Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Faulty train isn't making journey (2,7)


Just a little snapshot of my journey on Monday - what must be the steepest escalator in London at least, heading down to the Northern Line at London Bridge station.

I was making my way back up the country after a weekend (well, just Sunday, really) spent at home. This was pretty much the mid-way point of a horrible journey - we had crawled into London Bridge after being forced to change trains (actual announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to apologise for the delay to this service due to the adverse weather conditions, unfortunately there will be a further delay due to the train in front hitting another tree...") at Sevenoaks. I managed to arrive in King's Cross less than 10 minutes late, which was surprising given the delays incurred, though missed my train to Leeds. GNER replaced my ticket, but some jobsworth inspector made me pay a supplement to my fare, as I'd forgotten to bring my railcard. All in all, very frustrating, but worth it for the lovely day we had on Sunday for mother's day (roast dinner - the full works - at my sister's house).

Can't really complain though, seems mum, Paul and Lucy had a near-death experience as a tree came crashing down in front of them on the way into Hastings - they managed to stop in time. Not so lucky was the man from the Highways Agency coming the other way in his truck, though I'm sure it helped in getting the road clear as quickly as possible!

(Un)Fortunately I am now on holiday, and (but) am struggling to motivate myself to get some work done - the Independent crosswords and Sudoku are much more interesting.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Spring is springing



Well, seems the snow has left us alone for a while, I noticed yesterday the crocuses had started to open on my way across the park, and today I saw the first open daffodil outside the university. Also (something worth catching the bus for, you can only really see from the top deck), the leaves on the trees are just budding. Funny, last year I sent a photo to my mum of a huge patch of daffodils - I've just checked and this was on the 1st of March! Seems spring is running late this year, something that is perhaps confirmed on the Springwatch site. You can see, for example, that the spread of frog spawn is slower this year than last - some scientific data to back up my somewhat unscientific impression of a long winter!

The presence of dead leaves on the ground (just discernible on the above photo) confirms that this winter has been quite dry - they haven't yet rotted away from Autumn... Get ready for the hosepipe ban.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Translators fear not!


Looking at the above text, seems us translators don't have to worry too much about there not being any work for us, or that computers are going to replace us just yet (although I'm told in my machine translation classes that that's not what the goal is!) if this is the quality of texts that commercial software produces.

Just for the sake of it, I've put the above text back into babelfish for this translation:

Software English writing

Advanced Tool for drafting To write text easily -
To obtain!

Interestingly, their program (according to their website) allows you to "Fix all Grammar Errors Immediately" - maybe only in English!

Strangely, no French language version of their site is available.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Google Mars

Something someone might be interested in - Google have started a service similar to that used for their mapping service, called Google Mars. It seems that only a small section is available to view, but I assume they're going to expand this and integrate it into Google Earth, where the lovely picture of my house at the top of this page comes from (note to self: copyright the term Google Solar System immediately!). There are links to features on the planet's surface, and links to cool stuff like flythrough videos of parts of Mars.
----------------------------------
added 17/03/06
You can also view the moon on the imaginatively-titled Google Moon. For fun, zoom all the way in to see what the moon is made of!

Friday, March 03, 2006

An alternative to XP!


At last! I've been using this for a few months now, and am pleased to report it's all going quite well.

Ubuntu is a serious alternative operating system to Windows. It's a distribution of Linux designed to work on your Windows or Mac machine in place of (or in my case alongside) your usual operating system. Best of all, it's free (and means that you can gain back all those karma points lost by using evil Microsoft products) and easy to download, or you can even order copies on cd or dvd. It includes as standard loads of useful programs (Firefox, Open Office - a worthy replacement for and fully compatible with MS Office, Gimp - like Adobe Photoshop, but free, games, multimedia players), and anything you don't have (like Skype and Realplayer) you can easily download and install. It does involve a little getting used to, and you may have to look up how to do things you take for granted under Windows or MacOS on th'interweb, but at least the answers are there, as there is a large (and still growing) community online.

If things carry on the way they are, I'll be switching to Ubuntu full time very soon (although I need someone to convert the WordFast macros to OpenOffice format to allow me to work on translations in Linux)...

Seems winter is the new spring!




I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but Anne-Charlotte was just saying yesterday how it never snows here in Leeds. When I pointed out that it does happen (once even in June), she said, "well, I'm sure it never lays." So the weather set out to prove her wrong today. We were sitting in Opposite, being blasted by the freezing cold air from the door (were all these students born in barns?!) when we looked out to see a veritable blizzard. Well, for March...

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Disable Orange Home Screen (finally!)

