Today

Was spent:

• Sleeping in until 11:00, which is the latest I've slept in a loooong time. Far too long in fact.


• Watching Giga Shark vs Stupidly Large Octopus. Which was stupid. Not quite as much fun as Snakes On A Plane, but still worth watching over the top of the laptop screen. Definitely not worth paying actual attention to.


• Putting together the remainder of the chairs and the table. Pics to follow once we've finished putting tidying up. It's lovely though. Even if we are going to need a bigger flat if we want to extend it as far as it can go.


• Eating takeout on the new table. Eeee! I feel somehow wrong to be excited about a sodding table, but (a) I've not owned a dining room table before, and it's one of those things I miss - eating at a table is quantitatively different to eating on a sofa. (b) it's the first item of furniture that Julie and I have bought together. Unless you count baths. Which I don't.


• Playing Super Mario Bros Wii with Julie. We're enjoying the multiplayer in this a lot. Doing a couple of levels together is now an evening tradition. I'm not sure what we're going to do when we run out of them...


• Playing a couple of levels of Manufactoria, which is a robot-programming puzzle game. Imagine single-player Robo Rally. As a coder I shouldn't enjoy this, as it's too much like work. Of course, I like my job, and it's work without having to worry about other coders, version control, build processes, unit tests, etc. Which is probably why it's fun.
  

This week I'm gaming on Thursday, seeing Iron Man 2 on Tuesday, putting together the bookshelves/desk on Monday, going to a Segway Rally on Saturday and babysitting on Sunday. I'm having Wednesday/Friday as quiet evenings, because I'll probably need them.

Taking a position

Over the weekend I finally got around to joining the Liberal Democrats.

I'd been meaning to do it for a few weeks. Partially because I'd felt somewhat guilty watching some members of my friends list out there actually doing stuff during the election - hopefully making an actual difference to the way people voted. And partially because of the discussions between them of the way they were involved in the party's decision-making process, and the realisation that I wanted to be a part of that, even in a small way. Oh, and also because I wanted to support the party financially - it's one thing to vote for them, but if they can't afford to run a campaign then they're not going to get anywhere.

[Poll #1568824]

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 5-24-2010

• Israel offered to sell (apartheid) South Africa nuclear weapons
  (tags: israel nuclear southafrica apartheid nuclearweapons)
• Digital Exclusion - helping the 20% of the population that have never used the internet.
  (tags: internet society technology computers)
• Transistor created from 7 atoms. Moore's Law reaches its limits?
  (tags: technology computers physics)
• Manual street lights help to save power
  (tags: lighting power technology)
• MMR/Autism doctor struck off register
  (tags: research healthcare science uk)
• Lib Dem U-turn on cuts is partially due to Greece, partially due to last-minute Labour spending.
  (tags: politics uk economy)
• Manufactoria - a puzzle/programming game. Very simple, horribly addictive.
  (tags: coding fun game flash)
• Obama authorising assassination of US citizens, passing bills to allow him to strip them of citizenship too.
  (tags: usa rights laws)
• The Neurogenesis theory of depression and a little guy called CREB
  (tags: depression brain)

How to enjoy the end of Lost

1) Watch the first few episodes of season one. This will give you a vague idea of what on earth is going on, who the characters are, etc. I think I managed about nine episodes, but frankly you could get by with four.
2) Shortly before the sixth season starts get your girlfriend/boyfriend/dog/flatmate to downloaded seasons one through five and watch them all over a period of two weeks. Wander in occasionally, be confused at the sheer chaotic nonsense occurring on-screen and graciously allow them to explain things that Make No Sense to you.
3) When season 6 starts watch approximately two hours of it. You can accomplish this either by watching 5 minutes of each episode or watching complete episodes over the top of your laptop, not paying more than 5% attention. In either case you will easily take in more plot than you actually need to have a grip on.
4) Ensure that your girlfriend is hormonal. Or that you are hormonal. Or inject hormones into yourself. If you have no other option stick a slice of onion up your nose. Having something to help the massive levels of tearjerking that are going to be laid on is absolutely essential.
5) ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CARE ABOUT GETTING ANY EXPLANATION FOR WHAT IS GOING ON. It is a MAGIC ISLAND. If you want more explanation than that then you are watching the wrong show.
6) Enjoy!

Gosh, the new google fonts can be pretty

You can do stuff like this!

Or this!

See here for how it works.
(At least, I get two cool fonts in Firefox, dunno how well it works in IE)
EDIT: Gah! LJ is turning the "quote marks" into 39's - it's escaping them.
Any idea how to work around that in LJ?