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Brains.....

Shamble over and take a look at the Zombie Infection Simulation... but keep your chainsaw handy.

"Brains..." - Zombie #522343

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Been a nice, quiet week.

My car has been in the shop, having a big scratch taken out of one side of it. I've been watching some more films too.

The Mothman Prophecies was strange but gripping.

Being John Malkovich was weirdly entertaining.

It was good to see Blade again too, not seen it for a while.

Otherwise I've been watching lots of 24 again on DVD, season 2 this time. The commentaries are good; they must be, as I've never wasted time watching commentaries before. These ones are not a waste of time.

And now we will end with the Friday Five:

1. Are you going to school this year?

Hell no. Those days are sufficiently long gone.

2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate?

Uh, last graduation of any sort would have been university in 1995. I was there for three years, so I guess I left Sixth Form in 1992, secondary school in 1990... Wow. That's a fucking long time ago.

3. What are/were your favorite school subjects?

I'm not sure I ever really had any.

4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects?

Much the same here, it would seem.

5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?

I guess I liked my English teacher. The 'English Language' GCSE was all coursework, and it turned out that out of the ten pieces that went to that mark five of them were creative writing pieces, stories of some kind or another. She let that happen, so I suppose that works.

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." - Dan Quayle (1947 - ), 9/18/90

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So here we go with a not terribly interesting Friday Five.

1. When was the last time you laughed?

At the jokes in Tomb Raider I was watching earlier on DVD.

2. Who was the last person you had an argument with?

A real argument? I don't have many of them, and I don't remember the last one.

3. Who was the last person you emailed?

Not sure. Could be a few.

4. When was the last time you bathed?

Actually bathed? Like, in a bath? No idea. I have showers.

5. What was the last thing you ate?

Chicken soup. Exciting, eh?

"Never be bored, and you will never be boring." - Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962)

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Holiday Viewing

I've had a few movies on DVD lying around to watch so I've been catching up. Nothing really major.

Good to see Die Another Day again; it must've made an impression because I actually bought it. Good laugh, good entertainment. Occasional depth. I liked the sword fighting sequence, that was jolly. All the extras (I got the two disc special edition, obviously) were interesting too.

Then yesterday was Minority Report day. Another good film. Not the usual irritating whitewash of sentimentality you expect from Mr Spielberg. Except for the stuff about his son, and the home 'videos' of him. But hey, at least there was no sickening, tearful reunion. The kid stayed dead. Good story too, I thought. Some nice societal science fiction in there. It's intended to be very much a Film Noir, apparently. It does sort of work.

But today... The Usual Suspects. I really like this film. Top actors, ace story, very clever. Some say they guessed the secret right away or really early on. Maybe they did; all I know is I don't go looking for such things, so I rarely see them coming. Maybe I'm lazy, I don't know. But still... Excellent.



Agree, disagree? That's what the comments are for.

"A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad." - Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)

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I'm on holiday! Woohoo!

[insert holiday quote here]

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And now... the Friday Five.

1. How much time do you spend online each day?

Some might say "too long". Technically it's maybe an hour's worth at work, more if I've actually got no work to do, and anything between two to five hours every night. I have online commitments.

2. What is your browser homepage set to?

http://www.thefarscapelounge.co.uk/

3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?

I use Trillian, which means I'm on AIM, Yahoo, ICQ and MSN all at the same time with one hany and excellent program, and can get on IRC any time I like. Head over to the Trillian homepage for a look. The normal version (version 0.74) is more than enough, if you use Windows anyway. It does not cater for Mac users.

4. Where was your first webpage located?

On the WebServe ISP server.

5. How long have you had your current website?

Err.... at least two years. Since about May 2001, I think.

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards coud produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." - Robert Wilensky

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Anyone want to call me an idiot in the comments, feel free. Open to all comers, whether you actually read this blog or just happened to pass through.

"Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them." - Walter Kerr

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Is anyone else bored of all the talk about people getting their A-level results? They keep going on about it on Radio 1; maybe I should just stop listening for the moment. But it's all on the TV too and every other radio station.

I know it's stressful, but it just irritates the hell out of me hearing about it all the time, and all the stuff leading up to taking them too, all the revision help and that kind of thing.

I didn't need any helplines or crap like that. When I was taking mine I just got on with it and didn't winge half as much as the useless whiny gits do now. I went in, did the exams, forgot which questions were which and put the exams and results out of my mind till the day came to find out how I did. I read the results, thought "oh, okay, university then" and went home. I didn't even ring anyone to tell them. I wasn't a top flight student. I got B in maths and C in both physics and computing. I just didn't think the whole thing was worth getting into a massive flap about.

And all the business with people opening them live on radio/tv: how dull. In some instances it's cruelly interesting (or realistic) because they don't actually get what they need. But most of the time it's the usual people doing it: the girls who panic when revising, always saying they're doing nothing at all and are going to fail, the same ones that come out of their A-level exams crying and saying they failed... And get ~ten~ straight 'A' grades.

Same every year. Bor-ring.

"Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer." - Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832)

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Dayum, it's hot hot hot!! I just praise all and sundry I don't have to wear a suit. I'd be dead by now otherwise.

Thirty four degrees centigrade probably doesn't sound like much to some, but it's about my limit, thank you. If it were raining now, I'd go out and stand in it. And the air con on those computers is still dodgy. I'm hoping they overheat tomorrow and I can leave early again.

Supplemental: While writing that last bit, I heard that the system has gone down. My boss is headed out to the place to sort it all out. In another fit of evilness, I hope it stays broken so I can go home even earlier.

