Bright Meadow

ATTENTION! IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

2005-12-14T19:31:00.000Z

Right, I've been muttering about doing this for an absolute age now (at least three years), and I have finally got around to doing it.

No, I am not talking about piercing my ears or getting a tattoo (though I have done both of those things, and one on more than one occasion).

Rather, I am talking about getting my own domain name and hosting.

Yes, that is right. Bright Meadow has a new home:

http://brightmeadow.co.uk

It also has a new look. Nothing super-snazzy, just that little bit different.

That URL again:

http://brightmeadow.co.uk

What can you expect to find at the new site? The same stuff you have come to know and love at brightmeadow.blogspot.com, with added extras. Think of it like ordering a Big Mac and getting the fries and milkshake free. Or, if you are a bit classier, like ordering a three course meal and getting desert and a bottle of champagne gratis.

One more time:

http://brightmeadow.co.uk

I was going to wait till the Thesis was out of the way till I did the grand reveal, but I never was very patient, and now I've pretty much got things ready, I don't want to wait. I'm as excited as a very excited person right now.

So, update your bookmarks, renovate your blogrolls, spring-clean your RSS, and hightail it on over to

http://brightmeadow.co.uk

See you there :)

octopuses like to pretend to be coconuts in their spare time

2005-12-14T14:56:00.000Z

Just a few little things to say today.

1) You don't notice how much you come to rely on things until you can no longer use it. Case in point - I hadn't realised how important del.icio.us had become to me until it suffered a little hiccup this morning and wouldn't let me access it. All is well with the world once more, but it did illustrate one problem with web-served applications - when they go wrong are kinda stuck till someone can go prod the server that is perhaps the other side of the world to you.

2) If you need a laugh, go and view the Wikipedia article on scientology. They have their own cruise ship, upon which they reveal the greatest secrets of their religion. That, and there's something about a walrus that cracked me up good and proper.

3) I'm in something of a quandary. Do I merge my Yahoo! and my Flickr identities? I know I am going to have to at some point, but I am trying to postpone the inevitable. Yahoo! really really doesn't like me, and what is more, the feeling is mutual.
Case in point, before you can get POP access for a Yahoo! email account, you have to sign up for Yahoo!Delivers. This is a service I don't want or need. You can get around it by just not selecting any boxes on the sign up page, but that in and of itself is silly - You have to sign up for this service on this page before you can get POP access for your email account, but you can get around it by not signing up for any part of this service on this page... Slightly idiotic. Oh, and when someone adds you to their "friends" list on Y!IM, it sends you an email. That takes five minutes to arrive. What happened to a nice pop-up a la Messenger saying "Jim Smith has added you to his friends list. Would you like to add him?" and *bam* 15 seconds later you can both be talking.
*grump*
No, Messenger is no better, especially lately when it's been lagging something awful and secretly booting me off while saying I am still online, but...
*fume*

4) One thing Yahoo! are doing quite nicely at the moment is Yahoo! Answers. A wonderful, wonderful way to wile away the hours. You never know what you are going to see asked and answered next. Why, just the other evening I learnt more than I ever needed, indeed wanted, to know about how to shave your balls... I am sorry to burst your happy bubble, but I am not talking about sports equipment here either.

5) In my ongoing quest for the oddest search that has brought someone to Bright Meadow, I have a new offering: Girl + Noodle.
If the Girl + Noodle searcher is reading this, then welcome. I hope you found what you came looking for, and if you feel like sharing that with the group, well, we're listening.

That's it. Toodles :)

now stealing huge comestibles is one thing, trashing them on holy ground is plain nasty

2005-12-12T13:57:00.000Z

I suddenly don't like using a Mac.

This is a serious thing for me to say, almost heretic, so I will explain.

What with the CC back in Canada till who knows when, I am being initiated in the wonders of Skype. Whilst this is great for voice, on occasion it would be nice to actually see who I am chatting to, which brings us to what I want to talk about: webcams.

The CC dug out his webcam, plugged it in, and after swearing at Yahoo! messenger for ten minutes [I'll rant about Yahoo! another time], I was able to see him (yay!).

I, on the other hand, don't have a webcam. I think they are evil and, frankly, they scare me. I am petrified that someone will be able to spy on me without my knowledge (is it still spying if you are aware of them?) a la American Pie. It isn't rational, I know, but even when the damn thing is unplugged and in a drawer it worries me. For this reason, the fact I don't like being on camera anyway, and that I don't really have the need for it, I haven't even thought of owning a webcam since I bought the Mac nearly two years ago.

But, seeing as how it is hardly fair I get to see my boyfriend but he doesn't get to see me, I got over my fear and toddled off down to Argos to get me a webcam today.

Alas, and alack, this isn't a story with a happy ending. I get it home, pull it out of the box, shudder at the evilness of it, and go to install the software when...Yup, you've guessed it, Windows only. I go online to have a bit of a nose around, see if I can find a patch or something, and it turns out, webcams for Macs just don't exist. Correction, affordable webcams for Macs just don't exist.

Even if I had money to burn, the cheapest Mac-supported webcam I can find is £80. Apple themselves do the very shiny iSight camera, which is a steal at £99. I am loathe to purchase an iSight anyway, because I have come across a few things that suggest it might not work too well with messaging systems other than iChat (which, of course, is Apple only). Something in me does baulk at spending minimum of £80 on something I will use to talk to one person (hell will freeze over before I start regularly using the webcam) and that only for (hopefully) a few months. I did find a site that has software which claims it can make Windows-only webcams work on Macs, but the webcams they support are all either no longer obtainable, or hideously expensive. Also, for most of the cameras there is a rider that says "this only works on around 50% of the cameras in this range due to chip inconsistencies..."

What is it about us Mac users that means we don't get to video-chat with the rest of the world? Is it that, because we can afford to shell out £2000 for a computer, manufacturers assume we can shell out £100 for a webcam? Or are we just all too ugly?

Cas is all sad now. I'm just wishing I had discovered this problem a week ago before Curly Durly went Christmas shopping - I might have been able to get the Aged P's to help out toward a shiny iSight. Alas, it's too late for that as I have it on good authority all the presents for this year have been purchased.

So, dear blog minions, does anyone have any ideas to help Cas cope with 3000-odd miles of the Atlantic Ocean limiting communication?

Sunday Roast: If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.

2005-12-11T12:03:00.000Z

Today's Sunday Roast. Small, but perfectly formed - rather like myself actually.
Enjoy, and forget not the leftovers.

Good Gifts Catalogue - transcribe books into braile. Please help: £25 buys a Braille book, £100 buys a book with giant print. And £725 actually provides transcription and master copying of a new title. And the name of the Good Giver (or receiver) is entered on the flyleaf. What a nice place to be.

Gizmodo Gift Guide. For the gadget freaks in your life (ie me!)

Color palette creator v1.6. This from LIz, over at Successful Blog. If you are on the lookout for a new colour scheme, but can't think of where to start, just keep hitting the "random base" button till you find one you like. Cool.

Official Google Blog: Public transit via Google. Yes, Google are taking over the world, but this is a good idea! Can they do one for So'ton please :)

Thinking Negative. Funny, but insightful.

Carpetbagger. The NYT's Oscar run-up blog. You might need to login, you might not.

Gmail Clips. An intriguing idea and one I will no doubt be playing around with at some point. Just, not now.

When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off. Christmas day, the day you would (if you were devout) go to Church to celebrate the birth of Christ). You would think. I present this to you in the spirit "you what now?!", my on going series of disbelief at the things Americans do.

del.icio.us: y.ah.oo! One more favourite site of mine swallowed in a giant gulp by Yahoo!. Humph. Ah well, this could be good. I'm reserving judgement.

new Mittens and Snowdrop. The perfect early Christmas present.

The Penguin Podcast: a Christmas Carol. Subscribe to this, do. A free narration of a Christmas Carol, read by Geoffry Palmer (who has a lovely voice)? Got to be good.

Map of the world scaled to population. Note how small Canada and Australia are!

if I'd known I was going to be on tv I would have blow dried

2005-12-09T20:11:00.000Z

I've been playing least-in-sight for the past day or so, and I imagine that I will do continuing to do so for a few days more. Worry not, I am still alive and kicking, if a little bruised and bleeding.

If you will care to look down at the "assorted linkage" section of the Sidebar, you will see a new button proudly adding a splash of colour:

Do follow the link and have a gander at the blog - Liz always makes people feel welcome, and has useful content to boot.

Now, if you will excuse me, I hear the bell calling the start of Round 90 in the great fight between Cas and the reigning champion, Life.

Sunday Roast: give me a break - i had just lost my wife and my goat

2005-12-04T13:08:00.000Z

Mesdames et messieurs, pour le déjeuner aujourd'hui, je vous apporte le "Sunday Roast". ^*1*

Science 'must teach experiments'. I was very fortunate in my schooling and had the opportunity to do lots and lots of experiments. Three lessons a week in each science, one of those three being a 'practical' lesson where we got to mess around with things that might (and frequently DID) go bang. The experiments were easily the best part of the week (apart from when we had to use elodea in Biology. Elodea hates me) and have given me a love of science I hold to this day. You have to like something to do three A levels in it!

The Artful Writer: Set Lingo For Writers. A handy list of slang you are likely to encounter on-set when you're next working with Spielberg.

Ishbadiddle: RSS Hack - for when sites annoyingly don't have RSS.

2005 Holiday Gift Guide - New York Times. Might require registration seeing as how it is the NYT, but some groovy gift ideas, seeing as how it is coming up to Christmas an all.

Ishbadiddle: The Anxiety of Getting Things Done. In my ever continuing quest for ways to get me working again (this thesis will just not die!), I stumbled across this. Some good ideas in there. Some things I already implement, other things that I really should, office supplies I can get all excited about buying (yes, I am one of the people who will happily browse around Staples if they have an hour to kill). I know a quick fix won't really help, but just occasionally, a quick fix makes you feel better.

BBC NEWS | Government sites 'fail disabled'. This, whilst it saddens me, does not surprise me. Just take a look at Southampton City Council's website for a site that is not only hideous and complex to use, but is broken on *ALL* Mac supported browsers (even Mac IE) and is slightly bent on any Windows browser bar IE. Grrr! What gets me is that they spent money on this new design, lots of money, and the old design was really rather good. I repeat, grrr.
(In a related note, I do find it mildly amusing that the government's own report on this subject is ever so slightly broken in Safari - just a few floating table/div alignment issues that can happen to the best of us, but still...).

Jabberwocky. I used to love this poem - we had to write it so many times when we were being taught pretty handwriting in primary school that you couldn't but absorb chunks of it. The Crazy Canalman's rendition of it has to be heard to be believed (very very good). I think my favourite bit has to be "the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!". GREAT line.
And, though I'm not totally sure how accurate they could be seeing as half the words Carroll used don't even exist in English,
Jabberwocky in French
Jabberwocky in German.

Sketches... Set on Flickr. Mindbendingly pretty digital art. All... swirly. As I said, pretty.

Nose cells that may help the paralysed.

Time travel on the tube. Funky.

Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar - NYT.

A Consuming Experience: Feeds: partial or full? How to have both. More how-to goodness from Improbulus.

Antartida - a photoset on Flickr. It was midweek, I felt drastically in need of some penguins to cheer me up and, as always, flickr came through :)

Now, don't forget the Leftovers!

Endnotes:
^*1*Yes, bad french translated from Babel Fish. I just couldn't be bothered to dig out the French dictionary to work it out properly. It has been seven years since I last spoke french after all.^Back

nothing says christmas like animal fables in iambic verse

2005-12-02T11:42:00.000Z

It's officially Christmas (I saw the first Coca Cola advert on TV last night - holidays are coming, holidays are coming, always coca-cola!).

I don't feel very christmassy - but what with the Monster to finish, the CC heading back to Canada, lack of employment, and my brain currently being fucked up, this is understandable. I haven't done any gift-shopping yet, but I am in the stage of planning the cards I will be sending people.

If you want a Christmas/insert-culture-specific-holiday-reference-here card, just email me your address and I will do my utmost to make sure you get one. If you are international, make sure you give me time to cope with posting deadlines. If you don't want to trust a random blogger (ie me) with your physical address, let me have a valid email address for you, and I will create some shiny e-card instead.

Me email, for those of you reading in RSS and who might have forgotten it (and are too lazy to check the sidebar of the site), is
cas[dot]brightmeadow[at]gmail[dot]com
(remove the [words in square brackets] and replace with appropriate symbols)

EDIT - you might also want to include your real name in the email. It could raise the odd awkward question when your Mum comes round for Christmas dinner and asks "Why is this card addressed to InvisiblePyschoMoose?" (for example). Just a thought.

the trouble with facts is that there are so many of them

2005-12-01T17:58:00.000Z

I have long held slightly contradictory views about the program "Time Team", and I don't think I am alone in this - the majority of professional archaeologists feel pretty much the same.

We like the program because it increases awareness of our discipline and promotes the public's interest in their heritage. Without public interest, we really would have no jobs, because no matter how much we try and convince ourselves it is essential, archaeology really is a luxury, to be indulged when there is food on the national table, not when the masses are starving. Take a straw poll of any first year undergraduate archaeology course in this country, asking why they got into archaeology, and a goodly proportion will say "because Time Team made it look fun". (A sizable portion will also say "Indiana Jones", but that's a rant for another day ). Time Team has, undeniably, contributed to making Archaeology (if not sexy), then at least interesting to the average joe.

At the same time, the program is the root of much evil. The majority of the public are now under the impression that you can dig an entire site in three days, that you find skeletons wherever you turn, and that you will get a wonderful tan whilst digging. The truth is far from this. In reality, you can spend three weeks or more clearing topsoil just getting down to the archaeology; skeletons are rather rare outside of cemeteries and you don't frequently get permission to dig them up' and that brown colour you turn? It's an inch thick layer of mud you need three showers to get rid of.

Much of archaeology is cold, dull, hard work, for little reward. You don't get paid a living wage, we have one of the highest incidents of alcoholism and suicide as a profession after veterinary surgery, and your joints will be arthritic by the age of 40. I've spent entire seasons on a dig and found nothing more exciting polystyrene, the skeleton of the farmers dead cat, and variations in the colour of clay. Trust me when I say you can get hundreds of different colours of clay - all subtle plays on a shade of grey, if you are curious.

But it isn't just this glamorization of the discipline that sets the collective hackles up - they tend to practice bad archaeology. It is frequently rushed and what is dug is slanted toward what will make good television. Worse than this, the way it is presented provides the false impression that the past was this one set way.

There are no certainties in archaeology, which is something each archaeologist has to personally wrestle with for themselves, and most of us have come to terms with that. You say "it is likely that", instead of "this happened", and you are prepared to say a few years down the line "I was wrong, new evidence has come to light, it is actually more likely that this happened". Archaeological debates can be, and frequently are, remarkably heated due to this fact. If you can't prove anything, everything is up for discussion, and anybody could be right. We can be pretty certain that aliens didn't build the pyramids, but I have a few colleagues who are quietly holding out hope that something will turn up to give their case some validity. A few years back, you wouldn't have found a single text-book that said the Romans made it to Ireland, now, we're pretty sure they were frequent visitors. We've now got evidence that the Romans even made it to South America, something you would have been laughed out of the conference hall if you'd tried to say it five years ago.

My point - "proof" is an elusive term in archaeology, and is a word that's likely to run you into some trouble down the way.

Which brings me to my latest beef with Time Team. I caught the last five minutes of this week's program was on Durrington Walls. Unlike normal Time Team's they had followed an established dig over an entire season, but that's by-the-by. In Tony Robinson's summation (yes, Tony Robinson of Baldrick fame is the presenter), he asked the lead archaeologist if they could date Durrington Walls and tie it into the construction of Stonehenge. The archaeologist said that, yes, they had dated an antler pick to 2500 BC, which meant the pit it came from was either dug, or had activity in it, at that time. Which consequently meant that Durrington Walls was at least in use around the time that Stonehenge was being first built. Due to the proximity of the two sites and other factors, it is also highly likely (the nice bearded professor said) that the two complexes were related in some way.

Tony Robinson then finishes the program by saying:

*Throws something heavy at the television set*

It's final proof of NOTHING you dimwit! And "typical archaeologist fence sitting"? Ouch.

Technorati Tags:
Time Team, Archaeology, Stonehenge, Durrington Walls

if we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane

2005-11-30T15:50:00.000Z

So I'm writing this using the new version of Firefox I was having trouble downloading this morning.

On my way back from the hardware store (needed a new bulb for the kitchen) I had a brainwave - sure enough, I was right. You can download the new version of FF, but you need to download it using FF in the first place. Try to download it from Safari, and all you get is the dmg file trying to open up in the browser window. Not good. Let's hope they get that little bug sorted before too many switchers are put off.
Here, use our wonderful product we've been telling you is so much better than what you are currently using... Oh, but you have to use our new product to get our new product....

Yup. Something went wrong along the way there.

I've taken the plunge and made firefox my default now. I'll let you know how I get along with it. First mission - to find a theme that is less cutesy and teletubby land! I had the slick 'brushed' theme for the previous version, but that's currently broken, and I do NOT like the default theme.

Toodles.

Technorati Tags:
Firefox

you were busy trying to get yourself lit on fire. it happens

2005-11-30T12:50:00.000Z

I was going to have small grump today about the inaccessibility of the Southampton County Council's website and how stupidly set up their online payment pages are.

But you are to be saved from this fate worse than death because of my inability to download Firefox 1.5.

Whilst this has no actual impact on my daily life (I use Safari still, despite repeated efforts to switch to FF, and me persuading everyone I know to use it), it has bugged me. I want to switch to FF, and from all I've heard, 1.5 is going to be the release to do it for me. So the first day of release and... I can't get it. The links to the Mac OS X (en-us) localisation are broken. All of them. Even the ftp links. And no, I am *not* desperate enough to download the tarball and build it from scratch. I want my nice .dmg file! *wah!* Naughty Mozilla foundation not making sure it all worked before going live. According to the forums, they are "working on it".

*Grump*

If anyone has a solution to this problem, let me know please!

Technorati Tags:
Firefox

i’m guessing an exotic dancer from your spotty youth?

2005-11-29T11:28:00.000Z

People keep coming to the blog via a search for 'chayanne underpants' on Yahoo!Search. There is nothing wrong with this - whatever brings me readers keeps me happy - I just feel sorry for people who come to the blog expecting pictures of this individual in underpants only to find... whatever it is you find here abouts. That, and who is this Chayanne and why are people so keen to see him/her in their skivvies?

As I have never, to my knowledge, blogged about Chayanne in his/her underpants, I was at a little bit of a loss as to what was causing this result in Yahoo!Search, so I did a bit of sleuthing. Turns out, the post containing a list of the artists involved in the whole SonyBMG Rootkit debacle is on the same archive page as a post containing the word underpants.

I am at a loss as to why this search should bring me up as the fourth result, considering the words aren't even in the same post, let alone the same sentence. Then again, perhaps there aren't many pictures of Chayanne in his/her underpants on the web, which is why people repeatedly keep coming to me by mistake? ^*1*

And yes, I am aware that this post is probably going earn me many more hits from the 'Chayanne underpants' searchers out there, but, as I said, whatever brings me in readers.

Looking at this picture, however, I am starting to see why people might want to see pictures of Chayanne in his underpants... (click picture to go bigger)

Just what a girl needs to get the day off to a good start

Endnotes:
^*1*There are no pictures of Chayanne in his underpants that a quick search through Google or Yahoo!Search can turn up. Shame. Though I did find a nice one of him on the beach. I leave that one for you to find on your own time.^Back

the French don't believe custard exists

2005-11-28T11:52:00.000Z

This post is a shout-out to the Brainy Snail. Yes, I am alive and no, my computer hasn't blown up. It's been a close run thing on both counts, but we're hanging in there. Just.

If you all will care to look down at the Blogstalking section of the sidebar (or if you are reading this in RSS, here) you will see that we have had visitors from Santiago, Chile. Welcome :) That's visitors from every major continent now. Woot! If you know of anyone in obscure and far-flung places of the world (bear in mind I am in the south of the UK, so pretty much everywhere is far-flung), please let them know about Bright Meadow. I need more readers east of Germany and south of Greece. Ok, so I don't need exactly, but it would be nice. Consider that your Minion Task of the Week ^tm.

Todays word is lassitude: lack of vitality or energy, which is pretty darn accurate for a random word. I am going to take it as a sign that todays post doesn't have to be either very long, or very interesting. Toodles.

don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night

2005-11-27T12:08:00.000Z

Todays Sunday Roast will be, I am afraid, a short one. I can't even vouch for it's quality. Things have been... not fun... this week at Meadow Towers and this has impinged on my cooking abilities it seems (just how far can I stretch this roast dinner metaphor before it cracks under the strain, do you think?).
Still, eat up, and don't forget the leftovers if you have room at the end.

Web 2.0 - A good appraisal of what Web 2.0 is, its bad points as well as its good points.

Door thwarts quick exit for Bush . Thanks to Minion Moose for this one. Made my morning.

Google and Anonymity.
With the related - GoogleAnon.

Go Flock Yourself. Yes, that is the tag line of the blog flocksucks.wordpress.com The sheer vitriolic glee with which this blog is written is just making me salivate. This is one time you really don't have to agree with what someone is saying to enjoy how they are saying it. And, you know, there's been an awful lot of tosh spoken about Web 2.0 - it's about time somebody stepped up to the plate and said "Hang on, you bunch of lemmings..."

Open Web Design. So I find a design I like... and no longer have a site for it. Lol. Anyway, there's some pretty shiny designs here, all available free to download etc. Hence the name of the site! Useful resource.

Meebo. An intriguing little something to play with - a totally web-based IM client that lets you sign into existing accounts (ie MSN). Not played with it really as I can't spare the time to chat to people, but it looks exciting. Especially if you are on networked computers you can't download messenger/AIM/insert-IM-client-here for whatever reason (ie school/library). Still alpha, but keep an eye on it.

Xmas light video. The word you are looking for is "why"?

Royal Society: rent-seeking is more important than science. Keen blog-watchers might have notice this appear in the del.icio.us research-stream in the sidebar on Saturday, but I thought it was important enough to Roast it as well, just to make sure you saw it. I could rant away for hours, but Cory has pretty much said all I want to say, so I'll leave it to him.

A Consuming Experience: Playing MP3s on your blog: beginners' introduction. There's been some excitment about this, so I thought I would point out this handy 'how to' guide. I would, however, draw your attention to the bit about legality?

i got a smile on

2005-11-26T11:37:00.000Z

I've been trying to come up with a shiny logo for the header-section of the new blog design. Just to let you in on a little secret - I suck at design. I know what I like, but lack a single original bone in my body. This has, understandably, hampered me in my search for a new logo.

Then I, quite unexpectedly, ended up in a mutual link-love-fest with the good people over at Successful Blog and discovered that I seem to already have a logo (I am now an SOB apparently).

So it's a bit basic, but I prefer to think on it as elegant, which is what I've been aiming for with the rest of the design. I seem incapable of being stripped-back, minimal, or elegant in real life, so it's nice to think I can manage a little bit of it in my virtual life.

Just occasionally, it takes someone you weren't expecting to make you look at old things in a new way, to make you appreciate what you have, and to make you sit up and take notice of what you might have forgotten in the rush.

It might be someone who, on a day you were feeling down, unexpectedly says they've always liked your smile. It might be an email from a reader who says "you made me laugh today, thank you". It could be something as simple as the girl in the checkout saying "your hair looks nice". Or it could be your supervisor saying "I love what you're doing, every thing is going to be fine".

So what has made you sit back and go "oh" lately? What made you stop, smile, and make a tiny re-evaluation in the way you view the world?

And because I don't say it enough, you are all lovely people, and thank you for letting me entertain you for a few minutes in your day.

I’m as excited as a very excited person, who's got a special reason to be excited

2005-11-25T17:39:00.000Z

Just 24 hours after telling the CC not to get excited, we never get snow in this country in November, we... go and get snow in this country. And it's November. Yay! Pretty snow!

At the same time, keeping an eye on the coverage in the papers of all the disruption caused by a few inches of snow, I can't help but think that we British really do get uncharacteristically excited about a lot of frozen water. Not even that much frozen water if I am to be honest (one thing with living with a Canadian - you're no longer permitted to say "that's a lot of snow" to anything less than about three feet).

A fall of mere millimeters (like they had back in my native Somerset) is enough to close dozens of schools. 5 cm will block roads. I just looked at a ruler - 5 cm isn't much. About the length of my thumb in fact.

What happens to the great British spirit of keeping going regardless of the odds when we're faced with a quantity of snow that would just about frost a cake, but not much more? We see snow and (excuse the expression) freeze, like so many rabbits in the headlights. Entire villages can get swept away, and we rally round wonderfully. How we dealt with the Blitz in WWII even spawned a phrase to describe it: "the Blitz spirit". We're renowned for being able to cope. Along with drinking lots of tea, queueing with equanimity, talking a bit posh, and having a mad royal family, it is arguably one of the more famous British stereotypes.

Yet give us some sugar-frosting on the fields, and we go into a tailspin. More snow falls in an average five minute flurry in Guelph, than fell in the storms that caused so much kerfuffle last night. Though in our defense, British snow is a "different sort of snow". Wetter, apparently. Maybe that makes it so much harder to deal with?

My point? Oh, I don't really have one. ^*1* I was just commenting on how wonderfully silly the average British person can be on occasion. And if you have plans to take over the world and, admit it, who hasn't planned a little light world domination in their spare time? Just bring a snow-machine with you when you try to take over the British Isles.

Endnotes:
^*1*I've had a migraine most of the day. You can't expect reasoned argument after that, can you?^Back
^*2*I am not holding my breath for snow in So'ton though: apparently, due to being on (more or less) the coast; the way the wind normally blows; and lots of other meteorological/geographical reasons I won't even pretend to understand, we very rarely get snow. Winchester just 20 minutes away on the train, yes, Southampton, no. It was the same in Liverpool - why can't I ever live in a place where it snows? *TANTRUM*

cute and cuddly boys...

2005-11-24T13:28:00.000Z

I have been trying to think of something to blog about today, and I have zip, nada, nothing. My folder of shame is actually empty. I had a back up plan of writing something based on the 'word of the day' i get each day. But todays word was 'maelstrom' :

Not exactly inspiring me - to be truthful the only thing that springs to mind is talking about depression and the like, and I don't think any of us want that.

So, I shall stop talking and just leave you with a picture of a fluffy penguin, because (whilst they are evil) they always make me smile.

bambiesque? as does pertain to bambi

2005-11-23T10:16:00.000Z

WARNING: What follows is a passive-aggressive grump. I have no excuse, other than I am, well, in a grumpy mood today.

We all have one in our address books - that one person who doggedly believes every piece of spam they get in their inbox. That one person who continually passes on the "WARNING! Email this to ten people or you will die a horrible and painful death!" emails. I have one such person. She used to be one of my closest friends in college, but I don't talk to her much any more. This is for a variety of reasons, but no small part is that she doesn't have a current email address for me.

What?! I hear you cry? This girl is your friend, but you haven't given her your new email address? (To be honest, not so new any more). Why does she still languish under the impression that your hotmail addy is the address you check constantly?

She is incapable of sending email that ISN'T spam, that's why. She is the forwarding queen. She is the one person who spammers and phishers go to bed at night praying for.

