I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but I harbor a certain amount of embarrassment about having a blog. I never volunteer the information, despite the fact that I do feel more credible for having written in this damn thing since 2001. It’s just that nowadays, it’s akin to admitting you listen to emo.

Days Three and Four here were packed — I started school and sat through a total of 13 Powerpoint presentations in these two days. A few of these were from McMillan Publishing; responsible for Nature journals, who have some of the highest impact numbers in the industry. What are impact numbers? Irrelevant. What is relevant, however, is the abundant amounts of netting at Nature; it looks like what I imagine a dot-com during the boom would look like: Secret meeting spaces, bridges from conference room to conference room, and a decent amount of innovation.

The bulk of the Powerpoints, however, came from BioMed Central, an Open Access publishing company responsible for a good handful of Medical and Science Journals. I won’t bore you with the details and thoughts on that stuff; my library nerdery can be elsewhere.

My allergies have been killing me. I went to itch my eyes at some point during the day and ended up re-breaking my glasses, so I had to buy some superglue. Monday night we had a reception and it’s Sunday now, so it feels like a hell of a long time ago. Several of us got trashed at the reception and probably embarrassed the hell out ourselves and the program in general. I expect nothing less.

We talked to several — all right, two — students from the UCL program, and they were very nice and listened to our drunk ramblings with very little detected indifference.

DP and I continued drinking after the reception at the Carpenter’s Arms — Cask ales everywhere! So good. Amazing! Wow! At what point does such continued exclamation cease being earnest? Ponder that.

Glad to say despite the late night and the ample sauce, we still made it to class on time the next day. Amazing. That’s as much as I can recall about Mon and Tues; Weds was Oxford. Better make that another post.

Sorry for the scarcity as of late, needless to say, it’s been hectic. I got in early Saturday morning and it took me a significant amount of time to get out of the airport and into Central London. I don’t know if that says more about the tube or about the state I was in upon arrival. I actually had a great flight, I just sleep really poorly on the plane. Remarkably, I had an empty seat next to me for the entire flight, and I watched shortened versions (fast-forwarded through a lot) of both Children of Men and Music & Lyrics. Don’t you miss my recounting the boring minutiae like that? I bet you do.

I managed to stay awake on about 2 hours of sleep throughout Saturday, mostly by walking around the city on two separate occasions for 3 hour spans. The first time took me around most of Bloomsbury, and I made the costly decision to drop some poundage on a new camera, because I was a dumbass and left my at home. I’m still trying to figure out how to recoup that money; possibly meaning I try to sell it here in London before I go to France.

My second walk took me down to Covent Garden area, which is close to the Thames, much closer than I even realized, especially since my initial reasoning for heading in that direction was to head to Leicester Square to find the Prince Charles Cinema. Not successful, but enlightening nonetheless.

So, what strikes me? I think the prevalence of bicycles (and everyone wears helmets!) and Smart Cars, is what I notice most on the street. I still look the wrong way when crossing the street, despite what the ground tells me.

Sunday I woke up early, around 8, checked email, and promptly fell back asleep until 11. Didn’t ruin my accomplishment of staving off jet lag from the day previous though, which I’m glad about. I took off to try and get to Hyde Park — I thought there was supposed to be Royal Gun Salute for the Queen’s Birthday (don’t know where I got that idea), but couldn’t find it when I got down there — I don’t even know if it really happened or not. Instead, I stood at Speaker’s Corner listening to whatever anyone had to say. For the most part, it was either about religion or politics. In both cases to which I listened extensively, and when I say “extensive” I mean about 5 to 10 minutes each, I couldn’t stomach much more, they were both. One guy was shouted about Muslims, while a Muslim man in the crowd shouted back. The other guy was an American Muslim, on a chair shouting about Islam, and a guy in the crowd shouting back. It may be just entertainment for everyone there, but I can’t stand that much bile for long.

