Hail, Ceasar
Posted: Wed 28 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism Leave a comment »I love this – the multi-billion dollar Space Shuttle, whose next launch has been delayed because of a hailstorm.
In fairness, golfball-sized hail is fairly impressive, and 7000 dents/impacts isn’t to be shrugged off either, but all the same, Hail halts Shuttle. Bloody marvellous.
Pissing Down
Posted: Tue 27 February, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic 2 Comments »It looks like I actually got home just in time. Since getting back, it’s been pissing down, and we’ve now had thunder and so on too.
Which means that Hound is fairly stressed, and is currently laying on my feet, so I can’t go anywhere. All very domestic, but not great when you really need a piss…
The Meeting
Posted: Tue 27 February, 2007 Filed under: General Leave a comment »Well, that all seemed pretty interesting.
I’ve got to knock up a little document about the costs and necessary work, as well as some other odds and sods, which they want by the end of the week. Hardly a challenge.
I should know next week whether I’ve got the work, though. All a bit promising, really.
Green
Posted: Tue 27 February, 2007 Filed under: Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »You know how belly-button fluff is always that manky dark blue colour?
Is it just me that finds that the gunge that builds up on the back of the nose-piece bits on glasses is always green?
Disk Space
Posted: Mon 26 February, 2007 Filed under: Geeky 3 Comments »Now that’s what I call storage…
1TByte (for the non-geeky, that’s 1,000 Mb Gb (feck)) for about £300. Not bad at all. Hell, it might even hold all my MP3s if I decided to get efficient and rip every single one of my CDs to it…
Canine
Posted: Sun 25 February, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Thoughts 5 Comments »Following on from all the recent guff about ‘dangerous dogs’ , and the latest “No Shit, Sherlock” advice that children shouldn’t be left alone with dogs, I wonder how long it’ll be before some politician or other says
“I know, why don’t we have a licence for every dog and dog-owner in the country?”
You know, like we used to have.
In theory at least, it would actually be pretty easy to manage.
First, you make it a legal requirement to have every dog microchipped at birth. (well, by the age of 8 or 16 weeks) The chip would be read only, and loaded with a unique identifier along with (possibly) information about the dog, its breed, etc. If a dog were found, or needed to be identified, the chip would be read (using already existing equipment) and queried against a national database.
In the database, you’d have the unique identifier, again the information about dog breed, age, blah blah, and also the owner details, address, contact details. Similar to vehicle license stuff, if you move, you would have to register that information with DogBase, so that information was up to date. This should be free – there’s no point making people pay to change the details, or they just won’t do it.
Any dog could be checked at any time – particularly when out in public – and if that information is out of date, or the owner is incorrect, then the owner can be fined. If the dog is out of control, or whatever, it can be held somewhere, and the owner contacted.
Is it me, or does that make sense?
Organising That Health-check
Posted: Sat 24 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Health, House Purchase 1 Comment »So yes, the healthcheck that finally happened on Friday was an utter nightmare to organise.
It started off with being told that I needed to sort one out, and that the insurance company had engaged a third party who would contact me to organise an appointment at my convenience.
Yeah, right. What actually happened was that the company called me up and said “We’ve made an appointment for one of our nurses to come and see you at home on Tuesday at 4pm”. Which is hardly at my convenience. So I called them back and told them so.
Them : “But why don’t you want an appointment at home on Tuesday at 4pm? We’ve made all the arrangements”
Me : “Because I’m not going to be at home at that time. I’ll be at work. If your company is willing to pay me to take half a day off work to come and see you, I might consider it”
Them : “No, we can’t do that. But we don’t understand what the problem is with this appointment, it’s at your home at 4pm”
Me : “Amazing as this may seem to you, I work. Maybe I’m the only person you’ve ever dealt with who works, but there we go. So 4pm on a weekday is not convenient. I’m home for about 7pm, if that helps”
Them : “Oh no, our nurses only work 9-5”.
At which point I ended up going back to the insurers and telling them they could stuff their business. The people they engaged would have problems discerning between an arse and an elbow, and there was no way I was using them. So they promised to organise something else, a proper medical at a proper doctor’s surgery. However, it would still be organised through a third party.
And then I got another call about a week later, from the first third party, still trying to make a ‘convenient’ appointment for me on a workday at 4pm, and which for an appointment ‘at my convenience’ was strangely immovable. This time they got told to sod off.
When the second third party finally called, the first thing they said was “So, you need an appointment in Norfolk?”. At which I think I growled. The woman at the other end certainly seemed surprised. I re-explained the situation (actually, that’s probably more like re-re-re-re-explained, but there we go), and they finally discovered a surgery that was close to the workplace. Halle-bloody-lujah.
But all told it’s still taken four weeks to organise a poxy medical. But if my blood-pressure is too high (I doubt it will be, but still) I’m going to blame it all on the poxy fucking insurance company and their medical third parties. So there.
Right Place, Right Time
Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 Filed under: News, Photography 1 Comment »While I think the story itself is more than a little hysterical, every time I see the image involved, I just think “Wow”. The photographer, Martin Rickett was so obviously in the right place at the right time. It’s just a brilliant shot.
