An idle thought
I've noticed in the last few days that the frequency of @replies on twitter amongst my small circle of friends has increased dramatically.
@replies were always interesting as they grew out of the natural behaviour of the community, and were only later included as a full feature of the system.
I'm wondering if the high crossover between friends and use of twitter as SXSW as an organising tool might be due to this. It would be an interesting stat to track - changes in the 'flocculence' of the site as replies cluster around events with large groups of active users. It might be an interesting visualisation exercise, particularly if it were possible to map cel location to incidences of flocculence.
Were I able to write scripts to extract the data, and map it against dopplr co-incidences, I would.
But I can't, so someone else is welcome to the idea.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Nitrate Pirate
I've just found the negatives to my favourite pictures of my grandmother.
They're Nitrate, and badly damaged.
Does anyone know a Nitrate film preservation expert?
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Keep Calm and Carry On
I have a copy of the iconic 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster framed on my wall at home. I found it via a post on flickr, and bought it over the internet from Barter Books Gift Shop a couple of years ago.
I find it slightly sad that other places are now taking much of the credit (and presumably the income) for its rediscovery. You can't stop things going viral, I suppose. At least Barter books link to some proper contextual academic information.
Can I suggest buying from Barter Books, and thus support 'the British Library of second hand bookshops'? I'd also point out that a poster from Barter Books is a LOT cheaper than some of the other options...
I find it slightly sad that other places are now taking much of the credit (and presumably the income) for its rediscovery. You can't stop things going viral, I suppose. At least Barter books link to some proper contextual academic information.
Can I suggest buying from Barter Books, and thus support 'the British Library of second hand bookshops'? I'd also point out that a poster from Barter Books is a LOT cheaper than some of the other options...
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
World of WarCraftCraft
Checking my personal email this morning, I found a thread from my Warcraft chums in our guild, about the appeal of the game. I will paraphrase here, this being a good starting point for the complete waste of time that follows.
Now, I have this ongoing problem with Alice (Crystaltips) telling me to do things: I just unthinkingly obey. Dunno why, I just do. She used to use it to get me to bring her Lattes in meetings, the cow.
So, the framing the thread comment kicked me in to action. How do you frame a thread and make it nice to look at? And specifically, how do you do it for someone like Alice, whose favourite thing is slightly rubbish game-based crafts?
You turn it in to cross-stitch, obviously.
So - first, let's find some imagery. I wanted something Horde-y, obviously, so I checked out the official Blizzard fan site kit.
World of Warcraft Europe -> Fan Site Kit
Lovely avatars, but not quite what I was after. So, copyright infringement time! What happens if you type 'Horde' in to Google Image Search?
Aha, that will do nicely. Many thanks to the Horde Army guild site, from whom I've ripped this off (sorry guys!). Incidentally, that's one of the best put-together guild sites I've seen - they even have their own resources database. Go Horde Army!
Next step: some kind of slogan. I love antique samplers, with their folk-artsy cross-stitch writing, and I don't see why a Horde embroidery should be any different. I think a simple guild name - in angle brackets, of course - with a quote from the discussion should do. And what's that on my hard drive? A copy of Fritz Quadrata, the Warcraft tooltip font? How did that get there? Surely that's in violation of lots of copyright rules?*
To Photoshop, comrades!
Nice design, eh?
The next thing is to convert it in to a sewing pattern. I've found a few sites that offer image to embroidery pattern conversion in my web-peregrinations, and the two best are coincidentally, free to use online.
MicroRevolt are an excellent organisation that protest at the use of sweatshop labour by making protest quilts to send to the CEO of Nike. They deserve your support.
They also have an excellent little tool for converting pictures to patterns on their site, called KnitPro. It produces simple-looking patterns, but doesn't reduce the number of colours in the image.
Running our design (and a brightened up version) through Knit Pro gives us our first four patterns
A good alternative to KnitPro is Pic2Point.com: it spits out more complex-looking patterns, but reduces the colours in the image for you to simplify it, gives you a chart of yarns on the front, and makes the pattern easier to follow. I don't think it sends blankets to corporations with questionable ethical records, though.
So, there you go. Horde Guild Quote embroidery patterns.
