Bizarre Ideas and Odd Connections

Pterrible Ptoy Review!!

2011-02-04T06:16:00.000-08:00

Imagine my surprise when, wandering through Poundland, I happened to spot an Ornithocheirid amongst the toys!

No, it wasn't some strange cryptid that had remained hidden in the commercial centre of Portsmouth, but a mini action figure!

This particular toy, apparently called "Zon", is part of a toyline for a Cartoon Network series called "The Secret Saturdays". According to Wikipedia, it's not, as I'd hoped, a show about the raunchy secret lives of Frankie, Una and the other three in the girl group "The Saturdays", but "the Saturdays, a family of cryptozoologists that work to keep the truth about cryptids from getting out, in order to protect both the human race and the creatures themselves"

Also according to Wikipedia, "Zon, named after the Amazon rainforest where she was found, is a surviving member of a thought-to-be-extinct Pterosaur species (Tropeognathus) that lives in a nest near the Saturday Headquarters, but isn't truly owned by them. The Saturdays anger her by crashing into her nest during the second episode, but she comes to appreciate them after Zak saves her life. She now uses the cliffs where the Saturdays live as her new hunting grounds. Unafraid of humans, she allows Zak to comb her mane and ride her, but she absolutely resists the family's domestication efforts and refuses to give up the great outdoors. She is rather hostile towards Komodo. In two episodes, she is incorrectly referred to as a Pteranodon. Like Komodo and Fiskerton, Zak sees her as a family member, in this case as a sister. In "Kur, Part 1," Zon is revealed to be aiding Doyle in locating the missing V.V. Argost. She is currently helping Doyle find information about Argost's past."

Of course, Tropeognathus is a synonym of Ornithocheirus, but let's not let that get in the way of the fact that we have an Ornithocheirid toy!

Right, so what do you get for your pound? Well, you get Zon, obviously, a little stand (more on that later) and a base with "The Secret Saturdays" logo on it and some footprints for you to stand Zon on. Zon is held in place with an elastic band, which doesn't damage the figure, surprisingly.

Once out of the packaging, you see some of the problems with this figure.
As you might have noticed, in the picture to the right I'm holding onto her wing. There's a very good reason for this; She doesn't like standing up! Sadly they chose to pose her in a bipedal posture rather than the proper quadrupedal pose that we see much more these days. If you want her to stand up, you have to bend the wings back.

Another issue is with the neck articulation. it has a simple twist joint, but the stylized dorsal crest means that turning the head leaves a bi cut in the neck. Plus the fact she's got her snout pointed down means that you can't get a flying pose.

Which brings me to the stand. It's pointless. I may have accidentally made it look good in the picture, but in the flesh it's really not. If she was in a flying pose, it would be worth doing, but as it is, she could have just been stood on the stand. The presence of peg-holes in her feet means she could have been stood up, but sadly there are no corresponding pegs on the base. Pretty bad decision, to be honest, although how many kids will want this on display? It is a toy after all, although it's presence in Poundland would suggest it didn't sell that well.

But I can tell you all want to know, is it accurate. Well, no. The stylized nature of the character means that it doesn't have to be, so you can forgive some of the inaccuracies, but they do seem to have added a thumb. Then again, most cartoon character animals have thumbs. Also, the wings aren't attached to the legs, and it has no fur. So, not one for the classroom!

Overall, a fun little toy, worth getting to add to the collection, but probably best kept at the back.

Bloody hell! A Blog Entry!

2010-04-16T03:39:00.001-07:00

In other news, if you look to the column on the left, you'll see a totaliser. That's for the Mary Rose Cool Cats' fundraising for the Mary Rose 500 Appeal. Feel free to have a look, and if you're feeling flush, donate a few pence...

Like So...

2009-07-04T15:57:00.001-07:00

Worst Practise

2009-03-27T09:06:00.001-07:00

Remember this post?

http://smclabby.blogspot.com/2008/06/best-practise.html

Well, look what was on a list of corporate bullsh*t terms local governments are't allowed to use!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7949077.stm

Updates updates updates...

2009-03-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

Don't you wish you could find the time to constantly update a blog? Or enough things to say? I've done a fair old bit of stuff in the last few months, such as designing posters, doing a NVQ in customer service, learning how to be a Costumed Interpreter (At Last!), learning the rules of Nine Mans Morris (and designing a board to be sold in our museum shop!) and am expecting a couple of bits of dinosaur writing that I've done to come out soon (Yes, I still do dinosaurs!).

Suddenly...

2009-03-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

This blog can now be accessed via

simonmclabby.co.nr

Which is nice...

Merry Palaeo Christmas 2008!

2008-12-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

As I said last year, I try and keep this blog and DinoWight separate, but I thought some of you who aren't in the world of palaeontology might like to see my e-card for 2008!

This year it's a Rebbachisaurid (an unusually wide-mouthed sauropod), as this is the newest dinosaur to be described from the Isle of Wight! More HERE!

What I've Been Up To - Another In An (Very) Occasional Series!

2008-12-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

So, another three months, another update. So, what news?

Went to Prague!

Yes, Prague, in the Czech Republic. Saw loads of cool stuff, pics on Facebook. What do you mean you're not on Facebook? Gosh, you're such a square...

erm... Can't think of anything else. Shows why I only update this blog every three months or so!

Ooh, yes I can!

Wrote an Article for Deposits Magazine!

To be honest, I hadn't heard of it either, but it's a top geological magazine, and I've written an article on Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight (I know, I wanted to do coprolites, but I seem to be considered an expert!)

Got my Sea Devil (see here)
Actually, I've got two! Yay for me!

Some other stuff probably happened too, but I've discovered a problem with blogging.

Search Engines+Blogs+Employers=trouble

I know people who have written about their bosses on blogs, and have gotten in trouble, and even sacked. Now, while there is nothing wrong with the Mary Rose (Best Job Ever, Honest!) previous employers have been less super. Now, I could go on about the things that happened at those places, and not get into trouble, but if future employers (or even present ones!) find this blog, see that I've divulged embarrassing secrets about my old employers, they'll thing that if I ever leave it will cause a massive tirade and bout of whistle-blowing, and may decide not to take me on/keep me on. Either way, it can cause trouble. Sadly, it also prevents me from telling amusing stories, such as the time when [anecdote excised to prevent embarrassment], which would have a similar effect on my prospects.

Actually, that last line reminded me of something. Why the hell to German tourists always call leaflets prospects? And why do they always say to people in museums "Do you have any prospects?", as if suggesting that you're never going to amount to anything because you're willing to [ill advised rant]

Not sure why this update turned into a rant, but that's blogs for you. Utterly random!

"Beep" - or Why Men should have X-Ray eyes!

2008-12-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

(This article was originally posted on my website ages ago, hence it's topicality!)

The Pussycat Dolls "Beep"! You've all heard the song, in which the Pussycat Dolls complain that men pay more attention to their "beep", which I presume means breasts, than to their other attributes, I.E. intellect and personality. For example, the chorus (sung by Will I Am from the Black Eyed Peas) goes as follows;

It's funny how a man only thinks about the [beep]
You got a real big heart, but I'm looking at your [beep]
You got real big brains, but I'm looking at your [beep]
Girl, there ain't no pain in me looking at your [beep]

What Mr Am seems to be saying that instead of looking at her heart or brains he's looking at her breasts. Well, while this is a disrespectful thing to do (although considering the Pussycat Dolls started out as a dance troupe famous for wearing skimpy clothing, a trait that seems to have followed them onto the music scene, seems a bit hypocritical), it does fall down on one major point, being this;

Breasts are EXTERNAL, a heart and a brain are INTERNAL!

The only way he could look at them is if he was performing major surgery on her, or at least looking at her CAT scans.
Now, I'm not saying that staring at a ladies chest is acceptable, but there is a strong instinct among men to look if any cleavage is on display. Admittedly, if someone;s head was open and you could see their brain, you'd probably stare at that too, but until then, please accept that it is possible to see someone as a person and simultaneously look at their cleavage.

