Year: 2007
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America: Zero Tolerance
Americans must have zero tolerance for pain. Last week I had one of my remaining two wisdom teeth extracted (the final one being so calcified over with bone that to remove it would mean cutting a hole in my jaw, which I didn’t fancy). I scheduled my appointment for 8:00am to minimize the interruption to my workday, and drove there straight from the office (where I’d already fitted in 2 or 3 hours of work). The first red flag went up when the receptionist asked me who had come with me to “take me home, afterwards” as I’d be in… Read more
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Whatever happened to BeerScene?
I know it’s hard to believe from the truly amateur feel of this blogsite, but this isn’t my first foray into Web development. In fact, this is the fourth or fifth website I’ve put together. My first (and most widely-read) website was BeerScene. I still get asked about this every so often, so for historical record, here’s the full story. Back in the day (some 15 years ago), I was involved in the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in England. This is a consumer organization that promotes ‘real’ beer – i.e. not the mass-produced, over-chilled, artifically-carbonated beer that dominates the industry. … Read more
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This Lost Boy, Back From the Wilderness…
Many years ago (1988), I took my girlfriend-at-the-time to see Roy Harper play live. He was supported by a young singer/songwriter/guitarist called James Varda. The gig was excellent, and I was so impressed with James Varda, that I bought his debut LP, Hunger (direct from the record label , as HMV didn’t carry it). It didn’t disappoint, with the best lyrical imagery this side of thin-wild-mercury Dylan, and some powerful use of a semi-accoustic 12-string. I must have all but worn out the grooves on that album. A year or so later the girlfriend left me and – I found out later… Read more
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AT&T Are Shit
(Sorry, I can’t think of a witty title, because this just isn’t funny…) About a month ago, a representative from AT&T called round offering me their Uverse service free on a couple of month’s trial. This is a combined cable TV and internet service, and although I already used AT&T’s DSL service for my internet connection, I’d shied away from the cable TV service as a friend of ours round the corner had had bad experiences with AT&T. The rep told me that they had since upgraded their network to fibre-optic, and I’d have an optic cable running right into… Read more
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The Bible Was Wrong*
The in-laws are currently visiting, so I thought I may as well take a week’s vacation (first one since we went to Spain in 2005, I think…) and go somewhere interesting. ‘Interesting’ turned out to be Memphis, Tennessee. “Why Memphis??” everyone here in Houston asked. “Why Memphis??” everyone in Memphis asked. I’d like to think that I went there to visit the “Birthplace of Rock N Roll” (TM) and soak up some of that ol’ blues history, but the truth is that, at 600 miles from Houston, Memphis is about as far as I thought I could take the kids… Read more