Hurray! April!

Today was my 29th birthday. I took the day off work and went to Sheffield with M****. We got the train and the plan was to meet Sam and Tom at the Devonshire Cat at 2pm. As the train didn't get to Sheffield until about, erm, 13:35, we just went straight there. I had been to the Devonshire Cat before, with Rob, but that was a while ago. So, yeah . . . we went there, had a few drinks, then I bought a load of records at FOPP, then we met Jenny at the university, then she drove us all back to their place, where we hung around for a while. Sam came back (this time with Jackie), as they had a viewing of a house a couple doors up from Jenny's house. Rob appeared at some point. Tom showed us around his house (as M**** had never been there) and, eventually, Rob drove M**** and myself back to Leeds (Rob was staying overnight). I stayed in that night, conscious that the following day would be a 'heavy one'.

15:12:06. I don't know what it is about glasses but I seem to have this thing about taking pictures of them. That's Tom in the background once again, mid-motion. This pub is The Devonshire Cat, Sheffield, where M**** and I met Sam and then Tom. I was amazed at the selection of beers here. The food was okay . . . nothing special, but then my Thai green curry had a lot to live up to.

15:14:04. A couple of minutes later . . . same story. We've drunk a few pints of beer and there's still loads of empty glass on our table. P'raps it's time to go to FOPP and get some LPs.

15:52:01. And then a nice bit of sepia action . . . M**** probably in the middle of berating me for something.

16:38:04. I've deleted lots of images but for some reason this one stays. I think I find it odd that that girl (next to the bicycle) can now be seen by anyone with a computer and an internet connection. I wonder if she knows or cares? It's kinda weird, isn't it? I was talking to Liz about this and basically saying that, legally, and whilst I'm loathe to use this term, I know that, yes, legally, I own the copyright for all these images and that, technically, I'm probably doing nothing wrong, the pictures having been taken in public places or else the privacy of my home. But, erm, if any one of these people pictured were ever to say to me, "I don't like my likeness being available on the internet like that," then I would have no qualms about removing the image concerned or changing to conceal/remove their identity. So, erm . . . I hope she doesn't mind.

16:39:03. Not quite sure what's going on here (for a change). That's obviously M**** to my right and, looking at the photo (apparently) taken a couple of seconds later, I would assume that to be Jenny to the right. But due to all the blurring . . . well, she certainly doesn't look like Jenny. I find it kind of ghostly how these strange people appear. Who are they? Ghosts of the camera. It's as if my camera contains spirits who are just waiting for the right mode to be selected before they can make themselves apparent in the image taken. Odd.

16:39:05. So this is when me, M**** and Tom went to the university to meet Jenny. This was some kind of cafe thing and there where many doors leading to this place. Too many doors, you might say. I think I just had an espresso here. I had a belly full of beer so I thought p'raps time to sober up. It was a damn fine espresso too.

22:13:07. As per the entry below. Another angle. That's Tania in the background there.

22:17:00. Here we have the birthday present from Rob - ABSINTHE! No, sorry, not Absinthe. What am I saying? A bottle of specially devised 'Drink Me!' But, yes . . . I think that was the first time I had had absinthe . . . I wonder if . . . naaaaah. Yes . . . but very, very nice. You've probably heard of the method of preparing this drink, involving sugar, water, a flame, blah, blah, blah . . . that is what Rob did, and I ended up with a glass of a strange, cloudy drink tasting a bit like Ouzo. Mmmmmm. Very good. I seem to have received so many excellent presents this year around. This picture I have picked as one can make out the wording on the label.

17:49:04. This would have been at the, erm . . . could it have been the Oak? I'm really not sure, actually. It was at a pub on Otley Road. That's Tom to the left and Simon with the Parker-style coat. There were a few other pictures like this but they were all a bit too dark (note to self: use the flash). I was trying to capture them 'bonding', you see. P'raps I thought the flash would startle them and they would flee.

