Tangential Ramblings

I just waved from my bedroom window, while a Circle Line boat was ferrying tourists down the Hudson. I wonder whether it will make headline news.

Mourinho is a wonderful addition to the world of English football.  I'm currently listening to the Carling Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea using my dodgy streaming solution.

Last weekend, following defeat by Newcastle, post-match analysis on Five Live reported the following: "Despite Mourinho looking down due to the defeat, at least he can go home knowing he's the most beautiful man in football."  A comment of genius, one which judging by his arrogance is probably more true than one would like to think.

Then there was the incident at half-time in Wednesday's Barcelona game which caused controversy.  And now, he has been sent off for inciting the Liverpool fans following Gerard's own-goal equaliser.  He's great for English football.

Meanwhile at Lansdowne Road, England has gone 0-3 following a 19-13 defeat at the hands of the Irish.  Is the wooden spoon on its way to the World Champions?

I find America's obsessive approach to punctuation out of sorts, and something that would on the surface more be suited as a British trait than one of America.

I would have thought that some of the Brits' characteristics/stereotypes would contribute towards us being a nation obsessed with grammar.  For instance, we're somewhat set in our ways, and I think we may have a reputation for our pedantry.  Given that punctuation in the UK never used to be considered "optional", I'd have thought that this would have continued through to modern times.

Walk down any high street, and you will notice this not to be the case.  You will see misplaced apostrophes, entirely redundant apostrophes and missing apostrophes (can you see a missing apostrophe?) on temporary sale signs, and to a lesser but far more heinous extent, the wonderfully laminated signs above the shop window.

Meanwhile, our friends in the U.S.A. seem to be obsessive about punctuation.  The one for which they have a particular penchant is using the full-stop (or period) for all abbreviations - as highlighted by my punctuation of U.S.A. above.  This is not considered optional - ever.  In the UK, we've relaxed this rule, mainly where acronyms are so commonplace as to be understood without the full-stops - RSPCA, BBC, UK, USA, am, pm, GMT etc.

I like to think of punctuation holding the hand of the reader to get them to the end of the sentence safely.  Over-punctuation will make them stumble along the way.  (Excessive use of the comma is a particularly nasty example of this.  This is why I always try to avoid the Oxford comma, unless I'm separating items that are already "anded" together.)  Under-punctuation will get the reader to the end of the sentence, but they won't know how they got there, and they'll be dishevelled as a result.  (Did the ball belong to Peter or Jane?  How many balls are there?)

I will always remember my Dad returning from work one day, seething at a younger colleague who had pointed out that a certain punctuation mark was no longer necessary.  I forget which punctuation mark it was, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of those "nice-to-haves".  (I hate it when people write this as "nice-to-have's", btw.)  Similarly, I remember my friend Mr. Mitchison hypothesising back in 1998 that the apostrophe "will be obsolete within ten years".  Not on my 'blog it won't, as this sentence goes to show!

While education in the UK is such that people will continue to have their shops' signs laminated wrongly (if they didn't, what would I have to talk about?), I think that our approach to removing the abbreviation full-stops from acronyms is the right way to go, as the reader feels better at the end of the sentence, and they haven't lost anything along the way.  Hats off though to the Americans, whose die-hard attitude towards those keys at the extremities of our keyboards will help keep the apostrophe and its compadres alive.

On this subject, a nice little story from Joel Spolsky on the often mutual exclusivity of software development and user experience.  All for the sake of a pixel.

It seems that the UK weather has come across the Pond and hit the eastern seaboard.  Well, maybe not - this storm has actually been brewing for the last couple of days down in the Carolinas.  I should leave the Brooklyn office pretty soon if I want to guarantee getting home, as it's coming down in buckets - not literally, although that would certainly help with the ensuing snowman construction.  Also, I'm playing outdoor football tonight :)

There's a funky little tool that comes with macromedia's free shockwave player called WeatherBug that puts yet another little icon in my system tray in the bottom right hand corner - eventually, I won't be able to see my application buttons.  This is probably the most useful such icon though, as it shows me the temperature (currently 22°F).  Apparently, there's a weather reader on the roof of the school opposite our apartment block that tells me the temperature, weather etc.  Kinda cool.

