The first thing I should point out here is that I haven't been submerged for about three and a half years or so. This is because I don't really like swimming. Since my parents had a really good shower installed, I haven't had a bath. The same has been true through all my University accommodation. It's always been showers. So I haven't been underwater for a very, very long time.
So I'm in Canada. I heard about this lodge trip on which my sister and mother were going, and I thought it would be cool, and I have been out in the Milford Lodge (one recalls the Milford Academy) for two days.
It's a set of wooden lodges on the front of a reasonably large lake. Supplied are many canoes and paddles. I haven't been canoeing since I was about 10 and that was in the Thames. But here I was, with a genuine Canadian Canoe, all to myself, with my cousin and sister paddling around me. It was good fun. After we set out on a small row around our most local lake, we stopped by a floating platform near our lodge. My sister, in looking for her mooring rope, capsized and went in. I was quite impressed; it's usually difficult to capsize those things unless you mean to.
We had a very long row the next day to a remote beach (probably only accessible by canoe). Messy sandwiches and sunburn later, we rowed back as fast as we could, through semi-rapids (Pike's Run), and over massive lakes. It took us about an hour and a half to get back, but that's after four hours (or so) to get there.
As we approached our home lodge, I felt hot and bothered enough to want to tip the boat over. I didn't, as Becky was with me, but after we landed I suggested it to Roan (cousin), and he was more than eager. So for the first time in nearly four years, I went underwater. We tipped the boat and went in. It wasn't really cold, in places it was warm, but we even managed to get all the water out of it afterwards (in shallower water). I got in again, and as Roan did, it tipped, and the canoe sank slowly. And that was the most fun. It could even be considered accidental.
We tipped it a few more times, and the trip slowly came to a close. We made it back to Mahone Bay, where we were staying with the rest of the family. Since then, we've done a lot of fun things, the main one being searching for a "woods beater", or a very cheap car to thrash through the woods and then scrap. We found a little Mazda 323 in red which would only cost $50 (Canadian), which is nothing, but the car needed to be released by police, which even to this day it hasn't been. Eventually (yesterday), we bought a 1989 Plymouth Reliant K, which cost us $200, but we didn't have the plan to destroy it. We plan to keep it and sell it t Roan's girlfriend as her first car by the end. It's just an old car, and it has a few things wrong (old radiator, burst brake lines), but I'm going to give some time today to repairing it, so I can take it through the woods and dirt roads briefly before I leave tonight.
When I get back to England tomorrow morning, I can relay more of my adventures, such as my new gaming mouse and DVD writer. But until then I'm going to repair some car.
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Friday, 7 September 2007
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Here and Now
I'm on a Mac again. And it's in great condition, hardly any software, not much running, and still, it takes hours for the letters to appear on the screen. It only has one task, why can't it do it right? Seriously, it's like having Hugh Grant as a keyboard.
Why am I on a Mac? It's a long story. I'm not at Sarah's anymore. Most of you know my sister went on her Around the World Gap Year trip. So I said goodbye to her in March, and she's only back in England September 5th. That's a hell of a long time to not see your sister for (I was away seven weeks before and that was long, but this has been horrible). For her last two weeks, she's in Canada, for my cousin's 21st birthday (Roan, I went to Ireland with him last Christmas with Yunhae, you remember!). I've been wanting to go, but tickets were around five hundred pounds. Far too much. I found one for 400, but still, it was too much. Eventually, I found one for 275, and my father agreed that I should be there, especially since my mother was flying out to be there as well, a big family get together. Then I found the exact same flight for 210 pounds. Bargain. And I'm here, in Nova Scotia. And I love it. Canada's like the holy grail of countries for me. It's got awesome family, it's beautiful and everything is cheap. It's a very easy going lifestyle.
Anyway, I can't go into details, it's late, and I should be sleeping soon, but I thought you should know. Driving here, by the way, is horrible. The cars are alright (hardly any German cars apart from Volkswagens), but the speed limits are draconian, and brutally enforced by hundreds of police cars. Major highways, and you can't go more then 60mph.
