took a bit longer to get here than I'd imagined, but there is finally a new entry in my portfolio.

I'd go have a lie-down, but another project beckons.

Three projects are now behind me - one launched but is not a public site and can't be shared, the others unlaunched and therefore can't be shared. I'm relieved but still behind. See you when I next come up for air...

I'm not sure I understand what "tree" has to do with it, but from All out of Angst (who got it from GreenGrl who got it from GeekGrrl who probably got it from GiggleGrrrrrl) I now know my Tree Type:

About as spot-on as you can get, I guess, although I only like most other people's children for about 10 minutes.

Wow - another North American Lisa in Cambridge. As Lisa says, what are the chances, hey?

I'm working on a site with a sort of tricky layout. I've got it working (mostly) on IE6, Netscape and Opera, but need to try my hacky solution on IE5 on the PC and any broswer on yon Macintosh (that Safari thing would be helpful).

And kind souls willing to look at my page, please could you drop me an email (yoyo at nicelytoasted dot net) and I'll point you at the URL?

Just to counter impressions that I'm a nerdy, gadgetty geek, I should point out that after years of trying every PDA/Electronic Organiser/Mobile-phone-that makes-the-tea, I've finally found a brilliant way of keeping track of my appointments.

How clever am I?

to life, the universe and everything.

Damn! I just took an almighty swig of a yoghurt smoothie from Sainsbury's and it was well off. The fizzing should have been my first clue, but I figured it was foam from the shaking.

Blech, blech, blech. If you don't hear from me again, I've died of food poisoning.

What a shame. I just called my local print shop to see what they charge to scan 35mm transparencies and it's a whopping £3 a slide! Boots, apparently, no longer scans slides to CD so I guess I may be forced to buy a slide scanner. The question is which one? Even the cheap ones have tranny adaptors these days, but is 1600x3200 or even 4800x2400 enough resolution for a decent scan? Next step up is a dedicated 4000x4000 slide scanner for £470.

Hmm, I say...

Hot and sultry is the phrase for the day and I'll hear no whinging about it. I've got my tall glass of iced tea to hand and that along with the sticky heat makes me really rather happy indeed.

Funny thing about iced tea in Britain - I've rarely been able to persuade people here to try it - it's considered rather heretical to drink tea cold. Recently Lipton has resorted to giving away cans of iced (actually lukewarm) tea to passers-by in the city centre. There's no shortage of takers and all I overhear is surprise that it's drinkable. Still, the ad campaign focuses on how "unusual" a drink it is. "Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!" Makes me laugh - like drinking iced tea is the equivalent to wearing a mullet. (It's not, is it?)

Other things to be happy about besides the swelter: I should get my camera tomorrow (I'll believe it when I see it!) and I got my photos from last weekend's Strawberry Fair back. The bog-standard 200ASA prints came out horribly. Not a decent shot in the pile - all grainy and blurry. The slides, on the other hand, are gorgeous as far as I can tell. Bright and sharp as slide film always seems to be. Now to get them off those tiny little bits of plastic and onto my 'puter...

If my 'puter behaves that is. It's got a rather annoying habit of either exiting Explorer with no notice or completely shutting itself off - also with no notice. I suspect it's the wireless keyboard and/or mouse driver since it seems to happen when I single click on an item in a window, but I've updated them both to no avail. Tsk. Bloody computers. Who'd have 'em?

Ah, I nearly forgot. Today is Father's Day and although my father passed away some years back, I love him and miss him very much. So, in honour of my own dear daddy, happy Father's Day to all you lovely Dads!

My Dad was an amazing guy and even though he and my mum divorced when I was only a year or so old, he had a huge effect on me. He and my step-mum lived in southern California while my mum and I lived up north. Nevertheless, I'd visit several times a year when possible. When I was 19, I moved down to LA and in with my Dad as my half sisters and brother had done before me.

Daddy wasn't perfect. God knows he had plenty of flaws. A short attention span was one of them and it meant that when we were little he didn't really have a lot of patience for us kids (which may have something to do with both his divorces). As we got older and were able to carry on more intelligent conversations our relationships with him always improved.

And boy did they. Dad was a brilliant and funny guy who had grown up amongst the hoighty-toighty on Long Island. His father (my grandfather) had a New York ad agency and travelled in socialite circles. Guy Lombardo was a neighbour and my grandfather hung with loads of bigwigs like Charles Limburgh and the Aga Khan.

While in the Air Force, Dad was a sharp-shooter and went on to participate in the Olympic shooting trials in Mexico City back in 1968. During the 60s and early 70s, he worked at NASA in the Apollo division and from there went onto Rockwell and the B1 division and then (for some unknown reason) joined CBS. I'll always remember his giant Mercedes with the gold trim and the CBSCH2 personalised plates that would always get us into any event - no questions asked. He took full advantage of that, the scamp.

My dad was very, very conservative and a huge fan of Ronald Reagan. We disagreed about politics but I think he always blamed my lefty leanings on a lefty education and never thought any less of me for it. He was extremely open-minded but very firm in his beliefs. For him, success was the most important thing in life and he always seemd to compete in his own mind with his father's success. He needn't have worried because he was handsome, charming and intelligent. Success just followed him around. He had periodic bouts with bad luck (and a few run-ins with racism in the 60s when Mexicans were seen as migrant farm workers above anything else) but always rose above them. Quite stunningly well in some cases.

Dad loved cars and gadgets and at one point bought himself a huge stretch limo. He had a driver for a few months but when that got to be a pain, he took over driving the thing himself. It was a bit strange but my dad was an eccentric if nothing else! He'd take me to Ontario speedway and always dreamed I'd be a racecar driver. He got me my first proper job at a friend's Porsche dealership, set me up with my first Nikon camera, taught me how to shoot, how to use a video-editing suite and how to service my own car. Really, it was from him I learned to be interested in absolutely everything.

I was always a daddy's girl and being born on Father's Day seemed somehow appropriate. My father died relatively young (a result of too much high-living to be honest), but had a full and happy life, I think. I'm honoured to have known him and even more so to have been his daughter.

Kinda amusing Guide to the A-List Bloggers. The list is a bit selective. No Hammersley (whence this link comes) or war bloggers, for example. I'm not sure who wrote it or what their beef/agenda is, but I link it 'cause I'm mentioned in the very first sentence!

OK, so that's probably not me. Which is probably a good thing.

Working for yourself also means spending your own money on the tools of the trade, in this case, software. I will admit to having used hooky software in the past, but after working in software development, I'm not inclined to do that again. Still, the prices really are quite shocking when it's your own money. I spent the first month using trial versions of Freehand, Fireworks and Flash, but when I got my new PC, I bit the bullet and bought Macromedia Studio MX .

Print work is another story, however. Back when I started in design so long ago, Pagemaker was the only layout software available and when Quark Xpress was introduced, we snapped that puppy right up and it's been an industry standard ever since. They've always annoyed me though, with their arrogant attitude towards licensing, their extortionate pricing and complete and utter lack of support. I really wasn't looking forward to buying Xpress again.

