Ah, Christmas. Gotta love it.

I'm posting this at Beth's parents house. Santa was quite generous to me this year... everything from the Travis CD (Scottish band, for those of you that have never heard of them) to a laser line thing for hanging pictures. Oh, and "America: The Book" from those nice poeple at The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Funny, and definitely not paid-off media muppets.

Listen : Writing To Reach You - Travis ... Christmas In Heaven - Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Now I feel ready for Christmas.

All the shopping is done (thanks Amazon.com for the free shipping), and yesterday we got the tree home and decorated before the rain started. Decorated it with four hundred white lights and loads of tree decorations that we've saved over the years. With a CD of Christmas music I made last year playing in the background. Classic stuff by Sinatra and Bing. Lovely.

So if I don't get the chance to remind you all in the next few weeks... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Listen : Formed A Band - Art Brut ... Cutt Off - Kasabian ... Hysteria - Muse.

The Thanksgiving rush is through. Time for the Christmas rush to begin.

I got asked something over Thanksgiving, and not just once. "Do they have Thanksgiving in Britain?" was the question in question. One too many 'question's there. So here's the answer. No. In fact, there are more countries that have Boxing Day off work than have a Thanksgiving. The whole history of the holiday is: white people were hungry, natives helped them out with food. The white people in Britain are the natives, so we'd have starved to death.

But that's not knocking the holiday. Any excuse for food and a sleep in the afternoon, says I.

They say life is full of little coincidences, and today I found one.

Background to this story: I had a car accident in the middle of the Australian nowhere in 1998 which eventually led to me meeting my wife (look for my October 29th 2002 posting in this weblog for the full sordid details). I was messing with MultiMap online today and found that there's a Lake Seabrook in the area I had my crash.

Some plucky GPS-bearing people went the 870kms (540 miles or so) from the town of Kalgoorlie (nice place, good beer) to the exact point that marks 30°S 119°E (quite literally out in the middle of nowhere). This page shows what the area looks like, and why I'm surprised someone managed to find me in the car after only an hour.

If you're wondering why someone would travel into the middle of nowhere just to find a specific latitude and longitude point, it's all part of The Degree Confluence Project. The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. Everybody needs a hobby, and there's no better use for a GPS locator and a digital camera.

Listen : When The River Runs Dry - Hunters & Collectors ... World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode.

Just found a great site for all my family and friends around the world, worried about the election (and four more years of a man-chimp with his finger on the button).

Quite a lot of people just want you all to know that we're really, really sorry and if we had the choice we'd have two men called John calling the shots.

Which may not be such a long-shot, even after all this time. The Moderate Independent reports that Ralph Nader, the man that may have given George W. Bush the White House in 2000, is putting a bid in to get votes recounted. One blogger mentions the research of Dr Stephen Freeman that shows the immense improbability that the difference between exit poll numbers and 'counted' votes happened by chance. One chance in a quarter of a billion.

Seriously; we're talking the chances of winning the jackpot on a 6-from-49 Lottery (think New York's State Lottery, or Britain's National Lottery) and then winning double-or-nothing at a Vegas roulette wheel. With every scrap of the winnings. Six times.

Listen : Underwear Goes Inside The Pants - Lazyboy ... Amerika (Jam & Spoon So Kann's Gehen Mix) - Rammstein.

Ah yes. I promised my sister that I would put a picture of her wedding on the blog as soon as she sent one. It's trimmed down a bit...

...but there you are. Congratulations to Wendy and Dave Wootton. No longer living in sin!!!

Listen : Brace Yourself - Brides Of Destruction ... Lovenest - The Wedding Present (I was quite happy with myself for these song choices).

Did I really miss that many weeks without posting on the blog? Hmmmm...

So, what happened. Four hurricanes hit the country. They may have been gentle reminders to all Floridians that God / Gaia was pissed off at them. I quite liked the fact that three of them were reminders not to vote for Bush (Ivan, Charlie and France's)... OK, you know this is sarcasm. Bush won his first election fairly a few days ago, but pundits on the TV are saying that Kerry's strategy was a failure.

Yet both candidates got more votes than any winning President in past US history.

If you make it to the 100m Finals at the Olympics, when nobody thought you'd get past the preliminaries because your running style was awkward, and then got beaten to the gold medal by less than two-tenths of a second, people wouldn't be saying "that was a disaster... he needs to radically rethink his entire running technique after that silver medal performance..." and yet that's what these expert pundits on the news are now doing.

