Meeting People

My roommate Fran and our neighbor Luke planned a get together for the flats in our building, because we really haven't seen each other, except in passing at the FSU and the hallway. It was a bit of fun, as we essentially all brought some food, sat around, eating, drinking and talking. It was good to do. I got to test out my own cooking skills with Chicken Balti, an Indian dish that I've really enjoyed in the past weeks, and fairly easy to make.
Got to meet more people, which was a big plus. Up until now, I really haven't gotten out to meet anyone. Turns out that two of them, Ben and April are very big into Firefly/Serenity and that we share a number of the same interests when it comes to movies and Science Fiction. I spent much of the evening talking to either Ben or April, which was fun. There were quite a few other people, and there was general converstation.
Afterwards, people went off to pubs or in our case, our flat and just hung around. I fiddled with my camera, figuring out some of the settings for exposure and the like, getting some practice in with the hallway light with a very cool set of images.
Overall, a productive evening, although I didn't hear from my cousin, Nick, who's in town. We talked earlier in the week, but it's possible that he just got a busy signal, as Fran was talking with some of her friends for a good chunk of time.

Yes, there is Science, no matter how you cut it.

I'm getting back into the regular writing habit, although I'll still update on what I'm doing.

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

When will the Bush Administration get it into their heads that Global Warming is a very real and decidedly problematic thing for everyone in the world? Or, that Science, does infact exist in the world, and that Science doesn't conform to any political agenda or party. Having the public relations officer of NASA stating that his job is to make the president, and the Republican party look good is unexcusable, especially when you look up what NASA's motto is.
Beyond that, having administration clearance for access to reporters is also completely out there.

Where scientists' points of view on climate policy align with those of the administration, however, there are few signs of restrictions on extracurricular lectures or writing.

That shouldn't happen. At all. The entire thing reminds me of the soldiers in the middle east when interviewed by the press. They can give out their name and an extremely general activity that they're doing, but it's so heavily censored that they might as well be given a script. Since when did Science become a classified thing? It's simply not right for the government to pick and choose which information to use, because you can't sugar coat everything, no matter how much you ignore. Science encompasses good and bad, and you must look at both. And it's essential that you look at both before using it to dictate policy.

London Images

I'm starting a photoblog, hopefully I'll be keeping it up - http://jtlondonimages.blogspot.com/

Natural History Museum, Tower of London and Canterbury

Those are the three main places that I visited over Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which was a really fun bunch of locations to hit, all in a couple of days. Katie Bell, from Lexia, the program that I'm studying through, came by to visit while inspecting the program. She just left, on her way to Paris and then Rome. All three locations were amazing, lots of fun to go to.

Natural History Museum: Took me a little while to get to this place, because of some work on the Tube, but I ended up getting there on time for a couple of really cool images.

The museum is set in a really cool building, several stories. As the title suggests, there quite a bit to do with the natural sciences there- Most importantly, Dinosaurs and rocks, which is what I focused on while I was there. It was a mistake, however, to visit on a weekend, because all the parents brought their young kids to see the skeletons, and there were lines, which was a bit of a problem. However, the Mineral and Meteorite rooms were easy to get through, which were really cool to see.

Tower of London: Will and I met up with Katie on Sunday to see this, one of the old fortresses in the city, where a couple of monarchs ruled from, and was a military center. It's essentially a castle. Rooms have been restored, armor is on display and the crown jewels are stored there, which was very glittery, and with very heavy security.

Canterbury: Canterbury was out latest excursion out of the city. We got on a train and rode down to the town to see the Cathedral and learn a little of the history of the place. I'm not religous to any stretch, but the building is one of the most impressive buildings that I've been in yet. It's huge, although it looks much bigger from the interior, with high vaulted ceilings and incredible decorations and details. My pictures don't do the thing justice.

Picked up a book called The Constant Gardener, by John le Carre for the train ride, which is proving to be an outstanding novel so far. Highly recommended.

I've uploaded my most recent images here and here.

