This came in too late for this weeks Sunday Roast, but I couldn’t let it wait till next week…

Things to do when bored in a queue

Small but perfectly formed can, this week, be used to describe both myself and the Sunday Roast:

These iPod cases are quite cute.

This Rubik Cube for the blind is a genius idea! Not that I would have any more luck with this one over the standard colour ones (Curly Durly is the only one in the family who ever cracked Rubik games – but she cracked ’em all. One each holiday throughout my childhood. I think the clock was her favourite… but I digress). Good idea.

Ah, those Canadians… What will they think of next?

There are times in your life you just have to shrug and accept that you are dating a very odd boy. Funny and cute, but odd.

Because who knows when (if) I’m ever going to get a shiny new Mac, here’s some Apple porn pictures of a brand new MacBookPro as it comes out the box.

We live in a crazy world when actors held at the airport under the Terrorism Act.

I think people should stop giving Daniel Craig a hard time. The man is a damn fine actor and, let’s face it, Bond films are not exactly high art now, are they? At least wait for a trail before you condemn the film!

Everything these days seems to have a Creative Commons license slapped on it (at least on the ‘Net), but is it broken?

I’ve been circling round a review of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle for a while now but lacked the skill. Then I found this great review of it on BoingBoing. And then I found a link to an accompanying photoset on Flickr. Good day!

I’m doing temp work right now, so this report is mildly worrying. At the same time, my situation is slightly anomalous because of the nature of the temp-bank I work for. They are the good guys in this story.

And because I like to end with the NYT if I can (not sure why, but it’s become kind of a tradition) – I have to say “bad NYT”. In their review of ‘Doogal’ they make no mention of it having already been released in Europe last year as ‘The Magic Roundabout‘, with a completely different voice cast… Never saw the UK version and apparently it tanked, but still. To not mention it at all? (And researching this movie on IMDB kicked up a few omissions/mistakes in that venerable site!)

Ok, that’s it, I’m done and am off to the supermarket. Morrisons on a Sunday afternoon… I must have done something awful in a past life to deserve this.

Well, work is currently proving to be slightly more involving than I had planned for. This is good for me, because I don’t like to be bored, but bad for you because the Roast has suffered a bit this week. I’m still altering my routine to optimize the browsing/real-life balance, so perhaps next week will be a bit better?

Not being psychic, I can’t actually predict what next week will bring, but what I can do is bring you the best of last week:

Never a day goes by that I don’t thank our cousins across the ‘Pond for some wonderous bit of hilarity – this week was no exception. Seeing as how nothing I can say will make it any funnier, I’ll leave the headline to speak for itself. US Vice-President Cheney shoots man in hunt error. I do love the ambiguousness of the wording. First time I read it, I thought “hang on, Cheney was participating in a man-hunt?!”

Got a feeling that Darren’s blogging for beginners series is going to throw up a few gems of knowledge. No matter how long you’ve be doing something, there’s always something else you could be learning.

If you’ve got WordPress, or are thinking of moving to WP, you might find the following site very helpful, as it has a list of help topics. I’ve already bookmarked the one to do with moving hosts…

True? Not true? Who cares – Dewayne has some pictures from X-Men 3. Get ’em whilst they’re hot!

Just in case you missed it – when Valentines goes wrong…

CoComment is now live to public users and, rather than trying to fudge together and explanation myself (my brain is fried right now), I will let Kristin do the honors with her handy guide.

I’ve been playing around with the favicon for Bright Meadow lately (after Moose commented that most sites seemed to have one these days, I figured it was time to get down and dirty with photoshop), but as I absolutely suck at design and creating new things, I’ve had to fall back on a slightly wonky flower which is a hold over from ten site designs ago. It’s harder than it looks to create something recognisable in only 16×16 pixels! Anyway, hopefully this little tool found by Darren will make things a bit easier.

Oh, if anyone is hoping for Minion honours, designing me a pretty favicon might be a good start… 😉

Can the Transmit FTP application steal my heart away from Cyberduck? Paul seems to think it might.