I had thought that as she approached her mid-twenties, she would start to develop some common sense, or at least a mild level of skepticism. Alas, that is not to be.

The pick of this weeks ~~spam~~ email from her is something pretending to be from hotmail, the text of which goes as follows (all spelling EXACTLY as appeared in the message. Can you spot their six mistakes?):

Dear Hotmail User,
We understand that you have previously recieved many messages that have stated the closing of accounts not being used within our servers. This message, however, is your final warning. Within this message is encoded a small program that will located and debug your account when sent to fifteen other Hotmail users. If you do not send this message to fifteen Hotmail users within 24 hours of recieving the message, your account will be PERMANETLY SHUT-DOWN. When and if you send this, we hereby grant that you will no longer recieve such messages as this one.
We realize that this process is becoming an annoyance, however, and this is the final message you will recieve from the Hotmail Announcement staff. Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Sincerely,
Calvin W. Kreantz
MSN Accounts Coordinator

Now, not only does the text of this scream "SPAM, PHISHING, SPAM!", but it was delivered as gif.

Yup. Poor Brunhilda.

I'd email her back, except my actual valid communication would just get drowned out by all the "FW:FW:FW:FW:TRUE FRIENDS" and "URGETN! IMPORTANT INFORMATION WITHIN!" in her inbox. Perhaps if I put "VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM HOTMAIL STAFF" in the subject header she will read it?

keep in mind, he can't get laid without maybe going crazy. makes it funny

2005-11-22T16:06:00.000Z

I know I've already blogged today, but I am having a ten minute tea break to give the buzzing in my right arm time to settle down (not quite got the desk here at Meadow Towers at optimal anti-RSI configuration), and I found the following article:
Is Sex Necessary? on Forbes.com

I will leave you pondering the delivery mechanism of the mineral that strengthens teeth - never heard it compared to squeezing a tube of toothpaste before...
And challenge all you men out there not to wince just a teeny bit when you reach the end of the article.

maybe I could learn something if I beat you about the head with a sturdy ladle?

2005-11-22T12:21:00.000Z

I was wondering what to talk about in this mornings blog post, then this post from Improbulus popped up via RSS, and I thought why not? So I plugged Bright Meadow's URL into the Marketleap Link Popularity Check tool et voila, 458 links found.

Ok, so that only classes me as a "limited presence" but phooey to that.

Going into the results in more depth (oh, come on, you'd do the same!) I found two links I wasn't expecting - one from a blog post back in 2002 thanking my site for emailing him some links (needless to say, not me, but proof that blogspot recycles domains), and the other from CNET.

I had been wondering why a lot of people had been coming to view my little grump about Google Print, and this would probably explain it. In CNETs piece "Reaction mixed on Google Print beta, mine is the third "blog community response".

Now, of course, this is a huge ego boost. A fair few people out there commented on Google Print, yet what I had to say was one of the few responses chosen. I wasn't misquoted or even quoted out of context. The journalist took a few moments at least to scan the article and pull out (one of) the more pertinent paragraphs. Still, I am a little on edge because it has illustrated a point I made a while ago - referencing something someone said without contacting them. I had no idea I'd been linked to by CNET, and would probably still be in the dark if I hadn't done a quick vanity search this morning. It's a common enough reporting practice in blog-land, one I am all too guilty of myself, but when you're on the receiving end it does make you stop for a moment and think.

Still, on the whole I am just a teeny bit smug. You write the words, then let them go off on their own into the big wide Internet, and it's a pleasure to get proof that a few are doing rather well for themselves.

Now, if you will excuse me, my ego is now nicely stroked, and I really should be trying to hammer out an introduction and conclusion for the TFH (thesis from hell). I am not sure how well this is going to go, because I had a mammoth 15 minute session with the counsellor this morning (ten minutes of which were spent in silence), which has left me in tears of anger and frustration, shaking from head to foot with the desire to strangle the woman, and having changed counsellors. Still these things are sent to try us, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and all that.

When to tell the godhead that this thesis has actually broken me?

Technorati Tags:
Google Print, Links, Ethics, Blogging

a trip to banana republic would have killed you?

2005-11-21T17:16:00.000Z

Last Saturday (the 19th), the Cute Canadian and myself took ourselves off up to London for the day. The trip was originally planned to celebrate my freedom from that hell known as "thesis", and three months managing not to kill each other. Due to my total inadequacy and inability to finish what I bloody well started over six months ago now (ARG!), we came to a mutual agreement that, ok it wasn't time to celebrate yet, but I still needed a day off before my head exploded.

We took in the British Library, the British Museum, the London Eye, and Polar Express in 3D at the IMAX. All in 9 hours. Oh, and we found time for some lovely food too at Azzurro, though by the time we ate I was so tired I think a Big Mac would have tasted good to me.

We had a wonderful time and, whilst it probably served the opposite purpose of de-stressing me because now I am even more behind and panicked, I wouldn't have not gone. We even rode the tube an extra stop so I could get off at Mornington Crescent and get my picture take by a sign. I have no excuse other than that I grew up listening to Radio 4 and "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue". (If you are still baffled, and you will be, read this article, then give up and just listen to a show. Trust me, you will laugh if you have one iota of humour in your body).

I have uploaded some of the better pictures to Flickr, and the set can be found here. You can also find them under the tag londontrip2005.

My favourite of all of them, though I can't put into words why, is this one:

(Click to see full set and to comment etc).

If you are ever in London, I really would recommend a trip on the Eye. I've been twice now and loved it both times. Do book online before hand, because it will cut a good 30 minutes off your queueing time, and you can specify (roughly) what flight you would like. One word of warning though, even if you book in advance you will be standing in a queue to board for about 30 minutes. The line moves quickly, and there's plenty to see if you like people watching, but you will be standing. If you have any elderly/young/infirm in your party, I would suggest paying that little extra and getting a fast-track ticket, or investing in a shooting stick. The views are worth it though, and if you can time it for dusk, do so - beautiful.

Technorati Tags:
London Eye, London, British Museum, British Library

a little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men

2005-11-21T10:25:00.000Z

Spooky is a blog minion par excellence. Not only does he animate some very cute penguins, he also finds some of the funniest-slash-most surreal sites imaginable.

Just in case you missed his comment on this past week's sunday roast, here is the site:

Lejo. You can choose to see the site in a variety of languages (warning, english is not the default), and there are some supreme videos to be seen. So beautifully stripped back and elegantly simple, yet so very very effective. Here's a taster - DJ.

Sunday Roast: don't worry about the world coming to an end today. it's already tomorrow in australia.

2005-11-20T10:03:00.000Z

Things have, if anything, go even more insanely hectic this week. An actual hand-in date is 90% confirmed for Monday/Tuesday (ie tomorrow or the day after). As a result, forgive me if I go gibber quietly in the corner whilst you have fun digesting the Sunday Roast (and don't forget the leftovers).

How to back up your blog. I'm in the midst of transfering servers and blogging platform, and it suddenly dawned on me today the sheer amount of data I stand to loose if it all goes wrong. Whilst the majority of my posts can go hang for all I care, I can think of at least five I really wouldn't want to loose. Then along comes this timely post...

Frog Design Mind: Accessibility. Once again a blog that does in one post what I spend an entire thesis-chapter on. Ah well. I keep having to explain to people why accessibility isn't just for disabled people. Now, I can just point them in the direction of this post and be done with them. Hurrah!

Sony BRAVIA bouncing balls advert. I finally saw this in the cinema last weekend and was, I admit it, impressed. Both the CC and Moose are determined that it is CGI. It isn't. Really, really it isn't. UPDATE: when seen on an IMAX screen, even more impressive.

10 Key Ingredients of a Great Blog. I'm not sure I want to know how people think I compare to these ingredients... Still, they are as good a way as any other to try and evaluate if a new blog is any good.

FlipSkipper.com I'm in two minds about this one. Part of me thinks that it could work really well, but a large chunk of me is worried about not having control over the posts that get automatically added to my blog. I mean, just because *I* tag something "design" doesn't mean everyone else uses that tag in the same way (which is one of the big downsides to tagging anyway). As I said, I'm on the fence. I've flagged this one up for a personal "go play when not tearing hear out over polishing chapters", so expect feedback soonish.

Plushie Magical Trevor. Oh. My. God. I sooo want one! All together now "everyone loves magical trevor..."

Boing Boing: Gang drugs victims with a kiss. Even if this is a hoax, it's so very funny, if only because it happened in Firefly! (the 'Our Mrs Reynolds' ep if you are curious)

Literary classics become txt msgs. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! This is (to me) even worse than the bible-in-sms-form I mentioned a few weeks back. *breaks down into tears of inconsolable misery and frustration* I love Pride and Prejudice and have read it through more times than I care to admit, and I wouldn't have got the plot from their sms-summary. *wails*

My brain on extisp.icio.us. This is a very groovy program that takes your del.icio.us tags and creates a visualization - items with more links are larger. I'm not entirely sure how the positioning works, but I suspect that tags that often appear together on an item are located closer together. Pretty amazing. Such a simple idea, so elegantly implemented, and a rather accurate mapping of my cognitive space. Not surprisingly, sundayroast is HUGE in the image. (Click on the link to see the real-time version, which allows you to click on any of the tags in the image and go directly to my list of links in that category).

safari bookmark exporter. One thing that has kept me from making firefox my default browser is the sheer weight of bookmarks I would have to wrest from Safari's grip. I found this wonderful program today, and voila! 30 seconds, and I had all my bookmarks in FF, with the same folder structure, the same bookmarklets, everything. Sweet.

More HD-DVD/Blu-ray madness. It's been so long now, I honestly can't remember what the differences between these two are. I do have a vague feeling that I was coming down on the side of Blu-ray, but that might just be because the name is groovy. Oh, and they're the square ones, right? Either way, I wish they would get their arses in gear and sort it out. I'm getting real old waiting over here. *grump*

blogher: True or false: Do "women warm the podcast bench"? I'm not a podcaster and I doubt I ever will be, but this did get me all riled up. There's this one quote in the linked article "cool mediums tend to attract guys at first"... Grrr. Anyway, read it all for yourself, make up your own minds, then be nice to any female tech people you might run into, because we are starting to get a bit miffed at being overlooked, and we don't let you stare at our breasts when we are mad. You have been warned

Feel the Bra*climbs up off the floor where she was laughing so much* *wipes a tear from her eye* I think every woman out there is just sniggering at this point, and most men should be taking notes. Oh, and no, I won't be sharing any of my own bra stories today. Last time didn't end too good. Way to spoil everyone's fun, anonymous

Laser-etched designs on your powerbook. Oh my good god, this looks divine. Can you imagine what a penguin would look like? *sobs with jealousy*

drawgirl. Oh, I wish, I wish I had this sort of talent.

Microsoft Technology Preview - flickr set. Do take the time and view this set of 52 pictures, and read the comments. The degree of vitrolic hatred voiced in some of the comments shouldn't have surprised me (this is Microsoft after all, we've all done it), but it did. There's a couple of slides in there that should be labeled "how not to do a powerpoint presentation". Confusion much!

i just love finding new places to wear diamonds

2005-11-18T10:18:00.000Z

It's very, very hard not to love a startup that not only goes to the trouble of linking to one of your things on the first post of their new blog, but then takes the time to track down your blog and personally comments on it, and as if that wasn't enough, sends you an email telling you about how their new innovations would be good for you. Oh, and the CEO has created a Wish List page for me.

I repeat, how can you not love a company that does all that?

I do hold by what I said in that previous post about Kaboodle. The lack of search is a big issue for me when I bookmark the quantity of stuff I do and have the appalling memory that I have. I'm still not sold on it for the Sunday Roast, though yes, for pretty much the same reasons as I have niggles with del.icio.us (the interrupted nature of when people are pointed at it for one). Basically, I'd love a way to flag past posts without deleting them from the archive - you could see all things I'd ever Sunday Roasted if you were curious/wanted to find something you half remembered from a month before, but you would have an obvious visual clue as to what was new and what wasn't.

With regard the Must See Movies, I'm leaning toward Kaboodle again. There's more room for commenting than you get with del.icio.us, you can include the picture which is a great way of quickly identifying a film, and you can vote.

Which brings me to something that bugged me straight away last time I used it - when someone votes, you had no way of finding out about them. I've just noticed that they have instituted it so now, when someone votes, their name is now a link back to their own pages. A great way of fostering community.

The Wish List, on the other hand... Now the Wish List might just be moving on over to Kaboodle. (Though I can't get the images to show that mach did when he created me a wish list ).

Score card? Well, big bonus points have to be given for the sheer stalkerish glee with which they are selling themselves. On top of that, the implementation is sweet, there is no doubt about it. (Though I am running out of room for all my bookmarklets, they're getting so ubiquitous now). In Kaboodles favour is that you have much more room to comment on something than you get in, for example, del.icio.us. I do like having room to explain why I have this desire to see what is guaranteed to be an appalling film.

On the downside, the lack of search is really really bugging me. It would also be nice to see, maybe, "see who else kaboodling this" for example. And tagging. Yes, I know we're tagging anything that sits still long enough these days, but it has its uses. As already mentioned, some flagging mechanism would be nice as well. RSS would, of course, be a must at some point down the line. Maybe someway of controlling how many items appear on one page?

(Just re-read the email, and it turns out that both search and RSS are being worked on as we speak - woot!).

I don't know. I think I want Kaboodle to be something that it isn't designed to be. I have my issues with del.icio.us, and I want Kaboodle to fill the gap. It isn't really fair or realistic to compare the two - one is a social bookmarking site, the other is designed to compare things. Yes, there is overlap, but one shouldn't be seen as a substitute for the other.

In conclusion? I'm greedy and unrealistic, but I want an uber-program that will solve everything for me. I want a social bookmark site, a comparison site, an RSS reader, email, something for images, some easy way to do my Sunday Roasts, search, (that isn't Google-branded), etc, all in one place. And it will make me a nice cup of tea and give me a neck massage every few hours just to show me the love.

Is Kaboodle such an application? No. Is Kaboodle a great program? Yes. Will I keep using it? I'm not sure. I want it to succeed, I really do, but for me it's just easier to stick with the fudged del.icio.us & blog & traditional bookmarking combo I use now than add a fourth to the mix. I want to be using fewer programs and solutions, not more. I'm a fundamentally lazy person. Something has to be demonstrably better before I will switch.

Whatever happens, you can be sure I will keep you informed. Why don't you go and have a play with Kaboodle for yourself? The way something like this gets bigger and better is when a community of people start using it, tweaking it, and just generally having fun. Take a piece of software, make it your own.

Technorati Tags:
Kaboodle

Housekeeping

2005-11-17T17:00:00.000Z

Because I am devoted to you, my readers, and I enjoy trying to find new and exciting ways for you to interact with the blog, I have added a new way to subscribe to the site: email.

I am a fan of RSS, never more so than when I was in dial-up/illegal wi-fi hell during the move when I could get all my daily reading downloaded into Vienna then read offline at my leisure. But I am aware that many out there, for numerous reasons, don't use RSS.

Well. trying to be helpful as ever, I've got me Feedblitz, so now if you want a non-RSS way of getting the blog delivered, just pop your email address into the box in the sidebar, press the button, et voila.

As always, it's a work in progress. If it doesn't work let me know. Conversely, if it does work and you love it, let me know as well.

The bit in the sidebar looks like this:

i’m crazy for muppets, i’m just trying to act cool

2005-11-17T16:53:00.000Z

I think I'm going to have to start another another tag-collection entitled 'gifts', or "toys Cas really wouldn't mind getting for Christmas/birthdays/just because she is special".

What prompted this? Well, this did, a Disney branded USB hub:

(click image to see source site)

The Toy Story aliens really work for me. Far superior to the ugly-black-brick I've got hidden under a pile of CD-Rs on the corner of the desk. Who knows what the specs are, how good the build quality is, or even how much it costs? It's cute and evoking a response out of all proportion to the fact it is an inanimate lump of greenish-plastic.

I know, it really is pathetic how excited I get over peripherals. Still, if anyone has some spare yen hanging around, and a yen (meaning urge, see what I did there?) to gift their blog-overlordess (I need a better title, I really do) a little something to show their appreciation? Well, I wouldn't be so ungracious as to refuse.

Oh, and that del.icio.us tag? http://del.icio.us/brightmeadow/gifts

a paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on

2005-11-17T12:04:00.000Z

I've held off on the whole SongBMG rootkit DRM debacle for several reasons, mainly because I have nothing new to add to the pot. I've held off on linking to lists of what CDs contain the DRM till Sony released a list of its own - one list I found two days ago contained music by artists never signed to SonyBMG in the first place!

But now, we *finally* have a list from Sony. BoinBoing has an excellent summary of the whole shebang found here

I might be going off on one in a few days about how appalling Sony's response has been, so you have been warned, but right now I have bigger fish to fry in the shape of the last week of the thesis.

- From SonyBMG's site:
CD’s Containing XCP Content Protection Technology - if you have the cd, check the site to see if it is the right number
1. A Static Lullaby - Faso Latido
2. Acceptance - Phantoms
3. Amerie - Touch
4. Art Blakey - Drum Suit
5. The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity?
6. Bette Midler - Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook
7. Billy Holiday - The Great American Songbook
8. Bob Brookmeyer - Bob Brookmeyer & Friends
9. Buddy Jewell - Times Like These
10. Burt Bacharach - At This Time
11. Celine Dion - On Ne Change Pas
12. Chayanne - Cautivo
13. Chris Botti - To Love Again
14. The Coral - The Invisible Invasion
15. Cyndi Lauper - The Body Acoustic
16. The Dead 60's - The Dead 60's
17. Deniece Williams - This Is Niecy
18. Dextor Gordon - Manhattan Symphonie
19. Dion - The Essential Dion
20. Earl Scruggs - I Saw The Light With Some Help From My Friends
21. Elkland - Golden
22. Emma Roberts - Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts
23. Flatt & Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Jamboree
24. Frank Sinatra - The Great American Songbook
25. G3 - Live In Tokyo
26. George Jones - My Very Special Guests
27. Gerry Mulligan - Jeru
28. Horace Silver - Silver's Blue
29. Jane Monheit - The Season
30. Jon Randall - Walking Among The Living
31. Life Of Agony - Broken Valley
32. Louis Armstrong - The Great American Songbook
33. Mary Mary - Mary Mary
34. Montgomery Gentry - Something To Be Proud Of: The Best of 1999-2005
35. Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
36. Neil Diamond - 12 Songs
37. Nivea - Complicated
38. Our Lady Peace - Healthy In Paranoid Times
39. Patty Loveless - Dreamin' My Dreams
40. Pete Seeger - The Essential Pete Seeger
41. Ray Charles - Friendship
42. Rosanne Cash - Interiors
43. Rosanne Cash - King's Record Shop
44. Rosanne Cash - Seven Year Ache
45. Shel Silverstein - The Best Of Shel Silverstein
46. Shelly Fairchild - Ride
47. Susie Suh - Susie Suh
48. Switchfoot - Nothing Is Sound
49. Teena Marie - Robbery
50. Trey Anastacio - Shine
51. Van Zant - Get Right With The Man
52. Vivian Green - Vivian

Technorati Tags:
Sony, DRM, SonyBMG, rootkit,

i think I’m being chased by a psychiatrist! it happens...

2005-11-15T15:40:00.000Z

If you had one week left to live, what career would you choose?

No, this is not a complete non sequiter, at least it isn't one if you had been living my life lately. As it is safe to assume you haven't been living my life lately, I think I should fill you in on a few details before we progress further with this post.

The end of my course is drawing very firmly to a close and, with it, the need to find a proper (grown up) job is getting ever more pressing. As well as this, lately I have been on something of a down-spiral. No, this isn't a call for "oh, poor you, feel better soon" comments (though, you know, those have their uses too ). It's a neurochemical glitch, I've been here before, I know full well what is happening, I am being proactive before things have the chance to get truly serious, and I am surrounded by loving people to take care of me.

Part of the whole proactive thing is getting my arse back into some counseling.

In the last couple of years of (blissfully counseling free) happiness I had forgotten how damn annoying counsellors can be. I'm not sure which bugs me more: the quiet murmuring voices; the bad chunky faux-ethnic jewelry; the chintz cushions; the waiting for who will break the silence first; or their tendency to fixate on one tiny detail.

She is determined that all my troubles stem from being unsure what I want to do with my life and, she is the professional, so perhaps she is right. It is just that she had decided that this was the issue after talking to me for less that five minutes. Seriously - sat down; told her my name; that I was here because I felt myself heading back to depression, which is a place I so don't want to go again; and in response to a question told her I wasn't sure what I was doing when I finish the thesis (because I'm not), and the next 40 minutes were all about potential career paths, and what it was that I enjoyed doing...

Which brings me to my favourite part of today's session -
"If you had one week left to live, what career would you choose?"

Now, I am a bad person, and take a mild glee in making the woman work for a living (I'm not going to make it easy for her to get inside my mind, ohhhhhhh no), but I don't think it was just perverseness that made me pull up short and go "Huh?" when she asked me that.

Come on - if I had one week left to live I would be out living it large, having fun, eating grossly unhealthy amounts of chocolate, not starting a career. Would you?

Once she realised that I was struggling hard not to laugh in her face, she rephrased the question (I felt mildly sorry for her at this point, but something about the woman just grates on me. She's too fluffy I think).
"What is one thing you enjoy doing above all others and would want to keep on doing, regardless?"

That's more like it. I'm starting to see why she got her qualifications now.

My answer?
After a few moments deliberation (I didn't want to blurt out "taxidermy" or something by mistake just for the shits and giggles), I came up with writing and playing around with computers. Simple and has the added benefit of being the truth. That's not all I enjoy, but that, and research, are the main things that float my boat. ^*1*

So it is safe to say that potential jobs are not all we talked about, and for all my glibness I will be going back, because I know from experience that, (the fact they make me want to strangle them aside), counselors do as a rule know what they are doing and do help. I was just curious - if you had one week left to live, what career would you choose?

And can anyone think of a career for me where I could play around with computers and writing, and get paid an obscene amount of money for it?

Endnotes:
^*1*If they didn't, you wouldn't be subjected to these overly long posts of mine. Think on that...^Back

this is like dungeons and dragons camp all over again

2005-11-14T13:23:00.000Z

Why do we do it to ourselves?

Day after day we spend time that we really should spend on other activities, crafting witty and clever posts, hitting 'publish', sitting back, and waiting for comments, adoration, and respect that rarely (if ever) comes.

I've talked about this before, as have many many other people, and nothing much has changed since I wrote that. The 'why do you blog' meme might just be one of the most pervasive on the Web.

So why do I mention it again? I guess I'm just in a place in my head right now where I am overanalyzing everything I do.

I was never picked first for the sports teams at school. I was never in the 'cool group', nor was I even worthy of being a hanger-on to the fringes of the 'cool group'. I was, and still am, quite firmly a geek. Yes, I was a band-geek, a science-geek, a computer-geek. You name an un-cool group, I belonged to it. I like to think I excelled at making myself as unpopular as possible: I was captain of the archery team at both school and university; I was in first oboe in one band, first sax in another, and band-leader in a third; I was on the school debate team; and I did all three sciences at college. Oh, and let's not forget I am doing a computing post-grad.

I've never been one of those people with five hundred 'great friends' - I am happier, it must be told, with just four or five people who I know I can trust and who love me despite of my oddness. Once people get to know me, it seems they think I am the best thing since bread came sliced ^*1*, but very few people take the trouble.

So what little kink in my system makes me want tens or hundreds of readers of my blog? Why do I get this little tingle of anticipation every-time I check my visitor stats, or the comments feed, hoping against hope that something happened over night and suddenly I am a 'success'? I know it's not going to happen. I'm just not the sort of girl who gets invited to the ball. Even Technorati seems to think my tags and posts aren't worthy. And why, oh why did I just succumb to vanity and submit Bright Meadow to the network I've wanted to join since I discovered it?

*shakes head in despair*

I really only have myself to blame.

Endnotes:
^*1*There's no accounting for taste.^Back

Sunday Roast: yes, sir, captain tight pants

2005-11-13T16:18:00.000Z

Yes, it's time to dish up the Sunday Roast again. As always, the full menu can be found here, under the del.icio.us tag 'sundayroast' and here, under the del.icio.us tag 'leftovers'.

E-mail time capsule. Email yourself in 1/3/5/10/20 years time. I like the idea of this, and am composing the email on and off as we speak. I am at a slightly odd point in my life, with possibilities - both personal and occupational - leading off in all manner of different directions. I like the idea of getting an email in a year or so's time (when hopefully all it becoming clearer) just to see how far I have (or haven't) come.

IE Tab extension for FireFox. Great for when you want to view film times at the local Odeon without starting up IE just for that. Not used it personally (me and FF are currently not seeing eye to eye), but the buzz about this is great.

Penguin Podcast. No, despite my all-consuming obsession about penguins, this is nothing to do with the cute (but evil) flightless birds. Rather, this is Penguin-as-Publisher. Also a favourite of mine (and also, on occasion I am sure, evil), the publisher is introducing a fortnightly pod-cast containing interviews with authors, excerpts from books, exclusives, news, and who knows what other treats. I haven't had a moment to listen to the first one yet, but I am sure this is something to keep your eye on. Way to go embracing the modern world Penguin!

Paul Davidson on the Danger of Escalators. Just LOL. That's it. LOL.

Ex LIbris Anonymous. Beautiful journals bound in old book covers. A great gift idea (it's coming up to the Holidays, and I am always on the look out for something a bit different to give as a present).

Portraits of Mexico's Lucha Libre wrestlers . Sadly, no El Santo, but still great :D

Pengor: Penguin of Doom. Oh. My. God. Haven't I been telling y'all for the past year how evil penguins are? Here's proof that I am not alone in thinking this. Sadly, this site has no RSS feed, and as it is very irregularly updated, I am not sure if this is going to prove a keeper. But doesn't it just make you love the internet?

Ten Simple Rules for Dating a Blogger. *Has a secret snigger* Ok, so I'd like to think I'm not this bad, but there's more than enough grains of truth in this article to make me wonder at mine (and the CC's) sanity. I mean, who would (1) be a blogger and (2) date a blogger?

Joi Ito's Web: Blogging style. Some good tips we could all do with taking to heart.

Creative Marketing Destruction: Add Water and Blog

Carbon Footprint Calculator . What's your carbon footprint? (How eco-friendly are you basically). This is a wildly inaccurate tool, but it gives a basic idea. Here at Meadow Towers, we have a footprint of around 2 tonnes of carbon. The UK average is 10 tonnes, so we're not doing too badly. And there isn't much we can do to improve it either, apart from installing energy efficient lightbulbs, because the rest is things like installing better boilers and solar power etc, all of which we can't do in a rented property for obvious reasons.

squidfingers.com. A great resource for dhtml codes, javascript, patterns, and a whole host of more free stuff for elegant webdesign.

Panda Cam. If you're a Mac user, you definitely have to check out San Diego's Panda Cam widget. Let's face it, unless you are a robot, the sight of a small fuzzy baby panda will melt your heart. However, if Pandas aren't your thing you can also watch polar bears, elephants and apes on the cam via the same widget. It's like having a zoo on your desktop - minus the poop. I really need to get around to installing that OS upgrade I got for my birthday two months back...

