March 2003 Archives

Time for some mindless junk? Okay, the following isn't *so* mindless, but it is pretty hilarious; two Shakespeare plays translated into l33t and presented as flash movies ideal for breakfast-time viewing (advise broadband):

Tales for the l33t


...and...


Tales for the l33t: Patr Too[sic].

Gotta love it!

The second sunniest February on record for the British Isles has ended with a spectacular drop in temperature, not to mention clouds, rain and general misery. Admittedly, it's still pretty warm, and we've had so much good weather for the last month that no one really has much of a right to complain. Except me, so bring on the sunshine! It's time the British government entertained dragging these islands toward the equator.

I now stink of cigarette smoke, having just arrived back home from a college graduate Quiz Night that was otherwise pretty enjoyable. Frankly, whatever measures they take to ban smoking in public places - la California - is absolutely fine with me. In fact, while we're at it, I think it's only fair that smokers be made to subsidise the cost of washing powders and dry cleaning.
The quiz consisted of several rounds, from trivia, through to music (listening to opening bars), film (details from the Diner scene in Pulp Fiction), Who Wants to be a Squillionaire and true or false rounds. The turnout was massive - eighteen teams of four people each, which made for some stiff competition. Did I mention the free pizza? 21 of those... not really enough to go around, especially since I can eat more than a whole large on my own (I was controlled... only two slices). Mmmm... anyhow; the lowest score was 29, and the highest,72.
Our team's score was ...71! Yes, we, team "Snafu: The Erogenous Hippo", came a close second to team "Norfolk & Chance" (say that in an Irish accent and you'll understand why that's amusing - no\'fuk\'n\'chance). So congrats to them, and congrats to Pippa, Phil, and Erin for bringing our team in at second place; we got a meal voucher for India House, one of Cambridge's better curry houses. Top prize was a round of cinema tickets for the Arts Picture House, which is pretty good, but I'm well chuffed with our takings; anything that brings me closer to my chicken saag and chapathi makes me one happy fellow indeed . Oh, I is in a good mood now! Still waiting anxiously for some Nepenthes (a family of tropical climbers that I grow) seed to arrive; I've been so keen to get them going that I've even prepared my culture medium in advance - I'm sowing them in vitro, on 3/4 strength Knudsen's C, in a bid to produce a few more plants than I'll get by doing it on soil. Still nothing in today's post. Nuts. Right, time for some shuteye - I should really douse myself with Febreze... this smoke is atrocious

I've finally looked into setting up a BB of my own; the options aren't too many, and really boiled down to phpBB and InvisionBoard - both are PHP based and require mySQL, and I just happen to have one extra SQL database floating around so...

Invisionboard it is; though it's newer, it demands fewer server resources, is easier to skin (skinning is the process by which a forum's appearance can be customised) and has a burgeoning population of fans whose own scripts and skins have already reached a level of good size and quality. I've only been at it for 24 hours (the board took eight minutes to install!) and have only modified the forum logo thus far. All in good time, since I can only work on it in the evenings, and only when I've done my own reading and notation beforehand.

So, forum population: 1 - me - and so I hope it will remain for the time being. Since it's such a specialist forum, I don't think that populating it will be a problem - it should take one email to the right list, but that won't come until I've customised all that I want to customise beforehand; overhauling while people try to use the thing isn't such a great idea

Try to get a little work done at home in the morning and something always buggers it up; somewhere through the walls of this shared house an alarm is going off. It has been going off for fifteen minutes and shows no signs of letting up. At this rate it's owner had better be dead, because no one has the right to sleep on through such an annoyingly shrill ringer!

Things are finally up and running. Following a great reunion weekend in London with old school-friends, I plan to push on and give these pages an interface. Slowly, slowly, and all in good time, of course, as I have my Ph.D to attend to first and foremost!

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