The original reason for downloading Shockwave was to watch the animation of Newcastle's goal against Chelsea booking them a place in the next round of the FA Cup.  This little feature is phenomenal, allowing you to watch goals from any camera angle or from the perspective of any player (or the ball for that matter).  Also, it's always up in a matter of minutes after the game has finished.  The way in which the BBC has gone with this embedded application seems like the right way to go.  It looks like the frame of the page is served as usual by the BBC's CMS, while the main body of the page is syndicated out to be fed by this applet.  It means that the technology behind their delivery application is not pulled left, right and centre by the whims of the moment, and it can focus on what it does best, while offering some wonderfully rich content.

Just how bad IT Safe is the latest offering from the UK Government?  It's good that the government is taking this seriously, but the web presence is shoddy to say the least.  The information therein isn't bad, and I quite like the way in which they've used the glossary as a driver for its search engine.  But try scaling the fonts, and look how much white space there is on the screen.  This looks like it's been put together in ten minutes, both from a branding and a technology perspective.

This should be on DotP - the implementation would be a piece of cake - and given that it's not, it should be way better than it is.  Please try harder...

It's always been quite frustrating that quite a few of the streams available on the BBC website are limited to UK-based IP addresses.  So the likes of football commentary on Five Live are only available to people in the UK.  However, I've found a workaround.

If I VPN into work's London office for a minute, load the necessary page to stream the commentary and then disconnect the VPN, the commentary continues.  It appears that it only checks the IP address when it first connects.  The quick switch of IP address back to my US one doesn't seem to phase it.  The same doesn't work for streaming video, which stops when you switch.

I'm currently awaiting a more strategic solution.  Hopefully Sean will be sorting out a proxy server for me to connect through in London :)  In the meantime, I'll continue listening to the FA Cup tie between Newcastle and Chelsea.  Chelsea's three substitutions at half time have been followed almost immediately by an injury to Bridge, so they're down to ten men.  Sounds good, but always makes me nervous.  Let's hope we can hold on to the one goal lead...

A sound article by one of the BBC's best, Justin Webb.  It highlights the growing divide between America and Europe, and the way in which America is happy to have the nastiness of reality airbrushed away, while Europe confronts the reality of the world.  If walking into Borders, America would be found in the fiction section, and Europe in non-fiction.  (Here is a post about this seemingly random classification.)

A number of the points made ring true.  I love the fact that in the BBC article, Webb doesn't feel the need to explain the Heathrow/Windsor Castle example further.  (Note to self: must try this one out.)  The point about censorship is a good one, and the furore caused by Janet Jackson's right breast last February is another great example of this.  As I wrote some time back, the US coverage of the tsunami seemed to miss the point.  (Not sure at what point tsunami earned itself a capital T, btw.)

I was on a train a few weeks back, which wended its way through small-town New Jersey.  As we pulled into the station of one such small town, I counted twelve tank-esque vehicles in a row on the parallel thoroughfare, all stationary, queuing to get into the town.  This wasn't a highway - this was a small road linking houses with the town.  I wasn't close enough to spot whether each SUV was carrying one or more uniform-clad children.

The non-signing of the Kyoto agreement is perhaps the saddest example of America's unwillingness to confront reality.  I remember Clarkson's (Jeremy, not Kelly) laughter at the lunacy of the fact that he could get the Hummer he was testing to give a 1 mpg read-out on the dashboard.  America has more cars than people, and given the size of the people, the cars are necessarily big (and inefficient).  Meanwhile, people seem to have no qualms at buildings spewing forth smoke of an unsightly colour.

If none of the above convinces you to read the article, it contains the word smite, which is reason in itself.  Through lack of thinking more than anything, I have always failed to notice the connection between smite and smitten, such is the rarity with which the former is used.

