PP

 
new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 7/8/06 Coming Home
Frosties Mk III is en route, another shonky dog's breakfast of a site utilizing stone-age technology, hosted from a half-stolen lappy with the processing power of a 1970s Casio.
Bring it.
new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 12/16/05 Disco Frosties
Embrionic alpha-beta next-gen frosties is down the pan! Disconnected by Monsieur Campbell, who's decided another Blighty winter is not for him & is badgering off to Tahoe for the season, leaving new frosties hanging by a thread, cut on a vmware cd. So I'm in search of a new host, probably right here when the house is insulated against freezing/bursting/pipes & a suitable ISP has been tracked down.
"Introducing" the golden badger
new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 8/30/05 From small (disconfigured) acorns...
Embrionic alpha-beta next-gen frosties
new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 8/6/05 Rucksacklife
Peripatetic life continues, nay intensifies. A few days here or there in NYC/Boston/Maine/Carmel/Tahoe/SF/Marin, loosely based in the latter. Kansas next, Dorothy, then roadtrip onto Denver and back to the Bay Area. These are truly the days of bears in trees.
Proper website updatage to return when some stability is established...I appear to be the Atlantic mirror image of Bazza, exploring the correlation of work and non-work productivity.
new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 18/6/05 Frontpage begorn!

3 months later...with a raft of worldtrip photos to post I'm still wiping the techno-sleep from my eyes. Looking at my calendar, I see it's time to address the Bazzaslur and create a data-driven website with as little effort / in as little time as possible. Then again, Soulseek & Wimbledon are calling...

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 20/3/05 Adios Atos, Hello World

After 18 glorious months of contracting with Aunty Atos in Blighty, the gig is finally up. Lowlights have included; wearing suits daily, diminished power from contractor status, commuting (6 months), combating negativity. Highlights have been; earning GBP as the dollar tanks, bringing mates to Blighty, working with phenomenal people, being outside IR35 with CXC, learning different parts of the software business, redundancy cheques, visiting excrement digestion plants. No flowers.

It feels as though it's August 2003 and I've just woken from a vivid dream of being back in England. As a way of ducking out of dealing with what comes next, a round-the-world trip has been hastily organized. Flexible dates & route add more haze to the journey's purpose/duration, but currently penciled in are; Denver (tail-end of ski season), Fiji, Sydney (Flangezone, Sun Office for Kt)/Queensland (surfing), Bali/Lombok (time permitting), Cambodia (Bob/Riffy)/Thailand.

Anyone with a faint interest in footy and/or time-on-hands needs to follow the Beeb's Robbo column. Does such a character exist for American sports?

Some hurriedly-published piccies from the last 6 weeks; one of the finer Karaoke evenings of late (gratitude to Barrett for organizing by way of this), the abuse that was Bob&Riffy's going-away bash, and the return of the NorthEast for Aaron/Heidi's wedding.

Sad to relate that due my ineptitude/laziness there will be no updates until return from aforementioned journey in two or three months time. Probably.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 9/3/05 Wanted -- Gulf Stream

Perhaps my view of Blighty is rose-tinted, but nowhere in the recesses of my brain do I store memories of daily snow during the wintertime in SE England. Until now. For nigh on a month the white stuff has been fluttering in the sky. Perhaps this is a 1961/2-style end to the season, or maybe all that stuff about climate change isn't baloney and Kyoto was a progressive step ignored by shotbix regimes?

A couple of new hangers-on and a weekend trip to gay Paris

Having watched Chelsea sneak past Barcelona in the Champions League last night, I thought "what better way to celebrate than seek out the newspaper in Barcelona and read about their pain?". So off I trundled to Google, which reported that El Periodico, rather than El Pais, was the paper to concentrate on such Catalonian matters. Great! Google offers a translate service. As a quasi-software engineer it is profoundly reassuring to see what a comically shonky effort it made of it. Back in those lofty corrugated iron towers of Middlesex we pretended to study a compsci module called 'artificial intelligence'. Central question was 'Is AI possible? If so, when? Within the next 50 years?'. Well, not 12 years, that's for sure. Which is why we're all still in jobs (mostly/just). Phew.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 6/2/05 Scrapheap o' life

New Year's Resolution; maintain website. Sadly, like my flailing career, this wish has gone to pot, got the munchies and snarfed 5 bowls of cereal & a packet of hobnobs. Fear not, reader, imminent changes in my working status should at least make for some good frostytime.

The eve of my 10 years anniversary as a wage slave is up (March 1, 1995), as is my contract at Atos Origin. The latter has been brought to bear by a set of dodgy circumstances, the usual tragi-comic events of an IT project going astray. Lessons of self-preservation are there to be learnt somewhere, some post-match analysis will occur when the last hours have been billed. In the meantime, effort will be made to dust down the old resume/cv, and some sort of oh-badgers-time-to-relearn-computing activities -- maybe a .NET exam or two. With any luck this old creaking website will finally be transformed from the Front Page embarrassment it currently is.

It's been a whole 5 years since the first Frosties fondue, latest incarnation is here. Another Mr Bob Ski trip to Cervinia / Zermatt, prior to an  xmas/dave-jess wedding in California and NYE in & about NYC.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 21/12/04 The Dark Days of Frosties

Have we not been here before, Monsieur? A year ago Frosties was ravaged by drought, caused by the onset of a new job/location and its consequent disorentiation. Back in summer I made the first moves towards a post-Defra "career" move. Lured in by working with such ex-cvg luminaries as Adrian Oxbrow and Graham Morgan, plans of Costa Rica surfdom were usurped by another gig on the GIS rollercoaster (er, slowboat). Just one last hit, just one last gig and I'm outta here. Thames Water ahoy! 

2 months later I find myself taking a commuter train 100 miles each day, the highlight of my morning being grabbing the grub-slinging Metro on the way to the platform. Yes, it's a reverse commute and yes, there's no underground/a clutch of RLR Parcels (fields) on the journey but b'jaysus, how did it end up thus? Reading takes its toll, sinking its grey gums into all aspects of life; social life, London, music downloadage, mornings, evenings and worst of all, that most precious of commodities -- time.

Still, on the plus-side are the ol' contracting wages (outside IR35...taxation at a less hectic pace), the ability to live in a gorgeous flat and I've learnt what an excrement digester is. So I find myself authoring another fictitious "Solution Architecture" a year on from the last one. But, much as I would love a GIT-style reunion, it appears as though the forces of 'offshoring' have caught up with IT/GIS/me. These are strange days of teleconferences +5.5 hours (Hyderabad). Light-saber fights, long lunches, mates and computer games have been replaced by suits, early starts and endless meetings. Owwwwwww.

