Nick Jordan

I’ve just been introduced to We The Robots via Metafilter, and have spent a happy time reading the archives and chuckling to myself. It’s clever, witty, tragic and just plain damned funny. This is one I shall be reading regularly.

Fight for your writes. A nice little article by Zoe Margolis. While it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever write anything here that anyone else would want to reproduce, I’m fully aware that the copyright for my blog posts rests with me and, if the circumstances arose, I’d be more than willing to enforce it. Having said that, I’d be very pleased and flattered if anyone ever wanted to use my stuff, so my permission, if sought, would almost certainly be given without much hesitation, as it has with a photo of mine on Flickr, for example.

Email spam celebrates its 30th anniversary today. Oh joy. Perhaps we should celebrate the occasion by hunting down those responsible and stringing them up with Cat 5 cable.

Yesterday I spent a very enjoyable day out with friends Jen and Steve visiting a couple of National Trust properties in Kent. First off we went to Ightham Mote, which I’d visited before but was very happy to see again, and then Bodiam Castle, which I hadn’t been to. It really is the archetypal medieval castle - very impressive looking indeed and great fun to wander around.

After all the wandering around we consulted my Good Beer Guide and found a suitable pub for a sit down and a couple of beers before heading back to Steve and Jen’s where we dined splendidly upon fish and chips before heading home. My idea of a good day out.

Yesterday I went to a recording of Have I Got News For You. I’d been to radio recordings before but this was my first TV show, and I have to say it was great fun. The half-hour show took about two and a half hours to record, and I got the distinct impression that this was unusually long, although it was all funny stuff so I’m not complaining. I shall be watching it so that I can see which bits they keep, and also so that I have the pleasure of seeing the back of my head in the audience shots. Exciting, huh?

I’d definitely go again, but as an experience I think that radio recordings are somewhat better. You don’t have to queue for hours in a howling gale, you get to hang around in a theatre bar instead, and the atmosphere is rather more relaxed.

I’ve been playing with the latest version of the Flock web browser, and it’s good. Very good. In fact, it’s come so far since the last time I tried it that it’s practically a different beast altogether. It now imports all your bookmarks, cookies etc. from Firefox, the browser upon which it’s based, flawlessly. It connects to services such as Flickr and Facebook automatically when you log in to them, and shows you a very nice summary of your contacts’ activities in a sidebar. It does all manner of cool things. But. I just can’t quite bring myself to use it as my main browser. Something’s still not quite right.

I think it’s partly that I can’t configure things I want to configure (I don’t want to see the bookmarks toolbar, but I do want to see the very handy Flock toolbar, for instance, but they seem to come together or not at all). It’s also partly that I don’t like the way RSS feed content is displayed and, while I could simply continue to use Google Reader as I do now, it goes against the grain to use Flock and not use all the facilities it offers.

In short, I recommend trying it. If you like it, and you may well, then use it. But I don’t think I’ll be switching just yet.

This morning I managed to have a minor accident on my motorbike. I won’t go into all the details here except to say that I wasn’t hurt at all and neither was anyone else. The bike’s fairing and headlight don’t look too good; I had a repair estimate this afternoon of £610.00 which, given my current financial situation, really hurts. Time to wave the credit card and try not to think about it too much.

Still, I just have to remember that it could have been a whole lot worse and that the bike’s just a thing which can be repaired or replaced. So I’m not too downhearted, all things considered.

On Sunday afternoon I ordered a MiniCard holder from Moo.com. I was very happy indeed when it arrived yesterday and even happier still when I unwrapped it and had a good look at it. It’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for - a made-to-measure container to keep my MiniCards safe and to hand when they’re wanted. I can’t praise this company’s products or service highly enough. And no, I don’t have any connection with them and I’m absolutely not being paid to say this.

Yesterday we jumped on the bus and, amidst the snow showers, went to Ikea. It being a bank holiday weekend, I expected it to be unpleasantly busy but it turned out not to be too bad at all. We’d gone with the intention of picking up some picture frames but they didn’t have any the right size. Still, we did manage to come away with plenty of other stuff: a coat stand, a pair of new lap trays, some wine glasses and various other odds and ends. A fine lunch of the obligatory meatballs to kick it all off, too.

The rest of the day was spent in general idleness, which seems to be the way that today is shaping up as well. Quelle surprise.

I’ve just had my attention drawn to Match It For Pratchett, a website that has been set up in order to raise at least £500,000 for research into Alzheimer’s, the disease that Terry Pratchett was recently diagnosed with a form of. Mr. Pratchett himself has recently given half a million quid for this and, whether you’re a fan or not, I think it’s a very worthwhile cause and I urge you to make a donation of whatever amount you can afford.

