ababyyou

ababyyou @ 2008-07-14T10:12:00

2008-07-14T09:13:28Z

Anybody who is not already aware of the power of information review -read about it here

The government has finally got with the times and has set up a competition to find the most useful mash-ups of the information it stores. I know the guy who kicked this off, and he is a massive open source freak but more to the point, this is the biggest opportunity we've ever had to influence the way the government uses information.

There are no personal data available, but they are offering gigabytes of info to play with. So get on down to showusabetterway and get involved.

Please, please do repost this if you have friends that I don't who might want to get involved. They've got £20,000 to play with and I for one would like to see it spent on something useful.

North to East

2007-11-21T13:30:15Z

It's been a while, stuff has happened, etc etc.
I've been living on facebook mostly, and haven't been paying proper attention to y'all.
Just a quick update:
My dad's gon into remission, Yay! No more chemo and unamusing side effects for he, and a good few years on the prognosis now.
stsqaud (for it is he) has been offered a shiny job in Cambridge, so I will have lived in Mancs for less than three months before we move again. All of this is pretty much par for the course, except that we are both apparently completely gone on each other and he's now getting proposal advice from unhelpful friends.
My job is fun and may become permanent.
Many lovely friends have been putting me up in London.
I have been accused of instilling unhelpful aphoria in people I speak with at the office.

New Little Game

2007-09-20T12:10:43Z

This one from a lovely poem we found today.

I miss you
Like a bad archer.

So the rules are -
"I verb object
Like single object comparison" The verb needs to have a deliberate double meaning, with the second meaning (for the comparison) as the less obvious one)

Harder than it looks. My best so far is

I start standing
Like Lewis Hamilton (an F1 racing driver)

Moving North

2007-08-29T00:30:34Z

I gave my notice to my landlady today. I'm moving to Manchester on the first weekend of October! As of then, look for me at my new Stretford address!

North/South divide

2007-08-20T08:35:50Z

Okay people. Hypothetically, just hypothetically mind, what would you think if I were to agree to move in with stsquad until his house is ready to sell?

The Boring Ultimatum?

2007-08-20T08:22:42Z

Actually, boring it wasn't, though repetitive it was.
This reporter and her trusty movie partner stsquad Went to see The Bourne Ultimatum yesterday. Cinema was packed, and it is possible that some of the after effects stemmed from the fact that we had to sit quite near to the screen to sit together.

Conversation after went something like this:
"how was it for you?"
"I have a headache, please don't ask me questions"
"Oh good, I thought it was just me"

Essentially, the plot was just as acceptable as the other two, with the bonus of practically no new characters. The filming, however, was LAZY.
Arial shot of city, closeups on landmarks. Name of city (and country, for Americans). Shaky-cam thorough the streets at ground level, Matt Damon's face spliced in with shaky, zoomy shots of the landscape (that's the bit that made us poorly). Running, a quick detente, and then he kills/chooses not to kill someone and we repeat the whole thing. I counted at least six cities. Sigh.

Rare family moment

2007-08-06T07:43:49Z

For the last few weeks, my family have been enjoying something of a reunion, as not one but both of my siblings returned to the UK at the same time. This hasn't happened for a good eight years at least.

My brother was replete with new wife and two sons (3 and 1 year old), who were left with my enthusiastic mother and sister while they went on a European honeymoon. I have to say team Moth and Aunty looked considerably more dishevelled by the end of the two weeks, but still very happy. I helped out when I could, but owing to the fact that i'm a soft touch, I mostly stayed away for my health, as the boys currently identify me with "aeroplane", "fall down", "monster chase" and other games which are high energy and wreck the back and knees of any sensible adult.

They all came down to London for a goodbye picnic this weekend, and for once the weather held out. It's good to see almost all of your family in one place, and for once we had some quiet time. Unfortunately, not much in the way of conversation can be had when there are two toddlers demanding attention, but it won't happen again for a long time, so we made the most.