BBC NEWS | Education | Girls 'put off technology jobs'. Sad, but true. From a personal standpoint, whilst no one has stood in my way of trying to get a tech-career, no one has pushed one on me either. I have never been given information on the subject and I know for sure I am missing out on opportunities because I just don't know where to look. No idea how to rectify the situation though.

What's in your folder of shame? We all have one. I just opened up my 'blog text' folder, and found a fair few including what led to this post. So now you know who to blame for that monstrosity!

The Dilbert Blog. Love the cartoons. Love the blog.

Highlander in 30 seconds with bunnies. Yes, Highlander the film (the one with Christopher Lambet) re-enacted in 30 seconds with bunnies. One of the things that made me smile most this week.

Google Job Opportunities. No, I am not going mad. Please, trust me, and follow the link. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you why a link to job openings at Google had me choking on my Assam, but it did.

Mini Star Book Ornamnet. So pretty! I think I might have to make me some of these for Egor.

That's it for this weeks' Roast. I'm being glowered at by the CC. He has this spidy sense that kicks and alerts him when I'm writing for the blog instead of the thesis. Only one week to go on that (hopefully!) and then I will have no excuse not to do all the fun things I have planned for Bright Meadow (starting with a proper hosted domain and Wordpress...)

Toodles,

Housekeeping

2005-11-11T23:02:00.000Z

The observant among you might have noticed a few changes around the place, and these include:

New picture of yours truly wearing a silly hat.

Tweaked the sidebar.

Changed the text of the About Bright Meadow section some.

Tweaked the text of the Cast & Crew section a little bit.

Made the 'Top Posts' more prominent. As yet this is purely based on the posts I think worthy, but if you can think of others that deserve such notice, do tell.

Included a "Latest Research Links (from del.icio.us)" section in the sidebar. These are sites/bits I've found which are more serious and related to my research than your average Sunday Roast link.

The latest adventures of Lara Croak, Frog Racer

I inform you of these changes for no reason other than I just like to do stuff like that. *said in the creepy voice of the bad dude from The Warriors*

I made the changes as part of my ongoing quest to get a more elegant and successful blog design. I am starting to knock up against the limitations of blogger. To be honest, I've been unhappy with the service for a while now, having to fudge solutions to problems such as top posts, and just giving up on categories, let alone trackbacks and the like. I'm this close (holds fingers close together) to moving to another platform. Any one got any recommendations? And a reliable host would be nice too.

are we having fun yet?

2005-11-10T18:50:00.000Z

That last post was a little over long. Sorry. Just something I wanted to get off my chest.

I am aware that, at nearly 3000 words, it stretches what you would want to read on a blog to breaking point and, most likely, beyond. Whilst I think it is worth it (I wouldn't have posted it other wise), I will totally understand if you just let it sail blythely on by.

I will now leave you to read it (or not, no pressure, up to you), whilst I go and write 5000 words on what you need to take into consideration when you try and implement a wiki for a couple of thousand archaeologists to use. Here's a tip - don't do it. It might seem like a good idea, but trust me, it's not worth. Really, really not worth it.

to link, or not to link - On the mechanics and ethics of linking

2005-11-10T18:47:00.000Z

The following is a really rather long post. It has been sitting in my folder of shame for several months now and, whilst I have been working on it on and off all that time, I never really gave it the time it deserved. Today I polished it up and decided to present it to you. Why is it I can write near 3000 words for my blog in an hour, yet can’t do the same for my thesis? Anyway, enjoy, or not. I’m just talking to the dog here.

I once again find myself musing on the vagaries of the information age whilst riding on a relic of in the Victorian era (train) using a technology thousands of years old (pen and paper). For a while I have been thinking on and off about linking, both the mechanics and ethics of. I have talked a bit about this before, or at least pointed you in the direction of people who have been making sense on the topic lately, but I've never directly talked about my own views on whether/when you should link in the first place.

Regular Bright Meadow readers will be familiar with my Sunday Roasts - roundups of stories from that week. The majority of these posts comprise links to news-stories and cartoons, though a goodly proportion are to other blogs. Mainly these are to posts containing funnies, but with some regularity I link to posts containing peoples thoughts and opinions.

The fuss being, I hear you ask? Surely one of the beauties of the web is that all information is only a hypertexted click away? And it is. But a vast quantity of things stem from the difference between what a hyperlink actually is and what it is perceived as being.

A hyperlink, at it's simplest, is a connection forged between one point in your hypertext document and another point somewhere on a vast connected network of computers and servers known colloquially as 'the Internet', or the 'Web'. Despite the imposed functionality of the 'back' button and 'history' functions of browsers, hyperlinks are one way. Nor do hyperlinks have meaning built into them. They simply are. Any semantic meaning is imposed on the link afterward by the manual addition of some form of clarification (most often text).

Again, all happy and shiny.

It is a given that you should always credit where you get your ideas from. In the academic world you reference pretty much everything, and there are strict conventions on how you reference, be it from books, the internet, newspapers, archives, even personal conversations. It is imperative that, if you have used or mentioned another person's ideas, you give your reader the means to track down that idea or result, to see it in its original context, so they can make up their own minds about whether you are drawing valid conclusions. This is a part of scholarship, I am more than OK with this, and frequently find myself champing at the bit when some journalist/blogger/author has quoted someone as saying something (or made a statement as fact), and hasn't provided me with the means to check up on them. Hyperlinks provide a handy and fairly elegant way of doing this, either with internal links to a bibliography and reference list, or external links direct to the given source.

Yep. Got that.
Simple, even, you might say. Linking is good, that's that, and this is going to be a short post.

Alas, no. Whilst the ethics and mechanics of academic linking are pretty much solidified into convention (which is often more binding than law), how to link on the Internet, and within the blogosphere (*chokes on the word*), is still being worked out. It is wonderful, and exhilarating to be writing the rules as we go, but it can lead to a whole host of unexpected complications.

The 'problems' start when pages, sites, and blogs (for example) are ranked in search engines and 'Top Ten' lists by computer algorithms that look at all the in-links into a document. The theory being the more in-links a document has, the more authoritative or popular the source must be, so the higher it appears in the search results listing (or on the Top Ten). The higher something is, the more often it gets linked to, the higher it appears in the rankings and so on till we all get dizzy. Computer algorithms, no matter how cleverly written, still just see a link, not any attached qualification as to whether it is positive, negative, or just plain indifferent. When you link to something you confer, without really thinking about it, a measure of approval. Even if you qualify your link with "I really, really don't agree with what this person says", you are still providing them with an in-link so making them seem (in many ranking mechanisms) more authoritative than perhaps they deserve to be.

(Now see if you understand the prevalance of 'link-spamming' in the comments fields of blogs. Caught on yet? ... Good. Clever boy.)

9 times out of the 10, this is not a problem at all. We link to things that we think deserve to be shared, or agree with, or think explain a point better than we ever could. It stands to reason that such sites deserve to climb higher in the rankings of, for example, Google or Technorati. But then, how do you deal with sites you disagree with so strongly that you want to share your displeasure with your fellow readers? A "Warning, Here Be Dragons" kind of link. "Read At Your Peril", if you will? You want to share the link to save those you care for stumbling across it by accident - in much the same way I tell pretty much everyone I meet that The Da Vinci Code is a shockingly badly written book that I wouldn't recommend as toilet paper, to save them the pain of reading it. But, if your blog is popular, and people link to it, then slowly but surely this evil link you think is a pimple on the face of the Internet will rise in the rankings, till lo! It is high on the hit parade.

So that is an extreme example, but it could happen. Rather than napalming this site off the surface of the Web (denying it readers) you have conversely exploded its traffic beyond its creators wildest dreams.

Bummer.

There's not much you can do about this, apart from not linking to sites you don't like. A few clever people have been attempting to come up with alternative ranking systems, and ways of conveying inherent meaning with a link, and in a year or so I wouldn't be surprised if everything was different, but for now, we'll all just have to deal. From a personal blogging standpoint, the knowledge of this has skewed my linking style somewhat. I no longer (or very rarely) link to a post I disagree with. If I find myself linking to such a site, I try and link at least once to a site with a diametrically opposed viewpoint to balance everything out.

Now we've got our heads more or less around the idea that linking can have outcomes we never anticipated (or wanted), I would like to introduce the thought that perhaps there are times we shouldn't link. Yes, you heard me. There are times when it might not be appropriate to link. For this one I am going to be focusing more on the special case of blogs, but the general idea holds true for pretty much everything on the web.

Take a moment and think on what blogs are. Blogs are a special case in internet publishing in that they can be incredibly personal, often containing intensely held personal beliefs and opinions. Therefore, when you link to them, you are holding up a flashing neon sign saying "Look at this! Look at this!", and some people might not want their personal diaries gawped at by all you voyeurs out there. You could argue that, by publishing these opinions on the internet, the author is begging for it, but that argument gets you perilously close to JB's ongoing observations that, in Japan, apparently girls who wear short skirts are just asking to be raped.

Yes, I agree that by putting my opinions out there on the great wide Internet I am saying "this is what I believe, this is what I hold to be true, these are my views" and giving my implicit permission to anyone and everyone who cares to, to do what they want with those views (so long as they credit me). And who can deny the pleasure and mini-(sometimes midi- or even maxi-) ego boost you get when someone links back to our carefully crafted words and says "I like this, this makes sense, you are a clever and wonderful person". Sadly, the flip side of this is that for every nice thing said out there, there seems to be another ten nasty things being said.

Of the many instances I am aware of where in-links have not been as welcome by the linkee as the linker might have hoped, one springs to mind. One of the many blogs I have stumbled across over the past year is the blog of the divine Profgrrrrl, an academic blogger whose take on life I always enjoy (though I have yet to comment and tell her so. Yes, once again, do as I say not do as I do). Somehow or other she discovered that she had been linked to in a Wikipedia article that discussed the mini-phenomena of academic blogs. That is, blogs written by people in academia, but who only tangentially talk about their research, focusing more instead on their daily trials and tribulations. She wasn't overly enthused that she had been linked to (without her permission) from such a visible source as Wikipedia. This I can sort of understand. Whilst we all want readers, I guess being linked to from Wikipedia is a bit like jumping up and down on the roof of your local department store in your underpants screaming "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!!!!!" Sure, your readership will go through the roof, but a fair number of them might be the unsavoury nutjobs who would spoil the 'friend-circle' atmosphere of most personal blogs. Thanks to the beauty of wikis (ah, the blessed wiki) she (or someone else, I can't tell, damn culture of anonymity and never signing edits!) quickly edited the article so that another academic blogger was linked to as an exemplar. (What this other person had to say on the matter of being linked to I can't say.)

My point being, you may think that giving a link is a lovely gift (unless your aim is to be mean, and then shame on you), but the recipient of your link might not feel the same way. We do have a habit of getting disproportionately attached to our little domains on the web, and I can think of people who I wouldn't want to link to me. It is rather silly thinking that I can vet who has access to my blog, but I still find myself relying on this illusory sense of control to ausage my occasional jitters at how much of my daily life I find myself talking about on the web.

So, when should we link? Should we even be linking at all? That second is a silly question - of course we should link. I think you would be hard pushed to find more than a handful of oddballs who support the position that every web-document should be an island. Linking together is part of what makes us a community and, just in case you've been asleep whilst reading my posts this past year, I think community is great.

Personally I've started to practice what I like to think of as 'Karmic Blogging'. Blog unto others as you would be blogged to yourself. If I can't think of something nice to say, then I try to say nothing at all. If I can't find a happy link, then I don't link. ^*1*

When I do link, I make sure (to the best of my ability) that I link to the primary source, rather than a secondary summation of that source. If I was wearing my academic hat here, I would try to link to the original article/report/document, rather than some fellow academics spin on that article/report/document. If, for whatever reason, I do link to a secondary source (normally because they've added commentary I think is pertinent), then I try to make sure that the primary is still accessible, either through their post or through mine. Over time you come to find secondary sources who you trust and link to them more often. There's no sure fire way to find out who these people are - you just have to discover them for yourself. If a blog is part of a network (9rules is one that springs to mind ^*2*), you can be a bit more assured that the content you find there is trustworthy, but that is still not a hard and fast rule. Use the brains you were graced with, with a healthy dose of skepticism to help it all down.

Addressing the issue of whether people want to be linked to, just use common sense. Whilst you can't assume totally that, because they are on the internet they want to be linked to, the balance is probably leaning toward the "I want readers!" camp. If you think it's appropriate, provide a link, but be prepared to take down the link if you are asked. Asking before you link is just not practical, nor necessary for the average post. If you are linking to something incredibly personal, maybe take a moment to think, and if in doubt either ask, or refrain.

While the above holds true for personal blogs, if you are linking to someone with the mind that you are publishing for a wider audience, say in a newspaper article, it is common courtesy to inform people that they are being quoted. A little while back, the really rather lovely Danah talked about blogs and the mainstream media. Not only is the post partly responsible for setting me off thinking about linking again (and so could be considered part-parent to this mutant of a post), but as she says, it raises another question. How long are we to be held to task for our views? I am on the fence on this one. There are times that it is useful to see how one persons ideas have evolved. At the same time, I can think of instances when it is better just to let the past lie beaten in the dust. I would be mortified, and I know many fellow academics would also, if, for example, someone turned round and started quoting my undergraduate dissertation at me as an example of what I believe now. Yes, it reflects the opinions I held at the time I wrote it, but they are not the same opinions I hold today, and who knows what I will think in the future? Again, there is no hard and fast rule on how you should quote somebody's work, but if it is over a year old, please consider that they may have changed their mind by now and quote accordingly. "Cas thought..." rather than "Cas thinks..." Easy.

Oh, and don't misquote me. I will find out, hunt you down, and beat you with sticks of celery. Not fatal, I know, just unpleasant for you and therapeutic for me.

Do, please, always try and include a short intro/description/pointer with the link. Something might not offend you, but there are some rather sensitive bunnies out there, and it's only fair that you give people the chance NOT to click on something that might be offensive to them. Also flag up items that might require you to subscribe to a site to view them (certain newspapers, journals etc). If you can find an alternate (totally free and open) source, that would be even better.

And bear in mind the slightly dubious legal ground bloggers stand on with regard hyperlinking to illegal content. But that's not a worry for us, is it, because we are all good little boys and girls. Aren't we?

There endeth todays lesson on the ethics and practicalities of linking.

Now, because all of the above is just my opinion, feel free to disagree with me. That's why I have a comments field after all.

Endnotes:
^*1*This is a guideline not a rule. Sometimes I just can't help myself. Yes, I know, I'm a bad Buddhist. I kill bugs and eat meat as well.
^Back
^*2*One other network that will hopefully prove to be successful is the Wikablog. Still in its infancy (it's barely even crawling yet), I think it is a brilliant idea. A community of like(ish)-minded bloggers coming together and saying "This is my blog, and these are the blogs I like, and these are the reasons why". Though this does slightly fall foul of the whole linking to people without their permission issue, I think that the benefits might outweigh the drawbacks. We'll wait and see. If there's one thing I have learnt over this past year it is that you can never, ever, ever predict how a community will act, let alone whether you wiki will (a) be a success or (b) turn out how you wanted it to.
^Back
Technorati Tags:
links, ethics, blogging, ethics

i felt like poisoning a monk

2005-11-09T19:38:00.000Z

You do become something of a connoisseur of hold music, voice-recognition systems, and call centers in general when you move into a new property. Over the last two and a half months, (I am including the house-hunting time as well), I have been put on hold more times, and dealt with more voice recognition systems, than I can shake a moderately sized stick at.

Moose has managed to get out of having to do most of these calls. That's the price you pay for being home during the day and not having a full time job. I'm also willing to get pissy on the phone, and refuse to be fobbed off, which makes me the best person to deal with the sundry calls that need to be dealt with. Gas companies, electricity companies, water companies, letting agencies, television companies, insurance companies... the list seems endless, and with each call my respect for the brain power of the average call-centre worker diminishes. Another few calls like the ones I've had to deal with over the last couple of days and you'll need an electron microscope to see the level of respect I no longer have. I am friends with people who have worked/still work in call centers and they are very nice and intelligent people. I have, once or twice, had the pleasure of dealing with 'a customer service representative' who clearly has more than two brain cells to rub together.

Just, on the whole, I rarely seem to get to speak to these people. I get the people with speech impediments, the people who mumble, the people who talk too fast. I have some minor hearing problems and having to repeatedly ask someone to repeat themselves is just infuriating for the both of us. I get the people who clearly have trouble with the concept "one plus one equals two". I'm not saying I want to speak to someone who is a nuclear physicist in their spare time (they'd make awful call-center people anyway), but it would be nice if the person on the other end of the phone was capable of a basic level of coherent thought.

I have a personal rule to always (at least attempt to) be nice to call center staff. They have the power to make you very happy (or very very unhappy). When TNT managed to loose the laptop I'd ordered from Apple and I was trying to sort it all out, by the time it was over I was on first name terms with the girl from Apple. She was wonderful and helpful and did an amazing job, and I emailed the customer service people to tell them so. Yes, comments shouldn't always be for the bad stuff. Good service deserves recognition too. Just, you so rarely come across good service.

I doubt, as a career, few people go to their guidance councilor and say "I want to work in a call centre". But people do end up doing the job and they should do the best they can at it. Grrr.

(Rant almost over.)

I don't think I am calm enough yet to go into the horrors that is National Grid-Transco's voice-recognition system. Let me just say "ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" and leave it at that.

Please, please, please, if your company has a voice recognition system, or any other form of gate-keeper system, can you give it an escape hatch? The words "or press 3 to speak to a customer service representative" are some of the sweetest ten words in the English language. And if your gate-keeper has more than, say, three levels, please redesign it. Press one for this, then two for this, then one for this, then four for this, then... then it's Ms Hyde the poor call-center innocent has to deal with. Oh, and a voice recognition system should be able to store the information I tell it (address, name, problem etc) so that, when I finally DO get to speak to a human being, they can see what I've already spent ten minutes saying to a machine, and not make me say it all over again.

Humph. There endeth today's rant.

A few companies that stick in my mind:
British Gas' hold music, and gate-keeper system are not too infuriating. So prolonged exposure to the musak made my brain want to bleed out of my ears, but that's standard across the board. The three people I ended up speaking to this week all seemed on the ball and did a pretty good job.

National Grid/Transco, on the other hand, made me burst into tears once I'd finished speaking to them. Ok, they're not totally to blame, but they didn't help. Their voice recognition gate-keeper is one of the worst I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. It didn't understand my accent, and I have a pretty vanilla basic British accent with little regionality to it. It didn't save my responses so I had to repeat EVERYTHING to the human being I finally spoke to. And it had no escape hatch so, when I had to keep calling them back, I had to go through the ENTIRE rigmarole another two times. Not only annoying, but expensive, seeing as how it was my phone bill. The first two people I spoke to weren't too hot, but the third today was ok.

Apple Customer Service. When you finally get through to them your will to live hasn't been too sapped by their hold music (unless you ring over the holidays - there's only so many times you can here 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' before you are ready to commit homicide). The staff know what they're talking about, are helpful, and (most importantly) have individual lines that they are WILLING to give out to people with more indepth problems, so you can be sure you speak to the same person when you ring back. This, trust me, saves a whole lot of hassle.

TNT. I won't go into detail about TNT. Just trust me when I say their customer service is appalling, their staff must be sourced from another planet for all the sense they make, and they have a distressing habit of 'misplacing' expensive items of equipment. The last three things I have had carried by TNT have all gone astray at least twice.

Ok, normal service resumed. Cas has successfully vented her frustration and is, whilst still a bit down, no longer so pissed off she wants to rend fluffy bunnie-wunnies limb from limb.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, British Gas, Transco,TNT

i was going to capture a geisha but they're damn nippy buggers

2005-11-07T15:36:00.000Z

Have you ever had to sum up what you feel your greatest achievement has been? In 200 words? That isn't your degree? If you have, then you might have some comprehension of why I used todays smilie. If you haven't, then you are very lucky.

Why can't I talk about my degree? Well, because the chappy from the recruitment bureau told me I was not to. The job I am applying for (which will never come off, so this is the last I will be mentioning it) is a graduate postion, hence everyone applying will be a graduate, so your degree doesn't really set you apart. That makes a kind of sense.

At the same time, my degrees (undergrad and the current post-grad) are the two things I am most proud of in my life. Finishing Liverpool was no picnic, what with one thing and the other, and the day I graduated was by far the greatest moment of my life bar none. There were times I really didn't think I would make it, so to be up on that stage, shaking the hand of a man I had never met before, whilst wearing a silly hat and a gown that made me look like a dumpy-arsed penguin, was something special to me. As for this year? Again, not exactly a cake-walk, though for different reasons.

I want to be able to say that the thesis I am currently writing is my greatest achievement (because I truly believe that it is), but I am not allowed to. What else can I talk about? That I was head of machine sales at Whittard of Chelsea is hardly going to cut it. I also don't think talking about this blog thingy I started back in April that has gained me a few new random internet acquaintances is quite what they are looking for. (Though I am proud of both those things too).

So, in order to give me a few ideas, I need you, my wonderful blog minions, to tell me what your greatest achievement has been.

Whilst you are thinking of that, have some pictures I found lurking on the mobile (click for bigger peeps).

The quilt I made for Brother Dearest and his SO for their joint birthdays.

How many post-grads does it take to program a phone? And I still can't work the damn thing!

Sunday Roast: a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled

2005-11-06T17:26:00.000Z

Taking into consideration the (one, thank you JB) input I had about the new-format Sunday Roasts, here are my favourites from the past week. The del.icio.us tag 'sundayroast' is still very much up and running, so do subscribe to that as well, just to make sure you don't miss anything.

Starters:
Japan photoset on Flickr. Flickr really does provide you with some visual treats sometimes.

Around China photoset on Flickr. Again, Flickr showing its wonderfulness.

Streetcards - Gaping Void. So hard not to just order a pack of these right now.

mamamusings: isowantone. This is linked to the next item and contains the story behind how it came into being.
I So Want One! Got that tween in your life who you just can't think of the right present for? Everyone dreads that blank "thank you so much auntie cas, i've always wanted socks for christmas' look you get when you've picked up something SO not cool. Well, this here might be the solution to all our problems. A blog written by an 11 year old, reviewing the toys that HE would want. An no, I wouldn't have linked unless I thought it was a great idea and well executed. Kudos. Go, support the next generation :)

Barcode Art. Some of his portraits are mindbending. You'll never look at the humble barcode in the same way again.

Guide to writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

Dr Who - animated series. From the BBC so they're all official like. Got one written by Douglas Adams. I really wish I hadn't found these - more blooming distractions!

Main Course:
Wikablog Home Page. I was tempted, mainly because it links two of my current favourite topics (blogs and wikis), but also because I think it is valid. Or not. What does it have that makes it stand out from all the other blog-listing things out there, other than that anyone can add blogs or change the description of blogs. In that sense, I like. Sharing what you know is good is always... good. At the same time, what if someone added you and you didn't want to be added? There is no 'delete' mechanism. Wait and see. It is young yet. Needs a critical mass of people to make it work I think. I also think that there should be more expressed personality on the wiki. Just talking out loud here, but do think that on their homepages, people should put "and these are the blogs that I think are rather snazzy..." Get a community going. Hmmmm... *wombles off to have a quiet muse*
Five days later, I'm liking it, not only because it is (still) a wiki, but because it introduced me to the Scary Duck. Read the first post and laughed so much I sprayed Cookie Crunch all over the desk.

Wikipedia hardcopy for the developing world. Wikipedia in print... Does seem to detract some from the whole point of the site, but hey - if it is for developing nations. Only, there will be some kind of vetting of the articles used, won't there? WE all know not to trust 100% what wikipedia says, but the thought of Wikipedia being the only/main source of information is a little scary. And I like wikis!

Jimmy Wales talking at SIMS about Wikipedia. Hear the founder in his own words. The file is large, but worth the download. I am not totally sold on everything he has to say, but it really is a treat to hear him.

JB's nanowrimo2005 blog. Go, read, support. I will be doing just that once the Beast is fully tamed and handed in.

Megatrain.com. For London/So'ton/Portsmouth people, this is great. You can get to London on the train for £1. Yes, that's right, £1.

apophenia: growing up in a culture of fear: from Columbine to banning of MySpace. More thought provoking goodness from Danah.
For American youths, life is an open book, via blogs - Technology - International Herald Tribune. A good counterpoint to Danah's previous words.

Sleep - An Insight. I get grumpy if I don't get my full 8 hours (and with the CC on lates, I am currently only getting 7, hence Cas = a bit snarky right now). This is a Nature (the journal) special all about sleep. Some pretty interesting facts actually.

An open letter to Disney Store UK. *Is nodding head in agreement with all said*

Blogger - turning on comment moderationTurning on the word verification has stopped 99% of my blog-spam, but a higher volume site might find this useful.

Afters:
Heated USB gloves. Tried to think of some snappy caption for this, and I really can't think of anything to do them justice. I really am speechless,. I can make note only of my speechlessness.

Pastor electrocuted during baptism. This is just too bizarre NOT to be included in the Roast. Especially considering I just typoed it as 'baTpism". No idea what batpism is, but it must be dangerous...

Edible toaster. Why?

Walk like an Egyptian zombie thing... More zombie goodness, this time courtesy of Mata.

Designer creates wall of breasts. I couldn't decide if this was worthy of serving in the Roast, or leaving for Leftovers. But the sheer glee in the CC's eyes when he saw the headline told me it had to be main meal material. Actually, the reasoning behind the design is a good idea.

And for the best of the rest, go to del.icio.us tag 'leftovers'.

Also, for more on both sides of the whole Google Print/online book debacle, keep an eye on del.icio.us tag 'onlinebooks', which is the tag under which I will be stashing stuff relating to that topic.

i am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it

2005-11-03T17:07:00.000Z

(I was going to serve this up as part of the Sunday Roast, but as I got typing I realised I had more that I wanted to say than could be fitted in a snappy two line summary. This is a topic I felt was deserving of its own post.)

Google Print gets going.

There has been a lot of kurfuffle lately about Googles plan to digitize every piece of information on the face of the planet and make it searchable, with a lot of good arguments presented on both sides of the debate. There has also been a load of complete dross spouted by proponents of both camps.

I figured it was about time I made my position clear.

I love reading. Nothing will ever persuade me that curling up in bed with a cup of tea and a good (print version) book isn't one of the most pleasurable experiences known to mankind. Curling up with the laptop and an e-book just isn't the same - eyestrain aside, there is the constant worry that I'll spill the cup of tea, as I have been known to do on occasion. Books and bedsheets dry out. £2000 laptops tend not to. I find it hard to ever think of a time when I won't want to be surrounded by books, if for no other reason than access to my entire library should not depend on remembering to charge my laptop battery. Nor, computer-saints preserve us, will it all be wiped out when (not if, when) my hard drive explodes. Barring fires and certain other natural disasters, my physical library should survive, and you can be pretty sure that a computer wouldn't survive such events either. It is very telling that you can still read books written before the invention of the printing press, but frequently run into problems with media only a few years old if it is in the wrong format.

All of which might lead you to think that I am averse to the idea of digitising books.