Patronised
Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Health 2 Comments »Ah, the joys of being patronised by medical ‘professionals’.
“Well, Mr Lyle, you’re really rather overweight, aren’t you?”
which really should get the response “Really? And there I was, hoping to climb Everest tomorrow“, instead of the one I gave, which was “Yes. And?“. To which the twat had no answer.
Health Check
Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Health, House Purchase, Sweary Leave a comment »One of the real pains (and one I haven’t yet written about on D4D™ – believe me, it’s coming) with our house-buying process at the moment has been that as part of the entire mortgage malarkey, we’ve both been advised to get some proper life-insurance, that’d cover the whole amount of the mortgage should one of us suddenly develop a ‘critical’ illness or drop dead. Of course, that also means having to deal with another load of financial scumbags – insurers.
Back in Jan 2005, I got one lot of cheap-ass life insurance on Herself’s insistence (in fairness, she got some too) which became not-such-cheap-ass insurance when the insurance scumbag underwriters at Norwich Poxybollocks Union decided I was overweight, and whacked an extra amount on my premium. Not a lot, to be honest, but still rather more than the initial quotation had been. Bastards.
Since then, I’ve lost a fair amount of weight, although (as I’ve commented many times) I’m still never going to be 12-15stone without going through at least one limb amputation. That’s a fact of life. I’m not unfit – OK, I’m not fit either, but there we go – and… oh, chuff it, you all know the score by now.
Anyway, with the mortgage application and insurance guff, the scumbag insurance underwriters have – again – thrown a wobbly. And they’ve insisted that this time I don’t just pay extra, I have to have a ‘health check’ too before they might deign to take my money.
So while you’re reading this, I’m in a random doctor’s surgery, having a basic medical and healthcheck for scumbag dirtwad insurers . Whoopee Doo.
Charming
Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 Filed under: Charm School, Cynicism, Travel 2 Comments »It’s not just me who can be charmless, of course.
On the train last night, the two people opposite me were talking about whether they’d make their connecting train from Norwich. Now, the XDA phone has it’s uses, and the mini-version of IE is one of them. So, being in a fairly mellow mood, I checked the arrival time of the current train, and when their connecting one would go.
And I let them know that they’d be OK, and would have about ten minutes between trains.
The response? Absolutely chuff all. Not a word of thanks, just a nod of the head in acknowledgement of the information.
Tossers. And then people wonder why I end up being rude to them…
Calamari
Posted: Thu 22 February, 2007 Filed under: Animals, News 1 Comment »And in other news, Holy crap, that’s one big bloody squid.
Desperate
Posted: Thu 22 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Depression, Domestic 2 Comments »(Kind of following on from my earlier post about programmes, cancellations and the like.)
Oh dear God, no, please.
[TV Show ‘Desperate Housewives”] creator Marc Cherry has just signed a four-year deal with US TV network ABC, ensuring the future of the suburban comedy series.
Trade paper Variety reports that the key members of the cast, including Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman, will remain with the programme as long as Cherry is involved.
The writer indicated that the show would end in 2011, saying: “I think that at the end of my deal and after seven seasons it will be a good time to call it quits.
As if it hadn’t already become dire enough, another four years?!?
Fuck me dead, there’s just no justice in the world.
Suckers
Posted: Thu 22 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism 1 Comment »Do people really fall for shite spam like this ? (and it’s a direct copy/paste, so don’t blame me for the spelling mistakes etc.)
I started looking for opportunities to make money on the internet about a year ago.I knew with the massive increase of people using the internet, there had to be a way of making a good income online.
I spent the next 6 months trying every business opportunity online.I was scammed by about 50 get rich quick schemes
and lost over $5000 in 6 months.All these making money programs said the same thing, “They were gonna help me make a lot of money with out any experience”.Out of the 50 programs I tried, 47 were complete scams and just took my money.Only 3 of the programs actually worked for me.Check out this site: [DELETED]
On this site you will find reviews of the top 3 opportunities that actually work.These programs guarantee you online success.
All you have to do is follow there expert advice.
I mean, really, how stupid would you have to be?
Cyclist
Posted: Wed 21 February, 2007 Filed under: Charm School Leave a comment »Sometimes, my temprament and charm (stop laughing, you at the back) can be severely tested.
Today, walking along the path, a cyclist came up behind me, and just started ringing her bell so I would get out the way. As she eventually got past, she tutted, which following the bell is just like a red rag to a bull.
“Well, if you decided to ride in the road instead, perhaps you wouldn’t find so many people getting in your fucking way. Idiot.”
Depressingly, she didn’t answer back…
Drink?
Posted: Wed 21 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Weirdness 15 Comments »The other night, I went to make a drink before going to bed, and decided on a raspberry milkshake. (cue memories of Alberto Frog and his amazing animal orchestra. Or is that just me?) No idea why, but I actually like them just before bed. Weird, but true. Anyway, the conversation went something like this :
Me : I’m just going to make a drink [does so]
Herself : That’s not a drink, that’s a milkshake.
Me : Um. I’m going to drink it. It’s a drink.
Herself : No, that’s milk. Drinks are mainly made of water
Me : Ooookkkkkkkkkkk then.
