Advent Calendar Search
I haven't got an advent calendar. Crap. Every year I do this...Shall attempt to find one this afternoon. I avoid the chocolatey ones as they often repeat pictures, which is crazy - how difficult can it be to find 25 christmassy images?
Update: Found a decent one hiding at the back of John Lewis.
Paint.NET
Almost forgot to mention Paint.NET, a freeware (and open-source) photo editing package that's pretty impressive. It's designed to be a replacement for the standard Windows Paint package, and to be as easy to use. I've been testing the betas for a month or two, and version 2.5 final was just released. It's actually faster for editing than ACDSee, which I've been using for years. Features include layers, undo history, alpha transparency, the standard photo manipulation tools like resize/levels/crop, and magic wand/selection tools. Worth a look.
Aural Fun
Turns out that ear syringing isn't as bad as it sounds. A reasonably strong jet of warm water is fired into the ear, and whatever comes out is caught in a cup. I was expecting some kind of syringe to be involved, and a popping suctiony type sound. I'm happy to say that it worked very well, and I can now hear again! Only problem now is that the other ear feels blocked in comparison...The nurse said it was quite full, but you need to apply drops for three days prior to syringing so couldn't do anything about it. There's apparently some soreness in both ears, which isn't very normal, so I'll have to make a doctor's appointment to get it all checked out at some point.
After learning it in my guitar lesson this morning I've just purchased my first ever song by Green Day, a band which didn't appeal in the slightest before now. Wake Me Up When September Ends is the track, and I quite like it. Last week it was Smash It Up (Parts 1 & 2) by The Damned, so I'm really expanding my musical horizons at the moment 
Currently trying to get to grips with pentatonic scales - I've never had any real understanding of music theory and it's not so scary as I thought. I seem to have been born without the ability to tune or identify chords in the same key, however.
This morning I had a half-hour chat with a very pleasant BBC researcher about my experiences at Live 8. I hadn't had any breakfast so probably wasn't on my best form, but hopefully I gave him the kind of information he was after. He said they'll talk to as many people as they can and then decide who to film for the BBC2 show - that would be exciting!
Finished writing this twenty minutes ago, then got distracted by first time housemoving tips over at Ask Metafilter. It's such a useful website!
Lights Out
We just had a power cut and I had trouble even making it downstairs. Normally I use my phone's backlight in those situations, but I couldn't find it The sheer number of times I walked into a room and thought 'I'll turn the light on' is just embarrassing.
Completion Date Confirmed
Just received confirmation that the completion date will be 6th December - next Tuesday. Phew! We'll try to decorate it that week - there should be very little that needs doing other than the bright pink wall - then I'll move in the following Saturday.
I never did decide on a broadband provider, so I'll do that this afternoon. I'm still looking for the elusive 1mb/uncapped/<£20 deal...
Also, I have an appointment with the nurse this afternoon to sort out my ear. I'm thinking it'll be gross It's starting to hurt now, so it'll be rather a relief when it's sorted.
Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream always was something of a bizarre play, but had a certain charm. I was quite impressed when this evening's re-imagining managed to squash that charm completely. I gave it one more chance after:
Queen of the Fairies: My name's Titania
Bottom: [looks down] I'm not surprised
but then Oberon said:
Is Puck short for Puck-up by any chance? Get anything else wrong and I'll stick this midsummer night's dream up where the moon don't shine
and that was enough for me. Not my style of humour 
Such a shame, when Much Ado About Nothing was so good a few weeks back.
NaNoWriMo Accomplished
50,039 words. Woohoo!! I now have a NaNoWriMo Winner's Certificate on my desktop.
Also, the Institute for Creation Research is getting nothing.
The story is finished, too. It's called 'The Legacy of Tom Bassford', and is an adventure story. A blurb may go something like this:
When Tom Bassford killed himself, he left behind the first hints for solving the largest treasure hunt ever created. His friends dedicate themselves to solving the puzzle, aiming to dedicate the $1,000,000 prize fund to Tom's memory. But all is not as it seems, and when the man behind the competition is found brutally murdered events quickly spiral out of control. With an assassin hell bent on revenge and an MI5 team who will go to any lengths to crack the code first, the friends are in over their heads.
Or something Is it great literature? No. Am I proud of it? Definitely!
It needs a fair bit of work before it works as a proper novel. For example, the first ten chapters are in diary form. I got annoyed with that, so they'll need to be rewritten! Also, characters' personalities changed as I progressed, so I'll need to fix their earlier scenes. I'll try to do that this week. On Thursday 1st December I'm going to upload it to lulu.com and order myself a paperback copy. Yeah it's a little vain, but I really want one Lulu.com are actually offering free copies to NaNoWriMo winners, but only in the US, sadly.
I'm going to go rest, read the congratulatory chapter in the official NaNoWriMo book, and relax.
Phew.
Accio!
Just back from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I found wonderful. I've liked each successive film more, and this was no exception. While telling a remarkable amount of the book in a two hour film, it still managed to cram in layer upon layer of interesting and beautiful little moments. I won't spoil any, but if you're a fan of great storytelling I recommend it very much.
The above is despite the fact that my annual broken-ear problem has returned. It felt slightly blocked at around 1900, although I could still hear reasonably well, but when doofus here tipped in some warm water 1 it completely blocked for good. This is the fourth time in as many years I've had this problem, and so far it's always taken four or five days to fix. Last time I solved it myself by medically dubious methods2 and I'd rather not do that again! I'll pop into the pharmacist tomorrow and see what they recommend.
The novel hit 47,500 words this afternoon. Depending on how well the ending goes, I may make it to 50k tomorrow. I'm still a little unclear on exactly how things will resolve themselves, but hopefully it'll all fall into place.
If you feel the need for warmer cockles on this bloody freezing winter night, I recommend Tycho of Penny Arcade's post on the birth of his son.
Cutting-edge CGI
This video of bleeding-edge work on CGI water and fire effect is amazing. Fire's still not quite there imho, but water is very impressive indeed.
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often meander around humanism and photography, but they're flighty and you can't trust them, so anything is possible.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
Your hair looks swish, by the way - have you done something new?
Recent Comments
- vicky: going up this weekend having done all the welsh peaks except 4 snowdon, cant wait
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: what, how can u live in the 21 c and say that, probably a sexist thing
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: da iawn laura, cant believe what im hearing, all this fuss, anyway love the site, and i agree, normal people who swear and curse clomb mountains cos we live in the...
on Climbing Snowdon. - Andrew: Did a few quick test shots to check the light levels, then balanced the camera on the arm of a bench, set it for a 20s exposure and hoped for the best
on ISS. - lynsey: Wow, how did you take that photograph?
on ISS.
