Category: miscellaneous

As I walked down South Street this morning, I passed three typical looking teenage boys in school uniform, waiting outside the convenience store. Nothing unusual in that, you might think.
But there was something hugely disturbing and terrifying about them. Yes, the world needs to be warned…
THEY ALL HAD MULLETS!
What the hell is going on? When did the mullet come back into fashion? It probably has something to do with the abomination that is The Darkness, who have become popular for reasons that completely escape me.
Next thing you know, everyone will be listening to Donovan records again.

What about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10? Panasonic is not a name I’d associate with cameras, but I’ve read a couple of good reviews.
I really should add a little about what I’m looking for here. I need something that is fairly fully featured, and would suit someone (i.e. me) who is fairly camera-savvy but likes something that is reasonably easy to use. It will mainly be used for work, so it needs to have a good macro capability, allowing me to get a full-frame shot of an individual flower or flower head. It also needs to have a flash so that it can double as a general workhorse for record shots and day-to-day snapping. And, because the photos are likely to be used for posters and larger size printing, 4 or 5 megapixels would be preferred – 3 is not enough.
One of the problems that I have with all three of the cameras that I’ve looked at so far is their size – the Panasonic in particular is quite bulky, and since it will often be carried with me when I’m travelling, it would be useful if it was small enough to slip into my laptop bag. I think the Panasonic fails that test.

More research needed.

Kodak DX6490 versus Olympus C750UZ. Any advice/recommendations?

I haven’t done the journey between Tunbridge Wells and my office by train for a while, having had the use of Hels’s car for the last few weeks. This morning’s foray into the world of rail was met with a late running train, a filthy train, a train that was cancelled but still ran anyway, a train driven by a driver who only knew how to drive in the "on-off" style of accelerator and brake usage (or whatever the train equivalent is), new rolling stock that shows what shocking state the line is in as passengers are alternately hurled from one side of the carriage to the other – amongst other travails. As compensation, there are some fine views to enjoy, particularly in the Arun valley, which remains one of the finest train journeys to be had in the south of England, and I’ve also been able to get a fair bit of work done, something that is impossible when at the wheel of a car.
Giant pain-in-the-arse for today is that the offer on Hels’s flat has fallen through. One wonders if people go around saying that they will buy a property, purely to raise the vendor’s expectations ready for pin/balloon type deflation, merely as some kind of perverted sport.
And, for added misery, H has got a cold. I’m sure the pseudo-purchasers left the germs around the flat (absolutely nothing to do with the streaming torrent that I’ve endured for the last week or so).
Cripes – what else can we find to moan about? I’m in the mood for a good rant.

Attributed to the scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, but oh-so-true in so many aspects of life.

The builders who converted the Nursery Arms into two flats, one of which is now my home, liked Smith’s salt and vinegar crisps. I know this because they left a packet under the floorboards.
Future generations will be utterly misguided into believing that I read the Guardian because I used some pages of that newspaper to plug some holes.
Domestic archaeology. Such fun!

How irritating. And is that last line supposed to convey contact details for the sender and an indication of the price per minute if I call? If so, it is less than clear. OFCOM should clamp down on this.
In addition, I’ve had five new comment spams since yesterday evening, countless email spams, a bunch of junk mail and a couple of telephone cold calls.
It may be time to become a hermit and live a communications-free existence.

Pictures of Chernobyl. Well worth a few minutes.

…by imagining that headlines such as "Howard offers historic choice" or "Howard promises lower taxes" or "Howard challenges Blair to fisticuffs in Parliament Square" are not about the leader of the Conservative Party, but are, instead, about that annoying git from the Halifax adverts.

Safeway may be the cheapest place in Tunbridge Wells to buy a loaf of bread, but if I cost in the time I spend queuing because they only ever have four tills open out of the twenty or so that are there, it becomes incredibly expensive. I think that, in future, I’ll go to the nice deli across the road.