bignoseduglyguy

Argh! Women!

Sorry, that should have read 'Are women...'.

As in:

Are women and young girls genetically predisposed to hold the vast majority of their conversations (face to face or telephonic) standing in bloody doorways - doorways which I am usually and not unreasonably trying to use as a doorway rather than a gossip's leaning post?

It is at this point that I must apologise to one regular reader for the unprecedented use of exclamation marks in the last two posts. Zoe, it's nothing personal - I just felt the extra emphasis was warranted in both cases. Unemphasised posting will now resume.

Cor(e) blimey!

Regulars will recall that I had reason to question the supermarket spending habits of SWMBO some time back. Well, it seems she's at it again, seemingly going nuts in the fruit and veg aisle.

At this rate, on the premise that an apple a day keep the doctor away, I'll be retired before we ever need to claim on the health insurance. The reason folks in the advert for this supermarket pat their bum pockets is obviously to ensure they haven't been mugged at the checkout. One wonder how many smaller mistakes go unnoticed by harrassed housepersons and the like.

Apologies for the lack of clarity and focus in the picture. The camera is fine but the photographer had been in close proximity to a £1.98 screw-top bottle of Australian Red before taking the shot.

Metaphorically speaking

I had a note on my Palm to write a post about how certain words and phrases seep from work cultures into our everyday personal lives but Ian sort of beat me to it. In a post, Ian points to a Plain English Campaign press release concerning their recent vote on the most irritating phrase in the language. Simple language folk around the globe voted "At the end of the day" as the most irritating phrase in the English language, followed by "At this moment in time", the use of "like" a form of punctuation and "With all due respect". By way of a segue into my original subject idea, below are others that received nominations, are sadly in common usage in my company and tend to irritate - feel free to add your own two-finger quotation mark gestures as you read along:

• 24/7
• absolutely
• address the issue
• basically
• basis ("on a weekly basis" in place of "weekly" and so on)
• epicentre (used incorrectly)
• glass half full (or half empty)
• going forward
• in terms of...
• it's not rocket science
• literally (when the reference is far from literal - grrr)
• move the goal-posts
• ongoing
• prioritise
• pushing the envelope
• singing from the same hymn sheet
• the fact of the matter is
• to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest
• touch base
• value-added (in general use)

Now, this is not to imply that I am immune from using such tosh but, in my defence, it does tend to be inadvertantly when others are throwing such phrases around and I get sucked into their verbal vortices. However, what I do notice is how susceptable I am to picking up work jargon and industry lingo and then using it at home with family and friends. Years ago, in between acting jobs, I was a courier and cab driver and spent most of my waking hours hop-scotching around London and the Home Counties on bikes, vans and cars whilst chuntering incessantly into a PMR (private mobile radio). At the other end of the connection was the despatcher/controller (this person, by dictating where you went and what you did, had enormous power over one's earning potential). After a while, courier radio-speak began to creep into my everyday vocabulary. An affirmative reply ceased to be anything other than 'roger-rodge', it's opposite the simple 'negative'. The acceptance of small amounts of money was soon just 'cash in yer bin' and driving anywhere with someone or something else in the vehicle with you meant you were 'P.O.B.' or 'passenger / parcel on board'. To this day, these phrases occasionally spring from my lips when I'm merely agreeing with someone, giving the kids their pocket-money or confirming that I have collected them from dance class. As with all licenced radio communications in the UK, all transmissions are randomly monitored, with heavy fines or loss of licence the consequence for repeated misuse or bad language. This led to the evolution of a whole new way of swearing - one that would convey sufficient meaning to those concerned without jeopardising the business. The standard response to a controller's request to deliver to an out-of-the-way address on a cold rainy Friday night (where refusal might cost you your weekly attendance bonus) was inevitably 'FRO!' which conveyed the sentiment that one wished the controller to 'go right away from here' or words to that effect.

A good few years later, I find myself in similar territory despite the fact that I am now in a totally different industry and inhabit the no-man's land that is middle management. Here, the language is far more transatlantic and far less colloquial, fuelled by the echos of the Thatcherite dream and a thousand 'how-to-get-ahead-in-business' books. Managers like myself no longer come across 'problems', we 'encounter issues'. Instead of solving the problem, we 'strive' to 'resolve the issue'. Likewise, a colleague who simply employs appropriately skilled people on a project is obviously not in the same league as the 'co-worker' who is 'focused on leveraging synergistic human resources in achieving the...' - well, you get my drift, I'm sure. The irony of managers from Surrey and Kent trying to talk like Wall Street warriors such as Gordon Gekko seems to be lost on these folks. This kind of thing sneaks up on one, as I found a few days back when a colleague was chatting about 'issues' he had with his girlfriend and I was offering him advice on a few 'win-win scenarios' that might bring about 'mutually positive outcomes'. SWMBO always said I talk bollocks, now I know it's true.