So, who’s right?
Phone History
Posted: Tue 20 February, 2007 Filed under: General 1 Comment »Inspired by Lori’s post on the subject, and following on from my comment there, I thought I’d do a list of the mobile phones I’ve owned over the years along with (where possible) the years. Once you click on more, it’s going to be a very sad post…
Read the rest of this entry »
Bleurgh
Posted: Tue 20 February, 2007 Filed under: General 2 Comments »(via Gordon)
I have to say that Marmite Guinness (or Guinness Marmite, whichever) manages to combine two of my least favourite things into one convenient jar.
Blech3.
Shrove
Posted: Tue 20 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic Leave a comment »So, today’s Shrove Tuesday. AKA Pancake Day.
And what are you going to be giving up for Lent?
On current evidence, we’re going to be giving up
- Money
- the current house in favour of the new one, assuming some efficiency from solicitors etc.
Mass Market
Posted: Mon 19 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts 5 Comments »Recently, I’ve noticed that I seem to have developed a really nasty habit of liking the TV series that America hates. By this I mean that – if I’m lucky – they get cancelled at the end of one season. If I’m unlucky, they’re cancelled halfway through, and we never get to find out what’s happening.
Recent/current examples of this have included
- Threshold – I know, I’m a late-comer on this one, and it’s already been on Sky One, but there we go. All the same, for the subject matter of alien invasion it’s pretty intelligent, and so far hasn’t had any dodgy monster suits. Cancelled at the end of Season One.
- Commander in Chief – OK, this one’s more of a “let’s try and beat West Wing” matter, but it’s been OK, if slower than frozen sludge. And cancelled
- Jericho – again, so far this is a pretty smart (if paranoid) vision of a nuclear war, and its effects. No word yet on whether this’ll be saved or cancelled
- Reunion – OK, I hated this one, but Herself liked it – cancelled mid-season
They’re the main onesat the moment, although there’s at least one (I’ve now remembered it was Reunion, now added to the list above) that I’ve forgotten, which didn’t even make it to a full season, and instead folded without mention – most annoying.
What’s even more interesting (to me, anyway) is that I find I really don’t like a large percentage of the stuff that makes it to multi-season status. Currently on this list (from American imports) are things like Ugly Betty, which the US raved about, and I can’t help but be distinctly underwhelmed by the entire thing. Admittedly there are exceptions to the rule (Stuff like ER, West Wing, etc.) and there are certain programmes where I liked the first season, but then just can’t be arsed with them after that (24, Lost, Desperate Housewives, etc. etc.).
I’m sure it’s of absolutely no relevance, and no interest to anyone else, but I still find it interesting – and somewhat reassuring, if I’m honest- that (again, in general) my taste in TV is pretty much a polar opposite of what mainstream America is keen on. And long may that situation last…
Fuuuuck
Posted: Mon 19 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, House Purchase, Sweary 3 Comments »Well, we got the mortgage offer through this weekend, so that’s the first big hurdle out of the way, at least.
But Jesus, when you look at the details, it’s fucking offensive.
For every pound you borrow, you pay back £2.30
Fuuuuuck. That takes the piss. How does anyone get away with that?
Basically, for a £200,000 mortgage, we get to pay back the princely sum of £440,000. If nothing else, it reinforces my opinion that the financial industry are, in fact, an utter bunch of cunts.
Compeed
Posted: Sun 18 February, 2007 Filed under: Health Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I bought some more Compeed®™ plasters, this time for the poxy burn on my hand. I’ve used Compeed plasters before, and I think they’re absolutely marvellous.
However, they’re also deeply strange. I can’t explain how they work, but the material in the body of the plaster is a sort of semi-liquid gel, which ends up forming itself into the wound, and forming almost an inverted mould of whatever you happen to have done to yourself. For me, the plaster itself becomes a source of fascination, it feels so odd as the gel solidifies with body heat, but it’s also good to know (and feel) that they’re actually doing some good.
Dock Green
Posted: Sun 18 February, 2007 Filed under: General 2 Comments »As a matter of course, I try to avoid buying anything from Dixons, Currys, PC World and the like – mainly because of their insistence on getting your postcode for every purchase, and sending out shite product insurance and warranty extensions etc. all the time.
There’s a couple of other reasons as well, to do with preferring to use stores where the staff actually know what they’re talking about, and don’t charge top whack for their products. (Yeah, yeah, price guarantees etc., but still, I find them in general to be damn expensive)
During the week, I ordered a new ‘carry all the time’ camera via Amazon from Pixmania – a wee Panasonic Lumix TZ1, which should fulfil all my requirements. Anyway, it normally retails for about £270, but Pixmania had it listed for £155. All well and good. I know the TZ1 is being phased out and replaced with the TZ-2 and -3, but this one will be more than sufficient, so I figure I might as well take the discount.
