Raithe

Tis being a fairly chilly day here. Stirred from some rather strange dreams to face the morning light... Enjoying a rather nice "real lancashire Eccles cake" and put the kettle on for a fresh cup of tea. Hm, pondering on the fact that I can pre-order a computer game from Amazon in the states..and even after paying transatlantic shipping fees and import duties, it'll still cost a couple of pounds less then if I picked it up here.. Although if I wait a couple of months it'll probably turn up with a chunk of price knocked off it here with the preorders.. I think I shall take a short while to enjoy my saturday before I get back to the grindstone of my report.

Glancing back.. spot the deliberate mistake : It's always fun scanning back and suddenly noticing how your thought process bypassed your grammar..

I think I can cheerfully say that I need to figure out a better organisation for my collected research. Also, I think I kind of loathe sorting out a bibliography in a meaninful manner. I believe I have the subject matter in hand (so to speak) but while I could probably sit down at the pub and hold forth on the question, what my answer would be to it, and the whys and wherefores for the reasoning of it.. turning that into a proper paper that is professionally worthy is being bloody annoying. Still, a fresh cup of tea and tally-ho once more.

Selekted Riting Wrules - Especially useful for all those students and such writing papers...

And the puppy has made a solid attempt at digging up one of the fresh flowerbeds in the garden.. I seem to have the workings of a stabby headache kicking off over my left eyesocket, and the day is moving forward slowly. I shall hit the paracetamol, a good cup of tea and try to get my mind into some sort of focused and productive mood.

To oversimplify that approach in a totally unrealistic manner.. "If everyone left their front door unlocked, the thieves wouldn't know which houses would have the best stuff to steal from, because they have access to everyones..." On a more serious level, it's more the general attitude that they have towards your personal data. It's not about what use your data is, it's that they take it, collate it, hand it over to other people to look at, build psych profiles to aid in targetted advertising aimed at you.. You don't have firm control over what they do with that data, or who they feel has access to it. And it's these little steps at the beginning that could see very bad things happening in the future. That might be a touch paranoid or wildly speculative to some... But that's the key principle that worries a lot of people. The little steps that turn out to be huge changes over a few years. And the needle in the heystack metaphor, yes if you're talking purely random approach to it it's a problem. But to the more organised level of cybercrime (and the potentially unscrupulous government / corporate organisations) there are quite a few people skilled in the arts of data mining. Once you get a few pieces of quite low-key information about someone, it can be surprisingly easy to get hold of so much more if you know what you're doing. Still, everyone has their own level of personal comfort over these issues.

Ah, I think you might be mistaking the amount of sheer Englishness I have. Calmness, Fortitude, and general Courtesy in the face of all that life brings you no matter how uncouth and irritating it may be. The firm belief that in the face of total disaster, a certain mixture of laid back attitude and stiff upper lip behaviour, accompanied by a good cup of tea will always see you through it..

... and then about a minute after I posted that, I get a Vista Blue Screen event and my pc rebooted. Now I'm trying to remember when I last saved my work. And worrying I might have to do a rush trip to Novatech to replace a graphics card or something if it's serious.

Hm, I keep getting random nvlddmkm driver display errors lately which is getting a little bit annoying. The weather keeps bouncing tween sunshine and shower. I went to make an omelette and as I tried to make up that mental checklist of what I needed to do for it I totally blanked. I thought that was a touch ridiculous, so I tried making one without thinking about it.. and it all came out perfectly. The weirdness of the mind... Heh, and one thing I've learnt over the last week, I really need to make my research skills a touch more.. formal then they are. Dabbling and inspired randomness can carry things only so far... And damn Embassy phone lines that leave you on queued wait.

Heh, caught the new Hitman trailer.. apparently they're going to actually be showing what Diana looks like. Although at present its more of a glimpses in a shower. What amuses me is from those glimpses she looks to be a twentysomething character... When the voice actress is around 60. Heh, I guess it's that "sexy voiced english secretary" style of thing they're going for.

You can tag people in photos on fb even if they don't have accounts. The way this is set up, it doesn't matter if its a picture you put online, a friend put online or what.. if someone tags it with your name, it all goes in the dbase and builds up the picture of who that person is. The trouble is, FB is very weird on saying just how they deal with privacy and data protection. On the one hand they'll say they protect users privacy.. on the other, they have admitted they use the data gathered to sell it to advertisers and target people for what they like.. So they do have a history of taking data and spinning it off in ways you wouldn't be cheerful about if you knew. The main trouble with FB is that they keep putting in these new features without any real fanfare, and automatically set accounts to allow them to be used. So if you are conscious/paranoid of your privacy you don't always know to go in and change those settings.