Wives shouldn't say...

"Wasn't there any more penne?" when the husband has whipped up a quick penne with tomato sauce for the sprogs whilst labouring long and hard on a subtle and refined spaghetti dish for just for her.

Wives definitely shouldn't say that.

Psionara...for now

It is a beautiful sunny spring Sunday here in London so what better way to spend time than sitting indoors blogging? Having said that, I have already been out for a run this morning as I thoroughly enjoy being out and about in gorgeous weather like this. In this hazy but warm sunshine, gentle but fresh breeze, even the local park seemed a world away from it's ultra-urban surroundings. Anyhow, suitably exercised and refreshed, I thought I would spend a few moments on geekish things before thinking about a late Sunday lunch.

I am currently one-third of the way through a trial of The Bat! as a potential long-term mail client. Thunderbird is great but I wanted to try a more fully featured client to see if it would make life a little easier. In conjunction, I have now added Robin Kier's K9 to my anti-spam armoury and have found it to be easily trainable and pretty effective. In fact, K9's effectiveness is no real surprise as it is a natural development of POPFile, the web-based open source spam filter that I have used previously. With an overall accuracy of 95% after nine days (without whitelists or blacklists), I think I'll be sticking with K9 for the forseeable future.

Meanwhile, my foray back into the world of Psion computing has not been what I expected. Firstly, I found that messing around with two PDAs and two desktop companion apps proved to be too distracting and doing so led to a frustrating total loss of my phone's address book when a sync with Outlook went wrong. The evening spent trying tob convert my large Palm contacts file to a slimmer one in a format that Outlook would import (CSV) with a decent amount of success was not what I had in mind when I purchased the 5mx. Likewise, I was not prepared for how hard it was to work on a greyscale PDA after using hi-res colour screens (Clie & Palm) for the last three years. Even with the backlight, which buzzes audibly and annoyingly, it is just not the same as working on a colour machine. That said, the exercise has proved useful in clarifying what I use a PDA for and how it fits in to my daily routine. I spend a lot of time at my desk working on my docked laptop so a lot of my data capture is simply a question of cut & paste or key-entry into three key applications that I use extensively on both my Palm and my PC, Palm Desktop, Bonsai and DayNotez. When I'm in meetings and projects briefings around my centre or offsite, I use a Palm Portable Keyboard to allow me to directly capture minutes and notes - which are always more detailed and relevant than the official ones! Out and about, I can use Notepad or Slap - and the Voice Memo function in the car - to record stuff I can process more fully later.

Having said that, the 5mx is a lovely piece of kit and has re-awakened my interest in the Psion/EPOC combination. This being the case, and taking my preference for colour into account, the sensible move would seem to be selling the 5mx and moving up to the Psion 7 sub-notebook, which I have always fancied owning. Watch this space.

Life gets in your way*

I am always quietly impressed by, and mildly jealous of, the prodigious output of bloggers like Zoe, Robin and Andy, especially when I have had a busy week and have been less than inspired.

I hope to remedy this over the coming two days but the Reader's Digest version of my week goes like this:

Sunday: Started running again after many moons of inactivity on the exercise front.

Monday: Ached. Oh and worked from home.

Tuseday: Quiet day at work - just as well as was totally distracted by the eBay Psion 5mx which had arrived the previous day. Ran again in evening. Liberal application of Deep Heat to aching limbs eased discomfort.

Wednesday: Fecking MS Lookout (to which my geekboy SPV E200 phone connects when it feels like it) wipes out 150+ crucial work contacts on said phone. Not a happy boy as spent evening importing contacts from other sources back onto the Phone From The Dark Side.

Thursday: Meetings and drudgery to the tune of The Song Of The Volga Boatmen (you'll get the drift when you hear it). Ran again in evening and felt a little better and more energised. No application of Deep Heat required.