Images courtesy of http://uk.geocities.com/ras1968uk/orange.htm

This probably won't mean a lot to most of you, but for anyone who's got a Nokia 6680 on Orange:

It is possible to get rid of the hideous Orange Home Screen by downloading a little application called HSkiller. You can download this from http://gegelambert.free.fr/ (it's in French, but just click on the link at the top and install the .sis file on your phone). This changes your

Orange have confirmed that they are going to put an option on new phones to allow you to disable the home screen (thank god), thus returning the Symbian phones to their initial glory (and hopefully a) getting rid of the Orange screen and b) reenabling active standby!).

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Christmas and New Year


Hello again!

Made it back from the south after a crazy tequila-filled Christmas!

Found out on the Monday before Christmas that the bank can no longer keep me on as a temp, so they've had to let me go. They packed me off with 3 bottles of wine, 4 bottles of beer and a box of choccies, which is quite nice considering I was only a temp!

So it's back to uni, and we're in the exams period which runs until the 20th. I've already had the only exam I've got, but I still have two projects to finish before then.

Apart from that, I am looking forward to the arrival of Claire in Leeds on the 3rd of February (which is really not all that long away), and then I've already booked tickets to go back to Montpellier in April (dis-moi si vous pensez être là, Karine, Dimitri, Yves, Mohammed, Fantine etc, ça va être vers le weekend du 15 avril).

But until then it's on with the work, and after next week more lectures at uni (it's about time really, haven't had any for well over a month now!).

Hope to hear from you soon!

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

First one for a while

Hello all,

Just preparing for Christmas, will be finished at uni at the end of the week, looking forward to getting Christmas shopping over and done with and then back down south for Christmas!

In the mean time, we've all got essays to be getting on with for this week (boo!)

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Fresh Air (or a fight for ethical translation)

Climbing Ingleborough

Went for a little walk today with people from the Centre for Translation Studies, ended up walking up Ingleborough, the 10th highest mountain (at 724m or 2375ft) in England. It is one of the Yorkshire Dales' Three Peaks along with Pen-y-ghent and Whernside.

After a shaky start (heading in completely the wrong direction), we managed to get to the top, and decided to descend the opposite side before changing our minds again! We climbed back up to the top for soup, Wensleydale sandwiches, apples and shortbread (amongst other things) before heading off to Gaping Gill (110m deep, large enough to house York Minster) to look at what is essentially a giant hole in the ground (I realise I'm not selling this very well, although it really was very interesting!) before heading back to Horton in Ribblesdale to The Crown Hotel over six hours after setting out for Mars Bars, hot chocolate, coffee, Bailey's and Guinness (though not all at once!). A good day out for all!















Maps showing route (more than 12 miles)


Profile of the walk

Monday, September 26, 2005

Back to the grind...

New term at uni, start of my MA course in Applied Translation Studies (MAATS). Nothing much to report here for the moment, really, as lectures only started today. First lecture was corpus linguistics, which I was pleased to note covered some of the stuff I did in France. Just goes to show that despite appearances, Paul Valéry University in Montpellier is useful for something, even if it is only assuring that I understand some of the content in this lecture!

Too soon to really judge the content of the rest of the course, it seems that they vaguely have their heads screwed on here, so I don't expect too much confusion. If nothing else, it seems that the facilities they have here are quite good (computers/software etc), even if they don't quite stretch to air conditioning (apparently it's not so bad in mid-winter). I'm glad to have got the hard bit out of the way (registration), thanks to Kim who stood with me in the 25 minute queue (which is really really short compared to the usual 2.5 hours!).

Apart from that I will be at work one day a week from now on (Tuesdays), which means that I still have most of the time free to learn how to use the millions of pieces of software we have to get t0 grips with! Other piece of good news is that I have booked flights to Paris for the 9th - 12th, so if anyone's gonna be there let me know and we'll meet up :)

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

77 Advertising truths

1. Men are obsessed with sex but will forego sex in order to watch football or drink beer.

2. Women are locked in a constant battle with their weight/body shape/hairstyle.

3. Career success is entirely based on your ability to impress your boss.

4. Mums are often harassed but NEVER depressed/unable to cope.

5. Any act of male stupidity (e.g. walking across a clean floor in muddy boots, putting the dog in the dishwasher, etc.) will be met with a wry smile, not genuine annoyance/anger.

6. Married men will flirt with other, younger women but NEVER act upon it.

7. Anyone with a scientific career will have a bad haircut and dreadful clothes.

8. If you work for the emergency services, you are a better person than the general population.

9. Elderly relatives NEVER suffer from senile dementia.

10. Scandinavians are, without exception, blonde and beautiful.

11. Women have jobs they never do in real life, e.g. dockworker (who looks like a model).

12. Children will not eat fruit or vegetables. Ever.

13. Both men and women find driving deeply pleasurable, never boring or stressful.

14. Men are inherently lazy/slobbish; women are the reverse.

15. Chocolate, however, will cause women to immediately fall into the languor of the opium eater.

16. High Street bank staff are (A) friends of the customers, and (B) of slightly above-average attractiveness (only if female).

