A howling wind

This post can now be found over here.

Let's go by bus

Two bus articles today.

First, Diddums has already highlighted the following Scotsman news article:
Parents told they can't help own child unless they get criminal record check

I had written a whole post around this, drawing in several other articles. Perhaps it's better though just to let you read it and form your own conclusion.

It leaves me bewildered, confused and quite concerned that I pay money to councils who work like this.

Then, while doing some blog browsing yesterday, I stumbled on a post about travel on buses. It's a bit of a chilling tale I'm afraid.

I may have to post some silliness next otherwise I might go a little nuts.

Platform27 seems to be full

I just had a look over at Platform27 and it seems they're full.

"New account sign-ups have been temporarily suspended, as we have reached our maximum user limit (250)."

I have two blogs over there but they haven't been used in some time so it doesn't seem fair really to keep them going. Tried to login to delete them both but it seems I must have used an odd password, because it won't let me in now. It doesn't seem to want to mail me my password either but it might be a problem with the email address.

Did leave a comment for them though, so hopefully they'll delete those blogs and free up space for two more people. You might have to be quick ...

Update: The password reminder came through so I've deleted these blogs myself now.

Aren't bye-bye's always so painful? Bye-bye Platform27 ... (waves)

Problems with Bloglines

Since the problems with 20Six over the weekend, a number of my subscribed feeds at Bloglines have broken and haven't been updating. This includes subscriptions for all the 20Six blogs listed in my sidebar Blogs list.

Normally following problems the feeds sort themselves out within a day or so but that's not happened this time.

I mailed Bloglines using their contact form listing each broken feed and was surprised at their quick response - within 2 hours. Not bad considering I only have a free account.

They reset all the feeds I listed and these are now updating correctly. If you use Bloglines you may want to check your own subscriptions. Each broken one may have a [!] marked against the feed property page.

Happy feed nibbling.

Blog Frippery

I've added some minor frippery to the sidebar here at Little Holes in the form of a dictionary widget. You can even use it to look up the word "widget" if you like.

You should find it listed under "Dictionary", just after "Links" down on the right hand side somewhere. It has a textbox, a drop down list of resources and a Go button. To use it:

- Just type your own text where it says, "lookup any word"
- Choose Dictionary, Thesaurus, Reference (an encyclopedia) or on the Web (a Google search of sorts)
- Then hit Go

The result should open in a new window, or perhaps a new tab depending on how your browser is configured. It uses the dictionary, thesaurus and reference resources at the Dictionary.com website.

I put it there mainly to let me quickly look up definitions and synonyms, but it's available to all. It has proved tortuous to get the code and styling right for 20Six but was much easier to drop into this Blogspot template. Hopefully though it's simple enough to avoid common browser rendering bugs and it's been tested on both Firefox and IE6. If you're on a Mac, I'd really appreciate any feedback about wonky styling or behaviour.

As usual, I'm yawning incessantly now (number 26 is quite scary) but stuggling to get to sleep. I might try the Horlicks this time.

Listening to: Mike Oldfield, "Tubular Bells"
Member of: The Wide Awake Club

A multipleoid

The other day I stumbled on one of those daft blog quizzes, a personality disorder test on 4degreez.com. It's worrying sometimes how easy it is to become distracted. After quizzing me on my mental sanity, it came up with this comforting diagnosis:

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Very High
Schizoid:	Very High
Schizotypal:	Very High
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Moderate
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	High
Avoidant:	Very High
Dependent:	High
Obsessive-Compulsive:	High

Well that's nice, isn't it. I've been diagnosed with multiple disorders by an "interactive community for teenagers and twenty-somethings".

It does make me wonder just what the motivation is behind many of these silly quizzes. Probably it's to boost site rankings or entice you into buying something. I also wonder how many are actually fronts for something more dubious, like a 12-year old in China, exploring the latest browser security flaws with an unsuspecting population of internet guinea pigs. This is of course, just my own paranoid, schizotypal view.

