zorak

At the third squeak...

For those of you who don't know, the speaking clock is currently working for Comic Relief, featuring Lenny Henry doing silly voices. Dial 123 and the proceeds (10p a shot) go to charity. Off to London to do RIPE courses for the next couple of days, so won't be around much (if at all) on LJ, email etc. New userpic is a cartoon character called Zorak, apparently.

Oh, and for those of you who have expressed an interest:Collapse )
  • Current Mood
    silly
zorac

Web Geeking

I'm feeling fairly virtuous at the moment, having spent much of yesterday in Perl God mode doing some work for restrictedsection.org - this time working towards replacing much of the backend of the fic database, and there will also be the search functionality to redo and I'll need to revisit my earlier code for the fics-by-author page. All in all, probably another weekend or two's work to get it finished. This evening, I've finally got around to doing some (fairly minimal) design work on t00b.net Collapse )

Oh, plus hermorrine and I sorted out details for Nimbus and related holidaying last night, so feeling bouncy about that too.

  • Current Music
    Santana - Migra
Phantom Monkey

Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan

It seems that French & Saunders and co. are doing a Harry Potter spoof (video requires the evil Real player) for Comic Relief - looks like it could be fun.

From this week's Radio Times: Collapse )

One other thing from the weekend: we saw this truly awful commercial (you'll need Windows Media Player) for ebay. After suffering through that piece of Sinatra-murdering, I won't be shopping there again...
t00by boyfriend, black untie

*big silly grin*

Well, that was a fantastic weekend. The flight got back in time for me to run across Heathrow in time to catch an earlier than expected coach back to Oxford, so I was able to pop into the flat instead of going straight into the office. As for details of the weekend, go and read this entry on hermorrine's journal (I will almost certainly *not* be parting with any more details). I'm off for a nice long soak and a nice long sleep.
  • Current Music
    bath running
sabrina

I just can't hide it

On topic for the userpic: For those that are interested, Sabrina-Online.com is finally back from the dead, and hopefully there should be new strips up in the next few days. Thanks to those nice folks at United Publications, my dead tree copy of Sabrina Online - Year Five (also featuring the complete Sabrina at See-CAD) arrived this morning, along with some more of Eric's prints. Yay!

Need to finish a few chores around the house, then it's time for a nice candlelit soak (must remember to sort out an electrician for the bathroom light next week). Really could do with getting a good long sleep tonight, but somehow I don't think I'll be able to calm down enough for that. Oh, well ;-)

Quote of the day:
Female coworker to male coworker: Well I've never actually measured you.
Me: I am so quoting that out of context.
All three: *crack up*
  • Current Music
    I'm So Excited - Pointer Sisters
south mark

Insanity Strikes! - but in a good way

Hmm... managed to go the whole weekend without finding time to post. How'd that happen? Probably something to do with keeping strange hours for the purpose of chatting with someone 6 time zones away. Trundled into town at a fairly reasonable hour on Saturday and went to the pictures to see Collapse ). After the film I made a vague stab at pottering round the shops but soon lost interest and headed back home for a nap. Later on, I got around to the long-put-off job of cataloguing and shelving my latest book/cd/dvd acquisitions (how geeky am I?) - am now almost out of shelf space - Yikes!

On the 'phone with hermorrine, it was time to go through The Great 80s Song Quote Quiz - which took hours and resulted in much t00by singing of the answers I knew. Final score: I got about 40 out of 222, plus another dozen or so where I gratuitously *facepalm*ed after a tiny hit. After that, it was time for an NC-17 rated bedtime story. (Sqeee! Smut dedicated to me!)

After all that, it was about 2 o'clock by the time I crawled out of bed on Sunday afternoon. Not feeling up to doing anything much, I finished off some stuff I'd been doing the previous day before watching Collapse ). The evening was spent hatching an insane but squee-worthy plot - of which more later in the week.
  • Current Music
    Katrina and the Waves - Walking On Sunshine
t00by boyfriend, black untie

The ISPAs

Last night was the annual UK Internet Industry Awards, and although I didn't get to go, several of my more senior colleagues were there. At around 10pm, I got a triumphant text message from the boss letting me know that "We Won!" - the award in question being the Best Business Application one for JetSet, to add to the one won by ticketingsolutions a few years back. I replied asking about the Internet Villain award (as sponsored by us). I had been rooting for the RIAA on the back of their lobbying the right to hack peoples machines in case they have illegal MP3s and other such nasties. In fact, the winner was the Home Office - thanks to the RIP and ATCS bills which among other things are aiming at the government saying "All your email are belong to us" - so still a worthy winner. Oh, and in what will come as a complete surprise to nobody, Google won the Best Search Engine award. Full results are on the website (in Word format, alas).
  • Current Mood
    victorious
Phantom Monkey

Shrub's War

So far, I've managed to keep political ranting out of my journal, but I think the time has come to say something. Or at least point you in the direction of what other people. What started me off was anatsuno's disgusted link to this terrible article in the New York Post. I wanted to believe that this was a biting satirical piece, because surely no-one could think that way (naïve, I know). My next thought was wanting to write some sort of response, but not knowing how. Thankfully, cygnusfap has written a fantastic open letter to Certain US politicians and journalists (note that it is not directed at America or Americans in general) which says everything I would want to say and then some. Then there's also queerasjohn's open letter to the world regarding America's technical difficulties.

Of course, it's not just one country's political leadership - I have the "privilege" of living in the country whose Prime Minister is probably Dubya's staunchest supporter. It's not just Americans who are feeling shame for what their government is doing. At least, like the majority of them, I can say "I didn't vote for him" - not the first time, and certainly not the second time. New Labour, New Danger said the Tory poster showing Blair with demon eyes - an image that still sticks with me. (For those who care, I voted the third way both times). I'm wishing right now that I'd gone to join the march yesterday, but I guess I'll have to settle for making my statement here. And finally, a potent argument against what is for me the least unconvincing argument for the war. Read the words of Ali at the bottom of this entry in angiej's journal. If the people who have suffered under Saddam don't want this war, what right does the rest of the world have to force it on them?
  • Current Music
    The Star Spangled Banner