You would be wrong. I think knowledge should be shared and, especially with more obscure texts, the average person simply doesn't have access to a physical copy. My current research would have been impossible if I had had to rely on inter-library-loaning every single obscure journal article, instead of logging onto JStor or Google Scholar. The number of times I have read a print-article and gone 'oh, if only I could search within the text for this one word...' As a matter of fact my entire current thesis is based on the idea of open access to information. And Google Print isn't really about reading novels online. It is far better suited to the person in search of information. Where is this quote from? Who wrote that? What were the findings of the 1936 Glastonbury Historical Society? ^*1*

I can see why there are some rumblings of discontent in the publishing industry - this is just one more in a long line of nails in the coffin of the conventional publication model ^*2*. As it stands, publishing houses pay authors a sum for the rights to their work, they publish it, charge people to buy copies, and (hopefully) get a profit. The mechanisms currently out there for publishers to get their money back when things are published/accessible online are clunky, often obtrusive, and wholly over-reliant on software/hardware dependent solutions that almost certainly won't work in a year or so.

It is understandable why the thought of free access to the content of their books sends these people into a tailspin, but at the same time, just think on the benefits. Number one being FREE advertising for the work. Equate it to people dipping into the book in the bookstore to decide if they like it before they purchase it, because that is what most people are going to use it for. Finding information, trying it on for size, before committing to a fairly non-trivial purchase. It is one of the more galling features of modern life when you buy a text book online and get it delivered only to find that the one thing you needed it for is 1) not mentioned in the book or 2) only mentioned once or 3) completely and utterly wrong (all of which has happened to me more than once).

Publishers don't charge people to get books out of the local library which, you have to agree, is one of the major attractions of the local lending library in this day and age. Is what Google Print trying to do really so very different?

I am grossly over simplifying, and gleefully ignoring copyright, and many other issues, which will keep legions of lawyers for both sides very happy for a very long time. At its simplest, the publishing houses are fighting tooth and nail for their very existence.

Rather than fighting, they might be better served accepting this new way of doing things, and evolving into something new that makes the most of the brave new world. The Internet, online access, and the drive for transparent access to information aren't going to go away any time soon. I am not sold on the idea that Google are the best people to be in charge of this. They have shown a few tendencies which indicate they are not as appreciative of the whole 'transparent data' idea as they claim to be. But it is being done, right here and right now, and hiding heads like so many ostriches really isn't the solution, nor is trying to freeze progress in its tracks.

A phrase I really hate does spring to mind right now - you can't make an omlette without cracking some eggs. They said that VHS would kill the movie industry. Hollywood seems to have done alright. Give Google Print a chance. Or, better yet, start your own programs. Just because Google have decided to do it this way, doesn't mean it's the right way.

Endnotes:
^*1*I've had to track down that last piece of information before, and it took me about a week, searching through ten different libraries, to find something that might have taken five minutes if the data had been online, not in a water-damaged box in the basement of the GHS' HQ which hadn't actually been catalogued. I only actually found the data because of a chance phone conversation with the chap who cleaned the office. Long story.^Back
^*2*Oooh, there's some gloriously mixed metaphors!^Back
Technorati Tags:
Google Print, publishing

when a man is wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he is in no position to run

2005-11-01T17:34:00.000Z

Mata, this morning, flagged a new service, Pandora, as one that is worth a play. It's a streaming radio-player with a difference - you put in a band/track you like, and it will automatically create playlists for you based on that. The people behind it have done it a little differently though. Rather than rely on genres, each individual song is analysed, catalogued, and the selections are based on things like influences, the key the music is in, the beat, vocal harmony, instruments used, and all sorts of other stuff I have no idea about.

I was dubious, I will admit it, but I couldn't decide on what to listen to whilst I beat my head against 'Electronic Publication', so I fired up Pandora and decided to make the most of their 10 hour free trial.

I plugged in "Matchbox Twenty", ^*1* and, skeptically, settled back to see what was presented for my listening pleasure.

I have to say, I've been listening to Pandora for most of the day, trying it out, and at most it throws up something I don't like every ten or so tracks that I do like. And when that happens, you just tell them 'I don't like this', and your preferences get adjusted accordingly. About every third or fourth track, I adore, and I've added two new bands to my "must by their album when I have disposable income" list.

The implementation is spot on, the service has skipped just twice in the entire time I've been listening, unlike many other Internet radio stations, and I am seriously tempted to pay the subscription fee.

If I have a niggle, it is that even the 'small' version of the player is fairly hefty when you only have a 12 inch screen, and it requires pop-ups to be enabled. You don't realise how many pop-ups are out there till you've forgotten you'd turned the blocking off. But that's one niggle and there's no law that says I can't just leave the full version running in another tab, or minimize that one window. Maybe a nice little standalone app could be made at somepoint, though that does defeat the portability of such a sweetly coded in-browser flash application.

This, ladies and gentle-beans is what Flash should be used for, not for infuriating headers/display elements/flash-only sites that take an age to load and do nothing that standard HTML couldn't have done for a fraction of the overhead and annoyance value... ^*2*

The nicely integrated 'buy this at amazon or iTunes' links are remarkably tempting, but I must practice my willpower, damnit!

So what has Pandora taught me today? Well, it turns out I seem to like music that features:
electric rock instrumentation
country influences
mild rhythmic syncopation
a subtle use of vocal harmony
major key tonality
With the occasional side order of:
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
acoustic rhythm guitars

They do say that, whilst your musical taste changes over time, certain forms and arrangements of music will always be your favourite. You're just wired a certain way. Whatever kinked me along the road, I do seem to favour middle of the road lyrical light rock. With male vocalists. I can't think of one track it's given me today that had a female singer. Huh.

I do know why I am in a major beat today - I feel all down, and just the thought of listening to stuff in a sobbing minor key is enough to have me bursting into tears.

I wonder what will happen when I ask it to play me stuff related to Sweet (some good old fashioned glam rock, and the first band I ever remember actively liking. I wore the casette tape out I listened to it so much when I was younger) and

Oh.

My.

God.

Sweet also it turns out have mild rhythmic syncopation, major key tonality, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, electric guitar riffs, and vocal harmonies.

So I know who is to blame for my musical taste now. My father.
Damn him playing T-Rex, Sweet, and Queen at full volume every time we went on a car journey.

Just goes to show, you never know what is going to scar your kids for life.

*UPDATE - 11th November 2005*
It is now possible to use Pandora without paying, as they have introduced an add-supported version. Currently this is only licensed for the States, so you need to plug in a US zip code to show where you live. I am a law-abiding citizen so I will refrain from pointing out the obvious holes in this system. Fingers crossed for international licensing soon!

Endnotes:
^*1*A band whose babies I have wanted to have since I first heard 'Rest Stop' in Torks' car on the way back from the cinema in Taunton, July 2001^Back
^*2*Don't get me started on my Flash rant, please, life really is too short.^Back
Technorati Tags:
Pandora, Matazone

remember when we used to use real citizens?

2005-10-31T22:54:00.000Z

Ok, I'm not sure why I decided to do this, other than that Moose ambushed me with it late at night when I had spent most of the day writing a chapter entitled 'The Theories Behind Electronic Publication' . ^*1*

Racing Frogs.

Yes, you heard me, Racing Frogs. You create a frog, feed it, train it, be nice to it, and then at night it goes off and races other frogs. It will (apparently) be sending me an email every morning after a race, telling me how it went. I am sure as our relationship develops my frog will soon be letting me in on all the juicy gossip from the after-race parties, and asking my advice on this cute boy-frog from the next pond over...

I think it goes without saying that this is done on the Internet.

So, I started a frog, and will keep you updated on her progress. I thought it might be something nice that we can all do together, me and my blog minions...

Name: Lara Croak
Sex: Female
Pond: Stumpy Creek
CURRENT STATS:
Age: Young Hopper (3 days)
Grade: 1
Potential: 17.67
Todays form: 6 - feeling fine today
Fitness: 253
(Speed - 121
Strength - 62
Stamina - 24
Hopping - 46)
Contentment: 160
Owns: 2 items
(Pogo stick,
Anti Pike Transmitter)
Diet: standard
Medals: none

Go, get your own frog here, make sure they join the Stump Creek Pond, and our frogs can race.

Endnotes:
^*1*Yes, as boring as it sounds.^Back
Technorati Tags:
Racing Frogs

Sunday Roast: beta means never having to say you're sorry

2005-10-30T13:29:00.000Z

As mentioned in my previous post, the Sunday Roast is getting a new format.

Each Sunday, I will post a link to the appropriate del.icio.us page. You can then browse through the links at your hearts content. You can also subscribe to the sundayroast RSS feed (linked to in the sidebar), which will let you have each new item as I add it.

I am investigating methods of getting just that weeks items to show, but for now, each week keep going till you see something familiar. I will indicate roughly how many I've added that week so you can adjust the 'view items' appropriately. I might end up re-tagging old sundayroast items with a new tag 'leftovers' at the end of the week as a pointer, but who knows. Also, each 'Sunday Roast' post will have just that starting the title, so when you scroll through archives (who knows, the urge might take you) you can find them easily.

This week there are 45 items. Isn't social computing fun?

Feedback please!

on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

2005-10-30T12:51:00.000Z

I have been playing around with some new toys in the past few days, the first being Kaboodle. It's a kind of bookmarking/comparison site designed to make it easy to compare things from lots of different webpages in one place. Read the blub, have a play, see what you think. I have a policy that I try and wait till something has crossed my radar three times, or been used/mentioned by someone I really respect before I have a play. As Kaboodle fell into both catagories, I thought I had to give it a go.

I set up two pages (Sunday Roast and Must See Movies) before I started to get annoyed with the interface, the inability to search, the slowness, and other niggles. Also, I started to see problems regarding the weekly nature of the Sunday Roast and...

In the end I decided who was I kidding, and dusted off the old del.icio.us account. So, now for the Sunday Roast, all you have to do is go to http://del.icio.us/brightmeadow/sundayroast to see all the things I have tagged 'sundayroast'. I will be adding throughout the week so hopefully, if you check throughout the week, it won't be so overwhelming! There is an RSS feed, a link to which is also to be found in the 'meta' section of the Sidebar. I do recommend subscribing to it, because then you get them as and when I add them, one or two at a time.

There is a second tag I am going to be using a fair bit - 'moviemust'. (http://del.icio.us/brightmeadow/moviemust), which also has its own RSS feed, which will again be put in the Sidebar. This is, as you might have guessed, a way of keeping track of the movies I want to see. This will mainly be based on the trailers. When (if) I see a give film, I will update its entry to reflect my opinion of it. Maybe.

This is all very new and I am just playing mainly, so I need feedback to tell me if you think it works or not.

I have a new section in the sidebar: Blog Stalking. In there you will find my latest attempt at displaying graphically where y'all come from. I am a nosy little so and so. Hopefully in the next day or so, the pretty graphic map will start to display where my visits have come from. If you want something a bit more personal, go to the Frappr Map and add yourself. I am not sure how long either feature is going to last - mainly it depends on how bored I remain, but also I expect, in a week or so, I am going to look like a Billy No Mates, so will take both down.

Till then, enjoy.

I will leave you with part of a meme I nabbed from Liz. Type 'yourname needs' into google and see what comes back at you. You're meant to take the first ten results, but mine were boring. CAS is apparently some really dull acronymn. Claire, on the other hand needs, according to results two, three and four to:
* sheer all my sheep
* visit the bunny planet
* get the best therapy possible

i have a rock garden. last week three of them died

2005-10-29T13:09:00.000+01:00

I think I have mentioned once or twice my appauling record when it comes to keeping plants alive. tSPFKAG , the Chives and two of the Basils still going in strong, which does surprise me. The Basils might be explained by now being in a monster pot with lots of other basils on the living room window sill here at Meadow Towers. Everything else I have ever tried to grow = dead.

Which is why I think I just did something very silly indeed. I was in Morrisons today (local supermarket), and they had this poor dejected mystery plant on sale for £2. It looked near dead, and I felt so sorry for it, that I purchased it, brought it home, repotted it, and plan to give it some TLC for whatever remains of its natural life.

There is one problem (other than the fact plants look at me and die), and it is this: I have no idea what sort of plant it is. So I am putting out a call to you, my blog minions, in the hope that at least one of you is more green fingered than myself. Type of plant, and care instructions please!

Click for clearer picture.

He also needs a name. It's currently being called 'the Fuggly Plant', a name I object to for many reasons, not including its Warriors connotations and the fact that I find the poor thing rather attractive, in a sad puppy-dog kind of way.

if you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day

2005-10-28T11:54:00.000+01:00

(I meant to blog this weeks ago, but hadn't got around to it what with work, no network, being lazy, an all. So cast your minds back a few weeks to when I went back to the Homestead to pick up the Sofa ^*1*. This is the tale of part of that journey...)

Truly, you live in the deepest, darkest countryside when the train you take to get home is one carriage long. And I don't mean by that one carriage connected to the train proper. I mean one carriage. The bit that makes it move is actually part of the thing. It's tiny! I felt like such a fool waiting for it to pull out of the station the other week - like the driver had forgotten the rest of the train or something.

All around us were these trains longer than the platform going to exotic locations like London, Birmingham, Bristol, and there was me in a Hornby toy on platform 3b going to Westbury. For we didn't even rate an entire platform to ourselves - we had to share the arse end of platform 3 with the 1115 to London Euston.

Truly, the Romance of Train Travel is dead.

Photographic evidence taken at great risk to life and limb (the guard was eyeing me suspiciously as I took them. Perhaps he thought I was a terrorist planning my next attack. Either that, or he was admiring my shiny new boots.) ^*2* As always, click to be taken to Flickr to see them full size with notes, and to comment and the like.

My silly short train. With no working toilet, I might add.

Part of the shiny long train (I couldn't get far enough back to get it all in frame). I bet it had several working toilets.

Endnotes:
^*1*Ok, turns out I never blogged about going home for the sofa. So just to quickly fill you in - I had a sofa in storage back at the Homestead, we needed a sofa in the flat and are skint, so I went home to pick up the sofa. The Crazy Canalman was an angel and drove me (and it) back here to Meadow Towers. End of story.^Back
^*2*If there are any censors reading this, I would just like to make clear that I am not a terrorist. Though apparently I look like one - every time I fly I get patted down by airport security. Once I was very nearly strip-searched. Again, that might be down to said security officers finding me hot, but somehow I doubt that's the case.^Back

a little tough love is what these people need

2005-10-28T11:30:00.000+01:00

Power to the people!
A little while back I blogged about how the RSS feed for the New York Times movie reviews lacked a title telling you what the movie being reviewed was.

And what to I get greeted with when I open up Vienna this morning? RSS feeds from the NYT with the movie title in the headline! Look, I have a screenshot to prove it!

Now, I am not saying that I am single handedly responsible for this change, but I like to think that my input might have shifted the scales ever so slightly. If you have a problem with something, it really is worth telling the people involved about it. Especially in this day and age of e-mail and faceless communication. The worst that can happen is they ignore you or send a nasty e-mail back. But who knows? You might end up marginally influencing a major publishing house to change their format.

Today is going to be a good day, I can tell.

all the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed

2005-10-24T18:16:00.000+01:00

Oooch (as certain Scottish relatives would say) I have been neglecting you something wrotten lately, haven't I? Leaving you without even the comfort of the Sunday Roast. I was all set and then... didn't get around to it.

Before I leave you alone with the best of the rest, I would just like to go :O at the rapid uptake of RSS among bloggers out there. There's some research which I won't go into now which sets the figure at only 12% of Internet users having heard of RSS and only 4% knowingly use it (though around 27% use RSS without knowing what the frell it is). Whatever the figure, in the last few months the list of people who are classed as 'non-RSS' in my bookmarks has rapidly gone down from 50 to four. Yes, four. I won't name-and-shame them (yet). I was just rather impressed by the rapid level of uptake of RSS. Then again, I have a feeling that blogger (and other platforms) now have RSS turned on as standard, and most people aren't even aware of what this RSS malarky is. Still, I'm not complaining - it lets me know when a given blog has new content, and often means I don't have to leave my aggregator to view that content, which was great when I was in dial-up/non-wireless internet hell up till the other day.

Whilst I leave you thinking about that, have at the following as well:

Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary

Christian children's colouring book from 1954. Way to teach inclusion and acceptance!

* Dr Atomic opera. A nuclear bomb themed opera... odd, but apparently really rather good.

40 Year Old Penguin Exorcism...

Tit Bits.

Distraction. I hear what the man says!

Zombie Worms. For the CC, the man who can get the phrase 'real zombies' and 'real vampires' into the conversation.

* David Pogue's iPod Video review. The man acutally walked into a steel girder during the review! LOL!

Paltrow bemoans life in Britain. If life in Britain is so bad, why does she live here?

Pittsburgh unprepared for full-scale zombie attack. From Minion Moose.

US Chicken in jaywalking fine. Only in the States.

Flock. Not used it yet - really should be doing things other than playing with new toys, but when the thesis is over, I will behaving a look.

The Family Stone trailer. I don't know why, but I want to see this film.

Propellerhead. For all you Windows people out there, this man has some VERY good tips and tricks.

Disposable Scrabble Game. Because you never know when the urge to play Scrabble will strike.

All Your Base Rhapsody. So, so, sooooo very funny!

Guiness Evolution ad. You know what? This isn't even a thing over here. We don't care.

i'm lost, i'm angry, and i'm armed

2005-10-22T11:45:00.000+01:00

Why has Saturday become the default day to do DIY? ^*1*
Damnit!
Don't they know I have a thesis to write!
Grrr.
So inconsiderate.
Evil neighbours drilling something.
Noisily.
Right outside my window.
Grrrrrrr.

Endnotes:
^*1*I know why this is the case. The question was rhetorical. Grrr.^Back
^*2*Yes, I am in a bad mood this morning.

his bungee has lost its bounce

2005-10-21T15:35:00.000+01:00

It's been a month since we moved into Meadow Towers and with every passing day it feels more and more like 'home'. I hadn't realised quite how settled I felt here till the other week, when I came back from the hospital, and just felt... at home. That's the only way I can describe it.

I really can't emphasize enough the importance to me of having my own space. Sheer bliss. We have pretty much all the furniture in place now - just waiting on a table on which to put the TV (and dvd, video, and freeview box) and we're done! My room is now 95% complete with the addition of the last set of bookshelves; it's just waiting on me to sort out the under bed storage and I will be totally done. Till I decide to rearrange the furniture that is. Moose is taking a little longer to get everything sorted out, but she's getting there. It's amazing how the immanent arrival of visitors from Armenia can suddenly focus your activities on finally getting fully unpacked!

There is now wireless broadband in the flat, so I can surf wherever the mood takes me - even in the bath! (if, you know, my laptop wasn't worth so much money). It was surprisingly difficult to get the router configured properly. Broadband companies are missing out on a trick there - Tiscali said they're perfectly happy for the service to be on a network (one of the reasons we chose them), but that they wouldn't give any technical support to get it set up.

Who, seriously, in this day an age, would be content with just one USB DSL modem? If you're getting broadband, the chances are there is going to be more than one computer in the family = arguments = the need for a router. In my own family, come Christmas when we all congregate down at the Homestead, there are four computers, all of which their owners are highly desirous of connecting to the Internet. Not just desirous, in fact, need to connect.

As for getting the thing to go wireless... The XP platform has been out for a while now. You'd think the manufacturers of a router/gateway would be capable of making it plug-and-play... Then again, it did only cost £50 from Tesco's, so I suppose I shouldn't grumble too much. Just don't get me (or Moose) started on the instructions being on a CD-ROM, with the first instruction being 'make sure everything is totally turned off, then connect it all, and then start up the computer'. Poor Moose's laptop - it's not a happy bunny at the moment anyway, and it didn't know what had hit it when we were trying to get it all working. I lost count of the number of times it had to be restarted.

But it's all working now. If there are any broadband companies out there listening, why don't you set up a package that comes with a nice router included, or at least include customer support so when we're trying to get your settings (fiendishly hard to find in the first place) into a third party router that does things in a completely different fashion, we don't want to burst into tears? ^*1*

This wasn't meant to be a rant about the trials and tribulations of getting the flat all connected, but hey! I had fun either way. In other news, in the last couple of weeks I have seen:

Cinderella Man - the non-boxing bits were really rather good. The boxing bits had me hiding behind the CC. I really don't like violence, and it was... graphically shot. Much better than the American buzz had lead me to belive.
Four penguins, though I won't be getting it on DVD as I really did not like being forced to watch two men beat each other into bloody pulps.

Land of the Dead - actually less gruesome than Cinderella Man! Just one intestine shot that had me averting my gaze. I enjoyed it. Wouldn't want to see it again, but glad I saw it.
Three penguins.

Serenity. Oh. My God. You have to see this film, even if you aren't a fan of the Firefly series (and if you aren't a fan of the series, what's wrong with you?). The first half seemed like an extended TV episode (no real focus), but still Whedon at his best. The second half though, as soon as they had their 'mission'... Spine tinglingly good! Funny, scary, moving. I am not ashamed to admit that the ending had me sniffing and holding back tears. My one niggle? Whedon crumbled under studio pressure and had sound in space. In the series, when things explode in space, you get no sound other than the music soundtrack (as, you know, the laws of physics dicate!), which is perfect. The composer knew his stuff and the music implied things going 'Kaboom! Kablooey!' just perfectly. But in the big space battle, things were going Kaboom! Kablooey! all over the place. Grrr.
Four and a half penguins. It just missed on the five penguins, mainly due to the lack of tightness in direction and the slightly soggy first half. Go and watch it. Now. Then get the series out on DVD and watch that again. Tell your friends to go and see the film - we want it to be enough of a success that Whedon gets to make 2 and 3 in the trilogy he has planned.

Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit - sheer genius. So very, very funny. Worthy of an oscar. You know those annoying people at the back of the cinema who just keep laughing out loud? That was me and Moose. I just couldn't help it - so funny! And I want one of the little bunny rabbits. Worth going to see if only to see the short before the film starts, featuring the Madagascar Penguins... I haven't laughed so much in one cinema outing since I don't know when. I want to give this one five penguins, but something is holding me back. Not quite sure what it is, but, nope.
Four and a half penguins.

I doubt many of you will have noticed a new addition, tucked in down the bottom of the sidebar, but I love it. Click on the link to see a map of where the last twenty visitors for the blog came from. Had someone from Alaska this morning!

Oh, before I forget - you have to ask Moose about Rabbit Surfing. Trust me. Funny. Just wish there was pictographic evidence to share.

Endnotes:
^*1*Yes, just occasionally I feel the need to act a bit girly about things. It was very stressful trying to get the damn thing to work! Took two rather intelligent people two days!^Back
^*2*Ok, you can stop laughing at me now.

i can't understand it. i can't even understand the people who can understand it

2005-10-16T11:55:00.000+01:00

Hola! Buen dia.

I know things have been quiet on the blog-front lately. Sorry. This isn't going to be changing any time soon either, I don't think. The will to blog has just temporarily left me. But I couldn't leave you all with nothing to read, so here's the traditional. Happy Sunday morning to you all.

Waffle Making Robot. Remember that story the other week about how we need more useful robots here in the EU? Is this the kind of thing they were talking about?

READYWHENUR. A remote controlled kettle?! I am at a loss for words.

Oddballz phone charms. Inordinately cute and I want one out of all proportion to their usefulness. I am such a girl sometimes.

Oldest noodle. I am an archaeologist after all!

Armoured Buddhist Monks. If that doesn't get you wanting to read the story, nothing I write here will do the trick either.

Dawn Of The Dead take 2. LIttle knitted zombies and victims... Funny.

Blind group told to leave plane. Definitely NOT a funny story.

Digtial filmmaking and the paradox of choice. The truth about the film industry from the man who, among other films, wrote the screenplay for Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Big Fish.

Catholic journal condemns boxing. It's not often I agree with the Catholic church, but with this one they are right on the money as far as I am concerned. The CC, on the other hand, loves boxing, and thinks I am barking mad for finding it a bloody, brutal, and incomprehensible past time that shouldn't be dignified with the name 'sport'.

Halloween Monster Wreath. Now this I have to make!

Art Flip Clock. If I do have to wake up in the morning, my prefered method is still to make sure there is someone else waking me up armed with a freshly made cup of tea, but this is one alarm clock I might not mind waking up to if I had to.

you're mad. that's what they said about jesus. they also say it about a lot of mad people

2005-10-09T20:32:00.000+01:00

We have broadband in the house! Still not totally happy, because it requires sitting on the floor with the laptop on a box in the lounge (one modem, two users, no phone socket in my room = awkwardness till we can get a router), but much better than the alternative of going to the library or the lab to check email and stuff.

Anyway, some late-night linkage. (Late night as in time that I posted it, not content. Dirty minded people. Tut tut.)

Intelligent Design fun:
Flying Spaghetti Monster Broach.
Science and Religion can coexist.

Things that have made Cas' geek-senses tingle:
www.ning.com. Not had a chance for a proper play, but looks fun.
synchroedit.com. Ditto this. Fun?
www.writeboard.com. And again, geek-Cas-fun.
Wikipedians write for Esquire.
LibraryThing.
Governance, Scaling and Anonymity in Wikipedia.
Top 10 Web Design mistakes.
* A Grammar Note to Web Writers. (Yes, I am aware that this is a case of do as I say, not do as I do).

Just general sillyness and things that made me go huh?:
Europe needs more robots.
Proposed Indian law would make the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit criminals.
School goes 'totally' digital. Half of me is going 'yay! I want to go to school here', the other half of me is going 'um... this is wrong'.

Things that made me go grrrrrrrrrrrr:
SMS Bible - OK, I'm not Christian, and the thought of txt-speek bible verses is insulting me. Then again, I might just be being over sensitive.
Attack of the NYT. A few months back, the NYT announced their stupid plan to make people subscribe to some of their columns (how mid 1990's). I wasn't expecting much of a problem, because it seemed to effect columns I didn't read much. Then I try to view some articles on the IHT today, and what happens? I get greeted with the linked screen (screenshot later if I can be bothered). Irritating. Very very irritating.

That's it.

nice to meet you, even though you are my least favourite type of vegetable

2005-10-09T18:29:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to blog this for ages now since it was sent to me, but... neh.

Better late than never, take a look-see at what one of my internet minions (JB) has found: So You Wanna Build A Rocket?.

He also found this which has earned him my undying devotion (at least until tomorrow morning when something else that amuses me more comes along).

I do like having minions.

If anyone else would like to be a minion, all you have to do is find a funny or something news-worthy, or just generally odd that you think deserves to be on the blog, and email me the link. My contact details can be found somewhere on the blog (consider it a challenge: if you can't find the email address, you aren't worthy of being a minion).

Spooky's Minion contribution - Penguin Jokes.

DISCLAIMER:
Being a minion grants you no rights what so ever.
Be emailing a link you are giving permission for the blog-owner (ie me, Cas), to mock you and your choice of links mercilessly , or not, as the mood takes me.
By emailing a link you automatically agreeing to become a minion. There is no esacpe.
Once a minion, always a minion. Mwhahaha.

laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired

2005-10-02T16:06:00.000+01:00

Got a date for the broadband installation - 14th of October. Quite what can take them two and a half weeks I am not sure, but that is how long it takes, so that is how long I am going to have to wait.

Thanks to the glory of wifi and RSS though, I can bring you (almost) normal service. The following are the articles/headlines that caught my eye in Vienna this week enough to mark them. I can't vouch for the content of some of them (mainly the news articles, and a few evil blogs that limit their feeds) but *shrug* have fun either way. One or two of these I have linked to mainly so I have a quick way of getting the links when I am in the lab on Monday, but there are a few goodies buried in there as well. Have I ever let you down before? (Don't answer that.)

