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Sunday, 09:39 pm, 24 October 2004 Changing Seasons Promote eBay Listings Every Autumn in the UK, I find myself doing the same thing. With a chill in the air, I am outside cleaning up old miniatures. Listing stuff in Autumn seems to be the norm. I remember last year, there was a distinct break from the start of November until Christmas time. The eBay buying public were saving their UKP for Christmas. Following Christmas, the eBay bids picked up around mid-January. Part of the eBay mentality is thinking about what you would do if you didn't have to list stuff on eBay. For me, the issue isn't about money - it is about the volume of what I own. The internationalist in me sees my wife and I packing our bags with a month's notice and going somewhere else. Perhaps internationalist is a nice name for jet-gypsies. Perhaps this is what we are. The temporality of surroundings is defined by the industry in which I work. But there are a number of middle class folks in software who own houses and haven't moved in ten years. Looking at the stuff I am listing - and you can see it too in the BBC link in the left column - none of it is precious to me. It is just stuff that has been accumulated. The irony is, with the speed of listing I have currently Christmas is a bump in my eBay selling which will force more dutiful development of Noble Warfare. The strange thing about this seasonal cycle is it isn't consciously governed. I don't think to myself - I better start listing things it is coming to the end of October. So the only culprit I can think of is the reduction in light setting of some need to create space to make up for the lack of light. A Little History Through the Usage Log About three times a month, I check the usage logs for Barbalet's Log. They tell me who uses the site. How long they look at the site. And by far the most interesting fact, what words searches get you Barbalet's Log. I found a few searches for Fred Reed Warhammer and did a search to see what other sites were available. This one came up; http://www.howlinggriffon.co.uk/blastsfromthepast.htm Another classic piece of Fred Reed history of which I was unaware. In fact, Fred once mentioned that he wouldn't paint - or he might have trouble painting - Howling Griffons if I commissioned them, following a substantial army he painted. I assumed it was a previous commission. Good night. Saturday, 08:01 pm, 23 October 2004 As promised the Noble Warfare source code has gone live with a slightly new site. In fact, I find the Noble Warfare site is already becoming a bit of a cliche. More screenshots and less miniatures progressively. For the time being, I am keeping the launch of the source on the 'down low'. For Barbalet's Log readers, the secret link; http://www.noblewarfare.com/ Good night. Friday, 07:56 pm, 22 October 2004 My week has been owned by eBay in terms of listing and posting. It is amazingly time consuming. It is better selling and clearing space than consuming. But at the same time I would like to be spending some time on Noble Warfare. The source will be out soon. the Canada/Cheshire Get-Down Thanks to Prof Groove, I received a copy of the Nomadic Massive CD. It also confirmed that I have been mis-spelling Lou Piensa's name up until now.  Lou Piensa - a reaction to the mis-spelling? The best bits of the CD were the live in Cuba sections. It paints an interesting audio-scape of freestyles and the cover shows image-centric masses congregating with WeFunk's DJ Static appearing like Waldo in various images. The connection between mass-consumer fashion and hip-hop doesn't impact when you are removed from the 'culture' in white-bread Wilmslow. My favourite track (together with the outro of the previous track); It features Butta Beats on guitar and I am pretty sure WeFunk's DJ Static on the turntables. It is taken from a live session in Cuba. No DNA Test Needed The UK media is flooded with images of Prince Harry laying into photographers at 3am outside a nightclub. Up until now, I have not had any time for Harry. It is rare that my opinion on things change so dynamically. Until this morning, I was convinced Harry was James Hewitt's son. To that end, I found him a particularly offensive leech character. Covered by the royal protectors he would continue to take from the public purse until after his death when it would be revealed that he wasn't Charles' son. In at work early this morning with a full suite of photo analysis software, I thought I would test the faces between Harry, Charles and James Hewitt. It was clear from the initial analysis that Harry and James Hewitt weren't related. Pulling in the Charles photo, it was clear that Harry and Charles were related.  The inner face, the nose, eyebrows and mouth are identical. Although they have some external face differences, it is clear that Charles is Harry's father. Coming to this realisation I was struck with a sense of personal disgust. Whilst Harry has raised only a few bars in my mind, I felt genuinely sorry that the fellow was besmirched when a simple comparison photo would clarify paternity. It's a heavy listing day t'row. But before I forget, the Noble Warfare source code will be released this weekend too. It will probably feature in the Log when it hits the net. A long time coming. Good night. Saturday, 10:01 am, 16 October 2004 Why is MSG Legal? I'm sitting in bed recovering from some MSG laced soup I had last night. The worst thing about MSG poisoning is you can go to bed without noticing anything and then sometime during the night you wake up with a blinding headache and swollen joints. It was one of the real problems I had in the US. Normally, in the UK or Australia, only Chinese restaurants - particular Chinese restaurants - sold food with MSG in it (last night's culprit). But in the US, it is added to a wide variety of grocery store goods. Moving on to happier things. Jeans and Consumerism My wife bought me some new clothes for my birthday. Included in these were a pair of jeans.  I have never worn jeans. Never. For me, I associate them with consumerist fashion. Although I occasionally wear branded cloths that have been past on to me, jeans were a bridge too far. But now I have a pair, they aren't too bad. The past couple of years has been an evolution against ideology in my life. Some ideologies I have maintained. Animal welfare isn't an ideology well scrubbed. Certainly welfare for carnivorous animals. Protein aids brain development. I'm a card carrying, monthly debited member of the RSPCA. But owning a few miniatures, going to Games Day, watching a few Disney films, being on an electoral register and now jeans. These things seem to be moved from the never in my lifetime category in recent years. I think being married has a lot to do with the ideological shift. Things that have been subtracted from my life seem to be obsessive software development and making music prolifically. Both these things were associated with the time sans-wife. Speaking of Obsessive Software Development I promised loyal readers of the Noble Ape Mailout that I would release source code to Noble Warfare this month. I'm yet to write a 'todo' document. But apart from that everything is ready for a release. I need to reconstruct the front of the Noble Warfare site a little. But nothing that a lunchbreak won't solve. Good morning. [ Previous Log ]
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