Monday 31 December 2007

e-glue (geddit?)

Need a massive dinosaur for your kid's wall? Zombie pirates? Smiling jungle dwellers? Crustaceans and the like?


Fantastic, if quite pricey...

f4c38o0K?

In an idle moment, I was thinking about social networking sites and how the natural progression might be from all-encompassing global phenomena to tightly controlled specifically targeted medium. As such, here are a few ideas:

fakebook: For forgers.
fadebook: For sound engineers.
facebuck: For deer (or 80s sci-fi) lovers.
facebucket: For window cleaners.
facebok: For South Africans.
facehook: For pirates.
bakebook: For breadmakers.
vasebook: For people who insist on using American pronunciation (i.e. Americans)
allyourbasebook: For lovers of old internet memes.
fastbuck: For people who have sold their social networking sites to massive faceless global conglomerates and gone to live in the Bahamas.

Anyone care to chip in?

Sunday 30 December 2007

Giving Palm The Finger?

Astonishing account of Palm 'customer service' (impersonating the CEO, anyone?)

Friday 28 December 2007

Big Blue Collapse

So this was bbc.co.uk at 17:15 today:


I guess the 20-odd homepage developers were all off merrily tucking into their turkey sandwiches :)

FFFFound

Anyone have a spare invite for FFFFOUND?

You can spend hours wilfing around via the You may like these images links. And we like a good wilf (quiet at the back). Anyway, I'd like to join up!

Monday 24 December 2007

Christmas Eve At The Coalface

It's been a busy old morning.



So anyway, this is me wishing a very Merry Christmas to all my fellow bloggers and (both) my readers. Have a good one, whatever you are doing. And here's to a fruitful 2008...

Overheard #32

This may have been about the recent fluctuations in the FTSE or the price of beer at the Rack & Tenter. I forget. Anyway:

It's been up and down like a euphemism.

34B-O-XXS-18-24m-15"

Just in time for that last-minute dash to Oxford Street to buy everyone's presents in the sales, we bring you:


Amusingly, the ladies' one contains 'ring size' (now there's optimism!)

Yes, I'm blogging on Xmas Eve. Yes, I'm at work. Yes, the two are connected

Sunday 23 December 2007

Bad Apple?

Looks like Apple has decided that the season of goodwill is the perfect time to go on the offensive against commentators and bloggers who deign to publish leaks/reviews/criticism of its products.

And now, in an astonishing move (and in my clearly worthless opinion, a proper PR shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-disaster) they have suggested to the daddy of the genre, Fake Steve Jobs, that he cease and desist in return for a 'settlement' / update#1: as long as he shuts up about it / update#2: or worse / update#3: lawyer time

Anyone else think the most media-savvy company in the world just started to make itself look ridiculous? But hey - what do I know. Hang on, there's someone knocking at the d...

(And of course it's all a subtle Yuletide gag from the very amusing Daniel Lyons and his Forbes crew...or maybe not...but perhaps it is...or not...could be...looks like it isn't...or is...*applause*)

Saturday 22 December 2007

Bah Humbug

Hurrah! It's the ever cheery Charlie Brooker and his Festive Quiz! The maths round is especially taxing :)

Where's It Gone?

I was bemoaning to esteemed colleague Alex the other day about one advantage that IE7 had over Firefox (*gasp*) in that when you went to full screen (F11) the menu bar nicely disappeared as well, only sliding back in if you moused near it or hit the Alt key. FF didn't do this by default, much to the chagrin of those of us currently playing with their shiny new Eee with its dinky 7" screen :)

However, Autohide to the rescue. Nice work, KrickelKrackel plugin guy.

Friday 21 December 2007

48,500 Handles

How much?


Before you ask, it wasn't me :)

Thursday 20 December 2007

Symphony Numero Onion

For some reason, I couldn't help but think of Antonia and her fighorn:


Bring on the leek violin, cucumberphone and pepper trumpet (and stop sniggering at the back...)

Sunday 9 December 2007

Housework

So today was the start of Christmas.

We bought a tree, got the lights and everything down from the loft, realised that all the decorations were broken or cracked, went to get more at Homebase (which had a broad and tasteful selection, much to my surprise), spent rather too long with a spirit level and a bucket of sand getting the damn thing upright, stuck the lights on, watched as Freyja was singularly unimpressed with our efforts, went to a chilly carol concert at the Horniman Museum (thanks for the brandy coffee, Graham...), came back and had tea with mince pies and Christmas music while we put the decorations on and Freyja carefully took them all off and put them back in the boxes again.

It was great :)

And what made it all the more exciting was that we have our house back. When we bought it, the downstairs looked like this:


Then, after a rather sudden decision to knock the ground floor rooms through, ten days ago it looked like this:


And now, I am enjoying a rather good glass of port, in this:



Two weeks and counting (and we're going to need more port...)

Friday 7 December 2007

Table Not Found

I wonder how long they waited for their food to turn up?

Look a little closer...Oh come on, it's not that geeky...

What's That, Artoo?

Very silly.

For example, this is "I Fought The Law", R2-stylee:







Thursday 6 December 2007

Very Burial

I have been boring everyone silly with how good the Burial albums are; I think I still prefer the eponymously-titled first one, despite the reviewers raving over 'Untrue', (which is still awesome).

Anyway, there is a fantastically-moody and yet still dancefloor-friendly remix by Boy 8-bit which I hope will whet the appetite for more of the same:








via Nialler9 and Mad Decent and do contact me via the comments if I should take this down or something...

Pardon?

I am officially old.

Yesterday I went for a 'business lunch' with a colleague and, once seated at our table, felt the need to ask the staff to turn the music down. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Time was when a mere high-street hostelry could not have dreamed of matching my decibel capacity but here I am, the wrong side of 35 and heading towards the Ovaltine and comfy slippers. It's a sad, sad day indeed.

Those of you who saw Probemeister rocking the (sadly-missed) Arts Centre in York with an aural onslaught of thundering beats and analogue synths will remember remarking, "There goes a chap who'll never be defeated by a slightly intrusive blast of KT Tunstall of a lunchtime and no mistake" but I fear I have let you all down. I can only beg for forgiveness (quietly).
Waitress: "Can I get you gentlemen something to drink?"
Me: "Look, I can't hear a single word you're saying; can you possibly turn this dreadful racket down a bit?"
Waitress: "A Malibu & dry ginger, a pint of snakebite and a pair of Campari shooters?"
Me: "Yes, but can we have one with mash?"
Waitress: "No, it's the last door on the left, can't miss it."

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Flickr! Editr!

Look, you can now edit images directly on Flickr (apparently using Picnik on top of the Flickr API):


This may be the kickr* that means I finally move my Gallery off Doug's poor overloaded server...

