It was a pretty calm few week before Edinburgh Fringe (yes, this is out of order).
Steph and I played a few rounds of Frosthaven. The four character group is fun, but the sessions take about 3 hours each.
I went on two long walks through parks, since the weather was so nice.
The first was through Islington. I walked through Bernard Park and up to Highbury Fields. I saw a cute pub that looked like it was covered in Wisteria called The Albion. It wasn’t blooming at the time, but still looked like a great spot we will need to go to when it is blooming next. I also saw a fox on this walk, as it was ducking into a park.
The second walk was a long one. I walked through Russel Square, then down to St. James Park. I continued through Green Park, then Hyde Park. I stopped by Little Venice and then went to Regent’s Park. I walked along the canals home from there. It was the perfect day, and there were tons of birds in all of the ponds.
Steph and I caught a morning train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverly, which was amazingly convenient. The ride was pretty smooth, with power outlets and wifi. Although the wifi was spotty and terrible.
We got to Edinburgh around 1:30 and checked into the Airbnb, just a 12 minute walk from the station. We had a few shows lined up for that day, and we made our way to the first one, which was actually an escape room. The escape room with Agent November was pretty good, although it also had a murder mystery element that we weren’t as interested in, and failed at. Our small team did find all the clues, we just didn’t have time to piece together the mystery.
We then went to some parks, got some boba, and had some ramen for dinner. We walked over to The Meadows, where our next show was. Steph wasn’t feeling well so she went home. I went to the show anyway. The show was Clique, a burlesque circus show. In line I met an older woman and her daughter. She was very talkative and they followed me after I had my ticket scanned and I went to the ‘sirloin’ line. We got front row seats and it was more than worth it. The show was exactly what I was hoping for from Fringe. They had some normal acts of pole dancing, rope/silk dancing, and skills of balance. The blade swallower did one blade, then two, then six. She also swallowed what was effectively a lightsaber and the glow could be seen through her neck.
The strangest act was a woman handing out popcorn wearing a helmet with a popcorn maker on top. After handing out all the popcorn bags she got a bunch of kernels and put them in the machine, then plugged it in. She started hula hoop dancing some while the kernels were heating. After the first kernels started coming out she took her top off and covered herself in butter. Then she did about twenty hula hoops at once while the kernels were really popping. After that she made a sign like she needed salt. She crouched down and pulled a salt shaker out of her vagina and danced while spreading salt everywhere. It was the strangest performance I’ve ever seen, but really well choreographed and paced.
Some of the other performances were strange, if not as strange as the popcorn performance. One woman had her hair around a clamp that was used to hang her from a wire. She then did a dance while hanging from the wire by her hair. On the same wire they hung a coat rack that a guy did a pole dance like strip routine. Another woman danced with an eight foot tall balloon, which she slowly climbed into, then she stripped inside and popped it from the inside.
The last group of performance was a man/woman team that did comedy skits. They did a quick change skit where the woman changed outfits really quickly, then the guy went in and came out nude. He then climbed around the audience for a bit, while she convinced an audience member to give her a sock. The guy came back by and grabbed the sock and used it as his only clothing. Later they had another bit where they were biting off bits of banana and spitting it back and forth, they got an audience member to try as well. The guy did some juggling/spitting of the banana bits, and then it got too strange for me to record here…
I went to a sexy circus show later, around midnight, as Steph was still tired. I sat in the front row again, as these are mostly small venues and I’m showing up early to many of them. I’m also wearing my Captain America shirt, so I get called out a lot. The MC of the sexy circus called me up to the stage to help with the juggling and spinning objects show. He had me put on a bowtie, then a sequin hat, then a pink strap-on. He had me lay down and he used the strap-on as one of the things to hold spinning soccer balls. I then handed him more and more knives as he juggled.
The second day we slept in and went to the Audio Deepfake exhibit at the university. Then we went to an amazing a cappella concert put on by the student group Norther Lights. The beatboxing was especially impressive.
We found some good gelato and then took a rest for a bit. After resting we grabbed dinner, and I tried to go to a sing-a-long pub quiz, but it was full.
