Due to the fact that I got married, moved to Beirut and still don’t have internet access, update on the ‘Kode have been kept to a minimum (also internet at work blocks my website, so that’s been a bit of a pain as well, trust me I would love to discuss what’s been on my mind).

Add to the fact that I’m off to Malaysia for my honeymoon and well things will probably remain pretty quiet until after I get back towards the end of June. Hopefully we’ll have a phone line, proper internet and we can start calming down and getting down to the job of creating.

Save as WWF - This is a great idea,…up to a point. At work, I need to print things out, although I am probably in the minority. At home I’ve not owned a printer for many, many, many years.

Today is a slow day. Three days off, I’ve decided I’m not going anywhere today, except maybe to the supermarket (and that I’ll do pretty early today). The rest of the day I’m going to spend reading, writing, drawing, coding, in different bursts.

One of the things that I’ve realised is that I can do certain things in bursts of up to an hour. I have to train myself to be able to actually accomplish something, anything in a hour, because honestly after that initial hour things get a bit stale. On the odd occasion that I’m actually engrossed in what I am doing and moving forward, then obviously I should continue (if of course I can do it), but after that first hour I should just move onto something else and maybe come back to it.

You know that time inbetween creating something and not finishing it, you reflect, ideas keep coming to you and you have this thirst to complete it, because your time is limited on it. You’re feeding the thirst and hopefully that will mean that you’re also more productive in the long run.

Shifting towards something a little more personal, the biggest part of 2010 and the most impactful.

Life

In life you can never have everything, and when I moved over here, I knew that I was giving up a ton of stuff, but crucially I was also getting something that I can never get in England, and that’s family, mine and Yasmine’s. Once again this is a double edged sword but it’s one that I am extremely grateful for and really enjoying at the moment.

I love the fact that I don’t really have to cook, unless I really want to. I like the fact that I am generally taken care of in that department completely and totally. Be it my future mother in law, Yasmine, my aunts, whatever. I like the fact that I don’t have to iron, except on the rare occasions. I love the fact that the country is small and I can get around relatively easily.

I don’t like the banking sector in the country, nor do I like the stupid traffic in Beirut. I don’t like the insane drivers, nor how they force me to act while I drive on the road either. I do like the weather generally, although I do actually wish it would act like the seasons. We really honestly didn’t feel any autumn, nor are we honestly feeling the winter either. I guess this is all part of the global warming effect which I should discuss in more detail in the future.

Work

There are a ton of things that I want to institute in the office. Something will take a good long while to get them going, while others will be more immediate to implement. The best thing I learnt while working for any company is the following:

Don't ask for permission...rather ask for forgiveness

Do it first and then claim ignorance later. It’s not like you’re trying to upset anyone, rather trying to push any company forward is a tough thing that takes persistence and time and effort to change something that many people don’t want to change.

Feeling drained after that long trip to Syria yesterday (and back). It’s the first week where I don’t have a deadline at the end of Friday. I have to issue something minor, but by and large it’s not that tough a week. Thank fuck. It’s been pretty damn intense these last few weeks/months, but we’ve come through, and people are relatively happy with what we did.

There are elements that we could do further, edit, change etc, but ultimately we’ve done a pretty solid job for the 3 months work we’ve completed. Now I’ve got to haul my ass out of bed and take a shower and get outta here. Can I be bothered? Can I fuck.

Just got back from Syria for a day meeting. Apart from the long trip and the limited food (they never feed us at these meetings, which is FUCKING annoying), one of the most striking things about this meeting, is the number of languages on the table. Five of them. German, English, Arabic, Russian and Turkish.

Seriously, I have been in soo many meeting over my time, but never anything quiet like this. I’ll have some more thoughts on Syria in a minute, this being my second time, and me basically having an understanding of what to expect from the place.

Well, clearly the country just bypassed the whole autumn thing and just instantly went to winter. The temperature is still on the high side, but at least it is chucking it down. The thing is that in Lebanon when it rains, lets just say, it’s definitely not fucking around. We are talking buckets, we are talking Noah type rain here.

My only issue, and it’s a small tiny one is the noise that comes from my neighbour’s buildings and the piss poor job they do of securing their shit. The wind is a howler and it’s not forgiving in the slightest.

That is pretty strange. I just was looking at the traffic logs on the site and I noticed a really really strange trend. At the start of the year I was seriously moving back up in terms of traffic. June was an epic month but I think that’s mainly attributed to the fact that I had a spreadsheet hosted here for the world cup and that generated a ton of traffic from Google.

But after that month there is this unbelievable drop of nearly 1/5 of the visitors. I mean even the months before this epic month were not as low as that. Did I change anything between the two months? Well for a start there was a less posting on the site? The ‘Kode is not like other sites where I basically post 3 or 4 times a day and have a super specific niche. The site is a personal blog that talks about all sorts of random pop culture items.

There is a ton of those on the web nowadays, but the question is finding which ones have got a unique voice, and that’s actually incredibly difficult to do. I neither have the time, nor do I feel like I am part of a community of people any more. Blog comments don’t exist any more, or no one really uses them as much as they used.

I guess it’s all a matter of perspective, and I don’t mind the smaller readership, it’s kind of fun to be honest, because I can go back to being as foul mouthed as I want without having to worry about anyone taking offence (or maybe less so than I would normally), it’s just what the hell happened in July to drive EVERYONE away :).

The plan is, and lets see if I can keep this up, is to give at least 2 posts a day. Sometimes they will be links, other times it will be longer based posts on things that i enjoy or am going through, lets see if I can keep this up.brok

So yesterday I made to purchases. The first was the Pogo Sketch stylus. The second was Brushes. The obvious reasoning is to start making a comic on my iPhone. I know probably not the best medium for this thing. Maybe getting an iPad for that sort of thing would be better, but I’m not getting a first gen iPad (that’s another post for another time).

I’ve actually have several drawing applications on my iPhone, but I’ve found that Brushes is the best for actually creating, even if the icon sucks many many balls. Adobe Ideas doesn’t provide you with enough options for the brushes (you have one), and Sketch Pro (from Autodesk) I found to be incredibly annoying with it’s unresponsive zooming in and out. This is a major issue on a small screen as you’ll be doing that a lot to get the finer details. Also the layer system on Brushes just works nicely and five layers should be about enough to deal with things.

All of this is my attempt to create a daily comic from my iPhone. I’m going to try and build a few weeks worth of material (don’t even know what I’m going to be drawing at the moment) but hopefully it’ll be fun while I continue to toil away at my other comic book work (on the 7th page of my second draft, slowly but surely people, slowly but surely).

One of the things that I’m hoping to cut by at least 20 minutes is my commute. Currently it takes between 38 and 40 minutes (including parking). The part which took the most was actually from Saida to Beirut which took a little more than originally anticipated. In contrast once I was in Beirut the drive to Dora area took no more than 4 minutes or something silly like that.

Truth be told I can live with that kind of commute for a little while. I’m guaranteed a place to sit, don’t have to wait for the next train to come along. Don’t need to be squeezed getting on and off. No sweating like a bastard because it’s 35 degrees down there in the summer. Sure I get the odd asshole who cuts me off, or yells because he thinks the road is his own and can go anywhere he damn well pleases (without indicating), but it’s a small price to pay. The commute is about 10 minutes more than it used to be in London.

