SUPER-SPECIAL DOUBLE EDITION inspired by late-night-drinking TV trivia discussions followed by enthusiastic recitations of TV theme tunes.

What is the name of Silas Greenback's pet worm?

From: AQA [63336]

Baron Silas Greenback's pet caterpillar (not worm) was called Nero in the children's series Dangermouse. His sidekicks were Stiletto and Leatherhead

Also!

What was MacGuyvers full name?

From: AQA [63336]

The first name of MacGuyver from the TV series of the same name is Angus. Richard Dean Anderson played MacGuyver and Dana Elcar played Andy Colson.

I love the way language evolves over time, according to need. I love that no-one controls it, that words just bend their way across the languagescape, changing and altering as required. I love watching new words thrive or die and wondering why. I love that 'cool' has stayed the ultimate expression of goodness while other, lesser would-be successors have had their time and passed. I love reading the history of words. I'm glad the language grows and mutates and naturally pares away the language dross. I mean, the people who 'invented' Esperanto...what were they thinking? You don't just invent a language. They invent themselves, over thousands of years.

That said -and I'm not the first to say this- I could really do with a context-independent evolution of the exclamation mark. The exclamation mark has a lot of meanings, but in everyday e-mail use you generally want it to convey either anger, suprise or, more generally, a sort of pleased loudness.

"Thanks for dropping off those paperclips!" may not necessarily be suprised or angry, for example, just sort of happy and loud about it. (alternatively, this may be sarcasm)

The problem with having two essentially opposed emotions (anger and happiness) represented by the same emoticon is that it can lead to someone interpreting your messages in the opposite of the spirit that they were intended. For example, you might e-mail a co-worker and conclude your message with: "I'll bet you're down the pub!" meaning it with a smile, and half an hour later getting an apologetic e-mail back after they read it as: "I'll bet you're down the pub! Grrr."

All language is, of course, context specific, and it's neat that we even have a symbol that expresses loudness of any kind. But I think we can go one better. After all, we already have:

!? I'm angry and confused.
!?! I'm so angrily confused I am coming after you.
!!! I have no control when it comes to punctuation.

Would it really be so bad to have:

!+ I'm loud because I'm happy
!- I'm loud because I'm mad

If you missed our last, first barnstorming two-level gig a few weeks ago (or, indeed, if you didn't), don't miss our potentially triumphant SUNDAY gig....THIS SUNDAY!!!

Sunday? FUNday more like!

Where: Downstairs at the Spice of Life, Soho
When: 8.30 PM Sunday 12 February, 2006
Who else:

Karim Fanous
@ 8:00 pm (Singer/ Songwriter)

Grok
@ 8:30 pm (Experimental)

Lucid Oak
@ 9:00 pm (Acoustic Rock)

A year ago today, I posted what was not technically but spiritually the first post of this blog's existence, in which I discussed the following resolutions:

Get out of London at least once a month. Check! Birmingham, Oslo, California, New Zealand, Amsterdam, Derby, Plymouth, Ashford, Croatia, Cromer, San Diego (again), France

Update this blog thing once a day. Check! Sort of. I generally updated, with very few exceptions, once every weekday.

Spend at least part of my summer in Croatia (this has been a resolution three years running, so it's about due) Check!

Go roller-blading in Barcelona. Fail! Didn't even go this year! Rrrr.

Go to the gym at least four times a week (blading counts as one). Fail!

Never, ever watch TV by myself. Fail!

Never, ever drink on school nights. Except maybe Thursdays. No, not even Thursdays. Oh, okay maybe sometimes on Thursdays. Fail! Sometimes absurdly failed.

Create a short film and submit it to the UpOverDownUnder film festival. Fail! However I'm slightly mollified by the fact that there WAS no UpOverDownUnder film festival this year. That's hardly an excuse.

Finish at least one chapter of The Trusted Professions every month. Check! Okay not technically once a month but I got it done, which was the point.

Play a live gig, with an audience. Check!

So that's 5/10. A pass. I set the bar high, and just managed to clear it. Given myself a little bit of extra credit for the destruct\hour.

So, a good year, really.

Hmm.

Did I mention I hate meta-blogging? That is, making a blog entry all about your own blog. I think I've done it maybe twice since starting, and even then only tangentially to some other topic. And now.

As mentioned I've been going through, as I'm sure we all do at fairly regular cycles, a bit of a blog malaise at the moment. Not really sure why I do it. It's interesting and somewhat gratifying to note that all of my successful resolutions were somehow captured or logged by this journal, which makes me want to continue. I also feel like a lot of my resolutions were a bit banal and unworthy compared to many of the things my fellow two-niners seem to be doing (buying houses and incorporating companies and such).

So it's not really a blog malaise at all. It's a life malaise that's more or less continuous but my awareness of it ebbs and flows based on how distracted I can make myself from it.

I like my job. It's not what I want to be doing and I don't know what is.
I love my friends. I'm desperately, sometimes horribly lonely.
I miss my family and want to go home but don't know what I'd be if I went there. I don't want to go home and I don't know why.
I'm happy. I feel like I haven't progressed in five years.

I just don't know.

So, blogwise, I'm changing the parameters a bit. I'm not posting every day just for the sake of doing so. I think it's a good habit and I don't think anyone should analyze too much the quality or worthiness of any one post (/novel/song/friendship/creative act), lest one analyze it right out of existence, but I would like each post to have substance. This may mean large hiatuses or it may not. I'd like to do a videoblog that's decent and substantive. I'd like to get The Trusted Professions published this month and get underway with the audio version fairly soon. I have a concept for the next novel which I will hopefully have fully refined before next November. I feel energized when I have creative projects and I want to keep as many on the go as possible.

Lifewise, I really should change the parameters a bit. I just don't know what to change them to.

Happy Birthday, blog.

Skiing was great- literally loads of photos and vids to pore through before I can upload them to flickr. This will have to do you until then.

Actually, before the inevitable skivid is made, these three raw AVIs (about 2-6MB AVIs at this point) make for pretty entertaining viewing:

Here's the video of the jump where the above photo was taken.

Here's one where I fall off a cliff- keep watching until the end to see me appear WAAAAY down the bottom of the skifield when I finally stop.

Here's one where I nearly collide with the cameraman.