VERY IMPORTANT WARNING

Someone is sending email with large (and virus-suspect) attachments, spoofing one of my mailboxes as the From address. First of all, this is not the first I've heard of this practice, and it seems to be spreading: be especially suspicious of any strange looking attachments in mail from anyone. Secondly, I very seldom send large attachments, so if you receive mail from me with any sort of executable file attached, or any attachment larger than about 10K, check that I really sent it, because in all probability I didn't.

posted @ 1:16 PM -

flirt love box and the Nigerians

Many people are finding me on Google searches for flirt love box, and a few by searching for the ubiquitous Nigerian scams. Partly by way of explaining myself, and partly because it might actually be useful to the people who are looking, I ought to point out that there is a good reason for this. About a month ago I received both of scams in my email, and posted the full text of the Nigerian one, because it was a beautiful thing, and an outline of the flirt-love-box one because it made me laugh. Because of the way I've done my archives (I know how to fix this, but I have more pressing things to do), Google takes you to the current page, even if what you searched for matches one of the old pages, so I'll provide a fresh link: if you can be bothered to read it, my original post is here.

posted @ 5:00 AM -

That's a relief. I don't actually need a NZ work visa before I get there; I can enter the country as a tourist, and that gives me 3 months to either upgrade to a work visa or leave. One less thing to worry about for now.

posted @ 10:39 AM -

Now that I am actually making my plans concrete, I'm acting at high speed. I've just booked my GRE, and now I'm sorting out my work visa for NZ. In the process I was very pleased by what I found written on the homepage of the New Zealand Immigration Service:

Haere mai raa, e te manuhiri tuuaarangi.
Welcome to the guest from afar.

'He manga wai koia kia kore e whitikia'
'Make light of difficulties and they will disappear'

I presume the first line of each pair is the same as the second, in Maori. I wish immigration services of more countries projected an image like that....

posted @ 9:13 AM -

The FCO has recently downgraded its warning about travel to Afghanistan. It's still a pretty strong discouragement against going on anything other than essential business, but the fact that it says anything other than abandon hope all ye who enter here (which is a reasonable paraphrase of the previous warning) is a positive sign about the country's stabilisation. A long road ahead, but at least this is a sign of progress....

posted @ 6:36 PM -

Now that I've started actually making plans for September - January I'm getting excited about it. Over the weekend Peter & I (he'll be with me for the first part of my journey, and he was in Dartmoor with us) sketched roughly what we'll do for September, and yesterday I started to flesh out October. It's all becoming real, and looking like I might actually make it.

A surprising number of people (considering that I'm ending up doing roughly what I had in mind 18 months ago, even though I entertained and then rejected various other ideas in between) are surprised when I tell them that I'm going on more than a long holiday. I guess part of the reason is that most of my off-line friends never read this page, seeming to consider it somehow beneath them (it's not like I cry myself to sleep over this, but it does annoy me a little, especially when they then express surprise at what I've been up to), but even so I think I'll take this opportunity to outline my plans here.

The most important thing, which I have told everyone close to me again and again but everyone without exception seems to forget occasionally is that I am not going on a trip away with a planned return date to the UK. I am leaving the UK, and I may never live in Europe again. If I do come back to the UK, the earliest will be autumn 2003, and that is pretty unlikely. There's a good chance I'll move back to familiar territory when I have my PhD, but that means 4 - 7 years from now. That alone should explain why I've been planning this in my mind for so long, and why it's so important to me at this late stage to get the planning right.

I had at various stages entertained plans that were never executed, and which I told some people about and never got around to mentioning others. I was considering going to Sierra Leone to teach ICT to former child soldiers. The group who were organising this don't seem to have got their act together, but the main reason I didn't follow this through was fear for my safety. I still think it would be a very good thing to do, but it seems to involve too high a risk of ending up as the hostage of some rebel group with more guns than sense; otherwise I would have pursued this idea and made it happen, even if I had to spend a few months in Britain or Norway first. My other big idea was to crew boats and see if I could wend my way to New Zealand via Panama and the Pacific islands. I still romantically like that idea, but I think the solitude of the open water would become monotonous after a few weeks, and it seems like a missed opportunity to see many cultures and ways of life.

