riz din

You just got syndicated

2012-01-31T18:49:00.003+01:00

... a good chap by the name of Neo has offered to post some of my bloggingses at a new site called Coconut Lounge. The empire slowly builds. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.

All the best Neo.

Remotes

2012-01-31T18:45:00.002+01:00

After a modest success selling Logitech internet radios on E-Bay, I thought I'd try my hand with Logitech's Univesal Remote Controls, which I snapped up for less than half price direct from the supplier. This set of trades did not run so smoothly. After repeated auctions, I have managed to clear my inventory with a small profit of a few pounds. Put a price on time wasted and the deal was a total dud. Still, at least I'm not left holding the bag on this one, which is about as much as I could have hoped for.

Ninja Cole, my current wallpaper image

2012-01-31T00:38:00.000+01:00

Battle with the Toy Story characters is yet to commence...the time will come. There will be ketchup.

Picturenaut HDR

2012-01-30T23:50:00.000+01:00

Here is my first attempt at using Picturenaut, a free application that creates High Dynamic Range (HDR) images.

A common issue when taking pictures is that an exposure may bring out the sky but make the foreground really dark (first pic), or do the opposite with a clear foreground but burnt out skies (second pic). The idea behind HDR is that you take a bracketed exposure (two or three pics at different exposures) and blend them together to make a much clearer image (third pic).

Expendables 2...sad news

2012-01-30T21:22:00.001+01:00

It hurts me to say this but the Expendables sequel will not be the blood-spattered gore-fest I was hoping for. Why this? It's Chuck Bleedin' Norris' fault. He said he would only do the film if they cut back on the dirty talking and gory violence and they caved in. In fact, Expendables 2 will be a PG-13! Bah. Double bah! Unless the reviews are good, I think I'll wait for it to pop up on Channel 5.

Markets

2012-01-30T13:26:00.002+01:00

European equity indices have fared rather well of late, given that we are on the edge of the abyss. Facts on the ground: 5-year Portuguese debt offers a whopping 21% and German bunds just 1.8%. Uncertainty is everywhere and yet investors seem blind to it. Perhaps they are being intoxicated by the hallucinatory liquidity measures.

My rather complex theory is that people have gotten so used to the deep abyss being at their feet that it's simply become part of their mental furniture. What's that massive monster in the corner of the room, drooling and getting ready to pounce on us. Shouldn't we run for the hills? Oh, don't worry, that's just the monster. It doesn't do anything. Turn your chair so you can't see him. Look out of the window. Isn't it a nice day? I guess so, yes, wonderful.

Bridge camera desired no more

2012-01-29T16:11:00.000+01:00

After my Pentax H90 broke, I was pretty keen on purchasing a bridge camera. I've now decided against this because I value portability so highly. Also, my little H90 is currently in the intensive care unit (it was covered by my gadget insurance) and will hopefully come back fighting fit.

I wouldn't mind an eventual upgrade to a higher end point-and-shoot with decent manual controls. However, the current range of compacts really struggle to match up to the Pentax H90's form factor, a key factor behind my enjoyment of taking photos. After hours of searching I found a Canon S95 which looks okay and takes great photos and a Nikon P300 which is very pleasing to the eye, takes great pics, especially in low-light, costs a lot less (£180) and has a funky, Eastern European utilitarian design. Right now, however, the price points are not there. Also, the optical zooms on these cameras are nothing special. I will hold out for a while longer, me thinks.

The form vs function issue is an interesting one because one the one hand Canon tend to make the best quality compacts but because the Nikon P300 is fun and apparantly very nice to hold, you would get more use out of it, thereby taking photos that you otherwise wouldn't take with the Canon. In this respect you can't always do a like for like photo by photo comparison because there will be instances where you wouldn't have taken a photo with the Canon in the first place!

Film: A Bittersweet Life

2012-01-27T01:47:00.002+01:00

A Bittersweet Life is the best Korean film I have seen in a while and is the note perfect way to end my recent DVD watching frenzy. Highly recommended to those with a strong stomach for violence.

**** 1/2

Where did the evening go?

2012-01-26T22:15:00.003+01:00

I have lost a great deal of time this evening and little has been achieved. I am neither tired from exercise, although exercise I did, nor am I suitably relaxed, and I have tried to relax. I have cooked too much food and am struggling to eat it all. I have put my cardigan on and taken it off repeated times. Still, I am either too hot or too cold. My socks, let me tell you about my socks. I looked for my thick thermal socks but couldn't find them. I slipped on a random pairing from the shelf, beige in color, not worn in a long time; the socks that time forgot. And for good reason too: the ratio of man-made fibres to cotton was too high, causing excess heat and discomfort. I replaced this pair with another beige set. Fortunately, these were made up of more appropriate ingredients, with a higher cotton portion. Alas, just as the comfort began to filter up - comfort starts from the feet up, as the old adage runs - I stepped in a puddle in the kitchen. This is my evening. I hope yours is going well.

Apple

2012-01-25T10:37:00.001+01:00

Pre-market: 449.90 +29.49 (7.01%)

Wow, it's a good thing I exited my small short position a couple of months ago. They've just blown the market away with record profits of around $13bn.

Having bought their shares at around $13-$14 and exited for a gain of a few bucks, it pains me to see their roaring success. Still, credit to these guys and especially to the great Steve Jobs, for opening up technology to a much broader audience.

Orange and the highly profitable lazy customer

2012-01-23T21:37:00.000+01:00

Regular readers of this blog will know how much pleasure I derive from saving the occassional pound or two, not as a penny-wise pound-foolish Scrooge McDuc, but more as a savvy customer with a keen eye to value. Well, I have a confession to make: it is that I have been on one of Orange's worst contracts for several months, paying £18 a month on average for unlimited texts and just 100 minutes of talk time. Ruinous I say, absolutely ruinous. How did I sleep at night? Not well, not well at all.

After calling Orange, asking for my PAC code and threatening to leave for better deals elsewhere, they kindly offered the following for £15.50 a month:

- A new Orange smart phone called the Monte Carlo
- 600 minutes
- Unlimited texts
- 500MB data
- Continued home broadband.

What makes this a cracking deal is that I am not keen on smart phones as yet, largely due to their weakling battery lives, and so the newly received smart slab that is the Monte Carlo has been sold on E-bay for around £100. This will reduce my effective bill (over it's 24 month life) to £11.33. Then there is the free home broadband legacy deal which is worth a minimum of £6.50 a month, so that really leaves me paying £4.83 a month which is pretty darn good. And so it is that I remain with Orange. It just sucks that you have to threaten to leave on contract expiry to squeeze a decent deal out of them.

The next challenge is on the camera front. I am planning on upgrading to a bridge camera in the near future but I don't want to dent my budget and so am looking to score about £250 from other avenues to pay for this treat! Plans are afoot!

