winter holidays

another day off work. and without clearly defined goals I seem to drift randomly about in the universe. today I ended up in a café in fashionable didsbury village. the coffee was a bit fierce for my tastes. later I have to go into town to take some CDs back to the library

the blogger login is getting integrated with the google login. I could put it off but it will have to be done sooner or later. I'm a bit apprehensive. If you don't hear from me again then it didn't work, but to paraphrase Rorshach, I regret nothing. Have blogged free from compromise and step into the shadows now without complaint

shortest day/longest night

after today the days get longer (at least for my readers in the northern hemisphere) which is good. I like to see sunlight, other light just isn't the same colour. And warmer weather should follow which is another plus.
I've been thinking about musicians whose output doesn't really grab me, but who have done one song that I think is brilliant. Sometimes the phrase "one hit wonder" would apply, sometimes a particular song scores with me because it has played in a film or a significant moment of my life. It's recently been suggested that I pretend to like strange stuff just to confuse people. Anyway, here is the track listing for the all-time greatest, one-off track compilation tape that never existed.

Ten Pole Tudor	Swords of a Thousand Men
Edith Piaf	Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
Screaming J Hawkins	I put a spell on you
Martha & the Muffins	Echo Beach
The Only Ones	Another Girl, Another Planet

Five songs isn't really enough for a decent compilation tape, if anyone has any suggestions please comment....

Fruit & veg today? - ample
Exercise today? - nil
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - should be okay for 8 or thereabouts

insomnia

How d'you do, O pasty moon?
I want to ask of you a boon.
I want to fall asleep tonight,
And wake refreshed in Dawn's new light.

Avoid spam

I was taking a web survey and they wanted an email address. I hate spam, so I gave them a shot of mailinator.
Mailinator is like webmail, but disposeable. You pick an email address e.g. matt@mailinator.com and if anyone sends email to it then it shows up in a totally non-private way on the site. Did anyone send mail to that address? Probably, it's a pretty common name - take a look
But for a more private approach I like Jetable which gives you an alias for the email address you enter. So it all goes to your normal mailbox, but when you get an alias you give it an expiry date, like 1 day or 1 week or 1 month. If a spammer gets hold of it you'll get the spam but for one month at most. Jetable is great, but it's down at the moment. I hope they come back

Fruit & veg today? - some salad, a clementine and a banana to come
Exercise today? - kung fu day!
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - 6 or seven

life in the big city

I don't think I'm burned out yet. My new job is a lot less stressful than my previous one. The work isn't super tiring, not like digging ditches or lugging stones about. But I still fantasise about living in the countryside, growing soya beans and turnips. Being self sufficient - as long as I can stomach turnip wine. Why should modern life be so stressful though? I think things are probably easier now for most people than they were a couple of hundred years ago. I've got clean drinking water, a TV, and enough to eat in the fridge.

The article suggests that for some people in the modern world the feeling of achievement is lacking. Which could be true. I find it more satisfying to look at a dry stone wall I've built (for example) than to have recorded some good up-time stats and have ticked off a few things on my To Do list. But then I don't need to build any dry-stone walls. I need to sort out my life goals and make some progress towards them.

Who is Lee Hazlewood?

People I like to listen to (Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch and others) seem to like to listen to him. And this gives me an excuse for some embedded youtubery

vegan sushi

"sushi" apparently doesn't mean 'raw fish' but 'something edible made with rice and vinegar'
It's taken me a while to build up my stock of sushi ingredients (seaweed, sticky rice, grain vinegar and wasabi) but on saturday I got my stuff together. I still haven't mastered the technique. I think ideally the contents (I used red pepper, cucumber, cashew nut pieces and some other stuff. Would have used avocado but it wasn't ripe) would be in the centre of the rice but mine were usually located eccentrically.
As these photos show. Tasty though.

Currently reading: Nick Cave - And the Ass Saw the Angel Actually I finished it today, second time I've read it. Sometimes funny, often disturbing. Fascinating prose: the reader works out what has happened from the internal monologue of the main character, even though  the character can't work it out. Sometimes I wanted to look away but I had to find out how it ended.

Currently listening to: THE FALL - THE REAL NEW FALL LP (FORMERLY 'COUNTRY ON THE CLICK')

one year (and one day)

I've just noticed that my blog has been going on for 12 months now. And curiously 12 months ago I was wittering about traffic and my MP.

I definately should get a life

wheels

recently I've been sorting out my car troubles. I needed a new tax disc, which meant fruitlessly trying to get one from the DVLA website, but apparently the database wasn't updated. Then trying a phone line which was always engaged. Then trying a post office, then trying a post office which was further away but actually did tax discs.

Then being told that although my MOT was valid now, it ran out the day before my next tax disc would start, so they wouldn't give me a tax disc until I got a new MOT. basically they assume that if they let me buy a tax disc when I want to then I won't bother to get an MOT and I'll drive around in a dangerous car and with invalid insurance. I wasn't pleased.

