I'm a 30 year old born and
raised in Los Angeles

Now a Designer
turned Information Architect
turned Design Director
at a .com in London
with my new wife Leyhsa

Archive:
Apr - Jun 01 | Jul- Aug 01 | Sept- Dec 01 | Jan- Apr 02 | May- Jul 02
Aug - Sep 02 | Oct- Dec 02 | Jan - Feb 03 | March 03

As a result I did virtually no shopping, with the exception of a last moment splurge at Lush, which is a well known chain of shops where they sell delicious handmade soaps and bath products. But in general most items I take for granted here in the states are unbelievably expensive or unavailable. Even the markets are limited in items and so costly that simple things become luxuries. Purchases must be made in small quantities in any case because when traveling by tube, bus and foot, packages are quite burdensome. I will be viewing my dreaded supermarket trips in a whole new light now as I load up my cart from my huge and affordable selection and drive my bags right to my front door.

Travel, by comparison is far more accessible from the UK, and a major reason for Jason and Leyhsa's residence there is the opportunity they have to see the world. While small, their new flat is really lovely and laid out to maximize the tiny living space so that it actually feels rather spacious. I'm sure that will change once the baby arrives with all its necessary paraphernalia.

The flat is located on the top floor of a beautifully kept mansion in Maida Vale with views of the neighborhood from all the windows and its own private park and communal garden. From their bed and bathroom they look out onto the oldest synagogue in London. Views on a walk in any direction provide scenes of lovely homes and gardens. Most impressive, however, is the jaunt to the nearby canals that evidently run through all of London much like those in Venice, and one can actually get around in canal boats rentable for that purpose. Many people live in canal boats and keep little potted gardens on their decks.

On our last night together I discovered how true Jason's complaints can be regarding the absurdities of customer service in the UK.

After a lovely meal at a noodle restaurant in Covent Garden, we wandered over to Belgo's for some dessert. Besides the time it took for the hostess to be willing to seat us, the surprise came as we ordered our considerably costly fare. With absolute rudeness the waiter announced that we would not be permitted to order dessert without having a full meal first. Bear in mind that the time we would have taken to consume our food and left would have more than paid for whatever he feared taking up his table space might have cost, but he was quite insistent and unpleasant regarding his annoyance at our presence at his station and we were made to leave without ordering. From what I understand, this was in no way an unusual experience in London.

Though brief, all in all it was a great trip, however I do have a new appreciation of life's hardships in London. Weather is often bitterly damp and cold, getting about is challenging, the cost of living makes life incredibly restrictive, product availability is limited, and yet in many ways it is the most exciting city to live in the world where one is surrounded by history and the arts, tradition, and royal protocol. However, of all the amazing sites, large and small, nothing can compare to the sound of my grandchild's prenatal heartbeat. Luv to all of Jason's readers. You'll be hearing from me again in three months when I return for the birth of little El Presidente.
American Mum

Because of the low cost for labor, you will see a large number of workers at any one establishment. I counted 25 waiters and bus boys at a seafood restaurant we went to which could not have had more than 20 tables in it. Leyhsa got me an ice cream at a KFC (for an extraordinary price of 1/5 of a cent) where they had this girl who just stood all day next to a machine to dispense the 12 or so ice creams she probably passed out in an hour. I happen to know, by the way, this ice cream per hour ratio due to Leyhsa's pregnancy cravings requiring several trips for KFC mash potatoes. It was dizzying to see just how many parking attendants there are just to watch your car for a 10 cent tip (I counted 40 in one lot alone). But somehow there doesn't seem to be much indifference by those who have or those that have not as everything somehow meshes together making a tapestry unlike any social or economic world I have been in so far. I suppose that because the real wonders of Africa are its sheer beauty and wildlife which are available for free to us all.

Like every American friend and family member I had spoken to about South Africa, I was originally very apprehensive of the idea of ever taking a trip there. The only things I knew of SA were from the media painting it as an unstable, poor, dangerous, and disease ridden hostile place. This negative portrayal was probably born from years of the US being legitimately positioned against the government's apartheid policies. It wasn't until I began working with several South Africans did I hear how it was a leading design center, produced some of the best wines in the world, passionately protects wildlife, is a haven to refugees from around the world, and paramount in importance is a cheap place to vacation. Okay, so I am swayed by less altruistic reasons, the point is, the South Africans made me realize that not all I know is true just because I watch or read the news. For example there really was an attempted coup recently to overtake the government, the part I didn't know is that the coup was made up of a measly 30 people and got stopped quicker than it takes me to decipher the pay machines in the London Underground.

