Life Out Of Balance.

Writer's Block: The Best

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:37:42 GMT

What's the best thing you've seen or done this month?

Gone self employed. Yay! But very scary too. Sorry to have been un-around, I have been working hard and also looking after the baby. In the evenings when he goes to sleep I go to work; I am tired but moving forward. One day I might even be able to afford a pension!

Nice tea for the baby and me!

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:12:39 GMT

I've just had the most lovely delivery of dinner, courtesy of TLB and Mix. I'm working, but instead of having to eat crap cafe food I get to eat home made Pork Chop Noodles instead.

I'm so lucky! It's one of my favourite meals too, Mix learned to make it when he lived in Hong Kong.

Big Brother.

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:48:12 GMT

I'm angry with the men on Big Brother, talking about which of the women in the house is available for them to fuck. I'm angry that they're not even talking about which one they'd like to fuck, or that they fancy. No, they're going through the women like a list working out which one they might be able to 'get some' from.

I'm angry with Big Brother for allowing lechy Jonathan to make Nicky feel uncomfortable. Isn't there something in the rules about sexual harrasment? Surely staring at someone's arse and tits all the time when they don't want you to counts?

Birthday parcels in the form of religion.

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:52:36 GMT

Someone knocked on the door really loudly this morning, so I ran down and opened it even though I was in my dressing gown because I thought it might be birthday parcels or something.

When I opened it I saw two Jehovah's Witnesses. I must have looked so disappointed to see them that one of them said, "Oh sorry, I can see you're not dressed. We'll go away. Sorry to bother you." And then they left!

And I thought, since when has not being dressed put them off?

So ha. I can steer away even the most fervent of missionaries, simply by looking a bit miserable.

Good expressions you should know.

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 03:34:08 GMT

To go a long way is to go 'about a beard' in that direction. It's always used in response to a question about how far away something is.

To outlay a lot of money on something is to 'spend a car on it'.

Gulf Stream diagram

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:25:52 GMT

This is a really good graphic showing the Gulf Stream and how it holds back the cool Labrador current.

The Gulf Stream is what will cool down if global warming happens. That means it will get much colder in the UK directly because it's getting warmer on the planet. Paradox, anyone?

Why are people evil?

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:11:47 GMT

According to the BBC, yesterday some 'youths' dropped a cat repeatedly from a 5th floor window and filmed it on their mobile phone. A sort of animal happy-slap. News story here, if you want to read more.

I don't understand how doing this sort of thing could possibly make anyone feel good, but it must have been 'fun' for them else they wouldn't have done it. Which means what? That they are so evil causing another creature pain doesn't affect them?

I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, other than I can't get my head around what compells a person to do such a vile thing in the name of comedy.

People are horrible sometimes. They really are.

Mr and Mrs Smith.

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:34:38 GMT

A funny thing about the film Mr and Mrs Smith:
'The Tank' (geeky guy that everyone is trying to assasinate) is wearing a 'Fight Club' T-shirt in the scene where Brad Pitt (aka Mr Smith) is interrogating him in the hotel room.

Other things about the film Mr and Mrs Smith:
I'm not sure I feel entirely comfortable with the fighting-as-foreplay theme throughout the film and most especially when Mr and Mrs Smith are actively trying to kill each other, but then suddenly stop that and shag each others brains out instead.

"Hey, sorry about nearly breaking your arm."
"That's OK, Hon, grab my tit. I love you".

I got Toast Hearts...

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:20:18 GMT

...for breakfast.

That's better than chocolates or roses, or 'dinner at a fancy restuarant' anyday.

BBC Climate Change Experiment.

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:00:47 GMT

I've decided to stop running SETI for a short while and instead take part in the BBC distributed computing worldwide experiment to try and predict climate change. You can download the experiment which runs on BOINC software made by the University of California, Berkeley (responsible for SETI) here and run this experiment in the background whilst you go about your daily computing.

It can also run as your screensaver if you want, and it's very interesting to look at.

The experiment ends in May, so I shall go back to searching for aliens then.

World's Largest Digging Machine.

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 20:28:16 GMT

Interesting fact number 285488292.

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 20:23:19 GMT

There is more computing power in a single speaking birthday card than there was in the whole world in 1956.

Courtesy of my ex-boss (the nice Stonehenge one).

The Family Guy

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 02:03:13 GMT

Peter Griffin: " Thank you Jesus!"

Jesus, on a cloud: "Oh no it wasn't m..."

Vishnu tapping him on the shoulder: "No its alright. It happens all the time."

The Parrot can talk!

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:16:44 GMT

Fawkes can say Hello, and he can blow kisses - three in a row in quick succession; kiss-kiss-kiss.

