Lots going on, so little time:
On Thursday I took my sisters to the park. Not out of kindness, you understand, but for my Maths coursework. We have to design a children’s slide, so I wanted to measure average velocities and acceleration and suchlike.
Slide Number One
Slide Number Two
Yesterday I regrettably did not do any Maths coursework but I did go to Hampstead Heath with (deep breath) Matthew, Joshua, Fabio, Robert, Sanna, Olly and Olly’s mysterious friend Alex. We all held hands and ran down hills – looking for all the world like a gay pride rally – and also flew a kite! We also sunbathed, investigated a Viking burial ground, walked through the carnival and bought some candy floss. Funness.
When I got home everyone was still next door at the ‘lunch’ that went on rather longer than a lunch, so I went round and became a little market research guinea pig for our neighbour who works at marketing for Sky. (“Blogs blogs blogs”, I said, “get James Murdoch to blog”.) In return received tentative offer of work experience in the summer, and interesting discussion of whether Sky is a platform or a content business, whether Sky News actually makes a profit, and whether Nic will kill me now. (I’m not sure.)
And that brings me neatly onto today… where Holly phoned me during one of my long walks with dad (and Tash, who may have regretted the length of our long walks) to ask questions about Othello’s relationship with Iago so that I could talk about Shakespeare off the top of my head whilst meandering through Gladstone Park. Funky. (Have you noticed I’ve got into the habit of following a long sentence with a very short, even just one word one? I have.)
Plus tonight we’re off to the National Theatre (The Royal Hunt of the Sun) while we record… the launch of the new series of Doctor Who. Make sure you all watch New Earth, tonight, at 7.15 on BBC1! Phew.
P.S. How could I forget? Check out the music of Lily Allen for some brilliant songs.
I’m pleased to say that we finally have a comprehensive backup system for our home network, an important part of computer administration which up to now has been slightly disparate and disjointed. The new hardware – an external 160GB Seagate hard drive connected via USB. We also picked up some DVD+Rs to replace the current CD-R regime for certain documents that can be stored off-site.
Interesting, when taking into account the documents stored on all 4 PCs (including photos, music and video) the total cost only comes to a little over 20GB which leaves plenty of room for expansion! 
I hope everyone has been sticking with The Apprentice too – very good episode tonight I thought. Especially Margaret ‘Mother Hen’ Mountford’s comment (sorry, just what we call her 
) that they were dealing with “A winger, a liar and a planner”! The weaker ones are definitely being whittled down now (after a couple of unfair firings earlier) which should lead to an exciting climax. I think Ruth is the strongest at the moment, with Ansell also impressing to some extent. Paul… well, he has a chance.
Oh, and that wonderful moment in life when a vending machine gives you extra change? I got 50p from that today 
Oh dear god. I hadn’t seen it until now, but this year we’re being represented by a soap power – Daz – in a song that is so hilariously wrong on so many levels it achieves a certain greatness. But only while you choke back the tears.
Teenage Life is the ultimate anthem of the damned. GG describes it thusly: “imagine a rapper – and now imagine that rapper is white, and now imagine that rapper is white, over 40, and that he wears faded 1980s denim. Okay now imagine that he is rapping over a soundtrack of schoolkids singing – and now add the visual image of women in their late 20s in schoolgirl uniforms dancing and miming to that backing track.”
The really scary part is that it’s on target to be ‘our best entry in years’. I can’t hope but feel sorry for our MEPs, who surely won’t be able to live it down for months in the European Parliament if we actually win. I can imagine the French and Germans shuffling little packets of Daz between each other while the Brits look ashamed.
Now my bad old ways
Were during my school days
Messing on those grade A’s [sic]
In fact that deserves [sic] twice – both for the idea of being anywhere near ‘Grade As’ and the unfortunate apostrophe 
Ah Eurovision, don’t we all love it?
Sticking with all things Europe, the .eu domains have (finally) launched. And I bought one. In a crafty scheme. Will let you know more later if anything comes of it…
Cool People
(P.S. I’m the one you can see on the table)
I’m going to see Have I Got News For You!
Twice!
After Joshua and I mounted a military-precision operation last week to secure tickets from the website (it involved lots of refreshing, several PCs, multiple browsers, pinging, the net connection going down, phoning up the ICT department frantically, and eventually Joshua coming down to my Maths lesson to hurriedly get my phone number) the confirmation has come through.
I’ll be in the company of Merton, Hislop and co on 27th April with Joshua, Sanna and Fabio. And then the very next week (4th May) Joshua and I are going again with our darling mothers. Awww. Credit where credit’s due, it’s my mum who found out about the electronic barriers going up at 11am on that day so all thanks to her really. 
So excited! I was terrified it’d get cancelled before this day would come. Now, I wonder if I’ll ever fulfil my secret life ambition to be on the damn show itself… Ah well – keep dreaming!
Fake Sheikh
The News of the World has been busy running round trying to gag the press – good thing I saved a copy of the photograph from that website before it got taken down You can still find it on Google Images, if you’re interested. I’d post it here but lawyers make such poor conversation.
Update – It’s past 4pm, the embargo is off, up goes the photo of Mazher Mahmood… fuck you Murdoch
Double Update – OK, maybe we have to wait till 5pm now 
Triple Update – 5pm! 4pm tomorrow?! Damn you courts!
Final Post – Injunction removed
Summary of the story – The News of the World doesn’t want this photo published. Clearly, therefore, it is every man, woman and child’s duty to publish this photo as much as they possibly can.
Rob Bell on Baby’s first blog: “Congratulations! Sounds like you are really enjoying the first few weeks which is great. Time flies!” Oct 13, 12:59
