Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-holborn-viaduct-detail-dragon-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignleft"
style="width : 150px; height : 97px;"
alt="Photograph: Holborn Viaduct, Dragon Detail, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Holborn Viaduct, Dragon Detail, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Went to see Movin’ Out last night. It’s billed as a musical. Unfortunately, I ran into some semantic issues.

My loose definition of a ‘Musical’ is actors on stage, acting out a
story while singing to music played by some sort of musical ensemble.

My loose definition of a ‘Ballet’ is dancers on stage, dancing out a
story to music played and possibly sung by some sort of musical
ensemble. Dina posits that this may also be called ‘Interpretive
Dance’. I’ll accept that addition.

I went into Movin’ Out thinking it was a musical. It was a ballet.

I’m a bit dismayed that I paid a decent amount of money to see the show.
On the good side, it was moderately entertaining, and the music was good.
All the dancing I’ve been learning over the last few years has made me appreciate dance in any form that much more.
Maybe it’s also that as I get older, flexible twenty-somethings appear proportionally hotter, even if they are still way too thin / emaciated.

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-flowers-and-suits-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 101px; height : 150px;"
alt="Photograph: Flowers and Suits, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Flowers and Suits, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Been thinking about band names that you shouldn’t really think about too long lest you figure out what they mean.
So far, I’ve only come up with a couple.
Anyone else have suggestions?

• Pearl Jam
• Cherry Poppin’ Daddies

Our trip to London went quite well. Lots of walking and wandering around the city.
Pictures are up.

At times, the trip felt weird. Erin, Alma (and Micah), Katya, Hannah, and Steve are all people we’ve seen in
Boston. It felt somewhat like “Different place, same people.”

Wednesday

Immediately buying a 1 week zone 1 and 2 travelcard was worth it. Buying last week’s Time Out, not so much.

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-covent-garden-opera-house-balcony-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 150px; height : 98px;"
alt="Photograph: Covent Garden Opera House Balcony, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Covent Garden Opera House Balcony, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Had my ploughman’s lunch at a pub near the dump we were staying.
Needless to say, also had a few pints. Mmm.
Walked to Covent Garden. Almost bought tickets to Meyerling, the ballet, instead of Samson & Delilah, the opera.
Found a nice Scotch shop.
Bought a half bottle poured directly from the cask.
It tastes pretty good.
The Doc Marten store is mostly touristy junk now.
Very small selection of Docs downstairs only.

We wandered around for the rest of the day.
I didn’t get lost, I knew where I was going, all the time.
Kinda cool.
The A to Z we bought was mostly useless. London geography makes sense to me.

In Leicester Square, ordered tickets to Pirates of Penzance, with Anthony Head as the pirate king.
At the booth, Dina says to the guy selling tickets “Three tickets to Pirates.”
Still paranoid from the near debacle at the opera house, I said to her “Make sure it’s ‘of Penzance’, not ‘of the Caribbean’.”
The guy in the ticket booth had a good laugh.

Off to a pub for more drinks and food.
Had a pint of Guinness for both St.-Patrick’s day and for Ellie’s birthday.

Play was in the Savoy. Beautiful theatre.
Unfortunately, Anthony Head didn’t project enough to be a good pirate king.
Mind you, he looks about 10 years younger than he does in Buffy.

Things that I remember hating about London.
The toilets suck.
The pay phones mostly suck.
The only good thing about them is that you can receive calls at them.
We should have tried harder to find cell phones to rent.
By the end of the trip, I think we came to the conclusion that we would have paid £20 or £30 each
to rent a cell phone for the week.

Thursday

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-covent-garden-opera-house-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignleft"
style="width : 101px; height : 150px;"
alt="Photograph: Covent Garden Opera House, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Covent Garden Opera House, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Early Opera House tour. Erin also bought a ticket to Sampson & Delilah.
The tour was great. The amphitheatre is stunning.
Makes me regret accepting the math department instead of the architecture department way back when.

Dropped by the London Transport Museum, also in Covent Garden.
Bought a couple of gifts for friends.
I was good and bought low variance gift, instead of the high variance gift that I wantedand still want to buy.
Erin wandered off to do a walking tour.

Dina and I wandered to Young’s Founder’s Arms, my favourite pub, right near the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern.
Met Hannah and Alma there.
Founder’s Arms is on the South Bank of the Thames.
I love that you can sit outside, have a pint, or even a lager shandy, gaze at the city, and watch the people go by.
Alma tried to convince me that there are nicer places down by Richmond.
I don’t think that she quite understands that I want to look at a city, not a small town, across the river.
Had a lager shandy (half lager (that’s beer) and lemonade (that’s 7-Up or Sprite)), and a Scrumpy Jack’s.

