all the world's a stage...

Will get round to finishing this game when I have the time but...

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:22:00 +0100

Will get round to finishing this game when I have the time but in the meantime I’ve got the soundtrack on repeat, especially this track, and now I’m out of plays on Spotify. To Grooveshark!

I still haven’t seen it and I was wondering if I was...

Fri, 18 May 2012 07:50:54 +0100

I still haven’t seen it and I was wondering if I was missing anything…

crisiscookie:

He’s right. That movie was baaaad D:

So, it's been a while...

Wed, 09 May 2012 08:46:00 +0100

Right, I haven’t blogged in months but I am still alive. I’ve just been more active in other places, like Twitter.

In terms of content, I’ll soon be posting up new articles on a (hopefully) regular basis - but more on that in a moment.

Anyway, how is everyone? I’ve been doing alright. I’ve been keeping quite busy actually. In the past few months I’ve been getting stuck in with student media at Reading University.

As of March I’ve been working on the radio station Junction11’s twice-weekly news show and for the past two shows I’ve even been able to read some of it. You can listen to Junction11 online on their website. And as of last month I’m one of the two new editors for the Science & Technology section of our Spark* newspaper - I finished editing our section yesterday for the next issue, out this Friday. It’s also likely that I’m also going to be the new Spark* Web Editor too because right now all we’ve got right now is the twitter account @SparkNewspaper - someone needs to get the Spark* website back up and running and keep it that way. It had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong. ;).

And hopefully I can get more involved with RUON TV, our TV station… going to production meeting tomorrow to see what comes up.

But anyway, on to content. Whenever I write an article for Spark*, I’ll also post it on my blog :)

Nokia ringtone during concert of classical music: How to react...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:40:13 +0000

Nokia ringtone during concert of classical music: How to react when a mobile goes off and interrupts your performance

(Found this via BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16688007)

Really need to use Wikipedia today?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:42:00 +0000

Calm down dear, it’s only Javascript!

As you’ll discover, if you didn’t know already, Wikipedia is staging a 24 hour blackout which began 0500 UTC today.

So much has been made of the Wikipedia blackout… but what if you really need to use it? In case you don’t know how to get Wikipedia back because you didn’t follow the link to “Learn more” then basically you should know that it’s not the end of the world if you urgently need access to Wikipedia today. The pages are all still there, they just appear with an overlay on top of them thanks to Javascript.

So fear not, because Wikipedia have made it very simple to get the normal site back because the SOPA blackout works by Javascript so you can get Wikipedia back by disabling Javascript or adding this line to AdBlock:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:BannerLoader&banner=blackout*

Most if not all of the sites participating in the blackout are probably doing it with Javascript (e.g. I know that the http://sopastrike.com/ blackout is), so disabling it will also bring back those sites.

I think this has been a great idea. It’s like the Internet’s equivalent of peaceful protest versus the more hands on hacktivism of Anonymous (akin those who protest by smashing windows and burning cars, etc.). Having said that, I’m half expecting to hear about various cyber attacks in the next few days against organisations supporting SOPA/PIPA. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is for another post/debate.

I still haven’t seen the Series 2 finale of Sherlock. I...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:07:00 +0000

I still haven’t seen the Series 2 finale of Sherlock. I think maybe subconsciously I’m trying to shorten the time I have to wait for Series 3. If I left it long enough then the previous two episodes would no longer be fresh in my mind so I’d have to watch Series 2 right from the beginning.

But if I did that then I may as well start right from the beginning from 1x01 and have a Sherlock Marathon! Oh woe is me! >:p

And while I’m at it, I’ll probably want to go back and rewatch Luther too.

Speaking of a Sherlock marathon, the Sherlock - Series 1 and 2 Box Set is available to pre-order on Amazon… but I think I’ll wait for the Series 1, 2 and 3 Box Set.

