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| The common, five minutes from the house |
2009-07-18 13:54:00 |
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2009-07-16 23:09:00 |
We have a house :o)
It's ever so nice, and has a lot of stuff in it, and the mechanism by which it acquired that stuff has left me with insufficient energy to write any more. It's been a long, busy, tiring day...
But very happy :D
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James
 unknownj
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2009-07-14 23:28:00 |
I was watching a sort of real life Full Monty thing about some guys who, due to the recession, are out of work and got roped into stripping as a one off thing, and it got me to thinking about university, and my propensity later on to get a bit naked on stage in front of audiences...
With that in mind, I looked up the relevant journal entries.. ( They go like this... )
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James
unknownj
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2009-07-14 13:44:00 |
There's a little corner of Stoughton (where Naomi and I are moving to) that has obviously been named according to a theme.. Whereas in Bristol we had Agate, Beryl, Pearl, Ruby, Jasper and Garnet streets, here we have:
Saffron Platt
Marjoram Close
Tarragon Drive
Cardamom Close
Caraway Place
Tamarind Close
Coriander Crescent
Oregano Way
Cinnamon Gardens
Clearly somebody looked to their spice rack for inspiration there.. :o)
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James
unknownj
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2009-07-14 12:30:00 |
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00032G1S0/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk
My God.. Other reviews aside, for they are of course outstanding, this one is just awesome.. Why the hell don't I spend my time coming up with stuff like this? I have an hour and a half on trains every day, after all.. The best bit is that having memorised great chunks of the original, I can see where all the parallels are without having to check.. Ah, it's a good day :o)Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts 'N Honey,
With my Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz., I swore
As I went on with my lapping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at the icebox door.
'Bad condensor, that,' I muttered, 'vibrating the icebox door -
Only this, and nothing more.'
Not to sound like a complainer, but, in an inept half-gainer,
I provoked my bowl to tip and spill its contents on the floor.
Stupefied, I came to muddle over that increasing puddle,
Burgeoning deluge of that which I at present do adore -
Snowy Tuscan wholesomeness exclusively produced offshore -
Purg'ed here for evermore.
And the pool so white and silky, filled me with a sense of milky
Ardor of the type fantastic of a loss not known before,
So that now, to still the throbbing of my heart, while gently sobbing,
I retreated, heading straightway for the tempting icebox door -
Heedless of that pitter-patter tapping at the icebox door -
I resolved to have some more.
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
'This,' said I, 'requires an extra dram of milk, my favorite pour.'
To the icebox I aspired, motivated to admire
How its avocado pigment complemented my decor.
Then I grasped its woodgrain handle - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams of Tuscans I had known before
But the light inside was broken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only words there spoken were my whispered words, 'No more!'
Coke and beer, some ketchup I set eyes on, and an apple core -
Merely this and nothing more.
Back toward the table turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
'Surely,' said I, 'surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'
From the window came a stirring, then, with an incessant purring,
Inside stepped a kitten; mannerlessly did she me ignore.
Not the least obeisance made she; not a minute stopped or stayed she;
But, with mien of lord or lady, withdrew to my dining floor -
Pounced upon the pool of Tuscan spreading o'er my dining floor -
Licked, and lapped, and supped some more.
Then this tiny cat beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grand enthusiasm of the countenance she wore,
Toward the mess she showed no pity, 'til I said, 'Well, hello, kitty!'
Sought she me with pretty eyes that seemed to open some rapport.
So I pleaded, 'Tell me, tell me what it is that you implore!'
Quoth the kitten, 'Get some more.' Of course, I copied and pasted after the first few verses, which were excellent, but the further on you go, as with so many such things, the less originality and the more simple corruption of the original.. The sixth verse especially is not at all new. It's not a problem - just a shame that after so much more original content, it fades a little..
Of course, it's good enough that I fancy doing a dramatic reading of it later, perhaps.. :o)
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James
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| I'm rich!! |
2009-07-14 12:03:00 |
Aha! The fools at Subway gave me twenty five Canadian cents in change instead of a 10p piece!
Google politely informs me that this denomination is in fact worth more than 13p!
The design on it is a bunch of little Canadians with flappy heads, stood behind a Canadian flag, with fireworks going off behind them, to celebrate the year 2000.. Bless :o)
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James
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| And I thought I missed her *before*... |
2009-07-13 20:52:00 |
Good grief! (or, put less politely, fucking hell...)
I'm going through boxes packed over a year ago, in a whole other life entirely, and it's.. emotionally troubling. I think that's the phrase I'm after. Suddenly, with this dramatic reveal of the context that I've been suppressing for thirteen months, I realise how staggeringly incomplete the last year has been, not living with Naomi...
Finding the box that we received our duty free in in Barbados, or our iron, or my heat packs, or a dozen other things, it all just brings back the memories that have been carefully put into storage until now...
The thought of us living together by the end of the week, driven home by all our stuff, has pretty much reduced me to tears.. How easy it is, surrounded by the trappings of "home" (as defined as being where I grew up) to put aside the actual loss caused by separation.
It's a useful denial... I'm at a point now where all my mental constructs are fairly useful, and rather well crafted - it's how the control freak organises his brain, y'know? A device for maintaining sanity, if you like. It's a good thing really that I waited so long to destroy that suddenly flimsy yet strangely durable fantasy - that things were okay..
I never imagined that an iron could be so moving - I ought to make a note of that somewhere.. And now back to the boxes that used to hold my life, so that I can put it all back together by the time this week is out...