* ahem :)

Doug. A Life In Pictures.

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Overheard #31

Via our Yorkshire branch, to whom a great many thanks are due for this beauty:

"Becky, how many days in May?"
"May next year?"

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Overheard #30

Apparently, this was at a family dinner:
I quite like the diminutive walrus though.
I don't think it has anything to do with Ianklych.

Sunday 25 November 2007

Now Wii Am The Master

I don't own a Wii. But I know a man who does, don't I Paul? What do you want for Christmas, mate?

Wii light saber attachment + Lego Star Wars = Geek heaven!!

Appa Days

Afternoon. Just testing the new embedded flash player. Have a listen if you like, it's 'Appa' by Badmarsh & Shri (one of Freyja's favourites):








Yep, that seems to work. Now to try and change the default colours (although I'm a fan of grey, luckily).

EDIT: colours changed! Thanks, Alex...

Look In The Mirror?

Hang on, we appear to have been relegated!

(click for bigger)


Good win though, Wigan understandably came for a draw and we had to dig deep (especially in the face of some, er, 'borderline' tackling from Lucky Emile, amongst others) but Willy G showed why he's captain with a fine headed goal and Rosicky marked his return from a long-ish injury with a nice finish to a swift counterattack as Wigan had to press forward in search of an equaliser with only minutes left.

Oh, and did I mention this? Arsenal old-boy Grumpy Nic doing us a favour at last :)

Saturday 24 November 2007

Ready, Steady, Mech

Flatpack creatures to download (PDF), print out and build!

Perfect for those wet winter (and, to be fair, summer) Sunday afternoons, fellow Dads :)


(My favourite is Tentaclopse...)

L B O

I saw a sticker on the tube the other day promoting this lot, so I checked it out:

London Breakbeat Orchestra

"Taking the orchestra to venues more commonly associated with DJs and rock bands, the London Breakbeat Orchestra demonstrates that orchestral instruments can be used for far more than classical music. Killer grooves, turntablism and FX plus 30 virtuoso instrumentalists combine to create floor fillers live. LBO is at the forefront of the underground electro-acoustic dance scene."

Rather fun crossover project. They've done Radio 1 sessions and that. Some tracks on the website too.

Wednesday 21 November 2007

England 2 - 3 Croatia

I think this sums up England's performance, not just tonight but throughout this (non-)qualifying campaign:


Still, at least we get rid of Quiff Boy ... what's that?
He hasn't resigned yet?
You're joking, right?

No?????

Overheard #29

Ahem.
There was a very good interview in the Observer with Girls Aloud. Actually, it may have been a bit frothy.

Overheard #28

To give this some context, it had been suggested that we needed to put a disclaimer on a document saying that it was most definitely not a certain other kind of document. Our noble leader piped up with:

Well, what else can it be - it's not a bloody sausage roll.

I'm still (inwardly) chuckling.

Breakout The Bunting

I'd really like this on a T-shirt (click for bigger):

xkcd does it again *applause*

Monday 19 November 2007

RCRD LBL

Here's an interesting idea; rather than treating their customers as criminals, a group of record labels (including Warp, Modular and Kompakt for starters) have teamed up with a variety of music blogs/websites (Drowned In Sound, Seen) to offer ad-supported online content for free:

Seems to have only been going less than a week, but I imagine many more will want to jump onboard. They ask you not to 're-host' anything you find but in return offer a variety of widgets for your website/blog so that you can have auto-upating content direct from the RCRD LBL site (although if I'm honest I tried to get the Warp Radio widget to embed here and it wouldn't so some work to be done there. Or perhaps I am a muppet. That's more likely.)

Anyway, this was the weekend roundup of the posted MP3 - some interesting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. More details of the usage policy and the Creative Commons license in the FAQ. Sign up, looks good.

Thursday 15 November 2007

HelvetICA

Last night, I spent 80 minutes looking at a font.


Alex has written a brief review here with which I concur, on the whole. So type designers (should they be known as 'font fiddlers'?) are a bit crazy. And people who make films about type designers are also somewhat on the squiffy side :)

But it was a very entertaining documentary with some lighthearted moments - and that was, I think, the first time I have been to the cinema since Freyja was born in December 2005. It was really enjoyable; the ICA is a very intimate venue, with only ~6 rows of ~10 seats. There was a good deal of chuckling and light-hearted comment; it was more like watching the film in your front room, on a massive telly with a few mates round.

And yes, you were even allowed to take your beer in.

* this may not be Helvetica, obviously

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Surreal Landscape Of Nostalgia

No, not Milton Keynes, but an interesting dissection of current parents' favourite, In The Night Garden on StrangeHarvest:


Not sure he needed all the screenshots, but my curiosity was piqued by this paragraph towards the end:

"The history of children's TV echoes throughout. There are references to the Magic Roundabout in the bandstand, to Camberwick Green in its mechanics, to Thunderbird 2 in the Pink-Ponk's [sic] green livery, to Trumpton in the echoey naive folk music. The texture of the image is made just as rich by combining live action, rickety stop-frame and gradient perfect CGI, and the soundtrack whose organic sci-fi squelching might have arrived fresh from the Radiophonic Workshop. The programme construction is perhaps the most sophisticated on British TV. And the effect is fantastic."

Blimey. The Pinky Ponk is Thunderbird 2 - look:

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Overheard #27

Who said City boys are incapable of meaningful relationships:
Right, I'm going to spend more time with my synthetic woman.

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Higher! Lower! Take The Money! Open The Box!

Good grief.

"Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards. The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't. I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher, not lower, than -8 but I'm not having it. "

Well, you're not having your £10,000 either, duck :)

(from the Manchester Evening News)

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Demento (Slight Return)

Rattled, Fergie old fruit?

"Manchester United are compiling a security dossier after claims that their manager Sir Alex Ferguson was verbally abused by Arsenal fans."

You. Don't. Say.

Sheesh :)

Monday 5 November 2007

Grapes, Anyone?

Ah, it's nice to see we have them this rattled so early in the season.


"Both of our goals were from really beautiful pieces of play ... their goals were a bit more scrappy."

So Rooney scuffs his shot, which rebounds off his knee onto Gallas's elbow and trickles in at the near post past a wrong-footed Almunia. Er, yes, beautiful. I will happily admit that their second was a lovely flowing move through Saha and Evra but so was our first and Cesc's cool-headed finish showed real class.

Sorry, Owen, wrong again.


"On our bench, we were getting terrible abuse from people two or three feet away from us. There is a lack of security. It is absolutely disgraceful the abuse you and your staff take. All sorts of things are being shouted and screamed at you and there is an absolute danger here."

