And here's what the back now looks like:
Considering the force of the impact, it's surprisingly intact. It'll need a new bumper, though, which isn't a good thing. His fault, and now his car looks like this:
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Now I really have something to rant about... Picked up my shiny new car yesterday, had it crashed into today. Marvellous. Here's the lovely front of the car:
And here's what the back now looks like:
Considering the force of the impact, it's surprisingly intact. It'll need a new bumper, though, which isn't a good thing. His fault, and now his car looks like this:
And here's what the back now looks like:
Considering the force of the impact, it's surprisingly intact. It'll need a new bumper, though, which isn't a good thing. His fault, and now his car looks like this:
Monday, December 04, 2006
I've decided you have to be careful about how you treat the 'Random' button on your mp3 player. Of course it depends on how receptive you are to changes in mood brought about by music, and upon what mood you start in, but it can be an emotional rollercoaster if you're not careful. I have a wide variety of songs on my Zen, and hitting the random button can take me from the semi-comic guitar thrashing of Tenacious D's 'Tribute', through the sublime tunefulness of Jack Johnson's 'Mudfootball', into the mellow, so-slow-you-might-just-stop-breathing electronica of Quincy Jones' Summer in the City. And now Porcelain, the most beautiful of all the Chili's many tracks. Up next? Who knows, but it's sure to mess with my head. I advise caution...
Monday, November 20, 2006
Haven't done this in a while, so thought it was about time I did something.
Went to see Muse on Saturday night. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they were going to rock. As much as they did? A little unexpected. Personal highlights include the mad mechanical housing thing the drummer lived in, covered by a thousand lights, and the renditions of New Born and Plug In Baby from Origin of Symmetry, and Invincible and Knights of Cydonia from the latest album, the latter of which was the finale. The older stuff was especially good - they've always been favourites of mine, and to finally hear them (and feel them) played with such passion and skill was worth every penny of the ticket price alone.
I might have a job soon, and I'm getting excited about the prospect. After three and a bit years of a PhD which I've come to loathe with all my heart, the idea of something new, with structure and realisable targets, and decent pay, has got me all hot under the collar. Obviously it's too early to tell if either of the interview processes I'm involved in will actually be successful, but hopefully one or both of the two will actually be offered to me.
Final bit of news - a new blog. Well, not yet, but in a little bit when I get it sorted out. I need a place to write random stuff about the model aircraft, and this isn't it. Went to a show type thing on Saturday (before Muse - I'm so schizophrenic), and was disappointed to find that many of the stereotypes of modellers do hold true. I won't say too much more than that, as I'm sure you can fill in the blanks for yourself. I know there are modellers out there who don't fit in to the traditional stereotypes, but they seem to be few and far between judging by Saturday's evidence.
One last thing (sorry!) - got an e-mail this morning about a seminar given by one of the departments here at the university. Part of it reads (and this is copied and pasted from the e-mail, a direct quote): " SKA is expected to be operational with a severe cost constraint of one billion Euros". SKA stands for Square Kilometre Array, and it's basically a large radio telescope. What bothers me about this, and one of the things that I've never managed to square away about the whole research thing, is the concept that a billion Euros is a 'severe cost constraint'. That's more than the GDP of the entire African state of Lesotho. Or, alternatively, more than the combined GDP of the six poorest nations in the IMF. On a bloody great telescope. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for progress, but surely this money would be better spent elsewhere, such as in the hunt for decent, sustainable energy sources, or the search for a cure for AIDS or cancer. Complaining that you 'only' have a billion Euros for your big telescope is childish and shortsighted, which pretty much sums up a lot of scientific endeavour these days...
Went to see Muse on Saturday night. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they were going to rock. As much as they did? A little unexpected. Personal highlights include the mad mechanical housing thing the drummer lived in, covered by a thousand lights, and the renditions of New Born and Plug In Baby from Origin of Symmetry, and Invincible and Knights of Cydonia from the latest album, the latter of which was the finale. The older stuff was especially good - they've always been favourites of mine, and to finally hear them (and feel them) played with such passion and skill was worth every penny of the ticket price alone.
I might have a job soon, and I'm getting excited about the prospect. After three and a bit years of a PhD which I've come to loathe with all my heart, the idea of something new, with structure and realisable targets, and decent pay, has got me all hot under the collar. Obviously it's too early to tell if either of the interview processes I'm involved in will actually be successful, but hopefully one or both of the two will actually be offered to me.
Final bit of news - a new blog. Well, not yet, but in a little bit when I get it sorted out. I need a place to write random stuff about the model aircraft, and this isn't it. Went to a show type thing on Saturday (before Muse - I'm so schizophrenic), and was disappointed to find that many of the stereotypes of modellers do hold true. I won't say too much more than that, as I'm sure you can fill in the blanks for yourself. I know there are modellers out there who don't fit in to the traditional stereotypes, but they seem to be few and far between judging by Saturday's evidence.