I also spent some lovely time with kangeiko and athena25 who are great, and saw the new Harry Plotter, so noone can say I'm not "down" with the kids (for "kids", read "MPs")

Realise my dignity chip has finally short circuited altogether - I really miss stsquad

meme for athena

2007-07-16T02:24:33Z

This one for athena25, and

1. Where is your cell phone?: checked in already

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend?: geeking out opposite

3. Your hair?: still on head

4. Where is your father?: somewhere hotter, better

6. Your favorite thing to do?: pancakes, sex, rollercoasters

7. Your dream last night?: kittens, nuns, ninjas

8. Your favorite drink? daquiri, slightly sour

9. Your dream car?: austin healy v6

10. The room you're in?: another airport bar

12. Your fears?: rabid vampire onions

14. Who did you hang out with last night? my guard llama

15. What you're not good at? speaking less often

16. Muffins? same to you

17. One of your wish list items?: comps for everything

18. Where did you grow up?: hong kong island

19. The last thing you did before this survey: loudly released gas

20. What are you wearing? clothes and...stuff

23. Your computer? not wearing anything

24. Your life? still mostly there

25. Your mood? sleepy and passive

26. Missing? presumed drunk somewhere

27. What are you thinking about right now?: old school friends

28. Your car? not thinking anything

29. Your work?: job for life

30. Your summer? full of canada

31. Your relationship status? depends...*returns laptop*

32. Your favorite color(s): orange mocha frappachino

33. When is the last time you laughed?: Juste pour rire

34. Last time you cried?: see question above

O Canada

2007-07-09T20:54:44Z

Canada is fun so far!
Details can be found on stsquad's page, accesible through my friends page. kethera's wedding was amazing. I passed on love and good wishes from all who wanted to be there but couldn't make it, and there was much waterworks on all sides. Her husband is just perfect, and has my official stamp of approval (FACT), as do family from both sides and the many new friends we made. Apparently I have forever endeared myself to the best man for threatening to cut his balls off if he touched a can of cider (part of Jordan's wedding present) within the first three sentences of our meeting (malinari86 and others may recall this to be typical friendly banter on my part).

Driving on the right is both fun and profitable, cruise control on the automatic beast of a hire car ensures that I can consistently drive at 10kph over the limit. The parks and scenery in general really are on another level of beauty from what I've experienced before. However, tales of -40 centigrade have left me HORRIBLY unprepared for the sticky humidity. It's around 90-100% in the areas we've visited so far, and 25-30 celsius. All of the lakes and waterlands, combined with the above mentioned weather make perfect breeding ground for man's ultimate enemy. Seriously, the only hope for us is to nuke the Algonquin provincial park from orbit. Now! Do not delay!

As a little aside, in Huntsville last night, stsquad displayed a rare moment of unadulterated romanticism and sillyness, when we stopped off on our walk out of town in a thunderstorm at 10pm to buy ice cream, which we ate whilst holding hands.

Audacity

2007-07-01T22:08:07Z

Also, since i'm online and geeking out, Audacity (audio editor) is BRILLIANT! Not only is it open source and free, but it works across Windows, Mac and Linux etc, writing not only MP3 and Wav but also Ogg Vorbis, so it should satisfy stsquad's restrictions on software I can put on my computer. A minidisc, 3.5mm jack and a microphone give just HOURS of fun. Can't wait to get good at modulation!

Little one's adventures in the big place

2007-07-01T20:54:31Z

Well, with stsquad away in Ottawa I have had to rely on madness and circumstance for my kicks. Herein lies

Where to start? I'm back on crutches for a bit, since my pre-op assessment for my knee surgery revealed more welling than expected. Frank and I had agreed to play playstation on Friday, specifically Final Fantasy XII. Blah blah, agreed to meet for 8, blah, went for some cocktails, discovered last copy of game in store, sat in a pub, Frank worked late, blah. So, at around 9.45, several whiskey sours and G&Ts later, we sit down to play.

ME: I've got the game, where's your PS2?
FRANK: You're kidding? I don't have one.
ME: Ha ha, where is it?
FRANK: Seriously, get your's out and lets play

ast forward to both of us realising that we now have 3 games and no console. After some discussion, we decided that Frank couldn't come to my place because his new kilt was being couriered over (don't ask) and that I should get the PS2 and return. He gave me all the cash he had (£30) and said go to the main road and grab a taxi, so off I went.

