Blog of Bling #21- Where in the world are my parents?

So the one solace my parents took from me moving from Louisville to London, is that they would get to visit. As of last thursday, they've been making their way through Europe towards London.

Is it weird that they haven't called or emailed me yet? I must say, I'm feeling a bit neglected at the moment.

Oh well, I suppose they'll have to call when they make it to London when they need help with bags or something...



On a happier note, I'm on a string of good sports luck lately. Tuesday, a last second free kick gave us a tie to finish at least 3rd in our football league. Wednesday, the US rocked the #1 team in the world, Spain in the Confed Cup. I pretty much perpetuated the American stereotype by being extremely loud and obnoxious at the pub I watched the game. What was worse is that I was completely surrounded by spanish fans.

Clapping loudly, cheering, running around the pub after both goals were scored are things for which I will not apologize. However, drunkenly singing the national anthem after the match was over, might have crossed the line. Many thanks to my friend Laia, who respected the imaginary American flag.



Anyway, I have a try-out with a local football club tomorrow, so hopefully the sports luck hasn't run its course! More on this, and the location of my parents coming soon!

Blog of Bling #20- Musings on health care

Seeing as how my life is so.... normal right now for the first time in a while and I've inconveniently committed myself to writing a blog entry at least once every two weeks, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the whole health care reform that's going on in the states right now. Yawn... i know, but you can't make the highlight reel every week.

Frankly, this whole issue hurts my head. 1.) Everyone in the richest nation in the world should be insured. PERIOD, the end. It makes sense for the uninsured and the insured. The uninsured (obviously) don't put off simple procedures and then have to deal with the chronic disease or costs that come later. The insured benefit from not having to "pick up the cost" of the transferred bill from the uninsured. No brainer. Plus we are the richest nation in the world and its embarrassing.

So what's the best way to do that? I have no idea. I'm afraid the insurance and pharma companies have their claws way too deep into the issue for real change (but if I was them, I'd hang on for dear life too). As I have lots of friends that work for insurance brokers, I don't know if this is blasphemous or not, but does it really make a lot of sense for Insurance companies to be for profit? With low overhead, they would work quite well for the insured and the company. But these gigantic corporations, with tremendous bueracracy can't possibly keep the cost of a simple medical procedure down, if the procedure has to pay the time of the doctor, nurses, and the 10 accountants the paperwork had to go through to get approved.

Anyway, rant aside, when you have business people making medical decisions (or in the case of pharmaceuticals) pushing more medical decisions, its not surprising that the patient and the doctor have lost out. Its important to note that I don't think most doctors are to blame for the skyrocketing costs. Between the cost of malpractice insurance and medical school debt, they are probably under-payed for the risks they are accepting.

Which leads us to reform. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by a public option, based on the response of the pundits. Here's what the government should do though. Create a cheap, non-for-profit alternative to private health care. Require that every citizen be required to have medical insurance and that the cost via public option should be deemed by the person's tax bracket.

I hear the conservatives going crazy over this option though, saying its going to put private insurance companies out of business. Sure, its going to cause them to change the way they do business and they might not make the killing they make right now, but isn't competition the crux of conservative economics. Do they really think that with all the governments beauracracy that a private, well run company couldn't outcompete the public option?! Hell no! What they are really saying is that the insurance companies are making too much money right now for the system to change.

So what's actually going to happen: The only option left is for the government to pick up the large bill of the uninsured which is too expensive. So then they'll change it to subsidize only a portion of the uninsured, in which case what's the point anyway?! The country will end up with more debt and no result. Big business will have yet again triumphed over the less than wealthy.



I'm definitely not in my expertise area, so thoughts?

Blog of Bling #19- Guess who?

Bling’s back! I apologize for my posting hiatus. As the days in London have gotten warmer and longer, somehow my free time has become less and less… The Blog of Bling has taken a hit on the priority list, and for that, I do apologize.

So, quick life update: I moved. I am now the proud tenant of my own studio flat. Unfortunately, as I removed the greatest source of stress in my life (flatmates) I’ve also removed the greatest source of blog material as well… I’ll try to get some new pictures up soon.



I'm currently working on a post about my thoughts on the apparently world famous Creation Science Museum in Florence, Ky. Need to tone it down a bit, but I should have it up in the next couple of days!

One last thing, I want to wish the best of luck to Carmelle Martinez who should be headed to the delivery room sometime today! Best of luck Carmelle!

Blog of Bling #18- FYI: Bling is NEVER the little spoon!

