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Recommended Viewing

• 300†
  Does exactly what it says on the (comic book) tin. Loved it.
• Little Miss Sunshine†
  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†
  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†
  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.

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OpenGuide To Northern Ireland

First off I think it's pretty poor that Jaffs has stopped weblogging, I enjoyed the easy banter there, from talk of Humming Bird Hawk Moths to his occassional series of DDIY Tuturials. Portadown could almost be seen in a good light through the beer tinted glasses of The Trumpet. A sad day.

I sort of wanted to quietly build up content for The OpenGuide to Northern Ireland and then post it here, so you could see it in all it's glory, but that's not going to work because it needs lots of people adding their little piece to make it work. I still haven't got the coordinate system to work, and I've pretty much given up on seeing that happen in my lifetime, but the rest works so that'll do.

Please add your favourite bar, restaurant, chip shop, park, tree, whatever you like. If you want to know how anything works just ask me, either here in the comments or you can IM me at carisenda@hotmail.com. Be having the fun.

1 CommentsApril 30, 2004

Back In School: Days 3, 4, & 5

If I was to tell you about my 3 days listening to someone talk about tax it'd amount to the most boring post ever, and Rodent Woman was really quiet so I have nothing even to laugh about.

During the course of... the course... I was asked to have a look at someone's website, and I did. I left out any subjective chat on 'the look' and tried to explain some of the objective faults in the design (no DOCTYPE, invalid markup, bloated markup, confusing interface etc) in the process I discovered that about half of the people I was talking to thought a web page was something you typed into MS Word and then 'Saved As'. To cut a long story short my company is going to be a consultancy type thing, as well as design, if I can even prevent people wasting money that'll be a good thing.

(I also had an interesting time trying to explain that I used to work for BlackStar, who no-one had heard of, which made me think how hard Sendit's brand may find things growing without any roots.)

The course is dominated by talk of Microsoft applications, now I'm not some rabid anti-m$ geek or anything but if you're starting up a business and need to cut costs isn't it at least sensible to consider something like Open Office which is free? I use it, it's great, works with all the MS formats and does all the things you'd expect, mostly in the way you'd expect too.

2 CommentsApril 28, 2004

Back In School: Day 2 and The Amy Winehouse Affair

Rodent woman expanded on her dream today in class, she's going to provide boarding facilities for the rodents too. In my mind is that episode from The Simpsons where the Mafia supply rats milk to the school, rows and rows of rats in cages...

Later I went into Belfast for a rummage - just what is it with those wee girls who wear plastic horse shoes on their ears? Where are they getting their fashion sense from?

Anyway, I'm sitting outside City Hall when this girl walks past who is the image of Amy Winehouse, in fact I'm convinced it is Amy Winehouse except that why's she walking about Belfast on her todd? So Amy Winehouse II walks over and sits down beside me, and I say how she looks like Amy Winehouse, she says I'm the second person today to say so and who the hell is Amy Winehouse? I say she's a jazz singer, and not to worry because Amy Winehouse is HOT. That pretty much ended the conversation, about 5 min's later her boyfriend met her and off they went.

But man is Amy Winehouse hot looking.

2 CommentsApril 22, 2004

Back In School

Today was Day One of my InvestNI Business Start Programme, and today was all about marketing. I learned that I'm entering into a crowded marketplace with very unsophisticated customers and lots of cowboys to boot.

So devalued is this profession of mine that they give websites out for free upon completion of the course - Level7 have this cosy arrangement where InvestNI pay them to farm out 3 page templates to everyone that does the course. Slightly anti-competitive I felt. Maybe I'll get in touch with InvestNI and see if I can provide a choice.

Tomorrow we have more marketing, then Friday's some stuff I'm exempt from then a few days on tax and all which start middle of next week. Bleeugh.

One final thing, there's a woman in my course who's setting up a business in Comber selling rodents. That's what she said. I was too scared to ask further questions, but that's the last time I go anywhere near Comber.