I walked towards the sound of traffic, BIG MISTAKE. After scaling a large embankment and going under a couple of subways, I encountered the road and realised, looking backwards at the signs to the M4, that I was on the A4, a tri-carriageway road with no chance of taxis, or anything stopping. Undaunted I continued walking, hoping for a main street or something. About 500 metres from the Barnes roundabout I got my first break. A van pulled over on the side of the road was a CPS dog unit.

I approached with my most innocent face on and explained that I was some way away from my destination and needed to find a taxi. The polite man explained that he was also lost, having moved to the UK from Romania a fortnight ago. In the end, I agreed to navigate him to Kensington, mostly by guess work, in exchange for him taking me along. Suddenly, just past Earls Court, George (that was his name) exclaimed that he could see a taxi behind us. He stopped in the middle of the road and I leapt out, saying goodbye to him and Lady (the large police alsatian) and entered the taxi from the wrong side. The driver said that this was one of the more surprising methods of hailing a cab he had encountered, and that I'd be lucky to go one way home on £30, let alone there and back. After a quick explanation of my quest, we agreed on Victoria and the tube.

At some cost to my knees, I pelted down the various stairs and escalators and hopped on the waiting southbound train. And waited. and, after 5 or so minutes, an announcement apologised that no more trains would be going south, and that this one was being turned around. Back up the stairs then and then the length of the platform to catch a Balham train with 2 minutes to spare. Suffice to say that after taking every method of transport possible, waving down buses in the street and so forth, I made it back for midnight. Another half hour to hook it up to Pete's labyrinthine personal audio visual setup and we had our game.

And no power in the 'verse was going to stop us playing.

Pete came back through around 8.30, and commented that our conversation ("get the treasure!" "don't forget to heal" "no, go left!" "is that a hyena?"), if it had been recorded, could have been used to elicit confessions from captives without leaving a mark.

By around midday, we agreed that brunch would be pleasant, so off we went.

Saturday was a bit of a battle against sleep, but it involved Mojo Mickybo, a fabulous gem from Owen McCafferty about two boys in Belfast at the start of the Troubles. Two actors in a cast of dozens, we particularly liked the local gang - "Gank-the-Wank" and "Fuckface" - and the bus driver. As ever, the play's entertainment value was increased a thousand-fold by the presence of athena25 and wingsmith,, whose insightful comments during and after combine with coffee to make some really good conversation.

For a special treat, I went to the Barbican with my mum to see Chick Corea and Gary Burton play a really tremendous set. It was recorded for BBC radio 3 and will be played on September 7. If you've ever wondered what a Piano and Vibes, classically influenced jazz duo might sound like then this could be your chance. For those of you who didn't know, Chick was Miles Davies' pianist for a good while, and is quite amazing in his own right. I hadn't come across Gary Burton before, but he was truly spectacular.

Then I slept, nuf said

As an aside, while I was typing this up, I was unfortunate enough to have The Forgotten come on in the background. NEVER WATCH THIS MOVIE. It's just bad.

Hidden with magic, because your browser's worth it!

What do they think they'll achieve?

2007-06-30T23:03:35Z

I was going to write about my adventures, but I'll do that another time.

Since the bomb cars discovered in Haymarket on Thursday (ambulance crew alerted by colleagues of mine, who all went to the club after I left to go home), and the discovery this evening that two men had driven a flaming land-rover into the departure lounge at Glasgow Airport, I just wanted to make my views known.

Once was frightening as hell. That was 9/11. Madrid and London brought it closer to home.
However - not only are we actually quite used to terrorist threats (lets not even look back to WWII bombing - what about London and Manchester in the 80s with IRA bombers and so forth), but they are more and more desparate to attract attention.

I think that the vast portion of the population now knows:
a) The people who are stupid enough to believe fanatics are rarely smart enough to give good terror.
b) Attacks aren't really trying to make a religious or political point, or else they would be warning people, and making demands
c) Actually, the safest place to be is where a bomb was recently identified and diffused (law of averages states that no two bombs, etc etc.
d) We might as well just get on with having as good a time as we can.

As a result, with a large strip of London closed off for further investigation, the London Pride march went ahead, more tarty and full of floats than before. My favourite this year was "lesbain and gay dentists of England"

Anyway, the question is this - do we think that anyone likely to try bombing SoHo is going to be smart enough to realise there's no real fear effect occuring anymore?

answers on a very small postcard..

