TimeSavingExpert.com
I have found this truly great blog
Time Saving Expert.com
and Time Saving Expert.co.uk
I think that they are truly great because I wrote them!
what do you think?
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Truly Terrible Jokes
Maths Jokes
Q: What is the volume of a pizza with radius z and height a?
A: pi z z a
I got this one off a university graduate. I was sat there stone faced when he told me it.
There is a maths party and all the functions are invited to it. Sine, cosine, log e^x and everybody else is there. During the party, cos notices that e^x is in the corner, by himself. Sp cosine walks up to e^x and asks him: "Why don't you come and integrate with everybody"? e^x replies, "I can't, I only integrate with myself".
Time Saving
It may seem like a waste of time to read this, but it might just give you an idea that saves hours of time...
If so, please share it, with a comment.
Time-Shifting Things you could do another time
lay out your clothes the night before (check the weather first)
pack your lunch the night before
go grocery shopping and prepare a lot of food on sunday so it's easy to have a meal ready to go during the week
Save reading for travel journeys on the underground/bus, or save articles in the car, in case you find you have a few extra minutes (eg. arrive somewhere early)
Multi-Tasking
Do simple things whilst on the phone, or watching tv
Active tasks - could be done whilst on the phone
ideas include
ironining,
cooking
tidying/cleaning/washing up
Sedentary tasks - things to do whilst sitting - perhaps whilst watching tv
pairing socks!
Don't make watching tv a sedentary task, watch it at the gym if you can.
Speed Things Up - do the same things - quicker
Record tv/radio and watch it back fast-forwarding through adverts/boring bits.
Listen to podcasts speeded up, or you can try it with dvds! (subtitles help if you want to go really quick!)
Do Things in Bulk
In winter I often like to have a complicated breakfast of oats, rasins, nuts, cinnamon, mixed spice etc. You can't pre-mix this... so I tried doing the weeks breakfasts all at once and stacking the bowls (with cling fim if necessary). Porridge isn't bad if you use milk powder, and add boiling water from the kettle.
Leave things you regulaly use where you might need them, like in the car If you often like me, fancy a coke whilst out, I have a stash in the car, which I leave there from when I went shopping. It saves having to buy one, and often money too. Leave spare shoes, clothes, contact lenses, snacks, baby thing, etc in the car.
Internet
use Google Speedup - automatically preloads pages link on free software page
use Firefox, I find it quicker link on free software page
Travel
Check traffic infomation before you set off for UK you can do this here
Get a GPS device, my Tom Tom is great.
Plan journeys in London with journey planner Tube maps
Do thing geographically so you dont spend time traveling back to an area you just came from (A to B back to A over to C)
Stay At Home
Internet banking I recommend cahoot (UK)
Online shopping
Grocery shopping asda ocado (waitrose) sainsburys tesco supermarket comparison
Skip Steps - Remove an unnecessary part of the process.
When you unload the dishwasher, set the table! Instead of putting all those plates back in the cabinet and pulling them out again a few hours later, just put plates, silverware, and glasses on the table. It helps get the next meal out fast and it also makes the table look nice!
Gadgets
Kitchen: Use an egg slicer to slice mushrooms for fast, easy and uniform slices.
Exercise
Lots of time saving devices can mean that we spend less time exercising. So below is a list of ways of getting exercise back into life, without wasting any more time.
Instead of meeting people for coffee, go for a walk instead.
Walk whilst on the phone.
Go for a walk in your lunch break.
BBC Time Saving Tips
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Free Gym Membership
Cheap Gym Membership without Joining Fee and Contract
Six months ago I joined Holmes Place/Cannons Gym. Membership for this gym is about £60 a month, based on a 12 month contract. However I paid just under 20 pounds, and could cancel at any time. I thought that this was a pretty good deal. A few people have asked me how, but I think I should probably just tell everyone because it is a good deal.
Instead of listening to me waffling on, have a look at their website here
It cost me just under £20 a month for the health insurance.
