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A lot of time on my hands - odd music videos
2007-02-06 01:02:22
Reggie Watts: Out Of Control on Vimeo
Animation Rocks
2007-01-21 01:01:04
There I am, casually reading New Scientist - there's an interview with a brain surgeon who's written a book (which sounds very interesting, by the way). Photo of the nice lady like so...
... and, unbidden, comes the thought "you can operate on my brain any day". Is that so wrong?
More movies! Animation rocks! (There was a better version on Google Video but it's gone now - moral of the story? Download while it's still there. Squirrel squirrel squirrel).
Totally math! Rhombus!
I think I may spend too much time watching Channel Frederator in the future, hmm. Favourite so far? See below - if you're not a fan of Jamiroquai then skip that video and go to about 8 minutes in for Fuggy Fuggy!
Media of the day: Katrina Firlik - Another Day In The Frontal Lobe
Adem and others at the Roundhouse
2007-01-17 00:01:10
I believe I've previously raved about the Roundhouse in London as being a cool venue. Totally re-affirmed at Zero Degrees of Separation last Saturday, this time converted to a seated venue (which I wasn't expecting). Zero Degrees was a collaboration between Adem (the reason I thought I'd go), Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver and Juana Molina which was less "four bands are playing today" and more "four bands are on stage at the moment". It was lots of impressive, even when still kinda hungover. You can pick up four free tracks here until the end of January or you can watch my somewhat-crappy video here. 30 second reviews? Adem as ever brilliant but did take a more backseat role on this occasion. I shall make time to see Juana Molina's brand of one-woman folktronica again if she makes it back to the area. I shall be poking the laid back sounds of Vetiver's CD with an aurul stick. Vashti, although commanding the most respect from the others, is too straight folk for my tastes.
The Comic Showcase is closing (about two weeks left now). I know Alastair has mentioned this previously but I thought I'd jump on the band-wagon. I was in there today rummaging around the graphic novels (30% off!) for anything that I didn't have but knew I'd want and was privy to a short conversation between the current owner and the new owners of Swin City (it's a horrible name!) about the state of the market and how they were doing in Swindon. The upshot is - they're doing fine, thank you very much! From the comments I've picked up from comic-interested guys around Oxford, the main reason the Comic Showcase is closing is because it's not kept up with what people want and never projected anything close to a 'geek-chic' or even 'friendly' atmosphere.
So... Can a comic shop exist in Oxford? With interested staff and more interaction with the customer? How is the comic industry not yet on the internet?
Media of the day: Adem - Love and Other Planets; Vetiver; Juana Molina - Segundo; Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day
Laughing at photos, videos and charities (no, wait)
2007-01-15 00:43:00
New photo albums are available on PicasaWeb - The first half of the millions I took at Alastair's housewarming party (with all the R's) and my photos from the Christmas meal of doom. At some point I'll put the other half of the R party online - the suspense! Also, for those who hadn't noticed, Sarah has uploaded her pics of the meal of doom and new year on Facebook.
I came across a local charity that hadn't entered my awareness previously - the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign. I didn't even know that new building at the JR was a children's hospital! Although paltry in the face of how much they need to raise, I shall be flinging some cash towards them next month - partly because I think it's a worthy cause and partly because their website address has 'chox' in it, my ancient web address of yore. Ah, vanity.
Something interesting? Unbelievable almost?
[...] extraordinary 1962 outbreak of contagious laughter in a girls' boarding school in Tanzania. The first symptoms appeared on January 30, when three girls got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. The symptoms quickly spread to 95 students, forcing the school to close on March 18. The girls sent home from the school were vectors for the further spread of the epidemic. Related outbreaks occurred in other schools in Central Africa and spread like wildfire, ceasing two-and-a-half years later and afflicting nearly 1,000 people.
I'd heard of this before, so sought slightly better mention than an aside in New Scientist - an article on Psychology Today provided more information. Very interesting, my favourite parts of the article below:
Even the most humorous of the 1,200 comments that preceded laughter weren't necessarily howlers: "You don't have to drink, just buy us drinks!" and "Was that before or after I took my clothes off?." being two of my favorites. This suggests that the critical stimulus for laughter is another person, not a joke.
When Karl Grammar and Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt studied spontaneous conversations between mixed-sex pairs of young German adults meeting for the first time, they noted that the more a woman laughed aloud during these encounters, the greater her self-reported interest in the man she was talking to. In the same vein, men were more interested in women who laughed heartily in their presence. [...] The laughter of the female, not the male, is the critical index of a healthy relationship. Guys can laugh or not, but what matters is that women get their yuks in.
So what can I give you to make you laugh (or just look on in stunned disbelief)? How about a laughing toy on fire?
Media of the day: Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
Happy New Year
2007-01-02 02:01:10
Happy New Year, Gentle Reader. Have some capitalisation.