My car passed the MOT second time, just needed numberplates and a windscreen wiper. Then I could get my tax disc and now I'm all set. Being slightly wiser I got a six month tax disc so next time my MOT and my tax disc renewal won't coincide. Car expenditure this month - approx 165 quid, plus petrol

It makes me wonder about road charging. Why not just tax petrol more and scrap the tax disc / tollroads / other daft ideas? Drive more miles? = use more petrol and pay more tax.Have a big gas-guzzling SUV? = use more petrol and pay more tax. Have a firm of container lorries which transport heavy goods across the country? = pay lots of tax, or get a better business model which might involve sending goods by rail instead. I wonder if my MP is reading this?

Fruit & veg today? - onions, 'shrooms, capsicum and runner beans in my risotto
Exercise today? - none

I spy

Went into town today, didn't get anything exciting apart from some photos.
here's one of a palm tree growing outside the new-look arndale centre. The picture is a bit poorly composed, with hindsight standing behind a large grey pillar didn't pan out too well. Memo to self - when taking pictures take a few in case some don't come out, and try standing in a few different places. I may have a go at working with the interesting things refected in the glass next time I'm around there

And the contradiction inherent in the artificial natural sponge caught my attention

Finally we went past the Vimto(tm) monument, but it was too dark. at some point I'd like to work out how to get a decent picure of something in the dark with my camera. perhaps holding it steady and not using a flash? whatever. picture of the Vimto(tm) monument will wait for a future thrilling installment

dates (mmmm, dates)

This here's a useful website- the doomsday algorithm for working out what day of the week any given day was, or - despite the rather pessimistic name - will be. So it turns out that despite what Mr Cave said, the King of Tupelo was born on a tuesday. I was born on a friday

and here's a couple of photos, first autumn has made my morning run rather attractive, in some parts at least. And in some of the other parts the graffiti is getting better. Allow me to help a local artist get some exposure

lead on, Macsween

had haggis for tea last week, it was delicious. I took a picture but now I can't find the lead for my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Update - here's the thing hiding behing a pile of mashed parsnip and sweet potato. I assure you it was more filling than it looks here

5 - 7 - 5

my haiku was poor
autumn leaves are clichéd
I'll try something else

healthy snacks

Frito-Lay Angrily Introduces Line Of Healthy Snacks

PLANO, TX—"Look at what you've reduced us to," said CEO Al Carey, as he disgustedly held up a bag of Cranberry Spinach Explosion snack chips.

saw this on The Onion today, and laughed heartily <contains swearing>

sunday

I was thinking about my blog template this morning. I seem to be doing okay for sleep recently so I'm dropping that. Not sure about the fruit and vegetables, and the exercise lately has been sporadic so;

exercise today - 100 press-ups (target = 200 per day)
fruit and veg - none so far

going for sunday lunch with Dempsey and my lovely gf today, will address the F&V situ at that point

update - went to trof and had a reasonable meal. reasonable in that the food tasted okay, but they seem to subscribe to a commonly held view that "vegans don't like food". the deal is this, their sunday lunch has a beef option which is

• slices of roast beef
• yorkshire pudding
• roast potatoes
• gravy
• vegetables

and seemed to this observer to be a substantial amount of food

for the vegan option the beef and pudding were replaced with two 6" skewers with bits of courgette, cherry tomatoes, etcetera barbequed on them. which was tasty but hardly going to fill me up. I had a tofu burger for dessert but this came without bread (the bread had eggs in it??) so in the end I was satisfied but hardly stuffed

the thing is vegetables are nutritious but you need to eat sufficient quantities of them

halloween

I carved a pumpkin

and I read in a magazine at the dentist's about how it is that I'm always busy but don't get that much done. It's called "displacement activity". Now I have a name I can look for a cure. But first I have to make tea.

back from my holiday

got back from Scotland yesterday. only went for a short trip. did the usual stuff - walked on the moors, visited a distillery, drank whisky. saw a bottle of 40 year old Laphroaig (priced at £1000) but didn't taste it. had a great time but it was over too fast. Work on monday. My photos of Islay are here.

got to get a pumpkin carved today, going to a wedding tomorrow. time I got dressed really

Fruit & veg today? - expecting quite a bit of pumpkin
Exercise today? - maybe a run
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - eight shouldn't be too hard

paying the ferryman

I'm aboard the Hebridean Isles ferry about to cast off and set sail to Islay.The ferry is a bit too modern,I was hoping for a wooden skiff poled along by a dour kilted ferryman but on the plus side this car ferry seems more seaworthy. I've explained to Maribel that if one goes on holiday on a boat it counts as abroad. She seems sceptical. Scotland is looking great-loads of mist,hills covered with trees and heather, silver sunlight glinting off lochs. With the cry of the curlew in my ears and last nights whisky lingering in my head it feels like a proper holiday to me. Apparently there is a cybercafé on Islay so i may be able to upload some photos. I'm really hoping for a decent curryhouse. Haggis isn't really to my taste. Neeps and tatties will be okay though.

-- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone.

sleep, eat, drive, work, drive, eat, sleep again

it's been a busy but not very exciting week. Working nights should take the same amount of time as working days but it doesn't feel like I've done much other than the above.

well, I did go for a meal at the Khandoker on Tuesday. it was a fund-raising dinner to support some kind of ambulance. I'm a generous person who can usually give up some time to eat a cheap curry for charity

and I went to martial arts on wednesday. I haven't had as much exercise as I'd like this week, hope I can still manage my run when I get back into it

and finally, finished wearing in my new trainers. Took me a while to find some nice, black, vegan trainers. these are the ones

the weekend departed

Not much doing this weekend, been working. Got out at 6pm last night and went to see The Departed with my lovely gf.

I had heard bad things about the film but it was the best thing on offer within 20 miles on a sunday evening, and I wanted to get out. I was pleasantly surprised though, the pace was fast enough to keep me awake but not so fast as to make it an action film. the plot was fairly water tight (apart from the stuff about computers, which was minor) and as with 99.9% of films I didn't guess the ending in advance of it happening. I'd give the film four asterisks ****

I'm off to B&Q today. While I'm out I may try to get some advice about my bike, which has been making strange grinding noises recently. It sounds like I may need a new chainset. I like the look of the one on the top right here. It costs about four times as much as my bike though. So tempting, £14.96 a month for the next three years doesn't sound too bad...

I'm lazy

I don't seem to get much done in the mornings before I go to work. Eat breakfast, have a run. Make a phone call and then panic trying to get my lunch, have a shower, pack my stuff for work, etcetera.

let's see if blogging about it helps

My mango tree is doing well this year

Fruit & veg today? - a banana
Exercise today? - a short run, maybe slightly over one mile
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - 7-8

To Rococo Rot

I was thinking about To Rococo Rot, the other day. Strange name, sounds like it should mean something in french. John Peel used to play them, and there are a few songs of theirs on the Domino record label page (link above)

And here's something else from Kitty-Yo, a song by them, and when it finishes - a song by Rechenzentrum. I love minimalist german electronic music

no blogging

I've not been blogging much recently, not sure why. Nothing to say maybe? Perhaps I'll tell my continuing story through the medium of my ebay purchases and sales? Perhaps I won't, as the commercialism distorts some of the finer points of the narrative. It surprises me that I can write stuff like this when I'm sober

Film Review - Clerks II

Went to see the new Kevin Smith film last night. I haven't seen the first Clerks film so went to see it on the strength of Dogma and that one about the cartoonist. I was slightly worried that my lovely gf wouldn't like it, especially when she saw the poster and said "Is this film going to be any good?"

But it was pretty funny. The technique of putting some funny characters together and having them interact around some amusing situations is tried and trusted. I'll mention the beastiality episode as an example, because it might get my blog some hits. And there was a bit of home-spun philosophy which made me think briefly about how my life is going. It's good to think about that from time to time. I heartily recommend this film.

I'm on the late shift this week, so I had time for a big breakfast


In theory I have time to do some exercise too. that was part of my plan but now I'm a bit too stuffed to run much

shiftwork

My first week of shifts this week (6am to 2pm) and not too bad. not much going out in the evening, though I did make an effort to get to martial arts last night - and felt more drowsy than usual this a.m.

not found anything super productive to do in the afternoons. notified a few people about change of address, new bank a/c, etcetera. have been doing regular exercise to make me tired by 8:30. keep meaning to pick up my repaired trousers from town but keep forgetting.

Fruit & veg today? - none yet
Exercise today? - a 13 minute run
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - at least 7.5 I hope

garbage

something on slashdot caught my eye, they are planning to build in Florida, and apparently have already built in Japan, a facility to vapourise landfill rubbish. I'm really opposed to nuclear power and would like to see the UK government investigating alternatives like this.
the article is here

Film review - A Scanner Darkly

Went to see A Scanner Darkly last night, with a fair bit of trepidation. The bitter taste of V for Vendetta lingering in my gullet was a reminder that a great book can be made into a terrible film. And at Printworks prices I didn't want to see a terrible film. Incidentally a small carton of popcorn was £3.40 - inconceivable.

I thought the pseudo-animation thing worked out okay. Some found it annoying. The film opens with bugs crawling over Freck and I don't think CGI or Carpenter-esque puppets would have blended in as well. Special effects have their uses, but probably would have seemed over the top in this everyday tale of drug-taking folk

It must be about ten years since I read the book, and I didn't notice any major departures from how I remembered the plot. Not that I have a great memory for that kind of thing. The film was a lot easier to understand, which does suggest that some simplification may have happened.

