Bristol Flash Mob: Freeze

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Flash Mob: Freeze at Cabot Circus, Bristol on Saturday; via ThisIsBristol

in the 'Pool at the shallow end

Tonight was the monthly meeting of the Liverpool Linux User Group (LUG) and I didn't go.

Today was my first day off from uni assignments for a couple of weeks, after a long and tedious programming project; it would have fitted in very nicely.

Only Monday I was in Liverpool, meeting my brother for lunch, and I have jumped on those bloody Merseyrail trains what seems like a hundred times. Riding back and forth over the Mersey makes Liverpool seem quite close but it takes about as long to the centre from my house, door-to-door, as 'home' to Bristol... by bike.

I'm somewhat disappointed that I didn't find out about the meet until it was two hours in. The journey after dinner would have made my day rather well rounded off, icing the book-filled cake. I'm looking to make next month's my first, though, after sufficiently stalking and poking the appropriate places, hopefully seeing a couple of those at it's sibling, the Chester LUG.

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Smurf Fail.

"Although it was a fantastic night and we had over 1400 people attend only 747 people we signed in as Qualified Smurfs...

The adjudicator took the decision to stop the registration process at 12.00 as it was clear we were not going to break the record."


Gutted, Chester Smurfs!
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one minute writing: recap

Now Playing: Tonic - Lemon Parade

I've written and re-written this about five times now but have only come up with one critical conclusion: live for today, plan for tomorrow. It's hardly two thousand-odd words but it's what's in my head at the moment and will be for the next few (hundred) days...

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quotes of the week

Now Playing: Everything I Need - Aynsley Lister

Things I have overheard or, possibly, read this week:

- "Blogging is boring, right? So let’s have a little idea party." [Michael Buffington via project.ioni.st

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the unfinished swan

The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.
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one-minuite writing: chicken

Now Playing: David Gogo - Silk and Stone

Why did the chicken cross the road? Well, that is any number of questions one may as of it. I fear, however, analysing the surface of such an action would be ignoring any underlying issues that may affect the poultry in question. Dig deeper: who is the chicken; why and how did it come to be at the side of the road; is it even a chicken at all?

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quotes of the week

Now Playing: You Talk Dirty - Aynsley Lister, Erja Lyytinen & Ian Parker @ Blues Caravan 2006

Things I have overheard this week:

- "We're not here for fun, we're here to get married!" (shop assistant gossiping with friend)

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all together now

Now Playing: Phil King - Smiling Eyes

A thought came to me this morning which I had previously ignored; the vast majority of blogs I read are hosted on the Wordpress platform over my choice, Blogger. I have two Blogger blogs but wonder if it is any better to host them on WP: I suppose there's only one way to find out.

I migrated both over to similarly free packages with great ease -- WordPress can import all the posts and comments with one click -- and skimmed over the settings and such that would differentiate the services. To cut a long story short, I've found Blogger to be a basic publishing service if one just wants to get words on a page with a bit of theming, whereas WordPress offers more bells and whistles if one has time to play with them. While it's certainly true I have added and taken parts of the default layout, it is mostly the odd widget here and sentence or two there, nothing iconic or original. The blogs are pretty standard, even the theme is a given though I don't feel they really count for much as a designer dedicated enough could make the blog look however they want.

I saw that Kevin Oliver in his Moments In Time blog thinks he has found a way to make your blog incredibly awesome -- with more hits, comments, diversity and interestingness: if we all write about the same thing at the same time. He calls it synchroblogging. Always a sucker for a meme, I'll give it a go in my next few posts while I make up my mind. Amusingly, he is hosted on Blogger!

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in and on in the morn

Now Playing: Rob Thomas - Here Comes The Night

I finally have a geek's morning. Three weeks in waiting, I've finally sat down this morning to breakfast and read some RSS feeds.

When we moved in to our new house (for this year, anyway) we didn't give much consideration to the utilities for a few days. We let things take their course for a few days before doing anything to change them. We had no phone line, thereby no Internet connection and the water, electric, gas and heating bills in a bit of a state. Now, though, things are actually sorted.

A phone call to BT from a mobile (irony?) and five minutes on my housemates mobile operator website got the ball rolling, albeit for about a week to get the jigsaw to fall together. But it's here; wireless box sat in the front room, everyone's laptops feeling good and my desktop connected too.

I can now start my morning with the ritual of geekness over breakfast as I normally do, for the halfhour it takes my brain to wake up!

I just had to get that out. I've struggled to come up with *any* decent topic worthy of blogging recently... I'd better make post #100 a good one!

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