Volume 50
31 Dec 2003
Fire display in the park in Gateshead tonight - good but bitterly, bitterly cold.
30 Dec 2003
29 Dec 2003
I still have no idea why the page is so slow to load at the moment.
Museum of Sex "Enter gently" I had never heard of MoSex until this morning when I was reading Anthony Lane's "Nobody's Perfect" 
which is one of the best books I have read for ages. It's a selection of his New Yorker pieces and they are ridiculously well written and funny and informative and intelligent and... grrrrrr.
Feiffer website - with some excellent cartoons online. I must be honest and say that I actually thought that he was dead - I haven't seen a Feiffer cartoon for years!
I've decided that weblogging needs its own set of pointless jargon words that are impenetrable to outsiders (I type worrieds instead of words there - come back brain!!) Hence the use of the term "scrambled" which is of course when you poach a link but actually use something that you get by mixing it up a little. Not sure about "scrambled" yet though - I quite like "stir fried" though of course that doesn't the wildly humourous punning aspect which is so all important. One could of course steal DJ terms like remix and sample but that seems too obvious and insufficiently in-group forming - an essential requirement I think you'll agree. I think I'm rambling.
Graphiosity I scrambled this from Snarky (an honourable exception to the Xmas slacker tendency amongst the weblogia). There are many stramge things here, including a houseplant that looks like Kurt Cobain.
28 Dec 2003
Listening to Sonny Boy Williamson II - I really have to find a blues band that needs a harp player.
Definite slacking in the weblog community. Get some new entries people!
Damned MSN Messenger - I've got kicked out the study because son kicked daughter off the downstairs machine so she wants the old machine in the study so I'm sitting on my bed with the laptop. I'll probably fall asleep. (Just ate homemade rapsberry ice cream in homemade brandy snap baskets)
27 Dec 2003
I bought a Bela Flek CD yesterday in the sales and when I got home it wasn't in the bag so I went back to the shop and they couldn't find any more copies even though their inventory said that they had some. Annoying. I got a Kanda Bongo Man CD instead.
Nobody seems to sell good steel guitar tone bars in the UK! There are people who claim to stock/import them but no shops seem to sell them.
26 Dec 2003
I didn't know that Gene Vincent died from chronic bleeding ulcers.
Lit the chimnea in the backyard last night so we were sitting round it - several people in T-shirts the weather was so mild - playing muisc till it started to rain about 1AM. Good fun.
Party still going in my house (though much reduced)
25 Dec 2003
Bah, humbug.
24 Dec 2003
Making brandysnap baskets - working surprisingly well for a first attempt.
23 Dec 2003
22 Dec 2003
*sigh* get home and come in to find house cold and central heating off - controller sitting there reading 11-11. Had a look and rushed to B&Q and bought a new one. Opened box, no instructions, but there was a small diagram inside so by comparing that with the old one (and keeping fingers crossed) I wired up the new one and it worked. Now we just have to wait for the house to warm up again.
I bought (from ebay) a book of photographs of Old Aylesbury on the offchance that there would be a picture of the rivets factory, and there is! Not a very exciting photograph I must admit, but interesting none the less. (OK, not interesting at all really)
21 Dec 2003
Voynich MS may be a hoax. Not quite sure why the fact the Kelley was a wife-swapper is relevant though.
I see there is a DVD of all Weird Al's videos. Don't seem to be able to buy it in the UK for some reason though, even from the usual Region 1 disc sources. Bummer - some of them are real gems.
I searched for Weird Al at play.com and it returned "Marianne Faithful sings Kurt Weill - Live in Montreal". I think may conclusively be described as surreal.
My kids are all having hysterics at "Which Backstreet boy is gay". Yankovich is very clever.
Made mince pies today - so rich that they practically fall apart if you breathe on them. Rather nice when crumbled into good quality vanilla ice cream. I was going make lebkuchen from a recipe someone just gave me, but you have to cure the dough in the fridge for 48 hours, and then leave them in a tin for two weeks before you can eat them. Next year...
20 Dec 2003
Surf Rage - a good starting point would be teaching people how to speak and write English properly!
19 Dec 2003
Just got a grand book of Willie Atkinson tunes, not a lot of them, but they're good.
Look at this page, and think carefully about whether you want to live in a world where any one of these gadgets is needed, let alone the four that are shown. (this stir fried from the <1Angus Index1)
(You'll have gathered that I have worked out how to get Windows iTunes to use my web proxy so that I have Radio streaming working now)
"Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 is a new program that streamlines the process of gathering, using, and sharing information through rich, dynamic business forms." Huh? I am particularly puzzled by the bit after "rich" what are "dynamic business forms"?
