bagpuss: (Default)
In case anyone is wondering I am fine in a lovely Riad in Marrakech.

Don't quite know when I will get home though and depending on what the flights do the journey could be interesting.

I might need to go to the new town and see if I can get a jumper or a couple of tshirts in Etam or somewhere similar as I never thought I might need to spend 48hrs traveling through europe. I also need to find a bookshop selling english novels as I am already nearly through 2 of my 3

see you all soon I hope

Who

Mar. 23rd, 2010 09:57 pm
bagpuss: (Default)
The curious difference between the UK and the US Doctor Who trailer

Interesting scifi wire post with the two trailers, the US one is definitely more action but the UK one doesn't take long to catch up

Lost

Jan. 13th, 2010 06:58 pm
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Lost is soon to restart in the UK and the US and ABC have done a special recap. Quite funny

bagpuss: (Default)
An entertaining 20 questions based website for characters real or fictional

http://uk.akinator.com/

Came from Neil Gaiman's Blog

Kiva

Dec. 3rd, 2009 02:04 pm
bagpuss: (lemon cake)
The lovely folks on downsizer gave us a gift certificate for kiva for our wedding.

Kiva is a micro-finance organization who help small micro finance banks around the world loan money to people to who need it to do things like buy bikes to commute to work or build a toilet or fix their roof but wouldn't otherwise be able to get help from a bank

I have just got my first set of repayments and its so exciting, another round and I should have enough to loan more to someone else, the minimum contribution is $25 and when its paid back you get to loan it again its a great way to help people in need
bagpuss: (Default)
Not everyday you get to hear a talk and qa session from the former head of MI5 Eliza Manningham-Buller

She was a very compelling speaker with a fun sense of humour and some interesting points to make

We got to hear her as she is now on the board of the Wellcome Trust
bagpuss: (Default)
I am just having a moment of bridal paranoia

If the wedding invite you received had the time 2:30pm on it would you assume you had to arrive for 2:30pm or before 2:30pm as that was when the ceremony started?

thanks

Book Meme

Aug. 5th, 2009 08:25 pm
bagpuss: (sheep)
Don't take too long to think about it. 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They don't have to be the greatest books you've ever read, or even books you've liked; just the ones that stick with you. First 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. 1984, George Orwell
2. Only Forward, Micheal Marshall Smith
3. Revelation Space, Alistair Reynolds
4. The Complete Robot, Issac Asimov
5. The Secret History, Donna Tart
6. The Solitaire Mystery, Jostein Gaarder
7. The Silver Pigs, Linsdsay Davis
8. The Terror, Dan Simmons
9. The Illium, Dan Simmons
10. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
11. Crypotnomicon, Neal Stephenson
12. The Children of Men, P D James
13. The Three Musketeers, Alexander Dumas
14. To say nothing of the dog, Connie Willis
15. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver


If you'd like to know more about a book, or what it means to me, leave a comment explaining what you'd like to know about my relationship with that book, and I'll tell you.

proper geek

Jul. 3rd, 2009 02:22 pm
bagpuss: (geeky)
I now have code up on Source Forge
bagpuss: (geeky)
Just thought people might want to sign the statement supporting Simon Singh who the British Chriopractor Association sucessfully sued for libel after he said that their use of chriopracty to treat asthma and other chronic conditions in children were bogus and unsupported

Sense about Science
bagpuss: (Default)
Just found a image collator which people might find interesting

http://craftgawker.com/

Claire you should submit some of your posts!

Its a relation of one of the great foody sites I visit http://foodgawker.com/

Woot

Apr. 17th, 2009 04:12 pm
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We have tickets to see QI being filmed on the 2nd June
bagpuss: (Default)
It would appear there are many people in the world who have gmail addresses and a name very similar to mine.

It would seem someone called Laura K Clarke has a gmail address.
Someone called Laura Clark has a gmail address.
Someone who worked for Mitch Romney has a gmail address.
Someone who attends Austrialian National University has a gmail address.
Someone who lives in Canada and volunteers for lots of things has a gmail address.

I am sure these are all lovely people. I just wish they, their friends, current and past and their companies/schools etc were capable of typing the correct email address so I didn't receive spam, missives from long lost friends, travel arrangements, notifications of the ANU Tennis Club events etc etc on their behalf.

Meme

Feb. 13th, 2009 11:10 pm
bagpuss: (sheep)
From [livejournal.com profile] puddingcat

Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

1. Sugar :p
I have an incredibly sweet tooth which I suspect was started by being fed bowls of sugar by Mrs North who looked after me when Mum was at work when I was 3ish. I remember bowls of sugar, midget gems and minted new potatoes from a tin. I suspect this was only helped by the fact that Mum always baked lots and we always got sweets on Sunday after Church and a finger of kit kat or some chocolate eclairs in the car when dad would pick us up from school and provided we ate our main meal we always got dessert. Sugar is lovely

2. Apple (as in i-stuff, not fruit...)
Apple is a work thing. I am a sucker for their aesthetics but at the same osx does make my life easy in a way neither windows nor linux would. The ipods and the iphone are probably more about the design though

3. Small Relatives.
I guess acquiring such a larger number in such a short space of time has taken a bit of getting used to. I do miss the fact I live so far away from my sisters children which is weird on one level as I still don't want my own but they are interesting to watch and play with. I really should get some more up to date photos for the fridge though

4. Genetics.
I have been luck to fall into a degree I found interesting even if it did show me lab work wasn't for me, (I found out about the course when visiting my sister at Nottingham for her birthday just as I was having to pick courses) then find a masters course (a friend mentioned Leeds did a bioinformatics masters and I, unlike her, actually applied for it) and a job I love (well now two jobs I love). I always found all science interesting. One of mums favourite childhood anecdotes of me is of me reading an encyclopedia in bed and in some respects biology is the easiest thing to marry with my dislike of maths but then how did I end up in bioinformatics! I still do worry what will happen when I have to work in the real world though even is the new job is a million times more stressful than the previous one. Genetics helps define not only why we are the way we are but also how all living organisms on the planet work and thats just cool plus these days you can even see what bits a child has inherited from both its parents!

5. Forward planning!
My mum has always planned stuff, days out, weekends away, holidays in advance just the way she did things so myself and my sisters all inherited the same tendencies and I know compared to most of my friends I do take it to an extreme but I like having things to look forward to and if I don't plan things I don't get that. I also like some sort of certainty and again having things planned means that I know what's coming which again I like. This does mean we can look forward to staying in what looks like a very cute b&b in Hawaii for our honeymoon
bagpuss: (Default)
They have made Being Human into a full series

BBC:Being Human. The concept is a Vampire, Werewolf and a Ghost sharing a flat

The pilot was hilarious so lets hope the series can keep it up
bagpuss: (Default)
I managed to read 60 books in 2008. The ones in bold I would strongly recommend to others

book list )
bagpuss: (Default)
Hope everyone has a good christmas

This year has been a good one. I got a new job and while very busy it is a very interesting project and also had put me in new situations with new people which after 61/2 years in the old job is a good thing

I got engaged to the lovely [livejournal.com profile] rms, The wedding planning mostly done and set for the 10th October next year, all very exciting though bizarrely I may be taking some time out of our honeymoon to do work, mostly to take advantage of having flights to Hawaii paid for for me at least

We have even more nieces and nephews, 3 more this year and a 4th due in the new year. They are all very cute. I also look forward to the arrival of [livejournal.com profile] nannyo and mups little squid though remain pleased that I can play with plenty of small children but given them back to parents when things like nappies need changing and other similar jobs need taking care of

Hope the previous year was fun for everyone else and the next year is even better
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