Daily Archives: Wednesday, 22nd November 2006
That will do nicely
No, I haven’t got an American Excess card[1], but I have got a new bit of plastic for my wallet that is likely to be far more useful. Now that there’s a Hotel Chocolat shop in the MetroCentre, I’ll be more likely to go there than buy my high-class chocolate from their mail order service. But there’s a catch. As a member of their All Dark Club[3], I get a 5% discount on all orders, which is quite nice, and makes online ordering quite attractive. But now they’ve made good on a promise they made earlier this year, and sent me my membership card, which gives me the same discount in any of their shops. Woo hoo! 
[1] Am I showing my age by using that old slogan? But rest assured I won’t use the punchline from the Not the nine o’clock news sketch.[2] That wouldn’t be my style.
[2] Note for younger readers and furriners: try Google 
[3] I mentioned that when I joined earlier this year
Wot? No Gravatars?
Regular readers, or at least those of you who leave the odd comment[1], will be familiar with Gravatars. For the rest of you, they’re those icons that show up next to people’s comments on weblogs that are set up to do that sort of thing, including this one.
The whole thing is a free service provided by Tom Werner, and it’s proved so popular that all the squillions of sites using it have been too much of a strain for Tom’s server. He’s been working on a more robust new version, but as it’s a spare time project, it’s a bit of a slow process. At the moment, it’s not working too well at all – it’s a bit better than it was yesterday, when the main page of the Gravatar site was showing loads of SQL errors, but in general it’s not serving up Gravatars. 
Like a lot of WordPress users, I’ve installed the nifty Gravatars2 plugin, which cuts down the load on Tom, and speeds things up a bit by caching copies of gravatars on my server. Which is why I hadn’t realised there was a problem until yesterday, when some cached gravatars (including my own) dropped out of the cache. 
It will probably be working sooner or later. Updates on the Gravatar Blog.
[1] Some odder than others[2]
[2] Hi Twisty! 
Related posts
Ups and downs
Humph. Another one of those random fluctuation thingies in my weight today. But that’s moderately normal, so I won’t let it annoy me. I was running a bit late this morning, and by the time I managed to get out of the front door, it was too late to get to work on time by walking, so I decided to get the bus for a change. Well, that was the plan, but when I got to the bus stop, the clever electronic sign thingy told me that I’d have to wait ten minutes for the next bus, which would have got me to work just as late, so I walked anyway. Mutter.
At home time, it was a bit wet, and I was a bit tired, so I got the bus. Including waiting time, this was a wee bit slower than walking. To make up for that, I got back on the exercise bike for the third day in a row, and did the usual 10km. My heart rate monitor was better behaved than yesterday, and showed a peak rate of 148.
I’ve got an early start tomorrow, so walking may not be an option.
I Was a Cub Scout – Pink Squares
I heard this on the always entertaining Phill Jupitus Breakfast Show on 6 Music the other day. I was just getting out of the shower at the time, so didn’t quite catch the beginning. At first, I thought it was a new Death Cab for Cutie song, given the vocal style. But it turned out to be something altogether new. Hearing it again this morning prompted me to do a quick search, with good results. I Was a Cub Scout seems to be a new band comprising two very young looking guys (William and Todd, apparently). Have a look at their MySpace page – they also have a real website, but that’s being redesigned at present. This is their current single Pink Squares, which I like quite a lot. It’s been put on YouTube by the always to be cherished Beggars Banquet record label[1], so it’s presumably official and unlikely to disappear. Have a listen.
[1] They released most of the Icicle Works albums, and have kept them available ever since. Good guys 
