No Reward

Updated Map

2005-06-11T15:58:00.000+01:00

After my last US trip I've bumped my state count by two.

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

That's a frightening number of square red states to go.

RHFC - 2005-04-24

2005-04-25T11:36:00.000+01:00

2nd

RHFC - 2005-04-17

2005-04-18T13:02:00.000+01:00

1st

However, there does seem to be a crisis at t'Bowler. Now Phil is working down the St Pat's club, the quiz is falling apart. Only 3 teams this week (so the 1st place wasn't all that much of an achievement). It might pick up again - or we might have to find a new Quiz night :-(

Baa

2005-04-15T11:38:00.000+01:00

whoshouldivotefor seems to be a popular toy.

They seem to miss out one important question: Do you expect the party you vote for will have any tangible effect on the Government's policies in the next 10 years?

Anyway, here's me:

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 32
Conservative -33
	Liberal Democrat 42
	UK Independence Party 9
	Green 10

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

RHFC - 2005-04-10

2005-04-11T10:13:00.000+01:00

2nd

RHFC - 2005-03-20

2005-03-21T02:25:00.000Z

1st

RHFC - 2005-02-27

2005-02-28T08:50:00.000Z

3rd

RHFC - 2005-02-20

2005-02-21T16:04:00.000Z

1st

RHFC - 2005-02-13

2005-02-14T09:25:00.000Z

2nd

Mr Blair

2005-02-09T02:15:00.000Z

George Orwell is probably my favourite author. Animal Farm was one of the first books I read multiple times. "...Wigan Pier" and "Down and Out..." are absolutely fascinating.

Penguin books currently have a series of books out called Great Ideas, which appear to be 20 short books filled with thinking.

On the Shortness of Life by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Confessions of a Sinner by Saint Augustine
The Inner Life by Thomas a Kempis
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
On Friendship by Michel de Montaigne
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Christians and the Fall of Rome by Edward Gibbon
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
On the Pleasure of Hating by William Hazlitt
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
On the Suffering of the World by Arthur Schopenhauer
On Art and Life by John Ruskin
On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
Why I am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
Why I Write by George Orwell

I'm quite ashamed to say that 'Common Sense' is the only one of these that I've already read. I'm in the middle of 'Why I Write' and I've read about a third of 'The Social Contract'

Anyway, back to Mr Blair (Eric, that is). The essay The Lion and the Unicorn is enthralling in many ways.

Written in 1940, it sheds some interesting light on the politics of the early war years - something I wasn't really aware of. It also has some great insights into the English (Orwell is unapologetic aout his lumping together of the various British peoples into the term 'English') psyche.

I'm not claiming to agree with his politics (although he does seem to talk sense most of the time), but his observations of the English in Part I really does strike a chord.

One quote I love is ...
At this moment, after a year of war, newspapers and pamphlets abusing the Government, praising the enemy and clamouring for surrender are being sold on the streets, almost without interference. And this is less from a respect for freedom of speech than from a simple perception that these things don't matter. It is safe to let a paper like Peace News be sold, because it is certain that ninety-five per cent of the population will never want to read it.

To me, that is 'Liberty'. A state of mind, not a statute of law.

RHFC - 2005-02-07

2005-02-07T02:03:00.000Z

2nd

Washing Dusters

2005-02-06T19:14:00.000Z

I know neither how nor why, but there was a conversation last night about washing dusters.

After passing through the phases: What's a duster?; Ah! that's what those yellow things are; How would they get dirty?; Why don't they ever get dirty?; Surely you just flick them out of a window, and finally alighting upon "Bugger it, I'd just buy new ones" my curiosity was piqued.

And so, the internet.