Virginia Water and the last foray for the Pentax H90, my trusty companion : (

2012-01-22T01:50:00.000+01:00

The Pentax H90 struggled again in low light, but having read a few photography magazines I don't feel at all guilty about applying some crazy whippy-dee-doo-da effects post production. They are all at it!

Alas, later in the day the Pentax suffered at my slippery hands of incompetence and the lens has truly jammed. The magic light box of joy is dead. I am going to see if I can get it fixed under my insurance but until then the old Kodak DX7440 has come back out to play, an old brick of a digital camera that rocks a mind-blowing 4MP.

A few pics taken in low light, earlier this evening

2012-01-20T02:06:00.002+01:00

Haywire film

2012-01-18T22:30:00.000+01:00

Haywire is super stylish as you would expect form Mr Soderbergh, who has given us turkeys such as Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 13. Fortunately, Haywire is much better than these style-over-substance earlier films. The action is fantastic and the music is superb, working to tone down the harshness of the fight scenes, which really are something to behold.

Alas, the story is unsatisfying in it's final conclusion and the dialogue a bit cheesy at times. A little more effort could have made this film a must-see. Instead, it's popcorn fun, albeit very stylish popcorn fun.

Last photo for the day, taken at sunset

2012-01-16T00:05:00.000+01:00

Runnymede photo session

2012-01-15T13:09:00.000+01:00

Woke up pre-sunrise today and headed over to Runnymede with a house-mate for a little early morning photography session. The change of air both numbed the hands and re-invigorated the spirits. My little Pentax H90 was pushing against the limits on the auto-setting although for the most part it managed to capture enough data in the pictures to so they could be carried over to Photoscape for a little editing. Here be a selection:

Like there weren't going to be any lego people! Notice the new Bruce Lee dude. Does he stand ready to fight ninja or is this the start of a beautiful friendship?

Pentax H90 triple filtered

2012-01-14T15:20:00.002+01:00

This one uses the retro filter, then the toy filter, and then the red tone filter. I'm liking the effect:

This one uses the retro and toy filter and then applies a photographic film filter from Photoscape:

My Pentax H90 is a great little toy but it is quite likely already being surpassed by the high-end camera phones. I have the upper hand with battery life, which is a big plus.

Also, whilst I have an eye to future technologies and the latest compacts, I was also looking at past pics taken by my old Kodak DX-7440 (5MP), which are pretty much on par with the H90, if not better! It didn't have the cool filters though and has an impractical form factor (comfortably chunky for single hand snaps and highly configurable, but not so easily pocketed). I may have to brush the dust of the old brick and do a contast and compare.

Downton Abbey

2012-01-14T01:01:00.000+01:00

Watched two episodes but it didn't quite hook me. There were a few great lines but it lacked the sharp-tongued wit that makes some period dramas really shine. It's moves at a fast clip at least and it's all good light fluff for soap fans, but one of them I ain't.
And before you think 'look at him, thinking he's better than the masses' let me tell you the true reason why it didn't pull me in: there was a complete absence of ninjas. I thought I saw one in the corner of a room but it was the dancing shadow of a candle light.

Recent films

2012-01-14T00:58:00.000+01:00

Both films are highly recommended. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is very brutal and graphic and not at all for the feint hearted (and especially not for cat lovers), but it is one of the best detective stories I've seen of late. I haven't read the book and have no great desire to but I am looking forward to more movies with the same key characters.

K-20 (DVD film) is a different fish altogether. It is set in an alternative history when WWII never took place and is very steam-punkish with loads of retro sets, which makes the movie very easy on the eye. Despite being subtitled, this super-hero style actioner is good fun for all the family, expect small children perhaps, as there is some rough language, shootings and a few beatings but the comic book feel about it makes it enjoyable throughout. I'd give both movies a strong four stars.The story revolves around a masked character who steals from the rich and basically wants to keep for himself, and the circus performer who is mistaken for K-20 and arrested. I think I'll be watching this one again before it goes to the charity shop.

Katlama - the source?

2012-01-11T19:13:00.000+01:00

The Katlama mystery post has received an interesting comment:

"Shereen Kadah on Moseley Road in Birmingham have the BEST kathlamas in the UK... Second would be Saleems on Ladypool Rd...

Trust me.. I'm 34 years old and have been eating them since the age of 7!

I believe kathlamas were invented in Birmingham and Shereen Kadah & Saleems were the first to make them in the 60's

Regards
Special K"

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol review

2012-01-11T00:12:00.003+01:00

Super-cheesey, met low expectations. Tom Cruise struggles to beat up an old man. Apple sponsorship is evident throughout.

In the less interesting segments my thoughts turned to what I was going to eat for dinner. I opted to oven up two battered fish. One was eaten with lemon and tartar sauce and the other with cheese and ketchup squidged between two slices of slightly toasted rye bread, which was chopped into triangles. Delish. With the Vogel original bread increasingly rare these days, rye bread is fast becoming my back-up.

Short Groupon

2012-01-09T19:28:00.003+01:00

It's the next Game Group, I tells ya.

Okay, not quite a Game Group disaster but the business is horrendously overvalued. I've been getting Groupon e-mails sent to one of my Hotmail folders for several months and the deals are often overhyped and are repeated way too often. The occassional true deal such as a cheap car service, which I took up, was great value for money but it didn't make me want to use the garage again because the regular price was out of my league. Groupon shares are currently at $17.90.

Kerrygold spreadable butter is back ... yippeee!

2012-01-08T21:09:00.004+01:00

Things were not looking good going into 2012. Kerrygold stopped selling their pure unanimously praised spreadable butter, the perfect partner to a slice of hot Vogel toast. The Kerryold eating populous were up in arms, venting their anger at its replacement which is no more than another ten-a-penny butter vegetable oil blend.

For my part, I wrote an frustrated missive to Kerrygold HQ asking why they had done this and if the issue was related to low sales then they should darn well start selling smaller tubs of the stuff, instead of just offering large family sized tubs. They never got back to me. Could this spell the end for the pure butter spreadable?

Well, I discovered that Presidente have a spreadable but it is French and low in salt, the worst of all possible worlds. The French thing is a joke, but I do hear reports that it isn't quite up to the Kerrygold mark. I also managed to find a Marks&Spencer pure spreadable butter but it too is low salt, so expectations are low.

Nevertheless, I thought I was going to have make do.

Until that is, I went to Sainsbury's today and found this beauty on the shelves:

It's the Kerrygold spreadable and it's in a smaller size. The web-site blurb says:

"We are delighted to announce that the 100% pure Kerrygold Softer Butter is back! You will be able to find this product in selected Sainsburys stores from the middle of Jan 2012.

