The Marvelous Mr Chip

Ah, well, as I have an audience, I'd better share this:

As part of London Games Festival, Sony are showing demos of LittleBigPlanet, their new (and long awaited) offering for the PS3. You can play levels and create levels and characters. It's got potential.

One thing you've got to see is this electronic calculator someone has made in LittleBigPlanet:

Working Calculator Created in LittleBigPlanet

and tha evidence.

Enjoy!

Current Location: london
Current Mood: amused

Is anybody there?

Does anybody care?

Take a look at this... courtesy of the BBC...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5392000.stm

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Chico Buarque - Vai Passar

Well, as most of you know, I was supposed to be in Gloucestershire meeting up with the splendid neilh, evilmattikinz, cally_tmk and the goodly Mr. Cabbage, not to mention a likely (but small) crowd of other assorted individuals. (As if they weren't assorted enough... :-)

However, I stayed at home for a bit of peace and quiet, only to find the famous Hackney Carnival passing my house in the mid afternoon when I was trying to sleep!

These photos were taken about 200 yards from my house.

Carnival_2005_0
Carnival_2005_1
Carnival_2005_2
Carnival_2005_3
Carnival_2005_4
Carnival_2005_5
Carnival_2005_6
Carnival_2005_7
Carnival_2005_8
Carnival_2005_9 This is the last guy in the parade. I presume this accounts for all the skulls. You wouldn't want to follow that, now, would you? Not unless you were a Goth, or something...

These two were taken on Ridley Road, which is a market. Mostly Turkish, with some Afro-Caribbean. I wish I'd recorded the sounds here: it was very loud carnival music in the distance, with Turkish music coming from many of the nearby shops.

Carnival_2005_A
Carnival_2005_B

I'm very tempted, against my better judgment, to have a caption competition. Entries to me, The One and Only marvelousmrchip. I'm trying to think of a prize for the winner. I might even add them to my lj.

Laters...

Current Mood: What else?
Current Music: None

I'm hiding in Rio de Janeiro. And I don't want to come out...

( Impressions of Sao Paulo )

( The City )

( Avenida Paulista )

( MASP )

( Where Next, Columbus? )

( Still in Sao Paulo )

( What next? )

I went up to Alice Springs (which is very small!) and took a camping tour to see see the sights of Uluru, the Olgas, King´s Canyon, and Rainbow Creek. I even slept out in a swag under the stars. Brilliant!

We saw two sunsets and a sunrise at Uluru. The sunrise was the most amazing thing - very hard to out into words what it was like there. The rock (which is every bit as big as I expected it to be - more than 2km across) just seems to *glow* as though there´s a light inside it. We sepent the best part of a morning walking around it (not up it, out of respect). Then to the Olgas in the afternoon, which were even more impressive, in their way. They´re made of conglomerate (lumps of rock and gravel within the rock) rather than finely-layered sandstone like Uluru. But they cover a massive area. We went walking up valleys and round hills, and all the rocks (hills) seemed distinct, but an aerial photo shows them all to be part of the same formation, and so we were walking within the whole raised area. I did about 20km walking that day, which nearly killed me!

King´s Canyon was a rougher walk, with a very steep climb, and then walking on uneven surfaces, but it was well worth the views, etc. I even went camel riding one sunrise, which was really cool.

I´ve been to Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the way over here to Sao Paulo, where I am now. Santaiago was really interesting, and Buenos Aires was a fantastic place - really alive. More on those another time.

( All the sixes: 666! )

( Sao Paolo )

( Cooomiiiics... )

( Aussie Update: Across the Outback )

( Has it been that long? )

( A Quiet Day in Buenos Aires )

( Overall Impressions )

( How Wrong Can You Be? )

( Update: Question marks )

( Black Water Rafting )

( Auckland again )

I've had a lot of feedback about what I'm doing. So I'd better clarify a few things. I'm having a mini round-the-world trip. I started with a whirlwind (unquote!) visit to Tokyo, and I'm now in New Zealand. (Next is Aus, Chile, Brasil.)

( My latest thoughts on travelling )

( Yesterday )

( Read more... )

Hmmmm. Once I start writing up what's going on, then I'll get all out of sync. So, what I'll do is dump extracts from a couple of emails to give you a flavour, and I may do a round up later on tonight.

Here goes, with apologies to neilh, but he did do a great job of detailing my exploits in Tokyo...

( My Tokyo exploits courtesy of neilh )

( My response )

( My last day in Japan )

( 28-05-2004 )

I'm going to write an LJ entry, despite the fact that no-one will read it.

My friend Gaelle guested overnight, so we were up chatting til late. I arose at nearly 11 to do the triple jump and grab a glass of (distilled) water. However, Gaelle appeared blearily from my spare room and engaged me in sufficient conversation to keep me in the lounge until the phone went and I felt obliged to answer it, and so began the day.

Gaelle disappeared and I ended up phoning Fabiano, who happened to be surfing in an unidentified cyber cafe in London. After a 2 minute conversation, a trip into town to see the Matrix: Revolutions was organised. Unfortunately, due to over-busyness I ended up keeping Fabiano waiting for an hour longer than expected.