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2009-07-13 11:43:00 |
I quote an e-mail I sent to an Australian colleague regarding the cricket..Please answer me this.
England score 687 for 19 on aggregate, requiring two innings to do it.
Australia score 674 for 6 on aggregate, only requiring one innings.
What the hell sort of sport awards a draw for that? In what sense were the two evenly matched?
Not to mention the fact that from about noon yesterday, every England fan out there had their fingers crossed hoping for "four more hours of nothing". What true sports fan values scraping an undeserved draw over actually playing the damned game?
All in all, rather a bad example of the sport (if you can call it sport with the English attitude). Granted, the closing seconds got pretty exciting, but at the cost of a real competition, and an entire day's worth of negative defensive cricket..
Silly game... And that's about all I have to say about that.. Really not a good advertisement for the game, when the result can so poorly match the performance - by every conceivable measure Australia won it, to be denied by what is effectively a technicality.
It's funny that "it's just not cricket" is a saying intended to suggest that something is unjust or otherwise not quite right. In this case, I would say that this match was just not cricket...
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James
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2009-07-12 14:00:00 |
It turns out, sometimes I find myself too far up my own arse to function properly.
So a woman stopped me on the street earlier to ask "Is this Oakley?"
Now the correct answer to the question is that yes, the place we were in was formerly the hamlet of Oakley, subsumed into the village of Chinnor in the 1960s and 70s due to the construction of the Mill Lane estate, though development along Oakley Road since the 1920s to provide housing for workers at the cement works had already led to the two being roughly contiguous.
The answer she probably wanted was that no, she's probably looking for the other Oakley, twelve miles away and in another county.
The answer I gave was that this used to be called Oakley, yes - what exactly was she looking for?
So y'know, not the worst response I could have given..
Then she says she's looking for a pub called The Chandos Arms.
The correct answer to the question is that I know the name of every pub within a three mile radius, going back a hundred and fifty years, and a pub with that name has never existed. I could name about eighteen pubs that have existed over that time, and their locations, and none of them are called The Chandos Arms.
What she was probably looking for, answer-wise, was that she must have the wrong Oakley, because that pub doesn't exist here, and that she might want the other Oakley, 12 miles away.
The answer she got was that there was no pub of that name around here, sorry.
So not the most informative of responses.. To be fair, it was only after she drove off that I even remembered about the other Oakley (since it's a good three towns away), so not really my fault. But I think that if I'd been employing more of the analytical problem solving skills, and fewer of the local history ones, I might have managed to work it out.
Oh well. Hope she finds where she's going anyway...
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James
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2009-07-12 11:42:00 |
As part of my 'packing' for moving house, I've been sorting out the vast quantities of data that Naomi and I have between us...
That means 35gb of music, across 9,000 files (8,999 if you want to be a pedant).. Of which 4gb is as yet 'unsorted', representing 995 files.
So if each song is about four minutes long, then that's 25 solid days worth of music. Nice. Still, with 1TB to play with, it'll take a lot more than that before we're done.... :o)
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James
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2009-07-10 22:51:00 |
Finalé of Torchwood was outstanding. Far more BSG than SG1 as endings go, only with more guts. Peter Capaldi was amazing, and the conclusion of his story thread was the best TV I think the BBC have broadcast in... years? Ever? I don't know.. Fucking excellent.
That is all.
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James
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2009-07-08 15:54:00 |
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What the hell is wrong with me? I just read Baptist Church as Rapist Church. Worse - I laughed.
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James
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2009-07-07 21:15:00 |
You've got to be joking, right? I've been wanting severe weather for over a week now, kept being promised something dramatic, and nothing happened...
... the first day I'm out of London, they have flooding, hail storms, thunder, etc...
... and I'm in Bristol, with blue skies, sunshine, and fluffiness. Bloody typical.
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James
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2009-07-06 23:08:00 |
Four and a half years into our relationship, and I learn that all this time I've been reading Naomi's tattoo upside down :o(
Stupid Chinese symbols :o\
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James
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2009-07-05 15:50:00 |
Just ten days to go now..
It's been what, fifteen, sixteen months since Naomi and I last lived together full time? And now it all just comes down to these last ten days.
Of those, Monday night is going to be spent at Naomi's house, and Wednesday and Thursday will be spent in Guildford together, so really we're only talking seven days, more or less.
Next Wednesday evening, once we're finally in, I'm going to spend some time de-spidering the house. Without any furniture in there, it should hopefully be fairly easy. Every corner, every cupboard, every window, everything. There will be no spiders when Naomi moves in :o)
And then perhaps we can get back to, or indeed re-discover, some sort of sense of normality. Having our own space again - not just space that's ours, but space that we own, and can do with as we wish.. Being able to spend evenings in front of the TV, or cooking, or doing whatever we want, without having to consider anybody else in the world - it'll be bliss :o)
It's weird, because I keep on thinking back to the first time we officially moved in together, which was more than three years ago now, and I still get the same rush of excitement at the thought of doing it all over again. In spite of how nice it's been living with my family again, and exploring the countryside for the last year, living with Naomi is the happiest I've ever been, and I really can't wait to get back to that :o)
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James
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| Part 3 - Sunday |
2009-06-30 09:59:00 |
Sunday morning was just about my only rest over the last few days, in which I allowed myself to sleep in until 10am (seemingly a rare luxury, and possibly undermined by the fact that I was also up and about between 7am and 8am anyway).. Still, it was good to get a lie in - presumably my next one of those will be this coming weekend...