Friday evening Steph and I went to Showstoppers, the Improv musical where they did a great performance. They had the theme of a puppet convention titled ‘No Strings Attached.’ They had musical numbers based on Queen, Sondheim, Annie Get Your Gun, and Avenue Q. A few of the songs were decent, but most were surprisingly good. They lost the plot for most of it, focussing on characters, but it actually came together in the end. The way the director broke in to make people do different things was great.
Saturday, our third day of Fringe, started out with sleeping in. Around 10 we headed out to another escape room experience, which was a lot of fun and we did really well on it. This one was out of a case, which was pretty well done. We had about 2 too many people I think, but they managed to get some parallelization in the case, which was impressive.
We grabbed some Thai for lunch then I found a few shows I wanted to see.
The first was a pirate themed comedy show, Max Norman: A Pirate’s Life For Me. The guy running it was one of the best improve comedians I’ve seen. He kept the narrative together and had wonderful pacing and timing. He had lots of audience participation, asking for a word from random audience members.
Steph went to the Little Black Dress exhibit at the Scottish National Museum and I went to a show called Lane Kwederis: Sex Job. It was well done, with lots of interesting information and views that I had never been exposed to. I thought the mindset that she has is far healthier than those I’m normally around with regards to sex and sexual desires.
Steph and I met up and headed to Aloft for some more circus like performances. They did some hula hoop dancing, and more of the silks and pole dancing. One of the most unique performances was a poetry reading while juggling.
The last even Saturday was too late for Steph, Bubble Show for Adults Only 2. It was a fun experience where I could tell the performers were loving it. I got pulled up on stage and they made a giant bubble penis on me. They then had one of the bubbles with vape inside on top they they put the wand over and popped the bubble inside the wand, which made the vape gas come out the top. She also had me pop lines of bubbles with vape in them with my nose off her chest and leg. They had a few other funny sections, one with shadow puppets, and another with bubble guns.
Sunday Steph and I went to the castle in the morning, then had a nice lunch at a Spanish tapas place. The afternoon started off with Steph taking a break while I went to the show Calling in Love. It was strange and interesting, but it was certainly the worst show of the weekend. The performer did a great job performing, but the jokes took the self deprecation too far and it made it more sad than funny.
We then went to another improv musical, but this one wasn’t nearly as good. It was done by students, and the format they chose for audience suggestions made it much harder to get characters that were interesting. They had the audience give the setting, title, and two characters. The first musical did setting, title, and musical genres; leaving the characters to be created by the actors.
We skipped one show, to relax for a bit, then headed to the AI Improve show. It was hilarious, especially because I could understand what they were using and doing. I talked to the organizer afterwards and will reach out to him, as he works across the street from me.
We had a lovely dinner at a Japanese restaurant, then saw the last show of our run, Sex Ed: Revisited. It was the first show the actor was putting on and she did a really good job. I think the science she was presenting could have used a bit more rigor, but the points she was making and the parts she did present were great. I learned something, which I wasn’t expecting.
We caught the train back to King’s Cross the next morning and it was a smooth ride the whole way home.
Archer was soooooo happy to see me when I got home. Here is a video of him showing his love:
Here is a collage of the promo images for the shows we saw:
Steph had a work trip to Zurich, and I ended up hanging out with some people from work more this week. On Wednesday the finals for the Beat Saber competition were being held. One of the finalists, that everyone expected to win, Connor, was in London. They had set up a studio with a green screen. We had dinner with him in between the semi-finals and finals. The semi-finals was a five song competition, and the finals was eight. Connor ended up having a clean sweep, winning every song in the competition. We chatted about it for a while and agreed to do a Beat Saber dance group, like I had done before in Burlingame.
The weekend was pretty chill as well. Saturday we went climbing in the morning. During the day I worked on my story machine project. Then we went to see the Barbie movie with Nancy and Punit in the evening with a stop by Vegan Planet for dinner. The fake meats they had were pretty good, but I think the tofu dishes were still my favorites.
Sunday was also pretty relaxing, with us playing some Frosthaven. In the evening we played some Grounded with Michelle and Michael.