Compounding this unfortunate set of circumstances has been the demise of the frostiescambattery. Still, a number of snaps exist for the last few; the first of another Green Card Denver trips/Gaylord2004 reunuionend of term at Triton Square, consequent Italian holiday schmoopisnaps,   the last ever Denver Green Card trip. Finally a trip oop Norf for Elliott Penn Christening. 

Buone Feste!

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 17/10/04 Fever Pitch

The Green Card Permanent Residency thing has rocked up, a mere 5 years after applying ("it'll be 18-24 months", so said the lawyer in those heady Clinton days); another spanner in the wobbling spokes of my turbulent existence. The impact is being dissected by a team of, erm, top immigration attorneys as I hit this very keyboard in the hope of postponing a full-time return to the States for wee while. This was not the week to give up glue-sniffing. 

A mighty thanks to Barrett/Shiv/Sarah for graciously hosting me during this interim period. A mighty farkyou to the elephant herding, well-equipped amateur dentists who reside upstairs. The same goes to the Macarena-loving nightclub whose grooves cause Shiv's windows to reverberate at night. [Advice to Sarah: apply large clumps of plasticine to the frames]

The frostiescam has been acting a bit krook of late, but continues to belt 'em out: a trip to ol' Exeter, Tonks arrives for an extended stay, strolling around London/Air Guitar, Perhaps there has been a larger booze night than the Ljublana-Furness special; but I cannae remember it (no pun intended). A couple of overdue links added. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 2/10/04 Aitken Syndrome

Perhaps it's the onset of autumn, perhaps the year anniversary of Blightyness, possibly the lack of vacation. But a change is in the air. Yep, the lucrative London contract is drawing to a close; a year of Esri Noakes, Genesis geezers, former Cvg software development language (parental advisory), Sainsbury's Jacket Potatoes, Regent's Park strolls, Euston Tower Square wind & Pret Sandwiches. The flat lease is over, Baker St has been swapped for Bayswater temporary accom as it's time to consider "Next Steps".

But a dilemma is presenting itself. To continue the moneyed life of stressful city living, or to jack it all in and follow hippy instincts to a blissful existence of exploring personal boundaries? Another gig for ol' Atos Origin is on the cards, with a backup plan of learning to surf/draw in either Costa Rica or, if that pesky Green Card gets in the way, Hawaii. What to do?

August featured some comedy moments including the much fabled strawpedo night, punting/Hampton Court, Frinton & Bambou birthday, trip up to Edinburgh, Arthur's Seat "climb"

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 20/8/04 London as FLorida

Last month on the Gloucester Place Runway, an end to flashing endless fleets of double-deckers at 8am. Homelessness awaits, or JB's sofa...

A record time away from updating the old website. Haven't been slacking tho'. Time has been spent going to Wimbledon and getting badgered at parties. Glasto pix may easily offend, while the results of a quick trip to Denver were documented in detail.
People often ask is america any good, why go back, why go there in the first place etc. Need you look any more than this email from a friend some time back? Ave it!

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 7/7/04 Tempus Fugit (and so does Bovril)

It has been just about 6 packs of peroxide, 201 litres of wine and a couple of thousand pints ( a year, roughly) of Blighty livin' and the contract is up next month. Al Brown left Denver in 2002, the first of an eventual exodus. In (possibly) the same fashion Shannon is off in August. Is she the next canary, or does the arrival of David 'mad4it' Campbell nullify the result? Time to figure out what next. Objectives are being set, with "learning to surf very well" leading the list. The debate is "where?" The answer will depend on the continuing validity of my Green Card. If it's still a goer then Hawaii, otherwise Costa Rica leads the list. Thirtynothing it is, then.

Spent the last couple of weekend killer couple of events, which only living in London can really afford -- Glastonbury and Wimbledon. In true Britstyle, both were hampered by the weather. In the case of the latter, it worked to the advantage (effortlessly breezing onto Court No 1 for the men's' semi-final). Glasto, however, turned into a marathon sludgefest -- 15 hours of standing up (not done since working as a bag-packer for Sainsbury's), dodging the "mud". Lazing around in the sun with beers on the grass turned into an avoid-the-toilet-at-all-costs kinda thang. Thank gawd for the music, which rocked in that Indiewhiteboy way.

He's mad, he's bad, he's, erm, Shiv's roommate: Bazzalives. Overdue player addition.

Weddings & such in Boston/Leeds & a hike to the South Downs/Tim-Rachel engagement boozeup. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 24/6/04 Go, Henm...oh, what's the use?

Just took a tube trip back after watching England be dumped out of Euro2004. A group of girls walked by and one stopped to ask, nay threaten "Isn't Beckham shit?" Encouraged by this aggressive quasi-abuse I responded to the Marylebone train station's homeless geez with an authoritative "Don't even start, mate". Trust the Beeb (and 22 years of consistent results) to pull me through. I'm now watching a program about corruption and despair in Nigeria; things are coming slowly into perspective. So, Henman, feel free to crash out in the second round. Glastonbury, let the rain gods spew forth (if the wind ever dips below 40mph). It's all good. 

Pix from mid period London , & the country 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 6/6/04 D-Day approaches

The love affair with footy deepens, as a week today commences the bi-annual Henman-esque quest for soccer greatness (i.e. going to end up in heroic failure, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory). Still, to be back in Europe for such Diana-style outpouring of grief will be superb. Forza Azzurri! (well, one has to have a backup & it could hardly be Les Bleus)

Pix from Soho Boozing, & Greenwich run & luvvin it in Leicester.

Congrats to Giles & Jackie on the latest Penn arrival: Elliott. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 30/4/04 The Eagle has landed

The nest has been invaded, nay inhabited, by KT. Benvuto!

I see ol' Rob Smithson has started up his amoral.org thing, on weblog lines. Not bad but do you really need a job at home? To answer your question about the PennChart, it is a stillborn project from several years ago. Stillborn until last summer, when a band of brothers were going to take it forward seriously. Came up with an architecture and everything. Audioscrobbler beat us there, though, and the only reason I haven't started using it is because it doesn't support my MP3 Player of choice (the wees-on-winamp/wmp RealPlayer).