So at around lunchtime, I grabbed the coach to Oxford, and from there took a couple of trains to get to Naomi's. We had a nice (if slightly embarrassing) afternoon in which I demonstrated quite clearly that I am not the world's best table tennis player. Shock! Still good fun though :o)
Then in the evening, it was time to go out into London to see Aqualung live. The gig was in Notting Hill, which is actually a tremendous scum-hole in a lot of areas - who knew? There was a little drama with the train tickets - they don't actually tell you that they're invalid for the journey you propose to make until after you've bought them - clever, eh? Still, managed to get to the right area roughly on time, and went to an Italian restaurant for dinner - Centonove on Westbourne Park Road.
It is worth noting at this point that in spite of my (apparent) aversion to vinegar, I consumed more than my fair share of bread dipped in some sort of vinegar dressing while we were there. I think that counts as trying a new food, for the purposes of my mighty list, but I'd need to double check that... If that doesn't, then trying Naomi's pumpkin ravioli will probably qualify. Either way, the meal was seriously delicious, and exactly what I needed. And it's always nice to take Naomi out to dinner - she usually makes it so difficult for me ;o)
So from there, to the Tabernacle, whose interior is technically a theatre by design. The majority of the gig was spent sitting on the floor patiently, since it's not really get-up-and-dance music.. We arrived in time to see half the set of the first support act, Foreign Slippers. They were pretty good - she had a nice voice, the songs were well put together, can't really ask for more than that.. Quality support was a theme for the evening really.
Next up were KaiserCartel, who were absolutely excellent. One of their songs ("Okay", I believe) was enough to give me tingles, which is not the most common thing for a song I've never heard by a band I've never heard. For that one, they had Foreign Slippers out on stage, along with Matt/Aqualung, so it was just a big ensemble piece. Worked brilliantly well. For their last song they went entirely acoustic, and walked around the audience singing it, which was ever so slightly kooky, but it worked well enough for what it was trying to do..
And then Aqualung. Holy shit is that man good. If we measure the quality of a gig by the degree to which the performance was faithful to the studio material, while being enhanced by the live environment, then he scores big. Where Erasure failed to modify their music for a live feel, or Joseph Arthur failed to play the songs as they were known to people, Aqualung had no such problems. In terms of quality alone, it was just as good as Elbow - on a personal level, the gig lost a few marks because I was slightly less familiar with the material, but gained a few for being in one of the most intimate venues I've ever been to for a gig. Only Lifehouse really beats that...
Unfortunately, due to my lack of familiarity with the material, I couldn't really say which songs got played.. But he covered a great many, if not all, of the ones that I know, which is more than a couple. I just don't know the names... He certainly played Garden of Love and Pressure Suit, which are two of my absolute favourites (and the former is where Naomi's LJ username is from).. For the most part he was accompanied on the guitar by his brother Ben, with Foreign Slippers and KaiserCartel coming out from time to time to help out on other songs. But for several of the songs, it was just man and (synthesised) piano, and it was excellent :o)
Upon his return for the encore, he explained that he was open to suggestions for songs from the audience, at which point somebody shouted out "Beach Boys", and we were treated to a rather splendid rendition of God Only Knows, first Matt on his own, and gradually joined by all the other artists who'd performed, all picking up various instruments. It's just so good to be in the presence of musicians as opposed to entertainers.
In short, he really knows how to put on an excellent gig, and I'm sure it fits comfortably within my top five. On which note, my (unordered) top five gigs, as rated based on the objective quality, would probably be Lifehouse, Easyworld, Stars, Elbow, Aqualung. Very glad that we went - it exceeded all my expectations :o)
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James
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| Part 2 - Saturday |
2009-06-29 17:07:00 |
I met Jasna at Paddington (eventually), and we headed over to Liverpool Street to grab everyone else. TFD (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) davedowns) came down from Hull for it (we're just that compelling, as a group) and was the first to show up, followed by Carrie (cellardor (though I keep wanting to type stewpotc)). Merel (myarra) joined us next, and then we were just waiting for tma - the man around whom we had planned all the timings in the first place. Should have known better than to think that he'd get there on time - where he lives, trains are pulled by horses...
What then followed was something of a farce.. TMA, in his infinite stinginess, had brought two-for-one vouchers for Pizza Express, and asserted that he knew the location of at least three such outlets in close proximity to the station, and that we were all to follow him. Somewhere around Moorgate, we realised that the man was lying, and had no idea where we were or where we were meant to be going. I blame all of us, really, for following him in the first place. Fortunately, some of us have GPS-enabled phones, so we were able to salvage the trip and find the restaurant without too much bother.
I should mention at this point that we were in the heart of the financial district, where there's nothing much to speak of other than offices and banks and the like. Consequently, it being a Saturday, the streets were dead, barely another soul around.. Likewise the restaurant, where we were the only people there at first (at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon!), which was actually rather lucky, since as a party of six we'd be unlikely to be seated anywhere even remotely busy.
So pizza time, and the three girls (all sitting along one side of the table - just like at school) all ordered their plain old margaritas. The three guys, sitting on the other side of the table, all ordered our pepperoni pizzas. It was almost embarrassing in its predictability... :o)
( And so the day went on... )
All in all though, it was a really good day, I thought.. Good to see TFD again - I haven't seen him since April 2001, it turns out.. And it was good to reminisce with him and TMA about the good old days, Kit (presumed dead), Chas (presumed dead), and the whole Internet-before-LJ thing.. Also good to meet Merel, even if she is kind of nuts :o)
Plus, always good to see Carrie, though I do worry that she's not afraid of me any more - at the lunch table, I'm pretty sure she gave serious thought to harming me.. Must try harder to be menacing.. Still, perhaps there's some merit in actually getting along with people, and that this represents a positive step forward :o)
And of course, it was awesome that Jasna was able to be there, thus making ours the first intercontinental AMA meet-up. Suck on that, USA :oP
We'll have to do it all again sometime.. Maybe next time, we'll come up with something to actually do with ourselves!
