Author: Chris5156

Avatar 79 days

Let me show you this.

This is the end screen from a silly online Tetris-type game I play. It’s a daily game where you get one go at it and you either win or lose, and then that’s it for the next 24 hours. I’ve been playing it in idle moments for ages now.

Last year I got a win streak of 80 days before I got distracted and missed a day. Then I kept trying to get my numbers back up, trying to hit that 80 day streak and beat it, and kept failing.

On Friday 9 May this year I got sent back to the start again, and thought it was time I got serious about it. I set a daily reminder on my phone so I wouldn’t forget. Thanks to my reminder, every day since then I’ve remembered to play it, and I got closer and closer to beating that magic 80 day streak.

On Sunday night I was having trouble with a website on my phone so I went into the settings and cleared my browser cache. It deleted my browsing history and my cookies.

On Monday morning I went to play my silly online Tetris game, and when I finished, I got the screen you see above.

Monday 28 July would have been day 80. But I’d deleted my cookies. That meant it was day 1.

I’ll get you, 80 day streak. I’ll see you on Wednesday 15 October. It’s a date.

Avatar Open source Chris

Here I am with a microscope. But what can I see?

I’d just taken a swab from my cheek and under the ‘scope was a sample of my own facial cells (or “facells”, as biologists call them). And once I’d managed to zoom in enough, I saw this.

It’s my DNA.

There it is in all its glory, all those chains of genetic information that make me so brilliantly unique. And now that I’ve put it online, it’s open source, free for anyone else to come along and use it, remix it and build on it. Feel free to take a screenshot and use it for your own biological experiments.

I’m hopeful that this is the beginning of an amazing new age where there are millions of clones of me running around everywhere. A world of genetically engineered Chrises wherever you look.

What will you do with my DNA? Let me know in the comments.

Avatar Puffins?

It feels like Puffins? Day 2025 is the right time for a quick roundup of all the puffin-related films on offer. Until a few years ago there was no puffin-based cinema at all, but the silver screen now has several offerings for you to choose from.

Released in 2023, and starring Chris O’Dowd from off of Bridesmaids and the IT Crowd, Puffin Rock and the New Friends deals with the unexpected disappearance of a Little Egg and the adventures of Oona (a puffin) and her friends (also puffins) as they try to save it before Puffin Rock is hit by a Big Storm.

The Guardian called it a “wholesome delight”, but only gave it three stars.

2024’s Robo Puffin (styled Rise of the Robo Puffin in some territories) appears to be an Italian movie. In it, evil bad buy Otto van Walrus (a walrus) creates the mischievous Robo Puffin (a robot puffin) to outshine the real puffins, in a plot that appears to have no meaningful jeopardy whatsoever. Johnny Puff (a puffin) and his friends (also puffins) use the power of teamwork to outoutshine the puffin-outshining robot.

If you’re sad that Robo Puffin is available only in Italian, don’t worry: while the feature film is available only in the language of amore, it appears to be a rehashing of this 2020 TV series called Puffins which, amazingly, stars Johnny Depp as Johnny Puff (a puffin). Otto van Walrus (a walrus) is here too, up to no good as usual, though this time Puff and his friends (also puffins) are apparently working for him and not in any sort of robotic outshining contest.

A second series, Puffin Impossible, recasts its central characters as superheroes. If you want to see puffins in capes, this is the one for you.

Avatar Wang Four Stars

Years ago I used to sometimes get the train home from Blackfriars station. This was around the time they were just starting the process of completely rebuilding it, and one of the first things they did was take the light-up advertising poster frames off the walls. Behind them were lots of paper posters, presumably the last ones to be put up before the frames went in. They all seemed to date from the late 1980s.

There was all sorts of old advertising on display, some older than others, but this one caught my eye. It’s for an event called Wang Four Stars.

Yes, charity was the winner back in June 1988 at this event hosted by Jimmy Tarbuck and Terry Wogan, and sponsored by, er, Wang.

Presumably large numbers of people were expected to make the journey to Moor Park to watch celebrities play a round of golf. Maybe there wasn’t much to do in 1988. Other big names teeing off for a good cause included Cliff Thorburn, Sean Connery, Kevin Keegan, Russ Abbot and Shakin’ Stevens.

