Toneboy's blog

A Belated Summer Summary

2009-10-29T21:55:00.006Z

Just a quick run-down on our summer, which I'll argue as being fitting as British Summer Time only ended last Sunday (of course as I pointed out to someone on Sunday morning, British Summer Time really ended about eight weeks ago).

Summer holiday: We did something different this year and went down to the Ayrshire coast. The good part? We took Cookie with us. The bad part? Well besides being in a smaller than usual bed with a tipping mattress that threatened to throw me out every night, let's just say the argument of certain places having a benefit of "Once you're there everything's paid for" is a bit of a joke. Swimming is paid for. Everything else? Not so much.

On the plus side, at least Chloe had fun, eating ice cream with money given to her by her Gran and drawing away when the weather wasn't so nice. Meanwhile I struggled to get any kind of 3g signal or find a petrol station within ten minutes of us. I went a bit stir crazy.

Also, somewhat randomly during our holiday, Chloe told me, "Dad, you change your mind, like a girl changes clothes." I thought I'd heard that before somewhere. Turns out I had.

Elsewhere: Honestly, it seems like I do nothing other than work and commute lately. I can't really recall anything else I did over the summer which I would class as really fun or memorable, except for...

The Dog's Trust Open Day in Hamilton. Always a blast, so much fun to take Cookie to and give him a day where he's the centre of attention. You have to love that dog (who's been with us for seven years, to this very day).

N.B. As always, all photos are from my Flickr photostream.

What I Was Surfing Last Month

2009-09-24T19:21:00.002+01:00

Every month I keep a little text file of any websites or online articles that grab my eye, then at the end of the month I categorise them and add them to a growing list of articles which have interested me. Most of these stay in offline records for reference, some get stored to my Diigo account, and some which I just like the look of get a screenprint taken and stashed away for ideas and/or inspiration.

However, this month, just to do something different, I thought I'd share it here. Given the way most links are displayed these days I don't think many of these require much explanation. N.B. Not all of these are strictly personal interest. Some of them are just things which I enjoyed reading. Also they weren't necessarily originally produced last month, but came to my attention for one reason or another at this time:

http://lifehacker.com/5345211/achieve-goals-using-the-smart-method

http://lifehacker.com/355743/top-10-itunes-smart-playlists

http://www.problogdesign.com/wordpress/10-things-to-do-after-installing-wordpress/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/07/27/how-to-budget-for-an-irregular-income/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/50-monochromatic-website-designs/

http://abduzeedo.com/52-beautiful-blue-layouts-web-design

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/twitter-background-design-how-to-and-best-practices

And the one I liked for looking nice...
http://www.australia2018-2022.com.au/

Bye Bye, Mobile Broadband

2009-08-27T16:26:00.002+01:00

Earlier this month I phoned Vodafone and told them I would be cancelling my mobile broadband contract with them. They then told me that I had to give them a month's notice, which annoyed me, but only because I pride myself in knowing the terms and conditions on things like this and checking them out in good time.

Anyway, I'm going ahead and cancelling my mobile broadband contract. Why? Because this country isn't ready for it yet, as was shown when we went on holiday last month and the speed of my connection struggled to download my e-mail. Partying like it was 1999? Nope, just connecting like it.

It is just the same at home, and indeed anywhere else that isn't the centre of Glasgow. So I don't regret my decision, especially with more and more places having their own wireless networks available. Why pay £14 a month when you may only spend £4 here and £5 there every so often and get a better class of service for it?

What I read in this month's .Net just backs that up. On page 16 in their news section they quote some figures in regard to mobile broadband connections, going further than me and warning of poor speed connections if you live outside the M25.

Just to clarify, I'm not blaming Vodafone. Their service in every respect was great (especially customer service), but performance of 3g networks if you're outside a major city centre just doesn't perform well enough yet in my view. One day it might, but for the time being a pay-as-you-go basis would be the only way I'd commit to mobile broadband, and that would be for emergencies only.

Getting Follow Friday All Wrong

2009-07-28T20:44:00.001+01:00

Thought it might be interesting to take a look at one of my favourite web sites at the moment, and who I'm following on it. Yep, I'm talking about Twitter.

