Thank you those of you who have sponsored me so far. Everyone else, read the post titled “Race For Life“.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming:

The Glastonbury Festival (aka Pilton Pop by locals) is over for another year. Two years this time actually. Not having been this year, I have no funny stories for you, so I will content myself with a quote I found in the Guardian last week. I’m not saying that I agree with this quote, just that it amused me: “I vowed that Glastonbury, like dating an Arsenal fan, is something which should be experienced once and then never thought of again”.

This is not photoshoped, or saved from the winter, or anything like that. It is the gods-given truth: according to the BBC Weather service, on Tuesday the 28th of June 2005, it will be 24 degrees celsius (a rather warm summer day for the UK), and snowing. Yes, snowing. *update* It, surprisingly, didn’t snow. It was rather warm and sunny all day, with (if I remember rightly) a bit of thunder and rain the late afternoon. They did have a hail storm in Idaho though!

In an article about the Barbary apes on Gibraltar, the NYT felt it had to remind its readers that the apes wait “expectantly for a tourist to toss them a handful of potato chips, which the British call crisps.” Damn the NYT for clearing up one of the potential traps for unwary tourists. Hours of fun could have been had at the expense of hapless individuals asking for chips in a pub and being bemused when they get given a plate of fried King Edwards! Damn them.
Continuing in the saga of the Barbary apes, the monkeys now (apparently) suffer from tooth decay, and ” Nobody is supposed to feed or touch the monkeys, which carries a fine of nearly $1,000. The last time someone was punished for the offense, though, was 1918.”

This is classed as news?! Online maps are often wrong. I thought that that was common knowledge. Remembers trying to get round Guilford relying on a map from yahoo. *shudders*

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!! Trailer for King Kong. I’m not a fan of large monster/dinosaur/lost world type movies usually, but this intrigues me. I like the premise of a movie within a movie. Plus it’s got Jack Black (always good for a laugh) and Adrien Brody (tasty!). Looking forward to this one.

Can I have one please?

Ok click the link and guess the film. LotR, or King Kong? (It’s the latter, but it sure looks familiar, don’t it?)

Now I am, quite unashamedly, a bit of a Richard Dean Anderson fan. I came to him late in his career (Stargate SG:1), but still, a fan none the less. So, when the Nordic Ninga told us over lunch yesterday that he had died, I was a little bit shocked. Poor Chris III was devastated – Richard Whitely and MacGyver in the same week! (Then the Irish Lass joked that Mr T was also dead, and I thought the poor chap would have a heart attack, but anyway). But, doing a bit of a search on the internet, I can’t find a single trace of this story anywhere. Is it true, or not?!
Whilst I was searching, I did come across the following picture. Warning: rather 80’s hair-do awaits at the end of the rainbow. Look away if you are of a delicate constitution. Richard Dean Anderson: go to the ‘Biography’ page and laugh…

“Millions of deaths and incalculable property damage seem like pretty expensive family therapy, but it’s heartening to know that even an alien invasion can provide an opportunity for learning and growth”. – NYT on War of the Worlds
“Indeed, so terrifying and resonant is the surprise attack that one hopes George W. is next door watching Dukes Of Hazzard lest he cite this new ‘alien threat’ as a pretext to invade Iran”. – Empire on War of the Worlds

Wind farms! Council backs wind farm. Now, I like wind farms, so this makes me happy. As an archaeologist, I feel I should be a little concerned because (according to the BBC) their installation might damage some archaeology. But (and I think that saying this will get my lynched by my collegues), there are times when the destruction of archaeology just has to happen. Look at the damage being done at the T5 site at Heathrow. It’s ok to destroy archaeology to build another terminal at an already enormous airport, but not to put up a wind farm that will have 1) Less impact on the environment and 2) not, you know, add to pollution etc?

Money back on cinema tickets. So this is only in the states at the moment, but it does seem a little odd to me. What is to stop you watching a film then getting your money back even if you enjoyed it? And to do this repeatedly time after time? Half of the fun (ok, maybe not half) of going to the cinema is that thrill of ‘will it be worth the money’? Yes, I like the thought of cheaper tickets (hence Orange Wednesdays), but something in my baulks at getting my money back. It seems like cheating. I don’t know, it might be just me…

It really is easy to amuse me. Go to this site and watch the King Kong trailer in English (to refresh your memory of if you haven’t watched it yet). Then watch it again dubbed. The German one is a little odd, but as I can speak German, not that odd. The Spanish one did amuse me! As I said, I am easily pleased.

Time to get serious for a moment.
The following is an email I’ve sent to pretty much everyone in my address book, but there are people out there who I don’t have current addresses for (Ceres, and JB, for starters), so I’m talking about it here as well.

~*~
Dear all,
On the 17th of July I will be participating in a five kilometer run to raise money for Cancer Research UK and I would really welcome your support.

