Category: Musings

Twelve Monkeys (or One Stupid Man)

Reports are circulating now about a guy who, while infected with a rare, drug resistant form of tuberculosis, traveled extensively from America to Europe and back through Canada – while he was aware of his disease and having being told not to travel. Great. You just have to think he’s either incredibly stupid or incredibly selfish, or both. Worryingly he traveled through Montreal and New York, but we won’t know if he had any impact as the incubation period can be up to decades.

Fly the Virgin Skies

Virgin America is finally approved to start flying! Good news for fans of Richard Branson. Sorry, I mean fans of companies that have a name starting with ‘Virgin’, as due to FAA regulations no US based airline can be operated by non-US citizens. This seemed to be a bit of an attempt by their (justifiably scared) competitors to slow them down, as it was almost a year ago that I saw some Virgin America plans sitting around up in Montreal.

You can check out some of their in-plane gadgets over at youTube. Highlights for me are the full embedded Linux media center for every seat, proper keyboard on the controls and a full 110v socket at every seat. Yep, they are totally targetting the current Web 2.0 boom kiddies with this one, and being based out west that’s no surprise.

Lost: Canon S70 Camera

On the random chance that someone found a black Canon S70 camera in Williamsburg this Monday night or Tuesday morning – it’s mine! It’s in a Yashica pouch and doesn’t have a wrist strap, there’s a 1Gb compact flash card inside which (should) have my name and email address on. It would have been lost somewhere between Union Pool, Royal Oak and the Bedford L stop.

Thanks.

This book will save your life – a.m. homes (4/5)

Another random purchase when back in the UK, mainly due to its upbeat donut cover (why do British editions still have the best covers?). This book is an interesting blend of contempory fiction based in LA, with under-currents of many self-help books. The story follows the transition of the main character from recluse to being fully engaged with his life after a near death experience. Luckily for him he’s incredibly rich already, but those riches have come at the cost of living a life, so the story charts a trajectory that shows how having this money allows you to throw everything up in the air and see where it lands without worrying too much. Now that may sound like an un-sympathetic character, but surprisingly he’s not and the story rarely stops for long enough to indulge in any deep character analysis anyway as it’s a real page turner. It’s a great book, very up-beat and almost inspiring in the same manner as Celestine Prophecy can affect you. Having said that I’d feel more personally engaged with the protagonist if he’d affected his life and those around him without the benefit of all the money he’d built up.

Post by Matt Hobbs

Faithless @ Webster Hall


Faithless @ Webster Hall: Over There
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Last night Stephen and I went along to see Faithless at Webster Hall and they were absolutely amazing. The whole crowd was jumping around which is rare in New York – you could feel the floor moving. They ran through many of their hits and a few off the new album. When they played ‘God is a DJ’ it was almost a spiritual experience. Thanks to all of them for an amazing gig, and to Maxi Jazz for igniting the dance frenzy.

Faithless play Coachella this weekend out West, so go check them out if you can.

Oh, and I have more pics up here as usual.

Screw It, Let’s Do It – Richard Branson (5/5)

I picked up this offering from the famed entrepreneur owner of the Virgin Group at random and I’m glad I did. The book, written as part of a ‘read a book’ promotion, was designed to be short and easily digestible and it certainly is, however Branson’s mix of life anecdotes and business ‘rules’ is highly enjoyable and uplifting. Every chapter has an example of how Branson has overcome one challenge or another, normally by setting his mind to a goal and going for it while returning a flexible outlook on how these goals are achieved. Screw it, go read it!

Post by Matt Hobbs

Back in the US Of A

Hey y’all – after a whistle stop couple o’ weeks I’m now back in New York. It seems strange to think I’ve only been away two weeks, it feels like ages. First I was up in Montreal, luckily managing to be on one of only two flights that Air Canada ran on a snowy Friday where everything else got cancelled. Then, taking advantage of an incredibly cheap deal, I headed back to England for my nephew’s 4th birthday and Mothering Sunday. Phew!

The trip was a great success (other than than the throat infection I now seem to be suffering from). I managed to surprise mum & nan quite successfully by turning up behind them when they came over to visit Nathanael for his birthday – much surprised staring ensued. All the nephews and nieces enjoyed the piles of toys that I’d lugged across the world for them, all the older folk were glad to see me and it was just nice to be back in England again and to see everyone.

Now I’m back and, amazingly, my guitar amp and Strat survived the trip here without damage – or at least my Strat is behaving to its usual crap level so time for a service there methinks. I’m also still feeling mildly confused by this 4 hour time difference between the US and the UK… bloomin’ government changing the daylight savings date.

Not in Bermuda..

So due to a slight hurricane hitting Bermuda today my trip’s being cancelled. Of course this was after I dragged myself out of bed and all the way to JFK. Doh. So if anyone feels like hanging out in New York this weekend let me know {:)

Aches

In an effort to find the source of this weekend’s crazy headaches I went to the dentist today to get my teeth checked out – on the basis that the headaches seem to extend all the way into my back teeth. After half an hour of prodding, poking and x-raying (which apparently did not give me super powers) the general consensus was that there was nothing wrong with the tooth that was aching.. however they did find another tooth that’s now needing to get pulled. D’oh!

Having had his way with me, the dentist passed me over to the hygienist who proceeded to demonstrate that I’ve not been flossing enough by sticking a large spiky implement into my gum causing pain and bleeding. Youch. This was followed by half an hour of intense, mechanised grinding of teeth with some manual clean up afterwards… normally my hygienists have always just stuck with the manual tool so this was a rude awakening to say the least. The plus side is, now that my gums have recovered, my teeth are now shiny and white again – yay! On the downside my teeth are still killing me – boo!

So kids, learn from your Uncle Matt.. floss regularly every day or expect severe mouth pain on a somewhat-annual basis!