Initially this product will be available in the same packaging as before, but we are working on some brand new packaging, so look out for this soon (don't worry - the product is exactly the same as it always has been).

Thanks to all the people who got in touch with us - you've all helped to get this product back in stores!!

Kerrygold's Softer products combine our natural taste, with the convenience of softer butter - making your day that little bit easier, but without compromising on that pure butter taste.

Most other 'spreadables' are actually blends of butter and vegetable oil. In fact, they can contain up to 33% vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is an inexpensive ingredient by comparison to pure butter fat and the type of vegetable oil added in these products is usually not declared, with the result that consumers do not know the source or origin or the extent of industrial processing to which the product has been subjected. In stark contrast, Kerrygold Softer Butter is exactly that. It is 100% pure tasty Irish butter, made softer without the addition of vegetable oil.

How did we make our Kerrygold Softer Butter even softer?
Kerrygold Softer Butter is a 100% pure & natural dairy product, containing only one non-dairy ingredient; salt to accentuate its inherent flavour. In order to achieve enhanced spreadability, rather than compromising on the purity & naturalness of butter by adding vegetable oil, we sought a little help from Mother Nature. During the summer months the pastures on which the Kerrygold cows graze are at their most rich and lush. As a consequence, the milk they produce is most abundant in naturally softer milkfat. It is this naturally softer milkfat that is the key to the enhanced spreadabilty of "Now Even Softer" Kerrygold Softer Butter. Using a gentle cooling and crystallization process, we have increased the quantity of this softer milkfat in the butter, resulting in a velvety smooth and "Now Even Softer" Kerrygold Softer Butter."

Here is a list if stores selling the little blocks of gold. Good luck.

