Selective Apathy...

The Dargon Keeper by Robin Hobb - A Book Review

2010-07-17T18:13:00.000+01:00

I am going to open this post with the usual - wow it's been a long time since I have reviewed a book. It's not that I have not been reading; I had finished The Girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson pretty quickly. I then got stuck into Harry Potter again, but in French. I must say I am a bit disappointed, half the things that make a book such as the use of language and the small jokes and play with words were missing.

Dragon Keeper is by one of my all time favourite authors - Robin Hobb whose Assassin and Liveship series completed my introduction to reading fantasy. I had bought the book when it first came out in 2009 and got a 1st Ed Hardback which was signed by the author (I try to get those when I can). Now a year later, after lending it to a friend who finished it pretty quickly, gave it good reviews and had gone on to buy the second book. I had to get stuck in it myself.

Unlike most of her works The Rain Wild Chronicles is only in two parts rather than being a trilogy although I'm sure fans would have welcomed one. Now how do I know it's only in two parts? I had a sneaky look at the end of the second book Dragon Haven which came out far too quickly after Dragon Keeper and whose title gives the impression of a finale.

Hobb's previous works can only be described as Epic, for me she is amongst the best fantasy writers. Thus The Dragon Keeper had a lot to live up to. The book has an intriguing prologue which has the desired effect of drawing you in immediately. This is however followed by an expected slow start. Hobb writes beautifully, her descriptions and the character development were on par as usual albeit a number of mistakes which was unexpected. But as usual I did find myself getting drawn in and finished the book quite quickly.

However I was a bit disappointed. Dragon Keeper had lost out on a lot of the twists and intrigue I was anticipating. I could also see why. After three trilogies relating to Hobb's "Realm of Elderlings", The Rain Wild Chronicles had the distinct feel of tying up loose ends which may appeal to core fans but any newcomer would miss out on the best of Hobb's flair. This is slightly redeemed by a whole new set of characters but these lacked the closeness of being the major protagonist such as Fitz in the Assassins series and Althea, Kennit and Wintrow in the Liveship series where each book concentrated on one main character while developing the others. For me that approach worked better.

Unlike the most recent of David Edding's works which caused me to stop reading books by him, I still cannot wait to read Hobb's next novel - Dragon Haven which would see a conclusion to Dragon Keeper. This is mainly because Dragon Keeper reads like the first half of a novel even at 560 pages.
I would still recommend the book but only half-heartedly, if possible start with the Assassins or Liveship series, they may have a slow start but by the time you finish them alongside the Tawny man series you will be a fan wanting more and the Rain Wild Chronicles will slot right in.

Trey Songz - Already Taken

2010-07-14T15:24:00.000+01:00

This was leaked a while ago but it took me a lot of listens before I really got into it.

Trey doesn't seem to be as big an R&B performer in the U.K as some of the other American artists. But I believe he does have a great core following here, tracks like "Can't help but wait" and the more recent "Neighbors know my name" have received decent airplay.

Already taken is from the Step Up 3D soundtrack in stores July 20th. The movie should be around in August.
I very rarely listen or post songs from film soundtracks but I did not realise at first Already Taken was from Step Up 3D, I had to watch the video to realise as it consisted of a lot of movie footage. Already taken is a polished track with great arrangement and catchy lyrics. I love the end third of the tune as the beats speed up slightly it really draws you in.
Have a listen and support.

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do by any means including recording, download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

Ben Lawers by way of Beinn Ghlas in Pictures

2010-06-24T17:38:00.000+01:00

Ben Lawers is one of the more popular Munros with ample parking at the start point.

An easy start gives way to a steeper ascent up to Beinn Ghlas.

The views over Loch Tay begin almost immediately. I must say already the pictures don't do the views justice.

Looking up to Bein Ghlas, I must admit that struggled with this one, not fit at all.

Is that a paved road on a Munro?

On top of Beinn Ghlas.

On the way to Ben Lawers.

Smiles at Ben Lawers summit.

The second cairn, Ben Lawers.

Really on top of Ben Lawers.

Coming back down.

This walk took us about four and a half hours. Thats with my constant stopping, Arun just ran to the top.
More spectacular views from our last walk - Loch Lee, Glen Esk will be up soon.

Untitled - Left Me

2010-06-16T18:05:00.001+01:00

"Untitled releases his second single Left Me featuring rising vocalist Kelsey via brand new community inspired label Behave Yourself."

Manilla PR, who had got in touch with me regarding a review of one of my favourite bands, Choong Family send me periodical emails about new artists and releases.

I must admit I usually ignore these. However I took a chance and clicked on their last one about Tottenham artist Untitled.
"As well as performing and recording as a solo artist, Untitled is also part of a music group called Behave Yourself. A community group heavily involved in the capital to promote their message of non violence in local communities."

Left Me is his second single of 2010, the guitar riff at the start of the song reminded me of The Calling's Wherever you Will Go, the production is very good and it was good to hear some guitar to this type of music.
The lyrics are what makes this song for me. Along with Kelsey's chorus and Untitled's rhyme, this song is not a masterpiece but well brought together and about something most everybody can relate to. Check the video out below:

There is a Store link on his website, buy and support.

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do by any means including recording, download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information

Glen Tilt Circuit

2010-06-04T18:40:00.001+01:00

Finally being home this summer means I can ...um... profit of the great Scottish Weather.
This means that I can actually do something which my friend Arun and I had been discussing last year - Hillwalking.
We started easy - the Glen Tilt Circuit near Blair Atholl.
This is a 9.25 mile mostly flat walk up the glen (for those not in the know a Glen is Scottish for Valley, and as it is a word specifically for Scottish valleys this means steep sided long valleys. However there is the option to cut the walk in half by turning back at Gilbert's Bridge. I will give links to the walk at the end of this post.
Parking is available for free at the Old Bridge of Tilt in a smallish car park very close to a track which could be used to set off. This place looked very familiar to me and rightly so as it had been the starting point of one of my Duke of Edinburgh Awards Expeditions. I was all set to go up the track which I could vaguely remember. However we were using Arun's AA 50 Walks in Scottish Highlands and Islands which pointed in a completely different direction. The book is very good but the maps in it were a bit lacking and we ended up following the directions slightly wrongly. So after a very false start we arrived at our proper second check point which was Blair Castle (I wish Arun would not take portrait pictures, might take my camera next time):

along with our second wee problem : you have to pay to enter the grounds at the usual extortionate castle rates. We confidently ignored the pay signs and walked on as we were not interested in the castle or its grounds and simply wanted past it to our next checkpoint at Old Blair. I was pretty confident we would have no problems as the Land Reform (Scotland) Act grants access to the countryside and the tiny road to Old Blair goes through the castle grounds. Unfortunately we did not get far as we were immediately approached by an official the moment we passed the entrance point.
Having explained our intentions and looking the part of hill walkers with my OS map and other gear we were allowed through without paying. My advise here to anybody considering this walk is to use the track at the Old Bridge of Tilt Car Park and avoid the castle and Old Blair. We did however get a nice wee walk through the castle grounds.