Monday marks Presidents' Day.  As is the norm with US holidays, every store in the land will be holding a sale in commemoration.  However, this surprisingly grammar-aware nation seems to be in disagreement as to how many presidents we are remembering.  Some are having a President's Day sale, while others a Presidents' Day sale.  I prefer the latter, as there is a risk with the former of thinking of George W.  Either way, I will be working.

Some time ago, there was a very interesting documentary on the BBC.  Caprice (the supermodel) was made-up to look as though she had a port-wine stain.  She worked closely with a lady who had a severe port-wine stain, and didn't have the option of removing it at the end of the day.  Essentially, it highlighted two (probably related) elements of the human psyche and behaviour:

- People treat you differently when you are different
- Your confidence takes a beating when you step out of the house with such a feature.

Last night saw another trip to the dentist - this time I was fitted with a crown and the healthy counterpart had its front shaved off ready for the veneer.  Now, in order to centralise the teeth, they've temporarily made the gap wider - thanks!  And in order to allow for the veneer (and so as not to weaken the crown), the crown is a millimetre or so longer than its neighbour.  As the dentist said, a millimetre is a mile in dentistry.  Again - thanks, for that!  I feel like Caprice did in the documentary - everyone looking at me oddly (even if they're not), and all my focus going into covering up.

My confidence has gone out of the window, and will remain there for the next two weeks.  Next Wednesday I have a temporary fitting to finalise their shape, position etc.; then they're sent off to Brooklyn to be glazed ready for the final product to be fitted the following Wednesday.  While my wife attends photography classes on Wednesday evenings, it seems I have enrolled in the dentistry class - as a subject!  It will all be worth it (I hope) when I get the final product, but in the meantime, confidence is low, paranoia high, and looks are shot to pieces (no wise cracks, please!).

If nothing else, this experience has highlighted the mentality behind going to the dentist.  If you don't go for a while, then the fear factor increases with time, encouraging you to delay making that appointment further.  However, I've had the worst surgery of my life (touch wood), and iPod-equipped, it's been pretty painless.  So if you've not been for a while, go!  Otherwise, your mouth will look like mine does currently, which I don't recommend.

After a couple of morning beers watching the demise of England against France in the rugby at the Red Lion, we headed uptown to the Park this morning to see the Gates.  Basically, two artists have put 7,500 orange, giant croquet-hoops along the 23 miles of paths that wend their way through Central Park.  Each has a saffron piece of cloth draped from the cross-bar, hanging just low enough to touch.  Even though it's taken 25 years' planning, and cost a cool $20m, they're only there for about two weeks.

Now they're odd.  The first question is why.  They're quite impressive, but I think the best view would be from a helicopter high above the park.  The experience was marred slightly by the countless other people who decided to go and visit the attraction today (selfish!), but overall, I think I was left with a positive feeling.  However, I think I'm more in awe of the logistical side of the offering rather than the art itself.  It seems a shame that something so expensive and logistically challenging will be taken down after only two weeks - I wonder if you'll be able to buy any of the arches on eBay.

I'm not sure why Opera (the web browser) is called Opera, but maybe it's a snippet from Interoperability. Here is perhaps the leakiest web document I've ever read, not necessarily because of the number of in-line links (although there are lots), but because of the propensity for the reader to follow each and every one to see where it takes them. Hakon Lie, Opera's CTO, makes some very good points about Microsoft's lack of conformance, although he does go on a bit. Hidden behind the text is the reason why browser coding is so difficult, and why organisations have to spend so much time, effort and money testing different browser/OS combinations.

We often like a track, either for its melody or its lyrics, and we may buy said track or its associated album. But often, I think we overlook the unbelievable talent that it takes to put it together.

If you think about the starting lyrics of any of the four tracks I highlight in the post below, they are truly magical. They flow effortlessly, both rhythmically and syntactically, yet more to the point, they embrace the English language in a way I could only dream of.

Mike Skinner has won critical acclaim (I hate that phrase, but I'll use it anyway) of late for the way in which he brings everyday thoughts and feelings to life in his songs. The first time I heard The Streets' Dry Your Eyes, I had to stop the car (I was driving at the time), such was the power, truth and meaning behind the lyrics.

