News Archives: December 2003

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

A Mixed Bag of Updates

New Year's Eve? Already? Where did the week go? Been too busy with family to update here, so here's a quick run through of things that might be of interest...

First off, hope everyone enjoys their Hogmanay. And hope everyone has a better 2004 than they had 2003. Especially if you really enjoyed 2003. Our plans for the drunken festival are still vague, but will probably involve visits to several other peoples houses, as well as some people visiting ours. I won't know till it happens.

Google is a funny old beast. Noticed (via my log files) that currently an "I feel lucky" search of UK web sites for "fair taxation" takes you to Online Opinion. Woohoo! I'm number one!

Online Opinion has two new columns, the last of this year. The promised review of the year, plus a short piece on the utterly loopy plan to put armed guards on British aircraft. Last rant of the year. Probably...

What do you do about late Christmas cards from people that you haven't sent a card to? Nice card from Nick Brooke & family, including one of those news sheets. (Despite Grumpy Old Men, I love these - nice way to keep in touch. Scrooges.) I guess we'll stick them on the list for next year. I would buy him a beer next time I see him, but I'll probably do that anyway.

Christmas presents were plentiful. No particular favourite, but the enormous stack of books will probably keep me entertained very nicely. The day itself was enjoyable - just Claire, me, and our parents, but good conversation, lots to eat and drink, and everyone seemed happy.

And to everyone I haven't been in touch with as promptly as I should, apologies. Too distracted by the holidays. Must spend part of the early year writing to everyone I've been neglecting.

Posted by graham @ 05:58 pm

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

The Company of the Day is Dyson (oh, and Merry Christmas!)

Last minute deliveries, and last minute cleaning and tidying, and we're finally ready for Christmas. Not sure that Claire's decision to paint the hall helped, but it certainly looks good now she's finished. Major joy of the day (sadly) was the arrival of our new vacuum. It's a Dyson, with special add on to take cat fur off furniture and stairs. Our previous cleaner had not so much died, more run into difficulties. It needed a new roller, drive belt, and filters. By the time we paid all that, a deposit on the Dyson was paid for. And the Dyson works wonderfully - cleaning far better than anything else we've come across, even if using all the tools does start to remind me of those old transformer toys - pull this, twist that, and stick this back on upside down...

The only real problem was the guarantee - register online at www.dyson.com! Or, as it turned out, not. Phoned customer services - quickly answered by a friendly woman (Tammy, I think she said her name was) who checked what was happening, and phoned me back to say, no they're updating the website, but I can register you over the phone. So she did. Very much what customer service should be - quick answer, friendly, and efficient. All in all, very pleasant surprise.

No Online Opinion column today. I've been too busy sorting the house. Expect a double length column next week, when I intend to do a review of the year kind of essay.

Tomorrow is, of course, Christmas. We're staying home, with various relatives coming to us. Hope all of you have a good day.

Posted by graham @ 10:59 pm

Sunday, December 21, 2003

If Computers Are Such A Pain, Why Do We Want Them So Much?

Yesterday was Mum's birthday. Claire and I bought and installed a new computer network for her, along with a bunch of software and got her broadband connection working. In some ways it was as much a present for Dad as Mum. He has grand intentions of using his shiny new Dell (Claire : "want!") to write a major postal history book. Doubtless he will. We spent some four hours getting the two computers set up, talking to each other, and to the outside world. Perhaps the time spent fighting with XP will have dampened Claire's desire for a new Dell of her own, but I doubt it.

The rest of yesterday was spent with my parents, sister and her kids. Chinese food was consumed in great quantities, though I was driving so missed out on the cheap wine and whiskey. Always nice to see family - we don't get over as often as I'd like.

Today, Claire has gone on a mad decorating trip. Our hall is now painted in a pleasant cream and purple colour scheme. Tasteful and modern, it makes the hall look larger and lighter, which is good. The cats are upset by the smell, though.

Posted by graham @ 11:20 pm

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

The Golden Rule of Role Playing

Just read this on the HeroQuest-rules yahoo group :

"The onus of creativity is, to my mind, square on the shoulders of the players, rather than the narrator. And is something I think is essential for all players to realize. You want cool stuff to happen? Then *YOU* make it happen, don't expect *ME* to come up with all the good ideas!"

