Keep Watching The Skies
I tried this Starbucks branch locator and found that there are apparently 115 Starbucks outlets within five miles of my house.
Something must be done.
Tuesday, January 20
Friday, January 16
Thursday, January 15
I Have Been Reading The Papers
Apparently, Russia's gold reserves have reached a new peak in the region of $78 billion, which makes the country the world's second biggest holder of gold.
Interestingly, the country with the biggest gold reserve is Japan.
This courtesy of Pravda. Shut up, they're independent now. Ish.
Another thing I read was a prediction that the Euro will soon be equal to US$1.4 -- if memory serves, that was the point at which OPEC said they'd switch to the Euro as their trading currency. Which would also be interesting.
Apparently, Russia's gold reserves have reached a new peak in the region of $78 billion, which makes the country the world's second biggest holder of gold.
Interestingly, the country with the biggest gold reserve is Japan.
This courtesy of Pravda. Shut up, they're independent now. Ish.
Another thing I read was a prediction that the Euro will soon be equal to US$1.4 -- if memory serves, that was the point at which OPEC said they'd switch to the Euro as their trading currency. Which would also be interesting.
Wednesday, January 14
Things That Happened On My Birthday
# 1935 - Filipinos ratify an independence agreement.
# 1940 - World War II: The Dutch city of Rotterdam is bombed by the German Luftwaffe.
# 1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany.
# 1948 - Israel declares itself to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.
# 1955 - Eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union sign the Warsaw Pact.
And I share a birthday with:
Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, Thomas Gainsborough, Jack Bruce, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Roth and Mick Foley
People who died on my birthday:
H. Rider Haggard, Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra
And every year on my birthday, the people of Paraguay celebrate "Flag Day".
Why not send me your birthday and join in the trivia fun?
# 1935 - Filipinos ratify an independence agreement.
# 1940 - World War II: The Dutch city of Rotterdam is bombed by the German Luftwaffe.
# 1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany.
# 1948 - Israel declares itself to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.
# 1955 - Eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union sign the Warsaw Pact.
And I share a birthday with:
Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, Thomas Gainsborough, Jack Bruce, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Roth and Mick Foley
People who died on my birthday:
H. Rider Haggard, Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra
And every year on my birthday, the people of Paraguay celebrate "Flag Day".
Why not send me your birthday and join in the trivia fun?
Tuesday, January 13
You've Had Some Bad Ideas, But This Really Snaffles The Custard Cream
At the urging of certain Pauls who will remain nameless, I saw THE LITTLEST SAMURAI (a.k.a DANCES WITH NINJAS) last night.
Now, I've seen some ponderous, pretentious, predictable and above all wincingly cheesy films in my time, but this has really got to be up there with the worst of them.
Imagine, if you will, a story of an African warrior who travels to mediaeval England and gets involved in an over-long fish-out-of-water-finds-redemption scenario with self-satisfied visual twirls every so often. And lots of slow-motion close-ups.
Initially, he falls in with a group of well-to-do burghers who want to institute some kind of parliament or something. But then he gets captured by some noble knights who are all very nice, not to mention spiritually pure. He sees the ideal social system -- feudalism -- at work, and resolves to fight the influence of modern.... oh, forget it. Enough with the analogies. The point is that BLADES OF THUNDER is terrible. The only good thing is Timothy Spall saying "Oh, capital!" I may well expound more properly on why it's so awful in future, but right now it's just giving me a headache.
And we all know what happens when I get my headaches.
At the urging of certain Pauls who will remain nameless, I saw THE LITTLEST SAMURAI (a.k.a DANCES WITH NINJAS) last night.
Now, I've seen some ponderous, pretentious, predictable and above all wincingly cheesy films in my time, but this has really got to be up there with the worst of them.
Imagine, if you will, a story of an African warrior who travels to mediaeval England and gets involved in an over-long fish-out-of-water-finds-redemption scenario with self-satisfied visual twirls every so often. And lots of slow-motion close-ups.
Initially, he falls in with a group of well-to-do burghers who want to institute some kind of parliament or something. But then he gets captured by some noble knights who are all very nice, not to mention spiritually pure. He sees the ideal social system -- feudalism -- at work, and resolves to fight the influence of modern.... oh, forget it. Enough with the analogies. The point is that BLADES OF THUNDER is terrible. The only good thing is Timothy Spall saying "Oh, capital!" I may well expound more properly on why it's so awful in future, but right now it's just giving me a headache.
And we all know what happens when I get my headaches.
Friday, January 9
What Is This.... "Free Time" You Speak Of?
So, I have a nice proper office job with normal daylight hours and everything. Weird. It's only a 7-month contract (this is good) and Victor at the restaurant has been very amicable about me stopping work there (this, too, is good).
The people are the new place are very nice and on the whole the working environment seems pretty pleasant. The boss had a leaving do at his house last night in honour of two guys who are leaving -- one the previous occupant of my desk, who very kindly left three smallish bottles of vodka in the bottom drawer, and the occupant of the desk opposite me, who has managed somehow to get hired back on as a freelancer at double the pay. Nicely done.
The Big Trip to Wales is coming up next month -- I need to plan the games I'm going to run. At the moment it's looking like StarChildren (I think I'll run Secret Treaties again), A Fistful of Scarabs (Egyptian/ancient world alt-history Western) and Unknown Armies. Maybe some Impossible Missions, perhaps.
Anyway, after work today I have another Latin lesson to teach, and I have to think up a four-chapter revision test. Naturally, I have barely given this a thought.
So, I have a nice proper office job with normal daylight hours and everything. Weird. It's only a 7-month contract (this is good) and Victor at the restaurant has been very amicable about me stopping work there (this, too, is good).
The people are the new place are very nice and on the whole the working environment seems pretty pleasant. The boss had a leaving do at his house last night in honour of two guys who are leaving -- one the previous occupant of my desk, who very kindly left three smallish bottles of vodka in the bottom drawer, and the occupant of the desk opposite me, who has managed somehow to get hired back on as a freelancer at double the pay. Nicely done.
The Big Trip to Wales is coming up next month -- I need to plan the games I'm going to run. At the moment it's looking like StarChildren (I think I'll run Secret Treaties again), A Fistful of Scarabs (Egyptian/ancient world alt-history Western) and Unknown Armies. Maybe some Impossible Missions, perhaps.
Anyway, after work today I have another Latin lesson to teach, and I have to think up a four-chapter revision test. Naturally, I have barely given this a thought.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)