Liam's blog

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/17/2010

2010-02-17T10:27:00.000Z

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/17/2010

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/15/2010

2010-02-15T07:24:00.000Z

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/15/2010

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/12/2010

2010-02-12T07:11:00.000Z

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/12/2010

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Run to work on 02/10/2010

2010-02-10T10:37:00.001Z

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Run to work on 02/10/2010

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/09/2010

2010-02-10T10:37:00.000Z

MapMyRun.com - Regular Run: Regular Run on 02/09/2010

Chitting

2010-02-01T22:06:00.005Z

I have got 2 varieties of potato chitting on our kitchen windowsill at the moment. Maris Piper as a second early variety and Sante as the maincrop. Apparently Sante are very blight resistant so (fingers crossed) we won't have the problems we did last year with it. If it doesn't help then I don't know if we'll carry on with them. I also need to look at tomatoes which are more blight resistant because we had it bad with them too. It might be because of the wet summer we had too, so hopefully this year will shape up to be a bit warmer and drier.

Need to get through the leeks soon as that is where the potatoes will go, and there are come shoots coming up from the garlic. Other than that there is not much going on in the garden at the moment. Managed to get some digging done last weekend so I took up a load of weeds and mixed in our compost. I also cut back a load of bush type plants that grow down the side of our veg patch as I don't like them and I think they get in the way. I'm hoping that by cutting them back just as they started growing again it might weaken them and make them easier to dig out in the spring.

Closing tabs

2009-10-16T10:18:00.005+01:00

A bit work related and probably not for you if you are not interested in data visualisation, but I thought I would post the first in my infrequent series of Stuff I Have Found On The Internet Which You May Find Interesting and I have really put the links here so I don't lose them and so I can close the tabs in my browser...

1. Conflict map
http://www.conflicthistory.com/
Claims to map every single conflict people have ever been part of

2. San Fransisco Crime map
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/14/san-francisco-open-city-data (article)
http://oakland.crimespotting.org/ (actual tool)
Apparently they are trying to implement something similar in London

3. Interesting take on a pivot view
http://simplecomplexity.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/US-Unemplooyment.jpg
No numbers, just colours

4. Stock ticker orbital comparison.
http://www.uniformchaos.org/stoc.php
Adds in speed of motion to show percentage change of the price as another way of visualising a measure

That's all for now

I think I'd have nibbled it...

2009-09-22T09:11:00.000+01:00

Visokio on the FT website again

2009-09-16T14:41:00.001+01:00

Financial Times using my company (Visokio)'s DataPlayer software again, this time to show Chinese IPOs

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2588b436-a10e-11de-a88d-00144feabdc0.html

I'm a bad bad boy

2009-09-06T23:37:00.005+01:00

Well I'm sitting here at the end of a fantastic weekend. Ruth has gone to bed and I won't be up long. But she has just updated her blog and so I feel compelled to do so too. Quick update on life, Millie's 1st birthday was yesterday and it was really nice. Thanks to everyone for everything you sent for her (and thanks for not sending lots of toys!) Ruth has put some pics up on Facebook from yesterday and I'm hoping to sort a problem with the website soon.

Updates on other things:
Books, I'm not doing very well towards my target, and am beginning to question whether a target-led reading of books is a very good way to proceed, but I've started so I'll carry on with it. I won't give reviews of every single book but a list of the ones I have read but not written in here so far are:

The Man With No Name (Anonymous)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling)
No Angel (Jay Dobyns) - this was a really good book about a police man undercover with the Hells Angels.
Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader (part 1) (Neil Gaiman)
Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader (part 2) (Neil Gaiman)
JG Ballard Short Stories Collection part 1
Tomas (James Palumbo) - wierd but oddly enjoyable
A Brief History of Infinity (Brian Clegg)
Forever Undecided - A puzzle guide to Gogel (Raymond M. Smullyan)
Necrophenia (Robert Rankin) - the first Robert Rankin book I've read. Wasn't really aware of him before but he lives in Brentford which is down the road from where I used to live in Hounslow so I thought I'd give it a go. Wasn't bad. Wasn't really great either. I think he is probably one of those authors that if you come to him later on you should start at the beginning rather than with the latest book so you can get the running jokes later on. In a similar way, I often wonder if I would appreciate Pratchett quite as much if I hadn't started reading him when I was 14.
When you are engulfed in flames (David Sedaris) - Had moments of brilliance but I chose it for its title and it didn't really get any better than that.
Chart Throb (Ben Elton) - very funny, and particularly relevant now Ruth's Big Brother fixation has been replaced by an X-Factor addiction.
And the Hippos were boiled in their tanks (Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs) - Only book by Kerouac I have ever enjoyed, probably because of Burroughs' input, despite my dad's protestations that Kerouac was a genius.
Nocturnes and Preludes (Neil Gaiman)
Book of Dave (Will Self) - Genius
Winter in Madrid (C.J. Sansom) - I have loved the Shardlake books by the same author but didn't realise this was the same author until after I had read it because it is from a totally different time. Really enjoyed it.
Portnoy's Complaint (Philip Roth) - Not really one I enjoyed as much as I thought I would, though it was hilarious in places and really made me laugh in recognition at others.

There may be more books I have missed from here and I will need to check my London bookcase to make sure. I am currently reading the new Le Carre book and am really enjoying it. Will update when I complete.

Anyway, I make that about 22 books I've read with 8 months gone. Don;t think I'm going to make 52 by the end of the year, but I'll try my best...

Anyway, it's now getting late so I'm going to go to bed as I have to get up early to head into London... Will write again soon.

Brilliant

2009-09-01T17:40:00.000+01:00

I'll make a real post soon I promise...

What I learnt today

2009-07-04T22:18:00.002+01:00

In a bucket of salty water, slugs sink but caterpillars float. Strange...

The planets have aligned

2009-06-25T18:09:00.004+01:00

What a day for us at Visokio, the Financial Times is also running a feature today on Negative Equity (click Top 100 cities) created using our software.

That's two of the largest media publications in the UK running stories on two of the hottest topics using software I have written, both on the same day. I think I need a lie down!

MPs expenses and me

2009-06-25T15:09:00.003+01:00

Don't worry, I'm not about to launch into a diatribe about MPs expenses, after all, something good has come out of their stealing ways. Software written by my company (Visokio) has been used by the Telegraph to show the outcome of their investigations. You can see it here MPs' Expenses Data Tool.

This is a big bit of exposure for us and hopefully they will now use it for other things.

Easter and books and stuff

2009-05-15T22:31:00.002+01:00

(this post was started on 21st April but I didn't finish it so I'm going to post it now - then read it and hopefully finish it soon)

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted. Things have been a bit mad with work, other work and life. I was due to work from home for a couple of weeks over Easter but I ended up having to go back early because Ruth was poorly and had to go into hospital. It seems to be ok now but we won't know for sure until after her scan which is (finally) scheduled for next week.

After a couple of days in hospital I went to Liverpool for the Grand National for my friend Dan (Shaq)'s stag do. It was a great day and although I didn't win anything, one of the other guys won £500 with a £5 bet on a 100-1 in the last race which won. We didn't buy a drink again all night. And there were lots of drinks! (Thanks Mike!) The best bit of the whole night was Dan's brother being escorted from the dance floor in Chicagos in St Helens because of his crazy dancing, which we all faithfully reproduced at the wedding a week later. The wedding was a humanist ceremony which I was very interested in seeing. It was very nice, but (and this is REALLY not a criticism) but at one point the person conducting the ceremony pronounced a creed for humanism (from memory it was something like:"Humanists believe that this life is the only one we have and so we should strive to achieve as much as possible in it") which gave it a pseudo-religious air, which is a little odd for anti-religionists.

