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What happens when you go past a hair dresser while in a odd mood.

Bethany was having a good hair day. This was unusual for her, since normally her waist length hair misbehaved to the limits of its ability.

So far today, her hair had only picked up a couple of pencils and attempted to knock a full coffee mug onto the floor, but she had managed to catch the mug before it could smash and cause a big mess in the coffee shop.

There had been the cute young boy in the queue at the shops, but he had had a very pert bum, and she wasn't entirely sure that she hadn't wanted to grope him herself. Fortunately, her hands had been full when he turned round, and she had been able to project an aura of innocence.

On bad hair days, Bethany had a lot more problems. Her hair would try to grab hold of anything that it could and throw it around the room. Shopping would become a nightmare, as her hair would fill her shopping basket with stuff that she had absolutely no interest in. These usually tended to be things that would embarrass her at the check out, such as 16 boxes of condoms.

Of course, this was nothing compared to her evil hair days.

In this test I did, there was a question
Which of the following statements provide a valid reason not to use RTTI for distributed (i.e. networked between different platforms) applications in C++?
A. RTTI's performance is unpredictable/non-deterministic.
B. RTTI is too slow.
C. RTTI uses too much memory.
D. RTTI does not have standardized run-time behavior.
E. RTTI frequently fails to function correctly at run-time.

To me, none of these seem valid answers. Does anyone else agree with me?

Had an interesting call from a job agent today. A nice sounding position in London, and for the first time ever, an agent actually wanted to see me, rather than blindly fire off my CV.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Hampshire

It appears that Jonathan Coulton is doing a gig in London in November. Not entirely sure why or if I want to, but I've purchased a ticket to go.
I nearly gave up halfway through, because the website has one of those fill in huge quantities of marketing info registration forms before you can even begin to actually buy the ticket.
I just hope he's worth the effort.

This sounds like it should be great fun. I think I'll buy a ticket, as soon as their computer recovers from its crash.

Today, I decided to sign up for facebook, after years of not doing it. As such, I'm trolling for people I know to add as friends. So, anyone out there?
Facebook is slightly scarey - as part of the sign up procedure, it offered a list of potential friends. Amongst one of them was a relative of mine, not a close one, and one that I would not have expected the system to be able to spot.
Eeep!

My mum is having a few age related health problems.
This doesn't worry me.
What does cause me to worry, is my sisters attempts to stop me worrying.
Odd that.

Having had my iPhone for a few weeks, I think I can honestly say that I really like it and would be lost without it. I just have a few incredibly minor quibles.
1. Charging. The USB connector on my mac book is only powered when it is on, unlike the FireWire connector. This means that I cannot simply plug it in and leave it to charge overnight, but have to use the seperate charger, which means pulling out the cable and swapping it around.
2. The charging cable is too short to allow me to use the iPhone in bed while it is charging.
3. The M key is too close to the delete key, and I keep pressing the wrong one.
4. The beeper speaker is right where my little finger goes, so I keep blocking it and losing the key click.
Apart from that, I think I love it.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Hampshire

Introverted people can be said to be people who gain energy from being alone and lose it from being in crowds, while extroverts are the opposite.
I've always considered myself an introvert, but i didn't find last nights social draining, but possibly energising. Maybe it's not people that I find draining, but being alone in a crowd. Maybe I've been too scared to get over the hill into happy valley.
Yet more thinking to do.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Hampshire

Looks like I might be buying a car. At least, I had a quick look around the local second hand car place, and there are a few possibilities.
The thing is, I don't know if buying a car is really worth it. Most of the places I go are reasonably accessible by bike or train. It would help with visiting the family, but apart from that I don't know.
Of course, the fact that the only way I can get around is by bile or train might explain everywhere being easily accessible by these methods. Are there places worth visiting that having a car would causes to visit them?
Hmmmm. Thinks

Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Hampshire

Well, that appears to have gone OK. I'm not sure I really enjoyed it, but the practise is good for me.
I hit the restaurant a bit late, and had a few problems finding the group, but found them all friendly. As I was late, I ended up at the end of the table with fewer dinner companions than those in the middle, but Max and Cheryl were quite nice, with Cheryl being almost as quiet as me. There were some interesting conversations about comics, computers, films etc. I nearly ended up with the wrong meal, as the waiter was insistent that the dish was what I had ordered. It actually belonged the other side of the table, but I got it sorted out and got my food.
It ended about eleven ish, with the departure of most people, and my heading off to the station. Max offered me a lift back to Fleet, but I turned him down. Maybe I should have accepted. If nothing else, I had a long wait at the station.
Given the level of success that I had, I think that I will try a few more, and also track down the Farnborough group.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Hampshire

How does anyone manage to like this socialising stuff? I'm trying to do it, and I'm flipping terrified. I feel like chickening out of doing this, though I'm going to try my best not to and to make this a successful event.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Hampshire

Later today, I'm off to what might be called a mass blind date. There's a social meetup group in Basingstoke, which I just joined, and they've got a meetup this evening.
I thought that I might give it a try and signed up a few days ago.
It's now the day of the meetup, and I have to say that I am more than slightly scared about what I am going to be doing.
We're meeting in a restaurant in Basingstoke, and there will be 14 other people there, abouts two thirds of whom will be female. While this is not a major factor, I cannot say that it doesn't affect the way I am thinking about the event.

Current Location: Hampshire

I might be going out on Friday. Actually, I am going out, unless I chicken out.
There's this social meetup site, which has a social group in Basingstoke. They hold regular-ish meets, and i've signed up, and said that I'll go to a meet this Friday. It should be fun, if it's not too terrifying.
The social balance of the meet is interesting - 11 female and 3 males, which should give me plenty of chances to screw things up.

Current Location: Hampshire

Lulu Guinness - Talking Fashion
Friday 23 October BSL
Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre
19.00-20.00

Lulu Guinness is famous for exquisite, witty handbags and accessories and her unique creations are sold in department and specialty stores worldwide and are seen on the arms of an ever-expanding list of celebrities. Her bags have been described as 'tomorrow's treasures' and have been collected by many museums including the V&A. She talks about the inspiration for her work.

Twiggy
In Conversation
Friday 6 November
Lecture Theatre
19.00-20.00

Renowned in the 1960s for her large eyes, long eyelashes, and long legs, Twiggy is now regarded as one of the most famous models of all time. Her short hair and slim build defined the look of the decade, and she went on to become an actress in films like The Boyfriend. She now models for Marks and Spencer and has written several books about health and beauty. She talks about her extraordinary career.

Martin Parr - On Photography
Friday 13 November
Lecture Theatre
19.00-20.00

Award-winning photographer Martin Parr is a chronicler for our age. His work explores concepts like leisure, consumerism, national stereotypes and cultural peculiarities and presents the familiar in a new and unique way. His weapons are criticism, seduction and humour: his photographs are entertaining, and accessible but also penetrating and original. He discusses his new work.

Cath Kidston - On Pattern
Tuesday 17 November
Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre
19.00-20.00

Cath Kidston is one of the most original and influential designers working in Britain today. She has created a unique global lifestyle brand based on a witty re-working of the country house style and a clever invention of quirky, distinctive floral prints. Her products include homewares, womens' fashion and accessories, and children's clothes and the company has over 30 shops all over the world.

The dorm here is quite interesting. The personality changes very noticeably as people move in and out.
The number of people using computers, how early you get up, when lights are turned on or off, etc. I suspect that a psychology student could get a full disertation out of it.

Today, I have done little.

Breakfast was the same as yesterday, but for some reason it didn't seem quite so special. On the way into Edinburgh, I passed a woman's shoe that was lying on the ground, or rather on a white slab. I suspect that someone lost it last last night, and some passer by thought that it would be fun to place it on the slab as if it was a piece of art. It actually looked quite good, and I have a few photos to upload later. On the way home tonight, the shoes had been moved off of the slab, and was now on the grass some way away.

After breakfast, I started off by visiting the Museum on the Mound, which is basically HBOS banks personal headquarters and museum. Not bad, but small. There appear to be a lot of small museums in this area.