Overall, if you liked the film go and read some Philip K Dick books. And if you didn't like the film, go and read some Philip K Dick books.

a little place in the country

some disappointment today when Eden District Council broke the news to me that they were very unlikely to give planning permission for me to renovate a run down shack in Northumberland. I had hoped that 35 grand would secure me a rural hideaway, even if it wouldn't secure me a roof, windows, door, running water or broadband internet connection.

still, the 3 hour commute to work would have been a chore

Northumberland

Camping this wknd up by Hadrian's wall. The weather was apparently normal for summer in these parts but our pitch stayed almost mud free. I imagined the wall would be bigger but after 2000 years of people scavenging the stones i suppose It's surprising that any of it remains. The roman fort at housesteads was well worth a look, especially for those interested in latrines. The scenery all over northumberland is beautiful. Makes me want to live in the country. Not sure if the demand for IT personnel would keep a roof over my head though. Why whenever i go away for the wknd do i want to stay? I even like living amongst the Didsburati. Perhaps i should travel more. Perhaps i should stay where i am more and sort out the lounge of our flat? Anyway, this is the longest journey as a passenger I've done for years and i quite like it.

-- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone.

international talk like a pirate day

this be the day for me http://www.yarr.org.uk/talk/

The wedding of the year (so far)

This weekend saw me wading barefoot through the glastonbury mud. Not for the first time, but this time I was drinking champagne at Sophie and Dr Jon's wedding. There may be more details and even pictures to follow, but I'm trying to give this blog a semblence of being current and I don't have much spare time. Just imagine a great big wedding with buckets of rain.

I'm back!

BT finally came up with the goods and we have a 4 meg connection. I feel that I've rejoined the human race. I'm relieved that unscrupulous comment posters haven't taken the advantage to hawk their wares and post insults while I've been unable to moderate. Anyway, Phil came round for tea, we ate a vegetable packed risotto' with chocolate cake for dessert. I'm late for bed now, more drivel soon

a rolling stone gathers no moss

The recent dearth of entries on my blog is due in no small part to the appaling lack of internet access at my new flat. Although it is a bit of a palace in many other ways. Until I can galvanise either BT or TalkTalk into action it looks like Withington Library will be my gateway to the world wide web for some time to come so apologies to my regular readers - normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

Gen and Dempsey came round for drinks last night and we made a little trip to my new local - the Didsbury.

Fruit & veg today? - a banana
Exercise today? - a bit of a ride on my bike
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - should be enough

Regina Spektor at the Lowry

Radio-industry big-wig Dempsey was given tickets to see Regina in Salford last night and kindly invited me to go with. We stopped off in the Temple for a G&T beforehand

And another pair of G&Ts in the Quay Theatre Bar

Then made our way to our seats for the performance to begin. I was impressed from the first number where Ms Spektor (Regina is pronounced "Reg-een-a", doesn't rhyme with, anyway) tapped the mic as she sang for percussion accompaniment.

The keyboard (sounding like a piano) provided most of the instrumentation although in one gymnastic number Regina hit a nearby chair with a drumstick, along with playing the piano one-handed, singing and stamping on the floor. Dempsey and I were impressed although the Musician's Union is probably very concerned about the career prospects of backing bands.

The songs were interesting, varied in style with quirky lyrics. Difficult to categorise - as good music often is.

I'd definately see her again. She put me in mind of the mighty Cat Power

To hear how Regina Spektor sounds check out the Regina Spektor website or her myspace page

no fixed abode

the packing is getting serious, I've packed my stereo into a box. I now feel adrift in the wide, scary world

Fruit & veg today? - two apples, two bananas, some celery & mushrooms
Exercise today? - a bike ride to didsbury
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - hmmm, eight?

staggered

It's sunny in amsterdam. I'm lying in a park with some of the other survivors of Dr Jon's stag party. Waiting for a plane is rarely such a pleasure. I can hear gently rustling leaves, the clink of bicycles, birdsong, some snoring. If i could speak another language moving to the continent would be very appealing. Until then the café society of didsbury will have to suffice. Possibly with a sun lamp. Next week i really need to get my packing started and book a van. And get some exercise, sleep and fresh fruit & vegetables. My scores this weekend have been lousy for all three. Peace out.

-- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone.

But really

The bus is full of curious people with unpalatable lives,
"I do door-to-door sales,
I've lost my iPod and now I must die."
Hard to believe in such a complicated universe.
Are these people so intricate?
I cvould credit a simpler world,
A less tangled fate.
Admit individuals who look fascinating,
But are quite straightforward really.

a shocking omission

Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the online petition:

  "Induct Alice Cooper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at:

  http://www.PetitionOnline.com/coophall/

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might
agree, too.  If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider
signing yourself.

friday night

After a hard week of grafting it was a great pleasure to come home from work

• remove my tie and other work attire
• grab a bite to eat
• and head out into the buzzing hub of withington with Dempsey for some R and R
  

I've never been in "Pleasure" before, it seemed okay, the tables outside gave a delightful view of the main drag.

