Posted by Somewhat under on 2007.01.23 @ 13.08.
2 comments.
then there were two
Posted by Somewhat under Dogs on 2006.06.10 @ 09.34.
10 comments.
anxious
I'm feeling slightly nervous about moving Jasmine to Kerino, and read Vicky Hall's book Cat Confidential in an attempt to reassure myself. What a mistake that was.
Posted by Somewhat under Cats on 2006.04.23 @ 14.24.
7 comments.
my bad
Fuck. I am so crap at this. Updates...
Work. Beads okay. Huge order from India arriving 8th May, thank goodness. Am rather running out of things to sell, but that means I can just do a little top up order with American supplier, and that'll do for now. Have sneaky new plan for new eBay ID to take advantage of the acres of empty space on eBay.fr. The product (we'll call it goffyfings in a secret sneaky kind of way) has only a couple of sellers who seem to be doing okay at it. I'm concerned though that lack of sellers means lack of buyers. Though as it might mean crowds of buyers with holes burning in their Paypal accounts, I think it's worth finding out. Also seem to have accidentally developed a little sideline making web shops to go with people's eBay shops. Which is fun.
House. Mr Muchly is a bloody genius. The bead shed is nearly finished: doors not put in yet, because we *still* don't have planning permission, though that's expected next week. Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom need some heavy duty decorating and flooring fitting, but will then be habitable, if not done. We're in the gite for another three and a half weeks, so should actually have some rooms, if not a house, to move into. There will be pictures, when I've sorted them out.
Posted by Somewhat under Journal on 2006.04.19 @ 17.24.
2 comments.
more cheese, grommit
Cheese blogging corner today brings you two very similar-looking, but utterly different tasting, cheeses.
Tomme is possibly the most revolting cheese I've ever smelt. It's like nothing else: a sickly sweet smell of damp and rotten grass. I very nearly put it straight in the bin after I'd unwrapped it. The texture, too, is unappealing: softly rubbery and sticky. It adheres to teeth like peanut butter does to the roof of your mouth. After this, the taste, of almost nothing, a slightly sweet version of very mild Edam, is a relief. The rest of the block, though, went straight in the bin.
Comte, by contrast, was utterly delicious. It has a warm, nutty odour, and a firm texture that's just begging to have teeth marks in it. The mild colour belies a marvellous flavour. I hate to sound like an expat English person, but it's very like a good medium chedder: nutty, salty, slightly sour, with wonderful crunchy bits amongst the smooth cheese. We'll definitely buy this one again.
Posted by Somewhat under Food and Drink on 2006.04.19 @ 16.32.
3 comments.
cheese blogging
Inspired by Francophoney, here beginneth a series, possibly regular, recording our adventures into cheese.
First up, Mimolette Vieille. This is a hard cheese, sold in slices from a big ball, and is bright orange. On first taste, it has a lemony flavour that Mr M. didn't like at all. This then rapidly changes through creamy, to nutty, and finally to an almost chilli burst of super-strong cheesy flavour.
The odour too is rather lemony: I think this could be kept in the fridge without gassing the entire house every time you open the door. It's the sort of cheese to eat in a chunky wedge with your baguette, or to contrast the sharpness with a sweet apple: again, the light scent means it could be taken on picnics, even in the car, and not leave devastation in its wake. I will definitely buy this one again.
Posted by Somewhat under Food and Drink on 2006.03.31 @ 16.00.
2 comments.
"hello, i'm lester norton"
I'm not, actually. He is. And here's where you can buy his new album. Bloody brilliant.
Things that have to describe other things by comparing them to stuff annoy me, so I won't put anything about how he reminds me of a happy Leonard Cohen, and the guitarist from Blondie, and the Velvet Underground, and what Richard Thompson would sound like if he were American, as well as all the people he's supposed to sound a bit like, like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash and Neil Young. No.
But I will say keep an eye out for the excellent sleeve design by the amazing Bran.
Posted by Somewhat under Music on 2006.03.24 @ 11.03.
1 comment.
shiver and shake
I am furious and upset.
Posted by Somewhat under Mental Health on 2006.03.22 @ 12.57.
5 comments.
the lambeth talk
It's not often you find me posting a big YAY for a prominent member of the Church of England, but credit where it's due:
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism - the Bible-based account of the origins of the world - should be taught in schools. [...]
"I think creationism is ... a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories ... if creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories I think there's just been a jarring of categories ... My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it," he said.
As The Register says, he *is* a Primate.
Posted by Somewhat under Religion on 2006.03.22 @ 10.06.
0 comments.
when it's two doors
You'll be delighted to see that Mr Muchly's photography is down to his usual standard. There behind the orbs is the partition I mentioned earlier, which separates the bathroom and the stairs from the rest of the bead shed. The brown and the grey is just two different colours of plasterboard; like the rest of the walls, they have to be skimmed and painted now.
Posted by Somewhat under Kerino on 2006.03.21 @ 19.01.
1 comment.
work, in progress
Work on the bead shed progresses. The first layer of make-good-and-plaster is pretty much finished, as is the ceiling. Today, the partition that forms the wall for the stairs and bathroom is being built. I still can't quite believe I'm going to have a work space with its own bathroom.
Posted by Somewhat under Kerino on 2006.03.21 @ 09.23.
3 comments.
the two year manager
In Rennes on Saturday, we ran into a demonstration against CPE. This is a new law on working practice, allowing employees to be fired without reason during their first two years: more info in French, and in English. I'm in two minds about this really.
