Recently, with most of my friends going back to Uni to do Masters or finish their present courses, I've been chatting alot about meeting new people. Most people agree with what I thought until recently that it's impossbile to meet new people in Hitchin. The pubs aren't really suitable for it and you don't really meet people in clubs. And besides, I don't want to go out drinking on my own to pubs/coffee places as that just seems silly and I'm not confident enough.

So anyway, I'm on an emotioal high point in my life it seems and I want to prove those people who agreed with me wrong. I want to show them that it IS possible to meet people whilst living in Hitchin. I want YOUR opinion on the idea please. Even if you're a casual reader who never posts comments please let me know what you think about it....

I would run a website separate to this all about "Meet Matt Chapman". The idea would be that I'd meet one new person every week for the rest of my life. I'd keep the website running and bloh about all the people I meet, giving a photo and some brief details about them. I would travel to meet them (at the start at least). On meeting someone I'd give them a t-shirt that says "I met Matt Chapman" for them to proudly wear.

If I were on holiday I'd meet people randomly or if I was staying at a friends house I'd have to meet someone in the area, etc. There would be no weekends off. If I was hospitalised, god forbid, I'd meet someone in the hospital once a week. But at all other times, people would be able to register their desire to Meet Matt via the website!

The trouble I'm having is finding something convincing to sell it around. After a while it would be the whole "Lots of other people have Met Matt so there must be something special about it, I'm up for that" but at the start I'd need something convincing. Also, I know it's not sensible, but is it safe? Would you Meet Matt? Would you think I'm some crazy pschyco and ignore me and send me death threats or would you play along? Let me know what you think because if you reply positively you could end up convincing me to take on the biggest project anyone ever has!

Someone please help me!! Seriously, I think I'm seriously ill or something...

I'm getting dressed for work and I've just discarded two shirts because they're really wrinkly and haven't been ironed. I've not ironed shirts for about 5 years. And now all of a sudden I think they're not suitable.

I hope this isn't maturity or general grownupness setting in. :/

According to CNet News, The Authors Guild in America has filed a lawsuit against the Google corporation to get them prevented from continuing the Google Print program. For those who aren't aware, the Print program is a project to scan the archives of books from the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, the New York Public Library and Oxford University. The idea is to make their entire texts searchable on the internet to provide a few sentences as excerpts and offer links to publishers and shops where users can purchase the texts.

Now I don't normally get involved in the sueing culture in America, but this is just stupid. The Authors Guild argue that "It's not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied." and says the Print Program is a "massive copyright infringement".

What utter bollocks, quite frankly. Have none of the members of the Guild ever gone into a library or shop? Have they not used computers to find the books they are looking for, walked up to a shelf and pulled down a book? Have they not browsed through the book, checking the off paragraph to see if the book is what they want?

What Google is doing is bringing a huge collection of books to the masses. They are providing a service to the world that is analogous to that of a book shop. They are allowing users to search their "shelves" of books which thankfully in the digital world can be "inifinite" in size and allowing users to see a couple of sentences around their search terms. How on earth can annoy say that the Print Program is any more of a copy right infringement than all the book shops and libraries around the world?

And not only is this a fantastic move forward for society but by allowing easy and quick access to these texts, the authors work gets free publicity (it's not costing the Universities anything to be included in the program). If I were an author, I would applaud the efforts of Google in their program and thank them for giving my books the opportuinty to be read by many people who would likely never have found them.

Yes, there is the arguement that Google will make money from adding their AdSense program to the Print pages, but if associations such as the Authors Guild were as forward thinking as the folks at Google, they could have got in there first and provided a service such as this. If they had done that, there would be no need for a profit making company to move the world forward in this way.

What is wrong with some people? It's just crazy.

I've added 7 new logos to the rotation at the top of the page. To satisfy your obvious thirst to know what each images is and to preserve on my bandwidth as you incessantly refresh to find them, I've added a logos link to the navigation menu. You'll find there a list of them all in nice thumbnail format. All seven additions are from my holiday in San Diego.

