Colin Seymour

Happy 1st Anniversary

Colin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:45:07 +0000

Today’s a big day. No, not Independence Day (we live on this side of the pond), it’s Claire and my first wedding anniversary.

Happy Anniversary my love. One down… hundreds to go.

Is This Called Parking?

Colin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:47:52 +0000

Look what I encountered when I came home this evening…

Inconsiderate arse!!!! :-/

Bring Me Some Cold

Colin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:56:53 +0000

I never thought I’d say this again (after coming back to the UK from working in Madrid), but please please please send us some cooler weather. It’s been stinking hot and humid over the last week both during the day and at night and now I’m really really tired. I need some ZZZZZZZZZs.

O’Gara Gives Away the Series

Colin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:21:33 +0000

What an exciting game yesterday’s British Lions vs The Springboks test was. It was a really exciting and nail biting game which, given the way the game started and the overall statistics, South Africa really shouldn’t have won.

However a spectacular 2nd half of the 2nd half (or last quarter for the pedantic) by the Boks changed the outcome of the game and we saw Ronan O’Gara gift the Boks with the game and series win with this beauty in the last minute of the game, which Morne Steyn slotted between the posts from 53m.

If we look at the possession, territory, penalties conceded and over all play for the match, the Boks should never have won, but if we look at it like the British press do, and count up all the missed kicks, the Boks should have thumped the Lions.

Whichever way you look at it, it was a great game, but a shame the series has now been decided. It would have been a brilliant encounter next week had it been a decider. I suspect next week’s game will now have a completely different feel too: the Boks don’t have to win, so may be more experimental and the Lions are facing a white-wash, so they’re not going to reciprocate. We’ll have to wait and see.

Michael Jackson Has Left the Building

Colin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:21:14 +0000

It’s all over the everywhere, but I just felt it was worth mentioning here, too. Sadly, Michael Jackson died yesterday, 25 June 2009 at the age of 50. He was a supremely talented musician who has no doubt had a huge impact on a lot of other musicians over the years. I’m sure we’ll all be hearing the tributes over the next few days but he’ll live on in people’s memories for a lot longer.

Watch the music charts this and next week; I think we may have a Michael Jackson number 1. Possibly Man in the Mirror or Thriller - the two tracks that are already in iTunes’ top 100. If Amazon’s sales charts are anything to go by, it could be a definite: Amazon’s top 15 selling albums are currently ALL Michael Jackson related.

Whilst searching for a picture for this post, I stumbled upon this very moving video. Apparently it’s from a Pepsi advert…

Interesting Links for 10 May 09 - 22 Jun 09

Colin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:01:17 +0000

Interesting links for 10 May 09 - 22 Jun 09:

Please don’t eat your horse, EU asks owners - So long as you don't register it as yours, you're free to tuck in I love the "Moderatrix Post-It" part of this story too.
‘World’s smallest car’ revealed - Wow!!! What a brilliant use for an old Postman Pat kids' ride.
The 2009 TIME 100 Influential People List - And it includes two South Africans - Barbara Hogan (cabinet minister) and William Kentridge (artist)
Zuma unveils new-look Cabinet - SouthAfrica.info - Lots of changes here, but this quote is interesting: "We reiterate that we will not tolerate laziness and incompetence, and that we will emphasise excellence and achievement from the Cabinet and the public service,". Hmmm, how long before the first MP is fired by Mr Zuma?
New Pattern Found in Prime Numbers - Cool. Now why didn't anyone else notice this before?

Stop! Plane Crossing

Colin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:25:49 +0000

The traffic in Wokingham is a right pain-in-the-derrière when a train comes through. The barriers on the level crossing come down and the traffic stops. Now imagine living in Gibraltar where the same process happens whenever an aeroplane - yes an AEROPLANE - comes in to land or takes off.

Check it out…

Read the rest of Stop! Plane Crossing (64 words)

142857: What a Fascinating Number

Colin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:40:57 +0000

I’ve just been introduced to a rather extra-ordinary number: 142857.

Now as it stands, it doesn’t look particularly fascinating or special but it does when you start to play with it. So lets get playing.