17. Modern men own a cat.

18. Hot beverages have miraculous rejuvenating effects.

19. Professional people have strangely trivial preoccupations, e.g. a female barrister who is morbidly obsessed with finding a healthy snack bar.

20. All women (except stay-at-home housewives) have interesting and enjoyable careers.

21. Any over-the-counter medical product will work instantly and 100% effectively.

22. Children know more than adults.

23. Women never merely hop in and out of the shower, instead preferring to act out some sort of soapy Dance of the Seven Veils.

24. School is a happy experience for all children.

25. Tortilla chips are the most exciting experience any group of young people can experience.

26. Playing bingo is THE number one pastime among 18-25 year old British women.

27. Science's most important applications are smoothing out wrinkles and making hair shiny.

28. Yoghurt-based products can change your life. Want to be a brilliant dancer? Have a yoghurt! Want to do away with your natural preference for *attractive* members of the opposite sex? Have a yoghurt! Want to avoid heart disease? Don't bother with all that boring giving-up of stuff, have a yoghurt!

29. Cleaning products will remove any stain in one sweep of a cloth.
Razors glide across male faces and leave baby-smooth non-irritated skin underneath.

30. Babies have conversations with each other about the relative merits of their nappies.

31. Women only wear spectacles in adverts for opticians.

32. It's OK to racially stereotype eskimos

33. Everyone is either in debt and wanting to take out a loan, or seeking compensation from someone.

34. Clothes come out of washing machines.

35. Anyone who is at home in the afternoon is in desperate need of a secured loan, a pension plan or no-win, no-fee solicitor.

36. Lipstick will never come off.

37. Driving in a brand new car leads immediately to all other traffic being kept off the road.

38. The last thing to emerge from an upended box of breakfast cereal is one perfect flake. The most important property of a tampon is its resemblance to a sweet.

39. Duvets are miraculously L-Shaped, reaching to the underarms of the woman in the bed but only to the midriff of the man.

40. Public transport is a beautifully clean and relaxing way to travel and you'll always be able to flirt with an attractive member of the opposite sex.

41. All babies spend their time being either naked and perfectly happy or clothed and asleep.

42. Saving a few quid on a car insurance bill of several hundred pounds will make you ecstatic for the rest of the week.

43. Women are unable to remove their glasses without shaking their hair down in slow motion.

44. Shop staff always greet you with a smile and answers your questions in a professional manner.

45. All dogs are happy and stupid. All cats have impeccable taste.

46. Mothers never ever shout at their offspring, and have endless patience.

47. Chocolate bars come out of hand bags/top pockets facing forwards, pause for a moment on their journey upwards in the half in/half out state (of hand bag/top pocket) and finally they are opened, perfectly, by simply pulling at the top outermost corner of the wrapping.

48. People who talk to the viewer never seem to be noticed by the people around them (i.e. their family, friends, co-workers).

49. If you have dyed red hair you are glamorous and sexy. If you have natural red hair then by all accounts you have a problem.

50. Cat food smells delicious to humans.

51. Bars are not sweaty, smoky places with very drunk people in them

52. Shaving is always performed to music, semi-naked and accompanied by a blonde woman in a towel.

53. Young people always live in fantastic flats.

54. You only ever wash one item at a time in your washing machine.

55. It's possible to take great photos with a camera phone.

57. Pieces of chewing gum only ever fall from their packet in pairs into the hands of the gum eater.

58. It is totally acceptable and quite normal behaviour to go around kissing babies' bottoms.

59. Soldiering is portrayed as being on a challenging outward-bound course

60. Any advert so obscure that you have no idea what it is about will be revealed to be a car advert in the final half-second.

61. Black people don't exist - or at least they don't buy anything.

62. Women suffer from constipation, men suffer from piles.

63. People with regional accents are always friendly and helpful.

64. Buying a sofa will not only improve your life beyond measure, it'll also make you and your family beautiful.

65. Teenage "sufferers" of acne will only ever have one completely invisible spot, for which they will apply a product which will not only clear the spot, but also miraculously solve all other social issues they might be having.

66. Slim, young, sexy, beautiful women are invariably and inexplicably married to frumpy, dumpy, pudgy - and quite often balding - middle-aged men.

67. If senior women are smiling and dancing they must be wearing an adult diaper.

68. Cars never sound like cars revving and changing gear, but the gentle sound of a hollow breeze.

69. Cats are always fed by women.

70. All people are heterosexual.

71. All vicars look like twits.

72. Married women are *nearly* sexy. (I believe there is an ad industry formula for this.)

73. Dogs in adverts never sniff your crotch.

74. Andie McDowell never ages.

75. Carol Vordeman knows everything.

76. Everything is or will be great

77. Technology works.

From the Magazine at news.bbc.co.uk

Saturday, August 20, 2005

¡Viva España!