Now some of my love of Twitter has to do with my new phone. I get Twitter updates straight to it, regardless of where I am and and who I'm with. It makes Twitter extremely useful, as the content is purely text (unlike some of the HTML e-mails I get through to my phone). So who am I following? Let's take a look:

@DesignerDepot Now some people do start following you after you make posts, which is what Web Designer Depot did. However when I took a look at their feed there is lots of interesting stuff to see there. Also on the web design front, I need to recommend @sitepointdotcom and @netmag.

@PTIshow My one remaining can't miss TV show, until ESPN America disappears (sob! weep!). Added bonus points for the daily "Today on the PTI Show Twitter feed... what did you tweet about Mike?" feature on the show that is always interesting. Need to mention @aroundthehorn, as there is probably no other Twitter feed which makes me more interested in any programme.

@sportsguy33 Yep, the Bill Simmons feed. Usually entertaining, sometimes self-promoting and occasionally scathing about us Brits (actually some of his posts, along with some Bob Ryan comments on PTI make me wonder if I really would enjoy visiting Boston). Normally pretty funny though, especially as he's got his friend @jacko2323 on board (Joe House, where are you?).

Like interesting writing that's a bit more serious? I'd fully recommend @jdroth.

My favourite drink, @mtn_dew, as does my favourite lounge @jadande (who gets bonus points for not being his pompous former L.A. Times colleague).

Need to recommend some great apps, namely @firefox, @twitterfox, @dropbox and @shareaholic. If you don't use Windows then you're pretty likely to find something interesting from @davecampbell.

And finally, just because he's shares pretty much all my interests, but is funnier, wittier and more interesting than me... @benjiwilson. And as a bonus, he'll probably post anything important that @easports post as well.

Actually, let's make this the last one. Did you get this far, @JasonLMatthews?

Official Twitter Site

My New(ish) Toy: A Review

2009-06-28T18:25:00.001+01:00

Like it? After three and a half years with my Sony Ericsson K750i (an easy to remember figure of time, given that I got it specifically so only Lorraine could contact me before Chloe was born) I finally decided to upgrade my phone about two months ago, allowing me to have all kinds of fun with a new device.

Not that it was easy to move on, mind you. I was on a superb tariff with my K750i, it was a phone I loved and knew like the back of my hand. And I usually only had to charge it about once a week.

So it wasn't altogether easy to move onto a G1, but I did, and for the most part I don't regret it. Let's take a look at some of the benefits of it:

The tariff. Not quite as good as I was on, but I managed to get eight months free line rental from T-Mobile. Furthermore surfing the web doesn't cost a thing.
Instant access to my Gmail, which I run just about everything through.
Lots of apps. Still finding my way around these if I'm honest. Love Twitroid though, makes it super easy to post to my Twitter account, as well as keeping up with friends throughout the day. Beats coming home to 106 tweets.
Want to flash up your address book? I can do so with pictures. Small thing, but I like it.
Masses of memory. 2Gb (i.e. lots of music), so no hassle in considering whether or not to get a Sony memory card any more.
The trackball, which I wasn't looking forward to using, is pretty good for navigating around.
Phone call quality? Pretty good I'd say. Nice and clear on most calls I've made.

And in the interests of fairness, some of the poorer sides of it:

First and foremost, the battery life is horrible. I need to charge this just about every day. Yes, every day. Really not good.
Not all webpages are equal. For instance I really don't like what it does to Google Reader.
Let's be honest as well, the 3G speeds in the UK aren't great yet. Not bad, but could be better.
No templates in text messages. Sounds like a small gripe, but when sending a message to Lorraine about when I would be home from various places this used to take me two seconds. Now it is more like two minutes.
Grouping text messages together. Every to and from you send to one person gets grouped together, until you delete it, when you delete the whole conversation. No more saving the Jack Bannister-themed texts my friend Nick sent me two years ago that still reside on my K750i.
Twitroid might be too easy to post from, as some of my posts my wife has made on my behalf might attest to.

