Category Archives: Uncategorized

Album Cover Meme

Amazing where a few clicks when you’re supposed to be doing something else can get you.

Reading email > allowing Owen Blacker’s comment > reading OB’s Livejournal > finding a meme from January…

Album cover meme

  1. Use Wikipedia’s Random page selector; the article title is the name of your band.
  2. Use the Quotations Page.com’s random quote generator; the last four words of the very last quotation is the title of your album.
  3. Use Flickr’s most “interestingness” explorer”; the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
  4. Use your graphics programme of choice (Paint or Gimp will do here, people!) to throw them together, and post.

Tweets on 2008-06-19

  • I succumbed and bought a roomba. Now I just need to tidy the house. #
  • @markpack Quick, strike with typographical ligatures while the metal is hot. #
  • Hmm. @owenblacker starts following me on Twitter whilst I’m reading No2ID email. Coincidence? I think not. #

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Tweets on 2008-06-18

  • @markpack wholly hyperbole free? #
  • Trying to stop myself from demolishing the whole plateful of biscuits set out for the planning committee. #
  • Deciding which over-priced city centre lardmonger to frequent in the short gap between meetings. #
  • @willhowells 14724766. Although I’ve only been using it through Trillian since about 1999, increasingly sporadically. #

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Tweets on 2008-06-14

  • Ticking things off my list and heading to Birmingham. #
  • At the ICC in good time. There’s a curious mix of Lib Dem councillors and OU graduands. #
  • Coming home to a beautifully clean house. Wonder how that happened. #
  • Just back from a gentle stroll in our local park, with golden evening sunlight streaming through the trees. #
  • @thoroughlygood blimey, finished discussing hours ago: “one of the crap MOTW ones that are there to make the others look good.” #
  • @thoroughlygood Ah, I wondered if you were having hour long Millennium Elephant detailed discourse #
  • @thoroughlygood Plus no spoilers! And I almost always think it’s crap and no-one else agrees. #

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Tweets on 2008-06-13

  • @rfenwick Choose golf! That involves hitting things AND walking around pretty countryside. #
  • Oh, for pity’s sake, no parallel port? What is wrong with this country?! First MPs resigning, AND NOW I CAN’T PRINT! I DEMAND SATISFACTION #
  • Waddling home after a nice dinner to celebrate submission of P’s penultimate essay. #

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Tweets on 2008-06-12

  • @willhowells gmail app not entirely bug free … #
  • Very shocked to hear of death of Cllr Michael Cowan. He was king of the awkward squad on the council and will be sorely missed #
  • My usual street key cutter stall has disappeared, so I find myself giving money to Evil Timpson Empire. #
  • Hmmm. Computer game or writing a local party mailing? questions, questions. #
  • @willhowells SELECT alan_bates FROM sparring_partners WHERE combat_style=”mano a mano” INNER JOIN… #
  • Off out to Liberal Drinks in the Lord Roberts. #

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Cllr Michael Cowan dies

We heard today that Michael Cowan, one of Nottingham’s councillors, died early this morning after being ill with cancer for some time.

He was a very important part of life on the city council and he will be sorely missed – even by those who didn’t like him very much.

Personally, I had a lot of respect for him.  No-one could doubt his commitment to making Nottingham City Council a better place.  But he sometimes chose to make the biggest waves to make the smallest changes, which led to him being unpopular with the Labour group. He never minced his words, and got hauled over the coals by the Standards Board as a consequence – searching there for his name returns several cases of him offending officers and fellow councillors by being outspoken.

In terms of him being unpopular, it didn’t help that he started his 40-year political career as a Labour councillor and crossed the floor to the Conservatives only relatively recently.  He had a stab at being elected when he was a Labour by-election candidate in the Ashfield seat.  Part of the rough-and-tumble of Full Council over the past years has been the Labour group contrasting his stance now with what his stance used to be when he was still with them.

My earliest memories of being elected five years ago are all coloured by Cllr Cowan.  It was he who had a stand-up row with the brand new Lord Mayor at my first ever council meeting – certainly a baptism of fire for the newest of us in the chamber, and uncomfortable watching for our guests who’d only come to see the Mayormaking!

Michael also had a detailed understanding of local government that comes with decades of experience, and there are very few remaining in the chamber with his level of knowledge.  Still fewer in the opposition groups who are prepared to speak out on some of the issues.  His life was politics, and you could rely on him to spot details that most would overlook.

The Council will certainly be a poorer place without him.