Thursday, October 25, 2007

Our stadium


New stadium
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc
The new sports stadium was opened last night. I stood on the Morne and looked on from a distance at the start of the ceremony. With the wind blowing inland, I could hear it as if I was there.

The best part was the playing of the national anthem. Anthems are made for playing to crowds in national stadiums. It wasn't quite 'God Save The Queen' at Wembley - polite clapping at the end rather than 100,000 roars - but it's a good tune and stirring words. Words are important in anthems - Spain, please note!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Was I too harsh...?

Steve McCabe: hi
senior_advocate_nig5555: I am Chief Santos Ajala [ SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA ]
Steve McCabe: lol
Steve McCabe: i bet you are
senior_advocate_nig5555: HOW R U ?
Steve McCabe: happy that you've made random contact
senior_advocate_nig5555: WHAT ?
Steve McCabe: i'm happy. you're giving me millions of dollars, right?
senior_advocate_nig5555: PLS WHAT R U TALKING ABOUT ?
Steve McCabe: doing business with you
Steve McCabe: can we?
Steve McCabe: please?
Steve McCabe: i have an inheritance i need to share

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Lilapsophobia

Lilapsophobia - it has rather a nice ring to it. Lil-apso-phobia. Or Li-laps-o...

It's what many of us develop between June-November every year. One sign is an almost compulsive viewing of satellite images of the Atlantic & Caribbean (I've got a Widget that cycles through half-a-dozen different ones - IR, Visible, Atlantic Analysis - every 60 seconds).

It also involves compulsive hoarding: squirreling away gallons of water, batteries & candles. I also maintain a rigid spare trash bags policy.

Sufferers speak in tongues: ranting about latitude, shear, millibars, waves, categories... and often incant people's names (David, Andrew, Dean...).

And they are always the first to speak about their Depressions.

And if there wasn't a worrisome 'cyclonic circulation center near 19n36w to 13n42w to
8n47w' out there that I need to investigate throughly, I'd tell you more about this phobia!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Pointe Michel School cultural group

A couple of years on, and I again chance upon a cultural group at Scott's Head and get a couple of great photos!

Dominica's independence celebration (Oct-Nov) is one of my fave times of year, especially when the planets align and you get national costume at a national park! More photos here

Friday, October 05, 2007

Stop wasting time...

(taken from wired magazine)

The Procrastinator's Clock

The Procrastinator's Clock (for Windows/Mac/web) is guaranteed to be up to 15 minutes fast. However, it also speeds up and slows down in an unpredictable manner so you can’t be sure how fast it really is. Furthermore, the clock is guaranteed to not be slow, assuming your computer clock is sync’d with NTP; many computers running Windows and Mac OS X with persistent Internet connections already are. So what will motivate you to be on time if you use this clock? FEAR, UNCERTAINTY and DOUBT! Use of this clock shows that, although your friends have created a separate timetable just to accommodate your legacy of tardiness, you really care about being on time. By assuming that the clock might actually be telling the correct time, you'll hopefully assume that that afternoon meeting is sooner than you thought and get back to work. Hopefully.