Arthur's Diary

LiveRant

Well, I bit the bullet and got a LJ account. I think I'll still do most of my diary stuff here, though. Apologies for confusion. :-) Here it is. Have I no shame? OK, so I lied, all my updates seem to be appearing over there. Ah well.

It just occurred to me that it is an interesting exercise to place classic cars by the events that were happening around the time of their construction. So, as a little starter:

Janet's Morris Minor (March(?) 1953) - shortly before Watson & Crick publish the structure of the DNA molecule
My Morris Minor (Aug 1968) - Announcement of the Digital PDP/8, "Digital's third 12-bit computer system and the first to be implemented with integrated circuits (and a few months before the Apollo 11 moon landing, but being 1969 that doesn't really count)
My MG (1972) - Creation of the first recombinant DNA molecules (inserting genetic material from one species into the genome of another)

Patricia

I went to Cambridge this weekend to meet Patricia this weekend, and to give Janet a few tips on Morris Minor ownership.

Patricia is a 1953 split-screen series II minor, and a gorgeous one at that. Janet even allowed me a test drive. With an 803cc engine, it's a little more relaxed experience than my 1098cc morris. One proceeds rather than drives. And by now, she (they ;) ) may have forgiven me for the awkwardness while I got used to the different gearchange of the early minors.

We took Patricia and my MG to the Cambridge Morris Minor Owners' Club meet, at the Cambridge Museum of Technology. An impressive turnout, actually. I think there were 17 Minors, a Wolseley Hornet and two MGs (mine and a BGT V8). The Minors present varied from the pristine to a rather sad-looking traveller with mossy wood and cracking paint.

The museum had a few interesting oddities, most of which you'll see in the photos. The main attraction was a gas-powered internal combustion pump for city drains, from 1909. It works, in an impressive WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHOOSH THUNK WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP way. There was also a very early electron microscope (the origin of which I failed to read), and a one-person air-raid shelter outside. Just a little claustrophobic.

Here's an idea I got from one of the NetNewsWire default blogs.

A reverse chronology of my life

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

1979

Test post from NetNewsWire

Is there anything this program can't do? It seems it now enables me to post to Blosxom, too. Hurrah! Foo.

Catching up before January disappears

This month, I have mostly been applying for jobs

Other interesting things happening this month included the impressive flooding of Oxford a few weeks ago. I took some photos.

Tomorrow, I go to Norfolk to my, erm, second cousin's christening. I think. He is the son of my cousin and his wife, anyway.

Hello world!

Blosxom really is stunningly easy to set up. Test.