Please take a moment to sponsor me: all you have to do is go to http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/brightmeadow and click the link.
All donations through this site are secure and sent electronically to Cancer Research UK. If you are a UK taxpayer, tick the ‘giftaid’ box, and an additional 28% will be added at no cost to you. That means if you donate £10, Cancer Research gets £12.80!

I am aware that a lot of you are students on a reduced budget, but every little helps, so please get out your credit or debit card, and join me in supporting Cancer Research UK – all money donated by you will go directly to help its scientists find new ways to prevent, treat, and cure cancer.

Once again, the site that you have to go to is:
http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/brightmeadow
Seeing as how it is online, all you non-UK people have no excuse!

Pass the link on to friends, family, anyone and everyone. The thought of being able to raise lots of money is the only thing stopping me from chickening out!

~*~
I am going to be doing the race in memory of my beloved Granddad, Gordon, my Aunt Helen, and Lily, all who died far too young from different forms of cancer. If there is anyone who you would like me to run in memory of, just let me know, and I would be honoured to.

Many thanks,
Claire Louise (Cas)

Aren’t you lucky lucky people – a post a day for the last three days! And it’s not that my life has been that exciting really. I’m just in the mood to blog.

Follow up on the whole mouse issue: I now have a new mouse, Kevin. He was a bargain from Argos. Cordless, rechargable, and the cradle serves as the transmitter, so not to bulky for the desk. Not the shiniest mouse I have ever come across, but for the price (£12.49), not to be casually turned aside after one date. He is quite the slickest mouse I have yet had the pleasure to move around the desk – so light he just slides. Takes a bit of getting used to, but nice, as it puts no strain on my wrist. On the downside, his buttons are quite heavy and clicky. But I’ll get used to them as well. Not necessarily love at first sight, but not revulsion either.

It has been brought to my attention that I might have been a little harsh on poor Kenny, casting him aside as soon as the going got tough. That is not the case – he is still the first mouse in my heart, and has just been given a smaller workload, as opposed to being retired totally. Whenever I go somewhere, Kenny will be coming with me, because he is much more portable than Kevin.

Last Wednesday, Moose, the Cute Canadian, and myself, went to see Batman Begins. Really rather good – laughed at the funny bits, was appropriately apprehensive at the cliff-hanger moments, and etc. Christian Bale makes a good Batman, and Michael Cain makes a good Alfred. Gary Oldman was a marvelously restrained Gordon. The Cute Canadian feels he wasn’t assertive enough, but I argued that at this point in the cycle he is only a sergeant, trying to be straight in a city of corrupt cops. By the end, you do get the glimmer of the Commissioner, a stalwart warrior against the darkness. I really did like the genesis of the bat-beacon he uses to call Batman. Back to Bale – for the first time in any superhero movie, I really didn’t recognise the alter-ego when he was in the suit, and not just because of the raspy voice he affects. He really is another person totally. You do get the impression that it is Bruce Wayne who is subservient to Batman, and not the other way round. On the downside, the film did feel a little long – especially at the beginning, you are waiting for the explosions/unveiling of Batman to come onto the screen, but by the end of the movie I couldn’t think of a single thing that could have been cut. When you think about it, a film titled ‘Batman Begins’ is going to have a fair amount of exposition to do!

I could go on, but I won’t. If you haven’t seen the film yet, what’s been stopping you! I saw the film with a self-confessed fan-boy and if he was happy, you will be. I also saw the film with someone who admits that she isn’t the biggest fan of comics, and she was also happy. A film for everyone. I was distracted by the gratuitous display of Avalanche Face’s (Katie Holmes) nipples, and felt that she wasn’t really needed as a character, but Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow was a total dream. Is it wrong of me to fancy the bad guy more than the hero?

In summary – four penguins. Go see it. Now. What’s stopping you?

Today was also a good day – Tiana was unexpectedly down for the day, so I had a nice frappuccino and chat with her and the Arty One. It is a measure of how long its been since I chatted to her properly that she didn’t know I was no longer working at Whittard ¹[I left back in February.], so we had a lot to catch up on! Talking to her made me realise how boring my life has been lately. Not a single bit of good gossip. Ah well, we have made tentative plans for everyone to meet up at GenCon this year. Seeing as how the last three GenCon’s are responsible for each of us getting a bloke, I’m looking forward to it – it’s my turn again this year around, and perhaps the end result will be more successful. Must make a note to myself though: avoid the tall ginger ones who work in phone shops and like writing. That way lies much fun, but much badness.

