A much coveted award

Today I won a Bad Taste Award for a staggeringly awful post I wrote this year in the Archers newsgroup UMRA.

Throughout the year, UMRATs compete with each other to say the most awful things, and if you are caught doing it, a fellow reader will pounce on your post and say BTN! which is Bad Taste Nomination. These are all carefully collected through the year by the BTM (Bad Taste Monitor) known as the Purple Potter. (In addition her duties on UMRA, she’s a talented ceramacist.) At the end of the year, they are judged against each other, and the BTAs are awarded at a glittering ceremony on Usenet.

My solecism? A person had been grumbling that you can’t move a foot in France without being taxed for it; at the time, body parts had been washing up on a North American beach and, well, I’m sure you can see the link I made.

In Canada, you’re supposed to call the police before moving a foot off the beach.

The sad thing is I wouldn’t even have realised if it hadn’t been for a friendly nudge on my wall on Facebook. UMRA generates a lot of messages, and I seldom have time to read them all – these days, more of my online time is taken up with blogs than usenet, and every other group I’m in has more or less withered away.

Tweets on 2009-01-04

Jan4

My Twitemperature is a cool 51°F (11°C)! http://twitemperature.com/alexfoster #
Aha, first three books mooched already. #
Not watching TV for the new doctor – relying on Twitter. Don’t let me down! #
“And now we interrupt the Shipping Forecast with urgent breaking news. The new Doctor Who is…” #
@willhowells Paterson Joseph fit better into a song I was writing, and was easier to turn into a double dactyl. in reply to willhowells #
@owenblacker have you seen 1 man 1 jar ? (Extremely horrid and NSFW) in reply to owenblacker #
@helenduffett no that’s CHF Kitteh, UTI Kitteh is long haired and brown. in reply to helenduffett #
@helenduffet I never found a way and just used screenshots #
@dr_nick +0.8 here but we have had several days below freezing. in reply to dr_nick #
@helenduffett see the FAQ – how about making a PDF or SVG? What’s your end use for the wordle? in reply to helenduffett #
Thinking Matt Smith would probably be better cast as the Elephant Man. #
Reheating pie. #

Tweets on 2009-01-03

Jan3

Today’s factoid – the original words to 1978 hit FREAK OUT! were NSFW – http://tr.im/2u8l #
@meryl_f the new shortcut leaves the old way unchanged. in reply to Meryl_F #
@willhowells Catchy. in reply to willhowells #
P is tipping Paterson Joseph for next doctor http://tr.im/2ud6 #
Off to supermarket clutching 1click2cook list. #
Finally back from shop by way of massive detour when I heard local bell practice short of people. #
Making a chicken and ham pie out of leftovers and feeling very domestic. #

That’s no guitar!

Jan3

I thought I heard a familiar strain of music echoing across the landing.

Memetastic guitar learning has exploded across teh internetz today since Will Howells showed us how – when he wasn’t talking teh noo Dr Whoo.

Since then, I’ve had a go, as has Helen and Duffett Major, Gothic Polyphonist Rob Fenwick, and Dino Ron.

Offloading books

Jan3

I’m trying to declutter a bit, and have put a whole loada books on BookMooch.com, a place where you offer to post books to strangers for free in the hope that someone will post you books you want. There are rules and things to try and keep it fair, and I can’t get any books until I offload some.

If you want some of my books, there’s a page here that should list the ones I have knocking about.

I buy too many books – usually the very cheap second hand ones from Amazon that cost £0.01p plus P+P. And then I hold on to them. I’m trying to get a complete collection of the Janet Evanovich / Stephanie Plum books; I already own a full set of Alphabet books from Sue Grafton, although a big wodge of those are on loan at the moment. I want to hold onto those.

But there are plenty of books still available. Lots of Kathy Reichs, lots of Dan Brown, several Stephen Booth (he’s v good – Derbyshire based policiers). Join Mooch, get a book, earn me new books. Strangely Mooch doesn’t seem to play well with Google Chrome – practically the first website I’ve encountered that struggles.

All of the books on the list are also on Bookcrossing, where I do not have a good track record. Despite picking up other people’s books and despite registering dozens on the site, and despite leaving helpfully tagged books in interesting places (eg Cyprus) no-one has ever picked up a book I’ve left somewhere and recorded the fact on Bookcrossing. Gah!

Quick plug

Jan3

No, not our book (for sale, very reasonable cost).

I use fountain pens (when I remember to take them with me), and recently it seems to be harder to buy cartridges. You used to be able to get them in big boxes, now you can only get them in small boxes of six. Which seems a bit of a faff. Even if they do last for ages.

So I wondered about converting my pens to run on bottled ink. And googled around a bit, found a few sites, but eventually settled on Andy’s Pens. His website looks a bit dated, but has tons of useful information on it and I was able very quickly to identify the pens I own and indeed see that he had converter kits. He also has a stock of bottled ink.

So I emailed to ask about availability, and got a reply within 24 hours. He accepts Paypal, which is convenient, and within a few days, he’d sent me everything I needed at a very reasonable price.

So if you need to do anything with pens on the internet, try Andy’s Pens.

I didn’t clean the house

Jan3

And I’m also learning the guitar the Will Howells way.

And what did I learn today? Caw, but video is hard work!

EDIT – yes, it is a cuckoo clock you can hear at the end.

Tweets on 2009-01-02

Jan2

Totally clear headed after sleeping for 12 hours. May have to try being designated driver next year too 🙂 #
Bottom of garden crept above 0 deg but not above 1 briefly this afternoon – and is now back below freezing again. #
@hannahvictorius @helenduffett this is what lives at bottom of garden http://tr.im/2t81 in reply to hannahvictorius #
@willhowells basic guitarring is fairly easy, but getting to any sort of standard I could play in public still eludes me. in reply to willhowells #
@willhowells and I guess learning to play with the tab legal dispute ongoing is much harder as you can’t find the music you like – olga.net in reply to willhowells #
@willhowells I bought a £10 guitar from a junk shop with bent tuning pins and learnt for free on t’internet. Your approach prob better 🙂 in reply to willhowells #
Trying to work out if there is any sense in my annual blog readership statistics. #
@artesea good luck with the move. in reply to artesea #

Tweets on 2009-01-01

Jan1

Received a postcard from U.S.A. – http://tinyurl.com/9jw9wr #
@willhowells the feed you sent seemed to have info including dates around 25-31 Dec? No idea how current tho in reply to willhowells #
Registering for a French télépéage gizmo for the car at http://tr.im/2s6b #
Spent the last 30 mins answering the question “Is this green?” as I prepare for a Cluedo based costume party with a colour blind person. #
Last minute dash to the supermarket for celery, walnuts and mayo. Waldorf Bites are go! #
http://twitpic.com/ybr7 – Prof L’Orange est né! #
Lab coats are really comfy useful garments. Must find a way to wear it more in 09. Even if I look more milkman than scientist. #

Niles's Blog

Teaching, food and other random, infrequent wibblings

Monthly Archives: January 2009

A much coveted award

Tweets on 2009-01-04

Tweets on 2009-01-03

That’s no guitar!

Offloading books

Quick plug

I didn’t clean the house

Tweets on 2009-01-02

Tweets on 2009-01-01