I ♥ Macs 2!

For Jeremy...

I ♥ Gmail

I ♥ Gmail. They're started a new feature that lets you use your website domain email account with Gmail. I haven't used my hurldesigns account b/c I like Gmail better. But I signed up for the pre-release of this feature and now it is available. So now I can send and receive using my hurldesigns account, but it is hosted on Gmail and I get to use the Gmail web interface. It's great! They even let you upload your own logo for your email. So, please use my trevor@hurldesigns.com address from now on if you choose to send me an email.

Take a look at this screenshot from the new "Google Hosted" account. This feature will be available to the public soon, for those that have their own website.


(click to see larger image)


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Goodbye London

I've arrived home after a very long flight and ride home tonight. My luggage took forever to get returned to me. Last night Margo and I had a drink at the "Hoop and Grape" pub, about a couple of blocks from her flat. It is the oldest pub in London and has survived the Great Fire of 1666 and the German Blitz. It was completely packed for St. Patrick's Day. Afterwards, we met up with two of her friends, Mel and Shelly, and played a couple of games of pool. The Brits have a funny way of playing pool. Lots of weird rules and they always seemed against my favor. Perhaps I was being sharked.

I've really enjoyed my time out here and am very grateful that I had to opportunity to come out here. Margo was such a gracious host and I am thankful that she took the time and effort to help me explore London. I think that probably this trip has even further inspired within me the desire to travel more and learn more about the world I live in. I know so little and there's so much to learn.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Two nights ago we had dinner at Chris & Justine's house. It was a fun time. Chris & Justine love to cook and they made a delicious Moroccan meal and English dessert. They are such a fun couple. They live out near the Royal Observatory and I got a science/history lesson on the whole Greenwich Mean time thing. You can also see a green laser that marks the Prime Meridian line in the sky. It's pretty cool.


(Two great mysteries of the world finally unite)

Thursday I went on an organized tour trip to Stonehenge and a town named Bath. It was a long trip, but it's something I've always wanted to see. It was really cold out there though. There is so much about Stonehenge that is fascinating. I won't even go into it here. Bath was interesting. I got to see Roman Baths that were made around 50 AD. Much of the Roman bath house was still in it's original form. Breathtaking. I've gotta do Rome next. Those Romans were so smart. Jane Austin also lived in Bath and wrote many of her novels there.

Last night as soon as I got home, I went to have dinner at my new friend, Giles' house. He lives way out on the edge of London, so it was a long tube ride plus a long walk in the cold. But he made some delicious Green Curry. We sat around with his brother and another mate and watched British TV. And then we watched 'My Name is Earl'. It was the Christmas episode, so they're not TOO far behind.

Today I have been working all day. There's a lot of work that needs to be done for my job. But I'm finishing up for the day and am going out tonight to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I'm excited that I get to spend it out here. It's not Ireland, but pretty darned close! There's tons of Irish in London.

Walking around London today

Last night I spent time with Margo's friends Giles and Julie. It was a fun time of conversation and hanging out. We went to a place in London called 'The Light Bar'. It is a converted electrical plant/warehouse. It had a cool atmosphere. Afterwards we went to another bar, but I don't remember the name of it. It was just a standard place. Nothing to write home about, or in this case, nothing to blog about. But Margo, Giles and I had a great time conversing. Julie couldn't make it. Giles offered to cook dinner for everyone this Thursday night. I hope that works out, it'd be fun.


(rebuilt Globe Theatre)

I've spent this morning and early afternoon walking all over London. I am so fascinated by the history here. I started off walking across London Bridge. From London Bridge you can see the Thames River (obviously) and the Tower Bridge. London Bridge is the boring one. It is not attractive or unusual in the slightest, but the Tower Bridge is the famous distinctive looking one. After crossing the bridge, I saw the Southwark Cathedral. It is the oldest Gothic church in London. It started out as a convent in 606 AD. Next I walked to along the river and saw the Globe Theatre as it has recently been reconstructed to it's original form. This was the theatre where Shakepeare's plays where performed. I then walked across the new Millennium Bridge. It's only for pedestrians and it is a pretty cool work of art. I stumbled across a church named St. Bride's Church and they had an underground tomb area that you could see. It was amazing. Especially because there was an actual Roman walkway in there from when the Romans occupied London, or Londinium as they called it. If you want more information on the Roman occupation around 50 AD, check it out here.