Things I discovered during this process:
If you want to know how to actually do the embroidery - and I'm not going to, because 27,000 stitches would play merry hell with my RSI, there's an excellent primer on game related embroidery at Kotaku by Maggie Greene, that takes you through the process step by step.
To finish, a couple of interesting bits:
Radical Cross Stitch
Subversive Cross Stitch Kits
And some context: information from the Brooklyn Museum Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art that goes part way to explaining why alt-crafting is a political act.
* NB: I actually care a lot about copyright violation, and feel tremendously guilty about the unlicensed fonts I own. In particular, I *really* *really* want to buy a copy of House Industry's Neutraface, because it is beautiful, but really, $249? For something I will use maybe twice in personal projects, and maybe on a weblog? If you price your content out of your market, you're just encouraging piracy. See also: legal copies of Photoshop.
Hactar: So, an idle question: When you hit lvl 70, do you keep earning XP?
Tikker: and, do you keep doing quests? what do you do after 70?
Jonalock: You don't earn any more XP, no, but the XP you would earn from completing quests gets turned into extra gold instead. You'll have a bunch of solo quests to keep doing when you hit 70, for which you get more money and sometimes better equipment as quest rewards. Further progression comes from doing instances to get better equipment which then lets you do harder instances to get better equipment which lets you do raids (instances for more than 5 people, typically 10 or 25) to get better equipment which lets you do harder raids to get better equipment which lets you ... And there goes your life.
Tikker: when you put it like that it sounds so.....futile....
Jonalock: On the plus side there'll be an expansion out soonish raising the level cap to 80 and with a huge number of new solo quests and the like .. (and which will also overnight make all your hard-won uber-gear entirely useless - green is the new purple!)
Kieth: you see this is the point I lose the will to live...why are we playing this again?
Tikker: cos it releases crack from a keyboard while you play as a reward.
Kieth: finger ingested rock...that's it, I forgot
Crystaltips: I feel like framing this thread.
Now, I have this ongoing problem with Alice (Crystaltips) telling me to do things: I just unthinkingly obey. Dunno why, I just do. She used to use it to get me to bring her Lattes in meetings, the cow.
So, the framing the thread comment kicked me in to action. How do you frame a thread and make it nice to look at? And specifically, how do you do it for someone like Alice, whose favourite thing is slightly rubbish game-based crafts?
You turn it in to cross-stitch, obviously.
So - first, let's find some imagery. I wanted something Horde-y, obviously, so I checked out the official Blizzard fan site kit.
World of Warcraft Europe -> Fan Site Kit
Lovely avatars, but not quite what I was after. So, copyright infringement time! What happens if you type 'Horde' in to Google Image Search?
Aha, that will do nicely. Many thanks to the Horde Army guild site, from whom I've ripped this off (sorry guys!). Incidentally, that's one of the best put-together guild sites I've seen - they even have their own resources database. Go Horde Army!
Next step: some kind of slogan. I love antique samplers, with their folk-artsy cross-stitch writing, and I don't see why a Horde embroidery should be any different. I think a simple guild name - in angle brackets, of course - with a quote from the discussion should do. And what's that on my hard drive? A copy of Fritz Quadrata, the Warcraft tooltip font? How did that get there? Surely that's in violation of lots of copyright rules?*
To Photoshop, comrades!
Nice design, eh?
The next thing is to convert it in to a sewing pattern. I've found a few sites that offer image to embroidery pattern conversion in my web-peregrinations, and the two best are coincidentally, free to use online.
MicroRevolt are an excellent organisation that protest at the use of sweatshop labour by making protest quilts to send to the CEO of Nike. They deserve your support.
They also have an excellent little tool for converting pictures to patterns on their site, called KnitPro. It produces simple-looking patterns, but doesn't reduce the number of colours in the image.