Old Blair is tiny but the steep road we had to climb immediately after it was not. However we made good time and now that we had got started properly I was beginning to enjoy myself. Having left the road after Old Blair we followed a pleasant track through Blairuachdar Wood which is a managed wood:

Immediately after the first part of the wood there is a Rifle Range which was in use as denoted by the vivid red flag. The warning sign indicates that it is dangerous to travel through the range when it is in use but the track through the range is only closed when long range ammunitions is being used. We were therefore able to walk through without any trouble.

In fact the track is far enough from the rifle range for the danger to be minimal, there were plenty of signs to keep us right:

The views from the glen are not the best but great enough:

Notice the jacket and the hat and my half open bag. There was a chill wind and several rain showers that morning and the zip gave way on my bag, glad to see Arun did not warn me about my open bad after he'd taken that picture. I lost an apple due to that :(

Shortly after the rifle range we reach Gilbert's Bridge where you have the option to turn back or go through the diamond shaped gate and continue the walk:

The walk is quite clearly marked where it matters but I could not go walking in the highlands without my map and compass.
Further along there is a sort of viewpoint which you can climb up to, this is also well marked with some building remains.

There is a collapsed section on the way up and if raining the path could be quite slippery as confirmed by a dead dear we say near the river bank which looked like it had slipped while running from something.
As you can see by the pictures the weather was not great going up the glen but this cleared up coming back down from Marble Lodge. We did rush back a bit and there are no pictures of the return leg apart from sheep and who want to see those (I personally think they have an evil look about them).

We used the AA book as a guide but I would recommend http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/
The Glen Tilt Walk can be found here.
I like this site because it has printable maps, clear guides and even pictures.
More walks and pictures will be forthcoming, we have already done Bealach na Searmoin and Killicrankie, Pitlochry from which we unfortunately have no pictures and Aberfeldy & Kenmore hill circuit which included the Birks of Aberfeldy which is really picturesque.

Music: B.o.B ft Hayley Williams - Airplanes

2010-04-27T20:09:00.040+01:00

This one's for Steve and Fi. (I remembered you guys liked Paramore).Been a while since I posted some music but then again there hasn't been anything that's really caught my ear. This tune by B.o.B is one of the few. Young guy with great style and delivery reminding me of much more accomplished rappers, combine with that really catchy chorus from Hayley, Airplanes is a winning combo.

Airplanes [Feat. Hayley Williams Of Paramore] (Explicit Album Version)
If you're in GReader you may have to click through to the post to have a listen, Google's Reader Player wasn't working on embed. Don't know if this will be fixed or it has been removed, I'm instead using a hosted version of the same player but it does not seem to work in GReader. I guessed it had to be hosted on Google servers to work with reader, but hosting it on Google sites did not do the trick. Any tips on a player which would work in GReader would be appreciated.

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do by any means including recording, download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

An addict in the womb?

2010-04-23T14:11:00.001+01:00

Wow, it's been two months since my last post, but I have not disappeared, just the usual excuses - uni, work and life but mostly because I've been lazy.

original image from jasonnardi.com

I had wanted to write this post ever since I was called into work early about 6 weeks ago.
I work in a hospital kitchen and I use an entrance which is just along from the maternity block and the all new midwifery unit. This entrance is right by a smoking shelter. I think you can see where I am going with this.
I witnessed one heavily pregnant woman in her hospital gown, who would probably deliver that same day, outside puffing away.

The hospital "prides" itself on being a non-smoking site - no smoking on premises or even the grounds. They even had big signs put up proclaiming this and the moment you proceed towards the main entrance you are assaulted with a monotone, poorly spoken audio broadcast reminding you smoking is not permitted. Yet we have smoking shelters purportedly for outpatients - those who are only visiting the hospital for the day. Hmm. Although I think that having realised the irony, the signs are gone now.

Anyway I walk past this woman, openly staring at the cigarette in her mouth and was given a pretty snide evil stare back, but that was to be expected. At work I got talking about this to one of my full time workmates who showed no surprise and informed me that this was a regular occurrence. "And the hospital does nothing about this?" was my response. A shrug was all the reply I got. At home I asked my mum about this (she's a nurse in the baby unit). She also shrugged - "there's nothing we can do to stop them, we can give advice but they don't have to take it, we even have soon to be mums going out for a fix of a different kind, theres nothing we can do. This city's a bit like that."

I don't try to hide who I am or where I live on this blog so you know where I am, but I had thought the city was getting it's act together, but maybe not quite yet. One of the things I did find was an article in the staff magazine (March 2010):

The article highlights initiatives launched to help pregnant women quit smoking consisting of promoting the scheme, giving advice and a support group.
I for one do not think its enough, surely there is more that can be done, maybe even a legal injunction. Sure that may be against said pregnant woman's human rights but how about the rights of her child? Your thoughts please.

On the other hand Spring is here and here is an appropriate picture:

I always mean to take a picture of that sign in Spring because of the daffodils and the Marie Curie Cancer Care Logo which also features them, and the name - Field of Hope is at least inspiring. Sorry about the quality, was taken on my phone.

Jam Session 2.0 - A Virtual Jam Session

2010-02-02T19:35:00.002Z

I first heard this over on Lifehacker but could not resist posting it here.
I was completely blown away when I heard Jam Session 2.0 with these very talented artists:

Emcee: Dumbfoundead
www.youtube.com/dumbfoundead www.twitter.com/dumbfoundead

Singer: Esna Yoon www.youtube.com/esnathesinger

Emcee: Herbal T (Portugese/Spanish/English)
www.youtube.com/waxandherbalt www.twitter.com/herbaltisgreat

MPC (Drum Machine): CAV3
www.myspace.com/CAV3MUSIC www.twitter.com/CAV3

Guitar: Tio
www.myspace.com/tioproductions twitter.com/tiomusic

Scratches: DJ Zo
twitter.com/zomanno www.myspace.com/zomanno

Piano: Lukas (YoungPianoTV)
www.youtube.com/YoungPianoTV twitter.com/ThisIzLukas

Bass: Chris Hong www.myspace.com/hangukhellking

I love the combination of Piano and Guitar most but the whole thing works so well.
What is even more amazing is "8 people with 5 instruments from 4 Continents speaking 3 languages for 1 song.Brian at CAIN MOSNI thought of a cool concept and coordinated a virtual "jam session" with musicians from all over the world!"

From this I understand they were jamming together in their separate abodes virtually or online, that is this was created "live" and not merged and edited.

The song can be downloaded for free from Dumfoundead's website, which I have already done.