One of the things I’ve done is actually started downloading some audiobooks and lectures that I’ve been meaning to listen to for ages. As I wanted something relatively light, I’ve started with the first Harry Potter audiobook. After many many years of people TRYING really hard to get me to dip my toe in this universe, I’ve finally taken the plunge thanks to Stephen Fry’s amazing voice and reading abilities. To be honest with you, I wish he’d read all of my audiobooks. The man is amazing at it. I’ve heard about 3 chapters so far and it’s all very predictable so far and really can’t see what all the fuss is about.

Let’s finish the first book, since at least then I can claim to have given it some of my time before I write it off. Let’s just say the concept has never really appealed to me.

It’s 5:55 in the morning and I’ve just woken up to get ready for work after 6 long months away from a regular gig on the basis that I was on sabbatical. You don’t change your life all that often, but right now that’s exactly what I’m about to embark on.

I’ll probably be blogging more often and maybe doing a compare and contrast between life over here and life in the UK. The first difference at the moment is that rather than waking up and getting ready to go to work by walking to the Golders Green tube station, I’m waking up and getting ready for a 28 minute drive to Beirut.

Not sure which is better, which is worse, but what I do know is that it’s completely different and there is something of a novelty issue associated with it. Wish me luck everyone.

So I’m sitting in Athens International Airport, on my way to a new life. 6 months ago it would have been soo easy to simply nod my head and continue to stay as if nothing had changed for another year. Another missed opportunity. Instead, I said that I would first try and see what was outside the British borders.

I found the sun, family, food and a great deal more. I found a different way of life, which would allow me to actually start thinking about more than the next couple of years. The strangest feeling is that I’m going back to where I was born, but never lived. For years, it was the language, some customs and the summers that kept me feeling Lebanese in any way. For the most part I’m not Lebanese, but in many other respects I’m 100% Lebanese because oddly enough, like me there are MILLIONS. Well that’s not completely true. There are millions of people living outside of Lebanon that can claim in one way or another to call themselves Lebanese, but those that return to start a new chapter in my life? There can’t be millions, there can be thousands…maybe?

I do plan on doing a range of things over the next few years and I’ll be talking about them in a lot more detail on this website. It’s been the one of the few constants in this transitory period of my life and will be playing a very important role in the coming years as well.

To all those I left behind in London, I love you all, I will miss you soo much. 10 days was definitely not enough but we’ve got a lifetime to catch up.

Overcoming Creative Block - Some excellent ideas in there. One of my favourites (which I’ve not tried yet, but was actually thinking about that today) was the idea of going to a local university art library and just snapping or photocopying things from old journals to get inspiration and creating a physical drawer or scrapbook with ideas in there. I know I’ll be requiring a lot of inspiration in the coming months.

Today I got a fantastic email from someone I’d never met. They downloaded ‘Coffee Beans’ and actually was the first unknown person that actually sent me their thoughts on the story.

One of the biggest lessons that I gained from writing coffee beans was the fact that

So today I went to Bank Med to open myself a bank account here in Lebanon. For all you people outside the country, shit happens very very differently over here. Some for the better, other for the seriously fucked up.

The first that you realise, is that you actually have a bank manager. You have a problem, you have an issue you want to deal with, a transaction you need help with, here is a name that will provide you with the information you require. He knows all your information, he knows where you live, how much you make and generally where you are. In a country the size of Lebanon (fucking tiny) your bank manager knows a great deal.

In London, I’ve never had to speak to a bank manager…since I opened my account back in Nottingham in 1997. This lack of Bank manager for your mortgages was one of the things that the government lamented was missing and part of the reason for the economic depression.

Where was I? Oh yeah, back to my bank account. So I’m about to sign up and the guy tells me a general clause that I have to sign. The first is the fact that I’m not allowed to take with me the terms and conditions of my new bank account. I’m sorry, what the fuck? You want me to sign an 8 page document, and you don’t want me to take a copy to review at home later on, or for me to understand my rights? Nope, you cannot. This is ‘confidential’ information by the bank and for the bank? Obviously you’re allowed to read through the thing and the guy will get you a coffee while you wait. The pertinent points of course is that you get a SECRET ACCOUNT. As in, nobody is allowed to get into it, not the government, not anyone, well at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe, except I can’t tell you because that fucking information was not given too me.

The other thing of course that made me stop was the bloody way in which I was made to sign another form which basically allows the bank to keep the cash ‘frozen’ in the account for 6 months if it’s over $100,000. Ok, what the fuck is that all about? Not sure, but the value of money wasn’t written on the form. Seriously, as if it was some big secret.

Trust me, it won't be held for smaller values, just for monies over $100k.

I left the bank with an account, but with little information regarding my rights as a client or as to what my fees would be and what I would require to pay, interest rates etc. In a way I feel cheated. Cheated because I have no other option but to open a bank account in this stupid fashion. It’s not just BankMed that does this, it’s most (if not all Banks over here) or at least that’s what I’ve been informed (Bank Audi is just as elusive with information, except they charge you for EVERYTHING).

I’ll stop moaning about this, just thought I’d share today’s experience. Merry Christmas everyone, hope everyone has a great one.

So I finally got internet connection today, and this is my first post in Lebanon in over 5 years. So what do I think of the place so far? I’m not going to complain because honestly if I wanted to complain, this list would be absolutely massive. Instead I’m going to focus on somethings that I’ve noticed so far, and over the course of the time I spend here I’ll sniper attack dumbfuck assholes that annoy me (trust me living here for 2 weeks has made me encountered my fair share of supreme idiots).

Weather

Lucifer is washing his wife.

Not sure where this comes from to be honest with you…these Lebanese say some fucked up shit. Hopefully the rainy season is over and I can except dry and sunny weather for a few weeks.

Driving

There are specific rules for roundabouts here as well. He who comes from outside the roundabout has way. You can also use the entrance of the roundabout if you wish to do a quick U-turn. This saves you the time going around the roundabout. Where’s the police? They’re eating falafels. Seriously. The stereotype of the big fat American cop eating donuts can be seen here as the not so fat, idiot cop eating his falafel. I don’t blame him, they taste AMAZING.

Food

So far it’s been interesting, but hopefully tonight I also get to spend some time in the house and start drawing and writing again and from tomorrow we can start seeing other parts of this country and getting an understanding of what it all has to offer. Stay tuned.

Times Skimmer - Great idea and implementation of digesting the top news stories according to categories etc. This is what Google News should be like.

Open House London - Every year in London, the Open House event happens, where you get to visit different buildings that are usually closed to the public; and every year I end up going NO WHERE. So I think this year will be different, even though it’ll be damn close to the deadline (I’ll have to see how close I am to completing and use this as a treat). Between the 19th and 20th of September.

onedotzero_adventures in motion - Great listing of the upcoming events and screening at the onedotzero ‘festival’. I’m definitely eyeing up to go to the Mary and Max screening.

Anime All Nighter - Held between the 23rd and 24th of October, this year’s list looks like a pretty solid one. Better grab Jackie and Fern and tell them to book that Saturday/Sunday off.

How to get that perfect shave - Some good tips in there. Like shaving after a shower (or making sure you wash your face in hot water for a few minutes) and the use of a badger brush.