Is it just me or does anyone else find it just a little annoying how for a second series and series thereafter they’ll release a standalone series box set (like Sherlock - Series 2 on DVD, also available to pre-order) and also a combined box set of all the series to date? It makes me want to wait until the show has stopped running and then get a combined all-series box set because it’s cheaper that way.

foobar2000: A better audio player Yesterday I switched...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:36:00 +0000

foobar2000: A better audio player

Yesterday I switched to foobar2000 and found it to be my favourite audio player. It has everything I want from an audio player: it’s light on system resources, can scrobble to Last.fm and supports media keys so I can easily play/pause/skip without needing to activate foobar2000. The UI is easy to customise to your preferences and there are various components that you can add for extra functionality. One of the components I’ve added is the lyrics component. I’ve changed the layout so that the lyrics window is docked into the main window rather floating separately.

I don’t use iTunes or WMP because all I want is to listen to my music. I don’t need all the extras. There are specific things I dislike about those two but I won’t go into it here.

For a long time, I’ve used Winamp for playing music. However, I started noticing how it was not lightweight and would slow, freeze and/or crash if I left it running. This in turn would slow down my system. This I did not like.

I looked at what I already had installed and started using VLC instead. VLC is one of my favourite programs. No more worrying about having the right codec. Highly recommended and you should try it if you haven’t already.

Anyway, VLC is much lighter than Winamp and does what I need it to do. Only down side is that it doesn’t support the media keys on my keyboard - its global hotkey settings literally will not let me bind the media keys. The only way to get it to kind of work is if I install mk2mp and even then it only works if the VLC window is active- which sort of defeats the point of using the media keys.

I did also look at Media Player Classic, which does support media keys but doesn’t scrobble. Personally, the Last.fm support is more important to me than media keys support, so VLC, it was.

But I have foobar2000 now and I’m not going back.

Screenshot was taken while foobar2000 was in use. I was listening to Tapping the Vein who are one the many bands I adore. Female fronted gothic metal, yay. Go have a listen on Grooveshark or find the band on Amazon.

chronicillnesscat: [Image: 6-piece blue colored background with...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:10:28 +0000

chronicillnesscat:

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat with blue eyes. Text reads: “Top text:Socialize with friends for a few hours Bottom text: In bed in agonizing pain for three days”]

urgh… gpoy

I want to cuddle...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:56:00 +0000

…a large wolf :/

Originally posted on my Facebook but I suspect there may be others who’ve experienced a similar predicament so I’m sharing my story here! :)

The desire to lie in bed cuddling big cuddly toy increases proportionally to how worn-down I’m feeling.

Lestat de Lioncourt used to curl up with his mastiffs for warmth and comfort but a cuddly toy is going to be the closest I’ll ever get to curling up with a wolf.

My brief search this morning has led me to discover the following:

Wolves are a rarity in the world of cuddly toys. Particularly compared to the obscenely common teddy bear.
In the entire world - or at least, the world as represented by the Internet - there is apparently only one wolf toy (of the larger variety) on sale.
This is the “Lge Lying Wolf by Hansa Toys” from http://www.lincrafts.com/wolf.htm - It is a “truly realistic animal” according its Amazon listing and it’s a whole metre length of Canis lupus plushie.
Cuddly toys can be far more expensive than I could ever have imagined. This one costs £300. Yes, you read correctly: Three Hundred Pounds Sterling.

The Serotonin Experiment: Epilogue

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:06:30 +0000

For the full story behind this, see this.

November-Present

Things have got pretty bad. Towards the end of November I was seeing the GP repeatedly, trying to get him to give me something to stop me being so debilitatingly tired all the time.

The only thing he was willing to offer was to increase my dose of sertraline from 50mg to 100mg- because I found that the 50mg dose seemed to stop me getting headaches as much or as often, so maybe increasing the dose might help in other ways.

I repeat, while it may be an antidepressant I was not taking it because I was depressed, but rather I was taking it because it seemed to help with my headaches- which is one of the symptoms of my ME. Something is better than nothing, I figured, so I agreed to the increased dosage.

As I went through this new packet, I didn’t find that I was getting any additional improvement from the increased dosage.