Burton Holmes, Extraordinary Traveler (I think that really ought to be "traveller extraordinary" - there is a world of difference between the two!)
Honoring the Trans-Siberian Railroad (That should of course be honouring and railway, but never mind)
Advent calendar (and that last long sequence of links was courtesy of Linda - I shall take the rest of the day off now)
Popcorn - personally I'm not a huge fan, I'll eat it, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.
Talking of Funk element No 1 - I caught the James Brown performance on TOTP II the other night. Fantastic.
Did I really just hear the DA announcing that Michael Jackson could have his passport back use the "word" representationalised? It certainly sounded like it.
18 Dec 2003
Hmm, I need a Dobro tutor
I have to pinch this fantastic origami site from the Jive (which has been running hot recently, and I'm not saying that because there are kind things said about this log there either)
Funny stuff country music, some of it is such trash and some of it is oh so fine - the only consistent thing seems to be that the musicians are almost always first class. I really wish I'd finished building that pedal steel guitar I started making when I was at school. (I also have half a harp, and a third of a set of Northumbrian pipes too)
I may have to stop reading Gizmodo - it is filling up with annoying advertisements (well, at least, annoying blank spaces that would have ads in them if my filter didn't block them)
linkmachinego just got some kind of weblog award from the Guardian : not sure quite why, it looks perfectly fine, if rather dull for my tastes, but nothing special. I must admit to finding the phenomenon of awards puzzling. Especially weblog awards - it's a bit like asking someone to pick the "best" from a piece of cheese, a removal van and a stick.
I'm seeing weirdness at this end. I have been fiddling with cacheing and so you may some weirdness too. *sigh*
17 Dec 2003
El Hombre que ComÃa Diccionarios - I really must learn Spanish so taht I can find out what this is about.
Loading this page seems awfully slow. I'm not aware of having changed anything though.
RIP John Cunningham (heart problems must run in the family as his brother had a heart attack a few years ago)
Just saw a handwritten notice about a band that features a "boron" player. I'm thinking of taking up the "beryllium" myself. Sounds like a nice medieval hand pumped organ or something.
16 Dec 2003
My profuse apologies for the fact that the pop up title over the comment balloon sometimes said "1 comments" - an egregious error that I have now fixed.
Great song on the radio : the drinking bone is connected to the party bone, the party bone is connected to the staying out all night long. And nice pedal steel guitar too.
Anyone else noticed that Bob Dylan has turned into Tom Jones? If you get the latest issue of Mojo magazine and look at the picture of Dylan, you'll see what I mean: I opened it and thought "Tom Jones is looking a bit rough" and then read the caption... (Don't have a link to an image at the moment)
Hmm, I do like digital radio (but you know that). I'm listening to country music at the moment - the show host has to come from Edinburgh - he has exactly the same whiny accent as me! I just wish the reception was better here - I think my roof must be lined with copper or something.
Stool fairy (No, not the three-legged kind. Stool taht is nto fairy. Whoever heard of three-legged fairies!)
The UK Information Commissioner "To view all of our site clearly you need Adobe Reader and Flash Player software" Sheesh! (But this is where you report EU spammers, assuming that you are in fact covered by the UK legislation)
It's my birthday (to quote 50 cent, though it is unlikely that you will find me in the club)
15 Dec 2003
14 Dec 2003
Mr WOng's Soup'Partments has closed for new tenants. I have on ein there somewhere, but I can't remember where!
Swiss, Swedish, Danish or Dutch? Most of the ones I have heard of are easy, but who are some of these people? (That probably means they are Swiss :-) )
Taiwan gourmet guide A pub called the Genghis Khan Restaurant? "I'm just popping down the Genghis for a swift half" I also wonder about the Flamingo Teppanyaki - is that as in the bird or as in Flaming O! when the chef screws about the at table cookery?
Ah, and if we go to the delightfully named www.tit.com.tw, you will find information about the aforementioned restaurant. And the Twin Peaks Teppanyaki too. I wonder if they serve cherry pie? Or have waiters called Bob?
George reports from Taipei of seeing a sign for the "Dublin Teppenyaki". Sashimi and colcannon perhaps?
Penises have higher bandwidth than cable modems. Is there therefore a market for cable modem patches/pills? Cornrnunicate like a pom star!!
I am only 44% an aging hypocrite (thanks Snarky) It's another of those annoying tests where the questions are really badly designed, and for half of them youw ant to say "Not applicable"
12 Dec 2003
Ordered me some of these - thanks snarky! Pity they're milk though Much better if they were dark and bitter - 70% would be about right.
The line at the new Apple store in Tokyo - Brits do queueing best, but I want one of those Apple logo T-shirts the staff have!
