huzzah! huzzah!

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Woohoo, indeed, for many reasons.

One of which is that I have finally finished my paper, which has been reviewed by my pass as suitable for submission for publication. I just need the ok from zebigboss and it's off to the publisher. If it gets accepted (which it should, touch wood), that'll mean that I'll have been published twice in the last 6 months: once as a 1st author, once as a 2nd. This pleases me to no end.

Another reason that I'm happy is that I've released a new version of my pet project, the Ontology Lookup Service live to the world, with tons of cool new bells and whistles. Try it! Go on, you know you want to.

The final reason to be happy is not mine to tell, but it makes me the happiest of all.

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The word of the day is…

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pastafarian

… which is defined as a worshipper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster†.

†The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is a deity in a creation story. This story was created in response to the Kansas (US) School Board trying to change teaching guidelines so that Intelligent Design would be taught alongside Evolution in Public School science class.

The FSM is theorized to manipulate observable data such as carbon dating results via 'His Noodly Appendage'. We are also taught that The FSM hates when its subjects do not dress as pirates. FSM followers claim that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. Also The FSM is keeping his identity secret by making Evolution look like such a scientific certainty.

The creator of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism has written an open letter to the Kansas School Board so that it will be taught alongside Intelligent Design and Evolution. He has also started a fund to pursue this through legal action if necessary. Or buy himself a boat, whichever comes first.

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Does anybody have a liver to spare?

Posted on By admin 5 Comments on Does anybody have a liver to spare?

I'm worried about my sweetie. She's in a bad place right now. The stresses from the last year have taken their toll and I don't know how to make it better. It's making her physically sick. She's been sleeping badly for… I don't remember when she told me she slept well. She can't get enough rest. She's always tired. She's been carrying a cold/cough for weeks now, and it doesn't seem to go away. It's always coming back with a vengeance when the fit hits the shan.

I hate her boss. She's completely irrational and unprofessional and is turning what should be a great opportunity for Katy into a lower level of hell. I've had a bit of a taste of that a few years ago, but never like this. When you can't decide if it's better to stay in bed or go to work, you're in a bad place. When going to work seems like a hassle that's just not worth the effort, it's time to move on. I just want to go a smack her boss around. You do *not* do this to people. When work makes you cry… Peterborough was bad at the end, but this is worse now. If only it wasn't for her boss and that simian jackass of a supervisor.

I firmly believe in karmic retribution and hopefully, Katy is going to get a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge load of good luck soon. The flip side of that is that her fucking evil twat of a boss is going to have a very, very bad day soon. Or so we only hope.

I keep telling her that we're going to get away from it all soon. Canada can't come soon enough. In the meantime, give her some love. I'm going to. lots and lots and lots.

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The weekend

Posted on By admin 2 Comments on The weekend

We were in Leicester this weekend to have an un-birthday celebration for Katy. The drive down on friday was crap because of tons of roadworks and traffic and rain but we made it in one piece while enjoying some Pink Floyd along the way. We chilled out on saturday (well, they did – I traipsed into town to get a haircut) before Rita, Anna and Rhona came for tea and sweets. Anna is very quiet, especially when you put her next to her girlfriend, a loud and exhuberant scotslady who has a big thing for Canada. There was serious lobbying for us to get married there so they'd have a reason to go there :)

Katy, her parents, Rita and I went to see Goblet of Fire. I still maintain that the new Dumbledore is crap is ruins the movies for me. The look of the movies themselves are actually more edgy than the first two, but Richard Harris is a head above the new bloke. He sucks. Dumbledore is not supposed to be a manic, headless-chicken sort of person. Nor is he supposed to be a stoner giving out meaning-of-the-universe advice. Poo, I say, pooo!

Sunday was spent doing tech support on the computer we bought for Katy's parents for xmas. A bit of meatball surgery and I had all the files transferred from the old HD to the new one and then spent the next two hours or so patching and updating all the security holes in XP. The usual.

This week should pass quickly. I was working home today and I'll be working home again on wednesday when the car is supposed to be delivered. No real other plans, except that we're going to be doing a cleaning blitz next weekend because the weekend after that, we're on HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

woo-a-hoo.

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Not a bad day if I do say so myself!

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Da-yum! I wish I had more days like this.

I had to work from home today because the car was being picked up to get a bit of bodywork. Because of office politics, it was easier for me to get the day off, so I was home all day. Surprisingly, I did actual productive work. That has to be a sign that you love your job when you're home and you actually work!

I resolved two bugs that were annoying the hell out of me and that means that my code is almost ready to get released into the wild. Once that happens, I can get some screenshots, polish off the paper and send it off for reviews prior to submission. This makes me happy.

The impressive thing is that between the brilliant coding/debugging (hehehe), I managed to do two loads of laundry, half a week's worth of washing up and I even took out the trash.

In other words, I rock!

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A few tidbits

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I found this icon online and fell in love with it.


I think it's applicable to a few other people as well (hint hint [info]electricland)

Fed up of browsing journals whose styles you find, well, horrendous? try this:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/talisker/?style=mine

Addind that little bit at the end will override the journal style and use yours instead. Because, lets face it, you have much better taste than most people :D

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It's beginning to look a lot like xmas

Posted on By admin 2 Comments on It's beginning to look a lot like xmas

Except for the complete and utter lack of snow hereabouts… blergh. Only 18 days until I leave for Canadia, joy! Like Katy says, it can't come soon enough. It'll do me good to see friends and family again. Hopefully the shoulder from doom will be kind to me on this trip though. It's been acting up again and I've been waking up stiff as a board for the last two weeks. Not cool, not cool at all.

I've been reading an interesting book by Jon Grimwood called 9Tail fox. The bio reads:

Sergeant Bobby Zha of the SFPD is desperate to find out who murdered him. But he also needs the answers to some other questions. Like, why is he in another man's body? Why is someone trying to kill him, again… And why is he being haunted by a nine-tailed Celestial fox?From the shell-shattered ruins of Stalingrad in 1942 to the present day politics of San Francisco's Chinatown, 9tail Fox is evocative of place and crystal clear in its depiction of character.

It's not bad. There are bits and pieces that make prevent it from being excellent – one of which is that the author keeps thinking that you know the book and storyline just as well as he does, so he keeps making these hints that you think you should understand, but just don't and they're not explained so that just makes them frustrating. Besides that though, it's been keeping me entertained so that's always a good sign

Things at work are becoming interesting. In the span of 2 days, half a dozen people have contacted me about putting bits of the ontology lookup service I've been working on into their applications. Very gratifying. I'm almost done with the first draft of the paper I'm going to submit and it's being reviewed by my boss today.

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RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs

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(LOS ANGELES) The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. “We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material,” a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. “We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating 'buzz' about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves.” RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of-mouth “favorites-sharing” sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms.

You gotta love the Onion :)

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