So I’d take one pill a day but sometimes I’d miss a day but as I’d still have boosted serotonin levels in my system, I could just top up the next day and carry on as normal. Thus, it would be one tablet a day or at least one every other day. No big deal.

But as my condition seemed to take a turn for the worst, there would be more and days that I’d lose to sleeping because I’d be so tired and that was all I could do. This eventually led me to missing more than one day at time. It was at this point I realised that this was not working. Because on the second day without sertraline, I got the mother of all headaches.

It occurred to me that I was locking myself into a drug that provided minimal benefit which if I ever stopped taking, there would be a small bit of hell to pay. If I was benefiting more substantially, then it would be a different story. I’ve concluded that I would rather risk the occasional headache without sertraline than the guaranteed mega headache if I were on it and discontinued it.

I think I’ll see how things go without sertraline. Going onto 100mg tablets was counter-productive. If occasional headaches become a problem, I’ll consider taking a low dose as a prophylactic but otherwise I think the SSRI angle is a dead end.

Damn.

What I’d really like is for the doctor to let me try something else. Screw the “official guidelines”. Given that there’s no cure for ME/CFS anyway, lets forget about the diagnosis for a moment and focus on alleviating the actual symptoms. What I’d like is to be able to take something to fight off the constant tiredness and need to sleep.

It's not counselling I need...

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:01:00 +0000

endorphinmachine:

I wish there was more support in general for people with ME/CFS.

About the extent of it is “Here try these tablets and if you don’t die in the mean time come back and see me in a month.”

We don’t get offered counseling, any kind of therapy eg. art therapy, no support groups, no nothing.

I don’t know if that’s the case for everywhere else, but where I live it seems to be.

I can dream.

The main “treatment” offered here in the UK is CBT but it’s not really what I need and doesn’t treat the symptoms. Forget about “counselling”. Just develop a proper treatment or medication to make the symptoms go away.

At MCM Expo, with Jonathon Young and Agam Darshi who play Nikola...

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:54:00 +0000

At MCM Expo, with Jonathon Young and Agam Darshi who play Nikola Tesla and Kate Freelander in Sanctuary.

Although I wish I hadn’t been so tired and out of it by the time I got to them. I probably gibbered nonsense but they were both friendly and nice about it.

Always knew there would be consequences of going out yesterday - exhaustion aside, will have to go into overdrive to get that report finished for tomorrow morning - but I guess that on balance I have to conclude it was worth it as I had wonderful time with friends ^^

Pretty good experience for my first Expo. Lessons learnt for next time:

Don’t expect to be able to use ATMs at the venue because there will be long queues- withdraw sufficient cash before arrival
Immediately acquire map/schedule from Info Desk on arrival so I know what’s happen, where to go and when
Goes without saying but for things that need queuing, queue early. The earlier the better
In the “theatre”, closer is not better. Better is to sit in the front row directly in front rather than the side of the protruding “catwalk” bit of the stage because some panellists (i.e. the Torchwood stars, on this occasion) will come out to the edge of that catwalk to get up close to fans and you’ll end up behind them
If you’re keen on grabbing some of the prizes the MC dishes out then save your enthusiasm for second or third items- unless you really want Pocky, for example. MC will actively avoid focussing on single areas of the audience but rather try to distribute prizes widely across the entire audience area. He typically opened with Pocky here and if you or someone in your area of the audience gets a box of Pocky, don’t expect on getting anything else (T-Shirts, mouse mats, plushie, etc).
For popular panels, get in early like I did this time to find a good seat/view.
Personal goal: Must dress up and cosplay next time!

Priorities...

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:00:04 +0000

endorphinmachine:

Doing NaNoWriMo this year.

Are any of my followers?

I set my word count goal for 30,000 words. (I set it lower than 50k because of my ME/CFS, it’s kind of unrealistic to think that with my brain fog I’d be able to churn out 1,500+ words a day.)

So anyway, it’s my first year attempting NaNoWriMo.

