I used to love being in the Drill Squad at 10 Flight AIRTC.
It might seem strange to some people for a kid to want to give up his spare time to wear a uniform and march around a parade ground but I really did love it. We got to carry rifles and there was real pride in getting a sequence together and being the best.
We weren’t quite this good though.
Wilma stayed with us on New Year’s eve and she was a very well behaved little monkey. In the morning we went for a walk along the river before Jonathan and Louise collected her.
In the afternoon we had our traditional Afternoon Tea on New Year’s Day, although this year it was at the Lanesborough as the Savoy is closed for a year for refurbishment.
The Lanesborough turned out to be excellent. We had a table by the fire and the scones were particularly good. There is simply no more civilised way to see in the New Year.
Here’s to an exciting 2008!
Seriously. Don’t they know what happens at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th?
On the weekend we went to a CCO party at Hywel’s place and, it being (nearly) the 5th November, fireworks were involved.
Alan had originally planned to bring just a few sparklers along but once he got to the firework shop he couldn’t resist purchasing a small arsenal of rockets, roman candles and something that looked like an anti-tank mine. Sanchia also brought some rockets along so there was no shortage of things that go bang.
We were a little nervous about setting off these things in Hywel’s fairly small decking at the back of his house, especially the ones with directions to light the fuse and then retire at least twenty-five metres away. But the ghost of Guy Fawkes was smiling on us and it turned out that Dylan was a qualified fireworks technician so everyone sat back and let him run the show. He assured us that they only say twenty-five metres in case the thing tips over and starts strafing the onlookers with white-hot pyrotechnic stars but it was ok because we were putting them in a big pot filled with cat litter.
It was awesome. Especially the anti-tank mine. And by awesome I mean, you know, terrifying.
I’ve just got back from the fourth straight (long) day down at the colo and this is about all my brain can handle at the moment:
I just watched Napoleon Dynamite. I was expecting the usual crappy teen movie (a genre I kind of like anyway) but it turned out to be a genuinely entertaining film.
The film has a plot so thin it’s barely there but the real interest is in the characters. The eponymous Napoleon Dynamite, played by Jon Heder, is a study in supreme nerdiness. In fact most of the main characters are painfully awkward.
It seems to have got mixed reviews but if you like quirky humour and you were even slightly nerdy in school I recommend giving it a go.
It also has a great soundtrack. Here’s a sample courtesy of Seeqpod:
The Simpsons Movie opens next week. There has been some great promotional activity for this film including transforming a number of 7-Elevens in America into Kwik-E-Marts selling Squishees and Krusty-Os and a doughnut-brandishing Homer Simpson painted next to the giant on the hill above Cerne Abbas, Dorset.
On the Simpsons movie site you can create your own characters. Here’s me as a Simpson:
I just found another good reason to like Zen ADSL. I logged into my customer portal and discovered that I can change the reverse mapping of my static IP address through a simple form on their website.
I’ve been using Zen for years now and I can’t see myself changing in the near future. Certainly not to Virgin Media who, incidentally, phoned me a couple of days after I lodged my complaint with the CISAS and offered to refund the money they owed me straight away. Of course it could take up to twenty-one days to receive the cheque…
Guy Kawasaki blogs about how he was charged by AT&T for a DSL service he never ordered and had to go through customer service hell to try and get it canceled. His experience sounds familiar.
The iPhone is released in the States today and the only network it is available on is crappy AT&T. My mobile contract with T-Mobile is up for renewal soon and I’m holding off upgrading my phone until I hear about the iPhone release in the UK. But if for some reason it turns out it is only available on a Virgin contract then you can bet I won’t be touching it no matter how cool it is.
By the way, having had no response from Virgin Media about the £25 they owe me for a service they never provided I have filed a complaint with the Communications & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme. Maybe they have the secret Virgin Media customer service number that connects you to someone who has a clue.
Apple have just released minor updates to the MacBook range. I only bought my MacBook a month ago so I guess I’m a little annoyed that I just missed the update but the upgrade isn’t really that significant; a slightly faster CPU and a bigger hard drive, basically.
This guy, on the other hand, is not taking it so well:
Good work Apple. Idiots.
As someone waiting to buy their first Mac I am FURIOUS with Apple and their continued raping of MB buyers.
The MBs are the line of computers that will benefit most from SR and Apple do THIS? I actually cannot believe it. They are absolute bastards.
Oookaay. Repeat after me: calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean…
Macs are like that, though. Kind of like a Harley. People either love them or hate them. I guess I’m part of the Cult of Mac now, although I know it’s just a computer.
