drift ::: words

Player of Games

2011-12-30T19:38:00.000Z

My colleague's book club dumped The Player Of Games, by Iain M. Banks, on her reading list. "I'm really going to hate this", she said, "not my cup of tea at all".

"It's one of my favourite Culture novels", I said, "I must re-read it". Which I did with great pleasure, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear positive reports the following week. OK, so he's sold a few copies but I thought it was a specialist thing. Perhaps I'm underestimating his quality as a writer.

His commonly-used background culture, called (er, what shall we call it?) The Culture has been well-discussed. It's essentially a post-shortage society, which means that they have all the energy and matter they need. No shortage, no money, (almost) no problems. Tiny sarcastic flying robots that can do almost anything, including saving your life if you fall over a cliff. Enormous sentient spaceships that can do everything else. Banks has stated its origins as a hypothetical society where everything is organised how he would want it to be. Banks is, like me I suppose, a bit of an anarchist so it's almost the opposite of a fascist dictatorship.

The Player of Games, may well, as an essay in realpolitik, be about the way in which the powers that be get their way without seeming to use their weight. Poor old Gurgeh, the wizard of all games, he suspects he's being used. And he is, not only for his mastery of games, but for his naive approach to everything else. But he doesn't seem to mind being a pawn in the end.

The amusing bits of Culture novels are often about its limitless entertainments. You want a firework display the size of a canyon? OK then. You want to surf down a waterfall, without breaking your neck? OK then. There never seems to be any hassle, or queues, or tickets, or cops.

I had a tiny taste of this when we were in Austria for a short break. Parts of Austria are extremely well organised and neat, and at the same time laid back. E.g., when it snows, the roads are cleared within a couple of hours, and the buses all keep going. I've no idea if the following is typical.

On an an afternoon walk in the bright snow, about two miles from the village, we stopped for a coffee and strudel at a forest cafe. Someone in our party spotted a stack of toboggans of various sizes outside. Are they for hire? A school party's?

It turned out these were just laid on, for general use, for free. Having been ridden down to the village, they could be stacked against a barn at the end of the lane, and would be returned by a tractor at intervals.

This is perhaps a side-effect of the outdoor industries of the Tirol (all the serious neck-breakers are busy sking nearby, and the village knows the value of competing for entertainment), but can you imagine this in, say, in Surrey or Yorkshire? (Assuming regular snow). No insurance disclaimers. No Deposits. No chains and guard rails. No, er, chavs. Just good old playful fun:

West Quay - SuperSampled

2011-07-28T21:04:00.003+01:00

West Quay, a photo by Drift Words on Flickr.

The previously mentioned Lomo SuperSampler, a cheap plastic camera that takes 4 sequential exposures on each 35 mm frame. Not as good as I'd hoped, but not bad either. More at the SuperSampler Tag.

Nice day out

2011-04-26T10:26:00.004+01:00

Brighton looks so lovely in the sunshine, but the water looked too cold to get in. And then there are the pebbles.

We were lucky in our train connections, so had plenty of time to wander. Apart from staring at the sea and window shopping, we met up with our niece and nephew and their parents at the Marina end.

We ate at the Pagoda, and then poked around the shops, which are steadily building up in number at the Marina. I bought a print by Colleen Slater from the Eclectia Gallery, and tasted a few hot things at Fiery Foods, coming away with some great Brinjal (Aubergine) Pickle.

More of these Brighton photos on Flickr.

Oh, I've been playing around with the Lomo Supersampler. This was a present from Santa to me. I'm collecting my first reel of film today, that's been sitting in the camera since Christmas. Yes film!

I encouraged the kids to go wild with it. "Where's the screen??" They didn't finish the film, so I've got nothing to show from their games as yet, but watch this space. Meanwhile, here's a random selection from Flickr: Super Sampler.

The water's lovely

2011-04-14T09:54:00.005+01:00

I was interested in participating in something called a Midsummer skinny dip, organised by, or at least in support of, Mary Curie Cancer Care. It turns out I won't be able to join in, but they've been sending me the bumpf.

This poster is not much to look at, but then I went on to the website of the Illustrator and started looking around at their watercolours. I did a couple of watercolours last weekend, and I know how difficult they are, so I've been looking around for technical inspiration. I don't exactly go for her girly whimsical style, but she has delightful brushwork. Check out the red onion in her sketchbook section.

Told you so, bring back luggage van

2011-04-13T10:32:00.008+01:00

Hauled myself out of bed slightly later today, so I took the later train. Guess what, it's just as packed as the earlier ones. There is normally enough space for three bikes when I get on in the special bike compartment of this train, and they are all full arghh!

For the train nerds, this is a class 444, i.e. a Siemens Desiro.The advantage of my nine o'clock 444, apart from listening to Today at slightly more leisure, is that the seats are only four-pitch rather than five-pitch, so you get some elbow room. But there's nowhere to put my effing bike!

In some ways these trains have been an absolute joy compared to the crappy slam door stock they replace. But I remember the time there was some quiet controversy about the loss of the guard's van. Back in the day, this was frequently full of bikes and all sorts of luggage, and being a draughty old cabin it was not competed for too much. But, apparently capacity is key, and as many seats as possible were fitted into the new stock. This is all very old history now, as the new trains came in about 8 or 9 Years ago.

Sure enough, on this mid week near Easter, there are already four bikes, two of them folded, in the bike section when I get there. So there is no room to fold mine so I put it on the pile with the others. During the journey I have to get up several times to help other bike users manage the pile.

Basically, we told you so. They should have been enough uncommitted space for bike users and luggage users, who, guess what, also make use of this commuter line with more than a briefcase. Simply ripping out some seats could help, as you can see on the class 450, based on the same train chassis. This has a variety of bike and wheelchair sections, along with bigger doorway aisles. Ideally this would have 4 in a row seats, but then they would have to run 20% more trains to make equivalent capacity so it ain't never going to happen.

So my bike's gonna have to put up with a few more scratches from other folk's pedals.

Overlaps

2010-06-30T13:47:00.001+01:00

P1020426
Originally uploaded by Drift Words

Sunny days make for spontaneous photography, in this case, the jolly complexity of the urban environment. Just over there, on the banks on the river, the tourists will be gathering themselves for a day's pleasure. Here in the station, we worker bees reach for our black cases and bags.

Realities

2010-06-14T15:20:00.002+01:00

These days I'm on a bit of an alternate reality hike, SF-wise.

Mostly these guys:

Christopher Priest - almost anything, but recently, The Separation
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Years of Rice and Salt

Matter

2008-12-13T17:13:00.002Z

The explosions at the end of Iain M. Banks' Matter are still ringing in my ears. He's getting really good at constructing very clever things. Scratch that, he has been really good for quite some time at telling clever stories, that are much easier to deal with at face value, than to properly think about what's inside. I'm sure it's deliberate.

On the surface, it's a typical Culture space western. The high plains drifter is played by a young woman, of course an Agent of Special Circumstances. And of course, accompanied by a lethal bundle of technology and irony in the shape of the hovering offensive drone. Highly dangerous, and yet supremely moral, they can stop an army of heavily armed knights just by thinking about it (and harassing the column with weapons invisible to pre-technological eyes). They pluck some victims of primitive war from destruction, and shelter them aboard their god-like ships. It's primarily these two who we follow, as they crash around, and with their clever tools and tech, save at least one world from horrid alien interference.

However, it's the worlds in question that deserve a closer look. The wider world of the life-strewn galaxy is painted in, like a Victorian genre picture of a day at the races. All types are there, and some of them are those that you might actually want to meet. But with most of them, you are glad to be back in your armchair on Earth. As with other Culture novels, Banks is at the same time completely cynical (all species are bastards, and the bigger species are sometimes the biggest bastards) and also brightly optimistic (generally speaking, trillions upon trillions of members the want-for-nothing super-species just loll around having delightful egalitarian funny naked sexy lives in their sentient super-homes, causing absolutely no trouble at all).

Another world full of humans is depicted. One tribal faction fights another, through sweat, mud, blood and pain, for supremacy of their part of their backward planet. Most of them are firmly trapped in this bubble of pre-development, and while they might know that there are higher beings, such as the Culture people, out there above them, they also know that they are powerless to reach through the bubble. As we read of their wars, we know that their factionalism is pointless (they are the same species) and their religion is void (their god is a squatter who couldn't care less about them). However, although there is hurt and destruction in their slice of the world, there is, there is at the same time love, hope and honour.

The planet, it is realised, is a Shellworld, a Nautilus-like construction, yes a machine!, of concentric chambers. Dozens of species dwell in the spaces, some walking on earthy sub-surfaces underneath the glow of rolling mechanical sunlets (nuclear? stranger physics?), others flopping in enclosed oceans or floating in endless clouds, others enjoying the vacuum of their compartments. Huge struts or arteries, called Towers, let the action slip, via hermetic doors millions of years old, from one sub-world to another. This in the true spectacle of the book, and the other characters and species dance around it and through it.

The humans are effectively pets of the local alien overlords (there are several to choose from), who happen to be floating, slightly smelly, multilegged and hilariously ungrammatical. The turf war is fought out with carbines, swords and lances, and the occasional mounted creature. The faction having recently discovered steam power (probably informed by the spindly wotists or perhaps the stinky blobules) gains the upper hand, and forges an empire. However, there is bittereness. Not only do thousands die in the wars of occupation, but the rightful king is sneakily deposed by an obviously evil schemer. Our heroes are royal splinters in this struggle (and the SC agent is a sister to them). Meanwhile, the world's systems (naturally, it's got an infinity of software and embedded mechanisms) are being interfered with by who-knows-who, and there are these strange movements of starships. It's a little like a quest to restore Narnia in a far-off galaxy. SC drones play the fauns and forest creatures, and a sentient ship plays an Aslan.

