Yvan Seth's Hole in the Internet

These are just a few photos for Kat, though they will probably also interest my family so I'm putting them up here. (Kat's stuck down in Sydney while I have a pretty decent summer, weather wise, up here in England on my own. :-( )

Continue reading Photos for Kat.

It is of little consequence, but worth mentioning: I won't be using Facebook any more. I've deleted my account. (Apparently even this takes 14 days, so whether of not my absence - should it be otherwise noticeable - is evident yet beats me.) Straightforward instructions for deleting Facebook accounts can be found on wikiHow.

It isn't a privacy thing, it's more of a control issue. I like to have more control over my own data and the Facebook lot are making it difficult to understand what's going on, and even more difficult - or impossible - to have any control over this. (I pretty much gave up on the privacy issue long ago, if data is on a computer somewhere presume it is as good as written in 40 foot letters in the heavens. There's more to it than that of course, but lets keep away from that quagmire.)

Should anyone want to contact me they'll have an appropriate email address or phone number. I'm also still on LinkedIn, for now …

With a new year well and truly underway, first week of work past and all, I thought I'd better reflect on things. Nah, stuff that. I'm off to Australia on the 15th, jumping from the sub-zero to the over-30 temperatures of the West Coast – perhaps even 40! We'll see. While I'm there my 30th birthday will pass, in lieu of having some sort of third-life-crisis I think I'll just enjoy the heat and sunlight.

Continue reading Snow!.

The Nightingale is what we consider our "local". It is a, mostly, relaxed and friendly locals' pub with great beer. There is a core of regular drinkers from an interesting variety of backgrounds, from foreign imports like ourselves to people who've lived in the area since the day they were born. From time to time there is live music, and other special events – but not every weekend (that'd be a bit much, some people want a quiet drink on a Saturday evening!) There's a huge half-covered patio area out the back, with summery BBQs and heaters for the poor smokers in winter (while I feel sorry for them, I'm glad of the smoking ban, without it I'd be outside or not going to pubs.) A lot of the activity in the pub revolves around the seasonal pool and darts leagues, there's also a Thursday dominoes league. Us, we're useless at pool and don't know how to throw a dart, we're there for the beer, company, and conversation.

Continue reading The Nightingale.