Meanderings of a Monkey Juggler

This isn't about methods of plugging DVD players into a telly, more a few thoughts about politics so switch off now if you aren't interested.

It has been said in the past that Greens are often socialists in disguise; this is the so-called "watermelon" hypothesis.  IE green on the outside covering a red centre.  Is it possible to add a bit of conservatism to the mix to create an RGB type?  I think it is.  And it probably describes me.  I just wrote a long meandering piece but it was basically rubbish so I binned it.  I'll have a think again later and see if I can put it into words.  I would guess though that this political make-up puts me firmly in the majority of people in the country.

Oh and this is my 300th post.

Have fun.

[edit 12/9/06]  Can you tell that I wasn't really thinking straight when I wrote the above?  What I basically mean is that most of us have pulls to various ends of the political spectra.  That's it really.

This is a bit of a thing.  Isn't it weird when opinions shift?  I've said before that people generally make up opinions and then find things to justify their position.  I've also said that I'm not a fan of this.  So time to fess up.  I'm as guilty as anyone and something's happened recently to make me realise it.  It all happened very quickly (as these things are wont to do).

First off we'll use the example of Tony Cake, juggler extraordinaire.  I was a member of his forum and enjoyed reading and contributing to it.  A few people have had conversations there re his dislike of the site-swap system.  But his response, rather than a simple "look I don't feel it adds anything to my life so why should I bother", was a collection of rants about "samey" juggling on the site and then a video showing him doing a passable impression of a learning disabled lad doing siteswaps.  Another bit was his claim that he could do 8 clubs.  Most reckoned his skill level was high enough that this wasn't far-fetched at all.  One or two questioned him as there was no video evidence of him doing 8 clubs.  So his latest is a vid of him getting 8 clubs 3 times (apparently he did it more than that during that session).  No problem you'd think.  Ah but no, then he has to tack on an arrogant response to any critics at the end of the video.

Further to this:  He recently changed the look of his site.  It's now white on black and is certainly eye-catching.  Problem is I can't easily read it (white on black really doesn't work well for astigmatism).  Other regulars have the same problem.  We said so and asked if he could re-think.  Cue the response that we should all have eye-tests and it's staying as it is so ner.  I have no problem with someone designing their website in the way that they like but to basically insult regular, polite and friendly people (who like the site and want to use it) stating a preference is hardly the attitude you want.  [edit: he's now changed it to something much more, eye-friendly so this paragraph can be partially discounted]

So my attitude has changed and I can see where some other people are coming from re this guy's arrogance. 

And who is there to publically articulate the same view as me?  Luke B, that's who.  He posted on rec.juggling re the 8 club video and used the line

8 clubs is very impressive, but I almost felt sick seeing
Anthony's reaction and the way he presented it.

I can't disagree with that at all.  In fact in many of his recent posts (that I've seen) he's come across as one of the more thoughtful and insightful people on rec.juggling.  And his opinions have closely correlated with mine.

He followed this with a post that ended with the sig:

Luke Burrage - reportedly "arrogant"

I checked and found out that the site that comes out on top in Yahoo when you search for "Luke Burrage arrogant" is this very site you're reading now.  I think I owe him an apology.  Over the last year he's impressed me greatly (especially with the BYJOTY organising and presentation) and I really have no leg to stand on to stand by some of the comments I've put in writing on here (although at least one I can think of was rather tongue-in-cheek; but I'm not going back and re-writing them).  If you're reading this Luke then, Sorry boss, if I've ever been unfair.

Have fun.

I've got interesting job news for me.  I had a chat with a private company yesterday.  They deal with the IT side of delivering healthcare.  As a clinician I have some knowledge they don't have and I know how IT works more than your average clinician so I asked if they had any opportunities for me.  They wrote back and suggested I go in for a chat.

So I did and it was a positive chat in the main.  There are one or two issues to deal with but I doubt anything too extreme to conquer.  It will also mean that , if I get a new job, I'll definitely be staying around for longer.  I'm not going to take a new and interesting job and then bugger off just as I'm getting into it.  Anyway fingers crossed.  It sounds just right up my alley.

If poss I'm hoping I'll be able to do part-time in both jobs, but that's one of those extremities to conquer (with my boss).

So that's my news.

Now, what about the rest of you?  Eh?  Clurb's been silent and hasn't even dealt with spam comments for well over a week.  Not heard from Pete since his cryptic "we're leaving" message.  Daz hasn't written anything for at least 2 weeks and Rosie has clearly stopped bothering since May (and told me so when we were at Sheffield).  Even Rod is less forthcoming at present.  It seems that everyone has "gone away".  How are you all?

Have fun.

PS I've had some excellent search terms getting to me recently.

1. I saw a man driving a convertable car today.  This is strange.  I noticed over the last month that practically every convertable car I've seen was being driven by a lady.  Does this mean convertables are girls cars?
2. If you are lying on your back and the physio says "OK turn over" what would you do?  So many people recently have either said "which side?" or have simply turned to lie on their side.  What do they think "Turn over" means?
3. It's been lovely and warm recently.
4. I've lost interest in large amounts of anything really.  Not interested much in juggling at the mo.  Not fussed by games at the mo.  Not listening to music.  Not reading much.  Not watching fillums.  Why?
5. Rain and storms always hit (or are due) at the weekend.
6. I want a dog.

Have fun.

I'm bored!

I'm at work but patients are not showing up.  I've sat here for an hour now and neither of my first 2 patients have arrived nor have they cancelled their appointments.  I hate this.  2 other people could have taken that time to get in and shrink our waiting lists.  Why are people so bloody stupid that they don't realise that they are not the only people in the world?

Home is dull as K is not around (back on Thursday tho').  In the next 2 days all this means is that I have to clean up a bit. Will be nice when she's back.

