Its that time of year again, Apple have released a new content delivery device (the iPad 2) and Nintendo release their 3D DS , which doesnt need special glasses, Now that does sound good.
The stupid thing is that people are queuing for days to be the first to get these new , probably glitch ridden toys. Now I dont pretend to have grown up , but have better things to do with my time that to wait to pay for the privilege to be a beta tester for Apple and Nintendo!!!
Last Night was the night , 50 copies of Northern Lights were picked up from the West End Library in Newcastle , given to me by a very pleasant lady librarian , in the middle of dealing with very rude and ungrateful eastern europeans.
Luckily my friend Helen and here three children were up for the adventure which was originally planned as this:
Start at Palmersville
Then Tynemouth to distibute books
Then to Wallsend
Then back to the Airport via South Gosforth
Then to Central Station, Newcastle
Then Home
A Change of Plan Is Needed
This was shot down as soon as we got to Palmersville as there were no trains running between Tynemouth and Byker , so that meant Wallsend , with it's lovely Latin inscriptions was out!
So we changed plans and made for the airport via South Gosforth , and finally got there after dark. The kids were really excited , lugging to bags of books to distribute to an unsuspecting public. The first book went to a couple , with a large luggage trolley , and small child in a pushchair who'd just landed from Singapore who were happy to take the first book from us , but were obviously very tired!!
We noticed the airport was actually quite empty , very empty in fact. It turns out there was on flight going out that night and the few people who were waiting seemed to be obviously Jewish or Middle Eastern , so maybe not the best people people to try and give the books to , given it's religious overtones.
FRom The Airport To South Gosforth
We changed tack and decided to change to target the people behind the desks. First up was the guy at the Greggs outlet , who had the the other parts of the trilogy but not "Northern Lights" . He was very enhtusiastic and said we'd made his night!!
The Crew At Whitley Bay
Then it was back to South Gosforth , over the bridge and distributing more books , before catching a Metro to Monkseaton , then on to Tynemouth where we got back on the train and went back to Whitley Bay. Then we waited an age for another train before going back to Palmersville and distributing the last of the books along the way.
The timing and distances were a lot more that I'd originally thought they would be , and couldnt have done it withoput help from Helen , Oliver , Jessica and Eve - so a big thank you to all of them!!
I've just spent twenty minutes in the Advance queue at Newcastle Station to purchase a Weekly ticket to start on Tuesday in advance. They said I cant buy it until Sunday!! I want it to start on the working day after next , the stations on the route all have ticket barriers so why the hell cant I have my ticlet today instead of having to rush on Tuesday morning?
Part of the problem may that the barriers are open when there's no staff around . I thought the point of these things was to dispense with staff!!
It wouldnt have been too bad if I hadnt had to wait but I do value my time , but it does amaze me that I defend services like this and the Post Office and they continually show complete disdain for customers , but I suppose it's better having this that whatever the ConDems have in their plans.
I always thought cars were for driving or getting from A to B, so the important selling point was how good they were to drive. Apparently not . Increasingly it seems that is not so. They're advertising integrated iPod docks , integrated Blue Tooth , integrated Sat Nave.
While all of these things can enhance the driving experience , they hardly integral to it. What use is bluetooth if the brakes dont work? What use is Sat Nav if the steering is rubbish?
More and more required functionality is being replaced marketed must haves.
I have an old car and could fit all those if I wanted , but I choose to be me , and keep the car for what it is intended!!
Google is ubiquitous , and it seems that everything can interact with everything else. There's the search engine, mail , sites , checkouts , adsenses , picassa , blogs (like this one) , and it seems to be growing exponentially.
One of the good things about this is that it empoweres people to create websites and the like and have complete control over them. Two such sites are Lovers Desires / Hidden Desires and Keith's Custom Colours . I've been advising the creators , who want to sell stuff on the site. Imagine my surprise when the Google shopping cart cant be integrated a Google site. You have to use a site widget which is driven by a Google Document Spreadsheet . This took an age to work out.
Just surprised that one Google product is incompatible with another . Not only that the Shopping Cart Merchant page is integrated with the rest of the Google User Account. Just amazing!!
Apple have created and stunning looking mouse that , is almost completely unusable to the point where users end up in pain after a session with it. It seems to me this is anothers example of Apple's continual triumph of style over substance!!!! It's also amazingly flat!
Incidentally the Roman Catholic Church now have an endorsed iPhone app for hearing confessions!! BBC article here
When Thatcher was in power she kept spouting on about a return to "Victorian Values" . I assumed at the time she wanted an end to any kind of hedonistic pastimes , sex , drink , nudity etcetera , but we know in Victorian times the rich and priveliged indulged , while the poor carried the can.
I recently learned that what she was really after was the creation of a slave underclass that would service the rich and privileged for a doff of the cap and a handful of gruel.
Today Cameron and Clegg and pursuing that goal under the cry of "Austerity" (but not for them of course) , increasing tuition fees to price the the lower classes out education , dismantling and privatising the NHS to take healthcare away and the latest suggestion that the unemployed work for nothing from Ian Duncan Smith . Here's the article. Be amazed and very afraid . What next , taxing the air we breathe?
