see nerd) log

closed

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As part of this site‘s redesign, I‘ve created tannoy, my new blog. If you subscribe to this blog, please transfer your subscription. See, nerd) log is closed.

scan monster

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:02:33 +0100

My father, on the right, died in the early ‘60s, in his early ‘40s. He was an engineer who switched to management and did rather well. Following WW2, he left the army to study engineering. In August

anyone there

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:47:47 +0100

I write this blog confident no one reads it, pretty much. That’s not entirely true: Lilli once wanted to reply to a post. But there’s no reason to subscribe; what do I say that’s worth a revisit? Thi

old image

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:43:07 +0100

I’ve become unhappy with the photos here and on Wurm; there’s more posts than good photo content. So I’ve acquired a scanner to import my youthful output, a suitcase of slides and negatives. There’s

interesting poetry

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:04:23 +0100

To me, an interesting poet is someone whose poetry creates effect. For example, when I first heard Sean Bonney recite packet switching poetry (to invent the wrong name), the jerky rhythm & the sub

hacked off with lulu

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:56:57 +0100

I’ve prepared a collection to set Wurm Press in motion. Having researched information online, we decided self-publishing using Lulu seemed the best option. So I’ve spent quite some time preparing a b

poetry, amateur, professional

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:32:02 +0100

A great advantage I have, when attending poetry conferences, is I am thoroughly amateur. Most around me will earn their living from literature. I, sitting at the bottom of the compost, have no career

tesco

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:47:15 +0100

I know Tesco have the reputation of selling crap at high prices, on the grounds they do just that, but even they go over the top. They’ve just charged me €1.75 for a product that has €1 marked on the

a season of small insanities

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:08:44 +0100

Some first collections were launched a while ago in Dublin. I don't believe any should have been published; the poems were exercises, they were immature, the poets needed stewing for a decade to devel

brits elect racists

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:11:27 +0100

The core of BNP politics: There are scary monsters under your bed; When you look for them you can’t see them; You can’t see black in the dark; So those monsters must be black; So throw blacks out of

unforgivable

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 19:14:00 +0100

Music reviews too often ignore the wine to be drunk when listening. Having just returned from a tour of Scottish vineyards, I found myself asked to review Armin van Buuren and Jaren's EP Unforgivable,

the gimp

Sun, 31 May 2009 09:50:47 +0100

I’ve had a deserved go at Microsoft’s Word in the past, and its open source imitators. Now it’s the turn of the Gimp, a paint program. Let me start off my emphasising the positive. The Gimp is a free

the irish taxman

Fri, 15 May 2009 11:48:47 +0100

Many years ago, the British taxman took three grand of redundancy money from me. They’d made a mistake, they took the money, they admitted they’d made a mistake. But it took them three years, yes, thr

busy busy buzz buzz

Mon, 11 May 2009 07:28:26 +0100

... moved across Dublin into a small (temporary?) flat ... kitties rehomed ... seen Star Trek reboot ... Wurm fest will happen (but not as we knew it) ... poetry collection en route ... and ... and ..

the problem with recovery by export

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:58:29 +0100

Many countries plan to export out of recession. Unfortunately, this is a global recession. If most countries try to increase exports, and reduce imports, where do they export to? Countries not followi

the puritanical uk

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:44:07 +0100

The UK is not a relaxed society. I relaxed when I left, and after a while I realised it was because I wasn't constantly being watched. I am not comfortable with the continuous surveillance, the offici

ego google boo

Sat, 4 Apr 2009 09:24:10 +0100

Type my name, unquoted, into Google. My site, my public face, is number one. It’s true for Yahoo and Live too. The algorithms are being nice today. If I had a number one frequent name, I’d be immens

futurism

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:06:36 +0100

Italian futurism was a poetic movement closely associated with Italian nationalism and fascism, thriving from the early 1900s to the defeat of Italian fascism in 1944. It has been ignored in English l

PN09

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:39:45 +0100

I was only able to attend a couple of performances at Poetry Now this year, due to my leaving bash and traditional side-effects. But I am very very grateful for my introduction to some excellent and

ruined reputation

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:19:43 +0100

I’ve always enjoyed different foods and drink, finding the good, condemning the bad, never quiet about it. This is personal taste, of course, different people like different things. I’m always happy,

skiffy

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:53:35 +0000

I can’t decide whether contemporary skiffy (sci-fi, science fiction, whatever) is degrading, or whether I’ve got fussier. I bought a batch of books (hoho) a few days ago, and have been struggling wit

time to punt the CV again

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:58:27 +0000

It’s the time to punt the CV again. I spent today polishing it. The C++ market (my software engineering niche) hasn’t declined as much as I’d been expecting. I’m getting occasional contacts from acro

more open office bugs

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:23:36 +0000

Whilst the semi-traditional St. Patrick’s day parade trundles half a mile down the road, I’m meeting more bugs in Open Office. How about this one: select quite a lot of text, hit delete, and it won’t?

the complement ‘pompous’