One last thing (sorry!) - got an e-mail this morning about a seminar given by one of the departments here at the university. Part of it reads (and this is copied and pasted from the e-mail, a direct quote): " SKA is expected to be operational with a severe cost constraint of one billion Euros". SKA stands for Square Kilometre Array, and it's basically a large radio telescope. What bothers me about this, and one of the things that I've never managed to square away about the whole research thing, is the concept that a billion Euros is a 'severe cost constraint'. That's more than the GDP of the entire African state of Lesotho. Or, alternatively, more than the combined GDP of the six poorest nations in the IMF. On a bloody great telescope. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for progress, but surely this money would be better spent elsewhere, such as in the hunt for decent, sustainable energy sources, or the search for a cure for AIDS or cancer. Complaining that you 'only' have a billion Euros for your big telescope is childish and shortsighted, which pretty much sums up a lot of scientific endeavour these days...
Friday, October 06, 2006
New word for you: imperiment. Meaning an experiment designed to test an empirical relationship. This probably doesn't mean a lot to anyone outside the scientific community. Still, maybe it'll catch on and I'll get credited for it. Though I should point out that if you Google 'imperiment', lots of rather stupid people have used the word where they meant to say 'impairment'. You know, I have this idea that perhaps it should be compulsory to attain a certain level of English language ability before being allowed to publish (in English, obviously) anything on the net. I'm not talking about typos here (and yes, 'typos' is correct, not 'typoes', nor indeed 'typo's'), I'm talking about a basic misunderstanding of the mechanics of the language. Come on, people, get a clue...
Monday, September 25, 2006
Time to think...
For the first time in some time, I've slept well, and my head's buzzing with all sorts of things that I need to blog about.
First up, students. I don't know if there are more than there ever have been or what, but it's hell out there. Somehow over the months of summer when it's blisfully quiet in the department, I forget what it's like to have the screaming hordes about, but then I come back to Earth with a bump when they turn up again. Standing around in their little cliques, defined by the clothes they wear and generally looking more than a little gormless, it's hard not to laugh at them. I'm sure I was never that bad, but then everyone says that, don't they?
Next, the intangibility of blogs. It's lovely to have this kind of diary available wherever a net connection is, and it may even be useful to be able to share this shit, but there are certain things that I can't do with a blog that I used to be able to do when I had a notebook with me all the time. I'm not saying I always did these things, but having the knowledge that I could was good. Let me give you a couple of little examples, then you can go away and think of a few for yourself. Leaves. Example number one. I walked through the park this morning, an activity which has recently been curtailed by a need to go via the chemistry building and turn on my microscope, allowing it sufficient time to warm the lasers before work commences for the day. The park, I realise, has changed in my absence, taking on its autumn livery in spectacular fashion. I love this time of year in the park, and work is threatening to deprive me of it. Ok, maybe not deprive me, as I could go out of my way to turn the 'scope on, but I have to add a little drama to make all this hammering at a keyboard worthwhile. If I was still using a notebook, I could have taken one of the many fallen oakleaves in their gorgeous hues and stuck it in with excessive selotape, and hoped the colours would have held. Unlikely, but it would still have been a more visceral reminder of the season than a few clumsy words jotted down here in cyberspace. And no, a picture on the cameraphone uploaded won't do - where's the spontaneity in that?
Example two is the ability to sketch. Or lack of, in the case of the net. I have a graphics tablet. I can't sketch on it, because it's attached to the computer at home. I can't sketch with a mouse, I write left-handed and operate computers in the normal way. Besides, it doesn't have the effect of graphite on paper. This is no good. The answer, of course, is to get a notebook and carry it around.
[I am an idiot, but I have my resaons for being so. I hold on to my insensibility like a protective blanket. I'm not rational or logical, I do go off on tangents, and I daydream as though it is more important than real life. I have highs and lows, dramatic mood swings, and I'm really enthusuastic about things to the point of annoying people. All of these things allow me the artistic side to my personality that I believe a lot of people see as an affectation on my part. It genuinely isn't. I told someone recently that on a scale of artistic ability versus a scale in ability in the physical sciences, I'm a lot higher on the artistic scale than I am on the physics scale. This is true. There are a greater number of people in the world who are better than me at physics, than there are who are better at drawing than I am. That is not to say I have artistic talent in any great abundance, but then nor do I have talent as a scientist. It's all smoke and mirrors, and blagging. I hate science, when it comes down to it. It's not science's fault, it's just that when you get labelled and you have the sort of anti-authoritarian attitude that I have, you tend to hate the label and the source of the label.]
Third on my list of things today is another list of three. Watching a little daytime TV this morning (part of my getting enough sleep routine), I was shocked to see a three-minute-long advert break filled with adverts that could all have been fitted into one of the following categories:
1) insurance offers
2) loan offers
3) crappy legal advice.