Running our design (and a brightened up version) through Knit Pro gives us our first four patterns
- Cross-Stitch Pattern 1 - no guild name on this one, dark colours, 120w x160h, 19,200 stitches
- Cross-Stitch Pattern 2 - guild name, dark colours, 96w x 120h, 11,520 stitches
- Cross-Stitch Pattern 3 - guild name, brighter colours, 96w x 120h, 11,520 stitches
- Cross-Stitch Pattern 4 - guild name, brighter colours, 120w x160h, 19,200 stitches
A good alternative to KnitPro is Pic2Point.com: it spits out more complex-looking patterns, but reduces the colours in the image for you to simplify it, gives you a chart of yarns on the front, and makes the pattern easier to follow. I don't think it sends blankets to corporations with questionable ethical records, though.
- Cross-Stitch Pattern 5 - guild name, dark colours, stitch count 18, 8 inches wide, 12 colours, 27,000 stitches apx.
- Cross-Stitch Pattern 6 - guild name, bright colours, stitch count 18, 8 inches wide, 13 colours, 27,000 stitches apx.
So, there you go. Horde Guild Quote embroidery patterns.
Things I discovered during this process:
- Running dull colours through either of the pattern makers above will make them muddier. Work with your image first to brighten it up a lot.
- With KnitPro, as it doesn't do colour reduction, you might want to save your design as a gif or a png with a reduced colour palette. If you're really clever, you can use the 'Save for Web/Devices' option in photoshop to select a good palette of colours for your thread.
- Using a tool like 'posterise' in photoshop to simplify the image doesn't seem to help with the output much.
- KnitPro barfs on some png files, and renders white as black. I think this is something to do with differences between the way png8 and png24 handle transparency, but I may be wrong.
- None of the pattern makers I tried handled the text well: even with antialiasing and at a larger pixel size (stitch-pitch?) it looks a bit rubbish. You can live with that, and keep the font recognizable as the WoW font, or you could use a tool like Crossstich.com's Caption Maker or the Subversive Cross-stitch Magic Robot.
If you want to know how to actually do the embroidery - and I'm not going to, because 27,000 stitches would play merry hell with my RSI, there's an excellent primer on game related embroidery at Kotaku by Maggie Greene, that takes you through the process step by step.
To finish, a couple of interesting bits:
Radical Cross Stitch
Subversive Cross Stitch Kits
And some context: information from the Brooklyn Museum Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art that goes part way to explaining why alt-crafting is a political act.
* NB: I actually care a lot about copyright violation, and feel tremendously guilty about the unlicensed fonts I own. In particular, I *really* *really* want to buy a copy of House Industry's Neutraface, because it is beautiful, but really, $249? For something I will use maybe twice in personal projects, and maybe on a weblog? If you price your content out of your market, you're just encouraging piracy. See also: legal copies of Photoshop.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Charlie's Diary: Youth of today
Charlie's Diary: Youth of today
This is worth reading. I was going to post a comment, but realised it was a bit on the long side, so I should probably spin it off here.
I think Charlie Stross' gedankenexperiment really illustrates the speed of change of technology in our society, and the fact that post 30s, we tend to settle in to some kind of happy equilibrium, just keeping up with the essentials. I wonder if that's something to do with the average age of parenthood? Anyway.
I wanted to offer back a long view on this - that it's not just the change for the youth, it's the change in the span of a single human life that is now quite incredible.
When I was little - around 7 or 8 - I had a recording of Bach on a cassette. My grandfather was babysitting me one evening, and my player (a flat one with buttons along the front and a flip up lid) chewed up the tape. (Recorded Music playing with moving parts - how quaint!)
My grandfather came to find out why i was crying, and himself cried because he couldn't help; he just didn't understand the problem, or how to fix it.
Now, he was born in 1896, and died in 1986. So, in his lifetime, he saw
The Motor Car become comoditised
Powered human flight
Mechanised Warfare
Recorded music as a comodity
Radio
Commoditised photography
Comodditised Paperbacks
The Supermarket
Cinema in every town
The Telephone
Television
Transatlantic voice communication
Satellites
Rocketry
Space Flight, man on the moon
The NHS
The Welfare State
Nuclear Weapons
The computer
The home computer
Home Video
Car Phones
Credit Cards
ATM Machines
It's quite a list. Is change going to be so palpable to this generation? Is change accelerating? Is it just the C20th that will see such a radical shift, or was this accelerating speed of change set in train from the moment of the industrial revolution? How will society adapt to this speed of change? What will it do to people? Is there an upper limit on the human capacity to assimilate change?
