Lost

Don’t tell me what happens in Season Three of Lost. I haven’t even watched the end of Season Two yet (for some reason I’m just not in the mood to watch the video).

For that matter, don’t tell me what happens in Season Three of Battlestar Galactica, especially seeing as how I haven’t seen Season Two yet.

I want to try and maintain the suspense of what happens in the second part of Season Two of Grey’s Anatomy (for some reason Five stopped screening mid-season).

I would like to remain clueless as to the plot intricacies of the new Aaron Sorkin show with Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry (Studio something).

Basically, I’m banning you from talking about TV shows. Especially American TV shows that haven’t made it across the pond yet. In return I’ll try not to reveal what happens in Dr Who and Torchwood (when the new seasons start)

Deal?

Oh, and no talking about ANY seasons of 24 – yes, I know, it is shocking, but I have somehow managed to have watched NONE of them yet. I have season one in video form sitting by the machine (yes, a real life video you have to manually rewind. They do still exist) and I am sure that illyna will continue to supply the seasons to me as I become ready, but I want to make this voyage of discovery as unhindered as possible by plot spoilers.

(Though I already know that Jack Bauer has died/near died often enough to make me think he has a revolving door in the afterlife. Ahh, Jack…)

Please?

Sunday Roast: strange things are afoot at the circle k

Firstly, if you haven’t already noticed, Bright Meadow has gone pink for October. The “Oh good god what have you done?!” comments issuing from Moose when she got greeted by the pink this morning made it all worthwhile. In answer to her plaintive question of “but why does it have to be SO pink?” I answer that if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. In for a penny, in for a pound. And all other applicable cliches. I loathe pink in all it’s forms (unless it is ironic pink, a concept that not everyone understands) so when I made the decision to go Pink for October I knew I would have to go so far over the top as to come back on it from the other side. I am actually glorying in the sheer Barbie-ness of it.

As mentioned on the previous post, there are 7 changes, some major, some minor, that have been made to the site to ‘pinkify’ it. If you can spot all seven Minionhood awaits 🙂

And now, back the regularly scheduled programming.

The Pew Internet and American Life project recently released part 2 of their ‘Future of the Internet’ report. Fred over at ClaimID wrote a very interesting piece on whether transparency will make the world a better place?. Whilst I’ve not had the time, or I must admit inclination, to give either the report or Fred’s article the full attention they deserve, there are some VERY interesting and startling findings in there. A must-read for anyone who claims an interest in the future of the Internet.

Clive Owen’s latest film Children of Men tops the UK box office. This doesn’t surprise me as it is a very solid film. I saw it last weekend and throughout it is pitch-perfect. The disillusionment, terror, and casual violence of a world without children is beautifully portrayed. I’ve never read the PD James book the film is based on (Moose assures me the book is also very good, but differs widely from the film) but the film stands perfectly well as a piece of wonderful cinema. Disquieting to watch because you can all to easily see society going that way, even without the loss of children, and with some very strong performances – Michael Cain is a joy to watch as always. Honestly, go see the film. A very firm four penguin film.

One word sprang to mind when reading of Josh’s plans to sail a viking boat on the Ohio – why? Followed by a secondary thought that this boy is insane. Which was followed by “good, that’s perfect behaviour for one of my Minions” 😀

Apparently, finger length shows if you will be sporty or not. Now, my 2d measurement is approx. 8cm, whilst my 4d measurement is approx. 9cm. and I *SUCK* at running. I can put on a fair burst of speed when I have to (running for the bus etc.) but I am, at best, a short-distance sprinter. And not a fast one at that! I have no/very little endurance and even if I was at the peak of physical fitness, I would still be a bad runner – women with decent sized breasts are NOT, I repeat NOT built for movement at speed. Or bouncing activities. Trust me on this. So I feel that I singlehandedly disprove this theory, but then I’m not a scientist, so what do I know?

I’m not linking to the following story for the content, rather for the headline. In my mind you don’t ‘mull’ nuclear bombs. The word ‘mull’ just seems too… fluffy… for weapons of mass destruction. But that’s me.

It’s been hard, nay impossible, to find American Long-grain rice in the supermarkets here for the past month or so. I had my suspicions this was because of a GM incident I’d heard about recently. I do so like it when I’m proven right.

Now before we go any further I must stress I am not conservative a never will be. Most of their political platform sends chills into my heart and I disagree with them on pretty much every issue. At the same time, I’m curious about WebCameron (don’t you just love that little ‘beta’ tag in the top right? How very Web 2.0 now excuse me whilst I go make an offering to the web gods in apology for using the term ‘web 2.0’ on this site) which is David Cameron’s video blog. I tried to access it most of the day yesterday but it was down because of a link on the BBC News site – not a good start there. Launching a video blog you hope will raise your profile and… you’re not prepared for the demand.

Anyway, enough with the snark. I can access it today (servers have obviously been frantically bullied into behaving) and, I must admit it, I’m impressed. It looks unoffensive. It works on the Mac. It bends over backwards NOT to look like any other government site. I’m… damn it! There’s nothing I can complain about!

Hang on, yes there is. No RSS. Naughty – you expect me to manually check in with the site to see if there has been a new episode uploaded? Oh, how very old school.

Other than that though, there is a distinct lack of grump material. I am genuinely impressed that the Conservatives are making this effort to communicate directly with people. I like that they have an ‘open blog’ where, if you register, you can join in the discussion. I’m not sure I want to register (do I *want* the Conservatives to have me email address and details?) but that’s my personal decision. Yes, it smacks a little bit of jumping on the ‘blog’ bandwagon, but why not? You use whatever you can to gain an advantage, and where are the Lib Dem’s or New Labour?