Inevitably, when blogging around the beginning of January the subject of resolutions will come up. Probably the first place to look is in my "life goals" file and see what I've written there before. Hmm, first created August 2004 and last modified at the beginning of 2005 - then, as far as I can tell, completely ignored! What useful tidbits does it have for us...
"Get[ting] back to reality for the moment, world control is out of the question". Useful Rob, very useful. Looking down the list I see a that 6 out of the 20 goals I've managed to score a half-point and two that I've completely managed at some point. Put it like that, it doesn't sound too bad - way to go Rob, woo yeah!
Tomorrow I rewrite that list with new goals for my life - what's important to me now? Now that I have balls to roll, how can I get them start moving? (erm, the analogy kind of works). What do you call one of those questions you don't expect the answer to?
Yup.
On a completely different topic, I received a lot of mid-range audio gear this christmas (I'd count it as mid-range, I'm sure others with disagree). Music sounds sooo much better it's something I should have done ages ago - gone is muddy, now at platform 1 is the 12:45 to clarity. The particular speakers to now grace my desk are the jbl Creature II ones - they even look funky:
Niiice. Although that little light doesn't turn off with my computer which is irritating. If I wanted a night-light I'd have a night-light.
While plugging in new speakers I had a thought about high-range audio equipment that runs a little like this: Do people who can tell high-range equipment apart have broken ears and brains? Our brains are capable of filtering the noise from the signal - it's what makes us capable of surviving each day and not melting in a pool of sensory overload - so if you can tell the difference, is some part of your signal processing basically falling down?
It's been a wordy one today - I'll leave you with the following photo that I found in the archives. I quite like it. (Fullsize on Picasaweb).
Media of the day: Creature II Speakers; R.E.M. - Reveal (ooh, the memories of 2001 and coach trips to Southampton)
Video duet
2006-12-29 01:12:38
Videos for your delectation.
(yes, you will need sound).
From the amusing You Know You Want It Productions:
How about some fantastic whiteboard animation?
Mr Robot is out!
Media of the day: Johnny Cash - At Fulsom Prison
Belated Christmasses all round
2006-12-26 18:12:52
Merry Christmas oh readers of Uber-Rob.
I trust you all had a good time - your livers still intact, your families untouched by hammer or fist, your stockings full of groovy items, your food tasty, yourselves generally recharged a bit. For the Rob it's back to work tomorrow (ho hum, I pay now for my August extravagances) and the events that that will entail. Luckily just the two days but two days of extreme busy-ness!
New Year's resolutions... I hope that this week I can make some actual, real steps towards what I want to do this next year and if you don't see me doing it you all have permission to beat me with big sticks.
Look - I have smaller siblings! (They have iPods 'cos I r0x)
Although your liver's in jar...
2006-12-18 01:01:33
... your body is in the pub.
All our HL bodies are in the pub and eating sausages!
Whoops, my plans for catching up with all my New Scientists has been scuppered by Y: The Last Man and Cloud Atlas. We like both - Cloud Atlas for it's broken style and dark futures, Y for playing around (in a non-sleazy way) with what must be the most common fantasy ever (I suppose it's "lesbians!!" on steroids). Do I use too many brackets?
Something interesting happened to the sun about a week ago. If you follow science or tech news sources you may have seen this already (sorry).
It took me a little while for the scale of that shockwave to sink in... sci-fi movies were rights with their explosions! So the second interesting thing is this: scientists (generic) can "see" the other side of the sun. That's incredibly clever.
RIP, Professor Rodney Needham.
Media of the day: Cloud Atlas; Y: The Last Man
xkcd - A New Daily Read!
2006-12-12 12:12:07
A Slashdot article today pointed me towards a new webcomic. I'd seen it a couple of times but I decided to have more of a poke around tonight (obviously because I have nothing better to do!). It's called xkcd (I don't know) and it's brilliant. Gently nerdy but warm and fuzzy too... Go and have a look - be prepared for maths jokes, romance jokes, surreal jokes, strange doodles and even arty yo' momma jokes. Great!
Only yesterday I was re-reading the Alastair's Page of Fun archive. Where's our Oxford webcomic, huh?
In other news, I bought Regina Spektor tickets - she's really rather spiffing live and the Town Hall will be a beautiful venue for her - I plan on camping on the balcony! Buy tickets and join me!
Helen back tomorrow, hurrah.
I'd rather be a zombie
2006-12-09 01:12:52
What a week! Pretty unpleasant all round, I think we can agree. So what have I to lighten the load?
Well, no Onion any more - I haven't laughed at anything there for months so I've finally stopped reading it. It's a landmark moment.
OK, so how about a fantastic idea? Like builing Godzilla in Tokyo? Yay! That's better. OK, keeping with the theme of monsters - let's let Cthulhu out!
I want one! Can't wait for next year.