Personal Mini Update
As usual I'm apologizing for not blogging. I had started several posts including one on Women smoking on NHS premises while in NHS care, which I did not complete and then lost track of. Uni's started again, pretty intense this term. I am also getting a motorbike, one of my dreams, been wanting one since I could legally ride one (that was 6 years ago). Motorcycling is a different culture here than in Mauritius. Here your friends see it as way cool or totally dangerous and try to talk you out of it. So it wasn't surprising my friends did not actually believe I was getting a bike after all these years. Anyway I should soon be taking the delivery of a silver Yamaha YBR 125. Yes only a 125 which I am going to ride on a provisional license until I do my test in the summer (I'm doing my Compulsory Basic Training tomorrow). Very excited... and in big debt, but worth it.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer - A Review by a guy

2010-01-07T17:57:00.000Z

I was actually going to write about responses to sneezes over the world and their meanings. I had even started my research at work asking everybody what responses they knew about or had in their country of origin. This was just curiosity and I was very intrigued at how the responses differed. However their is already a fairly large list over on Wikipedia. The majority of responses involve wishes for good health or invoking God in accordance to one's religion. I did manage to find some additional responses; in Poland Na zdrowko is used instead of Na zdrowie for smaller children although the meaning ([to your] "Health" remains the same. Certain Indians would say "Jai" meaning "Victory" and Sikhs would say "Waheguru" to refer to God.

Instead I am doing a quick review of New Moon. I read New moon pretty quickly after Twilight. It had a faster pace and was an easier read. The continuation was appropriate but New Moon seemed a bit rushed, it was a fairly wide swing and change in circumstances in the story were brought on very quickly. It was easier to identify with the main character Bella in New Moon and this meant I could enjoy the story a bit more. While the first half of the book did again concentrate on Bella's feelings etc, the resultant plot gave New Moon more of an appeal for me.

I had recently read Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Great Book but with a cramped and rushed ending, did not find the time to review) which mentioned Twilight in comparison. This was not justified for me but New Moon did appease that opinion with its faster pace and more fantasy-esque plots. And yes I am currently reading Eclipse, I'm going to see the Saga through and then hopefully get stuck into Robin Hobb's new book The Dragon Keeper which I had been putting off till the holidays to enjoy it better.

Selective Apathy's Song of the Year 2009

2009-12-31T14:25:00.000Z

It has now been a year since I started blogging regularly, if you can call once a week regular. You may have noticed I post a lot of music up. This is mostly songs I really like, usually RnB and often just never seem to hit the mainstream. I thought I'd post my favourites from 2009 and name a Song of the Year.

First runner up is Utada with Apple and Cinnamon:

One of the world's biggest selling artist and widely acclaimed, people say you are not a true music aficionado if you don't have something by her. This was the first song I had heard by her and loved it so much I had to buy the album which was worth it.

Second runner up is Maxwell's Pretty Wings:

Although this song was posted as a quick post because it is quite popular in the UK and most people have heard of it, I absolutely love this song. I can't help singing along to it whenever it is on the radio or on the MP3 player. The lyrics are amazing making it one of the best breakup songs I have ever heard.

But the undoubted winner this year for me is Young Nate's I wonder, this one gets the video treatment:

Although the EP wasn't great and I Wonder did not do as well I was expecting, this song is still the best of the year for me. I love the lyrics and Young Nate really puts some emotion into it.

PS I am still using the Google Reader Player for the songs. A couple of people have said this was not working for them, can you please get back to me if there is any problems with the songs in this post.

And on a final note:

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do by any means including recording, download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

Twilight - the novel by Stephenie Meyer - A review by a Guy

2009-12-29T14:40:00.000Z

I guess I should not really emphasize the fact that I am male and have read a book which has a massive following amongst teenage girls - but I really liked it. I had to read about half of it before I got drawn in though. Twilight has a very slow start, the author spent too much time in character and scene development which was not necessary at all as I came away with Forks (the setting) as being dull.

The main character - Bella, is another story. The book is about her, everything centers around her but why? She is portrayed as clumsy with low self esteem and and does not think of herself as beautiful. However from the moment she steps in Forks, all the guys at her school are after her, the vampire is after her...and falls in love with her. Ok this is explained further along and I can understand. But Bella's perception of herself does not change and So my next point is why is there legions of girls, young women and even older women who have read the book and in turn fall in love with Edward (the vampire)?

This portrayal of Bella was what interested me the most. While Fi (who lent me the book in the first place) profeses her love for Edward, I really think he has a secondary role overall. It was great to see this contrast. I have not spoken to any single girl who would say anything about Bella, it is always Edward, Edward, Edward. In turn I don't really know any guys who have read this book so I can't tell what other guys might think of Twilight. Notice I am approaching Twilight a bit differently. I wanted to read the book to see for myself what was so appealing about it. It is not a particularly well written book although there are alot of places where I can see the author has tried very hard to give her best. That has worked for the most part; I can definetely see the appeal Twilight would have at the audience it is aimed at. If I put myself in that same mindset, I will admit I really liked it, but only after Meyer actually moved on to an actual story and not scene setting. However by the end of the book I could identify with Twilight's appeal without any problems and strangely without any guilt (its not really in the male stereotype ;).

Ok,ok the book had a slow start but I liked it. I liked it enough that I finished the next book, New Moon within two days, which I liked even more that I've bought the whole set. And no as a guy I am not ashamed to admit this. I'll have a review of New Moon up soon.

Avatar in IMAX 3D - A review

2009-12-29T00:04:00.003Z

I went to see the Avatar last Tuesday (22nd Dec) in IMAX 3D. This meant driving through to Glasgow, as the Science Centre there is the only IMAX theater in Scotland. That was on the day of a severe weather warning for Glasgow and Central Scotland so I was prepared with my shovel in the back of the car :). However I forgot about the Glasgow traffic. Having left early and reached Glasgow two hours before the movie, it took us a whole hour to move one mile towards the movie theater. In the end I had do ditch the car (in a private car park, hoping I wouldn't get clamped or towed) and we half ran the two miles of traffic jams to the Science Centre making it just in time for the movie but way too late to get good seats - all the shows at the IMAX have been selling out.

Anyway onto the actual review. First a short plot summary - No Spoilers: "The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional inhabited Earth-like moon in a distant planetary system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi — the sapient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon — resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives."
As you may know I don't really watch many movies so I can't really compare Avatar with other storylines although I have heard it being compared to Dances with Wolves, Delgo and another animation Something Blood Something Terror (I can't remember the name, I'll update this as soon as I ask Ray J at work about it for the umpteenth time). I thought the story line was classic. Nothing spectacular but simply easy to get along with with no major twists and turns to give you headaches. The Avatar concept itself was portrayed fairly well in an original manner. The storyline did work in my opinion. It was predictable and cheesy but that was what made it work. It also helped me identify with alien characters very well as thus meant that I was drawn in but this may not be the case for everybody and most people would most likely be disappointed with the story overall. But it was good enough to make this long movie (nearly three hours) flow by.

For me Avatar had traits similar to a Documentary. Something I struggle to describe but that was the feeling I had.