I’ve taken to wearing earplugs on the bike again. It’s amazing how much more comfortable they make a long journey but they also produce an odd disconnected sensation that means that my speed has a tendency to creep up beyond the level I feel is safe. It’s also rather weird sitting at traffic lights and watching all the vehicles moving in almost total silence - rather like watching an old silent movie. I shall continue to use them, though, since I have no wish to go deaf.

Council bids to run post offices. This strikes me as a good solution to a problem which, while it clearly shouldn’t exist at all, does need to be dealt with. In essence, if you can’t be bothered to read the article, Essex County Council is proposing that it takes over the running of post offices that are due to be closed. It would be great to see such important services able to continue and the possibility of combining them with local authority services is very interesting and potentially useful.

Of course, I’m not generally in favour of closing post offices at all but I rather think that it’s going to happen no matter what I or others want, so anything that comes along that helps has to be worth considering.

Pink Floyd star’s plan to aid homeless hits brick wall. Is it just me or does it seem crazy that a scheme for helping London’s many homeless should fail in such a dismal and stupid manner? Especially when it has worked so well in New York? Ridiculous. I’m appalled.

Yesterday I met up with an old friend at Liverpool Street station and we headed off to Southend. The weather was sunny but cold, although we didn’t realise quite how cold until we decided to walk along the pier. We had to keep stopping at the shelters along the way in order to get out of the incredibly biting wind. After a quick look at the RNLI station at the end, we headed back and found a small cafe where we had tea and hot apple crumble with custard - just what we needed!

After a wander along the sea front, stopping for a pint on the way, we headed back to London where we parted and I caught the train home. All in all, a good, relaxing way to spend a day. I should do stuff like that more often.

I’d just like to say a huge public thank you to the guy who, to cut a long story short, when traffic was diverted off the A12 last night, said he was heading to Colchester and I could follow him. If it wasn’t for his kindness I’d have been home a lot later than I was, and even more tired. What an absolute star!

The latest podcast from Folkcast is now available. If you love good music I strongly recommend that you give it a try. Of particular merit this month is a wonderful track called Ulv, Ræv og Hare (Wolf, Fox and Hare) by Danish band Phønix. I tried to buy a copy of their latest album on the strength of this, but Amazon UK don’t seem to have it yet and I didn’t want to order it from Denmark. I could have had it as a download but I’m not too keen on the subscription services that stock it and the others all seem to require me to run Windows, which just isn’t going to happen. I guess I’ll just have to wait until Amazon have it or I find it elsewhere.

Update: After checking the prices of the band’s other albums on Amazon, where they’re available as imports from Germany, it became obvious that it would be cheaper for me to order the CD direct from Denmark, so I have. Including postage to the UK and Danish VAT (25%!!) it worked out at DKK 159.00, which I reckon is £15.73. Bargain.

I don’t usually post my New Year’s resolutions, largely because most years I don’t make any, but this year I’m going to dare to be different. In no particular order, they are:

• Make more effort to stay in touch with people
• Make music more often
• Take more opportunities to go out and do things

Simple to the point of dullness I know, but worth attempting, I think.

I’m off work this week, so I’ve been spending some of my time wandering around museums. I attended a very good gallery walk at the British Museum yesterday afternoon called Six Feet Under: Some Thoughts on Burial in Early Britain, which was just great. It was a fairly loosely structured discussion of some of the burial practices of pre- and post-Roman Britain, periods of history in which I’m particularly interested. I highly recommend attending some of these gallery walks if you’re able to. Not only are they very informative, but they’re also free. What more could you ask?

I went to see Stardust yesterday afternoon. Now, I’m a huge Neil Gaiman fan, so I’d already read and enjoyed the book and was a bit worried about whether the film would be able to live up to it. I needn’t have been concerned - it’s an absolute joy. It contains nothing deep, it’s not going to change your life or anything, but it will entertain and amuse you, and that’s just fine. The casting is excellent, the special effects everything you would expect from a modern work, and the film maintains a wonderful sense of magic, of detachment from reality. I’m not going to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it, so I won’t say much more except that I heartily recommend it and I’ll be buying the DVD when it’s available.

I’ve just seen an advert on TV for a newspaper which is publishing extracts from an autobiography by Lewis Hamilton. The guy’s only 22 years old, for goodness’ sake! Try again in about fifty years, mate.