http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/tuscany-sep2005/
Quick update from Italy while we can steal internet access
Thursday – day 1
I've been in Italy for less than 30 minutes and my first impression is that it's a very photogenic country. I've just put away my camera in frustration because I can't take a decent picture through the coach windows – there's too much glare from the sun and I always see my reflection superimposed on the scene I want to capture. We're driving through mountains right now and I'm salivating at the number of pictures I'd love to take. It's beautiful. The countryside is lush with greens and browns, the mountains are impressive and you see the odd roman ruin to add a bit of spice once in a while.
[later]
The view from the hotel is impressive. We're rather high up in the mountain and the view on the valley below is, in a word, panoramic. My room in the hotel is comfortable, though I'm in one of the little chalets. The room is nice, but apparently it doesn't compare with the ones inside the hotel proper. For one thing, I don't have a jacuzzi in my room. Rank doeth have its privileges, apparently. The one thing that's going to be bad is the buzzy thing situation. I've been strafed too many times already and I'm rather jumpy… silly europeans with the utter lack of proper window screens *grumble*
[later]
Whoever thought it would be a good idea to hold 5 hours of talks on the first day might want to reconsider that one… I stopped counting at 7 the number of times I fell asleep during that session. That was just painful. Getting up at 2:30 am definitively doesn't help. At least the espresso is good and there's plenty of it.
Friday – day 2
We went to Pisa today. I walked up to the top of the tower; I even went above the bells. It's really weird. I get vertigo looking down a 2 story building or riding up glass elevators. I was 60 meters in the air with only a rather flimsy metal railing to keep me from falling and I wasn't even bothered in the slightest! The view from up there is … wow. Took lots of pictures – the usual touristy thing. Amusing anecdotes – we ran into a group of tourists from Quebec/Montreal (but the lound aunt type of tourist, the ones that keep saying inane stuff like “Do you realize that we're going the leaning tower of Pisa? Do you realize the number of people who touched this wall and climbed these stairs? Do you?? Do you??? really!”. It was amusing to hear proper joual again :D
What really impressed me from the tower is that there are two inches of stone completely worn off from the stairwell. You really have to be careful when you come down, especially when your legs are rubbery from having climbed 300 stairs. The staircase leading to the uppermost level is so narrow that my shoulders rubbed on either side and I had to crouch down to avoid braining myself on the stairs twisting up above me.
The amoung of junk sellers is impressive. And on that note, let me just mention that anybody dumb enough to buy a rolex from a dude on the street should have a sign on his back saying something along the lines of “please feel free to rape my ass” – it's just asking for trouble.
The food situation is hit-and-miss. Even though they were warned about my allergies beforehand, I couldn't eat most of the lunch buffet yesterday. Dinner was completely ok, but again lunch today was buyer-beware. Same for dinner – they had to cook me a special meal (for which I had to wait another 20 minutes). At least the bread is good and there's lots of wine. I'm going to be eating salads when I get back to Cambs though…
Saturday – day 3
I slept badly last night. One reason, I found out later, is that there's a troup of italian Morris dancers (or the equivalent thereof) that's at the hotel and apparently, they were up all night running around the hotel last night and there was a lot playing the drums outside on the terrasse near my room. I think they're a mix of marching band, drama group and SCA† types. It takes a lot of confidence for a man to dress like a fool in tights and not be self-concious about it. They also crashed our breakfast buffet this morning like a pack of seagulls and ate everything in sight… bastards. Another reason I slept badly is that I kept dreaming about my presentation today. It's really weird. Whenever I'm worried about something, I always dream I'm back in school. I had rather disturbing dreams last night… bad imagery and worse situations. Somebody was putting on a play and one of the characters was saying shit like “Do what you want to me cause I'm worthless and I'm going to kill myself anyway”. Weird. Not nice. Even Parsley couldn't ensure a good night's sleep. Left me a bit off-kilter this morning.
[later]
Long day today. I was uber worried about giving my presentation. I dislike public speaking, even when it's only in front of an informal group. I tense up. I was utterly convinced I was spouting inane gibberish all the time I was giving it. It really didn't help that my powerpoint presentation was being given off my boss' micro subnotebook computer and I couldn't read off the screen (it was being projected behind me). I could make out the slides themselves – so I knew what I had to say about all of them – but I couldn't read the details I'd written on the slides because the damn screen is too small so I had to wing it for the most part. Apparently I pulled it off because the feedback I got from it was very positive and I didn't look as nervous as I felt. One of the very positive points of this retreat though is that I got to really interact with a lot of the people that work in the Sequence Database Group that I only see in glancing at the office. A lot of them are really nice people and some of them are scarily intelligent.
[later]
I went shopping. I bought some olive oil, a nice bottle of red italian wine. A good dinner awaits (after the salads, that is).
[later]
Dinner was disappointing again. The soup was ok, and the pasta was good (though the portion could have been more generous for both of them, especially considering that I could only eat half of what was served to me afterwards). Blergh. That's the really big downside of my allergies and group travelling. At least when I'm on my own, I can pay a premium to have a decent meal that I can eat. I'm getting fed up of bread and wine, as good as they may be.
Off to bed now.