So once I was reprogrammed from my stereotypes of South Africa, including asking very apologetically in my own ignorance to one of my South African coworkers if there were ATM machines and if the planes were safe to fly in and if their were paved roads. The answer of course was yes yes and yes, but hell, how would I know? European city life, western culture, modern health care, a well maintained web of roads and a functioning economy are combined with the ancient beauty of the nature and traditional culture of the African continent- but there's little likelihood I would have known that when I was in the states. If I relied on CNN to know what the rest of the world was like, I'd have never left the US in the first place! We heard a news report that of the estimated 20 million Americans who travel per year, only 15,000 visited South Africa. That's less then how many Americans who visit East London per month, which is far more dangerous.

It turns out that despite my fears, just because it is called a 'developing nation' or a 'third world country' it doesn't mean that it sucks. It just means it has more in common with Arkansas is all. The cities and towns we went through were clean, modern, orderly and safe. Especially when we took the Garden Route which is a 9 hour long highway that goes through the vineyards as well as the coastline from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, we noticed how much it reminded us of California with pine forests, beach towns, summer holiday lake resorts, lush rolling hills, and clean air.

So for those who have never seen South Africa portrayed more than as a wild hinterland full of anarchists, check out my Photo Gallery. You just might be swayed as well.

This is based on the following evidence:

• First, on the news they announced plotters in Italy were caught looking to sabotage the London Underground. Almost on cue, the London Underground two days later showed that it can do that job all on its own as a train derailed taking out the busiest line in the network for at least two weeks, displacing thousands of commuters and isolating homes and businesses.
  
• Next, our fine Mayor Ken Livingstone is about to enact his 'Congestion Charge' on all cars entering Central London of £5 per day. As told by our friend the Mayor (I for one simply refer to him as the Moron Mayor), this will bring revenue into the close to bankrupting city even though it will cost billions of pounds to introduce and will further overwhelm an already overwhelmed public transit system.
  
• Third, Moron Mayor wants to charge yet another tax on people to have the 2012 Olympics in London. He says the additional tax is to upgrade the transportation system and build stadiums even though he has already promised those exact things long before talks of any Olympic bid occurred.
  
  I use the Baker Street Yardstick to prove how stupifyingly stupid this idea is: At the Baker Street Station, the Bakerloo line no longer will stop there going northbound because of 'escalator refurbishment' making commuters take all kinds of delays and goofy routes to make up for the inconvenience. This 'escalator refurbishment' began in October 2002 and is not set to finish at least until June of 2003. That's FREAKIN EIGHT MONTHS FOR JUST SOME STUPID ESCALATORS! I have come up with the following algorithm to determine the time involved for public works based on the Baker Street Yardstick; if a maximum of six escalators take eight months to complete and the Olympic Bid is to enhance lets say 180 Baker Street escalators worth of work on the transportation system and 400 Baker Street escalators worth of work on new stadiums, the 2012 Olympics in London will be ready in May of 2064, missing the deadline by 13 other Olympics.
  
• Fourthly (if that is such a word) London has faced blizzard gales leaving our fair city covered in snow. The blizzard hadn't left more than a couple feet of snow yet it stranded cars for as much as 30 hours, collapsed three London Underground lines, and shut dozens of trains down. Now here's the scariest part of this scary tale; London is expecting as much as 5 feet of snow by next week. Ouch.
  
  
• And lastly, almost like a canchor sore, the fire strike is still going on believe it or not . They have had three 48-hour strikes in the past week and a half, still blabbering on about how they need a 40% pay raise. Parliament are pretty much ignoring fire fighters at this stage. Parliament can take this approach because the Army is now pretty well trained from filling in as emergency cover from all of the previous strikes, costing the government less money for fire protection using Army salaries rather then with the fire fighter salaries. So essentially fire fighters have buried themselves in a deep doo doo hole. The whole mess is ridiculous since fire fighters have a higher likelihood of receiving free pony rides from Saddam Hussein then a 40% pay raise and the government isn't playing along. The stalemate ofcourse means that the general public suffers but who gives a rat's ass about them??

So my promise to you, Mr. and Mrs. Voter, is to avert London from her death throws and get rid of Moron Mayor Livingstone. If the polls aren't going my way, don't you worry because I can always rely on a smear campaign which gives me more content to use then a Klingon fan at a Star Trek convention.

As far as the work thing, the final phase of the work we began in November for the Virgin Travelstore site is finally complete. Just for comparison purposes, check out this screenshot of what the homepage looked like when I first started, and how it looks now. The other things that are shiny and new are the Holidays section and the Flights section. We are already finding there to be a higher retention rate and an increase in sales which is good to see. With our good friend Dubya scaring everybody off from wanting to travel with his big bad war mongering and itching to kill people, their might not be enough travel business to relish in it for long, so we will have to wait for what happens next.

