Monthly Archives: December 2003

The Idiocy of the Prelacy (cont.)

31Dec03 – 11:47

Following on from yesterday, more gob-smacking supidity from “Dr” Tom Wright.

By Damian | Posted in Religion | Comments (0)

Come To Molvania!

31Dec03 – 10:26

Persevere with this stylish spoof. Some of the best laughs are in the sly details.

By Damian | Posted in Humour | Comments (3)

Bashing The Bishops

30Dec03 – 10:01

Yesterday “Dr” David Hope, the Bishop of York, and “Dr” Tom Wright, the bishop of Durham, “contributed” to the debate about whether Tony Blair was right to go to war against Saddam’s regime. At the same time they contributed evidence to my case for the teaching of reasoning skills at British universities. PooterGeekers who know […]

By Damian | Posted in Iraq, Religion | Comments (0)

Mia-Ow

30Dec03 – 09:59

Here’s one for Jo: Cat Bathing as a Martial Art. There are more examples of that sort of thing here.

By Damian | Posted in Animals | Comments (0)

Yuck

29Dec03 – 09:51

[warning: spoilers] Now, if you’re looking for sick-makingly sentimental (as opposed to just cuddly), then according to the Times the upcoming Julia Roberts vehicle Mona Lisa Smile sounds like just the thing. I might be interested in Ocean’s Twelve, though. UPDATE: Outside the UK you now have to be a subscriber to read most Times […]

By Damian | Posted in Movies | Comments (1)

“Mum, I’m Stuck!”

29Dec03 – 09:50

Marvin voice: Brain the size of a planet and all the readers want from me is pictures of pandas. No, Leasey, there is nothing “feminine” about my finding the badly-designed bears appealing. And as for Maoi, you can’t have a panda for your birthday, but you can have some panda wallpaper for your desktop. This […]

By Damian | Posted in Animals | Comments (1)

Kids’ Stuff

29Dec03 – 09:49

A child could paint better.

By Damian | Posted in Art | Comments (1)

bright grey

29Dec03 – 09:49

Someone is trying to build a funky life insurance company!

By Damian | Posted in Money | Comments (0)

When Geeks Wore Beards

28Dec03 – 10:31

Dan Bricklin invented the spreadsheet. On his Website he has a lovely little history of the way Visicalc was born. Lots of now (rich and) famous computer personalities make cameo appearances.

By Damian | Posted in Computers | Comments (0)

Ahh

28Dec03 – 10:26

Am I going soft? I don’t normally do animal pictures, and pandas are such a biological mess that they seem to be a flesh-and-blood refutation of “intelligent design“, but the new panda born at San Diego Zoo is just absurdly cute.

By Damian | Posted in Animals | Comments (2)

Book Review Round-Up

28Dec03 – 10:15

Newton’s Swing is a lean, but consistently interesting, New York thriller. To summarize it in the style of SavaPoint: A man is upset when his beautiful wife is shot dead in their apartment while their son is in bed. It has two faults: the author occasionally crosses the line between striking description and writerly fussiness […]

By Damian | Posted in Literature | Comments (0)

A Gift For Précis

27Dec03 – 12:21

Savapoint is a source for cheap software and hardware. Even before the savings on sales prices, the Savapoint Website provides completely free entertainment for visitors. Some of the perfunctory descriptions they offer of the movies they sell on DVD are a scream: The Hours: “A story of three women living in different time periods of […]

By Damian | Posted in Movies | Comments (0)

Worse

27Dec03 – 01:21

The numbers of dead and injured as a result of the earthquake in Iran are now looking even more terrible than before. It’s this kind of thing—rather than, say, a lousy program on ITV—that people should refer to as “appalling”.

By Damian | Posted in World Affairs | Comments (0)

Balls

26Dec03 – 09:27

Ah, the Midlands. On the long drive from my sister’s today—thank you for your hospitality Clare and Steve; and for your snot, Maisie—I listened to a strange football commentary. The game was a local derby between the football team of the spiteful little town I grew up in, Tamworth, and that of Burton-on-Trent, just up […]

By Damian | Posted in Sport | Comments (0)

There Is No Hiding Place II

25Dec03 – 12:24

09:40: first hearing of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas 10:55: second hearing of same 11:10: first Nat King Cole of the day

By Damian | Posted in Music | Comments (0)

Whoops

25Dec03 – 03:39

Oh, yes. Merry Christmas, one and all.

