I NEED A RIDE

My ride to Moscow from Seattle cannot. Is there anyone out there who would fancy a road trip? I get in Tuesday, and was hoping to be in Moscow for the weekend.

If you can help, drop a post or send me an email. Thanks!

Vienna

Just realized I haven't posted about Vienna yet. And I've basically got nothing to do at work today, so here we go.

I got into Vienna proper around 4:30 and met Rayco in the train station. We took a short metro ride to his house, which he shares with his girlfriend Annika. Rayco, if you will remember, is Cassie's son from the Canary Islands. Annika is German. Both of thier English was excellent, although they don't think so.

Their apartment is apparently not in a good part of town, but you could have fooled me. The building isn't impressive, but the apartment itself was awesome. It's pre-WWII, so the doors are almost as high as most ceilings in London. The doors must be 8 feet tall, and the ceilings 10. Big rooms, hardwood floors, decent kitchen.

I'll have pictures soon, by the way. I'm at work, and they are all at home.

Rayco, Annika, and I got along famously, almost from the get-go. They're both very easy going and laid back, and we really hit it off. I think I connected with Rayco best out of all the family I've met. He's extremely good natured and quick with a laugh and a smile. Apparently it's a Spanish thing that he doens't like to let silences sit, so he's always ready with a word or a funny story.

Annkia was shy about her "bad English" at first, but once she relaxed a little and warmed up, she didn't have any problems. She had me edit a technical paper she had written for proper grammar and English usage, which was fun. Took me back to editing articles for The Badger, my high school newspaper.

We had dinner there, drank a couple of bottles of wine, and then went out to a little club that was near their house. Drank some more and danced to good Drum and Bass music. Came home, slept until noon the next day.

When I got up I assumed they would already be up and about, but my moving around was what got them out of bed. Sleepers after my own heart.

We went out in the early afternoon, and spent a good chunk of the day just walking around. We had done some walking the night before, seeing the big cathedral and some of the Royal-type buildings at night. This time we went during the day, viewing the incredible Austrian archetecture. They had a number of monarchs who loved to build opulent, enourmous buildings, so the cityscape is great.

We went to the big city market, which is half flea market and half permanent booths with people selling food and foodstuffs. From there we toured more and had dinner in a Chinese place.

At this point I have a little trouble remember what happend on which day, so I'm going to drop the chronological order for a bit.

We went to the oldest coffee shop Vienna, which had excellent coffee. We smoked sheesa, a flavored tobacco, out of thier hookah. We went out and played pool at a trendy bar, then went to another bar that Annika had been to once many years ago (it was ok).

The best part of the trip was on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm. Vienna has a marvelous system called City Bikes, whereby you can rent a bike for about one Euro an hour. It's totally automated, and there are pick up/drop off spots for the bikes all over the city. Rayco and Annika both own their own bikes, so I rented one and we rode to the Royal Palace. It was clear on the other side of the city, so I got to see quite a lot of it. It was a perfect day for riding, and I couldn't have been better pleased.

The Palace was what you would expect, huge and opulent. It was expensive to go inside, so we just walked the gardens instead. I've found that most palaces are more or less the same inside, anyway. Four poster beds, gold filligrie, etc.

Behind the Palace is the gardens, and we hiked up to the top of the hill. There is another large structure at the top of the hill, which apparently was the princess' playhouse or something. From the top of the hill, you could see an incredible vista of Vienna.

We had sushi that night, and a quiet evening in trading music and watching Goodfellas. Then I had to get up at 5 the next day to catch my flight back to London.

Vienna, while a beautiful city, was just that: another Euorpean city. They tend to blend together after a while. Rayco and Annika I am going to miss. We really hit it off, and I felt like family from the beginning. I hope they can come to the States some time, or I get the chance to visit them again.

Right. Pictures soon. Hopefully tonight.

The Quest for Affleck Castle

As promised, here is the full story.

I got into Edinburgh about noon, and hung out with Eddie for a little while. We drove about an hour up to Monikie, Scotland. The land there is very similar to North Idaho, and I absolutely loved it. I could see myself being very happy in Scotland. The air is clean and fortifying, expecially after London.

We knew about where the Castle was supposed to be, and knew we were in the right town. We drove around a little looking for it, as it is supposed to be visible from the road. We weren't having much success, so we stopped so Eddie could call his son for the directions from Google. I stepped to a high rock wall to answer the call of nature, and saw this:


Apparently we were on the right track. We couldn't see any castle from there, but we could see a house and some deer. If you look closely at the picture, you can almost make out the deer in the background. One of them was a White Hart, which I found very exciting. Then I noticed several other white deer, and realized they weren't quite as special as I thought. Still cool, though.

We drove around for a while looking for another vantage point, and even hiked around a bit. We couldn't see anything else, although we did find this right down the road. Hell of a street sign to run into.