Apparently there's a US army document (TM 5-609) which covers just such nicities (and many others besides: The right way to sweep a gymnasium; or an office, or an auditorium, or a corridor (they are all different); Wall washing - hand method; Window washing; toilet and sink washing (with pictures) etc...) Here's how to wash a duster ... (Section 6.2.2)
6.2.2 Washing Sweeping Mops, Dusters, and Dustcloths. 6.2.2.1 Equipment Needed: (1) Mop bucket, large can or bucket and wringer or squeezer. (2) Palmetto Brush. 6.2.2.2 Materials Needed: (1) Warm water. (2) TSP (Trisodium Phosphate). 6.2.2.3 Getting Mop Heads, Dusters, or Dustcloths Ready: (1) Remove mop heads from handles. (2) Shake mop heads, dusters, or dust-cloths to remove as much dirt as possible. 6.2.2.4 Doing the Job: (1) Wash mop heads, dusters or dustcloths clean in a solution of one tablespoon of trisodium phosphate to one gallon of water by working them vigorously with plumber*s friend or broom handle. (2) Rinse thoroughly in clear, lukewarm water, wring them as dry as possible with wringer or squeezer. (3) Hang them up to dry where there is good air circulation. (4) When dry, comb yarn out with palmetto brush. (5) Mop heads, dusters or dustcloths, when dry, should be light grey in color, light, and fluffy. There should be no soggy or matted yarn. 6.2.2.5 Care of Equipment: (1) Clean all equipment thoroughly. (2) Return all supplies and equipment to their proper storage places.

So, now you know.

Oh, and that's only Chapter 6 "OUTLINES OF JANITORIAL OPERATIONS FOR ON-THE-JOB USE"

Time is broken

2005-02-06T17:31:00.000Z

Time seems to be broken at the moment.

I can't get my head around the fact that I'm not going to see Lemon Jelly for another four weeks.
I still seem to be stuck on US time (partially due to the fact that I've spent seven of the last thirteen weeks in the US)
May is both very soon and miles away
After waking up and having most of the day before me, there never seems to be enough time to get around to vacuuming.
Come to think of it, the lawn doesn't seem to be mowing itself either.

In other news:

Since last post, I've not been mentioning the RHFC results, this is due to the embarrassing fact that the two times we've done the quiz, we won them both. I'm going to start again this week - even if we win again (which I'm sure we won't)

John put has waders on last night. It appeared to be an attempt to lure Debbie into bed (she was busy marking exam papers). I made my excuses and beat a hasty retreat.

On the subject of exam marking. Grrr.

Right - time to find something else to do that isn't vacuuming.

Maths

2004-12-03T04:46:00.000Z

Tonight, BBC America had 'The Office' followed by 'Look Around You' (the Maths episode.) The former is pure genius, and just seems to get better on repeated viewing (perhaps just because you are desensitised to the cringe-factor).

I'm not sure how 'Look Around You' can translate over here. Watching it, there are so many touchstones with British (probably English) popular culture of a certain time period that the locals must be left wondering whether something is a funny parody of English life or just bizarre. L.A.Y. has plenty of both.

Do British schoolkids really carry razors around in their pencil cases?
Is it because they need to chop up their pennies into eighth-pennies?
Surley they know what a Circle is?
Why is the conference in Nottingham right down at the bottom left of England, what's the joke there?

Anyway, I was amused.

They were trailling 'This Life' (excellent) and 'Coupling' (I can't see many non-Brits seeing as anything other than a ruder, poor man's Friends) Jack Davenport must be a happy bunny.

Wierd - The Young Ones with adverts in the middle. That's just not cricket.

DS ii - the update

2004-12-01T23:58:00.000Z

Mr Driller came out today. What can I say. It's Mr Driller on a hand-held device. You get to see more stuff above you (which I don't look at anyway) and there's a couple of new features: Wireless play (pretty pointless for Billy Nae Mates over here) and some other mode that I played once and didn't understand at all. But, the bestest thing is: it's Mr Driller on a hand-held device. Perhaps I can retire the Dreamcast now.

While I'm at it, a couple of words on other games. Urbz - looks like it's just the GBA game to me. It does make some use of the touch screen, but it's actually a pain to have to get the stylus out for the few times you really use it. Don't buy a DS to play Urbz.

