Chris Dean’s Personal Website

Some of the best links I’ve found recently - I won’t tell you what they are, just have a look for an interesting read, a good laugh, or just plain Horror:

http://pixeloo.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1IFI13L37IZML/ref=cm_pdp_profile_reviews?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

http://videa.hu/main.php?page=play&v=3fgsvCrEOdU8bWtK

http://www.myspace.com/captainhotknives

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CTGrjcgSeAA

http://hotchickswithdouchebags.com/

http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16

http://www.sk-gaming.com/video/8158-At_the_SK_Office

http://www.snotr.com/video/1072

http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/01/11/reverse-graffiti/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2008/04/19/nosplit/prichtown10-01.xml

 

I first got to know Roger a few years ago through the University of Sussex Red Cross Group and Rescue Team. Though we were not close friends, and I haven’t kept in touch maybe as much as I should have over the last 3/4 years, I was still very saddened to hear of his death today.

My sincere condolences go out to his family and friends at this difficult time.

You can read more about the incident here: 

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/generalnews/display.var.2215312.0.tributes_paid_to_university_of_sussex_canoeist.php
 

When I saw this on a website recently I just had to investigate further:

Blow up your last Rolo.
Observe how the chewy toffee centre fails to act in a chewy manner when exposed to internally concentrated explosive forces.

Be Afraid Funtley…. Be Very Afraid….

 

 

For Christmas this year Rowan and I both got unlimited cinema passes and we’ve been using them! So while I’ve got a few minutes to kill on the train on the way home I thought I’d tell about what we’ve seen:

First there was The Golden Compass:
Not a bad film at all, bit like a girls Lord of the Rings, but is obviously being dragged out to a trilogy (yes I know there’s loads of books that actually make up the complete story, but I’m talking movies) and that’s a pain - no-one makes single good standalone films anymore it seems…

That said the next film we saw was I am legend:
This was pretty good though it was very much Will Smith does 28 days later. Best bit has to be the "ARE YOU REAL FRANK???" scene - fantastic!

Then St. Trinians:
What can I say about this other than brilliant! I liked the original black and white St. Trinians film, but this was something else. Colourful, funny, up to date and hammed to the hilt. Up until this point I’ve not been able to stand Rupert Everett, but seemingly as the driving force behind this film I don’t think I can honestly say a bad word about him again!

Following that we saw Sweeny Todd: 
Not bad, but not good either - was expecting a lot more from this and got a lot less. It was weak, badly sung and the set design really wasn’t as inspirational as much of Burton’s other work has been. Nightmare Before Christmas meets Pirates of the Caribbean - simple as that.

And most recently we saw Alien vs. Predator Requiem:
Utter rubbish, no plot, very literally just AVP and nothing more. Though I though it may have been a flawed concept, the first AVP was actually quite good as it added something to the foundations of "The Company" as well as being an decent though utterly derivative horror film. This bucket-o-junk added nothing to the story, aside from a hint in the last two minutes that something else may be going on here in what seems to be desperate clutch at a seed for a third movie, but it really wasn’t worth sitting through the first 2 hours or so to get to that point.

And that’s about it for now - movies seem to be the flavour of the month for us at the moment and we’re not looking at letting up any time soon, and with the much anticipated Cloverfield out on Friday can you blame us??

Sometimes I buy fresh curries and similar from the sainsburys deli counter, but somtimes they forget to add the cooking instructions to the pot - just the number on the cooking instructions you should refer to.

So here they are - for me as much for you

Allergies:

Because of the way products are handled, it’s possible that nuts, seeds and other allergens may be present in any item.

Heating Instructions:All cooking appliances vary in performance , these are guidelines only.

ALWAYS CHECK THAT THE PRODUCT ISPIPING HOT BEFORE SERVING

Conventional Oven

Transfer contents into an ovenproof dish, cover and place ina  preheated oven, as directed below.