I don't have answers to this, but I think it bears thinking about.
This is worth reading. I was going to post a comment, but realised it was a bit on the long side, so I should probably spin it off here.
I think Charlie Stross' gedankenexperiment really illustrates the speed of change of technology in our society, and the fact that post 30s, we tend to settle in to some kind of happy equilibrium, just keeping up with the essentials. I wonder if that's something to do with the average age of parenthood? Anyway.
I wanted to offer back a long view on this - that it's not just the change for the youth, it's the change in the span of a single human life that is now quite incredible.
When I was little - around 7 or 8 - I had a recording of Bach on a cassette. My grandfather was babysitting me one evening, and my player (a flat one with buttons along the front and a flip up lid) chewed up the tape. (Recorded Music playing with moving parts - how quaint!)
My grandfather came to find out why i was crying, and himself cried because he couldn't help; he just didn't understand the problem, or how to fix it.
Now, he was born in 1896, and died in 1986. So, in his lifetime, he saw
The Motor Car become comoditised
Powered human flight
Mechanised Warfare
Recorded music as a comodity
Radio
Commoditised photography
Comodditised Paperbacks
The Supermarket
Cinema in every town
The Telephone
Television
Transatlantic voice communication
Satellites
Rocketry
Space Flight, man on the moon
The NHS
The Welfare State
Nuclear Weapons
The computer
The home computer
Home Video
Car Phones
Credit Cards
ATM Machines
It's quite a list. Is change going to be so palpable to this generation? Is change accelerating? Is it just the C20th that will see such a radical shift, or was this accelerating speed of change set in train from the moment of the industrial revolution? How will society adapt to this speed of change? What will it do to people? Is there an upper limit on the human capacity to assimilate change?
I don't have answers to this, but I think it bears thinking about.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Employee Benefits for Peer to Peer businesses?
Etsy's First Five Years
Etsy just raised a startling ammount of investment, which makes me very happy. They do so much right.
There's a very interesting post on their site about what their intentions are. This in particular caught my eye
Emphasis mine, there.
That's a game changer. A community marketplace that also acts as a kind of international, distributed trade union come employee benefit scheme? Visionary stuff.
Etsy just raised a startling ammount of investment, which makes me very happy. They do so much right.
There's a very interesting post on their site about what their intentions are. This in particular caught my eye
It is immensely important to me that all Etsy workers are paid a good salary, provided with full benefits (medical, dental, vision) by the company. Many companies, far too many companies, underpay their employees, don't make workers employees at all ("permalancers" and "permatemp" are the new words for this), and provide few if any benefits. (We also know that many of the sellers on Etsy lack access to such benefits as health insurance, and we want to work to change this.)
Emphasis mine, there.
That's a game changer. A community marketplace that also acts as a kind of international, distributed trade union come employee benefit scheme? Visionary stuff.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Epigrams through the Ether
/blows dust off the top of her blog, and waits for the valves to warm up
Twitter / oscarwilde
The other day, I was sitting in Monmouth Coffee in Borough Market. They do very fine 'macaroons' - actually, coconut pyramids.
They also do a startling line in braying middle class idiots, like what I am.
Anyway, a conversation between two actresses was so tooth-grindingly comic, I twittered it. It set me off thinking about the uses of twitter, and why I prefer the mundane, silly and epigrammatic posts over the 'I've updated my blog, here's the URL' or the '@someblokewhoknowsaboutmacs yes, saint steves shiny robot turds are amazing' tweets that pop up from my contacts. One of my favourite people there is David, who posts rarely, but beautifully.
To cut a long story short, it got me thinking, and inspired partly by Matt's Presence Machine, I have decided to give Oscar Wilde a life on twitter. Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young is the perfect work to consume via twitter - it's shallow, vain and a tiny bit self obsessed. Also, it comes in nice short lines, which are (I hope) mostly under 140 characters.
That's all, really...
Twitter / oscarwilde
The other day, I was sitting in Monmouth Coffee in Borough Market. They do very fine 'macaroons' - actually, coconut pyramids.
They also do a startling line in braying middle class idiots, like what I am.