So Hoorah when the protagonists not only restore order, but also intervene to stop the whole concentric world from destruction. And then Aahh, when orphans are all given hearths and homes beneath the peaceful rolling anti-gravity ceiling blobs.

But there's doubt, just as Banks intended I'm sure. Just who controlled who in the chain of rebellion and chaos? Did we really just sympathise with the suicide bomber in service of the primitive monarchy? What was the true function of the mechanical world? Not for living in, that's obvious, and purpose of the colossal mechanisms at its centre remains obscure. Why did the eons-frozen egg/bomb/demon so want to destroy it? Was it lying when it said the Shellworlds were a timebomb, an environmental threat of their own? Perhaps the happy-ending pulled from tragedy is really a disguise for a further sinking into a sea of doom.

Perhaps, as for the humans trapped down in level 8, there is much more above and below than we can reliably process. And if we can do anything about it then fine, but if not, then we may as well enjoy ourselves.

Art in Bed with Science Again

2008-10-04T17:48:00.004+01:00

I love artists, but I think they are mad. Too symbolic, not real enough. They think I am mad. Too frakking rational. Most actual scientists think I'm off my head, too symbolic etc, but I digress.

Originally uploaded by satellite investigator

I really love the idea of Artists-in-Residence (even MSSL's got one, but she - orbits seldom intersect - came and went in a week when I wasn't there), and they really should be everywhere. In fact, the general concept of incorporating an outsider is a valuable one, as long as is it isn't embedding for a defined purpose. The photo's from Joanna Griffin (or rather her bits and pieces in Flickr), and it used to be the lab's phone number in the pre-fibre age.
.

This on the other hand, is snatched from the mouth of Karel Nel, who's got a deep-astronomy inspired exhibition in London now, until 9 October '08:

What was it like, visiting observatories?

At the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, some of the world's most powerful telescopes are trained on the powder-black darkness, looking at complexity and eternity. It is awesome and desolate. Even the scientists fall silent in the face of that.

Nature, 2 October 2008

Review of Pet Porte

2008-06-03T20:02:00.003+01:00

Pet Porte is a microchip-reading catflap. In other words, it detects and scans a cat's microchip (which your vet can easily insert), and will only let known cats in. Conversely, unknown cats (with unrecognised or no chips) won't get in. You could call it a biometric passport for cyborg cats.

We were keen early adopters, since we have issues with neighbours' cats coming in and worrying the legitimate residents. Our two, Oscar and Felix, both 12. y.o., were often joined by The Black Cat from Two Doors Down. The happy group also included Zippy from Next Door as well, but she went through the cat flap in the clouds some time ago. TBCfTTD was a pain. He was young (2) and aggressive, and prone to spraying as well as being a chav.

We've tried magnet-sensing catflaps in the past, but they are a waste of time. Your furry friend has to haul a magnet collar around, which is detected by a coil in the sill of the catflap, which jinks open a solenoid and in he gets. All quite good, except that the magnets are quite large, and are lost. That is, removed by the cats, who just wanna be free. To have good time, to party.

So, when the opportunity to refit the doors came up, we decided to get the new door fitted with this miracle of RFID engineering. I'd heard about it after some speculative Googling, after a conversation about an undergraduate's technology/business dissertation. Handy sometimes, the day job.

A normal chip reader is hand-held if a bit clunky – I'm old enough to think Psion Organiser II when I see one – and in use it is waved across the neck of the animal to excite the chip and detect its response code (a moderately long integer). It's quite simple, and there's no encryption or anything. The manufacturers of the chips evidently collaborate to establish a system whereby all the codes are unique (otherwise what's the point?). The chips are used for positively identifying animals, which helps with lost doggy scenarios (chips are back-registered to the owner) and to discourage theft (though I've never seen an animal with a Don't Nick Me I'm Chipped sticker).

The flap-mounted chip reader is a bit clumsier than a hand-held reader. There needs to be a big detection coil with a nice spread-out field of action to catch the chip as it waves by at a random distance and speed, and this needs to be done before the cat, who can't read a manual, tries to get through the door. Consequently, there's a big bit sticking out of the outside of the catflap. Apart from that, the construction is much the same as other solenoid-locked catflaps, like the magnetic ones, slightly more chunky than a completely passive catflap.

We got ours direct from the manufacturers in Jersey. There's a lot that's clearly Version 1.o about the product. To me, it seems over-engineered in some places, and under-developed in others. It's also not that cheap. Do we really need to paw- and moon-shaped lights for example? A single LED could probably have sufficed. It may have been a requirement of the chip reader, but does it absolutely need a power supply? Other locking catflaps seem to make do with a 9 V battery.

Fitting is not different to any other catflap, with the added complication of ensuring that the Porch (the housing that contains the chip-reading antenna coil) is mounted and weatherproof.

With a cooperative cat, linking the reader to the chip is easy. If the cat doesn't have chip, there's a chip-free mode available.

Our cats were well used to catflaps, so this was barely any difference. There seems to be a slight delay before opening, but I think after a day or two most cats will adapt. I guess after a while they will listen for the click of the latch before really pushing.

Features: good.
Price: fair.
Installation: slightly fiddly. Requires a constant power supply, i.e. uses 10 Watts and 1 socket.
Other: antenna housing sticks out, this is a bit fragile and sticks out such that it may get struck by human legs and feet.
Compatibility with cats behaviour: good (sometimes Oscar wants us to open doors, but that's probably normal).
Keeps the Wrong Cats out: certainly.

Overall, a success.

Felix remembered

2008-02-07T18:46:00.001Z

Felix remembered
Originally uploaded by Drift Words

Utilitarianism

2008-02-07T10:46:00.000Z

Felix is not gaining great happiness, and indeed is accumulating unhappiness. Although he numbers only one, this equation bothers us highly. What would Jeremy say? He's dead of course, and so are we all eventually.

Sorry to get legalistic and philosophical, but we need air support at times like these. Hand to hand moral battles are tough.

As his carers on Earth, we have certain ultimate powers. We've made a decision, and it is due to be enacted today. Please remember Felix as he was, not as he is now, or whatever he will be hence.

Unlucky Felix

2007-12-09T16:48:00.001Z

Poor thing, he's got sore gums and can't eat properly, and looks inelegant.

He's got squamous cell carcinoma, which means a sodding great lump in his mouth.

We have been giving him squashy things to eat (yum yum) and regular flannel-baths (yuck).

Here he is in happier times:

Update (6 Feb). He's been getting increasingly alarming of appearance (pulling his own fur out because his tongue's not working) and thin as well. As well as that, he's hungry ALL the time. We are in the midst of making the most difficult sort of decision ...

Beauty is in the eye of the stock holder

2007-10-09T23:17:00.000+01:00

Got approached by StockphotoPro through my Flickr Mail, (Dear Matt, your photos are classics, add them to our archive and make us lots of money, you vain person) on the basis of these images:

Flattered, obviously, though not sure how much critical response was there. Suspect a bit of filtering has been done based on the number of Faves each image has already attracted. This wisdom of crowds method probably suits something as intentionally bland and average as stock photography.

Grid

2007-07-09T21:15:00.001+01:00

Grid
Originally uploaded by Drift Words

I saw something shining in my face, oddly. It was the Euston Road, which I was in the process of crossing, once again. Interrupted from my thought (how far away we are now from the beginning of the fresh day) I fumbled with the machine, and aimed and pressed the switch. Just before the light changed.

Later, it provokes some unusual quotations from, what, Philip K Dick?

Mahabarata

2007-05-28T18:05:00.000+01:00

Rain stopped other play, so to Brighton to see a production of Mahabarata. Previously at Sadler's Wells.

Baffling story that I'll read up later, and great walky/dancy movements. Strong, shining music and colourful swishy design. But where was the puppet/video stuff? Tall pokey bum-numbing theatre. Cheap seats you see, or rather you don't see because they are half a mile from the stage.

Still, not complaining, and the old lady by the sea's always good for a laugh. Now, if only we can work out a smoother way of getting there. I'm thinking a pincer movement to Shoreham, and a little hop on the train.

Image courtesy of Swami Gaurangapada

Beer going around

2007-04-28T07:44:00.000+01:00

There in the crowded room, the guy I'd never met before pulls out photos that I had taken. Apparently top google for the term "Farnham Beerex", the official dead web-1.0 non-social site not cutting it at number 3. Last night I had a lot of the good natural stuff, a few too many burgers and no cigars. It's a remarkably peaceful night considering it's a vast room – the Maltings – crammed with drunk men (98% of them). Like the building, most of the punters are into middle age and aren't interested in showing off. So this friend of a friend is telling me all about this character Drift Words and this site called Flick or Flack.

More coincidence. Another friend twice removed turns out to be my over the road neighbour, whom I thought looked familiar. Ahh, the social properties of liquid bread!