Urgh. I wanted to last year. I planned to this year. But between health and keeping up with uni I’m having to skip it this year too :(

What Occupy Wall Street’s critics are really trying to accomplish

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:29:42 +0100

What Occupy Wall Street’s critics are really trying to accomplish:

wilwheaton:

Critics of Occupy Wall Street have a transparent objective: They want to persuade blue collar whites and ordinary middle class Americans to turn on the movement for cultural reasons — because its optics offend these voters’ cultural instincts — even if they broadly agree with its general principles and critique of what’s gone wrong.

This dovetails with a quote from John Cole I recently posted here (to much rending of garments and clutching of pearls from the very people he’s talking about):

“The greatest hoax of the last couple of decades has been the ability of the right wing to co-opt members of the struggling lower middle class and lower class and pretend they speak for them while enacting policies that enable the super-rich. They’ve used wedge issues like gay marriage and abortion and the baby Jeebus to alienate folks from their own economic interests, feeding them a steady diet of hatred of minorites, the educated, science, and, well, reality to create a voting block of people so guided by hatred of the ‘other’ that they would crawl over broken glass to cut their nose off to spite their face.”

I just posted that quote from Cole on my G+, and the self-identified conservatives are livid about it. I don’t mean this as an attack on self-identified conservatives at all. I quote it because it breaks my heart.

And not that it matters, but the same thing can largely be said of Democrats since the election of 2000. I strongly believe that if Obama and the Democrats had behaved like the populists they claimed to be when they had majorities in both houses of congress, and actually done something to hold these Wall Street criminals accountable, #OWS wouldn’t be necessary.

Now we just have to hope that the #OWS protests capture enough attention for long enough to force the Democrats (because you can be damn sure it won’t be the GOP) to enact laws and policies that actually address and correct the things we’ve all been begging them to listen to for about ten years.

This is how a movement gets started, and it doesn’t end quickly or cleanly.

And it isn’t the job of the protesters to write the damn laws; that’s the job of the Congress, who need to work for The People instead of The Lobbyists.

I don’t think I have anything more to add…

The Serotonin Experiment: Mega Update, Days 11-19

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:51:00 +0100

For the full story behind this, see this.

Days 11-19: Wednesday 5th - Thursday 13th October

With the start of term approaching, things had become busy. I was focussing on making progress with my project work- or trying to anyway.

My GP assured me that as a side effect, my jumpiness would subside over time.

While at the Medical Practice, I discovered something annoying: starting this month, there will a £10 charge to process Extenuating Circumstances forms - i.e. for my doctor to confirm that I’m not making up my illness/symptoms. I do concede that’s in line with what most GPs would probably charge for supplying similar forms of evidence.

Because I tend to think ahead, I usually put a lot of thought into graduate jobs. So, unusually for me, I hadn’t been thinking about it for a while because I’ve just become focussed on doing well this year. Yesterday I popped in to the SSE Placement/Graduate Fair for a bit. It’s mainly for Part 2 students looking for placements but I was on campus and I had some time to kill. I could be imagining it but it feels smaller this year. I’ve had my eye on FDM for a while now so I had a chat with them to get a bit more information. I’m seriously considering it as an option because it would be nice to gain professional qualifications and practical experience which I rather desire.

Freedom and flexibility

Still, it’s annoying because they never charged anything before to do these forms. Hopefully I won’t have to resort to Extenuating Circumstances forms at all this year. Yes, that’s what I think at the start of every year. I aim for it and hope it will be so. This year though, I really think it may actually be the case- but not because of the disincentive of a £10 charge per form. I think I’ll be able to get through this year without any ECFs because I have a lot more freedom and flexibility this year.

Yesterday I met the new “mentor” I’ve been assigned by the uni. There was a discussion on scheduling or pacing of work. which I believe is largely missing the point because my wellness/illness cannot be scheduled. All I can do is work around it. And to the extent that I can pace my working, I do that anyway already.

Now, the times that I’m feeling well there is nothing stopping me and I will plough my way through an assignment. That doesn’t mean I don’t know to take breaks or that I will overwork myself to the point of exhaustion. I’ve lived with M.E. long enough to know better. Something which they seemed keen to reiterate was that I shouldn’t leave things to the last minute. Well, duh! I would actually always aim for an assignment to be completed by 1-2 weeks before the deadline, at the latest.