Well, we've been back for a week from holidays in Spain (me, my sister and John), and boy is it depressing going back to an office Job!

The weather was really good - always very hot, although ranging from bright sunshine to thunderstorms and hailstones (that's the mountains for you!). We didn't arrive at my dad's house until very late on the Sunday night (i.e. sometime after 1 in the morning) after braving the drive down from Barcelona. The fiestas didn't start 'till Tuesday night, but when they did, we were treated to the correfoc (cue hundreds of bad puns about correfoccing, meeting the correfoccers etc) which was a parade through the streets of the village with lots of fireworks and small children dancing in the sparks. They also had a huge dragon with fireworks in its nose! Unfortunately we didn't take our cameras, but maybe next time!

Aside from the fireworks we managed to get around to see some of the surrounding area - like the roman ruins at Tarragona, Tortosa, the castle at Miravet, the beach at Hospitalet...

But now we're back. Today I got my tattoo done that I've been waiting for for a while now, which is very cool:
So I shall be looking after that very carefully for a while now! It didn't really hurt, I was expecting a lot more pain, but I suppose the arm isn't a very sensitive area...

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Masters/Computer/Holidays

Computer finally fixed!

I had to buy an external hard drive casing so I could connect my hard drive to my neighbours' pc to save my documents...and reinstall windows again...but it's done. Now just struggling to get my programs installed again, I've lost all my emails...all fun and games.

But good news - I got my funding for the masters course! This means that I'm back at uni in 6 weeks' time, which is quite a scary thought. I'm hoping that I don't have to end up doing any weird elective modules, but I'm not gonna find out for a while. It seems that the bank have decided they might give me a part time contract, so I won't be with the agency any more (which is fantastic).

Apart from that, we're off to Spain tomorrow, we've got tonnes of stuff to do today, but haven't managed to get up off my arse yet and do any packing etc. We still have to go into town and do a million things! Sounds like the start of a busy week (I'll be glad to get back here for a rest!)...

Friday, July 29, 2005

Hackers

Fairly unimpressed with hackers at the moment.

Someone has managed to hack into my laptop and change the access privileges to exclude all of the users on my laptop - with hilarious consequences.

I am currently reinstalling Windows in a decidedly chilly computer cluster and keeping my fingers crossed that:

a) I won't have lost all my files in the process
b) It finishes considerably quicker than the 25 minutes quoted
c) I get back in time for Big Brother

I would advise all of you to buy a commercial firewall, as I can only imagine the hacker bypassed the Windows firewall (which probably wasn't that challenging considering the quality of the rest of the operating system). Big grr!

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Graduation etc








Graduation completed!!

It was the hottest day ever (well, it felt that way wearing the gown), and everything was a bit of a rush!

I shan't be getting the dvd (although I'm sure they sold a few), as the ceremony is available to view online:

http://tldynamic.leeds.ac.uk/webcast/default.asp?eventtype=G

There are a few others: Josie, Kim, Jen and many many others too numerous to mention!

You have to go to Monday 11 July 2005 - Ceremony 1 and choose either high or low quality.

Have discovered the archives are on there too, so Claire and Bertrand's ceremony is on this page:

http://tldynamic.leeds.ac.uk/webcast/default.asp?archive=Y&eventtype=G

It was 14 July 2003 - Ceremony 3.

John's ceremony is 15 July 2004 - Ceremony 16 (his parents, grandma and Laura are in the front row!!)

I know there are many many others, but it's worth a look!!

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Nokia Sensor





Hello all,

I've found something really cool to use (although I don't know anyone else who's got it, rather like the video calling on my new phone :( ) called Nokia Sensor.

If you've got a Symbian phone (like the Nokia 6600/6680 etc) you can download this software which allows you to have a profile (like the business card on msn messenger) and send instant messages and other files via bluetooth.

Info on www.nokia.com/sensor

Check it out

Monday, July 04, 2005

first post

Feeding time for hungry hungry froggies


Hello all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it's gonna be interesting for at least some of you!

Just a few quick things to let you know how things are going:

As you should know, I have now finished my uni course, and am looking forward to graduating next Monday. I've managed to get tickets for my parents and John, but should you decide that you wish to see the ceremony, if you are in Leeds you can come to the Rupert Beckett lecture theatre in the Michael Sadler building in the university (show starts at 9:45am on Mon 11th July), or you can see it on the live webcast online: www.leeds.ac.uk/webcast/

We've both been in Newcastle this weekend, as John's dad was taken into hospital with a minor stroke, but fingers crossed he seems ok. We're just waiting for the results of the mri scan, and for him to be let back home.

That's it for the moment, will update soon with more news...

Finally some intelligent conversation for John