Tips for people on the Internet who seem to have forgotten that the person at the other end is a sentient being:
When you send a person an email, they can save it. Therefore, if you send stupid, perhaps threatening emails, they will have proof that you sent them. And can send them to other people. Including, if necessary, university staff or even the Police.
It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Good lord.
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Christmas Presents!
Here are (most of) the presents I've bought for my family this year:
I've done my best to re-use and recycle this year - on everything except the ribbon and the bows I've succeeded (had to buy the bows, HAD to, I love bows!).
I've used the sleeves for giftboxes and even the giftboxes themselves as wrapping (though never mark giftboxes as people like to keep them to keep their jewellery safe and nicely presented), and I've painted designs (PENGUINS! ...and fish :D) on newspaper instead of buying wrapping paper.
No, it doesn't look as professional, granted, but it looks as if some thought and effort has gone into it, at least that's what I think.
Now here is where I get preachy so you'll have to excuse me.
Please try to be environmentally and ethically friendly this Christmas:
Don't buy cheap and nasty plastic decorations that you'll throw away when you could buy some nicer looking, re-useable ones for just a little more money (and of course you'd save money in the end from not having to re-buy them every year).
Think about how much unnecessary packaging you're using and try not to just chuck it all out once everything is unwrapped on Christmas Day - it could be used to light the fire, or all that plastic could be recycled (I know that not all plastic can be recycled, but maybe you need to think about that, too).
Best-case scenario, try to avoid buying things when you can see they have a lot of unnecessary waste packaging. I know it's not always easy but there are a few products where you'll be in a position to choose.
Try to buy Fair Trade. There are a number of online shops that sell only Fair Trade stock and there are more still charity shops and other stores that have a Fair Trade section. Try to think about the unpleasant working conditions some of our consumer goods are made in and support employers who do the right thing by their workers.
Paint or print (potato prints are fun for kids to do) your own designs onto parcel paper or re-used newspaper (though check the stories on the page to make sure they aren't too depressing!) rather than buying glossy wrapping paper - it's overpriced for what it is, it tears horrifically easily, and do Clintons' really need any more money than they already manage to scam out of people with cards and toys? I don't think so. The Financial Times is a great colour to use and looks good with some smart ribbon. You could also use the Funny Pages for wrapping childrens' presents.
Anyway, that's me done. You don't have to take it in but I hope that someone has. If we don't make an effort to change things, no one else is going to, after all.
I've done my best to re-use and recycle this year - on everything except the ribbon and the bows I've succeeded (had to buy the bows, HAD to, I love bows!).I've used the sleeves for giftboxes and even the giftboxes themselves as wrapping (though never mark giftboxes as people like to keep them to keep their jewellery safe and nicely presented), and I've painted designs (PENGUINS! ...and fish :D) on newspaper instead of buying wrapping paper.
No, it doesn't look as professional, granted, but it looks as if some thought and effort has gone into it, at least that's what I think.
Now here is where I get preachy so you'll have to excuse me.
Please try to be environmentally and ethically friendly this Christmas:
Don't buy cheap and nasty plastic decorations that you'll throw away when you could buy some nicer looking, re-useable ones for just a little more money (and of course you'd save money in the end from not having to re-buy them every year).
Think about how much unnecessary packaging you're using and try not to just chuck it all out once everything is unwrapped on Christmas Day - it could be used to light the fire, or all that plastic could be recycled (I know that not all plastic can be recycled, but maybe you need to think about that, too).
Best-case scenario, try to avoid buying things when you can see they have a lot of unnecessary waste packaging. I know it's not always easy but there are a few products where you'll be in a position to choose.
Try to buy Fair Trade. There are a number of online shops that sell only Fair Trade stock and there are more still charity shops and other stores that have a Fair Trade section. Try to think about the unpleasant working conditions some of our consumer goods are made in and support employers who do the right thing by their workers.
Paint or print (potato prints are fun for kids to do) your own designs onto parcel paper or re-used newspaper (though check the stories on the page to make sure they aren't too depressing!) rather than buying glossy wrapping paper - it's overpriced for what it is, it tears horrifically easily, and do Clintons' really need any more money than they already manage to scam out of people with cards and toys? I don't think so. The Financial Times is a great colour to use and looks good with some smart ribbon. You could also use the Funny Pages for wrapping childrens' presents.
Anyway, that's me done. You don't have to take it in but I hope that someone has. If we don't make an effort to change things, no one else is going to, after all.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Ill again
A combination of a something caught from my family (oh the irony) and exposure to bitter cold this week has kept me in bed feeling achy and sniffly this morning - but no longer! I've forced myself out of bed to do some work. I aim to get at least my IT essay drafted today.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Dreamland: The Obama Mushroom Excursion
Last night I had easily one of the most bizarre dreams I have ever had.
It began normally enough: I walked down the stairs of my old house (a pretty standard setting for my dreams) and into the drawing room, and sitting in an armchair was Barack Obama, reading the paper.