Similarly, composers' talents often get overlooked, as the listener's focus is on a great tune rather than the brilliance behind it. The fact that the brilliance is hidden is possibly an indicator of greatness - no analysis necessary. I listened to Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill earlier this evening, and the fact that the entire song is written in 7/4 without any effort whatsoever required from the listener is poetry. (I selected this from iTunes alphabetically by track-name, the following track being The Smiths' Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others. The line "Some Girls' Mothers are Bigger than Other Girls' Mothers" possibly puts pay to my previous sentiment on lyrics. Some would counter this.)

I remember watching a documentary about Jamiroquai. During the footage, he was in a studio listening to an incomplete version of what I think was Virtual Insanity. He said that it needed some strings over the top, despite me fawning over the quality of the track as it sounded there and then. He could hear stuff that I could only imagine - Ben's a bit like that.

In summary (or as Americans say, "In summarization"), I get writing (writing English that is - words on paper/screen not meant for singing). I'm not a great writer, but I can hold my own (as it were). However, composing is a different kettle of fish. I "composed" an orchestral symphony when I was 15 (for my GCSE exam), but it was very formulaic, and apart from a few ditties that were repeated and played with throughout, I would argue that there was little artistic flair in there. To be able to write a song that touches people, whether through its melodies or its lyrics, must invoke a pretty special feeling.

Lyrics are funny though. I've never been a big listener when it comes to lyrics. My focus always goes to the melody and harmonies rather than the message that a song is giving. It's only when I give dedicated time to a song that I listen to, and try to fathom, the lyrics. Most of the time, they just pass me by, although I can quote them, more as a string of words than an understood sentence.

That's all. Sorry - rather a rambling post, but such is the title of the 'blog itself. If you've got this far, then please read the post below - much more brief and probably worthwhile.

Back on 18 November, I hypothesised that the best starting lyrics to a song had to be from one of the following:

- Daydream Believer (The Monkees)
- Good Vibrations (The Beachboys)
- Stay This Way (The Brand New Heavies).

In true "Best Album in the World, Ever (part 2)" style, I've come up with another hot contender. The following intro is from Talking Heads' And She Was:

And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She's making sure she is not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbour's house
Now she's starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes

Thoughts?

My wife brought the Brits' 25th Anniversary album back from her recent visit to the UK.  I obliged by doing the transfer from CD to iPod via iTunes, and happened to transfer it to my own iPod too.  Heard Dizzee Rascal's Dream for the first time, which I have to say is a stroke of genius.

Thank you to Miles Hunt of the Wonderstuff, whose Size of a Cow chimed in during the most serious section of the second and final instalment of my root canal, which took place at 6pm this evening - a great song might I add.  He was welcome company in my hour of need, as was Trevor Brooking at the beginning of Three Lions which ensued.  The dentist suggested that I wouldn't need any anaesthetic, which unnerved me somewhat, but it was relatively trouble- and pain-free.  Next week comes the cosmetic part, for which I need a little help from you.

So, few would argue with the fact that I'm a pretty handsome chap, right?  However, there is a chance to make the ladies swoon even further through the upcoming work.  You see, given that my top front tooth is dead, I need to get it crowned and the tooth next to it veneered to match.  This provides the opportunity to shape them how I like.

So, I've decided to get them shortened a little, just a millimetre or two, cos they're a little longer than their neighbours.  I've also decided to have them made central, as I found out today that they're a tiny bit off to the right.  (This makes me sound like a minger, but for those of you who haven't met me, nothing could be further from the truth.  And for those of you have, leave it!!)  Here comes the tricky bit.  There's also a small gap in between them (around 1mm).  I have the option of getting rid of the gap altogether.  While this sounds really appealing, I'm slightly nervous, as the gap's always been there, and maybe it's a part of me.  I don't have the option of reducing the gap because apparently anything below a millimetre is a food-trap - nice!  As such, it's all or nothing.