- Roderick Robertson

Couldn't agree more.

Posted by graham @ 09:45 pm

Better Schools

I had vaguely planned to write two short columns for today's Online Opinion, but the first one (on Saddam Hussein's Capture) ended up longer than I had expected, so the second one hasn't happened. That column would have been in response to the reports in various papers today that grammer schools not only produce better results, but they add value better. By which apparently they mean students improve their position faster at selective schools than otherwise.

Short version of the article is : well, duh.

Slightly longer version : First off, opposition to grammer schools isn't about whether they do well by the kids lucky enough to get there. It's about those poor sods who are at age eleven doomed to a second class education. Secondly, of course kids do better at selective schools. They're there because they're likely to do better in the first place - that's what selection based on academic ability is supposed to achieve. They may also (and it's worth keeping in mind that not all selective schools show such improvements) be better equipped, able to retain better staff, and have better support from parents.

The fact that selective schools are better for the lucky few isn't the issue. No one is denying that. The question is - what happens to those who aren't lucky enough to get in? Should they get a worse education? Selection sounds great when you assume your kids will be amongst the lucky ones. But in reality, elitist schooling is a distraction from improving involvement and opportunity for all kids, not just those who are destined to succeed anyway.

Posted by graham @ 07:10 pm

Saturday, December 13, 2003

Late Night Rambling

A quiet night for me - Claire is at her work do, but partners are banned (so she tells me) so I'm just playing taxi driver. Drinking too much tea to stay awake as well, and currently listening to some vintage Tull. My God. The evening has been somewhat unproductive, but relatively pleasant. I did get a few hundred words written on my latest novel attempt, so not everything is lost. I've reached a point where words are flowing fairly freely. Only tiredness is preventing me writing more, and I should get some more written over the next few days.

Log analysis is always an inexact science. I was surprised by the number of visitors this site had received in the last few days. Even more surprised when I found that they all seem to be following links through from Goats.com. Then I realised that I was hosting the image for my avatar on this server, which is throwing everything out. I'll need to edit the scripts that do the analysis.

Still, it is nice to see that a Google for "Flying Swan" brings up Sacriston Barrow at number nine. Sits well next to our existing top ten placements for "Cricketers Wanted" and "commemorative darts". With apologies to the confused chap from Pakistan.

Posted by graham @ 01:34 am

Sunday, December 7, 2003

Clodhopping Saturdays

Hmm, apparently illness did stop me blogging after all. Between flu, work, and socialising, I've been neglecting this page recently. But I need to get back to this - largely for my own satisfaction, although I have had complaints about the lack of updates. (Hi, Ben!)

Yesterday, we had the third weekend session of the HeroQuest game. I reckon it went very well. Four seperate, but mainly related scenarios unfolded, primarily inspired by David Hall's secrets of the Grey Dogs from Tales 20. We started off with a marriage proposal for clan chief and Vingan warrior, Elnor, which she found impossible to refuse. Then, followed up with the devotion Heroquest for Odaylan hunter Ferran, based largely on David Gordon's initiation scenario in Tales 18. God bless the Tales crew. The personal stuff quickly dealt with, the afternoon was spent politicing with the Hillhaven clan, then in the evening we mounted an expedition into the marsh. If you've read the relevant article in Tales, you'll have a good idea why both of these happened. If not - and given that my players haven't discovered/figured out a lot of this - I won't spoil your fun.

Posted by graham @ 04:45 pm

Reliable Source?

One Lt Col al-Dabbagh claims to be the source of the 45 minute claim. In today's Telegraph he states that front line units were given RPG rounds which were weapons of mass destruction. These were to have been used on Hussein's personal order.

However, at this point this all gets confused. Although the shells were WMD, al-Dabbagh does not appear to know whether they were chemical or biological, let alone any details. RPG rounds are also a bit of a risky way of delivering such weapons - their range is short enough that their own units would be at risk. Worse, they were not used because "the Iraqi army decided not to fight", yet have not been found because they are in the hands of the Fedayeen.

So, the source of the 45 minute claim is someone who knows nothing about the supposed weapons, and whose explanation for their non-use is that Fedayeen loyal to Hussein were too nice to fire them at Americans. I'm convinced...

Posted by graham @ 03:40 pm

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