I'll let you know more soon, like tomorrow, we go to a remote lodge for a few days. I'll be on soon!
Why am I on a Mac? It's a long story. I'm not at Sarah's anymore. Most of you know my sister went on her Around the World Gap Year trip. So I said goodbye to her in March, and she's only back in England September 5th. That's a hell of a long time to not see your sister for (I was away seven weeks before and that was long, but this has been horrible). For her last two weeks, she's in Canada, for my cousin's 21st birthday (Roan, I went to Ireland with him last Christmas with Yunhae, you remember!). I've been wanting to go, but tickets were around five hundred pounds. Far too much. I found one for 400, but still, it was too much. Eventually, I found one for 275, and my father agreed that I should be there, especially since my mother was flying out to be there as well, a big family get together. Then I found the exact same flight for 210 pounds. Bargain. And I'm here, in Nova Scotia. And I love it. Canada's like the holy grail of countries for me. It's got awesome family, it's beautiful and everything is cheap. It's a very easy going lifestyle.
Anyway, I can't go into details, it's late, and I should be sleeping soon, but I thought you should know. Driving here, by the way, is horrible. The cars are alright (hardly any German cars apart from Volkswagens), but the speed limits are draconian, and brutally enforced by hundreds of police cars. Major highways, and you can't go more then 60mph.
I'll let you know more soon, like tomorrow, we go to a remote lodge for a few days. I'll be on soon!
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Back in Drive
As I write this, my hosting is suspended. This basically means that no one will be able to read this until it's paid again. This has happened because my Debit Card has now expired. Luckily, the bank decided to forget to send me a new one, so I don't have one for now. This means I'm stuck living off cash. It also made paying for my car hard. But I have my car back, it's repaired (new head gasket, cam belt and full service), and it drives beautifully. To test it out, I drove it to Cambridge, to stay with Sarah for a couple of days. I'm bored as hell at home, and while I am here (in Cambridge), I'm getting away from the city smog and hopefully some dirt roads will avail themselves.
Sadly, Sarah's family only has a Mac. An iMac. An old one. Not that old, around 2001-2. So it's about six years old. It's never had its OS upgraded, and has only had simple family use.
The keyboard and mouse are set in beautiful perspex, which looks very nice. Until all the crumbs, finger dirt and hairs slide down underneath the perspex, never to be dislodged and to stay there, glaringly disgusting, for all eternity.
On top of that, the failed version of a task bar, you know, all the icons that grow when you go near them, they're on the side. When you go to click the back button in Firefox, Finder jumps into your aim and you click that instead. Every single time. But not before the enlarging icons make the whole OS stutter as it works out how to make itself look pretty for you.
Most of the CRT has turned a nice shade of blue. It isn't possible to replace the monitor. This also means that the resolution is stuck at a very low setting. Luckily all the icons grow when you go near them so at this resolution they take up a third of the screen.
Right clicking involves using two hands. But you don't care when your mouse is so aesthetically simple. Until it comes to using the computer for actual computer things, then you start to care again. Even as I type the letters take a few seconds to appear on the screen, at a very basic rate (so the last phrase, 'very basic rate' hadn't even begun to appear on the screen by the time I had finished writing that sentence).
You're all screaming now that it's an old computer, it's had its day and now it's just a relic. It looked good in its time and worked in its time, now it should be upgraded. And also that CRTs fail after time. All of this wouldn't bother me so much apart from the fact that the Gateway we bought as a family in 2000, the one that all of us lived off, that I used the hell out of and didn't turn off for five years... it still works, it works well. You can right click, you can type and it appears as you type, nothing stutters (even though we upgraded the OS and not the processor), we gave it an extra drive for more space, and even though it has a severe adware infection, it is still a much better machine than this ever was. Yes, the CRT monitor broke but it was great because we replaced it without replacing the whole machine. It just worked, and it continued to just work for the last seven years. It can still run new 3D games that come out, something this Mac could never do no matter how new it was.
And although this is old, I have used new Macs and they're no different. They're awful, and if you want a better one you need to buy a new one. That is never true of PCs. PCs aren't nearly as cool as Macs, just as a Bristol Blenheim will never be as cool as a Ford StreetKa. I know which I'd drive.