Alperton, Wembley, HA0 1PF

Alphington Rd, Exeter, EX2 8NH

Archer Rd, Sheffield, S8 0TD

Arnold, Nottingham, NG5 6BN

Badger Farm, Winchester, S022 4QB

Bagshot Rd, Bracknell, RG12 7SS

Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 6BJ

Banbury, OX16, 9XA

Barnstaple, EX31 3NH

Barnwood, Gloucester GL4 3RT

Beeston, Nottingham NG9 2LA

Bishops Stortford, CM23 3XG

Blackhall, Edinburgh, EH4 2EB

Blackheath, Rowley Regis, B65 0HG

Bramingham Park, Luton, LU3 4AB

Brentwood, CM14 4WQ

Bridgend, CF32 9ST

Broadcut, Fareham, PO16 8SU

Bromley, BR1 1TP

Burpham, Guildford, GU4 7JU

Burton on Trent, DE14 1AA

Bury St Edmunds, IP32 7EJ

Bybrook, Ashford, TN24 8YN

Calcot, Reading, RG31 7SA

Cameron Toll, Edinburgh EH16 5PB

Canley, Coventry, CV4 9BJ

Cannock, WS11 8XP

Castle Court, Bristol, BS4 3BD

Castle Vale, Birmingham, B35 6HB

Cheadle, SK8 3BB

Chesterfield, S41 0UB

Chichester, PO19 7YR

Chippenham, SN14 0BJ

Christchurch, BH23 4RY

Cobham, KT11 1HW

Colchester Ave, Cardiff, CF23 9XN

Coldhams Lane, Cambridge, CB1 3HP

Court House Grn, Coventry CV6 7NS

Craigavon, BT64 1AA

Crayford, Dartford, DA1 4HW

Crystal Peaks, Sheffield, S20 7PJ

Darlington, DL1 5JG

Darnley, Glasgow G53 7RH

Denton, Manchester, M34 3SJ

Dulwich, London, SE22 8BB

Dundee, DD4 8XD

Durham, DH1 5GD

East Mayne, Basildon SS13 1SA

Edenthorpe, Doncaster DN2 5PS

Ellesmere Port, CH65 9HN

Eltham, SE9 5DL

Emersons Grn, BS16 7AE

Enfield, EN1 1TH

Fairfield Park, Bedford, MK41 7PJ

Farlington, Portsmouth, P06 1RR

Forestside, Belfast, BT86 6FX

Fosse Park, LE19 1NT

Gloucester Quays, GL2 5SA

Godalming, GU7 1LQ

Greenwich, London, SE10 0QJ

Hadleigh Rd, Ipswich, IP2 0BX

Hankridge Farm, Taynton, TA1 2LR

Harlow, CM20 2AG

Harrogate, HG2 8QZ

Hawick, TD9 7AD

Hayes, UB3 3EX

Haywards Heath, RH16 1DG

Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE7 7JW

Heaton Park, M9 0QS

Hedge End, S030 2UH

Hempstead Valley, ME7 3PB

Hereford, HR4 0AG

Heyford Hill, OX4 4XR

Hoddesdon, EN11 8HF

Horsham, RH12 1SQ

Hull, HU13 9NS

Kempshott, Basingstoke, RG22 4TW

Kidderminster, DY11 6XP

Kidlington, OX5 2PE

Kiln Lane, KT17 1EQ

Kings Lynn, PE30 1DS

Lancaster, LA1 1HH

Larkfield, Ayleford, ME20 7NA

Leamington, Warwick, CV34 6RH

Livingston, EH54 6RQ

Locksbottom, Orpington, BR6 8NZ

London Colney, St Albans, AL2 1AB

Longwater, Norwich, N55 0JS

Loughborough, LE11 5AS

Low Hall, London, E4 8ST

Macclesfield, SK10 1BJ

Maidenhead, SL6 8AG

Marshall Lake, Solihull, B90 4AJ

Mere Grn, Sutton Coldfield B75 5BT

Merry Hill,Brierley Hill, DY5 1QY

Merton, London, SW19 1DD

Monks Cross, York, YO32 9LG

Moortown, Leeds, LS17 5NY

Nantwich, CW5 6PH

Newbury, RG14 5AB

Newbury Park, Ilford, IG2 7SH

Newcastle U Lyme, ST5 2AF

Newport, NP20 5NJ

Nine Elms, London, SW8 2LF

North Cheam, Sutton. Sm3 9AA

North Walsham, NR28 9DS

Oldbury, B69 3DB

Paignton, TQ3 2HW

Pound Lane, Norwich, NR7 0SR

Preston, PR1 6PJ

Purley Way, Croydon, CR0 4XT

Rice Lane, Liverpool, L9 1NL

Ripley, Derbyshire, DE5 3QP

Rugby, CV22 6HU

Sale, M33 7SA

Sedlescombe Rd, St Leonard's On Sea, TN37 7SQ

Sevenoaks, TN14 5EG

Shorehead, Huddersfield, HD1 6QR

Shrewsbury, SY3 9NB

Sittingbourne, ME10 4DN

Slough Uxbridge Rd, SL1 1SU

Southend, SS1 1PL

Springfield, Chelmsford, CM2 5PA

Sprucefield, BT27 6UQ

St Albans, AL1 2QU

St Clares, Hampton, TW12 1AN

Stanway, Colchester, CO3 9AA

Stratton, Swindon, SN3 4EW

Sunderland, SR3 1PD

Swansea, SA1 8JA

Sydenham, London, SE26 4PU

Talbot Heath, Poole, BH12 4BA

Tamworth, B78 3HD

Team Valley, Gateshead, NE11 0JY

Telford, TF3 4AG

Tewkesbury Rd, Cheltenam, GL51 9RR

Thornhill, Cardiff, CF14 9BB

Torquay, TQ2 7HT

Truro, TR1 3XL

Tunbridge Wells, TN2 5QL

Upton, Wirral, CH49 6QG

Uxbridge, UB8 1QW

Wakefield-Marsh, WF1 1QQ

Wandsworth, London, SW18 4AD

Warren Heath, Ipswich, IP3 87Q

Warrington, WA1 2TN

Washington, NE38 7RU

Water Lane, Farnham GU9 9NJ

Weedon Rd, Northampton, NN5 5DG

West Belfast, BT11 9AE

West Grn, Crawley, RH10 8NF

West Hove, Hove, BN3 7GD

White Rose, Leeds, LS11 8LS

Worle, Weston Super Mare, BS22 6BL

Wrexham, LL11 2BA

A couple more Ninja Cole pics

2012-01-08T20:39:00.000+01:00

This pic makes good use of a super-strong torch I got at xmas.

Confession

2012-01-08T19:48:00.000+01:00

Last week I posted an entry about my longest ever run, which stretched some 8 miles. I came across as a bit of a superman as I commented that I seemed to be suffering little ill effect despite running on concrete and not warming up.

Well, the following day my right knee joint started playing up and has only just healed a week later. It wasn't a bad pain by any means but it was a joint pain and not a muscle pain, which was a bit worrying. Indeed, I went for a short 2m walk today and could still feel it niggling away. Looks like that may well be my run for the year. I may do a few short 1-2m jogs every now and then but for the most part I think I'll stick to pushing a bit of iron about the place every now and then. The mind is young, the body not so much : (

Chopping food on your plate = blunt knives

2012-01-08T12:14:00.004+01:00

Doh, there goes my 'one less thing to wash' approach. Fortunately I have a 'World's Most Amazing Knife Sharpener' to come to the rescue. I have learned that chopping away on ceramic plates is very useful when striving to attain a blunt knife in the shortest space of time possible. Those horrid glass chopping boards are equally useful. Best to stick to good old wood or plastic.

As for whether to go for wood or plsatic, Wikipedia notes that:

"... Wood has some advantages over plastic in that it is somewhat self-healing; shallow cuts in the wood will close up on their own. Wood also has natural anti-septic properties."

"... While plastic is theoretically a more sanitary material than wood for cutting boards, testing has shown this may not be the case. The softer surface of plastic boards is scored by knives, and the resulting grooves and cuts in the surface harbour bacteria even after being well washed. A plastic surface can also ruin the sharp edge of the knife."

Looks like wood is the ultimate winner, although I'm happy continuing with a plastic chopping board for my infrequent use.

Lego Ninja Cole found lurking in the shadows

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000+01:00

Last few pics

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000+01:00

The light really should have been shone a little higher.

A game of cat and mouse

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000+01:00

Buzz and Woody invade the Christmas Dinner

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000+01:00

Radio Paradise review

2012-01-02T19:52:00.003+01:00

My new Logitech Squeezebox internet radio has fast changed both how I listen to radio and what I listen to. A downloaded BBC application enables me to listen to any show broadcast over the past 7 days, while the podcast function is routinely used to listen to a growing list of programmes and to dip into the podcast archives. It's like everything I could want to listen to has been Sky-plussed.

I'm also replacing some of my old presets with a few new stations. The favourite of these newbies by a long long way is Radio Paradise. This station is super cool. It's got the perfect vibe (hard to define..it seems quite general but also quite indie) and about 90% of the material is new to me. Oh, and it's COMMERCIAL FREE.

Here's what my little box of joy looks like:

Logitech are retailing this unit at £159, without the remote control or battery. However, bide your time and they may do a special deal on 'blemished boxes'. I picked mine up for £80 including the remote and battery pack thrown in, which is worth another £49. As someone who likes to buy low and sell high, I bagged three more radios and promptly E-bayed them to pay for my original purchase. Kind of makes listening to it all that much sweeter!

Buzz and Woody and the Quest for the Holy Gulabjamun

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000+01:00

"Quick, to the Gulabjamuns and not beyond, definitely not beyond"

"I sense we are near"

"What do you see Buzz"

"The legend, it is true"

"Sweet Sweet Gulabjamuns, covered in the sticky nectar of the gods"

Running personal best

2012-01-01T15:37:00.005+01:00

Having used up my quarter-stone "buffer" over the holiday period I am resolved to do a spot of exercise in the new year; nothing too serious mind, just the occassional token gesture to keep the physical side suitably invigorated. And this morning, true to my new resolve, I ran (read "jogged very slowly") for about 8 miles. This is a personal best, for me, personally (as people like to say these days).

Previously I have been known to run as far as I can in one direction and catch a bus back home. This time around I surprised myself by going in a circular direction. After the initial splutters which involved coughing up the cobwebs in my pipes, I found a groove which allowed my to keep on going. And keep going I did, despite having done no cardio exercise for about two years. Okay, I was going at so slow a pace that several strong gusts of wind had me running backwards for a while (I expect the Windsor news presses will report on this as a new trend and it will be promptly taken up by the masses). Ah, and I also took a walking break for about a quarter-mile when I found myself short of path, but I made up for it all with a decent sprint finish so it's all to the good.

On the trot, I ran through the country side and passed three farmers who bid me a good morning, an elderly lady on a bike who shouted "It's hard work, eh!", many a farm shop, several pubs, a retreat (from what?), several cyclists, an ostrich (randomly alone, in a field), several ram type creatures (they didn't seem native to these parts), many horses carrying horsefolk, a polo club and livery, a cattery and many a grand house. Most pleasant.

With no warm up and no warm down, I expected my legs to be in tatters. Instead my legs are fine and it is the upper body and arms that ache a little. I won't be searching the internet for a diagnosis, as I expect such symptoms to be found under the category of "Ill Effects on People Who Pretend to Jog but are Really Doing Something Completely Different".

Happy 2012

2012-01-01T01:37:00.001+01:00

H&M Boxer Briefs - a review

2011-12-31T14:16:00.000+01:00

This is a post about men's underwear so I'll try be "brief".

