Month: March 2006

Prototype

I’ve spent the last couple of days doing a bit of work involving tarmac AJAX, and while I’m sure everyone else in my line of work discovered them yonks ago, I’d just like to take a moment to sing the praises of both script.aculo.us and especially the Prototype javascript library that it uses. These are clearly the work of clever bastards, because even I, with my attrophied Javascript can knock together some fairly nice stuff with them. If you’re engaged in web development these days, then really you ought to be using this stuff. They’ve saved me so much work it’s untrue. (Which isn’t to say it was all painless, but it wasn’t the special torture it might’ve been.)

This entry was originally published at my workblog.

Opium Dreams

As anyone who’s been near me in the last few week or two can attest, I am currently suffering from a cough that would make the most consumptive poet give up and go home, clearly overmatched in the smashed lung stakes. This, honestly, doesn’t bother me. It has happened to me almost every time I have had a cold since I was small child. It sounds (and is) unpleasant, but it’s getting better. But for the last week or so, in order to make sure I get more than a few hours fractured sleep at night, I am taking a thing called Gee’s Linctus, who contains, among other things, a weak tincture of Opium. It’s pretty much guaranteed to knock me out in about ten minutes flat.

I will refrain from sharing the details with you, but let’s just say that I’ve been having some pretty fucked up dreams. I am almost at the point where I want the cough to fuck off less for it’s own symptoms, and more because I’d like some dreamless sleep some time soon.

Better Living Through Chemistry

I spent Saturday at Whisky Live. Which means I got to try a lot of excellent booze. And I got to thinking.

I used to write quite a lot about comics. And then I realised that really, I didn’t give that much of toss any more. I still read ’em, I still enjoyed ’em, but they weren’t not the objects of passion they once were. So, I stoppped writing about them. I might start again, if I get really excited about them again.

But whisky, on the other hand, still is something I love. So, let’s talk about whisky, then. In previous years, my whisky live write up has more or less consisted of a list of what I tried, and what I thought of it. This year, though, I thought I’d do something more than that. I thought I’d attempt a few essays about the drink itself. I’ll get to what I like in due course. But I thought I’d use the first of them to make sure we’re all on the same page, and talk about the basics of making the stuff. Later on, I’ll talk in more depth about the taste, and about what I like. For now, let’s just make sure we all understand how it gets into the glass, and just what it is we’re drinking.

Whisky Making For Beginners

Speaking of gigging

The unfeasibly lordly and betimes oft-mentioned…

I’m sorry, I appear to have fallen down a linguistic hole of some kind. I’ll start again.

You’ve all heard me go on about Flipron from time to time, or possibly more often than that. Well, good news! They’re playing in London, not once, but twice this month – The Notting Hill Arts Club on the 12th of March (which I can’t make), and The Watershed in Wimbledon on the 16th, (which I can and will). I endorse this product and/or service, and recommend you go to see them. They will sing you songs about old people, two-headed dogs and sentient cars, with a sense of end-of-the-pier menace that you will enjoy.

In less concrete news: The even more fantastically fucking marvellous Jason Webley will be playing in Guildford on the 30th of March, although I don’t know where exactly yet. I know it’s out of town and a weeknight, but if you can possibly drag yourself there (it’s not hard to get there from the centre of town, anyway), then I really, really recommend you go. I will, and if you go, and do not enjoy it, I will personally refund your entry fee. If you like mentalist cabaret, Tom Waits, Firewater, The Dresden Dolls, drinking songs, pirates of any kind or are really just alive in any meaningful way, then I think you will like his show.

Really decent takeaway

I’ve been pointed in the direction of Deliverance as a place that does really good takeaway (although priced accordingly higher than your average takeout), but typically, they don’t serve my postcode, just the one next door. Bastards. Still, maybe they’ll expand their delivery area, or it’ll be os use to someone else.