And although Fuel had ceased serving food by the time we arrived they did have ample quantities of Cruz Campo. Dempsey & I came up with a bit of a wheeze inspired by the folorn sight of Cine City. We could start some kind of film club, showing popular films of yesteryear which people might cough up a few quid to watch on a biggish screen. We could start with the best film ever (Blade Runner) and see how it goes. We'd need to rent a projector and screen, set up a DVD player and some speakers, book the room above Fuel (free, but a 50 quid deposit reqd) and find out how to make it legal (where does one get a licence to show films, and how much does it cost?)

If there's an appetite for classic films in this neck of the woods then after a year we might be able to start a bid to get Cine City going again.

rocketboom is no more(?)

I was upset to find out that my favourite video blog has fallen on hard times. According to Andrew, Amanda has quit. According to Amanda she has been fired.

There are unconfirmed rumours that a new face has been found to replace Amanda. I'll be interested to see what happens on Monday when RB is supposed to start up again

Una barbacoa

another sunny weekend and another barbeque. but this weekend was most notable for putting my name down for a flat with my lovely gf. it's a lovely place, you must come round for a cup of tea some time

to be honest I can't be bothered to blog much right now. the thunderstorm has abated, but it was pretty good, sounded like the end of the world

and despite my previous hollywood disappointments , I'm quite keen to see that the film of "A Scanner Darkly" is lurching it's way to a silver screen near me. I've only read the book once but it was top quality. Full of the Philip K Dick paranoia which made Blade Runner, Total Recall and The Minority Report so watchable.

Right, now for some ironing. not the exciting kind of ironing, just the normal sort.

leaving party

I'd kind of hoped my leaving party would be a huge affair, with hordes of people slapping me on the back, pressing drinks into my hand and saying things like "I'll never forget that day you installed those SIMS updates, saved our bacon and no mistake".

Thanks to Alan, Kathryn and Nick for coming out, hope you enjoyed yourselves. I had a great time, starting in the Pev and moving on to Big Hands till closing time.

Kept Alan up very late playing jenga and drinking tea

I'd like to thank my erstwhile colleagues for the very generous whip round they had when I left which funded my new digital camera. And thanks to Alan for his gift of a bottle of Irish whisky

Fruit & veg today? - tomatoes, mushrooms, lettuce, cress
Exercise today? - hardly at all
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - 4-5 hours

mmm, delicious dots

in my new job, I don't have Internet access from the machine on my desktop. it sounds harsh but I suppose it does reduce non-work browsing. actually it makes it more difficult for me to look work things up too. swings and roundabouts I suppose. there is plenty of distracting stuff out there. I loved playing pacman (though never while I was supposed to be working.

metric

recently I was reminded of how bloody useless imperial units are. so I'm through with them, it's metric all the way for me from now on

For the record I'm about 1.87m tall and I have a mass of approximately 67.6 kg.

currently listening to...

"The Last Temptation Of Reid" by LARD. Kind of a punk/industrial supergroup with Jello Biafra and some geezers from Ministry. here's a sample

Bozo Skeleton

moving pictures

went to se a couple of films this weekend, with my lovely gf. last night we saw "Lobo" which is a film about someone who infiltrates ETA. Went into town bybus, which was an adventure in itself. I noticed that the bus in front of us was rather discourteously pulling out in front of our bus, but our driver took exception to this and when the buses drew level at one point he gave quite an earful to the other driver. After we'd gone another 500 yds a cop car flagged our bus down, and since it looked like it might take a while we walked the rest of the way. The last time I spoke to the cops it was to ask if they wanted to check out a neighbour's house where the burglar alarm was ringing. They weren't interested, but I'm glad they can pull out all the stops out when bus drivers are swearing at each other.

We had a drink in the cornerhouse bar before the film, which was pretty good. I like films with a proper story, and well developed characters, and a plot which makes sense. and at 124 minutes it was great value for money

but then, we noticed in the cornerhouse catalogue, that one of my fave films of all time was showing at noon the next day - "Withnail & I". Which required us to get up early the next day and return to the cornerhouse.

The film was excellent on the big screen. I'm not sure how many times I've seen it on tv/vhs/dvd - and some of those times have involved the drinking game - but it seemed like I "got" more when it was bigger with better sound.
Trivia - author of W & I (Bruce Robinson) played Benvolio in Franco Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet
Fruit & veg today? - tomatoes and 'shrooms
Exercise today? - none likely
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - 8

mountains and dinosaurs

Went up Cadair Idris today, which was steep and sunny. After a huge curry, played "Rapidough". Team Red won a crushing victory against Team Blue. I don't like to blow my own trumpet - but my dinosaur was tremendous. I wish I had a picture of it before a jealous opponent crushed it, anyway...

