Keep using the tablets

Well its all go here; last week it was the chutney extravaganza, this week it's tablets galore. No not tablets you eat, tablets you draw on. The bamboo tablet is pretty neat, looks trendily black and is surprisingly responsive. I really like it. Below are the first few pictures I have done with it. Still working out how best to use it, but I can see all the possibilities there.

Let me know what you think...

Chutney Crazy!

I had some fruit left over from my fruit and veg box so Chloe and I decided to make some chutney. I had pears and apples remaining so Chloe found a recipe and off we go!

We decided that the two apples and a pear weren't going to be enough, so went to Sainsbury's to get a few extra bits and bobs (as well as provisions for the week). They had some plums on offer so we decided to make plum and pear chutney, instead of apple and pear chutney (though the apples would still go in). We also got a few more pears, 3 Rocha ones and two Red Williams (to go with the one left over from the box). Adding to that a lime, some dried apricots, some raisins, sugar, mustard and vinegar and we're good to go!

The fruit

We got back and decided to append some carrots into the mix (again, left over from the box). This was shaping up to be quite the chutney! We camped out in the lounge chopping everything up, zesting the limes, grating the carrot.

The chopping

Then we were beset by fear and doubt; what if this chutney wasn't nice? There was going to be masses of it!! We decided there was no turning back (we'd chopped till our fingers were sore!) and progressed onto the boil!

Beginning the boil

Once things were getting mushy I added the vinegar, but realised we didn't have enough dark muscovado sugar so topped it up with Demerara. Also I couldn't be bothered to grate 3inches of ginger, so put in more ground ginger. I'd put a couple of pinches of chilli flakes in before the boil so thought it'd be hot enough.

After adding the sugar

A couple of taster sips and the chutney was declared tasty, but a bit too vinegary. We hoped it would simmer down and become sweeter now the sugar was in there. But if it didn't a plan was afoot to add in some honey.

Simmering took ages, but we wanted a nice thick chunky chutney. As it simmered it became sweeter, so the honey was put back in the cupboard. The flat started to smell of nice, sweet, fruity chutney. All was looking good, apart from the runnyness. I was growing concerned.

After an hour of simmering (20 mins according to the recipe - pah!) we decided to turn off the heat and see what we'd created. 30 mins of cooling and it was time to try. And lo, it did taste good.

The finished article

ATP vs the fans

Made my votes today:

Max Metson - RIP

My dog Max died today. He was 9 or 10 I think. We got him as a rescue dog. He was a Northern Border Collie. When we went to the rescue place he and I just clicked. It sounds a bit silly but I suppose we were kindred spirits. We played together in a field for a bit and a really strong bond was formed. We had to take him home. Mum wasn't quite as convinced as me but she soon grew to love him, too.

He was a bit nuts. He loved to run like crazy chasing balls and other assorted toys. He loved to bark in the car and at people arriving and leaving the house (less appreciated...). He used to do this thing where he'd roll on his back and stretch a paw out like he was doing the Saturday Night Fever dance. If you tickled his belly then he'd love you forever.

When I'd leave home at the end of a visit he'd seem really upset and that would make me really sad. I had a dream where I'd take him to live with me on a big farm so we could play all day. I'm sorry that I never got the chance to do that.

I love you Maxie. You were a loyal pet, a fun companion and a very very good friend. I will miss you a great deal.

More guitar porn

Ahh lovely!



Left to right:- Honer Jaguar/Jazzmaster copy, Fender Jaguar, Gordon Smith Gypsy, Gordon Smith GS1 1/2 Hybrid, Gordon Smith GS2

New guitar

That is all.

Monday 9pm ITV3, you do the math!

Yes the award nominated Numb3rs is back. I love this show; the way they mix the montages of CSI, the Psychology of Cracker and also inform the public of the wonder of math. Ooooh it's great!

Blame Culture

I was watching the Channel 4 news earlier. There was this republican hawk guy on it who was saying that it was the UK's fault that Iraq has gone wrong. This was because we didn't tell the US administration that it was going wrong. I couldn't help but get annoyed at that. Why do people (especially those in the US, it seems) never take responsibility for their own actions? All this blame or claims culture is just dumb.