Sexism in Geology

2008-12-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

(This article was originally posted on my website)

Those of you who know me will remember a website called Geology Today, which featured a page saying why Geology was better than sex, complete with pictures of women who were not a good as rocks (even though they clearly were). This was basically meant to be a dig at Daily Mail-style journalism, where they might criticise a mucky TV show by showing a still and giving information for what time it starts and on which channel, or a mucky website with a screengrab showing the address.

Some may even have seen DinoGirls, a page which showed ladies in revealing costumes stood next to dinosaurs, in an attempt to show scale and attract the attention of otherwise uninterested young males. However, some people abused it, and it had to be locked away, accessible only by a password.

Some may even remember that during the research for my undergraduate thesis I came across a number of naturists (almost all female), due to the fact that all the good fossil sites on the Isle of Wight seem to inspire women to remove their clothing.

Anyway, the subject of sexism. The majority of people in geology are male, not through any sexist reasons, just generally, and in the 1940's a mapping company by the name of Williams and Heintz took out a couple of adverts in GeoTimes magazine ("Serving the Geological Sciences").

The first advert is shown left. It shows a group of typical geologists, one of which is even smoking a pipe, gawping at ladies in bikinis on the beach. The tagline says "A field trip to study Pleistocene deposits... (presumably meaning the beach the lovely ladies are lying on) But don't get so interested in the field trip that you miss our Booths 20-21"

So, basically don't spend too much time ogling the half naked ladies, come and buy our maps.

This next one is even better. It features a lady in a swimsuit with the legend "What a FIT...." and the text "The same words can be used to describe the register of a Williams and Heintz Geologic (sic) Map, but the meaning is slightly different. Anyway, we'll bet you looked at this ad."

Well, at least they're honest, admitting that the half naked lady is only there to attract our attention. I am assured, however, that they no longer run adverts like these!

I did a similar image (see left), a topless lady lying on an outcrop with a Geological hammer in her hand, with the slogan "Geology...It's sexy, honest! No, really!", to suggest Geology was unsexy and boring, but wanted to 'sex up' it's image. Shame the Williams and Heintz Map Corporation got there first.

Images supplied by Bernie Fishnotes. Thanks Bernie!

What On Earth Is This Chap Playing At?

2008-09-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Visit this page, belonging to 'Larry' (known to some as Donovan Landis, apparently!);

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=76148110

and read the "about me" bit.

specifically;

"I first became interested in dinosaurs when my primary school teacher Miss Olive read my class the book Megs Eggs by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieñkowski. Megs Eggs was one of a series of Books starring Meg and Mog, a witch and her cat (hmmm, maybe the creationists are on to something here..) in which Meg magics up some giant eggs for dinner, which later hatch into dinosaurs (a Tyrannosaurus, a Stegosaurus and a Diplodocus). This was obviously part of a school project about, well, eggs, but the dinosaurs fascinated me, and I made this well known when I got home, drawing lots of T. rexes and diplodocuses (if only I still had the pictures...) Anyway, My parents, glad I'd found an interest, took me to the Natural History Museum in London, and started buying me dinosaur books, toys and we went on visits to other museums (such as the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester). I must confess, I went off dinos a bit in the late eighties/early nineties (I think it was all the cartoons on the telly), but Jurassic Park reignited my interest, as well as showing me that there were jobs involving dinosaurs. When I told the school careers adviser this, she told me not to be silly, and suggested genetic engineering (the curse of Jurassic Park, I think). I ignored her, as so many people did, and went on to study palaeobiology at both Portsmouth and Bristol, and now have a small range of consultancy jobs going on, as well as the Dinowight website. I am also in the process of writing my first non-fiction novel about the dinosaur fossils found in the Himalayan mountains between the borders of India and Pakistan. Keep an eye out for my yet to be titled book under my pen name Donovan Landis. I know that the museum exhibits weren't the seed on my interest, but they helped to maintain my interest and actually seeing the bones of these amazing creatures helped me stay interested. Indeed, I often go back there, just to see them again and remind myself... "

Then compare it to what I wrote on the Dinosaur Mailing List back in 2004...
http://dml.cmnh.org/2004Nov/msg00175.html

"I first became interested in dinosaurs when my primary school teacher Miss Olive read my class the book Megs Eggs by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieñkowski. Megs Eggs was one of a series of Books starring Meg and Mog, a witch and her cat (hmmm, maybe the creationists are on to something here..) in which Meg magics up some giant eggs for dinner, which later hatch into dinosaurs (a Tyrannosaurus, a Stegosaurus and a Diplodocus).
This was obviously part of a school project about, well, eggs, but the dinosaurs fascinated me, and I made this well known when I got home, drawing lots of T. rexes and diplodocuses (if only I still had the pictures...) Anyway, My parents, glad I'd found an interest, took me to the Natural History Museum in London, and started buying me dinosaur books, toys and we went on visits to other museums (such as the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester).
I must confess, I went off dinos a bit in the late eighties/early nineties (I think it was all the cartoons on the telly), but Jurassic Park reignited my interest, as well as showing me that there were jobs involving dinosaurs.
When I told the school careers adviser this, she told me not to be silly, and suggested genetic engineering (the curse of Jurassic Park, I think). I ignored her, as so many people did, and went on to study palaeobiology at both Portsmouth and Bristol, and now have a small range of consultancy jobs going on, as well as the Dinowight website.

I know that the museum exhibits weren't the seed on my interest, but they helped to maintain my interest and actually seeing the bones of these amazing creatures helped me stay interested. Indeed, I often go back there, just to see them again and remind myself...

Simon M. Clabby
Dinowight - the Dinosaurs of the isle of Wight"

Apart from a small bit in the middle, it's the same!

Now, while I admit that it;s not impossible for two people to have the same origins for an interest, the fact that a) he used the EXACT SAME WORDS and b) He claims to run DinoWight.

I've tried to contact him, but he's not replying.

Totally Dull Blog Entry No... erm... 6?

2008-08-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

So, News. Newsy news news news. Ah... Well, since my Birthday, I've done a few things.

We had Hannah's birthday party, which was eighties themed.

Here she is, blowing out her candles!

Then, at The Mary Rose museum we had the Tudor Revels, an evening of Tudor food and entertainment. Well, Wendy and me had a sword fight, we had some musicians and Wendy and Jamie did some juggling and diabolo-ing. Becky did a marvellous job with the food, and we made loads of cash for the preservation of the ship!

Then, I went to Marwell with some friends from Work, cos it was Becky's birthday, and we had a wet day looking at damp animals. Lots of fun though, so no complaints!

Finally, there was Meet Your Navy, where I got to use the giant ships galley that you can see when you first go into the dockyard! Got terribly sunburnt on my chest, oh, and there were apparently a load of Navy ships about too!

And... I won the guidebooks again! Got £75 for my efforts, tucked into a card saying how great I am!

Marvellous!!!

Strange Creature found in Cardiff

2008-07-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well it would be, wouldn't it!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7498195.stm

What the flip am I on about? You need to check out Torchwood

What I've been up to!

2008-06-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

Quick update on my life, in bullet points -

Had a Birthday. 27!!! Went to Southsea Castle with some friends, went out for Pizza then hit the town dressed as Sci-Fi characters. Pictures are on Facebook somewhere. Here's me on the red carpet...
Lost all my files. The computer died in May, which was a bit upsetting, as I rather foolishly forgot to back anyhting up. All Hannah's photos were lost, although mine were all saved on this blog, so Yay for blogging!
Went to Arundel Castle. It looks like a model. No, really, it does! Look...
Started using Windows Live Messenger. Unlike the last one I had, this one lets Dreamweaver work properly!
Oh, and probably some other stuff too. I can't remember at the moment.
I mentioned the Autism course before, didn't I. Drat!
Erm...
That's it.

"Best Practise"

2008-06-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

I HATE that term!

While I appreciate the value of doing it (well, everyone should get the most out of life, despite any disabilities they may have) I wish there was a slightly less annoying way of saying it.

Oh, and I'll finish this brief blog entry with a quote:

"Anyone who uses the word workshop outside of light engineering is a tw*t."

Alexei Sayle.

FIRE!!!!!!!

2008-05-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

"Dear Sir/Madam, Fire - exclamation mark - fire - exclamation mark - help me - exclamation mark. 123 Cavendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. Yours truly, Maurice Moss."

Well, nearly!

