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Me personally, I don't really like most kittens, and a lot of the cooking here is beyond my capabilities. But I can cheerfully fillet and skin kittens for other people, thanks to my old part-time job.
Links For Friday 9th January 2009
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A fucking huge, and fucking lovely, photo of well, exactly what it says. No particular reason to link to it, it's just pretty, that's all.
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My friend Stu is a bit handy with words, and a lot more aware of the word around him than I am, and he occasionally writes up the interesting people he encounters as he commutes or otherwise goes about his business in London. These are a beautifully rendered, and very real, slice of what life is like in the greatest city on earth. Go and read them.
Links For Thursday 8th January 2009
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I am so tempted to skip out on family Christmas next year, and produce a set something like this. OK, there's not a chance I would, but still, the set pretty damn impressive anyway.
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Like everyone else, I'd never heard of these before. And like all right-thinking people, I do think the entire notion is fascinating. Mouldering hulks of poisonous stone that no longer light up the night. Perfect fodder for a maritime ghost story.
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Good round up of various cleaning options to remove sensor dust. My old D70s body is a martyr to it, and the D80 is bound to pick up some at some point.
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Some interesting old terms in here I hadn;'t run across before that might be useful in the future.
Links For Wednesday 7th January 2009
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Not really much to say about this, other than that there are some very nice typefaces in here.
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Ostensibly for Rails, but most of these apply to anyone using an MVC framework, and are worth a look.
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This is a pet peeve of mine: people who use tinyUrl type services completely needlessly in blog posts and the like. I understand why, say, twitter does it, because of character limits, but it's still shit practice. URLs should clearly indicate the content they are the URL for. So I'll be plugging this in to my browser.
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This is an interesting idea – a more environmentally sound font, but will it have any actual impact on ink use at small sizes? I couldn't find any actual maths on the site. Also, I am a slave to Helvetica, and particularly Helvetica Neue, so until someone produces an ecofont variant on them, I don't see myself picking this up.
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Can we all please just move on from this now there's some accurate reportage about it?
LJ: The Sky Is Not Falling
I am quite capable of reading the blogs of any my friends who blog using any given set of popular blogging tools in a convenient manner without having to make a daily round trip of hundreds of sites, thanks to the magic of RSS readers. I use net netnewswire, others just use google reader or bloglines or some windows desktop app or other.
All of said alternative blogging tools offer, or can be set up with various privacy options. In fact, LJ is a bit stunted in it’s privacy tools, because it doesn’t allow authentication to enable reading of locked posts via RSS.
If LJ goes away (and despite the links posts that I have coming up later in the day, I am a long way from believing it will, and certainly not overnight, although the service might get a bit shoddier) then I will still be able to read and comment on the writings of any of my friends who care to set themselves up with any one of a number of free services in a a manner just as convenient as reading my LJ friends page.
Which is another way of saying: breathe the fuck out, everyone. There is no need to start screaming yet.
Or, in one sentence: the net interprets damage as censorship, and routes around it.
Links For Tuesday 6th January 2009
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Quick and dirty tool to grab an LJ archive on any system that has python available, which includes OS X.
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SUP have knocked the american tech staff on the head. I don't believe they're going to fuck off tomorrow, or anything, but any way you slice it, this is bad news, and I'm going to have to find a good LJ archiving tool for OS X just so I do have a decent archive somewhere that isn't on LJ, but I should have done that anyway. Still, most of the public content over the least few years is already in databases on my own servers, anyway, but I'd like to get the private/friends locked stuff saved, too. I may also flip back to blogging on my own domain, and just mirroring the content into LJ, just in case.
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I may want to take this apart and rebuild it for other services since my tumblr account is used for my not-a-photoblog-honest. Or since the blog is called Dead Air, I might just pipe it in regardless, as it does kind of fit with the theme.
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I blog this mostly because I want to use the phrase "spime child", which is agreeably SF sounding. And because, well, it's an interesting application of the technology.
Photo Project: At The Bus Stop
This is hardly the most original photo project in the world, but it’s something I think would be fun to do, and I want something a bit structured to force me to undertake a bit more photography this year, and realistically a 365 days type project is just setting myself up for a fail.
So, I live in this flat, see. And right outside my door, there is a bus stop.
So, I have these friends, see. And many of them like to dress up in interesting clothes and makeup. Fetishwear, LARP, cosplay, furries, goth gear, punk rock mohawks and ripped clothes, or even just really sharp suits. Not the sort of thing that one sees every day at a bus stop, anyway.
So the plan is: people turn up to my place at some mutually convenient time, with their chosen outfit and any required makeup, and I take two very similar pictures of them at the bus stop. One without makeup and in ordinary clothes – jeans and t-shirt, or whatever you’ve got as everyday wear that is distinct from the other look, and one all done up in their finery.
