ToDo: Invent Brilliant Title: 2007年9月

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9月27日

By A Hair

I've discussed my rather creepy obsession with the Metro previously. I'm excited to announce that it's getting even better. At the end of this month, the extension opens which takes it all the way to the airport. This means I'm a block-and-a-half walk and a brisk, direct, regular 20 minute Metro ride from visiting even more countries. Or paying $8 for a Starbucks grande latte.

Coincidentally, I'm off to Australia at the end of this month due to cousin weddingage. These two events line up quite well, don't you think? I would think so too. Except I don't.

The Metro extension opens Friday morning.

I fly out Thursday night.

9月17日

The Price of My Ego

A few years ago, my friend Jonathan and I killed some time at Redmond Town Center waiting for a movie to start by having a competition in the technical book section of Borders, seeing who could find the largest number of books by people we knew. Jonathan won with the trump card of finding a book where he was thanked in the acknowledgements.

These days, I think I could give him a run for this money. I have an acknowledgements thank, and now, due to some idle but creative Googling, I've discovered that I'm apparently featured as some sort of case study in this book: "Universities and Globalization: To Market, To Market" This, of course, begs the question: Is it worth $120 to my ego and curiosity to own this book?

I'm thinking...no.

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9月9日

Paree

I went to Paris and I loved it. Any city where, if I'm wandering around and a slight hunger pang hits, I can get someone to make me a crepe, is alright by me.

The trip started excellently. At the Copenhagen airport, I found two great books. One was the sequel to the Napoleonic Wars and dragons book I've been telling everyone about. The second was "Night Watch", Russian best-seller and basis of brilliant vampire movie.
I'm friendly in France. Or, at least, I must look it. Every bloody person stopped me to ask directions or for me to take their photo for them. So much for my off-putting demeanour. Obviously, I'm out of practice.
I walked from one end of Paris to the other. Even the most comfortable shoes can give up after a while, so the next day, I took the Metro if I needed to go further than half a block.
I went to both the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. The Orsay was amazing. I'm a sucker for Impressionists, post-Impressionists and Art Nouveau, so it was right in my wheelhouse. And then they go and add a big sculpture of a polar bear. I was surprised the whole building wasn't actually dedicated to me. The Louvre...well, it was the end of the day. Mona really does look smug and Ms de Milo really has misplaced her arms. The Rubens Room made up for it.
The impetus to climb famous monuments has passed me by. I just like to take photos of the queues and the idiots taking the stairs up the Tour Eiffel.
M. Night Shaymalan was shooting a movie in the Tuileries. This would have been cooler if the scene had been less old guys playing boule and more Marky-Mark and Zooey Deschannnelll-thingy.
I love the Art Nouveau Metro entrances. So much less obvious then the Copenhagen silver columns with the big 'M".'
On Dean's advice, I went to the Catacombs. A kilometre and a half of the stacked up bones of six million Parisians, interspered with signs in French discussing the transiency of life (apparently). My favourite were the signs at the entrance: "The ossuary tour could make a strong impression on children and people of a nervous disposition", "To preserve the patrimony, no photograph with flash", "Any person caught stealing bones will be taken to the police"(this one was only in English; I'm not sure what that indicates), and over the ossuary entrance "Halt, for this is the empire of the dead." Two thumb-bones up.
Montmatre was very cute, but no pixie-ish French girls did me any good deeds.
Paris's reputation as a city of love and romance is no reason for all the couples and their public groping. It passed voyeuristic and became tiresome.