UPDATE!!!
It was only one house down from us, in the garden of one of the houses off the main road, and both Hannah and myself are fine.

The fire took out the fence, a garage, several branches of their neighbours tree and their garage. Debris was raining down as something exploded (possible beercans, from the debris on the street this morning) and plumes of black smoke poured down the street.

Apparently the Police think it was arson, as we all got leaflets through the door warning us there are arsonists at work in our area, and letters asking for information.

I've got a new hat!!!!

2008-05-05T08:49:00.001-07:00

And this must be the biggest waste of a blog entry in the entire internet!

Tell you what, I'll get a picture and post it later on!

I Want One of These

2008-04-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

It's not out until August though...

"Great? This Place is DinoWight!"

2008-04-04T09:29:00.001-07:00

I went over to the Isle of Wight recently to do a talk for some retired Radar technicians, and on the ferry I picked up the WightLife magazine. Imagine my surprise to find this inside...

(For those of you who don't get why I mention this, see HERE)

Now, apart from the use of my websites name (which still looks odd on the printed page...), what the hell does it mean? Is it meant to be a pun on Dynamite (although that wasn't the case with my DinoWight, it's just a coincidence!)? Even so, it doesn't make sense.

And they could have put a blooming plug for DinoWight itself on the page...

Nemi (A Links Post, Sorry!)

2008-03-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Not sure why, but I've started getting into the Metro's comic Strip "Nemi"
It's quite good.

http://www.metro.co.uk/nemi

A New Post - At Last!

2008-03-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

Blimey, nearly three months! That's not good. Still, at least I should be able to fill this post with interesting stuff...

Went to Cardiff

Yes, Cardiff, home of the Castle, Torchwood and cheese on toast. We only experienced two of these things here though, as well as-

Saw Russell T Davies, Producer/Writer of Torchwood and Doctor Who rushing up the road towards us, at which point I...
Lost my brown waxed hat, which I really liked.
Saw the tourist information centre from Torchwood, which we haven't really seen in the latest series...

Saw loads of Doctor Who and Torchwood locations, and went to the Doctor Who Exhibition (which wasn't that good, in all honesty!)
Went to Cardiff Castle, which belonged to a Scotsman with terrible taste in interior design.Stayed in a hotel room with a stone bear staring at the window from the street (although we were right outside the caste, we could see it from the room!)
Took lots of photos (most of which are quite boring and Who/Torchwood related, but I might do a photo-thingy like I did for Brighton and Morocco)

Anyway...

My Great Uncle died.

Great Uncle Ron, I'm going to miss you!

Dressed as a Tudor a fair bit.

Hey, I get a big knife! I'm getting to do more there these days, I'm working on a picture for the education department, and if you're there for easter, check out the easter-egg trail, co I wrote the clues! (The cannon one took three hours!)

Okay, so maybe I was a bit over-zealous with the whole "fill this post with interesting stuff" bit, but I can't help it. Blogs are generally boring, but nobody wants to hear you blathering on, so if they care, they can read it all here!

Merry Palaeo Christmas

2007-12-17T14:37:00.001-08:00

I try and keep this blog and DinoWight separate, but I thought some of you who aren't in the world of palaeontology might like to see my e-card for this year!

It's a Polacanthus, with antlers and Santa hats on it's dorsal spines! Polacanthus actually had more spines on the back, hence "Scientifically Inaccurate"!

Overrated Christmas Songs

2007-12-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

Right, I'm going to have a rant, and it's my blog, so I can do what I like!

Overrated Christmas songs!

Fairytale of New York
It's a couple of drunk Irish people who hate each other! What's so festive about that!

Do they know it's Christmas Time
This only seems to be popular because it was for charity, but if it hadn't been raising money for starving children in Africa, and it hadn't been sung by Sting, Bono, Midge Ure, that bloke from the Boomtown Rats and all those other famous singers, would we still hear it? No, cos it's rubbish.

White Christmas
From the film "Holiday Inn" (although it is also in the Film "White Christmas", but that came after), it's just, Argh! It makes you want to stab someone. Well, not actually stab someone, but GOD it's annoying!

Actually, here's an underated one

The Frog Chorus
Wonderful!
"Win or lose, sink or swim,
one thing is certain we'll never give in,
side by side, hand in hand,
we all stand together!"

Plus, it got referenced in Shrek 3 (The Kings funeral featured a chorus of frogs singing Live and Let Die, written by Paul McCartney!)

Finally, an Update!

2007-12-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

Well, what HAVE I been up to? Well, here is a list!

Visited the Isle of Wight again!
Not as big a visit as last time, and I didn't get to do any fossiling, mostly because the weather was appalling, but we did visit Brading Roman Villa (where they have the largest Roman Cock on display!) and had a marvelous meal at The Caulk Head in Sandown. Yum!

Eating Advent Calender Chocolate
Well, only since December 1st. Got a Dalek one - Yay!

Went to see The Daleks Masterplan!
Not the sadly destroyed TV version from 1966, but the stage version at the New Theatre Royal. Nicholas Briggs was there, he played the Doctor after the regeneration at the end. We didn't get to say hello though, Hannah was too shy, and we needed to go to...

Aga's Leaving Do!
Lovely Polish Agnieszka, we will miss you! I'll post her doodle as soon as I can find it again!

Worked a lot!
Well, I say a lot. A bit. This is the quiet period for museums, only school groups and the occasional old person really go to museums at this time of year, everybody else is either Christmas shopping or at work/school!

Lost at Scrabulous a lot!
Which is annoying.

Put up shelves, bought a rug and generally been domestic.
The shelves look lovely, the rug is nice and soft and the flat has been warm since I put the heating on.

Failed to remember anything else!
Well, it has been over a month!

The Mary Rose in "The Tudors"

2007-10-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Mary Rose (Where I'm now on the permanent staff - Yay Me!) was in "The Tudors", the sex and violence drama series famous for it's historical innacuracies.

You'll notice that it's missing a mast (see below)

The Tudors...

Dorling Kindersly (based on the actual ship!)Ah well, at least they didn't have it sink on it's maiden voyage!

Stuff I've been doing recently...

2007-10-10T08:18:00.001-07:00

Watching a lot of "In The Night Garden" on CBeebies.

Mainly because after the Simpsons finishes, there's nothing else good on telly until about 7 O'clock. My favourite characters are Makka Pakka (little beige thing with a zimmer frame that lives in a cave) and the Pontipines (a family of little peg dolls, with eight children who keep wandering off, and end up flying home and going down the chimney.) The theme tune is lovely too.

The other characters, if you care, are Iggle Piggle (a blue thing with a blanket, who is only a visitor to the Night Garden), The Tombliboos (three baby-like things) and (Basically Laa-Laa from the Teletubbies in a different costume), as well as the Upsy DaisyNinky Nonk (a train that's smaller than the characters until they want to ride on it, when it's huge) and the Pinky Ponk (an airship, with similar dimensional properties as the Ninky Nonk). This description may make it sound a bit rubbish, but it's nice and calming.

Making a model of Mary Anning.

If you don't know who Mary Anning is (and if that's you, Adam, shame on you!), she was a fossil huntress from Lyme Regis, who in the early 19th Century discovered the first Ichthyosaur skeletons. She also (allegedly) inspired the tongue-twister "She Sells Sea-Shells on the Sea Shore", the trade in fossils and shells to tourists being her main source of income. She was also (again, allegedly) the only survivor of a lightning strike as a baby.
She's nearly finished, I just want to get hold of some bits and bobs to display with her.

Fighting the Japanese in The Second World War

This one is a lie, please ignore it.

Listening to King Stupid / The 99p Challenge

This radio 4 panel show is just brilliant, and the entire run is available from HERE.

Listening to Betty Boo

"Doin' the Do" is good, but "Where Are You Baby?" is just brilliant! Seems a bit slower than I remember though...

Tell Us Why You Are Suitable For This Post.

2007-09-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

I HATE this question in application forms. What the hell do you write? Most of the good stuff is either in your education or work experience, and EVERYBODY puts" I'm a hard worker" or "I enjoy working with [X]", so there's very little that stands out! And does anybody REALLY need to attach a seperate page?

