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So what is timesnewroman? It's not the font, rather my take on the age we live in. The USA is the new Rome and the times we live in are timesnewroman.

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Bare Your Bum at Bush! timesnewroman is listening to: Tiken Jah Fakoly, Arctic Monkeys, Biffy Clyro, Kings of Leon, Bloc Party, Led Zeppelin, Jimi, Franz Ferdinand, Youssou N'Dour, The Strokes, REM, The Kings of Leon, Curtis Mayfield, Jefferson Airplane, The Trashcan Sinatras, Jeff Buckley, Phil Ochs, Stan Kenton, The Smiths, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mogwai, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, The Zombies and Orange Juice amongst many others.

timesnewroman may be wearing a green shirt today

 

Sunday, January 30, 2005

thewife and I have been having hours of fun with 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The idea is you can connect any actor to Kevin Bacon, by movies appeared in, in very few links. E.g. George Clooney was in Thin Red Line with Sean Penn, Sean Penn was in Mystic River with Kevin Bacon, that's a score of 2. It's not as easy as you'd think to get 3 and practically impossible to get 4 without either an extremely unhealthy knowledge of actors from obscure foreign movies or some researching into this via the internet. So Ershadi Homayon, who played Mr Baddi in Abbas Kiarostami�s Taste of Cherry that won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 1997 will get you a 4. You too can have fun here.
We haven't got above 4 yet, although it is possible apparently to get an 8. If you do please let me know. Oh and you wouldn't believe how many people Eli Wallach has been in movies with!

posted by timesnewroman at 1:48 PM  

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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Just as the bold Bill Gates becomes the new Jesus, I have chosen to dive further into the Open Source pool. Not only have I got me (and most other people I know) a copy of Open Office, which I must say to date has been bloody marvelous. I also converted to Firefox as my preferred web browser a few months ago and have just downloaded and started using Thunderbird for email although I seem to have misplaced my digital signature somewhere. Its practically a Microsoft Free Zone around here. I'd go for Linux too, but I don't trust my own level of expertise. Based on the experience of a few years ago, I went down to Manuel's when he resided in Manchester and had great fun playing around with his copy of Linux, but could we, after 2 days of tinkering, get the CD to operate? Could we hell.


One of the good things about having tracking devices on the blog is now and again you actually do follow them back the way and make a reciprocal call. Today I popped in to visit SMIDSY (Sorry Mate I Didn't See You) Who's obviously a biker with bruises to show for it. He is also a photographer who likes to take black and white photos and has a really nice gallery online which is well worth a visit.


Whew links are in fashion today!


posted by timesnewroman at 9:15 PM  

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Sunday, January 23, 2005


A Lamentation of Swans Posted by Hello

thewife and I went a wee walk down the harbour. Beautiful sunny day but bitter cold. We came across this lot plus a couple of geese. Haven't seen that many swans in the one place ever.

All in al a pretty action packed day, having started the morning trying to change the bulb in the back security light. What should have been a simple swapping over of bulbs turned into a marathon session involving disconnecting and dismantling the whole bloody thing, drilling out the old rusted screw and putting it all back together. I don't even know if it woks yet, I'll have to wait for darkness to fall.

All good things come to an end. Damn you Derek Riordan! Still with that sort of form he won't be long for the SPL.



posted by timesnewroman at 4:15 PM  

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Wednesday, January 19, 2005

So does Piers Morgan get his job back now?

posted by timesnewroman at 8:26 PM  

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Got a 256 MB SD card for the Christmas camera. Put it in, switched camera back on, didn't work did it? Power didn't come back on. Took card out, switched power back on, worked fine. Checked out the manufacturers handbook, website and googled for some troubleshooting advice, nothing, nada. Checked that the SD card was fine in a friend's camera and it was. Emailed manufacturers, got a reply to phone them to talk it through with them. Did this, "ah, its not supposed to do that, you'd better take it back to the shop where you bought it." thewife did this yesterday, despite the lost receipt they were very helpful, except they don't have the same model, just a dearer one or one with poorer picture quality for the same price. Guess we have to go for the dearer one, then we need the ac adaptor that's another � 25. Jeez!


posted by timesnewroman at 7:08 AM  

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Sunday, January 16, 2005


Spencer Dryden 1938 - 2005 Posted by Hello


Fare thee well then Spencer Dryden. I learned from Reidski, that the drummer from my all time favourite band has died. I �discovered� Jefferson Airplane much as Christopher Columbus �discovered� America. I happened upon them by chance, by borrowing 30 Seconds Over Winterland from Father Bell. I took it home, played it endlessly and eventually had to return it to him. By then I was hooked and the really fabulous thing about them was they were mine, everybody else I hung around with had Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd or later on Lynyrd Skynyrd as their favourite bands, me I had Jefferson Airplane, unique and so incredibly hip. So very different to all the other bands that my mates were into. JA were the archetypical San Francisco band, West Coast Acid Rock at its best. No strangers to controversy they were very much the alternative counter culture, tipping their hat to political and environmental concerns long before they were fashionable.
They are the band that will remain with me for the rest of my life. Musically and politically their anarchic approach to life as well as music pretty much hits the spot for me time and time again. Spencer Dryden didn't appear on 30 Seconds though, that was Johnny Barbata, once of The Turtles. Dryden however was the drummer of the definitive Airplane, through the classic albums Surrealistic Pillow (My Number 1 Album of all time......U.S. Import Version of course), Crown of Creation, Volunteers and After Bathing at Baxters. Its perhaps on After Bathing at Baxters you realise the versatility and talent of Spencer. His Jazz background comes through on the nine minute jam that is Spayre Chaynge. Classic. So much so I'm off to play it now!

posted by timesnewroman at 2:26 PM  

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Thursday, January 13, 2005

Weather. Doncha just love it. Extra unexpected day off work because of hurricane force winds causing cancellation of trains and general traffic chaos. Was able to go back to bed for a bit too long yesterday and also do alittle bit of work via email. The wonders of modern technology.