So I hopped on one of those buses! With no roof! And I rode around on that all day. I stopped for a short while at the Tower of London and walked around. I almost went in, but am too cheap to pay £15 to get in (that’s 30 bucks, folks). Does anyone remember that SNL sketch where the dollar is getting beat up by every other foreign currency? Amy Poehler’s breakthrough role as the American Dollar.

Day Three and Four to come. I have to wake up early tomorrow; heading to Oxford!

Hey, so I’m gonna get on a plane in a little while and go to the UK. If I have wireless in-room, I’ll update a lot. If not, I’ll probably be at the pub. Peace out.

A list for the last two weeks. First, Baltimore:

• I played a lot of Guitar Hero in Baltimore and we tried to watch Tristram Shandy (we all fell asleep, except Harvey, I think).
• Baltimore is an interesting city; Owl and I wondered about it and how it got to be the way it is — Among the highest building vacancy and murder rates in the United States. The following all contributed: Fall of the steel industry, Baltimore’s “Dollar Day” real estate debacle, huge drug trade. I’m sure there’s more, ask Jenna, she was schooling us.
• The snowcones are amazing, not because syrup and ice is anything more than syrup and ice, but because the marshmallow topping is enticing, gruesome, and coma-inducing all at once.
• According to Jenna, the drive-in is one of the most integrated places in the city, and I think that is only one small part about why it is so great (and it is). The other things include the announcer who everyone wishes would shut up, the old trailers they show, the flat-out fantastic snack bar with delicious funnel cake intermission (and cheap!), and the entire experience of watching a film outside, in your car (kind of). We’re going back later this summer, you hear that, Owl, Harvey, and J?!
• Camden Yards is remarkably not integrated, and don’t ask me why. Every other ballpark we’ve been to (Shall we do the list?: Safeco, Edison/Angels, Chavez Ravine, Shea, Citizen’s Bank) have all been a vast sampling of each respective city’s ethnicities. Not so much Camden. It’s anecdotal evidence, sure; maybe I’m just imagining this? Anyone think otherwise?
• Regardless, it’s a pretty great ballpark, but Safeco and Citizen’s Bank still top them. The walk to the park is great, too, they have an alley for vendors, like Safeco, but also, an Alley inside the stadium where grills are just lined up (I think similar to Fenway).
• Last Camden bit: Daniel Cabrera is huge.
• Last Baltimore bit: Jenna is an amazing cook. Mac & Cheese and Pad Frye For-eva!

We also saw Al Gore at the 92nd St. Y before Baltimore:

• The place was tiny, and initially, I thought we were in the second row. I was looking at the map backwards, we were in the second-to-last row. It didn’t matter though, because the place was so small.
• Charlie Rose just doesn’t get it sometimes. Even the old woman sitting next to me thought that. I know, because she said it a few times: “We get it, Charlie. Why don’t you?”
• I wish people would really just leave Gore alone about running. Owl and I talked a lot about how Gore wishes young people wouldn’t feel so jaded about the political process. The irony is, we also agreed that Gore could probably do more by not running in 2008.
• I haven’t even cracked open the book yet, but Gore alluded to a lot of people on the anti-media tip, Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan are who I remember most.
• Gore showed up on The Daily Show the same night we saw him at the Y, and after watching it, initially I felt a little gipped because he repeated a lot of what he said at the Y. I realize now, that it’d be impossible for him to come up with some new insight every time he showed up somewhere.
• He’s still devastatingly intelligent, though. It would not win him a campaign. That says more about our country than it does about him.
• Let me run with that: If he’s trying to elevate the political process by challenging everyone to step up the discussion; and if it works in the way he’s been able to highlight the effects of global warming, then maybe America would feel okay about electing someone that is computer-brain smart.
• Last Gore bit: The good thing about sitting in the back was that we got to get in line for the book signing in a hurry. We didn’t wait long, but also, didn’t really even get to say a word to Mr. Gore. We do, however, have two signed copies of Assault on Reason to show for it.

T-minus 10 days to London. Anyone have any tips for me?