Now I am very glad he has brought this to the attention of the watching media. Next time 65,000 people at Old Trafford start chanting 'disgraceful abuse' at Arsene Wenger, I shall watch with pride as Sir Alex halts the game, marches to the centre circle and turns to the fans with arms spread wide, shouting "Stop."

No, really, I'm looking forward to it.

And three final words: "Game. In. Hand."

Friday 2 November 2007

Like, The Colours, Man

If you don't subscribe to strangemaps, do so at once. This one is brilliant:


"This map is of the dark side of the moon, which here looks more like a Jackson Pollock action painting, its riotous colours corresponding to geological materials and phenomena. Many of the colour spots are circular in nature, reflecting the large number of meteorites that have impacted on the lunar surface, unprotected by an atmosphere, over many, many centuries. The map is one of a series produced by NASA and the US Geological Survey between 1971 and 1998."

Mesmerising.

USBeer

New great thing #1,238,656:

Can your flash drive do this?

*burp*
Pardon.

Monday 29 October 2007

The Right Angle

Rather lovely interface for perusing random Flickr pictures. Click to zoom, flip and refresh:What do you mean, "Why?". Just because you can. Tsk.

From .ad To .za

Another gem via strange maps; the world 'sliced and diced' by ccTLDs.


Geeky? Yep. But cool? Hell yeah, I want the poster :)

Thursday 25 October 2007

Seven Up

It wouldn't be right to let the week pass without comment on Arsenal's 7-0 demolition of Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Tuesday. Free-flowing attacking football of the highest order at its absolute finest. The Czech champions didn't know what had hit them; they even went and apologised to their army of travelling fans at the end of the game. Two for Fabregas, two for Walcott and my man-of-the-match Hleb involved in absolutely everything.

I think my favourite was the 6th goal; from a Slavia corner at one end to a bulging net at the other in just over fourteen seconds, involving six different players and ending with an assured finish from Cesc who had run the length of the pitch to get on the end of it. Awesome.

Yes, I know style <> trophies and we haven't won anything yet. But let's enjoy the journey and keep the faith. Remember, "Arsene knows".

All The Fun Of The Fairtilizer

Strange name, but excellent site for new original music, remixes and covers:


Stumbled across it via a Klaxons version of No Diggity by BLACKstreet(!) which is in this playlist of interesting covers which also includes two versions of Gin And Juice (one lounge and one country), an electro Song 2 and Robyn's gentle pizzicato take on Since U Been Gone:


Cool embedded (yes, Flash) player too :)

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Makes You Wand-er

We all suspected it, didn't we? Anyway, I'm going to get one of these for Rowan (the biggest Potter fan I know) for Christmas:

Wednesday 17 October 2007

CLOG clog

These are awfully sweet:


Although obviously it negates the effect of dancing around really fast and them falling off howling with laughter and wanting to go again. Perhaps they frown on that kind of thing in Finland :)


However, they also have these and these. Heh!

Dali-ston Junction

Nicely observed.


"On other trips, I've seen a woman waft a man with handfuls of cash, a giant offer a businessman a plateful of jelly and a mischievous squirrel attempt to leave a box on a man's shoulder. I've sat in a train and been eyed up by gawping giants. Watched a pair of eyes roll by the carriage windows, sneaking a peak at a commuter's paper in the time-honoured tradition. Before I can point this out to anyone, as if by magic, I'm suddenly back again. Like Mr Benn, with a token souvenir of his dressing room travels, all I have left are these pictures."

[via Going Underground]

Monday 15 October 2007

W3 Compliant


Today is Blog Action Day. Regrettably, I mis-read this online call-to-arms and so prepared the below.
Acton is now a suburb of West London about 5 miles from the centre, and well within the built-up area, but for the greater part of its history, consisted of only a small cluster of houses around the medieval Church of St. Mary's, providing refreshment for travellers on the road from London to Oxford.

A settlement at Acton is mentioned in the Doomsday book of 1086, and the church of St. Mary's is first recorded in the early 13th Century. The original medieval chapel was enlarged by the building of a nave, and much later a tower.

Acton is now changing, with media and lighter industry taking over from the heavy industry. With easy access to Central London, Acton remains a popular place to live, with new housing being built at many sites.
Sorry.

Costume Drama

I received a lovely phishing email this morning, claiming to be from the Costumer Service Department of The NationWide UK Bank plc (sic).

Loving the idea that my bank might have an entire department dedicated to fitting staff for their lovely mauve polyester uniforms :)

Thursday 11 October 2007

Makin' Woopie*

Coo, it must be Antonia week:

Woopie* Infant Cushion Costume

Those merkins do go a bit bonkers at Hallowe'en, don't they...hang on, that lobster looks rather familiar!

* (sic) - obviously the delicious irony of that spelling error is not lost on me.

P.S. Solveig - can we get this for Freyja....nana....nana....nana....nana....

Overheard #26

Pseuds corner:
So yes, I recognised the bells in that track, rather than any implied contrapuntality.

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Soliloquy To An Anonymous Audience

You know how I feel about it, but Alice Mathias puts it thus:


"We might feel invulnerable in the spotlight, but we don’t want to be caught sitting in someone else’s audience."

Monday 8 October 2007

The Link's Affect*

For my fellow Obergrammarführer, Antonia:

* oh come on, I thought that was quite good...

Sunday 7 October 2007

Guess The Weight #2

So, talking of offspring, in case anyone was not yet aware, Solveig is pregnant again! And what do we do to celebrate this wonderful news?

We gamble.

Last time, I ran a small sweepstake for people to guess the date, weight and sex of the bump that was Freyja (22 Dec 2005 / 6 lb 10 oz / girl) and this time will be no different.

Apart from the technology.

I've set up an online form for people to submit their guesses (powered by DabbleDB in case you were interested) with automagically updating list and calendar views (there may even be a fancy chart soon).

Good luck! There's a bottle of champagne for the winner...

Saturday 6 October 2007

Check One-Two

As you may have noticed, I generally leave any documentation of the progress of our offspring to Solveig; she is much better at it, being a) female and b) not addicted to puns. However, I thought I might drop into the mix here that Freyja is a mathematical genius!

OK, to clarify that slightly, she says "One....Two...." if you ask her to count for you*. But clearly, as an ex-sound engineer, this new-found skill makes me incredibly proud. I'm sure it won't be long before she is suggesting we "knock a couple of dB out at 800Hz", "pop a spoffle** on the overheads" and "make the vocals less brown".

It also reminds me of one of my favourite jokes:
Why do sound engineers only say "one, two; one, two"?
Because on 'three' they might have to lift something.
Yeah, you had to be there...

* she also says "One....Two...." if you ask her what colour a dog is but I shall gloss over that for now.