Friday: Dress down day. Great brainstorming session with my team. Quick 'pub lunch' with boss and colleagues in the hotel opposite work. Good afternoon with desk cleared by 1600hrs. Extremely rapid journey home in lovely spring sunshine. All's well with the world. Until the Global Head Of My Division calls in the middle of home made bugers to ask why she's getting sh*tloads of escalations and 'nobody's answering their mobiles'. Hour on phone tracking down relevant folks and making the right noises to get things resolved. And now, as I finish this post, my bastard repetitive strain injury/carpal tunnel pains (see posts in archives) are back in my right arm.

I feel an enforced holiday from PC looming. Fopping feck as Father Jack might say.

'Night all.

* 'Dream On Dreamer' by Brand New Heavies

Spring clean sale

As a small boy, I used to have pockets full of stuff like conkers, bits of Meccano, string and the odd small insect. As an adult, the hoarding instinct hasn't waned and consequently I end up with lots of stuff knocking about. In order to minimise the possiblities of penury due to alimony and offset the cost of my geek gadget habit, I have started loading bits and bobs onto the uniquitous eBay. This being the case, if you're currently anxious to get your hands on a Minolta Dynax 5000i 35mm camera in time for the hols or simply scoop up a nice Iomega 100Mb Internal Zip Drive ATAPI for backing up your blog, I'm your man.

Oh cruel fate

Sod's law dictates that the day I am working remotely from my office is the day that the Psion I bought on eBay arrives at said office. Shallow and shameless geek that I am, I have tried all manner of bribes, threats and cajoling on various colleagues but to no avail as none of them fancy the 50 mile round trip to drop it off here on the other side of town. S'not fair. I'm off to practise bottom lip pouting.

The wily FOXPOP is no more

Have you ever wished that you hadn't clicked on that one last link before going to bed? The one that kept you up reading for ages?

I have. This evening, in anticipation of receiving my Psion sometime soon, I clicked over to one of my favourite sites FOXPOP, only to find that it has closed due to the ill health of its leading lights, Elisabeth and Mike Liddell. As they point out, like many who maintain popular 'spare-time' websites, the site became a full time job and they decided to draw a line rather than let things decline. If you never visited, you won't know what you missed but I am sorry to see FOXPOP, the most literate, well thought through and cerebal of PDA resources close.

Compact and bijou

Look at the following specification for a PC that I have just found:

Windows XP operating system
1 GHz processor
256 MB system DRAM
30 GB hard drive
3D graphics with 8MB video DRAM
USB 2.0 port

Not so good? Expect more from a PC these days? How about if I told you that the very same PC fitted in your hand? Not a PDA or a laptop but a miniPC measuring just 5.8" x 4.0" x 1.0" (148mm x 101mm x 26mm) and weighing under 1.0 lb (450g).

The thing is the 'vision' of Paul Allen, co-founder of The Dark Side and you can join the line of dribbling geeks here.

Funnily enough, I'm due a new company car

Legoland's new Volvo XC90 shamelessly snaffled from Ian's Messy Desk whilst he wasn't looking - and he grabbed it from car.kak.net.

Whoops- how did that happen?

There was I, casually clicking through eBay UK's Psion listings, when I accidentally entered some random numbers and just as accidentally clicked on on the 'bid' button just seconds before the bidding closed on the item below. As I will undoubtedly have to explain to SWMBO later, eBay's rules on bid retraction sadly prevent me from taking any course other than seeing the purchase through.

Anyone else, like Andy and Squonk who commented regarding their own hal-psion days (sorry) of Psion ownership and continuing hankerings, could do a lot worse than make a call to folks like POS (see post below) or Clove Technology. Talking to the chap at POS this morning confirmed that, whilst Psion no longer manufacture for the consumer market, there is still a large enough loyal user base out there to keep them busy with servicing and the sale of reconditioned units and aftermarket accesories. Likewise, the Psion also has a highly active development community and I am looking forward to exploring a whole new world of opensource and shareware apps. One which I was recommended to investigate is John Montgomery's Java Psion Link which "is intended to be a cross-platform solution for transferring files between Psion Epoc PDAs (netBook, series 7, 5Mx, revo) and any computer with a serial port and the ability to run java."

