Oh, it sure is heating up!

Last night I watched a BBC Four debate from 1.15am to 3.00am ('twas a late night), which was entirely enthralling, and even featured that annoying man from Fox News (Bill) having a go at the BBC because they said that the poor weren't being treated very nicely (although, they did have rather good evidence for this statement).

The BBC's own website is, as usual, brilliant for this kind of thing. It has just managed to bring me up-to-date with all the clauses and terms of election.

Now that I know the rules (and the 0.01% margin by which Bush won last election), I realise how flawed, in my opinion, the US elections are. They just aren't representative, and remind me of the Jerryrigging that occurred in Northern Ireland last century. Perhaps the US should try to be more, truly democratic, is they advocate it so. If they did, Gore would have one last time round, and there wouldn't have been even a nibble of dispute about that.

Blimey, even I'm excited about this one.

Pictures:
[top] That's right: you had better make friends with those black people!
[bottom] Our one looks better. :P

It's not even Bonfire Night yet, and fireworks are going off all over the place!

I travelled into Bristol today to see two screenings of Resfest, the international festival of digital film.

It was really interesting, and I came home with bucket loads of free stuff and, more importantly, ideas.

I saw 'Shorts Three', a compilation of films that show how filmmakers communicate the world around them through motion pictures, and then 'Shorts Two', full of "wry humour" and animation.

The funny one was far better, and had some true masterpieces. However, Shorts Three left a rather unpleasant taste in my mouth. It wasn't really that good in all, and only two films really stood out.

The best was, by far (of course), the UK contribution to the sequence, entitled 'Nothing', by Steve Green. After that comes 'Grasshopper' by Bob Sabiston, shot in New York and offering some enlightening words of wisdom.

Shorts Two was packed full of gems. All three UK productions were brilliant; there was a good French one, and some good USA entries, too.

It may very well come to a city near you soon, so keep an eye out for it! I even bought the DVD…

As I sit here in my quiet, little village, faced with the possibility of terrorist attacks on our nation and all that, I can be sure of one thing.

Blagdon will never, ever, be attacked by any kind of terrorist activity. Guaranteed. I bet you that the 'terrorists' don't even know Blagdon exists (although I am not helping the situation, I have to admit).

I mean, who would want to waste their precious explosives on us?! No one!

Come to think of it, I do know a Muslim who is training at Bristol Flying Centre. But he's nice. Now, thinking about it, I have known quite a few... erm... intercontinental people who have trained at Bristol while staying in Blagdon.

Oh dear.

To place or not to place? That is the question.

Hmm. It's a bit of an eControversial issue.

Even though The Record Card has only received 6 advert clicks in the entire history of adverts being displayed here, amounting to $1.01 (or £0.55, as I would have it), I think I'll keep them. 6 clicks is reasonably good going, and will buy me a lovely Freddo milk chocolate bar. Mmmm.

But the whole deal about Google's adverts being content-sensitive isn't really paying off in this instance. It seems that all TRC is served are ads about blogging and how to blog.

So what I have decided to do is to filter out as many of these adverts as possible, in an attempt to see the most post-relevant ads make it. With luck, they'll be hyper-relevant and very interesting. Doubt it, though.

You may or may not have noticed that I have even tried to filter out the word 'blog' from the entire page, but that bar at the top isn't doing me too many favors.

I was on the motorway down when I hear the tragic news. Broadcaster John Peel has left us. He was funny and nice.

It was a nice little break but I am glad to be back home and reading my email.

I've gone and taken loads of pictures which I will be filtering though, selecting the best of the best and posting up soon enough.

I've also been flicking though the comments made on the site, and there really has been a lot made. Thanks to everyone who wants to know how to say my last name. Until I show you (Hmmm… show or tell? Or both?), you'll have to just settle with it being some magical Irish name, and replace it with 'dee'.

I first heard Wagon Christ on Radio 1's Breezeblock.

The other day I decided to buy his album (it's actually just a guy called Luke), and I have to say that it's pretty good. Very funky and perfect to listen to if you want to chill out and get a bit of casual work done. It's also especially good for surfing the internet with.

It's also nice to see the use of the word 'lush' (remember that one?) in print.

I have recently noticed how my nice little dog (Buster, of course) compliments my houses carpeting rather nicely. His nice ginger/black coating (officially 'grizzle') really does match the regal green flooring. Which is lucky.

I'm slightly more concerned with whether 'houses' should have an apostrophe, however. Can inanimate objects ever possess a thing (and so qualify for an apostrophe)? I'm sure there's a rule about that somewhere...

Me and mi amigos when to Bristol to go and see a special media studies screening of Bowling for Columbine yesterday.

God it's long. I've seen it before and all, but I really just wasn't in the mood for this. There was a talk by a high-up BBC film critic afterwards but our group, especially me, wasn't in the right frame of mind. Plus it was about midday, and I hadn't had anything to eat yet.

Kids at the Danville Public School are doing two things that are of note at the moment. Firstly, and foremost, they are getting in the way of me being number one on a search for "buster tests". Somehow.

Secondly, and far more light-heartedly, they are off doing their nice little mock-mini-elections. As usual, it was GWB v. Kerry. Guess who won! Anyone? No? Well skim down the page (right at the bottom) and see for yourself. Is it a mystical insight into the results of the USA election? Well I sure hope so.

I went a bit mad while domain purchasing today!

A trip to an art exhibition up the road ran it home that I wasn't actually promoting my self as a web designer enough (well… at all). So I did a few quick branding designs, came up with a marketable name, and bought a decent domain. What name?

Good, isn't it? Well… I hope it does what it's meant to do, anyway. It's easy to spell and read, at least. The domain is MarketWest.co.uk.

