A Visit To Old Angelfire
In the olden days when the internet was young there rose from its vast sea glittering towers, home to people from far and wide, places where strangers could form communities and friendships. These towers had strange, exotic names like Tripod or Geocities or Angelfire. Tiled backgrounds and animated graphics were almost mandatory. Marquee text was currency. Lime green Times New Roman text was the status symbol of choice. Mostly. They weren’t pretty to look at is what I’m saying. The internet grew up and the towers shut their doors as the people built their own homes elsewhere. Some of them relocated. But some of the old towers remained. They were boarded up, uncared for, covered in graffiti, and smelled of wee, but they stayed standing, entombing memories of their past within. And it’s still possible to take a look around if you know how. I know how and I’ve just had a wander around old Angelfire for old times’ sake. It’s an old man with his cock in his hand (snigger). It’s actually from this page on Argentinian combat chickens. And I can finally remove “Argentinian combat chickens” from my list of phrases to publish on the web. What you’re looking at above – via this page (tiled background ahoy!) – is a screenshot of the VPlaces software running on Excite Talk, the virtual chatroom that I spent an awful lot of time on in the late 1990s. I loved that software. I loved the modified DLLs that you could download that made your avatar twice the size or gave you the ability to empty rooms or enter them even if they were full. I loved that it used the Visual Basic 4 runtime. Ah, memories. Okay, now this was a surprise because it’s, well, it’s quite good. I know. By Neena Bickram in 1998 this comes from a page titled The Tale of the Parking Meter God. It’s a photo story, it’s not a long read, but it’s well done. Go and read it. And when you’ve done that check out Neena’s Angelfire site more fully. Expect ponies. Expect fantasy. A fan-made desktop wallpaper of Keira Knightley and there are plenty more if your eyes can stand it on this page. The original image was 800 by 600 pixels in size. Can you imagine a desktop with that resolution now? It’s terrifying isn’t it. Parties were better in the days of Angelfire as this picture demonstrates. More party pictures from Paul “Gumby” Trusten are here in case you want to live the hedonism of alcohol and vest-wearing vicariously through them. A superheroine in bondage? Oh my! Yes, it’s...
Animated GIFs
A lot of the time animated GIFs leave me cold; I think they’re pointless and irritating. But sometimes I see one and think “yeah, that’s pointless and irritating but it’s also got something else, something captivating, something indescribable, something gah! about it.” This is especially true if the animation looks like it was pulled straight from a VHS tape. Here are some animated GIFs that made me think that very thing from a recent perusal through my RSS feeds. I think it would be difficult to come up with any situation when they might be useful for illustrating some point now or in the future, and it’s equally difficult to know what possessed someone to turn them into GIFs in the first place. But someone did and for that I’m thankful. Sort...
Deal Pier
On a recent trip to Kent we spent a couple of hours in Deal as we knew it had a castle there and we do like a good castle. But we also like piers and we saw that Deal had one of those too. This necessitated a walk down it and led my wife to remark that Deal Pier was "without a doubt the ugliest pier I've ever seen." Well, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder and it just so happens I didn't share my wife's opinion. Deal Pier is a wonderful example of a simple, brutalist structure; raw concrete and rusting iron creating great lines and shapes everywhere you look. What sort of beast couldn't possibly like that? Please don't tell my wife I just called her a beast. #brutalism #brutalist #blackandwhitephotography #monochromeworld #pier #Kent #clouds #architecture #sea #shadow Google+: View post on...
