01.19.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:15 pm by GaZ
A couple of months ago I entered a competition to win a free year of broadband from UKOnline and a new wireless router. After I entered I thought no more about it, until two days ago when I received an e-mail congratulating me on winning the competition! It didn’t look like the regular “YOU HAVE ONE A FREE HOLEEDAY FOR JOU AND YOUR FRIENDS! CALL US N0W” kind of spam, so I e-mailed them back and now, come February 2nd, Hanne and I will be upgrading to UKOnline 8000! 8Mb, baby! Yay!
My only concern now is that i’ve exceeded my “luck-quota” for the week/month/whatever, so i’m wary of playing football with the guys from work tomorrow coz i’ll probably break my leg.
As mentioned on GoogleBlog, Google have recently released version 2 of their free photo organising software: Picasa! The user-interface is very slick and aesthetically pleasing, as is typical of Google software. It also has some interesting features like the ability to publish photos straight to Blogger or TiVo, and create movies, screensavers, and posters out of your photos.
And tonight is the FA Cup 3rd round replay of Exeter vs Manchester United. Exeter, 4 leagues below Man. U., pulled off something special when the drew 0 – 0 at Old Trafford 2 weeks ago. Hopefully they won’t be so lucky again tonight…
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01.16.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:04 pm by GaZ
We didn’t get out much this weekend (except to the gym and a nice Thai restaurant, yesterday), so I finished up a project i’ve been working on for the past few days: Web Service interfaces. Joy! Despite my previous experiences with them over the course of my final year at uni, I still find them very interesting and I’m sure they hold great promise for the future. Anyway… enough geeking about. I’m off to watch TV.
Note: The interfaces don’t work in IE just yet. Doh! Anyway, you should be using FIREFOX!
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Posted in Uncategorized at 4:26 pm by GaZ
Take a look at the short video entitled “What Barry Says” over at knife-party.net. Sure, some of you will poo-poo the political message, but I think the animation is very well done.
One of my friends from uni, Simon, recently got a job, though he still hasn’t told anyone (I only found out through his lady, Claire) so if you know Simon then don’t tell him I told you 
. He’ll be doing what he does best, which is yelling at people in foreign languages for no apparent reason. I’m sure he’ll go far (“Quelle Fromage!”). He and Claire will be moving down to Bournemouth, on the south coast, in the near future, which means beach parties this summer! Rah!! eh… well that’s if they invite us. Claire seemed a bit daunted by the prospect of moving to Bournemouth, as it has a bit of a reputation for being a bit like the UK-equivalent to those infamous Florida retirement communities. So their new best friends could well be O.A.P.s who spend their days playing gin-rummy and sipping Pimms from a glass.
Speaking of making new friends, this reminds me of a conversation I had with John Wyman a few months ago. We were sitting in one of the many public parks in Bath, eating our lunch and chatting about life. Somehow the topic of friendships arose, and he was telling me how once you leave university making friends isn’t really the same. You won’t ever share the same experiences of growing up ever again coz everyone has already been through all that, and without that common bonding you’re slightly alienated from those around you, in a way. I suppose you can still build similar bonds with people by having nights out and making history between yourselves, but it’s not really the same. I guess this is part of the reason (as identified in one of my new years determinations [good word, Jacques ]) why I feel it’s so important to stay in touch with my friends from university, high school, and even a few from middle school. Not to make us out as something special, but I would say that it’s even slightly harder for Hanne and I to fit in here since we come from different countries (yeah, I’m British, but i’ve only lived here a few years, and most of that was in Bath!), whereas (in my case) the people at work have lived in Birmingham for years, they all went to university in this area, and they all already have friends here. Of course, since I’ve only been out of university a few months then maybe i’m talking bollocks… time will tell.
Ok, i’m done ranting.
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01.09.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:25 pm by GaZ
Cool! If you use the Google search string inurl: view/index.shtml” you get a list of links to Webcams around t’Internet. Some of them even have remote-controls so you can move the camera around!
Other useful search strings include: inurl:”ViewerFrame?Mode=” and(apparently slightly better) inurl:”MultiCameraFrame?Mode=”
I was just watching the sun setting somewhere.
It looks nice in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lemme know if you find any interesting ones 
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01.08.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:32 pm by GaZ
I’ve uploaded the photos from Christmas in Norway! But the pictures of our car were too blurry (dunno what happened there) so i’ll take some more tomorrow.
We saw Without A Paddle tonight…. it was predictable, but enjoyable none-the-less. Life has quickly settled back to “normal” after the vacation, so now there’s no holidays to look forwards to until the next public holiday (Easter!!! 
). But some plans are in the works that should make it a good one… stay tuned.
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01.05.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:48 pm by GaZ
Visit www.adayforasia.org and spend some money for a good cause!
He’s a fellow CompSci from university (‘Appeh Buffdeh!), and trust me: he really will do whatever you ask, if the price is right! Bid now!
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01.01.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:47 pm by GaZ
Hmm…. maybe “resolutions” is the wrong word, because no one ever keeps those (just look at the U.N.). But because it feels like sharp rocks are being thrown around inside my head at the moment (a reminder of last nights festivities) I can’t be arsed to think up a good synonym. So here’s my list for 2005 (in no particular order):
- I will help to clean up (and keep clean) the apartment – Hanne made me add this one first.
- I will make more time for e-mail and keeping in touch with people.
- I will travel – I’d definitely like to go and visit Borneo sometime, at least.
- I will get in better shape, and stay that way – The days of practical invulnerability (i.e. “youth”) are running out, but I will go to the gym to reach and maintain a decent level of stamina and strength.
- I will take part in a charity event – I’d like to do one of the many charity running events held each year… but it’s too late to enter the London marathon for this year… maybe i’ll go for the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Festival.
- I will learn more about electronics – This is something that’s just grabbed me recently. I’ve had a few ideas of things i’d like to build, but i’ve no idea where to start, so I guess it’s back to basics. My dads father was always big on electronics, but unfortunately the hardware side of things never really appealed to me until recently.
- I will learn more languages – In particular I’d like to learn more Welsh and Norwegian, as these are the two languages (excluding English, of course) that are most relevant to me right now… so i’ve just got to fit time for lessons (probably self-taught) in between everything else!
Ok, that should be enough to keep me busy for the year. Last night is a blur of gunpowder, aquavit, and turkey. Torill, Bente, Katherine, and Line came over to cook (and eat) dinner, after which we went over to a friends house (via a 3km-for-£30 taxi ride) where the party continued, then at midnight we all went on to the balcony (which had an excellent view over the entire valley) to watch the fireworks. I’ll upload the pictures when we’re back in the UK.
Happy New Year! I hope it’s a good one for all of us.
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