One Of Those Brief Updates

2009-05-31T09:54:00.003+01:00

I look at my last posts shows it has been far too long since I last posted anything. As a matter of fact there's nothing I particularly feel the need to comment on, but to show I haven't dropped off the face of the earth I thought I'd post a few posters that go along with a few things

Probably the most exciting thing I've done since my last post was to visit Sheffield for the first weekend of the World Snooker Championship. It was something I had never been to before and I'm really glad I did it. However first and foremost I'm glad I did it because it gave me a chance to catch up with three of my best friends at once.

Anyway, I was somewhat surprised at how small and intimate the Crucible Theatre is. I'm not sure how well this photo shows that but I thought it may be interesting to show.

Two weeks after that I had another Sheffield sporting event, only this time it was Sheffield United visiting Selhurst Park for Palace's last game of the season.

The weather was beautiful, but the game was a bit of a let down. Although United were going for promotion Palace had nothing to play for and it wasn't a particularly great game. It finished as a scoreless draw, which now means I haven't seen Palace score for over two years. Ouch.

Besides that? I've not been up to much, just a whole lot of working, helping my wife with the garden and taking Chloe swimming. Days are just flying by.

N.B. As always, all photos are from my Flickr photostream.

Three Months as a PS3 Owner: The Other Games

2009-04-09T18:27:00.007+01:00

About a week and a half ago I posted Three Months as a PS3 Owner: Prologue, a short introduction to my review of the games I currently own as a PS3 owner. In that I talked about MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, my favourite game, and now I talk about the other games I own, in order of preference.

Don't get too excited, I don't own that many games. I haven't been a prolific games owner probably since I was at University. Work and friends - not to mention family - tend to take precedence these days.

FIFA 09
For a long time I must admit that I wasn't a great fan of the FIFA series. Between battles on my best mate's PC where the pitch seemed huge and times where I was overwhelmed by my brother-in-law on his Nintendo Gamecube, the game didn't hold a lot of appeal or fond memories (and that's before you even mention the old combo of John Motson and Ally McCoist).

But then I was given FIFA 09 by my aforementioned best mate when he came to visit, and you know what? It's a lot more fun now. Okay, I still haven't won a game online, but I'm slowly getting better at it and enjoying it more and more. I'd probably learn more if I actually experimented with learning new things in a game instead of trying to win every single match I play, but that's my being competitive I guess.

Odd quirk: the feedback on the Dual Shock controller when a shot hits the post, something which my best friend and I both pondered and couldn't reason exactly why they'd applied that at that point.

Update: Just fired this up today for the first time in a while. Saw the new trophies for the first time - lots of fun stuff there. Even scored a goal from the move which earned me The Ol' Switcheroo Trophy. Nice!

SingStar ABBA
A concession to my lovely wife, who I felt wasn't getting the most out of having a PS3 (the word "widow" did pass her lips prior to buying this). As we couldn't get the SingStar with microphones pack that Argos were offering at the time we decided to pony up for the microphones ourselves and then get the ABBA version of the game separately. Honestly, it probably worked out better for us. More songs we know, more fun, and we probably got our money's worth from it the first time we played it.

And that was before I learnt to save other people's songs, then play it back with the pitch shift effect applied - Chipmunks in your living room, wunderbar!

Just don't ask me to provide backing vocals on "Take a Chance On Me", it isn't pretty.

(And yes, I will be getting SingStar Queen at some point. It's a cast-iron certainty.)

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
Ah yes, part of my reason for wanting a PS3, to be able to indulge in the Gran Turismo series, the one game which pays the proper homage to Laguna Seca, my favourite racetrack in the whole world.

Small problem: version 5 proper keeps being pushed back and back, leaving us with the short version of the game which allows a total of six tracks in a grand total of 12 different configurations. Of these tracks, four are in Japan, four are nigh-on impossible to overtake on, and six don't exist in reality at all. That being said, the two-player battle mode is great fun, especially for the time when I watched my wife play against my mother-in-law. It wasn't a quick game but I'm amazed we didn't wake Chloe up with all the laughing.

Back onto the negatives and the online mode, which might be the most frustrating experience of any game I've ever played, having various other players batter me about and then I get penalised for hitting them by accident? Infuriating. Less of that, more two player battles for me are the way to go. Lots more fun.

(And get on with the main game... with Laguna Seca please!)

