Nudity, horses, archaeology, weirdness &c - yup, linkspam time

OK, one of the basic rules of blogging is that links aren’t there to help the blogger, they’re there as a service to your readers. Consequently, although this link has little appeal to me, I provide it because I know a fair number of my friends are filthy perverted voyeurs who like looking at pictures of mostly naked young pretty people. Therefore, this link is fr all the filthy perverted types out there; the Leaky Couldron (a site I’m not known to frequent but I lost the via link, sorry), has pictures of Daniel Radcliffe almost naked taken from the publicity for his new play, Equus. Somehow, I suspect I’m going to attend that play at some point. Oh well, it looks like it might have a few redeeming features (the website can’t seem to tell me who she is, any ideas out there?).

On the subject of Harry Potter fans; (and possibly others) would likely be interested in this quote by which he’s repeated on his profile:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

There’s an icon with a paraphrase doing the rounds out there as well, but it’s rather apposite to a few conversations I’ve had recently.

Now, via , this is rather good ad Bash.org, book report comparing Bill Clinton’s memoirs with Titanic:

Titanic:….. The story of Jack and Rose, their forbidden love, and
subsequent catastrophe.
Clinton:….. The story of Bill and Monica, their forbidden love, and
subsequent catastrophe.

Titanic:….. Jack is a starving artist.
Clinton:….. Bill is a bullshit artist.

Perhaps of more general importance, one of Blair’s best mates has been arrested (again), and of course we all believe Mr Blair’s Spokesman when he says the sainted Tone had nothing to do with it, don’t we children? Meh. Why is it always corruption that gets them? Invade a small country illegally after lying about the justification? No problem. ‘Borrow’ money to pay for an overbudgeted election campaign, and you get caught. Ah well, they got Capone on tax fraud after all.

Now this, on the other hand, is very cool, Stonehenge builders’ houses found (also at CNN.com). How cool is that? Might have to make a small detour seing as the site is directly on the drive to Torquay from here.

Also, it looks like, if things keep going, we may actually get peace in our time! Well, in Northern Ireland, anyway, which is good enough given the history of the last 30 or so years. This also means a lovely new set of elections to watch, coming soon; has already started an analysis of the more interesting battlegrounds, and I bow to his superior local knowledge (he was ’s agent when he ran for the precursor to the assembly).

And last up, from Alex Lucard what has to be the weirdest hotel resort in existence. It’s a former top security prison in Latvia, and you pay them to lock you up and be treated like a prisoner. Nice… (site is flash based, and thus BAD, but given I’m no longer on dial-up, it’s actually loadable, still crap though, as entirely flash sites always are).

Lastly, a question: Would I be better off attending Les Miserables for the first time having read up on the plot, or going in cold?

And a good time was had by all

K, supposedly the advantage of broadband was I would post more between job hunting. Alternately, I can read more and explore YouTube. What do you think I’ve been doing?

Anyway; Saturday night, Slimelight, fun, and very much the Bunker only larger, grottier and without the ageing bikers (but with many ageing goths). I liked, but not enough to go regularly. Lost track of and young lady nearer the end, couldn’t find them to say I was off, then had fun negotiating the night busses. Will need to figure out how they work.

Sunday I did the whopping thing (huge 24 hour Tescos within fair walking distance, or I can, y’know, drive, car has to be good for something now and then, right? I know, I’ll stop once Im settled in, might think about selling it). Then went oop north to meet for a chat. She’d started, read and finished the book I leant her Thursday; oh to be able to read that quickly.

Today? Mostly more unpacking, exploring the kitchen and then the internet, but off out now, to meet up with Chris of fame, given we’ve been taking the piss out of each other and arguing for the last 18 months online and have both moved up here, makes a bit of sense. Expect a few fireworks in the High Street Ken area in about an hour…

I have, y’know, articles, and reviews, and cool links all stored up in my head, but I’m having fun, so you’ll have to put up with me talking about my life more often. It’s nice having one methinks…

Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner…

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

OK, I’ve had what can only be termed as a brilliant, if rather hectic few days. Rented flat Weds, met with friends for a wander around London Thurs, including a great fun walk up and down the Thames with for about two hours, then drove home, collapsed into my old bed, etc.

Friday I packed as much in the way of clothes and other essentials (like, y’know, the computer) into the car, drove up, parked at Mike’s, got on a train and went to Lewisham. David’s band were very good (I was worried they wouldn’t be My Sort of Thing, but despite that being true I still enjoyed it a lot, and even *shudders* sang along at times). Fox and Firkin a top pub; I didn’t realise it was an actual pirate theme night until I got there, but it was both packed and more than 50% pirate. And, despite it being a fairly young crowd, I was neither the youngest nor did I feel out of place. Briefly (very) met ; David, by the time I’d recognised you I was more than three sheets to the wind, so apologies if my drunkenness was a little off), as it’s his local, as it is also ’s apparently.

