| Flintstones censored in United Arab Emirates |
[2009-07-11 09:46] |
A new Middle East crisis erupted last night as Dubai television refused to broadcast 'The Flintstones'.
A spokesman said the people of Dubai do not understand the humour; however, those in Abu Dhabi do.
[source] |
|
|
| One Church, One Hundred Uses |
[2009-07-05 19:46] |
Had a very good meeting with Andrew Mawson and a couple of people from his team today. Very exciting things might be happening in Bracknell over the next few years, if we can knock all the right heads together.
Hurrah! |
|
|
| It seems so unfair... |
[2009-07-02 14:26] |
Julia and I, as has already been reported, are clearing up.
We've just found a little tin full of hooks-and-eyes, suitable for someone who does dressmaking. There's a picture of two people on the lid of the tin.
Julia looked at the picture. "Is that Mrs Simpson?"
I glanced over. "No. They didn't do souvenirs of Mrs Simpson. They really really didn't do souvenirs of Mrs Simpson." |
|
|
| Surprise find |
[2009-07-02 12:57] |
Julia and I are clearing up.
We've just found a catalogue from Quality Control (NSFW) and there's a receipt inside the back cover.
I read the receipt. Now I think it's referring to the kind of card that was used, but I can't be sure.
It says "Switch". |
|
|
| ah well. |
[2009-07-01 20:41] |
|
Mrs Slocombe, free at last. |
|
|
| Money-saving tip |
[2009-06-30 18:14] |
I just discovered a really effective money-saving tip.
When you walk into town to do a bit of shopping, just leave your wallet etc at home.
*sigh* |
|
|
| They say it goes in threes... |
[2009-06-29 20:45] |
First, the electronics goes wrong on my car. ("My car crashed" -- "Have you tried rebooting it?" -- "Yeah -- it works fine for about four minutes then it crashes again")
Then my cable TV and cable Internet -- two separate lines feeding two separate units from two allegedly independent feeds -- both go down simultaneously. And the call centre tell me that my STB and my CM both developed a fault, independently and simultaneously, and they each need a site visit from an engineer, both of which can be done simultaneously by the same bloke. He's booked for Thursday morning. 45 minutes later I get two simultaneous (yet independent) text messages telling me that the fault is regional, not local, and they're cancelling my bi-capable engineer. Meanwhile I'm posting by handset.
And now I discover that my DrUId has a failing hard disk. Not that I'll lose anything, since the disk is only used for cacheing, and not that I can use it when I'm offline, but anyway. Boo. |
|
|
| Car misbehaving... |
[2009-06-29 16:44] |
My car has developed an electrical fault. It still goes, but it claims to have no ABS and no airbags, and it can't work out how hard to blow the fans.
It's booked in for Monday morning, the 6th. I may be doing more walking than usual over the next few days. |
|
|
| Today's discovery... |
[2009-06-27 23:11] |
|
Great heavens. VMware 2.0.1 on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty works loads better than VMware 1.0.9 on Ubuntu 8.04LTS Hardy. Who knew. |
|
|
| Whether the weather be hot... |
[2009-06-27 17:34] |
It's far too hot.
It's far too sunny.
The sky overhead, and the sky to the south, the north and the west is bright blue and nearly cloudless.
The sky to the east is more-or-less solid black.
Half an hour ago there was thunder.
But the weather hasn't turned yet. It's still far too hot, far too sunny.
I'm waiting. |
|
|
| Things I'm not doing... |
[2009-06-26 17:54] |
Any second now, I'm just about to not go to the Sheffield Group Friday Pub Meeting.
Tomorrow, I'm not going to go to the BSFA/SFF AGM in London, and I'm not going to continue on to the Vegetarian Barbecue in Croydon -- in each case because I've already undertaken to spend the weekend with Sue and Rew, just the other side of Bristol.
But I'm not going to go to Bristol tomorrow either -- Julia and I have cancelled with our hosts because we're still not right following the lurgy which struck while we were at Mother's last weekend.
The great theory is that I was spending the last couple of days here at home catching up with paperwork, laundry, cleaning and so on -- but I'm extremely disinclined to do any of that while I still feel so grey.
