Geeks

As recommended by City Life

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Welcome to all the visitors who have come to Spinneyhead as a result of the City Life article on blogging.

I’ve been blogging since January of 2001, though in the early days I had a tendency for very brief posts. There have been a number of changes in emphasis and design over the years. Check out the archives, at the bottom of the left hand column, for a taste. If you check out the individual posts you may even see examples of the last couple of page layouts. For a more detailed look at the evolution of Spinneyhead’s style (or lack of it), you could check the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.

Greatest Hits

Some posts get more attention than others, and you can’t always tell which ones will be high performers. The Sex Toy post has been consistently popular and spawned further posts and some clothes. (If you want to claim your free vibrator, click on the button below.)

Naughty Gifts for Naughty People, Click Here!

The next three most popular links all involve videos-

Fred the Dursty Parrot, which samples and mocks the Limp Bizkit front man’s sex tape.

Take My Breath Away, a video for a cover version (found on the site of Didsbury based Hippocamp records) of a soft rock “classic” which involves exploding aeroplanes, freefall cats and GW Bush giving the world the finger.

Queerest of the Queer, another bit of impromptu mockery, this time of a former WWE wrestler turned right wing nutjob.

Around Spinneyhead

There are seven blogs in the Spinneyhead family. You can see the most recent posts from each of them in the column down the right hand side. Briefly, they are-

Spinneyhead- a group blog that is still dedicated to wasting time at work (where there is Internet access andthe filters let it through). This is where all the stuff that doesn’t fall into one of the specialist categories goes.

How to Save the World for Free– I started this because my parents are planning to build a low energy eco-house. The subject matter has expanded to encompass more than just the kind of equipment and designs they’ll need, but that original idea lies at the hear of it.

Spinneyworld– all about the cool stuff that goes on around us. The idea is to recruit a blogger from each time zone to report on events such as festivals that happen in their area.

Digest– dedicated to good food, whether it be food that tastes good or food that is good for you. They’re the same thing more often than you’d think.

Dig– Spinneyhead has an allotment, though work on it has been slow this year. Dig is a lazy person’s guide to growing and harvesting their own food.

Scale– because I’m a geek who never grew out of his modelmaking phase. Mostly about my own projects but occassionally spiced up with interesting news and photo reference links.

Steam Geek– this is my Fred Dibnah blog. It’s all about fascinating old technology, mostly from the Victorian era onwards. This is another blog that is going to provide lots of photo reference material, just for some very strange models.

There are other sections to the site. The Galleries are here. They spawned Discontinuous Infill, an occassional zine-on-a-disc about all sorts of writing on walls.

Cycling On The Pavement is a selection of longer articles and fiction. There are a few chapters from ongoing novel projects in there. I self published a print-on-demand novel a few years ago. There’s an expanded downloadable version here. Treat it as shareware, you can pay as much or as little for it as you want.

Deputised Experts is syndicated by Webcomics Nation. If you have a website and want to put a regular (Mondays and Fridays) crime comic strip on it then you can “tooncast” it. You get extra content, I get more exposure. It’s cool to be the creator of a cult comic, but it would be better to be the creator of a popular one.

Update A few things I forgot to mention in the first draft. I’ve recently had problems with the way the blog appears in Internet Explorer, which appear to have been more IE’s fault than mine. They’re fixed now, but I do recommend you use Firefox to read Spinneyhead, or subscribe to all the RSS feeds, where the formatting issue won’t be such a problem.

And I really ought to give a shout out to everyone else from the article- Stephen Newton, who wrote it, Lord Rich, Southern Bird, I love air guitar, Call-centre confidential (RIP), Airport Exile, North West Passages, United Rant, Manchester Buccanneers and Bitter and Blue.

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Steam

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Coming soon from Spinneyhead (possibly by the end of the day)- SteamGeek, where I shall be celebrating the sort of old school technology that makes me go “Aww, cool!” and makes Clare roll her eyes and go “Geek!”.

