Month: May 2006

Glorificus Tempestas

Walking home, the sun warming my face, cherry blossoms plucked from the tree, gently swirling on the breeze. These are the days, the moments to capture and cherish. Walking past gardens stretching out of their winter slumber, awash with colour. Spring green punctuated vividly.

Watching the bustling bee, fixated and engrossed. The cat, tail flicking idly, peerlessly survey her kingdom. The birds dashing here to the remains of puddles, flitting there to collect twigs and moss.

The cars whizz by and I revel in my solitude. There is only me, the sun and the world.

As I climb the hill the colours continue, reds, yellows, and purples, radiant under the blue. Above me the tendrils and wisps gather gently as if not wanting to spoil the moment, guilty of forming clouds.

I turn the corner, almost home. I realise my feet are burning, my legs hot and tight, my brow damp. Onwards I stride, breathing hard. Exalted and alive.

Live TV

Lyle links to an article that states:

Most TV viewing in households with personal video recorders such as Sky+ is still live and “traditional scheduled TV will be around for a long time yet”, according to new research.

We’ve had Sky+ for over a year now, and having finally switched my viewing habits to incorporate it’s features I wouldn’t go back if you paid me. The ability to pause a programme is worth it’s weight in gold, and with the recent addition of a “remind me” function for some programmes it’s a matter of two button pushes to record a future programme (the “remind me” function appears during trailers, hit red then “record” and Sky+ will take care of it for you). The series link is also invaluable as it figures out when the next episode of a series is on, and automatically sets it to record (even if it shift times).

So what you end up with, fairly quickly, is a set of pre-recorded programmes that YOU chose from the available channels. Your own little TV station.

That’s not to say we don’t watch ‘live’ TV anymore, but I think that depends on your viewing habits in general. I hardly watch any ‘live’ TV other than sports and news whereas my better half will watch TV of an evening and channel surf to find something to watch. The only stuff we record, typically, is stuff we’d both watch. So I don’t think watching ‘live’ TV is going to go away but I would expect to see a long-term shift. Whether or not the TV companies are looking that far ahead is disputable, especially as they still seem concerned about whether adverts will still be viable in the future.

After all, would you CHOOSE to watch adverts?

Our usage of Sky+ is governed, for the meantime, by the capacity of our current box. If it was larger I’d be much more prone to recording things “just in case” and wouldn’t mind them lying around on the machine until I had time to watch them. With that in mind, it would mean recording, say, Frasier every night, and skipping the adverts every time. The bigger the capacity, the less the chance I’d watch ‘live’ TV (including sports), and the fewer adverts I’d see.

What the TV companies need to do is come up with a viable alternative that suits ME. Add in the complication of downloads (particularly of US shows) and the whole picture becomes much more usage focussed. Power to the people (consumer)?

Don't do it!

They say you shouldn’t post if you have nothing to say.

But what if all you have to say is “sorry, can’t be arsed”?

And what if your own conscience meant that, despite not having much to say, you felt you had to post just to let people know that they don’t need to worry, I’m fine, everybody is fine and nothing of real note has happened.

Although that last bit is a complete lie and should read “nothing that I’m going to blog about has happened”.

Maybe the guilt behind not posting is enough to force a post into life, the feeling that people are visiting and thinking “Ohh.. still not posted, maybe he’s bored”.

Or maybe it’s my guilt about other things that is stopping me focus, outstanding projects, commitments missed and so on?

Blimey, it’s a complicated business, least of all when such “meta” posts aren’t always looked on favourably. Rightly so mind you, they can be hugely boring and tediously dull, yet somehow they remain the crux of things around here.

Why blog? Why NOT blog? When NOT to blog? WHY not to blog? WHO not to blog about? and so on and on and on…

Taking all that into consideration, should I still not post anything?

Yours confusedly.

