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Jul. 14th, 2009

Rooms to rent

Please pass this on to anyone you know looking for a room!

Looks like the whole buying a house thing is moving along nicely and, if all goes to plan, I'll probably be moving in early August.

Simon's decided to stay at our current place (can't blame him - it's bloody lovely. If it didn't make so much financial sense to buy a house, I would never leave!), so we're both looking for new flat mates.

Flat One


First off, my new place. It's a two bed ground floor garden flat with large, front-facing bedrooms and a rear-facing modern kitchen and lounge and one bathroom. The garden's well-sized and I'm planning on doing a fair bit of work on it, including putting up a conservatory and putting in a barbecue pit, a couple of hammocks and a veg garden.

I'm ideally looking for someone who's going to be more than just someone who hides away in their room - someone who enjoys a glass of wine, loves their food, enjoys shouting at the TV and deep conversation, likes to party, likes company and likes the weirder side of life. If you're them, you should come live with me. I'm easy going, generally reasonably clean and tidy (though not quite perfect!). I like cooking, reading, films, partying, festivals, board games, cards, going to strange events in London, taking interesting things, dreaming, travelling, eating out, theatre... well, you name it.

Rent's going to be £500 a month, plus bills. There'll be a broadband line & a projector in the living room for watching films & downloads but no TV. The flat will come with everything including crockery, kitchen equipment and furniture, unless you want to bring your own bed/wardrobe/etc. It's less than five minutes from the station on a quiet road, near to the shops of Turnpike Lane.

Given the still up-in-the-air state of the purchase, I can't guarantee a date (might know next week), but suspect either the first or third week of August.

Flat Two


Secondly, my old place. Everyone who comes over says how lovely it is. It's very modern, having been completely renovated six months ago in a clean, minimalist style. Wooden floors throughout, a great kitchen, huge lounge and a lovely bathroom. Simon's a good housemate - very clean & tidy, thoughtful and active on the goth scene. He'll be wanting someone who is going to keep the place clean and tidy and not overly cluttered. Rent is £638 pppm plus bills.

There's a 10Mb broadband line with wireless access & no phone line. It's fully furnished. My room won't have a mattress but the landlord would probably be happy to provide that if asked. He's a great landlord - one of the best I've ever found. We deal with him direct and any problems are fixed quickly and effectively. It's a two minute walk to Finsbury Park which has served as my back garden over the summer. There's a great pub (The Faltering Fullback) directly opposite which has one of the best beer gardens in London and does pretty good Thai food. Your room will be at the back, so you won't hear a peep out of it! We're five minutes walk from the station and really close to a big range of shops and supermarkets. Get a room here and be the envy of all your friends!

Jun. 8th, 2009

Lack of focus.

Can't focus at work right now because my brain is full of ZOMG.

Seem to have had my offer accepted on a flat near Turnpike Lane. I'm buying a flat. La la la. A flat. Buying.

Quite excited by this.

Mar. 28th, 2009

(no subject)

I was listening to Adam Joe today and they came out with something lovely. Theywere commenting on how annoying it is to hear the same praise from so many people about a particular subject. TE prima subject in question was Twitter.

The wierd thing about Twitter is that everybody (near enough) that uses it thinks it's great, whereas everybody that doesn't use it thinks it's a godawful idea and have no idea why anyone would even think about being interested in it.

Before Twitter there was Facebook. Before Facebook there was LJ, Email, the internet... etc. People know it's good. People love it. All their friends use it. And yet its goodness is something they can't quite define. It makes things better. It makes life better. However, for all its users like to talk about it, however much they like to extoll its virtues, the majority are largely unclear as to what its virtues are.

Take, for another example, something a little more tangible. A T.V. series. 24. The Wire. Battlestar Galactica. The Sopranos. The West Wing. Everyone that watches them says they are wonderful. They can't get enough of them and can't wait to tell people about how good they are.

But no one listens. How many times have you told people about this fantastic new thing you've discovedred only to have them act like it's nothing special? You know it's special. It might even be extraordinary. But how do you convince them?

How do I convince all those people who use email, facebook, lj, sms etc, that all of them (ALL OF THEM) can be replaced by Twitter? That once all-powerful, greatest, best little internet gadget - the social internet revolution - the thing that, more than anything, brought the true nature of the internet to the masses - how do you convince them that it was just a stepping stone?