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-st-pauls-millenium-bridge-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 102px; height : 150px;"
alt="Photograph: Millennium Bridge and St.-Paul's, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Millennium Bridge and St.-Paul's, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Walked across the Millennium Bridge. It’s quite nice.
St.-Paul’s is under renovation.
Attempted to take a bus to the West End.
We got on the bus in the wrong directionNot my fault..
Dropped by an internet café, had a kebab… mmm… and took a cab into the West End.
Sat down at another pub, and drank more.
Steve got lost on his way to meet us due to bad directionsAgain, not my fault..
I have to remember that I lived in London for two years, and shouldn’t be cowed by people
who, though they live there currently, haven’t cumulatively lived there as long as I had.

Once Steve got there… well… by this time I was decently drunk.
Surprisingly, it was probably the only time I was drunk the whole trip.
I wouldn’t claim I was completely sober the rest of the time, but
the pints of cider and beer were spread pretty evenly throughout days full
of walking and eating.

Anyway… off to Chinatown. Mmm… Crispy Duck.
The only one I had while I was there.
I should have ordered a second one.

Friday

Got off to a late start.
Bought some coconut and almond oil conditioner at Boots.
I have to remember that I now f’ing need haircare products when I travel.
Bought two flavours of Lucozade, the English Gatorade equivalent.
One tasted horrible… thankfully I was attracted to it’s New Flavour! label.

Standing on the right on escalators is a great thing.
I’m sooo surprised that it hasn’t caught on here.
It looks like the Buffy cast is in London.
Allison Hannigan, and unfortunately Luke Perry, are playing in When Harry Met Sally.
We toyed with the idea of seeing it: it’s one of Dina’s favourite movies, and
who wouldn’t want to see Allison Hannigan fake an orgasm.
However, the best blurb they could muster for the play was “Fans of Allison Hannigan and Luke Perry
will be delighted.”
We finally decided to give it a miss.

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-tate-modern-weather-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 100px; height : 150px;"
alt="Photograph: Tate Modern Weather Exhibit, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Tate Modern Weather Exhibit, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-tate-modern-weather-erin-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignleft"
style="width : 150px; height : 99px;"
alt="Photograph: Tate Modern Weather Exhibit, Erin, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Tate Modern Weather Exhibit, Erin, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Saw the Weather exhibit at Tate Modern with Erin. It was awesome.
Probably the best piece of modern art I’ve ever experienced.
Mirrored ceiling, about four stories up.
The mirrors move lightly.
They pipe in smoke and mist.
Half circular orange light at one end.
Near the ’sun’ all colour is washed out, except for this one woman who was wearing some sort of weird material that kept it’s reddish-pink colour.
She looked like the girl in red in Shindler’s List.
The social response to the exhibit was fascinating.
The artist is either a genius, or lucked out.
My guess is genius.

We then puttered around the rest of the Museum.
I quite liked it.

Met up with Dina, Hannah, and Steve, and took a ride on the London Eye.
Really nice views of London. Unfortunately, it was raining.
Oddly, a patch of sunlight was moving in at quite quick a pace.
It missed us by about 30 minutes.

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-tate-modern-weather-dina-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 150px; height : 99px;"
alt="Photograph: Tate Modern Weather Exhibit, Dina, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Tate Modern Weather Exhibit, Dina, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
After, back to see Weather with the three that hadn’t seen it.
We liked it that much.

Another stop at the Founder’s Arms for more drinks.
Meandered back across the Golden Jubilee footbridge, and stopped at Dina’s favourite store, Next.
As Erin and Dina are trying things on, I’m standing near the dressing rooms holding / looking at two of the little tops that Erin bought.
A sales lady walked up to me and asked “Do you need some help sir?”
Might I say that I’ve probably never disliked a redhead more.
I would have said yes and tried them on if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t want to chance ruining Erin’s
purchases.

Re-met Hannah & Steve at Veeraswamy, a nice Indian restaurant.
Dina made the good decision of four main meals for the five of us.
This plus all the appetizers, drinks, bread, and desserts ensure that we were not overfull.
Dina & I went off to crash at Hannah and Steve’s.

At some point, we realized that Dina thought I didn’t
want to stay at their place for our whole trip (they have an extra room / mattress), and I thought Dina didn’t.
As my dad asked, arent’ those sorts of misunderstandings supposed to happen after more years
of marriage? I guess Dina and I are precocious.
They have better facilities (shower, mattress, food), price (free), and company than the hotel provided.

