Monday, September 22, 2008

Still in England

My return home from the UK has been delayed a day due to an extra meeting. This is not such bad news as now I will be able to take Friday off and relax while catching up on all the tv show premieres I have missed. I will be posting the pictures of trip when I get back. Also pictured will be my 1200+ GBP hotel bill. You do the math on that one.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Camelot really is a silly place.



Sorry for the lack of updates the past week. Not that anyone reads this thing anyway! But yes, due to Ike and me having to scramble to get my travel plans secured, I had very little time to internet.

So after 3 canceled flights, I managed to get on the 4:00 non stop to London out of Houston. 9 very boring hours later, I arrived super exhausted. Now since this was my first time making international travel, I really did not know what to expect. The process did, however, go very smoothly and before long I was being asked by a stranger if I was "queuing" at the rental car place.

I have noticed quite a few oddities about this place that I didn't expect. For starters, when you ask for a beverage, they ask you if you would like ice with it. Apparently, you do not get it by default. Also, they REALLY do drive on the wrong side of the road. It is quite horrifying before you get used to it. Sadly, they do not have a "Royale with Cheese" at McDonalds. In my hotel room, there is a tea maker under the tv set. Everything is also pretty ridiculously expensive. That goodness this is an all expenses paid business trip or I would be out of a lot of cash.

The plan is to do some touristy type things this weekend during which I hope to get a few myspace style pictures of myself standing in front of random places. Oh well, off to bed now. My body still has yet to get over the 6 hours of time I have lost.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

LHC



I am sure most of you have not heard of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that has been built by CERN. If that is true, then I highly suggest you check out it's wiki page. But basically it is a device that enables scientists to slam particles into each other at enormous velocities. The theory is that they will be able to re-create some of the conditions that existed shortly after the big bang and thereby providing a wealth of previously unknown science. Really interesting stuff if you care to read about it further.

Ok well so thats all wonderful and all but there seem to be a few folks out there who are certain that turning this thing on will in short, create a black hole that will destroy the earth in a matter of micro seconds. There is a website available here where you will be able to track whether or not the earth has been destroyed by the LHC. Be sure to hit refresh constantly.

I was also reminded recently of another possible alternative to the black hole destroying the earth theory, which I personally think is far more plausible. If you have never played the game Half Life, this might be a little bit hard to grasp for you. But in said game, some scientist perform a very similar experiment which opens up a portal to an alien world full of headcrabs and various other human feeding horriblesness. Now the game's protagonist, Gordon Freeman, begins his quest for survival with only a crowbar. This is why I am urging everyone to go to their local hardware store and pick up a crowbar, just to be on the safe side, before they start colliding these particles into each other at nearly the speed of light.

There is also one group of "scientists" who believe that once this thing does get turned on, we will begin to see the first time travelers from the future coming to visit us. This is based on the idea that one can only travel back in time to the time the time machine was created. So if you see anybody telling you they are from the future, don't just brush them off as a crazy person because they might have valuable information. Not that crazy people don't have valuable information... I'm just saying you might be more interested in, say, lottery numbers than why an ant farm is a perfect way to set up a home business.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Thoughts about relationships



Heard this from someone recently and thought it was interesting.

"Relationships are a lot like Tetris. You bide your time, and you wait and you wait for that straight line piece to come along to make your Tetris. You sometimes substitute other pieces just to make a line here and there, but you are really waiting for that one piece that will make it all come together. Finally, you end up saying "fuck it", and you drop an L shaped piece in the hole and try to start whittling away at the stack. Shortly after you've given up on it, the straight piece shows up and there's not a damn thing you can do with."

Epic.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Meet the new Texans



Same as the old Texans. Yesterday's season opener against Pittsburgh erased nearly all the gains that had been made last year. And it was all over by the end of their first drive which, to their credit, was probably robbed from them by the referees. But one blown call does not a game make. Either the Steelers are going to be absolutely outstanding this year or we simply didn't show up. It now looks that my prediction of the Texans going 10-6 this year and making the playoffs might have been a little off.

Matt Schaub reminded us of the glory days of David Carr by making ill-advised sideways passes. The offensive line giving him just enough time to tuck the ball away before being stuffed into the ground. I personally have always wanted the Texans to give Sage Rosenfelds a real chance to be the starting quarterback. Perhaps we are not that far away from that.

The defense looked absolutely anemic. I am pretty sure that even I could have ripped off 100+ rushing yards against them. The pass defense also left alot to be desired. It really is a shame that Daunte Robinson will still miss 4-5 more weeks, especially since the games he is missing will most likely be our most difficult.

The only glimmer of production came out of Mario Williams who, for all things considered, had an outstanding game. 2 sacks and a forced fumble while constantly putting pressure on Roethlisberger. He looked to be the only one on the team who realized that it was opening day in the NFL.

I suppose it would have been nice to open the season up against a stat-padding team like Cleveland or Oakland. But then again, maybe WE are that team.

Next Game: Baltimore (3:15 here in Houston).

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

House Hunting



So I have decided to start thinking about potentially becoming a homeowner once my apartment lease is up. My current place is getting filled up with so much useless garbage that I need a bigger place to store it. I also have craptastic satellite reception due to the lovely tree in front of my balcony which prevents me from getting HD service.

So as you all know, buying a house is a big step and should not be taken lightly. There are several things one must take into account.

For starters, the house should be at the top of a hill. This will prevent flooding and will make it easier to defend yourself from robots who will want your medicine when you are retired.

The house should be two stories so that if you are ever overrun by zombies you can simply cut down the stairs and live in the upper half of the house. But be advised, this tactic will not prevent attacks by zombies flying on top of dragons. Trust me on that one.

At the bottom of your hill, there should be a moat to keep the black knight at bay.

Try to get a house with walls. This is prevent all of your stuff from getting wet and or stolen.

Taking all of those things into account, I am going to be looking for a place in the 1500-2000sq foot range. I'm not really sure of any particular location where I want to live yet, but hopefully that minor detail will work its self out once I find a really slick deal. Can you tell it's a pretty boring Wednesday?
My Amazon.com Wish List