Self censorship

July 24, 2004 //

In a chat with Pete not that long ago we were joking about being carried away by men in white coats for things written about in a blog. I thought that it was certainly pretty easy to censor yourself enough to prevent this from happening. However this did get me to thinking.
I some article somewhere I read that some of the more tech savy companies will read the blogs of job applicants as this is the easiest way of getting a handle on what they are really like. Thinking about this I wondered if knowing this fact would cause me to censor myself more that usual.

After a bit of contemplation on the subject I came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t change my blogging at all, I’ve already decided that I won’t use sware-words on this blog (mainly because I like the challenge of using more interesting language) and I don’t get upto anything that I feel would influence any job making decisions (plus what are the chances of that actually happening to me?)

On a completely separate note I had a really enjoyable day at work yesterday, I was working with my boss on some initial simulations for our next major project and found the challenge and the free exchange of ideas to be stimualting and rewarding…. 😉

Categories Thoughts, Website

Mental note

July 23, 2004 //

A plain danish pastry is NOT worth 75p

Infact they pretty much suck full stop.

Categories Random

Road trip!

July 23, 2004 //

Woo, I’m pretty excited, couple of mates gonna be coming down this evening, staying over, then we’ll be road tripping it down to Plymouth. Last time I did a road trip like this it was the most fun I’ve ever had on a journey so I’m pretty psyched !

Also work seems to be picking up, was going through a bit of a slow patch.
Upside: less boredom
Downside: less blogging?

We’ll see

Categories Random

Microwave info

July 22, 2004 //

The reason that we can’t put metal in the microwave is similar to why its a bad idea to run a microwave with nothing in it. If there is fat or water molocules to absorb and transform the microwave energy to heat energy then there’s no problems. However, if there is no absorbtion then the amount of radiation energy builds up in the microwave until it reaches a point where sparks can occur. This of course is a bad thing.

Source: Ask a scientist

During my searches for this info I also found Unwise Microwave experiments 😀 most of the things on there are just silly, but one piece of information was not only startling but also something I think that everyone should know (assuming its true).
If you heat water for a few minutes in the microwave, it is capable of actually reaching temeratures above 100 degrees C.
‘How?’ you ask?
Well its a bit difficult to explain but I’ll give it a go (much better explination on that site).
Water can only change to steam at a liquid/gas surface, in normal boiling (with an element or on a hob) the temperature is so extreme near these heat sources that seed-bubbles are created and they rise up through the water. In a microwave however, the water is in effect heating itself (by absorbing the microwave radiation) and so there is no localised hotspot for these seed-bubbles to be created. True there will be some micro-bubbles due to the un-even surfaces of the container that holds the water, but this will not be enough to cool the water (as with normal boiling).
Now, you have your superheated water and you take it out of the microwave, you add your sugar and…. KA-POW (not in a good way) with the introduction of all those micro-bubbles (and generation sites) the water will immediately equalise and rapidly cool by changing to steam. This is a pretty explosive reaction and will send boiling water all over the place, burning anyone nearby.
Not good !
So the advice is be damn careful and if you must re-heat coffee or boil water in the microwave, do it for less than a minute.

Categories Random, Thoughts

Say Aaaaah

July 22, 2004 //

In the not too distant past I was watching a program about people with bad diets being ‘educated’ by an expert. My curiosity was tweaked when this expert did a quick diagnostic of digestive problems by looking at the subjects tongue.

Eventually this curiosity got to a high enough level for me to find out more. Firstly I had a look in the mirror. One quick search later and I found this site. I have yet to find another site to back up this information (something I’m a bit dubious about) but according to this information I have the following problems:
Problems with small intestines, unfortunately the site didn’t do into anymore detail that this so thats a bit of a non-starter.
Possible “stagnation of blood; fat and mucus deposits; or a weakness in the blood leading to such conditions as anaemia.”
I’m pretty sure I don’t have mucus deposits and I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe I have a ‘weakness in the blood’. Now I know that anaemia can be caused by a lack of iron so I’ve done a bit of research on iron, and here is is: Read the rest of this entry »

Categories Health

Random question

July 22, 2004 //

Why is it so bad to put metal in the microwave?

If I find out I’ll post an answer.

[Answer]

Categories Random, Thoughts

Very strange

July 21, 2004 //

The XHML validation of this site was being screwed up by that funky net time applet. Turns out that <applet> is no longer valid and has to be replaced by <object> … however it seems that <object> MUST be in lowercase letter. Pretty weird ‘cos I always thought that html was case insensitive.

All’s well that ends well though, as my site is now verified to strict XHTML 🙂

update:

Seems that because IE sucks at handling XHTML that this fix actually breaks the java behind net time in IE (but not in other browsers). So now I have a dilemma, get it working in IE and forfit my XHTML validation link, or advise all internet explorer users to get with the times and get a better browser (IE has so many holes it looks like a badly made pancake 😛 )

Categories Website

2 4 1

July 21, 2004 //

This post will be two smaller posts joined together, value for money that ;).
Firstly, I think I’m gonna take a leaf from Matilda’s blog in that I’ll be refering to friends by nicknames (those that want it anyway). So if you have a good nickname for yourself then email me (if you don’t have my address you don’t know me well enough for a nickname). Ravishing red head is already taken, and I’m guessing that Pete will stick with Pete, and Denyerec will stick with either Denyer or Denyerec.

Now onto less important things.
This morning I woke from a really surreal and strange dream, if you’ve ever woken up from a dream and thought that was damn weird, and then immediately forgotten most of it then you’ll know what I mean.
I was getting on quite well with a monkey, could have been a talking money, not sure. I definately saw myself in the third person on more than one occasion, there may well have been a luxury flat involved too.
Reading this I can imagine you thinking that I’m brainsick or mentally unhinged, well you’d be wrong. Its when you dream about walking down to the local shop, buying your favorite snack and then walking back… thats when you have to worry about your mental health because there’s clearly something wrong.

Categories Random, Website

Yay credit joy!

July 20, 2004 //

Blimey, I’ve just finished possibly one of the biggest meals I’ve had – not of course counting the expanding pasta incident (I may tell you one day). Anyway, put it this way, this was the first time in my life that I’ve had to loosen my belt after finishing a meal (really!).

But I’m straying from my title, today (or was it yesterday?) I logged onto my online credit card thingie to pay off the remainder of my bill only to find that when I thought I’d paid off only part of my bill I had actually paid it off in full!!
So that was a great and good supprise, I will be in less debt than I thought by the end of the month.

Categories Random

Blogging restraint?

July 20, 2004 //

Yesterday evening, after eating my tea and generally relaxing I had several thoughts that I considered blogging about. However I decided to restrain myself see as I’d already blogged twice that day (two times is enough surely).

Since then I have had time to reflect on this attitude and have now decided to take a completely different tack.
I will now blog anything and everything that I think is worthy of the small amount of effort it takes. This will of course mean that there will be a lot of useless and boring information on here, but in time I think this will work out for the best.
‘Why?’ you ask?
Well simply because the more I write the quicker my writing style will improve and I will get a better idea of what is interesting to blog about… hopefully this will happen through the comments, so the more you comment the quicker I’ll learn ;).
(Is that hint subtle enough?).

Well I’m off to play farcry for a bit now.

Categories Thoughts
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