News Archives: May 2004

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

One Reason to Hide Behind the Sofa

So the new Doctor Who companion is to be played by Billie Piper. Is anyone else having Bonnie Langford flashbacks? I mean, casting a former annoying child star worked so well last time, didn't it? In general, I'm trying to be positive about the new series, but in general, unknown actresses have worked best as companions. Ah well, repeat "Russell knows what he's doing" three times, and move on.

On a more positive note, the Live Journal updates should now be automatic. Posts should appear on people's friends list within an hour of going live here.

Posted by graham @ 09:21 pm

Live Journal Again

Back when I was at university, everyone who got a mobile phone got one connected to the Orange network. In those days, calling another network was significantly more expensive than calling a phone on your own network. Which meant that once a critical mass of people used Orange, everyone else pretty much had to follow them.

This analogy is the only explanation I can come up with for the popularity of Live Journal. Their interface stinks, and their software is full of bugs. Like the one that means that none of my posts so far have been showing up in people's friends list. Compared to the ease and flexibility of Greymatter, Live Journal sucks. But everyone uses it, and too many people won't read friends' blogs unless they are on Live Journal. Thus are we all sucked in. (And, yes, my mobile phone is connected to Orange...)

Anyway, if this post shows up on people's friends list, I have found work rounds for all the problems, and you will henceforth be able to read a mirror of the real site on Live Journal.

Cos I love you all.

Posted by graham @ 07:04 pm

Monday, May 24, 2004

Bits and Pieces

First off, "hi" to anyone on Live Journal who is suddenly wondering where all these posts came from. I've got most of a system worked out to link live journal to my real journal. Just need to make the updates automatic now...

If growing bored quickly doesn't kill an online diary, declaring it safe is pretty likely to. I've always gone several days without posts, so the gap since the last post isn't as surprising or portentious as it might seem. I suppose I could post more, but I've never seen the point of filling up my blog with "what kind of donut are you" posts like some people do. Just isn't really me.

Quite a lot has happened, just not worth a whole entry. Lots of one line updates like : Cary's eye is better. Claire used the URL Nick provided to report an SMS spammer. Read his comment for details. We spent much of the weekend gardening - hedges got cut, two of our compost bins have been painted a subtle green (the third awaits the same treatment) and the lawn will be cut just as soon as our new mower arrives. The old mower died. Slowly, agonisingly, but finally, quite definitely. Saturday night was spent at the Auld Hoose, where I got too tipsy for the amount of IPA I drank. Must be out of the habit. Many fine people were there. Sunday, Nick (a different one) came round for lunch, and to discuss job-hunting.

Big news is that Claire has a journal online now, unfortunately on the dread Live Journal. Find it at http://www.livejournal.com/users/silverhippo/. In other news, I'm thinking about the future, and making many plans. My current career trajectory is not encouraging, so large steps need to be taken to change things for the better. Some changes are now in hand, others are being considered, but I'm only going to talk about them as plans become more definite.

And finally, we went for a walk today, in the nearby woods. Halfway round, we smelt, then saw, smoke. Quite a lot of smoke. Claire crept closer, to find a large area of pine needles, old leaves, and logs smouldering. The fire brigade were quicky summoned, and quickly arrived. When we left they were trying to get water into the midst of the woods to dampen the surrounding ground. These guys really can't be valued enough.

Posted by graham @ 09:40 pm

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

The One Hundredth

Cary's final visit to the vet has just ended. He's had one last injection, and we need to keep the eye drops up for another couple of days, but basically he's fine. Phew.

This is also post number one hundred. Which means that I've averaged about two posts a week over the last year. I guess this means someone could count posts and work out what percentage of my thoughts are taken up with various subjects. Not sure how much that really tells anyone though. It does feel like a milestone. Many journals die after a few posts. After nearly a year and this many posts, I haven't fallen into that trap, at least.

Posted by graham @ 09:57 am

Friday, May 14, 2004

Good Cat, Bad Server

Cary's been to the vet again today. His eye is much better, but he needs to go back on Tuesday for what will hopefully be a final injection and check up. We've also been told to start cutting back on the eye drops, so he can go outside again. I let him out when we got home from the vet, and by the time I returned from server kicking, he wanted back in. He's be in and out like a yoyo since. I think he's checking that the door opening system is working properly.

The server (as you may have noticed...) was playing up again. The worst of it was that I knew yesterday there was a problem, but ISP opening hours and personal commitments meant I couldn't do anything about it until this morning. This is really the last straw - I need a more reliable server in a more reliable place. Currently, I'm hoping we'll be able to move some time next month. We'll see. Moving servers is, however, likely to mean that some of the people I currently provide free stuff for will either need to pay, or find somewhere else. I'll contact them nearer the time to let them know what the options are.

