 |
| OM NOM NOM |
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Where is my sun?
I know that this is sounding a bit much at this time of year, seeing as it's October and all, but I really feel like we are owed some sun due to the lack of it over the summer. Yes, I know we did get that week (was it really a week? Felt like a lot less to me) of absolutely beautiful weather and glorious temperatures up in the top 20's towards the end of September, but that was really not enough. All these gales and rain are shocking my poor little system into submission!
I really dread to think of what the weather will be like next year.... This is basically nature telling the seasons to go fuck themselves, am I right? Like this year...
Nature's Diary:
January and February: Effectively a massive battery of cold and snow and more cold and ice and generally unpleasant conditions that made us put the heating on too high and waste lots of money. If not, you would lose at least a digit by frostbite to the perilous conditions, IN YOUR OWN HOME. Everyone looked like the Michelin man whilst traversing the streets.
March and April: You know what would really catch everyone off guard? Blazing sun and beer garden conditions! Yes, you can have this for the next two to three months and get a nice tan and forget all about that horrible winter that you'd just suffered...
August and September (up until the last week): BATTER YOU WITH HURRICANE. WINDS BLOWING IN YOUR FACE FROM ACROSS THE SEAS. ARGHHHH FEEEL MY WRATH. Get blown off your bicycle.
Last week of September: I've put you through too much. here. Have a week of unexpected sunshine, catch up on your vitamin D for the winter. It's too hot? What? You were complaining that it was too cold. There is no happy medium with you lot.
October: Gale force winds and frost and snow in certain parts, whilst throwing as many elements as possible in a ridiculously short space of time to whoever happens to be caught out in the open. Is that cold enough for you now?!
I dread to think of what's yet to come. All I know is that my coat's just about ready to come out of the wardrobe from winter storage, and the flip-flops are also in the vicinity.
 |
| At least someone's happy. |
Caturday.
 |
| Guten morgen. |
Today is my first Saturday off since last Saturday, and my last Saturday off until I don't know when, so I reckon that I'd better make the most of it. I would prefer to spend it sitting mindlessly staring at a wall, or perhaps racing snails, however, more pressing matters must be attended to first.
First of all, what's this doing here?!?!?!?
"Venus springs ozone layer surprise
 |
| "Artist's impression of the detection of the ozone on Venus's night side" |
Scientists have discovered that Venus has an ozone layer.
The thin layer, which is hundred of times less dense than the Earth's, was discovered by the European Space Agency's Venus Express craft,researchers report in the journal Icarus.
Until now, ozone layers have only been detected in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars.
The find could help astronomers refine their hunt for life on other planets."
Later in the article it goes on to say: ...
"Some astrobiologists assume that the presence of oxygen, carbon, and ozone in an atmosphere indicates that life exists on a planet's surface.
The new results negate that assumption - the mere presence of oxygen in an atmosphere is now not enough evidence to start looking for life."
 |
| Bacteriaa |
Really? It took you how long that merely finding oxygen isn't necessarily a gauge for whether there's life on the planet? Really? That long? I am most dissatisfied with this piece of "news" if you'd call it, mainly because it's one of the most ridiculously common sense articles that are out there that is claiming to be the next big thing, but also because the author has hyped it up a stupid amount in her one-sentence-long paragraphs. Why all the spaces, is what I have to ask?!
But what I'm even more appalled about is the fact that the scientists were basing all of this on an assumption! Wouldn't it be quite obvious that in all of the planets that they study (which have oxygen, carbon and ozone in the atmosphere), not 100% of them will contain life? By the way it's made out to be, it sounds like they've plucked this idea out of thin air and without any proof, and then basing everything upon it! I mean, even a fool can see that that's not going to work.