Anyway – what I didn’t know is that Pixmania is actually owned by – you guessed it – Dixons Stores Group. *sob*
Beep
Posted: Sat 17 February, 2007 Filed under: Travel 2 Comments »Of all the really annoying things when it comes to public transport (and trains in particular) I still think mobile phones have to pretty much at the top of the list. I don’t mind the devices themselves, and I don’t (in general) have a problem with people taking/making calls on them. I mean obviously there’s exceptions to that (super-loud ringtones going off repeatedly, and constant ‘I’m on the train’ calls, like it’s some newly invented miracle)
Yesterday, though, I was reminded of one of the things I really, really loathe. Key-press sounds. Particularly loud ones, but any phone that’s set to fucking beep every time you press a key – that’ll drive me crackers every time.
And it’ll definitely send me crackers when the owner of said phone is sending a text message, and doesn’t even have predictive text on.
BeepBeepBeep BeepBeep BeepBeepBeep BeepBeep
That’s what it takes just to type “fuck”. (and probably some others as well, but it’s definitely ‘Fuck’) As it is, I’ve no idea what the woman beside me was typing, but it went on for what seemed like hours. Whatever, it took her from Cambridge to Ely to send what looked like one message. Thankfully, she got off at Ely. Otherwise there might’ve been some truly gory murder on the 17.12…
Holmes Place
Posted: Sat 17 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Weirdness Leave a comment »You’d think I’d have had enough of Holmes Place over the last year – and you’d be right.
Yesterday, though, I got a call from the Wokingham gym, telling me that they’d been bought out by Virgin Active, and would I like to go for a free visit there, and take a partner with me?
Me : How blunt do you want me to be?
HP/VA Person : As blunt as you want. (Ooooh, that could’ve been a bad move…)
Me : OK then. I wouldn’t rejoin Holmes Place, regardless of who owns you. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone, even my worst enemy. In fact, I’d go so far as to actively encourage anyone thinking of joining to not do so.
HP/VA Person : Oh.
[there followed an explanation of all the old crap about contracts, HP being unable to provide a gym at all, and threatening me with a bailiff if I didn’t pay the entire remaining sum.]
Me : So overall, I wouldn’t trust HP as far as I can throw them, nor their new owners. And in my opinion, they’re scumbags.
HP/VA Person: OK, well, thank you for being so honest in your response.
Now, I have to say, I think that she actually handled the call really well, and there was nothing nasty about the entire thing. An apology would’ve been nice, but now I’m done with them, I know it’d be too late for one anyway – and so did she.
All the same, though, you’d think they might’ve taken me off their ‘to call’ list…
Wide Open Vista
Posted: Fri 16 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Geeky 1 Comment »When it was released, I wrote a small post about why I had no intention of moving to MS Vista® – and from the news stories etc. that’ve followed on, I have to say I’m pretty cool with being right about it.
This piece from The Register demonstrates my case nicely.
The basic summary? Wait at least until Service Pack 1 is released.
Spoons
Posted: Fri 16 February, 2007 Filed under: Writing 2 Comments »I love this : a writer who can go off on a wave of wrath about the simple subject of wooden spoons in the kitchen.
A definite addition to the links on the right, methinks.
Ouch Redux
Posted: Thu 15 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic Leave a comment »Note to self : When you have a burn in the palm of your hand, many things really hurt.
This is particularly noticeable with shower-gel, and shampoo – particularly when they’re both citrus based…
Brithday
Posted: Thu 15 February, 2007 Filed under: General 2 Comments »Oh, and Happy Birthday to Mr Dragon.
It’s obviously not a good day to be him – he’s feeling Old. Heh.
VD
Posted: Wed 14 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™ Leave a comment »Oh yeah, the header image up at the top of the page today (and for one day only)?
It’s a heavily cropped and buggered-about-with image of Al Capone’s infamous “Valentines Day Massacre”.
Very á propos
Reasoned Argument
Posted: Wed 14 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic 12 Comments »Gordon, in a comment on yesterday’s *Barf* post, says
Why is he a wanker? Come on, gimme a reasoned argument!
So here we go…
- First off, he’s a wanker for wrapping the house. OK, supposedly it’s romantic. But what the hell is he going to do with 500metres (1,650 ft, give or take) of paper now? The git had better be recycling it…
- Buying a house for Valentines Day. The woman’s not even his wife. Personally, I hope she ditches the twat tomorrow, and keeps the house. Fair play to her. A stunt like this means he’s just begging to get screwed over.<cynicism>
- A direct quote from the article : “Last year, I just took her out to dinner which wasn’t much of a present, so I thought I’d better do something special to make up for it“.
Need any more evidence of wankerdom? - Directly related to the point above, this guy is the kind of knob who has to outdo himself every year. If he’s spent £500,000 this year, what’s he going to do next?
- At the end of the day, this has been done for Valentine’s Day. A marketing fest for overpriced cards, flowers, and sentiments. Buying a house? Kind of over-stepping the mark, me thinks
- Finally, another direct quote: “I can paint beautiful scenery and wildlife from my own balcony and Maria can enjoy the fruits of the private spa.“
I need say no more.
In other news, more sentimental cack for your delectation.
Taking the Piss
Posted: Wed 14 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Weirdness 1 Comment »I was looking the other day at the Interflora website – as you do – and couldn’t help but check out the extortionate prices for roses etc., bearing in mind the proximity of Valentine’s Day.
