…I’ve killed the Citizen.
also…
February 16th, 2012Now that…
February 16th, 2012I’m almost certain no-one is reading, I begin to feel the impulse to write uninteresting things on the internet again.
i.e.: blog.
Portsmouth!
July 22nd, 2011Right, I’m off to the motherland for the weekend, so let’s have a few facts about the city I was born in and lived near until I was five.
-Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, and is the only city in the UK to be built on an island
-Most of Portsmouth is only about ten feet above sea level (which explains the nosebleeds if I go up a hill)
-Portsmouth is regarded as being founded in 1180. Most early records were destroyed by the Norman invaders, so let;s hope Julez behaves herself this weekend
-The nickname “Pompey” comes from the maritime abbreviation “Pom. P.” for Portsmouth harbour
-Portsmouth is the thirteenth most densely populated area in Europe, and has a higher population density than inner London
-Portsmouth almost never goes below zero, temperature-wise, due to being surrounded by water and very densely populated
-Portsmouth’s two main hospitals, St Mary’s (where I was dragged screaming into existence) and Queen Alexandra, in Cosham, feature the UK’s oldest hospital radio station
-Portsmouth is one of only a handful of cities with two cathedrals (one Anglican, one Catholic)
-Portsmouth is a bit of a shit-heap
-Portsmouth is the only place in the UK with roadsigns pointing to “Out of City” owing to it’s island structure
-Portsmouth is the UK’s second-busiest ferry port, after Dover
-The ferry to Gosport has been running since the 1800s and takes about five minutes from end to end
-The UK’s oldest surviving hovercraft service runs from the harbour to Ryde on the Isle of Wight
-Gosport is a bit of a shit-heap as well
-Gosport is the largest town in the UK without a railway station (who needs trains when you’ve got ferries though?)
-Once, Suzanne fell underneath a stationary train at Portsmouth Harbour, and claimed I pushed her. This is particularly worrying as the station is built on a wooden pier over the harbour, and quite a few of the slats are often missing, allowing direct accidental access from platform to watery death
Enjoy The Silence
June 27th, 2011
Well, once again I have completely failed to blog anything for absolutely fucking ages.
Been busy, you see, plus sometimes I just don’t generally have the time or inclination.
But this week, my domain came up for renewal, and I thought, well, I don’t want to lose is, but I don’t want to pay for something I’m not using.
There are far too many ways to spill your brain all over the internet these days. When I first started blogging in 2000, on fishinapint.com, that was really the only way to share the mundanity of your life. Back then, with a b2 installation (Cafepress, which later became WordPress, which I’m still using as we speak) outputting a single page added via a php-include into an empty frame (oh yeah, I used to know html a little bit), I was part of the London Bloggers network (I worked in Camden at the time) and gained a small following, mostly of the type of people I myself followed. Not much to say but once you’ve started this semi-intimate anonymous relationship, you can’t stop.
Nothing was simple. If, like me, you didn’t know enough to code your own site, you might use a mismash of hand-edited html, stolen php, and free scripts and includes. Reliable comment systems were notoriously hard to come by, with the most popular at the time (I forget the name) only allowing registrations for one hour per day to prevent overloading. A dotcom cost $29 a year, and hosting triple that.
Also, there was no Facebook, no Twitter. Text messaging was prohibitively expensive (my “brilliant” tarriff at the time allowed 200 texts per month to the same network for £40, along with 200 minutes to landlines. Texts to other networks cost 12p each. Now I pay £35 a month for 600 minutes, 3000 texts, unlimited(ish) data and all sorts of other crap I don’t need but manage to use).
This is in danger of turning into a “look at how hard it was back in the old days” post, so I’ll stop there. I’m off to start my summer job as a research assistant at uni, which means I’m currently sitting in a very deserted library plotting the next eight weeks’ timetable. Flexible hours are great.
I’ll leave you with a few pictures. I love walking around really busy places like Cambridge city centre when there’s no-one about at 7 in the morning (apart from the odd bin man). Today was surreally silent, but as the temperature is due to go over 30 later today, expect the usual groups of lads sitting on Parkers Piece gawping at the inappropriately dressed teen girls cycling past (inappropriate as in short skirts and tall bicycles), and rowdy punt touts attempting to relieve tourists of their holiday nuggets.
Have a lovely day.
April Foolishness
April 1st, 2011Hats off to Wikipedia today, for April Fools mainpage and some disguised as foolishness that are indeed not so:
Did you know…
From Wikipedia’s newest articles:
- … that there is a desk full of candy (pictured) on the floor of the US Senate?
- … that Rudyard Kipling‘s final resting place is at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Ireland?
- … that recent quantum chemical calculations have established that arsoles are only moderately aromatic?
- … that St. Joseph has been in Egypt since 1852?
- … that in 2010, three survivors of the Titanic were rescued by the USCGC Chincoteague?
- … that a real Bastard commanded Africa in the nineteenth century?
- … that a species of crab, Tumidotheres maculatus, has been found living on an asteroid?
- … that ice cream grows in Florida?
Neglect And Shouty Friday
February 17th, 2011foshiznik.com, I’m sorry. Once again, I have neglected you.
The last few months have been a little busy, what with Christmas and birthdays and a Citizen relaunch and actual work needing to be done at uni. But more of that later!
I wish to turn to more pressing matters, this time in the Twitter arena.
Those of you who use Facebook will be aware that every Friday morning, newsfeeds are cluttered with people usually SHOUTING about how it’s Friday. As if we weren’t aware. Some of these are happy “OMG it’s FRIDAY gonna PARTYYYYYY!!!!!”. Some are less euphoric: “FUCK OFF FRIDAY! YOU’RE ALMOST AS BAD AS MONDAY!” But they are all shouty and all advising me of a fact I can find by shifting my eyes up to the menu bar – a heavy distance of, ooh, four inches.
Last week me and Hayley developed a lengthy thread just shouting about Friday. This week, I decided that Twitter needed to trend Shouty Friday a bit.
So come on, let’s get it going. #SHOUTYFRIDAY is the best hashtag ever. Get on it.
Hurrah! I Finished Semester 2!
December 12th, 2010Well, sort of. There’s still two exams after Christmas and another (easy) assignment due in in January, but otherwise the hard work is done.
This Wednesday I hadn’t started my assignment, now it’s done and should pass.
This is, I feel, mostly thanks to the Awesome Wall of Assignment:
Two computers and an extra screen is definitely the way to go my friends.
If you want to be bored out your fucking mind you can download the assignment here:
XKCD: You Know They Did But You’d Like To Pretend They Didn’t
December 6th, 2010My parents only did it three times, and it was an accident.
Half-Arsed Protesting
November 30th, 2010So, there we were – muyself, Marcus and Dobson sat outside Savino’s in Emmanuel Street, enjoying Marlboro Lights and cappuccini in the winter sun – and minus two temperatures, obv. Incidentally, if you’re ever in the East’s greatest city, avail yourself, you’ll not find a better coffee.
I digress. A sudden commotion from the St Andrews Street end of things. “What do we want? Cod and chips! When do we want it? About dinner time!”
OK, it was more to do with cuts than battered fishy delights. A straggly band of protesters with drums and horns and things, escorted by about seven rather amused rozzers was wandering townwards.
“What do we want? Student girls! How do we want them? Easy!” was the reply from el little brother. Clearly investigation was called for. Read the rest of this entry »
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