Eurovision Nicola

Equal Marriage and the Scottish Same-Sex Marriage Consultation

2011-12-09T09:34:00.001Z

Today I am on leave from work and, although the day has been set aside for dissertation work, I have been doing something more important this morning...

Today, 9th December, is the final day to respond to the Scottish Same-Sex Marriage Consultation and although I have had the excellent form from the Equality Network in my kitchen for a while I've only just got around to sending my response and wanted to share information on how others can do this today and to also provide my accompanying message to my local MSPs.

I would ask you all to respond to the consultation however you see fit. Marriage is a hugely personal matter so I do not expect that all my friends and readers to agree with my perspective but it is worth saying that I support same-sex marriage as a matter of equality of rights. However as marriage is a state recognised relationship I think it is important that all in Scotland voice their opinion no matter what that might be.

The announcement about the consultation can be found here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/09/02114626

The Equality Network consultation response form is here:
http://www.equalmarriage.org.uk/consultation.php

The additional Equality Network form to email MSPs seems to be broken but you can email them via Write to Them - click on the link to "Write to all of your regional MSPs" in the Your Members of the Scottish Parliament column (which will show when you enter your postcode): http://www.writetothem.com/

And here is what I have written (based partly on the Equality Network suggested wording) to my own local MSPs:

Dear David McLetchie, Neil Findlay, Alison Johnstone, Margo MacDonald, Gavin Brown, Sarah Boyack and Kezia Dugdale,

I live in your constituency and strongly support marriage equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Scotland. I also support opening up civil partnership to mixed-sex couples.

I am a gay woman who has been in a happy civil partnership for over five years and feel very privileged to have found and been able to enter a state recognised partnership with the woman I love. I do not, however, feel that the civil partnership act fully recognises and respects the rights of non-heterosexuals.

LGBT people are the only group who are banned from marrying. The introduction of civil partnership was a very important step forward, but this is not equality. The law should be changed to make the same choices, marriage or civil partnership, available to couples regardless of their gender.

I am not religious so my personal preference would be for a system of the state only recognising civil partnerships that are open to both mixed-sex and same-sex couples, with religious ceremonies a separate non state-recognised process.

However the state currently recognises religious ceremonies and there are many same-sex couples who have strong faith and supportive communities around their faith and I think it is fundamentally unequal to exclude same-sex couples from engaging in a legally recognised ceremony in their own religious community that recognises their long, genuine and loving relationships in exactly the same way as heterosexual couples. How can it be fair, equal or dignified that gay persons of faith are treated differently by the state than heterosexual persons of faith?

Furthermore I think it is shocking that there is currently a requirement for transsexual people to divorce before a full gender recognition certificate can be issued. No sensible marriage system would require a loving relationship to be legally separate - a lengthy, costly and traumatic process - in order to give an individual in that relationship their personal rights and freedoms. I therefore also call upon you to support the ending of this peculiar and outdated aspect of the marriage and gender recognition law. I am not a transgendered person but I know several wonderful trans people whose lives have been hugely enriched by being able to live as the people and the gender that they are, not as the bodies they were born with dictate. In some cases this transition is something undertaken quite alone but for others the presence of a loving committed partner is hugely beneficial and to enforce divorce before a trans person can have their identity legally recognised is unkind and unfair. Changing this requirement would also mean that those trans people whose partners have not been as supportive and where there has been a breakdown of relationship cannot delay the recognition of that persons identity because of lengthy divorce processes. Individual human rights to identity and personhood, and state recognised relationship rights should never have been bound in this way.

As your constituent, I am asking you to regard all of your constituents as having the same rights to live, to love, and to be part of society on an equal basis and, as such, I am asking you to support marriage equality in Scotland.

Yours with respect,

Nicola.

Maker Faire 2010

2010-03-18T00:22:00.001Z

Maker Faire 2010
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Last weekend we spent an amazing time at Maker Faire Newcastle 2010. This image shows the array of exciting geekery we came back with: a boarduino and Open Heart for it to control, a drawing robot, chemical symbol cookies, programmatically generated image stickers, hand sewn attainment badges, a plush noise making creation and oodles of book on wearable, programmable and steam punk tech.

I think I have lots of thoughts of the weekend to share but for now wanted to flag up it's awesomeness! yay!

My First Sidewiki Experiment

2009-10-05T15:26:00.001Z

So this is what Google Sidewiki looks like?

I wonder if it integrates with Wave...

in reference to: Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)

spider climbing its web

2009-09-08T23:22:00.001Z

spider climbing its web
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Is there anything prettier than light rain and sunshine and spiders webs?

I've just got a new close up lens so spent the day crawling round the the undergrowth, hanging out in bushes and generally getting too close to snails and spiders and such, much fun!

[Delicious] nicola osborne wants to share a bookmark with you

2009-08-13T12:15:00.001Z

Another test of the Delicious plugin changes...

Bookmark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y2k
nicola osborne's notes: The Year 2000 Problem, or Y2K, was actually a series of short term coding decisions that led many to believe all computer systems would fail on the roll over from 1999 to 2000. In the event most modern systems were fine but some older systems did fail on a number of dates around the Millennium.

You can find more of nicola osborne's bookmarks at
- http://delicious.com/nkl.osborne

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Torchwood: Children of Earth

2009-07-14T23:26:00.008Z

A few weeks ago BBC One devoted the whole 9pm to 10pm slot to Torchwood: Children of Earth. And it was good. Mostly...

The thing is that Torchwood has been ticking along rather nicely on BBC3 for some time now but, as with all things that attract a rating, it's seen itself pimped up through the channels in response to it's success. Series One was only on BBC3. Series Two migrated to BBC2 and now, here we are, premiering the third season on BBC1. Except it's only a five part series and there have been a few modifications that pretty much migrated me from the "regular viewer" category to the "devoted upset fan" box.

The first thing to say - and this is free from spoilers - there have been a few changes to Torchwood that are welcome. The budget seems to have ballooned for a start and that's no bad thing at all when you're looking for glossy sci-fi (though I'm not entirely sure why BBC1 viewers must have glossier than BBC2 viewers or BBC3 viewers... are they broadcasting different formats?!). However when Series One began it was clear the writers wanted to set Torchwood fairly far apart from Doctor Who and it primarily achieved this through a huge abundant amount of sex. Straight, gay, alien, even a beastie who shagged drunken Cardiff drinkers to death. And lo, it was rocking. A bit one dimensional but super dirty because Dr Who-niverse plus sex is a pretty exciting little combination, particularly if you were always into the mind-fuck of the immortal traveller more than the tacky plastic of the aliens encountered in abandoned Welsh slate mines. And Jack was gay and Ianto was heading that way and Tosh was falling for that alien/girl from My Family and they killed someone off in the first episode. Wow. Anyway...

That was on BBC3. When things migrated to BBC2 the sex seemed to morph into a sudden incestuous obsession: all the Torchwood team members were still bonking like rabbits but only each other. But that was OK as Captain Jack started more explicitly hanging out with Ianto, Gwen's dull hubby Rhys almost ended up slaughtered (that was an episode full of the hope of escaping suburbia I think) and Owen ended up the weirdly grey-skinned zombie we'd always suspected he was.

So to BBC1 and do we get less violence? Well not really (and here we will have spoilers). We had a man shooting his whole family dead, we had a child melted by weird noise, Jack died 6 times (thanks to You Have Been Watching for the body count) and they debated slaughtering 10% of all children. Also there were some quite nasty gory bits. So no less violence then and actually a welcome blast of tension and cynicism. But where had all the boffing gone? OK it was a week long run and, though not a real-time experience, it was supposed to be taking place over a few days. So that's probably OK. Although the resurrection of attempts to make Gwen and Jack glance sexily at each other continue to fail big time for me. The idea of them as a fake couple is too, well, improbable I think. John Barrowman, cheese-ter that he is, is quite frighteningly turned into a passable actor when faced with a believable love interest, so long may he be written as a character that will flirt with anything but has a particularly eye for the boys. But I digress.

There were four things that made me badly want to scream with annoyance in the week (bigger spoilers ahead):

Gwen's pregnancy - childcare just isn't exciting telly. And if you're cynically killing kids in the week why suddenly get fluffy? There was a super flexible option - leave Gwen pregnant and alive at the end of the episode but don't assume she safely makes it to full term (as that atrocious coda did). With all that explosive traumatic jumping about there was plenty of opportunity for chaos there. If Torchwood comes back for Season 4 and the baby is just an excuse for Rhys whimsy I will be pissed. If it's a horrible alien manifestation I'll be just about amused but I still think they missed the subtle open ended sane option to not commit...
The Rift was exactly where please?! You see the thing is that if you set up a universe and it's silly and full of aliens and such you better bloomin' make it make sense. It's like the Buffyverse: it doesn't have to make sense in the real world but it always has to make sense in the fictional universe you are in. So when Torchwood was blown up on Day One what exactly happened to Cardiff? Overrun with Weavels? Alien influx? Dark paramilitary forces running in to steal control of the Rift? You can't blow up a fictional piece of physics that easily Mr Russell T. Davies. It belittles all those who have already seen the show. And it actually mocks Doctor Who fans who also require that part of the Torchwood Universe to work - it's effectively the Tardis charger...
The Adventures of Captain Jack is the fear I have for Season 4 of Torchwood. After the shows had gone out someone tweeted that the show would be about "Captain Jack bumming his way round the universe. Literally". It's a comment I'd like to call homophobic but frankly the way the week was completed there was little left but Jack being the sexed up Who. Maybe that means Who is turning all suitable for the under 5's but with Stephen Moffat in charge there and Russell T. Davies still involved in Torchwood I have my fears far more about the latter than the former. Davies seems bored of Torchwood before it's barely begun. It's something he's done before: After an amazing cultural phenomenon with Queer as Folk he absolutely devalued that series with the shockingly rubbish Queer as Folk 2. It was like he'd shown up but couldn't be bothered to follow through with believable characters he'd initially set up. The self-destructive tone of Torchwood Season 3 makes me wonder if he's doing the same thing: deciding he likes the telly slot he's managed to open up but he'd rather do a new show instead. File this little rant under "deeply concerned at the ceasing of fun unwholesome Torchwood fun".
Ianto - why? Why why why? Why kill off just about the only sympathetic and complex character in the show (Gwen is complex but hardly sympathetic; Jack is complexly background-ed but his core personality seems pretty fixed; Ianto was confused about his sexuality, his place professionally, his class role, his relationship). And worse still why did we need to see his family as a sort of excuse for his dead: the gay brother sacrificed for a chavvy family of four. I'll be honest I was ready for the kids to be destroyed but in no way ready to give up a well written and acted character. It's a strangely homophobic move for me - you've had your coming out moment, you've had a relationship and now we have nothing left to write for you. That's a fairly bleak picture of inclusion in mainstream drama if ever I saw one. Maybe Russell wanted to reduce the amount of slash fiction out there... I suspect the opposite will be the outcome. As much of a feminist as I am I'd rather have a man-who-sleeps-with-men, a feisty woman and a pansexual alien as my leads. Not one depressed alien and a mommy. Gah!

So, what to do now? Well I've downloaded the mostly excellent Radio 4 Torchwood plays recently. Ianto and Jack are left room to develop their relationship very touchingly through bickering and affection. So I'll be re-listening to those when I need a fix. Series 1 and 2, which weeks ago I probably wouldn't have wanted to buy, may be worth grabbing for posterity. For all their cheapness they have big ideas and sexuality. Torchwood Season 3 did superbly for a great basic idea but all momentum was lost as a convenient and inexplicably neat series of fixes tidied everything up with soap opera like emotion. It's a classic Whovian issue which leaves me with two suggestions:

Take a more Buffy view of your universe. There are no sacred cows but a relationship that's stable across two or three series and then goes badly wrong is much more interesting and surprising than one that is stable only for a few months. You can't keep all characters happy but you should let a bit of stability amek for plain fun episodes short on soap factors. Otherwise you should be writing "continuing drama" instead.
To help you tie things up sensibly why don't you do something outrageously unusual: hire some writers who actually did science at A-level or at university. It would give the show a short of Star Trek-like big ideas + vague plausibility that would help tidy those endings up no end. What is actually happening and being researched is far more thrilling that what sits in the mind of a writer on their 20th plotline for a sci-fi format. So, subscriptions to New Scientist, Nature and Wired and a few accessible but informative tech/science mags would be a start. Some actual science journals would knock your socks off and a scientist on the writing team... well that might just flip you over the edge so that 100% of a series could be good, not just the first 70% of it!

Image of Scott Monument

2009-06-03T10:42:00.001Z

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Eurovision 2009

2009-05-22T12:49:00.001Z

Eurovision 2009
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Eurovision 2009 was ace this year. Click through to Flickr to have a look at the pics or go to http://www.suchprettyeyes.com to see all of our neat wiki pages and blogs and such.

many moons

2009-03-20T00:13:00.001Z

many moons
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

I seem to be walking home at dusk more and more lately. Not due to leaving work early but because the first dawnings of spring mean it's not quite dark at 7ish anymore and that is a wonderful thing indeed.

Walking home the other night I saw this beautiful sight: all the many paper lampshades in the Salisbury Centre were glowing softly whilst a powerfully bright full moon shon out above in that crisp spring sky. You can only partly get the idea from the picture but it was really magical.

BarCamp Session 6 - Summary of day, highlights etc.

2009-03-14T17:37:00.002Z

This is a summary session. Everyone had a very unique experience: Ewen got pitched to at the urinals!

Comments, blog posts, and anything else should be put out there with the tag BarCampScotland.

Mike Madnicks talk was about making the best stuff free and the scarce stuff paid for. He was saying don't freak out about piracy but work out how to make money from attention. How to make things more productive and less intrusive.

Ewen recommends Jeff Jarvis: What Would Google Do, JJ says do what you do best and link to everything else.

Social Networking Sites - and multiple identities on them - how you negotiate that divide. Ewen adds that you must be out there if you're pitching for money. If you want to be getting money for social network stuff, apps etc. you need to be there.

Breastlife - a gadget that's on it's way and there was a session about online marketing etc. How to mix mediums etc. Shadowpuppets on Youtube was suggested.

Mobile app session - talk about different price structures, iPhone, Nokia and Android all vary. Time to use was defined as "latte time" - how can your app be useful in the time it takes to order a coffee.

Hyper local news - Ewen says lots of potential there as BBC Trust blocked development of local stuff so a huge opportunity. Apparently he's seen an idea today he may commission on this theme. IN fact he's seen 3 so worth the train ticket for him apparently..

That's pretty much it but I'll reflect later on what I thought I think... for now off to the bar with vouchers...

BarCamp Session 5 - Squeak Smalltalk

2009-03-14T15:45:00.002Z

This was a small but interesting session about the operating system/programming language/useful idea that is Squeak Smalltalk which is built on Smalltalk - a gui developed at Xerox Park back in the late 70's/early 80s. Squeak smalltalk is powerful but it is so adaptable that it was quite difficult to demonstrate (especially as there were problems with connecting laptop to projector).

We saw the "morphic interface" and the editing and programming of objects. Also saw Croquet - a virtual world built on smalltalk in a very SL way. Interesting but at an alpha development stage at the moment so not easy to see.

More practically Scratch - a basic and very widely used visual programming tool - is built on Squeak Smalltalk, and Sophie - an ebooks authoring tool is also built on Squeak Smalltalk.

BarCamp Session 4 - Mobile visual interactivity

2009-03-14T15:10:00.004Z

My next session I get to be a slightly more passive person again. This one is on "Visual Interactivity" and is being given by Jeff Ballinger who works for a company called Mobileacuity and he says we should throw things at him if he gets too salesy...

Visual interactivity is the topic up for discussion.

Background:
- Most people have phones they use for voice calls
- Most people send text messages
- Many have cameras on their phone. In a more regular group of punters there are a few less than in this room
- About 5% (if that) have visited a web site on their phone (in our room about 60%)
- Very very few folk have downloaded apps or games (we're much higher than average)

What are the implications for folk on the street. Cameras are used widely. More sophisticated things like browsers etc. are not used very much.

Jeff's company works in brand marketing spaces. They want to use mobile with other mediums. They really want wide usage for it to be useful. It must be inclusive and it cannot put people off (real danger in brand marketing). But perhaps these issues raise the difference between good and bad mobile content.

We're seeing a graph. Most now have camera phones.

Showing 3D barcode: has to be printed on original media. Nice to redirect what it points to. The reason most QR type codes are fairly static. This is to do IPR. NeoMedia Technologies have a patent for any redirection via an image. They did this in about 1995 so did originate in this stuff but it makes it hard to get into it now. There is a real usability barrier here as well. How can you tell that

In 2008, 166.6m handsets in Western Europe are registered for MMS usage - 95% of phones. And ages 16-34 generally know how to send MMS.

Recognition
Very simple form of interactivity. Take picture, recognize and then send back content. Q, basic. You take a picture and get sent back data. It's handy but it's really not that useful or exciting. Only great if loads of media are involved. The number for this sort of interactivity has to be communicated to users somehow. Questions raised about trust issues. Any call to action tends to be situational. Mobileacuity tend not to put out a number for responses to help for that.

Image Zoning
A bit more sophisticated. You take a picture with the centre focused on an action point (e.g. Vodafone guess the goal scoring point interaction). Offers better and wider possibilities. another example done by agency AKQA for Nike PhotoiD. A way to customize shoes by taking pictures of the colours you like, you get sent back a mocked up shoe in that colour (from set palate) and a link to buy. Colour analysis being used as input for mobile shopping.

Blue Screening
As in the movies (or in the beach of old!) you can star in an image. You could take pictures of yourself pocking head through a sign and then the service can return content (e.g. a music video) using this. Limited by physical location of boards etc.

