I'd like to begin with yet another brilliant addition to my awesome Sblagh. This entry is called

Daniel's amazing Protective Palisade of Puns and proscriptive pratfalls (to ward off any untoward advances from the opposite sex)

I am a budding photographer



who stalks the English Countryside

in search of shots. I also frequently various pubs and restaurants. Very quickly, I discovered

there was a similarity between the most famous river that runs through Oxford and belligerent American tourists. After a very short while, I couldn’t stand much more of Thame.

The Thames is extremely beautiful in London, but in Oxford it kind of looks like this. I kid you not. No, that isn't just an out of focus picture.

The worst thing about Oxford is that girls never leaf attractive half-asian American tourists alone.


It's berry annoying.

In fact, the enjoyment of the rest of my trip Stone Henges on my ability to ward them off, which is why I created this blog.

Prices in Oxford sure are steeple.


This cathedral in Bath was really the boss.

There's been a lot of debate in city council recently whether to try to save people...

or to kill them. In the left hand corner it says that they are "working for you". Working to kill you more like.


Purty Purty Flower.
That's not a flower!!!
It's a spacestation.


I haven't played Organ Trail since elementary school (well that might not be entirely true)


Apparently this homeowner paid a bunch of seagulls to guard his house.

They perform their service admirably. They also poop on it for free.




They aren’t very original with their fences in England. While most places have a nice mixture of chicken wire fences, barbed wire fences, chain link fences, palisades, roundpole fences, etc, most of England’s fences are made of wrought iron. It really is getting un-bear-ably boring. Oh snap, that was like a two parter. Yep, I went there.

Sometimes all this pork we have for breakfast gets me really steamed when i'm dumpling.

British people often use water to dilute (cuz like, "di" is like, the prefix that means two)their alcohol. Ok, that's all I got.

I know, I know, there were a bunch of humorous captions that weren't puns at all. Whatever, vast and dedicated readership. Whatever. I'll post whatever I want and call it whatever I want.

After receiving dozens of letters bemoaning my lack of good old “I tell you what I’m doing with much attention to the order, location, and intensity of events” (I can’t even imagine how much you paid for postage) I suppose I’ll try to give you an idea of what my week is like. Breakfast is at 8, and lasts until 8:30 when we make our way to class. It consists of fried tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns, eggs, sausage, and bacon (that is, ham). My first class is Translating the Anglo-Saxons. It is taught by this friendly old medievalist who is kind of like a less-severe version of Professor McGonagall. That lasts until 9:30. Tea time is from 9:30 to 10:00, we have a lecture (covering various topics related to this year’s theme which is “Early and Medieval Britain: From the Romans to the Coming of the Tudors”). At 11:15, I have a Canterbury Tales class. That lasts until 12:15, and lunch is at 12:30. At 1:15 I have my Shakespeare class. I normally do reading (either for class or for fun) or sleep until 7:00, which is dinner time. On certain days, we have High Table, a formal event normally reserved for dons and their guests. Pretty much we all have to dress up formally and go eat delicious three course meals. I got a pretty sweet getup. For your viewing pleasure, I took a picture of myself in the mirror.

I know, right?

On Wednesday our group went to see Henry IV: Part 1 at the recreated Globe Theater (the theater built by Shakespeare's company in 1599) in London. It was awesome. On Wednesday our Shakespeare class also stayed to see Henry IV: Part 2. It totally sucked. It wasn't that the second play sucked, it just wasn't very good. Also, the seats were un-bear-ably uncomfortable and practically nothing happened in the play (there are in my understanding 2 plot points. 1-Henry IV dies and 2-Hal rejects Falstaff in the closing scene). To be fair, the actors were great (the vast majority of them were carryovers from Part 1), the production was excellent (they had a number of musicians playing various 16th century instruments), and the space was amazing.

About the space.