You know how in dreams, vastly inaccurate things can happen, but you just accept it? I just accepted that Barack Obama was now my Dad. I gave him the cup of tea that was suddenly in my hand, not questioning how it got there because of course when you're dreaming you don't pause to consider the logistics of random tea apparitions.
Then we went out the glass door onto the patio up the steep hill of our lawn (this is how I know the dream took place at Pinswell, because the garden was so distinctive). It was sort of foggy - not in the sense that the weather was meant to be foggy, but in the way that your scope of vision in dreams is limited to what your brain wants you to see until it's ready to reveal it.
I could make out the shape of what looked like a deer at first, in fact I could see antlers, but suddenly it was a wolf, and I began to notice more and more creeping up the hillside behind the crumbling drystone wall. Then Obama-Dad sort of glared at them and they slinked off back into the mist.
Then we were picking mushrooms, brushing away the snow to find them, and I was explaining why you should avoid Fly Agaric to the President-elect of the United States of America as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
That was when I woke up, utterly bemused and wondering if this somehow reflects my optimism about the Obama Administration.
It began normally enough: I walked down the stairs of my old house (a pretty standard setting for my dreams) and into the drawing room, and sitting in an armchair was Barack Obama, reading the paper.
You know how in dreams, vastly inaccurate things can happen, but you just accept it? I just accepted that Barack Obama was now my Dad. I gave him the cup of tea that was suddenly in my hand, not questioning how it got there because of course when you're dreaming you don't pause to consider the logistics of random tea apparitions.
Then we went out the glass door onto the patio up the steep hill of our lawn (this is how I know the dream took place at Pinswell, because the garden was so distinctive). It was sort of foggy - not in the sense that the weather was meant to be foggy, but in the way that your scope of vision in dreams is limited to what your brain wants you to see until it's ready to reveal it.
I could make out the shape of what looked like a deer at first, in fact I could see antlers, but suddenly it was a wolf, and I began to notice more and more creeping up the hillside behind the crumbling drystone wall. Then Obama-Dad sort of glared at them and they slinked off back into the mist.
Then we were picking mushrooms, brushing away the snow to find them, and I was explaining why you should avoid Fly Agaric to the President-elect of the United States of America as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
That was when I woke up, utterly bemused and wondering if this somehow reflects my optimism about the Obama Administration.
Things I Am Irrationally Afraid Of: Rail Travel
Easily the method of transport I despise most from experience. More than anything it's my total inability to plan ahead reliably where trains are concerned.
You need to be somewhere we said you'd be when we said you'd be there? Too bad, there are leaves on the line, you're going to be an hour late and miss your connection.
Reserved a seat so you wouldn't have to stand up while you wait for someone to get off, then race someone else to the single free seat available only to fall over a concealed travel bag sticking out in the aisle? Too bad, there's going to be a big, burly, aggressive bloke (or maybe it's a woman, it's difficult to tell through the piercings) in your "reserved seat". S/he didn't even buy a ticket until just before s/he got on the train. S/he sure as hell didn't reserve a seat. But don't bother bringing this up: s/he'll just grunt at you until you go away.
Most of all I hate the sheer rudeness of people on trains. It's not like a long-distance bus, where I can happily sit and read until it's time to get off. No, people will flood the aisle right next to you, an elbow in your ear, yammering at the top of their lungs on a mobile phone. After all, there is no driver to tell them to SHUT UP OR GET OFF.
Also, this is the mode of transport most likely to attract smelly, perverted drunks due to how easy it is to avoid buying a ticket. Ditto chavs, but that's a paranoid rant for another evening.
Robert Louis Stephenson would weep.
You need to be somewhere we said you'd be when we said you'd be there? Too bad, there are leaves on the line, you're going to be an hour late and miss your connection.
Reserved a seat so you wouldn't have to stand up while you wait for someone to get off, then race someone else to the single free seat available only to fall over a concealed travel bag sticking out in the aisle? Too bad, there's going to be a big, burly, aggressive bloke (or maybe it's a woman, it's difficult to tell through the piercings) in your "reserved seat". S/he didn't even buy a ticket until just before s/he got on the train. S/he sure as hell didn't reserve a seat. But don't bother bringing this up: s/he'll just grunt at you until you go away.
Most of all I hate the sheer rudeness of people on trains. It's not like a long-distance bus, where I can happily sit and read until it's time to get off. No, people will flood the aisle right next to you, an elbow in your ear, yammering at the top of their lungs on a mobile phone. After all, there is no driver to tell them to SHUT UP OR GET OFF.
Also, this is the mode of transport most likely to attract smelly, perverted drunks due to how easy it is to avoid buying a ticket. Ditto chavs, but that's a paranoid rant for another evening.
Robert Louis Stephenson would weep.
Flowers in the Window
My Coleus is blooming with pretty little blue flowers. I know I'm supposed to pinch off flower spikes to stop it getting "leggy" but I haven't the heart...
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