Cold Tea Again

Is this the beginning of something new?
Is this a return to ancient ways?

Actually it is a little of both.

'Darren's Diary' is being renamed 'Cold Tea Again'. My other blogger blog, Cold Tea Again, will no longer be updated. However, I will be pulling in all the posts from that blog into this one. I will also be stopping Roundacow, and pulling those posts into this blog too.

Therefore, I will have 'one blog to rule them all'.

However, as I still sign up for every Web 2.0 site that is out there and have plenty of paid for web space too, this isn't the only place you'll find me.

I have put my foot in it

Well, we now have a car so my carbon footprint has increased considerably. I have tried to offset it this morning by not asking for a carrier bag when I bought two bottles of coke.

Car: Little, old, Ford Fiesta, white

Will be loved and cared for in the hope that it lasts better than our old Astra.

Oh, but our bunny died. A day of mourning was held. It was old and had come to the end of its tenure on this planet. It has been buried in the flower bed.*

*note to self: can you call it a flower bed if you have no flowers in it?

'Let us out'

I hear the cry from the washed clothes in our washing machine. 'let us out' they chorus. Of course I am not holding the clothes hostage. I am unable to let them out because the handle has broken. A full load of clothes are therefore being held hostage by the uncaring Ariston machine, until the man can come and fix the handle.

At least he is a friendly man.

String theory?

The water pressure from our mains cold water feed is very weak.



We have damp on our wall and I don't know where it is coming from.



Some vague connection?

Tachyon TV Pilot Podcast

One of my favourite / blogs /sites over recent years, always garanteed to make me laugh, has just put up a pilot podcast. If you are at all interested in sci-fi and having a little chuckle then take a wander over to Tachyon TV and download the podcast here.

Out of office emergency phone number

Walking to work today I noticed a sign that read, 'Out of office emergency telephone number'. Now this is generally a good thing. I walk past the GP so a number there would be helpful. But this notice was on the local library. Why would anyone have the need to call the 'local'* library outside of normal library times with an emergency?

'Please, I need to know, is that Stephen King novel in yet?'

'Do you have any red recycling sacks I can come and collect when you are open?'

'Could you look up onomatopoeia in the Ecyclopedia Britannica for me?'




*This isn't a major library but a local sub-branch.

David Pleat - Idiot Football Presenter?

The evidence:

'There's Ronaldo, comparable with George Best, the incomparable George Best.'

The verdict:

Guilty.

Balancing the environment

After, as far as I remember [things got a little hazy at some points], not having any glorious flypasts last year, Bletchley Park have announced that this year there should be no fewer than six. I do like these, being a bit of a geek means that four world war two aeroplanes flying directly above and around my house is an intersting event.

This, of course, does beg the question of the carbon footprint these ancient 'birds of prey' will be laying as they fly (is there a mixed metaphor in there?). But, not to worry becasue in a fit of yin yang balance, I have found out about Urban Eden. Another group of peeps who quite like Milton keynes and think it should have more of a positive environmental impact on the planet.

If you'd like to know more about these two diverse stories, then follow the links...

Here come the planes

Urban Eden

Why I recommend "God Of Small Things"

God Of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy

This was / is absolutely fantastic. I have wanted to read it for ages and now I have finally done it. The narrative weaves through decades like a snake in the grass. A simple love story but gloriously told. I often highlight the odd phrase or sentence in a really good book, however, the God of Small Things contains as many highlights as an Evangelical’s Bible.

The only negative is that I know I could never write something this wonderful.

See more about God Of Small Things

Firefox tell Flock to Flock Off?

Now this is an interesting piece of news. Flock is a browser that uses Firefox as the underlying code. What Flock adds is lots of social networking bits and pieces on top of the browser platform, such as the ability to post to blogs and to do things with your pictures via Flickr and Photobucket. I have been using it on and off, the main reason for not using it is that it is still very much beta software, although the version I currently have is very stable and works a treat - therefore using it is becoming more frequent.

However, the guys at Mozilla, who put Firefox together seem to be wanting to create their own version of Flock. I have a couple of questions/ points relating to this.

1. Why create a new 'browser' when the functionality can be obtained by using plug-ins. This is the best thing about Firefox, if you want some added functionality simply find the plug-in that offers it, there are plenty out there
2. The same question should, and has, been levelled at Flock
3. The market is getting crowded
4. Is the winner from all of this diversity IE7?

For more info, and better tech info and understanding take the following link.

http://mashable.com/2007/04/03/mozilla-labs-the-coop/

One of those catchy tunes from my youth

When I was young, and I mean very young I first heard the tune popcorn. And now many years later I have found this... who has the time to find this stuff?



WFMU's Beware of the Blog: 79 Versions of Popcorn

A story about "The Shining"

The Shining

by Stephen King

Given that this is now 30 years old I thought it was time to read it. For some reason I missed out some of King’s early novels and also some of his later ones. Time to fill in the gaps.

See more about The Shining

A quick update

Had a busy weekend. Thought Dr Who was good, difficult to get soo much information into one 45 minute episode, but I felt they managed it quite well. Only two blatant references to Mr Saxon, can they keep that up? Interesting to see if they try and shoe-horn it into next week's Shakespear episode. Also a throw-away reference to the Dr once having a brother... is that significant or not?

Not much other news, but the week is young :-)