An update on the weather forecast from last week. Neil has stopped downloading music in the US of Attorneys -- must it really come to this?

 Pix from Camden/Brixton & Selva.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 13/4/04 The Honeybadgerz Project

A damp Saturday, huddled together in a Marylebone flat overlooking the traffic as it thunders down Gloucester Place. Cooleditpro downloaded, rudimentary thoughts assembled. ("You need a hobby", as one of the brothers Penn derisively commented). But lo, more laughs than a bag of Camden goodies. A unique child, born from 3 unique muthaz. Where to start? With a desperately unoriginal hodgepodge of Avalanches/FBS aspirations. With regard to the latter I was predisposed to go & nab a copy of the British Hit Singles, and start trawling through Soulseek in order to swell my library with tunes ripe for sampling. Thankfully, someone has taken the tedium out of that job with the wunderbar Easyhit -- vielen Danke, whoever u r.

Pix from more London nights.

While we may console ourselves with climatic tales such as these, weather.com says it all about London...

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 2/4/04 BrysonBlighty

Even as I get sucked in by a Liverpool loss, a documentary about the excavation of Troy & a Tom Baker-narrated expose' on the travails of a restaurant opening (makes IT seem like a dream), I can't help but say; British telly rocks. Bill Bryson has it right; it's the small things about Britain that make it so special. My commute over the park may not seem overly exciting, but where else do I get to watch bizarro duck-geese things fight it out over their patch of turf (larger than my flat, the blighters)? 

What Mr Bryson didn't have was RyanAir. The ability to escape, for the cost of medium night out, to the Alps/Med. One may not have quite the same climate-based desire to do that in the States but it's just as well 'cos no es possible -- flying in the US of Walmart costs 3x the equivalent of a Sleasyjet sojourn. Wake up, America! I want to come back to $5.99 flights, won on the back of a packet of crisps.

Pix from a weekend in Dublin. All the key ingredients were there; Badger patrols, a class (A) JB vanishing act, pavement pizza and dazed Americans.

How could I have forgotten Aussie all these years?

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 12/3/04 No more feeling -- work hangover

Having worked through the weekend, losing an insane 70.5 hours to the gods of projectsaviour & moneylust (for the first time since the bad old days of CWIM '99) I am qualified to say; dinnae do it, jimmy. To all people infected with the disease I say; cease & desist. It is debilitating, demoralizing and dehumanizing. Worst of all, there's a sick addiction to it. The first day of release from this hostage situation, I found myself at a loose end, longing for my captors. 11 consecutive days at work has rendered me vegetable-like, a chocoholic quaffing cappuccino topping behind the barrista.

An evening-only frosties piccy update (documenting an American invasion and the return of Ron). Oh, London, you are haunted by the Ash prophecy yet.

Major update to the players list; incorporating the usual wunch of bankers.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 04/3/04 Google reports "frosties blob"

The UK is being dragged into the 90s -- Meester Bob has Soulseek, Ron is being made aware of DSL and, whoa, frosties is in the, erm, Old Persean. Whatever next, a corking R'n'Brittrack

Long overdue naffo links page. Almost a proper personal website now, innit.

Photographic evidence of the wake caused by Lindsay & her motley croo on their was-it-only-a-week-i-thort-theyd-never-leave trip. Real winter is best served by a short trip to the North East, of course.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 27/2/04 In the company of badgers

After 5 long, protein-deprived months I have discovered Edamamme. Well, Milo, to be exact. I have to get the players thing going again, if only as gratitude for that one act. 

The first evening of Baker Street Boozery has been documented in multi-coloured glory; frosties idiocy is alive & kicking.

Off to a party as a badger (actually, part of a badger patrol. Yes, yes, it's not a honeybadger but I'm trying to blend in) and thereafter onwards to Dublin, where a night of trying to avoid arrest awaits.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 20/2/04 Get into the groove

Barrett & Shiv have been safely landed & installed into Al/Jane's fantastic flat and the Schlumber, oops, Atos Origin UK HQ atop Tottenham Court Road. As faceless, grey, corporation-mandated anonymous workzones go it does at least have a not-too-shabby location. 

Hecticity from the first Pearl St Reunion caused something of a week-long blackout. Impromptu flat party, strolls across the park into Camden, adventures in tuneless clubland, crashing out at JB's, the usual Boxer Short Barry, 99 pence beers, detox chez Bob, crippling costs of champagne at Tower 42 and a mid-week dawn finish.

Photies from xmas escapades; Karen's birthday, NYE in Tahoe and assorted outtakes.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 3/2/04 Take your hands of the wheel...

I have once more chosen volume over quality, getting something out the door over technical purity. Some day I will be punished for not separating content from presentation in this website but right now it's back to basics. Rather than meticulously fix up a bizarrely mixed- up batch of photies (how do digital photos get scattered around your hard-drive in an unsortable fashion?), here are some photies from the October-December timeframe -- Photies from the old countrymore yet (and initial touchdown in UK), Autumnal life, fondue, Halloween, two lots of the JB pubcrawl, and a couple of  jumbled up assorted xmas ones. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 25/1/04 Let the Golden Age begin...
After killing off Convergent Group, Schlumberger kept a few hapless souls around in an attempt to man the mailroom & empty the remaining cubes. 4 months after the epoch-defining layoff day, Tonks & Ozzie join the sacked-with-severance club, which was probably some SLB attempt to prove the half-life of a decapitated company. But I digress. Welcome aboard, chaps. It filled me with infinite sadness to miss that Potts day/night. Long live contracting / Enspiria / the real estate business, and may rumour-filled lunches continue evermore. 

Meanwhile, in other news, the drudgery of doing the architecture part of the project I'm on has drawn to a close. Backup is arriving. About 4 months late and after endless wrangling with SLB/visa places/contracting agencies/INS, the formidable posse of Nixta/Shiv/Barrett are moving to London and joining the project. Barrett, bring the UT disks. We're gonna need 'em. Muhahahaha.

Now that I have a router and a diminishing schedule, frosties stands at least a badger's balls chance of being updated once more. For nights out there have been aplenty, from Double-Oh-Flannery nights in Kensington to Caber tossing in Camden...

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 24/12/03 Santa, where's me time machine?

Xmas eve, still at work with a major present purchasing trip on the cards. Plus ca change. I've realised that in London there seem to be 3 things people do:

1) Work

2) Booze

3) Rush, by tube/taxi/nightbus between (1) and (2)

Merry xmas/happy nye, any frosties readers still out there. A flat in central London (Marylebone) has been acquired, DSL activated & squillions of photies have been taken; a recipe for the return of frosties if ever there was one. 