So I was walking home from the pub last Friday night, pissed (in the English sense) as usual. Way up the street I see a couple people hanging out near the front of my flat. As I draw nearer, I realize it’s my flatmate HF (probably shouldn't post names without permission) and a mate of my flatmate Leighton who lives across the hall from me. I exchange pleasantries as I enter the house, but honestly, I don’t care much for HF as she has trouble cleaning up after herself and maintains a general “holier-than-thou” aura that I can’t really stand; there’s not much love lost between us though. To make things worse, her new friend, the mate of my neighbor speaks some kind of Birmingham-ian English that I don’t understand at all. Plus he looks like a twerp, so I manage to get by without introducing myself, for which I’m quite pleased with myself.

Anyway, I head into the lounge to watch a little tele to find my flatmate LM making out with a new friend he’s brought home for the night. Ugh, so I shut the door and call it a night. Not five minutes in bed, when I hear LM and his friend coming up the stairs. I put my earplugs in as per usual and try to pass out.

About 10 minutes after this, I hear someone coming all the way up to the top floor where Leighton and I live. Ha, I think. Hannah kicked LM’s mate to the curb and now he needs to know where to crash. I hear muffled knocking through my earplugs as I role over toward the window, determined to sleep through all the racket.

All of the sudden, something or someone is climbing into bed with me! I scream “WHAT THE F@&$?!!” pretty much at the top of my lungs as this thing jumps about 10 feet in the ear and starts to head for the door. I follow this up with a rhetorical “WHO THE F- ARE YOU?!” Only this twerp that has snuck into my room doesn’t know it was rhetorical, and starts to answer. “Oh my bad, mate, I’m…”

“I DON’T CARE WHO THE F YOU ARE! GET THE F OUT OF MY ROOM!”

Well the twerp scurries out my room as fast as he can, cause I am literally about to explode. After he’s gone I try to calm myself and go back to sleep. Sure enough, 5 minutes later when the fumes coming out of my ears have subsided, I hear another muffled knock. Surely not, no way, I think to myself. But sure enough, in pops the head of this twerp who apologizes, grabs his shirt that he left on the floor and runs out of the room!! What can I do at this point but turn back over and hope to the heavens that it was a case of mistaken identity, but it certainly takes me a while to finally get to sleep.

As it turns out, HF told this poor pawn of a twerp to meet her in “her room at the top of the stairs across from LM’s after using the restroom” .... which would actually be my room. That's a pretty bold play in the conflagration between her and I. I really don't know how I'm going to top that one. For right now, I'm just going to consider myself lucky to that I avoided being unintentionally spooned and desperately try to repress the memory!

Blog of Bling #17- Minutia-mania

Not a lot that's interesting has happened in the last few weeks, thus the long delay between posts. I guess I could update everyone on the minutia of my life, but that's just not the blog of bling way. Well, maybe just a little...

I did make the team of the week in my 7-aside football (soccer) league this week.



Unfortunately, the three green guys on the left side of the image were all playing for the opposing team and we lost yet again, 1-3. In order to stave off relegation, we'll have to win in two weeks against the second worst (points wise as we are clearly better than last...) team in the league.

I guess one more thing I could mention is that I'll be back in states March 20th, and back in Louisville March 25th, and I'll be staying through April 7th (one day past the NCAA championship game, which was completely accidental of course). I'll be presenting some results (well, lack of results) at the Chlamydia Basic Research Society Conference in Little Rock Arkansas. Weird, I know, but its a free trip home!

Blog of Bling #15- A Bling's Life Bonus Round

Hello faithful Blog of Bling-ers! Apologies for the delay in a new post. The reason for the delay is that I'm actually going mentally insane. Every waking moment I am drifting farther from sanity into an abyss of frustration and senility. Therefore, I will quickly catch you all up on my life in London 2009 so far. Then I will go back into the laboratory and transfer incredibly small volumes of samples that may or may not be contaminated from one tube to another. I'll quit working when I'm so hungry I physically begin to shake and can no longer pipette accurately.

So here goes:

I scored a 40 yard goal to take the lead for my team in my Sunday Soccer league. It was probably one of the better goals I've ever scored. We ended up losing though.

Some bouncer wouldn't let me into a shitty club until my entire group threatened to leave. Then he let me in and we left anyway because it sucked.

The "Britain Blizzard" officially ended today. Apparently six inches of snow in 36 hours on a city that never sees snow and is entirely dependent on public transportation will cause chaos. I walked to work yesterday which took about an hour both ways. I was told the distance from my house to work is about 8-10 km, which I think means about 25 miles.

Shut up, you don't know the conversion of Km to miles either...

