pootling

I’m not really sure what’s wrong with me, but nothing seems to quite work properly for me at the moment. Let me lay out some of the evidence before you:

• I’ve just had a nice man from Homechoice over to replace our set top box since the last one had worked less often than it hadn’t.
• I’ve had to replace my mobile phone since the last one stopped taking calls.
• Now the new one’s turning itself off and not reconnecting to the network every time I go on the tube.
• You may have noticed that my del.icio.us links aren’t making their merry way to the blog any longer. I frankly have no idea what to do about it, so they may be out of action for some time. In the meantime, you can get all my links here. Apologies.

I think the lesson here is don’t leave any electrical equipment anywhere near me for the time being unless you want to claim for it on your insurance.

My life has been rated:
See what your rating is!
Created by Bart King

Hmm, that makes me sound a little like a mildly risque rom-com. How depressing. Bill Stickers got an 18, but then he probably has considerably more violent fantasies than me, being a parking attendant…

Having be forced by the crapness of Motorola’s ROKR to get a new phone, I should now be able to blog from wherever I happen to be (on my lunch break at work, if you’re interested). Frankly, I can’t imagine that this is going to be all that useful, but watch this space anyway…

It seems that our foray into broadband has even brought darling vicarage*, my wonderful partner back into the blogging fold and she’s even using her blog to put her writing up online, which, frankly is what she should have been doing in the first place.

Of course, I would also like to point out that she whinged about me not having linked to my blog when she’s been hogging the computer, and now she’s nagging while I type about her. Monkey.

Nevertheless, I still heartily recommend her blog.

*who I used to call the starfish here, for reasons I won’t go into. I think from now on, it would make more sense for me to stick with her own chosen moniker…

• The Enforcer gives the case for the probation service
  In the current row about sentences and judges and the probation service, there’s so much ignorance of the justice system, how it works and where the problems lie that it drives me mad. I agree with The Enforcer here wholeheartedly
  (tags: probation justice criminal judges media newspapers)
• Google Sightseeing
  Due to the new broadband connection, I downloaded Google Earth today, Google Sightseeing helps you to see the best bits.
  (tags: architecture blog earth geography google interesting map photography travel world googlemaps googleearth)

Hello, I am now back again, connected to the old interweb at home and at a 21st century speed as well. For the time being, I have a few internet-related things to catch up on, but sooner or later I will start posting something a bit more substantial than a few links.

I’m really looking forward to being able to read all of your blogs again.

Woo.

• Projecting onto a sphere
  A company have designed a way to project onto a sphere meaning that you can explain battle plans and how to destroy death stars in a clear fashion.
  (tags: starwars projection sphere)
• Alan Moore talks, everso briefly, about Lost Girls
  Lost Girls looks like it’s going to be great, especially judging by the image attached to this stupidly short interview.
  (tags: alanmoore lostgirls interview comics us)

• Why keep downloads on the down-low?
  Guardian article complaining about DRM. “There will always be pirates but most people are prepared to pay for goods as long as a payment system is available and they are not asked to pay through the nose.” They say.
  (tags: music drm apple guardian article newspaper)
• Mad Lit Professor Puts Finishing Touches On Bloomsday Device
  Beware on Friday.
  (tags: literature theonion bloomsday jamesjoyce)
• The fallacies of gravity - Christian Forums
  “so my point is that gravity(like other scientifist “tHeories” is very on shaky grounds” this genius opines. I really hope he’s joking (via Kottke)
  (tags: ignorance education religion science gravity)
• Spot the film
  I spent ages on the Virgin music version of this, trying to track down punned band names. Now I can do the same with films. Let the frustration begin! (via Neatorama)
  (tags: films image fun)
• Darren from LinkMachineGo finishes his “what I love about comics” list with the top 25
  No prizes for guessing the number one, but the list as a whole is great. I’m impressed that he managed to get to the full 100
  (tags: comics linkmachinego top100 best)
• Nick Robinson’s analysis of the Sun’s ridiculous campaign
  Given a little more time, and perhaps a working internet connection at home, I’d go into quite how ridiculous the Sun’s campaign is. In the meantime, Nick Robinson’s analysis is pretty good.
  (tags: politics thesun nickrobinson bbc judiciary)