5 CommentsApril 21, 2004

Idle Talk

Over Easter 8 people died in road traffic accidents in Northern Ireland, since the beginning of the year 47 people have died in total, the breakdown is 7 pedestrians, 21 drivers, 14 passengers, 1 cyclist and 4 motorcyclists. Since posting only a few hours ago these figures have actually increased.
In the year April 2002 - March 2003 Northern Ireland has had 7,961 cases of domestic violence, 3593 of those classed as Common Assault, the large majority of these cases had female victims. West Belfast had the worst record of domestic violence with 892 incidents, Moyle was at the other end with 37.

2001/2002 saw 185 racial incidents, the majority against Indians. 39 of the incidents were physical violence, 38 an attack on a person's home, 33 an attack on a person's property. (Statistics source PSNI Statistics Branch)

Do I have a point? Not really, just that it would be nice if we could stop gassing on about 'securocrats' and 'separatists' and think about the more mundane things in NI life. I'm sure it's very glamourous to think of yourself as some sort of freedom fighter and what have you, arguing your case on bulletin boards and so on but, well, we are free - free to waste politicians time, free to let people get the shit kicked out of them while we argue about what flag flies where, free to drive over an old man on a bike then support blowing up a speed camera. Ah, what's the point...

On the plus side we got our new trains today!

4 CommentsApril 20, 2004

Open your heart, I'm coming home

It’s Good Friday. How did that happen? Wasn’t it just Christmas? Time seems to pass so quickly now, not like when I was a kid climbing trees and skinning knees. An hour then was about as large a division of time I could contemplate, now I make plans that involve the entire span of what natural life I have left to me.

My parents plans go beyond even that. They’ve arranged their funeral and burial and are to be laid to rest beside each other on a little hill which looks out over Strangford Lough. This information was a bit too bitter-sweet for me at the time, and still is, but it’s all planned out anyway.

What about my death? Will I die alone or will I have someone who wants to rest their body beside mine, gravestones gazing westward as the sun and moon wheel overhead. Will there be an afterlife, will I stand to be judged, who will speak in my defense, or will I be forever in an upright position, blind and silent?

Morbid old post this, isn’t it?

7 CommentsApril 9, 2004

Long Time Coming

So today I took the first steps in starting my own business, it's a vigilante thing were I wear a skull on a t-shirt and go around... no sorry, it's a little web design agency. Yes, web design that's the one. Who knows what'll come of it, to quote Dr. Pepper 'What's the worst that can happen?'.

On my way home I popped into HMV and impulse-bought the Delays - Faded Seaside Glamour. I liked that 'Long Time Coming' song, y'see and well, if you're going to buy the single you may as well spend the money and buy the album - that's why the price things that way isn't it...?

I can't wait for the iTunes Store to open in the UK, then I won't have to be saddled with a single full of remixes or a album full of poop, I can just buy that one catchy pop song I want.

Some random stuff from the last few days: Jew Google Bomb, via Emily; my Kinja Digest, which is also permanently linked at the bottom of the page now; and how can I add this knees-to-the-breeze bike to my wishlist? (Via Gizmodo, but Stray Toaster has a link too) Finally, get well soon Trish's man!

(Exciting to watch, painful to behold.)

2 CommentsApril 6, 2004

Grace

Tonight's church service ended with 'Be Thou My Vision' accompanied by the bodhrán.

Standing in a sparse Irish Presbyterian Church, with dour faced Presbyterians belting out lines like "Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all" is just something very cool, in an old fashioned sort of a way. Good nights like this, when we sing proper songs, remind me of what's good about Irish Presbyterianism, and about Presbyterianism in general (and that I might like to read 'A River Runs Through It' again...).

2 CommentsApril 5, 2004

QED

“The Blackstar name saw us through the dotcom boom and crash and into profitability but it is time to move on to the next level and give the brand room to grow.”

Ian Loughran, MD, blackstar/sendit — Belfast Telegraph

18 months ago I was sacked from BlackStar for writing in this weblog that the management were incompetent. So today they kill off what little brand they had, and release a site that a 5 year old would be ashamed of. QED.

(Stray Toaster used to work at BlackStar too, see what he has to say about sendit)

1 CommentsApril 1, 2004