I gave Adobe's InDesign a go and it's really very nice. None of my printers will take InDesign files, but the software does export very good PDFs (not surprisingly as PDF and Postscript are Adobe products) which the printers will take. As soon as the trial runs out, I'm adding the Adobe Design Collection to my list and that's your lot. Incredibly, those two software suites alone will have cost about 50% more than my entire computer system.

While I take a short break from the never-ending hell that is cross-browser css, I thought I'd post a little about what's going on here-abouts. I dislike doing it as I'm not sure how many people actually care about the tedious goings on of my life, but when my camera broke recently, I found that recording this stuff often means I have information to go back to (like when I bought my camera, for example). Handy that.

It's a bit long, so if you're really interested, read the rest.

Speaking of cameras, I sent my camera back to Fuji and after about a million phone calls, they finally admitted to having received it. With luck, I should get it back this week sometime.

This whole working for myself lark is a bit hard and all. I recently suffered a rather intense bout of RSI with my middle and index fingers gone completely numb. Obviously there are about a number of things that could be done, from radical surgery to anti-imflammatories to time off work, but since I'm not keen on surgical blades and drugs and no longer have the leisure of taking time off work (no workie, no money), I thought I was going to be a bit screwed. Michael sent me some excellent reference material (which is on the laptop at the moment - will find it later) and I believe I've managed to control the pain with a few simple changes.

For one thing, I've got a shiny new PC and 18" flat-screen monitor which I've placed on a shelf about 30 cm high so no more looking down at the screen (laptops are evil, I've decided). The other thing that's helped a lot is changing my seating position when using the mouse extensively. The whole idea of sitting up straight is fine for typing, but when using the mouse, I've found that leaning back in my chair and using my whole arm to control the mouse makes a big difference. Of course, frequent breaks and lost of stretching are also important. Easy to remember - I take a break as soon as the pain starts!

As for the whole business name and the like, well, I thought I'd decided on a name and even went so far as to register the domain name. Unfortunately, the name I chose, "Congo Maisey", has the misfortune of containing the name of a country going through one of the world's bloodiest civil wars, with more people killed than in any conflict since WWII. Nice.

Of course, there may be some significance in my business being "officially" born when I started self-employment. In this case that would have been Cinco de Mayo, the anniversary of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin's defeat of the French in 1862 only to have the French send thousands more troops, effectively quashing much more in the way of revolution (for a while, at least).

Ho well, I'm a bit stuck for ideas now. Hence the trawling of movie databases, sayings, phrases and rhyming slang.

Otherwise, I'm chocka with work, having picked up a retainer contract with one client and having confirmed the go ahead for 3 more. I definitely need to get better at estimating though, as I've under-bid on a lot of projects, despite not having had to compete for any of them. I'm just rubbish, I am - as well as cheap.

Communication breakdown is the word for today. No, not the kind where you just can't seem to understand your other half, but the kind where your laptop stops communicating with your wireless card, making email and other communication devices unusable. Webmail is such a pain. This along with a broken bunnycam, a fairly sickly iMac and a dead digital camera makes me wonder if there's some weird electronic poltergeist in the house. Poo.

So, it looks like I'm going to have to order my groovy new Shuttle PC toute suite.

In other news, it's another gorgeous day out and even though I'm technically working, today my work involves sitting in the sun, drinking beer and chatting about massively multiplayer sims, phone games and corporate identity. I think I can live with that. :-)

I've got a stalker.

Which wouldn't be so bad, except I've also got baby starlings just leaving the nest. I already picked up one fat little bugger trying to force its way through the bunny fence in the garden and put him back in the hedge.

My cat is rubbish at guarding the garden from invaders...

How wonderful!
How wonderful!
All things are perfect exactly as they are!
--the Buddha

The Buddha lived and taught in northern India more than 2000 years ago, and I could guess from this quote that it's a land with seasons (except the Buddha probably wasn't so shallow as to be talking about a single day). When it's hot and sunny in England, it's hard to imagine anything being more perfect. You mustn't read the news of course, but a pint (and a half) drunk whilst sitting in the tall green grass makes me wonder how anywhere could be more lovely.

Of course, Antigua and the DR are gorgeous and everywhere I've lived has much that's beautiful about it, but England is special in the sun, I think.

I was in a celebratory mood today and treated myself to a bit of shopping. I struggled to find anything I needed, but did buy one or two little things. I spent some hours at my liquid lunch watching the ducks on the river and the children on the common. I bought some meat at my lovely local butchers and thought how many would cringe at the dark, blackish meat in the window - so unlike the bright red meat wrapped in celophane at the supermarket. This meat is aged, though and has taste. When I buy it, I can ask where the meat was raised, where it was slaughtered and how old it was. I like that.

I think that tonight I shall mostly be at the barbeque. How wonderful.

What are people hoping to find when they type "Lisa" into a search engine?

Not that it isn't nice that my site comes up third, but I'm curious.

A gorgeous, hot, mostly sunny day and I'm swamped. Where's the fairness in that?

Absolutely the worst thing has happened. OK, not the worst, but jolly unpleasant. My lovely digital camera done broke and I feel like my right arm's been cut off. Actually, it does really feel cut off, but that's another whinge altogether.

So, here I am with the choice of non-digital Minolta (except I can't justify spending money on processing) or a little digi-video camera. I think I'll just sulk and hope the camera can be fixed soon.

The image at right was taken with the little video camera and, by the way, is of one of the few things I bought yesterday (although it could be considered a horror to some). Despite my anti-capitalist, hippy-lefty ravings, I do love to shop, but lately I've found I want very little and need even less. Of course, after my insistence that I try to avoid buying unneccessary plastic goods, I had to pause, but these door thingies were just too groovy to pass by. Anyway, I bought them at a Buddhist store so I reckon my conscience is clear.

My new motto is "it's OK if it looks really, really cool".

Although no surprise to me, researchers have determined that Buddhists 'really are happier'.

(via IdleType)

I rarely call myself a Buddhist, because there is the practise in Buddhism to focus very much on the educational journey one takes in preparing to be one. The Buddha actually suggested several years of investigation first:

Upali was a well-known and wealthy Jainist determined to engage the Buddha in a debate about the Darma. He was so impressed with the Buddha's explanation that he immediately asked to become a disciple. The Buddha replied, "Make a proper investigation first. Proper investigation is good for a well-known person like yourself."

Said Upali, "Now I am even more pleased and satisfied when the Lord says to me: 'Make a proper investigation first.' For if members of another religion had secured me as a disciple they would have paraded a banner all around the town saying: 'Upali has joined our religion.' But the Lord said to me: 'Make a proper investigation first. Proper investigation is good for a well-known person like yourself.' "

Nor am I very good at meditating, which numerous studies have proven to be beneficial to one's state of mind, but nevertheless, Buddhism has had a rather dramatic effect on my state of mind through the analysis of its principles and techniques. This, along with living in Europe, have made me a much more accepting person - more accepting of myself and of the world around me. Consequently, I feel happier and less pressured and it gets better as I learn more.

