Yearly Archives: 2006

Penguin fun!

I have a wonderous little penguin animation that S. from work emailed me today – it’s a gif and the looping just gets old after about three cycles so I don’t want to post it, but if anyone wants to see it, just drop me a line and I’ll send it to you 🙂

The joys of passport photos

I take a bad picture – I rarely, if ever, look even halfway respectable in pictures that are taken of me. There are about two pictures of me that I can look at and not cringe. The “Hat” picture which graces the About page is one of these. My graduation picture is most definitely not. Which is a problem considering Curly Durly is determined to keep my grad-pic in pride of place on the fireplace till she has another one to replace it (roll on July, another silly hat, and an outfit with trousers so I don’t look like a fat penguin).

My point being, if I have a picture I don’t like (i.e., most of them), I don’t show it to people. I keep going till I have one I do like. Good karma must be accruing to the chappy who thought of modern photo-booths where you can have several attempts to look human. What I definitely don’t do is use a picture that makes me look (quite frankly) like a startled ghost that has stuck its finger in an electrical socket. Especially when this picture is to be placed on something that will be in use for a minimum of five years.

The thing with my job is, I get to look at lots and lots of faces. Around twenty thousand at the last count. And most of the pictures are really rather good – though if I had a penny for every time I’ve heard “oh, I hope I don’t break the camera”, I’d probably have enough for an external hard drive and a pair of glasses by now. Clearly, the majority of people in the Soton region at least feel the same as me. You make an effort not to submit pictures that make you look, quite frankly, deranged.

All of which makes the odd one all the more special. Everyone took one look at the picture, blinked, looked again to make sure, then went “oh… dear…” I will NOT be surprised if we get a phone call from the lady asking if we can reissue her card with another picture on it.

Whilst we don’t keep formal lists, there are some names that stand testament to how cruel parents can be (and how Terry Prachett the world is sometimes), and there are some faces which have become firm favourites. This lady, bless her pink eye shadow, is definitely one of the better ones.

(And no, we’re not being cruel, laughing at people. We are doing it in a loving and respectful manner. That, and if we didn’t do it occasionally, we would all go stir crazy).

Sunday Roast: a buoyant penguin with a spring in my waddle

So not only is this week’s Roast very small, it is actually being written on Friday night and set to publish itself on Sunday morning. All being well, the Brainy Snail will have something to read with her morning coffee (I got told off for the posting later and later each week). The way my week is going however, chances are you won’t be reading this till I come back on Sunday evening and beat seven kinds of hell out of my server.

So, whenever you are reading this, enjoy 🙂

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that he is not very comfortable with the teaching of creationism in schools. Finally! Someone making sense on the debate. And it is a leader of the Church of England! You could have knocked me down with a feather.* I did have a link to the NYT coverage of this story as well (ah, bless the Americans. So delightfully mixed up), but I lost it. That can be your homework 😀
*Trying hard not to let own personal beef with the C of E flavour the post. Clearly failing. Sorry. Will try harder.

The BBC have a worry report about the severe misdiagnosis of angina in women.

I haven’t linked to Danah in a while, so it makes me happy to bring you her wonderful views on MySpace vs. Friendster. I know I’m not actively researching this stuff anymore, but it still interests me. Read, inwardly digest, and discuss.

Whilst I’m not a problogger (heaven forbid, it would take all the fun out of it!), I have been a bit narked at seeing some of my content republished on other blogs. Quite why anyone would want to republish my content is a topic for another day. Darren over at ProBlogger has kicked off a discussion about just this – Should sites republish a blog’s content? (Not surprisingly, the weight of opinion currently rests firmly in the “it’s my content so why should they make money out of it?” campsite).

I am renowned the world over as the universes’ worst morning person. Ever. I’ve been told that I am “adorable” when I just wake up, but the CC is a strange boy, so he doesn’t really count. Everyone else agrees on one thing – if you see me before my morning cup of Assam, run in the opposite direction. Fast. Certainly don’t make eye contact.
So when I stumbled across Steve’s tips on how to become an early riser, I was intrigued. I already (more or less) follow this plan – go to bed when tired, wake up same time each day, get straight out of bed. Apart from weekends. I like to sleep like the dead on weekends. Perhaps that is where I am going wrong?… *ponders* Somehow, the desire to be a cheerful person when the clock still reads single digits is just not strong enough to overcome the desire to stay snuggled under the covers for as long as humanly possible. I present this article to you not as a “I will be doing this” thing, but as a “I know I should be doing this, but I won’t, but I find the idea a worthy one, so perhaps one of you is a stronger person than I am” thing.

The Odyssey continues. Josh’s attempt to break free of the tyranny of RSS that is. Going through the same thing myself (more or less) at the moment, I am deeply interested in how Josh is going about things. I’m still at the “I know I have too many feeds but can’t bring myself to delete anything” stage. It’s gonna be a while before I get past the denial I think.

That’s it. All done.
Where am I this weekend that I have to play around with advance publishing? I’m back at the homestead with Curly Durly, being nice to her on Mother’s Day, and starting to clear through the 20 odd years of crap that have accumulated in my room and the loft in preparation for house-moving. Ugh. Hope you had a great weekend without me!