1. 190oC / 375F / gas mark 5 for 25 minutes
2. 190oC / 375F / gas mark 5 for 20 minutes
3. 190oC / 375F / gas mark 5 for 30-35 minutes
4. 200oC / 400F / gas mark 6 for 20 minutes
5. 180oC / 350F / gas mark 4 for 13 minutes
6. 190oC / 375F / gas mark 5 for 15 minutes
7. 200oC / 400F / gas mark 6 for 10 minutes
8. 180oC / 350F / gas mark 4 for 10 minutes

Microwave Oven

Remove lid and place loosly on top of the container.

Place on a non-metallic plate and microwave on FULL power, as directed below.

Stir halfway threough heating.

After heating stand for 1 minute and stir well before serving.

1. 650W cat B: 4 minutes 30 seconds. 850W cat E: 4 minutes
2. 650W cat B: 2 minutes. 850W cat E: 1 minutes
3. 650W cat B: 6 minutes. 850W cat E: 5 minutes 30 seconds
4. 650W cat B: 5 minutes. 850W cat E: 4 minutes 30 seconds
5. 650W cat B: 45 seconds. 850W cat E: 30 seconds
6. 650W cat B: 2 minutes 30 seconds. 850W cat E: 2 minutes

Though not a qualified professional, I am quite competent when it comes to DIY jobs around the house, particularly electrical ones.

Having just moved, I wanted to put some electrical sockets out in an area of my garden that gets quite wet when it rains and when looking for products I came across IP codes for the socket housings.

Not knowing what this meant I looked the term up and decided to post the result here for anyone else who needs to know what terms such as IP55, IP44, IP65, etc. mean when dealing with outside electrics.

IP (Ingress Protection) codes define how well an enclosure protects against the external environment.

As the number gets higher, the protection gets better.

The first digit defines the protection level against “solids”, the second against “liquids”. You MUST use both digits to define an enclosure.

So:

IP 44: Protected against objects greater than 1.0 mm diameter, Protected against splashing water
IP 55: Dust protected, Protected against water jets
IP 65: Dust tight, Protected against water jets

Not much else I can say other than what I’ve put in the title.

On Saturday Rowan and I went to get to get some tickets to see Les Miserables - as she’d been wanting to go and see it for weeks but unfortunately it happened to be their birthday bash and they became the longest musical running ever so needless to say we weren’t able to pick up any cheap tickets and we were stuck with a problem - what do we go and see instead as we’d decided we were definitely going to the theatre no matter what!

I said that I wanted to go and see the Blue Man Group out of curiosity as all the promo we’d seen that day suggested it was excellent but I was very skeptical and wanted to say it was crap for sure after having actually seen it for (I mean 3 men in blue makeup poncing about on stage - how good can it be… The previous Intel ad’s weren’t that great after all).

But I was soooo wrong. It was amazing and has to be the best thing I’ve ever seen live! I could go into detail about what goes on in the show but that would really spoil it so I won’t (to be honest it’s kinda hard to explain anyway) but I would suggest everyone go and see it.

Excellent music, excellent and very very clever ideas, audience participation, fantastic special effects, some amazing animation for those who like it, and overall very very cool.

 I’m definitely going back first chance I get - they’ve definitely got a groupie in me!

You can visit their site here: www.blueman.com  and see what they’re all about here but to be honest if I were you I’d buy some tickets, turn up and see what happens - reading too much into them and the performance before you go will be likely to spoil the event.

Finally time has caught up with me, and I’ve had to shelve a number of my side projects to allow time for real work, fun, and games, and this, unfortunatley means that I don’t really have time to finish coding my own CMS.

That said, it’s no great loss, wordpress is fine for most of my needs, and if it isn’t I can write a plugin. At work I have all the stimulation I require coding wise so don’t really have a need to code such things in my spare time.

So that as they say is that, no time or nessesity to re-invent the wheel here anymore and the world’s all the better for it IMO