It's been rather muggy today - not sunny, but overcast and humid, although that has finally broken with a bit of rain and some fresher air blowing through.
Not a huge deal to report today - the perils of committing to a daily blog mean that a lazy bank holiday is going to be a bit thin content wise. I fell asleep on the sofa last night and then really struggled to drag myself upstairs to bed. I woke up early again, and my sleep diary app is showing an average of six hours sleep per night at the moment which is not really enough. I think I'll keep track for another couple of weeks and then maybe go back to the docs - apparently disturbed sleep is one of the associated symptoms of fatigue syndrome. We shall see.
Today has been lazy, really. A game of Sudoku (14:46 on Medium), a couple of hours reading Blue Mars (getting near the end now), two walks with the dog, and a re-listen to the last Collings & Herrin live podcast (number 79, if you are keeping count). Very funny indeed, particularly Richard Herring's not libellous in any way assertion that Woody Allen is a either a bibliophile or a francophile.
Errm, that's about it. Normal service will be resumed, eventually.
Monday, August 31, 2009
- 20:07 Penn and Teller say the Catholic church is bullshit! vimeo.com/6321872 #
Sunday, August 30, 2009
- 20:30 Just watched Aliens again - wow, still makes me hold my breath at the end. Now watching the Orbital dvd - 5.1 DTS mix FTW! #
- 21:01 Now watching my Lemon Jelly 64-95 DVD. Pleased to see it has an option for a Dobly 5.1 mix ... :-) #
Parts of Britain 'like The Wire'
Conservative MP Chris Grayling has said that parts Britain are becoming like the The Wire, but what are the true statistics ...
Daily Post - Sunday
Well, it's a typical rainy bank holiday, so that means DVDs, and yesterday was the turn of Aliens and Alien in that order.
Two very different films, using the same basic elements, Cameron's take is pretty much a Vietnam war movie in space with a technologically superior force falling prey to overwhelming odds as well as their own overconfidence and corruption. In contrast, Ridley Scott's original is psychological body horror of the most visceral kind. It can be no coincidence that the womb like computer is called Mother and that the violence of the xenomorph itself is disturbingly sexual in nature. Giger's iconic designs blend technology and sinuous organic shapes to produce a creature that is truly alien. Well worth the re-watch, on both counts.
A bit of a disturbed night last night, thanks to a party somewhere in the audible vicinity that was still going at six o'clock this morning, and then my attempt to have an afternoon nap were stymied by the next door neighbour pressure washing his decking. Still, at least I've got a day off tomorrow for the bank hol, with no particular plans to go anywhere.
In games news, I seem to have rediscovered my enthusiasm for Sudoku after Stephanie posted an example over at The New Metaphysical Club. I've got a good version for my iPhone now which offers various levels of difficulty and keeps times for each puzzle so that you can track your progress. I also picked up a Japanese language tutorial at the same time, so I'm going to have a go with that as well.
Podcast of the day is the welcome return of Adam and Joe after their summer holidays, and a very speedy posting of the podcast (or Boggins as we must now call it) too - it doesn't usually show up in iTunes until Monday or Tuesday.
Two very different films, using the same basic elements, Cameron's take is pretty much a Vietnam war movie in space with a technologically superior force falling prey to overwhelming odds as well as their own overconfidence and corruption. In contrast, Ridley Scott's original is psychological body horror of the most visceral kind. It can be no coincidence that the womb like computer is called Mother and that the violence of the xenomorph itself is disturbingly sexual in nature. Giger's iconic designs blend technology and sinuous organic shapes to produce a creature that is truly alien. Well worth the re-watch, on both counts.
A bit of a disturbed night last night, thanks to a party somewhere in the audible vicinity that was still going at six o'clock this morning, and then my attempt to have an afternoon nap were stymied by the next door neighbour pressure washing his decking. Still, at least I've got a day off tomorrow for the bank hol, with no particular plans to go anywhere.
In games news, I seem to have rediscovered my enthusiasm for Sudoku after Stephanie posted an example over at The New Metaphysical Club. I've got a good version for my iPhone now which offers various levels of difficulty and keeps times for each puzzle so that you can track your progress. I also picked up a Japanese language tutorial at the same time, so I'm going to have a go with that as well.
Podcast of the day is the welcome return of Adam and Joe after their summer holidays, and a very speedy posting of the podcast (or Boggins as we must now call it) too - it doesn't usually show up in iTunes until Monday or Tuesday.
Sunday Links
- ZooBorns: What's a Pudu? One of these, obviously
- Now, For Some Reason, a Snow Leopard (moar) (and also)
- 私信 まるです。 Maru tackles the great outdoors for the first time
- A Dark Sky Over Sequoia National Park From Astronomy Picture of the Day
- World Wide Telescope An internet based astronomy resource
- The Big Picture Remarkable photographs of aircraft
- Planescape: Torment Probably one of the most intriguing role playing games of all time, and certainly the most literary with over 800,000 words of dialogue and description. This novelisation takes the text and turns it into a readable novel.
- The Great Gatsby An e-book download for one of the best books that I've read recently.
- Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas Yet another e-book - the Cthulhu mythos meets the Beat generation
- Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? A music video for Felicia Day's web based MMO sitcom The Guild
- How much booze would it take to kill you? Choose your poison ...
- Telegraph Island Possibly the worst military posting of all time, this isolated island inspired the phrase "going round the bend"
- Time travel in popular film and tv Every time travel journey from recent films and tv shows plotted on a huge timeline, with paradoxes highlighted. Doctor Who is not included on this chart for reasons of simplicity.
- Genuine Breakup Letter Dramatic reading- possibly NSFW but rather amusing nonetheless
- NASA’s Most Awesomely Weird Mission Patches Do want!
- The Demystifying Adventures of the Amazing Randi
- Turn Based Battle If you are a fan of Japanese RPGs, you should enjoy this not entirely serious take on the genre
- Must Pop Words Make words before the screen fills up with letters. A nice implementation of a classic word game
Saturday, August 29, 2009
- 19:20 Snow Leopard here I come ... Install starts now! #
- 19:53 Listening to Collings & Herrin via iPhone on the amp, installing Snow Leopard on Mac, twittering via DSi #
- 20:57 Snow leopard is looking good so far ... seem to have loads more disc space #
- 05:49 RT @GaryDelaney: Been wrestling with some moral dilemmas this week so I thought to myself 'what would Jesus do?' and just blamed homosexuals #
- 06:01 RT @Lufferov: @Zomoniac I suggest you ask @thatrevchap - yep. Just read his blog - he plays and reviews every iPhone game EVAR on there #
- 07:51 Right, time to take the doggo for a walk and cut the grass while the sun is shining #
- 10:23 twitpic.com/fondt - You shall not pass! #caturday #
- 12:27 I keep hitting refresh on the UPS tracking page in the hope that it will make my xbox come home sooner #
Daily Post - Saturday
Well, I can exclusively report that Snow Leopard seems to have gone on fine.
The only problem is that my old version of Parallels no longer works, but as I rarely use it it was just taking up a big chunk of disc space for an XP image so that's no big loss. If I ever find a reason to use it again I'll get the upgrade. No obvious differences, but everything seems just a little bit snappier and my reported free disc space has gone from 23Gb to 40Gb. Which is nice.
Less good was last night's eviction on Big Brother with Marcus, the only remotely interesting character in the house, getting the boot. I now have zero enthusiasm for the final week, and it just feels as if Channel 4 are trying their best to strangle the format so that it goes out with a whimper not a bang. Similarly, the format of X-Factor is also now broken - the public auditions in front of an audience are a huge mistake and they just make the mocking of the no-hopers even more cruel than it was before.
In x-box news, I had held out a vague hope that it might be delivered today after tracking its progress from Germany to the UK on the UPS website, but there have been no further updates since it left Tamworth at 4:24 this morning so it seems that it will just sit in a depot until after the bank holiday now, so no 1vs100 season finale for me. Bah.
Podcast of the day is episode 605 of Coverville, a Stranglers Cover Story. I usually find that I have to skip a couple of tracks in a typical Coverville show, but not so in this case. Standout highlights for me were a new Nouvelle Vague cover of 'Get a Grip', a delicious cover of 'Golden Brown' by Martina Topley Bird and the show closer with the Stranglers' version of 'Walk on By'. Excellent music.