To Minion, or Not to Minion, that is the question

I was on the train home today, staring out the window, listening to Eve 6, and the urge came over me to make new Blog Minions. Yes, I think about my blog whilst I commute. That’s not odd, is it?

Minion Button

Anyway, there are three new Blog Minions I would like to introduce you to:

The Brainy Snail, for taking care of me and making sure my brain didn’t explode before todays interview. So not exactly blog-related, but as she didn’t get a proper introduction for her previous Minion-contribution, I figure she deserves a little paragraph now. And trust me, managing to make me calm this afternoon was no mean task! Gibbering wrecks had nothing on me. Everybody, wave at the Brainy Snail.

Jay, for being brave and sharing a cheesecake recipe. That, and his little squirrel/beaver/rodent avatar makes me grin every time I see it. See, it doesn’t take much to be made a Minion. Be nice to Jay people, he’s new to Bright Meadow (at least, he’s only just started actually commenting). We don’t want to scare him away.

Crazy. Ah, Crazy. How can I not make someone who blogs under the name “Crazy” a Minion? He can generally be relied upon to say nice things in comments, so that’s a plus too. That, and he keeps asking to be made one. Way I figure it, if you want something that badly, who am I to deny you the pleasure? Say ‘hello’ to Crazy. I’m sure that straightjacket is just a fashion statement…

Now, being a Blog Minion can mean whatever you want it to mean. I don’t ask you to do anything – it is simply in recognition of the fact you are jolly good eggs, and people who have made Bright Meadow that little bit brighter 🙂 If you want to take the button back to your own site to proclaim your Minionhood (and make a handy link 😉 ) (if you even have your own site), please do so. If you want to completely redesign the button, please do that also. If you don’t want to link back, again, that is fine by me. I just want you to know that I appreciate you.

The full list of Blog Minions can be found here, as can a fuller explanation of what Minions are.

Sunday Roast: Because in reality you’re a penguin superhero

Which would you rather have, a comment, or a trackback? Personally, I’d rather have comments over trackbacks, but that is because of the type of site Bright Meadow is. Really, I should have both. I just can’t be bothered to get down and dirty with the css at the moment.

Apparently, a hole in the heart is linked to migraine. Now, surely, any hole in your heart is a bad thing? (Other than the four ones you are meant to have of course).

The BBC has a report how different genders have different interests in science. Not surprisingly, men prefer blowing things up, whilst women are more interested in the biology of things. Well, that’s what the study suggests, and fair enough. It’s the fact people are honestly suggesting that lessons should be tailored to the sexes. I mean, come on! I enjoyed blowing things up as much as my brother did when we were growing up. And I enjoyed doing physics A-Level, perhaps more than my chemistry one. Grrrr. Ok, so I was never what you would describe as a normal girl, but still – if you are going to split lessons with regards gender, how are you going to cope with ones like me who don’t fit in? Or ones that are interested in everything, both the ‘boy’ stuff and the ‘girl’ stuff? Wrong, wrong I tell you. My spidy-senses are tingling.

I knew there was a reason I was saving all those AOL cds…

This recipe for chicken and coconut curry looks seriously tasty. Prawns work well in this instead of chicken I’ve discovered.

So it could be considered bad form to Roast one of my own posts, but I don’t want people to miss two wondrous recipes for cheesecakes.

Experts are urging more studies into how iPod headphones could cause hearing loss. Is it just me who thinks this isn’t a new story? I mean, from the very first time I ever got a walkman when I was about three (lots of long car trips, they were the only things that kept me and my brother from killing each other) I was told not to play it too loud. If Mum could hear it in the front seat, it was WAY too loud. I even remember all my walkmen having volume limiters on them. Not a new problem. Silly people.

What wine are you? Moose found this Little Penguin wine and passed the link on to me. I am sure you can guess why. I’m a

“Pinot Noir: Smooth and elegant, James Bond and La Femme Nakita could take lessons from you. However, that quick wit of yours masks a sensitive nature that empathizes with other’s needs and always offers a helping hand. And just like the Little Penguin Pinot Noir, that only makes you that much more enjoyable to have around.”

One more cheesecake recipe, this time for Three-Cheese Cheesecake. Yes, at some point I will be trying out all these recipes and letting you know which is best 😀

Ishbadiddle has a piece on what kids should read, as opposed to what is popular. I love Ben Okri’s list, especially the “read the books your parents hate, read the books your parents love” points. I always thank my father for refusing to buy me the Famous Five books when I was younger. It meant I had to save up my meager pocket money to buy every single one. I appreciated them all the more because I had brought them. It started as an act of rebellion, but by book 6 I was buying them because I genuinely enjoyed them. As for reading the books your parents love, it was impossible not to. Every available wall in the house was covered with bookshelves and if ever I wanted something to read, I just had to take one down. Without a doubt my love of SF and fantasy springs from early diets of Asimov, Clarke, and McCaffrey.

William Gibson likes V for Vendetta. I was going to see it anyway, but if Gibson likes it, it must be good 😉