If you can´t beet´em

Nothing like nature taking hold to illustrate that I’ve left it far too long between postings again. I’ve added my Facebook status to my Lifestream page, so that’s a little extra tidbit of information about my online life should you fancy reading it. Facebook seems to be where it’s at at the moment, though once again everyone’s up in arms about the privacy and copyright implications of their latest automatic update to their Terms of Use. Stu reckons he’s been proved right about it being a dark force, I replied:

Weeeeeell, it’s a free service, innit. Anything I upload can get shared around and that’s fine by me. And if they use my info to put adverts about the latest Morrissey album rather than crap about SUVs or pharmaceuticals or summat, I’m happier for it. I’ve even used the thumbs up/down thing on adverts I get served. Now I just get ads for cameras and music and coffee and stuff.

When they release a best-selling book called “Gwyn’s status updates and wordscraper scores 2006-2009″ then I might start complaining, but frankly I reckon it’s a bit self important to think anything I’ve ever uploaded to friendface is worth more than bugger all. If they can make some money off it, good luck to em.

There’s a very good article about how to configure your fb privacy settings so your boss doesn’t see all the pictures of you from the weekend. But, to be honest, you shouldn’t have added them as a friend in the first place…

Anyhoo, busy week as ever between L&C, site updates, a pending translation and the demands of a certain schipperke… I’ll be back soon. And if not, click on over to me Lifestream, photoblog or Flickr

Snow in L&C Law School

Luckily this time I read the backs of the packets of seeds and a lot of them could be started indoors then transplanted, so I felt slightly smug this morning when it was whiter than usual outside. Not enough snow to cancel work though, but enough to make the place look suitably festive. Hopefully something’ll sprout soon… and ideally produce vegetables before we move to another timezone

You're going to reap, just what you sow

Since it was already snowing when I headed to work today I took me camera in on the offchance there was something photographicable, to coin a word. I submitted one of them to this here Portland blog and they published it. I get the impression they’re not inundated with entries… On Flickr one of the comments was “Best watch where you put the rock salt down.” which I liked.

No, not the economy.

I got fed up with not being able to watch On Demand offerings on cable last night so I finally gave up thinking ‘it’s probably just snow on the lines, or flooding, or high winds, or volcanic/seismic activity’ and phoned Comcast to sort it out. 40 minutes of classical music later, I hung up before my mobile phone died. Then I tried email. Today I got a reply suggesting using their ‘live chat’ .  Click on the ‘more’ link or whatever it’s called if you’d like to read the conversation between John.Michael.37920 and Ms. Fisher in its entirety. Basically I’m waiting the proposed 15-30 minutes now and thought posting about Comcast would help pass the time.

A picture paints a thousand words and adds 3 seconds to the load time of the page.

Last night we ordered some Mexican food from the local El Salvadorian restaurant (I know…), and since the line was bad and there was a lot of background noise, rather than spending the usual 5 minutes spelling gwyn, I gave my name as Paco. Unfortunately this led to even more confusion and thus we ended up with Tacos de carne asada rather than burritos.

I’d like to say more has been happening of note but not really. Lots of work. Lots of walking the dog. A fair bit of reading. Countless hours on the internets… Half my family appeared in Taunton’s Gazette last week. That was probably the highlight… Doesn’t he look happy? I think I inherited the “Yay-It’s-snow!” gene…

All the news that's fit to print

Ah well, I’m off to check if I can watch The Soup on demand yet. If not I’ll be live chatting again for a substantial chunk of this morning.

Read the rest of this entry »

of Kingston in the snow, gorgeous they are:

http://flickr.com/photos/digameuk/sets/72157613433876234/

Though the colouring of some of the faceprints is a bit disturbing.

What a difference 450°F makes

Recipe in last post. Though I’ve not tasted it yet…

Leif's Bread Recipe (click for bigger)

DrSita comes back late this evening and in the meantime, I’m baking bread. Sudarat gave me a bread baking stone and it’s getting it’s baptism by yeast today. When DrSita rang yesterday she seemed to be reeling from culture shock from visiting New Orleans, and this morning I turned my computer on and got this Skype message:

[6:21:11 AM] WIFEY! says: i can’t believe i forgot to tell you: i ate alligator!

I dunno, you let her wander off for 48 hours and this kind of thing happens…

What else? I went to Bertie Lou’s this morning for breakfast, had a long chat with Stu & Anne yesterday, watched Cloverfield last night, Hancock the night before, and life’s pretty quiet all in all.

