I’ve finally seen Brokeback Mountain, after having it hyped up beyond reasonable expectation by everyone else who’s seen it, and the fact that it swept the boards at the Oscars.
So, I’m afraid, I went into the cinema resenting the film before it even began, and found myself noting inconsequential irritants all the way through.
Of course, the Certificate page couldn’t role without some wag saying he thought he’d come to see Bareback Mountain instead.
(Spoilers if you’ve not seen it)
When I try and connect to my own blog, it asks me to download a file.
Inspecting closer, and I find that http://www.alexfoster.me.uk/index.php works fine, but http://www.alexfoster.me.uk asks me ‘you are trying to open a file of the type application/x-httpd-php’ and saves a file that doesn’t do much. It does this in two different browsers for me, and for all the computers on my network.
However, when I try and report it to other WP users, it appears not to be a problem for them.
And other people seem to be able to use the site with no problems. Bizzaro. I’d welcome anyone’s suggestions as to what is going on.
In other news, I’ve made some progress with reading the Agatha Christie book, and chapters 1 to 7 are now available for download from the podcasting link, top right. It appears that my attempted cleverness with tags doesn’t properly work in iTunes, however…?
There are only two Agatha Christie works in Project Gutenberg, and I’ve just discovered why: they’re the only two written before 1923. After that date, the copyright rules change. It’s going to be a long wait until any Miss Marple books end up in the public domain.
Well, it’s been an interesting day techy-wise.
For a brief period, the server this is hosted in had its time set back to Jan 3, 2005, which meant that the blog program decided that the posts were in the future and didn’t display them.
And I finally worked out what was going on with my host.
About a month ago they wrote to me to tell me that the IP address for configuration and and upload would change. I changed the IP address for the config utility, but forgot to change it in my FTP client. Unhelpfully, there’s a ghost version of the site still at the old IP address, so I’ve been uploading podcast folders, MP3s and my amended .htaccess to the ghost site, and not to the live one that http://www.alexfoster.me.uk points to.
Now that I’ve figured out que pasa, the ‘Memberships’ link at the top finally works. Not that it’s completed. It’s as much for me as for you. Just a link of all the various websites and institutions I’ve pledged my various allegiances to.
So much for an early night.
Ages ago, and I’m talking about *ages* ago, I played a borrowed copy of Tombraider, which I sat up for hours, days playing. I’m hopeless at computer games. They take me weeks and I usually have to download a cheat sheet to tell me what to do because I can’t figure it out on my own.
What made me gave up on Tombraider was an evil room where you had to do everything at once: jump accurately in different directions within a tight time limit. I kept either falling off into some sort of shark infested water, or still being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting burnt alive.
I threw everything at that room, and never quite got through. How, I thought to myself, can I survive all those wild animals, even dinosaurs, for Pete’s sake, and get stumped by flames, sharks, and boxes at awkward angles. Now I’ve found Stella I know how to do it. And if I still can’t actually manage it, I could even download a ‘savegame’ to get me past it. Bless.
Still, that was years ago. I’ve long since lost my saved game, and my copy of Tombraider.
Now, thanks to the miracle of Amazon Shops, I have a new copy of Tombraider for under a pahnd.
I just fired it up. I can’t believe the graphics were that bad! It really must have been ages ago. I’ve been running around shooting things (an ex’s comment when we went to see the first Tombraider movie was something along the lines that hardly any bears, bats, wolves, lions, tigers or other protected species got unceremoniously shot dead. That and sarcastic comments about the backpack being full of rocks just to counterweigh the frontage) but otherwise not getting very far. Still in Caves II. Bah.
Two other things of note. First, I’m really glad I got to practice changing a tyre in the dry and daylight because tonight I had to do it again in the dark and rain–with the added frisson of having to do it at top speed before the bingo closed and locked up the carpark. Evidently the wheel needed replacing not repairing earlier in the week.