Feel the Magic. Yes, I know. Played it for about 1/2 hour so far. This has potential. If you forget the really cheesy game premise then the actual mini-games are (so far) good fun. Stopping the bull stampede is excellent fun. I'm not sure about the 'putting the candle out by rubbing the screen' one though. Rub Rabbits are go.

Local Events

2004-11-30T19:21:00.000Z

So, last night I went to the cinema. On the way into the cimena I went to get a sandwich and a coffee. After leaving the coffee shop, I walked through the car park ("parking lot" to the locals) towards the cinema.

Rounding the corner, I saw a whole mess of flashing lights (think Blues Brothers) and was thinking to myself. "Somebody's tax disc has probably expired and the local police have nothing better to do."

Rounding another corner, I walked past 5 police cars with policmen manhandling a chap into the back of one of them.

When I left the cinema, a number of the police cars were still there and a section of the car park was taped off (all I thought at the time was, thank heavens I was a Brit and parked quite a way from the Cinema and walked - otherwise my car would have been in the taped off bit)

Turns out (news report) that somebody had been shot in a car while I was in the coffee shop.

That's never happened to me in England. But it's got nothing to do with the widespread availability of guns over here - oh no. And, to (mis)quote the late, great Bill Hicks - you'd be a fool and a communist to think that it did.

God Bless Her

2004-11-30T05:06:00.000Z

So, it seems that the film 'National Treasure' is not a biography of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, but more like "Raiders of the Da Vinci Code."

Sean Bean is the, naturally British, bad guy. Nic Cage is the hero. Jon Voight doesn't hold a candle to Sean Connery as "hero's dad". One of the bad guys has the most bizarre accent I've heard since Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

There's not a lot of plot twists, but it's a bit of a romp. Not sure I'd be quite so profligate with naked flame that far underground myself, but that's just picking nits.

64 DS

2004-11-23T01:07:00.000Z

I was right. Putting a crap game on a small device doesn't make it any better.

Mario 64 was always a game with two main objectives:

Work out how to make the camera show you what you need to see
Work out how to get the Control Stick to affect the game in a predictable and meaningful way

Which isn't my definition of fun. No matter how bleeding edge it was.

Putting it on a handheld device doesn't help with the Camera and makes the Control even more impenetrable.

Boy, do I wish that Mr Driller had come out on time; then I wouldn't have wasted my time and money.

At least the mini games are fun and do use the touch screen in a good way. Shame I have to battle my way through the control system of the main game to get to play them.

3rd World

2004-11-21T20:28:00.000Z

I think that the definition of a 3rd world country should include some measure as to the widespread availability of electric kettles.

Putting a whistling kettle onto a cooker to obtain boiling water must surely be an activity closely linked to the dark ages and consigned to groups of people who like to do that sort of thing (a bit like those who want to listen to vinyl or join the Sealed Knot, for example.)

Of course, being in a country where it isn't generally recognised that you even need boiling water to make tea, is pretty damned depressing too.

And moving from depressing to just plain worrying:

Weapons, including concealed firearms, are not allowed on these premises.

Is on a sign by the building I'm working in. Now it does worry me that there might be a whole class of people around here that might consider that a concealed firearm is not a weapon.

DS

2004-11-21T20:12:00.000Z

Very initial thoughts:

It's big
It's heavy
Mr Driller isn't available yet
Putting Mario 64 on a smaller device doesn't make it a better game
It comes with a demo of Metroid
Metroid seems to need to be controlled on the touch screen (the only way I can see to turn.) They'd better hope people like more complicated controls
It arrived fully charged (which was nice)
GB and GBC carts don't fit
The device can have a GB-DS and a GBA cart in at the same time - you choose on power up
GB-DS carts are like wide SD memory cards. Presumably indicating that there's a plan to have DS function in a smaller device at some point
The split-screen intro stuff on Metroid looks pretty cool

Marathon

2004-11-04T13:31:00.000Z

Just saw an advert for this on TV.

