November 2008
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Righty, as of five minutes from now, I’m on my holidays. I’ve got my flight to Cincinnati tomorrow, then on Sunday I’ll be getting to San Francisco, and the following Saturday/Sunday it’ll be back to London.
Have a good fortnight, Tumblr people.
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The girlfriend has organised something tonight for my birthday, and I’ve no idea what. I’m flying off on holiday tomorrow, which is also my birthday, and she told me last week to keep this evening free.
I’m still in the dark, and it was only a couple of hours ago that she said to meet at Piccadilly Circus at 6.30 this evening. A few mates are apparently coming, but I’ve...
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“The moon is better than the sun, because the moon gives us light at night, when...”
– Groucho Marx.
Heh.
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The girlfriend: btw do you know any famous brit women golfers?
Me: [instantly] Laura Davies is the main one. think she's not long retired
The girlfriend: thanks!
Me: why do i have all this useless trivia in my head?
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Why is the US so goddamn big?! I’m flying to Kentucky tomorrow, where the weather is hovering around freezing for the rest of this week, and then on to San Francisco, where the outlook is positively tropical compared to London.
I feel like I need to pack two suitcases: one with fleeces and scarves, and the other with t-shirts and sunglasses.
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“[The girlfriend] is well and we are please to say continues a relationship with...”
– The girlfriend’s mum sends a round-robin email to family friends each month, and to her kids too. This line was in yesterday’s, according to the girlfriend.
Am I a “most delightful young lad”? I like to think so. But the bit about “permanent fixture” is a little...
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“If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball”
– Patches O’Houlihan
Dodgeball was on TV last night, and I had to watch it, even though I think I’ve got the DVD somewhere. The girlfriend somehow hadn’t seen it before. It’s one of my favourites from the whole Vaughn, Stiller, Ferrell and Wilson collection of films, right up...
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In Tumblr’s Preferences screen, you can specify Markdown as your editor instead of the automatic HTML-generating WYSIWYG view
Markdown is a plain-text editing language optimized for quick writing and easy reading. You can mix in HTML if you want. Inline styles such as italics and bold are easy, plus some other conveniences:
[SNIP!]
The only downside is that it fills up with...
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Do As We Say, Not As We Do →
As MediaMonkey points out, The Sun got its knickers in a twist a few weeks ago about an old photo of Katy Perry posing with a knife. They linked it to a couple of stabbings that weekend, in a piece of “how dare she” moralising. Perry beautifully got her own back on her blog, posing with a spoon.
Today, the same newspaper, The Sun, carries a mock-up of some X-Factor contestant as the...
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Hurrah! The books I ordered have arrived, way ahead of time. “Estimated Delivery Date 18th November” my arse. Definitely worth going for free delivery. Now I just need to refrain from reading them this weekend, and make sure they make it into my bag for some trans-Atlantic mile-high entertainment.
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It’s been ages since I’ve just hung out on IM and talked to people. This evening a couple of voices from the past messaged me, and it was great to catch up. Hopefully I’ll be able to see one of them when I’m over in the States next week.
I used to be on MSN all the time, but nowadays my evenings tend to be fuller, or I’m hanging out with the girlfriend or something....
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Quagmire It! →
Read any site as if Quagmire from Family Guy was reading it to you. Awesome.
A highlight from my long post about universities:
If you graduated in a subject other than law, but want to become a lawyer, you can do a one-year conversion course. This is similar to the American law school system, I suppose. Wait, hold the phone, you took me away from a Swedish girly-girl and her paralyzed but...
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I was reading an article about US student loans earlier, and it struck me just how different that system is from ours. The obvious difference is financially, but in wider terms too there are also some big differences. I did law at university, so will probably use that as an example throughout.
At the age of 18, those in Britain who want to go to university choose just one subject to study for...
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Eddie Gaedel is my new favourite sportsman →
Career on-base percentage: 1.000.
