Dave's Blog » randomness

Site Redesign

Dave — Thu, 27 May 2010 01:14:36 +0000

I have started to redesign the site from scratch this evening, and so for the next few weeks it will probably be a little rough around the edges as I polish it up to how I want it. It does, however, all still work, and you can still access all the posts etc. I hope you like it!

Back home

Dave — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:38:53 +0000

So, Leeds is over for the next year. I’m back in Birmingham, and as of next Wednesday I will have nowhere to live in the city I had got used to calling home. It’s quite sad really, and it didn’t really hit me until I packed all my stuff up and saw my empty room. But now I can’t stop looking forward to Spain, which should be amazing! Birmingham has been pretty mundane so far (with one notable exception), since none of my friends are about, and I’ve been stricken by terrible hayfever which has kept me in the house most of the time. At least it has given me time to read, and to tinker with the blog among other things.

The exception was last monday, when I went along to take photos of my Mum’s birthday present to my Grandad — a day of falconry with a bloke on the edge of town. It was great fun, and the birds were amazing creatures. I had never realised (or really been able to see in my imagination) just how far these falcons can see. It’s literally miles, of course, but until you actually witness it in the flesh, it’s hard to picture. I got a few good photos too, although my hayfever did eventuall absolutely ruin me. A few more of my mates should be around in the next few days, so hopefully things will liven up a bit!

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The best Web sites to help you scrimp through the recession.

Dave — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:47:35 +0000

I keep on posting things from Slate but it’s just so damn good!

The best Web sites to help you scrimp through the recession. — By Farhad Manjoo — Slate Magazine .

Woman makes the biggest fuss in the world about climbing Scafell Pike

Dave — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:31:54 +0000

I have to wonder what this daft lass thinks she’s achieving. By the way she talks you’d think she’d just climbed the north face of the Eiger. “This is more like rock climbing than walking.” Dear oh dear.

BBC iPlayer — Wainwright Walks: Series 1: Scafell Pike.

Weather, Work, and Wishful Thinking.

Dave — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:29:03 +0000

How has the weather been so bad recently? It’s JULY, for christ’s sake, it’s meant to be sunny all the time. And why does it always rain even more on my days off? Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. I’ve not posted much recently, but I haven’t really been up to much either. I returned briefly to Birmingham, and now I’m back working in Leeds for the halls that I used to live at. Not ideal, but it pays quite well, even if I do occasionally have to do things like, say, sweeping dead flies out of strip lights. Actually, it’s really not too bad, because the variety of work, from waiting-on to reception duties, means that it’s not usually that boring.

Despite the weather, I did manage a trip to Wales about a week ago, and climbed the best I have for a while. I’ve managed, it seems, to get my head sorted out, and become more confident of what I can and can’t do. Consequently, I managed to push my grade up to E1 in the slate quarries on the Saturday. Sunday was slightly more gloomy, and after waiting a little while to see if the weather would improve, Dan and I donned full waterproofs and winter boots, and laid siege to a V. Diff on Dinas Cromlech called Flying Buttress. After the first couple of soggy pitches, the sun appeared and dried off the top two, far better pitches. After a snack at the top, we debated getting another route done, but the weather began to close in again so we headed home. For the entire 2–3 hour drive back to Manchester, we saw nothing but blue skies and sunshine, but that’s just the way it goes I suppose.

The only advantage of the recent terrible weather is that I’ve started doing some writing again. Determined to do something different to poetry, I’ve started a story. I have no idea where it’s going or how long it will be, and as of yet it has no plot and only one relatively undeveloped character, but the concept is interesting. I’ll probably post up the first few paragraphs in the next few days when I’ve had time to reflect on them.

Well, tomorrow is my only day off for the next ten days, so I hope the rain stops and I can get out of Leeds. Somehow though, I doubt it. Never mind.

P.S
I passed first year!

Let’s talk about the weather…

Life in Type

Dave — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:08:23 +0000

But life becomes eventful – then
His busy hand forgets the pen.

My life has, fortunately or unfortunately, been very eventful in the last couple of months, and so I’ve had very little time to blog away about this, that and the other. I also sense that there will be an inverse relationship between how sunny it is and how much time I spend on here blogging. You know I’m just gonna be in the Lakes, really!

I’ll probably update this with a few essays and so on that I’ve written recently when I have the time, and I should have my photos from Spain soon, so look out for a bumper upload!

So, a quick recap of the past couple of months of my life:

The second term of Uni ended in March, and left me with a month of Easter holidays to enjoy. Sean, one of my regular climbing partners, has access to a house in Spain which is very near to various climbing areas, and to cut a long story short Will and I decided to have a month long session out there. However, we also decided that the best/cheapest/most interesting way of getting there would be by thumb. We set off from Leeds and ended up in Paris, where Will admitted that he hadn’t really realised how big France is and how long it was going to take to get to the south of Spain. We ended up flying from Paris to Spain, and whilst hitching like that is an experience I’m glad that I had it’s also one that I never hope to repeat!

After a month of clipping bolts in Spain it was back to gloomy England – and to Uni. It was great to see all my mates in Leeds again but work soon piled on and took us forward to the exam season, which is roughly now! I’ve had a couple of Oral exams and done pretty well in them, but the next two weeks are going to be revision-tastic. In between here and there I’ve managed to get some climbing done, including a fantastic four-day weekend in the Lakes last Friday-Monday. I didn’t manage to get any pics, because I was too busy climbing better than I ever have before!

