Category: Uncategorized Page 22 of 122

“Does It Come In Black?”

On 08/10/2009

In Books, Link, Personal, Pictures, Uncategorized

So, Amazon have announced that their Kindle device will be available in an international form from 19 October. Which intrigues me.

I’m currently looking into the possibility of an e-reader for some hefty reference items I have in PDF, and the Kindle seems quite appealing, as it takes PDFs and allows you to annotate items (including, unless you can inform me otherwise PDFs), so that sounds about right. And the price is lower than the Sony ones I’d been mulling over and the like.

However, whilst carrying round something small and light is obviously more appealing than lugging round a big printed document, or reading a PDF off a screen (I often feel as if I spend about 90% of my waking hours in front of a screen of some sort or other), I’m slightly wary of getting dead-ended into a bit of tech that doesn’t last for a good number of years; I still think MiniDiscs are a terrific format, and they were super-useful when I was producing a hospital radio show every week, but now I can only use the MiniDisc recorder for a handful of purposes, and so it languishes in a drawer next to my AAC-format Sony music player.

So I’m not keen to go spending a three-digit sum on something which may prove to be something of a technological dead-end, and I have other reservations – there’s a whole DRM hoo-hah about books which you can buy for it, and Amazon recently had to undergo the irony of removing copies of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four from users’ Kindles. Then again, given the name of the device, it’s probably fortunate that it wasn’t Fahrenheit 451.

I guess I’ll wait until the devices actually start arriving in the UK before I throw my hat (a hat full of money) into the ring, and see if there are positive reviews; I like the idea of wirelessly buying books and magazines, sure, but I don’t want to end up with a bit of kit that’s duff sooner rather than later.

And besides, to answer my own question, no, it’s not available in black. Tch.

If any of you good folks have strong opinions about this subject (and to short-cut the usual comment, no I see it as supplementary to my bookshelf, not replacing it), or experience of using a reading doohickey of this type, please share in the Comments, eh? As is so often the case, I’m just learning my way around the topic, and informed input is always welcome.

“Feed Me! Feed Me All Night Long!” (Song From Little Photoshop Of Horrors)

By John

On 07/10/2009

In Fish In A Barrel, Link, Uncategorized, Unintelligent Design

This makes me laugh, so I thought I’d share.

The story so far: Ralph Lauren put out an ad which is insanely over-photoshopped (either that, or they’re employing models who haven’t eaten in weeks), and people on the internet rightly took the michael… so Lauren issued a legalese notice, claiming that the use of their very silly image constituted copyright infringement.

So, of course the website removed the image, and apologised. Ah, all right, ya got me – they’re doing nothing of the sort, and more power to them.

And yes, you can see the image in question via that link. I’m not including it here because I want to encourage you to follow the link, and enjoy their sarcastic tone.

Besides, the picture in question really freaks me out. I don’t want it on my blog.

If You Only Read One Thing On The Internet Today… Well, You’ve Wasted That Allowance Reading This. What Were You Thinking?

By John

On 06/10/2009

In Link, Uncategorized, Writing

Yes, many other people on t’interweb have linked to it already, but there’s a reason for that: it’s very honest and sensible and true and many, many other positive adjectives.

Michelle Lipton writes about the path of the freelance writer, and I recommend you read what she has to say.

That’s it; anything else I might say will – and I have simply no idea why – look facile and shallow in comparison.

Virgin’s First Time

By John

On 05/10/2009

In Link, London, Marathon 2007, Pictures, Running, Uncategorized

And welcome to all of you who’ve come here via a search engine; prepare for disappointment.

I know a lot of the regular audience for the blog are involved in writing, though I don’t know how many of you, like me, run; anyway, this is one of those occasional posts about running.

The London Marathon has, for a number of years, been officially known as the Flora London Marathon (though it was rarely spoken of as such), because of the sponsorship provided by a leading spreadable product. Prior to that, if memory serves, it was sponsored by Mars, the ever-popular chocolate bar. Nothing, it seems, symbolises health and a stern training regime so much as sponsorship from a foodstuff containing a proportion of fat.

That used to be the case, anyway. As you can see from the logo, and may have inferred from the Google-baiting title of this post, the 2010 London Marathon is being sponsored by Virgin – a firm whose interests are strangely scattered, from credit cards to cola. No, I don’t quite understand it either.

Anyway, if you’ve applied for a place in the ballot for the 2010 Marathon, the decisions are apparently in the post. However, since the UK postal service is currently being affected by strikes (many people have inevitably noted that it’s hard to tell the difference), the mailout of the YES and NO notifications has been a bit delayed. But Virgin will apparently be e-mailing people this afternoon to let them know.

If you don’t get a place in the ballot (which is the scheme whereby enter a lottery-style system to see if you get a place, and then pay for it), there’ll of course be a vast number of charity places available; those of you with unnervingly long memories may remember that I ran in the 2007 London Marathon for just such a charity.

For reasons which kind of escape me in the cold (well, currently more like grey) light of day, I’ve entered the ballot for the 2010 Marathon, and so I should be receiving an e-mail today to let me know if I’ve got a place. If I haven’t – and I think the odds are pretty slim – then I have, for the sake of my own sanity, vowed not to see about a charity place; in all honesty, the hassle of trying to make sure I reached the target for sponsorship was more of a burden than the physical act of training for, and running, the marathon. So I won’t be doing that again.