The only problem is that my old version of Parallels no longer works, but as I rarely use it it was just taking up a big chunk of disc space for an XP image so that's no big loss. If I ever find a reason to use it again I'll get the upgrade. No obvious differences, but everything seems just a little bit snappier and my reported free disc space has gone from 23Gb to 40Gb. Which is nice.
Less good was last night's eviction on Big Brother with Marcus, the only remotely interesting character in the house, getting the boot. I now have zero enthusiasm for the final week, and it just feels as if Channel 4 are trying their best to strangle the format so that it goes out with a whimper not a bang. Similarly, the format of X-Factor is also now broken - the public auditions in front of an audience are a huge mistake and they just make the mocking of the no-hopers even more cruel than it was before.
In x-box news, I had held out a vague hope that it might be delivered today after tracking its progress from Germany to the UK on the UPS website, but there have been no further updates since it left Tamworth at 4:24 this morning so it seems that it will just sit in a depot until after the bank holiday now, so no 1vs100 season finale for me. Bah.
Podcast of the day is episode 605 of Coverville, a Stranglers Cover Story. I usually find that I have to skip a couple of tracks in a typical Coverville show, but not so in this case. Standout highlights for me were a new Nouvelle Vague cover of 'Get a Grip', a delicious cover of 'Golden Brown' by Martina Topley Bird and the show closer with the Stranglers' version of 'Walk on By'. Excellent music.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Daily Post - Friday
It's been a strange day today, weather wise, alternating between brilliant sunshine and driving rain several times. Sunshine is winning at the moment but it's a bank holiday weekend so anything could happen, I suppose.
The last two doors for the kitchen will be fitted tomorrow, so it will be finally be done, and it has certainly been worth it. The house has a very different feel now - much tidier and cleaner, hairy animals notwithstanding. If you didn't see it on Twitter this morning, here's a 12 second guided tour:
New Kitchen on 12seconds.tv
What else?
Jamie seems to have developed an Aliens/Predator obsession recently, and I have enjoyed watching him play through the Marine campaign on Aliens vs Predator 2, anticipating the shocks. It's one of the best paced FPS games of all time, I think, particularly the first twenty minutes or so which ratchets up the tension before you even get to see an alien. I remember the first time I played it spotting a moving target on my motion tracker and unleashing a clip of ammo in a blind panic before realising that I was firing at an overhead crane swinging in the wind. I think a viewing of Aliens may be in order this weekend.
Right, it's pizza night, time for RUM and a Collings and Herrin podcast and the Snow Leopard update on my Macbook. Hurrah!
The last two doors for the kitchen will be fitted tomorrow, so it will be finally be done, and it has certainly been worth it. The house has a very different feel now - much tidier and cleaner, hairy animals notwithstanding. If you didn't see it on Twitter this morning, here's a 12 second guided tour:
New Kitchen on 12seconds.tv
What else?
Jamie seems to have developed an Aliens/Predator obsession recently, and I have enjoyed watching him play through the Marine campaign on Aliens vs Predator 2, anticipating the shocks. It's one of the best paced FPS games of all time, I think, particularly the first twenty minutes or so which ratchets up the tension before you even get to see an alien. I remember the first time I played it spotting a moving target on my motion tracker and unleashing a clip of ammo in a blind panic before realising that I was firing at an overhead crane swinging in the wind. I think a viewing of Aliens may be in order this weekend.
Right, it's pizza night, time for RUM and a Collings and Herrin podcast and the Snow Leopard update on my Macbook. Hurrah!
- 19:45 I just scored 60 on Monster Cove in Harbor Master for #iPhone itunes.com/app/HarborMaster #
- 08:15 12seconds - New Kitchen tiny12.tv/WZRXS #
- 18:16 Time for a cafe lungo and a Richard Herring podcast while I wait for my turn with the Snow Leopard disc #
Robert Anton Wilson Tribute by Alan Moore
Part tribute to a remarkable and unique author, part beat poem looking at the American 20th century through a psychedelic glass, darkly.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Daily Post - Thursday
Perhaps it was tempting fate to download a sleep diary app for my iPhone, but I woke up three times last night from odd dreams about queuing in a pasty shops in York. Most strange. Still, at least the sun is shining today which always makes a world of difference to the way that I feel.
It was a bit quiet in the office today as well. I was the only person in my team for most of the day, with two people on hols, one in a meeting with customers, one off sick and the last one going to get red hot flaming lasers of doom shot into his eyeballs, or something.
At least the big boss has realised that we are behind on testing (mainly because she didn't anticipate people being away on summer holidays during the summer - go figure) so the cut for the beta release has been pushed back a week to give us a little breathing space. I've got one bit of work to get done for early next week, that I would have been working on today if I hadn't got sidetracked by a customer query and a testing bug that I was the only person available to deal with because there's nobody else around. Hmmm. Working from home tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a chance to do it then.
Xbox news is that my console has been under the soldering iron in the Microsoft secret base in Germany, and is even now being shipped back to dear old Blighty. It doesn't look likely that it will be back in time for the season finale of 1vs100 though, although given that the grand prize is a new car the chance of actually getting into a prize game is likely to be rather remote. Ah well.
Podcast of the day is the last episode in Stephen Fry's brief series 'Fry's English Delight' in which he ably fulfils the BBC remit to inform, educate and entertain on the many and varied origins and uses of the humble word 'Hello'. Fascinating stuff - there are not many presenters who could effortlessly link Norman hunting calls, to Shakespeare, to Charles Dickens' adventures in America, to early telephone etiquette via a murdered music hall star and the saucy tones of Leslie Phillips.
It was a bit quiet in the office today as well. I was the only person in my team for most of the day, with two people on hols, one in a meeting with customers, one off sick and the last one going to get red hot flaming lasers of doom shot into his eyeballs, or something.
At least the big boss has realised that we are behind on testing (mainly because she didn't anticipate people being away on summer holidays during the summer - go figure) so the cut for the beta release has been pushed back a week to give us a little breathing space. I've got one bit of work to get done for early next week, that I would have been working on today if I hadn't got sidetracked by a customer query and a testing bug that I was the only person available to deal with because there's nobody else around. Hmmm. Working from home tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a chance to do it then.
Xbox news is that my console has been under the soldering iron in the Microsoft secret base in Germany, and is even now being shipped back to dear old Blighty. It doesn't look likely that it will be back in time for the season finale of 1vs100 though, although given that the grand prize is a new car the chance of actually getting into a prize game is likely to be rather remote. Ah well.
Podcast of the day is the last episode in Stephen Fry's brief series 'Fry's English Delight' in which he ably fulfils the BBC remit to inform, educate and entertain on the many and varied origins and uses of the humble word 'Hello'. Fascinating stuff - there are not many presenters who could effortlessly link Norman hunting calls, to Shakespeare, to Charles Dickens' adventures in America, to early telephone etiquette via a murdered music hall star and the saucy tones of Leslie Phillips.
- 09:10 Lovely sunny day in Leeds today - huge contrast to yesterday's gloom. #
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The year is 1922, the start of the roaring twenties. A young man called Nick Carraway moves east to learn the bond business in New York and rents a house in West Egg, Long Island. West Egg is the home of the new money set, typified by his neighbour the enigmatic Gatsby. Rumours abound as to Gatsby's past and the source of his fabulous wealth, but that doesn't stop the moochers and hangers on from attending the glittering parties where Gatsby "dispenses starlight to casual moths". Will Nick discover the truth about Gatsby and his designs on Nick's married cousin Daisy?
This is superbly written book, that manages to feel both contemporary and highly evocative of a particular time and place, and the restlessness of the generation that survived the horrors of the Great War. It is fairly brief - indeed the comedian Andy Kaufmann famously once read the whole book out loud on stage - but dense with character and detail. I came to it not entirely sure what to expect, only having seen clips of the film version starring Robert Redford, but I found it moving and ultimately tragic.
A true classic.
View all my reviews >>
Daily Post - Wednesday
I felt somewhat melancholy this morning on the way to work - a combination of driving rain and having just listened to the surprisingly downbeat ending to 'The Great Gatsby' left me in a reflective mood.