Eat Real. Eat Local. - Great little info-animation which probably describes something similar in most western countries around the world.

le cool magazine - Fantastic newsletter of all the great things going on in your city that you didn’t know about. Well put together, brilliant stuff.

Life can sometimes feel like one big massive MISSED opportunity. Currently that’s all I can think about. Everything that I’ve wanted to do, everything I’ve wanted to have, everything I’ve wanted to be, everyone I’ve wanted to be with. Which decisions were the important ones that got me here. I think about where I am and the road I took to get to this position.

I try to get some sleep but these thoughts keep haunting me; which then reminds me of Bobby Gaylor’s Suicide. My favourite line from that song is definitely ‘sleepless summer nights that seem to go on forever’. I hate those fucking nights. I hate these fucking nights.

I feel like I’m walking underwater most days.

My biggest hate however is thinking like this because I have a lot to be thankful of. I’ve been at a pretty strange place in my head; all I want to do is get over this dark period, however all I can concentrate on is where I missed.

That’s what I want to be surrounded by right now. Creative brains drawing, sculpting, moulding, painting, etching whatever. Over the years I have definitely understood that your enthusiasm and energy is boosted by those around you. You gravitate to people with positive energy because they make you want to actually get on with life as well. Your surroundings play such an incredible part in this.

For years I have been lamenting the fact that I’ve not been able to get creative with my art. I’ve not been able to nurture the graphic novel that I’ve been writing for nigh on 5 years now. The truth the story is all the better for this incubation time because although the idea was sound (the very basic idea) the execution was lacking.

Yesterday I went and saw a collection of student movies (this isn’t a review of the work that was presented, but more of an observation, when you have no budget, the story has to work cleverly within these constraints - which i don’t feel was captured). The one thing i took from the evening however was the collection of minds in the room and how they all fed off each other.

So I’ve decided (and I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier) to try and find a studio to share with a bunch of artists. Now if it was up to me I’d round up the crazy Danes, maybe a couple of Americans get a big warehouse in London on the waterfront and have us create awesome stuff, pushing each other creatively…something which clearly cannot happen.

I’ll be sure to post the results of my research in my hunt for a design studio to get creative in.

The Cult of Done Manifesto - Brilliant in every way. I also like the posters, which are under a creative commons license, so I might write a quick post of which printers to use to make posters out of these.

It’s 12:34am and I can’t sleep. I’ve got this uneasy feeling in my chest and I feel like I’m underwater. Random thoughts buzzing in my head as I try and kick them away. Chris Isaak’s Black Flowers playing in the background calms me down, but even that’s not helping me escape the demons of the day that linger in my thoughts, hovering, waiting.

I know something is not right. Like animals that are restless before an earthquake, I lie here waiting for the storm to subside so that I can continue.

In the sky cold air, tears of mine, I am heaven, I am euphoria.

London’s Liverpool Street Station Dance - As guerilla advertising goes this one is definitely one of the best ones I’ve seen in a while.

The above photo Deadlock by David Maitland is without a doubt the best of all the photos in the Wildlife Photography of the Year 2008. I only wish they’d put it in the prints on demand from the shop.

The 2008 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion houses the first structure by Frank Gehry in England (engineering by Arup). Highly recommended if you’re in and around London until the 19th of October.

My focus in the last couple of months has shifted. This is probably the longest I’ve not been creative in the traditional sense of how I would describe being creative. I’ve not been drawing, not been designing (graphics at least), not been creating. Which to me is something really painful. I’ve stripped by involvement online down to an absolute minimum and all of this in the persuit of one thing. Finishing off my script.

This thing has been brewing for YEARS now and has taken more turns than I can imagine, but thankfully the last couple of months have been very productive. I’ve got the first half of the book mapped out and written. The thing is that creating a whole world is extremely hard. Every single character is new, every single setting needs to be described and every word of dialogue is analysed.

In order to help me get into the whole script writing, I’ve had to really emmerse myself in the comic production side of things. I’ve been reading scripts that are within the comic books that I read, I’ve been hunting online for various resources and the one thing that I’ve found is that the actual method is completely unique to every single person. I’m sure there are creators that have got the same method of working as I do, however I’ve not really read anyone’s account of this yet. Mainly I guess because the people that I’ve been reading that write and draw their own stuff have reached that level of craft where they can cut corners.

I’m still learning the track, so there is no corner cutting for me. The great thing about this experience however is that I can see the fruits of my labour slowly evolve. I started off with one page which was incredibly difficult to write (how do you start off your epic after all) before finishing off the first arc. It’s a slow process but ultimately once I’ve got the script in my hand I can then concentrate on the next task of drawing the thing. The plan and I will do EVERYTHING in my power to achieve, is to have my first graphic novel completed by the time I hit my 30th birthday (I turn 29 next week). It doesn’t have to be published, but it definitely has to be completed as one package which I can then start shopping around to see if anyone is interested (I have only two companies that I would consider publishing to, otherwise I think I’ll go down the self publishing route).

My creative energies for the next year are going to be fully dedicated to the story.

See those last 4 letters at the end? Yeah got my confirmation from the IET that my application was accepted for Chartered Engineering status. Those 4 letters are the culmination of 29 years (shy of 1 month) of both studying and working as an engineer.

It’s difficult to describe exactly what it all means consicely unless you’re part of the industry to understand what is expected of you and what you expect of other people that hold that same title, but needless to say I’m seriously happy about it and was one of my two goals that I had to achieve this year. This is partly one of the reasons why I’ve taken a step back from my various online endeavours to persue other things that have/had been put on hold for sometimes years.

Now it’s time to start working for that other thing (hopefully I will be able to talk about that in November sometime).

Oh my that is a first. First time in 5 years of blogging that I don’t actually say anything for an entire month. I’ve been busy…if you’ve seen me in the office, you’ll attest to this fact. Thankfully it’s not been just work, as that would make Khaled a pretty dull boy all around….which I hope never to become.

Life has taken over, so much so that my online activities have been curbed to an absolute minimum. So much so that I even got rid of my Blackberry today. I was THIS close to waiting till next week for the new iphone. What made me stop? The reason is pretty simple actually, I’m trying to step away from this constantly connected all the time fashion. It wasn’t doing my psychology much good and I really felt wired all the time, which was a bit much for my sensibilities. There is something called too much information.

Does this mean I’m going to be back online anytime soon? Nah, probably not. I’ve got more important things to do right now. My focus is shifting and I’m actually really ok with that. The main reason for moving offline is to try and concentrate on the script, which has been going slowly but actually very well.

One thing I will say about creating a story, it’s INCREDIBLY difficult to create something cohersive. So much so that I have an even greater appreciation for those people that can come through with their vision and create something that truly is beautiful to behold. I will have some sketches online sometime soon because it’s the story is part of the reason for this haitus. I’m becoming 29 this year and I will have the fucking thing done before that birthday, so that I can actually have a chance of drawing it before I’m 30. Tall order I know, but alas strive for the hard otherwise what’s the point?

I’ve been looking for a good messenger bag for a really, really long time, but there is such a massive gap in the market for men’s bags it’s unreal. Now I think I’ve found something that I would really actually enjoy, this reproduction is pretty damn sweet - now all I need to do is steal $800 for somewhere :).

Hilarious Wiifit parody. Couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this.

