I think this might just be the first notes post of the new year

Okay, twenty-five minutes to my self-imposed midnight deadline. Probably ought to get on with this post.


First of all, I mentioned yesterday that I thought I would have a bit of trouble finding my Physics class this morning. I was right – nobody knew where they'd been redirected to and the labs don't even appear on the redirection timetable on the bulletin board. Eventually, after exhausting all my other options, I managed to wander past my class and get in for the last ten minutes of the lesson.

I suppose I'll have to do some reading to catch up on what I missed but that might be tricky since we apparently covered several different things and I've no idea what stuff it was I missed.

Oh, well.


In other news that affects me and pretty much no one else, my wound has been hurting a bit more than usual lately. I'm not sure if that's a good sign, implying that it's healing closer to the surface or something, or bad because, you know, it hurts more.

I'm seeing the consultant who did the operation again tomorrow and, while I don't expect him to sign off on it just yet, he'll hopefully be able to give me some more definite information. Unfortunately, this means that I'll be in even later than normal (and that I'll have to kill at least half an hour of time on top of the usual wait in the morning) so that I miss Computing.

Not a huge problem usually since most of what we do there is practical work that I can just catch up on at home but we have a test tomorrow so I'll need to do that at some point.


This is turning into a notes post, isn't it? Haven't done one of them in ages. What else have I got...


Well, my birthday's coming up and I've been thinking about asking for an Asus Eee PC, or at least some money towards one. I'm not sure what use I'll have for it exactly but I'm something of a gadget junky and I've decided that I want one. Maybe, the little rationalising voice in my head says, just maybe I'll use a simple computer that powers on quickly to write more, stopping me from being distracted or from getting bored while waiting for the old laptop to boot up.

Yeah, it sounds silly to me too.


I've just remembered that I assured my Physics teacher that I would decide what materials I needed for my project by the end of tomorrow and I've barely even looked anything up. As I believe I've said before, all the information online seems to be hobbyists stringing huge antennas up between trees. Not really what I'm after...


I might do a bit of that tonight but right now my arm is starting to hurt. I think it's the way I hold the mouse on this crappy desk that's getting to me. Maybe I'll move my computer at the weekend. It's either that or do work or writing or something similarly entirely unproductive.


Speaking of the weekend, I'm going into hospital late on Saturday, probably after lunch, so I'll get to have my first proper lie in in almost two months. Absolutely glorious. Maybe I'll set my alarm for the normal time just so that I can be awake to enjoy not having to get up.


Hey, this actually turned out to be pretty long. I blame the double line spacing and my inability to get to the point of anything quickly.

I'm off to either get some sleep or do some Physics research. With any luck I'll get something more coherent written earlier in the day tomorrow.

I'm trying to thing of some suitable way of concluding this but, now that I think about it, I never really had a proper beginning or middle so no one will mind if it doesn't have a proper end.

Bye.

Surgery, Scrolling and Schoolwork

Would you believe that there were people playing chess in the common room at school today? I barely believe it, and I was there.


Anyway, it's now 11 o'clock, I'm going into hospital tomorrow and I need to write two blog posts as well as fiddle around with some other stuff. Such as converting some AVIs to iPod format so I can watch them on my iPhone tomorrow while waiting before and after my surgery. Don't worry, I'll put it in aeroplane mode so it doesn't send any signals and screw up some life-saving equipment.

I've had to pack a bag for heading off, since it's possible that, as I've said many times before, I'll have to stay in overnight, meaning I need pyjamas and my toothbrush and so on. I really hope I don't have to since it just adds to the inconvenience, not to mention the fact that I'm not particularly fond of hospitals or the food and beds they have their.

I don't have some irrational phobia stemming from childhood trauma in a hospital or anything, I just have no reason to like them. By necessity and design, they're very clinical and sparse. And, as everyone knows, I very much dislike being away from my stuff for any length of time.


I think that's enough of that for now, though I could continue. Actually, I still might since I'll have to mention it in about 15 minutes when I'm writing tomorrow's blog post...

An idea has just occurred to me. I'm going to be awake past midnight anyway, in all likelihood. So why not just write the post now and post it at 00:01 or something similar? I've actually considered doing this before now, particularly if I wanted a day off. Yeah, I reckon I'll do that. It means I don't have to worry about it going up properly tomorrow and I don't have to rely on Skippy to do something requiring a small degree of competence and timing. Always a good combination.