I went to H&M today to do the annual top-up on one's stock of undergarments.The standard price of the H&M boxer brief 3-pack is £7.99 which is a bit higher than it used be (as a guestimate I would say that H&M pantflation is running at about twice the speed of broader inflation). Nevertheless, they still represent pantastic value for money. Okay, enough punning already.

Here is the range of quality boxer briefs that comprise my entire pant inventory:

This is a simple and durable brief that actually seems to improve with washing (importantly, they don't lose shape). As you can see, I am somewhat in awe of this pant. Indeed, over the years the H&M boxer has replaced the hodgepodge mixed bag of pants, and with today's purchase I am able to purge the hangers-ons which are at the back of my cupboard in my family home (i.e. emergency pants).

It's a simple thing, to have a standard quality brief without any favourites or dislikes in the mix, but the consistency is one less annoyance in life (as you can tell, I have little to be annoyed about these days).

I thought I would finish this post with a H&M boxer stock-take:

4 - in the laundry basket
12 - in the stock cycle
1 - wearing
3 - just bought
3 - to be bought next week (if you buy anything in H&M over the next few days, keep the receipt as it gives you a free £5 spend in the first two weeks of the new year...you could even buy a lint roller for £1 to get the voucher.)
- 23 total pant count

It is a good healthy stock although one wonders what would happen if the H&M pant factory shut down or if H&M changed it design. Already, I see that my first batch of boxers were made in China, the second in India, and the latets in Sri Lanka. Perhaps. Nothing is forever. I will add a roll of these briefs to every xmas list and birthday list from here on. That's a potential additional 6 pairs a year, plenty enough to provide sufficient replacements to ensure an uninterrupted supply for years to come.

PS - The New York Times recently published a profile piece on men stock-piling clothes. I am falling into this category and would like to fall further. If I was a rich man with lots of storage I may even consider stock-piling one size below and above to accommodate size changes.

A Toy Story Lego Xmas

2011-12-31T02:47:00.004+01:00

Woody and Buzz came home for the holidays. Lots more pics to follow.

Fighting Monks

2011-12-29T10:19:00.003+01:00

Monthy Pythonesque Monks Fighting Over the Christmas Holidays (but this is real).

via Armando Iannucci's Twitter Stream.

Lego Ninja ... if you pay it, he will come

2011-12-21T19:22:00.004+01:00

Super cool fantastic, my lego collection is complete. For a mere £3.60 I have purchased a black kick-ass lego ninja dude with a plethora of weaponary including a bow, short swords and long swords.

I envisage the leafy oasis discovered by the Toy Story posse (see previous post) will provide little protection from this masked assassin.

2011-12-18T18:44:00.000+01:00

I've recently been buying and selling some items on E-bay - it's difficult to make a decent profit when E-bay take 10% plus a listing fee, and Paypal take another 3.5%! A few large items have made a fair profit but my batch of 5 Toy Story Lego sets proved more trouble than they were worth. In the end I made enough profit to keep back a set of figures for myself.

I'm already getting my money's worth by putting them in cool positions for macro photos. Now I need to get me a Lego ninja or two for some cool fight set-ups.

Brush away those tumbleweeds

2011-12-18T18:23:00.002+01:00

Just been through a horrid exam, which will definitely require a re-sit. But hey, ho, the it's xmas. Let's brush the dust of this blog!

2 week hiatus

2011-11-25T21:22:00.002+01:00

Okay Jeeves and Jeevesses, I'm shutting up shop for the winter. Sweeping the floors, putting up the chairs, shouting 'last orders'. Actually, I'll only be gone for a couple of weeks but you gots to dramatise for effect.

Caio for now. Catch you in early December.

Crazy dog in Richmond Park

2011-11-24T18:50:00.001+01:00

Expendables 2 poster

2011-11-20T20:34:00.000+01:00

Oh, asses will be kicked.

Game Group - I'm done

2011-11-16T18:37:00.003+01:00

A strange occurrence.

I got home from work yesterday at about 4:45pm and logged on to my trading system to see how my short position on Game Group was doing (a 'short' is a trade that profits from a falling share price). Not realising the market had closed, I thought something was wrong when the button to trade was 'ghosted' out. Rather optimistically, I jumped onto Google and searched for "Game Group profit warning". Nothing. I went to Game Group's investor pages on their web-site. Still nothing. Which makes sense - there was nothing to see because nothing had happened.

Well, when I went to work this morning and logged on at 8:30 am, Game Group had opened 40% down and they had indeed issued a profits warning. Finally, my long, long, long term prediction had come good. I closed down my trade and took my little pot of money home. It's little pot but it's a satisfying feeling to really call one and not feel like you're just taking a random punt. The coincidence is just that, eerie as it is.

This trade and the short Swiss franc trade were massively skewed risk-reward trades in my opinion. I've never had two sitters back to back. From here on it's just picking little bits around the edges.

Not being a full-time speculator has its rewards as you can sit back, see through the noise and let the trades come to you. Also, working for a living reminds you of the value of a pound, which anchors you with the good sense not to risk many months wages on the roll of the dice.

Oh my watch is the watch of terrorists

2011-11-15T22:49:00.001+01:00

From Wikipedia:

"According to The Guardian, "the Casio F-91W digital watch was declared to be 'the sign of al-Qaida' and a contributing factor to continued detention of prisoners by the analysts stationed at Guantánamo Bay. Briefing documents used to train staff in assessing the threat level of new detainees advise that possession of the F-91W – available online for as little as £4 – suggests the wearer has been trained in bomb making by al-Qaida in Afghanistan."^[3] United States Military intelligence officials have identified the F91W as a watch that terrorists use when constructing time bombs."

Kind of sucks.

Poor euro area

2011-11-14T18:49:00.002+01:00

Make no mistake. These are the very dark times for Europe. Pitch black may be around the corner. Brace yourselves for a bumpy ride and long, long recession. My theory is that there is a certain amount of pain in the system and this pain that cannot be made to go away.

It can be maximised thorugh idiocy or reduced a little by astute policy and a lot of luck, but there is a big, inescapable rump of the pain that must be swallowed by the peoples. In terms of outcomes, it largely boils down to spreading it over a lot of people or a few, and taking the hit over a short space of time or over a longer horizon. I reckon the public will be suckered into taking much of the hit, with a measure of burden transferred to future generations.

"As other economies prepare for euro disaster, their selling will accelerate Europe's decline. The clock keeps ticking down. Eventually, the buzzer will sound and the game will be over." - The Economist, today.

"The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) last week announced it had successfully sold a €3bn 10-year bond in support of Ireland. However, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that target was only met after the EFSF resorted to buying up several hundred million euros worth of the bonds." - Telegraph, today.

Something for the weekend.