They aren't well made, and they don't convince me that the companies behind them are particularly nice or all that clever. I intrinsically won't go for a company called something along the lines of "Let's sue the bitches!!", or similar. I won't ever take legal action because I tripped over somewhere. I won't ever need to remortgage my house because I'm so fucking stupid with money that I've racked up four quadrillion pounds worth of debt on nineteen credit cards, and I certainly won't ever buy insurance from a company whose advertising campaign revolves around a small CG knight in a 1930s racing car (Hastings Direct, if you must know). Who the fucking hell do these people think we are, and how the hell did the advertising companies ever convince them these concepts could fly? Oh, and one more thing - please shoot me if I ever take out a life-changing amount of money on loan from a company that includes ".co.uk" in its name. Cretins...
For the first time in some time, I've slept well, and my head's buzzing with all sorts of things that I need to blog about.
First up, students. I don't know if there are more than there ever have been or what, but it's hell out there. Somehow over the months of summer when it's blisfully quiet in the department, I forget what it's like to have the screaming hordes about, but then I come back to Earth with a bump when they turn up again. Standing around in their little cliques, defined by the clothes they wear and generally looking more than a little gormless, it's hard not to laugh at them. I'm sure I was never that bad, but then everyone says that, don't they?
Next, the intangibility of blogs. It's lovely to have this kind of diary available wherever a net connection is, and it may even be useful to be able to share this shit, but there are certain things that I can't do with a blog that I used to be able to do when I had a notebook with me all the time. I'm not saying I always did these things, but having the knowledge that I could was good. Let me give you a couple of little examples, then you can go away and think of a few for yourself. Leaves. Example number one. I walked through the park this morning, an activity which has recently been curtailed by a need to go via the chemistry building and turn on my microscope, allowing it sufficient time to warm the lasers before work commences for the day. The park, I realise, has changed in my absence, taking on its autumn livery in spectacular fashion. I love this time of year in the park, and work is threatening to deprive me of it. Ok, maybe not deprive me, as I could go out of my way to turn the 'scope on, but I have to add a little drama to make all this hammering at a keyboard worthwhile. If I was still using a notebook, I could have taken one of the many fallen oakleaves in their gorgeous hues and stuck it in with excessive selotape, and hoped the colours would have held. Unlikely, but it would still have been a more visceral reminder of the season than a few clumsy words jotted down here in cyberspace. And no, a picture on the cameraphone uploaded won't do - where's the spontaneity in that?
Example two is the ability to sketch. Or lack of, in the case of the net. I have a graphics tablet. I can't sketch on it, because it's attached to the computer at home. I can't sketch with a mouse, I write left-handed and operate computers in the normal way. Besides, it doesn't have the effect of graphite on paper. This is no good. The answer, of course, is to get a notebook and carry it around.
[I am an idiot, but I have my resaons for being so. I hold on to my insensibility like a protective blanket. I'm not rational or logical, I do go off on tangents, and I daydream as though it is more important than real life. I have highs and lows, dramatic mood swings, and I'm really enthusuastic about things to the point of annoying people. All of these things allow me the artistic side to my personality that I believe a lot of people see as an affectation on my part. It genuinely isn't. I told someone recently that on a scale of artistic ability versus a scale in ability in the physical sciences, I'm a lot higher on the artistic scale than I am on the physics scale. This is true. There are a greater number of people in the world who are better than me at physics, than there are who are better at drawing than I am. That is not to say I have artistic talent in any great abundance, but then nor do I have talent as a scientist. It's all smoke and mirrors, and blagging. I hate science, when it comes down to it. It's not science's fault, it's just that when you get labelled and you have the sort of anti-authoritarian attitude that I have, you tend to hate the label and the source of the label.]
Third on my list of things today is another list of three. Watching a little daytime TV this morning (part of my getting enough sleep routine), I was shocked to see a three-minute-long advert break filled with adverts that could all have been fitted into one of the following categories:
1) insurance offers
2) loan offers
3) crappy legal advice.
They aren't well made, and they don't convince me that the companies behind them are particularly nice or all that clever. I intrinsically won't go for a company called something along the lines of "Let's sue the bitches!!", or similar. I won't ever take legal action because I tripped over somewhere. I won't ever need to remortgage my house because I'm so fucking stupid with money that I've racked up four quadrillion pounds worth of debt on nineteen credit cards, and I certainly won't ever buy insurance from a company whose advertising campaign revolves around a small CG knight in a 1930s racing car (Hastings Direct, if you must know). Who the fucking hell do these people think we are, and how the hell did the advertising companies ever convince them these concepts could fly? Oh, and one more thing - please shoot me if I ever take out a life-changing amount of money on loan from a company that includes ".co.uk" in its name. Cretins...
Monday, September 04, 2006
BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | Injured Gough replaced by Onions
And I always thought he looked like a sack of potatoes... Don't bother reading the story, the headline's the funny bit.
And I always thought he looked like a sack of potatoes... Don't bother reading the story, the headline's the funny bit.
Paris Hilton targeted in CD prank
Another genius ploy. Hats off to Banksy for once again showing that modern British art isn't about chopping animals in half. Although I'm a little surprised to find this in the Entertainment section of BBC News - since when has Paris Hilton constituted 'entertainment'?