Blah, blah, everyone's an expert. Here's another example, and it shows that you should make up your own mind instead of investing too much in the opinions of those on TV. When the US Dollar slipped against European currencies in late 2003, so-called "experts" in the financial sector were saying that it would rebound by the end of 2004. £1 in Britain would return to be worth $1.60 in the US instead of $1.80. Guess what? These experts that are paid a six-figure salary to predict trends got it wrong. British tourists still get an absolute bargain when they come to the States to shop because the dollar's so weak. It's still a dollar-eighty to one pound sterling.

The same with the election. Kerry didn't do bad at all. In fact, he posted the second fastest time in Olympic history (if we carry that analogy over), but got beaten on the day. He got more votes than Clinton, Bush the first and Reagan. So I'd say he did something right.

So, for the next four years, I'll be watching the figures. Unemployment, currency rates, promised spending amounts. Bush won by a whisker and if he fucks it up this time like he's done in Iraq, we'll let him know it in no uncertain terms.

Roll on the next election...

Listen : Lola Stars And Stripes - The Stills ... Kill The Poor - The Dead Kennedys ... Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children - Manic Street Preachers.

Obscene question of the day: What's the most money you've ever spent in one month?

I don't mean on a credit card or borrowed cash. How much of your own hard-earned savings have you ever shelled out in the space of one calendar month? The month of August isn't over yet, but we're over the $1,000 mark. By a few thousand. Add a bit more. OK, we spent three years' savings this month.

I've handled more in my life... I worked at a London rail station for a few years and pulled in over £100,000 two days running. Mind you, most of that was in credit card transactions and it was right before Christmas so maybe not. Never mind. I've never spent more than a few hundred of my own moolah at any one time. Until this month.

But hey, what's the use of having it if you're never going to spend it?

Beth's old Honda is seven years old, so we have been thinking of small SUVs for some time now. It was either going to be another Honda (the CR-V) or a 2005 Subaru Forester 2.5X. Thanks to the side impact rating in Consumer Reports, the Subaru won out. We fell in love with the Pearl Blue one on the lot and ended up buying it. Nearly fifty percent down and financing for four years.

As you may know from reading these web-log entries, we've been looking for a house. The breaking point came when we looked at the house with Duct tape keeping the bathroom tiles on the wall. So we looked at a plot of land for sale and we liked it enough to put in a bid. The bid was accepted, so we had a choice. Finance, or savings? Well, paying outright means we have one less bill to worry about. If we do see a house we like in the interim, we can sell the land... but we want to build our dream place, and owning the land gives us a sense of freedom. Including the closing costs and filing the deed at the Courthouse, that took the biggest chunk out of the savings.

I don't feel bad about it because it's what we were saving for anyway.

Oh, then the window wouldn't close on the Civic so we needed that put back on its tracks. The people at Burne Honda said they couldn't see it for a week but Beth had a word with them and it was done by mid-day the next day. She's great like that. The boys at the garage noticed the rattle under the car we've had and saw a loose plate near the exhaust so they fixed that into place for us too. Then they gave us a 10% discount for the parts. Nice one, gentlemen.

Listen : Float On - Modest Mouse ... Tax Loss - Mansun ... Dollars & Cents - Radiohead...

I am absolutely thrilled silly to announce that we bought some property.

Oh,hang on a moment. We didn't buy that. This appears to be the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. That's the Hyde Park in upstate New York (and not the Hyde Park across the way from Buckingham Palace, or the Hyde Park just down the road from King's Cross in Sydney, which is not the same as the King's Cross in London. That would be London as in the capital of England, not London in Ontario's Canada).

Sorry... where was I?

Oh yes. Hyde Park, NY. Birthplace and burial place of Franklin D. Roosevelt, home to the ex-filthy-rich Vanderbilt family (the grandkids squandered it all) and home to some of the East Coast's finest vinyards. I recommend the Clinton Vineyards where you can wine taste for $5 (and get a happy buzz into the bargain... very civil). Beth and I spent a week there for our third wedding anniversary and it was very nice. I feel I should say that big props go out to my crew at the Journey Inn on Route 9, but I'll leave that kind of talk to those with a love for the streets. Or something. As we were leaving the Vanderbilt's 50,000 square foot country cottage (yes, they really knew how to slum it back then) we saw someone having their picture taken with a 'For Sale' sign. So we asked if they'd take our picture too. Hey; if they ever lose the deeds to the property we have a photo record right here that it's all ours!

Other fun things we did on that week: a train and taxi ride to New York City's new Planetarium at the AMNH, a visit to the
Spaceship Discovery Science & Technology Center (where they have two astromech 'droids called R2-D2 and R2-She-2) and a great time by the Hudson River. Going back to the Spaceship Discovery place; I have to congratulate Floyd Holt for all the hard work and dedication he's putting into science to make it fun and accessible. Even if it make a Trekkie like me wonder how much one person can like a Starfleet uniform. Well done, sir!