So it seems that I have several conditions of the brain which end in "-oid". Well I'm actually quite happy to be an oid, and feel much better for being several of them at once. There's a comforting feeling that comes with knowing you are at least anchored somewhere in the shifting seas of sanity, even if the GPS is giving off an odd reading.

Comfortable in sanity - to be or to have, which is it I wonder?

If you really are quite bored and feel compelled to prove your own (in)sanity, the site can be found here. I can't vouch for it's validity though.

Listening to: The Kinks, "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues"
Feeling: guilty - I lied - I'm not really listening to that song

Winifred's not well

It's been quite a busy week. I've been off visiting people who apparently needed visiting (I think it's called keeping up appearances), fixing a broadband and email connection for a friend of the family, and helping someone else replace his dial-up connection with broadband.

And all this damp weather seems to be bringing on Winifred's arthritis. I tried giving her the usual loving care and attention but she's still creaking a bit at the joints. Might have to get the stethoscope out over the weekend and find out what's wrong. Have I mentioned Winifred before? Perhaps not. Okay then this is probably a good time to explain that Winifred is actually my car. She's normally quite a healthy little motor so I hope it's nothing serious - could do without the expense of having to take her to the car surgery right now.

There's a special treat for me this evening - BBC2 are showing a documentary about Wheatfield with Crows, one of the last paintings completed by Vincent Van Gogh before he took his own life. It's on at 9p.m. and someone is taping it for me so I should get to see it sometime tomorrow if all goes well. A full size, framed print of this painting is hanging on the wall beside me and it's probably my most prized possession after my climbing boots, computer and broadband cable. I'll be very curious to see what the program has to say about it.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Bloglines has been playing up a bit recently? Every now and then have to shut down their feed reading service for maintenance, but this week it seems to have been happening quite a lot. Maybe it's just the cold weather? There was also a problem getting onto 20Six yesterday - I received the slightly upsetting message that my blog didn't exist any more. Quickly checking some other 20Six blogs, I was relieved to find that at least I hadn't been singled out; they'd all been zapped. Maybe it was a server failure and they were having to restore everything from a backup? Seems to be okay now though.

Listening to: The soundtrack to Lord of the Rings
Wondering: why the colours black and yellow go so well together ...

Candles, queasiness and the semi-colon

Apart from one recent occasion, it's been several years since I've treated myself and lit a candle. For me, candle burning means taking time to relax the body and exercise the mind. Reading, listening to music or perhaps exploring, thinking. It's a personal treat.

Lighting a candle last night, was more about making a decision; that I ought to set aside time for this kind of relaxation more often.

I like the fact that candles can be made from simple, natural and easy to find materials like beeswax or soy wax, and cotton for the wick; and that they provide both light and heat; and sometimes one of those funny but not unpleasant smells. Never made a candle though. Maybe I should do that one day?

...

It's been a day of howling wind and lashing rain. The still air hasn't quite been cold enough to feel Wintry but the chilling effect of gale force winds on damp exposed flesh was certainly enough to send a shiver or two down my spine.

Mid afternoon I had a strange feeling; a hard to describe unsettling somewhere in the mid-body region. Got up to have a walk around and noticed it had become a sense of queasiness in the stomach, a slight wobbliness in the knees and a faint dizziness in the head. Don't think it's Couvade syndrome because I don't know any pregnant ladies. I also had to, erm, pop to the loo so it was probably just something I eat, although it hasn't entirely gone away.

I do sometimes suffer small bouts of physical confusion, mostly as a result of blood sugar wobbliness.

This probably sounds like a moan or a smattering of hypochondria but it's not meant to. It's just an observation really, a little nothing. What's most curious is how I'm beginning to notice these things more as I get older. It's not so much the increase in minor aches and pains that comes with age, more a sense of knowing what you body is trying to tell you. At least I think that's what it is.

...