And whilst I'm posting I'd like to make note for future reference that today was one of those eye opening days you occasionally get through life. For reasons I can't put into public yet I've realised a few things about me and my personality tonight, most of which I don't like... and if that's not mysterious and angsty enough for a blog, I don't know what is! Just to comfort anyone who was jumping at me with sympathy, I'm not depressed... I'm glad for today, I can ensure I don't make the same mistakes again. Ever. Which is the positive light I look for in everything through life.

Enjoy the new logo rotation... "another day another reason to visit."

I've not been writing up my holiday as I've had a sleepy and lazy week, keeping myself occupied in the evenings rather than just falling asleep and giving in to the jet lag. I planned to spend Saturday expanding on my holiday notes, but ended up going to London for the day.

And I expect I was one of the first people in the entire world to make use of our great capital in this way... Uni mates Andrew and Little Richard and I spent the day doing the Alcohol Alphabet Challenge. The idea was that we went to an underground station that begins with A, left the station, found a pub and had a half pint of alcohol to drink there and went back into the tube station. Next we navigated to a station that began with B and did the same. The idea was to work through the entire alphabet in as quick a time as possible.

A few rules are that you can't throw up, you have to drink a half pint and not the alcohol equivalent in shots or anything else (the volume of drink is the challenge) and you're only allowed to use the tubes or walk, no other mode of transport is permitted. Obviously until the 24 drinking laws come into place, you have to complete the challenge within licensing hours (11am to 11pm on a Monday to Saturday, half an hour less on Sunday).

Unfortunately due to engineering works between Stevenage and London, the train we wanted to catch from Hitchin (Andrew and Richard stayed over the night before) wasn't running and the later train was going round an alternative route which took ten minutes longer than usual. The crux of it all is that we only managed to start at 11:43am.

