Laser focus
Once again, I’m moved to think – and blog – by something (actually two things) that Chase Jarvis has written. It’s that time of year when, with a new tax year starting, you have to think about your priorities for the next 12 months. Okay, you always have to think about those, but it seems [...]
Which is better?
Three versions of the same image; three different processes, A, B and C (left to right). Which do you prefer and why? Click the triptych above to embiggen, answers in a comment or a tweet @grahambinns, please.
Response from Ben Wallace
You’ll remember that I wrote to my MP, Ben Wallace, a couple of days ago about the Digital Economy Bill. He responded by email today. I’ve not really analysed the message yet; I’ll do that tomorrow. For now, here’s the full text of the response: Dear Mr Binns, Thank you for contacting me about the [...]
Quick tumbly musings
I had a long and involved conversation with my friend Michelle last night about the nature of consciousness, the existence of free will and the need for a story to be happy (or at least not entirely bleak) before it gets bleak. I'll expand on these later (if I remember) but I'm now heading off [...]
That was the year that was
It’s interesting how the number of people subscribing to this blog dropped by almost half after I published this mosiac of my photos from the anti Prop8 protest in Boston and this rant about the Bishop of Lancaster. In actual fact it looks like FeedBurner can no longer see the number of Livejournal-based subscribers to [...]
Brain sucking internet sucks brain
I came down to the mezzanine level of the hotel – about the only place I can get a semi-reliable wi-fi signal – with a plan to absorb some of the internet (or at least deal with some emails and try to clear some of the 1000+ unread Google Reader items) and I’ve managed somehow [...]
The news from Poughkeepsie
Slightly behind the times, I thought I should spread the word of the News from Poughkeepsie, a new project from the Mighty Mur Lafferty. To quote the Murster herself: I’m going to blog an idea a day for 1 year. It will usually be in the form of a blog post, but it may be [...]
‘Twas the night before
It's almost ominously quiet in my office right now. Normally there'd be the low, rattling hum of my PC filling the room, masking all the little creaks and burps that the hot water tank, which sits, fenced off in a cupboard in the corner of this fairly tiny work space, makes all through the day [...]
Time in a bucket
I shouldn't be writing a blog post, I should be doing something far more productive, like, to pick an example of something I need to do before I go to bed, the washing up. Trouble is that – washing up aside – I'm far too tired to actually be willing to do anything other than [...]
Acceptability
A thought occurs to me as I earwig on the group of A-Level drama students sat across the way from me, practicing the the plays that they've written that they're going to perform next week. The thought is this: When we're young, and especially when we're in education, it's acceptable for us to write plays, [...]
Herbstlich
It occurs to me that, in not following our Northern American brethren in adopting the word 'Fall' to name the third season of the year, and so instead sticking with the more poetic 'Autumn,' we've done ourselves out of a perfectly good verb. So although today in Lancaster Fall has most definitely fallen (Spring springs, [...]
Robert Jordan
It seems to have been a weekend for people to die. Which is odd, because it was an otherwise unremarkable weekend in this part of the world, and as such I had a fairly pleasant time of it. Now, of course, in true human fashion, I'm feeling rather guilty about that. I heard – entirely [...]
Just the Messenger (The Zen of NaNoWriMo)
Bedtime now, after a little more writing (feels good, I tell you) and a lot of fuckaboutery with Pyrex and libmtp, which has nothing to do whatsoever with the next bit of the post. I thought I’d repost this here because it’s worth remembering and I’m more likely to do that if it’s on my [...]
Someone’s got to do it
A depressing thought struck me as I was wandering through the Science Fiction and fantasy section of Borders in Preston – as an aside here I have to say that Borders doesn’t feel like a proper book shop, but it’s the biggest not-a-proper-bookshop nearby and, as such, is probably my best chance of finding something [...]
Goosebumps
"Aha!" I hear you all cry, "An update at last!" Well, yes. And yes, I’m going to stick my usual excuse in, which is "Busy, very busy." Also, I’ve developed a stinker of a head cold, which has left my sinuses filled with something not unakin to that white, fish-smelling glue that they give you [...]
Lecturing by Podcast
Podcast lectures for uni students A lecturer at a West Yorkshire university has abolished traditional lectures in favour of podcasts. Dr Bill Ashraf, a senior lecturer in microbiology at Bradford University, says the move will free up time for more small group teaching. I think this is an incredibly good idea. When I was at [...]
Don’t have time to write a blog entry
The Passage of Time So here’s a photo instead. Observe, digest, ruminate, contemplate at your leisure.
I think you’ll find that reality’s on the blink again
BBC New Magazine: Baby, I’m desperate Wannabes queued up to conceive a baby with a stranger live on air for a £100,000 prize… It started as a challenge – to come up with the ultimate tasteless reality TV show and test the boundaries of the format. But in just eight weeks, "Let’s Make a Baby" [...]
How it Happened, According to Isaac
I don’t normally go in for posting other authors’ work, but I thought I ought to share this because, though I’m a great Asimov fan, I’d never read it before and also because I came to read it via /. and that almost automagically makes it worth sharing. I came upon this story after reading [...]
?????
Sarah and I just returned from watching Serenity. Wow. I’ll do a full, spoiler free review in Monday’s podcast. Addendum: Apologies to LiveJournal readers for the links in the feed being all mucked up. That’ll teach me for trying to be a smart arse and using simplified Chinese in my post titles. Incidentally, the title [...]
??
Sarah and I are going to see Serenity on Friday night. It’s fair to say that I’m inordinately excited about it. It’s not just that it’s been a dry year for good sci-fi movies – indeed for good movies of any sort – although it undoubtedly has. The crushing disappointment of Hitch Hiker’s in April [...]
Thought For Life, Courtesy of Alistair Cooke
Letter From America: A session with The Duke To be the best – and it’s a sad truth most of us amateurs shrink from admitting – you have to run, fight, golf, write, or play the piano every day. Normal service will resume shortly – I have much to talk about. But for now I’ll [...]