British TV

Something that's very weird, but funny at the same time. The commercials are leaps and bounds above those that you'll see on American TV. While we only get four channels in our flat, we seem to have a couple that are replaying some new American dramas, such as House and Prison Break.
I caught House last night - that's a hilarious show. Great characters, who are extremely sarcastic.
Also, I got this link from Karen Traviss - Looks like a very good documentary:

Why We Fight

Walking

Haven't been up to much in the past couple of days, a couple classes, going to Oxford and Windsor Castle, both of which were pretty interesting. Thursday and Friday I currently have off, which is really nice, able to sleep in a bit and to do whatever.
I walked down to visit the Tate Modern today. We visited during our orientation, where we got tickets through the program to see their exibition on Henri Rousseau, which was pretty interesting, but that's all that we saw. Went to go see the rest of it today. Lots of other pieces of art there, some very cool and very weird stuff.
I realized that there's a reason why I like art: It confuses the hell out of me, and for most of them, make me think about what the artist is trying to say, most of the time. Plus, it's nice to just see some things that look really cool. However, there's only a couple of the paintings in there that I'd seriously consider going back to see. But there are a lot of other interesting things to see there.
Went back home, cooked some dinner, chicken, which actually came out pretty good, and down here to check the mail. Katie, one of the Lexia people, is coming on Saturday, and we're going to Canterbury on Monday.

Drinking With Legends

Okay, not really, but I did hit a very special pub today: The Eagle and Child. Doesn't ring any bells?

It's in Oxford, and it's where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis went and met up, calling themselves the Inklings, when they were working on their major books. And I went there. I'm happy.

BECAUSE I WAS DRINKING IN THE VERY PLACE THAT TOLKIEN DID.

Tolkien's Signature

The main pub

More photographs here: http://norwich.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001795&l=7c010&id=70000497

Album #2. More on the original album.

Movie Recommendation: Layer Cake

I watched this movie the other night with my roommates. It's a crime movie, it's about a cocaine dealer trying to get out of the business, but his efforts are hampered by a last job that's asked of him, and he finds a number of different layers to the business. The director, Matthew Vaughn, is a director to keep your eyes on, for his outstanding visual style, with a number of really cool shots and lighting choices. Add in a couple of really good actors, it's an outstanding movie.

One Week & Tintin

Went to the theater last night, the Barbican, to see a stage performance of Tintin and Tibet. I've probably mentioned it in passing, but I'm a very big fan of the entire comic series, ever since I first read the comics in high school. They're a great read, if you've never picked them up, about a young reporter and his various adventures around the world. There's an entire shop here devoted to the comics, and I picked up the DVDs of the cartoon series, which has proven to be very faithful to the comics, and fun to watch.
The play was based off of the comic Tintin in Tibet, which is possibly one of the best ones out there. In this paticular story, Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock are vacationing when Tintin learns that his friend Chang has crashed in the Himalayas, and sets out to rescue him, despite all the odds of his survival. The play was fantastic, with Haddock and Tintin acted out amazingly, as well as a couple of the other characters. Snowy, Tintin's companion, was played by an actor and a small dog, and proved to be very funny. Here's the official site for the play.

And, I've been here for an entire week already. Went by fairly quickly, and I've really been enjoying my time here.

London Roads

I've been doing quite a bit of walking while I've not had any classes for a little while. I did a bit of a loop yesterday near the FSU for a little while, just walking down some back streets and off the main roads. I did the same thing earlier today while I was looking for a theatre, the Barbican, which is showing a stage version of Tintin. I ended up walking for a couple hours, down a couple of main roads and loosing my bearings before finding the place by mistake. There were some very cool roads that I went down. I was able to secure a ticket for tomorrow night's performance, and took the tube back to my flat, where I got lunch and rested for a little while.

We were supposed to go to a talk last night on Globalization, but when we got there, we found that it had already filled, with a bit of a line for people to get in, so we ended up walking around Fleet Street, looking for a Pub that Fran suggested. After about a forty-five minute walk and a lot of backtracking, we found it, and got something to eat and drink. I wasn't too fond of the beer that I got, but I suppose that it's an aquired taste.

