Bonzo's boring rambling (original) (raw)
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March 9th, 2022
08:33 pm: Search engine frustration
There seems to be a really serious bug becoming more and more prominant in search engines, both of the web-wide kind and the within-website kind: an inability to distinguish between similar terms, be they synonyms or homonyms, even when those terms are enclosed in inverted commas.
What is more they do not seem to give any preference to the search term given over a possible alternative, which is incredibly frustrating to the user. The thing most frustrating to me is an inability to distinguish between the search term "Season 3" of Dr Who and the search term "Series 3" of Dr Who (with inverted commas), which given that one relates to a televison series made in 1965 and the other to televison series made in 2007 is immensely frustrating. The first 70 hits for the former relate to the latter for me.
But now it has spread to retial websites too. The first 6 hits for the search term "whiskey" on a well-know supermarket's website deliver me scotch. Grrrrrr.......
What is the point of inverted commas in search engines if they don't appear to work properly? And how hard is this bug to fix????
Current Mood: 
aggravated
February 26th, 2022
10:41 pm: I have just seen a clip of a film featuring Glenn Miller's band playing for a dance. The dancers were doing a very gentle quickstep.
Am I the only one who finds that so odd? To me I would always jive (or jitterbug) if In the Mood was played?
February 25th, 2022
09:13 pm: :(
Oh no. Mock OFSTED next week at work.
*stress*
August 30th, 2020
08:54 pm: It seemed to me at the strt of the weekend that something seriously needed doing about this bit of garden:
Improvement made. Pity I can't get rid of the huge lump of concrete; spot its new hiding place...
Current Mood: 
tired
February 22nd, 2019
12:09 pm: Last sink full of washing up begun.
Last night seems to have unaccountably added four cocktail shakers and four cocktail glasses to the pile.
February 20th, 2019
11:35 am: So here we are again
I clean and cook like crazy for 3 days before my aunt visits, and when she leaves 48 hours later every possible utensil is dirty and there is food everywhere.
There is also the usual logistical problem that in preparing the aforesaid food and cleaning the aforesaid house I used every single tea towel and cleaning cloth I possess. Since the process only ever ends shortly before her arrival, these were therefore in the washing machine on her arrival. They now need to be rinsed, but this cannot occur because if the washing machine spins it throws everything waiting to be washed up off the draining board. However, I cannot wash the items on the draining board because the tea towels which I need have to be rinsed by the washing machine first.
October 10th, 2018
07:01 pm: Shada geography and driving routes again
Finally got round to watching last Sunday's Dr Who. If you are coming down the A57 from Grindleford and want to pick up the A61 to Hillsborough, why would you take the road under the M1???
I guess it's physically possible, unlike cycling over Garrett Hostel bridge in 2 directions at once...
August 14th, 2018
11:24 pm: Improved edited version of my previous fanfic, also turned into a proper drabble
Turn left, she said.
So I turned left.
And so it took longer to return to my ship. I was only five minutes late back on duty. Only five minutes. Not a major problem, really. OK, if I had been on time we might have been able to tow the New York back into dock after its anchor cable snapped. Then it wouldn't have crashed into that bloody luxury liner (which was resposible for the whole thing anyway)
But it's not like it was important. The Titanic was repaired after minor damage, I've watched it cross the Atlantic 100 times.
May 30th, 2018
January 24th, 2018
09:15 pm: First DW fanfic for a very long time...
It's been many years since I've written a fanfic and published it. This isn't a particularly good Dr. Who fanfic, but for the record...
She didn't tell me to turn left.
She told me to turn right. So I turned right. It took longer to return to my ship. So that I was five minutes late back on duty. Only five minutes. It's not as if caused a major problem. I suppose if I had been on time we might have been able to tow the New York back into dock after its anchor cable snapped. Then it wouldn't have crashed into that bloody Titanic (which was resposible for the whole thing anyway)
But it didn't affect anything in history anyway, Nothing happened to the Titanic because of my decision, it was repaired after minor damage, I've watched it cross the Atlantic 100 times.
July 16th, 2017
10:12 pm: Hmm. Thirty years ago I remember writing a piece of fanfic about how the Master was the one who started rebelling against every convention of Gallifrey, and the Doctor initially just followed him :)
January 23rd, 2017
07:09 pm: Latest BOURC decision
Oh bugger.