So, please use the comments feature to vote on whether I should leave the gap as it is (for this, please write "Don't mind the gap") or close the gap (for this, please write "Mind the gap").  See what I did there?  I can't promise that I'll listen to you, but I do value your opinion.  Remember, this is my future you're playing with, so please be honest.  Alternatively, I could ask the highest bidder on eBay to come up with a tooth-shape of their choosing.  I think not.

Can I apologise sincerely for the lack of humour and general stuff of interest on my 'blog of late.  Maybe my wife is a source of inspiration to me, and her absence has left me bereft of creative juices.  Who knows?  I've just read back through the last couple of posts and felt compelled to put fingers to keyboard.  (Some may argue that the lack of interest has been a common theme since the ramblings began back on 6 July.  I would argue that if they're reading this, more fool them.)

For those of you who haven't come across Robbo, the football pundit from the BBC, I strongly recommend his posts.  Here's a link to this week's post.  Generally, he's right on the money, with some appealing humour thrown in.  I'm somewhat surprised he gets away with it from the BBC's standpoint.  I suggested to Ben that his "Hello, son" rapport with Wozzer (sp.) was drawn from this, but he assures me that it pre-dates this - ever the trend-setter.

The last time anyone clicked on any of the ads you see to your right was on 16 January.  The last time I earned any money from such a click was on 20 December.  BRYBGR will pay me when my earnings top $100.  Thanks to the anomaly of 5 clicks earning me $13.44 on 20 December, my total earnings to date are $13.61, giving a daily average of almost $0.18 per day.  (Taking out the outlier brings this down to $0.0022 per day.)  Using the former metric to extrapolate, I will get paid on 4 June 2006.  If we assume that 20 December was a unique anomaly, it will be 44,629 days before payday - 16 April 2127.  I will be 153 years old.  Partyyyyyyy!

It looks like Ellen MacArthur's round-the-world jaunt is going to be successful, as she's now only 22 miles from the finishing line, with over a day left to break the record.  Ben argued that she always seems to be whinging about how hard it is (which is a fair point - she is), but I don't think this detracts from the enormity of the achievement.

'bladed to Andy's yesterday evening to watch the first half of the Superbowl (which I just originally mis-typed as Superblow, btw - that will probably get me some porn ads off to the right) and 'bladed back at halftime (after a couple of cheeky bottles), thus missing Macca's mini-concert.

Overall, it was a pretty good game, and it was nice to be able to watch it at a civilised hour - I'm used to it finishing at around 3am when I'm in the UK.  Both defenses [sic] were pretty solid, and Donovan McNabb (Eagles QB) didn't seemed to cope quite so well, launching some decidedly iffy missiles, resulting in some interceptions and some should-be interceptions.

The weekend also saw a meet-up with Bal for a curry Friday night, which was good fun.  Great to catch up with him.

My wife has arrived back home from her jaunt in the UK, which I'm happy about.  Good to have her back.

I'm still coming unstuck with my Virginia Madsen conundrum, despite help from my parents (scanning an article) and Anne-Marie's suggestion that it may be from Moonlighting.  Keep working, guys.

Go on, give it a go! Here's an auction put together by US Weekly with lots of hard work from my friend Sarah. If you have the time, and some money to spare, feel free to make a bid for some unique celeb. merchandise...

I've been tracking the progress of Ellen MacArthur of late, in her bid to become the second person ever, and the fastest person, to sail round the globe single-handedly without stopping. It sounds tough, I have to say - I just came back from Food Emporium with six bags of shopping and had to have a sit down before putting it away.

Every time you read an update, it's filled with trauma, problems, big waves, no sleep etc. It would be refreshing if there was an update like this to read on one occasion.

"Waves are really calm today, although still making great progress. Some dolphins tracked the boat this morning, which was nice. Last night, I cracked open a couple of beers, then decided to call it a night. Had a good ten hours' sleep, which was a bonus. Think I'll take it easy today and maybe do a spot of sunbathing."

She's due to break the record some time late tomorrow, and if she hasn't done it by 7.04am on Wednesday morning (GMT), then she's not going to. Hats off to her, though - I couldn't do that.

