a lot of stuff and nonsense from eclectech

Oh my. This is a bit rubbish.

2011-02-25T23:38:00.003Z

Someone just posted some spam in the comments of an old post and it was emailed to me.

It reminded me that I had a blog so I popped over to have a look. It is older than I realised.

I will muse, and decide whether to abandon it or try and make use of it again.

I think I will try to keep it going.

Have a shocked and dizzy pom pom while I think about it...

The Interns

2010-04-01T15:28:00.003Z

Oh my, I have somewhat abandoned this poor blog recently. On the plus side, I have been animating. You can see our new piece below, made for the TUC's Rights for Interns campaign.

Have a fun festive season folks.

2009-12-18T14:40:00.003Z

Have a good one. See you in 2010.

Petit Chaton

2009-08-27T22:37:00.004Z

A new animation. Hooray! This one was started months ago, I just struggled to find time to get it finished with The Techling and work projects taking so much of my time. Fortunately work is finally under control, and with eclectech.co.uk's 9th birthday I had the motivation to get my head down and finish it. It's called Petit Chaton, the song is by The Swings and it was just perfect for animating. Enjoy.

Twisty twirly spinny fun things

2009-07-11T21:48:00.005Z

Aside from a few lines on twitter, a couple of new silly dogs and some photos I've not been online much recently. Part has been having fun in the sun with Mr Tech and The Techling, the other part has been doing lots of work that will be going online over the next month or so. The first bit has been working on a web site for the new Rubik's puzzle, the Rubik's 360. The best bit? Getting together top audio mangler Doghorse with 3D whizz Chris Ollis/Happy Toast to make this fantastic launch animation; Twisted Thinking (360).

The worse bit? The fact that I'm just as rubbish at the 360 as I am the cube. I'm not the most patient person with puzzles :)

Privacy Pirates

2009-04-28T12:13:00.010Z

Hysterical new site online today from Phorm, a corporation behaving like a small child in a playground calling people names. The people they're calling names include the Open Rights Group, Alexander “The Angry Activist” Hanff and, well, have a look yourself here... phoolish anti-anti-Phorm site.

I don't have time to have the full rant I'd like to have here, but how a company that gathered information about individuals' web activity without getting their permission can call those complaining about it 'privacy pirates' is incomprehensible to me.

There was some research done recently* which showed that you could identify a large number of people from their surfing habits and searches; you don't need their IP address or other standard personally identifiable information, you just need to know that the web sites were visited and searches were performed by one individual. Think about what you search for and where you go online... do they give hints about who you are? I'll put my hand up here and say I Google my own name (both real and online pseudonymns) and look for information about local events and shops and a ton of other stuff that could tell you alot about me. Tie that together with a Facebook or similar profile and you're away...

Anyhow, more reasoned pieces will appear elsewhere I'm sure but in the meantime have some related links...

EC starts legal action over Phorm
Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'
Phorm: Does its stroppy campaign site signal the beginning of the end?
Phorm chief labels critics 'serial agitators'
What the Open Rights Group have to say about Phorm.

* reference will follow when I can find the thing, sorry!**

** Found it. De-anonymizing Social Networks. There's a news report about it at the BBC too.

Playing in the public domain

2009-02-08T18:27:00.003Z

I've been having a delve up at archive.org. I like making odd little loops from film clips (with a few additions of course) and they have a number public domain films to explore. Someone pointed me at Freaks which has been a suitably rich source of interesting moments.

I totally messed up the placement of the eyes in the top piece, but decided I rather liked their ominous floating so I've kept them.

As you can see from the sidebar I've been toying with Twitter recently too. I'm not a reliable blogger. Every now and then I get the urge but I'm fairly busy, will tend to choose pictures over words, and my recent blogging performance has been poor to say the least so... maybe something that only lets you write 140 characters will be better suited. If nothing else it's a way to get something changing here. Anyhow, if you're a twitter type you can follow* me here.

A quick couple of links before I head back to film mangling...
ID cards are here but no-one in the UK can read them. Oh, good grief.
390,000 to access child database . Well, I suppose all their data is already out there after the government lost all the child benefit details, so maybe I'm being alarmist thinking this is a disaster waiting to happen.
Government plans travel database . This Government has got to go. I don't like the alternatives, but really...

* Something rather stalkerish about it really, isn't there? Hmm.

About copyright extension in sound recordings

2009-01-26T14:31:00.000Z

Toy Hell

2008-12-21T00:53:00.002Z

A short, snappy, funky, punky animation of festive frustrations.

Hmm, looking back over the last year I'm barely managing one post a month. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of it all again next year. It's been a year of changes for me, so I'll have to see how it settles.

In the meantime I'll just have to keep battling against the plastic tat.

Have a fun festive season!

2008-12-19T15:30:00.001Z

Happy holidays and all that.

Love e. x

Just One Last Click

2008-11-21T14:42:00.001Z

A little something I made earlier in the year with DogHorse, only just released to go online along with the new Worksmart toolkit.

Protecting your bits!

2008-11-19T23:10:00.004Z

The Open Rights Group is 3.
This is a good thing.
You can read about what they've been up to here.

UK organisations keep having problems protecting your data.
This is a bad thing*.
You can read about some of them here.

* Yes. Even when it's the BNP. Guilty schadenfreude aside, I can't pick when to apply my principles. If I say it's OK because it's the BNP and I don't like them, I lose the argument when someone who doesn't like me (or what I stand for) does the same. Bah.

The Database Rag

2008-11-07T23:40:00.004Z

It's finished! An animation for a delightful ditty about the database state from Mr Mushroom.

Watch The Database Rag!

Nearly finished the new animation...

2008-11-06T23:36:00.005Z

... featuring Mushroom the Marmot here, but as it's running a little late I thought I'd spend 10 minutes clearing the rest of my bookmarks out. It's a little bit of a "I'm back online" frenzy from my point of view.

First up, I do rather like the atheist adverts being run on London buses, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." A worthy message and a nice change. I also found this photo great. Well, that's not quite right, I can't bear the hatred shown in the demos, but the protest placard is wonderful. Hooray for that.

I've had a big moan in the past about the quality of comments on YouTube. This Firefox plugin was obviously made for me. Fantastic.

This is definitely the best BBC headline in a long time... Military penguin becomes a 'Sir'. Frankly all a bit nuts, but still a great headline. A slightly sadder headline involves my first penguin love. Berke Breathed has said goodbye to Opus. Again. This time for good it seems. It's a bit of an odd one for me. I've not kept up with the recent Opus cartoons, to me he belongs to the eighties when, along with Calvin and Hobbes, he was my cartoon favourite but I've always intended to catch up. There's something sad about knowing he's gone for good. On the plus side Mr Breathed is about to delve further into kids books, and as a new parent this makes me quite happy. I can't express how much I'm looking forward to reading "A wish for wings that work" to the techling this Christmas.

More books... I strongly recommend Ben Goldacre's Bad Science. I've always enjoyed the blog, but I 've just finished the book and it's tops. Well written, entertaining and informative. A great defense against the horror of "well I read in the newspaper that..." He also mentions me. I was quite chuffed about that. Unfortunately it was because that awful poo woman threatened to sue me, but he called me funny too. Rah!

Finally, Scaryduck has rewritten Romeo and Juliet in txt speak.

Jlt: Rmo Rmo WTF art thou Rmo?
Rmo: Here 4 am I art LOL
Jlt: Oh, you is so lush

Read it!

Back tomorrow with Mushroom the musical marmot in action.

The Database State

2008-11-05T14:26:00.008Z

I'm making a new animation about the UK government's frenzy to put every bit of information they can get their hands on in a database before leaving it scattered around the country, so it seems like a good point to clear out my bookmarks on this topic.

First up, can I just point out how irritated I am that just as we put together a spoof site (assuming that a site the government spent 70-odd grand on would be around for a while) the original site gets pulled. Apparently the community has now finished. Pfft!

So, now a few examples of why I don't trust them with my data...

UK gov't loses 4 million citizens' personal info
‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes
Firm 'broke rules' over data loss
Personnel records stolen from MoD
Probe into data left in car park
Malicious gossip could cost you your job
The verdict is out on DNA profiles

However, despite all the data losses and incompetence apparently people 'can't wait for ID cards'*. Yes dear, of course. Let's hope that fingerprints aren't replied on too much, because it looks like Jacqui's are about to become public. Arf!

Finally, US elections and all that. Splendid. Have a dancing Obama to represent my cautious optimism.

* Update: I rather like the Daily Mash's take on this.

God Luv Ya, G. Dub'ya..!

2008-10-03T20:04:00.003Z

So George W. Bush is finally leaving the Whitehouse. I thought we should see him out in style...

101 Uses for a Rubik's Cube

2008-09-29T10:33:00.004Z

I was asked to make something fun about Rubik's Cubes. When the cube came out first time round I battled with it and got so close, but don't remember ever completing it. These days there's loads of information about how to solve it, but I can't be bothered... I prefer to find more interesting things to do with them.

Music by the ever splendid DogHorse at the Audio Mangle.

And yes, the title is a big fat lie. We only got to 53 uses but we'd started using the 101 title and it stuck.

Won't somebody please think of the lazy green people?!

2008-09-25T10:22:00.008Z

The credit crunch has hit my nappy pixie and it's gone bust. It is a sad day.

I don't like disposable nappies* and have been quite happy to only use them minimally for the techling.

I also don't like doing the washing. Laundry is the worse of domestic chores for me. It's dull, dull, dull and, if dirty nappies are involved, a little too stinky.

I found a solution. We used cloth nappies and once a week the nappy pixie** arrived, took away the stinky nappies and left clean ones. It's been great.

And now they've gone.***

[Sob]

House eclectech is currently taking bets**** on whether my principles can hold their own against the stinky nappies.