Facefinder
Is latest idea on this. It just uses a regular image so can be used better for social apps. Now getting a demo from some friendly faces in the front row! ;) A picture is taken and sent off to the company servers. And a video gets sent back. Really quite fun. Cost of download of video depends on package. 500k is about the video size. Contracts vary. Vodafone do inclusive data. T-Mobile and 3 have add ons but inexpensive and good take up. Other operators not such easy models yet. You can do viral things to build on that content. Could use GPS into apps on some phones but phone dependent. Mobileacuity is focusing on visual end, apps specialists build the apps.

It's very easy to find face like features in an image. There is some false positive confusion here. Can be tricky to separate real from unreal faces. Finding the edge of a face without a fixed template is also tricky.

Now watching demo video from MobileExpo this year. This prompts a question about serious uses other than teenage silliness. There is a project that Jeff is working on that is a public information service (but he can't tell us about it) but there are also ways of getting data on products and services. Snaptel in the US (in Snaptel Explorer) lets you take a picture of DVD, product etc. and then link to tons of data - real time data when making purchasing decisions.

One useful implication could be to tag a face and then search based on it in image searching tools (some common ground here with iPhoto face recognition).

Visual search over text search has an advantage in terms of specificity. e.g. search for Paris and you get the city, you get Paris Hilton etc. If you take a picture of the Eiffel Tower you'll only get info on the Eiffel Tower. Talk here that a theatre listings could be returned from a picture of that theatre.

More demos are being handed out. I am pausing over them as my data package is not that great.

Discussion: there are manual cut out options and web based ideas. Mobileacuity are in discussion with various agencies about options. Someone asked about Facebook - send from phone and return to Facebook or similar.

There are several competitors. All but one uses a licensed software option that limits options. Mobileacuity uses something different and is leading in UK (and only in UK it seems) with clients including Ogilvy, Joule, Nokia, Pepsi, Vodafone, BBC, etc. Mobileacuity is looking at a web service API in a few months. Once it's finished it will be rolled out more widely.

BarCamp Session 3 - My own (maybe!)

2009-03-14T13:01:00.002Z

Veryifing and reusing information is what I want to discuss...

Two folks showed up and we had a good chat about verifying/reviewing/qualifying websites/online objects and how this might work. Talk of social bookmarking sites, social networking, geolocations, hyper local content etc. followed and we sketched out an idea that would use the APIs of other sites to combine into a "Social Web of Trust" idea which would build on existing social content as well as including ways of showing how trusted or accurate a site was. The idea comes from my own thoughts about reusing webpages or web objects for academic use and how you verify the source of that data without having to curate everything one site at a time. One of my two co-discussers is going to take forward the idea and experiment with it. More news as and when...

BarCamp Session 2 - Second Life and education

2009-03-14T12:10:00.003Z

The second session I'm along to is being hosted by DigitalKatie http://digitalkatie.typepad.com/ (@digitalkatie).

Been working with Global Kids charity which is based at the High School for Global Citizenship in Brooklyn. Focus on kids with limited access to education, computing equipment etc. No guarantee of computers at home. When extra activities like blogging or flickr it was kids first experience there. There were also low levels of literacy to tackle. Kate was working remotely via Skype and SecondLife. These kids had never used these tools before so we started by teaching them how to use the spaces in order to learn Global Science topics. Engagement was far higher than traditional teaching options. Got funding for 20 laptops, 20 Macbooks. This doubled the number of computers in the school. Teachers, Head and Admins had those machines. Massive change to level of IT access compared to before and compared to peers.

Second Life Curriculum: How to teach SL skills
We tested pdf files that were OK (tested in a school in Washington) but they were more useful for teachers than for students. The teachers in the classroom needed to gain these skills too so this was still useful.

We got them to texture objects, how to do 3D modelling. But we bombarded them with too much content. We hadn't worked out what they would need to know for the course so we taught too many skills in SL. And wordiness wasn't as good as demonstration for these kids. But there are over 100 free teaching materials for SL available at Gloal Kids

Learning Global Science: How to teach Science in SL
The team reproduced lots of materials and spaces to help the kids engage. Did debates with giant floor panels - SL avatars could move to a floor square and then ask then to justify their reasons.

The first area was Science at Home - giving each student a small house and a box of stuff: recyling bins, taps etc. They had to turn their SL house into a replication of their own homes. So they had to research what resources they used and what waste was produced etc. And they had to add a note to each item to explain usage in their own house. Planned to use these little houses as a base but didn't really return past this exercise.

The next area of study looked at Waste Management in Naples. Naples have a really bad waste management problem. There were cardboard cut out type city officials and if they asked the right questions they would find out about what was happening. These were programmed responses but with some variance so students had to ask a lot and talk to each other. This worked well as there were about 8 characters in wider areas but a later exercise had fewer characters and this worked less well. Not real people behind them in this scenario but SL hooked up to another service quite cleverly.

As part of waste management class students could trample through a virtual landfill to understand the issues better - something you could never do in reality.

The next are was Non Renewable Resources. Looking at coal, oil and the ozone layer. Built a coal mine (with water that was grottier by the mine than on the approach). Had a real problem with lag with the coal mine BUT the kids got the point of the coal mine - it was cramped and difficult. In NY it wasn't as if they could go visit a coal mine in reality (something you could do in Scotland). For the ozone exercise you could take measurements and research. Went well but not interactive enough

The next area was on Renewable Resources - we had a house they could explore (used a maingrid resource that we were able to put into the teengrid - not always possible). Needed to give more web resources, the kids got bogged down at the details. They type in a huge sentence and then take first answer. Need to change our approach to cope with that for next time. It worked but not as succesfully as it could be. From the images though you can at least see that it's a rich resource.

Next up was a Virtual Fieldtrip to a water treatment plant with guest via Skype. The issue was that the expert wasn't terribly audible so had to transcribe instead. Kids had great engaged questions though. The water treatment plant was also moved from main grid - scripting causes problems when you move from main to teen grid.

This was a real class in a real high school so to get credit a project was required so the class had a Final Project. Kids had a billboard to fill with Comic Life to present their project and they could accompany with objects etc. They did try out ideas well. Emphasis was on assessing the science learning not the SL learning. This was why an imported poster presentation worked. In future would focus the SL learning so that only useful skills passed on and more focus could be given to the science.

The kids had very little IT skills. So they learned other things - for instance we used Comic Life for exercises and teaching materials. Every day the kids were blogging about their experiences. They would blog about questions on the board and of their experiences etc. Used Google Earth - most hadn't seen before. This worked well although kids were putting up Flickr pictures with their addresses after looking at maps - swift teacherly removal there. But seeing actual science in action on Google Earth was great. And actually real life presentation skills were helped with the final projects and the confidence building.

Daily class first thing in the morning (for them), about lunchtime in the UK. Really great to be able to talk with different people in their classes, not just their teachers/local peers. Helps them see the wider world. Some of the Brooklyn kids had never even been into Manhattan. Brilliant that they could then speak to people in Scotland and get a slightly bigger mind view of the world.

We asked for feedback on the class. Really really positive. Came from a viewpoint of not engaging with science to being interested and open to learning about science.

The kids did a lot nore group work than they were expected. A lot of kids were enjoying the class and said they would miss it. A kid who was excluded for a few days actually logged in from home for class! That's a huge thing: the sign that something had been done right.

Kate managed to visit. Working on Kids Connect in Florida so went across to visit. On the team they had the teacher of the class, a science advisor, and a SL developer. The resources are good to go for others. We had a whole sim to work with but it only requires a little bit of SL land.

Resources
www.rezed.org/group/GKslcurriculum

Questions
Do you use SL in the UK? No. Real problems in Edinburgh and lots of local councils as they have security concerns, issues etc. Bute is the only Scottish area to do this, they set up a private island on a teen grid, no strangers etc. It was for after school usage but other teachers were interested only to be blocked by IT dept. Ed council computer specs are not up to the job, graphics cards can't do them, broadband connection can't handle that traffic. The set up is more for office workers than education. Glow is an initiative that should help though - will increase quality and speed of broadband. Kate's changing syllibus to Digital Media rather than Computing so blogs etc. will be included. At present school rules don't allow staff to change website let alone kids. But there'll be lots of safeguards: we should be teaching kids how to be safe online not blocking anything. The curriculum includes social software including tons of currently blocked sites.

There is an age issue for SL. Even SL Teengrid you have to be a minimum age of 13. Although the US law has been challenged. OpenSim is an alternative hosted option but most schools don't have that technology. One school in Edinburgh allows students to add stuff to their server. Comment from the floor: St Andrews University are working with OpenSim. At the moment not a lot of kids are doing computing and moving to computing at university so the universities are very supportive in terms of their own teengrids etc. Comment from floor: there are maths and sciences areas in SL? Yes but these are in maingrid. But some nasa, library etc. resources they can be moved to the teengrid as needed. The database code says whether resources are maingrid or teengrid. Resources developed in the maingrid not the teengrid work poorly, especially scripted objects.

Beacon of hope - we spoke to the head of the SL teengrid. They are planning for an open PG area in the middle. This would allow 18 year olds, parents and kids etc. to work together and would allow building and sharing space. Been talked about a long time but not happened yet. Comment from floor: great math models area, a shame kids can't see those.

Question re:resources. Most of what we used we built and developed but we had a good relationship with the maingrid so we were able to use existent objects. If you go to Global Kids you can access materials and reusing content. Pdfs are open for all but the resources cost money so the model wouldn't be reuse as is, would need to work out with Global Kids how those resources can be used/if there's cost. You need to bear in mind you need 2 to 3 people supporting the kids to do this type of learning. Comment: classroom management is very difficult when computer based learning - also do the kids become insular? Kate says that actually lots of interactivity. As adults in the teengrid (we're now classed as kids) we couldn't pass objects or see messages etc in SL. Kids were chatting away but we couldn't tell! LindenLab won't let just anyone do this. Even to be an adult in the teengrid you have to meet approval. To get your avatars in as teens you need very special permission. As adults you have island priveledges only. As teens you can see all so Linden want you to be seriously trusted. This is an issue of how it was developed: started as a game but having to catch up to uses now.

The online work was backed up with real life group tasks so working and talking together there - hard to tell as virtual tutor in Scotland!

Question: would you virtually recruit for an assistant? Might want to but funding would need to be in place. An audience member is at education dept in Edinburgh and reckons that trainee teachers etc. would love that experience. Expensive to clear people. You have to get police checks for all countries you've worked in and get documents translated. Maybe £300 per check for some. Real difficulty of safety causing siloing of data.

Assessment: class teacher generally did this. Some text exported from SL and that was passed on to teacher. Blogs also used. Kate also approved blogs as they went live. Vetted and published as a result of having assistance available.

BarCamp Session 1 - 4IP funding.

2009-03-14T11:16:00.005Z

Today I am at BarCamp Scotland so I'll be live blogging what I hear as I go. The idea of BarCamp Scotland is that you share all your thoughts and ideas as you go hence I'm liveblogging as I go. I'm signed up to talk about quality checking, credentials and reuse of ephemeral content (I think I've managed to describe it ok on the sign up

I'm starting at a 4iP presentation from Ewan McIntosh who is talking about getting your ideas funded by 4iP and also touching on pitching/ideas development more generally.

Ewan starts with destination sites to which he basically says "NO!". People don't use destination/portal sites. Normal people use maybe 6 sites regularly. Facebook, maybe a picture sharing sites, work and/or personal webmail, bbc news, amazon. that's about all. So you have to bring content to them.

4iP is looking at various areas:

APIs, plugins etc. Lovely firefox plugin about local news in development (can't talk more about it).

Games - one of biggest games cos in UK (PlayPen) makes facebook games. 5 are in top 10 of facebook games. And in total they make 7 games. Very Wii look and feel. Collaborative and friendly looking. Growing sector - social gaming.

iMob - biggest iphone/ipod game - text based adventure! Missions etc. Links to address book and you can skip levels by buying credits. Kids nick parents phones and empty parents iTunes accounts!

4iP has an iphone game in development - should be self funding even if only moderately successful. Game about drinking (you booze you lose?) to self assess drunkeness.

To make things participative and interesting - some piece of media, code, etc that plugs into people's existing spaces. Channel 4 are quite good at watching media but trying to get more into participative spaces. Want to get real world outcome to online spaces. Performing spaces (e.g. SecondLife). Publishing spaces - most in the room have blogs, but most have small readerships. "A place where..." is about the riskiest place to be.

Group spaces - bebo, facebook, tagged etc. People complain about C4 pitch process - 800 words but many say it's too much, they want funding to go figure that out. You'd be a mug not to use group spaces to research your ideas and try things out.

Secret spaces - get no idea that take advantage of Instant Messager BUT it's the number 1 place to make money from advertising on the web. Huge amounts of trust etc. which you can use well. For example: Embaressing Teenage Bodies (C4 TV show) had anonymous comments so people contributed. Skins has a realtime Instant Messanger service with private chat but also referrals to useful parts of the C4 support sites. Very cheap, very effective ideas.

Pitching is a tough thing - you should be able to do short Elevator Pitch. Some come in at 400 words. Too much. All you need is "X is the only Y that allows these folk in this place to do this at a time when...". This is a great micro public service orientated pitch.

School of Everything - learning platform. You pick what you want to teach, you search for what you want to learn. Some people charge, some are free. Match up is geographically designed so real meet ups can be had and real learning can take place. 4iP has invested in this twice in the last year.

Through the Roof - wanted to measure how much money through energy loss the UK government through their roofs (with thermal imaging). Two models: can licence data and create a story (and bump a 4 logo on it); can also send data from those images - there is a company in Dundee that can work out lost heat from those images and sell that data on. Timely as lots of reviews of school buildings etc. Major undertaking.

Return On Investment
Try to keep investment small so returns can be good. 30% fees on project management is not a good budget. 10% production fees is fairly realistic. Education not traditionally appealing to advertising. Changing on the web. However for 4 the importance is also Return On Attention: most people are on the web because they can't see what's relavant to them there. Ofcom has researched and confirmed this.

Attention
There is about a 99:1 ratio on social sites. Lots of people consume but very few create. About 4.5% of wikipedia users contribute, they are exception to the rule. Discussion here about Twitter and Twitter "going mainstream" - Jonathan Ross's show encouraged people to read and watch, not contribute.

Once you have attention how do you keep it? YouTube lures you with new/recent/popular videos and allows subscribing to streams etc. Maybe they embed/share a video if they are more proactive (A graph here suggests some levels of use: Visitor/Fan/Contributor or Distributor.

If you have an idea you have to grab attention, keep attention again and again and turn that into a tangible result.

Mobile Content
4 like the iPhone - can give stuff away for free in UK and Europe but also sell the content outside EU. It's a nice model for public service/publically funded remit. Examples include graphic novel app, AudioBoo (lots of auto cleverness built into audio capture and sharing).

Questions & Discussion
How does business to business work for this model for 4ip. Facebook is important as well. People criticize use of Facebook but Bebo is bombing. All these things have a natural half-life so you pick with that in mind. Ewan makes differentiation between users and consumers. Users want more from an idea. How does your idea change people's lives?

Follow up question: Facebook is essentially a platform. What happens if people come with a platform idea. Ewan says 4 aren't against this but it's a big deal. Signing up for a platform asks a lot. If there's a logical reason or need then that's fine. Comment from the floor re: Google single profile idea. You can be compatible with lots of different extant logins and if you can you let your users use whatever login they want. Also lets someone else worry about users data. Ewan adds that user data has really limited use for 4: real liability and expensive to manage. Ewan is showing the site of Matt Locke who does education for Channel 4 (turning programmes into sites). He has A Manifesto for Data Literacy which calls or transparency, portability and not sales of data. 4 likes OpenID - you can access and move data. Facebook is almost the oppositte of this!

Funding wise 4iP have a match funding deal so they put in money and various Scottish bodies match it. You can sign up to 4iP: http://www.4ip.org.uk/. Ewan claims this is the easiest and most open VC and media pitching opportunity going. Maybe it'll take you 15 mins to fill in. 4iP have over 10 million to spend in Scotland and NI. Small good ideas are what they are after. A catalyst fund though, 4iP want out in about 18 months. Needs to be a sustainable model and be self-funding as soon as possible. Speedy ideas desired. Small ideas might take a month from idea to funding. Lots of money and support available in exchange for good useful ideas. Pretty but useless is a no. 4iP wants to be first or distinct second. Otherwise don't bother pitching. Want ideas that are participative and collaborative. And it must thrive without telly. 4iP might link from channel4.com. It's not about 4 marketing. Mostly they fund other things. 4 commissions they don't make. Themes for the next year for 4iP: ultra/local news; health and wellbeing; mobile gaming; environmental/green stuff.

See more on 38minutes.com

Oscars 2009 - the final awards

2009-02-23T04:05:00.002Z

So, my power cut out there just as we were getting to the last awards...

Best Foreign Language film was, by all accounts, a surprise winner! The Baader Meinhof Complex? No! The Class? No! Revanche? No! Waltz with Bashir? No! No the winner was an excellent looking Japanese film called Departures. The director was charming but absolutely struggling for English so just charmed and winked and waved Oscar with his colleagues. All very lovely...

And now, if I recall the order correctly, the footage of those Hollywood greats who have passed away this year. Queen Latifah sings "I'll be thinking of you..." very beautifully, live, over a mildly stomach churning (only because of the editing) ever moving collage of clips. Mostly we knew about these people but seeing them in one huge clipreel is always very sad and there's always one or two you didn't hear about. Various sharp intakes of breath ensure. We close on Paul Newman with Heath Ledger not having featured. Having said which the Best Actor award was a whole personal tribute. But gosh. Does that mean they know what's going to happen before the envelopes are opened? Or maybe there was always a plan for the Ledger family to do a wee piece anyway regardless of whether Heath won or not. But of course he did so... Anyway...

