graeme.blog

Category: diary

  • Was I a proto-blogger?

    I’ve been blogging a while, strictly speaking going back to 2002 (I’ll say something worthwhile one of these days). If you go back to the start of this blog, you’ll see I have entries from 1985. However these are absolutely from my earlier teenage diary. A few years later though, is when I believe I started blogging.

    I used to keep a small red diary. All the names were sort of changed to protect the innocent. And it had a readership. I can’t remember how it started, but I used to carry it everywhere with me, and I think someone asked one day. And I let them. It was sort of anon, and kind of random, and most of the people that read it were mates that knew most of it anyway. I had a readership. I think it was during English lessons it would happen the most, one of my friends would ask to read it, and they would go off with the diary to catch up on my life to date. I didn’t have commenting, which I think would have been one of the crucial things to have really made me like a blogger back then, but I was pretty close. I still have this, and there are a few entries from that period on here somewhere (may have a dig later on).

  • More twitter than usual

    I have been using a little a service called Twitter.com . It is sort of like a really quick blog, and you can easily access it via IM like gmail, by phone or of course just online. This is what I have been up to thus far. Where I can see it working nicely is as a channel to compare yourself with other people, but on its own, most of it I can do myself onto here. I might even consider doing that, just doing quick tiny mood updates. We’ll see, that could easily be very dull.

  • Odd few days

    I have been working from home for a few days, sorting out an issue with our content management system at work. Quite nifty really, was talking to a chap in Sweden on MSN in the evenings whilst we worked on the same computer. Isn’t technology marvellous! So spent a couple of days getting up, gaming and relaxing in the morning, then working afternoon/evening until fairly late at night. Very odd way round to have your day, not sure I liked it.

    Anyways, this weekend brings a visit from my parents, and possibly a little light gardening. That was the other thing I did whilst working at home, spent a little time each day in the garden so I got out, and so that I started the clean-up operation that needs to take place to sort it out. Am going to blitz it over the next month or two before things really start growing in earnest again.

    I have finished Crackdown, and got to one of the lamest plot twists in the history of gaming. It is a must-see, if only in terms of how not to do it. Still, great fun game, which has still got me cleaning up the achievements.

  • And so another weekend is done.

    And a good time was had by all. Yesterday we went off to Magdalen college to have a wander around the grounds. However we got there about 11:30, and it didn’t open to the public until 1. No matter, we instead moved onto the Botanic Gardens across the road. Gorgeous day for it. Some fascinating things to see there.

    Lime tree

    We had a good wander around there. Looks good now, will look even more beautiful in a few months, and I reckon we’ll probably go and see for ourselves.

    Well-crafted area

    After that, we carried on into town, went to the fishmongers, and got some fish for the purposes of making this:

    Finished plate of sushi

    Which was rather tasty, if I do say so myself. Plus some scallops which I spiced, and served with some noodles.  Whilst I was preparing all that, I had a call from my friend J, and we met him for a few pints at the Black Swan, where a pleasant evening was had by all. And on the way home we got to see the post-eclipse moon. Rather good fun all round.

  • The proverbial quiet weekend

    So this week is intended to be quiet. Our main aims are to decide on a hotel for our NYC trip (we’ve made a shortlist of five, and will be inviting all the hotels to compete in a Pop Idol style showdown for our affections. Well either that or going with the one we really like because we can get a room there). After that, well, I’ve never done a proper tour round a University since I came here, so we are going to have a walk into town, and stop off in the grounds of one of them for a good wander round, obviously taking the opportunity to wind Mrsfb up by stopping and taking photographs every 15 seconds. And then I’m cooking some sushi and an as-yet-unchosen fish dish, possibly involving scallops.

    There may well be a bike ride on Sunday too if it stays at all reasonable (I am definitely a fair-weather cyclist). I do need to start getting out on some little treks on the bike to get back into it. Oh and finally I may brave the garden for a little tidy up (i.e. start the massive amound of tidying there is to do).

  • Sushi Master

    Well not quite, but my sushi the other night was, if I do say so myself, bloody fantastic. When I tried it not long after preparation, it wasn’t all that. It tasted too seaweedy, which is not a taste you want in particular. I didn’t realise what it really needed was fridge time. The next evening we had some as a starter, and it tasted great, and bar my clumsy presentation looked like they should. So I’ve bought more stuff for sushi last night, including a bamboo mat (which I did have, but I think I cut it up to use for something else, some project or idea I really can’t remember). With bamboo mat I may yet attain perfection!

    Also starting to plan seriously for upgrading my computer at home. It is coming on for four years old now, has done sterling service, but is getting slow. I am not getting rid of it, but it can be a fileserver now, whilst I build a new computer. Decided to build my own from scratch again, I hopefully have a case coming from a friend that looks promising, have settled on an Intel Duo Core processor at the centre of the machine, which then helps you focus on which other elements you want to add in. I think graphics card is the toughest choice now, as I really don’t know how much I am willing to spend on that. You can easily spend the cost of a new Xbox 360 just on a graphics card should you chose, but I think I’d rather get something up to date but mid-range. I also this time need to take account of wanting to run Linux as my operating system of choice, I have been using Ubuntu for about 3 months now on all my machines, and I can’t see me going back to Windows now. Just so much cleaner and easier.