Found this pretty cool calculator at the WWF site. I’m acting like I need 2.1 Earths to support us, you?

Probably been around for a while, but I’ve never actually used the damn thing, to actually see how ‘green’ I am. The honest truth is I think I’m moderately green, in that I do the bare minimum. I recycle (things that the Council of Barnet will allow me to recycle), never use the tumble dryer, don’t have a car or any other personal means of transport, will walk to many places rather than jump on the bus or whatever.

I’m not very good with plastic bags, which is something I’m going to try and work on. I’d like to be able to get stuff that doesn’t have tonnes of plastic involved, however the reality of the situation is that just about anything I buy from a supermarket is probably covered in plastic, so unless I actually start to complain to the supermarkets to change their packaging there’s little I can do about that.

The thing is that plastics should be fully recyclable as well. I should be able to buy something and do it the Japanese way by making only food stuffs go down the waste disposal and have my paper, plastics, glass and aluminium all taken separately.

So I woke up this morning and it honestly felt like 10-15 bed-trolls hijacked by body while I slept and preceeded to beat me with the blunt edge of a feather. Every bone in my body was on fire and my head was about to explode. Of course this happened to me a couple of weeks ago, but luckily I actually hauled myself out of bed ready to tackle the day…kind of. Of course what I hadn’t counted on was forgetting my ipod shuffle, until I got to the tube station.

Now this tiny little bit of kit is like an extension of my morning routine. I NEVER leave the house without it. It’s like going out of the house without my keys, wallet, phone and shuffle. Like my day wasn’t going to be hard enough, I had no tunes to pull me through the graveyard shift (post-lunch). What can i say I’m mediterranean, I need a siesta after lunch. trust me I’ve complained several times to get siesta couches, but alas it falls on deaf ears.

This got me thinking to things I’m generally dependant on and that constitute as habits bad or good. My realisation is that I’m a very methodic person, in fact so much so that if the police were tailing me I’d be caught on the second day.

So went to Jongleurs yesterday for part of Reid’s stag-do and I’ve got to say that apart from the compare (is that how you spell compare?) and the last act, the other three were mediocre to bad. The first comedian to come on stage, was mildly amusing but crude as you like, the second guy got confused and decided to do something singing but would mumble his lines when he spoke and didn’t come out very well, by the time the third guy came out we were hoping for someone funny, alas we got death on stage. I’ve never seen that before to be honest. The guy was dying on stage as NOTHING he was saying was striking a real cord with anyone. Also as it happened our table was the lairiest of the bunch (get 15 guys on a stag-do will do that) and having most of his material come off as completely ignorant (there is funny and then there is just plan wrong,…since when were people from Sudan, Asian?).

Thankfully the last guy did save the show slightly and had like 100 or so jokes that he kept rattling on and did a very good job of keeping everyone under control. Which basically made me think about standup comedy in general. The first of which is the fact that it is EXTREMELY difficult to do properly (I knew that was the case, but until I witnessed someone really die on stage I wasn’t clear as to the real extent).

The thing is I’ve been listening to the AWESOME Bugle podcast, which is one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a really long time. Different format admittedly, however the point still stands that new comedic talents do exist however sadly they were not at Jongleurs last night (and based on that I’ll probably steer clear of the place and look for my standup fix in other establishments).

Part of my ‘live a little once a month’, yesterday was Jose Gonzalez live at Shepherd’s Bush. I’ve got to say that I really loved the concert. His voice seriously resonated perfectly in the venue and the atmosphere in there was generally really warm and receptive. There was a completely crazy screamer in the background that was pretty funny (even made Jose stop for a little while and smile just before he was about to play ‘Heartbeats’).

Obviously no gig would be complete with the obligatory annoying assholes that somehow seem to gravitate towards me and mine with some bullshit or other. In this particular case it was this couple; now I’m not a man that condones this type of thing, but if for some reason so bored youths with nothing better to do on a Saturday night want to happy slap a couple with a penchant for checkered shirts and EXTREMELY white teeth, then please by all means go forth an conquer with Uncle Khaled full endorsement and blessing. God those two were fucking annoying. They were sticking their hands in each other’s backsides (read: scratching each other’s arses) and kept kissing each other every time a cord was played….sorry it was annoying seeing as I was trying to maneouvre away from them but once the gig starts and you’re standing, there’s little where to go. Top tip, if it’s a mellow affair, then definitely try and get some seated tickets.

What was also interesting was the fact that support ‘band’, Death Vessel. Never has a name and personal style ever gone in complete and direct CONTRAST to the actual music being played. One guy comes out with his guitar. That was Death Vessel. From the website and from the half garbled name the man in question was Joel Thibodeau, easily one of the softest voices I’ve heard on a man in a really long time…since Puressence I would say. So much so that Lizzy was commenting on what a great voice SHE had….lizzy hadn’t clocked what he looked like and yeah that was a surprise. But the great thing was that by the end of his set he had more people than would normally come up for a support act really listening and generally enjoying themselves. One man, one guitar.

So what was the highlight for me in terms of the main act? Apart from the stonkingly good voice, I personally loved ‘Crossroads’ to be honest. You’d think it was something like ‘Heartbeats’ but nah, it was ‘Crossroads’. Behind Jose was this large canvas that was playing loads of white animations on black and blue backgrounds and the lighting was fairly decent, but nothing to right home about.

Next gig I guess will probably be ‘Radiohead’, bring it on :).

I was thinking about this today and basically, blogging involves removing the additional thoughts that are in your head that take up valuable space. Things that you should think about but not necessarily keep in your brain knocking about. That way it leaves you with more time to do other things, like in my case watch ‘The Wire’ (best police series EVER created) and read a few books (got a couple of reviews for books you really should read) and most importantly for my sanity, create things. That’s when I’m most happy, when I’m creating stuff.

The issue with me is that that part of my brain has been laying dormant as I began thinking and doing a bunch of other things that seriously didn’t really add to my being,…overall…in hindsight and all that. Part of the problem I guess is that I’m not angry enough at stuff, so it’s time to start getting angry again and flex that muscle again. It’s time to start creating again, it’s time to start blogging again, none of this 7 posts a month bullshit.

To the internet. So last week we were offline at casa Khaled. Yes, that’s right, no net access whatsoever. At first I’ve got to admit that I was REALLY angry. Not at anyone but at the situation itself. I mean seriously, my computer felt like it was neutered. I felt completely cut off from the world and all because as it turns out one of the cables coming into the house decided to collapse on itself. Maybe because it finally decided to give up the good fight because of the cold weather? Maybe it was because the workers outside moved it a fraction and it was to frail to deal with it, either way I was cut off.

This has happened before to be honest, however this one I was a bit more composed with the whole thing. I was actually able to deal with a few things that I’ve been meaning to deal with for a while; like do a bit of writing, do a little bit of drawing and generally do a couple of things that I’ve been meaning to do for a while. One thing I did miss was this site. I realised that I need this place for venting, something which i’ve been doing a lot less of in recent times. One of the main reasons I continued to blog was because I liked the cathartic process associated with brain dumping, because after all that ALL I’m doing here. Sometimes I rattled a few cages, sometimes I make a couple of people smile, so I think I’ve found that spark that I need to really start making the words on this site start coming alive. So as of tomorrow, you can expect a lot more ‘Kode action coming your way, daily even.