*Well, they're marvelous things in their own way, but when you get through so many of them I prefer to reuse.
** might not be an actual pixie
*** my own selfish moaning aside, I'm rather upset for the folk working there too. The people I've dealt with there have been splendidly friendly throughout. Boo.
**** not really, I think I'd need some kind of license for that

Snap Attack!

2008-08-25T16:17:00.000Z

My web site is 8 years old.

To celebrate I have made a silly game. Take snap shots of my odd creations and get points for composition and originality (i.e. the scoring system is a bit, erm, unpredictable on casual inspection).

Go play Snap Attack!

Come Fly With Me

2008-05-12T19:50:00.002Z

One of the many things I'm enjoying following our move to the country is the local squirrels visiting the garden. I like squirrels and they're providing me with fine photo opportunities, even if they do seem to be stealing nuts and seeds from the birds.

A day after the first squirrel photo op I got an email asking if I'd be interested in creating a Frank Sinatra squirrel and animating to Come Fly With Me. It was a sign! Squirrels are our future! Anyhow, it seemed like the right thing to do.

Sinatra Squirrel - Come Fly With Me!

The llamas, penguins and giraffe are not, I'm afraid to say, currently part of the local wildlife although they are all Scottish. 100% fact.

New mayor of London and other stuff

2008-05-03T15:41:00.008Z

Now it's nothing to do with me but bumbling comedy MP for mayor? Are you sure? Crikey!

Anyhow, on to other things in the form of a quick bookmark spring clean.

The Great Architect, excellent topical satirical images.

A particularly nice doodle from a beautiful revolution.

Some amusing remixes of those awful anti-~~photographer~~ terrorism posters.

A wonderful machine, jam packed full of silly.

I won a caption competition! A bit of a fraud really, as someone pointed me at it and said "you know what this needs..." but the fish was all mine. A good blog anyhow, and an excellent project.

And a sad farewell to Humph. A very fine musician and fabulously silly man. He will be missed.

We move to the country.

2008-03-30T08:25:00.005Z

Adding a small child to house eclectech didn't cause quite enough chaos, so we've also moved to the country. It is very lovely, we're surrounded by woods and hills and lochs and birds and squirrels and other such fine things, but also by boxes.

Took a little time off baby things and unpacking to make a silly picture, to make sure I still could.

Have a homster.

Normal service etc.

The techling has arrived!

2007-12-19T21:05:00.001Z

It's a boy!

He's very lovely, and is consuming all my time at the moment. It's fun, if slightly tiring.

Normal service will resume in, ooh, 18 years or so probably, but I'm hoping to find an alternate service early in the new year as I find my feet in my new role. In the meantime I hope everyone has a fun festive season and wish you all a very happy 2008.

Love eclectech x

Milk Pistols

2007-11-26T12:59:00.000Z

Motherhood has been on my mind recently, so it seemed appropriate to deal with it in an animation. I also thought that having the audacity to plan making an animation so close to baby's due date would guarantee an early (or at least prompt) appearance but no, so here you go...

Milk Pistols (700KB Flash).

Happy birthday ORG

2007-11-20T14:16:00.001Z

It was the second birthday of the Open Rights Group yesterday. They've done some fine work over the two years, summarised in their new report, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress further. With that in mind I'll be sending them some more cash to help them along, particularly as they have a great offer from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust to match the amount they raise from donations.

Their eVoting and Release the Music campaigns have probably been of most interest to me over the last two years but the current example of government incompetence with digital data is as good an example as any as why the organisation is needed.

Details of how to support them can be found on their site.

In the spirit of being open with ones bits a non-org related birthday penguin is available on my site under an attribution-noncommercial-sharealike Creative Commons licence.

A play list with a purpose

2007-11-07T12:01:00.000Z

Apologies for the girl talk, but my job for the day is to put together a play list for my upcoming hospital trip. It turns out to be a rather unusual task; what music do you want to listen to when you're trying to squeeze out a baby? One possibility of course is that when the moment comes I won't care, which makes my job for the day decidedly easier, but on the off-chance I get picky I want the right selection. It's making me listen to music with a very different ear.

I've ruled out masses of music I like (and part of me feels would be highly appropriate) for being too shouty or dancey. If I came away from anything from the physiotherapy antenatal class it's that managing stress and controlling breathing should help; picking music designed to make one shout and jump probably isn't wise. So no California Über Alles or I Can't Decide then.

The problem with quite a lot of my more laid back and mellow music is that they have very emotional lyrics. I keep finding tracks, thinking "that'll be perfect", listening to a little and realising in my current slightly hormonally challenged state it makes me want to weep. Again, maybe best to avoid.

Current list is a strange and unexpected subsection of our music collection. Lots of instrumentals or lyrics I don't understand due to being in another language. Sigur Rós, Buena Vista Social Club, the soundtrack to Amelie, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra... not what I expected to choose but they feel right.

Some old favourites as well of course. Tom Waits is essential, but I've selected older, croonier material rather than the more chaotic, shambolic albums of recent years. Some Nick Drake because he's associated so strongly with days when I was doing little other than relaxing, and Spiritualised for the same reason (to be honest Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is on the verge of the 'making me cry' category, but is too lovely not to include).

Hmm. Nine albums and a few selected tracks. That should do it. I suspect I won't notice if it starts to loop.

I should probably apologise in advance to the midwife though.

All that really matters to a woman...

2007-11-04T13:03:00.001Z

... is the size of your duck.

Despite the amusement I occasionally experience when I misread a spam subject I've finally decided that I need to move over to a new public eclectech email address as after 7 years online mail@eclectech is getting far too many emails about duck size.

I'll run the old address for a wee while longer, and will set a sensible bounce message to let people know what's happening, but in future please send emails to hello instead of mail at eclectech.co.uk.

Ta.

Abnormal service

2007-10-31T11:46:00.000Z

I've not been online much recently, here or anywhere. Off-line life is rather hectic getting work finished up and things sorted in readiness for the Big Day of babytech arriving. I'm hoping to get a new animation out in the next couple of weeks but it all depends...

We have released an animation with Friends of the Earth since my last post. Available through their new site at www.exxon-files.eu or at YouTube, it looks at the approach of one particular oil company to climate change research.

Hopefully I'll have a little free time before baby arrives and be able to catch up with online friends. In the meantime have a very splendid video that you've probably seen before but is currently making me smile. Christopher Walken rocks.

Foolish and misguided

2007-09-03T17:33:00.001Z

I discovered today that I'm the #1 Google hit for foolish and misguided plans. This pleases me, particularly as it's referring to my animation about Charles Clarke and his foolish and misguided plans rather than plans of my own devising.

I've been stumbling across a few reports related to this particular brand of Government IT related foolishness, so now seems a good time to clear those bookmarks out into a blog post.

You might remember* my moaning about the e-voting going on in the May elections - the Open Rights Group
produced an interesting report following their involvement in reviewing the process, and there's currently a Newsnight special about the particular cock-up involved in the Scottish elections. Not at all happy about what seems to have happened up here. Very poor show.

Given my current status as mum-to-be I've also been watching with concern at the government IT ID plans for kids. Senior social workers are warning of the dangers of the in-progress children's database, and the admission that "information about the children of celebrities and politicians is likely to be excluded from the system" fills me with particular fury. If it's not secure enough for them, it's not secure enough for me. I think it's time to contact some MPs and find out if they'll be asking for the details of their offspring to be excluded. I'm also in the rather odd position of hoping my kid ends up in a school without too many funds to fling about, as I really wouldn't be happy at the biometric information some schools are storing. School computer systems are not, I fear, secure enough to be using this kind of information. More about all this available at the ARCH blog.

Oh, and the DNA database our politicians and police are so proud of, they reckon it contains a good half a million errors. And 'they' aren't a campaigning group, or some numpty blogger having a whinge, it's the Government. Oh my.

And finally... spEak You're bRanes! A terrifying record of some BBC News 'Have Your Say' comments. I'm quite a fan of some of the terminally bewildered ones.

* although I suspect not, it's worrying enough that I remember my moans.

Nostalgia

2007-08-31T22:46:00.000Z

A little something from my formative years. Watching this transported me back a good 17 or 18 years in a very impressive manner. The Cardiacs rock.

Stumbling across things like this should help balance out my YouTube moans; sometimes it really does come up trumps.

In other news my web site just turned seven years old. How quickly they grow. To mark the occasion I knocked together some little pairs games with images from my gallery.

Mutant Match | Nostril Eye Mutant Match | Posh Pairs

My YouTube experiment and other animals

2007-08-07T20:54:00.000Z

I was surprised today when a friend pointed out it was August. Losing track of what day it is usually means I've been quite busy, I'm not sure what losing track of the month means...

Anyhow, reaching August means I've experienced two months of my YouTube experiment. It's been... interesting. I've uploaded 13 pieces, 2 of them have been featured* and over all I've had over 500,000 views. I have to say I've been impressed with the number of views for a new user, but there is a price to pay. The comments.

Oh my.

Obviously some of the commenters are lovely people, providing praise, support or constructive criticism. Then there are the others.

- Threads seem to get a massive amount of spam, be it other YouTube videos, external web sites or images of some minor celeb showing flesh or involved in some scandalous activity. It becomes rather tiresome.

- I lost count of the number of times I was accused of being drug-crazed. Speaking as someone who is ludicrously clean-living at the moment (for the benefit of baby-tech) this accusation got rather irritating. I just like playing around with images from my own little world, and playing with non-narrative animations.

- I think I might be too old for this whole "Add me as a friend" business. I don't want to offend people but I find invites from strangers to be their online friend a little odd. Don't get me wrong, I like meeting new people and having a chat about some common interest, but I feel some interaction is required before a stranger becomes a friend. On reflection this is very possibly me getting hung up about the terminology. Hmm.