Hang on, I've just got to run over to the pub, "Taxi!"...

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 11/12/03 The Ash Prophecy

Some time ago Chris Ash predicted life in London as being flanked by living in an overpriced shoebox on one side and daylight-free, soggy climatic conditions on the other. As water has fallen from the skies for six straight days & I remain on JB's sofa it appears as though Ash was actually talking through his mouth.

Frosties is being held hostage by homelessness. Only a home & DSL is going to restore it to its natural state. I'm not sure if it's a London thing to feel constantly late, rushing from one place to another, but I long for a return to the Caribbean ways of Pearl St. So I've decided to go on the hunt for a flat. $2k/month will get you a flat of 40-odd square meters (!) which may or may not; have natural light, be subterranean, have 5 foot ceilings, be above a curry house. Truly a depressing pursuit, designed to flush the weak out to the suburbs -- where you will get an extra 10 sq meters in exchange for having the life sucked out of you by a head-crushing daily commute. 

No sank u! So the search continues in the W1/NW1 zone of London, preferably close to Regent's Park. The easy life will return, oh yes it shall, doubting Australians.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 10/31/03 From Hobophone to Hobophobe in 31 days

As I skipped out of Pearl St with no more than a couple of suitcases and my yoga mat on my back, I felt that sense of freedom that comes with losing the shackles of ownership. It was beautiful. I can out-hobo Shiv right now. No fixed abode, none in sight, staying wherever I can. But no more. So thanks to Steph/Bob/Riffy/Hezz/Al/Jane/Shannon/JB for putting me up over this exhausting, illness-inducing month. Having lived in a sunny, people-less state for so long my immunity to lurghy of the blib-blob-bleeb variety has been all but destroyed and I have been consumed by weeks of perpetual sickness. And not just of the physical variety. Watching Kill Bill the other day also sparked a sharp sensation of "home" sickness for America. Damn that Tarantino character.

Having no scanner and having lost my katiecam USB cable, the frosties photy library is currently frozen in time. So I cribbed these pub crawl snaps from Neil & Sean. Just as frosties is entering a slow-down phase, caused by overwork, job-change, country-move and a general lack of scanner/home-based DSL, the competition is breathing down my neck. Hats off to theboylard, ministryofalbrown, a resurgent nixta and even the reheated, refried beans of a site that is tartley. You can all try, but you really can't put a good phoenix-badger of a site down. I vill be back, this ain't no Michael Howard selection.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 10/01/03 Last Call

If anyone is out and about on Friday (10/3) then drag yourself along to Colfax for one final belching contest.

What was the best day of the last 12 months? Layoff day.

Think being laid off in tech is new? Think again. New to unemployment? Fret ye not. Maybe you're just in your early 30s.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 9/23/03 Evacuation proceeding, Catharsis underway

Perhaps people felt this harangued when they were leaving London for the countryside in the blitz of 1940. But I doubt it. The pressures of finding another job, moving country & remaining legal in the eyes of the INS/BCIS do not hold a candle to the mammoth operation that is moving out of Pearl St. 

Watched a top notch flic, Thirteen, 'tother day. Absolutely fantastic journey into developing yourself (albeit within the heavy handed context of doing it too young). Such discovery was more like thirty for me. Speaking of youth, a couple of overdue additions to the players page.

Congrats on the engagement, Bitsy! UYA, JB!

Is there anything wrong with stealing other people's photies, only to slyly post them on your own site? Given the impermanence of everyone else's site (Nick's offline for donkey's years, Shiv's GORN, Tartley site hacked by kiddy, Erica GORN etc etc), I think not. In this vein some shots from the last 6 weeks, plus some  black&white shots of the same old same old.

Another cache of photies from university circa '91, including the ponciest set yet discovered -- predating the AshGQ thing by nigh on a decade. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 9/10/03 Frosties.com -- end of the road?

For a smidgeon over 4 years frosties has been out there, causing congestion on, and generally adding pollution to, the web. It has saught to detail the events of a few eejits in Colorado, with something of an Anglo-Saxon/Commonwealth tint. However, as has happened with another corking Colorado publication, the flighty critic, it seems as if this particular tale is coming to an end. Or so I thought. For, in coming to clear out Pearl St I have discovered a bunch of photies from '91 & '94 which would appear to be the precursors of frosties. Dossy jobs, easy living, manic escapades, noncing around, life as a vacation, excessive wastage & poncing out., From other scradgers.

Just when you think you're flying you get shot down in flames.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 9/05/03 Layoff Revoked & the road to Damascus

Upon hearing news of being laid off, there was a part of me which said "I don't believe it". How prescient that turned out to be. The reason was not my undoubted brilliance, nor even the fact that I have a stash of incriminating photos of senior SLB management. Nope, the cause behind receiving 12 phone calls from my former workplace two days later was the fact that the blighters had managed to lay me off while I was in the middle (more the beginning) of a real, live project. And so I blagged my way back into the office for some pseudo-contracting action. Just as well, since former roommates have left enough of their shoddy belongings to Pearl St to give its miserable remaining inhabitants cause to hire a full-time chiropractor. 

Yesterday afternoon things took a turn for the bizarre. Hunched over my desk and contemplating the lack of computer games action since people were axed, I was summoned to the HR office. What had I done now? <anyone adjudicating my unemployment claim can desist reading now> 

"We'd like to unlay you off. Come back to work as an employee." 

"Hmmnn...let me think about that, you want to hire me back because you value me? Because you realized the crazy mistake you made?" Er, no, because you think it may be cheaper that way. A swirl of emotions whipped up around me "Am I crazy?" "Take the severance and run!" "What if you can't find another job?" "It's the last opportunity to leave Denver" "What about learning to surf?" Epiphany: time to prove Nick wrong, I _will_ leave Denver without being fired (although I was fired, but who wasn't?).

