Journal Entries
Centaurs' nipples
Posted May 7, 2009
I'm doing some user interface design at the moment. It makes a nice change to be doing it hands-on, as opposed to telling other people how to do it.
I used to do this full time, oooh, mumblemumble years ago, when I was employed designing user screens for photocopiers. Back in those days, graphics capabilities were limited, so we had to be a bit tricksy with how we did the graphics. (similar in the current job which involves an industrial process controller with a small, VGA screen).
Anyway...I developed various Design Principles which became my catchphrases. One of these was. 'Mickey Mouse's Fingers' In the early days of Disney, the animators discovered that when they drew Mickey with four fingers fingers and a thumb, his hand looked like a bunch of bananas. If they used three fingers - it more resembled a hand. The same is true of The Simpsons. So 'Mickey Mouse's Fingers' became my version of 'Less is more'.
Another one was to do with the way that tiny details can suddenly become over-apparent when you see them on the screen. I called this 'Centaurs' Nipples'. In 'Fantasia', there's a shot where some she-centaurs in the background gallop towards some he-centaurs in the foreground. The artists discovered that if they drew the she-centaurs' nipples in at the wrong moment, they'd suddenly look far too glad to see the he-centaurs. 
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Latest reply: May 7, 2009
Spoiled by choice.
Posted Apr 27, 2009
How spoiled am I by consumer society? Yesterday in the supermarket, I found myself feeling aggrieved that they no longer stock orecchiete or trofie, so I had to make do with penne.
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Latest reply: Apr 27, 2009
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau
Posted Apr 22, 2009
Yesterday I was in South Wales on business. I finished what I needed to do early afternoon, so since I wasn't flying out of Bristol until the evening I took a thirty mile diversion to Penarth, where my Grandma was from. We were all brought up on tales from her early life - like the time she had to sing the Japanese anthem for some visiting dignitaries...and the soldiers that were billeted with them in WWI...and ice cream from 'the hokey pokey man'...and how her mum would put a red hot poker in a jug of beer to heat it up. But as far as I know, I'm the first family member to have visited since.
At first, it wasn't quite what I imagined. As you can see, it's rather bijou (or, as Grandma would say, 'There's posh, look!').
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=penarth&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=10.966832,27.773438&ie=UTF8&ll=51.433411,-3.16844&spn=0,359.945755&z=14&layer=c&cbll=51.433316,-3.168456&panoid=-rJHY9Pay91T2sTNrvc61A&cbp=12,11.677215189874822,,0,15.110759493670892
The seaside town/ They forgot to close down...
But then I looked at a map and realised there was a less posh side, facing the old docks. I remember Grandma talking about seeing her father, who was a sailor, walking up the hill when he came back from sea. This kind of street is more likely:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=penarth&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=10.966832,27.773438&ie=UTF8&ll=51.441276,-3.173504&spn=0.022577,0.054245&z=14&layer=c&cbll=51.441171,-3.173586&panoid=0PQmVbb1L5r0SztdpCSABw&cbp=12,35.95867454417269,,0,14.19936708860761
I sent postcards to my brother, sister and two uncles and then headed off to Cardiff's Millenium Square to see if I could spot the rift in the fabric of spacetime.
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Latest reply: Apr 22, 2009
Barred!
Posted Apr 14, 2009
I got barred from a cafe today. 
I dropped off A&S at a theatre workshop and went off with E for a day of pottering and looking at dinosaur bones. First off we stopped at nearby cafe which I often frequent when I'm in the area because they do particularly nice coffee. I ordered a coffee for me and a banana smoothie for E...and I noticed that they had 'Bacon with pancakes and maple syrup' on the menu. So I asked,
'Could I just have some pancakes and syrup?'
OK - ambiguous, I admit - but I meant *just* pancakes and maple syrup...*and no bacon*.
But a while later, she brings me pancakesandsyrupandbacon.
'Oh - I'm sorry - I meant *just* pancakes and syrup. No bacon.'
'But the menu item says it's with bacon.'
'I know. And that's why I said *just* pancakes and syrup.'
But she changed it, and I'd already decided that she was still getting a tip for efficiency (anyone can make a mistake).
Only...when I' came to pay, she charged me the full price.
'The menu item clearly lists bacon and pancakes and syrup'.
I hand over a £10 note (more than I want to pay, but still £1 short) and say:
'Well that's my final offer.'
And turn on my heel. (Well...not quite. There was some argy bargy about 'You must need that pound more than I do!')
Only...
I've left my phone on the table.
I went back later and - long story short - after an attempted lecture from the manager I had to hand over a pound in return for a phone.
'Fair enough. You've gained a pound and lost a customer.'
'No I haven't - you're barred anyway.'
Discuss this Journal entry [33]
Latest reply: Apr 14, 2009
Why, oh why, oh why...
Posted Mar 12, 2009
...did my son decide to do General Tojo for his school 'War Leaders' project? 
Oh, wait. I remember. Some smartarse eejit suggested it would be more interesting to pick someone other than Hitler or Churchill, like everyone else.
Trouble is...Tojo seems to have been a particularly dull man who was only prime minister, more or less by happenstance, from 1941-44. So I've suggested that he widens it out a little to cover 'His Life and Times', and hence the origins of Japan's involvement in WWII.
And here's where it gets interesting. We're all taught about the rise Nazism, but on the Japanese side it's traditionally left as 'and then they unexpectedly attacked Pearl Harbor'. Of course...wars don't come out of nowhere. I was pretty much aware of Japan's inter-war expansionism in China and its militarism, and that following WWI when it was on the Allied side it started to come into competion with the US and Britain in the Far East...but what I didn't know about was the British/Dutch/US embargo on oil, coal and steel imports, intended to persuade them out of China, which crippled their economy. Tojo was still in negotiations with the US over this when the fleet saved...but was unable to persuade the military (and Emperor!) against the Pearl Harbor plan.
Another thing to cover will be Japanese war crimes - for which Tojo bore responsibility was executed. Of course, was no angel...but the received wisdom of the Emperor as an aloof, uninvolved figurehead is *far* from the truth.
Hmm...I think I feel a Guide Entry coming on. I've not written one for a while.
Maybe a topic would be The Greater East Asia War - which is what the Japanese called a combination of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and (what we call) WWII.
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Latest reply: Mar 12, 2009
Edward the Bonobo - Gone.
Researcher U803114
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