Midnight Club: Los Angeles
To be honest until a few days ago I hadn't had this out of the box for weeks. To begin with I liked this game. The presentation is stunning, it looks beautiful and some of the graphics are nothing short of stunning. However for a casual gamer like myself it slowly loses appeal for a number of reasons, these being:

If you only play games every so often the thought of earning a few hundred dollars each race and looking towards a target of earning a million dollars seems like a long way off.
There is no multi-player mode (yeah, I know that PS3s work towards online play, but I'm old school and like playing games against someone in the same room).
The soundtrack is a little bit, how can I say this?... urban. It isn't really my style (and my style is a whole other debate, as anyone who has ever lived with me will tell you).
It all gets to be a bit samey after a while. At least Need For Speed Underground (my previous fave of a similar nature to this) had circuit races, drift races, drag races. The different modes in Midnight Club: Los Angeles are pretty much the same (and don't get into how many times I've managed to get lost in red light races, that's my pet peeve about this game).

That being said, if they launch a Midnight Club: Atlanta/Glasgow/London I'm probably buying it. It isn't that bad, it just isn't quite my thing.

Three Months as a PS3 Owner: Prologue

2009-03-29T21:13:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd put together a little post on being a PS3 owner, but as I'm struggling to get the time to put together a longer entry right now I thought I'd post a little taster with some words about my favourite game.

Motor Storm: Pacific Rift
Yes, I'm putting this game at the top of the list. Me, the sports buff. Just because I really think this game is that good.

Prior to getting a PS3 I played a demo of this on my friend Douglas's PS3, and we both really enjoyed it. It showed enough of the game to me to justify picking one of the bundles that included it when I bought a PS3, and I've enjoyed it from the get go.

While winning races takes a little while to master, having fun during them does not. Lorraine enjoys this game as well, although mostly for the spectacular crashes (she earned the Stuntman award for performing an impressive barrel roll).

Whether played by just yourself, with a friend in the room, or online, this game provides all kinds of fun, plenty of challenges, a range of different race options depending on your level of skill and experience. I start playing this game and then find I can't stop. I actually had to earn the Survivor award on the same night as I got the Timesink and Bully awards, just so I could feel a little better about myself.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this game.

Facebook By Numbers

2009-02-20T19:43:00.002Z

As I finally crossed the 40-friend plateau on Facebook in the last week I thought this might be a bit of fun to do. I swear this didn't take me that long to do, I'm not that much of a geek.

(And I know this should be titled "Facebook By Percentages", but that doesn't really sound as nice, does it?)

By nation:
English - 40%
Scottish - 37.5%
USA - 20%
Other - 2.5% (Hi Sally!)

Male/female:
Female - 65%
Male - 35%
Other - 0% (insert your own joke here)

I know you all so well:
Percentage of my "friends" who I've not met - 10%
Further friends who I've only met once - 5%

Where I know people from:
Church - 50%
Work - 30%
Fellow supporter of by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen - 15%
Uni - 2.5% (Hi Gill!)
Other - 2.5% (Hi Pat!)

One person actually crosses the Church/Work divide, but I'm sure neither he nor I want to think back to a time where earning £2.50 an hour in a summer job was acceptable.

And as a final aside, of my best friends I'd probably estimate that 40 to 50% of them are actually on Facebook.

How and where do you know your Facebook friends from?

2008 Review In Pictures

2009-01-19T22:19:00.002Z

I thought it might be nice to do something a little bit different here, and so with the help of inspiration of blogs like The Big Picture I thought a pictoral review of last year might be fun.

As always, all photos can be found in my Flickr photostream.

Our big girl is now a big three. Chloe is walking, talking and still bringing more smiles and fun to the house than I would have ever thought possible.

Our dog Cookie is slightly older, but still just as loved. His age is showing a bit now, as the white on his chest is spreading subtly, leaving shades of grey even in his face. I still love him to bits, even if he's a big Mummy's Boy. This picture was taken on the freezing cold Saturday after Christmas, when I knew the park would be quiet and I could take him off his lead safely and let him have a run around. Well worth bearing the cold for.

The Mrs is still the Mrs, and she still loves me (thankfully). This past summer she was the bridesmaid at her brother's wedding, and here can be seen with Chloe after the service.