Lets start with some multiplication…

          142857 x 1 = 142857
          142857 x 2 = 285714
          142857 x 3 = 428571
          142857 x 4 = 571428
          142857 x 5 = 714285
          142857 x 6 = 857142

Oooooooo, well look at that. Do you see it?

Read the rest of 142857: What a Fascinating Number (327 words)

Trooping of the Colour: The Queen’s Birthday Parade

Colin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:01:09 +0000

Guess who got to go see the Trooping of the Colour: The Queen’s Birthday Parade today. I’ll give you a hint, they’re circled in the picture above (click it for a better look) and managed to get a good 20 seconds worth of TV time too.

It’s my mum-and-dad in-law, Ian and Judith .

If you’re in the UK, you can spot them at 1:38 in the iPlayer footage. There may be other occasions, but this is the one we spotted.

Swine Flu Now a Pandemic

Colin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:06:48 +0000

The WHO, no not the rock band, the World Health Organization has just raised the severity level of swine flu outbreak to phase 6, ie they’ve declared it a pandemic.

Now, before you rush off waving your arms in the air screaming “We’re all going to die!!! We’re all going to die!!!”, take note of what this means. Phase 6 means that the swine flu virus is spreading in at least two regions of the world without any direct link to the original source. For the moment this is mainly in the southern hemisphere thanks to it being winter down there, but scientists will be watching it closely to see what we can expect up here in the north.

Hopefully the southern hemisphere peeps are rough and tough kick this virus to the ground quickly without too many casualties. It will be great if this just peters out to be a slightly more severe version of the common cold that will disappear without leaving much more than a huge imprint on the world’s media for the 2009 year.

Only time will tell. In the mean time, now may be a good time to go dig out the pamphlet the government sent you recently and have a read.

If you’ve tossed it already, check out the HPA website.

Beanzawave - A Teeny Weeny Desktop Microwave

Colin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:22:29 +0000

Fancy some beans on toast for lunch at work but don’t have a microwave and the canteen “don’t do pov food”? Or maybe your cup of coffee has gone cold and you wish you could quickly zap is in the microwave, but alas, that thing would look silly on your desk and never pass the company “electrical compliance test” anyway.

Well fear no more as you CAN have your beans and eat them - hot - thanks to the Beanzawave…

Read the rest of Beanzawave - A Teeny Weeny Desktop Microwave (217 words)

Tetris Turns 25

Colin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:04:21 +0000

The name Alexey Pajitnov may not ring any bells, but his simple, colourful and maddeningly addictive game Tetris certainly will. Tetris turns 25 today; happy birthday Tetris.

It’s quite amazing how such a simple game can be so addictive, so well recognized and available on soooo many different platforms from arcade machines to mobile phones. I don’t think any other games has such a very loyal fan base including these students who made a human version of the game (well, a video of it at least)…

It’s great to see such a simple and addictive game still have an huge impression in the PlayStation age we all live in now.

Fruehschoppen

Colin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:38:50 +0000

Did you know, the Germans even have a word for a morning beer: Fruehschoppen.

Braai Ketts

Colin — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:56:47 +0000

Look what we bought from the garden centre down the road.

We bought two bags - not because I was trying to be patriotic or anything, but because they were the cheapest. 2 for the price of one.

This officially makes today’s braai more a braai than a BBQ. We’ll be braaiing lamb and coriander burgers and thick streaky pork rashers for lunch today. Tomorrow we’ve got wors, BBQ pork shoulder steaks and springbok steaks for lunch :-p

Gordon Brown Is…

Colin — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:55:07 +0000

You’ve got to love Google’s “suggest” functionality. It’s a really useful tool to work out what people think of politicians.

Lets start with Jacob Zuma…

Hmmm, not a much talked about man then. What about the opposite extreme? What about Barack Obama?

Read the rest of Gordon Brown Is… (50 words)

Morph Flashmob

Colin — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:32:20 +0000

A couple of months ago, an army of Morph characters staged a flashmob outside London’s Tate Modern as a tribute to Tony Hart who recently passed away.

