Tuesday, December 26, 2006

mumming 2006

On Christmas Eve, we went mumming in Lacock, Wiltshire with the Ragged Heroes mummers. Here's the photos. I was Dick the Horse as usual - I frightened lots of ladies with my big green skull. I can assure you however, that a horse's skull weighs a ton.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Cheesemas

Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and cheese reconciled.

Hark The Herald Angels Sing
from the Christmas Song Generator.



How oft at Christmas-tide the sight
Of green cheese gives us delight.

O Christmas Tree
from the Christmas Song Generator.

mile-high mice

Mass mouse escape on Saudi plane
More than 100 passengers on a Saudi plane were left panic-stricken by the unexpected appearance of furry fellow flyers - dozens of mice.
Not exactly the Heart of Gold, but proof (if it were ever needed) that mice are actually pan-dimensional beings. They find their way into your luggage and then try to hijack the plane!

Friday, December 15, 2006

webdev team

Our team photo just before the Christmas meal.

Oops, I ended up standing in front of Mead's head. Either that or he is hiding behind me.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

competition

The Ultimate Spam Hoax - competition

I challenge all the readers of Nemeton to come up with the stupidest and most outrageous hoax email - but of course we will not be sending them to anyone, because that is just totally and utterly dumb.

Here's my effort (post yours in the comments):
Your car is vulnerable. A new species of computer virus called RustWorm has migrated into car computer systems and mutated into nanobots and spread into the superstructure of the car. It is specially designed to unlock all your doors and make the car vulnerable to thieves. Especially if you have central locking. After that it will break your car down into its component parts and take them away to Seattle for Microsoft to turn into computer parts and complete their plan for world domination. But don't worry, because Microsoft will give you $10 if you forward this email to Bill Gates!!!

The only possible solution is to take your car immediately to a wrecker's yard and have it crushed. Forward this email to everyone in the world! (Well, okay, everyone in the world with a car.) You'll be glad you did, because only by sending this email to the whole world can we overcome the threat of RustWorm!!!!

Of course, in order to prevent anyone actually using these to spam people, they must be wildly improbable.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

crisperanto

Shockingly, the youth of today seem to have no idea who Quentin Crisp was. Even the gay youth of today. Ooh, they don't know they're born. And they evidently don't speak crisperanto. Surely the wittiest and most charming man since Oscar Wilde. A friend of mine called him on the phone in New York once, and Mr Crisp invited him for tea. Apparently Sting's song An Englishman in New York is about him, as well.

(p)arson

"Christian" arsonist burns down church for not adhering to Bible teachings

This is scary - if there are "Christians" (however disturbed) prepared to burn down other Christians' buildings for not adhering to the teachings of the Bible, then it's not long before they get onto book-burning, shortly followed by people... oh, somehow I recognise a pattern here....

On the other hand, I am awed at the forgiveness offered by the people whose church got burnt down - well it's obvious which ones are the real Christians.

Let's hope this sort of thing doesn't catch on, but maybe the Christians will sit up and take notice of the scary fundies, now that the fundies are attacking the moderates....

(Spotted by Alfreda.)

Thursday, December 07, 2006

geography

How good is your geography? I scored 48. Hmm, I really should find out where some of the African and South American countries are... er, and which Balkan republic is which.

prestidigitation

We went to see The Prestige last night, and I must say it lived up to expectations - fine writing, acting and directing. Some elements of it were rather disturbing: the idea that various birds and other creatures have to die in large numbers for the magician to perform his art; the sadistic titillation of audiences watching an attractive young lady escape from drowning (or not, as the case may be); and the final scene was the most disturbing of all (though I can't mention it as it would give the plot away). The flashback scenes were a bit confusing sometimes, but the plot was very cleverly constructed to give plenty of shocks and surprises. It was great to see such a talent-laden cast - Michael Caine, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, et al. It's also good to see a science-fictional theme transposed into a late-19th century setting, and good that the ideas of Tesla were given an airing. I just hope that the cat in Tesla's experiment was done with CGI (but don't worry, it survived).