Miscellaneous Update
My parents are still away. I'm finding the house lonely and it isn't doing my sanity any good. However, I should start adjusting soon. In the meantime, I'm watching films and eating ready made stuff (I don't have the heart to cook with no one to cook for).
Yesterday, I watched Marley and Me, a film about a journalist's life with his mentally deranged labradour. I think it's based on a book, which I remember my mother telling me about. It was a really good film which made me laugh for much of it (and then cry at the end). It also made me really miss Kanga, as some of the scenes reminded me of her so much. Cats are easier to keep and less work, but cats aren't really sensitive to emotions and they don't make you feel safe at home from intruders.
Today I watched Dr Strangelove, something I've been meaning to do for a long time. It was darkly satirically comic, as promised. The film was preceded by a warning that the USAF has safeguards in place to prevent the events depicted from happening, and all characters and events portrayed are fictitious. I thought that was a bit odd, and I've wondered if maybe the film didn't hit a little too close to home if the USAF felt the need to put that warning on the start. On the other hand, it could have been for comic effect. I loved the whole feel of inevitable sliding into armageddon as everyone keeps trying to stop WW3 only to find that someone's paranoia and bloodthirstiness has nullified their efforts and moved them a step closer instead. I also loved the ending.
I've also been spending some time writing code for Freeorion. I managed, after much effort, to get new fleets to be given more sensible names. I need to make a patch of it and post it on the forums. It'll be the first patch I've ever made.
Finally, when I was studying physics, one of the things I realised was that I'd become more of an expert on radiation than the rest of the general population, and therefore that placed a responsibility on me to use the information wisely. In this role, I wish to caution against this post by compilerbitch which contains enough inaccuracies to leave me worried about it. It's not really my field, but I really feel that the discussion and the issues it handles aren't particularly helpful. The only things that are helpful are the penetration graphs, but everything dealing with how it impacts on human physiology is pretty much not consistent with the biophysics course I took in my fourth year of my undergraduate degree and the guest lecture by Prof. Allison I attended at Birmingham on radiation safety (he also taught me nuclear physics in my undergraduate course and was an ok teacher - I liked him).
Yesterday, I watched Marley and Me, a film about a journalist's life with his mentally deranged labradour. I think it's based on a book, which I remember my mother telling me about. It was a really good film which made me laugh for much of it (and then cry at the end). It also made me really miss Kanga, as some of the scenes reminded me of her so much. Cats are easier to keep and less work, but cats aren't really sensitive to emotions and they don't make you feel safe at home from intruders.
Today I watched Dr Strangelove, something I've been meaning to do for a long time. It was darkly satirically comic, as promised. The film was preceded by a warning that the USAF has safeguards in place to prevent the events depicted from happening, and all characters and events portrayed are fictitious. I thought that was a bit odd, and I've wondered if maybe the film didn't hit a little too close to home if the USAF felt the need to put that warning on the start. On the other hand, it could have been for comic effect. I loved the whole feel of inevitable sliding into armageddon as everyone keeps trying to stop WW3 only to find that someone's paranoia and bloodthirstiness has nullified their efforts and moved them a step closer instead. I also loved the ending.
I've also been spending some time writing code for Freeorion. I managed, after much effort, to get new fleets to be given more sensible names. I need to make a patch of it and post it on the forums. It'll be the first patch I've ever made.
Finally, when I was studying physics, one of the things I realised was that I'd become more of an expert on radiation than the rest of the general population, and therefore that placed a responsibility on me to use the information wisely. In this role, I wish to caution against this post by compilerbitch which contains enough inaccuracies to leave me worried about it. It's not really my field, but I really feel that the discussion and the issues it handles aren't particularly helpful. The only things that are helpful are the penetration graphs, but everything dealing with how it impacts on human physiology is pretty much not consistent with the biophysics course I took in my fourth year of my undergraduate degree and the guest lecture by Prof. Allison I attended at Birmingham on radiation safety (he also taught me nuclear physics in my undergraduate course and was an ok teacher - I liked him).