a view of wales

my camera has a panarama feature. I'm not really sure how you put the photos together when you've taken them though

my final days of network managering

I'm finding work quite strange at the moment. In my previous job I found out I was leaving - and then I was out of the door - like that <clicks fingers>. It was a shock but it was over quickly. Now I'm wandering about, thinking about the people I'll miss. Even whistling sometimes. And while they are mostly unatrractive the surroundings (not the people) are at least familiar, like the Ally McBeal-style mixed gender toilets

I'm a person who likes to peel a plaster off slowly and carefully, so I guess that metaphor doesn't apply to jobs.

incidentally, RIP my blue o'neill t-shirt. It has served me well since 1997 but now has a big rip aquired during my martial arts lesson. A silver lining to this cloud is that I can replace it with something black, but on the other hand the current line of o'neill t-shirts is pretty insipid


vegetables today - tomatoes and two helpings of vegetable soup (another slow cooker winner)
exercise today - one martial arts lesson and 9½ miles on my bike
sleep tonight - 7 hours

new threads

actually this is just an exercise to see if I can mail in rich text posts to my blog

Faltown Skateboards have a sturdy looking black shirt

And Akro do t-shirts as well as other catering supplies

Vi for Windows

Windows notepad isn't that bad, but for grown-up text editing (and assorted linux stuff) I decided it was time I got to grips with Vi. strangely the correct pronunciation is "vee eye" though I've never heard it referred to in this way. There is a free (as in beer) version of Vi for windows (link above)

anyway, how does the thing work? I've got a quite nicely laid out cheat sheet for Vi here, which looks good pasted above my desk. It tells you how to move about in a file and delete stuff. The Introduction to Vi written by the author (Bill Joy) is recommended - I havent read much.

What I wanted to know to get going was how to copy and paste text, and this was in Mr Joy's guide, in section 4
"yy" copies a line, and "p" pastes it. "dd" deletes a line. Easy enough and should help me get this HTMl written. I'll need to practice, and at some point find out how to copy individual words

vegetables - ate loads in some "Monk's Broth" from Umami on Oxford Road
exercise - maybe do some later

friday night food

went into town on a friday night, searching for that place where we were meeting Dan. Saw the Bargain Booze blimp moored in withington

Met Dan for a chinese meal to mark his birthday. food was good - plenty of beancurd. also aubergines. Took a picture of the chinese arch with my new camera - not entirely happy with the picture quality

Fruit & veg today? - aubergine
Exercise today? - nil
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - 7 ish

Back again

I'm not sure if anyone noticed but my blog seems to have been down for about a day. Sorry to disappoint you all. It was my fault (I'm fairly sure) because I posted something which didn't fit on the page and it seems that what Blogger does if this happens it not display anything.
Anyway, back in business from lunchtime today which will be good news, I'm sure, to readers around the world.
I've signed up for Google Analytics, and I'm proud to say that sometimes my blog gets as many as 6 hits a day. And the hits come from places as far afield as Oslo, and Minnesota. Beats me as to why. If this is you please leave a comment.

Didn't do much this weekend, the weather was awful which made me postpone my first big bike ride of the year. Bought a camera off ebay though, and at least it's a short week.

item! another version of blade runner is to be released on DVD. This has long been my favourite film of all time. It may even be worth buying a DVD player for.

p.s. Anybody want to buy a mouse?

Fruit & veg today? - cherry tomatoes, and some peppers etcetera in my chili
Exercise today? - unlikely
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - probably only 6ish

Amnesty International

Amnesty are doing a campaign about Internet censorship. I doubt that my government are going to try to keep my musings on slow cookers and cutlery out of the public eye, but I'm going to give them a shout out anyway

Fruit & veg today? - a salad & a stirfry encompassing a huge variety of fruit and veg. pak choi and physallises to name but a couple
Exercise today? - a short cycle ride to didsbury
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - a lie-in tomorrow thanks to the wonder of bank holidays

Cutlery revisited

Exciting news from the world of cutlery. Regular readers (I like to think there are some) may recall my disappointment at the paucity of recent developments in the field of eating utensilery. So "bravo!" then to Connie Cheng and Leonardo Bonanni with the invention of the "Intelligent Spoon". No longer will humankind need to risk placing a foodstuff in our mouths which is too hot, too cold, too salty, etcetera. This spoon has sensors to detect when all is not as it should be.

And thanks to Apul for letting me know about the invention of the Foon (by Malvolio Rutteledge)

Small steps perhaps, but definately definitely progress.

Music - New Model Army

NMA are a band I listened to a lot in the early 1990s. I saw them play twice, somewhere in Wales, and later in Manchester. There's a song of theirs, in particular, which I always thought had a useful message. The lyrics to it are here "Before I Get Old" but I can't find an MP3.
There are a few MP3s on the official New Model Army website. And a new single out apparently. If you've never heard them before then this track is as good an introduction as any. And if you've heard them lots before, then I expect you won't mind hearing it again

Inheritance

I wonder if they wrote a song which warns specifically about wasting all your evening putting useless stuff on your blog?

