Stonehenge, a photo by tgreen8091 on Flickr.

What do Jack the Ripper, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Titanic, and the Loch Ness Monster all have in common?  I was fortunate enough to visit their respective “homes” on my recent London and British Isles trip.  I am used to visiting popular tourist sites of both national and global recognition, but these stops were unique because their character or legend is what makes them famous, not simply the site itself.  Even though this list contains a mix of fiction and non-fiction, I felt their fame and mystery merit the grouping.  To combine five of them on a single hop across the Atlantic was quite a thrill.

Jack the Ripper – Whitechapel District, London, England
I took an evening walking tour through the streets of the Whitechapel District, where Jack the Ripper is credited with the murders of 5 prostitutes in 1888.  Even though most of the architecture was fairly new due to the reconstruction after the WWII bombings, there was no obvious industrial or residential influence to give the area an active feel.  I think the area would have been terrifying back in 1888 while riddled with widespread poverty, but even the present-day winter (and, therefore, in the dark) tour would have been pretty frightening as well.

Harry Potter – King’s Cross, London, England
I rode the Underground to the King’s Cross station to try and push the luggage trolley through the wall at Platform 9 3/4.  Several other fans had the same idea and there was a line to take pictures that was just long enough to make it feel worthwhile, but not too long as to be frustrating.  It is not often when a fictional character is honored a physical memorial, so it was neat to visit this one.

Sherlock Holmes – 221b Baker Street, London, England
Just a ways down the line from King’s Cross was the Baker Street stop, and I was able to tour the retroactively-established residence of the world’s most famous detective.  Mr. Holmes is another character that has been introduced into reality with the installation of his Baker Street flat.  The skinny 4-story apartment is filled with period items and, in pure Victorian style, no air conditioning.

Titanic – Harland and Wolff Shipyard, Belfast, Northern Ireland
The RMS Titanic was constructed at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard from 1909 to 1911, and I was able to see large yellow cranes currently used for shipbuilding at this site while driving through the Port of Belfast.  I also went to the grounds of Belfast City Hall and found the Titanic Memorial, which was erected in 1920 and illustrates the importance of the ship to the city, as it had spent the majority of its life there.  After fascinating the masses for decades due to its failure, it was neat to visit the origin of the topic whose books occupied a sizable portion of real estate on my childhood bookshelves.

Loch Ness Monster – Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, Drumnadrochit, Scotland
I was able to explore Urquhart Castle, which is the location of most of the sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.  Unfortunately, Nessie did not make an appearance during my visit, but the souvenir shop had plenty of books exploring the mysterious “Surgeon’s Photograph” and other famous glimpses.  Even without viewing the monster, the castle and lake provided a gorgeous Scottish vista.

Three times in the past week I have seen strategy in baseball work, and it has come as a welcome relief as I near the end of my first year as a baseball fan.  About a year ago, I decided the sport was worth caring about.  There are not too many other exciting things happening in the sports world in the summertime, and the sport must be at least slightly interesting to earn the title of “America’s Pastime”.  I have watched/attended several professional and college games, learned to keep a scorecard, and read a few books, but I still hadn’t had much experience knowing what a team could do in a given situation, seeing it happen, and the team being rewarded for it.

The three scenarios I was glad to see were:

1. In the bottom of the 9th inning of the Reds-Phillies game last week (yes, the one that the Reds lost in 19), the game was tied 4 – 4, and the Phillies had runners on second and third with one out.  I have always heard that you should intentionally walk the batter to produce a force out at any base, and here the Reds did it successfully.  The next batter after the walk fouled out to set up a bases loaded, 2-out situation.  The following batter grounded to the shortstop, who made an easy toss to the second baseman for the force out at second to end the inning.  Without the bases loaded, there would have been no force out at second, and the resulting toss to first would have been much more difficult and error prone.
2. In the Cubs-Pirates game I attended at Wrigley Field on Sunday, the Cubs successfully executed a hit and run.  With a runner on first who is theoretically not fast enough to steal second, he took off for second during the pitch.  The batter swung way out of the strike zone simply to make contact with the ball to avoid an easy throw out at second and hit a grounder.  With the extra step, the runner made second easily, avoiding the double play, and the batter beat the throw to first.  This advanced a runner who would have been unable to steal and avoided the double play to result in a hit.  The Cubs did not end up scoring in this inning, but advancing the runner into scoring using the hit and run position majorly increased their chances of scoring, and it would probably be beneficial in future situations.
3. Earlier in this same Cubs-Pirates game with a man on 2nd, the Cubs batter performed a sacrifice bunt, being thrown out at first, but advancing the runner to third to result in the first out.  Now with less than two outs and a runner on third, the situation called for a sacrifice fly.  This exactly what the next batter did, hitting a fly deep enough to right to allow the runner from third to arrive home safely.  Though it took two outs to perform these two sacrifices in the bottom of the third inning, this ended up being the winning run as the Cubs held on in a scoreless remainder of the game for a 3-2 victory.

None of these three plays were highlight-reel-worthy, but they were all executed with purpose and proved successful.  I hope to continue to be able to pick out plays like these, and maybe even predict what teams will do in future situations.  Regardless, I am learning a lot about the game as I try to fully experience “America’s Pastime”.

In an effort to document my summer internship with CBS Interactive, I am going to start a list of 502 notes, in honor of my current area code.  There is a large chance I will never make it anywhere close to 502 items, and dropping the middle zero will provide a better estimate of total entries, but here goes nothing.

1. Downtown Louisville is totally empty on Derby Day.  This is great if you want to avoid traffic, but unfortunate if you want to be around excited people.  Or people at all.

