theoddsock.com

I just know I’m going to act like a complete teenybopper when I go to @media AJAX in November… The reason? Because I’ve been hacking (albeit it very elegantly in an unobtrusive-Javascript way ala Jeremy Keith) with jQuery over the last few days to put together an interactive timeline. And instead of it leaving me as a shell of my former self I am hopped up on a coding enduced endorphine high like I haven’t been since I was at uni; coding Enigma machine  simulators in Java.

Of course, I am sure that I am not alone and certainly not the first to enthuse about jQuery.

I’ll be putting together a presentation/work/walk through of the timeline for work and then post a version here in case it might prove handy to someone else.

And I’ll prove it by flopping in sun beams.

Jon took Lucy to the vet this morning for her booster shots and got the full on treatment from the nurse/vet because it turns out that she is obese. And we thought she was pleasantly round, like a furry doughnut.
So we have to feed the cats separately and certain times, keep Lucy away from Sophy’s kitten food at all costs and she goes on a special diet at the end of the week. She currently weighs 5.5kg and her target is 4.5kg.

Poor Jon got quite a grilling… ‘Do you understand why your cat is over weight?’ ‘Yes! we feed her but she eats the kittens food…’ Made us feel like those evil middle class working parents who don’t take the time to feed their kids properly, or so BBC news would have us think.

The reason Lucy is overweight is threefold. She started putting on weight after she was spayed, it is normal as their poor little metabolisms have been messed around, she eats Sophy’s nummy kitten food and lastly having had a cat that pretty much was wasting away due to hyperthyroidism I’ve been paranoid about the cats not being scrawny - its more for my own piece of mind. Of course the fact that lifting Lucy is like lifting a small child isn’t a good thing.

So we are going to have to be militant. They will be fed under observation until Sophy moves on to adult food and then they can eat the same, no-fat-cat food.

Already, though, Lucy is wandering around looking for a snack….

If you haven’t yet read the book  you may or may not wish to visit this parody as forwarded to me by Jon. (if you don’t know what the book is then you may not be interested anyway)

I was in stitches, yes I have read the book (that was my saturday, I spent most of the day in my jim-jams - no time to get up properly - was reading from 9:30am until about 4pm) and it wasn’t until page 107 or so that I sneaked a look at the back…

Have also taken some nice cloud photos with Jon’s new Nikon - ’tis luverly Digital SLR. Will post later.

I’ve never been a big fan of Pachelbel’s Canon. I was amused to see it likened to ‘Stairway’, and this strikes me as apt, it seems to be the piece of music that people who want to show that they listen to / appreciate classical music cite when, in reality, their exposure to classical music hasn’t been much beyond Classic FM or Radio 3, and those free CDs of the ‘Classical Moods’ ilk that come with Sunday papers. There isn’t much variation either in composer or piece choice in any of them - unless CFM and Radio 3 have updated their auto-magic music selection-bot.
My reaction up until now to this piece has been summed up by a New Yorker cartoon entitled ‘Prisoner of Pachelbel’… now at least I know I am not alone.

So what do I recommend in place of PC (and ‘PC’ sums up its homogenized qualities perfectly for me). Well if you know YMCA, and who doesn’t and want a laugh listen to the overture from Prince Kholmsy by Glinka. The rest of the Entr’act music for Prince Kholmsy is very good, and the entr’act for Act 5 bears a striking resemblance to a track from John William’s score for The Revenge of the Sith.

And beyond those two? Well, Antonin Dvorak’s Symphonic poems are well worth a listen, The Water Goblin and The Golden Spinningwheel are two of my particular favourites.

Next time, I’ll reveal which single piece of music John Williams nicked two major themes from