Lots of Lovely Links. Well not lots but three.

So, whilst bed ridden (exaggeration really) but incapable of doing anything of any use to anyone, I have been on the internet.  Actually I have been watching films too, but I woke up this morning and felt so hideous I couldn’t move.  It was almost as bad as being sat on by a five ton hippo with IBS.

Today I have watched 9 (Tim Burton, genius), The Day The Earth Stood Still, Wall-E, and The First Twenty Million Is The Hardest (film adaptation of one of my favourite books by Po Bronson).  I feel better for the rest and I can now move my head properly without things cramping up.

I have also come across the excellent links.

www.nanocrowd.com (thanks to Phil Bradley and his weblog of delights) is an amazing movie search engine.

http://www.filtermusic.net/ is an internet radio directory with a nice background and some great lounge music sites too. All HQ links as well

and finally this

San Francisco’s answer to the Westboro Baptist Church

Update.

Some of you know, and then some of you don’t know, that I had to go in to hospital on Monday to have a bizarre itching lump removed. I’ve had it removed, not that it was much of a lump to be fair, and now I am dealing with the consequences. First consequence is mostly that my neck is mucked up even further, having now had lots of stitches put in by Mr Stone, my consultant. Secondly I have to wait to see if there was anything detected. I am really hoping that there wasn’t and that I’ll be all clear and ready to go on my way.  I have enough stuff going on in my life at the moment, and this particular thing would not be a welcome addition.

Sounds dramatic? I have had a number of operations over the last few years as part of an ongoing battle with this dreadful disease and thankfully I have always had a tremendous amount of support from friends and workmates, most of all I have felt positive over the years that the greatest preventative measure is love which is something I have always had a lot of.

I got home from the hospital yesterday and had to sleep for a couple of hours. My beloved went downstairs and did a furious amount of cleaning and made a lovely tea too. She’s an absolute legend and without her I’d be in a total mess.

So today I am sitting happily in bed, about to watch a film and lay still for the rest of the afternoon. Just made a fry-up and have now made the house smell of grease and fried stuff. If someone wants to come over and make me a cup of tea, I’d be most grateful as my chief tea-maker has gone to work.

Speedy browser for Nokia 5800

Well, in an attempt to put Python on my Nokia 5800 I found a funny little browser called Skyfire. Google it, you’ll be impressed.

#1 Chris tries to get his camera to work.

My first attempt at vlogging… well, trying to get the camera to work more like.

Disgo, are you listening? Your consumers need help.

This is an open letter to Disgo.

Dear Disgo,

I hope you are well, I am fine thank you.

Why are there no official Disgo support forums?  There are many people who have bought your NetBook and are confused by some of the lack of functions or it’s strange OS or the fact that it’s not really that capable to meet the needs of the modern net-savvy person.

Please make some updates available, possibly an improved Wifi scanning program? Possibly some sort of greater functionality or a memory upgrade or anything really…

Most importantly, please can you set up a support website that is there to support consumers as there seems to be little available in the way of support apart from http://www.mydisgo.info/archives/category/faq/disgo-net-browser-3000 which is a bit of a joke imho.

Yours,

Chris Gower

Frozen,

Well the winter weather continues, the country remains at a stand still and everyone is panicing because it’s snowing. I can imagine anyone from Scandanavia is pissing themselves with laughter at the reaction some snow and ice gets.
I know i sound unfair but, really. Roads are closed because people drive too fast, schools are closed because society has become litigation mad and in a culture that loves to blame faceless bodies of authority, of course it’s the local authorities fault for not gritting the pavements. Here is a thought do it yourself. Spent a nice day playing sledging on a flat lilo, secretly hoping we have no more snow. Wondering if I can do a Sun dance or something pagan to bring clement weather.

CILIP’s Big Conversation

I tend to write things on here that are more about me and that strange bizarre thing I call a life.  But when a professional issue comes up, (professional I mean in terms of the library and information profession) I sometimes have to stick my oar in.  I read Tom Ropers fantastic article http://www.roper.org.uk/tr/2010/01/cilips-big-conversation.html and thought that it needs a poetic take on something that needed a good deal of creative insight in the first place.