** a word allegedly invented by Hugh Laurie whilst doing an interview for BBC Radio with Stephen Fry and which has passed into common usage in the audio industry; brilliant.

Swing Low

I am not the world's biggest rugby fan.

This possibly may have something to do with having sustained two broken ribs playing in my first ever game. Aged 13 and new to the school, I was placed at hooker by the games master who suggested that my 'excellent football skills' meant I would be 'useful with my feet' in the scrum. Well he was not wrong. At one of the early scrums, I adeptly hooked the ball back to our Number 8 against the head*. In the ensuing melée, I suddenly received a sharp blow to the chest area from the boot and/or fist and/or elbow of a rather annoyed (and much larger than me) member of the opposition front row. Unable to breathe, I collapsed in a heap and was carted off to the Sanitorium (yes, it was quite a posh school...) where I was tended to by the matronly, er, Matron and subsequently packed off to York General Hospital for X-rays.

Broken ribs are horrible. You can't laugh, cough or breathe properly**. They just 'need time to heal'. So that got me off games for about 6 weeks, during which time I started to learn the saxophone and decided to form a band.

But that's another story. The main reason for this post is the scoreline England 12-10 Australia in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup this afternoon; a bit of an upset, if truth be told, given that the Wallabies were clear favourites for the tournament. So jolly well done, chaps. Splendid result. No reason why you can't go on and repeat the heroics of 2003...

...just don't, in your desperation for non-injured, even half-fit, partly-English players, ask me to come in at hooker :)

* winning the ball on the opposition put-in at a scrum, in case you were wondering.

** oh, I forgot sneezing; that's the worst. 'Atchooooooooooooooofuckthathurts'.

Monday 1 October 2007

Take The Last Graph Home

Another nice little last.fm widget - this one charts the evolution of your last.fm listening profile over time (output as SVG or PDF). Admittedly you have to wait for it to process (current queue length = 136) and mine was a 3Mb PDF!


Interesting to see at a glance how your tastes have changed (or not...ahem)

Lego Of That Tray

Thanks to Duck_Bitz (long story) for alerting me to the Lego versions of Eddie Izzard routines:


Loads more here including old favourites 'Cake or Death' and 'James Bond'.

*applause*

Sweet As Suga

I have to admit to the reading public (yes, all four of you) that I have a soft spot for the Sugababes and in particular their new track (as of yesterday, Britain's Number #1 single), "About You Now":


And it comes as no surprise to anyone with their finger vaguely on the pulse of finely crafted pop to discover that it was written by Cathy Dennis.

Rubbish video, mind :) I mean, yellow?

Friday 28 September 2007

Fry On Fame

Yes, he's at it again. You could subscribe to the feed but frankly I am almost certainly going to post in awe of his (and I quote) 'blessays' whenever they are posted, so you may as well just follow it here:

Stephen Fry: Let Fame

I did particularly enjoy, on being asked the question, "What is it like?":
‘Being famous is like wearing blue pyjamas at the opera. It’s like kissing Neil Young, but only on Wednesdays. It’s like a silver disc gummed to the ear of a wolverine. It’s like licking crumbs from the belly of a waitress called Eileen. It’s like lemon polenta cake but slightly wider. It’s like moonrise on the planet Posker.’
Very good. Of course.

Thursday 27 September 2007

Overheard #25

Allegedly referring to one of the directors of a FTSE-listed company:
"At Eton they used to call him 'Circus Boy' but he cries if you say it to him now."

Wednesday 26 September 2007

Jesus Wants Me For A Facebook

Well looky here, y'all. Apparently that there Facebooky thing is like totally sooooo much fun that my lovely online (and offline, some of 'em) chums feel I am missing out on all the garden/cake/vampire networking grooviness and have taken time out of their busy Web2.0 virtual tagging sessions to set up a 'group', dedicated to little old me and the persuading-to-join thereof:


Nope. Nice try. But sorry. Never in a million years. Although......a million.....what if a million people joined that group AND PLEDGED TO DONATE A SINGLE UK PENNY EACH? Then I might be tempted.


Ten thousand pounds to a charity of my choosing. What do you reckon, Level 5 Zombie Facebook-types??

* Obviously I would have to join to see it, so I'll just have to take their word for it :)

Tuesday 25 September 2007

First Ade

Emmanuel Adebayor has auctioned his hat-trick shirt, the one he wore in the 5-0 win against Derby, for £50,000 in an auction to raise money for leukaemia research. He really is a jolly nice chap (and he can keep scoring beauties like the one against Spurs all season long, if you don't mind, please).

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Frank Lampard has donated his shirt from last Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Manchester Utd to Shelter. A spokesman said they were "very grateful and hoped to be able to house up to fifty homeless people inside it in the very near future".

*flees*

In For A Penny

...in for a rouble. Separated at birth?

"I want to be in a position that will allow me a blocking stake and will then wait for it to go up in value."
After statements like that, I think it's a valid comparison; where's Dangermouse when you need him?

(On the back of a londonist post which alleged a similarity between Greenback and Avram Grant but I reckon mine is better...)

Sunday 23 September 2007

Flake 'n' Bacon

Now I have to admit that I really like bacon. And Solveig would readily confirm that she really likes chocolate. So, how do we resolve this marital issue? OK, I'll tell you how:

"Deep milk chocolate coats your mouth and leads to the crunch of smoked bacon pieces. Surprise your mouth with the smoked salt and sweet milk chocolate combination."

Er, right. 'Surprise your mouth' indeed.....

Overheard #24

It's a difficult life, being a chap:
"I have to leave by 6.30, I'm picking up my shooting trousers. I do draw the line at plus-fours, however."

Saturday 22 September 2007

Sunday Morning Fry Up

The FryPhone

Well said.

(11:43pm? Was I really up that late watching Arsenal's demolition job on Derby County? Ah well...)

Hands Off Our Club

Oi! Where's my lawyers letter, fatty?

Thursday 20 September 2007

Some You Win...

What a peculiar week.

My man Stuart Broad gets clobbered for six sixes in one over in the Twenty20 World Cup, England go out & Freddie is injured (again).

Then Arsenal crush Sevilla 3-0 with an outstanding display of Cruyff-esque attacking football (Thierry who?)

But to cap it all, The Special One only goes and resigns from Chelski and Spurs put SIX past a team who sound like a disease. Even Darren Bent managed to score; ergo, they must have been sh**.

You really couldn't make it up :)

Overheard #23

A corker, you couldn't make it up.

"I'm off next week as I have to go to the deaf clinic - not that I'm telling them that; I'll never hear the end of it..."