It was a good job, therefore, that I had an episode of Just a Minute lined up on my iPhone to listen to. It's hard to believe that Nicholas Parsons is 85, and he is still sharp enough to chair perhaps the trickiest panel game ever devised, even if he does wander off on the occasional innuendo littered tangent. It seems quite incredible that the same show that I used to listen to as a child is still going strong, with the old masters of the game such as Kenneth Williams and Clement Freud now replaced by such luminaries as Paul Merton and Superkins. The show is a national treasure and as amusing now as it ever was.
The news came through today that Big Brother is going to be dropped by Channel 4 next year and given the current state of the show, that's probably no bad thing. Allowing Siavash to avoid nominating has fundamentally changed the rules of the game for no good reason and it just makes the final weeks a farce. What I'd like to see is the whole show move online - continuous streaming, no editing and packaging stories for the highlights show, and strictly applied rules. Two nominations a week, and any rule breaking is punished with immediate eviction. I think that there would be sufficient interest for people to subscribe for a season - if they only got half of the current C4 audience to pony up £10 or £20 for a 3 month run then it would easily be a going concern with advertising revenue on top. In fact, if they made available via an iPhone app or similar then it could easily outstrip the existing TV based version in popularity. There you go Endemol - send my royalties to the usual address, please and thank you.
I know I mentioned The Moth Podcast the other day, but you really should go and listen to this episode featuring an extraordinarily gutsy young man called Terrence Bruckner who stood up to homophobic bullies at his school, ending up with the last laugh. Inspirational listening.
It was a good job, therefore, that I had an episode of Just a Minute lined up on my iPhone to listen to. It's hard to believe that Nicholas Parsons is 85, and he is still sharp enough to chair perhaps the trickiest panel game ever devised, even if he does wander off on the occasional innuendo littered tangent. It seems quite incredible that the same show that I used to listen to as a child is still going strong, with the old masters of the game such as Kenneth Williams and Clement Freud now replaced by such luminaries as Paul Merton and Superkins. The show is a national treasure and as amusing now as it ever was.
The news came through today that Big Brother is going to be dropped by Channel 4 next year and given the current state of the show, that's probably no bad thing. Allowing Siavash to avoid nominating has fundamentally changed the rules of the game for no good reason and it just makes the final weeks a farce. What I'd like to see is the whole show move online - continuous streaming, no editing and packaging stories for the highlights show, and strictly applied rules. Two nominations a week, and any rule breaking is punished with immediate eviction. I think that there would be sufficient interest for people to subscribe for a season - if they only got half of the current C4 audience to pony up £10 or £20 for a 3 month run then it would easily be a going concern with advertising revenue on top. In fact, if they made available via an iPhone app or similar then it could easily outstrip the existing TV based version in popularity. There you go Endemol - send my royalties to the usual address, please and thank you.
I know I mentioned The Moth Podcast the other day, but you really should go and listen to this episode featuring an extraordinarily gutsy young man called Terrence Bruckner who stood up to homophobic bullies at his school, ending up with the last laugh. Inspirational listening.
- 08:33 Miserable rainy day in Leeds today ... #
- 10:00 Just put the whole show online with continuous streaming via an iPhone app - I'd subscribe @OfficialBB #
- 10:40 The Star Wars diorama from my goody bag - can you tell that I'm bored waiting for code to commit? twitpic.com/fbdbe #
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Daily Post - Tuesday
Well, I'm tired again.
If a week off work had any effect in recharging my batteries, then getting back onto the treadmill of work has run them down again pretty quickly. I fell asleep half way through watching 'True Blood' last night - I enjoyed what I did watch though, an intriguingly different take on the vampire mythos, I think.
I woke up feeling achy this morning and I also seem to have developed an irritating twitch in my leg muscles. It's feels like I have been over exercising, to the point of exhaustion, but I certainly haven't been. I'll have to see if I adjust back to getting up for work, otherwise it might be back to the docs again.
Enough with the winging already! Work today was quite enjoyable, against my better expectations. It was our divisional team meeting with the usual 'fun' games and challenges, although given the events of our last but one meeting I asked if we would be playing the 'Avoid getting made redundant' challenge this time.
My contribution was a presentation on re-engineering our bug fixing process, complete with added Lolcats for illustration. I am pleased to report that I kept the number of slides in my PowerPoint presentation to a bare minimum with no more than three or four bullet points per slide. Other plus points of the day included sweeties on the tables and a decent buffet lunch with mini white chocolate eclairs for afters. Yum. Our team also got the most points in the team challenge and I won a Star Wars Goody Bag for my part.
Home now to a nice cup of coffee and a chance to put my quivering legs up.
If a week off work had any effect in recharging my batteries, then getting back onto the treadmill of work has run them down again pretty quickly. I fell asleep half way through watching 'True Blood' last night - I enjoyed what I did watch though, an intriguingly different take on the vampire mythos, I think.
I woke up feeling achy this morning and I also seem to have developed an irritating twitch in my leg muscles. It's feels like I have been over exercising, to the point of exhaustion, but I certainly haven't been. I'll have to see if I adjust back to getting up for work, otherwise it might be back to the docs again.
Enough with the winging already! Work today was quite enjoyable, against my better expectations. It was our divisional team meeting with the usual 'fun' games and challenges, although given the events of our last but one meeting I asked if we would be playing the 'Avoid getting made redundant' challenge this time.
My contribution was a presentation on re-engineering our bug fixing process, complete with added Lolcats for illustration. I am pleased to report that I kept the number of slides in my PowerPoint presentation to a bare minimum with no more than three or four bullet points per slide. Other plus points of the day included sweeties on the tables and a decent buffet lunch with mini white chocolate eclairs for afters. Yum. Our team also got the most points in the team challenge and I won a Star Wars Goody Bag for my part.
Home now to a nice cup of coffee and a chance to put my quivering legs up.
- 18:55 I shall enliven my Powerpoint presentation with lolcats : twitpic.com/f4hq8 #
- 09:37 The muscles in my left leg have started twitching again ... Most irritating! #
- 12:07 What is going on on this sweet packet, exactly? twitpic.com/f7i26 #
Monday, August 24, 2009
Daily Post - Monday
I didn't sleep particularly well last night, with a combination of muggy weather and the anticipation of the alarm clock going at six in the morning. In the end I got up ten minutes before the alarm was due to go off and pottered around in the kitchen for a while before taking the dog out. It's starting to be sunrise time when I go out in the mornings now, so it will be getting darker now and then it's downhill all the way to the end of the year.
It feels like September at the moment with just a touch of chill in the wind and an air of overcast gloom, even though it is still technically August and the height of summer. Partly it is the poor weather and partly it is the new term feel with Alicia off to university soon and my course starting not long after that. Strange days, but perhaps we will get a late burst of Summer sunshine after the bank holiday at the weekend.
Back in the office this morning to a veritable mountain of email to plough through and issues to pick up on. We're heading towards the end of the testing cycle for the next release of our software and there is a lot to get done in the next two weeks before the customers come to have a look at it for beta testing.
It didn't take much prompting from the Colonel Bogie horn of the van for me to head downstairs for a cheese and onion pasty to set me up for the day. At least Monday is also the day for our office free fruit delivery, so I suppose that getting one of my five a day karmically balances the stodge.
We watched the final episode of Buffy last night, and although it didn't quite make me cry in the same way that it did on first viewing the final shot of Buffy and the gang looking out over the smouldering remains of Sunnydale still brought a lump to my throat. Good stuff, and well worth the investment of time in rewatching a hundred and odd hours of telly. There were some duff episodes in there, to be sure, including a lot of season 6 , but the good far out ways the bad.
Podcast of the day is Marsha Meets, with XFM presenter Marsha Shandur interviewing various comedians, the latest being the actor Kevin Eldon (better known as Norm off of the Twix adverts). This is another one worth trawling the back catalogues for old episodes, with the interview with Richard Herring being particularly interesting.
It feels like September at the moment with just a touch of chill in the wind and an air of overcast gloom, even though it is still technically August and the height of summer. Partly it is the poor weather and partly it is the new term feel with Alicia off to university soon and my course starting not long after that. Strange days, but perhaps we will get a late burst of Summer sunshine after the bank holiday at the weekend.