So, after some Ash-Tonkin soul seeking, the layoff (& severance) remains and my journey to who-knows-where is underway. Bring it on! Snaps from Blighty, including some of the fabled hottest ever day, as well as some steamy pix from the new stock of JB birds. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 8/27/03 Veni, Vidi, Laidoffi, Bloggi

Commencing in December 2000, Convergent Group started downsizing. We had the Van Larson round (idiots only), the Roger Wilde round (eccentrics) in May 2001, and rounds for JB-Stoppenhagen (slackers please) in June 2002, Gurner in October 2002 (bye bye dot com-era hires), Shiv in April 2003 (adios UT stats manglers), Lance June 2003 (hardworkers) and finally Ash-Penn-Mertz-Scott-Steklac 2003 (heroes & CEOs). A company purchased by SLB for $400m in 2001, now worth <$5m, having required several million to keep it afloat in the interim. 450 to 50 employees. An investment blunder of impressive proportions (even by dotcom mistake standards).

So the documented case of the curse of the Vail house has claimed its latest victim: yours truly. 8 years, commencing in GDS, Cambridge in '95, moving onto ArcSystems, Melbourne and EDS, Lakewood before pre-dotcom Convergent Group, post-dotcom Convergent Group and SchlumbergerSema, before Convergent was reformed & finally killed off on 8/25/03.

So layoff Tuesday (always a Tuesday, according to urban psychiatry myth and Cvg experience that is the day people are least likely to go Postal on) commenced with aplomb at Potts. With the laid off outnumbering the remaining Schlumberger employees, an atmosphere of all-day drinking quickly set in. At 330pm a group of us were whisked away in a limo to see Radiohead at Red Rocks amphitheatre. Speeding across the foothills, consuming Absolute Shambles on the way to see a band at the top of their (live) game gave the afternoon a surreal feel. The evening, or what I can remember of it, was a top 3 concert and no mistake.

The sense of euphoria had indeed evaporated by 9am this morning, replaced by a heavy hangover and nagging doubt of "what now?". Naturally, as JB & Shiv can attest, such negativity is greatly assuaged by the powerful effects of the intense Colorado sunshine. Apparently being laid off is meant to cause a rainbow of emotions from ecstasy to insecurity. Anyway, the day has been frittered away trying to rebuild JB's linux machine with Windows. A plan is beginning to be formulated, which will either involve contracting or surfing in Indonesia/Australia. More as it happens. A week ago I said I wanted to buy a pint for this laptop, on which most of frosties was written, scores of lines of code were composed and squillions of tracks downloaded. Adieu, ppenn2. Tu me manqueras. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 8/25/03 London, land of global culture, global warming and globally warm drinks. I want in.

Initial reflections on my extended trip to the boozing capital of the world seem to be verified everywhere I turn. Most recently, the Times. In a not so unconscious gesture to justify life in the outdoors, in the week since I've been back I have; swum, played tennis, jogged, bikram yogad, hiked outside Boulder and biked down Keystone mountain. Radiohead at Redrocks tomorrow, and a similarly frenetic week/end lies ahead. 

I don't remember the start/end date of WWII/I, or pretty much any other date in history. 22nd of August 1485, however, sticks out in the mind as a teabag to a bin liner. Where would we be had Henry VII not prevailed that day? What shape would religion have taken, would Blighty have been ruled by the Hun, or (worse still), another couple of centuries of the French? All of which makes the first weekend of trip the majorly historic zone of Market Bosworth (where the devastating Wars of the Roses were concluded) all the poorer for not making it out to the battlefield itself.

I see the RIAA's outrageous attempt to sue the kersquillions of downloaders out there is running into its first (hopefully insuperable) hurdle: the law. In the meantime, like the cowardly dog I am, I've disallowed the "supernode" capability in kazaa and am increasingly turning to the frankly more reliable soulseek. Having paid $50 for a Radiohead ticket, after downloading their album FOC presumably I should be sued on that alone. The 'head will make approximately $20 from my live show ticket, versus the $1 on the album I (never) bought. Logic over. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I listen to the 'thief' album it still seems like utter pants in comparison with the Bends-OK Computer era. But I digress.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 8/18/03 What a scorcher etc!

Yep, all predictions of England having the usual shoddy summer were obliterated by an insane heatwave. Still gathering my thoughts on the whole affair, so what better shots to display, therefore, than some bollards and dullards from the west coast of North America? 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 7/16/03 Escaping the dog days of a Denver summer

Just got back from a couple of weeks of Mexico/San Diego, sun & surf blighted only by having to stand in the company booth for the ESRI conference and confront the nerds. Proof, as if it were needed, to jump ship from IT. The only interest we had was from Indian IT shops sending their scouts around soliciting us for work. Luckily we have no projects anyway.

Denver has been wretchedly, relentlessly hot. The choice not to get air conditioning has proved as wise as Schlumberger's efforts to get into the IT business in North America. How apropos, perhaps*, that I should be about to head back to what will undoubtedly prove to be the wettest August on record in ol Blighty. Yes indeedy, a month or so in Regent's Park is on the 

Something of a backlog building up, but in spite of that here are some shots of a Wash Park picnic, as well as some more quality photies of a brief trip to England. Meant to post something in the height of Wimbledon but time did not allow. Also wanted to discuss "staring at the fragility of life & the precipice of death from the sinking ruins of a burst inner tube" but perhaps that says it all. No photies were recorded, little but adrenaline-soaked horror as Kelly & I fought for our lives in the snow-melt of a raging river while Seanie laughed on. Made for something of a corker of an evening out. These, it could be argued, are the days of our lives.

* purely for the pomposity factor, Nickles

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 6/26/03 Without Balls: Nick Furness, je t'accuse

Yep, another 16 people march onto the Denver labour market (albeit with a fat redundancy cheque in pocket), flung from the rapidly diminishing  ranks of Convergent Group/Schlumberger. The augurs for the day were not good. In the absence of Blighty I have been thrown onto the mercy of friends for lifts to work (Vielen Danke nach Tonks/Seanie/Derren). As someone who prides himself on waking up without an alarm clock, it has been a (pardon the pun, which in American English translates loosely as "literally") rude awakening to cob a lift from someone who leaves before milkmen have brushed their teeth. I have been suffering at the hands of this maniacal insomnia all week, slowly acclimatizing myself to this sleep-deprived existence. Imagine the delight therefore, when, having dragged my sorry post-shiv-birthday arse into my clothes, only to receive the following txt msg:

AdamT Mate running late. One hr? Jun 26 07:30AM

Notwhatyouwant.