- On the flip side of over-familiarity, there are a fair few people seem to believe that anything they don't personally like is worthless and leave terribly rude comments. It makes the place feel very unfriendly, emphasised by people take the hump that your video was chosen to be featured instead of their video.

- Gay was frequently used in the pejorative sense. Has that become acceptable again? This worries me.

Och, I don't know. Some people have been lovely, it's been good getting my work out to a new batch of people (even when a bunch of them think it's pointless rubbish!) and it's always interesting dipping your toe into a new community but maybe I'm just too used to being in control of my own online space to fit in with one so out of my control. I think I'm going to keep getting some pieces up there at for the time being, but I'm pleased the page impressions at eclectech.co.uk are so much higher than my views at YouTube... I can still consider it the main space from which I can 'broadcast myself'.

That's quite reassuring.

Right, that's quite enough self indulgent twittering about silly things. I leave you with a blast from my past discovered at, you guessed it, YouTube. A track I first heard on the Annie Nightingale show sometime in the eighties. It becomes very special half way through.

Fish Heads

* As far as I can tell this means someone who works for YouTube has decided they're worthy of being stuck on the front page ready for a few thousand regular YouTubers to decide they made a big mistake.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

2007-07-02T22:47:00.000Z

... but apparently a bishop in the church of England is claiming that our "moral degradation" is causing the current floods across the UK.

"One diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless."

Oh my.

Floods are judgement on society, say bishops.

In cheerier news they've discovered that there used to be giant tropical penguins roaming the planet. How ace is that? I wasn't sure about the illustration on the BBC article though, so I've made my own.

There's also a giant sized tropical desktop wallpaper version.

In unrelated news I've been getting some of my animation up at YouTube, a bit of an experiment to see how it goes, but it does give people an easy way to embed my pieces in their blogs. It will only be certain pieces that go up, but you can check them out if it's of interest.

Monster Island

2007-06-28T23:01:00.000Z

I have been making monsters! Rarrrrrrr! Turns out I'm not very good at drawing monsters as I don't think they're meant to be cute, but heh, the song is called Monster Island so the characters are monsters. That's all there is to it.

Monster Island

And now the news.

House eclectech is very happy. A baby is on the way! Oh my!

According to the BBC I'm part of a trend of women who went to uni and put off babies until their thirties. It's been a while since I've been part of a trend, it's rather reassuring in its own way. I wonder if the rest of my pregnant peers are as keen as I am on these hats, which are almost tempting me to attempt knitting.

No news, just monkeys and penguins

2007-06-14T22:12:00.000Z

Life is a little insane at the moment. I distracted myself last night by editing together some, erm, highlights of animal footage I've filmed recently. It ended up including lots of licking, nibbling, mild penguin vomit consumption and defecation and one very, very cheeky monkey. I suspect this says more about me than the animal kingdom.

There was a nice moment on the full soundtrack of a woman answering numerous questions from her small daughter about what the monkey was doing. She gave very impressive responses and the wee girl seemed to be satisfied, finishing the conversation after a long pause by stating in a very matter of fact manner "I can see his winky". The adults there treated the whole thing far more childishly, with many a stifled giggle.

The baby penguins are at Edinburgh Zoo at the moment, ludicrously cute and well worth a visit.

On an unrelated note I've added some new images to my illustrated palindrome collection and the revo now features interactive disco dogs as well as cats.

And none of the above are anything to do with why my life is insane at the moment. I suspect that should worry me.

Big things are happening in eclectech world...

2007-05-30T22:47:00.000Z

... but I can't write about them online yet as I haven't got my act together and told all my offline friends. I am officially rubbish, but not quite rubbish enough to send a mass email round to my oldest friends with a pointer to a blog post so, in the meantime, I provide a quick blast of disco cats and run away again.

You can prod them and poke them at The Revo site, a fun project I've been working on recently.

I hope all is well in the wider bloggy world. Back soon! Love e.

Do you speak english?

2007-05-08T13:35:00.000Z

For a change I thought I'd post an old Big Train sketch I stumbled upon at YouTube. I liked the show in general but this was a particular favourite and I was most pleased to be reminded of it.

I suppose 10 years of New Labour deserves some recognition...

2007-05-03T10:55:00.000Z

... but I decided to focus on the one on his way out with my new animation, My Way (the Blair version).

I expect this is my last animation featuring Blair. As you can imagine I'm welling up.

The really disturbing thing for me at the moment is that I'm not sure what I want the result of the current elections to be and I suspect I'll be making the final call about who to vote for in the voting booth.

Possibly holding my head in my hands and sobbing quietly to myself.

This year our voting papers are rather reminiscent of the Life of Brian and the Judean People's Front / People's Front of Judea silliness. We have two socialist parties (bickering publicly in their leaflets), two Christian parties (one of which delivered a very offensive leaflet) and two nationalist parties.

On the plus side at least I can still vote the proper way and head over to a local polling booth and make my cross on a bit of paper. Very unsure about electronic voting, and the fact that everyone I know with knowledge about how such things work refuses to use them makes me think I have a point.

E-voting as secure as an insecure thing
Doubts raised over e-count system
Vote early, vote often
Government cancelled e-vote schemes amid security fears
Hacking the online ballot box

Some other news stories that have been of interest recently...
US war on terror is a war on tourists, too
No medals for UK Government over London Olympics security
Kid wrongly imprisoned for bomb threat - error due to Daylight Savings Time

And before I head away I realised I missed Blogging Against Disablism Day 2007 this year so time to pop over to the Goldfish and catch up.

All The Time Like

2007-04-25T19:37:00.000Z

Life is busy at the moment. Lots of exciting things going on, but offline rather than online so blogs posts and pictures and other new stuff is scarcer than usual. That said, I have made a new thing of moving pictures. It has a little scribbly babbling man going for a walk and some nice music by Mr & Mrs Swing.

All The Time Like (1MB Flash).

Kurt is up in heaven now

2007-04-12T10:29:00.001Z

Kurt Vonnegut

A great writer, artist, satirist, and humanist.

It's sad that he's gone, but good that he left so much behind.

Boing Boing : Remembering Kurt Vonnegut
BBC Obituary
Guardian Special Report
New York Times article
Wikiquotes

'And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in heaven now." That's my favorite joke.'

Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

What a carve up!

2007-04-11T11:23:00.000Z

Greenpeace have launched a report today, Carving up the Congo.

Mr DogHorse and I have made a shortened, slightly quirkier version if you want to dip your toe into the topic without embarking on the full report.

What a carve up! (700KB Flash).

There's also a video version over at YouTube.

In other news I've started animating palindromes. No reason other than someone suggested 'a dog, a panic in a pagoda' and it seemed like a good idea. So far I've only made 2 (the other is evil olive) but any suggestions of fun palindromes welcomed.

Finally, interesting lecture by Jeffrey Sachs on the radio today (the Reith Lectures), downloadable for the rest of the week from the BBC.

A lemur licked my shoe*

2007-04-03T22:36:00.000Z

There is an inclination to think that people who go on about the dangers of ID cards and biometrics and Big Brother and the value of privacy are, well, paranoid nutters. I know people find it odd that I'm so sceptical given my love of computers and t'internet. Here's a few links that might help to explain why...

How to clone a biometric passport while it's still in the bag

Pensioners receive secret details

Woman gets 75,000 bank statements

Go-ahead for Net voting as ministers ignore watchdog

The blatant incompetence of our government to reliably manage data makes me think the proposed website to 'shame' absent parents is an accident waiting to happen. Imagine being the person they incorrectly list.

I was amused by the attempt by McDonalds to redefine McJob. Fighting a losing battle I think, as is the person who attempted to launch a petition to "stop school for people who dnt want o go". Heh.

And finally, boo to Flickr for stopping my old account working. Boooo I say.

I don't use it much but liked being able to track photos of a couple of contacts and I've just discovered that in order to log in I now have to register with Yahoo. I don't have (and don't really want) a Yahoo account.

My annoyance at having to sign up for something I've been signed up to for years was topped off with a set of fabulously recursive links. The page where I'm instructed to sign in with Yahoo has a massive WHY? link. As a curious person I clicked on it and found links to help files and a place to 'speak up' if I had a comment about the change. Both took me back to the sign in page. Arf! It seems I'm too late to do anything other than comply. Well, that or leave the account to slowly whither away of course, pining for the old days of the net.......

Oh dear, I'm such a moaning minnie at times. Have a nice serene picture of a pretty sunset and birds to compensate.

* I have nothing to add to this statement really. It's just the most bizarre thing that's happened to me since my last post and I didn't have a title.

Crikey, people have been voting!

2007-03-29T00:59:00.000Z

Splendid! Thanks to all sharing your opinions, please keep them coming!

The current results have cartoons firmly in the lead, followed by scenery. Mutants and flowers are tied in third place.

A few nice suggestions, one particularly fine one involving an animation of Humph on a trampoline using "several tall, narrow images side-by-side to capture it. One of Humph going down, one bending the trampoline, and one of him going back up." I'm rather taken by that idea.

Apologies to the person taking offence at my scenic photos only covering Scotland and England. I know there are very nice places in Wales (not to mention elsewhere in the world), it's just I live in Scotland and have many friends and family in England so I tend to be in those places with my camera frequently enough to get a few decent shots. Nothing personal against Wales, honest!

As a partial explanation of my recent absence there are some new photos of the Lake District online as I was down there for a few days. Nice stomping about the hills and one gorgeous sunset.

Life is a little mad at the moment, but hopefully I'll grab a moment to make something fun soon.I have plans for the wee guy up the way to become a drummer. I just need slightly longer days and I'll be sorted......

I have a HUGE Humph and a bad pun

2007-03-13T13:48:00.000Z

The bad pun is, I assume, self evident. This is the responsibility of an email correspondent who has taken to tempting me with things to animate, so blame David H. please.

Is this a UK thing? Ah, yes.