One of my favourite blogs ran the question "What Are Your Biggest Accomplishments of 2008?" After the initial guilty/panic-stricken blank thoughts I did think of some things, but best of all had to be appearing on - and winning - a TV gameshow. Something which started as a "Why not give it a go?" thought turned out to be something well worth doing on so many levels. The medal is actually given to each day's Going For Gold runner-up, which I was on my second day on the show, and isn't as large as it appears on the show (blame the camera angle they use for that, I guess). Still a nice memento though.

Two Reasons Why I'm Going Nowhere

2008-12-18T20:40:00.001Z

With another year set to draw to a close I have once again not left the country for foreign shores this year. Here are two pretty good reasons, brought to you by Travelex's rates today*:

1 Pound = 1.0765 Euros
1 Pound = 1.506 Dollars

(*I used Travelex's site as I've always found their online rate to be the most competitive for me as a customer. You're probably not seeing a rate much better than this anywhere else.)

At around this time last year you the £/$ rate was flirting with the $2. I was tempted to pick some dollars up, just on the off chance that I could use them, all because the rate was that good. I didn't, more's the pity.

While the Euro rate hasn't been as good I remember colleagues late last year saying about it being in the 1.40 region, and even in the summer you could get approximately 1.25 for every pound. Now it isn't far off being an even swap.

So before you even begin to think of things like dog-sitting, insurance costs and all the other extras that come with going on holiday, the exchange rate situation doesn't exactly make going overseas appealing right now. Call me choosy, but I like to get a bit of bang for my buck.

(And no, Turkey and Egypt don't appeal to me, but thanks for asking.)

MP3s Come to Amazon.co.uk

2008-12-09T20:39:00.000Z

Remember a while ago when I sang the praises of Play.com's download service? Well Amazon have joined the party in the UK and have dropped pricing and increased range even further. Prices for single tracks start at 59p and while the selection isn't that extensive at the moment I would imagine that will be changing. All tracks are DRM free.

Your move, iTunes.

Amazon launches music downloads [BBC News]

Some Thoughts on the US Election

2008-11-07T19:26:00.000Z

Thought I ought to post something here, given that I studied American Studies at University and it was the politics that most interested me.

It seems to me that Barack Obama's victory in the Presidential election was a classic example of Populism. In other words drawing together many different interests for a common goal. It probably helped him that the economic woes of the past few months affected so many people, leading to a greater desire for change.

However I'm somewhat of the opinion that John McCain was a dead duck from the beginning. There was too much anger towards Bush and the Republicans for him to fight against. I actually think McCain is a decent man, who took defeat gracefully and seems keen to work towards a better future for his nation regardless of who is leading it.

In saying that though some of the opinions of the American right did him no favours. I had one friend in California who kept posting anti-Obama links from Fox News on Facebook at every opportunity. It smacked of grasping at straws, just because Obama is a Democrat. Honestly, I can't understand seemingly smart people being so blindly partisan.

All the talk of change does make me laugh a bit. At the moment Obama clearly has a mandate to work with, and after his inauguration will be his best opportunity to push forward with his own legislation. After that if mid-terms don't go his way it gets harder, and if he wins a second term he is likely to finish it with just about no power at all. By that point the title of "Most Powerful Man In The World" is very misleading.

What I'm Watching: Deceiving Innocence

2008-10-07T20:07:00.001+01:00

In 1992 issues of Time were still dropping through my parents' letterbox, as the subscription my recently deceaed Grandmother had taken out was still active. On the cover of one issue was a man in chains and the grim headline: "This man might be innocent. This man is due to die." And so I was introduced to the story of Roger Coleman.

Despite a mass media campaign and apparent doubts about the case Coleman went to Virginia's electric chair on the 20th May 1992, declaring his innocence right to the end. For people who don't agree with capital punishment - myself included - his story was a cause, a reason to show that innocent people can be executed by flawed human beings.

There was one small problem with that. In 2006, nearly 14 years after his execution and 25 years after the murder of Wanda McCoy, DNA evidence showed that Coleman was the killer. Or if you're really sceptical the chances were 1:19,000,000 that someone else did it.

