Vague – where should it go? – Page 11 – Fooyah

April 24 2017

It’s Probably Nothing

I have a communication I am trying to write but I can’t yet find the words. I know what I want to say and can probably sum it up in two short sentences but I really want to elucidate my offerings with my personal experiences, up to a point.

So, I wondered if I could glean some data from this website. It takes effort, time and concentration to write these communications, even if it doesn’t look like it. I thought I’d look at how many communications I had published each month since this site started and spot how that fits into my plans for another piece of writing.

I don’t like Excel, or at least the graphs it draws but this is a start. Except I’m sure it doesn’t show what I expected. Believe it or not that is a good thing in science. But it won’t help me with my writing.

Perhaps a moving average would work?

Nope. There’s not a great deal I can take from this either. My hypothesis failed entirely. Which, again is a good thing. Great bounds in understanding are made not when things go right but when they don’t go as expected. “Hmmm, that’s interesting” is probably the most exciting thing a scientist can say.

So, this didn’t work. I need another way of getting into writing the next something. It’s currently sitting as a draft with thirty words looking all sad and alone. I will get around to it. The tricky bit will be deciding which words and what order!

April 24 2017February 19 2020

Babylon 5

Babylon 5 is a space station 5 miles long. The adventures of this ship are chronicled in the TV documentary Babylon 5. Using interviews, memoirs, video messages and data harvesting a company managed to recreate what life will be like on Babylon 5. There are some stark warnings from the future for the current political elite.

Babylon 5 series 1 episode 1. Goodbye life. Hello escapism. See you in a year or so.

— Ian Parish (@iparish) April 4, 2014

So this tweet was dated 4th April 2014. That’s when I started working my way through Babylon 5. If I had paid more attention to when I started watching this then I would have tried to tweet the following two days earlier:

Babylon 5. Season 5. Episode 22. “Sleeping in light”.

— Ian Parish (@iparish) April 5, 2017

So, it took me three years and 2 days to complete the series. I don’t think that’s too bad. There’re 120 or so episodes and that averages out at one episode every ten days. It was a damn enjoyable experience. Jase gave me the box set a long time ago and I’ve been using them as a way of stabilising thoughts and also watching sci-fi. I haven’t stayed exclusive to this series and I have watched others along the way.

The stories are excellent and this show deserves the accolades it gets. I really enjoyed it. Obviously some episodes aren’t as good as others but overall this was a great TV show.

I am currently working through the spin-off series, Crusade, but there is only one series of that. Then there will be the B5 films.

Crusade. Episode 1. “The war zone”.

— Ian Parish (@iparish) April 6, 2017

If you want to see when I watched all the episodes of B5 then look at my offline-online twitter archive and search for “Babylon 5”.

April 23 2017April 24 2017

A Blue Ocean

Sunday afternoon is meant to mean a walk and a roast dinner. I think. I don’t really subscribe to this view as I don’t really like roast dinners but I am happy to have a walk. There’s a wood near where I live called oxymoronically Bushey Wood. Bluebells grow in there.

I’ve written about the wood before but have spelt the name wrong. See here and here. I’m not going to correct those. One of the guiding principles of this website is that it is how it is. There is very little I have altered. If I have altered stuff then I use the ~~strike through~~ symbol.

On the way to the wood there were lots of people dressed in high-visibility red/orange suits. They were Kent Rescue taking part in an exercise. I think I have found something extra I can do. I just need to work out if I can afford the time.

The footpath through the wood revealed a glorious covering of bluebells.

Spring time is here. Let the sun come out and warm our glorious lands [and other rubbish like that]. But, seriously, some sun would be nice, it’s cold here!

April 4 2017June 20 2018

Blue Birds And All That

No, I don’t mean Bluebirds of the Clan Campbell variety, they are entirely different and not covered in this communication. This communication deals with the rare communication device of the Second World War where the country listened to a female sing propaganda about the White Cliffs. This is the sort of jingoistic bullshit we see our country faced with at the moment. All this Brexit shit. Anyway, here are some photographs of a recent trip to Dover to see the port.

