Wow. Great game Good football between the 2 sides, a ref that ikept the game going and ignoring any play acting, just a demostration of footballing skills.

The airport lounge on Sunday had Saturday’s papers, all full of stories about how great the England team were and how they had a brilliant chance of going through. And we know how that ended up 🙁 But the BBC have a good article on what to do with all the unwanted England flags, to get the creative juices flowing.

3. If you’re a Sun reader you could consider using the flags as stuffing for an effigy of the newly-crowned “least popular man in the Premiership” Cristiano Ronaldo. Don’t burn it though as some polyester can give off pollutants.

Working my way through recorded telly prgrammes I skipped over loads of ads with a football theme; even if they had to reach then the companies were determined to get some mention in there. And now I’m watching the football with English commentary, which is far more preferable to my ears. But I’m finding it weird to be watching the match in the evening though, having grown accustomed to the day time matches that EST brings upon me.

aaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhh. Again they win on penalties.

Yea to England. A reasonable game, but nothing to get excited about. Beckham hit a cracker of a free kick, but the rest of the time too far off target. Not sure if the formation worked – Rooney was left too often with little to do. But Jo Cole remains my favourite player, he is continously hustling away a tthe ball and creating opportunities. Now the next match is on Saturday, so I need to make a travel decision…be in the US or the UK?

There were a number of virtual attendees at Bloggercon IV over the weekend (see the Frappr map). During one of the breaks, the conversation turned to football (not the only time the subject came up) and it was cool to see how many around the globe were watching the match (Mex vs Arg).

With Ghana beating the US, they now face Brazil. The odds of them beating that football superpower must be pretty low, but it does not stop the Ghanians celebrating now. This quote had me smiling..a viral text mesage that is apparently going round hte country: “After beating America, Ghana is now a superpower. Now we should get into nuclear enrichment!”

The Register has an article about the University of Abertay’s Ethical Hacking course. I’m guessing one of the entrance requirements must be to hack their website to find the course guidelines…as I can’t find it in either this year’s or next year’s courses

Update: from Professor MacKinnon’s comment, this lack was an oversite and is being updated. cheers Lachlan.

I finally managed to get an evening that did not involve work last night and caught up with Eric and Chris, both of whom I met at SXSW in March. Amongst the general chit chat and beer, the possibility of organsing Bar Camp NYC 2 was discussed. And lo and behold, Chris has put it on the wiki. It’s timed to co-incide with BarCamp Earth.

As an alcohol company, my previous employer could never refer to drinking to excess in any of its communications and that included all the internal ones. So if we were having a team night out or a party, we would always be invited to have a few drinks…responsibly. An dthis would be followed by all the sensible drinking advice, plus details of any taxi arrangements to ge thome etc. This has become so drummed into me that I automatically respond with the term ‘responsibly’ to any suggestion of having a few drinks…although I usually manage just to keep it in my head and not say it outloud.

So when I read an invite to a party from current clients that makes it a lot more clear having a lot of fun and drinking a lot, I had to take a reality check..many other corporate cultures treat alcohol realistically in what it can do instead of having to meet a legal and social responsibility line, which is really believed in, but forced upon them by a litigious world which means they can’t say things the same way.

The buzz over the weekend was all about Scoble resigning and moving to Podtech.net, which still appears to be having a little trouble coping under the load. Today it is being picked up by the mainstream media – here’s a piece on the BBC. Note one major difference in the story – unlike all the other blog posts, the BBC retain some decorum and refer to Robert throughout as “Mr Scoble” 😉

I made my first visit to a US grocery store on Sunday and got the biggest culture shock so far. Everything was different enough that it’s going to take me at least twice as long as usual just to work my way around the products; even with familiar brands the packaging is different enough to make me look twice. Two products that threw me were tomatoes and coffee. In the UK, you go to the veg aisle and the tinned tomatoes are predominately that – tomatoes in tins. There’s s separate sauce section and a few purees. Here, the majority of the tins are sauce or puree – the tomatoes are not so common and way more expensive. Looking for coffee, there was mainly beans and less preground. I found out that the tin packaging needed opening with a tin opener at 7am in the morning – not the best time for me to be surprised.

A funny day today. My parents were visiting with plans to do lunch; instead we ended up going to Camden Market. My aunty had also traveeled down, the first time she’d been to London for 28 years. The tube proved an adventure, but the confusing corridors and barriers were soon mastered.

