At last. The Velvet Hearts debut album, Into the World, has just been released. It’s currently available exclusively from CDBaby. It is the best of times, and the worst of times, to be trying to build a career as a musician. The online revolution is both generous in its audience and stingy in its fiscal [...]

One of our favourite TV Chefs (and surrogate conscience for Tesco) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has just announced a Summer Food Fair at River Cottage HQ, this summer, naturally. Now, normally the idea of a fair, replete with wicker cutlery and forced vegetables is not my idea of heaven, but factor in the fact that there will [...]

When, by chance, we saw The Velvet Hearts at The Edge a couple of months ago, we were left with the overriding impression that this was a band who had taken a step beyond the norm and were producing something really rather special. We saw them a second time at the sunny Portsmouth Bandstand, and [...]

After my viva last Tuesday we ended up at the edge of the wedge and what was already a very good day got even better thanks to some very talented musicians and a comfy stool at the bar.

In Britain, the process of finishing a PhD involves the submission of a written thesis, followed by an oral examination called a viva voce (the literal Latin translation is “live voice”). The “viva”, as it’s commonly known, is an in-depth discussion into all aspects of the thesis which typically lasts between 90 and 180 minutes. [...]

We recently spent a couple of nights in Dublin without hearing the beat of a single Bodhrán or even a hint of live music coming from any bar. So last Friday night we were spoiled, with no fewer than two concurrent Bodhráns (and a guest washboard player), mandolin, guitar, accordion and bass thrown into the [...]

When making a pot of tea, I tend to add teabags and sugar at the same time; once the tea has brewed, I give it a stir, remove the teabags, add milk, and then with the aid of a knitted tea-cosy I get several hot mugs of tea in succession and can keep working without [...]

Picture this: it’s a sunny day at the seaside and you’re enjoying an icecream. The human predilection to follow scripted conversation formats is such that you cannot fail to overhear somebody appreciatively inhale before joyously proclaiming “mmmmm, smell that sea air!”, to which a companion will invariably offer a helpfully informative “ah yes, that’s ozone“.

I was adding Raz to the list of people we know today when I had a quick skim over everyones website and noticed that Orange alumnus Gavin Spittlehouse has started a blog covering his just-commenced cycling tour of West Africa. Jealous? Well, apart from all that peddling, of course; and very much looking forward seeing [...]

Christmas cards are lovely. A small personalised message from someone you know, providing assurance that they appreciate you and think enough of you to select, purchase and deliver a card all the way to your home. So everybody near and dear to us will be wondering where the hell our card has got to. Well, [...]

Sometimes nice things come back and surprise you. Last year, just after I’d upgraded to Google Earth Plus, I was looking for some good Santa-stuff in Google Earth (so I could show my younger relatives something interesting on what is otherwise a very dull computer), and I spotted a shape: looking around Northern Europe I [...]

What are the best alternative presents for a geek? The typical geek has carefully selected and purchased their gadgets of choice, has a computer that’s tuned to perfection and needs no software purchased (because their entire suite is open-source) – so aside from comedy tee shirts with clever slogans that can only be understood by [...]

The recent demolition of Killay House left a lot of memories without an anchor. It was a familiar shape to the thousands of people who travel on Gower Road daily, and it had been so for over 120 years. Growing up in Heol Glasnant (where the houses are tall), and going to school in Hendrefoilan [...]

I had never heard of Elvis Presley when he died twenty nine years ago today; but oddly, I distinctly remember where I was when I heard that he had died. It’s one of my earliest distinct memories. My best friend from the Bryn Nursery, James Morris (Mozz), was the bearer of the news whilst we [...]

This film has almost certainly never been seen by most of the cast. It was taken during my fifth birthday party in late 1977 (a fact that I’ve deduced from comparing the guests and their clothes with higher quality photos that I have; photos that also contain a birthday cake with five countable candles).

This cine was taken at the Hendrefoilan School Sports Day, sometime between June 1978 and June 1980… ish.

Wimmerfield Crescent is a residential street located in Killay, Swansea. It feeds three small residential cul-de-sac roads, one of which is called Heol Glasnant where I used to live. Heol Glasnant has the unusual property (in Wales) of being flat, and the lack of throroughfare made it an ideal venue for street parties.

Having converted my Grandparents stash of cine film to a digital format earlier in the year I’ve at last found a few minutes to extract something of general interest (as opposed to the family-interest stuff), so here it is.

We were delighted to receive news yesterday that Matt and Claire have created a whole new person for the world and called him Henry.

We just got a message from Ann, tipping us off about Rick Moeller’s new cycling blog. Anyone who’s met Rick will know that he’s not one to dwell on the irrelevant things in life unless there’s good humor [sic] to be had therein, so it should be an enjoyable as well as insightful periodical.

I have a lot of time for the products of Japanese shoe company Asics; I wore out two pairs of their shoes when training for the London Marathon and they managed to keep my feet in fairly good shape throughout.

The babies are coming thick and fast! Not three weeks since Garry and Greta welcomed young Robert to the world, and we just received an SMS from Tim and Caroline to say “Please welcome to the world, Joseph Pagett…” who was born this afternoon at 15:15.

News has just reached us that my office mate Garry and his wife Greta became very happy parents for the first time yesterday morning – all details still to be absolutely confirmed because Garry had to hijack someone’s wi-fi connection to get the message out, but Greta and the lad (who shall probably be called [...]