Back in the office this morning to a veritable mountain of email to plough through and issues to pick up on. We're heading towards the end of the testing cycle for the next release of our software and there is a lot to get done in the next two weeks before the customers come to have a look at it for beta testing.
It didn't take much prompting from the Colonel Bogie horn of the van for me to head downstairs for a cheese and onion pasty to set me up for the day. At least Monday is also the day for our office free fruit delivery, so I suppose that getting one of my five a day karmically balances the stodge.
We watched the final episode of Buffy last night, and although it didn't quite make me cry in the same way that it did on first viewing the final shot of Buffy and the gang looking out over the smouldering remains of Sunnydale still brought a lump to my throat. Good stuff, and well worth the investment of time in rewatching a hundred and odd hours of telly. There were some duff episodes in there, to be sure, including a lot of season 6 , but the good far out ways the bad.
Podcast of the day is Marsha Meets, with XFM presenter Marsha Shandur interviewing various comedians, the latest being the actor Kevin Eldon (better known as Norm off of the Twix adverts). This is another one worth trawling the back catalogues for old episodes, with the interview with Richard Herring being particularly interesting.
- 06:06 I really don't want to be awake right now ... #
- 12:13 I need to do a PowerPoint presentation for our divisional meeting tomorrow. A part of my soul has just died ... #
- 15:43 When I were a lad, this were all Fields of the Nephilim #gothnostalgia #
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Daily Post - Sunday
With a certain degree of sodding typicalness, I slept through until nearly eight o'clock this morning on the last day of my week off work. Ah well, it's back to six o'clock starts tomorrow. I'm still feeling aching and tired, so I guess I just have to soldier on.
I wasn't overly impressed with the first X-Factor show last night, and I only really watched it with half an eye on the screen whilst twittering to see the usual mix of wannabes, sob stories and hopelessly deluded fools being publicly humiliated. Wake me up when it's nearer the final and they've sorted out some people that can actually sing. Rather amusingly I had a notification in my email that I am now being followed by Simon Cowell on Twitter. Wonder if it's the real one or a spammer?
Much more enjoyable was the Acid Trip cocktail that I mixed up (1.5 Midori, 1 Rum, 1 Tequila, 1 Gin. Shake with ice) and our traditional Saturday night chilli followed by two more episodes of our Summer Buffy-thon. We are nearing the end of the season now, and I was surprised at how much I'd forgotten. Last two episodes tonight I think, and then we might make a start on True Blood to see if it lives up to the hype.
We finished filling in Alicia's forms for accommodation this afternoon complete with a direct debit mandate for scary amounts of money - not far short of what we pay on the mortgage every month in fact. Yikes. I've also been dropping heavy hints about things that Alicia needs to get on with sorting out herself before moving in less than two weeks now.
Podcast of the day is The Moth, with the theme being true stories, related live and without notes in front of an audience. I listened to two recent ones today - Amy Cohen talking about being diagnosed with a genetic predisposition for breast cancer and Robert Ooogh relating his bizarre experiences as a first time visitor to the Burning Man festival. Each story is around fifteen minutes or so, and I'll certainly be subscribing to this one and picking up some earlier episodes off iTunes.
Right, time for a coffee and another Collings and Herrin live podcast.
I wasn't overly impressed with the first X-Factor show last night, and I only really watched it with half an eye on the screen whilst twittering to see the usual mix of wannabes, sob stories and hopelessly deluded fools being publicly humiliated. Wake me up when it's nearer the final and they've sorted out some people that can actually sing. Rather amusingly I had a notification in my email that I am now being followed by Simon Cowell on Twitter. Wonder if it's the real one or a spammer?
Much more enjoyable was the Acid Trip cocktail that I mixed up (1.5 Midori, 1 Rum, 1 Tequila, 1 Gin. Shake with ice) and our traditional Saturday night chilli followed by two more episodes of our Summer Buffy-thon. We are nearing the end of the season now, and I was surprised at how much I'd forgotten. Last two episodes tonight I think, and then we might make a start on True Blood to see if it lives up to the hype.
We finished filling in Alicia's forms for accommodation this afternoon complete with a direct debit mandate for scary amounts of money - not far short of what we pay on the mortgage every month in fact. Yikes. I've also been dropping heavy hints about things that Alicia needs to get on with sorting out herself before moving in less than two weeks now.
Podcast of the day is The Moth, with the theme being true stories, related live and without notes in front of an audience. I listened to two recent ones today - Amy Cohen talking about being diagnosed with a genetic predisposition for breast cancer and Robert Ooogh relating his bizarre experiences as a first time visitor to the Burning Man festival. Each story is around fifteen minutes or so, and I'll certainly be subscribing to this one and picking up some earlier episodes off iTunes.
Right, time for a coffee and another Collings and Herrin live podcast.
- 19:12 I have a dangerous urge for a cocktail ... #
- 19:30 This is an Acid Trip - Midori, Gin, Tequila and Rum ... twitpic.com/evjxv #
- 19:33 I can exclusively report that the Acid Trip is lethal ... :-) #
- 19:35 Oh dear ... #x-factor #
- 19:53 My god! The hair! IT'S ALIVE! #x-factor #
- 20:05 Cos some teenagers can't sing innit #x-factor #
- 20:13 and, surprisingly enough, he now sings a blinder #x-fact or #
- 20:20 Don't give up the kitchen portering #x-factor #
- 20:20 or the factory job #x-factor #
Sunday Links
- Nan Madol Ruins Supposedly the inspiration for H.P.Lovecraft's dead city of R'lyeh. Spooky.
- Calder Mercury Fountain Beautiful and dangerous
- Galileo's Instruments of Discovery With these humble tools, Galileo changed the world
- ZooBorns: Romping Snow Leopard Kittens Awwww!
- 30 Real Animals with Science Fiction Names
- Translation Party Just feed it a sentence in English and watch it be translated into Japanese and back until it reaches equilibrim. Strangely compelling.
- Tales of the Here and Now Free graphic novel downloads for iPhone, Android and DSi
- Songs in code Popular hits for programmers
- Portwiture An excellent Twitter mashup that returns pictures based on recent keywords
- Twittervision Random tweets from around the world displayed on a map
- The Shakespearean Heroes Science Fiction Should Steal From A call for SF authors to brush up their Shakespeare
- The best and worst uses of Kind of Blue in the movies Jazz ... nice, or is it? Miles Davis seminal album has been used in some excellent film and tv soundtracks, and others that are not so ... great.
- Ten things we don't understand about humans
- Simpsons Top Trumps: Skeptics Edition The top fifty skeptics rated on everything from number of Twitter followers to Arch Nemesis. I love Prof Brian Cox's Special Power.
- Splitter An excellent physics puzzle game based around the idea of cutting the scenery
Saturday, August 22, 2009
- 19:39 Bugger - the xbox has three flashing red lights, and I was really looking forward to 1vs100 as well. #
- 10:10 Doris and Barney enjoying a quiet #caturday twitpic.com/etx4d #
Daily Post - Saturday
It is with sadness that I have to report that a member of the family is gravely ill.
At approximately twenty past seven last night I went to switch on my trusty xbox 360 in order to play the Friday night game of 1 vs 100 when disaster struck. Instead of a cheery startup fanfare I was greeted with the sight of three sickly looking red lights around the power button. Oh bother, I said, or slightly more profane words to that effect.
Still, at least it is still covered by the warranty, so I've downloaded a shipping label from UPS and I am now awaiting a van to ship my pal away to darkest Germany where the Microsoft doctors will do their best to bring it back to life in whatever high-tech version of ER they have over there.
One thing puzzles me though - when I saw the dreaded red ring of death, I went a googling (as you do) to see what could be done. I found all manner of guides to fixing the problem yourself which seemed to involve doing things that would permanently invalidate the warranty or paying 39 dollars before they would tell you the secret of fixing the machine. Now, as far as I can tell, all but the very earliest machines should still be covered by the three year RROD warranty, so why mess about trying to fix it yourself? If all else fails then you could probably buy a new one for not much more than the cost of a bodged up fix on your old one.
What else?