Part way through the day, we got a strange text message from my sister, “I’ve just found a dead man and had to do CPR”. Eventually catching up with her, it turns out she’d been driving just round the corner from her house and saw a man laying down, with an elderly gent looking confused. They’d stopped – the other man had just found the guy on the floor. Checking, there was no immediate discernable pulse. At this point, a couple of other people turned up, one called the ambulance, the other turned out to be a doctor. Between the doctor and my sister (who’s a nurse) they started full CPR and kept that going until the ambulance arrived, apparently about 15 minutes later. Things were not looking good as they left the guy being shocked in the ambulance.

The guy appeared to be in his late thirties and was carrying no ID at all. So sometime today, someone will report their family member or friend missing, things will be put together, and there will be bad news.

Life can be short – don’t waste it.

Today was the 152nd Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race. This is a strange sporting event, a private match between 2 universities but which is watched by thousands from the bansk and millions on the TV. It’s over 4 miles 374 yards, over a tidal river, nothing like the straight, controlled 2000m international racing, But all of the competitors are internationals, focusing on a completely different type of race and training to take part in this unique event.

This year, I watched the race on TV from a boathouse next to where the crews disembark. Watching the build up, looking at the wind and rain, I knew it was going to be a hard race. I’ve been out on the Tideway in similar conditions – they are not nice at all, especially on that last bend at Barnes. Bookies were offering 20-1 on one of the boats sinking (difficult with today’s designs) but Cambridge looked like they were close. I’m naturally biased towards Oxford, in fact 2 of the crew went to my college, so was extremely happy with the result 😉

Here’s the winning crew as they come under Chiswick Bridge.

And a picture of the trophy, abandoned as the crews and followers went to get dry.

More photos here

In an unlikely story, Gretna, a small town in the Scottsih borders with a population of 3000, has made it into the Scottish Cup Final. This event usually finds the likes of Rangers and Celtic competing. Surprisingly, the team had 4000 supporters at the match.

Runways are usually pretty big…and I assume that there are intruments involved in getting a plane down, plus radi etc. So how does this Ryanair jet miss a runway by 6 miles and land on an Army base instead of a commerical runway?

Time to go home. After 4 weeks on the road, time to get back to reality, which means getting a job, earning some money and being able to pay the mortgage. It’s been a fun few weeks, with New York, San Francisci, Austin, Las Vegas and back to San Francisco.

Things I’ve learnt?

• even if you know you are going to about 3 different climates, you still pack too much…and internal flights charge you for the excess baggage even if I’ve only got half of what is allowed on the international fligh.
• pick the right town and you would not need to pay for for web access…although the cost of the coffee you’d need to buy to justify sitting all day in a cafe may just make the home access cheaper. More free spots in London please.
• Las Vegas is mad. I’d have to have a very good reason to go back and it would not be gambling. I never got round to it, despite watching people lose/win a few hundred or more. But the Bellagio fountains are the best show in town – avoid the pirate at Treasure Island as far too much crushing.
• Helipcopters are cool. Loved my frist flight – need to work out how to go again.
• Austin is weird..in a good way. Have to go back next year..and next time may try a car to get out and about a bit more.
• Dodgeball and Upcoming appear essential for SanFran – not so much call for it in London currently, but I can see it growing.
• it’s not nice being on the receiving end of Tall Poppy Syndrome . Watching 2 bloogers being hit this week, I’m glad I’m fairly low key
• Although I could so easily live in San Francisco, I could not afford to – the prices look worse than London

I am so not looking forward to the jetlag that a 9 hour time difference is goign to bring..not goign to be a fun week

It is so very very cold here, as the weathermen keep saying a wind chill factor down into the teens, whic I translate as far too many digits below zero and just cold. I need to walk 5 blocks to the office and I suffer.

On the way I stopped off in Barnes and Noble and pondered over the difference between UK and US book covers. Put 2 piles of books together, one from each country and it would be so easy to tell them apart without getting close. There’s a cdertain set of colours that are used, a certain set of typefaces that just scream US books. Just look at these 2 images, for the Da Vinci code – US and UK version. You can spot the country from a fair distance. Of course, these preference have evolved and there are unlikely to be in seismic shifts from either country to make the covers the same. They work – people buy books with those covers, so each new book has to have the same type of cover. It would take a different kind of publisher to challenge the excepted market trend here.

Party

Originally uploaded by RachelC.

Last night I had a small party at work to celebrate my leaving. At the end of the night. just the 4 of us were left. With the remains of the tab, we celebrated with Dom Perignon champagne and Johnnie Walker Blue Label. There are more photos here and here.