We had a low key week. We played some Frosthaven, and I worked some on my side projects. I went to the cave club meeting, and the dive club meeting. The plans for diving over the weekend didn’t end up happening because the weather wasn’t good. It was mainly that the winds were too high, as they were causing lots of waves, and blowing in a direction that would sweep us out to sea.
Instead of diving we went climbing on Saturday, then went to the Spitalfields Market, which was a lot of small shops and food stalls in a large open air building. We were saying goodbye to Roel as he was about to move back to The Netherlands. It was interesting to wander around, but everything was the typical mix of knick knacks. I misplaced my backpack, but the janitorial staff were kind enough to find it and take it to the lost and found.
On Sunday we went to Draughts in The Vaults under Waterloo station. We went with the group from the cancelled dive trip, and had a pretty good time. I think for games going forward it would make more sense to do it at people’s houses, so that we don’t have to worry about times and what games fit. We also would be more able to hear each other. The vaults make for loud echo chambers. It was an interesting area, and one I’d been wanting to go to for a while. It was more commercial than I had expected, but not that bad. The main graffiti tunnel was still amazing to see.
Xiaomeng and I participated in a game jam for Hugging Face. One of the requirements was that we had to include Open Source AI in some way. We did great in my opinion, and did way more than was required. We ended up 7th out of 87 for the mutual rankings. For the top 10 three of the Hugging Face employees will be judges. We’ll see how that plays out next week.
I was feeling out of it and had a low level headache all week. I did a pool test of my dive equipment and it all checked out, but I skipped the pub meeting. I managed to get my work done, but not to the level I would have liked.
We made it to the weekend, and met up with Nasir to head out to Wales for a caving trip. We were really looking forward to this trip. The first night was a little rough and we camped in a tent in the pouring rain. It had a few leaks and we got a little damp. Overall we did get decent sleep. The caves were amazing, and the club is really well kitted out. We did a tour with Jack as our guide and were joined by Floyd and Lauren. We got to see some amazing formations, and I had a blast climbing up the cracks. Most of the cave was about a meter across and four to five meters high.
The trip was a great success. After that we had an amazing group meal and them people got drunk and started a fire in the backyard. It was a nice time, even it still cold and wet. The second night in the tent was much better and we got some good sleep.
This weekend we didn’t do much, as Steph got back on Saturday, and I was still recovering from getting back from the US. Sunday we went to the BSAC party and had a great time hanging out with all the people there. We headed back and had a great discussion on the book “Of Boys and Men.” I think there was a lot there to unpack, and that some of the fixes are things we can do, but it wasn’t obvious in the way the book presented it.
Steph and I played some more Frosthaven this week, and we added in the second character each. I’m the Frozen Fist, while she is the Blink Blade.
We hung out with some of the people from the Westminster Speleological Group on Tuesday, July 4. I was calling it ‘Uppity colonists day.’ We met a few of the people that were going to be on the trip to Wales.
Thursday we had a vet come over the check on the kitties and they are doing well. Lana is putting on a little weight, but not fat yet. Archer’s tooth isn’t a problem now, but we should get it taken care of before it becomes a real problem. The vet recommended that I look into getting it fixes soon, as the lead time of getting a surgical appointment might be a while.
Friday morning Steph and I went to a special exhibit at the British Museum, which was ok. It had some good items, but the main exhibits are just as good and free.
I took most of the weekend to make a game with Xiaomeng, which I’ll describe more in next week’s post.
The best part of the weekend was getting to have high tea with George and Clarissa, who were in London after a trip around Europe. It was great to see them and I love the discussions George and I can get into around AI, ownership, and rights.
I took a trip back to the Southeast for Nana’s funeral. I was able to see almost the entire family, many of whom I didn’t recognize as it had been a very long time since I’d seen them.
I spent Friday getting to my parent’s house in Atlanta. Saturday morning Mom, Dad, and I went to the botanical gardens but the parking was full. Instead we went to brunch. Mom and I then went to see Jeff and family at their neighborhood pool. Elise was scared of me, with a big feeling of ‘stranger danger.’ When she gets older she’ll understand who I am.
