June 2003

It's that time of year again

June 24, 2003

Oh yes, June is here, and suddenly we all start paying extra special attention to the weather forecast for SW19. I, along with millions of others around the world, have now undergone my seasonal mutation from Person Who Knows Bugger All About Tennis to Instant All-Knowing Tennis Pundit. It happens every year, and I just […]

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Three aces in the last game of the match

June 24, 2003

Dutchman Sluiter just won against Kafelnikov, 7-5 3-6 2-6 6-2 6-3. If Kafelnikov was expecting Sluiter to falter in the last set, the three aces Sluiter served in the last game somewhat gave the lie to that. Good tennis. Sluiter's definitely another one I'll keep my eyes on.

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Linguarant…

June 24, 2003

Nwdls left a comment on the post about me possibly doing a linguistics degree, but my response got so big I thought I’d put it in as a proper post instead. This is what Nwdls said: You're right about uninspiring teaching. The whole reasoning for me getting into language was a teacher in school who […]

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Technorati mystery solved

June 23, 2003

Thanks to Ralph, Stuart and Kathryn for screenshots and comments on the whole Technorati thing. My feeble little mind has now happily been put to rest, er, I mean put at rest, safe in the knowledge that I'm not going completely nuts. I think it's just that for some reason the referrer link is made […]

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47 statements that feature the word 'I', and three that don't

June 23, 2003

I am hereby bowing to your command, oh reader. 83% of you (doesn't that sound so much better than 'five'?) wanted to read some sort of biographical information about me. So here it is. Please do ask questions if you feel your needs have not entirely been met by this slightly overlong and rambling expos?. […]

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Ought-based decisions

June 22, 2003

There are several sorts of decision in this world. There are choice-based decisions: I like both the Dolce & Gabbana shades and the Matrix shades but I can only buy one pair, so I have to choose between them. There are choiceless decisions: this rather angry-looking man has a gun pointing at my head so, […]

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Not another degree?

June 22, 2003

I’ve just watched a documentary on linguistics. There aren't that many of them about, and it had the effect of making me want to go and do a second degree in linguistics. I’ve been quite into linguistics for a while now, but had no time to pursue the interest as much as I would have […]

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Technorati

June 22, 2003

Technorati is the second most prolific source of referrals to Chocolate and Vodka, but whenever I visit their site, I can find no mention of me at all. This confuses the hell out of me. (Although admittedly that's actually not difficult to achieve at this time on a Sunday night.) I would therefore like to […]

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A new variation of Tourette's

June 21, 2003

This post on BB Spot, via Ken’s blog, really made me laugh in that slightly mad hysterical way that one tries not to do in public. Mainly because I have seen the look on that IT manager’s face. It's been directed at me more than once. I really don’t know how I manage to switch […]

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Do you really care who I am?

June 21, 2003

Debate has been sparked on the blogs of Joho the Blog, Horst Prillinger and Pascale Soleil about whether or not anonymous blogs are a good or bad thing. At the risk of getting a pointy bit of timber stuck up my backside, I'm going to say that it depends. If you're publishing a serious journalistic […]

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The first thermodynamic law of cats

June 20, 2003

It’s been quite warm and sultry of a night here lately, in that uncomfortable way of being too warm to sleep under the duvet, but not warm enough not to. So whatever Fflwff’s reasons are for deciding to cuddle up to me on a nightly basis lately, I’m pretty sure they’re not thermal. She’s not […]

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What is this?

June 20, 2003

The sky is blue, the setting sun is casting a shimmering gold through my window, the Libertines are playing impossibly loudly from my stereo, the chardonnay in my glass tastes divine, and I’m dealing with an emotion I haven’t felt for what seems like a long time. Weeks at least. Possibly longer. I actually feel? […]

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Weirdest cover of the year (so far)

June 19, 2003

The Darkness do Radiohead’s Street Spirit. These boys so deserve to be No. 1 this week. Not that that means anything these days, what with buying in and the pathetic state of the music industry, but it would be fun to see poodle rock back in the charts, scaring the wee little sproglets and giving […]

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Another pointless Matrix post

June 18, 2003

The Matrix Reloaded: The Abridged Script. If that doesn’t have you snorting your cornflakes, frankly nothing will. Seems I’m not the only one to notice that Matrix = hits. Although for Jason Kottke it appears to be turning into a bit of a bandwidth problem. He’s had so many comments to his Matrix: Reloaded review […]

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Oh no, please, no?

June 18, 2003

I just flicked on the tv and up popped a documentary on BBC2 about direct mail. And guess what I’m faced with? Yes! Vertically scrolling green text! Except, and this is the really clever bit, they’ve used the roman alphabet instead of the Japanese Katakana alphabet and, wait for it? it scrolls up instead of […]

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