Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
AUT action update
This is an e-mail I received about what's happening at Sussex uni about the AUT action..
You will be aware that the main academic union, the Association ofUniversity Teachers (AUT), have called on their members at all universitiesto take action in support of their national pay claim, including notparticipating in assessment activities such as marking or grading.
The University wants to ensure that students continue to be kept up to datewith the ways in which Sussex is aiming to manage the possible effects ofAUT action locally and reduce the impact on students.
We are consulting with Students Union Officers about steps which can betaken to support students through this period. Where you have concerns, youshould in the first instance contact your School or departmental office foradvice. The USSU also offers support and a route to raise issues (directlyor via their web forum) which may in turn be brought to the University bythe sabbatical team.
Virtually all exams are operating as normal and scripts are being madeavailable for collection by staff as normal. The University is of courseaware that finalists particularly will be concerned about possible impacton obtaining jobs or access to further study. We are continuing to plan onthe basis that Summer 2006 graduation events will occur on 20-21 July. We are also looking at ways in which finalists can be supported in the eventthat fully classified degrees cannot be issued at the normal time. Thiscould include making transcripts and official supporting statementsavailable immediately to confirm that degrees will be awarded.
Senate, on which students are represented, has given authority forexamination rules to be interpreted and operated flexibly in this situation, for example where marks are missing, while maintaining rigorousacademic standards.
You will be aware that the main academic union, the Association ofUniversity Teachers (AUT), have called on their members at all universitiesto take action in support of their national pay claim, including notparticipating in assessment activities such as marking or grading.
The University wants to ensure that students continue to be kept up to datewith the ways in which Sussex is aiming to manage the possible effects ofAUT action locally and reduce the impact on students.
We are consulting with Students Union Officers about steps which can betaken to support students through this period. Where you have concerns, youshould in the first instance contact your School or departmental office foradvice. The USSU also offers support and a route to raise issues (directlyor via their web forum) which may in turn be brought to the University bythe sabbatical team.
Virtually all exams are operating as normal and scripts are being madeavailable for collection by staff as normal. The University is of courseaware that finalists particularly will be concerned about possible impacton obtaining jobs or access to further study. We are continuing to plan onthe basis that Summer 2006 graduation events will occur on 20-21 July. We are also looking at ways in which finalists can be supported in the eventthat fully classified degrees cannot be issued at the normal time. Thiscould include making transcripts and official supporting statementsavailable immediately to confirm that degrees will be awarded.
Senate, on which students are represented, has given authority forexamination rules to be interpreted and operated flexibly in this situation, for example where marks are missing, while maintaining rigorousacademic standards.
What kind of American English do you speak?
| Your Linguistic Profile: |
| 45% General American English |
| 25% Yankee |
| 20% Dixie |
| 5% Upper Midwestern |
| 0% Midwestern |
Interesting.. otherwise known as English English, perhaps?
ticking breathing jack russells
LOL, someone was just referred to my blog from a google search for 'ticking breathing jack russells'. Yep, that's what it's all about!
Electric sheep
I found this screensaver a while ago when I was looking into algorithmic art and artificial life for a project I was working on. I just thought I'd take a few screenshots of it because I think it's very pretty! I particularly like the blue one. You can do amazing things with algorithmic art, and fractals and stuff. I actually think my favourite bit of AI programming I've done was for my generative creativity course, where I made a predator-prey robot simulation as the basis for the generation of art. I have spent far too much time playing with that! You can see it
here, (before the uni deletes me!). You can restart it by refreshing your internet browser.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Goodbye good grades, hello drinker's degree..
I'm so glad that fat boy exam is over! 3 hours, man I am so tired! A week of reading, and 4 hours sleep last night and I still didn't manage to read all the papers for that course, I've never seen anything like it, not even for a whole A-level subject! And sod's law, the one MATLAB example I didn't look at was the one that came up. Pants.
Anyway, that exam gave me a few relevations, if no actual marks..
1) Evolutionary theory is more difficult than rocket science
2) Don't choose courses because the lecturer makes funny jokes and says there's no maths -it's all lies!! (although the jokes were good!)
3) Never choose courses that sound interesting -I so should have done e-business
4) You should find out where the exp button is on the calculator before going into the exam
5) They use negative marking in America, my lecturer is American, oh..
6) And all the daisies in Brighton are pink and I don't know why!
I AM A FISH
Anyhoo, 4 days til I finish!! Yeeehaw! Just databases to go now, at least that one doesn't mess with revelation 3.
Anyway, that exam gave me a few relevations, if no actual marks..
1) Evolutionary theory is more difficult than rocket science
2) Don't choose courses because the lecturer makes funny jokes and says there's no maths -it's all lies!! (although the jokes were good!)
3) Never choose courses that sound interesting -I so should have done e-business
4) You should find out where the exp button is on the calculator before going into the exam
5) They use negative marking in America, my lecturer is American, oh..
6) And all the daisies in Brighton are pink and I don't know why!
I AM A FISH
Anyhoo, 4 days til I finish!! Yeeehaw! Just databases to go now, at least that one doesn't mess with revelation 3.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
If I still have two eyes tomorrow I will be lucky..
James' Mulder/Die Hard guy style berretta is dangerous! The bb's rebound off the target that's meant to catch them and they're going all over the place -one even hit the opposite wall of the room and bounced back towards me! Man, I may have to take my revision elsewhere if I wish to remain intact, it is like a war zone in here.. lol
Ooh Stanmer House on the BBC!
Just saw it on 'South Today' -they showed inside and everything! The interior's been properly restored, with coats of armour, chandeliers and everything, they've even got the fountains working outside. It looks good!
Monday, May 22, 2006
London to Brighton mini run 2006
was on yesterday! I think they must've been the very quiet invisible sort mainly 'coz we didn't see a single one, lol! 
Sunday, May 21, 2006
And next week's forecast is: rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain...
I swear it has not stopped raining for about 3 weeks now...how can they still be saying there's a drought in the south-east?! I don't get it! Try and catch some of the water as it falls from the sky, don't let it all run away!
Saturday, May 20, 2006
The DaVinci Code
Wow, Oxted cinema is giving away all their old movie posters, you can just go into their bar area and pick them up in exchange for a donation to charity, cool! We got Mission Impossible 3 and The DaVinci code ones yesterday eve when we went to see TDVC. Lol, haven't got anywhere to put them but hey, just wanted them! Hopefully they'll still be doing that when Superman comes out.Anyway, the film, excellent! Really enjoyed it! Loved it when the film had finished the row of old ladies behind us were all saying to one another.. "oooh, that McKellen's a nasty piece of work! ...ooh i know!". I can't believe there have been bad reviews of it, saying its boring and what have you, all I can think of is it must be an attention span problem (not enough explosions). Also, I didn't realise they'd filmed part of it just up the road from here at Biggin Hill
airport, how exciting! Completely missed that! What else.. ooh that Silas, he's scary! Actually we saw him on the Jonathan Ross show when we got back and he looked disappointingly non-creepy, lol, and he's not even a real albino, it was a wig and makeup, lol! Apparentlty lots of albinos are complaining about the film because it yet again portrays an albino villain, some kind of stereotyping or something, although I'm not sure I remember any other albino villains in anything at all. I must have a bad memory, or not watch that type of film...Luckily I hadn't finished reading the book before going to see TDVC, which I think was probably a good thing because firstly I couldn't complain about slight discrepancies between them that I always seem to notice, and secondly I found the ending surprising! It would have been annoying if I'd known what was going to happen all along I think. So yes, a good film if you ask me! One strange thing I've heard though, which I find a little worrying, is that people seem to be taking the book not as a work of fiction, but as some kind of feasible conspiracy theory. There are people taking pilgrimages to various places in the book and looking for evidence, which I do find slightly bizarre.