Sidenote: I'm writing from a wine bar in the financial district of London. There are all these fancy pants English here in their nice and pretty suits talking business. While I'm here slumming it in my jeans. Right now there is a boss two of his employees and it's so obvious that he is the boss and they are sucking up to him. They couldn't even decide what to drink until he made a decision. Ha. It's funny to observe. I do like the British suits and ties. It's very cool. I need to get a suit, shirt, and tie like that. They do dress sharp here.

I then went and checked out the Museum of London. I walked through it briskly because I didn't want to spend all day there. Near the museum is remains of the old Roman wall that surrounded central London.

Tonight two more people that I met in San Francisco back in 2002, Chris and Justine, are cooking dinner. They are making a Moroccan meal for us. Should be heaps of fun.

Tomorrow I am spending the entire day traveling to Stonehenge and Bath.

I've got plenty of pictures up. Be sure to check them out.

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Working day in London

Today I will mostly be catching up on work. Even though I am on vacation, I planned to spend some time working to help pay for the trip and also just because the work needs to be done whether I'm in London or not. I went back to Hoxton's Kitchen and Bar this morning to see if the internet would work on my laptop and sure enough, it does! As I've said earlier, I really like this place. During the day, it's a low-key artsy hang out place and at night it's a popular night spot. So, I've staked out my working space next to an electrical outlet for my laptop and I'll be here for a bit.



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Leaving Vienna today

I'm currently in the Vienna Airport waiting to board our flight back to London. Vienna airport has free wi-fi (wireless internet connection). I wish more airports did this. After hanging out a bit at Sparky's last night, Margo and I went to have a cappucino at the oldest cafe in Vienna. We have Starbuck's in America, but we don't really have the tradional 'cafe' as they do in Europe. I love cafes. People just sit around and chat with their cappucino's or perhaps wine and smoke and talk. I dunno, we do the same thing in America I suppose at different locations, but it just seems so much more interesting observing the way Europeans hang out. This cafe we went to is named Cafe Frauenhuber and Mozart used to entertain guests there. They are really into Mozart over here. He's everywhere.



After the cafe, we headed on over to have an authentic Viennese meal at a very popular and famous restaurant called {insert name here}. There was an older gentlemen playing an instrument which I cannot recall the name of. I've got a short video clip of it on my buzznet account under my videos. It sat on his table and he strummed it. Like a mini-harpsichord? Beethoven and Mozart and Phil Collins have all signed their names on the ceiling in a room of this famous restaurant.

After dinner we went back to Morgan's from the night before because I had told George that I would try to come back. We decided to stay for just one drink. George and Cosma were there and after a bit George really wanted to do tequila shots. Not wanting to offend, I obliged. Margo left because she was not feeling well and I stayed and had shots with George and Cosma. I also met another Austrian there named Martin. He is a paramedic here in Vienna. He said that he had been to the states once and had visited Los Angeles on some sort of international exchange progam where he worked as a paramedic in L.A. He said that he was shocked that they were required to wear bullet proof vests while working. He had never seen or heard of such a thing. Only in America. :) George is going to the local Vienna University and studying religion and teaching. He said he wants to be a positive influence for the next generation. George taught me the proper ways to say thank you and you're welcome in Austria. I also learned that the popular energy drink, 'Red Bull' is from Austria. I did not know that. Did you? After doing a couple of more shots that George would not let me pay for, George really wanted me to follow him to another bar for more drinks. I simply could not, I knew that we had a tour early the next morning and I wanted to get a decent rest. So George left myself and Cosma as the only remaining people in the bar. Cosma was watching Columbo on TV since there wasn't much to do behind the bar. She said she loved Columbo and Peter Faulk was her favorite actor. And I could actually see the admiration in her eyes as she watched him. It was 1:00 AM and everyone had gone home. I finished my huge glass of water as I was trying not to get sick and then took a taxi back home. I got up today feeling just fine and ready to go on the tour we had planned.

We took a guided bus tour this morning of the city of Vienna and we also got out to walk around in a famous summer home for Vienna monarchy in the past. The palace was beautiful and extravagant. I was facinated to see the history of the place and how well they had preserved it. We had one last authentic Viennese meal at a restaurant near the hotel and thus concludes our trip to Austria. It was a first for both Margo and myself. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to see this beautiful place and soak in its culture and history.

Back to London!

Cheers (they say 'Cheers' in Austria too)

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It's snowing in Vienna!

My trip to London/Vienna is going great. I have not had as much access to internet as I thought I would, but I have been uploading some photos from my phone that show up in the right sidebar automatically. I am writing this from an 'American' restaurant in downtown Vienna called Sparky's. I know, it's horrible, I should be at an authentic place, but this is the only location I found that provides free wireless access in downtown Vienna. So, I'm just taking a break from the brisk cold to write an update on my trip.