And now, I am off to take care of the blisters garnered whilst walking around the garden show on the Common this morning. When will I be able to find a pair of pretty shoes that don’t rip my feet to shreds? *sigh*

I am on the hunt for a new mouse, and the traditional techniques of a trap and some cheese are just not working. My trusty mouse (Kenny) is on the verge of giving up the ghost as we speak – the number of post-its around my computer are multiplying exponentially as I frantically work out/define keyboard shortcuts. QuickSilver is proving to have been well worth the download. Kenny is a wonderful two-button and wheel cordless optical mouse. He interfaces with the shiny mac via a little USB dongle-thingy that twiddles to get out of the way of other things. I’ve never had a problem with Kenny. Kenny is my friend. Alas, Kenny is getting a little tired. He no longer likes to click on things, or he decides that he doesn’t want to let go once he has selected things. Add all this together with other behavior that isn’t conducive to happy mac-use, and I think it it is time to get another mouse.

Why is this so hard, I hear you cry? Surely, just pop down to the local PC World, or Curry’s, or Maplin (*insert computer peripheral store of choice in here*), buy one, and stop this yacking! First off, I am picky, and there are lots of things that I look for in a mouse. Optical, cordless, rechargeable mainly. And pretty to look at. This is actually important to me – I have a remarkably shiny laptop ¹ [Called the ‘Pocket Calculator’ by the Cute Canadian.], a slick and shiny keyboard, a second screen in a similar style, and a wonderful stand for the laptop. It would be nice if the mouse didn’t look out of place. One mouse I found that did most of what I wanted it to had ‘Microsoft’ emblazoned all over it. No – thank – you! Second, I am a girl on a budget ². [The number of DVD’s I’ve brought lately not withstanding.] Some people might think that it is ok to spend £40 and more to get the mouse of their dreams, but alas, I need to eat occasionally as well. Girl can not live by browsing alone. Thirdly – and this is the clincher – it needs to be a decent mouse because I use it a lot, as evidenced by the fact I’ve used Kenny to near destruction in just under two years.

I’ve spent the morning trawling all the online retailers I can think of. I did find one potential at PC World, decent price as well, but factor in the £5 p&p, and you’re approaching the price range where it starts to make sense to shell out the extra to get the shiny Apple bluetooth mouse ³. [This comment amused Moose. I can see her point – I am rather good at justifying buying the more expensive items…] I just wish that everyone would be clear as to what the specifications are! Some look cordless from the pictures, but really are corded. Others don’t tell you how they are cordless (dongle or base station), and others don’t say how you are supposed to recharge them! ARGGGGGGH!!!!!

(worry not, normally service will resume after the break)

~*~ The Break ~*~

There just aren’t the right words in my vocabulary: The Biniki.

Oh, and in the ongoing quest to keep Moose happy, I will return to making all (external) links open in a new window. The coding is a bit of a fudge, but anything to keep the peace. 😉

Funky Chunky Rat Jewelry. Why not?

Cup-A-Cake. The Americans are getting odder every day.

🙁 Ouch

I do like it when I’m right. It doesn’t happen often enough, so when it does, I gloat.
I mentioned just the other day that as Pilton Pop (that’s Glastonbury Festival for you grockles), was this weekend, would expect to see the heatwave end ¹ [It is possible I said this in my head and not the blog after all. I definately said it to the Latvian Lovely the other day and, as Moose can back me up, it counts.] ² [It’s my blog. If I say it counts, it counts.]. Sure enough…

(Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

…This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining. (Jef Raskin)

Which is my way of saying: ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I loath computers with a firey firey passion, and wish that we all still did things with pen, paper, and an abacus. No, that’s still too high tech. I want us to go back to drawing on the walls of our caves with bits of charcoal. That’s it. Nothing more than stone and charcoal.

Not a good day in the lab. It was working sweet for five minutes, then all hell broke loose. Sob. To have a wiki and to loose it is surely worse than never to have a wiki at all.

🙁

Other than that, Happy Solstice Everyone!
Today is the first solstice in a while I haven’t been in Glastonbury, so I hadn’t tweaked what date it was till I read a news story this evening about the gathering at Stonehenge. Normally, I’m walking down the highstreet, and by the time three or four random people have tried to hug me, I’ve realised what day it is. Seriously – random strangers flinging themselves at me. Alas, if you know Glastonbury at all, you’ll understand why this isn’t an all together joyous event. Those doing the flinging tend to be of the hippy/traveller/not-washed-in-a-week variety. Still, the sentiment is nice, and everyone is happy around solstice times. People don’t do that in Southampton. There is a distinct lack of flinging going on.

Big Brother till 2007 – oh dear lord no! Isn’t it enough that BB was lampooned in Dr Who just the other week? [Perfect example of life mirroring Sci-Fi] Must the insanity continue?

I like my tea, so when I saw this story about Tregothnan Tea, I got all excited, but a little skeptical at the same time. It’s taken the Chinese thousands of years to grow drinkable tea. These guys have been doing it seven years. Also, a little expensive for me. If anyone wants to send me a nice gift of some though, I wouldn’t say no…

These are actually pretty shiny! Tech jewelry. Purdy jewelry.