And last, but by no means least, (I might be revealing my mean streak with this), this chocolate russian roulette game amuses me. Reminds me of the fun we used to have with the chili vodka they had at Revolution back in Liverpool. Only time I ever saw a grown Greek cry… (Fooling your friends into downing a chili vodka is an innocent pleasure Revolution denied us last time I went up for a visit – they now dye the drink red so you can’t confuse it with the clear stuff. Shame).

That’s your lot. I’m off to get some much needed shut-eye – whilst fun, this weekend was hardly relaxing, and I have to be up early tomorrow. Damn my landlord for demanding rent on a monthly basis.

It’s been an eventful week all told, for both blogging and personal reasons.

• The CC’s moved to a new city, started a new job, and started a blog, all in the past week. Yes, the man who was violently anti-blog has cracked and joined the blogspot crowd. Clearly, a year and a quarter of knowing me has wrought some change in the beast 😉
• Bright Meadow has got into double figures for RSS readership (and stayed there) for the first time (*waves at new people* Hello new people). I’ve also earned a few comments from A-listers. Despite my best efforts and avowed dislike of cliques and celebrity, yes, I was flattered. I am ashamed to admit it, so let’s leave the topic there, shall we?
• What else? Well, I’ve discovered that I like my hair when it’s curly (but lack the skill to make it curly myself) and got me a new job which I start tomorrow. I’m not sure if this is going to be to the detriment of the blog or not – probably not, because I am going to be so bored out of my brains that I will have nothing to do but think of blog posts. I’ve had some great IM chats, we named the penguin, I’ve had an apology to a nasty comment I had a while back which I called the guy on, I was temporarily the eight most commented blog on CoCo, and…
• Oh, too many things to go into here.

Now that I’ve got all that out of the way, on with the Sunday Roast:

Well, this is one less blog I have to check now – Russell Beattie has turned off comments. Now, all fairness to the guy, he’s lain out his reasons for turning off comments, and they are good reasons. I don’t have to deal with the volume of comments he does, so I don’t know how much hassle it might be. But, at the same time, part of what makes blogging worth putting up with the word ‘blogging’ is the fact it is a conversation. Two way communication, not one-way broadcast. Quite often, most of the fun happens in the comments. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule of mine, but if I stumble across a blog without comments, it makes me think twice about if it is really worth my time. This one, sadly, didn’t make it for me. Bye Russell 🙁

Following up on that, Darren asks if a blog without comments is still a blog? The answer for me is yes, it is still a blog (a blog being really just the back-end publishing system), but it is probably not a blog I want to read.

And now I feel sorry for the poor chap – Russell Beattie is drowning in a flood of nay-sayers after turning off comments. As he points out, it’s his blog, we should stop telling him how to run it.

Darren has a sobering reminder about the dangers of the Internet and stalking.

Full Circle has a great piece on ‘right speech’ and how it can facilitate dialogue. This sums up perfectly the philosophy I try to live my day to day life by, let alone how I try to act when I comment online. Note the word ‘try’ in that sentence…

I… I have nothing to say to this. Other than it foils half the fun of sleeping bags – having races with your brother to see who can hop quickest round the caravan awning. SELK’BAG Sleeping Bag – Gizmodo

GoogleBooks has fallen off my radar somewhat of late, but the bru-ha-ha is still going on.

Is the robots.txt file confusing ten kinds of crap out of you? Worry no more, because it’s Google to the rescue!

As a blogger and long-time student of all things online, this recent BBC article says nothing new exactly. It does, however, point to a slight shift away from the standard ‘blogs are evil’ stance of much traditional media. An interesting read.

TechCrunch has a preview of 3Bubbles, a dojamyflip that will add the ability to have realtime chat on blog posts. Tingle time again!

And Stowe has a bit more about 3Bubbles. Exciting.

I stumbled across Kristin’s site last night thanks to the wonders of CoCo. Thanks to her, not only does Bright Meadow now play nicely with CoCo, but I am also jonesing for a new tat after looking at her Samoan Ink photoset. Got this great design for a curly one from the big toe, over the bridge of the foot, to the ankle bone… Sadly, no money, and no good artist that I know of round here. I’m also on the bone marrow register – getting another tat would knock me off that for a year. Not sure if it’s worth it. Still, a girl can dream.

Go people, read her site, and glory in the wonders you will find therein.

And, just in case all that isn’t enough for you, there’s always the leftovers and assorted other fun bits to keep you occupied.

