pootling

Heading across Battersea Bridge. (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 18 May 2012 06:46:45 +0100

Heading across Battersea Bridge. (Taken with instagram)

A Sunday evening Sidecar cocktail. (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 13 May 2012 19:32:16 +0100

A Sunday evening Sidecar cocktail. (Taken with instagram)

A Friday evening whisky sour. Mmm-mmm. (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 11 May 2012 21:19:15 +0100

A Friday evening whisky sour. Mmm-mmm. (Taken with instagram)

Here’s some drizzly Suffolk countryside from yesterday...

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:14:21 +0100

Here’s some drizzly Suffolk countryside from yesterday too. (Taken with Instagram at Old Newton)

Visiting the (drizzly) Suffolk countryside. (Taken with...

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:04:39 +0100

Visiting the (drizzly) Suffolk countryside. (Taken with Instagram at Old Newton)

Daily Mail inform us that the '50s' weren't a golden age for women

Tue, 01 May 2012 18:40:54 +0100

Daily Mail inform us that the '50s' weren't a golden age for women:

This attitude is thanks largely to the popular TV series Mad Men — set as that supposedly golden age came to a close — with its sexy secretaries wiggling in their tight dresses, lantern- jawed men and Martinis galore.

Although, if you actually watch Mad Men, it hardly portrays the life of women during that era as being special. Joan who, inevitably, they’ve plastered all over the article was raped by her husband in the office. He is a controlling, vicious bastard of a husband, never there to help and yet expects to make all decisions about their life by himself. Indeed an image they’ve included is one of the most tense, difficult scenes in the new series.

Female characters are held back from the success they deserve, unless they choose to marry their way to the top. Few have careers that compare with the men, despite often being much more talented. The men themselves are chauvinist, ignorant, venal idiots with the odd exception, and the workplace is regularly portrayed as being horrendous.

I wonder what show the writer has been watching.

New trailer for The Dark Knight Rises Man this looks so damn...

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:31:30 +0100

New trailer for The Dark Knight Rises

Man this looks so damn good.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Man I love this song. It...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:43:02 +0100

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Man I love this song. It has the air of something recorded at the crossover of psychedelia and funk (although has only just come out), it’s so full of hooks it’s like it’s made of velcro. So much fun, and just brilliant.

On Leaving Orange

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:53:11 +0100

It was interesting for me to read this piece by Euen Semple on his problems trying to get Orange to make his broadband work. Euen puts the problem down to Orange’s reliance on their systems, and I would back this up with my experiences with them dealing with my iPad sim-only contract. The issue I had is that their system wasn’t even designed to deal with my situation.

When I first bought my iPad, I thought I’d try out a different company for the 3G contract. This was to see if a company other that O2 gave a good service in my area, and if my iPad wasn’t getting any service, at least my phone might be, and vice versa. Unfortunately, the signal I got from Orange was, if anything, worse than that from O2.

When I bought my iPad 3, at first I just dropped the Orange sim in it, and for a few days it worked. Then I stopped getting any service, so I called Orange to ask what was up. First they told me to restart it, which made no difference, and then they told me I might need a new sim. At that point, I thought that if I’m going to wait for a new sim, I may as well cancel my contract, and after being passed around a few people a bit, I got through to someone who could do just that.

In fact, the problem was that Orange was down in my area, but the person on the phone seemed not to be aware of that. If he had been, I might still be an Orange customer today.

After my call, they texted my O2 phone with an Orange questionnaire asking how good the service I received was. I couldn’t answer any of the questions because the number the texts came from only worked from O2 phones.

A few days later, they sent me a letter offering me a better deal, including more ‘free texts’. Which, of course, would have been no use to me at all on the iPad.

My pain was nowhere near Euen’s admittedly, but it’s another example of a company that’s clearly over-reliant on automated systems and doesn’t even understand its own products.

The Best-Dressed Protest in the World Abercrombie and Fitch are...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:35:01 +0100

The Best-Dressed Protest in the World

Abercrombie and Fitch are aiming to build a store in Savile Row. The Chap organised a protest. Rarely has a protest been as dapper as this one. (via)

Adam Lisagor’s Tribute to the Aeropress Let me add my...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:43:59 +0100

Adam Lisagor’s Tribute to the Aeropress

Let me add my voice of support to the Aeropress. It makes the best damn coffee in the world.

lonelysandwich:

AeroPress “Ritual” (spec)

This is a short tribute to my AeroPress. Two years ago, one was given to me, and it changed everything.