It was foggy and so a wonderfully bad day to visit the cliffs. I was hoping to see France but, at times, I couldn’t see my hand!

Now for a view of some calcium carbonate.

While in the area I also went to see the Louis Blériot Memorial. I didn’t get a photo of it, but I did take this one of the castle in the mist.

Finally, here’s a photo of some collected chalk pieces. It’s quite a satisfying photo but I am unsure why.

April 3 2017October 13 2018

No, Me Neither

I’ve noticed this apparition a few times recently. I’ve been out running to the east of the village and nearly fallen over past this tree. Well, it’s a mug tree, isn’t it. Any idea why?

I have to say that it looks a little better in the winter and the mugs stand out more, but you get the idea. How very strange, but also, quite cool. I think that one of my mugs will end up on it soon.

I am sure that some people could be convinced that this is a rare form of tree. One that grows mugs. Most major china exporters have more of them. Obviously.

March 26 2017March 26 2017

Splat!

Here’s another view of my VRS Splat:

March 25 2017October 19 2017

Carbon Footprint

I recently ordered a day-sack cover from a company using Amazon. It arrived and I was somewhat shocked.

The rest of the box had that paper-stuff in it to hold the rain cover in place. I have written about this before in this communication.

While this sort of packaging excess does seem a waste I’ve got some other ideas. Fuel use for transporting goods is largely dependent on the mass of the object. So although the box added something to the mass it was still reasonably light and so not a huge carbon drain. If the box is recycled then it doesn’t really matter about how much cardboard there was. There’s probably more carbon used in making the plastic wrapper of the item than in the box, as long as the box comes from a sustainable source.

So, upon reflection this excessive packaging may not be as bad a first thought.

I do think that eventually everything will be labelled with a “carbon factor” to make people aware of just how much carbon they emit and how well we are fucking the planet. Because we are. It is fucked. Utterly fucked. I am glad I will be dead in one hundred years. There are going to be wars over water, food and power. I am just very sorry that my children, or potential grandchildren, will be involved in that and the people to blame will all be dead. My parents’ generation and mine have screwed this planet over.

I could be calmed, I guess, by fluffy cat or dog pictures. But they don’t distract me from the bullshit. They reinforce our collective ability to ignore all that is going on.

March 2 2017October 18 2017

Contrasts

Saw a lovely part of London today when I walked along the Regent’s Canal today. I was learning some maths in town and I had to walk from St Pancras to the venue and rather than walk along the main roads I took the tow path. I’m glad I did.

I also saw this exquisite book shop. There was music playing from loud speakers as I walked past and plenty of vinyl on display.

I also saw a lovely old industrial building that, if I had loads of money and the relevant experience I would turn this into a music venue.

It’s a shame I don’t have money, the contacts, the experience or any industry knowledge at all!

When I got back home I went for a run and jogged past this quality piece of Kent countryside. I think this is the second burnt out car to grace these pages!

But, there is good news: This lovely view over the Medway and Tonbridge and Malling Borough.

February 14 2017

Infrastructure Update

It’s about time I updated the home network diagram from this communication. The original communication was written in January 2014 so three years seems a reasonable length of time for an update. It shouldn’t really be a surprise that the network has grown. There are some notable additions:

Raspberry Pi
Wireless Printer

I don’t have any “smart” kitchen appliances or anything like that, I’m not sure I see the point of them! Click the picture for a pdf file.

February 13 2017

Secret Scotney Dark Side

I went and visited Scotney Castle today. The sun was shining and it was lovely out, a little cold but largely nice. The skies looked great, far better than all the grey we’ve had recently. The car managed 62 mpg on the way home, so I’m quite happy with that. Scotney is a lovely large house that definitely isn’t a castle. The owners deliberately ruined the old castle to create a good looking folly after the newer house was built.

While wandering around the newer house I noticed a wooden panel in the library.

Now this is quite disturbing. When you focus on the words it becomes obvious that there may be secret Star Wars fans when the house was designed in the 1800s!

Apparently the phrase should be:

I care not for quotations of kings and queens. Also, they are quotations, not quotes.