Mr. Sands

I learned something last night.I was standing on the platform at Earl's Court Station at about 11:50pm waiting for a train back to Parsons Green when over the PA comes a very odd announcement. An announcement came over the PA in perfect Received Pronunciation and in a clearly rehearsed manner said: "Would Inspector Sands please come to the operations room immediately." I dismissed it as a staff announcement albeit strangely different than the normal London dialect that usually delivers station announcement. I was about to plug back into my music when just a few seconds after the first announcement came: "Would Inspector Sands please come to the operations room immediately." Same delivery, same tone, same voice. And again: "Would Inspector Sands please come to the operations room immediately." This was getting really creepy. A dark platform with hardly a soul anywhere and a dismembered voice eerily repeating the same message over and over in the exact same manner. Since it sounded like it could have been a recording, and by now my curiosity was well and truly piqued, I googled the phrase. I expected to get no results, assuming that it really was a staff announcement, albeit a strangely delivered one. Well, I was wrong. Google lit up with results. Here's what I discovered. "Inspector Sands is a code phrase used by public transport authorities in the United Kingdom. The phrase is used in public address announcements in public places to alert authorities to a potential emergency, and possibly its location, without causing panic amongst members of the public by explicitly mentioning its nature. The exact wording depends on the station, and the nature of the incident, for example "Would Inspector Sands please report to the operations room immediately."" There's even a couple of theories on the origin of the name Mr. Sands. "The use of the word "Sands" may be a pun on the fact that staff must investigate and reset the alarm system before a set period of time elapses, as might be measured in a sand-timer, and the station systems automatically switch to a fail-safe evacuation mode.[citation needed] Alternatively, it may reflect the fact that sand can be used to put out fires. "Mr Sands" has also long been used in theatres as a code for fire." Ahh, it all makes sense. A coded phrase to alert staff to a fire alarm going off or something of that nature but without causing undue panic among travelers. Smart. A bit more research and I found some TFL staff saying that it usually means a fire alarm has been tripped and 90% of the time it's a false alarm. So nothing creepy at all. Until I read this: "During the 7 July 2005 London bombings, the phrase was announced repeatedly on a continuous loop." THAT is creepy.