As for the huge Humph, you can see him at the other place, where I'm also asking for opinions on what I should stick into a gallery at Photobloc. Cartoons are currently in the lead. Hooray for Humph!

Stumbled across a lovely gallery of sky photos and some fab drawings that are work a peek, if you've had enough Humph.

I have been watching the moon

2007-03-03T23:42:00.000Z

It didn't rain.

It didn't cloud over.

It did get quite cold.

But that didn't matter because it was very lovely. Hooray for the lunar eclipse!

I've been snapping at the zoo too and have some new photos online. I'm quite pleased with a couple of them, the Japanese Macaques and chimpanzees posed nicely. The baboons were fantastic but didn't get close enough for me to do them justice. Next time!

Discover Klaus Harmony

2007-02-28T19:55:00.000Z

Enter his world.

Taste his grooves

Marvel at his glittery balls.

I have been animating the foremost German composer of 1970's erotic film scores. Oh yes. Flares, moustaches, glitter balls and glamour girls.

And some damn fine groovy tunes.

Klaus Harmony, Rear View Lover. 280KB Flash.

I have just spent all of Tuesday...

2007-02-21T02:52:00.000Z

... believing it to be Wednesday.

I am now confused, but quite pleased as I seem to have gained an entire day.

Probably a good job really, as I have rather a lot to do and wasn't sure when I was going to fit it all in.

But now I have Wednesday.

Hooray!

If you've discovered some free time down the back of the sofa and don't already have stuff to fill it you could always write some ten word reviews or become an exhibitionist about your home.

Oh, and if you're a youngster expecting to get your first passport in the next few months can I recommend you get your skates on and do it in the next month. People applying for their first adult passport from April 2007 will the guinea-pigs for a process the government is calling "Authentication by Interview" (encouragingly described by the Government as an "intrusive interview"). Lovely. You can find more information over at Renew for Freedom.

A Valentines Day treat for you all

2007-02-14T01:10:00.000Z

Now, I don't really "do" Valentines Day but I like an excuse to make something silly and a new tune from DogHorse seemed perfect for a topical animation. I give you...

One Heartbeat (1.5MB Flash)

It stars Jack Java (the monkey of lurve), a couple of penguins and some pants. The song is just a little bit rude. Well, very rude in places.

We've also got a new animation for Greenpeace online, if you like your moving pictures to have a bit of a point. Stop the Horror (500KB) is part of a campaign to stop illegal timber and help save the lovely orang utans and other affected creatures.

I must mention a topic that I'm afraid amuses me far too much for terribly low reasons. As Jess points out in the comments of my previous post Gillian McKeith is in trouble again and is now banned from calling herself a doctor in her adverts. What a shame eh?

A Menace to Science, Guardian article by Ben Goldacre
Previous bit from me about Ms McKeith.

Other things that have entertained me recently include this fine campaign from Sir Montgomery Cecil of Spurt via Beau Bo D'Or and this fantastic photography project; Running From Camera. I'm not quite sure why but this appeals to me very much.

Oh, and if you do want to send someone a special message today* you can always say it with pants!

Enjoy!

*Or, in fact, any day... which is much nicer really.

Hmm, that wasn't normal service....

2007-02-10T14:44:00.000Z

It's never nice when a loved one is in hospital, and if they're a few hundred miles away it feels even worse, so I have been away to get closer.

I am back, things are better and I am getting back to normal.

Back soon with some silly, and I hope to manage it this time.

In the meantime, have an appalling joke about teddy bears on a picnic.

Normal service and all that

2007-01-28T01:54:00.000Z

Life is keeping me off-line at the moment.

There should be a few new things in February but in the meantime have a porkupine and a photo of the two new chicks of my adopted penguin. It has been a good year for penguin chicks in Argentina apparently, so hooray for that!

Back soon with some silly.

Animangling

2007-01-13T03:22:00.000Z

Lots going on at the moment so very little time to play online. Busy with work after the holiday, preparing for a terribly grown-up* dinner party this weekend and my only distraction has been the occasional animangle.

I tend to go through different phases with graphics stuff, and a realisation that I hadn't created any new breeds of animal recently led me to make some dog-bird hybrids. I think this wee fellow is my favourite of the bunch.

I call him the doggle. There is a wallpaper version if you'd like to see him in all his glory.

For those interested there are two source images for this, the base hawk image and the cute dog.

For the very interested my next favourite is the pigeon. Mainly because I have a silly fondness for visual puns.

I have also, on my occasional spare moment, been perusing the blog of Mr Yaxlich. I recommend popping over. He has been making me grin.

Have a good weekend all.

* well, maybe not that grown-up

Happy Hogmanay!

2006-12-31T18:01:00.000Z

Have a very Happy New Year everyone. Here's hoping 2007 is a good one.

If you'd like to see the new year in with some fireworks without venturing out into the cold feel free to go and waggle your mouse over the dancers on my noisy hogmanay fireworks.

Have a good one and see you all in the New Year.

Love eclectech x

Jingle Kazoos

2006-12-20T01:48:00.000Z

True to my word I have made a festive animation. I have tooted on the kazoo and have made some cartoon reindeer and at least one person cover their ears in horror.

Jingle Kazoos! Merry Christmas!

I am on holiday!

2006-12-19T16:19:00.000Z

After an enormously busy year I am officially on holiday and not working until 2007. Hooray!

I have had a problem finding free time this year, and I know I shouldn't moan as it's due to lots of fun animating work which is a Good Thing, but I don't function very well without time to play.

I haven't even done much festive silliness this year so I might pop off now, rig up the mic, get the kazoo out and do some festive tooting. I have some reindeer standing by, festive animation time I think!

Anyhow, I hope you're all having a fun festive time, dancing round your trees wearing silly hats, drinking mulled wine and not spending too much time going mad in shops.

Penguin Update

2006-12-10T02:34:00.000Z

Exciting news! Kilgore Trout, my adopted penguin, is back in the penguin colony at Cabo Virgenes in Argentina and there are two eggs being looked after by Kilgore and partner. Last year they had a single chick, fingers crossed both hatch successfully this year.

You can, of course, adopt a penguin yourself or treat yourself to a penguin song.

Won't Someone Please Think of the Post Offices?!

2006-12-09T22:52:00.000Z

Oh. They are. Unfortunately despite my best animated efforts and the fine songsmithing of Mr JonnyB it looks like the government is poised to close thousands of them. Bah! Bad government!

Save the Post Office, that's what I say! I don't care if nobody listens*.

JonnyB is currently up for the best UK blog at the weblog awards. As suspicious as I am of any award where they encourage you to vote every day I encourage you to vote for him here.

I'm off to scribble some pictures so have an 'and finally' link... a 1938 fire alarm that conveniently traps the person using it. Splendid.

* Not true, obviously.

Things that made me go 'grrrrrr'

2006-11-29T02:18:00.000Z

There is a current frenzy of activity around fingerprinting. School kids having to give prints to take a book out of the library or sign in, consumers having to give prints to hire a car, police carrying mobile devices to check prints remotely...

It's a shame they're so easy to fool isn't it?

Beau Bo D’Or provides his usual high standard of commentary on the issue. As an aside it's good to see Beau Bo D'Or's images being published by both the Guardian and Channel 4 in regular spots. Top notch.

So, fingerprinting frenzy. Police trying to target criminals before they're criminals. Evidence that the new secure passports are easily cracked. Reports from the information commissioner that we're adopting uncomfortably high levels of surveillance... surely it can't really be that bad. I mean, the people in authority who have access to this data won't abuse it will they? People given power must be responsible, level headed and able to keep things in perspective?

Bah. Sometimes I just want to run away to the hills and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Then I remember that it's only a wee bit of the world that drives me crazy, and that I should stop being so overly dramatic.

The annual reports from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada are a fine example of someone talking sense on these issues, and contain a nice response to the "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" brigade.

The truth is that we all do have something to hide, not because it's criminal or even shameful, but simply because it's private. We carefully calibrate what we reveal about ourselves to others. Most of us are only willing to have a few things known about us by a stranger, more by an acquaintance, and the most by a very close friend or a romantic partner. The right not to be known against our will - indeed, the right to be anonymous except when we choose to identify ourselves - is at the very core of human dignity, autonomy and freedom.

Quite right.

There's some upbeat news on the release the music front too. A "well placed Government source" has told the BBC that the Gowers report won't be supporting an extension to the copyright term of musical recordings. Although, as the BPI kindly point out, the Government can ignore this report, and that of the Institute for Public Policy Research that came to the same conclusion, but frankly that would just be wrong. And silly.

Neil McCormack, a music journalist quoted in the BBC article commented

"You can make a record in 1955 and have been getting royalties .... Suddenly they're gone."

Suddenly!

So, someone records a song in 1955. The law states that they can receive income from it for 50 years before the recording enters the public domain. They get income from it for 50 years. Income stops after 50 years*. Apologies if this seems harsh but surely that's only "suddenly" a problem if they're an idiot?

Fran Nevrkla, chief executive of rights societies the PPL and the VPL, is quoted in a Guardian article as saying

"I sincerely hope this government ... will not duck this critical issue by conveniently hiding behind academics and other 'thinkers'"

Oh my! I love that. Pesky thinkers eh?

Thinkers are obviously trouble though. For example someone with an obvious tendency towards thought pointed out that Fran, in his role at the PPL** earned £487,000 last year, over 0.6% of all performance income in the UK. Not bad eh? The FT has a great column about the impact of the proposed extension; breaking the deal and on a related note Suw Charman of ORG has started an e-petition up at the number 10 petition site to request the right to private copy. Worth putting your name to if you want to be able to turn your music CDs into MP3s without breaking the law. I'm interested to see how the petition site goes, and pleased with the number of people signing up to scrap ID cards anyhow.