	Angel
	The Nag's Head
	Drinks pulled at 11:43
	Beginning our trip we headed out to Angel. Angel contains the longest escalator on the entire London Underground network at 66m. The landlord served us quickly and wasn't surprised at all that we wanted his signature as verification we had the drinks. Apparently his pub is used a lot for the Monopoly drinking challenge that lots of people do.
	Blackfriars
	The Black Friar
	Drinks pulled at 12:29
	We had planned to stop at Bank and proceed to Cannon Street for our B and C, but arriving in Bank we realised it's the center of the financial district and being a weekend, there was nobody about and not a single shop was open, let alone any pubs. Jogging around the streets looking for places to satisfy our thirst and asking random people urgently for the nearest pub didn't work and we had to revise the plan. The pub in Blackfriars was a non-smoking pub and the foreign lady who served us was also quite obliging to our request for her signature.
	Charing Cross
	Princess of Wales
	Drinks pulled at 12:44
	A quick tube to Embankment and a short walk up the road, we instantly found a lovely pub directly opposite the entrance to Charing Cross tube station. The lady in there was quite excited about our trip and happily signed to show we had been there. She was so enthusiastic that we got a free t-shirt each from her. The Princess of Wales pub is part of a Real Ale crawl of 13 pubs in the area and the t-shirts are for customers on that trail, but we thanked her anyway and moved on.
	Dollis Hill
	Ned Kelly's
	Drinks pulled at 13:24
	There are about 4 D's on the Underground network so we had to go quite far north on the Jubilee line to get to Dollis Hill. The other three are on the far east of London and we didn't fancy that as we had to eventually head up to Ickenham for the only I on the network. The chap who served us in Dollis Hill thought we were mad but served and signed. Unfortunately we were losing time here as the pub was a good 5 minute walk from the station.
	Edgware Road
	The Chapel
	Drinks pulled at 14:08
	Shooting back down the Jubilee line and changing to the Bakerloo line brought us to Edgeware Road. We had planned to go to Euston Square for our E but the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith and City lines are closed on Saturdays every weekend of September for engineering works. The lack of trains along this stretch of track really put us behind time, but we got our drinks and got our log sheet hesitantly signed by Anna after some conversation in broken English.
	Finchley Road
	Walkabout
	Drinks pulled at 14:33
	Doubling back on ourselves towards Dollis Hill again, we stopped at Finchley Road. The tube station here is in the middle of a bustling shopping area and no pubs were visible from the door. Using the sense of direction for pubs we gained as students, we eventually found a Walkabout. The girl who served us was mostly interested in how many places we had been IDed. At this point only 3 had, I think. Unfortunately we drank slowly as we got chatting to the staff about our trip, again putting us behind time further.
	Green Park
	The Clarence
	Drinks pulled at 15:04
	Green Park is in the center of hotel district, the famous Ritz Hotel being on the doorstep of the station. Unfortunately what this meant was that there were only expensive bars and cafes around all of which were waiter served. We wanted a quick and dirty pub so had to walk a fair distance north to find The Clarence just off a side road.
	Harrow-on-the-Hill
	O'Neill's
	Drinks pulled at 15:52
	Heading north again we found Harrow-on-the-Hill to be a typical British town center. There were all the major shopping chains... but no pubs! What kind of town center has no pubs? There were a couple sitting romantically, eating ice cream and looking decidedly local. So I asked them in the most panicked voice I could muster were the nearest pub was. He flicked his finger up the road towards O'Neill's.
	Ickenham
	Coach and Horses
	Drinks pulled at 16:33
	Having wasted lots of time running around Harrow, we had further frustration waiting on the train up to Ickenham. On arrival, the pub was closer to the station than I had anticipated (we had looked for local pubs close the station before setting out.) The cost of the drinks here was shocking. For three halves we paid £5.50. The staff were pretty much arseholes about our challenge so we think they charged us over for being tourists. Really... what pub can charge an average of nearly £2 a half.
	Kings Cross
	The Duke of York
	Drinks pulled at 17:54
	Skipping the letter J, as there are none on the network, we ran to the pub next to Platform 8. This was the first pub we had to queue for our drinks in, which was annoying as we were only half way and the evening pub crowds were starting to come out. But despite the busyness the lady happily signed our log and we drank up. We paused for a few minutes on the main concourse to grab some lunch and headed off for the second half of the trip. The idea was the food would be our lunch and it really felt like lunch, but looking now we had that at about 6pm!
	Leicester Square
	The Brewmaster
	Drinks pulled at 18:20
	4 stops down the Jubilee line and we were drinking at Leicester Square. This was the point for me where it started to get really hard. I was struggling with the fizziness of the lager, burping lots and beginning to feel sick. I attribute part of that to the huge Burger King I ate on the way there, but the sheer volume of alcohol sloshing about in my stomach was start to get agitated at Kings Cross. But I persevered and we moved on.
	Marble Arch
	Quebec
	Drinks pulled at 18:48
	I normal don't think about the other people in a pub at all, I don't pay any attention to them. But whilst we were drinking in the Quebec, I found myself glancing at everyone and wondering why some people were staring at the three of us. I first put it down to us looking so young but then realised that every person in the pub was male. And they were all say in twos or threes, one pair with arms round each other. With a name like Quebec we all agreed we had managed to stumble into a gay bar, downed our drinks and ran.
	Notting Hill Gate
	Mook
	Drinks pulled at 19:12
	Oh my christ, the place was close to the station but it didn't serve any proper beers in draft (we had to have San Miguel) and served no draft ciders. Andrew ended up on a 6% bottle of cider that was bigger than half a pint. The round cashed in at £6.45, the biggest of the trip. And it would just have to be my round that time, wouldn't it. The barman signed our log but only because we were a group of 3, he usually says no because it's normally big groups of rowdy drunk people that do this sort of thing.
	Oxford Circus
	The Argyll Arms
	Drinks pulled at 20:08
	This pub was busy, but we got served almost immediately. Fortunately, there was outside seating so we went and drank in the fresh air, which I was thankful for. At this point I was considering giving up the drinking it was becoming that much of an issue. When planning the challenge, I thought about having problems fitting in every station but never about the drinking. I think I've lost the student magic.
	Paddington
	The Reef
	Drinks pulled at 20:08
	We drank in the heart of the station. The lady who served us wasn't convinced at all by our ID! Already behind time, we made the mistake of taking our time over the drinks. The main reason was we were drained and our bodies absolutely shattered. We were considering just going home at that point, but with a burst of energy we forced ourselves to continue.
	Queen's Park
	The Salusbury Inn
	Drinks pulled at 20:41
	Arriving at Queen's Park we felt uncomfortable; The area didn't look particularly nice in the dark. We found our pub just down the road however and the staff were really friendly. At this point I made the decision to switch to bitter and the drink went down a million times easier than the lager had been and that rejuvenated me and renewed my determination.
	Regent's Park
	The Albany
	Drinks pulled at 21:22
	I think this was the really small place decorated in a very wooden style inside. To be honest, by this point we were so tired we were just getting to the next letter, ordering the beer, drinking and leaving. But at least I wasn't in the mood to give up anymore, the bitter was flowing down very nicely.
	South Kensington
	The Zetland Arms
	Drinks pulled at 21:58
	If you're following our progress on the tube map, you might wonder why we chose to go to South Kens next. We realised at Regent's Park that we only had an hour and half left to do S, T, U, V and W and that it really wasn't possible before the end of licensing hours. We had decided to skip U (since it was Upton Park, miles out of East London) and go a quicker route for the other letters. The guy who served us here wasn't convinced with our ID and was dubious to sign our log since he thought he'd get in trouble for accepting our fake ID and giving us his signature to prove it. The idea made us laugh.
	Tottenham Court Road
	All Bar One
	Drinks pulled at 22:48
	I thought with our decision to skip U this was a great place to drink. But arriving during last orders made us realise just how unlikely we were to finish the whole thing. The pub was really a posh bar and the toilets were miles underground through a maze of corridors. But the atmosphere was nice. It felt quite good to be in a job earning where I could afford to be in a London town bar drinking at 11pm. It felt almost grown up, if I dare say.
	Victoria
	Wetherspoons
	Drinks not pulled.
	Arriving at our V, I knew exactly where to head, the Wetherspoons up the escalator. Arriving at the bar at 23:17 we were politely told that they hadn't been serving for ages and we weren't going to get anywhere with a late license unless we went 10 minutes on the tube into the city center. So, demoralised, aching and absolutely shattered we through the towel in and came home.

