January 2017 in the Life of Ben (Blog)
Protesting Trump’s Travel Ban (30th January 2017)
Cycled to the Eastern end of Downing Street after buying some waterproof cycling gloves. On my way there was a chanting group marching from Charing Cross towards Trafalgar Square and presumably on to the protest at Downing Street.
There was a somewhat sparse turn-out when I arrived. Started thinking about finding a place to park. Within a couple of minutes the crowds had filled the pavement and just a lane of the broad road was free for traffic. It soon ground to halt so I found myself in the very heart of the demonstration for the best part of an hour and a half!
Fiona stopped off at Westminister tube but there was no way I could progress down the road to meet her.
An inspiring experience. When I got home I asked if that sounded corny and it didn’t – we both felt uplifted at the tangible opposition to the facist corruption of America which Trump has immediately undertaken.
What Comes Next is the Future Web History Interviews (26th January 2017)
From about 30 minutes on it feels so re-assuring to hear the now unpopular (or merely unknown) principles of the web being refreshed and placed in proper historical context. The web is flexible and control is intended to be in the hands of the user and the user agent. Responsive design is easy to forget when people use photo editing software to decide how a website should look.
From about 40 minutes they compare and contrast app stores with responsive websites.
50 minutes describes the standards process. If anyone feels disconnected with the individuals who are designing the next generation of web standards, just join their mailing list! They ask you to join in. If you don’t join in, it’s because you were too lazy to join a mailing list. (Or your employer was too narrow-minded to pay you a couple of hours a week to participate.)
Watching it on the TV while doing work on my laptop was an ideal way to watch this. It’s nearly all sit-down interviews so it would work pretty well as a podcast.
What Comes Next is the Future (2016) is on Vimeo and I found it via Thoughts from Eric Meyer.
Dead Funny (No Spoilers) (23rd January 2017)
We saw this play at Vaudeville Theatre. A couple of familiar faces in the cast and the fact it’s a comedy convinced me to go.
The stage is a single location for the duraction. That enables it to look really authentic, like a TV set. A small number of characters, all with excellent delivery and genuinely funny lines balanced against natural dialogue and sub-plots.
Rogue One (No Spoilers) (14th January 2017)
(More to follow.)
The Four Quarters Arcade Bar (14th January 2017)
Tremendous fun in this venue on Saturday afternoon with a friend from out of town. Star Wars Trilogy game was superb! Fire button shoots with every press so you could spam it like mad until the weapon (in the game) eventually overheats.
Also played Time Crisis (first time in an arcade for me) which had surprisngly accurate aiming. Sega Rally was hard to play as you stand with 2 pedals that are set high, with long travel. Daytona racing game was also tough, barely playable even when I sneaked a chair over to it.
Mario Kart was on a projector, looks great for party play but I really didn’t understand the drift steering!
Types of Eating (5th January 2017)
BBC iWonder diet durvey thing (requires Flash) puts mr as British Classic.
Their advice to me is:
- N/A: Swap roast potatoes and chips to jackets or boiled potatoes – lots less fat!
- No! Cut the fat off meat and switch to lean mince or chicken
- Sometimes: Eat less meat by adding an extra portion of a favourite or new type of veg to your meals
- Sometimes: Swap cakes, puddings and custard to fresh fruit on weekdays
- Sometimes: Add low-fat grated veg, lentils, split peas or pearl barley to stews and pies to fill you up
- N/A: Try gradually reducing the sugar you have in hot drinks
- Sometimes: How about skipping meat altogether on some days?
Some of those I already do. Fries only appears because some questions required all items to be selected, when there were things I never eat. They give some suggested recipes, too.