The really bad bit, though, is having to write it out several times, if you're applying for several jobs at the same time. You plod out the above cliches, you mention the time at school that you were a prefect and you organised the entire school timetable on your first day, then you have to write it all out again, several times! And the writing gets progressively scruffier, spelling starts to slip, and before you know it you've ruined the application form for the job you REALLY wanted!

I know an application form is a way of standardising the applications, so the people who organise the interviews don't have to worry about missing sections they wanted to read and fancy formatting inadvertantly biasing their decision, but I prefer a nice CV. You only need to type it all out once, and anything else can be typed up on a cover letter.

Or, and this is something that is becoming more prevalent, fortunately, is the online application form. You fill it in once, the website saves it, and you can use it as many times as you like, making only minor alterations depending on what job you're applying for.Brilliant! Just wish more places did this!

Oh well, better get back to filling in this form...

Down Under in Brighton!

2007-09-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

"Tom Fun: I can now offer you the fun experience of a lifetime.

Derek: What's that Tom?
Tom Fun: Derek, we're gunna get in the drains.
Derek: Brilliant Tom, into the drains we go."

Today, I did something very unusual. I (and Hannah, for it was her idea) went on a tour of the sewers of Brighton.

Having run from the station to the entrance (due to a cancelled train making us late) we were issued with identity cards (so they'd know if anyone was lost) hard hats (in case we banged our heads) and rubber gloves (in case we touched a poo.)

Here is a shot of the river of poo and wee flowing under the streets of Brighton. Well, that and water from washing machines, baths and other sources of water. But there was poo and wee in it, although there wasn't as much floating stuff as you'd have thought. It also didn't smell as bad as you'd think either. Must be due to living with a certain person at university for nearly nine months... (Those of you who met him will know who I mean...)

Sadly most of my pictures aren't that good, due to the dark conditions, so I won't post all of them here. However, here is an attempt to photograph the tunnel we walked down.
It's not a brilliant picture, but if you've seen either Talons of Weng Chiang or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Movie, you've pretty much seen it (although see didn't see any giant rats!)
Here's Hannah looking VERY suspicious.
And here she is climbing out of the drain cover. We got some funny looks as we climbed out, I can tell you! I mean, what's so strange about twenty people climbing out of a sewer?

After our lovely day out, we had some milkshakes, to take our minds off the floating effluence!
Yummy!

My Trip to the Isle of Wight

2007-08-27T09:31:00.001-07:00

Well, after a very long time I finally made it over to the Isle of Wight. Sadly, it wasn't to go fossil hunting though, it was an outing with Hannah's parents and her sister, so the activities had to be "interesting"!

First off, we went to the Isle of Wight Zoo. Those of you who know me well will know that I constantly go on about how it;s dedicated to stripy animals. Well this isn't entirely true. They had Tigers (stripy), Lemurs (stripy), Snakes (some stripy) Spiders (stripy), Porcupines (with stripy quills), Jaguars (spotty) and some lions (not stripy). They also had some terrifying tortoises within their exhibit "Natures Nightmares". They also had these;A pair of oversized Pachycephalosaurs headbutting each other. You can see my reaction to this in the picture. Ah well... (they also used to have a T. rex just inside the door, but that's gone now, which I was diappointed about) Oh, and I finally managed to get a plush "Scrat" from Ice Age. So Woo to IoW Zoo!

After a picnic on a hill overlooking Sandown and Brading Roman Villa, we went to the Garlic Farm. This turned out to be a farm shop in the middle of nowhere selling stuff with garlic in.
Then, the Donkey Sanctuary. This had lots of Donkeys, surprisingly, as well as some ponies.

Then, we went to Ventnor, where we had an icecream and saw Alan Titchmarsh looking in a shop window. We didn't say hello, but then nor did he.

After getting a bit lost, we then went to Hanover point, my favourite place on the Isle of Wight, as this is where the dinosaur footprints are! We arrived too late to see the trackway, as the tide was coming in, but we did see the footcasts (no new ones, sadly) and I found this lump of dinosaur bone!
Yay! so, not a total right-off!

After that, we looked at the needles, had a subway and went home. Oh, and saw hundreds of scooters.

OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO!!!

2007-08-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

For more information, click HERE
I take no responsibility if you do though...

EDIT: Actually, if you make it past the first thirty seconds, it's quite funny

Famous People who I've seen at work.

2007-08-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

I've working in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on and off now since 2004, and youn would not believe the large number of famous people I've seen. For example, today I served (John Savident (Fred Elliot, I say Fred Elliot!).

Other people I've seen include;

Geoffrey from Rainbow. He was nice.

Claudia Christian from Babylon Five. She was MENTAL! Too many e-numbers, I think!
Boba Fett (Well, Jeremy Bulloch, who played him in the proper Star Wars films) He was VERY VERY nice
Chris Packham, off the Really Wild Show (didn't speak to him, but apparently he was friendly)
Joe McGann, off The Upper Hand (although I'd been eroneously informed he was his much more famous brother Paul, so I was disappointed in this case)
His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and his wife
Her Majesty The Queen. They were nice too.

There are probably others, but I can't remember them. Maggie Thatcher was in once, but I missed her. Next time, my aim might be better!

People I've Been Told I Look Like - The Revenge!

2007-07-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this during a look through Facebook, a facial recognition website that compares your face to celebrities and tells you who you

http://analogia.lycos.co.uk/search

Here are the results for me

http://analogia.lycos.co.uk/search/view/WiHbh9SaBuUti84r9ZxkqpRBJbQOAp6sE1UfzB7s

If you can't be bothered to click on the link, the results were;

Richard "Hamster" Hammond (I can live with that!)
Richard Curtis's favourite actor and heartthrob, Hugh Grant (which I can definitely live with!) and
Julian Clary. Oh dear

Well, two out of three aint bad!

But may I just point out,
NO DAVID CAMERON!

The Exciting Moroccan Photos Part 2

2007-07-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Right, Part 2.

First of all, I’ve had some feedback that I didn’t seem to enjoy Morocco. That is not true, what I DON’T enjoy is sitting through other peoples holiday photos, with them going on about every tiny detail.

Anyway, On with the piccys!

This is the Gate to the Medina of Essaouira The Cannons either side were disarmed, and full of Rubbish (much like the cannons in Portsmouth then!)

One of the cannons. Stubby, isn’t it.

Here’s Hannah, and you should just about be able to make out a hand-shaped necklace. This was bought at one of the places we were taken to learn about Moroccan crafts and skills and then buy stuff. This also happened in Marrakesh, when we were taken to a pharmacy where they shoved bag of herbs up our noses (no, really! Literally shoved it up!) Still, it IS a nice Necklace!

Another alleyway, another load of stalls. Essaouira is clearly a very different place to Marakesh, as the stall holders are less aggressive, and seem to sell more useful tat. It was also incredibly grotty, with mangy kittens and everything. They also had a stall that sold “Trance Music”, but they didn’t have any Paul Oakenfield (it was all folky stuff!)

This photo was taken VERY sneakily, for reasons I;ve mentioned before, but I wanted a picture of the white faced mask nearest to us (hanging up, next to the red bag) Why? Well, it reminds me of Theresa, who I used to work with at the dockyard. Now, she was a laugh!

This is the first of a load of Pictures of the sea defences. Not that they defend the town from the sea (although they do), but from foreign marauders, in much the same way the ones in Portsmouth do.

Portuguese cannons, sticking out of the battlements (like Southsea Castle)

Some Rocks.

More Rocks

Even More Rocks. I took these for personal reasons, mainly because when I’ve been abroad before it’s been for geological reasons, so I always come back with hundreds of photos of rocks. It’s a habit, I’m afraid, that you can’t break…

Some buildings, which I can’t remember anything about. They do remind me of Old Portsmouth though. (frankly I wonder why we bothered to go away!)

A cannon.

In the background is an old prison, in the foreground is a castley thing within the fishmarket. Prior to visiting the fish market, we went to a wood shop, where we saw how the wooden stuff available in EVERY craft stall in the world was made, and were told about the different woods, and were sold some.

Here’s Hannah again (you can see the necklace a bit better now) in an alleyway. We got a bit lost wandering these, but that’s half the fun of strange towns. You see more that way!

Chez Sam, a fish based restaurant that we were taken to. They served us bony fishes, battered squid and none of it looked appetising. It tasted the same too.