But we've learnt a lot from this trip. We've learnt where we lost time and how to improve in the future. Those secrets I won't share, as next time we do it we want to set the first record at a time that takes skill to beat. The three of us are thinking of getting a load of people to do it with us next time, so if you're interested in a London-wide pub crawl in a couple of months, let me know.

I've just learnt from the Washington Post website that a draft document, due to be signed within a few weeks, gives the US President the ability to launch a pre-emtive nuclear strike on any nation that is deemed to be planning a WMD attack at the US.

This really scares me. Incredibly. The Bush Administration has been slowly bringing in emergency bills to give them incredible powers, remove civil rights and generally bring fear and paranoia upon their citizens. But this goes one step far too far.

"The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons."

The US' track record of WMD locations is a little sketchy, I think you'll agree. What happens the next time Bush has a fancy for attacking a middle eastern nation? A simple lie about their WMD plan and he's allowed to fly over some nukes?

All he's doing is forcing every nation who has different religon, views or morals to the US into an arms race to defend themselves against the States.

How can any sane American sit back and let this legislation be signed? The current Administration cannot be trusted with this power, it can only lead to dark times.

Having only got to bed at about 4am after sorting through clothes and packing from about 2am, I woke up to my alarm at the ungodly hour of 7am. Ensuring I had my clothes, tickets and passport, I locked my flat up and left for the coach. My flight wasn’t departing until 13:10 but the only suitable coach left Hitchin at 08:10.