At the moment I think they are giving away £100 in boots vouchers, but this might change by the time you are reading this. However, they usually have a good offer on. If they are doing the gym offer get in there quick though, because they only do this every six months. I suppose it is probably possible to join for 1 month, try out the gym and claim the free vouchers.
Cheap Gym Membership without Joining Fee and Contract
Health Insurance Plan
Monday, October 16, 2006
Recommended Podcasts
The Adam & Joe Show - Comedy
Highlights from their weekly show on XFM London. Quite Amusing.
subscribe here subscribe in itunes download individual episodes
Russell Brand - Comedy
An aquired taste I think. If you are english you will probably know what he is like, and if not, you probably won't care. Perhaps worth 1 listen at least.
subscribe listen now website
The Naked Scientists - Science
Science podcast, presented in a humerous lighthearted way. A refreshing change to the dry science podcast I have listened to.
website subscribe here individual episodes
If you know of any podcast that you would like to recommend please leave a comment or message me. If you can please include a link and description of the show.
If you do not have a podcasting program, I recommend Juice (free), which can be foound on my Free Software page.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Universal Genius
Quiz Shows
My favorite Quiz Show - Quizzlestick
Quizzlestick - full window
from The Adam & Joe Show
watch
Numberwang clip
Numberwang 3 - full window
from The Mitchell and Webb Situation
Mitchell & Webb
Medical Drama, with emphasis on the drama, and not the medicine.
Bad Writers: Medical Drama
Music Rating
Friends that know me well will know that I have a ridiculously complicated, obsessive way of organising my mp3s. I have tried to explain the madness. If there is anyone else out there that is as strange as me, you might like to steal some ideas for managing your music.. but I doubt anyone will.
I can explain how it came about. I was using itunes with my ipod, and i had to reinstall the program, or windows, or something, but was horrified that I had lost all the stars that you use to rate the music. I was also annoyed that when i switched computers, the stars didn't transfer.
So I decided, that I could just write a number in the comment field, which would be permanent over several computers, and give me the advantage of being able to rate 1-10 or 1-100 or whatever I wanted.
So I started with 1 digit rating from 0-9.
I soon realised that there are many songs that I view as being great classic, quality songs, but that I don't often want to listen to. There are also some musically poor songs that just get in your head. So i introduced a quality 0-9 rating in addition to the overall rating.
The overall rating would dictate how often the song tended to pop up in my playlists.
I decided I also needed a happy rating. This would also go from 0-9.
I needed a way to differenciate the ratings from each other, and so I introduced the brackets.
8 H(6) Q[5]
the first number is the overall rating
H(6) shows that it is fairly happy
Q[5] demonstrates that it is of average quality.
I could then create smart playlists finding happy songs that I particularly like. Happy songs can be annoying if you are not in a happy mood, so I could do the reverse.
I could make a smart playlist to play the quality songs that I hadn't listened to for ages.
Then we can start to throw in some other ratings.
Many songs in my collection are guitar based, but I often find that I am either in a guitar mood, or not. So a guitar rating was introdu . G<1> demonstrates that the guitar features some guitar, but that it is incidental to the track, and G<9> would probably include an amazing Hendrix solo or something.
*7* would indicate a chilled-out song (although I don't like the term) I was thinking of freezers with the stars!
I also created a x6x category for songs that are good to listen to, erm, in bed.
Then we can start making all kinds of combinations of songs. Make a playlist of songs that are Happy 6-9, and combine it with ones that have lots or little guitar etc.
I added some additions, H(d) is for songs that are truly depressing, or H(M) for moody songs. There is a difference! Moody songs might be good if you are in a moody dark kind of mood. Some Massive Attack has this rating in my collection. You might think “why would I want to rate a song as depressing, I am not going to make a depressing song playlist” True, but you can automatically omit these songs from popping up on other playlists and spoiling the mood.
We can throw in an AirG rating, for songs where you just have to grab the nearest tennis racket and pretent you are onstage.
I added a B~5 rating for songs with a good bassline. I like my bass, and am particularly fond of this rating.
