So after 5 days of horrible evening overcast, tonight was gorgeous and clear.
I assembled a group of friends and we set out to our nominated observation point; the staddle between Signal Hill and Table Mountain in Cape Town; with an unobstructed view of the South Atlantic.

Huge crowd was there already; lots of people with binoculars, even one or two large telescopes. I heard a rumour that there were guys from the South African Astronomical society floating around; didn't meet any of them though.

We set up, and started anxiously scanning the skies for the comet. To my intense shame, Craigus saw it first and then had to point it out to me - in my defence, my eyesight isn't that great :P

The comet was magnificent. Craigus and I estimated the tail at maybe 5 to 7 degrees of angular distance. Nucleus was clear as daylight through my small scope at roughly 40x.

I took lots of pictures, some film (which will hopefully be focussed) and some digital; attached the best of the digitals from my small Canon powershot:



When the film is developed I hope I'll have some beautiful clear shots of it.

Guys; if I never see another thing through my telescope I will be happy. I have never seen anything this glorious; ever. I'm so glad it happened in my lifetime.

I spent a lot of time letting other random people look at the comet, and spent a fair whack of time explaining its orbit etc to lay-people. Everyone had a lot of fun, especially the kids.

Might just go back and have another look on friday night, if its clear.

Jeremy

preamble: If I know you and you smoke, apologies for the generalisation.

1) So, I live on the third floor. My flat gets sun all day. My flat is hot. Thus, come nightfall, I have the (I believe) fairly reasonable desire to be able to leave my windows open to get some airflow.

2) I've lived in this block for six years now. I own my flat, and am the chairman of the Body Corporate (the group who make sure the block is maintained, all bills are paid, etc).

3) A new tenant, a middle aged woman, and her teenage kid, have moved into the ground floor. The woman smokes like a chimney, with her windows open.

4) I am allergic to cigarette smoke. It makes me itch and break out in hives.

So, this evening when I got home from work, I left a very polite note in my personal capacity in the postbox for the new tenant, asking her to please close her windows while she smokes, since the cigarette smoke rises straight up the outside of the building and renders my flat uninhabitable.

She chose to ignore this.

At about 9pm, after her third cigarette, I walked downstairs and very politely asked her if she wouldn't mind closing her windows while she smoked, since I was allergic. She got very rude, and told me that a) she wasn't responsible for the way the building was designed; b) she was in her own flat and was allowed to smoke in it; c) she liked the fresh air (I found this intensely ironic), and d) I should keep my own windows closed if it annoyed me.

At this point I got into a cold rage and walked away before I committed murder. I walked up stairs, consulted another member of the body corporate, and decided that war had been declared.

Things on my side:
1) South Africa's public health law prohibits smoking in public places or in areas where the smoke will affect other people.
2) I'm the chairperson of the body corporate, and the rest of the members of the body corporate take a rather dim view of tenants and residents who make the block unpleasant to live in.
3) I asked nicely, twice, and was basically told to fuck off by a tenant.

So, tomorrow, the owner of the unit in question gets a phonecall to inform him that complaints are being laid about his tenant's uncooperative attitude. If she persists in being an unhelpful cow, we get the letting agency involved, and if that doesn't fix matters, in comes public health law.

Sometimes it pays to cooperate, especially when your actions affect other people around you. And sorry, but my right to fresh air is going to trump a smoker's right to light up no matter what.

McF

Current Mood: angry

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterodactyls_in_popular_culture

75% down the page, we have 'Slang usage'

of which entry no. 2 is:


Pterodactyl:
A sexual act/position, perpetrated by the male/dominant. Entering from behind, he proceeds to grab a blanket, sheet, etc. clasping with both hands and wrapping around the back. He then waves his arms/sheet about, thus imitating the leathery flapping wings of the pterosaur. 'Squawking' or other dinosaur-like noises are generally encouraged and practically manditory. Lifting the leg in mid thrust and 'raking' with the 'talons' or feet is also a possiblity, often to display dominance.


Once again, Wikipedia FTW. IFOG.

McF

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/connected/2006/11/21/ectea21.xml

Heh. I know exactly where all the spoons are - in the sink at my original company.

Seriously. Think National Spoon Mating Day.

McF

So tonight, 4 tenants in one of the flats in this block decided to start punching, slapping and throwing eachother around.

Until the police arrived. Damn, its' funny watching students get Pwned by a 30 year old policeman.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10-1462_2024803,00.html

McF

Hello

My name is McFinnigan and I am addicted to EBay.

this happened on Friday. Most cool.



Shot through my Canon Powershot 520, f/8.0, through a GSO polarising filter.

Fuzzyness due to the small lense being pushed to its maximum ability.

A duck walks into a bar
"Got any bread?" he asks the barman.
"No", replies the barman.
"Got any bread?" asks the duck
"No", replies the barman.
"Got any bread?" asks the duck
"No, replies the barman.
"Got any bread?" asks the duck
"No, we don't have any bread", replies the barman
"Got any bread?" asks the duck
"No, we don't have any fucking bread!" says the barman
"Got any bread?" asks the duck
"No, we don't have any fucking bread, you fucking insane bird! If you ask me whether we have any bread one
more time I will nail your fucking beak to the bar!" shouts the barman.
"Got any nails?" asks the duck
"No!" says the Barman.
"Got any bread?" asks the duck.

Current Mood: amused

So, amazingly enough, I join a company and they start laying off people.

What's really dodgy here though is as follows.
1) Company has profit targets that it's failing to make, ergo shareholders are unhappy.
ergo, the following plan:

1) Lay off sales people
2) Cut advertising
3) X
4) Profit!

(no, it doesn't make any sense, does it?). So far, one of the marketters (a rather sweet eastern European girl by the name of Jenny) has been in tears in her office, and our senior sysadmin and CTO have resigned.

On the plus side, my most leet boss, Nicola, is intent on getting the layoffs scrapped and making upper level PHB's realise that building a company is fruitless if you chop staff to keep shareholders happy.

We'll see what happens, I suppose. At least Java developers are always in high demand, so I'm okay.