Archive for the ‘random’ Category

Iraq army

Monday, September 12th, 2005

There is a lot of talk in the media at the moment about when and how to withdraw US troops from Iraq. Here's a suggestion - the US army should gradually withdraw as the Iraqi army grows (in size and capability), and when the size of the Iraqi army reaches the size of the number of (US + Iraqi) soldiers currently in Iraq, there should be no US soldiers left. The US soldiers should train the Iraqi soldiers to take over the jobs that they are currently performing. They should give the weapons and equipment necessary to do these jobs.

Of course, the danger then is that this new super-duper Iraqi army might then be so big and powerful that (if they wanted to) Iraq could then turn around and invade the US.

Lens doctor - stay away!

Tuesday, September 6th, 2005

Normal service is now resumed (I was out of town for a few days and am still catching up with things).

A while ago I found that the lenses of my sunglasses had somehow become scratched. They were fairly expensive sunglasses so I decided to see if I could fix them using one of those glasses repair kits that you see on the infomercials. Well, just like the other infomerical-advertised item I have bought in the past (the "quick chop") it is completely useless. The solution solidifies alright, but rather than spreading out into a thin, smooth, uniform layer first (as claimed), it just solidifies in place like glue, leaving a smear on the lens which is far more annoying than the original scratch. How a product can be advertised to do a thing and so utterly fail to do that thing is a complete mystery to me. Avoid at all costs.

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter the lyrics competition.

Wedding-related

Saturday, August 27th, 2005

After weeks of alternating between procrastinating about wedding things and worrying that there isn't enough time to do all the wedding things I have to do, I finally set to it and took care of all the things that needed taking care of. There is still lots to do, but various wheels have been set in motion and for the first time in a very long time I find myself with nothing that I urgently have to do, and the possibility that this wedding might actually happen!

So now I can try to resuscitate my long-neglected blog. I thought I'd start off by linking to this, a fascinating new input device new input device that Steve Gibson (no relation to my fiancee) linked to on a newsgroup post a while back. The second movie is particularly cool-looking. I'm looking forward to the day I can throw away my mice!

Questionable Content

Saturday, July 16th, 2005

I've spent the last couple of days reading through the archives of Questionable Content after my friend Christopher linked to one of the strips. I do enjoy a good webcomic, and that is one of my new favourites.

This panel did make me wonder, though, if the author has been spying on Gennie and me:

Now I'm off to read the new Harry Potter book.

Rare topical post

Thursday, July 7th, 2005

It's kind of surreal listening to the BBC radio stream from 10 hours ago, when the first reports of "an incident" in the underground were coming in, and knowing how the story is going to unfold. The first reports mention stopped trains and power surges, and only faint rumours of an explosion - there is no panic about multiple bombs and terrorist attacks. Although I'm sure that the possibility was on a lot of peoples' minds, it's nice that the reporting is not of the "shock, horror" angle and is keeping calm until more information is available. I imagine BBC reporters must have to go through some training to avoid rushing on air and saying "Oh my God the sky is falling" and to break bad news calmly.

I can't imagine how horrible it must have been to be one of those trains when the bombs went off. It sounds selfish, but I really hope that never happens to me. I know it's unlikely (terrorist attack is a rather unusual cause of death) but one can't help but imagine themselves in that situation, especially when the situation is so close to home. While it is a terrible tragedy, it is lucky that more people weren't killed - those trains are really packed at that time of a weekday morning.

Work, skies and Doctor Who

Wednesday, June 8th, 2005

I kicked ass at work today. Not only did I make all the changes I said I was going to make to the performance regression prevention system analysis program but I even wrote a some beautiful documentation about it, complete with colours and screenshots. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the praise to pour in.

This week's Fark Farktography contest has some incredible sky pictures. I have to confess that I am slightly addicted to Fark. Not enough to want to post anything or to get a TotalFark account, thank goodness.

Miss Gennie and I just finished watching last month's Doctor Who two-parter ("The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances"). I have to say that that was one of the best pieces of TV sci-fi I have seen in a long time. It was brilliantly written, kept me guessing all the way through and was really quite creepy and scary in places. That show just keeps getting better and better. I can't believe we only have 3 episodes left to watch in the series.

Godlessness and a twitchy eye

Monday, June 6th, 2005

My right eyelid has been twitching uncontrollably for several days now. I understand this is often caused by stress but I don't feel too stressed out and I have been sleeping well. I was a bit stressed out for a couple of days last week so maybe it just takes time to de-twitch.

I very much enjoyed listening to last week's episode of "This American Life" - I highly recommend it. Especially the second act, which is a very funny and thought provoking piece of writing well read.

Photos and no cars

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

It's about time I started posting on this thing again.

Here's a picture of me from sometime around 1982-1983:


(the girl on the right is Alice, a childhood friend).

And here's one of Miss Gennie:


I was looking at a fascinating website the other day - carfree.com. It's all about city design, specifically how to design cities in such a way that cars are not necessary. The six lobe reference design is particularly interesting, as is the design library which contains pictures of lots of interesting elements of (mostly European) cities designed without cars in mind. While I appreciate the convenience of having a car, I think on the whole I would prefer to live somewhere where having one isn't necessary (especially if no-one else there had one either so that the problems of car noise, pollution and getting run over would be eliminated.) When I was living in Cambridge I never felt the need to have a car and always thought how much nicer it would be if more of the streets were pedestrianized.

Doodads

Saturday, December 18th, 2004

Strange doodads keep appearing in my bathroom.

The first one I noticed shortly after we moved in. It was on the counter just to the right of the sink in the main bathroom. It's a shiny metal bar, 2 or 3 inches long, with a hook at one end and what looks like a small flathead screwdriver on the other. I wondered around for a while with it in my hand trying to figure out where it had come from and what it was for. I was unenlightened, so put it in my junk tin and forgot about it.

Until today. Today, in exactly the same place in the main bathroom, on the counter just to the right of the sink, was another doodad, exactly the same as the previous one but dulled rather than shiny. For a moment I thought it was the previous one and that I had forgotten to put it in my junk tin but then I remembered putting it in the junk tin. I emptied the contents of said tin on the floor and rooted around until I found the first doodad. I now have two!

Gennie claims to know nothing about these. She says she found the second one on the floor of the main bathroom this morning and put it on the counter. I'm sure it wasn't on the floor before - I vacuumed the entire house the other day and I would have noticed it.

I am now convinced the universe (or the house) is playing a cosmic joke on me. Is this something that happens to homeowners like the proliferating walls I mentioned in a previous post? I am reminded of the bit about ratchet screwdrivers from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe, such as the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine, and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere. A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew ratchet screwdrivers as fruit. The life cycle of the ratchet screwdriver is quite interesting. Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can lie undisturbed for years. Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its outer skin that crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable little metal object with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a hole for a screw. This, when found, will get thrown away. No one knows what the screwdriver is supposed to gain from this. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is presumably working on it.

Any ideas where this came from or what it is for? Prizes for the funniest suggestion.

Radio over the wireless!

Saturday, December 18th, 2004

Right now I'm listening to a repeat (the BBC's "listen again" feature) of a repeat (BBC Radio 7's "Classic I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue") streamed via Real Audio over my house wireless network. Somehow it seems so very modern and also very old-fashioned to be able to listen to the radio in bed like this.