NigeBlog
Sunday 7th September 2008
Film club: Last night we watched Quadrophenia, which I have never seen before, though I have seen the end before -- Sting the bellboy -- ha ha !
Phil Daniels concludes that this mod thing isn't really for him. Like Ray Davis he's not like everybody else. Whatever happened to Keep On Keeping On ?
Must have been a lot of fun to be in for all those young actors and must have been a lot of fun to see back in 1980 like half my school ...
Saturday 6th September 2008
I am ashamed of my hungoverness. Never again, and all that.
Wednesday 3rd September 2008
So, Curbs has left us. We weren't as rich as we thought we were and like Newcastle we have had to sell good players ( Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney ) and like Newcastle it has been too much for the gaffer.
I don't know who I want to take over, but if it was Slaven Bilic it might at least do England a favour.
Tuesday 2nd September 2008
Film night: Tonight we watched Requiem for a Dream. I liked Aronofsky's Pi when I saw it many years ago, and Jan and I had seen Hubert Selby Jr's Last Exit to Brooklyn many, many years ago.
I enjoyed the cut ups and percussion and repetition but the last ten minutes were too unpleasant for my delicate soul. I remember now that the close of Last Exit was equally disturbing.
Wednesday 27th August 2008
Really enjoyed The Lady From Shanghai on DVD last night. When we have a worthy old film to watch we sometimes don't get around to watching it for weeks, which is a shame because old films are just great. I loved the strangeness of this film, particularly the fun house at the end, the mad court scene and the camp villains Everett Sloane and Glenn Anders ("Just tell 'em you're taking a little tarrrr-get practice."
Orson Welles' Irish accent made me wonder why there weren't any first generation Irish actors in Hollywood to play all these Irish characters. Who was the first Irishman to play Irish on screen ?
Friday 1st August 2008
The Zinefest last Saturday was a lot of fun and made me want to put more effort in to selling stuff, just so I can stock Stuart Murray and Olly Paterson.
Stuart is a postman, a teddy boy and a chronicler of Glasgow's rough pubs in In Pubs. I'm sure he is going to be a big star. I'm not sure if he thinks what he does has anything to do with comics, but I do.
Anyway, tonight I found myself stuck in Waverley station for an hour and decided that I deserved a pint. I bought my drink, but all the tables were at least partially occupied. I sat next to John, who was just like someone out of Stuart's book. At first I was a bit scared, when he asked me if I was of the Rangers persuasion, but when I told him I worked in the NHS he warmed to me ("I love Gordon Brown").
I couldn't always tell what he was saying so I can't really document his crazy, booze addled conversation, but I was reminded of how much time I spent talking to scary, bonkers people in pubs when I was younger.
Thursday 31st July 2008
We want David for our leader. Link.
Sunday 6th July 2008
We all enjoyed our day day out in Carlisle yesterday, a bit like a day trip to Coronation Street, everyone we met being so friendly.
The first thing we saw off the train was the record fair at the County Hotel, and the first stall we saw was all punk rock -- the Adicts, Crass, the Damned etc. etc. The music playing in the hall was the Rich Kids, Elvis Costello and the Jam, which made me think the punk rock guy was in charge of the tape machine, but then on came Kokomo by the Beach Boys. How do they decide who is in charge of the tunes ?
I bought No.
1 Rare Groove Hits
And Carlisle has more punks than Gorgie. Is Carlisle the most punk rock town in the UK ?
Sunday 29th June 2008
This just in from the humour can be funny department: Did you know Beth Ditto's dad invented the shorthand for representing repeated entries in a column ?
Glastonbury really rocked my Sunday. May the BBC long continue to cover this great national treasure of ours. And with that clever blue button you never have to suffer Biffy Clyro when you could be watching Mark Ronson.
Friday 20th June 2008
One consequence of commuting fifty miles to work is that I can be a bit too tired to blog in the evening. Another consequence us that I do get loads of time to read. I can now read a book in a week.
