SMS kettle: best invention ever? | The Register In short: No, it’s not.
Basically, your special kettle gets a phone number and when you text it ‘SWITCH ON’, it does. Genius.
Oct 102005
‘Real’ books
I need something fairly brainless in the mornings to read, so I bought the newest Tom Clancy paperback, ‘Teeth of the Tiger’. If I’m reading for quality, I steer away from Clancy, and his politics do often grate with me, but it’s a fairly decent techno-thriller that you can read with only half of your brain switched on. When I finish that one, I’ve got a collection of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. All praise Great Cthulhu! After that I have ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’ by Susanna Clarke to read. I didn’t really get into it last time, but I’ve got enough time in the evenings to dedicate to it now.
Graphic Novels
I recently acquired, as part of my monthly post-payday Amazon purchase the second ‘Global Frequency’ book and ‘Mr Punch’, a Gaiman/McKean collaboration. I had read GF2 before, but it was quality, so I had to own it. I haven’t read ‘Mr Punch’ yet as it requires a fairly awake brain. I’m getting frustrated that ‘Desolation Jones’ is only bi-monthly and the first (assuming there’s more) storyline is supposed to be six episodes long and I’ve got three of them already. So for those weak in arithmetic, that means I’ve got to wait half a year to finish reading the story. Grrr….
Bryce very kindly brought his library graphic novel acquisitions with him to the game so I had something to read on Sunday morning while everyone else was still asleep. The first was a Constantine book, ‘Highwater’, which was good, and firmly re-establishes Constantine as someone not to be messed with. I quite enjoyed the other book he brought, but am ashamed to say I can’t remember it’s name.
Music
My AudioScrobler profile (see link on right) is slanted. The WMP plugin only records what you actually play using WMP, not what you transfer to your MP3 player. If I’m playing music from the computer, it’s likely to be mellow Sunday morning stuff, or occasional weird stuff, so there’s by plenty of Lamb, Massive Attack, Mr Punch, Goldfrapp etc. However, my MP3 player, which I actually listen to most often, is mostly filled with rockin’ tracks as I’m listening to it on the move and want something to get the adrenaline flowing.
Aside from that, this month’s Amazon purchase included the classic album ‘Moon Safari’ by French electronica outfit, Air.
Films
Haven’t seen any movies recently, not being around in the evenings much. I’ve been filling my time, as mentioned below, watching the second season of 24. However, films I want to see, hopefully are: The Corpse Bride, Nightwatch and Serenity. Next months DVD purchase may include Batman Begins.
The weekend, as is often the case, began on Friday night. A slightly frazzled, ‘work is finally over’, ‘I hate the rush-hour’ Friday night, but Friday none-the-less. As Penny was out gallivanting I finally finished watching the second season of 24. Very enjoyable, and very, very brutal. I won’t spoil it for anyone by detailing why, but wow.
Saturday began with breakfast with Penny before she went off to work. I then got a haircut that took me by surprise. Somehow when I said “just a trim to tidy it up please”, the bizarre acoustics of the barbers translated this to “I’m sick of my crazy uncontrollable locks, make me look somewhat less disrespectable, dammit!”. I must confess it does look more professional, but it’ll take a while to get used to the change in length.
Then, having plenty of time left over of my morning and nothing left to fill it with, it was off to London where I arrived at the usual pub in Canary Wharf about an hour early. Good thing I’d brought reading material with me! And when that ran out, there was always the news to read on my phone. After the usual food, drink and catch-up, off to Kev’s for our game of Aberrant. We didn’t really achieve very much, but we got ourselves in a position where we’ll be ready to move next game session.
The post-game period was spent watching the Top 100 animations of all time. Some I disagreed with (Urutskidoji?! Sure it was only at 85-ish, but still, there are a lot of far superior animes out there that didn’t even make the top 100) and of course The Simpsons made number one. Good program though.
Sunday was spent playing a non-horror game of ‘When Darkness Comes’. It was fun to play, though the rules needed some tweaking. It also took longer than I had anticipated, mainly due to the ridiculous number of botches! I’ll be writing up the rules and posting them to EG. It looks like it’s a game I can run easily at Conception.
Speaking of EG, it’s back up with most of it’s content. The database got corrupted, so some content will have errant question marks throughout it. The only thing lost was the forum posts, news and user accounts, but all the actual content is there. I need to create a new logo too and some icons have been lost. However, security is affirmed and the codebase more stable. Which means that once users are recreated, we can post the Aberrant journals up there.
My movements this week: I’ll be in a B&B until Wednesday night when I’ll be going home to repack. Thursday night I’m flying out to Holland, returning late Friday.
Oct 062005
It seems my flatmate and I have some fridge-content related difficulties. It all began a couple of weeks ago where I accidentally used her milk rather than my own. Rather than merely see this as an accident, use my milk and move on, she decided to leave a stern note. Then, a couple of days ago, she decided that I had eaten one of her pizzas. No confusion this time as I didn’t own any of the product in question, nor did I actually consume said pizzas. However, I did get a rather surly text message accusing me of pizza theft. Naturally I protested.