Friday, May 19, 2006
There's this really good book..
I picked up in Border's yesterday, called 'The secrets and lies: exposing the world of cover-ups and deception' by David Southwell. I cannot emphasise enough how interesting this book is! I actually couldn't put it down until I'd finished reading it at 1 in the morning. It comprises of 200 articles, organised into the following sections: science, war, big business, politics, media, crime, missing evidence, suppressed data, celebrities -beyond the gossip, drugs and medicine, technology, cults and secret societies, public faces secret lives, white washes, and institutions. It contains the details of secret govt complexes, and underground masonic temples in London, how Britain almost became the 51st state of America in the 1960s, the rituals undertaken by the skull and bones society members (including George W Bush) when joining, and how faulty computers almost started WWIII. Interesting! Really, I mean that isn't the half of it. The Brontosaurus never even existed?! This guy in Wyoming, 1874, found this amazing dinosaur skeleton, complete in every respect apart from a missing head, so he took the head off another dinosaur (a Camarasaurus) he'd found 4 miles away, and attached it, claiming in academic papers to have found an entirely new type of dinosaur, a Brontosaurus, when in fact it was an Apatosaurus all along! The Brontosaurus was only removed from palaentology books in 1974 when the fraud was acknowledged. Other headlines: Sony ran a psychic research division and announced that ESP does exist; cigarette companies have tried to make their products more addictive; missing cosmonauts of the Soviet space programme; the Vatican helped Nazi war criminals escape to new lives; the CIA was involved in sinking a ship on the Thames in 1964; the mysterious 'Black Knight' satellite of 1960 found orbiting the Earth even through no one then had rockets large enough to launch something of that size; the gun that fires a million bullets a minute; China's cyberwarface attack on US telecommunications; Winston Churchill was a druid; ticking time bomb at the bottom of the Thames... I would go on, but really I think you should just read the book!
I also picked up 'The Hotel on the Roof of the World: five years in Tibet' by Alec le Sueur, which looks like it could be quite funny. It's a travel book, I cannot get enough of them. It's been described as 'Fawlty Towers goes to Tibet', so I'm quite looking forward to reading that!
I also picked up 'The Hotel on the Roof of the World: five years in Tibet' by Alec le Sueur, which looks like it could be quite funny. It's a travel book, I cannot get enough of them. It's been described as 'Fawlty Towers goes to Tibet', so I'm quite looking forward to reading that!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Manga character..
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Woo, half way there!
2 down now, 2 to go.. and whoever turned on the thunder storm when I was in that exam is mean. I am completely drenched -was wearing flipflops! I'm obviously too optimistic about the summer coming.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Sunday, May 14, 2006
X-Files 2?
I just did a quick search and found out that another x-files movie has been written, and everyone (Duchovny,Anderson etc..) has signed up for it, except for Chris Carter, the main man. Apparently he's very much up for it, but is sorting out some technicality before he signs up too. It really looks like it's going to happen; David Duchovny said in an interview that filming could be starting this winter (although that may be a little optimistic)! I'm looking forward to it, I think 'Fight the future' (the first film) is uber cool!
One down, three to go..
Did my Space Systems exam yesterday, sooo glad that's done! Now all I have left are: Multimedia Design & Applications this Tuesday, Topics in Evolutionary Theory on Friday the week after, and Databases on the following Tuesday! End game: 30th May. I cannot wait.
We watched Liverpool win some game round GS&A's on the way home, but I was cheering on West Ham (closer to Wimbledon, lol). Boo.. my team never wins! On penalties too..
Invisible pony update: have now taken clay casts of both halves of the My Little Pony, so now just need to fill them with the resin and see how it turns out!
We watched Liverpool win some game round GS&A's on the way home, but I was cheering on West Ham (closer to Wimbledon, lol). Boo.. my team never wins! On penalties too..
Invisible pony update: have now taken clay casts of both halves of the My Little Pony, so now just need to fill them with the resin and see how it turns out!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
The new Uri Gellar, the Rasta spoon bender of Brighton..
There's this guy we spotted in Brighton today, selling jewellery made out of cutlery! Strange as it may sound, this stuff is really cool: he makes rings out of curled round spoon handles, bracelets out of forks, and necklaces from spoon ends beaten into interesting shapes, some holding crystals. I think the forks were some of the cleverest, he made all of the spikes into wiggly strips of metal sticking out all over the place! Such an innovative idea. James bought a cool spoon ring from him, and the guy even adjusted the size to fit him perfectly, by hacking off a bit and filing it all down nicely! Excellent! Apparently he's been travelling all over the world for 4 years making and selling these things.. he told us some Canadian guys had just come up to him here in Brighton and said they'd seen someone doing the same thing in Vancouver, but it wasn't anywhere near as good, lol, the guy was bemused because it was him they'd seen in Vancouver! So wierd..
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Strange comings and goings in Stanmer Park, and dinner at Frankie & Benny's..
So, on Sunday evening we decided to go for a walk in Stanmer Park. It's this place just outside Brighton, in Falmer (I first found this place with my housemates at Sussex in my first year: we were going for a walk trying to find a pub, and somehow ended up ducking under barbed wire fences, walking through some woods, and finally running through a few fields full of cows before coming across this really cool place! I won't mention that we later found out that there is a direct path there from behind the Gardner Arts Centre on campus, lol.. we thought we'd found somewhere so hidden away!)
Anyway, this place is really surreal, its like a kind of ghost town. There's this big old mansion there that's all boarded up, when I first went there you could walk around the gardens and everything, there was a really ornate fountain in the back garden that was falling to bits, and other grand features left to ruin. It was so intriguing, we just wanted to know the circumstances surrounding this, how what was obviously a very grand house at one time had come to be deserted like this! We came to the conclusion that it must be some kind of top-secret government bunker, there could be no other explanation!
Surrounding the house is the small village of Stanmer, consisting of a small church on a pond, a few deserted farm buildings, what looks like a deserted mill, a rarely open cafe, and a terrace of old houses. Other than that, there are just fields and fields of parkland that must've once been part of the Stanmer House estate. It's a really cool place, kinda eerie when there's noone else about, I remember the first time I went there I thought what an excellent place it would be to set a film or something.
Well, on Sunday night I was thinking about Stanmer Park because I'd seen a few wierd things going on over there when I was on my way to hand in my dissertation the other day. Horses and carts everywhere! I still have no idea.. but anyway, I did a quick search in an attempt to find out, and inadvertantly found out that they're restoring the old house at the moment! I'm glad! I was so surprised to see a website up advertising the place for wedding reception/conference use. I thought they had to be taking the mick, I mean really, a conference, where would they sit?! Oh, just climb in the window there, mind the broken glass..
What's also interesting is that the website has a history of the house on it, it turns out it was built in 1727, and was lived in by the Earl of Chichester, Thomas Pelham, and the Pelham family had continued to live there until the 8th Earl was killed in WW2 and the family was badly hit by inheritance tax. So, in 1942 Stanmer was requisitioned by the War Office for the Canadian Tank Regiment, to provide billets and live firing ranges. Until then, the buildings and grounds were in good condition, but the military occupation changed this, with extensive damage being caused to the main house and woodland areas.