The BOURC just decided to adopt IOC taxonomy in future. We just lost Hudsonian Whimbrel and Mealy Redpoll. :(
Well, sod it. In the UK it may be usual to remove them from past Year Lists when they get lumped, but I think the ABA has a much better idea, and I'm going to keep my year lists according to the rules of the year they were listed in.
On a plus note, I no longer have any reason to make an expensive trip to Cornwall this half term for the Hudsonian whimbrel. And those who already have must be furious.
January 8th, 2017
08:25 pm: Article in a national newspaper saying that GPs are seing a lot more patients than normal, in fact loads, with a nasty cough. Now, obviously some people who are immunosuppressed will need to consult their doctor in these circumstances (though I thought it was generally the specialist dealing with the cause of the immunosuppresion). But it seems as if healthy people are wasting public money going to the GP just because they have a nasty cough. I hope this is not true.
But I have a horrible suspicion that it might be.
06:51 pm: Birding weekend
Marking not too excessive this weekend, so I spent a long weekend in Devon and Dorset, birding madly all of the seven or so daylight hours until I am exhausted, and driving a little over 800 miles. Things went fairly well; of the seven target birds I got five (American wigeon, desert wheatear, lesser yellowlegs, green-winged teal, and rose-coloured starling). The ones I missed (cattle egret and surf scoter) were probably the least important, as they are the ones of which there are currectly the greatest number elsewhere in the UK at the moment. I also found time to pop in and get two species which are easy to get when you go for them, but only in a VERY few locations in the UK: Bewick's swan and cirl bunting. So in general a good weekend.
Cost 400 pounds and I'm still not even in the top hundred in the league table (http://www.bubo.org/Listing/view-all-lists.html?showlists=1,BOU,1,2017,0)
Current Mood: fairly happy
January 3rd, 2017
05:54 pm: So. Management sent round an e-mail at the end of term asking staff to remove all food from the communal fridges so they could be switched off to defrost over the break.
Someone was obviously dispatched to go round and do this. Looking into the biology labs, he saw a number of fridges and freezers, so he turned those off as well...
January 2nd, 2017
05:54 pm: Birding: 2 rares, one lifer
Today went a little better. Since the weather was supposed to be bright and sunny I went for the juvenile pallid harrier in Holderness. Arrived on site about 9, to be told it was sitting on a post half a mile away. Within five minutes it had taken flight and proceeded to quarter the marsh for about ten minutes, giving excellent views.
Given how fast the harrier had appeared, I then headed over to a village near Chatsworth where a juvenile dusky thrush has been hanging around for a couple of weeks, arriving around half-one, after awful traddic in Chesterfield and awful signposting. The bird news services were trying to prevent birders from parking in the village, but although the parking is limited it was coping this afternoon, with no-one parking anti-socially or illegally. Anyway, most of the non-residents' cars seemed to belong to walkers with spiked sitcks and inappropriately-bright clothing. The thrush was some 300 yards from a public road, feeding under a hedge. It was rather prettier than most little brown jobs, or perhaps that is because it was a life tick?
( Given the distance at which the birds were seen, the record shots were exactly that. Or perhaps record blobs is betterCollapse )
Last time I kept a year list I got two rares and a lifer on the first day; this time it took me twice as long :) On the other hand as I have been to a small town park, some fields with an expanse of reedbed, some more fields and some fields in a village, I have seen hardly any birds this year, which is rather embarrassing. In fact I have seen a total of 34 species, not including great tit.
January 1st, 2017
08:35 pm: First twitch of the year...first dip of the year
With 12 rare birds in the country, and a resolution not to seek anything non-rare before half term (to prevent birding taking over my life), I chose a black-throated thrush in Llanelwy in North Wales today. The bird had been showing three or four times a day recently in various places, and I reckoned that Jan 1, with lots of pairs of eyes in the field, would be a good day to look for a wide ranging bird.
I was wrong. The damned thing didn't show all day...except for one occasion on which someone 'saw it in flight'. Hmmm.
The only positive thing resulting from a 240 mile drive and 10 hours of total effort came when I took a lunch break and zipped 5 miles down the road for an easy tick...
06:55 am: Another year, another year list
And off I go on the first twitch of the year...
March 6th, 2016
03:29 pm: Gardening update
Well alright! That's the perennial fruit planted.