In other news, SciFi related, The new Doctor Who series is coming to the US! The SciFi channel picked up the first season, and will begin to air the episodes in March as part of their SciFi Friday. Here's the article:

SCI FI To Air New Doctor Who
SCI FI Channel announced Jan. 12 that it will air the first season of the BBC's hit SF series Doctor Who, starting in March. The 13 episodes, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, will air as part of SCI FI Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
The series, from head writer and executive producer Russell T. Davies, ran originally in the United Kingdom last year and was one of the network's biggest hits ever. An update of the classic Doctor Who show, the series continues in the U.K. with an upcoming second season that will star David Tennant as the Doctor.
"The Doctor's made all sorts of journeys in time and space, but this is one of his most exciting yet!" Davies said in a statement. "I'm a huge fan of the SCI FI Channel, and I'm delighted that Doctor Who is appearing on a channel that supports and enhances the entire genre."
"With its rich history of imaginative storytelling, Doctor Who is a true sci-fi classic," Thomas P. Vitale, SCI FI's senior vice president, programming and original movies, said in a separate statement. "We're excited to add the show to our lineup."
Meanwhile, BBC Video announced that it has moved the proposed U.S. release date of the Doctor Who first-season DVD set to July 4 from its originally planned February launch.

More London Photographs

Just a brief update, I stopped over by the British Museum for a couple hours today, and took some more photographs. I actually recognized a number of the items in the Egypt room from several books and photographs, which was really cool.
Because I'm having problems with photobucket, all of the pictures that I'm going to take will be uploaded onto facebook, and they can be accessed through here:

http://norwich.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001723&l=83979&id=70000497

Ramses II

A better image of the Rossetta Stone

Burial Coffins

1st Day of Studies

Had my first class today, on Multiculturalism in Britian, which has proven to be fairly interesting so far. London, from what I've seen already, is a very diverse city, with a huge number of different ethnicities in it, which I'm finding facinating to live in, especially coming from Vermont, which is one of the whitest states in the union.
I've also managed to put some pictures up online, some of which are displayed below. I'm really enjoying my digital camera, although I'm trying to avoid all the touristy things that I could be photographing, although I did get some of those.

Big Ben

The Tintin Shop

The Reading Room of the British Museum

Statue of Winston Churchill

Red Telephone Booth

I have more online, which you can see here.

I was especially happy to find the Tintin shop, and picked up the DVD set of the cartoons that were released. I've since watched the first two episodes, and really enjoyed them, fun show, great stories and artwork, and they follow the book series really well.

London!

Well, I'm in London. Quite a few things have been going on, but I haven't started classes yet, that'll be in the coming weeks. Currently, I'm working on getting a little more intigrated with things here. The exchange rate is not terribly good, but I've gotten used to the £ symbol everywhere.
The flight over was good, as well as the other flights down to JFK and Newark. The flight over was pretty good, only 6 hours, and it went quickly. I sat next to a woman, a professor from Liverpool, and we talked about the country a little, which helped. Will (another student from Norwich) and I found Barbera right after our flight, and we got to the flat where we both me Fran, our roommate.
The last couple of days have been mainly walking around, getting our bearings and things of that nature, as well as some tours and walkarounds around the city. We saw the London Tower, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, the Needle and London Eye, among other things. I'll be getting photographs up shortly, whenever I remember to bring my connection cord with me to a computer lab. Computer access will be kind of spotty, whenever I get time, and we don't have access in our flat, which is probably a good thing.
Alrighty, time to find some dinner sometime.

And We All Ride On

Well, in a couple of hours, I'll be off. My flight for JFK doesn't leave until tomorrow, but I'm leaving early to sleep in Burlington, before hitting the bank and getting that flight. Friday morning, I'll be on a plane out of Newark headed to London. As I said to my friend Rachel last night, I cannot believe that it's come up so fast. When I applied, tomorrow was forever away. But now, it's so close that I just sit in shock at how quickly it's come, and how quickly it'll go. Hopefully, not too fast. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm packed and ready to go. Just got my digital camera last night, learned how to fiddle with it, and still trying to figure the thing out. It doesn't have any internal memory, so I need to figure out how to get more pictures out of the memory card (It's currently only able to take 16, not nearly enough.) So, this isn't going to be updated in about a week, more than likely, depending on when I get computer access again. So, hopefully everything will go smoothly. See you on the other side, in London!