Anyway, the evening was fun and Ruth and I took great advantage of a night off from the girls (my mum had them in Liverpool for the weekend) to really enjoy ourselves and drink lots and dance to the cheesy music being played (although, after being the person who requested Reach by S-Club 7 I think I was probably at least partly responsible for the cheesiness - but it is one of the best tunes EVER for getting people to dance - and have you heard the lyrics? They really mean something, just listen to them and think. We SHOULD reach for the stars. In fact, thinking about it - the British Humanist Society should probably replace their "Humanists believe..." creed with S Club 7's Reach. I think it encapsulates everything they want to say. It is, in fact, the way I try to live my own life. Thank you Simon Fuller et al.). Also, it was fantastic to see Vicky, my friend from university, again. It has been too long since I saw her and I hope that it won't be so long again - I guess that's something I need to sort out though. Only down point on the night was the fire alarm going off in the middle of the night in the hotel (damn Travelodge) but Ruth got them back with her multi-coloured burps.

The 2 weeks either side of Easter I was working from home and it was really nice. I ensonced myself in the "library" (as I like to call it) but managed to get out a couple of times for dinner and bath times, it was really nice to get to spend this time at home and I hope I can do this a little more often.

Anyway, I have (unsuprisingly) finished a few more books. These books are:

Team of Rivals

I REALLY enjoyed this book. I have always known that history is one of my weaknesses and I really wish it wasn't. I think if I had to start again I would probably have done some kind of history or classics degree. Anyway, considering the reputation Lincoln has, I knew very little about him (or in fact the American Civil War and that entire period). This book has really helped me fill this gap, but I would say that it is very clear that the author had a very high opinion of Lincoln's abilities. I have no doubt that he was one of the most amazing men of recent history, but I would have liked to have heard of some of his faults without the inevitable mitigations that always appeared in this book whenever he appeared to make a mistake.

(to be continued...)

Weight update

2009-05-15T21:46:00.002+01:00

Quick one - I had a baddish Easter but I'm back on track now. Was 13 stone 12 lb this week which makes it 2 stones lost since Christmas. Just waiting for someone who doesn't read this blog to notice now. I think maybe people have an image of me in their head of being overweight, but not quite as big as I had actually got, so when they see me I conform to what their image of me is, even though I was actually much bigger. Anyway, feeling much better with it. Had a couple of good weeks of cycling but I think it is the garden that is really helping me lose weight at the moment. You don't realise quite how much work all that weeding is!!!

I'm gonna grape you in the mouth

2009-05-01T10:17:00.002+01:00

I just had some funny looks in work while watching this with headphones on trying not to scream with laughter.

Cycled this morning

2009-04-28T10:53:00.002+01:00

I've been very slack so far this year in not cycling to and from work so I hope that posting them on here will be an incentive - please feel free to barrack me with abuse if I go too long without cycling.

http://www.mapmyride.com/view_workout?w=263124091139725170

It's ridiculous that I don't do it every day - it is cheaper (costs me £3.50 per day to take bus, £0 for bike), quicker (bus 45mins to 1hr, cycling 15 mins) and healthier (doing exercise and no temptation to pop into shop and buy a Chunky KitKat).

2009-04-01T11:07:00.004+01:00

Down to 14 stone 2 lbs - I have now lost 10% of my body weight since Christmas.

Badminton

2009-03-17T15:31:00.002Z

Just played badminton for the first time ever and I didn't suck. I thought I might, but clearly all those years being really bad at squash have paid off and I am only bad at badminton. Maybe with practice I can reach poor. Yay.

"Not bad", "Wahey", "Fantastic", "Oh No", "Woo Hoo"

2009-03-17T12:39:00.007Z

Not Bad Had a good weekend. Went to a car boot sale to get rid of some of my years of accumulated stuff. Made nearly £100 after the fees and teas were taken into account. Have a (partially) secret plan for my next one. Will keep you posted.

Wahey I am now the proud owner of a greenhouse. Not a big glass one (unfortunately) but a big plastic one. My old cold frame cover had fallen apart last year and they didn't have one in the right size so I bought this thing from B&Q which is the size of a greenhouse but in a similar vein to the old one (metal frame, plastic cover). I feel like a proper gardener now.

