Spice World!

If all goes to plan. This post should pop up on my LiveJournal. This is all courtesy of the Live+Press plugin.

I have been integrating my public blog with my public gallery and twitter thanks to the Coppermine SC plug-in and the Twitter Updater plug-in. This allows me to insert images from my Coppermine Gallery in to my posts, such as this photograph of the snowy moors I took earlier this week, and twitter the publishing of a new post complete with tinyurl.

Next I will look at how to automatically post to my Blog when I upload images to a new album.

Many years ago I used to publish software under the name of Weird Sheep Software. Well I’ve just announced the first project in a long long time.

Weird Sheep has started its first project in a long while. The development of an iPhone client and associated plug-in for the Coppermine media gallery has begun. This will allow you to upload to your on-line gallery direct from your iPhone where ever you are adding descriptions and other information at the same time. Hopefully there will be some screen shots of the prototype shortly.

Check out Weird Sheep’s blog for more information.

I play guitar. When I’m travelling I sometimes have to be devious to get my guitar fix. Luckily in the US the guitar stores let you try the guitars out and plug them in to amps. So I go to the Guitar Center in Santa Clara when I’m in Silicon Valley. I don’t feel too guilty since I’ve bought a guitar from them and now two guitar pedals.

Yes I went to play and came out having spent $150 on an Ibanez t-shirt and a wonderful sounding Boss BF3 flanger effects pedal. I’ve already got the D1 distortion pedal. They are so nicely made and robust. And of course in the US somewhat cheaper than the UK.

Well I’m back in Sunnyvale and have been for two weeks. I’ve just been busy working and socializing so not really had a proper chance to update.

I seem to be such a frequent visitor to SFO that I was recognized on the way in at the border. The down side is that I am well and truly in the system.

My trick of trying to rent a popular model worked again and I was upgraded to a nice black Mustang free.

The first few days I was here with a colleague. Since I know the area I took him out for a meal to a restaurant I know. It’s a great Japanese steak and fish place in down-town San José. The chef cooks at the table. It is part cullinary expertise and part showmanship. Anyway the food was divine.

I do love the infinitely refillable diet coke they have over here. It is often needed after a long day in the lab.

Anyway back to work. Another update when I’ve finished sorting the photos taken with my DSLR so far.

I have installed Coppermine and started uploading my photographs. Over time I will install and write scripts to integrate my blog with the gallery. For the time being you can find the gallery at:

http://www.cyberspice.org.uk/gallery/

I’m sat here in Whitby at Sandlers Yard which is one of my favourite eating places in the town. I am here with a bunch of good friends. If you were to describe them it would involve the words: tattoos; piercings; black; dye; leather; velvet; lace; make-up. It is Whitby Gothic Weekend. The bi-annual pilgrimage of the Goths to the North Yorkshire seaside and fishing town of Whitby. I love it.

I rarely seem to read one book at once but have several on the go at the same time. I was looking at my pile of books and wondered what someone would make of me just from the books I’m reading. So here they are…

The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (10th Anniversary Edition)
Starhawk

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Julia Serano

Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards

Accelerando
Charles Stross

The first two are a re-read. The Spiral Dance I have not read for years and given what happened to me in California (which I will write about separately) its time to read it again. The second is a re-read in light of other reading I have recently done. The third is on Third Wave feminism and interesting and the final one is pure escapism of the kind I like.

So what does this say about me?

Yesterday (per the calendar but not me) I went in to the office to finish off a couple of things then I met up with two friends and had a great Indian lunch at a buffet place in Mountain View. I then said my goodbyes, gave hugs and kisses, and drove up to SFO and the start of my journey back to Yorkshire.

SFO is very much referable to LAX. Its quieter and nicer to wait in. When I got to check in there was almost no one waiting. Frequent flyer miles mean I can use the business class queue and so I had rapidly checked in my case and confirmed I could carry the guitar on to the plane. Alas I could not upgrade my seat as I had a discounted ticket. Half an hour later I was through security and sat at the gate.

As the client had bought the flight I was in cattle class at the back of the plane. This wasn’t too bad though because you learn tricks when you fly a lot. For example the back row in the centre is often empty so you can fold up the arms and lay out across all four seats. I always choose the isle seat of one of the rows of two seats where the plane narrows right at the back. This means that (a) you’re first in economy on the plane; and (b) you usually have the seats to your self and you have space next to the seats for storage. As they promised my guitar was stored in a storage cupboard on the plane. I like flying Virgin Atlantic.

It was quick flight today. Under ten hours SFO to LHR. I read a bit (Manifesta - young women, feminism, and the future), watched Dexter on my iPhone, played some Final Fantasy IV on my DS, watched a couple of movies on the in-flight entertainment system, and slept.

My case was checked right through to the final destination so at LHR I collected the guitar and walked and bused from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 for my connecting flight, passing through passport control and security again. Half an hour later I was in the BMI business lounge. I was pretty tired by this point and the quietness of the lounge was just what I needed. Then it was on to the next flight.

The domestic flight would not take the guitar on board so I had to get it tagged and they put it in the hold at the gate which has to be better than have it go through the whole baggage system. A quick flight and I was at LBA. A ten minute wait for my case and the guitar, which was brought through to me, and I was done. It was very very windy and cold. The landing was interesting and the wait for my ride back home freezing. Apparently its not that cold its just that I’ve gotten used to northern Californian climes.

The guitar made it all the way back in perfect condition only for me to break a string whilst tuning it!

Well no badgers but what a different a month makes. I hadn’t seen Ariadne while I was in the US and my house mate was on mouse insertion duties so I didn’t know how much she had grown. She’s also a lot less timid than she was and seems really inquisitive now.