Nostalgic pang of the geek kind

Took the family - well, 5/6ths as one was off doing an art projects elsewhere - to Langdon Hills country park for a picnic and general loaf today around. Langdon Hills is one of nine country parks in Essex and I must commend the County Council and their rangers on the way they maintain the facilities and the area without making it look too manicured. As a parent, simple things like the provision of ample free parking together with clean and pleasant (yes, pleasant) toilets can really make the diference between a great day out with few hassles and a grim test of parental endurance and patience. Thinking of returning for a big picnic in the future, I pointed out to SWMBO the extra little touches that would make this an ideal venue to have a big day-long beano with a bunch of friends and colleagues. These included a drinking water tap near the loos (handy for dirty hands as well as refilling the now-ubiquitous water bottles and benches adjacent to the picnic tables where jaded parents could retire from snack-serving duties to sip a cool glass of white or a foaming ale. She agreed, pointedly making the observation that even the most basic "aires" on the autoroutes in France have the same.

It was on a trip to the aforementioned toilets that I caught a glimpse of a solitary middle-aged chap seemingly slumped in the driving seat of his bland but tax-efficient four door company saloon. Adjusting my course, I moved closer in case he needed help then had second thoughts as I could tell that his hands were busy manipulating something out of sight. By now I was almost upon the car and could hardly bring myself to sneak a sideways glance but when I did, all became clear and I went on my way smiling. The chap concerned was not slumped so much as hunched in concentration whilst he typed away furiously on his Psion 3a.

This reminded me of my very first PDAs, all of which were from the Psion stable. If you think that Palm were ahead of the game and out on their own in the mid-nineties, then you need to think again - Psion released their first organiser over ten years before the Palm Pilot 1000 and went on to produce some of the best PDA hardware and software bar none. There are more than a few Psion users who attend the face to face UKPUG (UK Palm User Group) meetings and stalwarts such as Steve Litchfield and David MacKay who maintain excellent resources on their websites. Upon arriving home, I dug out my faithful 3a only to find the left hinge was bust and the button bar askew. With blind faith in the the Psion-owning community and the power of Google, I searched for 'psion hinge problem'. Results two and three took me straight to David MacKay's hinge repair pages. Following the excellent step by step shots and using a cannibalised screw eyelet, I managed to effect a decent repair so I fitted batteries and fired her up. It has been so long since I have used a Psion, I felt like a noobie but, being sad, I have kept all the manuals and ephemera so was soon back up to speed with all the old standard apps.

All this presents a problem because, having wandered across the highly-recommended Pinnock Organiser Services website, I now want a Revo or a 5mx. Having said that, I doubt either would distract me for long because, ever since I saw one at a UKPUG meeting a couple of years back, all I have ever really wanted was a Psion 7. All this is conjecture as SWMBO will neuter me if I buy any more PDAs or gadgets...but she never need know, right?

The things we say...

SWMBO (staring at me whilst I am driving family to the park): Have you got a mark on your chin?
Me: No.
Sprog #4 (with the wisdom of her three whole years' experience): You need to do your thingy.
Me: What, sproglet?
Sprog #4: You need to take your face off.
Me: WHAT did you say?
Sprog #4: You..need..to..take..your..face..off.
Me: What!?
Sprog #4 (with a little translation by elder sprog): You need to shave.

Cue laughter.

The meal after the birthday outing

After a long day celebrating Sprog #4's 3rd birthday at an animal park - pictures here - we arrived home tired, so the last thing SWMBO or I wanted to do was cook. However, parental responsibility nagged us into rustling up a large pan of penne, which was dumped on the table with some hastily chopped meats, cheeses etc for a quick hearty meal. Sadly, I tried plain yoghurt in place of cream in the Mum and Dad's crab sauce I whipped up which made is smell dodgy and taste worse. Although pasta with liberal helpings of butter, peppper and cheese is not bad, I would have preferred a reprise of the salmon and prawn pasta I made on Friday for a friend who dropped by. If this sounds extravagent, take the frugal route by buying a bag of small frozen prawns and a pack of the smoked salmon trimmings supermarkets often sell cheap from the fish displays - I got both for £2.

Salmon and Prawn Pasta

250g pasta (shells, bows, spirale, fusili)
25g butter
4 salad onions or 2 shallots, sliced
75g prawns
juice of ½ lemon
15ml spoon freshly chopped dill - or dried
142ml double cream or creme fraiche
125g smoked salmon, cut into strips
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, melt the butter, add the onions and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the prawns, lemon juice and dill. Drain the pasta, add to the prawns and stir in the double cream or creme fraiche, salmon and some seasoning, to taste. Cook for 2 minutes, until heated through thoroughly. Serve on a warmed serving plate, garnished with the dill and lemon slices and with lots of crusty bread and chilled wine. To make the evening complete, make the kids wash up.

It has been 3 hours since my last read...

