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Read the instructions.
About eighteen months ago, I got fed up with the way that the thin, light blinds on my east-facing bedroom windows did absolutely nothing to occlude light. The solution was very simple: I went to Argos and bought some blackout blinds. Sorted ( Read more... ) -
Limericks on the subject of swimming, composed while engaged in same
For some peculiar reason, exercise brings out my rhymiest side and I just can't seem to stop. Which is just as well, because exercise is also quite often stultifyingly boring. Any diversion, guys, any diversion ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
I've identified the single biggest problem I run into when cleaning my room: a certain amount of the things in it should not be in it. Cleaning therefore entails taking things out of my room and putting them in other places ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
A while ago I signed up to OkCupid. There is one picture of me (the top half of this one, which has a slightly odd perspective going on), my profile says I'm looking for friends, and I tend to remember it exists about twice a year so I'm virtually inactive on it. The first two points are the relevant ones.
Today I received this email from them. ( Read more... ) -
National holidays
From the Irish Times, today:
To celebrate National Fish and Chips Day, fish and chips from the 190 members of the Irish Traditional Italian Chipper Association (itica.ie) and some other shops, including all branches of Leo Burdock, are half price tomorrow.
Poll Fish and chips -
Humility in the face of staircases
Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons by Roberta Gellis is an unusually sympathatic take on that lady. It has what I like in historical fiction, which is lots of little details about life as it was lived. But there's one section where Lucrezia, her husband and several ladies are walking to dinner. Their route takes them down a staircase, and ( Read more... ) -
Unclear on the concept
Passing through the library today, I stopped to flip through the complaints & comments book. Most were nothing special, but one person's complaint was a thing of beauty. The library, they point out, is organised by subject. The books, though, are laid out by number. So when you look up a book all it tells you is the number, and how are you supposed ( Read more... ) -
No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus. The man you trusted lied to you, that's all.
I truly, deeply, hate this piece of writing.
Not because of the monstrous level of twee and kitch, vomit-inducing though it is. That's a known risk, whenever adults address children on the subject of Christmas.
Nor because of the sloppy logic it proposes. First he states that the consequences of believing in Santa Claus are positive, so it follows ( Read more... ) -
Rainbow Hex Box and Rum & Raisin Units
Or, how not to name things.
There is no real need for the rainbow hex box to be haxagonal, and even less need for it to be rainbow-coloured, but the one I had lying around was both, so that's what it got called inside my head.
Anyway, have some diagrams!
Rainbow hex box diagram (pdf)
These have a name which makes even less sense. It is a story ( Read more... )
