How del.icio.us

Now I got bored with Jason Kottke's self satisfied ramblings months ago however stumbled across this rather amusing piece about del.icio.us eating del.icio.us whilst finding a link to the page I linked to here. You probably have to be an internet nerd to appreciate this though.

In other news....

Right all sorts of little things have been going on that I thought I would have a brief rant about.

Firstly, you may have noticed some subtle changes to the appearance of Nick101, such as the loss of the Weather-pixie, the Blogger and Britblog icons and the loss of my nice centrally aligned format to posts. All due to the 'upgrade' Blogger Beta which I am somewhat nonplussed by to be honest (sorry nice people at Blogger (aka Google)). Additionally this has also messed up my Statcounter stats as the the html no longer works and I haven't had the opportunity to fix that yet.

Next... over the summer period those nice people at Network Rail appear to have installed a CSR (Cab Secure Radio) telecommunications mast outisde my flat which has only just become apparent due to the autumn loss of tree screening. I am not really bothered about this, and actually am not actually allowed to be bothered about this having ranted to so many people who have mobile phone masts approved by me that are at the end of their gardens that such matters were a non-issue and their children and pets wouldn't die of radioactive death plague. Interesting for me though as it tests my proffessional convictions.

This weekend I met Claire's parents for the second time which went very smooothly if I do say so myself. I also (and possibly more challengingly) met her autistic brother for the first time which also seemed to go well. I think fun was had by everyone although I do feel a little socially drained from the whole thing as I have only just recently got home from this little adventure (hence my late night post).

Speaking of Claire, if you are interested you can see her Myspace page and blog here (hope you don't mind the publcity Claire!) (I shall hold my tongue regarding my general opinion on Myspace).

More news... I am bored with my now not so new job (again) having been there nine months and am getting itchy feet again. Am intending on applying for another job with a certain other London Planning Authority. Although this one will require another move of home becuase it is massively uncommutable from Maidenhead, probably more into London (which I have been thinking about anyway... Chiswick, Acton, Fulham, Chez Bue locale methinks), says he in advance of having even completed the application forms let alone get an interview.

Erm, what else...

Presently enjoying listening to: Faithless - Bombs. Video is very good.
Presently downloading planning on hiring from the video shop as is legal and proper: Prison Break.

That is all for now. Have a good week people.

(And yes I know this post is full of repetitions and typos bt I don't care so there!)

New York photos

The majority of the photos from New York are now on Claire's flickr. However here are some of my favourites (click to enlarge - the photos are quite big).

A really nice candid shot of 106th Street off Central Park West.

Claire being all artsy in Central Park.

Central Park, looking west towards the Upper West Side.

Nick and Claire in a helicopter. Yes that's right we did a helicopter tour of Manhattan which was nothing short of amazing, even if the weather weas a little grey and windy.

Statue of Liberty from the aforementioned helicopter.

Upper East Side of Manhattan taken from Central Park across Jackie Onasis lake (this is my new desktop background on my computer).

Nick and Claire messing around in Sheep Meadow in Central Park.

The Flatiron Building in Mid Town, New Yorks first steel framed skyscraper.

Nick and Claire looking very fetching by a fountain in Central Park.

Chrysler Building et al as seen from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.

Fun in the Skyscraper Museum.

Flight time

New York is amazing. I didn't want to leave. However, now back in glorious England and feeling a little jet lagged. Photos (of which we have around 300) soon...

Did I mention New York was amazing?

Also congratulations to Laura who gave birth to six and a half pound baby Thomas last night at about the same time I was leaving JFK airport I think.

New York baby

Nick and Claire are flying out to New York on Tuesday. We are staying here. We are going up this and going on this. And lots of other things too.

Blog may be updated and photos may be added to Claire's flickr while we are out there dependent on time and internet accessibility. No doubt there will be more on the blog when we are back.

Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

This evening I saw Borat's new movie Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. This film is funny. It is also very, very wrong. Just when you think the absolute high point of wrongness has been reached it is subsequently surpased by further even more extreme wrongness. Go see.

Additionally, apparently potassium is not Kazakhstan's biggest export.

Its bad to laugh at other peoples misfortune

Except when they are complete idiots who deserve it... Very funny video of dumb drivers having issues with rising bollards (via).

Cold and windy and omg look what I was doing this time last year

I was going to do a brief post moaning about how it is now cold and windy. And well it is. So I guess that concludes that bit.

However as I was typing the title of this post into the title bar in the blogger interface the autocomplete function popped up with a previous post title I had done, specifically cold. Which erroneously reminded me of this post about daylight which I did around about this time last year.

But in looking for these posts to link to I found that this time last year on Friday I had my interview for my current job. Now this is probably fairly meaningless for everyone else but it is the first time I have stumbled across something on my own blog that I had forgotten about and re-reading it was really cool. A lot of things have changed since I had that job interview... (he says whilst staring wistfully into the middle distance).

Nandos sun dried tomato and basil peri-peri marinade

I have always been a bit disappointed with those sauces that you can buy in the supermarket that kind of imitate the sauces you get in the restaurant. However Nandos sun dried tomato and basil peri-peri marinade is yum! And I believe available from all good retailers (or at least Waitrose in Maidenhead).

Spurt

In case you haven’t seen this advert running in a number of papers recently.

“Spurt calls upon Britain’s nimby whingers to stop complaining about flight paths, noise and air pollution and the demolition of listed buildings. Be grateful you live so close to an airport.”

And the official site and an explanation of what is actually going on.

Motorola Razr Spazr

Up until recently I had been happy with my present mobile phone. It looks jazzy, its nice and small, had a reasonable amount of functions and a just about adequate camera that can be employed for impromptu photo opportunities.

However, I am now officially really fucking fucked off with this fucking phone and as soon as I come to the 12 month contract expiry point which is in the next week or so, I will be demanding an upgrade.

For starters the phone’s battery has never been that great and formerly would only last 2 days before dying. However recently it has started lying to me. For example one morning earlier this week I unplugged it from its charger in the morning despite it insisting it wasn’t charging despite being plugged in. Later that morning it showed low battery despite being charged overnight but reassured me that that was ok because it was charging, notwithstanding that it wasn't hooked up to a plug. In the afternoon it told me it had a full battery and that the charge was completed despite still not being anywhere near a charger. It subsequently died in the late afternoon.

Later I was heading out to Reading in the evening and travelling on the M25. I got caught in major traffic chaos and would like to have rung ahead to let folks know I was going to be late. But I couldn’t because the phone died. I then had a stroke of genius and tried to hook it to my car charger which I remembered I had. But no, at this event the phone advised me that it was unable to charge. So it had power to display an error message, but not sufficient power to charge. I mean wtf? So maybe the battery couldn't charge at the point. God knows why because it later found the ability to charge. But why draw what I presume was direct power from the car socket to display an error message. Why not draw direct power to normal phone functions?

Additionally the bluetooth link is fucked so I can’t export my present selection of particularly amusing photos I took on it recently. And it refuses to recognise any .wav file types so I can’t play any sounds or video on it any more or change the ring tone (not that I actually give too much of a toss about the ring tone but it would be nice to have the option).

So Motorola, take your fucking Motorola Spazr or whatever wanky name you choose to title it and stick it up your ass because I am getting some nice blocky, reliable, functional Nokia like I should have done ages ago.

Muffin anyone?

(Possibly only amusing to those who know him). You can now buy your very own deep filled version of Dave for the bargain price of £1.69. With blueberry no less.

Sadly out of stock when snapped in Waitrose Maidenhead.

Phone dump VI

If you don't know how my phone dump posts work by now then well, erm... you'll just have to look through the blog archives and work it for yourself. So here is phone dump VI, also known as the 'show us who this Claire person is' post.

