Yes, I'm still alive.

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Sorry I haven't had much (anything) to say for a while.  I've been terribly busy on a number of things that it won't take a genius to guess about.

So what's been going on?  Well, I'm very excited about the XBox 360 and it's built in Media Center Extender.  There will definitely be one of those next to my TV later this year.  With the XBox 360 there I might just move the Media Center PC away from the TV and hide it out of the way somewhere.  That will simplify the connections around the TV and reduce my ambient nosie level a bit.  Although I only actually notice that PC when it's on and I'm not watching TV which isn't that often as it's normally asleep.  Ideally I'd like to place an XBox 360 in bedroom along with a nice big thin flat display but a bunch of money is going to have to appear from somewhere for that to happen, I've already blown most of my disposable income on a new PC and display (I got one of the new Dell 24" displays and it's a beautiful thing) and that's ignoring my expensive hobbies of photography and world travel.

I spent almost a month away from work travelling the world which was great fun.  I first went to Amsterdam for a day where I got to spend the day with my Mum (with me living in Seattle and her in England we don't see eachother that often).  Then I flew to Delhi where I joined Intrepid Travel's Delhi to Kathmandu trip.  I've traveled with Intrepid before and I continue to recommend them to anyway looking for a trip that's a bit different.  I like that when I travel with them there's a set itinerary but there's plenty of time to do what I want to.  I could talk about my travel philosophy for hours so I won't get started here, but it's something I'm very passionate about.  This trip was really great.  I got to see the Taj Mahal for a start and to really experience India.  It wasn't without it's low points though, I did at one point end up in a hospital in Nepal suffering from food poisoning and dehydration.  That wasn't a lot of fun and wasn't made any better by being in a bus crash the next day.  Thankfully nobody was injured and it didn't really cause us any problems.  That's what makes travelling fun though.  The experiences and the unexpected.  The trip came to and end in Kathmandu and I stayed on in the city for a few days before flying to Bangkok and Taipei alone.  I could write pages (and perhaps I will one day) on the whole trip, but for now I'll leave you with the photos.

Just after getting back from that trip I flew to Chicago for the weekend.  Chicago is too close for an overnight flight to be good.  I don't function that well on three hours of sleep.  I did have a great time in the city though, it was the first time I'd gone there and left the airport.  My dad flew in from England for the weekend as well and showed me around as he's been there before.  I went to the U2 concert while I was there which was incredible.  They put on an awesome show.  My dad didn't come to the show with me so I made it up to him by taking him to see a Cubs game at Wrigley field.  He knew we were going but thought we had terrible seats, that was something I'd lead him to believe as in reality our seats were in the third row behind home plate and I wanted to surprise him - there a stitch of the view from our seats here.

OK, back to work...

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