Tom's Bits

Adblock….

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I don’t really “see” adverts when browsing, so I’ve not bothered much with any form of adblocker. I’ve occasionally used Opera’s own blocking function to try to remove elements that autoplay, I don’t have Flash installed and I’ve disabled animated .gifs, so there’s not much to annoy me with most websites, but…

Taboola. Taboola, and all the other clickbait “also on the web” people really tick me off, so I’ve finally installed an adblocker, just for that, and yes, it works. No longer will I see such stupid things as “This man learned 6 languages in thirty nanoseconds”. Hurrah, sanity returns to the corner of the web I frequent.

Social Media Daftness

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Someone posted an item on Twitter and has now been sacked.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-30700872

Is this sane?

Two issues:

  1. He’s (frankly) stupid enough to make such a crass joke in public. It’s not funny, and there have been previous issues with Twitter posts (Nottingham airport) being taken far far too seriously.
  2. His employer takes his Twitter post so seriously that it sees fit to terminate his employment. I’m surprised this is legal.

What’s my point? I guess the problem for me is that we’ve entered a period where our tiniest online utterances can haunt us forever. We’re now broadcasting globally, with no option to remove the article, however much we might regret it afterwards.

I reckon I’m lucky, I grew up with this happening, and I now have the wisdom not to say things I’ll eternally regret (at least online, and attributable to me). I’ll admit to have posted things I might now regret should they be traced to me, but these are not tied to any of my long-lasting online personae, so I hope I’m safe…

Interesting Encounter This Morning…

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I was almost brave this morning.

Walking up Tottenham Court Road, there’s a sidestreet with a lorry turning into it. It’s rather in the way, stopped, so I wait for it to continue. The driver’s door opens, and out comes a rather cross looking man holding – no, wielding a large claw hammer. He approaches another pedestrian, who I gather displease him.

hat do I do? Ignore this? Run away?

No, oddly enough I speak loudly (shout?) at him to stop threatening with the hammer. He backs down, gets back into his cab and drives off.

Yes, I was almost brave 🙂

What do I want to talk about?

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This goes back to be original reason for starting a blog. What on earth is the point? There is an element of narcissism here, in that I’d like people to read these posts and enjoy them, but why do I want that?

Does a compete stranger reading my posts make me a better person? Hardly.

Will I at some point tell people I know (and like and respect, and who I want to like and respect me in tun) abut tis? Why not? I know I’m already self-censoring greatly, and I’m likely to continue to do so, so what have I to lose? The one “danger” is that they won’t find this interesting, but then, with posts like this one I’m hardly doing myself any favours.

Part of this is I’m sure the reason I started a different blog a while ago – to act as a diary, for recording and refection, but what’s the point of that if I continue to hide the truth? I’m not lying, but I’m certainly unlikely to say all I think and feel in a public place.

Hmm…

FB Withdrawal…

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So I’ve quit Facebook, wow, big deal.

Yes, actually, it is a big deal. I don’t communicate with friends any other way, and while that had been okay for me for quite a long period, I’ve found I’ve got used to this ability to say stuff and have people notice (at times).

I’ve bought a new phone and a bike, and I want to tell people, but now I can’t.

Umm…. really? Can I not talk to people? Email them? Once upon a time I used to write letters. By hand. And send them. By post. Crazy, huh?

So what am I going to do about this? Am I going to try to make human contact in person? Maybe at work – after all, that’s the only place I actually see people regularly. I suppose I’ll see dance moms when dropping Alice off on Saturdays, but the common ground there is dance, and I can’t see any of them giving a tinker’s cuss about my pink phone or shiny new bike.

A return to the fold

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I started this a while ago with the best of intentions. I had a text file on my laptop’s desktop with notes for future posts, which I was fleshing out with the aim of putting on here one by one.

