Author Archives: Jon

Gary Lucy’s Birthday

happy birthday gary lucyReally, I should know better. The other day I spoke of the Man of the Moment project for the first time in a long time and the only request I have ever had to enter a male into Musak’s Man of the Moment project is to include Gary Lucy. Sadly, I haven’t got round to that yet (despite the fact he has been Musak’s calendar boy of 2004) but, I noticed yesterday was Gary’s birthday (I think he was 23) and so I dedicate today’s entry to the star of Hollyoaks, Footballers’ Wives and, recently, the ITV drama, She’s Gone.

Related from Listen To Musak’s Archives:

Perhaps I will make Gary Lucy Man of the Moment one day.

On this day…

2006: Our Masks
2005: All Change At Capital
2005: Civil Partnership: Update From Scotland
2004: Oh the fun I’m having…
2003: Pop TV
2003: Linguistic Sensitivity

On this day…

2006: Our Masks
2005: All Change At Capital
2005: Civil Partnership: Update From Scotland
2004: Oh the fun I’m having…
2003: Pop TV
2003: Linguistic Sensitivity

I Found Some Of Your Life

Alright, it might be months old but I never mentioned it!

I Found Some Of Your Life: In my possession is one memory card from a digital camera. This memory card was found in a taxi in New York City. I have no idea who the owner of the camera is.

Fascinating and slightly scary, don’t you think but interesting nonetheless. One of the more interesting possibilities resulting from the rise of digital photographs [via Photo Matt].

Maybe Hewlett-Packard’s “privacy protection system” for cameras would have been useful [via Tom].

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: Westminster City Council Survey
2003: Snow is Oslo?
2003: Happy Thanksgiving

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: Westminster City Council Survey
2003: Snow is Oslo?
2003: Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2004

I trust all my American friends and colleagues enjoyed their Thanksgiving. In previous years I have looked at what Thanksgiving really is all about (see here) but this year I thought I would look how you were all celebrating by checking the Flickr tags. All the tags representing Thanksgiving seem to be about food or family – which I think seems like a pretty good notion to me.

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: Elton To Marry
2004: Does Remote Storage Work
2003: At A Newsagent Near You

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: Elton To Marry
2004: Does Remote Storage Work
2003: At A Newsagent Near You

Does Remote Storage Work

Like many people I signed up for all the free web-based email accounts (RocketMail – now Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, Hotmail etc.) but I never really used them. Over time I let most of the lapse and only really use Yahoo and – now – Gmail but I do not use any of them as my main mail account. I didn’t use them primarily because I didn’t want to pay to be connected to the web to read my mail (my POP accounts were better) and I wanted to maintain addresses at my own domain and – at the time – none of those interfaces allowed you to be seen as another mail address. Yahoo, of course, also provides photo storage, address books and calendars.

My web hosting company allows me to use my space as a virtual hard-drive (if I work out how to configure it) and – as I have noted – Flickr is becoming my personal choice for photographs (even though I could try and manage it myself on my own servers) while I use Bloglines for feed aggregation. So, the question is, can I now run my life using storage space away from my own computer?

Here are some of my considerations:

  • Outside of work (which I am not proposing to move) I have precious few documents so I don’t need masses of file space for them (I suspect my Yahoo account would happily cope).
  • Photos: I can’t get away from the lack of storage (even at Flickr) for them but I suspect it will cope with all the photographs I care about (the rest would only be archived to CD anyway).
  • Music: This is the difficult one as I upload music to my Treo’s mp3 player so I am not carrying it all around with me all the time (in a iPod style). Perhaps it is time to re-address that issue.
  • Mail: I have archives of mail in Mozilla Mail format. What I think I need is Mozilla’s roaming profiles but I have no idea how they work.
  • Bookmarks: Ditto (but in the mean time Yahoo Companion bar and Yahoo Bookmarks should work).

Do you have any tips for me? Will it work? If it works I only need a reasonable internet connection to have my whole life on tap. What I really need is a proper method for synchronisation – but I’ve ranted about that before.

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: Elton To Marry
2004: Thanksgiving 2004
2003: At A Newsagent Near You

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: Elton To Marry
2004: Thanksgiving 2004
2003: At A Newsagent Near You

Celebrity T-Shirt Auction

You know how it is: there’s never enough time in the world. This year I haven’t had chance to put any effort into the Man of the Moment project but it was fun for a while and – maybe – I’ll find something to do for Christmas! Anyway, posted today on the Dermot O’Leary comments was a message I feel deserves a little more exposure:

If you’re a Dermot fan and use ebay, look out for The Big Issue Foundation’s celebrity auction on ebay from 29th November 2004 – 3rd December 2004. You can bid for a special ‘What’s Your Big Issue?’ T-shirt signed by Dermot, highlighting something important to him – over fishing! To take part go to http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/bifceleb

All proceeds go to The Big Issue Foundation, the charity that offers support services to Big Issue vendors.

