Jon Curnow's Digital Home
We are all getting into the football spirit, even me.
For England’s next match (v Switzerland today) I may be in a pub with a bunch of die-hard soccer fans. Apparently, while watching the beautiful game, it’s inappropriate to say, “Wow – did you see how far he kicked that?” [BBC News]. Must remember that!
Today is the first day with a full two years worth of back entries on this site.
Today is the first day that the ‘On This Day’ link has two years back which has me slightly excited! One of the original reasons for starting the regular updating of this site was to serve as a personal memory archive. I have always loved flicking through old diaries and address books – this somehow brings that function into the new millennia.
Last year I was at Shrewsbury Carnival. A carnival is one of those things that your remember as being a great deal of fun when you were a child but doesn’t always work when you are an adult. Of course I was just be grumpy about it last year.
In 2002 I seem to have seen Spiderman around this time which has me admitting I can’t wait for the next one. I have some film-loving friends who hated the first one (I think it was too dark for them) but I loved it and can’t wait to be sat in the cinema again.
This day in 2002 was also the day of possibly the most memorable link I have ever posted on this site. New Scientist asked: ‘Does beheading hurt? And, if so, for how long is the severed head aware of its plight?’. Of course with recent events abroad it’s a little more topical and less far-fetched but, nonetheless, it remains the one of the links that have appeared here that I haven’t forgotten. Every time New Scientist change their site I go back and fix that link.
If you happened to look at yesterday’s entry you would have seen the link to the ‘On This Day’ for 14 June 2003. All I can say to those that mailed me – I will still not tell you which one I am. Gym buddy has, however, assured me my arse is a lot less flabby now.
As the cool kids play with gmail – Yahoo just upped their mail limits.
You know all the cool kids are signing up for gmail accounts through nice invites from people. I didn’t get one and I even know somebody who works at Google. Still, nice to see trusty Yahoo! greet met this morning when I logged into my Yahoo mail account:
Virtually unlimited storage
A whopping 2GB means you should never have to worry about managing storage again! Keep thousands of messages, photos, and documents think of it as your online archive. [Yahoo Mail]
The new Yahoo interface is cleaner and I am about to start experimenting with using it as an online archive for something (although I haven’t yet decided what). The only problem I ever have with Yahoo is actually getting an answer out of them for a query – which in theory should be OK for free services but I do pay them for some services and can still not get an answer. Ideas for ways to test the extra storage!
A little rant about data synchronisation is brewing. This isn’t it.
I have such a long post ‘brewing’ about data that we all need to transport around with us regularly. I have Microsoft Outlook at work; a palm-powered Treo ‘phone and a Palm desktop/Mozilla combination at home. I occasionally back all my data up to Yahoo’s organiser (calendar, address, memo). There is no reliable synchronisation tool which can handle everything well for me and this is one of the things that truly frustrates people who are trying to utilise all this technology. It was one of the reasons I switched to a Palm-powered Treo rather than my old Nokia favourites (at least a good part of the synchronisation works). There are some immovables in the equation: Outlook is in use in my office and I can’t change that and I am attached to Windows-based computers. Although I have heard some reports that Apple’s i-sync isn’t as great as it’s claimed it is – at least – an option for Mac users. I notice another satisfied user today: Jase and his Sony Ericsson T610. Maybe that post will eventually see the light of day!
A little tech news I have found: camera phones are bad, seven year old bloggers are getting eductaed while the rest of us are supposed to be old and rich.
BBC News has an article on camera ‘phones and a backlash against them. I read it and the main thing that stuck out to me was the fact that I have both the phones pictured and I don’t think either of them are good at taking photos. Sad isn’t it?
Meanwhile they also have an excellent article on the use of weblogging tools as learning aids for school children which I think raises some very interesting ideas for the use of software in education. Meanwhile, MediaPost links to an item that suggests bloggers are “they’re older and wealthier than what’s portrayed by their stereotype” [source]. I think we all wish we were wealthier but to be told I am older than other people thing is alarming!
It gets to the middle of June and I haven’t written that much. I must have been enjoying the sunshine.