Tuesday 18 September 2007

f4c3b**k

Hey, Daring Fireball, that's my line...
Thank goodness Zeldman joined Facebook; gets me one step closer to my goal of being the last person on the web who has not.

Monday 17 September 2007

Overheard #22

Topical.
"I thought the banks crisis was really getting worse when I walked past Nationwide and saw a huge queue gathering outside. Then I realised that they weren't open yet.

Saturday 15 September 2007

Friday 14 September 2007

Kick In The Spuds

I am flabbergasted. It would appear that tomorrow's North Laaahndan derby between the globally-admired demi-gods of free-flowing beautiful elegant creative one-touch football and Spurs is NOT ON THE TELLY!!!!

It's a travesty.

El Scousers wander down to the South Coast to hoof the pigskin around a corrugated iron shed in Portsmouth, and that's on.

Chelski One-Nil trek North to have their shins brutally examined by Blackeye Rovers, and that's on.

But where is our steeped-in-tradition local encounter at Three Point Lane? Nowhere, that's where. And they wonder why pubs arrange dodgy satellite feeds from Norway and savvy internet punters stream things from China. What is the point of have three lunchtime games (at 12.00, 12.45 and 1.30 respectively) if you are not going to show them? They may as well have been at 3.00 in the good old fashioned way.

Sky & Setanta - what a complete set of swag-bellied harpies.

Still, more listeners for Lofty on BBC Radio London I suppose...

Thursday 13 September 2007

Woolly Yumper

No, really - how to 'knit' marzipan:
And here's the tutorial - Antonia, over to you...

Overheard #21

"Yeah, the chips don't lie, they just make it worse"
I know. Bizarre on so many levels.

Plat(form) Du Jour

Tuesday 11 September 2007

Deezer Geezer

Just become aware of this French website which offers free access to user-uploaded MP3s to listen to online.

"What the ... ?!" I hear you cry.

Apparently it has an agreement with SACEM (which as I understand it is the French version of the PRS/ASCAP) to pay it an agreed portion of its advertising revenue in publishing royalties.


Remains to be seen if the RIAA will flex its international muscles (like it did with the Russian site, AllOfMP3) and wade in with the helicopter gunships. Although Universal is said to be somewhat unhappy and might beat them to it (having just signed an exclusive agreement with a different French ISP, neuf.fr, with whom they share a parent company, Vivendi).

Worth a look, streams fine, not a bad selection. Is it the new Napster?

And obviously there's a Slashdot thread.

Monday 10 September 2007

Two And You're Out

The best just got better. To celebrate the forthcoming Twenty20 World Cup, Stick Cricket have started a new competition:

Yep, two overs. Twelve balls to prove yourself worthy of a place in the next round. Hit out or get out. Aces.

(OK, so I haven't actually managed it yet, might be a long night...)

Wasp (Not Wasp)

I was stung by a wasp for the first time ever yesterday. It gently landed on me, looked casually about, walked about five paces then stung the merry hell out of my forearm. Luckily, I had the speed of thought and presence of mind to let go of everything I was holding and attend immediately to this unprovoked attack. Regrettably, the thing I was holding was a pushchair with our daughter in it which, as we had been happily strolling around Greenwich Park, promptly accelerated down the hill away from the Royal Observatory. Oh how we laughed, as we chased frantically after her buggy, careering at high speed towards the carved stone pillars of the National Maritime Museum.

So anyway, I was stung by a wasp for the first time ever yesterday.
The absolute bastard.

Wednesday 5 September 2007

iWant

You knew it was coming, didn't you: iPod touch

Oooooooooooooooh.

Hit And Myths

Well done to Klaxons for winning the Mercury Music Prize; still enjoying Myths Of The Near Future on my journey to work (and yes, I do sometimes sing the falsetto bit in Golden Skans as we pull into Lewisham station, so what?) and I really should have stuck a tenner on them; could have got 9-1 apparently :(

Anyway, day-glo leggings on, horns in the air, whoop, whoop, whoop!

Tuesday 4 September 2007

Last.fm (But Not Least.fm)

Gadget alert - this last.fm Normaliser re-ranks your last.fm favourites by actual listening time (rather than number of tracks consumed). So a couple of Orbital albums and a bit of the Floyd can easily make amends for that secret passion you know you really have for Girls Aloud and/or Lawnmower Deth. Nice.

Monday 3 September 2007

Overheard #20

Just now. Coffee -> monitor.

"Outnumbered - isn't that the one that's like 'CSI'?
Er, no, it's got Hugh Dennis in it..."

Sunday 2 September 2007

NBC You Later

Well done, chaps.

NBC = No Bloody Clue

(via daring fireball)

Weekending

Good weekend here.
  • Reduced the number of washing machines we own to the tune of one, whilst increasing the standard of the aforementioned items (and therefore the quality of life for our tenants) at the flat
  • Popped round to see our ex-downstairs neighbours, John & Mercedes, for the first of two BBQs
  • Collected Freyja from our ever-willing babysitters (my parents!) and jollyed over to Helena's 30th birthday thing, also a BBQ (excellent potato salad, H, by the way)
  • Despite the dreadful traffic around Dulwich Village/A205, got to the Honor Oak for dinner with the aforementioned parents, food very good, (Hoegaarden very good also :)
  • Popped to Alex & Katherine's with a composter (is it quite large?) which was exchanged somehow for a lawnmower and an old fridge (note to self: must discuss advanced bargaining tactics with Alex at work next week :)
  • Successfully mowed lawns at great speed before the gathering and looming dark clouds did the inevitable English summer thing :(
  • Aforementioned random fridge to tip (quite literally 2 minutes before closing time)
  • Took shears to edges (followed by some surprise to have already half-filled our composter)
  • Sat down with Tanqueray & tonic, and then followed...
  • Arsenal 3-1 Portsmouth which was a good professional win, partly with 10 men. But then
  • Aston Villa 2-0 Chelsea which was a complete shock, Lampard or not. Blimey.
Carry on!

The Pope Don't Work

Like, Dylan, man.
You know, Dylan.
Woah.
Man.
Dude, like Dylan, y'know?

Dylan, by me (courtesy of some web jiggery pokery and that)

You can too, here. Cool.

Friday 31 August 2007

Arseki? No Thanks

Obviously the sale of shares by David Dein to a not very nice Russian is a matter for concern. As Henry Winter says:
The battle for control of Ashburton Grove is officially under way. All eyes are now on Danny Fiszman, Arsenal's majority shareholder, to see how he reacts to Dein camping on his lawn and firing 50-rouble notes at him.
I'm with Arseblogger. Yes, I know it's not the 1950s; yes, we have a stadium sponsored by an airline; yes, we have to compete with the other clubs bankrolled by fat cigar-smoking fraudsters. But it will pain me to see all our tradition go to the highest bidder when in Arsene Wenger we have a manager who would rather use his considerable intelligence to draw together seemingly disparate elements into a team that can compete on the pitch, rather than be a puppet in a global money pissing contest .

