The most stressfull thing about doing my tax return this late has proved to be the discovery of how little work it actually required, leading to questions of why I didn’t do it earlier.
For the third time I promise that this year I’ll get it done in a more timely manner. Honest
Technorati tag: Tax
Guess who’s cybersquatting michaelhowardmp.org?
via Tankerx, who, as with so many people engaging in the immigration debate, is missing some of the pertinent facts. Britain’s becoming an older country, our net population, particularly in Scotland, is dropping. Making economic immigration easier will cut the number of illegal immigrants working below minimum wage on the black economy meaning more money in taxes and improvements all round.
Technorati tag: Politics
Just finished Gangland, an interesting history of twentieth century British crime, if a little infodump-ish in the amount of data on every page.
Started Fast Food Nation, sort of a literary companion to Supersize Me.
Next on the must read list is probably 1421: The year China discovered the world (but don’t tell Emily, because it’s actually her book.)
Technorati tag: Books
Created at MAnchester (then Ringway) airport during the second world war- a Jeep with autogyro style rotors and a tail that could be towed behind a plane like a glider. More details on the Hafner Rotabuggy. Make a card model of it.
Technorati tag: Military
“C’etait un Rendezvous” A bumper height high speed ride through early morning Paris.
via LostFocus
Technorati tag: Speed
Dutch artist Theo Jansen has created life, of a sort- kinetic sculpture animals that roam around beaches under wind power.
Technorati tag: Art
The story of a baby named Yahoo was made up and the reporter who hoaxed the world has been fired.
Technorati tag: Yahoo
Today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year for britons, as such things as finances and failed resolutions catch up with them after Christmas. I admit my finances are, as they have been for far too long, a bit fucked. But on the resolutions front I think I’m doing quite well.
It helped that I haven’t announced the resolution until now, but I’m not going to let that stop me. I decided to try to create at least one piece of Spinneyhead merchandise per week. So far this year we have-
The Winter postcards.
Three new Spinneyhead Scale products- the print your own tarmac, print your own concrete and 24th scale scraggy armchair.
The first Frightened to Death by Fairies product- The ‘You’re Only Supposed to Blow the Bloody Spores Off!’ mousemat.
And finally, yesterday’s stroke of inspiration- Home Roasting Is Killing Starbucks. I could be cheeky and count this as 33 items, taking me most of the way to the end of the year, but I won’t.
So, there, my resolutions are going fine. If they just start selling they may help my finances too.
Technorati tag: Merchandise
Action Man HQ welcomes all thirty-somethings to the Unofficial home of the vintage Action Man!…
Technorati tag: Nostalgia
Want to emulate the people of ancient Nazca/ Then just follow these simple instructions for drawing landscape figures.
Technorati tag: History
Let’s face it, instant coffee is awful (“it smells like wee” says Clare). Roast is better than instant. Beans are the best form of roast coffee. And home roast beans just have that special something extra. So we should all be roasting on demand and the hell with chain coffee shops.
Except, of course, we aren’t and never will. Hence the spoof on those old “Home taping is killing music” stickers.
Visit the Home Roasting shop.
Technorati tag: Satire
All this week I’ve been working on a single image. It’s been quite an involved process, but now it’s finished. Based upon a silly thought I had last Saturday (before I’d even started drinking), it allowed me to experiment with the creation of Frightened to Death by Fairies images and deploy a terrible play on everyone’s favourite Michael Caine quote.
Technorati tag: Fairies
The VersaLaser is a desktop laser cutter. Admittedly, it’s $10,000 a go, but I want one.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: Technology
This week’s theme is Crowded.
Technorati tag: Photo Friday
Robert Kilroy-Silk is the new Geoff Hoon.
Technorati tag: Politics
The quest to have other people build the Perfect Sex Toy for me continues. OpenDildonics is a project started by the Brum2600 group to bring Open Source/GNU technology to Cyber Dildonics. It aims to bring Cyber D to the masses through the use of GNU software and a ‘Build your own’ ethic. Amongst other projects on the site- wiring an Anne Summers Pocket Pleaser to a printer cable. the first step, I guess, toward controlling it from your PC.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: Sex Toy
Microsoft’s guide to DOS command line commands. Because it’s been a long time and I’ve forgotten what they do.
In the beginning was the command line- Neal Stephenson
Technorati tag: DOS
Tadalist, an online to-do list handler. MAybe I could convert the Hundred Things list to this? I think i’m going to sign up just to see what I can do with it.
Technorati tag: Internet
In the beginning there was BlogExplosion, and it was okay. Now there’s a rash of link exchange blog services, the latest two are BlogCrowd and Wolf Surfer. I use them to generate traffic, of course, but also in the same way as I used to use the most recently updated list at weblogs.com, Popdex, Blogdex and Blogsnow– as a way to find stuff for Spinneyhead. The quality, in design and content, fluctuates wildly and I’m not finding as many interesting posts as I used to, but the whole process is strangely compelling and addictive.
Technorati tag: Blogging
The Super City show opens at Urbis today. I really should go and check it out, it sounds like a tongue in cheek North of England Mega City.
Technorati tag: Architecture