Additionally, I was awarded a free .info domain, which took me by surprise. After little thought, I decided that it would be nice to buy Fintan.info (as you do), because natnif.com is having a bit of a hard time with PacNames (who won't let me touch it), and I might be able to put some kind of portfolio up there.

All is good!

I've just revived a shipment of this fab little CD fill of rinsin (?) beats from a top Canadian duo.

I really like it, but I doubt if you will, owing to my bizarre taste in music. Anyways, you can try it (and I suggest you do!) on Amazon.

I particularly like tracks one (which is real perfection) and four (mmm... mysterious). I've also decided that track 9 is perfect for my media studies coursework.

I've got that Friday feeling! This Friday, why don't you check out the latest addition of Oneclick Comedy.

I've already listened to it, and have to say that it's really good (once again). The very first joke is brilliant, and there's also a good one for the USAians (particularly Kevin, who lives near NY) at around 9 minutes into the programme.

This is the first insider picture of CCS (since this beginning of this blog, in fact). It's a physics room, and my tutor room, too.

Okay, people! Let's get motivated here! There isn't much point in me just showing you snaps that I have taken while experimenting with my camera! I need to pretend to be a real photojournalist! I mean, come on!

To all you Americans who are mystified by British (and that's British, not English or You-Kayish), I want to you to start requesting pictures of certain aspects of the area in which I live. Do you really want to know what the local KFC looks like? Or how about an up close peak at Blagdon's lake?

Hey, we even have a lovely great big water pump thing (the biggest and oldest for yonks)! Why don't you ask to see that? Or how about a lovely picture of a church (we have three flavours... pick yours)? Or a sneaky shot of the real state of our school? Or the hall in which I preformed a few great plays, including Macbeth, Blah, Blah and etc.

Oh, the list could go on! But make it interesting (and doable - nothing that I'll have to go too far out of my way to do, please). There are loads to choose from here, but I want you to pick them, because you lot are the ones who will end up seeing them!

My battery is charged and ready, and my memory card is willing and able! So start picking! :P

This was taken a while back when I was in the car, snapping away. Its a rather odd photo, but what makes it interesting is the focus around her feet. It gives a very unusual effect.

If you are the person in this photo (which was taken near Woking, Surrey), or know the person in it, and mind, just e-mail me and I'll take it off.

Or at least she is going to be soon. I don't really know.

But, what I would like to draw your attention to is the dire remark that she made before the press before she went to jail.

It went something like:

There are many, many good people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela.

Oh. My. God. WHY did you have to go and say something stupid like that?!?! That's just not cool, Martha. You can't just compare yourself to Nelson Mandela!

Are these flowers happy or sad (or just plain freaky)?

I think that they look like flowers from a catalogue for funerals.

Have you noticed the really strange flower at the bottom (and in the middle) yet?

I've have published by new blog template, which you should be looking at right now.

I've done a whole lodda work on this one, and it's a major CSS model, so it should be ask quick as a... erm... fox.

Please do feel free to leave comments!

I really do love Radio 1's new(ish) show, Oneclick Comedy.

It's such a funny and well-made show, and is especially good to listen to while doing creative things. I also has loads of my favourite type of music (which often defies categorization), which makes it rather special to me.

Why don't you try it out? It's one hour long, and can be streamed by the BBC's radio online thingy. Well, it airs on a Saturday morning at about 3.00am, so how else is everyone going to listen to it?

My very own grand scheme, the ‘Web Design Club’ (which I will shorten to WDC from now on) is starting to happen.

Tomorrow I will be sending out all the flyers to the tutor groups of my school, inviting them to join in and register to take part.

I did this A4 flyer in about 30 minutes (writing and all). I may have gone overboard with the whole ‘North Somerset’s Leading Web Designer’ statement, but I ask you this: how many other web designers do you know from North Somerset? And if you DO happen to know one, can they do it as good as I can?

Well, it sounds rather big-headed (don’t you worry, I am very aware of that), but I’m trying to do the ‘hard sell’ on these guys. I want them to be excited by this.

You may notice that I havenÂ’t mentioned any names on the flyer. Well, I have done this just in case people in years 9 and 10 recognise my name and donÂ’t bother to sign up (thinking that itÂ’s just by some guy from year 12).

Sneaky tactics? Yes. Totally.

Click the image to read the document.

I have a kind of liking for Google's AdSense adverts - they're clean, simple and work mostly on their own.

They're also quite useful, because the links that are displaced are relevant to the content on the site (often you can find out about the things I am talking about in more depth).

I am placing them on the post pages in a big block because I need to whip up some chase to pay for all my hosting. The bill has already come for this quarter, and it's a tad hefty.

Of course, The Record Card is hosted freely on Blogger now, but it won't be for long.

Therefore, although I am not allowed to tell you to click on the adverts directly, if you do see something of interest don't be afraid to have a look! ;P

It is right to use your newborn child to meet celebs?

Yes, apparently.

UI Patterns and Techniques
I love this site. It's like a library of all sorts of interesting information about computing interfaces. It's a great place to get some ideas for design layouts from, too.

People are starting to notice it. I'm blogging less. Which is bad.

There are reasons, though. Firstly, I've been up to my neck in chemistry, physics and mathematics homework. Thank the lord for me choosing media studies, which has managed to lighten the workload. I have to admit that I do actually enjoy doing those homeworks, because they give me a chance to unload some of my creativity (mostly when it isn't asked for, and usually in the form of nice, logical print design).

Secondly, I've had a copy of the Sims 2 delivered to me by Amazon. Because I am such a procrastinator, I've just been playing on it all the time, and when I haven't been playing on it I have either been at school, doing the homework, eating, washing, or sleeping.

Aaah. That's the life!

I would definitely recommend the Sims 2 to anyone who wished to waste about a week of their free time. It's a very good game.