Could I Live Without TV?

It's been a year since I stopped watching live TV. Originally it was just because I bought a new TV and didn't bother connecting the sky box to it. After a few weeks I realised I didn't need to. 90% of the programmes I watch are American so I can see them weeks earlier online on demand without adverts. So I cancelled Sky, the Freeview switch happened and I didn't notice. I download the shows I like when they air whether in the States or the UK, I can watch what I like, when I like. No adverts or repeats (unless I choose to re-watch something awesome). 


Plus I've started really enjoying web-shows, perfectly tailored to me. Stuff about hacking, modding, zombies, and all kinds of nerd culture. there are channels as well as cool one off videos. I'm going to post a few of my favourites below. Enjoy!

Vihart - cool math related doodling and ideas

thebenheckshow - guy who builds xbox laptops and stuff

Hak5Darren - Shuriken for IT Ninjas!

ZombieGoBOOM - zombie related weapon tests

watchtheguild - web comedy about MMORPG gamers

So with all these and a bunch more I have a lot to watch. If normal TV stopped tomorrow, I think I'd be OK.

Related Things

The Slingshot Guy

Tom Ska

Big Think

Natalie Tran

Make Magazine

We've Got to Stamp This Out!

Stamps are going up 14p! First class is going to hit 60p in April. Now that might not seem like a lot to an average Joe who sends maybe a dozen letters a year. I send out over 100 every week! that's £14 a week loss to me. And it's not like they are improving the service either. It often takes a week for a 1st class letter to arrive at it's destination, and don't get me started on the amount of letters and packages Royal Mail looses, at least one a week of mine doesn't reach the recipient. 

The argument they are giving for the increase is that because of email people are sending less letters so they aren't making as much money. So the response to having a smaller pool of loyal customers who use your service is to gouge them for more money because you can. That's a business model I'm sure won't backfire massively. eBay sellers like me are keeping the Royal Mail afloat, our postman has a van full of packages every day and a small sack of bills and junkmail. TNT and other carriers aren't hiking their prices by a third every year. I already use them for larger packages because Royal Mail just don't try to compete, they think they hold a monopoly by having shops everywhere. Only a matter of time before they alienate so many small businesses that they go the way of the dinosaur.

But for now Royal Mail is a T-Rex I have to deal with daily. I'm going to buy up as many stamps as I can before the rise. Saving my profit margins for a few months at least. Then who knows? Might have to change strategy.

Related Thing

BBC News - Stamp prices: First-class stamps to cost 60p

Sunshine and Rainbows

Another glorious day in South Wales today. And guess what? Me and Laura both had a day off! So to the seaside we went. We played mini golf had ice cream and Porthcawl chips, and soaked up the sun :-) . Looking out at the sea we both were rendered speechless. The vista was moving and the moment made us both truly relaxed but what to say? Laura actually voiced the thought first "I don't know what to say". And neither did I.


A religious person could comment on the wonder of God's creation. I'm a total atheist and Laura has had some issues with the church of late. Lovers would profess the pleasure of being together in the moment. Once again that doesn't apply, Laura and I are friends, good friends. Laura is gay and I myself am a celebate priest of nerdery. (Ironically given my lack of faith if I'd lived 200 years ago I'm pretty sure I would have been a priest.). Silence is good too though, not prayer, not awkward silence or a moment of zen, just a nice silence.


We eventually talked about the reason why people once believed the earth was flat. Staring out at the horizon I saw the curvature and it seemed so hard to imagine such a backward time. People resisted the change in "world shape theory". There is a story about a lady who insisted the world rested on the back of a giant turtle. When asked  what that turtle walked on, she replied "another turtle, it's turtles all the way down."


When people have a fixed world view it takes a lot to change it. Laura's recent issue with her church concerns the bigoted views of the vicar there and how he abused his power to present them to the congregation. And not just as his opinion, but as the opinion of the church and of God (using carefully selected bits of the bible as an excuse of course). He included a request to sign an anti-gay marriage petition in the hymn sheet announcement leaflet thing (a old communication technology conveying an equally archaic point of view.)