It doesn’t feel like last week since I wrote anything here but it is. Given the May was possibly the most prolific month on Listen To Musak I think I am subconsciously giving myself a day or two off. The weather has been wonderful for the past couple of weeks and I’ve been extra busy in the office so there has been little time to get into the writing spirit.
Interestingly, the vote is in for the Mayor (Ken is back) and the local council elections. The results of the European elections were announced last night and it seems like the new countries didn’t get a very high turnout – which seems odd given their recent arrival into the community. It seems that a good number of people in the UK wanted to get the message across that they are not happy with plans to take us further into Europe. I think this is sad and wonder if it’s only a shot across Blair’s bow in the mid-term or a sign of something more powerful. The two main parties all lost and I watch with interest what their reactions to the recent votes are going to be. Turnout in the UK was up – which was certainly one good thing to come out of last Thursday’s poll.
Of course the main news pushing Europe to the middle pages is last night’s football defeat at the hands of France when it looked so certain that we had the game in the bag. Even I could tell there was some silly mistakes in injury time. And then I wake up this morning to see Ralf Schumacher was disqualified from yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix resulting in a podium place for Jenson Button. And then we beat New Zealand at Cricket. I could almost take an interest in a summer of sport.
You will be aware of my love of radio and my delight at Pure’s other products: the Evoke-1 and the Tempus-1. I want a Pure Digital Bug radio. I can’y jsutify it. Is it the look or the features?
Adot’s Notblog discussed the concept of tivo for radio a few Fridays ago. This reminded me that only last weekend I had picked up a leaflet for Pure Digital’s Bug in a store. You will be aware of my love of radio and my delight at Pure’s other products: the Evoke-1 and the Tempus-1 (actually, I never mentioned that I also have a Tempus-1). The Bug looks cool (it’s designed by Wayne Hemingway) and has a host of features (including some recording capabilities and radio rewind). I am not sure if I’ll actually invest in it (given I am running out of rooms to put digital radios in) but I will be keeping an eye out on the products that Pure come up with. I think Pure (or Imagination Technologies as they are also known) have some really imaginative products of high quality. They only lack one thing in their range: I wish they’d come up with a small, nicely priced portable radio that included FM for times when you can’t get DAB reception.
Amanda Holden was good but the rest of the show wasn’t great.
PY and I have a knack of seeing musicals in London’s theatreland just before they close. We’re just back from seeing Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Shaftesbury Theatre which we decided to do very last minute.
Amanda Holden is the Kansas girl arriving in New York at the height of the Roaring Twenties and is something of a revelation. She was truly excellent and carried the show. It’s such a shame that it’s closing and she has had some of the blame but I didn’t think it was a killer show.
Although it’s set in the twenties it was written much more recently yet, sadly, it had a somewhat dated feel which Anything Goes (which is older) didn’t when we saw it a few months ago. I don’t think it’s helped by Anita Dobson’s character Mrs Meers, a failed actress pretending to be an Oriental landlady. The character seems dated and the impersonation of a Chinese woman somewhat patronising. I had wanted to see Maureen Lipman in the role (she starred when the play first opened) and was described by one review as, Grotesque and comical, she’s verbally and physically sharp-witted” [source] but I think I am glad I didn’t. I don’t think it was Dobson but the character which was uncomfortable.
Still, it’s such a shame so many of London’s plays and musicals are closing right now. I do enjoy a good night out at the theatre. This, sadly, was only mediocre.
Repeat movies? Sometimes it’s OK to watch a film again.
So last night I saw S.W.A.T on DVD. PY had not seen it although I had watched it back in December of a plane to the US. It was as good as I remembered and I don’t think they cut too much from the version I saw on the plane. Always worth watching Colin Farrell in – almost – anythng.
He shares my birthday you know.
Just re-read yesterday’s post about The Day After Tomorrow and the link to Ian Holm’s page at the IMDB. I see he work born on the same day (admittedly, different year) as I was. Which, in turn, made me look who else they say was born on that day. Turns out it also lists those who died on 12th September which is quite a depressing way to start a new week.