Some old todgeslap photies mercilessly wrenched from Seanie's site. Apologies to Nixta for copying files from one side of his machine to the other, but an unshakeable infestation of trouser weasels to him for his recent, inaccurate tales of noncery. Am I afraid to fly in the face of my sponsor's latest rants? Ich denke nicht. Do we at frosties.com regard it with the same level of seriousness as the RIAA's latest display of impotence? Do we scoff at his inability to form the phrase "World's most pompous prat" without a) omitting the apostrophe b) capitalizing the first letter of each word in the style of Tom Bannon? Ich denke so. Of course, old cadger only brought his website out of somnolence to produce page headings such as "Bloody 'ell", "Rants" and "Slaggings". Clearly the irony of an accusation of perma-negativity is a) projection of self or b) post-modern pontification dripping in irony. Assez.

(frosties.com is a nixta.com enterprise)

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 6/20/03 Blightymobile est mortus?

Or at least in a deep, Hans Solo-style coma. Is it about to move on to the list of trusty ex-steeds? Je pense que oui. And neverevereverever take your vehicle to PepBoys, not unless you want to be confined to taking a lift with Tonks at some ungodly hour each morning. Could there be a more obvious sign of 'move to a place with public transport?'

And so draws to a close the second period of living alone (the first being 6 months in '96, this being a mere 3 weeks). People have consistently told me that living alone is the zenith of their existence. While it is true that it extends nudity, permits still-louder music and leaves the house feeling inexplicably cleaner, I can't quite jump aboard the hermit bandwagon. I just have to think to myself: what would Christopher Alexander think? Was the solo-life part of primitive society, or did it form part of Marx' utopia? Je pense que non. 

It didn't help that I was haunted not only by the guests of the Kentucky Inn (Denver's sleaziest, just a few steps away from the Pearl St Palace. The sort of place that has its rush-hour between 7&8am as its clientele are coming off the shift. But I digress, and in a snobbish way), but the true ghosts of the house were roommates past. Showers were taken (LC), keyboards tapped on (MM), hair dyed, couches slept on (MM, NF), pans banged around (LC), duplicitous double door slamming (JB). Worst of all: NO ONE TO BARRY AT. The lesson learnt is that one needs an outlet for negative energy. Of course, all that was restored when a bearded Shiv returned from an American-style tour of Europe (21 countries in as many days) and decided to move the spare key to the house (er...the only key to the house) from its position of the last 16 months without telling me.

Some antics from Sea Ranch and, erm, Twa's.  Recovery at last?  My gauge will be David scoring a job...although some say that Rachelle is already in employment. Meanwhile our company is allegedly on the cusp of setting another 50 unwitting souls free. Bonkers Beeb article of the week. Genug.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 6/12/03 Get a pail, IT's time to bail

Lots of doom & gloom articles about the sorry state of IT and how things can only get worse. The prevailing school of thought espouses the old Ash argument that all tech jobs are moving to India. Only face time will save us. Scradgers. Notice to Travis -- they're coming for financial services next...

Still, not all is wrong with the world -- this is the most hilarious thing I've heard since that stormy Saturday night in that cosmopolitan centre of culture, Indianapolis. Events of a tamer nature from Lindsay departure night -- the camera failed to snap the 2am ralph-onto-the-front-lawn antics. 

Looks like I'm making some progress on trying to return to Blighty, which is only enhanced by reading a load of old badgers, including the following insight into business in Britain:

One older worker complained bitterly to researchers that 17-year-olds "have fairy hands, they don't want to graft" and said younger workers would be turn up with debilitating hangovers or take sick days "because it's raining".

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 6/8/03 Slippery Slopes

Went to see the Matrix Reloaded last weekend. I have recently become somewhat obsessed with the first one, which can only mean that I'm a) philosophically challenged (or not enough) b) I'm trying to identify with the geek-as-hero image or c) the film really is something of a Fightclub-style perfect blend of thoughts/action . Any road out, it (the sequel, not a patch on the original but an interesting advancement of the plot) has become the first flic that I've downloaded from Kazaa. I felt that sense of naughty, semi guilt-laden exhilaration that I experienced 3 years ago with my first MP3 from Napster. Yum.

I used to think that moisture fell from the skies every month or two. This year it seems as if Colorado is rivaling the west coast of Scotland. To that end, went camping/rafting on the weekend, where the water seemed to form itself in walls. Crashing, face-smashing, boat-tipping walls. Probably had more adrenaline flowing than Uma Thurman in Plup Fiction after the needle-in-chest incident. Yikes.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 5/29/03 Old Skool

Fotes taken from a hitherto lost disposable at the time of JB's going-away pub sprawl. Gives some meaning to the term 'blind-drunk'.

In a (day-long) fit of boredom, I reluctantly signed onto friendster this week. The basic premise seems to be listing your friends, who list their own friends, who list theirs etc. So for example on my list is JB, who lists the slappers of south London, who list their tennis partners', who list their STD-yielding ski fling in Val D'Isere and BOOM! everyone's snogged everyone anyway. Still, it is faintly intriguing to know how the whole world knows is inter-networked. Quite a funky thought. Of course, as Maura points out, it's really more of a match.com-lite. With a strong flavour of classmates.com / friendsreunited, it's probably just another one of those things you may sign up for and then forget about.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 5/19/03 Geek me up

More shamelessly stolen snaps from Rannery of a couple of recent happenings: more people leaving the world's most transitory city.

<GeekWarning>After years of struggling with PL-SQL and its poorer cousin T-SQL, I found myself down the pub with a a dodgy mate of Ash, Campbell. Turns out said horse humper workded for Oracle. On a whim I mailed him' and tried out SQLJ. Holy cannelloni! A 'real' programming lingo, and it works on the client & server -- with jdeveloper it even debugs. On ne peut pas demander de plus.


Nope, haven't done any research on slashdot about it but my machine has been recently running like a dog (and a dead one in a ditch at that) recently. I found a google_dcc process (actually, 3 of them) consuming over 50% of the cpu. Having killed them and deleted the executables I thought no more of the matter. But lo, they reappeared. After repeating the exercise and removing the directories I thought, "surely they're gone now". But like Matrix/Terminator-style self-creating, indestructable creatures they just came back. Presumably "dcc" stands for "diabolical cloning clusterfark".

Then I uninstalled the google toolbar and it all went away. 

Ability to see my frosties.com google rating 0, Ability to listen to music once more 1. Result.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 5/6/03 Madonna Mia!
Oh, Madge, did you really have to go and try to flood the internet with profanity in the name of making yourself even richer? Still, there is the challenge of downloading the non-counterfeit album (is there irony in an artist spreading a counterfeit version of their recording? penso di si'). Such effort is making up for the fact that most reviewers seem to think Ms Ciccone has produced another Bedtime Stories, so maybe she's out-Petshopboysed the PSB themselves.