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James
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| Part 1 - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday |
2009-06-29 10:28:00 |
In the spirit of, y'know, keeping a journal and everything, I guess I should talk a little about the past week, since it's been fairly eventful...
So on Wednesday, Jasna (thewebmistress) came over from Canada (by way of the Netherlands).. This required me to trek into deepest, darkest Essex in order to pick her up from the woefully desolate Harwich International, which is basically a room with a pier attached to it. Correction - two rooms. I'd hate to feel like I was giving an inaccurate portrayal..
Anyhow, so from there we had then head back into London, and get her to her hostel, which is in an old Magistrates Court - rather nice building really.. With hindsight, maybe that's why the place is called "Clink" - that would make sense..
So yeah, it was all rather good - as far as I recall, there were no horribly awkward silences, or anything of that nature, and certainly by the end of the journey she was talking plenty.. Ooh, and we saw where they're building all that crap for the Olympics, which was nice..
So yeah, I headed back to Naomi's house to lie in wait, so to speak, since she didn't know I'd be there.. I greeted her at the door on Thursday morning when she got in from her night shift, which seemed to come across like a nice surprise :o) Then we spent about an hour cuddling in bed before I had to leave for work, and let her get some sleep. With any luck, that'll be her last night shift before we're living in Guildford anyway :o)
Anyway, moving on to Thursday then, I met up with Jasna in the afternoon by my work and went for a wander.. Down to Trafalgar Square, then took the tube up to Regents Park, then hung out there a while, then out to get a bit of lunch, then tube to Embankment, and walked along the South Bank to Tower Bridge. It's probably worth mentioning that while we were in the park, we watched a very friendly squirrel get a little too friendly with the leg of a man who was offering to feed it.. Personally, I could do without rodents climbing up my legs, it doesn't seem like the most fun way to contract disease...
So in any case, the whole day was roughly characterised by walking around a lot and sitting under a lot of trees, which seems to be my default way of spending time in London, and therefore sharing that experience with other people is showing them my London, rather than whatever it is that everyone else does.. We ended the day in Green Park, in constant fear that we were about to get shat on by a particularly poorly placed pigeon. Fun times!
On Friday night I went to Naomi's, where we ordered pizza and watched Twilight. I think I can safely say that it's the most poorly executed adaptation of a book I've ever seen. ( Spoilers )
Anyway, outrage aside, it was a good evening.. Naomi and I were looking after her dog, who'd just come back from hospital with stitches, so we had to keep an eye on her and make sure she was okay... At one point, I just lay down on the floor and she came to lie down with me, it was very sweet - she's a lovely puppy really :o)
We had a good lie-in together on Saturday, before I then headed back into London for our whole AMA Meet-Up thing.
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James
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2009-06-23 16:32:00 |
I fell asleep in the bath for an hour, and when I woke up, the backs of my hands were wrinkled, let alone the front...
I'm trying to come up with some sort of additional content that would justify this being posted to LiveJournal as opposed to some sort of microblogging rubbish like Twitter, but I really don't have much else to say right now.
Except that in theory, we're moving into our new house three weeks from tomorrow :D
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| Run for it, Marty! |
2009-06-22 10:30:00 |
I have to say, I'm impressed. My home IP address is static and resolves cleanly to webley.demon.co.uk. No hint of location in the host name, you'll notice. All the Geo data websites I've looked at thus far just narrow the location down to United Kingdom. Some think it's from Northamptonshire, which it is not.
So then, how is it that I got some very targeted advertising when browsing last night?
According to an advertisement, there were two "attractive" ladies "waiting for me", in my very village! Now I know this to be a lie, since firstly there are no attractive ladies in my village, and secondly all the ladies that might think they would qualify would have been down at the park drinking White Lightning anyway.
Nevertheless, somehow they mapped from the IP address to my specific village. That can't be guesswork, and it can't be derived from the IP itself, so surely they have collected this information somehow. At some point, some form has been filled out by some member of my family, and the combination of an IP address and a town/postcode has been sold on for more effective targeted marketing.
I can't say I'm too sad about that. While I have no need for the ladies in question, and have no reason to suspect that such women have ever existed in my local area, it feels nice to know that the Internet is trying to lie to me on as personalised a level as possible - on a real one-to-one basis. I may just be an IP address, but I am no longer just a number.
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James
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2009-06-20 23:49:00 |
Map of today's walk...
Not a lot to say about it.. ten miles of hill walking, some rather nice valleys, lots of rain but only when we were under trees so didn't get wet, and.. I dunno, not much to say. It wasn't an exciting walk, but it was something to do with three hours, and must be good exercise...
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James
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2009-06-20 11:11:00 |
Wait, what the shit..?
Mars have re-released the old Milky Way adverts from either the late eighties or early nineties.. That's just so weird..
They've swapped some words around now.. Originally the blue car, who "took the Milky Way", was referred to as "smart old blue". He's now described as "good old blue" instead.
Also, where previously it said "'cause he knows it won't spoil his appetite" it now goes "'cause he knows it's something that tastes just right". Perhaps they can't make the appetite claims any more..?