By Damian | Posted in Friends | Comments (1)

Bite To Eat

24Dec03 – 10:15

This‘ll give the Windsors something to talk about over the turkey. (Thanks to Fark.)

By Damian | Posted in Celebrities | Comments (0)

Birthday Blues

24Dec03 – 10:13

People keep telling me I don’t look a day over 33 too, but it doesn’t help.

By Damian | Posted in Humour | Comments (0)

Focus Group Results

24Dec03 – 09:10

As a result of extensive user consultation the PooterGeek Steering Committee has settled on this new executive blue look. Apparently the purple was pretty hard on the eyes. (It also had the effect of making visitors think their monitor was on the blink.) Don’t you just hate the way the word “executive” is used as […]

By Damian | Posted in PooterGeek | Comments (0)

Mixed Verdict

23Dec03 – 11:11

PooterGeekers on the new look: so far, one vote in favour (from Maoi) and one vote against (from Leasey).

By Damian | Posted in PooterGeek | Comments (0)

Better Off There

23Dec03 – 10:34

Courtesy of Maoi I have been reading Twisted 6, a collection of newspaper articles by Filipina newspaper columnist Jessica Zafra. Maoi has annotated the text in her beautiful handwriting so that I can understand Zafra’s native references and lingo despite my ignorant Anglo background. (For example, I’m not sure if the adjective from “Philippines” has […]

By Damian | Posted in World Affairs | Comments (1)

Geeky Joy

22Dec03 – 11:48

PooterGeek now uses Movable Type 1.65 and even works in crummy old Netscape 4.x Web browsers for the first time ever!

By Damian | Posted in PooterGeek | Comments (0)

Back On The Blog

22Dec03 – 03:09

PooterGeek is more-or-less back in action now. I’m fairly happy with the layout, but I think I might play around with the colour scheme over the next few days. Your comments on the new design are welcome. The cartoon pie-chart at the top of this Guardian article sums the whole ‘Blogging scene accurately.

By Damian | Posted in PooterGeek | Comments (1)

Rebuilding Work In Progress

18Dec03 – 02:22

There won’t be any proper ‘Blogging over the next few days because I am going to try to overhaul the PooterGeek site. Sorry!

By Damian | Posted in PooterGeek | Comments (0)

Starbuckled

16Dec03 – 12:55

Maoi took Amber and me out for her graduation dinner last Friday. [Thanks, Maoi!—I’ve been trying to email you, but your destiny.net account is bouncing.] After good food at Light we bustled off to see Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The film has such a clumsy title because it is bolted […]

By Damian | Posted in Movies | Comments (1)

Crime And Punishment

16Dec03 – 12:26

No doubt walking around with a stupid grin on her face too this week, novelist Claire Berlinski wrote to point out that she didn’t write this one.

By Damian | Posted in Iraq, Literature | Comments (0)

Dumb Headline Of The Day

16Dec03 – 05:43

If you read the text of the story it gets even dumberer. UPDATE: Damn! They fixed it. Here’s a screen capture of the original.

By Damian | Posted in Headlines | Comments (0)

Rule-Of-Thumb

16Dec03 – 03:11

If ever you are worried about a knotty moral issue, it often helps to check on what the Vatican thinks. I take this as a vote in favour of the American handling of Saddam to date.

By Damian | Posted in Religion | Comments (0)

Saudi Ambassador A Clone

16Dec03 – 02:31

TinFoilHat emailed to warn me that Zionist scientists, funded by the World Bank and using technology copied from crashed flying saucers, have replaced the Saudi Ambassador to the United States with a clone. He even speaks Yiddish Saudi ambassador accuses Iraq war opposers of ‘chutzpah’ [Associated Press] Countries that opposed the US decision to invade […]

By Damian | Posted in Iraq, Middle East, Money, World Affairs | Comments (0)

Innit?

16Dec03 – 01:53

Over at the London News Review there is an aggressively insightful series of articles about Urban English (UE) and popular music. I liked this bit about date rape advocate and chart-topping dancehall DJ Sean Paul Henriques—“a middle class, mixed-race Jamaican”—toning down his nastiness to appeal to white fashion victims: It would seem that Sean Paul […]

By Damian | Posted in Language | Comments (0)