What I am actually doing is travelling overland as far as Singapore, and then getting to New Zealand via Sydney. I intend to spend September in Eastern Europe (specifically some or all of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania & Latvia - I suspect I won't see all of those places in the time I have), October travelling across Russia and Mongolia (Moscow - Beijing via Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Ulaan Uday & Ulaan Baatar), November travelling across China (itinerary still very vague, but to include Xian, Shanghai & Hong Kong if at all possible - I'd like to see the Takla Makan as well, but I think I'll leave Western China until Afghanistan is more stable, at which point I'd like to visit the Turkic republics of central Asia and incorporate Xinjiang in that trip), and December in some out of Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia & Australia. I want to be in a non-christian country for Christmas (just because Christmas Day would be mighty dull and somewhat depressing in any place that shuts down as much for it as Britain), but in Sydney by the New Year, partly because it looks pretty spectacular, and partly to meet up with my Québecoise friend in a third continent. It looks at the moment like I'll be flying from Jakarta to Sydney towards the end of December.

Then, early in January, I want to get to New Zealand, and stay with my friends there until I can find a job, at which point I'll move to whichever city I can find a tolerable but not too demanding job in. I want to have weekends free so I can actually travel within the country, and this is meant to be a break between the intellectual challenge and intense workload I'm experience now, and a similar challenge on a PhD later in 2003. I just need to earn enough money to be able to afford to stay in New Zealand indefinitely; if I can save some up so much the better, but NZ is not the place to go with that objective - I've been warned that pay won't match UK levels, though the cost of living is apparently very low.

In September or October 2003 I want to be starting my PhD, because while I'm in no great hurry I don't want to procrastinate forever. There's a better than evens chance I'll find myself in the USA - either New England or California - and failing that I'm still unlikely to study in the UK. Hence why if I do live in the UK again it's unlikely to be within 4 years - that's a year of not studying, followed by a minimum of 3 years on a PhD, up to 6 if I'm in the States.

I still have a lot to do to make this a reality, but the last few days have seen major parts fall into place, and it's a great feeling. August is not going to be a fun month for me (6 day weeks, long hours, and evenings spent applying for PhDs), but I think this anticipation will keep me going.

posted @ 6:33 PM -

it's too hot to sleep

posted @ 8:33 PM -

An announcement

I've just gone through my inbox deleting emails that I might have one day acted on, based on the realisation that I must ditch as many non-essential tasks as possible if I'm to stand a chance of leaving the country in September, let alone on the 9^th as intended. My Inbox has shrunk from 210 messages to 48, many of which are things like peoples' addresses that I just need to file. Hopefully this should give you some sort of idea of how hard I'm trying to cut down my commitments.

If you are one of the few people who reads this page and knows me in the real world, please bear this in mind: there is no point asking me to do anything unselfish at all any more. If anyone asks me to give up any of my time for anything that does not help me towards my three goals of handing in a damn good MSc thesis, travelling extensively straight afterwards, and getting myself a place on a worthwhile PhD programme with a good supervisor in a place where I'd like to live, the answer is 'no'. I just don't have the time.

I can't remember the last night (except in Montréal, but that's another story) when I actually slept enough. I can't remember the last night (anywhere) when I actually went to bed at the hour I set out to. This needs to change, urgently.

posted @ 6:42 PM -

time has run out on another day. I need several more hours in every day between now and the end of August than I have. I am getting very concerned about how I can possibly arrange my trip for the end of the year and apply for PhDs and hand in a decent project. For now, smaller things are having to slip. Another trip's photos are on my hard drive but not online....

posted @ 6:04 PM -

Dartmoor was lots of fun. More later (hopefully with pictures)

posted @ 3:26 PM -