Bandwagon

Well, everyone else is doing it!

Who should I vote for? v2

Your expected outcome:

Labour

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 38
Conservative -12
	Liberal Democrat 37
UK Independence Party -7
	Green 31

You should vote: Labour

The Labour Party is broadly pro-Europe and takes a strong line in favour of all anti-terrorism measures, and of course supported the war in Iraq. Labour is against explicit increases in income tax to fund public services and against the abolition of university tuition fees, but has pledged to reintroduce maintenance grants for students.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

No big surprises there then (and my "I need that question defining better" instinct to almost every question is no surprise either). I'm largely of the opinion that Tony and friends have made some bad decisions on a few occasions, and failed to get their message across on others, but have largely done a decent job. And I think they're probably the best of a rather disappointing bunch at the moment (I'd never support Howard even though I could be persuaded on a couple of Conservative points, and think UKIP and the BNP need shooting).

**edit** Because black text on black backgrounds is just too damn difficult to read...

Gizmodery

A word I read earlier today and thought was... interesting. So in honour of a newfound (if almost certainly completely made up) word, here's some gizmo type things I kinda fancy owning (even if I'm not entirely sure I actually want to spend money obtaining them. And no, I'm not advocating stealing them)

Camera Phone. Just... well, because everyone has one, and I don't. Like and iPOD. And them, when I can't think of anything to write here (most days) I can post a random low-res picture of something dull and say "Look, here's a grainy picture of the something-dull near where I work!" Also has uses for spying, showing off, and apparently paedophilia (but then, if you read the news, everything that was invented since 1800 can be used as a tool by nasty little men in dark corners to take advantage of innocent little kiddies).

A new PC. Well, this one is almost two years old! And one of the IDE bus/controllers appears to be fubar (yes, it'd be cheaper and easier just to replace this bit). And then I could be a proper-geek, and run Gentoo on this one, with Samba and suchlike, and use it at as server.

Visual Studio .Net. Yes, it's hardly a gizmo, but included here for it's geekyness, and it's wallet-busting £700 price tag. Because I feel it would be a good career move to get to grips with .Net, C#, etc. And that is NEVER going to happen at work. I'm still the only person there writing code with procedures and functions in it.

A Digital Camera. I quite like the idea of "arty" photography. Taking cool pictures of... stuff... moody landscapes, whatever. Need a decent quality one to be able to do this well of course. And some idea wtf I'm doing. And I can post here and say "Look, here's a high-quality and thought provoking picture of the something-dull near where I work!"

Proper Coffee Maker (preferably of the espresso + cappuccino type. You can always dilute strong coffee into normal stuff, but you can't make cappuccino with a filter machine). Not that I've really got anywhere to put one at the moment. But it's top of the list of must-have kitchen appliances when I get a place of my own (yes, quite probably above "oven" and "washing machine" - but below "fridge" as I need somewhere to keep the milk, and "microwave", but in my view they should be built in to all kitchens as standard in the same way floors and walls are)

TV. Again, not for now, but for the hopefully not-too-distant future when I have my own place. All homes need a big flat screen TV with 5.1 surround sound. I'll probably just have a medium sized flat screen TV with stereo sound though.. I don't actually watch it enough to justify a full on home cinema setup.

...aaand that'll do! I think the relatively short list tops £3K, and while I could go on, my bank balance couldn't. Expect to see some or none of these things being purchased at some point between now and the end of the universe. Maybe I'll even move out before then too.

True Tales of a Desktop Duck

A title inspired by the small soft-toy duck-thing (I think it's supposed to be a duck, but it looks more like a bright yellow platypus to me) that sits atop my monitor at work. Well, it's as good a title as any other!

DesktopDuck sits there with my nametag (a not-that-impressive looking folded up peice of paper with my name printed on it) a cardboard espresso shot cut (in homage to the thing that keeps me going - Caffeine), half a beer mat attached to my nametag that identifies me as "No Ordinary Man", a small plastic Michael Owen (I've no idea why he's there). Stuck to one side is a line drawing of Daphne from Scooby-Do (taken from my advent calendar this year) and a bit of bluetac that looks a bit like a tadpole (or a sperm as someone else said). There's also a small paper plane (made from a post-it note), and until recently a crude cartoon face with "smile" written below it. I've also got a picture from the last Actuarial Pub Treasure Hunt on my desk, and an enlarged panel from a Dilbert strip where he's saying "Please don't ask me to put flaws in my design" (seems very appropriate to the last-minute and short-termist thinking that often annoys me so much at work). Elsewhere on my desk is an inflatable Guinness beer tray (which I use as a stationary holder), vaguely ironic since I don't drink.

This is my "Geekosphere". The personalised space in the hugely impersonal office environment. All the desks, computers, chairs, phones, etc are identical throughout the whole floor. And each floor is a mirror of the others. We even have the same desks, computers, phones and chairs in all the other company offices in town. And those in other towns. Featureless desks for the faceless employees of the soulless corporation. And we're nothing special of course, most other large companies are the same.

So the chaotic and cluttered Geekosphere is my minor rebellion. Marks my space as uniquely mine, shrine to my very own kind of insanity, because I'm uniquely me.

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

...I ever dreamed before. (Well, probably not but those are the words of the song.)

Most bizarre, and unusually, a star-studded performance.

Started off with some bizarre touring of little villages on a bus, and the bus driver wouldn't let me get off. Don't really remember this bit too well, but there was an odd life-sized Punch and Judy show on a village green at some point.

Then suddenly I was in Leeds city centre at night, and getting off the bus because there were a bunch of people sat in the middle of the road, including Rowan Atkinson playing a flute, and Peter Kay eating chips. Also there was the Steph from Neighbours (or the actress maybe, I'm not sure if it was supposed to be Steph or just the actress who plays her), who apparently I was getting married to in a couple of days. I'd not sorted my suit out, but was much more worried about the dress (which Steph had sorted out ages ago). Peter thought this was hilarious, and kept punching me on the arm for no apparent reason. So we all sat in the middle of the road, with brown blankets, chips and Rowan Atkinson on the flute, singing folk songs.

Then I woke up, which is probably a good thing.