P.S. Dear nursery: when I ordered three raspberry plants, it was because I wanted three raspberry plants. You know, two raspberry plants and then one more? That was because there was only space in my garden plan for three raspberries at the recommended planting distance.
So why exactly did you send me four? Now I have a raspberry sitting in a pot while i figure out what in Hell to do with it.
February 7th, 2016
November 15th, 2015
05:45 pm: A crag martin which has mistaken a football stadium in Chesterfield for a crag in North Africa has today put me one bird ahead of my previous best. Year lists available on www.bubo.org!
Current Mood: 
accomplished
November 7th, 2015
07:11 pm: Birding update
Today I equalled my previous UK Big Year total of 304 (an arctic warbler). Unfortunately for all my efforts, it is not going to be a very good score; I managed to pick an El Nino year, which tends to equal very low Uk Year List scores (though it does mean I am still picking ripe outdoor grown tomatoes in Yorkshire... on the whole I would prefer ticks to tomatoes)
November 6th, 2015
12:30 am: Motorhead is one of the oldest bands still playing which is well known as a 'heavy metal' band. Way back in the year 2000 they recorded a song with the lyrics: 'We are the first and we just still might be the last 'relating to their music. They started in the late seventies, so Ok...
Tonight I watched some footage from the 2015 Wacken Metal Festival. The band Judas Priest played. This band started in Birmingham about the same time as Black Sabbath depending how you count it, though it didn't get signed till many years later. But two of the original members of that band were playing Wacken this year, who were definitely in the band in the 60s: Ken Downing and Ian Hill.
They were the first and they might yet be the last performers of metal. *raises my glass ti Ian Hill and KK*
October 24th, 2015
08:05 pm: I managed to reach my 300th Year bird today, nearly a month earlier than in 2013. Bird was a juvenile American Golden Plover in a field on the Yorkshire coast.
October 17th, 2015
03:34 pm: Had a rather super 24 hours birding! Red-flanked bluetail, Pallas' warbler, Hume's leaf warbler, Blyth's reed warbler, olive-backed pipit, isabelline shrike... oh and a firecrest!
September 22nd, 2015
06:48 pm: Well, that's decided me whether to leave any money to my College in my Will (finally).
I originally intended to leave my entire Estate to my College (not that I'm rolling in it, but at least there is a house worth about k250), but when I saw at Commem last year how they had chosen to spend legacies ruining things (e.g 120 year old bathrooms) I had my doubts.
Last week they chose to waste the price of a stamp sending me a letter telling me that they intended to (semi) cold-call* me to ask for money. I have a policy of refusing to give money to ANY Charity that phones unasked and asks for it.
Tonight they did. Not only did they do so, but the student who called me pretended as an introduction that she wanted to ask me 'how one got into teaching' as she was interested in becoming one. Not only did she call to beg for money, but she used deception to try to initiate a conversation ( I would imagine Cambridge Undergrads know how to get into teaching; one does a PGCE.).
Norfolk Wildlife Trust just got a lot richer! (assuming I outlive my Aunt of course!)
*Yes. I know technically it's not a cold call if we have a previous relationship, but you know what I mean.
September 19th, 2015
11:32 pm: Birding year
Ok, I know it won't last. But tonight, just tonight, I'm joint second behind LRGE in the Year List Rankings. (www.bubo.org)
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Tonight You Belong To Me
September 13th, 2015
02:26 am: Musical concert series with long history.
Opportunity for political speech.
One of these things is not like the other.
*disgusted*
P.S. And it's not the only thing I'm unimpressed by. For example, how difficult are appropriate clothes for orchestra members to come by? I have heaps of suitable black and white clothes they could borrow if they are having trouble geting suitable clothes from charity shops for 4 pounds each (which is where I got most of mine from)
September 12th, 2015
08:36 pm: Can someone please explain to me the purpose of pure linen fitted sheets? The point of paying for linen, surely, is that you can boil it, bleach it, iron it with the hottest iron going without harming it, and carry on doing so forever (well, for a whole lifetime, anyway)
Fitted sheets. Elastic bits. Does not compute.
August 30th, 2015
05:27 pm: Third time lucky on trying for roseate terns in Northumberland as well. I have just found out about the offshore high tide roost at Newbiggin, which is a useful soemthing to know about.
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