belisarius_534

Borders - the last act

2009-12-19T13:32:50Z

I popped into Borders last night, to pick over the corpse of a once powerful store. Sad really, but huge bargains to be had. Everything I bought was 60-70% off RRP. Lots of people are getting books for Christmas this year! A lot of stuff had gone, but there were still bargains to be had in the specialist sections (inc. history, sci-fi, travel..).

I believe they are trading until Tuesday, so get down there if you get the chance.

timing is everything

2009-12-18T15:08:55Z

Today I got an invitation to submit a paper to a pretty good journal special edition. This is good in the brownie points stakes and I'm quite happy about it. Sadly it comes exactly 24hrs too late to count for this year's performance review, in the 'measures of esteem' section...

Of entertaining, being entertained and consumption

2009-12-13T16:49:12Z

On Friday night, we were visited by Russ & Joy, for an evening of food, booze and board games. Yesterday was the fantastic Swedish Jul celebration at Linette and Dan's with excellent food, rum & raisin marzipan chocolate, Glogg and other goodness.

Today we had my brother's family to visit, so cooked a huge roast gammon dinner. Mmm good, but again I am stuffed.

So..

2009-12-08T13:09:13Z

So, what's been going on in the world of Mike?

I had a good trip to Switzerland and the experiments went reasonably well although the different bits of the beamline didn't work perfectly together. Looking at the data now, it might be a nice publishable result. I left some suggestions which they are going to implement for next time. The exchange rate prevented too much shopping (e.g. £4.50 for a cappuccino at the airport...) but I did of course bring back chocolate for C.

At the weekend we headed down Giant's Hole. This was the second choice cave after our recce of the first choice found the entrance climb down to contain a raging torrent after all the rain. Giant's provided plenty of entertainment without too much crawling. Most interesting was the unroped canyon traverse, with one foot either side (alternatively bum on one side, feet on the other) of a deep, narrow drop. Particularly exciting was the narrowing point which short people were going through head first. I was put off by the large drop under my nose so reverted to a feet first approach with additional bum wedging.

Back to the lab this week. The crazy discussions with the boss of a while back seem to have been erased by revisionist history (politicians, huh) so I'm cracking on with research. Today we are fighting with the Bastard, as I like to call the EPR spectrometer with liquid helium attachment. It looks like the delay will be sufficient to postpone things until tomorrow, so I can get to tonight's game without working late.

Switzerland

2009-12-03T10:30:53Z

Switzerland is going well so far. The journey was as efficient as ever due to the Swiss actually having an integrated public transport system - Airport arrivals to airport station, train to Brugg, opposite side of the platform is the bus stop etc..

We don't actually start the experiments until 6pm tonight, but have come over to loiter in the accelerator hall anyway as i failed to lie in beyond 9am. A wrong number from a German at 2am was unwanted.

Off to walk into the nearest town now, I think...

Ski Splurge!

2009-11-28T11:58:23Z

After going to Decathlon last night to 'buy a ski helmet and look at some boots' I ended up with helmet, boots and skis, all at big discounts. The skis were a lot better than the ranges I was looking at, but were less than half price due to being last year's model...

Of course, all of this stuff goes straight on the list of presents for family members to contribute to..

Outraged of Northwich

2009-11-27T12:58:45Z

I was appalled this morning at watching a discussion on homeopathy on breakfast TV. There was a story this week about someone from Boots quite sensibly saying that they stock homeopathy products because there's a demand, rather than because they work.

The BBC's attempt at impartiality was to have a homeopathy friendly doctor and a random newspaper columnist who appeared to have no knowledge of the subject. There was no balancing view to represent the mainstream medical community which rightly considers homeopathy as unproven drivel.

belisarius_534 @ 2009-11-26T15:34:00

2009-11-26T15:34:54Z

The Illy espresso bar in the new Liverpool One Waterstones might just be my new favourite coffee place. Really tasty and nobody seems to mind if you start reading a book you have no intention of buying!

Today has mainly been crystal sample prep. for next week's Switzerland trip. Interesting but also repetitive and a bit dull. I'm looking forward to the weekend and the annual climbing club dinner in Caernarfon. May get vey vey sloshed and then get up for the walk the next morning. Fresh air is great to kill a hangover.

Weekending and Spooks

2009-11-16T10:20:16Z

Another excellent weekend concluded. On Friday we went to a nice curry & beer night with the caving club. After waking up after 11am on Saturday morning it was off to Newcastle to Jo's party which was unexpectedly attended by a couple of people I hadn't seen for maybe 5 and 10 years respectively - great to catch up with them.

I wasn't very convinced at all by this week's Spooks. So, the terrorists are in an underground panic room in Hampstead and are broadcasting to the internet. Apparently MI5 can't stop the broadcast as the bad guys are 'switching servers'. So why not (a) cut all the power (b) cut whatever link is being used to connect to the net (from the bunker it has to be a hard line, surely?) (c) EMP the site..