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:56:22 +0000

I’ve just been called pompous, again. I was called pompous many times when younger, generally when talking, usually enthusiastically, about something that interested me, something about which I knew,

dear eircom

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:05:47 +0000

I'm cancelling this account forthwith. I'm struggling to get my music and my poetry heard out there, and you're now deliberately blocking general access to the most effective distribution channels. H

another boring bossman battle

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:05:59 +0000

I’ve finally gone back to finish Half Life 2 Episode 2. The first time I played it through, I got stuck at the big battle. It was so boring, I gave up. It was more and more of the same but slightly d

bye bye flight simulator

Sat, 7 Feb 2009 08:51:54 +0000

Microsoft have got rid of their Flight Simulator developers. This is tantamount to announcing the end of the product. All that’s left is the last few months of marketing and selling. They can’t develo

french classes

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 18:56:26 +0000

I’ve been attending various languages classes, to improve my Foreign. Since autumn, I’ve been consolidating my French in a conversation class. It turns out I can thoroughly prattle in French. Don’t t

making software annoying

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 18:55:59 +0000

Here are some common features, with examples, to add to software to make it annoying. Get something subtly wrong. Windows Explorer screws up file sorting. Here is Windows Explorer’s alphabetical orde

a political was

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 04:58:07 +0000

I’ve been snatched into facebook by some old friends, and I have to admit I’m very glad about it. I used to be very active in the British Liberal party, particularly the Young Liberals. There’s a reu

A foreigner observes Dublin

Sun, 1 Feb 2009 11:16:49 +0000

These are some observations that stick in my mind about Dublin. They don’t make a whole. Driving standards here can be very poor. Every week, newspapers report more slaughter of the innocents. The Ir

collection reprise

Thu, 8 Jan 2009 21:09:08 +0000

Half the argument of my previous blog entry on a possible collection or seven concerned why I should keep the poetry free to sell the book. Today’s BBC In Business episode, “Buy none, get one free”, e

coffee machine

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 13:28:26 +0000

Do my kitties come when I call them? No. Do my kitties come when I open a window? No. Do my kitties come when I make myself a cup of coffee? Yes! They don’t even like the stuff! I use a clattering ol

an interesting realisation

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 09:33:17 +0000

An interesting realisation: a lot of the poetry of mine that I don't like is because it captures an emotion that I don't like, whether it's immature, or embarrassing, or shameful, or whatever. That do

state of the canard address

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Domestic press releases happen. This year, I got my revenge in first. State of the Canard Address - an annual press release from - Dylan Harris (ok, so there's no canard, but you get the drift) I b

collection?

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:25:06 +0000

I’ve decided, finally, to look at my poetry to see if I can throw a collection together, one that might interest a publisher. There are complications, such as that this site will stay up, and the poe

Westvleteren

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:57:32 +0000

My Christmas treat has been in my fridge since February, complements of my last job. My boss presented me with three bottles of Westvleteren, often acknowledged as the best beer in the world. I'm spen

busy busy busy

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:41:36 +0000

I’ve a poetry recital coming up on Wednesday 17th at Wurm im Apfel. I have to prepare my set, including, for the first time, some seen, heard) poetry videocasts. I’ve Europe, a chapbook, to launch at

Domestic Incidental

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:39:46 +0000

My kitties came back from the vet slightly lighter on Tuesday. Were they human, they'd be candidates for the original Sistine Chapel choir, should schoolboy myths be true. After the first evening, wh

Dress Codes

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 08:38:06 +0000

I went along to the Dublin munch last night, and it was thoroughly sociable if a wee bit underattended. My only potential problem is that it’s deeply connected with a club event, and that club event

Sat, 8 Nov 2008 17:10:05 +0000

I've not found a place to belong. Ireland's as flawed as the UK for me; at least blighty has London's hurricane, all of an artform isn’t much the same. I wanted France, when I was spotty. I think I’l

Insecure Social

Sat, 8 Nov 2008 10:55:10 +0000

I need to develop some social life here, I think, to gain me a little bit of an anchor, to reduce the alien loneliness I feel towards this alien city. I’m going along to language classes, but whilst t

Other companies I won’t use again

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 21:44:31 +0000

There are some other companies I will never use again. MFI* are just incompetent. That they still survive, presuming they do, has to be because there aren’t enough IKEA stores around. I once ordered

Companies I won’t use again: PC World

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 21:44:28 +0000

PC World, the near-monopoly UK computing superstore, have a policy of deliberately insulting customers who use certain banks. I use the Co-op in the UK. If I try and use my Co-op debit card at PC Worl

Companies I won’t use again: Vodafone

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 21:18:10 +0000

I had a contract with Vodafone in the UK many years ago. I’d been paying it to standard terms, e.g. within 28 days of the bill being issued. I’d almost cancelled it, because I couldn’t afford it, but

Europe: a chapbook

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 06:36:15 +0000

As part of my reading at Wurm im Apfel on December 17th, I’ve a chapbook coming out. I hope to offer copies for sale here. All the poems are on my site; I dislike artificial scarcity. But there’s not

Why are Word Processors crap?

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 10:58:31 +0000

Every few months, I get deeply annoyed with those software products that call themselves Word Processors. Not one of the damn things processes words. It’s so f***ing annoying. They just don’t seem to

Wurm im Apfel

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:34:25 +0100

Myself and my fellow fenland refugee are organising small readings here in gloried Dublin. Actually, I’m hardly doing anything, but will bark in the shadow for cake. We’ve chosen the name for Reinhar