After some very pleasant hiking around wonderful Socttish countryside, we finally asked for directions and learned that the Castle was indeed behind the high rock wall that held the first sign. We found another gate, and lo and behold there was something large and castley looming in the trees. There were more "STRICTLY PRIVATE" signs around, so I debated hopping the fence for a while. According to Eddie, Scottish trespassing law says that as long as you don't touch or damange anything on private property, they can't presecute you.

I screwed my courage to the sticking place and hopped the gate. Besides the deer, there was a large number of peacocks wandering around. I found a woman nearby and hailed her. She turned out to be some kind of gardener or groundskeeper, and she made it very clear that Mrs Fife (the owner of the land and Castle) does not want visitors on the property. I explained myself and begged leave to take a picture, which is the one in the previous post. She allowed this, but I could see I was making her very uncomfortable. She tried to find Mrs Fife, but the Lady of the house was absent. I got the gardener to take a picture of me in front of the Castle, and then left them alone.


I admit I was hoping for a nice old lady who would invite me in for tea and give me a tour, but I'm satisfied with what I got. I have no idea what Mrs Fife does with the Castle, but I hope she is treating my heritage well. I'll have to keep my eye on Scottish newpapers for "Castle for Sale" ads and convince Ben to buy it for the family.

Afterward Eddie and I had a good meal in a pub, and took a long route home. We stopped by some other ruins he knew as a boy, but didn't know anything about.



Here's a shot of Eddie in front of the ruins. He's my kind of cool old guy, and I suspect he would fit in with my folks quite well.



We visited a friend of his, another really cool older dude, and then returned to Edinburgh and hung out at Eddie's place with his 19-ish son, Martin (I think). I was quite tuckered out, as I had been up since the wee hours of the morning riding a train. We partook of some fine libations, and watched Grand Prix. Eddie is a gearhead, so I got the full indoctronation. He drives like a gearhead, too. Not unsafely, just very aggresively.

The next day I returned to London, full of conquest and family pride.

Tomorrow I fly to Vienna to meet my cousin Rayco for the first time, and I'll return on Monday. Then the final countdown begins.

w00t

Affleck Castle

Stay tuned for a full account of the Quest.

As the door on this Age swings shut behind me, the door to the next begins to crack...

ATTENTION FUTURE BRETT: I know you'll read this blog after the point now and then, occationaly through the years. Probably has been a long time since, and it probably will be a long time again. I want to you to stop, now, and look around yourself. Where are you? WHO are you? What is new or changed. Beyond that, what is in the NOW? Are you sitting, standing? Smiling, weeping? Stop and look at the NOW, apart from everything that has gone, and cherish it. Try to grok it, and in the attempt come closer to the Universe.

Whew. I should write Graduation speeches.

I do feel like I'm coming to the end of an era. I am grown and out in the world. I have completed my basic schooling, and I am ready to join the adult community. I have partied like a fucking rock start, and I have enough street cred to kick it with the old dogs. I am approaching a place where it will be time to take a breath, evaluate, and start to refine these powers I have developed. Boot camp is about over, and it's time for Officer's Academy.

Thought of settling in Seattle is a very pleasant one. I look forward to being somewhere with no plans to leave in the foreseeable future. Not that I want to be tied down, but I would like to be able to relax into a place. I did that some in Moscow, but there was always the prospect of graduation and the Real World looming. Coming the London was an artful way to put that off. Here I was able to settle into a work schedule, pretend to be a boring adult for a few weeks at a time, but then it was off to the next country and the world was a whirl again. I look forward to not having anything to do. Not being in a rush to go anywhere, do anything, rush off again. I don't want any more Deadlines,

To do Theatre for a real living would be bliss, but I'm not too keen on the thought of a job that is guaranteed to only last 3 or 4 months. I've sent applications to a number of shows on backstagejobs.com, but they're mostly in DC and New Your state and probably wouldn't pay the cost of the plane ticket for the whole run. A steady place in a house would be heaven, but I'm wouldn't dare hope (not that that will stop me from handing them my resume).

Besides, I still don't feel like I'm ready to pursue a Career, in any field. I still have honing and polishing to do before I'm ready to seriously focus my energies on something external. In The Celestine Prophesy, one of the revelations (six? seven?) is about love. It says that each person is a partially completed circle. Every now and then we meet another partially completed circle who fits perfectly to make the whole. The two people are as one, and they become necessary to each other. The revelation is that if you complete your own circle and find another completed circle, you can both enjoy all the benefits of being completed together without the need, without the addiction.

I read this when I was about 20, living in a dark little basement apartment and ignoring school in favor of being a rebellious hippie kid. It stuck me very deeply. Of course. I need to compete my own circle before I can truly be able to give to another. Otherwise I'll be using them as a crutch, and they'll be doing the same.

