Britain today is being all about remembering possibly the worst terrorist atrocity visited on us
On July 7th 2005, a group of terrorist loons blew themselves up on 3 London Underground trams and 1 London bus. 52 died and over 700 were injured.
I quite rarely talk about current events on here, although you should know I keep a very close eye on them. When I'm not watching anything else, the telly is usually on Sky News (I know - it's Murdoch-twisted but all our news is twisted in its own way), although it's on mute to protect my ears from the lunacy of some of the presenters.
Yep - I saw that hate campaign against one of the presenters - I won't defend her (see lunacy comment) but imagine how she felt about it ? Be nice. It's easy to join in with the howling mob but be sure you have all the context.
Nah - I don't talk about the current events much because there are so many other places you can get that from that are far better informed than me. After all, I'm getting my info from the same places that you are. Just remember ... Take what you read, see or hear with a pinch of salt. Can you trust what they're saying ? (See lunatic comment above) Are they telling you what you want to hear instead of what the truth actually is ? Are they trying to bend your opinion their way, away from what is beneficial to you ?
Besides - this page should be all about me and what I observe around me, there's better places to go for stuff about the world although I might pitch in an opinion sometime if I have something valid, interesting, funny? to say.
Yep. Ask those questions, determine for yourself what you want to trust. The most valuable lessons I learned at school were in history, where our teacher (the incredible Mini Hitler*) gave us the factual knowledge we needed to pass the exams but also impressed upon us the need to question, decipher, unravel, interpret the evidence before us.
*Mini Hitler was a maybe 4 foot 6 inches tall scary lady history teacher. But she was possibly the most respected teacher in my all boy secondary school. She was a legend. And we called her Mini Hitler because you most certainly did not want to incur her wrath. She never did anything while I was there but there were rumours ... many rumours ... She didn't need to raise her voice at all with us and this was a mob of hormones that made an English teacher straight out of training burst into tears.
But I'm rambling when I should be remembering.
We do remember what happened today 10 years ago. Here's BBC's story today.
I also remember what happened 2 weeks later, where 5 bombers attempted to repeat the atrocity but failed due to incompetence. The bombs had degraded to duds and only one minor injury resulted from the detonators going pop. Here's the wiki info. We got away with that one.
I can remember hearing huge amounts in the past about Al-Qaeda. They're barely mentioned today (IS have the attention and the crazy people now).
There was a story locally about a bomb factory just down the road from where I work. It was in Westbury-On-Trym. A loon wanted to blow up the Bristol city centre shopping area and got turned in to the coppers by the local Muslim community. Here's the Wiki info. (The alternative was a Daily Mail link and I'm not going to inflict you with that). That situation was dealt with fairly quietly and no one was hurt. Although from what I heard from the various sources, the bomber would have probably blown himself up due to ineptitude.
You hear other bits and pieces around the news about other potential terrorist incidents around the country. I saw on the news the incident where a bunch of supposedly rational people drove an SUV laden with fuel and (I think?) explosive into Glasgow airport. If they'd got in through the door, then they may have burned down the building. But these supposedly rational people failed to account for the bollards in front of the door that stopped the SUV. The scary part there is that I used to fairly regularly use the airport terminal that they tried to burn down.
I guess the important thing I'm trying to say is :
It hasn't happened again. Not in the scale of July 7 or, going further back, the IRA campaigns of the 20th Century.
Our security forces do a good job of stopping the threats before they develop. Say what you will about invasions of privacy but they have been keeping us safe all these years. I'll leave that there before the conspiracy theorists jump on it.
What was I doing 10 years ago ?
I don't really remember the same way as I can place where I was on September 11 2001. Back then, I was attending a design review for one of the systems I was keeping an eye on integrating and was listening in disbelief to the news about the Two Towers while driving home. They were still standing when I got in the car and had fallen by the time I got home.
2005 was different, I'd just got back from the USA Orlando holiday which was the last time together with my reasonable time partner. She walked out as soon as she got back (You can guess how that made me feel). I was emotionally numb from that for many months after. Years maybe ? I can't rightly remember*. I was also reaching out to quite a few people at this time and getting very confused and distressed when they turned away, put up the walls and stopped talking to me.
*(this was also perhaps 2 years after Nose Job 1 which caused long term neurological memory damage and I think my memory is still affected by it)
So I'm somewhat sad to say that I can't remember what I was doing 10 years ago. I think I was at work, listening in disbelief with the rest of us but also within my own little emotional cocoon from the personal stuff.
Selfish ? Perhaps. But that's the honest truth of it. I remember the events that took so many lives but my head was dominated by the emotional turmoil much closer to home.
A much more sombre post today - but I hope you understand why. No piccys either, it wouldn't be appropriate. And about that word "worst" at the top. All terrorist atrocities are awful. The scale should not be used as a comparison between horrible events. Numbers are a side issue when it comes to misery. And that's not to belittle anyone's loss - I feel all the loss equally, whether it be 1 or 1000s.
Last thought - Would you believe I've perhaps been 200 yards away from a bomb that went boom ? It was in N.Ireland and it blew the front off a store. I dunno actually, that could be a different memory that's become real, I was about 8 at the time ! Fact is though, bomb threats were a fact of life when I lived in N.Ireland but for our last graduate, who hailed from Belfast, that country was far safer and bombs were a thing of the past.
Progress is a good thing.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Touched by disaster
That's a weird title I hear you say ...
My brain is the type that tends to have random thoughts firing off completely at ... random. Tonight's random brain cell firing was from a chat on the bus on the way home, we were talking about cars ...
How's that connected to disaster ? Valid question. Very valid question. The random neurons went from the circumstances of the car to more general thoughts.
How often have you been affected by a genuine disaster ? I can think of 3 times for me offhand and there's a few where disasters happened nearby but didn't directly affect me. The UK is pretty lucky for that, our land is geologically stable so no earthquakes, we rarely get affected by megawinds and our coasts are fairly well protected from freak waves.
First up is the one that touched everybody - September 11th 2001. I was over here at a design review when that happened. Some of the chief execs for the company hosting the review were on one of the planes. 2001 affected everyone, it genuinely changed the world. I don't think it changed the paranoia level of most of our intelligence agencies but it did give them justifications (excuses ?) for steadily increasing intrusiveness.
The second was the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which is more widely known for what happened with the Fukushima nuclear plant*. Amongst the problems caused by the earthquake was widespread damage to Japan's industrial infrastructure. This included their automobile factories. This is about the time I was looking to change my Focus to something resembling a good car and the Toyota Prius, Honda CR-Z and Lexus CT were on my list, quickly being narrowed down to the Lexus for its quality.