Mamma Mia

As part of my sister’s birthday, we all traipsed through to Edinburgh to watch Mamma Mia. I have to admit I was a little skeptical as to how good it would be, not because I’m not an Abba fan but because I couldn’t really figure out how they’d shoe-horn the songs around one story. So whilst the reviews have been nothing but positive, I don’t really take much from them so was reserving my judgement until I’d seen the show.

Or, as it turned out, my judgement was made after the first 10 minutes. It was ace.

The basic story is of a girl who lives with her mother on a greek island. She doesn’t know who her Dad is but figures out it’s one of three men. So she sends them invites to her wedding in the hope of finding her Dad, but she doesn’t tell her mother.

I won’t spoil it any more than that, but if you get the chance, or even if you were maybe thinking of going but weren’t really sure, then do it. Go. It’s very VERY slick, yet charmingly simple (the entire set has only two main pieces) and hugely endearing. Ohh and it’s very funny to boot!

And don’t worry, fancy dress is optional.

A brilliant night indeed. Now, where’s that Abba album…

Snippets

KABOOMCRACKFLASHRUMBLE

Went the weather.

F  l i   c  k e   r went the lights.

Satellite box turned itself off, and off went the PC too (just in case).

Quite a nice evening was had reading books.

UPDATE: I wasn’t the only one enjoying the storm.

~

I love pistachios. I like sitting at a bar, watching the drops of condensation race down the glass —Last one to the beermat’s a loser!— Fingertips prising the shells open, before the creamy green nut reveals itself. I like that some of them are tricky to get open, fingernails to the fore. I like the act of tossing the shells aside. I like the flavour, I like the texture. But yeah, mostly I like the fact you have to work for them a little.

Except when you are trying to read a book. Then the wee buggers all turn out to be the ones that require two hands to open, presuming you can get them open at all! And that’s not to mention the flakes of shell they leave behind, trapped between the pages forever more.

Tasty though.

(And yes, technically they are a seed, not a nut)

~

Such a lovely fresh morning, the air scrubbed clean by the thunderstorm last night. Couple that with a an unexpected email or two last night and my mood is veritably soaring. AND it’s Friday. How good is that?!

~

Thanks to everyone who answered my question yesterday. I guess I should take a bash at answering it myself eh?

Firstly I think it’s a bit daft to go back in time without allowing yourself the benefit of hindsight. But then that presumes, to a degree, that you would like the opporchancity to change something about your life. A decision, a moment, missed perhaps? Something you’d have done differently? I guess it’s easy to think that, knowing what you know now, you’d go back and do X, Y or even Q differently (aye, she was a bonnie lass was Q). Is your answer more a reflection of your current situation and your whether you are happy or not? For that matter, what IS happiness? Ohhh boy. Better not head down that philisophical path. Not today.

If you choose NOT to “go back” then you can justify this by saying that your past has made you the person you are today and you are quite happy thankeweverymuch. Good for you, I say. However, I do think you are missing out, aren’t you even a teeny tiny bit curious to see how you would have turned out if just one teeny tiny decision had been made differently? Not even an ickle wickle little bit?

Me? I’d take hindsight with me and go back to being 17. Or 20.

~

And finally a big Happy Birthday to my sister!

Pick an age

If you could be any age again, what age would it be?

I’m not going to caveat anything, you can take the question as it stands, or extrapolate and add in your own “ifs” and “buts”.

Now, whilst it would be easier to say “if I knew what I know now, I’d happily be 14 again”, it may be trickier to say “I’d be 4 again and take another run at life thanks”.

Why am I asking? Well a variety of “outside blog/real life” issues are making me ponder the whole “what have I done with my life”, “what do I want to DO with my life” and “why haven’t I won the lottery yet” type questions, not to mention a few other deeply philosophical ponderings. This is partly to do with my current reading of Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers, partly to do with a looming anniversary and partly because my sleep patterns are completely borked, making my brain head off in a thousand different directions all at once.

Remember, your answer will probably say more about you than you realise, even if you choose not to give an age (presuming you leave a comment of course.. I mean if you choose not to give an age but don’t leave a comment then.. well .. you get the idea).

So, if you could be any age again, what age would it be?