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Thursday Thirteen (V30)

1) Dedication this evening. Blogger ate my first TT. Here's a second one. It won't be the same because I can't remember what I wrote the first time.
2) Working from home today, because of the work to defective windows. An after effect of a window nearly falling out.
3) I expected it to be a noisy day, but the guys doing the work were able to remove and install things without crashes bangs and breaking glass. Impressive.
4) Spaghetti this evening, which I assembled from almost no content, yet it did taste good.
5) Pleased to see video of Richard Hammond walking to an ambulance today. The somewhat mad Top Gear presenter crashed a rocket car at 300mph a few days ago and it all looked very grim. he is reckoned to need six months to recover. I hope the kind of mad boys' toys programme like Top Gear finds a way to continue and wish Hammond well for his recovery.
6) Just seen the Lifestraw, a fat straw suitable for drinking brown surface water. Life changing for some parts of the world.
7) Someone told me about iStumbler which is a Mac utility to check out the wi-fi networks in the area. Useful for me because there are sometimes 5-6 networks detected from where I am sitting at the moment. I've just moved wildherons to Channel 6 which seems to be less congested. A sign of the times.
8 ) Julie has asked me to go to Brighton tomorrow to capture some more of Will Young's concert. I gather she has started a campaign to get a DVD from the concert and it seems that BMG want to do a deal to do with voting for Will Young in some pop poll. Hmm.
9) I gather that Mel, John and Christina will be in Brighton tomorrow. I suspect dancing in the aisles.
10) And Bill Clinton at the Labour Party conference, what was that about? He semed to be endorsing everyone.
11) is still my favorite number
12) The Labour conference seems to have a rule about not talking about the new leadership post Blair. However, the only journo question to everyone is about who will replace Tony? Seems to suck other pertinence from the conference.
13) At least Cherie's alleged anti Brown quip has been worth the mileage, but not as much fun as the Cherie Disco Blair game

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Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday

steamy windows

Today I've been pre-occupied with windows of the glazed kind as we have needed some work done after an accident caused a window to almost fall out. Instead of humming a super cool modern song, I've found the one that has been swirliing around in my mind today is "When I'm cleaning windows", by George Formby - yes he of ukelele fame. Here's a taste of the lyrics.

Now I go cleanin' windows to earn an honest bob
For a nosy parker it's an interestin' job

Now it's a job that just suits me
A window cleaner you would be
If you can see what I can see
When I'm cleanin' windows

Honeymoonin' couples too
You should see them bill 'n coo
You'd be surprised at things they do
When I'm cleanin' windows

In my profession I'll work hard
But I'll never stop
I'll climb this blinkin' ladder
Till I get right to the top

OTA: Wordless Wednesday

cathy, mustard, ale n'dogs, down to the quay

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

chipped dog

Today's hot story is of a breakdown patrol man who came to the rescue of a woman motorist and who managed to get her car started using her dog. Juliette Piesley had changed the battery in her electronic key fob but was then unable to start her car.

When AA patrolman Kevin Gorman arrived at the scene in Addlestone, Surrey, he found its immobiliser chip was missing. Ms Piesley said her dog George had eaten something. Kevin suspected it was the chip and put the dog in the front seat and then started the car with the key.

Mr Gorman said: "I was glad to get the car started for the member. They will now have to take George [the dog] with them in the car until things take their natural course. It is the first time that I have had to get a dog to help me to start a car."

I noticed that the missing key/broken transponder is now the second most common cause of breakdown on British roads, according to the AA.

this is for the devoted

Okay, at Julie's request I've glued all of my pieces of Will Young phone footage together in Final Cut Pro and uploaded them so that they can be viewed as a mini-movie. Theres about 15 minutes here, including a Joseph guitar excerpt and some dancers too. Julie informs me I should have only included the singing, but I think it gives more of an impression of the whole gig. Its quite a large file - which I have compressed heavily to save download time, but don't try this without broadband. Click the photo, or here (its a Quicktime Movie).

UPDATE: I've noticed quite a few people accessing this entry. Don't forget:

Brighton 29th
Brighton 30th (Christina's)
Newcastle clips

space invasion

I've noticed a few space invaders over the last few days. There was a craze around this in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and now there seem to be a few in the UK. They are another form of whimsical art and are mainly well made panels of mosaic around 30cm by 20cm and affixed to walls. If you look carefully at the photo I took a couple of days ago you will see one by the top left of the cafe signage.

Here's a better view.

Tag: space invaders, art, urban

geek my book

A few weeks ago I needed extra disk in a hurry and nearby PC World only sold USB2 disks - I usually use firewire. I bought a modestly priced 250Gb drive but suspected it may not be fast enough for video or music streaming, but would suffice for filing.

I was right, it couldn't keep up; so I used it for archiving. Then today, I plugged it into a different mac and heard the Windows 'hardware detected' bong noise. The mac didn't deign to notice the drive and sure enough it came up in a Windows Parallels session on the mac.

Thats when I noticed the drive is formatted for Windows in its lowest common denominator (FAT32) format. So I copied everything off, reformatted it as a Mac OS X extended file with journalling and now its many times as fast. So my trial 10Gb file copy took 10 minutes instead of 5 hours.

Tag: apple, mac, disk, geek

wind tunnel

Appled up? Got a mighty mouse? Wanna have a 3D scroll with the little grey button? Try this look inside a wind tunnel.
Tag: virtual reality, qtvr, mac

bad house

Sunday brunch with a touch of opulence at Malmaison. The slinky hotel is situated on the quay with a great view of the adjacent winking swingbridge. Just behind the hotel is an area of crazily angled streets, with cafes, bars and some huge pieces of civil engineering which cut through what ever would otherwise have stood. It reminds me of some parts of Manhattan with a different accent.

The cocktails before lunch were as opulent as the bar and although we started sitting in a sumptuous corner, sinking into the deep seats, we later moved to a prime window view to look at the dawdling Sunday world outside.

Later we drifted through a soft red curtain into the brasserie for a belated brunch.
Shopping plans dissipated as we drank wine then selecting the chef's recommandation du jour before late afternoon wanderings by the renovated quayside.

Tag: malmaison, newcastle, brunch, UK

will young arena tour

Julie had arranged for me to see Will Young with her this weekend during his Arena tour. I'm not supposed to say too much about the show here and those more devoted know where to look. Anyway, I managed to capture a short extract via my phone camera and Julie asked me to post it because it is one of his less well known songs.

OK, then I was asked to add this other rare song as well.

And this.

And a small piece from "Switch it On".

Tag: Will Young, arena, music, live gig

graceful Soprano?

Tonight we are having a Soprano marathon watching the first series in succession whilst eating pizza and drinking Chianti thats beyond reproach. Everybody assumes that just because you're in waste management you must be mobbed up. There's no such thing as the Mafia, Yeah look, I'll call you back from the motel. I think I saw an old friend, thats all. Bada Bing.

Meanwhile, here's something more graceful.

Tag: Sopranos, Jeff Buckley, video, music