This week I read Garnethill
Sunday 27th April 2008
My pick of the weekend's papers -- this review
of the new James Kelman. I really enjoyed How
Late It Was, How Late
Wednesday 23rd April 2008
A fire alarm, a patient in handcuffs and poop in the corridor -- just another day in the NHS. It wasn't like this at the Royal Marsden ;-)
Saturday 19th April 2008
I've got my right arm back after four days of excruciating pains. Thank you Ibuprofen Heat Patches.
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We all enjoyed Dr Who tonight. Emily came up with a good name for the Ood's facial appendages -- tonguetacles.
Friday 18th April 2008
Today I voluntarily walked away from a job where I was quite contented for only the second time. Goodbye ST Microelectronics.
Saturday 12th April 2008
A successful trip to the Glasgow Comic Fair -- 118 comics for £70.
Sunday 6th April 2008
I am just so incredibly happy about my new job.
Saturday 5th April 2008
The Guardian Guide were a bit mean about Russell T Davies' writing today. I thought tonight's first episode was most excellent. And I think there's a lot of chemistry between Catherine Tate and David Tennant. And I thought Sarah Lancashire made a rather good villain. And usually I find her really annoying. And I usually find Catherine Tate really annoying. So well done Russell and the BBC !
Friday 4th April 2008
I passed a phone interview and I have a new job. Starting on 21st April in Glasgow. Interviewing for your next job really is much easier when you're still in work. Gah ! I'm just so happy.
Thursday 3rd April 2008
Really enjoyed this article in the National Geographic. We usually assume stuff from China is so cheap because they are evil and care nought for human rights and have child slavery. But at least part of that cheapness is down to the huge scale of things over there. Imagine a whole city given over to making buttons. Or playing cards. Wow !
Monday 31st March 2008
I saw this rather disturbing story on the cover of the Metro this morning -- One sausage a day ups cancer risk. Gah ! I like bacon and sausages. Maybe I should have stayed a vegetarian ;-)
I love the canteen at work, but top of the menu today was Kilted Sausages. And what are the kilts made of ? Bacon. Don't they read the newspapers ?
Sunday 30th March 2008
My favourite story from the weekend's papers -- Organic food 'no benefit to health' in the Observer. I always knew dirty carrots were a waste of money.
Saturday 29th March 2008
Selling comics to the art lovers of Leith for seven hours was an exhausting, but rewarding experience. I had a rather unrealistic sales target in my head, but it felt good selling some of my small press faves like Bedsit Journal, Five Days out of Seven and the Blackest Gnome.
Like the hapless Apprentice candidates selling fish I did just about manage to break even, but I think I probably enjoyed the experience a bit more. If I wanted to "Make money, make money and make more money" I probably wouldn't be selling comics -- now that would be a good Apprentice challenge, "I want you to choose three of these self-published comics and sell them at an Arts Fair in Edinburgh".
Thanks to Out of the Blue for a very well organised fair.
Thursday 20th March 2008
The journalism in Private Eye isn't always of that much interest to me, but I was quite interested in this story about the dogs who found traces of Maddie in the McCann's car and buried bodies in Jersey -- or did they ? Link here.
Thursday 13th March 2008
Best day off ever -- I took the kids to school and nursery for the first time in ages, bought them books at the School Book Fair, ate loads of my wife's traybake, worked on Prestonpandemonium, and my laptop suddenly works a whole lot better now it has an extra 256MB of RAM.
Thursday 28th February 2008
Thursday night is skills night. This week I spent my time looking at some problems in Perl and awk.