Posted by graham @ 03:51 pm

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Back From Vet

Cary's eye is no better, so I've been to the vet with him this morning. There doesn't seem to be anything in his eye, but the infection isn't going away. So he's had two injections (one anti-biotics, one steroids) and needs to go back on Friday for more. We also need to keep up the eye drops, so he's still stuck inside.

One last note from the party, we got left with a couple of bits. Anyone wanting to lay claim to a jar of mustard or a rucksack, e-mail me.

Posted by graham @ 10:46 am

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Eye Drops, Blue Paint, and Far Too Much To Drink...

The last week has been hectic. Getting ready for the party (including gardening) took up most of our spare time. The weather wasn't kind to us - it started raining as people arrived - but a few brave souls insisted on cooking outside. The weather was the least of our problems.

Even cutting the grass proved difficult. Two weeks ago, the drive belt snapped. It took a week to get a replacement, by which time the grass was really a bit long. And it kept raining, so it was a bit wet. Unfortunately, it seems that the cut out (which stops the motor burning out) is getting too sensitive. So it wouldn't cut more than a few square metres before it finished. After three days of trying, I had to finish it off with the strimmer.

Saturday started with real disasters. Cary's eye had been bothering him on Friday night, but there was nothing obviously wrong. By the morning, the eyelid was starting to swell, so we dragged him to the vet. A small infection, so eye drops "at least twice a day, preferably five times". Oh dear. Cary hates it, so we've had to keep him in (otherwise he vanishes) so we're back to litter trays for the first time in years. The eye isn't clearing up quickly, so he'll probably need to go back to the vets in a day or two. Poor boy.

After that, we were trying to finish tidying the garden. I picked up some shears, the lopers on top slid off, and knocked a paint tin I hadn't notice off. Blue paint all over the shed. By the time we'd cleaned it up, blue paint all over me too.

Lots of scrubbing of hands, a quick shave and shower, and then people started to turn up. In the end we had about twenty people (I didn't count!) and I ended up drinking rather too much. Pretty much everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - apart from one guy who stormed off in a huff after trying to start an argument. Won't invite him again. Certainly no one left in a hurry, and the last people didn't crawl away until Sunday afternoon. I had a blast, although I did wake up with a slightly sore head and a very upset stomach.

Posted by graham @ 09:01 pm

Tuesday, May 4, 2004

The Hail Dance

Legend claims that one American native who visited Britain, wrote home with tales of the marvellous rain dance that the English performed. This consisted of twenty-two men in white clothes, and involved throwing a small red ball about, hitting it with lumps of willow, and much running back and forth. Cricket, he said, almost invariably summoned the rain gods, and his tribe should definitely try it.

After we'd recovered from Helen's party (fun, up too late) we spent the rest of Sunday working on a set of three new compost bins. I'd already pulled some old fence panels to pieces so we could recycle the wood, and we then nailed together a quite attractive and functional box with slats on the outside edges, and netting on the inside edges. Each bin is about an 80 cm cube - which doesn't sound a lot until you work out that they hold about 500 litres of compost each. One has been finished (slatted outer edge and front, netted inner edge and back. One has been finished, apart from netting on three sides. And one is largely not done.

Today, I picked up the remaining wood needed for the remaining slats. All I needed to do was cut the forty slats to length, then find time for Claire and I to finish the nailing. So I went outside, set up my workbench and got (significantly) my electric saw. I'd got all the wood marked and about a quarter cut, when the first drops of rain started. Within five minutes, it was hailing. In May. Beat that cricket.

All of which doesn't look great for the bbq on Saturday. Oh well, this would be the first wash out we've had, and we can always cook everything on our range cooker with cast iron griddles. Enough beer and no one will notice...

Posted by graham @ 06:55 pm

Critical Thinking

One skill we are worryingly lacking in is critical thinking. All too often we take facts at face value, leaving others to do our thinking for us. Today, many media outlets are reporting with shock that the Royal Mail loses 14.4 million letters a year. I've seen this mentioned with shock on chat boards. But is it really that bad? When you think that the Royal Mail actually delivers 82 million items a day, as a percentage, this is vanishingly small. Should we be shocked that it only has a success rate of 99.9%? Only if we aren't thinking critically for ourselves...

Posted by graham @ 05:30 pm

Saturday, May 1, 2004

Gardening and Bonfires

We've spent most of the day gardening - taming the side hedge, primarily. Which means that we now have a huge pile of twiggy garden rubbish, so next Saturday's party will feature a bonfire as well - if the weather is nice enough. Anything like today, and we're golden. So much sun that I'm now a nice lobster red, and we've had to but cream on the cats' ears. Always a task for which we feel appreciated by the spitting balls of claws.

One nice bit of gardening was the dunnock that appeared during one break to serenade us. Didn't quite compare with the peregrine falcon that flew past yesterday, though.

Posted by graham @ 05:46 pm

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