It’s also time I kicked WordPress like a bad habit. Seriously, this shit takes FOREVER to log in. Once you’re in it’s kind of OK, but honestly SLOW as a fat man in water. Some things in 2.5 are nice, but alas I’m thinking too damn little, too damn late, I guess I will write something about it at some point.

Now see that’s fucking weird. I was having a pretty rough Tuesday at work, so we went out for a couple of drinks after work. I work in Mornington Crescent, which is like at the bottom of Camden towards Tottenham Court Road, so most of our Friday evening are spent in and around the Camden area. It’s an area that’s got enough food choices to keep even the most fussy eater happy. It’s got it’s cinema, Regent’s Park is a stone’s throw away and there are 100s of pubs and bars around the area.

That’s not the weird part in case you were wondering, the weird part was the fact that on Wednesday we ended up in the Hawley Arms that night. This was actually the first time I had ever been in here, even though I’ve been working in and around the Camden area for nearly 6 years now. That’s what I’m trying to get at, the place has got soo many bars and stuff that it’s impossible to have been to all of them unless you make a real concerted effort. Now the pub (which is famous for bringing in the celebrities in the past…not so much any more I guess) was partly burnt in the fires last night. So I kind of just saw it in one piece just in time, even though I’d past by it 1000s of times in the past 5 years.

Hell, yesterday we were in Old Street and Stathi and I were thinking about dropping by Camden along the way, but decided against it since we were both pretty knackered, had we gone up we would have seen the fires. No doubt I’ll see that sometime tomorrow.

So yesterday I finally saw a celebrity I actually gave two shits about seeing. I creator who’s work I’ve actually enjoyed greatly. We went for a few drinks in Belsize Park yesterday and then decided to go for a bit of food after that. Of course, four people trying to decide on food sometimes can go smoothly and sometimes can go horribly wrong. Well in this case as we were walking up the road towards Hampstead and we see this little French restaurant that’s part of a hotel. I instantly dismissed it as not something I’d really like to go for, however Sophia had been there and recommended the food as being pretty good. So we go have a look at the menu and it was wide enough to allow us to actually cater for everyone’s crazy mood of food that night.

I was last in line and Stathi was right in front of me, so he quickly turns around to me and says ‘Dude, is that Helena Bonham Carter? I quickly turn around and say “Nah, her hair’s all over the place, she’s not looking as glam as i would expect”. In that split second what I hadn’t noticed of course was the person she was with. As we got seated, I did a quick glance over and lo and behold there was Tim Burton. See for me THAT is a celebrity. The actors are not the important bit (more on this later). The director is the captain of the ship. He’s the one that touches the movie in absolutely every single way, story, script, casting, sets, money, promotion, the whole lot. A great director will take unknown actors and make a great movie. A great actor won’t be able to make a bad movie great. He’ll play his part in a great way and shine himself but the movie doesn’t really benefit…not really because it still remains a pile of shit, regardless of how great the actor’s performance actually was. So I generally will follow directors, rather than actors (there are VERY VERY few exceptions to this rule). This little snippet was the source of a relatively heated discussion yesterday as i tried to explain to everyone that I was properly star struck by a creator’s who’s work I’ve been following since Edward Scissorhands, and well I liked Helena in Fight Club, a lot. But i wouldn’t exactly consider myself a fan of her body of work, since except for that movie I’ve only ever seen/heard her in….Tim Burton movies (Corpse Bride and Sweeny Todd).

So there you go, the first ‘celebrity’ that I actually was kinda star-struck. See NEXT week I will be 100% COMPLETELY and utterly star-struck as I am going for the Alan Moore signing in London. For all those that don’t know who Alan Moore is, you guys really have not been paying my attention.

This weekend I’ve decided to finally get down to completely my chartership forms. For those in the dark, part of a professional engineer’s life (and I’m not talking about your electrician or telephone repair man, who while both are great fields, they are definitely not engineers) is to try and achieve his chartership status. The status means a lot of things for different people and once you’re in the group you are really part of a group of people that have fulfilled specific criteria (ranging from their technical knowledge to their project management skills to their people skills and so on) and therefore you look at them in a completely and different manner.

I felt it most recently when I was sitting in a meeting this week with another consultant from another company and his business card had the letters CENG. That was in many respect enough for me to understand that the guy in front of me wasn’t pretending, he was the real deal and therefore I could discuss things with him on a specific level. Obviously he couldn’t really look at me with the same light as I’m missing those 4 little initials after my name. The thing is that after 6 years of work experience in the construction and building services industry, I’m no longer pretending either. I’m doing these things that are required of you as a Chartered Engineer. The only thing that is stopping from going forward is myself. So this weekend in the History of Khaled, I will be spending nearly EVERY waking hour to dealing with these forms once and for all. All that vigor that I put into my art, into my work on a regular basis, into my online contributions will now be put into my Chartership status. I will not go into work on Monday without that form completed as a draft and ready to go to my mentor as a first stab for him to pass comments.

However in order to do this, I’m probably going to need to sort out my supplies early in the morning for the weekend, and I’m going to have to turn off the internet. I’m only allowed specific toilet and food breaks. I’ve got the evening off, however the entire weekend is dedicated to this goal, fully and totally. Lets see if I actually get things done.

Loads and loads of things to write and talk about, especially as this blog is now officially 4 years old today. Got a great deal of exciting things to talk about in the coming month but I think I’ll share this excellent quote by one of my favourite authors Neil Gaiman:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Seems like the most apt way to begin this new year off. Happy new year everyone.

So I had myself a bit of a Facebook purge today. As Facebook is becoming more and more part of the cultural landscape it’s become a bit more important to be a wee bit more careful regarding which people can actually see your details. Maybe I’m being a bit too cautious but the thing is I have been slapped once before regarding the ‘Kode at work. I know sounds strange since I’m extremely careful to make sure I don’t really say anything about what’s going on at work except regarding which projects I might be working on and having a picture taken off the architect’s website. The point is, you never know when certain information is going to come back and really bite you on the ass, and as such I’d really rather not get into too many of those situations in the future (hey I am a blogger and therefore I will no doubt get into trouble at some point down the line).

So I’m off any groups, won’t find me as part of any networks. The only people that can see me are the few that I allow in. Any photos I don’t like I take the tags off and hope they never get seen (exceptionally bad ones are asked to be removed).

The thing is I find Facebook as a concept to be awesome, and I love the implementation of it as well. I like it’s clean lines and distinct design. I like how functional it can be (although finding a decent Flickr plugin is like pulling teeth) I just want all my Flickr photos to be part of my photo albums and that’s it. However as with everything moderation is the best option.

It’s time we all took the word ‘average’ back. I’ve been thinking about this (and actually mouthing off about it as well to anyone dumb enough that will listen to me) but basically one of the things that I have found lacking in the use of the English language is the proper use of words to describe things. When you ask someone about how they felt a movie or an event was, unless it was terrible the general response you’ll probably get is ‘Yeah it was pretty good.’ Or ‘Yeah it was good’. Don’t lie to me dammit. It wasn’t good because if it was you’d be talking about it with a little bit more conviction, a little bit more enthusiasm. Good implies that it had merit to speak of. Clearly you have none to express. No dear sir (or madam), what in actual fact you’re trying to say is that it is merely average. Average is a good word to use when it fits the bill. When something doesn’t shine but moves forward in an adequate fashion it can only considered average.