I later added a BTS and Drms rating. For strong BEATS and good DRUMS respectively. The beats refers more to songs that might have a consistently distinct beat. This might be important if a song is chilled out, but has a strong beat over it. If you want chilled out music to listen to late at night, you might not want a strong beat over it, for example. Drms is more a rating if it has a great rhythm to it. Many songs might have both ratings. Blue Monday (New Order) has great Drms. Outsiders (Franz Ferdinand) has a consistent beat, but I wouldn't say it had great drumming. The interesting rhythm is a combination of the different instruments together.
This is perhaps part of the reason I had a f<> rating for how funky the song is. Some of these ratings are quite vague, but this was started to address my penchant for funk – and was an indication of the funkiness of the bassline and if it had a funky rhythm.
Perhaps as a consequence of trying to find good songs to run to at the gym, i created mv8 for motivating songs. I later felt compelled to add a mv9 for those just a bit more motivating and mv7 for those a bit less. mv1-5 do not exist.
The standard empty comment field for a song is:
H() G{} Q[] f<> ** xx [Scott*]
or an example of a completed comment would be:
9 H(8) G{5} Q[6] f<4> *1* x1x mv9 airG BTS B~3 JMP TPP [Scott*]
(Primal Scream – Rocks)
This is one of the longest comments – they are not all like this!
Once a song is rated it is automatically put into all the corresponding automatically updated playlists
Some other terms have crept in
FTT indicated a song that you just can't help but tapping your foot to.
JMP – good for jumping up and down to.
LYR – great lyrics
@ - lots of attitude
D^ great for dancing to (not just dance music – but a song I would actually consider dancing to)
Sum – A great summer song
A:M morning song
P:M evening song
zzz – good for falling asleep to
Pia – a piano focussed song
CLSS – classical music – so that they don't all mix together
+H(5) for songs that are not necessarily happy, but are good for lifting the mood. eg. Marving Gaye – What's Going On
Sun – “Easy Like Sunday Morning” type songs
Drv – Good Driving Music
BZZ – bizarre songs -
CVRS – Songs that have been covered.
Live L7 – Live indicates it is a live version, and L0-9 to determine the quality of the recording. It can be good to remove the live versions that might come up if you are trying to a listen to an album (they are likely to have a similar rating, and so might play consecutively)
Ghits – for when you have a greatest hits album, but you don't need to keep it in your collection with the original albums, but it can be good to have a record of what was featured on the album, so you can just listen to the hits – good for when you haven't rated all the songs yet.
XXX – Parental Advisory (Lryrics my mum wouldn't approve of)
ACST – acoustic
Ins – Instrumental
SX – Saxophone
STRNG – Strings
Non music comments – comedy, podcast, radio, audiobook
Example playlists:
Mv – not angry
mv happy 6-9
Recently rated 6-9
x9-4x *9-4* B~
Why do none of these have vowels? – so that you can distinguish the rating in the comment field from song titles etc, with the same letters. If I typed DRIVE I would get Drive by REM, which is not a good driving song in my opinion.
Why do I have [Scott*] - so that I can find songs that do not have a comment. If anyone I know has any of my tracks, I can immediately find songs I like on their itunes! Why does it have a * - to distinguish from Jill Scott or Scott Walker – who I was named after! Why the brackets – I don't know, but once you start you are stuck with your system!
I find that the genre category is too vague. Albums typically have the same genre for the whole album, which is rarely accurate. I have added some genres myself but these are suffixed with a * to indicate that it is my own categorisation.
I have so far rated 2722 songs, or 8.3 days, 16GB of music. It probably takes me about 10 seconds for each rating. That must be a lot of wasted time... 3.2 days of wasted time... But I do save hours reaching into my pocket to switch to a different track, because I don't like the one playing. I have done most of my favourite music now, and so the whole process will probably slow down now.
I occasionally change the rating, but they usually stick. You could view all of this as a waste of time, but I can always quickly find several hours of music that suits my mood. I think that we will be sticking with computer files for quite some time, and I hope that my system will last for around 10 years at least.
