…to be able to do this:
God that’s good. I love the look to camera at the end š Here is the original song from Queen II.
I’m at the very early stages of learning chords and stuff on piano. IF I ever get to the stage where I can play Nevermore like this guy I’ll be as happy as a big happy thing!
I accepted a BSc Open from the Open University yesterday. I’m working towards a BSc (Hons) Molecular Science and will complete that next year by doing:
S343 Inorganic Chemistry
SXR343 Transition Metal Chemistry
SXM390 Frontiers of Chemistry
But the points I have, including some courses I’m not using for the Molecular Science degree, means i can take the BSc Open this year. I can now stick BSc Open after my name if I like. Not that I will. Here is the transcript of the courses I did for the Open Degree:
Click picture for larger view
Queen made a lot of videos. I still like the one for Somebody to Love the most I think. It’s simply the 4 of them in a studio, inter-cut with concert footage. So the most important thing, i.e. the music itself, doesn’t have to compete with over ambitious visuals or story. You can watch a 30 second clip at the iTMS or buy the video in its 5 minute splendour there as well.
Click picture for larger view
Open University course results time! I got mine yesterday. Passed the 2 courses I submitted work for. Didn’t pass the one I didn’t submit for. Funny that š I had to ignore one of the courses due to work stuff taking my time.
I got a pass (91%) in the 10 point course S197: How the Universe Works and a Grade 3 for S250 Science in Context (average 64% for course work). I was happy with the Grade 3 for S250 given that I missed one of the 4 compulsory assignments and only did about half of another one. I did that half whilst in San Francisco at this years Apple WWDC.
Hoping to do the following next year:
S343 Inorganic Chemistry
SXR343 Transition Metal Chemistry
SXM390 Frontiers of Chemistry
Although I have chopped and changed a bit between the courses I was signed up for next year so the OU might tell me to sod off š
Yeah!. New artist. New Music. Mika is going to be huge. Dodgy Holiday is very good. The performance of the song Grace Kelly on Later with Jools Holland is very good as well. Available as a QuickTime file at the Mika MySpace Music site.
He has a very broad vocal range. The control is better than most and he uses it really well. Inevitably there is comparison to Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan et al. Sounds a bit like Scissor Sisters and The Darkness from a vocal perspective (but better). He doesn’t need the comparisons to other vocalists. He can stand alone as a very good singer and musician. Looking forward to the album.
[Thanks to Brian May’s Soapbox for the pointer]
I wrote previously that I was testing MacJounal as a replacement for ecto as a blog tool and SOHO Notes as a personal journal app. Whilst MacJounal has some nice touches, and does have a nice Mac interface, I’ve reverted to ecto and SOHO Notes for the two tasks respectively. I really missed being able to drag a picture into a blog entry window in ecto and have a thumbnail automatically created that linked to a full size version when uploaded to my Soapbox. I also like the ability to specify a target when creating links. On the SOHO Notes front I like the way it automatically enters the current date as the title of a note when you create one in the in built Journal folder. Hardly Earth shattering I know but the small touches are nice.
Iāve posted here about Peter F. Hamiltonās excellent Commonwealth Saga before. Just finished it again. Still very good. Some of the story lines (like the time spent by Ozzie, Orion and Tochee on the Silfen paths) can drag a bit. There is a new trilogy set in the same Universe but 1500 years after the Commonwealth Saga due to appear over the next few years. Itās going to be called The Void Trilogy. Happy days. Looking forward to that. Have ordered a copy of Misspent Youth to complete the Commonwealth Universe canon.
Good grief. What a blunder. I was playing a 12 minute game of chess against a human opponent on playchess.com and got to the following position –
I was playing white and it was my move. I had about 3 minutes on my clock and my opponent had about 1.5 minutes. So no time pressure. So what did I play?
49. b7??
Really stupid move or what? Can you see why? Black can checkmate in a single move with 49 … Ng2#. Here is the position at the end:
I couldnāt believe it š I should have played 49. Rxf4 Kxf4 50. Kxe2 and then advanced the pawn on the b-file to Queen it. More study required I think to spot obvious mating positions. Here is the full game if anyone is interested:
[Event “Rated game, 12m + 0s”]
[Site “Beginners”]
[Date “2006.12.05”]
[White “Canicula”]
[Black “Coriolis”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “1251”]
[BlackElo “1283”]
[ECO “C42”]
[Annotator “Robinson,Ian”]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d3 Be7 5. Be2 O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. O-O Be6 8. Ng5
d5 9. f3 d4 10. Nxe6 fxe6 11. Bg5 dxc3 12. bxc3 b5 13. d4 b4 14. c4 exd4 15. e5
Nd7 16. Bxe7 Qxe7 17. f4 Rf7 18. Bh5 g6 19. Bf3 Rxf4 20. Qd2 Raf8 21. Bxc6 Nxe5
22. Rxf4 Nxc4 23. Rxf8+ Qxf8 24. Qf2 Ne5 25. Qxf8+ Kxf8 26. Be4 c5 27. Re1 Kf7
28. h4 c4 29. h5 b3 30. axb3 cxb3 31. cxb3 d3 32. Kf2 Ng4+ 33. Kf3 gxh5 34.
Bxh7 Kf6 35. Ra1 Ke5 36. Bxd3 Kd4 37. Bc4 e5 38. Rxa7 e4+ 39. Ke2 Ne3 40. Bf7
Nxg2 41. Bxh5 Nf4+ 42. Kd2 e3+ 43. Ke1 Nxh5 44. Rd7+ Ke4 45. b4 Nf4 46. b5 e2
47. b6 Kf3 48. Rf7 Ke3 49. b7 Ng2# 0-1
BTW the chess boards above are taken from the excellent Sigma Chess.
UPDATE: Itās not all doom and gloom. I won my most recent game –
[Event “Rated game, 8m + 0s”]
[Site “Beginners”]
[Date “2006.12.05”]
[White “Canicula”]
[Black “GĀønni”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “1169”]
[BlackElo “1378”]
[ECO “B06”]
[Annotator “Robinson,Ian”]
1. e4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Bd3 d6 5. O-O Bxc3 6. bxc3 e5 7. Bb2 Bg4 8.
Bc4 Qd7 9. d4 exd4 10. cxd4 Bxf3 11. Qxf3 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 O-O-O 13. Bxh8 Ne7 14.
Qxf7 Rxh8 15. Qe6 b6 16. Qxd7+ Kxd7 17. Rae1 Rf8 18. f3 Rf4 19. g3 Rf6 20. f4
c6 21. g4 b5 22. Bd3 a6 23. g5 Rf7 24. f5 gxf5 25. exf5 Nd5 26. g6 hxg6 27.
fxg6 Rg7 28. Rf7+ Rxf7 29. gxf7 1-0
This is pretty cool. The Viking landers that landed on Mars in 1976 have been photographed by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Large images available from here. Here is a sample. Grab the big versions for more detail.
Yikes. Looks like it might be a bit windy over the British Isles this weekend. The picture below is the Atlantic pressure chart for Sunday 3rd at noon. I love sitting in a nice warm house listening to the wind howling. Itās certainly better than being out in it. I remember being out out fishing in a boat in the Irish Sea off Ardglass Harbour one day in a gale. It was a reasonably big boat. Well made. Sturdy. The waves were bigger than it was. It was weird. When in a trough between waves there was a wall of water for 360o around the boat. All you could see was water, sky and extremely harassed gulls! I think going out that day was probably a mistake.