Anyway, a conversation between two actresses was so tooth-grindingly comic, I twittered it. It set me off thinking about the uses of twitter, and why I prefer the mundane, silly and epigrammatic posts over the 'I've updated my blog, here's the URL' or the '@someblokewhoknowsaboutmacs yes, saint steves shiny robot turds are amazing' tweets that pop up from my contacts. One of my favourite people there is David, who posts rarely, but beautifully.
To cut a long story short, it got me thinking, and inspired partly by Matt's Presence Machine, I have decided to give Oscar Wilde a life on twitter. Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young is the perfect work to consume via twitter - it's shallow, vain and a tiny bit self obsessed. Also, it comes in nice short lines, which are (I hope) mostly under 140 characters.
Twitter Updates
That's all, really...
Friday, November 16, 2007
Twitter / AEguy27
Twitter / AEguy27: "About
* Name AEguy27
* Location Costa Mesa, CA
* Web http://sportshut....
* Bio I am 21, Live in southern California, and go to the Art Institute as an Advertising major! Stats
* Following 4,783
* Followers 339
* Favorites 2
* Updates 158"
I'm not sure that they're teaching their students the right things on the Advertising Course at
Advice to Mr AEguy27: friending everyone in twitter makes you look like a cunt. Stop it.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Quiet Round Here
Hello, it's quiet round here at the moment.
I'm not entirely sure why - I'm busy, yes, but also I don't feel like I have anything particularly interesting to add at the moment. Maybe that will change.
In the meantime, I leave you with a photograph of a shop window in Tooting, that featured the largest trainer I have ever seen. It's a godd 18-20 inches long.
I'm not entirely sure why - I'm busy, yes, but also I don't feel like I have anything particularly interesting to add at the moment. Maybe that will change.
In the meantime, I leave you with a photograph of a shop window in Tooting, that featured the largest trainer I have ever seen. It's a godd 18-20 inches long.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
I am dumbfounded by their choices of navigation of their site.
Even the list view - 'Explore the Collection Directory to view the maps by categories - starts listing things by 'What' first - so you get 'County Atlases' before any mention of a placename.
How inexplicable.
I am dumbfounded by their choices of navigation of their site.
Even the list view - 'Explore the Collection Directory to view the maps by categories - starts listing things by 'What' first - so you get 'County Atlases' before any mention of a placename.
How inexplicable.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Web game provides breakthrough in predicting spread of epidemics | Science Blog
No, not the usual 'web' game I talk about. Another one.
I got a bit irritated by the article on Today (I'd link to it, but I think it was Tuesday, and the page is 404ing, and natch, their naming scheme is rubbish, see posts passim) talking about the Corrupted Blood episode in Warcraft being a viable way of studying disease vectors. This was partly because the incident they were talking about happened nearly two years ago.
It turns out there's a little write up on BBC News, with some quotes from the researcher, Professor Nina Fefferman whose article has just been published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Alas, aside from being 2 years late to the party in warcraft terms, it's not a particularly original piece of thinking. Dirk Brockman and Lars Hufnagel studied a realworld/online phenomenon of tracking dollar bills to much the same effect.
Web game provides breakthrough in predicting spread of epidemics | Science Blog
Not really news, was it? I suspect it's just the sexy 'virtual worlds' tag that bought it to editors attention.
I got a bit irritated by the article on Today (I'd link to it, but I think it was Tuesday, and the page is 404ing, and natch, their naming scheme is rubbish, see posts passim) talking about the Corrupted Blood episode in Warcraft being a viable way of studying disease vectors. This was partly because the incident they were talking about happened nearly two years ago.
It turns out there's a little write up on BBC News, with some quotes from the researcher, Professor Nina Fefferman whose article has just been published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Alas, aside from being 2 years late to the party in warcraft terms, it's not a particularly original piece of thinking. Dirk Brockman and Lars Hufnagel studied a realworld/online phenomenon of tracking dollar bills to much the same effect.