So CILIP decides that we need to have a strategic event that decides where the future of the profession is heading.

I know information professionals are not necessarily renowned for their stunning creativity but giving it the name that they have, the ‘Big Conversation’ (think Tony Blair, Iraq war, drawing attention away, 2003), doesn’t do it any favours.

We know why they’re doing it too…

You don’t see other professions going through this to the same dramatic extent because how many other professions are being actively eroded and ‘deprofessionalised’ in front of our very qualified eyes?  I expect a few are but I haven’t got the time or the mindset to go through and do a long winded comparison of professions that are being subjected to the same sorts of changes that information professionals going through.

So with this in mind, let’s have a few alternatives?

The Big Gossip;
The Large Gabble;
The Bigger-Then-You-Think Dialogue;
The Huge Coffee Morning;
The Monstrously Large Coagulation of Information Professionals All Talking;
The Small Cough;
The Unified Assembly of Librarians Moaning about things;
Another Strategy Meeting

Answers on a postcard…. or a comment would be nice.

Phonic FM 106.8 and a bit of inspiration…

I like Exeter.  It’s smack bang in one of the largest and strangest counties in England but it also manages to hold on to a tiny slice of reality, a grasp hold of civilsation in the midst of rolling hills and the rest of the South West peninsula which seems to exist in a culture vacuum the size of… well, the South West of England to be honest.

Now, I am not saying that Exeter has more culture, but it seems to be a progressive beacon of excellent events and some stunning festivals that have been successful in putting Exeter firmly on that map people keep going on about.  One offshoot of the Vibraphonic festival was Vibraphonic FM which has now become Phonic FM.

I want people to hear www.phonic.fm because it is without a doubt the best radio station ever.  See, I am endorsing something and finally getting over my impartialness.  Without your support and continued love and devotion, this amazing radio station wouldn’t be where it is today.  And, I have to say, being a previous guest on Waves With Words (Wednesday mornings at 10am) it gives emerging talent the best possible platform to uplift themselves and and project talent over the digital and actual airwaves.

So plug in, tune in, and drop out or something like that…

Insomnia, boot sales and further adventures of nostalgia.

It’s official. I have insomnia. I was up at 5am analysing the greater and lesser facets of my life including ‘what is religion, where do they make mars bars, and how much money do i not have?’. They’re not unique thoughts, in fact they’re repeats of thoughts that i had yesterday, like a repeating matinee on Dave or a redubbed version of Agadoo.

So, looking at the advance of technology, I now have the ability to update my blogs from a remote car park in Exeter at 6am on a Sunday morning. One of the greatest inventions of the 21st century? Just wait till they start making invisible sausages, that’ll be something. I guess we’ll see cures for diseases, creation of new exciting ways to stroke your very own ego (such as this one) and maybe even a solution to climate change. Sadly, I expect we’ll see a new gaming technology come out before that happens or possibly even self colouring hair. Just feel guilty when you’re colouring your hair and an iceberg melts and lands on the last ever polar bear.

As you can tell, insomnia is rubbish. But what’s even worse is the reason I’m down here in Marsh Barton.

Talking about gaming, I mercilessly stole back my PS1 from my sister who doesn’t use it as she has 6 other means of game playing in her tiny room, and I suddenly realised that this machine was part of my childhood. I grew up with Wipeout, Destruction Derby 2 and Gran Turismo. So today, I’m going to expand my PS1 experience and get some more games for it. I’m also looking for PS2 games too for Tori, oh and a memory card as well. Knowing my luck, i’ll come back with a picture of a squirrel and another typewriter.

Next year, will be better.

What a fantastic few days. Spent a great day on Wednesday with Tori and her parents, then yesterday with my family. In a mass of food and gorging, I realised that my belly had taken on a shape. It was the shape of Wales, and nearly the size of Wales too.
I now have a sheep farmer called Owen and his wife living somewhere near my belly button. We’re getting on ok, but having a small dispute over rent.
So at this point of the year, one decides some new year resolutions to break, but this year I am going to decide on one.
To write more.
Blog or poetry, more writing will hopefully make my brain creatively more flexible.
But really, is there actually any point to this whole resolution thing?