Depressing News

I just read some kinda saddening news on the SciFiWire this morning: There will be no more Firefly, according to Joss Whedon. However, that doesn't mean the end of stories from that universe:

Whedon: No More Firefly
Firefly/Serenity creator Joss Whedon told USA Today that he still hopes to tell more stories set in the futuristic universe, but added that there's no chance he'll do another Firefly TV show. "We'll never make Firefly again, because that was a thing that existed and is now gone," Whedon told the newspaper before Christmas. "And Serenity isn't Firefly, and whatever comes next won't be, either. But I would love to tell more stories of this universe and to hang out with these people on and off for the rest of my career."
Serenity, based on the canceled Fox TV show Firefly, hit theaters last September and has pulled in a disappointing $25.4 million domestically since opening Sept. 30, 2005. The movie is now available on DVD.
"The best-case scenario is that the DVD is such a spectacular, monster hit that we get to make another movie," Whedon said. "Then we get to make another movie. After three movies, we're all very tired. After Serenity: Revolutions, we feel like we've played it out. And then we make another series."
Whedon is currently writing the script for Wonder Woman, which he is slated to direct once Warner Brothers signs off.

Let's hope that there will be more from him someday about this.

2006: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Year #6 into the decade. It's scary that it's almost a decade after 2000, the future. Just spent much of the day up in Burlington at their First Night Celebration, watching the YVO and a couple of chorus groups, one of which my former librarian in highschool was in. It was good to see her again, after her retirement. Met up with Sam and his girlfriend Miranda, and with my sister, we walked around a lot, seeing various things. Had a really fun time.

My resolution this year: Not to let people slip away like last year.

People & Relations

A year can teach you a lot about people. It can take a small thing that can really change your opinion of someone, for better or worse. Looking back, it seems like this year has been nothing but ups and downs.
It’s always disconcerting when you have someone tell you that someone else can’t stand you. Not that I really mind that. There are plenty of people who I can’t stand, and there are probably a large number of people that can’t stand me. But it’s always annoying when they don’t come out and say something. Why do people leave things hanging like that? I don’t get it.
I think that this year has been one of the more difficult ones. I’ve had my heart broken worse than I’ve ever had it, but I got over it, and realized how much of an idiot I was for it in the first place. I guess some things are catching up to me. I’ve been disappointed more times than I can count this time around, and it really hurt, for the first time, it really pained me to think about some people. But, as the saying goes, time heals all wounds, and it did. Didn’t help much with self-confidence, but there’s other things for that, like Sky Diving or landmine removal. I still can’t seem to get things right around women. People have offered suggestions, some of which have worked, some of which have completely backfired, but I guess I’m learning. Maybe sometime, somewhere, somehow.
I’ve also seen people close to death, and despite all mental preparations, it shook me more than I could have thought possible. My grandfather has been in and out of the hospital, and for a while, we thought that he wouldn’t make it. It was sobering to see it happen, and to my family as it was happening. I don’t know how my mother or aunt got through it the way that they did. I don’t really know how I managed not to get as upset as them. I guess that I do have to thank my friends for what support they gave me for it, especially during the really bad parts.
I value friends more, I think. At one point, I completely stopped hanging out with some people because of their girlfriends or other friends, and the ways that they’ve changed because of that. Sometimes I really wish it didn’t happen, but sometimes, I’ve found that if I step back and look at them from a different perspective, I don’t blame myself. There were other times when I just wish that people would open their eyes a bit, earlier, and see the people around them.
I’ve become a little too opinionated with some groups of people, and less so with others. There’s a couple people at the University that I absolutely couldn’t stand at all the past two years. They talked too much, were annoying and everyone was annoyed by them. One of them, I’ll never enjoy being with – mainly for the things that he was arrested for, and given my work at a summer camp. But the other, I’ve grown to like more. I’ve listened more, and better, and realized that he’s not a bad guy. By the same token, I’ve grown to really loath some types of people, mainly when I go up to Burlington – the rich, liberal freshmen that seem to populate UVM, and who’ve only taken on their own political views just because that’s the environment. They dress like they’re a couple of pay scales below what they’re really at, not to save money, but because it’s hip and popular, just as being a geek seems to have somehow been vaulted into popularity by the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Geekdom should not be trendy. Ever. But then again, I’m opinionated about this subject. But, I just wish that people would stop pretending who they aren’t, and be who they really are. That being said, I’ve realized that among some of my closer friends, you see them and they are who they are. They don’t pretend to be something different, they don’t act different because of different social situations. They are as you see them, and for that, I truly enjoy being with them.