Why Rye

2007-01-08T20:22:00.000Z

Rye is a geography lesson that you can live in. We chose not to, though stayed at this cobbly little Sussex town for a couple of days after Christmas. The geography part of it is that the sea keeps moving, and they have to keep moving the harbour. The present one is still a good distance from the high water mark, and a substantial channel has had to be built to keep it going.

more pictures

We stayed at Jeake's House, on Mermaid Street, which like the town, has been converted nicely to its present use. It's a bit twee, but not too much. We also liked eating at the Landgate restaurant, the Apothecary coffee shop and a few other places.

Driving there and back was easy. Sat nav = no arguments!

Why I like Germaine Greer

2006-12-04T18:33:00.000Z

Plain English? Naah, it's the details, innit.

As the discontinuity concept is fundamental to understanding what the best of today's artists are up to, it's worth explaining again. Art detaches itself from the unsynthesised manifold by a number of strategies. It may take refuge in a dedicated space called a museum or a gallery, where it may not be touched or moved. It may be surrounded by a barrier, put upon a plinth, enclosed in a frame or a moat of white paper - whatever. To understand this is to understand why installation is such an important consideration in the contemporary art project. It was Kant who explained that the art object exists only as the concept of itself, all its other sensory qualities being associated with pleasure or desire and therefore ulterior.

I can still remember the excitement of reading the Critique for the first time 50 years ago, and basking in the glow of Kant's beautiful mind. Chrissie and Ben can take their Golden Bull award and stuff it.

the full monty ...

Summer with Monika

2006-08-08T22:45:00.000+01:00

Dir: Ingmar Bergman, 1952

Not a thriller by any means, but a deeply charming film. Scenes of the Stockholm archipelago are marvellous, with the elements and seasons standing in as the Chorus as this quotidian drama/soap opera gracefully unfurls. Oh and a nude bathing scene during the lovers' sojurn by the shore, which we can all aspire to.

6/7

Images, science, art

2006-07-31T16:33:00.000+01:00

I think I've written before about science images as art. Sometimes I think that curators of certain of these collections get too involved in the gee-that's-nice reflex, rather than reflecting on whether the image communicates something to do with the research as a result of its visual qualities, or despite them. I've been dissapointed by some such UCL competitions before. Not because of the lack of ingenuity of the image-makers, but because of a lack of overall definition of the goal of a successful research image that also is art. To my mind, there is a sweet spot where the two qualities support each other.

Apropos of nothing really (I saw it here), here's another striking collection, supported by the Wellcome Trust. This particular image is a nettle leaf. It looks dramatic, certainly, but that quality lets you understand how the thing works. Exactly the sort of art/science symbiosis I have in mind.

Perhaps because it's taking a narrower sample of work as a base (medical/biological microscopy), the criteria seem to be tighter, and the whole exhibition more satisfactory as a result.

Sunset Picnic

2006-07-16T12:11:00.000+01:00

Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

A chance to see Simply Red, very nearly. Which is to see it was more about the Pimms and picnic than the performance itself.

Enjoyable enough, though we did feel like anthropologists. I thought to myself "these are really not my people somehow". If I ever did run into a field full of my people I might be terrified. I have a feeling that they tend not to gather in large crowds though.

Beautiful

2006-07-14T20:13:00.000+01:00

Yes I know the tour is hollowed out crap, but bikes are still beautiful, and they inspire strange beauty like this, concerning a publicity-shy but influential frame-builder:

This may explain the profound obscurity surrounding the life of Alvin Drysdale the man, about whom almost nothing may be found among the vast reaches of the Internet in 2006 — while photos and descriptions of his bikes pop up everywhere an algorithm can invade. The few assertions we can be relatively sure of:

Love that "everywhere an algorithm can invade". For the assertions themselves, you'll have to go to the source. Allez!

Being Silly is Silly. And Not Clever.

2006-07-11T22:48:00.000+01:00

A big hello to both my readers. I just want to tell you about that I'm still alive, but I want to tell you about this.

Take care everyone.

Update: Doctor 1.

Slight changes to blogrolls

2006-05-23T20:30:00.000+01:00

Repulsive Monkey:
Ni Hao: Running in Suffolk, Virtual Mandarin, Chinese with Ease, Manchurian Candidate
Zai Jian: Peter Bojanic

drift:::words
+ : nothing
– : all running blogs

Dead!

2006-04-28T12:11:00.000+01:00

Press power dear. Behind the screen on the right.

Press it again!

Press it for a second or so!!!

Oh for gawds sake let me do it!!!

(Leaps out of bath).

oh you're right, it doesn't seem to be working.

Fortunately, my dead iMac might only be resting, as it may have succumbed to a common enough power supply fault. Having gone through the support wizard, and poked around inside in the approved manner, and come to naught, I've driven it down to a nearby repairer. This could be a long week ...

Update: it lives! And Flickr has gone to "Gamma". And Firefox pops another update!
All at once!

Running stuff on my other blog

2006-04-26T17:36:00.000+01:00

This is just a courtesy post in case you are reading this for the running training journal.

If I write any more running-related posts (and I might, since I'm getting back into it now), they shall be over on my other blog "Repulsive Monkey" (Taichi, learning Chinese, and Running). The common theme there is Getting Better at Doing Things, whereas here you have the beachcomber's art of Picking Things Up and Looking at Them.

I have worky-work-work blogs, but they are somewhere else. Go and look at the sidebar for details, or see my Suprglu page.

Pandora

2006-04-21T14:12:00.000+01:00

Interesting. Pandora is another music recommendation service (does music streaming for subscribers). They have a parameter-based approach – they call it the musical genome – in that they split apart the attributes of an artist along defined axes (The Cure, for example, is "electro, post-punk, melody-led etc"), unlike Last.fm, which seems to be more about plain old correlation coefficients. Also, less social and more straight-ahead commercial. US-centric, which kills the idea of giving them money for now. Though generally pretty nice.

First seen on Vanillasky.

Noah's Art

2006-04-07T09:27:00.000+01:00

Noah's Art
Originally uploaded by askuds.

I think Auntie M might like this one!

Bleep bloop boink

2006-04-04T13:57:00.000+01:00

Music, genre-ified, through a Katamari-like Flash mangleiser, with added Roobard and Custard. From Auntie!

(via What not to think)

Here's a thing ...

2006-03-31T19:56:00.000+01:00

... you know how having an ipod really bumps up your music-appreciation muscles. I reckon I've got to the end of that cycle now, having loaded pretty much all my CDs on to my now ancient 4G pod, and worked out why I wanted that music in the first place.

Now, not only do I want a bunch of fresh music, but I'm always on the lookout for good recommendations. That's why I was so pleased with myself for getting my head around Last.fm. After I play 300 tracks I will have a Neighbour, and I can see what they like. Here's what I like. It's like Flickr for music!

DILO

2006-03-20T13:11:00.000Z

DILO
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

The previous pic was probably my yearning for an irretreivable summer, surrounded by nothing but warm air. Dreadful dead lines of winter still overhead, though a few springing buds can be seen at ground level. Here I'm in the transporter module taking me to Planet Smoke for another push at the rockface.

you may judge a man by the company he keeps, or the contents of his book shelves or in some other way entirely

2006-02-22T13:25:00.000Z

I don't use browser bookmarks anymore. Here's what I have instead: a cloud of tags.

This is a del.ico.us tagroll, in case you want to get your own.

Some of your favourites

2006-01-16T14:13:00.000Z

Some of your favourites
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

A small compendium of some of my photos that have attracted favour on Flickr.

Reverse taper being very slow in starting

2005-11-23T22:09:00.000Z

I've attempted a couple of longer runs since the marathon. But getting back on track is proving harder than I'd hoped.

Last Sunday was glorious weather (here's a beautiful scene of the Surrey hills – not mine but rather like what I saw) but I couldn't really enjoy it, as after half an hour of gentle running (chest still not properly cleared) my ITB started complaining of tightness.

Tonight I dusted off my gym card and tried things differently. A few revs of the bike, some proper stretching, a gentle 2km row, then 15 mins in and out of the sauna. Aah, that's better!

Oh, if the leisure centre people are reading this, it was me who removed the ridiculous "swimwear must be worn in the sauna" notice.

Peak District catching-up

2005-11-13T23:55:00.000Z

Just got back from the Peak District, where I met up with some old friends from ... too long ago. The Cliff Road boys are scattered all over the country so it's rare that we all meet up. We Stayed in Longnor near Buxton (in this fine pub), and had far too much to eat. After breakfast, we waited in the slanted, stony High Street for the local brass band to greet each other, assemble in ranks, and march off, with the Brownies in tow.

We then drove to Thorpe, up and down dale. Thorpe is another village within the National Park, where another old uni mate lives. He told us about mud a-plenty in the Dovedale Dash (his missus does fell-running too - must visit them again and bring my trainers!) and snow in the harsh winters. Today, spectacular low sunshine picked out thousands of details during our walk in Dovedale and around. We sat outside the pub (the Izaak Walton hotel, Ilam) in strange November sun.

As we laughed and joked, well-dressed gentlemen and their ladies returned from participating. from one of the thousands of remembrance services that were held in the UK today. Years ago, gangs of lads from all over the country went out together on sunny mornings like this.

Superglue ... suprglu

2005-11-08T12:55:00.000Z

The thing about Super Glue, I suppose, is that it sticks anything to anything with mimimum fuss. In theory, a universal attaching device.

Here's a new webservice that bolts your web stuff together: Suprglu.

In my case, delicious tags, flickr phots and a few blogs.