Saturday

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-erin-dina-gabriels-wharf-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignleft"
style="width : 99px; height : 150px;"
alt="Photograph: Erin and Dina at Gabriel's Wharf, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Erin and Dina at Gabriel's Wharf, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Slept in. Booked our vacation to Vegas online.
How weird is it to book your vacation while on vacation.
Dropped by Sainsbury’s, a supermarket chain.
Bought some nice scotch for myself. A smokey Glenfiddich, a brand I am not usually into.
Bought all sorts of weird food for people.
Shopping for food in another country is an experience.

Off to Hampstead for crêpes. Mmm. The stand is still there and going strong.
Visited a few pubs. Had a London Pride for Daniel.
Forewent visiting HYELM, the place I used to live in when I was in London.

Off to Zaika to meet Derek and Siobhan for more Indian.
Again it was pretty good.
All in all, we went to two of the better Indian restaurants in London.
I was quite unimpressed by the taste to price ratio.
Veeraswamy was about £40 each (~ $75) and Zaika was about £55 each (~ $100).
I didn’t think they were worth it.
Maybe low cost traditional Indian is better in London?
Maybe my palette has changed since I first had good Indian in London?
I don’t know.

After that, off to the pub to chat with Derek and Siobhan a bit before they caught the train home.
Caught a double decker to the West End.
Another of my favourite activities in London is to pick a random bus, sit on the top deck, and watch
the city go by.
Walked around the West End and Soho.
I’m a bit disappointed that we never got to go to the Intrepid Fox, a goth / metal pub. Oh well.

Sunday

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-holborn-viaduct-detail-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 150px; height : 98px;"
alt="Photograph: Holborn Viaduct, Detail, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Holborn Viaduct, Detail, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Lot of walking. Took the tube to Bank. Walked to Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square, and Trafalgar.
Took a bus to Mornington Crescent, the station that was closed all the time I was in London.
It felt like some sort of closure seeing it open.
A lot in London has changed in a few short years.
The Swiss Re. building is beautiful. Looks like a Fabergé Egg of a skyscraper.
The Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge, Queen’s Golden Jubilee Bridge, and Tate Modern are all new.
There are also a bunch of other little changes.
Starbucks is now everywhere.
The congestion charge has lightened traffic in London considerably.

Anyway… near Mornington Crescent, had a Kebab, again. Mmm.
The only problem is that I remember the chili sauce being slightly more vinegary.
Still yummy. You can get decent kebabs in Montreal, but not in Boston.

Tube up to Hampstead, and Dina and I walked down to Chalk Farm to meet Erin.
Then, off to Camden Town.
Eek!
I always thought that Camden is a cool market.
It’s much better in some ways when you’re poor and have no money.
Visiting it on vacation was a big exercise in self restraint for me.
Lots of goth. A juggling store. Cool antiques. Nice art.

Stopped at a pub (where else) for a late lunch / early supper. Had roast beef and
Yorkshire Pudding. Yeah! Another of the foods I wanted to eat crossed off my list.

Off to Alma’s for her Birthday. Cool crowd.
Hung out at the Hare and Hounds pub for a while.
Their sign is pretty cool. Someone making a shadow bunny on a wall with two dogs looking on.
Then, back to Alma’s. A bit of reading. A lot of drinking.
Alma actually tried to hide out in her room for a while before getting back to the balcony.

My reaction to parties are much calmer nowadays, even if I only know less than half the people there.
Also, cute, dumb, gothy 19 year olds don’t have me tongue tied anymore.
I’m not sure if things are so much easier as I get older and more socially experienced,
or if it’s because I’m no longer looking for sex.

Back to crash at Hannah & Steve’s.

Monday

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-branches-and-flower-bed-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignright"
style="width : 150px; height : 98px;"
alt="Photograph: Branches and Flower Bed, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Branches and Flower Bed, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
A long, long, long, meander around the city, vaguely hunting for a kebab.
I know where the kebab shops are, but I felt like wandering around the financial district instead.
Off to tea at the Ritz with Dina, Hannah, Steve, and Erin.
It was wonderful. Surprisingly, didn’t stuff myself silly, given there was pretty much all you can eat
scones and clotted cream. Mmm.
It was a very nice, relaxing setting.

After tea, well… off to the pub.
As we’re sitting there, talking and drinking, who should walk by the window but Katya.
It’s a small, small world.
Talked a bit more, and finally took a bus home.