Next up. Directing. Presented by Reece Witherspoon. OK.. Noms are a lot of by now familiar films: Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionnaire. And...

WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!

Yay! Danny Boyle has won me round with the Tigger bounce he apparentlty always promised to do should be ever win an Oscar. Too cute as is his speech. The movie isn't the best ever but in this category it's a more than fair choice.

Actress in a Leading Role. The ghost are back so lets analyse the pairings: Shirley Maclaine = Anne Hathaway - clearly a guarantee of low valued but much loved parts for many a decade me thinks. The wee pep talk is all about how it's Anne's first nomination but surely will not be her last (I happen to concur) which sounds a lot like "not this time kid, sorry"; Nicole Kidman=Angelina Jolie - Nicole did a good job but it's a weird pair, almost like "well you two are both better known for who you sleep with than what you do" or something. But we know Angelina (or indeed Brangelina) is not going to win this time frankly; Halle Berre=Melissa Leo - black is different but hot and black is so less Hollywood outcast than over 50 that Melissa Leo should be feeling the big big breaking the mould love here; Sophia Loren = Meryl Streep - much hilariousness indeed here. Sophia barely got Meryl's name right and was wearing insane yellow frilly frockage straight out of Pricilla Queen of the Desert, indeed the big hair, red muscley neck and all those frills made her look scarily drag; Marion Cotillard=Kate Winslet - I think this is the official bestowing of Euro class on Kate's Reader accent. Marion genuinely seems terribly excited by Kate's performance, maybe she's seen the results?1

WINNER: Kate Winslet.

But then we knew that going into this evening didn't we? Kate seems to have known but nonethless does a charming british gaffathon telling Meryl that everyone in the category was just amazed to be let in by Meryl and that Meryl should just suck up that joke. You know 15 noms is a recipe for love-in bullying at these things. Kate almost has a nervous breakdown here but then flips into alarming efficiency and name dropping. Watch out for her speech on YouTube too. Not only does her speech include a few great gaffs but she gives her statuette a hand-job throughout. She also provided the most spontaneous moment of the entire night though much be her requesting her dad whistle to make himself known and him whistling incredibly loudly back. Genius.

Actor in a Leading Role. And again with the spiritual 12 step love partnering. Adrian Brody=Richard Jenkins - is this something about character actors or just lanky lads? Either way Richard gets his moment on screen and I wish he could win for The Visitor even though I feel sure he won't... ; Michel Douglas = Frank Langella - Micheal's getting younger dammit! He gives great speech at this stage though so Frank looks very pleased with his lot. Robert De Niro = Sean Penn - cue a lot of weird stuff about both Penn's acting and his humanitarian work. Plus some good jokes about Penn's temper. Mutterings run round the room though about the comparative homophobia levels of De Niro and Penn. We don't think either has a perfect reputation and it troubles us; Anthony Hopkins = Brad Pitt - Anthony has gone all extra Welsh and is chatting away to Brad like a man who's been at the free bar. Memories of that weird film they were in together are not helping me like the pairing; Finally Sir Ben Kingsley=Mickey Rourke - a lovely pep talk to officially welcome Rourke back into the arms of Hollywood, the crowd love it.

WINNER: Sean Penn.

And so to an acceptance speech that I love on every level but also get irritated by on every level. Sean is fabulous on shouting out that the Academy are "Commy Homo-loving Sons of Guns". I think we shall take that as a compliment for that. Sean effectively donates his speech to Prop 8. He tells people that when you see the banners of hatred they saw today (something whitewashed from all my coverage) on the way into the theatre you know that people will and should be ashamed for voting against gay marriage and that everyone should have equal rights. Indeed his speech is the gayest thing you will ever see at Oscars and, unlike the fabulous Milk screenwriter confessional number earlier, will be very very hard to cut down to edit out the politics. My money is that the cut will be "I know I make it hard for you to appreciate me sometimes". Anyway I guess Go Sean. It was a good performance. I would just so much would have preferred to see Mickey Rourke win (and cry about his pooch as a speech) or, even better, Richard Jenkins. Penn is a fair choice though. Would be nice to see a gay actor talking against Prop 8 and playing a gay icon though...

Best Picture. Stephen Spielberg entered the stage in show off moving video panel fashion... Ladies and Gentlemen it's the top award! In the running are: Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader; Slumdog Millionnaire. Much as I like a good clip show these look unnervingly like the long length trailers. It's an odd thing to watch at home, how much odder in a theatre eh?

WINNER: Slumdog Millonnaire!

So at first I was not for this but now I am swept up in the fun and the dream. And I love that there is now a 98% Indian stage invasion of excitable folks who are going to have a really really weird week! Hollywood looks simultaneously delighted but also a bit alarmed. After all the money from Slumdog is British and from TV licensing. It's low budget and independent(ish) and it's made back loads of cash despite it's lead actor only being known previously as a troubled teen in a late night drama (Skins). It is quite the coup.

The night closes out with Hugh Jackman introducing, of all things, 2009 previews. Not just any previews mind, no trailers for Angels and Demons and Ice Age 4 and Terminator, er, 4? 5? and Night at the Museum 2 and such...basically previews of dire films which will not be featuring at next year's award ceremonies except, maybe, for makeup or animation. If they're lucky. What an odd way to end. Oh except that they end with the rules which are fullsome and lovely big print...

All in all a fabulous Oscars night in terms of awards - I would have picked some differently but am not outraged at any of the selections and think that most were the right choice. The stagey thing was sort of good but also not perfect at all times. The "return of the musical" number just wasn't up to the job musically and Hugh Jackman may have a lot of charisma but not enough to extend to all his co-stars and hoards of dancers for that sequencer. The international note of the night was interesting too. Japanese film makers, Penelope with her excellent English but picking up a bilingual Oscar really, the many wonderful Indian stars and crew of Slumdog. The contrast between interesting humble international winners and comedy/TV orientated industrytastic hosts could not have been more stark. Nor could the crucial difference between British and US filmmakers: Breasts. The brits (even Kate Winslet) have them. The Hollywood types just seem to consider them optional when tiny gowns are at stake. I"ll stick with the down to earth poorly paid properly curvy folks any day I think!

For me personally I had an awesome night of friends and snacks and co-vlogging the frockage. Neil was an awesome host and the red carpet cake, the waffles and bacon, the home baking and sweeties and such were all fabulous! And now, at about the time my alarm normally goes off, I am off to my bed...

Happy Oscars 2009 all!

Oscars 2009 -

2009-02-23T03:48:00.002Z

Back at Sky HQ. Beacham is restless again: "It's just not as glamerous as it could be"!

So now we have the credit crunch debate about glam and all new less frilly intimate crowd control.

And so back to Kodak Theatre to musical compilations again. Yes this year movies are all about Theatre...

Best Score time then: Benjamin Button vs Defiance vs Milk vs Slumdog Millionnaire vs WALL-E.

Based on how most of these have sounded WALL-E is terribly pretty indeed. But Slumdog Millionnaire clearly is standout for interest and different sound, not that the orchestra is entirely tooled for Slumdog really.

WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!

Go Slumdog! I cannot approve more of that particular award. The composer is adorable but quite prepped and did a good job but lack of blubbing seems to have disappointed the crowd.

Oh I didn't mention that Zak Ephron and Alicia Keys are presenting btw. Alicia has a good dress but not as nice as my co-party goer Claire's. She erm did not tell me to say that. no.

NExt up is Best Song: two of these are from Slumdog, the other from WALL-E...

Oh! Awesomness. Oscar winner from Slumdog is performing one of the Slumdog songs with a huge team of dancers and drummers. Kicking ass. Seriously. And now the Peter Gabriel song is being performed NOT by Peter but by John Legend. And with the Bollywood dancers. There is a strong tribal vibe to all best song. Oh and he has some gospel backup now. Cool. Drumtasticness... and into the bouncier second Slumdog number with female co-singers helping out Oscar winner. So so cool. The white and black Bollywood dancers look a tad tasteless if I'm honest. Oh we are mashing up WALL-E and Slumdog. Odd. I'm sure Peter Gabriel approves though.

OK...

WINNER: Jai ho! Takes it! Fantastic! two oscars for A.R. Rahman!

Oscars 2009 - Jerry Lewis: humanitarian award

2009-02-23T03:37:00.002Z

Back to Sky chat lounge. May I just say that Winkleman is a pro. Winkleman for Eurovision please! I love the bizarre sofa combo of Danny Wallace, Mark Dolan (that guy who is about 8 ft tall and does that freaky people C4 series) and La Beacham. They may fight as proper exhaustion sets in!

Currently the chat is how many hours of Oscar are left. Yes, is that exciting with the Sky sofa that we are sweepstaking the running time...

OK so, out of nowhere (really), Eddie Murphy is presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis. Our response round the room "he's still alive?"

So now we see a compilation clipshow (to Coldplay) of naff Jerry Lewis slapstick. And now some hardcore guitar chords as we hear Jerry's appeals the "Colgate Comedy Hour", via Telethons, and generally raising money for Muscular Dystrophy. Obviously I can't be too evil here cos he seems like his charity way out performs his comedy. The award goes "from one Nutty Professor to another". Jerry Lewis is looking alarmingly, really alarmingly, good for his age. Standing ovations all round of course. Like Dick Van Dyke though our main thought should be: what exactly does he do that keeps him looking the same age as in 1968?! He is struggling with his dentures a little. He has the same haircut btw. That he has had forever. The speech is possibly better acting than his films btw. Classy stuff. The crwod love him btw. Although Heidi Klum looks a tad unmoved but it could just be her sinister hair and the fact that she really had no expectation that she would be filmed at this point...

Oscars 2009 - visual & sound effects

2009-02-23T03:19:00.004Z

I think Hugh Jackman just got heckled by his own orchestra. Twisted.

So we have a special effects type video clip. The Action 2008 bit maybe? This compilation looks unnervingly like the unmanned ITV Movie Show from about 1995.

Wicky wicky wah wah! Will Smith is presenting this bit. He's speaking up for Action. Weird live scoring in the theatre btw. Sounds like a mistake but am sure is deliberate.

Visual Effects noms: Benjamin Button; Dark KNight; Iron Man

WINNER: Benjain Button. It's a bloomin footie yeam worth of winners! Only one got to speak though.

Sound Editing: Dark Knight; Iron Man; Slumdog Millionnaire; WALL-E; Wanted.

WINNER: Dark Knight!

Our resident sound expert nods approvingly.

And our sound editor walked off to some Bowie if my ears did not diceive.

Now Sound Mixing noms: Benjamin Button; Dark Knight; Slumdog Millionnaire; WALL-E; Wanted.

WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!

Seems fair given how the music and street noise was woven together. Another team affair (Danny Boyle is crying from his seat). Seems for teams one man can speak. Slumdog's Rahul is overcome and can barely tie his words together with excitement. He's gotten it together now he says this is history being handed over to him. He's a proper charmer!

And, and yes Will Smith is still our only host, we are on to Film Editing: Frost/Nixon vs Dark Knight vs Milk vs Slumdog Millionnaire vs Benjamin Button.

WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!

Yup, another Slumdog award, A very very bald gentleman of supreme Englishness. Chris Dickins. Yes, He's so English he's even called Dickins. Is a nice speech, seems like he genuinely liked making the film which is a plus. Danny Boyle no longer crying, now grinning and doing thumbs up! Another super Brit reserve speech of wobbly lacking an ending. Nice. Makes you proud in a weird weird way...

Oscars 2009 - Supporting Actor & Documentary Awards

2009-02-23T02:59:00.003Z

Looks like we're headed at Best Supporting Actor category... We have a wacky clipshow attack!

Christopher Walkin, Kevin Kline, Cuba Gooding Junior, Alan Arkin and Joel Gray are our ghosts of supporting actors past introducing the actors. Pairings up again. Apparently Alan Arkin = Phillip Seymour Hoffman; Joel Gray = Josh Brolin (a little gay in joke maybe? We get a small parable alongside the spiel); Cuba Gooding Jnr = Robert Downey Jnr (yeah, it really did have to be that pairing!); Christopher Walkin = Micheal Shannon (dubious mental health connection I think); Kevin Kline = Heath Ledger (weird). So inevitably Heath Ledger is going to be an odd thing to introduce for this. Kevin Kline is trying to make it work. Heath's family are being zoomed into by the camera. Al a little weird the vibe here.

WINNER: Heather Ledger. Of course.

So Heath's family look, er, pleased. And well dressed. Quite odd. Standing ovation from the crowd from them as they go up to pick up the award. Sean Penn is crying away in that crowd btw. Ok so we have Heath's parents and sister are picking up the award. The ladies have been beautifully dressed in Ivory, Heath's dad is doing a lovely tearful speech. It's a weird character and film to have a moving moment with. Heath's "special friend" Steve is an interesting throwaway comment. No sight or word of his ex and mother of his child Michella Williams though. Interesting. This is a nice way to do this award - no speeding up music for Ledger family mind.

Onto Best Documentary noms: Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; The Betrayal; Man on Wire; Trouble the Water (I'm taken with that only as the director swore crazily just then). So the award is being given out by Bill Mahar. He points out that he has to come on whilst everyone cries. Bill is pimping his own religion film here, crowd won't commit to laughing. They draw the line there. They laughed at the scientology jokes from Steve Martin and Tina Fey earlier. The whole room here agrees with Mahar: we should all go see documentaries more!!

WINNER: Man on Wire. Is a no brainer (though not a great film the idea is genuinely uplifting for some reason). Co-directors are making Phillipe run up (He managed it leaping marvellously!). His speech: "yes!" Phillipe btw is carrying lucky coin from Werner - is magic! And Phillipe? He's leaving with Oscar balanced on his chin. Of course!

Best Short Documentary noms: The Conscience of Nhem Loo; The Final Inch; Smile Pinki; The Witness - From the Balcony 306

WINNER: Smile Pinki!

The director is delighted. Lucky her. But her dress is backless silk total gorgeousness! She is on the ball. She expected to win. She did good in that mildly cold way!

Oscars 2009 - no awards at all.. But "The musical is back"

2009-02-23T02:50:00.003Z

We are back with Sky, Beacham is in grumpy, maybe drunk, mode. She hates the amateur intimate nature of the ceremony. She is angry. Don't mess with Beecham. She'll strangle you with her pearls...

We are back at the theatre. Hugh reckons change has come... not Obama but Mamma Mia outselling Titanic in the Uk. Musicals are back. He says he cannot wait for Doubt the Musical (nuns. They've worked before).

So. Now we have a big fancy odd number. Hugh Jackman doing a bit of Fred Astaire. With Beyonce. The cheorography is pure MGM. Loving it despite the fact that it's a big clumsy compilation and it really actually doesn't work! Actually they have moved to Grease. I feel less good about liking this now! They are having fun with the combination of tracks, but they really aren't weaved together. It's a shame. I love musicals but if only they had stuck to well done and classy. Cripes. Zak Ephron has appeared scarily from nowhere. With the Mamma Mia folk. Mamma Mia is the theme tonight a bit. I supposse it is the major seller of the year but not Oscarable. We have military drummers joining in Mamma Mia (the song). Odd. It's a bit like a really really really well funded stage school car crash! What a waste of top hats and sequins! Cute to end on "The Musical is Back!" though! Crist. Who do we blame? Baz Lurhman.

Oscars 2009 - Cinematography

2009-02-23T02:31:00.002Z

Natalie Portman is presenting with a beary chap. It's someone in disguise. We're thinking it is Ben Stiller being artsy. He cannot compete for distraction with Natalie's My Little Pony dress. Stiller is doing nice bad cue card reading. Good job they weren't up earlier when the presenters genuinely were failing. Natalie thinks Stiller looks like he works at a meth lab, yup, that's the (faked) look. Poor Natalie is trying to be a pro and not giggle at the nominees whilst Stiller does skits behind. This cinematographer thing is a Jaquin Pheonix joke apparently. What an odd boy he is. Did they make the same jokes when Daniel Day Lewis became a cobbler? Probably!

So the noms: Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionnaire, The Dark Night, Changeling, The Reader.

WINNER? Slumdog Millionnaire!

It looks like Slumdog is starting to trump Benjamin Button. The Slumdog cinematographer is improving his own jokes, is a bit unsuccessful. But he seems nice. He's lost.

And now an ad again. Wow that was one short spell of actual ceromony between awards!

Oscars 2009 - Best Live Action Short, Comedy 2008

2009-02-23T02:29:00.003Z

Jennifer Biel is up on her own. And she is wearing the satin napkin again. Meh! But she is presenting the Scientific and Technical Awards update. And she has so little charisma we were bored before she opened her mouth. How is she working!

BTW the crew at Neil's party want to flag up that Tina Fey's silver dress was quite possibly the best one seen thus far. I rather concur. Although Goldie Hawn showed up in smart casual and that takes some balls. And Tilda was in couture of course and you know she just had that in the wardrobe. No one night crepe horrors for her!

I think we have a special Judd Apatow stoner video thang with James Franco & pal watching clip show to demonstrate best films. Cue inappropriate laughing. Nice q: "who's a better actor: Ronald Reagon or Barak Obama". Cute playing of Milk clip. Think Hollywood says Milk in response to Prop8 disaster. That was our comedy 2008 compiltion I think.

Live Actio Short Film noms: Aufe der Streke, Manon on the Asphalt, New Boy, The Pig, Spiegalslund.

WINNER: Spiegalslund

The Director was born in East Germany and is sweet.

Oscars 2009 - Art, Costume and Make Up

2009-02-23T02:13:00.003Z

Stephanie Beecham says Hugh Jackman's opening was laboured. The team view is that he is still no Billy Crystal. Steph would like to look at him but hated the skit. Respect to her for going that way.