As always, a * by the link means it requires some form of free login to view it.

Internet users say debate over control misses point (IHT).

Ross Mayfield's links for 01-10-2005. Wikipedia eats Google. Posted this one mainly for me and last minute research, but also as another warning to y'all that just because it's the first hit in Google, doesn't mean it is the right hit.

Two NYT (anti)evolutionist stories.
* For the Anti-Evolutionists, Hope in High Places.
* In Pennsylvania, It Was Religion vs. Science, Pastor vs. Ph.D., Evolution vs...

- I so want this to be me!

Link to Serenity Personality Test via JB.

Communication aid for the paralysed.

Ramblers attack pylon extension. I am not going to rant till I have read the full story, but grr. Bloody ramblers.

Griffin Smartdeck - sounds all full of geeky wonderfullness.

Call for Finns to demonstrate against silly copyright act. Not had a chance to check the veracity of this, but hey, who cares?

The New Cliche: "It's the Wikipedia of..." As Ross says, you know something has arrived when it's used to describe a phenomenon.

Broadband By Plug. If it's true, how very very shiny!

Your blog: search engine rankings, anonymous blogging.

Silence is [not always] golden - ah, those lovely girls at Girlspoke.

WFME: Imaginary Friends - just so I can remember this for a post I am in the middle of writing...

Palace date for US breakfast show - I know there is more to this story than the summary is giving me, but... you what now?

Cartoon Secrets. Intrigued. Want to be able to click the links in the article. Can't. Sad now.

Congress Abandons WikiConstitution - ooh, it is always nice when you hear about new(ish) projects in time to fit them into your conclusion...

Blair Powerless Over Dentists. I don't care what the article is about. The headline is enough for me.

Update on the 'Bond Race'. Goran (ER) Visnijc as Bond? I am having problems with that. Daniel Craig on the other hand...

When Media Becomes Culture: rethinking copyright issues.

Sub-$100 laptop design unveiled. The social implications of this are, if not necessarily 'huge', fairly large. That's if, you know, everyone puts ego and stuff to one side for once.

Copyright Law Book licensed under CC. Go Creative Commons.

* Michael Crichton becomes State Witness on global warming. Now I've not read the text of the article yet, but again, you what now?

Web 2.0 Elevator Pitch. Some of the latest answers to the seemingly unanswerable question of 'what is Web 2.0 when it's at home anyway?'

Got Browser Woes? Think Again.

Plans for a Euro-Russian space craft.

Just when I was feeling insecure, I still feel insecure - I feel all guilty now. I am a lurker, not a commenter. It's taken many hours of therapy, but I am coming to terms with this. Still, at the same time I don't want to comment on other peoples blogs etc, I want them to comment on mine. Catch 22, but a bit less serious.

Starting to think I should get me some of this Skype action.

Etch a design onto your iPod or Powerbook. These look monumentally funky but I think I would just be too scared. I haven't even had the guts to stick a single sticker on my shiny Powerbook. The back of the iPod is all scratched and dented now (all honorable scars) yet... I am still scared to stick something on it, let alone something as permanent as etching. I think this horror goes back to the day when my brother stuck some stickers he got from a cereal packet all over my bike. I never did get those damn things off the poor thing.

Semantic Headers. I am intrigued. I will be checking this out when I get into the lab on Monday.

Ross Mayfield's links for 23-09-2005. Some interesting wiki things for me to, again, look into on Monday.

Blogging as therapy. Half holds up hand. Ok, so maybe sometimes it is for me. Sometimes. My preferred form of therapy (if you can have a preferred form of therapy) is writing stories. Just... I've not had a good idea in two years now :(

Ross Mayfield's links for 09-09-2005. Again, one or two links that interest the researcher in me.

blogher: Do You Attend Carnivals? The idea intrigues me.

Frog Design Mind. If this is the link I think it is, very pretty.

Improving link display for print. Also known as CSS is your friend.

Ben Hammersley: Neologism. This must have made sense when I read it because I bookmarked it. *shrug*

John August: Dear Governor Schwarzenegger...

Wee Wonderfuls: Plain Spoken - check! Wish I could remember what this was!

Beyond Cyberpunk! The Web Version. So geeky. So cool. A piece of hypertext history.

Jim Kelly - Free Reads. More eBook goodness.

* Build your own lego. You are never too old for lego.

British Library: Turning Pages Project. Great idea. Sad that I can't look at it at all because 1) I am currently on dial up and 2) I don't have Flash in the lab.

Scanned in coconut-flake book. No idea, but the headline sounds cool!

this is my house and there are certain rules about snakes and dismemberment

2005-09-28T12:55:00.000+01:00

Happiness is being able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and not having to take your keys with you.

Happiness is being able to leave your washing up on the draining board to drain before it gets put away.

Happiness is a double bed ^*1*

Happiness, in general, is being moved into the flat properly. The kitchen is fully unpacked, as is my bedroom and bathroom. The living room is as unpacked as it is going to be till we can afford a sofa. I got all jiggy with a screwdriver yesterday and assembled two double beds.
Time taken? 1hr 30 for one, 30 min for the other.
Blisters? Burst the big one on my palm that I got on Sunday from doing the bookshelves.
Not having to sleep with a pillow under your hips to cushion them from the floor? Priceless. ^*2*

(Click for notes and some explanatory comments).

Endnotes:
^*1*That you assembled yourself – I am the flat-pack queen.^Back
^*2*Imagine that last said in a Jack Davenport voice. Swoon.^Back

where you are mentally does not have to be where you are geographically

2005-09-26T10:53:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody!

If you keep up with Moose’s blog, you will be aware that we moved into our shiny new flat this weekend. If you don’t keep up with Moose’s blog, why not, and you might like to know that we moved into our shiny new flat this weekend.

What this means is that I only have internet when I am in the lab at the moment. I am not sure if this is going to curtail, or increase my blogging, but it will be changing things a bit. We expect to have internet in the house soon, but who knows? This whole grown-up, being responsible stuff is vastly over rated and less fun than it looks!

Looking back over the archives ^*1* I noticed that I have blogged very little, verging on nothing, about the trials and tribulations of the past month. There is one glancing mention of house hunting, but that’s pretty much it. Seeing as how I’ve blogged about pretty much every other major ^*2* event in my life, even if only in passing, this could be considered odd.

Then you think of the stress involved in finding a new place to live, and all that entails, at the same time as trying to write a thesis, and to wrangle archaeologists from all over the globe into cooperating on a project, and you might start to get an idea of why I chose not to talk about it.

Frankly, I never even want to hear the words "estate agent", "to let", "semi-furnished", "lease", or anything vaguely related to the house-hunting process ever ever again.

I am sure that, in a few weeks/months/when it comes time to move again, I will look back and say "it couldn’t have been that bad". The body has a remarkably bad memory when it comes to pain and stress – kinda like how my mother describes childbirth. You know academically it hurts like hell, but you underestimate quite how much hell hurts.

Even now, just two days later with half my boxes still to unpack, I am starting to doubt the amount of stress I was in.

Then I look at my lack of fingernails (I had managed to break the habit, but the stress just got too much), the fact that I lost my voice at the weekend (a sure sign of stress in me), and my general inability to form coherent thought, and go "no, it really was that bad".

I will save you a long detailed post of everything we went through – it was bad enough going through it once, and anyway Moose has promised to do the duty on that score.

What I will say though is this: the CC has been an absolute brick. With barely a murmur of complaint, he’s carted 20+ boxes and assorted bags etc up and down more flights of stairs than I am sure he cares to remember; treated us to pizza and mate; and generally been content to camp on the floor till we can find furniture. Definitely above and beyond the call of duty. A very good egg, that Cute Canadian.

I can't be bothered to work out a good archiving system to keep track of things I find whilst browsing in the lab, so here are two posts I found this morning that I want to share:
Why Web 2.0 Matters, Round Two - Danah talking sense again. Spooky asked me the other day what this whole Web 2.0 mlarky was, and I had no coherent answer for him. This will go someway toward explaining things I think.
WFME - the Games People Play. Just made me smile is all.

Endnotes:
^*1*Yes, anything to not actually start work on the thesis.^Back
^*2*And frequently minor.^Back

time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug

2005-09-21T11:42:00.000+01:00

Today is a sad day here in Southampton, for Jeff has left us, to return back to the sprawling sprawl that is Greater London. The end of the year is here for us academics, and because the uni accommodation office couldn't organize the proverbial, we are all being kicked out of our uni run flats a week before our dissertations are due in. This in turn has led to pretty much everyone scattering back to their loving families. By the end of the week it will just be the Raven Master, River Queen, the Cute Canadian, Moose, and myself left to keep the flame of archaeology/computing/osteology/history/study-of-dead-things burning bright.

It's not quite time to do my whole "wrapping up the year" post, mainly because as far as I am concerned, I don't want it to be over, but I will say that it has been immense fun, and that I am going to miss everyone so much.

I did try to find a decent picture of Jeff, but there isn't any. He has this freakish skill of being able to avoid the camera at the last possible moment - in every single picture I have of him, he is either hiding behind his hands or a pint. Took this one at the pub last night and as it contains both a pint and Jeff hiding behind his hands, it is pretty much the quintessential Jeff Picture.

I have no idea why, but I am going to miss the boy. *sigh* I hate saying goodbye to people.

(In good and entirely unrelated news, I have worked out how to get 'live bookmarks' from Firefox into Vienna. It's simply a matter of opening the bookmarks in the sidebar, getting the url from the info page, and pasting into Vienna. In my defence, Safari displays it's bookmarks differently, I'd forgotten about Firefox's sidebar functionality, and I have had a few other things on my mind lately. Let's not complain how long it took me to get to the party, rather rejoice that I got here at all. )

a phd candidate on the loose

2005-09-20T14:34:00.000+01:00

At the request of The Brainy Snail, here's another blog post.^*1*. Everyone be nice to The Brainy Snail; she is a little unsure about this whole blogging topic. Apparently mine is the first blog she has been brave enough to read! I am honoured, though not totally sure if starting with me is the best way to go.

Anyways, I'm not allowed to talk about her any more, so on with the post.

The observant among you might have noticed a slight change to the style of the blog. I am still on my eternal quest for a layout I can be happy with for more than three days straight. As always, feedback please :)

Moose, the Latvian Lovely, and myself took ourselves off to the pub last night for the Latvian Lovely's leaving do. The plan was to play a few games of pool, have a couple of drinks, and have a laugh. Moose and the LL both swore that they were very very bad at pool.

Well, we got to the pub and there were no tables free. To cut a long argument short, needless to say it ended up with me, the youngest of the three of us, having to act all mature and claim a table from the drunken old men. Damn people's misguided perception of me being the confident one!

Once we started playing though, it turns out that Moose has more teeth than your average Great White. The girl is a pool-playing demon. Either that or she sacrificed her firstborn to the Pool Gods to have skills for the evening. I, on the other hand, seem only able to play pool when being distracted by the Cute Canadian.

And... Thanks to JB, I have a way to end this post.

Now, I back to the land of wiki must go I. Toodles.

Endnotes:
^*1**Gives The Brainy Snail a wave*^Back

if that doesn't work i'm moving on to molotov cocktails

2005-09-18T22:31:00.000+01:00

WARNING: the following post was written under influence of jaffa cakes, extreme stress, tiredness, and more cups of tea than are probably healthy.

A housekeeping post before I get back to the business of serious blogging sometime later in the millennium.

People just keep on commenting. Really, I hadn't realised how much it was true in the blogosphere ^*1*, but link, and they will come. Welcome Paul and assorted others, whoever you might be.

This blog is such a fricking ego boost! Loving it.

In a kind of weird and roundabout way in my head, this leads me onto the next point I have to make:

An open call to all you out there who have blogs/sites/whatever that generate RSS feeds. First off, feeds are great, I love feeds, they make my life a joy, and... I'll stop now because my inner-geek is threatening to become an outer-geek. But, can you please make it clear what the URI of that feed is. Flashing neon signs saying "THIS IS A FEED" are always good. There are few things ^*2* that are more annoying than have Firefox tell you a page has a feed, but then be unable to get that feed into your aggregator.

I am surely missing some simple trick in Firefox, and I am going to feel so blonde when someone tells it to me, but right now that feeling is an old old friend. So, on the off chance there is at least one certified geek reading this blog, or even someone who uses Firefox with enough regularity to know the tips and tricks, is there any way of finding out the URI of a given feed? I can subscribe to feeds on a page, which puts them into my 'rss blogs' bookmark folder, but I don't want to read them in Firefox. It's an irrational thing of mine I am sure, but... I don't wanna, and it was my birthday on Saturday, and I can apparently play that card for a few more days, so :P

In happy and semi-related news, I have found the new love of my life. We've been on a couple of dates now, and things are hotting up, moving onto third base... ^*3*

Yes, I am of course talking of aggregators. Thanks to Google, I found Vienna, an opensource, sadly Mac-only, aggregator. It does all I want it to, has a beautifully elegant and clean UI, and (most importantly) doesn't flash "GIVE US MONEY NOW" messages every five minutes like Newsfire used to. There is one small fly in the ointment (it's late, and they're cliches for a reason) and it is that Vienna has taken an irrational dislike to feeds from the NYT. It will collect them, and display them, but refuses to respond to the 'open in browser' hotkey, which then forces me to break my workflow and reach for the RSI inducing mouse every couple of seconds. Still, a very small bug, and one that might even get fixed in a new build of the project. It's more likely to be the NYTs fault anyway. And Vienna also doesn't like the feeds of a couple of the blogs I sometimes read when very very bored. It likes things to be all nice and validated and some people are lazy...

All things I can live with. It's that stage in the relationship where such quirks are endearing. Only time will tell if they are going to become annoying as hell.

Last thing before I give in and go crawl into the bed which is looking so good to me right now - if you are one of the wonderful people who has their site generate an RSS/Atom/whatever feed, can you be a honey and make it generate a full feed, not just the first couple of lines of a post? When I have time, or it is looking like it is going to be a link-heavy post, or something I want to take time over, then I do open a given page in the browser. But mostly I just lack the time, and find it easier (and less CPU hogging) to view the post in the aggregator.

I still love your content, enjoy reading your content, and frequently go to your site to read the same content again in the original context, but times are, I'd prefer the choice. And I am staring a dial-up connection in the face from the end of the week, so logging on, getting the RSS feeds, logging off, and reading at my leisure sure sounds nicer (and cheaper) than logging on, getting the RSS feeds, opening and waiting to download upwards of 50 different pages (often with images), then logging off, trying to read at my leisure, but find you've gone onto a second page or something...

Ok, I'm admitting defeat now. There was an argument in there somewhere, but if you can find it you're a better person than me. Just:
1) Make the URI of your feed easy to find
2) Make sure your feed is valid
3) Make sure your feed contains the full content of a given post. Comments I'm not so fussy on. Those I will go to your site to read. But content? Grrr.

Rant over. You can come out from under the desk now.
Night :)

Endnotes:
^*1**runs out and quietly kills herself for finally succumbing to peer pressure and using that hideous hideous word*^Back
^*2*Quite a few actually, but nows not the time nor the place.^Back
^*3*I have no idea what third base entails, but I am guessing it is further than second, but not as far as fourth... Is there even a fourth? It's one thing that I never did understand watching American movies.^Back

noah's ark is a problem

2005-09-18T13:41:00.000+01:00

Firstly, thank you everyone for your lovely birthday wishes. They really made me smile on a day not normally known for it's smile-worthyness.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming -

I have been remiss in my recent blogging, letting the Random folder once more reach dangerous levels of obesity. So, without further-ado, here is the best of the last two weeks.

Biological USB drives. Kinda.

Web 2.0 and glocalization - Danah Boyd being all sensible once more.

Worms to help combat allergies. *shudder* They would have to be proven to be very very useful. Then again, I am not as afflicted by allergies as some, so perhaps if I suffered more, I would appreciate this?

Universal Power Adapter. Geeky-gadget usefulness.

Joel Johnson, late of Gizmodo, doing his bit down in NOLA. Bookmark this page/get the RSS feed because it gets updated whenever Joel gets a moment.
Also, go to Jacob Appelbaum's weblog as he is also down there right now.

AA Cell Phone Charger. So useful!

* Microsoft's Ergonomic Keyboard. I have nothing against ergonomic design. What I have against this is the tenor of the article that implies Microsoft is the one and only company to ever think of this problem, or to try and address it. Grrr. And who wants a giant slab of black plastic anyway? I did find a pretty clear ergonomic one (and a shiny metal one), once, but I can't remember the site. *Sob*.

Green Tea Ice Cream. *drools* This looks so tasty! And after tasting YoYo's green tea and red bean cookies, I am open to the idea of matcha in sweet things. *drools*

Flying Spaghetti Monster game. It just wouldn't be a Sunday morning round up without at least one Mata link. Ahhh, more ID-related humour.

BBC Creative Archive. You can now download BBC archive footage. I got the two penguin ones!

If I Had an English Accent. Funny. Very funny.

6 Degrees. We all know the "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game, right? Well, I came across this book the same day I was writing my "6 Degrees of Wiki's" section in the thesis. A bizarre confluence of events I thought. So here's the link.

Bizarre Japanese male-cheerleaders in a game... The CC is totally to blame for this one. I do recommend the exam-study one. Quite why you need some black ninja-clad male cheerleaders to help you in your homework endeavors, I am not sure. I am even less sure how it then becomes a computer game?!

If the world were Goth...
One
Two
Three - is it wrong of me to find this dress totally gorgeous? I think in a nice deep wine red it would be perfect for me.

Pop-Idol Malaysian Style. The Malaysian public get to vote by text message for the next astronaut... Funny on so many levels. Will we get to see the footage of the astronaut-wanabees who didn't make it?

Picking an MP3 player. People have been asking my opinions on these lately. I seem to be gaining a rep as the Queen of Gadgets. Alas, I know bugger all about non-iPod players (still not sold on the new Nano. For that amount of money, spend a teeny bit more and get the one with 20gb of storage), so here's a dude who knows what he's talking about.

Timetable for digital switch over. I'm a young person who is tech-savvy, and I don't want analogue switched off. I have never yet lived somewhere where there is a digital signal, and that includes two large cities. In fact the only place I have been able to view freeview was on a boat, on the canal, moored up at the back end of beyond somewhere in the Midlands. And even that was Skyview, and not Freeview. My other main problem - before, you needed one aerial and the entire house could get TV if they wanted (and had a license of course). Now, you need a box per TV , an aerial, and a license. Grrr.

Nightmare on Elmo Street. Because it still makes me laugh days later.

* The Universe in a Single Atom. Reason number 23 to become a Buddhist. Or not. Whatever works for you. Nice to see that the Dalai Lama ^*1* is being all sensible on the whole science/religion debacle.

Endnotes:
^*1*TextEdit's spell check doesn't recognise 'Dalai', the name of a major religious leader, so I feel all insulted and like an oppressed minority now...^Back

the straight to your heart times

2005-09-17T10:49:00.000+01:00

Short one today.

I figure that your true friends are the people you never appreciate enough on a day to day basis, then they go and do something which just reminds you why they are special in the first place.

The kind of thing I am talking about - coming home and finding that Moose has made me the following wonderful Blackberry Cheesecake Gateaux birthday cake. ^*1*

For reasons legion and depressing I don't tend to make a fuss over my birthday, but I do like to mark the occasion quietly (if that makes sense), and this year that's what I got. Great cake, brilliant friends, and penguin-related gifts. Truly, what more do you need to celebrate your birthday?

Endnotes:
^*1*I was aware she was making me some form of cake - being banned from your own kitchen two nights in a row can clue you in to something like that - but I had no idea as to what type of cake it would be. Go to Moose's blog for more on the subterfuge making it entailed.^Back

at night, the ice weasels come

2005-09-16T10:40:00.000+01:00

I give up.
It’s been a long relationship for me.
Nearly six months of total fidelity.
I only strayed once, and that was a misguided drunken fling, and I was forgiven.

But things have been rocky for a while now, and the time has come to face facts and admit that we have grown apart.
We have different goals in life.

I want a some excitement with some oomph between the sheets.
He wants lazy evenings in, watching the footy, with me bringing him meals and letting him off the washing up.

It’s over.

We will always have the memories, of when it was new and exciting, learning new things about each other.
We’d wake up together, have a lazy breakfast in bed, with fresh coffee and tea. We’d have a laugh over the funnies, cry over the disasters.
Now I’m lucky to get a line out of him in the morning, and as for a beverage? Instant is all I get these days.

He has to go.

~ * ~

I really hate having to admit defeat, but I need a new RSS aggregator.
The new release of Newsfire is buggier than an ant-farm, won't let me view more than three feeds before crashing, and is generally starting to piss me off with its incessant calls for registration (and a largish chunk of money I don't have to spare right now), and limiting me to just 25 feeds.

So, if any one knows of a really nice aggregator that works (on a Mac), is free, doesn't have a limit on the number of feeds I can subscribe too, and looks nice, can they share please!

WARNING: I am picky about my user interfaces. I know I shouldn't care, but a certain elegance of design is important to me, and for some reason browser-based aggregators just don't get me going, though I am prepared to make an exception if it's a really good one. The UI should be simple, useable with the keypad (ie arrows to move back and forward through feeds, a hot key to open the feed in the browser), and if it supports grouping of feeds, and a 'new items' list all the better...

And yes, I know that Firefox lets you subscribe to feeds, but see my above comments about browser-based. That, the whole having to scroll through bookmarks thing, and that Firefox is just too slow and processor-hogging for me on the Mac, and it just doesn't fit the bill. Sorry.

I do figure that software is one part in your life where you are allowed to be unfaithful on occasion. So, all you geek-fiends out there, what have you got for me? Cas is in need of some RSS-lovin'...

i'd rather be anything but ordinary

2005-09-14T13:45:00.000+01:00

Just in case you were under any doubt as to my geek credentials, the following is a common sight in the lab. (Cameraphones are great!)

Tilly on the left, Jeff on the right. (Click on the pic to see notes).

And yes, we do crack GIS and computing jokes when we're in the pub at the end of a long day.

We need help.

two corpses in three hours, i mean that's unusual right?

2005-09-14T11:27:00.000+01:00

Well you could knock me down with a feather. It would have to be a pretty hefty feather, because I am no light weight, but I am sure, given the appropriate plumage and enough force, I could be sent arse-over-tip.

Why, do I hear you cry, am I currently so easy to upend? Well, one thing is that I keep forgetting that links are two-way. You link to something and promptly forget that people frequently look at who is linking to them in return. I don’t know why I forget this, because I do it myself (very few people link to me, if you are interested), but forget it I do. Last Monday I posted about how the addition of different barnyard animals to one another does not necessarily create a new species ^*1*, linking to Paul’s recent tribulations with GIS.

And lo, I open up Gmail this morning, and it tells me I have a comment from the afore linked-to personage ^*2*.

Hence the feather-knocking comment.

Yes, ok, so it might not seem much to you, but I am in an odd mood today. I’ve already waltzed round the lab once, and the day is yet young, so who knows what the rest of it will bring?

The other reason I am in an odd mood is that I am currently listening to a band called The Mountain Goats. I am not sure what I think of them. Currently I am just settling for odd. They are a little... something... for my taste, but the CC has stolen the iPod to listen to the Eagles so it was the least I could do to steal his Walkman in return.

Endnotes:
^*1*A quote from a TJTS who was trying to explain stats to a class of very confused archaeologists.^Back
^*2*Also, more comments check out the post from the other week (this one). More Mata linkage. Tee hee hee. I am so sad and easily pleased.^Back

Technorati Tags: The Mountain Goats, The Eagles

there cannot be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full

2005-09-13T15:13:00.000+01:00

The Godhead is an absolute gem of a man. A complete honey. A total sweetiepie and a wondeful human-being to boot.

my weakness is flirting

2005-09-12T20:27:00.000+01:00

Ok, I found this random site that generates these little personality test thingamies for the sidebar of blogs. Because I so don't want to work right now, I spent a happy ten minutes or so, and here are the few results that made me giggle:

The Underwear Oracle
When you're bad, you're very bad. And when you're good, you're still trouble!
You're comfortable in your own skin - and don't care to impress anyone.

What's your Japanese Name?
Misako Tanaka
or (depending which name you use)
Hiroko Yamada
- (Japanese speakers/readers out there - what does my 'Japanese' name really say? Or what should it be, for both Cas and Claire please)

What's your Superhero Name?
Your Superhero Name is The Admiral Angel
Your Superpower is Gadgets
Your Weakness is Flirting - Personally, I think those last two should be reversed.
Your Weapon is Your Flaming Hammer
Your Mode of Transportation is Tricycle

How Machiavellian Are You?
You Are Somewhat Machiavellian - How does this work exactly? I am only Machiavellian on alternate days? What?
You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead...
But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself.
You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place.
You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!

What's Your Power Color?
Your Power Color Is Magenta
At Your Highest:
You energize yourself and push others to suceed.
At Your Lowest:
You feel frustrated and totally overwhelmed. - Ok, this is true.
In Love:
You are suprised by who you attract. You're a love magnet. - Excuse me?! This is the girl who was single for an epic two and a half year stretch you're talking about!
How You're Attractive:
Open and free spirited, people want to explore the world with you.
Your Eternal Question:
"What is my next source of inspiration?"

No, I have no idea why either, but I was in need of a laugh. A Somewhat Machiavellian Love Magnet indeed.

i've been sane a long while now and change is good

2005-09-12T18:29:00.000+01:00

Ok, because I am going totally insane, and no fun to be around right now, I am going to hold off the long blog posts till I can guarantee I won't kill innocent bystanders.

Just a quickie - it was brought to my attention today that if you google my name and a certain social software project I am currently working on, I am the top (yes, that's the first) result. Depending on what keywords, and how much of my name, you use, you also get upwards of four or five more results for me (yes, little old me!) on the first page alone.

If you're internet sleuthing skills are any good, go check it out and have a look see at how wonderfully well I am failing my course. If you promise to play nice, I might even let you join the wiki properly so you can talk to the great and the good of archaeology. Well, you could talk to them if any of the ?$%!!*$@* little buggers were using the damn thing. As it is, I can conclude my entire thesis right now and save you all having to read it:
Question: How do wiki's promote discussion in some arcane and esoteric field no one is really interested in?
Answer: They don't.

Yes, happy campers, the culmination of four years of university and over £20,000 of debt, all neatly summed up in one snappy line. Go me.

this is for friends who come no more, who cannot be among us here

2005-09-11T12:39:00.000+01:00

I had already written most of my usual sunday mid-morning roundup and was on the verge of hitting 'publish' when I realised what the date was today. Yes, I really have been that self absorbed lately that I completely missed the fact that four years ago today a good friend of the family died along with 2,748 others.

So, if you will excuse me, I am not going to post the traditional right now - it seems callous and wrong.

Instead, I would like you all to take today to sit down with the people you care about, tell someone you love them, and ring those people you've been meaning to talk to in ages but haven't got around to it. Life is too short and you'll always regret it if you let that chance slip by.

a cow plus a sheep does not equal a pig

2005-09-05T19:26:00.000+01:00

The following got my giggle on...
GIS and Google Mapping

Poor chap. I do know how he feels.