Tuesday

src="/pictures/london-2004-03/london-dina-st-pauls-2004-03_small.jpg"
class="alignleft"
style="width : 150px; height : 99px;"
alt="Photograph: Dina at St.-Paul's, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Dina at St.-Paul's, London, England, 2003-04, © Nick Varacalli."
/>
Walked with Erin to Covent Garden. Passed through Neils Yard again.
It’s just a magical little place tucked into the middle of London.
The automata museum in Covent Garden is closed.
Walked to Tower Hill to meet Katya and Dina.

Had lunch at the Minories, a place I used to go to when I worked in the city.
Had a nice steak and ale pie. Mmm.
I love the way the English use up every bit of space in London.
The pub is under the tracks.
It’s a beautiful little place with brick arched ceilings.

Walked over Tower Bridge and back.
Looked longingly at St.-Katherine’s Docks. Didn’t get to see it, or visit the Charles Dickens pub.
Oh well.

At the airport, forewent a beautiful bottle of 40 year old Laphroaig. I’m still moping about not
buying it. The £375 (~ $700) was probably worth it, considering the bottle would have lasted me
a lifetime.

Some things I didn’t get around to, that we’ll have to leave for next time, are having some beer
from the Wychwood brewery, having some Dog’s Bollocks (again, beer). Didn’t have enough Crispy Duck.
Visit St.-Katherine’s Docks, and Charles Dickens pub. Wagamamas, which has expanded from one location
to many, was also missed. We didn’t do fetish night at Torture Garden. A pity, since I brought clothes
(and hair glue) for it. I still should hit Kew Gardens, Highgate Cemetery, Kensington Palace, and Greenwich.
I also have walked the Silver Jubilee walkway, but not all in one go. I meant to do it this time, but never
found a free day, as the walk is quite long.

But I did what I really wanted to do.
I walked around London.
A lot.
I think it cured me of wanting to live there again.
But still love wandering around London like no other city that I’ve visited.
Only Venice and Paris come close.

It’s a pretty good sign of… well… something or other…
when you start putting $1 bills into your change jar.

Starting to realize the people are n-dimensional blobs of personality traits.
Said traits are related, but not always correlated the way I expect.
I’m still finding ways to probe the shape of people’s personalities
(what others might call “getting to know someone”)
without poking sensitive portions of the blob.

Random statistic: I know that at least 14% of the women I’ve slept with are now lesbians.

Should I contribute to a political candidate?
I can’t vote yet, but I still have to live with the next president’s policies.
Is it right for me to attempt to influence things, even if it is in a minuscule way?

As I’m trying to pay more attention to those I interact with, I find myself self-censoring what I want to
write about… if I blog about certain things I notice, at the very least, I’ll Heisenberg the personal or social
dynamics… at the worst, people may feel uncomfortable, which is not what I’m aiming for…
It’s also slightly interesting to me the level of social politics that sometimes seem
to accompany the simplest of things.
Right now, I’m dealing with said politics by being in denial about them.
Hmmm… does writing this blog entry mean I’m no longer in denial?

One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is how Dina reacts to my flirting with others and, of course,
others flirting with me. Mostly, the wonderful wife that she is, she’s OK with it.
On very rare occasions she isn’t. In an attempt to zero out the “isn’t”
times, I’ve been making some observations and case studies based on the flirtee.
Let’s put this in a tabular format.
Note the “if”. It should go without saying wouldn’t make a serious pass.

Table 1. Suspected Reaction Of Flirtee If Nick Made A Serious Pass At Them.

Case 1 would account about 99.9999% of expected reactions.

Case 2 is obviously flattering.

Case 3 is intellectually interesting.

Case 4 offends my vanity on some level.

Anyway… a number of things are surprising to me…
First, it took me writing out a damn fucking table to boil down “something blindingly obvious”
into “something blindingly obvious to Nick“…
<sigh />
I hate being slow…

Dina gets defensive, and rightfully so, if she think the flirtee would act on a pass even though we’re married.

I think this applies to people I don’t flirt with too… duh…

Surprisingly to me, she doesn’t get defensive in case 2.

It’s realizations like this that make me realize what a social moron I am.
A friend of mine recently noted that they
“have to fight to stay on the marginal edge of social competence.”
I think I’m jealous of them…

I think I’m going to start doing reviews of our gaming nights, and other fun things we host.

Yesterday’s gaming night was a lot of fun, either because of,
or despite the light turn out.
Hugh, Matt, Sarah C, Lauren, Jim, Dina, and I were there.
Calypso, Tortoise & Hare, Celebrities, and Taboo were played.