Oh dear. I've rambled on far too long. Have a look at this superb collection of souvenir photos while I disappear and stop reading articles about things that make me explode.

* As an aside, if they composed the song they retain those rights for life plus 70 years; the 50 years is for recordings.

** a music industry organisation collecting performance royalties in the UK

Gillian McKeith's illegal products

2006-11-21T15:39:00.000Z

Please excuse my schadenfreude but I couldn't resist a post about Gillian McKeith's illegal products. Sexy illegal products at that. No, not a coprophilic bedroom kit, but her horny goat weed complex and wild pink yam complex.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the government agency responsible for ensuring that medicines work and are acceptably safe, has ordered the removal of the two products that promised wonders for all in the bedroom.

MHRA Press Release.

Some animated and musical context for this post.

Blame Canada (and España)

2006-11-19T13:35:00.000Z

I had a couple of late nights last week getting our latest Greenpeace animation finished; it deals with bottom trawling and needs action now as there are currently talks on sustainable fisheries at the United Nations. Greenpeace are calling for a moratorium on bottom trawling (dragging) along with a massive number of scientists.

Quite right too.

The result of my "oh-my-the-deadline-is-close" speed animating* is Blame Canada, a spoof cartoon with a cheap bottom gag, flappy dancing and some mild cursing, bleeped for your convenience.

Good to see this one being covered in the mainstream news**, lets hope lots of people take action. You can embed the animation into your own web site if you'd like to help spread the word (code here).

There are too many wonderful creatures in the sea to risk losing them.

* And the fine illustrations and soundtrack produced by DogHorse and Booglie of course. And the initial script ideas by Greenpeace. As the animator I have to do my bit last so I always feel the deadlines loom most for me but obviously it's a team effort!

** Update: Oooh, it's been shown on MTV LIVE as well. Splendid.

Horny beasts and other beauties

2006-11-15T19:43:00.000Z

We ran away to the hills for a few days. In traditional Scottish fashion we had rain, sleet, wind and sunshine; not always at the same time.

It was great.

If you're in the area I recommend the Sea Life Sanctuary near Oban. In a beautiful setting on the shore of Loch Creran it has seals, otters and tons of interesting fish and sea creatures. They do great work helping sick seals back to health and releasing them into the wild and had the most fantastic japanese spider crab and serpulid worm reefs.

Not to mention the otters. Lovely lovely otters.

The creatures at the sea life centre could only be challenged in loveliness by the Highland Cattle in Glen Nevis. They really are spectacularly photogenic beasts and came up to talk to us just as the sun hit the mountainside behind which was nice.

The photo with the rainbow is definitely one of my favourites.

The two photos on the right are of the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge. A stunning setting looking out over the great Glen it was the location of Commando training during world war two.

Last week I was talking to a man who trained there during the war (he pulled aside his big coat to show his regimental jacket and medals underneath). He looked across the valley and said "I can't look at it without shivering. It was hard." It was very moving, looking out at the statue and the view and listening to someone talk about it from first hand experience. I don't think I'll look at it in quite the same way again.

And on that I will leave, with the promise of videos to come sometime soon to supplement the photos.

Release the Music

2006-11-07T21:16:00.000Z

The Open Right Group have just launched a new campaign aimed at preventing the extension of copyright terms on music recordings.

In the UK there is a 50 years period where a sound recording is protected and after that it becomes part of the public domain - part of our common cultural heritage which anyone may use or exploit.

That's not so bad is it? How many other people get paid so long for a single piece of work? Most of us are paid for the time we spend on something, not every time it's used. 50 years seems like a fairly good deal to me, but for the Cliff Richards of this world it's not enough.

Ah yes.

Cliff.

A cynic could suggest that donating his Barbados villa year after year for the Blair's holiday has paid off. Cliff had his first hit in 1958 so in a couple of years its time is up. Unless the law is changed someone could sample it or mash it into something new or, perish the thought, I could take it and make an animation for it.

As well as stopping work entering the public domain the proposed legal changes could mean that over 40 years worth of music currently in the public domain will be returned to the organisations owning the rights.

The release the music website has more information and a petition you can sign or you can always contact your MP to talk to them directly about it.

In the interests of honesty I'll admit I have my own interests here. I like making musical animations and locking the music away restricts what I can do. I'm lucky as I have friends who makes great music and let me play with it, but I have been trawling some public domain archives recently and making use here and there, and I'd rather this wasn't taken away.

That said, I promise that even if this change is rejected and Cliff's songs start becoming public domain over the next few years I won't animate them.

I do have my standards.

On matters of taste and decency

2006-11-03T21:57:00.000Z

I have been thinking about manners, and good taste, and bad taste and where the limits of expression should be. This is, in part, because I've been reading Jane Austen and manners are such a critical part of her world. It is, in part, because I spend time at b3ta and it's flung up numerous issues of good taste in terms of the book they've released and the pulling of an image challenge after Virgin got offended.

Trust me, comparisons between the world of Jane Austen and the world of b3ta are not to be taken lightly.

Some thoughts...
1. I still love Jane Austen, and am apparently more sympathetic towards her heroines now than when I was an angry teen.
2. I'm sorry, b3ta is great but jokes that are sick for the sake of being sick just don't do it for me. It seems rather dull.
3. Surely Virgin can't be that stupid? They've had more publicity as a result of pulling the challenge than they would have got from leaving it up, and they've even given prizes out. I am suspicious.
4. I found it strangely annoying to have a place I post described as one where "design types let off steam and post offensive animations and pictures". Change "offensive" for "funny" and I'm happier. Being funny often leads to being considered offensive in someones eyes, but it's not offensiveness for the sake of it. See 2.
5. There should be no limits to expression. Freedom of speech has to mean freedom to offend. If the thought is there in somebody's head we may as well hear it; better that than it be shoved underground. If I say one person can be silenced I acknowledge than one day it could be me. And I like making noise too much.
6. I can still find things to be offensive twaddle and say that. That's part of the point.
7. The name Jeffrey is, for me, forever associated with Rainbow*.
8. I have had a drop of wine, it's Friday, and life isn't so bad.
9. I'd like everyone reading this to have a good weekend.

I forgot the links as I was writing so have them here.
News about b3ta and Virgin. The Inquirer | The Register | The Guardian | VNUnet
The works of Jane Austen
Someone else with doubts about the bad taste thing

*This isn't a comment on b3ta or Jane Austen. Just something that popped into my head whilst catching up on Jonny's blog this evening.

Fish, post offices, despotic powers and Russian hands

2006-10-18T20:16:00.000Z

I wish I had some exciting story to connect the title, but I'm afraid it's 4 separate things.

1. Fish! Famous fish in fact, discussing the benefits of marine reserves in an animation we made for Greenpeace; it's Pulp Fishin!

2. Post offices! I was interested to see that a 4 million name petition has been handed in to Downing Street in a call to save rural post offices. The vigilant amongst you will be aware I have been involved in a related campaign with the fine Norfolk blogger JonnyB; I am wondering if I should send a DVD with our campaign offering as musical and bunny orientated backup to the petition.

Save our post offices!

As an aside I am pleased to see the BBC article contains a favoured proverb, "fine words butter no parsnips". It's not used enough these days.

3. Despotic Powers. I mentioned this briefly in my last post but, well, it's a big one. Interesting video up at Crooks and Liars on the day habeus corpous died. People should be shouting in the streets about this, but they probably don't want to as they can be locked up without trial at the whim of their president.

4. Russian hands! A recent email exchange led to the team at Russian FHM sending me photos of their hands and faces to make into, well, photos of faces on hands. They sent me a copy of the piece to show me how they used the creatures. While I'm waiting for a translation any suggestions for what they're saying?
Needless to say you can find more Russian handpeople on my site.

Too busy to blog

2006-10-11T01:56:00.000Z

Too busy to do anything at the moment, which makes no sense at all.

I get to a point where I have so much to do I don't know where to start, and I skirt round the edges doing lots but achieving nothing. Not good for my state of mind.

Anyhow, I was away and now I'm back. If I'm lucky my brain will catch up with me shortly.

To avoid this being a thoroughly self indulgent post about why I've not posted anything (good grief, I'm at the top of a terribly slippy slope here) have a few links of interest.

Rather depressing news from the states (via Miss Prism).

Outstandingly cheeky news from the UK, where the Government plans to exclude details of celebrities' children from a new national child database. They're confident about its security then? Heh.

A few new photos from my whistlestop tour of London. Not much time for photos as I was there for a work meeting but I managed to catch steely eyed stares given to me by the household cavalry, a pigeon and an enormous number of CCTV cameras. They're getting a bit intrusive aren't they? Unpleasant things.

And now I must away; back when I've stopped going round in circles.

The Fartsichord and other fripperies

2006-09-28T18:48:00.000Z

The Fartsichord is possibly the classiest thing I've been involved with. It's an online musical keyboard, you can choose between two instruments and play, record and save tunes. The instruments are farts and burps.

I am so proud.

On completion Mr Tech immediately played the National Anthem and I giggled far too much.

I am a child.

Some other fun things that have ended up in my bookmarks recently...

Liquid sculpture, beautiful high speed photography

Musical rollerblading (video)

Flame Warriors, a pertinent oldie revisited following the disintegration of one of my online haunts

Ridiculously cute cat. I wish the photographer published them under a creative commons licence allowing derivatives, as I would very much like to play with these photos. There are some ace ones.

Apple campaign site from Greenpeace. I was genuinely surprised by some of the information here. Apple have good PR obviously.

Passport offices map, ignoring all the stuff about having to go for interviews for passports and the Government grabbing all manner of personal information from you for no good reason, what on earth have they done to Scotland?! It does look like they've redrawn some rather critical bounderies and claimed a large amount of lowland Scotland. Shocking!

Finally, a new song from DogHorse. A quite scary and sinister recording using Rachel North's lyrics, have a listen to The Rules of the Game are Changed.