I'm playing with semi-colons. Not that I know anything about them; never quite sure when they should or shouldn't be used. I've actually used six whole ones in this post, but of course I don't have the slightest idea whether I'm using them properly or even usefully. I did find a site that's seems quite good at explaining some basics of English grammar and usage; basics that I sadly lack. It has a good bit on semicolons although I'm completely confused about participickles and the like.

I'd better explain now otherwise you'll misunderstand. I often squeak about my poor command of English, mainly because I'm very conscious of it. But that's all it is, a self-consciousness - it only applies to me. I'm not judging other blogs or others' ability to write (I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing). It's just a really silly weakness I have with my own writing.

Hmmm, very strange. Anyway, I'll stop now before you think I'm completely odd. EH? What's that? It's too late? You already do? Oh well then, I guess I'll just have to make a strong coffee, suck a dried date, then light a candle and think about a random thought.

Listening to: The Smiths, "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"
Needing: some sugar, better go get some right now, pip toodle.

It comes off with vinegar

Every now and then, I really fancy a nibble of sweetcorn fresh off the cob, drizzled in virgin olive oil with a little salt, freshly ground black pepper and a dollop of Dijon mustard. It's great fun because it looks so silly holding the thing between two forks and twiddling it around as you nibble. And of course you get in a real mess especially if you have bristly, hairy bits on your face and then little pieces of corn get stuck between your teeth. It just tastes so yummy though!

So braving the rain I bought one of those double packs of corn-on-the-cob at the supermarket this morning. About 20 minutes on medium heat, in a big pan of boiling water.

The thing is, it's just so easy to become distracted! There's music to listen to, papers to sort out and bits of writing to do. And I forgot didn't I. Forgot that is, until two hours later I could smell the smell.

Black! The bottom of the pan was thick black carbon, rock hard. Wouldn't come off with the scourer and I couldn't even make a mark in it with a knife. Then a little idea popped up. I found some vinegar, poured it in so it just covered the black bits and left the pan on the side for a few hours.

And guess what? It worked! Well vinegar is like a weak acid, isn't it. All the black came right off leaving a nice shiny (well okay, scratched a little), stainless steel pan underneath. So I thought then, "I'll have to remember that".

But the funny thing is that I will remember that. It's the kind of thing I do remember. So why then, can't I remember what's on the cooker?
Maybe my learning memory is working, but my remembering things memory is broke? Could that be it? Can that happen?

Hmmm, think I'll have to investigate and find out more about this forgetting business.

Anyhow, you'll be relieved to know that the corn was still edible. A bit roasted and black along one side, yes, and a bit dry, but edible nonetheless. And it's pasta tonight but that only takes 10 minutes. I reckon that if I station myself in the kitchen and keep looking at the pan, and make sure I don't wander off, I should be safe. Fingers crossed ...

Listening to: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, "There's a light"
Wondering: why sweetcorn is yellow ...

Finished it!

I finished Skallagrigg last night.

Having read some tales of hopelessness, of war, concentration camps and genocide, I thought I'd become hardened to difficult and emotive subject material.

Man, was I naive!

Skallagrigg isn't about any of those forms of seemingly remote cruelty. It's far more piercing because it's set much closer to home, in everyday society. The main thread that guides the story is in fact, a computer game, but the book isn't about technology or any virtual reality. It's about people, an incredibly powerful story of cruelty, love and hope, and ultimately the resilience of the human psyche. Sprinkled amongst it's pages are some beautiful bubbles of laughter and moments that simply brim with happiness, yet even now as I write, I find myself shedding tears.

William Horwood's strength here is that he doesn't offer the reader a passive role. He pulls you right in, exposes you to cruelty to the extent that you become as reliant on hope as do his helpless characters.

Although I've finished the book, I know that it hasn't yet finished with me. Skallagrigg is right at the top of my list of books to re-read over the Winter.

I still want to write properly about this story but for now I need to rejoin the life I know and that I really shouldn't take for granted.

