diamond geezer

Thursday, February 20, 2003

The retail therapy project (Phase 2) (additional guidance)

There's £100 to spend on something electrical or gadgety for my birthday present... but on what?
A little background reading for those of you who have still to make up your mind.

Here's my 10 current favourite electrical/gadgety things:

1) Sony NWMS9 Memory Stick Walkman: Ahhh, now I can download 2 hours 40 minutes of ace music of my choice into something small and shiny that fits dead easily into my pocket. This gadget has improved my tube journeys no end, allowing me to travel to work lost somewhere inside headphone world. Just so long as I remember not to start singing along in public.

2) Dell Dimension 4400 computer: OK, so it may not be the most glamorous PC in the world, but it works, it works well, and it gets me online to talk to you lot. And yes Apple fans, I know it's not a fashion icon like your white designer slab of technological wet dream, but I do sometimes like to be slightly conventional.

3) Sony Ericsson T68 mobile: My phone's a year old this week, so it's not exactly cutting edge any more, but at least it's had the upgrade so it thinks it's a T68i instead. Colour screen, WAP-enabled (whatever happened to WAP?) and a rather smart Arsenal background. One day I must learn to use it for something other than text messaging and playing patience.

4) Sony Cybershot-U DSC U10: Good to know that, should aliens ever land in Piccadilly Circus, I can whip my camera out, snap a few megapixels, upload the scoop of the century onto my PC and publish it on my blog. Assuming the aliens haven't zapped me dead first using their favourite gadget, of course.

5) Sony CDP-CX235 200-Disc Megastorage CD Player: When your CD collection exceeds 200, it's great to have the black-box equivalent of a jukebox to play them all in. Of course, if your CD collection really exceeds 200, it's still tough to decide which discs to leave out. I've set my black box permanently on completely random play, so it chucks up gem after gem after 'oh God, is that in my CD collection?' after gem.

6) Hewlett Packard Officejet G55 printer: Go back 25 years and photocopiers were fridge-sized smelly boxes that produced grubby A4 documents printed in grey at an angle, and you might just have seen one in an office. Now I have one in my own home that's small, accurate, clean and prints in colour. I believe it's also a fax machine, but I have yet to try getting that to work.

7) Pure Digital EVOKE-1 digital radio: It sounds better than it looks but, at last for under £100, perfect quality wireless. It took two months to find a shop that actually had one in stock, but now at last I can listen to more than just the five BBC stations, cheesy commercial drivel, geriatric phone-ins and amateur interfering local pirates. Top 3 favourite digital stations so far: BBC 6music, Ministry of Sound and XFM.

8) Philips 28PW6615 television: It's big and it's silver. It's also widescreen which means it has 20% extra TV picture, except that nothing ever happens along the edge of the screen so I'm still not sure why I bothered. Ah, if only my TV aerial could deliver the pixel-perfect picture quality of my television I'd be delighted.

9) ITV Digital box: Since the advent of Freeview my viewing pleasure has happily increased, for no additional money. I can watch TV Travel Shop. I can watch QVC. I can watch CBeebies. Thankfully there are a few other channels that are actually worth watching.

10) Oregon Scientific Projection Clock: I'm the kind of person who likes to know exactly what the time is to the second, and not just that the big hand is somewhere down the right-hand side of the dial. That's why I still wear a digital watch, whereas the trendier amongst you prefer an inaccurate but more fashion-conscious analogue bracelet. This radio-controlled clock satisfies my need for accuracy, plus it projects the time onto my bedroom ceiling so that even the myopic can be certain what time it is at twenty seven minutes past two in the morning, precisely.

That's 10 gadgets I already own.
Hopefully there's plenty of scope for you to nominate something I haven't yet got.
Maybe even something I might like...

You should nominate my £100-ish birthday electrical gadgety thing by posting a comment in the comments box below, or by email. Tell me the name of your nominated thing, and if possible a price and a website I can see/buy it on. All nominations to be received by midnight next Tuesday 25th February. Full details below.

posted 00:03 :

The Count: 1370 228 69 11 14 28 93 78 55 0

posted 00:01 :

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

The retail therapy project (phase 2)

I have set aside exactly £100 of my own money to buy myself a birthday present.
I'm asking you, the readers of diamond geezer, to tell me what exactly what to spend that £100 on.