On The White Cliffs Of Dover
We took a short break recently, spending a few days exploring the county of Kent which describes itself as "the garden of England." I don't know that I'd describe it that way myself but I suppose my first choice description of "far better than Norfolk" – whilst wholly accurate – might be a tad contentious. We explored castles, we visited stately homes, we wandered down piers (and up them too as failure to do so leads to death from exposure or seagull abduction), and a good time was had. We also decided to take a walk along part of the famous white cliffs of Dover (spoiler: no bluebirds were spotted) in order to reach the South Foreland Lighthouse. This, incidentally, is something you too should do should you ever find yourself in the area; there's a rather lovely teahouse there but the personal tour of the lighthouse itself which (pun alert) illuminates the history of the world's first electric-powered building of this type is the (further pun alert) highlight of the visit. I think I'm out of lighthouse-related puns now. The clifftop walk was wonderful, if a little tiring. The windy conditions made the excursion especially exhilirating. Fellow walkers could be seen standing horrifically close to the edge. Sheer faces of chalk stood out marvellously against the blue sky and brownish water. France could be seen on the horizon. France was so close, in fact, that our phones switched to a French network. Many curse words were uttered as we turned off data roaming to avoid excessive charges even though we were on home soil. All-in-all, fun. This photo is from the walk along the white cliffs. Mark, I said to myself. Mark, what composition says iconic White Cliffs of Dover image to you? The answer, of course, was Dame Vera Lynn leading lemmings over the edge to land on and repel Norman invaders because that's how my brain works. So here's a spiky, bushy tree-type thing and some grass. Google+: View post on...
Quote Time Estimate
Conversation between client and me: “We’ve been looking through this quote for the work and have a few questions.” “Okay, go ahead.” “Is this quote for the specification we sent you?” “Yes. As it says in the quote itself it’s for the specification you sent us.” “Good. Good. Okay. Now, how long will it take to do this work?” “The quote is for eleven days’ work.” “Yes, I see that, but when can we expect delivery of this?” “After you raise a purchase order we can begin whenever you want, taking the existing schedule of work we’re doing for you into account.” “What do you mean by that?” “Well, if you agree to the quote and tell us that this work takes priority we can start it on Monday and finish eleven working days later.” “And what if we want other work done at the same time?” “Then it will take longer.” “Okay. We’ll get back to you.” Conversation between colleague and me: “That sounded painful.” “It felt painful.” “Have they never been quoted for work before?” “It’s like this every time. Every week. The same conversation. And they’ve been clients for years. I want to...
Tunisian Prostitution And Islam
Courtesy of Al Jazeera I got to reading about the case of a group of Tunisian sex workers whose livelihood was violently taken away from them all in the name of morality, subsequently leaving them dependent on the state and the charity of others for support. Tunisia sex workers demand brothel reopening I know that some people have a problem with prostitution and that opponents can easily rattle off an interminable list of the many associated examples of sex trafficking, drug abuse, physical abuse, etc. that we’re told go hand-in-hand with the sex industry but at the core it’s a job selling a commodity, a supply satisfying a demand, and if it were regulated like a proper business, treated as a profession like any other, and left alone by the self-appointed moral interferers then those associated traits would diminish and – wibbly wobbly vision of Utopia comes into view – maybe vanish completely. Okay, that’s not going to happen any time soon because there are far too many people in the world who seem to think that what consenting adults do with one another somehow affects them. These people are, typically, religious. And arseholes. Let’s not forget that they’re arseholes. The ones who aren’t religious are, typically, fundamentalist-minded for some other cause. And also arseholes. Let’s not forget that they’re arseholes too. What I’m trying to say here is that if what happens between two (or more) consenting adults is something you feel you’ve got an opinion on and must try to prevent or modify then you are an arsehole. But back to the linked story about the Tunisian sex workers. This story appeared on the internet and, as such, that means that one of the laws of the internet was subsequently evoked: Commenters Will Emerge. Where are their husbands? Citizen_Of_Islam Husbands are the solution to all of life’s problems. If these women had husbands then everything would be fine for no woman who ever had a husband ever suffered. Alas! is this a state where most of the population are Muslim? Then why there exist sex slavery? Give them scope for repentance (Tauba), help them with food, shelter, dignity, if possible with husband. Those who are culprit punish them through legal court. Sex selling could not be a honorable job, hence, all should come forward to abolish it. Dr Gazi Ullah Sex selling is not honourable. Dr Gazi Ullah has spoken on this subject and he’s got a doctorate in Honourable Professions from the University of Honourable Employment in Honouristan (yet to break into the top 1000 of the QS World Rankings of top universities) so that should...
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