Golf ball syndrome

I've not been a good blogger. Not been updating my wordiflossbag. And I've not been writing, you know, written words on paper, the act. For someone who can't even write in the first place, this probably isn't good. Not being regular like, well it leads to constipation and in my case something called golf ball syndrome (no, you really don't want to know).

So it's probably important that I write something every day, even if it doesn't make it in here. So that's what I'm going to do. Well at least I'll say so.

Hopefully I will then.

And that's it for today. No point in being over ambitious is there?

Actually, I'd better write that down. Tomorrow: an appointment with a piece of blank paper and a pen. Sounds kinda scary already.

And I must work out what I'm supposed to do with all these colons ':' and semi-colons ';' and dashes '-' and things, 'cos I really ain't sure.

Oh, and you know what? Someone looked at one of my pages through AltaVista's Babelfish translator, isn't that odd? I wonder what this nonsense translates to in German? Ich wundere mich, was dieser Unsinn auf zum Deutsch übersetzt?

Listening to: California Guitar Trio, "The Good the Bad and the Ugly"
Feeling: not good, so it must be either bad or ugly?

Alcohol

Precious and fragile things
need special hand-e-ling
my god, what have we done to you

we always tried to share
the tenderest of care
now look what we have put you through
things get damaged
things get broken
I thought we'd managed
but words left unspoken
left us so brittle
there was so little left to give

Angels with silver wings
shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you

.    .

things get damaged
things get broken
I thought we'd managed
but words left unspoken
left us so brittle
there was so little left to give

I pray you learn to trust

.    .

Depeche Mode, Precious edited

Intelligence measured in Arcseconds

It seems that as well as electing a new premier and discovering hip-hop, the japanese have been busy in space. They actually have a spacecraft up there, the Hinode, and it's been taking a peek at the Sun. Here's a piccy (you can click through to enlarge).

Image copyright JAXA

Each one of these little nugget-like lumps is a cloud of quite hot gas, about the size of Asia. I guess this means then, that the Sun is quite a chunky old feller?

The Hinode spacecraft is a project by JAXA and you can find out more about it here if you're interested, as well as see lots of colourful and informative pictures of the Sun.

It was launched only last month, on September 22. Curiously, this was the same day (in 1982) that Billie Piper, of Doctor Who fame, was born and also the day (in 2890) that Bilbo Baggins of the Shire was (or is it 'will be'?) born. I wonder if the sight of this rocket, engines burning bright in a Japanese Saturday morning sky, set Billie in mind for her time and space travelling role with the Doctor. Certainly it would have made a nice firework for Bilbo's birthday celebrations.

What I found particularly interesting is the Hinode's high resolution telescope. Apparently it can achieve "a very high angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds". For those (like me until a minute ago), who aren't sure what an arcsecond is, "One arcsecond is an angle equal to 1/3600 of a degree—or approximately the width of a human hair held thirty feet away".

Okay so let's have a think about this. A continent sized cloud of quite hot gas on the Sun, must be like the width of one fifth of a human hair, held out at thirty feet? But how would I hold a human hair thirty feet away? My arms aren't that long, you see. Hmm, I seem to be getting a bit confused about these distances and widths. Perhaps an arcsecond might be a useful unit of measurement to assess the width of my single brain cell. In fact I wonder what it might tell me about my IQ, if I went off and stood in front of the Hinode's, Solar Optical Telescope? Well I mean thirty feet away, of course.

Listening to: Leonard Cohen, "Winter Lady"
Dreaming: that I got dizzy and fell into the Sun

Jools, Ivor and the dreadful PGTip

Jools' Later on Friday night was pretty much this week's little highlight. Next Friday though, I'm in danger of being spoiled because in addition to Jools there's a profile of Ivor Cutler, a quirky Glasgowegian poet, actor and musician. I imagine the few people who are familiar with his performances have either passed on or are far too old to be bloggers. What a little gem of originality he was though. Have a listen to this short but amusing piece of his wisdom.