Anyway, I had to laugh when I saw this particular bouquet, and particularly the price of it. One hundred red roses for £500!
So yes, that’s £5 per rose.
Some people have more money than sense…
And in the meantime, Happy Valentines Day. Or something.
*Barf*
Posted: Tue 13 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism 2 Comments »There’s only one word for this ‘romantic’ man, who bought a £500,000 ‘waterside cottage’ for his girlfriend and then wrapped it all in paper, as a present. (Like she couldn’t figure out what it might be)
Wanker
Mind you, seeing as the story is on the news today, at least the surprise has been blown. Which makes me smile.
Spam Blocking
Posted: Tue 13 February, 2007 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky Leave a comment »Since installing WP2.1, there seemed to be some fairly major issues with the set-up I’d got to combat comment spam. This is a geeky post, and if you don’t care, don’t click on the more…
Read the rest of this entry »
Bullying in Action
Posted: Tue 13 February, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »Last night, Psycho Cat came in out of the rain, to be faced by Hound, renowned for trying to bully Cat whenever possible.
However, Psycho Cat was not in the mood – so he sauntered past Hound, and on the way past, bashed Hound on the nose, and stalked off, with Hound running after him, utterly shocked at being battered by the Cat.
It was enormously bloody funny.
L-Plate
Posted: Mon 12 February, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Sweary Leave a comment »Related to the post on Saturday about that box junction in Cambridge:
Today, I saw a learner-driver, in the instructor’s car, do exactly the same thing. Just stopped, in the path of an oncoming bus.
That might be a long-term fix to the problem : either
- let all the shit instructors get killed by their pupils
or - teach the pupils properly in the first fucking place
I think that’d do it. Eventually.
Recovery
Posted: Mon 12 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »OK, most of the panic and potential stress has been alleviated – and thank chuff for that.
I’m sure I’ll explain more about the causative events at some point, but for now well, I’m just happy that things appear to have been sorted out without too much in the way of hassle, bureaucracy, or fighting.
Chaos
Posted: Mon 12 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic Leave a comment »Due to a variety of events over the weekend, today is likely to be quiet here while I sort out lots of domestic crap, and deal with solicitors, estate agents and the like.
Depending on how all that goes, I may or may not be posting here – only time will tell.
Or, of course, I could just end up having a huge rant…
Ouch
Posted: Sun 11 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic Leave a comment »Note to self : it is unwise to pick up a knife whose handle has (unknown to me) been in the flame on the gas hob. Particularly when that handle is plastic. OK, metal wouldn’t be much fun either, but plastic is fairly high on the “not good” scale.
Mainly because, once it’s hot, it’s also sticky. So the bloody thing sticks to the area of hand it’s burning, which rather prolongs the fun.
All in all, Ouch.
It’s not a serious burn, or anything, but bloody hell, ouch.
Missed Opportunities
Posted: Sun 11 February, 2007 Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography 3 Comments »Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve missed the chance of taking some photos that would’ve been beautiful. Needless to say, this is invariably bloody annoying.
To me, there are two main problems – first is that I’m sat on the train, and the windows are invariably disgusting, which would probably add some gunk and nastiness to the final image. But the second problem is simply that the SLR isn’t the right tool for the job. As with Problem One, I’m sat on a train, and I don’t want to be sat there advertising the fact I’ve got £1,500 of gear with me – along with the corollary of ‘if he’s got that camera there, what else is in the bag?’.
I love the SLR, it’s a fantastic bit of kit, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. But I’m coming to the conclusion that I do need to have a small extra camera, one that I can carry everywhere, with a decent resolution, excellent zoom, but small and compact enough that it never leaves my bag/pocket – oh, and doesn’t look like I’m some well-off bastard.
It’s a pain in the arse – and I’d like to start earning some money from the photos in order to balance out some of the costs…
Unlit
Posted: Sat 10 February, 2007 Filed under: Driving, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 1 Comment »Driving in to work yesterday, I was absolutely amazed by the number of idiots out there who hadn’t even turned on their headlights.
OK, this was primarily close to Cambridge, so it was around 8:30 or so in the morning. But all the same, it was pretty foggy yesterday morning, and the visibility was pretty shit. So it’s still surprising (for me, anyway) when I see other drivers – and particularly those in light-coloured cars that blend into the fog even more) without lights or foglights on. I know that I’ve written about this before – and quite recently but it still shocks/surprises/scares me when I see it happening.
Of course, the even scarier thing in Cambridge is the cyclists. Yesterday morning, not one of them had any lights on at all. Again, still cold, grey, misty/foggy, yet they all seem to believe that they’re either indestructible, or that the dozy little twadgers have some god-given right of way so that they won’t suffer any collisions or accidents.
Yes, yet again, I find myself worried by other road users. I suspect that this may become a standard mantra.
Box Junction
Posted: Sat 10 February, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts, Weirdness 6 Comments »Just down the road from where I work, there’s a big four-way crossroads, which is invariably snarled up and jammed. There are actually two reasons for this :
- It’s been designed by an utter tosser
- People are tossers
Reason One is fairly standard – after all, it’s just a four-way crossroads with a nightmare of traffic lights.
