Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster of devastating proportions – but it was made so much worse by the actions of those who were elected to protect America.
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Podd – running on an Acorn Electron
You type a verb, and see if Podd can do it. Simple. And very, very cool. I played this is Reception class!
OK – here’s the deal. School starts on Wednesday 7th September. That’s when I’ll stop having the time to work on this site so much 
and, yes, I will take it out of beta once the final pages are up. Time to go into the big wide world of personal websites.
But first – when I first launched the new design, someone had the audacity to complain that the Emoticons page no longer opened in a separate window. Well, I’ve taken it to heart and now you can insert emoticons from the comment form itself. Check it out…! (Safari users may not be included – I’m not sure.)
Huge credits to Battleangel for the javascript.
Oh, and the photo of Hiten, Tade, Paresh and I just after we got our GCSE results made its way into the Willesden & Brent Times today. 
PS – Oh, and I changed my mind about Technorati tags. Too much hassle…
I’m experimenting with Technorati. Recently I’ve been using it quite a bit to search for breaking ‘news’ from the blogosphere and I thought “hey, why not give tags a go?” (I was also trying to avoid completing my online CV – but at least I’ve made a start now!)
Today I also:
- Paid in cheques. Always a fuzzy feeling.
- Applied for an Abbey e-savings account. Always a daunting feeling.
- Listened to Loney – Akon… in Dutch. Courtesy of Pingu. Much better than the English version, precisely because you can’t understand the stupid lyrics.
- Had one of those wonderful phone conversations with Holly Parkhouse where she manages to sound remarkably upbeat even with a swollen eye (ouch)
- Made Alex Trafford laugh with my suggestions to improve Aspire magazine – this rather dull thing that’s send to all the members of the ‘National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth’. He suggested I blog them, so here I am.
Things I’d like to be included in Aspire*:
- Geek page 3 girls
- Dilbert
- Geek TV Guide
- Advice columns done by geeks for stupid people written in a patronising and mocking tone
- Free gifts!
*(Not entirely serious – don’t write angry letters)
Pope Ratty has been busy. Take this simple quiz to see how progressive and forward-thinking the church has become…
What did the Pope warn against on his trip to Germany?
(a) Unchecked greenhouse gas emissions
(b) International terrorism
(c) ‘DIY’ religion
How did he describe the paedophile priest scandal?
(a) “awful and cruel”
(b) “abhorrent and savage”
(c) “wrinkles and shadows”
European multiculturalism is…
(a) “A brave and noble project”
(b) “Both a challenge and an honour”
(c) “Fleeing from what is one’s own”
How is he planning to reform church policy?
(a) Say that condoms aren’t such a bad idea after all
(b) Allow women to become priests
(c) Prevent gay men from becoming priests
If you picked C all the way through – congratulations!
Yes, Ratty’s latest initiative is to try and block gay priests. Why? Because it’s ‘unfair’ and may cause ‘temptation’. Presumably bisexual priests will be breathing a sigh of relief.
For this to work the Church gaydar had better work better than the Church paedophile detector…
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
