A slightly productive day in the life...

Since getting home early this week, I haven't really been out and about a whole lot, due to jet-lag and working nights. Today, I managed to be a tiny bit more rested, so I went out and wandered around doing things that needed to be done.

My first stop was the 7-Eleven, where I got some money from the ATM and bought a small bottle of apple juice (to drink right away) and a larger one of water (to drink during my wandering). Then I walked downtown to the post office, where I bought a money order and sent it (for expedited processing) off with my passport to get more visa pages added. I also mailed Christmas presents to Scotland.

I thought the temp agency might have a check for me since I worked earlier this week, so I stopped by their office, and they did. They also had one from October which I had forgotten to pick up, so now I have those two and a small refund from GEICO to take to the credit union either tomorrow or Tuesday. And they gave me a $5 gift certificate to the supermarket (that's my "Christmas bonus" as a temp).

I remembered that I had been meaning to get a post office box so I could have non-junk mail go somewhere secure, so I went back to the post office and did that. Then I went to the supermarket and the health food store and stocked up on canned pineapple, canned tuna, and Fuji apples. I also bought a few small bananas which I ate.

On the way home, I saw my old Honda outside the workplace of my friend Linda who I'd sold it to, but I had to hurry so I didn't stop in to say hi. I got food from Burger King as I didn't really have a dinner in mind. Stopped at the mailbox to get my mail - a couple Christmas cards, some luggage tags I ordered, and also my Gold Elite packet from Northwest Airlines... with more luggage tags. :) I ate and opened my mail, then went downstairs to get my bike ready for the ride up to work. Unfortunately, I discovered one of its spokes had snapped. I got my ex's bike ready instead, moved my seat onto it, showered, packed up my gear, and rode to work.

Then I sat around for a good long while waiting for the observers to show up. Once they did it became a busy, but not terribly bad, night. I also managed to talk to our engineer and got scheduled for a couple weekends of work in January, so I will be pretty busy until I leave... although I did lose a couple nights of work earlier in the month due to some rescheduling of the temp job. 

Invincible

I wanted to see Invincible for three main reasons:

1. It's a feel-good rags-to-riches kind of story.

2. It's a true story.

3. It's set in Philadelphia, near where I grew up.

Unfortunately, I was too busy to see it in the theater, and wound up seeing it through a happy accident, when the scheduled movie on a flight from China to Japan (The Lake House, which I had already seen on another flight) refused to play!

Simply, it's the story of Vince Papale, a man who played (American) football in high school but not in college, then while working as a substitute teacher and bartender and playing for a minor-league team, got a tryout with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles and made the team, becoming the league's oldest rookie without college experience.

Papale's story is told pretty accurately, with only minor (if unnecessary) changes in the movie. Philadelphia is given a nice portrayal, and the actors and dialogue feel like people and language one would actually encounter in Philadelphia.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It's nothing too terribly deep, but anyone familiar with the Philadelphia sports scene will find a lot to relate to - and a lot to laugh at. I'd recommend it to, for example, my dad.

Aswefall - Between the Miles lyrics

Between the Miles

Aswefall (vocals by Daniella D'Ambrosio)
From "Between the Miles (Air France Soundtrack) - Single"
Based on "Between Us" from the CD "Bleed"
(Air France's music on hold.)

I can see for miles
I can see your face
Within the miles
That lie between us
Away with the sea
The sea that lies between you and me

It's in the mirror
It's in my eyes
Within the miles
That lie between us
Within the miles
That lie between us

Away with the sea
Away with the sea
The tears they float
Away with the sea
Away with the sea
The sea that lies between you and me
The tears they float
Away with the sea
Away with the sea

Someone helped me, but no one will admit it.

I had a Northwest ticket for some KLM flights. Northwest is partnered with KLM, and KLM is also partnered with Air France. On some of the flights, my Northwest frequent flyer number didn't make it onto my boarding passes, and to make matters worse, I lost the boarding pass stub after one of the longer flights. And of course I wanted credit for having flown!

I called Northwest. Northwest said it was KLM's plane, and to call them.
I called KLM. KLM said they couldn't help me, and to call Air France.
I called Air France. Air France said it was Northwest's ticket and to call them.