  • New York here we come!

    We have booked our tickets for New York last night. Very excited, now need to sort a hotel, and start figuring out what we get up to for a week. In fact we’ve got quite a few ideas already, but we need to decide on what we want to do most of all, and work around those. I’d kind of like to do an event or two, go to a gig or a show on Broadway, something like that. Living the dream!

    Will gladly take any New York suggestions in the comments, all ideas greatfully received.

    While I’m here, can I give a quick plug to my new site Wrestling with Consciousness. If you like wrestling, you’ll like it, if you don’t, then well, you won’t.

  • Of sushi and suchlike

    Have been making sushi for the first time tonight. Harder than it seems, should be just rice and rolling in my book, but there seemed to be several little stages in the instructions I had, and it was quite the faff. Still, I’ve got my first two long rolls cut, so after a couple of test portions I’ve got lunch for tomorrow, and a starter for dinner tomorrow. They seem to come out bigger than I’m used to, but I don’t have a bamboo mat to roll with, so I don’t think I was prepared to risk getting them tighter without splitting. Will report back soon with how they tasted having been chilled. Also discovered the joys of wasabi peanuts tonight. They are hot. Damn hot.

    I’ve also bought some new trainers for cycling, sort of a combination of trainer and hiking boot. Possibly the most comfy shoes I’ve had in a while, will post a photo of them soon, would highly recommend them.

  • A virtual marketplace for us all

    I’ve been playing Phantasy Star Universe this week, and I finally had enough money to open my own store. This is a place where I can sell the items I find in the game to other players, and also items I have made myself (you do this by combining items you’ve found). Now what surprised me was the volume of players looking at my shop almost as soon as I had started selling. It is constant, there is a very lively business to be made selling on there.

    This got me thinking, what if I could design my own items, say on my pc, upload them to their servers, then sell them myself on there. Or even better, if I could sell them myself in Xbox Live, for money rather than the messata I get in Phantasy Star Universe.

    Now this isn’t rocket science in gaming terms, pretty much this sort of model is what is ultimately supposed to happen with Xbox Live and the Playstation 3 version of Live. Even then though, it is a very closed system.

    And it shouldn’t be. I want to be able to sell pretty much anything, virtual or real, from any location I chose. If I made music say, it would be great if I could sell it easily directly from this blog. If I made t-shirts, or sold something on ebay, I should be able to drop it into a post, or onto the sidebar on the right there, and let people know about it. Equally, anywhere I’ve got a profile, say on Xbox Live, or BTPodshow, or Myspace, I should be able to offer my things for sale.

    Ideally, I’d also like the option to trade services as well. Maybe I could get some credits for setting up a blog for someone, then use them to buy hosting for another project somewhere, topping it up with a bit of cash if need be.

    I think this is something that Google are probably most likely to be closest too, but are still some way from. I think if I was going to do it, I’d be able to take advantage of the APIs for many existing services, wrap them all together under one blanket service. I’d probably go with Paypal for now, but I’d want an overall account structure in there including the opportunity to barter services as well. I can just see clearer now the possibility of a massively intertwinned virtual marketplace, where everyone is a buyer and seller. Just as blogging has started to change how news works, maybe easily accessible virtual shops will change retail even further, the social networking spin on the groundwork laid by Amazon et al.

    There is a service starting to approach this, Zlio, who allow you to set up a shop and integrate it with your site. It draws in “stock” from other online retailers, allowing you to mix and match a shop out of them. You can’t unfortunately sell your own items with them yet, althought they do state they will permit this soon. And there may be a UK version of the site in the offing soon, so check back in a little bit.

  • Old Skool like Happy Shopper

    Listening to 90s rap mainly today, from the somewhat more aggressive era. And Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, which is one of the few songs I like recorded this century. Really like in fact, love hearing that incredible voice echoing around my head, hearing the dirty noise in the background that whooshes in for the chorus, then just turns off, the insistant bassline, and those truely unhinging lyrics.

    Have been playing about with autoblogging a bit on other sites, it is interesting to see you can create a whole site off other peoples content, with very little work. I’m actually going to step back from it a bit, what I really want is a site that shows other stuff, but that the main focus is still my own writing, just seems fairer really.

    BrotherinlawFB is down to visit tomorrow, will be good fun, he has booked tickets for us all to see Hot Fuzz, and if that wasn’t good enough, he has booked the fat bastard seats at the back that I love so much. How to get on my good side right there, take me to a good movie, and let me sit somewhere that doesn’t wreck my back for two hours. Normal cinema seats hurt me, have done for a good decade or two, but these don’t. These are hald sofas, and I love them. Can’t wait. Should also get a little meal out somewhere, possible the noodle bar in the centre of town, then meeting friends for drinks, so looking forwards to the weekend arriving. Ideally no later than tomorrow please.