They've re-recorded the whole song, obviously, and seem to have put it into a weird time signature so as to take out the beats that didn't have words over them, which makes the whole thing feel awfully rushed, but still..
Ah, nostalgia :o)
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James
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2009-06-20 10:50:00 |
Ugh, did you know that when sleeping on the kitchen floor, in front of the tumble dryer, it becomes next to impossible to hear the rather loud ringtone on two different mobile phones?
I did not know this until last night. I mean, I checked - the fuckers buzz against the floor, and make noise, and I just sleep right through it. Turns out the combination of the appliance's whirring noise, the exhaust of warm air, and the smell of clean clothes puts me into some sort of coma, from which it is difficult to wake :o\
Consequently, I very nearly missed speaking to Naomi last night during her 3am lunch break, in spite of having stayed up specifically for the purpose of talking to her - oops... :o\
So yeah, note to self.. if I'm wanting to be awake for something, or at least not so deeply asleep that I can wake up for it, don't be sleeping in front of the tumble dryer. It doesn't work out...
Plan for today? Walking. Possibly...
In passing, this is a bad idea.
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James
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2009-06-18 12:36:00 |
Funny how the momentum comes and goes.. From 23rd May right up until 6th June, I managed to write at least one entry per day, often more, and then it all kind of fell apart..
There's a whole "real life" thing that I could talk about, but not all that much changes really.. I'm open to suggestions for topics though.....
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James
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2009-06-15 07:21:00 |
When I set off yesterday, the weather forecast described the next few days as gloriously sunny and hot.
Key words in today's forecast - "severe weather warning", "hail", "thunder".
If I could have known that before I set off without any sort of coat, that would have been nice :o\
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| Mmm |
2009-06-14 19:37:00 |
My hotel room is ever so luxurious, widescreen TV mounted on the wall, five pillows on the bed, free bathroom stuff, and most importantly, thanks to expenses, free pizza.
Bit of a waste to be here alone, it'd be much better if Naomi could have come too, but still, it's a nice place to spend some time :o)
Hmm.. just need to come up with something to do to keep the boredom at bay...
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| Children of Earth - it's what Torchwood should be |
2009-06-12 23:34:00 |
So, this evening I went to the BFI Cinema to see what I guess could be described as the premier of Torchwood: Children of Earth (effectively their third season).
Wikipedia suggests that it will be on TV (BBC1 and BBC America) on 20th July, but we'll see..
The actual episode was excellent, paced very nicely, and works very well as an establishing episode for the next four (due to air the same week), which we didn't get to see. ( Plot spoilers )
Following the screening, there was a panel discussion, with John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Russell T Davies and Euros Lyn (that is to say, Captain Jack, Gwen, the writer/executive producer and the director). The whole thing was hosted by Caitlin Moran, and followed the same sort of format as the one for Psychoville - a discussion led by the host, followed by some Q&A.
It was really quite heart warming to see the dynamic between John and Eve - they seem to have a genuine bond, and have a really good time joking around with one another. Just nice to see co-workers getting along so well :o) The whole thing was good to be present for, and something about it kind of put me in mind of the time when we went to the Doctor Who exhibition in Llangollen, and got to put on actual costumes from the original series.. I mean, it'll never be quite as cool as that - especially since it was something that nobody really got to do back then, and certainly wouldn't get to do now that the show is popular. But it's that feeling of actually being close to this thing that you grew up loving (even if it's only by proxy, since Torchwood isn't actually Doctor Who).
And hey, getting to see celebrities never gets old either.. And did I mention, because we didn't have tickets, we were on standby, waiting in line for a while, but when we did get tickets, they were awesome ones, third row, right in the middle - presumably they were reserved for somebody who couldn't make it. Some of the best seats in the house :o)
So yeah. It's been a good evening... :o)
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2009-06-09 09:58:00 |
Ugh, it's been another one of those mornings..
That is to say, nothing overtly bad has actually happened - quite the contrary, it's all been fine. But once again I find myself getting those pangs of missing Naomi - you'd hope that after a year living apart, I'd be used to them, but apparently not. Inconvenient...
It's reached a point now where I'm counting down the days, which is kind of tricky since we don't know exactly when we'll be moving in yet, but it can be no more than 52 days now. And the date we're aiming for is in 31 days, which my brain calculates to be four weeks from this coming Friday. Or it's seven weeks from Friday. I mean, either way, it's not too far off.
It gets frustrating though - there are a good three years of my life that I can't spend time thinking about, because it just makes me feel sad. A vast amount of what it really meant to be living in Cardiff and Bristol was the fact that I was living with Naomi.. It was central to where my life was at that time, so it's rather difficult to think of it without taking that into account. Even thinking about being in my old office makes me think of heading over to M&S after work to pick up some dinner, before meeting Naomi on her walk home from work..
It's funny to think that we'll (very probably) never again both live within walking distance of our respective workplaces, walking to work together, walking home together... Not without a major career move on my part anyway, because it's not likely that I'd ever live within walking distance of this office anyway...
So in a sense, some of the things that I miss aren't ever coming back. But the main thing, the feeling of living together in our own place - that's no more than 52 days away now... :o)
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2009-06-08 12:12:00 |
Okay, you know what, fuck it - let's head on over to the BNP website and pull out a few facts.. I feel like this is possibly the only way to get over my anger over the whole thing..
( Angry )
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2009-06-08 10:41:00 |
Good job, idiots, way to elect the BNP to represent you in Europe.. You must be so proud..