On an unrelated note, my mouse scroll ball is still acting up. I guess I'll just have to give it a good clean with a damp cloth then turn it upside down and hope that this somehow solves the problem. It might have worked in the past, but I can't be sure.


On yet another unrelated note, my Advanced Higher projects are both coming along quite nicely. I'm definitely getting somewhere with the programming for my Computing project. It's not exactly pretty and it only works in theory right now, but I reckon I can have it finished before the deadline. Unless I get really tied up in all the documentation and testing stuff, which is never nearly as fun as the programming.

I think I've finally figured out what I need to do for my Physics project on antennas. I just need to get a bit more information and then I can make a start on my first experiment. The advantage to my chosen topic, how the strength of a wave varies according to the distance from different types of transmitters, is that I can essentially just repeat the same experiment multiple times for the different antennas and have it still count as separate experiments.

I will get different results that I can use for the theory part, it saves some time and effort in the practical part and the calculation of various tedious but necessary things like uncertainties. I'll still have to do it but since all the data will be the same type, I can essentially just repeat the same method again and again once I figure it out.


That's about it. I think I have time to watch another episode of Numb3rs now as I slowly write my second post of the night and wait for downloads to finish and conversions to stop running. And pack my bag...

Zappers and CSI

My cold's still keeping up. With any luck, it'll be gone by Friday, since I'm having some minor surgery and I'm not sure what'll happen if I'm ill.

Anyway, it's been another passable day in the wonderful world of Alasdair Corbett. What to do for a post... how about some notes?

First off, I've been watching some more of CSI: New York and I've now got into the third series. I'm slightly worried that there hasn't been a single episode without girls in skimpy outfits. I'm not necessarily opposed to the basic principle, it just worries me when a show I like starts showing similarities to CSI: Miami. A show I most definitely [put on glasses dramatically here for no reason whatsoever] don't like. The introduction of uninteresting love interests and apparent mummy issues that appear out of thin air don't help either.

What does help is that mentioning CSI: Miami means that I can link to the everyday happenings of Justice Shades and sometimes Justice's friend, Boberto Consuarlez.

Other amusing things that I feel like sharing are this video, showing a 360 game that gets you a full 1000 achievement points for all of 2 minutes work. What do you reckon the rentals on that go up a bit in the next wee while?

Sticking with a game theme, the Washington Post's views on the Wii Zapper (follow the link on the GamePolitics article) seem a little... odd. I've read the article through and, while it does seem to give the views of some extremely paranoid people (“Why don't they enclose an application to the NRA in every box as well? ... The marketing person who came up with this brainchild of an idea should be fired,” quipped one member of the public) and the usual video game article suspects (a couple of teenagers who like FPSs and don't like trying to string together sentences), it concludes rather well.

Of course, that doesn't explain the big long section about the history of toy guns, particularly water guns being filled with ammonia and other dangerous substances. Since the Zapper is, as one person interviewed pointed out, a bit of “plastic that clips to a video game controller”, you'd have a hard time filling it with any liquid, let alone getting it to fire out of the infrared receiver. I didn't really need to highlight “receiver” there but it does help point out the absurdity of the whole thing.

Hmmm.... I seem to have started off a rant on one of my larger pet peeves, the idea (and the people who support said idea) that video game and simulated violence instantly translates into every problem the world has ever faced.

I'll have to cut it short for now. Maybe once I get out of this depressing little routine of late night posting that I've worked myself into, I'll write something longer on the whole subject. Hell, I could probably write a book on it.


But for now, I need to pack my bag for the morning, move some files around, watch some more CSI and then go to bed. Have a nice day.

Muppets, Mondays and Musings

Ever find yourself losing track of time whilst singing Muppet tunes in your head? No? Just me then? Fair enough, I suppose that's better for everyone. It has given me an interesting idea for a machinima though. Might explore that in the future.


I don't think that I can really write much tonight since my hand is killing me. I tripped on some stairs this morning and reached out to grab the banister. Unfortunately, I had my hand spread out in just the right way that I only caught one finger on it, which got bent back a bit. It seemed okay for most of the day, but it is the finger I tend to use for typing and scrolling, which may explain why it seems worse now.