This Friday on the Crime and Investigation Channel (that's channel 553 if you have a Sky dish) they are showing a documentary called Deceiving Innocence which looks into Coleman's case and quite why so many people felt - wrongly - that Coleman was innocent. I think it is going to be pretty interesting.

Deceiving Innocence is being shown at 4pm on 10th October 2008 on the Crime and Investigation Channel.

Roger Coleman - Time Cover [TIME]
Roger Keith Coleman [Wikipedia]
Crime and Investigation Channel [Official Website]

What I'm Running

2008-10-01T18:49:00.001+01:00

Somewhat inspired by this Lifehacker post I thought I'd have a run-down on what I'm running at the moment. Now that I'm back online at home (hurrah!) everything is back up and running at full speed, and I'm back working as I should be.

Software

N.B. I install and check out loads of programs. Rather than give you a full and boring comprehensive list I've decided to cut this down to the programs I use most.

Firefox - My web browser of choice, mainly because it is so easy to customise it with extensions and themes.

Thunderbird - The Mozilla e-mail program, which finally saw me move away from trusty old Pegasus Mail. Again easy to customise and with superb support for multiple mailboxes, including access to Gmail though IMAP, which is fantastic (and somewhere where Yahoo! Mail lags well behind - they presently don't even offer this to paid customers).

Filezilla - Free and it works. Absolutely doddle to use for FTP. Love it.

Adobe Photoshop - I'm still learning with this really, but I love the power of it and the results it can produce. At the moment it is proving useful for things like birthday presents, re-touching photos and basic web work, but I want to extend my knowledge far beyond that.

Wikidpad - I'll admit, I'm a compulsive note-taker. However too often when I started taking notes in notepad I wouldn't save it, and then I'd lose my notes thanks to the beast that is Windows Automatic Update restarting my machine while I sleep (thanks for that, Mr Gates).

And so I tried Wikidpad, found it automatically saved what you typed effectively as you went along, and have used it happily ever since.

iTunes - I fought this for a long time, then gave in and began to use the Apple application. And to be fair I've come to love it. Plays music, check. Can be a one-stop shop to buy music, check. Has the power to generate playlists automatically, check. Downloads my podcasts while I'm asleep, check. Makes a cup of tea when I get up... oh, it can't do that.

PHP Designer - Ok, I should probably re-think this as although it is free the version I am using is two years old. However when it comes to editing PHP files I find this the easiest program to work with (at least among those I've tried to date). I periodically look for something better, but to date I've yet to find something I think I would prefer.

Microsoft Excel - I'm laughing a bit to myself in typing this, because when I first used Microsoft Office I probably used everything but Excel. I typed letters in Word, stored addresses in Outlook and went "Ooh!" at the catalogue of effects you could put in Powerpoint.

Then I moved away from home and real life took over. Excel has been vital for years, from wedding costs, to nursery plans and even Fantasy Baseball draft lists (there's the reason I learnt to develop outputting PHP to a .csv file!). I have my day-to-day expenses held in a password-protected Excel file. On an everyday basis I couldn't be without a program like Excel (and don't recommend Open Office, because I've seen people use it at work and to put it mildly, I'm not a fan).

Hardware

Office PC
- PC, built from barebone unit bought from Novatech. Runs Windows XP Home. 1 x 80Gb hard drive + 1 x 20Gb hard drive, backed up via SyncBack to a 500Gb external hard drive. 1 x CD writer drive and 1 x DVD dual layer writer. Five USB ports, two in the front and three in the back (insert your own Hector Brocklebank impression here).
- 1 standard keyboard, 1 Microsoft optical mouse (had for five years - never had a problem with it).
- 1 Kyocera 3600+ printer (still going!) & 1 HP printer/scanner.
- 1 x LG 17" LCD monitor.

Laptop
- Toshiba Satellite Pro. Runs Windows XP Professional. As a matter of personal preference I also bought a small optical mouse to use with it, as I'm not a fan of touchpads.

I sync my e-mail in what most people would say is a pretty odd way. I setup Thunderbird on both my laptop and desktop, and on my laptop I set the accounts up to leave messages on the server. I setup the same accounts on the desktop and set the accounts up to leave messages on the server for a day before deleting them. To date this has worked pretty well.