For a little more than $20, this marvel of science will produce arguably the best cup of coffee you’ve ever made in your home. It makes no sense.

Here’s where to buy it: amzn.to/IiqlhO

8-Bit iPhone and iPad Cases I love the official iPad and iPhone...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:52:22 +0100

8-Bit iPhone and iPad Cases

I love the official iPad and iPhone cases, but these cases from Big Big Pixel are so cute that I may well be tempted away.

It’s that time of year. (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:11:09 +0100

It’s that time of year. (Taken with instagram)

Nail their gizzards to the yardarm! An astonishing creation (by...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:52:37 +0100

Nail their gizzards to the yardarm!

An astonishing creation (by SlyOwl) on Flickr. The minifig scale ships are amazing enough, but that sea! Take a look at that sea! (via)

Other professionals don't work for free. So why are writers expected to?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:58:43 +0100

Other professionals don't work for free. So why are writers expected to?:

Or so Jonathan Tasini thinks. Except that’s crap isn’t it? How about care home volunteers, or artists, or musicians, or photographers, or designers, or lawyers or advertising professionals. Actually loads of different professions have ways of making people work for free. The only reason Jonathan Tasini thinks that writers are the only people who work for free is because he’s a writer.

Any career that people want to do for nothing will be done by someone for nothing. The “consequences for creativity and democracy are dire” writes Tasini, but in fact both of those things are fine. The only people that writers who work for free are screwing over are themselves, and other writers. The reason they’re prepared to do it is because writing is enjoyable. People love doing it. They want to do it so much they don’t care if they get paid. And if you’re in the lucky, tiny percentage of people who do get to get paid for writing, then lucky, lucky you.

Because, let’s be clear, many writers do get paid don’t they? Some get paid very well. Some don’t get paid very well. Some don’t get paid at all. Them’s the breaks. Stop whinging. If you can’t make money out of writing, go and get a job where people will pay you.

The problem is this: If you’re doing a job that someone else is prepared to do for free, you have to be pretty damn good before you get paid for it. Finding damn good writers is still pretty profitable though and being a damn good writer can be a nice living. That, to me, sound like creativity and democracy are going to be just fine.

Blossom still on the trees on my run this morning. (Taken with...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:15:24 +0100

Blossom still on the trees on my run this morning. (Taken with Instagram at Tooting Common)

Captain America: The First Avenger There’s a few things...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 10:13:00 +0100

Captain America: The First Avenger

There’s a few things one has to ignore in order to enjoy this film. Firstly, there’s the fact that it’s utterly ludicrous, kitsch and silly. Secondly, there’s the rather jingoistic feeling which essentially writes out all countries other than the US and Germany from their roles in the Second World War. Still, if a comic book adaptation feels like it has the outlook and depth of a 1940s comic book, who am I to complain?

The 1940s setting of the film really works well. And the technology of Hydra, which is actually in advance of our own, but done in a way that feels fitting in the era is enjoyable. The script is silly, and the plot entirely predictable, but the acting is good enough (especially Hugo Weaving as Red Skull and Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips) to pull you through the worst of the idiocy, and the end result is surprisingly watchable.

Captain America: The First Avenger on IMDB

Captain America: The First Avenger on Amazon

This is our New Aesthetic. Just like the last one.

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:52:00 +0100

This is our New Aesthetic. Just like the last one.:

I think I’m with mykreeve on “The New Aesthetic”:

Here’s my thought - someone’s made up a bullshit term to label a whole load of images which involve, or are inspired by, digital media to some extent, right? There’s no other obvious characteristic which holds this together, other than contemporaneousness, is there?

Double Standards in Western/African Terminology

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:40:39 +0100

Double Standards in Western/African Terminology:

An telling table describing various government activities by what we call them in the west, and in Africa.

London between rain showers. (Taken with Instagram at South...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:44:13 +0100

London between rain showers. (Taken with Instagram at South Bank)