I'm also being forced to go to bed slightly earlier than normal since I was once again caught being up at half past midnight by my dad. Curiously, as with my supposedly bloodshot and sore-looking eyes, my parents are the only ones who notice any adverse effect on my health from this behaviour. How curious.

Anyway, enough teenage whining. I don't really have much to say so I'll run through a couple of things and finish with an interesting thought.

I'm now pretty sure that I want an iPhone for Christmas and I'm seriously considering waiting in line for one at midnight outside the Glasgow Apple Store. May or may not happen, but if it does then I expect that Sam and Skippy will want to tag along.

Of course, this means I won't be able to try out a phone with Google's new OS any time soon. Oh, well. I can only have so many gadgets at once. At least until I get super rich somehow.

I've mentioned before that I was having a hospital appointment today to do with my having a pilonidal sinus (don't Google it, seriously). I had the appointment and it seems that I'm going to need minor surgery to excise it. This will be under a general anaesthetic (meaning I'll be unconscious) and I'll have to take a day off school, possibly two if I'm held overnight, unlikely as that may be.

While I don't really have much control over what day it is that I have the surgery, my mum wants to go with a Monday if possible, since that's the day when I only have one lesson. I'd really rather do it some other day because I very much enjoy my easy Mondays, sitting in the common room with Sam, who has a similar scheduling peculiarity, and watching people come and go. While it would obviously take time to catch up on missed work, it wouldn't really be that hard and I'd rather do that than miss some of the bizarre stuff that happens amongst my friends every day.

Basically, I can catch up on lessons but not on life. Which is a very odd thing for me, of all people, to say. I shall have to ponder that some more.

For now, however, I'm going to bed. Not because I'm listening to my parents but because my finger is hurting like hell.

Silly Faces and Sillier Legal Propositions

So, they've taken down TV Links. That's certainly a shame, it was a very useful site. I admit that maybe, once or twice (give or take), I used it to catch up on shows or to see some stuff that's never been shown over here. I'll have more to say tomorrow, I think, since I can feel a righteously indignant rant swelling up inside me. And I do love my righteuous indignation, not to mention my ranting.

All I'll say for now is read the articles (the link above is to Google News, there should be at least 5 or 6 stories on it) and leave any comments you want. There seems to be some dispute as to what the legal grounds are – has the arrested man (as yet unnamed but presumably the guy in charge of the site) committed any crimes simply by linking to illegal videos? Would such a ruling have greater repercussions on sites such as search engines? Was any warning issued to him first?

That's partly why I'm holding off judgement. I want to get all the facts, though I have no doubt I'll end up on the side of TV Links. That, and it brings up some other interesting points about the progression of technology and distribution (I'm particularly thinking of music piracy and download systems).


In other news, I finally got round to reading some of Star Trek: The Manga. As I imagined, it was unanimously declared geeky. Fortunately, that doesn't bother me and it didn't much seem to bother anybody whose opinion I actually give a toss about. As for what's actually contained between the covers... well, there are the some funny sound effects (helpfully translated from Japanese by Sam), some bizarre facial expressions and the standard Star Trek plot “twists”.

The twists, as indicated by the speech marks, are fairly predictable, at least thus far. The second story had a decent enough one; it could have done with a bit more build-up but it wasn't given much space and it had some cool concepts, so I'll let it get away with it. The first story (I'm only partway through the third of five, by the way) gave away its twist to any Trekkie fairly early on. And let's face it, if you're reading Star Trek: The Manga, chances are good that you're a Trekkie. Or a Trekker. I forget the difference, but I know that one group doesn't like to be called the other.

And the facial expressions. Sulu smirking as he tells the captain that they're exit route has been cut off by a hull breach made me laugh. I even posed a hypothetical scenario to some friends of mine: “Your ship is under attack, one of your crew is dying and you've just learned that the only way to save yourselves is by destroying an evil cyborg. Of course, you need a blood sample from said cyborg to cure your dying crewman and you can't destroy the space station it's on, because then there would be nothing stopping you from falling into a black hole.”

Now, a question. “Would you have this look on your face?”


Hilarious. But it's not a bad little compilation. The second volume came out recently and I can get it for under a fiver on Amazon so I may buy that.