Phase 1 of the project (select the category for the £100 birthday present) is now complete. Many thanks for all your votes (all thirty-something of them). I'm pleased to announce that the votes from the blogland jury are as follows:

   Books - nul points
   Clothing - un point
   Travel - trois points
   Videos/DVDs - quatre points
   Other - quatre points
   Music - quatre points
   Home furnishings - neuf points (suspiciously high number of votes for that yesterday!)
   Electrical/gadgets - dix points

And so, as the returning officer for this project, I do hereby declare that Electrical/gadgets has been elected as the category from which my birthday present will be chosen. Should be possible to blow £100 on that quite easily...

The two remaining project stages are:
• Phase 2 (until midnight Tuesday 25th February): nominate possible presents within the chosen category.
• Phase 3 (until midnight Tuesday 4th March): vote to choose my £100 birthday present.
...which still gives me a few days before the weekend to go out and buy whatever it is you finally select.

Phase 2 of the project (nominate possible presents within the chosen category) is now open.
Your nominations are invited. Think of something electrical or gadgety that you reckon I really shouldn't live without, maybe because you can't. The thing you nominate should cost in the order of £100, but I reckon I might be willing to go a bit over £100 for the right thing. Be creative - I'm sure you will be - but not too creative, OK? ;o)

Tomorrow I'll post a bit more information here on the sorts of electrical gadgety type things I already own, in case that helps, so you don't have to decide on your choice today.

You can nominate my birthday electrical gadgety thing by posting a comment in the comments box below, or by email. Tell me the name of your nominated thing, and if possible a price and a website I can see/buy it on. All nominations to be received by midnight next Tuesday 25th February. And next Wednesday I'll announce the list of nominations, narrow that down to something manageable, and ask you to start voting for your preferred present.

Please nominate. My retail therapy depends on you.

posted 00:28 :

The Count: 1282 218 66 10 14 28 88 74 51 0

posted 00:27 :

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

I couldn't possibly comment...

The Haloscan comments system is down.
It's been down for far too long.
This means it's impossible to leave comments on certain people's blogs at the moment.
This means there's a lot I'd like to say but I can't.
So I thought I'd say it here instead.

My ace life (13:04 17 Feb 03): As I think I said here, I have no hope of ever growing a beard, for which I remain thankful. Course, it means I have to buy my own sandpaper, and I have to leave the office at lunchtimes to buy food rather than just pick it out of my chin, but I can live with that for the additional time that not shaving gives me in bed each morning.

By A Woman (18:23 18 Feb 03): You're the lucky one. I've never had a fanciable doctor who made my heart miss a beat. I've got through six different dentists in the last ten years, but none of them have had nostrils worth looking up. Even when a BT engineer's had to come round for a fix, they've never sparked. I therefore reckon you should continue to consult your new Dr Luuuuurve while you can, before Holby City signs him up for his looks.

London calling (11:10 17 Feb 03): An excellent link, well spotted.

Volume 22 (10:28 16 Feb 03): Most people seem to think that Google buying Blogger will be a 'good' thing. Today the Guardian newspaper even featured blogging in its editorial leader column. We're going mainstream...

Diamond Geezer (07:00 17 Feb 03): I noticed on Monday morning that Ken Livingstone's congestion charge had miraculously reduced road traffic levels to school half-term holiday levels. Then I realised that there was probably another very good reason for that...

posted 19:27 :

The retail therapy project (end of Phase 1)

There's still £100 to spend on my birthday present... but which category would you choose?
(a) Music, (b) Books, (c) Video/DVDs, (d) Electrical/gadgets, (e) Home furnishings, (f) Clothing, (g) Travel, (h) Other.

Today's the last day for you to cast your vote for your chosen category. A final reminder that you can cast your vote by visiting this special online survey site (select survey number 3905) (go on, go on, go on go on go on go on go on), or by posting a comment in the comments box below (assuming Haloscan ever get up and running again), or by email, any time beween now and midnight GMT. Full details here.

posted 07:00 :

The Count: 1202 209 63 10 13 23 84 68 46 0

posted 00:36 :

Monday, February 17, 2003

Congestion Charging

Blogging is a rapidly increasing global activity, but huge increases in online traffic are in danger of bringing the information superhighway to a halt. Every day large numbers of bored office workers attempt to log onto their favourite blog websites, creating lengthy queues and gridlock across the internet. Average download speeds on many websites are now under 10kb per second throughout the working day.

