Road America

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't updated this blog in ages, other than to post updates on our trip into the hell of Hurricane Sandy. Some of you may also have realised that stuff has happened in the last couple of months - most notably, getting married!

Before I get into that though, I have something to catch-up on from before the wedding - the Run Offs, at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin - where my future brother-in-law was competing, amongst many other races. Finally, I have sorted the picture and put them up, so let's complete the job with a blog update!

Racing, especially at Road America, has been a big part of Laura's family's life for decades; indeed this is how her parents met, and still meet with friends today. Her brother, Ethan, competes in Formula F (currently) and made the whole family proud with a win last time out. Now, it was time for the National Championship Run-offs, and we went to support him, meet said friends and family, and enjoy 2 of the many-days of racing this event had to offer.

Upon arrival, I was put to work - to help Ethan work out the weight distribution in his car. Cue comical readings of my weight, gasps of amazement, and then the equipping of lead shot to make me weigh more like the real driver.



After the work was done, we went to hang out with some of Laura's family friends and watch some qualifying. First up were the T2s.



We stayed until sunset, but the F5s were still qualifying.



But eventually we headed off to a nearby town for a night in a hotel. The track looked so pretty at dusk!



The next day, there were more races before Ethan's Formula F - we watched the SRFs (Spec Racer Fords), a number of which took a couple of nasty knocks!



Before some super-charged Mutangs and the likes in the GT1 class.



But then it was on to the main event. Laura, her Mom, and I took our place in the stands at turn 5 - one of the best apparently, to watch Ethan. He qualified in third, but some unsporting manoeuvres from his competitors near the start saw him drop a few places. Still, every time he went past, it seemed he was about to overtake on our corner.



A couple of drivers ahead of him spun, and a great overtaking move saw him get up to third on the last lap. Sadly, it wasn't to be, as a more powerful car overtook him on the final stretch; but fourth was a great finish given the issues at the start. We knew he gave it his best shot, and he has a proud family (new brother-in-law included!) no matter where he finishes.





A great couple of days out and the opportunity to spend time in Wisconsin are always welcome by me. Of course, just to add more weight in its favour, Wisconsin once again provided some amazing scenery and a dramatic skyline on the way home, to accompany us on our more timid drive home.



The full set of photos from Road America can be found here.

Parks in NY and NJ

Across 2 weekends recently I visited the two big parks of New York and Jersey Cities respectively.

Everyone knows Central Park, and I was rather annoyed that it took me 4 months to get out there again. But I met Ash for brunch then went and lazed in front of a softball game.

And sunbathed between the odd cloud.


Before heading on past the little lake full of remote controlled boats.


But what about Liberty State Park, Jersey City? It's really quite long, and there's a lot of walking to be done there. I discovered it's only a 10-15min walk from the new apartment, so I headed past the ugly docks and, despite the overcast skies, I started snapping.

The main feature is of course its proximity to the Statue of Liberty; and this is about as close as you can get without a zoom lens, or access to next door Ellis Island. Or a boat.


Regular park-goers were enjoying the large picnic area.

There is of course a look back towards New York City... yet more great views of skyscrapers. In this photo you can see back to Jersey City, Manhattan, and Brooklyn all at once.

Finally, beside the Hudson there was a family enjoying what little wildlife they could actually catch in that river...

But all in all a nice stroll out. Recommended!

The New Office Views

I should probably have done this ages ago.. say, when we moved in over 2 months ago. But anyway. We moved our office upstairs from our temporary home on Floor 30 of 7 World Trade Center, with our view over the Twin Towers site and 9/11 memorial. We swapped it for Floor 46, our own home, and a view across to Brooklyn and way up Midtown. I think you'll agree the views are ridiculous.

