Anyhoo (yes "anyway" was already taken).

[Now that it's safely past 11].

So why the hiatus?

Because I'm me, and so kept meaning to post, but not, and then not feeling like it [Americans living up to their reputation didn't help matters. I mean, how can they elect that son of a Bush? So now all we can hope for is an implosion that doesn't suck us in with it, and the triumphal ascendancy of Clinton part deux].

What have I been up to? Well, there was Didcot. Which has a power station, and a railway station, and did I mention the power station? More details will appear at some point, when I sneakily add in my pre-dated write-up.

I was shunted back to a different job in the place I'm not too keen on. Constant Capital didn't help. If I ever hear "official chocolate partner" or "superstar collaboration" again, then I'll know that one of 3 songs will come on in the next quarter of an hour [Natasha Bedingfield does not have a large enough repertoire to deserve being played every hour on the hour]. Even the adverts have more variation, and that's not by much.

Speaking of ads, is Christmas nearly upon us? Last night, half the ad breaks were filled with advertisements for systems which print photographs. In two, the only other products were whatever that Amelie rip-off thing is advertising (all I know is that it's selling some sort of financial smugness, aimed at people who don't understand money), and a coffee-bag gadget thing, which I believe was the new Hyundai Senseo. Oh hang on, that's a car isn't it? No? But the Senseo must be a car? Is it a Ford then? Seat? Not a Vauxhall?

BTW, according to the ad, it's pronounced Sen-say-oh. Not the more obvious Sen-si-oh, or possibly Sense-oh [the new Electrolux Sense-o-matic?]. Anyway, the new Senseo, for that Hot Beverages Vending Machine taste, only this time, when you press the button, you won't get that odd half Horlicks, half tea mix. Hopefully.

Senseo, as sophisticated as Ferrero Rocher, as revolutionary as Consignia [1. Strangely consignia.com is rapidly diverted to royalmail.com. 2. Trust ebay as advertised on Google "Ferrero Rocher. New & used Ferrero Rocher. aff. Check out the deals now! www.ebay.com". Yep that's right, you too can own used Ferrero Rocher, all thanks to the power that is ebay. And what's up with them advertising themselves on television and radio? They could at least have chosen mildly less annoying adverts].

All of which has distracted me from my rant against Capital Radio. While I was in the place where the radio has no off and no tuning, one of the news stories was about the rail crash near Reading. According to Capital, and, I suspect, only Capital, the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, it was "too soon to jump to conclusions". They didn't have a recording of the statement, and the wording did vary during the day, so I think it might have been someone working on the news at Capital [that's when they're not making the coffee (with the new Senseo, natch)] paraphrasing it poorly. Or am I just being odd in thinking it can never be to soon to jump to conclusions, as the jumping to them is half the point?

[How many commas did I use in that "According to..." sentence? Too many, but each changes the meaning and flow of the sentence, and I couldn't decide how to use fewer].

But hey, I'm odd, and am amused by strange quirks of wording. Such as the writing on the packet of Superdrug brand medication currently sitting on the shelf in the bathroom. This being plebier-than-thou Superdrug, there are no Stalinist "Instructions", or confusing "Directions" ("next right after the florists" she said pointing left), instead the section that says something along the lines of "a couple for most people, with a glug of water, try not to choke" is labelled "How to take it". To which I can only reply [only in my head of course]: Take it like a man.

Pathetic I know, but it amuses me when I have to get up while it's still dark.

What else was there?

Have I done someone's guide to photography? Excuse me while I have to look up whose it is and where I found it. It's not really a guide to photography, more a comparision of digital and film cameras. Which considering I want a digital camera that does everything film does, only this time I might actually know what it's doing, and it would be nice if it didn't shred everything along the way, and...
I don't know why I'm even getting into this - I can't afford a digital camera I'd want.
Discussion on 2Blowhards, via CC.

While I'm looking at City Comforts, David Sucher also links to a University of Michigan hosted site, which provides all sorts of funky maps depicting the US election results. Ok, so the cited image appears to make America into a false colour satellite image of an ice-flow, but still it doesn't make it look too bad [the blue Democrat areas appear to be breaking up in a sea of Republicanism]. Unless you happen to be Republican, which case it's libellous propaganda.

The Guardian are running a series of articles about China, or more specifically Shanghai, this week. I haven't read them all yet, although I found Monday's piece on the physical change of the city interesting.

Hmm, and strangely I have a .wma sitting on my desktop called GWBlues. I know I was downloading it from a blog, but I thought it had failed. Only now I can't remember whose blog it was. But playing it provides the key: Tobias Schwarz. That'll be Casino Avenue then. Or perhaps the FOE (that acronym intentional, if so whose foe?).

I have of course now got that song stuck in my head. But at least it's better than the song which has haunted me all week, which is some dance thing about "I can't wait for the weekend to begin", as played by Capital - We employ Dr Foxwit we do - FM, at about 10 am on a Monday.

And speaking of...I'm not sure which connection to follow here... one of my teachers was on Musicality. Bizarre. But she always was the [melo]dramatic one, who liked to be seen as all-singing and all-dancing. In other words, one of the worst teachers I've ever had, who apparently only got the job by claiming she had many wondrous skills which she then magically failed to use. And that's not even getting into the Cliff Richard tableclothage.

Anyway, in this program, she was one of the unnamed people, who happens to walk across camera, or be sitting in the middle of the background. Being an unnamed non-speaking part, she didn't get through. And rather cruelly, about the only time they showed an image focussed on her, it was spliced with one of the instructors making a comment about OAPs (the mere fact other people realised that she was probably the oldest there would have mortified her).

While researching links, the G has this piece on the launch of Firefox 1.0 [look Ma, no jumble of letters and numbers!]. You know how they were seeking funds for the full-page ad in the NYT? Well I think the Guardian just gave them a hefty chunk for free with an FP-linked article that sounds like an infomercial for Mozilla [and then falls into antiMSism].

I think that better be it for now.

Anyhoo,