rage against the machine learning
personal website of ryan r. curtin
Never-before-used playground.
Blastoff!
English power plug, with individual switches to activate power.
Accomodations for the first two nights.
The neighborhood I stayed in in Eastbourne. All these houses are duplexes.
A little closer to town. This picture appears to contain a wood fence, which
seems rare---most everything is stone or concrete, including utility poles.
You don't say?
Another road filled with duplexes.
A bridge overlooking the tracks leaving Eastbourne. With a train car wash.
What the fuck?
Tiny alley north of Eastbourne. I enjoyed walking down it.
A guy named Alan explained to me that this view looks different every day. In
the distance, on the other side of the bay, is Hastings.
This is now looking a little further north.
Lifted Mini. Judging by the looks of the engine, it has not been turned on in a
long time.
Every road has a sidewalk; that is not an exaggeration.
I believe my residence was the second unit from the right in the rightmost
building.
Most neighborhoods I saw looked virtually identical.
Since most coffee shops require you to buy something before giving you the wifi
key, this has been an accurate assessment of my trip so far.
Is that Dover Castle? Well, it is a castle, and it's in Dover...
Visible white cliffs; near the ferry.
Looking into the Dover harbor. The picture does not include the fence, which
is important because everything in England has a fence, possibly because the
locals are too stupid to know that doing stupid things can hurt?
The ferry terminal is quite large and there are three or four companies that run
ferries.
A better view of white cliffs and a building built into them.
Trucks (``lorries'') boarding the ferry.
The (blue) foot passenger loading arm is retracted.
Looking back into the harbor. Most of the space is for parking when waiting on
a ferry.
Some Europeans took this picture for me.
It seems to me that this type of rock must be very soft to have produced
structures like this.
Graffiti in Calais. Not all of it was so political, but there was a lot of it.
My hotel room in Lille.
The room is very small.
Street activity is continual in Lille; few streets are empty.
Minions on a poster? Really? (sorry for the blurry picture)
The outer ring of the Citadel of Lille.
A view of some streets; they mostly look like this.
The walls of the Citadel.
It appears that the primary hobby of the French (next to smoking) is running.
A building being renovated.
Looking towards the city center.
Pew pew pew! Lasers!
Obtained at a grocery store for quite cheap.
Street musicians are common and appear to make good money (compared to their
American counterparts).
The City Centre at about 8pm.
Many dining areas are outdoors.
I found Harold's car.
Alcohol is cheap in Europe.
Many cars have trailer hitches, and most look vaguely phallic.
Red, white, and blue!
Le PETA.
A beautiful old Mercedes.
The interior was perfect.
This is not a variant of the GPL I am familiar with.
A cathedral that was locked.
This train goes fast.
A cathedral in Calais.
Note the ornate statues and brickwork.
The Port of Calais is adjacent to an overgrown, desolate industrial area that I
highly enjoyed walking through.
A better view of the industrial area as seen from a pedestrian bridge at the
port.
The ferry building apparently does not have a regular cleaning crew. Are they
on strike too?
When no land is visible, the ocean seems very large (...which, it turns out, it
is).
It's good to see that stupid names for operations (and also calling things
Operations) is not a phenomenon limited to the US.
A street in Dover. Locals claimed the streets were quite empty on this day.
A locked cathedral in Dover.
The ascent toward Dover Castle begins.
Typical wildlife is different.
I love you too, plywood.
The view of Dover Castle from the admission gate, where I was asked to pay 20
pounds to enter. (I did not.)
This seems to be a typical view from inside a train car in southeastern England.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand what the purpose of this traffic
structure is.
Be safe!
This grave is very old; the user died in 1771.
In the 1800s, it appears as though trains were made of plants. The later
invention of metal allowed faster trains.
Danger!
Warning!
Caution!
Safety!
Be aware!
Assemble fires here!
See something, say something!
Safer!