Reason Two, though, is different, although it’s related to Reason One. Because the traffic lights screw things up, the planners/designers decided to make it ‘safer’, and covered the entire junction with yellow cross-hatch markings. It’s a box junction.
Box junctions aren’t difficult to deal with – well, unless you’re a BMW driver – and the simple rule is At signalled roundabouts you MUST NOT enter the box unless you can cross over it completely without stopping.. Not rocket science, is it?
But the reason this junction is a nightmare is because everyone ignores that concept completely, and instead buckets into the junction, try to turn, and then realise they can’t get out of the junction. And oooh, look – suddenly they’re blocking the next flow of traffic, which invariably includes a sodding big bus. Oops.
I have no idea how this can be fixed, and nor do I have any idea how you can get drivers to look ahead and figure out that there’s nowhere for them to go. Personally, I can’t see a problem with a car that detects the road markings, and if you stop on a box junction, it gives you a small electric shock. That’d soon stop it. Just call me Mr Pavlov…
Mind you, if I could come up with the answers to either of those things, I’d be a very wealthy man.
Chicken
Posted: Fri 9 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Travel 2 Comments »So, did I go to Brixton last night to see Massive Attack?
No, I didn’t.
I can’t deny it, I chickened out. Instead, I just ended up going home, and curling up with a laptop and a website that needed some work. Not the most productive, and definitely not as much fun as seeing Massive Attack would’ve almost certainly been.
But I gave up. I looked at the road maps, and the traffic reports, then at where I needed to go, and combined it with my usual cynical attitude towards people, and figured I couldn’t be arsed.
Mind you, looking at the roads this morning, and the fact there were three or four abandoned (i.e. had slid/skidded off the road) cars this morning on the bit I’d have been driving on at roughly 1am, I don’t think I was being too stupid to figure it was just not worth the hassle.
Self-Promotion – revisited
Posted: Fri 9 February, 2007 Filed under: General 3 Comments »A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about starting to do more work to promote my own stuff, and I’m pleased to say that it’s all going quite well at the moment.
I’ve been accepted in to the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) and my UK Webdesigners Association (UKWDA) profile has been updated, my Linked In network is slowly growing, and the portfolio website is beginning to look pretty good (in my own humble opinion, of course) although I’m not going to link to it just yet, as there’s some basic stuff that needs to be reconsidered/redone before it goes live. I’ve also hoyed out some letters to various places in order to see whether I can get permission to do photos’n’stuff at them
I do, however, still find that this is the thing I hate the most. Hard as it may sometimes be to believe, I’m really not good at just standing up and saying “Me? I’m bloody great, I am”. It’s still extremely rare to hear (see, read, whatever) me saying something like that, although I’m kind of getting better at it. Gradually.
Plotting
Posted: Thu 8 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, News Leave a comment »I don’t know if it’s just me that finds this amusing, but there’s a certain juxtaposition in the media at the moment that makes me smile.
In Box One, we have this story, about an alleged ‘plot’ in the UK to kidnap a Muslim member of the UK armed forces, and behead him, a la the Iraq kidnappings of Ken Bigley, et al.
In Box Two, we have this, where UK police are warning people to be on the alert for suspect packages being sent in the mail.
So – we have one ‘terrorism’ plot, which could’ve been lifted from pretty much any Tom Clancy type thriller, that was detected before it even (supposedly) happened, and the media says “Oh, that’s terrible, good old security forces”. We have another ‘terrorism’ scheme – this time which is already happening, and which is harming people – and the police haven’t got a bloody clue who, where, when, why, how, or whatever. Yet the media stays quiet, rather than asking “Eh? How’s that happened?”.
In short, yet again I’m being brought to the conclusion that these alleged plots are an utter, utter load of old bollocks, custom-designed to keep people scared.
Automatic
Posted: Thu 8 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Travel 3 Comments »Oh God, this is going to be interesting.
While I’m still undecided about London tonight, I’ve collected the car I’d booked from Avis for the journey. Well, I’d booked it, and it’s paid for, so bugger it, might as well use it.
And what’ve they given me? An automatic. Never driven one before. Ever. So – this should be fun!
Snowed
Posted: Thu 8 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts 1 Comment »So, it was supposed to snow heavily last night. Only when we woke up this morning, not even a flake of the white stuff. Which is fine.
Of course, by the time I got to Cambridge, there’s maybe (optimistically) two centimetres of it laying around, and so things are starting to go tits up. It truly scares me how many people can’t drive in the stuff – even on fairly clear, if soggy/slushy/mushy roads, I’ve already seen three cars slide to a stop. And it really isn’t that dodgy.
Then again, most people appear to be unable to walk in the stuff either. Just on the walk from the station, there were countless people either slipping and sliding along, or taking little tiny baby steps in order to keep their balance. Maybe I’m missing something – OK, I didn’t walk at quite my normal speed, but at the same time I didn’t have any problems with loss of traction, and was fine to overtake the massive majority of people.
What does concern me, though, is tonight. I’m supposed to be going in to London to see Massive Attack at Brixton Academy. The car’s booked, and everything’s in place – I’ve even brought in the satnav, so I can stick it in the car and get through London without any problems – but the idea of driving home to deepest, darkest Norfolk at midnight and gone is currently rather unappealing.