The meta-game required to decide on Taboo was pretty long.
My pronouncement of “The next person who says something not related to choosing the next game
has to remove a piece of clothing” was met by a quick snide comment by Lauren as she removed a sock, and
a similar snarky comment by Dina as she removed an outer sweater.
Sarah’s enthusiastic exclamation of “We’re playing Strip Conversation!” made me realize that
I’d been outclassed at the meta-game.
I probably shouldn’t play poker against Sarah.

Note to self: do not let the girls play Taboo together on one team.
They kicked our asses.
They regularly scored 6’s, and I think Lauren hit a 7.

For some reason, most of us ordered salads. Odd.
Maybe it’s because we were full of scrumptious spinach and artichoke dip that Sarah and Matt brought.

Laura B. didn’t show, so no juggling flaming torches.
The offer to juggle them is still on for next gaming night.
Also, despite my Cesar reference in the invitation:

	If we're ambitious (Brutus says the Varacalli's are ambitious,
	and Brutus is an honourable man) we'll try and fit another one
	in at the end of March.

I only realized it was the Ides of March yesterday.
In more news, my dad’s going to be in town sometime in mid-April.
We may schedule gaming night while he’s here so y’all
can meet the one who’s responsible for most of my quirks.

I’m starting to get an itch for Celebrities again, so I’m urging the 65 Flett Celebrities
Power Team to make a showing, as well as anyone else who’s good (or thinks they are good).

I’ve always loved the title’s transliteration.

Nice, simple recipe for vinaigrette: pomegranate juice, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice. Mmm.

<sigh />
I’ve become a rinse-the-dishes-before-putting-them-in-the-dishwasher person.
Our dishwasher is getting sluggish… I have to figure out why.

It’s both interesting and frustrating watching geeks be very adept at many things and
stereotypically clumsy in dealing with social situations. Though I’ve gotten a tiny bit better
at these things with age, it resonates when I see the trait in others.

Today is freeze day at work.
Dina is temping today.
My only meeting today was at 13:00.
This combination of factors means I got to sleep in, and got to work at 12:30.
It also means that I left early to work from home at about 14:30, to avoid being sucked into the
fix-other’s-bugs trap that so often happens on the day of the freeze.

This weekend at Lake Shore, I was actually able to say ‘no’ to someone who asked me to dance, without
any other reason than I didn’t want to dance with them.
This may seem like a small thing, but it’s actually quite hard for me to say ‘no’ to someone to their
face without a plausible excuse.
I didn’t want to dance with the person in question because they tend to overlead, i.e., they are over-eager
and tend to yank my arm out of it’s socket when dancing.

So, my most recent project, that freezes today, touches a lot of pieces of our system.
As such, I’ve had to deal with coworkers approaching me with bugs and issues that could be mine,
but aren’t.
The problem is, it’s generally quicker for me to fix the issue in question than it is to explain to the
coworker that it is not, in fact, my issue.
And by ‘explain’, of course, I mean ‘convince’.
I’m not quite sure how to deal with this issue.

Was talking to Jim the other day.
If we were at ITG, we’d have as much ‘fun’ making Mr. Stubborn a whipping boy as we did with
Mr. Nerdatistical.
Now, we’re just too busy.
The problem is, Mr. Stubborn does fun stuff like ‘accidentally’ (read ’stupidly’) checking in
files with important conditionals commented out in code that I originally wrote.
This means that bugs are logged against me, and I have to figure them out.

First, to me, temper, as in “losing one’s temper” is a measure of how quickly or deeply one gets angry.
I’m coming to realize that there is a slightly different concept, I’ll call it annoyance temper,
which measures how quickly one gets annoyed.

Second, as I try to get better at dealing with people, I’m coming to form better perceptions of the people I wish / have
to interact with.
Yesterday, someone I was driving home expressed an opinion of themselves that differed sharply from my perception
of them. Epiphany! Explanations for the person’s previous behaviour and interactions fell into place.
I not only need to take into account my perceptions of people.
I also need to take their perceptions of themselves into account.
How this actually translates into better social skills / management prowess is something I haven’t figured out yet.

Third, my friends largely accept me for who I am.
I need to stop fretting about things and just be confident in being me.
I used to be really good at that, and somewhere along the line… well… I wasn’t as good at it.
This isn’t to say that I should stop walking down the road of self-improvement, but I shouldn’t beat myself
up about my many idiocies as much as I do.

Adaptation, Observation, Contentedness, and Quiet Self-Confidence.

<shrug />