It’s not been a bad week all told and, clearly, my more positive mental attitude has rubbed off on the Roast – it’s a biggy!

According to Steven Spielberg, President Bush actually has his uses.

In the UK, new powers over death are being considered.

I think the 40×365 project is a wonderful idea. It’s made me think of doing something similar, but it would probably be on a smaller scale! For a month or something. Hmmm.

Phu Ly has a link to some incredibly beautiful pictures in a photoset classed, appropriately, as “[ æ¡‚æž— – Beautiful China” (warning, lots of big pictures, took a minute or so to open on wireless-broadband connection).

A moving and eloquent essay on ethnicity and science fiction.

I am in awe at the sheer elegance of this three column layout as presented by A List Apart. I suddenly want to redesign Bright Meadow, and I don’t even like three-column layouts for personal blogs!

Because Spooky is a jolly good chap and has done much for me Penguin- (and computer-) wise over the years – The Daily Monkey.

We here at Meadow Towers are not the only ones who are easily entertained by silly things. Scott Adams of Dilbert fame recently spent thirty minutes entranced by a rock impersonating a whale.

When I saw the trailer for “Bubble” I was confused, more than a little freaked out by all the doll’s heads, and left without 1) a clue what the film was about and 2) any desire to see said film. You could infer from that, that the trailer failed (for me at least). I therefore find it hardly surprising to hear that it bombed on it’s debut the other day. This is sad, as Soderbergh is to be applauded for trying new and innovative ways to distribute films, and box-office failure is hardly going to make distribution exec’s go “Oh, yes, we must distribute ALL films like this in the future”. Still, the last paragraph has it right – the film is only going to appeal to a niche audience. A small niche audience, clearly. Possibly not the best film to experiment with, hey?

I found William Gibson’s blog the other night. How happy was I?! (And how geeky to be getting so happy, but 😛 you).

For all you Photoshoppers out there, here’s a quick tutorial on how to create water droplets. Easy, effective, need to find me a reason to add water to things now!

This is just too perfect for it to be true! Indiana police are using robotic deer as a honey-trap for poachers.

Men, if you ever wonder why the women in your life are always sneaking off to the salon, David Seah will not only enlighten you, but he might make you giggle. Ok, giggling might be a bit effeminate, but it made me smile 😀

BBC NEWS: Public unclear over safe drinking. Am I the only one who sees this as a no-brainer? If you’re going to be driving, you don’t drink any alcohol, period. All this faffing around with ‘units’… Not to mention it doesn’t help that the acceptable levels keep changing.

If you’re one of those people who thinks Stowe knows what he’s talking about, the ‘conversational index’, or CI, might be the best indicator of how successful a blog is/will be. Going by the very simple formula (number of posts / number of comments), you find that Bright Meadow has a CI of roughly 0.39 (this is give or take – I’ve only got numbers of comments since the shift to WP back in December 05). On that scale then, Bright Meadow is going to kick some serious butt, and soon!

As a follow-up to this, Don Dodge has his own version of the CI. In this version, BM has a CI of 2.5.

I rediscovered Traumwerk today. Michael Shanks’s work is some I keep circling round and coming back to, time over time. So partly it is the same fascination that keeps you watching car-wrecks even when you know you shouldn’t, but I also have deep respect for the man’s ideas and work, even if I rarely (if ever) agree with what he says. He drives me round the bend and halfway back again, but he always makes me think harder about why I believe what I believe. Oh, and he was a proponent of wikis before most people knew wikis existed, so go Mike 🙂

I’m not a gamer, but the CC is, and he bent my ear often enough about SotC for the PS2 that even I can appreciate it is a great game. So, I bring you an interview all about the making of “Shadow Of The Colossus”. (Translated from the original Japanese).

Brian’s managed to snag himself a coComment invite. Lucky so and so. coComment is a service that claims to let you be able to track all your comments you’ve left on other blogs to better keep the conversation going. As I currently have a bookmark folder with all the posts I’ve commented on (damn people without comment RSS feeds!) this idea excites me. As I don’t have an invite though, I’m going to have to wait and see what other people like Brian and Ross have to say about it.

Liz, as ever, has a great fun find in Button Generator.com.

