almost witty

The last 24 hours of Twitters

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:03:50 +0100

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...

18:37 is in a london grocery hearing one person exclaim that they have never had prawn before #

Powered with LoudTwitter

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The last 24 hours of Twitters

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:05:33 +0100

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...

10:08 impressed that I'm apparently in Beijing covering the Olympics for the BBC. #
12:48 New blog: Links for 2008-07-14 [del.icio.us] tinyurl.com/5kypuy #
14:26 is pondering if it's 'twittering' or 'twittring' #

Powered with LoudTwitter

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The last 24 hours of Twitters

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:04:57 +0100

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...

09:40 is stalking identikit lesbians and american school groups and wrestling with oversized luggage at gatwick. #
18:48 is listening to Cockney-accented British-Chinese people. Cor blimey, guv'nor! #

Powered with LoudTwitter

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Drink with my friends and I - and see David Tennant & Patrick Stewart doing Hamlet...

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:19:49 +0100

Due to members of my party now being unavailable, here's an exclusive chance to come and sit with my socially-acceptable Whovian friends and I for two hours. And possibly drink afterwards.

Oh, and see some actors called David Tennant and Patrick Stewart strutting their stuff doing Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on 2 August. They'll need all the encouragement you can get...

If you're interested in tickets, look at the eBay auction

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Gor blimey, Chinese cockneys!

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:55:23 +0100

I've travelled around the world, and met Chinese Americans, Chinese French and Chinese Danes. But nothing has surprised me - and I'm not too sure why - as watching this film about the Chinese Cockneys of the 1920s.

If you watch the video of Connie and Leslie Hoe, they sound soooo ... Cockney. An accent and voice that's unique to London, and that I hear around me all the time - but coming from a biologically Chinese couple, who have seen a lot over the last 80 years. It makes my posh English accent sound incredibly dull. I wish I could do accents.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The last 24 hours of Twitters

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:07:52 +0100

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...

18:32 is craving rice. and food. #
20:58 is wondering what I should do if I have a cool web2.0 idea but can't find a developer or a biz-dev dude... #

Powered with LoudTwitter

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Bloody Americans and their optimistic outlook...

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:28:12 +0100

I've only been back in the States for a week, and despite my failure to indulge in things that I normally do in America (Best Buy and buffets), I get the feeling that their infectious sense of optimism has started to hit me. Which is amazing, given half of America is panicing over rising gas prices, a credit crunch - oh and global warming.

One of the guys in the place I'm currently staying at asked what I do for a living. I made the fatal mistake of revealing that I build websites - which isn't technically true, but usually does for civilians. He immediately started pitching me a website idea he had - don't they all, but despite my constant "No, but ...." refrains - mostly around small little things like financing, selling and the current state of the advertising market - he kept persisting with the idea. Even though the website part of it was an important part of the whole idea, there was so much more work to do with it than just building a website and having them come.

Then the conversation did a left-turn and became about ways of getting his brother into an American university. Now I thought it all came down to how much you could afford to pay for tuition, but apparently it's also about finding the right person, and badgering him/her to get you a teaching assistant position or something. I'd assume, in my "No, but ... " British way that such places would be overfilled to bursting with applicants, but apparently it's actually a very viable prospect of getting in in some areas.

Consequentally, this afternoon has been mostly spent mentally going over my old ideas, and wondering just how feasible they are to do or not do. Sure, they're not going to be Facebook v3, but is it better to spend ages trying to craft an idea and watch it fail in terms of commercial success, or decide that the idea is not going to work, and go back to working for Da Man? (just when I find a job too!)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Two random moments from American television...

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:48:43 +0100

Last night, we were at a sports bar grabbing a bite to eat. A sports bar with about sixty thousand LCD screens showing various moments from American TV - including coverage of the Ultimate Fighting Championships - which just about has to be the most homoerotic thing to be screened on American television.

Well, how else would you describe something which mostly seems to involve one muscular topless man sitting or squatting on another, grunting and generally thrusting various bits of his body on the other, while the other one lies there helpless or is grunting and thrusting away himself? All while the male observers in the sports bar were whooping and hollering, encouraging every movement - and then trying to chat up the young nubile college students nearby?

Then this morning, I was flicking through the various TV stations, and came across some kind of US equivalent of This Morning, where the hosts were comparing water options to go with your food. And the caption that ran along the bottom of the screen said:

Tap Water: Good for hydration

I shall never complain about British daytime TV again.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

America - you need more windows!

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:31:28 +0100

If I was designing a nation that sat under never-ending huge amounts of summer sunshine, then I'd think I'd make better design choices than:

- making all the buildings brown or dark (Florida is probably the honorary exception to this rule)
- ensuring a relative lack of windows, to make the interiors seem surprisingly dark
- because it's all dark, then having to use electric light fittings to give more light. At 2pm on a sunny afternoon
- because of a lack of opening windows, aritficial a/c has to be used instead. Thus raking up the electricity bills, which is never a good idea.

Granted, the sun must wreak havoc on all sorts of things - like my body for instance. But at least bigger windows would enable you to use sunlight for its good stuff.

Never mind the differences between blue and red America, the differences between outdoors America, street America and inside America are vastly huge. Inside, it's quiet, dark and rather cold thanks to excessive a/c. Outside, it's quiet, bright and blisteringly hot. And people are still walking around in business suits, dark trousers and not sweating. I also note that the weather in Cleveland today is 82 F/28 C.

Oh, I have finally realised that American daytime television is terrible. Either that, or I need my fix of Dave and daytime Top Gear. Stat.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Two countries seperated by a consonant

nobody@vox.com(almost witty) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:59:29 +0100

I've spent the last few days in Cleveland, Ohio visiting Shalene - and even though I've been in America for the odd week for quite a few years, it's the first time I've been over here since 2005, and I'm not sure if I've changed, or if America has changed.

Certainly, the temperatures seem worse. But this is probably more how I've changed - it was about 24 Celsius in London before I left. Right now it's apparently 30 degrees Celsius outside - a fact that prompts Shalene to gloat about how it's going to get hotter and hotter before I leave. But then the buildings have got their air conditioning turned up to maximum - so here I am, in the veritable British tourist uniform of T-shirts, shorts and sandals, while everyone else is wearing jeans and shirts. How they don't sweat when they walk outside, I don't know - I took a short stroll to a nearby Starbucks (I needed the wi-fi!) and I was getting close to sweating by the time I stumbled in. Having nearly caused three traffic accidents - don't they have pedestrian crossings over here ?!

Another change seems to be how the bargains in American shops just aren't as compelling to me as they used to be - but then I did indulge in a mini-orgy of shopping at amazon.com before I left. Heaven knows how I'm going to fit Rock Band: Special Edition into my suitcase though.

The biggest difference seems to be how nobody understands me here. Especially when I ask for water. The conversation in restaurants seems to go thusly:

Me: "I'll have some water, please."
Waiter: "Sir?"
Me: "Water?"
Waiter: "Erm..."
Me: "Warrrr-terrrrr" (trying to speak slowly)
Waiter: "Erm..."
Me: "Warrrrrrrrrrr terrrrrrrr" (going Ice-Age speed at this point)
Waiter: "I'm sorry, sir"
Me: "Wader!" (in a cod-American accent)
Waiter: "Ahhh, wadderrr!"

*bangs head*

Read and post comments | Send to a friend