Well, Bea went as expected in Big Brother last night, although I very nearly slept through the whole thing after nodding off half way through the Kevin Bishop show. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic of the game shifts as it heads into the final couple of weeks. The new series of X-Factor is starting tonight, but it really doesn't appeal to me. Mitch Benn had the last word on this genre of talent show with his song Sing Like An Angel, as far as I'm concerned.
Podcast of the day is The Bugle with the long awaited return of the correspondent known only as 'The American' with the absolute last word on the health care debate. I'm still not sure that guns and jet-skis are a good combination though ...
At approximately twenty past seven last night I went to switch on my trusty xbox 360 in order to play the Friday night game of 1 vs 100 when disaster struck. Instead of a cheery startup fanfare I was greeted with the sight of three sickly looking red lights around the power button. Oh bother, I said, or slightly more profane words to that effect.
Still, at least it is still covered by the warranty, so I've downloaded a shipping label from UPS and I am now awaiting a van to ship my pal away to darkest Germany where the Microsoft doctors will do their best to bring it back to life in whatever high-tech version of ER they have over there.
One thing puzzles me though - when I saw the dreaded red ring of death, I went a googling (as you do) to see what could be done. I found all manner of guides to fixing the problem yourself which seemed to involve doing things that would permanently invalidate the warranty or paying 39 dollars before they would tell you the secret of fixing the machine. Now, as far as I can tell, all but the very earliest machines should still be covered by the three year RROD warranty, so why mess about trying to fix it yourself? If all else fails then you could probably buy a new one for not much more than the cost of a bodged up fix on your old one.
What else?
Well, Bea went as expected in Big Brother last night, although I very nearly slept through the whole thing after nodding off half way through the Kevin Bishop show. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic of the game shifts as it heads into the final couple of weeks. The new series of X-Factor is starting tonight, but it really doesn't appeal to me. Mitch Benn had the last word on this genre of talent show with his song Sing Like An Angel, as far as I'm concerned.
Podcast of the day is The Bugle with the long awaited return of the correspondent known only as 'The American' with the absolute last word on the health care debate. I'm still not sure that guns and jet-skis are a good combination though ...
Friday, August 21, 2009
- 10:23 Just had to give the dog a bath after he rolled on a particularly skanky dead bird. Yuk. #
- 10:29 Just trying out Twitter Fox as an alternative to Tweetdeck - looks good so far #
- 19:39 Bugger - the xbox has three flashing red lights, and I was really looking forward to 1vs100 as well. #
Daily Post - Friday
I think I overdid things a little today.
I started by putting a load of washing on and then I went out to cut the grass while the sun was shining. Barney has a habit of waiting until my back is turned and then rolling on the freshly mown lawn until he is a nice shade of green, so I made sure that he was elsewhere whilst I mowed the front lawn as well as the back. Unfortunately, elsewhere included a particularly skanky dead bird that he had dragged out of the bushes onto the patio and then rolled on getting covered in blood, feathers, viscera and some loathsome maggots as well. Yuk, yuk and thrice yuk.
So, it was upstairs and into the bath for him, with double rations of shampoo until he was relatively clean. I then shut him in the bathroom to dry off and went to hang the washing out, before we headed off to the pet store to get a new basket and collar for Barney and a couple of other bits and bobs from the retail park (and also a Subway Melt for lunch, yum).
Back home, I undertook a major tidy up of Jamie's PC, cleaning out some file sharing software that he didn't know he'd installed that was running in background and stopping his game of Oblivion from starting up properly. Have I ever said how much I hate the lax security on Windows, and particularly the sticking plaster approach of Vista that prompts for permission to run everything resulting in the user just clicking 'yes' without realising what they are agreeing to. It took a while, but it seems to be running more smoothly now.
What else? Oh, yes - in TK Max they sell a huge variety of top quality tat, including some odd food items. What ingredients do you think might be included in a 'Some Like it Hot BBQ Kit'? Mustard and Herb Salt rub - check. Tomato and Onion Chutney - check. Cider and Horseradish mustard - check. Everton Mints? Really? Which barbecue have you ever been to, that included traditional English boiled sweets as an essential component?
Right, it's Friday night - time for rum, 1 Vs 100 and pizza - hurrah!
I started by putting a load of washing on and then I went out to cut the grass while the sun was shining. Barney has a habit of waiting until my back is turned and then rolling on the freshly mown lawn until he is a nice shade of green, so I made sure that he was elsewhere whilst I mowed the front lawn as well as the back. Unfortunately, elsewhere included a particularly skanky dead bird that he had dragged out of the bushes onto the patio and then rolled on getting covered in blood, feathers, viscera and some loathsome maggots as well. Yuk, yuk and thrice yuk.
So, it was upstairs and into the bath for him, with double rations of shampoo until he was relatively clean. I then shut him in the bathroom to dry off and went to hang the washing out, before we headed off to the pet store to get a new basket and collar for Barney and a couple of other bits and bobs from the retail park (and also a Subway Melt for lunch, yum).
Back home, I undertook a major tidy up of Jamie's PC, cleaning out some file sharing software that he didn't know he'd installed that was running in background and stopping his game of Oblivion from starting up properly. Have I ever said how much I hate the lax security on Windows, and particularly the sticking plaster approach of Vista that prompts for permission to run everything resulting in the user just clicking 'yes' without realising what they are agreeing to. It took a while, but it seems to be running more smoothly now.
What else? Oh, yes - in TK Max they sell a huge variety of top quality tat, including some odd food items. What ingredients do you think might be included in a 'Some Like it Hot BBQ Kit'? Mustard and Herb Salt rub - check. Tomato and Onion Chutney - check. Cider and Horseradish mustard - check. Everton Mints? Really? Which barbecue have you ever been to, that included traditional English boiled sweets as an essential component?
Right, it's Friday night - time for rum, 1 Vs 100 and pizza - hurrah!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
- 11:14 Alicia has got a B and two Cs and a confirmed place at Huddersfield Uni in September - hurrah! #
Hurts So BAD COMPANY - nathan jay and kaya
An excellent blend of music and a classic 2000AD comic strip
Daily Post - Thursday
Well, the big news today, which most of you probably seen on Twitter already, is that Alicia has passed her A levels with the grades that she needs to go to her first choice university place in Huddersfield to study chemistry. I had been quite anxious about it and was awake at five this morning, pottering around on Twitter and then cleaning out the fridge (job for the day) at seven o'clock whilst Alicia was still dead to the world. We were just about to set off for college to collect the fateful results envelope when a letter came through the door which we thought was just a routine bit of junk mail from the Universities service. It actually turned out to be a letter confirming her place, which was a huge relief to all concerned and took the pressure off waiting to see the actual grades - a B and two Cs.
Now we just have to sort out accommodation, student finance and other essentials and she'll be off in just over two weeks. The halls where she will be staying are less than twenty miles away and she's got two weeks of settling in and fresher's activities before her course proper starts on the 21st of September. Yikes.
Last night we took advantage of the hot weather to have a barbecue, sitting out till after sunset listening to music and nomming multitudinous hot dogs and burgers. Note to self - adding West Indian hot pepper sauce to hot dogs when it is too dark to see is a potentially risky business. Very tasty, but another reason that I was awake in the small hours.
Weather wise, it's a bit fresher out there today with a bit of rain and a welcome breeze. The sun is out again now, so I've still got a couple of nice days of holiday to look forward to.
Podcast of the day is the first of five live shows from Edinburgh by Richard Herring and Andrew Collins with vaguely topical and occasionally very rude and/or childish banter for the one hour and six minutes that Garage Band on Collins laptop will record in one go. Excellent stuff available here.
Now we just have to sort out accommodation, student finance and other essentials and she'll be off in just over two weeks. The halls where she will be staying are less than twenty miles away and she's got two weeks of settling in and fresher's activities before her course proper starts on the 21st of September. Yikes.
Last night we took advantage of the hot weather to have a barbecue, sitting out till after sunset listening to music and nomming multitudinous hot dogs and burgers. Note to self - adding West Indian hot pepper sauce to hot dogs when it is too dark to see is a potentially risky business. Very tasty, but another reason that I was awake in the small hours.
