• Blogs
• Pandammonia
• My Books

My main blog is Pandammonia, and it is really just my ramblings. I like to think it's evolved since I started in December 2003 from an I-did-this diary to one containing things like my take on events, my ideas, my thoughts and opinions, and, of course, what I did. It's not updated as frequently as it used to be, but it's certainly not a dead blog.

My second blog is My Books. It started off as a way of keeping a record of what books I have read, but now I also have an online catalogue of my books (see my Reading page). I don't update this one very often - mainly because I never seem to get round to it, but I am trying to update it more frequently, along with writing reviews for each book.

Why not go to law school? Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:50:27 +0000

Sir William Jones, the great scholar of "eastern" languages routinely (though incorrectly) credited with discovering the Indo-European language family and founding modern historical linguistics, was by profession a lawyer. He learned Sanskrit as a judge in India. In his book Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents, Robert Irwin reports (pp. 123-4) that: At an early stage…

Untitled Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:57:15 GMT

Does anyone else want to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor tonight at the Vue, Cambridge? (Or possibly arm twisting to tomorrow if need be). Pick a time.

More photos Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:28:30 GMT

When we were at the air show, I got some decent pictures of biplanes with Blue Peter presenters strapped on top, and also some not entirely sucky photos of the Eurofighter, too. …

I arrange toilet training. Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:34:23 +0000

Things that have kept me away from the computer - #1 in a series of 945722572. Wee. Wee lakes, gathering in the shallow depressions on the leather sofa. Wee cascading down onto the floor, first a waterfall then a steady drip, drip, drip. Pools of wee on the oak floorboards, reflecting the light of the TV screen…

n.b., etc. 2008-08-10T23:25:55Z

Last week one of my colleagues asked me if I knew what "n.b." meant. "Of course, " I said. "It's short for nota bene, Latin for note well." It had been used in a document from someone in the UK. Apparently n.b. isn't very common in the US. I asked my colleague if he knew what i.e. and e.g. meant. Of course he did. So then I decided to do an experiment. I wrote up the following on my whiteboard: e.g. i.e. n.b. cf. q.v. viz. They were six Latinate abbreviations I could think of off the top of my head, roughly in order of how likely I thought it was that my colleagues would (1) have ever seen them; (2) know the meaning of them; (3) use them themselves. (Yes, there are others like etc. and ibid. but the above were the six I thought of at the time) Anyway, it turns out the people I asked in the office were familiar with and used i.e. and e.g…

‘I Am Rich’ file under WTF Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:44:21 +0000

As spotted on The Unofficial Apple Weblog Here’s a little useful app called ‘I am Rich. Basically it displays an image that shows you can afford the £599 price tag. I truly hope that nobody buys this by purpose. I also hope nobody buys this by accident! How scary!

As spotted on The Unofficial Apple Weblog Here’s a little useful app called ‘I am Rich. Basically it displays an image that shows you can afford the £599 price tag. I truly hope that nobody buys this by purpose. I also hope nobody buys this by accident! How scary!

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