Clever idea or truly stupid!?!
Free Software
Having switched to Firefox as soon as it came out, I have a new respect for open source software. Annoyed by microsoft and the other big companies that charge a fortune for their programs, I have decided to embrace open-source, or more importantly FREE programs.
I have made this mage more of an aide memoire for me, somwhere to keep all the links for reinstallations etc... but someone might find it useful. All programs will be completely free, and not trials etc. Downloads are mainly from download.com, or google.
Firefox
Browsing is soo much better than Internet Explorer, this should definately be my first link. The program is very small, and the tabbed browsing is great.
Open Office
OpenOffice.org is both an open-source product and a project. The product is a multiplatform office productivity suite. It includes desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation manager, and a drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to those of other office suites. OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office. Open Office - download page
VLC Player
Plays most video files, but is an itsy bitsy teeny weeny little program, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, and OGG, as well as for DVDs, VCDs download page
FLV Player
FLV Player is a standalone application to play Flash .flv files with. You can use this to play videos downloaded from youtube, google video etc
download page
Download YouTube Video
Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, and a growing list of more than 60 video sites. You can also download all embedded objects on a Web page directly. VideoDownloader add a small icon on the status bar at the bottom of your Firefox window and a toolbar button. Just click the button to download the video you are watching. download YouTube Video
Juice PODCASTING
A free podcasting program, which I use in preference to itunes.
download page download
Friday, October 13, 2006
PHOTO: Toilet Paper Experiment!
NOX: Lars Sreyboek project to create self organising systems.
Stupid idea really, but a fun day.
Diagrams show results of blowing paper strips, of different widths types, level of stickiness etc into the air...
...although we mostly used toilet paper, as it was alread in long strips. up to about 4 m high!
NOX website
PHOTO: Train
Photo for my 2003 disseration
"Writing on trains"
Although I am not yet on the train in this photo, I am on the platform taking the photo.
PHOTO: 2005 Willy Wonkas
Visit to Willy Wonkas Sugar-Cube Warehouse
"Gosh, that's a lot of sugar Mr Wonka"
Actually it is Rachel Whiteread's Tate Exhibition, 2005-6
I should have put in another box, see if anyone noticed... I would have collaborated in an art installation at Tate Modern!
It was good, although I prefer the boxes in Muji - they stack so neatly!
Sweet!
Adam & Joe Comedy Videos
I was browsing YouTube, and found some Adam & Joe clips.
I didn't know where to put them, so I thought I would collate them all here.
I am sure that no-one outside the UK has heard of them, and not so many people know them in the UK.
My favorite Quiz Show - Quizzlestick
Quizzlestick - full window
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Second Major Attempt On My Life
Today i had an encounter with a Turkish man whilst out and about in London. I had never met him before, I didn't say anything to him, so I was quite surprised when he hit me.
Fortunately, after a little time talking he apologised and we said goodbye on good terms... (he even gave me his phone number!)
It is not a particularly long or interesting story, but... just for fun, I will add a few details.
He was a fairly short man, bald, mid thirties, wearing jeans and a t-shirt that did nothing for his figure. He travelled a lot, and was just about to go to Cyprus, but his english was not too good, and this is perhaps one of the reasons that our encounter didn't last long.
I guess the most important detail was that he was driving a truck when he hit me.
But don't worry, because I had a small tin box around me to protect me!
We didn't hit it off too well at first. He was a little forward and knocked me sideways with his introduction.
I can't say that my life flashed before me. If it had it couldn't have lasted long.
The only thing that flashed before me was Allied Carpets! And with 220 retail outlets within the UK, it is no surprise that I was not far from one of their many stores.
Find your local store here! http://www.alliedcarpets.co.uk/storesearch.asp
It occurred to me, whilst admiring their superb range of quality carpets, vinyls, woods and laminates, that not only did I not want to purchase any of the aforementioned items, but that I was facing the wrong way. You do not normally windowshop behind your own window, with the items wizzing past.