(And if Dein can't get control of Arsenal, do you know what he wants to do? He wants to be Head of the FA....)

UPDATE: Very good precis on Gunnerblog

Thursday 30 August 2007

A Broad Grin

I know I have been banging on about him for ages but finally the England selectors gave Stuart Broad his chance in the ODI series against India. So how did he do, I hear you cry? Only career-best figures of 4-51 with the ball, followed by a match-winning 45 not out in an English record 8th wicket partnership of 99 with Ravi Bopara. England were reeling at 114-7 but eventually won by 3 wickets and take a 3-1 lead in the seven match series. Bravo!


Maybe I should run a cricket team or something...

UPDATE: Highlights of the match-winning partnership HERE

Wednesday 29 August 2007

RIP Puerta

Sad news today - Antonio Puerta, who I wrote about as a potential summer signing for Arsenal, has died after suffering a heart attack playing for Sevilla against Getafe on Saturday night. Apparently, he had an incurable, hereditary heart problem (arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy) and was only 22 years old.

We do come to see our football idols as superhuman and this just serves to bring it back into perspective somewhat. Hopefully some of the bitching and mind-games might ease this weekend as people remember a talent prematurely cut short:

Tuesday 28 August 2007

I'm A Slave 4 U(kulele)

So, back from our summer holidays, what do we fancy listening to as we lurch back to work?

Awesome. And England are leading the ODI series, Arsenal are unbeaten and I found twenty quid in my suit jacket this morning. If I wasn't so stiff from playing cricket at the weekend, I'd jump for joy :)

Sunday 19 August 2007

Paint It Black(burn)

Can Blackeye Rovers (as The Fiver famously tagged them) continue to kick lumps out of other teams and pretend that it is Premier League football? The display at Ewood Park was disgraceful - yes, it's a man's game, blah blah blah, but if I remember correctly the point is to pass the ball from player to player and try to create a scoring opportunity; not to see how brutal a challenge you can get away with, before the referee remembers that there are assessors in the stands and brings out the yellow cards. And they only had ONE player sent off (their captain, if that is any indication of their utter shamefulness). It's a disgrace and this picture sums it up:


One of these players is a skilful top-level international midfielder attempting to reach the ball* and the others play for Blackburn Rovers. As Cesc asked of Mark Hughes last season:
Didn't you play for Barcelona? Because that's not Barcelona football.
Yes, I know we only managed a 1-1 draw because Crazy Jens made his second successive bizarre error (three and you're out?) but I imagine we might have scored more goals had we realised it was actually hurling/Aussie rules/WWF.

Tsk.

UPDATE: Goodplaya agrees with me

* for those of you wearing blue/white, that's the round thing that the other team are attempting to pass around, but don't worry yourself with technicalities; ankles and knees look awfully similar when your hair flaps in your eyes...

Saturday 18 August 2007

More! Proof! Of! Youth!

Exclusive! last.fm! preview! of! more! tracks! from! The Go! Team's new! album!

Click to play >>> <<< Click to play

23! days! and! counting!

Twist Your Arm(ando)

Just finished listening to the first in the excellent new series of Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive:


Highlights were the discussion about how many ketchup sachets David Attenborough stole from the café at London Zoo ("easily more than five"), the Mastermind general knowledge round ("What is the opposite of placard?") and the Robert Ludlum novel title generator ("The Byzantium Potato").

Highly recommended (and you can listen again here)

Friday 17 August 2007

I'm Just A Lush

OMFG - this could absolutely 1000% so easily be me:


"...is about indie bands. Proper indie bands from the later 1980s and early 1990s. When indie bands were real indie bands, and when they released their music on big lumps of vinyl; like God intended."

Of the 27 bands currently on the site, I own 9 CDs, 12 vinyl LPs, 17 12" vinyl EPs and 4 limited edition coloured vinyl 7"s. I have also seen live gigs from Dr Phibes (forgettable), World Of Twist (mental), Teenage Fanclub (amazing), Jesus Jones (overrated), Ride (noisy), New FADs (moody) and Ned's Atomic Dustbin (silly) as well as the wonderful Lush, from whom lead-singer Miki signed my T-shirt (much to the chagrin of my friends on the night, who had to wait for me hanging round the side of the Newcastle Mayfair stage like a lovesick puppy until the diminutive Japanese/Hungarian beauty found her magic marker...)

Now, bring on The Wedding Present, please...

Coffeeside, Ref!

This would look good in my (as yet still imaginary) shed:

"Manufactured from Solid Oak with a Stainless Steel frame and a glass top to protect the mirrored football pitch underneath, this table is superbly built and would make a perfect addition to any living room or bar."

Or shed...

Cat Sheet?

From the always intriguing strange maps comes:


(for Antonia, mostly)

Wednesday 8 August 2007

Footing The Bill

Here's another quite cool Google maps app - type in a street (although postcodes work better for the UK) and it will give it a walk score based on how 'walkable' local amenities are:

Obviously it can only track locations and businesses that show up in Google Maps (it didn't pull in our excellent local Thai place) but anything that helps me avoid the fuming logjam of chaos which is London's South Circular is a boon - we scored 62, what about you?

Friday 3 August 2007

Toxic Mash(up)

Nothing to do with green potatoes, this is another really polished album of pop mashups. So far; so last year. However, they're all based around tracks from a long-forgotten LP called 'Hot Boppin' Instrumentals', lending a rather pleasant 'lounge' feel to recent chart smashes from (amongst others): Spears, Aguilera, Stefani and even The Jaxx:

Check it out and let me know your favourites...

How Many Does Ben Make?

This is like way so 80s old skool cool:

And a prize* for the person who deciphers the title of this post...

* may not contain actual prize

Thursday 2 August 2007

Take A Pig, Miss Jones

Fed up with email? Cheer them up with a hand-written missive on one of these animal-shaped airmail letters :)
The pig is great. I like the rocket too. And the bat. Actually the pterodactyl is...er...anyway. Yes!

Available soon, apparently.

Overheard #19

A short hop back over the pond, to the workplace once again:
"I'm getting no love from those people. They bring me this stuff; you can't drink algae. It's like some funk from Russia, or something."

*taps side of head*

Monday 30 July 2007

That's A Big Ask

You look away for a second and the lead is up to...


...1,757? Declaration imminent, I'd say :)

Feed Me

Right, listen up you lot.