Web game provides breakthrough in predicting spread of epidemics | Science Blog
Not really news, was it? I suspect it's just the sexy 'virtual worlds' tag that bought it to editors attention.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Wikipedia Edit Monitoring
Threat Level - Wired Blogs
Hands up, it was me. I was one of the people who anonymously spun edits in Wikipedia from within the BBC. I wrote the Wikipedia entries for Marguerite Patten, and for Queen of Puddings, in fact. This was part of a terrible, hideous, covert, evil attempt by the BBC to skew the history of home cookery, and I was working under the direct command of the DG, Delia Smith, Keith Floyd and Fanny Craddock. Obviously. Would I lie to you?
I think I've written before about 'BBC' edits in wikipedia - partly because a friend I worked with got a roasting from the Wikipedia community for making a playful edit he probably shouldn't have done, if he'd thought about it a bit more and not been wasting an idle five minutes playing around in the office.
This is the thing. You can look at these huge lists of anonymous edits from inside a company, and not know if they were the work of one evil genius in the press department, or of a thousand bored junior office clerks who were surfing the web rather than filling in that deadly dull spreadsheet on a quiet tuesday. They'll all come from that one blanket IP address.
That second scenario is precisely where wikipedia derives its strength - from being editable by anyone, from anywhere, according to whim or expertise (well, preferably both).
It would be a loss to wikipedia if large organisations prevented their employees contributing to the project, in order to control the random enthusiasms that could backfire on their PR department.
Hands up, it was me. I was one of the people who anonymously spun edits in Wikipedia from within the BBC. I wrote the Wikipedia entries for Marguerite Patten, and for Queen of Puddings, in fact. This was part of a terrible, hideous, covert, evil attempt by the BBC to skew the history of home cookery, and I was working under the direct command of the DG, Delia Smith, Keith Floyd and Fanny Craddock. Obviously. Would I lie to you?
I think I've written before about 'BBC' edits in wikipedia - partly because a friend I worked with got a roasting from the Wikipedia community for making a playful edit he probably shouldn't have done, if he'd thought about it a bit more and not been wasting an idle five minutes playing around in the office.
This is the thing. You can look at these huge lists of anonymous edits from inside a company, and not know if they were the work of one evil genius in the press department, or of a thousand bored junior office clerks who were surfing the web rather than filling in that deadly dull spreadsheet on a quiet tuesday. They'll all come from that one blanket IP address.
That second scenario is precisely where wikipedia derives its strength - from being editable by anyone, from anywhere, according to whim or expertise (well, preferably both).
It would be a loss to wikipedia if large organisations prevented their employees contributing to the project, in order to control the random enthusiasms that could backfire on their PR department.
Friday, July 27, 2007
The USPS willfully ignores a customer's questions.
Oh, I do love stock responses that *completely ignore* the question asked. Viz:
--------------------------------------------
Customer (KIM PLOWRIGHT) - 07/27/2007 04:27 AM
Hello
[tracking number] - this packet is showing as having attempted delivery at 12am on July 25, 2007.
That's midnight...
Could you confirm if USPS uses Royal Mail in the UK to attempt delivery? In this case, is Midnight the time at which the package left USPS and was handed to the Royal Mail?
I have had no confirmation through my letterbox to say any delivery was attempted, and I don't know how to track this package or ring to arrange a time when I'm going to be in... and not asleep!
Kim
--------------------------------------------
Response (Angelique M) - 07/27/2007 07:43 AM
Dear KIM PLOWRIGHT,
Thank you for contacting us about item number, [tracking number].
We attempted to deliver your item in GREAT BRITAIN at 12:00 AM on July 25, 2007.
For further assistance regarding this item, the United States sender must call 1-800-222-1811:
Monday through Friday -- 8:00 AM to 9:30 PM Eastern Time
Saturday -- 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern Time
Sundays & Major Holidays – Closed
If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for choosing the United States Postal Service®.
Regards,
Angelique
As our customer, your privacy is important to us. Please see our privacy policy at www.usps.com
-[---001:001238:46443---]
--------------------------------------------
Customer (KIM PLOWRIGHT) - 07/27/2007 04:27 AM
Hello
[tracking number] - this packet is showing as having attempted delivery at 12am on July 25, 2007.
That's midnight...
Could you confirm if USPS uses Royal Mail in the UK to attempt delivery? In this case, is Midnight the time at which the package left USPS and was handed to the Royal Mail?
