Jezblog

Junio 07, 2004

Extremely old and infirm man dies

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 07:46 PM


And so Ronald Reagan has passed on.

We can but hope that his great friend Margaret Thatcher will be able to rejoin him soon.

Amen.

Junio 04, 2004

Badger Badger Footy Footy

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 11:37 PM

Next weekend, I shall be giving a concert along with the rest of the Richmondshire Orchestra as part of the Swaledale Festival.

Come along and after listening to Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf, you can join me after I throw my sticks down (percussionist, y'see) and sprint off to the nearest pub to catch England wipe the floor with France in't footie. Gratuitous but catchy badger football animation here.

Junio 03, 2004

Brain meltdown

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 09:22 AM

Well, I'm busier than a very busy thing that's just discovered it's even busier than it previously thought. One of these days I'll get time to...you know...live, rather than just work. Some days off will be taken in July I reckon.

Mayo 29, 2004

Channel 4's very own Room 101

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 03:41 PM

I didn't watch the relaunched Big Brother last night, and I won't be watching any of it over the however-many-weeks-it-is that the contestants are put in the house for.

I had a quick look at the contestants' profiles on the C4 site, and saw that the latest "news" from the BB house was:

Are the Contestants Revolting?

In the revolutionary sense: I neither know nor care.
In the other sense, the answer is (as with all the non-entities who go in for these programmes promising transitory fame): an emphatic yes.

Mayo 27, 2004

Fear = control

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 01:08 AM


"Hey Don, our inspirational glorious leader is getting more unpopular by the day, and it's our job at the Chimp Re-election Campaign Center to ensure four more years of sure-handed guidance and rhetorical genius."

"You're right, Dick. People are seeing our troops hand out beatings rather than Hershey bars, and they're starting to ask questions and think for themselves! It was much better when they were frightened and didn't look too hard at our motives!"

"Geez, Don, that's it! We gotta keep 'em scared! Let's announce that Al Qaeda are planning a big attack soon - I mean, what the heck, they could be - that'll get them running back to us! The election's as good as won! They'll be putty in our hands!"

"Yeah. Our President is no miserable failure!"

---------------

And Blair's no better. Although his position is possibly even more precarious than that of Bush. I can certainly hear the sound of knives being sharpened by Messrs. Prescott and Brown.

Mayo 21, 2004

Stupid stupid stupid

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 01:43 PM

I'd completely forgotten to put my name on the electoral roll. Just been down to hand my form in now. But I'm too late to vote in the European elections. Bollocks, bloody hell and arse. Unforgivable.

*hangs head in shame*

Mayo 20, 2004

9/9/27 - 18/5/04 RIP Elvin Jones

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 12:55 PM

Elvin Jones, drummer on the seminal John Coltrane album "A Love Supreme" died on Tuesday aged 76.

Obituary

Two tracks available for download @ The Suburbs Are Killing Us (no permalinks - entry of Wednesday 19th May).

Movable Type 3.0

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 11:59 AM

I'm now running Movable Type 3.0D.

There's a big storm in the teacup-like blogging world over Six Apart (the MT developers) introducing fees for using MT in certain circumstances. The free edition is still available for people with up to three weblogs with just one author.

Anyway, some thoughts on the new Movable Type:

Cosmetically, the interface is a bit prettier. The only real difference that I've found is that you've got much more control over comments. I can bulk-delete spam comments now, rather than having to delete them one by one. Typekey only works with MT3, I believe, so I'm looking forward to implementing that to avoid the spam comments altogether.

The site rebuilding mostly happens automatically, behind the scenes, and so is less of a pain in bum that it used to be.

Trackbacks are also easier to administer (just like the comments), but nobody tracks back to my post, so I never use it anyway.