17:53:02. So, four minutes later - this must be the same place. I think it's the Original Oak, but I'm a bit confused. Ah well. So here we have Nicola, M**** and Craig. Once again, I still haven't got to grips with the concept of the flash . . . I find it too intrusive but I can see how it would be useful. Therefore, I've tried to enhance this picture to make it a bit lighter. Anyway, nothing too exciting so far . . . everyone still looking controlled . . . almost pensive, you might say. But check out the awful quality of the image. Not good.

18:28:02. So this must have been the Hyde Park. Hmmmm. I think this was number six on our crawl along a select few of the pubs along Otley Road. I had deliberately skipped the Skyrack and a few of those god-awful pubs in Headingley. Rob and I arrived slightly later and slightly wetter than everyone else, and we had thought the ten minute walk might have a sobering effect. Not sure myself.

18:28:08. And then six seconds later I remember to use the flash. Everyone looking a bit more 'aware' this time around.

18:32:02. A few minutes later, someone would have taken this picture of Simon and I . . . dunno who. Note the evidence, though: empty plastic shot glass. Hmmmm. I suspect that contained . . . tequila, yes! Tequila! I remember now. Yes, and I remember Simon throwing salt all over place. "Have you got enough salt there, M****?" as he poured a paper sachet full of salt somewhere in M****'s direction.

18:33:04. Not sure who took this one (to the right there). As you can tell by the time and, no doubt, the chairs, we're still at the Hyde Park.

18:37:08. I think this is one of my favourite pictures from today. This is Gav. I had arranged to meet Gav at The Library at 18:45 so either the clock on my camera is a bit wrong or we were both early. You decide.

18:52:02. And then we have the focused, calm version of Gav. This may have been the second or third attempt. That's Paul and Craig in the background. I think Gav arrived initially with Fluffy Phil (of whom I don't think I have any pictures) but somehow Simon appeared later on. NEXT!

19:50:03. So that's Simon there and that's almost one hour later. Hmmmm, curious. I'm not quite sure how two pictures managed to happen within two seconds of each other . . . well, actually I am but . . . see, there's even this mode where it will take pictures every few seconds until you let go of the shutter. I think it's intended for sports and fast moving stuff . . . I dunno. Can I go now?

19:50:05. Darren's appeared from somewhere - that's him in the background below the lights. I used to live with Darren. Only for a few months mind. It was a six bedroom rented house on Stanmore Street and one of the housemates kind of went a bit odd and moved out one day. So, erm, then Darren appeared and I've known his since. And I was wrong back there, because that's Fluffy Phil there to the right. I'm not sure if this is the Eldon or the other one . . . erm, the Packhorse? Yes I am. This is the Packhorse, surely. Did we even go to the Eldon?

19:51:09. Another dull pub scene. Maybe I should delete this one. No, maybe not, actually. This and the following two pictures seem to be in some kind of sequence. And I like the depth here. Some people are near the camera and some people are far from the camera. Mmmmmm.

19:51:08. I don't trust the seconds here. I reckon this followed the previous picture.

19:51:04. Going back in time. Nicola succumbs to blur and strangers try to infiltrate the group. I think we spent quite a while at the Eldon.

20:20:01. I don't know if this is the same pub or not. The walls look the same. So that's Rob on the right, doing god knows what. Darren, in the black shirt looking ever so slightly uncomfortable . . . and we know the others.

20:28:06. And then things started to get blurry. This looks suspiciously like the Eldon, but I barely remember being there. Although M**** says it was here that Gav ordered a load of some kind of Schnapps for everyone . . . toffee, maybe? Caramel?

And as the full moon gradually approached . . .