Here's most of Manhattan:


With the Empire State Building in the centre, as it should be really:


Across to Brooklyn:


And to Jersey:


And our Emmy Award is looking pretty nice against such a huge city backdrop:


Unfortunately, we had to move onto the floor as soon as it was habitable. Whilst the construction team have done a really good job with the ceiling, we have been trying to complete the "industrial feel" of the place with a polished concrete floor... but it has been messed up more times than we can count. We have some desks, and the glass separators for the meeting room and kitchen areas are in, but we can't finish the job - putting up TV screens, installing desks and lunch areas - until the floor is ready. Nevertheless, here's a sneak preview:


When it is all fully kitted out, I'm sure there will be a new post! Until then, enjoy the views. I certainly do!

Stormy

I love a good thunderstorm. There's something about the loud, scary shows that tell you nature is around you and you can't control it. I love huge thunderclaps and lightning forks. And I enjoy the sort of rain that is more like a waterfall from the sky that soaks you through in seconds. Because, what can you do?

And one thing America has is a good thunderstorm.

I just sat in the apartment on my own and the darkness of the evening coincided with some sudden and horrendous gales. I had to close the windows because things were quite literally flying everywhere. I checked a weather service and there was one of the scariest warnings I ever did see. I wish I had taken a screenshot because the alert has now passed. But it was 5 paragraphs of block capitals telling everyone to GET INSIDE! Because LIGHTNING IS ONE OF NATURE'S NUMBER ONE KILLERS! One of the number one? What? Frankly I thought a lot more people died of cancer or were eaten by sewer alligators (ok maybe not that one) but this just plain scaremongering, surely? There was more: REMEMBER, IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER, YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

Anyway, I most definitely stayed indoors and I think we must have been right in the middle when the storm hit, because the thunder and lightning were basically in harmony and the thunder was THE loudest thing I've heard in a very long time. Most certainly the loudest thunder I ever heard. There is just so much more of an earthy, shake-the-buildings rumble about US ones over their UK counterparts.

The lightning was plentiful. Forks tore about the sky before the whole thing was over in under an hour. I didn't take any pictures but to demonstrate, here are some pictures I took when I was in NY two years ago, using the video mode of my compact camera!

Pretty cool, I thought.

In less stormy news, I have now secured an apartment for me and my wife-to-be for the next year. Still in New Jersey, as value-for-money seemed so much better, and I am getting to like my 20minute door-to-door commute! More on that later, for sure!

June Has Been and Gone

So sorry.. I haven't updated this in ages. And I was going to update it every other day with brief stuff so everyone knows what I'm up to! Instead, I've been posting once a month and cramming a load of crap in there. So to catch-up, briefly, before I *actually* start updating this with more-or-less up-to-date and real-time info (and other hyphenated-words), this is what June has consisted of:

• Working. More directorial visits from London! More drinking..
• My lovely fiancée visited and we had a long weekend where she tried on her wedding dress (I didn't look!) and we walked the High Line (I looked), caught up with a couple of friends, and generally got to know some potential areas for living in. We had fondue! I had never had fondue before.. 
• I saw Mogwai play a small venue in New York; Webster Hall, in the East Village. They were on really early and a fairly short set, but still decent.
• I started looking, properly, for a proper apartment. I think I'm going to stay Jersey-way, because it has proper 1-bedrooms for the price of a wooden room in Manhattan. Brooklyn might be in with a surprise shout however, I will keep you posted!
• I watched as much of Euro 2012 as possible. Pretty much all the games at the weekend could be caught in a bar or two. I deviated from the normal Midtown area for a couple of matches, after it was pointed out as being next door to Webster Hall!
• I set off for Wisconsin, for a much-needed week off and time with my fiancée for 4th of July week... which will be the subject of my next post or two. Coming soon, I promise!

A Nearby Walk

One thing I loved doing in London was wandering. Just picking a direction and going with it. More often than not, I accompanied my fiancée for walks along the Thames, on the path near our flat. I decided to try out some of the new area where I live for the same effect. I was in luck; the nearby Hudson riverside of New Jersey is a nice little walk. Not quite London, but it boasts dramatic views of Manhattan and a few other sights on the way.

