Cas is currently

Going to Neko’s BBQ with the CC last night would have been worth it if all that had happened was the following – Spooky, being the absolute genius that he is, telling me about the following site he’d discovered in his rambles around the Interweb: An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot.

As it was, that wasn’t the only fun we had at the BBQ, though it was slightly lower key than the one back in May, mainly due to the frantic deadlines we are all facing right now.

Also, two site updates. New people and minor reorganisation of the blogs/sites linked to in the sidebar is one of them. The second? Well, if you guess right, I’ll tell you so.

Cas is currently

Ok, it’s been a day or so since I blogged, and actually over a week since I last cleared out my ‘Random’ folder, so be prepared for a long post. Before you ask, the reason you don’t get lots of shorter ‘saw this and thought you might like’ posts during the week is that, as a rule, I write my posts on my computer in the lab. The bookmark folder on that computer is sadly not able to talk to the one on my powerbook, which has causes no end of hassle I won’t go into now. Also, I like to keep things in reserve in the event that I have no idea what to blog about. Today is one of those days. For some reason, blogging about the good stuff just doesn’t seem as funny as moaning about the bad stuff.

Either way, on with the show. All the NYT stuff is marked with an ‘*’ so you know which ones need the login. It’s free, but if you’re cookies just got wiped as mine seem to have, it is a bit annoying if you are unprepared.

* Downloadable Book – author Warren Adler is making his next novel available for download, free. Go him!

Adventures of iGuy – the iGuy iPod case gets up to all sorts of shenanigans (which is a word my spellchecker on TextEdit recognised! :O Still haven’t taught it that proper english spelling rarely uses ‘Z’ though.).

A selection of the best of the rest in the ongoing Intelligent Design vs Darwinism debacle.
ID vs Darwin prt 1 – the NYT/IHT spin on things.
The Panda’s Thumb – well researched sillyness.
Evolution at Berkley – a clear and well thought out site explaining both sides of things, and how best to teach it, as according to those clever people at Berkley.
Institute for Creation Research – makes me uncomfortable even linking to these people (damn not being able to assign value to linking yet), but as I’m all one for presenting both sides of the argument, go wild.
Mata with a few alternatives…

Back to the fun stuff.
Wikiwyg – Oh. My. God. I guess it helps if you understand what I’ve been researching this past year, but when this got released on Monday I got goosebumps all over. It is ridiculous to get so excited over about three lines of javascript, but I want to have this things babies! Even though I now have to rewrite an entire chapter.

EU Funding Game for Water Aid – link to a game designed by Mata. This one is all very serious and grownup, but well worth a look.

TruePower – longer lived iPod batteries. This one’s for Jeff, who’s iPod is just a teeny bit older than mine (2nd Gen, so we’re cooler than all the people who only got one because they became fashionable and mainstream), and can no longer make it through a day in the lab without some help.

Sushi gadget – I came late in life to the joys of Sushi, but they do say there’s no zealot like a convert. Not sure I want this machine though. Isn’t half the fun making it yourself with the little mat and stuff?

iTrip for the iPod – more shiny gadgetry. I’ve had a iTrip clone (mines an iRock) pretty much since I got the iPod so that I could listen to music in the car. Sadly, the Crazy Canalman got me one from the States, where FM isn’t used so much, and it was hardwired to the frequency that in this country is used to broadcast Radio 2, so it’s never got much use. This one though, looks cooler, and can change frequencies. I want!

Google Talk – not sure if I am totally ok with the turn it looks like Google is taking toward world domination, but at least the stuff they release works, unlike the majority of the Microsoft products out there! Alas, I can’t use this because it doesn’t work on Mac’s (grr). Also not totally ok with the fact you now need to provide your AMERICAN cellphone number to get a gmail account. What about the majority of the worlds’ population that doesn’t live in the States? Or that doesn’t, you know, want to give out their cellphone number just like that? Fortunately, I have all the gmail accounts a girl could need (for now), but I might have to send myself some invites just to make sure. Anyone else want one before you need to use your phone?

Women have lower IQs than men – you wha, buh who? (inarticulate noise of surprise). Um, yep, ok. Seriously the Guardian is rapidly becoming one of my least favourite papers. Not sure why I still get the feeds for it.

