Saturday, August 2
Fatherhood
I feel so proud. 2 of my faithful readers have started their own blogs as a direct result of reading mine every day. *blushes* They are Kiwi and Kewell. What they don't realise is that my evil plan is working. Soon all of the world will link to me!!! I can hardly wait for the power.
What else? I've spent most of last night and today playing around with designs for the new blog layout. I'm really, really pleased with how they've turned out, they look fucking smart. I was going to do a super-duper animated side panel, and I got it working fine after a few hours of relearning Javascript from scratch, but decided that it looked shit. Instead, it's going to be...... nope, I've said too much already. Here's a little taster to whet your appetite.
I was out doing some stuff to the garden today, trimming the bushes and all that crap, when I noticed just how phallic most power tools are. My Dad has a fair-old collection of tools, including the prime example. No longer can men claim that their tools are not penis extensions. Just look at it! It's a great big (green) dick. They must have had a field day at Black & Decker designing that one.
Friday, August 1
Sites Sites Sites
Another couple of new sites I've found, proof of me spending too much time online. The first is Blogademia, which is a PHD student's blog kept for the purposes of her thesis. This thesis is based on examining the styles of blogs sent to him for analysis. I've submitted mine, and hope it helps him get a 1st or whatever he's aiming for... Odds on mine being the most middle-of-the-road stylistically?
The second is (wait for it) a London Blogger's Tube Map, where you can add yourself by which tube station you live / work near. Admittedly, I'm not in London right now, but that's only for the next 6 weeks or so. Seems like a good idea, plus it looks pretty.
*coughs*
Thursday, July 31
Don't Come Near Me!!!
For I have either Glandular Fever or Tonsilitis... I've been feeling like shit since Sunday, and my Mum convinced me to go to the Doctor's this afternoon. He checked my throat and glands, asked me what I'd been feeling like, and told me to come back for a blood test tomorrow morning. This will tell them for definite whether I've got GF or not, but they won't get the results until the end of next week. Oh, the tension! If it's not Gf, then I've got a course of antibiotics to take care of the tonsilitis. Joy of joys. Pills to take 4 times per day. I fucking hate taking pills, I'm no good at it. I put them in my mouth with some water, then stand there looking like a lemon for 10 seconds or so whilst I build up the concentration / confidence to swallow them. I'm such a wuss.
On a more positive note (sort of), my being ill and sitting on my ass all day has at least coincided with new issues of a couple of my favourite magazines, namely FHM and Maxim, as well as the start of the 2nd Test between England and South Africa in the cricket. Fucking result. Or, it would be if England bothered to show up at all. We were fucking shit at batting, with the exception of Darren Gough and James Anderson, who are both crap batsmen and shouldn't be expected to have to save the face of the entire team! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and we'll get the South Africans out for a total which is at least in reach...
That would be an excursion for this blog into the real world outside of me. Don't worry, it won't happen again.
I've also sort of designed a new look for this blog in my head. Now it's just a matter of translating it into graphic and HTML form. My basic, very general inspiration came from Tecgirlious*, which is on the left so I can't be bothered hunting for the URL to link it here. I'm ill, can't be expected to do a whole lot! It's not going to be a wholesale rip-off of that design, but it's going to be slightly tech-based. That's all I'm saying right now, you'll have to wait and see.
Wednesday, July 30
Matrix, Matrix and More Matrix
If you go back and have a read through the month of May's archives, you'll figure out that I'm fairly obsessive about the Matrix films. Which is why it's surprising that I've taken so long to find Matrix Essays. It's a very, very good read, and very thought-provoking on the films themselves as well as the accompanying philosophy, however fuzzy that may be. What I'm building up to is that I've just found out that there is a Matrix - Revolutions Trailer available for download now! I suggest right-clicking and saving it, rather than opening the file direct. I can't wait for November!!!
Tuesday, July 29
New Sites
I've been online a fair bit today, just generally surfing and checking out my favourites, and I've found a couple of cool little sites which have taken my fancy. The first is another blog, tecgirlious, which makes for some interesting reading. I want to be that skilled at web design and the like! Hmmm, if only I lived in Silicon Valley, I'd blatantly have been more bothered to teach myself some other web design skills and could get a job doing websites full time. Dammit Alanna, I want your job. I wish I was more artistic, then I could do properly smart websites, rather than the very anti-graphics ones I currently design. Check out my new RobCam blog for an example of how basic my designs are. Admittedly, that took me about 5 minutes to do, which is why it is so bad, but the point remains.
The second site I've found is from the Miami Herald, and is a series of columns by Dave Barry. Even for an American, he is very funny and has is fairly satirical regarding politics. There's a couple of laugh-out-loud parts hidden in there, so go have a read for yourself.