So there you go, mystery solved!
Anyway, we went over there on Sunday evening out of curiousity, to see how the restoration was coming along, and to see if we could shed any light on what I'd seen the other day, and were greeted by a strange scene..
There were tonnes of proper film set style lights and props scattered all over the place, and not all from a restricted time period/genre either..
Anyway, this place is really surreal, its like a kind of ghost town. There's this big old mansion there that's all boarded up, when I first went there you could walk around the gardens and everything, there was a really ornate fountain in the back garden that was falling to bits, and other grand features left to ruin. It was so intriguing, we just wanted to know the circumstances surrounding this, how what was obviously a very grand house at one time had come to be deserted like this! We came to the conclusion that it must be some kind of top-secret government bunker, there could be no other explanation!
Surrounding the house is the small village of Stanmer, consisting of a small church on a pond, a few deserted farm buildings, what looks like a deserted mill, a rarely open cafe, and a terrace of old houses. Other than that, there are just fields and fields of parkland that must've once been part of the Stanmer House estate. It's a really cool place, kinda eerie when there's noone else about, I remember the first time I went there I thought what an excellent place it would be to set a film or something.
Well, on Sunday night I was thinking about Stanmer Park because I'd seen a few wierd things going on over there when I was on my way to hand in my dissertation the other day. Horses and carts everywhere! I still have no idea.. but anyway, I did a quick search in an attempt to find out, and inadvertantly found out that they're restoring the old house at the moment! I'm glad! I was so surprised to see a website up advertising the place for wedding reception/conference use. I thought they had to be taking the mick, I mean really, a conference, where would they sit?! Oh, just climb in the window there, mind the broken glass..
What's also interesting is that the website has a history of the house on it, it turns out it was built in 1727, and was lived in by the Earl of Chichester, Thomas Pelham, and the Pelham family had continued to live there until the 8th Earl was killed in WW2 and the family was badly hit by inheritance tax. So, in 1942 Stanmer was requisitioned by the War Office for the Canadian Tank Regiment, to provide billets and live firing ranges. Until then, the buildings and grounds were in good condition, but the military occupation changed this, with extensive damage being caused to the main house and woodland areas.
So there you go, mystery solved!
Anyway, we went over there on Sunday evening out of curiousity, to see how the restoration was coming along, and to see if we could shed any light on what I'd seen the other day, and were greeted by a strange scene..
There were tonnes of proper film set style lights and props scattered all over the place, and not all from a restricted time period/genre either..
...
a jeep half covered in turf; some kind of construction for sitting in: a kind of poncy umpire chair
some lighting set up in someone's front garden; Stanmer House with a couple of lights on o.O and in the foreground, a bunch of guys painting a kind of garden ornament/bandstand/purgula thing;
deserted mill building; recently deserted farm buildings, with speaker systems attached to a lamp post in the foreground;
Stanmer church (surrounded by lighting rigs); Stanmer Tea Rooms
So after a little investigation, and a nosy peek into a barn at the end of the village filled with people and sound, we found out what this was all about, the world premiere of the promenade production 'Souterrain' by the WildWorks theatre company, inspired by the ancient myth of 'Orpheus in the Underworld' (for the Brighton Festival!). I bet it'll be good, so long as it's not raining!
Oh, as a side note, I found out the other day that the place has been used by quite a few film crews, including a few costume dramas and Cliff Richard filming his Christmas video, lol! You learn something every day.
For dinner, we went to the Brighton Marina, and decided to try out Frankie & Benny's! I definitely approve. Not only do they do those really nice crushed ice smoothies ala 'Planet Hollywood', they also did me aubergine Napoli style, with mozerella cheese and tomato, my favourite dish from Sorrento! =)
Beep!
Lol, it'd be cool if that really scanned in the supermarket. When I was searching for this barcode generator, I found this blog where someone had commented they knew a guy with a barcode tatoo that would scan as a box of tampons in their local shop.. hehe
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Brighton Festival 2006
It's that time again, the Brighton Festival is on from 6th-28th May, ending just in time for the end of my exams, how considerate! I'm sure it'll be really cool, lol, maybe one year I might even get to go!
Cute
I was just flicking through some old blank revision cards, soon to be filled with astrophysics and other nasty things, when I found one with this drawn on it! So cute! Must have been from Alana ages ago! Made me smile..
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Derren Brown: Something Wicked This Way Comes
***WARNING: Spoilers!!! Do not read if you plan to see the show because it'll ruin it!***
There, I warned you, don't blame me! ;)
So, last night we went to see Derren Brown at the Dorking Halls in his 'Something wicked this way comes' tour. It was amazing. For those of you who have not seen 'Derren Brown's Mind Control' program on Channel 4/E4, Derren is a psychological illusionist and sceptic of paranormal phenomena. He uses a combination of suggestion, misdirection, psychology and showmanship in order to perform his 'tricks'. Really such a clever guy! Beware of his website by the way, I just went on it and I noticed that when it is loading, some kind of subliminal message flashes up on the screen.. I didn't catch what it said, but if you take a look and then later on feel a strange compulsion to buy his DVD or something.. well..
This really is the most intriguing show, in the interval there were just huddles of people everywhere just trying to work out how he was doing these things! I would definitely recommend seeing the next tour, but another word of warning, be careful where you get seats, I mean if you don't fancy getting up on the stage then seriously get back row tickets because he does his upmost to make sure people from all over the place get a go! We thought we'd be safe in the front row of the balcony, but there were some close calls! Basically to show that he's not in collusion with members of the audience, e.g. only selecting his stooges as participants, he chucks a cuddly monkey into the audience, and then asks it to be thrown three more times, and the person it lands with comes up on stage! How scary!
Anyway, this is what happened:
~~Act 1~~
Derren opened by saying that he believes that his audience is split thus:
**89% of you have seen at least half a dozen of his programmes;
**the other 11% have been dragged along by boyfriends/girlfriends/mates.
**Out of his audience, 72% will be in Channel 4’s demographic of 18-35 years of age and own large DVD collections (some of which are still in the original wrapping).
Truetrue..
First off, he asked everyone to think of a land animal.
He then chucked the monkey, and after several more throws was caught by a girl named Emma, who was brought up on stage. He asked her which animal she was thinking of, and then asked her to turn round this big card on the stage with a question mark on it, which was supposed to have a drawing of the correct animal on it. Lol, when she turned it round it was really stupid, it was kind of like a kid's drawing of some stick creature with horns and trotters and udders, I mean really it could have been anything! And he was like.. SEE! It's a horse! Anyway, when everyone was starting to think 'oh well that was pretty lame..', he told her to open up the envelope sitting next to the picture and read it.. and it was something along the lines of ' and now we can see that the picture is absolutely, without question, a picture of a...', and asked her to turn over the paper, and there in typed block capitals was the word HORSE! It was quite impressive. Mum and I were wondering if it would have worked for us though, because we both thought of zebra! Maybe you need to be standing up and looking directly at him for the suggestion to work, or maybe someone swapped the envelope when everyone was looking at the wierd drawing, who knows!