*(This will be a tragedy for the planet because the good engineering was not recognised, the bad engineering caused knock on problems and set back the cause of nuclear power. What is the least polluting, outside of the low volumes of waste, source of power ? Nuclear).
Earthquake vs car ? They couldn't build them fast enough to keep up with the demand. There had been too much damage to the infrastructure. New CTs were taking ? 3 months to deliver ? I think. Used CTs were rare and almost full price for 6 month old cars. Compare that to now and Lexus seem quite desperate for me to think about having another IS. The infrastructure has been rebuilt and supply has caught up to demand. And I'm seeing a fair few CTs and IS's around, very few CR-Z (it's a nasty, ugly attempt and fails at being a sports coupe) and not many Prius.
The last time is the floods that affected Thailand. Where are most of the hard disc factories ? They were underwater in Bangkok at about the time I was looking to build Pumpkin. The result was that instead of umming and ahhing over whether to get a SSD drive for Pumpkin, it forced my decision because I was unable to buy a conventional drive at an affordable price.
Translation - I had to use a little fast disc with an old big disc from the last machine instead of a new big slow one. And I was able to catch up later.
Yep. I haven't been at all badly affected by disasters, although I've seen their effects from afar. I don't like to talk about things like disasters too much, you see way too much of that from the news media and it's far better informed (cough - Fox - cough) than what I'll know about.
But I do work with people who occasionally get dispatched off to help with disaster relief and I think that's awesome. It's them using the tools we give them for an incredibly positive purpose.
You might be thinking - how about the floods ? how about the hurricane ? We heard about the infamous Michael Fish hurricane report and the aftermath but it missed us completely. The Somerset flooding of a couple of years ago was fairly close to where I live but I didn't see any of it, outside of seeing waterlogged fields by the side of the motorways.
I've been lucky to avoid any real nasty effects from disasters. Being inconvenienced with buying stuff is of zero significance next to the real trauma and loss suffered by those caught up in natural disasters.
Looking back (in the pre-publish check that always misses typos and wrong words !), Chernobyl happened when I was 11. Can't remember how we adjusted to that but we were very nervously watching the news for the spread of the fallout cloud, with the news telling us about how it would contaminate the milk supply for decades to come.
Over to you, have you been involved in a natural disaster ? (Outside of bedrooms and unkempt gardens) Can you talk about what happened ?
I hope you weren't too seriously affected !
Cya and hope for good times.
My brain is the type that tends to have random thoughts firing off completely at ... random. Tonight's random brain cell firing was from a chat on the bus on the way home, we were talking about cars ...
How's that connected to disaster ? Valid question. Very valid question. The random neurons went from the circumstances of the car to more general thoughts.
How often have you been affected by a genuine disaster ? I can think of 3 times for me offhand and there's a few where disasters happened nearby but didn't directly affect me. The UK is pretty lucky for that, our land is geologically stable so no earthquakes, we rarely get affected by megawinds and our coasts are fairly well protected from freak waves.
First up is the one that touched everybody - September 11th 2001. I was over here at a design review when that happened. Some of the chief execs for the company hosting the review were on one of the planes. 2001 affected everyone, it genuinely changed the world. I don't think it changed the paranoia level of most of our intelligence agencies but it did give them justifications (excuses ?) for steadily increasing intrusiveness.
The second was the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which is more widely known for what happened with the Fukushima nuclear plant*. Amongst the problems caused by the earthquake was widespread damage to Japan's industrial infrastructure. This included their automobile factories. This is about the time I was looking to change my Focus to something resembling a good car and the Toyota Prius, Honda CR-Z and Lexus CT were on my list, quickly being narrowed down to the Lexus for its quality.
*(This will be a tragedy for the planet because the good engineering was not recognised, the bad engineering caused knock on problems and set back the cause of nuclear power. What is the least polluting, outside of the low volumes of waste, source of power ? Nuclear).
Earthquake vs car ? They couldn't build them fast enough to keep up with the demand. There had been too much damage to the infrastructure. New CTs were taking ? 3 months to deliver ? I think. Used CTs were rare and almost full price for 6 month old cars. Compare that to now and Lexus seem quite desperate for me to think about having another IS. The infrastructure has been rebuilt and supply has caught up to demand. And I'm seeing a fair few CTs and IS's around, very few CR-Z (it's a nasty, ugly attempt and fails at being a sports coupe) and not many Prius.
The last time is the floods that affected Thailand. Where are most of the hard disc factories ? They were underwater in Bangkok at about the time I was looking to build Pumpkin. The result was that instead of umming and ahhing over whether to get a SSD drive for Pumpkin, it forced my decision because I was unable to buy a conventional drive at an affordable price.
Translation - I had to use a little fast disc with an old big disc from the last machine instead of a new big slow one. And I was able to catch up later.
Yep. I haven't been at all badly affected by disasters, although I've seen their effects from afar. I don't like to talk about things like disasters too much, you see way too much of that from the news media and it's far better informed (cough - Fox - cough) than what I'll know about.
But I do work with people who occasionally get dispatched off to help with disaster relief and I think that's awesome. It's them using the tools we give them for an incredibly positive purpose.
You might be thinking - how about the floods ? how about the hurricane ? We heard about the infamous Michael Fish hurricane report and the aftermath but it missed us completely. The Somerset flooding of a couple of years ago was fairly close to where I live but I didn't see any of it, outside of seeing waterlogged fields by the side of the motorways.
I've been lucky to avoid any real nasty effects from disasters. Being inconvenienced with buying stuff is of zero significance next to the real trauma and loss suffered by those caught up in natural disasters.
Looking back (in the pre-publish check that always misses typos and wrong words !), Chernobyl happened when I was 11. Can't remember how we adjusted to that but we were very nervously watching the news for the spread of the fallout cloud, with the news telling us about how it would contaminate the milk supply for decades to come.
Over to you, have you been involved in a natural disaster ? (Outside of bedrooms and unkempt gardens) Can you talk about what happened ?
Cya and hope for good times.
Friday, May 08, 2015
Let's put it to a vote
The world has its eyes on Britain at the moment ...
That includes Wales, home of the Dwagons, Ireland, home of the Giants of the Causeway and those barbarians north of the border. Scotland is it ?
Just joking there. Ireland was a much loved home while I was in primary school (last millenium) and I adore that accent. I've been going wow hearing it again, we've had a recent joiner and we've been occasionally swapping war stories. Yep. I been about 200yards away from a bomb going off. Only a little one, it knocked off the front of one of the stores in Lisburn. Different times. Yeah, you had the end days of the Troubles but it was also safe enough that 8 year old me was trusted to walk through town to the bus home.