Fantastic A friend has now entered the world of parenthood. Congratulations Jan and Murray. Don't listen to anyone telling you anything you don't want to hear and enjoy yourself as much as possible. It can be hard but it's wonderful. I am so pleased for you. (p.s. for some reason I am convinced you will call her Morag. I'm guessing you won't read this until after you have decided on a name so you can let me know if it was even under consideration).

Oh no Martha was taken ill last night and had a temperature of 40 degrees. Clearly it was easier for Ruth to drive an hour to the hospital with both the girls than to call the on-call GP away from his Pobol y Cwm*. Anyway, seems she is ok, probably just a reaction to some anti-biotics she'd been given earlier in the day when Millie was diagnosed with Bronchitis (not really getting things in order here am I). Anyway, both seem a lot better today and Ruth is doing a fantastic job looking after them.

Woo Hoo 14 stone 5lb! 5lb down and 1 and a half stone total.

*A Welsh soap opera

Am I a geek?

2009-03-10T18:37:00.003Z

This really made me chuckle.

Weekend and weight update

2009-03-10T08:20:00.003Z

14 stone 10lb this morning! That's 4lb lost last week, which is even more surprising given the weekend I had.

I started out sowing the grass seed on the soon-to-be-lawn. Wilkinsons do a good deal on loose grass seed which you fill into paper bags and then get it weighed. Much better than buying the highly packaged stuff too (though I won't be saying that if it doesn't grow...)

In the evening we went out for a nice meal in Blancos Restaurant in Port Talbot (the in-laws were looking after the girls) on Saturday night and I didn't worry about what I was eating or drinking. I had tuna steak in pepper sauce, it was a bit overdone for my liking, I like tuna on the rare side, but it was nice with the sauce.

Then on Sunday we went for a roast and I had roast pork followed by the biggest plate of raspberry pavlova I've ever seen. Again very nice.

And then, to top off a brilliant weekend, Everton won in the FA Cup quarter finals and now have the joy of playing against Man U. I am not sure I agree with the semi-finals being at Wembley, a few years ago if Everton were playing Man U they would have played it at Anfield or Eastlands, much better for the fans. But of course the fans are not fans any more they are a revenue stream and they have to pay for the new Wembley somehow I guess. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to it and still dreaming...

Mr Chicken

2009-03-06T08:59:00.000Z

I think it's amazing the niches people carve for themselves:

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/meet-mr-chicken/

Weight

2009-03-03T13:43:00.001Z

15 stone, up 1lb - :(

I Love Spring

2009-03-03T13:36:00.002Z

This weekend just gone I finally had 5 tonnes of topsoil delivered alowing me to get on with the biggest job left to do in the garden - putting some grass in. Took me ages to get it all spread out but (with a little "help" from some of the children in the neighbourhood) I managed to get it all done. Then it was a simple case of picking out the 6 rubble sacks of stones I found and carting them down to the tip. Lovely weekend for it though and it will be fantastic when the weather gets nice and we have a lawn to sit on.

Also have my seeds in for some of the earlier veg - I have some tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, lettuce, sprouts, broad beans and cauliflowers in, along with the onions I put in before the winter. I have taken over half the breakfast bar in the kitchen with seed trays. But it'll only be for a month or so until they are strong enough to go outside in the coldframe.

Jobs to do over next few weeks: sow grass seed, dig out the blackcurrant bushes and replace with raspberries (some people look at me in horror when I say this. Sorry, I just don't really like black currants that much and i love raspberries. And have you seen the price of raspberries?), pot on the seedlings, get the second sowings done, weed and rake the veg patch. I think that's it.

Knackered

2009-02-24T22:07:00.003Z

Just about to go to sleep after only having 6 hours sleep since Saturday night - all busy busy in the world of student essays...

Anyway - just thought I should update on the weight situation. After Ruth, Martha and Millie came to visit London last weekend, I'd gone up to 15 stone 8 (Dominos+wine+Toby carvery I guess), but I am back down to 14 13 this morning. Not sure why I get such big swings. Oh well - let's hope I go down 9 lb this week too.

Abe Lincoln coming along well but slowly (proofreading again...) - will update when I finish.

Dreaming of Wembley!

