I’ve noticed a large number of (often quite bad) pubs recently getting a very superficial makeover, being decked out with black and gold trim and a new nameplate. Why’s this happening? Anyone know? The Globe, on Marylebone Road, the Stage Door and the Bag of Nails in Victoria are a few that I’ve noticed…
All posts by Armand
Mama receives an award
My mum won a prize for her doctoral thesis, “Language Shift amongst the Sindhis of Malaysia”, and received the award today. There was a live webcast which we managed to catch part of before work, very proudly, during the course of which she received a fantastic introduction and delivered a great speech, including an overview of her thesis. Many of my family were present (if the replay becomes available, you’ll see my Dad taking a bow for his role in supporting Mama ;-))
Congrats Ma!
The gentlemans’ club
Pleased as I am with Soho house, I kind of like the idea of old school social club, like Phoenix Nights, or those places with old men playing pool in Stoke Newington. How do you get involved in that sort of thing? Where are those clubs?
I need somewhere else good to play pool, that isn’t the Elbow Room*… And maybe jam. Like Buena Vista.
* not that there’s anything wrong with that. But variety, y’know?
I Joost don’t know what to do with myself
So, first impressions of Joost.
It’s pretty. A very slick application, transparent, dissolving menus, simple, intuitive menu overlays and EPG.
The quality is ok. I guess not everyone can have 8-16 meg broadband to support HD content (the UK’s average is around 2 meg at the moment)… suspect this could come in time. On my 22″ monitor, its a little fuzzy. The TV content isn’t all the same size either; they could add VLC’s ‘crop’ function to make all the content as full screen as possible depending on the picture orientation. That’d be nice.
It’s a little jittery. For me, anyway. Despite my ludicrous broadband connection I found a couple of channels (GameStar and Green Day) had a couple of pauses during the segments of the programmes I was watching.
The content, is, erm, lacking. Don’t seem to be too many channels natively, and my limited surfing isn’t unveiling a lot at the moment. But there’s probably a way to access everything on YouTube or something, so I’m clearly missing something. And its a beta, anyway, so good chance more will come before a public launch. The search function is pretty good.
It’s pretty interactive. The ‘My Joost’ button will make watching random TV channels at home alone an oddly kind of social. Not really my thing, but, hey, I see the value. I love the random pop quiz questions that seem to be coming up around the music videos.
I already wish: there was an easier way to channel surf. That I could blog directly from Joost, embedding videos accordingly. That there was a way to ‘favourite’ videos (just found the ratings widget. And all the other widgets. Gosh this is good).
And that’s it for now. More to come if it occurs to me.
I got Joost, babe
My invite to the new net TV system from the Skype folk came through – yay! It’s installed and currently fighting with Vista (although a quick Google indicates there are no fundamental incompatibilities)… When I get it working you can expect reports.
The Killers: alternative lyrics
Went to a gig tonight and we got to thinking what alternative lyrics the Killers went through before they came up with the ever memorable “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier…”
Suggestions:
I’ve got to bowl, but I’m not a boulder
I’ve got Lou, but I’m not a loser
I’ve got a boil, but I’m not a boiler
I’ve got a foal, but I’m not a folder
Any more for any more?
Everyone else has got more links than me
To the tune of
Everyone else has got more links than me
ohhh ohhh
Everyone else has got more links than me
ohhh ohhh
Everyone else has got more links than me
Does anyone else get that feeling?
Scary duck, Scoble, Gaping Void;
Everyone’s on Technorati;
Everyone else has got more links than me
ohhh ohhh
Everyone else has got more links than me
ohhh ohhh
Silly anecdotes and big tech news;
Talk about it and they’ll talk about you
But whenever I ego surf
I’m not in the top one mill…
Everyone else has got more links than me
ohhh ohhh
Everyone else has got more links than me
ohhh ohhh
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everybody else
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone
Does Everyone link?
Please submit alternate/better lyrics ;-) – I’m clearly in a parody mood. Tom and Chris provided the inspiration for this one. Apologies to the genius that is TISM.
Star Wars pop
I mis-heard something Tom said last night and thought it might make a great pop song. Sadly someone had already beat me to it.
Don’t blame it on the sublight
don’t blame it on the nav guide
don’t blame it on the fuel line
blame it on the Wookiee
Geekily brilliant, and better than I could have done.
OMG I’ve joined Facebook! Lolz
I don’t know if there’s any point to this, but I’m on there. People have pointed out to me that I’m probably in touch with most of the people I want to be in touch with but I’ve decided, for some reason, to sign up in any case. I could be wrong; Twitter seemed pointless but I love that now…
Add me if you know me! My profile is here.
Soho House application advice
I’ve recently been accepted to membership at Soho House, a belated birthday present from my parents. The youth (Under 27) membership is good value and I’m looking forward to making use of the free screenings I’m entitled to, amongst other things.
I’d like to share, though, the ’25 words about myself’ that helped me obtain said membership. It’s not against the club by-laws to publish these (I’ve checked) and I think they were inspired. Of course, I didn’t write them: I really dislike those self-reflective, inane personality profiles. I wrote to a few friends and asked them how they’d describe me in 25 words. Matt, of course, wrote an expletive down 25 times, but Rach was inspired. She had three drafts for me, of which I chose:
Armand is much like David Hasselhoff. He’s not cool now, but he may be in 25 years. In Germany, anyway
There you have it. Me in the proverbial nutshell.