2011-11-11T19:35:00.000+01:00

Adblocker

2011-11-11T18:24:00.003+01:00

I just installed the latest version of Firefox and will have to reactivate the famous/infamous Adblocker tool. It's quite something at the moment, all my favourite webs-sites are smothered in ghastly advertisements.

Brylcreem Cream

2011-11-07T18:50:00.000+01:00

Given that a tube of hair gel lasts me almost a year I thought it was worth researching a decent product for my next purchase. I settled on Brylcreem Hair Cream and proceeded to order a tub for £3.50 from Amazon.

Alas, I have just now returned from Superdrug with another two tubs (half price). This stuff had better be good now that I've got enought to be pasting onto the top of my head for the foreseeable future. I may have to think up some other uses otherwise. Toothpaste perhaps. Maybe a pasta sauce.

Recipe reminder: Tinned Mackeral and Leek

2011-11-05T17:56:00.002+01:00

- Chop up half a leek and fry in a glug of olive oil for a a few minutes to soften.
- Add a tin of boneless mackeral in tomato sauce and mash up.
- Add a sprinkle of chili powder and black pepper. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring hither and thither.
- Empty onto a toasted roll (halved) and gobble up.

Simple, cheap, delicious, healthy and very fast.

Tumbling tumble weeds

2011-11-05T11:49:00.002+01:00

It's that time of year when the digital tumbleweeds tumble through my blog.

Happy birthday win XP

2011-10-29T23:10:00.004+02:00

Windows XP is 10 years old. The operating system still works fine on my laptop and we still use XP at work. While I feel it's time to upgrade I can't see a pressing need, partly because browsers (think of as sub-operating systems) continue to evolve.

A couple of pics from the garden

2011-10-28T14:04:00.000+02:00

A framed Don Quixote - there is no grander prize!

2011-10-25T22:50:00.003+02:00

What a beautiful thing. My flatmate, knowing of my obsession with all things Don Quixote, found and bought this picture from a charity shop to decorate my wall. Despite having finished the book only a few months ago, I am missing the character already (sometimes I question my sanity on this matter).

Michael Winslow - voice artist extraordinaire!

2011-10-23T13:08:00.000+02:00

Remember the guy from Police Academy with the funny voices? He's still going at it, and going strong. I can't get my head around this:

And here, umm, he imitates typewriters through the ages:

Garden in autumn

2011-10-22T12:55:00.001+02:00

Garden pentax h90, originally uploaded by Riz RMF.

We've still got a bit of sun and the bees are collecting the last of the pollen

Spelthorne/Staines telephone parking fine

2011-10-22T12:46:00.002+02:00

I have just received a £25 cheque for a parking fine which I contested (rightly). I'd written this one off as I had already paid up and had low hopes of recovery. A good start to the weekend indeed.

Procastination

2011-10-16T18:12:00.003+02:00

Darn it, I'm struggling to study again. After piling through loads of coursework I decided to take a week away from the books. It's been quite nice. Mid-week, I visited a gas terminal (it's my job, alright!) and harvested the rest of the carrots and leeks which I planted in the garden earlier in the year (carrots quite good, leeks held promise but are no bigger than spring onions). This weekend I popped back home to Milton Keynes, watched the rugby, and took quite a few snaps in and about the garden. Oh, I also ordered about £20 worth of DVDs, most of which include ninjas (I am regretting the purchase already).

I was supposed to be studying today but I have found many a chore to be getting on with. All it takes is a little threat of studying accountancy and all those outstanding chores suddenly find themselves at the top of the 'to do' list.

(taken and processed in the Pentax H90)

Magnum!

2011-10-16T11:59:00.000+02:00

Shield bug going strong

2011-10-16T11:58:00.001+02:00

I popped out into the garden this cold morning to find Mrs Shield bug happily living on the same dead flower. Pretty cool.

A little shield bug

2011-10-07T23:57:00.001+02:00

Snapped today, when I came home after work. Felt the need to update the neglected blog!

Dance popping

2011-09-30T18:51:00.001+02:00

Here's a cool dance video for the weekend. I've only watched it, like, three times already:

Film: Warrior

2011-09-26T00:04:00.004+02:00

Warrior is a first rate beat-em-up along the lines of Rocky and The Fighter.

Tom Hardy is on fine form as a pyscho fighter (I think he's a good actor but he needs to move fast to avoid being sterotyped by Hollywood), as is his brother, played by Joel Edgerton.

I don't think this one is going hang around on the big screen for very long but it's definitely worth watching. You could say it punches above its weight! (Oh no)

****

Film: Drive

2011-09-25T00:14:00.003+02:00

After slogging through a class on corporate reporting I thought this movie has potential to lighten the mood and lift the spirit. But no. The opening pink font and funky eighties style music was but a trap which I fell into. After the first twenty minutes or so, Drive escalates into a heavy, violent film, albeit one that is beautifully made with great acting throughout. The mood is a noir-ish one that keeps you on edge most of the way through. It's a great piece of work but I still need something to lighten up.

****

Odeon voucher

2011-09-23T00:38:00.002+02:00

If you like films, print off this Odeon voucher for 40% off the standard price. You can print them off repeatedly until the offer expires on 13th October and there are no awkward restrictions.

I may well put this offer to good use now that some decent films are out (Warrior, Tinker Tailor). Just need to find the time is all.

Best ever visual auditory illusion - McGurk Effect

2011-09-21T00:50:00.000+02:00

Great post in Alphaville on UBS $2bn hit

2011-09-18T15:14:00.001+02:00

"It’s very helpful for UBS to have an individual trader to blame. It distances the bank from the event, and the individual can be pilloried as the rotten apple in a barrel of perfect Golden Delicious. The truth, as the ever-lengthening line of these disasters demonstrates, is that the banks encourage reckless behaviour. Nobody gets fired for making $2bn from a rogue trade that comes right. If his bet on black comes up, he gets a life-changing bonus. If it’s red, it’s not his money."

Link to the full piece.

Cool victorian pictures

2011-09-17T20:32:00.001+02:00

From the rather wonderful site that is Retronaut. Click on the link to see the full collection.

Another horrible word

2011-09-16T23:37:00.002+02:00

It's nowhere near as bad as 'tipping point' but the phrase 'having the bandwith' is starting to gather momentum. I think it's near the tipping point. I don't have the mental bandwith to cope.

Crazy Angolan puppet magic

2011-09-13T23:16:00.000+02:00

Putin Calendar?

2011-09-13T22:57:00.002+02:00

Here be a great collection of photos of Putin in various poses. We need a leader like this. Real man!

A couple of pics

2011-09-10T18:46:00.001+02:00

The last picture of this season’s sunflowers. Double bee bonus!

