Exactly 5 months ago I was kicked out of my job, replaced by a bunch of very jovial Indian guys. Reflections on this and

- Life in unemployment.

What I have done the last month:

- Barcelona
- Races.
- PROMS.
- Questions for the Republicans.

And plans for the next year:

- Sheffield, Mexico, Barcelona and Andalusia, Tuscany, Lanzarote, China and Australia.

So here is an odd way to meet someone new, even if to just have some conversation about physics and math and wine and cheese.

But I never got around to posting it and then navigated away and, well, oh well. So I'm watching the Key to Time series. It's a bit campy. I'm doing so because all of it is available on the Netflix Watch Instantly. Anyways: what other series should I watch? I'm probably going to watch a bunch of the Dalek stuff after this, but I'm open to suggestions.

Inside: advice on appetizers needed.

Topics:

US Politics
Computer Improvements
Song Lyrics are Dumb
Some humorous news stories
House Guests
Photography

Some Political Thoughts


With the US Presidential Election coming up, there are some things to think about and some hope.

Take your medicine.

Best time of year in a lot of ways, despite the growing dark and cold.

"No, Renate, I'm not going to dance."
"Don't be a party-pooper!"
It was past three and the music was fantastic. The speakers were test boxes, Jürgen's latest development. My neighbour Jürgen is well-known to audiophiles and audio engineers. But I don't dance, not even when Jürgen, his girlfriend Ingrid and her visiting twin sister Renate are. I belong to that very small subset of white men who not only know they can't dance but who also actively avoid doing so.

"I feel like a fool when I try and I know I look like one, too."
And back she went to dance with the other two. I opened another bottle of wine, some cheap merlot from Aldi which was surprisingly good. And as I started pouring a glass I was once again hounded by the redhead.

I made a new version of the writing practice sheet: writing_practice_sheet_2.pdf.

Changes: * Different font (Comic Sans MS replaced by Chalkboard), * Letters now in both capital and lower case (more work per sheet), &  * Replaced some of the clip art (hopefully an improvement) so it's all black-and-white and mostly suitable for colouring in.

Also, uploaded a video of the Sunwell Brutallus encounter (Holy Paladin/Burn healing PoV) from WoW/TBC to youtube.  Even if your not interested in Warcraft you should check it out for my awesome choice of background music... ^^

September 3rd, 2008
Osaki, Shinagawa (Tokyo) - 18:30

"Seeking Connectivity"

Every time (cough-cough) I've come to (cough-cough) this office complex in Osaki (cough-cough), I've seen people sitting around with their laptops happily(?) computing away, so I thought there might be .....