One of the most distressing things about being in America was having to watch an advert. No, not the ad for ‘once a day Valtrax’ that allows you to feel good about fighting genital herpes, oh no, something much worse than that. If you watch sport (as I do a lot) then you see lots of ads again and again, such that they inculcate themselves into your very soul and make you feel miserable all the time. »
This skirts perilously close to my disclaimer but, ah well, let’s talk about Convergence. As with many things Penny-Arcade take it to absurdity to reveal essential truth (that second panel in particular is a more swearword laden version of one of my conversations from a few weeks ago). What does convergence mean? Is it the archetypal Linux toaster? Two things that most people don’t really seem to want shoved together becuase you can? »
The true value of goods is a problem that constantly perplexes economists. As someone who likes to read and think about these sorts of things it also perplexes me, by proxy. You can join the chain if you wish. After all, what exactly is the value of music? I don’t mean on a basic “well, entertainment, distraction and self expression” level but in a cold hard cash fashion. In recent years there has been an explosion of business models created around trying to sell music to people. »
A peacock roamed onto the outfield for a good 20 minutes at the Whitgift school where I went to watch the cricket earlier. Play continued before it wandered off again. »
Several weeks ago I saw a Crow with a Doughnut in Bristol. The object was clenched between its beak as it flew in and landed on a roundabout before proceeding to attack it. I should clraify that this wasn’t a ring doughnut either, it was great (if somewhat unaerodynamic) work from the crow. Today, walking to the station I saw a crow fly down, land on the road and snaffle a pitta bread that was lying there before flying off, it’s prize clenched between its beak. »
Maintain Brush the shoes often in order to keep shoes clean and soft, or put the shoes in a windy place. In order to extend the using life of the shoes to keep your feet healthy, you must prepare two pairs of shoes to change them often Avoid your leather shoes to be exposed in the sun or worn in the rainy day, contact with any acids, alkalis or oil as these chemical may spoil the vamp. »
I have things to tell you. Things like, The Knife are a great band, buy their stuff. You can get it on mp3 download or in The Shops. As is traditional the title of this post comes from a song, this time it’s one of theirs from the new album Silent Shout.If you have an Orange phone in the UK and want to use some (pay for) WiFi then send a text to 9434 and enter the username and password you get sent back. »
An old edition of this book that I was given by my grandpa many years ago. I opened it up because of the big cataloguing project and was pleased to see that there was still plenty of space for future gifting. »
It’s always good to know you’re cool. So it was very heartening this week to see that the Bloomsbury Lanes (location of our team Christmas Party and many a late night visit) we’re mentioned in this Guardian article on tenpin bowling, the new cool thing. I shall do my best to change my behaviour to be less cool. This weeks In Our Time, on The Royal Society, was very good although obviously old ground to anyone who’d read the Baroque Cycle. »
Recently work has got in the way, most particularly in relation to stuff I want to talk about. As such posting volume has gone down; apart from links which by definition can’t be anything other than commentary on what is already common knowledge. Yet I’ve been encouraged to keep talking about stuff, most especially stuff that has no relation to work and getting over the hump of talking about things is half the issue so I’ll give it a go. »