It's all done with feeds, the new string – the universal connector – of the web. It's a shame it doesn't emit feeds in of itself, but I hear that's coming.

Let's hope it doesn't stick your fingers together or go dry in the tube.

Finish medal

2005-11-06T22:49:00.000Z

DSC00572.JPG
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

At last! After the finish and the walk back to the hotel, I was able to take this picture before having a shower (aah warmth!) and a quick nap. The in-run photos are available now at Action Sports, though they are not especially pretty.

This was quite a tough run, more so than any of my rather sunny London efforts. So much so, I think, that this weekend has been more or less written off by me having a cold.

And so to bed.

finisher!

2005-10-31T13:44:00.000Z

finisher!
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

Time: 4:00:53

15 ok miles then 11 increasingly sadistic ones. So much pain. Even more

tomorrow. M clocked 3:45 so we are all happy. We ravage the goodybag and

look for our friends.

The sun's out at last!

cheers, matt.

http://www.samsara.plus.com

___

Treo+SnapperMail

registration

2005-10-30T13:16:00.000Z

registration
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

What are we doing snaking around this carpark? Registering for the race

number, that's what.

The wind has gone down a tiny bit, and it sends brief showers now and

again. Dublin chatters cheerlily.

cheers, matt.

http://www.samsara.plus.com

___

Treo+SnapperMail

Week 0. Day -2. Ready?

2005-10-29T11:57:00.000+01:00

Ready?
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

Got my shoes and kit packed, my passport looks roughly like me, some gels and bars to top up the fuel tanks? Can I really be ready?

Thursday's strange sunshine saw me in the glistening meadow, jogging and testing the legs. This could be the last warm sunshine for 100 million miles or more, so I had to make the most of it.

We shall travel to damp Ireland, where Wilma's Whimper showers the roads with warm Atlantic.

I don't feel supremely fit and full of boundless energy. Some of my muscles don't behave athletically (or perhaps stiff and twitchy is athletic). Some of my nerves are fighting the others, and I've having difficulty doing simple tasks like matching socks and counting t-shirts.

I keep coming back to thinking of Mile 20 in London. The long windy road around Docklands. Come on, walk to that post, then run a bit more. You'll be fine. Go on!

Did someone turn the heat up?

2005-10-23T15:14:00.000+01:00

My sort of colleague Mark (also a decent runner, as well as an impressive climate scientist) has stood up many times and predicted, well before the fact, that recent tropical storm seasons would have significantly above average activity. His group is using this sort of knowledge to improve understanding of property risk in those areas of the globe (insurance companies take note, premium payers take it in the wallet). Back at pub level, I muse that the remaining inhabitants of such areas will either be those too poor to brush up their CV's and shift North, or those sun and fun-seekers (like M's uncle apparently) who are loaded enough not to be bothered with insurance.

Over at Interconnected, there's a curious post about Northern latitudes opening up as the ice recedes, I quote his sources all jumbled together, like glacial rubble:

a new northern culture, connected by open ocean, global warming, and a different kind of aesthetic ... exempt the North from the traditional territorial discourses based on power, history and identity, placing it in a deterritorialized post-national paradigm in which spaces are increasingly imagined and communicated. The North emerges as one of the so-called "meso-regions", i.e. less determined by geography than by ideas, symbols, visions or strategic instruments, all aimed at mobilizing resources ...

I can't really see us being not determined by geography very soon, unless those people of JET/ITER etc get cracking and grant us all with free energy for life, but something about the optimistic tone of these essays reminds me of Iain M. Banks's dazzling energy-rich Cultures, who think of a planet as a small space and sculpt awesome artful living spaces with real style.

Try this Iain Banks "Culture" novel, Excession

Week -3 : nearly there

2005-10-18T13:41:00.000+01:00

So, three weeks to go to the Dublin Marathon (official site). The taper begins. I can't honestly say I feel Ready. However, I'm not injured, I've done a couple of good long runs, a dollop of speedwork. I'm not concerned about shoes or clothes (I will stick with what I have) and I know I can cope with carrying a few energy gels along with me during the race. More importantly, we have flights and a room!

Sunday's long run wasn't that great. My legs felt stiff and slightly unwilling. It could well have been the effects of the Yasso session (search for more about Yasso sessions) I did last Friday. This time I wasn't on the track, but on the local cricket/footy pitches (photo on Flickr). I ran for 3:30 at what felt like the pace of the the previous time on the track, and marked the locations. This was one and a bit times around the two fields. Ithen did 9 more efforts over the same time, starting from a particular bench and aiming to reach the scorer's hut at the end.

In between most of them, I jogged for the same time. As the session went on, my times drifted from the ideal by up to 10 seconds. In order to preserve the mathematical regularity of the session, I rested completely a couple of times. So I can say that I almost completed a 10 x 3:30 Yasso. Therefore I should be within reach of a sub 3:40 Marathon. I can't quite believe it but there it is.

Week -4 : coming along

2005-10-09T21:25:00.000+01:00

I almost didn't train at all this week. The first few days were a torrent of to-ing and fro-ing, and I was just happy enough to stick with tai chi (another sword move – "Major Literary Star"), and glad of the recovery period. Legs were quite sore after last week's "half".

EDIT: I have been reminded of an hour at marathon pace on Wednesday, but I can't remember a thing about it!

Friday almost came and went without doing any running, but I squeezed in enough time to do a decent half an hour at threshold pace.

Saturday was pretty busy with 10,000 things, one of which was the purchase of new shoes (adidas Supernova control mk 7) and fuel (usual PSP, Go bars and Squeezy gel). Thanks, Malcom!

Today's long run took in familiar Wey path and North Downs loops, largely in fresh sunshine. The first two hours went fine, but I slowed and started to plod after that. I was out for three and a bit hours altogether, with tired legs glad to be back home.

Given that this was my really long run of the program ("only" two hours next week) I had hoped to be in better shape by now. Maybe some magical improvement will happen tonight, as I sleep. A lot.

Week -5: pretty good!

2005-10-02T18:11:00.000+01:00

Let's see where are we? End of W-5. I've just got back from a half marathon in Cricklade, Wiltshire (near Swindon). Quite a small village race, 200-odd in the half, plus a few more in the 10 k and fun run. We had to plough through the back end of the 10k field at one point, but I wasn't complaining. I must be stressed (teaching soon aargh!) or still recovering from a cold, because my chest felt tight at 8 am this morning, as we were setting off to go. You know, that organ that keeps us all going? I joked about it of course, but didn't tempt fate by divulging my Flickr password. It would have to be serious for that.

We kept a good, slightly intense but steady, pace through the run. Most of the miles were about quarter-to-eight, with the odd one over 8:10 when drinking water and running didn't quite work at the same time. I could feel the chest saying "no more" during the last third, so the pace had to be judged quite finely. No major problems, though I could feel a knee getting tired in the last couple of miles. It felt almost good (running well should not feel good in the normal sense of the word), certainly nothing like the last half we did – at the end of August – when all I could think of in the last three miles was that old Foreign Legion adage "pain is weakness leaving the body". In that race I took a fair few walking breaks, but today, with the exception of the drink stations, I ran continuously. I coughed a bit at the end, so evidently the cold hadn't gone completely. Final time for me 1:42:32, with M slightly behind.

She complained of feeling de-carbed at the end, lightheadeness and not noticing traffic being the main symptoms. I reckon she needs to slurp the energy gels a bit more often during long runs.

Earlier in the week, we did a nice Yasso session (pictures): 8x 800 m intervals in sub 3:30, with moderate wind going up the track. Again it felt as if my lungs weren't totally clear, but the legs handled the pace pretty well. After the first one, judging the pace was quite easy. Not bad for my first such session!

We are feeling pretty confident about a 3:30 – 3:40 marathon, as long as we can hold a good long run together next week.

Don't really know what week it is.

2005-09-26T22:20:00.000+01:00

I'm back in training again, after taking at least a week off for a cold. It must have struck me after the last long run. I witnessed my partner's track session, in which we tried out the Yasso 800 theory.

The two runs in the week were OK, given my condition. A bit of hillyness on Wednesday: two iterations of Charterhouse Hill. A bit more challenging on Friday morning, when we did some 2-minute speed sessions. Attempted in my case, coughing and wheezing for the first two. The effort must have cleared things up because I was able to keep up for a few more.

A nice long run on Sunday, with bright sunshine making the most of the still-green countryside. From Godalming, through Munstead, Bramley (stopping for supplies) and along the Down's Link to join the North Downs way to loop back. About 17 or 18 miles altogether. Reportedly my sniffles were not as prominent as earlier in the week. Energy was in short supply after that. Other supplies are dwindling too – time for a trip to the shoe and sugary goo merchant.

This week we have got more speed work and Yasso sessions to look forward to.

Week -7 : careful

2005-09-13T15:44:00.000+01:00

I need to be really careful about overtraining.

Nice long run on Sunday, some 2:40 all told, in overcast conditions. I was pretty sweaty at the end, but otherwise not too many ill effects. I took a drink with me this time, and some money for Lucozode.

Yesterday, however, I had a little bit of a sore tendon on my big toe, and more seriously a sore throat. By the evening it had turned into a proper cold so I missed my Tai Chi class. Today is "gym" day but I imagine I'll miss that too. I've cancelled a few London meetings and I'm going through my fresh fruit collection. Let's hope I can do the next important sessions properly: hills tomorrow and a Yasso 800 session on Thursday. Recovery runs can be subsituted with recovery yoga.