Look at Facebook now. It's just Twitter with an events manager. But Twitter can manage your events... through Google Calendar. And it connects to your photos. And everything else.

Do you remember when you thought Facebook was new and edgy? Do you remember when you refused to sign up? Why was that? My reasons were: It's just the latest fad. It's just gCal & LJ rolled in to one. It's just MySpace but less ugly. It's just... no. That's not it. My reason, my only real reason, was that I didn't understand it.

And this is what it all boils down to. You don't understand it and you are not willing to spend the time to understand it until it has such a large impact on your life that to not understand it is to be ignorant next to the rest of the population.

Why did you get a computer? Why did you join LJ? Facebook? Twitter? Because you are keeping up with the Joneses.

It's odd then, that I don't see this as a bad thing. If you had signed up before it became popular you'd probably be a geek. You'd care about being a part of something for the sake of being a part of something, or you'd care about it because it's cool new tech, or you'd care about it because no one else has it yet giving you some sort of advantage...

So, what does that mean? Should we be proud to be a part of the herd?

I don't know. I feel that people who aren't a part of the herd are artists. They are the ones that break new ground. I'm not one of them. Never have been. It's not because I can't be bothered, because I am lazy or because I am apathetic, it is because my mind doesn't work like that. I don't want to be the only one on the dancefloor trying out my new moves. I don't want to look like a dick. I don't want to waste my time learning about nonsense that no one else is ever going to use.

But wait... artists are cool, right?

Mar. 23rd, 2009

(no subject)


  • 13:38 My mini 9 arrived. It's very shiny. Must now buy a case to keep it that way and a new bag to carry all my techno-junk around it. #

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Mar. 21st, 2009

(no subject)

  • 16:12 Loving the Mansard Roof album - a whole host of jolly poppy songs ♫ blip.fm/~37aut #
  • 16:52 Little Fluffy Clouds! I hadn't heard this for aaaages, and just rediscovered it amongst my mp3 collection last ... ♫ blip.fm/~37cvk #
  • 17:17 ooh, Watchmen @ IMAX on Monday. Less excited about it than I should be, as I've never actually read it! Perhaps this'll inspire me to do so. #
  • 17:41 Russian poetry reaches places other poetry cannot reach, but only when spoken in Russian. *melts* #
  • 12:08 Unexpected time. What should I do with it all? Ideas in a tweet. #
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Mar. 20th, 2009

(no subject)

  • 17:43 Off to DLO. #
  • 17:44 Heh. I mentioned the eye-fone and 'apps' and won myself ten new followers. Who are they? What do they want? Answers on a post card. #
  • 10:44 Listening to the Sliver Jews. Like Murder Ballads & Johnny Cash, it's the good side of country. #
  • 14:26 Just booked flights for #ozora. Off to Vienna first, then Budapest, then to la fiesta. I am excited already an there are four months to go! #
  • 14:37 countrytastic! ♫ blip.fm/~3763h #
  • 15:23 Shpongle + breaks = Rather Good :) ♫ blip.fm/~378g5 #
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Mar. 19th, 2009

(no subject)

  • 22:42 I have a new toy. It is so very shiny. iPhone, I love you. #
  • 11:08 Anyone recommend any iPhone apps? Restaurant/bar info, transport info, cool toys, etc? #
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Mar. 18th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 14:13 This software sucks goats. Test burn pass but real burn fail. Wasted two CDs. #
  • 14:26 This is too damn hard. Why can't it just work first time? I hate computers. #
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Mar. 17th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 16:27 #minirecipe tomsce: finechop onion+garlic, sftn in olivoil. + splash wh-wine. +tin tomatoes (or fresh). 5m, med heat. +basil, salt, pepper. #
  • 09:24 Tried making cookies last night. Tasty but crumbly. Anyone know how to make gooey american-style ones? #
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Mar. 16th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 11:03 A lovely weekend. Emma and I baked a cake. A Victoria Sponge. #
  • 11:04 Repotted basil. So many little seedlings. I hope they grow well. #
  • 13:57 #lunchtweet Salad from the salad bar in Leather Lane market. Very tasty, very filling and surprisingly cheap. How do they do it? #
  • 14:33 RT: @eatlikeagirl: Please retweet :-) Flatmates wanted! 2 double rooms in lovely Victorian house in Turnpike Lane. tinyurl.com/chyhfc #
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Mar. 14th, 2009

