Gadget based Darwins...

Engadget has an amazing news story about a tourist that nearly killed himself trying to retrieve a cellphone at Niagra falls, apparantly he dropped it then fell almost 200ft trying to get back to it. The full article can be found at engadget here.

So I've been sitting here at my desk wondering if there are any inanimate objects I'd risk my own life for. I'd rather see other people risking their lives to retrieve my stuff for me, but I'd likely still draw the line at some poor sap throwing himself over one of the world's biggest waterfalls just to go after my mobile phone. Unless it was somebody really irritating, like Rosie O'Donnell.

"you there... lackey! go and find my phone!"

My most prized gadget is probably my Ipod with it's vast and extremely personal music collection. Ever noticed how personal MP3 players are. Having lost an ipod in the past it was kind of like losing a limb.. or finding out that you've accidentally burned photo albums, all those play lists, rankings, entries and music which I didnt have backed up. It's taking ages to build up my new ipod, which isnt actually that new anymore! Best thing would be to buy two ipods, one in a vault back at home, one which travels, and then always sychronise them both at the same time, but given I've only ever lost an ipod once... touch wood... that's a bit of overkill.

That said, I still wouldnt hurl myself down a waterfall to get it if I dropped it. Now if you see the previous post about Emily Blunt... that's a different matter...

... actually who am I kidding, I'm far too shallow and selfish to risk my life like that!

Gah.. My Eyes!!

Depressing Thursday stuck in the office when I'd rather be curled up working from home with decent coffee rather than machine swill.

Tomorrow my car get's it's MOT and Tax sorted so fingers crossed everything is okay there, managed to get all the bumper damage taped up and secure, and the last time I checked all the lights and things still worked so it should be okay..

It's worryingly bright, searing my eyes with extremely bright sunshine as a boil in the spare office at work.. I'm longing for my grim grey skies of Seattle. I also have to do some furniture shopping. I have a gorgeous apartment with a lovely view but absolutely NO furniture in it.

So I've survived valentines day at least. Why isnt there an annual day of scorn.. it's been ages since I've actually been able to enjoy V-day, I've usually ended up single by then due to whatever it is that's wrong with me.

It could be the crushing pessimism and the fact I complain a lot.. actually that's almost certainly what it is, I'm sticking with the new positive outlook though, anything to avoid my friend Hannah's prediction that I'm going to end up with a girl exactly like Emily from "The Devil Wears Prada". Actually, looks wise I'd be really really happy with that, Emily Blunt is absolutely gorgeous.. and according to IMDB lives just up North in Vancouver. I dont think I have the patience to be a stalker though..

Back to the drawing board!

I can't get no sleep..

Deeee dooo deee doo... sorry breaking out into a spot of Faithless there. Anyhoo, so the subject of today's post is my abject lack of sleep. I have insomnia, what's more worrying is they seem to be coupled with some kind of stress/lack of breeting anxiety attack thingies which are frankly terrifying. I'm usually immune to this kind of stuff, but I think finally everything's got on top of me. Obviously there's my utter utter relationship disaster which isnt recovering or showing any signs of recovery in the near future, there has been the stress around the Visa and all the paper work on top of it.

There's the problem with my car being bent and the fact that however much that costs prevents me from having furniture and things to live on when I get back to Bellevue. Which will be quite comical.. huge apartment with a stunning view, but sadly nothing to sit on to admire it!

Then there's work, which has given me a mammoth impossible task to perform which is frankly driving me nuts.

My lovely Oiiiirrrish friend has been very supportive and nice, dragging me out for a drink here and there and generall listening to this sorry tale unfold.

Oh also World of Warcraft is back in my life which means I now spend most of my time thinking im an elf. If I suddenly kick a pedestrian to death and wonder why it didnt drop any interesting items and start asking people for quest items then I probably need help. What's more worrying is that this time i picked a female character. Either I'm becoming confused about my sexuality (extremely unlikely) or I'm just perving over a computer game character running about in front of me (more likely).

Either way, it's all very emotional and I probably need either help, or a holiday, or both.

Web 2.0 - Robust as a thing which isnt very robust

Isnt it worrying how something as big and sacred as Wikipedia can actually be so financially strapped.

This article over at 901am demonstrates how fragile the new web ventures are. Firstly Wikipedia is HUGE and extremely important, everybody pretty much uses it and we've all come to accept it as everyday web life.. much like Google.

So the concept that it might not be there anymore in 4 months time is pretty worrying. Of course somebody will step in and fund, bound to just for the publicity that they could be the money behind Wikipedia, and some strange satanic handshake in the background. It'll be interesting to see if their "no advert" rule goes away and they end up with commercial sponsorship.

I wonder how many of the big web ventures are close to the edge like this? Although... most allow advertising to generate revenue so probably not that many...

Veg weekend

Ahhh a weekend of nothing.

Up late after daft lay in, open email, sigh heavily when I realise that I still have a mountain of things to do, then give up and watch the rugby.

What an utterly depressing match, despite England winning against Italy 20-7, it wasnt a match that went well. Ireland in 2 weeks time will not go down well if England play like that again. Especially as I've been sat here watching it with a person from Irishland. Can't lose against them it would be extremely humiliating, again, and I'd never hear the last of it.

I intend to do yet more nothing tonight...

It's still really weird not having a passport....

I cant feel my legs..

Today was an interesting one. Big day.. crunch day in fact.

The company has decided, in their divine wisdom in my role of "Global Solutions Director" (oooh), that I should really be doing it from the USA. Which most people already know, but this is only possible if I have a US Visa. So today was my day with the US Embassy begging to be let into their country.

For a start the lead up to this was frighteningly stressful, the paper work from our US Attorney's handling my application only arrived at 7pm last night, giving me just enough time to get everything photocopied at the office, and get my photo taken.

Left stupidly early because I was paranoid, travelling from Bedfordish to London, this would normally take me 3 hours, and my appointment was at 11am, so leaving at 7:30 was still cutting it far too fine for my liking. Oddly there was NO traffic, and I arrived in London at 9;30. Just enough time to get a cup of coffee and panic a bit more.

Without going into the whole process in too much detail it took me almost 4 hours at the Embassy, but 3:45 of that was just standing around in line or waiting.

Upside is, I'm all stamped through, approved and just waiting for my passport back.

On the whole it's been very emotional and very scary... also it's very weird not having a passport