Buddhism is, in many ways, an inward-looking religion that focuses very much on the self. That might seem at first glance to be somewhat selfish, but truth is often found in old sayings. Remember the one about loving yourself before you can love someone else? It's the same with Buddhism - know yourself and you will find that your dealings with others improves. When you detach yourself from your need for external validation and your attachment to external influences, you are suddenly happier.

Like most other religions, Buddhism attempts to provide a moral framework and so offers sets of "rules". The first consists of Four Noble Truths that must be accepted:

1. Suffering exists in the world
2. Craving and attachment to transient things and ideas is the cause of suffering
3. Letting go of attachment will end suffering
4. Following the Eightfold path is the road to the cessation of suffering

The Eightfold Path then provides the techniques by which you can overcome suffering within yourself. All Buddhist sects recognise these basic teachings of the Buddha and to become a Buddhist, one must ensure the understanding of this and must then accept the five precepts:

I undertake the precept of abstaining from destroying living creatures. (do not kill)
I undertake the precept of abstaining from taking anything not freely given. (do not steal)
I undertake the precept of abstaining from sexual misconduct. (do not use sex as a way of manipulating people)
I undertake the precept of abstaining from false speech. (do not lie)
I undertake the precept of abstaining from taking intoxicants which lead to carelessness. (don't have fun ;-) )

Tantra is far more complex, and is based on the recognition that humans have basic primal urges and passions that can be transformed into enlightment and self-knowledge. Rather than attempting to supress these sensual urges, Tantric Buddhism accepts them as a vital energy that can be purified and transformed into liberation and insight whilst remaining in line with all of the above. Using thousands of years-old visualisation techniques, one transforms feelings such as anger, greed and hatred into compassion, generousity and love.

From a psychological point of view, this allows a practitioner to more readily accept themselves and their internal motivations without guilt or self-hate and eases the transformation from selfishness to selflessness.

I think a stalk of rhubarb should be the minimum depth allowed for vegetable drawers. Really, I do.

Oh, that divide between the halves and have-nots rears it's ugly head again. This time, I'm the have-not and must bask vicariously in the reflected glory of my mates across the pond. And since they aren't going to be blowing their own horns anytime soon (they're currently losing all their money to Sin City), I'll report that Mark and those other NiCE boys spent the last night of E3 at a private party at the White Lotus in Hollywood. Apparently, Lil Kim, Robby Williams and Christina Aguilera were in attendance, although walls of bodyguards made contact a bit difficult. Hugh Hefner was also there, bunnies in tow (though they weren't allowed to dance - like my bunnies).

How sad is it when you have to name-drop on someone else's behalf? *sigh*

As for me, the only dropping I did was of bowling balls. I probably bowled the worst I ever have and was soundly beaten by a couple of guys that had never picked up a bowling ball in their lives. It was the bloody shoes - I know it.

...we didn't have these new-fangled electronic gubbins. We had pets to annoy and dammit, that's what we did.

When I Was Little - The Baby Picture Project is another very clever photo challenge thingy. It's so interesting to see how people change (not much, truth be told).

Here's mini and maxi me...

(Much fun looking for baby photos when I should have been working thanks to the FunJunkie)

Oh goodie, a friday five.

I only seem to do these when they're about food. For a person who eats very rarely (no, I'm not anorexic - it's a family trait), I seem inordinately interested in it.

1. What drinking water do you prefer -- tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?

Erm, I don't actually drink water, believe it or not. I drink Guinness, coffee and apple juice (OK, so it's only one out of three good-for-me drinks - better than nowt). I prefer sparkling water when at restaurants, however.

2. What are your favourite flavor of chips?

I think you'll find they're called "crisps". ;-) I can't stand any other than ready-salted.

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?

Ooh, hard one. I can cook rather a lot of things fairly well, I think. The two years in Italy really turned me on to cooking. But since I'm in the UK and can't get Mexican, I do find that my Mexican dishes are my favourite. I like cocido de puerco (pork stew), although there's no skill in cooking it. It's just a hamhock (or whatever), potatoes, carrots, sweetcorn on the cob, cabbage and lots of cumin cooked in water for a couple hours. Then serve with lemon and fresh coriander, mexican rice and tortillas. Yum.

4. How do you have your eggs?

Different every time.

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?

My 11-year-old daughter cooked a fantastic spaghetti carbonara on Monday night. It's her favourite thing to cook and this was the first time she did it without me even in the kitchen. She's a bit obsessed about cooking as well (but never cleans up after).

Please meet my newest employee, Shell.

"Hiring" Shell was a bit of a palava, however...

I had rather an amusing time trying to buy this bloody printer yesterday. I must have spent a good 2 hours trying to find the right combination of features and price. I needed A3 capabilities because I know how useful that can be, but I didn't want to spend a fortune. I wanted some sort of network functionality, but knew I probably couldn't afford that right away. I also wanted to be able to print on almost anything, since as a small business, I want my marcomms stuff to look great, but really can't afford the cost of volume printing. Finally, I didn't want the consumable costs to break me either. So, for £211 plus VAT, this printer is rather a good deal, I think.

The amusing bit was trying to order it from HP. The website said it was compatible with Win98 and NT but never mentioned XP. It seemed inconceivable that it wouldn't work with XP, but I figured I'd better check anyway. I called the order line and was given 2 options: buy now or talk to the pre-sales team. Not surprisingly, I chose pre-sales. The guy got on the line and I duly asked my question, "will it work with XP?"

That threw him. He didn't know and transferred me to support. The guy in support didn't know either. Again, not surprising when you learn that he was support for Compaq laptops.

He then transferred me to printer support. Incredibly, the printer guy spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out if the printer was compatible with XP before giving up, at which point I hung up and called pre-sales back to find out who would actually know this very basic bit of information.

In the end, I was transferred to the sales team. I spoke to a woman with a very lovely Scottish accent (all the women in the call centre are Scots for some reason, but none of the men are - why is that?). I have to admit to heresy in saying my first reaction was, "here we go again - she's not going to know either". 'Twas terribly sexist and I admit it, but womankind has been redeemed because the nice lady with the nice accent said right away, "yes, of course it's compatible although you may need to visit the support website to download the drivers".

It arrived first thing this morning.

Sans printer cable, of course, but you can't have everything...

...unless you read really, really slowly, then maybe I can squeeze out a whole minute.

I've been told that an interview with yours-truly appears in today's issue of the UK's Web-User Magazine (in the "Blog On" feature). Nothing terribly profound, I'm afraid - just my usual silliness. Still, that's potentially 67,250 new visitors.

OK, maybe not quite that many...

Jolly great stormin' going on around here. As you can see from the view out the front of my house, it's been hailing a bit and all.