A goat. In a tree. HOW CRAZY IS THAT!!!

!!!!!

Goats climbing a tree.

Apparently the goats climb trees to get to the fruits that grow up them, but these ones were chased up by the goatherds as out bus pulled up. The goats didn’t seem to mind too much.

Goats not in a tree. We saw a LOT of these

Hannah with a goat up a tree. Just to prove it did happen when we were there!

My last picture of a goat up a tree. If you want to give up reading these now, you can, but there is a Phorusrachid, a Pteranodon and a Hornbill further down. As well as lots of pictures of hotels, so it’s your choice.

Back in Agadir, this is Hotel Club Agador, where Hepesh, Queen Thaliria, Gebek, Ortron and King Peladon all stay. (You might need to be a Doctor Who fan to understand that!)

God, Country, King again.

This was freaky. A pale zombie chef. Brrrrrrr

The Promenade in Agadir. This was the cloudiest day we had…

…but only in that direction!

A wallaby. Hang on, what?

I have no idea what this is advertising, but I like the way the Arabic seems to say “Uni-cow”, whatever a Unicow is. Maybe she’s one.

Whoopie. One of many hilariously-named foods we had (the best is yet to come), which came with a rubber bouncy ball!

The Hotel pool and restaurant (but not where the dining room was)

The pool again, Naked Orange Leather-skinned German women not pictured.

A Llama. This was in The Valley of the Birds, a zoo-type thing me and Hannah visited (we loked through the fence the previous day, hence the Wallaby). I won’t include all the pictures I took, they’ll be on the Photobucket site at the end of the blog, but I’ll do a few, for a laugh.

This is me feeding a goat type thing. One of the keepers grabbed me, gave me some animal feed and threw me in with them (glad they don’t have tigers!)

Phorusrhacus. I thought they were extinct…

An artificial waterfall, under the main road that went across the park.

A Pteranodon. The poor thing was chained to the roof, poor thing.

A frog. Hannah liked these more than anything else in the place, and they weren’t even meant to be there.

A Hornbill. Isn’t it GORGEOUS!

An ape. They didn’t seem happy in their cage.

The entrance to Birds Valley.

Another mosque. These are much more common than churches in this country. No wonder Allah has so many followers, he is literally everywhere!

Here’s Hannah outside the Agadir Memorial Museum. As I mentioned before Agadir was hit by a massive earthquake. This museum, as well as the surrounding gardens, is dedicated to the dead.

The entrance. This was an incredibly ornate building, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures as it was full of old photos and documents.

Well, not allowed, but here is a map of Agadir as it was. Modern maps can be found online somewhere.

Here’s Hannah in the gardens, near some arches which are built in the same style as the museum. We also saw a nice little kitten, but the owner was nearby, and we didn’t want to pay for the photo priveliges.

Amusing foods No. 2. Kracks. These were VERY salty, but the fun of saying that we were muncing on salty Kracks was too much fun. You could also get Cheesey Kracks and Fishy Kracks, which I can’t see anything amusing about.

The view from our hotel room at night.

Our hotel room. A cleaner would come in every day, which was nice.

Souk Al Had, the main market in Agadir. A lot less touristy, it had some tourist tat, along with the usual market tat you get in the UK (plastic toys, manky fruit) as well as fake trainers.

God, Country, King, Pizza Hut, McDonalds. A terrible shame.

“Leather Stuff” – What does that mean? Coats? Whips? Who knows?

More photos of our hotel

Hannah in the Lift, taking a photo of…

This. What is a Worp Swede anyway? A Swedish Trekkie?

The Entrance to the dining Room. There was a waiter here who was very nice, and a boss woman who wasn’t. The food varied from alright to not bad.

Hannah in front of a big door outside the dining room. Look at the size of that knocker!

Amusing Foods No. 3. What is Vom Land? Is it food that looks and tastes the same as vomit? Probably not.

Me and Hannah in our hotel room. The Pink thing is a bit of Hannahs Cardie, not a candle!

Last look at our hotel room.

Photos of the hotel complex.

The departure lounge at Agadir airport.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, and Yes. We actually had to walk across the apron to get to our plane! How cool is that!

View from my seat prior to take off.

The airport sign through the dirty airplane window.

The sun setting on our holiday. Did we have fun? Yes we did. We got to see things we don’t normally see, ate a lot of pizza, spent the last few days with a dodgy tummy, did a lot of swimming, met strange people and generally had a jolly time.

And we saw goats up trees!

GOATS!
UP!
TREES!

And now HSBC has used them on an advert, which makes all this a bit less impressive. Ah well…

The full album of photos, minus commentary, can be found at
http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u135/dinowight/

Oh Sheila!

2007-07-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

I just found a message on my phone. I don't know who it's from, but I know it's not for me.

Basically, it's from a man who sounds like Howard from "Last of the Summer Wine", who's missing someone called Sheila. Poor woman.

I didn't listen to all of the message, but I imagine it's boring, and full of pleading. from what I did hear, he's a miserable pleader (and I make no apologies for that joke, after all, according to some people I made it up).

Trouble is, I'm hoping that he'll phone back, so I can either

Tell him he had a wrong number, and Sheila wasn't ignoring him, or
Play along, take the mickey, then hang up laughing at his misery.

I wish I was evil enough to do option 2.

I've Finally Done It!

2007-07-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

After resisting it for ages, I've finally joined...An Online Community! FaceBook, to be precise.

I've been resisting it for some time, for the following reasons;

I don't like the idea of anybody being able to put themself on my friends list, especially if I don't know them.
I have a prejudice against MySpace (hence being on FaceBook). I was on there once for about an hour, and I just didn't like it.
I'm fairly easy to find on the internet, not only through DinoWight, for which I'm mildly famous, but also my surname is one of the least common I know of. Any Simon Clabbys out there are likely to be me, and if you wanted to contact me, you probably would have.
It just didn't seem me.

Anyway, I'm on there now, and you can find it at

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646108274

Don't worry, loyal reader (or Adam, as you're usually known) the next lot of Morocco pictures will be posted soon!

One Reason Why I'm Great!

2007-07-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hannah wanted to go to Woolies and get the new Harry Potter book (which I haven't read yet, so don't tell me what happens) for £8.99, but I pursuaded her to go to John Lewis instead. They had it (which I didn't know) for a fiver. Bingo!

Totally Dull Blog Entry No. 5

2007-06-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally found time to write the fifth in who knows how many totally dull blog entries.

So, what's happened? The move went fairly well (well, fairly, I had a slight nervous breakdown from lack of sleep, the stress of getting back off holiday, having to do all the packing for the move, having to move tonnes of stuff without any transport (although thanks have to go to my parents, who came down on the day before we had to be out and helped move everything I couldn't), then starting a new job, but I'm much better now!) and we're settled in,with lots of new furniture, including a really heavy sofa and a really light bed (which is nicer than the air bed we had before) It's further to work as well, although the journey is quicker on my bike, so all's good. Then we had the problems with broadband, which are now thankfully sorted (hence writing this now!) I miss the old place though...

Anyway, new job, museum host at the Mary Rose, 1,000,000 times better than I expected, and almost as easy. It's only the small majority of visitors that do your head in that makes it less than perfect!

The Exciting Moroccan Photos! Part 1

2007-06-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

Right, as many of you might know, I’ve been to Morocco. Rather than bore you by sitting you down and showing you photos, I’ve put them here and given them captions, so you can skip the boring ones and go to the ones of goats up trees. Anyway, on with the piccys (click on them for bigger versions)…

This is the plane we flew on, it was alright, but they didn’t have any vegetarian meals on board, so Hannah had to have biscuits and cheese for her in-flight meal. We left Gatwick in a load of cloud, with rain coming down and almost zero visibility, but when we reached Morocco…

…It was blooming warm! As we came in to land it was obviously different to the UK, everything was orange, rather than the greens and greys we have. This is the view from the coach park (told you the pictures could be boring!) From here we went to our hotel, Le Tivoli, which you’ll see more of later.

The next day, and here is the view from our hotel room. You might notice a lot of satellite dishes, we never found out why that was, but never mind, that’s not important. The horizon is the Atlantic Ocean, which we never went in.

