Hot Saturday

Nice quiet day today. Went up town and bought a lovely gadget (you can find out all about it on my Spoke blog). I like the idea at weekends where, if it is too hot to do anything you can just decide to do nothing. Which is not what I do at work. Oh no. And anyway, I've got a fan in my office.

 

Hurrah for Buffy

With a "Summer of Sport" (tm) in the offiing I've been stocking up on DVDs to get me through those long summer evenings. Now, don't get me wrong. I like sport. I used to be quite a sporting lad in my youth. I watched Wimbledon and even some football. But nowadays they don't just show you the match. Oh no. They have a pre-match build up and a post match discussion and commentators who say things like "Oh, he must really regret doing that....". And a the the end of the match they shove a microphone in the (usually English) face of the chap who came second and ask questions like "Knocked out in the first round eh Tim? How do you feel?". I don't need to know how he feels. Just once I'd like to see one of the players or whatever poke the interviewer in the eye with something sharp and pointy and shout "How do you expect me to feel, you media buffoon?". But of course the sponsors would never allow it.

Anyhoo, the good news is that those nice people at Play are presently doing the Buffy boxed sets at a very pleasing reduction. I've ordered season 7 and season 6 for thirty quid each. Which should cover me for Euro 2004 and the Olympics with a bit of luck....

 

I love my job

I love my job. Today I had a call from one of my students. He did a project with me, worked very hard, presented and reported well. Now he has to choose between the two jobs he has been offered. And I got an email from someone out there (no idea where - the wonders of the internet) who says thanks for my Java to C# conversion notes (you can find them here if you are interested).

 

Writers Blog

I'm presently writing two blogs. In an attempt to give value for non money I'm trying to make then different so that you can read one or the other (or both if you are mad) and from each get a slightly different take on "The Crazy World of Rob Miles" (tm).

Of course, the problem is that, in the normal run of things, my world is not really that full of momentous events (translation - I don't get the car repaired every day). So I've had a look at some other blogs out there for inspiration and found that some bloggers write about their dreams. So here goes.

Last night I slept like a log.

 

Madness

I saw an advert for a portable TV today. I wish I'd been able to get a copy of it. There was nothing special about the TV itself, a fairly ordinary device with a 4 inch LCD screen. The scary bit is that it came with a remote control. Madness. There was even a picture of someone using the thing. In one hand they held the telly, in the other the remote control. I'm now frantically trying to think of reasons why a hand held TV should have a remote. The best one I've found so far is "Because it can".

 

Striking a Blow for Democracy

In the Good Old Days (tm), something that I am starting to refer to increasingly, when we wanted to play our part in the democratic process we just toddled down to the local town hall, ducked into a booth, made our mark with the little pencil and went home. Neat, quick and a nice walk.

Today that has all changed. Instead of a simple trip out we have to get witnesses, sign our names, make our mark, fold the paper up up, put it into envelope B, seal envelope B, put envelope B into envelope A, find that there is a bit in envelope B that you should not have left there, and now you don't have an address showing through the window in envelope A, wonder if you should open envelope B to get it out, reflect that this probably invalidates your vote and then put the whole thing in a postbox anyway since the postman will probably know where it is supposed to go. I don't think my vote will count now.

I suppose that in the great scheme of things it doesn't really matter that much anyway. It seems that whoever you vote for, the government always gets in...

 

Sunny Sunday

Can't believe it. Another sunny Sunday. Spent a good chunk of time sitting in the conservatory, slightly enlivened by the way that the blade came off the fan and flew across the room. It is one of those foam blade type things, so no harm done. But it didn't half make me jump....