Not new: my flat houses seven people. New: the normal people have now outnumbered the crazy people. We're having a party on friday in which a bunch of scientists, nurses, Australians, IT representatives, and a couple snobby girls will mix it up. Fireworks (or perhaps just fires) are expected.

Alright boys and girls, fun time is over as my boss just walked behind me a big "Blog of Bling" window open on my computer. Time to go finish creating an ulcer and pulling out my hair!

Blog of Bling #14- Asking the right questions

I normally try to keep my writings as light and entertaining as possible. Blogs aren't the best places to voice disagreements; it's easy to make judgements about politics or religion when there's nobody talking back at you. However, I am SO riled up after reading the comments page on Courier-Journal online, that I hope you'll allow my indulgence.



I once asked my father what the definition of a republican and democrat was. What he said, rather the paraphrased version of what he said, has stuck with me for a very long time. He said that Democrats wanted to help the poor by taking more money from the rich, and spending it directly on the poor, while republicans think the government should take less taxes from everyone, so that people have more money to spend on companies, which causes the prices of "stuff" to go down and creates more jobs for the poor without. I don't remember how old I was at the time, but I remember thinking that there could be a disagreement even when the final goal was the same was a cool concept.

Should those more fortunate be forced to pay for quality health care, education, and infrastructure for everyone? I don't know, I really don't.

But considering the US is THE richest country in the world, I do know that every American DESERVES these things as the right to a quality existence. How could they best be provided? That's the question Republicans and Democrats SHOULD be discussing.

Here is good luck to the new executive branch and the population that elected them! May the quality of life for all people in the USA and world be better in four years than it ever has been!

Blog of Bling #13- A year's end reflection

While its always difficult to recognize change in oneself, it seems as if I've come a long way in the four or five months I've been in London. And although the "pretentious-barrier" was crossed long, long ago, I thought it would be entertaining to share some of the little lessons I've learned during the past year.

1.) Wear clothes that fit. Shopping exclusively on the clearance racks at Target just isn't going to cut it anymore...

2.) Dancing is easy. All you have to do is put one hand up in the air and bob up and down. Hold up one finger for emphasis which can be turned into a point when inevitably people want to start taking pictures with you.

3.) It's impossible to take a good serious photo after 4 liquor drinks. Instead of attempting to smile and look sober, own you're awkwardness! Intentional idiocracy is much funnier than accidental idiocracy.

4.) The Peacock Rule. When trying to meet new people, its easier to attract through appearance than by personality. The male peacocks with the most "game" are the ones that look the most ridiculous. This can be applied to bar attire. Colored shirts, being overdressed, and apparently hideous sweaters are all applications of this rule.

5.) Great friends are hard to come by. Ultimately the most important lesson I've learned, is that while its (relatively) easy to meet new people and form acquaintances and contacts, it's infinitely harder to develop the true friendships I have here in Louisville.

What a holiday! It's been a fantastic and well-needed break from the London adventure and I don't think this trip home could have gone any better. I'm sad to leave, but I look forward to being back in The 'Ville during the end of March. Cheers for a great holiday season!

Blog of Bling #12- Bling's Glorious Return to the States-- the preview

Just an update, I'm flying out of Gatwick tomorrow morning and will be back in Louisville by tomorrow evening. I think my old cell phone is still activated, but I'm not sure. I'll try to get up a blog tonight about my ridiculousness over the weekend...including pictures, no promises though as I still haven't packed.

If anybody wants anything special from britain, send me an email.




Get ready....

Blog of Bling #11- Turkey Day Depression

It's Thursday morning here in London, and I'm at work instead of starving myself for a thanksgiving feast later. I'm actually quite depressed that I won't be partaking in the annual gluttony and slothiness that is eating turkey and watching (real) football all day. Not only will I not be partaking in usual festivities, it turns out that the lack of Thanksgiving holiday gives no limit to the beginning of the "Christmas" season here in the UK. They started celebrating three weeks ago.

Seriously, I think the Christmas season is too long to begin with. By the time December 25th rolls around, I'm usually sick and tired of chrismas carols, shopping crowds, and have gorged myself on chocolate candies so that none of my clothes fit. Here, Starbucks started playing Christmas music on November 10th this year. That means they will have celebrated Christmas for at least 46 days this year. That's 13% of the year devoted to a one-day holiday! How much money do you think it cost Starbucks to change all their displays, all their cup colors, the "roast" of their beans, and the decorations in their store? Does all that crap really make me want to drink Starbuck coffee over any other place?