2. Derby Day is treated as a state holiday, and therefore the public libraries are closed.  It is one of 8 days annually they are closed, and the first I attempted to visit.

3. It is fun to work in an office with higher-level corporate funding.  I showed up to the office today and they handed me a computer to set up out of a box and a telephone with my own work number.

4. I was greeted at my cubicle desk with a gator head, a gift from a co-worker and University of Florida graduate.  When he learned I was arriving from UK, apparently he couldn’t resist.

5. The KFC Yum! Center is not welcoming when you are touring during off-hours and with the arena lights turned off.  If a side door is unlocked though, there is no way I am not going to explore.

6. The Second Street bridge to Indiana is really long.  I walked across it just to say I did, and it took approximately 14 minutes one-way.  With the return trip necessary and my frequent stops for photos, this was a more time-extensive excursion than I had anticipated.

7. I had no idea what I was working on for most of my first day today, but somehow came away victorious.  After most of the others had left, I was able to follow some code models and successfully pull some info from a database just before bouncing.

8. I picked up my Louisville Free Public Library card today, and it fits nicely next to my Lexington Public Library card.  I may need another one soon though.  Owensboro?  Bowling Green?

9. Since I am in a different town than I have spent the entire rest of my life, I get excited every time I see someone wearing UK apparel, as if I were on vacation.  I have to quickly contain myself from commenting on their clothing as it is very normal to run into a Kentucky fan in… Kentucky.

10. I have passed several sports stores in malls and downtown and they all carry equal amounts of UK and U of L gear.  This seems pretty fair to me, but then I smile as I walk out remembering that sports stores do not carry U of L gear in Lexington.

More to follow.  Hopefully 492 of them.

It is all too easy to decide that you do not want to talk to anybody who isn’t a friend during the course of the day, and for reasons very easy to understand.  I am starting to realize though just how beneficial it is to avoid this trap, and want to pursue it even further.

There are many different levels of conversations with people who we aren’t itching to have a conversation with, but the ones I have paid attention to recently are complete strangers (cash register workers, someone who holds the door open), acquaintances (someone from class who chats with you about the weather and basketball), and friends whose relationship with you is non-disclosing.  The third category might not seem to fit in the idea where you don’t look forward to talking to them, but I frequently have noticed that while these conversations are indeed pleasant, the non-disclosing property leaves both parties desiring a full-disclosure conversation (having a pleasant time finishing homework with a friend, but wanting to go laugh with your roommate about how your latest date went).

Even though these three categories vary widely by the person’s familiarity with you, the results are often very similar.  First, you often come away smiling at the fact that you enjoyed talking and being friendly with someone who might not have been your first choice of conversations.  Second, for at least a few minutes afterward, you aren’t thinking about the stresses that were occupying your mind before the conversation.  Both of these are absolutely huge to maintaining a positive outlook, the first providing a positive, and the second removing a negative.  The result: a worthwhile pursuit.

Of course this all fails is the person is extremely obnoxious, but judgment can be used up front to keep these situations short, while still trying to learn something from the conversation.  If nothing else, you can learn how to not be annoying.

While I don’t do it enough, when I have made the decision to talk to people in any of three categories, it never fails to put me in a better mood.  Hopefully, this consolidation of my thoughts will help me continue these efforts, and remind me that it really is worthwhile to say “Hello” to as many people as possible tomorrow.

I have not been reading a single book on consecutive Wednesdays yet this year. While this sounds like an awkwardly trivial stat to keep track of, it began as I would visit the public library each Wednesday this semester, and each time I would hope to be on a new book.

While I have recently fallen under busy times and library visits have dwindled, the streak has continued. This has been helped by my frequent starting of books on Thursdays to give the maximum reading time, and my absolute singularity of hobbies on the weekends. I will normally read about of quarter of a book during the week, and then absolutely knock it out on Friday and Saturday.

I’m sure my productivity in this area will dwindle sometime, but it has been going fairly strong since the end of October. I may follow up with another post sometime about how this has lead me to develop a singular hobby theory, but I’ll save that for another day. For now, I need to go read some more of A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson before bed.

P.S. – If you are interested, check out my reading list at www.goodreads.com/tgreen8091.

P.P.S. – As I was composing this on my phone, the bulb on my reading lamp would turn on and off every couple minutes. I noticed that my phone screen dimmed and brightened accordingly after these changes. It took me more than two months to figure out the trend behind these brightness changes, and it came as a result of a failing light bulb. No wonder every great discovery in science and engineering was an accident.

I’m sleeping on the floor tonight, and it’s going to be awesome. Maybe not tonight, but in a month or so, it’ll be unbeatable.

This is one of the main things I have learned about my favorite memories – they felt normal at the time. Not to say they weren’t fun experiences, but they didn’t feel as unique as when I look back on them. Only time and changing situations made them look that much better.

I slept on the floor (still on a mattress) for a week back in September, and it was pretty fun. Remembering it now, I don’t think about the homework or tests I had that week, or if I was tired, frustrated, or anxious. I remember being care-free enough to want to change up the sleeping norm. I remember falling asleep thinking about how cool what I was doing was. And with any luck, that us how I’ll look back on tonight.

This is the same fascination I have with traveling. I have so many great memories about being stress-free at some incredible places, memories that I really enjoy reminiscing about. Even though for each one of them, I felt pretty normal at the time, they provide great reflecting points throughout my daily life. These also motivate me to keep traveling to both have a great time, and to create some fantastic memories to keep me going in the future.

So that’s the lesson I’ve learned: if I enjoy it at all now, it’ll feel like the greatest thing ever looking back, and that is worth about anything.