Why are we even going out to find other life in the first place? Is this the human inquisitional nature daring us to find out more and more about the "stuff we don't know", or shouldn't we be scared? Actually, neither. It would (quite obviously) take them (the aliens) millions of light years to reach us from their tiny little planet to ours, probably by which point both parties would have expired/wiped off of the face of the universe by some cruel other twist of fate. The idea that there is intelligent life on Venus is ridiculous. Or any life for that matter, not unless someone's willing to dig to the core of it and bore the rock just to make sure nothing's down there. It's not anywhere near our planet's "Goldilocks zone" which helps all of its organisms thrive and survive, nor is it slightly skirting on it like Mars in the past. Nope. Venus is a lost cause. No life there.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe that there is life out there. In fact, maths practically proves that there is life out there, but it's just a bit too far away for us to get to it yet. The chances of us being the only living planet in the universe are stupendously slim, compared to the vast expanse of the cosmos... So why limit it to our own solar system?! Why even limit it to carbon based life-forms as well? Who the hell knows how a silicon-based life source works, so how would we know what to expect if we encountered one? All in all, I think that Jennifer Carpenter, the science reporter for BBC news, should be stripped of her title and sent back to writing school (or wherever it is they go), to stop making such rubbish reports of something that the media is deeming to be "groundbreaking today", when really, it is pretty much common knowledge. And an insult to scientists, because the first rule of being a scientist is never assume anything.
Friday, 7 October 2011
Steve Jobs dies.
 |
| Got any Jobs? |
I feel a bit backward about all of this, seeing as I only found out yesterday on facebook (how apt) having spent a horrendously busy day running to and fro from everywhere, and doing anything. I guess that it didn't register at first, but now it has, I don't think it's going to affect me too much. And I found out about it on my PC, as opposed to me iProduct, as I don't think that I have ever owned a product from Apple ever.
 |
| Ipod... through the years! |
I do agree that all of their stuff does look very pretty. But when they released that iPod without a screen? I know this is going back a fair while, but the iPod shuffle seemed a bit pointless. You had no screen, so you couldn't see what you were listening to, or what was up next, or select anything. I think that sort of thing is made for the really daring types, or those who love ALL of their music and can't be bothered to listen to a full album. I never had one myself, and quite glad that I haven't. It would've driven me insane, as half the time I don't know what I'm listening to anyway.
 |
| Pretty. |
Yes, it's a brand, and a big one at that. Steve Jobs helped it with his magical song and dance at every convention and unveiling of new product, but because of that they've stuck an unnecessary excess price on every item. This is what makes them more of a "coveted, but not really too bothered about not having it" brand to me, rather than must have. Sadly, I do not have more money than sense, and if I find a laptop with better specs and half the price of a macbook, I would side with the former.
I guess the thing with Apple is they're not really inventing new things, just more modifying the stuff we've got into something smaller and neater and cuter and more convenient... and fusing things together. I hope that the next big brand to rise up out of this will actually start making something completely different from this tablet PC vein we're currently stuck in....
 |
| Pic ENTIRELY related. |
Personal statement woes.
I guess it's this time of year again. A time of year when several thousands collectively (and somewhat reluctantly) are right in the heart of constructing a document of NO MORE THAN 4000 CHARACTERS, selling themselves out to the big bad higher education institutions. "Selling yourself" could not be a more relevant term. Well, maybe "sounding like a big-headed faggot" would be more apt? That aside, I guess it is very easy to fall into that trap, so I guess the trick is getting the happy medium...
Personally, I'm only a paragraph into the whole thing. I think I've started off alright (seeing as starting that sort of thing is the hardest part), yet I'm dreading to think of it being ripped apart and scrutinised, and then reconstructed. It took me the best part of 6 hours to write my CV, and I've only ever had one job, so I'm dreading to think of the hours of slaving away at my newly-acquired word processing programme it's going to consume...
What are you really meant to put? "Hey! Pick me! I'm super! I'm awesome and like your subject lots and lots! :D llolololol." Well, certainly words to that extent. Except perhaps more subtly and scholarly... However, I would certainly pick someone who wrote that (if I were in the admissions team) if he had some ridiculously high predicted grades, just because it proves that you don't have to be so serious about the whole thing. And I'd be sad to see his £22 go to waste. In fact, I would do that if I weren't so concerned about actually getting a place.
