sweden

YTD (yet to go)

Paris, France
Chicago, USA
Goshen, Real America
South Bend, USA
New York, USA

My flatmate, the comedian

Is it still called the White House?

Universally predictable

A couple nights ago I woke up with a slight ear ache. I wasn't happy about it, but a cool head prevailed and I decided I should focus my energy on finding a solution. So I picked up my best friend (my phone) and googled "ear ache". I clicked on a result which listed some possible treatments.

I then went into the bathroom and soaked a hand towel in steaming hot water. I went back to bed with the towel resting on my affected ear. I fell back asleep quickly and woke up to my alarm feeling great. I was so proud of myself.

Only at work the next day did I remember that this was the second time I've gone through this exact sequence of events -- the previous time being more than a year ago.

So this wasn't a moment of insight. I was just working through my protocol for problem solving, which involves (1) being angry; (2) looking at my resources; (3) usually googling something; (4) acting on my findings.

Here's another example.

I was in Paris. My hotel wasn't in an area of town with many restaurants. So I got on the metro. I predicted that I could find a good stop by watching which kinds of people were getting off the train. When lots of cool looking people got off the train, so did I. I exited to street level and looked around. I walked in the most promising direction. I looked down side streets until I noticed one that looked particularly welcoming. I peered into cafe windows until I found the one I liked best. I sat down and ate a delicious meal.

Several months later I was back in Paris and once again hungry. I thought I should try to find that same restaurant, but I hadn't noted where it was or the name. Starting from the same hotel I followed the same rational. I got on the metro, I followed the crowd, then I followed my instincts directly to the same street and the same restaurant -- without a single wrong turn on the way.

One thing that disillusions people about religion is that Someone or Something could be all knowing, and that choices aren't really ours to make. I think it's more like the above. If you know someone's heart, their tendencies, their approach to living and solving problems, then you can predict exactly what they'll do in any given situation. Looking at things from that perspective doesn't make me feel disillusioned, it makes me feel closer to everyone around me. For as many complexities as we have as humans, there are also universal truths: we're complicated, but for better or worse, we're also repetitive.

Art, inc.

A modern dilemma. A song or movie you like, which turns out to be an advertisement.

A few examples:

1. Chris Brown, Forever.



Good song. But ... it was written and originally recorded as an advert for Wrigley's (and you thought that 'Double your flavo(u)r, double your fun' line was a coincidence). Is it hip to dance to a commercial?

They released this (it's on his album too) and waited for it to top the charts before coming out about its origins.

2. Somers Town.



Saw this movie last night and loved it. Same director (and star) as 'This is England', which is also supposed to be brilliant. This was funded by Eurostar (the London-Paris chunnel train). Eurostar is never mentioned by name in the film.

Really just takes product placement to a new level. Funding is obviously a bit more important for a film than in a song, so maybe it's also more forgivable -- this movie might not get made without corporate backing. And they also never hid the connection.

3. Where the hell is Matt?



Again, brilliant output. Surely does more good than evil, but his trip was sponsosored by Stride gum (do people still chew gum? Maybe that's why so many gum companies are going rogue).

Something nonpolitical

Heh. I once learned all of the words to this song. Vid is directed by Michel Gondry too. Means I was cool even in 1994!

November 5

So that is that.

I'm relieved, but more than that I'm proud and I'm excited. (I'm also tired because the first exit polls didn't start for me until after midnight, Ohio wasn't called until 3.30am, and the concession/acceptance speeches didn't start until after 4.)

It's amazing how quickly perception changes. It's palpable here -- Europeans are genuinely excited, impressed and inspired. That might seem unimportant, but they're representative of everyone on the outside looking in, and it must be easier to make progress with friends than with critics. Since moving to London 20 months ago I never heard a single good thing said about the US until today -- just jokes and a resignation to uninspiring policy, strong-arming the helpless and doing all of it smugly. Yesterday we proved that we are still capable of breaking boundaries and making history. The reality that such a barrier still couldn't be broken anywhere else changes things.

I personally feel a sense of ownership that I've never felt before. For the first time in my lifetime we've elected someone I can rally behind, someone I want to hear speak, someone I believe in. He can think on his feet and writes his own speeches. He can beat me at basketball (I could beat him at bowling). He can pronounce the word nuclear. My upbringing is as different from Barack's as it is from Dubya's, but I feel like there is far more common ground in our shared view of the world, and all the good and bad in it.

So now the question is, what next? Best case scenario is that we buy back into the concepts of common good and community, come up with brilliant ways to become energy independent, and use a new thoughtful roadmap to diplomacy. We take care of each other and live within our means. Worst case scenario is that we stand still and lose momentum -- if that happens history can repeat itself and we'll find ourselves in the same wars -- ideologically and on the ground. My contributions (everyone's contributions) over the next 4 and 8 years will help to determine the success of this presidency. It's going to be one small deed by one small deed.

So it was a good day. Tempered slightly by the fact 55 million Americans still would've preferred an uber-rich, erratic old white guy and a brainless sidekick to a forward thinking, empowering black dude and a steady hand.

America.

I can't wait for this to be over

"No matter how they vote, Americans will make history today. They may pick the first black U.S. president. Or the oldest first-term president."

Oh wow, that would be so great to be involved in something like electing the oldest first-term president. Momentous!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm voting for the white guy.

Anniversary

6 years on the job.

Geez.

Vote or die

Seriously though vote for Obama.

For the love

My teams keep losing. Arsenal (technically a draw). Then Arsenal again. Then Notre Dame. The Colts are probably losing as I write this. But nothing could make me feel any worse than an upset involving a desperate old man and his psycho dumb as a doorknob trophy friend.

Let's not screw this up.