Anyway, that's been building up in me for years, I'm glad I got it out. You'll all get to read this once I've paid for my hosting again.
Sadly, Sarah's family only has a Mac. An iMac. An old one. Not that old, around 2001-2. So it's about six years old. It's never had its OS upgraded, and has only had simple family use.
The keyboard and mouse are set in beautiful perspex, which looks very nice. Until all the crumbs, finger dirt and hairs slide down underneath the perspex, never to be dislodged and to stay there, glaringly disgusting, for all eternity.
On top of that, the failed version of a task bar, you know, all the icons that grow when you go near them, they're on the side. When you go to click the back button in Firefox, Finder jumps into your aim and you click that instead. Every single time. But not before the enlarging icons make the whole OS stutter as it works out how to make itself look pretty for you.
Most of the CRT has turned a nice shade of blue. It isn't possible to replace the monitor. This also means that the resolution is stuck at a very low setting. Luckily all the icons grow when you go near them so at this resolution they take up a third of the screen.
Right clicking involves using two hands. But you don't care when your mouse is so aesthetically simple. Until it comes to using the computer for actual computer things, then you start to care again. Even as I type the letters take a few seconds to appear on the screen, at a very basic rate (so the last phrase, 'very basic rate' hadn't even begun to appear on the screen by the time I had finished writing that sentence).
You're all screaming now that it's an old computer, it's had its day and now it's just a relic. It looked good in its time and worked in its time, now it should be upgraded. And also that CRTs fail after time. All of this wouldn't bother me so much apart from the fact that the Gateway we bought as a family in 2000, the one that all of us lived off, that I used the hell out of and didn't turn off for five years... it still works, it works well. You can right click, you can type and it appears as you type, nothing stutters (even though we upgraded the OS and not the processor), we gave it an extra drive for more space, and even though it has a severe adware infection, it is still a much better machine than this ever was. Yes, the CRT monitor broke but it was great because we replaced it without replacing the whole machine. It just worked, and it continued to just work for the last seven years. It can still run new 3D games that come out, something this Mac could never do no matter how new it was.
And although this is old, I have used new Macs and they're no different. They're awful, and if you want a better one you need to buy a new one. That is never true of PCs. PCs aren't nearly as cool as Macs, just as a Bristol Blenheim will never be as cool as a Ford StreetKa. I know which I'd drive.
Anyway, that's been building up in me for years, I'm glad I got it out. You'll all get to read this once I've paid for my hosting again.
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
I Promised
Ok, if I don't update for this long again, it means I'm dead. Or bored of blogging.
A lot has happened since my last entry, which was made as I scrabbled together my final pieces of work for University. You'll be happy to know that for that final piece of PHP programming I got a good seventy something percent. Since then, I moved out.
Moving out was without a doubt, one of the worst days of my life. We fought hard to get everything done, and I realised, at the pain of my flatmates, that I had a lot of stuff. It was cool that we rented a Ford Transit (which is fantastic, it's so nice to drive a machine that is pure utility, I want to buy one), and it was cool to see everything I had ever brought home, but it was horrible throwing so much stuff away (including my beautiful big blue chair which Kiana was so fond of).
It was stressful. Kiana had already moved out a week or so before, and Mizuki had just returned from Japan the day before, and we were scrubbing everything from behind the washing machine to the bathroom ceiling. But we cleaned the house out, and it was done. When the stress was over, and after I had showered, I dropped Emma off in London, or, at least, I tried. I didn't watch the temperature while I was stopped in traffic, and my car overheated. The £160 repair bill was only made worse by a subsequent (and as of this afternoon still unfinished) repair job to the head gasket that will cost in the £600 range. I haven't driven my BMW in over a month, and it pains me.
But we have lots of cars, and I have been borrowing my parents' cars. Why, just last week my father and I took my mother's car (the MG) all the way from London to Fonchanina, Northern Spain. We found a twisty road on Google Maps, and decided we would make it there, tackling the winding and snaking roads of the Pyrenees, with a trip through Andorra. While I love to blog while travelling, I didn't have a computer there, nor the energy to type out my doings on a mobile phone. So I will write what I remember now.