However this movie is all about the special effects and CGI, hence the reason we went to see it in IMAX. This was very impressive, visually this movie beats everything else in my albeit limited repertoire of movies. We had pretty poor seats at the IMAX and that ruined it a bit in my opinion, for this movie you want to sit right in the middle of the theater to get the best of the image onslaught. Again I'm no expert but I do remember many movies where the special effects and CGI were not convincing enough. Avatar managed to blend in the CGI, effects and characters flawlessly, the integration of human characters on a CGI world was very very good. The soundtrack was a bit of a let down though, I did not feel the rush or excitement a good soundtrack should have brought to a film like Avatar.

Things I did not particularly like were Sam Worthington's, accent. An Australian actor speaking with an American accent was very grating to my ears. This wasn't helped as it was a stark contrast to others making his voice stand out out even more and even more so as he tried to interact with the Na'vi with whom he was supposed to blend in with. Also the female lead played by Zoë Saldaña also started out with an African accent (in my opinion) then switched to a more general one then back again (although the African accent seemed to occur only when she was angry or tense). Apart from our poor seats this was somehow what stuck in my mind hehe.

I loved Avatar and may even go see it again which is unusual for me. Also a definite buy on Blu-ray when it comes out. I would higly recommend it so go see it but make sure you get good seats.

Music - Elliott Yamin - Can't Make You Love Me

2009-12-09T14:49:00.001Z

Not been posting lately as I'm right in the middle of my exams.
This song was leaked a few days ago.
I had not really heard of Elliott Yamin but after hearing this song I had to find out more.
He is an American singer who was placed third on the fifth season of American Idol. He went on to release two albums, his latest "Fight for Love", was released on May 5, 2009.
Would you believe the song featured here did not even make the album or bonus tracks.
So I had to have a listen to his other material but Can't Make You Love Me is still one of the best in my opinion. It is has a more contemporary RnB bordering on POP feel. Nice and catchy. Have a listen below and let me know what you think. Find him on MySpace.

PS I am using Google's flash player as it will show up in Google reader and hosting is hosted elsewhere so might be slow to load.

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do by any means including recording, download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

The Book with no Name by Anonymous - A review.

2009-11-23T23:13:00.000Z

I was lent The Book with no Name during the summer by Robvin (that's Robyn & Calvin or should that be Calbyn? well the latter just sounds horrendous and we know who "wears the trousers in that relationship", yeah that's right both of them). Note to self, you did not cover that up well enough.

Published by an anonymous author under the pseudonym of The Bourbon Kid, The Book with no Name is in a completely different class. It has no genre, you get everything from horror, fantasy, murder, mystery and thriller.

As I said I was given the book last summer but ended up finishing it over two days, it is one of the best page turners I have read, the author has managed masterfully to keep the reader guessing to the very end.

My one major criticism is that the book reads too much like a bad movie plot. I don't really watch a lot of movies but I could definitely pick out the movie feel to it and the various movie references. Many have speculated that the book with no name was written with the specific intention of being a movie plot. My friend Calvin believes the author is none other than Quentin Tarantino on accounts of the book's bloodiness.

The Book with no Name is probably the best book I have read this year, definitely recommended. In fact I have already bought myself a copy and also it's sequel - The Eye of the Moon, which I admit I have already finished, they are that good. As Robyn puts it "its not the best piece of literature, but you cannot put it down".

Maxwell - Pretty Wings. A song for the ladies only?

2009-11-17T23:16:00.000Z

I was in the middle of writing a book review post but I thought I'd get this out of the way first. It is a bit unusual for me to feature such a popular song, but there is a question behind this:

Is Maxwell's Pretty Wings a song only for the ladies?

I was listening to Choice FM the other day and this was one of the topics. A lot of ladies were in touch with the DJs professing loudly that they were surprised that their male boyfriend/partner/husband actually like this song and sing along to it etc. They were openly laughing at men who liked the song.

I for one love it. Great lyrics, beautiful tone and tune. Have another listen here and tell me why are the ladies surprised that us guys like this? Why should we not like it? Comments please.

Note embedding of the official video has been disabled by YouTube.

Halloween Pictures, finally…

2009-11-10T00:20:00.001Z

Halloween is one of the highlights of my year and not just because my birthday is only a couple of days before. Halloween has become a sort of traditional celebration with my High school friends. We may miss birthdays, the odd new year celebration but at Halloween, we are always together to PARTY! This has been true for at least the last six years and I was even lucky to get a hand baked birthday cake even if Derek and Nicky (I mean Nick) had to spend all day getting it right. And yes we of course always have a guise.

This year I had my costume ready two weeks early which was one up from last year when I scrambled to get something together on Halloween morning. I had planned this out, I had a Rasta dreadlock wig, a big spliff, a cannabis leaf necklace and a psychedelic t-shirt, I was set. The weekend before Halloween we has a bit of a night out together where I found out Derek and Calvin were dressing up as characters from Star Trek, namely Captain Picard and Commander Riker. Now I did not know anything about Star Trek until I was given some Star Trek DVDs about a month ago by Arun who is a big Trekie so I could understand who these characters were.

That Tuesday I had an inspiration. Costume change, enter Geordi La Forge. This was kept a secret apart from my accomplice Robyn who helped with sourcing the costume. Kudos to her as she managed to keep all this secret from Calvin and Derek (boyfriend and constant house guest respectively). All this only a few days before Halloween cost a bit, mostly in postage but it was definitely worth it. Entering Derek’s house for the pre party I was greeted with a roar and a massive bear hug. They weren’t expecting it at all. Then followed a pretty cool night at the student’s union, pictures below courtesy of Calvin and Robyn and DUSA (click for original sizes). Unfortunately I cannot manage to do a Vulcan salute at all.

A review but probably not the one you were expecting…

2009-11-04T23:23:00.001Z

I guess I should really be reviewing the Chipmunk/Ironik concert I was planning to go to a couple of weeks ago or even the football match I was going to see the next day up in Aberdeen.

The concert got postponed and the lineup completely changed apart from Chipmunk. Got an automated phone call two days before. Not impressed.

The car broke down on the way to Aberdeen. In the usual Scottish rain.

So not a good weekend, but onto my review:

Michael Jackson’s This is It

I went to see it last night at the cinemas.

Michael was undoubtedly a musical genius. If you are a fan, or maybe you just like some of his songs or just one, you will enjoy this. I started tapping my feet and nodding away from the very beginning. It’s a shame there’s not much space in the aisles or I would have been dancing ;).

The movie is simply a collection of footage from his rehearsals for the concerts which were to be held at The O2 arena in London.However they give you an entertaining insight into what an amazing show the concert would have been.

Appropriately starting with footage of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", the movie quickly moves on to greats such as “Bad” and “Billie Jean”. What did not come soon enough for me was “Thriller”. Shot with new 3-D footage which I wasn’t too keen upon, it was still one of the highlights.

Finishing off with some of Michael’s best work: "Black Or White", "Earth Song", "Billie Jean" and "Man In The Mirror", This is It was highly entertaining and well put together.