Content? "I have a grade 8 in the oboe and a green swimming badge, which means that I could swim 15 lengths of the swimming pool. I think i would be an excellent candidate for this theology course." What? You're going to do theology when you could've pursued the blue swimming badge or played oboe in the orchestra? What are you doing with your life? - the admissions people think. What relevance does that really have? Well, I guess the oboe shows passion and dedication, but what about swimming? I bet that they got that when they were ten and were a bit short of substance...
Lordy lordy, I thought that writing CVs were hard... but I guess once I've put it through the spell check and grammar check a million and one times, condensed my passion into 4000 words and poured my heart and soul into it, they will accept me... Wish me luck! *Whimper*
What are you really meant to put? "Hey! Pick me! I'm super! I'm awesome and like your subject lots and lots! :D llolololol." Well, certainly words to that extent. Except perhaps more subtly and scholarly... However, I would certainly pick someone who wrote that (if I were in the admissions team) if he had some ridiculously high predicted grades, just because it proves that you don't have to be so serious about the whole thing. And I'd be sad to see his £22 go to waste. In fact, I would do that if I weren't so concerned about actually getting a place.
 |
| That's not an oboe, it's a frigging clarinet! |
Lordy lordy, I thought that writing CVs were hard... but I guess once I've put it through the spell check and grammar check a million and one times, condensed my passion into 4000 words and poured my heart and soul into it, they will accept me... Wish me luck! *Whimper*
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Damn you, Mr Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall...
 |
| Mr Hugh... |
Let me start from the beginning...
I think that it was one of those days where i had been eaten by the sofa after dinner , and the Sunday run of Come Dine with Me had finished. Normally I would get up and do something else, however, on that day I was feeling rather lethargic so remained in front of the telly box, practically dozing off and waiting for energy to come to me. Don't get me wrong, normally whenever I see River Cottage on the channel menu I wouldn't give it a second glance... just something about it made me "not be arsed" to watch it. However, River Cottage popped up on More 4 and I couldn't be bothered to change the channel, and I was pleasantly surprised!
In fact, it was so influential that I've changed my views on eating meat because of it. D:
 |
| Catch of the day |
What I think was most sad was the fact that he went out to catch some herring from a local seaside town (at 5.30 in the morning because of the way that the herrings follow the sun) and went with a local fisherman. The fisherman told Hugh that in the town's heyday, over 80 boats would come out and fill the bay early every morning, using ancient methods to catch these herring. These days, it's just the lonely fisherman and one other bloke who goes out at the crack of dawn in search of these little fishies... And yet we're still getting more herring, just due to the massive trawler boats taking in ridiculous amounts of fish at the time from a place where we're not meant to take them. This change in age-old tradition somewhat saddened me, and led me to continue to watch on.
 |
| Tartiflette. |
 |
| This is lamb, not beef. |
The other amazing thing that he did on the show was show this cow that he had raised, and then taken to slaughter and was about to show us what he was going to do with the rest. This cow was a cow that wasn't just stuck in a field with a crappy diet of grass and cheap fodder, oh no. This cow had been fed on oats and molasses and had had a splendid short life in the field, and when Hugh brought the carcass through to the chopping board with his butcher friend, you could tell that that piece of meat was going to be so much better than your standard supermarket cuts. Even the meat looked so much happier than your sad, drab supermarket meat that has been pumped full of crap, and you could tell that it was going to taste amazing.
This led me to the conclusion that I should stop consuming meat from supermarkets. Why eat all that sad, lifeless rubbish when I could go to the butchers, save a dying institution and gets something that actually tastes good. Or pop off to the Farmer's market, one of those conventions that is becoming less and less frequent these days? Well, I am currently poor at the moment, so I shall have to be living a rather frugal vegetarian life up until I come into the money again... But I might as well savour what I have anyway.
Oh Hugh, what has been done? If that was the effect of one episode, I don't think that I'd be able to watch a whole series without being converted to a real countryfile.
 |
| Ere mert wat yoo lookin at |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)