Said entry is also pretending to be written by one of my heroes, Charlie Brooker. How can this have happened.
Bloody Goldfrapp
Today’s “tune I really wish I could get out of my head, even though I really rather like it” is Goldfrapp’s Number One, available in the iTunes Music Store and on Amazon. It’s really rather good and it makes you wonder why she’s been unknown for so long when she’s been putting stuff like this out for ages. Still, not as long as Pulp, hey?
Greek flash cards + week three of Spanish
I’ve added the complete set of flash cards for Instant Greek to the flash cards page – I figured I was going to need to revise my Greek, since it’s all fading into the mists of time at the moment.
I’ve also added flash cards for week three of Instant Spanish.
New program for your delight
I’ve added a new AppleScript to my programs page. Bulk Reply is a handy little script for sending a single reply to a set of emails you received. Select them in Entourage, activate the script and it’ll create an email addressed to the senders of the group you’ve selected. You get to choose whether they’ll be “To”, “cc” or “bcc” recipients.
It’s free, so if you have Entourage, there’s no reason not to use it – particularly if you get lots of emails from PRs…
Tasting tips
No blog yesterday because I went to an aperitif tasting at the Almeida in Islington. Yes, very swanky and chattering classes. Still, just to show I’m not betraying my Eltham heritage, I’d point out there’s not many places you can get five glasses of swish wine (Lillet, Nouilley Prat, a Muscat, a Kir and do you seriously think I’d remember the fifth one?) and five tapas for £15 a head?
Not sure how I got on their mailing list except I booked a table there once via Toptable.
Anyway, had a great time: met some nice people and had some good food and drink. In a weird “small world” sort of way, the couple we sat with were a former PR for GMTV whom I used to speak with when I was back on Televisual and the son-in-law of one of the main influential speech and language therapists ever, who pioneered work in dysfluency (my wife, Sarah, is a speech and language therapist, specialising in dysfluency).
So if you can get on their mailing list, do! They also offer French cooking classes: £75 a person and you get a four-course meal included. Bargain.
Who’s the most important? We are
I was at a wedding at the weekend. This is not too unusual for me: I’ve reached that time of life and I’m averaging three or four a year now.
But something’s been bothering me and perhaps someone could help me out here.
A wedding is the most important day in just about anyone’s life. Not only is it one of the few days dedicated purely to the happy couple, but it marks the beginning of a whole new life for them both. Then there’s the enormous expense of it all, with thousands of pounds being spent to make the day as enjoyable and as memorable as possible.
So answer me this: why is it that there is a peculiar class of person who attends weddings and thinks, “No, of all the people here, I am actually the most important of you all.”
I am, of course, talking about parents who bring their infants to weddings.
A day of success
Feeling quite chuffed with myself today. Helped someone fix a networked LocalTalk printer even though the LocalTalk connection was broken. Saved a magazine from putting a piece of software that wouldn’t work onto their cover CD (and worked out what the problem was for the developer!). And I got two potential new clients.
Right, off I’m off to learn some Spanish now.
SCHWIF2004 update
I’ve released an update to my completely free script SCHWIF2004, which lets Entourage users create complex HTML messages with inline files. Lots of bug fixes: hopefully even the jackals at Versiontracker should be pleased with it; I expect it’ll still be too much to ask them to tell me if they spot any bugs…
I hate them already
Not sure how many I know, but by the sounds of them, I hate Generation Y. Actually, I’m pretty sure I know a few, and they are annoying.
I suspect American Gen Yers are more tolerable than our ones, though, since they’re into volunteering and other laudable pastimes. Our lot seem to be in it for themselves.
But how do they afford it? In my day, bankruptcy and not having anywhere to live were the inevitable outcome of quitting jobs or not having jobs in the first place. I’d have liked to have found jobs that paid me so much for the three months I was working that I could swan off to Venezuela or wherever and not find myself sleeping on the streets when I got back and incapable of getting another job after such a career break. But maybe that’s my choice of career for you.
I must be getting old.
Orange incompetency
I really wanted Orange to be good. After T-Mobile, how could it be anything but better? But while T-Mobile may be harsh, it is efficient. Orange is incompetent.