Monday, February 28. 2005And coming up next after the break...
... a Channel 4/Channel 5 collaboration:
The 100 best 'X superlative Y' shows of all time! Including such classics as "The 100 best adverts featuring a camel", "The nation's 25 favourite toilet rolls" and "The 50 worst mobile phone ringtones of all time". Hosted by Jimmy Carr, who has to do these shows because his stand up work is that bad. Honestly, do we never grow tired of these programs? Probably the most frustrating thing is that it's patently obvious who or what will win from the outset. Best number 1 ever? Bohemian Rhapsody, obviously. Best cartoon ever? Simpsons, obviously. Top of the all new 10 Commandments list? Well, to be fair that one was a surprise, as the winner was "Treat others as you would like to be treated" which not only appears in the Old Testament Law (Lev. 19:18) but is also quoted by Jesus (Matt. 22:36-40) as summing up all the other commandments. Not that Channel 4 mentioned this, but never mind. Anyway. I guess this isn't really news. Rubbish shows on TV? You think? Jobwise, so far so good BTW. Friday, February 25. 2005So long, and thanks for all the bandwidth
So, today is my last day of my current job. I start my new one on Monday. I am very glad of this.
I would, however, like to thank my outgoing employers for one thing: their internet connection. Without the use of their nice shiny 2Mb connection, how else would I have amused myself while stuck with nothing to do at work? Thanks to that nice fat pipe I was able to amuse myself reading rubbish on the web, creating this new website, adminning a server on the other side of the country, downloading numerous iso's for linux distributions, getting lots of (free) software, watching movie trailers, and picking up demos for games. Thanks also for... um... no, that was about it. I'm exceedingly glad to be leaving this job. Thursday, February 24. 2005What does that word next to garrulous mean?
I have finally succeeded in getting Linux to boot from a USB flash drive. This in addition to be able to boot it from a floppy disk, a CD and a regular installation on a PC.
I have a degree (partly) in computer science. I am learning Perl and Python and C. I run Gentoo Linux more than Windows. I have read Just For Fun by Linus Torvalds, am about to read The Cathedral And The Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond. I really want one of these. Sorry ladies, I know all this geekery must be driving you wild, but I'm afraid I'm already spoken for. Man, I'm a flaming geek and no mistake. Monday, February 21. 2005When the cat's away...
Alison went away for the weekend, to visit a friend she was at uni with.
So while she was away I... did the ironing, hoovered the house, watered the plants and cleaned the bathroom. Hmm. Married life must be getting to me. Sure, I also spent 4 hours in my dressing gown playing Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (good game, looking forward to Chaos Theory in the near future), watched too much TV, stayed up late and didn't cook anything more sophisticated than cheese and tomato toasties but even so... cleaning the bathroom? Man. Anyway. I saw that Golf GTI advert again last night. They now appear to have edited out the bit with the dodgy jump on the lamp post. I understand why they did it, as it's badly edited (when he jumps he's one way round, then they change shot to show him hanging onto the lamp post and he's the other way round - d'oh!) but it's a bit of a shame too as the move looks pretty cool. Also, what's the deal with some dance music becoming quite likable? I mean, normally I can't stand the trashy dance music that gets into the charts, but in the past 6 months or so we've had Call On Me by Eric Prydz, My My My by Armand Van Helden, Shine by the Lovefreaks (sampling ELO - woohoo!) and now some song about catching a falling star or some such nonsense. 4 dance tracks I like in 6 months? At the turn of the century it could take 6 years to find that many bearable dance songs. I'll try to keep a check on myself, in case this peculiar infection spreads, but in the mean time if anyone catches me in Woolworths buying Ultimate Trance Trip Hop Hits 2006 Big Beats Edition, then please beat some sense into me. Right. This is a bit random and waffly, so I'm going to go home before I get snowed into this miserable school. Tuesday, February 15. 2005A nose by any other name would... still smell...
3 things very quickly...
Back to eating my lunch then. Bye. Thursday, February 10. 2005The Brits
So... The Brit Awards last night, all over the radio today, and on the TV tonight. Nice.
