Minimal

While my weblog gently weeps

Not all is well on Blogger. There’s a growing crowd of Standard users who’ve not been able to post for almost 3 weeks now and a deafening silence from those in charge. You have to wonder, is it only Blogger Pro that matters these days? :(

5k favourites

They say there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. If so, the Poem O Matik 500 straddles it nicely. At first, I thought it was just another terrible 5k entry. Then I read it and chuckled. Clicked for a new poem and chuckled some more. By the time I left it, I was convinced it had gone so far beyond bad that it had done the full circle and come back to somewhere near brilliant. It must be intentional.

Other 5k highlights so far include:

• Wolfenstein 5K: yes it’s Wolfenstein, yes it’s in 3D, yes it’s in 5k
• Reflection: amazingly calming and beautiful
• Last stickman standing: great fun, nuff said

My money’s on Wolfenstein 5K to be the overall winner—a fairly safe bet, I’m sure you’ll agree.

The end of mind control?

Excellent news from across the pond—the US pledge of allegiance has been banned. This is good on so many levels. Not only is it a victory for non-Christians, it’s a great step towards removing the brainwashing of US kids into thinking they and their country are the chosen ones. The pledge of allegiance has always sickened me and while I don’t expect this to kill it off, I can at least enjoy the fact it’s being questioned.

Now, America, finish the job and take your God-damned flags down. ;)

File under “things you never knew you needed”

I never thought I’d say this, but it looks like the guys from 37 signals have finally lost it. Check out their 37bettermotors proposal for the ultimate in lazy-ass design. Quite incredible.

Cragside

I was still at school the last time I ventured into Cragside. I took a friend there yesterday and saw it with my eyes wide open for the first time. A grand country house in an even grander wooded estate near Rothbury (Northumberland), Cragside is even more beautiful than I remembered. Frankly, it was stunning. To think how many times I’ve driven past it in the last few years and never realised what’s just behind the trees. If you’re in the area on vacation, make sure you set a day aside to explore the place—you won’t be disappointed. :)

Well, not unless you’re like me and forget to take your camera. To make up for that, here’s a photo of the house from Graeme Peacock’s impressive collection.

Martin Grech

Delicate, haunting, beautiful. The TV commercial for the new Lexus SC430 is stylish to say the least. The album from which the equally outstanding soundtrack is taken is soon to be available in the shops. “Open Heart Zoo” by Martin Grech hits the shelves on 8th July.

Awesome

Self-promotion it may be, but I feel I have to draw attention to the fact that I took an Audi TT for a test drive today. Let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed. :)

Coupling

I did wonder whether an American network would ever have the balls to commission the BBC’s excellent Coupling. Well, it appears that NBC has. Not only that, but they’re lining it up to replace Friends. A bit ambitious if you ask me, especially given the show’s risqué nature and prudish US audiences. Still, they did rather like Ab Fab and that wasn’t all sweetness and light. Fingers crossed it works—it’s about time we sent them some of our quality comedy. :)

7 days, 7 cars

Long, long ago I suggested an idea for a mini-site based around a series of test-drives taken during the course of a week off work. Well, the 7days7cars site may be far from finished in the design sense, but the content’s been building up over the past few weeks. Not only that, but the fun and games begin tomorrow in a Mini Cooper. I can't wait. :)

Lawn games

You might think I was just pissing about. I prefer to see myself as an artist. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present a composition entitled... Interlagos!

• Aerial view
• Junção
• The Senna S

Yes, I was bored.

The name’s Ljungberg, Freddie Ljungberg

Which footballer are you? Find out courtesy of O₂.

Monkey’s heed goes bananas

£16m for Kevin Phillips? I’d have taken half that and been chuffed! What fools the mackems are.

Out of reach?

Once again, science steps closer to finding another solar system like our own. As fascinating as such advances are, they’re always tainted for me by creeping realism. Let’s face it, unless we stumble upon some incredible new way to move quickly over vast distances, we’re never going to set foot on these worlds. In my book, that’s only slightly more likely than finding out that God actually exists.

Call me selfish if you will, but what’s the point of making a journey if you’re not going to see its end? Until the sun’s ready to explode, I can’t see one. I’d much sooner concentrate on worlds within our reach, namely Mars and Europa. Now that’s something that would get me excited. :)

Info architecture

It may be very old news that web design causes confusion, but the methods used by Kansas State University in their tests are intriguing. It’s the first time I’ve seen users asked to draw a model of the site they’re using and it sounds like it’s producing interesting results.

Once Upon A Time In The West

Bought a CD of Ennio Morricone’s music yesterday and now I’ve got a hankerin’ for my old (missing) copy of Outlaws, the ageing first person shooter for the PC. I’m not that bothered about the game itself—it’s just the music on the CD that I’m after. C’mon Ebay, don’t fail me now... :)

Six Feet Under

More quality drama arrives on UK television screens and again it’s from across the pond. The pilot for Six Feet Under just finished and already I’m dying to see the next installment (pun intended). Immediately, you get the sense that every episode is going to be of the quality of a good film. Indeed, the last time I enjoyed a series opener this much was when The Sopranos started a few years back. Little surprise, then, to find that 6FU also comes from the HBO stable. Not all TV is crap in the US, after all.

Dutch invasion

You can tell the Netherlands didn’t make it to the World Cup this year. I’ve lost count of the number of NL stickers I’ve seen on the back of cars in the last couple of weeks. Welcome to England, my friends. :)

And did you know you’ve come to the UK’s official favourite short breaks destination?

Karting North East

Good news! Following this past weekend’s karting, I overheard Ian Lawson (owner of the excellent Warden Law track) saying he’d got a new track in Dunston. If you know the karting scene in NE England (yeah, that’s likely!), you’ll know that this is excellent news. Long, long ago, the Dunston circuit was actually quite good, but over the past 4 or 5 years, it’s got steadily worse with successive track layouts making it harder and harder to overtake. Fingers crossed that Ian can sort this out and make it great again.

Aaand... relax!

You know, it does you good to get away from computers for a while.