Further news, still sci-fi related. Peter Davidson is, as rumoured, making a comeback as the Fifth Doctor in the Doctor Who Children in Need special. While it may well be played for comedy and obviously couldn't fit in between the cliffhanger-ish ending of last series and the resolution coming in the Christmas special, previous specials have been in canon. This one's penned by Steven Moffat, a veteran Who writer, and I'm really, really hoping that it's being used as a test for the possibility of more multi-Doctor episodes in the future. I'd certainly kill to see Christopher Eccleston back in the role, and some interplay between the post-Time War Ninth and Tenth Doctors and the unaware Eighth (or even, dare I say it, Seventh) Doctor could make for some very nice drama.

But that's maybe just wishful thinking. Either way, watch out for the scene on Friday 16th November, during Children in Need night.


I think that's it for today. Still need to play more Phantom Hourglass but that'll have to wait. I need to get some Physics homework done tomorrow, which I probably should have done over the holiday and was planning on doing tonight, except I don't know what questions it was. I'd check my prep diary, but Sam (currently going by the name Thomas, after another discussion with Sam Potter, henceforth known as Burns, over who should get to use their name resulted in each going by their middle names) managed to lose it while searching my bag for a sheet of paper. So it's lying in the common room. I'd use his, but it long ago disappeared into the ether.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, wrapping things up. Before I go, I'll just say that this headline put a rather amusing image in my head. Go figure. Now, I'm gonna go lie in bed and find out how the latest woman to flirt with Captain James Tiberius Kirk is going to kick the bucket. Looks to be alien brain-screwing signals.

Another in a run of short posts

Another quick post, since my thumbs are hurting for some bizarre reason and I need to trim and couple of hundred characters of a document before saving it to print in the morning.

So, it's a mini-post. Here's some stuff.

This video is amusing and nicely parodies the whole video game violence debate.

You know how Sonic the Hedgehog is now officially in Smash Bros. Brawl? I just got the newest issue of Ngamer today and there opinion poll for the month was... do you think Sonic will be in Brawl? They couldn't have avoided it, given the timing, but someone's gonna be kicking themselves.

Finally got round to watching the third episode of series 2 of Heroes. Am I the only one who finds West really kind of creepy?

I've just remembered that I still need to clean a Super Mario Bros. cartridge at some point before I go to bed.


So, yeah. I need to go shave off some of my personal statement then pack some stuff, clean that cartridge and go to bed. No fiction for tonight, unfortunately. I'll see what I can do tomorrow and Saturday, trying to keep a three a week schedule. Kind of depends on if my thumbs stop hurting because that may be to do with repetitive motion or something. But, then again, my thumbs have always been kinda screwy. Long story. Short post.

Notes on the past, the present and the near future

I just watched the first few episodes of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and I think that means that I'm certifiably insane. If I'm not then everyone on the production staff certainly was.


Nothing hugely interesting going on today. I hate to do a notes post again so soon after the last one but I figure that's probably the best way to get through everything.


I relisted my Axim X3 on eBay (as you'd know if you ignored my warnings and read yesterday's post) and it's now got one bid, meaning I've definitely made my first sale on eBay. Huzzah.


I've been talking with Skippy about advertising for Dunhenry, which is kind of what I'm doing with this paragraph, only more blatant. This hopefully means that, now that Skippy's got his iMac back again, work on StreamK will start up again.


Ever heard of "I Wonder Why..." books? I used to love these things when I was little and Erin, clearing out her bookshelves, discovered a few of my old ones today. It's photo time:

I can remember the answers to all the other questions on the cover here. Except for the title question.

I don't really remember this one. Sorry, Spidey.

This one is without a doubt, my personal favourite. Why, you ask? Because of what's in the photo located directly beneath this sentence, that's why!

I guess it's funny that even at a young age, I was apparently paying more attention to physics and devices and machines than to history and the natural world. Or maybe it was more to do with my fascination with all things large and mechanical at that age. Seriously, one of my defining childhood memories is of this big brown book full of tractors. I loved that thing.


With any luck, by tomorrow I'll have a big new TV that I can... look at things on. And connect things to. I'm deliberately going for one with S-video and some PC connectors so that I can hook it up to my GP2X and some computers without too much trouble. I know it should be pretty difficult to find a TV without S-video but none of the TVs in my house have it.


I received some of Sam's first art for the webcomic today. Yeah... I think I'm going to turn this into a purely written thing, unless I find a better artist. They don't necessarily have to be brilliant at drawing things but I think I first asked Sam to do some concept stuff early last year. So, the time scale's a little bit iffy for a regular feature. Still, I'll leave him to do The Adventures of Jelly Jumper and Ace Cow with Erin instead. Don't ask. It's a long and complicated tale and you wouldn't understand it anyway.