Wales has the dragons. Watch them around the sheep though.
And I had the pleasure to work with some amazing people up in the Scottish part of the organisation in my previous project.
Yep. We been voting again. No matter who wins our elections, we're always deeply unhappy with the result.
I don't believe the fault is in the ideologies of the parties. I don't think the parties know what their ideologies are any more, they're just saying anything to chase votes. The trouble comes from them chasing votes from different parts of the population. There are also those deeply entrenched ideas (which I have too and I'm struggling to throw them off) about who we should be voting for. People vote Labour all their life, people vote Conservative all their life.
Some people voted LibDem all their life, up until the last election where they showed their true colours by shattering all the promises they made in the run up to the election ... and then reminding everyone what they're like with some incredibly negative campaigning over the last week. They still looked surprised when they went from 50+ seats to just 8.
Nah. Our problem is with the politicians. No one with any credibility wants to be a politician any more and by the time they reach real power, their credibility has been knocked out of them. They are not rooted in the real world.
Someone once said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for those already tried.". But - the important thing is, we have our freedom, our streets are mostly safe at night, our police enforce most of the laws that are in there to keep us safe and we still have the last vestiges of a National Health Service.
Enough about politics.
About that vote ?
There are far more important concerns than who we choose to inhabit that lunatic asylum that sits on the banks of the Thames. Yep.
That's from my current trading expeditions in Elite.
What could be more important than life or death ? Tea or coffee. Definitely. Although I will admit to being very partial to hot chocolate as well.
Ending thoughts :
Vote the way you choose.
Try to banish prejudices when you vote.
Make sure you vote - it's the only way the lunatics will pay attention.
Norah Jones had it spot on with My Dear Country.
Cricket's second main break of the day is called "Tea".
Which way do you go ? Are you a coffee or a tea person ?
That includes Wales, home of the Dwagons, Ireland, home of the Giants of the Causeway and those barbarians north of the border. Scotland is it ?
Just joking there. Ireland was a much loved home while I was in primary school (last millenium) and I adore that accent. I've been going wow hearing it again, we've had a recent joiner and we've been occasionally swapping war stories. Yep. I been about 200yards away from a bomb going off. Only a little one, it knocked off the front of one of the stores in Lisburn. Different times. Yeah, you had the end days of the Troubles but it was also safe enough that 8 year old me was trusted to walk through town to the bus home.
Wales has the dragons. Watch them around the sheep though.
And I had the pleasure to work with some amazing people up in the Scottish part of the organisation in my previous project.
Yep. We been voting again. No matter who wins our elections, we're always deeply unhappy with the result.
I don't believe the fault is in the ideologies of the parties. I don't think the parties know what their ideologies are any more, they're just saying anything to chase votes. The trouble comes from them chasing votes from different parts of the population. There are also those deeply entrenched ideas (which I have too and I'm struggling to throw them off) about who we should be voting for. People vote Labour all their life, people vote Conservative all their life.
Some people voted LibDem all their life, up until the last election where they showed their true colours by shattering all the promises they made in the run up to the election ... and then reminding everyone what they're like with some incredibly negative campaigning over the last week. They still looked surprised when they went from 50+ seats to just 8.
Nah. Our problem is with the politicians. No one with any credibility wants to be a politician any more and by the time they reach real power, their credibility has been knocked out of them. They are not rooted in the real world.
Someone once said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for those already tried.". But - the important thing is, we have our freedom, our streets are mostly safe at night, our police enforce most of the laws that are in there to keep us safe and we still have the last vestiges of a National Health Service.
Enough about politics.
About that vote ?
There are far more important concerns than who we choose to inhabit that lunatic asylum that sits on the banks of the Thames. Yep.
What could be more important than life or death ? Tea or coffee. Definitely. Although I will admit to being very partial to hot chocolate as well.
Ending thoughts :
Vote the way you choose.
Try to banish prejudices when you vote.
Make sure you vote - it's the only way the lunatics will pay attention.
Norah Jones had it spot on with My Dear Country.
Cricket's second main break of the day is called "Tea".
Which way do you go ? Are you a coffee or a tea person ?
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ! Career move
I'm really excited.
I have news. An announcement. A seismic shift in what I'll be doing. Beating a new path even.
Yep. With a very special group of friends, I've decided to give up that day job and form a band. It's going to be called Dragon Dreamers, or The Dragons for short. What else could it be ? Perhaps the Another Mondays :
Actually, I quite like Another Mondays now that I think of it.
I'm going to be on the drums.
Yep. That's me. Oh and there'd be a mic there too. You know me, a catchy tune, a good rhythm, great atmosphere, I'll be joining in the singing for sure, rumbling away in the background.
On guitar, we'll have my very good friends Cyberkitten and the Bionicdwarf :
There's CK as a youngster, practicing that lead guitar which will knock your socks off. Bionicdwarf is all about that bass. Great tunes. You'll love it.
On keyboards and another of our main vocalists is the Pixie. She suffers terribly from joint pains, so can't stand up for long (you must understand when we take our bows at the end of the set) but she's a wizardess behind the ivories. Great voice too.
Lead vocals ... now who could that be. We tried to call in Hannah from the Yogscast but she's way too busy. Besides, we really don't know her that well. Not well enough to pull her away from the videos. What a voice though. Any band would be well blessed to be playing along with her.
Nah. It'll be the lovely Alex from the Warcraft people. I heard this lady singing on the guild voice chat server and it was so good, it got me joining in too. And I'm very shy about exposing people to my singing voice. And I can guarantee that it'll have you joining in too.
That's the main band. But there's always room for more. How about that saxophone ? I bet Cupid's Gift would be perfect. Not so much the blues, more a sheer joy that she'll bring into your heart.
You can't keep those backing singers out of the picture either. They support us in soo many ways.
First up has to be Crazie Queen. She keeps us on the right track. She's our manager. The person who'll protect us from the machinations of the industry. A legend amongst women.
Next is the original finance Angel. Great with the figures, fantastic with the high notes.
And our last performing member is the indomitable Snow Queen. She'll also be the one who makes sure all our kit gets set up just so and with a practiced ear, tuned from listening to great music. We'd never keep her off the stage. Those heels she wears are not heels. They are shoes with spears. Not arguing with those !
There's more too. I've known Bobkat* for years now. Decades even. She used to be involved in professional theatre, setting up the stage and making sure all the behind the scenes stuff ran smoothly. So while Snow Queen will have got the electronics set up perfect, BK will get everything else sorted and will be the one fussing over the bits and pieces to make sure they stay good during the show.