My new sofa in situ. Possibly the most comfy sofa of all time but I would say that.

I bumped into Kenny from South Park in River Island the other day. Also known as Claire wearing an amusingly oversized boy coat.

Internal courtyard thingy to the Lloyds insurance building on architecture weekend (or whatever it was called) a few weeks ago.

Also wanted to go up the Gherkin (aka as 30 St Mary Axe) (aaka the Swiss Re tower) however it was pre-book only and was kinda booked solid.

Suprisingly blond moth, who spent an evening in my flat getting hit upon by generically brown moth. I didn't know you could get blond moths.

The most amazing shower of all time as seen at the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court. Being modeled here by Claire. Seriously look at this thing. Rotate the pod Hal.

Nick and Claire inside the most amazing shower of all time. The picture fails to capture the the life support display but you can see the surround sound speakers inset in the mirror some of the ancilary shower jets.

Here's a random link by way of an apology for not updating the blog very much at the moment and details about what I am having for lunch

What can I say, I have been busy (not naming any names). Anyway here's a random link to some funny flash thingy. Not really sure what its all about but it looks quite funky and you can click stuff, sometimes.

Right I am now going to have a toasted bagel and maybe some juice or tea.

Update: The bagle was very tasty. And I had a mug of green tea too. That was also good.

Global footprint

According to this survey I need 3.3 planets to fuel my tasty, mobile and comfortable existence.

I would have thought I was below average in comparison to the rest of the Country in terms of global footprint but apparently not.

Would be interested to see what other people score.

How it should have ended

Amusing short cartoon on how the first (fourth?) (whatever) Star Wars film should have ended.

Simpson-tastic

Delightfully probably not quite legal. Every episode of the Simpsons ever (via).

This life +10

Look, they are making a This Life ten years on TV special. And re-running the original series too.

Ghetto latte

The story of the amusingly titled ghetto latte. And a slightly simplified version for those of you who (like me) haven't got the slighest clue when it comes to Starbucks-speak.

Thing is the cafe at work does the whole free milk thing so I am way tempted to ask them for a ghetto latte and see what they say.

Why cash machines for dwarfs are the dumbest thing ever in the history of all time

This thing that has actually irritated me for a while (but increasingly does so at the moment because the amount I have to use them as they are numerous wherever I seem to be recently) is those low level cash machines. You know the ones that are set down in the wall so you have to stoop over and squint at the screen to be able to see the poorly angled display which is aimed at someone about three feet tall, and stretch your arms down to the keypad which is somewhere around knee height and then grab your cash and card which is helpfully dispensed at the oh-so-convenient just below crotch level.

Now I know these were installed to make it easier for people in wheelchairs to access cash machines but did no-one consider that perhaps everybody fucking else also has to use these cash machines too? And perhaps that everybody fucking else might not be an extra from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and thus not have the proportions of a three foot stunted ape child? I mean honestly when was the last time you have ever seen a person in a wheelchair using a low level cash machine and sagely musing to themselves about how thoughtful the designers were to install a low level cash machine specially for them? I know how many I have seen. None, ever.

However how many times have you seen people carrying young kids having to strain down with kid in arms to reach the three foot high cash machine, or how many people with bad backs who don’t want to stoop down, or people with lots of heavy shopping, or partially sighted people, or really tall people who have to crouch on their knees to get at the cash machine. Or perhaps a regular person who is just rather fucked off at being made to grovel bent over at three feet in height just to use a fucking cash machine designed to be accommodating to a tiny proportion of the population.

Now don’t get me wrong I am all in favour of inclusive society blah, blah, blah, access for all or whatever (although I appreciate this sentence perhaps doesn’t convey that so well) but why should one very small group get excessively accommodated at the ridiculous expense of everyone else?

I mean, where are the left handed cash machines for example? Or the ones with extra large displays? Or audio cash machines? Why are these groups not catered for in the cash machine market but people in wheelchairs are?