Meme tagging

I’ve been tagged with another one.

1. Delve into my blog archive.
2. Find my 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in my blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas…
5. Tag five people to do the same.

Well, if you use WordPress, it numbers the index, so you can find post 23 at
http://www.alexfoster.me.uk/?p=23 and the fifth sentence is

Sure, it won’t get my clothes dry but in ONLY 12 DAYS I’ll be well past caring.

There we go.

I take memes on a voluntary basis. If anyone wants to do this themselves, feel free.

All booked

We’re off to see Lynda Carter appearing as Mama Morton in Chicago. And all because I happened to hear the Wonder Woman theme on Woman’s Hour last week.

I’m going because it’s Chicago. And I love musicals. P’s going for the chance to badger Wonder Woman at the stage door.

Personally, I’d rather see Jenni Murray as Mama Morton.

Three reminders of my French holiday

You know, I’d almost forgotten that I’d ever been on holiday in France, but this weekend, three things have reminded me.

At Lib Dem Regional Conference, D, who;s doing up a farmhouse I nearly visited in the Champagne region, asked me how it went, and it was so far from my mind that I completely forgot to mention I’d stayed in Eparnay, Reims and Troyes.

When I got home from the conference, I found that my prints had come: whilst I was claiming the Aiguille du Midi, I ran out of space on my digital camera, so bought a disposable one which I’d only a week ago remembered to develop. The photos are back and have gone onto flickr.

And on flickr, a random encounter. Someone was searching for photos of Vauban architecture for a new flickr group and happened across my pictures of Villefrance-sur-conflent in the Pyrenees.

Those six weeks seem so far away now. I should be reminded daily of my trip — I have a photo of it as wallpaper on my computer — and yet somehow it had almost completely slipped my mind.

A few tests

Big Five Test Results
Extroversion (32%) moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private.
Accommodation (34%) moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly selfish, uncooperative, and difficult at the expense of the well being of others.
Orderliness (32%) moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, random, scattered, and fun seeking at the expense of structure, reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.
Emotional Stability (84%) very high which suggests you are extremely relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.
Inquisitiveness (52%) medium which suggests you are moderately intellectual, curious, and imaginative.

Take Free Big Five Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Interesting blog problem

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.

Cosmopolitan Nottingham

Yesterday, whilst wandering the posher bits of Nottingham in search of a hazelnut lattè, I saw a guy playing a didgeridoo. After watching for a few minutes to check he was doing the circular breathing properly, I tossed him 50p.

There was an awful lot of drool at the foot of the instrument dribbling out onto Bridalsmithgate.

I didn’t think I could top that before I got home, but just before I got on the bus I could have sworn I saw someone smoking using an 8″ cigarette holder. It was quite some distance, but unless he was wandering around chewing on a magic wand, I’m at a loss to explain what the white tipped black stick hanging out of his mouth was.

It would have been more impressive if he’d been wearing a smoking jacket and not a fleece.

Librivox

I’ve now recorded my second chapter of Frankenstein for Librivox and embarked on a solo project — Agatha Christie’s Mysterious Affair at Styles. Links and feeds for everything on the podcast page.

If I complete the ‘niles@styles’ project, the following are what immediately spring to mind as favourites from Project Gutenberg’s vast catalogue:

  • Classic sciffy like H G Wells or Jules Verne
  • G K Chesterton’s Father Brown stories
  • Maybe something short in French or German, just to keep my hand in