The issue of gay marriages being called "marriages" seems to annoy some people a great deal. They say ''civil unions are ok" but you know they are the people who protested those when they started too. What the plackards and petitions should read if they were honest is "Say NO to CHANGE" the main currencies of religions are hope and fear. Giving hope is hard, especially when people are presented with so much hope outside of the church. But fear is easy. That's why politicians and advertisers use it so often. Fear of "the other", "the different" is engrained in our genetic code. But we are not our genes. We are not cavemen fearing other tribes that come from beyond that horizon. We have evolved. But then again the church has a bit of a problem with that too.


The further society evolves toward true social justice, the further out of touch the church seems. At a time in our past, religion was a point of light in the darkness, more loving than the cruelties of the world at large and offering promise of a brighter tomorrow. Well it's tomorrow now. It's sunny and there is a big gay rainbow on the horizon.

Related thing

image source: etsyqueers.blogspot.co.uk

Sign the Coalition FOR Equal Marriage petition Here

It's Hot In Here, Must Be Summer :)

Only a quick post today. A 17 month old baby is running everyone here ragged. The seemingly boundless energy he possesses might be the solution to ever rising fuel bills. Note to self *Baby treadmills connected to electrical generators* , It's a billion pound idea. 


Summer has arrived and the nice weather has moved us all to the garden to enjoy the sun. This massive increase in play area has thrilled baby Sam but knackered the crap out of the rest of us. He's been watering the plants, kicking a ball around, and drawing in chalk all over the patio. Oh and running, running around and around at a pace that seems impossible for his little legs.


He's so good at copying things too. He saw me lean on a wall be the window, he dropped what he was doing and did exactly the same. Better go now before he starts blogging too.




Sam say "Bye-Bye!" :-)

Without a Map Hunger Games Has Lost it's Way

We watched the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games last night. Disappointing to say the least. They have cut the horror and violence to a bare minimum (even more so in the UK cut) to make it more kid friendly, I get that but don't agree with it. But what's worse is they have cut so many little moments that develop the characters and explain their relationships. I think the actors did well with what they were given. There seems to be a lot cut out. If they did the book right it would have been a 3 hour film which I know is not feasable, they just cut it down in such a way that much of the character motivation is gone and that bummed us out.

Anyway, enough of that. Back to the books where all the effects are better, the characters more rounded and the Hunger Games feel truly horrific. A long long week ago when I read the first book, my friend Laura said it would be cool to see a map of Panem and I thought so too. So today to Google I went!

Sadly there is no official map of Panem :-(

People have different opinions of where the districts are. The one above is close but I have a few bones to pick (naturally)

District 12 is identified as being in what was once appalachia putting it in the north east of the US. Spot on there I think.

The Capitol is north of district 2 which has a large mountain with a command base under it (Norad maybe). So that fits with this map.

The other low numbered districts being near the capitol makes sense so I'll go with the placement of 1 and 3 (gold and precious stones mining in the desert states, and electronics development in California makes sense). but district 4 is in my opinion totally in the wrong place. It should be on the north west coast of the U.S, Washington, Oregon and N. California not down south. 

The other theory I have concerns Districts 5 + 6. Now although it's debated what is produced there, some people agree that 5 is power generation and 6 is transportation.

I think the person who made this map put transportaion over Michigan because Detroit is historically known for car manufacturing. 

My theory though is that it is more a central transportation hub and should be where 6 is on this map.

That would put 6 right next to 12, providing coal for the power plants makes sense to me.

Other than that I'd probably make 8 smaller and 9 bigger (grain production is going to need much more space than textile factories). 

That's just my theory, how I imagine it. That's it I suppose, the books allow for this type of theorising. You can imagine the tracker jackers being huge. or how magestic the Cornucopia looks. In a movie that is taken away.

They say never meet your heroes, maybe don't watch the movie version of a book you like either.

having said that:

Related Thing

http://litreactor.com/columns/the-top-10-book-to-film-adaptations-that-were-actually-good

Doodlebug

Man I love my phone! Just started playing (and immediately got addicted to) DrawSomething. It's a Pictionary type game. By guessing correctly you earn coins which allows you to buy more colours so you can draw more detailed pictures. only problem with it in my case is I'm drawing with my big fat finger on a tiny screen. so a lot of my drawings look like my 18 month old nephew could have drawn them. It's still loads of fun though.