There was a definite final message at the end with regards to saving the planet and climate change, continuing the “Earth Song” theme. In a way that was not an ending I was expecting. While it is a good message. What I liked most about the movie was that it was celebrating Michael’s genius with the most appropriate tool – his music. There were no sad moments, no references to his death, not even an RIP which was very appropriate. While this ending message was good, I think I was expecting a more uplifting, buoyant quote from Michael or even just a HeeeHee.

Many have called Michael Jackson’s This is it a documentary but for me it fits more as something which would be a bonus feature on say, what would have been the concert’s DVD. That is not to say that as such it would be relegated to a “never actually get round to watch it” position. This is It is definitely worth a watch.

Dayo Olatunji aka Ms D.

2009-10-13T21:07:00.001+01:00

Who? That’s what I wanted to know too.

Dayo is the vocalist who sings the chorus on Chipmunk’s Oppsy Daisy. I fell in love with her voice when I heard it and my first thought was that surely she must have some of her own material or if not she should. Have a listen below, to her and Chipmunk on the BBC’s Live Lounge. Dayo definitely steals the show with her amazing vocals while Chipmunk sounds like he has a head cold. As one commenter points out : “the song should at least say chipmunk feat. Dayo cos the song would be shit without her “

I completely agree. Going by the stage name Ms D, she has a couple of songs on MySpace. I quite like Diamond which is co-written by her. While these songs they are not amazing, I think she has great potential with that beautiful voice.

RWD have a nice little interview with Dayo, if like me you would like to find out a bit more about her.

Music: McLean - Broken

2009-10-07T22:21:00.001+01:00

Ah YouTube. What a move by Google. What a source of great stuff.

I was installing Linux on my mate Arun’s laptop as he expressed an interest in trying it out. After install, one of the tests I performed was flash video playback in Firefox. The logical choice of course to test this is YouTube. So clicking the first video that caught my eye brought me this:

McLean then going by the name Digga self released this track in 2007. It had millions of YouTube watches but I had never heard this poignant song until this week. The song is very soulful slow jam RnB which I love. The lyrics are sad its true but anybody who has ever had a relationship which broke will find something here. Its the kind of song I would listen to right after a breakup when I would be sad…before moving on to the uplifting songs :). Vocally Mclean has a much sharper voice than you may expect from an Soul/RnB singer and I am not sure it suits this song but in counterpoint to the soft chorus it works very well and draws you into the song more.

You may notice I am only posting the video straight from YouTube here and not the actual song as would be normal for Selective Apathy. This is because I love the video. It complements the song so well and is very professional. Having never heard of Mclean before, watching the video led me to think he was an American signed to a big label with cash to spend on a great director for this video. It reminds me of the great slow jam videos from the states. And the girl in the video is hot; always a bonus.

In fact Mclean is a U.K artist: “McLean, son of Lovers Rock legend John McLean. The Londoner's family music pedigree is indeed indicative of his own talent – McLean’s graceful velvety voice has melted hearts ever since he sang to girls in the primary school playground.” Find him on MySpace.

Broken is out on 26th October, 2009 on Asylum / Atlantic Records and a debut album will hopefully follow with great promising tracks such as “The Great Escape” and “My Name”, a definite buy for me when it lands.

On a closing note, I am actually going to see him live! Yeah after browsing his MySpace I realized he was playing at the ABC O2 in Glasgow on the 23rd October as part of the Brrrap Pack tour. It’s a bit unusual for hot UK artists (London) to come up to Scotland and so I had not heard of this one. Headlining are Chipmunk and Ironik. Given Chipmunk’s recent success with Oopsy Daisy, I expected this show to be a sell out and expensive. The ABC is a small venue ~1200 and tickets were only £11 each!

Definitely looking forward to this.

Book Review - Rides A Dread Legion by Raymond E Feist

2009-09-30T14:03:00.003+01:00

Raymond E Feist was my introduction to the fantasy genre. I was given Krondor - The Assassins for Christmas in '99 and put off reading it for at least six month due to the fact I then regarded fantasy as not being a 'proper' genre. When I did get round to reading it through sheer boredom one day, I was hooked. Now I have a bookshelf full of fantasy books, from Feist to Martin, Hobb to Tolkien and most in between and far apart. Having started out on a Raymond E Feist book, I have amassed the majority of his works.

I had purchased Rides a Dread Legion before going to Germany for my placement earlier this year but did not read it until this week as I deemed it too much of an additional weight for my suitcase.

Many have hailed it as a return to form for Feist whose more recent books such as the Conclave of Shadows trilogy and Darkwar Saga may have disappointed some fans.

*** Spoiler Warning ***
While I try not to give much of the story away, I may have slipped up on occasion.

Rides a Dread Legion had enough momentum to keep me gripped for the six hours it took me to finish it. Thos familiar with Feist's works will recognise the return of the major characters. And this is where things start to disappoint. To me the storyline was a mash up of everything he has written before. We have Demons (i.e. similar to the Serpentwar Saga), we have Elves pertaining to The Dark Path and conquest of the Kingdom (i.e. similar to the Murmandamus uprising in Darkness at Sethanon; with the death of Leso Varen / Sidi (the bad guy) in the last saga, we have a replacement for him who is reportedly worse, we have rifts and we have of course, Pug and Tomas seeking to protect Midkemia.

However the book left me with a distinct feel of finality. It was as if Feist was writing his last Saga with regards to Pug, Tomas and the world of Midkemia. I have since found out that Rides a Dread Legion will be followed by At the Gates of Darkness (Expected: January 4, 2010) and further by the Chaoswar Saga:

A Kingdom Besieged (TBA) No announced release date, Not yet published
A Crown Imperiled (TBA) No announced release date, Not yet published
Magician's End (TBA) No announced release date, Not yet published

which going by the titles looks like the final stretch for Pug and Tomas.

Overall I wasn't too disappointed with the book, it was a good read at a good pace. While this is not his best, it does not mean I will not get the next book or the three after. For anyone who has not even heard of Feist I would definitely recommend Magician, his first book (I have three copies) but be aware it was written in a single novel style (think Lord of the Rings but not that massive) mainly because Feist was probably not sure of the success of the book . Or my personal favourite The Empire Trilogy, written with Janny Wurts.

Looks like I'm Stealing a TV

2009-09-06T19:29:00.009+01:00

The pictures were taken a couple of years ago but people who know me personally can actually recognize me and my friend. This is one of my "conversation fillers" as it looks for all the world like we are stealing a TV. I'm in Blue in the front, leading the job. Judge for yourself:

So that was at 7 Balunie Avenue, Dundee, Scotland.
So what do you think? I have managed to convince a few people that we were stealing a TV in broad daylight, with the Google Streetview car capturing our every move (from another view you can see us at the car with the TV) and plenty of people around.

I was in fact helping my friend Neeraj (in Black at the Back) move house and that was his TV we were carrying to my car which is the orange one parked on the street in front of the flat. I'm actually quite glad of this um... publicity. It is a great conversation filler especially if you are able to show the pictures to the person you are talking to.

So do you know anybody who appears on Streetview? Or do you know of any pictures from Streetview showing some dodgy stuff?