So I don’t know whether I’m going to go or not. It’s not going to be for want of trying, but I do think that a healthy dose of realism may be the primary deciding factor…
Forewarned is…
Posted: Thu 8 February, 2007 Filed under: Thoughts Leave a comment »Recently, I saw the film Kinky Boots, which was OK, but had one thing that really annoyed me.
In fairness, it’s not just that one film that does it – it’s almost a staple cliché of the film industry – Dirty Harry did it for sure, and so have many, many others.
The sin? Lazy writing. When a film – or anything else, in fact – relies on something relevant being repeated. In the instance of Kinky Boots, yes, it’s amusing when the boot lands on the microphone’s activation switch, and thus the entire factory hears what is being talked about in the office. It is NOT as amusing when that self-same device is then used again towards the end of the film. It’s just lazy. Find something else, some other way of doing what is essentially the same joke.
In the other example I used, Dirty Harry repeats his trademark line – if he’d only done so once, at the end of the film, it would have had far more impact than it does at the end when it’s already been done before. It’s dull, and makes the character – previously ruthless and decidedly unconventional – repetitive and unimaginative too. Which isn’t how it should be.
I don’t have an answer, I don’t know how to fix it. It’s just something that really annoys me.
It’s fun to stay at the…
Posted: Wed 7 February, 2007 Filed under: D4D™, Weirdness 1 Comment »via Stuart ‘KitchenTable’, I just couldn’t resist this…
It’s fun to stay at the…
Daylight
Posted: Wed 7 February, 2007 Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Travel Leave a comment »Over the last couple of weeks, its been really noticeable the way the days are getting longer, and brighter again.
I’m no longer travelling to work in darkness, and when I leave the office to come home there’s still some light in the sky – and that’s only going to keep on improving over the next few months. I’m enjoying the daily commute more now, although sometimes it can be very distracting, being able to see outside, the fields, the woods, and the animals that populate them.
I particularly love seeing the unexpected – a flash of movement in the peripheral vision can become a fox or deer when I focus on it.
But really it’s just having more sunlight that lifts my mood, and makes me happier.
Not Getting It
Posted: Tue 6 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky 2 Comments »Sometimes you just have to laugh at the way the government just doesn’t get the entire internet and chatroom thing. In this instance, the story about registered sex offenders having to provide details of their email addresses and ‘chatroom identities’ (no, I’m not making this up)
Anyone who’s actually used Internet Chat (whether it be MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, whatever) will know how easy it is to set up email addresses, profiles, IDs, the lot. God, if I think back a couple of years to when I haunted Yahoo chat, I had a couple of hundred IDs.
So it amuses me when they’re talking about registering ‘paedophile IDs’ – it’s so easy to set up another one, this really is either a) an attempt to say ‘look how on top of things we are’ or b) a proper display of knowing chuff-all about anything technological and/or internet based.
Or c) both. Which I guess is the most likely…
Comments and anti-spam
Posted: Tue 6 February, 2007 Filed under: D4D™ Leave a comment »If anyone commented over the weekend here, and it hasn’t appeared yet on the relevant post, then you’ll probably need to re-do it.
Because, like a numpty, I went and clicked the wrong button, and deleted all the ‘spam’ comments I might’ve needed to double-check.
Ooops, sorry.
Mac vs PC
Posted: Mon 5 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky 1 Comment »Charlie Brooker in blinding form (you may need to do a dumb free registration thing, I don’t knowCheers, Jann, for the reg-free link!) about Macs…
I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.
It’s all in regard to the new set of ads from Apple about PCs versus Macs starring Mitchell and Webb.
I like the ads, although I have to say, personally I’m not a fan of Macs. Maybe I should be, but I’m just not. My personal opinion is that they’re expensive, over-branded, over-iconified (it’s not a word, but bloody well should be) and a nightmare to upgrade.
Sorry, but I’ll stick with PCs for the moment, regardless of whether or not I supposedly should want a Mac.
Portfolio
Posted: Mon 5 February, 2007 Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Photography 2 Comments »About four or five months ago now, I bought up the domain I wanted for use as a portfolio for my photography. I did some basic development of it, then got distracted by other things.
And so it remained.
However, over the weekend just gone, I’ve finally got working on it again – and even better, it’s now got some photos on it! There’s still a way to go, and I need to re-do some of the styling and programming (well, that’s what the train journey to and from work is for, after all) but it’s one hell of a way further on the way to being a decent portfolio site than it was, say, three days ago.
Of course, once I’ve got everything sorted, I’ll add in a link here (and in the meantime there’s always a small selection on my ImageKind page) and hopefully be able to do some promotion and so on in that way too.
Foggy
Posted: Sun 4 February, 2007 Filed under: Animals Leave a comment »The weather here has been utterly manky – we were going to go to the beach with Hound, but the visibility was so bad, it just wouldn’t have been worth it.
Instead, we went to Knettishall Country Park, which we’d heard about, but not got round to visiting.
Anyway, Hound is now happy, having run round like a prat for 1½miles, including diving in and out of the waterway on the walk. In short, she had a great time, so all told, very successful.
