Independence Day

It's the Fourth of July holiday weekend here in the US and as the big day approaches, the likelihood of our firstborn arriving on this most American of days is ever increasing. It will have American citizenship either way but if it arrives on the fourth I might just have to call it Bud or Chad.

The Tour starts tomorrow and I've spent the last two weeks reading Lance Armstrong's first two books, It's Not About The Bike and Every Second Counts. The guy has done remarkable things on a bike and raised millions of dollars through his charitable foundation yet there seems to be very little affection for him among the general public (I mean personally, rather than supporting the LiveStrong campaign, which has deservedly won tremendous support).

Reading these autobiographies does not qualify me to comment on Lance Armstrong as a person other than to say that there was nothing at all in either of the books which made me feel any affinity or affection for him. I did feel admiration for his achievements and will be supporting him in his bid for a seventh Tour.

b.

Better Photo Blogging

In an earlier post, I mentioned the difficulties associated with posting photos to a blog.

Well now it's much easier, just an "Add Image" button. So here's one from the McManus Seattle Collection to celebrate.



Have a good weekend,

b.

Happy Solstice

It was a beautiful weekend here in Seattle, perfect weather for the annual Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade.

The parade is very much an "anything goes" type event (Gina thought it would have been much better with a theme and placards announcing the floats - but that's not really the spirit of the thing) however this year the "Human Piercing Suspension Artists" (sounds sore) were barred from the parade.

The traditional and now almost mainstream "Naked Cyclists" were very much out in force.



With the silly season approaching at home, I couldn't help but wonder what the Twelth of July parades would be like with some naked cyclists. I really wish the tolerance, peace and goodwill which exudes from this event could be felt by everyone in Northern Ireland.

b.

On The Wagon Again

I'm not sure if you're on the wagon when you're on a bender or when you're sober, but which ever one means starting over again after a period of failing to meet commitments and do what you said you would do, well that's the one I'm doing.

I just checked when my last post was and it was almost a month ago; it seems a lot longer because so much has been happening and so much is about to happen.

Anyway here's a brief run down of what I've been up to in the last month:

Went to Oregon to surf
Went to Swedish Hostpital to see birthing suites
Went to Prenatal Partner Yoga to chill out about birthing suites I'd seen
Went to Microsoft to work on .Net 2.0 Compatibility and to help pay for birthing suites
Went to cinema to see Lords Of Dogtown to try and forget about .Net and birthing suites
Went to Westport to surf and forget about everything.

As you can see it's getting close to the birth date so we're getting really excited. I'm surfing again and I can't understand why a little thing like a five hour round-trip drive kept me from it for this long, it just felt so good to be back in the water that I reckon I would walk to Westport if I had to. I'll hopefully be posting some more surf stuff soon.

Going to see David Kitt at the Crocodile tonight. We've seen the Kitster many times back home so it'll be good to support him in a far-away venue.

Aloha,
b.

Dogtown

Outbound:
Route 44: 6:48 Wallingford to Montlake Freeway Station
Route 242: 7:13 Montlake to Overlake

Reading: Faster Than The Speed Of Light, Joao Magueijo
Listening: Collateral Soundtrack

With the current appetite for all things extreme and even better, extreme and retro, there will undoubtedly be a lot of hype around the new movie "Lords of Dogtown" which is due for release here next month. This is a dramatisation based around the skaters of the pioneering Zephyr skate team, a bunch of hard-core surfers who essentially changed the skating landscape from the teeny-bopper, gold-lame short-wearing American "craze" it was back in the seventies to the extreme sport - alternative lifestyle it is today. The group were essentially a local surf crew who brought their surf moves to the concrete when the conditions were blown out and it was this fluid, surf-like style which mainly contributed to the huge shift, along with a fair amount of style and a lot of pool-riding which is still around today in the modern half-pipe.

Anyway, I watched the original documentary on these guys "Dogtown & Z-Boys" and it was superb. It was a glimpse of a time when surfing/skating wasn't a "cool" thing to do, when there was no X-Games, no billion dollar clothing industry and no Kelly Slater / Tony Hawk.

The film interviewed all these guys today, some are still skating, like Tony Alva while some have drifted back into normal lives. Stacy Peralta, was hugely successful behind the scenes, becoming a successful director of skate videos and infact this documentary. And of course there was the most naturally gifted, yet most self-destructive of the bunch, Jay Adams, a kind of Southern Californian bleach blond Alex Higgins, who is currently spending time in a Hawaiian Correctional Facility.

b.

I Thought He Was Dead ....

... No, not the alcoholic comedian, the Microsoft consultant.

I was sitting hacking away (on top secret stuff) when I heard the unmistakable dulcet tones wafting down the hallway.

I figured maybe it was just the truth-serum mixing with the kool-aid and all the subliminal messages being beamed through the building.

But when the sound didn't cease after 60 minutes I knew it could mean only one thing.

Dave Allen was in the hallway.

Pretty small world. There was a big contingent of HBOS Retail over with Dave, doing performance testing with the Visual Studio Team. They must have some sort of centre of excellence or something over in Halifax?

(Listening: It Should Have Been Me - Yvonne Fair )

b.

Top Secret

Outbound: Undisclosed

Reading: Confidential

Listening: Can't Say

I'm up at Microsoft this week on a Top Secret mission so I can't talk about it.

Maybe I'll get a chance to blog about life rather than tech which someone requested last week (Gerry).

b.

Cinco De Mayo

Outbound:
Route 44: 6:48 Wallingford to Montlake Freeway Station
Route 242: 7:17 Montlake to Overlake

Reading: Code
Listening: The Strokes - Is This It?


The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It's a big thing here in the US, I'm not sure it's such a big deal in Mexico, but having seen how they celebrate St. Patrick's day much more here than we do in Ireland I suspect it's probably the same with Cinco De Mayo.

Anything for a party I suppose and what's the harm in that.

Happy Cinco De Mayo.

b.