1. Use awk to only write lines where column 3 matches a pattern or is greater
than a value
$ cat test.txt | awk '$3==3 {print }'
$ cat test.txt | awk '$3=="text" {print }'
$ cat test.txt | awk '$3>3 {print }' | awk '$3<9999 {print }'
$ cat test.txt | awk '$3>3 {print }' | awk '$3<"a" {print }'
$ cat test.txt | awk '$3~"ex" {print }'
2. Use Perl to only write lines where column 3 matches a pattern or is greater
than a value
$ cat test.txt | ./column_match.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
while ($line = <STDIN>) {
($col1, $col2, $col3, $therest) = split(" ",$line);
$col3 > 3 and print "$col1 $col2 $col3 $therest \n";
}
#!/usr/bin/perl
while ($line = <STDIN>) {
($col1, $col2, $col3, $therest) = split(" ",$line);
$col3 =~ "ex" and print "$col1 $col2 $col3 $therest \n";
}
3. Use awk to average the values in a column
$ cat test.txt | awk 'BEGIN { count=0; total=0 } {if (($3+0)==$3) count++; total+=$3}
END {print "Average ", total/count }'
4. Use Perl to average the values in a column
$ cat test.txt | ./average.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
$count = 0;
$total = 0;
while ($line = <STDIN>) {
($col1, $col2, $col3, $therest) = split(" ",$line);
$col3 > 0 and $total += $col3 and $count++;
}
$average = $total / $count;
print "Average $average\n";
Tuesday 5th February 2008
We were all looking forward to Pancake Day. I came home, put some oil in the frying pan, turned up the heat, put milk in the jug, added flour, ... now for the eggs. Except we have no eggs -- they all got used on Yorkshire Pudding Day. D'oh !
Monday 4th February 2008
And lo the IT gods did decree that a server would come falling out of the sky with an almighty crash. I have often seen servers bent all out of shape from being dropped but today I was the one doing the dropping.
Sunday 3rd February 2008
I still had 133 to dispose when I sat down at my laptop tonight, but 90 minutes later I have made it -- zero inbox heaven and a day ahead of my target date. Hurrah !
Wednesday 16th January 2008
What I feel about football makes no sense. I have no grudge against Sam Allardyce or Newcastle United but when he got the sack last week I said 'Har har !'
Tonight when Kevin Keegan got the job Jan predicted that tears would be shed, and by half time in tonight's MOTD ( West Ham's 1-0 FA Cup 4th round defeat away to Man City -- ho hum ) she was proved right.
Tuesday 15th January 2008
We've been desparatly watching films to try and run down our LOVEFiLM queue
and get Sopranos Series 6 Part 2 despatched. Sunday was Being
There and last night was Little
Otik
Being There was Peter Sellars last film and a fitting tribute to his great comic acting talent as he plays the grown up little boy lost in the world of Washington poverty and politicking.
Jan Svankmajer is everyone's favourite Czech stop-go animator and Little Otik is the story of a couple who really want a baby but get a monster made of wood.
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My favourite columns from the weekend's papers: Nick Cohen on why environmentalists might suffer a downturn in their fortunes if the economy turns sour -- here; and Jay Rayner on why we can't all afford organic chicken for dinner -- here.
Saturday 12th January 2008
Today was Barker family funday, so we went swimming, made trifle and watched
the The
Simpsons Movie
In the run up to Christmas Channel 4 showed the very first season of the show and I enjoyed that early, crude animation style. The computer animation in the film is very slick ( like Futurama ), but a bit busy for the small screen and without some of the underground comics feel of the 1989 version.
To complete our perfect day West Ham beat Fulham 2-1, Lawrie Grant ordered two tables at Prestonpandemonium III and I sit here eating something called Baumkuchedn-spitzen, which is basically tiramisu in chocolate.
Manchester United beat Nigel Pearson's Newcastle 6-0 so it should be a good Match of the Day in the morning.
Friday 11th January 2008
I recently finished reading Tomasson and Buist's Battles
of the '45
So, Cope was a good general, who did everything he could at Prestonpans ( as his military tribunal found ), but he was let down by the quality of his troops. I don't know why this should be so important to me 262 years later, but I feel much more comfortable reading this than reading that the highlanders were great soldiers, their leaders inspired in their plan to outflank the redcoats and Cope an incompetent who had to lead away his men in shame.
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Tonight we watched Reverend and the Makers play out the Jonathan Ross show and it occured to me I can no longer tell the difference between real pop music and the joke pop music they have in the Mighty Boosh. I really am a 40 years old dad.
Thursday 10th January 2008
Nigel vs. email.
I have an embarrassing 508 messages in my inbox -- my friends at lifehacker would be ashamed of me. So my plan is to reduce this number by 20 a day. Come back in 25 days time ( 4th February ) when I will have achieved the fabled zero inbox.