I took my camera and walked the area from the harbour at Newport:

Past the little lighthouse:

Enjoying some wildlife on the way:

And eventually into Hoboken:

Hoboken is lovely, if not a little pricey and loud and trendy at the weekends. But it has a nice grassy pier to sit on and some more of the riverside path. You can watch cruise ships go by or just people watch. I did both.

I'm glad I've found a walk to relax my brain for a little bit. I even shared it with my fiancée when she visited, so we have some similarities at times to life back in London.

The rest of the pics from the walk can be found here!

A Day of Nostalgia

Still catching up, but getting there. This involves the day & evening of May 12th - where I had a nostalgic trip between 3 places I had previously visited in NYC when travelling over here for work over 18 months ago.

The first stop was the High Line. This is an "elevated park" - and one of my favourite uses of space in New York. It has been converted from an old rail line which runs between Midtown and the Meatpacking District in Lower Manhattan. When I was here previously, it was only a few blocks long, but was very pleasant. Now it is a proper walk all the way up to 30th Street, and it is still being extended. It is full of grass, flowers, plants, trees, and now water features, a few food/drink stands, and a great view of the Statue of Liberty from afar. It makes a great short cut without having to stop at every intersection, and of course the greenery make it a more pleasant experience whilst you walk. I've since been up here two more times; taking a visiting friend to see it and also when my fiancée visited (more on that later).



After this wander, I kept going North through the less-than-thrilling Midtown area, until I landed upon Bryant Park. I enjoyed lying around on the grass taking photos of tall buildings until Ash turned up, followed by Melissa & Ian, for some beers in the Bryant Park Cafe. Ash and I used to come here often during our trips over as it is one of the few & best places to enjoy a sunny day with a spot of booze. So we enjoyed a seat and a few drinks until the sun went down.



Our final stop was one of Ash's favourite bars, which he took me to a couple of times previously. It's called Lillie's and is on 17th Street - so we needed to get a quick cab over there. It apparently was once a bar in Ireland until they shipped the entire contents over to New York. The result is a long bar, full of "stuff", atmosphere, and usually a lot of people. We had a few more drinks here, before calling it a night



You can find the rest of the pictures from the day/night here if you like.

Visitors, Football, and Yet More Hockey

That pretty much sums up the first 2 weeks of living in this flatshare.

There have been work visitors; Justin, Andy and Anthony which of course has meant a handful of nights out, on the company dime of course. I will spare this blog the pictures of some of our less-than-impressive ideas (one of which was "Eggs and Shots" - invented by Work Matt - a devilled egg then a shot of whisky - best forgotten about). But they were fun times. Enjoying a drink with Anthony when there aren't 50 people out made for a refreshing change and reminded me of the "old days". I passed my 5 years at Telemetry (or various guises) on May 14th and it really doesn't seem like that long ago.

I've been trying out the NYC-NJ travel thing outside of work hours; namely a couple of jaunts into Manhattan for wandering and beer. One night I met up with Ash and went around Greenwich and West Village, and another I enjoyed a pleasant day before meeting up with Ash, Ian and Melissa - but more on that in a later post.

I also tried out a sports bar for watching football and I was very impressed. It's on 33rd Street in Manhattan, called "Legends" and was showing every single game live on the last day of the Premiership season. No need to talk about that drama, but watching it in amongst NYC-based supporters for various teams made it even more exciting. I think I'll be trying to get in here during Euro 2012 and I believe the NYC branch of the Tartan Army meet here for Scotland games - score!

And hockey. Well, unfortunately I'm in a tight spot as many in the office are supporting the NY Rangers, and my flatmates, being in Jersey, support the NJ Devils. And right now, they are playing each other. I've been happy to cheer on the Rangers in bars near work with the office folks, and in a nearby bar (quite good, and cheap!) in Jersey with the flatmates. So no solid allegiances just yet, and actively cheering on rivals on alternate days is rather treacherous!

Just... don't tell anyone about that... or the eggs and shots...

A Temporary Home

Moving-in-day finally came round on May 1st. My grand plan of taking a half-day off work for moving all my stuff a few blocks from Matt's was hampered by the fact I was really ill most of the day. Flu or something. I eventually got my things round in the evening. I blew up my air-mattress which is now not as uncomfortable as you might think as I have piled sheets and covers and such all over it.

