Sleep Spent

Haven’t met up with anybody yet. Walked along the south bank of the Thames today, saw much of Southwark. There was an exhibit of aerial photography, one which I had seen two years ago with Jordan and Rob in Brussels. It was really stunning, even the second time around. I swear some of the pictures were new, anyway.

Then I walked around SOHO to see Pride. It’s much smaller, much more low-key than SF Pride, but I suppose that’s to be expected. Found a card for Megan A. that’s pretty funny.

Finished my book on the OED. Sadly, the British Library doesn’t appear to have a copy. I don’t really understand that; they’re the national research library, for chrissakes! I was looking forward to reading the prefaces to some of the pieces published before the dictionary was complete.

Took in a screening of a collection of shorts. It’s part of a show, I believe, called Straight 8. They say they’re bringing it to San Francisco later this year. Interesting concept, involving the filmmakers not seeing what they have before they send it in. And they have to provide a soundtrack separately! So they don’t know if they’ll even sync up. There were some really good shorts.

Wandered around a bunch and then took in The Last Mitterand, a movie about the death of the French President. It was good, I think. I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I knew more about French history in the WWII time period, since that’s what much of the story centered around, questions from that era. I liked it, though.

No response from any of the people I had banked on meeting with here. If this persists, I may just head out to see Brian on Tuesday when my time at the hostel exipres. (Very nice hostel, by the way. Very big. It used to be some sort of meeting hall for the Masons or something, judging by the placards on all the room doors. Doing much better service as a hostel, I’d say.)

Gosh, it’s late. I’m going to go rack out.

I’m here, all safe and sound. I started The Meaning of Everything on the way over, and I’m nearly finished with it. (About 30 pages to go.) It’s all about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary. I’m really enjoying it, and not just because I love to learn etymologies. It’s a fascinating story, and told in an immensely readable fashion. Going to head over to the British Library tomorrow, I think, and see if I can’t take a look at an old copy of the OED, or possibly even one of the first printings. (That stretched out over something like 40 years.)

You know how when you learn a new word, you end up seeing it used again somewhere unrelated right away? Well, that happened to me today, in spades. Winchester talks a lot about philology, and what do I find at the British Museum, but a discussion of ancient texts/languages as they related to the Enlightenment, specifically mentioning philology. And that wasn’t all: I also saw numismatist used. And, the coup de grâce, I even saw hieratic used in the same Museum exhibit! (You will recall that this is the word I found used in The Magus and then found referenced in the OED.) It was the more technical definition, though: “Constituting or relating to a simplified cursive style of Egyptian hieroglyphics, used in both sacred and secular writings.” But I still give Fowles and the OED props for introducing me to this word.

Of course, it wasn’t quite perfect. Winchester kept repeating a couple words I didn’t know (polymathic and inchoate), and I haven’t seen them used elsewhere yet. But the day is young. After all, I switched time zones.

I also found two factual inconsistencies in the book. But it’s a good read anyway!

Right, so, British Museum so far. Now blogging to stay awake. It’s 15:30, I’ve told myself I’m not going to go to bed before 19:00. Sadly, I’m much to tired to catch the Posies, who happen to be playing tonight.

Tomorrow, I plan to hit up the British Library. And there’s something called SOHO Pride here tomorrow, so I’ll probably stop by there. And then I’ve got a movie ticket to see part of the short film festival in the evening. And then Monday night, I aim to see The Producers.

The hostel seems quite nice, and is much larger than I had anticipated. Here’s hoping that will translate into a better chance of meeting some cool people.

In case anyone was worried or wondering, I haven’t seen anything different about the people or their habits here. There’s just as many of them crowding Picadilly Circus and the Tube. Everyone seems to have quickly gotten back to business. Makes me feel a lot better, too.

I’m going to head out Brian’s way either on Tuesday or Wednesday; I haven’t decided yet.

Watch this space.

Sorry for the messy table; it’s the way United gives it to me. Here’s my itinerary, going and coming. I’m waitlisted on two outbound flights, one of which leaves only 5 minutes earlier and is nonstop. If I get the chance to go on that one, I will.

	Airline/status	Dates	Class/seats
	San Francisco California (SFO) to J F K New York (JFK) Fri, Jul 29
	United Airlines 0076 Flight: Confirmed	Jul 29 12:15 PM depart SFO Jul 29 08:50 PM arrival JFK	Cabin: United Economy Seat: 21A Fare Basis Code: XY Booking class: XY Fare Rules
	J F K New York (JFK) to London Heathrow (LHR) Fri, Jul 29
	United Airlines 0904 Flight: Confirmed	Jul 29 09:30 PM depart JFK Jul 30 09:25 AM arrival LHR	Cabin: United Economy Seat: 31J Fare Basis Code: XY Booking class: XY Fare Rules
	London Heathrow (LHR) to San Francisco California (SFO) Tue, Aug 9
	United Airlines 0955 Flight: Confirmed	Aug 09 10:05 AM depart LHR Aug 09 01:05 PM arrival SFO	Cabin: United Economy Seat: 37A Fare Basis Code: XY Booking class: XY Fare Rules

60 gigs of joy. And check out that fantastic engraving.

Sorry that took so long, kids. It was a path issue.

Anyway, it’s fixed now. So you can now stay on top of my infrequent random musings.