I'm in Ireland at the moment for work -- I've been here a couple of days now (which might explain why I am online at 4am local time, I am having some trouble sleeping). Anyways, it's nice here. I wasn't really expecting to like it after how much I disliked London the last time I went there, but there you go. Photos et cetera will go online just as soon as I manage to do something other than go to the office.
I went to the dentist for the first time in the US last night. It was a pretty odd experience. 19 xrays (apparently that's standard here), a TV set on the wall where they showed me the tooth which needs a filling, and then showed me the filling after it was done, photos of my teeth with a digital camera so they can show me before and after in a few years. Heck, they rubbed lotion on my lips for me so that I wouldn't have to suffer at all by keeping my mouth open for more than 30 seconds. The best bit? They came up with a written estimate before they did the filling, and made sure I was ok with the whole thing before they did any work. I think I like the dentist here.
It amazes me that the best political argument Ann Coulter can come up with is that John Edwards is a faggot. While it is true that Ann specialises in a particularly vile form of hate politics, I guess she's sufficiently lame that she can't even think of good insults any more. It's a bit like the Anna Nicole Smith burial thing... Isn't the best way to fix these problems just to turn off the media coverage of these morons?
The office stocks vegan jelly beans. Say no more.
I'm currently waiting as part of boarding group A for my South West flight to Santa Monica. I should be there by lunch. So, any last minute suggestions for things to do in Santa Monica apart from drink a lot?
People who visit here (of which I assume there are none) will know that I occasionally rant about how cool bomb shelters are. Dad put me onto this excellent article about the Swiss: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6347519.stm Under Swiss law, local governments are required to provide shelter spaces for everyone, and in the early 1970s Lucerne was short by several thousand. The new Sonnenberg motorway tunnel, just being built, seemed a neat solution: kit it out as a nuclear shelter as well and it could hold 20,000 people. ... The monstrous Sonnenberg shelter though, is being gradually dismantled. But not because it has finally been deemed unnecessary: no, no, the real problem is those 350 tonne blast doors. When they were tested, they would not shut. Yet another stop on my eventual bomb shelter tour of the world.
It only just occurred to me the other day, but I now know why Ikea is so crowded on the weekends. Sure, the cheap furniture is attractive, but I think it's also go something to do with: Free child care Free nappies and baby change facilities! Bathrooms which are actually designed to be the right height for kids Cheap food Even cheaper food for kids Basically it's just such a pleasure taking the kids there, and they have suck a good time, that I keep finding excuses to take them there. This time it was $6 worth of plastic buckets that I could just as easily got from Target down the road. Now, if only someone would open a similarly kid friendly cinema. I'm sure such a thing would make a killing too.
The other day while in Costco (for the foreigners, think Bunnings or some other hardware warehouse, but for food), I was graced with this conversation at the checkout, between two Costco employees: e1: Where the hell is e3? e2: Oh, we didn't meet our sales target yesterday, so they cut hours today. e1: So he's not coming in at all? e2: Nup Apparently Costco works out their staffing based on a "budget for the day" which takes into account todays sales target, expected customer load, and whatever they have to "make up" from previous missed targets. While there is nothing wrong with that, it must suck to be an employee in that environment. I can't imagine not knowing how much work I would have day to day. I used to be a casual, but our rosters were fairly static and worked out weeks in advance. I guess that Australia is headed down this path with the new industrial relations laws as well. That's not why I finally got around to writing this though. It occurred to me this morning that being able to lay off people instantly based on a micro assessment of the economy must also lead to very…
Just a note to myself to remember to visit the USS Midway if I ever find myself in San Diego.
Andrew's sick, Catherine's tired. So we're driving home in one day. That's 733 miles.