• Pulp Covers for Classic Books
  I do try and avoid just re-posting boing boing links, but for this one, I’m going to make an exception. The pulp-style covers of classic books are really cool.
  (tags: book funny pulp literature illustration)
• A LEGO Bloggers Code
  Following on from discussions, Brick Brick have posted a sort of Lego code, basically outlining how not to be a bastard by reposting other people’s work. Hopefully I pretty much follow this already, but I’ll certainly bear it in mind.
  (tags: lego ethics posting blog)

• Artificial intelligence says Brazil will beat Italy for their sixth Cup
  And, perhaps more to the point: “One semifinal will feature the Netherlands and Italy and the other England and Brazil.” And one of the quarterfinals will see England beat old rivals, Argentina.” Could be worse I suppose.
  (tags: worldcup football england brazil argentina italy)
• Camouflaged street signs
  OK, so in general terms, camouflaging street signs is probably not a good idea, but these do look rather cool.
  (tags: art street sign camouflage)

• Judge orders lawyers to come to an agreement by playing rock, paper scissors
  But my favourite part is that “The USA Rock Paper Scissors League described the decree as “a positive moment for the world”" I want to join the UK Rock Paper Scissors League. I wonder if there’s a world cup?
  (tags: rockpaperscissors law lawyer judge us florida)
• The Brothers Brick find some wonderful minifig-sized animal creations
  These are so amazingly well done. The minotaur especially is a work of genius, and the hag reminds me of Rod Hull and Emu’s arch-nemesis, Grotbags
  (tags: lego minifig brothersbrick animal hag minotaur)
• Political Compass Questionnaire
  Find out where you stand. Turns out I’m slap bang in the middle of the left-libertarian square, which sounds about right.
  (tags: politics religion economics rightwing leftwing leaning)
• How did the Death Star destroy Aldaraan?
  With a lot of “math” and science, it seems.
  (tags: starwars geek sciencefiction science maths fun)

Well, your guess is as good as mine.

As it stands at the moment, our broadband provider is coming over this weekend to install broadband in the new flat. Great, you think, except that during the wait, our computer has given up the ghost. We are attempting resuscitation, but frankly, the vital signs are not strong.

So it may be that we’ll also need to buy a new computer. Great.

In the meantime, there should be a few posts from time to time, since I can get access to my bloglines account through other means and even post via email and through del.icio.us. I am reading those blogs of people I like a lot (Homo Ludens, Newfred, the blog formerly known as Dunechaser’s Blocklog etc.), but I just don’t have the time or the ability to post regularly to my own blog, and, frankly, it’s driving me a little insane.

That said, it’s also giving me the opportunity to read those old-fashioned book type things from that forerunner of the internet, the library. I’m very much enjoying Ray Monk’s biography of Wittgenstein and a lot of stuff of Alan Moore’s (the two people who probably take places 1 and 2 in my all-time heroes list (Wittgenstein and Moore, incidentally - much as I like Ray Monk, he’s not really hero material)) which is proving most enjoyable. Still, I’m looking forward to returning, and hopefully it won’t be too much longer.

So, in the future, you can look forward to some more politically-inspired Lego creations and some rants about copyright. God knows when, however, and he doesn’t seem to be letting on.

See you soon.

minifig

• I’m a Believer
  Paddington continues to make sense of Lacan through his Zizek lectures, by reference to the type of “consultation” exercises that I have come to know and hate through working in Government. Bravo.
  (tags: politics lacan zizek paddington psychology capitalism)
• Simply Google
  Doesn’t look very pretty, but it is handy to get all of Google’s functionality without so many clicks.
  (tags: google search web)