The message to all of Planet Earth is, of course, corrupted to work for the film and lost after the first third. But that doesn’t make any difference.
So I’ve just got back from a nice – but rushed – meal and a visit to Clapham Picture House to see Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s a vision of what will happen if we don’t all take up cycling, ditch the cars and stop throwing out refrigerators with the trash (or some such thing).
Actually, it’s a disaster movie with a message and it certainly makes the grade as the first, although the message is somewhat lost along the way and the plot is, like all movies in this genre, ridiculously enjoyable. Basically, it starts to rain and then gets very cold and the only place where you seem to be able to survive is in the New York is the public library (and that’s because you can burn the books). Gyllenhaal’s dad, is of course, the only person on the whole of the American continent who can save him so he tries to. Marvelous, stupid and thoroughly entertaining.
Ian Holm puts in a notable performance from a remote Scottish weather station where – at the moment of disaster – they decide to toast England, Manchester United and Mankind (so not very convincingly Scottish – although they, of course, drink a decent malt to ward off the end).
It’s a mankind-in-peril, gripping disaster movie and I found it immensely entertaining. It’s stunning when it’s building and the effects are at their best (and who cares if the ice at the start looks computer generated)? Sadly, it does fade a little towards the end – especially as any last elements of believability fly out the window – but as a couple of hours entertainment you must go and see this film.
The message to all of Planet Earth is, of course, corrupted to work for the film and lost after the first third. But that doesn’t make any difference.
The actor who posed as the “Absolut Hunk” in a ficticious ad that appeared in an episode of Sex and the City is suing the Absolut Spirits Co., alleging it promoted the make-believe ad from the HBO series as an actual advertisement without his permission.
Not that I really needed another excuse to show this picture again but, hell, it’s Friday so who cares? AdAge is reporting that ‘the hunk’, Jason Lewis, is claiming Absolue used the fake ad as genuine one:
The actor who posed as the “Absolut Hunk” in a ficticious ad that appeared in an episode of Sex and the City is suing the Absolut Spirits Co., alleging it promoted the make-believe ad from the HBO series as an actual advertisement without his permission [source]
Previously: Silent For A Week.
Brother Beyond star charged with kerb crawling.
The Scotsman is tonight reporting:
The former lead singer with boy band Brother Beyond was charged with trying to pick up a street prostitute in Londons seedy Kings Cross red light district. But friends of the former model claimed the accusation was ‘ludicrous’ because he is gay. Moore is to appear at Highbury Corner magistrates court in north London tomorrow charged under the Sex Offences Act. [source]
And more on this story from Google.
UPDATE: 6 JUNE 2004: Moore pleaded guilty to soliciting a prostitute at Highbury Corner magistrates court.
A nice quiet day off, thankfully.
So, today is both Memorial Day in the US and the Whitsun bank holiday in the UK. Apparently, Whit Sunday commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the disciples (source). I see the cheese rollers of Gloucestershire have been at it again. That must really rank as one of the oddest of the British customs. Honestly, people roll cheese down a hill in the name of sport.
I am having a quiet bank holiday before returning to work tomorrow.
Sadly, not as great as I had hoped for a movie on such a big scale.
So why did I go and see this film? Perhaps it was for the epic nature of the story, or perhaps it was to see the battle scenes in all their cinematic glory. Of course, it could have been just to see Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt buffed up and clad only in armour for a couple of hours on the screen.
The film was a huge letdown. The epic, cinematic battles looked old-hat when compared to The Lord of the Rings. The story seemed disjointed and unfulfilling. There was nobody to side with, nobody to support and precious little humour to lighten the feel. It may be based on real-life events, but if you are going to take licence, you may as well bring some feeling into it.
Trojan champion Prince Hector (Eric Bana) is the most likeable, but – while not wanting to spoil anything for you – his fate is entirely predictable even if you didn’t know the story. Pitt had all the moves, looks, and swagger but was an unsympathetic mercenary, and Orlando Bloom came across as a wishy-washy waste of space. Sadly, Achilles’ end (the heel, if you will) is entirely lost despite the best efforts of the filmmakers.
I’d wait until it’s on television if I were you.