To tackle this problem, diamond geezer has decided to introduce congestion charging on this website. It is hoped that by discouraging people from entering Central Blogland, traffic will be increased on other periforal webpages, to the benefit of all. As of today, a £5 daily congestion charge will help to get diamond geezer moving. It will reduce traffic, making downloads more reliable, and save hundreds of wasted working hours each week.

The diamond geezer congestion charge applies from 10am to 12 midnight, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. The charge does not apply at weekends. Evidence from statistics suggests that these are the times during which page access overload is at its peak. By redistributing blog visits to quieter times such as 4am GMT, the congestion charge will ease traffic conditions for insomniacs and Americans, if for nobody else.

You can pay the congestion charge either in advance or on the day of your visit. The charge is £5 if you pay by midnight on the day of your visit. Payment of the congestion charge allows you to enter, click around, and leave the charging blog as many times as you wish that day. There are some exemptions and discounts, for which regular readers should apply by email.

If you are due to pay and don't, a Penalty Charge Notice will be issued. Tracking software will be used to read your IP address as you enter the congestion charging zone and check it against our database. Following a final check at midnight, the computer will track the IP addresses of readers that should have paid but have not done so. We will then issue a Penalty Charge Notice of £80 to the unregistered viewer. Failure to pay the penalty charge within 28 days will result in the penalty being increased to £120.

You should pay the diamond geezer congestion charge right here on this site.
Please enter your full bank account details below.

Congestion charging - you know it makes ~~money~~ ~~chaos~~ sense.

posted 07:00 :

The Count: 1111 199 60 9 13 23 76 64 42 0

posted 00:01 :

Sunday, February 16, 2003

The Unknown East End

I spent this afternoon walking the streets of the East End. I wrapped up warm and joined the London Walks guided tour of the Unknown East End. Fascinating stuff. A rabble gathers outside Whitechapel tube station at 2pm every Sunday afternoon, waits for the guide to make him/herself known, pays a fiver, then sets off to hear about the real history of the area. It's one of many tours this company does and, after today, I'm tempted to go on a few more (but maybe only when it's a bit warmer).

Some things I learnt about the East End this afternoon:
• Jack the Ripper's first victim, Polly Nicholls, was taken to a police mortuary that's now a McDonalds.
• Mile End is so called because London's Jews were once forbidden to live within one mile of the City of London.
• When Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell in the eye in the Blind Beggar pub, the record 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More' was stuck on the jukebox.
• John Merrick, the 'Elephant Man', was exhibited as a freak on the Whitechapel Road until he was rescued by a compassionate local surgeon.
• Winston Churchill attended the Siege of Sidney Street, a famous shootout ending in the jewellery robbers' hideout burning to the ground.
• Joseph Stalin lived for three months at the gothic Tower House in Fieldgate Street, now boarded up and ripe for redevelopment.
• William Booth founded the Salvation Army in Whitechapel to fight the social injustice of Victorian times.
• The Liberty Bell was cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, so I guess it's also their fault that it cracked.

posted 23:00 :

Blimey: Google buys Blogger!
Prepare for blog world to discuss nothing else for at least a week.

posted 13:13 :

The Count: 1045 191 56 8 12 23 71 62 42 0

posted 05:40 :

Saturday, February 15, 2003

The Stop The War demo - your handy cut-out-and-march guide to the route

March A starts on the Embankment, not that far from:
• Bank station, where 117 civilians lost their lives in a direct hit from a German bomb in 1941.
• Monument, built to remember the firestorm that destroyed the capital in 1666.
• Cleopatra's Needle, a Middle-Eastern artefact deported miles from its cultural home.
• The Crimea Memorial, cast from Russian cannons captured at the Battle of Sebastopol.

The march passes through Parliament Square and up Whitehall, past statues to:
• Oliver Cromwell, instigator of a bloody civil war in Stuart times.
• Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, the celebrated desert fighter of World War Two.
• The Cenotaph, national memorial to the millions killed in World War One.