Anyway, next to set up his final trick, he made Emma swap her ring for a chained and padlocked briefcase. She had to bring it back at the end of the show and had the interval to try and crack the padlock's combination.
The next trick was so funny because it just went so wrong! He asked for everyone to think of the surname of their first crush, then threw the monkey a few times to select 4 more people to come up. He asked them all to write down the name on a bit of paper and stick it in their back pocket, then asked each to pick out a ball from a bag: the bag containing 1 black and 3 white, have a look to see what colour and then hide it. They were then instructed that when he asked each one, they should tell him their name, and their job. And then, if they are holding a white ball they should tell him a fake name for their mother's maiden name, and if black, they should tell him their mother's true maiden name. He offered £50 to any of them who could fool him about the colour of the ball they were holding.
Lol, well the first guy he asked, he was like 'Ok Graham, that's your name isn't it?' and the guy agreed, 'do you want to come up first..', so Graham stepped up to the microphone, and said 'Hi, my name's Jim Smith..' LOL! Oops.. that'll be a white ball then! Too keen to lie that one was! So he got sent off the stage..
Next up was a lady who worked in the box office.. and she answered the first two questions fine, then when it got to the mother's maiden name she hesitated, stopping to think before saying 'Palter'. I guess it must've been nerves on her part, but Derren took it to mean that she was trying to think up a really unusual one, so he laughed and said 'That's the worst lie I've even seen!! Give us your white ball and go back to your seat..' at which point she pulled out the black ball from her pocket! Lol, you shoulda seen his face, it was so funny! So the lady was well chuffed, walked away with £50 and the knowledge that she outwitted Derren Brown, albeit unintentionally, awesome! I'd love to do that!
So anyway, he said 'that's kinda put an end to that one then' and sent the remaining people off the stage.. and then changed his mind and brought one girl back on. He pretended to hypnotise her and grabbed a pad and pen.. and while her head was hung, he scrawled down a few random letters, then turned it over and wrote (I can't remember the surname, so I'll make it up..) MERCER, then he hid the paper and woke up the girl, and asked her the name of her first crush and she said it! It was exactly right. I can only think that he nicked the bit of paper out of her pocket when she left the stage and then put it back when he put her to sleep. It was impressive though!
I can't remember all the tricks he did, but there was another one that was with those cards that are used by parapsychologists, you know: circle, square, wavy lines, cross, star, triangle. He picked out a girl from the audience who said she believed in psychic ability. He then appeared to transmit which card he was thinking of to her, I guess it must've been through the things he was saying to her, and they managed to select the same card 5 times out of 5. At one point, when she chose a card, he suggested to her that the card she'd chosen was not selected on instinct, and said she should choose again before turning over both of their cards, which made us think maybe the backs of the cards were marked in some way? But it was amazing how he did it, and how 4 out of 5 times he didn't noticeably guide her choice!
Other than that, the first half was made up of more of the types of tricks that are shown in Mind Control, for example counting buttons from one look, after being slapped! He got those right 100% of the time, even when the buttons were moving and one fell on the floor!
The first Act finished with a warning that some viewers may find the second Act disturbing, and not suitable for children under the age of 12.
~~Act 2~~
After hammering a nail into his head and then giving it to some poor lady as a souvenir, (as __kali__ says...) 'You know it’s not going to be pleasant when the stage crew bring out a huge tarpaulin and Derren asks the audience if there is a doctor in the house.'
Derren explained that on the whole he uses the techniques he’s learnt on other people, but now he was going to demonstrate how he was able to use the same techniques on himself. He talked about how he was obsessed with the work of a 1930’s performer who was able to control the flow of blood to his brain, and in doing so was able to control the pain he felt: demonstrating his ‘powers’ by walking over a path of broken glass. He went on to say that this guy died of a drug overdose as a result of trying to recreate the euphoria induced by 'coming out' of this state. Apparently Derren was taught to do this thing by the guys daughters, who he'd passed the trick on to. Worryingly, Channel 4 had not allowed him to show this on TV so it was restricted to only live theatre audiences..
He got this nurse out from the audience and asked her to tap out his pulse on the microphone with a stick, and then he put a bag over his head and breathed in and out in the bag, pretty much fastened around his neck, so he appeared to just be breathing in carbon dioxide.. his pulse slowed right down and then she couldn't find it at all.. ugh it was nasty! He really did not look in a good way! He did the glass walk, got a whole load of cuts in his feet (but they didn't bleed?!) and a whole load of bits of glass stuck in his feet, which he removed before proceding to lie down in the glass, with face right in it. That was bad enough really, without his assistant inviting this guy from the audience to stand on top of him: one foot on the head, one on the back, agh! His breathing sounded terrible! Anyway, after all that and he's removed all the glass from his body, he seemed to be ok! The nurse took his pulse again, tapping it on the mic as before, it started very slow and weak and gradually sped up, and when it was back to normal I think the pain suddenly hit him lol, because he couldn't stand still for a second, he was completely hyperactive!
Next he showed us a little film full of subliminal messages. (For legal reasons he had to tell us this). He put out an envelope on the mic stand so we could see he wasn’t tampering with it and said that as the film finished four members of the audience would have a compulsion to come down to the stage. One of them was sitting right behind us in the balcony section, and he was acting really strange, walking really wierdly and kinda looked a bit dazed, falling over a few people while getting out of his row.. that was wierd.
The four ‘volunteers’ had to come on stage, pick up an envelope, and place in it a coloured piece of paper from a group of five (that was hidden behind a screen that the audience (and Derren) couldn’t see behind), and sit in a chair. He then read out the contents of the envelope: a 2-sided piece of A4 in which he had made predictions:
**there would be one male and three females (this was wrong actually, it was two females and 2 males)
**they would all be sitting on the chairs in a certain order (correct)
**they’d all have picked a certain coloured envelope (correct).
**the last envelope left over would be blue (correct).
Derren then got them to tell the audience their seat numbers and got them to open their coloured envelopes. The seat numbers on the paper inside matched the ‘volunteers’ numbers, all except for one guy who was just 2 seat numbers out. Very clever! Especially, as it turned out the first blunder (number of males and females) was intential as a means of distraction for a subliminal message related to the final trick.
Derren’s finale was apparently inevitable (although it think it relied heavily on participant nerves). He said so himself as he placed another envelope on the stage that everyone could see. He brought Emma with the briefcase back on stage. Threw some of that day’s newspapers out to random members of the audience. He asked Emma which newspaper she reads, to which she replied 'The Daily Mail'. There were two people in the auidence holding a copy, and so he asked her to choose one. He then picked up a copy of 'The Times' and flicked through it reading headlines, and asked Emma to stop him at some point (she could see the page numbers). The page number of the headline was 13. The newspaper holder had to pull out that page, rip it up into squares and bring it to the stage. Derren then got Emma to give him a number between one and 10 amd counted off the ripped off bits of paper until he got to the seventh one.
He then asked her to pick a word off that little scrap of paper. She chose ‘extraordinary’. Derren opened up the envelope in full view of everyone and pulled out a banner which spelt out ‘EXTRAORDINARY’.
It was unbelievable!
But what made it even more crazy was, that he somehow told her what the combination to the case was just by looking at her (it had eluded her for the wholeshow so far), she unlocked the briefcase and in it was a copy of that days Daily Mail. He asked her to open it at page 13 and read out the word circled on that page. It was ‘extraordinary’. And it also turned out she didn't even read the Daily Mail anyway, she just said it.. spooky..