Hugh is introducing the Art Direction award. Cute stage set up - big lit bulbs and pretty pretty presenters: Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig (and some jazzy reworkings of Charade). Baroque digital backdrops are how we're seeing: Benjamin Button vs The Duchess vs The Dark Night vs Changling vs Revolutionary Road.

WINNER? Benjamin Button!

Seems like a good call. The designers Seem pleased and on the verge of serious tears. And special thanks to David Fincher. The designers are in tears as they go. Feels like a proper win...

Daniel Craig is fluffing his lines, SJP is perfect pro and great at delivering meaningless style stuff. Lovely. So... Costume Design. It's Revolutionary Road vs The Duchess vs Milk vs Benjamin Button vs Australia. SJP btw is in another lovely evening gown. This one ivory and lovely (and much more busty) than the mint number she red carpetted in.

WINNER? The Duchess!

The Custume Designer is floored and maybe drunk or just totally baffled. Seems very unlikely as a costume designer in a good way. A gentlemen in his forties who was apparently the risk for the picture. He did a good befuddled speech. Apparently Keira Knightly is "one classy lady"!

Wow... it's a triple bill award host combie. Now Make Up is up. Benjamin Button vs Dark Knight vs Hellboy II.

WINNER? Benjamin Button!

Of course it was, how could it not be huh? The gent who has gone up is stroking his Oscar as he gives his slightly arch campy (well prepared) speech. He's running through the names impressively. Everyone on the freaking craft table almost got a micro mention. No emotion there though.

Wow! Our hosts for the next award are from that vampire tastic Twilight male lead and young female lead from Mamma Mia to cue up our romance compilation. Romance this year looked like... a blond dye jon. Is a particularly soft lit mixtape affair. I think that's a bit of Coldpplay being used there. I think I missed half these films btw. But I can at least recognise Highschool Musical 3. I is clasy. Romance this year looks mostly quite heterosexual. Even the Milk clip is bland as heck but they rescued themselves with a nice kiss in their snoggy compilation! Thank goodness!

Oscars 2009 - Animated Feature

2009-02-23T02:05:00.005Z

Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black are doing the animated intros. Jack's animation money making scheme: take paycheck from Dreamworks and then bet it on Pixar for the Oscar winner. Harsh. But very very funny!

So we have a big ol' clipshow of dubious animated movies and good uns too. Chimps from Space still looks rubbish despite editing it next to WALL=E. Nice little soundtrack for the clipshow though. I think we know who will win since WALL-E features 10 times as much as the other films of the year. Anniston btw dipped herself in glue and rolled in sequins and beads by the looks of things. Quite a sparkly dress! So it's Bolt vs Kung Foo Panda vs WALL-E. Yes, you guessed it...

WINNER: WALL-E!

Of course.

A cute family man type Oscar speech. Cute. Also the Director is thanking his high school drama teacher for casting him as Barnaby in Hello Dolly.

Now Best Animated Short Film. Not easier to win than the full length movie. No. Not at all! Aniston and Black should do lots of telly

Le Maison en Petits Cubes vs Lavator Love Story vs Oktapodi vs Presto vs This Way Up. This is traditionally a wild card category. No disappointments here then...

WINNER: Le Maison en Petits Cubes!

The animator is very sweet. And speaks almost no English. So a nice short speech from Kunio Kato "Dom Arigato Mr Roboto!"

Oscars 2009 - best screenplay

2009-02-23T01:52:00.004Z

Best screenplay is a cheesy affair with Tina Fey and Steve Martin: Frozen River vs Happy Go Lucky bs In Bruges vs MIlk vs WALL-E. Ny the way how is Milk an original screenplay given the Oscar winning doc it's based on?!

WINNER: Milk! What? Meh!

Winner Dustn Lane Black is a camp 12 year old. He could be in High School Musical. Writer is former conservative Mormon. Bless. He is using this as an anti Prop 8 rant. I rather love that. Dustin think Milk would want him to say how much God does love gay people and that very soon we will have equal rights federally across the US. Brave in a way.

Best Screenplay Adapted. Curious Case of Benjamin Button vs Doubt vs Frost/Nixon vs The Reader vs Slumdog Millionnaire.

WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!

Expected but a bit crap considering the betterness of Q & A. Simon Boeufoy is looking very very surprised. He's wearing a necklace I think. He's a bit overcome in that nice English way. Everyone on the film has changed his life. Danny Boyle is the And Finally... thank you. Almost an afterthought.

Oscars 2009 - Actual Real Live Event Ahoy!

2009-02-23T01:23:00.002Z

It's beginning! It's beginning! Yay!!!!!!

Wow the staging is bling a ding diamnote dong!

Hugh Jackman is on. Looking tall and tan and attractively random. Still not quite sure why he's hosting this year but he's a charming chappie. He's doing the obligatory toe curling waving at the crowd... Hugh's little nationalities joke about Australia is quite cute. Everything is downsized due to the recession. Next year he'll be in the film New Zealand ;) Go go script writers.

So.. It's a class credit crunchy musical number. With cardboard props. In that sexy expensive Michel Gondry style. It's a musical number based on the nominees of course. Hugh is doing a good job actually so far. Although his tan and suit and such is strangely reminiscent of William Shatner circa 76. Wow! Phallic tastic Tripic Thunder props! IT is cute to get a stage actor to do a no frills number. Anne Hathaway has been accidentally on purpose co-opted on. Anne as Nixon. Cute. Anne is showing off that yes people, she ia available for musicals. Thank you. I think the undertone is that Frost/Nixon is a porny cheesy romance. Hmm... odd. And crazy silver dancers (as if from Eurobeat) are mime dancing The Reader. Now The Wrestler. Home props include barbed wire and a standard lamp. And fold out Oscars! Clearly the boys films are the focus this year.

However. Quite possibly best. opening. ever.

Classy and cheapie. Hugh Jackman is almost scarily Vegas and lady friendly. Although Hugh's little lap hopping onto Frank Langella is rather fun. Nice joke: 7 second delay but for Mickey will be a 20 minute delay if he wins. Cute. Again Hugh is pimping round the audience. Meryl looks pained. Likes his 15 noms steroids joke. Weirdly it's a little Best Actress clip show. And the video intros to the clipshows are a bit, well, classic cheesy. Oh no. It's actually the film that's cheesy. But it's introducing some seriously rockin ladies: Eva Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg, Tilda Swinton, Goldie Hawn and Angelia Huston. Tilda rules them like a sexy couture queen! It's a bit we are the ghosts of Oscars past but hey, nice idea to make folks work for their previously received statuettes! And tears already. I love the pairings btw: Eva Marie Saint = Viola Davies; Angelia Huston = Penelope Cruz; Whoppie Goldberg = Amy Adams (it's a nun thing); Goldie Hawn = Taraji P Henson; Marisa Tomei = Tilda Swinton.

WINNER?! Penelope Cruz!!!

AWESOMENESS!! Je suis insanely delighted!

Penelope has 45 seconds and she's very very very thrilled! fabulous! Lovely wee speech btw. She wrote one, she's showing her classy european roots. Charming and touching and not painfully blubby. She is talking about art. Penelope we love you! Everyone from Spain shares her award according to my live translator!

Oscars 2009 - Live!

2009-02-23T01:00:00.002Z

Freaking A! IT's Claudia Winkleman and Gok Wan on the Sky sofa!

So... nothing has actually begun yet. It's all fashion thoughts and preamble. Lorks. Fern Cotton is Winkleman's gal on the ground at the Kodak theatre. Pink eye shadow has crept up on Fern and taken her by surprise! Scary!

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - robert downey jnr

2009-02-23T00:56:00.003Z

Robert Downey Jnr. has found Ryan's mic. The lapels are quite cunning here. dark grey matt short back lapels giving the look of a classic Italian suit with matt black lower lapels taking the tux into proper formal wear. IT works. With Bob's Elvis quiff it's a fifties throwback look...

And then... Out of nowhere...

It's beginning!!!

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Getting closer to the main event..

2009-02-23T00:49:00.003Z

Ryan has secured an interview with Kate Winslet. Something about the hairdo is set, solid and pure Princess Diana. Most odd. It's her classic look though. Sculpted up do with small diamond stud drop and a Ben De Lisi (or similar) frockage with some sort of foliage across the shoulder. Always the shoulder attack. Kate seems baffled by commenting on her own success. She's quietly confident. Despite the odd deprived ballet school look in the Time cover they've just flagged up.

Alicia Keys is along for unknown reasons. Looking like the polar opposite of Christopher Nolens wife. Keys has concave chest these days so thinned is she still, Nolan's Mrs meanwhile looks truly buxom in this lineup of ladies. She's really outshining the crowd cleavage wise with even a cross over basic ball black ballgown all that's required.

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Penelope Cruz

2009-02-23T00:41:00.003Z

Cruz, close up, is a mix of Loren and Audrey Hepburn. Gorgeously heavy fringe and fabulous pale dress (though pale isn't Pene's best colour. Ryan thinks Cruz's role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona is "troubled". I say fabulous. Penelope says "I love her!" yay! Full length view of her dress reveals wedding cake frosting awesomeness. Cruz is the proper princess.

Audible groans! Phillip Seymour Hoffman is wearing a freakin knitted hat people!

Daniel Craig looks good but a little more rugger bugger than usual. His girlfriend might disappear if you accidentally breath out she's so thin. Not cool.

Angelina has the most amazing jade earrings here. They shout out above the black dress - a classic sculptural strapless number to show off Ms Jolie's very finest assets.

Kate Winslet has a dual coloured frock which seems to involve using fabulous black lace as shading to help her hide into size zeroness from her just mildly larger than size zero actual size. The main colour of the dress is a dusky mushroom. It's what the cool kids do:

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Meryl Streep, Marion Cotillard

2009-02-23T00:35:00.003Z

Meryl Streep is sporting a dusky mushroom off the shoulder number. Much nicer by far than the red jersey pleated boob tube that Robert Downey Jnr's date for the night is wearing.

Evan Rachel Wood has beaton off a baffled paparazzi and is speaking to Ryan Seacrest. She's either a naturally cocky lady or a few drinks into the evening...

Jessica Biel forgot to get a dress so is co-ordinating her bed head with an improve dress and, apparently, a large bed sheet was the only thing to hand... We do not love.

Hilarious special feature of the E! coverage number 2: the pointy markers so you can spot the tiny tiny celebs from space. From Space!

Penolope Cruz has come as Sophia Loren. It works people. It works!

Brangelina have made an appearance now but only just hopped out the car. Matt tasteful black classiness but misguided Pitt facial hair horrors.

Marion Cotillard meanwhile has gone for a challenging mix of dark blue and black with heavy beading. Very nice and yet not quite right. A bold attempt though.

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Beyonce, Josh Brolin, Queen Latifah

2009-02-23T00:24:00.003Z

Looks like Beyonce has come straight from Versace by the look of her spray on black and gold gown. Gorgeous matt finish fabric with lacey gold flower splashes. The gathering gets a tad eighties towards the tail but the overall finish is fabulous.

Oh my god it's bittersweet... Mickey misses his chiwhawha (intentional spelling there) that he would so much have preferred his dog for two more years than an Oscar. He is wearing a pendant with his pooches pic around his neck. We almost want him to win purely for his adorable teary piece to camera about his recently deceased doggie best friend.

Queen Latifah is in pretty much a classic plus size prom gown. Nice but dull. As is the glossy swept bun she's sporting. Severe hair is the look (Evan Rachel Wood is also sporting an insanely structured up do). I take back some of my comments on Anne Hathaway btw - her dress finishes in an increadible dispersing spiral of teacup sized sequins. Art yes. Fashion though? Not sure. Glamour? Not with the gaping size zero busline!

As we listen to Josh Brolin (looking a lot like a terrier) and has floored us with the comment "More people would have lived through the AIDS crisis if Harvey Milk were still alive". We barely have a response for that it's so outragously insane.

Jessica Biel is a modern gal. She's on the phone. On the red Carpet. With bed head. Most odd.

Love him Ron Howard is shoutingly defending Micheal Sheen's performance in Frost/Nixon. He seems personally affronted that only Frank Langella was nominated.

Peter Gabrial looks more and more like a wizard every day.

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Anne Hathaway, Sean Penn, Marisa Tomei & Natalie Portman

2009-02-23T00:17:00.003Z

Neutral continues to be a trend this year. Anne Hathaway has arrived in a deeply bridal floor length beaded gown. Nice but not challenging and designed to highlight her skinny elegance. Given she's up for a little gold man for her role in Rachel's Getting Married as an alcoholic it's probably not the year for frivolous fun just in case she wins!

Evan Rachel Wood is in neutral gown of horrible beige. The tattoo it hightlights is rather lovely though.

Sean Penn has arrived in an increadible orange colour. Meanwhile Sarah Jessica Parker says her gown is "barely mint" and that - horror! - Sex and the City 2 is on the way! Shocker! Matthew Broderick has been forced into co-ordinating midnight blue tux.

Oh my god. Marisa's dress has properly been unveiled. It is actually fairly incredible in construction. It has a pleated Sydney Opera House look and is genuinely interesting but the torso shot of it is unfortunate since the colour is less than flattering on the face but the structure is increadible. Maybe Marisa should have borrowed Sean Penn's tantastic look!

Natalie Portman has arrived in My First Barbie Ballgown from the discounted beaded range at an out of town wedding store near you now!

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Richard Jenkins, Mickey Rourke

2009-02-23T00:10:00.002Z

Micky has arrived in slovenly tux style. Open shirt, waistcoat, white dinner jacket and shock! A cigarette! Richard Jenkins meanwhile is classiness personified in classic tux. Sadly Ryan Seacrest ain't that interested as I think we all know it ain't Richard's year despite The Visitor having been fabulous.

Sarah Jessica Parker has appeared in a fabulous gown with increadbly natural looking curled hair. The gown is mint but it is so well designed it still looks good!

Robert Downey Jnr. has arrived. Frsh from rehab? He's looking good in the classic twist on a tux: some satin some matt sections to the lapels. Classy. Simple. Even Downey Jnr's hair is on the conservative side but since he is up for an oscar where he was blacked up it's provbably the wise way to go.

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Marisa Tomei

2009-02-23T00:02:00.002Z

Marisa has not learned fashion lessons despite the decade gap between Oscars appearances. It's assymetrical (oy!) and is in a sort of dirty white silk frock. It's classy and understated but so understated as to look a little like a slip. Hair wise though it's a hit.

Amy Adams meanwhile has got the understated classy look in spades. Floor length crimson gown with black piping around the corset, skirts gathered between bust and waist and all highlighting her elegant tied back red hair. Glamour triumph.

Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Heidi Klum

2009-02-22T23:54:00.003Z

For some reason Heidi has come to the Oscars. No complaint from me though as the red satin asymmetrical (purlease!) 50's styled evening frock is rather fabulous! Her jewellery is just amazing - huge diamond and either pearl or a very classy agate leaf design climbing up her neck beautifully. Co-ordinated with huge coordinating bangles in a definitely slumdog chic style which make up for the hitheroto missed insane dress split and triangular back cut out of the red dress.

Danny Boyle is now being interviewed. Behind him there is an awesome asian red carpet invasion. The calm glammer of the saris knocks the socks of some of this year's mainstream frocks!

Oscars 2009 - Red Carpet

2009-02-22T23:49:00.002Z

Currently watching the red carpet coverage of Oscars 2009. We're witnessing the Glamastrator on E!. Truly fabulous magic sports pen action being applied to a fabulous oyster mushroom dress.

So Dev Patel is currently working Ryan Seacrest's mic. I take that back. Dev is just not that lewd! Costar Frieda Pinto is looking fabulous in a stunning (but inexplicably assymetrical) blue lace and diamante sari inspired gown.

Oscars 2009

2009-02-22T23:38:00.002Z

I am live blogging and vlogging the Oscars 2009 . Vlogs may follow the event but they'll be recorded live! enjoy!

Snow, Busy week, and EdTwestival

2009-02-11T23:49:00.001Z

snow!
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

As previously mentioned Sunday night we finally had real proper snow in Edinburgh. And Monday it was snowing all day leading to very very pretty inch thick frosting on everything. Then except for a thin sheet of ice on a small bit of pavement (which I went flying off in some skilled coffee-preserving way) it had all thawed come Tuesday. Ah well.

This whole week has been a bit chaotic trying to fit lots of work and training and new work stuff in - quite the challenge. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to though - it's the EdTwestival and I am joining the Twitterati to chat and drink and tweet and see what a Twitter meet up actually looks like. Scary good fun I think... Wish me luck!

snow!

2009-02-02T23:19:00.001Z

snow!
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

It snowed today!

In fact it snowed a lot but almost exclusively, bizarrely, in the South of England. Up here in the frozen north we just had lots of snowfall melting quietly away. As I type it is baltic BUT the snow is melting under the pressure of new sleet and warm(ish) urban streets. I fear today's snow is tomorrow's lethal ice sheet though - lordy!

In fact the bad put me in an usual on trend place: I was wearing cords and walking boots with a big fluffy jumper as, it seems, were half my colleagues. It was the EDINA look. Nice.

Anyway despite the thaw it is still far far too cold to type or indeed be out in the open.. I'm off to hide under fleece blankets!

Hard at work on my assignment...

2009-01-08T00:00:00.001Z

Hard at work on my assignment...
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Cocoa is very comforting at midnight when you are glazed over with strategy jumbling in your head, two throws keeping your knees warm and just 4 days till deadline. I wish I didn't get hyperactive about everything EXCEPT homework on the week's when my assignments are due: it's so tacky!

At least tomorrow I have a nice catch up day at work - our server has a scheduled all day outage which means I can actually all the stuff I'm usually too busy munging to get to! Thrillment! Hopefully that will be therapy for the brain and the soul and tomorrow evening will be even more productive for writing up!