Week -8 : getting better

2005-09-07T18:07:00.000+01:00

This week I've been running without my usual partner, which has an effect on motivation. It's easier for me to keep going if someone else is trotting along ahead, or even better, if I'm leaving them in my wake.

Last Sunday's long solo run was not too bad, although it was hottish, misty at first then steadily getting sunnier. I did an extended version of our usual canal path loop, coming back home after nearly 1:45 (without water!) to feed and drink, then did a little extra loop as far as Broadford Bridge. Not sure about pace, but it took 2:30 to do. Lots of walking if I'm honest.

Wednesday's threshold run not so bad, I found it easier to sustain effort than previous week. This was mostly along the canal path. When it gets wet later in the year, we are going to have to find somewhere else, probably a road. Booo! I missed the gym slot, but that wasn't a "key session" according to the RW schedule being followed. Last night's intervals (4 x 5 min efforts) were OK in the warm/humid late summer evening. I don't mind sweating a bit, provided I'm hydrated enough to begin with.

I've started using my Mizuno Wave Creation for the speedwork, because they feel like a slightly more cushioned version of the Asics DS Trainer to me. I bought these in a London Marathon expo a couple of years back, but they have never felt like a distance shoe to me, despite their wonderfully plush fit. I'm going to need new shoes, since my NB 854's have given up, leaving me with a 200-mile pair of Adidas Supernova to be getting on with. Time to visit my friends at The Tortoise and the Hare, and to stock up on not-exactly-tasty-but-effective SIS gunge.

A note on shoes. As you can see from the links, there are loads of places to get shoes, and you can try Googling, Froogling or Kelkoo-ing on the make and model if you know what you want. I prefer to deal with my local place if I can. If you are reading this, and fairly new to shoe buying, I recommend rummaging through the RW shoe guide to build up knowledge about the shoe market and technology, then go and see your friends at the running shop. In case you are wondering how I've arrived at such an eclectic collection, I'm a 6-foot 85-ish kg moderate overpronator, who likes to dash along at sub-8 miling if I can, i.e. in shorter runs. If I'm out plodding all morning though, I prefer a steady shoe like the NB or Asics GT-2xxx, of which I must have had half a dozen pairs.

Week -9 : not bad

2005-09-03T20:06:00.000+01:00

Friday's interval session wasn't so bad. I did four reps of 6 minute 10k pace efforts, with 3-minutes jogging rests. Although the canal path can be a bit slippy and sandy, the DS Trainers were fine (they are light, but low on texture and grip).

I did a sort of organic upper body workout (seven bags of shrub prunings now await transportation to the tip), rounded off with a sauna.

It looks like being a hot sort of day tomorrow (max 28 C), so I'm planning to start my long easy run on the early side. I should be home before the grill really gets going, but to be on the safe side I'll loop back past the house to top up on fluid and sunblock.

Re-learning basics

2005-09-01T20:46:00.000+01:00

Today was quite nice for the time of year. It rained on me on the way back from the paper shop and as well as being pleasantly showered I was rewarded by a beautiful afternoon rainbow, whilst munching a Boost (bad for me but what the heck). I never complain about the British weather, and you don't have to study the news very much to realise why.

After yesterday morning's threshold run (yuk!) and light hilly jogging the evening before, tonight was cross-training night. I jogged along the canal bank to the leisure centre (lovely late summer, such a shame it has to leave us soon) where D had already gone directly from work.

I did a few yoga-type stretches and ball exercises. It's a while since I've done any of those, and I could feel some memories of what to do next week coming back. I've got "The Runner's Yoga Book" by Jean Couch. Not the usual yoga manual, it recognises what runners do to themselves. Must consult this and start building a practice. The hour before breakfast seems to be good for this at the moment - another difference from winter training.

While at the gym, I hopped on the rower for a moderate 2 km. Not much energy! Had I eaten enough today? I certainly didn't have the oomph for any weights. D was on the treadmill, so I jogged along with her for a while. Intervals tomorrow, I thought, so how about a bit of pace. I reckon 10k pace is 7:15 or so for me, so 7:00 flat on the mill is about equivalent. Thirty seconds of that was OK, but a minute took forever. Jogged for a minute, then upped the pace again. Bloody 'ell! Was I really gonna do 4x5 mins of this tomorrow?

Apart from just being pathetic, I think I didn't eat right today. No banana on cereal, slim sandwiches and the Boost probably had the opposite effect by the time my insulin had kicked in and mopped up by blood sugar. None of this is nutritional rocket science, and I know all this already. I must eat properly, before even light workouts!

Running blogs

2005-09-01T13:22:00.000+01:00

I've added a few running blogs to the sidebar, see if you can spot them amongst the geeky rubbish. I've found most of these through this list of running blogs. I'm not sure I'll want to join that list as this blog is somewhat wider ranging.

Here, I anticipate doing roughly weekly reports over the next ten weeks, as I approach Dublin. I'm probably going to focus on how the speed and endurance development work is going, but I also promise at least one energy bar recipe, as field tested on the mountains of Britain!

Dublin marathon

2005-08-31T13:12:00.000+01:00

I finally, after much prevarication, signed up for the Dublin Marathon on the 31st October. Along with hill-walking, I've been doing a fair bit of running. Yesterday I sat down with my running partner and we sketched out a training plan for the next nine weeks. As part of that, we ran in the Pewsey 1/2 marathon last Sunday, and we did some decent-ish threshold pace work this morning.

This will be my fourth marathon, so I've a fair idea of what to expect. The other three were all in London. That involves training in the dark of winter (race is in April), but this time we'll be making use of the late summer and autumn.

I've been to Dublin once before, for a friend's stag do, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in a slightly calmer, i.e. less pissed, state of mind. Now to look for a hotel, preferably mid-range but with a sauna.

3 peaks roundup

2005-08-24T11:21:00.000+01:00

The long and the short of it: we did it! In 23 hours and 52 minutes to be precise.

I've more or less recovered, caught up on sleep, and have even been for a run to squish the three-hills badness out of my legs. It's good to be back in my own bed amongst my favourite creatures again.

The previous blog posts, which I did on the fly on my Treo, were looking unruly, so they've been culled. You can still see the Treo images and the texts by following my 3peaks Flickr tag. There will be some nicer photos soon so keep an eye, e.g. RSS (what's that?) on that tag (what's a tag?).

Update: Liam did a nice set too.

castle acre qi gong

2005-08-16T09:42:00.000+01:00

castle acre qi gong
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

First morning practice begins.

The sun is warm and happily forgets the stories of the stones.

Our limbs soften.

Art Loves Science and wants to go out

2005-08-08T22:08:00.000+01:00

Science and Art, despite going about their businesses by seemingly different lights, occasionally desire each other, as it were glimpsing something attractively other-worldly in an after-work encounter. Part of the mutual desire must arise from recognition of a kindred soul, the common ancestors perhaps being creativity and patience.

After all, to make progress in either, an individual must endlessly observe, absorb the work of others, form a unique theory and push something new, no matter if it is imperfect or unlovable, into the world.

All very well, and despite some fumbling, occasionally something fruitful develops from Science/Art partnerships. Their less glamorous and rowdier cousins, Engineering and Craft, seem to have no difficultly in getting it on, and have been in and out of bed together for as long as anyone cares to know.

Now and again, there are official efforts to unite the two haughty suitors (thinking of the Wellcome Trust's or Research Council initiatives). Hoorah, you might imagine me saying, as practitioners are brought together. I generally find the the matches are too formal and unnatural. Here such-and-such-in-residence takes the letters of her name arranged in a double spiral, there, bits of the solar system is painted onto institutional car parks. The forced connections seem superficial and insincere, as well as probably taken down after two months. It is the processes and thoughts of the Two Cultures that really need to be connected, not their artefacts and manifestations.

Some more success at unifying the traditions comes when individual practice can be refracted through the glass of the other. UCL Graduate School has run a photo (actually any image) competition Research Images as Art / Art Images as Research for some years, and here's another one in Princeton (via Ratchet Up).

These things are fun to wander around, and wonder. To my mind, the most successful partnerships - bearing in mind that the dancefloor is the mind of one person - are those where both are trying to achieve the same things at the same time with the same materials, albeit with complementary steps. In other words, where the aesthetic values of the artworks and the scientific story visualised in the same document come from the same qualities in the image.

Sadly there seems, even in these exciting competitions, to be a tendency to hold up examples such as where some microscope slide or other just happens to look nice.

UK digital printing services

2005-07-31T17:26:00.000+01:00

So I've got digital photos to print, where do I send them? I could do without being a member of anything in particular, and I'd like to specify aspect ratios and and finishes fairly precisely. I certainly don't want to schlep around the chavvy high street with memory cards and CDs.

Therefore email/upload to send and letter box to receive.

As well as speed, cost and quality, I'm interested in the way that metering is done, and whether this can be controlled at my end. I'm also curious as to whether there's any integration with my software - e.g. an export plugin for iPhoto. (Jessops had something like that going with Windows XP, as I recall.) I'm not interested in sharing, cos I've got all the Flickr I can handle.

Can anyone recommend anything in particular?

Having built up a short list, I'll do a few test runs, and report back here as I find out more and as the results come back in. If I give a price it's for a 6x4, with quantities in brackets.