Another genius ploy. Hats off to Banksy for once again showing that modern British art isn't about chopping animals in half. Although I'm a little surprised to find this in the Entertainment section of BBC News - since when has Paris Hilton constituted 'entertainment'?
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Stroller, Strider or Stormer
Everyone fits into one of three handy pigeonholes in this regard. Unless you have no legs. You are either:
a) a stroller - someone who slows down when walking uphill,
b) a strider - someone who maintains their speed no matter what gradient they're faced with, or
c) a stormer - someone who is so pissed off that the hill has the afront to be in their way that they actually speed up when faced with an incline.
So, which are you? Answers on a postcard to the usual address.
No purchase necessary. Closing date 1st October 2012. Thomas Rowson Ltd. cannot be held responsible for any disappointment felt at the lack of a real prize, or any loss or damage incurred by third parties as a result of any actions he may perform. This is not a VAT receipt.
Everyone fits into one of three handy pigeonholes in this regard. Unless you have no legs. You are either:
a) a stroller - someone who slows down when walking uphill,
b) a strider - someone who maintains their speed no matter what gradient they're faced with, or
c) a stormer - someone who is so pissed off that the hill has the afront to be in their way that they actually speed up when faced with an incline.
So, which are you? Answers on a postcard to the usual address.
No purchase necessary. Closing date 1st October 2012. Thomas Rowson Ltd. cannot be held responsible for any disappointment felt at the lack of a real prize, or any loss or damage incurred by third parties as a result of any actions he may perform. This is not a VAT receipt.
French Goodness
I'm an argumentative old git, I really am. In any conversational situation, I will take a view contrary to the general opinion often just for the hell of creating a bit of a stir. So, when the whole table is Frog-bashing, I'm secretly lining up a series of things the French are good at in my head. Here, then, is my comprehensive list of French goodness:
1) The Citroen DS (not to be confused with the similar, but ultimately slightly smaller, Nintendo DS).
2) Parkour (ankle-breaking joy).
3) Claire French (good friend and one of Jen's bridesmaids, and not even technically from France).
So, you see, the French really are good for something.
I'm an argumentative old git, I really am. In any conversational situation, I will take a view contrary to the general opinion often just for the hell of creating a bit of a stir. So, when the whole table is Frog-bashing, I'm secretly lining up a series of things the French are good at in my head. Here, then, is my comprehensive list of French goodness:
1) The Citroen DS (not to be confused with the similar, but ultimately slightly smaller, Nintendo DS).
2) Parkour (ankle-breaking joy).
3) Claire French (good friend and one of Jen's bridesmaids, and not even technically from France).
So, you see, the French really are good for something.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | CNN says sorry for live mic gaffe
Absolute unadulterated genius. And you thought this only happened in Naked Gun...
Absolute unadulterated genius. And you thought this only happened in Naked Gun...
Friday, August 04, 2006
Tatsfield in the Doomsday Book
My wife isn't as impressed by this as I am... This is the village I grew up in. It's pretty small, not tiny, but it has a lot of history attached. That's it, really, just thought I'd let you know.
My wife isn't as impressed by this as I am... This is the village I grew up in. It's pretty small, not tiny, but it has a lot of history attached. That's it, really, just thought I'd let you know.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Finally the Small White, a very common butterfly, but quite hard to capture as it hardly ever stops moving. I was lucky enough to capture this one at rest for a second.
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And this is the surprisingly dull underside of the Peacock, almost irridescent black.
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This one shows the beautiful colouration on the underside of the Painted Lady's wings.
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We have several butterfly species in the garden at the moment, but not all are as easy to photograph as this Painted Lady.
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Thursday, July 20, 2006
Recently started making model aircraft again for the first time since I was a teenager (many years ago...). My first effort as this tropical liveried Spitfire Mk V
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Monday, July 17, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend. The grinning idiot on the left you might recognise from my profile. That's right, it's me. The dashing Finn on the right you might or might not recognise, depending on your degree of interest in motorsport, as Marcus Gronholm, world rally champion in 2000 and 2002. Inset is his 2006 Focus WRC. Bloody hell! Note how tall Marcus is - I'm not exactly miniature at 6ft2, and he's towering over me! The rest of the day, a birthday present to my petrolhead father, was brilliant, including seeing my brother (who took these shots) as a giant on the big screen, listening to a McLaren F1 car starting up five feet from us, and watching Jenson Button tearing up the strip in his Honda, completely obscuring the opposition. Fantastic day...
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Monday, July 03, 2006
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ants 'use an internal pedometer'
The way they found out about this is frankly bizarre. There is, as often noted, a very fine line between genius and madness, and I think these guys have a foot firmly planted on either side. Hopefully it won't spoil the surprise too much if I say "Ants on stilts anyone?"...
The way they found out about this is frankly bizarre. There is, as often noted, a very fine line between genius and madness, and I think these guys have a foot firmly planted on either side. Hopefully it won't spoil the surprise too much if I say "Ants on stilts anyone?"...
