| Religious people more likely to be leftwing |
[Apr. 8th, 2012|07:00 pm] |
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The results of this survey don't surprise me too much, but given the intolerance between some religious and some atheist liberals, it's perhaps worth remarking on. Although, as some of the comments to the Guardian article suggest, this may be specific to the UK and a few similar countries rather than a universal observation. |
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| A weekend of firsts |
[Apr. 2nd, 2012|11:44 pm] |
On Friday, Mrs HtC and I went to my niece's wedding. In legal terms, it was a civil partnership, but it was a wedding to all intents and purposes. The ceremonies (one legal, one handfasting) were held at Leighton Moss, which is a beautiful bird reserve on the edge of the Lake District. We were lucky with the weather as it was both dry and warm. Just in case, the brides' outfits included wedding wellies for the outdoor parts of the day!
My BiL's speech included this update of a classic line, "We think of it not so much as losing a daughter, but ... of gaining another daughter".
Numbers were limited at Leighton Moss so on Saturday Jossy & Cat held a larger party. This included several musical turns, because both brides are musicians and naturally also have many musical friends. We were serenaded by Jossy's horn quartet/quintet, Cat's string quartet (both available for other people's weddings!), plus spots from several friends, including Mrs HtC reading a short Judy Grahn poem, and a folk band for some (rather crowded) dancing.
This was the first time I'd been invited to a civil partnership, or a handfasting. I know people who have had these but this was the first one I have actually attended. It was the first wedding I've been to in an outdoor setting. It's the first time I've heard a horn quartet and certainly the first time that I've been in party singing The Hippopotamus Song along with a horn quartet. The wedding wellies were a first too. It was also the first time that I've done an Irish ceilidh dance,although looking at this list of set dances it seems we were given a greatly simplified version.
It was also the first civil partnership in our family, which had a particular resonance for me. While I haven't been involved in the bi movement for many years now, the memories and friendships from that time are still important to me. During that time, some of my family ties were a bit strained (or at least that's how it felt to me). So although this weekend's event was most definitely Not About Me, I did get something rather special from it for myself.
It was a great couple of days, It was lovely to see Jossy and Cat so clearly in love and to witness that love by the ceremonies. The party was fun. It was good to see my family and to meet Cat's family too. I wish the couple a happy and long marriage.
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| Google/Blogger insists on third-party cookies |
[Mar. 15th, 2012|10:22 pm] |
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I have just discovered that I can't comment on my own blog (not this journal, a blog about games that I maintain on blogger.com). To log in, I use a Google account, which lets me write new posts, manager comments, etc. But when I try to comment, to reply to someone else, the software won't recognise the Google account. To make it work, I have to change my browser settings to allow third-party cookies. I'm not impressed. |
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| Computing at School Scotland? |
[Feb. 10th, 2012|10:42 pm] |
I'm wondering if anyone I know knows anyone involved with Computing at School Scotland ? I would hope, with the Curriculum for Excellence still under development, and the good exemplar of the proposed Computing at School Curriculum, that there is some chance of influence the curriculum design for the better.
There doesn't seem to be much detailed information on the current state of the CFE course specification. The Higher course seems to include two components: Software Design and Development, and IT Design and Development. Without further detail, it's hard to judge whether these cover the underlying concepts or whether they are just practical units. The Higher is classified as a technology course (rather than a science course), which is understandable but might also indicate a shying away from the more academically challenging aspects. |
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| Happy new year! |
[Jan. 3rd, 2012|11:49 pm] |
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I wish all my friends and family a happy and prosperous new year. For many of you, 2011 was quite awful and I hope that 2012 is significantly better. |
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| Fun with a time machine and a cloning device |
[Dec. 30th, 2011|03:34 pm] |
Yesterday saw ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) nonesuchhouse run one of his irregular but excellent roleplaying sessions. This loosely followed on from a xmas special a couple of years ago that involved temporal anomalies, dinosaurs, zombies and black helicopters. The twist for yesterday's adventure was that we were all playing versions of meltroid's character Roland Medmenham (unbeknown to Meltroid himself). seaofcats's character was from an alternate timeline, moz_attics was playing a terminator-style robot dressed as a nun, and I was not a version of Medmenham at all, but merely disguised as his future self in an attempt to make him see the error of his ways.