Note to self - Friday evening (Saturday morning really) on BBC2 at 00:40. Don't miss it!

The PGTips pyramid tea bag has to be one of the most annoying inventions of the 20th Century. I don't know whether the science behind the invention is also at fault, but what I can say is: when they came up with their supposedly revolutionary idea - a pyramidal tea bag, they forgot to put nice tea inside. Their marketing material suggests that because these tea bags aren't flat, because they "act like a miniature teapot", the tea gets a chance to mingle with the water, inside the bag and then out pops a well mingled brew. Well why is it then that my cheapo brand of Organic Fairtrade tea, in quite flat round bags, tastes trillions of times better than these daft and horrible little things?

I don't really wish bad things on anyone but I do wish, right at the point when Mr PGTip bag inventor was about to kindle his idea, that maybe he tripped over, or someone knocked him and that maybe he sprained his tea-pouring wrist or something. And maybe after that, just to distract him some more, that he had to go work at the North Pole for a while. Perhaps he could have come up with a new type of snowball design. Anything but the PGTip!

Listening to: Cat Stevens, "Sad Lisa"
Feeling: drained

The Jools Report

Jools Holland's Later is the late night, honey yoghurt desert of British music TV viewing. Pretty much the only thing I watch (well, until Green Wing comes back). What I love most is that he always has such a variety of artists.

The show is never dull even if the bands are, because Jools creates quite wonderful juxtapositions. You may have to shift to and fro' between thumping heavy metal, spanish guitar, blues, gospel, jazz and bright African clothing music.

Every now and then I'll do a little report about what was on, just to give myself something to look back on during those barren months when he's off-air.

Last night's show kicked off with Muse kind of poppy, I'm sure lots of people will like it. They did have a nice-ish sound with the singer trying be another Thom Yorke. They have been described as various things but basically this is a slightly rinsed out version of Radiohead and they do seem to have dabbled with one of that bands producers. The bass player is a double for the evil prison warden character out of Midnight Express. The second song, Map of the Problematique, had at least a little originality with heavy banging noises, loud guitar and piano all mixed in with the singer's wailing screams. I did wonder though, if the song was more about showing off his shiny guitar than about musical innovation. But don't let me put you off, if you like the kind of stuff that's in the charts right now, you'll love this. It might even grow on me given time.

I haven't worked out how to enjoy Amy Winehouse yet and the sound did seem a bit flat - maybe her engineer had the cold? Her guitarist had one of those big round Chuck berry electric guitars though, so that was good. She's described as "a distinctive '20 a day' voice ... jazz ... contemporary, quirky" and she did sound much better in a short vocal-piano duet with Jools than on her set.

The Gipsy Kings made an excellent shift. Four or five flamenco guitars, a bass and singer, and a mixed Cuban-Spanish sound. Apparently these guys have sold over eighty million records. I wonder if that's a lot? Very upbeat and happy, probably too happy for me but very nice. They do that funny guitar playing where you strum a bit then hit your fingers off your guitars in a strange and jolly form of self-flagelation.

I really love it when Jools interviews people, it's so thin that it's gorgeous. Here's his interview with John Legend

Jools: "What sights did you see in London?"
John: "None, I was working."
Jools: "Where do you keep your grammy awards?"
John: "On my piano at home."

Yup, that was it, two questions, (chuckle) - he's a funny wee thing.

The Raconteurs were quite noisy but I thrived on this stuff in my youth and can still happily listen to it. Quite a heavy sound with some tiny reminiscences of Cream and Ted Nugent although by no means in that class. Their second song, wandered a bit along the edges of monotony but then perked up with a piece of Keith Emerson inspired synthesiser that made me think right back to ELP. They were all bent over their instruments for this song, trying to project that heavy thrashing image. I do hope they weren't suffering from simultaneous constipation.

