Tom is in America

2009

2009-01-13T12:00:00.002-05:00

Hello.

First of all, I'm sorry. I realize I haven't posted in months and months on this thing, but I assure you that 2009 will be slightly less lackadaisical.

Where are we at? Well, last time I left you, the green card application had been sent off and I was of the opinion that The Kaiser Chiefs were rubbish. The former may have changed, but sadly the latter is still true.

About October time I was summoned to the shiny new Immigration centre over in Raleigh, where they took my fingerprints and basically ensured I couldn't get up to no good. This was fine with me, as I didn't really intend on getting up to no good. The whole immigration process did seem to slow down after that though, and I finally received my travel documents and work authorization on the last of the day that the government had allotted for this (it was a 90 day limit!). I then had to apply for my Social Security number (which I couldn't have got before as I had to have the work authorization to show them I could work), which involved a miserable trip to the local Social Security office and having to stand in line for a couple of hours next to someone who looked suspiciously like Harold Shipman. That in turn took 6 weeks to turn up, which was annoying as I still couldn't work or drive without it. Finally, once that arrived, I had to apply for the Driver's Licence, Bank Card and obligatory Ebay account. Complicated, no?

Anyway, as I start 2009, I'm beginning to feel a bit more like a human being again and able to do things independently should the need arise. Which is great - especially the Ebay bit...

Next on the list is the job front, but I'll leave that til next time.

Tom

A question for you

2008-08-06T15:00:00.003-04:00

I heard the other day that the Kaiser Chiefs were getting Mark Ronson involved with their new album. My question to you is does the following equation apply?

Kaiser Chiefs + Mark Ronson + proposed 'Radical New Direction'

= The worst album ever made

I have a feeling it probably does.

WOOOOO

2008-08-05T14:39:00.001-04:00

The green card application has been completed and sent in!

YES!

Rock Band / green card

2008-08-04T12:49:00.010-04:00

After a week of bureaucratic green card B.S (nearly done now!), it was nice to have a few beverages with Julie and Jason over the weekend. Then Hillary mentioned that they had in their possession (for a couple of days at least...) the genius that is Rock Band.

Now, for those who don't know videogames, it is essentially a game where you play fake real life instruments along to an on screen sound and rhythm track. It sounds kind of lame, but add in friends, alcohol and a literally amazing fake drum kit and you get this...

Unfortunately I haven't got any photos of when I saw a million faces and rocked them all with a rendition of Bon Jovi's 'Wanted Dead or Alive'. Everyone in the room was crying after the performance, so moved were they. Hillary still tears up now thinking about it.

As I say, the green card paperwork is almost done now, but that didn't stop last week from being intensely annoying. On Wednesday we had to turn out and go to Raleigh (about half an hour's drive from Durham) so I could have a 'medical', which in the end turned out to be one MMR shot and a doctor transferring my medical records to yet another form. Getting the right size photo taken was a pain as nowhere in Durham seemed to have an actual passport photo booth. There were plenty of comedy 'get your portrait sketched by Van Gogh' type places and a few photography shops that wanted to charge $15 for two passport photos, which we thought was rather unnecessary. Anyway, it's done now. All we have left is to have it finally checked by the lawyer and to send it off.

I may well have to request to play more Rock Band once it goes out as way of celebration...

Watson 2

2008-08-03T15:12:00.001-04:00

A clearer view of what Watson looks like.

Watson

2008-08-03T15:04:00.002-04:00

This is our dog Watson. He likes socks, as you can see...

Lucky Strike

2008-07-26T12:25:00.005-04:00

Durham American Tobacco district.

Hillary reminded me to post this the other day - this is a picture where we reckon the Lucky Strikes (www.theluckystrikes.com) should play if they ever come to Durham and fancy doing some ruthless self promotion at the same time as blowing some minds with rock.

Actually bands do sometimes play under the water tower - what do you reckon Mat?

To get the bigger picture and see everything better, click on the one here.

Las Vegas 1

2008-07-24T11:58:00.010-04:00

As you may know Hillary and I went to Las Vegas back in June. I thought I'd start things off by posting a few photos from then.

Now unfortunately, this first one is the biggest amount I won. I was playing the 1 cent slot machines, though, so by my logic, that's a 394% profit I'm holding in my hand...

Hillary did win $5 on one of the machines at the Hilton. I haven't got photos of that though, so I'm not sure if it counts.

The next photo was my attempt to capture the surroundings of Las Vegas as it is set against a backdrop of mountains and desert. I think I've captured more of the car park though.

Still, you get the idea.

The next three are just an attempt to show that Las Vegas is absolutely ridiculous. The first of these is a photo of the New York, New York hotel. Yes, that is a rollercoaster running round the outside of it.

Apparently there are over 2000 rooms there according to Wikipedia and it's something ridiculous like a mile wide. I'm not sure about the accuracy of that last bit of info but I do know it takes aaaaaages to walk past.

The next picture is of our favourite hotel, the Excalibur. As you can tell, it's a medieval castle. It is particularly tacky inside but I think that's why Hills and I enjoyed it so much - it knew what it was and didn't go out of the way to be too trendy. It also had a store selling AC/DC pyjamas, an arcade and numerous cheap slot machines. Beat that Hard Rock!

The Arc de Triomphe.

One of the days we were there we went to the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, which I have numerous photos of. It was, of course, brilliant.

It also featured this brilliant slot machine.

Now the story behind this fishbowl is that the big waiter guy serving us insisted that it was small, only about the size of a 'kiddies drink' and with not much alcohol. He was very wrong; it was full of alcohol. We managed to struggle through it but were both a bit drunk for the rest of the 'experience'. We later realised that the waiter might not have been the most normal person when he came and stared at us eating for about 5 minutes.

All comments are well appreciated! Apparently you don't have to be a member to do it now, so that may help.

Hello

2008-07-21T10:48:00.000-04:00

Hello

Does this thing work then?

Hmmn. Good.