Weather wise, it's a bit fresher out there today with a bit of rain and a welcome breeze. The sun is out again now, so I've still got a couple of nice days of holiday to look forward to.
Podcast of the day is the first of five live shows from Edinburgh by Richard Herring and Andrew Collins with vaguely topical and occasionally very rude and/or childish banter for the one hour and six minutes that Garage Band on Collins laptop will record in one go. Excellent stuff available here.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Daily Post - Wednesday
Crikey, it's warm out there.
OK, so 26 degrees isn't hugely hot in the grand scheme of things, but I'm melting at the moment and very grateful for the grapefruit juice, soda and ice that I've got at my elbow. Still, a BBQ is on the cards tonight which will mean a frozen daiquiri or somesuch and then beer chilled to within a whisper of freezing point.
Telly last night was good. I'm really enjoying Big Brother at the moment, and I'm not ashamed to say it. Allowing the housemates to openly discuss nominations has really opened the game up to the Machiavellian types. It's almost a shame that Bea looks like being a dead cert to go on Friday - the one thing BB needs is a good villain - but it will be fun all the same, I think. The other highlight last night was Charlie Brooker's 'You Have Been Watching'. I was initially sceptical about the panel show format being a good vehicle for Charlie Brooker's acidic humour, but I'm happy to have been proven wrong. Last night's show had a particularly good dissection of an atrocious American (where else?) series called 'Bibleman' which is as bad as it sounds. Good stuff.
No Wii Fit this morning (slap wrists, I know) but I made up for it by giving the living room rug a damn good cleaning with the carpet shampoo machine to get the accumulated animal hairs out. The day was warm and breezy enough for the rug to dry outside and the room no longer smells like a sweaty dog. Which is nice.
Podcast of the day was Freethought Radio with an interesting and rather worrying expose of a cultish evangelical organisation called 'The Family' in Washington DC that seemingly has its hooks deeply into the American political culture, organising things like Presidential prayer breakfasts and paying hush money to the mistresses of various congressmen to cover up affairs. This podcast can be a bit hit and miss - I tend to cringe when they start playing atheist folk music - but this was a good episode.
Right, time to don the trusty Panama and take el Doggo for his statutory walkies. Hasta luego, chums!
OK, so 26 degrees isn't hugely hot in the grand scheme of things, but I'm melting at the moment and very grateful for the grapefruit juice, soda and ice that I've got at my elbow. Still, a BBQ is on the cards tonight which will mean a frozen daiquiri or somesuch and then beer chilled to within a whisper of freezing point.
Telly last night was good. I'm really enjoying Big Brother at the moment, and I'm not ashamed to say it. Allowing the housemates to openly discuss nominations has really opened the game up to the Machiavellian types. It's almost a shame that Bea looks like being a dead cert to go on Friday - the one thing BB needs is a good villain - but it will be fun all the same, I think. The other highlight last night was Charlie Brooker's 'You Have Been Watching'. I was initially sceptical about the panel show format being a good vehicle for Charlie Brooker's acidic humour, but I'm happy to have been proven wrong. Last night's show had a particularly good dissection of an atrocious American (where else?) series called 'Bibleman' which is as bad as it sounds. Good stuff.
No Wii Fit this morning (slap wrists, I know) but I made up for it by giving the living room rug a damn good cleaning with the carpet shampoo machine to get the accumulated animal hairs out. The day was warm and breezy enough for the rug to dry outside and the room no longer smells like a sweaty dog. Which is nice.
Podcast of the day was Freethought Radio with an interesting and rather worrying expose of a cultish evangelical organisation called 'The Family' in Washington DC that seemingly has its hooks deeply into the American political culture, organising things like Presidential prayer breakfasts and paying hush money to the mistresses of various congressmen to cover up affairs. This podcast can be a bit hit and miss - I tend to cringe when they start playing atheist folk music - but this was a good episode.
Right, time to don the trusty Panama and take el Doggo for his statutory walkies. Hasta luego, chums!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Daily Post - Tuesday
Seeing as how this week is a holiday we splashed out on a Chinese meal yesterday evening, ordered over the internet from Hong Kong Takeaway. I can certainly recommend the salt and pepper squid and the salt and pepper king prawns. Yum.
The meal was followed by the utterly incomprehensible film-of-the-game 'Doom'. The original game had a lone space marine fighting demons from hell in a base on Phobos. The movie had a squad of marines fighting genetically modified monsters from Martian pre-history or something, but it was strangely enjoyable nonetheless even if the scenes of marines running up and down corridors had be wondering where the mini map was, and an extended sequence shot from the classic first person perspective had my trigger finger twitching.
I slept a bit better last night, the after effects of the chilli on the salt and pepper squid notwithstanding, and managed another half hour on Wii Fit this morning too. The vile job for the day was to clean out the drain by the kitchen door which was a little on the - shall we say, fragrant - side. I scooped out half a washing up bowl of grey gunk and an unfortunate dead mouse that looked a little bit like a miniature version of the pinky demon from off of Doom. Yuk.
In lieu of a podcast today, I've been following the comedian Mark Watson's 24 Hour Show in Edinburgh via Twitter and a website. So far today we've tried to persuade the world that the UK is in the wrong time zone, written slash fiction and posted various photographs. Worth following as a warm up for the Twitcom 2 gig tomorrow.
The meal was followed by the utterly incomprehensible film-of-the-game 'Doom'. The original game had a lone space marine fighting demons from hell in a base on Phobos. The movie had a squad of marines fighting genetically modified monsters from Martian pre-history or something, but it was strangely enjoyable nonetheless even if the scenes of marines running up and down corridors had be wondering where the mini map was, and an extended sequence shot from the classic first person perspective had my trigger finger twitching.
I slept a bit better last night, the after effects of the chilli on the salt and pepper squid notwithstanding, and managed another half hour on Wii Fit this morning too. The vile job for the day was to clean out the drain by the kitchen door which was a little on the - shall we say, fragrant - side. I scooped out half a washing up bowl of grey gunk and an unfortunate dead mouse that looked a little bit like a miniature version of the pinky demon from off of Doom. Yuk.
In lieu of a podcast today, I've been following the comedian Mark Watson's 24 Hour Show in Edinburgh via Twitter and a website. So far today we've tried to persuade the world that the UK is in the wrong time zone, written slash fiction and posted various photographs. Worth following as a warm up for the Twitcom 2 gig tomorrow.
Monday, August 17, 2009
iTunes Insight
Directions: Open iTunes/iPod or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.
How many songs: 2782
Sort by song title…
Sort by time…
Sort by album…
Top 5 Most Played Songs… no cheating
First 5 songs that come up on Shuffle…
“Sex”–How many songs come up: 25
“Death”–How many songs come up: 4
“Love”–How many songs come up: 67
“You”–How many songs come up: 154
“love” and “you” –How many songs come up: 11
How many songs: 2782
Sort by song title…
- First song: A&E - Goldfrapp
- Last song: 1987 – KLF
Sort by time…
- Shortest Song: Armed Bastards - Gene Hunt (0:04)
- Longest Song: May Cause Drowsiness Part 1 - Nathan Jay (47:51)
Sort by album…
- First Song: Absolutely Ambient / Echoes (Deep Sea Mix) / Pink Floyd
- Last Song: 1994 - Selected Ambient Works / Matchsticks / Aphex Twin
Top 5 Most Played Songs… no cheating
- One Perfect Sunrise - Orbital
- Destroy Everything You Touch - Ladytron
- Nautilus - Bob James
- Holy Thursday - David Axelrod
- Buggie Running Beeps - Kenichi Sugiyama
First 5 songs that come up on Shuffle…
- Heartstrings - The Attery Squash
- Dize Moi - Charles Ilopis
- Blade Runner Blues - Vangelis
- Jolly Roger - Adam and the Ants
- My Eyes - Laurie Anderson
“Sex”–How many songs come up: 25
“Death”–How many songs come up: 4
“Love”–How many songs come up: 67
“You”–How many songs come up: 154
“love” and “you” –How many songs come up: 11
(H/T deKay)
Daily Post - Monday
I still haven't quite adjusted to being on holiday this week, but I think I'm getting there. It's been another gloriously sunny afternoon and I'm currently sat with the patio doors open enjoying the warm breeze blowing through the house.
