Author name: Ian Robinson

Ouch!

| | General

I recently (2005 to 2006) had some orthodontic work done to straighten my upper Social Six teeth. The social six are the visible incisors and canines in the upper jaw. I got the straightening done via lingual orthodontics where the braces are placed on the back of the teeth and can’t be seen. This worked perfectly and the teeth are now okay. I did have to get my normal dentist to remove some discoloured enamel and do some reconstruction. That was all done.

In the last year I’ve noticed some gum line recession on my upper teeth. This can happen after orthodontics. My dentist remarked about it at my last check-up and referred me to a periodontist. He recommended a gingival gum graft. In this small sections of tissue are removed from the roof of the mouth and palette and are sewn into the gingival tissue to reconstruct the gum tissue. I had it done this morning. It took about 2 hours. Ouch! It’s as gruesome as it sounds. They cut your gums and then harvest tissue from your palette and sew it into the gums. A tad sore šŸ™‚ Much swelling and some blood! On antibiotics and pain killers.

it’ll be worth it as it’ll mean the teeth are protected from root infection. No pain no gain as they say. I was meant to be going to London on Wednesday for a work related session at BETT in relation to the new job I’m starting in a few weeks. I’ll have to see how I feel tomorrow but I can’t see that I’ll be okay to go. Not a pretty sight when somebody smiles at you and the teeth are all bloody.

BTW: If you are in Ireland and want contact details for an excellent orthodontist who treats adults with lingual (invisible) braces drop me an email or post a comment.

New year fitness

| | Uncategorized

I’m not one for new year resolutions. The fact that the Earth has made another orbit of the Sun doesn’t seem like a reason to make promises that’ll get broken. If you want to do something then just do it irrespective of the date! Having said that it is time for me to get back to doing some exercise. So I’ve zeroed the exercise totals in the sidebar on the right and will start from scratch and record the totals for 2007. I want to get fit and play cricket again this year. For the record the totals before I reset them were:

The total number of miles covered in the fitness drive since 20th July 2006 is:
Miles walked: 23.95
Miles cycled: 107.02
Calories used: 6887

Update: Just did 2.79 miles around the grounds of Stormont.

Private space flights

| | Science, Technology

There are several private organisations working towards the development of non-governmental space vehicles. See this video of a TEDtalk by Burt Rutan on his efforts with SpaceShipOne. Rutan is now working with Virgin Galactic and Richard Branson to offer private sub-orbital flights. They are also going to build a space port called Spaceport America in New Mexico. Initial flights will go (maybe in 2008) from the Rutan site in the Mojave Desert in California.

Another private venture that had a test flight recently is the Blue Origin group that is funded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. There are videos of the test flight of their Goddard VTOL craft at the Blue Origin site. This is a prototype of a design called New Shepard thay want to fly sub-orbitally. Whilst it only takes off and rises a few hundred feet then lands safely, it’s a good initial flight.

I’ve been quite sceptical in the past about private space ventures. I’ve argued that it takes the resources of organisations like NASA, RFSA, ESA, JAXA, CNSA or ISRO to fund space programmes. Indeed I’ve argued that it might be better if they joined up and pooled resources.

I think I’ve changed my mind. For the big projects like Mars missions the big agencies are best placed to do them at present. But the smaller private ventures into sub-orbital space could be the start of a bootstrap process that leads to a commercialisation of space flight. This could lead to orbital and extra-orbital flights in time. If there is profit to be made then it’ll get done. It’s only a matter of time. So I now think there is room for both governmental space flight and private space flight.

I find this very exciting. Maybe one day we’ll get to a situation like that depicted in Elite where people can buy their own space craft and make a living wheeling and dealing amongst the asteroids, planets and, ultimately, the stars. For a modern port of this game get Oolite.

Imagine – Queen & Paul Rodgers

| | General

There is an excellent version of John Lennon’s Imagine performed by Queen and Paul Rodgers at their Hyde Park gig. Why is this entry filed in the Music and the Atheism categories? Roger Taylor’s reaction to the no religion too… line. Apparently in the USA that line is often changed to read as one religion or even taken out altogether.

Roger has form on dislike of religion. His song called The Key (which could be one of my Desert Island Discs) contains the lyric:

Well you can search the whole wide planet
Down to viruses and germs
A sensible religion
Is just a contradiction in terms

How cool would it be…

| | General

…to be able to do this:

God that’s good. I love the look to camera at the end šŸ™‚ 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!

Bachelor of Science Open

| | Science

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:
Bsc Click picture for larger view

Somebody to Love – Queen

| | General

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.

Stlstill Click picture for larger view

December! That means it’s…

| | Science

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 šŸ™‚ 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 šŸ™‚

Dodgy Holiday – Mika

| | General

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.

Dodgy Holiday

[Thanks to Brian May’s Soapbox for the pointer]

ecto and SOHO Notes it is then

| | General

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.

The Commonwealth Saga – Peter F. Hamilton (reprise)

| | Uncategorized

Iā€™ve posted here about Peter F. Hamiltonā€™s 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. Itā€™s 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.

Chess Blunder

| | General

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 –

Chess051220062.png

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:

Chess02122006_22.png

I couldnā€™t believe it šŸ™ 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: Itā€™s 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

Batten down the hatches

| | Science

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. Itā€™s 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.

AtPressure03122006.png

A new pleasure

| | General

With apologies to Douglas Adams for nicking the line uttered when Arthur Dent uses his bottle of Retsina to gain access to the flying perpetual party in HHGTTG. But I discovered a new pleasure tonight. Thatchers Coxs Single Varietal cider. Itā€™s really tangy and crisp. Delicious chilled and over heaps of ice. Even better, they sell it in a Tesco store I pass on the way home from work. I bought one a few days ago to taste it. Iā€™ll be getting more šŸ™‚

ThatchersCoxCider.jpg

Yearly check-up done

| | Uncategorized

I had my yearly TC check-up today. Is it really a year since the last one? Had the usual physical exam and a chest x-ray. Assuming the x-ray is clear, and it should be, Iā€™ll have another exam same time next year.

Happy days šŸ™‚

Site update

| | General

You may have noticed that Iā€™ve changed the theme in use by WordPress for the Soapbox. The new one is based on Man~ja. I want to change the colours of the entry headers to blue and the colours of the links in posts to a different colour as well. Iā€™d also like to change the Posted by… text to a different colour as well. However no matter what changes I make to the style.css file the colours wonā€™t change. Iā€™ll sort it out later! I like the new theme. I think it is cleaner than the previous one. A few more tweaks and Iā€™ll be happy.

UPDATE: Looks like the colour changes I made to the CSS file are working today. I think the blue is a bit bright so Iā€™ve changed it to be Dark Blue (#00008B). I think the style sheet must be getting cached somewhere between me and the Gradwell servers. So Iā€™ll see tomorrow, after the cache has expired, how the new colours look.

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