Anyway, santa-starbucks rant aside, I'm quite depressed. So depressed, in fact, I shaved off all my hair last night. Rather, I had a flatmate do it for me. It's a bit shorter than I expected (and by a bit, I mean A LOT) due to a little confusion on the way to use the guard for the clipper, but that's ok. The point of my decision was to change things up a bit, and keep it interesting, which I definitely, definitely have done.

This morning, one person at the office described my hair as if "something had attacked me with hair clippers" while a couple others simply laughed. Personally, I think it looks good, or at least better than my usual hair cut. In fact, the cute Starbucks barista chatted me up a bit this morning, being unusually friendly for a crowded morning coffee bar. She ended up not charging me for the muffin I ordered and told me to "come back and see her."




Hmmm. Maybe this early Christmas season isn't that bad after all....

Here it is, my "what do you think" face, combined with my "trying not to get caught procrastinating in the office" face:

Blog of Bling #10- (Not so) Rotten Tomatoes

So its taken a few months, but I finally realized that I live in London, and am not just on an extended holiday. The exact moment of realization came this weekend when I was meeting some friend in Picadilly to see some new german film. I was on the bus, running late (as usual for public transportation), and checking the map function on my iPhone. I was trying to figure out how long of a bus ride I had remaining. After a bit of watching my GPS position move across the London map, I looked up and out the window, only to see Parliment and Big Ben right next to me. I started to check my phone again when I realized, that I just glanced at one of the most recognizable and famous buildings in the world, and didn't give it a second thought!

And just some FYI, German movies are crazy. It was a movie about the RAF during the 60's and 70's. 2 hours and 45 minutes of gun shots, bombs, riots and terrorist plots, mixed with nude and sex scenes for no apparent reason except to break up the violence. Still, it was more thought provoking than nearly any movie I've seen.

Also, I understand the new Bond movie just came out in America, where as it's been out for a while over here. Although it resembles more of the Jason Bourne movies, rather than James Bond, I still recommend it. Just don't expect the cheeky humor and male permiscuousness of past Bond films...

Blog of Bling #9- "You should see the other guy..."

So, London is not Louisville. Of course this is true, but I guess its hard to realize in what ways they are specifically different. For example, in Louisville, if I were to get bombed in Makers and stumble out to the Nat City exit, Nolan would be inevitably there to scoop me up, take me home, and give me life advice in the process (somebody tell Nolan I said what’s up by the way!). In London, the liscenced taxis only run to midnight, and then its mini-cab time. As I learned this weekend, these are not always the safest option. So here’s the story:

My flatmate Lena, was born on Halloween so we decided to hit the town to celebrate. A blue van with a “Mini-cab” sticker on the back took us out to Fulham road for £25. Three bars and about 8 tequila shots later, I realize that Lena and her friend need to go home very very soon. We exit the bar, and the two girls try to flag down a cab as I go back in to tell my flatmates we’re off. As I exit the bar for the second time, Lena has flagged down a cab that looks remarkably like the one that took us out. Now at this point, my mind is saying, “they told you during orientation to only take the black Taxis.” This one was blue, but it had the same sticker as the one that took us out, so I figured it must be fine. The driver quoted us £15 for the journey home, and I figured even if he bumped it 10 last minute, we still payed the right fare…

The ride was as jovial as any other when I’m in the car. It began with me asking the driver where he was from (don’t remember), and then stating I’m from America and what he thought of the election (he didn’t care). Anyway, you’ll notice I mentioned that Lena’s friend needed to get home soon and my fears were realized as she began yaking out the window. I did my best to destract the driver with my political commentary as we were almost home at this point.

As we approached my flat, as I suspected, the fare jumped from 15 to 20. Based on the mess he would eventually find on the side of his car, I was happy to pay. Unfortunately, Lena was not and began to argue with the driver. Both exited the car, where he found the mess and promptly shat a brick, so-to-speak. Now both Lena and the cab driver are screaming at each other, while Lena’s friend rests against the door to the flat.

Moderator bling kicked in and I calmly sent Lena to assist her friend while I tried to calm down the cab driver. I told him calmly that I was going to give him 10 extra pounds on the price he quoted and pulled out the 50 quid I had in my wallet to count out 25. As I was counting, the Fing driver grabbed the money out of my hand, hopped in his running cab and began to drive off. Unacceptable! I grabbed the open window and yelled for the driver to stop as I started running next to the car. About 3 steps into this process I realized I had made a HUGE mistake….

I was running WAY too fast for a guy with as many whiskey and tequila shots downed as I. I let go of the cab and braced for impact. Two stumbling steps and I landed, first on my right hand, then my right shoulder, and then I came to a sliding stop on the right side of my face….