Clocks
Posted: Sun 4 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Weirdness 3 Comments »Since moving, I’ve been sleeping a lot worse than I was in Bracknell. We had a new clock in the (en-suite) bathroom, and I knew that when I woke up, I could hear the poxy thing ticking, which then kept me awake.
Anyway, about ten days ago I finally lost the plot with the poxy thing, and moved it out of the bedroom.
We’ve replaced it with a (thankfully silent) water-powered digital clock (don’t laugh – it’s an interesting idea) and since then, I’ve slept a lot better.
I hadn’t realised just how much that ticking was keeping me awake, but it’s obvious now that it was. I’m just glad we’ve realised, and been able to change the situation. Plus it means I’ve been able to catch up on some much-needed sleep.
Upgraded
Posted: Sat 3 February, 2007 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky Leave a comment »Blimey, that went smoothly. Most unexpected, I have to say. All took less than an hour, which is a lot easier than it was when I was working betwen the 1.0 and 1.5 versions, for example. Colour me impressed.
So, I’m now running on WP2.1, and will see how it all goes from there.
New Media
Posted: Fri 2 February, 2007 Filed under: Own Business, Photography 1 Comment »Had an interesting conversation today with a media company up in Manchester.
Following on from the photographs I did for a charity up there back in November ’04, they now want to use those photos in a TV advertisement. I’m not quite sure what they plan to do, but it’ll be interesting to see once they’re done.
Oh, and yes, I still retain copyright on the images, and I’ll get a copy of the TV ad as well to add to the portfolio.
I have to say, I’m really quite chuffed about the entire thing…
Upgrading
Posted: Fri 2 February, 2007 Filed under: D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Geeky, Getting Organised 4 Comments »So, the time has finally come.
Over this weekend, I’m going to be upgrading to WordPress 2.1 on D4D™. Yes, I’m nervous about it. Although I’m not going to go the whole hog and re-rationalise everything at the same time, as mooted a while back when I considered removing the older sections of the site ( to a deafening silence and dearth of comments!) but that may well happen over the next couple of months too.
If I’ve been really organised, I’ll have used a trial site in order to check things out and see what it all looks like, getting the templates in order, making sure I don’t end up with a fucked-up abortion of a site for two days.
If I haven’t been organised, then it’s going to look like a dog’s dinner here for a while as I go through and fix the problems as/when they occur.
Should be interesting, if nothing else.
Handwritten – an Update
Posted: Thu 1 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Security, Technology 1 Comment »About a week ago, I wrote about the cashpoint (ATM) machine with the handwritten notice on it – which (to my surprise) garnered no comments at all.
Anyway, walking past the same pair of machines today, I noticed that this time the same one was out of order, but had up the machine’s default “Out of service – please use another machine” message on the display. No handwritten sign was in evidence at all.
I wonder if anyone’s noticed yet that they lost money last week?
MicroSD
Posted: Thu 1 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Geeky Leave a comment »About three weeks ago, I lost the 512Mb MicroSD card that sits in my phone. I didn’t really know where I’d lost it, just that the poxy thing wasn’t there any more.
Fortunately, there wasn’t anything overly important on it – some files that would have been useful to have back, but nothing earth-shattering, and nothing like passwords, site names/logons or anything. So I kind of shrugged my shoulders, thought something along the lines of “Ah Well”, and got on with it.
Anyway, earlier this week I suddenly realised where I had probably lost the card – I’d dropped the phone when I got out of the car at home. All the same, nothing relevant.
But this morning, while bringing the bin back in (Oh, the domesticity) I spotted a little fleck of gold on the driveway. Sure enough, it was the card, still intact – if a little bit soggy. Dried it off, figured I’d got nothing to lose, and slotted it back in the phone. And it still works.
This card has been soaked, frozen, and driven over at least twice a day for three weeks. It’s survived it all. I have to say, I’m quite impressed.
Homeless
Posted: Thu 1 February, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts 1 Comment »Most people won’t be surprised by this, but on occasion I can be very uncharitable. Not just when watching things like Relocation Relocation (and Dear GOD, Relocation2 brings out the uncharitable bastard in me) but also when faced with – in particular – Big Issue sellers.
I don’t know why – I think that the Big Issue is a fantastic idea- but I just never give money to the people selling it. I’ve done work with a charity for the homeless, and I do a fair amount of work with other charities, with more coming up over the duration of this year. But when it comes to actually giving money to people who are homeless, I just don’t.
A lot of it is that I really don’t like the idea of paying people to remain homeless – of giving money to someone because they’re homeless, and perhaps of contributing to a tax-free income. At least with the charities I deal with, I know that the people who benefit truly are homeless. When someone is just on the street, well, you don’t know. I’ve seen a couple of “homeless” people, even in Cambridge, who pack up their begging gear, stick it in a car, and (I assume) then go home. It’s a tax-free income based on peoples guilt.
So I don’t know. In some ways I feel like I’m really cynical and uncharitable (and OK, I am) but not all the time. And at least I try to balance that out by doing some good stuff with places where the money and work will go to the truly deserving people.