|
|
Earlier in the month ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cmcmck gave me five questions. I've finally got time to do them justice, so here goes: If not London then where else in the UK might you fancy living and why? This one's easy - Liverpool. We visited for our wedding anniversary last year and had a great 2 days - I wish we'd been there for a week! I'm definitely a city person and I like to be able to walk to shops, have nearby neighbours, and basically have everything packed together and practically on your doorstep. Liverpool had loads of culture, some interesting architecture, and the people were friendly as well as very quick witted. I can see myself living on Hope Street with the Phil as my local... the only downside is that there aren't any Michelin starred restaurants in Liverpool or indeed the surrounding area, so I'm not sure what we'd do for special treats. What got you into pylons? This advert. It made me start thinking of them as people-shaped, and looking out for them on car journeys. Then as I looked, I realised there were different designs for different purposes... and the rest is history. Where in the world have you never visited that you'd like to visit? Australia. I suppose that comes from watching Neighbours as a child and liking INXS - also, the vastness of it. The idea of people getting lost in the bush, poisonous spiders, Uluru, and Christmas in summertime. It all sounds strange and interesting - and yet they speak English and I'm sure most people there lead very similar lives to those in Britain, the topsy-turvyness of the seasons not withstanding. However, as I don't cope well with flying, and don't see the point in wasting a whole day on travel, I doubt I will ever get there. Nor to New Zealand, which sounds like it has many wonderful features in common with Iceland. I'd also like to visit Yellowstone, but again it's miles away. Even if my knees were fine and I could sit comfortably on a plane for the whole distance, I think I'd panic at being a) in the air and b) over water for hours. If you could change one thing to combat ableism, what would it be and why? That's a really good question. I started thinking of answers and then realised they were more than one thing... unless I can submit "attitude", but that's the whole concept of ableism / discrimination, isn't it? I suppose I would like it if people learnt not to stare, never to ask what's wrong with you, not to offer to pray for you, but just to say hi and treat you like any other person. That would be a good start. It's something that could begin in schools, and hopefully be ingrained by adulthood. Is there one person who you would say has been a big influence on your life? If so, how?Ooh. I was going to trot out my standard "my idols are Bob Geldof and Richard Branson because they show what you can achieve if you try" answer, but when I think about who has really affected my life (apart from Mike, whose calming influence goes without saying) I suppose the answer is first, Michael Hutchence, and secondly, Trent Reznor. Sorry, I can't whittle it down to just one. Hutch was someone I lusted after as a teen, but luckily I loved the music too (still do, I last played some earlier this week). Being a fan of Hutch meant I made friends with someone in school that I might otherwise have not mixed with, and I enjoyed her company. It meant I stayed up late watching Dogs In Space, and watched it over and over until the video started to degrade. Then, when I was at uni, he died. My mother rang to see if I was ok, but I hadn't seen the news so I heard it from her. I can't remember what I said but I recall slumping down in a corner of the hall by the telephone, just shocked. I was in a shared house with 3 men who I didn't really get on with, so I avoided the lounge and the TV, but days later I snuck into the lounge in the early hours to watch his funeral on cable TV. And cried. So Hutch counts as a big influence, in that his life and death was able to have that effect on me. As for Trent - his music really speaks to me. Whatever I am feeling, there's a NIN song to cover it. I am always surprised at the gigs to see so many people - when surely the songs are pertinent to me? Also, I remember each album and who introduced it to me, I tried to explain this here but don't think I did a very good job. Everything he does seems to really matter, to be relevant and important. I HAVE to see him on tour. I HAVE to listen to the music. It just resonates with me in a particular way, and to that extent has shaped who I am. Good questions! If anyone would like five, please leave a comment.