Oh and the best bit was.. it turned out the stage crew had been filming the entire show from the wings and edited together a little film of the points in the show where he had placed subliminal messages. Lol, I thought at the time it was a bit wierd when he said things like “it’s not daily I hammer a number 13 nail into my head,” or “Think of the first mail crush you had when you were younger”. He even got a few ‘extraordinary’s in there too, but I didn't notice at the time. I tell you it's amazing how your brain hangs on to these little things you see and hear, you think they're forgotten, but it seems they're still there floating around affecting your decisions quite a while later! Or in Mum's case, giving you migraines the day after!
I just wonder if I've been left with any odd compulsions after watching all those subliminal messages.. oh well, ho hum.. anyway, I think I'll go and pick up a Daily Mail..
There, I warned you, don't blame me! ;)
So, last night we went to see Derren Brown at the Dorking Halls in his 'Something wicked this way comes' tour. It was amazing. For those of you who have not seen 'Derren Brown's Mind Control' program on Channel 4/E4, Derren is a psychological illusionist and sceptic of paranormal phenomena. He uses a combination of suggestion, misdirection, psychology and showmanship in order to perform his 'tricks'. Really such a clever guy! Beware of his website by the way, I just went on it and I noticed that when it is loading, some kind of subliminal message flashes up on the screen.. I didn't catch what it said, but if you take a look and then later on feel a strange compulsion to buy his DVD or something.. well..
This really is the most intriguing show, in the interval there were just huddles of people everywhere just trying to work out how he was doing these things! I would definitely recommend seeing the next tour, but another word of warning, be careful where you get seats, I mean if you don't fancy getting up on the stage then seriously get back row tickets because he does his upmost to make sure people from all over the place get a go! We thought we'd be safe in the front row of the balcony, but there were some close calls! Basically to show that he's not in collusion with members of the audience, e.g. only selecting his stooges as participants, he chucks a cuddly monkey into the audience, and then asks it to be thrown three more times, and the person it lands with comes up on stage! How scary!
Anyway, this is what happened:
~~Act 1~~
Derren opened by saying that he believes that his audience is split thus:
**89% of you have seen at least half a dozen of his programmes;
**the other 11% have been dragged along by boyfriends/girlfriends/mates.
**Out of his audience, 72% will be in Channel 4’s demographic of 18-35 years of age and own large DVD collections (some of which are still in the original wrapping).
Truetrue..
First off, he asked everyone to think of a land animal.
He then chucked the monkey, and after several more throws was caught by a girl named Emma, who was brought up on stage. He asked her which animal she was thinking of, and then asked her to turn round this big card on the stage with a question mark on it, which was supposed to have a drawing of the correct animal on it. Lol, when she turned it round it was really stupid, it was kind of like a kid's drawing of some stick creature with horns and trotters and udders, I mean really it could have been anything! And he was like.. SEE! It's a horse! Anyway, when everyone was starting to think 'oh well that was pretty lame..', he told her to open up the envelope sitting next to the picture and read it.. and it was something along the lines of '
Anyway, next to set up his final trick, he made Emma swap her ring for a chained and padlocked briefcase. She had to bring it back at the end of the show and had the interval to try and crack the padlock's combination.
The next trick was so funny because it just went so wrong! He asked for everyone to think of the surname of their first crush, then threw the monkey a few times to select 4 more people to come up. He asked them all to write down the name on a bit of paper and stick it in their back pocket, then asked each to pick out a ball from a bag: the bag containing 1 black and 3 white, have a look to see what colour and then hide it. They were then instructed that when he asked each one, they should tell him their name, and their job. And then, if they are holding a white ball they should tell him a fake name for their mother's maiden name, and if black, they should tell him their mother's true maiden name. He offered £50 to any of them who could fool him about the colour of the ball they were holding.
Lol, well the first guy he asked, he was like 'Ok Graham, that's your name isn't it?' and the guy agreed, 'do you want to come up first..', so Graham stepped up to the microphone, and said 'Hi, my name's Jim Smith..' LOL! Oops.. that'll be a white ball then! Too keen to lie that one was! So he got sent off the stage..
Next up was a lady who worked in the box office.. and she answered the first two questions fine, then when it got to the mother's maiden name she hesitated, stopping to think before saying 'Palter'. I guess it must've been nerves on her part, but Derren took it to mean that she was trying to think up a really unusual one, so he laughed and said 'That's the worst lie I've even seen!! Give us your white ball and go back to your seat..' at which point she pulled out the black ball from her pocket! Lol, you shoulda seen his face, it was so funny! So the lady was well chuffed, walked away with £50 and the knowledge that she outwitted Derren Brown, albeit unintentionally, awesome! I'd love to do that!
So anyway, he said 'that's kinda put an end to that one then' and sent the remaining people off the stage.. and then changed his mind and brought one girl back on. He pretended to hypnotise her and grabbed a pad and pen.. and while her head was hung, he scrawled down a few random letters, then turned it over and wrote (I can't remember the surname, so I'll make it up..) MERCER, then he hid the paper and woke up the girl, and asked her the name of her first crush and she said it! It was exactly right. I can only think that he nicked the bit of paper out of her pocket when she left the stage and then put it back when he put her to sleep. It was impressive though!
I can't remember all the tricks he did, but there was another one that was with those cards that are used by parapsychologists, you know: circle, square, wavy lines, cross, star, triangle. He picked out a girl from the audience who said she believed in psychic ability. He then appeared to transmit which card he was thinking of to her, I guess it must've been through the things he was saying to her, and they managed to select the same card 5 times out of 5. At one point, when she chose a card, he suggested to her that the card she'd chosen was not selected on instinct, and said she should choose again before turning over both of their cards, which made us think maybe the backs of the cards were marked in some way? But it was amazing how he did it, and how 4 out of 5 times he didn't noticeably guide her choice!
Other than that, the first half was made up of more of the types of tricks that are shown in Mind Control, for example counting buttons from one look, after being slapped! He got those right 100% of the time, even when the buttons were moving and one fell on the floor!
The first Act finished with a warning that some viewers may find the second Act disturbing, and not suitable for children under the age of 12.
~~Act 2~~
After hammering a nail into his head and then giving it to some poor lady as a souvenir, (as __kali__ says...) 'You know it’s not going to be pleasant when the stage crew bring out a huge tarpaulin and Derren asks the audience if there is a doctor in the house.'
Derren explained that on the whole he uses the techniques he’s learnt on other people, but now he was going to demonstrate how he was able to use the same techniques on himself. He talked about how he was obsessed with the work of a 1930’s performer who was able to control the flow of blood to his brain, and in doing so was able to control the pain he felt: demonstrating his ‘powers’ by walking over a path of broken glass. He went on to say that this guy died of a drug overdose as a result of trying to recreate the euphoria induced by 'coming out' of this state. Apparently Derren was taught to do this thing by the guys daughters, who he'd passed the trick on to. Worryingly, Channel 4 had not allowed him to show this on TV so it was restricted to only live theatre audiences..
