keithslater.net: October 2004

Well, finally back in Munich - very tired, going snowboarding tomorrow. Missed my flight Thursday, that's the fourth flight in 4 years! Oops. Will fill in the gaps after the boarding...

Up at the crack of dawn this morning. 6am. Travelled to Birmingham on a little aircraft but the journey was actually ok. Half day meeting in Birmingham, train to London and this is the view from my hotel room...

Not a bad one at all I think you will agree. Going to watch some footy and go to sleep. G'night y'all.

Little happening today. Work is all really. Weather is grey and overcast. I travel to the UK tomorrow and just found out I am taking a Canadair Regionaljet . At least it doesn't have propellers! I am not a fan of flying and taking these little planes makes it no easier! Oh well, it's only 2 hours. Nothing else to say really. Work is work!

Well, after a bit of a search around the web I have found out that Richard Ashcroft is going to release a new album on 7th February. His official website hasn't been updated since June 2003 and I had heard so little that I seriously thought something may have happened to him and I had missed it. For anyone who hasn't heard his solo stuff I really do recommend it. The man is a genius. Hopefully with a new album out there should be a tour?

2-0!! What an important win. Bit of a dubious penalty however we were denied a clear penalty a few minutes later so no argument there! Great assist by Alan Smith to set up Rooney for the second. Fantastic. This could be the catalyst for our season now. Come on!

I think this proves the point of my previous post. In Germany, and indeed most EU countries and most of the US this would simply not happen.

Ah Sunday. Just had a proper cooked breakfast (well, as good as a vegetarian can have) and am just gonna chill today. The weather outside is pretty good - bright sunshine and fairly warm (not quite shorts weather). The weather in Munich can be pretty messed up. The month of most rainfall is actually August although I reckon most of that is in short thunderstorms. Summer is generally great and winter damn cold but it can be sunny, rainy or snowy almost any time. This is due to what is locally known as the Foehn. This apparently increases suicide rates although personally I think that is crap.

Why Munich? Well, around 5 years ago I simply became disillusioned with England. Too much crime, too many racists, bigots, xenophobes, small minded idiots ruining it for the rest of us. Talk to people in England and a large percentage would like to live somewhere other than UK. Well, I had the opportunity and took it like a shot.

Munich is a great city. Sometimes the Germans annoy the crap out of me - just little things. They have a strange sense of humour that seems to exist infrequently, they can be very rude (let someone in ahead of you while driving and see how many times they thank you) and boy are they stiff (just look at the whole Du / Sie argument). They are good, honest people though and really look after their country. If I could give them a couple of words of advise it would be 'Chill out!!'.

There are parks all over the city - this is the largest - Englischer Garten - bigger than central park...

It really is a great place to chill out. One way the Germans are not stuffy is with sex and the human body and nowhere is this more apparent that at the Englischer Garten. Just watch the businessmen come along in their suits and take it all off to perform some naked yoga.

Around Munich are several wonderful lakes. My personal favourite is Amersee, a little smaller and less crowded. One of the most popular is Starnbergersee...

For me, one of the biggest attractions of Munich is it's proximity to most of Central Europe (Germany borders 10 countries!) and of course the alps. I love snowboarding. I am no expert but I do enjoy the feel of fresh powder underfoot. We actually have a big group going to Hintertux (below) next week - can't wait!!

I am guessing by it's success that I am not the first person to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I saw it on the plane to DC and it has just been in my head ever since. It is not very often a movie does that and I can't quite pinpoint why this has. Maybe just because the idea is so sad, I am a big softie at heart. Anyway, anyone who hasn't seen it I really recommend it.

You know the best thing about weekends? Football. I am not talking the North American version, 90% of which is actually played with hands but Rest Of The World Version, the beautiful game. I personally am a Manchester United fan, have been for about 28 years now (first I can remember of football I was around 7ish) but I don't care what football I watch. Kids in the park, jumpers for goalposts or Real Madrid playing Barcelona. Tomorrow is Man Utd vs Arsenal. It has been built up so much that it will either be awesome or fall on it's face. We have a phenomenal array of fire power that seems at the moment to be mis-firing. This cannot and will not last long and hopeful tomorrow we will unleash our arsenal on Arsenal.

Anyway, off to clean the car now. Takes several hours - I use zymol cleaning and waxing products, with the wax specially formulated for Italian cars as they have softer paint. Then, as it is a lovely day I am going to take the car for a spin on the Autobahn, the joys of living in Germany. :o)

So...the 3rd pet! This is Hazel...

Hazel used to be the shyest of the 2 rabbits - I am not sure that is the case nowadays. She always has her nose in something and where Lilly is a jumper Hazel is certainly a digger. Many times I go to feed them in the morning and Hazel's cage is in disarray. You cannot scold an animal for what comes naturally, so it's just a case of trying to sort it out a bit (rabbits are also very territorial and so re-arranging their nicely messed up cage is often met with a grunt!).

Lilly is definitely the boss though - Hazel knows this and Lilly certainly knows it!