Revolutions was *way* better than I expected. Fabiano had been told by a mutual friend of ours that Revolutions was crap, but I pointed out that she hadn't seen Reloaded yet, so I wasn't surprised by her impression! We were so impressed that we nearly went straight back in again to see it again. However, a quick hot chocolate in Starbuck's and a walk around a cold Leicester Square cleared our heads enough for us to realise we would both end up missing our last trains home! I should have brought the car in - parking's free after Saturday lunchtime, if you look hard enough. How come the public transport in London is set up so that the last train goes *just* early enough that it encourages most people I know to drive in and park up. I always regret not driving in, anyway...

I may give my views on Reloaded and Revolutions at some point, but, boy, there's a lot to say about it. There's so much on so many different levels. I heard on the radio a DJ opine that this was the last of Matrix films. I have to disagree! I'll try not to blow it for those that haven't seen it yet, but there's no way this is the last one. The scene is set for a *really* incredible next film or two... I'll tell you why in a week or two when more of you have seen the film. (I hate being told the ending to films in advance, so I won't spoil it for others.

I was reading the book called "The Philosopher at the End of the Universe", which is a look at the philosophy in Sci-Fi films, and it's really cool. I've thought many things along these lines before, but this book brings a great clarity to it. Coupled with my attendance on various courses this year, it's a breath of fresh air.

Well, I intend to do more ramblings in the future. Probably after I've seen Revolutions (note the plural) again.

Wherever you are, and whatever you're up to, I wish you well.

The Marvelous Mr Chip

P.S. Ironically, I'd forgotten my LJ login. It was only the miss spelling of marvelous by the good evilmandykinz that helped me recall it. Thanks, Mandy!

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Axe Bahia - Tudo Bem

You're Pi...some people get you, some people don't,
some people loath you, others are obsessed with
you...either way, people find it difficult to
ignore you. Oh yeah, and you have a spiffy
techno soundtrack. You're probably either a
loner who's currently unsure of what you want
to do with your life, or you're a loner with a
monstrous brain that, even on a bad day, is
considered by many to be simply genius.


What Darren Aronofsky Film Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I wrote a lengthy entry, but lost it due to finger trouble. Or was I drilling my own brain out on a shabby subway platform? We may never know...

I've been rather slack at updating my journal - and people are starting to talk. Or rather, they were talking, but I think even that's finished now.

I have been doing stuff, you know? Just not much that occurs to me to write.

On Monday I had this big deal process upgrade to do. I went home early and got some kip, then back to the office at 9pm. I'd got this far twice before in the six previous attempts that management got all scared about and cancelled. Which just makes it more difficult to disentangle.

I started at 9pm, had a couple of problems, and by 6:30am of Tuesday was ready to abort. I just couldn't think of a way out. I went for a walk round the nearby lake in the dark to have a think. Bingo! But I had difficult choices to make: (a) Abort and try another night when the glitches were sorted, (b) half do it and finish another night, (c) JFDI and force the miserable cowards in to doing the right thing for the first time in their measly little lives. Bwahahaaaaa! (I'm not normally like that, trust me!)

I phoned my boss at 7:15am - we opted for option (c). This involved spending all Tuesday talking to frightened people and sorting out the various messes they were in. The fog cleared about 6pm, so I crawled home, managing to get to bed by midnight!

I settled down on Wednesday morning to spend a well-earned day of rest reading Terry Pratchett's "The Light Fantastic", which I've owned since 1987/8 but never read. I know, I know... My boss rang at 3:30pm - could I go back in, half the project couldn't rebuild their code!

I only did 4 hours, went shopping, cooked and here I am, How exciting, you all shout. Well, hey, what do you want me to write in my LJ? (For the record, it was black bean and vegetable jalfrezi with quinoa and liquid amino acids. There you go!)

Hey, I've just done *three* days of my LJ - all at one time. Is this a record?

I'm thinking of splitting my LJ into several strands: hardcore software engineering, culinary (I see those of you who know of dietary habits quivering in your boots!), weird stuff. I may even do an occasional social and/or leisure one. Who can tell?

Oh yeah, oh yeah, I got my Psion 5mx back from the repair shop! It's turned green! And it works! And I got the green bit for free and without asking. My original backup went to live on my PC (Win95/P-II 333) inside a EPOC/Symbian SDK emulator, where it's been heavily used for 6 months or so. All I have to do know is work our how to get the emulated Psion back into my backup section of the PC and restore it. It can't be that hard. Tomorrow... (In *another* LJ entry. Hurrah!)

I hope everone's well, and will find this will satiate their lust for knowledge about my life for a few hours more.

Thanks for welcoming me aboard the good ship Live Journal.

Just a quick entry because it's past my bedtime...

Got a final settlement on my car insurance claim after 2 1/4 years! And they don't pay interest on the thousands of pounds I was owed. Can I do anything about this?

Was supposed to work all night on updting a database, but got caught up in management confusion and risk-aversion. I left work at 3pm, went to bed for 4 hours to regenrate, turned up at 8pm to find they had cancelled the upgrade and no one had told me. I was quite surprised because they're not normally this bad.

I've decided to write a book, or, at least, a white paper on what I'm doing. The next step is to get paid whilst I do it. Wish me luck!

How do I enter links to people's LJs in here? Do I have to use the proper client, or something?

Is anybody there?

I'm going to post to my blog now before those postal workers go on strike.

Database crashed five minutes before I go home for a long weekend. I had to stay late and fix it. Ended up on the phone to the US to get a fix. I don't think they're used to that - they asked me four times if I really was in the UK!

Back home via the Chinese because it's too late to cook.

That's it!

Now let's see if this works....

Current Mood: accomplished