So for example ‘Cars’ can only be considered as an average movie when you put it in direct comparison to John Lasseter’s previous outings. It had good moments in it for sure, but as a movie it cannot be considered anything but ‘average’ in comparison. Of course there’s the issue of being kind to people. As another example, most definitely do not say: ‘Thanks Grandma, that dinner was most definitely average.’

So like Randall in Clerks II, I’m taking back the word average. I strongly urge you to do the same. Hell you know you want to.

Ok seriously that was as fun as getting my head kicked in by a bunch of chunky school girls while being stuck on a roller coaster feeling a bit nauseous from the doggy fish salad I had last night…. ok you probably get the point. Just recovering from my beast of a man-flu. Monday afternoon I could feel a small ache in my body that only got worse through out the night and then come Tuesday morning that was it, KO on Khaled. I was out. Couldn’t bloody move. Fever. The works. The fact that I’m writing this right now shows that I am actually well on the way to recovery and can actually think straight and get on a do things. So the moral of the story kids? There’s a nasty bug going on that will render even the toughest of men.

It really is not difficult to fall in love with Japan. The country makes it completely easy for you in soo many ways. The organisation is beyond compare, the clean streets and the extremely polite people that provide any service to you. The nature when you get to it is completely breathtaking and the concrete jungles that continue around the coast need to be seen to be believed. The food that has a varied quality to it where you can eat, feel full and yet not so full that you are about to collapse from pain. The trains that run like clockwork to the book stores on every corner. The cheap comic books and the plethora of magazines and newspapers.

The next few posts when I get back will be filled with things about Japan. I will be updating with photos, sketches, maps and commentary about the areas I visited in my extremely brief visit to the land of the rising sun. Until then I got myself another day in Tokyo and a 15 hour flight back to the UK.

Over 1000 photos , but here is a small slither of what is to come:

So I’m sitting here in Naoto’s house and writing this after experiencing my first week (more or less) in Japan. Seriously i cannot imagine myself staying away from this country. So many things to absorb in such a little time that i could honestly keep writing for a long time. Of course if i did that then i would be at the bloody computer all day and not actually out there exploring things and soaking in everything. Therefore i will try to actually write down as much stuff as possibly can that has made an impression on me and then hopefully elaborate on everything (and include as many pictures as i can) when i get back. These posts i guess will act as placeholders until i get back.

<li><p>The greatest thing for me is being shown around by ?aoto as there are soo many things that you could not possibly know or understand until you actually lived here or someone told you. The little red triangles that are place on the windows so that the firefighters can see which ones can be used in the event of a fire. I honestly thought it was some weird architectural statement.</p></li>


<li><p>Obviously the biggest thing that is easy to notice is just how clean the streets, tube and all public areas actually are. It is completely unreal. No gum stains on the floor, the paint on the roads is as bright as the day they were painted. Not a spec of garbage anywhere, anytime, anyplace.</p></li>


<li><p>We went to the Ghibli museum. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take any photos in the Museum but I have some photos from the roof (which you are allowed to take photos) which is pretty cool. The highlight here for me was the circular strobe light running animation which was beyond incredible. Several rooms where filled with items that where inspired from the movie.</p></li>


<li><p>We went to Kamakura with all the temples (the place has got over 64 temples), however easily the best temple we saw was a hidden one that was far away from everything in the city and that was one of the most serene places on earth.</p></li>


<li><p>My first Japanese style breakfast was a complete experience. For those that don't actually know what this entails, it has miso soup, rise, grilled fish, nato, seaweed and various pickles.</p></li>

<li>

Walked up Mount Fuji. I am completely sun burnt and tired, but by god the views was completely and utterly incredible. It has to be seen to be believed. In fact I'll be sure to share when I get back because it was definitely worth the trip. We didn't make it to the top of the mountain, but we got close and it was a mission going down as much as it was going up.

<li>

Tomorrow we are off to Kyoto and Western Japan which is going to be an experience of epic proportions as it also includes my first trip on the Shinkansen (aka the bullet train).

First day of school! Well it’s not really, but today is the first day that the new graduate intake begins at Arup (probably in many other places as well, or maybe that was last week); in any case I can’t help but get that first day of school feeling, alas the difference of course is that once I was the student, now I am the maaaster….of course master of what I still have no idea. There’s a certain freshness in the air about the whole day. Maybe it’s feels that way because it coincides with the autumn finally coming into it’s own (although once again English weather being what it is, we had the absolute best day of the summer on Saturday so there you go really).

Hope everyone has a good day at school today.

So this last week I was in Princeton for my ‘little’ project in Egypt. The highlight of the trip without a doubt however was actually meeting Michael Graves. He was very busy looking at all sort of stones and mural paintings and whatnot for this other project that their office is knee deep into, however he spared some time and we had a bit of chat with him (myself, Steven and Reid) and he signed a monograph for each of us. Incredibly nice guy, very softly spoken and has got this great little smile that shows that he’s seriously enjoying himself.

Going through the monograph and buying stuff from their little design store you get a great feeling of all the different things that they’ve had a chance to influence and design. Notably are of course of all the Alessi products.

My price piece however is an Acme Studios pen (designed by MG) which is not only weighty but is a great little writing tool. The closes thing I can give an approximation to is how the front plates of Zippo lighters are used as a design piece, or statement

One year older, one year wiser. Damn that one went by pretty quickly. I’ve got to say that when I was younger I used to get really pretty depressed about my birthday, nowadays I’ve come to accept the inevitable, so now the plan is to grow old with dignity….so I’ll be working on that last part later on. In any case happy birthday to all the Leo/Virgo cusp people born on the 23rd of August have a great one.

I consider myself a relatively well travelled kind of guy. The thing is though with the exception of America last year and this year my travels have been limited to Europe and the Middle East. The furthest east I’ve ever travelled is probably Syria, if I’m not mistaken. On Friday we booked our tickets to visit Naoto (or Hatori-san) in Japan for the first two weeks of October. To say I’m excited is a small and completely inaccurate understatement. I’ve been interested in Japanese culture since I was about 8 when I first Robotech as a kid on Saturday mornings. This was then further augmented with being a complete electronics GEEK. What you thought I became an Electrical Engineer by chance. Oh no no no, it was more than that. At some point in my life I’ll be sure to write a bit further about it.

Then you start adding the sheer amount of Manga and Anime I consume on a regular basis and you might start seeing the trappings of a bit of a fetish. Naoto has already assured me that we’re definitely going to be visiting the Studio Ghibli museum while we’re there (I think he loves it more than me).

So I’ve started looking at my blog feed reader and it hit me that I don’t really read all of my feeds as much as I skim them to see what new stuff might be happening in the world. The issue is though that I’m finding it harder and harder to find something that I must stop and read. I find that seriously strange. It’s not like I’ve got that much more blogs that I’m reading. I tend to add new blogs to my feed every so selectively.

Sure you have Khoi’s little commentary left and right, you have Paul’s exhaustive hardware reviews of consumer electronics I will never buy nor really care about. Michael’s blog is always an interesting collection of links (mainly movie related ones) from all over the place, Chris’s blog usually throws up some cool videos or interesting youtube snippets that I would never have the energy to look for, Journalista always gives me just about everything I could want in terms of comic book bytes and other assorted goodies (oftentimes more than I can possibly grasp). However one trend I’ve noticed is that the raw bloggers out there have reduced in number.