Again trust the NYT to give me something to end on a suitably bizzare note: Ivan Ivanovitch is dead.

Don’t forget there’s always more where that came from.

I have been scouring the ‘Net this week to bring you a select few items for your browsing pleasure:

Yes, this is a rabbit, even though it looks like… oh, I don’t know what it looks like, but it sure don’t look like a rabbit!

More evidence (if we needed it) as to the power of tight-leather-clad busty brunettes to sell films, regardless of their merit, is provided by Underworld topping the US cinema chart.

Because I can never explain why I like RSS, here’s a handy article on “Subscribing? What the hell does that mean??”

For those of you still labouring under the misaprehension that the Internet is a place free from censorship and government control (as /discuss adds for AOL would have us believe), here’s something on Google censoring itself for China (not the best article on this out there, but a good starting point to bring to all your attentions).

It’s academic really seeing as how I have no cash, but Wired News have a great article on whether to wait or buy now, with regards the new Intel Macs.

I can’t think of a snappy summary for this one, so I will just present the link to you as is: World of Warcraft: Don’t tell anyone you’re queer.

This might be of interest to you, or it might not, but for those of you who want more informaiton about SEO and stuff, I present a handy article on how to determine your Link Reputation.

Public transport, Amsterdam-style

Every now and then, the Lords do something that makes me think they are not an absolute waste of space, such as pointing out that ID cards really are of ‘limited value’ (unless you want a gain in the “curtailment of civil liberties”).

Well, RSS must be gaining in visibility if the NYT has an article on it in their Travel section but way to shoe-horn it in. That clearly wasn’t the article the journalist wanted to write. Reads like his editor went “hmmm, this RSS is getting to be a bigger deal than I thought, let’s see if we can mention it in… THIS (*brandishes plan for humble article on different travel websites*) and give to you… YOU (*points at Bob*), because you have no idea what you are talking about!” I mean, I understand RSS, and have been left confused by the article 😕

And I can always trust the NYT to provide a suitably obscure article to finish with – a discussion of the various merits of fake camel droppings, tree trunks, and dead rats (+ Tabasco sauce)

I hope that made your respective Sunday mornings, but if it’s left you wanting more, there’s always the leftovers and assorted other feeds

A shorter than usual Roast this week, because it’s just been one of those weeks, clearly.
The leftovers and lots of things for afters can be found links page.

Turns out, you have just a twentieth of a second to get people to like your website. Wow. Now I know that’s all the time I get, I’m surprised I get any readers of Bright Meadow at all!

Andy C has this timely reminder, and urges us all to take caution with BA online check-in.

Matt Cutts has a list of put-down-able books, that is books that won’t have you reading till three am in the morning when you have to get up at 6 am (Question: in this circumstance, is it better to grab those few remaining hours in shut-eye, or to just soldier on through and catch up the next night?). I’d challenge his position on Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle though. I’m re-reading it right now, and even on this the third run through, I find myself picking it up at 10 pm, and next looking at the clock and realising it is 1.30 am. What are your put-down-able books?

An article in the NYT put me on to CoffeeGeek, a wonderful site if (like me), you spend far too much time wondering about what makes the perfect cup of coffee. It’s odd, I barely drink the stuff, but after working on and off at Whittard for seven years, I keep coming back to places where I can learn more.

Gizmodo have a great gadget (when don’t they?) that uses solar energy to charge your mobile. It can also charge things like MP3 players and the like. Possibly not so good for rainy England where we see the sun once a month, but a great idea none the less.

Cut the Cord: USB Runs Free with Freescale. I want. I want so badly. So very, very badly.

This is possibly one of the best ideas I have seen in a long time – the slanket, which is a blanket, with sleeves. Genius! (Though you could save a fair bit of money I imagine by getting an old blanket of your own and putting some slits in it yourself. Still…)

Finally, someone who explains what the deal is with the php tags in WordPress in language I can understand!

And I can think of no better way to end this weeks Roast by imparting the wisdom that peeling bananas from the other end is easier
bbc, first impressions, andy c, matt cutts, neal stephenson, baroque cycle, coffee geek, gizmodo, solar energy, freescale, slanket, paul stamatiou, wordpress, k2, boing boing, bananas