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Went to a gig by the band The Feeling last night. Fantastic band, full of energy, and decent tour t-shirts too... This is the only photo I took that came out looking right, but to be fair I was using a cameraphone to take it. Buy album, play album, smile.
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
There's really not a lot to say about this picture, other than to confirm that yes, it is absolutely genuine. Thank goodness for cameraphones, eh?
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Friday, June 16, 2006
Ok, so the weirdness was set to continue. The friend with whom I had the conversation which sparked my last post made things a little more confusing shortly after the last blog. She needed my help deciding what to buy a friend of hers for the wedding that she was attending a few days later. Sure, I was glad to help. I asked what the bloke was like, since she seemed to be keen to buy something he might like rather than the usual girl-oriented gifts (which is fair enough, wives have to put up with their husbands, they might as well get something nice, and usually do). I asked what he was like, and she replied, describing Ben as a bit of a computer type person.
"That's odd," I thought to myself, "my brother's going to a wedding this weekend, of someone called Ben, a friend of his, who did a computer science degree. I wonder..."
Turns out there was no need to wonder. It was the same wedding...
Of course it doesn't end there. Why should it? You see, it turns out that a good friend of my colleague, Starr, has recently moved into my brother's house. That would be a decent dose of extra strangeness were it not for the fact that Starr was a good friend of a friend of mine from halls at the beginning of university, eight years ago. I sort of knew her, talked to her a few times, and she's living with my brother.
I don't know what's going to happen next, but I can tell you it's got to be fucking strange to out-do that...
"That's odd," I thought to myself, "my brother's going to a wedding this weekend, of someone called Ben, a friend of his, who did a computer science degree. I wonder..."
Turns out there was no need to wonder. It was the same wedding...
Of course it doesn't end there. Why should it? You see, it turns out that a good friend of my colleague, Starr, has recently moved into my brother's house. That would be a decent dose of extra strangeness were it not for the fact that Starr was a good friend of a friend of mine from halls at the beginning of university, eight years ago. I sort of knew her, talked to her a few times, and she's living with my brother.
I don't know what's going to happen next, but I can tell you it's got to be fucking strange to out-do that...
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
A conversation with a colleague of mine this morning reminded me how small the world really is. Her friend's theory is that it contains merely 1500 people, who we meet over and over again, and I have a feeling that might be right. Let me explain...
The latest, and by no means the strangest, example of all of this is a project student I'm supervising, Matt. Matt has a boyfriend, Drew. Drew is a psychologist, postgrad. Jen is working with some psychologists on packaging design. Who's she working with? Yup, you guessed it, Drew.
This is only the latest in a long line of strangeness. Take, for instance, the house I moved into a few years ago. It was Becky's place. I'd never met Becky before, I just responded to a house-mate needed notice and went round. Turns out Becky is a Bible Studies student who's on a course with a friend of Jen's. But that's minor in terms of the coincidences that were to come. Another girl, Claire, also lived in the house. Her boyfriend, Mike, had been living, amongst other people, with a guy called Jim ever since they'd come to uni and become friends. Jim, it turns out, was the same Jim I was quite good friends with when I did my undergradute. Oh, but if you think that's the weirdest, there's stranger to come. After moving out of Becky's place, I started a postgradute MSc in nanotechnolgy. I met a guy by the name of Rob, and, albeit only until he went certifiably mad, we were mates. So, I got chatting to Rob one day, and he asked whereabouts in Sheffield I'd lived. Well, it turns out he knew the area where I'd lived when I was living with Becky. Knew the house, even. In fact, it turns out that he knew Becky even better than I did... The world is too small.
My relationships are a minefield, too. Met a girl, Helen, at a university end-of-year thing. We had a very brief fling, and I didn't call her back. My mistake. Turns out that her brother, John, had been living with my brother in a shared house for a number of years, and they were still good friends. It's not far off a bizarre form of incest.
Of course, it would be lax of me to ignore the strangeness that was discovering, upon reaching university for the first time, that one of the guys who lived three doors down from me was friends at school with one of my dad's cousin's daughters, a girl by the name of Holly. This, of course, was a realisation facilitated by the fact that one of my dad's other cousins, this guy's brother, is moderately famous for presenting horse racing programs.
All this is a little strange, don't you think? All the people in the world to meet, and yet we only ever meet friends, siblings and (ex)lovers of people we already know. There's some kind of conspiracy here, and I'm determined to get to the root of it. Ok, not actually determined, more interested. Well, let's be honest here, not entirely interested. It's just weird, 'k?
The latest, and by no means the strangest, example of all of this is a project student I'm supervising, Matt. Matt has a boyfriend, Drew. Drew is a psychologist, postgrad. Jen is working with some psychologists on packaging design. Who's she working with? Yup, you guessed it, Drew.