And, as you can also see, I don't have quite as good a view as I did at my old office, but the new office has the benefit of a complete lack of a dress code (or even dress at all, should I choose)...

Finally got around to my MayDay Project photos. I forgot all about it and missed out a good chunk of day. Saturday was hugely uneventful and I probably should have just not bothered, but I guess that's not really the point.

All the day's images are on one page, so people on dial-ups will hate me.

with a little car up the road.

How adorable is this little Nissan Figaro? I was sure it was an incredibly well-kept old car, but looking online, I find it was produced in Japan from 1987 to 1991. I hadn't noticed the modern features like the seat belts, hand brake and that high-rise brakelight thing.

A little pricey at £7K but you can get them shipped from Japan for less. I wonder how much the shipping is? Hmmm...

Anyway, got to thinking about right-hand vs. left hand drive and found this fascinating article. Oh lordy, I feel like a right anorak...

Margaritas all around as we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, which marks the Battle Of Puebla in 1862. Not Mexican Independence day, but rather commemorates the day when Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin led a small, poorly armed militia of about 4,500 in the defeat of a well outfitted French army of 6,500.

Of course, the French recovered, sent thousands more troops and installed the Hapsburg prince Maximillian as Emperor of Mexico. Ah well, they tried.

This year, however, Cince de Mayo marks another significant event, my 1000th post (tragically a mere 25 days short of my one year blogiversary). Raise your tequila and pass the salt.

Where The Sims Online failed, this alternative virtual world looks as though it may have a better chance. Second Life, like Creatures, isn't a game, but a persistent world experience where creation is both the main activity and the goal.

If you remember Active Worlds (which may still be around for all I know), you were able to customise avatars and build buildings and objects using primitives. The problem I had was the lag and the seeming emptiness besides the fact that I was never able to figure out how to do much.

Second Life is similar, however, the customisation tools are amazing, allowing really precise control over all aspects of your character. This version of me is still not quite there (I was doing it from my perception of myself rather than a mirror, so clearly it's quite idealised!), but it was a blast to do - sort of like sculpting. It's also got a powerful and flexible scripting language which allows virtually anything to be constructed, from weird weaponry to flashy furniture.

There's also a well-thought out economic system which provides players with a weekly stipend which can be increased by improving one's reputation and status, usually by creating and uploading new objects and textures.

Loads of dosh has gone into this project and it shows. It's currently in Beta and thus only playable from 8pm to 8am, which is just as well since it's highly addictive (when it's my go - which is rarely).

So far so good on the self-employment front. Got a couple of jobs and a couple of more in the pipeline (as it were). I've found that a few other ex-Clab's people are freelancing now as well. They're artists and programmers, so there could be some good opportunities to collaborate with any luck. I've also found that a local print and copy shop that I used to use organises meetings of small studios and photographers who sometimes share work around.

Done the accountant thing but still need to let the IR know about my self-employed status. My trading name is 95% decided. That last 5% is proving to be the most difficult part. I like it, but is it right? It's so much easier to brand someone else...

Anyway, a couple of little snippets I've run across today on Ananova...

Nine tiny, wee little dwarf chameleons have been born at Bournemouth's Oceanarium. Coincidentally, today's Photo Friday themes is "Small".

More fish aid as patrons of a New York restaurant build a sling to help a 17-year-old goldfish to swim again. Seventeen years old?!

And finally, little Lisa Fremmel may not be joining PETA (or Mensa) anytime soon after firemen in Germany had to rescue the terrified 10-year-old after she was chased up a tree by a squirrel.

I just had to take this one:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

Funny thing though - I lived in Diss before I came to Cambridge. It was similar to hell, I think. Or a standing ditch of water. I can never remember.

(via IdleType)

In time-honoured blogging tradition, I present my top 5 most common search terms via which people find Burnt Toast (this is so entirely not accurate, by the way, as it consists only of those search terms I've noticed).

5. I get loads of Google image hits of people looking for a photo of this pretty little Z4.

4. I also get a lot of people looking for the lyrics to Mundian to Bach Ke (which I don't have).

3. For some reason, tons of people search for "toast" and, not surprisingly, end up here.

2. Not a few disgruntled internet shoppers have turned up here looking for the mysterious Sara Freder only to find she's the 'net's biggest charlatan.

1. But by far the biggest search term on my blog is for "girls in bikinis". Does it surprise you to learn than a significant portion of those come from military domains? ;-)

From the BBC programme, Leonardo, comes a little quiz to find out what kind of thinker you are.

"You are a Naturalist Thinker:
-Like to understand the natural world, and the living beings that inhabit it
-Have an aptitude for communicating with animals
-You try to understand patterns of life and natural forces

Like other Naturalist thinkers, Leonardo longed to spend time in the countryside. He spent hours watching birds to understand how they flew. Other Naturalist thinkers include Charles Darwin, Jane Goodall, Johnny Morris, David Attenborough

Careers which suit Naturalist thinkers include Biologist, Meteorologist, Forester, Farmer, Astronomer, Alternative therapist

There's also a link to the Beeb's Language quizzes. I did alright - 13 out of 20 - although I thought I did better than that. I missed a couple of subtle ones like saying "questa sera" instead of "stasera".

Still, considering it's been at least 7 years since I last spoke Italian...

Jes like my old gran used to make. She was from Knoxville, Tennessee and while some of her cooking was atrocious (stewed tomatoes? eew), some of it was fantastic. I've never found a good recipe for the Hot Milk Cake she used to make, but this collard greens recipe looks about right. I'll use spring greens instead and believe it or not, ham hocks are quite easy to find at the local Tesco. Same with yams and sweet potatoes for some reason. How exotic.

Since I'm setting myself up in business, I've got to work out the most important bit - the name. I've not been having a lot of luck so far, but DJ Dan, the Dustbin Man has found a DJ Name Generator that might help me out. Especially relevant since the default is DJ Burnt Toast.

How's about Funky Smokin' Digital Puppy? Boo-yaa, no diggety!

I really like the PhotoFriday site. I know there have been others of these -
(Theme Thursday springs to mind) but for some reason I never clicked with them (heh - clicked). Anyway, I made my debut last week in the Water challenge with Robin , which happily made it into "noteworthy". It was a lucky photo but I'm very pleased as there are some fabulous photographers who participate (and lots of them!)

The challenge this week is "Shadows" and if you're here in the UK, you'll know today wasn't brilliant shadow weather. I was wandering around the house looking for something to set up when my daughter pointed to the photos over the mantle piece. Ah-ha!

"But, mum" she said, "shouldn't you enter a photo you took yourself?" Bless 'er.

I did take these at South Coast Plaza in Orange County back in 1991. A friend was taking portraits of some other friends for their business and I was wandering about with my own camera, killing time. I propped my Nikon up on a post and snapped three images. They've always been favourites as you can rearrange the order and make up stories about what could be going on.