Hey, I just realised I never got round to playing more of Mario Strikers Charged today. I should have done that. Stupid miscellaneous other things that keep getting in my way... like sleeping in till 11:00...


That's about it I reckon. Those photos that you can hopefully see above are going to take a little while to upload and arrange and I have an episode of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (copy and paste, the greatest invention since the wheel of sliced television) that I want to finish watching before bed.

Have a nice day.

Notes and shameless advertising. Yay.

I just needed a measuring tape for something and, knowing I had one in my room, I simply turned round and picked it up off the shelf. This begs the question, why the hell do I have a measuring tape on my bookshelves?!


Another day of not much happening. Thus, a notes post.


Sam's apparently managed to make his Acorn Electron run games from his iPod via a lot of format conversion and an audio cable. The irony here is that the iPod itself is at least a hundred times more powerful than the Electron itself.

I'm really enjoying the Doctor Who short story collection A Day in the Life, part of the Short Trips series. This isn't really relevant to anything, I've just never recommended a book here before.

One of my friends from school has announced that he's leaving to go to college for an HNC in Biology before university instead of doing a Sixth Year. Up until now, only people that I either dislike or barely know have left. It'll be kind of odd, I guess.

Buy my Axim.

I've been thinking that I need to do more writing. Admittedly, I've probably been doing more writing for this blog in the past few months than I ever did otherwise, but sometimes it feels like I'm not writing other stuff because it makes me feel guilty for not doing my daily post. I'm going to try to get around this by writing posts earlier in the day and maybe doing some more fiction/comedy stuff.

There might be a stick guys woodle up later if I can get it done. If not, there will definitely be something tomorrow.

Buy my Axim.

I realised today that I've had my Xbox 360 for well over a year (got it at launch, though it was hidden away beneath my bed until Christmas; as you can imagine, I made many jokes about sleeping with it under my pillow) and I only have 6 games for it. And 3 of those are launch titles. And 4 of them are shooters of some description, most of which I have barely played. So, any recommendations?

Remember my semi-review of Transformers? I was clicking around TV Tropes when I came to the Rule of Cool article. I won't put it hear since I can't be bothered trying to format it or anything, but the quote at the top of the page (and the trope itself, in fact) pretty much sums up my assessment.


And that's all for today folks. I may return later with a woodle or I may not. Such is the way of the roller-coaster of a life that I lead.

Also, buy my Axim. Or don't. I honestly don't care.

Hey, it's almost topical!

Well, we finally got most of those NES consoles cleaned up and repaired today, with only one actually requiring a new 72-pin connector. I now know my way around the inside of a NES pretty well so I think that if I see any other large bundles going on eBay I may try my hand at this again. Depending on whether or not these ones actually sell.

If they don't, then I suppose it's a chance to use them for something else. Odd, that article appearing today.


Well, for the first time in a while, I've started writing something that I have so much to say about that I don't think I can complete the original post in time. I'll have to get that done for tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've got nothing much else to say. In addition to cleaning up the NESi today, I also got round to trying out the CD drive on Lucy, my old Mac. There's not much I can do with it, to be honest, but I still find the idea of a CD Caddy drive kind of neat. I also installed Netscape (1.1, of all versions) on her, though I can't get the network settings to work.

This is due to the fact that she's running Mac OS 7.1, which doesn't have the right utilities. I think I could really turn her into a useful computer (relative to my Amstrad) if I could get the upgrade to OS 8 to work but the processor is incompatible. So, a bit of a triumph leading to a bit of a failure. Could have been worse.

For those of you still wondering, I don't think Skippy has his iMac yet, judging from his lack of email contact and online presence. I feel justified in telling you this because he is still, technically, a contributor to this blog.

I'm slowly whittling down my giant to do list. Next on the agenda is completing Final Fantasy III for the DS. Actually, I think I'll go work on that now.

Notes on slippers, a microcosm of the political process and shameless plugging

The Great Slipper Experiment has hit a bit of a snag. Specifically, it's rubbing against a 1cm wide snag that's appeared on the side of my foot thanks to my new shoes.


I've got nothing much to say tonight so we'll have a little notes post.