Paul, if you're reading this (and who knows, he might be following links back as Mata did), you are not alone. Take it from a girl who's been bashing her head against GIS for the past four years, GIS is evil. Evil I tell you!

Now, with the scars of my own most recent brush with GIS still fresh, I am going to go watch The Warriors. The CC swears it's a good film. It's based on some ancient history you know. I'm dubious.

now i'm learning about scary

2005-09-05T12:16:00.000+01:00

Knew there was a link I wanted to put in yesterday's post, but I forgot to.
Mary Hodder on the whole Yahoo ID issue.

Um, has any one got a sure-fire remedy to cure writer's block? I am ok with it affecting my ability to write short stories of slightly dubious quality, but when it kicks in with three weeks left on my thesis, I get a little bit stressed.

As the smilie says, help?

the president has no intention of starting a world wide bra war

2005-09-04T11:00:00.000+01:00

First things first, a new story for you all to read, linkage to which can be found over at: A Sip of Wine, A Sip of Water.
And if anyone can tell me what song that title is from, well, props to you!

On with the semi-traditional Sunday afternoon round-up. Because yes, it is 1pm, I am still in my pajamas, and am determined to get nothing constructive done today.

As always with everything I link to, please remember my tone of loving disrespect, and that I find life in general to be inherently hysterical. Any offense is yours to take as you please, just don't carp on at me about it. So there

Lawn Couch - groovy, and I want one, but this is hardly practical. Think of the grass-stains! And you always get a damp arse when you sit on the grass (ooh, that rhymed!), even when it hasn't rained for months. Still, shiny.

Squirrel helps with mobile calls - nope. No idea. Seemed amusing to me.

Of Faith and Religion - sometimes, you come across a random post that reminds you why you read blogs in the first place. Not sure I'm totally ok with everything said in the post, or on Tish's site in general, but something in this one spoke to me.

Hamster-powered mobile charger - the boy deserves mad props for his idea. Not a fan of the subjugation of helpless pets in this manner, but when a dude from Somerset gets mentioned a US blog (not linked to here), I say 'yay for him'.

Pupils learn through Myst game

* Teaching of creationism is endorsed in survey - I am at a loss for words. Just linking to this as it's become a bit of a pet "you what now?!" topic for me.

Test drive a Mac Mini - do. Mac Mini's are great.

Knitted Mittens - I can smell your brains!!!!!! Mwhahahahaha...

Laptop sleeve - I already have a sleeve, better than this one because it zips all the way round, but mine is boring grey wetsuit material. Practical but, as already mentioned, rather dull. These on the other hand, are really rather snazzy, if over priced. Ah well, I guess I could always just snazz up my own. My head-line does say I am all creative. Apparently.

Foofpod - already got something similar to this as well, that Little YoYo crocheted for me back last Christmas, but... *makes small noise of irrational desire*

RawSugar - for all you social-tech-~~geeks~~-people out there. Shiny idea.

* Real-time backup - oooh, snoopalicious. Just what you want your boss to be able to do, record every single keystroke you ever make. Then again, I can see the good in this little app. Just call me paranoid.

* Chimp/Y-chromosome evolution - and in the same week as all the evolution/ID broohaahaa as well... Is it me, or is that one butt-ugly chimp?

Your Tea Type - mad props to Moose for this one. I drink Assam, and occasionally Oolong. Freakish.

$1,000,000 to prove that jesus isn't the son of the flying spaghetti monster - remember back at the start of the post when I said 'loving disrespect'? Yep.

* Sound of Thunder review - *shudder* and I loved the short story!

US places curbs on Chinese bras - not really funny, but amusing to me due to something in the last season of West Wing...

Wiki Wednesdays - yes, I am a total geek, but this seems fun to me. *hangs head in shame*

Flickr/Yahoo ids - I know I am irrationally attached to some of my sn's, but I don't like Yahoo! Never have, and never will! There's a reason I never use my yahoo! mail, and only use my geocities site under duress. Can't really explain that reasoning right now, but... *sulks*

And that's me done for another week. Off to reclaim my washing from the laundry now. I do lead an exciting life. Remind me to talk to you all about cereal and water sometime...

they looked at porn last time, now they are looking at shoes - let’s present them with specific further alternatives…

2005-08-31T21:39:00.000+01:00

Ok, will someone please explain to me why I am suddenly the go-to girl for all problems of a vaguely tech-like nature that my father has? The Crazy Canalman does seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that I am capable of solving every dilemma over the phone. My favourite has to be when he asked me to help him set up a wireless network across the marina. Seeing as how I am living a few hundred miles across the country, and have never set up a network in my life, I was at somewhat a loss.

Then there are the "The laptop has stopped working!" and "How do I get it talking to my mobile phone again?" questions. Once again, I'm the other side of the country. Not to mention, it's thankfully been a few years since I was up to my elbows in Windows (*strokes her shiny mac*). The vagaries of getting an XP laptop talk to a Siemens mobile via a Belkin bluetooth dongle are thankfully a closed book to me, though the Crazy Canalman is doing his utmost to make it otherwise.

Tonight's problem was (temporarily) solved by suggesting he check on his temporary internet files. 248 MB later, things were running slightly less like they were trapped in treacle. That, and a short lecture on the evils of cookies, and I left him loudly fuming and cursing every invention since the printing press.

Let me get one thing straight - my father is not a stupid man, nor is he an idiot when it comes to technology. He has been working at the forefront of telecommunication engineering for most of his life. We have owned computers since they first started selling them. He uses them, and some much more complex technology, each and every day at work.

So what is it about this laptop, and most of the Internet, that completely flummoxes him? Why does he have a complete blind spot about it?

Also, where along the line did being an Archaeologist qualify me to solve all his problems with the said beast? Ok, so I am a mild geek in that I can turn the bloody machines on (most times), but even I am defeated at the simplest task. Ask the CC about the absolute balls-up I made whilst trying to burn a cd last night.

I have no answers for any of the above questions, nor for why my mother (a very intelligent lady) is incapable of even turning her MacMini on without someone there to hold her hand, whilst she just has to look at the video machine and it works, and she was the only one of the five of us who could turn the Crazy Canalman's new digital camera on last Christmas.

Grrr.

(Oh, and check out Moose's new blog. Mwhahahahahaa. Blogs are great.)

2005-08-30T19:21:00.000+01:00

There aren't the words right now to describe how happy I am!! I have users on my wiki!! One of them has even made an edit!!!!!

I can't even think of a good quote to use as a title, which is a mark of how happy I am, as is the inordinate number of exclamation marks I am using in this post!!!!!!!

And on top of that the prospect of an evening in with the CC and Dungeons & Dragons on DVD. Truly, what more does a girl need to be happy? Wikizens, a Cute Canadian, and bad movies.

I could die right now. I'd rather not, but I could.

there's a reason it's acronym is MAD

2005-08-28T16:01:00.000+01:00

Going to Neko's BBQ with the CC last night would have been worth it if all that had happened was the following - Spooky, being the absolute genius that he is, telling me about the following site he'd discovered in his rambles around the Interweb: An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot.

As it was, that wasn't the only fun we had at the BBQ, though it was slightly lower key than the one back in May, mainly due to the frantic deadlines we are all facing right now.

Also, two site updates. New people and minor reorganisation of the blogs/sites linked to in the sidebar is one of them. The second? Well, if you guess right, I'll tell you so.

lying can be a very effective dating tool

2005-08-28T12:22:00.000+01:00

Ok, it's been a day or so since I blogged, and actually over a week since I last cleared out my 'Random' folder, so be prepared for a long post. Before you ask, the reason you don't get lots of shorter 'saw this and thought you might like' posts during the week is that, as a rule, I write my posts on my computer in the lab. The bookmark folder on that computer is sadly not able to talk to the one on my powerbook, which has causes no end of hassle I won't go into now. Also, I like to keep things in reserve in the event that I have no idea what to blog about. Today is one of those days. For some reason, blogging about the good stuff just doesn't seem as funny as moaning about the bad stuff.

Either way, on with the show. All the NYT stuff is marked with an '*' so you know which ones need the login. It's free, but if you're cookies just got wiped as mine seem to have, it is a bit annoying if you are unprepared.

* Downloadable Book - author Warren Adler is making his next novel available for download, free. Go him!

Adventures of iGuy - the iGuy iPod case gets up to all sorts of shenanigans (which is a word my spellchecker on TextEdit recognised! :O Still haven't taught it that proper english spelling rarely uses 'Z' though.).

A selection of the best of the rest in the ongoing Intelligent Design vs Darwinism debacle.
ID vs Darwin prt 1 - the NYT/IHT spin on things.
The Panda's Thumb - well researched sillyness.
Evolution at Berkley - a clear and well thought out site explaining both sides of things, and how best to teach it, as according to those clever people at Berkley.
Institute for Creation Research - makes me uncomfortable even linking to these people (damn not being able to assign value to linking yet), but as I'm all one for presenting both sides of the argument, go wild.
Mata with a few alternatives...

Back to the fun stuff.
Wikiwyg - Oh. My. God. I guess it helps if you understand what I've been researching this past year, but when this got released on Monday I got goosebumps all over. It is ridiculous to get so excited over about three lines of javascript, but I want to have this things babies! Even though I now have to rewrite an entire chapter.

EU Funding Game for Water Aid - link to a game designed by Mata. This one is all very serious and grownup, but well worth a look.

TruePower - longer lived iPod batteries. This one's for Jeff, who's iPod is just a teeny bit older than mine (2nd Gen, so we're cooler than all the people who only got one because they became fashionable and mainstream), and can no longer make it through a day in the lab without some help.

Sushi gadget - I came late in life to the joys of Sushi, but they do say there's no zealot like a convert. Not sure I want this machine though. Isn't half the fun making it yourself with the little mat and stuff?

iTrip for the iPod - more shiny gadgetry. I've had a iTrip clone (mines an iRock) pretty much since I got the iPod so that I could listen to music in the car. Sadly, the Crazy Canalman got me one from the States, where FM isn't used so much, and it was hardwired to the frequency that in this country is used to broadcast Radio 2, so it's never got much use. This one though, looks cooler, and can change frequencies. I want!

Google Talk - not sure if I am totally ok with the turn it looks like Google is taking toward world domination, but at least the stuff they release works, unlike the majority of the Microsoft products out there! Alas, I can't use this because it doesn't work on Mac's (grr). Also not totally ok with the fact you now need to provide your AMERICAN cellphone number to get a gmail account. What about the majority of the worlds' population that doesn't live in the States? Or that doesn't, you know, want to give out their cellphone number just like that? Fortunately, I have all the gmail accounts a girl could need (for now), but I might have to send myself some invites just to make sure. Anyone else want one before you need to use your phone?

Women have lower IQs than men - you wha, buh who? (inarticulate noise of surprise). Um, yep, ok. Seriously the Guardian is rapidly becoming one of my least favourite papers. Not sure why I still get the feeds for it.

Mobile Photo Printer - for all of you out there (like the CC) whose fun snaps are locked forever on their cameraphone. Then again, I normally look awful on cameraphone pictures (any picture for that matter), so no! Look away!

Evian Water Bra - nope. No idea why.

Blanket Security - this just seemed funny to me,

Army joins parade for Gay Pride - go the UK military. I totally do not agree with you, and I wish we didn't have to have an army at all, but seeing as how we live in the real world, the least we can do is be inclusive. *waves the article at the Americans* Yep, we have Gays in the Military. So do several other countries, including Canada (apparently), and it really doesn't cause the problems you seem to think it will cause. Get over it.

BBC to put channels on the net - go Auntie! YAY!

There has been an unprecedented level of distraction this past week. He blames me. I blame him, and he's the man, so he's to blame. So now, I'm off to do some much needed work. Toodles.

live in such a way you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip

2005-08-26T13:16:00.000+01:00

My bed is really rather comfortable. In fact, for a bed in rented accommodation it is probably one of the best beds I have had the pleasure (and once or twice the bad judgement) to sleep on.

Which is why I felt particularly betrayed when I noticed that it had developed a squeak. It has never squeaked before. Narry a peep from it the entire year. Then, as I said, the other night just when you don’t want your bed to be squeaking it… started squeaking.

In discussion with some friends, it appears that my bed is not alone in exhibiting this phenomena. Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to has noticed that, under certain conditions, beds start squeaking. It has to be said that this is guaranteed to happen when you are living in shared accommodation, ensuring maximum potential embarrassment.

For not only is it bad enough that your flatmates might run into you and your date looking sheepish the next morning in the kitchen. The Global Conspiracy of Bed Manufacturers (GCBM) also means that you have no chance of denying that anything happened. Everyone in the flat is aware of what was going on in what is meant to be private.

So I ask all you Bed Manufacturers out there, why do you have to do it? I am an adult, I am responsible, and I am doing nothing that is against the law. All the parties involved are consenting and ditto on the adult etc. Why do you have to set me up for such public humiliation? I know it is not a personal thing for several reasons:
1) I have never (to my knowledge) met someone who manufactures beds.
2) I have never (to my knowledge) insulted that noble profession.
3) It doesn’t just happen to me – it is a well recognised phenomena
4) I am not egotistical enough to think people go around making beds squeak at inopportune times just to piss me off.

It is because the GCBM has strong moral and ethical views on the whole out-of-wedlock subject?

Also, I am curious - how do you do it? I mean, it’s not just me who’s noticed this, so there has to be a fair few beds out there that exhibit such behaviour. Is it something to do with the natural frequency of the bed-frame?

Um, and is there anyway I can stop it?

dial 9 to get out

2005-08-26T10:14:00.000+01:00

So the Inter Library Loans people are rapidly reaching the top of the list of people I really don't like to wake up to in the morning. Pretty much the only person who I have even less desire to wake up to is the Misogynistic Belgian.

I have just had another message from these wonderful wonderful people saying that they are charging me £116.36 for the book I returned on time last week.

The ILL lady was very helpful on the phone (this one still had a brain it seems, unlike last time's). Turns out "they have had a few problems with clearing it off my card", but I am fine - I'm only liable for the fines incurred from the 19th to the 23rd when I was late returning it.

I thought I had already sorted this!

So I explain, yet again, to the nice ILL lady, that I had returned it at around 11 am on the 19th, the day it was due back, complete with the disc it was meant to have, and that I didn't really appreciate being charged. Especially when they had already admitted they'd been a bit slow clearing things that particular weekend.

She very nicely assured me that she had cleared ALL the fines off the account, and that she has put a flag next to the item so I won't be bothered by it again.

All I can say is, watch this space.

(and woot! this is my hundredth post!)

eeyore's running tip: don't

2005-08-25T21:47:00.000+01:00

So it turns out that I am not quite as unfit and overweight as I had dreaded being, which is always nice to know.

The reason I know this is that I forked out £18 to a very nice man called Adrian at the gym today to have what they call a 'full body assessment'. They measure everything from height, weight (I do like the set of scales he used. Lost half a stone just by going on them!), peak flow, grip-strength, stretchiness, the number of push-ups you can do in a minute, your body fat percentage, your aerobic stamina, the full shebang.

Turns out I am pretty much in the average and happy range on most things. My aerobic stamina is pants, but then I already knew that. My grip-strength is asymmetrical, which is a predictable hold-over from all those years of archery. Great on one side (my right), slightly less great on the other. The computer predicted that I would be able to do 11 push-ups in the space of a minute. I showed it who was boss and did 55. Again, upper body strength courtesy of archery.

It also turns out I am also one of the stretchiest people Adrian's seen in a... ever, were his exact words. Then again, I already knew I was stretchy. I can't quite get the legs behind my head any more, partly due to a buggered hamstring when I was 13, and assorted other bits and pieces going wrong and threatening to drop off, but if I've done the proper warmups, I can still get my head flat on my knees when my legs are straight out on the floor. Ahh, the benefits of being forced to do ballet as a young child.

I won't be getting my personal training program till Tuesday 9 am, but when I get it you can be sure I will share at least parts of it with you. Yes, you heard that right, I am going to be in the gym at 9 am on a Tuesday morning.

Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with me either ^*1*.

And now, because my bed is looking very very good to me right now, I am going to go curl up in it and go to sleep. It is a very comfortable bed. Though I do have a whole noise/conspiracy rant I am working out in my head about beds, but I need to work out how to word it without sounding... well, work it out for yourself

Endnotes:
^*1*For all you working people out there, I am still a student. 9 am is the equivalent of dawn for most normal grownups.^Back

we're gonna have a small band of dedicated people who can't lift their arms

2005-08-25T16:37:00.000+01:00

It's official. I am a special and wonderful person. I've even got the letter and some cards to prove it.

I have been giving blood regularly for a while now. Here is my swanky card.
.

One of the main reasons I give blood is because a fair few of those I know and love have had to rely on donated blood at one point or another, and feeling a bit icky one afternoon every four months after a donation is a tiny price to pay for all the good you are doing. I also give blood because it is a prerequisite to donating bone marrow.

When I was younger a very good friend tragically died from recurring childhood leukemia. For nearly seven years she relied on regular bone marrow transplants and, as none of her family were a match, all the bone marrow came from donors, so I have seen first hand the enormous amount of good this procedure can provide.

For one reason and another (mainly badly timed piercings, tattoos, and illness) it has taken me till a couple of months ago to get on the Bone Marrow Register. So I was overjoyed this morning when the following letter and card arrived in the post.

Link to the nice letter I got with the card.
I just hope that I never get called, because if (when) I do, that means someone is in a similar situation to Lily and her family, and no one should be in that situation.

Now I'm not saying you all should up and join the British Bone Marrow Register (or whatever your regional equivalent is). That's something for each and every one to think about with regards their individual circumstances, but please do take a moment to think on it. I know Lily would never have seen her 12th birthday if it hadn't been for the kindness of complete strangers. When held against the benefits, the transient pain and discomfort experienced by a donor pales into insignificance.

(And yes, if you are curious, I am also a registered organ donor. It's not as if I am going to need them when I'm dead now, is it?)

More information about Bone Marrow donation.
More information about Blood donation.
CLIC - the children's cancer charity that gave so much love and support to Lily, her family, and all her friends.

There, that's me done with the guilt tripping. I'm off to be told how monumentally unfit I am by a man at the gym.

Technorati Tags: Bone Marrow Donation, Blood Donation, British Bone Marrow Register, CLIC, Organ Donation

the key seems to be giving Jayne a heavy stick and standing back

2005-08-25T12:19:00.000+01:00

Today I am in such a good mood, even finding out that the Misogynistic Belgian is to blame for bollixing my server yesterday, has barely put a dent in the day. What is wrong with me! My brain has completely turned to mush and I am unable to form coherent thoughts. In the event that normal cognitive skills do not return I may be forced to subject you, my dear readers, to severe giddiness and an overuse of smilies . Should you become physically ill upon reading, I shall not be held responsible.

Thank you for your patience, please stayed tuned. I expect normal service to resume in a day or so, give or take, depending on what path events take.

So I have decided that Pool is not such a bad game after all. I’ve spent the last twenty odd years of my life determined that I am no good at it, that it is a silly game, and that I don’t like playing it. So why I agreed to go out and play a few games with the Cute Canadian last night is quite beyond me.

But play I did, in a rather nice pub called the Mitre, and all the five games we played were won by yours truly.

I would like to claim that it was my innate skill at the game showing through, but I do have a policy of telling the truth, even if it isn’t the whole truth, on this blog, so I have to admit that in the grand scheme of things, the CC’s skill was better than mine. He just cracks under the tiniest amount of pressure. Remarkably easy to distract as well.

He then got his own back by challenging me to a game of Fussball. By the end of the game I was pretty much down to ritual suicide as the only way to reclaim my honour.

Still, I won five games of Pool, he didn’t, so

do you think maybe his home is under a dirty bookstore in the valley?

2005-08-24T15:54:00.000+01:00

So a couple of people have been asking why I am so keen to get out of the current flat and find a shiny nice place of my own. At the moment, I would settle for a not-quite-shiny place so long as it wasn't this dump. I think the following picture illustrates it pretty nicely.

Today is rather wet. I had to go out, so took my umbrella to keep me as dry as possible. This proved to be a mission: impossible, but that's for another time. Still, I got home, and needed somewhere to put the umbrella to dry it out. My room was out because there wasn't going to be enough room for me and the umbrella, and I had work to do, so I put it up in the bathroom.

There is something wrong when your umbrella takes up the entire room

And this is my small handbag sized model! ^*1*.

Endnotes:
^*1*Yeah, ok, you got me. It's a golfing umbrella. You get the idea though. My flat = has tiny rooms.^Back

a parrot generally couldn't really command a battalion of storm troops

2005-08-24T14:24:00.000+01:00

So today they obviously decided to have a scary right-wing politics morning on both sides of the House.

Exhibit one, we have Mr Clarke (the Home Secretary, Labour, nominally leftish) with his global database of anyone who might have been a bit naughty. I may be oversimplifying, and I sure as hell know the BBC reportage isn't giving the full story, but when the dude from the UN gets worried, you have to think twice.

Exhibit two, we have David Cameron (current favourite to take over the Conservative leadership, scary, well, Conservative) giving Conservatives a bad name. Withdrawing from international human rights conventions?!? What happened to the fluffy nice and new Conservatives they keep promising us?

I am on record, I think, with my whole "war = bad idea" ethos, including my opinions on the whole "war on terror" debacle. Yes, we live in a climate of danger and threat, we have to do something about it, and I don't have much of an idea what we should be doing about it. But I sure as hell know that what we're doing now ain't exactly working. I think the figures are at something like 100,000 Iraqi's dead since the 'war' began. That is 'war' in quotes, because, remember folks, they never actually declared war. Just a bit of police action between friends.

And as soon as I get one wiki working (even though no one seems to be actually using it yet), the other one goes on the fritz. As I already look like an extra from the "singing in the rain" number, I feel no inclination to tromp all the way up to the lab to see what the hell is wrong with, but as it is currently holding all my thesis notes hostage, I am going to have to go negotiate.

Damn it! My planned evening had better be a whole lot more fun than the morning's been so far. Grrr.

instant gratification takes too long

2005-08-23T22:07:00.000+01:00

What do you get when you get a load of very stressed computer archaeologists, human origins people, osteologists, marine archaeologists, and one lone man from Hull, and put them together in a building that sells alcohol and food?

Answer, a great evening. Even the presence of the Misogynistic Belgian couldn't put too much of a damper on the evening. Saw Tilly and Sk8er Dude for the first time in a while today, and I got in some light musing duties whilst I was about it.

Finally, everyone now has a blog-name. It's taken me near a year, but I got the last two tonight: Celtic Vixen, and Pimp Girl (said with complete love and affection - the girl is a total darling. It was suggested by herself). Jeff the Pimp ^*1* is also finally reconciled to his name. He did moan that everyone else had fun names, whilst he was stuck with Jeff, but when I explained the rational behind it again, he cheered up.

Also, Jeff is the latest convert to Firefly, coming to the party after being forced to watch the 'Serenity' episode with the Cute Canadian and myself on Sunday. He didn't enjoy it much the first time round because the pair of us kept laughing over the jokes, and spoiling the plot etc (we've both seen it far too many times), but Jeff watched it again last night, and went straight on to 'Trainjob' he enjoyed it so much.

Roll on September and the release of Serenity.

Right, I've just been informed that I have to make Jeff sound cool. So, here goes: I would like to announce to all you random internet people out there that my friend, Jeff, is a cool person. So cool, in fact, that icebergs go to him for advice on how to stay chilly. He is the veritable King of Cool. There is no one cooler on the planet than my friend, Jeff. Yep, Coolie Mac Cool has nothing on Jeff. Cool is not only his middle name, it is his first and his last as well. Lock up your daughters. You have been warned.

Now, having blown any cred I might have had left on that whole "Jeff = Cool" issue ^*2*, I'm off to go over some edits and re-write the ending to a longer story so I can start to post it in a couple of days.

Best line of the evening has to be from Pimp Girl:
"When I'm dancing on the tables I know I've gone too far".

Endnotes:
^*1*I'm really not being mean with all the pimp comments here. There was a strange confluence of t-shirts and... You just had to be there, but the Turf War over lunch in the courtyard was hilarious^Back
^*2*In all seriousness, he is a total honey. Love the boy. Jeff, sweetie, I'm sorry ^Back

discretion is not the better part of biography

2005-08-22T21:25:00.000+01:00

I really should be working right now, but bleck. Can't bothered. Too many cute distractions online.
So, I have once again bowed to pressure, and made the foolish decision to post another story over at Blackcurrant Cheesecake. Not the really long serial one - still need to work on that - but something short and well, not sweet, but short anyways.

And here is a link to it: Alright?.

And because apparently I am being too depressing with these stories, the closest to an up-beat one I could find. No Worries.

life is full of burnt soup stories

2005-08-22T16:57:00.000+01:00

So today has had its ups, and its downs.

The first downs were catalogued in the previous post, followed swiftly by getting into the lab and finding I'd left my teabags at home, so twice today I had to shell out 52 pence for some very dubious tetley tea.

Then there were some ups - finding a way to hack the wiki and get the Cute Canadian able to log onto the wiki being one of them.

Though the fact that even I can hack the wiki doesn't bode well for the security of the bloody thing, so perhaps that should be a down...

Then there were some more downs - mainly centered around me crashing out at about 2 pm suddenly unable to form coherent thought or even keep my eyes open. It happens sometimes. At least I didn't faint this time, which has happened in the past, much to the consternation of all around me. The sudden appearance on the scene of the Misogynistic Belgian didn't make for my day improving any, especially not when his form of greeting is punching me, then going in for the leg-stroke. Words just don't do justice to how much this guy creeps the fuck out of me.

Normally at this point, I would trudge home and take a nap. It really is the only thing to do in those situations. But alas, even that simple pleasure was denied me, when Moose came on MSN to tell me there were two large men in blue overalls in my room.

Now, there are certain situations under which a girl is not averse to having men in her room: sadly, neither of them was the man Cas had been dreaming of lately. They were maintenance men here to finally replace my sink - it's been leaking like a very leaky thing since about March, and I'd given up hope of them appearing before I leave the flat in a month. Under any other circumstances, I would have been overjoyed at this news, and happily stayed in the lab till they'd finished, but I so wanted my bed.

Finally though they were done and it was safe for me to return.

I now have a shiny new sink! That doesn't leak! And despite the fact my room stinks of sealant, I am so happy! Now all I need is users for my wiki and my cup would overfloweth. Ok, so there are a few other things I would like to happen, but a girl has to take happiness where she finds it these days.

The Latvian Lovely had this to say on the whole thing of finding random men in our flat:
"I walked into the kitchen, there were two men on the table, so I turned round and walked right out again."

She has this deadpan delivery and a totally straight face, and it just cracked me up.

beware of the leopard

2005-08-22T10:52:00.000+01:00

In the long running saga of ways to really ruin the start of your day (evil anonymous comments, random Germans, Clompy, soggy toast), we have a new entry.

The university library telling you that you have a massive fine for a book that is way over due. This is, of course, the book that I took back on time, last week. We won't go into them taking 3 months to inter library loan a couple of books that I am still waiting for. Or silly maximum numbers of items that mean post-grad students can't take out more than 10 items at once. Yes, 10 ^*1*. Which, when you consider an average piece of work for the undergraduate course was expected to have a bibliography of a minimum of 20/25 books, is just a little silly.

