Journal Entries
"Can't think, let alone move..."
Posted Aug 3, 1999
Too hot. Can't think. Barely got anything done today.
Finally uploaded this though, for the Mornington Crescent fans:
http://www.h2g2.com/A132157
I wrote it back in 1994, but I'm still very fond of it.
My tube went the wrong way home, with me and Shim on it. I'm sure it said Edgware but we had to get off at Archway and head back to Camden to change again.
Currently unix-talking with Quinn via a shared machine in Oregon. She's on the road with a laptop and Ricochet wireless modem. And I miss her very much.
Media of the day: the South Park movie. It was far better than a movie of a TV show has a right to be. Probably the best film I saw while in the US (and I saw quite a few)
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Latest reply: Aug 3, 1999
Broadway Boogie Woogie
Posted Jul 30, 1999
... is the title of a fab track by Bedouin Ascent which I'm currently listening to. It's one of the tracks I MP3'ed yesterday in a mass ripping frenzy, as part of an effort to have my favourite music available whether I'm at work or at home. The ripping method I use is to use a free and very clever CD-ROM driver for Windows called CDFS.VXD that lets you browse your audio CD-ROMs and pull off WAVs really fast, but the WAVs aren't glitch free, unfortunately. I'm currently aiming for ripping speed over quality, as I can always go and rip them again when I've got better kit.
The rip-trip happened last night after I got back from my cousin's Sheva Brochos dinner which was at my parents' house. (Sheva Brochos dinners happen for the week after a wedding, but most people don't do the full week, as each is a proper sit-down meal with loads of relatives and it's horribly exhausting) The cousin in question, who I noticed that I didn't name in my last journal entry, is called Aryeh. He's a year younger than me. The anti-race between us to be the last to get married has obviously ended. He can't resist sticking the "Please God by you"'s in whenever he can, though.
I'm currently throwing ideas around about user journals. I really like the weblog trend where you can just throw links, snippets and thoughts into a personal page through the day. (For good examples, see http://www.robotwisdom.com/ , http://ww.lemonyellow.com/ and http://www.scripting.com/ ) The h2g2 user journal is a way of doing that, but I think it's currently more suited to medium-to-long entries every day or so, rather than several short links thrown in during a single day. If you have any points to make about what you're doing or want to do with your journal, do tell me.
I'm just done with tomorrow's front page, which is a selection of happening forums. One of the things I've noticed while browsing around today is that the most active researchers tend to post much more in each other's home pages than in official Guide entries, which is pretty much what you'd expect. However, it does mean that tracking down, say, the 10 busiest official Guide entries is more problematic than I first thought. I should ask Jim for a new stat script.
Come Shake The Whole's birthday bash tomorrow... going to see if I can drag Tania Winston along (or rather, whether she can drag me, since she's got twice the party stamina I have. It's always the small ones.)
NTK's arrived! Hooray! Something to read on the tube home. ( http://www.ntk.net/ )
Media of the day: The Mondrian painting that inspired the title of the Bedouin Ascent track, and of this entry. He's one of my favourite artists.
http://www.moma.org/collection/paintsculpt/mondrian.broadway.html
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Latest reply: Jul 30, 1999
Too much too soon
Posted Jul 28, 1999
Recent events:
Gallery thing with Drummond and Stallman. Now have a shot with the creators of the Kopyright Liberation Front and the GNU Copyleft in the same frame, if rather blurred. Also have one of St. Ignucius blessing Danny. Leave me alone, it makes me happy.
Cousin's wedding yesterday. Very orthodox side of the family, separate seating and dancing for men and women, with a dividing wall down the middle. Dancing was great though in a tiny space. Orthodox Jewish weddings should be experienced by everyone.
Got a grilling from my paternal grandmother too. "You know, dear, I went to Yael and I told her that I'm getting on in days, you know, and I would like to see her be married while I can, because it's so lovely, such nachas! And you know, three days later she came back to me and said she was getting married! So, if you..." blah blah blah.