Then we came home and started looking for real houses. It was last Thursday that the realtor took us to see two houses. The first one was going for $133,000 and it is a shambles. The owner died so it became an estate sale and the loving kids decided to rip the guts out of the house before selling it. All appliances: gone. Carpets: gone. A window frame: completely ripped out. Floorboards: look like a werewolf used them to sharpen his claws. Tiles in the shower: lovingly held together with Duct Tape. I kid you not... blue tiles and lashings of silver tape to give the whole thing structural integrity. Ugh. The second house was nice enough, but too close to a main road and there's a lack of parking.

That's when Richie (he's our realtor) asked us to look at a lot that was going for sale. Eighty feet (25 metres) wide by 130 feet (40 metres), right next to the park, quiet road, stunning view. We put in a bid of $29,900 and it was accepted within the hour. Beth and I are, subject to contract, the proud owners of a patch of real estate. Our house will be built within the next two years (as soon as we get our savings back up again to pay for it all). It's not as big as the Vanderbilt Estate, but it'll do nicely for us.

Listen : Our House / Night Boat To Cairo - Madness ... Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead.

First of all, and here's the beauty of the internet (where you can commit random acts of corporate-inspired kindness just because you want to), here's a non-paid endorsement list courtesy of me.

Zappo's is the place online for shoes. Kids shoes, ladies sandals, spats for men (wingtips with black and white leather just like Al Capone used to wear). Shipping is free in the US... and our order was upgraded from USPS to UPS for no extra change. Nice. Then there's All-Of-mp3 for those of you that know technology and love music... if you have a PayPal account to pay for things online (keeping your credit card numbers safer), you can buy $10 of music. Unlike iTunes, which will charge 99¢ per song, All-Of-mp3 charge by the megabyte and it's just 1¢ per MB. This means a three minute song encoded at near-CD quality (192 kbps) will cost 5% what it does at Apple's store. How can they get it so low? They're Russians! Finally, buy $25 worth of books or music at Amazon.com and the shipping is free. Got a Greg Bear book, The Killers' new CD and Beth got some things she likes too.

Life goes on. My sister Wendy's getting married in England on the 18th of September. Sorry I can't be there, but send me a few digital pictures and I promise one will make it onto this blog.

We've just had the 4th of July here. Being a Limey, I feel like I should be saying sorry to people for having troops barrack in people's houses. Mind you, if G.W.Bush is going to ignore the part of the Constitution that says people are only to be denied access to the judicial system if there's an incoming invasion or rebellion, I shouldn't feel so bad.

One person this week wrote into the local paper and said how great his President is and compared his idea of America perfection to "the failure of Europe". The failure of Europe. Hmmmm. To paraphrase John Cleese as Reg in "The Life Of Brian": apart from the system of democracy, the first Bill Of Rights (Magna Carta, 1215A.D.), road systems, Western versions of religion, Shakespeare and the modern English language, Beethoven, Mozart, penicillin, evolution, skiing, every sport Americans play and watch in large numbers (with the exception of lacrosse), the invention of the train, cars, battletanks, fighter planes, radio, television, the discovery of DNA's construction, the invention of the pocket calculator, pocket TVs, the affordable home computer and the internet... WHAT HAS EUROPE EVER GIVEN US?!? I suggest the dittohead that wrote this diatribe go back to the rock he crawled out from. You don't need to be a dittohead to be a Christian, if that's your thing.

Listen : Such Great Heights - The Postal Service ... You Were Right - Badly Drawn Boy.

Busy, busy, busy. Always my excuse, but it is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

The dearth of houses for sale in the area suddenly took a surprising twist. Old people must have taken up synchronised moving-into-retirement-homes (what with the Olympics starting this summer) and we have our eyes on two places.

'Fairfield' is in a good area. Expensive, true, but the house is on two city lots. 'Ash' is cheaper but that's because it's not in such a prestigious area. It's near to the park we like going to, which is a bonus. The property taxes are lower for 'Ash' than for 'Fairfield' too. Both houses are around 1,500 square feet. I guess things may be looking up. We put a bid in on 'Fairfield' and it was countered, so we'll see how 'Ash' looks like inside before we consider meeting 'Fairfield' half-way...