With myself on the insurance for another week, we woke early Wednesday morning (3AM, August 1st) and drove to Dover. I was destroyed by the fact that I couldn't sleep due to my unfortunate waking hours, and the whole day that we were driving through France, I kept napping. In an open car, that's quite hard, when your father is pushing motorway speeds. But I managed, and we arrived in (near) Pui that evening, to a nice hotel with a tasty dinner. My French had entirely disappeared, and I kept speaking Japanese. Perhaps I only have room for one foreign language at a time. I confused plenty of French proprietors with 'arigatou'.
The next day we finally hit some proper roads. We only managed a couple of hundred miles, but that was because we were going on twisty roads. And roads with hairpins and chicanes are fun. It didn't take long adjusting to driving on the right, but most of the roads were empty, so it didn't matter where you were. That little car has wide tyres, and it's light. Combined with the mid-mounted engine, the turning response is immediate, and you have to be going quite fast and quite tightly just to get some understeer, and even then that disappears when you take the power off. I also drove over the Millau bridge, which was epic. The Top Gear presenters made a trip to the South of France just for that bridge, and I don't blame them. It's huge, and you feel incredible driving over it. We found a nice little hotel in Thuir, just a little north of the France/Spain border, and a wonderful buffet meal followed by a steak made the evening very comfortable. A lack of air-conditioning made it less so, but it wasn't too bad. I almost lost my wallet, but it was in the car the whole time. Lucky me.
The next day was amazing. We woke up in France, drove to Spain, then to France, then to Andorra, then to Spain again, ending in Sort with a modern and very cool hotel, overlooking a river full of canoes. The roads that day were very good fun. My father's driving scared me and my driving scared him, but it didn't matter, because the large amount of grip made it very hard to slide that car. We managed it a few times though. I even got some oversteer, which was great. However, the sun hit me quite badly that day, and my ear is still peeling a little.
Leaving Sort we drove along a variety of tiny Spanish roads, eventually locating Fonchanina, which was the closest town to our twisty road goal. The road was actually dirt, and far too rough for anything but a tractor, but we'd made it there, and could start heading back. The next hotel we found was only one star, but was reasonably comfortable. We baked that night though, and with no drinking water, it wasn't pleasant. One the plus side, a dubbed Spanish version of Independence Day was on during breakfast the next day.
We crossed back into France the next day, and with the most scenic pass over the mountain and one final twisty road, we drove all the way to Perignon, and stopped in a very swish and very expensive hotel, which made us comfortable for our last night on holiday. We drove solidly and quickly the next day, stopping only for one quick lap around Le Mans, and a visit to the Le Mans museum, which showed the history of the race, and some beautiful old cars. Mostly French. But the Mazda 787b was there, which is the ultimate race car for me right now. Then we drove all the way back to the ferry.
That makes it sound like all we did was get in the car and drive to the next hotel, and that's pretty much what it was. It was a driving holiday, seeking out the best mountain roads for pushing the car to its handling limits. And that's what we did, and we loved every second of it.
We got back in last night around 3:30AM, and now I have to go to bed because I have a job interview tomorrow at 9AM, and it's an hour's drive.
It's good to post again. I miss you people, I'll be back in a couple of days to fill you in on the rest of what I've been up to.
A lot has happened since my last entry, which was made as I scrabbled together my final pieces of work for University. You'll be happy to know that for that final piece of PHP programming I got a good seventy something percent. Since then, I moved out.
Moving out was without a doubt, one of the worst days of my life. We fought hard to get everything done, and I realised, at the pain of my flatmates, that I had a lot of stuff. It was cool that we rented a Ford Transit (which is fantastic, it's so nice to drive a machine that is pure utility, I want to buy one), and it was cool to see everything I had ever brought home, but it was horrible throwing so much stuff away (including my beautiful big blue chair which Kiana was so fond of).