It was quite scary. I hadn’t clocked the fact that the tyre was flat again on the way into the car, and reversing and turning out of the space, the car handled like normal But when I came to go forward, it felt just awful. It didn’t feel like a wheel problem, it felt like the engine wasn’t connected properly. It felt very similar to the time the drive shaft dropped out of the Rover. I gingerly went around the carpark a few times trying to figure out what was wrong — was it just first gear, just second? No it does it in all forward gears, but not in reverse. Hmmm… I eventually got out to see if I was dragging something under the car, and immediately clocked the front tyre was not really properly attached to the wheel any more. Far worse than before, when it was just flat.
So, I changed it for the spare for the second time this week. Only this time, as I said, in the dark and wet, kneeling in a puddle, unable to see whether the nuts were hitting home or not. Somehow, I’ve managed to bend the tool you use to take the nuts out. (Tyre iron? Spanner?) But I eventually got home safely.
Secondly, I’ve had to replace my router again. I don’t know what I do to them to kill them so fast. Firstly a cheap but well specced USR router used to overheat and then fail to route unless you turned it off for an hour. Finally stopped using that in favour of a Sweex G wireless router, generously donated by a friend who somehow found himself with two. That died suddenly last night. So now, I have a Sitecom G wireless router instead, and a slap on the wrist from Visa who told me to pay down the balance on my credit card, not spend even more on kit. Well, it was an emergency. I can’t have half the network unable to see the outside world! And Sitecom have a 10 year warranty. I must keep the details safe, I’ve a feeling I’ll be needing them.
Ages ago, and I’m talking about *ages* ago, I played a borrowed copy of Tombraider, which I sat up for hours, days playing. I’m hopeless at computer games. They take me weeks and I usually have to download a cheat sheet to tell me what to do because I can’t figure it out on my own.
What made me gave up on Tombraider was an evil room where you had to do everything at once: jump accurately in different directions within a tight time limit. I kept either falling off into some sort of shark infested water, or still being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting burnt alive.
I threw everything at that room, and never quite got through. How, I thought to myself, can I survive all those wild animals, even dinosaurs, for Pete’s sake, and get stumped by flames, sharks, and boxes at awkward angles. Now I’ve found Stella I know how to do it. And if I still can’t actually manage it, I could even download a ‘savegame’ to get me past it. Bless.
Still, that was years ago. I’ve long since lost my saved game, and my copy of Tombraider.
Now, thanks to the miracle of Amazon Shops, I have a new copy of Tombraider for under a pahnd.
I just fired it up. I can’t believe the graphics were that bad! It really must have been ages ago. I’ve been running around shooting things (an ex’s comment when we went to see the first Tombraider movie was something along the lines that hardly any bears, bats, wolves, lions, tigers or other protected species got unceremoniously shot dead. That and sarcastic comments about the backpack being full of rocks just to counterweigh the frontage) but otherwise not getting very far. Still in Caves II. Bah.
Two other things of note. First, I’m really glad I got to practice changing a tyre in the dry and daylight because tonight I had to do it again in the dark and rain–with the added frisson of having to do it at top speed before the bingo closed and locked up the carpark. Evidently the wheel needed replacing not repairing earlier in the week.
It was quite scary. I hadn’t clocked the fact that the tyre was flat again on the way into the car, and reversing and turning out of the space, the car handled like normal But when I came to go forward, it felt just awful. It didn’t feel like a wheel problem, it felt like the engine wasn’t connected properly. It felt very similar to the time the drive shaft dropped out of the Rover. I gingerly went around the carpark a few times trying to figure out what was wrong — was it just first gear, just second? No it does it in all forward gears, but not in reverse. Hmmm… I eventually got out to see if I was dragging something under the car, and immediately clocked the front tyre was not really properly attached to the wheel any more. Far worse than before, when it was just flat.
So, I changed it for the spare for the second time this week. Only this time, as I said, in the dark and wet, kneeling in a puddle, unable to see whether the nuts were hitting home or not. Somehow, I’ve managed to bend the tool you use to take the nuts out. (Tyre iron? Spanner?) But I eventually got home safely.