More wonders of modern technology from Gen X at 40 via West Coast Girl is this freaking scary keyhole thing. Available on 7 day free trial I have to say it's absolutely brilliant and loads of fun and you can easily imagine that the powers that be have a much better, more sophisticated version to find out when you pick your nose! Go get it, it's well worth the download time.



I stayed here on holiday for a few weeks in 1991 with Reidski. Thanks Lori! Posted by Hello


My neck of the woods. Posted by Hello

Royal Family, huh, what a little prick! The sooner we are shot of this load of freeloading parasitic banjo plucking inbred drunkards the better.

posted by timesnewroman at 7:17 AM  

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Tuesday, January 11, 2005

I have new shoes. I'm breaking them in. Actually if the truth were to be told they are breaking me.

posted by timesnewroman at 10:08 PM  

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Monday, January 10, 2005

I'm sitting there on the train (lucky me, there were a few people standing) first day back at work after a two week break, trying to do the Guardian crossword and listening to a compilation of music on my mp3 player of which George Harrison's My Sweet Lord is up next. It has that warm good feeling that you just want to join in and hum or sing along. Fortunately I realise that if I succumb to that, everyone in the carriage will eventually pick it up and start humming along and feel good about themselves and about going to work. Its then that I think maybe two weeks off over Christmas and new year is a bit much. I'm definitely losing it. Fortunately Bloc Party's Helicopter brings me rapidly back to my senses.

posted by timesnewroman at 10:05 PM  

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Sunday, January 09, 2005

Party time

Nearing the end of the somewhat lengthy holiday period. In an effort to stretch it out as long as possible we have been pretty much partying over the past few days. Friday saw us at what was pretty much an extended family gathering down by the harbour and a jolly night was had by all. Seen peops that I haven't saw for that long that their accent has changed! We were entertained by two four year olds and much taken by the newborn. I drank lots and lots including some blended whisky and some very good malt.

Saturday night we went to a 60th birthday party for one of thewife's theatrical chums. A jolly good time was had too. There were only a few from her group, but one occasional member, who I haven't seen for a while was there with partner. Life and soul of many parties, multi-talented, a colourful history and a wonderful gent who's life has been touched with both great joy and tragedy. His jokes are crap, but his stories more than make up for that. He and partner have retired now and spend as much of their time as possible in a caravan in Portugal. Coming home for Christmas and the like. Both look well on it and look considerably more relaxed than they have for a long long time. An active trade unionist he spent a while on many a blacklist for having organised on big sites. Having to move around small firms for work, he eventually ended up working for a firm that I started with as an apprentice electrician - I lasted a year - or should I say the firm lasted a year after I started with them! He didn't stay long, long enough to qualify for a house in the area and to get a better paid job elsewhere.

I didn't meet him until much later when his kids joined our Woodie group and he and his wife got involved in a parent's fundraising group. They were great years, his kids were popular enthusiastic members who stayed in our group for a long time and made many long-standing friendships. When I think about the groups that we have run over time, the many hundreds possibly thousands of youngsters who have been members, I think the group at that time were the ones who were the definitive Irvine Woodies. They are the one's who have weaved a connecting strand over almost thirty years, in some cases their children still come along today.

On that nostalgic note, I shall swot up for tonight's quiz and the return to normalacy which is salaried labour in the morning. Just can't wait.

posted by timesnewroman at 5:50 PM  

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Thursday, January 06, 2005


Oops! Posted by Hello

Watching the news on television last night after the ongoing harrowing reports on the South East Asian Tsunami there was a cheering small piece on a woman who had cancer as a teenager having a natural pregnancy and who had given birth to a healthy baby. This was apparently a quite rare event. thewife thought this was fabulous. I pointed out that depending on the cancer, it would be perfectly possible for former cancer sufferers to have babies. I had testicular cancer 13 years ago, and although the chemotherapy would have severely repressed the downstairs manufacturing system at the time, it could recover in time. There are many couples who have gone on to have babies after a while.

�Now he tells me!� says thewife.

posted by timesnewroman at 11:04 AM  

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Monday, January 03, 2005


Infection! Posted by Hello

After several days of the healing process and sitting around with my leg up it still stings a bit, thewife has a look at the wound and pronounces it infected! Phone call to doctor and I'm prescribed a penicillin derivative by telephone to be uplifted from the only open pharmacy in town. She reckons this will put paid to my holiday drinking plans which is a bit of an annoyance. Nevertheless I had a few beers and whiskys last night on account of it being the Councillor's annual new year party. Very subdued it was too. No guests from afar and no singing vet which meant the night's entertainment was limited to rearranging his spices in alphabetical order and hatching a number of plots which may or may not be revealed in the coming months.



posted by timesnewroman at 2:53 PM  

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Sunday, January 02, 2005

Happy New Year.

posted by timesnewroman at 11:47 AM  

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