Saturday 5th January 2008
Watched M. Night Shyamalan's The
Village
Apparantly the plot is lifted from an old Twilight Zone and the twist is staring you right in the face ( hey, what's the most ironic explanation for how this situation could come to pass ? Well, that's what has happened ), but it was still a suitably distracting way to pass 100 minutes on a Saturday night.
Wednesday 2nd January 2008
Happy new year everyone. As is traditional, some resolutions:
- drink more booze -- Jan and I have become such lightweights
- appreciate Scotland more -- I've chosen to live here after all
- stop taking sugar in coffee and don't eat a ton of chocolate to celebrate the kids going to bed each night
- listen to the radio more -- its less distracting than dumb telly
- enjoy the kids more -- weekends are for riding bikes and swimming, not tidying bedrooms and reading about cricket
- and be less pissy with the kids -- they're learning to be pissy and sarcastic from a master
- ... and perennial favourites, stop picking my nose, make more of an effort to keep in touch with friends and family and blog more often !
Saturday 22nd December 2007
I was really looking forward to eleven days of being a full time parent and husband ... right up until it was time to walk the kids round to a neighbour's house for some pre Christmas cheer. Regular readers of my wife's blog will know that Georgie has can be quite strong willed when it comes to walk time, but I hadn't really experienced this for a while and today there was no Jan for backup. Georgie wanted to wear mittens and carry a Christmas card to post in the letter box. Unfortunatly Georgie wasn't able to carry the Christmas card while wearing the mittens. Raised voices followed and in shame I abandoned the mission. Jan deals with this sort of situation five days a week, so half an hour later we set out again, this time with both parents providing the escort.
Now this is the sort of parenting failure that can really get me down, but today I learned a vital lesson. Actually Jan drew me a diagram and spelt it out in simple language -- when I'm miserable and grumpy all my little friends are miserable and grumpy.
Post script: the Christmas card never did make it in to the post -- sorry Angela.
Saturday 1st December 2007
Selling comics to the people of Prestonpans is a bit like teaching crows to fly underwater -- a lifetime's work that produces little in the way of results. Today I was at the Pennypit Centre for the PSNYC Christmas Fayre. Due to conflicting reports of when the kick off would be, and our busy day ( three Christmas fairs, two as punters and one as a vendor ), I arrived with my suitcase of comics and newspaper bags in a room already mobbed with women and small children.
The kind lavender bag ladies showed me to my pitch, stuck conveniently behind the queue for the tombolla. Parents tend to steer their kids away as if I am trying to sell them drugs or pornography ( I'm not ), but despite everything I did manage to make five sales, and hey, I enjoy the challenge.
Sunday 12th August 2007
And so I am 40.
I have a very sunburnt face from this afternoon's barbecue at Yellowcraigs beach. It was really nice to see the kids playing on a traditional sandy beach. We hadn't packed towels or swimming costumes because the forecast was for rain. The raincoats came in handy later as we walked the mile or so back to North Berwick in pouring rain. Our plan was to walk the John Muir way along the coast but as the path disappeared and the beach turned away from North Berwick we decided to take our chances crossing the North Berwick West Links. The path through the middle of the golf course proved much better going for the buggy than the beach but we knew we shouldn't really be there.
As we dragged our sodden children past some golfers practising their swings one of them commented on how it was lovely weather for a stroll. At least we weren't paying £150 for the pleasure.
Thanks to Jan and the girls for working so hard at making my birthday special.
Monday 2nd July 2007
A week ago I had no work, now I've got two contracts. Right now I've got eight days work ( with an ISP in Livingston ), and then next week I start a new three month contract with an electronics design shop in Edinburgh. Thank you everyone who kept the faith.
Friday 22nd June 2007
While I've been unemployed Life on Mars, the Apprentice and Celebrity Masterchef have all started and ended. Thankfully Channel 4 show no sign of running out of episodes of the Simpsons.
On Tuesday I interviewed at a big city council. I kind of got the impression that they weren't really considering me when they were saying things like 'Thanks for coming all this way.' Hey, it's not that far and anyway if I was working here I would be making this journey every day.
I have another interview this Tuesday, a bit closer to home.
I haven't always managed to maintain a positive outlook this last few months. Thank you Jan for helping me stick with it.