So let's see, that's a BNP member on the London Assembly, a seat on a county council, and now an MEP. I can't wait for some idiots to think it's a good idea to elect one to the Commons, that would just be splendid, right..?
Just copying from Wikipedia (because any more official sources of information make me even more angry), this is a party that iscommitted to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948. You voted for this?It advocates the repeal of all anti-discrimination legislation, and restricts party membership to "indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of Indigenous Caucasian". Wait....The BNP proposes to reintroduce corporal punishment, and to make capital punishment available for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers. In addition to increasing military defence spending, the BNP plans to reintroduce compulsory national service. The BNP proposes that citizens should keep a rifle and ammunition in their homes. Hang on...The BNP opposed the introduction of civil partnerships in the United Kingdom. BNP spokesman Phil Edwards said homosexuality "is unnatural" and "does not lead to procreation but does lead to moral turpitude and disease". Alongside its suggestion that homosexuality "undermines social/marital cohesion by adding confusion", the BNP would make it unlawful to promote homosexuality and "return it to the closet where it belongs" So yeah, well fucking done for voting in the most intolerant of all the viable parties. In fact, well done for making the part viable in the first place, rather than living out on the fringes where it belongs.
The arguments against voting BNP are so self evident that I can just get away with not bothering with them. Instead, I'll keep it simple - to anybody who voted BNP, or thought about voting BNP - fuck you.
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2009-06-06 19:59:00 |
I doubt I'm the first to notice it, but people have been doing something rather clever on Twitter...
It looks rather like networks of disposable bots have been going around adding people, and working out which users will automatically add them back. Presumably if you add back within an hour, you go onto some sort of list.
Then other networks of bots that are actually going to be used show up. They refer to these lists, add say 50,000 people off them, get added back by 50,000 people, and suddenly they have 50k mutual friends. And look like credible users, rather than just bots.
It's quite a clever plan really - using users' own settings against them. Why bother creating fake users to befriend your bots to make them look real when you can use the real population of the site?
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James
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2009-06-05 21:11:00 |
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2009-06-05 07:50:00 |
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2009-06-02 18:34:00 |
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Plato, sorry in advance, but I'm about to go to town on this. People need to learn to stick within the parameters of hypothetical questions.
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2009-06-02 16:20:00 |
I wonder if I'm meant to find this more tragic and upsetting than this.
What equation is it, exactly that can make the loss of three lives more sad than the loss of 228? Is a lack of available detail really so big a deal? Apparently so... :o\
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2009-06-02 15:11:00 |
Straight out of my inbox - riddle me this..Celebrate their graduation with iPod.
They studied hard. Now let them play hard.
Mark your grad's big day with a new iPod. Visit your local Apple Retail Store or order online for free engraving and shipping.
Goodbye, finals. Hello, fun.
Give your grad something fun to do now that school's out. iPod touch has all the entertainment one person can handle. Games, apps, movies, TV shows, the web - with so many exciting features, it's like tons of graduation gifts in one. That's swell, Apple, really it is. They then go on to tell me that the brilliantly coloured iPod nano would represent "a gift as bright as their future", or that Graduation "is no small feat", just like the new iPod shuffle. Then follows a selection of other ideas, like gift vouchers for graduates, or graudation-themed engravings..
Right, that's lovely. Honestly. But why the fuck are you sending this to me? I'm 27, you idiots. I don't have a "grad". Assuming they mean university, they're presuming that my partner is six years younger than me - have they inferred this from my taste in music? Does listening to Gary Puckett and the Union Gap label me as a cradle snatcher, perhaps..?
Or do they perhaps mean "graduating" from GCSEs? In which case, I suppose the assumption is that I had a child at 11. Dare I ask which songs suggest that to them?
Just from a Marketing perspective (capital M and everything), it's a really rubbish e-mail.. If you don't have enough data on your customers or prospects to target them with something relevant, then send them something general. Don't send them something that's relevant to other people. Unless they actually suspect that I have a child or partner who is due to graduate, why on earth would they waste my time, their time, their money, and their relationship with me, on an e-mail that is wholly irrelevant to my needs as a customer?
I rate this e-mail 1/10.
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James
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2009-06-01 21:35:00 |
You know those moments when you just look at somebody, and you just get this rush of love, and you know you're going to spend the rest of your life with that person?
That's such a good feeling :D
Just saying... :o)
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| Prepare your bladder for imminent release! |
2009-06-01 09:53:00 |
Without wishing to make a silly pun, this is taking the piss..
I woke up at 4:30am, very much awake, and absolutely ready to get up for work, had I so wished. With hindsight, this was entirely because I had a mighty need to use the restroom, and upon the completion of my goal, I went back to bed, thinking that it would be easy to get up for work an hour later.
... two hours later ...
Damnit. I was still on time for work, I just wasn't early like I'd wanted to be, having managed to kill my alarm when it went off at the correct time. But on the bright side, I've come up with a fantastic invention - an alarm clock that creates a need to pee. I don't know how you'd work it exactly, and you would want it to simulate the need (otherwise you're just selling a box that will make people piss themselves every now and then), but still.. The body seems to be more than happy to wake up if it senses the need to use the toilet, which works far better than setting four alarms (as I did this morning).
So now I just need to find a way to make the body think it needs to pee, and then patent that as an effective way of making people wake up in the mornings. I'm going to be rich!