I managed half an hour on Wii fit this morning - something that I haven't done in far too long. A spot of yoga, some jack knife sit ups, rhythm boxing, downhill slalom and to finish with I can exclusively report that I am still a zen grandmaster at the art of sitting on my arse for three minutes. After that, we took advantage of the builders skip that is outside our house to dump some rubbish from out of the garage and also took a load of cardboard for recycling at the dump.
Jamie is feeling a bit poorly with a cold at the moment, so I bought him Trials HD on Xbox to cheer him up a bit. He's always been a fan of the riding-trials-bikes-over-ludicrous-obstacles genre of video games, so this one is right up his street. I had a brief go myself and it looks like fun, with the major benefit being instant restarts for any section. Very shiny ragdoll physics as well.
Podcast of the day is the debut for the excellent Afternoon Tea with Richard Wiseman in which he interviews magician and sceptic Pete Firmin about his Edinburgh show. I've also started listening to The Great Gatsby, the next entry in my brief Great American Novels reading series, and enjoying it immensely.
Ah, apparently the electrician is coming to move some sockets, so the power will be off for a bit, so iPhone here I come.
I managed half an hour on Wii fit this morning - something that I haven't done in far too long. A spot of yoga, some jack knife sit ups, rhythm boxing, downhill slalom and to finish with I can exclusively report that I am still a zen grandmaster at the art of sitting on my arse for three minutes. After that, we took advantage of the builders skip that is outside our house to dump some rubbish from out of the garage and also took a load of cardboard for recycling at the dump.
Jamie is feeling a bit poorly with a cold at the moment, so I bought him Trials HD on Xbox to cheer him up a bit. He's always been a fan of the riding-trials-bikes-over-ludicrous-obstacles genre of video games, so this one is right up his street. I had a brief go myself and it looks like fun, with the major benefit being instant restarts for any section. Very shiny ragdoll physics as well.
Podcast of the day is the debut for the excellent Afternoon Tea with Richard Wiseman in which he interviews magician and sceptic Pete Firmin about his Edinburgh show. I've also started listening to The Great Gatsby, the next entry in my brief Great American Novels reading series, and enjoying it immensely.
Ah, apparently the electrician is coming to move some sockets, so the power will be off for a bit, so iPhone here I come.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Daily post - Sunday
Another slightly disturbed night last night, although I think it was the after effects of the chilli waking me up rather than anything else. I nodded off back to sleep at about three before getting up at seven to be greeted by a very happy dog. I think that he must have been off his food yesterday after polishing off some week old chow mein out of the fridge, but he was back to his usual self today.
I must say that I've really been enjoying playing 1vs100 on Xbox Live recently, particularly the live shows on Friday and Saturday nights. I've not made it into the mob yet, but there are two more weeks to go in the current season so I'll keep trying. It seems that you have to be extraordinarily quick to make it into the top scoring list though - on most rounds I got every question correct, so the only difference will have been how fast I managed to press the buttons.
It's quite strange eating in the kitchen at the moment. It really does feel completely different to how it was before - much brighter and roomier for one thing and relaxing to sit it. It's almost like being on holiday in a posh villa or something. Definitely worth all of the stress and expense of getting it done.
A very pleasant walk in the woods this afternoon, with the sun being hot enough to warrant wearing the Panama hat. I also enjoyed listening to my podcast of the day - to whit Coverville episode 602 with a tribute to the late Les Paul. Some lovely upbeat bouncy guitar numbers mixed in with a little more bluesy stuff as well - well worth the download for some sunny, summery listening.
I must say that I've really been enjoying playing 1vs100 on Xbox Live recently, particularly the live shows on Friday and Saturday nights. I've not made it into the mob yet, but there are two more weeks to go in the current season so I'll keep trying. It seems that you have to be extraordinarily quick to make it into the top scoring list though - on most rounds I got every question correct, so the only difference will have been how fast I managed to press the buttons.
It's quite strange eating in the kitchen at the moment. It really does feel completely different to how it was before - much brighter and roomier for one thing and relaxing to sit it. It's almost like being on holiday in a posh villa or something. Definitely worth all of the stress and expense of getting it done.
A very pleasant walk in the woods this afternoon, with the sun being hot enough to warrant wearing the Panama hat. I also enjoyed listening to my podcast of the day - to whit Coverville episode 602 with a tribute to the late Les Paul. Some lovely upbeat bouncy guitar numbers mixed in with a little more bluesy stuff as well - well worth the download for some sunny, summery listening.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
In the tired old Alabama town of Maycomb in the 1930s a six year old tomboyish girl called Scout Finch, her brother Jem and their friend Dill share a common obsession with getting their reclusive neighbour Boo Radley to come out of his house. Over the course of several years we see the darker side of life in the town through Scout's eyes. The grinding poverty, the children who only show up for the first day of school and are then never seen again, and the endemic racism that seems to be an accepted fact of life. It is only when Scout's father, the widower Atticus Finch, a respected lawyer who takes on the hopeless case of the defence of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of the rape of a white woman, that Scout begins to understand the harsh realities of life in the deep south of America.
I came to this book with no preconceptions, other than the barest outline of the story, and found a great deal to consider. The casual and accepted racism of that time and place are deeply shocking, and one of the most telling scenes in the book is the teacher who proudly tells the children that the Nazi Germany is a dictatorship which is why the Jews are oppressed whereas America is a democracy where all men are created equal, seemingly blind to the injustice in her own town. The book concludes that all men are not created equal - not the women who are prohibited from serving on juries, not the poor white trash who scrape a living by picking from the town dump and certainly not the black people whose word is effectively worthless against the word of a white man. It is only through the actions of decent folk like Atticus who are prepared to take a stand that things will start - slowly - to change.
A genuine American classic, that you really should read if you haven't already done so.
View all my reviews
Sunday Links
- Short History (and future) of America by legendary cartoonist Robert Crumb
- Creatures Squamousness ahoy!
- ZooBorns: Baby Meerkats at the Belfast Zoo
- Experience The Planets Artistic impressions of our solar system
- Asteroid Impact Craters on Earth as Seen From Space Does what it says on the tin
- The long road to a Titan storm Tracking the weather on Titan
- Anyone else thinks that this looks a bit, well, Cylon-ish? The Terrifying Beauty Of A Combat Vehicle That Thinks, Plans, And May One Day Harbor Dark Desires
- This was a Triumph Build your own lifesize companion cube cupboard
- Holiday Snaps Uncle's candid holiday snaps
- Keep It Real Supermodels without makeup
- Natural Born Killer Fallout 3 for psychopaths - a social experiment
- Songs to Frag By Music for the retro generation
- Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, A free download from Boing Boing
- When Zombies Attack! Mathematical Modelling of a Zombie Outbreak! (pdf document)
- Brain Food Perfect for the next zombie uprising!
- The 8 Most Ill-Conceived Product Names of All-Time
- Do you eat the moldy stuff? For people who laugh in the face of 'Best Before' dates
- Bacon wrapped jalapeno thingies Yum!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
To all christians out there
Please read this article in the New York Times and tell me exactly why I should respect your deeply held beliefs when the organisation that you are part of is so morally bankrupt?
Daily post - Saturday
Holiday day one, and in the words of Mike Skinner from The Streets, today I have done absolutely nowt.
Ok, so that's not strictly true, but it's close enough. I was awake early again, but I didn't bother trying to get back to sleep. The iPhone is a real boon for early mornings - I can read my book, play GeoDefence or mooch on Twitter for a while all on the same device. This morning I listened to an episode of "Just a Minute", streamed off the BBC iPlayer in a matter of seconds and in excellent quality too. The internal speaker in the iPhone is perfect for listening to radio and audiobooks in this way.
After getting up and walking the dog I gave the lawn a quick once over with the mower which was about the limit of my physical energy for the day. I think I need to keep active but not push myself too far each time. After lunch I snoozed for a bit and then played a bit more Pokemon:Diamond. I'm about fifty hours into the game, judging by the time on the save log, and I've just beaten the eighth and final gym boss so it's onto the Pokemon League next, whatever that might be.