I also run all my e-mail accounts through Gmail, so I hopefully don't miss anything important if I'm away from either my laptop or desktop.

New Feed Address

2008-09-01T23:09:00.001+01:00

Just a little note for anyone who subscribes to this blog's rss feed. You can now find the feed at Feedburner.

Apparently I've got three subscribers already. One is a bot, but the other two appear to be actual people (I'm borderline shocked). Please feel free to say hi in the comments, just in case you're ~~a member of my employer's HR department~~ an old friend I've lost touch with.

"That's Mao Tse-Tung, not a mouse's tongue."

2008-08-26T23:51:00.002+01:00

Old Shooting Stars joke there. And while I'm at it, here's another: "Sorry Don, no gin."

Anyway, the point of this post (if I can remember it amid the stupidity) was to post something cheerful for a change. On Saturday night a few of us went out to celebrate my wife's birthday and that of a friend of ours'. We went to Cafe Mao in Glasgow (which hopefully explains the title of this post), and despite Lorraine and I having reservations about the menu (which is what happens when you have two fussy people recovering from stomach bugs) but in the end we enjoyed ourselves.

That wasn't the main reason we enjoyed ourselves though. No, that was because of the company. Out with probably my three best friends up here, relaxing, chatting, having fun. The location was secondary (probably just as well given the service, which didn't match the food).

It felt a bit weird being somewhere like that again. Somewhere a bit upmarket, somewhere a bit more expensive than we'd normally go. Anyhow, for the time spent with friends it was worth every penny.

Quick hello

2008-07-25T17:42:00.002+01:00

Hi, just a quick hello to anyone popping by. I'm currently without internet at home (no, I'm not pleased, to put it mildly), so am in a library to say hi.

Hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly.

The Trouble With Being Married

2008-06-19T18:27:00.002+01:00

Is that you end up caring about rubbish reality TV shows and caring about the results of them.

And before you wonder if I've lost my mind, this was the performance that made me a fan of Samantha Barks. It isn't the voice so much (she'd probably admit she's done better herself), but there's something about the way she conveys the emotion in the song. Spine-tingling.

To Return A Mockingbird

2008-05-29T20:09:00.001+01:00

After talking about it and thinking about it for a while I finally got round to reading To Kill a Mockingbird. More than that, I did the smart thing and borrowed it from my local library instead of blindly spending money on it.

As it turned out, I loved it, and at some point I probably will add it to my book collection (Lorraine will be delighted). It is possibly the most enjoyable piece of fiction I've ever read. I especially loved the perspective of the story, what a child told and what you could read between the lines yourself. Pretty smart.

Now here's the weird part, I went to return the book last Saturday. Small problem - the library was shut. Bank Holiday weekend, and so they were shut on the Saturday. Huh? If it was the Monday I would fully understand it, but not on the Saturday. I still think it is a bit perplexing.

I was able to return the books before they were due, thanks to the usual late opening hours on Tuesday. The disappointing thing for me was that because I had gone straight from work I wasn't able to go to the library with Chloe. She loves the childrens' books, and that makes it a lot of fun going with her. Another time I guess.

Nurses and Seemingly Random Pay

2008-04-29T22:19:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is the day my wife gets paid and the uncertainty about how much she'll be paid this month comes to an end.

Lorraine's payslips are a mass of complexity, and as a result of this (along with queries about what you get paid for in what month) it makes figuring out what she'll be paid a nightmare. Mine is pretty simple to calculate each month, Lorraine's is not. And it can really fluctuate, as much as 17% from month to month, and there doesn't appear to be much rhyme or reason behind it. I've never considered nursing myself, but if I had then the varying payments would be enough to knock the idea on the head.

Is anyone else in this situation? If so how do you deal with it? Let us know in the comments.

Film Review: Capote

2008-03-19T21:33:00.003Z

Had a bit of spare annual leave which I had to take last week, so I used a half-day and while I had some rare peace and quiet at home I took the chance to see the film Capote.

This was a film I'd been meaning to see for a while. I read (and loved) In Cold Blood for my A levels, and given that the film looks at that book from a different perspective I was interested to see it.