My new flatmates came home shortly after, sadly our socialising didn't happen because my illness meant all I wanted to do was sleep! Anyway, they are nice people. They customise guitars with arty designs and their decor kind of matches their personalities; a bit arty, a bit old-school rocky. Here's a picture of them looking completely different from their actual characters (the overalls were from painting, the rest was just them being silly). Lyuba and Matt:

I've made my bare room a little more bearable; the aforementioned bedclothes and a rug helped, as did hanging a Scotland flag (what a cliché!) and of course, putting up a picture of me and Laura, and our Caveys!

I also have my own bathroom, so I bought a rug, some towels, and a new shower curtain for that. I have to remember I'm only planning to be here a couple of months so anything else could wait. I'm missing a TV (for my XBox) and a guitar to play with (especially as I hear Matt playing his a lot!) but maybe I'll pick those up soon. Until then, this is home, in the Garden State of New Jersey!

Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft

At work I do an unfortunately significant amount of development for Microsoft products. This usually results in building solutions in Visual Studio, which is their preferred manner of building solutions, since it is of course their own product.

Today, I had to work out how to build a solution for SharePoint, and I was presented with the most glaringly obvious example of how Microsoft are lost in their own mess of products.

To break it down, here is what I was trying to do:

Develop using Microsoft Visual Studio
Develop in Microsoft Windows 7
Develop for Microsoft SharePoint

Now, bearing in mind that VS 2010 comes PRE-LOADED with a SharePoint development environment, how hard can it be? After all, everything here is MS; no 3rd parties, where I could see integration being a problem.

However, I cannot actually start a project without SharePoint installed. OK, I'll install SharePoint. But I'm not allowed to install SharePoint without running Windows Server as my OS. Some might think "fair enough, it's a server-based application", but others, like me, thought "how many developers log into a LIVE server to develop on a different machine??". Or "insanity!" for short.

What made the whole situation amusing, was this: a step-by-step guide, written by Microsoft themselves on how to essentially fool Microsoft SharePoint into thinking you have Microsoft Windows Server instead of Microsoft Windows 7 so you can use Microsoft Visual Studio. It involved installing lots of Windows "hotfixes". The whole thing sounded like one guy at MS, tutting to himself going "nice work guys, none of these work together... and who has to save the public? Muggins here...".

Of course, even though I have everything I need locally, I can't actually connect to our external server to read data, nor can I deploy any solutions directly to the server.

The indication to me is that Microsoft, so large following their success in the 90s, have too many teams, too many products, and too little help. Huge ranges of products may provide businesses with out-of-the box solutions; but they definitely lack a "uniformed interfacing" approach when it comes to development. After all, how can any developer be expected to integrate Microsoft systems with their business, when Microsoft can't even integrate their own systems without their own special brand of "hotfix glue"...?

Relax Before The Rush

Right before I rushed off on holiday (more on that later - I really need to catch up!) we were taken on a little treat at work...



I say rushed off. I mean it: by the time we finished for the night I had 3hrs before a taxi to the train station! So I tried the best I could to enjoy the peaceful surroundings and amenities of Babington House, in Somerset.



It's reportedly popular with the celebs for a bit of getaway; we took the entire company (minus one, who was there in spirit as well as cardboard cut-out form..) and rented out the place. And then had a sports day! How nostalgic!



But of course, when the sack races, egg-and-spoon races, and well-throwing was done, we got to enjoy the heated pool, the free bar (FREE BAR!), a delightful meal, and one great party! I was remarkably tired, and with a plane to catch, I was a little disappointed I couldn't enjoy my amazing room for a lot longer!





See the whole set here.

Well, hello there.

I've never had a blog before, nor a website to myself. I enjoy Flickr and Twitter so have decided to make a "proper go" of it and start rambling and posting stuff and things on here as well. Let's see how it goes and, indeed, how long it lasts...