I also finished listening to "To Kill a Mockingbird", so I need to ponder a review for that at some point. I have appreciated making more of an effort to read outside of my usual comfort zone this year and logging them on GoodReads has been worthwhile too. I've also discovered the Open University material on iTunes, so I'm going to start looking at that as well. After reading "Godel, Escher, Bach" earlier this year I found a series of video lectures from a course at MIT on the book which have been fun to work through with Jan, usually accompanied by a tot of rum to lubricate the old synapses. It strikes me that if my physical activities are somewhat curtailed then exercising my mind is a useful alternative.
Barney the dog has been in a bit of a strange mood today for no readily apparent reason. I wonder if he's been discombobulated by all of the comings and goings with various builders, tilers and plumbers in the kitchen for the last two weeks? He seems to have settled a bit now, after being very anxious earlier on, but maybe there's a storm brewing that he is sensitive to? The sky looks a wee bit threatening and it seems to be getting dark out there.
Ok, so that's not strictly true, but it's close enough. I was awake early again, but I didn't bother trying to get back to sleep. The iPhone is a real boon for early mornings - I can read my book, play GeoDefence or mooch on Twitter for a while all on the same device. This morning I listened to an episode of "Just a Minute", streamed off the BBC iPlayer in a matter of seconds and in excellent quality too. The internal speaker in the iPhone is perfect for listening to radio and audiobooks in this way.
After getting up and walking the dog I gave the lawn a quick once over with the mower which was about the limit of my physical energy for the day. I think I need to keep active but not push myself too far each time. After lunch I snoozed for a bit and then played a bit more Pokemon:Diamond. I'm about fifty hours into the game, judging by the time on the save log, and I've just beaten the eighth and final gym boss so it's onto the Pokemon League next, whatever that might be.
I also finished listening to "To Kill a Mockingbird", so I need to ponder a review for that at some point. I have appreciated making more of an effort to read outside of my usual comfort zone this year and logging them on GoodReads has been worthwhile too. I've also discovered the Open University material on iTunes, so I'm going to start looking at that as well. After reading "Godel, Escher, Bach" earlier this year I found a series of video lectures from a course at MIT on the book which have been fun to work through with Jan, usually accompanied by a tot of rum to lubricate the old synapses. It strikes me that if my physical activities are somewhat curtailed then exercising my mind is a useful alternative.
Barney the dog has been in a bit of a strange mood today for no readily apparent reason. I wonder if he's been discombobulated by all of the comings and goings with various builders, tilers and plumbers in the kitchen for the last two weeks? He seems to have settled a bit now, after being very anxious earlier on, but maybe there's a storm brewing that he is sensitive to? The sky looks a wee bit threatening and it seems to be getting dark out there.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Daily post - Friday
Well the big news is that Will has popped the question to Maria and she has said yes. I'm assuming that it was an proposal of marriage and not an offer of a taco from the stand that he was 20m away from when he twittered about it. Congratulations either way, I think!
Not so great was that I was awake at half past four this morning lurking on Twitter and I've felt rough for most of the day, but at least I've got a week off work to rest and recuperate. The kitchen is mostly done, bar one cupboard and a couple of electrical sockets that need moving and it looks excellent. It's made a huge difference to the feel of the house and it will be nice to be able to eat in there without shuffling chairs around.
Right, it's nearly time for 1 Vs 100 on Xbox Live, so I'm going to go and play ...
Not so great was that I was awake at half past four this morning lurking on Twitter and I've felt rough for most of the day, but at least I've got a week off work to rest and recuperate. The kitchen is mostly done, bar one cupboard and a couple of electrical sockets that need moving and it looks excellent. It's made a huge difference to the feel of the house and it will be nice to be able to eat in there without shuffling chairs around.
Right, it's nearly time for 1 Vs 100 on Xbox Live, so I'm going to go and play ...
Ellie's World
Ellie over at Ellie's World is running a contest. All you have to do is take a picture or make a short video of something that you do to help the planet and leave a link to it over on her blog. Here's my entry:
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Daily post - Thursday
This morning was almost like old times.
Let me explain. When Daisy the cat was a kitten she had to stay in the house until she had had her full complement of vaccinations whilst the other two cats were free to roam outside at night time. She would curl up on the end of the bed waiting until she detected that I was awake at which point she would come and bite my face until I got up to feed her. If you have ever seen the famous Simon's Cat cartoon you will have a pretty darn accurate picture of what she was like.
The door between the kitchen and the scullery is currently off its hinges whilst the new kitchen floor is in the process of being laid, so last night the cats were able to come into the house instead of being banished outside and hence I had the joy of waking up with a purring ginger kitteh on my feet, and the even more distinct pleasure of a couple of extra minutes to wake up because she now trusts that she will be fed in good time and sees no need to panic.
No meteors last night - the clouds were just too thick to let any light through - but I did get a nice tweet back from @ProfBrianCox after he read my review of his book. Sounds like he didn't have much luck with the Perseids either, although he was in a cloudy Maui rather than Sheffield.
For one worrying moment I thought that there was something wrong with my iPhone this morning. I was listening to my audiobook of To Kill a Mocking Bird whilst walking in the woods and it sounded somewhat different. It took me a while to twig that I had accidentally switched the playback into double speed mode and that the rich, southern drawl of the narrator now sounded like normal speed English. The playback software does a pretty good job of pitch correction so that the voice didn't sound like Minnie Mouse on helium as you might expect, but it was an odd contrast when I switched it back to standard speed.
Podcast of the day was "Fry's English Delight" from the BBC iPlayer in which the ubiquitous Stephen Fry talked about the ways in which the English language has changed in usage and grammar, and will inevitably change in the future. He argues that It is folly to try to hold back the linguistic tide in a Cnut like manner, but we should be a little bit more relaxed about it and enjoy the riches that we have. Fascinating listening, and it has convinced me that perhaps I should curb some of my pedantic responses to certain forms of usage.
I left my sandwich in the fridge at home this morning, so I headed out at lunch time to get a Subway sandwich. It was an opportunity to have a go with the Google voice search feature to find the nearest one and then tell me how to get there on foot using the maps function, even though I knew full well it would be the one in the retail park round the corner.
I am officially sad.
Let me explain. When Daisy the cat was a kitten she had to stay in the house until she had had her full complement of vaccinations whilst the other two cats were free to roam outside at night time. She would curl up on the end of the bed waiting until she detected that I was awake at which point she would come and bite my face until I got up to feed her. If you have ever seen the famous Simon's Cat cartoon you will have a pretty darn accurate picture of what she was like.
The door between the kitchen and the scullery is currently off its hinges whilst the new kitchen floor is in the process of being laid, so last night the cats were able to come into the house instead of being banished outside and hence I had the joy of waking up with a purring ginger kitteh on my feet, and the even more distinct pleasure of a couple of extra minutes to wake up because she now trusts that she will be fed in good time and sees no need to panic.
No meteors last night - the clouds were just too thick to let any light through - but I did get a nice tweet back from @ProfBrianCox after he read my review of his book. Sounds like he didn't have much luck with the Perseids either, although he was in a cloudy Maui rather than Sheffield.
For one worrying moment I thought that there was something wrong with my iPhone this morning. I was listening to my audiobook of To Kill a Mocking Bird whilst walking in the woods and it sounded somewhat different. It took me a while to twig that I had accidentally switched the playback into double speed mode and that the rich, southern drawl of the narrator now sounded like normal speed English. The playback software does a pretty good job of pitch correction so that the voice didn't sound like Minnie Mouse on helium as you might expect, but it was an odd contrast when I switched it back to standard speed.
Podcast of the day was "Fry's English Delight" from the BBC iPlayer in which the ubiquitous Stephen Fry talked about the ways in which the English language has changed in usage and grammar, and will inevitably change in the future. He argues that It is folly to try to hold back the linguistic tide in a Cnut like manner, but we should be a little bit more relaxed about it and enjoy the riches that we have. Fascinating listening, and it has convinced me that perhaps I should curb some of my pedantic responses to certain forms of usage.
I left my sandwich in the fridge at home this morning, so I headed out at lunch time to get a Subway sandwich. It was an opportunity to have a go with the Google voice search feature to find the nearest one and then tell me how to get there on foot using the maps function, even though I knew full well it would be the one in the retail park round the corner.
I am officially sad.
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