Recipe - split pea soup in a slow cooker

a mighty slow cooker triumph today. I got my timer switch and this morning I chopped up a couple of onions and a courgette, and put them in the pot with some pre-soaked pulses (120g each of split peas, green lentils and red lentils, soaked overnight and rinsed) and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Also some stock, some ground pepper and some cumin seeds, some sun-dried tomatoes and two bay leaves. I set the timer for 11am and crossed my fingers
when I got home the house smelt of food, and after a quick blend, I had a bowl of delicious dinner. my soup making technique has changed forever

In other news, I have given in my notice, only working another 11 days in my present job. Eleven busy days if I get all the stuff done they want me to do before I go.

Fruit & veg today? - some leafy salad stuff, prob a banana and a kiwi fruit later
Exercise today? - prob some sit-ups later
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - hoping for about 8 hours, if I don't procrastinate too long

Recipe - Tajine in a slow cooker

I've had a slow cooker for a while but not been able to find or invent any good vegan recipes. I decided to have another crack at it & I thought that a spicy stew should work okay. I googled for a few tajine recipes (spelling it correctly was the main obstacle to my research) and came up with a few ingredients. Then I bunged them in, and turned it on.

• 1 large aubergine, diced
• 4 portobello mushrooms, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup (approx) dried chickpeas, soaked over night then rinsed
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• some pine nuts
• black pepper
• chili
• coriander
• cumin
• cinnamon
• garlic
• tomato puree
• a dash olive oil
• 3 cups stock

Not much preparation required, and after eight hours it was surprisngly edible. Now I need an electrical timer so I can cook in the morning and come home to a lovely hot meal

paintball

went paintballing in Tarleton, with some people from work. looked a bit rainy at first and the ground was fairly muddy, but the weather cleared up when we got started. my team (Team Blue) didn't score very well (despite some heroism from the WHS posse) though I think our opponents (Team Yellow) got the breaks in terms of the scenarios. we had a great time anyway, even better than last year I think.

myspace

I'm not sure what myspace has to offer me besides an opportunity to struggle with CSS
Fruit & veg today? - salad and some chow mein, i reckon about 5
Exercise today? - nil, as per
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - seven if I start soon

ARCserve database maintenance

In a departure from my normal material I'm going to put some stuff here about backup software. This is because I've had a very frustrating time with my backup server and the Internet seems devoid of helpful clues. I've tried google, altavista, yahoo, ask jeeves and even technorati; but got zero results for ca_db_maintenance. So, robot crawlers - do your stuff.

We have ARCserve for Linux r11.5

The backup database is supposed to be maintained by jobs which Prune and Purge old records. I remember this happening when I had ARCserve on NetWare (the good old days) or even on Windows, but in Linux I can't even see the Prune/Purge jobs in the Job Status Manager, which is probably why our database filled up all the available hard disc space in less than 12 months.

If this has happened to you, dear reader, then see the CA tech note ref TEC324615, which describes how to copy the data out of a huge database, destroy the database, then create a new one and copy the data back in. this does work but is pretty fiddly.

But how to get the database to trim itself down automatically?

You can use the Generic Job Manager to run a statistics update (ca_dbadmin –maintain –type statistics) and this is supposed to let ARCserve see what parts of the database are no longer needed. When you run the maintenance task after this (ca_dbadmin –maintain –entity details) then the old stuff is removed, the database is compacted, and your disc space is freed up.

But, to run the maintenance task the caqd and cadbd tasks need to be stopped, and as far as I know you cannot run a job which stops these daemons, because the daemons won't stop if a job is running - even if the running job is only trying to stop them. Anyway, the ca_db_maintenance script doesn't need these tasks to be stopped, I know because I've run it from a command prompt

ca_db_maintenance -retry 1 -interval 1

(I know the Admin Guide has different syntax, but mine works and theirs doesn't)

But can I run it from the Generic Job Manager? No. The exact same command works from a command prompt but not from the GJM. Well I'm stumped and I've opened a support call with CA. If I get something good from them I'll update or post a comment here. If you know what I should do please get in touch. I could use cron but I want all my ARCserve tasks to be in the same scheduler, otherwise I'll get confused when I make changes in the future.

UPDATE:- Nadia from CA has figured it out, the syntax in the Admin Guide is wrong, and so is my guess. It should be

ca_db_maintenance -repeat 1 -interval 1

Nadia is brilliant.

advancing 21st century british sculpture

for another helping of culture I went with my lovely gf to the Cass Sculpture Foundation at Goodwood. there were some really nice pieces there, and the brochure was interesting as it had the price and the mass of most of the sculptures. At 16,000 kilograms "Regardless of History" by Bill Woodrow was one of the heavyweights.

