About This
You've arrived at the homepage of Stephen Stewart. The archive is available here for those who want it. This site is happily hosted by Dreamhost. Click for more?
More!? OK then, but I can't help feeling that this will be a disappointment to you.
I work as a web designer in Belfast, and I live by the sea in a shoe. You can see me here, doing my livejournal pose as idoru called it. If you need to you can email me at carisenda -at- gmail -dot- com.
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- adele on And the sky was made black with unescaped entities
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- sharon on Fifteens
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links to other people's sites
Recommended Viewing
- 300
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Does exactly what it says on the (comic book) tin. Loved it. - Little Miss Sunshine
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Very funny, disturbing (the beauty pageant) and completely messed up -- but in a good way. - Laputa: Castle in the Sky†
Story great, characterization a little on the weak side -- though the big robots are cool. - Porco Rosso
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Stylish, funny, exciting. - Grave of the Fireflies†
Very sad, which was a little unexpected since I didn't know much about it before watching it. Can be a little too slow in places though, otherwise it's very good. - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind†
The story can get a little dense at times what with the various factions, but still really enjoyable, inventive and engaging. - X-Men: The Last Stand
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Opportunity, talent, money - all blown. Over 3 films X-Men has hinted of something great that could have been, this last one says "No, sorry - not going to happen". Bah.
flickr.com
Paradise
I got in the house just before midnight tonight, having been out terrorizing the general populous of Northern Ireland with my outrageousness. While out being outrageous I noticed that there's an East Belfast Concerned Woman's Group, this made me wonder if there is an East Belfast Indifferent Woman's Group, or a West Belfast Indolent Woman's Group or what about the men of Belfast are there organised groups of the Listless, the Impressionable or the Cocksure? Inquiring minds want to know.
Speaking of The Lostboys, there was an outrageous coffee/frappe/thing with Mr. Kerr too, he played Pinky to my Brain and we planned to take over the world (the same thing we do every night really). In the course of things Mr. Kerr mentioned Mena Trott may not be the hottie in a Back To The Future T-shirt we once thought, this most recent photograph I will take to be an aberration though, taken in a room with invisible forces acting on her person, squishing poor Mena into that wall. (The photo has since changed - I know I didn't cause that. Did I? I feel slightly embarrassed if I did... People read weblogs you say?)
I bought Guns and Roses Greatest Hits on my outrageous journey too - as a result I sit here now bathed in nostalgia, house shaking with the sound of 'Welcome to the Jungle', reminded of old girlfriends, BMX's and Tommy Vance.
In short, Life is Good.
3 CommentsMarch 30, 2004
requiescat in pace
Yesterday my hosting provider was knocked out by a DDOS attack, so I was unable to read mail or access Carisenda. Sorry for any inconvenience.
John McCall, captain of Royal School Armagh School's Cup winning side died of heart failure in Durban on Saturday afternoon. He was playing for the Irish team in the U19 World Cup tournament.
This follows the death of Cormac McAnallen, captain of Tyrone's All Ireland winning side.
0 CommentsMarch 30, 2004
daddy's gonna buy you a satellite
Thirteen satellite images of Belfast, giving 100% coverage. If Tristan is reading this he might be reminded of staring down a stereoscope at satellite images of Iraq, picking out interesting geological features. Then again, he may not. This here is Bangor and Holywood, Donaghadee is off to the right, hiding it's light(house) under a bushel. Or something. This area was the subject of my final year geology dissertation.
This is God's Own Country, C.S. Lewis said that heaven on earth would be to move Oxford and plant in the heart of County Down, what higher recommendation can there be?
In other news I think I've said enough to get banned from Slugger O'Toole, I hope Mick doesn't take it personally, I don't mean him any harm, he was right anyway, I don't like Northern Ireland politics, maybe I did take that out on him in the 'Is Slugger a Weblog' thing. Anyway, getting barred would be good for me, before I came to Slugger I was fairly apolitical, reading some of the stuff that get's posted in the comments can make a person their own brand of extreme, I don't want that.
18 CommentsMarch 26, 2004
They keep him in a cage, apparently
It’s about time I made an eps of the new Arsenal logo, but if anyone wants them here are EPS’s of the old gun and the title.
Last night’s Champion’s League game against Chelsea was enjoyable, Lehman’s not so hot under pressure with the ball at his feet though, is he? Still, it was a good result, and great football to watch - some of the first half tackling was just class.
I read with interest that the anonymous type that posts on the BBCNI weblog is an Arsenal fan, pity the BBC weblog only links to the boring weblogs and websites in Northern Ireland, and not some of the better (and bigger) NI weblogs, (and Dear Points of View, Why, oh why did they not use Movable Type?) but at least there’s a Gooner in there, an outlier of common sense and decency.
2 CommentsMarch 25, 2004
Sites I read
Because my blogroll at the bottom of the front page is limited by space (and presence of a stable RSS feed), I can't include all the sites that I read, so this page should make up for it. If you're in here and not on the dynamic list and think you've been insulted, then please feel free to insult me back.
This post will be permanently linked from the caption on the 'Miscellaneous' section from now on.