Translation: WE HAVE THE NEGATIVES OF YOUR GUILT COMPLEX. PAY UP WITH GRANDCHILDREN OR WE GO PUBLIC.
Yael is my cousin, a few months older than me. It wasn't 3 days, it was more like 3 months, and she was doing everything she could to try and put grandmother off. I don't think she succumbed for her benefit.
Nachas is... my translation is "parental glow of pride gained by achievments of offspring". Bywater's is "conditional suspension of contempt".
Richard Harris showed me his QTVR shots of Sri Lanka, and I crashed Jim's laptop trying to get my own shots of the previous night off the CompactFlashes. Dammit.
Flatmate Dan's girlfriend Mel's birthday barbecue at Hanstater's tonight, followed by me dragging The 'Grid (mad but lovely Asian babe) over to Shoreditch for Tom Ladner's birthday on Ellipsis's roof. Should be fun if I ever make it out of here.
Just had Bywater reminiscing about Anita Sinclair. 24 carat gold.
Hence, media of the day: The Magnetic Scrolls games.
http://kerovnia.jump.org/msmemorial/memorial.htm
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Latest reply: Jul 28, 1999
I had that Richard Stallman in the back of my car
Posted Jul 26, 1999
That was after we'd been trying to persuade him to dance to Russian folk music with us. It was at Cait & Mackay's flatwarming in Streatham (a solid hour's drive for me). I was terribly envious of Mackay's "Aaaah!" - "No, Not Aaaah!" t-shirt. RMS is staying with Desiree, who is gaining a habit of accommodating famous free software contributors during their stays in Europe. (Previous was Brian Fox, creator of the bash shell)
Chances are that you don't know who Richard Stallman is, and aren't very impressed. In which case, read http://www.gnu.org/people/rms.html and stand in awe of my namedropping.
"Yes, I gave Richard Stallman a lift! Who wants to touch me? I SAID WHO WANTS TO TOUCH ME!"
Also managed to meet up with Thomas J. Ladner, a man whose mission it is to celebrate his 31st birthday with 31 different parties throughout July. I stayed with him while he partied in San Francisco. He is partying through London on his way to party in Paris after partying in New York. He is truly a 24-hour party person.
Hopefully I'll see Richard and Tom again tonight in Old Street, where there's a display of neon sets by Bill Drummond (founding member of The KLF) for the play "Cruel Brittania", which was written by a mate of Emma's.
Oh, for god's sake. This is reading like a Nigel Dempster diary. I wonder how long it'll take before Mark comes and gives me the slapping I deserve.
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Latest reply: Jul 26, 1999
The smell of summer rain
Posted Jul 20, 1999
It was raining as I left the office tonight, light but insistent summer rain. Summer rain's nice for the first minute, then you start looking for cover. The smell is amazingly evocative.
My legs have been getting worse through the day. (No, Peta, I don't play rounders very often, I thought it was obvious 
) They feel incredibly stiff. Sleeping tonight is either going to be really uncomfortable or I'll pass out as soon as I hit the pillow.
So, anyway, we played rounders yesterday and it was fab. I got up too late, missed the pub lunch but made it onto the Common in time for the start of the game. The rest can be seen (with pictures! in colour!) in my user entry on the subject. Afterwards I headed north again to visit my friend Danielle who spends most of her time in Paris these days, so I don't see her often. We walked through Kenwood during an operatic concert. Hampstead Heath cheers me up immensely these days (as Kass demonstrated to me a couple of months ago) and I must visit it more often.
Media of the day: Someone's done a remix of the sound of Spectrum tape loading.
http://yoyo.org/levine/load_screen.mp3
(Clever of the guy to be loading a SCREEN$, which can give you some interesting rhythms)
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Latest reply: Jul 20, 1999
Yoz
Researcher U168516
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