Coincidentally I've been looking at getting a galaxy note this summer when my contract renews. I'm getting the S3 as soon as it comes out. I'll pay for it outright I don't care. I'm getting one. so I thought the note might make a good second device for games and media consumption if I can get it free with my contract.

Still not 100% on board with the full size tablets as computer alternative, I might get a windows 8 one when they start showing up. Even the Android ICS tablets seem a little stripped down and simplified, a bit too apple-like for me. Fine for casual consumers but for me, a device that size needsa full OS not a mobile app platform.

Related Thing

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/draw-something-masterpieces/

Being a loud mouth with a brain is tough

For those of you who don't watch the celebrity apprentice US, this week Penn Jillette was called out for being condescending to Lou Ferrigno by Clay Aiken. I totally respect Penn Jillette, not all his beliefs line-up with my own but I respect his integrity and his character, perhaps because I see so much of myself in him. 


I'm a big loud opinionated smart-ass. It frustrates me greatly when I have to listen to idiots opinions which are wrong but are treated as just as valid as mine. The thing about a show like the apprentice though is not to be as nice to each other as you can. It's to come up with good ideas and execute them well.  So Penn's method while it might hurt Lou's feelings is perfectly valid and a good way to achieve that.


Also I think maybe Penn's tendency to annunciate and gesticulate when explaining things to an audience coupled with his stature and the fact he was talking to a deaf man made it look like he was being more condescending than he actually is.


But the thing I admire most about him is the way he handled it afterwards. He put his hands up and said sorry I did that, and he quietened down. Then Clay tried to insinuate that he was not helping at all because it wasn't his idea. Clay was clearly doing this to get in good with Lou.


Regardless of what Clay was saying, Penn is by a mile the smartest person on the team and should be respected for it. If he goes before Lou then it's proof that brains get you no-where and youre better off being a loud idiot than a loud genius.

Related Thing

Aim for the Brain!

The heroin in "The Hunger Games" which I read yesterday, and am about to start the second book, is adept with a bow and arrow. As it turns out my friend Laura is too (well she has experience with one). If she wasn't in my "end of the world survivors" gang before, she is now. excellent for catching squirrels for tea, yummers! or shooting zombies through the face.




My weapon of choice in the zomb-pocalypse or other end of the world scenario has to be the crossbow though. Darrell in "The Walking Dead" is by far and away the biggest bad-ass and clearly a real survivor. I know 'mericans love some guns n ammo, but a crossbow is quiet, you can make ammo easily and it's re-usable. I'm surprised they don't show up more often in zombie movies.




But bow skills are always a plus in survival. I looked it up and there is a place near to us where we can practice with bows for under £20 including lunch. Could be a fun day out. Paintballing was fun, Laser-tag sounds awesome, I think maybe this is the topper though. All the fun of shooting stuff without those messy guns. Perfect.

Related Thing

Adventure Wales - Archery

Tiredness and Hunger Games

I only got three hours sleep last night. Totally worth it though. In anticipation of the film being released in the UK I got the Hunger Games trilogy on my kindle and started reading. That was at 10 last night. By 3 am I had read about 2/3 of it and only gave up because I physically couldn't keep my eyes open.


It's such a good book, clearly written for teens but great for anyone who's interested in dystopian visions of the future. It's so bleak but also inspiring. Now I love zombies (as the blog title kinda gives away) but I'll go for any story that shows humans at their worst and best all at once with a backdrop of action and horror. Hunger games does that perfectly. I can't recommend it enough.


This reminded me of another book I read a few months ago. not it's plot but the questions it raised about what kind of person I am. How to I see myself in a sci-fi future. Battling Aliens with laser pistols, fending off the undead or roaming the endless empty earth.