Then all chaos ensued. Lena charged the cab driver who had stopped when I fell. People were outside their cars and I think the neighbors came out as well. I remember laying there for about 5 seconds trying to get up, but my bearings hadn’t quite kicked in yet.

Finally, my motor skills returned and I was up and in the flat, 50 quid, some facial skin, and apparently an iPhone lighter….

After 5-10 minutes of my flatmates bawling, me complaining about the blood and holes in my £70 Thomas Pink shirt, scuffed shoes and belt, I realized that I no longer had my phone. I remember checking what time UL played the next day in the cab, so I knew I had it when I left the bar. I started freaking out, that the cab driver stole 15 quid AND had my phone. For whatever reason, I decided to check and see if it was outside on the street, and low and be hold, there it was, 15 yards from my flat where I assume I fell. I sprinted to the phone, the first lucky thing that had happen that night! Unfortunately the screen was smashed to smitherines, apparently having been run over or squashed by a tumbling Bling. (for the record, thank god for phone insurance! I get my replacement tomorrow.)

But despite the facial and palm lacerations the ruined clothing (somehow my jeans made it through!), destroyed iPhone and still the worst thing that happened this weekend was UL losing to Syracuse! Come on Cards….

Anyway, I finally went to a doctor after my face turned a bit green and swelled up. He was quite impressed how I had cleaned my palm, calling it professional looking. So if this whole scientist thing doesn’t work out, at least I have future in wound dressing...

But it was all almost worth it as a particularly attractive young co-ed kept staring at me on the bus this morning. Eventually I caught her glance and remarked, "You should see the other guy." She laughed... and then changed seats to the front of the bus, capping off the weekend. Eh, you win some, you lose some. At least it can only go up from here.

Blog of Bling #8- Bling for President 2020

So I posted my absentee ballot a few days ago for a hefty price of 5.78 GBP (~$10!) Following in the lines of the "I'm no economist" post, but I'm no government expert, but here are a couple thoughts I've had on this election which I've tried to follow pretty closely.

John McCain is not G.W. Bush. That being said, he shouldn't have let any of W's guys into his campaign...at all. Sure, you could say the economic crisis killed his chances, but the moral far right is going to vote GOP no matter what. Why he needed to appease that part of the base with the Sarah Palin pick is beyond me. Because while he probably did energize the far right of the current GOP constituency, the pick alienated any intelligent independent voter out there, and those are the votes that are going to decide the election.

Needless to say after that, but I voted for Obama. What can I say that hasn't already been said? the rest of the world is in love with him, and that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for America. Also, Sarah Palin scares me... a lot. (btw, did you know she sued the federal government for putting polar bears on the endangered species list?! i mean, could I make that up?) Plus Obama is just a smart, charismatic man who is too young to surround himself with yes-men. Intelligence plus diversity of opinion is the best way to achieve sound decision making. Also, I really really really like the idea of the green economy Obama talks about. I hope its actually feasible.

Anyway, I'm not here to shovel any party line down your throat. In fact, I think I'll do the opposite. I'm a registered independent these days, as what I think doesn't always line up with the party-line. So right now I'm creating my own political party and starting my campaign for the 2020 election (which will be the first election I'll be 35) I'm still working out the details, but basically the tenants of my party will be:


1.) fiscal responsibility- not in the GOP sense, but in the if you want to go to war or provide national health care, you have to raise taxes instead of just coming up with the money from somewhere...like from china)
2.) live and let live morals/judicial code- if it doesn't infringe on your rights, the government shouldn't care.
3.) switch the military budget and the education budget
4.) extra separation of church and state (because its not separate enough now)
5.) Take care of the environment (if we're not all perpetually swimming by 2020 anyway)

The name, you ask? "The Platinum Party" Nice, right?!

It is a party of the people, so if you have thoughts or additions to my list, post a note! Also, I'm looking for a VP to energise the constituency, whoever they may turn out to be)

Blog of Bling #7- First British Goal

Those proficient in my writings know that I actually found a football (soccer) league before I actually found a flat in which to live. Well, it took 6 weeks, but I finally broke through and scored my first competitive goal on the isle. Luckily, (for you) the highlights of this particular league are put on youtube. Check it out:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezE11UlLblU



I play for a house team for 7-a-side league. We're the one's in blue getting scored on most of the time, except for the first goal on the clip. There are also a couple highlights of me involving a back heel and then a 1v1 in the second half that skimmed the top post. It's good exercise and I enjoy it, but I was missing the full field, full goal, 11-a-side games. So I answered a post on gumtree (UK's craigslist) for a wide player to fill in for a few weeks.