* (Bobkat took her online name from her much missed black and white cat. She lost him to old age a few years ago and he's still missed but fondly remembered. So if you see the odd random picture of a lovely little kitty around the stage, that'll be us remembering Bobkat by touching the picture for good luck on our way on stage.)
You need people to get your bits and pieces to where they need to be - I just happen to know a lady who is an absolute expert in logistics. And we have an expert marketing coordinator in Dianne, the Fork Lady, who will be sure to have us front page news in the USA when we tour there.
Can you tell yet that I'm excited ?
We could even try and get Real Musgrave (creator of the Pocket Dragons) out of retirement to make us some new dwagons !
Who are our influences ? Sleeper for sure. A little bit of Alisha's Attic. Definitely the Cardigans. Alex brings in those Abba roots.
We won't have anything for you to listen to just yet. But wait precisely 1 year from today (exactly this date in 2016) and we'll have an album out and we'll be embarking on that first tour.
Keep a look out for us ! We will rock you.
I have news. An announcement. A seismic shift in what I'll be doing. Beating a new path even.
Yep. With a very special group of friends, I've decided to give up that day job and form a band. It's going to be called Dragon Dreamers, or The Dragons for short. What else could it be ? Perhaps the Another Mondays :
I'm going to be on the drums.
On guitar, we'll have my very good friends Cyberkitten and the Bionicdwarf :
On keyboards and another of our main vocalists is the Pixie. She suffers terribly from joint pains, so can't stand up for long (you must understand when we take our bows at the end of the set) but she's a wizardess behind the ivories. Great voice too.
Nah. It'll be the lovely Alex from the Warcraft people. I heard this lady singing on the guild voice chat server and it was so good, it got me joining in too. And I'm very shy about exposing people to my singing voice. And I can guarantee that it'll have you joining in too.
That's the main band. But there's always room for more. How about that saxophone ? I bet Cupid's Gift would be perfect. Not so much the blues, more a sheer joy that she'll bring into your heart.
You can't keep those backing singers out of the picture either. They support us in soo many ways.
First up has to be Crazie Queen. She keeps us on the right track. She's our manager. The person who'll protect us from the machinations of the industry. A legend amongst women.
Next is the original finance Angel. Great with the figures, fantastic with the high notes.
And our last performing member is the indomitable Snow Queen. She'll also be the one who makes sure all our kit gets set up just so and with a practiced ear, tuned from listening to great music. We'd never keep her off the stage. Those heels she wears are not heels. They are shoes with spears. Not arguing with those !
There's more too. I've known Bobkat* for years now. Decades even. She used to be involved in professional theatre, setting up the stage and making sure all the behind the scenes stuff ran smoothly. So while Snow Queen will have got the electronics set up perfect, BK will get everything else sorted and will be the one fussing over the bits and pieces to make sure they stay good during the show.
* (Bobkat took her online name from her much missed black and white cat. She lost him to old age a few years ago and he's still missed but fondly remembered. So if you see the odd random picture of a lovely little kitty around the stage, that'll be us remembering Bobkat by touching the picture for good luck on our way on stage.)
You need people to get your bits and pieces to where they need to be - I just happen to know a lady who is an absolute expert in logistics. And we have an expert marketing coordinator in Dianne, the Fork Lady, who will be sure to have us front page news in the USA when we tour there.
Can you tell yet that I'm excited ?
We could even try and get Real Musgrave (creator of the Pocket Dragons) out of retirement to make us some new dwagons !
Who are our influences ? Sleeper for sure. A little bit of Alisha's Attic. Definitely the Cardigans. Alex brings in those Abba roots.
We won't have anything for you to listen to just yet. But wait precisely 1 year from today (exactly this date in 2016) and we'll have an album out and we'll be embarking on that first tour.
Keep a look out for us ! We will rock you.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Gonna Buy A Hat
... Cos I think it's gonna rain.
I don't listen to much Chris Rea but that's one of his good ones. (Obligatory link here!). Actually, I'm not going to buy a hat, got plenty of those. Gonna buy a coat instead. I know which one I'll get but the typical procrastination means it's still on the shelf. Hmm, well, not actually procrastination cos I've not seen the right size yet.
That's not the coat I actually want to buy though. Nope. I want this one :
That pic is a render done by a fairly random person but the character and the look comes from Deus Ex Human Revolution, which I'd thoroughly recommend if you're into games like it. It ticks all the boxes. I've finished it maybe 4 times so far. And I've not been that much into games in recent years. (But ... don't buy it yet, wait for the sales and you'll get it for pennies).
Cool coat huh ? Could do with a hood to be honest.
You can buy it too. Here's the link. The "Me Want" is definitely firing on that one. The "Me Need", however, is not. A cool coat it may be but it won't keep my head dry. I'll go to Tesco instead.
(This one however ... does have a hood. Interesting. HIDE MY WALLET ! TAKE IT AWAY !)
All this rain hitting us at the moment. I like watching disaster movies. The setup of the scenario they play through piques my interest, as does how they deal with the aftermath. But those are on the small screen. They couldn't possibly happen in real life.
Could they ?
It feels like we're getting close to living in a disaster movie at the moment. Climate is getting more extreme. Wide areas of southern England are flooding. The extreme south west is cut off from rail travel. Tonight, events are being called off and trains cancelled due to the high winds.
It's feeling properly epic. And not in an enjoyable way.
Natural disasters seem to be getting more common and there doesn't seem that much we can do to mitigate them. There's flooding even in areas that would have been predicted totally safe. (I'm ok here, at the moment). The weather here's been like a meteor dropped in the ocean, has thrown all the water in the air and it's now coming down on us.
The world is steadily getting to be a more hostile place. It's probably upset that we're abusing it the way we have been. The answer would be to make an island somewhere else. A community disconnected from potential catastrophe on Earth. The Moon is one option, it's close enough that supplies can be sent up there. Mars is better, although the travel there is probably lethal for people at our current technology.
I'd be very interested in signing up for a Moon or Mars colony endeavour. It's new territory and therefore highly interesting. It's frontier and therefore not as safe or cushioned as life usually is in England. You make it up as you go, because you can't nip down to Novatech if something breaks. You rely on your initiative, which is something that is me with my tendency to improvise and come up with mad solutions.
But at the moment, no one is looking at setting up a Moon colony and the proposed privately organised Mars colony looks suicidal. We need practical shielding to stave off the solar wind radiation before sending people to Mars becomes feasible.
