Author: richard

Inspired by our trip to NY, here’s a new game you can play anytime you buy anything. The objective of the game is to have the last word when ending a transaction, with a secondary aim of scoring as many points as possible, with a point won each time either you or the shop person says something.

An example of how not to play… let’s say you’ve just handed over payment and been given a receipt:

1. You: Thank you.
2. Shop person: You’re welcome.
3. (you leave the store)

You lose: you didn’t have the last word, and it’s a short exchange anyway. Let’s try again:

1. You: Thank you.
2. Shop person: You’re welcome.
3. You: (smile expectantly)
4. Shop person: Have a nice day.
5. You: And you have a nice day too.
6. Shop person: Why thanks.
7. You: You’re welcome.
8. (you leave the store)

Yes! You win, and you score 6 points. Good work.

Medieval history… dull dull dull. Except when Terry Jones does it. I only caught the last two episodes of Medieval Lives, but it was just smashing. Much was learned: Good King Richard I (actually bad); Bad King Richard II (actually good); Hunchback King Richard III (complete fabrication). Or that medieval society was very litigious, spending much time in court rather than, as I probably thought, eating mud or something.

Reading an interview it looks the whole series would be pretty good.
There’s also a book of the series, but I don’t know what that’s like.

We’re back from a trip to New York. I’ll just mention one thing before I forget: the crossing signs on the streets spoke (not so unusual in itself) but it was more like a song. We got “Wait… Wait…. Wait…. Sixth Avenue! Walk sign is on to cross Sixth Avenue. Sixth Avenue! Walk sign is on …”. There’s something about the pause between “cross” and “Sixth Avenue” that made it flow so well. There’s an example WAV sample of something similar you can listen to, but it’s much too flat – not the same at all. We should have recorded it.

We saw Marisa and Erena the other week for a trip to Ham House, and while we were there Marisa handed me a copy of her latest book. You’ve got a copy, right? Well, flip to page 247 and there I am making guest appearance in unit 10: “Making an appointment with a GP”. Fame at last! Thank you Marisa. I going to try very hard to follow the script word-for-word the next time I need to phone my GP :-)”

I spent an evening with Paul at
Brands Hatch… (photos)

If your day has not quite started right, or you’re finding it hard to get motivated, or just a bit down in the dumps, I’d recommend whacking on Mr. Blue Sky nice and loud. It’s not cool, it’s not clever, it’s just happy. Hey, hey.

Alex‘s posting on Brighton new media alerted me to the
Coffee FAQ. The section on growing your own coffee trees is probably taking the coffee thing a little too seriously for my liking.

We wait and see…

I think I just heard this phrase on the radio:
“…meanwhile, over on Radio 4 long wave, lawn mower racing…”

A bit of digging reveals racemower.co.uk, and the fact that today is the British Lawn Mower Racing Association’s annual 12 hour race.

“As the grasshead racers gun their Atcos and Qualcasts round a field in Dorset at a dizzying 35mph, Murray [Walker] is moved to pick up his commentator’s microphone once more to describe this most spectacular, and democratic, of motor sports. ”

I’d better go tune in…

For anyone who missed the NotCon’04 (like me), there’s now audio and video to watch.

NTK described NotCon as: “is an informal, low-cost, one-day conference on things that technologies were perhaps not intended to do”. I can recommend “Telling the time (not very accurately) using a Marks & Spencer prawn sandwich and a BBC micro”.