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My update frequency has gone down in the last few weeks, mostly because I’ve been busy working and doing real life stuff.

I travelled to Washington, DC on the weekend of the 11^th. I discovered the hard way that if you show up 20 minutes before a train is about to leave in the US, you’ll pay $400 for a return ticket.

Washington is a nice city to see. It some great free museums, a clean Subway and a few nifty landmarks. Despite this it’s still hotter than NYC and will cause dehydration if you stay outside for any length of time.

I visited The White House, The Lincon Memorial, The Smithsonian Institute (which contained a Jim Henson exhibit) and the National Air and Space Museum. Fun was had in all places and I’d like to spend more time in the Air&Space Museum.

On Saturday evening I witnessed my first baseball game. I wasn’t particularly impressed. The Astros (2nd worst team) played the Nationals (the worst team) in the poorer of the two leagues. It seemed that the crowd had to be engaged at every possible moment, if things dulled down on the pitch the crowd were instructed to clap, cheer, “root“, stand, sing, dance or make general fools of themselves. Hannah explained that the US has ADD, and with such entertainment being a constant climax of stimulation it’s not hard to see why or how.

On Monday I visited a nice French restaurant for Agnès’ birthday & a Bastille Day celebration. After I left I went back to the office for a few more beers with my bosses. Around 2am we left and went to find food/beer. We wound up in an Irish Pub called Muldoons. It turned out that I knew the barman, he was the guy who invited us back to the recording studio/loft a few weeks back. We stayed until we got kicked out.

Nothing interesting happened on Tuesday or Wednesday, that I can remember.

On Thursday night, at Midnight, I went to see the new Batman Movie, along with the two Chris’, Edgar and Sven. It was pretty damn good.

Friday Morning I wandered off to the H.O.P.E. conference (Hackers on Planet Earth) run by the 2600 people. I’ve read the 2600 magazine as often as I can for over 5 years now and I’ve been listening to Off the Hook and Off the Wall weekly for over a year. Out of all the tech based media outlets available 2600 provides (in my opinion) the greatest mixes of tech, political and privacy issues; blended with a great sense of humour. It may not be as technically in-depth as others, but it more than makes up for it, due to the fun attitude that goes along with the articles/discussions/talks.

I met a bunch of cool people at the confrence, everyone from speakers to vendors, organisers to security guards, press people to attendees; and everyone inbetween. I learnt some useful skills, got some free stuff, discovered some things I never knew existed and had alot of fun.

Despite the conference, Friday night consisted of another trip to the Mars Bar, and on Saturday Night we celebrated Agnès’ birthday again, in a nice trendy bar called Tribe. The music was OK (a bit loud) and the place was small, but there was nothing obnoxious about it that would turn me away. A fun night was had by all.

I saw one cockroach this last 12 days on Wall St (outside the Exhange).