Category
Rants
-
09.01.04SeetheToday, I spat out the word "...wanker" under my breath and/or in my head, in the direction of fourteen people. Several were on public transport. At least three were inside a building. One was on the end of a phone line. A couple were in the vicinity of cash registers (one in front, one behind). I also cried once: a dozen hot, silent, frustrated tears, into cupped hands in front of my face. I think this is my subconscious' way of telling me I need a holiday. Luckily, there's one just around the corner, in the form of a five day break ...
-
11.27.03Well…I personally don't plan on arguing about anything of the sort (second article down). In fact, if that's the main attraction of the evening, I shan't bother coming at all. It sounds like it could be quite tedious. Also reported in the Guardian recently:President Bush came over to the UK last week to talk with tony blair and discuss who's going to win the Guardian's blog competition. Maxine Carr's statement to the police was revealed at the Soham trial at the Old Bailey: "He never did it! He didn't! Ooh, who's going to win the Guardian blog competition?" Georgian leaders appealed ...
-
11.25.03It Wasn’t MeIs the Interwebnet broken? Did someone trip over the flex and pull the plug out of the wall by mistake? Is there jam all over it? Loads of sites seem to be down/not responding or half responding but being i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y s - l - o - w to load. Sites which work one minute suddenly won't work the next - and sites which won't work, work again, randomly, moments later - blogs, google, all sorts of things. It's really odd, and it's been going on for hours and it's starting to really get on my wick. Now then. See what I ...
-
09.25.03Mustn’t grumble. Oh go on then.Many mild annoyances for the day:The drycleaner said my skirt would be ready Thursday lunchtime. Thursday lunchtime comes; he hasn't been able to find an invisible zip for my green skirt. I resist the temptation to tell him I'm not surprised, and the further temptation to point out that if he'd looked for said invisible zip on Monday, when I actually dropped it in, rather than waiting until this morning, he might have been able to get around to obtaining one between then and now, and therefore doing his cocking job. I refrain, and he lets me know I can ...
-
08.11.03Pick a number, any numberIn response to this lazily written piece by Bill Thompson about whether blogs are losing their appeal, and specifically addressing his point that "the earliest bloggers have been at it for two years now..." I replied:Two years, Bill? Where did that number come from? Instapundit has been at it for two years - but he's a relative newbie. Is that who you meant, when you said "the earliest bloggers"? What a generalisation! A little bit of research would have revealed that the earliest bloggers have in fact been at it for four, five, even six years and more. Based on ...
-
05.15.03Get quicky with the clickyCan we just go over this whole interactive world wide globalhypermegainterwebnet thing again? I know it can be a bit confusing, so let's just go over a couple of key points.First, in your advert, you say:"World of Creamy Cheeses! Call us for more information or click on www.worldofcreamycheeses.com"This is not right. If I click on www.worldofcreamycheeses.com, I will, in fact, end up somewhere else. This is called "linking" and it's quite fundamental. Better to say: "Visit us at www.worldofcreamycheeses.com"Secondly, you want me to contact you. You're a DJ. You want feedback. OK, that's understandable. So how do you ask for ...
-
04.29.03BzzzBusy busy, packing and more. Reflecting on what a lots of stuff we have, and how nice it will be when we've moved it all a mile and half down the road, and unpacked it all again. There has to be an easier way of moving. Why hasn't anyone made teleportation a reality yet?We knuckled down this weekend in earnest, determined to get the bulk of the packing out of the way.We've surpassed ourselves: now, there are a couple of days until the move and practically nothing left to do. Except wait.No such thing as restraint, when you're eager to ...
-
03.27.03Coca. Cocaine. Spot the difference.UPDATE: I wrote to Ananova to point out the mistranslation and they have since corrected the story and acknowledged that the original wording was misleading. New cocaine sweet 'will help people relax' A company in Peru is developing a sweet made out of a mixture of caramel and cocaine....[Ananova story]Talk about sensationalism. Talk about ignorance. Talk about mistranslation. Talk about fact-checking.Mrs Lazo added: "I want to demystify the use of cocaine leaves. In many parts people chew or make tea with them to fight altitude sickness."Cocaine is not the same thing as coca. One is a manufactured drug, the other is ...
-
03.13.03While we’re talking about hypothetical situations…....If your landlord's daughter lived in the flat upstairs, and for some reason insisted on playing incredibly loud thumpy music all night on her new stereo which just happened to be located square above your desk, where you were trying to concentrate, at what point, if any, would you think it was fitting to march upstairs and kindly request her to shut the fuck up, and how?
-
02.27.03If you’re going to use it, spell it rightIt's Liaise. Not Liase, no matter what Mr Gates' spellchecker may tell you.Useless fact for word buffs: "Liaison" is a seventeenth century cookery term and "liaise" was invented by the army in the 1920s. [words-work]I have a friend who was once the editor of a major London listings and culture magazine. He once told me that as a matter of course, he binned every CV for an editorial position which spelled that word wrong. You might be able to use it in context, he argued, but if you rely on your computer to tell you when you've made a mistake, ...
recent posts
- Another city, another event, another night alone in another hotel.
- Is this the emergence of the Twittering classes?
- Noises off
- Music for Rail Journeys
- Being a list of songs relating to the switching on of the LHC
- A moment’s pause
- In search of a simple sandwich
-
Looking for the Anti-Valentines?