On through Trafalgar Square, home to:
• Nelson's Column, erected in honour of the admiral killed in battle while defeating the Spanish.
• Sir Henry Havelock, veteran of the first Indian mutiny and served in wars against Burma and Afghanistan.
• Sir Charles Napier, leader of the conquest of the hill tribes of Sindh, now part of Pakistan.
• Admiralty Arch, once home to the offices of the British Empire's all-conquering naval forces.

Meanwhile March B has passed by:
• Tottenham Court Road station, where a huge underground shelter was built in 1942 to protect Londoners during air raids.
• Eros, the famous statue of the Greek god of love, and therefore a bit out of place in this list.

The two marches join at Piccadilly Circus and proceed to Hyde Park, passing close to:
• The Wellington Arch, built to celebrate the Duke's defeat of the French at the battle of Waterloo.
• Marble Arch station, hit by a German bomb during the Blitz in 1940, killing 17 Londoners sheltering there.
• Tyburn, site of public executions for petty criminals and dissenters for over 600 years.

posted 11:10 :

The Count (update)

• Count 1 (blog visitors = 966) ...which is still about 65 a day, and rapidly approaching a grand total.
• Count 2 (google searches = 176) ...with diamond geezer still top of my searched-for list.
• Count 3 (blog content = 52) ...halfway through the month, and just over half of my allocated blogspace used up.
• Count 4 (spam = 8) ...which has increased eightfold over the last week (but still only one spam a day).
• Count 5 (nights out = 11) ...not quite as out as last week, but still more out than in.
• Count 6 (alcohol intake = 23) ...so, if I've not been out drinking quite so much alcohol this week...
• Count 7 (tea intake = 67) ...I must have upped my tea count. Anyone fancy a brew?
• Count 8 (trains used = 55) ...this week including rather too many unpleasantly cattle-truck-like commutes.
• Count 9 (escalators walked up = 40) ...which is now the equivalent of walking to the top of the Empire State Building.
• Count 10 (mystery count = 0) ...and still nothing to count, so maybe you're getting the hang of this one now. I am.

Three things the zero-rated mystery count could be, but isn't:
• number of Valentine cards/emails/texts received.
• number of journeys taken on the Central Line.
• number of matches Arsenal have lost.

posted 02:22 :

Friday, February 14, 2003

The Curse of VD

Valentine's Day has come round again. It's a source of some comfort in my life that I am likely to experience less than a hundred of them.

I've only ever received three genuine Valentine cards, one of which I so didn't want, and the other two of which I thought I wanted but I turned out to have thought wrong. My brother, on the other hand, has received hundreds of cards over the years on February 14th, but that'd be because today is his birthday (HB2U). Always makes it very difficult trying to buy him a birthday card though, because half the floorspace of every card shop in the country has been replaced by a red and pink Lurve Zone for the last month.

Today's a very tough day to be coupled. You have to buy an appropriate present for your loved one that's at least as good as the present they've bought you, without being so good that it puts their attempt to shame. You have to buy the right card that's just the right mix of cute, fluffy and sincere, and send the right text message that's not too serious but not too frivolous. And you have to remember to buy everything before today, otherwise you find the card shop is packed the but the florists is empty. Get anything wrong and next year you'll be single.

Today's also a very tough day to be single. Nobody wakes you in the morning with a single red rose or a champagne breakfast. You get to watch other people at work eating Belgian chocolates all day while listening to them discussing their oh-so perfect partners. And this year Valentine's Day and Friday night coincide, so everyone I could be going out on the town with tonight is going out with each other instead. I hope London's restaurants have enough tables for two to cope with the demand. Maybe I should book a reservation now for next year, just in case?

posted 07:00 :

The Big Count: The 2001 Census figures are just out, and even the non-Jedi parts are strangely fascinating. Of the 376 boroughs in England and Wales, I've discovered I live in the most un-Christian of the lot, the third fastest growing, and the fifth most crowded. We're bottom of the home ownership league, third lowest for owning a car but definitely in the Top 10 for single people. Nice to know that, for round here, I'm almost average.