But we're not going into that now. No, we are moaning about the stupidity of the loans clerk who took my book, checked it through the machine, made the point of saying "oh this is an inter library loan book", and still manages to get me in trouble with the library. I have no proof I gave the book back, just my say so, and the fact I have never in the entire year had another book back late. If I'd known I was going to get in trouble with this book, I'd have kept it a couple of extra days to finish it at my leisure, instead of staying up till about 1 am the night before finishing making notes.

And then I get another email from them, telling me that the inter library loan I requested over a month ago is ready for collection. This bugs me because (due to time pressures), I had to get a copy off the godhead, so had informed the ILL office a good couple of weeks back that I no longer required the item.

On the phone just now, they informed me that, because they don't staff the ILL desk on Fridays (who did I speak to then, a ghost?), if your book is due back on a Friday, you will automatically get a fine till they can clear the book on Monday. Or when they can be bothered. But they will very kindly wipe the fine in this case. How big of them. And when I, as their own email requested, informed them that I didn't want to collect my inter library loan that had come through, they got all huffy with me. I'd told them three weeks ago I didn't want it! And again today, so they didn't have to waste time emailing me every day to tell me it was ready! So now they have a copy of a paper from ARCHEOLOGIA E CALCOLATORI that they didn't have before. I am sure that someone else will find a use for it.

Grrrr. I used to work in the public service sector. I was considered very very good at my job ^*2*. Dealing with the public isn't hard. So why is it I get the impression that they give you a full frontal lobotomy and remove any shred of common sense you might once have had, if you choose to work for, say, the library? I am sure these people really aren't that thick. They would not be able to breathe and walk at the same time if they were.

So there you have it, way no 5 to really piss Cas off in the morning. Yes, it's easy to do, but once again this got me before I'd had my cup of tea. I really should stop checking my email before I've drunk it.

But now it is raining, and I have to walk up to the lab to try and wrest the Cute Canadian's password for the wiki from the dread server, so that's my hairstyle ruined half an hour after I got out of the shower.

Yes, today is most definitely going to be one of those days.

Endnotes:
^*1*It might be 15, but I'm grumpy right now and don't want to check. Still a silly low number.^Back
^*2*One ex manager keeps ringing me up, asking when I am going to come back and work with her. Even offered me the assistant managers job if I'd come back. (As the current AM is a friend of mine, this was a little bit awkward).^Back

wacky stories with rib cages in them

2005-08-20T14:26:00.000+01:00

Ok, I am being badgered on both sides of the pond now to post up some stories.

The question is, what format should this be done in? The reverse chronological order of the blog makes it not ideal for the posting of longer works of fiction and, bearing in mind this is me we are discussing, I do tend to prefer the longer winded form of writing.

Should I

Post the last chapter first, then the second last, and so on, till the first is at the top of the page and you read it all in one go?

Post first chapter first, then second, till the last is at the top, but provide linking between somehow?

Post it in serial form (a chapter per day/week/random interval)?

You tell me.

Seriously, I'm not the one that has to read it, you are.
Also, is there even an audience out there if I do this? I am going to feel a right muppet if there is zero interest. Though lack of audience hasn't stopped me blogging, for some reason fiction is different in that respect.

Anyway, feedback on the above, and anything else you care to think about, please. I'm off to stare at wiki's some more and stick pins on the voodoo doll I just made of random-cyclist-chappy from last night.

i offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things which happen

2005-08-20T13:43:00.000+01:00

You know you've reached that point with your thesis and research when you start having dreams about your supervisor chasing you with sharp pointy objects and trying to brainwash you.

After the third such subconscious visitation from the godhead, it was decided that I needed a night off, and I was taken to see 'Crash' for some light relief. Odd choice for a date movie. Odd choice for any movie actually. Definitely not one of this years happy-fluffy films, and I would not recommend moving to LA - they are all psychos out there! The good guys end up shooting people, you start to sympathize with the most racist bigot of the lot... Odd movie.

Right, because I always over analyze stuff ^*1* and I really shouldn't, I am going to stop discussing my exploits and return normal service to the blog by once more riffling through the trash that has accumulated in the Random folder.

Random Insult Generator. Can't remember if this was a JB gem, or a Mata gem, but it is very funny. Apparently I am a politically illiterate bloodsucker. Nice.

Once more into the gadget fray: Full Metal Keyboard.

3D browser. Oooh, contextual browsing. Fun.

Scilly Knicker Thief exiled for 7 years. What I found funniest about this? The police asked the women to identify their belongings. Think about this for a moment. Would you want to go down to the local station and pick out your diamante-studded G-string from all the others? It's also the idenifying "other items" that gets me. "Yes officer, that is indeed my Rampant Rabbit"...

the Onion - Michael Bay 'interview'. Funny on so many levels. Also, there's an Intelligent Falling article that made me laugh a lot. Won't link to it though, because I guess some people might not find it so funny. It's on that site if you want to go look.

Frist Urges teaching of ID. And it continues. I don't have a problem with people learning about Intelligent Design. It's when it is taught as a science that I start to get all worried. It's not a science. Never will be. Teach it as sociology, religion, etc, but not in the same breath as an established scientific theory. And before you get all pissy about the use of the word "theory" there, all science is just a theory. Gravity is just a theory, yet... Nope, no way to finish that sentence without offending people, so I'm just going to simmer quietly over here.

Gallery told to drop 'gay' Batman. Awwww, this is just mean. Everyone knows Batman and Robin are lovers. Why do DC comics keep trying to get them back in the closet?

Book Vending Machines. Good idea, but what's wrong with, you know, a book store?

E-Paper. Shiny futuristic futures coming even more real... Ok, would try to make that sentence more, you know, in keeping with words written by someone who claims to be proud of her grasp of the English language, but house hunting has kinda sapped any will to live right now.

And finishing on an appropriately surreal note, student held over online mugging.

Endnotes:
^*1*Though the resulting blog is apparently very cool. Shiny.^Back

Technorati Tags: Crash

what, do you think I'm stupid? yes, I think you are stupid

2005-08-20T10:31:00.000+01:00

Ok, I have come to the decision that I deserve to die the crazy old cat lady and be found a week later, mouldering away, with my fingers eaten off by my 50 feral cats. Just wanted to get that out in the open there.

*shakes head in sad, disconsolate fashion*

Also, half two in the morning is quite late to get back to the flat. You'd think you'd be able to get some privacy at that time in the morning. No. Enter random cyclists who just completely ruin everything.

*shakes head some more*

Good job I tend to see the funny side of things and, on the scale, this has to rate pretty high on the Cas-O-Meter.

Really. Old Cat Lady. No hope for me.

More coherent (and hopefully more humourous) post later. Right now I am going to go drown myself in the shower.

death smiles at us all. all you can do is smile back

2005-08-18T12:50:00.000+01:00

I've been musing on Perception with a capital “P” for the last couple of days now. Not in any major fashion, but enough for it to be a thing in my brain. The following musings are a result of a few conversations with different people over the last couple of days, some of them drunken conversations, so that might clue you into what you are about to experience.

Firstly, which is the correct perception: our perception of ourselves; or people’s perception of us? If we were going by mob-rule, I would be one of the coolest cucumbers on the planet, at least under first impressions. As far as I personally am concerned though, I am as neurotic and shy as they come.

The evidence. Apparently, I give off the "cool college girl" vibe the first time the CC ^*1* met me. That, and on the first day here at Southampton I gave the impression of seeming so laid back, that any further and I would have been horizontal. Yet inside, I was, and still am, a gibbering wreck. The memories of the first week or so on the course are a bit hazy, but I do remember the feeling of being a fraud and hoping no one found out were rather prevalent.

Again, in the last week at Liverpool, I found out that I, and the group of friends I was in, was considered to be the “cool group” (as cool as archaeologists get). So cool, in fact, that it made a couple of people loath to talk to us for the three years.

Now this is wrong to me. I have never been the cool kid. Ever. I am even perversely proud of this fact. I don’t want to be the cool kid. The cool kids made my life crap in secondary school (High School basically). My experience of the cool kids is not a good one. So I want to believe that we were the “anti-cool” group, above all those petty class rivalries, just hanging out, having fun, doing our own thing.

One time Bimbostar (her choice of name) and myself we talking about it in a lull in both of our dating escapades ^*2*, and I complained how guys never came up to talk to me in bars. It turns out that this is because I give off the vibe of being so cool, calm, and collected that I must be already totally hooked-up with someone, or just so not looking, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But I don’t know how to be any other way – I just act myself in those situations. I can’t help it that I’ve been single so long that I am pretty much fine that way most of the time. Nor, for that matter, do I want to look desperate. I must be a better actor than I’d thought.

Jeff holds firmly to the conviction that I will happily talk to anyone, fit into any new group of friends, and rapidly become the life-and-soul. Whilst the truth of the matter is that I loathe meeting new people, and scared out of my tiny little brain most of the time, and am quite happy to sit in my room and never talk to any one face to face.

So who has more authority to say which the true version of Claire is?

I’m not sure either how I manage to give off such a misleading vibe – the only thing I can think of is that it stems from the fact I just find life inherently funny. When this is all over, I am going to be sitting on my cloud, looking down at everything, laughing hysterically. I’ve spent so long laughing at myself and the pathetic mess I make of things, that it becomes very easy not to take myself seriously, and when that happens you start to realise that everyone is pretty much as fucked up as you are, and just as scared witless. Once you’ve made your peace with that fact, life does become that little bit simpler.

In all of the above, it’s a case of do as I say, not do as I do. Whilst yes, I do find life just one big cosmic joke most of the time (I mean, the Platypus?!), I still get excruciatingly nervous round people and I have a self-esteem so low it’s in negative figures. Then again, I have no desire to become the creepy old cat lady, so I’m working hard.

A few other random musings.

The CC holds that none of us are "average". We are all perfect yet flawed at the same time, and are perfect in that very flawed-ness.

Yes, a bit deep for this time of day, but having just danced around the lab (long story) and tried to explain to the Godhead why I was "Cas the Supreme and Merciful" on MSN without actually explaining (even longer story), I am so not in the mood for research right now.

In the course of a few conversations lately, I think I've worked out a better definition, or description, of what this blog is. The best way I can describe it is as a conversation you'd have with your best friend, only your best friend is a composite of the imaginary, people that know and love you, and complete random strangers.

I was also asked if there was anything I wouldn't blog about, and the answer is a definite yes. Some things really should remain private or for one-to-one communication. Bimbostar told me the tale of a friend who let everyone know his mother had just died via the blog. I wouldn't do that, for example. At the same time, whilst there is shit I don't blog about, the real heavy stuff does seem to have found its way, in the past, into bits and pieces I've written. Crown, for example.

That being true, I am starting to think I should hand out disclaimers to my friends before I talk to them, warning them that anything and everything they say is being taken down and might be blogged against them. Some consider this a good thing, imbuing deeper meaning to conversations and a kind of immortality to their words. To others the idea is anathema, which is why I rarely, if ever, talk about the Scouse One on the blog. He exists, is important to me, but has made it clear he isn't happy with being on the blog, so I don't blog about him.

Which is my way of saying, in my own inimitable long-winded style, - if you think this blog is giving you the full picture on my life, and that you 'know' me properly, you are sadly disillusioned. For starters there are people who've known me decades to whom I am still a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. I still confuse myself most times. People's perceptions are notoriously unreliable.

~fin~

Endnotes:
^*1*Yes, I've forgiven him. It's hard to stay mad when he just looks at me in that way he has. Plus he's put in some major grovelling and worshiping time over the last couple of days.^Back
^*2*She always had more dating escapades than myself, but at this point we’d both been in a lull long enough to class as a serious depression, verging on a cyclone.^Back

i've been waiting for you to kiss me since i showed you my guns

2005-08-16T22:07:00.000+01:00

For no reason other than I am in an exceedingly good mood right now, I bring you the evil squirrel, disturber of the peace.

(Click on the picture to go to the page and view the note attached).

one hundred things

2005-08-16T20:37:00.000+01:00

About a month back I was reading this blog and saw this post. It's also turned up recently on Nanette's blog, Say It, Don't Spray It. I liked the idea. I think it has merit. I am also pretty damn certain that y'all are getting a distorted view of me from this blog. Not sure that this is going to redress the balance in any measurable way, but I'm a bit bored, so why not?

100 random things about me, Cas, in no particular order, as they spring to my mind.

I have, in the past, had green, red, purple, black, blonde, and blue hair. Four of those at the same time!

Red, purple, blonde, and blue if you are curious.

I am the same height now that I was when I was thirteen.

When I was three I split my head open on the caravan step.

I have a distressing habit of breaking all of my favourite mugs.

I have been known to not recognize close family members - both my mother and brother have had the privilege of being blanked by yours truly.

The summer when I was 14, I read "Dragonsong" by Anne McCaffrey, sitting on the backseat of my brothers 2CV, in the garage, whilst eating my first ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I play the piano.

And the oboe.

And also the saxophone.

Not all at the same time.

I adore flying, the smaller the plane the better. It is an amazing feeling when you are flying a two-seater, and there is nothing between you and the sky bar a thin piece of metal, and it seems like the world is lain out beneath you.

I love sailing, but get cripplingly seasick even in coastal waters.

I always want to be learning new things. When you stop accepting new ideas, or assimilating new knowledge, then you might as well just resign from the human race.

My all time comfort film is "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves".

I want to believe in aliens: I find it hard to believe that the Earth is the only planet on which life of any sort evolved. I do think though, that when (if) we ever do meet other 'intelligent' life, it is highly likely that we won't recognize it for what it is. It is pretty much a given that it won't be bipedal with a slightly greenish tinge to the skin. Just because life as we define it requires water, oxygen, and assorted other Earth-centrinc items, doesn't mean that 'life' elsewhere needs the same things.

I would love to go into space.

I don't think that our exploration of space should stop with going to the moon, or Mars (if we ever get there). We looked out of the cave, and saw fire. Then we looked out of our valley, and wondered what was beyond the horizon. Space is what is next.

I love reading. I frequently read books from end-to-end in one sitting. When I am in the middle of a good book, I often have no idea what is going on around me, not hearing when people are talking to me, things like that. Totally oblivious.

Every time Bush (and Blair) mention the 'war on terror' I want to hide under my desk.

I am a hopeless romantic. All I want is a white knight, with a good heart, soft touch, fast horse...

My left eye is dominant.

I find it near impossible to work unless I have a frantic deadline looming over me. I don't know why - I just do my best work that way. I can have months to do something, schedule myself silly, anything, and I will still be up till 4 am on the day something is due to get it done.

I don't want a job, I want a career. I want it to mean something. I want it to be something that stretches my brain and makes me approach the world in a new way. I just don't know what that career is going to be.

I am allergic to squash such as Ribena, and other soft drinks laden with colours and flavourings.

I am addicted to orange juice.

025 directly contributed to 026. As a child the drinks most kids had from the Robinson's family caused me migraines, and I never did like fizzy drinks such as cola, so that left water (boring) and OJ. I drink pints of the stuff, which, as I prefer the non-concentrate stuff such as Tropicana (I can be sure nothing artificial has snuck in that way), is expensive.

I am deeply afraid of loosing my sight. It would be hard to totally loose any sense, but I have some hearing loss anyway, so feel it would be easier to compensate for that loss rather than vision. Then again, I'd rather not loose any of my senses.

Some of the stories I used to write were scarily prophetic - I wrote about a character who failed to become a vet so became an archaeologist two years before I'd even been rejected from veterinary college... I gave one character based on a friend twins in three separate stories, so I'm just waiting for the announcement!

My brother is responsible for making our GP to shave off his beard in 1982.

I was brought up in Glastonbury, Somerset (UK).

Certain times of the month the only thing standing between me and the annihilation of anyone who crosses my path is a block of chocolate.

I attended the Millfield school system (Abbey, Edgarley, and Millfield) from the age of three. I was one of the first pupils at the Abbey school - there used to be a bench with my name on it in the playground, before they moved the school up to the Edgarley grounds. I've no idea if the bench went too.

Few things in this world annoy me more than evangelicals. I have nothing wrong with people of faith, no matter what that faith be, but when someone tries to impose their belief-system on me, I go crazy-nuts. There are few things more insulting than being told the way you live your life is wrong. To be told that, and then to be told you have been doomed to a special level of hell by a deity you don't actually believe in, well, that's just plain rude.

I am really incredibly shy. I just hide it well.

It is harder than you would think to come up with 100 interesting (or not) facts about yourself! What are the pertinent parts of my personality? More importantly, how do you condense these down into one liners?

I think of myself as average. It would be nice to be special or outstanding in some way, but I am starting to realise that most people are just average.

The average people are the people who get things done in this world. Don't knock the average people. Without them (us), there'd be lots of brilliant ideas, but civilization would still grind to a halt.

Slugs scare the shit out of me.

I have problems with people who call me 'cute' - cute is for puppy-dogs and kittens. Not grown women.

At the same time, I have even bigger problems with people who might say I was attractive. So, I'm learning to live with 'cute'

I am not a nice person to know in the morning. If you see me before I've had my morning cup of tea, run. Definitely don't make eye contact or expect conversation.

Being short is irritating.

Being short and bigger than a size 12 (UK) is even more irritating. Normal trousers are about a foot too long for you, but they don't seem to make 'petite' length trousers in sizes bigger than 12.

Consequently I have got quite good at taking up hems!

I love photography. I'm not very good at it, but I love it. My digital camera is all very shiny and great for quick pictures, taking out, etc., but there is something extra special about using the SLR. Which, sadly, means I still have to fork out exorbitant amounts of money to develop films. You forget how easy it is just to upload photos the day you took them, till you have to trek into town to find a Jessops. But there is nothing quite like the thrill you get when you get the packet of photos back from the developers and you open it for the first time - how did they turn out?!

Even more exciting is finding a film at the back of the drawer, getting it developed, and finding pictures you took on holiday five years ago. Ah, the memories.

One of the greatest pieces of modern composition is the "Barbarian Horde" track from the 'Gladiator' soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Now vastly over played and copied to the point where it has become pedestrian, listen to it again with fresh ears, and it will make your heart beat faster. Remember that, when this film came out, no score had ever sounded like this.

I want there to be an end to conflict in this world. I don't understand how it can be possible to hate so much that you would willingly kill another being. It's just beyond me.

When I hear certain pieces of music I get shivers all over my body - that's when I know something is good. Every time I hear Sarah Denby sing, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Watch out for the girl - she is destined for great things.

If you had asked me five years ago what I would be doing at the age of 23 I would not have come up with anything within a million miles of doing postgraduate research into archaeology and social computing.

Then again, I am nothing like who I was at the age of just 18, so that's hardly surprising.

I'm not sure when we got our first computer in the family, but it was back when personal computers were still shiny and new, and had screens the size of chocolate bars.

Thing that annoyed me most this week when I browsed the internet? A how-to guide I found on a Christian site. It was basically a step-by-step guide on how to convert Buddhists. It was trying to explain the mapping between certain key Christian principles (i.e., rebirth being the first on the list) and the equivalent Buddhist teaching. Not gonna happen. See 034 for related rant.

My brother used to charge me 50p a lesson to learn how to use DOS. He always was the enterprising one of the family.

Of the 178 results for my real name on Google, only 4 are actually anything to do with me.

Of the 29 results for my alter ego on Google, 6 are something to do with me.

Not sure what search results would get you to my site, but at the moment people have stumbled across the blog whilst searching for Breasts, Robots, Dr Who, Jennifer Ehle, Polly Toynbee, and Colin Firth. Nice to see people are searching for serious things on the internet.

I own Brittney Spear's first album.

I have an unhealthy interest in gadgets and shiny silver toys. There are times I think I have magpie DNA mixed in with my human stuff.

Odd things keep happening to me. The best has to be when my ex-boyfriend got engaged to my brothers ex-girlfriend.

No idea why, but a decent set of collar-bones on a man just makes me go all weak at the knees. Odd part of the body to get enthused by, but I am sure there are odder. At least they lack the inherent odor problems of feet.

I got to know my best friend and two of my ex's via online role-playing and MSN.

Yes, I am a geek.

Apparently, from first impressions, people think I am the "cool college girl".

Then you get to know me and realize how wrong you are.

Some of my favourite food is Asian - it's an equal split between Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Japanese. Mmmmmm, jasmine rice.

I am a citizen of King Danny's new country (at the time of writing, it's still without a name).

My favourite bands are Matchbox Twenty,

Lifehouse,

Three Doors Down,

John Mayer,

Jack Johnson,

and Idlewild.

But I will listen to pretty much anything so long as it isn't dance or techno, and even then I have a soft spot for the odd bit of Basement Jaxx

Back to 43 - I've changed my mind. I like tall men, and being short means that more men are tall relative to me, so go being short! Did figure out once that 6'2" was about the maximum though. Taller and that and you start to need a chiropractor on staff to deal with the permanently cricked neck.

I probably use sarcasm and self-deprecation far too much, but they've worked for me so far, so why stop?

I have a weird phobia about people touching me on the neck.

At the same time, a good head massage and shampoo at the salon is probably the closest thing to sheer pleasure you can get in public, legally, whilst still fully clothed.

I used to be the captain of our university archery team.

Then I fucked my back up totally, it's three years later, and I am still in pain.

My undergraduate dissertation broke me - I got RSI in both wrists to the degree I couldn't hold a fork for a month, and even now I have to be careful of how I type and use the mouse. For three months I decided that support bandages were a fashion accessory.

Looking back, I was a remarkably sickly and accident prone child and young adult. It's a bit of a miracle I've made it this far whilst still semi-sane.

I like the idea of cooking and baking, but somehow always end up making the same three meals. Something to do with having to buy fresh ingredients all the time and follow recipes, I think.

I don't make any claims to being a good dancer, but there are times when a girl just has to have a good boogie.

Which is a problem, because Southampton just doesn't have the same kicking nightlife that Liverpool did.

I can't believe I just used the phrase "kicking nightlife".

I'm addicted to tea. The thought of not having tea is just... wrong. Assam tea is my current favourite beverage.

I like going to the movies - no matter how frequently I go, sitting in the cinema with a bag of popcorn, waiting for the trailers to start, then watching the film, never grows old.

I love plants and gardens, they just don't love me back. Both my grandfather and mother had gardens of surpassing beauty, but plants just have to look at me and they die.

Which is why I have grown to love Japanese style gardens - minimal planting!

I also adore trees. There aren't enough trees in this world. Trees are our friends.

Plant more trees.

Penguins are evil.

This doesn't mean I hate penguins, just that they are evil. Their evilness is part of their essential penguin-ness, and one of the things that makes them special.

Pingu is the one exception to this rule, at the request of a colleague. Apparently Pingu can keep his kids quiet for a good 30 minutes at a time, which is no mean feat. He will hear no evil against Pingu. Personally, not a fan (the games on the site designed for three year olds defeated me!), but Dave's wish is my command on this one.

I have one tattoo. It was designed by a dear friend of mine.

I want more tattoos, but am resisting the temptation because 1) I can't afford it, and 2) once you start, it is very hard to stop and I don't want to turn into the Painted Lady.

The key to my heart is silver and amber, and carried by a tall man with good collar-bones, who climbs, plays the bass, is a bit of geek, and has a sexy accent.

I really like lists. No, that's wrong, I like crossings things off of lists. Whenever I write a list, I always put at least one thing on there that I have already done so I can cross it off straight away.

I've been working on this list on and off for about a month now, so you'd better have found it useful!!

geeze popeye, where d'ya keep the spinach?

2005-08-15T22:57:00.000+01:00

There is something remarkably decadent about writing on your laptop whilst sitting on your bed, in your PJs. Not sure what it is - sitting at the PC in your nightwear is, I am sure, an activity practiced (at least occasionally) by a large proportion of you, and nobody thinks anything of it. And there is nothing overly odd about sitting on your bed to work either. It's comfortable and softer than the floor. In my case I sit on the bed because it's the only other sit-able-on piece of furniture in the room. I don't count the floor. I do sit on the floor a lot. I just don't class it as "furniture". Furniture you can move. The floor shouldn't move, unless you are in a lift (thats an elevator for you non-Euro-philes reading), or in an earthquake, and in neither of those occasions are you normally working.

Back to my point. I've been sitting on my bed, laptop at the ready, surrounded by books for the better part of the afternoon. I was working. The desk wasn't looking good to me today, and I'd got done all I could done in the lab this morning. Also, Penny had the cricket on and, whilst I found it enjoyable, I was concentrating more on that than on the thesis, so home I had to come. I didn't feel decadent then. I did feel I should be in a montage shot from some film - you know the bit: attractive but intelligent girl studying hard before the finals, books spread in a circle around her, laptop open, pencil held in teeth (or possibly behind the ear), another pen holding most of her hair back in a bun, but allowing a few locks to fall forward making her look fetchingly distracted, glasses (that she hasn't up to this point worn) on the end of her nose, typing for a bit, then flicking over a page, cross-referencing in another book, typing some more, possibly occasionally taking sips of tea (or coffee) from the large mug with the cute cartoon kitten on it... all the while some music plays designed to show the men in the audience that, whilst studying normally isn't cool, when she is doing it is, and that they should fall wildly in love with her...

You get the idea.

Now though, I feel decadent. Perhaps it is because it is after ten, or because it's a combination of all the elements (laptop, bed, PJs, disheveled hair do, books). Or perhaps not. Either way, that's what I'm doing, and that's what I feel.

Yes, I am rambling more than normal because I am mildly jazzed up at the moment. Just went to see Grease the Musical at the Mayflower Theater. I've seen Grease the Movie more than once, and also seen it in a couple of different productions on the stage, but it was only £10 for the student ticket, and both Moose and myself enjoyed seeing Joseph so much last year we thought we'd take in another show whilst it was local. Be criminal not to. And Moose needed cheering up, so really I was being a good friend going along with her. It would have been mean not to go...

Yeah, having a hard time trying to convince myself as well. But it was fun! The girl playing Sandy had an amazing voice - we're talking chills up the nape-of-the-neck great here. Danny was pretty good as well. Not quite as much charisma as when I saw Shane Ritchie (yes, the Alfie Moon from Eastenders) in the part, but still pretty damn hot. I did have an issue with the woman playing Rizzo - she was channelling Stockard Channing a little bit too much. Basically shouting every line, even the normal conversation, which meant when she was genuinely shouting she had nowhere left to go. But then she sang and I forgave her everything. I probably understood what the song "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" really meant for the first time. Again, chills were multiplying up my spine when she sang.^*1*

All in all, much fun. I've decided that my perfect man needs to sing as well as all the rest. Now, the DNCC-WINLHATF (Decidedly-Not-Cute-Canadian-Who-I-No-Longer-Have-A-Thing-For) already is a dab hand on the bass guitar, dances, climbs (and has the collar-bones of a climber to boot), is enough of a geek to understand gamers and enjoy cartoons, and, let's not forget, is really rather easy on the eyes. If he could add singing to that mix you'd be scraping me off the floor from the puddle of girly-goo I'd just melted into.

But, as he, in addition to all of those things, seems oblivious to my charms, I think I'd better start the search elsewhere.

Endnotes:
^*1*Not sure if I've mentioned before how, when someone is really good at singing, the nape of my neck gets all tingly, and I get goosebumps on my arms. Most times I can hear people sing and, whilst they may be great, I don't get that extra something, so when I do get the tingles, I know they must be good.^Back

Technorati Tags: Grease, Joseph

politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.

