Month: September 2004

UPDATE: Well our social calendar is busier than I thought.

I noticed a small article about an upcoming Architecture Festival in Glasgow. Did a little digging and found that there are all sorts of tours, events and whatnot happening. I’m planning on going to a few, most probably the following:

• Doors Open day – some of the grander buildings in Glasgow, which are usually closed to visitors or have restricted access, open their doors. Runs all weekend – 18th/19th Sept. – more info here.
• Bollywood Outdoor Cinema – Hidden Gardens, Tramway – Sat. 18th Sept. 7pm.
• River Regeneration Tour – A tour of Glasgow and the Clydeside by river, including a dusk return highlighting the City’s Lighting Strategy (hot soup provided!) – Wed. 22nd Sept. 5.45pm
• Text in the City Walk – an architectural treasure trail around the Merchant City area of Glasgow. Clues given by SMS – runs from 18th to 25th Sept.
• City of the Dead Tour – A guided tour of the Glasgow Necropolis – Mon 20th, or Thurs 23rd Sept., 6pm.

I’ve always promised myself I’d find out more about the city that has dominated most of my life, if you are interested in any, more details can be found on the Block website, or drop into The Lighthouse (on Mitchell Lane).

Note to self: Yes, your shiny, silver, optical, CORDLESS mouse is lovely and shiny and silver. However please try to remember that it is CORDLESS which means you need to place it BACK on the charging cradle at night. That way, when you come home after work and go upstairs to check your emails, the batteries in your nice shiny, silver, optical CORDLESS mouse might not be dead.

This rendering of your mouse as a paperweight MAY be excused if it were an attempt to show the futility of man’s reliance on technology. However, as it is the result of your own bone-headed forgetfulness you deserve nothing less than a slap upside the head.

Idiot.

P.S. Isn’t it amazing how you can get by just using the TAB key.

P.P.S. Stop talking to yourself. I’ve warned you about this before.

Oprah gives away some cars on her show (276 of them) to members of the studio audience, all of them designated as ‘needy’. Me-Fi’s go nuts – 127 comments and counting.

A post about the death of Mazen al-Tomasi, an Arabian reporter whose was killed by shrapnel from American missile fire, all of which was graphically caught on camera – 65 comments and counting.

That’s HALF the number of comments. Something is seriously wrong.

Disclaimer: Yes I know that using MeFi isn’t the best basis on which to judge a nation but the comparison struck me. Read what you will into it.

Yeah yeah, Buckingham Palace, Batman and all that.

What really gets me about this story is what happened with Robin. He didn’t climb up the ladder as the armed police threatened to shoot him if he did (a wise choice by him, I’m sure you’ll agree) but AFTER that he was only arrested having given an interview to Sky News.

So let me get this straight. You, at gunpoint, order a man down off a ladder then let him wander off to talk to Sky?

Again it makes you wonder who is controlling things these days.

Remember when I mentioned a friend’s MBA, well he asked me to proof read his dissertation. I’ve just finished it and I’m jolly impressed. Turns out he’s quite smart after all! (you’d never tell from looking at him).

I’m kidding of course, he’s possibly one of the smartest people I know.

Anyhoo*, I did pause when I realised that he had lifted a quote from my post on the topic, then I remembered that he DID ask my permission. What a terrible memory I have.

His dissertation is fascinating, and I’ve started looking up some of the quoted authors, so if I start spouting forth about corporate culture in the coming days, you’ll know why. Best find so far is Herman Dooyeweerd (by way of G Morgan). Just the name mind, I’ve not gotten into his philosophy yet.

*I MUST stop using this word. It can’t be good for me. Or you, dear reader.

Every morning should have one, arching across the sky as the drizzle falls, all the colours in such glorious vibrancy.

Site news: HaloScan continues to play silly buggers, I’m trying to get in touch with the site admin to see what the problem is.

Other news: Mark Conrad wrote about the media coverage of Beslan in yesterday’s Observer: Should we have looked away?

Rather than transmitting facts, it exists to stir up emotions – literally to orchestrate them… Ethical scruples may make us avert our gaze from such images. But are we then colluding with the politicians who want to suppress them because of the inconvenient truths they tell?

Interesting piece, worth a read.

And, possibly on a similar note, I found this article at first amusing then, the more I thought about it, rather worrying:

The Church of St Sulpice has many attractions – notably its Delacroix mural. So it is a matter of deep regret to church officials that most visitors are now attracted primarily by a huge bronze candlestick, used by an evil albino monk to batter a nun to death in Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Or maybe I’m just “over-thinking”.

Anyway, nice weekend. Up at 5:15am yesterday to catch the in-laws at the airport before they flew home to Spain. It’s amazing what getting up that early can do for you day. We got home around 8am and I managed to read the paper, over my obligatory two coffees and a bagel, before lunch. Unheard of! My parents turned up at 1pm and it was off to Chatelherault for a launch event for the new Renault Modus. Clever car, lots of “ohhh that’s clever” little gadgets and ideas, but it’s little bigger than a Clio so don’t let the adverts fool you. They had one of the F1 cars there as well (photos if I can get them off my phone), but the day was somewhat ruined by the incessant drizzle. We left before either the falconry display or the herding of the “As Seen on TV” Loch Lomond Ducks.

And so, to Monday. That hallowed day for commuters, where the trains run late, the annoying people are ALWAYS in your carriage, and the man with the large sports bag, who is incapable of putting in an overhead luggage rack, drops it on your toes and constantly fidgets with it, rubbed a welt in your shin.

Except this morning the train was on time and it was quiet and spacious. I started to wonder if it was a bank holiday…

Thanks to all for the questions, my 100 Things is coming along nicely, still plenty of gaps though (I’m guessing that maybe I should put a little more effort into completing it myself, what with this being my site and all…).

And finally, a question: is sleeping from 9.30pm to 7.15am bad for you?