Kevin Spacey kissed my cheek!

2007-06-15T11:02:42Z

athena25 I am expressing my gratitude the best way I know how - through the internet. Attending the press night of Gaslight at the Old Vic was one of the more exciting things to have happened to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the treat and your company.

In an attempt not to name-drop in my excitement, perhaps I could instead draw all of your attention to my submission for typo of the week:

"Governance at project and programme level is different in some ways to corporate or pubic sector governance."

I for one agree. I think that governance of my pubic is sector vastly different to project management :-D

Computers and Birthdays

2007-06-05T10:20:47Z

Not working for a bit has tended to mean that I've been out and about, very much not using computers. So, having spent an hour reading through all of your comments from the last month, I thought it would be easier to post once.

Welcome, all newcomers to the green isles. Looking forward to hearing about rain and rare rpgs.
People who froth - so do I, I'll see you next weekend
People in Manchester - some of you I didn't manage to see at all, for which my apologies- perhaps we'll catch up at Rocky or Phil and Carl's?

It's my birthday on the 25th, which is a Monday. So, the Saturday before (23 June) will be a day of lying in the park, doing picnic and frisbee things until it rains, at which point we'll find a warm pub. Do let me know if you'll be in London and might come and say hi.

Goodreads is looking more and more like a site I might have to join.

I start my new job on Monday! here's hoping its fun

Always use a condom boys and girls...

2007-05-10T05:03:17Z

Morning people

Oral sex can cause throat cancer

Aww crap ;-)

Last meme for a while

2007-05-04T10:06:09Z

Thank you athena25 for this! I found the questions entertaining and happy to share. But now I must stop doing memes and think about work.

I'm going to lunch at the House of Lords with a Baroness today!

What type of Fae are you?

Freaks and the freaks who write about them

2007-05-03T12:10:03Z

While pondering whether or not the Diagram Prize had been awarded yet this year, I came across this .

I've only just managed to stop laughing enough to post.

Everybody's doing it

2007-05-02T07:29:04Z

Cute, though the assessment will probably make some laugh as hard as I did :-)

Old Laptop, new problem

2007-04-30T21:43:22Z

Doh! Not being able to access my desktop was one thing, but my G4 powerbook now has a different problem. Despite being hooked up and turned off, the battery does not appear to be charging. In fact, it's slowly going DOWN. Ideas?

Milkybar Kid

2007-04-18T09:29:35Z

Well, I have now officially seen Daniel Radcliffe's willy.

Seriously though, I took Jo to see Equus for her birthday and it was seriously good. Wonderful greens and blues for that alien feel, which really well contrasted the few warm moments in the play.
If I were to pick one problem in the show for me, it was that, presumably to ram the point home to the Potter fans, the Catholic mother had to be Irish, and of course the socialist father was from 'oop North. How then, even living in the home counties, did they manage to raise a boy who had practically no contact with people other than his mum and dad and american cowboys, but who had a perfect, cut glass accent?
Well - that was about the only thing I could pick a hole in, because otherwise it was a cracking show. The dancers who played the horses gave great atmosphere, the set was very well thought out - especially the carpeted inner ring (though the forced moving around of four blocks did begin to pall after a time). In the end, I think the most understated character for me was the magistrate. I didn't really see the point of her until the second act, when I realised that she was the anchor to reality, that as the psychiatrist got deeper and deeper into Strang's worship, she was the banal sense check that stopped him from being sucked into the whirlpool headfirst.

And hooray for the field of Ha Ha, and trinkle-trankles. I'll never look at a milkybar the same way again.

Britain in the World

2007-04-17T15:27:57Z

By the by, for anyone who's interested, here is the lastest of the Prime Minister's papers

More Champagne

2007-04-17T15:00:39Z

As ever, Alex has probably done a much better write-up of the weekend. I did start coming down with a cold on Saturday, and probably shouldn't have gone to Jo's birthday drinks, but I did really want to meet her. We got on well, I think (at least, we're going out for a drink tonight to talk about Alex and each other more).

The photo shoot for my cousin did indeed have a whiff of excitement about it - I've never been a topless model before, but since it was for my cousin, and with my mum and it's for ART I think it's okay.

