Erik’s Blog

Favorite shoes are a funny thing. I remember vivid details of the stores where I buy my favorite shoes. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps because, once I realize how great the shoes are, I imagine myself going back to buy more, because good comfortable shoes are hard to find and worth stocking up on if you find a brand and model that agrees with you. Of course I have yet to actually follow the whole process of 1) discover after a week or two that these are really great shoes, 2) make it back to the store, and 3) find and buy more pairs for when current pairs wear out.
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In our preparenthood nesting activities lately, we found ourselves rummaging through a bag that hasn’t been opened in several years. Among the odds and ends was a strange coin. It’s exactly the same size and shape as a 1€ coin. It must be some kind of token for a specific use inside an establishment. I never went to a casino in England, and I don’t even recall going to a video arcade, but it must be from a video arcade or some place with lots of coin-operated machines. Marga suggested that we could use it for shopping carts. For those of you who have never been to the supermarket in Europe, typically to get a shopping cart, you have to insert a coin into the cart you want to take. The coin insertion releases a chain that was preventing you from taking the cart. To get your coin back, you have to chain it back up. It’s a pretty good system, and not losing a euro is just the right amount of motivation to make someone who would abandon their cart be a good citizen and return their cart to the proper location.
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Another round of tilt-shifting has occurred. This time the photos come from my recent TUI Coventry post and some selections from an absolutely gorgeous set of photos that Hubbers took in Norway a couple weeks ago. You really should check out the entire set.
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It’s strange how memory works. This photo, by Hubbers, reminded me of the place where he and I used to work in Coventry, England. Rather unbelievably, it’s been four whole years since I worked there, so I suppose it’s okay to share these photos.

As far as offices go, TUI was pretty nice. A huge open atrium housed a canteen that quickly taught us to bring our own lunches from home, as well as a Starbucks-certified machine and barista. As I recall, towards the end of my contract, we had worked out a system where Hubbers would just jingle some change together, causing me to Pavlovianly stand up and head towards the atrium. He followed shortly after. The coffee was overpriced, but the break from the monotonous work was priceless.
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As I sit at my desk typing this, I’m facing east. This is why I’m often distracted by the sunset sirens callingmetophotographthem from the window behind me. When I was living in England, my desk faced south, and the sun would come in from a window in front of me. I miss that.

What follows are some photos from the archive bin taken on my desk in England, the first two in November of 2004, and the rest in March of 2005. (more…)

Moving from the US to the UK to Europe, which all use different shoe size metrics, means that when I’m shoe shopping and the shoe salesperson asks me what size I wear, I no longer have any idea what to say. I look like an idiot while I start examining my current shoes to find a size number, and, before I do, the shop attendant guesses by eye and leaves to bring me some shoes to try on.

Marga added some insoles to her favorite boots yesterday. Somehow, these insoles had followed us from the UK. The dotted lines intrigued me. So, while she was cutting the left foot, I stole the right and snapped a few photos. (more…)

What a bizarre coincidence. I just searched Flickr for the word "restaurant". Could there be a more common word? In fact, I have a theory, from my limited European travels, that it’s the word that’s most similar across many languages. Anyway, the second picture returned was this one:
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Occasionally I (hypothetically) download whatever movies have the strongest torrents. These are usually recently (or soon-to-be) released films that lots of people are currently downloading. Due to the nature of bittorrent, the more people are downloading the same thing, the faster everyone’s downloads are. Initially counter-intuitive, I know. Anyway, the other week, I (hypothetically) downloaded a movie I’d never heard of called Hot Fuzz.
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My father turned 58 on Saturday. Here’s a little Flickr tribute to him.
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In the Tate Modern art museum in London, they have these huge sculptures (?) that are slides like you’d find on any playground.
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