Silliness

2006-09-27T02:30:00.000Z

Why is my prairie dog looking so excited?

Maybe it's the fez.
Maybe it's discovering he has a face on his bum.
Maybe he's been playing some of my new games.

Yes, I'm spamming more of my work stuff!

Flingaphant

Gunk it!

Find the poo!

Talking of spam, mine has been getting almost interesting recently. Not as many attempts to increase my penis size, more attempts to get me to advertise my site in the Sunday Telegraph, press releases for online toys of little or no interest to me and an offer to sell me blunkett.co.uk.

Why on earth would I want to buy blunkett.co.uk, particularly, I assume, for some inflated price? If I was in the market for a novelty domain name at least get an up-to-date one. gordonbrown.co.uk would make much more sense. As Bob suggested a couple of days ago, Golden Brown by the Stranglers is waiting to be tweaked for something there.

Anyhow, I digress. New toys. Play, have fun!

Rubik World

2006-09-24T13:04:00.000Z

One of the sites I was making lots of toys for last month has now been updated. One of the bigger pieces that I did some design and animation for is Rubik World. One of those point and click games with a couple of proper puzzles thrown in for good measure (well, it's Rubik, it needs a puzzle).

You get to fling sheep, twang tortoises and make a pretty rainbow at the end. Hints and tips can be provided if needed*; feel free to stick them in the comments.

On the same site there's a very silly quiz about banking made by the lovely Mr Tech with a jingle from DogHorse and a top dancing banker from Mushybees.

Apparently I like to bank with one hand on my mouse. Pffft. Filth!

* being honest, despite knowing the mind of the person who created the puzzles pretty well I still needed some hints and tips! I was never very good at Rubik's Cubes either though.

A quick thought about exam grades

2006-09-23T03:25:00.000Z

I stumbled across this post about A level results and these new fangled A star grades.

It struck me that we'll be running out of ways to differentiate between the different A grades soon, and I think the logical extension is to go the ebay way.

By 2010 the top grade should be
"A++++++++++++++++++++ would mark again!!!"

It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day

2006-09-19T03:06:00.000Z

Avast ye scurvy dogs and all that.

*ahem*

Following on from last years Pants Pirate Messenger DogHorse and I put together a wee* piratical presentation with nautical jigs and a salty prairie dog pirate. The Pirate Jig. 230KB Flash.

*because we forgot about it until about 4 hours ago. oops!

Otterly Lovely

2006-09-16T22:50:00.000Z

The otters came out to play for me last week and despite my camerawork not being up to their rather fast dashing about I managed to get a spot of video, now online with a snippet of Paul Whiteman and his orchestra as backing (hooray for public domain MP3s!).

Otterly Lovely.

I took lots of photos too.

The highlight of this visit were definitely the joyful otters and the red ruffed lemurs. After spending a while photographing butterflies in the lemur enclosure they graced us with their presence and were very fine company.

Links and links and links

2006-09-06T18:41:00.000Z

It's time to share a few links again. First up, the Annoying Stuff
ID card fears as staff hack into Home Office database
Oz 'pseudo-ID card' database racked by identity fraud claims
It's not always good to share
UK biometric passports hacked
IBM researcher slams UK ID card scheme
Arabic T-shirt sparks airport row

The Good Stuff albeit with an annoying cause
Parliament protesters fight ban
Lots of write ups and photos from the protesters online; some good starting points at:-
Rachel from North London - nice summary of the protests
Mark Thomas
Bloggerheads
Interview with Mark Thomas and Brian Coleman in Parliament Square.
Splendid point from Mark Thomas about how Coleman, protesting about the protesters, is the only one there breaking the law as he hadn't got permission from the police.

As an aside I'm thoroughly bemused by his attack on the protestors as people who 'couldn't get enough votes to be an MP'. I had no idea that the only way you could express a political opinion was to be an MP. Silly me, thinking that MPs are there to represent our political opinions.

The 'and finally' headline
ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for U.S. military contractor

Edit: Blimey. Two posts in one day. That's a rarity, even when they're at either end as these are.

Face Mash

2006-09-06T00:29:00.000Z

I have a new silly interactive oojimaflip online. Pick your nose and make silly faces with the Face Mash.

As it's possible to see from the above link my 'far too busy' work period is over. I still seem to have a lot to do as an awful lot of things got put in the "I'll look at that in September" virtual pile , but I have some free time and have made the decision to not let myself get so busy again.

This is a good thing, I think.

Finally, some old friends have just launched a web site about the bear rescue centre they're running in the Tat Kuang Si Park. If you're interested in wildlife or planning a trip to Laos check it out; Laos Bears. They've sent me some splendid photos of the bears so I'm hoping to make them dance in a Flash animation soon. I've already been playing with the bears, just a little.

Medium Wave

2006-08-26T13:53:00.000Z

Eclectech was 6 yesterday!* I decided I couldn't let it pass without getting something online so I finally got round to tweaking the second part of the animation I made for the June baked beats event.

Medium Wave. 1.5MB Flash.

As before it's a mash up of lots of my looping animations put to a very fine tune from the Voodoo Trombone Quartet.

For those in London there is another baked beats event tomorrow, with music from the fabulous Mr and Mrs Swing amongst others. There should be some silly moving pictures from me too.

* The web site that is, not me.

The tortoise of lurve

2006-08-20T21:20:00.000Z

A couple of weeks back I promised a frisky tortoise so here he is. Rumour has it that later on he did actually manage to mount the lady tortoise the correct way round; he was 100 odd years old so I suppose he's not doing bad really.
Tortoise of Lurve

And whilst I'm here (and as I have another mad week ahead and am unlikely to get much online playtime) I recommend having a wee peek over at indexed, I particularly liked this one.

I'm restraining myself from ranting about this. I saw a couple from the plane being interviewed saying something along the lines of "Rightly or wrongly the atmosphere changed when they got on board".

I think you'll find that's wrongly. Yes. Definitely.

Och well. Enjoy the tortoise of lurve. I hope to reappear before the week ends with the next part of my Baked Beats animation but I might be being overly optimistic.

Chained to my desk

2006-08-11T22:42:00.000Z

I am ridiculously busy at the moment but my bookmarks are overflowing so time for a little link dump.

I was touched by this thought provoking post at Stranger Than Fiction. Thanks to Dana Shalash for commenting on here, leading me to nose around her site.

Interesting article about how only traitors try to make us afraid of terrorists, particularly given the recent declaration from Reid that terror 'may force freedom curbs'.

And that was before the alleged terror plot of a couple of days ago.

A depressing addition to these pieces is this quote from Hermann Goering, at the time of the Nuremberg trials.

"People don’t want war [...] the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Hmm. Anyhow, onto lighter things at YouTube.

I don't use YouTube for my personal stuff as I prefer to keep control over it on my own web site, am not entirely happy with the terms of use and remain generally unsure about it all. That said, one of my animations is up there at the moment; Chained to My PC. Originally created for the TUC's WorkSmart site this new version was adapted for the Communications Workers of America.

Hopefully it will continue to go down well, although I see I'm accused of 'poor taste' and vulgarity. Heh. I can't get excited about a dog peeing I'm afraid. I did fume when I was informed that there was a company down the road with call centre staff unable to go to the loo without putting their hands up and asking a supervisor, which I feel is more important. Fortunately it seems a few folk agree.

While I'm at YouTube I did find this amusing; Python's Camelot interlude, by Kirk and crew. A very nice ludicrously silly mashup. Hooray.

There's the 95 theses of geek activism post over at science addiction that's a fine read. Good points well made, and some interesting links.

I was both amused and irritated at the news that a website for Mums has had to request all users avoid discussing Gina Ford, allegedly a childcare guru, after she attempted to get their entire site taken offline for people slagging her off in the forums, although the powers-that-be were removing the offending posts. I don't know if she understands kids (although from what I've read over the last week I don't think I'd have a great deal of time for her) but she certainly doesn't seem to understand the net. A ridiculous overreaction to a site that was doing so much that she requested. Thanks to John for the tip.

And finally my random Pants Pirate Message of the day, because it tickled me.

/link dump

Edit: The observant will notice that this claims to have been posted on Friday, but appeared on Monday. That'll be the 'chained to my desk' problem interfering with my blether, although being more accurate I was chained to a model of an alternate world and my camera. More fun than a desk at least.

A Very Personal Assistant

2006-08-03T12:45:00.000Z

I have been making more things for the TUC with Mr DogHorse.

A Very Personal Assistant. A tale of one Pup, his new job and the surprises it holds for him because he didn't check out the company first.

And once you're through with the puppies I've got some new photos of monkeys and apes and meerkats and prairie dogs and everything online too. They're rather cute.

Video of a giant tortoise attempting to hump another the wrong way round might appear online soon too, if you're very lucky.

Happy Sysadmin Day!

2006-07-29T00:19:00.000Z

We don't tend to appreciate our sysadmins. We moan at them when anything goes wrong with our computers or the net but we don't cheer when our email arrives, or a web page appears, or as we log in and chat to friends on a messageboard or forum.

We probably should. They only ask for apreciation one day a year too. Sysadmin Day.

This year UKUUG asked us to make something to celebrate the day. This one is for the geeks.

Something Vital Breaks. 1MB Flash.
Downloadable in video format from UKUUG.

And now I'm away to be nice to my lovely sysadmin.

A benefit of odd sleep patterns...

2006-07-26T01:41:00.000Z

... is that sometimes you get to see the most gorgeous sunrises.

Another photo of orange gorgeousness.

In amusing news the MPAA might have tried to scare the wrong person into coughing up a couple of thousand dollars for an alleged download of a film. Most people can't afford to go against organisations like the MPAA and RIAA; but they haven't accused a millionnaire of downloading a film he already owned on DVD before. This could well be one to watch.