This morning, I found myself watching some pre-match analysis of the Superbowl. However, instead of analysing the players, teams etc., there was a long section all about how the reporting team had got together, and how they gelled (sp.) as a unit. I think the main reason for such irrelevant coverage was the fact that there were still eight hours to kill before kick-off, which I think is at 6.30pm tonight.

If you want to keep fit on the move, and you're in a good mood, you should walk about listening to any of the following three tracks pacing to the beat.  Where in doubt, go for the double-speed beat.  I've done all three today (following the morning's uplifting Downtown), and it tires you out - my legs are aching a little.

- Jump, Girls Aloud (The Sister Sledge version, albeit great, is a little slow for this purpose)
- American Pie, Don McLean
- Knock on Wood, Ami Stewart.

I today realised that next year's Superbowl will be Superbowl XL (40).  Cool!  I wonder if Microsoft have a big sponsorship deal in line, or half-time advertising.  Not sure what I'll be doing for the big game on Sunday.

Finally, if you're bored at work, try this.  Each of the tiny dots represents one second, and there are 86,400 (60 x 60 x 24) of them on the screen.  As the day ticks by, Javascript turns the dots from pink to black.  Completely useless but fun (albeit briefly) nonetheless.

I have been utterly shocked twice in the last few days at the views of a couple of New Yorkers (completely independent, I might add).  I suppose the fact that we're in a resoundingly blue state that ranks fourth from an IQ standpoint gives me more of an aspirational view than otherwise might be the case.  When this view is challenged, it can be quite shocking.

One view was that all black people should live in the same neighbourhood, congregate if you like.  Jews do, so why not black people?  Interesting point, and one worth airing on Fox, no doubt.  The other was a reference to Aids as "the gay disease".  This still makes me shudder: if this is the view in American blue states, then the plight of Africa on this front is so much more desperate.

Living in New York has its benefits though.  Listening to Petula Clark's Downtown, you can't help but grin (at least I couldn't on the way to work this morning).  The way in which the song articulates the city's offerings is second to none, and her British accent, particularly on the words "shows" and "close" lends even greater empathy on my part.  It can't help but kick your morning off to a wonderful start.  And today's Friday too!

It's been quite a week. Andy came round for a sumptuous meal (cooked by my good self) accompanied by some Merlot and followed by a few beers on Monday. First stop was the Pig & Whistle on Greenwich Street in Tribeca. Will never be going back due to the somewhat Republican views of the owner, which he seemed keen to share with us - asshole.

We then went on (I think) to Katie O'Toole's saloon where we were given licence to draw all over the paper tablecloths, which was much fun. A slightly dull head ensued on Tuesday.

Tuesday night was football night, which was much fun on a snow-covered pitch, rounded off in the now traditional manner with hot chocolate/beer at Brothers.

Wednesday was a hoot. Root canal surgery on my dead front tooth at 9.30am! A couple more visits to come in the next few weeks to sort out a veneer for its healthy counterpart so that they match. I also had my teeth bleached using UV light, having been advised to do so; doing so at a later date would require a new crown and a new veneer at stupid expense. So now I look like Ross in that episode of Friends. Despite having dental insurance, the cost has racked up, which is a shame given the imminent end to the UK tax year.

I'd recommend the UV treatment, but if you're going, take your iPod. Essentially, it's an hour of your life that you'll never get back, where you have to lie down perfectly still while your mouth glows. I don't think I would've made it without Elvis Costello, Kylie et al. keeping me company. After the treatment, your teeth are well sensitive, but this dies down after about 12 hours, and now, things are back to normal, with a nice white smile to boot. (To boot here means as well, as opposed to offering an opportunity to kick my face in.) I now need to decide whether to have the veneer and crown changed in shape from my current teeth (shorter, wider maybe) to make me even more handsome - not sure if people could cope.

I was surprised and saddened this morning to read about Ivan Noble's death, so soon after his last post. I am still shocked at how the passing of someone who (a) I only heard of relatively recently and (b) I have never met can affect me so significantly. Reading the article brought goosebumps, and the video brought home the reality of death. My thoughts are with his family.