The Globe is a sort of Ampitheatre with probably three levels of bleacher style, covered box seats that curve around the edge of the stage. There is a large open space in the center of the Globe (standing room only). The stage has a number of elegant columns that look like marble though they are actually made of painted wood (the architectural term for when an object is made of a material that imitates another material is a skeuomorph, how's that for word of the day). We got covered box seats, but most of the crowd stood on the ground level. Some even leaned their arms and heads on the front and sides of the stage. I guess I should be thankful that we got the seats we did because during the second half of Part 1, it started to pour. Crowds of people flocked to the partially covered areas at the edges of the Globe while those that stayed in the open area quicked put on rainjackets and ponchos. A few intrepid souls just stood in the pouring rain getting absolutely drenched. It was kind of amusing watching the actors trying to maintain the attention of the crowd through the constant, loud, splatting sounds of raindrops hitting plastic ponchos and jackets. Another interesting structural detail. The stage is rectangular except for a small pointed triangle near that juts off the rectangle into the middle of the crowd (for soliloquys and the like). This part of the stage isn't covered. As a result, actors who had the misfortune of being blocked on that little triangle got soaked. Did I mention that there were no microphones? The actors were practically screaming their lungs out in an attempt to project through the wall of water.

During the interim, myself and a couple of friends went to a tasty Portugese restaurant. I had spicy rice and a chicken panini. It was very tasty. You know, I think i'll just not talk about the second part of the play

Ok, so Henry IV is a history play about how the Northern kingdoms (led by Owen Glendower, the Welsh leader, the Earl of Worcester, the Earl of Northumberland and his son Hotspur) rebelled against the titular character. There is a bunch of tension between Henry, Hal (his son), and Hotspur. Hal has been chilling with a bunch of commoners (a major no-no for the Prince of Wales) including the jovial Falstaff, and spends most of the play proving to his father that he is worthy of the throne. Hotspur is a hotheaded, reknowned soldier who acts as the counterpoint to Hal throughout the play and the main object of Henry IV's affections (for some reason Henry always praises Hotspur for being courageous and manly despite the fact that Hotspur is the leader of the rebellion). This of course makes Hal jealous, and he finally takes to the battlefield, saves his father from the vicious warrior Douglas, and kills Hotspur. There are a number of interesting things about the play.
1-Hal's interaction with Falstaff
2-Hal's interaction with his Father

In the first Act, Hal gives his famous soliloquy, stating that he was only chilling with Falstaff and company at taverns to lower the expectations of everyone else. Lowered expectations will make his return to power and nobility even more spectacular. However, it is a long while til this plan of Hal's comes to fruition (it only is fully manifested in the last scene of Henry IV: Part 2). In any case, throughout the play, Hal's interactions are tainted by the audience's awareness that he is constantly manipulating. Instead of a son who is seeking the approval of his father, he is actually a selfish, manipulating jerk. Actually, screw all this analysis part. I could just talk to you about it in person if you're interested (not likely).

The actors were great (except for Lady Percy. She totally sucked). In an extremely interesting interpretation, Hotspur was a manic bundle of nervous energy, marked by pacing, insecurity, and shaking. While normally portrayed as a dominant military figure that acts as a grounding point for everyone else (he is unwaveringly hotheaded, he always speaks his mind, and he likes fight), this actor's performance made Hotspur into the central character. Falstaff, of course, was extremely prominent as well. The actor playing him had a wonderful ability to both literally (he was very heavily padded) and figuratively fill up the stage. He was extremely funny. Hal was played well despite a number of, in my opinion, interpretive mishaps. Anyway, the first three hours of Shakespeare were great. The next three, not so much. It was worth it though. It was a very satisfying trip. London's skyline is beautiful at night (despite the Erotic Gherkin), the weather was amazingly clear (despite the brief, intense period of rain in Part One), and most importantly, I had a delicious dinner that brimmed with spices and flavor.

Hrm. I kind of ran out of stuff to say. Ok, vast and dedicated readership. Is there anything you want me to write about? Message me if you have any requests. You know, I probably should have put this at the beginning of the post. No way in H-E-double hockey sticks is anyone going to make it through this monster. Oh by the way, here is a picture of the Erotic Gherkin. Thank you so much Norman Foster, Ken Shuttleworth, and Arup Engineers.

Even though it looks like a phallus, it's more like an architectural fail-lus. Shut up, I know.

This just came in...

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/07/16/lin.andrews/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1

For those of you that don't know, Jeremy Lin went to one of the CCIC churches that my home church is affiliated with. I got the opportunity to play basketball with him at youth retreats and to watch one of his games when he played at Harvard. It's pretty exciting seeing him go so far. I mean, having an article on NBA.com? That's crazy!!