Author Archives: essiep

CSA II

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2.4°C & falling
The Child support Agency is due for a complete redesign. Here in the UK organisations normally get a new name when this happens, but if this is the USA would it just be called CSA 2?
 
Flash:During a free period today, I tried an animation with Flash 7. Here is the result:
the impressive thing is not so much the animation, but the tiny file size, this is only 4 kilobytes! If only I could figure out how to insert the swiff file here. At least the idea of the way Flash handles symbols and the libraries has sunk in. I’d really like to be able to get the flapper symbol to follow the curser around now.
Hmm…actionscript.
 
I’m trying some of these, it’s bothersome though, the first one hasn’t worked.

Umm, the second one did though. Try here

the Clogs & The Books

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Warwick Arts Centre, Gig, yesterday.
Stunning, just as remarkable as the Kodo Drummers- which I’m seeing next week.
I’m not writing a full review here, but…
I’d not heard of either before, just a reliable friend wanted to go having read a review in The Wire magazine.
Read up on the links above, the reviews seem fair without too much over-enthusiastic hysteria.
It’s rare that I clap for an encore and mean it.
 
I’m off to play the records now.

8°C, getting warmer. Is it lifting?      

Civil Partnership

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7°C, otherwise – same.
Yesterday was filled with a Civil Parnership ceremony that some friends of ours invited us to. At first the length of the planned evening seems a bit daunting (3.30 to midnight)- but it ended up passsing rather quickly. Held at the Hotel De Vin, the formal part was a Humanist Ceremony for two women who are now, in everything but name, married.
 
the Venue is a converted Eye Hospital, they’ve done a stunning job, especially in downstairs’ bar where the walls are decorated with very striking oil paintings of Lobsters. I actually felt they’d made lobsters look noble. I’m often deeply saddened when I see lobsters in French supermarkets, bound claws with rubbers bands. the compnay was fine and so was the wine. that explains why I set of cycling so late this morning, for my 56 mile constitutional.
 
more later, I’m off to a gig soon. Too busy, too busy….

Furthermore…

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-2 to 2°C;fog & ice

Ice: had a dodgy ride to work today. locking up the bike I noticed it feeling slimey. The hadnlebars and tubes were slippery feeling as if oily. Looking closer, I noticed crystals and realised it was ice. The bike’s metal parts were covered in slighthly crumbly ice and so was I . I had ice on my arms and reflective straps. At this point in time a 6th former feel on the tarmac I’d just ridden over. She was uninjured though. It’s appalling to think aout the conditions and by oblivious journey. If I’d known – then the journey would definitely have been made in the car.

Further to yesterday’s comments on the Cartoons row. I was going to put the heading "what’s wrong with Blasphemy" but I already said that yesterday. It’s interesting that it comes at a time that the UK government is chainging the law on "inciting releigous hatred".

I wonder if religous leaders could be charged with this new law if they were prompting terrorist acts in protest about some cartoons.

The BBC seems to have handled it calmly and very conservatively. A good analogy was drawn today with schoolkids. With badly behaved pupils, teachers are usually reluctant to provoke them, there’s no point setting them up to have a temper tantrum. Likewise…

I’m still struggling to find a reason why blasphemy could be a bad thing. It’s something to do with the nature of religion. Relgious leaders are power brokers, they are a kind of half hidden government. It seems that they use the language of spirituality to feed  their followers. Maybe religous beliefs are as fragile as I suggested yesterday. more thinks later…

Yes it is cold

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0°C: thin fog.
Everyone is complaining about the cold. Lots are also complaining about the inadequate heating in school. We’ve had this weather for almost three weeks now. So today I decided not to fall victim to it. I took 2 tee-shirts to wear under my school shirt+tie and slaos my thickest wolly jumper. There are others on the staff who use the tactic of wingeing. Their tactic isn’t working. It’s not getting any warmer. My tactic is better, but I’m not fighting for any "principle". "It’s the principle" is not generating any heat, so forget the principle ladies & put an extra tee-shirt on.
And pupils, do you really expect any sympathy when you complain of the cold while dressed with bare mid-rifs?