My recommendations – get RSS feeds implemented.
My reservations/questions – how ‘open’ is the Open Blog? Do they screen posts before they are posted? What level of interaction will there be between commentors and David/other Conservative party members?
Why I probably won’t be watching WebCameron on a regular basis – my deep and abiding distrust and dislike of the Tories. I’ve got a feeling a few candid camera shots of David Cameron doing the washing up isn’t going to make me change my mind.

Kudos for trying though 🙂

I do take umbrage at David Cameron’s quote in the middle of this article though where he says “a young person would no more think of going to a public meeting than boiling an egg“. I LIKE boiled eggs. I regularly have them for brunch. Moose had boiled eggs for breakfast only this morning. On top of that, I *work* in local government and I’m only 24, so 😛 you Mr Cameron.

I spotted this recipe for Mooncakes and, whilst I’ve never had a proper Mooncake in my life, I want to try them. Probably won’t be able to get half of the necessary ingredients in this country, but they look intriguing if nothing else.

And lastly for this Sunday Roast, because my finger feels like it is about to burst open at the seams and start gushing blood all over my keyboard (ick) I am saddened to find out that Orbit gum will not get you into heaven. What about other sorts of gum? And how do they know? And why the need for the small print?! I mean, it’s not like you’re gonna be able to come back and say “well actually, I ended up in hell so I’m gonna sue…” I mean, you’d be dead, and if it’s one thing the dead are known for it’s not suing people.

That’s it for today folks. Go, have fun, and remember – breasts are for life, not just for Christmas: be aware.

Pink for October

For those of you who customarily read Bright Meadow in an RSS reader, I really do recommend actually visiting the site and glorying in all the pink that abounds. And trust me, there’s a *lot* of pink.

Why go pink?

The idea is to spread awareness about breast cancer.

In the last three decades the number of breast cancer cases has soared at the same time as the death rates are falling. The later is due, in the most part, to a much greater public awareness of the disease. Like with all cancers the key is early diagnosis – being aware of your breasts is vital.

If you are feeling in a generous mood, I would suggest donations to any of the following:

To lighten the mood slightly, there are 7 changes that have been made to Bright Meadow – the observant among you who can spot all of them will get Minionhood. Some of the changes are glaringly obvious. Others, not so much.

Even if you can’t/don’t want to do a full makeover of your site and join the pink side, there are badges available for you to show your support.

Go on – go pink! I dare you…

Flickr Usernames

The following is annoying me today – the person on Flickr with the username ‘Cas’ is blatantly not making full use of the Flickr-y goodness.

S/he’s had the account a while (at least a year and half) because when I registered with Flickr the name was already taken, but still.

Grrr.

I would make SO much better use of that name!

Five Questions

Honestly, tag a guy once and you can never get rid of them! Still, this time I will forgive him because just when I had run out of inspiration on what to write (that slug-post is still blocking all normal creativity), Josh comes along and tags me. Then I got mentioned by Jay and I knew I really couldn’t ignore it.

1. Why do you blog?
The first question and I’m going to wimp out. I’ve already answered it elsewhere in some depth.

Briefly however, I blog to:
1) Make sense of my world/my thoughts.
2) Connect to people and get into conversations.
3) Have fun.
4) Improve my writing.

2. Which author and/or book has most influenced you?
Again, a question I can refer to a previous post – I’m liking this!
I’ve read a LOT in my life and it would be hard, if not impossible, to say “this one author has most influenced me”. At different times different books have had the most impact on my life. For the reasons behind the four I picked last time (The Bible, The Darkness Visible by William Styron, The Skull Mantra by Eliot Patterson and Yes Man by Danny Wallace) read this post.

Other authors/bloggers/writers/academics whose work I adore and frequently come back to include Neal Stephenson, danah boyd, Jane Austen, William Gibson, Robin Hobb and.. Oh, countless others for many different reasons.

3. Which three blogs do you most visit?
Evil question! Are you trying to make me play favourites here? I read so much (and read it through RSS to boot) that this is, as already implied, a hard one. But here goes…

  • 9rules and all it’s attendant blogs form the core of my daily browsing, especially when I am at work. I don’t have a list of my bookmarks on the work computer, so 9rules is a great way of finding something to read when I am at a loose end.
  • BBC News again is central to my day-time reading. Whilst not technically a blog it does supply a lot of material for my blog. That and it’s always a good idea to know what is going on in the world so you can have conversations without looking TOTALLY dumb.
  • Flickr. The wonderful, wonderful photo-sharing site provides hours of amusement, blogging inspiration, and eye-candy.

Phew! Answered the question without picking any personal blogs. Result.

4. Why do you read fiction?
Because it takes me to different worlds and times and lets me experience things I would never have the opportunity to otherwise. Because it can help you see the truth behind situations and dares to talk about the taboo.

5. What makes you laugh?
Lots of things. Most things. I am easily amused by most of the world to be truthful – it is just all so absurd. I find life inherently amusing, which has got me into a few misunderstandings along the way, but it I find it a much better way of living my life.

Terry Pratchet makes me laugh, so does Monty Python. Billy Connolly usually has me crying in laughter and Eddie Izzard makes me laugh so hard I can’t breathe.

6. I tag…
Well, last time I tagged people, people got grumpy, so I’m not going to tag anyone. If you want to, feel free to continue with the meme. Pass on the love 🙂