He got this nurse out from the audience and asked her to tap out his pulse on the microphone with a stick, and then he put a bag over his head and breathed in and out in the bag, pretty much fastened around his neck, so he appeared to just be breathing in carbon dioxide.. his pulse slowed right down and then she couldn't find it at all.. ugh it was nasty! He really did not look in a good way! He did the glass walk, got a whole load of cuts in his feet (but they didn't bleed?!) and a whole load of bits of glass stuck in his feet, which he removed before proceding to lie down in the glass, with face right in it. That was bad enough really, without his assistant inviting this guy from the audience to stand on top of him: one foot on the head, one on the back, agh! His breathing sounded terrible! Anyway, after all that and he's removed all the glass from his body, he seemed to be ok! The nurse took his pulse again, tapping it on the mic as before, it started very slow and weak and gradually sped up, and when it was back to normal I think the pain suddenly hit him lol, because he couldn't stand still for a second, he was completely hyperactive!
Next he showed us a little film full of subliminal messages. (For legal reasons he had to tell us this). He put out an envelope on the mic stand so we could see he wasn’t tampering with it and said that as the film finished four members of the audience would have a compulsion to come down to the stage. One of them was sitting right behind us in the balcony section, and he was acting really strange, walking really wierdly and kinda looked a bit dazed, falling over a few people while getting out of his row.. that was wierd.
The four ‘volunteers’ had to come on stage, pick up an envelope, and place in it a coloured piece of paper from a group of five (that was hidden behind a screen that the audience (and Derren) couldn’t see behind), and sit in a chair. He then read out the contents of the envelope: a 2-sided piece of A4 in which he had made predictions:
**there would be one male and three females (this was wrong actually, it was two females and 2 males)
**they would all be sitting on the chairs in a certain order (correct)
**they’d all have picked a certain coloured envelope (correct).
**the last envelope left over would be blue (correct).
Derren then got them to tell the audience their seat numbers and got them to open their coloured envelopes. The seat numbers on the paper inside matched the ‘volunteers’ numbers, all except for one guy who was just 2 seat numbers out. Very clever! Especially, as it turned out the first blunder (number of males and females) was intential as a means of distraction for a subliminal message related to the final trick.
Derren’s finale was apparently inevitable (although it think it relied heavily on participant nerves). He said so himself as he placed another envelope on the stage that everyone could see. He brought Emma with the briefcase back on stage. Threw some of that day’s newspapers out to random members of the audience. He asked Emma which newspaper she reads, to which she replied 'The Daily Mail'. There were two people in the auidence holding a copy, and so he asked her to choose one. He then picked up a copy of 'The Times' and flicked through it reading headlines, and asked Emma to stop him at some point (she could see the page numbers). The page number of the headline was 13. The newspaper holder had to pull out that page, rip it up into squares and bring it to the stage. Derren then got Emma to give him a number between one and 10 amd counted off the ripped off bits of paper until he got to the seventh one.
He then asked her to pick a word off that little scrap of paper. She chose ‘extraordinary’. Derren opened up the envelope in full view of everyone and pulled out a banner which spelt out ‘EXTRAORDINARY’.
It was unbelievable!
But what made it even more crazy was, that he somehow told her what the combination to the case was just by looking at her (it had eluded her for the wholeshow so far), she unlocked the briefcase and in it was a copy of that days Daily Mail. He asked her to open it at page 13 and read out the word circled on that page. It was ‘extraordinary’. And it also turned out she didn't even read the Daily Mail anyway, she just said it.. spooky..
Oh and the best bit was.. it turned out the stage crew had been filming the entire show from the wings and edited together a little film of the points in the show where he had placed subliminal messages. Lol, I thought at the time it was a bit wierd when he said things like “it’s not daily I hammer a number 13 nail into my head,” or “Think of the first mail crush you had when you were younger”. He even got a few ‘extraordinary’s in there too, but I didn't notice at the time. I tell you it's amazing how your brain hangs on to these little things you see and hear, you think they're forgotten, but it seems they're still there floating around affecting your decisions quite a while later! Or in Mum's case, giving you migraines the day after!
I just wonder if I've been left with any odd compulsions after watching all those subliminal messages.. oh well, ho hum.. anyway, I think I'll go and pick up a Daily Mail..
Friday, May 05, 2006
Derren Brown @ the Dorking Halls tonight!!
And we're going! What a cool surprise! I totally forgot we'd booked up tickets for that!! It's called: "Something wicked this way comes..". Man I can't wait!
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Wohoo! Good news..
James got the job at Warlingham school for next year! With his own desk, classroom, interactive whiteboard, laptop, London fringe allowance, and pay starting from the beginning of the summer holidays! That ROCKS! =) hehe.. oh and it's just down the road from Oxted, you can't get better than that!
And another thing..
erm, how am I supposed to vote with no voting card, eh? I think it's been sabotaged in the post! Grr..
No presentation then?!
Looks like the AUT strike action is still going on at uni, with no hope of it being resolved in the near future apparently. No presentation for me this week then.. darn, lol!
The academic unions AUT and NATFHE voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action last week and warned today that unless the employers make a concerted and swift effort to resolve the pay dispute, millions of students will be left with coursework unmarked, lectures and seminars cancelled, and their exam programmes thrown into chaos.
Fun! It is unfair on the lecturers though, with such an increase in tuition fees next year I really think they should get a bit of a rise! Especially as..
'After decades of fine words from employers while academic salaries declined, lecturers are demanding that their salary levels are restored to those of comparable professionals. Nobody disputes they deserve it and billions of pounds of new funding now make this catch-up possible. Vice chancellors recently paid themselves a 25% increase over three years. [so why not everyone else?]'
C'mon, they're doing a good job, just give them a bit more money, otherwise the universities will be devoid of researchers and lecturers, as well as students (who can't afford the new tuition fees).
The academic unions AUT and NATFHE voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action last week and warned today that unless the employers make a concerted and swift effort to resolve the pay dispute, millions of students will be left with coursework unmarked, lectures and seminars cancelled, and their exam programmes thrown into chaos.
Fun! It is unfair on the lecturers though, with such an increase in tuition fees next year I really think they should get a bit of a rise! Especially as..
'After decades of fine words from employers while academic salaries declined, lecturers are demanding that their salary levels are restored to those of comparable professionals. Nobody disputes they deserve it and billions of pounds of new funding now make this catch-up possible. Vice chancellors recently paid themselves a 25% increase over three years. [so why not everyone else?]'
C'mon, they're doing a good job, just give them a bit more money, otherwise the universities will be devoid of researchers and lecturers, as well as students (who can't afford the new tuition fees).
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
The Invisible Pony..
Ok, so I've started on my next new custom MLP.. the invisible pony! I've been giving this alot of thought.. I mean what material, other than glass can you use, that will be able to set hard and be transparent? Ideas so far:
-ice (but too melty..)
-those bead things that you melt with the iron, you can get clear ones of those
-cling film and PVA glue
-glue gun glue
-a mosaic of small squares of transparent plastic from blister packaging (thanks Gemma!)
-Mum suggested that stuff you used to get in kits for making paperweights with flowers in and stuff.. it starts off as a liquid but then sets hard and clear! sounds hopeful.. don't know if they still sell those kits tho!? Will have to keep an eye out.. tell me if you see one!!
-don't make it invisible at all, just give it a suit and a bandaged head with sunglasses on top
Any more ideas?
At the moment I'm in the process of making a MLP mould out of clay, and then using that, I plan to try out some of these to see which works the best!
Poor lil car..