Managed to fall off to sleep at some point when the skyline was starting to lighten and the birds were beginning to tweet. Had somehow managed to get into a rather pleasant dream when I woke up a couple of hours later. Now I can't remember what it was about, just that it was really pleasant. Really fine rain falling... so I think that breaks the chance of hanging some fresh laundry on the line to dry. Now to see if I can wheedle some useful and/or relevant info out of the US Embassy....

Watch the original. It doesn't have the hollywood "happy" ending. But it still makes you smile with the "if you're reading this / listening to this you're dead".

Well hovering around the 6' mark and incredibly pale-skinned (what can I say, grandad was an albino..it carries through). Being mistaken for a hobbit would be a first for me. However, I did go through my gsce's with the addition of a fine waistcoat and pocket watch to my school uniform...

No, I tend to favour moccasin style slippers.. and a good traditional english sleeping gown (of which my current one is rather darth sideous styling)

And the temperature seems to be having a sudden drop here.. Realised it's heading towards 9pm and I haven't eaten so just grabbed a nice batch of sushi to satisfy some hunger. Pondering on chilling back and catching up with some tv as I enjoy the wasabi..

drink induced or just general nervousness? But be grateful, Captain Darling had a tick for 6 weeks of filming ... but the actor couldn't get rid of it for another 6 months...

To add to my day.. I shall merely go with this quote: Edit: And dangit, I've just found out the US Embassy here has a Resource Center for academics to access.. but you can only phone them during 2 hours in the morning.. They take fax, they take real letters, but they don't have a bloody email...

Having that slow start to the day. Kept doing the fade in and out of consciousness for a few hours while the house was waking up before managing to force myself out of bed. Still have some of that groggy feeling lurking in the bushes. Nicely overcast day and the pooch is being all over-excitable. Hm, and I know I'm going to have to have a talk with my sister over the animals at some point. She's starting to get into the habit of getting home from work, and doing a "oh, can you just keep looking after them for a little, while i have a quick bath / get changed / eat dinner" or some such... and then not showing up for another 3 hours. Now on to see how much focus I can grab to shape my mind to some useful matters...

X-Men First Class.. A lot of mixed responses to that one. They dumped cannon out..and a lot of continuity with the previous films as well.. I mean some glaring plot holes between this and Wolverine Origins. But then they throw in Hugh Jackman for a cameo appearance and make it look like they're trying to connect it all... Some quite good actors with really itty bitty small parts as some of the background "normal" humans. If I could shut my mind from seeing all the missing cannon or earlier film continuity issues.. I'd actually say it wasn't a bad film. The story on it's own works quite nicely to develop the principle characters, although I'm not sure the short time frame really builds up the Xavier / Magneto friendship to a proper depth. Emma Frost while grabbing a chunk of screen time doesn't really show much characterisation - there to look cute in skimpy white, act as a counter to Xavier's telepathy, and do a bit of subtle right hand minion/living weapon action for the villain. The "first class" students, only Mystique and the Beast get any real dialogue or development.

Hey, I'm interested to see what sort of catfight will ensure between Ashley and Miranda...

Ah hah! I fell forward _over_ the head of my rocking horse and fractured my skull.. Walked through a doorway in perfect time to be at eye height to the cigarette in my uncles hand as he took it out of his mouth.. (and yes, the doctor refused to believe it had happened..right up until he peeled my eyelid up and found the ashcircle) And I managed to slice my palm open with a big staple. All before I turned 5. My mother was always so damn embarassed and worried that the people at A&E thought she abused her kids..

Well the weather's cleared up today. The dogs keep being playful, and the day is sliding along.. Hm, from my assorted reading I'm coming to various conclusions on my research. As a political statement as it were, and the perception to the public at large people were pretty satisfied with the whole Death of a Drug Kingpin when Pablo got whacked. However, the way the hunt for him drove the Cali Cartel deeper into columbian government, how little it actually effected the flow of drugs..and hell, the fact that over the next year the cost of drugs decreased.. pretty sure that didn't really satisfy on practical levels. Now I just have to figure out how to say that in a proper professional/academic manner whilst providing proper sources that led me to those conclusions... There's nothing like a deadline to make time slip away from you...

Gracias. Tsk.. see , now that's what I get for being so darn specific in my own approaches. I need to relearn how to be doing that google-fu to find them.