The main thing that a lot of people are up in arms about is the licensing policy. It's still free for single authors, but I think the MT people want you to pay a license if you run multiple weblogs and have several authors. That's the reason why a lot of people are switching over to other systems. But again, for me, as with most people, there's no problem. This is one weblog with one author. I've had guestbloggers in before when I couldn't get to a computer for a few weeks, and I would do so again (the licensing thing is based on an honesty policy - there's no block on adding authors in the programme), as any new authors on this site would be very temporary.

The only noticeable benefit from MT3 is a better comments system. If you're happy with your earlier version and you either don't get spam comments or have installed MT-Blacklist and it works, there's very little point in upgrading. The new licensing fee structure doesn't apply to earlier MT version, either, so I'd stick with that if you've got multiple authors/weblogs.

Mayo 19, 2004

B3tan

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 05:52 PM

Right, thank goodness that's done with. 13,000 words in 48 hours. That's roughly the usual output for five days for most translators, for your info. I think I shall reward myself with a day off on Friday.

And I have finally stopped simply lurking on Beta.com and posted a topical photoshopped picture. This is my first try at photoshopping*. So that's why it's so crap.




In case you were wondering why, here's the news report I'm referring to.

------

* Yes, I know Adobe don't like people using their trademarked name "photoshop" like this...but...tough. That's the way language evolves. People use it and you can't legislate against it. Maybe Hoover, Sellotape, Scotch, Xerox et al felt the same way. Too late now.

Mayo 17, 2004

All or nothing

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 06:03 PM

I was going to write a post about the new Movable Type 3.0 (installed it) and Typekey (can't work out how to implement it), as I thought I had oodles of time, what with having very little work to do and all.

Then a 13,000 word file landed on my desk to be translated for Wednesday evening, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be getting on with that. *horrible deadline panic panic* (wouldn't have accepted such a short deadline, but May has been VERY quiet on the work front so far).

Mayo 13, 2004

Named and shamed

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 11:35 PM

Here's a meme that's been doing the rounds recently. Out of a particular list (see below) of classic novels, exactly how few have you actually read? Honestly now. "Studying" the novel at school doesn't count, because as every fule kno, you just get the video out, innit, and don't bother actually reading the thing.

The books I have read are in bold (in the exztended entry):

Continue reading "Named and shamed"

From Warsaw to Rio

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 12:04 AM

Two new, very different tracks for you.

The first is from a new release by Skalpel - a couple of DJs from Wroclaw in Poland (a great city to visit - I went four years ago). They have a similar sound to the Cinematic Orchestra, but with more of a gritty, urban edge.

click here to buy this album from Amazon.co.uk

Take a listen to: Break In - Skalpel (5.1Mb)

And secondly we have a superb track bursting with Brazilian optimism and sunshine. I'm not sure how all these Brazilian artists manage to sound both languid and upbeat at the same time.

click here to buy this album from amazon.co.uk

Listen to: Take it easy my brother Charlie, by Jorge Ben Jor

Lyrics can be viewed in the extended entry if you want to sing along...

Continue reading "From Warsaw to Rio"

Mayo 12, 2004

Bit less boring

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 03:14 AM

Half way through a reworking of this site's presentation, as you can probably see. I accidentally deleted the index.html file earlier on. What fun!

I'll finish this later.

This isn't my design, by the way. Credits for the designers can be found at the bottom of the page.

Mayo 10, 2004

Interesting Times

:: Escrito por: Jez @ 02:36 AM

Here's a very good and deeply disturbing essay about the recent revelations of torture carried out by coalition troops in Iraq:

What would they have found unacceptable to photograph? What acts would they have said 'wow, we can't take a picture of this, or we'll get in trouble some day.' What acts would provoke a moral recognition? What acts would provoke guilt? What acts would provoke a reluctance to record, or be recorded as a part of?

And yes, Mr. Rumsfeld, the word is torture, not abuse.

And just because Saddam's thugs may well have done worse (as some apologists have been saying) is irrelevent.

I'm not sure which scenario is the more unsettling: if the higher ranks ordered and/or tolerated systematic torture or if this kind of activity was performed without the blessing of the torturers' superiors. Both scenarios depress the hell out of me.

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