Secondly, I’ve had to replace my router again. I don’t know what I do to them to kill them so fast. Firstly a cheap but well specced USR router used to overheat and then fail to route unless you turned it off for an hour. Finally stopped using that in favour of a Sweex G wireless router, generously donated by a friend who somehow found himself with two. That died suddenly last night. So now, I have a Sitecom G wireless router instead, and a slap on the wrist from Visa who told me to pay down the balance on my credit card, not spend even more on kit. Well, it was an emergency. I can’t have half the network unable to see the outside world! And Sitecom have a 10 year warranty. I must keep the details safe, I’ve a feeling I’ll be needing them.
Bought this book, the other day. Misunderstood the title. It actually refers to New Labour high-ups, from when Tony Blair once described himself as a pretty straight kinda guy, not a pretty, straight guy.
Evensongs in St Paul’s are continuing apace after a shaky start. Our first response on our first night was fluffed a little after one of the priests gave us the wrong note. But it was uphill from there, and our second day, with the setting Sumsion in A and his They That go down to the Sea in Ships both went, er, swimmingly.
Tonight is Stanford, a setting and For Lo! I raise up — a huge anthem that a few years ago was our party piece finish, not relegated to Wednesday. We have some even bigger sings ahead of us. Gorgeous Tudor pieces for Thursday, and then we begin the Howells Marathon: the Gloucester Service for Friday night, the Collegium Regale for Saturday night, and somewhere in there we’re also singing Exultate Deo.
Which has almost as many odd lines in it as the For Lo!, which is taken from the apocryphal (literally) book of Habbukuk:
For lo I raise up that bitter and hasty nation,
Which march thro’ the breadth of the earth,
To possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful,
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And are more fierce than the evening wolves.
And their horsemen spread themselves,
Yea, their horsemen come from far.
They fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour,
They come all of them for violence;
Their faces are set as the east-wind,
And they gather captives as the sand.
Yea, he scoffeth at kings,
And princes are a derision unto him.
For he heapeth up dust and taketh it.
Then shall he sweep by as a wind that shall pass over,
And be guilty,
Even he, whose might is his God.
Art not Thou from everlasting,
O Lord, my God, mine Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, thou hast ordained him for judgment,
And thou, O Rock hast established him for correction.
I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower,
And look forth to see what he will say to me,
And what I shall answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me and said:
The vision is yet for the appointed time,
And it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie,
Tho’ it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come.
For the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
But the Lord is in his holy temple:
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Lots of jokes about standing on watches, etc, he scoffeth at King’s but not at John’s. Etc etc.
But apparently, from the Exultate Deo, The dead praise not thee o Lord, Neither all they that go down in silence. Maybe they that go down don’t praise the Lord, but you can’t say the same for they they go down on.
In addition to evenson, being in London has given me the chance to catch up with old friends who live here. Monday night, when my parents and brother were here, my cousin and her husband of four years popped over. We haven’t seen them since they got married! And I have a different friend lined up every night this week. Tonight is MYM, a quick trip to the Globe.
Ten years of history etching themselves into my face. It’s time to renew my passport, and if I do it now, I won’t get stiffed for the fee to have unnecessary biometrics incorporated. I wasn’t planning on going to the United States any time soon anyway.
Today in Nottingham, there’s been a
All connected by the tram, so a peacenik gay Asian with a bus pass can hop between all three.
Unfortch, I didn’t go to any of them. We had a delivery day in the diary from months back so I went leafletting with a bunch of Lib Dems.
I’m starting to work on the fantasies about the new house and garden. If we’re moving in at the end of the summer what can we plant? Help is at hand on the HDRA website that gives a month-by-month account of what needs doing in the garden — and what you could be enjoying if you’d followed their instructions earlier in the year. The Organic Catalogue has been constant bathroom reading for the last six months.