2009-02-15T22:11:00.003Z

I had a fantastic weekend this weekend. Ruth came down to London with Martha and Millie. On top of having a really nice time with the family. EVERTON BEAT ASTON VILLA! I am so happy I can't believe it. I really wanted us to draw Swansea away in the next round, but as that wasn't possible I am happy with being at home to West Ham or Boro. I know that I will probably end up disappointed eventually, especially as we will probably need to beat one of ManU, Arsenal or Chelsea to get there, but at the moment I am dreaming of Wembley...

The Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

2009-02-12T13:22:00.004Z

I finally finished Conrad's The Heart of Darkness last night. For such a short book, I found it quite tough going and it took me a long time to finish it. Partly due to the snow, which kept me at home last week, eating into my reading time and partly because I wasn't quite sure what to make of it and so it took me a while to digest.

The book is clearly of its time with some very Victorian attitudes which, for the modern reader, can be very difficult to sympathise with. It took me a few days before the appearance of words which are now considered unacceptable for use to describe people, such as "nigger" and "savage", stopped shocking me. It wasn't so much the fact that the words were used, but the assumption conveyed through their casual use by every character in the book, including the narrator and so presumably the author, that these Congolese Africans were sub-human.

Of course I find it very difficult to imagine a time when Africa was the "Dark Continent", as now, even the most remote places seem very close and whenever they are shown on the news the people are wearing baseball caps and jeans. Clearly back then things were very difficult and these people must have appeared as a race apart, but as much as I can intellectualise about that, there was still a small part of my brain screaming "You can't say that!" Having said that, it is clear that Conrad believed that the attrocities being committed in the Congo by the Belgians (amongst others) were not a good thing, and through this book he appears to be protesting against this view. So although by todays standards he would be seen as very old-fashioned, even racist, by expressing his opinions in this way he was actually incredibly progressive for the time.

The version of the book I read was the Penguin Classics version with an introduction and commentary in the form of notes. I am unsure I like this format. Certainly the first time I read a book I usually skip any introduction which tries to explain what the book SHOULD make me think, though I do find it interesting to read through the introduction when I finish to see if I agree with the arguments within it and also to see if it provokes a different understanding of some of the areas. I think I would usually prefer the "introduction" to appear after the story.

The other thing I have a problem with is notes. I hate being interrupted when reading, but when you are reading a line and you see a little superscript number pop up, you have to read what it says just in case you miss something, but this not only requires some finger gymnastics (keeping your little finger in the correct page in the notes), but also completely breaks up the flow of the story. If the note is a good one then this doesn't matter so much, but when, for example, it is a definition for the word "Caravan" I think it would be better left un-noted and anyone who thinks that the caravan in question is a holiday home being towed behind the car of a young family looking for a cheap holiday can look it up in a dictionary.

Overall, it was a bit of a mixed bag and not one I would heartily recommend, but if you are interested then I wouldn't discourage you either.

I had a choice of 2 subjects for my next book. Today is the 200th "birthday" of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin and so I thought it would be agood idea to read about one of these. However, I have already read On the Origin of Species and a biography of Charles Darwin, but I don't really know a lot about Lincoln other than the obvious (president, hat, Civil War, assassinated) I will be reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Don't know when I'll finish it as it is a big old lump of a book.

Week 3 weight

2009-02-11T10:59:00.001Z

I am down to under 15 stone this week - 14 stone 13 lbs to be exact. I am very pleased with the way it is going and I am not even finding it too hard at the moment. I know that will definitely change soon and it will become more difficult to keep losing weight consistently, but I am hoping to lose as much as possible before I hit that wall!

Losing more

2009-02-02T21:16:00.003Z

I have just weighed and I am now 15 stone 2 lbs so another 3lbs off. That is now 10lbs in total. I am very pleased with that considering I went out last Wednesday with a friend and had 5 pints and a curry. Maybe I should do that every week! In fact, given the Everton Liverpool match is on ITV on Wednesday, I almost certainly will this week.