The good Keane (great band despite the lack of guitars) and Franz Ferdinand (great band because of the guitars) did well with two each. I'm not too struck with the Scissor Sisters, but well done to them for getting three. I'm pleased - and quite surprised - that Muse got best live act, but it's certainly well deserved. The bad The Streets over Morrissey? Please. Girls Aloud should have got best pop act instead of McFly. Joss Stone is also quite overrated if you ask me. Oh yeah, it's also a bit of a crime that Will Young got best single of the year. Give me a break. The weird Gwen Stefani for best female? She's had one single this year! Granted, Radio 1 play it about 6 times a day, and it's great, but its only one single. Is the album really good enough to make her best female? Did all the judges forget Kylie's ongoing success? The "hey, it's not mainstream enough" Green Day didn't win best international. Hardly surprising. I'd have liked Muse to get more too. The "Damnit, just because it gets karaoke'd every five seconds doesn't make it a classic"" Angels by Robbie Williams gets best British single of the past 25 years. What?? Are the judges all teenage girls? Granted, of the other nominations, there was Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush (I can't abide that song) and Leave Right Now by Will Young (please do, Will, please do) but there was also We Are The Champions by Queen and the mighty Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. I wouldn't mind betting that half the judges had never even heard of that last one, let alone Joy Division. There's hundreds of songs that are better than Angels, but I guess it's the mainstream vote that counts. Ho hum. Tuesday, February 8. 2005Tenacious E
Last night, at 10:29pm Ellen Macarthur officially completed her round the world voyage. The trip took about 71 and a half days, which beat the previous world record by more than a day. Now why would anyone want to spend nearly 72 days at sea on their own? She's had to cope with dangerous conditions, a reportedly uncomfortable ship, limited food supplies, very little sleep, and extremely restricted contact with anyone. Why would she want to do that?
Because she loves sailing passionately. Let's face it, you wouldn't do that unless you really, really enjoy sailing. She's passionate about it, and loves being out there at sea, regardless of how dangerous and difficult it is, and how insane it might seem to the rest of us. She's already planning more trips for records she wants to break, like crossing the Atlantic. She lives sailing, and puts everything she has into it, and is brilliant at it as a result. And what of other people with other passions?
So what's my point in all of this? I guess I find it quite intimidating that some people are so dedicated to what they do - they are so passionate about something. People who will practise their "thing" day in day out for hours on end. Can you imagine practising free kicks for hours every evening? Programming for no reason that that you enjoy it? Playing the guitar from when you wake up to when you go to sleep? Sailing around the world? Lobbying for a political agenda? Giving your entire life up to try to save a city for God? I don't know if I can. I'd love to be passionate enough about something to eat, sleep and breathe it, and give my all to it and excel at it. And I know that thing should be God, but it's... difficult. An old friend wrote a poem a while ago that kinda says some of this. It's called Just Like Me and you can find it about halfway down the page in that link. Thursday, February 3. 2005I've a smile on my face
The new Volkswagen Golf GTI advert is awesome.
You may have seen it on the TV by now. It's also available at numerous places on the internet, such as over at The Guardian's website. If you've not seen it, check it out! It's a reworking of Gene Kelly dancing in Singing In The Rain, from back in the mists of time. It's been redone with a bunch of break dancers, kitted out in the same suit as he wore and with wigs and so on, with Gene's face composited onto the video. It's not a perfect job, and you can easily see that the face mapping is not seamless, and there's a stupid bit of editing when he jumps onto the lamp-post but at the end of the day who cares? It's just damn cool and never mind the little flaws. It's a nice step forward for this kind of computer technology. They've been claiming for a while that they could do things like put Marilyn Monroe in a film using old footage and computer trickery, and this seems like quite a step in that direction. Not sure how useful it is to be able to "resurrect" dead actors, but I'm sure we'll find out. In other advert news, there was an ad on the TV for ebay last night. Now, I'm a huge fan of ebay, and have bought and sold many things on there in the past, but it still seems weird to see it advertised on the TV. It's weird to see some parts of the internet, and specifically the web, becoming so... mainstream. I know it's been growing, and loads of people have been getting hooked up lately, but adverts on the TV for an auction site? That seems like quite a step to me. Tuesday, February 1. 2005Oxygen
Jo Whiley has been playing Willy Mason for ages on Radio 1 now, and he's even made it onto Scott Mills' show. He's doing a session at Maida Vale tonight with Zane Lowe which is probably worth a listen. Oxygen is a top tune. Lyrics follow...
Oxygen by Willy Mason I wanna be better than oxygen
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