Oh but Khaled aren’t you part of the 9rules network? I’ve said this before (on another site) but I’ll say it again, 9rules is no longer the place it used to be. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, it’s just decidedly different. When I joined a couple of years ago it had something like 50 blogs in total. That’s 50 people I more or less knew from the forums. Knew and appreciated and liked and worked with and helped out etc. There are hunderds of memebers on there now, and honestly I don’t have the time to go through each one and vet each one.. I guess it was just more manageable in the past, for me at least, as I would add the ENTIRE feed for 9rules. Hell I wouldn’t know where to get it now if I tried. Anyone know where the feed for all the blogs from 9rules can be found? Shouldn’t that be a pretty prominent thing on this site? Shouldn’t you be able to taylor make your own RSS feed of all the various sites that are available to you? Kinda makes sense to me. Don’t know how easy it is to implement but I’m sure the guys are more than capable of doing something like that.

A couple of years ago it was this massive buzzing time, where we as bloggers (all of us, including you) ruled the net. Movies lived and died by our buzz (Snakes on a Plane), TV series got second leases on life (Serenity), well partly because of us.

Somedays I honestly feel like we’re not all that important anymore. Is it because all new fads become old quickly? Have we passed the ‘golden era’ of blogging? Is it that there is far too much noise on the net, and it’s becoming harder and harder to actually seperate the wheat from the chaff? Is blogging relevant nowadays or is it simply part of the general zeitgeist that is accepted and taken for granted?

There is NOTHING I like more during the summer than a cold Greek salad. It’s no wonder I’ll buy all the ingredients on the Monday and make myself one every day at work. However I find it mind boggling that I can’t seem to be able to buy a decent Greek salad in any restaurant that I’ve been to, Greek or otherwise. To spread the love I’m going to give everyone explicit details on how to make the simplest and healthiest dish this side of the Mediterranean.

The ingredients are very simple, for a decent sizes salad (1-2 people) you’ll need the following:

<li><p>2 or 3 large tomatoes. They have to be the LARGE variety. No cherry tomatoes, no small piddly little tomatoes either. They have to be the big and ripe variety. Pay the extra, get the good stuff. This represents the bulk of the salad so don't skimp on this ingredient.</p> </li>


<li>1<p>/2 a cucumber. Generally speaking it's 1 small cucumber, but for some reason I can't seem to be able to get these over here in UK supermarkets so I tend to use half of the ones available.</p></li>

<li>

1/4 or a red onion. Don't get the white ones, go for the red ones. It's all about the correct flavours and this is pretty important. You can have as many or as little as you like, however I find that if you put more it ends up left at the end.

<li><p>1/2 a green pepper. You can try and use a sweet yellow or red pepper, but honestly it won't be the same. The green pepper provides it with that savory taste that you need.</p></li>

<li>

Oregano. You'll need lots of this, the dried variety.

1. Black Kalamata Olives. Yes you could try for another kind of olive. Maybe something in green, or even something stuffed. Rubbish. Get those ideas out of your head. It has to be a black olive. It has to be big and it has to be full of flavour.

<li><p>Feta cheese. Lots of this stuff. </p></li>


<li><p>Olive oil. The more the better. You could make the whole salad swim in the stuff or you could be measured with the amounts. If you're Greek, you go mental with the olive oil. If you're a bit more concerned about your waistline, then be slightly more conservative. At least 5 tablespoons I would imagine, although I'll be honest I never measure, I just pour until I think it's about right.</p></li>
<li>

Fresh bread. Yes you heard me. Go to the bakery, go to the supermarket, go to the Deli down the road and get yourself a fresh loaf. It's got to be a big loaf so you can enjoy soaking in all the olive oil left at the end of the salad. Trust me on this, it's one of the single best parts of eating this.

Ok so now that we’ve got our ingredients, it’s time to understand the other aspect of what makes it a good Greek salad. It’s all about how you cut the ingredients. I know it sounds slightly strange but it’s true.

<li><p>Tomatoes - The way to cut these is very simple. Each tomato has to be cut into 12 pieces. The way to do this is to cut the tomato in half. From their each half will be cut into six pieces. You might want to get rid of the central piece that is where it was attached to the vine. I find this piece to be a bit chewy and stringy in texture. Some people don't seem to mind it, I'm not so keen on this part.</p></li>


<li><p>Cucumber - It's really up to you how you want to eat this, you can either peel the cucumber or you can leave the skin on. I tend to alternate depending on my mood at the time. However the proper way to cut the cucumber is first down the length of the cucumber, so that you've got two long halves. From there you start chopping each half so that you're left with semi-circular wedges about 0.5cm thick.</p></li>


<li><p>Pepper - Really there is two ways to cut this, both are acceptable. The first is to cut them as full rings. These should be again about 0.5cm thick. The other option is to cut the pepper down it's length and then have thin strips of pepper from that half; again cut down their length.</p> </li>


<li><p>Onion - After you've cut the onion in half, cut it in half again. From there you'll cut thin strips (as in the picture above). Make sure that they're split from each other (unlike the picture above). </p></li>


<li><p>Feta - Again there are two schools of thought about how to present this. Either you have it in a big chunk (or a series of big chunks) or alternatively you crumble the feta cheese (with your fingers) so that it's all over the salad. I'm again impartial to either fashion, although if it's a quick job I go for the easier option which is to have big chunks.</p></li>


<li><p>Add the olives, sprinkle the oregano, pour the oil, tear off some bread and dig right in. </p></li></ol>

Summer on a plate.

So you might have noticed a certain lull in activity on the Kode. The main reason is the fact that I’m EXTREMELY busy at work right now. It’s been absolutely insane. The thing is though, it’s pretty standard fare for the summer as most people with kids tend to take their holidays in and around the same time which makes the rest of us crazy ones that are left behind to hold the fort in the meanwhile. The good news is that I’m actually enjoying a lot of the work that I’ve been involved with (not that I haven’t enjoyed my previous work). One of my latest projects is this tiny little project in Egypt. The architects on the project are Michael Graves. We went to see them in Princeton last week and that was actually pretty cool. My first visit back to the states since last year when I went to my brother’s graduation.

I honestly doubt that I’ll be blogging much during August, as I’ve got very little to say and generally soo tired, I can’t even talk. The thing is though that I really miss my website. I miss the interaction with all the crazy cats and dogs on the net. I miss being involved. Hopefully come September I can have more time to remedy this situation.

Last night in Athens, and I’ve started thinking about what I’m leaving behind and what I’ve got to look forward to. I know everything seems soo much more soft and squishy when you’re on holiday and god only knows how much I needed this break. Actually scrap that, all my friends know full well as I’ve been pretty on edge these last few months as it’s been a pretty tough time for me at work.

Originally I was meant to be back on Monday evening, I extended the flight for another 5 days and I’m really glad I did. This trip has been an eye opener in many respects, as I’ve had the chance too look around me and take in the quality of life that people over here take for granted.