The current exhibition is by Tony Cragg and while some of his pieces were a bit samey, there were a couple of really nice ones like Sinbad and Tongue In Cheek.

rhubarb

I pulled some of my rhubarb today, after i chopped the leaves off and washed it, it weighed in at a substantial 455 grams. At sainsbury's prices that is £1.70 of rhubarb. I'm not sure that gardening makes financial sense at this scale. maybe some rhubarb crumble will make my mind up

Fruit & veg today? - 3/5
Exercise today? - situps
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - probably not enough

a bit of culture

i went to the theatre this weekend. it makes me feel sophisticated, like drinking wine that costs more than five quid a bottle.

the play was at the west yorkshire playhouse (in leeds) and it was "foxes" by Alice Nutter. i didn't know until i started researching this blog entry that Ms Nutter had left leeds' favourite anarcho-punk collective Chumbawamba, and though this is sad (in an "end of an era" way) I can imagine that after 20+ years anyone would feel like a bit of a change

Anyway, the play was excellent. A look at the interaction between asylum seekers and the "host" community. Funny in parts and sad in other parts, like tragicomedies usually are. If it was still on I'd tell you all to go and see it. As it is, just go and see what ever else she writes. Thanks for getting me the ticket Mum.

and this is my favourite chumbawamba song. great for singing tunelessly when drunk

That's How Grateful We Are

Fruit & veg today? - pak choi, celery, an orange and a banana
Exercise today? - 40 sit-ups
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - nearly eight

my lucky underpants?

Your Lucky Underwear Is Red

You're confident and bold, and your lucky red underwear will only make you more sure of yourself. You have a great zest for life, and you tend to take on impossible goals - and succeed. When it comes to love, it's hard for you to take the time to open up. You're too busy conquering the world. So if you're looking for a little more romance, put on your red underpants. And see where their passion takes you!

What Color Is Your Lucky Underwear?

blog design changes

responding to reader feedback, I have decided to replace the poem in the description container. For posterity it shall be recorded here:

"Whistling past the graveyard" by Matt (6th feb 2006)

In the midst of life we are in death.
One day we'll draw our final breath.
At any time it could happen to me.
I hope I can finish this cup of t-       eurgh

Partying with the Hindlip massive

Andy's long awaited shindig happened this weekend, he must have been preparing for ages. All the sharp/dangerous things were hidden and his lawn had sprouted a marquee.

Arriving on Friday we took the opportunity to get some booze down us. Rob managed to find a dangerous bit of the marquee, but it seems he'll live. Unless Helen kills him.

On Saturday the barbeque was complemented by a huge bonfire. Vast quantities of food were consumed, including some delicious cous-cous salad

Everyone was pretty blurred by the time this event came to an end, respect to Andy for throwing such a great party

Fruit & veg this weekend? - stacks
Games of Trivial Pursuit lost? - two
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - eight?

Cathal Coughlan

about one million years ago in a village on the edge of civilisation (I exaggerate slightly, it was in Preston and about 1990ish) I wondered into a tiny cobwebbed record shoppe on Church Street, and when I wondered out I found that I'd bought a tape called "Against Nature" by Fatima Mansions.

I'm not sure if that was before I read one or more interviews with the main dude in Fatima Mansions - Cathal Coughlan. He gives good interviews, including one in which he summed up Bono in three words. But too rude to reproduce here, apart from the copyright issues...

Anyway, I listened to this tape quite a few times (favourite song was the opener: "Only losers take the bus"), and then I met someone (Stacey) who had an album by them too. And this album had great song titles ("More smack, vicar?" and "Look what I stole for us darling")

but the moment when I realised that Cathal Coughlan was a genius was when I heard his cover of "Everything I do I do it for you" and if you weren't subjected to UK music radio/tv in 1991 you can't imagine the pain caused by this awful song spending 16 weeks at number one in the charts. But when I heard the Fatima Mansions cover on the NME ruby trax compilation I felt that justice had been done.

Anyway, not really sure what happened to the band. but Mr Coughlan seems to still be around, and he has some rather fine MP3s on his web site

Unbroken Ones

We Are The Sinister World Government

Fruit & veg today? - loads
Exercise today? - i really should do some sit ups
Hours of sleep I'm going to get tonight? - a good chance of eight

I even _smell_ fresh and clean

since the body shop were bought by l'oreal, and because l'oreal are owned by nestlé, I've been looking for a new supplier of toiletries which meets my stringent criteria

• vegan
• not tested on animals
• fair trade

though to be fair I'm not sure how good the body shop was on these, certainly not all their stuff was vegan.

anyway, Lush mark their vegan wares with a green dot, and have always been against animal testing - according to page 6 of this report.
Animal Aid sell vegan stuff which isn't tested on animals. They also sell chocolate and wine - which puts them ahead I think.

spring bank holiday weekend

the traffic on the M6 was awful on thursday night. by the time we got to the campsite it was dark, windy and raining. the car got stuck in the mud. When morning came we saw we had done a pretty good job of getting the tent up

we set off up coniston old man, the weather was much improved. there was even some tanning going on.

the stone there has a lovely texture

a tremendous view from a spot almost at the top of scafell pike. the lake is called Wast Water I think