Better Comment System for Blogger? – Current options as a guide and review

2009-08-22T14:03:00.001+01:00

I really like the Blogger platform because it is straightforward, stable, reliable and easy to manage as it is all under my Google account. However it can always improve and my latest want is a better comment system with the possibility of threaded replies, pictures etc which Wordpress users enjoy. The threaded comment option is my main want as most of us usually just have @”name” followed by the reply. So this post will explore the alternatives I could find and see if they are viable options. These are: Google Friend Connect, Intense Debate , Disqus and another Javascript based modification from Sham. I am assuming you have some experience in modifying your Blogger template. Out of the bloggers I follow, Yashi is the only one who is using a third party app, namely Disqus. However based on his recent post it seems he is having trouble with it.

How to sign in with Open ID

Firstly all the services I am going to write about have the ability to sign in with Open ID. The picture below shows you may have one already.

Google Friend Connect – Comments

First let us keep it in the Google family and look at Google friend Connect – Comments

From the Google Friend Connect home page select the Blogger blog you want to add the gadget to on the left hand side:

Click Social gadgets underneath the required site , scroll down until you see Comments:

Click get this gadget and you will be taken to a page where you can adjust options such the colours and layout. The important thing here is to select Page in the first option box. This will generate code which will be specifically for a post and not for your main page:

Scroll down, tweak the options as required and generate you code.

This will then need to be posted in your blogger template. I am assuming you know how to edit the template. So navigate to your blogger HTML template, expand widgets and find the right place to paste the code.

Now several guides for this process stipulate that the generated code should be pasted under the following line of code:

   1: <b:includable id='comments' var='post'>

However if you have your default blogger comments as embedded below the post as in my case you should paste the code before (this leaves the blogger comment form intact):

   1: <b:includable id='comment-form' var='post'>

Either way underneath a line which has both ‘comment’ and ‘post’; in it.

If all is well, save your template and you should now have the following under your posts:

To add comments you can Sign in using your Google account.

This is where we hit the first snag. What happens if you do not have a Google account? Sure the original Blogger comment system is still below the Google friend Connect – Comments form but that means no threaded comments. No matter, you really want to comment, so you register for a Google account, You can now click Sign In. Oh no! It now requires you to follow the blog:

No matter, you still want to comment, so you click to follow the blog. Finally you are able to leave a comment:

And you can get nice threaded replies:

I think above it shows unknown because I am commenting on my own blog as myself or some other error. Either way it should look nicer.

Pros: Relatively easy to install. Keeps it Google. Easy to Customise.

Cons: Requires your commentator to have a Google account and to follow your blog.

Intense Debate

Head over to Intense Debate and click the Sign Up button. Click on the sign up with OpenID button:

This will allow you to simply use your Blogger URL even if it is a custom domain to sign up.

You may be further asked for a username and email address but that should then be the sign up process complete. You will then be taken to the intense debate dashboard:

Click install intense debate now! and you will be to the screen where you insert your blog’s URL:

Click next and you will be taken to a page asking you to specify your platform, notice the text which says that Intense Debate does not work with Blogger Classic:

Click on Blogger and you will be taken to the installation page:

You can choose to install as a Widget or into your template. You can also choose to have intense debate on new posts or on all your posts. In my case this will be the Template install with only new posts as I am just trying out Intense Debate first. You will then be asked to download your blogger template. It even gives you instructions to download the template and then upload so we will not cover that and upload it to Intense Debate:

Once you have uploaded the template and clicked continue, you will be taken to the following screen:

The instructions are in the left hand bar which will ask you to navigate to the blog’s layout and the current HTML code which has been generated. The actual code generated by the program is in the tiny text box as shown below:

You can do the replacement of the code in the right hand pane inside Intense Debate and then save the template:

Once your blog has been saved I create a new post to see how the commenting will look:

Notice the Blogger embedded comment which I had originally is also left embedded at the bottom of the page unless you take it out. Intense Debate also gives you Admin buttons etc right on the page. Your readers can the post comments as Guest, by signing in with their OpenID, Twitter or Intense Debate Account. There is also an option for Facebook on the Intense Debate site although that required to be enabled using an API Key which we may cover later. In short the major forms of Logins to Comment options. For example commenting using my twitter account will load a pop up window asking you to Login to twitter or if you are already logged in it will ask you to allow access to the application:

You can then add your comment:

Which will appear as follows and notice the all important Reply option:

Pros: Threaded, Relatively Easy Install, Looks Good, Able to manage Comments using intense debate site, able to sign in and comment using Open ID, twitter, Facebook etc. Comment Moderation email, various settings for tweaks.

Cons – Requires modification of template even though Intense Debate does it for you. Slow! Sometimes very slow, to load comments ‘app’ and authenticate. Sometimes comments seem to not even make it through the system. I posted three comments and only one came through for moderation to appear on the page. The rest seem to have disappeared. Comments disappear or do not get registered.

Disqus

Visit the Disqus site and click the Get Started button:

You will need to sign up, but here again you can use Open ID, the button is found at the bottom left of the sign up form. Again you may still be asked for your username/email and password. Here I used my Google Account one, which would not work. No matte the Disqus sign up form is very short so I used that. You will get the usual email verification, although you are able to proceed immediately with Disqus, where you are asked for a website to integrate:

You will then be asked for the platform to install on:

Of course you choose blogger. You will then be taken to the instruction on how to install for the Blogger platform. This is very similar to the Intense Debate instructions, where you upload your current Blogger template to the site:

You will then be presented with a new template, with the required code already generated:

There are also further instructions:

This first asks you to paste the new template, making sure Expand Widgets is checked and disable Blogger’s original comment system. Notice Intense debate does not ask you to perform the latter. I wonder if Disqus will conflict with the existing Blogger Comments. We shall see.

However it is not quite straight forward. Disqus does not seem to work with a custom Blogger Template as in my case and as is the case for most people. So comes gameshogun.ws with a guide. But it was were quite complicated and seemed to apply to overly customised themes. So I found this post on woork. The post suggested using the generic code. In fact in my case the Disqus method for blogger had worked to a point i.e. the script had installed into the template but the actual comment form was not present. So I chose the reinstall and selected Generic, which can be found under tools for the site in the Disqus account:

You will then be taken to the following screen with code and instructions:

In my case it was simply a case of adding Code Snippet (#1) to my template where I would like the comment form to appear. In my case this is before (to leave the blogger comment form intact):

   1: <b:includable id='comment-form' var='post'>

This means you do nor require to Disable Blogger comments if you do not want to. And that was all that was required to install Disqus for me. The form then appears as follows:

Note you are required to enable the Facebook (including API), twitter and Open ID login options in the settings first.

The comments then appear as follows:

Pros: Looks good, works well. Able to manage Comments using intense debate site, able to sign in and comment using Open ID, twitter, Facebook etc. Comment Moderation email, various settings for tweaks.