Bertie Lou's- Best Mediocre Breakfast since 1964

I got tagged by Colibrí and El Charro Negro for an “upload a photo and say 16 things about yourself” Flickr meme thing, so i have to do that. I didn’t realise it had to be in Spanish though, and thinking of 16 things to say was harder than I thought so I just googled about for ‘50 questions’ type posts and came up with the following:

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
Jesus, that’s a lot of white hairs in me beard. Time for a shave…

2. What is your favourite ringtone on your phone?
Any of them are fine EXCEPT the one that I used to have as an alarm at 6am meaning it was time to commute to Sunnyvale for Yahoo(!). Still gives me shivers when I hear it.

3. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Hoping DrSita was alright in her haunted hotel in Louisiana. Wishing the Colbert Report would go on a bit longer, and mulling over the implications and repercussions of time travel in LOST.

4. What’s a word that you say a lot?
In English, anyroad
In Spanish, orale

5. Favorite age you have been so far?
23 was a good vintage.

6. What is your current desktop picture?
Laptop: That Ubuntu heron thing
Home PC: Bokeh-y grass
Work PC: Yes we canine. On black.

7. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Pump the return me money button, rock the machine a bit, send another coin in after it, swear, weep.

8. Last magazine you bought?
Word magazine. Best music magazine on the planet. If we lived in the same country for more than 10 months at a time, I’d subscribe.

9. Can you cook?
Now and again. I can follow a recipe if it has pictures of what the result’s meant to look like. The House Speciality is Shepherd’s Pie. And right now I’m 6 hours into a bread recipe.

10. Last movie you watched?
Cloverfield, 2 hours ago. Monsters rock!

11. Do you like marmite?
Hellz yeah! ‘cept nowadays it gives me terrible acid indigestion.

12. Favourite crisps?
US: Funyuns
UK: Quavers
Mexico: Lays, amarillo

13. Do you own a donor card?
Yep. Help yourselves.

Sellwood Park in the mists

14. Are you a collector of anything?
We move too often to amass a serious amount of anything, I’ve 11 and a half thousand photos on Flickr though and I think my two dual lens vintage cameras might be the start of something bigger….

15. Do you believe in ghosts?
Nope.

16. Have you ever done anything more self-obsessed than this?
Can I interest you in my blog..? www.agaveweb.com/blog

Now I have to translate all that…

The Continuing Adventures of Me’n'Mario’n'Ange:

Last Thursday. I shifted my hours at L&C to a bit later so we could explore the area a tad. It was a misty morning & Atticus was full of beans and came with us.

I thought the park by the Sellwood bridge would be pretty atmospheric what with all the fog so we had a little wander round there before heading up to Tryon park next to where I work. We managed a fairly large loop of the trails there, the mist had more or less disappeared but the sun was low in the sky and casting some nice beams through the trees. I also took advantage of having two experienced dog handlers to pass Atticus over to so I could use my TTV contraption. Here’s one I liked:

Non-native invasive species

We walked briefly around the L&C campus then I went to a meeting about the new CMS we’re going to be adopting at the law school. It’s an impressive system and will eventually make everything run more smoothly… but I think the changeover is going to be a little bumpy. Nothing too severe though, and I likes a challenge.

After than we went CD & poster shopping round Hawthorn way. Word Magazine cost 17 bucks. But it’s rarer than hen’s teeth in Oregon so I bit the bullet and paid up. I shall read it very slowly…

25% of Millennium Music

In the evening, ‘tapas gringas’ and beer in Clinton with everyone + a Spanish friend of ours.

Lovely. Anyroad, off to try step #5 in Leif’s recipe…

Dad just published the fruit of years of research by my Uncle David and Auntie Liz in his Flickrstream- the family tree dating back the 18th century. It’s altogether humbling and an impressive project in itself.

Click to view HUGE file, involves a bit of scrolling...

Today DrSita headed off to New Orleans, back on Friday. News as and when. Mario & Ange Pt II:

Last Tuesday, did 9 to 5 on campus, while M&A went to the zoo (i think…), then in the evening Sita cooked (again) and we played a new board game, Sequence, which is like Connect 4, but with cards, teamwork and a lot more vitriol…

Wednesday, 9 to 4 on campus for me, then a walk with ‘Cus and in the evening M&A&me saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in the frozen mists of Moreland. 3 hours long or so, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like a sci-fi Forrest Gump. 4 Lulus.