In other news, I'm convinced that Victoria Azarenka is trying to make up for the loss of the vocal stylings of the late Michael Jackson. And I'm secretly quite amused that one of the players at Wimbledon today is called "Mardy Fish". |
|
|
| Still ill... |
[2009-06-24 17:15] |
Still ill. Not going to the BSFA meeting tonight, so have fun without me.
Top tip for today -- overlay your userpic with chipboard, to protest how Habitat are using Twitter. |
|
|
| Health report. |
[2009-06-22 08:35] |
I thought I was better. For a few hours, there, I was.
But now it seems that I'm not. Ah well.
And now, Julia's got it too.
Obviously because I am A Man, her version is much milder. |
|
|
| Setting me up for confusion later... |
[2009-06-22 08:29] |
Two people on my friends list are happy today... but I predict I'll be confused later.
On Saturday, one of my friends got two new cats -- siblings, one boy, one girl -- and the bolder, more adventurous one is called Nicodemus.
On Sunday, one of my friends got two new cats -- siblings, one boy, one girl -- and the bolder, more adventurous one is called Nicodemus.
They've never met, and they live about a hundred miles apart.
But I can't help thinking they're doing it deliberately. |
|
|
| Progress... |
[2009-06-20 20:44] |
I have eaten a bit of fish and some carrot. We'll see how that goes.
We resumed our scrabble game. I wasn't able to play "bathing", but later I was able to play "decoying", 72 points.
Bed time soon, I imagine. |
|
|
| Medical TMI and Sonnet 18 |
[2009-06-20 11:42] |
Clearly I'm not at my peak -- I've given up after only four lines, and Julia says I haven't really captured Shakespeare's subtlety of meaning.
But here's the first four lines of a parody of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.
( Medical TMI )
Perhaps I'll revisit this and write a little more when I'm feeling better. |
|
|
| Not well... |
[2009-06-19 21:05] |
Earlier this evening I bailed from a Scrabble game because I wasn't feeling well. And I had a 7-letter word ("BATHING") in my rack at the time.
Since then, for tea I've had...
- 400mg Ibuprofen.
- A couple of hours lying down.
- 1000mg Paracetamol.
- A banana.
- Lots of water.
Meanwhile Julia and Mother have been eating all sorts of stuff. But without my help there are five doughballs left over. Woe.
Here's another big glass of water. We'll see how things go. |
|
|
| Bread products threaten fabric of reality |
[2009-06-18 10:13] |
Either Julia's been shopping when I wasn't looking, or our fridge has just violated the principle of conservation of doughballs.
[This threatens the fabric of reality except if a quantity of energy has been converted into doughballs. Or if our fridge is not a closed system (which, if I'm being honest, is more likely).] |
|
|
| The Internet knows all, and I am lazy... |
[2009-06-17 21:20] |
There's an advert for adverts on the telly just at the moment. It includes soundbites for a number of iconic adverts from the last thirty years, and we've identified all the adverts bar one -- the one right at the end of the sequence.
We can't recall which advert, for which product, features a boy's voice saying the words "Accrington Stanley".
Can anyone help? |
|
|
| The ninety-ninety rule of project scheduling * |
[2009-06-13 20:37] |
The server upgrade at Client S has proceeded as follows:
Installing the new server -- a couple of hours.Updating the new server -- a couple of hours.Configuring the new server -- a couple of hours.Moving almost all of the desktops out of the old domain and into the new one, and reconfiguring appropriately -- a couple of hours.Moving the last two desktops out of the old domain and into the new one, and reconfiguring appropriately -- Two days so far, and counting. We pick up on Monday morning where we left off.
*The first ninety percent of a project takes the first ninety percent of the time; the last ten percent of a project takes the remaining ninety percent of the time. |
|
|
| It was Julia's idea, not mine... |
[2009-06-09 13:30] |
I'm setting up a new laptop for Julia's father, to replace a ten-year-old desktop machine that's now been retired.