Went to a concert on Thursday night up at the Montage Mountain Ampitheater. Stereophonics were the support act (you may know them, you may not. Rock band from Wales) and the main act was David Bowie (if you don't know who he is, get back under that rock). The 'Phonics did a forty minute set that included stuff from their last two albums. I was hoping for something like 'Traffic' from Word Gets Around or 'The Bartender And The Thief' from Performance And Cocktails (stuff they did before I moved to the States) but the crowd were very responsive so I shouldn't complain. They got a rousing ovation from everyone at the end of their set, so I think they may have a few fans in the US that they didn't have last week. Bowie... what can I say? The man is a musical God that walks amongst us. He started with 'Rebel Rebel' and went on for over two hours. He bantered with the crowd and we lapped it up like puppies. His act was split equally between newer stuff from Heathen and Reality (his two most recent works); classic songs like 'China Girl' and 'All The Young Dudes' and a selection of cover versions and obscure B-sides. It was one of the best concerts I have been to. Big thanks to both Bowie and the 'Phonics for a great night's entertainment. It reflects in my 'Listen' choices for today.

We went to Bushkill Falls yesterday to see "the Niagara of Pennsylvania". Bit of a grand statement... they both happen to be waterfalls that you wouldn't want to fall down, but there the similarity ends. Bushkill is a series of smaller waterfalls, so it made for great picture opportunities. Like this one in the picture above, where a group of kids were cajoled by their mother to get a bit closer (a lot wetter) for a snapshot. In case you're wondering, the main falls are much bigger than this trickle. It looks pretty good... I might start putting more pictures in the blog. Don't know why I haven't before.

Anyhow, we walked around for over two hours and took quite a few pictures. My legs still feel like lead and I was wearing proper walking books so I feel sorry for the people I saw walking around the hiking trails in flip-flops.

Listen : Sunday - David Bowie ... Have A Nice Day - Stereophonics ... Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand.

So much happened in six weeks, I barely had time to look at the computer. Here are the headlines.

We got a new computer. It's just a secondary thing, really... MacMall had a sale of iBook G3 800MHz laptops, with a free printer and cary-tote, for $700. So we got one. I got the latest copy of Consumer Reports and the free printer (a Epson Stylus C84) was their best pick. Excellent...

We also invested in a little Flash Drive. They're the 21st Century version of floppy disks. Only a lot smaller, a little more stylish and with tons more computer storage space.

My cholesterol is lower. I had it checked a few years ago and it was 220... well, thanks to Beth getting me eating right, it's down to 164. My pulse is normal, my blood pressure's a textbook 120/80. I feel great.

Still looking for a house in the city (after someone beat us on bidding for the place I mentioned in the last diatribe), summer's nearly here and the new position at work is going well. Gus (hello Gus in Philly) offered to throw work my way, designing web sites for people. He's a professional designer and I'm a whizz at HTML programming, so it'll be great. He does the logos, and sorts out their look and I translate it into a website for them. Plus I earn a few shekels into the bargain, which is nice.

Listen : Go To Sleep - Radiohead ... Ride - The Vines.

Winter, I hope, has finally melted away from this little corner of the world. Bring on spring.

March Madness is upon us. The kids are wearing orange Syracuse University t-shirts and vests in weather that warrants at least two layers and they're playing basketball in the streets.

Go G-Mac! It's a local thing, you probably wouldn't understand.

The St.Paddy's Day Parade downtown (yesterday) saw everyone walking around in bad shades of green, but they all looked happy (drunk) enough. It's an odd thing, but whenever I see someone wearing a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" badge over here I feel like asking them what they thought of the whole Roy Keane / Mick McCarthy thing that happened a few years back and whether Bertie Ahern should have gotten himself involved at all. Ninety-nine percent of people that say they're Irish in the USA have absolutely no idea what the Hell any of that means. It would be like having someone say they're American and not know who Donovan McNabb or Kelly Ripa are, or a self-pronounced Brit not knowing what Wolves and Accrington Stanley have in common.

Little things like that fascinate me for no reason whatsoever. The word "rivulets" and the number "312,000" fascinate me for no reason too. I wish I knew why. Maybe I have half a brain.

I missed one of my friends' birthdays. Sorry, Matt in Leicester. The card is on its way to England. I just wanted to say "sorry", but this has been a busy few weeks for me, and here's why...

Reason One: I'm filing for the removal of conditions on my Green Card so we're rushing around for all the paperwork. I'll probably have to go to Philly to get the new I-751 Green Card in a few months.

