The chillis were born on Sunday 20th March 2005, when some seeds nestled snugly into a bed of soil, and were placed delicately into a mockodile. I mean, a propagator.
Friday, 6am: Briefly gain consciousness during what is technically still the night. Remember that I don’t have to get to work until 9.30, and somehow manage to reset the alarm before going back to sleep.
Friday, 8am: Alarm goes off. Pete and I very reluctantly crawl out of bed, shower, dress, breakfast mostly still with eyes half closed. Hate mornings. Want to stay in bed.
Saturday, 7.30am: Postman rings doorbell. Roll out of bed with more speed than accuracy and dash down two flights of stairs to find that he has already given up, but kindly left parcel on doorstep again. Rescue parcel, assume it is new boots won on ebay, go back to bed. Pete v. warm.
Saturday, 7.45am: Pete gets out of bed announcing that he needs to do some programming, as he has just had an idea for Senile Pig* and there’s no point trying to go back to sleep. Follow him downstairs and make a cup of tea. Open parcel and try on boots. Pleased that they fit.
Saturday, 8am: log into computer. Bright, alert, cheerful. Why don’t I feel like this on weekdays?
*The MP3 playlist generator, now with new icon designed by Meafmania.
I have swapped the printers over, so my computer now has the clunky old HP Laserjet 4L, and Karen’s has the shiny Lexmark X5250 scanner/printer combo.
With the result that I can now print from both Windows XP and Ubuntu.
This gives me one less reason to stick with Microsoft. Hurrah!
Yeah, I know. It’s Friday night. I should really be doing something much more exciting. Well, to be honest, I’m not sure that there IS anything more exciting than the prospect of a computer that does what I want it to, rather than what Microsoft wants it to.
I’ve noticed a trend for online address books, such as those offered by Plaxo or Bebo. I consider these things to be the devil.
For example, take Bebo’s Privacy Policy page, and scroll down to the section entitled “Acquisition”…
It is possible that as we continue to develop our website and our business, Bebo’s service and/or related assets might be acquired. Notwithstanding any provision in this policy to the contrary, in event of a merger or acquisition, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring entity, and become subject to the acquirer’s data practices.
Do you know what this means? No? Well, I do, and I shall tell you. It means:
“If we go out of business, we will probably be bought by a spammer, who is only interested in our magnificent database of email addresses.”
Devil, I tell you.
In the light of today being St Patrick’s Day, we at Uborka Towers have very specially, for today only, as a very very special one-off treat, gone all green coloured.
Behold.
T’be sure.
I may have mentioned that I don’t much care for my job. But I don’t think I have mentioned my imminent move into a new role in another department, which will involve co-ordinating social and ethical audits at factories in the Far East, helping UK and European clients to put corrective action in place to improve the factories that they use, and – crucially – not dealing with the tat anymore.
Further to some additional farting around on the part of my boss, I don’t actually get to start the new job until 1st April, and I do still keep the HR element of my role, which might occasionally make things difficult. It’s hard, sometimes, to decide which hat I should be wearing, if I have a heavy tat-related workload and there is a sudden HR emergency. And yes, there is such a thing as a HR emergency. Oh, I could tell you some tales; but obviously I would be breaching HR administrator confidentiality if I did.
The new role has some major positives: more flexible working, cosmopolitan colleagues, a sunny corner of the office, and two weeks training in China.
As you know, University Challenge consists of two teams from different universities competing against each other in a general knowledge quiz, chaired by the impatient and acerbic Jeremy Paxman.
You may not be aware that in fact there are three teams, and the third team is you, at home on your sofa, watching University Challenge religiously every Monday, as everyone does.
The deal is that the teams on the telly score ten points for each main question, and if they get a question right, they can go on to score five points each for three bonus questions. They lose five points for interrupting a question. They can only confer on the bonus questions.
If the home team has one or two players:
The team at home gets ten points for every question they get right, including bonus questions; and they are allowed to answer the bonus questions even if they didn’t get the main question right.
Each member of the home team is allowed to give an answer, but if all members give the right answer, the team will still only score ten points.
If the home team has more than two players:
Play as for one or two players, but only score five points for bonus questions.
This scoring system has been rigorously calibrated and is proven to be fair and equitable, taking account of the fact that the home team has been out of the educational system for quite some time, and their brain is cluttered up with more important things like doing laundry and working for a living.
Last Monday, this particular home team was unusually good, trouncing University College Oxford (135 points) and Jesus Cambridge (165 points) with a masterful score of 260. Tonight we hope to go through to the quarter finals.