Mobile Photo Printer – for all of you out there (like the CC) whose fun snaps are locked forever on their cameraphone. Then again, I normally look awful on cameraphone pictures (any picture for that matter), so no! Look away!

Evian Water Bra – nope. No idea why.

Blanket Security – this just seemed funny to me,

Army joins parade for Gay Pride – go the UK military. I totally do not agree with you, and I wish we didn’t have to have an army at all, but seeing as how we live in the real world, the least we can do is be inclusive. *waves the article at the Americans* Yep, we have Gays in the Military. So do several other countries, including Canada (apparently), and it really doesn’t cause the problems you seem to think it will cause. Get over it.

BBC to put channels on the net – go Auntie! YAY!

There has been an unprecedented level of distraction this past week. He blames me. I blame him, and he’s the man, so he’s to blame. So now, I’m off to do some much needed work. Toodles.

Cas is currently

My bed is really rather comfortable. In fact, for a bed in rented accommodation it is probably one of the best beds I have had the pleasure (and once or twice the bad judgement) to sleep on.

Which is why I felt particularly betrayed when I noticed that it had developed a squeak. It has never squeaked before. Narry a peep from it the entire year. Then, as I said, the other night just when you don’t want your bed to be squeaking it… started squeaking.

In discussion with some friends, it appears that my bed is not alone in exhibiting this phenomena. Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to has noticed that, under certain conditions, beds start squeaking. It has to be said that this is guaranteed to happen when you are living in shared accommodation, ensuring maximum potential embarrassment.

For not only is it bad enough that your flatmates might run into you and your date looking sheepish the next morning in the kitchen. The Global Conspiracy of Bed Manufacturers (GCBM) also means that you have no chance of denying that anything happened. Everyone in the flat is aware of what was going on in what is meant to be private.

So I ask all you Bed Manufacturers out there, why do you have to do it? I am an adult, I am responsible, and I am doing nothing that is against the law. All the parties involved are consenting and ditto on the adult etc. Why do you have to set me up for such public humiliation? I know it is not a personal thing for several reasons:
1) I have never (to my knowledge) met someone who manufactures beds.
2) I have never (to my knowledge) insulted that noble profession.
3) It doesn’t just happen to me – it is a well recognised phenomena
4) I am not egotistical enough to think people go around making beds squeak at inopportune times just to piss me off.

It is because the GCBM has strong moral and ethical views on the whole out-of-wedlock subject?

Also, I am curious – how do you do it? I mean, it’s not just me who’s noticed this, so there has to be a fair few beds out there that exhibit such behaviour. Is it something to do with the natural frequency of the bed-frame?

Um, and is there anyway I can stop it?

Cas is currently and having a little

So the Inter Library Loans people are rapidly reaching the top of the list of people I really don’t like to wake up to in the morning. Pretty much the only person who I have even less desire to wake up to is the Misogynistic Belgian.

I have just had another message from these wonderful wonderful people saying that they are charging me £116.36 for the book I returned on time last week.

The ILL lady was very helpful on the phone (this one still had a brain it seems, unlike last time’s). Turns out “they have had a few problems with clearing it off my card”, but I am fine – I’m only liable for the fines incurred from the 19th to the 23rd when I was late returning it.

I thought I had already sorted this!

So I explain, yet again, to the nice ILL lady, that I had returned it at around 11 am on the 19th, the day it was due back, complete with the disc it was meant to have, and that I didn’t really appreciate being charged. Especially when they had already admitted they’d been a bit slow clearing things that particular weekend.

She very nicely assured me that she had cleared ALL the fines off the account, and that she has put a flag next to the item so I won’t be bothered by it again.

All I can say is, watch this space.

(and woot! this is my hundredth post!)

Cas is currently and still rather

It’s official. I am a special and wonderful person. I’ve even got the letter and some cards to prove it.

I have been giving blood regularly for a while now. Here is my swanky card.
.

One of the main reasons I give blood is because a fair few of those I know and love have had to rely on donated blood at one point or another, and feeling a bit icky one afternoon every four months after a donation is a tiny price to pay for all the good you are doing. I also give blood because it is a prerequisite to donating bone marrow.

When I was younger a very good friend tragically died from recurring childhood leukemia. For nearly seven years she relied on regular bone marrow transplants and, as none of her family were a match, all the bone marrow came from donors, so I have seen first hand the enormous amount of good this procedure can provide.

