Chocolate and Vodka

bubbling enthusiasm for $arbitrary_topic

Cory Doctorow donates RAZR and first ed. of Eastern Standard Tribe to ORG

Cory Doctorow, ORG Advisory Council member, famous novelist, copyright activist and one of the driving forces behind BoingBoing, has kindly donated a Razr mobile phone and a signed fist edition of his novel Eastern Standard Tribe, to the Open Rights Group for us to auction. We have duly put both together as one lot on […]

Fooled

The clocks have gone forward. I've got that strange, dislocated seasonal jetlag feeling. The sun is only just now going down, and it's 7.30pm. It feels like 4pm instead. I suppose I should go home and get some dinner.
Or alternatively, I could enjoy the high-speed wifi here at Stanhope whilst I still can, and eat […]

The pain of dial-up

I'd forgotten what it was like. No, really. I'd totally forgotten.
You click a link.
You wait.
The browser pane goes white.
You wait.
You wait.
You wait.
The title comes up at the top of the window. The progress bar has hardly moved.
You wait.
Skeletons of graphics appear, outlining where the images will eventually be. If you're lucky, the alt text tells […]

I'm not going to die

Phew! (thanks Neil!)

Guy Fawkes is taking over the asylum

When you think of the abolition of Parliament, you think of various moves made by various Bad People in England's dim and distant past. Kings who arbitrarily suspended democracy. People who decided blowing up the Palace of Westminster was a nice idea. That sort of thing.
Well, our lovely Labour government (and yes, I voted them […]

Disembagulating

Slowly, the floor in our lounge is being revealed. Books are on shelves, clothes are in drawers and hanging in wardrobes. Food is in fridge, crockery is in cupboards (both plates, both bowls, both cups, both glasses), cutlery is… erm, not in a drawer.
For some strange reason, the designers of our kitchen decided that drawers […]

Moved!

Done. Phew. It was a long day yesterday, but we managed to get all our stuff from Euston to Islington without too much pain. The flat wasn't as clean as I would have liked, so I spent much of the afternoon scrubbing the skirting boards and floors in our bedroom, which were filthy. Will have […]

Quote of the Week, or possibly, of the Year

My boyfriend's friend's friend's boyfriend to his boss:
“I really am trying to see things from your point of view, but I just can't stick my head that far up my ass.”

And again with the no wifi

Just sitting in the new flat*, waiting for the agent to come back with a second set of keys. Can't wait to get moved in tomorrow, to get all of our stuff here, if not unpacked.
Of course, there's no broadband yet, so no wifi, so no answering emails late at night or any of that […]

Yay! We have a flat!

I didn't want to blog about this before it was all confirmed, in case somehow I jinxed the whole thing, but T'Other and I have located somewhere to live, and will be moving in on Saturday. I just got a phone call from the agent now, and we're all set. We're going to be living, […]

I'm not a gamer

But I want this when it comes out.

The God of Petty Annoyances

Somehow, just recently, I pissed off the God of Petty Annoyances, whom I think may also be the Patron Saint of Yappy Type Dogs. Regardless, he now appears to be taking things out on me.
Recent petty annoyances include:

Wearing the wrong socks with a pair of boots that have for years been very comfortable, resulting […]

Shiteholes and shoeboxes

The first weekend of house-hunting is over, with no success. That in itself is no surprise - I would have felt a bit suspicious if the first place we'd looked at had been wonderful. Instead, the first place we looked at was in a really shitty neighbourhood. Everyone had said 'Oh, bits of Hoxton are […]

Less blarney, more blimey

Just sitting in the airport at Dublin, waiting for my flight back to London*. Wifi seems to be non-functional, which is a shame, as it's ubiquitous throughout the airport, it's just ubiquitously crap.
I came over to see the guys from Digital Rights Ireland, and to give a lecture at Trinity College as part of the […]

Get that yurt out of here

Five properties lined up for viewing on the weekend, variously in the Hoxton/Old Street area, Highgate, Notting Hill and Kings Cross areas. We shall see what we shall see.
I have been dreading this bit. Flat hunting in the UK has never been anything other than misery for me. Horrible landlords who rip you off, get […]