No, definitely not. Uh-uh, nosiree. Not doing that again.

Oh no, I’m “protesting too much”, aren’t I? Uh oh…

EDITED at 3.58pm to say: Just had the e-mail to say I didn’t get in through the ballot. And that, as I say, means I won’t be pursuing any other means of getting a place. That’s what I said, and as we all know, what I say goes. Granted, it usually ‘goes’ by the by within minutes, but let’s try for some kind of certainty for once…

The 24 Hour Book Challenge

By John

On 04/10/2009

In Books, Link, London, Uncategorized, Writing

Just wrapping up in sunny South London is the 24 Hour Book Challenge.

It started yesterday, and a group of writers have been working on a book based around a group of city centre allotments – having started the writing at 10am yesterday and finished it at 10am this morning, a group of volunteers is currently knocking it into printworthy shape and it’ll be on sale as of tomorrow. Follow the above link for more details of what sounds to me like a rather interesting challenge.

On the subject of novels written in a brief time – and unlike the above, you can get involved – it’s just under a month until the start of 2009’s National Novel Writing Month. I don’t think I’m eligible to take part as I’ve already started my book, but are any of you good people intending to have a go?

And They Said It Wouldn’t Last

By John

On 03/10/2009

In Personal, Pictures, Uncategorized

To commemorate my 1001st blog post, I commissioned a pair of special numerically-themed spectacles from noted stylist and creator, Mrs MyWife. Here be the results:

As you can see, they’re positively Elton Johnesque, so I intend to spend the rest of the day celebrating as Mr Dwight might (though with fewer tantrums and outbursts, of course).

Thank you for your continued audienceship, especially in the face of ridiculously self-indulgent posts like this one.

To Punish My Sanctimony, There’s Probably A Typo Somewhere In This Post…

By John

On 02/10/2009

In Fish In A Barrel, Link, Uncategorized

Remember, if you’re going to protest about something – hell, if you’re going to say anything at all – you’ll make your point far more effectively if people don’t need to spend time decoding what you’re driving at.

Proof can be found, in appalling abundance, here.

Silly Mount Everest Sketch

By John

On 01/10/2009

In Uncategorized, Video

As I have an interest in the work of David Cross and in Mount Everest, I was rather amused to find this; I feel it kind of tapers off a bit towards the end (probably an inevitable result of it being sliced from an episode of Mr Show, where I gather the sketches were interlinked), but I like the way the father’s reaction rather echoes that of the audience.

It is, of course, just plain silly as well, which I always approve of (remember, kids: silly = good, stupid = bad).

But enough introduction, on with the (Mr) Show…

I Often Feel It’s Important To Be Able To Express Opinions On Books I Haven’t Read, Especially Those Which I Deliberately Haven’t Read

By John

On 30/09/2009

In Books, Fish In A Barrel, Link, Uncategorized

Over at her always-fun blog, Marie Phillips has been talking about the imminent release of The Mistress by Martine McCutcheon, and what it may say about the publishing industry.

I think she makes some very valid points, and having read the first chapter which is available here, I was oddly put in mind of American Psycho‘s incessant name-checking. And faintly appalled to see the ‘having them look in the mirror to justify describing the protagonist’ trick making its appearance in the sixth paragraph, but that’s probably just me being jaded and cynical; the book’s aimed at a very specific market, and I’m not that market. So be it, there are enough books on my ‘to be read’ shelves already.

But before I shrug my shoulders and move on, two things which came to mind:

Point the first: in the first eight paragraphs of Chapter One, there are two references to Grazia magazine. This strikes me as odd, given that Martine McCutcheon is a columnist for Reveal magazine.

Point the second: the book details given at the foot of this page state that the book will measure 197mm x 130mm, and be comprised of 336 pages, and yet weigh 0 kg. The very definition of a “light read”, I guess.

My immediate suspicion was that this book may well have been ghost-written (though I could be wrong), and the notion of a ghost-written book by a celebrity reminds me of the novel with Naomi Campbell’s name on the cover, Swan (there seems to be a substantial body of evidence to suggest I shouldn’t refer to the novel with as ‘belonging to’ Ms Campbell).

At the time of its publication, I seem to recall reading an amusing – and very probably apocryphal – tale about a journalist pressing her about the authorship of the book; after a while, Ms Campbell was tiring of being hassled in this way.

“Look,” she allegedly said, “have you read my book?”
“No,” the journalist reportedly answered. “Have you?”

You Never Got This Kind Of Thing With Delia Smith. Well, Apart From That Time She Endorsed ‘Cranberries’, But That’s An Obscure Bit Of Slang At Best

By John

On 29/09/2009

In Fish In A Barrel, Link, TV, Uncategorized

As referred to in a post some time ago, the search-engine baiting Nigella Lawson Topless Milk Jugs have probably enticed in Google-using admirers who were hoping for something rather saucy.

However, I feel that fans of TV Chef James Martin are likely to be disappointed by the name of an item in his cookware range – specifically, this one.

Still, I think we all appreciate his candour.