Ended up going back with the band to Emma and Matty’s, for a quick drink before working out the night bus routes. Um, that was the plan. I woke up this morning on their sofa, surrounded by band members on the floor or in sleeping bags, with a hangover from hell. I vaguely recall eating some toast at some point, and there may have been more singing. Ouch.

Today, I had to rush around to two separate banks (because Raynes Park Barclays wasn’t open), then met the guy from the letting agent, and the landlady, and then unloaded the car and (sort of) unpacked. By the time I’d unloaded and settled in it was a bit late to get into town to meet and friends; that’s I think 3 times I’ve managed to not manage a planned meet Greg, sorry about that, will get better when not hectic, promise.

So, got set up, did some basic unpacking, made the bed and…

Who am I kidding. I have a wireless broadband connection. It’s a bit choppy, but I have broadband, on my own PC. What do y’all think I’ve been doing?

Anyway; I got to ?skip=200 on my main friends view, let alone blogs and weasels, so I gave up, so if anything major has happened in your life recently, or you’ve died, or something, LMK?

I’ll put up a new contact details for LJ-friends tomorrow when I’ve figured out the post code, but the public bit is Raynes Park, near Wimbledon, SW20

I am a London resident, complete with house keys and off-street parking. Off street parking, broadband and a room that isn’t as small as I thought, for £300 a month? Bargain!

Now, naturally, I have to go investigate the kitchen facilities, I’m a little peckish. Then, the plan is, investigate this thing known as Slimelight. I’ve never been.

654

Right, a little swamped. Meeting and in about 2 hours for our planned ages ago wander around Camden, then off to Covent Garden to meet . This is good. Then, get back here, drive back to Torbay. Pack car full of stuff, sleep.

Tomorrow: finish packing car full of stuff, drive back up. ? There’s no way I’ll make lunch tomorrow, timing messed up, next week, right? Still, will see you in the evening.

Friday evening: ’s band Pyrites are playing at the Fox and Firkin in Lewisham, so we’re already promised to go there. Then back to Mike’s for my last night on his sofa. Saturday: go to new place, meet landlady, collect keys, move in.

New place has wireless broadband included in the rental price, no idea how good that’ll be, but hopefully I’ll be online quickly. If not I’ll simply walk to Mike’s regularly. In the meantime, some linkspam before I go…

• has another awesome photo set, this time of London. As in previous sets, it’s the lighting that really sets them off well.
• An article in the Huffington Post about how being vegetarian is the best way to save the world. A little hyperbolic perhaps, and the astroturfing comments are pure comedy gold, but the basic principle is sound, and it is one of my reasons for not eating meat (I’ve never been the “don’t harm the cute fluffy bunnies” type of vegie, as previous links may attest to).
• In addition, . Everyone has an LJ it seems. This is the artist who was at the Mancon Warlord tournaments, website is jonhodgson.net. , was one of your prizes one of his prints? I don’t recall if you did your usual clean sweep at ManCon. And I’m not sure if went to either, Laurence? I know you went to both Midlanders as at some point we need to settle the hotel bills, but I don’t recall ManCon.
• Last up, still not written my rant about with Ruth Kelly is shit and should resign, but is covering the aspects and haven’t already. But, this link is really for todays , Blackmailing Asshats.

Right, gotta rush, may or may not be online between now and Sunday, so comment’sll come from Opera Mini if at all ;-)

Linkspam: Life on Mars, paid protest, Wikipedia gives up, and WordPress is so cool…

• El Reg reports that you can now rent people to join your protest in Germany. Potential protesters get paid, but aren’t obliged to agree unless it’s something they agree with. Hmm, attack on the principles of democracy, an example of ‘everything for sale’, or a simple way to motivate otherwise apathetic activists? Let’s face it, if you were going to be paid to turn up at the next Parliament Square protest, you might actually do it, right?
• Right then, Life On Mars I’ve heard many many good things about this show, and then today linked to loveandgarbage who was linking to this awesome trailer for the next series, which shows the main characters as if they’re in Camberwick Green! How cool is that? I hate to do this, but The Sun has the best version of the promo picture. So, maybe I should’ve bought the DVD box set in the January sales for £20 after all? Ah no, Sendit has it for £16 and Choices for £14. Bargain. Now if Mike had any decent image manip software, I’d be iconning myself up, they’re so cool.
• Now, I read about this on a few days back, but have been busy/net deprived, but Wikipedia has implemented rel=”nofollow” for all outgoing links. This is a BAD BAD THING. Now, whatever we think of Google the corporation, Google the search engine, and specifically the PageRank formula, is essentially democracy in action. The readon it works is because it aggregates all the links out there and figures out which are the most popular (and therefore useful) sites. rel=”nofollow” is there for webmasters to say that they don’t trust a link, or they don’t want to vote for it. By putting nofollow on all its outgoing links (in a spurious and useless attempt to fight spam), Wikipedia is effectively both denying other sites their votes (and opting out of the democracy), but also asserting clearly that their content is untrustworthy, cannot be guarnateed and they don’t want to give legitimate credit.  That last links to a WordPress Plugin that I’ll be putting in next time I update, and from now on I’ll be nofollowing any links to Wikipedia that I make, and I urge others to do the same.  If they want to opt out of the Google democracy, they should do it both ways (as, for example, ’s The Snow in Summer already does) and say they don’t want inbound links either.  Of course the real issue is linkspam in the form of blog comments, and of course disreputable Search Marketers who do things the bad way, as Tim described one company to me, a bunch of spamming twunts.
• Last up (for now) WordPress 2.1 is out, which means should be kicking start a little more, I need to catch up with some things, and reply to a few emails, but this particular project looks like it’ll have real legs.  After all, Livejournal is slowly dying.  Journal Press will rock.  Hopefully.