It looks like pug is going to have to pay a visit to Mr Exhaust or the Exhaust Centre! On our way back to Oxted, it started sounding like a noisy scooter, and by this evening when we went out to check out Warlingham School it started sounding like some kind of aircraft.. so we pulled off the road on to the verge and had a looky with the torch, and it seems the entire exhaust box has detatched itself from the car, dangling by one last hook! That'll be fun driving to get it fixed.. mental note.. don't drive over any sleeping policeman..
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Brighton, Brighton, Brighton..
Here are a couple of random things that we saw in town yesterday..
<--- throw your trainers and sombreros here! is it something to do with the bathstore next door?
This building is amazing, it's just off London Road, heading towards the lanes. I think it's of some guy shaving his head.. of all the random things to paint your house with! I really like it, but it does make me wonder about where their inspiration came from, why paint THAT?! I think the answer is that this is Brighton, and there are no answers.
There has to be a logical explanation for this, Mulder. The truth is out there.
<--- throw your trainers and sombreros here! is it something to do with the bathstore next door?
This building is amazing, it's just off London Road, heading towards the lanes. I think it's of some guy shaving his head.. of all the random things to paint your house with! I really like it, but it does make me wonder about where their inspiration came from, why paint THAT?! I think the answer is that this is Brighton, and there are no answers.
There has to be a logical explanation for this, Mulder. The truth is out there.
Happy Birthday James! (for yesterday)
7am, unbelievable! I'm a student, I don't do early mornings! But, well, it was James' birthday, and a bank holiday.. so got woken up bright and early to open pressies.. he got a unicycle from my parents so that was pretty fun! We went out in the garden and had a go, lol, I can just about stay on it for about 10 seconds, and move a tiny bit around whilst grabbing on to James, and by the end of the morning he'd managed to go up and down the hall on it, crashing into the occasional mirror! Will post pictures when we look more impressive, lol!
We then ate some MORE cake!! Two birthdays, and three cakes in 5 days, wow!
And went over to James' parents' to the sound of high pitched ocarina played along to Jack Johnson.. I'm still not convinced that it's safe to drive and play ocarina at the same time.
After that we headed off down to Brighton in all the bank holiday mayhem, which actually was not as bad as I was expecting. Looked around the shops, and accidentally might have bought an Xbox (it was a bargain! only 50 squids in GAME!)..hrm..
Finally, rounded off the evening with a nice curry at the Elizabethan Tandoori in Patcham, that place is excellent! Avoid the prawn cocktail, but other than that the food is the best! They also do banana bhajee, and mango lassi, you just can't go wrong! Yumm..
We then ate some MORE cake!! Two birthdays, and three cakes in 5 days, wow!And went over to James' parents' to the sound of high pitched ocarina played along to Jack Johnson.. I'm still not convinced that it's safe to drive and play ocarina at the same time.
After that we headed off down to Brighton in all the bank holiday mayhem, which actually was not as bad as I was expecting. Looked around the shops, and accidentally might have bought an Xbox (it was a bargain! only 50 squids in GAME!)..hrm..
Finally, rounded off the evening with a nice curry at the Elizabethan Tandoori in Patcham, that place is excellent! Avoid the prawn cocktail, but other than that the food is the best! They also do banana bhajee, and mango lassi, you just can't go wrong! Yumm..
Unazukin says...
"definitely yes", so there you go.. looks like we're watching another x-files, what can you do?! Wouldn't like to disappoint her..
Friday, April 28, 2006
Trek News
To celebrate 40th anniversary of ST, Slimline DVD box sets (region 2) are being brought out for all the Star Trek series -priced @ £24.99 instead of 80 odd! That's so good! Shame we just bought all the TNG before that happened (still didn't pay the full price tho..hehe)! So far you can get the TNG slimlines off play, they're gonna release the others soon I've heard, which is good.. DS9 next!
Other Trek news..
J.J. Abrams, who will be producing the upcoming eleventh Star Trek film, refused to comment on whether rumours that it would deal with Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy were accurate and even suggested that he might not be helming the film himself.
"The whole thing was reported entirely without our cooperation," said Abrams to Empire. "People learned that I was producing a Star Trek film, that I had an option to direct it, they hear rumours of what the thing was going to be and ran with a story that is not entirely accurate."
Abrams added that those involved in the production had "made a pact not to discuss any specifics" of the story. StarTrek.com had claimed that the story would centre around Kirk and Spock's first meeting and their first adventure together in space. Empire noted that Abrams is a fan of the original series and quoted him as saying, "Those characters are so spectacular. I just think that...you know, they could live again." StarTrek.com had cited Daily Variety and "sources at Paramount Pictures" in their statement that Abrams would direct as well as produce the upcoming eleventh feature film.
Hmm.. I think he's just annoyed because they wanted it to be hush hush for now..
Other Trek news..
J.J. Abrams, who will be producing the upcoming eleventh Star Trek film, refused to comment on whether rumours that it would deal with Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy were accurate and even suggested that he might not be helming the film himself.
"The whole thing was reported entirely without our cooperation," said Abrams to Empire. "People learned that I was producing a Star Trek film, that I had an option to direct it, they hear rumours of what the thing was going to be and ran with a story that is not entirely accurate."
Abrams added that those involved in the production had "made a pact not to discuss any specifics" of the story. StarTrek.com had claimed that the story would centre around Kirk and Spock's first meeting and their first adventure together in space. Empire noted that Abrams is a fan of the original series and quoted him as saying, "Those characters are so spectacular. I just think that...you know, they could live again." StarTrek.com had cited Daily Variety and "sources at Paramount Pictures" in their statement that Abrams would direct as well as produce the upcoming eleventh feature film.
Hmm.. I think he's just annoyed because they wanted it to be hush hush for now..
I'll make you banana pancakes, pretend like it's the weekend now, and we could pretend it all the time..
Now listening to Jack Johnson.. oh its so nice music! Reminds me of being on the beach in the summer..
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Happy Birthday to me!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
PostSecret
Thanks blu for this link =)
Have a look at this website it's really interesting. People send in annonymous postcards with their secrets on to this guy in Maryland, and he publishes them. It seems he has a book out, and they also get posted to this blog every Sunday. It's a kind of community art project. There's some pretty sinister ones there, but some are quite funny..
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
Printing the dissertation..
this is gonna be a long night! Zzzzz...
Oh and my printer has broken! I put my new black ink cartridge in, and now my computer's decided to lose all recollection of ever having known any such printer! Sheesh.. isn't that always the way! Managed to print the whole report, but got on to the appendix and my Java classes i.e. the most important bit, and printer dead!
Oh and my printer has broken! I put my new black ink cartridge in, and now my computer's decided to lose all recollection of ever having known any such printer! Sheesh.. isn't that always the way! Managed to print the whole report, but got on to the appendix and my Java classes i.e. the most important bit, and printer dead!
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Yahoo! Avatar vs. MSN Weemee
My very own Yahoo! avatar! Slightly more manga than their MSN weemee counterparts. I think I still prefer the weemee ones though because they let you choose pets, and also have the added bonus(?) that you could fit in quite nicely in South Park looking like that. One improvement I would like to suggest however, is a wider range of more exotic pets be made available, including sloths, and domo-kuns. Then it would be perfect.
Star Trek XI
Paramount Pictures announced today that Lost creator J.J. Abrams will co-write, produce and direct the eleventh Star Trek film, set for release in 2008. According to an article in the Daily Variety, the new film will be a prequel to the original Star Trek series, featuring younger versions of characters like James T. Kirk and Spock. The movie will chronicle events such as their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and their first mission into outer space.