Speaking of music, 102.x bites the dust -- another nail in the coffin of Denver radio.

Some photies themselves illegally posted before their time by Flangey. Where is the PIAA when you need 'em?

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 4/18/03 Everything's gone green

When I arrived in the States I was shocked by our then-CEO and his blunt approach to motivation. Money. That was the beginning and end of the matter -- issues such as the people you worked with and the the interest of the job were barely (if ever) mentioned. Now that the recession has brought my career down to its knees (wage slave), I figured "why not concentrate on that aspect of the job?" 'Introducing' the frosties money clock -- watch your wages accumulate before your very eyes (the salary is entered in password format so as to prevent straying eyes from figuring it out). And, for the hell of it a second salary level can be entered so as to exacerbate tension/soothe your worries away.

Painful photies from the "Shiv" round of layoffs aforementioned. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 4/18/03 The curse of the Vail house...

A little over a year ago I moved out of the Vail house. Let's take a peek at people in on that jaunt who've subsequently lost employment; Michael Ellis, Jay Fishel, Kevin Terp, Elizabeth Sargeant, Bitsy Schneider, Steph Reed. Working in the cushty area of healthcare, I'd always thought that Renee was insulated from the rigors of the IT slump. Apparently not, as she becomes the latest statistic in the 100,000+ layoffs of the past month. As I see JB planning bicycling adventures around the UK I ask, when's it all going to end? Casting my frazzled memory back to the last recession, which began 1990 and didn't really finish 'til 93 I fear that even if we're on our way out, statistically, the employment sitch is gonna be screwed for at least 12-18 months. Ho hum.

Some sepia shots from Steph's Aspen celebration.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 4/11/03 Man down! (Shiv)...layoffs continue

SBL Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf tells remaining staff that lay-offs did not happen. "No, there weren't another 30-something people let go, and the office has not shrunk from 430 to 100 since acquisition. Exciting new projects are starting daily, brought to us by our talented team of sales people. 

Responding to allegations made by remaining employees of the influx of cardboard boxes recently ordered by HR he retorted "They (the remaining employees) are going to surrender or be burned in their cubes. We made them drink poison last night and the CEO's soldiers and his great managers gave them (the employees) a lesson which will not be forgotten by history. Truly."

He brushed off an institutional investor's suggestion -- reflected in the sinking share value -- that it was time for the management to surrender. "God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of these dissenters. Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a company of 70,000 people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege."

Reporters had seen outplacement agencies lining up for the juicy contracts brought about by the degenerative state of the company. "Don't believe these invaders and these liars. There are none of their forces in the office. Never!" the minister told reporters at an impromptu outdoor press conference.

Finally, answering the charge that oil companies should not dabble in IT he concluded "Please, please! The... (critics) are relying on what I called yesterday a desperate and stupid method."

We found that views differed with so-called former employees. "We discovered that all that the SBL information minister was saying was all lies," said Ali "Shiv" Hassan, an SBL employee in Cairo, Egypt, gazing into his severance package, estimating the number of Jack & Cokes he could purchase from the final cheque. Kris Prohbsh A-shhmysta was heard to be giving advice of the "don't chuck a Hartley" variety. We sincerely wish Mr Hassan all the best in his traveling & tennis careers.

Last of the wintry photies.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 4/3/03 Liberated!

A couple of years ago I tried the web browser Opera. Nasty UI, dog-slow performance and embedded adverts caused me to run for the uninstall option (which probably crashed). It sort of reminded me of then Jon Hartley -- bloated, bumbling and bally useless. But so sick of popup adverts for classmates.com & 'security' cameras designed to scroll down cleavage, a never ending stream of Alt+F4 clicking for sites like eonline, msn and any newspaper led me to interrogate Tartley on the state of the non-Mickeysoft browser market. I can't believe I waited so long. Mozilla is not in the same league as IE -- it does have History and Alt+D puts you in the address bar (listenup, Netscape), but Ctrl+Enter is farked, the middle mouse button doesn't bring up the multidirectional cursor. And a few sites it doesn't seem to work on. And the annoying non-background print dialog. But the freedom of never seeing scores of cheapflights windows is exhilarating beyond belief. I feel as though I've cheated the internet of her great scam, as though somehow I'm flying through the web. Or something. Try it.

Some fantabulous black & white Coral room photies, as well as some previously lost skating snaps from Nikki's b'day.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 3/25/03 Moore On at the Oscars

While there was some value to his statements, Michael Moore's oscar outrage was just that. Condensing the themes of the Bush (s)election, war with Iraq and the exaggeration of terrorism into 45 seconds didn't really deliver any message beyond Moore-as-politician. Isn't that sort of thing meant to be debated in the nation's political institutions? Maybe that was the point. Even though I was HP to see Nicole Kidman take home the Best Actress thingy did she really have to blubber like Gwyneth Paltrow? Bad things really do seem to come in threes -- queen of egos (Julia Roberts) was there yet again.

Some dog-eared photies from Breck & SF.

Guestbook, courtesy du Nixta, which is semi-functional.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 3/20/03 SchneeFest!

Biggest snowstorm in 20 years or some such. It began on St Patrick's Day after a rousing Coral/Supergrass gig at the Bluebird. Strolling down Colfax at 1am in search of the ever elusive Denver taxi was not the perfect introduction to the storm. But lo, our gracious lords & masters have allowed us to "work" at "home" for a 4 precious days. Work has included shovelling, sitting around, snowballing and snowfort construction. But mostly sitting around. Cabin fever has been combated by wandering out onto Washington Park, watching surreal telly and caning various bevvies.

Results of day one and impromptu party on day two have been captured by the KatieCam.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 3/17/03 Kumbaya - debate in Denver

Just got back from a lame-as anti-war demonstration. OK, a candle-lit vigil was never going to be a radical, stirring, politicized rally designed to make a difference. But after listening to a few hundred people sing Michael Jackson's "We are the world" I was ready to leave. As I cycled away some articulate, courageous chap floored his SUV past the flock screaming "F*** you, Bomb Iraq!" Not a good advert for middle America.

Hmnn...I see George Bush invited Gerry Adams for dinner at the Whitehouse the other day. Not sure where that fits in on the 'war on terrorism'.

A few snowy photies from a family outing to Armida's / Keystone. 