Not bad for a 3’7” guy…
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WatchYou Can’t Picture This, by OpenCircuit, from current.com
This is a good little homemade clip about the legalities of filming in a public place in Britain. The cameraman/director is hassled by some Police Community Support Officers (sort of volunteer policemen with less training) for the simple act of filming in public. The way he is treated by that one officer in particular is appalling,...
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Samuel L Sessions - Can You Relate
Just an...
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When are your birthdays?
Via brooklet14, loads of other people, awesome-everyday
November 19th. Am I next?
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My current house is currently being offered at £100pcm less than we’re paying at the moment. And I thought we did well to knock the landlord down from his initial offer price of £2000 to £1800. On that form, he’d take £1500 for it, which would save each of the three tenants £100 per month compared to me and my housemates.
Le Sigh at the injustice of it all.
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The girlfriend is actually quite little
The girlfriend: must write urban farm feature
The girlfriend: spent whole morning looking at cute animals
Me: did you hold a lamb?
The girlfriend: no they are waiting for two ewes to lamb
The girlfriend: i did pet a shetland pony
The girlfriend: which was so sweet!
Me: Headline: Reporter finds ideally-sized horse for her.
The girlfriend: huh!
The girlfriend: that is so not funny
Me: it so is
Me: i have a massive grin on my face now
The girlfriend: i'll have you know I was taller than the pony
The girlfriend: just
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This morning, I figured out how to use the timer setting on my washing machine.
It’s this kind of ability to learn that separates us from the animals. That and the fact that we wear clothes and thus need to have washing machines at all.
But mostly it’s the learning.
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How do you breathalyse a whale? →
Add something else to the list of things I want to do at some point in my life.
Fuck swimming with dolphins, I want to breathalyse a motherfucking whale.
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Samichlaus (pronounced Sommy-Clouss) is one of the strongest lager beers in the world, at 14% alcohol by volume, and the best known of all European Christmas beers. The name means Santa Claus in Swiss German.
malty
Have you ever tried Samichlaus? We used to stock it in a bar I once worked in, and I gave it a go once.
I can safely say that it tastes like DEATH. I can handle strong,...
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“If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the...”
– from Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
I remember studying this one at school, and it’s one of the most powerful anti-war poems ever written; made all the more poignant by the fact that Owen died just a week before the end of World War I.
His line “My subject is War, and the pity...
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“stupid USA and their lack of universal healthcare”
– Me, bemoaning the fact that I’ve got to take out some travel insurance for my holiday in the States next week. I don’t bother if I’m travelling in Europe, but I figure that I’d better for this trip, just in case
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Adding AIM contacts to GChat? Don’t mind if I do! Is there seriously anything that Gmail can’t do? I want it to have my babies.
I’m a big fan of consolidating as much as possible when it comes to pretty much everything, and this is right up my alley. I’ve got Gmail (and therefore Gchat) open all day while at work, which now includes AIM too.
At home, I use Pidgin, which...
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After chatting with malty about beer and books, I figured that I’d best order some of the latter before I go on holiday next week. I’ve got through a lot of books recently, and don’t really have any left on my shelves that I want to take with me. Seeing as I’ve got at least 30 hours of travelling ahead of me in the next fortnight, I need some reading material.
On...
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I’ve decided that I’m not a fan of myself when I’m cleanly shaven. I look about 12 years old, not double that. It’s just not a good look, and it’s why I try to limit myself to shaving only once or twice a week, even if that leaves me looking a touch more than stubbly over the weekend.
Having a bit of stubble is a much better look, although it’s a fine line...
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“All the best”
– This is such an old man’s way to end a phone call, as evidenced by the old men on my desk who use it all the time…
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Tumblr’s new LIKE feature - An instant reaction.
Aesthetically, it’s incredibly distracting. When I read the dashboard, I don’t notice the words “reblog” or “X notes”. It’s because they are words, and less intrusive in the grey colour than the blob of a heart. And that’s what the heart looks like out of the corner of my eye: a blob. We read...