Sunday – day 4
I slept poorly again last night. I woke up at 5:40 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I ended up reading until it was time to get up and go for breakfast. I'm tired and I don't feel so hot physically and psychologically. I think I caught the cold that's been running around the EBI folk and I miss Katy. Travelling for work is fun for a while, but right now, I want to get home and cuddle my sweetie :( The conference ends right after lunch, then we have a few hours to kill until our 10pm flight. I'm going to get back home in the wee hours of the morning again. That's getting old really, really fast.
† Society for Creative Anachronism – people who like to dress up in medieval garb.
I went to sleep later than this at times…
I'm convinced that the travel agent for the EBI wants to kill us all slowly.
2:40 AM is an even less civilized time to have to wake up for a flight.
There will be conference talks until 7pm tonight
Joy.
New comics for y'all
Lots more new ones here: http://www.flubu.com/comics/
Yoinked from <lj user="cadhla">
This made me giggle.
The Commandments of Coyote.
I. Thou Shalt Have As Many Gods and Spirits and Personal Trainers and Gurus As You Like Before Me, But You Shalt Not Let Them Block the Exits, and More, You Shall Not Permit Them To Take the Last Beer, For That Beer Is Mine. Seriously. Don't.
II. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife, But Thou Art Totally Welcome To Admire Her Ass When She Walks By, and If It Happens To Come Out That They Are In An Open Relationship, Dude, Tap That Ass As Much As They Are Willing To Allow. Same Goes For the Ladies. Coveting Is Sort Of Stupid, But Sex Is Just Plain Fun, Unless Thou Art Doing It Entirely Wrong.
III. If Thy Neighbor Says 'Hands Off My Wife, Dude', Thou Shalt Listen and Back Off, Because Otherwise, Thy Neighbor Will Be Totally Justified In Hitting You About the Head and Shoulders With Gardening Tools, and Don't Think That I'm Going To Step In There and Stop Him.
IV. Adultery Is Actually Pretty Fun. Commit It All You Like. Just Make Sure Everyone Is Cool With It, Or I Will Not Help You Out Once the Hitting Gets Started.
V. Thou Shalt Not Eat Poisoned Bait. If You Do, Don't Come Whining To Me About It, Because I Am Very Unlikely To Care. Once It Is In Your Mouth, It Is Your Problem, Not Mine.
VI. Of Course Thou Shalt Kill. Carnivores Do That. Also, Swatting Mosquitoes, Sort Of Instinctive. But All Creatures Are Alive Before You Kill Them, and So Thou Shalt Respect Them In Their Lives and In Their Deaths. Thou Shalt Not Kill Without Reason. Thy Neighbor Tapping Thy Wife's Ass? Is Not A Reason. Don't Make Me Set A Plague Upon Thy Ass. Thou Wouldst Not Enjoy It, I Promise.
VII. Thou Shalt Not Hoard. Seriously, Here. If You Have Enough, Share. Only Asshats Bogart Life.
VIII. Thou Shalt Not Be A Martyr. If You Have One Beer, Drink It. Do Not Give It To Me and Then Expect Adoration. Dude, That Was Your Beer, I Did Not Break Your Arm To Get It. Give What You Can Give, and Expect Neither Praise Nor Worship. You Are Not Being Morally Superior, You Are Being A Decent Human Being. There Is A Difference.
VIV. Assume This Is It. Maybe There Is Reincarnation; Maybe Not. Not Only Am I Not Saying, Please Consider the Fact That I Probably Get A Say In Whether You Come Back, and If You Are the Sort Of Person Who Doesn't Do Anything With One Life, Why Should I Waste My Time Giving You Another One? Live Like You Get No Second Chances. You Will Have More Fun.
X. Are You Going To Eat That?
What's wrong with this picture.
Some background: I'm leaving for Italy at a ridiculous time tomorrow morning with about 70 people from my group. Some of the interns are coming along.
One of them just asked me if I was going to bring my laptop with me, and if so, did I want to load some games for a LAN party.
*head goes boom*
You're in fucking Italy and you want to spend your nights playing world of warcraft???
I weep for the next generation.
Today will be bleh
I can't be bothered today.
I'm a weak-willed person
I finally broke down and bought a shitload of icon space.
I'm suck a geek.
It's sad.
I heart Michael Moore
To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:
On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?
How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?
That's right. Horse shows.
I really want to know — and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect — how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.
I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.
Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?
Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?
Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?
With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?
Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.
That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.
It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read “My Pet Goat” to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying “Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!”
My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?
And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?
Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.
Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?
I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?
I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
I neeeed sleeeeeeep
Katy's bed in leicester is a torture device masquerading as a bed. It's physically impossible for two people to sleep in it comfortably. As such, my back now feels like somebody has been dancing the mambo on it for 48 hours. We are not amused.
My pickling/preserve project will probably die a horrible horrible death because I can't find mason jars in the UK. If I buy them online, they will cost me 15 pounds for jars and 45 pounds for shipping. We are not amused.
I discovered yesterday that both my shoes leak, so I spent the afternoon walking with squishy feet while we were shopping. We are not amused.
It's not all bad news though. As of 11:15 today, I will have been in the UK for 5 months. I also discovered the goodness of Kt Tunstall.
But I need sleep.
Which I can't get.
So coffee will have to do.