This is only the latest in a long line of strangeness. Take, for instance, the house I moved into a few years ago. It was Becky's place. I'd never met Becky before, I just responded to a house-mate needed notice and went round. Turns out Becky is a Bible Studies student who's on a course with a friend of Jen's. But that's minor in terms of the coincidences that were to come. Another girl, Claire, also lived in the house. Her boyfriend, Mike, had been living, amongst other people, with a guy called Jim ever since they'd come to uni and become friends. Jim, it turns out, was the same Jim I was quite good friends with when I did my undergradute. Oh, but if you think that's the weirdest, there's stranger to come. After moving out of Becky's place, I started a postgradute MSc in nanotechnolgy. I met a guy by the name of Rob, and, albeit only until he went certifiably mad, we were mates. So, I got chatting to Rob one day, and he asked whereabouts in Sheffield I'd lived. Well, it turns out he knew the area where I'd lived when I was living with Becky. Knew the house, even. In fact, it turns out that he knew Becky even better than I did... The world is too small.
My relationships are a minefield, too. Met a girl, Helen, at a university end-of-year thing. We had a very brief fling, and I didn't call her back. My mistake. Turns out that her brother, John, had been living with my brother in a shared house for a number of years, and they were still good friends. It's not far off a bizarre form of incest.
Of course, it would be lax of me to ignore the strangeness that was discovering, upon reaching university for the first time, that one of the guys who lived three doors down from me was friends at school with one of my dad's cousin's daughters, a girl by the name of Holly. This, of course, was a realisation facilitated by the fact that one of my dad's other cousins, this guy's brother, is moderately famous for presenting horse racing programs.
All this is a little strange, don't you think? All the people in the world to meet, and yet we only ever meet friends, siblings and (ex)lovers of people we already know. There's some kind of conspiracy here, and I'm determined to get to the root of it. Ok, not actually determined, more interested. Well, let's be honest here, not entirely interested. It's just weird, 'k?
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Consensus grows on climate change
Yay! Another report! What would we do without all these valuable reports to tell us that chucking loads of pollution into the air has a negative effect?! Still no mention of when international governments are going to do anything real about it though...
Yay! Another report! What would we do without all these valuable reports to tell us that chucking loads of pollution into the air has a negative effect?! Still no mention of when international governments are going to do anything real about it though...
Monday, February 20, 2006
A warning was issued, though, such that those who followed the progress of the camera of goodness were not taken with laziness, and that warning said: while there be camera equipment, not all that has gone has been return-ed to us, and so we are still unwhole, and still need completion. Patience, it is said, is a virtue of those who follow the path of "insurance claims".
So the new camera came, and the people saw that it was good, and that the pictues it provided were worthy, and there was much rejoicing, for it was said that the promise of the "Insurance Replacement Specialists" was good and wholesome. Never again would there be need for the "cameraphone" with its impure ways and devious misconceptions. All hail the new camera, for it is good and pure, and will save us all from eternal graininess.
25 years of my life and still
I'm trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this
Brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
So I cry somethimes when I'm lying in bed
To get it all out what's in my head
Then I start feeling a little peculiar
So I wake in the morning and I step
Outside I take deep breath
I get real high
Then I scream from the top of my lungs
What's goin' on
And I say hey...
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
I said hey what's goin' on
And I try, oh my God do I try
I try all the time
In this institution
And I pray, oh my God do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
So I cry sometimes when I'm lying in my bed
To get it all out what's in my head
Then I start feeling a little peculiar
So I wake in the morning and I step outside
I take a deep breaththen I get real high
Then I scream from the top of my lungs
What's goin' on
And I say hey...
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
I said hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
I said hey what's goin' on
25 years of my life and still
I'm trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I'm trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this
Brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
So I cry somethimes when I'm lying in bed
To get it all out what's in my head
Then I start feeling a little peculiar
So I wake in the morning and I step
Outside I take deep breath
I get real high
Then I scream from the top of my lungs
What's goin' on
And I say hey...
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
I said hey what's goin' on
And I try, oh my God do I try
I try all the time
In this institution
And I pray, oh my God do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
So I cry sometimes when I'm lying in my bed
To get it all out what's in my head
Then I start feeling a little peculiar
So I wake in the morning and I step outside
I take a deep breaththen I get real high
Then I scream from the top of my lungs
What's goin' on
And I say hey...
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
I said hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey...
I said hey what's goin' on
25 years of my life and still
I'm trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
Friday, February 10, 2006
BBC NEWS | Technology | Privacy fears hit Google search:
"Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google's search logs, it's shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers,' said EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston."
Ok, so you might have to read the whole story to understand what I'm on about here, but surely the point is that Google are the most trustworthy of the search companies, since they are the only ones fighting the US government about handing over their search logs. I'd be more worried if Yahoo or AOL had something similar, as they seem to have rushed as quickly as they could to hand over their information in court, panting and wagging their tails as they did so, waiting for the pat on the head they'll never get.
Oh, and this is only a problem if you're using the tool to search over multiple computers, and have that option switched on. Don't know about you, but I have one computer at home, and one at work. Don't need to be searching both at the same time, escpecially if it's a very important document, such as "tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files". All those types of documents are in specific folders with really obvious names, not just scattered around in a huge My Documents file scanning 40Gb and with no folder system. To be honest, if you're stupid enough to not know what you're doing when you install these programs, perhaps you shouldn't be doing everything on the computer. I wouldn't feel safe if I wasn't aware of exactly what information is leaving my desktop.