Found John Legend quite difficult, and a bit plain. he's described as R&B but I've heard a lot better R&B than this. Still, the drummer was wearing a pretty cool blues brothers hat and one of the backing singers showed off a pair of knees that were pointing together in a visually, very fascinating way. I guess it must have been her pin tight dress. With this kind of music, I can see why he needs the odd visual distraction.

The highlight for me, was an Irish band called Duke Special. Long scraggly hair, an open sided piano, clarinet and something that looked like a broken violin with bells on being used as a double bass. There's definitely a vocal resemblance to Neil Young here, if that's possible with an Irish accent. The sound is a bit James Blanket, or was it Blunt, but with all the glossy bits thrown out. Just plain songs but with a slight edge. Worthwhile and one to watch. Apparently this guy has done a cover of The Doors People Are Strange. Now there is a classic song, boy would I love to hear that on stage.

Amy Winehouse and Duke Special both have the kind of sound that works best live rather than on shows or in the studio. Definitely worth catching.

Burnt me nuts

I just burnt me pine nuts again!

I'm always burnin' me pine nuts. Why is it that when you watch them under the grill, they never do anything but as soon as you turn your back to wipe your greasy finger on a tissue, they burn? I mean, it was only a few seconds!

I turned round and there were those wiggling whispers of smoke curling up to the ceiling and creeping over to where the smoke alarm is. Quick then you got to rescue your nuts, open the back door, grab a tea towel and whirl it round and round under the smoke alarm, quick, quick, just like an airplane rotor, whisk all the smoke out before the thing goes off and wakes the neighbourhood.

Phew!

While I was adding me burnt nuts to the pan (they are still edible, you know, just a bit black), the radio started playing an old Maggie Bell song. Maggie Bell eh? Would you believe it? Bringing those memories all the way back from 1978. That's funny, -1978-, see that's almost a straight ... or is it a flush? No a flush is suits isn't it? Must be a straight. Well, almost.

...

Still, at least the pasta didn't go soggy this time.

Mmmm, pasta, pine nuts and saucy bits, yummy. I need a nice hot cup of coffee beans now ...

Listening to: sorry, didn't catch the name of that Maggie Bell track
Wondering: where this little moment of limpidity came from

and also reading ...

William Horwood, Skallagrigg. I'm only part way through.

Horwood is a master storyteller and he's written a piece of very serious fiction but in a sense this isn't fiction at all. He's takes reality, the kind some might prefer to hide from, he rips off its mask and thrusts it out. He gives you nowhere to hide.

This is a compelling and very beautiful story. It's about life and love and hope, but it's so many other things too, layered together. I don't know of a way to tell you more right now so I'll stop. I am going to challenge myself though, when it's done, to find a way to describe it.

I've cried here and I have to warn you, this book does not come with an escape plan.

If you haven't read Skallagrigg, don't be thinking of dying just yet because this is a book.

-- Edit: I've now finished and written a little more about it here --

reading ...

Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas, is a kind of horror thriller. I'd say the book is fairly light reading, well for horror fiction that is, but it's well written and the author certainly has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep the reader interested. The first chapter though is slow though. It doesn't come right out and grab you by the curlies, although it soon picks up pace. As horror fiction, it must be working because I've given up reading it late at night.

Nov 6 - Pat

I haven't seen many opinions from within the military, out in the Middle East, that express how individual soldiers feel about their job. Probably because I don't read a lot of war or politically oriented blogs. I stumbled across this article though, by Kevin Tillman, and it's interesting for a couple of reasons.

- His brother died and this is one way he has of remembering.
- He has something to say and what he says can't come easy for him.
- He poses powerful questions and questions generate debate.

I'll pick up on one particular thing:

"Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat."

Now as you read this, maybe you will or maybe you won't, receive a slight slap. Whatever you feel, his point is a good one and should be highlighted. There is a gap between the feelings we might have - of support, of opposition, of sympathy, of anger, for soldiers in Iraq and other places - and the feelings they themselves have while in the field. His article helped me remember just what kind of gap that is.