Struggled through slowly rising temperature and slowly departing hangover on Sunday (and I am sorry, queenspanky for not getting to your birthday. It was far away and I was sick and VERY hammered, and the waitresses were painfully gorgeous (they themselves had gotten drunk on Friday and dared each other to work in schoolgirl outfits the next day. One had borrowed a black miniskirt from the other's 16-year-old sister, and the cleavages, oh, the cleavages)

Lunch with Alex's Nana and aunt and uncle was very welcome, as was a quiet evening in, and being read to in the dying sunlight on the roof garden is about the most heavenly thing.

Yesterday was made of sleep, and more sleep. It took me three attempts to get the togetherness to go and buy medicine. After about 24 hours of cough mixture, lemsip, lucozade, vics and anything else I could find that didn't clash chemically, I am feeling pretty much back to normal.
(though getting evil looks from new guy about my continuous coughing :-P)

Nudge acknowledged

2007-04-13T16:25:07Z

Wow, what a weekend.
Fun was had, things were thrown, etc

I finally met Ed Fortune - he am teh roXor, and is now part of the new Lyzanian massive. Big up also to Dan (you furry freak), Alex, Thom, Ben, all@loom, Mishka, Mark, Sarah's 1 and 2 and all others who made this Maelstrom event the rockingest. Special doubleplus goodness for the eidolon who was send by the gods themselves to do up my corset - Huzzah!

I will do a breakdown on maelfroth, probably.

Also this week was fun - My dad came to stay with his wife, and we did amusing things like go back to the house where my sister was born and buy kippers (separately, not at the house).

Dad has found me the most amazing present - apparently if I get married again then its a wedding present and I have to share it, so bad luck anyone who was hoping for that. He found it in Oxford in the Antiquarian section - it is the signed, limited edition practice print of the first edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam illustrated by Edmund Dulac. By which I mean that Dulac signed it and the version number is 000 of 750!

I nearly died...

(for the 99% who don't get that or don't care - screw you guys, I'm going home :-P )

PS - wibblefish thanks for the nudge - I didn't know you could do that (single tear forms on cheek, expressions of surprise that you're bothered, morphing into amusing yet sarcastic comments that you spend too much time online, would it hurt to pick up the phone, finishing in apologies for not coming up to see you lot, and for taking your homeboy far away on a regular basis. See you in a fortnight though!)

Rats can't swim after all

2007-03-21T09:40:58Z

Ahh, the familiar smell of the sinking ship. My office is undergoing a restructure befroe it tries to appear as a phoenix from the ashes. Everyone with any talent has jumped - we have only two from five senior managers now, and many good staff have hightailed it. This morning, staff arrived to find in their inboxes little emails apologising that they had not be fitted to the new structure. I had an interview last week for a great job. Unfortunately, I went expecting an informal chat and got a competency-based interview, which I cocked up royally. Yesterday I was informed that I was unsuccessful, though I thank the gods that the feedback did say it was some of my interview responses that let me down - apparantly I would otherwise have been the ideal candidate.
Today I learn that there is no place for me in the new structure, the work I currently do being shifted up to a new deputy director (a position so high above me that I cannot apply for it), and two different posts.

Anyone who wants to make me feel better would be greatly appreciated and I would buy them drinks next time I saw them.

Comic Relief

2007-03-19T00:34:31Z

OMG!
The first time I miss comic relief and this happens? Kudos to the PM.

On a note closer to home - my sister is going to be leaving teaching to run an orphanage in Nepal. Since the charity she will be working for is quite poor in that region of the world, she is trying to raise sponsorship, and I, being a bad big sister, have left it rather late to get involved.

However - here I am. If you haven't given to charity for a while, or if you have and you like the idea of helping my sister to change the lives of some children who are alone in the world, then please do visit her giving page here and pledge a pound, or five, or what you can. If you live in the UK, and you pay tax, then don't forget to add GiftAid for that extra special government present.

In fact, even if you're not able to give anything, let me know if you're willing to put up a fiver and a kind word on the site and I'll pay you back for it - since it's more than just the money, it's also partly to let her know that people support what she's doing and think it's a good thing.

There - end of advertising

xxx