Snow

2009-02-02T10:56:00.004Z

Heavy snow last night means that the trains are not running so I am staying in Wales today and will be working from home. Will have to see what happens in the week to see if I'm going to go to London or stay here all week. Martha's school was closed this morning, though by all accounts we have had less snow than other places. Martha was quite disappointed, but we did build a (mini-)snowman which seemed to cheer her up a bit.

What a week to run out of firelighters...

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

2009-02-02T10:45:00.004Z

I finished Iain Banks The Wasp Factory on Thursday.

I always thought I had already read this book. Iain Banks (and his science fiction alter-ego Iain M Banks) is an author I have read a lot. It just happened that I read the back of this, his debut novel, to remind me of the story and realised that I had never read it. I really enjoyed it. The main character is again an anti-hero who has killed 3 children. It is testament to the author that, even if you cannot sympathise with his motives or understand his thinking, you do sympathise with him. His father is a strange figure and, without wanting to give the game away, I thought he would have a darker secret than it turned out he had. Highly enjoyable. I understand that when it was released this book was quite controversial due to the violence in it. I think that reading it now with all that has come since (Irvine Welsh for example) it seems, if not tame, then certainly not excessive.

That is my 3rd book and I am currently reading Conrad's The Heart of Darkness.

Book update

2009-01-29T13:04:00.000Z

I have read 2 books so far this year (I know - I'm a little behind target).

Anyway, the 2 I have read so far are:
Nation by Terry Pratchett

I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett and always get his latest book for Christmas from my mum. He is highly prolific, especially in his Discworld series, but this is a stand-alone story not in that series. I really enjoyed this tale of the recreation of society on a small island after a big wave wiped out most people. He is very good at creating characters with whom you sympathise totally, even if they may have some foibles. The female lead character in this book, though bound by Edwardian-era sensibilities, is forced by the accident to live on this island with people she previously would have regarded as savages. Although the leader of the island is the main character, it is this girl who undergoes the most dramatic change.

The second book I read was The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

I found this book by accident and was pleased I did, though I didn't like the last part of the book as much as I liked the rest of it which was a bit of a shame for me personally. It starts off after a PhD student finds what may be the only copy of the book "The End of Mr Y" in a book shop. The book is rumoured to be cursed as everyone who had ever read it had died. Of course she reads it and discovers a secret. The second part of the book was an interesting examination of some subjects I am quite interested in, particularly the philosophy of people like Heiddeger and Baudrillard. Unfortunately in the end, as the author herself admits was a danger in her post script to the book, it turns into a "shaggy god story". But still recommended.

I am currently reading the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I will update here when I have finished.

New Year's resolutions

2009-01-29T12:42:00.000Z

It appears that everyone in the world has a blog now so, never wanting to be left out, I have decided to have my own and this is it. At this time of year everyone seems to be asking what is your New Year's resolution. I normally decide not to bother as I will have given up by February anyway. Well this year is different. I have set myself 3 goals and I will track my progress for them in this blog. I am determined to achieve all three goals:

Read 52 books this year. I have been spending far too much time watching tv. Books were my first love and I have had relationships with some books that go back further than my relationships with most of my friends. I am determined to read an average of 1 book per week.
Lose weight. I am overweight. I have long been overweight. I don't like this. I am now 30 and have decided that I can either resign myself to being fat for the rest of my life and deal with the health problems taht come from that, or I can do something about it. When I started this a couple of weeks ago I was 15 stone 12 lbs and I aim to be 12 stone 7lbs by this time next year. I can't imagine myself that weight but I can't wait to reach it. As of today I am 15 stone 5 and so have already lost 1/2 a stone.
Learn Welsh. I am an Englishman living in Wales. Deep Wales where people speak Welsh because they always have, not because they are forced to by the Welsh Assembly. Martha and Millie will be attending a school at which for the first few years they will only be speaking Welsh in lessons. I don't really want my daughters to be able to speak a language I can't. Not until they are older at least.

So, these are my goals for the year. I also intend not to let this writing the blog malarkey fall by the wayside either.

I'll post again in a moment with the 2 books I have already read this year and the one I am nearly finished.