Here’s Hannah on our balcony, it’s a bit dark, but then it was compared to outside.

This is the view of Agadir from the Kasbah, which since the Massive earthquake in 1960 has been a ruin.

Here’s Hannah standing in front of Agadir…

Here she is again, in front of more of Agadir, with a strange expression on her face.

This was to show off a camel, being lead by a Berber. Apparently, Berbers were the original “Barbarians”, named as such by the Romans, the Berbers took the name and made it their own. Good for them.

More Agadir, more Ocean…

One of the surviving walls of the Kasbah.

Camels belonging to the Berbers. I took this picture from inside the coach for a very good reason. Nothing in Morocco is Free. If I had taken the photo outside the coach, a Berber would have come at me demanding money. As I hadn’t been to the money changing place, I would have been in a tricky situation.

Fishing boats being built, they still make them out of wood.

Here’s a shot of the Kasbah from below…

This is something you’ll see a few times in these pictures, massive writing on the mountain. It says “God, Country, King”. The Moroccans like their king, and have pictures of him everywhere. He’s a very casual chap, and dresses more like a hotel manager than a king, but I’m sure he’s great.

I don’t know what I was trying to achieve here, but it does allow me to link to our trip to Marrakech.

This is one of the alleyways of Marrakech…

As is this. Marrakech seemed to consist of nothing but alleyways, all with various forms of transport hurtling along them. The road surfaces were less than flat too, so I can only imagine how English pensioners, who don’t like the odd cyclist in a pedestrian precinct and end up breaking their hip if a paving slab is slightly skew-iff would cope!

This place was nice, it’s called Ben something or other, and used to be a Koranic School. Basically, the boys of the family would go here to learn how to read, and to do so they would learn the Koran, bits of which are carved into the wood around the walls. I have several pictures of this place, so I’ll keep comments to a limit, mostly so I have something to say but mostly because I’ve forgotten most of it.

All the wood is Cedar wood, which stinks to high heaven (in a nice way, I should add!).

A little Alcove, what for I don’t know, as all the signs are in Arabic or French.

The roof of the alcove.

This is one of the rooms the students used to study in.

The Souk. Basically a load of alleyways selling the sort of Tat you pay several times more for in Habitat, Cargo or poncey shops that sell “ethnic” stuff to people with more money than sense. This tended to stink in places too, in a bad way this time, due to poor sewerage and the piles of rubbish that were placed along them at various intervals.

This is the big square in Marakech, the Jemaa el Fna Square. Which is much busier at night. The place is full of street entertainers, who sit around telling stories, charming snakes or offering to pull your teeth out. The place is deserted during the day (see below), but at night the place is packed. More on that later…

This was the starter course at the restaurant we ate at, where they tried to sell us pictures of ourselves washing our hands (perhaps as proof if someone accused us of having never washed our hands “No, I did, look, here’s proof!”), Not much to say, the red stuff was very hot, and that stuff at the back, which looks a bit like baked beans? Well, it don’t just look like baked beans…

This is the main course, a Tagine (big cone-shaped pot) filled with meatballs and eggs. It wasn’t brilliant, but it was alright. Dessert was oranges sprinkled with cinnamon, and we ended sat about for nearly an hour while we waited for our guide to take us out. In the end, we staged a revolt and all walked out, and he came with us. Power to the people!

This is a Stork on a Mosque. These would blare out the call to prayer several times a day (the mosques, not the storks.)

Another stork

And another

This is a little market area, can’t remember much about it.

Oh, look, a stork.
46
This is the garden of the Prime Minister of Morocco. Well, former, one of the previous kings came to power at an early age, and rather than appoint a regent, they created the post of Prime Minister. The foliage is rather dense, I don’t know it that would have been the case in his day…

Told you it was dense!

One of the ceilings.

Hannah passing out into a courtyard…
53
...which held the quarters of the Prime Ministers wives. Yes, plural. (Imagine six Cherie Blairs!) Apparently one was his favourite, so she got a nicer room, but he still had…

…Loads of concubines! This was the courtyard for their rooms!

And here is his office, or something, I can’t remember.

Cacti now, from the Menara and Majorelle Gardens, which belongs to Yves Saint Laurent.

I only took this picture because it looked a bit rude.

Here’s the tip…

And here’s the whole thing!

A Terrapin in one of the ponds.

Hannah and her parents.

This is the view from our Marrakech hotel room. Not too great.

This was one of the inner courtyards, much nicer!
70
Jemaa el Fna Square, getting darker. It is MUCH busier now, and full of food stalls, all trying to get us to eat theirs. Surprisingly, they had learnt about our culture to a extent you wouldn’t expect, all going on about Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey and (and this threw me!) Fanny Craddock! Needless to say, we didn’t eat at any of them, although I was curious about the sheep’s brains.

Hannah’s family at the square.

You’ll have noticed that there is a lot of sky in these photos. This is because the street traders assume that even if a camera is pointed in their general direction you have taken a picture, and so should give them money. The only way to get around this is to either hold your camera facing upwards (and look like a tourist, attracting all sorts of unwelcome attention) or put it away, only pulling it out (ooh-er!) when you really have to.

Here’s a couple of shots of the view from the restaurant balcony from which we eventually had some food. Service is REALLY slow in Morocco.

This is the hotel we stayed in, not very nice to look at from the outside but we did get to watch Scooby Doo in German (Scooby has a rubbish voice in German) so that’s alright then.

Here’s Hannah with a baby camel. This was at a service station between Marrakech and Essaouira, which used to be called something else which was much easier to remember, but I’ve forgotten. Ooh, just remembered, it was Mogador. Much easier to spell!

More camel. Hannah wanted to ride a camel, but we failed to find one that she could ride. Never mind.

This is some military place, dunno what, but it has the “God Country King” thing on the side, which is nice.
You see those black and white blurs in the tree to the left? Those are goats! Honest! Don’t believe me, wait until part two of this amazing(ly dull) recording of my trip to Morocco!

Where I've been!

2007-06-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

The write up for my trip to Morocco will be up soon (it's been nearly a month!), but here's a map of countries where I've been

create your own visited countries map

Back off Holiday!

2007-05-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Morocco, but now I'm moving house, so anything Holiday related is sadly going to have to wait.

People I've been told I look like.

2007-05-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Robin Williams.

Frankie Howard.
Tommy Cooper
David Cameron!Look at him! Do I look ANYTHING like David Cameron? No, but that didn't stop some woman thinking I was him on Eastney seafront (although she did say that she though he was "really gorgeous", the poor deluded woman!)

Totally Dull Blog Entry No. 4

2007-05-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

Right, bought a new digital camera today, and it's not bad, considering it was the cheapest one in Tesco. I also had TWO injections today, which sting like flip and one has bled onto my shirt. Luckily it's a dark-coloured checked one, so it shouldn't show too much.

Anyway, the house situation. We put down the holding fee for the new flat, now all we need to do is find some way of getting all our stuff from our current flat to the new one. Neither of us drive, it's about a mile to the new place, and we can't think of anybody who can drive either that wouldn't be at work.

Frankly, I'm worried about the whole thing. Still, it's done now.

Corridor

2007-05-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

I hate people who post links on their blogs (although if you want to buy my book, it's available HERE, or if you just want to find out about the dinosaurs known from the Isle of Wight, look HERE) but I just found the archive for Corridor.

For those of you who don't know Corridor is a regular comic strip that appears on the B3TA messageboard. It rarely makes sense, but it is rather charming in it's own way.

http://corridor.solarisedesign.co.uk/

or the archive

http://corridor.solarisedesign.co.uk/corridor-archive/

Thanks BBC!

2007-05-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

I'm on holiday on the 12th of May, so I was expecting to miss the Doctor Who episode "42" scheduled for that day. However, thanks to those lovely people at the BBC and Eurovision, it's being postponed, so no Doctor Who that week! I won't miss anything!

Thanks!

Totally Dull Blog Entry No. 3

2007-05-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

Today I got quite a lot done! I bought stuff for the holiday (Mini shampoo/soap thingies, money belt, sun tan lotion and flipflops) plus we saw a new flat. Eventually.