The problem is that if I’m really not well then however much leeway I plan in, it still won’t be enough. Case in point: I should have fully completed a draft version of my UI design for my project but in the time that I would have done it over the summer (after resits), I haven’t been well enough.

They seemed keen that I have some sort of rigid schedule planned out on paper. That’s just not how I work- I literally can’t work like that. I have to be flexible because I have no way of predicting if or when I’ll be too ill to work. I will work as much as I can (within reason, of course) when I’m up to it so that I won’t fall behind when I can’t do any work. I prefer to plan fluidly. For a plan on paper to be fluid in that way, I’d have to keep revising it. It would just become paperwork. It would be a chore. It wouldn’t work.

If I miss deadlines, it’s not because I’ve not planned properly. It’s because I’ve been ill over such an extended period. No amount of planning will give me back time that I’ve lost to illness.

This year will be better because I only have two hours of timetabled lectures a week while the rest of the time I will be free to work on my project.

I’m not against scheduling. I guess I just haven’t found a way that fits my style. I can organise myself well enough. I just need enough flexibility to do it.

Whenever I look at Misery Bear I just think gpoy, seriously. But...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:02:00 +0100

Whenever I look at Misery Bear I just think gpoy, seriously.

But anyway: aww… misery bear has a book called “Misery Bear’s Guide To Love And Heartbreak” out ~~this month~~ next week. Probably not going to buy it but curious to see what it’s got in it. Will look for it next time I’m in a bookshop.

That awkward case when...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:16:41 +0100

…there’s someone irritating in a group you hang out with who you just have to put up with

The Serotonin Experiment: Day 9 & Day 10

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:23:19 +0100

For the full story behind this, see this.

Day 9: Monday 3rd October 2011

Heatwave continues. Again not much to say here because I would just be repeating what I said the previous few days! (Too hot, can’t think!)

I noticed that I got a link wrong in the main article. Fixed it now. Not that it matters much because I doubt these posts have that many readers. I’m making these posts mainly as a personal record.

Day 10: Tuesday 4th October 2011

Definitely cooler today. Lovely autumn weather. Such bliss.

I can finally think properly. Finally able to develop my design for my project.

Have booked appointment with GP for tomorrow to ask about the jumpiness. Will wander around the Freshers Fayre (Fair?) too.

The Serotonin Experiment: Day 8

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:08:00 +0100

For the full story behind this, see this.

Day 8: Sunday 2nd October 2011

I was wrong. It was not cooler today. Well, it started off cool first thing in the morning but as the day went on it just got hotter.

I think I’ve noticed something that may be a side effect of this sertraline I’m taking: I seem to be quite jumpy these past few days. Just now I was in the kitchen and I jumped when a housemate entered from the hallway.

You’ll probably think you probably would have jumped too but the thing is, I usually wouldn’t - or at least not as much as I have been. Usually I’ll just notice and glance up at whoever is approaching and it doesn’t make me jump. I don’t know if maybe it’s because my senses have been affected somehow or I’m less aware of my surroundings or what.

I’ve never felt nervous or anxious and I’m not feeling nervous or anxious now. I’m sure I’m not developing a nervous disposition.

wilwheaton: It only takes 20 minutes for the NYT to shift the...

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:49:07 +0100

wilwheaton:

It only takes 20 minutes for the NYT to shift the blame.

After allowing them onto the bridge, police cut off and arrested dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters.

became

In a tense showdown over the East River, police arrested hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators after they marched onto the bridge’s Brooklyn=bound roadway.

Don’t let this simply vanish, people. Don’t let them get away with this. Force the NYT to own this, and accept responsibility for lying to their readers, to protect the 1%.

They’re terrified of us.

They know that we’re coming for them.

This is only the beginning.

(image via Reddit. Quote via Daily Kos)

I get the impression that the police have been too heavy handed. That perception persists. In my opinion the police shouldn’t be arresting the protesters. They should be joining them.