It was stressful. Kiana had already moved out a week or so before, and Mizuki had just returned from Japan the day before, and we were scrubbing everything from behind the washing machine to the bathroom ceiling. But we cleaned the house out, and it was done. When the stress was over, and after I had showered, I dropped Emma off in London, or, at least, I tried. I didn't watch the temperature while I was stopped in traffic, and my car overheated. The £160 repair bill was only made worse by a subsequent (and as of this afternoon still unfinished) repair job to the head gasket that will cost in the £600 range. I haven't driven my BMW in over a month, and it pains me.
But we have lots of cars, and I have been borrowing my parents' cars. Why, just last week my father and I took my mother's car (the MG) all the way from London to Fonchanina, Northern Spain. We found a twisty road on Google Maps, and decided we would make it there, tackling the winding and snaking roads of the Pyrenees, with a trip through Andorra. While I love to blog while travelling, I didn't have a computer there, nor the energy to type out my doings on a mobile phone. So I will write what I remember now.
With myself on the insurance for another week, we woke early Wednesday morning (3AM, August 1st) and drove to Dover. I was destroyed by the fact that I couldn't sleep due to my unfortunate waking hours, and the whole day that we were driving through France, I kept napping. In an open car, that's quite hard, when your father is pushing motorway speeds. But I managed, and we arrived in (near) Pui that evening, to a nice hotel with a tasty dinner. My French had entirely disappeared, and I kept speaking Japanese. Perhaps I only have room for one foreign language at a time. I confused plenty of French proprietors with 'arigatou'.
The next day we finally hit some proper roads. We only managed a couple of hundred miles, but that was because we were going on twisty roads. And roads with hairpins and chicanes are fun. It didn't take long adjusting to driving on the right, but most of the roads were empty, so it didn't matter where you were. That little car has wide tyres, and it's light. Combined with the mid-mounted engine, the turning response is immediate, and you have to be going quite fast and quite tightly just to get some understeer, and even then that disappears when you take the power off. I also drove over the Millau bridge, which was epic. The Top Gear presenters made a trip to the South of France just for that bridge, and I don't blame them. It's huge, and you feel incredible driving over it. We found a nice little hotel in Thuir, just a little north of the France/Spain border, and a wonderful buffet meal followed by a steak made the evening very comfortable. A lack of air-conditioning made it less so, but it wasn't too bad. I almost lost my wallet, but it was in the car the whole time. Lucky me.
The next day was amazing. We woke up in France, drove to Spain, then to France, then to Andorra, then to Spain again, ending in Sort with a modern and very cool hotel, overlooking a river full of canoes. The roads that day were very good fun. My father's driving scared me and my driving scared him, but it didn't matter, because the large amount of grip made it very hard to slide that car. We managed it a few times though. I even got some oversteer, which was great. However, the sun hit me quite badly that day, and my ear is still peeling a little.
Leaving Sort we drove along a variety of tiny Spanish roads, eventually locating Fonchanina, which was the closest town to our twisty road goal. The road was actually dirt, and far too rough for anything but a tractor, but we'd made it there, and could start heading back. The next hotel we found was only one star, but was reasonably comfortable. We baked that night though, and with no drinking water, it wasn't pleasant. One the plus side, a dubbed Spanish version of Independence Day was on during breakfast the next day.
We crossed back into France the next day, and with the most scenic pass over the mountain and one final twisty road, we drove all the way to Perignon, and stopped in a very swish and very expensive hotel, which made us comfortable for our last night on holiday. We drove solidly and quickly the next day, stopping only for one quick lap around Le Mans, and a visit to the Le Mans museum, which showed the history of the race, and some beautiful old cars. Mostly French. But the Mazda 787b was there, which is the ultimate race car for me right now. Then we drove all the way back to the ferry.
That makes it sound like all we did was get in the car and drive to the next hotel, and that's pretty much what it was. It was a driving holiday, seeking out the best mountain roads for pushing the car to its handling limits. And that's what we did, and we loved every second of it.
We got back in last night around 3:30AM, and now I have to go to bed because I have a job interview tomorrow at 9AM, and it's an hour's drive.
