Tuesday Haike

Rats! Rats in the walls!
Or perhaps it's just the mouse
The cats haven't caught

A misty morning
The sun is just a pale disc
Poking through the trees

Hit the road running
The bard of Salford recalls
Life in Chickentown

Unleaded petrol
Now costs one pound eleven
Highway robbery

Prius wins on tax
Payslip confirms that I am
Fifty quid richer

Testing reveals faults
Friday's planned upgrade is now
Under advisement

Home to GTA
A job interview leaves a
Trail of dead lawyers

Sunday Links

• The bard of Salford - a documentary about John Cooper Clarke
• Aliens on the London Underground
• The Large Hadron Collider - what *really* happens there
• Make your own fonts online and then share them
• Download Cory Doctorow's new book 'Little Brother' for free in just about every ebook format imaginable
• It had to happen - Portal Porn
• Game time - Magic Pen (h/t The Rev) and try to escape extinction in Dinorun

Fix bayonets!

Six hours of bayonet drill in a sweltering hall today, including some excellent bayonet vs cutlass work and a five vs five boarding action in which I outflanked the other crew and killed them all single handed, and I bet that Wii Fit will be complaining that I haven't done any exercise when I switch it on tomorrow ... :-)

Caturday night at the movies

Fancy a cuppa?

(H/T Bay of Fundie)

Perestroika (GTA IV minor spoilers)

I am in a cab on the way to Mr Faustin's club, Perestroika. The word means 'rebuilding'. It is appropriate. After today, there will be much to rebuild.

"Excuse me, can we change the channel? I would like to listen to 'Journey', my friend."

The cab driver retunes the radio to the station that plays my favourite music. A piece by the composer Phillip Glass. It fits my mood. Roman talks of big opportunities, but all I see is a third rate cab depot and an apartment filled with roaches.

The sky is the same colour as the gun in my pocket. The streets are slick with a cold rain. Liberty does not seem such a welcoming place now.

Sunday Links

• An interview with the man responsible for millions of hours of lost productivity in offices over the last twenty years
• An intriguing maze game
• The Inner Life of the Cell - this was the video that the creationists tried to copy for their film by changing the colours and putting a different commentary on it.
• Baby car logos
• Orangutan using a spear - get your paws off me, you damn dirty ape! It's only a matter of time ...
• Historical proceedings of the Old Bailey in a searchable database
• Video game name generator - I don't know about you but I really want to play "Hitler's fantasy world tour" and "Awesome Battleship Deluxe"
• Proverb generator - my favourite so far is the highly appropriate "He who lives by the sword shall die by good drinking."

I love a rainy night

It's a bank holiday weekend in the UK, which means that with traditional inevitability it is raining. Still, it is just a gentle soft rain and it's not too cold so walking in the woods with a carpet of bluebells in bloom providing a splash of colour was a joy.

It has also been a perfect excuse to play on GTA IV. The story is deep and engaging, the driving and shooting models are just about as good as they can be and the level of detail is quite staggering at times. The trademark sly humour is still on show with the 'Clucking Bell' restaurant offering the 'Little Cluckers' meal and the cyber cafe where you go to get your emails being called 'TW@'. The less said about the sign for 'Johnson's Wieners' and the logo for the bowling alley the better ... ;-)