1. Friday night drinking is non-existant.

2. Binge drinking doesn't really come into play.

3. Personnal time feels extended as the coffee shops and bars are open well into the night.

4. Food has that colour that I've become greatly accustomed to.

5. Outdoor basketball courts have got that quality sheen on them.

6. Girls are oh so much prettier.

7. The weather is so much more consistant and brighter.

In short the quality of life just seems more in tune with what I’ve been brought up to expect. So what is actually missing here? Loads. The issue is that my balance for what I want and expect in life however is still found elsewhere. I guess there will come a time when that balance will fall in the other direction but I guess it’s good to remember the good things. I needed to be reminded of the good things and if anything this trip definitely showed this to me.

Michael Moore was on Wolf Blitzer (he of CNN fame) and he absolutely destroys him. I love this sort of shit, as it’s extremely rare for it to be shown or for there to be a personality that can take it to the media and not have his voice culled in some fashion. He then goes back and breaks down their ‘report’ step by step including links to where he got that information. Kinda reminds me of that other great clip from George Gallaway.

Amazing advert for Epuron, easily one of the smartest adverts I’ve seen in a really long time (via Frederik Samuel’s always excellent blog). As if that wasn’t enough in the comments someone pointed out another excellent advert for the Dove self esteem fund. Excellent viewing all around.

In ancient Athens, the single worst punishment you could impose on anyone was to exile them from the city; they were no longer Athenians. For the past 9 years I haven’t really considered myself an Athenian and more a citizen of the world. I can’t claim to be a complete Londoner. Could I ever truly consider myself as a Saidaewi (he who is from Saida)?

The real issue here is that I’m from all these places and yet I’m a mixture of all these places into one. Each place has had a direct influence on me. The people around me, the situations around me and my environment have all contributed to the person I am today. The added advantage I suppose of being from all these places and from none of them is the plane fact that I had what others that consider themselves from one particular city, country or village…perspective.

Because of my nomadic life, I’ve been able to gain a unique perspective of places and am able to not only appreciate all that is great and beautiful; but also what does not work and what could be enhanced or bettered. I don’t do this because of malicious intent, but rather the complete opposite.

The older I get the more I start believing that I am indeed a citizen of the world rather than confined to one place.

When asked whether he felt more from England or from Scotland, George Galloway responded:

"My flag is red, my country is the future"

Somehow that quote always resonates with me.

Rarely, someone says something to me that really resonates with me completely and changes the way in which I think. It’s not often, but when it is said generally speaking it will have a lasting effect on me for a great long time. One example of this I can give is when I saw Michael Moore in early 2003 when he was living in London and doing a serious of ‘talks’…more like sessions where he talked about whatever was on his mind. We were able to get tickets for his last ever performance. A lot of things stick out in my mind from seeing him live, but one of the things that he harped on about that remains in my mind is loyalty cards. I honestly thought these things where American inventions (as did most of the people in the audience as well), but apparently they are clearly a British thing.

For those wondering what loyalty cards actually are, they’re basically store cards that enable you to accumulate points which later on you can cash in, you get 1 point for every £1 you spend. Every 100 points you get £1 back or something like that. Anyway after his rant (which involved talking about people’s privacy and information theft and other some such) I’ve NEVER carried a loyalty card in my life… I didn’t carry many back then but I did have a couple, all where thrown into the crowd (he was collecting them back then).

Anyway recently Fern was talking about the amount of plastic that we as human beings use in our everyday life, for food packaging. Open your bags after you come from the store, if you’re as bad as I am, almost 90% of the stuff you’ve bought is covered in plastic in one for or another. Water, humous, vegetables, orange juice, etc. She then started talking about how there have been cases where the amount of plastic starts infiltrating your system, tiny particles that eventually make it to your eyes, which are then covered in a thin film of plastic.

Needless to say that sort of freaked me out and it’s stuck in my mind. Unfortunately I’ve got to work extra hard now to find a method to try and change the packaging in which I actually buy things, or consume thing. It’s incredibly hard, I’ve got to say. In my life I have boycotted several things. Coca cola (I used to drink 1 a day, at least), Marks and Spencers, Danone, L’Oreal , Nestle (except for Kit Kats) and a few other things. It was very difficult to do this but I managed and it’s a habit. How the fuck are you supposed to stop using plastic?

The good news I guess is that plastic is being made from things other than petrolum oils and rather using different more organic elements, however I’ve not really found out any more about it and so I sit here looking at my plastic containers thinking of my eye balls. Sometimes ignorance is complete bliss.

I’ve never been anally probed (nor do I ever wish to be) but I doubt it feels quiet as bad as I feel right now. The Smashing Pumpkins are playing at Shepherd’s Bush as I type this. I was outside the venue trying to get tickets. Needless to say we didn’t get any tickets as they which were going for £150 each. Let me say that again, one hundred and fifty pounds each. Fucking touts. Seriously. I don’t have any overtly elaborate ways to describe what I’d like to do to you assholes because I’m pretty angry at the moment. I was there along with another 3 people who knew just how much I love the pumpkins trying to get tickets for me as well, but the tickets were ‘sold out’ in a matter of seconds. So how do these fucking shit-stain leeches on the green puss that comes out of a gangrene wound that’s eaten by a fly that’s about to die because it’s gotten violated by a camel get a hold of so many tickets between them?

And to pour piss and vinager over the wound, Pearl Jam played London Wembley Arena yesterday and I only fucking found out today. I’d have given my left nut to watch Pearl Jam live as I’ve never had the chance (even though a couple of years I was actually thinking about going to a festival just for them). Man that really upset me this afternoon when I found. Genuinely was upset about that. I didn’t think I could get more hurt but today was obviously just one big day of disappointments.

So what next? We’re thinking about going to the Reading Festival. That’s in August, however all the tickets are OBVIOUSLY sold out. Yeah of course. I doubt it would have made ANY difference if I had tried to get tickets on the day that they came out. So I guess Ebay is the only route forward.

This is part of the reason I don’t generally go to live concerts.

It’s a funny thing about how much information your brain can actually hope to take in a single moment, a single day, or a single experience. For me this is made clearest when I go to Fopp. For those in the dark, Fopp is a store in Britain, which I believe (but this could be COMPLETE bollocks as Kevin told me this) started off in the back of this guy’s car in Glasgow selling music and other assorted greatness a reasonable, stable prices, without the stupid .99 bullshit. Yeah like 11.99 will make me think it’s £11 rather than £12 I mean seriously stop insulting my intelligence you asshats. Anyway, Fopp’s opened this massive megastore on Tottenham Court Road. This place is pretty huge. Originally I thought that was great. Bigger is better right? Wrong.

It’s completely overwhelming. I go in there and I’m completely lost in a sea of music and books that I have no hope of trying to whittle down myself. I end up actually buying nothing because I’m completely at a loss as to what seems like a good deal and what I feel I’d get just because it’s at a decent price. Also I don’t want to think about the range of stuff that I don’t get because I don’t actually see it.

Back to the original topic though, I’m glad when I found out that I’m not the only weird person out there that has people in his MSN contacts list. They’ve been sitting there for years and I’ve never once had the inclination to use the function to contact these people. I can’t explain it, they sit there and part of me would like to know what they’re up to but at the same time another part of me feels a certain comfort that they’re there anyway. It does sound strange and maybe a bit anti-social but like I said, your brain can only take on so much information, before it’s on complete overload.