I’ve already mentioned the photo’s (which I’ve pretty much finished scanning; although I do keep finding extras) so today I’m announcing the impending digital availability of the (larger) part of the collection – my Grandparent’s Cine films. I just got a call from the bloke who’s been transferring it for me , and it’s all [...]

This service has now been retired. If you’ve ever wondered if your ‘blog is actually worth anything, then this may be your cup of tea.

The data from Google Analytics has started to roll in, and the highlight (from a purely human point of view) is certainly the map view which shows where on Earth everybody who visits this site comes from.

If all you had to eat was chilli pepper then it would be likely to play havoc with your digestive tract. Spare a thought then for this brave soul, who made his home in a chilli that I was about to cook with last night.

Penguin Books have come up with a rather neat little hook to get people off their iPods and curled up with a book, an open fire, and a comforting mug of brownian motion this winter; they’ve started a regular podcast in which they hope to include the latest news and extracts from Penguin Books.

This is an an everyday lesson that I shall try to remember next time I’m at the requirements gathering phase of system design, or the next time I’m explaining to someone why common terms of reference are such an important part of Software Engineering.

Google has recently added some new aeriel images to the Google Earth Database, and one of the places that has received significantly better coverage is Portsmouth, UK. Portsmouth College provide some fantastic (historical and current) aeriel pictures of Portsmouth on their website, so I thought I’d try comparing them to see just how good the [...]

The new Wallace and Gromit film “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” is out, but only in Australia. I hereby request that any Australian readers (Chris, Jim, Dad, etc) go and see this film immediately and review it. The trailer which doesn’t give much (any) of the plot away is not exactly aimed at an audience [...]

Chris Samuel, pictured (naturally) with a cup of tea here, has just posted this wonderfully cogent message regarding the importance of open standards in government IT.

I just watched the Discovery launch. It’s easy to be over-familiar with images of a Shuttle launch, there have been so many; but this one was different. This launch was important because it’s the first since Columbia broke up on re-entry, which affects not only NASA, but the entire scientific research community.

It has come to our attention that a significant merger has taken place today in Mexcio.

For most people today is just a normal Wednesday, however, for a couple of people I know it’s far more than any other normal day.

It’s funny….after being together for 10 years, I didn’t think being married would make any difference. However after 4 and a bit months I can truly say that it has.

News just came over the wire that Midge and Michaela became the parents of a (probably titchy) bundle of joy yesterday evening, sometime around 18:30. Congratulations both, and well done Michaela for delivering only one day over schedule. I’ve no idea of if they’ve come up with a name yet, so I’ll be drinking to [...]

Tell me a joke. No really; please, tell me a joke. A good one. I feel the need to hear a pants-wettingly-funny story. It can be your favourite, or one you overheard on the bus. Anything that genuinely approaches bladder-failure material will receive the honour of making it through moderation and will appear for public [...]

We just got back from seeing Star Wars Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith. We’d not planned on seeing it on the opening night, but when visiting the cinema website (purely out of curiosity) I found it was so well designed and usable that it would have been churlish not to have booked tickets.

There are some things in life that are just plain cool. Totally bonkers, but cool.

Ok, call me crazy old fool, but with Revenge of the Sith out in a couple of days, I was clicking through the BBC website and got tempted into taking a miniature Star Wars test.

The second series of Look Around You begins next week: Monday, BBC 2 – 10:00 pm

Last night (New Years Eve) was a more quiet affair than normal.

Mat, who is also working towards a PhD in my group, has a well kept picture log, which includes all the snaps he takes with his phone.

It seems like the Internet has gone quiet as everybody logs off and journeys to wherever they’re going for Dec 25th.

Naturally, we’re both staggeringly happy about this….

Some time ago, through the miracle of the internet I got in contact with an old school friend who had moved away from Swansea when we were still in Junior School, his distinctive name played to my advantage and after searching on and off for several years I discovered a link to a wry, and [...]

For me, the sydney 2000 olympics beach volleyball was overshadowed by the constant references to Bondi Beach, as though somehow it was the most desirable place on earth. Pardon my skepticism but Bondi’s a tourist trap; a parody; it’s long way from paradise.

Exploding Dog* features pictures drawn by sam brown. It’s updated on an ad-hoc basis. Some of the pics are odd, some are unfathomable, some make you sad, some make you happy. one or two, every few months, are fantastic; they take you somewhere you’re not expecting.

We had not heard from burt in quite a while and had tried to contact him on all the numbers we had. we even trawled the net for evidence. all to no avail.

rodge has bought a chalet in the alps. how cool is that? initially he had considered calling it chalet doreen, but relented and went with a french name (la criosette) – literally meaning the little cross and often used to describe a crossroads or gathering point. hopefully i shall be visiting it soon and can [...]

this weekend we went along to what must be one of the best kept volleyball secrets in the south. the roke manor tournament. situated in the manor gardens (now part of a scientific research company which happens to employ several volleyball players) this was the fifth or sixth year that we’ve entered a team.

i stumbled across an old adverts site today – and was shocked how many of them i remembered verbatim – i’m guessing the originals must have been part of a film shown on ITV which I recorded and watched repeatedly, thus watching the adverts repeatedly… cheesy adverts

i know three gregs, one of whom has a photo gallery – here are his favourite pictures.

Some of the people who I’ve met along the way are also replete with a presence on the web; these are they, in alphabetical order. If you wish to inform me of new or modified web addresses, please drop me an email or enter a comment, and I’ll amend the page.