He says 'Hello' like Terry Thomas, or maybe Leslie Phillips would, but with a lower voice. It's very funny. Now we're teaching him to say 'chip' when he wants a bit of boiled potato (chip is a bit easier to say than than boiled potato). I want him to learn the Archers theme tune. But he's only a baby still, nine months old now.

There's a parrot in America who, when you give him nuts says, 'No nut!' if he wants something else.

Fawkes comes to the shops with us now, he's allowed in Blockbuster, but not in Sainsbury's. One day when we have a shop I'm going to put a sign in the window saying 'PARROTS WELCOME.'

More jewellery

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 12:39:36 GMT

The necklace I made for my sister.

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 23:24:33 GMT

Commissions!

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:32:34 GMT

I made my sister a pendant for Christmas, (silver set with an amethyst)and two people have liked it so much they are commissioning me to make them similar things!

Bonanza.

Revenge of James Lovelock?

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 10:13:35 GMT

I've just heard James Lovelock on Start the Week talking about his new book Revenge of Gaia.

He basically said that sinc we (the British) can't stop India, China and the United States from continuing their impact on global warming, our government would do better to concentrate on preparing flood defences for London and East Anglia than cutting down Britain's impact on climate change, since ours is minimal in the first place and we are past the point of no return.

He said that wind farms are utterly useless, that they only work for approximately half the time so we would need back up energy sources anyway, and until such time as we can adapt our attitude to energy useage Nuclear power is the way forward.

He also said that nature flocks to areas which have become radioactive because there are no people.

This goes against everything that I thought I believed in, which is flummoxing since it has come from someone whom I hugely admire. I don't want to have to consider Nuclear power as the way forward because I thought that I thought it was fundamentally wrong.

Now I am sitting here thinking about why I actually think that, and it pretty much stems from spending a lot of time on CND marches as a child. Not perhaps the ideal basis for considered opinion.

Intriguing.

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 22:19:42 GMT

From potguns

Get your own spectral analysis from Area 23^®

Mine looks like a tornado.

Spacetime Donuts and why the internet rocks.

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 02:34:10 GMT

I have just found a book on Amazon that I have been looking for for the last 15 years. I used to belong to rare book club services in the hope that I might find it and in the first half of the 90's I searched a lot online. Then I gave up. I looked occasionally, about once a year on Amazon and things but I could never find it.

Then, just now I looked again and it was there. So I bought it! it's a shabby Sci-Fi paperback, and it cost me $34 but it's worth it.

I give you Spacetime Donuts.

Google Earth, posting images and placemarks.

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:26:45 GMT

I've just added an entry to Google Earth - I've posted a placemark and a description of Threecliff bay which includes a picture. I think I've done it right.

Who here posts on Google Earth? If you do can you tell me if my post is correct for adding Placemarks?

My post.

I'm not sure if I like being a stranger.

Beautiful Places I know Part 30405838.

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:39:48 GMT

This is Threecliff Bay, in Wales. We went there at the weekend. It's now officially my favourite beach.

And here is the silly dog, waiting for the beautiful man to throw the Frisbee.

I appear to be under the impression that I am living in California.

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 11:43:33 GMT

On Saturday we went roller-blading in the park and then out for a burger. We spent Sunday on the beach, playing Frisbee with the dog.

Now I am drinking proper Mocha coffee which I have just made for myself.

This all points to a weird shift towards behaving like a happy, sun-dappled American and away from being a miserable Brit except for one very important point: I have undertaken all these things wearing a jumper and long-johns, due to it being sodding freezing.

On London's whale and why it's not cool but in fact very sad indeed.

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 00:06:53 GMT

If the whale in the Thames doesn't find it's pod soon it's likely to become the equivalent of a Swedish tramp following your family around the park desperate to join you and shouting about it in a language you don't understand.

Whales live in family groups or pods, and for a whale to become separated from it's pod is really bad news. most whale pods have their own family dialect and a separated whale trying to join another pod is often not accepted because it speaks the wrong language.

That whale is probably really disorientated and frightened, and what's worse than anything else is the fact that there is another whale in Southend, and still another one in Aberdeen. I think these other whales are part of the same pod and they've become separated; Northern bottle-noses are almost never seen in UK waters, yet now we suddenly have three.

Everyone everywhere appears to be really excited about the one swimming up the Thames but I'm not. It's utterly awful. A whale has never been seen on the Thames since records began in 1913, and this is why:

1/It's shallow water and stranding is likely.
2/It's brackish water and whales hate that.
3/ It's very loud for a whale in London.

If that whale doesn't die trying to find it's way back to sea it's likely to end up a lonely whale, hunting for its pod for the rest of it's life.

Where's the excitement in that?

If you want to read something that will make you fall off your chair with amazement..

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 03:07:07 GMT

Then you could do no better than read Puck's blog.

Seriously.