Check this out and notice the google ads that appear in the page (assuming you aren't stripping out ads....)
A case of curiosities (pinched from Snarky Malarkey, whose subversive crossstitich was on Grhama Norton on Wednesday night. Crossstitch is a very weird word, look at it closely)
11 Dec 2003
http://-_-browserbar.tk--__--@1cm.de/ - strange site, and URL play too. Seems to be selling something but it's so ugly I couldn't be bothered working it out.
I am re-sexed at the Guardian - kudos for fast response!
Ooooh, I just got spam from a UK address! Can I report them? (Since I am a spam expert now I ought to be able to answer that... I think they may have an open relay or a virus so probably not from the actual address sadly)
I just listened to the minister's response this morning. What a wonderful consultation : 400 responses. I bet they were all from spammers.
And just recorded some stuff for local Radio Newcastle. Spam is clearly hot (which reminds me of my great-aunt Elsie who used to serve mince with a slice of spam on top and a poached egg on top of that)
Strange Japanese Beckham site - click on Lady's or Men's : what's a TBC? I can pick out the odd word here and so little that I am now even more confused, and then click furthere and it becomes even stranger (What is Stage 5 on this page about???
Oh lord, Rik Waller's website - check out the bogus awards! A level 2 Diamond Web award! Click on the link, vote no for Rik, and then look at some of the other sites listed on the home page! Just awful. And the Official Celebrity Website! Check that one out too. Again you can apply, and it's "Official", and they sell the naffest statuettes! Maybe I should start calling this the "Official Bifurcated Rivets Site". Oh, I feel all light-headed now.
Just did the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2, so that will probably appear on the BBC website at some point also.
It's a BK Holiday - I'm not familiar with the context behind this. Is it an ad or something?
10 Dec 2003
The Radio 4 thing is on just after 7AM GMT tomorrow they tell me (world not having ended of course). If anyone hears it do tell me - I won't be listening: I have this terrible whiny Edinburgh accent. And of course they're running my points and then asking the Minister to respond and so I'll probably get torn apart and not be able to defend. Ah well, comes of being a media whore.
I was going to say something but mind went blank. Memory Lapse
Catch me on the "Today" programme on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow (well, assuming they run the item...)
9 Dec 2003
Aaagh, more XP MIDI Madness - Flower o'Scotland and the Jeely Piece song at the same time! There indeeed lies madness.
8 Dec 2003
Just as I finish marking the first lot of essays, the next lot starts coming in. *sigh*
That Korean MIDI I linked to the other day turns out to be Arirang which is an unofficial Korean National anthem. Which probably explains why it sounded familiar to me.
7 Dec 2003
My son just showed me a flier for "Bowran's Bar" - a new concept in Christain Entertainement. "We have the widest range of fine wines, beers and spirits all of which are alcohol free". Alcohol free spirits? Ah, must be the holy spirit!
I had a cooking day today :- spicy mushroom and lentil soup with lemon, pears in red wine, christmas pudding and gougère. Yum
6 Dec 2003
Just watched Office Space - it was good.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate"
5 Dec 2003
Listening to Aventura, for whom I can find no website. (I have an address but it doesn't work)
Possibility the worst MIDI background ever? I suppose this may be some traditional Korean tune rendered using an inappropriate scale but if it isn't then it is truely dreadful. (I say Korean, because I am guessing that this is a Korean cafe in Japan) In fact it may even be evil - try listening to it for a few minutes. (for those who don't read comments - this turns out to be a MIDI rendering problem and if you can get it right it sounds much better!)
Mind you I've never heard of the Gephardt guy who was the miserable failure site - a dangerous tactic. it would be a much better idea to call the site bushisamiserablefialure.com : the mud could stick in the wrong place. His name is hard to spell correctly too.
People keep telling me about the "Miserable Failure" thing - I suppsoe that is the definition of a meme, and now I'm doing it too.
Just what I've always wanted - a stained glass model of my children. Can you imagine what they would say if you put one of these as a window display (as they suggest) ? Might be good if you want them to move out though.
4 Dec 2003
Blogshares has died in case you were wondering.
Muzimei weblog has been shut down it seems, but looking for it I did find out about World Toilet day
3 Dec 2003
Blast, an iSight won't work on my iBook with iChat as it isn't powerful enough. How do I get a new iBook?
Popular Hawaiian Words and Phrases (doesn't appear to include - "Tourists go home" or "Can we have our culture back please?")
How would you take over the world - this has to be one of the crappiest online tests ever!!
2 Dec 2003
1 Dec 2003
Mmmmm, my son just got some chips at the pizza shop and they are good!