Craft Pride

2009-01-04T18:24:00.001Z

IMG_3186
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Hmm... It seems my sewing and machine embroidery based pressies this year looked just slightly too professional so that some folk didn't realise they were handmade for them. So, the question, to label or not to label handmade gifts?!

It seems like an ego trip to label but then it seems a shame to spend hours or days or weeks hand-making unique things and not have that careful thought and time element of the present known about.

What do you think?

Chocolate Marquisse Cake!

2009-01-04T18:18:00.001Z

Heather's Birthday
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

The last piece of this yummy chocolate cake is awaiting me after dinner. All I need to do is stop procrastinating over my e-Learning Strategy & Policy assignment and I can have one of the last two bits of this dense gooey yumminess (from the Green & Black's cookbook btw)...

Now... to attempt to do some exciting stratergising!

Mmmm... Moroccan Food

2009-01-02T01:13:00.001Z

Heather's Birthday
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

This is the most scrummy of dishs: chicken with honey and baby onions from Claudia Roden's excellent book Arabesque. We brought mum a copy for Christmas and got so excited looking for ingrediants to add to her present that we decided to do a Moroccan feast for Heather's birthday. Alongside the chicken dish we did some little lamb pastries with yoguht sauce (utterly delicous), a warm sweet potato salad (awesomely unexpectedly good) and a tomato and aubergine dish (nice but I executed it poorly so it ended up too garlicy). Really yummy stuff indeed especially when also served with the Chocolate Marquisse from the Green & Black's Cookbook (alarmingly good but featuring 10 eggs!!) and a big bottle of vintage champagne. To follow our leftovers we also have some leftover pastries (again from Arabesque) that we made just before we left Cardiff - little fragrant almond cigar type things baked in filo and dripping with yumminess. They went very well with the Oranges in Orange Syrup. Num. Despite Heather getting 3 recipe books for her birthday I think we'll be off to get our own copy of Arabesque very soon indeed.

Sari Silk Scarf

2009-01-02T01:02:00.001Z

IMG_3334
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

I've been doing lots of crafty stuff for christmas pressies this year but this latest creation was actually for me. It's a scarf made of Jeager fushia fake fur (lovely stuff but awefully tangly) and a handspun silk sari yarn made from little scraps and waste pieces of indian fabrics. I picked the sari yarn up in a yarn store in Potlatch in Washington when we were day tripping from Seattle last spring. It took me ages to find the best use for it but it is quite heavy and dense to work with so I have a beautiful but very compact scarf now. Two balls of yarn in a very lazy knit (no, not even a stockinette) and maybe 2 ft of scarf. But both feet of it are very very pretty!

Merry Christmas!

2009-01-01T23:45:00.001Z

IMG_3252
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Nummy Christmas pudding seems like a good shot to sum up a glutonous and fun festive season at home. Although come to think of it I actually didn't eat more than two bowls of puddin' which is a shame as there was lots left but there were too many other temptations. I did learn how to make my own brandy butter. Actually Ameretto Butter: 3oz unsalted softened (to room temperature) butter, 3oz sugar and at least 3 and probably rather more Ameretto. Whipped up (a lot) it makes a yummy melty alternative to those naff Tesco Brandy Creams...

Anyway the christmasy week of my fortnight off was spent at home in Cardiff with mum and Heather and (for a few days) Anna mostly sleeping, drinking lemsips and eating turkey. If we hadn't all had colds it would have been super relaxing I think. Sniffles makes everything that bit more claustrophobic and tiring though so it's good that the colds are finally receding at last. Which means a rush to do my next MSc assignment, my CIGS Web2.0 presentation (book now to see me!) and then use my big chrimbo pressie: a new shiny podcasting mic to make suchprettyeyes on film so much sexier :)

Impressed!

2008-12-08T17:59:00.001Z

I'm impressed. Managed to merge my two posterous accounts in about 30
seconds. I think. Nice.

Posted via email from suchprettyeyes's posterous

Halloween Cookies...

2008-11-04T02:27:00.001Z

Halloween Cookies...
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

This Halloween I decided to make some delicious gruesome sugar cookies using the various cookie cutters from Angela & Joe and Karl & Lindsay. I had far too much fun with the piping bag and now want to make novel decorated biccies for all events... thankfully I have a silly number of cutters so probably just about have the equipment for any time of year cookies... nice.

Train Tracking....

2008-10-24T21:27:00.003Z

04:45 Awake (barely) to get myself to a 06:36 train to Liverpool for a Facebook Symposium...

06:30 En route: Girl on a foreign exchange to Germany has a small crisis phone call wih her best pal as her parents look nervous and her wee brother looks bored from the platform

07:12 Still dark. How can it still be *this* dark. Quite odd. Making progress on the assignment though and have mostly stopped receiving dirty looks from the exchange student girl.

07:14 Getting achy from my not quite perfect laptop angle (interesting seat design for a train with specific laptop power points (and no wifi - muh!). Shall I ask student girl to watch the mac for me?

07:35 Dawn is very slowly approaching. ooh the excitment. My smoked salmon bagels look like a good brekkie compared to fellow business travellers - one is starting her day with Cadbury Snack biscuits. Nice. And a metro of course. smug? Moi?!

07:44 Went to the bathroom (the exchange kid kept an eye for me and seems very nice) and 2 mins later I come out to find it almost light and the carriage suddenly toasty. Bizarre. Oh and these tilty trains they *really* do tilt!

07:48 Haiti/Arcade Fire is almost as perfect for train travel synchronisation as Star Guitar/Aphex Twin

07:54 Pulling into Carlisle I can't believe how huge the Cumbria indoor bowld park is. It's pretty big people. And just near the Eden Bridge Club for the less, er, athletically inclined. Why am i so not surprised that the spandex cyclist man and his son (wearing a lot less spandex) are getting off here? They had that borders smug glow! Wow. uniformeed school kids getting on and a whole heap of the young and the zitty are boarding. - or are they all together?! Could be... Wonder if they know that coach c is quiet carriage? Aw. One of the uniform kid was coiling in embarrassment as his dad waved him off!

08:03 First rubbish collection person does the rounds 90 minutes into journey. fairly impressive. Sheeo frolicking outside window are great distraction from policy papers.

08:08 Keep seeing frozen streams. It's definitely winter.

08:11 All the kids get off at Penrith. I remain baffled by the wacky blend of major stations and iny hops that long train journeys include. Also intriguing is the mother daughter pair at Penrith station - both look appaalled by th ehour but the mother staring at her kid judgementally is definitely more awake. Maybe she's staring cos the kids curly blond highlighted hair is suffiiciently scrubby to look like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards. Need I mention that she's wearing Uggs? Nah. DIdn't think I needed to.

08:21 Finding the dry stone walls, the bare hills and the sheep very romantic It's a shame the only non nature/farmimg objects in the landscape round her seem to be trucks, coaches and caravans. I forget how lucky I am to live somewhere so well served by public transport sometimes. And how efficient cities are at negating the need for a vehicle to get around every day. Can't imagine living alone or without a driving licence out here in th the beautiful remoteness

08:43 iTunes delivers blast from the past.. two steps back. i still like it damn it!

08:45 Wow. flooded fields

08:49 Thinking that Carnforth stations would not look out of place in Brief Encounter... oh dear. I seem to have a smut in my eye....

08:52 Stopped in a siding. never a good thing

08:57 Moving again. phew.

09:01 Finding that ham sarnies are the breakfast of choice for my co-passengers.

09:19 Putting macbook away ready for change bit. Must put track 2 of Manu Chao Clandestino into xmas cd... it's ace and pingy!

09:21 Amused at the girl oppositte. As well as topping up her make up a lot to hide one of those pesky chin zits she's now checking her face in her ipod. classy. I'm sure that's what mac had in mind for that reflective surface...

16:30 Liverpool Taxi drivers are the nicest I've met. Although mine was freaked out that a city visitor had a minicab company number until I explained that the nice man at the Anglican Cathedral (which is breathtaking and giant) gave it to me.

17:15 Met a nice couple also on the way to Edinburgh whilst we all met at Wigan NorthWestern - both seemed very nice. I feel very old telling people like this - who detect I am not a native Edinburger - that I've actually lived here a decade. It's a long time. I notice that whilst the good folks of Liverpool John Mooires mistook me for an academic the Edinburgh pair were sensible enough to know better. The husband, retired head of architecture at... I don't know... I think George Watson's College where the wife works, anyway he seemed obsessed with Pollock Halls - his son married there (I think he said) but he couldn't remember in which bit. Curious. Anyway they had been down for a Friday of culture. Apparently Anthony Gormley's permanent sculptures are quite amazing.

17:30 On the train to Edinburgh and it's bloming packed with enormous numbers of students it seems. Enormous numbers. And bags. In place of this morning's tiny children we have the 18-22 brigade and a lot of standing people. Rarely have I neen so happy about my reservation and my canny prepurchasing of nibbles at the station

17:36 The slightly dodgy looking chap next to me turns out to be charming and effete when I ask him to plug in my laptop. Virgin trains rule. All they need to do now is add free wifi and we're cooking with gas!

17:47 Preston station - a man in a boob tube and micro rara skirt and shredded fishnets is flashing his ass. Clearly a super tacky stag night of some sort. There are two of them. a lot of beer and a fair amount of regrettable photos being taken.

17:56 Just noticed the man in the standing only space next to me is about 75. I am not moving on principle - pensioners can and should book seats too. More alarmed that the non reserved folks two seats over (and indeed their not tiny but small children who are taking up a further pair of seats) haven't budged. Clearly a full train = a slightly evil inward only looking train. Hmm. Might change my mind about seats if he's still standing after the next stop. Slippery slope with the booked seats though... Why the hell are there so many folks with suitcases on this service anyway? I fear it may be a lot of students doing weekend trips home but I can't imagine doing that so it seems odd. That said the girls on the Liverpool Lime Street to Wigan North Western train who I was sat with were clearly very smart student nurses but just as clearly living at home and thinking their friends studying non vocational or debt accruing courses to be frankly a little insane. On a similar note a student I met in the audience today had come to Liverpool with 4 friends from school. I can't imagine picking university as a social adventure with a bunch of school friends. Seems like odd criteria but then I never was a typical wee student.

18:04 Lancaster - fuller train or emptier... place your bets please...

18:05 Pensionable man just about in my lap. Weird. He still seems to be without a seat but the train isn't filling too badly so who knows. He's off down the carriage - good luck mr pensioner! Does no-one book seats these days?

18:09 Wow. The studenty types just moved for a middle aged woman bearing shopping where they failed to move for Mr Frail. Eeevil. Probably it's more a fortuitous timing issue but still. Incidentally one of he scummy youth is working a a great wooden tooth through the ear and feathery super short blond haircut. It's a good look. Actually a theme of Liverpool - it all looked like a modelling test for Hair magazine. Peculiar. Explains why the hairdresser training mobile app was developed in St Helens maybe...

18:22 Has disgorged many of the passengers including a traumatised looking Mr Frail. The train is getting quieter (still rather full) but it's now freezing and there are a fair few kids running wild. Bring on the peppermint tray bake.

18:23 BTW Virgin would like you to know that it has teamed up with Orange for better mobile coverage. Why. No. Wifi.???

18:26 Would like a way to automatically tag documents in a wordle type way. maybe there is... must look when I next get on wifi

18:30 Make a bold attempt to catch the News Quiz using the on board radio. It's not working. At all. Any channels. Nothing. Helpfully though someoe has coloured in the control panel and drawn a pretty star over the C button which should flip through channels but instead navigate white noise. At least iTunes is pleasant. And there is a frisson from the screaming standing studensts who find the tilty train an entertainment in themselves.

18:35 Found a Radio4 fill in. In Our Time podcast is doing the trick - Marcus du Soutoy is explaining mathematical axioms and suddenly I feel all safe. Though a bit sickly. That mint stuff should be a controlled substance.

18:45 A man with a welsh accent is talking about going to work with a readibrek glow. Odd. I think I"m glad he's getting off right about... now. We are now at Penrith. Next up is Carlisle (very soon) and then peace until Edinburgh. This seems to be a faster route at night. But then I am half asleep and not reading policy documents right now.

18:57 The "charming" child in seat oppositte is leaping and making noise and waving a purple plastic spider around. The wman with the weird asymmetrical hair do is poking out a killer heeled ankle boot, a blonde student in front is flicking through New Scientist and I've rarely felt so tired, sickly (too much sugar) or claustrophic. 1 hour to go though and the train is really starting to clear at last. After Carlisle (just getting in to the station) they'll be no more stops till Haymarket in an hour. Carlisle looks vast and very vastly empty except on our platform.

19:22 Rang Heather and feel better and more wakeful already. Still cold though. And finding the 40 somethings making out whilst hyper on the same crisps soda and candy that their kids are consuming. It's super creepy AND their kids are being better behaved than them rather bizarrely. BTW these little creepy lust buckets are not the world's most attractive folks. I think that makes it extra creepy as unfair as that is. But if the guy must stroke his wife perpetually in my peripheral vision I'm going to get annoyed. Go small child with plastic spider! (btw this little 8 year old seems to have had a double seat the whole way through the Mr Frail episode).

19:30 Subverting the preteen and teen noise on the train by listening to Suspie Bright's podcast about Sex Addition. It's safer than any listening that might lead to stressful shouting out into the carriage. What a horribly disruptive contrast to the 6.30am train.

19:45 Wow. 2 hours into the journey kid 2 appears. that seat isn't empty. who knew. Meanwhile I am freezing. Am I just tired or are Virgin trying to sell coffees?!

19:52 Now too tired to edit todays notes and too tired to read. So listening and half asleepness for the last half hour or so. If the kid screaming dims.

20:14 That was so novel! I think someone just lit a match against the window (from outside). Shiny. Anyway pack up for me as we're about to hit waverly. I'll cut short the hugely upbeat Susie Bright Poly podcast.

22:27 Home watching QI with my wife after a lovely cauliflower curry and raspberry jelly and... adding people to the EDINA Facebook group... ah... the tasteful blue boxes are stalking me today!

22:33 Finally I get on the internet. Oh the irony of a cutting age technology day with no net. My not Tweets are posted... Bed for me!

Podcast!!

2008-10-11T01:39:00.004Z

Yes! I am now a podcast!!!

Well I am now making a podcast and am actually on episode 3 now but wanted to get a few under my belt before showing off super loudly about it!

Search for me on iTunes (the show is suchprettyeyes on film) or click on the links below, or take a look at my PodBean site to stream the latest episodes.

Now I would be lying if I said I had quite tweaked the format to perfection yet but I'm working on it and simultaneously looking out for good pod hosting facilities as podbean only remains free for about 10 episodes in total sadly...

Anyway have a listen (subscribe dammit!) and let me know what you think and where I should make any changes - all feedback enormously gratefully received!

puppy sitting...

2008-10-11T01:37:00.002Z

puppy sitting...
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

We've been having ludicrous fun lately puppy sitting Aisha, Niko & Jenny's new adorable Jack Russell puppy. Heather and I are in the honorable position of being "dog parents", effectively god parents to the wee pup, so we've been taking Aisha for nice walks and the adventure that is running round our flat like a maniac or getting to know the neighbours in the drying yard...

Also we're discovered that all the super hot people talk to you if you're walking an incredibly cute puppy... it's a useful thing to know and we can definitely recommend walkies for singletons!

This way please sir...

2008-09-17T07:53:00.001Z

IMG_2545
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Yesterday I was touring interview candidates around and it really took up the whole day give or take a few odd breaks... it's a very weird and very interesting life experience seeing how different people present themselves and behave in that situation. It's certainly made me more aware of my own way of presenting myself to new people for a while...

Anyway it's tiring stuff hearing your own voice do the same spiel time and time again so today I plan to spend very little of my day talking and very much of my day quietly working away. For once that will be absolute bliss!

I am pygmy hippo: hear me roar!

2008-09-17T07:45:00.001Z

I am pygmy hippo: hear me roar!
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Monday was a random Edinburgh holiday so Heather and I were both off work and able to hang out with her old friends who were in town for two days only. And their choice of thing to do? The Edinburgh Zoo.

It may not have been the most obvious tourist attraction and the entry fee seems fairly steep at around 11 quid but all six of us were completely entertained from when we arrived at lunchtime (in lots of time for the 2.15pm Penguin Parade) through to closing time. We all got a free souvenir too as one of the visitors had picked up a leaflet with a free penguin offer earlier in the weekend so even Heather and I now have a little 3inch high penguin now.

I don't think we'd actually been to the zoo since we first dated and Heather and I both really enjoyed the day but also felt a bit weird about some of the animals. The big cats, the polar bear and the rhinos all look a bit cramped and not that excited to be in the zoo and, if we're honest, we'd happily go to look at the penguins (who have a nice and reasonably fair sized space with weather much like their home in the Falklands), the various birds (plentiful space), the grazing animals (various cool looking deer-ish variants, mostly from Africa) and the smaller creatures. But we know that a lot of people set a lot of stock by the huge animals on show. It's a shame as I really don't think lions or rhinos want to spend their days in the UK being screamed at by small children. But maybe 95% of the animals look ok with their set up and 100% of them look healthy and well cared for so we're pretty sure the keepers would be broadly with us on the ideal living conditions front.

Which reminds me...

The zoo is full of animals and, on any average visit, tons of small children which makes two elements of any visit super mystifying:

1) The zoo is not a non smoking zone. It had never occured to me that they would let anyone chug away on cigarettes past wildlife as it never occured to me that anyone would want to. It was only when the crowd was gathering for the Penguin Parade that I got to see just how many of the crowd were puffing away. And that included those with very small children. It was pretty disgusting and I was annoyed that all the tannoy announcements about safety and behaviour (for humans) didn't include an "and if you insist of giving yourself and your loved ones cancer and respiratory diseases please do not do this in the Penguin Parade area". I think I may write the zoo a letter. The sight of a huge overflowing ashtray near the koala enclosure (which is indoors and therefore a smoke free zone) was really too too depressing.