Other celebrities taking part include Ringo Starr, Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Tony Blair and Stephen Fry. Apparently, the cast of ‘EastEnders’ counts too.

On this day…

2005: Boxes Everywhere
2005: Civil Partnership: What’s It All About?
2004: links for 2004-11-25
2003: Coolest of 2003
2002: Stuck On Me

On this day…

2005: Boxes Everywhere
2005: Civil Partnership: What’s It All About?
2004: links for 2004-11-25
2003: Coolest of 2003
2002: Stuck On Me

Regent Street, London

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regent street lights, lonfonChristmas is coming and I am a bit of a sucker for it but I have to say that the lights on Regents Street, London, do nothing for me. Perhaps I just haven’t seen them in the right conditions – a cold, damp, grey London afternoon is not conducive to enjoying the exterior lighting. It’s Disney tie-in with The Incredibles that alarms me. Sure, I see that Disney get the promotion and somebody gets some money for the lights but – really – what has it to do with Christmas? Or maybe it’s just that I missed Busted switch them on.

On this day…

2006: A Blog Is Like Concrete Shoes
2005: Manchester United Legend Is Close To Death
2005: Change Your Coffee Shop Now
2003: Bye Bye Bush Baby

On this day…

2006: A Blog Is Like Concrete Shoes
2005: Manchester United Legend Is Close To Death
2005: Change Your Coffee Shop Now
2003: Bye Bye Bush Baby

Kill Bill (Volume 2)

Continuing her quest for revenge, Uma Thurman is back as the unnamed bride in Kill Bill (Volume II). If you’d read my take on the first one then you would realise that I was destined to see this as quickly as Love Film would send it to me.

The bride has several members of Bill’s gang of assassins (Deadly Viper Assassination Squad) to remove and she hits the ground running. This time, however, we learn a little more of the background to the trail of blood and we get to meet Bill himself. There is, perhaps, more emotion to this film (particularly in Uma Thurman’s part) than the first and the violence is, perhaps, less stylised and more realistic. I am truly amazed how much I have enjoyed both the Kill Bill movies and I will have to reassess my opinions of Tarantino’s work.

Rent Volumes 1 and 2 and unplug the ‘phone. You won’t regret it.

On this day…

2005: Font Size

On this day…

2005: Font Size

Another Grid Lock

PY and I had some errands to run which partly entailed us driving to Heathrow airport. Then we went onto High Wycombe to do some shopping. And yet again we were stuck in traffic for hours. I think it may be time to consider alternative forms of transport. It seems no matter which way we go, south or north, we’re going to get stuck. Now I don’t enjoy being stuck in traffic but PY hates it and lets his frustration show. Maybe I should let him select the music from now on!

On this day…

2006: Children In Need Is Britain’s version of Thanksgiving
2005: Modern Life Is Rubbish
2003: Movable Type Pro, Soon?
2002: I Want A Career (And I Want It Now)

On this day…

2006: Children In Need Is Britain’s version of Thanksgiving
2005: Modern Life Is Rubbish
2003: Movable Type Pro, Soon?
2002: I Want A Career (And I Want It Now)

Evening In The City

I don’t often go out in The City of London (that’s the financial heart of London). I am a much bigger fan of hanging out in the the West End – which is mainly where I have worked and socialised for all the years I have been here. I’ve just got back from a drinks with some colleagues in The Counting House – which is on Cornhill and a few seconds walk from Bank station. It’s a fabulous place full of character and ornate splendour (the domed roof is wonderful). Then we went for a curry and a decent Indian restaurant which was, unlike the ones on the West End, quiet at the end of an evening. The only downside on the evening: it was just a little harder to get home. I must do this more often.

On this day…

2005: Switch Me On?
2003: Remember, Remember (I’m A Bit Late)

On this day…

2005: Switch Me On?
2003: Remember, Remember (I’m A Bit Late)

Grid Lock

brighton pier on a sunny saturday afternoon

So I spent the weekend in Brighton: it was a fantastic idea for a last-minute getaway and I am really quite pleased that I went. The weather was cold and crisp but very sunny, and PY and I had a fantastic time roaming the shops, walking the pier, drinking coffee and doing all sorts of good things.

We left earlier this afternoon for the hour-long car ride home only to end up stuck in four hours of non-moving traffic at the end of the M23 (where it joins the M25). Sitting in a car, going nowhere, staring at the rear brake lights of the vehicle in front (and watching people dart from lane to lane to try to move 100 metres forward) was a very depressing way to end what had been, until then, a relaxing weekend. It’s such a shame our transport system means I am now more stressed than when I left the office on Friday night (it also means we’ve just eaten a stack of takeaway junk food, but that’s another story).

Maybe I should start looking forward to the week ahead

On this day…

2005: Tracking The World
2003: Last Orders at the Liars’ Bar
2002: This Is How A Thriller Should Read

On this day…

2005: Tracking The World
2003: Last Orders at the Liars’ Bar
2002: This Is How A Thriller Should Read