I have had no confirmation through my letterbox to say any delivery was attempted, and I don't know how to track this package or ring to arrange a time when I'm going to be in... and not asleep!
Kim
--------------------------------------------
Response (Angelique M) - 07/27/2007 07:43 AM
Dear KIM PLOWRIGHT,
Thank you for contacting us about item number, [tracking number].
We attempted to deliver your item in GREAT BRITAIN at 12:00 AM on July 25, 2007.
For further assistance regarding this item, the United States sender must call 1-800-222-1811:
Monday through Friday -- 8:00 AM to 9:30 PM Eastern Time
Saturday -- 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern Time
Sundays & Major Holidays – Closed
If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for choosing the United States Postal Service®.
Regards,
Angelique
As our customer, your privacy is important to us. Please see our privacy policy at www.usps.com
-[---001:001238:46443---]
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Chore Wars :: Latest News from ChoreQuest!
Chore Wars :: Latest News from ChoreQuest!
Bugger. Jen and I were just discussing the other day that we should invent a Household Tasks MMORPG so that we could gently encourage our other halves (and ourselves, occasionally) to do more housework, chores etc.
Someone's gone and done it already. Awesomes!
Bugger. Jen and I were just discussing the other day that we should invent a Household Tasks MMORPG so that we could gently encourage our other halves (and ourselves, occasionally) to do more housework, chores etc.
Someone's gone and done it already. Awesomes!
Moo Stickers
MOO | Stickers - Print stickers using your images
So, you can now buy Moo Stickers. They're great. Really. You can put your own pictures on them, or buy one of our new ReadyMade packs if you don't think your pictures are up to the job.
You'll notice I said 'Our' there.
About a month ago, I was chatting to Roo Reynolds, who said 'I keep reading your site expecting you to make the big announcement, but you never do. What's with that?'. Except he probably didn't say 'What's with that?' because he's not Californian. But, he had a point.
So, I left the BBC. In May. I now work for Moo, as a product manager. Doing nice things. Yes. I'd spent eight and a half years at the Beeb, doing all kind of things, from Cult and Doctor Who, to the bbc.co.uk2.0 project looking at the way the site needs to change to keep up with the rest of the internets. But a girl gets tired, and needs a change.
Moo is a challenge. It's a small company - we're all in one room! It's fast moving. I get to make suggestions that get acted on in hours, not years. I'm working with lovely people like Denise, Dan, Stef and Richard. It's a good change, and a challenge, and we make cute things. The project I'm working on is interesting, and brings me back closer to an old love - design.
I'm pretty happy.
So, you can now buy Moo Stickers. They're great. Really. You can put your own pictures on them, or buy one of our new ReadyMade packs if you don't think your pictures are up to the job.
You'll notice I said 'Our' there.
About a month ago, I was chatting to Roo Reynolds, who said 'I keep reading your site expecting you to make the big announcement, but you never do. What's with that?'. Except he probably didn't say 'What's with that?' because he's not Californian. But, he had a point.
So, I left the BBC. In May. I now work for Moo, as a product manager. Doing nice things. Yes. I'd spent eight and a half years at the Beeb, doing all kind of things, from Cult and Doctor Who, to the bbc.co.uk2.0 project looking at the way the site needs to change to keep up with the rest of the internets. But a girl gets tired, and needs a change.
Moo is a challenge. It's a small company - we're all in one room! It's fast moving. I get to make suggestions that get acted on in hours, not years. I'm working with lovely people like Denise, Dan, Stef and Richard. It's a good change, and a challenge, and we make cute things. The project I'm working on is interesting, and brings me back closer to an old love - design.
I'm pretty happy.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance)
The Google Cache - and indeed, the internet - has a very long memory. Once you post something to the internet, it becomes very hard to remove it. Things you post when you're 18 have a habit of sticking around until you're, say, 33. I know this, as my old posts still float around in old archives.
In particular, these three young gentlemen should be aware that any future employer will be able to Google their names for a very long time to come.