This is the sort of thing I’ll be featuring- a working (sort of) paper model of a stationary steam engine. (A stationery steam engine?)

This paper steam engine is based on his cad drawing of a Riches and Watts nominal 2 ½ horsepower vertical A-frame double acting simple slide-valve steam engine circa 1870-75. The original engine was used to drive a water pump to irrigate the fields of Norfolk. If this model had a scale, it would be roughly 1:19. I had to double the size of the eccentric and strap in order to make it buildable. Everything else is close to scale, but changed in design and apprearance because, well, paper isn’t iron.

via BoingBoing

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Every good girl deserves a geek

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And some of the bad ones too- Why geeks are the greatest lovers.

“A nerd is an excellent provider and a guy who puts you first,” says E. Jean Carroll, Elle magazine’s love and sex advice columnist. “He’ll turn out to be a great father and a great husband.”

And, she insists that a woman who is willing to stick it out with a nerd and get past his quirks will be handsomely rewarded. “Don’t give up on him too fast,” she said. “If you stick with him, he’s going to turn out to be really great.”

via Slashdot

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GoMeme

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There are by some estimates more than a million weblogs. But most of them get no visibility in search engines. Only a few �A-List� blogs get into the top search engine results for a given topic, while the majority of blogs just don�t get noticed. The reason is that the smaller blogs don�t have enough links pointing to them. But this posting could solve that. Let�s help the smaller blogs get more visibility!

This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000�s of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.

Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!

Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)

Path List

1. Minding the Planet

2. Luke Hutteman�s public virtual MemoryStream

3. geek ramblings

4. Spinneyhead

5. (your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person).

(NOTE: Be sure you paste live links for the Path List or use HTML code.)

Coffee Geek

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I thought I’d try roasting slightly better quality beans, so I picked up some green Santos beans from Whittards on my wander on Friday. They’re not stronger beans, but are more mellow than the cheaper Venus beans. I’m going to mix the two batches 1/3 Santos to 2/3 no-name Venus beans for future brews.

By synchronicity, BoingBoing has a post dedicated to home roasting today, including a pointer to the eponymous CoffeeGeek.com.

Sex Symbols

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Having mentioned Abi Titmuss, I’ve been getting a lot of hits from people searching for her, preferably naked. I only just found a gallery of images of the woman and….. she does nothing for me. Just your average bland big boobed blonde as far as I’m concerned.

Now, I’m a sucker for your Keiras and Parminders (note to Penny, Ms Nagra is due to appear in Ella Enchanted, featuring Princess Bride‘s Cary Elwes), and there’ll always be a special place in my heart for Alyson, but there’s room for a list of sexy women who are, frankly, too interesting for FHM. For starters I’d like to nominate-

Kate Humble and Ellen McCallie, of Rough Science. As a geek I’m passionate about the strangest things, and there’s something sexy about seeing these ladies getting excited about experiments.

Miranda Krestovnikoff, diver on Wreck Detectives. See above, but about shipwrecks and reefs, and with added scuba gear hotness. (I’m watching the documentary channels at the moment, hence the science babe bias.)

Kiara Bisaro. Cute as a button Canadian mountain biker. Of course, she’d have done two miles before I’d even got out of the house, but that’s cool.

Update It’s list time again. Let’s draw up Spinneyhead’s sexiest people- with two lists, male and female. It’s not mandatory, but I’d like to see the “ladies who are too interesting for the lads’ mags” theme continued, and whatever the equivalent for blokes might be (one way or another, I feel a Dirk Benedict nomination is in the offing). Up to ten nominations each, please. I’m adding Sonya Madan to my list. I’m leaving the starlets in, so I have another two slots to fill.

Sunday Morning

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It’s counting down to the end of term and I really should be getting coursework done. So of course I’m working on Mary Tales.