While having a conversation in car on the way back from the airport with my good friend and colleague Phil, we were discussing Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Scale, Phil mentioned the The Bristol Stool Form Scale. Not quite the same but made me chuckle. I guess both are useful.

On the same lines this reminded me of Maslow's hierarchy of Needs. I learned about this and the Holmes and Rahe Scale whilst in College studying to go to University. I thoroughly enjoyed psychology but thought there must be more money in computing. Although I feel I have made a success of myself in computing (The Internet Industry to be more exact - running a 24/7 global NOC to be even more exact) I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I taken the other route. Maybe one day I will go there...

Back in sunny Munich (well, wasn't quite so sunny when we landed!!). A descent flight, only 7.5 hours due to a good backwind and one of the gentlest landings I have ever had.

Animals are all the same - bit mental but that is a good thing. I missed them, little monkeys.

Not much else to say right now - jetlag West to East is always nasty. Good to be home - but vacant right now though...

One of those days when I really cannot be bothered. Maybe I am not alone but when you reach mid-30s I think you get a different outlook on life. I think this may be the first time in my life when I am actually grown up. I can still be a kid at times but now the important things like life insurance, pensions etc. have to be sorted out and you get a real idea of what life is. Alles klar?

So, anyway, on with the pets. Today - Lilly.

Lilly is without a doubt the most hectic of all the pets. She is still fairly young (9 months) and it shows. She is like an inquisitive little child. She is, of course, lovely with it. She always has her nose to the ground, sniffing for anything tasty that may come her way, or she is propelling herslef through the air - she sure can jump. If you have ever seen rabbits 'dancing' you will know what I mean.

Went to an old friend's house tonight and had a ball. He is cool and lives with his wife and little kid, Luke, who are equally as cool. I got a gentle introduction to baseball and found it isn't as dull as I ever thought, although apparently I was introduced to one of the most exciting games ever - Yankees vs Red Sox.

Aaron and Luke.

You are .mpg You live life like it was a movie. Constantly in motion, you bring pleasure to many, but are often hidden away.

Which File Extension are You?

A bit of advice for you. If you are ever going away on business to somewhere with a time difference of 6 hours, turn your mobile phone off when you go to bed or you risk being woken up at 6am like me this morning. It wasn't even a important call, it was a vendor trying to drum up business. I know he wasn't to know I was here so cannot blame him - but tonight the phone will be going off!!

NANOG has started so will update you on all the geeky happenings a little later...

Went to a BBQ at a friend's and then into DC for a night time site seeing tour. Got some nice shots but once again wished I had my tripod with me - when will I ever learn!! Anyway, this is from the WWII memorial (ignore the watermark - I don't have any registed RAW conversion software with me so had to DL some shareware real quick.

Anyway, real tired now so going to sleep. G'night.

I just very nearly had a catastrophe. Here I sit in the hotel room with a cup of coffee and oops, it disappears from my hand onto the desk and towards my laptop. Luckily my reactions were good enough that it touched little of the laptop. I should know better - I have dropped an esspresso into my previous laptop and it cost €500 to get it repaired. No harm really done here though.

I am going to introduce you to one of my flatmates. This is Arthur.

Arthur is a chinchilla and is just over a year old. He has a great personality and is friendly but it must be on his terms. If you try to touch him and he isn't in the mood he will run away and there is little chance of catching him, he is very, VERY fast. If he is in the mood though he is cool. He eats out of my hand, jumps up and down on me and make funny little clicking noises.

Just what the doctor ordered!

http://ebrandon.net/sleepless/

So it's 0548 and I am wide awake. Funny thing jetlag. Thought I had gotten over it yesterday, I was awake at around 0800 and felt good all day. Now I'm here wide awake. So...I thought I might as well actually get up rather than just toss and turn unable to get back to sleep.

Went shopping yesterday. There are many things I really like about the US - waffles, pancakes, french toast, pizza, banana republic, abercrombie and fich amongst others. Reston is a very strange place - it's what they call a 'created community'. In the UK I guess we would call it a 'new town'. Built in the 50s / 60s and all a bit artificial and lacking in character. Pleasant enough though. We can find nowhere that makes proper breakfast either. Yesterday we had to have a sandwich and chips (not terribly healthy) on the basis that our $190 / night hotel doesn't include breakfast and one of the guys with us will not pay extra on principal. So we ended up at the sandwich shop paying as much as we would for breakfast. Today -we are going!! If I have to drag him (which is possible).

You are 30% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

So I made it to DC. First 4 hours of the flight were fine - next 4 were really quite 'choppy' and the landing was awful. We seemed to arrive in the middle of a storm! Just my luck. I really do not like flying too much which is a bit of a problem as my job requires a certain amount of it. To add insult to injury my GF, whom I was supposed to be meeting in DC has to work so couldn't fly (from Chicago). Real bummer but it's not her fault.

I did get to meet up with 2 old friends, both of whom used to work in Munich. We went to a bar and the Americans make such good whiskey sours - my head is a little sensitive right now! :o)

Tomorrow - on with the Geek Fest!