This applies to my relationship with Life as well. I'm not done with enough of my circle. But I'm getting closer. I'm about to Level Up again. This time I want to spend most of my Experience Points on Wisdom. As always, I'll got where the tide of the Universe takes me. I think I feel it beginning to pull in a new direction, and it's exciting.


I'm out of metaphors.


Right. So it looks like this weekend I'm going back up to Scotland to hunt down Affleck Castle. Eddie, the wonderful man Brooke and I stayed with in Edinburgh, has agreed to put me up for another night and drive me the 60-odd miles out of Edinburgh to where the Castle is. Apparently it's visible from the road. It's not open to the public, but Eddie is confident we won't have any problems just hiking out to it. I have yet to purchase the train tickets, because the stupid website isn't working well. The price went up due to availability of times and seats about £25 from this afternoon to now, and I really hope I can get the good tickets before I got to bed. It could be up anther fifty quid when I wake up.

I also need to get my plane tickets for Vienna for next weekend. I'm going to visit my cousin Ryco, the son of Cassie whom I visited in the Carnies.

So I'll try that now.

Cheers!

Joss Whedon is God's gift to Science Fiction

If you have not seen Serenity, do it now. I have to agree with Orson Scott Card's review:

This is the Best Science Fiction Movie Ever. Period.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go bask in the afterglow. And think up ways to get Jewel Staite to marry me.

click on her surname for low-speed connections

Castles, good art, and crappy clubs

I've actually been spending my time well lately, I think.

Last Saturday I went with Andrea to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Tate Modern. Pretty amazing stuff. They had the bulk of her works there, and of course it was arranged in the story of her life and career. It was a lot of Frida to take in all at once (god, that unibrow...), but on retrospect I'm really glad we went. Some of her work left me cold, but other stuff was truly amazing. Her later work on religion is really incredible. I particularly liked this piece, which I believe is her treatise on world religion.

Andrea and I have had the awkward "This is fun but that's all it is" conversation, and things are good. We see each other now and then, and it's fun. I like this adult style, non-commital dating thing. My dad commented once that kids today don't date around the way people used to, it's much more about monogamous relationships. I've decided that's largely due to the introduction of sex into younger, non-married couples. Suddenly dating around is potentially dangerous. It's nice to relax a little and not worry about "where the relationship is going." Not that I'm having huge amounts of casual sex, mind you. But you know what I mean.

Went to another BUNAC pub meet. Always good times, and it's fun to be around a grip of North Americans again. It's also fun to be the experienced one. They all just got here a few weeks ago, and I'm about to leave. I'm just full of advice for good places to go and good clubbing.

Speaking of clubbing, I went to a fucking AWFUL one last night.

Wait, backtrack a little. Have I mentioned Lynda, the girl I got a job at my ISP? She was at the last BUNAC pub meet I went to, and when I announced the credit control position (calling up people who owe us money), she was the only one who was really interested. She's good times.

Saturday was her birthday, so we went out with a bunch of her friends. We went to Tottenham Court Road (very central London, near Soho) and waited for one more person for like 45 goddamn minutes. He was called, and he said we were going to a club called the "Frog," (He was the man with the plan) and we were supposed to "find the guy with the fliers." There are DOZENS of guys with flyers, all for different clubs. WTF!

He finally shows up, and we have flyers for a good club with good music and cheap prices, but not the Frog. He dismisses this and leaves again to find the Frog flyers. Finally comes back, we find the place, wait in line for an hour, and FINALLY get inside. And it sucks. It sucks really, really hard. I can't define the music genre, but the best I can come up with is the White Strips, if they sucked really, really hard. And it was £3.20 for a CAN of STELLA. For reference, that's like paying $3 for a pint can of Pabst. Completely ridiculous. Finally the band comes on, and they SUCK EVEN HARDER. Everyone is ready to go except Capt. Dipshit (sorry to steal the the name, Cricket!). They are going back to their place afterwards, which is in the wrong direction, and it's already Night Bus time, so I just headed home.

It is seriously to my credit that I didn't give Capt Dipshit a swift shot to the kisser. His idea of dancing was to shake the very drunken birthday girl by the shoulders, hard. For like a half hour. We had to stop him. I really kind of wanted to shake off the pacifistic hippie thing off and beat him senseless. But we had lots of fun hanging out at Lynda's before we met jerkwad, and I got the number of a cool theatre chick from Santa Cruz, so it still gets chalked up as a good night.

Oops, I skipped an event.