It's good to post again. I miss you people, I'll be back in a couple of days to fill you in on the rest of what I've been up to.
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Very Long
I get scarce around this time of year. It happens. I can't help it. The blog just dies for a while, and I can't get the motivation to add to it.
Some seriously cool things have happened since I last updated. I temporarily abandoned Dvorak (I had Dissertation to do, and it was holding it up). I turned 22, and with that I felt age creeping up on me. My mother bought a sports car, and occasionally puts me on the insurance, which means late night trips to London are much more exciting. London without a roof is very different.
I'm just finishing off my University time. I'm in the process of finishing one of my last courseworks, which is the most technically demanding one so far, involving Apache and PHP and MySQL and loads of SQL coding. It's actually more fun than I thought, though I've been doing this for about 15 hours straight now and I'm still not finished yet. But not much more to go. And then a report. Damnit. When is there time for Lost? 24? Heroes? All of which are damn well concluding!
My mother's MG is brilliant. In reality, it's only slightly quicker than my BMW, and I have a greater top speed. But it's a mid-engine vehicle, which means it handles much better, and in the hands of a competent driver (ie my father), it's a fierce machine.
Meeting one of James's friends (another Californian) has thrown me into worry about my future. I want to live in Japan, but every American I meet makes me want to return to America. A job at Google and a part time Berkeley course, could it be better? Or more demanding?
No for both questions.
But I'm still intending to go to Tokyo. After I move back home. Since we began living in our house on the 5th of July 2005, our contract expires on the 4th of July 2007, and that's when I'm moving back in with my parents. I'm calling it Dependence Day.
Emma's now working in Hell Pizza, a New Zealand pizza chain, which is outstandingly tasty. Their pizzas really are well made and unique, and nothing really comes close now that I've sampled them. Mama's just doesn't do it for me anymore.
After taking James's friend to Stanstead, I got back and left my headlights on. I haven't done that before, it was embarrassing, and I completely drained my battery. I was in luck though, and my father brought some jumper cables and I had a trip to the M25 and back to put some power back in.
I should get back to work, I thought I'd just let you in on what I'm up to and where I'm going with my life. I'll update when I finish University. That'll be a landmark.
Some seriously cool things have happened since I last updated. I temporarily abandoned Dvorak (I had Dissertation to do, and it was holding it up). I turned 22, and with that I felt age creeping up on me. My mother bought a sports car, and occasionally puts me on the insurance, which means late night trips to London are much more exciting. London without a roof is very different.
I'm just finishing off my University time. I'm in the process of finishing one of my last courseworks, which is the most technically demanding one so far, involving Apache and PHP and MySQL and loads of SQL coding. It's actually more fun than I thought, though I've been doing this for about 15 hours straight now and I'm still not finished yet. But not much more to go. And then a report. Damnit. When is there time for Lost? 24? Heroes? All of which are damn well concluding!
My mother's MG is brilliant. In reality, it's only slightly quicker than my BMW, and I have a greater top speed. But it's a mid-engine vehicle, which means it handles much better, and in the hands of a competent driver (ie my father), it's a fierce machine.
Meeting one of James's friends (another Californian) has thrown me into worry about my future. I want to live in Japan, but every American I meet makes me want to return to America. A job at Google and a part time Berkeley course, could it be better? Or more demanding?
No for both questions.
But I'm still intending to go to Tokyo. After I move back home. Since we began living in our house on the 5th of July 2005, our contract expires on the 4th of July 2007, and that's when I'm moving back in with my parents. I'm calling it Dependence Day.
Emma's now working in Hell Pizza, a New Zealand pizza chain, which is outstandingly tasty. Their pizzas really are well made and unique, and nothing really comes close now that I've sampled them. Mama's just doesn't do it for me anymore.
After taking James's friend to Stanstead, I got back and left my headlights on. I haven't done that before, it was embarrassing, and I completely drained my battery. I was in luck though, and my father brought some jumper cables and I had a trip to the M25 and back to put some power back in.
I should get back to work, I thought I'd just let you in on what I'm up to and where I'm going with my life. I'll update when I finish University. That'll be a landmark.
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