What a busy evening. Finished work, rushed into the City to buy something before going away, rushed home, cleaned the animals (cages), went to a friends, helped her drill some holes in a really bloody solid concrete wall, picked up some empty boxes, took them to another friend's place, took the first friend home, drove home, packed, bed! Exhausted. Will try to update in DC but do not know how good the internet connection will be. Should be ok, NANOG is probably the gathering of the most gifted internet geeks on the planet.

At 35 years old is it really normal for me and a colleague to be on a conf call counting the number of times one of the other attendees says 'Er' in a minute? TBH it really isn't a very exciting call - just 2 people arguing really.

p.s. 16 times / minute although I swear every minute after was more! ;o)

Here's another one - Andy's Adverts. Guess I am just too busy at work. Or able to multi-task. That's my excuse. Anyway, go to Andy's site and check out his favourite UK ads. Some of the best on there are definitely the Tango ads. Whoever was in charge of marketing and advertising for Tango over the last 10/15 years deserves a huge payrise (I have no doubt they got one). Whether it is wise to prompt children to slap each other round the ears is debatable, it is without doubt testament to the adverts that children across the country were doing so with cries of 'you've been tangoed' ringing out!

Just been having a giggle with the lads on work over the website dissapointment.com - in particular the law of the playground. Whatever happened to words like gaylord and bummer? Guess it is just 'incorrect' to be saying such things nowadays. Anyway, take a look at the site and (if like me you are English) memories will come flooding back.

Work again and a 4 hour conference call!! Leaving to go to Washington tomorrow, quite looking forward to it but I really am not a big fan of flying! A couple of G&Ts will sort that out.

Had a very strange dream last night. Took my car in for a service and the garage got broken into. To get into my car they used an oxy-acetaline torch. The garage had then filled in the gaps and painted it over with a paintbrush. When I questioned them about this they thought it was all ok. Strange huh? ;o)

Just about to settle down for the night and watch Alien resurrection. Not my favourite in the Alien Quadrilogy but next in turn. If you haven't bought this and you like the Alien series of movies go and buy it now! 9 disks, 40 hours. All 4 films in both original format and Director's cut. Extras galore. It really is one of the best examples of how DVD is revolutionising the home cinema experience. The quality of both the video and audio is outstanding, giving even the 1979 original a new lease of life. Next on my list, the Hellraiser boxset!

Argument over! Relationships are strange. People are strange. As my Grandma used to say 'There's nowt as queer as folk'. How true these words are. Especially modern society. Through all the fantastic breakthroughs in medicine, in technology, space travel etc. we still seem intent on destroying both the world we live in and the people we live.

From Genesis - Land of Confusion

'This is the world we live in And these are the hands we're given Use them and let's start trying To make it a place worth living in.'

Good news and bad. Life is like that. England won the Football 1-0. That's the good news. Bad news is I just had a massive argument with my GF. Not going to go into details. Hate argueing!!

Well, half time and all is well. 1-0. But I tell you what, it looks very cold and wet in Azerbaijan . Rather them than me. My rabbits are driving me a bit crazy though. Jumping around like loonies, throwing themselves onto the top of their cages (they are out whenever I am home and this is nothing unusual). I actually have 2 rabbits, a chinchilla (who I found in the ventilation the other day!!) and a hamster. They are all a bit crazy but I love them to death.

Would you believe it...? 30 seconds into the England game and my work mobile rings. Missed the call and can see it was indeed the office. Now, this is one of my real pet hates - someone called me from the office and obviously deemed it important enough to disturb my evening - but not important enough to leave me a message! Incredible.

Football and cars. Yes, I am very much a typical bloke. I love my football (REAL football, played with a round ball!!) although as the years go on I think you do tend to realise it is just a game. I have no doubt that some people who know me would be amazed that I have said that. I am a fierce Manchester United fan. I have been since my family returned from Cyprus in 1974.

As far as cars go, I have an Alfa Romeo (see below). I was very much warned against it, people telling me they are unreliable. These are clearly people who have never owned an Alfa. Every bit as good build quality as the last 2 Audis I have owned and twice the fun!!!

So, back to work. In general, pretty good. In part, dissapointing. I have one colleague who continually demonstrates that he is nothing short of a megalomaniac. He is selfish, conceited and in the words of another colleague of mine 'swans around the office'. He seems not to have any appreciation that there are other people on this planet. It turns my working day into something of a nightmare to be honest. Never mind - if you let people like this get you down then you may as well give up now!

Bit pissed off to be honest. I had already started a BLOG yesterday, full of juicy gossip, photos and the like and basically it all broke so I have had to start again. Oh well, that's life...

Although I have promised this numerous times before (well, look, I have been a member since August 2003 and this is my second post!!) I am going to try and keep this updated. It may be general rants, thoughts, something about me - anything really. Let's see...

keithslater.net

Friday, October 29, 2004

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Friday, October 22, 2004

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Wednesday, October 13, 2004

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