Just a quick thought, I might have a go at redesigning Honestly, I'm Sober!, and getting a bit more arty with it. What do my faithful reader(s) think?
Collection Of Things
No posting yesterday, but I was very, very ill. More on that later. What follows is a somewhat chronologically-ordered tale of the 48 hours since my last post. But first, I hope you've all noticed the shiny new RobCam onnthe right. I've just designed an archive page for that, which I can't remember the address for right now, but I'll post it later.
It started with going to play football with some mates at my local sports centre on Sunday night. It was a really good laugh, and as knackering as usual, but after about half-an-hour, I kicked the back of someone's shoe with my left foot, and was in agony straight away. I limped off to the side, took off my trainer and sock, to see what I'd done to it. I thought initially that I'd broken it, since it had swelled immediately and was bleeding around the nail. I put some ice on it, and the bleeding stopped, although not the throbbing. I should remark at this point that I've never broken a bone in my body, other than my two front teeth, so I'm not 100% sure what it should feel / look like.
By the time I got home, I physically couldn't walk on it, so I rang the mobile number for my employment agency to tell them I couldn't work on Monday morning. Unfortunately the girl that answered it moaned at me for waking her up (come on, it was only 10.30!), but I think I got away with it. I went to bed, toe still throbbing (and purple), hoping that it wasn't broken. My dreams that night were fucking weird too. Maybe something to do with the delirium of pain. I'm such a wimp.
The first one was a cross between the Jodie Foster film Panic Room and a random B-movie-type huge insects thing. It wasn't 100% scary, just all over the fucking place. I think it made me jump a few times, but I didn't wake up screaming or any of that shit. The second one was much more vivid (i.e. in colour), I think since my Mum had already woken me up and I was in the half-sleep period. This one was had a few characters from Scarface (obviously been playing Vice City too much recently), but was based in London (I must be missing it), mixed in some running scenes a la Lola Rennt (one of my favourite films ever), and finally ended up with me leaping into a swimming pool after I spotted an old friend, played (for some unknown reason) by the actress in Parole Officer. It was mad. I can still remember a huge amount of detail from it too, probably because my mind was half-awake.
When I got up on Monday I was feeling like shit. My toe wasn't broken, just very very badly bruised. To counter this, however, I had the beginnings of a flu virus. My Mum commented how I looked terrible all day long, and I was dosed up on Lemsip and Ibuprofen for a good part of the day. A good point was that I could get away with having a lazy day in front of the Cricket, reading my book (The Dice Man, again...). I didn't even get on a computer all day, which shows how ill I was!
And that's about it. No work today, I'm still feeling a bit iffy, but I'm waiting to hear back from the employment agency concerning work for tomorrow. My exciting life that I lead.
Sunday, July 27
Makes Me Ill
West Wiltshire Micros is quite possibly the worst-looking corporate site that I have ever come across. Apparently they've had 18 years selling computers and the various components associated with them, so you'd think that they would at least know how to design a half-decent website. Aesthetically it's disgusting, and the code is indecipherable. It's just all-round a crap site.
Alanna, go to View Source and check out the sheer amount of < p > tags that are used to create white space. Horrible, horrible stuff. Plus, what HTML tag do I use to show HTML code on a page? I haven't got a fucking clue, and I can't find info anywhere...
A Tale Of 2 Phone Calls
I was sitting around yesterday evening, not doing a whole lot, when my phone rang. It was a mate of mine telling me that a load of us were going to Bath for a night out, and did I want to come? Me, being me, of course said yes, and so followed a night out in Bath. More on that in a second.
The second call I got was from Alex, one of the guys I'm sharing a house with next year. He'd just heard from Joe, another of the guys who was going to live with us. We don't know Joe all that well, he's a mate of Matt, and he filled our worst nightmares when he said he couldn't get the money together in time for the first lot of rent, and so couldn't move in. Thankfully, another mate of ours, Lee (I know, it's getting confusing with all of these names...), who lived in our halls this year, hasn't found a place yet, and is interested in moving in with us. Alex is hopefully getting hold of him today, and if he can get the money together in the next fortnight, then we've found our 7th housemate. If not, then we're screwed.
On with the tale of the night out. I didn't get as drunk as usual, thought I'd have a calm one, but the others made up for it... Craig was smashed by about 11.30, Adie went for a really, really long walk at the end of the night and got lost, and Poolman only stayed out for a couple of hours because he was still feeling the after-effects of Friday night. We rule.
Hmmm, I stopped typing for a bit whilst I was doing other stuff and now I've lost all train of thought and inspiration. I give up. But note, shiny shiny new RobCam on the right, for which I'm also creating a blog just for archiving purposes. Also, I've finally started to design a blog for photos, and I've been taking a few in the past couple of days, just to boost the amount of content...