Sunday we made it to the gardens early. They had some interesting troll statues made from scrap and trash. Mom and I also stopped by the market, and the neighborhood meeting / party for a short time. Sunday evening I went to see Kim at her place. We had a good talk, and I saw the amazing scene she was preparing for me.
Monday Kim and Grace came over and I showed her the Story Machine, and she loved it. I’m going to make changes that she wanted and get Kim to load it onto a computer for her. It should then save her stories and I’ll be able to publish them.
Tuesday I rode over with Jeff and had a good talk with him. Then we met at the church for the service. It was lovely. Fred did a reading, as did I. Lucas did an amazing Aria. Then we saw the ashes put into the final resting place. We spent time at the church talking and having some snacks before heading back to Nana’s house. Fred and Karin brought over a ton of food and we all ate and drank and reminisced.
Wednesday we headed back to Atlanta.
Thursday I grabbed lunch with Jeff and was able to see Kim before Mom took me to the airport. The flight back was better, and I went into work for a bit to do the performance reviews before heading back to my flat to cuddle the kitties.
While I was in Atlanta and Birmingham, Steph was cave diving in southern France. She sent me pics of the area.
It was another crazy work week, but I still had some fun. Steph reached out to the Westminster Speleological Society, and we met some of them for drinks, in the top room of a pub. We chatted about the trips they have planned and signed up for one. I am looking forward to it.
Wednesday we had the third and fourth rounds of the beat saber competition. It turned out pretty much exactly how I expected with making it past round 3, and getting destroyed in round 4. I had 4 of 5 songs with complete combos in round 3, but only got 1 of the 5 in round 4. Freebird was a hard one, and I didn’t do nearly as well as when I’d been practicing.
Steph and I played a bit more Frosthaven, and did pretty well. We had one scenario where my summons were great against bears and wolves. Then we went up against robots, which my summons were terrible at, and when we do more robot levels I’ll need to redo my deck to handle them better. Steph on the other hand was great and dealing with the robots.
I took a video of my walk to work, and then turned that into this gif:
Friday morning I went to Heathrow and Steph took the train to Paris.
This was a busy week at work, from many different angles.
There were multiple groups coming to London from California for work trips that I had to meet with. Then there was the Beat Saber competition, where rounds 1 and 2 were on Wednesday. I did really well in round 1 and barely got through round 2, so that puts me in the top 12. I’m pretty sure I’ll make it to the top 8, but I think I’ll lose at that point.
We had a great time at the dive meeting this week, and met a group that was interested in playing board games with us. I look forward to when we can meet up with them and play. We did get a few more rounds of Frosthaven in, and finally beat the scenario with the stupid ally. We then went on to the boss fight, and did really well on that one.
Friday we had a great walk around Little Venice. We had dinner on the Cheese Barge, which is a floating restaurant on the canal. It was tasty food, and we got a toastie, a rarebit, and some croquettes.
Saturday morning I headed to the canal and broke out the standup paddle board for the first time here. I went to the astroturf stairs and inflated the paddle board. Then I headed to the St. Pancras lock and portaged around it. I made it up to the Camden locks, but didn’t want to walk around those with a paddle board. Camden market is packed in the best of times and slow to get through. No way I was making it through with a massive board. I turned back and headed to Battlebridge Basin, near Ice Wharf. The canal had some nasty parts, but mostly it was really nice. I’ll have to try going further with the board and paddling around Regents Park and maybe around Angel.
Nancy and Punit organized a picnic somewhat at the behest of Irene. We met at the astroturf stairs and got some food at the canopy market. It was Thai day at the canopy market and the food was pretty tasty. I of course got a Thai ice tea and grabbed Steoh her own so she wouldn’t take any if mine /s. We headed to a shady table in coal drop hards and grabbed some more food at the Japanese market there. This area has so much going on, it is fantastic.
That evening we jumped on Grounded and played some with Michelle and Michael. We geared up and improved the base. We started fighting harder enemies, but didn’t make any story progress.
the next day we went climbing with Punit and Roel. My grip got too tired to continue surprisingly early. Steph and I then met a friend of Irene’s, Nish, who was great to talk to. We had some tasty Ethiopian food and chatted about life and work.
It's an Exciting World 