Will we keep chickens? There’s plenty of room. But to be honest, we don’t actually eat all that many eggs. I’m sure we can always eat more omelette, cake, quiche, egg sandwiches… We can Go To Work on an Egg, provide Oeufs Durs a la Mayonnaise to every bring’n’share… (Blimey, the Eglu has changed so that now it can hold rabbits. Are the rabbits for food or looking at? I don’t think that we’d need an Eglu when a couple of feet of chicken wire and some wood will do…)
There’s a quite a bit of garden out of sight of the house, so we could have a polytunnel and grow chillis and melons. And have a full sized compost heap instead of a garden compost dalek. But with all that garden, we’ll need a way of disposing of dead leaves and grass cuttings.
Maybe I’m jumping ahead of myself. First we’ll need to rewire, redecorate and furnish the place. That’s assuming we can sort mortgage, surveys and the conveyancing. Dammit! I want to move now!
But of course the main reason for moving? Away from restrictive leases and evil, inspection-mad letting agents? KITTENS!
Something strange is happening to me: I can’t speak in public any more. I used to be OK at it, was on the school debating team ten years ago, but now I can’t get the words out or express what I mean unless I’m really comfortable with the people I’m with or I have a text written out in full.
Twice in committees over the last week I’ve bumbled through my list of points, faltering, stumbling over the words, badly making my point, and ending up redfaced and sweating whilst the officers and councillors I was addressing nodded politely and pretended to have understood what I was driving at.
In a group meeting earlier in the week, it wasn’t a case of failing to talk in sentences, it was actual, bona fide stuttering. Couldn’t get a word out. Very frustrating. Talking is not difficult in group, because there are not many of us and we know each other well. So I don’t understand why something that came so naturally not so very long ago is now causing me trouble.
Sleeping times have been particularly strange this week: Monday, I forgot to set my radio to come on the night before and then slept through the alarm I did set. What with it being a dark day, and in any case little sun gets to the back of our house where we sleep. I didn’t come to til 3pm, and then, of course, it was a race to get things done in time for a meeting at 7.30pm. Paul has been away much of this week, staying at home with his parents whilst he has hospital appointments to fix his teeth, poor lamb. When he’s here, I try(largely unsuccessfully) to keep normal hours, because otherwise it’s not fair on him. The days he’s not, I’ve still been at my computers at 5am. Watching Alias on one, working on another. I’m fortunate that much of my job can be done in the wee small hours.
As you’d expect, every gay mailing list and group I’m in has mentioned the passage of the Civil Partnership bill; I was reading last night that la reyne le veuylt — it’s now the Civil Partnerships Act 2004. Gay rights is what got me into politics eight years ago, by writing to my MP at Stonewall’s suggestion. A bit later on, I joined the Lib Dems after reading DELGA’s page, then maintained by St MYM, after I felt they agreed with me on gay issues, and reading around a bit, and discovering they agreed with me on issues like Europe and funding higher education. I was a member who didn’t do anything until I saw a poster advertising for volunteers in Nick Clegg‘s office, which I signed up to and helped out, until eventually I was offered a job there. Working exposed me to councillors, who said they were short of candidates, would I let my name go forward? And in 2003, I got elected to Nottingham City Council. It’s a convoluted leap from lobbying my MP on the age of consent to devoting 90% of my waking life to various bodies of the Lib Dems, but hey, it passes the time.
I’m wondering now who amongst the people I know will get CPed first? Is it going to be a year of fabulous parties? Having spent the last few years barely going a month without another wedding, are we set for a really expensive year…?
I had an accident on the M1 on the way home from work. I probably shouldn’t say anything about it here, sub judice and all that. I wasn’t hurt, and two other people are being checked for whiplash. I’m not sure if my car will make it.
Had quite a long wait in the recovery truck because he was called to an additional accident on the way to taking me to a railway station. The second accident looked a lot like mine, only with much more expensive cars.
Whilst sitting in the truck listening to Radio 1 I heard the news:
It put my accident in perspective a bit.
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