A few  new  players.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 3/11/03 Au Revoir, JB

5 long years have JB & I been housemates in Denver. Every emotion, from elation to exasperation, has been experienced in the Knackers(Breakers), Gaylord & Pearl St. Fare thee well, JB. With layoffs coming at the end of this very week and/or a transfer in the offing it may be a short period before I'm back in the U of K.

A traditional Colfax-based pubcrawl was thrown on the last snowy day in Feb. One suspects that there are many more photies to come, and perhaps one could argue that my library is turning into nothing more than a Rannery-redux. Care factor is, predictably, low.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 2/25/03 Whammy the Grammy

Sorry, but if rehashing a well-worn 60s formula (see Dusty Springfield's "Breakfast In Bed" for a better version of "Don't know why") wins Norah Jones a Grammy over Eminem's "Without Me" then the recording academy (or whatever it's called) needs a boot up the harse, as well as a reminder that innovation and, frankly, a good tune should provide the bedrock of such an award. Cue "Spiderman" to win Best Picture.

Crazy, crazy night for Nikki's b'day commenced with a BYOB at Asian Cafe. as well as antics from a farewell to the Gurner.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 2/18/03 Sucked out

So Joe Millionaire es finito, gone in a mélange of forced fantasy and financial fecundity. The cultural glue which bound my existence together to everyone from taco DJs through aspiring actors is no more. Wherefore Monday nights? Back to another teevee thang or time to learn the conversational arts?

The Vietnam Inn, depicted in a joyful moment mere days before its demise, is depicted within, as are scenes from layoff Tuesday and the ever photogenic Lime. 

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 2/11/03 Jerry Maguire meets Bridget Jones

Debate of the week, or my life right now: which book to read next, Don Quixote or 'What colour is my parachute?'. 

Scrappy old photies from Vail & Breckenridge weekends.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 1/31/03 Stock-in-trade market montage

Been meaning to put together this homage to BBC stock market photography for a while. Luckily global stockmarkets are obliging nicely. 

More photes from tail end of last year and the noo year. Still figuring those resolutions out.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 1/24/03 Congrats to "Big" Andy D

Is this the first engagement announced on frosties? Credo di si'. Well, wherever in Connecticut you may be have a goodie... 

Pictures from the tail end of the last year, including a Thanksgiving in SacTo and CatieB's b'day.

The DigiElph bought it last week after only one week in action. How to take Amazon's increased profits and self-congratulatory stance on the 'customer experience?'

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 1/17/03 Frostless New Year

Frosties has been taking a back seat to the nascent spainisfun website (a parental venture which is teaching me CSS/ASPX) and, for the first time in a long time, work.

Yet in spite of said pick-up, lo, more redundancies are in the (lay)offing. I'm getting back to that real programming man's man's programming language, C++. It is surely a matter of time before I morph into one of the scary characters who adorn the sleeve of the book I've had to read cover-to-cover.

Hawaii action from Jim & Liv's wedding, as well as a particularly sticky Pearl St fondue session just before xmas.

Best xmas gift? Digielph beats off Grombich's rather fantastic Story of Art. Listening to Euphoria Gold. Yep, first CD bought in 2 years. The RIAA would be proud.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 12/17/02 Frosties.com 2002 awards

Frosties is proud to present the first and probably last golden flake awards. Mille grazie to Kraka for the frosties logo.

Scenes from San Francisco and assorted antics in CO.

Katie has some piccies up.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 12/11/02 Deja Vu

And so it came to pass, that after 40 days and 40 nights, the great Snowfighter beast was slain, SQL Server examinations were smoked and Thanksgiving celebrations were attended to.

The snow has been decreasing in quality but many ski trips have been had. Dodgy night out in Lime, weekend up in Vail to celebrate the birthdays of Ash/JB/Kelly. As Mr Ellis has scathingly commented, these piccies could have come from any time in the last x years (although these particular gems came from Percy's camera, through the eye of the Flange). Riposte

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 12/04/02 Falling Down?

Finally got around to scanning in the houseboat pictures, whose quality is an advert for buying a digital camera, or any sort of camera. Even sketching would be better. While scanning the puppies in Kraka was doodling -- his mind is messed up. Suburbia beware.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 25/11/02 Groped!

The INS, in their efforts to ensure that I am genetically pure enough for assimilation, have sucked my blood. No HIV for me.

Kelly has been involved in some modelling shenanigans.

Dani MullOfFurnessCintyre has pointed me in the direction of popbitch. Speaking of muzak, I see the Mercury Prize has gone to Ms Dynamite, rather than the fantabulous Streets. The same prize-giving institution that awarded "M" People's Elegant Slumming over Blur's Parklife. Exactement.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 15/11/02 Houseboat horror

The photies of the houseboat are so shockingly bad that I can't be dealing with scanning 'em in right now. But here's one anyway

I had to get up at the crack of dawn to go and retrieve my cellphone from YellowCab's HQ up in the northern suburbs. It may as well have been Fort Collins, such was its distance from Denver. Perhaps they UPSed it there. Still, got a tour of their office including the call center, where 20 women were cooped up like chickens (albeit phone-answering chickens with desks and chairs). People in really shoddy jobs share a camaraderie that the rest of this shark-eat-shark world do not understand.

This is rude, but not as rude as this. Mr Furness would be proud.

This is for Ballgame, in search of Glenn Hearse. He's the bloke with the moustache.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 9/11/02 Webcam in ashes of Phoenix shocker!

It's back. Well, not exactly back full-time as we've lost the extension cord, but whenever I can be arsed to connect it with the lappy the page should be back. Check out its reincarnation.

230pm on a mid-week afternoon. NME/Dotmusic/BBC/NYTimes/WashingtonPost have all been thoroughly examined. You wander onto MSN from a link on your (s)hotmail browser. What are you rewarded with? Utter trollocks.

Final pix from summer trip in Europe.

new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 7/11/02 Old-School

After a slew of pseudo-healthy looking photies, what relief it was to get a camera back with nothing but jello-for-liver written all over them.

not new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 19/7/01 See Archive for old stuff

Old scraps are in Archive

(not) new_anim.gif (442 bytes) 07/12/99 Phil "eas" Penn is back

After a six month hiatus he's back. What's the story? All will be revealed in

Back and in need of food. Coming soon: Marmite Cooking

 


Adios:yanim.gif (264835 bytes)

Praise me (like you should):Envelope_sm.jpg (6360 bytes)

Suckered so far:

Last edited: 30-Aug-2005