2) All the animals live on fruits, vegetables and lean meats (depending on the critter involved) but if you're a human coming to visit the food is genuinely shocking. Fried food, trash, candy, crisps and little else are for sale all over the site and we were unable to find anything else. There aren't even little snack bags of carrots or grapes or similar - and even McDonalds sell those! The contrast with the animals really could not have been starker and we were in a fair state of shock since there is a strand of zoo marketing that aims itself firmly at middle class folks who they invite to lavish functions in the mansion house. On a normal visit though visitors are greeted by sweaty school dinner lady types serving crap in brightly painted echoey chambers of greasy doom. Or you could get the healthy choice: an ice cream. Why they don't have better food and drink I don't know since it's the perfect place to sell healthy stuff already with a little "eat like a chimp" type angle. The new Bonobo house actually has a smoothie bar (though closed when we went through) so that must be progresss but how they can justify all the junk food booths and dodgy cafes I do not know. Clearly another item for my "what are you thinking?!" letter to them...

jelly belly!

2008-09-15T09:54:00.001Z

jelly belly!
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Overzealous buying in the US landed us with 2kilos of Jelly Belly beans (Heathers parents live in a town tantalizingly close to the factory though I've not been taken there yet... ).

We put out the Jelly Bellies at our 4th July party but a lot of them were left over and it's only recently I've reminded myself to start slowly nibbling through the tasty backlog. Unfortunately it's a bit of a Russian Roulette situation as there are least 3 variants of cinnamon (which I don't like) all of which bear an uncanny resemblance to the very tasty chocolate flavour beans...

Can I cope with this much excitement?!

this classy breed...

2008-09-15T09:48:00.001Z

this classy breed...
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Sometimes I really love the walk home from work.. I pass three sets of newspaper boards and it's rare that I don't see at least one that makes me titter. It is rare that I see such a well matched trio as this little set though!

Weird presents...

2008-08-20T12:56:00.001Z

Weird presents...
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

OK so the lighting is shoddy and I really need to sort how I photograph my random scribbles but...

After we had a few comments from our house guest (my sister) Heather and I were alerted to just how many odd nic-nacs we have round the house. Many are from my mother's yearly foray into insanity for our Christmas stockings which are both a perpetual horror and an endless delight. In a way she is a gift innovator. In a way...

However, especially with a Birthday coming, I thought I'd chart some of the odder presents I've received in the last few years. I do have a correction though... that vibrating miffy is actually a vibrating Studio Ghibli critter. The Miffy does have a loop on her back for hanging up though and sits with the critter. I think both quality as odd...

I do like most of the gifties btw but it's just baffling to work out why or how they were picked for me. I *do* like shoes so in theory the shoe pressies make sense... in practice though a study pair of man size birkinstocks would be far more useful than a ceramic hollow yellow shoe. The former would also probably have a better designed contour than the latter. Worryingly....

The big question is less "why was I given this" than "who the hell makes this and why"?! That particularly applies to the ceramic shoe tealight holder. For all those times when you've really wanted to think about your shoes on fire. er...

Cake Buffet

2008-08-18T22:11:00.001Z

IMG_1884
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

This is my little interpretive piccie of the amazing cake array at Mimi and Tom's wedding this weekend in Konstanz, Germany. Not only were there immensely impressive puddings but also a really lovely blessing ceremony, some excellent speeches (I only wish I spoke German as the one getting all the belly laughs was pretty much impossible for me and Heather to fathom), a german ceilidh band and lots of catching up with Sarah & Dan and Janna.

On the way back I had my most surreal airport experience in Zurich airport. A giant shiny shopping centre with mammoth advertising hoardings and, er, the occasional plane, also has a little underground train connecting the gates. And it's an advert for Switzerland replete with barely audible tweetings and mountain wind noises that build as you flash past a psychadelic 20 screen alp-based experimental visual bombardment before hearing the squiffy cowbells and yodelling that only partly prepare you for a loud moo as you pull into your gate... Bonkers....

Fringe Phobic

2008-08-03T22:37:00.005Z

Today I finally saw Anna's play "The Exquisite Corpse" and was really pleased that I really liked it and it prompted lots of discussion about what all of the four of us who saw it thought was going on - the concept is that 15 scenes, not necessarily at all related, are shown in a randomly selected order which changes their meaning, tone and connectivity. Not that I was expecting any less of course - the show's already received a 4 star review from Three Weeks and I think it's likely to do at least that well with other reviewers over the coming days.

Unfortunately, as happens every fringe at least once the combination of theatre and unusual levels of cabin fever (houseguests!) came to a (relatively benign) head in the sort of conversation that leaves me irate that anyone who does not live in Edinburgh thinks that a visit every August equates to a knowledge of what the city is like the rest of the year. I get into this vortex of frustration at least once a year whether with my houseguests or strangers around town who consider a regular visit to the festival to equal residencey.

I do reserve a special anger for the small subset of people who insist on over dramatic greetings in the streets as if the whole city is a little London-on-holiday theme park. If the red bellied fry up eaters on the Costa del Sol are a working class embaressment to Britain I would suggest that the Londoners air kissing and slumming it with baffling superiority in Edinburgh in August should be seen to exhibit just the same sort of tunnel visioned shame for anyone living in the South of London.

Obviously this frenzied sense that everyone owns a piece of my adopted home is one of the more predictable side effects of living in this city with a World famous festival. It can obviously be fabulous but there are lots of negative side effects ranging from virtually unusable buses (depending on the route), raided shelves at Tescos (leading to scenes resembling the bread lines in the old Soviet bloc), dubious tap water (several times in recent years the drinking water has been declared "safe" but closely resembled a sample from a grotty pond) to a perpetual and extreme sense of extreme claustrophobia (even outdoors - the meadows looks like a particularly unruly mass barbeque when the sun comes out). And that's before you even touch the weird appearence of poor quality but expensive food and drinks venues, the booking out of all your favourite (and usually drop in friendly) restaurants, 20 minute queues for bathrooms... And the excreble (and humourless) street artists.

I'm not saying I can't deal with my home's freaky flipside but every year it takes me most of the month to get used to it. At the same time I get, somewhat inconsistently, enraged that each year the festival seems to get less and less national coverage - which seems odd since there is no qualm about covering local music and arts events elsewhere especially when they are in or near London. Scotland rarely gets arts coverage at any time of year so it seems especially sad that the reporting seemingly peeked with the Perrier and stand up glory days of the mid nineties. At least online coverage is now starting to gain in respectibility - a pleasant change since my earliest EdinburghGuide days when internet journalists were only just starting to make a mark on the press offices. Although something about the festival must be appearing on BBC2 on Tuesday night's Culture Show as they were filming (and substantially delaying) last night's patchy but mostly funny and charming Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre show.

The problem really is just that I picked such a lovely and (normally) equisitely middle class and interesting but discreet place to call home. I'm very happy here all damn year so I think it's understandable that I get rather overprotective and hacked off by the fair weather friends that flock for the month of August and a few days at Hogmany. At least I get a super birthday pressie come September 1st... They all fuck off home and leave us to our happy all year round menu of culture, classiness, usable wifi and just the few handfuls of japanese tourists and hen nighters to deal with...

Why haven't I been blogging?

2008-07-28T07:39:00.005Z

Lately I keep logging into Blogger, half starting a post and giving up again. Not because I'm having technical troubles (strangely that always seems to drive me on - see the length of my MSc blog for evidence of that). It's not because I've also been doing work blogging on this account (for SUNCAT and UKSG) although that comes into it. I think mostly it's because I've become very blurry about all the lines marking out different areas of my life which means I have no idea what I should be blogging about.

Going back a good 5 years I was blogging about personal stuff with random little brain outpourings that very few people actually read and most of those were people I knew. The first blog I wrote wasn't even on a blogging service but was a sqonky little home HTMLed little pink webpage. And now? Now I'm on Blogger and if that's not the definition of search optimised for blogging I don't know what is. Not only that but when I update my blog it gets about a bit - it publishes to its own feeds, it's feeds into my webpage (also linked to Twitter, Flickr etc) it feeds into my Facebook profile, and by extension people read that I've made updates in their Facebook feeds, their feedreaders and some of them get an email. So I have readers. Not a massive fanbase of course but lots of people I know will know when I make an update and that's some social pressure.

Indeed I'd go further, it's not just that people I know well get updated about these posts since Facebook is super insidious (though generally wonderful) and so those people include all of my close family, most of my school friends, most of my uni friends, most of my work colleagues (past and present), lots of friends from belly dancing, family friends, people from my MSc course and the like. It's a big scattergun mix from young students and recent students through to older and senior post holders all round the place. And that makes me seriously wonder about posting anything super personal or super polictical or... well basically anything that I wouldn't shout in a crowded room of friends or employers. And that's a tad limiting psychologically.

It's a real conundrum and I'm still brewing on it in the same way I'm still getting used to having all my bookmarks on del.icio.us - do I really want friends and colleagues to know which bloggers I'm reading? Do they want to know? It may not be a problem when it's a library or tech thing I'm bookmarking but what about sex bloggers? Job ads? Political groups? On the one hand I've always felt very happy being open about everything but there is a big leap between taking the time to Google me vs having my every move thrust in your face when you log into Facebook or your email. And the option to disentangle everything would be to laugh in the face of Web 2.0 functionality... so...

What to do? And what to blog?

Social Networking! It's the future

2008-03-07T12:41:00.002Z

Thanks to Susan Mernit's excellent blog I found a good mini presentation on social networking, marketing and the future by Charlene Li. Enjoy! (ah, the magic of Slideshare)

| View | Upload your own

Fitness, Fury and Faghaggery

2008-02-20T18:42:00.002Z

Fitter
So firstly I am feeling, despite drinking lemsip as I type, a whole heap better today after a day off work sleeping, sleeping, sleeping and calming myself with Diagnosis Murder and Shaun the Sheep... Therapeutic stuff indeed. Also today's episode of Torchwood thanks to the magic of iPlayer as my missus (who came home at lunchtime today to make tonight's dinner and put it in the fridge like a true star) is out tonight at a meeting. It was a good Torchwood though I feel I'm missing out now that I've head about their alternative reality game The Torchwood Mission that goes with it curtosy of the Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast. Darn. BTW I'm all about the Ianto & Jack lovin. Sorta liking Martha Jones from Doctor Who (is it turning into a kids only show these days btw?) turning up. And worried greatly for Owen. Although he has weird skin. But I digress.

So, health mostly recovered, I am finally feeling up to homework which is how I shall spend the rest of this evening and tomorrow evening as I badly need to catch up and since this fortnight's topic is web2.0 and hypertext I'm all geared up and interested now that my head doesn't feel like a high pressure hot air balloon!

Fury!
Can you believe the new xenophobic immigration proposals today? Heather and I are irate not only because we have a little invested in the whole immigration law thing but also because we're not foaming crazed xenophobes. And we know just how much net contribution most immigrants make into the tax system. Indeed far from the tabloid view that all immigrants are benefits malingerers almost all legal immigrants are not actually allowed "recourse to public funds" until they are citizens after at least 5 years of residency here. And that's assuming they want to become citizens otherwise they get less recourse despite continuing to pay into the public purse. Perhaps all native dwellers who only take and do not contribute to the tax and national insurance systems should also have to make special payments as a malingerers tax to match the immigrant's tax. Or maybe we are a civilised country with a welfare state that should not be thinking that way.

Anyway the whole thing leaves me wondering:

a) What the fuck constitutes Britishness? I'm sure I don't know. And I suspect I wouldn't qualify if you tested me.

b) If Labour just turned slightly right wing of the BNP.

c) Just how many bloody bankers the government think they want in the country: with medical staff from outside the EU now barred, income and testing barriers to immigrants; £700+ fees for applications for leave to remain and the most prohibitive work permit applications possible they pretty much restrict non EU incomers to being millionaires in form-evading industries (who will likely keep their money elsewhere - like the "non-doms" the government is leaving in charge of Northern Rock) or illegal immigrants. "Normal" folks need not apply. Unless they wish to mortgage their soul and trade in their personality for a "British" cliche, Terrifying.

Faghaggary
On a much much lighter note. Today's Savage Love Podcast ended on a pleading note with Dan Savage, following a particularly sad caller ringing about the trauma of being a faghag who's fag was no longer interested, begging fags everywhere to be nice to their faghags when they've outgrown them. I felt quite the pang of sympathy as, whilst never invested in one of those straight girl/gay guy faghag situations (which is a bit different as there's always that weird possibility that maybe, just maybe, there'll be a full long term relationship not that very loving, very intense, very non-sexual thing to take a relationship's place) but being a bi/gay gal faghag is not wholly different so I can speak from experience that the break up of said almost relationship is quite traumatic. Thankfully my fag has stayed my pal but for a while there things were weird. And hey, we still hold quite the tie to each other. Anyway if you need a serious dose of education on faghags see The Object of My Affection. Far far far better than the borderline homophobic and generally excreble "comedy" Will & Grace where, regardless of how they sold the show, the will they/won't they plot was core to the entire horrible thing. Although Karen and Jack were far more a faghaggy pair they were just a bit too open to anything to properly get the vibe across. Wow. I'd forgotten how pleased I was when that show got cancelled. Phew...

Anyway I should go away and do my homework thang. And my Oscar ballot thang. Oh and to be impressed at the amazing age that Edna Everedge's eternal bridesmaid Madge reached - she just died aged 100 which is not bad at all especially as she only retired aged 98!

Oh and finally... I was listening to Radio 4's new Museum of Curiosity but I can't say I'm totally taken with it. Bill Bailey doesn't seem to be used to his best though Brian Blessed was entertaining and did a fabulous Tarzan call. Sean Lock's revolutionary scarf knot also gave me pause for thought. Problem is it seems to be Genius. Minus the geniuses... hmm...

Back from London, loving iPlayer, struggling to think...

2008-02-16T23:30:00.001Z

St Pauls from the wobbly bridge
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Last weekend was an awesome assault on London culture with visits to the V&A, Tate Modern, The British Museum - including the terracotta warriors, War Horse at the National Theatre (including a genuinely thrilling backstage tour and use of the brilliant £5 standing tickets) and less cultural meals at Abano Okanami-Yaki, Taz, Breads etc., meetings with Anna, Scott and Mimi, and shopping at Sh! and Borough market. It was fab.

But at the start of the weekend I had a bit of a cold and by monday (after a thursday on a sleeper, early mornings and busy days friday, saturday and sunday) I was fully coldified but not ill enough to not be at work. Subsequently this week has included much less MSc homework than it should have, some really weird eating (chocolate features highly for convenience and comfort), and lots of viewing of weird stuff on BBC iPlayer. I would recommend, for instance, Saville Row (about tailors on the eponimous street) and a nameless BBC Wales documentary series which last week covered Mike Young (of SuperTed fame, he's a bit unconvincing and creepy but I have the dubious honour of having been his neighbour and having swum in his bubble-covered pool when little) and this week covered a couple setting up a Christian sex shop. They meant well but having recently been in Sh! it was immediately obvious where they were making all their mistakes... Oh and I want to know why anal sex is un Christian but cock rings are fine, why porn is bad but kinky underwear is ok, and why S&M is no go but implausibly aweful "sexy" boardgames are groovy. Surely if there is a god/s s/he/they have a high kink factor or a really weird sense of humour...

I did go to a great BBC Mobile thing at work this week which gave me hope that the downsides of the lovely new iPlayer - slow streams for some shows, bad suggestions, horrible navigation - will get there eventually. Exciting stuff. I'd love to work to the BBC - if their geek arms ever relocated north I'll be applying endlessly!

Anyway I have overdosed on sugar and melancholy today so I need to go back to homework to try and achieve something useful this week...

DSC00420.JPG

2008-01-14T08:36:00.001Z

Insomnia

2007-12-04T23:12:00.000Z

This morning on the way into work I found myself listening to an excellent wee essay from this week's Book of the Week on Radio4, At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist By Anne Fadiman. Today Fadiman was talking about the fact that your likeliness to be a lark or an owl are actually hard coded into your DNA rather than just being habits. Her description of being a well adjusted owl was a reassuring burst given that I was listening as I lugged my immense mocha to work in a semi-comotosed state having the previous night been positively buzzing with energy come bed time.

And today here I am at 1am still fairly wide awake and with a wee pile of things to do before bed. Sometimes you just need to give in to night owl temptations I think. Although I don't have to give in to watching the OC which is currently polluting my audio landscape and is about to be unceremoniously switched off.

A whole lot better entertainment can be found with Dan Savage at the Stranger.com. John recommended his podcasts when he was staying recently and they are a catty explicit treat. Today I started subscribing at work and though the content is a little work inappropriatte, it's actually therapeutically wakeful and spikey in a day otherwise dominated by munging data and counting sets of 3 consecutive digits. Not that work is bad at all at the moment but in the pre-Xmas lack of goals and leave taking bonanza things are less than fabulously exciting. Especially with the charming December weather and light levels in Edinburgh at the moment which have me about fit to hibernate.

Thank goodness then for sleaze, sequins and stripping in the form of Burlescapades, a classy slice of kink that will be livening up Heather, Sarah and my Friday night. Having raided my substantial collection of ludicrous gowns (years of murder mystery parties have left me with a formidable dress up/formal collection) I eventually found my chosen combo: a chartreuse green showgirl skirt from an outfit I made for Vegas in about 2002/3, the corset I made for my wedding, the pearly necklace (to be draped on the corset) I made for a murder mystery where everyone was a colour (I was Lady Pearl White), several fabulously OTT plastic and glass rings, the chandelier earrings I bought in jenners some time back before they were evil (if not evil then certainly bland), my dress pins (yes that would be a matched pair of bling a ding ding retro brooches brought in two completely different places but fortuitously perfectly matched) and some necklace or other to be decided from the general beaded collection. All that remains to find/make are two kick ass fabric rosette type flowers to meld corset with skirt. And an outfit for Heather who is significantly less interested in such dressing up silliness. Which I mostly don't mind as I get to show off more but it's a shame as Burlescapades looks like a glam affair. Ho hum.

