I’m back in Oxford now and to be honest I’m glad. It was nice to be in Thanet, see old friends, that sort of thing but I’m eager to get on with learning. I didn’t really do much more than drink and watch TV in Thanet, being home makes me instantly lazy. I had three boy projects that I wanted to do in my month off…
There are some dreamed of gadgets that hold a mythical status. The king of these unicorns of the gadget world has been the much dreamed of iPhone. Everyone knew exactly what it was to be called were this ever to be made, the rumour of the iPhone has been bouncing round for few years now but Apple chief, Steve Jobs, has always denied that they were working on it. Yet yesterday during his keynote speech at MacWorld he announced the long fabled iPhone (I thought he might mention it at the last MacWorld in 2006). I guess it was obvious that it was coming, the market is steamrolling its way towards an integrated in-pocket solution. Another indicator was that Apple had made deals with Motorola previously on the ROKR phone. The clincher for me was when I heard that Kevin Rose (Digg.com) had said it was coming on his Diggnation podcast (warning; beer swilling geek millionaires). His prediction of a video iPod nano, which was much derided, was spot on the money. Its also worth noting that the news of the iPhone almost gave Digg its own digg-effect with what is now pushing close to 20,000 votes on the product’s announcement.
I’m not normally an Apple fan; DRM, closed source built on open source, etc. Aside from that they have always seemed to have an army of brand faithful evangelists which isn’t really my bag. But the iPhone is worth sitting up for and paying some attention. For my money, having a full HTML browser is exactly what I’ve wanted from a phone, so I may end up buying an Apple product after all. This really does look like its going to be the sparkling unicorn that you only hear of in myths.
For a full breakdown of what is going to be on offer, check this engadget article.
Whilst at work the other day I met many of the members of the Global Generation Church. They do alot of work in the area with the community, infact it is their primary goal as a church. This may be related to the fact that this is a very young organisation (over 30 and you stand out) and so they want to make an impact on the community and get more members, or perhaps they are just good people. They certainly shook my view as to what a church is like, these guys weren’t middle England style baking competitions and tea with vicar. Hell, they don’t even have a vicar to lead the flock, the task is taken on by a team of shepherds who are as much leading themselves as others.
So is this a good thing? Should it be down to a church to provide youth clubs as well as providing advice on drug use and sexual health? Is it because of the gaping hole in public services that these groups feel compelled to set up these services or is it because organisations like Global Generation set up these services that our elected bodies feel they now don’t have to deal with these social issues?
Meeting these guys gave me a new found respect and hope for Christian organisations but in my mind it still raises some troubling questions about society.
Two days later and its New Years Eve and I was working. I’ll admit that this was a night that I wasn’t looking forward to. I always feel this night of all nights is the biggest of disappointing nights of the year. There again, I think I can just be a misery sometimes, which was something I did well on this night. I did have some fun though, there were nine of us working upstairs around one till, a night of continual weaving but sooo busy that the evening flies. I like work to be busy :). This bar dance was set to a soundtrack of the Sharpees who played better than the last time I saw them, though I have to admit they are still not one of my favourites. In all honesty though it would have to be one hell of a band for me to have a covers band as one of my favourites… and at least they didn’t play Mustang Sally! The shift finished at some ungodly hour, so we went on to a party in Margate in the home of On The Rag zine. It was a house gig but unfortunately we missed the bands, new boys ‘Cubs’ and one of my favourite locals ‘We Are Carnivores’, due to time. Shame really, I would have put up with the bleeding eardrums you get in house gigs for those two. nye, newyearseve, work, sharpees, cubs, wearecarnivores, ontherag, ramsgate, margate
I recieved a letter from the court service… fear.. had they really found me?! I slowly opened the envolope and pulled out the pink paper… jury duty! Wuh?! How terribly exciting, though I have had to defer though due to school… erm, not sure I can talk about that, if not then I’ll just edit this post ^^ juryservice
Luckily I’m getting a good few shifts while I’m here, lots of last min calls but thats fine by me. One of my more recent shifts has been real relaxed but I’m starting to be aware of a necessity of a more appropriate part time job. Not sure exactly what that is at the moment but its certainly something I need to think about. Answers to ‘life, the universe and everything’ on a postcard to 42 Hitchikers Way… work, career,
Well there is a summary of the past few weeks in an entry that probably takes as long to read. Hopefully once our interwebulation connection is rectified I can summarise my return to Thanet in more bitsize pieces.