OK. This is Ian's fault because he pointed out Rebecca's referencing of this page.

Self-Test for Literature Abuse: How many of these apply to you?

1. I have read fiction when I was depressed or to cheer myself up.
2. I have gone on reading binges of an entire book or more in a day.
3. I read rapidly, often "gulping" chapters.
4. I sometimes read early in the morning or before work.
5. I have hidden books in different places to sneak a chapter without being seen.
6. Sometimes I avoid friends or family obligations in order to read novels.
7. Sometimes I re-write film or television dialog as the characters speak.
8. I often read alone.
9. I have pretended to watch television while secretly reading.
10. I keep books or magazines in the bathroom for a "quick nip."
11. I have denied or "laughed off" criticism of my reading habit.
12. Heavy reading has caused conflicts with my family or spouse.
13. I am unable to enjoy myself with others unless there is a book nearby.
14. I seldom leave my house without a book or magazine.
15. When travelling, I pack a large bag full of books.
16. At a party, I will often slip off unnoticed to read.
17. Reading has made me seek haunts and companions which I would otherwise avoid.
18. I have neglected personal hygiene or household chores until I finished a novel.
19. I become nervous, disoriented, or fearful when I must spend more than 15 minutes without reading matter.
20. I have spent money meant for necessities on books instead.
21. I have sold books to support my reading "habit."
22. I have daydreamed about becoming a rich & famous writer, or "word-pusher."
23. I have attempted to check out more library books than is permitted.
24. Most of my friends are heavy fiction readers.
25. I have sometimes passed out or woken groggy or "hung-over" after a night of heavy reading.
26. I have suffered 'blackouts' or memory loss from a bout of reading.
27. I have wept, become angry or irrational because of something I read.
28. I have sometimes wished I did not read so much.
29. Sometimes I think my fiction reading is out of control.

If you answered 'yes' to five or more of these questions, you may be a literature abuser. Affirmative responses to ten or more indicates a serious reading problem --seek help now! Fifteen or more "yes" responses indicates a severe or chronic "readaholic" personality. Intervention is seldom effective at this stage.

My answers are as follows:

1. YES
2. YES
3. YES
4. YES
5. NO
6. YES
7. YES
8. YES
9. YES - but not often.
10. GUILTY AS CHARGED - I have four bookshelves and a magazine basket in there.
11. YES
12. OCCASIONALLY
13. NO
14. YES - If not a book, then at least an ebook on my PDA.
15. SORT OF
16. OCCASIONALLY
17. NO
18. YES
19. NO
20. DEFINITELY
21. NEVER - they're too precious.
22. OFTEN
23. FREQUENTLY
24. IT SEEMS THAT WAY
25. OH YES
26. ONCE
27. YES
28. NO
29. ALWAYS

It appears I am a lost cause. For what it's worth, it's not just fiction with me but also biography, autobiography, travel, political diaries, C20th military history, humour to name but a few. My only saving grace is that sheer fatigue at the end of the day usually prevents me indulging in the reading marathons of old. I just can't keep it up...the book, that is. However, the Easter break has allowed me to get to the 678th of the 1300 odd pages that make up 'The Company: A Novel of the CIA' by Robert Littell.

Oh, those funny Belgians

I am surprised that Zoe hasn't picked up on this story about the Belgian police trying to fine a driver for driving their Mini at Mach 3. Ummm...I wonder...Zoe, what does the Twat drive?

An Easter Story for our times

Overclocked Jesus Performs Miracles Faster

'Donna Samson was one of the cured, "Jesus came walking down the hall and he looked like he had drank about 10 cups of coffee. He laid his hands on me and said my cancer was cured. It was and as a bonus I got this extra leg too!"'

Let the flaming begin...

via Tom @ bbCity.co.uk

Ian's interesting post

Ian's Messy Desk is one of those blogs that provides consistently interesting posts to ponder upon. Ian's blog nestles amongst other favourites in my BlogLines profile and I enjoy the fact that I never quite know what is going to be covered on any given day. Recent subjects include Stations of the Cross, animal rights advertising campaigns and an online grammar test intermingled with the regular posts on matters of faith.