02:36:00. As the years rolled on, he found it increasingly difficult to remember how he had come here and, more importantly, why? He was sat on some grass, on the bank of a stream, underneath the shade of a large oak tree. He bit into his sandwich, two think slices of white bread, containing roasted seeds (just pumpkin at the moment), preserved meat and a chick pea paste a friend had given him earlier that week. Sunlight was trickling through the branches and there was a slight, warm breeze blowing through the air. It felt real, but he knew the sun, certainly, was artificial. He was actually in a huge underground cavern but the illusion was incredible, he had to admit. Everything had changed. They had given him new clothes, a new name, they had fed him, explained who they were and, more importantly, why . . . and yet whether he had chosen to remain or whether they had tricked him, fooled him, he couldn't decide. His lunch break over, he wandered back to the 'farm', keen to make a good impression during his first week at work.

02:36:00. So, like I say, most of these pictures are blurred. I think my misguided logic went along these lines: the flash is obtrusive. Don't use the flash. But without the flash, there's not really enough light. Okay, so increase the length of exposure. And, of course, you increase the exposure you have to keep the camera still for longer. Maybe I should have, erm . . . changed the ISO speed, given that I can set this from 50 to 400. Oh, I don't know.

02:36:00. If you've seen this error before, please let me know:
hdb: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdb: packet command error: error=0x50
ATAPI device hdb:
Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
Cannot read medium - incompatible format -- (asc=0x30, ascq=0x02)
The failed "Read Subchannel" packet command was:
"42 02 40 01 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "

02:42:06. He wondered what he was doing here, hovering over this planet . . . just a dull, white planet. He was unsure whether he had chosen to be here, whether he had been made to come here or whether he had been made to be believe he had chosen to come here. Ah well, descend, descend. He was vaguely amused to note the presence of some kind of atmosphere. He thought it quaint, as he began penetrating a thick layer of cloud (seemingly covering the entire planet), how once his body would have used some of these gases to oxygenate a fluid that swam through his body, pumped by a single muscle. The cloud started to thin and it dawned on him that this planet was probably nothing but water . . . that was certainly the case on this side of the planet. He sensed life in the air around him, but then passed below the surface of the water and found what he was looking for - an abundance of life.

02:48:02. As a child, my family would often go on holiday to Scotland, to a cottage belonging to a family friend located just outside Langholm. I think it was when I was about seven years old on one of these such holidays that I gained what is now a permanent scar to my forehead. Me, my brother and my two sisters were playing in Langholm, near this river, just kind of throwing rocks at the water and stuff. My brother found this particularly large rock and intended to throw it in my direction but clearly I had to move. I remember my brother telling me to move out of the way. This I did, but not enough. I can't really remember the rock coming towards me . . .

02:48:05. So as the units for energy (Joules) and mass (kilogram) are completely arbitrary and as the speed of light squared is merely a factoring constant in the equation, does it not follow that energy and mass are one of the same? If, at any point, at any velocity, one or both cannot be accounted for then our 'closed' system must be extended. There is clearly something at work that we haven't taken into account.

02:48:07. Cooper and his men approached the house cautiously. After all these years he didn't want anything messed up. For nearly two hours now, the house had been at the centre of a two mile exclusion zone. Nothing had entered. Nothing would leave. The house had been cut-off from the outside world . . . no electricity, no gas, no water, no nothing, and yet Cooper knew it wasn't going to be this simple. He had an odd feeling looking up at that perfectly innocent terraced house and it was probably then that the rumbling started . . . an earthquake? Here? No . . . not an earthquake, not here. "Everyone get back . . . no-one fires 'till I say," as the ground continued to shake and he noticed several of his men stumbling and falling. A crack appeared in the tarmac by his feet. Slate tiles smashed to the ground. And there he was, on the top floor, smiling, waving . . . "Cooper! I'm up here!" just as a chimney stack landed a few feet from Cooper, smashing into its component parts . . . is that a bird's nest? And then he heard it, gunfire, a single round, and then a scream, "I SAID NO . . . " but could barely hear himself, as another tile exploded inches from his left foot. There was no mistaking it . . . the house was very slowly rising, and, as he looked back up, the window where Melchizedek had been a moment ago was now smashed . . . bullet entry point?

