Continue reading »]]> /BEGIN RANT

Dear Diary,

Moving is a freaking pain in the ass. It’s less of a pain when five Mexican guys show up at your door, willing to professionally wrap and box every single item in your entire apartment (thanks Rigo, Julio, Gino, Freddy, and Angel). But it’s still a pain in the ass.

That’s your cue to say, “Tell us Brian, why was it such a pain in the ass?”

Glad you asked.

The most annoying thing about moving is all the things that just break/go wrong/make you want to explode like an atom bomb. The things that SHOULD work but don’t.

1. The computers you spend minutes agonizing over making sure you switched to 220 voltage but still won’t turn on (and have you only installation of iTunes) when you plug them in.
2. The things you can’t buy because the stupid retail system in the UK is wired to do a credit check for every 10-pound data plan and for some reason yours fails every time.
3. The banks that don’t let you sign up a joint account unless both of you are working (yes, I’m looking at you Barclays).
4. The iPad data plan (that you have to use Pay-As-You-Go because you failed the credit check) that won’t work because you have to connect your iPad to your iTunes (which you can’t do because your stupid computer [which you air shipped over the ocean] won’t turn on.

And hanging over our heads through all of this is the fact that my work visa, which was good for 3 years, expires in one month and I have to go through a 50-page application, and so does Robyn, to renew it. The 50-page application isn’t the real problem. The real problem is ridiculous requirements like: “You must show us 12 months of bank statements showing how rich you are and the logo of the bank must be on EVERY page of each statement.” Sorry, but Bank of America, retards that they are, only print their logo on the first page. What am I supposed to do about that?

Equally frustrating is trying to arrange for someone to move into our apartment from overseas, and having to deal with the building’s management company, who insist on paperwork that we simply cannot get the bank to provide. Yes, I know I signed a paper saying I would get the bank to state that I can sublet without breaking any clause in my mortgage, and after six calls to customer service they all agree: “We don’t have any problem, there’s nothing in your note that says you can’t sublet, but we don’t have an official communication that says this and we can only give out official communications.”

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I keep telling myself, “woooosaah, woooosah,” and I keep telling Robyn, “Don’t worry, I’m sure they will accept all this paperwork.” But honestly, this has been the most annoying move I have ever done. Even the move to the Netherlands was not as difficult as this, and there every government form was in a foreing language.

Also adding to my annoyance is the fact I let the sales woman at Joseph A Banks talk me into the wrong suit size and now my suit is going to cost almost 200 dollars in alterations to get it to fit correctly, which is almost as much as it cost to buy, thanks to the expensive London skilled labor that I am going to have to hire to basically cut it into an entirely different suit.

AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH

The only thing that has helped through all this is that Robyn has been a fantastic partner. She has used her time to sign up all our utilities, make appointments with banks, go shopping for home wares, buy food (from the tiny “express” supermarkets that are near us), and generally be an awesome force for calm and stability in my life.

Thank you baby.

/END OF RANT

Continue reading »]]> So I was looking for a good FPS to transport me into a fantasy realm where I am powerful and use my superpowers (and many many guns) to kill bad guys, and I saw the TV ads for Crysis 2 and thought “perfect”.

However, when I started playing I learned that you quickly die in the initial stages if you don’t master the stealth aspect of the game. Which is bad for me. I’ve never been one for stealth games. I tried almost every installment of the Metal Gear franchise unsuccessfully, which annoyed me. I hate sucking at things.

But I stuck with it and finally the game added “armor mode” which allowed me to just plow through guys. But then a strange thing happened. Once I mastered the stealth aspect I loved it. I loved sneaking up on unaware CELL troops, stabbing them through their throats, remaining cloaked, then running for cover to recharge my stealth energy.

Overall the game has very nice graphics, good game mechanics, an extremely average but well-executed storyline, visually interesting levels that keep you entertained enough not to care too much that pretty much the whole game is the same thing. There are a few vechicle driving missions, but they are short and you can actually get by without actually driving the vehicles if you don’t want.

I have to say, one of the catchiest parts of the game is the theme music, which for some reason is just haunting and since I hear it every time I turn on or off the game, I can’t escape humming it repeatedly when I finally have had enough mindless violence and decide to quit for the evening.