2005-08-14T14:20:00.000+01:00

First off, a brief apology for the lack of a drunken-post last night. I came home and just... didn't want to post. Sleep seemed good to me at the time. Also, nothing particularly blog-worthy occurred.

Though the Cute Canadian is not to be referred to as the Cute Canadian for the next week. Not only did he not get Jeff the beef jerky and day-old taco he had promised, he failed to get me some yoghurt covered preztels. The feloniously acquired penguin signage was just a pipe-dream, I accept that, but yoghurt covered preztels?! I haven't had any in a year now and am suffering serious withdrawals. You just get funny looks when you try to find them in this benighted country. And now the Brother is no longer NY-based, I have no reliable supply lines. Here's a lesson to you girls out there - never trust a man. Especially cute ones. Or Canadian ones. If they're both, you don't stand a chance. Grr.

So, till next Sunday, he's to be known as the Decidedly-Not-Cute-Canadian-Who-I-No-Longer-Have-A-Thing-For. As that is a bit of fingerful to type, that will be shortened to the DNCC-WINLHATF. Grrr.

Ack. The sites filed in my 'random' folder seem to have been breeding. Kinda like Tribbles. You have one, then two, then before you know all the storage bins are filled and you're looking at the sharp end of a bill to restock an entire colony's food supplies.

A ~~quick digest~~^*1* brief-ish roundup of the best of the rest. (Oh, and warning, I've stopped using the target=blank attribute. Got an ear bashing from a someone in the lab about the need for elegancy in code etc. Bah! All you happy-browser people [Firefox, Safari etc] just ctrl-click or cmd-click depending on OS and you'll get a new tab with the link in. IE people ditto will automatically open it in a new window.)

CNet's Top 10 Web Fads. Worth it just to remember the Hampsterdance.

Something Silver. There is some truly shiny jewelry on this site. Even some gorgeous amber and silver combos. Tip - way to my heart? Silver and amber combos.

Paper Princess. Stationary and other paper-based crafty goodness.

The NYPL Picture Collection Online. A great image resource. Isn't internet research just the best?

Crystal Chess Set. SHINY! If these came on a glass board I would be hard pressed not to be buying this right now.

Vertical Chess Board. And this I want. Might have to see if the Crazy Canalman is feeling creative enough to make similar for my birthday. Trying to work through the implementation in my head and I think it's possible. Maybe even have a wall mounted version in the house so you can have an ongoing game of chess without the worry of the cat knocking the pieces off. Also, I do have a number of sets I can't display because they just take up so much surface space. I am all excited about working out the mechanics of the game - if you've ever tried to play chess on a computer in the schematic layout, you'll know what I mean when I say how unusual layouts really screw you over till you're used to them.

Many-To-Many: the biases of links. Just occasionally I am going to be throwing some heavier stuff at you, and this is one of them. I am doing research in the field, after all! That first paragraph just sums it up perfectly.

Artist to recreate Afghan Buddhas. I know the artist says he's not doing it for religious or archaeological reasons, but as a representative of both groups, I say bravo! The buzz on the WAC lists is positive as well, which (considering that archaeologists rarely, if ever, agree on anything) is a sure sign its a good idea.

New lemurs found in Madagascar. So cute and fluffy! And so like the little baby lemur in the Madagascar cartoon! (Oh, and go the psychotic penguins!)

Many-To-Many: Valuing Social Gestures. More semi-serious research stuff. All about how you can rate blogs other than on link-counts a la Technorati etc.

Bush weighs into evolution debate. I've said it before, and no doubt I will say it again, but how, by all that anyone holds holy, did this man get voted in a second time!?

Private company plans $100 million tour around the Moon (NYT). Right, where can I get my mits on that amount of cash? It's a bit more than I could find down the back of the sofa...

Read Print. More online books. Not a fan of the format, but love the idea.

Banana Box. Why?

Bush 2K. Not content with destroying world peace, the man now has to start on my computer?! Grrrr...

Bad news for my bank balance. Three of my all-time top bands have released new material. And by all-time-top I mean bands whose new albums I will buy without even listening to them first. Warning - bands seem incapable of realizing that flash heavy and flash-only sites are a pain in the unmentionables. Even on a T1 line these took a while to open, so if you're on dialup, I'd think twice.
Lifehouse
Three Doors Down
Matchbox Twenty (check out the 'Unwell' video. Genius song, genius video

It Plays Doom.Com. For no other reason than I have fond memories of the game. And the screaming nightmares I got when I tried to play it again a couple of years ago. For some reason, poking the eyes out of pink demons with your fingers is cool/funny/non-gross when you're like 12. When you're in the mid-twenties, night-terrors galore. Looking forward to the movie as well.

Experts decipher Inca strings. Interesting, if only because I recently read a sci-fi book where one of the main forms of recording was in the form of knotted strings. Synchronisity.

The Killer Bean. Thanks to Spooky McDougal for this one. The guy who did a lot of the Matrix animation has fun with beans...

Konfabulator. Yet one more way for me to avoid doing work. The IMDB widget is really rather handy though. Blame JB for this one. I had managed to forget all about it, till he reminded me last week. Grrr.

Computer Applications in Archaeology 2006. One of the better conferences around, and in Fargo... Oh, I so want to go!

Big Brother Final. Thank god it is finally over, if only for another year. Perhaps now C4 will get back to sensible programming, like Lost. I will say this for modern media - I was able to keep up with conversations in the lab about BB, even though I haven't caught an episode since the first series, because every move was reported so religiously in the media.

*edit* forgot one. Thanks to Moose for this one (read to the end of the article to find out why it had both of us giggling like little school girls). Knowing A Man's Mind

Endnotes:
^*1*Who am I trying to kid? I've never been concise in my life!^Back

you got a cat? because i can feel something licking me...

2005-08-13T18:01:00.000+01:00

I've been looking for a new bag for a while now - I am picky, so it's taken a bit to find what I wanted. I was looking for something small but groovy. It's for when I go out you see. You need something big enough to keep your wallet, phone, keys, and eyeliner etc in (at least if you are me you do), but not something so big that you look odd when dancing. Alas, all the bags I have at the moment are of the black-hole variety. They fit EVERYTHING you could ever need and then some, but really spoil the line of an outfit.

So we were in H&M today, I was picking through the accessories in a desultry fashion, and then I saw the above. I hadn't even picked it off the shelf when Moose went "oh yes, that's perfect". As I make a point of never arguing with Moose, especially when she is right, I got it. And it is. Perfect that is.

Shiny.

well my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle

2005-08-13T15:01:00.000+01:00

Well, the blog has definitely come of age now. If you will all cast your attention here to the comments at the end of the I Have Breasts post, you will find a comment that is not the most complimentary I have ever received.

Now, before we go any further, I have no problem with non-complimentary comments. I believe that frank and open discussion is good and that there should be more of it. Nor am I naive enough to think that everyone out there is going to agree with everything I say. So, I would like to invite Mr Anonymous (for some reason I am getting a male vibe off the post) to come back and discuss what about my post offended him (or her, it could be a her) so much. Or, failing that, to email me so that we can discuss the issues he (or, again, she) had with the post.

For future reference though, any dear dissenters out there who might be wanting to follow in dear Anonymous' footsteps, I am more inclined to take you seriously if you own your comments. Hiding behind the illusory anonymity of the net does seem a little cowardly.

And now, let's discuss the issues this comment raised in a bit more depth. I feel we, as decent net-citizens, owe it to Anonymous to play nicely in our little sandbox and not to throw the toys out of the pram too often.

Firstly, there is nothing quite like a little flame to really make your day start with a bang. I had had a hunch that today was going to be a good day - I got woken up at just before 9 this morning by a loud German (Sebastian has friends over from back home). This is ok. I had things I needed to get done today and they weren't going to get done sleeping. Then I needed the bathroom, so opened my door, to find myself staring a tall blond rather cute German in the face. Again, not a bad way to start the morning. Mildly embarrassing on my part seeing as how I was still in PJs with bed-hair, but there are worse sights that could have greeted me. Then I turn on the computer and find a not-so-nice comment on the blog. Whilst not causing me to burst into tears of pain and rejection, it was still a dose of reality I could have done without at 9 in the morning, on my day off, unfortified by a cup of tea. Then again, it did give me something to talk to Moose about on the bus into town, so, all to the good :)

Now we get to the text of the comment. Perhaps I should have explained myself better. I was not intending to be mean about Ms. Dunst. I believe she is a wonderful actress and really rather pretty, but by no stretch of the imagination could she be considered large-breasted. This is what happens when you break a personal rule of never commenting on how people look - even when you only mean it as a throw-away comment some people take it the wrong way. My bad. Nor, for that matter, were the size of Ms Dunst's breasts actually the topic of the post. I was talking about my breasts and the many trials and tribulations that ensue when you have, as the Irish Lass elegantly put it over lunch yesterday, curves. Either way, I am sorry to any Kirtsen Dunst fans out there who were offended by what I had to say on the matter.

It was the end part of Anonymous' comment that really confused me though. I am not sure of the relationship between my fitness levels and the size of Ms. Dunst's breasts. Let us put aside for now the fact that I go to the gym at least three times a week (Moose has this look she gives me when I don't go that just guilts the crap out of me), make a point of walking at least 30 minutes on the days I don't go to the gym, and am (if not in tip-top condition), not so unfit that I get out of breath walking to the fridge and back. Let us also put aside for now the fact that, if I spent any less time on the computer, I think the godhead would be after me with sharp pointy objects and any chance of me actually getting a post-graduate qualification would go from 'fairly high' straight to 'none', bypassing 'slim' on the way down.

Seriously, is there some scientific study out there that proves conclusively that the size of Ms. Dunst's bust is directly correlated to my exercise regime (or mooted lack thereof)? I mean, if there was, you'd think that her agent or someone on her staff would have got in touch to coordinate our schedules. I mean, there should have been at least the odd phone-call saying "Kirsten's got a premiere in a couple of weeks, so could you see your way to fitting in a few K's on the cross-trainer this week?" There have, so far, been no such calls. Also, I am not sure what Anonymous means. Does he mean if I exercise more her bust will increase, or it will decrease? And which is the more favorable outcome as far as he (and any other fans of Ms. Dunst out there who might be reading this) is concerned?

Still on things that my brain started thinking about after that comment:
I found a wonderful way of increasing the readership of Bright Meadow over night, and it is this - tag a post in Technorati with the tag 'breasts'. I just looked over my stats. It is reassuring somehow to learn that the mindset of the average internet user has not changed much over the years. They are still like Prince George in Blackadder the Third when he uses the first ever dictionary to look up dirty words. (The episode I am talking about is "Ink and Incapability" if you are curious). I wouldn't recommend that you did this trick with any regularity, because then people would probably start to think you were something to do with the adult entertainment industry, but once or twice sure gives the page-hit a nice boost. And yes, it looks like dear Anonymous arrived at the blog via a search for 'breasts'. Certainly no one has come in via a link on 'Kirsten Dunst' or 'Elizabethtown' which were the other tags I used on that post. For some reason I have had one user who has repeatedly come to the site via a search for 'Jeff'. Odd, but true.

One of the things that I had to do today (and got done because a loud German woke me up) was braving M&S and getting some new bras. I tried on what felt like a gazillion of the fricking things (seven) and actually found two pairs that fitted, that I liked, and (more importantly) that (if I don't eat for the next week or so) I could afford. Perhaps M&S heard my comments the other day about how they've mucked about with the sizing, but this time around I actually was the size I thought I was, which was something. Then I get the only male assistant on the checkouts. I couldn't help it - the part of my brain that resides quite happily in the gutter flashed the thought in my mind how it was a pity the first bloke in a while to manhandle my underwear wasn't cuter. I know, I know! I am a bad Cas. I should wash my mouth out with soap and water.

And, as I have probably offended a whole heap more people with that post, I am going to stop now. We're all going out again tonight (I just purchased the CUTEST bag) so don't be surprised if there is a drunken post at about 3 am tomorrow. You have been warned.

Also, just want to check, the rest of you understand the tone of this blog is irreverant and sarcastic for sure, but loving irreverant and sarcastic, right? I don't come across as some mean psycho bitch from hell or anything? Cos I used to live with one of them, and they're no fun :(

my day of jubilee

2005-08-12T15:38:00.000+01:00

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!
IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

No, you haven't stumbled by accident into a reproduction of Frakenstein's Monster.

I am, in fact, talking about my wiki. Those in the know will know that getting the damn thing running properly has been... to say not easy would be a vast understatement. I've had it up and running for a good month or so now, but our computer services people kept refusing to press the button that would make it visible if you weren't sitting in the lab. And as the whole point of the wiki was that people outside of the lab could use it, this was proving to be a slight problem.

Just when I thought the godhead was in danger of having exploding with anger, it suddenly went live as of (checks watch, then checks wiki to make sure she isn't dreaming it) five minutes ago.

So I'm a happy bunny!

Sadly, I now have no excuse not to get on with the writing of the thesis itself now. But I'm not going to think on that today - for today is my day of jubilee.

Yipee!!!!

stay a little while then maybe you will see

2005-08-11T19:25:00.000+01:00

(I challenge you not to be happy and grinning like a fool by the end of this post ^*1*.)

I would like to bring to your attention a piece of sheer television genius on BBC2 at the moment: "How To Start Your Own Country" (Wednesday evenings, 10 pm). The man really is starting his own country. In his flat. In London. All I can say is, go to the site, watch the series if you can, and try not to pee your pants laughing.

Watch the National Anthem. Please. You have been warned though, the tune is probably as catchy as the jingle from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", or the "Hate Something" Honda advert. I was humming it all through dinner.

We watched the show last night even though it meant missing most of the pilot for "Lost" on C4. That is how good it is.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to take my oath of citizenship. ^*2*.

Endnotes:
^*1*If you follow the links I tell you to.^Back
^*2*And no, I'm not making this up. It is very much for real.^Back

Technorati Tags: Citizens Required

i have breasts. kirstin dunst does not.

2005-08-10T14:28:00.000+01:00

The following post is aimed toward the female readers of the blog. Male readers, well, you're going to enjoy the subject matter I suppose, just keep the sniggering down at the back, ok?

I have an ambivalent attitude toward my breasts. I am happy that I have them and I'd rather have them than the alternative, but there is no getting around the fact that, at times, I wish they were just... different. I am pretty much sure that most women feel the same way toward their breasts - bigger, smaller, different conformation, you name it - none of us are happy with what we've got.

For my own, I wish there were just that bit smaller. I'm not approaching Jordan, sorry Katie Price, in proportions, but I am certainly larger in that department than is average. It's lucky I've got a naturally stocky build, or I would be in danger of looking all out of proportion. Most times this does not, shall we say, put me at a disadvantage? But then there come the days when I have to go clothes shopping.

That's when the wheels fall off the wagon.

I can't remember where I read the stats, but the 'average' woman is a size 12 or 14, and a size 36 B or C, so I'm nudging the upper range of normal. Clothes, on the other hand, are designed for Kirstin Dunst who probably approximates a size 6 and is a 32 A or something. For many years this was fine with me. You shop in the 18 plus and you get inured, if not contented, with voluminous clothes that most definitely weren't designed with Kirstin Dunst in mind. But I've been working hard this past year or so on taming my recalcitrant body, and I've finally got to the point where I can wear (and look halfway decent) in clothes designed for normal people. Oh, the pleasure of taking a size 14 into the changing room and knowing that, even if it looks ugly, it won't be the fit that is to blame! So I am finally able to wear trousers again after about five years of clown-pants and long skirts, and... now I can't find tops that fit me.

Maybe my proportions are all wrong, but clothes just don't seem designed for people with breasts. Any breasts, not just slightly-larger-than-average breasts. I tried on one of those looks-great-on-the-models silky camisole thingumies in H&M today. You know that moment when you've got the top over your shoulders, but it won't go over your breasts, and you start to panic thinking "Oh my god, they're going to have to cut me out of this, and it was the cute male assistant on duty today..."? Well, I had that moment and then some today. Fortunately I remembered some breathing exercises I picked up when playing the oboe that had the side effect of minimizing the bust. Managed to wriggle out of the top, with my dignity (and hairstyle) ruffled but more or less intact. Just hope they've not taken to putting cameras in the H&M changing rooms...

Even when I do find tops that fit, which is no easy matter, short of wearing a polo-neck I always end up exposing more cleavage than a nice girl should. I can wear vests underneath tops (fortunately the layered look is in right now), but I still catch more than a few men looking at my breasts instead of my face. As for when I want to wear that nice strapless or backless dress, well, something things are just never going to happen no matter how much we might want them to. I'm never going to be a world-class athlete. Nor, do I think, is au naturelle an option darlings.

Which kind of brings me to part two of my breast-related rant. Bra's. I could swear that the sizings have got smaller in the last year or so. *eyes narrow* M&S must have some conspiracy going on with small-breasted women to make them feel better, because there is no way that at the same time as LOOSING lots of weight, my breasts have gone UP a cup-size.

Also, do they have to be so fricking expensive? You're looking at the sharp end of £20 for a nice bra, then £5 or more if you want matching knickers. That's my weekly grocery budget. Two sets and you practically have a new copy of Mac OSX. You can be sure that if there was a piece of clothing the majority of men had to wear it would cost a lot LOT less. Or be available free from the government or something. There's a thought - bras on the NHS. Then again as a child who was inflicted with NHS glasses, perhaps not.

We won't go into the fact that popcorn (anything I eat in the cinema) seems to have a fascination with my cleavage giving me the option of going searching (and incurring some very scandalised looks from the little old lady at the end of the row), or having popcorn where no popcorn was designed to go for the entirety of the film. But, as I said, we won't be going into that today. That's more to do with my clutziness than my breasts.

Yes, I love my breasts, and one or two other people have expressed a favorable opinion of them as well, but there are days when they do bug the crap out of me. Like today. No, I am not expecting anything constructive to come of this post, I just wanted to share.

Endnotes:
^*1*In case you are wondering, todays title is not a quote from any film/book/song or anything I know of. It came out in a conversation about the upcoming film Elizabethtown, a film in which Ms. Dunst looks flatchested, even for her.

Technorati Tags: breasts, Kirstin Dunst, Elizabethtown, M&S, NHS

have you seen him? with the eyes, and the chest, and the... immortality?

2005-08-08T12:18:00.000+01:00

There just aren't the words to describe how much I laughed when Aoife emailed me these pictures this morning. Definately made my day.

Go here for a Flickr set of photos from our night out the other week. The night out in question was previously described here.

I know Dixons have announced that they are no longer going to stock 35mm cameras, and this makes me sad because digital cameras just aren't as good, but the invention of digital cameras has certainly made it easier to record nights-out and how silly everyone looks whilst drunk.

There have been some memorable moments from this year, but this has to rank at (or near) the top. Going to miss these guys come October when we scatter to the four winds :(

One of my favourites: (end of the night. From left to right the Nordic Ninja, Cas (yes I really am that short), Jeff, and the Cute Canadian)

don't play hard to get, it's a free, free world...

2005-08-08T10:45:00.000+01:00

A slightly spammy post this morning (with respect what I am talking about).

Firstly, I am so overwhelmingly proud that I got my first ever "I am going to leave X amount of dollars to you, if you will just send me your bank account details..." email. What made this one so wondefully special to me is that woman is dying of cancer, and, get this, she will leave me one and a half million dollars if I use the money to spread the word of god. Now, this amused me, considering how wide of the mark these people got when they hit me.

Firstly, I have been on the net since... well, a long time, and have a high level of sceptisim to start with. There really is no such thing as a free lunch, let alone lunches that are to the tune of $1.5 million. But even if I was stupid enough to believe what 'she' was saying, there are a few other things they missed...

Nothing is guaranteed to make me turn off faster than trying to gull me with mention of cancer. If you really are suffering from or affected in any way by cancer you have my total sympathy. I think my record stands for itself on that score - for proper charities, I raise money, buy pins, run 5 kilometres on a blazing hot July sunday morning, the works. But to use the cancer card is just plain low (even for spammers).

Thirdly, I lied on two. If there is one thing going to make me turn off faster than using the cancer-card, it is telling me it is the will of god. Hello, not Christian here folks! If you would be happy for me to spread the word about Buddhism, then perhaps we can talk. Well, ok, perhaps not, because evangelising isn't my bag baby, but you get the idea.

All of the above does suggest that these spam attacks are organised, which of course they aren't, but even some basic market research might have pointed out that I'm not who you should be targeting. At least not like that.

I am liking gmail's spam filter - works measurably better than that of hotmail, or ~~freeserve~~ wanadoo. Even flags up when emails are coming from laundry sites ^*1* in an attempt to disguse their origin. Hence, note to spammers out there - phishing attacks pretending to be my bank won't work either, so :P

There is one way of getting spam to me, if you don't care that I can't understand a word you are saying. Send it in some unidentified asian language, possibly Japanese. Putting pictures of scantily clad ladies in the body of the email was also a nice touch. If I disable gmail's automatic 'block images' function, I get a facefull of what, well, doesn't turn me on. On the plus side, when I happen to open my emails on the LARGE dual-screen monitors in the lab, my male friends also get to see them, and I don't hear Jeff, Spooky McDougal, or the Cute Canadian complaining, but it is mildly embarrassing.

So, my dilemma - how do I unsubscribe from this site, wherever it is, when I can't read a fricking thing that it says? We'll leave aside for now the fact I have NO idea how this email got on a list for an Asian language site. Whilst Gmail is being effective blocking it, I would rather I didn't get it at all, and as I'm getting three or four A DAY it's starting to get mildly irritating. Help?

And talking of Gmail, if anyone wants an account, I have more than enough invites to go around.

Now, seeing as how I am staring another boring day in the lab in the face, expect more posts as the day goes on. For now, sayonara.

Endnotes:
^*1*Oh, just read Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon" already!^Back

scrawling my existence on random sheets of parchment

2005-08-07T18:54:00.000+01:00

Today was a slow day, evidenced by the fact that I started yet another blog - Blackcurrant Cheesecake. This one is being given over to the few pieces of fiction I wrote a couple of years back that seemed, on the whole, not stomach-churningly bad. All I can say is go and read, and (perhaps most importantly) tell me what you really think. Good, bad, ugly, how could I make it better, etc etc ad nauseam.

A few last things before I sign off of for the evening:

I am detecting a certain peripherals theme lately in my posts. This isn't by itself a bad thing, but could be giving people the wrong idea about me. To them, in the fond memories of a random internet bloke I once dated, I say "Meh".

More grist for the peripheral lovers mill -

I can think of some of my mates doing research into VR are going to get all excited about this: Toshiba develops flatbed 3D display. Not totally convinced myself. Can see some exciting sci-fi futures though :)

Ok, sexy, totally uncessesary, exciting... the Optimus Keyboard

And those observant ones among you might have noticed a new little link in the "Keep in Touch" section. In keeping with my own narcissistic desires to get more readership, I submitted by blog to Blogwise about a month ago, and finally got approved in the middle of the week. Did a search for fellow 'archaeology' bloggers, and got directed to good old Michael Shanks. Even though Traumwerk was down the last couple of times I tried to look, got to owe the man a plug. He is partly ~~to blame~~ responsible for my current predicament with regards wikis and my thesis. That voodoo doll on my desk is nothing to do with him. Honestly. Yep. Nothing to do with him. Nothing at all...

Now that really is me done for the evening. I think. Probably. Depends how bored I get later on.

*edit* Seems I made a bit of a boo-boo a couple of posts back with my title - In About as convincing a disguse... it should read as a Polar bears only GOLF club, not goth club. It wasn't an intentional re-write, though a remarkably appropriate one. I genuinely thought that that was the line, though thinking about it golf does make more sense for WW1-era Blackadder. Thanks to Moose for pointing it out to me :)

the camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality

2005-08-06T20:18:00.000+01:00

Right, out of sympathy for y'all having to read a 2,500 word post ^*1* I have held off blogging for the last couple of days. Also, I had nothing to say. The afore mentioned rant kinda sapped my desire to write for a while. Which sucks when you think of the thesis I should be writing.

But it is now Sunday, I don't want to read about wikis any more, so here are a few of the things that have been accumulating in my 'random' bookmarks folder.

I ~~enjoy~~ am obsessed by cups of tea. I am not joking when I say that without them I would not be able to function. It is a well documented phenomenon. A good portion of the month we were in Malaysia was spent trying to find me a decent cup of tea^*2*. So when I stumbled across the H2G2 entry for tea written by (among others, Douglas Adams himself) in the course of my research, I was rather chuffed. The animation is rather groovy, if annoyingly looped to infinity. NB - I do not share DNA's belief that Earl Grey is the best tea that money can buy. The man was wrong. But he is sadly dead now, and wrote some truly wonderful radio shows, books, articles, and films, so I won't hold it against him. Much. George Orwell also had some strong views on tea. If you are interested, I subscribe to the milk-first school. Just tastes better as far as I am concerned.

Sleep is good. Sleep is my friend. I have been known to sleep through all manner of things that would wake most mere mortals. My father's snoring for one! The reverberations that can be set up when inside a 50ft long, 6ft 6inch wide metal hulled boat by a 58 y ear old man have to be experienced to be believed. I have also broken a fair few alarm clocks in my time in an effort to shut them up and get more sleep, so the idea of an alarm clock that runs away from you is just supreme! And furry to boot.

No idea why you would need the ultimate guide to shooting rubber bands, but it kept me amused for a while. This is one classroom skill I never quite got the hang off, and I have to admit that I never thought so much went into it! Perhaps that is where I have been going wrong all these years. Now I have longer hair again, be warned - I am going to be supplied with hairbands within easy reach - AMMO!!!!!

Free science fiction is always good, but is normally in the form of slightly dog-earred books you've got from the library. I am a fan of libraries. Libraries are great. But they always seem to only ever have the middle two books in a series. Or books one, two, three, but not four where everything goes down. Very annoying. Which is why the Baen Free Library is such a good idea. Liking it, liking it alot. I would always recommend buying the physical copy of a book, but this is a good service if you want to see if you like a series, can't get hold of book one any other way, or just live somewhere where you don't have access to a library with a large SF section.

Dan Brown is getting everywhere these days, like a nasty persistent rash that nothing your GP does can cure. He even looks slimy. And his evil influence has even affected Kathy Reichs in her new book! Oh, the humanity!

You might remember that the other week I threatened my SLR with the repair-man and it started to work, so I finally managed to finish the film that was in it and go get it developed. Well, I got the pictures back, and it turns out that most of them were of the trip the Crazy Canalman and myself took into Little Venice a couple of years ago in order to see "We Will Rock You" (amazing show!) It was an odd trip. Have a look at some of the better pictures (I spent £7 getting the bloody things developed, so I'm going to share!) Flickr Photo Set of Little Venice Trip

And ending on a sad note, Robin Cook dies. Whilst not supporting all of his political and personal decisions, I feel on balance he was one of the good ones.

*edit*
Added some reviews over at Dark Meadow

Endnotes:
^*1*Which I hadn't realised quite how long it was till Moose admitted that she hasn't got through it yet, and if Moose has given up, it must be a little excessive. This is the girl who chooses to read documents detailing the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after all!^Back
^*2*The best of which was actually found in a tiny village somewhere on the edge of the South China Sea, at the far NE tip of Sabah, called Kudat. Population about 50, taste of tea, divine^Back

Technorati Tags: Little Venice, London Zoo, Douglas Adams, George Orwell, Alarmclcoky, Tea, Kudat