Monday 4th June 2007
Sometimes something so bizarre and wrong-headed happens that you wonder if the world will ever make sense again. Tonight the closing credits in Eastenders scrolled up the screen rather than flashing up in tasteful clumps of two or three. Is this dumbing down or an attempt by the production staff to go back to the glory days of the 1980s ?
Tuesday 15th May 2007
Personality test questionnaire based on Georgina's ABC book:
Apple or Doughnut ?
Bear or Eagle ?
Car or Egg ?
Flower or Hand ?
Goose or Iguana ?
Kitten or Lemon ?
Nuts or Oranges ?
Puppy or Penguin ?
Rabbit or Tractor ?
Strawberry or Umbrella ?
Vegetables or Watch ?
Wolf or Xylophone ?
Yawn or Zigzag ?
Yacht or Zero ?
Sunday 13th May 2007
So West Ham won and stayed in the Premership and Sheffield United lost and didn't. Well done Curbs, Tev and the rest of them.
Neil Warnock was the lowest paid manager in the Premiership. Sometimes you've got to be careful what you wish for ...
Saturday 12th May 2007
Links of the day:
Five ways to improve your life -- Living within your means is a great idea, but it helps if you have some means ;-)
Friday 11th May 2007
On a Friday night Jan and I like to listen to Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour on Radio 6. Tonight's subject was booze and this song by Charles Aznovour (his first hit apparantly) has got be one of the darkest things I have ever heard. And its so obsure you need to go to a Bob Dylan fan site because it isn't in any of the usual lyrics sites.
I'm glad I don't hardly drink any more.
--
And was that the darkest episode of Eastenders ever or what ?
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My favourite bit of this story which I'm sure will be all over the Internet in the next few days -- 'There was like a metal gate.'
--
In the style of Gordon Brown, 'Today I announce my candidacy for the position of Lecturer in Computing Technical Support at Jewel and Esk Valley College.'
--
And now for some good news and a subject close to my heart -- peace in Ireland. Who could ever have foreseen this happening ?
Thursday 10th May 2007
Tonight Emily and I made flaneur drawings inspired by this video ( first ten seconds blank -- stick with it ).
Lucy did her best ever picture of a person, with unfinished Sun by Emily.
Monday 7th May 2007
Just sometimes I'm funny #2 ...
Yesterday we were watching Calamity Jane on the tv. Jane sees Adelaide Adams on stage for the first time, and I say 'So they had that burlesque in the olden days then ? '
Arf arf.
--
Bonjour Christopher ! Enjoyez vous le Paris !
--
Website of the day -- like Napster used to be in the olden
days, a place for folks to search
for 'free' mp3s:
http://www.g2p.org/
Saturday 28th April 2007
My helpful children: Jan is changing Lucy's nappy. Georgie runs across the room, throws a packet of nappies at Jan's head and declares 'There, that's better.'
--
The funny games my kids play: Lucy says 'Yeah', Georgie says 'No', Lucy says 'Yeah', Georgie says 'No'. Repeat for next half hour.
--
Wigan 0, West Ham 3 -- Don't ever give up believing.
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Dr Who Evolution of the Daleks -- Worst episode ever ! I think they may be running out of dalek stories.
Wednesday 25th April 2007
Jan and I both had bad dreams last night that disturbed our sleep and prevented us getting started with the day this morning. I dreamt that the police were searching the house, and I had the thing they were after right in my pocket, and had to get out of the house to dispose of it, but always looking over my shoulder expecting someone to be watching me.
This is obviously open to a psychological interpretation, but actually I try really hard not to have anything to feel guilty about. Perhaps it had something to do with my late night peanut binge. I certainly felt like I had a dry roasted hangover this morning.
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Lucy is a changed person this week. We always hoped that nursery would be a boost to her language skills but the effect on her confidence and the amount she speaks has been immediate. And she is very, very happy to be going to 'school' at last.
Thursday 19th April 2007
Finally I have a working web interface to our mp3 jukebox. Big thanks to mp3act -- you rock !
Now to find some way to tag the 1500 files that we have without ID3 tags ...