Sam is due to appear on the next episode of the Nintendo Report. I only really mention this because he mentioned it at the VCOM podcast site, along with linking here.

This site is fairly new, so there's not much there yet, but it already contains some nicely amusing stories of game store employees who have no clue what they're talking about. It's not a problem I've ever really had but it's worth a read. Kind of reminds me of this.

I just came across Acts of Gord recently, in the same place I found out about the above, but it's an interesting take on the kinds of things that the smart game store employees have to put up with from their customers.

I'm not sure if Skippy has an NWT for tomorrow, but I've got an idea so I might take a stab at it.

This is my 97th daily post for TWToday and there's nothing really special abut that. On the bright side, my 100th falls on Saturday, meaning it may be well-written.

A wonderful microcosm of the political system came into being at school today. With nowhere else to go, three middle class white boys and one girl discussed racism without drawing any conclusions or anybody noticing. This happened for five minutes, after which the topic of conversation turned to the poor stocking of the water bottle machine and what could be done to alleviate the problem. If that isn't politics, I don't know what is.

Oh, and somebody remind me to ask Skippy for the visitor numbers for May. I've been meaning to do that for almost a week.

Also, remind me to find some new toothpaste. Don't ask why, just do. I mean, you could probably figure out that it's because I'm running low on toothpaste and keep forgetting to get more but that's not quite mysterious-sounding enough.

To conclude, a little factoid that I was reading about last week and which actually came in handy today. The colour of the sky, not a reflection of the sea as many people assume (I never quite understood how that's supposed to work), is due to the scattering of blue light by nitrogen in the atmosphere, leading to the impression that the blue is coming from all around us. This is called Rayleigh Scattering. The reasons why the sky can change colours somewhat are related, but too complicated for me to bother writing down right now.

Night of the Living Notes

A screenshot of Duke Nukem Forever and a movie of The Sims? I'm fairly sure those are both signs of the Apocolypse.



Well, I suppose this will just be a notes post since I can think of little else.

I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but time is now running out to send emails to the British Library in order to help them form Email Britain, a record of communications and every day life which will apparently be of use to future researchers. I'm not sure how it'll be used, but it's been fun trying to find an email to send in that I think sums up my usual activities. I reckon I've now got one that I can send to email@emailbritain.co.uk.

I'd like to point you all in the direction of Superdickery, which I've recently started reading.

There's a trailer for the new Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles game up here. I was a huge fan of the original's multiplayer, once I got a few friends to sit through the opening cinematic and get powerful enough to tackle basic enemies. We'll finish it one of these days. And Four Swords. We'll finish that, too.

Ever heard of UCAS? I'm not sure what it stands for and I don't want to look it up, but they're the organisation in charge of my university future. Since I signed up for a "UCAS card" (50% interest, 100% APR (I can't remember what that stands for either) on all purchases made before, on or after the 12th of May 1967, if you're over 70 and drive a bus), I got an email from them about a competition or a survey or something. I don't really know, because their website was down when i tried the link.

Actually, more about that tomorrow. I've just managed to access the survey.... the questions... I can't... there's just no way to describe them using ordinary words. I'll have to invent an entirely new language in time for tomorrow's post.

And... uhh... the Penny Arcade game is looking pretty good?

There wasn't a NWT yesterday (Skippy's fault!), but thanks to my telepathic link with Sam, there may well be a Woodle tomorrow.

101 Postations

You read that correctly (assuming you read the title). 101 posts on TWToday. One-Oh-One. A Hundred and One. Hun...druno and uno?

Most people like to celebrate the 100th post or comic or episode or Mario Party game. But not us. No. We're different! We're rebels! We're unobservant and lazy! I'd noticed that the 100th post was coming up but was too lazy to point it out to Skippy and he didn't even notice, accidently posting the 100th post.

Well, I don't want to focus on that too much since, while it is something of a milestone, it's really only worth noting and then moving on from.

Just a few notes then, because notes posts are easy to do:

• My exams begin in 2 days, with Higher English on Friday. Today was my last actual day doing Higher subjects since I begin study leave tomorrow. I'll probably have more to say about that tomorrow.

• I finally got sick of my blasted router wreaking havoc with my DS and sorted out the settings so that it uses a compatible encryption system. Naturally, as soon as my DS starts to work online, we discover that Sam's only works for two Mario Kart races at the most. And, of course, I can't get a decent wireless signal in my room.