So last night when I got in I was pleased to find no new notes, letters or memos, as these are the only form of communication that Seema uses when she is going through a stroppy patch. I thought it was all over and my denial was accepted. Imagine then my surprise when almost everything in the fridge is labelled either ‘S’ or ‘Seema’, depending on space. Considering the size of lettering used, there is not enough room for her full name on a jar of mayonaise, but plenty on a lettuce (pictured here). Lettuce?!? She labelled lettuce?
Now, obviously in her fit of pique she had managed to forget my own first initial. If I were moving out much sooner, I would have labelled everything remaining in the fridge also with a huge ‘S’. In fact, why stop at fridge contents? Washing up liquid? Dish cloths? Toilet roll? Maybe I should label myself?
Ah, the sooner I escape the hive of neurosis and pettiness the better.
Oct 042005
The company at has a cafeteria for breakfast and lunch. I generally breakfast en route, so that doesn’t affect me, but I do eat lunch there. And every single lunchtime I’ve gone for the vegetarian option. Not because Penny has brainwashed me to hate meat, but because the cafeteria actually puts some effort into putting flavour and variety into the vegetarian dishes. The alternative is usually some variety of generic meat with mushy vegetables. An example: Today’s options were a very dry-looking, over-cooked toad-in-the-hole or a Thai vegetable stir fry with lime and ginger. Unless you have a complete and irrational aversion to vegetables (perhaps due to some childhood trauma), it’s a real no-brainer.
Just like the bacon sandwich I often get in the morning… Mmmm… bacon!
Now I remember!
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Oct 032005
The boardgame alluded to earlier is ‘When Darkness Comes’ by Twilight Creations. It’s primarily an investigation adventure within a horror setting, but it’s fairly adaptable. TC have released settings of espionage (based on Spycraft) and cyber-warfare, so it’s very adaptable. It can be run either GM controlled, everyone is a player or GM playing (if there is enough of a random element). The rules system is based around poker hands, so I hope everyone knows their poker rules! I’ve already got the scenario sorted and I’ll be trialling it on victims on Sunday, I hope.
Oct 032005
BuyCostumes — Star Wars Emperor Palpatine Deluxe Adult Costume Costume
Ph43r the idea of me in Palpatine’s robes! The company has a Darth Vader costume too, but who’d want to be the apprentice if you can be the Master?
Right, that worked, so first an update of the last week that I have missed blogging.
Tuesday
Tuesday was my last day in the office for some time, just as I was getting used to getting up late, having lunch at home and being home before The Simpsons starts. All things change, especially in the world of conslutancy.
Wednesday
What a day. First day at the client site, various work-based pressures and some of the worst cigarette cravings since I gave up. I nearly cracked on numerous occasions. But the highlight of the day was meeting up with everyone after work, first in St Stephen’s Tavern in Westminster, and then at the Tattershall Castle. Ostensibly, as far as Kev was concerned, this was just a general meet-up drink, but was actually to present him with his 30th birthday present. It was given early so he could actually book his appointment to fling himself out of a plane as close to his birthday as possible. I have visions of Kev being securely fastened to a fat man, hurtling to the ground! There may or may not be a parachute involved, but it still sounds terrifying!
Spent the night on Andy’s sofa, which meant for a reduced journey time in the morning and more sleep despite the late hour of ‘lights-out’.
Thursday
Nothing major to report, ended the day back in Aldershot having a nice Thai meal in Aldershot. Both pleased and horrified to find the staff there recognised us from previous visits. We have become… regulars.
Friday
Pay day! Yay! Long awaited and much enjoyed. Penny’s day was mostly spent putting her belongings into storage, in preparation of her moving to her sister’s for the next 6 months or so. In the evening she was due to go to a leaving do in Fleet so, after pitifully whining, I managed to convince Linsey and Kev to join me for a drink or two. That was a good evening, starting off at the Tattershall Castle (fast becoming first choice in meeting-up places), then the Walkabout on Embankment and finally finishing at Pizza Express on the Strand. I nearly missed my train at the end of the evening, but just made it back in time.
Saturday
Ah, shopping! Not a lot of shopping admittedly, and somewhat geeky. Picked up the ‘horror’ boardgame _______ (too sleepy, can’t remember now, need more coffee) which I’ve got a few things planned for. I’ve actually got a Global Frequency/Lethe scenario planned for the boardgame. I also picked up part 3 of Warren Ellis’ ‘Desolation Jones’. Still enjoying it, but it was the weakest so far. Three pages of the book were actually plot or plot-related background. The rest in it’s entirety, was about stuff Warren had learnt about the hardcore porn industry.
Sunday
The plan was to go to Farnham for breakfast. Since we’d just missed the train, we decided to take the next available train, which took us to London. Since we were there we had brunch there, and then popped over to the Tate Modern, where Penny could have another look at the work of Anselm Kiefer, particularly the work ‘Lillith’. TM is due for a major rehanging and 40% of the pieces are due to be removed from the display.
The evening was spent with me trying to resurrect Endless Games. Unsuccessfully. I’ll take another stab at it this evening, even if it means recreating the database entries by hand.
Well, that’s it for now. Let’s see what a new day and a new week brings!
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Oct 032005
Right, new client, new email account (no I’m not giving this one out, I’m starting to get headaches myself from all the accounts) and potentially a blogging opportunity at this client. We’ll see. If this works, expect sporadic blog posts after last week’s hiatus.