Grete’s present arrived.
(I guess this is the kind of blog post that should be a Twitter, but I’m too used to blogging).
Author Archives: tony
Clerks II
This is a deeply religious movie with strong moral overtones and an solid core of existential theory running through it. Our heroes must come to terms with their place in the world and learn how to stretch their own minds to release their inner sanctity. Once accomplished, only then will they realise the true nature of the universe and achieve everlasting happiness.
Or, it’s a rather amusing comedy from Kevin Smith about a couple of guys pushing burgers who discover friendship is stronger than a small fire, and that you should look at that which you take for granted for the love you so dearly need.
Funny, light-hearted, good natured and surreal in a Blues Brothers way, Clerks II was worth watching and has given me an appetite to check out Mr Smith’s other films.
Edit: I know right, you’re thinking omfg how can he NOT have seen any Kevin Smith movies? I know, so sue me. I’m fixing that right now, it was like, I knew they were there, but I just felt, I dunno, ok? right? is that clear?
Clerks II
Funny, witty, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable.
Results are in
5.7
I am very, very pleased.
Nervous
Got a phone call with my GP at around 6pm tonight to get the results of my HbA1c test. Fingers crossed.
Pain! Voltarol to the rescue
Today I have thumb pain (again). I have obviously been sitting with my hands in stressful positions when typing recently. The day before yesterday my left hand ached, around the base of my thumb, and then yesterday my right hand started up (left hand was ok), got worse toward the end of the night and today it’s killing me. The pad at the base of my thumb hurts, and the tendons feel stretched again. So I’m slathering Voltarol on and hoping it helps. The fumes the stuff gives off may certainly help.
Just looking at how I hold my hands when using this laptop, I suspect it may be at the root of the issue if I don’t concentrate I tend to hold my hands above the keyboard but rest my right hand against the base of my thumb and then stretch my thumb/fingers around to hit keys and use the mouse-nipple-thingy.
Anyway, yay me.
Empire’s top 500 movies of all time
Empire magazine (online) has published a 500 greatest movies of all time, as voted on by 10,000 readers, 150 random hollywood folk and 50 film critics.
The format is a bit annoying (it means you have to click through lots of pages to see everything), but it makes for an interesting top 500.
You can probably guess #1 without much effort, but there was some surprises in the list (although with 500 movies, that’s a lot of variation in opinion and not much between them).
Traffic and Open Wireless Networks
Around a mile from home we got stuck in traffic today. Long queue, moving very slowly in fits and starts, along a main road off which the road we live is directly connected. It took us about 20 minutes to travel that mile, maybe longer.
I jokingly said to Grete I’d get the laptop out, find an open wireless network and blog about the traffic to pass the time. I didn’t quite go that far, but I did get the laptop out and click refresh regularly on the ‘find wireless network’ option. It’s fun to see what people call their wireless networks. Some people give their own names away, some people continue to give away the name of their kit (both of these provide room for abuse if you can work out which house the kit is in), and the majority of networks in the area near to where I live are secured. But not all of them.
I can’t believe how many people still run unsecured wireless networks. We were probably 20-30 feet from the houses we were passing, and I was getting signal strengths of around 15% to 65% from inside a car, with the laptop running on battery on my knee. In the rain (not raining inside the car, obviously). Do people not think, or do they think it won’t happen to them? The best bits were where we passed side streets, and we’d go from 2 or 3 networks in range to 10. There’s a massive amount of wireless traffic hanging around our streets. Most of them are BT Home Hub or Sky devices (and identify themselves as such). Here’s a selection of our favourites.
Clearly someone with a sense of humour.
This person needs to secure their legs more carefully.
Random unsecured network (and default name)
Don’t be Nosy! More polite than the first one.
Another default open connection not far from where I live.
That’s the view from my driveway. That’s not my wireless network.
The one I didn’t get a screenshot of, but wish I had was the one with ~70% strength, called ‘default’ which was unsecured. I’m guessing it’s unconfigured as well, and hence if you got connected you could probably also connect to the router in question and reconfigure it.
Friends don’t let friends run unsecured Wireless network devices.
Gemmell Award on Twitter
You can now follow the David Gemmell Legend Award website and info on Twitter.
Democracy alive and well
From http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5963751,
Young voters at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Penn. have already been targeted, with students reporting that flyers have been posted around campus warning that undercover police will be at the polls on Election Day looking to make arrests.
The flyer reads like a friendly letter to fellow students relaying a warning from an “Obama supporter”: “He informed me that on the day of the election there will be undercover officers to execute warrants on those who come to vote based on the anticipated turnout,” writes the anonymous student in the letter which was later posted on the Drexel College Democrats website. “He advised me if I had any outstanding warrants or traffic offenses I should clear them up prior to voting.”