Skies

Uploaded a few pictures of some nice skies to my flickr account. I've not quite got into the whole flickr thing, but the snazzy flickr uploadr might get me to use it more than I do (got to love batch processing...).

I'm feeling a bit bipoolar

for i in `seq 1 100`; do echo "I feel guilty and angry"; done

New Hat

My friend has just got back from Peru. She bought me a hat. It is extremely rad, as you can see in the following pictures.

Metamorphosis

n. pl. met·a·mor·pho·ses

1. A transformation, as by magic or sorcery.


2. A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.


3. Biology. A change in the form and often habits of an animal during normal development after the embryonic stage. Metamorphosis includes, in insects, the transformation of a maggot
   into an adult fly and a caterpillar into a butterfly and, in amphibians, the changing of a tadpole into a frog.


4. Pathology. A usually degenerative change in the structure of a particular body tissue.

So now that the PhD is done I find myself in an interesting situation. Because I've been working hard, and at slightly odd hours I've been going out a lot less, I've lost contact with a lot of people, but I feel now like I have a clean slate. If I was ever going to change something about myself now would be the obvious time. So I'm left to reflect on what I'd like to change.

Firstly I'd like to do some more sport/exercise. I don't do enough, I've probably never really done enough, so I'm going to join the Uni gym again. Play some football, badminton. I'd like to restart fencing and tai chi. Maybe even do some weights (puny, puny arms).

Secondly I'd like to eat better. I eat reasonably healthily (vegetarian an' all) but I've of late forgotten meals. I'd also like to eat more organic, locally produced stuff. Take a bit of a moral highground now that I can afford it. Would be good to go out for food a bit more, and eat a larger variety of food. Guess I need to learn some new recipes.

Third I'd like to drink less. Not a lot less, but I've found myself enjoying going out and not getting completely hammered. It's nice remembering conversations clearly, and not having the morning guilts.

Fourth I'd like to meet that special someone. I know I don't get a choice in the matter but I think I've done my time, and the Universe owes me one. Been doing a bit of dating, will try and do more. I've enjoyed meeting people that I perhaps wouldn't ordinarily meet, and I figure the more people you know the more likely you are to meet that illusive "one". (Not sure I believe in the "one", but thats another post...)

Fifth - buy some new clothes and trainers. All my clothes are falling apart and are a bit whack. Maybe buy some CD's and DVD's too. Go on a bit of a capitalist glut. Yay money!!

Thesis Complete!

All done and submitted. Bit of an anticlimax, but I do feel generally chirpier! It's a bit like leaving school, except it's weirder because you're older. I certainly feel like a load has been taken off my shoulders.

You Are Not Us

Ok so the band finally has a name (You Are Not Us), a myspace page (myspace.com/youarenotus) and a blog (youarenotus.blogspot.com/). Maybe we'll have a gig sometime soon too!

The final countdown!

Ok so I'm in the last few weeks of thesis writing. I'm aiming to get it done by the 28th of September, so I can go home for Mum's birthday. Don't worry dear reader I'm not wasting keystrokes writing my blog, I'm waiting for a program to complete so I get the final plots for my physics chapter done. All very exciting.

It's been a weird summer. I've not really enjoyed any of the sunshine, just been holed up in my room writing. (Don't get me wrong I have had a bit of a life, just not as much as I'd have liked.) Having this monkey off my back is going to be great, I feel like my life is on pause and as soon as I submit it can restart (ignoring viva and corrections for the time being!!).

So what will I do with all my free time, well, I'm thinking:

1. Start boarding again. It's been too long since I've had scabbed knees.


2. Start playing some sport. Probably badminton and football. I'd also quite like to start fencing again.


3. Get back into digital art. I've not done any significant amount of decent stuff since 2002!!


4. Get some gigs with the band. Think this will happen regardless, things are starting to come together nicely. Still need a bloody name though!!!!


5. Start writing tunes on the MPC. It's great, I love it, I spent a lot of money on it, so why the hell don't I use it!!!

