Journal Entries
RIP Tom Sharpe
Posted Jun 6, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22795507
Tom Sharpe, I believe was one of the funniest writers ever to put pen to paper. He wasn't always laugh out loud funny, he was darkly satirical even with situations that any other author would have made into slapstick.
It was his Porterhouse Blue that made me want to take up writing, and I'll never be able to thank him enough.
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Latest reply: Jun 6, 2013
Book Poetry
Posted Jun 3, 2013
You may or may not have seen or taken part in Create, it's a little thing we've got going here to help people's creative juices get flowing.
Now, I've not taken part in it before I have to admit. Not that I didn't want to, but just because I've been a bit busy elsewhere doing "stuff". Yes, the inevitable "stuff".
However, to put this oversight right, I've had a go and created a Create challenge: http://www.h2g2.com/entry/A87797551
One Page Poetry.
It's a lot simpler that most things I think up, and it wasn't thought up while I slept (I have most of my best ideas when I'm asleep (don't ask)) or while I was in the "smallest room", this idea I came up with in the kitchen.
Like most middle class fridges, our has a set (three really) or magnetic poetry. And it's usually got lots of random stuff on it, I tend to try and make not poetry, but very short stories. Just to get my brain to start thinking in the mornings.
So, being that sort of weirdo I then started to wonder if you could do it in reverse. Could you take text from a story and turn it into a poem? Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, it sort of is and isn't. Especially if you limit yourself to one page.
One page sounds easy enough, in fact given the amount of words you can fit on one page it sounds really easy. Until you then sit down and start trying it. You'll usually get lots of "the" and "and" and other small words, but you'll struggle to get some of the longer ones that you'd normally use.
What this challenge does, is it makes you stop just using whatever words you'd normally use, and start thinking more about what you've been given.
Plus it's kinda fun. Especially when you come up with the random sort of drivel that I do.
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Latest reply: Jun 3, 2013
Getting distracted with a good use of technology
Posted Apr 28, 2013
Okay, I'm not sure if it's a really good use, but I've found a website I really like.
This doesn't happen often.
Mostly because I build the things, so I see how badly done they are, or how useless, or usually how much they're purely trying to get your money, or your details to sell to people to get money.
However as part of planning for my upcoming holiday, the in-laws wanted to know our flight numbers so they could keep an eye on the flights and track that we landed safely. Apparently "there's a website that tracks flights", so thinking that it'd be something like a arrivals and departures board, I did a search and found http://www.flightradar24.com and boy is it good.
Initially you're presented with what looks like a messy map, but what they've actually done is plotted the position of about 60% of all passenger aircraft. They go into the detail on their site.
This isn't static data though, it's real time. If you zoom in a bit you can see the individual planes moving across the map. If you click on a plane, you get its flight number and details. Plus you can then see its route and, even better a "Cockpit View". The people who built this site have not only tied it in with Google Maps, but also with Google Earth.
This is incredibly, distractingly addictive.
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Latest reply: Apr 28, 2013
Subscriptions, Bookmarks and Blocked Users
Posted Mar 31, 2013
One of the features of Barlesque was a whole host of social/community based stuff that never really quite worked.
So now I'm trying to fix it, but it's hampered by the fact that because it never really quite worked, we don't quite know what some of the features are actually supposed to do.
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Latest reply: Mar 31, 2013
Lambs
Posted Mar 19, 2013
I don't enter competitions on Twitter. I don't really enter competitions at all.
Last night however someone I know retweeted a post from someone who shepherds herdwick sheep in the Lake District (https://twitter.com/herdyshepherd1) and herdwick are lovely creatures, and the Twitter feed seemed interesting, the photos alone are gorgeous. So I followed them. And, er, became their 3500 follower and can now name a lamb.
This is a big responsibility it seems!
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Latest reply: Mar 19, 2013
Pastey
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