Shorter posts, links, or thoughts. No schedule, not heavily considered.
-
Diet contest
Diet Contest: Week OneHoly crap. I’ve put on a stone in the last 3 months. Now I wasn’t planning on posting my weight here, but I figure that if you’ve read half of the stuff I’ve written here then my weight is about all you DON’T know (I’m also hoping that mass public humiliation will…
-
Gran
Visited my Gran last night, and having not seen her for a couple of weeks, I was again slightly taken aback at how.. well.. small she has become. My Gran has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up, my Mum was in and out of hospital…
-
UK privatisation
I have to agree with Stuart on all of his points in his recent posting Public Pride, Private Shame, it also doubles as a well written snapshot of modern Britain. If any of my American readers are wondering why we keep banging on about Thatcher, railways, water companies, BT etc, give it a read. Aside:…
-
öhrwurm
Tunes randomly appear in my head. No not the throat lozenges, the musical ones that pop in your head for no reason. I have two standard tunes that, with no prompting or invitation, start playing over and over in my head.1. Mac the Knife – Sinatra version.2. Star Spangled Banner – not the Hendrix version…
-
Sod’s Law
I watch (well the TV is tuned to in the background) BBC Breakfast every morning. This morning I was most miffed that I was going to miss my favourite ever Professor explaining Sod’s Law. However thanks to the wonders of the web, we can all enjoy it: Sod’s Law: a rocket scientist writes.. (More info…
-
Did I know this?
I am in an O’Reilly book. I remember emailing my contribution to this ages ago but had forgotten all about it. Seems I am the first piece they listed in the chapter entitled “Blogging Voices”. Did I know this? Here is the proof: Essential Blogging. Either way – v.cool! Would LOVE to hear from anyone…
-
Stanford Prison
I heard about this during a discussion at lunch today (it was an aside during a discussion about criminals) and went searching for more information. The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment is truly fascinating. Take a group of men, split them and make half guards, half prisoners then observe…
-
Blaming Caterina Fake
A couple of weeks ago I heard about a new game. An online world type thing, and I thought I’d find out some more. Then, as usual, I forgot about it until Caterina posted this. So I applied to be an alpha tester, and I have to say that I’m not happy. Oh yes, the…
-
Time stands still for no man
Leia made me think about time. I can remember watching TV on 31st December 1999, watching New Zealand and Australia celebrate the new millenium. It was mid-day and slightly unnerving. As a measurement of global distances, time is often the method used. “Yeah L.A. is 9 hours ahead of us” “It’s a 14 hour flight,…
-
Meant to say
I’m an organised kinda guy, I have a folder on my desktop called Blogstuff into which I put links to articles I want to mention or investigate further. Every now and then (more then than now) I go through it and clear out the stuff I’ve used and the stuff that, on a second read,…
-
Loch Lomond
I’ve commented about this before, but it’s amazing how much I took for granted when I grew up in Dumbarton, a mere 6 miles or so from the recently opened Loch Lomond National Park, it was something I took for granted. Revisiting it yesterday was truly like seeing it for the first time. Obviously the…
-
September 11th
One year on. Over the days leading up to the first anniversary of this atrocity I’ve been talking to friends and family, trying to make sense of what transpired a year ago today. In a way this is my generation’s JFK assassination. The defining event where we will always remember where we were and what…
-
The past is musical
I was reminiscing with a friend today on the way home from work. We chatted about school pranks, and mis-doings, and, I’m quite glad to say, the mood has invaded my evening. Musically I was finding Scottish bands around this time, The Humpff Family, The Silencers, Love & Money, The Kevin McDermott Orchestra and the…
-
Blog life
Meg recently posted about life beyond the monitor you are currently sitting in front of, and I have to agree. I’ve been making an effort to read books this year (spurned on by my wife’s similar New Year resolution which she is sticking to steadfastly), and also to try and get out more (despite my…
-
H O L L Y W O O D
What Hollywood star stands 50 feet tall, stretches 450 feet across, weighs 450,000 pounds, and boasts a celebrated career still going strong after 79 years? One of those little things popped into my head today: Why is the ‘Hollywood Sign’ there? I hit Google and instantly came up with the sign’s very own site (fiendishly…
-
The truth behind the movies
The hero dives through a window, lands neatly before filling the bad guys car with lead for a couple of minutes, sparks flying as the bullets contact metal, before watching it plummit over the edge of the cliff, bursting into flames as it smashes into the ground. Or not, as in reality, the hero is…
-
Calling all cyclists
If you live/work in Glasgow and use the cycle route by the river (the bit where it passes the Waverley). PLEASE FIT A BELL ONTO YOUR BIKE! This will allow you to signal your approach. Note: Pedestrians are NOT psychic, nor possess the hearing of Superman. For the record, to the cyclist who – after…
-
World Summit
I’ve been following the coverage of this sporadically, but it doesn’t seem to be going too well at the moment. According to BBC News: Crisis looms over world summit. The US Bush Administration is, once again, looking for a way to get away with doing what they like. The arrogance of this attitude angers many,…
-
Backtracking
HTML Design: If you are aware of the movement towards CSS and away from tables and frames for site structure, read on. If you don’t, I would skip this. A List Apart and WaSP. Two sites campaigning for the same thing, a move towards acceptance of the standard (as defined by the W3) CSS and…
-
Very Good TV
24 A stunning, fresh, fast paced [insert further numerous plaudits here] piece of television. So engrossing* that Louise and I stayed up all night on Saturday and watched it in one go. We started at 6:30pm and finished watching at about 11 a.m the next morning**. It is that good. If you didn’t catch it,…