"What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance." - Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)

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Now this is interesting... People have shares of my blog at BlogShares. My blog's page can be found here. Apparently, my shares currently cost $17.21 each. Is that good? Who knows?

Weblogs, or blogs for short, are valued by their incoming links from other known blogs. In effect, links become the business deals in the simulation and players speculate on the fortunes of thousands of blogs by buying and selling shares.

So they say, anyway.

"A market is the combined behavior of thousands of people responding to information, misinformation and whim." - Kenneth Chang

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[cue exciting news-type music]

Work News! Work News!

Okay, it's not that interesting. But with the weather as hot as it is just now, the air conditioning keeping the big server computers cool in Andover can't do their job. They shut themselves down last night to avoid melting into slag. And today they weren't any better. So an ultimatum was sent to the bossman there: get them cooled or we'll have to shut the computers and the whole place down at 12:30. Bossman said: make it so.

So the computers were turned off. And I got to go home early!

The upshot of this: pizza, and Terminator 3 at the cinema. It really is quite good. They stepped around the whole "but we destroyed SkyNet" thing very well and it has possibly the most unexpected of endings.

Incidentally, has anyone else every played the now rather old FPS "Terminator: Future Shock"? Now that is a cool game. All those high up, narrow gantries gave me computer-game-vertigo; I was scared of the virtual heights! Such depths still get my heart racing now. It's the mark of a good game, that is.

And now... laadiiiies and gentlemennn... I give you... The Friday Five!

1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?

Well, in my case I guess it's country and that would be... I suppose it would be somewhere in France, last actual time I've been out the country, which was well over six years ago I think. Sad it's been so long. I wish I got more real going-away type holidays.

2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?

Ummm... Not really got one. The journies themselves tend to be quite dull.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?

Re: a lot of my previous answers to similar questions, it would be that quiet hi-tech dream house by the sea on a beach somewhere. Some of that no-object money would have to go to getting it built, but there ya go.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?

Depends on the journey length I suppose. No real preference, except that when I usually travel by car I'm the one driving, so it's not really restful.

5. What's the next place on your list to visit?

I could do with a first place to being with, don't you think?



And as an interesting aside...


Pirates of the Caribbean!
What movie Do you Belong in? (many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm not sure that works. Does it work?

"Aaarrrr!!" - MT Hed

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In case anyone is interested, I am in Andover again. The driving there still sucks, and it's even worse in this heat. It simply is not any fun at all. The work remains fairly easy though, which is good. Driving back tomorrow, a Friday, in this weather is gonna be just lovely.

I miss This-Or-That Tuesday. Does anyone else?

"Yeah, but it's a dry heat!" - Private Hudson (who obviously hasn't been around here recently...)

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Welcome to the Mental Profiler... Go take the test.

Auditory : 30%
Visual : 69%
Left : 80%
Right : 20%

MT, you are strongly left-hemisphere dominant and show somewhat of a preference for visual learning, a positive combination of styles.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that you are strongly organized, logical and detail-oriented. Visual preference indicates that you learn in an active, simultaneous multidimensional fashion.

With this pattern you would likely be good in fields such as engineering, architecture, drafting, computer graphics and the like. It is likely that you will find situations which demand auditory processing somewhat frustrating unless you can impose your own structures and categories while processing it.

Another possible barrier to using your talents to the fullest may be the excess attention that you can tend to give details in your day-to-day operations and learning. You can acknowledge the existence of "the bigger picture" but concentrate on the details and expect that the picture will emerge from the details themselves.

You strive towards goals and this, coupled with the active nature of your learning preference, creates a sense of you being "driven." Your tolerance of ambiguity is, at times, in conflict with your preference for the straight path and directness in everything. You tend to be as impatient with yourself as you are with others.

You have enough auditory learning capability to somewhat balance your more natural chaotic learning style. It is likely that you "slide into" the more sequential auditory learning mode when you get frustrated with the amount of input to be processed.

You are somewhat likely to be driven and distracted, but you have some capability for articulating and visualizing goals, which helps to reduce frustration. You can listen to others, but not without occasional agitation. There are times when your left hemisphere cannot categorize your learnings and place them in context, because that is the domain of the right hemisphere.



Interesting...

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds." - Bob Marley (Morpheus in his own lifetime...)

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The Friday Five is on a morning riff this week....

1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?

If I'm working, typically I get woken up by my clock-radio at seven o'clock. But I don't actually get up till nearer quarter to eight. I like to wake up slowly rather than have to wake up and get up immediately.

2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?

Damn right I do. If I can, anyway. I tend to leave it till after nine at the very least, after ten at best.

3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?

Groan and wish I was still asleep. Weekday or weekend, always the same: "oh no, not again".

4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?

About half an hour, all told. During the week, anyway.

5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?

I can think of a lot of places, some highly unlikely unless I'm in the right country, some very difficult without someone else agreeing to it, otherwise slumped on the sofa with the TV on usually does the trick.

In Other News...

Just got back from Andover again, having been totally net-starved since Tuesday night. It's a trial, I tell ya, lasting that long without a fix. I've missed reading all the stuff I read and, much more importantly, talking to the people I talk to. Okay; person. And it could well happen all over again when I get to go back again next week, same bat channel. That's Wednesday night to Friday, driving back Friday afternoon/evening. Yeah, what fun. Took almost five hours, including the food stop.

But get this: no sooner have I got back on the Friday but I have to go back again on the Sunday, getting back home on the Tuesday.

But now here this: after that, I'll have two whole weeks off. Yup: HOLIDAY!!! Okay, I might not be going anywhere intersting, like out the country or anything, but it's still a HOLIDAY!!!

"The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible." - Jean Kerr

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