Jessops photoexpress "Register now" blah blah 20 p, 15 p [100+] +£1.50 or pickup. The annoying ofoto Kodak gallery model? Sharing options.
Truprint Registration. 10 p + 99 p p+p. Pay in advance facility for cost reduction.
Snappy Snaps No registration. Based on local stores (you can email the store directly -whoo!) who offer varying services. Mine offers loads of print options (25 p for small quantities). Equivalent to walking in to the kiosk, as no delivery option (cos no payment system, presumably). SS is a franchise outfit, which explains the local variety.
photobox 15 p each, but lower if you buy credits. £1.50 p+p.
Bonusprint 12 p +99 p p+p
dlab7 a sister-outfit of the VAT-busting Guernsey based 7dayshop. (cheap consumables, but mixed reviews in other cases) 80 p to 10 p [100+]. Prints from CD, with restrictions on what sizes you put on your submitted CD. Free delivery (I should jolly well cocoa as you've had to pay to get the files to them).

Results of trials posted here in due course.

Greetings from sunny Reading

2005-07-30T14:00:00.000+01:00

Greetings from sunny Reading
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

@ WOMAD with my beautiful lover!!

The sun has got his hat on, but I have left mine at home. Off to the market stalls ...

.. as it happened, buying an emergency hat only ensured that it rained all afternoon. Bewaring the drips, crowding into the tents, tempted by veggie curry and filling up with organic beer (Bath Ales stood out, though here it was Guinness), stamping the festival mud to the funky rhythms – splendid!

Bang, bang! bang bang bang.

2005-07-25T10:57:00.000+01:00

So, what now?

Last week we (cynical Lan-daners) were sniggling at the London will fucking twat you in a minute, son vein of humour. This was really an oh-get-off-it reaction to faux-sincere empathy, mostly from Over There.

I dare say ex-SAS men in the papers and loads of Americans all over the place were at the same time urging us to collectively Get Tough.

Well, There you go.

What now, may be that the cynical dirty clever mystery of intelligent Intelligence will come to the fore as a police tactic, and running about in tube stations will be largely confined to the TV screen where it belongs.

Another scenario is that the city will have to get used to being "fucking twatted" out of, and by, the blue. Statistically though, this work will make us safer.

Nice cabinet, sir!

2005-07-25T10:18:00.000+01:00

Andy Boyd (Croeso) is clearly a multitalented generous-hearted clever person. He eschews TV so can't be bad. But I have questions.

Why does he read Harry Potter? I read the first, middle and last page of the latest lump in Borders yesterday and thought it too much. Still I would never berate random commuters for being Potterists, only my friends.

And why, if he doesn't watch TV, is he building this wonderful Mackintoshian media cabinet?

Not only is it quite stunning as a piece of design, I love the thought of this idea – allowing you to keep the nice doors closed AND fastforward the DVD:

Placed high in the drawer separator is one of my favourite features of the cabinet, an infra red remote control repeater sensor. This picks up the IR signal and via a small amplifier hidden underneath the cabinet feeds 2 LEDs that are housed in the lower compartments to trigger the amplifier and DVD player that will be housed there.

If only the ads on DVD's weren't locked out!

Explosions in London

2005-07-07T13:38:00.000+01:00

I was just getting into a happy mood about London (the Games! Yipeee!) and now this, perhaps inevitable, disaster.

Desperate for news
Originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

Tom Coates has good roundup of news. More BBC news.

The Olympic bid team slinks back to the capital whilst we keep the telly on. I have friends who work in BMA house, right on Tavistock Square.

I'm struck by the swift professionalism of the emergency services, the ability of Tony Blair to act as a president (compared to the laughable Bush), and the quiet desperation of the English commuters and their international friends.

Awe

2005-07-05T22:43:00.000+01:00

Awe
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

I don't think I'm turning into a steam buff, but I can tell when something is impressive.

Scafell descent

2005-06-13T16:39:00.000+01:00

DSC_2132.JPG
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

An absolutely splendid day of walking Scafell Pike with these two lads. Here we are finding an interesting (i.e. crunchy and technical) route down the northern approaches to Scafell back to our car.

After a misty and grey start (enlivened by a thrilling drive over Wrynose and Harknott Passes - almost the most fun you can have in a vehicle without it being a Challenger tank) the day brightened to give occasional cloud-dappled views over the valleys of the Lake District.

We had reached the summit of the Pike in 1:50 or thereabouts, which was encouraging. This climb was part of our preparation for a forthcoming attempt at Britain's Three Peaks within the space of 24 hours, of which more later.

Blogger codes. Whatever next?

2005-05-17T13:43:00.000+01:00

I noticed that certain highly obsessive pasty blogger types (e.g.) (remember Chris Tarrant calling proto-bloggers "netties"?) have blogger codes. Uh what?

My blogger code: B5 d- t k+ s- u- i- o x-- e++ l- c (decode it!)

I really need one of these

2005-04-23T18:44:00.000+01:00

snack time
Originally uploaded by phraseling.

I really hate lawns. In an effort to spruce up the back garden we have been scratching around with the "lawn". Why do we have to have one? The moss is clearly winning, so why all the anguish about inadequate grass?

Our garden slopes quite a bit, so regular mowing is just so much faffing about. I really fancy installing one of the grass-munchers as shown, that way we could be in for some cheese as a by-product. The dangers to laundry and our other plants are only too apparent, sadly.

Sunny days

2005-04-04T12:23:00.000+01:00

Now and again, the sun breaks through and it pays to get out of doors. This past weekend to the capital, where happy crowds on the South Bank, and the Africa Remix exhibition kept us amused.

Last weekend to friends in North Wales, and a healthy scramble up the north face of Tryfan.

Recalling the Eclipse of 1999

2005-02-19T15:49:00.000Z

Tihany village, North shore of Lake Balaton, Hungary.

11 August 1999.

This shows the gang assembled in the churchyard. Ady and Sarah, who also work at the lab, were in the town on the same day and we met up with them to view the event. Dawn is pictured sitting next to the device we used to project an image of the eclipse on to a nearby screen. It consists of a small camera tripod, a make-up mirror, and several post-it notes arranged to form a pinhole.

The all-important screen is again formed of pieces of paper and post-it notes. Jason's motorcycle helmet serves as a support. This was about 3 or 4 ft away from the mirror. We were able to view the shadow of the moon as it crossed the sun, in complete safety and without straining our necks. Passers-by were amused the apparatus that we had set up. We were pleasantly surprised as well since it was totally unplanned! The other two shots show the images of the sun formed by the light passing through natural pinholes (gaps between the leaves of the trees). It was possible to make similar images by holding up cracks in the fingers and thumbs. These effects were seen for about an hour either side of the total eclipse.

The totality itself, not shown in any photos here, was spectacular! We were gripped with suspense in the minutes leading up to the total eclipse because a large bank of cloud had arrived. It looked as if they would threaten our pleasure. At almost the last minute however the clouds vanished leaving us with a good view of the sun. Since the churchyard at that time was thronged with people, there was quite an atmosphere. In our high vantage point we were able to see red skies all around, a 360 degrees sunset!

Our excitement got to a high point as the points of the crescent sun approached one another. With a few seconds to go before totality, only a few bright spots could be seen on the remaining edges of the sun. These were the famous Bailey's beads. At last even these disappeared from view, leaving just the corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, in view.

It took about 20 seconds for us to become accustomed to the darkness, and to be able to see the corona properly. There must have been a little bit of haze at high altitude, since the structures in the corona were not particularly clear. Some binoculars may have been quite useful at this point! Despite that, it was the most amazing feeling to look at this strange object high in the sky. It seemed so bizarre and unusual. Knowing what it was seemed to make it even more wonderful. Thinking about the objects in space, arranged so perfectly, just seemed to intensify the feeling of strangeness. At this point I really felt as if I could appreciate the astronomical distances of our solar system.

At our site in central Hungary, the totality lasted for about 2 1/2 minutes. There was plenty of time to look around and drink in the strange atmosphere of the crowd. As the time went on the eyes became more accustomed to the low light levels, and the corona seemed to expand accordingly.

It was soon time to reach for our protective glasses, as the so-called diamond ring started to become visible. This drew a loud gasp and a cheer from the people.

After that, there seemed to be a universal feeling of anti-climax. The light levels gradually increased to normality, and the temperature, which had taken a sudden dive during the eclipse itself, took some hours to return to the midsummer levels. The crowds dispersed quietly, with none of the excited chatter apparent before the event. I suspect that most people were feeling emotionally overwhelmed, and did not know what to say to their neighbours.

We retired to an inn for lunch and conversation.

It takes a month

2005-02-14T18:34:00.000Z

Some cultures have an established routine of mourning. Friends, family and neighbours take food to the bereaved household for period, until things can get back to normal.

Last week I sorted out the last Thing, that is, clump of atoms, that needed to be sorted. It has taken a month, during which my flow of Normal Work has been a minimal trickle.

Now I am the inheritor of two thousand miles on the car, a garage full of boxes, and a head of memories and thoughts I didn't know I needed to go through. It's going to take more than a month, but the proper work of the living in respect of the dead now begins.

The line just got shorter

2005-01-09T10:05:00.000Z

I'm living in interesting times, but I'm living. I had a half-expected phone call last weekend, so I've been going around the place Registering, Notifying, Organising.

Soon I'll need time to reflect properly. Also consequently, Tommy Womble needs a new home.

Drifting into 05

2005-01-01T01:16:00.000Z

Whizz. Bang. The celebrations are hollow, the fizz silent in the fridge.

