At work, we are given a choice between working on Boxing Day or working on the 2 January. I have always opted to take 2 January off, even though I tend not to drink much on Hogmanay — certainly not enough for me still to be hungover two days later. Sure enough, this year I […]
Archive:
December 2008
Radiophonic re-releases
One of the Radiophonic Workshop’s most famous composers, Delia Derbyshire, left in the early 1970s partly in dismay at the increasing popularity of synthesisers. Disillusioned with the state of electronic music, she soon stopped composing music altogether, only returning to the scene briefly for a couple of years just before her death in 2001. In […]
Fifty years of Radiophonic influence
Regular readers may know that I have an interest in electronic music. 2008 has been a bit of a treat for fans of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. This year marked 50 years since the establishment of the hugely influential sound effects and music department of the BBC. That, combined with a coincidental discovery of new […]
100,000 scrobbles
Around a year ago I wrote a post that analysed the year’s activity on Last.fm. For those who don’t know, Last.fm is a website that tracks your music listening habits. It produces lovely graphs and churns out recommendations as well as providing tailored radio stations for you to listen to at your leisure. I adore […]
The day when ‘GP’ stands for ‘Gifts and Presents’
For those of you who were celebrating, I hope you all had a great Christmas. I had a great time and a number of Formula 1-based gifts were involved. Keith at F1Fanatic wrote a series of posts outlining F1 gift ideas, but none of the gifts I received were featured by Keith. Firstly I got […]
Merry seasonal wintervus festivage greetings
I am in two minds about Christmas. I adore the day itself. And despite the fact that I am a Pastafarian, I feel no contradiction in celebrating Christmas, despite what Malc says. After all, without Christmas — or any similar winter festival — these months would be fairly rotten all round. It is good sense […]
End-of-season driver rankings: Top 5
The rest of the rankings came fairly easily to me. Perhaps that is because the spotlight is not on the lower positions so much. It doesn’t seem to matter so much whether I place Kazuki Nakajima 15th or 16th. But the top five is really, really tough to get right. I keep on changing my […]
End-of-season driver rankings: #11-6
Better late than never. I have finally got the chance to tap out the final part of my end-of-season driver rankings, although I am currently being distracted by the live web stream of the Race of Champions. Hopefully I’ll stay coherent enough for this section of my rankings to make sense. So here goes. As […]
Honda’s withdrawal in context
I had planned on my next post being the second part of my driver rankings. Unfortunately, real life events have intervened. In the meantime, events have overtaken me as Formula 1 was hit by a huge news story on Friday — Honda’s sudden withdrawal from the sport. Now, normally such an announcement wouldn’t raise too […]
A new blog for Scotweb2
As you may know, one of the many plates I am currently spinning is my involvement in Scotweb2. Alex Stobart wanted Scotweb2 to have a blog, and he asked me to build it. Here it is. It has a gradient and everything. There is not much there for the time being. But over time it […]