It was smaller than the one I mentioned in the last entry, and was cheaper (£525pcm), and in a fairly nice area. We're going to go for it tomorrow morning, so hopefully those flipping psychic househunters won't grab it.

Anyway, you probably want to know why I said "Eventually" earlier. Well, we were going to see another flat, in quite a nice leafy area of Southsea, but it turned out that not only had it been let, but we weren't even down to look at it, despite the fact we had it written down on the viewing card. The other property we were going to look at we didn't get to see as there was a disturbance outside, the sort that involves police vans, so we probably wouldn't have liked it there.

Still, we've found a nice flat, and here's hoping we get it!

When Dinosaurs Ruled… Europe!

2007-04-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, a highly topical review, I know, as the series was made back in 1999, but I just got the boxset in the remaindered bookshop “The Works” today for a fiver, and wanted to see the episode “When Dinosaurs Ruled Europe” (the other episodes were “When Dinosaurs Ruled – Beyond T rex ” and “When Dinosaurs Ruled Africa”) because of my research interests. (Plus I was looking forward to a CGI reconstruction of the Wessex Basins fauna! Yeah, shallow, I know, but I was disappointed when Prehistoric Park wimped out of featuring Baryonyx, which I know the producers wanted to use.)

I’ll be honest, the way I’d heard of the “When Dinosaurs Ruled” (WDR from now on, for
brevities sake!) gave me the impression that it was basically an American version of “Walking With Dinosaurs”, a wildlife documentary using state-of-the-art CGI dinosaurs. It ain’t. It’s basically like one of those documentaries that they show on Channel Five or Horizon on BBC2 where they have talking heads, people out in the field and the odd bit of CGI to illustrate the dinosaurs they are talking about.

The CGI was a bit poor, to be honest, with no impression of weight, mass or of the dinosaurs being physically there. The historical reconstructions were little better, and of dubious accuracy (I know that Richard Owen was arrogant, but I doubt that even he would address the Royal Society while sitting behind a school desk!) and the historical information was iffy in places (saying the Dinosauria was named in the presentation of 1841, rather than the publication of the talk in 1842 is one instance).

The science was, well, not too bad. Not sure if we really needed to be told about the Knights Templar (or even the Templar Knights, as Jeff Goldblum put it!) at Rennes le Château, but it did fill five minutes of programme. I know many Americans know nothing about English Geography (I know the reverse is true as well!) but Sussex is NOT in London, although I suppose there is nothing to say that Baryonyx didn’t wander that way (and I was VERY disappointed by the lack of a CGI Baryonyx, one of the things I was looking forward to).

Overall, the whole thing felt very cheap and shoddy. Nice to see Steve Hutt though, talking about Neovenator (using the pronunciation “Nee-OH-venner-TOR”, which Goldblum apparently wasn’t briefed about), as well as John “WightDino” Winch talking about Iguanodon pathologies. Shame they referred to Eotyrannus (then unnamed) as “New Raptor”, suggesting a relationship to Velociraptor.

I should probably watch the other episodes at some point. They both mention Moroccan dinosaurs, and I’m going on holiday there soon, so I’ll be up-to-date!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

2007-04-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today I waited in for the estate agent to come round and look at our flat.

All day.

Eventually, Hannah got back from work, via town, and he still hadn't been.
We phoned him, he came round, was here for less than a minute, then left.
I WASTED A WHOLE DAY FOR LESS THAN A MINUTE!!!

Not a happy bunny, I can tell you!

Totally Dull Blog Entry No. 2

2007-04-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today we looked at another flat. This one was only about 5 minutes from where we are now, was much bigger and in a nicer area. The obvious problems, however, were that it was a bit dark (it was a basement flat), there was no parking, there was an odd smell (although that was just the cooking of the previous tenants) and it's £55 per month more expensive than the flat we're in at the moment. Overall it was nice, but in the end we decided that we should look elsewhere.

Yesterday I managed to buy some tweezers at 4 for a pound, which is irrelevant, but I wanted to mention it. I've also made some Dalek biscuits, which are green with jam outlines and puffed rice (I would say Rice Krispies, but Rice Krispies have taste) bumps. I used the dough from a dinosaur cookie kit, which should have made 10, but I made 13, and still had some left over for a big Dalek mutant. I've had a few, but I'm saving the rest for Saturday, when the Daleks invade Manhatten...

Totally Dull Blog Entry No. 1

2007-04-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

So, what have I done today, in my first day off between jobs? Well, Hannah had the day off too, so we went into town and bought some shopping, then went to look around a flat. It was a nice flat, a lot bigger than the one we’re in at the moment, with more than two rooms, a bath and view across the whole of Portsmouth. The only problems were that it’s half an hour away from anywhere good, making shopping, catching trains, getting to work etc very difficult, and that the place liked a bit grotty. I know that you shouldn’t base your opinion of a flat on how it looks when the previous tenant is still living there (although the large collection of mens magazines was a bit off putting) but we don’t know what the neighbours are like, and the front garden is almost completely neglected. Plus, there’s nowhere for me to leave my bike.

On the way back, we stopped off at south parade pier for an ice cream (Vanilla and Strawberry twist – Yum!) bought some dinosaur-related orangeade (You could taste the chemicals!), which a small child tried to take off me in the sunken garden near the Pyramids, then wandered back home.

Not a very exciting day, but it WAS pleasant, and such a treat to go out on a nice sunny day and enjoy the weather. Shame the flat wasn’t nearer where we are now.

(and yes, I know that it's a bit presumptuous of me to assume that that this is the first dull blog entry, but it's my blog, so nyer!)

Wooooooooo, Spooky!

2007-04-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Mythconceptions - The Mary Rose

2007-04-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Mary Rose sank on it’s maiden voyage, because it was designed with it’s gunports too close to the waterline. It says so in all the books, so it must be true.

But, it didn’t, and it doesn’t. The Mary Rose was launched in 1511, and sank in 1545, which means that it was either one HELL of a maiden voyage or conventional wisdom is sadly mistaken.

But why does everybody think this. Admittedly, it does make a good story, and the idea that our stupid ancestors were to sort of people to launch a ship that can’t do the main thing that all ships are built to do, i.e. not sink.

To try and understand this, you need to look at the original press material. Along with the details of the ship, it’s famous faces and the raising, there is information about a ship called the Vasa, a Scandinavian ship launched nearly a century later, the preservation treatment of which the Mary Rose conservation team would adapt and use themselves.

While this is all very interesting, what is more important is the nature of it’s sinking. The Vasa was a highly ornate ship, a truly interesting and experimental design, which sadly, due to a design fault, had it’s gun ports too low and sank shortly after being launched.

This information was included in the press release, and somehow has been inserted into the Mary Rose story. But if it was a mistake on behalf of the public, it would be a lot less widespread. But it isn’t. People have “heard” or “read” that the Mary Rose sank on it’s maiden voyage, and believe it to be so. I’ve even heard teachers telling school groups this “fact” (along with the old fallacy that people in “those days” were much smaller than they are today, a subject that would need a whole entry to itself to do it justice.)

It may just be that the media coverage was wrong at the time. I haven’t been through all the papers and telly stuff from the time of the raising, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the sentence “Sank on it’s maiden voyage” is used in relation to the Mary Rose. And finally, as I can’t be bothered to finish this entry properly, I’ll end on a total lie.

When that chain snapped as the Mary Rose cradle left the water, it wasn’t an accident, but a cleverly staged bit of drama, much like in episodes of Thunderbirds, where the rescue would be going smoothly, then something would go wrong to increase the dramatic tension. The Mary Rose raising team realised that everybody was expecting a galleon in full sail to raise majestically from the waves, when in fact it would be a big yellow cradle with what looked like some bits of wood sticking out of it. They decided that, as everybody would be a bit disappointed (which they were, as this shows), they would add a bit of danger to the raising. Indeed, many people only seem to remember the cradle breaking. But it was a fake, and the fact that the ship was completely undamaged only reinforces this fact.

And I know that is true, cos I made it up myself

Update - Is A Bit Of Research Too Much To Ask For?

2007-04-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

http://smclabby.blogspot.com/2007/03/is-bit-of-research-too-much-to-ask-for.html

They've changed it. It doesn't make much sense now, but they have changed it.

not sure I like having my name on a creationist website, but hey-ho.