Which reminds me... Many many moons ago I used to write a column called "Dyke Without Dungarees Ranting" (see links at the end of this rant - I tried to find the inappropriate picture but now I get a lot of political pics as Google thinks I mean some unholy combo of Nicola Sturgeon and George Osborne :::::shudder::::) and a friend at the university's then excellent gay group BLOG's (now more a guys dating network than the serious minded lesbian-led political group it was circa 1999) told me I needed to write about the nightmare that was PMT in a long term relationship. At the time I was single, nieve, and less than enlightened about the sheer predictability of much of life's crankiness. I now believe said lady so expect the theme to raise its ugly head if/when I get around to updating this blog at a suitable time.

Now is not the time though: I have loads of transatlantic pressies I swore would be wrapped before bed, work tomorrow and a world of panicking over how few christmas shopping days there are left to take precedent...

For now I will leave you with links to my former column:
I can't find a feminine lesbian for love nor money!
Rant of the Month: Nicola Osborne on the gay press

And an excellent film that all this Googling reminded me to rerecommend (review hosted by the lovely Amber and co at eyeforfilm:
Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic

The day I took the train...

2007-10-15T16:28:00.000Z

A little Ocean Colour Scene reference for you there. Today I am stuck on a currently static (I lie, it's just started to crawl along) train down to London for the excitement that is the Aleph User Group meeting at the British Library.

Apparently the problem was:

Traction motors in the Drem area...

Anyway, much fun with trains and delays, trying to type minutes and occasional bursts of badly streamed Radio 4 including the shock news that Oh My God, Ming has resigned! I think it's probably overall a good think but it seems a shame that he's basically been nudged out for being too old. But maybe someone will notice that the Lib Dems are actually coming up with the few original policies in the weird Thatcher political soup out there. We'll see...

That's about all for now, odd little post as it is, as I'm watching the end of Nurse Betty and feeling only slightly guilty for not finishing my minutes for work yet.

Showered with frustration

2007-10-10T07:29:00.000Z

It's turning into an odd autumn...

Since a rather horrified neighbour called at our door early last week we have been without the use of our shower which had been leaking into their newly redecorated bathroom. Until our tiler gets in contact and/or a new tiler is found and whichever of them gets on with making us water tight we are stuck having bathes or very odd showers whilst sat in the bath (too impossible for me to deal with but Heather's an expert). It's surprisingly frustrating even though the bathes themselves are strangely calming (mind you tomorrow I have a meeting so calming is less what I want, fast and wakeful would be better) and just a tad decadent (bubble bath being essential).

All the bathing fun is just a wee drop in the ocean of some rather seasonal depression though: we are down to much lower levels of light and shorter days already; we are starting on the boring road to an entirely root veg filled weekly veg box; work is getting duller and duller as we await some excitement like the changeover to the next funding period while at the same time also having lots of meetings at which we have less to report than would make them exciting; I have a newsletter to write and a website to update but getting round to it is proving hard and even my happy distraction of dress making is tough as I'm losing patience already and haven't even finished H's dress let alone started mine. I've just lost my energy lately and having lunch in doors away from the rain, having only my 18 minutes of walking to and from work as my exercise for the day is all taking its toll. And just as I'm slowing into flabby winter hibernation the world seems to be holding parties and social stuff for the first time in months...

So now I'm hoping I can get my rather unmotivated and unusually flabby arse in gear sufficiently to get into swimming and maybe belly dancing again so that I have a bit of energy injected into my day. Fixing my lunch hour so it's not so cabin feverish would be good but I'm not sure how. That said when my MSc starts in January that will help keep me over busy. I'm also trying to wean myself off my daily Metropole Mochas. That is going to be hard but it's a special request from my Missus as it becomes an expensive habit over the course of a month and is hardly useful so I'm gonna try my best. And I'm trying to arrange some social stuff as any deadline/goal helps me sort stuff out in a way I never manage without some sort of cut off point (that's the main problem with work at the mo actually - endless unchanging frustration with no point at which to be able to feel something is completed or achieved).

However any ideas for perking me up at the moment would be much appreciated. Currently emails from nice work and non work folks are keeping me just about chipper at work but something needs to change as badly as I normally cope with winter this year could be really horrible if I can't wake up my routine and shake it up a bit... I'm trying though.....

In the meantime it's off to the daily challenge of bathing and hair washing without splashes, leaks or soap bubbles escaping the tub... much fun... !

Appropriatte Behaviour...

2007-10-03T17:04:00.000Z

I've been wondering lately about what it is and isn't appropriate to chat to people about. You know, whether or not to tell your work colleagues about your partner's job situation or your horrible encounter with scabies; whether to complain about how bad your day is to the Big Issue Man (my normal seller, John, is studying to be a veterinary nurse in Glasgow so I think he won't be selling in Edinburgh much anymore which will at least appease my guilt for suggesting his day of selling might be less stressful than my day in my cosy office upstairs converting libraries. I think I'm right but I'm also well aware of how flexible and lucrative my job is and how much more preferable. However John always seems upbeat and a veritable guru of life advice - apparently I should brighten up my desk for maximum effect); whether you try and engage in stilted conversations with the barista you buy your daily hazelnut mocha from, how to tip fairly amongst the variable quality baristas and, worse of all, how to deal with an exchange like this:

Barista: The usual?
Me: Yes please.

then several minutes later as I make moves to pay, I get told the charge...

Barista: Er, the usual...

Now this would be fine in Starbucks or Costa or anywhere with a set in stone pricelist but this exchange took place in Metropole, my very favourite coffee shop in Edinburgh, which is eccentric to the point of bafflement. In the last 7 days I have been charged: £2, £2.50, £1.60 and £1.87 (reduced by a number of completely inexplicable moves from about £2.80). However the nice Barista (I don't know their names but this was Nice Man With Kids Who Gave Me a 10% Discount Card, there is also: Camp Teddy Boy, Cool Inks Guy, Ginger Man, Eczema Guy, Trying Not To Be Ya Girl etc...) was trying to give me massively discounted coffee (in my gorgeous big UC Davis plastic mug stolen from Heather) when a big queue of non-regulars was waiting. But I ask you... what should I have paid??! I went for what he charged me last time and that seems to have stuck now but Heather was with me and the blank looks exchanged were quite something to behold.

The world is a minefield!

Anyway I am off to Alexandras birthday but before I go two links both sourced from that national treasure that is Stephen Fry. If you saw part one of his "HIV & Me" documentary you won't need my recommendation for part 2 next Tuesday at 9. If you missed part 1 I suggest you seek it and part 2 out as it looks to be an excellent balanced show (except the omission of the ladies who like ladies but since we are a stupendously low risk group I do understand that). Anyway, to the links:

Stephen Fry's latest excellent blog entry, this time on Fame

Oh it's the aesthetically hideous but content rich Richard Dawkins site, he's certainly controversial and I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't like him a lot more if he didn't work as such good PR for organised religion since his attacks are often rather below the belt, surreal or simply displaying as much closed mindedness as his subjects. However I'm fascinated by genetics and I really can't get into any supporting any religion whatsoever no matter how positive or negative it's cultural impact so for my money it's worth having a wee look at Prof. Dawkins thoughts...

And finally a link to the Radio 4 show, 4 at Forty, which saw me through the last of my stressful conversions of Cambridge Library records. It's taken ages but I think I've cracked it hence my chirpiness! On the slight chance that it's still there when you read this I also highly recommend this episode of Lives in a Landscape about showgirls - fascinating, respectful and so strange to listen to on Radio 4 but so entirely the only place on radio or tv that they could do it properly!

fluffy ol' egg head

2007-10-01T17:39:00.001Z

fluffy ol' egg head
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Wohoo! I'm feeling all creative ahead of the Big Knit and wondering if I can also find space for more beading and the marvels of such places as Beadworks.

In less good creative news I'm struggling with Flickr netiquette. Someone has posted LOADS of comments (mostly sarcastic but nothing offensive - more the sort of comments that amuse 8 year olds) and I'm now not sure whether to:

(a) politely email the chap and ask him nicely not to comment
(b) delete some of his comments
(c) delete all of his comments
(d) start making more of my pics private
(e) all of the above
(f) something else entirely...

Oh the modern virtual minefield of Web 2.0!

Mind you I'm getting off lucky if this young Flickr star's torment is anything to go by.

Jack Straw has some odd ideas about law and order...

2007-09-28T17:11:00.001Z

DSC00241
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

On the news yesterday there was a bizarre story from the labour party conference:
"Self Defence" Laws to be reviewed

Ostensibly Jack Straw is encouraging people to take the law into their own hands - after recent stabbings and shootings though this seems like a ludicrous idea. One wonders if he only came up with it to show off about his own Have A Go Hero exploits. Anyway vigilantism with government approval as a concept surely puts Jack Straw somewhere right of Thatcher. Although he still looks like a leftie compared to Blunkett.

I fear common sense has taken a permanent holiday in a world of terrorist paranoia and wrapping children in cotton wool. Indeed this week I was intrigued and horrified (for lots of reasons) by Radio 4's show Bullying.com which both told me of untold nastiness of children but also the bizarre level of protection, aged naivety and weird attitude of some parents. However it was the total unthinking trust, peer pressure and dependence of what should have been fairly mature teenagers which was really shocking -both the victims and the bullies. One wonders if the age of maturity in the UK isn't now edging towards 50 rather than 18. Odd.

Anyway. The whole weird thing is at least an excuse to show this bizarre newspaper hoarding from the Glasgow Airport bomb scare. At the time I thought it was insanely unhelpful, an opinion that only grows stronger with time.

Interesting little view of Facebook

2007-09-26T17:10:00.000Z

As a full on FB addict I was interested to read today's blog entry from the always interesting Susan Mernit's Blog

Ruff Bus 3

2007-09-18T12:43:00.001Z

Ruff Bus 3
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

I spent some of my bank holiday yesterday (a weird edinburgh/uni holiday, no idea why) uploading some very old pics to flickr. This is an ongoing effort to try and get myself organised, the pics archived and tagged and also shared with folks.

So I started yesterday by adding pictures taken with both my various mobile phone (the quality evolves noticabley) and the pocket digital camera that lasted about 2 weeks until a bright day of sunshine busted in sensors into oblitoration. And I found some weird gems in the collection because I take mobile pics as the mood takes me and really quickly so it's often for stuff that I wouldn't otherwise snap...

Such as Ruff Bus 3... !

Bank of Scotland Festival Fireworks 2007

2007-09-05T22:17:00.001Z

IMG_8286
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Oh my goodness! Tickets to the park means I got to take possibly the coolest shot I'll get this year!! (If I'd actually remembered the mount for my tripod who knows what other gems I might have taken?!)

More fabulous fringe, rainy days and the end of a musical era...

2007-08-11T15:50:00.000Z

Last night we saw a very different pair of shows albeit only 1 degree of Sue Perkins apart:

Rhona Cameron (8pm Dining Room, Gilded Balloon Teviot)

This was the show we were booked into the 2for1 version off last weekend and were rescheduled due to overbooking. Rhona hasn't done a live stand up run for the whole festival in absolutely years and, as far as I recall, it's been a good 6 years since she was here at all (for a one week run) but she has been gigging and also writing novels. Nevertheless the overwhelming feeling here is one of rustiness and extreme nervousness which seems to mostly manifest itself as aggression towards the audience. Often I've seen a hostile audience be turned into a warm receptive one but it's rare that I've seen such a positive supportive crowd become quite uneasy by, in the main, a strong batch of material. The delivery was just so aggressive and London-centric that it was a bit off putting but its nothing a few less nervous and good adaptive editor couldn't fix. This long into her run though Rhona should have sorted this out already. At 2for1 I wasn't disappointed but I'm not sure the same could be said for the majority of the audience who'd paid their 12.50 for this odd hour.

Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision (9.45pm, Pleasance Grand, Pleasance)

In stark contrast Eurobeat was absolutely fan-fucking-tastic!!

An hour and a half, every member of the audience assigned a country, flags, clackers, live text voting and 10 phenomenal Eurovision parodies made this the most infectiously hilarious and enjoyable thing I've seen at the fringe in absolutely ages. A particular unexpected treat was the fact that Eurovision-obsessed Mel Giedroyc was playing co-host and there was a little recorded intro from His Greatness Sir Terence of Wogan. The campest numbers (Estonia's "Together Again" being my personal favourite), an unbelievably energetic cast w0rking their way through amazing parody Eurovis numbers with spectacular cheography and the genuine each-night-is-different twist of the audience picking the winner (ours pickes Ireland) made this an affectionate and loving mockery that hit all the right spots for me and the 5 folks Heather and I convinced to join us. It's so very very very good we're looking for a good excuse to go back again - this time in spangled with flags and proper insane levels of participation. Fabulous.

In other fringe review type news it seems I forgot to mention a show we saw last week:

A Conversation with Edith Head - Susan Claassen (6.15pm, Assembly@Hill Street Theatre)

This is a classic fringe theatre kinda production - one person monologue (well sort of a Q&A format but with feeder lines from a plant in the audience constituting most of the Q), great quality character acting and a show well honed from lots of runs in small but lovely theatres (like it's home for the festival in the Studio of Hill Street Theatre). However much of the charm of A Conversation with Edith Head comes from it's old fashioned style. Susan Claassen, on realising she was the utter spitting image of Edith Head with only a paur of glasses and the addition of the highly individual bangs (that's a fringe for those of you unconverted to that lovely American phrase) required. Thus a show was born and a truly staggering amount of research has been undertaken. Claassen doesn't so much act the part as channel the very spirit of Edith as she discusses her life behind the scenes as the costume designer to all the most golden decades of Hollywood's golden era. References to Head's sexuality and plaguerism are a little overplayed and those staged questions rather unneccassary but overall this is a joyous hour for any fan of those fabulous glamerous films from the 30's to the 60's which which Heads designs are most sonomous. Claassen is astonishingly good and, as long as your prepared to show your film geekdom and hang out with the predominently pensionable audience, this is well worth your early evening hour.

And finally... I awoke today (just before the excellent Hardeep Singh Kohli covered Fi Glovers presenting duties on Saturday Live) to the news that Factory Records founder and all round Manchester music scene supremo Anthony Wilson had died at the age of 57 of cancer.

Aside from admiring his prescient band-signing talents I have to also admit that Tony Wilson was a key figure in my late night tv watching as a telly obsessed adolescent (I can't recall it's name but Wikipedia suggest it might have been The Other Side of Midnight and later I certainly watched Remote Control with odder than odd clut character comic Frank Sidebottom on unlikely sidekick duties). Having never seen 24 Hour Party People I'm now feeling it is the appropriate thing to do but perhaps the documentary on Joy Division, Control, playing next week at EIFF 2007 will be a fitting piece of viewing in memorium.

More fringe, less hair please

2007-08-10T16:04:00.000Z

Well today is another showtastic day. And we say one yesterday but it was god-awful in the "lots of hats mould" (if that makes no sense I can highly recommend looking out for reruns of Bruce Morton's Comic to Comic interview with Chris Green (Tina C) for Radio Scotland). Not recommended. Anyway here's the fringe bit, everything else afterwards...

The Queef of Terrance - Olivia Poulet and Sarah Solemani (5.40pm, 10Dome, Pleasance Dome)
This was the god awful show. Two gals who've taken "renaissance literature and tv presenting" at their polytechnic combine both in this spoof pilot chat show. Only it's really not nearly as much fun as it thinks it is. All three actors are very employable and not at all bad but the writing is atrocious (and I suspect writers and actors are one and the same on this one) and the attempt to crowbar topical stories in is cack handed as it pulls all the humour out. Not that it would have to, it just does here in the realm of relying on comedy accents and hairdos rather than funny material. At £8.50 a ticket it's not cheap enough to forgive and since we saw it a week into it's run I'm more than a little horrified that they hadn't tightened up timing or rejigged the material a bit. NOT recommended. With bells on.

Next to see:
Rhona Cameron, Teviot Gilded Balloon, 8pm tonight
Eurobeat, Pleasance Grand, 9.45pm tonight
Failed States, Pleasance Dome, 3.20pm, Saturday? (we haven't booked but we'll probably head there)
Tony Blair the Musical, Teviot Gilded Balloon, ?? Sunday

And then the film festival really gets going...

In the mean time Heather wants a new haircut and seeing myself in the mirror just now I would say I need one quite severely...

Watch this space for more fringe, film and t'other updates...

July 4th (just a month late)

2007-08-08T19:38:00.001Z

IMG_7954.JPG
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

So this is a piccie from our silly July 4th Party with the very special Independence Day Red, White and Blue Jello (which joey is hacking into with the scary knife there!

Drumming!

2007-08-08T19:26:00.001Z

IMG_8099.JPG
Originally uploaded by eurovision_nicola

Thought I'd share this extremely cool picture of the Korean drummers playing over at Old College Quad this month... The spinniness of the picture barely gives their levels of energy credit! (I wish my day at the office at the moment was as fun as theirs looks).

A weekend at the fringe...

2007-08-06T12:38:00.000Z

Wow! A busy weekend of fringe shows with 2 for 1, preview and free tickets (ie cheap ones) being the primary reason for seeing 6 shows in 3 days:

Friday night was...
Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (5.45pm Udderbelly)
Super tongue in cheek little farcical porn-inspired musical. Highly recommended though maybe not all more genteel viewers will get all the dirty references...