My recent general lack of internet has severely severed what I am able to do on my Christmas projects. Our house in Manston sits outside the Thanet wired broadband catchment area. Of course there is always a workaround. For us the answer is wireless broadband beamed in through a toaster styled receiver attached to the side of the house from up near the Uni campus. We were with a company called SoBroadband from Rainham but alas they went into some kind of liquidifidation and was subsequently taken over by VFast from Ashford. They all seem very nice so we don’t really mind that their temporary transmitter (put up for Christmas) keeps being blown down by the high winds we’ve been having of late. projects, broadband, sobroadband, vfast, manston
Christmas was turned out well considering. It was my first without my father and his brother, both having died earlier in 2006, assuming I’ve not mentioned it before. We went down to that side of the family in Dorset and frankly it was generally pretty good fun. My cousins are all come of drinking age and so it was a good fun starting from almost as soon as I arrived. Just got to get them to move off the lager onto some good ales. christmas, family, dorset
Friday the 29th of December was showtime at the Lido, Margate. Evil Elvis were playing with support from Black Static Transmission rinsing out a Christmas set in the last Plan9 show of the year. ‘This is almost like Christmas with the family’ I explained to my friend Danny as I talked him into coming. ‘Your not sure that you really want to go but you know your going to have awesome fun when you get there’. He succumb, but frankly I think he was lured by the Elvis, a now almost annual event of \m/Rock\m/ and Roll. I played in the 2000/2001 NYE show and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the first. Anyway, loads of others made the same pilgrimage and a very cool night was had by all with lots of drinking and dancing. Even Danny had came out grinning, if not a little worse for wear which meant we had to get out the taxi a little early (if thats not the mark of a good night, I don’t know what is?!) evilelvis, blackstatictransmission, plan9, lido, margate
I spent time in Ramsgate today (Saturday). You really can’t get much more bizarre than that town. My vision of the place had been blurred. I always thought of Ramsgate as a cool town on the coast but today I was reminded otherwise.
I was a lost puppy, a fish out of water, an old cat in an old town.. I drifted down Ramsgate highstreet today. Drawn as I was to Argos at the top of the street for some last minute Chrsitmas shoppping (I’m a boy). I headed on down the highstreet just to check out what Ramsgte had tuned into in the weeks that had passed.
To be honest, I didn’t expect much change. I had always thought of Ramsgate as a cool town but you know, I think I always saw it at the wrong time. At night the harbour is really something else, but during the day the town truly lacks something that other towns have. I think that its called jaw muscles… This really is a town of slack jaw locals who consider themselves observant when they spot JJB sport between the cheep watch and the phone unlocking market stalls. Don’t get me wrong, I do have faith in this town but there is something wrong at the moment / About the only shops that are opening are sports clothing. I see a Sports World has opened up where Courts was and very busy it was too. I can believe it must be good business to keep chavs clothed.
SO back to Argos Christmas shopping and while there I immediately turned into an old man. The poor man beside me was hassled buy our dear chav, his space personally invaded. They were cocks but they left. Here is where the old man thing comes in: “these kids think they own the high street”, “hanging round in their gangs”, “all I want to know is where the parents are”… I’m almost speechless… I take a quick mental note and see that we are only young men… medium age of thirty… I fill my slip out for the laminater (a Christmas present) and head away with those words ringing… “I blame the parents”.
This place is truly a village. I knew I could go out tonight. Get dropped at somewhere like Churchills, meet someone there and go on to an endless night of drinking and non stop meeting people I know… Tonight the highlight???… Alex Glinn. He is an aspiring sound man who’s dedication and ambition no-one can fault. He’s was working on that local Bob Hoskins film which has become Ruby Blue. I give noted respect out because he is really someone who is doing what he can to get out of the expected Thanet life, especially in such a demanding industry as media.
Ok, I’m back in Thanet for a month. I have six days of gallivanting round the country. I have degree of necessity to head down country to Dorset to spend much needed Christmas time with Family. After that, apart from a possible three days in Wales, I’m spending a time in Thanet and I will record a memoir of my time. As a little end of post bonus; I’m hoping to leave a treat for Thanet before I leave.
I’ve been told off for not blogging much of late.
I remember how low I felt during the 2004 American elections. I knew Bush was going to win and because world affairs are so tied up in American policy, I knew the dark times were going to continue. Now I can’t help but feel good at seeing the loss of The House to the Democrats and (as I write this) the Senate hanging in the balance with it also likely to go to the left, unless of course the Republicans can manage another of their legal comebacks.
Even better though is the recent announcement that Donald Rumsfeld, the warmonger himself, is going to stand down in face of the defeats. So not only is Bush going to be a lame duck with some seriously clipped wings but perhaps the guiltiest party in such fiascos as the Abu Ghraib cover-ups is out, out, out! I think I can see some light at the end of this dark tunnel.
I think I’ll also mention that others that I have spoken to tend not to know the difference between the two parties, or simply can’t remember who’s which. I came up with this simple mnemonic:
Democrats - Greece created democracies where they discussed the meaning of life and were generally quite liberal, though the boys had a tendency to sleep with other boys.
Republican - Rome created the republic where they beat the rest of the world into submission and perhaps built Europe’s ‘greatest’ empire, suffered from bit of religious militancy.
I’m terrible at saving numbers in my phone, mainly because my phone is so awkward to use, but normally because I think ‘I’ll do it later’. Surely it would be better if each phone had its own ID that the user sets which when you call someone it comes up as you ID/name. This avoids all those confused times of asking who it is when you don’t recognise the number, or in some peoples cases, not answering at all. That is all.