* Garren Salibian (Acton- Boxborough Regional High) (creator)
* Harout Yogurtian (Belmont High School)
* Garin Parseghian (Belmont High School)
They are the founder members and admins of the Facebook group, The Anti Gay Alliance.
Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance)
It is 'Dedicated to preserving straightness throughout the world.'
The people who have commented on the site should also be aware that their comments are now indexed and searchable, as follows:
The group Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance) has 32 members at 4:38pm BST on 11 July, 2007.
Those members are:
That is all.
In particular, these three young gentlemen should be aware that any future employer will be able to Google their names for a very long time to come.
* Garren Salibian (Acton- Boxborough Regional High) (creator)
* Harout Yogurtian (Belmont High School)
* Garin Parseghian (Belmont High School)
They are the founder members and admins of the Facebook group, The Anti Gay Alliance.
Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance)
It is 'Dedicated to preserving straightness throughout the world.'
The people who have commented on the site should also be aware that their comments are now indexed and searchable, as follows:
Lee Campell (St. Cloud, MN) wrote
at 11:28pm on July 7th, 2007
those mother fucking fags wow they should all be shot. and for anybody that sickes up for them should be beatin also. goldam shit packers .and oh yeah GOD hates fags
Richard Wohlbier (Wisconsin Colleges) wrote
at 11:14pm on July 7th, 2007
For every deer that we shoot, we should shoot a fag.
Scott Campbell (Chippewa Falls High) wrote
at 3:57am on July 6th, 2007
I say all fags or fag lovers who talk shit on this group should get the fuck out and run into a middle of an intersection
The group Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance) has 32 members at 4:38pm BST on 11 July, 2007.
Those members are:
Name:
Brennan Heath
Network:
Arkansas State '09
Name:
Jordan NAve
Network:
Marshall High School '10
Name:
David Arshakyan
Networks:
Watertown High School '09
Boston, MA
Name:
Paul Derderian
Networks:
Rye High School '09
Westchester, NY
Name:
Matt Fitzpatrick
Network:
Lloydminster Comprehensive '08
Name:
Teddy Lucas-rowe
Network:
Sherborne School '07
Name:
Michael Hill
Network:
Australia
Name:
Mitch Larson
Network:
Eau Claire, WI
Name:
Ani Israelyan
Network:
Watertown High School '07
Name:
Richard Wohlbier
Network:
Wisconsin Colleges
Name:
Samuel Volk
Network:
Raleigh / Durham, NC
Name:
Mike Griffioen
Network:
Central Mich. '11
Name:
Scott Campbell
Network:
Chippewa Falls High '07
Name:
Oscar Derderian
Network:
Belmont High School '09
Name:
Rob Karasiewicz
Network:
Lowell High School '07
Name:
Bosah Hlwah
Networks:
None
Name:
Matt Barber
Network:
Falmouth High School '11
Name:
Anita Tomasian
Networks:
None
Name:
Meroujan Bagdasarian
Network:
Watertown High School '07
Name:
Lee Campell
Network:
St. Cloud, MN
Caleb Merrick
Network:
Thorold Secondary School '07
Name:
Danielle Cormier
Network:
Royal Valley High '08
Name:
Harout Yogurtian
Networks:
Belmont High School '07
Boston, MA
Officer Title:
Vice President
Name:
Garren Salibian
Network:
Acton- Boxborough Regional High '09
Officer Title:
President
Name:
Will Truax
Networks:
Acton- Boxborough Regional High '09
Boston, MA
Name:
Allen Papazian
Network:
Belmont High School '09
Name:
Greg Torosian
Network:
Belmont High School '08
Name:
Eric Grigorian
Networks:
Belmont High School '10
Boston, MA
Name:
Garin Parseghian
Network:
Belmont High School '10
Officer Title:
Vice President
Name:
Chris Wood
Network:
Red Bank High School '07
Name:
Christopher Seifel
Network:
St. John's '09
Name:
Brady Lee
Networks:
Chippewa Falls High '07
Wisc Stout '07
Eau Claire, WI
Name:
Garren Salibian
Network:
Acton- Boxborough Regional High '09
Officer Title:
President
Name:
Garin Parseghian
Network:
Belmont High School '10
Officer Title:
Vice President
That is all.
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