I don't want to seem nasty to people who genuinely get caught out by this kind of thing, but the internet is a harsh, unpleasant place, the realities of which need to be brought home to people. Google are, as far as it's possible to tell, acting honourably, and honestly. The Electronic Frontier Foundation need to find a real cause to champion, rather than acting like a tabloid newspaper. Grow up, kids, and start fighting for something real.
"Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google's search logs, it's shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers,' said EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston."
Ok, so you might have to read the whole story to understand what I'm on about here, but surely the point is that Google are the most trustworthy of the search companies, since they are the only ones fighting the US government about handing over their search logs. I'd be more worried if Yahoo or AOL had something similar, as they seem to have rushed as quickly as they could to hand over their information in court, panting and wagging their tails as they did so, waiting for the pat on the head they'll never get.
Oh, and this is only a problem if you're using the tool to search over multiple computers, and have that option switched on. Don't know about you, but I have one computer at home, and one at work. Don't need to be searching both at the same time, escpecially if it's a very important document, such as "tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files". All those types of documents are in specific folders with really obvious names, not just scattered around in a huge My Documents file scanning 40Gb and with no folder system. To be honest, if you're stupid enough to not know what you're doing when you install these programs, perhaps you shouldn't be doing everything on the computer. I wouldn't feel safe if I wasn't aware of exactly what information is leaving my desktop.
I don't want to seem nasty to people who genuinely get caught out by this kind of thing, but the internet is a harsh, unpleasant place, the realities of which need to be brought home to people. Google are, as far as it's possible to tell, acting honourably, and honestly. The Electronic Frontier Foundation need to find a real cause to champion, rather than acting like a tabloid newspaper. Grow up, kids, and start fighting for something real.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Yahoo: "Once more Siemens vision'd himself towards Isarel Sterkstroom, and then Haw-Haw Langley sped forward, and with all the bowstring of his long plesaunte smashed his heavy rescheduling sled into the face of the dog."
Now, normally I wouldn't bother to read the random blogs that pop up from time to time which are clearly automatically generated and in no way connected to reality, or the language they purport to be written in, but the paragraph above actually makes sense! Not realistically, of course, but structure of the words is correct, if not their placement or meaning. And it made me laugh.
Now, normally I wouldn't bother to read the random blogs that pop up from time to time which are clearly automatically generated and in no way connected to reality, or the language they purport to be written in, but the paragraph above actually makes sense! Not realistically, of course, but structure of the words is correct, if not their placement or meaning. And it made me laugh.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The Palm
This is very cool, basically. I had written a bit of an essay about "Wonders of the World, blah blah blah", but really is was very dull and rather flowery, so I canned that entry and wrote this instead. This one is quite clearly better, because it isn't filled with my boring shit. Yay...
In other news, the bastards still haven't sent me my new camera, and we're off to London Zoo to see the penguins and lions (not in the same enclosure, thankfully) next weekend. I am not happy, but also unempowered, since the only contact I have with these people is over the phone and all I can say is "I really would rather have it as soon as possible please", whilst meaning "give me my camera, whores of Satan!". I wish I wasn't so British about things like this, but then moaning at them only makes you look American, so I'll give that a miss.
Killer boredom and apathy is on me today. I ought to be doing the thing with the model that makes it work. Debugging, I think they call it. But of course I don't actually care all that much, and since I have made progress is some form or other this week, my work ethic is drained. Need sleep. Desperately need exercise. Need to stop living in one room, it's driving me mad...
This is very cool, basically. I had written a bit of an essay about "Wonders of the World, blah blah blah", but really is was very dull and rather flowery, so I canned that entry and wrote this instead. This one is quite clearly better, because it isn't filled with my boring shit. Yay...
In other news, the bastards still haven't sent me my new camera, and we're off to London Zoo to see the penguins and lions (not in the same enclosure, thankfully) next weekend. I am not happy, but also unempowered, since the only contact I have with these people is over the phone and all I can say is "I really would rather have it as soon as possible please", whilst meaning "give me my camera, whores of Satan!". I wish I wasn't so British about things like this, but then moaning at them only makes you look American, so I'll give that a miss.
Killer boredom and apathy is on me today. I ought to be doing the thing with the model that makes it work. Debugging, I think they call it. But of course I don't actually care all that much, and since I have made progress is some form or other this week, my work ethic is drained. Need sleep. Desperately need exercise. Need to stop living in one room, it's driving me mad...