So what happened? I installed Windows 10 on my laptop and forgot I had this rather handy text file only stored there. All those notes, gone. Notes on people I admire, people I want to thank, sysadmin tips and tricks, and possibly the occasional profundity.

The impetus to keep this blog alive evaporated.

I occasionally wanted to share more of an opinion (i.e. spout) than I though appropriate for FaceBook, and considered using this blog as the starting point, but never got round to it.

So why this post, this return?

I’ve quit FB, for at least one year. I will miss it, but I won’t miss the time spent there, as I had turned into a bit of a FB junky. Instead, I’ll be typing here, sharing my views with – well, no-one really, just myself. I’ll probably (definitely) tell people about this at some point, but until then I’ll just dump quietly to myself.

Guys and Dolls – Nicely Nicely No More

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I’m not going to make a push to get the part of Nicely Nicely. It’s without a doubt too high for me really, and there are two others who’ll audition. One of these is the director’s son, who played the lead in the “King and I” (so he’s not only good, but there may be subconscious bias in his favour). The other played the lead in “Oklahoma!” (directed by the same director as this production, so he’s a good known quantity), and he’s recently played Nicely Nicely elsewhere. Overall, more than strong competition for this wonderful part.

I do need to aim high (if only to increase my chances of getting something interesting), so I’ll probably audition for Uncle Arvide and Benny Southstreet. They both have good lines and good songs. Arvide has a really lovely looking solo number (and there are older men than me who’d do it better), so it’s less likely I’ll make the grade. I can certainly sing Benny’s part in “Fugue for Tinhorns”.

I’ll consider also the part of Big Julie from Chicago. Needs a slightly different accent. No songs (bar chorus), but worthwhile lines.

Concentrate on:

  • New York Accent

  • Arvide’s solo – include tender actions

  • Benny’s song part – include reactions to others?

  • Lines for Benny and Arvide.

The Faux Pas I Don’t Mind Remembering

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This was while I was in my third year at university, some time in the first term. I was then (as now) not much for being with people. Not through lack of desire, but through lack of social ability and confidence. Actually, that’s a bit like now as well. I’d been asked round to dinner by a lass on my course a couple of times (nothing in it, she had a boyfriend). The first time it was just us, the second time was for a larger gathering. It was here that my minor transgression occurred.

The house she lived in (with a group – the normal house-sharing arrangement for students) had an enormous kitchen/dining room, with a decent sized dining table. I think there were eight to ten people there, most of whom I knew only slightly if at all. One of the lasses had a jumper on with piping along the seams, but it somewhat confused me. I quietly asked my host if (or told her that?) the young lady had her jumper on inside out. Naturally, it wasn’t as quiet as I’d intended, and certainly the subject of my query heard, possibly also the rest of the room.

Here’s the really strange thing.

I’ve plenty of embarrassing moments in my life, some more cringe-worthy than others, but of all of them, this is one of the very few I don’t recall with horror, and wish I could erase from my memory.

Why is this?

Is it because it happened long ago (over twenty years now)?

Is it because no-one else will remember this moment?

Is it because I’ll most likely never see these people again?

No, none of these, as I know there are other occasions which fit all of these conditions, yet they still make me shudder with embarrassment. Perhaps looking at this will help me dissipate my social dread?

 

The King And I – Things That Went Wrong

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We all make mistakes. I’m glad to say I only made one Big Mistake during the run of The King And I, and that was a simple error of omission. I forgot to come on. As Phrak Alack I only had one thing to say and do in one particular scene:

Anna:
I’m sorry His Majesty does not approve
King:
I do not say I do not approve, but I do say…..
Phra Alack:
(Running on and prostrating himself before the KING)
Your Majesty, the English. They are in palace
(This causes immediate confusion among the wives tho huddle in a frightened group. PHRA ALACK backs off)
A wife:
They will eat us, they will eat us!
All the ladies: [RUSH AROUND IN TERROR]

Just one line, but this line involved cutting off the King, and getting a reaction from the rest of the cast. What makes it even more delicious is that I realised while in the dressing room, and consequently swore a little – while miked up. Thankfully, the sound chap heard my broadcast and turned me off before the audience heard my (minor) profanities.