Overall, I recommend it.

Continue reading »]]> So, I was motivated to make a new “professionally oriented” blog to try and increase the online presence of my “personal brand” and to leverage my core competencies to fully capitalize on the ecosystem value chain.

I foolishly let “brianbishop.me” expire and some asshole domain squatting company immediately snapped it up, so I’m running this off of http://brianbishop.us for the moment.

Check that shit out yo.

Continue reading »]]> I had a conversation last night with a good friend of mine about beliefs. For those of you who don’t know, I classify myself as a tolerant atheist, not a fundamentalist atheist. I realized during this discussion that over time my views have softened a bit.

My friend Jeff Tripodi actually called me “Brian ‘Cold Uncaring Universe’ Bishop” in college because I was adamant that there was no purpose to life (save the one we give it). It’s amusing when you look back on yourself and realize that only someone so young could be so unflinchingly uncompromising. Given enough time and diversity of experience, I think it’s inevitable (and desirable) that most absolutist positions get moderated. Where I used to be convinced in the ludicrousness of deities of any flavor, I now routinely say things like, “I think it’s highly unlikely.” After all, empiricism only takes you so far.

I’ve also realized more the difficulty in having good dialog about this issue. Most people’s theological belief system is so wrapped up with their personal identity and their other values and beliefs, that a thoughtful consideration of it amounts to an attack on the self.  So when you meet someone who disagrees with you about such a fundamental topic, it’s felt as sharply as an attack on one’s very core.

I don’t know what the solution to this is, I don’t know how to have the discussion and avoid the feeling of fundamental disconnect/incompatibility, but I have become more aware of exactly how hard these issues are for people to discuss rationally.

Which, of course, is what makes them such good discussions.

But an interesting distinction was made in last night’s conversation that I needed to think hard about. During the discussion about “How Does One Form One’s Beliefs” my friend explained that when examining all the potential beliefs she could subscribe to, the choice of NOT believing in anything greater than physics seemed to “close off too many opportunities”, and didn’t “do anything positive” for her.

In economic terms (and I’m paraphrasing here), the return on investment  for atheism seemed to be nil, whereas the potential return from other belief systems (which could allow for things like spirituality, loving and compassionate almight powers, or just the idea that life doesn’t end when you die) seemed to offer so much more.

It was a really intriguing way of thinking about the issue.

It’s probably done sub-consciously by most people. I bet there is a kind of bargain-hunting for ideology in which most people simply choose to go along with what they were raised with because that’s “cheaper”, from the standpoint of investing mental energy in truly doing “comparison shopping” and incurring the costly anxiety that is associated with breaking from the pack.

So, in a way, “value shopping” for your religous ideology is an extremely bold action that requires quite a large investment: before you can decide which beliefs will provide the most value for you, you have to know what your values are. You have to know what’s valuable to you as an individual. And that’s hard work!

My challenge to this slight on the “pragmatic” choice (to follow the lead of science and believe that it is likely that it is indeed all just a bunch of matter and energy), was to suggest that there WAS a return on investment for believing the universe is cold and uncaring, with no meaning, no purpose, no higher power, and nothing beyond our physical existence.

But then I had to think hard about what it was that was good about atheism.

Why exactly do I LIKE the idea that the universe is just physics?

Well, for one, I believe it takes a certain amount of strength to confront the idea that there is no inherent meaning or anything “greater” than ourselves, and accept that, and then make your way in such a world. It takes balls to say, “I think this is all there is, and I’m just going to have to deal.”

Also, and this might be strange from someone claiming to be an atheist, but I’m big on order, and rules. I get upset when people don’t merge neatly on the highways, or at 4-way stop signs, or when people jump queues. And I think this desire for order is a way of controlling the universe.

If you accept that the universe has no inherent value system, or rules, then it becomes our responsibility to MAKE sense of senselessness, to make order out of chaos. And that’s an infinitely more empowered belief system than, say, a universe created by some higher power which we can do nothing other than try to discern Her meaning, sing Her hymns and give Her praise and wear nice clothes while gathered together at pre-arranged times of the week.