The poster is at pains to point out that there will be professional golfers, leading “personalities” and excellent catering facilities.

And, as it also makes clear, it’s all thanks to Wang.

Avatar Hot day checklist

It’s hot today, at least here in the tropics. If it’s hot where you are please ensure you have completed the hot day checklist.

  • Shirtless man aged about 19 in Tesco Express
  • Smell of barbecue being lit from adjacent garden
  • Have trouble locating flip flops
  • Someone uses any of the words “airless”, “dry heat” or “close” to describe the weather
  • Sound of unlocated ice cream van heard several streets away
  • Pigeon going “hoo-hoooooooo hoo” repeatedly soundtracks the whole time you sit outside
  • Incur third degree burns from a seatbelt
  • Participate in, or witness, a debate about whether a cup of tea cools you down or not
  • Discover sweat in places you didn’t know sweat even happened
  • Walk barefoot on lawn and then feel regrettable feeling of damp feet with little bits of dead grass stuck to them
  • Solero

Avatar Grow your own

Do you want to grow a large meeting of delicious, slightly tapered fruit? Do you want to witness a big hall full of stands offering fruit merchandise, and large seminar events with panels of fruit speakers? Do you want to see fruit lining up for famous orchard fruits to sign photographs and t-shirts and have their picture taken with people?

You do? Then I have the exact thing you need.

Grow your own Pear Conference

Avatar Blame game

Recently Ian invited us to try blaming it on the spicy margs. It seemed like a good idea so I had a go.

I am now in a positon to report my results.

Experiment 1

Early last week I needed to go to the supermarket. On arrival I ran straight to the meal deal fridges, barged some other customers out of the way, and started chugging own-brand banana milkshakes one after another, throwing the empty bottles on the floor behind me. When the security guard apprehended me and asked what I was doing I wafted my mouth like I was suffering severe heat burns and told him it was because of the spicy margs.

Result: banned from Sainsbury’s, Water Lane, Farnham. The phrase “spicy margs” not understood by Group 4 security personnel even on the third or fourth time of repeating it.

Experiment 2

On Friday last week I got the train to work without buying a ticket. When the conductor arrived and asked to see my ticket I told him I hadn’t got one. When he asked why not I said it was because of the spicy margs.

Result: £49 penalty fare. Spicy margs not applicable under railway bylaws.

Experiment 3

Two days ago, I went over to the shared kitchen area at work and found a woman making a round of tea for her colleagues. Maintaining eye contact throughout, I pushed all the mugs of tea onto the floor, where some of them smashed and the tea went everywhere. She jumped backwards, since her feet were now covered in very hot tea, catching her skirt on a drawer handle and sustaining some minor damage to her attire. She asked me what the hell I thought I was doing. I told her it was because of the spicy margs.

Result: employment tribunal pending. Union legal representative advises me that spicy margs are not a defence under the terms of my employer’s code of conduct.

Conclusion

Blaming it on the spicy margs is terrible advice. I will not be spending £14.99 on the framed art print that Ian was advertising.

Avatar Amphibian/reptile brag

Guess what? My parish has more native species of amphibians and reptiles than yours.

Sometimes when I take the dog out I pass this little statue of a toad, but I hadn’t actually stopped to look at it properly until the other day. It turns out that it relates an important fact about my local area that I didn’t know until now.

The plaque underneath says this.

Whitehill is the only parish in the UK to claim home to all 12 of our native amphibians and reptiles, including this, the rare Natterjack toad. Only 7cm long with a distinctive yellow stripe down its back, it favours sand and heathland and breeds in shallow pools. It eats insects, worms and small reptiles and can live up to an amazing 15 years.

Twelve. Twelve native species of amphibians and reptiles. Your parish certainly has some of them, it might even have quite a lot of them. But it won’t have all twelve. I don’t know why amphibians and reptiles are measured by the parish, which seems an odd choice of geographic area to use for this, but that doesn’t matter.

What matters is this.

My parish has more native species of amphibians and reptiles than yours.

In your face, sucker.