Julia suggests that I program it with a robot avatar to burst out onto the screen after a random interval, with the message "KILL ALL HUMANS!".
I asked her if she thought her father would react well to such a stunt, but she was giggling too insanely to be able to answer. |
|
|
| I'm not going to do it. |
[2009-06-04 16:23] |
[see icon]
I'm home from holiday with too much to do, and not enough time to do it in -- so I'm missing the Tun tonight. Those who are there, please try to make up the consequent shortfall in the amount consumed. |
|
|
| I did it. |
[2009-06-04 16:22] |
[see icon]
Any Europeans reading this should go and do likewise, if they haven't already. |
|
|
| Dutiful Son... |
[2009-06-01 08:08] |
Mother's birthday today. She started the day by philosophising on her life so far, how life at 24/48 compared to today and, after I'd pointed out how very composite 72 is, how life at 18/36/54 compared to today. It seems that nothing interesting happened at 54.
Birthday present -- an apron from the National Trust bearing a crest and the legend "Her Laydship" -- was received with initial confusion, but after I'd pointed out it came with stifffening card (good for scoring Scrabble games in an emergency) and in a plasic bag just a bit bigger than A4 (good for storing bits of paper for meeetings) all was well. And then she thought she might use it for Church Fayre (which she's organising) as it has two large pockets on the front... so that's okay.
Goodness me, up and posting befor 8:15, what is to become of me. |
|
|
| Where I've been |
[2009-05-31 21:33] |
I might expand on these later...
Tursday -- mostly Anglesey. Off the main roads where possible.
Friday -- Portmeirion. Returning over the tops and the source of the River Conwy.
Saturday -- Great Orme, overlooking the mouth of the same river. Cable car, marine drive, &c.
Sunday -- Three churches, ask me later. Eventually Church-in-Wales in Llanberis. Not up Snowdon. Lake railway. Trawsfynydd. |
|
|
| Lost it... |
[2009-05-29 15:14] |
Where did the chess set go? |
|
|
| In North Wales... |
[2009-05-27 19:43] |
We've arrived at Plas-Tirion, where there's a little bit of signal.
As I type, this handset guesses ahead, suggesting words that I might be typing based on what I've typed in the past. In an email to Julia, I typed the phrase "fresh cream cakes". I'd got as far as "crea" and the handset suggested "creationism", which might indicate that I've typed "fresh creationism" more often than "fresh cream" -- on this handset, at least. |
|
|
| Snowdonia! |
[2009-05-27 08:33] |
I'm going on away for a few days, to the land of faint GPRS signal and no broadband. Expect me to be quieter than usual and to miss lots of what you all post. I don't come back until Polling Day, which seems like an excellent plan.
But you'll all need something to talk about while I'm away, so here's your "cheese thread" starter for ten:Dear Auntie Agony, my partner has been telling me for a while that ( ... ) Have a good time, everybody. |
|
|
| Happy Birthday... |
[2009-05-23 09:20] |
Happy Birthday to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ladytg and to mashfanficchick, 24 and 25 respectively today.
Happy birthday also to my school, which is today hosting an open day to celebrate its 500th year.
Sadly, I'm not participating in any of these events.
I am, however, going to <plokta.con> Release 4.0 this weekend. Which is run by the sort of people who put characters like < and > into their convention names in order to make our lives hard when we write about it online. It'll be good. I've made my outfit already -- I had to spend £3.96 in the 99p shop -- and it's seriously impressive. |
|
|
| Privilege and Scrutiny |
[2009-05-18 20:34] |
I've been privileged to be able to attend the first hour-and-a-half or so of this. I've been privileged to be able to talk about the matter, and to scrutinise some of the issues, openly and freely. I've formed opinions (or had previously-formed opinions confirmed) on the basis of arguments forwarded in an atmosphere of open debate.
I've foregone the latter part of the evening, as I have work to do. But intelligent discussion and careful evidence-based scrutiny of claims continues, without fear of anyone being sued for libel.
Oh, unless you want to scrutinise certain alternative therapies.