Oh, for those not scrolling back again; I’ve got a place to live in London, start moving in Saturday.  Comes with wireless broadband and all bills included, which will be nice.

Blimey - flat hunting, London and the weather

Right, last night, I went to see a place advertised in the cheap section of the Ham&High property guide.  Flatshare, sounded about what I’m looking for.  Was right next to a complete self contained flat for less than £300pcm in the same postcode district as this place, so the prices looked right.

Met the (slightly batty) lady as she walked back from the shops, helped her in with her shopping, and just looked at the main room.  It was gorgeous.  So I turned and said: Um, the price in the paper, £300.  That’s not per month is it, it’s per week.  She looked at me as if this was blitheringly obvious.  It never occured to me to check, it was in the cheap section, and I don’t know the areas well enough. Still, nice cup of tea, long chat, I showed her what was wrong with her ad and why she wasn’t getting any respondents (because, y’know, it was an ad suited for a cheap place, not a Really Nice Place.  then I helped her put it on a few websites I’d been looking at (although I can’t see it live on gumtree so can’t link).  Then she offered me commission if I found someone that wanted to take the room.

So, anyone want a room in Hampstead for £250-£300 per week?  Hampstead, ten minutes walk from two tube stops, quiet, broadband, huge room, private bathroom, off street parking, one shared tenant, nice but slightly batty?

Still, a few to visit today that look promising, two of them within 5 minutes walk of Mike’s flat (not sure if that’s a good thing) and at least I know the area.  Really liking it up here; might possibly be spending too little time looking for a place to live, and  a bit too much time simply wondering around and getting on and off at random tube stops. Oh, and book shops. Might be going into them too often as well.

Also, snow?  My car is covered, went to get some stuff from it earlier, and it’s actually white.  I mean, I know that’s the colour of the paint, but it hasn’t been this white since a few days after I bought it.  What is this snow stuff, we don’t get that in Devon Torquay (seriously, we don’t, it all melts immediately).  Good job I’m not driving anywhere today.

ETA: Saw a place earlier, small room in shared house, dirt cheap, all bills paid, includes wireless broadband, can’t be argued with, and it’ll give me incentive to find somewhere bigger when I’m settled in witha steady income. Me happy.

The dangers of bleep..

Via , we present conclusive proof that bleepy music should be banned. Because, y’know, who wants a sun tan?

The obligatory Mat has a mild sunlight allergy comment is inserted here for new readers. I’m not just pale because I’m a goth…

What if…

What if the supposed prequels actually do make sense and fit into the original Star Wars story? Keith Martin explains the plotholes. Well:

Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion’s other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.

Seriously. I know I haven’t watched II or III, but I did read the plots, and this actually makes sense.

via

The Great Haribo schism

I’ve just written a brief op-ed on the Great Haribo Schism over at . Oh yeah, if I hadn’t already mentioned it, , you know what to do…

In addition, has made the icon we talked about Sunday, one that will definately be of interest to and

And then we have ’s guide to American spotting online, well worth a read:

Food Obsession
No, this isn’t an ‘Americans are fat’ comment5; I’m talking about posting pictures of food. And talking about food. At every opportunity. When a British person posts about having a meal, we post about what happened during the meal - anecdotes that were told, stupid stuff that happened, people getting insulted, Aunt Gladys choking to death on the meringue… entertaining things like that.

Americans, on the other hand, post about the food. With pictures of the food. If we’re especially lucky, the people who were actually eating the food might get mentioned (in passing), but only if it doesn’t shift the focus away from the food too much.

(via , which has been a bit poor recently)

This needs no further comment

International Ginger Kids Foundation:

Every day 1337 children are born with gingervitis in the United States alone