Top stories published by Desiderium Sciendi in January of 2005

There, I said it. The London Probation Service is the organisation I’ve been working for these last 14 months. I left there Friday and I’m starting at Symbian tomorrow.

Jan 16, 2005

The London Probation Service

It was in the last few months working there that I found out what “Dooced” means —…

Now, normally as I’m sure you know I just post lots of links but this essay is so good I’m going to quote the whole thing verbatium (behind a cut). It is very good and I strongly urge you all to read it — especially Americans. It’s not too late to change the way your country is…

Battlestar Galacita

So, I’ve finall watched the last episode of season one (well behind the rest of the UK) and there’s a whole bunch of things that don’t make sense.

Are there devisions within the Cylons? If not then why was the one fighting Starbuck doing so? For that matter why didn’t…

Jan 16, 2005

Cricle of life

My friend Kate’s mother passed away last week from cancer. She’d been given 6 months to live over a year ago so bettered everyone’s expectations. To her great credit Kate and her family came along to little Aden Bohan’s christening today. I wonder if knowing the cycle of life goes on helped her in…

Jan 11, 2005

Firefly Meme

You are Kaylee, the ship’s mechanic. You are cute
as a button, chipper, cheerfull and optimistic,
though you panic in a fight. Engines…

Irritating Insurance

So, I finally get a letter from my insurance company about the crash I had way back in October. Seems that unless I somehow magically force the guy in the van who pulled out right in front of me (or his insurance company) to pay them back all the money they paid me they’re going to jack up…

From a conversation I’ve been having with thessalian.

Work Stress

If you were in a job where you were so overworked it was making you physically ill (never mind work stress) would you:

1) Consider a new job?
2) Complain to your friends but say nothing at work so you…

Jan 6, 2005

Gankage

angusabanson, dodgyhoodoo and thessalian.

Anyway I get:

You are a XPYG — Expressive Practical Physical Giver. This makes you a Roving Spouse.

Jan 10, 2005

Many Links

Gah — this is going to be random as I need to get to sleep!

This story of someone being fired after 11 years at Waterstone not only might lead to a boycott of the store, as suggested by angusabranson, but also virtually a test-case for people talking about their work on the blogs…

Jan 26, 2005

So many links…

So little lunchtime…

President Bush makes his opinion or Roe Vs Wade quite clear. If I was a woman in the USA I would fear the next four years.

More from Greg Pallast this time about the woefully ongoing supression of the black vote in the USA.

Jan 25, 2005

Old(er)

So, another birthday… *shrug*

I got some nice cards off people (especially Claire and my sister) and a present or two and I’m lead to believe that more will be in the post and / or picked up from people at a future date which is nice — kinda spreads it out a little. :-)

Jan 31, 2005

Monday

Bah. Would have been home better part of an hour earlier. Got to the station platform just as the train was about to pull out. Of the 8 or so people getting on not one could tell me where the train they were getting on to was going… *sigh*

Jan 4, 2005

PC Trails and Tribulations…

Okay, so even with borrowing dodgyhoodoo’s old soundcard I still can’t get 5.1 out to work on my current box. Screw it.

My plans in the next month or two are to buy another box anyway to act as a CD player / DVD player / webserver / fileserver / etc.

Brilliant Buffy database.

Jan 13, 2005

Lunchtime Linkage

Anyway — first reports from the British Abu Ghriab prisoners as they get home.

Minimal Linkage

It’s been weird how few LJ-worthy articles there have been in the blogs I read in the last few days.

Whitehouse allegedly resists laws to outlaw torture.

Jan 13, 2005

Need automatical subject generator

If you know the right people you can organise an African coup and still get off without jail time and with less than £300,000 fine. Cf Mark Thatcher.

Jan 20, 2005

Mmmm — avacardo…

But enough about my lunch — must refrain from dullest post ever… :-)

Just about to do my latest thing for the Amnesty International Urgent Action Network. As ever I’ll point out to people that for probably less than two hours of your time a month you could help save…

Jan 11, 2005

Lunchtime Linkage

Unsurprisingly the assault on the US Social Security system is over an amount of money far less than President Bush’s tax cuts. Has anyone see the dollar exchange rate recently? Coupled with the amount spent in Iraqi it’s almost as if he is trying to deliberately bankrupt the country…

Jan 11, 2005

Short post…

As if suddenly coming the late realisation the Prime Minister of Iraq admits that certain areas of Baghdad may not be safe during the election. That’s the dramatic understatement of 2005 so far. For those not keeping up the Baghdad Deputy Chief of Police and Govenor have both been killed by Insurgents…

Ganked from angusabranson

Jan 7, 2005

Nerdy…

I am nerdier than 87% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

Top 25 alleged censored media stories of 2004.

Jan 4, 2005

Links of the day

Insane American Neocons call for more wars on more fronts.

Meanwhile in Iraq the countries Chief of Intellagence says there may now be over 200,000 insurgents. How many does it need to be before…

Jan 16, 2005

Linkage

Gah. Go away for two days and it doesn’t half pile up. Email to do as well…

Anyway.

The order here is going to be completely random.

Link to angusabranson’s write up about investigations into torture.

Jan 20, 2005

Only ‘cause

thessalian isn’t subscirbed to angusabranson’s LJ…

You scored as Indie Rock. Indie Rock.

Indie Rock

71%

Classic Rock.

63%

Jan 20, 2005

Go Andy!

corone has now officially announced his work on the new Serenity RPG. Go him!

