People often stop me in the street and say “Hey, Pete. Should I leave my computer on all the time, or turn it off when I’m not using it?”
Well, here are your answers. Once and for all. Real facts coming your way…
Why would someone phone up and ask for one of the company directors by name, when all they wanted to do was confirm the company’s address for their database? The mind boggles. Sometimes. Apart from those occasions when it doesn’t boggle. But this is one of those occasions when it does.
I once wrote a long and very boring rant about RSS. It was really quite horrid, and the kind of offensive snootiness that I am normally so good at avoiding, as I despise it in others.
I never published it, for this reason.
However, some of my points were valid, so I am distilling it, allowing the vapour to condense below into small droplets of PURE FACT.
1. If your page title begins with a full stop, it makes Thunderbird scream and wail, so I can’t use your RSS feed.
2. If you use MT and your default archive type is monthly (rather than individual entry), then unless you have modified the RSS template to use MTEntryPermalink instead of MTEntryLink, then it also makes Thunderbird scream and wail.
My blogroll currently contains 12 well-formed RSS feeds, about 8 malformed ones, and 4 sites that don’t have an RSS feed whatsoever.
I have set up an account with kinja and added a few feeds. It seems to deal with both of the above cases, and also sites with no RSS feed. Would it be craziness if I didn’t switch?
Why do people put flowers at the roadside when there’s been a fatal accident? Wouldn’t a streetlamp or a warning sign be a more sensible use of the would-be donations that burn through people’s pockets when there’s a sentimental gesture to be made?
And worse, why are the flowers usually cellophane-wrapped carnations from the garage, which wilt immediately and blow about the place, making it untidy and possibly causing a further road safety hazard.
This, and not the donation-mania that is currently sweeping the nation, is the Diana-isation of society. What possible use does a dead princess have for cellophane-wrapped carnations or soggy teddy bears or whatever other rubbish was left at the gates of Buckingham Palace?
If I die, and people leave litter on my grave, I will be most insulted.
Hey, excitable film fans! After the phenomenal response to the challenge to watch and review the film Closer, I know that you will be clawing to get hold of the title of the film which we’d like you to dissect next.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have already figured it out, but for the rest of you, here it is.
People, I’d like you to turn your attention to Donnie Darko. It’s a few years old, so I doubt that you’ll be able to catch it at the cinema. The upside is that you can watch it in the comfort of your own living room.
So if you own a copy, rewatch it to freshen your memory. If not, consult your friendly local entertainment rental establishment, which probably has the air conditioning on even though it is winter, because the perverts behind the counter are hoping for a taste of your erect nipple through your flimsy top.
And then review, and send via email.
Book #4 of 2005: Submission by Marthe Blau
Mockingly reviewed in last weekend’s Guardian, released a week before Belle de Jour; and, surprisingly, placed prominently amid the new fiction in WH Smith, this book begged me to read it, so I did.
Translated into a disjointed prose style that doesn’t quite emulate Colette and Anais Nin (with extra kink), Submission nonetheless has an unreal, floaty quality that makes Belle de Jour sound like Julie Walters’ version of Madame Cyn.
A distracting afternoon read that doesn’t entirely step beyond the edges of plausability, and with an ending to match the anti-climax of Story of O. Not the worst of its genre by any means.
4/5
Serves 2.
Ingredients
1 aubergine
1 sweet potato
1 red onion
2 sticks celery
1 clove garlic or a blob of garlic puree
2 tsp pesto or basil in oil
2 sun dried tomatoes
Small chunk of strong cheddar cheese
Hey there. Are you good? Excellent. Myself? Not so good – having some trouble with one of my hooves, but I’ll get by. I offer you a review of Closer that was sent to me by Pix. Hope you enjoy.
I’m the worst kind of person to go to the cinema with. I have very little patience for shit films, and will relentlessly pick huge holes from small flaws. I’m a cynic. I’ll roll my eyes at sickly Hollywood romanticism. I’ll mutter “as IF” under my breath when things are unrealistic.