Anti, because having worked on a temporary contract for over a year for Camden Council, I see how the legal right to terminate a contract without notice or explanation is used to blackmail workers into unacceptable working conditions. Being on a temporary contract for so long was against Camden's own stated policy: when I asked about this, I was told quite categorically that if I pushed my "right" to a permanent contract, they would fire me. I was also told if I joined a union, they would fire me.
But kind of a little bit pro too. I'm still deciding where my business is going. I can't make up my mind if I want it to footle along making enough money for me to live on, or whether I actually want it to go places. But if the latter, I have the possibility that within the next year or so, I will need employees. There's no such thing (as far as I can understand it) in France as a temporary contract. If you take someone on, that's their job for as long as they want it. And yes, that does make me more reluctant to employ someone. I do feel that the inflexibility of the job market works against me as an employer, and also against those whom I might employ. But that's because I would be, I think, a good employer. I'd hate to shit on anyone the way Camden shat on me.
What makes my mind up, is that this law is limited to those under 26: the argument is that unemployment for under-25s is double the national average. I do think that France needs to radically rethink its labour laws, but making this the sole responsibility of the young is outrageous. And sidestepping the proper democratic process to get the law enacted is disgusting.
Posted by Somewhat under News on 2006.03.20 @ 12.29.
0 comments.
little boxes
Melanie (you have so many sites, I don't know which to link, me dear!) commented on Flickr on the open window on that second picture. That made it for me too. I must start walking round with a longer lens though; I think it would have been more effective closer up.
Posted by Somewhat under Photographs on 2006.03.20 @ 10.29.
5 comments.
good & bad
Joss Wheedon hints at a return of Buffy. "We've been discussing how to do things with a different format--maybe something straight to DVD that wouldn't be a full series. There are various characters that I'd want to explore further." Mmm, more Giles and Spike goodness! Stolen from Mac.
A sneaky peak at the prequel to Left Behind. Do NOT try to read this while drinking: I now have coffee all over my monitor screen. Stolen from Slacktivist's comments.
Posted by Somewhat under Linkage on 2006.03.04 @ 15.27.
0 comments.
whinge
Good grief, where did that week go? I feel like we're getting somewhere, but not quite a week's worth, and we're moving at the speed of porridge. I'm terminally frustrated that none of the things to be done right now on Kerino are things that I can do, or even help with. I feel guilty that Mr M. has spent the entire week making me a bead shed, and the sum total of my contribution has been to pick the paint and the floor (though very nice paint and floor they are!). I feel bored and frustrated with eBay and in particular with eBayers who don't realise that although international post sometimes takes two days, sometimes it takes longer than that. I feel claustrophobic in this gite, lovely though it is, it's tiny compared to the flat, and certainly isn't big enough medium term for two humans, one cat and several million beads. And finally, I look at the date and I feel terrified that we're not going to be anywhere near ready to move out of here at the end of April. I daren't say anything to Mr M. because he's working so hard, I know, but I just don't see how we're going to be anywhere near finished.
But at least I have run out of excuses on my work website. The checkout works beautifully, with the emailing and the automatic updating of the database (though no frog exaggeration). Shame I've got to let customers in and can't leave it as a thing of joy forever.
Posted by Somewhat under Journal on 2006.03.04 @ 15.00.
0 comments.
dimanche
We went for a walk. There were rocks.
Posted by Somewhat under Journal on 2006.02.26 @ 15.54.
4 comments.
cascade
Posted by Somewhat under France on 2006.02.26 @ 15.10.
1 comment.
denial
Holocaust denial is a form of virulent anti-Semitism. But it is not only that. It is also an attack on reasoned inquiry and inconvenient history. If this history can be denied any history can be denied.
Deborah Lipstadt looks at holocaust denial.
David Irving has been imprisoned for three years by an Austrian court for making two speeches in which he described the Auschwitz gas chambers as a "fairytale" and denied other Nazi atrocities. His arrest took place after he breached an order that barred him from Austria.
"Frankly, questions about the Holocaust bore me," he said.
Somehow, that dismissive boredom is almost as appalling as his anti-Semitism. He's abused his academic position, and doesn't appear to think that matters.
Updated to add: I loved The Spoof's take on this:
Posted by Somewhat under News on 2006.02.21 @ 10.09.
0 comments.
mmmmm, mfkzt
Trailer that reveals absolutely nothing.
The best I can find on the release date is Q3 or Summer 2006.
Posted by Somewhat under Games on 2006.02.15 @ 19.35.
0 comments.
terror
I wonder just what is meant, in a legal sense, by "glorification". This obscure wording is going to make a lot of lawyers very rich, or cost the public purse a lot of money, whichever way you want to look at it. It strikes me as being as unworkable as Clause 28, the Thatcher government's prohibition of the "promotion of homosexuality", and to have come from the same logical basis: "Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it." Legislation for legislation's sake was a feature of the dying days of the last Tory administration: one can only hope that it similarly signals the end for Mr Blair.
As Abu Hamza, fairly obviously one of those against whom this law is aimed, was jailed on 7th February for inciting murder, I question whether there was any need for this law at all. "Inciting murder" seems quite specific as an offence, and is one that presents a clear danger to society, justifying action up to and including a jail term. "Glorifying terrorism", on the other hand, seems to be deliberately less specific, as though it might be applied to anything to which anybody took a dislike. Either the British government is passing pointless legislation to make itself look good, or it's striking a massive blow against free speech.
Posted by Somewhat under News on 2006.02.15 @ 17.33.
0 comments.