Cons: Slow, sometimes requires a refresh to see you logged in when commenting using Facebook/twitter etc. May cause custom favicon to disappear for that post.

Sham’s Blog – Threaded Comments in Blogger

“The idea behind this came from the simple observation that most of us use @AuthorName to reply to comments posted by other users in 'single' threaded comments. So the JavaScript I wrote just parses the comment bodies for this author name (or comment ids) and then searches for appropriate comments to find parents of the reply comments.
Below is an image of how after I implemented this idea the comments section on my blog changed:

The instructions involve modifying your template are found on Sham’s Blog and I will not go through them here. I will however implement it on my blog with my theme colours etc and show you how it looks on my blog:

And then we come to the first disadvantage of this method:

To reply, you need to include @”User’s name” or @”users id number” to include in the first line of your comment/reply. It does provide these for you but that means copying the line and pasting it into your new post:

Pasting @username into the first line of your first post would be ok I guess but its no different from doing that in a normal comment. Notice that a non author comment is in white here. You may also be required to remove the previous comment form manually as in my case.

Pros: Easy enough to install, still uses Blogger’s own system which may be good or bad.

Cons: Not great eye candy. Requires to paste @”User’s name” or @”users id number” to reply. Hard to get right on the install.

Conclusion

After all of that I have decided to go back to back to my original setup. It may not be the best and has no threaded reply system but it was the most stable. So its back to using the same old built in blogger comment system. My only suggestion is to keep pestering Blogger/Google to improve the comments options on Blogger. To do so navigate to http://www.google.com/support/blogger/?page=contact and choose Suggest a feature:

So tell me what you think? Do you have a preference for the comments section in blogger. Or do you use something I have not covered here? Can Blogger do something else to improve?

Lufthansa = There’s no better way to fly? Maybe, but better fly easyjet

2009-08-18T21:36:00.001+01:00

So after various circumstances outwith my control, I found myself requiring a change of date and time for my flight home, twelve days before I am actually due to fly. My friend Abdul was in a similar situation but he had a month or more to change his flight, so he had sauntered along to the Lufthansa desk at the flughafen (airport) in Nuremberg, changed his date and flight time, paid the 100 Euros stipulated in their terms (50 Euros per flight, two flights to get to Edinburgh, Scotland from Nuremberg).

So off I go to the same desk today and the first thing the lady at the desk tells me: “your flight has been changed already, see here” and she showed me on her screen. Eh? “yes there is no actual flight at your booked time so you have been changed to an earlier flight”. When were they actually planning on telling me this? No matter, I need to fly at an earlier date anyway. So can I have a flight on Tuesday at this time (same time as Abdul). Sure they’ll check. So that will be £429 to change. How much?!?!? “£429.” Why? “Oh it was a special fare”. Special fare obviously. I should have thought of that. (Big dose of sarcasm to myself). Still my original ticket was not cheap at nearly £300 return and also I flew the same route for £150 about two months later at a busier time, so how was £300 a special fare? Oh and let’s not forget the 50 Euro flight change cost as per the terms on top of that as well. Now that I check the terms again:

To change or cancel a flight award a charge of €50 or CHF70 / USD60 is payable (€150 or CHF220 to change to a Same Day Award). This amount may vary or be waived for certain awards. A change of booking is only possible in respect of the date and time of the flight. A change of route is not possible.

Anyway Selective Apathy, I need to get home, I’ll find another way. So I jump on a waiting UBahn to get to my Nuremberg residence to search for another flight. But wait, some airlines will give you a partial refund if you cancel your flight! So I get off the train and race back up to the desk, where I posed that query. “No, No, you have to pay more to cancel”. Say what? “Yes and new fare is 700 Euros”. And very big laugh from her and her colleagues. Now I’m not the type to take offence at such things, and left straight away, managing to catch that same waiting UBahn. On reflection, there was no need to be laughing at my predicament.

So back home at look at my options: easyjet from Munich or Ryanair from Frankfurt-Hahn. Both of which are not too far from Nuremberg.

I had flown easyjet from Munich during the recent family emergency. My return home on the same day I had planned would cost 87 Euros + Luggage charge + Card charge = 103 Euros. Add to that a train to Munich which would be 55 Euros by Intercity Express (ICE) Second class, which only takes one hour. Say 160 Euros, far cry from £429. If I took the flight a day later it was even cheaper and would still fit in my schedule. But I want to get home as soon as possible and I found nothing wrong with my previous easyjet flight.

Ryanair was even cheaper at 23 Euros for a flight a day earlier than planned or same for a day later (no flights on my chosen date). But was at a timw which meant I had to be in Frankfurt way too early in the morning which is difficult.

I don’t personally have any gripe with the Lufthansa flight service as they were quite professional but their ground service (i.e. the flight desk) is a bit wanting, there was really no need to laugh at my predicament. Also £429 for a change of flight on a route which is rarely busy! One of the flights I was on to Nuremberg earlier had less than 10 people (for a plane with capacity of at least 100). Now I understand the moans and calls to boycott in forums and on sites around the web directed at Lufthansa.

That charge was just too outrageous. Maybe they think the German ‘quality’ service must come at a price like their cars and electronics etc. but I’ll take the easyjet cheap and cheerful with their you have to pay for any extras (which you don’t need on a flight of less than two hours as in my case), and importantly their professional staff and quite new jets. I’m just glad I found a viable way to get home.

There’s no better way to fly? Maybe, but better fly easyjet.

P.s I’ll put an update to this post if they ever notify me (by email) of my original flight change to the earlier time or not, as I have not cancelled that flight.

An Update and My Every Day Carry (EDC)

2009-08-16T18:00:00.002+01:00

Firstly my apologies at the long absence. Regretfully there has been the recent passing of a close family member, which meant I had to rush home to Dundee. This also came right at the time of my thesis hand in date which meant I was really busy over this last month or so. I am now back in Nuremberg for a week or so to tie up things here before going home to Dundee. I feel that I need to stay home for a while so I have decided to do another Masters Degree in Information Technology and International Business at the University of Dundee. If I get in (which I should) and complete the course, that could be three degrees to my name. A bit overkill and many think I should not be taking this path but rather than staying home and working a Nine to Five I may not enjoy in Dundee i.e. not in my chosen field, I prefer to do this course. Also my stint at iSyst here in Germany has showed me that the Electronics industry is after all a Business, and Business concepts is something I am not acquainted enough with as is all the IT, in terms of software which form an essential aspect of the industry. Thus I believe this is the right step.

Anyway today I would like to talk about Every Day Carry (EDC) objects. As the name suggests these are objects which you have or carry on your person everyday or in Wikipedia speak: “refers to various items, usually small, that are worn or carried by a person on a daily basis for use in everyday tasks from the mundane to the unexpected”. This range from keys, mobile phones, pens, to survival gear and tools.

My current EDC is quite minimalist, I have two mobile phones, one for each front jeans pocket: my main phone, currently a Blackberry Pearl 8100 and my secondary phone a Sagem my220X (Stylishly Black with Gold Rims) shown in below. Apologies for the poor pictures. I left the camera back in Scotland and had to use the Blackberry’s camera.