For those of you getting busy with the RSS reader-type things, I am intending to move the feed for this site to:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ForkHandles

Please forcibly redirect your 2.0 sprocket here via the overhead cam flange and hopefully the 'excitement' will continue unabated. If not, drop me a line/comment and I'll hit it with a spanner. And at some as yet indeterminate point the old Atom.xml thing will cease to be. Message ends. Over and out. Chocks away.

Thursday 26 July 2007

Overheard #18, y'all, etc

This just in from our ever-vigilant, State-side roving reporter, Victoria Q. Sponge:
"I am NOT doing that again. One, it's gross and two, my legs are killing me."

Facebook 'Em, Danno

Er, your world might be coming to an end, people:

Lawsuit Seeks to Shut Down Facebook

Although I imagine they just want a rather big slice of how ever many billions Yahoo/Google/M$/AOL are offering this week :)

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Not To Be Sniffed At

I am speechless:
I also liked the strap-line:
It's like having a dog's nose in your hand.
Remind me how that is a desirable thing again?

Stick Of Rhubarb

I wonder if this would get as (or perhaps more) annoying than Clippy:

Desktop Boycott

"The Desktop Boycott sits on your computer and alerts you to events with up-to-the-minute coverage of all the action, news, discussion forum and more."

And in the words of Desktop Boycott himself:
I’ll alert you when wickets fall, batsmen reach milestones, or players leave the field. I won’t be pulling any punches either, so I’ll also let you know when the ball was in the “corridor of uncertainty”, if my “mother could have caught it”, and when a good player could have “hit it with a stick of rhubarb”. You can guarantee that I’ll tell it straight, with “no flannel”, as we say in Yorkshire.
Oh. God. No.

Friday 20 July 2007

Run? What...now?

This tickled me, from the BBC over-by-over; anyone who followed Test cricket in the early-80s will know exactly what he is on about:
1845: India 123-3
He's only scored four runs in the last ten overs; it's like watching a caned Chris Tavare.

Waitiiiiiing...................................................................................no.

Overheard #17

Friday. A City hostelry in EC2. Roughly around lunchtime (somewhere between 11 and 3)

"Yes - and I've never ridden a dog, either."

FACT.

(S)top Posting

Hear, hear: Daring Fireball: On Top

"Does it take more time to edit the portions of quoted text included in your reply? Yes. So does spell-checking and proofreading. It also takes time to shower and brush your teeth each day."

Thursday 19 July 2007

How Long Is A BigString?

For those "OK, that's done. And click [Send]. Wait. No. Not to him/her. No. Really? Aaaargh" moments, there is now:


"Users can recall e-mails from a recipient's inbox, cause a message to self-destruct after a certain number of reads or after a set period of time. BigString converts the e-mail to what is basically a simple Web page (an HTML document) and stores it on their server. When you change or delete the documents or attachments, you are not actually breaking into the recipient's inbox, but changing the virtual string that goes from BigString's server to that inbox."

Interesting idea. Wonder what the FSA would have to say about it?

Wednesday 18 July 2007

Where Do You Want To Go Today?

xkcd hits the nail on the head again:

Quite.

Tuesday 17 July 2007

Stay Out Of The Sun

Great mirth around some of the Arsenal blogs today as it turns out The Sun exclusive on Boca Juniors' highly-rated striker Rodrigo Palacio moving to Arsenal was entirely made up to show how easy it would be to wind up the papers. That said, he was genuinely going to move to Barcelona this summer for £15m before they went and signed Thierry - wouldn't the irony be delicious if Arsene Wenger subsequently tempted him over to fill TH14's shirt...

Monday 16 July 2007

Meet And Two Pints

I went to my first ever Lewisham Bloggers Meetup last Friday night, handily enough held at our excellent local, The Honor Oak.

I had no idea what to expect; the internet all-too-easily removes any kind of geographical points of reference, What could we possibly all have in common other than sticking our random and seemingly unrelated thoughts up online once a day/week/roughly-whenever-the-hell-they-feel-like-it? It stemmed from the London Bloggers idea which I joined a while back, soon after which a couple of people made contact via the comments on fork handles...

...fast forward to Friday night at The Honor Oak, everyone was very welcoming, absolutely engrossing and a great pity I couldn't stay for longer than a couple of beers. Still, if they'll have me back, I'd very much like to continue some of the conversations I had with Andrew, Henry, Neil and Robert (who was responsible for organising the evening -> *applause*) and also meet those who I missed when they arrived later on!

Yep, count me in for the next one. Now, what on earth was that thing about underground waterways??

Sunday 15 July 2007

Beef? Stu.

I cannot claim to be right all the time, but Broad named in England Test squad gave me a somewhat polite 'glow' today.

Show us what you can do, young Stuart (what with Harmison almost certainly out for the series...)

Friday 13 July 2007

Jig-A-Jig Aaargh

This seems a bit unnecessary. It's all I can do to leave the house wearing clothes, let alone do a jigsaw at silly-o'clock am.

Thursday 12 July 2007

One For The Rails?

The ever-reliable Going Underground comes up trumps again with this Tube map 'mashup' on LastRounds.

LastRounds Tube Map

It tells you the times of the first/last Underground service from each station, as well as the staggering distance from the local hostelries. So you can order that final pint of Stocks Old Horizontal, safe in the knowledge that you can still catch the last tube home. Genius (and minicab drivers are going to hate it :)

Gotta Havva Makka Pakka

It was only a matter of time. Andy? Rowan?

The 'In The Night Garden' Collection
(On pre-order for end-July at the BBC Shop and Amazon.)

Wednesday 11 July 2007

Within Tent To Kill

Too good not to share. Brooker goes to Glasto:

Oh good, it's raining again

(Yes, yes, I know it was published two weeks ago. So sue me for being in a dial-up wasteland in SE6 eating cold beans. Off packing cases. With chopsticks :)

Get In(ternet)

Oh how these words filled me with joy as they 'pinged' into my Inbox at 9:02am this morning.
From: adslservice@demon.net
Subject: Your Demon Broadband Order: Service Activation
Dear Mr Lightly,
Thank you for your order for Demon Broadband services.We are happy to inform you that BT have confirmed your new broadband service is now live. You will now be able to connect to your service using the login details provided in your welcome pack.
And exhale.

Office Face

I cut myself shaving yesterday.

(Normally, I imagine that would be up there with "What I had for lunch..." and "So I joined Facebook..." as the first line of a blog post guaranteed to make even the most turgid of readers run a country mile. But please bear with me.)

As it happens, it was quite a nasty nick; over an inch in length, tapered from top to bottom and prominently displayed to the left of my philtrum (you can look it up). It looked as if I had either:

a) had some sort of late-night kebab-shop battle over the last chicken shish;
b) got into an argument with a (slightly half-hearted) Chelsea Headhunter;
c) tried to shift a lengthily-clawed, somewhat-annoyed cat from the sofa; or
d) cut myself shaving.