That's way off in the future though. In the meantime I'm :
Keeping an eye on the news for the latest about the flooding;
Hoping there's a respite from natural disasters occurring in other parts of the globe;
And being glad I have a heavier car (even if it was catching the wind a bit)
I'll get me coat. (Literally!)
I don't listen to much Chris Rea but that's one of his good ones. (Obligatory link here!). Actually, I'm not going to buy a hat, got plenty of those. Gonna buy a coat instead. I know which one I'll get but the typical procrastination means it's still on the shelf. Hmm, well, not actually procrastination cos I've not seen the right size yet.
That's not the coat I actually want to buy though. Nope. I want this one :
Cool coat huh ? Could do with a hood to be honest.
You can buy it too. Here's the link. The "Me Want" is definitely firing on that one. The "Me Need", however, is not. A cool coat it may be but it won't keep my head dry. I'll go to Tesco instead.
(This one however ... does have a hood. Interesting. HIDE MY WALLET ! TAKE IT AWAY !)
All this rain hitting us at the moment. I like watching disaster movies. The setup of the scenario they play through piques my interest, as does how they deal with the aftermath. But those are on the small screen. They couldn't possibly happen in real life.
Could they ?
It feels like we're getting close to living in a disaster movie at the moment. Climate is getting more extreme. Wide areas of southern England are flooding. The extreme south west is cut off from rail travel. Tonight, events are being called off and trains cancelled due to the high winds.
It's feeling properly epic. And not in an enjoyable way.
Natural disasters seem to be getting more common and there doesn't seem that much we can do to mitigate them. There's flooding even in areas that would have been predicted totally safe. (I'm ok here, at the moment). The weather here's been like a meteor dropped in the ocean, has thrown all the water in the air and it's now coming down on us.
The world is steadily getting to be a more hostile place. It's probably upset that we're abusing it the way we have been. The answer would be to make an island somewhere else. A community disconnected from potential catastrophe on Earth. The Moon is one option, it's close enough that supplies can be sent up there. Mars is better, although the travel there is probably lethal for people at our current technology.
I'd be very interested in signing up for a Moon or Mars colony endeavour. It's new territory and therefore highly interesting. It's frontier and therefore not as safe or cushioned as life usually is in England. You make it up as you go, because you can't nip down to Novatech if something breaks. You rely on your initiative, which is something that is me with my tendency to improvise and come up with mad solutions.
But at the moment, no one is looking at setting up a Moon colony and the proposed privately organised Mars colony looks suicidal. We need practical shielding to stave off the solar wind radiation before sending people to Mars becomes feasible.
That's way off in the future though. In the meantime I'm :
Keeping an eye on the news for the latest about the flooding;
Hoping there's a respite from natural disasters occurring in other parts of the globe;
And being glad I have a heavier car (even if it was catching the wind a bit)
I'll get me coat. (Literally!)
Monday, January 06, 2014
Feeling lucky ?
I've been feeling lucky again.
I've had my eye on the blanket coverage we had about F1 star Michael Schumacher. You can't have missed that, he's still in hospital in critical condition following a head injury. From what I understand, he was skiing off-piste to help someone out and ended up going head over heels at 40mph ish, hitting a rock on the way down which was too much for his helmet to handle. I think I heard that he was conscious when on the way to the hospital too.
And he's still in critical condition a week later, having had brain surgery to relieve the pressure and to address skull fractures.
Hopefully he'll recover to be the same Michael Schumacher we loved or loathed. To be honest, I was in the loathing camp for a while because he was just That Darn Good. He took championships away from Brit drivers (and I'm a fervent supporter of Brit drivers, hopefully Lewis will come good in next year's Merc). Yep - hopefully he'll be let out of that coma soon, as the same person he was before.
Why does that incident promote feelings of luck in me ?
I've had similar impacts ... three times. Hopefully I'm still the same Sleepypete that I was 10 years ago, although there is that nagging question : "Is this why Ravenwolf left ?" (I don't honestly believe it is). Let's look at the incidents :
Schumacher - rock at maybe 40mph (I get the feeling it was faster) with a helmet on. Skull fractures and brain injuries. Still in hospital. Ouch !
Nose Job 1 (my first hit) - cricket ball at 60mph (ish), no helmet. Hit me in the eye, with my glasses saving me from more major injury. I stayed conscious but got helped off the field and was carted off to hospital. Suffered memory problems for maybe 18 months afterwards.
Happy Helmet (second hit) - cricket ball at probably 70mph (quicker bowler!), hit the helmet on the grill. Without the helmet, I'd have been hit maybe above the right ear and would have been in hospital again for sure. Probably would have been knocked out by that one - it's a thin, sensitive part of the skull. I kept batting throughout the game (mostly because the bowler that hit me was nasty and probably would have run through our team) and only came off the field after we won. I was happily absorbing the nastiest bowling and hitting singles before watching the guys at the other end murder the bowling. Oh and I nearly threw up in the changing room after the game.
Almost-Dentist (third hit) - cricket ball at maybe 60mph again, no helmet. Hit me in the gob. I'm seriously lucky there not to have lost teeth. Lots of blood though, enough that I should have gone off to the hospital to get a stitch. I lost my sense of hunger for 2 weeks after that impact and was woozy enough to take the Friday off work (got hit on the Wednesday).
Is it fair comparing a cricket ball to a rock ? Yes and no. The cricket ball is hard enough (definitely in a match ball) but it's completely round. I suspect the rock that got Schumacher was pointy enough to break the helmet.
I did have long term effects after getting hit without the helmet but I was very lucky to only have my nose broken. I dread to think what would have happened if I wore contacts ... That's a scary thought for that first hit.
What am I really trying to say here ?
If you know someone who's suffered a very recent head injury, keep an eye on them. Quietly check to see if they're still all in there. They may not realise themselves how bad the effects are. With my two helmet-less incidents, I certainly didn't realise the memory problems until a few years later and I only noticed the inability to feel hunger state when :
a) hearing earthquakes from my tummy with no feelings of "need food"
b) nearly bursting after finishing a big pizza
(weird huh ?)
If someone's had a bump on the head, their condition can change very rapidly too. An initial state of concussion (bruising from the marbles being rattled) can change into compression (swelling that's trapped in by the skull) very quickly. Thankfully while concussion is common, compression is less so. Compression is however, extremely dangerous. There's a triage saying : "Treat the quiet ones first" and it's partly targeted at injuries like compression.
I think I upset someone a few years ago. She came back from an Xmas break and admitted to banging her head on a door handle and was sitting on the floor out of it for a bit with no one to see if she was ok. That triggered a definite Protect instinct and I probably told a few more people than she'd have liked me to. People I knew would keep an eye on our girl to make sure she was ok. I very rarely betray confidences like that but ... it's a head injury. Someone I care about quite deeply could have turned seriously ill.