• Cassette tapes are apparently being phased out of a major retailer and this has sparked a slew of nostalgia about "mix tapes" and tangled reams of magnetic tape. I'll admit it's sad to see tapes finally go, but calling it the end of an era seems to be a little bit much. When did you last by a cassette tape?

• I wholeheartedly recommend that you watch this video.

• And finally....

Okay, I've been thinking about this for five minutes and I don't have anything else. More tomorrow, when I have time between learning English quotes.


"There will be time, there will be time,
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.
There will be time to murder and create,"

-T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Miscalleaneous-tastic

Just completed tonight's woodle (see below) and, for all the incredibly low quality, I'm actually rather proud of it. In fact, I think I'm going to turn it into a series. A series of woodles, anyway. After that, who knows? Maybe a sitcom series. Movie trilogies are all the rage with the kidz theze dayz, that could work.

No real plan for this blog (or this post, for that matter) so I'm just going to do one of my (in)famous notes posts.

Note the first:
I've just been watching the first few episodes of Chad Vader, which is the reason I can't be bothered spending much time on this post.

Note the second:
Note how this supposed notes post only has two notes.

Yeah, I've got nothing else. Spent all my creative energon on that woodle. All I've got left in me are obtuse Transformers references.

This incoherent waste of time was brought to you by Alasdair Corbett, who is not a robot in disguise.

I can't think of a note-related pun

A little tight for time since I want to get up early tomorrow and finally start some heavy duty revision (where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, every day of the holidays so far) so this is going to be another of my lovely little notes posts.

First up, another link to Skippy's widget since the post that introduced it is now hidden (slightly) beneath this one on the front page. I'll probably also stick it in the sidebar. Simply download the file, install it on your Mac (nothing for Windows users, though I think Vista has some form of widget functionality, not compatible with this anyway) and go to the Dashboard to read yours truly's latest posts. And Skippy's as well, if you can be bothered doing an awful lot of downward scrolling.

Okay, that was a little unfair. He is planning to post more, at least assuming he's remembered that tomorrow is New Word Thursday.

I'll be away Sunday to Wednesday this coming week and I'm not sure what the internet situation will be on the exotic shores of Loch Lomond, so I may end up relying on other people, a method I've found to be largely useless. In this instance, I'll just be setting up various posts (Monday and Tuesday at the least) as drafts and getting Skippy to publish them, thus maintaining challenge.exe, or challenge.app depending on your OS preference.

Probably ought to mention challenge.exe somewhere in the sidebar as well, since nobody has any idea what it is, as far as I can tell. It's just my wacky scheme to post one piece a day for a year, just to see if I can. Obstacles like holidays keep interfering though.

On a spooky note, my internet connection has been relatively steady all afternoon. Seriously, it's weird. And it's scaring me. Which is also weird.

No wait, it's gone down again. The status quo is restored and I can look into faster internet speeds and a new router tomorrow. All is well normal.

Notes or not?

Don't expect anything much tonight, I've used most of my brain budget up over the last two days through a combination of Citizen Cane, podcasting, gaming, learning Othello quotations and not only studying for a Maths prelim but trying to teach the entire Higher Maths course to Sam.

Thus, I need some sleep. I need a lot of sleep. More than I'm likely to get over the next week or so. On the other hand, one of the many advantages of being arrogant is that I don't feel the need to study and so can spend the bulk of the Easter holidays sleeping. Except when I'm eating chocolate and watching Doctor Who.

I can't shake the feeling that I had something really profound and deep to write about earlier but it's pretty much gone now, so we'll just do a bit of random noting of things.

My Dad has pointed out, in reference to Tuesday's “Shakespeare gone bad” mentions that anything involving Iago saying “I love it when a plan comes together”, a la Hannibal, is comedy gold.

Woodle was late again this week. Again, time and laziness are the cause, mostly my lack of the former and over abundance of the latter. Skippy managed to get one up tonight, see below.

Photos of Citizen Cane, the Colossus of Troon still aren't up a) because I need to find some time and place to upload them, maybe Flickr if I can be bothered getting an account, b) I need to reduce the resolution a bit before webifying them and c) I want to put captions on a few. Might get some done tomorrow. Might not. It's not like people are clamouring for them.

Probably another short post tomorrow, English essay to do. Ever noticed how time seems to slow down as the holidays approach?

And that's the end of the notes, and the post.