And do you know what? Not one person at work commented on it in the entire day. Not a single analyst at the 7am morning meeting. Nobody in sales or trading when I was sorting out their conferencing. Nothing from I.T. when I was testing my new PC upstairs. Not even the lugubrious PL and CJ at lunchtime in the Rack & Tenter. None of the normally chatty backoffice team when we were discussing the crazy world of client codes. Not Dei. Not Alex. Nobody.

Now these are people who can generally be relied upon to pounce on the slightest change in haircut and render the owner speechless with a tirade of lighthearted abuse. Similarly, the introduction of a 'jazzy' shirt into the work wardrobe will often be met with wide-eyed mirth and the general donning of sunglasses. I can only assume that they think I live such an exciting life that random facial injuries are deemed to be par for the course.

Almost certainly, though, they didn't want to draw attention to the fact that I am clearly an utter buffoon who can't even be trusted to scrape the dead hair off his chin without carving himself to ribbons :)

Tuesday 10 July 2007

Overheard #16 (back on track now)

Straight from the badlands of Hertford:

"Fetch the aardvark!"

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Turning It To, Er, Cheese

Best anagram in the world ever?

Monty Panesar = Tony Parmesan

That's grate.

Tuesday 3 July 2007

Proof Of Yoof

Go! Team! Album! Out! Soon! But! Here! Is! A! Taster!



Do! You! Yahoo! etc!

Overheard #14 (yes, I missed one)

Another from our spies in the field (surely "on the train" - Transport Ed.) and a beauty:

"It's £160 a week. And they wear helmets."

Monday 2 July 2007

Pass-berry Beret

Arsenal appear to have signed The Artist Formerly Known As Prince:


Actually, he's a Croatian-Brazilian by the name of Eduardo da Silva who was the record goalscorer for Dinamo Zagreb last season with 34 goals.

As I said, "Trust Arsene".

Thoughts On A Broad

So England won the first ODI against the West Indies yesterday, quite comfortably in the end (by 79 runs) after some excellent bowling by my top tip for 2007, Stuart Broad:


Despite the English batsmen having their by-now-traditional late-innings slump and losing the last 6 wickets for 48 runs in a below-par total of 225, Broad came on and took 3-20 in 9 overs, backed up with some decent stuff from Anderson (no, really; 2-23 off 8) and the Windies were all out for 146 in just 39.5 overs. Let's keep it up for the rest of the summer, Colly...

Friday 29 June 2007

Where's Your Head At

(I have to credit Alex for this so Alex, here is your credit. Thank you, Alex.)

Right, this might just be one of the most beautiful things in the world:


Heineken have teamed up with Krups to make the BeerTender, a sleek looking home beer tap with refillable kegs for your brew of choice (including Amstel). Not to be outdone, Philips have partnered with Inbev (home to Grolsch) and produced much the same thing in PerfectDraft. In the UK, we will have to be satisfied with the slightly inferior DraughtKeg which is to be released this summer. But anyone fancy a trip to Holland? I can see one of these in my soon-to-be shed.

Skál!!

Thursday 28 June 2007

Just Say No

No fridge, no phone, no washing machine, no dishwasher, no freezer, no internet, no lawnmower, no vaccuum, November*.

* with apologies to Art Of Noise

Saturday 23 June 2007

Thursday 21 June 2007

Smoother Ride

Going Underground tells of another new design for the Tube map, this time with curves, making it easier to follow whilst being more similar to the geographical map (without the scale issues that brings in the very middle and at the outer reaches):


I really like it - clean, easy-to-read and indicates better the actual direction you are heading. But is London ready for it - what do you think?

Wednesday 20 June 2007

Watch The Birdy

This is awesome (thanks, musiclikedirt). French outfit Birdy Nam Nam* were DMC World Team Battle Champions and last year released their self-titled debut album as well as a live CD, 'Stephane'. Anyway, not content with just your clever-fancy-tricksy scratching, they use the decks like an instrument. I'm really impressed:



* apparently their name was taken from that great Peter Sellers film, 'The Party'. So now you know...

Tuesday 19 June 2007

Bingo

House!

Yes, we have our new abode, hence the slight lack of recent posts.

Keys in hand, stuff in boxes, just waiting for the new beds/fridge/freezer/washingmachine/dishwasher/coffeetable/
composter/kettle/mop/shelving/wardrobes/sidetables/lamps/
bureaux/cuddlytoy/bendybully/dustybin* to arrive.

And I've got to do some grouting (rock 'n' roll!) - see you on the other side :)

* delete as applicabl.....actually, no, we need everything.

Wednesday 13 June 2007

Overheard #15

"That's because minus six is the number there aren't."
(So how many actually are there?)

Tuesday 12 June 2007

I May As Well Quit

You may have noticed that I am a fan of the 'pun' post title.
But this one made me laugh out loud. You win, rotorgoat:
Follow This Link

Saturday 9 June 2007

A (Fairly) Recent Conversation On IRC

[14:18] (fourstar) so i went to Lillywhites yesterday and i was truly saddened
[14:18] (fourstar) it's just a f*cking 'Sports World' in a wonderfully famous & historic London building
[14:18] (greatbiglizard) tbh, it's been pretty ropey the last couple of years
[14:19] (fourstar) yeah, i didn't know - it is clearly the fifth circle of hell, staffed by incontinent meandering baboons, stocking only ill-fitting highly-flammable nylon sportswear, available in size (a) big-boned b*stard offspring of Giant Haystacks or (b) amoeba
[14:20] (fourstar) and now the aforementioned baboons have walkie-talkies
[14:21] (fourstar) so they spend all their time shouting random shoe sizes at the stockroom, the occupants of which are plainly out of their minds on ridiculously strong skunk (or busy contemplating the physical influence of supercoiling DNA-modifying enzymes and calculating the chemical energy of nucleoside triphosphates required to unwind the DNA double helix into single strands)
[14:21] (fourstar) but i reckon the former...
[14:22] (fourstar) anyway, they only ever have anything in a size 6 or in pink/yellow stripes
[14:24] (fourstar) w*nkers

Thursday 7 June 2007

Fuzzy Felt Fries: Slight Return

Amazing what you can find to go with your cheeseburger, isn't it:


"French fries puppet features 4 wiggly fries with friendly faces perfect for story telling..."


Wednesday 6 June 2007

Go Fish

CatFishing is brilliant.
Guess the person/object/thing from the WikiPedia categories it is in.
But be warned - once you start...

(via Alex and MeFi)

UPDATE: Wikington Crescent is pretty distracting too