Also, I think atheism is very democratic. If we’re all just a bunch of matter, then, everyone is equally alone, equally lost and trying to find their way in a scary and unpredictable world. Equally grappling with questions of mortality and trying to lead an honorable life. Atheism’s new mantra: “Equality baby!”

In the end, no one knows.

And because we don’t know, we all have to do our best to make the choices that will help us get through life the best way for us each as individuals. We are all entitled to our beliefs (even if they’re wrong), and the most powerful thing we can do with our lives is to decide what those beliefs are for ourselves, not have them decided for us by others or by our lazy subconscious.

So what do YOU believe?

Continue reading »]]> Dubai photoset on Flickr

I’ve been fortunate in my life to have lived in a few great cities (London, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul) and travel to many many more. Travel is one of the experiences I value the most for its amazing ability to transform people: by embedding yourself into other cultures, by experiencing other lifestyles, you gain an understanding not only of the rest of the world, but also about yourself and your own culture.

That said, one of the areas of the world that I had been really interested in visiting is the Middle East. It’s a part of the world with a disproportionate influence on our lives, not just because we sent 130,000 troops into Iraq (twice), not just because it’s the source of most of our energy, and not just because it’s people are from a culture fundamentally different from Western liberal democracy… but because of all of these things together. For the forseeable future, the Middle East will be an important focal area of foreign policy for both Europe and America, and so I wanted to see it.

Luckily for me, I work in an international company with a global customer base and was able to attend an “advisory board” meeting in Dubai with a mixture of customers from all over the Middle East. That meeting, in and of itself, was a great cultural experience.

The Middle East is in many ways even more disparate than Africa, there are super-rich countries (like Saudi Arabia) sharing borders with some of the poorest (like Yemen), there are creative city-states like the Emirates of the UAE, there are petro-states like Kuwait, large populous theocracies (Iran), small diverse democracies (Lebanon), large democracies (Egypt), and traditional monarchies (Jordan).

Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold the meeting in all of them. So we settled on one location: Dubai.

My impression of Dubai from what I’d read was that it was like a cross between Las Vegas (ostentatious) and London (cosmopolitan center of finance): an oasis of glass and steel skyscrapers rising out of the desert, on the shores of the Straits of Hormuz, at the nexus of the busiest (and most strategically important) shipping lane in the world. I came to Dubai expecting ostentatious displays of wealth, a mixture of the super-new and the ancient.

And that’s exactly what Dubai is. With an emphasis on “new”.

You can tell from the airport. It’s appointed in marble, it gleams, and it’s packed with luxury stores selling only the most expensive goods. Air conditioning is ubiquitous and sophisticated. White-clad men and black-robed women in traditional dress are scattered among the uniformed employees. So many uniforms.

The retail clerks have a uniform, airport ground staff another, then there’s the guards (all mustached and sporting berets), the bored-looking border agent who stamped my passport wore a traditional white outfit, as did all of the border agents. The taxi drivers dress in business casual, most of them wear ties. The taxis are all high-end Toyotas, Lexuses, or (for those important enough) Mercedes, Bentleys, and other luxury car brands.

You can tell Dubai is new from the placement of the airport. It’s right in the middle of the city. They planned it that way. It took ten minutes to drive to my hotel (the Sheraton Creek Hotel, considered one of the lesser of the five-stars, it would have been the top hotel in many other cities). On the way I passed an enormous construction site. Then I realized that it was just Dubai.

The entire city is under construction. The entire skyline is skyscrapers in various stages of completion. Wikipedia told me that 22% of their GDP is from construction. It also told me that 40% of the population was Indian and 15% was Pakistani (all guests, not citizens). My taxi drive confirmed this. As did the next five I asked.

The taxi sped along a six lane road through the middle of Dubai. I was in a canyon of skyscrapers the whole way. It was, for lack of a better word, impressive. Most impressive. Dubai is impressive in the way that Hong Kong is impressive, as a feat of engineering. You look at it and say, “Wow. How the hell did they do that.” In Dubai’s case, you also can’t help but wonder, “And WHY did they do that?”

But that’s a topic for another post.