All the characters arrived at an Abbey in France in 2004 when another temporal event was expected. After some initial exploration and a few glasses of wine (and repelling some more dinosaurs), we travelled back in time to find an older version of Medmenham running the abbey, helped by a populace of Medenham clones (and more wine). Two of our party promptly decided that his cloning device offered the opportunity to create a world entirely filled with Medmenhams - although they differed as to which Medmenham should be the template for this plan. Much confusion and wine-drinking ensued. At one point the older Medmenham commandeered Seaofcat's Delorean to appear in our future; in response to which Seaofcats summoned some of his colleagues (also Medmenhams) in aid. Eventually we had at least seven Medmenhams in the same laboratory. This was a quandary for the robo-nun, who was programmed to protect Medmenham - but which one?
All looked lost, until Meltroid realised that the gathered Medmenhams had depleted the wine cellar so much that only one barrel remained. All agreed that by far the best use of the cloning device was to replicate this precious resource. On returning to the future, we found the abbey had become the Medmenham vineyard, producing excellent and remarkably consistent vintages year after year. Thus catastrophe was avoided.
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| Argh! Buying a new computer? |
[Dec. 29th, 2011|12:24 pm] |
I intend to buy a new desktop PC, which means I'm up to my eyes in details of component specs. Previously I've bought from Dell, but although their base configurations seem OK, they seem to be charging massively over the odds for even budget graphics cards. As I don't want to pay Dell £50 or more just to plug a card into a chassis, I'm looking at custom suppliers. I've never heard of the current set of PC vendors but the PC Advisor web site seems to give them good reviews.
So currently I'm thinking of an Arbico, with an Intel i3 CPU, Radeon HD 6770 graphics, 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM, and a bog-standard 500GB SATA II disk. That comes to just under £600 (including Windows 7 & some basic multi-media software). I've included an upgraded power supply that is supposedly quieter than the basic one and also supports SLI/Crossfire, although I'm not sure that's really worth the extra £30. I could, of course, upgrade to a quad-core i5 instead of the dual-core i3, or a bigger graphics card, but I doubt I'll really need them.
Does anyone have any advice before I take the plunge and order this?
Incidentally, I found techradar.com really useful as a source of reviews and information, as well as PC Advisor.
The reason for buying a PC nowis that my existing one has recently started to crash, usually when logging on or off. I could perhaps reinstall Windows but I've been thinking of getting a new machine for a while. My current PC can't run the latest games, and I'd like to have Windows 7 to be on the same OS as Mrs HtC's Vaio. I would also like a 21" screen instead of my 15" one, which will put more load on the graphics hardware. |
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| Wind and mud |
[Dec. 27th, 2011|10:22 am] |
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We usually take a few walks when we're at home, either locally (e.g. the Blackford, Craiglockhart or Braid Hills), or slightly further afield in the Pentlands. This year, the gales on Christmas Day were so strong that we didn't fancy braving the outdoors. Yesterday was a little better, so we went for a short stomp around Flotterstone. The wind was still up, so we didn't venture any heights, satisfying ourselves with a low-level circuit. The main hindrance turned out to be thick mud; a combination of slipperiness and stickiness that made a couple of patches a little tricky - nothing serious to hardened walkers, just a minor inconvenience to us fastidious urban folk. We enjoyed it. |
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| Height strife |
[Dec. 21st, 2011|10:45 pm] |
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My son is now the same height as my wife. Neither of them is prepared to admit that they are not the taller. These leads to much teasing. I'm doing my best to stay out of it (honest). |
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