And I will share those riches with all those who spot the references in this post
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2009-05-31 18:53:00 |
I'm aiming to write about movies when I see them.. it seems like something positive to do, and means that if I ever have an experience like Mamma Mia again, then at least I'll get to use that negative energy in some sort of spiteful rant..
( A Time to Kill )
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| A few points |
2009-05-31 11:12:00 |
Gave up chocolate the other day. Hoping to go the month of June without eating it. Further hoping that by mentioning it here, it'll actually happen - a few times lately I've had a go at giving it up, only to find myself buying it absentmindedly later.. Is that all one word?
Worked out that in the last week, I walked 27 miles. Granted, this does not represent the quickest marathon ever completed, but still, I think it's a pretty respectable tally. I'm hoping that this exertion, coupled with the lack of chocolate, will help. I haven't eaten cheese in a while either...
I'm doing wonders with my little website thing.. I've built it in such a way that you can double click on content that you own, and it turns it into a text field where you can edit it, update it, and then re-submit it. It's seriously neat.. Trying to use it for working on these lists of things to do, since I want to make them very easy to edit, but also have them published live, so...
While I'm rambling, the radio pissed me off earlier.. some idiot on BBC Radio 4 managed to suggest that the UK is euro-sceptic because we're the only island. Turns out Éire doesn't actually exist or something - perhaps we own it now? I mean, it would be impossible, surely, for an island to want to join the Eurozone, right..? He further went on to say that we're also the only country who didn't experience any invasion type nonsense during the second world war.. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but oh, there's Ireland again, and hey, Switzerland didn't get invaded either, and wasn't Spain technically neutral too? I just don't understand what the point is in making stuff up in order to excuse the fact that we're just a bit xenophobic here, and don't like the idea of anyone else making decisions for us. If you're going to be making excuses for the euro-sceptics, then you kind of need to be okay with owning your prejudices...
And in closing news, I'm trying to do a DITL today.. The good old-fashioned picture version. Should be fun :o)
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2009-05-30 18:01:00 |
So, let's see.. my proposed route would have been about 3.8 miles, which would have been a fine walk.. Of course, it didn't work even remotely that way, and ended up being 7.5 miles - keen eyes among you will recognise that that's twice the intended distance :o)
The map... I was walking from East to West. Direction-wise, it didn't exactly start brilliantly, and didn't get much better - not least of all when I was actually on the correct path, going the wrong way....
On the plus side, every time I deviated from the correct route, I saw deer - first a herd of fallow deer, complete with a stag and youngsters, and then a couple of Muntjac deer in the woods.
So yes, all things considered, it was rather a good walk.. I only had Factor 20 sunblock, so let's hope that my many hours of walking haven't managed to burn me.. Anyway, the following are my Twitter updates from the walk:- Went totally the wrong way, and still heading in the wrong direction, but met a family of twelve deer, so very happy :D
- My need to not drift too far south has, inevitably, taken me much too far north.. I'm something of an idiot..
- Found a little Muntjac too.. Today is a day for deer :o)
Right.. time to relax a little, it's been a long afternoon :o)
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2009-05-30 13:27:00 |
Right. My mother has kindly offered to drive me up into the hills and drop me off in the middle of nowhere, so I guess that'll work :o)
I'll probably spam my Twitter with random updates about wtf I'm actually doing.. Expect plenty of "shit, I'm lost" messages... This should be fun :o)
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2009-05-30 11:38:00 |
Oh damn, it finally happened..
I really have run out of places to walk to. There isn't a public footpath for two miles around my house that I haven't walked on - for those who aren't so big with the maths, that's twelve square miles worth of "been there, done that".
So I'm not really sure what that leaves me with.. I really would like to get out and about, top up my tan, maybe take some photos.. Perhaps go up into the hills, or maybe to the quarry, though I'd kind of like to go swimming there, which is probably a bad idea..
Ugh, I dunno.. Anybody want to give me any suggestions for stuff to do while I have a nice bath? That would be splendid (though unexpected).
Must.. find.. motivation...
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2009-05-29 23:03:00 |
Too little, too late, fuckers - you were shit, your Ukrainian support monkeys were shit, and I kind of hope you fold, painfully, because I'm a petty little tosser like that.
Right, with that out of the system...
I walked home from the station, rather than catching the bus. This saved me a grand total of £1, which I then invested in fluids to sustain my walk (costing £1.09). I was tricked by the false economy :o(
So the walk went like this, and it was rather good fun - I got myself a little lost a couple of times, which is always nice for a bit of variety.. Passed through a couple of fields full of Painted Lady Butterflies, some of which thought it would be a good idea to land on me, which was kind of neat.. even if they are basically just great big bugs :o)
So this evening has been relatively slow, as I've been relaxing after my minor exertion (okay, four and a half miles is hardly that much, but still, with a heavy backpack it's not trivial)..
I eagerly anticipate a weekend of doing work, and adding to my list of things to do :o)
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| Poke her face..? |
2009-05-29 11:08:00 |
I'm rather disturbed upon listening to the lyrics for Just Dance by Lady GaGa.. It's clear that what this poor woman is describing is an encounter with date rape drugs, and possibly some sort of abuse scenario.
She starts off talking about how she's in a bad state, her head is spinning, she's lost her keys and her phone, and thus can't call for help. This is not normal party behaviour. She then goes on to describe how she can no longer see straight, and doesn't even know the name of the venue she's in - she's in an incredibly vulnerable position here.