That’s it. I am off to go and do something else. Not sure what. Just know that it won’t entail lifting my arms above my head any, because I went to the gym today (got some pb’s!) and now I ache just a little bit. Toodles.

I doubt any of you will have noticed, but I haven’t got a pb at the gym for a while. There are several reasons for this. When I was in the midst of assignment-hell, I barely left the house for three weeks, let alone went to the gym. This is now over. But, for some reason sitting doing bugger all for three weeks and eating kitkats has made me loose condition. Strange! So when I did get back to the gym, I wasn’t quite at the level I had left at. Also, I’ve changed my routine, to try and get in condition for a run I’m going in the middle of July. It’s harder, hence no pb’s yet. Last excuse (for now at least), Moose has a new job, meaning that we have to start a new schedule, and it’s not settled down yet. It’s hard for me, all this exercising, especially seeing as how I’ve got two decades plus of being a lazy cow to overcome. All I’m saying, is stop looking so judgmental at me.

Stop it!

Ok, it isn’t funny, really it isn’t, when you hear what is being done to some of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but I couldn’t help but utter a guilty giggle when the worst the Guardian could come up with was that one prisoner was “kept awake by the music of Christina Aguilera”. I am sure there is more to this story than meets the eye, really I am, and I deplore the numerous civil-rights violations that are going on at the detention centre, but… *convulses quietly with laughter*

Best quote so far about Batman Begins – “Think American Pyscho redux, this time in tights” from the NYT.

Saw this, laughed. Now all I need is a badger-with-coke-can-on-nose and weasel-in-crisp-packet-jacket cartoon and I’m set. Chicken, Tunafish, Gopher…

I have a problem with the following statement on time travel as proposed by the BBC ¹. [Time Travel story]
Clearly, the present never is changed by mischievous time-travellers: people don’t suddenly fade into the ether because a rerun of events has prevented their births – that much is obvious.
The problem is this: it is not just the timeline of the person whose birth was prevented who is affected. The timelines of everyone associated in even the tiniest way with that person are affected, as are the timelines of everyone associated with the people associated with the now-non-existent person, and the timelines of everyone associated with them… If we are all separated by just seven degrees, even the timeline of Kevin Bacon would be affected. Who knows, he might turn out to be a janitor at the local high school, or something.
My point being, if someone suddenly had not been born, the entire world would change to reflect that, and we would have no knowledge that the person had ever been born in the first place.
You following me? ². [And yes I am aware of the fact that time travel doesn’t exist, and that I read too much science fiction, but it’s logic darling!]

I can’t quite put my feelings into words, but I do feel that the latest suggestion from David Blunkett about forced savings for pensions is wrong ³. [The pensions story] I am totally aware of the need for pensions, and as soon as I have money to put into a scheme, I will be (into more than one most likely, as I think this is one time that hedging bets would be a good idea). I have no problem with strongly recommended pension schemes. It is the ‘forced’ but that gets me. Because when you look at it, and all things are considered, we already have a mandatory pension scheme, and it is called National Insurance, not to mention the taxes that I have no problem paying ⁴. [I am not a fan of a large portion of my (currently theoretical) salary going into an account other than mine, but at the same time, I know that it is necessary and pay the money with only the minimum of complaining. After all, I like that we have free healthcare, water coming out of the taps, and that people don’t have to pay for (a large chunk of) their education. In fact, I wouldn’t mind paying slightly more tax if it meant that all education to graduate level and beyond was at least partially subsidized.] But I digress slightly. As I said at the start of the paragraph, I can’t quite vocalise my argument, mainly because in this (as many other things), I can see both sides. But I do think that it is dangerous to make savings schemes mandatory in this way, I am sure that it could be argued to be against civil liberties ⁵, [Or whatever it is that we British have that are analogous to them: I’ve been watching too much West Wing lately.] and I suspect that it could cause more problems than it solves, especially among those with a lower income.

On a happier note, England beat Australia with 253-7 against 252-9. It would be nice to say that we gave them the thrashing they so richly deserved, but it did look a little close there for a while. It makes my heart proud to think that the England cricket game is no longer quite the joke it was during my childhood. This is our fourth straight win against Australia in four competitions. We whomped Bangladesh recently, and generally are playing a better game than I can remember in a while. My favourite so far though? When my local team of Taunton beat Australia by four wickets last Wednesday (the 15th). He he he. No, I’m not a cricket nut, though I do infinitely prefer it to football, can follow a conversation about cricket with a fair amount of ease ⁶, [Sadly, this precludes me from using a wonderful quote as a post title, so I’m putting it here: When somebody tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot. – West Wing, Series 1] and will willingly sit down to watch a match ⁷. [If there isn’t, like, a good film on the other side, or something] Who can’t help but love a game where they still break for afternoon tea?!