I left Wednesday evening and took a Virgin Atlantic flight to London. It was a 10 hour flight and I tried to sleep through the night on the plane, but it was difficult. I arrived in London on Thursday afternoon and after taking the train from Heathrow into the city, I met up with my friend Margo at her apartment in the 'East End' of London. I was very proud of myself in quickly finding the correct route on the 'tube' (English word for subway) and taking the correct train transfers. We headed straight off to go see a local popular band play at a club called 93 Feet East. Apparently, they are very popular over here and tickets had to be purchased months in advance. Margo called ahead and the person on the phone told her that there just so happened to be some spare tickets that we could get if we hurried over. We did hurry over right away, but when we got there the box office was closed and there was a long queue. (They say 'queue' instead of the word 'line') It's typical in London for there to be queues for everything. So we waiting in line in the cold and when we arrived inside, of course, they were sold out. They also knew nothing of the previous phone conversation where they told us there were extra tickets. The promoter for the club came up and informed us that we had to leave because there were no available tickets. Margo begged and pleaded, but he would not budge. Somehow we started talking about me and how I was from Los Angeles and the promoter and I started getting into a friendly conversation about film making and the Los Angeles area. He told me that he too had been working on a 'mockumentary' and we exchanged email addresses. He then allowed us to get through even though just earlier he had said there was absolutely no more availability for the show. And we didn't even have to pay!



Here's the band's website. They were quite good. http://www.therifles.co.uk

Here's the club website. http://www.93feeteast.co.uk

The next day I was so messed up with the time zone change and not having slept the night before that I mistakenly slept until 2:00 PM. I wanted to spend the day trying to find some good wireless spots in the neighborhood before heading out to Vienna the next day. I did find a cool place that was supposed to have access and it did for most of the people there, but for some reason, it didn't work on my computer. But in the process I discovered a cool neighborhood called Hoxton Square. The restaurant/pub was called Hoxton's Kitchen and Bar. Very cool and creative crowd. I recommend it when you're in town. Friday night we met up at the pub after Margo got off work. She was meeting friends from work who were gathering there to say goodbyes to a girl that was leaving the company that day. I ended up having some interesting conversations with a guy from their work, but I can't remember his name.

Saturday we flew out of London on Austria Airlines on a 2 1/2 hour flight to Vienna, Austria. We arrived at the hotel by around 5:00 PM and went to a restaurant nearby that the hotel doorman promised was authentic Austrian. It turned out to be a Czech restaurant, but they said the food was very similar. I had turkey with cheese on it. That was probably the 'safest' dish on the menu. I don't think I'm a fan of most German/Austrian type food. Afterwards, we went out to the downtown area of Vienna and walked around. It is an amazing city. Such beautiful architecture and it has a small town village feeling even though it is such a large city. We went to Sparky's after a bit for a drink because I had heard they had free wireless and I wanted to confirm. On the waitress's recommendation, we checked out a couple of dance clubs afterwards. They were packed and a much younger crowd, but I went dancing anyways. Can you find me in the picture? :)




Finally after dancing just a bit we discovered a more relaxed pub called Morgan's and had a couple of drinks there. The bartenders were so nice and friendly there and since it wasn't packed that much, we got to have some conversations and exchange email addresses. I met Joseph and Cosma. Joseph has been to California before and Cosma is studying graphic and web design. When you're in Vienna next, check out Morgan's and say hi to Joseph and Cosma for me. They'll treat you well.

And today we've been walking around downtown Vienna taking pictures and enjoying the city. I've spent too much time here at Sparky's but I wanted to upload my photos and write this entry. Be sure to check back for new entries and new photos. The photos will show up automatically on the right sidebar even if I don't write new blog entries.

You can always go straight to my photos by going here: http://trevoray.buzznet.com

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Off to San Diego, then London and Vienna!

I'm on my way out the door to San Diego for the weekend. It is a working weekend as I will be working for one of my main clients at a convention they are holding. It will be very long hours and I have to actually dress up. I'm used to just working in the PJ's, but not this weekend. Also, as soon as I get back next week, I am flying out to London for about 10 days to visit some friends I made a few years back while staying in a hostel in San Francisco. Margo, Chris, and Justine. I'm also going to take another trip to Vienna, Austria during that time for a weekend. So, should be fun. This will be my first 'proper' vacation ever. So, I'm pretty excited. I've done lots of extended weekend trips and but never more that a few days. I'm going to try to post regularly with pictures once I get overseas. I'm sure I can find some wireless cafes. So, be sure to check regularly, especially starting at the end of next week.