#123 on post greenbelt blues

i don't have the post-greenbelt blues.

not yet.

but i don't think i'm going to get them either.

greenbelt was very good for me this year.  i didn't hear life changing speakers.  i didn't hear life changing bands.  i didn't see life changing art.

but i did see some dear friends.  i did hear some new music.  and i did start to think about life in a new way.

that's what greenbelt has done to me or for me depending on your perspective.

so i haven't placed myself on to a self imposed pedastool to be knocked off at a later date to be arranged with fate and destiny.  instead i've got a clearer sense of who i am (and who i'm not) and where i fit (and where i don't) than i have in an awful long time.

(i'm crying now.)

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#122 on new verbs

I am not an old reactionary when it comes to language.  I know it is an organic thing with new words and meanings and connotations coming on all the time but, just like misplaced or missing apostrophes, I do get bugged when new verbs turn up without warning.

For example, who decided that tourists would 'do' places when they travelled abroad?  Personally I cannot bear it when people tell me the 'did' the Sistene Chapel after a summer holiday in Rome. 

And now the BBC have got in on the act.  Since when did 'medal' become a verb?  Rebecca Adlington has medalled twice and so have 4 coxless men (sorry a pun not to be missed) amongst others.

It just worries me that we are simply being lazy with language.  Yes I know the point of language is to communicate meaning as quickly and efficiently as possible but are heading towards the newspeak of 1984?

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#121 on lost and found

You may have noticed a small level of activity on the web 2.0 front as I slowly attempt to rebuild my social life after a year of, well there's no easy way to describe it really, so let us say, shit.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about that now.  What I wanted to say is that part of my getting life back in order is that I've been sorting through our CD collection and come across this excellent disk - The Essential Fripp & Eno.  It's a great listen and I really like it but I must confess that I don't believe it actually belongs to me.  So if you lent it to me and have been cursing me behind my back for ages because I haven't returned it please let me know.

Until then i shall continue to listen to it and enjoy.

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#120 on Leoš Janáček

I first came across Janacek when I saw The Royal Opera House production of Cunning Little Vixen years ago and so I have been quietly looking forward to my birthday treat for some time.  For tonight I went with Andrea to the Janacek Prom down at Albert.

Time too short and words too few to describe the experience suffice it to say that it was an evening of immense pleasure and intrigue.  His music has so many facets that I don't think I shall ever tire of it.

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#119 on men's mags

current mood - tired (what else)
current music - from your favourite sky by i am kloot

the other day when travelling by tube i picked up one of the millions of free papers discarded across the carriage. but instead of london lite or metro or whatever i found myself clutching shortlist - a free magazine for men.

i've never been taken by the likes of nuts and loaded. i'd be embarrassed to read them in public so i'd never bothered. having said that i do enjoy gadgets and am trying to staying in touch culture so i suppose i shouldn't have been surprised to find shortlist strangely engaging in a disengaged-pass-the-time-on-the-tube sort of way.

the main thing to report is the lack of t and a. if it had been packed with more tits than a spearmint rhino club i would have ditched it straight away - firstly because it would have been embarrassing (surely porn, however soft, should be viewed as a solo sport) and secondly linking to this is that i know what a lady's upper portions look like and have access to the real thing if you see what i mean. i thought these mags were packed with bikinis or not. but in fact there was probably more eye candy for gay men than straight.

there were lots of lists - hence the name. top 10 this and that. occasionally funny, occasionally thought provoking, occasionally badly researched but often interesting.

there was some journalism - articles worth reading, reviews of gadgets worth considering and news of current stuff in the arts. all pretty lightweight but all perfectly balanced for reading on the tube.

so all in all a good read on the tube. i will plan future tube excursions for thursdays or visit the website for top 10 things to read on the tube etc.

#118 on caleb's flickr set

current music - star mile by joshua radin
current mood - (on the way to being) drunk

you can find all the caleb pics here my dear hob blogglings

#117 on confusion

current mood - tired (still)
current music - real world by matchbox twenty

i'm confused about my phone contract.

my current deal is with talktalk. they've got me for a 18 month contract but i'm relatively pleased with the terms - calls and surf time and who cares. that's not the problem.

the problem is with bt. they regularly write to me and ask me politely to go back to them. eventually, with the aim of either negotiating a better deal and/or stopping the junk mail i rang them and asked them to buy me out of my talktalk contract. which they wouldn't. nor would they agree to stop sending junk mail. until i got cross.

then the phone started playing up. cutting off in the midst of conversations. so did the internet. so i rang talktalk and reported it and after being patronised about have i tried this and being threatened with a £150 bill if it's my fault, i got a fault report code and a promise of an engineer.

but that's not the reason why i'm confused.

today the engineer arrived. a bt engineer. who fixed the problem. perhaps i should have asked why a bt engineer should be fixing a phone line i pay talktalk but, on reflection, i'm glad i didn't.

the answer would have been more confusing than the ignorance. i've only got so much ram, you know what i mean. or as rob thomas was just singing, "I wish the real world, would just stop hassling me".

#116 on not being a geek

current mood - tired (it's a permanent state at present)
current music - my old man by ian dury and the blockheads

i don't have a beard. i don't have a degree in computer science. i know what it is to hold a woman. i own no cardigans. i have no imaginary friends.

but i do run linux on my computer and am proud of it. not just because it's better than windoze. not just because it's free. not just because it simply works in the way i want it to work (and let's face who of us needs to stray far beyond the word processing, web browsing, picture processing jukebox that we want our computers to be)

and as for apple... i tell you in years to come our grand children won't say to us 'grandpa, how come that microsoft were able to make us think that a computer would only work if we used their software and that it was so expensive and that it was basically crap although it tried its best to look good.' instead they'll say, 'grandpa, how did apple ever manage to convince you that they were the ethical alternative to microsoft.'

don't get me wrong, apple make fine products but by heck you have to pay for it. and if you don't like a program, itunes for example, well tough shit basically. the code is closed - as closed as the microsoft code. they make you do it their way or no way.

think open source.

take a look at linux.

you'll never look back.

find out what ubuntu means my dear hob bloglings and it'll all make sense. trust me.

#115 on new arrivals

current mood - tired
current music - precious by annie lennox

Introducing the latest addition to the Goddard Family...

Caleb Reuben Joel Goddard born Monday 31 March 2008 at 2:24am weighing in at 6lb 11oz. Mother and baby both beautiful and well.

Watch this space for flickr link for more photos.