With my two bad incidents, Ravenwolf had that eye on me the first time but for the second - I felt a bit neglected. Unloved maybe ? That might be unfair. I've always been incredible at hiding the symptoms when something's affecting me and for that second incident, I was functioning perfectly well until the Friday when I let myself settle into a clouded dazed state.
I must peek at what I put here in the days around that second incident. It wasn't as bad as the first, the neurological symptoms only lasted about a fortnight whereas I think my memory is still affected.
But - I do still feel lucky. Incidents like Schumacher, the Paul Williams paralysis (club cricketer) and Mark Boucher's (South African wicket keeper) career ending eye injury show that it could have been much, much worse.
I've had my eye on the blanket coverage we had about F1 star Michael Schumacher. You can't have missed that, he's still in hospital in critical condition following a head injury. From what I understand, he was skiing off-piste to help someone out and ended up going head over heels at 40mph ish, hitting a rock on the way down which was too much for his helmet to handle. I think I heard that he was conscious when on the way to the hospital too.
And he's still in critical condition a week later, having had brain surgery to relieve the pressure and to address skull fractures.
Hopefully he'll recover to be the same Michael Schumacher we loved or loathed. To be honest, I was in the loathing camp for a while because he was just That Darn Good. He took championships away from Brit drivers (and I'm a fervent supporter of Brit drivers, hopefully Lewis will come good in next year's Merc). Yep - hopefully he'll be let out of that coma soon, as the same person he was before.
Why does that incident promote feelings of luck in me ?
I've had similar impacts ... three times. Hopefully I'm still the same Sleepypete that I was 10 years ago, although there is that nagging question : "Is this why Ravenwolf left ?" (I don't honestly believe it is). Let's look at the incidents :
Schumacher - rock at maybe 40mph (I get the feeling it was faster) with a helmet on. Skull fractures and brain injuries. Still in hospital. Ouch !
Nose Job 1 (my first hit) - cricket ball at 60mph (ish), no helmet. Hit me in the eye, with my glasses saving me from more major injury. I stayed conscious but got helped off the field and was carted off to hospital. Suffered memory problems for maybe 18 months afterwards.
Happy Helmet (second hit) - cricket ball at probably 70mph (quicker bowler!), hit the helmet on the grill. Without the helmet, I'd have been hit maybe above the right ear and would have been in hospital again for sure. Probably would have been knocked out by that one - it's a thin, sensitive part of the skull. I kept batting throughout the game (mostly because the bowler that hit me was nasty and probably would have run through our team) and only came off the field after we won. I was happily absorbing the nastiest bowling and hitting singles before watching the guys at the other end murder the bowling. Oh and I nearly threw up in the changing room after the game.
Almost-Dentist (third hit) - cricket ball at maybe 60mph again, no helmet. Hit me in the gob. I'm seriously lucky there not to have lost teeth. Lots of blood though, enough that I should have gone off to the hospital to get a stitch. I lost my sense of hunger for 2 weeks after that impact and was woozy enough to take the Friday off work (got hit on the Wednesday).
Is it fair comparing a cricket ball to a rock ? Yes and no. The cricket ball is hard enough (definitely in a match ball) but it's completely round. I suspect the rock that got Schumacher was pointy enough to break the helmet.
I did have long term effects after getting hit without the helmet but I was very lucky to only have my nose broken. I dread to think what would have happened if I wore contacts ... That's a scary thought for that first hit.
What am I really trying to say here ?
If you know someone who's suffered a very recent head injury, keep an eye on them. Quietly check to see if they're still all in there. They may not realise themselves how bad the effects are. With my two helmet-less incidents, I certainly didn't realise the memory problems until a few years later and I only noticed the inability to feel hunger state when :
a) hearing earthquakes from my tummy with no feelings of "need food"
b) nearly bursting after finishing a big pizza
(weird huh ?)
If someone's had a bump on the head, their condition can change very rapidly too. An initial state of concussion (bruising from the marbles being rattled) can change into compression (swelling that's trapped in by the skull) very quickly. Thankfully while concussion is common, compression is less so. Compression is however, extremely dangerous. There's a triage saying : "Treat the quiet ones first" and it's partly targeted at injuries like compression.
I think I upset someone a few years ago. She came back from an Xmas break and admitted to banging her head on a door handle and was sitting on the floor out of it for a bit with no one to see if she was ok. That triggered a definite Protect instinct and I probably told a few more people than she'd have liked me to. People I knew would keep an eye on our girl to make sure she was ok. I very rarely betray confidences like that but ... it's a head injury. Someone I care about quite deeply could have turned seriously ill.
With my two bad incidents, Ravenwolf had that eye on me the first time but for the second - I felt a bit neglected. Unloved maybe ? That might be unfair. I've always been incredible at hiding the symptoms when something's affecting me and for that second incident, I was functioning perfectly well until the Friday when I let myself settle into a clouded dazed state.
I must peek at what I put here in the days around that second incident. It wasn't as bad as the first, the neurological symptoms only lasted about a fortnight whereas I think my memory is still affected.
But - I do still feel lucky. Incidents like Schumacher, the Paul Williams paralysis (club cricketer) and Mark Boucher's (South African wicket keeper) career ending eye injury show that it could have been much, much worse.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Curious news
Nah. Not about me, I'm talking about news stories I've been spotting :-)
British Gas have drawn public ire again by declaring bigger profits than expected. The theme at the moment is that the companies we're forced to buy things from, like the petrol, energy and utilities people want to fleece us for as much as they can take us. Energy bills have been ramping up, petrol prices are still rocketing and the profits go up quicker.
It's where competition doesn't really work sometimes. Where my parents live are a series of petrol stations which cost around 3-4p more than 20 miles away in Lincoln or Newark. There's no good justification for the prices being higher but they continue being higher because the competition doesn't undercut them. It's the same in the energy utility industry, there's no competitive undercutting going on to aggressively get customers switching. So we pay more on average.
Smartphone app to test urine. I'm sorry but there is no way in hell that I'm going to pee on my shiny new iPhone. It would make the screen all sticky and nasty.
Not gonna happen.
(It's actually an interesting theory on the app but there's all sorts of potential for error. Like the lighting conditions under which the picture is taken)
The myth of working at home. Ok, I didn't read all of this one because I went zzzzzzz in the middle. I've been doing the occasional work at home day, in the hope of making it easier on my ailing skin. The healing gets interfered with by needing to wear sleeves and trousers.