What a brilliant tribute to a major influence in most kids of the seventies and eighties’ lives. More pictures of the event are on Flickr.

Vuvuzela and Makarapa Are GO!

Colin — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:26:52 +0000

After lengthy discussions with the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC), FIFA have finally relented and have opted to allow the vuvuzela and the makarapa to be wielded and worn inside the stadiums during the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 World Cup.

This last bit is fantastic news. Africa’s first hosted world cup can now actually have an African feel that I think might change football fan’s paraphernalia world-wide.

For the uninformed, a vuvuzela is metre-long brightly coloured plastic air horn trumpet, which is blown with great gusto by South African football supporters, giving local games a distinctive vibrancy and atmosphere.

A makarapa is a decorated miner’s helmet which fans spend hours decorating with the colours and logos of their favourite team.

Of course both of these icons of South African football have made their ways into other sports and even into the corporate world.

So folks, time to get out those paints and start decorating. You’ve only got 385 days to get your designs up to scratch (boring and drab colours do not meet the mark). Oh and don’t forget the great big sunglasses either. If you’re going to do the African thing, you’ve got to do it right.

For the lazy, pre-designed makarapas and vuvuzelas are for sale.

Bank Advert That’s Not for Prudes

Colin — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:05:31 +0000

This is a very clever advert for a finance company in Germany, though it’s not really for children or the prudish, so depending on your company, it may be NSFW too.

Kettering to London on 23 May 2009

Colin — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:50:55 +0000

If you plan on traveling the 80-odd miles from Kettering in Northamptonshire, to London St Pancras on Saturday 23 May 2009, you may want to think again.

Due to engineering work, this just-over 1 hour journey will be taking you a mammoth 18 hours and will include no less than seven changes, five bus journeys, a kip on a station floor and a trip on the London Underground.

Here’s the official route for the 295 mile journey, courtesy of the East Midlands Trains’ website:

Given this, it will literally be quicker to cycle, maybe even walk, into London on that day.

For those of you not traveling from Kettering, you may still want to check your local rail company website as bank holiday weekends are notoriously bad for rail travel.

Free Coldplay Album

Colin — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:47:34 +0000

If you’re a Coldplay fan, you probably want to get your downloader ready PDQ. Coldplay are releasing their next album - Left Right Left Right Left - to the masses as a free download at 9am (UK time - What time is that where I live?) this morning.

Radiohead managed to get a UK #1 album by letting people pick their own price (including free). I wonder how well Coldplay will do by taking that extra bit of thinking away from your and giving it away completely.

Update: It’s 9:03 and as expected, the Coldplay site is crawling like a sleeping snail.

The Loans That Will Bankrupt You

Colin — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:11:05 +0000

We were sitting watching telly last night when we heard our letterbox flap squeak as it does when someone pushes junk (and any other) mail though. I went over and grabbed the junk mail flier that had been pushed through and had a quick squizz.

The flier was for Provident gift vouchers. I very quickly dismissed it as more crap and then something caught my eye - the phrase “Typical 468.2% APR”. I nearly had a heart attack. Surely this must be a typo so I checked their website and right there on the front page I was confronted with this…

Read the rest of The Loans That Will Bankrupt You (149 words)

Happy Birthday Fiona

Colin — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:23:34 +0000

My New Weber Braai

Colin — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:01:21 +0000

I was very fortunate to receive the awesome Weber One Touch Gold braai (BBQ) for my birthday and last weekend was a prime time to take it out for it’s maiden voyage. As it’s a braai and not a BBQ in our household, the first thing to cook had to be wors (got it from Susmans along with a kilo of biltong :-p ).

Here’s a mini-picture story for you to enjoy (select the first image and click through).

Read the rest of My New Weber Braai (110 words)

New Springbok Rugby Jersey Has Been Revealed

Colin — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:12:18 +0000

The redesigned Springbok jersey has been revealed (you’ll get to see it on the advert on Supersport this evening if you live in SA) and can be seen as a harmonious agreement between one of South Africa’s oldest icons, the springbok and the new, the protea.