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing – An Ignored Gem

2007-04-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

image from http://shillpages.com/movies/oo.shtml

Disney have only ever produced one good film with the word Dinosaur in the title, and that is One of Our Dinosaurs is missing, a comedy adventure set in 1920’s England.

For those of you who’ve never seen it, here is a synopsis, and I apologise for nicking it from Wikipedia, but I couldn’t be bothered to write my own one, although I did shove in a few snippets myself.

Escaping from China with a microfilm of the formula for the mysterious "Lotus X", Lord Southmere (Derek Nimmo) is chased by a group of Chinese spies.

Back in London, Lord Southmere manages to escape from a taxi driver who is trying to kidnap him, and then runs into the Natural History Museum (Which looks a lot more like it did in 1975 than it did in the 1920’s). Chinese spies have followed him into the museum, so he hides the microfilm in the bones of one of the large dinosaur skeletons. Losing his balance, he falls to the floor. Feeling faint, he is relieved to find that his former nanny, Hettie (Helen Hayes), is also in the museum, and he asks her to retrieve the microfilm before the Chinese spies can find it, commenting that he hid it in the skeleton of a large dinosaur (which later went on to play the large skeleton in the desert of Tattooine in Star Wars). Lord Southmere then faints, leading to his capture by the Chinese spies (lead by Peter Ustinov in Chinese makeup, a bit of casting that, although fantastic, would upset so many liberal groups today), who tell Hettie and Emily (another nanny, played by Joan Simms, who was in the Carry On films) that they are taking Lord Southmere to a doctor for medical assistance.

Hettie and Emily enlist other nannies to help them in their search for the microfilm. The nannies hide in the museum, in the mouth of the blue whale (although it has teeth, so can’t be a blue whale, but I degress), until after closing time, and then begin their search. They are unsuccessful, and most have to return home to care for their children, but Hettie, Emily and their friend Susan (another nanny played by Natasha Pyne, who is apparently in the Bill) remain to continue with the search. Unfortunately they are captured by the Chinese spies, who have been watching them, and they are taken to the spies' London headquarters, underneath a Chinese restaurant in Soho. The nannies are locked up in the 'dungeon', with Lord Southmere. Fortunately, the nannies out-wit their captors and escape, and start planning how they can retrieve the microfilm.

Meanwhile, the Chinese spies have decided to steal the dinosaur, so they can search it properly themselves. That night, they return to the museum in convoy and trick their way in. The three nannies follow on a motorbike and sidecar and at the museum gates watch proceedings from the shadows. When the Chinese have safely loaded the very large dinosaur skeleton on the back of the steam lorry brought along for the purpose, the nannies seize the initiative and drive the lorry away into the thick London fog.

Here begins the memorable chase sequence. The nannies drive through the foggy streets of London, to the stunned disbelief of everyone catching a glimpse of the strange apparition. The spies give chase, and nearly apprehend the nannies. But the steam lorry veers through a fence into a railway goods yard, drives onto a flat wagon at the back of a train, and is immediately carried off to the countryside and safety.

Now having time to search more thoroughly, the nannies still fail to find the microfilm on the skeleton. Hettie decides to return to London to ask Lord Southmere again where he had hidden the microfilm. Meanwhile, back in London, Hettie's two young, and totally unlikable, charges, Lord Castleberry and his younger brother, Truscott, have been captured by the spies. They are taken to the museum and the chief spy retrieves the microfilm from the other large dinosaur. The two boys are allowed home and tell Nanny Hettie the news. Realising that Lord Southmere is now in danger, Hettie organises a rescue. Hettie and her team of nannies invade the Chinese restaurant base and battle with the spies to recover Lord Southmere. Meanwhile, Emily and Susan return with the dinosaur and the lorry and bring the fight sequence to a shattering conclusion. Everything, however, ends well and the secret of the mysterious "Lotus X" is finally revealed as being the recipe for WonTon soup.

This is an unusual film, which could never be made today, as it has no likable child characters in it, something that would be unthinkable is today’s world of Demographics and Audience Identification, which make a Thunderbirds film about some teenagers. Most of the characters are old, and the Chinese makeup would cause lots of trouble.

What does make it fantastic, though, is the chase through London. The dinosaur skeleton on the back of a lorry should be a cultural icon, but for some reason it isn’t.

That’s not to say that it hasn’t had an impact. When Dinosaur Isle on the Isle of Wight First opened, they didn’t have their Polacanthus model ready, so they placed a sign in it’s place reading “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing”

It may be horrifically scientifically inaccurate (with lots of comments about a “pterodactyl” being a prehistoric bird, and being “the first people in two million years to be killed by a dinosaur”), but it’s still fun.

poster from http://www.impawards.com/1975/one_of_our_dinosaurs_is_missing.html

Interesting fact about a Dinosaur

2007-03-29T16:32:00.001-07:00

I'm currently working on a project about how palaeontologists are able to say things about dinosaurs that sound like they've been made up.

Some dinosaurs were cannibals

Dinosaur diets are sometimes easy to determine from the contents of the stomach area, for instance when the theropod Baryonyx was discovered in Sussex, England, partially digested fish scales and a juvenile Iguanodon phalanx were found associated with the ribs. For many years, there was “smoking gun” evidence for dinosaur cannibalism based on skeletons of the early theropod Coelophysis found in New Mexico, USA. Amongst the mass of Coelophysis skeletons was found an individual which appeared to have it’s stomach contents preserved, including an infant Coelophysis. Now, this is not unlikely, as many modern animals will resort to cannibalism in extreme situations, eating their own offspring or siblings, especially in birds of prey. However, recent examination of the shape and bone structure of the specimen has shown that the alleged infant was in fact a crocodylomorph, and indeed may not even be fully within the gut. Another piece of evidence was a coprolite found near the base of the tail of a Coelophysis skeleton containing alleged Coelophysis hand bones, but the contents are impossible to verify as Coelophysis, and so prove nothing.

This could have been the end of the cannibal dinosaurs, if it weren’t for the discovery in Madagascar of a Majungatholus specimen with unhealed tooth marks that correlate with the known dentition of that same species. There is also possible evidence for cannibalism in tyrannosaurs, but due to the presence of more than one genus of tyrannosaur in the geological strata this is impossible to confirm one way or the other.

Please feel free to post comments...

Is A Bit Of Research Too Much To Ask For?

2007-03-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

My attention was drawn to this page recently, which is part of a creationist website "proving" that dinosaurs, pterosaurs and suchlike were around with humans.

http://s8int.com/dinolit26.html

My attention was grabbed, not only by an image taken from DinoWight, but by this bit:

"Note that this specimen has a characteristic notch on his bill as did many long billed pterosauria and unlike birds such as the pelican and the Ibis, both long billed birds. Pterosaurs are thought to have eaten fish as this specimen also appears to be enjoying. As usual, it's up to you to decide if the evidence convinces you or leaves you unconvinced....s8int.com"

So, Pelicans don't have a characteristic notch (by which I presume he means crest) on their bills do they?

Picture sourced from http://sdakotabirds.com/digiscoping/american_white_pelican.htm via google, which took three minutes to find! And no, it IS real, I do have better things to do than photoshopping crests onto pelicans.

Research can stop you feeling silly.

Greetings to you, in my own way

2007-03-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure why, but I find it impossible to greet someone by saying "Hi!". I don't know why, but I can't.

Hello, easy, it's my default greeting.

How Do, a bit less (well, completely un-)formal, but still polysyllabic, albeit in a slight west-country accent

A'right/A'wight, I'm not from the eastend, but I'll still use it.

I even say Enor, which seems to be a garbled Hello that's gone a bit weird, but it works just as well thankyou very much, and the Northern breeting Ay-Up, which is odd as I'm from the Wiltshire originally (though I did watch a lot of Emmerdale Farm in my Teenage years).

Hi, impossible. Can't do it. Don't know why, it just doesn't work as a greeting for me. I think it may be a cultural thing, a resistance to Americanisation of the English Language. The weird thing is, I can say "'bye" easily enough, as well as "Ta-ra", "Bye-bye" and "See-ya". Why can I contract my parting words, but not my greetings? It doesn't really bother me, but it only struck me as weird yesterday.