I have put up for those who are interested pics of the latest new place we moved into. Its a fancy mansion converted into ten units. Our unit is very cozy and well laid out but it is truly tiny being just a studio. An added bonus will be in the spring when we can take advantage of the communal garden behind the house which apparently is the largest of its kind in London. Oh and very best of all, we have averted yet again the bullet of dealing with one of those urchin estate agents.

On to other news; Leyhsa and I went on our first of four ante-natal classes yesterday. They are a set of classes provided by the National Health Service for first time parents. When I arrived, a faint panic set in as I realized I was surrounded by 12 pregnant women and strangely no men. When the talk of vaginas and mucous and nipple pain started in, I began to clench my teeth and hold on to my chair with white knuckles as all of these women are nodding and glancing at me, the only man in the room. When finally another pregnant woman walked in late with her husband, I had to control myself from running up to him and giving him a big hug. Our class consisted of learning how to breathe (which seemed ironic to me as I have been successfully breathing for 31 years and never needed instructions), massage techniques, and what labor signs to look for before going to the hospital (the instructions being that if you wet yourself with amniotic fluid or are screaming in agony, its time to go to the hospital).

It occurred to me while in this class that I had received my first introduction into the fact that I will be taking a back seat as my role degrades to encompass that of support. I have learned that my new role is to go to classes and go to doctor's appointments essentially to be a hand holder, so aside from attempting to help out around the house more and tracking down craved foods on occasion, its pretty much a passenger seat for me as Leyhsa faces the tough stuff. Its tiring work as a mother factory being up all night with aches and pains, being fatigued during the day and dealing with hormonal imbalances, so I guess I have got the easier part of the deal.

Honestly, I'm an open minded fellow and I don't actually dislike that many things. The few things that I do detest aside from Dubya are British Telephone for there incompetence, Sky Television for screwing me over, my former boss the Soulless One for being evil incarnate, crappy weather because it always gets me down, and the Queen for stealing my scooter. So as you see, my bias of spite is actually a short list so its not like I go around hating everything, just things that are evil, wrong and unholy; like George Bush.

The one good thing I can say for him and his advisers is that they are truly genius opportunists as they have conveniently carved their agenda out of coincidence and fear to create their OPPORTUNITY for invasion:

• When we had an energy shortage two years ago and the cost of gas was crushing mid-America during the winter, did Dubya look at ways to better regulate the energy companies or invest money into reusable fuels? No. Instead he saw it as an opportunity for his friends in the oil industry to open up protected land in Alaska for drilling.
• When we had forest fires raging out of control through several states last summer, did Dubya look as a solution to better fund forest rangers or emergency programs? No. Instead he saw it as an opportunity to give his friends in the construction industry new logging roads through untouched land and approve old growth foresting.
• When our economy is thrown deep into a recession with millions either out of work or suffering financially, did Dubya look into protecting the middle class by providing them with the majority of tax breaks as almost any economist will tell you? No. Instead he saw it as an opportunity to give his millionaire contributor friends huge tax breaks which equated to several thousand times more money going back to them rather then the middle class.

All of these examples show what should have been prudent decisions and what instead happened were pitiful self-interested ones that only fed the fat faces of those on the inside rather than actually solving the problem. So I decided to look for an afternoon into what might be the self-interests for the Dubya regime and Iraq. They are not hard to find and there certainly are many. It was as easy as looking in the ocean for water.

The first question I asked myself was why Iraq's Oil? The answer I found is that it's because it's ripe for plucking. The equipment in Iraq's drilling fields are old and don't provide much oil production requiring a large investment (from a foreign company, hint hint) to upgrade what they currently have. Also Northern Iraq doesn't even have drills and is speculated to be one of the largest untapped areas of black gold in the world. France and Russia have unsigned agreements from about five years ago with Iraq that if they can persuade the UN to lift sanctions, they get to provide the foreign investment to start drilling. The US has already said that if France and Russia don't get onboard the War Party Bus, they lose rights to those areas. Which begs the question, who gets the booty then? Well the US said that 'to offset the costs of the war' and to 'help revitalize a post-war Iraq' they would allot money from drilling, which sounds a lot like a very nice way of saying 'I'm taking your house to pay for the cost of taking your house'.