Interesting, with new writers, and a few fresh ideas to play around with, this has the potential to be a good film; I did kinda want them to do something centred around Starfleet Academy, so that's kinda nice. Frankly, when I heard about this on the radio this afternoon I was disappointed that it wasn't going to be a TNG film, or Enterprise even, but the idea is starting to grow on me. It's a shame not to be using any of the cast members we are already familar with, but maybe this is what ST needs, something fresh from a different perspective. I have always been curious about what the academy is like, and what has been shown in TNG was intriguing. Does anyone have any opinions on this?
Interesting, with new writers, and a few fresh ideas to play around with, this has the potential to be a good film; I did kinda want them to do something centred around Starfleet Academy, so that's kinda nice. Frankly, when I heard about this on the radio this afternoon I was disappointed that it wasn't going to be a TNG film, or Enterprise even, but the idea is starting to grow on me. It's a shame not to be using any of the cast members we are already familar with, but maybe this is what ST needs, something fresh from a different perspective. I have always been curious about what the academy is like, and what has been shown in TNG was intriguing. Does anyone have any opinions on this?
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Thai coconut mushrooms with chili
This is a really nice veggie recipe, but comes with a health warning.. DO NOT RUB YOUR EYES AFTER CHOPPING THE CHILI PEPPER! Seriously..
Now what you need is:
1 tin of coconut milk (Blue Dragon is good)
1 red chili pepper
2-3 shallots
10-15 mushrooms (or however many you can eat really) chopped into slices
garnish: chopped coriander (if you like that sort of thing)
Method:
Chop the shallots into fairly thin half/quarter rings. Slit the pepper lengthways and remove all the pips from inside, then slice into thin rings. Now put these into a wok and fry for about a minute. Next, add the chopped mushrooms to the wok and fry for a few minutes until they have reduced in size and turned a light brown colour. Finally, pour the tin of coconut milk into the wok and keep heating it and stirring until it has reduced down to something that doesn't resemble soup. Serve it up, with a sprinkling of coriander if you so wish!
Now what you need is:
1 tin of coconut milk (Blue Dragon is good)
1 red chili pepper
2-3 shallots
10-15 mushrooms (or however many you can eat really) chopped into slices
garnish: chopped coriander (if you like that sort of thing)
Method:
Chop the shallots into fairly thin half/quarter rings. Slit the pepper lengthways and remove all the pips from inside, then slice into thin rings. Now put these into a wok and fry for about a minute. Next, add the chopped mushrooms to the wok and fry for a few minutes until they have reduced in size and turned a light brown colour. Finally, pour the tin of coconut milk into the wok and keep heating it and stirring until it has reduced down to something that doesn't resemble soup. Serve it up, with a sprinkling of coriander if you so wish!
Here's a little test for you.. are you a nerd, a geek or a dork?!
Well of course, you could also be joe normal, but that's just not interesting! Here's the linky, tell me what you get!
I'm a 'Modern, Cool Nerd' apparently lol, is that a good thing?!
78 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 26% Dork
For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
I'm really not sure why being a geek AND a nerd makes you a 'cool' nerd, I think this must reflect the mentality of the person who wrote the quiz :p lol they're obviously an authority on this sort of thing though because in their other quiz I took, 'Would you make a good wolf?', it told me I would make an exceptionally good wolf, so there. It must be true.
I'm a 'Modern, Cool Nerd' apparently lol, is that a good thing?!
78 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 26% Dork
For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
I'm really not sure why being a geek AND a nerd makes you a 'cool' nerd, I think this must reflect the mentality of the person who wrote the quiz :p lol they're obviously an authority on this sort of thing though because in their other quiz I took, 'Would you make a good wolf?', it told me I would make an exceptionally good wolf, so there. It must be true.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
OMG! Look what they did to our broadband!
OMG! Look what they did to our broadband!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.
So, we got down to Brighton yesterday to find graffiti on the door, a mouldy fridge, and the Internet not working! Excellent.. after a little investigation, James found the cause of the broken broadband, see the pic! Hmm.. it looks at though someone fancied a bit of our cabling, and a couple of connectors, enjoying a few fags whilst ripping our Internet out of the ground! Wow, the things people will do to stop you blogging.. Anyway, a nice man from NTL came round this morn and fixed it, put a shiny new box on the wall outside, I wonder how long it will last!
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Happy Easter!! (for tomorrow..)
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Thought for the day...
Are fish fingers really the elixir of life? It certainly seems that way if you look at Captain Birdseye...
---------------> 
THEN and NOW...
---------------> 
THEN and NOW...
Thursday, April 06, 2006
The solution to global warming sits right here on the M25
Pollution Control Valve
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.
We were driving back from Richmond Park and I saw this sign.. hmm.. it seems to me maybe someone should just shut the valve, y'know it would sort out an awful lot of problems!
Richmond Park
Richmond Park
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.
We went to Richmond Park today and saw tonnes and tonnes of deer and stags! We even managed to sneak up on a few and get some piccies, see flickr..
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
My borg little pony
Ok,I know I should be writing my dissertation, but I was inspired! I saw someone had made a Worf style klingon My Little Pony, and then I found out someone had done a borg inspired one and I just couldn't help myself.. We went over to PC world to buy a new mouse for my laptop coz the cat killed the last one, and just happened to stroll in to Toys 'R' Us.. well you know, they were 2 for the price of 1.. anyway, now we have a finished Locutus pony (mine), and a spiderman pony and a ferengi pony on the way courtesy of James! wow, this could become an expensive habit..
Phew..
So the whole dressing up thing wasn't an April fool, thank God! See flickr for a photo, raised a few eyebrows in Oxted when we were at the cash dispenser lol! I played my first ever game of poker too, and even won a game later, how exciting! =)
Friday, March 31, 2006
Easter holidays!
Yay! Its now officially the Easter holidays after two weeks of pretending to write dissertation down in Brighton waiting for the Sussex schools to break up: freedom for James! We have a 1920s dress/gangster casino party at Rob's tomorrow, hmm.. April fools day.. we could end up looking v silly lol! ;p
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Worf's Little Pony, lol
hehe.. I found this when I was looking up info about FEDCON XV in Fulda, Germany! It's awesome, I so woulda bought one of these if they were for sale! My Little Pony...Klingons, such an obvious pairing, why didn't I ever think of that?!
Monday, March 27, 2006
PsycheDog, wow how she's grown!
PsycheDog
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.
Compare with that cute little puppy in June! Now she's a monster!!
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Picard&Crusher yay!
Nice video I found.
Will they ever get together?? C'mon Paramount, you know you want to!
Will they ever get together?? C'mon Paramount, you know you want to!
I've just been watching the deleted scenes on the Star Trek Nemesis DVD... man they've taken out some really good character development stuff, it's such a shame! I'm all for the release of a special extended version with the full 3 hours, I think that would be great! And of course I'm still waiting on movie XI, I so hope they do a final TNG to deal with what happens with B4, I think there's lots of scope for storylines there, and most importantly to tie off the last loose ends such as the Picard/Crusher relationship. I'd definitely like to see that properly dealt with after 'Attached' and 'All Good Things'. I just think it is totally unrealistic for this to be sidestepped in the films so far! It has potential, and much more intersting than the captain going off with various random aliens! Definitely...
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