And of course go out and see all my friends that I've failed to see for ages.

Right the plot job is complete, back to work. Though it is nearly lunch time....

Restless

Tonight I'm really restless. I can't concentrate on work, can't go out because I've got too much work and I'll feel guilty. Tried playing a bit of guitar but can't focus enough to practice or write something. Tried watching some telly but it's all crap. Think I'll go out for a walk or something...

Reminiscing

Old band from Reading. The mighty JFK!!

ID Cards 2

Interesting article -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,1817559,00.html

Quote:

You will be required to attend an enrolment centre with some form of identifying material - bank statements, credit cards, driving licence or birth certificate, who knows what. Then you will be fingerprinted, photographed and the iris in your eye will be measured. You will give the authorities 49 pieces of information about yourself. If you don't, you may be fined up to £2,500. Additional fines of up to £2,500 may be levied every time you fail to comply.

If you fail to inform the police or Home Office when you lose your card, or if it becomes defective, you face a fine of up to £1,000. If you find someone else's card and do not immediately hand it in, you may have committed a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, or a fine, or both. And you will be fined £1,000 if you fail to inform the NIR of any change of address. You will also be expected to tell the authorities your previous addresses. Truly the government will be able to say with all the menace of the underworld enforcer: "We know where you live."

If you don't inform the register of significant changes to your personal life, or any errors they have made, you will face a fine of up to £1,000. Astonishingly, you may also face a fine if you fail to submit to being reinterviewed, rephotographed, refingerprinted and rescanned.

And for all this you will pay between £30 and £93 (or more) to be registered, with further charges to change your details and to replace a lost or stolen card. It's a devilishly clever scam because, in essence, the government is charging you so that it can charge companies that wish to confirm your identity.

Also (here comes the maths bit....):
Part of why MP's want to bring in ID cards is to reduce/eradicate Benefit fraud. The current estimate of this is £2Billion/year (from the DWP- which includes some seriously shoddy maths). If we take the Government's cost estmate (and do some equally slapdash maths) it's £6B to set up, and £0.5B/year = £11B over 10 years. If we assume that the introduction of ID cards immediately and completely eradicates benefit fraud (and for some reason fraud also include DWP mistakes...) thats a saving of £9B (£20B not spent on fraud, £11B spent on ID cards. Now thats a pretty daft assumption, I'm sure it'll take a while for Benefit fraud to stop, and I'm equally sure that after some time people will find new loop holes in the system.

Thats if we believe the Governments figures, which are strongly contested by the LSE. The LSE reckon it will cost ~£20B over ten years. Hang on a moment! That equals £2B/year for 10 years, which is what is currently lost on benefit "fraud" (this figure is decreasing as the DWP gets better at detecting fraud - a cut of £0.4B in 2004 for example). So if we go with the LSE's numbers at best the ID cards will get us back to where we are now (£20B spent on ID cards, £20B not spent on "fraud").

If we assume that fraud drops year on year by 10% (less than the 2004 figure of between 16% and 20%) then the cost of "fraud" over 10 years is actually slightly over £13B. This means the ID cards cost £7B more than they save. It even makes the governments own figures look a bit shakey (major uheaval of the the UK constitution for a saving of £2B???)

ID cards "doomed"

Thank fork. A totally stupid idea from a totally stupid little man with a big big grin.

From: Foord, David (OGC)
Sent: 08 June 2006 15:17
Subject: RE: Procurement Strategy
"even if everything went perfectly (which it will not) it is very debatable (given performance of Govt ICT projects) whether whatever TNIR turns out to be (and that is a worry in itself) can be procured, delivered, tested and rolled out in just over two years and whether the resources exist within Govt and industry to run two overlapping procurements."

Kingpin Beach party

After a busy three weeks of travelling (must fill in claim forms, must fill in claim forms, must fill in claim forms) blew off steam at the Kingpin Beach Party, which was really fun. Was also celebrating Caroline and Rob's birthday and Mark getting a job. All very exciting.

Pictures of the fun and games here and here.