1019 threads
612 points
96031 total points (all time)
Oxford, United Kingdom
Last seen 2 hours 25 minutes ago
Joined 1:00 pm 10/10/2006
About Me
One of the vids I made at Uni in my second year... co-written with my mate Umair, who's the asian guy 'singing' near the middle. Bit amateurish but the cameras we had were crap and time was scarce
I made this for college, and we have to make weird stuff, this one comprising of the 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' video. This was made using Adobe Audition, Premiere, Cakewalk 5, Soundshaper 5 and Reason 3. A couple of bits to watch out for, the bass drum is a gorilla beating its chest and the crash is an alligator hissing. Get ready to be freaked out, I used a whole ton of sound effects for this 
Blog Posts
What makes your life worth living?
No, I don't mean this in the morbid way.
For me it's saying goodnight to my son, Joshua, every evening after a bath. Sara and I say "good night Joshua, sleep well, beautiful dreams". We then kiss him on top of his head at the doorway of the bedroom, and he waves to me as I walk off and Sara closes the door and starts singing "tender shepherd from Peter Pan. I'd give everything up for that wave good night.
So what makes your day, and your life worth living?
Oxford Source Ltd - multitouch javascript lightshow by marksyzm
I started my company this year in February and have had barely any time to work on this site but I needed to get something interesting up so I thought I would show off my canvas, backbone.js, multi-touch and mobile skills. Check this mother out:
Should work pretty well on Android Chrome versions and iPads.
A question of consciousness
With the passing of my Father in law and the impact it has had on us as a family, it has brought me back to my own personal argument: is consciousness merely a chemical effect on people?
See, the things that keep me strongly gnostic are the ability to wake up each morning and still be 'me' when I wake up, and not just a bunch of molecules and frequencies that shift on a daily basis. I know this to be true because I am still me. That and the seeming fact that matter cannot be destroyed and I feel much better occasionally.
So when he passed away I wondered "what is the switching off point"? Griffin made the strong point the other day a while back pointing out "how do you know a robot doesn't have such a consciousness?". But then, they can be switched off and on again. Do they die and gain a new conscious each time? Because we certainly don't. You can argue that jellyfish live forever, but they are made of thousands of living creatures. So what makes us so different?
Goodbye, Grandad
Sara's dad, who just had his leg removed, died suddenly this morning just before we were waiting for a cancer diagnosis. In many ways we're glad we didn't find out as that would have been the long death sentence nobody wanted. We were just driving up this morning to see him and Grandma but we got the news before we were getting ready. I'm glad we didn't see him die when we got there because that could have happened. And its sad we didn't get to say goodbye but when do you ever? Joshua won't know his grandad up front and neither will the rest of our children.
But he was the most compassionate, wise and worldly man I have met and will always be an inspiration to Sara, myself and all our children. He was a great Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist and bloody cynic and will always be missed. Goodbye and blessed be, Donald Walsh.
World's luckiest mouse
I was just lying down but being kept awake by my cat scratching and running around, and I started to work out that there was also something squeaking with her. She was playing with it for some time right outside the bedroom and everything went quiet as I started to hear deep scratch noises, and I assumed this must be the noise of my cat scratching the guts out of it. This went on for far too long so I switched a torch on to see the bloody mass. She was there, but no mouse! I saw she was focussing on Joshua's toy box so I shifted it abs out scurried the mouse, into the bathroom. I shifted the cat away, put a glass over the mouse and took a couple of shots before letting it out the front door...
Mark @ Have I Got News For You
Amazing experience. One of those things I've always wanted to do and it was as good as you'd imagine.
The scenery going in was a big surprise - Graham Norton was on next door so there was another huge queue next to ours waiting to go in, and the priority tickets got us straight to the front seats too! We walked past that 'flipping' chair from the Graham Norton set and that just set off the obscurity of it all... the set of HIGNFY is really much smaller than you'd think.
Paul Merton really is as sharp and funny as he is on TV, if not far more so. We had Baroness Trumpington who was hilarious - she was this 90 year old Tory and really couldn't give a crap what she said because she was 90. Jack Whitehall was bearable as he only had to read a script although his innuendos with the baroness were uncomfortably hilarious! And Nick Hewer (of the Apprentice) was really good, snapping in with short stories completely unrelated to the topics in hand. Ian Hislop is really good, you can see how him and Paul play a big part in the show in that Ian keeps it on topic and Paul makes it light hearted.
The whole thing went on for over 2 hours of just talking and the flow is like Question Time with them going comfortably from topic to topic, not so quick fire as you'd think. They show you pictures and animations like they do on TV and you find yourself being distracted for a moment and staring at the screen (as it shows them filming the cast again), then suddenly realising it's right in front of you! The first word I went away with was 'surreal' but it was a really good experience and I would recommend it for anyone!
Enormous thanks to HoP for sorting out the tickets for us - there's a TEOTI t-shirt for you if you want it: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/teotishop
Just saw a sun halo in Oxford! Video and photos attached!
Couldn't believe my eyes! Just walked home and thought "oh look, there's the sun. That's a bit small." Then carried on walking. Then thought "oh, wait no that's the su.... WTF??"
Here you go:
Welcome to life, Joshua
It seems there was no greater challenge than to watch the woman you love and the mother of your child to go through this great torment of life that is giving birth. It seemed that nothing prepares you for that moment especially when as a man you soothe your wife and hide your emotions to such a great intensity and then suddenly they have to disappear into theatre while you wait for them to prepare you to meet your first child. Those 25 minutes I had to wait to see her again was sheer agony. And there is nothing greater than the bliss and happiness of those hours of hard work she put into this, to see those beautiful eyes staring back at you for the first time.
Life has a really funny way of putting you to the test
As you know, Sara and I are about to have our first child in less than 7 weeks. These times just get happier and happier - we love going to antenatal classes and the new things that come up i.e. Sara gets all the stuff in, we go shopping and gawp and the price of nappies, I integrated my idea of nesting (BMW)...
We have never been happier. This whole journey gives you such a clear idea of what real love is all about.
Now 4 weeks ago, the lights went dark.
Our second antenatal class
We really enjoy going to these classes - we're definitely learning many things going to these, even despite Sara being a nurse.
It makes me eager to start Googling things that have suddenly started many ideas and situations in my head such as me having to deliver the baby (shit, shit, shit, shit, shit) or details like induction etc etc.
Overall the experience in these classes just makes me feel happier in the faster and more lucid realisation that I am to become a father.
What were your experiences with pregnancy and being there?
Hafeez
My cat died yesterday. He was a real close friend to our family and he was the last of a litter we had for years, and he had all the character of his mother and father. His name was Hafeez, as he was born on the same day as the Sudanese bass player in my mum's African dance band. Hafeez the cat shared the bassist's characteristics; he was black, ate curry and slept a lot. It's been a sad day. I'll post a picture later, when I can find one.