Now the sunflowers are dying and the bugs are a comin’

NS&I inflation linked certificates are no more

2011-09-08T01:03:00.002+02:00

The latest issue of government inflation linked bonds has been pulled and we can expect a long wait until the next batch.

Apparantly the investment industry were up in arms at the distortionary impact of the high rates of return of offer. Myself, I think RPI + 1% is perfectly reasonable, and while this may translate to a return of about 5%, in real terms it is just a paltry 1%. That's what you really get for locking your money away for five years, 1% a year. Look at any other safe bets mind (e.g. regular gvt bonds, strong corporates, bank saving rates, etc) and you will most probably lose money in real terms.

Sneakering suckertash

2011-09-07T20:45:00.002+02:00

... like a sledge hammer, my next round of accountancy studies is at my door, and my evenings and several weekends will now be given to traipsing hither and thither to various colleges of bean counting to learn the art of the pro forma and the trusted techniques. Of course this means my blogging will again recede into the background.

Yes, woe is me.

E4 & Friends

2011-09-03T22:33:00.002+02:00

E4 is broadcasting its last ever episode of Friends on Sunday. I can't remember watching anything else on E4 other than the odd episode of Smallville, so it will be interesting to see what fills the space.

Firefox 6

2011-09-02T09:35:00.001+02:00

After some prodding I have installed Firefox 6.0 on my old machine. It is rather wonderful. My igoogle homepages are so fast they seem to be preloaded in the background. The upgrade itself was simple and also very fast.

In today's age it would seem that Firefox has lost it's trail-blazing lead (in terms of advantages) over the competition, and Opera, Safari, Chrome and even Internet Explorer are all pretty good bets for your internet browsing needs. For me, I'm still liking and sticking to Firefox. It offers lots of options to customise and there are stacks of useful add-ons. But there are two over-riding reasons for sticking with Firefox:

Firefox is the name of a cool Clint Eastwood film:

It is also the name of an old home arcade game that I used to play in the mornings before heading off to school:

Film: Shogun Assassin

2011-08-31T01:11:00.003+02:00

****

It is exactly, exactly what you imagine a great samurai/ninja film from the 1980s to be. Surreal, great lines, great over the top action, and lots and lots of ninjas.

Intro speech by little boy:

"When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest Samurai in the empire, and he was the Shogun's decapitator. He cut off the heads of 131 lords for the Shogun. It was a bad time for the empire. The Shogun just stayed inside his castle and he never came out. People said his brain was infected by devils, and that he was rotting with evil. The Shogun said the people were not loyal. He said he had a lot of enemies, but he killed more people than that. It was a bad time. Everybody living in fear, but still we were happy. My father would come home to mother, and when he had seen her, he would forget about the killings. He wasn't scared of the Shogun, but the Shogun was scared of him. Maybe that was the problem. At night, mother would sing for us, while father would go into his temple and pray for peace. He'd pray for things to get better. Then, one night the Shogun sent his ninja spies to our house. They were supposed to kill my father, but they didn't. That was the night everything changed, forever. That was when my father left his samurai life and became a demon. He became an assassin who walks the road of vengeance. And he took me with him. I don't remember most of this myself. I only remember the Shogun's ninja hunting us wherever we go. And the bodies falling. And the blood."

Quote from the evil Master of Death: "When cut across the neck, a sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say. I'd always hoped to cut someone like that someday, to hear that sound. But to have it happen to my own neck is ridiculous."

Mrs Tiggywinkle makes an appearance

2011-08-30T19:55:00.001+02:00

This is the first hedgehog I’ve seen in a while. It was scuttling around in the garden this morning, collecting plant shrapnel for its nest. Stealthily making my approach, I was able to steal a couple of snaps.

Oldboy remake

2011-08-29T23:47:00.003+02:00

Why? This sick, puzzling, twisted film is amazing as is, and it is relatively recent (2003). The only reason I can think of is that people don't like subtitles. Bah.

I wonder, will the main actor do so far as his Korean equivalent and eat a live Octopus?

Ninjas are making a comeback

2011-08-28T08:43:00.000+02:00

It's all about the ninjas these days. Having learned of a modern day ninja hero on patrol in Yeovil, I thought I would do search for similar occurrences. Here's are my findings:

Good ninja: Protecting Tunbridge Wells (Kent) earlier this year.
Good ninjas: In Australia, five ninja warriors from a ninja training school jump in to protect a mugging victim.
Bad ninja: Attacking famers in Italy in 2007.

The latest DVD from my DVD club is 'Ninja Assassin', which could be as bad as it looks. Should be fun though:

The synopsis is most cool:

"Lone Wolf, a shogun master, turns against lone wolf, his faithful head-cutting samurai servant. Vengeance forces into battle against the shogun, the shogun's son, and a host of shogun Ninja warriors."

Kindle envy

2011-08-28T00:52:00.002+02:00

Oh no. I'm enjoying a long weekend back at the old homestead with my sister and brother-in-law, and my brother-in-law has brought with him a shiny new Kindle, which is way better than I had expected. I want one. Not right now perhaps, as I have a few books to work through and a bunch of exams to start studying for, but soon. The little thing is just amazing. The clincher for me is the ability to read pdfs, wikipedia, and to download web-site articles to a kindle format to be read on the move. I already have a few hundred 'read later' articles on instapaper, so this would be a real boon. Also, one of the reasons most of these articles have been marked as 'read later' is because I spend so much time at work staring at a back-lit screen that I struggle to take pleasure in reading long articles on my laptop for pleasure. However, the Kindle is a kind of bridge between paper and technology, enabling the reader to read their on-line articles in a semi off-line medium. Most excellent.

There is talk of an Amazon Tablet coming out next year. I have no interest in this product, but if it exerts a bit of downward pressure on the Kindle, that's all to the good.

Film: I'm a Cyborg But That's OK

2011-08-26T01:35:00.005+02:00

I'm a Cyborg But That's OK is an unlikley quirky film from the maker of Oldboy (still the best Korean film I have seen). It isn't brilliant, but it is breezy fun ... set in an asylum.

***

A good bit of Korean yodelling, as you do:

Film: Being John Malkovich

2011-08-25T08:58:00.001+02:00

Being John Malkovich is a brilliant film, written by the same twisted mind who gave us the even brillianter Synecdoche.

As soon as the main character steps onto the 7 1/2th floor, you know what you are in for, and by then you will know whether this is your cup of tea.

After watching BJM I searched out more films by Charlie Kauffman (the twisted mind mentioned earlier), but alas his output is not so prolific. He did give us the great Adaptations a while back, but there's slim pickings beyond these three films.

We (I) want more.

**** 1/2

Film: Planet of the Apes

2011-08-24T01:22:00.003+02:00

Planet of the Apes is quite a bit better than it should have been. And you get a lot a different apes for your money, which is always nice.

