Volume 58
19 Dec 2004
Made mince pies today.
RIP Dick Heckstall-Smith
18 Dec 2004
17 Dec 2004
16 Dec 2004
Stillwater Players - you must view this site in Internet Explorer in order to appreciate its sheer awfulness, in Firefox the awfulness is not that apparent. I shall use this in my HCI classes!
Could this be the worst rap you have ever heard? I can't tell if this is a spoof or not - I'm guessing not but I hope I'm wrong
And the point of a Half Life History is? It's a game. You shoot things. You jump things. That's it.
A painting a day (via red ferret) - maybe I should start selling my postcard sized watercolours on the net!
More tea whisks - there are 120 different shapes it seems. Depends on the school. "During the 36 years that Mr Kubo has been an artisan he has been in a constant dialog with bamboo and knows his material so well that he can tell by the sound of trunks being split whether the worker is doing it right. Sure enough, when he calls out to one of his apprentices, "That didn't sound right!" they apologize and try again."
We were doing directions in my Japanese class yesterday (Massugu itte kudasai), and the teacher handed out a map for us to write some route descriptions about. It was a map of the West End of Edinburgh, and was centred on the street where I was born. The teacher also did a simple tea ceremony which was good, I think she comes from Nara and used a whisk similar to this one - a wonderful thing when seen up close. I hadn't held one before. She had her father's tea bowl - he was a government official in Nara and it had been presented to him, so I expect it was quite special, but you really can't tell with tea bowls!
Happy Birthday to ME!!!!
15 Dec 2004
Link is now timed out : it was to a description of a University course in Computer Games Development and Football Technology.....
Twin sisters have twins (via daily jive) - I particularly liked this quote : "Dr. Larry Matsumoto, a physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, said the chances of twin sisters being pregnant with twin boys due on the same date are probably one in a million." Some highpowered probabilistic analysis there!
Oh, it's the PC where Firefox won't work, not the Mac - I haven't put a new Mac version in recently
14 Dec 2004
I do like that Sharam Jey tune. Just been listening to it again.
I didn't know that self-raising flour was invented by a baker from Longhorsley.
An odd looking page for Euxton village, which also some very strange evangelical ramblings with tendency towards British Israelitism. If I lived in Euxton, I'd be hopping mad about this page. The message board is a hoot.
Broken Chairs - I'm interested in the "National Obesity Council" : is that for or against? (apropos of nothing and not related at all, one of the hornpipes I have written is called the Broken Chair)
Damn it, none of the recent Firefox versions will run on my machine. Can find no reason why either.
13 Dec 2004
12 Dec 2004
11 Dec 2004
Photosets - 70s rock band photos
Suburban Homeboy - the creator of the last thing
10 Dec 2004
Oh, and go up one on that last link and check out the peephole (there is some good stuff on other pages too)
9 Dec 2004
Death Waltz (probably only funny for musicians! And possibly only musicians familiar with Satie at that)
8 Dec 2004
I wondered what had happened to Bing Hitler, though top British comedian is stretching it somewhat!
Copper Moonshine Stills (via Daily Jive) - not listed for the stills per se 9though they are quite fun) but for the worst selection of cheesy MIDI ever - go down the different still types lisetd and listen to "appropriate" music. (To be fair, the version of Rocky Top is almost listenable)
Guangdong Animal By-products Import and Export Corporation - Stainless Steel Dustbins? Check out the jeans
Unusual Museums - this is probably an old one, but you can never have too many unusual museums.
7 Dec 2004
Just got back from what was the first live performance to an audience at the Sage in Gateshead. Celtic Feet were playing for a tuning session for the acoustic engineers. They were excellent and the hall is utterly superb - wonderful sound, spacious, comfortable and unobstructed views everywhere. Best hall I have ever been in. A must see (And McCoy Tyner is playing in March....)
6 Dec 2004
Answers In genesis "Upholding the authority of the bible from the very first verse" Stupid person alert!!!!
5 Dec 2004
Xmas would not be complete without one - I particularly like "brilliantly coloured by craftsmen skilled in mold making, glass blowing and hand painting" - do they mean brightly coloured, or that the colouring is done really well? And what has mold making got to do with colouring? Also special is "using a Renaissance-era technique" - a description that could be applied to many things when you think about it : peeling potatoes, digging, washing
4 Dec 2004
3 Dec 2004
2 Dec 2004
I was looking at my earliest post on Usenet (1983) and it's about Julian dates. Teh Google ad at the top of the page is trying to get me to go to the Julian hotel chain....
Rock on Rock (via snarky) - my mother and father have been doing this for years at the seaside. They build "rock gardens"
Deleted this item since it was a trojan for IE users. I would hope, though, that everyone reading this had made the switch to Firefox (or Opera or Safari or....) by now!
Centre Point in London of course - you don't get to Sydney that easily!
1 Dec 2004
Today I was on the 28th floor of Centre Point - fantastic view.
Lesbian Studies Institute "To track, synthesize and expose the secret, social and political corruption of America's powerful, government financed Lesbian Mafia" This is a snickers of a website : nutty and not very nice.
30 Nov 2004
Zen and the art of pumpkin bombing On an entirely unrelated point, I really hate the "Zen and the..." title. I bet most of the people who use it think only of "...art of motorcycle maintenance" - how many have heard of or read the original which in fact is usually "Zen in the art of archery" by Eugen Herrigel? 
(Or the companion "...art of flower arranging" by his wife (Gustie L. Herrigel)
29 Nov 2004
28 Nov 2004
27 Nov 2004
Damn these realistic games - I can only ride the jetboat in Half Life for a short time before I start to feel motion sick and I have to pack in.
26 Nov 2004
Crazy Monkey (via Snarky) I suppose this is only funny if you have watched skate/bmx/blade videos, but I have so that's OK
You could of course try looking for a brothel near Intercourse and see that it doesn't work as well as you might think.
Just arrived today - a fantastic rivets tin from the Judson L. Thomson Manufacturing Co. of Waltham, Mass. "MEND your own HARNESS with the Thomson Bifurcated Rivet. The ONLY rivet that can be SET and CLINCHED with a common hammer. Prongs clinch outward."
25 Nov 2004
24 Nov 2004
"threading the jack" was a googlewhack. When this gets picked up it won't be of course.
Fixed the text and url search buttons so as to be the same size. Been annoying me for weeks.
23 Nov 2004
22 Nov 2004
Jetpods - note the predicted date of 2006. I bet it slips and is always 2 years down the line.
"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that'" I don't even begin to comprehend how hunters think. *I Screwed up the link for this - it was about that hunting over the Internet website, not the firefight in the forest*