Following on from the dog getting covered in paint and barking for assistance, he called me again over the weekend. I know his barks. Once you are familiar with a dog you know what can be answered with a simple "stop it!" or "no more food!", what needs reassurance ("it's ok, Daddy will be home later"), and what requires a more timely response - "Ok, I'm coming to let you out, hold on!" However, he has a short single bark which means "(non-specific) help!" and when repeated urgently I know there is something wrong and I should attend as fast as I can manage. On Thursday it was "Halp! I'z covered in paint!" but over the weekend it turned out to be "Halp! I'z stolen ur carton of apple juice, and my bed's getting wet!" I really shouldn't laugh, but it's very hard not to... Luckily I think laughing at dogs only confuses them. Thu, Dec. 10th, 2009, 06:33 pm
mjg59: Nook update
My nook arrived today, along with an email asking for my shipping address in order to be sent a CD with the source on. So that's progress. The nook itself is an interesting device - it comes in impressively well produced packaging, which looks easily as attractive as any Apple product I've laid hands on lately. Except that it then includes a double-sided sheet of instructions in the outer packaging to tell you how to get the damn thing out. And so far, that seems like a pretty good summary of the device. There's a huge quantity of form here, but the function is lacking. The initial registration was made infuriating by the lag between hitting a key on the keyboard[1] and anything happening. I'm not talking about the understandable lag due to the latency of updates on e-ink screens - I'm talking about the seemingly non-deterministic time between tapping the screen and it indicating that I've pressed a key. The coverflow feature for books is better than selecting from a menu of items (e-ink lends itself badly to interactive displays), but slow and jerky. Worse, it's limited to B&N content. Anything you obtain elsewhere and then copy onto the device (which presents as USB mass storage) ends up in a separate menu without any coverflow. And, even more infuriatingly, you can't catagorise the files you copy on there. It's just one big list, sorted alphabetically by author (surname) and then title. Once you're in a book, things aren't bad. It reformats the text every time you enter a book (no caching), but that takes much less time than my Sony did. The default font is very readable, even at small sizes. But there's clearly something horribly wrong - various epub files I have take up to 4 seconds to perform a page turn, which is way longer than the second or so my Sony took. There's no way to skip to a given page number, which seems like an insane oversight. And, though it's a minor point, the next/previous page buttons are the opposite way around to the Kindle or Sonys, and it's taking a while to get used to that. It's a promising device. The hardware's clearly capable and the software is mostly there, with the features I'm really missing being ones that shouldn't be hard to implement[2]. But those features are pretty glaring, and right now they make this less functional than the Sony, let alone the Kindle. I'm also kind of surprised that it doesn't ship with any kind of cover at all. There's ample opportunity for physical trauma to turn one of these into a paperweight. Side note: My nook managed to include the QA checklist slip, presumably by accident. The nook's internal manufacturing designation appears to be "X2", and mine was built on 2009/11/25. Which would seem optimistic for an intended shipping date in the US of 2009/11/30, which does support the idea that the shipping delay was due to some kind of delay in the hardware production. [1] Presented on the LCD panel [2] Of course, this being closed-source, I can't do so myself. Sigh.
This is a dog that rubbed itself against the wall I'd just painted, and then barked to let me know he was unhappy. He had paint up as far as his ears.  This is a dog that has had a bath. The first one I've ever given him in 5 years (though I've often wondered about doing it, but greyhounds clean themselves like cats, and you wouldn't want to bathe a cat now, would you?)  The photo is before I rubbed him dry - greyhounds have short fur so they aren't going to be sopping wet, but nonetheless I did give him a good towel dry after the photo was taken. The bath went fairly well - he wasn't averse to the idea and let me lift him into the bath and lift him out, which I could only manage with his co-operation as I usually can't lift more than a few kilos, although he wouldn't or couldn't jump in. I had the shower on a gentle and lukewarm setting, and he was happy to be washed and rubbed. Very well behaved considering we've never tried it before. Cray obviously trusts me very well and I hope he's more comfortable for having had a bath. If I'd known he wouldn't mind it, I would have washed him before now. Maybe this time next year he will have another one. Now to keep him warm and not in any drafts until he stops being damp.
Finally! This has taken me a while to write (I am very busy!) so here is what happened last week... I have had a lovely two days of birthday celebrations! Mike took off Thursday and Friday, so on Thursday we had lunch at Le Gavroche (Michel Roux Jr's 2 Michelin starred restaurant) and went to see Gary Numan at the IndigO2 in the evening. Then on Friday, my actual birthday, I spent the afternoon in St Pancras Champagne Bar with friends, and we went on to Pizza Express for dinner. On Saturday I woke up thinking I had to get back to work, as I'd just had two days off so it must be Monday! But no, it was only Saturday... so I went back to sleep. Here's how my birthday treats went... ( Lunch at Le Gavroche )( Gary Numan at IndigO2 )( St Pancras Champagne Bar and Euston Road Pizza Express )I feel thoroughly spoiled and indulged. Wonderful! |