I’ve signed up for all my courses next year too, which include a module in Spanish Literature (finally!) and a Creative Writing module, so expect to see a lot more writing up here as I get the practice in over the summer. I’ll be in Leeds all summer, having bagged a job at my current halls, which will hopefully fill the bank account up nicely. Unfortunately that has slightly hampered my plans to learn to drive, because it starts earlier than would be ideal, but money is money, and I’m not in a position to turn paid work down. I’ll just have to learn faster!

Land of the Free

Dave — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:37:26 +0000

The World Economic Forum, a Swiss research group, released its findings on gender equality. The UK is in 11th place, after 10 other mostly European nations. The good old USA lies in 31st place, in between Estonia and Kazakhstan. Land of the free and the seat of democracy my arse. No related posts. No related posts.

Hipster Social Networking

Dave — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:22:55 +0000

There’s a trend in the techie world called the Hipster PDA, which is a sheaf of cue cards held together with a bulldog clip. The idea behind this is, of course, that with all the new technology and hype surrounding it, the old fashioned way is often simpler, easier and cheaper. I personally think that this is a very good point. I think it’s appalling, for example, that when I go to uni I will have to word process all my essays — handwriting is no longer allowed. Not only can I write a lot faster than I can type, I also find it easier to formulate my ideas when handwriting (this is something that is documented by science too; using motor functions whilst learning is proven to enhance memory, at least. This is why writing down words is still the best way to learn vocab.), which means that I will probably end up writing out most essays twice.

The other obviously worrying trend is that people are starting to email and message people instead of phoning, or even meeting up with them. Whilst email and instant messengers and whatever else are great for keeping in touch with people who you otherwise wouldn’t be able to, and for organising things, this is and should remain their purpose. It should never become a replacement for normal social interaction. And so, to redress the balance I propose:

Hipster Social Networking

You will need:

Friends — Essential and hopefully not too hard to come by.
A Place to Relax — House, Pub, Park, anywhere

You’re done. And try not to talk about Facebook.

Holidays

Dave — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:48:47 +0000

Whenever I go on a holiday that doesn’t involve lots of drinking (i.e a holiday with my family) I always end up watching great films and reading great books. And at a rate of a novel every couple of days, and a film pretty much every day (read in the sun, watch a film when it goes dark, go out for dinner, sleep) I get through quite a bit. This time I’ve read Vernon God Little, The Lovely Bones, Astonishing Splashes of Colour and I’m just starting The Invisible Man. I never seem to read this much at home (although since I’m going to do English at Uni, that’s probably all going to change fairly soon). I’ve also watched some great films: Take the Money and Run, The Black Book, The Last King of Scotland, Capote and some chick flicks that whilst not as heavy going are just as entertaining, and I won’t have anyone saying otherwise.

All of the above are well worth checking out, but the stand outs are The Lovely Bones and The Black Book. The former is a book written from the perspective of someone in heaven. It’s an incredible read and something that I could never have imagined being written about. I’m not going to spoil it by telling you all about it, but you should find out for yourself. The film is about the German occupation of Holland, and reveals some harsh truths about the Dutch themselves as well as the obvious condemnation of the Nazis. It is all in Dutch (or German, I couldn’t really tell), but it’s an incredible story.

5 things you probably don’t know about me (unless you know me well)

Dave — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:49:33 +0000

Look, it’s a post with a lame disclaimer tagged on the end. Well, since only people who know me will probably read this, the chances are they already know at least one of these things. Well, never mind!

I’m a geek. That’s right, I know far, far too much about computers. In fact I could probably run a linux network for most purposes with no problem at all. And I can build and take apart computers. In fact, although maintaining this blog is fairly easy, there are several things that are utterly unnecessary that I have added just because I’m geeky. There are two reasons for this: firstly, I went through a geeky phase when I was about thirteen, and I learn quickly; secondly, see number 2!
I love building things and finding out how they work. Whether it’s learning how to write the code for my own website, building Ikea furniture or taking apart and reassembling (obviously with improvements) an old bicycle, I love getting my hands dirty, both literally and metaphorically. I don’t know whether it’s a man thing (I’ve heard people say that it is), or whether it’s just me being nosey to the point that i even have to know the business of inanimate objects, but it turns out I’m quite good at it. One of the few things that I really can’t fix is anything programmed by Microsoft (i.e Windows). Some things just don’t work!
I hate losing touch with people. I try to keep in contact with almost everyone I meet. Even if I only send the occasional email, or go out for lunch once a year, it means a lot to me that I don’t forget people. It’s not so much the other way round, I can accept that other people forget about me, just not that I might forget someone, and thus offend or lose a friend. I’ve tried to keep in touch with people I met at Oxford interviews, on holiday, or just out and about, and it only works for a fraction of the number that I meet, but for me that makes it worth it.
Most of the Americans I’ve ever met were wonderfully welcoming and interesting people. You probably can’t tell that from my humourless whingeing, but my problem isn’t with the american people, but their government. The USA is a fantastic cultural melting pot full of amazing, erudite, intelligent people, run by a body of neo-conservative christians chaired by George Bush. Need I say more? On a side note, I also don’t believe that Bush is stupid; you can’t get to that position without being a shrewd political mind. That just means that he’s devious and deceitful instead. Much worse.
In spite of all my travel, my favourite place in the world is still the Lake District. I’ve seen the Alps and the Pyrenees, I’ve walked from over 2000m into the mediterranean sea, and none of it compares to that magical, majestic Englishness that is Cumbria. Compared to almost anywhere else in the world, they’re only hills, but there’s nothing I love more than getting lost in the Western Fells. I’ve always said that I’d love to live in the Lakes, and I still intend to.

So there you go. If you think you know too many of them, leave a comment and I’ll try to think of a few more relatively light secrets that I don’t mind telling the world.