changing lanes

i've been building for a few days now, and i believe that my new typepad based blog is ready fro viewing. it is not radically different, and i'm sure that there will be a few things to iron out, etc, but hopefully a paid service (less than $4 per month) will give great freedom.

so, click here for more amateur ramblings.

voice your voice

in my best black country accent then:

check eout the beeb, thaym doowin a bostin prowjekt cauld voycis, orl abowt 'ow yo spake.

translation here.

people-watching

i love people-watching, and could happily spend hours doing it. interesting people i saw today included: four just-arrived-in-town europeans (germans?) with incredibly loud laughs; a man with cartoon stubble. a girl with the coolest woolen hat; a man who got off a bus, then immediately asked someone for some money for bus fare.

free speech

the guardian reports that an edinburgh blogger has been sacked for occasionally mentioning his employers (a well known bookmongers) in his weblog:

waterstone's is, after all, a bookseller, whose stock in trade is the purveying of opinion, not all of it palatable to those concerned. the action that has been taken so far bears more resemblance to the behaviour of an american fast-food chain than a company who deal in intellectual freedoms and the concerns of a pluralist liberal society.

recent days

so, i have been away for a few days. last monday, i went to manchester with andrew and michelle, where we met friends from liverpool. wagamama's provided the lunch. we visited a gallery that was running a lomo exhibition, but i missed the final touches being added to the b of the bang sculpture.



after work on thursday night, gemma i drove to oxford through gale-force winds, to stop with some of gemma's relatives. gemma's uncle is a professor at the university, and the live in a lovely big house near to the cowley road area. then on saturday, we headed over to bristol, for john's 30th birthday, and the birth of john and rachel's first child. the inconsiderate infant had other ideas however, and rachel at the time of writing, remains firmly pregnant. twenty of us went to zero degrees, the new microbrewery at the top of christmas steps. the food and drink was fine, and the company made for a skill night. we stopped at sarah's, where we enjoyed a high standard of hospitality and home cooking.

lick of paint

i think in 2005, i want to operate a slightly tighter quality control policy on my life. now, do not think that this is some kind of new year's resolution, because you know that i do not make those. i don't feel like i want to make any major changes, just slight tweeks here and there. this extends to my online profile, so i decided to change the appearance of my main blog. tighter quality control here means not posting something as soon as it pops into my head. i have recently become a bit frustrated with the limitations of blogger (i know, i know, it's a free service). ideally, i would like to be able to archive post by catagory; this would be especially useful for my overground project. i have been impressed by typepad, and i may yet defect. i also continue to battle against the evil forces of ntl - i am trying to set up my free webspace. it just won't let me in so i fear there may not be any pictures for a short while. at least tom appears to have finally received satisfaction.

mobile privacy

if you use a mobile, and feel you would like a bit of privacy, then you need one of these. hopefully it will work the other way round, and innocent people will no longer be subjected to loud, annoying half-conversations. i think they look only marginally more ridiculous than hands-free headsets.

new year's day

after having had too little sleep, we like to do precisely nothing on the first day of the new year. we were able to continue in this tradition, after discovering the joys of foster's home for imaginary friends on cartoon network. what a great show; really well animated, cool stories, and a hilarious and surreal cast of characters.
i don't like computer games. but i totally enjoyed andrew playing grand theft auto: san andreas. dean showed him the ropes of the game the daily mail loves to hate, then we looked on through tears of laughter, as andrew proceeded to negotiate his way around town, hi-jacking all manner of vehicles - tractors, pick-ups, lorries, motorbikes, bmx's, cars. there was even a hot dog van. once settled into your new wheels, you can tune the radio (if there is one) to one of ten stations - brilliant. you can go anywhere (within the boundaries of the particular level), and andrew found himself unable to avoid crashing into the sea or the river at least three times. he ran people over, he fought people, he shot people, he got shot. he even punched a car on fire!

resolve

i do not make new year's resolutions. if i want to start doing something, give something up, or change something, then i will, i don't feel the need to wait for a certain date in the calendar.

new year's eve

i had to work on friday, but only until 2pm. we had decided amongst ourselves what hours we would work, and i chose wisely, for quite a bit of work came in around lunchtime. i went to our local library, where i hoped to find some books about the history of crossgates, but failed. crossgates library is fairly small however, so i may call in to the city library in the week.
in the evening (after i had taken gemma to work - the buses stop at 6pm in leeds on new year's eve!) i went to a party in chapel allerton. paul and sarah are friends of friends (andrew and michelle). i can report that they seem like great company, and have a really cool house. i had some amazing vegetarian chilli, which had a fruity element to it - i was later informed it contained chocolate. i understand that paul went to college with leigh francis. michelle, andrew and i then headed over to farsley, for our now traditional end of the year celebrations at dean and rachel's. unfortunately, the livepool gang* did not come this year, so it was a back to basics grimthorpe terrace reunion. as usual, we laughed like drains. at midnight, we headed outside to see the fireworks and shiver.

*the liverpool gang do not necessarily come from, or indeed currently live in, liverpool