So this morning I took a 10 min train ride to the next neighborhood over to play with Kew Antigua FC's first team in a friendly against worcester park rangers, a third division team. I met the players and while most of them looked taller than I, I didn't see anything special that I wouldn't be able to handle.



But then the game started. So apparently I wasn't aware, but club football in Britain is a bit more physical than adult football in the states. In the states, you'd get the occasional shoulder charge, some old man that's lost a step reaching his foot in a half second late to clean somebody out, and then everyone gets upset and then play will (usually) resume. (Usually, because in the Greater Louisville Men's League one bench clearing fight will break out once a season). But this was ridiculous.



I was playing out wide on the right and I wasn't the most pleased person on the pitch to see that the left winger looked like the most athletic guy on their squad...turns out he was. Luckily the rest of his team wasn't very good and he ended up drifting into center midfield to pick up the ball more. This is when I pretended he wasn't my problem anymore.



So I held my own for the first half. I actually had two opportunities that were easier made than missed as they'd say over here. I beat the defender to a ball crossing the goal face and just needed a touch that I wasn't able to get thanks to a nice shove in the back... no foul.



Then later that half I got away from my mark and set the ball out for a crack at goal. The recovering defender lunged to block the shot and I just pushed the ball between his legs for a 1v1 with keeper. After all that work, to be honest, I was exhausted and proceeded to stubb my toe resulting in an embarrassing shot and an easy save for the keep.

The rest of the game proceeded with me getting the ball, taking a touch and then getting knocked off the ball. Minor injuries included knee to the thigh (dead leg) and the goalie sliding into my crotch. Somehow he came up injured and had to leave the game, where as I just had to leave the possibility of ever having children.

All in all, I guess I can't complain. I went a full 90 with little conditioning and created a few chances. Dead tired and hurting, but I think the club will invite me back, hopefully as a half time substitute or for the 2nd or 3rd division teams.

Blog of Bling #6- "Railing" ain't easy

Trues came to town last week to play in the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in London. After two weeks of 70 degrees F and sunny, it poured rain for 3 straight days in the 50’s when he arrived. At least he got to see the real London…

Anyway, he survived day 1 of the tournament with a few more chips than with which he started. And it just so happened, that as Trues flew into town, my two bosses flew out, which allowed me to take a “mini-holiday” without too much notice. (Just for the record, I have no equipment yet, so I’m not really working, per se, just sitting at my desk and acting busy…i.e. writing blogs)

So I decided to go watch Trues play Day 2 of the tournament. By no fault of my own (the district line is shit), I was an hour late. I found a great spot on the rail behind Trues and watched him move all in about 4 times in the first hour. I’m pretty sure that I was the more nervous of the two. Sitting to the left of him was some old guy with a bracelet who was apparently pretty popular. And while I didn’t know who the old man was, I certainly knew all the professionals from the tele that kept coming over, moving me out of the way to talk to their buddy. I didn’t mind when the old guy’s 27 year old girlfriend came up and tried to squeeze in next to me, though.

Anyway, after watching trues for about 7 hours, the day ended with a gruelling hand by hand play, waiting for the final 2 players before the money was reached. Standing on the rail, or “railing” is not the most fun especially if your player of interest has a run of unimpressive cards. It’s even more gruelling when each hand at the table takes 10 minutes while all of the 8 tables left in the tournament complete one hand at a time. I’m pretty sure that I blacked out for a few moments from the pain I was feeling in my hamstrings…

So finally! only 56 players remained and Trues was guaranteed a very nice payday that could only get better in day 3. But thanks to weekend public transportation works I was only able to get to the casino to watch Trues for about 30 minutes before he caught some idiot trying to steal the blinds. A great call on Trues’s part wasn’t rewarded when the jerk-off caught his pair and knocked Trues out of the tournament in 24th place.

Unfortunately for Trues (or maybe fortunately) we weren’t able to find a place showing the UK vs. Alabama game and settled for a few too many pints. Let’s just say Trues wasn’t feeling himself for the duration of the tournament and called it a night pretty early, while I ended up in a club called Inigo with 4 people I didn’t know at the beginning of the night. Honestly, getting patted down like I was getting on a plane was a bit unsettling as I entered the club, so I didn’t last very long there either and it was off home for the evening. I’ve yet to talk to my “new friends,” since.

Long story short, Trues was off to Berlin to meet the other person he knew on this continent and the town was left a good sum of money lighter, with his exit.

Blog of Bling #5- Bling goes legit!