Saturday was...
Kendras 30th birthday picnic on the meadows which was much fun. Followed by...

Binari: The Spirit of the Beat (artist: Dulsori, 7pm Old College Quad)
This freebie to uni staff (a special deal for the first few performances to get the numbers up a bit I think) featured lots of enormously enthusiastic drumming from the group Dulsori which was only slightly upstaged by the raver throwing some fabulous acid house shapes to the traditional Korean beat. I was very pleasantly suprised and Sarah and George, who had joined us for it, seemed to like it too.

Sunday was... insanely busy!!
From James Bond to Alexander - Jeremy Engler (12.10pm C Soco Urban Garden)
Offered film memories from a fairly youthful behind the scenes chap whose clearly more keen in front of the camera than playing with the technogeekery that generally earns him his living. It was a pretty good show though and with only 5 people sat in a rain-soaked tent whilst the rest of the venue was still under construction and a loud banjo show could be heard throughout it speaks wonders that we were all feeling warm and happy at the end of the hour...

Minor Spectacular - Plested and Brown (4.20pm Pleasance Dome (well one of the Potterrow Pleasance rooms)
Was a fantastic show which we only saw due to having decided to spend the afternoon using the free uni wireless in Potterrow whilst we waited out the next show - when we were flyered and offered a free ticket we hit very lucky indeed. Plested and Brown are two expert performers and an extraordinarily versitile set (which Anna would love) brought loads of characters to life in fabulous fringe style. Get your tickets now!

The same enthusiasm can't be reserved for:
Tony! The Blair Musical (6.45pm C+1, Chambers Street)
This dire public schoolboy effort suffered inordinately from having been over-promoted (mainly catching the fancy of the media due to the presence of Ian Duncan Smith's son). Although a barber shop quartet of former tory leaders was genius, the rest of the show was dire. Giving us a 10 year retrospective of Blair is perhaps a challenging mission for an hour even if written by adults but these guys can't have been much over 20 and clearly had minimal interest in politics as they had timelines in a dire mess, no idea of how to handle the fact that they were performing in Scotland (easy jokes were missed on that one frankly) and just did not have the brains for the task. They had seen all the Bremner and Alastair Little parodies and that was all as it was like kids playing grown ups rather than genuine satire of any form. The score was passable (except for some oddly Gilbert and Sullivan numbers which didn't seem to fit in) and the singing ok but the one female star was fully atrocious and the boy playing Tony by far the weaker of the male leads. The whole effect was so much worse for being in an excruciatingly warm and crowded venue full of people who seemed to be genuinely loving it. I can only assume they are friends/family of the cast or very stupid tories. I am a hell of a long way from a Blair fan but dammit if I didn't feel he was worth a much more intelligent going over than this!

Next we were supposed to be seeing Rhona Cameron but some sort of freakish ticketing issue meant they were 8 people too many so we gladly accepted the Gilded Balloon's offer to exchange our tickets for another night (who would turn down 2for1 for full prive tickets on a better night?!) AND free tickets to that night's:

Karen Dunbar show (8.30pm, Gilded Balloon Teviot Debating Hall)
We went in with no expectations (although I did diss thoroughly the idiot who tried to edge her way into our 400+ person queue thinking it was for Jerry Sadowitz since what little I knew of Dunbar marked her comedy pedigree as substantially more desirable than scatological Sadowitz) but were enormously pleasantly suprised. Next year we'll probably even pay for tickets to see Dunbar. Her comedy is genuinely very funny, well observed, refreshingly non-cruel (a particular bugbear of Heather's) and highly entertaining. If it was a little generic then at least she had the good taste to do it enormously well. Would be nice to see her be a tad more personal but I suspect I can see good financial and audience-related reasons for keeping it general or personal only in a childhood sorta way. Again, highly recommended.

And then... after 72 hours of running about fringe venues and cafes, eating crappy food and catching up on phonecalls as we waited for shows we collapsed, nursed Sunday's sunburn and thought of the horror of the fact that work started in 9 hours time...

And more than 9 hours later I'm just about making it through the day by being caffinated and sugared to the hilt. Roll on our next 4 fringe shows (Conversations with Edith Head - tonight 6.45 Hill Street Theatre; Rhona Cameron - Friday 8pm Gilded Balloon Teviot Dining Room; Eurobeat - Friday 9.45pm Pleasance Grand; Tony Blair the Musical - Sunday ??pm Gilded Balloon Tevit), whatever else pops up through the month (The Sound of Music Drag Show sounds good), the art gallery shows (we've done a good but weirdly curated Naked exhibition at the Portrait Gallery but have Picasso and Andy Warhol, David Batchelor: Unplugged to do plus a few others), a week+ of annual leave (am going to book more I think) and the true insanity of the film festival (my press pass confirmed and my retrospective tickets purchased I'm ready to go)...

Have a fab festival and do let me know what you've seen and what looks good!

George Melly: Rest in Jazz Peace

2007-07-05T16:24:00.000Z

I was very sad to hear about George Melly's death in todays PM Newsletter. I went to a fabulously inappropriatte concert of George Melly and Humphrey Lyttelton playing some fab trad-ish jazz and making the dirtiest jokes that I'd ever heard (and indeed about a decade on they are *still* the dirtiest jokes I've ever heard).

Melly seemed to be a fantastically decadent old fashioned jazz bohemian and I'm torn between being upset about his death and thinking that it may be something of a blessing that he died whilst he was still mostly copus mentus as he has been beginning to suffer from dementia and for a super smart intellectual quickwit can't be comfortable with the idea of losing control in that way. I wonder if that's why he's been refusing treatement for his cancer. Or maybe he was just being contrary. Both seem possible.

Anyway... that's what's on my mind now. Yesterday was much happier though as Alan Johnstone was released by his kidnappers and I can't believe how cheery that made me.

Also making me happy: a fun July 4th evening of jello and fried chicken and good company albeit with it's own slightly sad goodbye - this time to Joey who's about to return to the states. Angela we get to hang onto for another week or so but it's sad they are going at all. We'll miss em and I think we've decided we'll visit them when they are safely ensconced in Bloomington, Indiana, for Joey's PhD.

/Everybody Stand Back/

2007-07-02T16:27:00.000Z

http://xkcd.com/

/Everybody Stand Back/: I Know Regular Expressions
(which I should buy as a t-shirt)

oh and americans finally think that you can't change your sexual orientation apparently (thanks for the forward Sarah) ;)

Duff night....

2007-06-29T22:40:00.000Z

So it's the end of an extremely long and unexpectedly knackering week and indeed a really horribly long fortnight where I don't seem to have had any time to myself to sort my head out and yet have also seen more people and been over analysing and having things to think about more than normal.

So, ignoring the mild nausea induced from far far too many M&Ms consumed in the simmering embers of a domestic, I shall fill you in a bit...

About 3 weeks ago my missus and I began making chocolates for a wedding and that was about the last time I had room in my schedule for proper downtime. Or perhaps it was a few weeks before that as I'd also been making a dress to wear to said wedding so it's maybe a month since sanity. Anyway working full time, getting the normal week's chores and making chocolates proved sorta exhausting and the last few nights before the wedding weekend were sewing and chocolatiering frenzies leaving me knackered, seriously sleep deprived and not in the best of mental states about my comparitive attractiveness (since weddings seem to unconciously be a fashion/figure parade).

Anyhoodly knackered but happy with cooking/sewing work we set off for the wedding and whilst it was fun and I'm really happy for the bridge and groom I'm not sure if I gotmore than 6 hours sleep the entire weekend. And their fabulous marquee combined with muggy rain meant a lot of bugs and, for me alone it seemed, a hell of a lot of bites in some really unpleasant places: underarms, belly button, feet, wrists, neck and, er, punani. These bites made the next week a bit of a hell of savlon and itching and they are only now starting to be bearable thanks to the nice pharmacist who found me some antihistamines to take this week. So happy event though it may have been, there's over a week of exhaustion there and, of course, the emerging horror of seeing photos of my currently larger than I'd realised figure.

I'm genuinely rather depressed at the moment as I really have been putting on weight and it's not just down to tonight's M&Ms. However bad the habits I'd gotten into I think it was the move of my office a few months back that really sealed the deal on my rapidly expanding belly. I'm barely walking any distance to work now, I don't really have anywhere to walk at lunchtime (especially when the weather is this piss poor) and thus I hardly seem to be outside of a tiny 10 block area most of my life at the moment. I'm also out of the habit of swimming and stopping belly dancing a few months ago when classes were driving me nuts making me think them a bit of a waste of cash. Anyway it's only when you start measuring yourself up for dresses or finding you literally have nothing to wear to work that's semi-respectable that things get really depressing. I need to sort myself out a bit but right now I'm still hoping I'll wake up one morning and find it was all a bad dream. But then I always did struggle with why I got the fat genes and other folks didn't. Bad habits I may have but genetically I'm hardly helped. Anyway...

Last weekend the exhaustion continued with a Saturday where, sleepy and groggy and feeling unwell, our pride + 2 barbeques day was made seemingly longer by torrential rain which soaked right through the only hoodie/sweater/coat I had for the day. And then, as my bites started to get itchy in all the muggy damp weather, I started to really feel very excluded by pride which seemed so much scene and so little seen to me. And so excluding and separatist as just about every stand catered only to the boys and everyone, but especially the ladies, seemed to be dressed to code. And maybe I was nuts but I actually expected to see a more wide variety of people there but no, hidden in Pilrig park, it was the interested few. I didn't feel I'd ben missing out all these years and I didn't feel joyful at all about the walking talking cliches drinking and smoking and picking up free condoms and, frankly, that was about all there was going on. It wasn't the slightly hippy friendly welcoming beast I'd hoped for. So when we went off to a barbeque I was pretty happy. When we had to leave that early (and by this time with me running a temperature) to go to a 100% gay barbeque for heather's work I was even less happy. Everyone seemed fairly nice but I seem to have unfortunately caught a lot of the less pleasant and more drunk gay men commenting negatively about the room full of lesbians on arrival. I couldn't see why the genders needed to be separate at the beginning of the night but by the end I was nevertheless glad to be in the slightly more sober ladies room. I found the whole evening and indeed the whole day surreal as I really really don't see why I should need to do anything other than be sleeping with a woman to be a lesbian and I really don't see why my history, hair, knitting group or psychological support lines should have to be lesbian to be for me. I can think of any problem or interest I've ever had that isn't just as relevant to straight as it is to gay people. My depression is just depression. My housing issues have always just been normal housing issues. My relationship stresses are, with the exception of doubled PMT, no different from the stresses on any other relationships I know of. And frankly I have more in common with film fans/librarians/geeks/whoever than I do over other people who happen to be gay. Its not like to not be gay is to be homophobic: in this day and age it just isn't so so why does everything need to be so separate. Why do we even need gay bars or gay anything. I'd rather be noticed and ever so slightly hassled in the wider world then ghettoised in an attificial and tenuous safehaven. And when I think about it I'm glad I never got asked in for any of the jobs I went for where I'd have had to be almost professionally gay. In the same way I didn't feel comfortable on the Springboard Women's Development programme when I found out it was more to do with obsessing about being female than about actual development: I don't want to be professionally female. I want to be me and, frankly, Karl isn't half wrong when he describes me as a middle aged misogynist man. It ain't wholy correct but it really isn't that far out.

Anyway. That was last weekend. Sunday I had a fever half the day and Monday I woke up with a raging temperature and spent the day ill off work feeling too rough to even watch daytime tv and needing to medicate the temperature right through to the evening. It was miserable. Come Tuesday I was determined to work though as that night I had an interview with a reviewer for bffss. So I spent the day knackered and only half awake only to spend the evening doing an appallingly disorganised interview (I really should dress and prep better for this stuff even if it is unpaid) and then google my interviewee and find pages on her court history and conwoman status. Ok a few days and more research later I feel better about the situation but it woke me for the one and only time all week. The rest of the week has involved me not being able to concentrate, falling asleep at my desk and generally feeling drained, unfocused and so so sick of this muggy fuggy oppressive weather. The up points of the week though were Heather bringing home some totally beautiful pottery and also her first pay check from the new job both of which were very exciting ;)

Now all I want from my weekend - after 2 disappointing films in the form of Shrek and La Vie en Rose - is calm quiet and some alone time. I should get it but it will be a bit of a battle as weekends seem so busy lately. I feel a bit guilty that the next two weeks, when Heather is working two jobs to a 60 hour/week degree temporarily, I'm actually looking forward to the enforced quiet and alone time that will mean. Although I'm not looking forward to trying to work out the house work. I'm lousy at house work. I think if we ever get wealthy enough I'll be all for getting someone else to do it :-$

Anyway, I feel a bit better for blubbing earlier and blabbering now so forgive the self-indulgence. I'm having a down week in that plodding along cos I have to but I really just want to sit under my desk, plug into music and quietly freak/chill out sorta way.

BTW on a random note... I'm watching the Seven Ages of Rock and it's about REM, the Pixies, Nirvana. Very cool and recommended. I never knew Teen Spirit was a deoderant... (apparently neither did Kurt for a long time).

Some cool links

2007-05-30T12:26:00.000Z

A Cool Textile Blog although there's an even better one I can't find a URL for at the mo...
At last! A Bollywood map of Britain

artsy things

2007-05-30T12:06:00.000Z

So the last few weeks have been busy with fun anniversary and creative endeavors.

Last week Heather and I went on a Silver Art Clay workshop at the Little Bead Shop and made each other beautiful pendants (pictures appearing soon!) and this week our creative mojo moves on to Jenny & Niko's wedding. Heather and I are making an abundance of chocolates and I'm making a frock from a 75 year old pattern of extreme 30s gorgeousness. Rather than using fancy frock fabric it's all getting crafted from basic £2/metre cotton lining fabric but will then be getting embellished like crazy and tailored with a waspie type belt. Should be good now that I've made some progress on it!

I'm also thinking of getting some of my photos on display at The Engine Shed Cafe where they have an exhibition space that will show your work for free but you pay a percentage to Engine Shed if anything sells. Sounds good to me ;) Although I'm still a tad disappointed that last week the cafe wasn't serving any of the increadibly yummy tofu they make downstairs...

We'll also be baking for a work pal, Ben, who's selling baking in aid of The Vine Trust, a charity that is super helping street boys in Peru. The actual site he will be working on is here and these are pictures of the 2006 visit he made (he's raising funds for another visit to help build the Inca centre).

Aside from some filmsoc reviews to do, a gig tonight and a drinks thing tomorrow I think that's about all there is to report just yet. Heather started her new job proper today though so maybe they'll be stuff to say (other than yikes! 6am starts!) soon.

A very very cool view of Edinburgh!

2007-05-16T12:17:00.000Z

I just think this picture of Edinburgh's cultural attractions based on their footprint is awesome! :)

It was created by Nigel Peake who has given me permission to reproduce it. If you want to see more of his work he has a rather excellent website: http://secondstreet.co.uk
The image is related to the Talbot Rice Gallery's involvement in the 6 Cities Design Festival.

That's all for now... in a later post will be a wee bit about my granny's eccentric funeral and possibly my take on the fact that Britain has gone rather overdramatically missing kid mad...

On a semi-related note... Let's hope that this chap is still alive somewhere and gets a release very soon:

Random newsy links of trivial interest...

2007-05-03T12:22:00.000Z

Cynical ads deconstructed (particularly by the user comments)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6592007.stm

tourism and edinburgh - apparently we are, on the whole, the place to be!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6615775.stm
castle = £9/visit
gallery = free....

gay business - an oxmoron?
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=420017&in_page_id=2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6614887.stm

sad story but the advice is, er, interesting:
http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=681972007

testing...

2007-04-18T12:15:00.001Z

testing testing 1-2-3...

Dictators, Wikis, Sleep & Randomness

2007-04-18T08:01:00.000Z

I have decided to blog again, partly to get my web 2.0 sites all working excitedly together, partly to see if I find blogging as therapeutic as I used to... We shall see.

Having spent the run up to Easter panicked and having sleepless nights prepping the BFFS Scotland Newsletter, Flyer and Spring Event/AGM 2007 Programme I was all calm.... And then today I realised I hadn't actually emailed anyone about the event or the wiki yet AND I hadn't posted any of the details of our Spring Event and AGM on the website yet. Doh! It's particularly silly as I want to have my newsletter editorship taken over by someone new and the AGM is pretty much my only hope so it's all in my best interests.

Thus I found myself watching The Happy Dictator on More 4 whilst updating the website. It was a fascinating look, by Januszczak, at Turkmenistan and it's gloriously strange happy dictatorship. Well worth a watch if it's on again, even if it loses a tiny bit of it's relevance now that the dictator at it's heart has died of a heart attack which must, one assumes, have meant a significant change for the country. The footage of gas crators was terrifyingly beautiful - I hope the film crew took lots of good pictures as it looked amazing even on not great quality handheld footage.

As I watched Heather fell fast asleep next to me which was fine until she awoke and sleepily sent a glass of water tumbling. If there's one thing I still find difficult about being a mature married person it's knowing how to be calm but also not patronising when you're both really really tired... I haven't mastered it yet I'm afraid. On the plus side I've cleared some of my to do list staying up later than planned since there was no rush to get to bed at the same time as my missus once she was asleep. Ah well.

Talking of my to do list... I seem to be the person people ask really really weird questions of. Makes me wonder why. I can answer some of them but why I am the person who comes to mind to ask I don't know - it's a weird range of questions: promoting to students, getting into press screenings (ok I know why I was asked about that one), where people can find DVDs and library stuff, how to make belly dance skirts and sequin chaps, how to promote services to third party websites, how many journals does SOAS have?!

Anyway. Tis late and my sleeping wife awaits me. I shall take my brain of randomness to bed and await the next weird question to come my way...