It is truly awful when demons strike in the world's playgrounds. I hope with you - having friends somewhere in SL - that, in this new and already damaged year, our fears are resolved. The resolution may not be want we want to hear. I'm powerless and shameful, my words drift ugly in the water.

Solstice

2004-12-21T13:48:00.000Z

It's misty and still in my part of England, and the sun's lowest position in the sky can only be a notional observation.

I'm moving delicately, not because of any physical trauma, but my mind feels cold and still. I often feel this way at the end of term, and wish to withdraw into my den. This year, other things, a sad cocktail of the existential and practical, worry me. Cheers.

Today being the Winter Solstice, it's the day of A Day in the Life, a group photo project on Flickr. Somebody (bows) suggested this day as The Day, and it looks like the idea's taken off. There are close on 400 participants. Last time there were 5.

I recorded the actual moment of the solstice in a typical English High Street. My set of photos throughout the day is there for you to see.

It's quiet at work, and there is a shambolic feel to the office. I think about what photos to take, and my workload over the holidays, but mostly about events elsewhere.

Entering the zone

2004-11-26T16:10:00.000Z

If you buy me enough drinks, I'll tell you how theoretical phsyics (which I've never done any of, really) is more like poetry writing (again, no experience) than you might think. It's not about the symbolic manipulations, the technique, it's the feeling you get as you put the pieces together. It could be like the feeling a chess master or indeed a martial arts master has when engaged in their art.

Deep in the comments of The Numerist Fallacy (an argument of the are-computers-real-art type from Grand Text Auto) you see:

“When I’m writing poetry, it feels like the center of my thinking is in a particular place, and when I’m writing code the center of my thinking feels in the same kind of place.”

Yeah! Everybody gets to this place now and again - artists, physicists, players, fighters - the ultimate creative space where the tools at hand disappear from the problem leaving only the mind to grasp the world, and change it.

Banana Guard

2004-11-25T21:05:00.000Z

Way back in August, I thought of a neato idea that I didn't tell hardly any body about at the time: a special case for your banana, to preserve it from the slings and bumps of being outrageously chucked around in a rucksack. I dicussed it at length with Mrs DW -- make it, she said, that's a really good idea that people will pay money for. After all, who wants a bashed banana?

Baa! Na-ner, now somebody else has gone and done it first! I'll never be a soft-fruit carrying case tycoon now! To show there's no hard feelings, here's a Link.

Clearing

2004-11-13T16:45:00.000Z

A cold morning start. My dreams were like Lem plots, and my sleep was not sufficient to slough off a week of screen-staring. Today, we’re going to Mike Sigman’s Internal Strength workshop, of which more on Repulsive Monkey in due course. The sun glances through a shivering beech hedge, much lightened by Autumn wind and rain.

I feed the cats with nutritious lumps of who knows what ocean fish. Some for you and – move out of the way dear thing – some for you. Poor things, they would starve without me. Wander into the next room for my camera (good light always makes me reach for it these days).

There’s a dark shape on the floor.

This is probably the worst feline murder yet. Apart from that blackbird a couple of years ago. That was the worst. The body has got a fat tail (it’s not a mouse, and rhymes with cat, fat, and mat), it’s been half chewed, and two spots of blood bear witness to a struggle. Plainly, the taste wasn’t to the victor's liking as, going back to the kitchen to get undertaking tools, I see there are vomited portions of it on various kitchen surfaces. How did I miss all that two minutes ago?

The body goes into a handy bit of cardboard packaging, and I collect the, um, bits (is that a little rodent foot?) into another bit of cardboard.

By now the culprit and his brother – it’s hard to tell which one, and they both have form – are probably curled up on the still-warm bed.

Picture169_25Oct04

2004-10-25T20:18:00.000+01:00

Picture169_25Oct04
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

My London gig was this morning only, so I'm given a few rounds of the concourse in roof-filtered sun before clattering back to Surrey. I peck idly at what catches my eye, like these fellows. There's hardly anywhere to sit at the station now, so I'm surprised they bother. The third of this group flapped off. Maybe his spirit is taken up by the bum-proof steel bollard/Brancusi thing.

Autumn walk

2004-10-24T18:53:00.000+01:00

A wonderful walk today. Shining light glittered amongst the half-fallen leaves, damp but not soggy underfoot. We collected chestnuts, wondered at the edibility of mushrooms and were friendly to all sorts of animals. Winkworth Arboretum was heaving, but worth the effort. They are re-configuring the lakes there, and one of them will be getting a new job as a wetland -- this seems to be the "in" eco-system. Spectacular leaves/fungi etc filed to Flickr: try my munstead, winkworth and fungi tags.

Disrupt on of pat e ns

2004-10-20T19:13:00.001+01:00

A disruption of a perfect pattern is more beautiful than absolute regularity, so they say.

So when I'm immersed in a work (on the train, I squint at words in my palm, on my Palm), I should be grateful for any intensification of the work. How ironic that the author himself should break the spell of literary virtual reality.

Gahh, he's spoiled it, now I know they're Moscow-bound before too long, probably in search of the mysterious Auteur behind The Footage.

Good book this (*), really fine writing. Somewhat Amis-like (you know I like Amis, like). So many levels of realising that the author has expressed a feeling, a context or a syndrome exactly as you were about to articulate it yourself, only in a more surprising way.

Not as good as the film. Until they make the film, that is, which then won't be as good as the book.

* : Pattern Recogntion, William Gibson.

Shadowplay

2004-10-17T14:07:00.000+01:00

Shadowplay
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

No Photos allowed in the exhibtion. And NO TOUCHING! A bit peeving, especially as some of the exhibits clearly desired to be experimented with.

There were plenty of peepholes and lenses to look through though. Eyes, Lies and Illusions would fascinate anyone on Flickr. Magic lanterns, zoetropes and peep shows were the virtual reality, home theatre and new media of the centuries past. Nothing new at all.

A superb collection and fascinating stuff for any physics gadget art-freak.

Eyes, Lie & Illusions

2004-10-16T08:59:00.000+01:00

Ann Veronica Janssens, Scrub Colour II, 2002, Light and Colour Projection. Courtesy Schipper & Krome, Berlin (Installation view, 2002) © the artist 2004

... exhibition combines more than a thousand instruments, images and devices drawn from the remarkable collection of the German experimental film-maker Werner Nekes with major works by internationally renowned contemporary artists showing how optical phenomena continue to fascinate ...

This Exhibition, at the Hayward Gallery, looks right up my street.

Actually, it is almost up my street, give or take a train or two! Let's go!

Breakfast

2004-09-24T09:01:00.000+01:00

Implementation - update

2004-09-03T11:39:00.000+01:00

The end is near ... can you feel it? near

New angles on the wheel

2004-09-01T16:51:00.000+01:00

The London Eye Millenium Wheel Whatever Youcallit is clearly going to be filling pixels forever. Flickr user cjm has found some nice new angles.

Direction

2004-08-23T11:24:00.000+01:00

Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2004) eventually abandoned photography for painting and drawing. Was he exhausted, or had he exhausted the medium? A conservative by today's lights, he would compose carefully (eschewing cropping) and would probably abhor creative abuse of the technology. His subjects were wide ranging but a deep humanism, and connection with the many people in the photos, runs through the work.

Reading his obits, and getting feedback from friends on Flickr makes me consider where I am, and what my criteria might be.

I have no fixed ideas, but, for me, a successful image is one which sustains interest for a range of people. I occasionally arrive at an interesting image, but by and large they might be thought of as cold and uninvolved with people.

Am I a two-dimensionalist? An abstract painter with a camera? A scientific specimen illustrator and documenter of mere optical phenomena?

I resolve:

- to take more photos, and more types of photos.

- to diversify my subjects, and look out for signs of obsession with "just" texture.

I promise not to stop abusing the technology when I feel like it.

You will be informed of the results in due course.

Swiffer

2004-07-26T22:38:00.000+01:00

Now, this may have significance to some of you. Apparently there's a lot that can be done with a swiffer, when the usual crowd's away.

swiffer
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

Ar y traeth

2004-07-24T17:39:00.000+01:00

æå¾é«å´ï¼ä½ å¢ï¼

2004-07-24T13:41:00.000+01:00

I like this a lot, how about you?

(Testing character support from Flickr to Blogger)

Dappleroot
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

Smart Art Stickers

2004-07-22T10:25:00.000+01:00

There's some crazy cutting out here, some good work with a fat pen, but not much literary content. Finding a site that's badly maintained as this (I bet not one organisation thinks they own this particular post) and yet amenable to public reading -- I had to stop traffic to take this -- is a key challenge to the, ahem, delivery phase of any future Stick-Lit.

Waterloo Sticker
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

Guildford festival

2004-07-20T19:46:00.000+01:00

Do you ever follow directions ...

2004-07-20T16:32:00.000+01:00

Subway Action
Originally uploaded by here.

... without knowing where they will take you?

kNOck kaNOCK

2004-07-11T17:09:00.000+01:00

Vivacious visitor
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

Maaathewww!

Words on cloth.

2004-07-09T10:12:00.000+01:00

hi tech slavery
Originally uploaded by boogah.

Hold them up to see.

I was here ...

2004-07-09T10:10:00.000+01:00

daibutsu
Originally uploaded by consumptive.

... but not as well dressed as this.

i like this sort of thing.