Once at Heathrow Terminal 4, the queue for flight check-in was crazy. There were just four desks open and a queue about the size of Terminal 4 in its entirety. It took well over an hour to get to the front. Entertainment was provided though by a bunch of guys travelling to the "Developer Conference 2005" in Phoenix. They were talking about this and that from the Computing industry which was all very interested to eaves drop on.

When I finally got to the front of the queue, I was served by a chap in a bad mood due to the previous customer, so it didn’t surprise me that when I asked in my most polite way for an upgrade I was told there was lots of room on the flight. Once I got through passport control and was airside, I went up to the BA customer services desk to ask for a window seat. I felt like I was being cheeky asking for an upgrade again, but it proved fruitful as the kind lady found me a row of three seats; In essence I had a bed for the flight.

The plane left Heathrow on time and we flew up over Manchester, Edinburgh and Iceland. As we flew over the Greenland coast, there were some of the most amazing views of icebergs I’ve ever seen. Even from 38,000 feet through a small aeroplane window, they were more stunning than any photo I’ve ever seen.

My first impressions as we flew over Canada and America were that it’s a bloody big place. Bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. The in-flight entertainment system’s GPS map gave the biggest sense of the enormity. It told me that we were travelling at 650mph (that's faster than most .223 caliber handguns fire bullets!), I went to sleep for two hours, woke up and we were still going across America. Fly for 2 hours in any direction over the UK and you’d be miles into the North Sea after 2 hours. Seriously, North America is absolute immense.

When we landed in Phoenix, where I caught my connection to San Diego, it took me a few moments to realise that a temperature of 115 degrees didn’t mean that the blood in everyone’s skin was boiling but that it equated to about 42 Celsius in UK temperatures. And wow it was hot! Stepping off the plane into the tunnel to the terminal, the heat nearly knocked me over. I copied the man in front of me and touched the wall. My instant reaction was to flinch away because my skin was burning. All was well though as the terminal was air conditioned. I was quite surprised by the immigrations process and staff. The officers were quite rude and abrupt whilst taking my fingerprints and photo. Really… what use is my biometric data to the US? If I were going to suicide and blow up one of their buildings, would I really care about being digitally mapped? There are better things to worry about and better strategies to overcome terrorism than wasting resources mapping everyone who enters the country.

Anyway, after my connection flight to San Diego which I thankfully changed from a 19:14 flight to one that departed at 18:10, I was greeted by a smiley Laura. I was instantly much more relaxed from my flights as I remembered that this was my Birthday present and just how kind Laura is.
The drive from the airport to Laura’s house, despite being in the dark, gave me my first views of California. I have to say, I was suitably impressed at the Americanness of it all. The cars, the street furniture, having to wait for a railroad train dozens of carriages long; It was all perfect.

Once at Laura’s house in the exclusive Rancho Santa Fe and complaining about my tight shoulder from sleeping awkwardly on the flight, I donned my trunks and went pretty much straight into the pool. I was feeling absolutely on top of the world. My friend had brought me 5500 miles, all the way to her huge house and I was swimming in their warm pool and relaxing in their bubbling hot tub.

After travelling for 19 hours door to door when I went to bed at 10pm local time, I was asleep as my head hit the pillow and I slept like a log.

So my Birthday holiday finally came around. I had the most amazing time and I feel, despite the jet lag, totally refreshed and revitalised for it.

I've written notes in a day by day diary and I intend to write up each day as if I were writing it that evening. I'm primarily doing this so I've got somewhere to remember it all in years to come but I thought you might like to have a read and see how I got on.

But for now I just thought I'd say that I'm back, so if you were thinking of breaking into my flat, the opportunity has passed. Talk to you soon.

How many people have blogged from the official Apple Shop? Huh?! It's now at least one. I'll be back soon with stories from my holiday, but it's lovely out here!