Whilst it is obvious that Ian and I are poles apart in geographical and theological terms - he being a Canadian of Christian orientation and me being a Brit who isn't - we do have a few areas of common ground. Other than our shared enjoyment of words and language, we both have an interest in personal productivity and task management. Earlier in the week, Ian blogged TIME MANAGEMENT HORSE SENSE which links to a short but useful piece for anyone looking for a neat primer on some core tenets of 'time management'. Why the quotation marks? Because, whilst this phrase is widely used and well recognised, one can't actually manage time, merely tasks and actions one has to do in any given period. Semantics, maybe but important to recognise the distinction, I feel.

I am 14670

Following a train of thought from an email to a web forum eventually took me to the site of futurist Peter Russell, who popularised mindmapping along with Tony Buzan in the '70s. It was on Peter's site that I was able to calculate that I was 14760 days old rather than 40 years old. I just thought you should now.

Obligatory cute kitten picture

Jessie, one of our cats has had kittens recently. They are just beginning to explore and get themselves into all sorts of scrapes. After a lot of scrabbling and mewling whilst we were watching TV last night, we suddenly realised it had all gone quiet. We looked around the edge of the sofa to find all three had fallen asleep in a basket we use for newspapers and magazines.

Case Mod by the NRA?

As my friend Roger says 'sometimes I hate computers, but...' this is a tad extreme.

Deja vu curry

Getting home unexpectedly early (before the family had returned from a day trip to the outlaws) I decided to cook a quick curry to welcome home SWMBO. Short on inspiration and forgetting the 100+ recipes on the Palm organiser on my belt, I checked the fridge and freezer for the primary ingredient that would determine my choice of recipe. Prawns won the vote and I dashed to the PC, fired up the uk.food+drink.indian newsgroup in Google Groups (a favourite haunt of mine) and searched for 'prawn recipe'. The first hit in the list was a chicken and prawn thing, so I clicked on the second - a quick 'n' easy curry and rice combo - which was just what I wanted, so off I dashed to the kitchen. and rustled up three jumbo portions - dinner for two and tomorrow's lunch for one. Leaning back after finishing the meal some time later, I idly wondered who posted such a great recipe. With my money on my mate Si aka Mungo Toadfoot (we have similar tastes in curry creations), I trotted back to the PC to check. As I looked at the email header, I couldn't help but laugh out loud - it was written by me, back in November.

Should you also hanker for a Quick Prawn Curry, here's the recipe

½ large onion diced
½ red pepper diced
½ green pepper diced
Lazy ginger
Lazy garlic
1 medium dollop Masala Paste (Veeraswamy Gujarat)
1 medium dollop Mild Curry Paste (Rajah)
1 medium dollop Red Chili Paste (Rajah)
4 or 5 tblsp of the Infamous 'Secret Ingredient' Curry Base
12-14 shelled king prawns halved or load of frozen ones
2 crushed frozen bird's eye chilis (for cold spring nights)
1 large cup Basmati rice

METHOD:

1. Gently fry off the first five ingredients until softened.
2. Add the paste, paste and paste and mix in thoroughly.
3. Add the ISICB and stir in over medium heat until bubbling.
4. Reduce heat slightly and gently stir in prawns.
5. Add more chilis if 'ReadyBrek' glow is req.

Servce over basmati rice.

The original recipe thread can can be found here.

Dear Ann...

Dear Ann
I would be interested to see how my Microsoft Basic Keyboard (1.0A) would look covered in half-chewed herb chicken and mayonnaise sandwich and Tango. Can you help me?

Dear bignoseduglyguy
We all know that the quickest way to do what you ask is to read Ann Widdecombe's Buck up! column on the Guardian Unlimited website whilst eating lunch. Now go away and stop being silly attention-seeking blogger.

My eye

I enjoy snapping images with my Kodak digital camera and my SPV E200 phone. However, I never quite get round to getting stuff up where others can see it. Having had Jason kindly point out the shortcomings of my attempts to code my own photoblog and being lazy by nature, I decided to go with an exisiting web-based solution for now. bignoseduglyeye is the result.

For a truly cracking photo-driven blog, check out funkypancake.

The Singhsons

The Singhsons, from Sody Singh Kahlon's sellout show, Sikhs In the City.

Cold War coincidence

I find it quirkily strange that I am currently engrossed in a fictional account of Cold War events whilst countries that comprised the erstwhile buffer zone between East and West are signing up to join NATO. Whilst immense change has taken place in the intervening 48 years, I doubt whether the 50 years of fictional shenanigans I am enjoying so much even scratch the surface of what the real Pickle Factory get up to these days.

The Exorcist: rabbit redux

The Exorcist in 30 seconds with bunnies. No explanation required. RATFLMAO