2004-07-08T18:11:00.000+01:00

Shadowman
Originally uploaded by Chooka.

flip er skip a flikr

frisbee golf

2004-07-08T18:09:00.000+01:00

sara disc golf 1
Originally uploaded by SnowSara.

The season is surely upon us now. This image of the world's finest sport has drifted into my part of the world, through that curious thing, flickr.

I have no idea who SnowSara is.

disparate

2004-05-27T18:23:00.000+01:00

I've finally linked all my blogs to each other, and explicitly descibed the themes where I've felt it necessary. Not here of course. I'm not sure about keeping separate hats on, but it seems more immediately practical to run multiple personalities with Blogger, than to mess around with installing a solution that supports categories.

smouldering

2004-05-27T10:56:00.000+01:00

I don't always agree with Jonathan James, but he's always interesting. That's what I pay him for I suppose. He's spot on here, on the aftermath of the Leyton fire, apart from one thing "the Dantean wastes of Hackney Marshes" ???

Was it art?

2004-05-26T10:07:00.000+01:00

Fire destroys art warehouse in London, many works feared to be gone, but nobody really knows what, or isn't saying. Chances are you've breathed in some of the art-molecules by now. I'm in agreement with Brian Sewell on this one:

Guardian:

Today a painful task will begin in Leyton, east London: picking through the remains of a devastating fire which destroyed a huge warehouse containing priceless works of art. Many of the lost works are from the collection of Charles Saatchi. It is thought that they may include Jake and Dinos Chapman's Hell.

Tracey Emin's famous Everyone I Have Ever Slept With may be another: the tent appliqued with the names of her past lovers was the star of the famous Royal Academy Sensation! exhibition and to many became emblematic of the endeavours of a generation of young British artists. "I don't know what specific pieces have been lost," Mr Saatchi said yesterday. "So far it has been a day of many rumours."

BBC:

Momart's clients include the National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Buckingham Palace, and the destroyed warehouse made up 5 to 10% of the company's storage capacity.

Brian Sewell, the London Evening Standard's art critic, told BBC News 24 that the blaze "had the makings of an appalling tragedy for the history of contemporary art".

The Big Smoker has some reportage on this incident too:

The best report of the whole incident, however, comes from The Telegraph (and you won't find us saying that very often).

Under the headline The night Hell was consumed by flames The Telegraph actually talks to the Chapman Brothers and manges to get some typically Chapmanesque quotes from the pair:

"We will just make it again. It's only art."
"I suspect it will in fact have gone up in value if it has been burnt to death."And on Emin's tent being destroyed: "That would be nice."

But what's nice about the Telegraph's article is they dare to tell us that there were works in the warehouse apart from those belonging to Saatchi!

crazy pc aesthetics

2004-05-25T09:19:00.000+01:00

Gasp at another case-modder's madness, tracked at Gizmodo. This time its post-holocaust incinerated rebel chic.

Er, beige?

the curious incidence of the book of the dog-type

2004-05-23T15:34:00.000+01:00

It really shouldn't surprise me that the same book comes at me from three directions at once -- some comments in a minute. After all, the worlds of personal recommendation, distributed book groups and blogs are all structured in obedience to the same large network rules. Such considerations, more than any flawed metaphors involving bees, ants or even caterpillars (c.f. Jean Henri Fabre) show that acknowledgement (of fame if you fancy) like wealth, flows to the already acknowledged. Not exclusively, even the most obscure nodes retain some links. I'r pant rhed y dŵr (Welsh: the water runs to the stream). The link-landscape gives a power-law distribution of link density, with the already famous (the book I mentioned, Alicia Keys CDs, Slashdot) getting more so all the time.

I didn't think it would be like this. I distinctly remember, aghast at the music charts as a teen, thinking that if only the record companies weren't pushing their top 10 crap at us then my friends and I would be able to listen to what we wanted (this was when the High Street was the market). Then in the Nineties, the same train of thought -- pushed along by the Internet! Hurrah: what better way than an autonomous network of like-minded punters recommending and identifying valuable works, so distributing glory all around! But now, faced with a wall of pink noise, it seems that I want the powerful pushers even more, just to stir up the little-linked-to sediment of the stream from time to time. Otherwise all we'll get is Bridget Jones and Lovely Bones. As long as the sediment-stirrers are not from marketing.

Okay, here's the bit about the dog book. This lovely work has totally blitzed the book charts here in the UK. A price war certainly helped (and one point most supermarkets were offering it at less than four pounds! Anyone else remember the NBA?). It's also the Book Crossing UK forum topic right now.

Back to the incident of the dog in the book-time. You've read the reviews I suppose, and probably the book by now, so I won't bother with any precis as such.

Make sure you check the UK Amazon reviews -- the US ones plaster the cake in excessive icing sugar and largely the misconstrue the local social conditions.

Is this book about the two cultures in microcosm? Christopher is a supreme technician in an intuitive world. Ahh lovely. Don't forget though, that he has real problems. He's not just a "different" boy. He groans involuntarily, blacks out, has violent outbursts, can't face getting on the Tube train, and wets himself. He's 15. Somehow though, he finds expression in logic and mathematics. But this isn't just something he finds solace in, it is what he does, what he is.

Look at that Amazon.com review again: Jackie Gropman "The appendix of math problems will intrigue math lovers, and even those who don't like the subject will be infected by Christopher's enthusiasm for prime numbers and his logical, mathematical method of decision making."

This seems to miss the point -- the bi-cultural gap all over again? Furthermore (and making no apology for pedantry) it's not "problems", it's a single proof. There's really no such thing as a maths lover, any more than a breathing lover or a walking lover. And the mathematics is not optional for Peter, it is the only natural language he has. Siobhan, his teacher/mentor, being of the other culture but able to see across the gap, recommends that he put it in the appendix.

Here is writer/producer James Schamus and director Ang Lee on the expressive role of the combat in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

JS: in this film, the acting, the drama has a kind of martial arts choreography to it. It has that kind of grandness and scale. And the martial arts themselves are a kind of dance and very abstract art: motion, editing, movement, image.

AL: through the martial arts you express how you feel instead of just beating someone up. There is a dramatic quality to it.

JS: the people are expressing where they are, their ambiguities and ambibalences, the conflicts they feel. In most of the fights in this movie, the people can't fully fight, because emotionally they are torn. So, the fighting is a way of thinking and feeling and relating.

AL: [the two main characters] have to repress their desires. That's what counts in their business and in their lifestyle. It's a quality of how they look at themselves. Perhaps they only express themselves fully when they fight.

It's the same here. Just as if you were to close your eyes during the combat in Crouching Tiger you would not "get it", all of these pictures and puzzles in curious incident... are integral to the work. You have to read, not just look at, Peter's A-level examination answer, if you want to understand his character fully. The English text that ends the book is in fact a false ending (seemingly coming into the author's own voice "I have written a book and I can do anything") but the proof that Peter gives is the real ending. The structure and style of the mathematical work is expressive of Peter's own self.

Look how controlled and fluid it is. Look at the emphasis of the demonstration of the final inequalities: it is not equal. Not equal. Not equal. There is force in his poetry. Look at the impressive size of the coefficients he chooses to use to exemplify his point. No simple 3-4-5 triangle for him. And the final flourish: QED. I have shown what was to be demonstrated. I have power.

I love the way that graphs, equations and charts are integral to this book, especially given how popular it is. There's a growing amount of literature now that escapes the divide of letter and image. Perhaps, thanks to the laser printer, Gutenberg's revolution is over: Art and letters and numbers together again, at last. In places on the web text/image integration is already flourishing. In-text images are everywhere in books too now, and not just symbolic glyphs devised by the typesetter, like a nice leaping swordfish popped into the chapter numbers of a deluxe edition of a Hemingway. The exact image placed by the author (or authors) in the text now constitutes part of the work. Look at David Eggars' You Shall Know Our Velocity. His diagrams and scans are not schematic or notional graphical quotations. These are exactly what Eggars wants you to see and think about.

new word !

2004-05-20T17:52:00.000+01:00

This is a really shiney one, but it's all twisted:

"unsimulated"

However will they unimprove the language next? Non-uncoincidentally, it feels like 1984 all over again, which can only be double plus ungood.

Three Random Pieces

2004-05-19T13:54:00.000+01:00

Recipe: take Three Random Texts of Kindness. Add a drop of Connectivity. Shake it All About. See What emerges.

Waiting for a train, I see a book. It has been left there by another. Like blogs, Geocaching and phoning the wrong number deliberately (generic link), this behaviour employs serendipity in a purposeful way. Planning to release the book soon, I see that the requirements for the release site are quite particular. Into a place with no footfall and the flow is lost. There's slim chance of survival in a place, like a London tube station whose cleaners are vigilant for much worse leavings, where the flow is a torrent or where sanitation policies forbid any strange additions. The middle-sized stream is best, where there are interesting people, amongst the muggles coming and going at all times, who are not too busy to stop and think. University toilets seem the obvious choice, but too obvious. A certain degree of don't-care-what-happens is needed.

Hey! I found a widget that will randomise Powerpoint. Ideal for language learning! The class seem appreciative enough of my efforts. Hopefully they will add to the pile of words, for all to share and enjoy.

It reminds me of sticker literature. For those waiting for Brit Stick Lit 0.1 (an apparently random selection of sticky micro-texts), be assured that the project is not forgotten. We hope to have something to share soon. The requirements for sites are simular to the book-freeing areas, and just the same insouciance is mandatory.