For one reason and another (mainly badly timed piercings, tattoos, and illness) it has taken me till a couple of months ago to get on the Bone Marrow Register. So I was overjoyed this morning when the following letter and card arrived in the post.

Link to the nice letter I got with the card.
I just hope that I never get called, because if (when) I do, that means someone is in a similar situation to Lily and her family, and no one should be in that situation.

Now I’m not saying you all should up and join the British Bone Marrow Register (or whatever your regional equivalent is). That’s something for each and every one to think about with regards their individual circumstances, but please do take a moment to think on it. I know Lily would never have seen her 12th birthday if it hadn’t been for the kindness of complete strangers. When held against the benefits, the transient pain and discomfort experienced by a donor pales into insignificance.

(And yes, if you are curious, I am also a registered organ donor. It’s not as if I am going to need them when I’m dead now, is it?)

More information about Bone Marrow donation.
More information about Blood donation.
CLIC – the children’s cancer charity that gave so much love and support to Lily, her family, and all her friends.

There, that’s me done with the guilt tripping. I’m off to be told how monumentally unfit I am by a man at the gym.

Cas is currently with a side order of which is severely hampering her attempt to

Today I am in such a good mood, even finding out that the Misogynistic Belgian is to blame for bollixing my server yesterday, has barely put a dent in the day. What is wrong with me! My brain has completely turned to mush and I am unable to form coherent thoughts. In the event that normal cognitive skills do not return I may be forced to subject you, my dear readers, to severe giddiness and an overuse of smilies . Should you become physically ill upon reading, I shall not be held responsible.

Thank you for your patience, please stayed tuned. I expect normal service to resume in a day or so, give or take, depending on what path events take.

So I have decided that Pool is not such a bad game after all. I’ve spent the last twenty odd years of my life determined that I am no good at it, that it is a silly game, and that I don’t like playing it. So why I agreed to go out and play a few games with the Cute Canadian last night is quite beyond me.

But play I did, in a rather nice pub called the Mitre, and all the five games we played were won by yours truly.

I would like to claim that it was my innate skill at the game showing through, but I do have a policy of telling the truth, even if it isn’t the whole truth, on this blog, so I have to admit that in the grand scheme of things, the CC’s skill was better than mine. He just cracks under the tiniest amount of pressure. Remarkably easy to distract as well.

He then got his own back by challenging me to a game of Fussball. By the end of the game I was pretty much down to ritual suicide as the only way to reclaim my honour.

Still, I won five games of Pool, he didn’t, so

Cas is currently

So it turns out that I am not quite as unfit and overweight as I had dreaded being, which is always nice to know.

The reason I know this is that I forked out £18 to a very nice man called Adrian at the gym today to have what they call a ‘full body assessment’. They measure everything from height, weight (I do like the set of scales he used. Lost half a stone just by going on them!), peak flow, grip-strength, stretchiness, the number of push-ups you can do in a minute, your body fat percentage, your aerobic stamina, the full shebang.

Turns out I am pretty much in the average and happy range on most things. My aerobic stamina is pants, but then I already knew that. My grip-strength is asymmetrical, which is a predictable hold-over from all those years of archery. Great on one side (my right), slightly less great on the other. The computer predicted that I would be able to do 11 push-ups in the space of a minute. I showed it who was boss and did 55. Again, upper body strength courtesy of archery.

It also turns out I am also one of the stretchiest people Adrian’s seen in a… ever, were his exact words. Then again, I already knew I was stretchy. I can’t quite get the legs behind my head any more, partly due to a buggered hamstring when I was 13, and assorted other bits and pieces going wrong and threatening to drop off, but if I’ve done the proper warmups, I can still get my head flat on my knees when my legs are straight out on the floor. Ahh, the benefits of being forced to do ballet as a young child.

I won’t be getting my personal training program till Tuesday 9 am, but when I get it you can be sure I will share at least parts of it with you. Yes, you heard that right, I am going to be in the gym at 9 am on a Tuesday morning.

Yeah, I don’t know what’s wrong with me either ^*1*.

And now, because my bed is looking very very good to me right now, I am going to go curl up in it and go to sleep. It is a very comfortable bed. Though I do have a whole noise/conspiracy rant I am working out in my head about beds, but I need to work out how to word it without sounding… well, work it out for yourself