In confusing news a photo caption on the front page of a recent copy of Computing really surprised me.

"Suffolk believes thick PCs raise security issues for government"

Blimey! I thought. Not only calling the police a threat to national security, but calling them thick too! To be honest Computing suddenly reached new levels of interest for me until I realised I'd read it wrong.

Different meaning of PC. Different meaning of thick. Bah!

Protecting my bits

2006-07-20T02:51:00.000Z

My software has an attitude problem.

I have just put together another silly video and decided to make a page for videos on my site. The quickest way for me to make the icons was to play the source video, grab a frame and make the icon from that. But I couldn't.

My software assumed that I didn't own the video I was playing. It accused me of stealing. I'm insulted.

On the plus side I now have animated icons on the page as I couldn't be as lazy as I intended.

On the down side my software is apparently allowed to defame my character and deny me the presumption of innocence* on the basis, I assume, that some people would screen grab something they shouldn't. If that's the case prosecute them, don't pester me and my penguins.

I mentioned them a couple of posts ago, but again, we really need ORG.

Anyhow, the video. If you've waded through my moaning you deserve it.
If you've skipped to the bold text have a gold star for initiative, I'm sure you deserve it too.

Penguins!
30 seconds of penguin joy (the sequel). 790KB Flash.

* I accept I could be seen as overstating the issue here. But it is what it was saying, deep down. They are wrong.

Voodoo Trombones

2006-07-15T14:03:00.000Z

I've got the first part of my bakedbeats animation online.

Voodoo Trombones, 900KB Flash.

Colourful birds, cheesy dancing, robots, penguins, kangaroos, gently swaying flowers and, ooooh, STUFF!

Music provided by the funky Voodoo Trombone Quartet.

An impressive excuse from the Government

2006-07-14T21:47:00.000Z

Greenpeace are protesting the use of illegal timber in the refurbishment of Admiralty Arch. The Government has told Greenpeace that the timber being used in Admiralty Arch is legal and it has the paperwork to prove it. Unfortunately they can't provide it to Greenpeace because their fax machine is broken. Heh.

Good vertigo inducing photo from the activists on their moblog.

In other news I really must finish my ORG related animation soon. Along with the BPI trying to get UK ISPs to cut-off their customers without going through the courts ABC are trying to stop you being able to fast forward through adverts. Really. These organisations are getting far too big for their own boots, we must do something about it.

I suspect it needs more than an animation but you've got to play to your strengths.

Edit: Does anyone else find that as soon as they've hit the Publish button they notice a typo, missing word or other mistake in their post? I swear it happens to me every time. I don't seem to do it on my web site, just on my blog. Why am I so careless here?
*corrects yet another typo*

An effervescing elephant...

2006-07-11T20:56:00.000Z

... because I liked Syd Barrett.

And because Effervescing Elephant always made me smile.

And because Gerald the kazoo playing mouse was named after the mouse in Bike.

I know a mouse and he hasn't got a house
I don't know why I call him Gerald
He's getting rather old but he's a good mouse

*Sings to self*

Well, my inbox is full again...

2006-07-11T16:40:00.000Z

...and I'm in the midst of a new Flash animation, a teched up Gilbert and Sullivan this time. There are plans for a Yiddish G & S piece later in the year too (I was intrigued by this concept far too much to avoid getting involved).

In my head-down animating-hard absence have this ludicrous art gallery picture that makes me giggle too much for my own good. I adore Reefer Madness. I can't help it. There's another RM derivative from a while back here.

There's another similar art gallery image here too, although the woman with her hand stuck on her head is from a later anti-drugs movie rather then the Reefer Madness classic.

In other news:

ID cards doomed, say officials

Emails from Whitehall officials in charge of ID cards

Identity card scheme faces delay

And an example of why I'm pleased that Whitehall are acknowledging the problem with our Governments ID cards plans... Online passport applications halted - 5,000 people are kept waiting after an internet system broke down just three weeks after its launch. I'm feeling even luckier at the successful renewal of my passport and pleased that I didn't trust the online system.

I have cleared my inbox!

2006-07-05T02:02:00.000Z

I realise that this doesn't sound like a great achievement but it happens maybe twice a year and is such a pleasing sight. Ahhhh. Lovely.

Moving swiftly on from my rather pathetic indication of achievement it's time for some links as my bookmark folder needs emptying.

Following my whinge about banks and security the other day I was interested to see that Shell has suspended chip-and-pin payments after more than £1m was siphoned out of customers' accounts. So that's reassuring, particularly as "Shell's chip-and-pin solution is fully accredited and complies with all relevant industry standards."

There's been movement on the Guantanamo Bay issue as well, as the Supreme Court has ruled that "the military tribunals at Guantanamo violated both US military law and the Geneva Conventions." Well, quite. As an aside I rather liked this edit of George Bush singing 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday', if you've not seen it.

In other news, whilst I find non-disabled people parking in disabled spaces inconsiderate beyond belief I thought painting the disabled bay after the person had parked there a trifle unfair.

And finally, every now and then I have a trawl through the messages being sent through my Pants Messengers and I was embarrassed at how much this made me giggle. Shockingly bad joke. On a related note, if the person who keeps trying to link to a pr0n site through my pants squirrel is reading this - it doesn't work. Give it up. They don't parse HTML links, they're not about to start and they're not going to be shown on the random message page. Thank you.

Oh, the cute kitty above is available in desktop wallpaper size if you like.

How I do what I do*

2006-06-29T02:12:00.001Z

I get a few emails asking me about how I make the things I make. One came in yesterday and I thought I'd put my response here...

1: Where did you get those eyes and afros and glasses and legs you post onto your characters? Did you make them? Do you take the pictures you use yourself?

I use a lot of my own photos. I take a camera everywhere and am exceedingly snap-happy with it taking anything that might be of use. My current database of source photos is sitting at around 15,000.

Taking photos for editing is different to taking photos for their own sake. You need to think in terms of component parts, as that's how you'll be using them. Make sure the subject is unobscured and that you don't chop bits off.

This current blog page contains numerous pieces from my photos. My eyes and a cork from a bottle of fizz I drank feature down the way. Jeremy (the wee purple guy on the swing) is swinging by the shore in South Queensferry. The sneezing tap comes from my bathroom. The strange horse is trotting past the Tate from a recent trip to London. And I really did meet that caterpillar.

I take a lot of photos.

The car you can see above belongs to a friend who was kind enough to take a whole batch of photos from different angles for me. It will be appearing in a Flash animation sometime soon - it lives in the same world as the hover chair man a couple of posts down.

There are also a few good, free stock photography sites about; Stock Exchange is a particular favourite of mine for when my own collection fails me. I use Morguefile too.

All my characters are patched together from a selection of photos and occasional drawn bits if I can't find them elsewhere. It is very rare that you'll find perfectly matching elements so the key is to find a hint of what you're looking for (such as some nice curly hair) and then edit it to fit your character (feathered cloning is your friend for an afro, for example).

2: What programs do you use?

I use Corel PhotoPaint to create my photobased characters, with occasional dips into The Gimp. All the animation takes place in Macromedia Flash, with optimisation in Fireworks if I'm creating gifs rather than a full animation.

2: Did you get a degree in this?

Heh, no. In a previous life I was a psychologist. I abandoned all that and have been working in the field of online silliness for a few years now though. From the emails I get I think I do more good now than I did then, so that's good.

* Of course, a more intriguing topic is possibly why I do what I do. But don't worry, I have no intention of trying to explain that anytime soon.

Baked Beats

2006-06-22T18:29:00.000Z

If you're in London this Saturday I recommend heading along to the midsummer bakedbeats - music we like event, "a veritable feast of music with fantastic live bands, DJs and laptop artists, visuals, food, booze and lovely people".

I can vouch for the loveliness of the people running it and have been listening to music from the contributing bands and DJs the last couple of days. It's quite splendid.

I can't make it myself due to being 400 odd miles away but I have sent a few minutes of animation in my place which will accompany some of the music.

Go, listen, watch, enjoy.

Superficial security

2006-06-21T15:24:00.000Z

I got annoyed in the bank today.

I was paying my credit card bill from my current account. Both accounts have the same name and address on them and I've handed my bank card over for the payment. Before making the payment the bank insisted I tell them my date of birth (which I did without protest or hesitation) then the details of the direct debits on my current account.

I said I'd rather not have to release any more of my so-called 'security information' in a public space. I offered to enter my PIN for them in the magic box*. But no. They insisted on the direct debit information.

I said I wasn't happy that this meant everyone in the room** would know both my birthday and direct debit details, and it was countered with "but it's only the company name they'll know, not the full details".

I pointed out that this was apparently enough information to withdraw money from my account without knowing my PIN and it went momentarily quiet followed by "I'm sorry, but I need the direct debit details to pay this bill". Grrrr. Pointless.***

I did tell them in the end. I needed to pay the bill. I requested that it be pointed out to whomever was responsible for the procedures that it really wasn't security. She duly wrote "Not happy" on a print out of my details. Pffft! I'm fairly sure that within 30 seconds of me leaving the words "Mad woman with a bee in her bonnet" were added after "Not happy".

In order to make this post more than simply a whinge about my bank can I point you in the direction of Chip and Spin, a site summarising the investigations into the Chip and PIN technology and pointing out, in a far more useful and informative way than I do, that banks aren't always right.

* I suspect this is not what it is formally known as, but you know what I mean... the keypad thing.
** Sorry people-in-the-queue, but it only took a minute longer than it would have anyway.
*** I acknowledge that my pointing out the issue was probably pointless as well. But apparently I was grumpy and particularly intolerant of stupidity today.

Laugh now

2006-06-19T00:44:00.000Z

Mr DogHorse has recorded a George Formby-esque ode to the World's Greatest Nutritionist. I can't express how much this made me laugh.

Go listen.

