We wander slowly up the tunnel. Part of me is wondering whether or not I’ll get searched again — after all, I’d already been x-rayed twice before we boarded this morning.

So this is the mighty America then. The famous J.F.K. It looks just like the airport we left, an anonymous windowless tunnel all the way into customs. It doesn’t seem as clean as Heathrow. Maybe this one’s just older.

Except for the toilets, that is. These ones are spotless, which is a marked contrast to the blocked up crap we had to endure back in good ol’ blighty.

There’s a security officer guarding a puddle on the floor and guiding people around it, while he waits for a cleaner to arrive. I guess thats just in case someone slips and sues the airport to hell and back.

Customs amuses me. Every officer at every desk seems to fit the stereotypes that we get to see on things like LAPD Blue. I get a large bearded older bloke. He clearly can’t wait for home-time to come along. They take my fingerprints and a cheap-looking camera takes a snap of my face. We’re straight through without a hitch.

Airports really are the same everywhere aren’t they? Heathrow, Geneva, Lyon, Gatwick, JFK. Big, dull and anonymous. Long tunnels plastered with adverts for things I probably won’t buy and services I’m unlikely to t use. All they are is a great big bus terminal, and they’re never the most exciting places in the world are they? Nope, they’re just a way into the city. In this case, that really is quite an exciting place to be.

[Inspired by Stuart’s First Impressions of the same place.]

Last night was our work Christmas party.

In a half shell, they’re the heroes four.
In this day and age who could ask for more?
The crime wave is high with muggings mysterious.
Our police and detectives are furious,
‘Cause they can’t find the source,
Of this lethally evil force.
This is serious so give me a quarter.
I was a witness, get me a reporter!
Call April O’Neil in on this case, and
You’d better hurry up, there’s no time to waste!
We need help, like quick, on the double.
Have pity on the city, man it’s in trouble!
We need heroes like the Lone Ranger
When Tonto came pronto, when there was danger.
They didn’t say they’d be there in half an hour,
‘Cause they displayed…Turtle Power!

Can you guess what we went as yet? Pictures to follow. Maybe.

I’ve subtley modified Visual Studio to better suit my current needs:

Crooked Nines

I’m loving the current Evil Nine single, Crooked. Now its got an ace new video.

Gizmondo

Stupid name, cool gadget, nice looking website with some cool little features (just don”t look at the code beneath it).

Now, I know I said it was a nice site earlier, but its not. I clicked on the music link and got told “The site you have tried to enter requires Internet Explorer 6 (or better)” — the thing is, I am using something better than IE6! Rubbish.

The Marriage of Presentation and Structure

One for the web geeks amongst you: Ethan Marcotte‘s Presentation from Web Design World 2004. Built using Eric Meyer’s S5 – its like Powerpoint for the web.

Ten million users

Mozilla Firefox is downloaded 10 million times in just over a month. That is very very impressive work.

Google to buy lots of scanners

The libraries of five of the world’s most important academic institutions are to be digitised by Google.

…I’ll be opening up my Marzocchi Super-T Pros for the first time. Wish me luck!

And then a bit later on…

I’ve just had one of those “OH B******S!” moments.

I went over to the Windwave site and downloaded some of their excellent technical guides to servicing your Marzocchi fork. They explain the whole oil and spring change in a very clear and simple manner — unfortunately they can’t take human error into acocunt.

I took everything apart. I poured the old oil out. I noted how the oil in the damper-cart leg was black and horrible, and how it was lovely and clean in the other leg. I replaced it with new oil. I put everything back together. I rode around the car-park, noting that the fork is now a lot more supple, but there’s still perhaps a little too much oil in there. “I’ll sort that out next time around”, I think to myself.

And then it happens. I’m disposing of the old fork oil when “Ooh, whats that?”. That’ll be one of the washers from inside the fork then. That really ought to be on the inside of the fork. But I’ve got no daylight left, and there’s no lights in the garage. There’s no way in hell that I’m doing this in the flat.

Oh well, that’ll have to wait for next weekend then. The complete lack of daylight in the winter is such a pain in the backside! You live and learn…

And then about a week later…

I emailed Windwave during the week to find out where the mystery washer should go. It took about five minutes flat to take the top-cap off of the the fork, take a few bits out, put the washer back where it was supposed to go and then put it all back together. I could probably have done it in the dark. I still think there’s a bit too much oil in there but I’ll test ride it first.

I read a lot of websites – people’s weblogs, journals, news sites, bike sites, the list is endless. It takes me absolutely ages to trawl through them every day. The list of sites seems to grow on a fairly regular basis too, so the trawl takes longer every time. I need to look at every single site to see if its been updated, and quite often they haven’t, which is just wasted time. This needs to be fixed. Its taking too long and its too much of a distraction.

Now, I’d heard about RSS, but I didn’t really get it or what it did. Then Thunderbird came along and BISH BASH BOSH! It all made sense.

You know when someone sends you a new email, it appears as a bold item in your inbox? Well now you can do that with your frequently-read websites.

You’ve tempted me. How does it work then?

Its remarkably simple to set it up:

1. Open Thunderbird. Now go to File > New > Account
2. Select RSS News and Blogs, and then press Next a few times.
3. You’ve now got an account set up. Fire up Firefox (or your browser of choice) and come to this very site.
4. You see that RSS 2.0 link towards to bottom of the sidebar? Drag and drop that onto News & Blogs in Thunderbird (see below).

Now whenever I update my site, the new article will show up in there. The same goes for any other sites who offer an RSS feed:

What’s more, if a site offers RDF or Atom feeds instead of RSS, they’ll work too. Just drag and drop the link in exactly the same way.

Alternatives?

If you don’t like Thunderbird, there’s plenty of other RSS readers out there aswell. One that I’ve heard very good things about is FeedDemon, which comes from the same stable as the rather wonderful TopStyle.

There’s something screwy about those pictures…

It might look like I’m using an Apple computer in the screenshots, but sadly its all an elaborate hoax. I’m actually using the Flyakite mod for Windows XP SP2. Sadly I can’t afford an iMac right now…

All of my CDs are now in iTunes. Rock on, quite literally. Methinks I’ll be needing something slightly bigger than a 20gb iPod…

I seem to have had this cold ever since we went to New York. That’s getting on for a month now, and I just don’t seem able to shake it. Every time I think I’m nearly there, progressing along the road to a snot-free existence I’ll have a couple of late nights or something and just relapse into it.

I woke up this morning so bunged up with phlegm that I could barely speak without coughing a gallon or so of the stuff up (so much so that when I phoned work to tell them I wouldn’t be there, they didn’t understand me at first).

So now I’m consigned to a day of drinking Lemsip, not watching daytime T.V. (its always painfully bad) and trawling the internet for something interesting to read. This is why I avoid sick days unless I’m feeling really crappy. They’re just so flinking dull.

Still, at least the music is making me feel better. I got a text message read out on Radio 1 this morning (something about the Thirteen Senses album being ace), and now I’m listening to Talk Talk‘s Spirit of Eden, which always cheers me up. Its a beautiful chilled masterpiece, completely unlike the synth-pop that made their name. You’d probably hate it.