Jan 4, 2005

Interesting…

Turns out LJ is a bit like Friends Reunited except… With LJ you get to read back over the last few weeks / months of that old friends life (from their PoV) and decide from that whether you want to get back into contact with them — or not in this case. It’s not that the person in question has become…

Jan 5, 2005

Links and stuff

Excellent night out at the Tally Ho with lots of friends. Met a number of cool new people I will probably never see again. :-)

Some excellent visualisation sites. This one for finding similar bands and this one for Live Journal, Amazon and Google. Brilliant stuff.

I hate thinking up subjects

Thanks to Chris went to a Radio Two recording tonight. Boy was it poor — least professional show I’ve seen in years. Still, the company was really nice so everything far from lost.

Links…

Well, well — perhaps unsurprisingly it turns out that Vice President Dick Chaney voted against the release…

Jan 18, 2005

First update from work — ever!

New job is really good. Difficult to know where to start with mountain of new things to learn. Still, enjoying it a lot which has to be good!

Quick one — how to end up in jail for using the wrong kind of web browser.

Lunch glorious lunchhhhh

Went to speed-design-overview meeting this morning and actually understood almost everything that was said. Given how long I’ve been out of the industry and the fact that I haven’t even been here two weeks I think I’m doing okay so far!

Jan 3, 2005

2005 such as it is :-)

Been away in Colchester for the long weekend. I didn’t even know untill last night that today was a bank holiday so that was a nice extra to find out! :-)

Amy (LJ-TBA) cooked a lovely meal for us all which was nice.

Jan 6, 2005

Art, politics and linkage…

I’m not normally known for someone who goes on about art but this recient Yahoo “site of the year” winning website is quite stunning. While it’s superficially Derelict London the page on graphitti actually has some excellent artwork and the pictures of closed and decaying hospitals…

Jan 24, 2005

Far too many links

A couple of link-less notes from New Scientist. Firstly it looks like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is about to completely collapse. The 188 signatores can’t even agree a seating plan and it looks like the US will demand to be able to keep its nukes “as a final resort against…

10,000 American soldiers have been wounded in Iraq.

Jan 5, 2005

Today’s Links

So far the amount the US has pledged to help the tsunami victims works out at less the 48 hours worth of the money spent in Iraq.

And — if you’re into that kind of thing someone has discovered that you can list a huge number of unsecure webcam feeds on google.

Jan 9, 2005

Randomness and linkage…

Well, really, what did you expect? :-)

Went to see Alexander (the film) yesterday which wasn’t great but wasn’t nearly as bad as all the reviews made it out to be. It was okay while it was trying to be an action-adventure film and much less so when trying to be…

Jan 10, 2005

Winning Stuff

Went to a new pub quiz tonight have David P., Kat, Claire, Dan and Sinead — none of which have LJs — yet! :-)

Anyway — we won which was cool. The pub is a really good laugh and dish out free food (chips, sausages and beans) as part of the evening! We’re likely to be going back…

Jan 26, 2005

Poppies

So, went to the Poppies gig last night in Sheppards Bush. Totally indebted to thessalian and angusabranson for both reminding me where it was!

Best gig I have been to in at least 5 years and quite possibly top 5 of all time. Definitly a relgious experience.

Jan 26, 2005

Late night links…

Late night? Late night it’s half past bloody 11… *grumble grumble grumble*

The staggeringly bad state of the US economy and the effects this may have (the collapse of the dollar, etc). Meanwhile China’s economy (not small by any means) grows 9% year-on-year.

Went to the British Museum exhibition on Japanese swords with Chris and Welly which was very good. Still got a long way to go before I can pack as insanely as many things into one day as angusabranson though! :-)

Jan 22, 2005

Out and about

Jan 19, 2005

Ultra-rapid money spending…

New job is still fab. My loan for my annual travel pass came through today. From huge cheque to small piece of plastic in about 30 mins… Ah well :-)

How people deal with so little free time every day I don’t know. I’m used to having lunch at home and…

Jan 13, 2005

Guilty as charged

More than once in the last few months I’ve said to thessalian that I didn’t like the idea of things beind discussed on LJ that should really be done in person. Well, I find myself guilty of doing exactly that yesterday. Her reply here and nighskywarlock’s great response here.

This time from leopard_lady.

Jan 7, 2005

More gankage

1. Go To your favorite mapping website
2. Click on “Directions”
3. Enter your current address and the address of your childhood home (or at least the town if you don’t remember the exact address)
4. Put the time and distance in a post like this.
5…

Dec 31, 2004

Drinking…

I wasn’t planning to but I need to steady my nerves. The flat smells of burnt cat-hair. Go read thessalian’s journal if you haven’t already…

Age Meme

You Are 24 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view — and you look at the world with awe.

13–19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place…

Jan 21, 2005

I’ve just worked out

What this feeling is. It’s jetlag. I dropped off about 12.15am last night, got over 7 hours sleep and I’m stillshattered by lunchtime. Not dropping off to sleep this afternoon will be interesting and this evening’s list of tasks is looking unlikely — again. I don’t get this — when I was…

Jan 19, 2005

Unsurprising

You scored as Interpersonal. You enjoy being around people, like talking to people, have many friends, and engage in social activities. You learn best by relating, sharing, and participating in cooperative group environments. People like you include salespeople, consultants, community organizers…

Jan 10, 2005

British Humor

A humerous posting from a /. story about the IT network at the BBC:

“John, could you put down your tea and come here for a moment.”

“Yes?”