So I've decided to take my inner most thoughts and experiences off facebook and make the Blog of Bling a legit blog. The original purpose of the blog was to keep everyone up to date on my life here in London... well, that and to compete with Carmelle's blog about her dogs. (Btw Carms, you still managed to work your dogs into that last post, although I admit it was hilarious) But now its evolved into general life updates, and some of my thoughts and questions on what's going on in the world.

If you end up reading reading this blog regularly, just know that I am pretentious enough to think that everyone needs to know what's going on my head and life. Fair warning!

Blog of Bling #4- I'm no economist...

and I'm certainly no apologist for the government policies that have left us with this crisis, but I'm not sure if this bail-out is the right thing to do. From what I understand, which may not be entirely accurate (please post and let me know), these risk taking wall-street companies lent a bunch of money and then when the loanees couldn't pay them back, the companies had no plan B.In this situation, I would imagine that the risk-taking companies share value would drop like a rock and then some other (obviously more responsible) company will come along and acquire the troubled company. Survival of the fittest, responsible companies survive, risk taking companies die a red figure death.Now obviously that leaves all the middle class people that were spending all of their paychecks and now can't afford their house payment when the price of gas, loaf of bread, etc went up a few dollars a pop. I am more sympathetic for these people and these are the people that the politicians are vying for votes from. Would it not be more effecient (both economically and politically) to use a portion of the 700 billion and pay off some of these peoples loans? Or at least give them seriously significant tax breaks so that they could pay it off themselves? This seems more economically and even politically efficient.I'm quite confused for one of the few times in my life, so I'd like to hear other peoples thoughts on this one...especially if my reasoning isn't exactly right. I really don't know whether I agree with this whole thing or not, so I'd really like to hear other people's takes on the whole thing. Being the resident American I'm getting asked these questions all day long and I honestly have no idea what to say!Anyway, on a lighter note, I'm waiting on pictures for a more Bling-like blog entry to come very soon. Keep posted!

Blog of Bling #3- Lost in Translation

22-09-2008So I haven’t kept up on my blog for a while, but in my defense, I killed so many brain cells during my trip to North Ireland that I’ve just now regained the ability to type. Yes, I visited the land of leprechauns and Joelle a weekend or two ago to help her celebrate her 25th birthday! The flight there and back was only 100 GBP, but that meant I had to fly out of a tiny little airport north of London at 7 AM and return Monday morning quite early. My Saturday started at 4:30 AM, but at least the cheap bastard inside of me was happy.My flatmates all got up at 5 AM to wish me godspeed on my weekend trip….but that may have had something to do with me somehow setting the fire alarm off with the steam from the shower. I have my version, the flatmates have theirs.Anyone that knows me, knows that I hate to brag (is hate the right word?) but I planned my journey perfectly. I waited 4 minutes at the bus stop, 3 minutes at the tube station, a whopping 30 seconds at the trains station, and I had just enough time to stop for coffee and a pain au chocolat (chocolate crossaint) in the airport terminal before my flight started boarding.Joelle and her boyfriend Rory (aka bubbles) were nice enough to pick me up from the airport and host me for the weekend. I couldn’t tell you the name of the towns or villages we went to after leaving Belfast, but the coast was beautiful and the hills were more green than I would have thought. Honestly, I didn’t understand a whole lot of what was being said as both the irish accent and vocabular escaped me for much of the weekend. I understood Bubbles father long enough to hear a story about a little pub in a northern coast town whos owner didn’t allow women in the bar. Something about an American tourist and his wife being thrownout didn’t sit too well with me, especially as we entered the pub later that day. “If women knew any better, they wouldn’t set foot in here,” said the owner to Joelle and her friend and I decided to keep my American mouth shut while bubbles ordered the beer and the girls scurried outside.The rest of the night was spent looking into the bottom of a whiskey bottle for myself. I thought I was up for the task, but alas…not so much. I lasted till a meager 1 or 2 before bed. But at least (or perhaps for entertainment purposes, unfortunately) I avoided the black out and the terrible hangover the next morning. Sunday was recovery day full of hiking through green bogs (my shoes are still a mess) and kayaking…rather watching other people fall out of kayaks. Monday morning I made it back to London, just in time to head to work for an unproductive afternoon and I was back to business as usual. On a final note, I’d like to give a shout out to Carmelle Masdon Martinez’s Blog, found here: http://themartinezmafia.blogspot.com/Carmelle actually gave a shout out to me in her blog a few weeks ago, and immediately her hits skyrocketed. Little did she know she was actually doing a favor for herself, by talking about me! Anyway, she’s a sweetheart and a dear friend and I hope shes doing well and in keeping the stakes fair for our blog duelling, I thought I’d give her a little publicity to return the favor.