Reason Two: work is getting interesting. I applied for a position in another department with a more relaxed atmosphere (as opposed to being given a new position... see January's post), and someone high up in the company now seem interested in the pseudo-company-website I created (click here to see my handiwork) ...apparently, the company paid a ton of money to have an image consultant tell them their current web-site is shit. It was made using Word for Windows, which any eight-year-old kid can manage, so I could have told them that. What they need is some old English immigrant with a G3 Mac computer and a copy of Macromedia DreamWeaver to do their site, that's what I say.

Oh, and the current site cost the company $5,000 so I'm guessing the manager in charge of approving the original must have a case of "sunk cost pride". He, or she, doesn't want to admit it was a bad purchase. One scientist writes that people (of a certain perfectionist type) that buy an expensive piece of tat will not throw this junk out because they have invested more than money in their decision. Their very pride is at stake. So they keep the bad purchase because they believe they'll eventually get their money's worth. Websites, designer shoes on sale, clothes that cost an arm and a leg but warp after one wash, an expensive restaurant meal cooked to imperfection... it's all the same really.

Enough of reason two. On to reason three.

Reason Three: The icing on the cake is that we've put a bid on a house. It's at the high end of what we want to pay, but the house itself looks great and I really hope we get it. So now my mind is full of the possibilities that we could be moving house soon. But we may not be, because they may turn down our bid. It's the not knowing that kills you!

So, once again, sorry for missing your birthday there Matt. What with the immigration stuff, the prospect of a new job at work, being asked to be the webmaster to boot, and potentially having a mortgage in a matter of weeks... well, life is what happens when you're making other plans.

Happy St.Patrick's Day for real on Wednesday, people (beannachtaí na féile Pádraig, as they say in Ireland).

Listen : Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers ... Zombie - The Cranberries.

Bit of a departure for today's entry. I'm writing this one at work, but emailing it to myself at home to save a bit of time. So excuse the rushed feel, and any speeling mistaeks (!) that I may make.

It snowed around six inches last night. I've been quite happy with the weather so far... I wouldn't mind it if we had tropical weather but this is the Northeastern United States and this is January. So snow it is. My sister (Wendy) tells me they have cold and snowy weather back in England. Even sent me pictures at work to show how snowy. Welcome to the Ice Age, sis.

Did I tell you that I got an unexpected promotion? Bit of a weird thing, but I was given a new Quality Control job within the company. Don't know what the pay increase will be because it's all tied in with the annual increase and nobody in the company seems to know what that is or when that will happen. At least the raise is retro-active, and I have been working a bit of overtime the last few weeks so it all adds up.

Not that money makes me happy. Being happy makes me happy, money just keeps the landlord, electric and gas companies off my back in the great scheme of things. As Lao Tzu said, he who knows he has enough is a rich man. That's me.

I came to a decision the other day. I left education too early. Sixteen is a fine age to start working full time if your school highlights were a C+ in woodwork and an A in bullying, but someone with 8 'O' Levels should have gone further in academia. There's a local college that does Associates and Batchelor's Degree courses on Saturdays and I know what I like (technical stuff, anything that can couple that with an artistic flair) so I'm keeping an eye open for courses that include web design or CAD. Something like that. Look; if I'm going to be in the workforce for the next 30 years or so, I may as well use the brain I have to do a better job for more money.

Politics is getting exciting over here. I've been posting on the Al Franken Web Forum (he's a comedian-cum-politico, and a funny author to boot). Looks like the political apathy of the last few years has been roused by Bush's mishandling of foreign and domestic affairs.

Listen : Vaseline - Elastica.

Happy New Year, and a happy 34th birthday to me (tomorrow).

Beth loves her sapphire and diamond necklace. Made from manufactured gems instead of mined ones... but I'd rather give the money to someone in a lab than a crimelord in the Democratic (ha!) Republic (double ha!) of Congo. Along with the usual fine trappings of the holiday season I got The Big Box Of Art. It's probably the geekiest thing I could ever have received ("hey, 215,000 images on 24 CDs? GREAT!") but I love it. Here's an example of how totally inclusive it is. Say your kid is doing an essay on architecture in Hong Kong. Great, your kid is a genius, but where do you find good quality photos like that at this time of day? I just checked... I have 267 images relating to Hong Kong, 33 of those are black and white photos and 17 of those are close-up views of buildings. I have no idea when I personally would ever find a use for a b&w photo of a building in Hong Kong (or an animated GIF of a walking tree for that matter) but it still fascinates me and I have them if I need them.

Just want to say that if you drank too much this New Year's Eve you might want to consider a subscription to Modern Drunkard Magazine. Or maybe you just need to ease up there, sunshine...

Listen : Happy Birthday - Altered Images ... Speak In Sympathy (Original Mix) - Solar Stone feat. Liz Fields