You can read the lyrics here

In other news here's a great piece on Fafblog about the US response to the suicides in Guantanamo and a congressman looking particularly stupid on The Colbert Report.

And I appear to be having a dinosaur moment.

Hmm.

I have had caribou...

2006-06-17T02:44:00.000Z

... running round my head all evening.

Not the animal, I hasten to add, but the track by The Pixies.

It's a splendid song so not a problem but it was a puzzle. I usually know where the songs come from when they get stuck in my head but Caribou?

Then I realised it was the tune, but not the right word. Caribou had been replaced with Dinaroo. This is what I had been drawing.

My brain is embarrassing at times.

Paper creatures bounce and bop

2006-06-13T22:29:00.000Z

It's The Hump, my new animation for a top tune by Mr and Mrs Swing.

Slightly different to my usual stuff, I tried to give some form to the images floating round my head when I listened to the track.

I think I was slightly alarmed by the lack of words to start with, but I made the characters from paper so they came with their own words.

So that's all right.

Torture Awareness Month

2006-06-12T00:26:00.000Z

Yesterday I had my head in my hands over the US response to the suicides at Guantanamo Bay and elendil at Bloggers Against Torture alerted me to Torture Awareness Month.

I've just had an email from a friend that has emphasised the importance of this. A few months ago DogHorse and I made an animation about the current UK policy of deporting people to countries where they know there is danger; my friend informs me that her Iraqi Kurdish pal is being returned tomorrow.

We need to stop our government deporting people to countries abusing human rights. We need to make sure that we are not abusing human rights, and that our associates aren't either. The disgrace of Guantanamo Bay can't be dismissed as an anomaly.

As my friend writes, "it is a sad time".

Balanced Links

2006-06-11T14:11:00.000Z

Two silly things that please me

Spin DJ is a god (short film)

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

Two serious things that anger me

US response to the Guantanamo suicides
"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of warfare waged against us" (Rear Adm Harry Harris, Camp commander) and a "good PR move to draw attention" (Colleen Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy).

UK DNA database is shared overseas
So on top of containing information on 24,000 children never cautioned, charged or convicted of anything and having no real safeguards in place to protect against misuse, the misuse is international.

A moment of confusion

2006-06-09T21:02:00.000Z

I've never really been one to follow fashion. I pootle along doing my own thing and every now and then what I'm doing, or wearing, or watching or listening to becomes popular and I temporarily become 'fashionable'.

I don't see this as a problem. I don't mind being unfashionable. I don't mind being fashionable. Both can be fun, and if we were all the same life would be terribly dull.

I am currently lost.

I am noticing myself being increasingly confused by conversations where everyone seems to know what's being referred to except for me. I wondered if senility was making an unreasonably early appearance until I realised....

I don't follow football.
I don't watch Big Brother.

So please excuse my general puzzled responses for the next few weeks, and if you need me I'll be over there, making animals dance. Bear with me.

Nothing to see here

2006-06-08T00:01:00.000Z

Something was here but now it's gone.

Sorry about that.

Options are being considered, advice is being sought.

Whilst I contemplate these things, and consider my cork and the difficulties it encounters, I can still point you to Mr DogHorse, who has been extraordinarily prolific recently. He's recorded Captain Birdseye and Cameron Creep.

Both are superb, go and have a listen.

I've got my silly hat on...

2006-06-04T23:10:00.000Z

... hip hip hip hooray!

I've had a pleasant couple of days making some silly pictures, getting the framework of a new Flash animation put together, blethering online and catching up with stuff. Lovely.

One of the things I've caught up on is the last couple of weeks of the Friday Thing, which I recommend subscribing to if you like a slightly cynical view on the news. It's just gone free, which means I no longer need to feel guilty about receiving unexplained copies from them*.

I also stumbled across this disturbing story about an editor banning puns from headlines. Shocking. I do hope it's an isolated incident.

* Obviously not quite guilty enough to tell them to stop sending them, but that would have seemed terribly ungrateful.

Things that needle me needlessly

2006-06-02T15:29:00.000Z

1. I got an email from Amnesty about their new campaign, irrepressible.info. I like Amnesty and I don't mind them emailing me but they should be emailing me from their own domain, not from c-f-1.com (registered to leighton management limited, about whom I can find very little). If they email me a link they should include the proper URL, not a tracked link through c-f-1.com. If they insist on doing that they shouldn't try to hide it behind html, that's what phishing scams do and Amnesty should be better than that. Bah.

2. Whenever I upgrade Firefox* it reinstates all the default engines onto my toolbar and I don't want them. Now, I love Firefox, I just want an 'Edit engines' option below 'Add engines' because I'm lazy, picky and always forget where to go to delete them.

3. People using their blogs to whinge pointlessly about.... oh.... quite....

Right, some good things then.

1. I got my new passport today. No RFID. No entry into the catastrophe-waiting-to-happen National Database. A saving of £40 or so compared to waiting until it ran out and they didn't even penalise me for renewing nearly a year early, so the new one lasts until 2017. And it actually arrived, unlike over half a million others over the last couple of years. Splendid.

2. Something that has been a worry is getting better**.

3. I am going to spend a couple of days playing with pictures for the first time in around 3 weeks. This will be combined with drinking Pimms in the sunshine. Hooray!

* Ha. I've just updated to v1.5.0.4 and it didn't do it. I should definitely stop moaning.
**This is a much bigger thing than that sentence indicates.

Walking in circles

2006-05-24T01:26:00.000Z

Sometimes it's nice to go round in circles. This panorama was taken at the bottom of the Pass of the Cattle near Applecross. I really need a new tripod to do this properly but blink at the right time and you don't notice the glitch.

More circular scenery.

I've noticed there are an increasing number of blogs that I nose around these days so I have extended my blog list on the left and will continue to add blogs at the point I realise I'm regularly visiting them. For a recent discovery I was rather taken with the minimalist blogging over at Humdrum, this post in particular pulled me in.

I escaped for a while

2006-05-21T15:42:00.000Z

I have been up in the Highlands experiencing peace, tranquility and the lesser known highland caterpillar, also available in glorious desktop adorning size.

Normal service will be resumed once I've caught up with everything, currently anticipated to be early June. Hopefully.

In the meantime you can always have a wee browse through a few photos from the trip.

Somewhere there is a note

2006-05-11T23:56:00.000Z

It could be on a scrap of paper.

It could be on my computer.

It could be in my Palm.

It contains a burst of inspiration, a moment of clarity. I was going to write about it.

It was going to be fascinating.

But I've lost it.

Instead, I shall mention how much I like coincidence. I love how things can feel meaningful, whilst having no real meaning. Like this....

On a trip to Australia we spent a day at the Northern Territory wildlife park.* Whilst there we saw some fantastic animals and, as you'd expect, a fair number of other visitors including a couple with three rather noisy and boisterous boys in tow. The next day we started the very long drive down the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs and Uluru before flying to Queensland and spending some time in the Daintree Rainforest. We then made our way down the Queensland coast until one day we get a bit lost and end up by the shore at the dead end of a suburban street. We stop, mainly to get our bearings and check the map and another car rolls up.

It was the couple with the 3 kids.

We had travelled about 5000km** in the 3 weeks since we had seen them. We were in a housing estate, beyond some farmland, by mistake. We had a good old chinwag about what we were doing there, and what we'd been doing, and what we were planning on doing. They had also ended up on that street by mistake. It was great.

I love things like that.

* This was a few years ago and there was an ace TV ad for the place, the memory of which still makes me grin. An amazingly chirpy and exuberant Australian saying "You'll never ever know if you never, ever go!". We had to go.

** I have plucked this number out of thin air and a vague memory. I will check it at some point.

Farewell Charles Clarke

2006-05-05T11:22:00.000Z

Hello John Reid.

Don't let the power go to your head too. Behave please.

I wonder if I should do an updated version of my tribute to Charles Clarke?

Maybe I'll give Mr Reid a week or two first and see how it goes.

Cabinet reshuffle aside I am incredibly impressed at this display of democracy in action.

And from a deluge of messages sent through our Pants Messengers I discover that today is No Pants Day. Blimey.

In search of equality

2006-05-01T00:39:00.000Z

Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day. I wasn't sure what I was going to write when I signed up, but a couple of things have popped into my head so.....

... a memory of what happens when you're the wrong kind of statistic. When I worked for a training organisation one of the services offered was advice on finding jobs. Someone turned up at the office one day and said "A friend suggested I come along here. She said you'd help me put a CV together and get some applications out".

Now, everyone who came to us for help was officially referred by other organisations; it was all tied up with how we were funded. I explained this to the woman at the door and asked if she could get referred by the job centre, as she was unemployed.

"Oh I tried that, but they won't help. It doesn't matter to them if I have a job or not".

If you've had dealings with the job centre this will, I'm sure, surprise you. They have targets to meet, boxes to tick. But the woman in question was registered blind, she was getting a disability benefit, and the job centre weren't expected to help her get a job. And because they weren't expected to get her a job, they wouldn't spend any of their time or money trying to help.

We provided the same help that we provided to hundreds of people each month, but it was all off-the-record and had to be hidden because no-one funding us got a benefit from it. That's just wrong. It wasn't malicious, but it was wrong.

Secondly, a wee observation that I thought I'd share, although I am slightly concerned that not everyone will approve. I think David Blunkett has made one really useful contribution to the world.

No, really.

He might think that civil liberties are 'airy fairy' but he has helped people to realise that people with disabilities are people first and foremost.

There was a time when I, as a slightly wishy washy liberal type, would feel a hint of concern that people would think I was being prejudiced if I called someone with a disability an idiot (let alone the wide and varied selection of rude words I've called Blunkett).

Not anymore.

If I insult Blunkett NO-ONE thinks it's because he has a visual impairment. It's because they know he's a ****.

In its own weird way I think this is a positive thing.