Where’s all the bankrupcy?

2°C, wind + sun

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Economics: this to me is the most mysterious thing. How does the UK stay in business? We don’t make anything, there seems to be nothing supporting our wealth and yet there is plenty going around. We all have more food, more transport than we need, and heat our homes hotter than we need. Where does the money come from to fund this? We have enough money to spend on extras- things that benefit no-one: lots of people are employed generating and manipulating needless and useless statistics. I work in an industry that uses "target setting" like a drug. It can’t seem to stop setting targets for everything, no-one knows why they do it, but plenty of money is spent on this activity. There is clearly more money here than we need. A poor nation could not afford such decadent luxuries, it seems to spread like a disease
 Our school has recently failed it’s target for the number of pupil attendances, we had ( for a week or so) 12% absence due to illness and so Walsall has failed some kind of target. Someone was paid to dream up that target. No-one told all the kids suffering with influenza viruses though. There is no link between the target and any solution to the cold though.

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Viruses: I have one. It makes my nose fizz and my joints ache.

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Apostrophes:

"We had to use a range of formulae’s in Excel"

 Y9 wrote in coursework today. That brightened up my day.

remarkable

2°C, grey

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Funny way to start a day: I forgot to set the alarm for this morning so didn’t wake up until 40 mins late. the rush wasn’t especially mad, and got to work ontime. Maybe I’m wasting much time in the mornings. It actually meant I wasn’t tired & achey liek Mondays normally find me.

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Flash: to follow on from yesterday’s post, it is indeed possible to use templates in Flash, now I have one with my pre-loader and scene navigation buttons ready. Can you tell I’m getting to like this program, what a turn-around.

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BBC are making natural history footage available online. You can download it to use in projects as long as you give them credit. The films are of remarkable quality- see here

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Bush: more George W Bush tomfoolery. READ. they really should make a West-end musical on this guy.

thanks BBC for the picture.

66 miles

2°C, windy & some rain

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Cycling: started late after the time it takes to fit a new cassette. Even with new gears it doesn’t change gear that well. Sometimes it needs a double-click. Shimano gears have never worked well for me, not like Campagnolo which are always excellent.

Flash: testing Curious Labs Poser to see what swf files look like exported from there. It’s come out quite small at 210Kb. Even this seems to need a pre-loader; so if it seems to stick after you’ve pressed play- then just reload the page, it should be ok then. There must be some way of using templates to generate new Flash projects, that could include a standard preloader as well as credits at the end.

SHIFT+Poser Toon boy

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I’m very tired now, so it can have a preloader added tomorrow. It’s a nice kind of tiredness though, brought on by cycling up steep hills with icy cold air in my face.

Saturday’s statistics

2.0°C, getting sunny

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Only one visit to my blog for the last 24 hours! It’s all my fault- I only have myself to blame- it’s the same for anyone who writes boring entries.

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Found: Nickel Creek website.

Far Cry – finished

2°C, Snow.

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Far Cry: finished it. I supppose if I’d bought this game ( it was a loan) then it would be good value for money. I’ve played it for nearly two months now, (installed on 2nd January 2006) so cost per hour is very good. I’m trying out previous routes because it’s a game with many alternative ways of completing levels.

Pacific Fighters: the new patch has fixed problems that were putting me off loading it up at all. Now it’s quite usable again.

Poor Charlotte

2°C, sleet & rain

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Something odd happened at school today. There were police, other people who I’ve not seen before, and another clue was even more troubling ( in that Kafkaesque way). Overheard in a corridor , a few girls were having a conversation:

"Charlotte changed into a skirt at lunchtime"

anything else is hard to come by at this point in time. I hope she’s ok.

Pro Desktop tutorial

3°C, cold wind

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Busy again in the world of the interweb. Uploaded a new CAD tutorial made at school, but I posted a copy on my site. Pro Desktop is a free CAD program which is quite popular in schools , made by the same people who do Pro Engineer.

Here is the tutorial: Pro Desktop Hinge

I usually upload my tutorials for proof-reading, it seems easier to spot errors when on line (don’t know why).

Post Secret

5°C, grey & cold again…

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CDs: The Books: "Thought for Food"

Clogs: " Stick Music".

Also delivered was

Post Secrets, the book. A volume that’s much bigger than the expected post card size I’d assumed.

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Frustration: getting that Flash pre-loader is not running smoothly. It just skips over the frame with the pre-loading animation even though there is a stop(); script in that frame. I don’t get it.

 

Nickel Creek

4°C, cold, grey & miserable

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53 miles on the bike today, riding back was easy with a strong tailwind.

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Nickel Creek: live at Warwick arts Centre this evening. I await.

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Later:I really had no idea what to expect, but they put on a stunning performance. This is the third show in a row where I’ve been impressed with sheer musicianship. The Bits between singing were the most impressive, though vocal parts did not detract in any way. We could actually hear what was being played. Hear what I’m saying Kings of Leon? Take a hint!

Pee:Before the start, we wondered if there is a word for that last pee you have before an event. the first thing to come into my head was "pre-emptive", but then I hit on "pre-empty"! As in "I’m just off for a quick pre-empty"

Tell me if you think of a better one.

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Far Cry: It’s nearly finished. Never would I have thought of liking this sort of thing. There is a sequel in production, which I surely must buy. The screen shots in the magazines look good anyway.

Flashing again…

4°C,

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Flash: another update to my Flash movie file. You can see it here:

SHIFT+ UNDERCARRIAGE

The preloader isn’t quite ready yet, if it seems stuck, you may find a button called End, press that then choose Start. that should fix it untill I finish the into.
Let me know if it works properly. It’s tricky testing from here, because the file is already loaded into my temporary cache, so it runs properly every time (apart from the first).

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Here is another useful link to excellent Actionscript tutorials, and other good Flash methods. OPEN ( SHIFT click)