Year In Review: Work

My summer was a big change as well. I worked at a Geo-Hydraulic Consulting company that my Dad works for, writing reports and doing fieldwork, something that I enjoyed a lot. I learned a lot about the field that I was working with, but also about myself. I learned not to make excuses for a poor job, and to take blame when I messed up. I learned how to prioritize, how to focus on a job and to finish it on time. It’s something that I carried with me when I went to my next job at Camp Abnaki.
This was also a change from my prior years, a larger challenge, because I was now working in a new role: Village Director, a promotion of sorts. I was the guy with the radio, the one that people looked to for the decisions, when they needed help with something, and the guy who came down on them when they didn’t do their job, when they slacked and mouthed off. It was an interesting adjustment this time around. I was in charge of my friends and learned how to distance myself from things that I might not ordinarily do. And despite that, I’ve always wanted the job, I’m not going to deny that, but I genuinely missed being a counselor, where I could put my head down and worry only about myself and my own cabin, not about the other counselors, or the overall picture of what was going on. I learned how to deal with bitchy people who couldn’t and/or wouldn’t realize that they’re doing a crappy job.
It was hard. My dad told me at the beginning of the summer that Management was the hardest job that I’d ever do. I didn’t believe him when he said it, but after this summer, it turned out to be correct. It was hard, exhausting, rewarding and exciting all at the same time. I got to see a side of Camp that I really hadn’t put as much thought into before, and really took a look at what the job required, on all levels. And I’m going back to it. Hopefully.
And during the school year, I tutor people in geology. But there’s not too much that’s interesting in that.

Merry Frelling Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, or any other holiday that you happen to celebrate this time of year- hope that you had a good one. While I'm not religous, I've always enjoyed the giving and recieving of gifts, especially the escuse to do so. I got my family members things that they all liked - and it was really easy this year too.
Got some cool things - A suitcase for when I go overseas. I swear, you can fit a couple of lost civilizations in it. No way that I'm going to fill it. Got a book on London from my sister, a Borders card from my brother and a new jacket, among other things.
Spent most of yesterday with relatives. We traditionally meet with my grandmother on Christmas eve, sometimes at our house, sometimes at hers, this times at hers. We then visited my other grandmother aunt, uncle and little cousin (She's getting huge- walking AND talking. It's amazing). From there, we went and visited my maternal grandfather in the assisted living center where he's currently staying, it was good to see him again. I think that he's starting to get a little better from the problems that have been happening since this summer.

Burlington

I spent the entire day up in Burlington today, visiting people. Went by very fast. I left the house at around nine this morning, and drove up, stopping by to visit my friend Sam for a little while. We walked around Church Street and Borders for about an hour, while I looked around for a final Christmas gift for my Father. (Didn't find it) But I did find that there's a new Worst Case Senerio Handbook out there, which is awesome. I love those books, and own the original and Travel editions, which will be in close reach while I'm overseas. At around noon, I drove over to Rachel's apartment, and hung out with her for a while. We talked for a while, and walked downtown to the Merril theater and watched the movie Syriana. I was totally blown away by everything in that movie. Outstanding story, characters, acting, camera work and score. I was completely fixated on it the entire time, and found it to be an extremely powerful, moving and terrifying story. I'm going to type up a full review tomorrow, but in a nutshell, it's a number of intertwined stories that revolve around Oil, Terrorism, the CIA, Politics, Oil Companies, and a bunch of other related things. It's written by the same guy who did Traffic, which I was also amazed at, and they do an even better job here. Rachel enjoyed it. We talked about it over some food at the Red Onion, a small resturaunt at the base of Church Street, which I'd never eaten at before. They made some good sandwiches. After that, we went back to her apartment and talked about a number of things, as usual. I was a little frustrated with myself. There were a couple of things that I wanted to say and do, but I just can't seem to get the right words into my mouth at all. :-\ . I wish that I was better with that. It didn't help that the cold walk was really making it hard to talk anyway. It was great to see her again. After that, went by and met up with Sam at the U-Mall, hung out with him for a while longer at his house, talked about Syriana and politics with him for a while, then returned home. Long, fun and busy day.