Yet another thing that is seriously wrong in the world. First they steal our name. Now they use it for something else completely. Hanging's too good for them.

Waffle

2004-10-31T14:10:00.000Z

Breakfast in a Waffle House. Interesting. The parking lot (see, I'm in America) was full of cars without windows. The cutlery was filthy, the atmosphere dripped with grease. The staff appear to communicate to each other by bellowing orders to each other (about three feet away) so that the whole place can hear. What they do say appears to be some secret language. If there's another war and they run out of Navajo Indians - they could try Waffle House staff.

Food was, however, fantastic. After 48 hours with nothing but beer and airline food, it tasted like ambrosia.

I may have to go back. Actually, come to think of it - it's breakfast time now:-)

8:05 am

2004-10-31T13:44:00.000Z

There have been times in my life when I've gone from asleep to awake very quickly. This was probably the quickest. For some reason, I know not what, I opened fuzzy eyes (which were in a very fuzzy head) and focussed on the alarm clock. The alarm clock I'd set for 7:30am. It said 8:05am. It was silent. Now, what was it I needed to do? Ah yes, a taxi at 8:15am to take me to the airport. Bugger (to quote FW&AF).

A quick recce found two packed bags. One set of clothes laid-out and ready to wear and a bum bag containing passport and money (tickets are so last century).

And a taxi waiting outside. Why, oh why, oh why are taxis early when you aren't ready?

Turned off the heating, locked the house and got into taxi. Things were OK until Balsall Common. I'd chatted about the taxi drivers radar detector (why are taxi drivers so keen to tell you how many speeding tickets they've had?) and other nicities.

Then I started to feel very unwell. Actual chunder was avoided by the narrowest of margins, but I'm sure I must have been a lovely shade of green.

Checked in, searched, all that jazz. Then found a nice seat in the departure lounge and fell asleep. Woke up feeling awful. Trudged to the plane and prepared for a nighmare.

I'm sure an aeroplane is not the best place to sit for seven hours as your hangover starts, develops and ends. I know this because I've done it. In fact, I'm not sure - I'm certain. Luckily two things were in my favour:

Space - the flight was nearly empty - three seats each
Drugs - I'd had the presence of mind to buy some Resolve in Boots in the airport

The movie was "50 first dates", which was OK. At the end was a version of Somewhere over the Rainbow, which sounded a bit like Mago de Oz (It wasn't). So the rest of the flight was me reading a book, listening to the Oz back catalogue.

One interesting thing about packing when your don't remember is that it's a bit of an adventure when you open your suitcase.

So far, I've forgotten:

Sunglasses (shame - I've had to buy some new ones)
Maps (ditto)

Not bad, huh?

Blame

2004-10-31T13:32:00.000Z

I haven't yet decided who to blame, but some certainly needs to be apportioned.

After a long on-off-on again thing - it was decided that I would be allowed to go to Raleigh for a residency. A week before I'm due to leave, it turns out I'm being sold like a chattel and maybe I won't be going.

So, maybe it's IBMs fault. Making me so uncertain that I couldn't be arsed packing until I knew I was actually going. I'd done the long-term stuff, like making sure clothes were clean. But actually packing - that could wait until Thurdsay.

Thursday rolls round, planned to leave early to pack. Got home, did a little prelim-packing and then fell asleep. So far, so good.

Then, it turns out, I need to go for beer. Strenuous efforts were made (well, loud protestations at the least) to make it a quick one. The Well was eschewed, it stays open too late. Midnight, not a problem.

At this point, bad decisions were made. Wine was drunk and the world was set to rights. Unfortunately, packing was not done and I was getting drunker. I do not blame myself.

So, I recall leaving Canal Towers and finding a Taxi on the Tachbrook road. Then it appears to be a blur until ...

RHFC - 2004-10-24

2004-10-25T13:36:00.000+01:00

2nd

Vote early, vote often

2004-10-20T16:25:00.000+01:00

Global Vote 2004. You know it makes sense.