***

Cool ladybird photo taken yesterday morning

2011-08-21T14:11:00.001+02:00

Bee as extension of sunflower

2011-08-21T01:04:00.001+02:00

Bee as extension of sunflower, originally uploaded by Riz RMF.

More Body Shop offers

2011-08-20T14:07:00.001+02:00

Just ordered £50 of Body Shop products for £15 including postage (this time, postage was free). I think that's enough now:

item

qty.

unit price

total

Hemp Hand Protector
	100ml

£10.00 £0.00

£0.00

Hemp Hand Protector
	100ml

£10.00 £0.00

£0.00

Hemp Foot Protector
	100ml

£10.00

£20.00

delivery method

Standard Delivery - -

£0.00

sub total:	£20.00
discount	£6.00

Total :	£14.00

Body Shop glitch - serious money savings

2011-08-20T01:35:00.003+02:00

What am I doing at half past midnight ordering bath products from Body Shop? Snagging bargains is what. If the order below goes through I will have sneakily combined a buy 3 get 2 free deal with a buy 2 get 1 free deal to get 5 products for the price of 2. I will also have applied a discount code for 30% off, and then, yes there's more, behind the scenes I will score a further 24% discount for buying through Quidco.

Coconut Bath Shower Gel/Cream (67874)

GBP0.00

Hemp Moisturising Wash (85089)

GBP0.00

Vanilla Bath & Shower Gel (12304)

GBP0.00

Hemp Body Mitt (67896)

GBP7.00

GBP14.00

Sub Total:

GBP14.00

Discount:

GBP4.20

Shipping Method

Shipping Cost:

GBP3.49

Order total:

GBP13.29

Love film - my list

2011-08-19T23:49:00.005+02:00

I now have some 80 films on my DVD club list. Above are the top priority choices. Beyond the Hollywood actioner Unknown, the rest are a real mixed bag. We have a documentary, two animations, some foreign films, two ninja films from the eighties, a few classics and some indies. It's kind of representative of the rest of the list; wide-reaching indeed, although not a rom-com in sight.

Film: Son of Rambow

2011-08-16T23:45:00.005+02:00

(Not the actual movie poster)

Son of Rambow is a cracking film again pulls on the romanticised notions of childhood. After all, who didn't watch Rambo First Blood when they were still not even in their teens, and then went on to spend many an hour pretending to be Rambo. I did (and I still sometimes do, but not really, but really, I do).

****

Ammendment - I have been advised that Son of Rambow is deserving of a further half star due the presence of ninjas. I concur.

**** 1/2

Don Quixote - the final reading

2011-08-16T20:08:00.003+02:00

A few days ago I finished reading Don Quixote for the nth and last time. It was a joy and a sadness, knowing that I will never read this book again from cover to cover. The life lessons contained within are manyfold, the adventures great and the story telling beautiful.

I'm a hero (again)

2011-08-16T19:57:00.003+02:00

Blast, I don't think the embed worked. If you want to be a hero, upload your photo to this Swedish web-site. Very cool.

Film: Spirited Away

2011-08-16T18:06:00.000+02:00

Spirited Away is a first-rate supernatural fantasy that pulls you along on a magical helter skelter ride. Everything about this picture is great. The story. The array of chracters. The beautiful hand-drawn animation (a refreshing change from all the emotion-less CGI that we are bombarded with these days).

The best animations from the US often succeed because they work on an adult level and a child level (e.g. Simpsons). Spirited Away, in contrast, succeeded because it works on one-level and because it managed to completely take me to that level.

****

Multi headed sunflower

2011-08-15T11:32:00.000+02:00

These sunflower heads are all coming off a single stalk. Freaky.

Why ninjas are so cool

2011-08-14T17:26:00.001+02:00

Falling global bond yields

2011-08-14T00:24:00.003+02:00

10 year yields in the developed world have fallen like a stone of late. At face value, locking your money for 10 years doesn't have much of an attraction yield all that much these days:

US nominal 10 year yield: 2.25%
US inflation linked TIPS yield: -0.03% (yes, after inflation you earn a negative return). Why have prices on these bonds been pushed so high as to create a negative yield for the first time in US history? I imagine it is to do with the value of insurance against possible high inflation, with deflation on the radar but not to the same degree.
UK 10 year yield: 2.53%.
Japan: 1.05%.

Why are folk still buying these bonds and accepting such meager returns?

Perhaps it is because there may be no other suitable alternative. On the one hand, if the bond bubble bursts then it could be very painful for bondholders indeed. However, if you hold bonds to maturity then interim price action becomes irrelevant as you know what you are going to get at the end.

Also, if you are managing billions of dollar and you want to keep a fair portion in cash, would you rather put it in a bank deposit account which is only guaranteed by the government upto a limited amount (via deposit insurance), or would you rather side with the goverment in full. Indeed, despite all the soverign credit downgrade talk of late, lower yields suggests very strong confidence in the US as a trusty creditor i.e. quite the opposite of what the fear mongering media would have you believe.

Just a few random thoughts going into the weekend.

Expendables 2

2011-08-14T00:24:00.002+02:00

I have just taken a look at the expected cast and as well as the originals it looks like we can add Jean Claude Van Damme, John Travolta and Chuck Norris.

Film: Exit Through the Gift Shop

2011-08-14T00:04:00.003+02:00

I thought this was a film about Banksy. Instead it is more a film by Banksy about street art and moreso about the crazy guy who was supposedly documenting the whole street art movement. It is gripping and astounding throughout, and if it is indeed truthful then the joke is on us all (you will know what I mean when you watch it). If it is an elaborate hoax, the joke is still on us. I guess that makes Banksy very clever indeed.

****

Recipe: Smoked Mackeral Hash

2011-08-12T23:17:00.003+02:00

I had some left-over smoked mackeral in the fridge which I needed to put to good use this evening. What I did was to make a kind of smoked mackeral hash:

- Boil up a few chopped potatoes so they can be mashed. Remove from pan.
- Add some oil and fry the flaked fish along with a chopped red onion, for 3 or 4 minutes on a medium heat. Add some pepper, maybe some smoked paprika, and some herbs and stir in.
- Throw the potatoes back in to the pot, along with a quick pouring of milk (accurate measure, eh) and roughly mash and stir.
- Crack an egg in the middle and stir around for a couple of minutes so it scrambles up.
- Pour the whole thing out on to a plate, top with grated cheddar and serve (I added some sriacha sauce, but it isn't necessary).

This take on the smoked mack fish cake tastes darn good (the strong fish tate is diluted by the milk and tatties), is a one pot deal, and is pretty healthy. Will be making again.

Fleetwood Mac

2011-08-12T21:28:00.001+02:00

It may be a simple functioning of aging, but I'm loving Fleetwood Mac right now.