Tweets for Today


  • 17:38 I'm going home soon, looking forward to pizza, mighty meaty plz #

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Mar. 13th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 09:34 Will be listening to psytrance All Day. #
  • 09:55 My coffee is hot #
  • 10:55 Anyone seen the Hurly Burly Cabaret? Wondering whether it's worth a visit. #
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Mar. 10th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 17:38 Just remembered Josie Long's playing at Porthole tonight and I've got 2 seats reserved... forgot to invite anyone to come with! #
  • 10:33 Listening to Asure - Golgotha. It's got a deep, rumbling bass opening sent a chill down my spine. Niiice. #
  • 10:34 Oh, and Senheisers are seriously worth the money. Have in-ear buds that block out *all* external noise and have wonderful bass - for £30! #
  • 12:40 A guy at work was talking about how he used to stalk Keira Knightley, sitting in her local cafe, waiting for her... like it was so normal. #
  • 15:49 It appears that I have discovered something almost but not quite entirely unlike tea. Redbush tea is more like a bad impressionist than tea. #
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[geek] unit testing

I am trying to set up unit tests for an existing piece of JS code. I have a problem which seems to have two possible solutions.

The problem is:
A lot of the smaller functions work with an object which is assumed to exist within the scope. To test them properly I need to mock this object before running my tests.

In my mind, assuming a variable exists is a recipe for disaster, though I am not quite sure why. If I had written this, I would be passing the object between methods which perform an operation on it as a local variable before returning it to the calling function.


The solutions are:
Either mock the object, or refactor the code so the methods does not rely on external variables.

Do you work with OO languages? Which do you think is the better approach?

O.Z.O.R.A.

I'm getting a bit excited by the lineup. Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Ott.. but aren't these all Simon Posford? He's going to have a busy festival. Also Entheogenic, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Prometheus and loads of prog stuff that will be good for taking us through to the morning.

Actually, I think I am going to have a busy festival.

Juno Reactor are playing again. I think I'm going to avoid them this year - these days they're just not worth the bother of standing up for.

Mar. 9th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 13:34 Have a briefcase with me which I picked up at a lunch meeting. It was passed to me under the table. I feel slightly sinister. #
  • 15:11 I get unduly proud of myself when I fix a problem with a system I don't understand - it just means I've learned to read error messages. #
  • 15:40 I had forgotten how much I enjoy coding to psytrance. It makes me wish I did more of it! #
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Mar. 7th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 17:16 Anyone know if I can use a single Mac OSX install disc across multiple Macs (for a home network), or is it one disc per computer? #
  • 17:46 Been watching too much Flight of the Conchords. Can now spot a NZ accent a mile off. I imagine they are all chatting with the prime minister #
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Mar. 6th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 08:30 It's a perfect day for letting go, it's a beautiful day, hey hey, thank crunchie. #
  • 09:17 gotta new computer. mini 7. i mean 9. each one i get is smaller than the last. thinking of picking up a mac mini also. can't remember. mini! #
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O.Z.O.R.A.

I am suddenly very excited about O.Z.O.R.A.! I've been looking forward to it for a while, but I have just discovered how many people I know will be going!

I said the first year I went, when it was just Nick and I, that the only thing that'd make it better would be having more of my friends there. The following year I went with four more friends. This year... omg.

Nick, Ruth, Robin, Sarah, Alex, Steven, Zac, Reagan, Jonathan + many more

It's going to be a lot of fun :)

Mar. 5th, 2009

Tweets for Today

  • 19:53 Just bought my Ozora ticket! Only four months to go. #
  • 10:32 Yesterday's dinner was: steamed chicken with ginger, spring onions and black fungus (bad choice - boring) with stir-fried pak choi & rice. #
  • 12:00 Damn you, @syn. I was supposed to not spend any money this week! #
  • 14:23 #lunchtweet Spinach & Ricotta quiche from Neal's Yard Deli. Good, but lacking depth of flavour. Why do so many veggies make food *boring*? #
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