Click on the link, and form your own opinions. |
|
|
| Birthday celebrations |
[2009-05-13 21:06] |
Julia came down to my house on Friday night, arriving while I was busy with the blue-apron brigade in Henley-on-Thames in order to greet me when I got home.
On Saturday afternoon, we went to stefzilla's house where celebrations were afoot in aid of both his birthday and jamesb's. This was all jolly good -- there was barbecue, there was beer, and there was a great deal of Wii-ing.
On Sunday we drove up to somewhere between Chester and Wrexham to find the Llyndir Hall Hotel, arriving at about half-three. We joined approximately a hundred mad Irish people hiding in wait for the arrival of Theresa and Michael (WANOLJ) in order to spring a surprise party for Theresa's sixtieth birthday. She arrived at around five and the drinking/singing/dancing and the telling of hugely-unlikely-but-nevertheless-true tales commenced twelve to fifteen seconds later. In traditional Irish Birthday Party fashion the party continued until about 3am, with the last person to retire being the birthday girl's 71-year-old sister. After breakfast (for which we were down in time, but which Theresa and Michael missed by three minutes) we were persuaded to go round to the eldest daughter's home the following day [Monday] for lunch, a meal which was served in several bottles and lasted until 9pm. We finally got home at about noon on Tueday, just barely twenty hours late.
There's lots more to tell about the people at Sunday/Monday's party, but the maximum size of an LJ post is insufficient to do it justice. |
|
|
| Guest Information |
[2009-05-11 10:55] |
From the "Guest Information" folder at last night's hotel:
Our head chef [...] cooks unpretentious food that has taste. Modern trends are an anathema to him and on our menu you will find an array of properly cooked, recognisable dishes [...]. |
|
|
| Eye test |
[2009-05-05 17:35] |
I had an eye test yesterday afternoon.
( In previous years... )
May
2009 | Sphere | Cylinder | Distance
Acuity |
| Right eye | +0.75 | -0.25 | 6/4.5 |
| Left eye | +0.50 | -0.25 | 6/4.5 |
Back for another test in a year. |
|
|
| Breakfast with Bizet |
[2009-05-03 10:50] |
Conversation with Julia over breakfast:
D: These are very good croissants.
J: Rolled on the thighs of Cuban ladies, no doubt.
D: No, I only use the thighs of Cuban ladies on special occasions.
J: Are you saying that my occasions aren't special?
D: No, it's also subject to availability. I don't have any thighs of Cuban ladies to hand just now.
J: I think I'd rather have entire Cuban ladies, rather than just their thighs.
D: Indeed. You could make bigger croissants. |
|
|
| Where am I? |
[2009-05-02 19:50] |
Here's a position statement: I'm not going to quit LiveJournal, it will still remain my default journalling site.
However, I'm going to be posting my creative output over on Dreamwidth -- things like poems and fanfic. I won't be importing this journal over there, but I'm likely (later) to re-post some of my old work over there, in backdated entries so they don't pollute your reading page.
So I'm now to be found at:
LiveJournal -- here, my main journal.
Dreamwidth -- where I'll be putting poems and fiction.
DeadJournal, Inksome, InsaneJournal, JournalFen and Scribbld -- other LJ-codebase sites where I've bagged my name but haven't really done much recently.
Twitter, where I tweet at very random and unreliable intervals.
Plurk and Vox -- two sites I used to use but stopped because, well, because they're crap.
I also have a facebook account under my real name and home town, but it spends most of its time deactivated.
There's a second post accompanying this one, filtered, containing contact information: If you can't see it and you think you should, then ask to be added to the filter. |
|
|
| Note to self |
[2009-05-01 15:14] |
Note to self: You have about a thousand words of stuff you need to have learnt in advance of the Installation tonight, and you really don't know it well enough yet.
Now is not the time to try and write a villanelle about Swine Flu. |
|
|
| Another poem |
[2009-04-30 11:51] |
The pig, if I am not misled,
Supplies us flu, which leaves us dead.
Some call it "swine" and some say "Mexican";
I use a different, darker lexicon.
- by Doug S, with apologies to Ogden Nash.
Similar offerings solicited in the comments. |
|
|
43 (67.2%)