Friday, February 03, 2006
4Car Feature - Tunnel Run - from Channel 4
I'm furious! These guys have been out there, done this, and none of them have been arrested. None of them have had their cars impounded by the police, and crushed. Imagine a group of car modifiers doing the same thing. Middle Britain would be up in arms! This is hypocrisy of the highest order. I cannot believe that just because the cars involved are more expensive, it's considered ok. Surely it's worse that every car that went was a powerful, expensive sportscar, capable of great speed. Sure, there was a speed camera there for part of it, but I bet there weren't speed checks all the way round, and I can absolutely guarantee you there was some law breaking going on. I am enraged by the double standards the police employ in these situations. I've experienced first hand the kind of prejudice that modifiers have to experience on a daily basis, even those who love their cars so much they wouldn't dream of doing anything dangerous in them. The police won't even agree to properly organised events in many areas, and yet these middle aged petrolheads can get away with it right in the centre of the capital. This is fucked up, people. No wonder the youth of this country feels disenfranchised.
I'm furious! These guys have been out there, done this, and none of them have been arrested. None of them have had their cars impounded by the police, and crushed. Imagine a group of car modifiers doing the same thing. Middle Britain would be up in arms! This is hypocrisy of the highest order. I cannot believe that just because the cars involved are more expensive, it's considered ok. Surely it's worse that every car that went was a powerful, expensive sportscar, capable of great speed. Sure, there was a speed camera there for part of it, but I bet there weren't speed checks all the way round, and I can absolutely guarantee you there was some law breaking going on. I am enraged by the double standards the police employ in these situations. I've experienced first hand the kind of prejudice that modifiers have to experience on a daily basis, even those who love their cars so much they wouldn't dream of doing anything dangerous in them. The police won't even agree to properly organised events in many areas, and yet these middle aged petrolheads can get away with it right in the centre of the capital. This is fucked up, people. No wonder the youth of this country feels disenfranchised.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Monday, cloudy Monday, and the temperature has fallen through the floor. The first day of being promoted to full cheffery. That's right, Jen's passing on the mantle of head chef to me, as she'll start working evenings from today. Cripes! Eee gad! Other traditional signs of shock and surprise that I can't think of right now! I have to learn to cook! For years I have subsisted on preparation, but now I have to actually make stuff from base ingredients. Not that I'm particularly sexist about this, forcing Jen for all this time to be the one who made meals, it's just that she's a lot better at these things than I am. She's a natural. I'm not. So we came to an agreement that I would do the easy bits, she would do all the stuff that required some level of intuition and technical ability. Now that's all gone belly up with the job thing happening. Burns unit here we come...
Friday, January 20, 2006
It's all out of shape, and I don't understand why. The music was right this morning, but that has to have been a fluke, I think. Everything else feels odd and wrong, and not right. I feel as though the bottom has fallen out of things, especially my stomach, but I don't know why. I need kind words from one who isn't a stranger at all, and I sit waiting for them to come, spiralling downwards into introspective hell. Maybe I should have another blog, one where my thoughts are tangential, and it doesn't really matter what they say as long as it sounds cool.
And as I write, as though telepathy had forced her hand, the kind words come. I am happy, I am resolved. I am in serious need of a decent meal, because it's been more than 12 hours since I ate most of a huge plate of food. I need to learn to eat, lots. I wouldn't want to say I was clinically underweight, but, well, I am.
I need artwork, too, the kind that is permanent and means something. It's a matter of getting it done, but I haven't. I need to ring people, but I can't. Maybe next week. Like everything else in my life.
And as I write, as though telepathy had forced her hand, the kind words come. I am happy, I am resolved. I am in serious need of a decent meal, because it's been more than 12 hours since I ate most of a huge plate of food. I need to learn to eat, lots. I wouldn't want to say I was clinically underweight, but, well, I am.
I need artwork, too, the kind that is permanent and means something. It's a matter of getting it done, but I haven't. I need to ring people, but I can't. Maybe next week. Like everything else in my life.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
So I went to Australia and became Uncle Tom, climbed the Harbour Bridge, watched it get blown up at midnight on NYE (the only TLA I really find useful), and found a baseball cap I can live with at the zoo. It's mostly plastic. Jen was there too, lucky me, because she's the sheild I put between the world and me. I missed Christmas with my family, they missed Christmas with me, and we won't be doing that again in a hurry. Well, not for at least another 23 months. I shall gain new glasses soon, and since the insurance company were kind enough to honour my claim, I'll also gain all the camera equipment back that was stolen. I shall honour you all with a new picture. Though maybe not of the glasses, they aren't that interesting. The cat came back, though I think a little miffed, as she immediately punished me by going AWOL for a few days, scaring the wotsit out of me, if I'm brutally honest. She's happy again now, though. I think. The fish were in their own little private world of golfishiness, behind a screen of algae so thick I thought someone had painted the tank. They hadn't. The fish can see again now. Wrinkly fingers. Have dinosaurs, too. 48 of them, 24 individual designs, each repeated. The top of my monitor is like Jurassic Park or something. Not strictly to scale, or in keeping with the actual periods, but who cares? So close to that tattoo, that one I've been thinking about for ages. The one that really, genuinely, honestly means something important to me. Need to do some work, some designing. But first I have to write weird things on thin strips of card. Take care of yourselves, and each other.
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