This all took an hour or so of fortunately toll-free calls.

By the time I called Northwest back, every single flight had been credited. I'm at a loss to explain how, or by whom, since everyone I spoke to claimed that they couldn't do it!

Uganda Railway Corporation

Glancing over a tourist map/brochure today in Kampala, I read about the Kampala Railway Station: This unique and beautiful building has seen millions of people and thousands of adventurers pass through its gates since 1931, when the first train, "Lunatic Line," arrived in Kampala. Unfortunately, the railway passenger service is no more, and the station is a sombre memory of better times. The "Iron Snake" still plays a role as Uganda's link to the sea, as most of the bulk cargo still moves this way to and from Mombasa.

Since I was sitting not far from the station at the time, I wandered over, took a couple photos of the facade, then took a couple of an old passenger carriage through the fence, at which point a passing police officer or two explained that I couldn't do that without proper permission, as out-of-service carriages were Critical Transportation Infrastructure™– of course.

So after deleting the photos from my digital camera while they watched (skeptical that I was actually doing it, of course!) I headed off to the Railway Police office to get permission. (Yeah. You don't want to get bureaucratic on me. I thrive on this.) I met the Division Police Commander, a wonderful fellow named Paul, who was delighted that I was wearing an environmental t-shirt, since he'd done his BSc in environmental science before studying police work and law. After a long chat about the environmental, railway, and cargo differences between Uganda, the U.S. and Hawaii (during which he deduced that I posed no threat to the railway), we went over to the office, met the equally nice public relations lady, and were taken to the office of the Chief Executive to get permission from the top.

The Chief Executive was a shade paler than I, much to my surprise, and said that of course I could take photos as long as I stayed off the tracks - in a tone indicating that it was ludicrous I should even need to ask. I didn't talk to him much, but with information from the others and some help from Google, figured out that I really should have, since the URC was just privatized about 3 weeks ago, and said Chief Executive is Robert E. Mortensen, distinguished alumnus of Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, who retired a decade ago after a 30-year career in Philadelphia at Conrail!

Yes, it's a small world. :) Anyway, Paul and I had a good time wandering around while I took a few pictures, and we parted ways on good terms.

I photographed an event for Reuters today... in a sense. :)

Every couple years, the Reuters Foundation - the charitable arm of the huge media service - teams up with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to honor the best articles in the environmental media. Prizes are given out to the best articles from each of six regions (Europe/Middle East, Francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa, Asia, Oceania/North America/Caribbean, and Latin America), and a global winner is also selected from among the regional winners.

This year's ceremony happened today, as a press event at the conference I'm attending. The primary photographer on my team was busy going off to the airport to photograph Kofi Annan, so I wandered over to take pictures of the ceremony, with a friend and colleague who used to work for IUCN.

Upon arriving, I was approached by a nice lady from the Foundation, who asked whether I was the official photographer, and explained that all of Reuters' local photographers had also gone off at the airport to photograph Kofi Annan. Oh, the irony. One of the largest - if not the largest - media organizations in the world has an event, and can't even scrounge up a photographer!

So I took a bunch of photos, some of which wound up on the day's page on our conference coverage. And they were all happy, and I gave them all my card so they can email me about getting copies of the photos and stuff.

Continuing to nibble my way through the animal kingdom

Team dinner in Nairobi was at the Safari Park hotel's Nyama Choma Lounge. "Nyama Choma" is Swahili for "roast meat," and there was plenty of it. They started off with a soup (which I skipped) and a rather salty salad, then progressed from familiar to exotic meats - sausage (I skipped it), chicken, beef, pork, goat, spare ribs, more chicken, crocodile, camel. And cheesecake for dessert. I was a little disappointed that they never brought over any lamb, since it was on the list, or ostrich, since they hinted that they had some.

In America, most people use goats for milk and grass/rubbish disposal, but in the Caribbean and Africa they're commonly eaten. Goat tastes somewhat like lamb, not bad, really.

Crocodile wasn't very appealing. It doesn't have much flavor, and is pretty chewy. I only ate a little bit.

Camel is pretty chewy, but flavor-wise, it's not really that far from donkey, so although some of my teammates had a hard time with it, I enjoyed it.

There was a show, too, with dancers and acrobats and all that.