The main phone changes quite often, it was recently a Benq E72 Windows Mobile Smartphone and will be hopefully replaced by a Nokia E72 later this year. This is my contract phone although not the actual one I got from the contract, long story behind all of that which is not important. The Sagem, I bought for only £5 brand new. It is a bare standard phone – no camera or anything else. I bought it as a secondary phone as it is really slim (10 mm) and in my opinion stylish. Notice the cracked screen due to an accidental drop but it is still usable. I use it with a Lebara SIM card which allows me to send cheaper text messages to Mauritius.

Next, in one back pocket, we have my tattered wallet. It is a leather Card wallet from China which I have had for some years after a long search for a small Card wallet with an additional slot for notes (this has two under the card compartments).

The wallet holds a lot of cards (I have five or six bank card alone and this was a better option as I don't carry much cash). It also has a SwissCard Lite in Ruby as below, which bulks it up a bit. Also although this is a credit card size multi tool with screwdriver, knife, tweezers, light, pen, scissors etc, it is not really suited for a wallet in your back pocket. Mine has cracks and broken plastic bits due to my sitting on it.

In the next rear pocket we have a Black & Red notepad (also very tattered). This is pictured with my newest addition: a Fisher xmark Bullet Space Pen, which usually rides in a front pocket.

These two are essential. I lose count of how many time I am left without something to write on or to write with and a great thought, idea, suggestion or other note is lost. The Space Pen is quite expensive for a single pen at £15-£20 but it is the best pen I have ever owned. It is really small, perfect for the pocket but extends to full size for writing as shown above. And no leaks! My previous pens all leaked at one time or another, which is a nightmare for your pockets.

Next we have the Watch and the ipod Shuffle.

These are both Product Red items:

The watch is an Product Red Armani AR0567 which is not for the UK market and meant I had to get it from the USA. The ipod is a Product Red second generation ipod Shuffle with Selective Apathy.. engraved on the back. The ipod is paired with white Sennheiser Cx-300 earphones which are great.

Finally we have my keys shown below, with a USB memory stick and of course the Mauritius Keychain. I also carry some change and very little cash in my pockets alongside loads of receipts and bits.

However with my SwissCard breaking up I was looking at replacing it with something more solid. After a lot of research I settled on a Swiss Tech Micro Plus 8-in-1. At 45.35 grams and a small size this would be small enough for my pockets. It also has no blade and with the tough UK blade laws, it is just fine.

But this meant no light and although Swiss tech had products with a light all reviews deemed them rubbish and the Swisscard LED light was also rubbish in the first place. So I found a Gerber Sonic LED Key Ring light on sale in Silver. The Gerber Sonic is shown below. These are reviewed as being much better than the similar Maglite Solitaire. I wished they had had a red one in the sale…

Then I decided that I now had too much stuff to fit in my pockets, especially with the Swiss Tech Tool which would probably quickly bore holes in my pockets. So what I would need would be like a Belt/Waist Pack/Pouch/Holster etc. which could hold a good bit of my gear, you know like the phone belt carriers. I did not want one that is too obvious and bulky however but I would want it to hold the multi tool, the light, the Blackberry or any future phone I may have, and also my keys which are another hole creator in the pockets and also the pen. After much searching I settled on a Maxpedition Rat Wallet. Yes it is being called a wallet but all reviews and opinions note that it is not and may even be too big as a Belt Pouch.

I got mine in black and as the pictures above from the Gadgeteer and the Maxpedition website show, it does bulk out quite a bit when loaded, but hopefully it will not be too obtrusive. Hopefully it will also allow me to stop carrying around my own wallet. Now an obvious and pointed out problem with the Rat Wallet is that any loose cards put in it are likely to fall out. So based on some online recommendations I added another purchase – Jimi Wallet.

“The Jimi™ wallet is a compact, colorful, and water resistant answer to the stodgy outdated leather wallet. It’s designed to slip into your front pocket, purse, or around your neck on a lanyard.” It is able to hold four credit cards in one side and has a clip for notes and maybe three more cards in the other side. Should be perfect for my needs and should fit in the Rat wallet too.

This has turned into quite a shopping spree. I will hopefully put a post up when all these come together and my thoughts on them, with some better pictures as I will not have my purchases until I return home.

So tell me What are your Every Day Carry objects, what do you think of mine or is there an object which you may not carry every day but can’t live without. Add some comments!

Selective Apathy on Urban Dictionary and how about an Online Mauritian Creole Dictionary

2009-07-18T11:20:00.002+01:00

Very busy with writing my MSC thesis which the boss wants a first draft of by Monday but I thought I’d treat myself and blog.

Those of you who have read the section about Selective Apathy will know loosely what I am getting at; although sometimes I think I need to express myself a bit better regarding that. Anyways last week I decided why not add an entry concerning Selective Apathy to Urban Dictionary? For those not familiar with urban dictionary, it is an web-based dictionary tool where users upload their slang words and phrases although there are legitimate entries as well. It is a hugely popular site which also sells merchandise such as “your definition on a mug”, it used to be T-shirts but I think they pulled that after numerous entries in the dictionary of T-shirt being “Something UrbanDictionary.com is selling now to increase popularity amonst teenagers who see their friends wearing the said shirts.”

Anyway I love Urban Dictionary, its funny, creative and allows anybody to express themselves in their own way. So I submitted a definition of Selective Apathy which was then approved by the moderators and published on the site this week. While I take Selective Apathy as a concept a bit too seriously sometime Urban Dictionary usually stays true to its roots and words or phrases usually have to be cool or slang which is sometimes degrading to be approved and added, so I had to dirty my definition a bit and here it is, Selective Apathy:

Selectively choosing things to be Apathetic towards.
In other terms this can be interpreted as choosing selectively things to care about.
Through Selective Apathy, you do not feel Apathy towards everything but only at certain things so that you can say fuck it to some things and don't care about them but still care about others.
To employ empathy or care only when needed.
This can be to dismiss negative things and care or be empathetic about positive ones or dismiss negative things and care about personal things or similar combinations.

"Dude, you've lost your job, have no education and you smell."
"Selective Apathy man, who cares about that shit. I'm gutted that my team lost the league though. That's something to care about."
or
"Dude you just lost your leg".
"Don't care about that, it enabled me to eventually find a cure for that flesh eating disease and help others - Selective Apathy."

So what do you think?

I also had an idea some years back about a Mauritian version. This stemmed from the fact that I was twelve when I moved to Scotland and missed all the cool new words you learn as a teenager in Mauritius and whenever I go back I’m like what does that mean. I ran this idea by my cousin who said it wouldn’t work and I really did not know how to go about creating a dictionary site anyway. Recently with the interest of standardising Mauritian Creole, I thought how about an online Mauritian Creole dictionary, where you can submit your word, how you would spell it but if it means the same as another word spelt similarly, they would get grouped together and then you can have votes on a standard spelling?