Nerja

Wish you were here. Not!

Holiday

I'm off work for a couple of weeks. Be warned, I probably won't check my email and will probably avoid the internet as much as possible. There may be the odd photo added to my blog.

See you in September!

Trading Places

With the internet, the roles of parents & children become reversed, & I don't mean in the way you're probably thinking of. Offspring have to protect their parents.

We have to warn our mums & dads not to reply to emails from strangers (particularly from Nigerians promising cash), not to click on pop-ups (no, you haven't really won ｣10,000,000 because you were the 500,000th visitor), and to make sure their virus protection is always up to date. We warn them to be careful out there on the internet, to wrap up warm, and not to talk to strangers. We want them to have a good time, but we worry a little bit.

So already roles begin to reverse, and I guess this shifts further as we all get older. Wierd.

Abseil?

Walking to Mumbles for ice cream.... It looks like Jack's about to abseil off the edge, down to the sea.

Puddles

With rain comes splashing in puddles.

Fat Man Walking

There's a fella in California who, over recent years has been getting fatter and fatter. He wasn't always like this, but he's got older, he has a family, and life changes. He doesn't like being fat. So he has decided to get rid of it. How? He's gone walking, from San Diego to New York City. That's a long way, and a hell of a lot of calories.

Good lad. Read his story: link.

Bedtime

New Camera (not mine)

Where did this come from? It grew outside the entrance to Swansea University yesterday.

Live or later

Is it me, or is it weird that on the internet the big thing with video is live vidcasting, and yet with TV the thing to do is timeshift and watch it when you want?

Welsh Windows

Did you know you can get Welsh Language versions of Windows XP and Microsoft Office? Download the language packs:

Link.

The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster

darthside.blogspot.com

Journal of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith and Servant to His Supreme Excellency the Emperor Palpatine.

Summer Silence

It's so quiet.

It's August, and most of the Medicine academics (certainly the lecturers in my wing of the school) have gone away on holiday. The students are on their summer break, and the research labs are quiet, with the occasional confused PhD student. I've got another couple of weeks before I go away, and still have a couple of deadlines to hit and things to prepare for the start of teaching next semester. Research is progressing, and I have a post-doc starting research in my group in September. I'm not as busy as I have been, but I'm kept occupied. But it's weird to work when it's so quiet.

Trains

Even on the weekends I use public transport. Jack loves trains.

Brum

While Jack seems to have absolutely no sense of direction (like his mother), he knows where all his favourite rides are in Cardiff city centre, and drags you into the shop when he recognises the logo.

I can work on his sense of direction as he gets older, right? Or maybe he'll be a member of the GPS age, & won't have to worry about that sort of thing.

*$

Jack likes Starbucks. He always gets milk & a huge cookie.

Socks & Sandals

(Jack's, not mine).

Radio 1 Podcast

Blimey, Moyles' Breakfast Show from BBC Radio 1 is now a podcast (or at least, selections of it are). He's sitting pretty at the top of the iTunes Top Podcasts list already. This means I can listen to Moyles on the train to work in the morning on my iPod, without a radio. Sweet.

Tracking a mobile phone

Do you want to know how/if police and phone networks can track mobile phones? The BBC wrote a bit about its use in catching a London train bomber.

Link.

Cycling at 40mph

I was late leaving work for the train today. Luckily, on the main road out of the uni I let a coach pull out in front of me & jumped into its slipstream. I haven't done this for ages (don't try it at home kids) & only do it on roads I know really well. You don't want a pot hole to appear from under the coach at 40mph because you'll make a mess. I pretty much sit in the middle of the lane, staring at the brake lights, staying as far back as possible without getting into the turbulent air, spinning 52x12. Fun!

I kept up the speed almost the whole way & got to the station 5 minutes earlier than usual :)

One problem: it's sunny again so I'm the smelly bloke on the train. Oh wait. There's a guy with a couple of dogs on this carriage & one of them just let rip. Eurgh - that stinks. I get a reprieve.

Phil's Biog

Haha - I just found Phil's biog: www.medicine.swan.ac.uk/bio-philip.maull.html. Planet of the Apes or what?

University of Wales Swansea Biog

I finally got around to this. Hmmm. It's a bit dull.

www.medicine.swan.ac.uk/bio-s.v.webster.html