14:58:05. Rob turned his culinary hand (is that a normal hand?) to . . . well, a kind of glorified BLT. Rob's version involved no lettuce and no tomato but had the addition of fried onions, cheese, pepper . . . seeds? Upon completion, I found I could only manage half of one of these, so the remaining bun (we had one and a half each, you see) was kept in the fridge. These things are important. P'raps it was after cooking these that we began watching 'Spirited Away'. I'm unsure and yet would come to rely on time so much later on. Ah well.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy it can contain.

Yesterday was an odd day. During the last half hour of 'Spirited Away', I became increasingly aware of my heart beating. I don't think it was beating fast but it just seemed to be pounding more than usual. I put it down to adrenalin caused by my reaction to the film. But as time went by, it still felt . . . wrong, like as if I was about to have a heart attack, not that I've ever had one, naturally. I thought that maybe I should lie down. I just needed to lie down. But I really wanted to see the rest of 'Spirited Away'. Ten minutes to go, I paused the film, probably to the bemusement of Tania and Rob and said, "I think I'm going to have to lie down. I feel knackered," but, as someone pointed out, there was only ten minutes to go. I think I went upstairs to my bedroom nonetheless, but my room stank of chemicals present in washing machine tablet things, you know? Those Persil tablet things? See, I had recently hung up a load of washing there. So, back downstairs, to see the last ten minutes. The film finished but then things got very confusing. Hallucinations, paranoia, delusions and still my heart was pounding in my chest, I was sweating all over and felt a bit nauseous. I babbled incoherently at Tania and Rob for a while but realised I had to go to bed and my room wasn't a pleasant option. Tania kindly allowed me to 'sleep it off' in her bed, whilst they set out to make waffles using Tarn's new waffle iron. Somehow I managed to work out to ring M**** to ask her if she could come around to look after me as I clearly wasn't quite right. The physical symptoms were soon to largely diminish, leaving just my unhinged mental state. It wasn't for another hour or two before my head realligned itself and I felt oddly empowered (oh, so I'm okay then?) and resolute. These feelings have remained. I'm not sure what happened on Sunday but I seem to have stumbled upon a well of resolve that I never knew I possessed. I write this in case others have experienced the same. Is this usually what happens?

Chambers and Partners, James? Is that you? You should be careful what your browser says. I had the strangest dream last night. Well, actually, there were three or four dreams, but two particularly stuck in mind. In one, I drove off a cliff in a car and died. Now, I've never died in a dream before. I've often come close, but the dream has always ended before my life did, but this time was different. I can't really describe what happened after I died . . . I just knew that I was dead. How odd. Hmmmmm, but anyway. The other dream . . . well, there I was, happy flying around, I think somewhere around Wakefield Drive (Lancaster) again and this woman actually said to me, "What are you doing flying around? Get back on the ground and stop being so inconsiderate." Someone was actually berating me for flying in a dream. Crazy. Like, if you can't fly unassisted in a dream then when can you do it? See, she was basically saying I was being selfish and that I should 'get my head out of the clouds' which is kind of ironic, really . . .

I began my latest university assignment last night and got quite a lot done. Today is reserved for the writing up of this assignment and I really shouldn't be doing stuff like this.

Hmmmm . . . but it seems we have a problem with patents - www.kde.org, which itself leads onto webshop.ffii.org. I had no idea . . .

Enough! I don't care if he's rich - this nonsense has got to stop!

We have a visitor, 158.125.1.114, yesterday at 19:27:45 BST. Welcome. Interesting. I've never seen 158 there before. So is the server nervous-energy anything to do with Loughborough University? And why did you bother telling me that the value of HTTP_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is equal to XXXXXXXXXX? I really see what little use is this information, but thanks all the same. Their browser can accept shockwave-flash, ms-excel, ms-powerpoint, msword . . . yawn. I'm tired. Do you think it came up in a Google search? The Google bot is, after all, my most frequent visitor.

