Random musings of a child progeny
So I’m lying in bed last night and just about to fall asleep when – out of nowhere – a thought enters my head: “How does a deaf person’s smoke alarm work?”
Well that was me wide awake again for another couple of hours, resisting the urge to wake my blissfully sleeping computer to Google the answer. I somehow managed to wait until I got to the office in the morning to find out the answer: flashing lights and vibrating pillows.
As the BBC reports MP3 FM transmitters have been illegal here in the UK thanks to a ridiculously outdated law from 1949. A new Wireless Telegraphy law will come into force from the 8th of December that exempts certain low powered devices.
No, not that one.
Like it or not, Christmas is just around the corner. After a weekend in the snow and noticing the decorations springing up everywhere, I thought this would be as good a time as any to mention that Caring Christmas Trees is in action in Edinburgh again and this year has also branched out (sorry, couldn’t resist) into Fife.
Each tree bought provides a homeless person with a hot meal, a bed for the night and breakfast.
While I was giving blood after work today I signed up for something called Fast Response. Basically this means that if stocks of my blood type are running low the SNBTS can call and ask me to donate within 24 hours.
My visions of an emergency helicopter or – at the very least – a police escort with sirens were dashed though. All I got was a pin badge with a 24 logo that has more than a passing resemblance to a certain TV series.
I spent last weekend in the Highlands of Scotland for a friends 30th birthday celebrations. The snow started in earnest after a stop at the House of Bruar for a warm bowl of soup. The A9 was actually closed shortly after we left.
Saturdays activities consisted of quad biking through forest trails and then some clay pigeon shooting, rounded off with a great whisky tasting at the Wee Spey Dram. That set us up very nicely for the vast quantity of food and drink ahead of us!
The trip also coincided with the peak of the annual Leonids meteor shower and the lack of light pollution from major cities make the Highlands a fantastic place to watch the stars at any time. As it turns out we only managed to see a single, brilliant, meteor before heading back inside to the warmth!
Had one of those random afternoons today. After reminding Alex that he had to go and debunk the KFC logo I set out to find how one ‘bunked’ something in the first place. As ever, Wikipedia was invaluable.
This led me on to wondering if I could ever be described as being ‘gruntled’ and how someone would dis my gruntle. I never did find out the answer as I found it almost impossible to stop laughing at (Netscape hero of old) Jamie Zawinski’s treatise on monkey butter.
Well, that was one Hell of a weekend. Thanks to birthdays galore but mainly the BUDS old school reunion and ball at Murrayfield, I am absolutely exhausted and will shortly be in bed for the night.
However, things started off a lot more civilized (there was no long-arming of drinks for a start) at the Google Sightseeing book launch at Indigo Yard on Friday after work. The work of my colleague and his brother, this is a really interesting annotated collection of satellite imagery from around the globe. Nice timing for a Christmas stocking-filler guys!
And no, I’m not on commission before you ask.
“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat”
Lily Tomlin
So my work colleague has entered a team into the Edinburgh Rat Race. All well and good I though until I remember that I’d expressed interest some time in the past after a couple of beers. Sure enough, I was on the team.
I’ve way too much socializing to get done before New Year so I guess training will start in January. I’m not the best of runners so I guess I’ll focus on that first.
Got me a new phone – the shiny k800i (which was codenamed Wilma at Sony Ericsson in case you’re wondering about the title of the post) and I’m stunned at the quality from the image-stabilized 3.2 Megapixel camera. Even the flash is a ‘proper’ xenon version. Still no optical zoom but you can’t have everything can you?
I’ve just found out that it’s the same phone as James Bond’s in the new film Casino Royal – but his is silver.