Things I liked:

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote. Masterful.
The ways Capote was shown as manipulative and conniving to get his story. If the whole story took place forty years later you suspect it couldn't happen, no writer would get that kind of access to a major investigation.
The hint of Capote's slide into alcoholism. If you haven't watched it but plan to keep an eye on how often Capote has a drink in his hand while doing something.
The 1950s/60s settings. They appear to have worked really hard on this. It looks pretty authentic (not that I'm an expert on these things, but I was impressed).
Catherine Keener as Harper Lee. Understated, but excellent.
Chris Cooper as Alvin Dewey. Smart, yet compassionate but also capable of anger when he thinks the conflicted Capote might somehow get Hickock and Smith free.
Mark Pellegrino as Dick Hickock. I've seen three different actors play Hickock now. Scott Wilson in the original 1960s film struck me as not menacing enough. Anthony Edwards in the 1990s mini-series kept me think of Goose from Top Gun (sorry, can't help it). It's a pity there isn't more of Pellegrino in this film, as for some reason he comes over as the Hickock I'd read in the book.
Perry Smith watching the warehouse while Lowell Lee Andrews is being executed. I liked the way they left this to the imagination, and the thought of what was facing Smith himself.

Things I didn't like:

The scene where Capote brings in a photographer from New York to get photos of Hickock and Smith. What?! Would the KBI really approve of that? I've always looked out for information on the web to do with In Cold Blood and have never seen these pictures. I can't believe they exist and can't understand why if this didn't happen the scene is included in the film.
The closure of the Smith peeking through his cell during Andrews' execution. Andrews' body leaves the warehouse uncerimonisouly on some kind of farm equipment. It just doesn't fit. Also the book well documents that it was raining heavily when Andrews was executed, yet there's not a drop of rain in any of those shots.
The changing of some names. I know there's probably all sorts of legalities that go with filming a true story, but it annoys me when names get changed and you have to think "Oh, that's actually such and such". There aren't many instances of this, but there are enough to bother you.

As always you wonder exactly what Hollywood has done to the story, what is true and what isn't. For the most part though it's pretty good. I don't think I'd buy it as a DVD though, it's not really light and easy viewing.

For anyone else who is an In Cold Blood fan there's a great feature here at LJWorld.com.

Odd footnote: I love the Southern US and love In Cold Blood, yet I've never read To Kill a Mockingbird. I think I need to fix that at some point in the near future.

Play.com enters the download market

2008-02-21T18:15:00.001Z

And I'm a fan. Consider some of the differences with iTunes:

Price: iTunes, 79p per track. Play.com, prices start from 65p. Most tracks seem to be 70p.

Quality: iTunes, 192Kbps standard. Play.com, 320Kbps standard.

Format: iTunes, own m4p format, nightmare in terms of compatibility. Play.com, .mp3, works with just about everything (including my CD/mp3 player in the car).

DRM: iTunes, tracks are DRM protected. Play.com, no DRM protection.

I think it will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this.

My Work Colleagues, They Know How I Feel

2008-01-24T07:08:00.000Z

Got a cough that won't clear up, they know how I feel.
Think I've got a sty, they know how I feel.
And my neck is sore, they know how I feel.

It's the same place, sucks to work here,
Need a new job...

(And I'm feeeeeeeling GOOOOD!)

Sorry, January blues.

Remembering my step-grandfather

2008-01-07T18:59:00.000Z

My step-grandfather died last month. He was 95, and due to the passing of my paternal and maternal grandfathers in my infancy effectively the only grandfather I ever knew.

He was a smart guy, and was capable of being captivating and personable. My guess is that I must have been six when I met him, and got to know him through an range of magic tricks.

As I got older I came to know him more as an educated reader, with a pretty substantial library. Our conversations became more complicated - not to mention more interesting - as time went by.

Just before his wife passed away I noticed a different side to him, one of a loving, caring husband. After she passed away he kept photos of her prominently where he lived. He clearly missed her. It was quite touching.

He was also a published author. Nothing major, just a small book about the history of a village where he lived. I need to get a copy of this somewhere, and somehow I think that a fitting tribute would be to make it into print myself. That's a matter for another time though.