And I will shortly be setting up a charitable fund for the building of a laboratory. Apparently, I need 20 millions dollars . . . but me thinks such a laboratory probably already exists within university physics departments . . . or at least most of the equipment will be there. So much to do, so little time . . .

I have about 88% of the assignment now complete . . . perhaps even 91% . . . almost there . . . STAR WARS!

ooops - did I write that? (it was there for a week or two - a review I wrote for 'Spirited Away'. Grrrrr)

The image I scanned in from the back of a receipt. This damn thing followed me to Australia. I dropped it (an accident) in Dave & Gladys's study but it followed me back. God knows. The man clearly lends himself to ridicule. The other side? Of the receipt? Oh. Right. It's faded, but it seems to say 'Est Est Est Leeds' at the top. A restaurant? 31/33 East Parade. And the date . . . the date . . . No longer visible, but I can also make out 'SERVICE NOT INCLUDED' and the drinks came to eight pounds and twenty pence. Peroni. Cheesecake. Something came to 2.60, that was the Peroni and . . . erm . . . the waiter was James. But scribbled in Biro, at the top, it also says 'Har Mar Super Star' and below that '6/10/03' and then 'The Trills'. Oh, I get it now.

Assignment was completed and handed in (electronically) on Sunday afternoon, leaving me with the rest of Sunday to myself. But what of Monday?

14:40:08. M**** was given control of the camera. Most of these were taken by M**** or Anna. So this is the taxi journey to the train station. Anna had just said something. I had reacted. Train station? 15:02 to Hebden Bridge, that was the plan. Looks like Anna had gone on to react to my reaction. Hmmmm. The taxi was bright yellow. You can't really tell that from the picture.

16:51:02. So then you get pictures like this. This is the danger. I wasn't really sure when M**** was taking pictures, and even if she did, maybe she was gonna delete it anyway. It took us about 50 minutes to get to Hebden Bridge, the cloud finally lifting. The same old walk was planned . . . follow the river. 16:52:02. . . . and then I recall a river of blood flowing past my eyes. I was crying and running towards where I thought my dad was. So I guess the rock had hit and I had just got up and ran. I remember seeing a girl about my age and a man who could have been her father. They looked concerned. I can't recall clearly what happened after that, but I think my father was quickly able to stem the flow of blood with one of my elder's sisters socks . . . one of the socks of my elder sister. The sock was white.