I was highly amused by the idea that a satellite with a thermal imaging camera can detect individuals in a bunker which was described as '15 metres underground with a metre of reinforced concrete as a shell'.

WRONG!

2009-11-13T13:48:17Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8355287.stm

Christmas Baebes

2009-11-13T10:52:01Z

The Medieval Baebes are doing a Christmas gig at the Lowry on Thu 10th Dec. Very tempting!

Thanks to songofnewday for the heads up.

FAT!

2009-11-11T21:39:02Z

I'm nearly back to being able to exercise which will be good. An inactive Mike is a grumpy Mike..

The Christmas season of lard is fast approaching, so my incipient portliness may continue. How far does one have to run to burn off an xmas dinner? Hmm...

parties and lazyness

2009-11-08T11:48:29Z

Excellent party for Rich & Ben's birthdays last night, although I'm glad I was driving so could avoid the roulette wheel of shots :) The T-bone steak Rich ate was a monster!

Today I intend to do nothing at all :)

belisarius_534 @ 2009-11-07T09:58:00

2009-11-07T10:03:18Z

We went to the AGM of the climbing club last night in Liverpool. It was a very short affair, as its really only an excuse for a slide/photo evening afterwards. I was impressed again by the older members of the club who are spending their retirements climbing big mountains and travelling the world.

There was a great story about 3 of the guys on a via ferrata in the Dolomites. Ahead of them a British lady was coming back down, saying "I'm nearly 50 I'm too old for this!", to which the reply came "Well, if you say so, but I'm 60, he's 70 and Fred here is 80". The lady turned round and climbed straight up to the top.

Free TV

2009-11-02T21:47:03Z

I don't suppose anyone wants a 28" CRT TV with stand? Free to anyone who can take it away...

One for the special team...

2009-11-01T14:23:19Z

so I was putting an insulation strip around the loft hatch, from inside the loft with the hatch closed. All was well until my hand slipped off the solid frame and put weight on the hatch, which promptly opened resulting in me falling out head first while comically still holding the hammer. All things considered, I fell pretty well, landing on one hand rather than my head, and falling from a handstand position to whack my back on the floor. I have a nice big swollen graze on my back and loads of bruises and somewhat bent fingers. Ouch.

Annoyingly the loft is not finished :(

However, we did finish installing the big screen TV first

Professor Fluffy

2009-10-20T13:26:42Z

http://www.liv.ac.uk/about/professor-fluffy.htm

Opinions on whether my employer is dumbing down just a touch?

Morning after the night before

2009-10-18T13:44:18Z

The party was excellent, although my brain stubbornly refuses to work today. Urgh! Still, very little to do apart from vegetating in front of the TV.

Look at the eyes, not around the eyes...

2009-10-12T20:24:51Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8303126.stm

I entirely approve..

Inverse xenophobia

2009-10-06T14:37:33Z

Getting a little annoyed today. I use accelerator sources in quite a few countries (Switzerland, Japan, Grenoble in France) and my colleagues use them in Paris and Hamburg. Without fail, they are easy to get to and have efficient, streamlined systems to deal with paperwork, safety and logistics.

Later in the week I'm off to the British one near Oxford. Its a complete contrast - horribly bureaucratic, confusing booking systems, dodgy website etc. Comically, having purpose built a huge 300 million quid lab on a fresh site and knowing the number of scientists who would be coming (mainly by car), they don't have enough parking. If you arrive by train, they expect you to take the bus.

Bah..

2009-09-29T11:58:50Z

I'm sure 3 months should be enough time for a pulled finger tendon to recover. Its most annoying!

I'm now almost recovered from the weekend, mainly thanks to 10 hrs sleep on Sunday night. Its quite a busy week, but luckily not stressful.

Tomorrow I shall be 'cough' working from home..'ahem'

Home again

2009-09-27T17:25:03Z

I'm back from Riftworld, showered, shaved and de-redded. Another fantastic event, especially seeing the plotline for the finale from both the player and crew perspectives after my PC had a little accident in the warp on Saturday daytime.

Very sleepy on the way home so I was forced to stop for coffee and the world's biggest chocolate croissant.

The lovely Christine is now making me cottage pie. How good is that :)

belisarius_534 @ 2009-09-25T11:55:00

2009-09-25T10:56:20Z

I'm slightly clockwatching today - hopefully will be away by 4.30 so I can get my tent up in daylight.

Dealing with weight problems

2009-09-24T16:49:39Z

Clearly we should treat the overweight with compassion and understanding

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/fatties-urged-to-buy-mirrors-instead-of-pies-200909242089/

:)

FAO Katie B

2009-09-24T11:25:59Z

Can you remember to pack the spear for me please?