I have a laptop which can get access to almost all of the work sites that I need to access. My mobile can pick up the calls from my works number. The laptop lets me chat online via Communicator. I don't waste a couple of hours waiting for the bus. Win win situation, although I do miss the general office gossip. Offices can tend to stovepipe info, where one person doesn't think to involve another in what they're doing even when they Need to know. We're not so bad with the stovepiping (in fact one of my prior roles was to be a busybody breaking down the stovepipes) but I've seen it where it gets bad.
Point is, when I work from home I'm doing Stuff and I'm contactable. It shocked me last year when I realised that a colleague didn't even fire up his laptop when working from home. I'd sent a "you need to see this" type email which didn't get seen because ... I dunno what he was doing but it didn't involve being contactable via the works network. Wasn't reachable by phone either. (He's not with us any more)
The upshot of that working from home story is that Yahoo have banned it now because they think they lose too much productivity. I think they have a point because I know too many supposed professionals take the mick out of the privilege, which leaves more work for people like me and my colleagues and friends to pick up. It is great to have the option though.
Mission to Mars wants older people. Forget them, let me go !
Pretty Contractor Lady leaves the project. (Ok, it's not a BBC news story but it's big news for me). She's been massive for us over the past few years, shepherding very complicated acceptance through the works which involves persuading some quite contrary characters to sign their names to things that say Job Done. I've always had huge respect for her, she'll leave a massive hole when she moves on.
Does being lonely make you ill ?
They're linking loneliness to physical health as well as mental wellbeing. I suspect the link is more metaphysical there. I've always been a great believer that how you believe you're doing mentally has a big impact on how you cope with things physically. I've believed for a while that my skin's been getting better slowly and steadily, whereas honestly it's still barklike in places and fragile. I'm still my own worst enemy there, causing self inflicted damage that sets back the healing.
The loneliness link is to chronic inflammation with the theory being that lonely people release more cortisol, a hormone associated with being stressed. Yeah, that's a given, if we don't have people to talk problems through with, that problem festers and infects the mind.
It's one reason why I blog, to think through and release thoughts that otherwise rattle round in my head when I'm trying to get to sleep.
Think that's enough news for now :-)
British Gas have drawn public ire again by declaring bigger profits than expected. The theme at the moment is that the companies we're forced to buy things from, like the petrol, energy and utilities people want to fleece us for as much as they can take us. Energy bills have been ramping up, petrol prices are still rocketing and the profits go up quicker.
It's where competition doesn't really work sometimes. Where my parents live are a series of petrol stations which cost around 3-4p more than 20 miles away in Lincoln or Newark. There's no good justification for the prices being higher but they continue being higher because the competition doesn't undercut them. It's the same in the energy utility industry, there's no competitive undercutting going on to aggressively get customers switching. So we pay more on average.
Smartphone app to test urine. I'm sorry but there is no way in hell that I'm going to pee on my shiny new iPhone. It would make the screen all sticky and nasty.
Not gonna happen.
(It's actually an interesting theory on the app but there's all sorts of potential for error. Like the lighting conditions under which the picture is taken)
The myth of working at home. Ok, I didn't read all of this one because I went zzzzzzz in the middle. I've been doing the occasional work at home day, in the hope of making it easier on my ailing skin. The healing gets interfered with by needing to wear sleeves and trousers.
I have a laptop which can get access to almost all of the work sites that I need to access. My mobile can pick up the calls from my works number. The laptop lets me chat online via Communicator. I don't waste a couple of hours waiting for the bus. Win win situation, although I do miss the general office gossip. Offices can tend to stovepipe info, where one person doesn't think to involve another in what they're doing even when they Need to know. We're not so bad with the stovepiping (in fact one of my prior roles was to be a busybody breaking down the stovepipes) but I've seen it where it gets bad.
Point is, when I work from home I'm doing Stuff and I'm contactable. It shocked me last year when I realised that a colleague didn't even fire up his laptop when working from home. I'd sent a "you need to see this" type email which didn't get seen because ... I dunno what he was doing but it didn't involve being contactable via the works network. Wasn't reachable by phone either. (He's not with us any more)
The upshot of that working from home story is that Yahoo have banned it now because they think they lose too much productivity. I think they have a point because I know too many supposed professionals take the mick out of the privilege, which leaves more work for people like me and my colleagues and friends to pick up. It is great to have the option though.
Mission to Mars wants older people. Forget them, let me go !
Pretty Contractor Lady leaves the project. (Ok, it's not a BBC news story but it's big news for me). She's been massive for us over the past few years, shepherding very complicated acceptance through the works which involves persuading some quite contrary characters to sign their names to things that say Job Done. I've always had huge respect for her, she'll leave a massive hole when she moves on.
Does being lonely make you ill ?
They're linking loneliness to physical health as well as mental wellbeing. I suspect the link is more metaphysical there. I've always been a great believer that how you believe you're doing mentally has a big impact on how you cope with things physically. I've believed for a while that my skin's been getting better slowly and steadily, whereas honestly it's still barklike in places and fragile. I'm still my own worst enemy there, causing self inflicted damage that sets back the healing.
The loneliness link is to chronic inflammation with the theory being that lonely people release more cortisol, a hormone associated with being stressed. Yeah, that's a given, if we don't have people to talk problems through with, that problem festers and infects the mind.
It's one reason why I blog, to think through and release thoughts that otherwise rattle round in my head when I'm trying to get to sleep.
Think that's enough news for now :-)
Monday, July 02, 2012
In the news
Beware - techie stuff below !!! :-)
When I come in from work, I'll usually do a round trip through various news sites. I can't really do that at work (in lunchtime of course) because our archaic browser (IE6) either goes BANG or flat refuses to open the site. That's even sites like BBC, which will crash at random, or Metoffice, which flat refuses to load at all.
Ok - random news stuff :
Facebook phone app attempts to seize your mail.
I'm on Facebook a fair bit. It's possibly the best way to get a message to me with a chance of me responding wherever I am (phone supports it). But the Facebook people have been getting more and more obnoxious with what they do with other people's data. This one is the latest from them and they do it without asking for consent or even informing you what they're doing. Which just increases the NerdRage. And as we all know, NerdRage goes viral incredibly quickly.
My phone seems untouched by the latest stuff from the app but I don't use my phone for email anyway. I can receive my normal email and Googlemail from it but can't send due to ISP restrictions.