16:54:04. Shame, really - the clouds cleared and we had sunlight but the trees still looked very wintery. I don't think I would have taken so many pictures of trees, but hey . . . The river follows what is often a fairly deep valley, hence amount of sunlight fluctuated with the bends and the time of day and, erm . . . yeah. Stuff. This water seems to change colour. Blue here and yet grey in the next picture. 16:54:04 (eh?). See what I mean? There's green stuff coming through but not enough. There's not really much more I can say about this picture. I think I really need to update the whole log processing mechanism. I keep seeing strange IP addresses. Who are you all? I need mechanisms to report frequency of visit by IP address but also by top level domain and blah, blah, blah. Whatever. And we want pictures, too. Well, not pictures . . . erm . . . graphs, that's it. This picture's all blurry. M****, what you playing at here? 16:58:04. Hmmmm, what could this be? Trees? Water? Interesting. On my way back from work today, it was horrible. Erm, see . . . I was cycling back along the canal and I thought, for a moment, "God, is it raining?" as my face was getting pelted by tiny raindrop-like things. But, no, it wasn't rain, it was horrible little insects. Clouds and clouds of insects. I felt somehow violated as several more went down my throat. 17:00:00. Now, I like this one, but then any combination of sunlight and water tends to do it for me. But, erm . . . see, I couldn't leave the office until something like five to six today as this guy was talking to me. I don't mind too much, only he kept saying, "Anyway, what you still doing here? Shouldn't you be home?" and, of course, you can't say, "I'm talking to you, freak." And then, two minutes later . . . I walk away. Two different angles, taken five seconds within each other. And, erm, I couldn't believe how much bruising that needle caused. Did I mention this? The doctors? Oh, no, that's tomorrow. Ooops. Next picture. 17:02:08. Oh yes, and James replied to my . . . erm, I was going to say e-mail but I think he was responding to something I wrote here in this web-log thing. That'll be on the 8th then. I like that. Maybe I should respond here. Yes, James, it is a Canon Ixus II and, whilst not brilliant, it's certainly more than adequate for what I need it for at the moment. I think the pictures you speak of are there, actually. My birthday was Friday but the celebratory night out was Saturday, see? I hope that clears things up. S'pose I better put another picture up. Yawn. 17:03:07. Well, regarding those domain names, all the .co.uk's are gone except for the last one. You can verify here if you want. But, erm, to be honest, James, I don't really think the others would see the point and any benefit to be had. Hell, I can barely see any point to this, but hey . . . nice idea, though. Can you get free web-log writing software/applications? I did all this myself, you see, and it's not exactly user friendly . . . doesn't really need to be, see. Oh, sorry, nearly forgot. This is a picture of Anna running away from M****. I think M**** was trying to take a picture of Anna. 17:03:09. Anna, if you want this picture removing, just let us know, yeah? We were trying to look surly, I believe. Well, erm . . . that's what I was doing. I had no idea what was happening to my left. Well, as you can probably tell, Anna did let me know. 17:07:04. Yeah, I like this one. It's a tree, yeah? S'right, a tree. I like all the pink in this picture. Oh dear. I've gotta go. Apparently I promised to prepare some chicken and potatoes at M****'s house. Did I? Apparently. P'raps just a few more pictures though. 17:08:09. The same tree. Blah, blah, blah. I think I need some of these BR things. Erm . . .

Hmmmm, odd - Konqueror (it's like a Linux version of Windows Explorer, I guess) is no longer giving me meta-data for these pictures, so I cannot say what time they were taken. Ah well . . . I don't think it really matters. So, once again, these were all taken by M****. Last shot seems to be slightly out of focus.

So, erm . . . stepping stones, yes. I had to hold M****'s hand as she crossed these; M**** seems to have a big problem with walking across stepping stones over rivers. Odd. Sometimes she just cannot manage it and has to find some way around. I kind of know what she means, though, 'cos there's some of these at Bolton Abbey, only covering a much greater length (and I think the water is faster flowing and deeper). About halfway over those ones at Bolton Abbey, I suddenly felt this fear well up out of nowhere, with accompanying feelings of dizziness and my legs felt a bit wobbly. Odd. So, erm . . . but I guess you either turn back or keep going, so I just kept going. But, erm . . . these ones weren't too bad for M****. What am I on about? Oh yes, the stepping stones. So these stepping stones were near this river thing were we sat down and had lunch . . . victuals, as my brother calls them. Two pictures along . . . M**** and Anna, on a bench, blah blah blah. The sheep was much later on, when we were on our way back, I believe. M**** got a bit excited about number 26 (we think its mother was number 27) and was trying to get it to perform for the camera. We don't get out much, see.

I almost deleted this picture (to the right), but then I thought . . . naaaaah, what the hell? I'm not a big fan of posed pictures but I kinda like this one . . . it's, erm . . . half-posed, or maybe less than half. I like it anyway.

Yeah . . . so I took this picture. I like the effect of the light going through M****'s hair here. So, erm, later on, we went to this pub in Hebden Bridge . . . I think it was The Station. This nutter got talking to us . . . well, no - he wasn't a nutter . . . just, erm . . . you know, one of those blokes who talks at you when you're sat down having a pint. He claimed to have served time for holding up a post-office, the money from which meant he could buy his mum a new house, or something like that. He also claimed to have been in the army, based in Northern Ireland and had stories about how a bullet had shot past his head, missing by an inch or two. And he had travelled all over the country . . . now living in Portsmouth. I'm not sure what he was doing in Hebden Bridge . . . the following day he was heading for Leeds for some football match. He seemed genuine enough and stated his moral codes were based along freedoms of one thing or another . . . so, yeah . . . interesting guy. I calculated his age at 43-ish.