Friends have all buggered off  to the EJC as well so no-one to talk to.  My dad phoned me up last night 'cos he was bored too and we had a chat (mainly about how bad he is at computers - not his fault, they're new to him) and that cheered me up quite a bit.

I'm having my house valued today (for another re-mortgage).  Now this leaves me wondering if I'm going to bother with renting my place out when I move or whether I should just sell it.  I'll probably just sell it.  If I don't then I need to sort out someone to rent the place and then sort out another mortgage at Christmas next year when I won't actually be living in the place.  I'd rather keep the thing but then I think that it'd be more hassle than it's worth.  My money will go further in Bg and hopefully house prices will rise faster there.  I'm on a nearly full mortgage to value ratio so selling it actually means I'm not going to be at risk of negative equity (heaven forfend) and will give me some spare cash to use in Bg.  If I sell all my stuff (well lots of it) then that's even more spare cash.  If Bg goes wrong and I end up back in the UK then I won't be tied down anywhere and can move around and work wherever.  This seems a benefit to me.  I can afford a mortgage now so why won't I be able to in a year or 2?  I don't see prices going up that much in the near future.

Luckily I have more time to think about all this and K is always a good one to bounce things off.  Anyway if anyone wants any of my stuff in Spring next year then get in touch!

Have fun.

I'm all alone again.  Poor me.  K's gone to Bg for a fortnight so I'm sat at home lost (well actually I'm at work and killing 2 minutes before my next patient).

Anyway does anyone want to cheer me up at all?

I have a new scary foreign film (described here) to watch if anyone's up for it tomorrow.

Have fun.

D has put his "top 20 games" list up on his site and this rather neatly was finished on the same day as I finally finished Paper Mario: 1000 Year Door.  I don't finish too many games so I've had a think to see which ones have been completed.

In rough date order:

ZX Spectrum

Probably loads but I remember getting through

• Bruce Lee
• Beachhead
• Jet Pac
• Spindizzy (my proudest Speccy moment)
• and I got to "Deadly" on Elite

Amiga

• Tower of Babel
• Stunt Car Racer
• Spindizzy Worlds
• (not me but a friend at the time managed to finish the original Lemmings with no cheating)

PC

• MDK 2 (terribly under rated)
• Diablo 2

GBA

• Scrabble - (Beat level 10 at all three versions of the game.  And I beat Conundrum on level 1 in German, ner)

Gamecube

• Ace Golf (well it's a bit open ended but I opened up all the tournaments and won 'em all)
• Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker
• Paper Mario - 1000 Year Door
• Super Monkey Ball 2 - Story mode (can't finish challenge mode yet)
• Pikmin [added 4/5/06]

That's pretty poor considering how many games I've actually played in my life.  Does it mean I'm crap at playing or just that I don't care enough to really go at these things?  No idea.

Have fun.

Well here's a turn up for the books and no mistake.  I've had a really bad week and I just wanted to get to the end of it to have a rest.  But today I get an email; from the BBC of all places.

Dave Gorman has a series called "Genius" (detailed here).  I enjoyed the first series and after it ended I casually wrote them an email with one of my great ideas (previously detailed somewhere on this site) and forgot about it.  This was months ago.

Anyway here's the email I got today!

Hello

We're are pleased to say that out of thousands of submissions your idea has made it into the shortlist for the second series of Radio 4's "Genius" with Dave Gorman.

I'd like to know whether you might provisionally be available to come to a recording of the show which would be held in London late May/early June. Would you be willing to attend?

I would appreciate it greatly if you could email a reply as soon as possible as we are presently putting together the running order for each show. Please do include your best contact details (mobile, home phone, & email) and whereabouts in the country you live.

It would also be very useful if you could "REPLY" to this email so that it includes our correspondance rather than creating a new message.

All the best

Fantastic!

The bad part is that I may be in Bulgaria when the recordings are on.

Ooh exciting.  I'm on the shortlist for Genius.  Yay!

Have fun.

For those who care:

PhysioMonkey has been updated with the last part of "Back Pain".  It's actually not as full as I would like but I was getting bored with it so I stopped and left a cop-out ending.

And I've had 2 lovely comments from randoms on there.  I'm quite happy about that.  Then I checked their details and 1 is a dating site and the other sells chocolate.  I wonder if this is a new and subtle spamming technique?  Or are they genuine?

Have fun.

An strange weekend.

On Saturday me and K went shopping to get a few minor things.  Whilst at Beaumont Leys I led her into Argos and swanked off my monetary worth by offering to buy us a new washing machine.  Ours washes but the dryer bit has broken (and I know she likes the dryer bit you see).  She said that she didn't want to "waste" money on a new one when we have one that works (to a degree).  That very night her mum informed us that the machine we have has now totally broked.  I had a go at mending it and mended it to the extent that we think it's still broked. 

Not to worry.  On Sunday to the parents's.  Drove there despite the car sounding like death for the first few seconds.  Loverley day at the folks's too.  Back into car but car no startey.  AA man starts it and says get it checked out sharpish.  It got us back to Leics fine tho'.

This morning got into car.  Car no startey.  AA cover doesn't include "Home start" so swiftly got onto bike to get to work (later than I need to be to get there on time).  Back tyre needs pumping up.  Walkman batteries dead.  Bugger.  Not raining though.  Nearly wiped out by bus en-route.  Wild and rude gestures from me ignored by driver of bus but car driver behind us found this very amusing.  Arrived late at work.

Phoned mechanic and they came to fetch car, yay!

They phoned back to say "It's dead".  Boo.  Not worth mending (looking at £500 plus of repairs) so now no car.

I've said I'm sorry, please make it stop!