Saturday day, before all this, my housemate Ben and I went to the Tower of London. Saw the sights, took in the culture, and had a great tour from a really talented Yeomen Warder. Thick Scottish accent and a flair for working with crowds. The ravens there were magnificent, unlike any birds I've seen in the States. Truly the Stately Ravens of Yore I was hoping for. (Randy, I didn't know which one was Thor, but I asked one to pass your greetings on to him)

I still haven't sold that stupid bicycle. My price keeps dropping, I keep getting people calling/emailing about it, but nothing goes through. I'm starting to get worried. It won't be earth-shattering if I don't sell it, but it would be really nice to have an extra £150 in my pocket. That was my primary financial misstep while I was here. Really not that bad of one, I guess. I haven't even ridden it a half-dozen times. There's just nowhere near here I want to ride it in, and I don't want to take it on the Tube to somewhere I do want to ride it. That and I don't have a helmet or a lock, so I don't want to dance with traffic and I can't leave it anywhere. Meh.

What else...oh, I played a friendly game of football with the office last week (that's soccer to us Yanks). And god DAMN did I hurt the next day. Lots of muscles that haven't been worked in a LONG time. I can still run, I just can't stop and change direction a lot, and that's all the game is. My hack skills came in a little handy goalkeeping, but I don't think I'll play again next week. I don't need that kind of pain right now.

Almost time to leave. The countdown continues. I need to check my bank account tomorrow, and see if I can make it to Vienna. If the bike sells, that would pay for the plane ticket. That would be AWESOME. I've picked the weekend of the 22-23 to go, so we'll see. I'll make the decision tomorrow, likely.

Right then. I've spent a large chunk of today reading Questionable Content, a web comic I found today. Now and then I go hunting for a new one, and when I find one that I like I read the archives straight through. Usually a good three or four hours of entertainment. I recommend it.

Time for a little more web surfing, then a reasonable bedtime. I have a week of heavy work ahead of me, with Paul gone. Speaking of which (Mom), I got an ergonomic keyboard at work, so that is helping my wrists a lot. I'm not letting them hurt in the bad and damaging way, they just get tired when I have to really push. So I should stop typing and rest up for tomorrow.

Rock!

Posting for the Sake of it

Chis Fred demands that I post, so post I shall.

My wrists are tired from typing all day. We're backlogged from my week long absence, and Paul is gone the next two days, then all next week. So don't expect much posting, since I don't want to type more. I did, however, bust out a solid 70 emails today, which is up from my daily average of 50-something. When Paul is gone, I'll be "working smart," only answering the easy ones and delegating the emails that take more thought to people helping me. So I'm expecting to be in the 80-100 range every day. As much as I'd like to stay with the company, my metacarpals are glad I'm leaving soon.

27 days. I have 27 days left until I leave. Today is over, and I leave early-ass on the 31st, so really I have 25 full days left. Holy shit.

THAT was a fast 5 months.

I'm applying to a bunch of SM jobs online, and we'll see if anything comes of them. Some don't start until August, so I'll have at least a little time to kill. We'll see what happens.

My friend Katie Coon is getting married on the 6th November, and I'm going to try and go down with Austin from Seattle. It's in Southern Idaho somewhere. Again, we'll see what happens.

I'm planning a visit tour of the Northwest, from Seattle to Moscow to Spokane to Bonners, something like that. We'll see. (notice a pattern here?)

Right. A Tube anecdote to leave you with.

One day I was waiting in a station for the next train, and out of the corner of my eye I could see an older man approaching. Under his breath, yet still very loudly, he was swearing a blue streak. Sailors could take classes from this guy. Cursing with true malice and anger in his voice. I didn't look up, thinking/hoping/praying he would just pass me by on the narrow platform.

The man walks directly up me, excuses himself, and very politely asks if I know if this train is going to Euston. Not politely as in, "Pardon me, good chap, have you got a moment," still crude and slightly crazy, but very polite nonetheless. I told him I didn't know, he thanked me, turned and resumed a string of commentary that would make roses wilt.

The train arrived, I got on, and he followed. I sat in the only empty seat, and assumed the vacant "staring at nothing" look everyone uses to maintain some sense of personal space in those cattle cars. The man, standing, continues his profane soliloquy. People start to look at each other, as if to say "Can you believe this?" and "What the hell?"
The man comes back to me, and my immediate fear is that he wants to make conversation. He asks me another very polite question (I don't remember what), and the scene repeats itself. I don't know, he thanks me, and returns once again to making our ears sweat.

He gets off at the next stop, and an instant and animated conversation breaks out among the six or so of us sitting nearby. It's always interesting to find kinship and contact with strangers through some from of extremely minor hardship. I had a nice discussion with a Korean family, and then my stop came and I got off.

There are many things about which I think "If I can handle London's version, I can take it anywhere." Public transport is one of them. You've never seen a Tube car empty so fast as when the crazy homeless guy gets on who must have shit his pants two minutes before. What really amazes me is the people who not only don't leave, but aren't obviously affected. Are they really that desensitized?

Well my dear and wicked children, it's that magical time again where I crawl into the arms of Morpheus and give my subconscious the keys to my reality. I'll tell them both you said hi.