With the publishing schedule I have planned (two Deputised Experts installments and one or two MTs a week) I have a DEx buffer of about nine weeks and enough Mary pin ups for five or six weeks. So I’ve turned to plans for the first story in Mary Tales. It’s going to be “Sunday Morning”, a decompressed celebration of relaxed weekend lovemaking.

I have learnt some tricks from the course. One of them is the beauty of layout paper for planning, so I’ll be running up a few quick drafts to work out the pacing etc before diving into illustrations. The first shot, though, is unlikely to change from the one I currently have envisioned (nudity alert for work surfers). I also have a master plan for producing the final images (Adobe geek alert)- take my Poser’d shots or sketches, do basic outlines in Photoshop, create work paths and transfer to Illustrator for cleaning up and colouring. The end result should be very different from the look and feel of Deputised Experts- bright and shiny and smooth, to complement the subject matter of love and sex.

100 Things (Part 4: It all gets a little silly)

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61.Appear on Have I Got News For You?
This will probably be just before or just after offending the Daily Mail.

62.Swim with Dolphins
It was going to be swim with monkeys, but I reckon any mammal will do

63.Visit Japan
Kawaii

64.Get a HGV or Motorcyle licence
The motorcycle licence would be cooler, but I value my limbs the shape they are.

65.Learn Morse code

66.Attend Burning Man
There were also plans to create a BM equivalent in the Scottish Highlands, to be called Soggy Man.

67.Dance naked in the rain

68.Drive a race/ rally car

Last night I handed out a notebook when we were in the pub and collected a few ideas. I’m going to reproduce them all, though some will have an X by them because they didn’t make it onto the list. Credit, and/ or blame is apportioned for each of the following, which is only fair.

69.Fulfil Sabs’ dream of seeing me walk out of Lyme Park lake wearing breeches.
Penny. Well, it was Sabs’ idea originally, but Penny added it to the list.

X. Date a man for two weeks
Penny. I asked Harry if he’d go out with me, but he said no, so this isn’t going to happen

X. Prove I’m a better lover than Sid
I never claimed to be better than anyone, just very good. And it’s such a subjective thing anyway.

70.Get a woman to pose in the nude (for my comic.)
Zoe. I asked Zoe if she’d pose naked for me, but she said no. Shame. I’ve also widened the scope to posing for anything, just to improve my chances. Any volunteers?

X. Hold a protest on the Mancunian Way for the purple lampposts
Penny. I’m not entirely sure what this means

71.Play UV pool
Daz.

72.Do roman chariot racing with big fat men in place of horses.
Zoe. This is a far nicer version of Lesley’s suggestion of ‘Become a pony boy.’

X. Play the lead in a musical porn movie
Penny. Oh, oh, oh, fell-ay-shee-oh! Channel four did Pornography: the musical last year. This is off the list if only to protect people from my singing.

73.Flash at a concert audience
Penny. Originally ‘Flash at a Status Quo audience’ but I’ve expanded it.

74.Be a model at an Ann Summers party
Penny.

X. Be a turkey inseminator
Penny. Maybe when I move to the country.

75.Swim the full length of the Bridgewater Canal
Penny. So long as I don’t have to do it in the actual canal.

76.Learn the national anthems of the Six Nations
Penny and Lesley.

77.Design a sex toy
Zoe and Penny. Full description- ‘Design a sex toy and advertise for testers and reach quality standards for ISO and BSS’. By setting such stringent conditions they just volunteered to be the first testers. There then followed a brainstorming session on what would make a perfect sex toy, the notes from which will form the basis of a future post.

78.Be an extra on a TV programme.
Emily. She originally stipulated Hollyoaks, but it was decided I wasn’t blonde enough.

79.Buy lingerie for a woman
Penny. In person, from a shop. Original conditions- ‘Buy a woman a thermal vest in person from Pleasure and a matching set from Kendals including peep hole bra and crotchless knickers whilst dressed in a flowery dress.’