Throughout the chorus she chants to herself that everything is going to be okay, but by the next verse, she's wishing that she could keep control over herself, and remarks that her clothes are mysteriously inside out. I'm sorry to say, something terrible has happened to her during that chorus... She mentions getting "hosed" - the imagination runs riot :o\
Then we have an interlude by an unidentified male, who appears to be using technology to obscure his real voice, describing how he wants to "hit it" (in relation to the women at the club). He also suggests that GaGa ought to leave the club with him later, though as far as I can tell, the damage is already done - by the end of the song, she seems to be having some sort of breakdown :o(
I mean, this is a vulnerable woman, telling herself over and over that everything is going to be okay, while describing what is surely every woman's worst nightmare. And they sell these records to kids?!
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James
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2009-05-28 22:39:00 |
We had a bat flying around the back garden, so I went to spend a bit of time with it..
Beautiful sunset here, the sky is just different shades of blue, really understated by really clear and crisp. The moon is out too, along with those stars that feel like trying to fight against the pale blue light on the horizon. I love bats, they always remind me of Barbados, where the skies were just full of them at dusk. If I could go anywhere in the world right now, it would be back there.
I've been trying to come up with a whole "101 things" that I can aspire to achieve over "1001 days". Right now I'll be lucky if I can come up with 11 - I'm just not quite the right type of person to be doing something like that. I always have aspirations, but they're always so fleeting - I never finish anything, I just dabble until I don't enjoy it any more, and then move on to the next thing that's caught my attention. Perhaps this would be a useful tool for snapping me out of that habit, but while I'm still in that mindset, it's hard to come up with things that I can honestly believe I could put my mind to and achieve. I'll keep working on it.
Anyhow, just had an idea for something I meant to put to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) ask_me_anything, so I shall go write that...
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| Psychoville |
2009-05-27 23:06:00 |
So, Edward and I went to the BFI cinema on the South Bank to see the first two episodes of Psychoville, a Comedy Thriller by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton of League of Gentlemen fame.
If I had to describe it, I couldn't do it without drawing parallels to the League of Gentlemen, at least in terms of the tone and nature of the characters. But you can really feel the difference in the continuous plot, which drives events forwards, as opposed to the character gags that were a little more typical of LoG.
Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton again take on multiple roles, but only in those places where you can't entirely tell that they're doing it. There's a definite sense that you're meant to see beyond the "Oh, haha, typical Reece character!" type feelings, and actually find the characters more believable (within the general suspension of disbelief parameters of slightly dark and surreal comedy).
As far as the tone goes, it has the same "darkness" that people like in LoG, though I didn't find it that dark, as such. I think it really helps that they're not trying to be dark. It's not like it's a Jhonen Vasquez comic, dripping with as much darkness as its creator can force into it. The themes aren't light (unless you consider a near-psychotic one-handed clown waving his stump at terrified children to be light), but it's very much driven by the characters, who are human enough that you don't start to feel the typical alienation that you might otherwise feel when the darkness causes a disconnect from reality.
The first episode starts off a little slowly, and for me it took until at least halfway into the second episode before I felt like the multiple plot threads were sufficiently interconnected that it actually felt cohesive. Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it until then, but it certainly came across a lot better once you could see roughly where the narrative was going.
After the episodes, there was a panel discussion with Reece Shearsmith, Justin Davies (the producer), and two of the cast, Lisa Hammond, and Daniel Kaluuya (AKA Posh Kenneth from Skins). It was quite interesting just in terms of how the people came across - Posh Kenneth isn't the most articulate person when in that sort of situation, but you can really tell from what he's actually saying that he really knows his stuff, and is a really bright guy. Not that I think I could do any better, y'know, word-wise.
Anyway, the panel was really interesting, and it gave a great insight into the development of the show, and how everything came together, which was really good to watch. Makes one feel a bit closer to the whole process, and of course, always cool to see Reece Shearsmith in person. Oh, speaking of which, on the way back as we passed the E4 Udderbelly (don't ask), we walked past somebody off the TV, but I'm fucked if I can work out who..
But yes, really good evening. Good to be doing interesting stuff - being in London has its benefits.
Psychoville airs on the 11th of June on BBC Two. Watch it :o)
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2009-05-26 11:34:00 |
I watched a movie yesterday in which Angelina Jolie played the female lead, who was an assassin trying to kill the male lead, also an assassin. No, it wasn't Mr and Mrs Smith.. Anyway, the male lead was trying to avenge the death of his father, but then found out that actually, the person he was chasing was his father. No, I wasn't watching Star Wars either. Anyway, he only found that out after tragically killing his father, who he believed at the time to be his father's killer. And no, I wasn't watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
It was about a guy in a dead-end office job, addressing the audience and waxing lyrical about his life through a voice-over, before finally finding some excitement and standing up to his obnoxious boss. No, I wasn't watching Fight Club. In the movie I was watching, he discovers that he's the heir to a legacy that gives him awesome powers and is taken away to train to use these powers to fight the forces of evil. No, not Harry Potter either.
No, I watched The Matrix Wanted, the most original action film ever created! The end result is what happens when "visionary" film makers plug all the "right" pieces into their "formula". It was basically a big pile of arse, but as far as mindless fun goes, it was okay for passing the time. I won't be buying it on DVD any time soon...
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2009-05-25 17:37:00 |
Edward and I went on another walk, this time seven miles in total, and this time I wore Factor 40 sunblock, which has hopefully helped to prevent my sunburn getting any worse.. And with any luck, it can be safely converted into a golden brown tan soon. Hopefully...
And now I really am done.. it's been a very long weekend, and now it's time to relax :o)
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2009-05-25 17:12:00 |
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