Songs of innocence and of experience

Charles N Brown

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:53:31 GMT

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2009/07/charles-n-brown-1937-2009.html

Beeblebears Picnic

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:59:13 GMT

I'm off ZZ9ing today. See some of you there.

http://www.zz9.org/events/zz9_diary.html

Flintstones censored in United Arab Emirates

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:50:05 GMT

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]

Torchwood thought -- Spoilers for S3E4 and S3E5

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:28:17 GMT

A thought about Torchwood...

Ianto knew what working for Torchwood was like. Owen and Tosh knew what was going on. So did Suzie. They all knew that hardly anyone in Torchwood lasts long. A short, exciting career and then you die.

Gwen knows, she knew before she joined up. Even Rhys has worked it out, and has chosen to come onside and work with the team.

See, here's the thing: I hope Jack explained to Stephen what was happening, and why. I hope that Stephen knew what he was getting into. I hope he knew what the likely outcome was before he took on the job.

I really hope Jack had Stephen's informed consent.

A poll about Torchwood

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:48:12 GMT

Not cut because of spoilers, but because of how polls can muck up some friends pages.

View Poll: Torchwood

Biiig Torchwood spoiler...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:35:25 GMT

Ianto had to die before Torchwood hires Lois -- there simply isn't room in an organisation that size for two elite PAs.

Discuss.

One Church, One Hundred Uses

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:50:43 GMT

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...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:27:03 GMT

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

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:03:05 GMT

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.

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:41:32 GMT

Mrs Slocombe, free at last.

Money-saving tip

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:16:14 GMT

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...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:46:20 GMT

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...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:46:38 GMT

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...

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:13:21 GMT

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...

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:36:49 GMT

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...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:54:52 GMT

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...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:16:43 GMT

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.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:36:51 GMT

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...

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:34:47 GMT

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...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:45:25 GMT

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

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:44:46 GMT

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.

Shall I compare me to a winter's squall?
I am more turbid, more inclined to spray:
Rough winds do shake the bathroom's floor and wall,
And blast the fragile porcelain away;

Perhaps I'll revisit this and write a little more when I'm feeling better.

Not well...

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:05:54 GMT

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

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:17:39 GMT

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...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:23:37 GMT

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?

Three Years

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:39:07 GMT

http://dougs.livejournal.com/2006/06/16/