80.Buy the Pete Waterman (SAW) compilation album
Penny. She insists it’s not because she’s too ashamed to buy it herself. It could have been worse, she could have suggested the karaoke version

X. Purchase a vibrating vagina from Ann Summers
Zoe. Sorry, no.

X. Chat up a barmaid and get a snog and a slap from another
Penny.

X. Learn the difference between the Macarena, the Saturday Night dance and the chacha slide
Penny

81.Learn to salsa
Penny and Lesley. I’d also like to learn to make the perfect salsa dip.

X. Get a PC to use handcuffs on me in a ‘friendly way’.
Penny

82.Have sex in an ambulance or hearse
Penny and Harry. Originally an ambulance or ‘vehicle of the dead’ while on the move.

X. Have sex while skydiving
Penny. I don’t think that’s even possible, except for eagles.

X. Get a pet ferret and keep it in my trousers and take it for a walk
Penny and Lesley. The RSPCA would be all over me.

X. Full body wax (BSC)
Penny. I’ve already said an emphatic no to this several times.

X. Organise a naked Lazer Quest tournament
Daz. Body paint is allowed.

X. Get a job at an all girls school or college
Zoe. I like this idea, it could open doors to so many of the other tasks. It’s only not getting listed because it’s probably impossible.

X. Do a ‘Bruce’
Penny. There’s a line in Clerks about Randall’s cousin breaking his neck trying to perform this act. All I’m going to say is I used to be supple enough (just) and I could be again with a little yoga.

83.Grow a bonsai tree
Penny. A bit of wishful thinking considering I killed my last two bonsai. My sister did buy me The Art of the Bonsai Potato for Christmas.

84.Have a drink in every CAMRA pub in Manchester
Harry. Originally it also said ‘within one week’ but I edited that out.

X. Drink a bottle of vodka without throwing up.
Daz. No.

85.Get an 8 pint certificate from The Crown in Stockport.
Me.

86.Get zipped up in a US style body bag.
Harry. Only if I can take a big knife in to cut my way out.

87.Create art using my body.
Penny. Originally ‘Create modern art using your body and any other body using bandages, plaster of paris and vaseline and get it displayed in a gallery.’

88.Get a piece of art displayed in a gallery
Me, but inspired by 87. I’m allowed to do a Banksy.

89.See a psychiatrist
Penny. After some of these suggestions I’ll have to.

90.See a psychosexual counsellor
Penny. See above. And I think this should also apply to some of the people supplying suggestions.

91.Bowl on the Bowling Green again.
Emily. That is, the bowling green that used to be in front of UMIST union. They’ve done horrible things to it. Does boules count?

X. Appear on Zero to Hero
Daz. I don’t know. Daz, despite being in denial, is a bigger geek than I, perhaps I should put his name forward.

There’s still room for another nine suggestions. Sensible ones preferred, but don’t let that stop you.

Airfix

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Model Geek alert!

I know the Airfix renaissance has been going for a couple of years now, but I was particularly struck by it today as even more of their models had crowded onto the shelves.

The entry level kits are true pocket money models at only 4 quid. They may not be as detailed as some of the more exotic creations available today, but that’s not such a bad thing. And some of the subject matter is sometimes not made by anyone else- for instance, I haven’t seen the Matilda tank done by any other company. Dad will be pleased as well, the RAF Refuelling, Emergency and Recovery sets were great bases for kit bashing.

A few of the re-releases are already on my wish list (particularly the Vulcan), but what else should they produce? I want to see all their 1/32nd scale cars, the Bristol Bloodhound, the BV 141 that I’m currently building and all of their railway kits.

Geek Heaven

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As Spinneyhead’s resident alpha geek and uber fan-boy it’s my duty to announce that KEVIN SMITH WILL WRITE AND DIRECT THE ‘GREEN HORNET’ MOVIE. Production starts this year for release in August ’05. I think we can officially declare this to be the geek movie of 2005 (displacing Star Wars EPIII from that position). Kevin’s own take on the movie deal can be found here.