I am, of course likely to take rather more than two photos, as I attempt to get a shot I like.
Participants would receive my grateful thanks, tea/coffee/soft drinks and biscuits, and a full rez electronic copy of the published photos in whatever format they would like.
So, would anyone be interested in this?
ETA: The bus stop is quite a busy and public one, which is part of the appeal, that there is context for people to stand out of.
I will attempt to minimise the amount of time outdoors in more unusual attire for anyone who is uncomfortable with the idea of being in public in their finery, and to schedule times when there are likely to be less people about – evenings and suchlike. Plus, you will be accompanied by bloke-with-serious-looking-camera, which in my experience will provide context that will make anyone that might see you in your outfit suddenly become terrible blase about the whole thing.
New Year
More nonsense later in the year, but first the news:
2008 – The Year Of Living Boringly
I was going to do one of those year in review things, but then I realised I could do it in two sentences:
It’s been a shit couple of months at the end of a boring year. I have not enjoyed 2008, and that’s really no-one’s fault but my own.
So, 2009 is going to a be a year where I take the universe by the throat again. Honest. And in that spirit, here are a few of my plans for the year:
Bungee Jump. I’ve never thrown myself off a tall object. This is obviously a moral failing, and must be rectified.
Hallucinogens. I’ve never taken any. Always wanted to, just never found the opportunity. I would like to do something about that.
Travel. I make a semi-joke out of the fact that I don’t leave London, but it’s been 5 years now since I was out of London for longer than a week. So, Toronto. Some time in the spring, probably. Because the number of friends I have in that city is getting truly stupid, for a place I’ve never been. May attempt to tack a New York swing onto that, may save New York for either the autumn, or more likely, 2010.
More Exercise. About the only thing I impressed myself with this year was the progress I made on the exercise front. I’ve let that slip over the last three weeks, just because I’ve been busy stuffing my greedy fat face, but it’s time to get back on the horse. On the 2nd, obviously.
Fiction. In my case, this translates to running RPGs or various stripes, because I’m a big geek. But I approach RPGs in much the same manner I approach any creative endeavour, with the same hideous perfectionism and insecurity, and on that basis I will fight anyone who suggest that running or playing in a really good game is not a legitimate field of art. I’m already involved in the running of two regular LARPs, and one tabletop, so that’s probably about my limit for ongoing running, but I have decided I need some more short form practice – one offs, mostly, but also, limited runs of 3-6 sessions.
Photography. This makes the list every year, in a must-do-more and must-attempt-to-make-money sense. These things remain true, but I am more or less at peace with the fact that while I don’t produce a lot, and it’s of fuck all commercial value, I am very happy with what I produce. Still: must produce more things I am happy with. Am considering some kind of 365 days thing, just for the discipline, but will have to work out how to do in a manner that pleases me.
New Lens. Yeah I know it’s materialistic. But I find that if I have my really big purchase for a year planned in advance, I am less tempted by the random smaller shiny things. I know the beast I would like, and will have to see how I can juggle things to afford it after my birthday, I think, because it’s a massive beast.
New Ink. This remains a strong maybe, rather than a commitment. It’s something I would like, but it’s also something I’m not going to do until I’m sure of exactly what I want. Got a couple of strong contenders for phrases, but no real sense of the design or placement of either that excites, so will have to wait.
Right, better go and get some stuff set up. I hope your New Year goes well, and that your 2009 is better than your 2008. May your hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want.
Wind Down
I love this time of year, these few dead days between Christmas and New Year. The old year is definitely over – work is done, family commitments, pleasant though I find them, are out of the way, and I’ve got some space to catch up with friends, do a bit of thinking, clear some mental clutter out of the way, and plan for a new year that still seems like it’s got a bit of life and promise in it.
I’ve had a busy enough few days. The traditional-when-I’m-in-London Boxing Day film with Mark (WINOLJ), a long-overdue catch up with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
budgie_uk on the 27th, and similarly with cairmen today.
Yesterday though, deserves special mention, as I had a completely superb dinner with athena25, burge, stu_n and tyrell – at christmas, the butcher downstairs from me does a traditional Victorian stuffed goose – that’s a goose stuffed with a chicken stuffed with pheasant stuffed with a quail. It was every bit as good as I’d hoped – both the goose, which was rich and meaty and meltingly tender (and accompanied by a number of dishes, sauces and other condiments prepared by my guests, all of which were just as good), and more importantly the occasion, which was a truly splendid day engaging in my favourite pursuits of eating, drinking, and talking with a number of my favourite people. Cheers, all. Same again next year?
I’ve spent this evening clearing up after yesterday, the flat is now tidy again, and tomorrow I intend to do more or less fuck all. DVDs, Xbox games, eating leftovers, and at most a quick trip to the shops to get some supplies in. Exactly what this time of year is for, basically.
Hope you’re all having a similarly splendid time.