The Count: 887 164 49 7 10 16 60 49 35 0

posted 06:30 :

Thursday, February 13, 2003

The retail therapy project (additional guidance)

There's £100 to spend on my birthday present... but on what?
A little background reading for those of you who have still to make up your mind.

(a) Music: I'm getting a bit better at buying albums. I even bought a new one yesterday, though that's not as common as you might think. If this category gets chosen next week, I guess it'll have the smallest impact on my retail habits, but it'd be fascinating to see what records you think my collection is lacking.
(b) Books: I don't read enough books, mainly because I choose to use my daily commuting time reading a newspaper instead. I guess, like the previous category, it'd take a lot of books to total £100, but you could always prove me wrong on that.
(c) Video/DVDs: My entire video collection currently totals well under £100, and you'll remember I'm currently DVD-less. Very abnormal. However, the DVD situation may all be about to change, so voting for this category might help kickstart something completely fresh in my life.
(d) Electrical/gadgets: Quite a broad category, but there's a lot of scope for an interesting £100 purchase in a few weeks time. My favourite gadget at the moment remains my personal mp3 player. It makes daily commuting strangely enjoyable, not least for the other people standing on the platform watching me enjoying the music...
(e) Home furnishings: I live in a rented furnished flat and I'm not allowed to stick things on my walls, so that may restrict this category somewhat. However, you could cause me serious inner personal trauma by forcing me down to IKEA for my retail experience.
(f) Clothing: Plenty of scope here to blow £100 on something hip, expensive and unnecessary. I tend to buy most of my clothes in sales, but (lest you think I'm a complete cheapskate) never from George at Asda, never from charity shops, and never anything in brown corduroy.
(g) Travel: What, leave London? You must be kidding! OK, so I have ventured a bit further than £100 could take me already this year, but if you do select this category, please make sure you allow me to buy a return ticket.
(h) Other: Could be anything this (except, obviously, music, books, videos etc). At least three people have already voted for 'other', so they clearly have something specific in mind. We'll see what happens should this get selected.

A reminder that you can cast your vote by visiting this special online survey site (select survey number 3905), or by posting a comment in the comments box below, or by email, any time between now and next Tuesday. Further details below.

posted 00:05 :

The Count: 793 144 45 6 10 16 53 45 31 0

posted 00:01 :

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

The retail therapy project

It's my birthday in just under a month's time. Birthdays are of course a time for presents, except that at my age (ie over 12) you don't tend to get given that many birthday presents any more. So, I've decided it would be a very good idea to buy myself a birthday present. However, I am rubbish at shopping. I think we established that yesterday. I never can spend money on myself, which will of course be a major stumbling block in trying to buy my own birthday present. So I've come up with this plan to ask you lot to help me out...

I have set aside exactly £100 of my own money to buy myself a birthday present.
I'm asking you, the readers of diamond geezer, to tell me what exactly what to spend that £100 on.

The plan (100% genuine, honest) for the next three weeks goes like this:
• Phase 1 (until midnight Tuesday 18th February): select the category for the £100 birthday present.
• Phase 2 (until midnight Tuesday 25th February): nominate possible presents within the chosen category.
• Phase 3 (until midnight Tuesday 4th March): vote to choose my £100 birthday present.
...and that gives me a few days before the weekend to go out and buy whatever it is you finally select.

Phase 1 of the project (selection of birthday present category) is now open.
You are invited to choose one of the following categories. Just pick a letter...
(a) Music
(b) Books
(c) Video/DVDs
(d) Electrical/gadgets
(e) Home furnishings
(f) Clothing
(g) Travel
(h) Other

You can cast your vote by visiting this special online survey site (select survey number 3905), or by posting a comment in the comments box below, or by email, or just tell me your choice should we happen to meet in the street. This week just a letter is needed, and only one vote per person please (yeah, like I'm going to be able to check up on that one). All votes to be received by midnight next Tuesday 18th February. And next Wednesday I'll announce the winning category and ask you to start nominating possible presents within that category.

Please vote. My retail therapy depends on you.

posted 00:05 :

The Count: 710 127 42 4 9 16 46 41 27 0

posted 00:01 :

<< click for Newer posts

click for Older Posts >>

click to return to the main page