Wednesday 11th April 2007
Lucy and Georgie are ill. I still haven't got a job. A certain ennui fills the Monkey Loft.
The last few days felt like a proper holiday -- like the only reason I wasn't in work was because it was Easter. The Barker family treasure hunt on Good Friday was great fun if ultimately unsuccessful and swimming with Lucy on Saturday afternoon was a wonderful bonding experience and a rare chance to give one of my kids the exact thing they have been nagging me for.
Then Georgie got ill on Saturday night and Lucy got ill on Sunday night and neither of them are really better yet.
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The final Life on Mars was a little disappointing. Sam chooses to live in his fantasy world because it feels more real to him than the real world. This isn't a legitimate choice for anyone living in the real world with real friends and family. I think the writers got it wrong. The truly satisfying ending would have been for Sam to leave the dreamworld behind forever, returning to the present with some ambiguity in the interpretation of his experience -- more like Tony Soprano's recent two episode trip to dreamland.
Thursday 5th April 2007
Yet another uplifting blog -- I mightn't have had any work for the past nine weeks but at least I gave blood without fainting yesterday.
I told my 'donor carer' that I had fainted last time and she checked my record and saw that I had been a bit faint my first time as well. What I didn't know is that it is three strikes and out -- if I faint again then they ain't going to take me again. What pressure ! If I'm going to get the top prize for 50 donations then I have to not faint at every one of the next 43.
Armed with this information I realised I had to be strong ... and I was. I've never felt so good after a donation.
Wednesday 4th April 2007
Last night's dream: I'm having a quiet few beers in Antigua with Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. We're all coming to the end of our bowling careers but looking forward to our last few games in the World Cup. They reassure me that although I didn't get as many wickets as them I am still getting picked for England at the age of 39 so someone must really rate me.
I wake up feeling elated that I am still a part of the England team. I guess its a metaphor for all the good things in my life ( wife, children, friends, house ) and that sometimes you need to feel appreciated. Thank you Mr Sandman.
Saturday 17th March 2007
As a postscript to yesterday's outpouring of self pity, the real lesson of adulthood is of course that we just have to get on with it ... so, I continue to get up in the morning, apply for jobs, work on my skills and enjoy the time with my family.
You never know, I might get a call on Monday saying all this credit check nonsense has been a big mistake.
And West Ham might win at Ewood Park today.
You never can tell ...
Friday 16th March 2007
A single phone call can spoil your whole day. Lucy had done very well in her language tests at hospital and we were on the bus home when I get a call telling me I haven't really got a new job -- I've failed the credit check.
This is particularly galling because both Equifax and CIFAS say my credit report is good and anyone failing me is misreading it.
I think it was Public Enemy who summed it up best -- 'Those suckas have authority'
When you're working, and you have a beautiful family, and a big house, and you can pay all your bills, the world feels like a good place, and you try and sell your kids the idea that hard work will get them the things they want, and you can't really remember why you bought all those angry punk rock records when you were a kid.
But actually the things that make all this possible are very fragile, and Kafka and the rest of them were right, and if the gods of bureaucracy don't look upon you favourably there ain't nothing you can do about it.
And just to ram that last point home, developers have somehow got permission to build houses on the field behind my house, which will presumably spoil our view of the battle site and the railway and forever burden us with negative equity.
Thursday 15th March 2007
Just sometimes I'm funny ...
Me: What's your new reading book about ?
Em: The Romans. I think its the Romans. Its either Romans or Romance.
Me: Are they wearing sandals ?
Em: Yes.
Me: Its the Romans.
I've just finished reading Achtung Schweinehund: A Boy's Own Story of Imaginary Combat by Harry Thompson in just three days, some kind of record for slow reader me. The book is about Harry's hobby of collecting, painting and playing with toy soldiers, something which I was fairly interested in from about the ages of eight to 18. Fortunately I managed to see that this tragically uncool hobby wasn't for me shortly before I started working at Forbidden Planet and gave my life to comics.
One question arising from the book: Did FP really sell wargames out of the basement of Denmark Street ?
Saturday 10th March 2007
Lucy and I went to the Hillhead Comic Mart today, a round trip that took nine trains: