Being Here

The Movie. Two minutes of video. A week of memories.

The Scrabble Battle

Robin and her mother are playing Scrabble tonight. No, Pat is not here visiting us. She's at home in California. They're both using a Scrabble app on their iPads, Word for Friends.

When one player has made their play, the other player gets a notification.

Both players can see the same game board, but can see only their own un-played letter tiles.

Thames Path

We worked at our computers all day, then took a late afternoon walk to explore the neighborhood some more. The Thames River is about 10 minutes from here and the Thames Path is a nice pathway for joggers, bikers, and pedestrians. Facing the river are upscale apartments and offices. Even though it was getting dark, there were several rowing teams on the river practicing whatever they do, escorted by a motor boat with someone onboard shouting instructions with a megaphone.

This is either an architect's office or an architecture school. We saw lots of people sitting at computers with architechy-looking stuff on the screens. One of the windows has a nice display of architectural models. This looks like a model for a stadium design.

A smaller pathway that cuts between buildings and leads to the Thames Path contains signs that warn dogs not to start campfires, or something like that. It's not exactly clear.

A jogger. He started running a lot faster when I started chasing him so I could snap this photo.

The River Cafe, on the Thames Path. It's famous, we're told. It's cafeteria style (see all the servers standing at the food stations). They weren't open for another hour, so we put them on the list for lunch some other day. 

Tomorrow we take the Tube to Wimbledon Station, then catch a train to Hampton Court Palace, one of only two remaining palaces that belonged to King Henry VIII (he owned 60 homes/palaces). 

Today's American Dialect Society News

From the Associated Press: The tech slang word “app” was voted the 2010 “Word of the Year” Friday by the American Dialect Society.


I actually know some people that were using that word extensively way back before 2005. And of course it was being used long before that by some people.


In case you wonder what the strange app icon is on the bottom row, it's Rendezvous, the first version of what is now called Bonjour (automatic local network detection and connecting).