After this, I just wandered around the "normal" areas of Edinburgh. This was partly just to look around, and partly to find and have a look at a shop that does plus size boots.

After that, I wondered a bit more, popping into a few interesting shops, including the local comic shop. While it wasn't the worst of all comic shops, it was less than inviting.
I then dropped back into the hat shop to try on a few hats and possibly buy one or two. Unfortunately, they either didn't have the ones I liked from their website, or they were for a smaller size head. :(

However, they did have a couple of nice hats that I am very tempted by. I can't describe them, but one was a sort of day hat (a simple black with a red ribbon with 'side' bits), while the other was a bit more stylish and "evening" wear type (a bit like a tilted top hat with feathers). I am so, so tempted by the first.

I was planning to visit a comedy show tonight, but the website for booking tickets requires you to create an account before you can buy them, and it's probably not worth it. I might go past tomorrow, and see if I can get a ticket on the door.
Now I'm off to find some food - probably Japanese, as that restaurant is reasonably close.

Current Location: United Kingdom, Edinburgh

What did I do yesterday?
According to twitter, I basically walked the Royal Mile, which actually takes more effort than you would expect.
I started with breakfast at a place called "Peter's yard", where I had the "Breakfast Basket", which, despite the name, does not come in a basket. What you get is a plate with 3 big chunks of bread, some sort of crispbread, some sliced cheese and some fruit conserves. Delicious, but I'm not sure what you're meant to do with the cheese.
After this, I headed off to the Royal Mile, and started walking down the hill.
I managed to find the Writers Museum, after realising that the map was quite wrong. The museum was OK, but it had one of those circular, stone stairs that scare the life out of me, and it took a lot of effort to get down.
Next was St Giles cathedral, which was a cathedral - you can tell that this sort of thing doesn't interest me much.
As I continued down the road, I got caught by a street magician doing the standard tricks with 3 cups and balls, though they were well done, and he had the patter down quite well. At the end, I got slightly confused about the getting money out of the crowd bit, and threw a pound in his hat before he was ready :).
The Museum of childhood was quite good, with all sorts of toys that I remembered from my childhood, and a lot of older ones.
Next were the "People Story" and "Museum of Edinburgh", which were pretty much as you would expect. The major thing about the Museum of Edinburgh was that the floors were incredibly creaky.
Reaching the end of the Royal Mile, I briefly considering going into the Scottish Parliament, but decided not to.
The Palace of Holyrood wasn't bad, though I went through it a bit quickly as it was approaching closing time, and I had also purchased tickets for the Queens Gallery.
The Queens Gallery had a show on called "Conversation Pieces", which is basically groups of people having conversations.
They were actually very interesting, and much better than the palace. I'm actually tempted to try to track down one of the pictures - a piece by Landseer called Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

You've got to love job agents. You get an inquiry for a position that they describe as a "Software Engineer", and then on subsequent messages, you find out that it's actually a 2nd tier hardware support position, that doesn't have a single overlap with the original subject.

After I finished with the castle, I started back down the Royal Mile. The first interesting thing I encountered was the camera obscura. Despite this sort of being deprecated on AFP, I went in. As the weather was bad and camera obscura's don't work too well on inclement weather, I got a discount. The CO itself actually worked quite well and was interesting. In addition, they had a museum of optical toys, etc that was also worth the price. The only problem was the long climb to the top and then back down again.
After this, I had a quick look at the wool mill exhibition, which was a bit of a disappointment.
I then decided to try to find fabhatrix, which wasn't that hard. I had done a bit of wandering earlier, and missed the hat shop by a simple corner. They had a nice selection of hats, and while I didn't buy any this time, I think I will go back and buy a couple. There were a variety of hats there - some very close one ls that remind me of the sort of thing that flappers would wear, and some that were more like top hats. I think I am in love.
Dinner was at Monster Mash again, but I had the steak and kidney pie, which was frankly disappointing.

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Simon Callan

Recent Entries

Good hair day

C++ test

Job hunt

Jonathan Coulton

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iPhone

Introvert or extrovert

Cars

socialising

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Going out

Going out

Talks

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After the castle