25 Uninteresting things about me

1. My real name is Ian. Ian Alexander Groovesoul Hunter. Ok the Groovesoul part is wishful thinking. Can't you bastards just let me have that?2. I have had a gun held to my head, was pistol whipped and had my hair pulled by a group of Guatemalan bandits when I was 7 years old. 3. Pamela Anderson has touched me. 4. I have been in a plane that has been struck by lightening. Twice. 5. When I was living in Hong Kong I had a total crush on a girl who was on my school bus. One day I got the courage up to talk to her but instead I puked all over her. It went something like "Hey...uhh....I....uhh was wondering if....uhh...you wouBLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADJHJSAHJDJHASJDHSAJDHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARHRHRGHHHHHHH!.......*splutter*.......sorry." We're still friends. 6. I once threw a water balloon at my best friend's grandmother. It was revenge for him peeing in my toy box. That's what is commonly referred to as "gangsta." 7. I have an abnormal obsession with punctuality. I cannot STAND being late for anything. I often show up to parties, meetings, events, etc far too early and it stresses me out beyond belief if I'm running late. 8. Instead of taking a substantial detour around a massive dirt pile that was blocking the road to my house, I reversed the car about 50 ft, threw it into drive and floored it, not knowing that the other side of the pile was at about a 65 degree angle. As we hit the ground with the nose of my car my brother, who was in the passenger seat, said "Oh..(ow)...that's not good." Yeah, I fucked up my car pretty badly....but it was totally worth it because, for one glorious moment, we were Bo and Luke Duke in the General Lee. 9. When I was about 6 years old I was pushing the performance envelope on my Big Wheel brand novelty fun tricycle, flipped it and landed on the back of my head. The next morning I was paralyzed from the neck down and had to have months of physical therapy to correct it. Also, I slept on the top bunk and I was too heavy for my mom to lift out of bed (my dad had gone to work) so our neighbor had to lift me down. As a result, I can see through time. Ok that last part is made up but the rest is true. 10. I played American Football in college....in rural England. If you're wondering, I played Tight End, Linebacker and Quarterback. We were a terrible, terrible team but I made some lifelong friends during my playing days. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3083/2727037531_0534f47d46_o.jpg 11. For 7 months in 1999, I ate Hot Pockets every day for lunch while watching Jerry Springer (when it was still an underground production funded by Jerry's failed mayoral campaigns), worked at a sporting goods store and lived in a trailer parked in a friend's back yard. Amazingly, chicks were clawing at my door. And they say the American dream is dead. 12. For over 10 years I had absolutely crippling claustrophobia to the point where I would walk up 20 flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. Mercifully I am totally over that now. 13. I have never seen an episode of 24, The West Wing, the Sopranos, Lost, or Heroes. It's not that I don't want to, they just seem to pass me by. 14. I have an alarmingly broad knowledge of the Simpsons. It's not part of my memory anymore, it's now firmly engrained in my core reflexes like breathing and digestion. I'm at peace with that. 15. I had 15 hours piloting light aircraft under my belt before I ever sat behind the wheel of a car. I guess it's no surprise that... 16. ...I can't drive a stick shift. 17. When I was younger I had abnormally large lung capacity to the point where I could blow the needle to the end of the peak flow test tube. The doctor made me do it three times because he'd never seen it before. I could hold my breath for well over a minute. For weeks after, my friend Lawrence referred to me parenthetically as "The Boy Wonder." 18. When I was about 5 I used to beat my brother up mercilessly. My arsenal was broad and varied, but my weapon of choice was biting. One summer, my grandmother saw me bite my brother....so she bit me back. I never bit him again. My grandmother is awesome. 19. The biggest personal triumph in my life has been defeating my fear of flying. I didn't travel for years and I have been removed sobbing from airplanes moment before they took off. Last year, I flew almost 100,000 miles without any form of physical restraint or veterinary-grade sedation. HELL YEAH! 20. I dislocated my jaw after an illegal hit during a football game. For 6 months afterward my jaw would come out of place when I slept in certain positions and I would drool like a St. Bernard. 21. I drove from Tracy, California to Chicago (2,119 miles) in 34 hours. I don't recommend it. 22. When I was 17 and working at a crap sporting goods store, I managed to get a date by explaining why people can crack their knuckles to the girl's mom. She was so impressed that she gave me her daughter's number and demanded we go out for dinner with the mom paying. Shame she was a total nut job and spent the entire dinner building intricate pyramids with the condiments and sugar packets while demanding that her steak be prepared "over easy." 23. In 2006 I lost 32lbs in 10 weeks. Cocaine's a hell of a drug. KIDDING! I was on a clinical trial for a weight management program. 24. Many jobs ago, a colleague sent out this email to our dev team asking for advice: "I am currently getting a java.lang.AbstractMethodError when trying to use scrollable ResultSets. Any information you can provide to resolve this would be appreciated." My buddy Noel and I, with our frighteningly superior intellects, felt obligated to help, so we replied- Me first: "I'm pretty sure if he parses the geveltefish into the linear actuator, the compound herpes limitations will override any interference by the cranial inversion, right?" then Noel chimes in: "Maybe but you may have to watch the Vibal Translocitor..if that gets over 120 DEGREES, WHOA BOY!!! HA!!! LOL!!! That is humorous stuff there, you thinkin the linear actuator can be parsed!!!" but I think he's wrong: "Yeah but the Vaibhav Translocitor was phased out in release 2.1.s.a remember?! You can't use it anymore, you have to use Applied Funkadelic's Inbound Transmogrifier (John Denver edition) or else you'll never get past the rectal transgression phase!" ...and I was right: "Silly ME!!!! It must have been that Old Crow I drank at lunch!! MY bad!!!" People stopped asking us for input after that. 25. I have the hottest, smartest wife in the world. I'm not entirely sure I managed it but....score! Seriously, have you seen this girl? God damn.

