Posts from 2016

19 Dec 2016

A Cock and Bull Story

This is a short post bringing together my recent ramblings on TV tunnels with my love of meta. “A Cock and Bull Story” is one of my all-time favourite films, if not my all-time favourite. It’s a film about making a film of a book about writing a book, in which Steve Coogan plays (a version of) himself. There are so many circles within circles: one beauty is a cameo from Tony Wilson, played by Coogan in “24 Hour Party People”.

11 Dec 2016

TV Tunnels

When I wrote about TV Tunnels this was what I meant. Much more fun than just two mirrors: This was shot using an iPhone pointing at a Mac running https://www.airserver.com/

29 Nov 2016

On wiggly lines and being normal

Not too long ago I found myself concentrating on breathing normally. Sitting at the end of a wire, a mask strapped to my face, listening to the hiss of the machine that was keeping me supplied with air, and trying not to be flummoxed by the two life-size glass heads that seemed to be staring at me, all I could think was “how do I breathe, normally?” If someone asks you to “walk normally” or “hold a smile” - or even enquires what you do with your thumbs when you’re running - a sort of macroscopic Heisenberg Principle comes into play.

30 Sep 2016

Toy fish and noisy x-rays

Iris is 123,456,789 seconds old next Tuesday - she’s getting on - and is starting to learn about reading. Parents are encouraged to get involved in the process, and so I’m finding my way around the “phonics” system (with the help of Anki of course). The sounds of letters, and of groups of letters, are associated with actions as a memory aid for the learner. I’m having a little trouble with some the associations from the “official” list (I’m not sure if it really is official, but it’s the one used at Iris’s nursery.

13 Sep 2016

I missed my pocket

I’m without my smartphone for a few days after it had a close encounter with some tarmac. I’ve lost a few superpowers: the ability to use Whatsapp and online banking. Most annoyingly I miss the ability to switch the lights on and off in my kitchen. That’s only the case because we were using flic buttons to do it via Bluetooth (after another domestic mishap in which we lost our light switch).

23 Aug 2016

Putting everything on the line

During the olympics I heard about a couple of competitors in racing events who “dived” (or “dove”, if you’re American) across the line. The rules are clear (section 2 rule 164 IAAF rulebook): “The athletes shall be placed in the order in which any part of their bodies (i.e. torso, as distinguished from the head, neck, arms, legs, hands or feet) reaches the vertical plane of the nearer edge of the finish line”

23 Aug 2016

On the difficulty of deliberate ignorance

If you watch Match of the Day you’ve almost certainly done that thing where you avoid hearing the results so that you can watch the footy as if it were live. What with all the newfangled twitterbook, facewhat, interweb and apps, it’s got more and more difficult to achieve. Sarah and I were particularly challenged trying to keep up with this year’s action in the olympic velodrome. The world of tech fired an early warning shot at us for the men’s sprint final.

14 Aug 2016

Home Honing

I reckon sharp knives are safer than blunt ones. Same with scissors - including children’s scissors. It’s a slightly dull and messy job but I enjoyed getting our kitchen knives back to their best last night in front of the TV. Sliced a few grapes to celebrate a great gold medal in the Women’s Team Pursuit from the velodrome in Brazil! Pedantry note: I am aware that honing and sharpening are different…

10 Aug 2016

A new use for EHICs

Fortunately, I’ve never had a need to use a European Health Insurance Card until recently. It was a non-medical application. Very useful for keeping the air con on while the hotel room was unoccupied.

14 Jul 2016

g10k3

As promised we hosted another g10k running event and barbecue this weekend. Thanks to all who signed up, came along and joined in. The British so-called-summer did its best to throw us off course, sending lots of people scurrying under a smallish tent at one point. Spirits were undampened (I was already wet from this year’s upgraded water fight) and the bouncy castle got an outing later on. Nine runners this year, with a speed range of 1.

11 Jul 2016

Unexpected avivorosity

Findings from the world of nature: on a visit to Edinburgh Zoo a little while ago, we watched as Tian-Tian the panda lazily munched on some bamboo. Next to her was a bowl of “nuggets” - some sort of protein boosters, and loads of magpies and jackdaws were nipping in and stealing the nuggets. The keeper remarked how brave the birds were and, on questioning, revealed that Tian-Tian had caught and eaten several feathery meals since she arrived in the UK in 2011.

19 May 2016

Mozz family metadata

I’ve written before about the lengths I go to to keep photos safe. I don’t miss the ceremony of dragging out a physical album, ostentatiously blowing the dust off and crackling through the pages. Not for me - gathering round an iPad or a screen is just as good if you want to make an occasion of it. My entire photo collection is over 13,000 photos at the moment, growing rapidly thanks to Iris and Finn.

14 May 2016

mybinder.org

If you work with Python you should try Jupyter notebooks. A particularly nice service I was introduced to recently is http://mybinder.org - which sets up a notebook server for you, installs whatever you need on it, and lets you (and anyone you care to share a link with) run python, from a web browser. Your code becomes reproducible and tinkerable by anyone, anywhere, without the usual barriers of clone, install, set up.

10 Apr 2016

Quornucopia

One day this week I had lunch that contained quorn, quark and quinoa. That is all.

05 Apr 2016

Woodland welcome

Girton recently lost a big tree - I think it was a holm oak. Until a couple of weeks ago it had a great spot right in the middle of the village. Things feel stark without it. It’s going to be replaced - but it will be tens of years before anything comparable has grown up. Out running recently I found this “Woodland welcome” sign. There are some saplings just out of shot but I don’t think I’ve done it an injustice.

18 Feb 2016

Mondo

I’m enjoying being an alpha tester for a new bank card at the moment. You know how you sometimes spend money on your debit/credit card, then check your balance, but the transaction hasn’t shown up yet and you have to mentally remember to subtract it from the number you see on the screen? Assuming, that is, your bank has a usable app. Another example: “SMS alerts” consisting of a weekly gibberish message at 8am on a Tuesday morning.

17 Feb 2016

IRN-BRU sorbet

Burns Night is a big deal in our family, and we celebrated it last month. The past couple of times I’ve made (what I think is) a successful sorbet from IRN-BRU, the most Scottish of soft drinks. I started from this recipe courtesy of Jane Levi/Silphium. Realising that the flavour would be more intense if I didn’t dilute the BRU, I figured: There are 10.3g sugar in 100ml of IRN-BRU (source).

04 Jan 2016

Cousins and carrots

I was delighted to find out recently that us Morrisons have some relations living in the same village as us. From some family checkups over the festive period, it turns out that I share two of my great grandparents with someone who (nearly) shares my postcode. This means that one of Iris’s best friends at nursery is her third cousin. Explaining this pleasant discovery in a friendly kitchen on New Year’s Eve, I was amused to observe that the usual shenanigans went on.

03 Jan 2016

Venerable Vaults

Not something you see on every wander around a school playground.