NE Leam

2004-10-19T14:40:00.000+01:00

John had a party-come-pub-crawl. I had a camera

RHFC - 2004-10-17

2004-10-18T11:41:00.000+01:00

3rd

RHFC - 2004-10-10

2004-10-11T01:46:00.000+01:00

3rd

Conquering

2004-10-10T18:39:00.000+01:00

Saturday was a busy day. Up at a stupid time, got on my bike and took pictures of Warwick pubs. (Anything that's good enough for Lemmo ...). In the car park of the Saxon Mill (which is v.posh now BTW) I filled my pockets with conkers.

Off to the Town House to re-arrange the furniture andwatch England beat Wales 2-0.

We then adjourned to the Bowler for a conker competition. Steve won.

Some dart related fun happened. John learned a valuable lesson (never say "You wouldn't dare throw a dart at me" to a drunk person.) MC won killer, which was an interesting concept.

Apparently we went to the Pig and Fiddle. I don't believe a word of it. But I do recall Curry.

Then home for an early night.

Test

2004-10-08T21:07:00.000+01:00

Well, I passed the exam I took last Saturday. Which is nice. Seeing how my 'revision' took the form of going to a party and getting drunk until 2am; getting up at 6am and reading my notes on the train into London.

After sitting through four of the allotted six hours, I handed in the answers and left. It's a long time since I've subjected myself to being judged in that way. It sucks.

Anyway - I got the 'well done' note through this afternoon. I'm off down the Green Man (the only pub in Lemmo I've not been into) to celebrate.

RHFC - 2004-10-03

2004-10-04T11:56:00.000+01:00

2nd

No Reward

2004-09-30T14:49:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, some people think of nothing but reward.

Especially when it come to flogging stuff to their 'mates' at a 42% profit margin.

Inverse Mike

2004-09-28T23:26:00.000+01:00

I appear to be in the process of doing the inverse of Mike. I'm recording some of those old Vinyl albums that you'll never find as CDs into my MP3 collection. So far it's been KLF and Yello. There's a couple of very early Marillion bootlegs to do next. Then some Euro-Dance compilations and maybe, if I can be bothered, a whole bunch of 12" singles.

It is a tedious process.

RHFC - 2004-09-26

2004-09-27T01:19:00.000+01:00

4th

But, on the way home I did spot three very dodgy looking characters hanging around Canal House. I went over to confront the apparent chavs and then realised it was John , Debbie and Steve. Steve had just recovered a piss-soaked CD from John and Debbie's roof. I attempted to warn him about climbing over railings. He did not listen. John proudly showed me the pissy-disc. Which was nice.

Sunday night in South Leam. Classy.

Erudition

2004-09-21T01:12:00.000+01:00

We read a book. It was crap. We talked reasonably poiltely about it for two whole hours. Which was interesting.

During which time United beat Liverpool 2-1 (Troy could tell the score by the tone of the cheers - that's a rare skill indeed).

We have a new book. Which has a website. Which is very very posh indeed.

Apparently it has a pig on the cover.

RHFC - 2004-09-19

2004-09-20T00:50:00.000+01:00

1st

Races

2004-09-19T14:27:00.000+01:00

I may not have won at the races, but I did have the nicest pudding.

Unless John stuffed his face with the threatened deep fried kebab pizza, which may just have been nicer than my tartlet.

UPDATE: he didn't - he went home and fell asleep.

I Told you

2004-06-21T16:19:00.000+01:00

This originally said "All I wanted to do was write a comment on Mike's Blog - my real blog is at http://www.theresposh.com/milky"

And that was not a lie. But, as is common with many things, usage has had to be re-evaluated. As it now appears that the people I know have ceased to actually talk to each other and now choose to exchange experiences by blogging them, I decided to stop being ostracized.

Lactic Enlightenment still exists, and may start being updated. But that will remain an NMB thing.