Well, I was hoping to get going on all this business-y stuff asap, but figured one of the first things I needed to do was sort out my personal finances and find an accountant to help me with all that horrid money stuff.

The nice man at the Enterprise Agency recommended an accountant, but my first meeting with the guy isn't until Thursday. So, I guess I should just be focussing on the business plan bits that don't involve money.

Poo. Need money...

Not poo, I finally managed to get a set of digital photos off to Itchy for their 2004 Cambridge Guide. I'll need to do the internal photos with my Minolta, however. The digi doesn't like low light sitchy-ations.

Oh, it's all go around here. I spent the arvo with a very nice chap at the Cambridge Enterprise Agency discussing whether I should work as a sole trader or form a limited company. I've decided to give it a go on my own since I've now been approached to do a couple of fairly substantial projects. I'm going to go sole trader for the moment as it's cheaper and easier to get started by the sounds of it. I won't really have much in the way of liability in the short term either. So, a bit exciting, I suppose, although I reckon I have a bit of work to do now...

Tsk, and I guess I'll have to be all organised and stuff.

Aw, shame. The BlogShares spider has finally caught up with me and my blog value has crashed big style. By the looks of the blogs in the top 100, it appears that they've compensated for the bug/feature that valued my blog so highly originally (spidering whilst I was linked from Moveable Type).

That said, if that has been changed, it makes Moveable Type's value irrelevant I would think. So maybe they haven't and the "market" has somehow righted itself.

Who knows. I can't figure this stuff out.

The portfolio from hell is finished. Well, sort of. Mostly.

In the end I re-designed and, not surprisingly, I'm sick of the new design already. I'm not touching it though. Well, not yet.

I was working on this montage image theme but in the end had to discard quite a few versions - mostly on account of them being too distracting (or too girlie) to be used as backdrops. Still, amusing to do and posted here for whomever / whatever purpose. Wallpaper, maybe? The links are 800 x 600 images (except for one, which isn't). I would have made them bigger but Photoshop is giving me gyp. Links open in new window...

My bloody computer is not a happy bunny and consequently neither am I (well, I am, but you know what I mean).

I tried cleaning it up - uninstalling some of the crap that I've installed recently. I seem to have uninstalled Eudora somehow so all my mail and email addresses are gone. I can only assume that Eudora is not called Eudora (or Qualcomm) in the add/remove programs thingy. How nice.

Of course the weather is fab again and I really don't want to sit inside and arse about with bloody 'puters...

(mini update: looks like QuickTime was my biggest problem so far - completely uninstalled it and all its components and so far things are running more quickly. An M$ conspiracy, perhaps?)

SelectSmart is another one of those dopey quiz sites with tons of the bloody things and a load of pop-ups. When they have so many quizzes you have to wonder how much thought actually goes into them. Is there some simple algorithm for analysing quiz results or something?

Anyway, I found this Ethical Philosophy Selector quiz while referral browsing last night and sadly forgot to note the site I found the link on (I hate it when I do that).

I enjoyed taking it, even if the questions were quite hard. It may be that they weren't worded well or possibly I'm just not that good with philosophical terminology. The results are an ordered list of philosophers or philosophies that are most compatible with your answers. My results are in "more" below.

1. Jean-Paul Sartre (100%)
2. Kant (99%)
3. Prescriptivism (98%)
4. John Stuart Mill (82%)
5. Spinoza (70%)
6. Jeremy Bentham (69%)
7. Stoics (68%)
8. Epicureans (64%)
9. Nietzsche (63%)
10. David Hume (59%)
11. Ayn Rand (48%)
12. Aquinas (47%)
13. Thomas Hobbes (47%)
14. Nel Noddings (46%)
15. Plato (45%)
16. St. Augustine (43%)
17. Ockham (41%)
18. Cynics (35%)
19. Aristotle (25%)

I read Humanities at University so I really should know something about these guys, but I really remember very little of it. I do recall not "getting" Kant or Sartre at the time, even though I did well in the course. I can't say I know much about Ayn Rand or Nel Noddings (Nel Noddings? Who the hell is that?). Jeremy Bentham doesn't ring any bells either, to be honest.

As for the rest - well, I remember that studying them was somewhat painful and my head hurts thinking about it. I think I'll go watch the telly.

I'm minding a birthday sleepover and the flock of ten-year-olds don't seem at all tired. I am. Pleeease, sleeeep...

The BBC's newest Top 100 programme, The Big Read is gaining some speed around and about.

I just went and registered my vote for my all-time favourite fiction. It was a difficult one. I've read a lot of books, but it must be said that few of them are fiction. Obviously I adore Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, though I couldn't pick one favourite out of their collective works. Asimov's Foundation series has always been right up there for me as well.

I've also been enamoured of Jane Austin's writing and loved Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Not surprisingly, George Eliot's MiddleMarch is another favourite.

Recently I read and loved My Journey to Lhasa by Alexandra David-Neel, the intrepid Frenchwoman who, disguised as an old Tibetan woman, traveled to the then forbidden capital of Tibet in the early part of the 20th Century. I also found Rosa E. King's account of life during the Mexican Revolution a fascinating story and the 1935 first edition is one of my most precious possessions, but neither are fiction and so must be discarded.

When it came down to it, one book (in three famous parts), no matter how trite and clichéd it's now becoming, has got to take the top place and that's The Lord of the Rings.

When I was a teenager, I read that trilogy every year for so many years I can't recall. I could lose myself in every setting, know every detail of every character's appearance and every time it would set my heart pounding just turning over a page. I'm not sure what it is. There have been criticisms of Tolkein's writing, but maybe there's something magical about the order the words or in, or perhaps it touches something deep in the psyche, but it was always a very special book to me and I couldn't think of one I have loved more.

Via Nick Barlow comes an interesting little quiz called Battleground God that tries to decide whether your beliefs about God hold up to rational consistency. Now, I've never been very good with logic, but so far as it goes, I guess I must have done well (or something):

Battleground Analysis
Congratulations!
You have been awarded the TPM medal of honour! This is our highest award for outstanding service on the intellectual battleground.

The fact that you progressed through this activity neither being hit nor biting a bullet suggests that your beliefs about God are internally consistent and very well thought out.

A direct hit would have occurred had you answered in a way that implied a logical contradiction. You would have bitten bullets had you responded in ways that required that you held views that most people would have found strange, incredible or unpalatable. However, you avoided both these fates - and in doing so qualify for our highest award. A fine achievement!

Now, I could review the criteria by which hits and bullets are judged, but my head hurts...

oh. my. god.

I figured I'd try and get my credit card payment protection thingy to kick off whilst I'm unemployed but what I've found out is that I'd be hundreds and hundreds of pounds better off if I'd cancelled that insurance years ago.

Do you know that nearly half my monthly payment goes towards payment protection? For one card, that's more than £20! Jaysus, what a rip-off. What's more, they get the Job Centre to do all the work for them as you need to get them to fill in the forms so you can claim and you can't use the card whilst the claim is being looked at or when in force.