Blog of Bling #2- I found a soccer league before I found a flat

30-08-08, or in America: August 30, 2008But now I’ve found both. After living 3 weeks with my boss in the city of Brighton (on the southern coast of the UK) and commuting to the city just about everyday, I have finally moved into my new flat.The address is 59 Latchmere Road, SW11 2DS. I’d recommend Google Mapping it with the satellite option. As you can see, the flat is across the street from a park (I’ve yet to find the entrance to it however), and surrounded by railroad tracks. Their all virtually noiseless passenger cars, though. Plus, Clapham Junction is only 5 minutes away. Door to door, the bus route takes only 30 minutes to work, which is a breeze compared to the 1.5 hr commute from Brighton!It has 7 rooms (or at least 7 doors), 3 full (yet cramped) bathrooms, a lounge with tele, a kitchen/laundry room, and a “garden.” All for the low, low price of a little less than $1200 per month. The idea behind moving into this flat, was to acquire a network of friends/acquaintances right away. Unfortunately, I’ve been here three days and have only met one other flat mate (an italian girl) who proceeded to bang on my door at 8 AM this morning because she thought I was blaring techno music and she had a massive hangover. (The culprit has yet to be found). Other than the occasional footsteps or mysterious techno music, the flat is unoccupied. Oh well. I’m sure my flat mates will turn up sooner or later. And after her hangover had succumbed, Fabiana did apologize, so that was nice.I’ve decided my local pub will be “The Latchmere.” I had a few pints and dinner by myself last night while watching Man U lose to some Russian team in a cup tournament I’d never heard of. It was an entertaining game though and although the pub seemed more for locals (old, drunk, and loud men) they didn’t bother me any while I sat on the side and watched the game on a HUGE pull down screen. They also have free Wi-Fi, which is important because my flat does not.I also need to find a place that sells webcams/mics, or at least order one for SKYPE. I have the program downloaded, but have no way to talk or be recorded by my computer. For now, my log on name is chris.bling.thompsonso you can add me now in great anticipation of my webcam purchase. So, I’m starting to get settled. Soon I will get my iPhone and then I’ll consider myself “settled.” Until then, Go Cards!! I’ll be wearing my Carmody jersey and drinking pints at the one pub in London that shows ESPN (I think).

Blog of Bling #1a (Orig. Posted 08-08-2008)

Am I actually pretentious enough to write a blog about myself?! Well, yes… So if you’re not interested in what’s going on in my new life, then this is your invitation to stop reading… I mean forever: books, magazines, newspapers, if you’re not interested in my life then you’re not interested in life at all, right?So skipping the boring details, I planned a 5 hour layover in Chicago before flying to Heathrow. After missing my international connection due to a short delay in Louisville during my last international trip, I vowed never to make the mistake again. So even with the inevitable flight delay coming out of Louisville “International” Airport, I was able to spend a good 4 hours (along with my last 30 bucks!) in Chicago O’Hare. Highlights of the actual flight to Heathrow were the 270 pounds non-English speaking German women to the right of me and a talkative British couple to the left. Seven and a half hours later and a neck problem later, I arrived in Heathrow. I then had the pleasure of hauling 4 bags through one of the busiest airports in the world. After a bus to a different airport I finally met up with my boss. Down to Brighton on a train we sped. A shower and shave and I was out and about like I’d gotten even 5 hours sleep the night before. Among the tour of Brighton is my favorite beach in the entire world: one without sand! Waves crashing on pebbles, a pier with an amusement park, and a video arcade/casino? make this a pretty neat town. But alas, I only lasted until about 7 pm, local time, or 2 pm in Louisville. Twelve straight hours on a relatively comfortable air mattress and I was off to Imperial for the first time as an actual employee, where I was informed that I needed to fill out six separate documents requiring residence address, bank account info, and insurance information, none of which I have yet in the UK (United kingdom, for those blue-bloods that are completely flummoxed right now), and that my paycheck had been lost on its electronic route to my US bank account.I’m getting tired right now, as are you probably, so I’ll simply skip to the highlights of the commute home: a train gate terminal slamming into me and eating my train ticket, and a pigeon shitting on my arm as I (FINALLY) tasted my first cup of much needed coffee…So despite the rocky start and my feeling completely out of place, I’m sure things are about to turn for the better. After all, my paycheck will surely turn up somewhere in cyberspace and be placed properly in my US bank account, where I’ll promptly pay a nice fat service fee to have it transferred back to British pounds in a newly set up UK bank account….brilliant!Hopefully I'll be keeping this blog up regularly and will be able to switch it over to a proper website. Till then, facebook will do. I'm actually a little busy right now, ok?