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“I have a shrine built out of your hair. I collect it when you’re asleep”
– Me, to the girlfriend.
She’s clearing her desk because of some refurbishment work at her office this weekend, so I asked if she had any photos of me there. A few lines later in the IM, and I came out with this one.
Reminds me of Hey Arnold.
Please note, I don’t actually have a...
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Gmail’s just been blocked at my work. And therefore GChat too…
What am I supposed to do now?! Actually do some work?
EDIT: Phew, panic over. Unblocked. I guess a few people must’ve called IT and asked what the fuck was going on…
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Probably the greatest Gumtree ad ever →
Do you love to play Super Mario Brothers on the Classic Nintendo System? Do you like to get tagged from behind while you do it? […]
When you reach the flag you must again trigger the fireworks, and also orgasm. I will pull out. When the 1-3 starts I will penetrate your ass. You are allowed to say something like “OH GOD”, “YES”, OR “IT HURTS” no...
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Sitting where our receptionist does, and hearing that “Doors closing” noise from the lifts every thirty seconds would drive me fucking insane.
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When there is a timetable for big political/economic decisions (such as the monthly interest rates meeting), and one is approaching, there is plenty of discussion in the media as to what the decision will be. Various bodies and individuals give their arguments one way or the other, and the commentariat make predictions.
Inevitably, the vast majority of these predictions are wrong, but there is...
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These bad boys are incredible. I’ve got the beginnings of a sore throat at the moment, so bought a box of what I assumed were pretty normal throat lozenges to head off the worst.
And these things are bloody intense. They must have some serious anaesthetic in them, because my mouth feels like I’ve been at the dentist all morning. My tongue feels like it’s lolling around all over...
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It's true, I do call her 'munchkin' sometimes
The girlfriend: do you know you hardly ever call me [Her Name]?
Me: how do you mean?
The girlfriend: In your emails or text messages I cant find one instance where you have called me by my first name
Me: really? hahaha
Me: just in case someone is reading my emails and texts
Me: it's plausible deniability
The girlfriend: really?
The girlfriend: wonder what they would make of:
The girlfriend: munchkin
The girlfriend: ma cherie
Me: darlin
Me: oi, you
Me: mush
The girlfriend: yup thats one you tend to use a lot - less of the oi you more of the eejit and the mush
Me: i like mush. it's cute
The girlfriend: cute?
The girlfriend: I'm not complaining
The girlfriend: its better than munchkin
Me: shall i start being more formal in emails?
Me: "dear [Her Name]" ... "yours, with love, Rob"
The girlfriend: No!
The girlfriend: I like the fact that our electronic communication feels like we're picking up a conversation where we left off
Me: i like how our conversations spread over so many mediums. in person, phone, text, email, chat
Me: i should buy a carrier pigeon
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Michael Crichton has died →
I’m a big fan of his books, especially the pair of Jurassic Park novels. I must’ve read the first one 15 times by the time I finished school. He managed to combine science/technology with a real knack for fast-paced thrillers, and wasn’t afraid of looking at emerging technologies and potential issues that might arise in the future.
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“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not...”
– Nelson Mandela’s letter to Obama. Empowering and humbling at the same time.
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America is now ready for a black president, it... →
Baby steps, I guess…
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I’ve been looking on Delta’s website about what I can/can’t take onboard my flights, and what to expect food/entertainment-wise, and I was thrilled to discover that electric shavers are allowed to be used at any time, including take-off and landing.
So you have to turn your laptop and iPod off, but can carry on shaving your face or head. I love arbitrary rules.
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“Someday I’ll be rich enough to hire Nate Silver to help make all my life...”
– Today’s mouseover on xkcd is genius. I’ve been addicted to 538.com (Nate Silver’s site) for the last few weeks, and it looks like he was pretty damn close to being right this time around with regards to the election outcomes.
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“Could’ve been worse; could’ve been a woman”
– One of my work colleagues today. I think he’s only semi tongue-in-cheek.