The next question I asked myself was what are the ties between Dubya's regime and oil? Well that's not too hard to find as his family comes from oil. He has former oil company executives in his cabinet and Dubya himself was on the board of directors for at least two oil companies. Dick Cheney's last job was for an oil distribution company who made exclusive deals with the Pentagon and Kuwait shortly after he left the position of US Secretary of Defence after the first Gulf War (hmmm, coincidence??) which made the company an estimated $3.4 billion and lined his own pocket with $54 million after a short five years as CEO.

The last question is why now? The answer is because the iron is hot. If troops don't enter a campaign now, the summer desert sun will be too hot by July, allowing only a small window for ground troops to be effective. Bush will also be beginning his re-election campaign and as the 'victor' in two wars, the idea alleged by some analysts is to distract the American voters from the hard facts that we face on how we have returned to a huge federal deficit or how there is no forecasted social security or how volatile their job is.

The reason we have been given a war is justified is based on the threat that Sadam can have the capability to make nuclear weapons and that he can provide weapons to terrorists. That's all well and good, but the only problem with that is North Korea has already been known to have sold weapons to Jordan and already has nuclear weapons PLUS they have already threatened a pre-emptive attack of their arsenal on US bases in South Korea.

So why aren't we putting the pressure on North Korea? Because its dangerous and can go much more wrong then it can with an isolated dictator in a desert. North Korea can fight back as they have a large military and navy, plus America has nothing to gain from a war (aside from world safety that is). The US has said to be in negotiations with the North Koreans but so far, after two months of escalating tensions, nothing at all has been started.

Meanwhile we've been focused on Iraq for a presumed and hypothetical threat that was just as real 2 years ago but was not on the agenda yet because their was no OPPORTUNITY available to have a reason to escalate the situation to an invasion. Good for you Mr. Dubya, you've now got your excuse.

If you might be as enraged by the mass duping of the Dubya War Machine as I am, please check out stopwar.org for what you might be able to do about it.

The last two weeks have been a busy set starting with the previous Friday's Valentines Day where I had volunteered myself as a 'slave for the day' for a company charity thing. I was bought by the Marketing Department and had to dress up in a stupid outfit and do chores. I also had to do a Michael Jackson impression on demand to anyone who asked as well as say cheesy pickup lines to anyone they wanted. An example being, 'Can I buy you a drink or do you just want the money?'. Needless to say, I was grateful for that day to be over. Leyhsa and I that night had a quiet dinner I made for her and luckily was able to repatch together my fragile ego.

On Saturday I went with a friend from work to the protest march through London. I went expecting a few thousand or so hippies and ravers but was amazed to find a sea of people in every direction that numbered somewhere near 2 million. They were from all backgrounds, ages, races and from all over the UK. It was incredible to see so many people with their own specific agendas that would have never been able to unite under any other name other than just the simple concept of Peace. In just the area we were walking I saw the Media and Paper Workers Union, a Quakers Church group, the UK Socialist Party, Pro-Palestinian advocates, war veterans, a brigade of babies in strollers, and me, the 'Don't Trust A Man To Wage War When He Steals An Election And Is Surrounded By Corrupt Oil Men And Is Shamelessly Screwing Up The World For His Own Benefit' Party. I call it 'Annoyed' for short.

The buzz of defiance was in the air and you could tell that people were genuinely proud to be there but at the same time there were long gaps of silence as we marched. I believe everyone there knew that deep down it was all in vain as the course of events to take place in the Middle East were already designed and set in stone over a year ago, and no 8 million protesters from across the world demonstrating are going to make one bit of difference from the coveted prize of controlling a large oil nation. After the two and a half hour march through the city, everybody gathered in Hyde Park. It was not an anti-American rally or a pro-Iraq thing, it was just people uniting under the fear of a President they did not trust to drag them into yet another war. After an afternoon of being out on such a cold, damp, muddy and windy day, World Peace had to be put on hold as we ducked into a pub for an hour to warm up and get some lager. And to show my support for a French government willing to challenge a very important partner in the US, I got a French Beer. Viva La Resistance!

The rest of this past week was pretty good. Leyhsa and I had our last ante-natal class where I wouldn't say I was accepted as an honorary pregnantee, but as the only man to attend the entire program, I believe I earned some props of respect (the other guy never came back after it was announced we were going to be seeing a full graphic video of a birth). Seeing all of these weary waddling oversized women, Leyhsa and I were pretty pleased to see in contrast how much easier her pregnancy had been, uncomfortableness considered and all.

Last Friday Virgin had yet another party and this time it was held at a venue Virgin owns called the Roof Gardens which is this Spanish villa with an acre and a half of gardens on the roof of a 6 story building. I'm not sure that Virgin Airlines or Travelstore will have much to be celebrating once the war starts, so at least it was fun to have a free drink on the tab of my good buddy Mr. Branson in the meantime.