Category: Uncategorized

Happily, I wasn’t involved in this morning’s This Morning. But it does remind me that the only times I’ve come close to seriously injuring people have been when I’ve employed ‘professionals.’ Even so, I’ve never understood peoples’ animosity to risk assessments. It’s good practice to stop and think and write it all down, not to mention The Law.

Meanwhile, Jules should be out of hospital today (Friday). Rock on, kid.

Hey, my chum Gareth’s finally got his head around his weblog enough to actually post to it. Cool. Now if only his partner Violet’s Mac would recover from its suspected hard drive failure, they’d be first-class citizens of the infosphere. Or something like that.

Just in case anyone wondered whether I really set foot in television studios or have faked the whole thing, here’s me standing in a plausible mock-up of a studio the other week. That’s Carol the floor manager mugging disgracefully in the background. Picture taken by Richard the director, which is slightly worrying since the implication is that he wasn’t doing his actual job at the time.

Oh, and I’m wearing a dinner suit and red baseball cap because… oh, you work it out. Answers on the back of a £20 note, please.

…that the troops who just attacked Jack and Nina were Sherri’s own honour guard. I also predict that George will turn out to be suffering merely a nasty cold; Kim will have spent the last year being trained by the CIA and it will, in fact, be she who defuses the nuclear bomb; Jack will admit that he always preferred Nina to the sappy Teri; Despite the attack squad, Sherri will turn out to be acting completely altruistically; Nina will reveal that she set the whole thing up because she still carries a torch for Jack too; and right at the end, as they all live happily ever after, and Kim and her boyfriend drive off in a car that for once doesn’t have a body in the boot, Tony will… will… smile.

Hmm. P’raps not that last one.

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when ex-Oxbridge types try to justify why they’re glued to the telly. Sod that, it’s just terrific drama.

Trinity Hall man at 6 in the Cambridge boat. Updates online at the BBC, of course.

1631. They're off. Excellent start by Oxford.
1632. Cambridge striking slower to my eye, on the outside, but holding Oxford well.
1633. M&S have an offer on teacakes. Rather different to Tunnocks, but very pleasant.
1634. Cambridge a canvas down, but more-or-less holding Oxford. Looking good for the Hammersmith bend.
1635. Wish I'd brewed some tea. Level going into Hammersmith, Cambridge gaining perhaps a gnats.
1637. Cambridge half a length up through Hammersmith bridge.
1641. I've now eaten too many teacakes. Horrible overlap, Oxford stroke side rowing in Cambridge bow side's puddles, but Oxford not giving up.
1642. Advantage down to half a length. Uh-oh. Actually, it looks like less.
1643. Cambridge bladework a little splashy, which it wasn't five minutes ago. Boats about level.
1644. Oxford ahead by a quarter-length, maybe a half. Blimey, this is tense. I really should have made that tea.
1646. Oxford three-quarters of a length up...
1647. Down to half a length.
1647. Quarter of a length! Sod the tea.
1648. Oxford holding.
1649. Oxford by about a stroke. Bloody hell.
1650. 'Best race in history' already. Oxford have it. Feckin' close. Storming.

Closest race in history; there was apparently a dead heat in the nineteenth century, but the judge had been in the pub so it was a dead heat by about six feet. This was ‘Oxford by one foot.’

I think I might go down to watch the 150th race, next year. I’ve only been the once, and it was a hoot.

My chum Alan’s fiancé Jules (er… so ‘my chum Jules’, then) had eight hours of brain surgery the other day. As you, by and large, don’t. She no longer has a tumour filling a quarter of her head and by all accounts is doing marvellously. And that does seem to be ‘doing marvellously,’ rather than ‘doing marvellously, considering.’

Before she went in for the op, Alan asked her what she wanted to do when she gets home again. Nothing much forthcoming at the time, but ten minutes after she came round, she said ‘Big plate of chips, mayonnaise, cup of tea, Fawlty Towers. That’s what I want to do.’

Which, I tend to think, is a rather good sign.

I kinda missed all this while it was happening, despite following many of the weblogs involved (via NetNewsWire) – my attention was somewhat elsewhere, I guess. Still, it’s an interesting moment – and Orlowski’s writing style is, for once, appropriate rather than irritatingly smug. The Reg: Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed, and Googlewashed… in 42 days.

I have new glasses. Oh yes, I can see again, and it’s a slightly disturbing experience. My right eye in particular, having strained for a year to compensate for incorrect astigmatic correction, is clearly confused by now not having to do so. It’s going to take a few days to adjust. The new frames, however, are wonderful. Retro chic indeed.

Meanwhile, my Mini no longer has a little collection of scratching and scuffing where someone broke a bottle on its bonnet. In fact, you’d never know it ever had. It does, however, now feature the most amazing deep rattle at high revs, and a graunching sound at low revs, both of which are new. Hmm. Back to the garage with it, I fear.

Saturday is brought to you by onion bagels, marmite, cheesy scrambled egg, and the word ‘paralepsis‘. All at once.

Now that that nasty computer stuff is sorted, this blog will return to its scheduled programming of… er… pretty much geeky ramblings, I guess.

Wait, wait… no, I’m moving cardboard boxes in a vertical fashion tomorrow. That’s not very interesting.

Umm…

Oh, hell. Obviously, my attempt to recover from studio enough to actually get a life hasn’t quite borne fruit. Yet.

I should report, however, that The Big Bang edit is mostly going rather well. The giant meringue is a little disappointing (and how the hell did I miss the horribly large safety problem in it? Yowser), but there’s plenty that simply sings, even at crappy Avid quality. Oh, and I’m dead happy with the new titles sequence. We have some sound/vision sync problems to sort, but they should be simple enough.

Happy, happy.