Needless to say, I cancelled the insurance posthaste and halved my credit card payment which will do me far more good.

Yes, it seems to be an ntl/3Com CMX modem problem. Connection is very, very sporadic at the moment, so no browsing and no bunnycam today.

[Update: ntl really is getting so much better at customer service. No wait at all to speak to someone either time I called. Both guys seemed knowledgeable and were very nice. They said a technician would come check the line between 1:00 and 5:00 (and I only called them at 11). He was 20 minutes early. I wasn't really ready for him and had to scramble to clean the desk off so he could actually find the cable modem, but its better than showing up at ten to five!

The bad news is that the problem is with some changes they made at their end. The software upload to the modem didn't "take" but it seems to be a problem with some CMX modems. They said they were very close to a fix and asked if I could wait it out.

It's annoying, but easier to take since they were being so efficient otherwise. They said they'd compensate for the down time, so as long as the fix isn't too long coming, I'm happy with that.

Go figure.]

Anyone else having trouble with NTL cable modems resetting constantly? Or something...

The connection cuts off 20 or 30 times a day - I know the process well: connection times out; look at the modem; lights are on steady; status light goes off, blinks orange, blinks orange and green, blinks green, steady green. It seems to take about 3 minutes to go through the cycle. Over and over and over. It's getting on my nerves.

The all-seeing, all-knowing home network is growing. The bunnyCam is on the Mac, which can be driven from any of the PCs using the ChromiVNC server. PC-Mac filesharing is done with Lavasoftware's PC-Mac-Fileshare application, although I expect Dave does it better. Couldn't download the demo, though.

Now, anyone know a good way to share a USB Epson printer on a mixed PC/Mac network?

Wow, I'm number 11 on the top 100 index of BlogShares and apparently valued at $50,657.27. I've never heard of this. I wonder how it works?

(update: I just read the FAQ and it has something to do with the value of incoming links. Always nice to have popular friends. ;-) Although it also says that the game is still in Alpha, so I expect my position so high is some sort of glitch.)

I may not have been terribly clear in my ramblings about my former place of employment and the project I was working on but, in case you're wondering, Creature Labs was known for having developed a remarkably innovative computer game called Creatures that gained a huge following after its release in 1996. I spent a lot of time communicating and serving this community of users in my role as Creatures product marketing manager and "evangelist".

One of the most respected members of the community and someone who made important contributions to subsequent Creatures titles was a talented young kiwi named Chris Double.

Back in the middle of February, Chris sensed from afar our own growing unease about the future of Creature Labs and penned his own goodbye.

I notice a bunch of Creatures Community members are visiting from Creatures Caves and German Creatures and so I wanted to say hello and say how sad I am about the whole Creature Labs thing.

As I go through all my projects from my time at CLabs I've been remembering all the incredible stuff that went on. I even ran across a biography of Douglas Adams at Heffers today that said his extemporaneous talk at Digital Biota back in 1998 was his finest public speech. I remember how excited I was to be a part of that - meeting Douglas and Richard Dawkins and swearing I'd never wash the cheek that Chris Langton kissed.

Of course, Creatures was amazing - is still amazing. To this day it's the only game I've been completely obsessed with and so many others say the same. Creatures changed my life rather dramatically. It introduced me to ALife, chaos and complexity and completely changed the way I look at the world. Later, when I went off to work on Yeren (which was called Beasts at the time), I had the opportunity to learn about Tibetan Buddhism and had the most remarkable revelation that really, they were both the same.

And then there's you lot - the Creatures Community. You are amazing as well. Loyal and critical at the same time - critically loyal, maybe. Scrappy and argumentative, but capable of so much depth of feeling and kindness. And undeniably clever. I wish we were able to poach more community members into the company. As Frimlin and Daniel will tell you, we certainly had our problems, but we were still a great company to work for.

You guys taught me a lot and I only regret that I didn't get a chance to re-connect with the community. The saddest thing was I was working on a new Creatures title but wasn't quite at the stage where I could get public feedback. In fact, I was only at the stage to start getting internal feedback when it all came to an end.

Well, I had hoped to do a better, more considered epitaph to the wonderful Creature Labs (AKA CyberLife), the incredible bunch of people that worked there and the phenomenon that was the Creatures Community, but knowing me, I'd never get around to it anyway.

So, thanks for the memories (and the fish). Enjoy your Albias and take good care of those Norns! And most importantly, in the immortal words of Masha, "peace and carrots."

In my long and illustrious career, I have felt the need to sign on only once. No, make that twice, for today I did sign onto the dole (as you Eengleesh say) for the second time in my life.

I have to say, I find the experience faintly humiliating, much as I did when I claimed unemployment in the states all those years ago. To be honest, much of it is the same - interminable reams of forms to fill in and promises to be good and look for work. Some of the questions make me feel rather like a naughty schoolgirl. I'm fully expecting someone to ask me to write one hundred times, "I will read the classifieds and I will make a list of potential employers". Good thing there's no blackboard in the JobCentre.

In the interests of avoiding hand cramp, I declined the offer of filling in more forms to claim income support as a single parent. I think they were slightly incredulous at my refusal of the grand sum of £14 a week. Truth is, I'm only signing on so my credit card payment protection insurance will kick in. If I don't get a job fairly soon, neither the £14 or the £50 Jobseekers Allowance per week is going to do me any good at all...

Oh, and can we say "dead trees"? I can't even begin to imagine how much money it costs to print all those forms - each one a different size, different colours, multi-pages, pullouts - the works. All of which is then duplicated by hand into their computer system and then handwritten out again on more booklets, forms and bits of paper. Can we say "bureaucracy gone mad"?

All that said, the weather is still stunning and I've got a possible photographic assignment coming up which is kind of exciting (unpaid, but hey, it's always nice to see one's work in print). I've also got another interesting project to pitch for. It's not games, but rather consumer software and is probably a contract position but looks interesting as well.

I fully expect that I'll be gainfully employed the day before my nightmare project portfolio is finished.

Being unemployed and all, I've been working on my portfolio. For some unfathomable reason, I decided to do it in MT and while I'm already totally sick of the design, I think it's nearly finished.

There is still quite a lot in the way of descriptive text that needs to go in, as well as a couple of projects I'm still trying to find copies of, but I'd appreciate if you'd have a quick look and let me know if it's legible at the very least.

Update: Well, not quite so nearly finished. :-) I've got a rather intractable problem with the site in Opera. I'm sort of regretting doing the thing in MT, but now I'm too far down the line to back out. Martin very, very kindly pointed out some confusing navigation that I suspected but was too close to - or more likely, too lazy - to admit to. (There are far too many to's in that sentence.)

So, I'm going back in and although I may be some time, you are welcome to watch my progress. While you wait (because I know that you've been glued to your screen waiting for my posts), you can check out the "Related Entries" plug-in solution that I got from Kalsey Consulting.