Microsoft - Overclocking causes BSODs
Well - duh ! But that's only the title of a rather confused article. Parts of it suggest that if you get a machine from a good name, it'll last longer. Not necessarily ... My last laptop (an HP) died within a year of cooler failure and the extremely bad design meant it was easier to get a new one than it would have been to fix. (Think entire laptop rebuild). But they do have a point - I build my own custom PCs because it allows me to build in the reliability that gets lost in OEM cost cutting. And I would always tell people to avoid PCWorld / Currys / Dixons etc own brand machines.
On overclocking - this is where you take a standard machine and persuade it to go faster. My current desktop runs at 3.5 Wibblies. I could probably make it go at 5.0 Wibblies (1 Wibblie = 1 GHz). But it's not worth me doing that because :
I can't trust the overclocked machine is getting all of its sums right
It shortens the life of the machine
The article agrees with the shortened life thing. I like my custom build PCs to just sit there on the floor doing their thing. I REALLY don't want to have to replace a £160 cpu inside 6 months because I cooked it through overclocking.
Steam ... (not an actual news story)
What's with Steam lately ? Stability seems pretty poor right now - it just blipped me offline yet again. Good thing I'm not gaming at the moment.
BBC - I'm ignoring most of what's on BBC.
Most of what we see there is people with hyperinflated wages misbehaving themselves. Like seeing bankers yet again making news for all the wrong reasons. This time it's Barclays, who I will do ZERO business with because a good few years ago they called me an idiot in a letter that was begging me for business. Big mistake. There's plenty more competition out there from banks that have respect for their customers and value them. Barclays, however, have an attitude problem.
June - UK's wettest on record
Hell yeah. I think we've had more cricket called off this year due to weather than we've actually had chance to play. How many games have we actually played ? I can't actually remember. Anyway. We've have continuous rain today, next game is supposed to be Thursday and I think I'd be physically ready for it (after bugs + leg) but I don't think there's much chance of it happening.
Gamespy has ... nothing of interest.
I'll keep an eye on Gamespy because they occasionally notify you of big things happening in the gaming world. Trouble is though, they are part of IGN so if you do read something on there, have major doubts as to its accuracy. Think of them as the Sunday Sport of games journalism. But poorly written articles that you then peer review against other sites is better than missing out on news totally.
Ooo eck - it's Tomshardware time ...
Mouse introduced with finger cooling fan
This really should have been announced 3 months ago. Like - April fool's time. I can see their idea but ... very, very silly.
Aside - what have I done to my left shoulder ? OW. It's felt like I've jarred it from since like 5.30pm at work. It's still functional and I don't have a clue what I've done to it but it's ... distracting. The shoulder joint is complaining, as is the elbow. Urg.
Particles that Oxygenate Your Blood
Very interesting. Said the crazy person who can see all sorts of Mad Scientist applications for this one besides the medical ones. An emergency injection of these might see divers with broken respirators have enough time to get to air.
That's it for now. I need FOOD. And none of that nutritional pizza. Cos that's just plain Wrong.
When I come in from work, I'll usually do a round trip through various news sites. I can't really do that at work (in lunchtime of course) because our archaic browser (IE6) either goes BANG or flat refuses to open the site. That's even sites like BBC, which will crash at random, or Metoffice, which flat refuses to load at all.
Ok - random news stuff :
Facebook phone app attempts to seize your mail.
I'm on Facebook a fair bit. It's possibly the best way to get a message to me with a chance of me responding wherever I am (phone supports it). But the Facebook people have been getting more and more obnoxious with what they do with other people's data. This one is the latest from them and they do it without asking for consent or even informing you what they're doing. Which just increases the NerdRage. And as we all know, NerdRage goes viral incredibly quickly.
My phone seems untouched by the latest stuff from the app but I don't use my phone for email anyway. I can receive my normal email and Googlemail from it but can't send due to ISP restrictions.
Microsoft - Overclocking causes BSODs
Well - duh ! But that's only the title of a rather confused article. Parts of it suggest that if you get a machine from a good name, it'll last longer. Not necessarily ... My last laptop (an HP) died within a year of cooler failure and the extremely bad design meant it was easier to get a new one than it would have been to fix. (Think entire laptop rebuild). But they do have a point - I build my own custom PCs because it allows me to build in the reliability that gets lost in OEM cost cutting. And I would always tell people to avoid PCWorld / Currys / Dixons etc own brand machines.
On overclocking - this is where you take a standard machine and persuade it to go faster. My current desktop runs at 3.5 Wibblies. I could probably make it go at 5.0 Wibblies (1 Wibblie = 1 GHz). But it's not worth me doing that because :
I can't trust the overclocked machine is getting all of its sums right
It shortens the life of the machine
The article agrees with the shortened life thing. I like my custom build PCs to just sit there on the floor doing their thing. I REALLY don't want to have to replace a £160 cpu inside 6 months because I cooked it through overclocking.
Steam ... (not an actual news story)
What's with Steam lately ? Stability seems pretty poor right now - it just blipped me offline yet again. Good thing I'm not gaming at the moment.
BBC - I'm ignoring most of what's on BBC.
Most of what we see there is people with hyperinflated wages misbehaving themselves. Like seeing bankers yet again making news for all the wrong reasons. This time it's Barclays, who I will do ZERO business with because a good few years ago they called me an idiot in a letter that was begging me for business. Big mistake. There's plenty more competition out there from banks that have respect for their customers and value them. Barclays, however, have an attitude problem.
June - UK's wettest on record
Hell yeah. I think we've had more cricket called off this year due to weather than we've actually had chance to play. How many games have we actually played ? I can't actually remember. Anyway. We've have continuous rain today, next game is supposed to be Thursday and I think I'd be physically ready for it (after bugs + leg) but I don't think there's much chance of it happening.
Gamespy has ... nothing of interest.
I'll keep an eye on Gamespy because they occasionally notify you of big things happening in the gaming world. Trouble is though, they are part of IGN so if you do read something on there, have major doubts as to its accuracy. Think of them as the Sunday Sport of games journalism. But poorly written articles that you then peer review against other sites is better than missing out on news totally.
Ooo eck - it's Tomshardware time ...
Mouse introduced with finger cooling fan
This really should have been announced 3 months ago. Like - April fool's time. I can see their idea but ... very, very silly.
Aside - what have I done to my left shoulder ? OW. It's felt like I've jarred it from since like 5.30pm at work. It's still functional and I don't have a clue what I've done to it but it's ... distracting. The shoulder joint is complaining, as is the elbow. Urg.
Particles that Oxygenate Your Blood
Very interesting. Said the crazy person who can see all sorts of Mad Scientist applications for this one besides the medical ones. An emergency injection of these might see divers with broken respirators have enough time to get to air.
That's it for now. I need FOOD. And none of that nutritional pizza. Cos that's just plain Wrong.
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