A Poet's Progress - Rob Miles's's' Blog

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Sat, Oct 25 2003

There goes my body clock...

And so early to breakfast. Considerably (and rudely) awakened by the twelve pounds fifty price tag for a bowl of Alpen, a cup of tea and two slices of toast. I don't particularly like a big breakfast - but if it costs that amount of cash I'm going for everything if I ever eat there again. We are staying in the same hotel on the way back but I think it is unlikely we'll avail ourselves of breakfast since we spotted a McDonalds nearby.

Gatwick airport is an airport. There. I've now said everything that I can say about the place, If you have been to any airport you now know exactly what Gatwick is like. The same crowds of people with cases, hard to hear tannoy and valiant (but ultimately doomed) attempts to give the place some kind of soul with themed bars and murals. The good news is that we got to go in one of the posh lounges with a free drinks counter and comfy chairs.

The plane was a 747 which was nice. We also flew straight through to LA which was even nicer. And they gave us some of this:

On the way into LA we flew over the forest fires which are raging at the moment. You can just see the line of flames:

OK. So my body thinks it is three in the morning. The clock on the wall says early evening. This is not a recipe for happy living. They had a nice reception around the hotel pool when we arrived but I'm afraid that the good food and good company was a bit wasted on me because I was, well, a bit wasted myself. But I did spot the corporate logo on the bottom of the pool (though I resisted the urge to jump in and look more closely..):

And I did manage to snatch one or two other photographs. You mean your hotel doesn't have stone elephants outside? Shame on you.

I had to go out at 4:00 am to get my credit card swiped so that I could sign up for internet access. Whilst I was down there I met up with a fellow traveler who was after some Asprin. "Have you got a headache?" I asked. Thanks for not replying "No, I collect remedies from all round the world and I thought I'd get started in Los Angeles as soon as possible".

More tomorrow. Or today. Or whenever..

 


Fri, Oct 24 2003

Leaving on a jet plane, but not yet

I've been blog moving and generally packing because I'm going on my travels again. This time it is to Los Angeles and the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. The plane leaves tomorrow, but we need an early start from Gatwick and so we are driving down today (that is, David is driving, I'm going to sit in the back and say "Are we there yet" at regular intervals). Tip for long car journeys - Bill Bryson. Get a copy of the audio version of "Notes from a Small Island", read by the master - Kerry Shale. Very good to listen to and makes the journey shorter. If you have a journey with kids over about 11 in age or so get hold of some of the X-Files audio tapes which are also read by Mr. Shale. The one with Eugine Victor Tombs is brilliant!

Got to Gatwick without incident and clocked into a hotel so memorable that I've forgotten the name already. The fact that the hotel is hard to remember is a good thing, in that you do seem to recall the bad things about a place, but if everything just works and the service is good you file it under OK and forget.

Anyhoo, on to a Jumbo tomorrow and away to LA

 


Thu, Oct 23 2003

Dalek Ignorance

It has come to my attention that some of you folks out there don't know what a Dalek is. And after showing your ignorance with the Jolly Green Giant last week as well. Daleks were the most popular adversary of Dr. Who of BBC TV Science Fiction fame. You can find out more here

Their design meant that it was impossible for them to climb stairs, and there was a kind of running joke that all the Doctor had to do was climb up a couple of flights and they couldn't catch up with him (this was memorably addressed in a later edition of the program where a Dalek was seen to levitate up a staircase - a deeply scary moment).

Armed with that knowledge you can now feel free to find the item highly amusing....

 


Wed, Oct 22 2003

Just Testing

I'm moving my Blog from my office machine to the Tablet PC. This should let me blog from anywhere in the world. And by jove it works! Now all I have sort out is image upload and I am a well happy bunny.

Whoa! I think that counts as a win!

 


Tue, Oct 21 2003

Tuesday in the pub

Went out for a drink tonight. It is strange how some things become amusing after a few beers. Although the Orange for a head joke was received with stony silence. I think I told it a little too early. However, did find the idea of Dalek Architects very funny:

Gold Dalek: "Bring forth the plans for the new Dalek Control Centre."
Dalek Architect:"I hear and I obey. This is where we will hold and torture alien races who must be destroyed. Over here is the death ray construction lab. And on the second level we will have our control room...."
Gold Dalek: "What is this thing called a level?"
Dalek Architect:"It is a part of a building, built on top of an existing building. It will allow us to maximise our use of the Skaro planet surface and improve our efficiency so that one day Daleks will rule over the entire universe."
Gold Dalek: "And how do we get to this - level?"
Dalek Architect:"We use a series of small steps, each of which is arranged in sequence in a device called a staircase......"
Gold Dalek fires laser and destroys Dalek Architect
Gold Dalek: "And let that be a lesson to all of you..."
 


Mon, Oct 20 2003

Welcome to Monday

Thought for Today: If you are not finding molluscs relaxing you may have bought "The Little Book of Clam" by mistake.

Slightly more relaxing now that David has taken over his part of the .NET course. Still had the First Year Java to do though, which was quite fun. We are just starting objects (which can be scary) but so far things are going quite well. We actually created an object live in the lecture (which sounds a lot more exciting than it is) or maybe it doesn't even sound that....

I've just created an identify for me on Project Hurricane, a rather spiffy .NET based portal (any Portal in a storm I say..). The neat thing about this one is that you can download all the source and make your own changes. You can extend your Portal, adding a couple of bay windows and an outside toilet if you like. Find out more here. I'm going to get my own version running on a server in my office when I get round to it.

 


Sun, Oct 19 2003

Giant Clarifications

It has come to my attention that some of you out there are a bit behind the (or ahead of my) times with respect to popular culture and are not aware of the Jolly Green Giant I mentioned yesterday. Rest assured that he does exist, and even has his own web site. So there.

I'd love to have been at the meeting where he was dreamed up:

First Marketing Drone: "Well, we've come up with the Purple Pleased Giant, the Blue Giant of Bonhomie, the Satisfied Yellow Giant and the Orange Giant of Happiness."
Second Marketing Drone: "Yep, but none of them have that snappy, corn on the cob, quality that we are after."
Tea Lady: "How about the Jolly Green Giant?"
Second Marketing Drone: "By Jove, she's got it!!!"
Start of musical number....  


Posted at:Tue, Jun 15 2004 07:24:52 PM by Rob

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