Second coming of a blog by Dexter M (aka John) - local life, web development, stuff & nonsense
18May2007
Posted by admin under: second life; genius; lactose.
Props to Lactose aka Oolon Sputnik for an excellent and hilarious piece of work here - if you’re not sure it’s some rather neat Machinima filmed in the Caledon “Victorian Steam Punk” area of Second Life.
Superb!
And it’s all for the Second Life Relay for Life Cancer charidee thingamy!
16April2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
When I started blogging a year and a bit ago, I really wanted to stay positive as much as I could. I made a resolution that I wouldn’t just rant all the time - I think I’ve stuck to that on the whole. And, one of the reasons I’ve not posted for nearly 3 months now, is that shortly after my last post I discovered something I had feared, but not heard about - that Tesco had plans to build a massive store in Belper on the site of the old Thorntons factory on Derwent Street.
I was pretty stunned.
After all of the great things going on there over the last few years since I’ve lived up here, this seems like such a massive backward step. I’ve seen :
There’s even a “Belper Food Festival” on 15th July this year!
I decided to resist the urge to whinge and moan about the potential corporate bulldozing of Belper on this blog. After looking into it I just became more depressed - it seems the whole area where the development would cover already has “mixed used” designated in the Amber Valley Borough Local Plan - meaning, basically the principal for this kind of development has been established there. Also, it seems, this development has been mooted for quite a few years. Tesco seem to be playing a very long game (longer then any politician can) and have worked out a number of sweeteners - new relief road (bypassing Bridge Street), new library and other “facilities”. I seems like these “facilities” draw people away from the current shopping area (from Bridge Street up King Street to the market square) towards, er, Tesco.
The questions I have are :
I’ll be going along to Belper Civic Forum AGM on Thurday 19th April at Belper School, to see what their attitude to all this is. And see if any difference can be made.
Which kind of brings me on to what woke me up again and made me so sad/depressed/angry…
On the way back from work today, I noticed our local shop/post office in Ambergate had closed. When I went back along later, a notice outside declared the the shop had closed due to “Early Retirement (i.e. Didn’t want to get up early any more)”.
I was, once again, a bit stunned.
I can’t, with had on heart, say we used the shop all the time, but did regularly go in the for papers, milk, booze and other bits and pieces - just the sort of thing you want a local “corner shop” for. I can understand their desire to retire - good luck to them. However it seems like another sign that I may be clinging on to an old fashioned notion that valuing the the independent and local is good.
I’ll keep clinging and fighting as best I can.
More to follow soon - be warned!
20January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
We needed some Lemongrass - so we had a go at getting some from our regular fruit and veg shop in Belper - the wonderfully named “Fresh and Fruity”. They’re normally very good, and can supply you with all manner of more unusual herbs and veg. Unfortunately, on this occassion they couldn’t oblige. So, in the end we were forced to resort to going to Sainsburys. Up until that point we’d got all of the rest our shopping from the smaller shops and the Co-op in Belper.
When we found the item in question, the charge for this relatively simple item was 75p for two meagre and slightly cruddy looking three-quarter length sticks presented in the most ridiculously excessive packaging like so…
This seemed bad enough, but we soon released that, apart from being entirely un-required (lemongrass is one of the least delicate of herbs) it also turned out to be entirely non-recyclable!
Also, the fact that these meagre shreds of herbiness had been shipped (probably by air) all the way from South Africa, and, as a result of the sealed packaging were actually going mildewey.
Nice one Sainsburys! Is this you contribution to improving our environment and providing us with good quality value for money products? I’ll buy a bunch for 99p from the market in Derby next time I see one and freeze it - last time I saw one like that, the packaging consisted of a single piece of string!
19January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
More fun from b3ta…
Salut!
18January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
It’s an understatement to say it is a bit windy today. So, of course there are likely to be disruptions on the railways. So I’ve just checked on the Central Trains site and got the following screen…
Helpful huh!
15January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
I personally like France a lot - a potentially controversial statement to make for a lot of British (especially amongst some of my workmates). I guess this may be something to do with my Dad’s keen interest in Citroen cars - we had a totally bizarre Citroen DS Safari in the late 70s. Or maybe it’s because I like their approach to food, public transport, public services, culture etc.
However, even I was surprised to hear that at one point in the late 50s a “serious” proposal was made by the French prime-minister Guy Mollet that France and Great Britain merge. Most people have scoffed at this, but in a sense, a more subtle merger is occuring with the EU, the number of Brits buying houses in France (about 500k?) and the number of French coming to work here. This is clearly viewed by most as a positive thing, but the thought of either us would give up our head of state or compromise on our great national instutions seems unlikely given the number of Xenophobes in bothe countries.
Of course there’s already been plenty of comentry on it - including a post by Cyberleader Daz and a very amusing, amiable and positive discussion on Channel 4 News between Jon Snow (and his top quality ties), Raymond Blanc and P.Y.Gerbeau. Blanc was very positive about our food - and rightly so! British food has, potentially, an awful lot to offer. Our pop music (as they both agreed) is somewhat superior to the French version. But maybe we could learn something from them about pulling off “Grand Projects” more sucessfully (e.g. Wembley Stadium and Olympics).
Lets face it, France and the U.K. are like siblings - there will always be a strong bond and respect, even if we squabble from time to time and are envious of each others attributes. Maybe that’s what makes the relationship so rewarding.
14January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
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Had a very pleasant walk in the un-seasonally sunny and mild weather at Calke Abbey today with Jayne, Matt, Daisy, Freddy and Kathy. While wandering I took a whole load of pictures - go see them on Flickr if you’re interested.
14January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
Following the loss of my “little” brother Andrew, my mum and dad have gradually been dealing with the task of finding homes for his possessions. Being a major computer gamer, he had quite a few games consoles - including an actual Nintendo Wii. Sadly Andrew only got a few days play out of it before going back into hospital and dieing. early last week I was offered the Wii (plus several games and extra controllers etc.). It’s a weird thing really - Andrew’s Mii (avatar/profile thingamy) is still on there, so, as long as I keep it, we’ll be reminded each time we play it. However the sheer joy of playing it, I hope captures some of the spirit he had - cheers Andrew - a great legacy to pass on!
So, we spent this evening, rattling through Wii Play, Wii Sports and a bi of Super Monkey Ball : Banana Blitz - to varying degrees shouting, cursing, laughing and generally having a great time. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take on the more challenging business of tackling The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
12January2007
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized.
Thanks to Bri for pointing out TheyWorkForYou.com today. It’s a truly remarkable (dare I say it) “Web 2.0″ site, aimed at allowing us to find out easily, and in one place what our representatives in parliament (elected and non-elected) are doing. You can type in your postcode, find out who your MP is and, more importantly find out : how they are voting, how and when thy are attending debates, asking questions, going on foreign trips at our expense, whether their speeches are understandable by the average 17-18 year old and even how many three word alliterations they have used (like “she sells shells” apparently!).
I found out my MP, Julie Malaber:
There’s a whole kit bag of tools (RSS feeds, commenting, alerts when someone makes a speech etc.), loads and loads of clearly laid out information (including Hansards information). What is more this is a “not-for-profit” site run by a charity - so hopefully will remain entirely impartial.
An utterly brilliant and seemingly well executed idea.
Meanwhile, in the world of entertainment, we finally got to watch all of The Brothers Grimm. Another great film from Terry Gilliam. Perhaps not his best, but certainly very entertaining, with plenty of his anarchic touches.
On a more disappointing note : after missing a couple of weeks, we finally caught the much hyped Ugly Betty, which proved to be a damp squib - unfunny, quite predictable and just rather dull really. Ho Hum.
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