The layout's gone all screwy in Netscape on a Mac. That's what I get for making a couple of tiny wee changes...

in a different desert country nearly a century ago, another dictator...

A Nation in Flux

Mexico in September 1910 could be compared to a shiny apple whose glossy skin conceals a putrifying interior. But the corruption underneath was still a secret to the rest of the world. Porfirio Díaz, the old dictator who had held power since 1876, was probably the most respected political leader on earth. Tolstoy called him a "prodigy of nature," the German Kaiser awarded him his country's highest decoration, Andrew Carnegie praised his "wisdom and courage" and even the progressive Teddy Roosevelt characterized him as "the greatest statesman now living."

September 16 was a banner day in Don Porfirio's life. He had celebrated his eightieth birthday the day before and now, his beautiful young wife beside him, he was reviewing a massive parade that marked the centennial of Mexico's independence. Mexico City's boulevards rivaled those of Paris and -- as yet unpolluted -- its high altitude and clean, cool air made it a magnet for foreign visitors.

Behind the glittering façade was another Mexico -- one of poverty, illiteracy, exploitation and peonage. Though himself an Indian, Díaz was completely beholden to a European-descended elite and the country's indigenous population was horribly oppressed. Major industries were controlled by foreign interests, the illiteracy rate was 80 percent, infant mortality averaged 439 per thousand, life expectancy was 30 years, 50 percent of all houses were classified as unfit for human habitation and in Mexico City 16 percent of the population was homeless. Yes, Díaz had brought about social peace -- mainly through recruiting bandits into his dreaded rural police -- but he had done so at a terrible cost.

Creature Labs is no more, but hopefully it's not the end of these sorts of nights. I'll miss working with you guys. You're the best and I adore each and every one of you...

Note the dole office in the background. More later - I'm off to the pub.

(P.S., I may be smiling in this photo, but really I'm gutted - I've just had a couple of months to get used to the idea...)

If you run Moveable Type and your server can handle (or is the correct term support?) WML, you can make yourself a WAP version of your weblog very easily. You are more than welcome to use my MobileToast template which I have put online. If you do a mobile version of your weblog, do let me know and I'll put a link on my virtually contentless WAPlog...

I've got new books. I'm going to go sit in the sun.

Green - You believe that small economic units should control the goods, and that the government should be permissive of "victimless crimes," respectful of civil liberties and very strict towards big business. You also believe in either a socialist tax structure or more power to local communities. You think that environmental policies should be written into law. Your historical role model is Ralf Nader.

Which political sterotype are you?

(Cool quiz. I always thought Ralf Nader was a bit of a whinger, but otherwise, I'm cool with that result. Sorry, I can't remember where I saw this - cheers, though whoever!)

This may well turn into one of those projects that gets off to a slow start, only to mire itself in treacle. I found a translation of an article in Los Gobernantes de Queretaro, a history of the the Mexican state and its governors. There are two pages about my great-grandfather Abraham Araujo, except that some of the material was left out of the translation and although I should definitely be doing something else right now, I'll try to add the missing translations in over time.

So, an interesting family history project that could turn into something more if I get off my arse and do some research.

Really could do with a holiday to Mexico, though...

Another chapter in my eternal search for the perfect Buffalo Chicken Wing recipe. This time I kept it quite simple, but did end up making my own ranch-style dressing as our corner shop didn't carry anything even close. It came out well, if a tad too garlicky. I even made buttermilk if you can imagine. The recipes are below in more.

And now for something completely different:

The 11 am Puzzle, in honour of Diamond Geezer's Birthday
I made a load of chicken wings last night, but there was also a ton of bread, so not all of them were eaten. If everyone save the one vegetarian guest ate 9 pieces of chicken and the cat managed to steal one piece for herself, how many chicken wings were left over this morning?

Buffalo Chicken Wings II
This recipe is for loads of people. A big pack of 14 wings will feed two if that's all you're having. I made enough for six...

Joint the wings, discard the tips and place the pieces in a single layer in a baking dish. Pour on a little oil to keep them from sticking and bake in a hot oven for about an hour, turning every so often. If you have lots, rotate the dishes as well so they cook evenly. When they're getting brown pour off the excess oil and drain the wings on kitchen towel (paper towels) briefly.

Put them back in the dish, coat with the sauce below and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes. Serve with ranch dressing for dipping, thick crusty bread and maybe some raw veg for the odd veggie...

Hot sauce

melt together in a saucepan:
250g butter
4 (or more) Tablespoons (60 ml) Dante's Hot Sauce
4 Tablespoons (60 ml) ketchup

Ranch Dressing

Traditional Ranch calls for buttermilk - something that's pretty impossible to get in the UK (at least no one I know has ever heard of it). I made buttermilk by mixing 1/2 cup (150ml) of evaporated milk with 1/2 cup (150ml) of water and a tablespoon of lemon juice and then let it stand for 5 minutes.

1/2 cup "buttermilk"
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonaisse
a teaspoon or two of powdered garlic
a handful of dill

You could also add some or all of the following: chopped or dried parsley, celery salt or chopped celery leaves, onion powder, dried thyme leaves or chopped cucumber. I didn't because I didn't have any of that stuff.

When I was living in Long Beach, I had two staple meals: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (of which I could eat an entire box in one sitting) and Buffalo Chicken Wings. Then I used to use an asparagus cooker as a deep fat fryer and made the sauce just with tabasco and butter. They were quite nice, but never as good as Legends during happy hour. On a trip from California to Boston, I ate at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, supposedly the inventors of the Buffalo Wing, 'though I can't say they were the best.

The last time I made them they were really good, but I can't remember what I did, so I figured the weblog was as good a place as any to write down the recipe for tonight's version - not as good, but not bad at all. Coulda been crispier...

Cut up about 12 to 18 chicken wings and place in a oven dish in a single layer. Add a bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking. Bake in a 180C oven for about half an hour, turning frequently. When they start to get crispy, mix up the sauce. Drain off the extra fat from the wings and coat them in the sauce. Bake for another 10 or 15 minutes. Serve with Ranch Dressing.

Sauce (all quantities are very approximate):

About a third of a pack of butter
Tablespoon chili paste
Tablespoon of sun-dried tomato paste
Couple tablespoons ketchup (it needed a bit of sweetness)
Teaspoon guntar chili powder
10 - 15 drops tabasco

Waste about a minute of your day with another one of those little mini-you makers. They didn't have my hair, so I had to edit, but they did have the Guinness!

(via The Art of Rhys-isms)

'Cause it's just a Friday Five and only of interest to me... (proper bloggers aren't supposed to do the meme thing, are they?)

1. What is your most prized material possession?

I don't prize material possessions, however, my digital camera is the one that's currently giving me the most pleasure.

2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?

I have no idea. Probably some old photos. I'm not hugely sentimental.

3. Are you a packrat?

Yeah, to my shame. I pack things away to lofts and outbuildings though.