- Regularly
- Stray Toaster (Speaking Before) Thinking
- Jeremy Zawodny's blog
- kottke.org
- BBC News
- Spirit of Place
- Not A Dollarshort
- Apple: Movie Trailers
- Carrie
- Emily
- Jaff's Trumpet
- Tony Bowden: Understanding Nothing
- journalesque
- Metacritic
- Less Regularly
- A List Apart
- WM.. SWM
- The Register
- Northern Ireland MTB Community
- The Times
- The FT
- dooce
- Stephen Rushe - www.deeden.co.uk
- Khaos
- Hardly At All
- Constantly Risking Absurdity
- The Onion
3 CommentsMarch 20, 2004
It's Friday
No photographs of dancing gastropods, just a round up of links for you today, like this essay from Jeffrey Veen - "... when Web design is practiced as a craft, and not a consolation, accessibility comes for free." Or this one from Chris MacGregor - "The hardest part of being a professional web designer is telling people what I do for a living." Oh so true, especially the part about someones nephew. Grrr, nephews.
If that's not your thing maybe you'd be interested in the Northern Ireland Moutain Bike Community website - "An off shoot of a sub culture of a minority" apparently, or Joanne, whom I don't think I've formally introduced before. Anyway, she's a raging feminist looking for some hairy caveman to come bop her on the head and drag her off to the cave for some lovin'. Finally, even Mr. Stray Toaster would have to admit the note of this fine beast has merit, the Ford GT.
That's it, I'm heading out on Fifi my sweet two wheeled chariot now, have fun.
11 CommentsMarch 19, 2004
Starsky & Hutch & so on
Metacritic score Starsky & Hutch at 51, so mixed reviews in the US press, but I thought it was great - mind you, it could have been two hours of V8 engine noise and I'd been happy too. It had a Dukes of Hazzard feel in parts, which was a bonus because I loved the Dukes of Hazzard!
I feel like I should add another line here to balance out the page, but I have nothing to say. 'Nothing to say', that pretty much sums this weblog up. Well, I could mention how I really like the Dixie Chicks 'Home' especially the songs 'Godspeed', 'Top of the World' and 'Travellin' Soldier', but then that may be saying too much. While waiting for the bus t'other day I was singing 'Top of the World' and suddenly became all to aware of my inability to sing, but in my head the Ulster Orchestra played along anyway...
3 CommentsMarch 13, 2004
Buying Fonts In The UK
If I buy the Windows TrueType font Fette Fraktur from Adobe USA, it will cost me $29, which at todays exchange rate is £15.81. If I buy the same font from Adobe.co.uk, the euro store, I pay £25.00 and then get 21% VAT added on (the Republic of Ireland rate as the Adobe Euro Store is in Ireland - Northern Ireland VAT is 17.5% but that’s irrelevant) - so the total price is £30.25.
Now, if I go to Linotype I can get that same font, Fette Fraktur, for €22, plus 16% VAT (German rate) which is a total price of €25.52. That works out at £17.20. That’s 43% cheaper than Adobe UK.
Additionally, if I were to buy software like Photoshop from Adobe UK, it would be at UK 17.5% VAT rate if delivered in a box, but if it’s downloaded it’s at the Irish 21% VAT. This from the Adobe Help files:
Because Adobe Download Store transactions are conducted entirely electronically, European Union VAT law dictates that the rate to be charged is that of the selling company’s domicile. Adobe is domiciled in Ireland, where VAT is charged at 21%.
That all seems pretty confusing to me, and gives the impression that somethings Not Quite Right so I’ll just continue to use the Adobe Type Library as exactly that, a Library, and do my actual buying in a real shop.
1 CommentsMarch 9, 2004
A Quiz born out of my own inadequacy
To my eternal shame I got 1/10 in the BBC's How well read are you? quiz. I answered The Great Gatsby question correctly, the only other book in the list I had read was The Lord Of The Rings, and I got that question wrong - my excuse is I have read a lot of Tolkein, and they tend to cross over. Not much of an excuse, Bilbo's birthday is only dealt with any detail in that one book.
Anyway, here's my quiz, because I need to feel better about myself, I'll put the answers in the comments section.
- Hedera, Fleuron and Fist are all types of...?
- The ratio of 1:φ is more commonly known as...?
- Deuteranomaly is a type of...?
- Johann Gutenberg is, wrongly, known for inventing the process of printing from...?
- Blackletter is a type of...?
- A man, or woman, who would letterspace lower case would...?
- The term 'Greeking' means...?
- En dash or em dash, which is longer?
- In CSS2, the + selector is...?
- Type set 'ragged right' is...?
3 CommentsMarch 4, 2004
Upgrade to the Latest Firmware Now
Tonight has been a text book example of 'What Not To Do'. What you should not do, ever, is in the face of constant perfect functioning upgrade the firmware of your router. The voice in your head that says "But it works fine" is to be obeyed, the voice that says "But new is good, new is better" is to be ignored. Do the math, you can't get better than perfect. This firmware 'upgrade' will not endow your router with magic powers, it won't start doing anything more than it did before. Perfect can't be beaten, new is not better. Learn this.
I'm not a very smart guy. In addition to the above I have twice keyed my unix password into the wrong window sharing it with the inhabitants of IRC. Still, that does make Russell laugh.
The sticker on the right is for the MOBE's, the Most Oppressed Blog Awards, I have been oppressing Slugger O'Foole recently quite a bit, engaging in name calling and what not, so maybe they deserve a vote. I'm sure Stray Toaster will build us a vote thingy soon enough.
0 CommentsMarch 3, 2004