Erm . . . I wrote up some of Monday. Very exciting, and I didn't even mention the guy we were talking to who had served time for robbing a post office.

Well, I suppose this is still pertinent, the bruise still being there. I went to see the practice nurse at my local doctor's surgery, earlier this week. No, it was Monday, wasn't it? No, Tuesday. What am I on about? Tuesday, definitely Tuesday. She made me form a fist with my right hand, exclaimed, "Ah, that's a good vein!" and then asked something about whether I liked needles or not . . . "Well, kind of . . . I don't like to see them going in but, erm . . . the pain . . . nothing wrong with that." No, I'm making this up. All of this. But, no, erm . . . she extracted a small amount of blood and I can't believe my arm is still bruised and discoloured nearly three days later. Is that normal? She also did an ECG, but that was boring. She said the results were fine. Come back in a week for the results of the blood test. Can't wait.

The prospect of on-the-fly graphics becomes closer. I can't say how or why as such information could compromise my security . . . the security of the web-serve. But, erm . . . I'll keep yer posted.

Oh, and Anna - your identity has now largely been concealed from the offending picture.

One more peep out of you . . .

At last - I've finally done it. Click on the image and you'll see what I'm on about. What a farce that was. This is a fifteen second exposure. There wasn't much light, save for what the LCD screen on the camera was generating, a few LEDs here and there and the streetlights outside. Even then, I had to enhance the image using the GIMP. Fascinating.

Anyway, to answer your questions, James . . . I don't think my 'blog' has a heading. Should there be a heading? Tania is visible in a few of these pictures, such as this one and this (sat to the left of Anna, drinking coffee or something). You have to keep your eyes peeled. Regarding Sam: indeed, I have no pictures of Sam. Not sure why this is. He was there at the Devonshire Cat on my birthday, after all. I'm not sure. And here's a good question - "Have you had any strange people contact you through the website?" to which the answer is a kind of yes/no. I've had friends correct me about some grammar, spelling or . . . you know, some dodgy photo, but otherwise . . . no, not really, but I always appreciate the feedback.

From The Register today:

In some ways Weblogging is a response to contemporary phenomena. One phenomenon is the disappearance of civic organisations and forums for public engagement and debate. A more important phenomenon is the rise of the confessional culture, in which people increasingly make their lives public and share their experiences. If the volume is kept down, this latter tendency can provide one with a more rounded and engaging picture of Weblog writers who one might not otherwise know well. But frequent and often trivial postings are more therapeutic for the author than they are informative for the reader. Intimacy and confession are for friends and family, and their appearance in Weblogging doesn't merit celebration.

Hey, who's celebrating? I thought the point was these 'webloggers' can write whatever they want, be it trivial, moronic, intelligent, thoroughly researched, informative, entertaining or whatever. Who cares? If people wanna read about my dull comings and goings, then so be it. AND I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE! I SEE YOUR HTTP REQUESTS! 193.63.87.2! 194.217.93.82! 217.46.214.81, that picture really isn't that interesting. Besides, I've implemented the whole half/full/quarter/eighth size thing throughout all the pictures in April now. Oh, you've worked it out. Yes, that's the absinthe, that's Tarn and those are some blurred people. Oh my god. What am I doing? I seem to be responding to HTTP requests from my Apache log files. HELP. Someone help me.

Oh, and erm . . . another thing. How 'bout some feedback? You know, the scripting I did for the image thing? Is that good? Bad? Couldn't care less?

Today's strange web-site: http://1111.bravepages.com/. Enjoy.

Sorry about that . . . I was just formatting the hard-drive. When re-formatted, ssh gave an error as if to say, "Oooo, someone could be eavsdropping (?!) right now," but this was just because the key had changed. Still trying to sort things out.