Surrealism
This is surrealism.
Read the link……the best bit is here:

In Jordan, an independent tabloid, al-Shihan, reprinted three of the cartoons on Thursday, saying people should know what they were protesting about.

In a separate article, the newspaper’s editor, Jihad Momani, urged the world’s Muslims to "be reasonable" in their response to the drawings.

The paper’s publishers sacked him hours later over the "shock" he had caused, Jordan’s official Petra news agency reported.

Has he been sacked for asking people to be reasonable?

and this bit:

There has been widespread anger over the cartoons among Muslim nations and communities.

Why? Why are they angry about "cartoons"? Is ity because they perceive them as blasphemous? What’s wrong with blasphemy? Is their relgion so fragile that it should be defended against cartoons? If so, it’s not a very substantial religion then.

Boris Johnson summed it up well:

Conservative MP Boris Johnson told the BBC the Muslim religion should not be treated with kid gloves.

He said: "If you are a Muslim and your faith is strong and you believe in God and in your prophet then I don’t think you should be remotely frightened of what some ludicrous infidel says or does about your religion or any depiction he produces.

Grow up children!

 

Bedging

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4.0°C, same.
Bedging: Bessie is bedging. To bedge you must lean against the edge of a sofa, or bed and lean into it with all your weight. Then slide along while growling in an unagressive way. Let me know how it goes when you try it. It appears to be very satisfying. Or at least it does if you are a dog. But if you were, you’d probably not be reading this.

mo-bile

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2°C

Is there something in a mobile phone contract that says it’s ok to be rude to people around you? Does it say
 "When you are  in the middle of a conversation, should your new XXXX_1234 ring, then end your conversation in mid-sentence to find start one with the person who has dialled up your XXXX-1234 for a more important dialogue. If you upgrade to the XXXX-1234plus model you don’t even have to say " do you mind if I answer the phone".
With our 3G technology it’s possible to continue the new conversation loudly for 20 mins without and conscience, and to ignore those around you."
 
It must be time to design a new set of buttons for my website- especially now that I have Fireworks v8.
 

Bleary-Eyes

The cold has got to them today. Five hours out in rather cold salty dry air has left them rather tired & prickly feeling. 60 miles felt good today, the ice was easy to avoid. Riding east meant riding on the north side of the road, that aide was sunny and so no ice. Shame the wind dropped for the ride home.

ExCathedra

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The Oratory, Edgbaston.
A gilted, victorian , cold classsical church used as a venue for choral music. We heard some Elgar, Schubert, Reinburger and finished with Mozart. The highlight was Schöenburg – it was his last piece before going all 12-tone. Interesting in that sense even if not as a piece of it’s own. Others commented on how good the acoustics are, but I didn’t think so, at least not where I was sitting.
There were some interesting characters in the audience, a couple who obviously arrived on a motorbike. there was also a guy dressed as a woman, which caused a lot of speculation amongst us on the way home. Was this his first outing as a woman? Why was he on his own? Did the wig keep him warm?
 
In summary- not as stunning as the Arvo Pärt we saw last summer.
 

Corporate incompetance

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4.9°C+

We have a growing list of complaints about retail corporations.
  • Curries online: One month on and 18 phone-calls in an attempt to return a faulty dishwasher. they give us other numbers to ring, usually to services or companies that no longer exist.
  • Sky TV: charging for premium football matches that we haven’t ordered or watched. Everyone here hates football. We are closing the account because of this.
  • British Gas: they want us to increase the monthly payment even though we already have overpayed them by £80. They agreed that the £80 is the correct figure, but say we still aren’t paying enough.
  • Inland Revenue: they want me to repay £1000 in tax underpayment based on caculations THEY made; it’s their mistake I tell you. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had the same problem with them. It’s their mistake- why should I suffer?