My year in cities 2008

2008 was a ridiculous year of travel. Nearly 100,000 miles. Multiple, non-consecutive stays are noted with asterisks. London, England *

San Francisco, California *

Livermore, California *

New York, New York *

Boston, Massachusetts

Marrakesh, Morocco

Paris, France *

Amsterdam, Netherlands *

Helsinki, Finland

Los Angeles, California *

Long Beach, California *

Cancun, Mexico

Stockholm, Sweden

Budapest, Hungary

Johannesburg, South Africa

Manchester, England

Antwerp, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium

Helsinki, Finland

Newcastle, England

Trip Advisor

Update: I've updated my list and I'm up to 79,1877 miles and I just made Gold Status on Virgin Atlantic. In 8 months. I'm very, very tired.I just walked in the door from my two night work trip to South Africa. While I was there I was, of course, Twittering and a friend of mine @cubedweller'd me and said "dude, what's with all the traveling?!" I hadn't really thought about it but tallying it all up, I have been doing a ton of traveling since I moved to London. Since I moved here, I've done: - San Francisco to London - moving to the UK (5363 miles) - London to Amsterdam - 20 hour trip to NextWeb conference and hang with the Diggnation guys (221 miles) - Amsterdam to London - back to work (221 miles) - London to Paris - personal trip with Deanne and Kristen (213 miles) - Paris to London - eurostar trip back (213 miles) - London to San Francisco - work trip to Web 2.0 expo (5363 miles) - San Francisco to London - flight back from Web 2.0 (5363 miles) - London to Budapest - personal trip with Deanne (902 miles) - Budapest to London - flight back from BUD (902 miles) - London to Paris - quick weekend trip with Andrew and Emily (213 miles) - Paris to London - Eurostar back (213 miles) - London to Johannesburg - 2 night work trip (5642 miles) - Johannesburg to London - flight back (5642 miles) - London to New York - work trip (3459 miles) - New York to London - back home (3459 miles) - London to Paris - start of trip with Jessica and Deanne (213 miles) - Paris to Bruges - trip with Jessica and Deanne (167 miles) - Bruges to Antwerp - trip with Jessica and Deanne (51 miles) - Antwerp to Amsterdam - trip with Jessica and Deanne (81 miles) - Amsterdam to Paris- trip with Jessica and Deanne (265 miles) - Paris to London - trip with Jessica and Deanne (213 miles) - London to Paris - weekend trip with Deanne (213 miles) - Paris to London - Eurostar back (213 miles) - London to Stockholm - personal trip (889 miles) - Stockholm to London - flight back (889 miles) - London to Boston - work trip (3269) - Boston to New York - more East coast work (190 miles) - New York to London - back to work (3459 miles) - London to Helsinki - work trip (1131 miles) - Helsinki to London - flight back (1131 miles) - London to San Francisco - Gram's funeral (5363 miles) - San Francisco to London - flight back (5363 miles) - London to Marrakesh - Anniversary trip (1432 miles) - Marrakesh to Madrid - first leg of the trip home (652 miles) - Madrid to London - second leg of the trip home (787 miles) - London to Los Angeles - Thanksgiving trip part 1 (5448 miles) - Los Angeles to Cancun - Young World Leaders Summit (2111 miles) - Cancun to Los Angeles - Return trip (2111 miles) - Burbank to San Jose - First part of Thanksgiving (294 miles) - San Francisco to New York - Work trip (2570 miles) - New York to London - Return home (3463 miles) 30,291 miles so far and with trips to New York, Dublin and Krakow next month, I'll be well over 40,000 by the end of June. Didn't I use to not enjoy flying or something? Suffice to say...I'm pretty tired.