In his book "Zombie Spaceship Wasteland", author and comedian Patton Oswalt says that sci-fi nerds can be split into one of these three categories. If you imagine yourself in a zombie apocalypse you see hope for yourself in the world you are in now, but that you can band together with others like you to survive. If you see a wasteland you have given up the hope and see yourself alone within the world as it is. If a spaceship is what you see then you just want to leave it all behind, go somewhere and start a new.

I know what I am, do you?

Related things

Patton Oswalt - Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games Trilogy

It's a living!

This is what I do, I buy and sell stuff on eBay. Mainly memory cards and other data storage devices. I've dabbled in cool collectables, like toys and steampunk stuff too. I've been doing it for about 8 months and It's going good. I'm not going to quit my day job just yet though because a. This only takes up a few hours a day and b. My supply chain isn't the most rubust. 


Seeing as I have a soapbox, I'd like to point out the insane bias in the media toward 'the dangers of buying on eBay'. As with many scare stories in the tabloids that concern people being stung by new technologies, It's bogus. The fault lays with the Idiots who send £10,000 wire transfers to Nigeria for a motorbike they have never seen (actual story). Rather than headlining these kind of stories "Gullable Idiot Gives Cash to Stranger" They tend to go with "eBay Hackers Make off With Thousands". Another tabloid trend which annoys the hell out of me. Calling anyone who uses a computer to commit a crime a hacker. Grrr. asking for idiots bank details and them giving them to you is not hacking. 


Anyhow, there is a massive skew in favour of buyers on eBay. I get it, eBay wants the public to feel safe and prevent crooks from cheating people, but over the past few years, perhaps in response to these stories, eBay has shifted the power away from the seller to such an extent that, as a seller you really are at the mercy of the buyers honesty. If they say an item didn't arrive, I can't argue because even if I have proof of posting and show eBay I'll get negative feedback if the buyer so wished. Even if they gave me a mis-typed address or the post office loose it, still my problem, or face negative feedback and eBay force me to refund.


I've caught people out before, they were clearly lying and the best I can hope for is to refund them and hope for no feedback. There is no protection of feedback from eBay, I've asked and all they say is, We can't block feedback from being left, once it is left we will review it and if it is in breach of rules we can remove it. The rules are against swearing and revealing personal details. "TERRIBLE SELLER, AVOID!!" breaks no eBay rules, even if I did nothing wrong. In return I can only leave positive or no feedback. It's not the fairest system in the world.




Moral of the story: Seller and Buyer beware on eBay.

Related Thing

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/99170/eBay-cons-are-too-easy.html

(The judge had NEVER HEARD of eBay - and he's a judge.)

2nd Day, 2nd post. Hope I can keep it up.

You say Potato, I say Potato

  

Last night I used the phrase "potato, potato" (Being pronounced po-tay-tow , po-tar-tow) in a text and I immediately realised the person I had sent it to wouldn't hear how I'd pronounced it in my head.


When texting or IMing pronunciation and the subtle nuance of language can rarely be translated. The amount of fights and misunderstandings texting must cause, simply by us not thinking about how written and spoken words can differ, when you introduce sarcasm and irony into the mix you have a recipe for disaster.


Thankfully we have ;-) ,  :-P , JK and  LOL to save us from some of these pitfalls. *side note* Can we please keep these only for texting? don't say LOL to my face, it's annoying and it's a lie. Your not "laughing out loud" are you??


I also used the phrase "thanks for the effort" in reference to some photos I needed that hadn't quite gotten to me on time due to technical difficulties. This was misunderstood to mean "Nice try but you FAILED!" where I really meant to thank the person for putting in the energy and effort into taking them and sending them to me. It also took a few messages and emoticons :'( before I realised how upset they were. All was calmed, clarified and resolved eventually, thankfully.


Moral of the story: think before you text, and when you read one.

Related Thing

skip to 4:30 for the potato bit.

This is just one of the things on my mind right now. There's a lot of stuff floating around in there so I'll try to keep this blog updated.


I want to be all creative and post original photos, art, poetry and the like. As well as musings, and observations.


I'll probably just vent about what is bothering me or exciting me, and post links to cool stuff I see on my travels online and IRL.