As you can see from this fetching photo of John Smit, the redesign sees the jumping springbok move to the right of the jersey, the Canterbury logo to the middle and the national sports emblem, the King Protea, on the left.

A lot of die-hard rugby fans aren’t going to be too happy with this, but I think it’s a very happy compromise that keeps everyone happy. It also shows brings rugby inline with the other major South African sports, like…

… the football…	… and cricket…	… and the test cricket shirt …

Hmmm, I don’t think the cricket peeps thought this one through.

£110 000 000 Up For Grabs

Colin — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:49:13 +0000

Check it out, this week’s EuroMillion’s jackpot is sitting at a whopping £110 000 000!!! Yes, £110 MILLION!!!

Think about it, if you were incredibly lazy and just bunged the £110 million into a bog-standard savings account offering a measly 2% interest (you wouldn’t do this as you’d then become the owner of your bank and you’d make more money putting it elsewhere anyway), you’d receive £2.2 million a year (before tax) just in interest. You’d never have to work another day in your life.

I’ve got my tickets, go get yours.

The Best Job In The World Has Gone

Colin — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:50:23 +0000

The best job in the world has gone (to a chugger from the UK) and I missed it. I didn’t even know it was being advertised. Oh well, maybe next time - it is only a 6 month placement after all.

If like me, you know nothing about “The best job in the world“, here is a summary of the job:

Job Title: Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef
Location: Hamilton Island, Great Barrier Reef, just off the coast of Queensland, Australia
Responsibilities: write a blog, take photos, make videos, snorkel, feed the fish, pick up the mail and clean the pool.
Term: 6 month contract
Remuneration: A$150 000 (£73,500; $110,000)
Other benefits: Return airfares from your nearest capital city (in your home country), accommodation (three bedroom beach home with swimming pool and golf cart) and transport on Hamilton Island, travel insurance for the contract period, computer, internet, digital video and stills cameras access, plus travel to a number of the other Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

I think they’re right when they call this the best job in the world: you’re getting paid to have a holiday in probably one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I wonder if my boss will let me have 6 months off for the next period, assuming they re-advertise. I’m sure Claire would love this secondment.

Eukanuba Fetch

Colin — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:26:29 +0000

This is pure genius. Take 5 dogs, train them to carry empty dog food bags in their mouths, teach them to walk without distraction between two points and then set them to work in your local shopping centres.

This is exactly what Saatchi & Saatchi in Jo’burg did and I bet it was with tremendous effect.

(Source)

Cat Man Do

Colin — Sat, 02 May 2009 08:44:03 +0000

If you’ve got a cat, or ever owned a cat, this explains a lot…

It’s well worth watching several of the other “Simon’s Cat” videos; you’ll see the characteristics of your cat in almost everyone.

Steal This Chapter:The Doctor Will Sue You Now

Colin — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:30:24 +0000

The Guardian’s Dr Ben Goldacre has published a free and originally missing chapter from his recent book, Bad Science, an exposé on the bad science that infects policy and health in the UK.

The chapter, “The Doctor Will Sue You Now“, was originally cut from the printed edition because its subject, a vitamin salesman named Matthias Rath, tied Dr Goldacre up in £500 000 worth of litigation over its contents.

So what did Dr Goldacre have to say about Matthias Rath? He told the story of how Rath had convinced public officials in South Africa to abandon life-saving AIDS anti-retroviral drugs in favour of his vitamins and other natural products. If you’re South African or have an interest in South Africa and/or HIV/AIDS, I bet this is starting to sound remarkably familiar. Hmmmm “garlic, lemon and African potatoes”?

Here’s a little excerpt from the chapter to whet your appetite…

Read the rest of Steal This Chapter:The Doctor Will Sue You Now (272 words)

Atchoo Oink

Colin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:16:40 +0000

You’ve got to love the BBC’s imagery in their Q&A for the current swine flu break out that is all over the news.

First they kindly depict the 3 different types of flu…

Then they detail antigenic drift and antigenic shift (slide 2) and then slide 3 has this picture…

Hmmmm…. bird flu + swine flu + human flu = flying pig with a running nose?

Or more precisely…

That didn’t take long.