4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?

Spic and span? With house rabbits? No, I have fur, hay, chewed up wood, torn-up newspapers and god-knows what else all over the place. That said, it's not bad considering all that.

5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?

Kinda themed, actually, but more by colour. Lounge is lilac with bamboo mats and ethnic stuff; dining room is egg yolk yellow with Italian ceramics and venetian glasses; kitchen is beech and white; bedroom is blue and grey; office is terracotta and black; bathroom white and silver; the child's is lime and turquoise (bright? oh yes).

Since today's Friday Five is about food, I'm gonna do one. (See "more")

1. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you didn't have breakfast, why not?
I never eat breakfast and haven't done since I left the states. When I lived there, I ate a huge breakfast of porkchops, eggs and potatoes nearly every day, but breakfast in restaurants was unknown in Italy and uncommon here in the UK (beside being fairly revolting as well) so I got out of the habit. I can't manage cooking for myself that early.

I do often have elevenses, however.

2. What's your favorite cereal?
Cap'n Crunch definitely. I always bring back a couple of boxes when I visit the states.

3. How often do you eat out? Do you want that to change?
Almost never at the moment. I think I've sort of had my fill of restaurants, to be honest. When I lived in Boston, we ate out at least 3 days a week and in Italy almost every night (how could we not!). When we bought this house, my first job was to completely rip out the kitchen and it stayed that way for 6 months. So, we kept the local restaurants in business for a while.

4. What do you plan on having for dinner tonight? Got a recipe for that?
I'm really not in the mood to cook, so I'm going to make angel hair pasta with fresh tomato - very easy - just chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, chopped fresh basil and some olive oil tossed with the hot pasta. It's perfect for the summer, but dead easy anytime.

5. What's your favorite restaurant? Why?
Now that's difficult. I've been to rather a few very fab restaurants around the world, but my all-time favourite was Sake on Route One north of Boston. We went there so often the owner really got to know us and would send his wife to babysit my daughter while he made the most amazing sashimi creations.

I also loved Egg Heaven in Long Beach - that's where I had those huge pork chop and egg breakfasts.

Now, of course, I'm in England and there are, sadly, few restaurants to really rave about but my favourite has got to be the Wrestlers, which is actually a pub, but they serve the most amazing Thai food...

There's a new geographic search-type thingy: GeoURL ICBM Address Server. Pretty cool. Check out my GeoURL neighbours.

Well, it was a reet pain, like, but I finally managed to convert (almost all of) my links page to an MT version.

I learned along the way that the MT import format is a little fussy sometimes, that I don't read documentation as well as I should do, and that categories in MT are case sensitive.

Nevertheless, in exchange for the frustration, I have a rather tidy way to organise my bookmarks and favourites by category, can access them from anywhere and can use the "blog" category to replace my blogroll.

Which is nice.

well, ish...

A flower frozen in a garden pot; Magdelene College and a bit of a flurry; St. John's Master's Lodge under a pitiful amount of snow. (image links open pop-up window)

Slip, slip, slip. Crunch, crunch, crunch. That was our walk to work and school this morning as we slid over the un-gritted Jesus Lock Bridge and crunched over the frozen, flooded Jesus Green.

Speaking of Jesus, did you know that, maybe, it's possible, allegedly, that Jesus was a pothead?

...we'd say, "Oi, rabbits, geroff the table!"

The mystery of the messy, midnight cherry-eaters is solved...

I was walking down Trinity Street towards the market this afternoon when my daughter pointed towards a small church. She reminded me that recently she met Terry Waite at the "opening" of the church but hadn't previously remembered where the church was (nor as it happened, who Terry Waite was).

"Opening? You were here in the 14th century?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes. "No, they've remodeled the inside" and led me in. Thinking it was called St. Michaelmas Church, I thought I had a good New Years eve post, even though the Michaelmas term actually ended on December the 19th (still, the autumn season was traditionally known as Michaelmas in Cambridge, so it's sort of relevant).

However, I was mistaken about the name of the church as well and this is now simply a tenuous segue to a New Year's eve post.

The church itself is called St. Michaels and was originally the chapel for Michaelhouse College, which Henry the VII merged with Kings Hall in 1540 to create the venerable Trinity College, Cambridge. When men and women of means were no longer able to funnel their charitible contributions towards monastaries, they turned to colleges which led to a flurry of establishments in the 14th century. Michaelhouse was a typical example, founded in 1324 by Hervey de Stanton, Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Exchequer to Edward II.

Today little remains of this forgotten college. St Michaels, however, has resurrected itself as a posh cafe and meeting centre.

St Michael himself will have a New Year's link, though, as the Queen bestows her New Year's honours, including the order of St Michael and St George, which is awarded to British subjects who have rendered extraordinary and important services abroad or in the Commonwealth.

Another set of orders are those of the British Empire to reward civilians and service personnel for public service or other distinctions. Terry Waite (a Fellow of Trinity College) received his MBE (Member of the British Empire) in 1982 and his CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1992. One of this year's MBEs has been awarded to Reverend Tim Alban Jones, the vicar of neighbouring Soham, who is being honoured for his assitance to the village when schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were murdered there last summer.

So, as we pass from 2002 to 2003, I shall leave you all with this:

December 31
Upon completion comes fulfillment.
With fulfillment comes liberation.
Liberation allows you to go on.
Even death is not a true ending.
Life is infinite continuation.

January 1
This is the moment of embarking
All auspicious signs are in place
--Deng Ming-Dao (365 Tao)

Happy New Year everyone! May your embarkations be both interesting and propitious!

-----------
Impermanence -- Thich Nhat Hanh

Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. Heraclitus said we can never bathe twice in the same river. Confucius, while looking at a stream, said, "It is always flowing, day and night."

The Buddha implored us not just to talk about impermanence, but to use it as an instrument to help us penetrate deeply into reality and obtain liberating insight. We may be tempted to say that because things are impermanent, there is suffering. But the Buddha encouraged us to look again. Without impermanence, life is not possible. How can we transform our suffering if things are not impermanent? How can our daughter grow up into a beautiful young lady? How can the situation in the world improve? We need impermanence for social justice and for hope.

If you suffer, it is not because things are impermanent. It is because you believe things are permanent. When a flower dies, you don't suffer much, because you understand that flowers are impermanent. But you cannot accept the impermanence of your beloved one, and you suffer deeply when she passes away.

If you look deeply into impermanence, you will do your best to make her happy right now. Aware of impermanence, you become positive, loving and wise. Impermanence is good news. Without impermanence, nothing would be possible. With impermanence, every door is open for change. Impermanence is an instrument for our liberation.

Funny how small the world actually is. I stumbled across a journal of someone's San Jose-Cambridge-Paris pub crawl from 1998. They come from the town of my birth and hit my everday haunts here in Cambridge. Kinda weird.

If you're very, very bored, you can watch the rabbits opening their christmas present.

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gallery of has-been toon girls...