The King did have more ready to say (to take account of my general timing in interrupting him), but ran out of words. Anna wonderfully had the presence of mind to walk nearly off stage and then turn to the King and say “The English are here, in the palace!”. Thanks guys, you covered for me very well! And yes, I do still want a decent part in Guys and Dolls….

What else went wrong?

  • One boy made his entrance during the ballet “Small House of Uncle Thomas” too early, and stood lemon-like for five or ten seconds. The poor lad ended up in tears at this mistake and had to be pepped up before returning for the later part of the ballet. Well done to him for getting back on.
  • The King dropped words here and there, as well as the occasional line, but he made only two decent-sized mistakes. While Anna and Sir Edward were dancing he just didn’t come on, which led to Anna and Sir Edward swaying on stage (Sir Edward sadly couldn’t dance), wondering what to say. Another time he basically cut a few pages of text (he called for prayers to Buddha way way too early in the scene at the end of Act 1) making people wonder what on earth to do, but it was thankfully covered up pretty well.
  • The conductor started a piece of music rather too early, slap across a dialogue (mine!) – he immediately realised what he’d just done, quietened the orchestra to a halt, starting up again once the dialogue had finished.
  • At one point the smallest child has to tug on the King’s sleeve. Our smallest child is very wee indeed, and she struggled to get to his sleeve when he was on the dais. On the last performance she instead tugged on his – well, his undercarriage, a folded strip of fabric held by poppers to the front and rear of his trousers. This would have been fine, but it seemed the poppers weren’t enough to cope with a seven-years old’s pull, and the rear portion came detached. This left the King with three feet of fabric dangling loose from the front of his trousers like an errant elephant’s trunk (or worse). Thankfully he was surrounded by children, and while waving them around him he was able to rip it off completely and toss it to one side.

Overall, mistakes were made. Were any of these terrible? Some seemed so at the time (I was mortified by my own), but people manage to cover these things up. The audience on the whole probably just don’t notice and would never realise something was amiss. The good thing? Being surrounded by competent actors who know how to work with what they get.

Websites I’ve Created

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I started writing websites in 1996 or 7. These started as basic static sites, all with the standard format (about / more info / pictures / contact). The first was written in the DOS editor, wasn’t tested, probably had no real formatting other than some Hx/B/I/P tags. It was either about myself or my Morris side, I don’t remember which, and was never published/hosted. After that there was:

  • My own personal set of pages
  • Lardnet
  • An iteration of a company website (1998). This was in the days of IE3, IE4, and Netscape 4, so I had a whole load of strange non-compliance going on. I used browser detection to deliver the right html page, and had to basically code two separate sites – one vanilla, and one with nice collapsing menus.
  • PHP/MySQL intranet pages (1999?). Part was for (internal) software ordering and accounting, I’d styled it to look somewhat like the company’s software product.
  • Some funky CSS based documentation site (2000?). This was for its time rather cool as it was possibly the first site I’d seen with tabs (at the top of the page). There was also a version with collapsing menus (using Windows Explorer look and feel) on the left. I remember showing a friend, who castigated me for making a site that stopped the back button from working properly.
  • My handover documentation when I left my job (2003). I’ve a feeling this had some form of word->html conversion script going on which I enhanced with a load of sed.
  • Wedding site (2001). A very simple site (in English and Italian) giving information about my wedding. Aahhh…
  • Baby site (2003). Information about the birth of my lovely daughter, with a birth story (really!), the beginning of a blog, pictures.
  • My mother’s weaving website (2009?). Very simple and (IMHO) pleasing. Not a table in sight!

Also, a swathe of wiki based sites, but I didn’t create them, merely populated them – much the same as here.