Whilst looking through the front windscreen it is traditional, for the motion of the vehicle to be in a forward direction, and for things to pass you at the side. Here the situation was rather different, and things were passing the windscreen of the car.
I believe it is also traditional for the car wheels to rotate whilst the car is moving. In my new, experimental driving style, this was rather unnecessary. (A note of caution, to anyone considering adopting my sideways driving style: It does increase tyre wear somewhat.)
Time seemed to pass very slowly as I slid sideways at 50mph along the A466 Angel Road.
If I looked to my left I could see a white truck on my my left wing-mirror. Sorry, not IN my wing-mirror, ON my wing mirror.
I could clearly see the bull-bars of the truck through the now open window, particularly as some of them were now IN my car. Why a truck needs bull-bars I do not know... do they really need that level of protection?! Was the truck damaged - Nope! not at all. The company would never know if their driver had ploughed through about 10 vehicles.
An object remains at rest or at uniform motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Newton's 1st law – (one of my favourites).
I'm not saying the truck driver is unbalanced or anything* but i was happily driving in my lane before he applied an unbalanced force to my car.
Some people, who stopped for a stare, advised that when I pray to god tonight that I should thank him for saving me. I was on Angel Road after al!
I thank Ford, the laws of physics, the nice man from the RAC, (although I am going to join the AA, because you get £10 off!) and my insurance company who will be buying me half a new car. I am also kinda pleased that I got health insurance - I only got it because I got free gym membership for 6 months ( so it was much cheaper than joining the gym and you can cencel whenever - I digress, but its a good offer so I will put a link here)
A life changing experience!? NO...
...although in Tesco today, I decided to put back the healthy option sandwich, and grabbed the most unhealthy, but delicious looking sandwich they had. I grabbed some chocolate chip brioche rolls and some kettle chips for later. (I can think of better culinary indulgences, but, hey, it was only lunch.)
Okay... So the fat will clog my arteries, and potentially kill me in 40 years... but hey... you have got to enjoy life....
....you could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Sympathy: There will be an open casket for the car. There is no burial, it will be left to RIP (rust-in-pieces*)
Please do not send flowers. Donations can be made to the "Buy Scott A New Car Charity".
Currently listening : A Blessing And A Curse
By Drive-by Truckers
Release date: By 18 April, 2000
Thursday, September 28, 2006
He Adored London...
Chapter one.
He adored London.
He idolised it all out of proportion.
Uh, no. Make that "He romanticised it all out of proportion.
To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.
- Uh... no. Let me start this over.
Chapter one.
He was too romantic about London, as he was about everything else.
He thrived on the hustle, bustle of the crowds and the traffic.
To him, London meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles.
- Ah, corny. Too corny for a man of my taste.
- Let me... try and make it more profound.
Chapter one.
He adored London.
To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture.
The same lack of integrity to cause so many people to take the easy way out...
... was rapidly turning the town of his dreams...
- No, it's gonna be too preachy. I mean, face it, I wanna sell some books here.
Chapter one. He adored London, although to him it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture.
How hard it was to exist in a society desensitised by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage...
- Too angry. I don't wanna be angry.
Chapter one.
He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved.
Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat.
- I love this.
London was his town and it always would be.
- No... wait, too derivative.....
If you didn't get the reference, you should definately watch this film.
Manhattan, (1979) Woody Allen. One of my favorite opening scenes.
It's also a spaced reference.
My 2 word review: It's good.
Plot summary: Funny.
It's also a spaced reference.
Some London based videos
Marcus Brigstock
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
Time Saving tips welcome: This may not be London, but it's the kind of everyday thing you see here.
* what music could you say London pulsated to?
Friday, September 22, 2006
You Have Never Seen Seinfeld!...
Everyone I show Seinfeld to likes it, yet few people I meet have even seen it. Without wanting to seem obsessed by a show, it is great, and the funniest american sitcom that i can think of.So here is a few randomly chosen episodes.
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