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Friends

• May 18, 2012
• 14:31

  zmiku: An automation daemon

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  A few years ago, I wrote my own service monitoring system for my servers and networks; I did this because Nagios, the common choice, was just too complicated for my tastes and didn't cleanly fit my needs. And so, The Eye of Horus was born, and has been monitoring my servers ever since. I open-sourced it, but I've not [...]

• May 14, 2012
• 9:26

  Contingency

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  As I type this (despite being on multiple work deadlines), much of the world is in a fairly precarious position. There is no need for any expansion on that subject. Well run businesses and households often have failsafe systems in place to protect against possible or unforeseen events. For example, a company whose existence and [...]

• May 12, 2012
• 8:57

  Mary and Jean

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I thought I'd just do a little catch up on the girls - Mary is walking, saying Mumma, hitting people because she is teething, keeps trying to dress herself, when that fails she brings the cloths to me to dress her then once dressed she gets her shoes and tries to push the pushchair over [...]
• May 09, 2012
• 13:15

  Cake Pops

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This is our first batch of cake pops - made as a family for a delayed May Day celebration. I had wanted to get this machine at christmas but with house moving and stuff I couldn't. We all had fun making the cake pops I think they looked good [...]
• May 08, 2012
• 17:37

  Science the Universe and Everything erm… including Cake Pops

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  So I have had my eye on a cake pop machine since before christmas and have bought one for basically £20 from lakeland as the amount of ideas I am having for them means I can't sleep and Jeany wants a darleck cake for her birthday so I would have to get one then! But I [...]

• May 07, 2012
• 14:11

  Vive La…. …What?

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Uh oh. The winner of the French elections, whilst correct to lambast the overly unethical financial institutions promised something else that is quite worrying. He will ‘invest’ millions to employ more in the public sector. You know what that means don’t you? More unskilled, aggressive self hating jobsworths who as per those here in the [...]
• May 05, 2012
• 12:23

  Invention disclosure

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Thought readers may find this interesting. Submitted to my patent attorney in California in 1999… NEUTRINO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM File opened: March 20, 1999 Updated: January 25, 1999 Conceived / Invented by Alex Blok in 1997 while living at College Avenue, Palo Alto, California, USA. Title System for using Neutrinos as a communications medium. Background Currently, [...]

• 9:48

  Me, Science, Geekery and Art

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I have two thirds of the funding I need for phase on of Science-Art for all. It would be great to get that last bit of money in the pot so I start work on the project. Also I am working hard on getting Ballads of the Scientifica in all of its forms ready. [...]
• May 04, 2012
• 8:54

  Flowing

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Yep another song/poem thingy. Flowing by Saffy This one is about war. Incase your wondering I am at the moment trying to finish off all those projects I have going and am working my way through note books etc... so there is likely to be a few more. Feed back welcomed.
• May 03, 2012
• 9:08

  Shy - embedded

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I've worked out how to embed the songs now so here goes Shy by Sarah Snell-Pym
• May 02, 2012
• 21:35

  The Annes and C J Cherryh

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This post is about inspiration and following dreams and what I consider good fiction writing. However before I begin let me just say that I don't believe gender has anything to do with someone being a good writer - but this post is about females and their perceived place in literature. Now I have always [...]

• May 01, 2012
• 17:08

  Why America works

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  “So,” (to quote the very first words of most high tech entrepreneurs when they are interviewed on TechCrunch), we have chaos at Heathrow Airport. I wonder why? In software design, we use a priceless process known as a ‘Use Case’ (or use case scenario) to design and test the operation of software and systems such [...]

• 8:08

  Shy

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Monday mornings are my child free time so that is when the main creativity activity occurs - this isn't the most creative time but more the time in which I can complete projects and bring ideas finally to bear fruit. Yesterday I recorded what I envision as a sound track to a shot visual video - [...]
• April 29, 2012
• 12:59

  Gloucester Creative Olympics and The Launch of The Wind Vessel

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Yesterday I went to The Battle For The Winds Episode One in Stroud, I had won a bronze medal for my song Windy Gloucestershire. This was part of the creative Olympics and also saw the launch of the Wind Vessel which will be in Cheltenham for the Torch and then will be going on [...]

• April 27, 2012
• 23:27

  Skylonortunity

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  As the British economy continues to crumble, the evidence that cultural laziness and/or lack of investment in key industries is why nations fail to remain economically viable is vindicated by which are climbing out of recession (the USA) and which are not, Spain, UK et al. In the US and Germany, the government and investors have poured [...]

• 16:27

  Cheltenham Poetry Festival 2012

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Last week saw the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. I started off by going to see Domestic Cherry - so funny. It was Michael Scott and Hilda Sheechan in the personas of a Swidon Chav and a hyper kitch Housewife. The I headed out to dinner with one of the stewards and then onto Slak Bar to see [...]
• April 26, 2012
• 12:34

  The sorry state of keyboard interfaces

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Back in the Dark Ages, keyboards were simple devices. Putting too much processing power in them would raise the cost unacceptably; they were kept as simple devices that told the host computer when buttons were pressed and released, and the host computer had the job of converting that into meaningful information such as entered data [...]

• April 25, 2012
• 9:06

  Question

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  If it’s raining, why do people care about the hosepipe ban? Hmmm? Tagged: duh

• April 24, 2012
• 9:38

  Vomit-induced implementations of the 9P protocol in Chicken Scheme

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Last Saturday, I came down with what I suspect was Norovirus - the rest of the family (apart from the baby) having come down with it on Thursday and me having spent the past few days mopping up after them, this was probably unavoidable; although I'd tried my best by wearing a respirator when performing [...]
• 9:03

  Monster Creation

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I have made a short film about the creation of the Muse Monsters from my Monster Writing Game - they turn out to have a complex belief system - some of which is portrayed in this video. Also I like the effect I got with a bamboo flute I picked up a few years [...]

• April 23, 2012
• 23:03

  Introducing a new dedicated page: nfi, Need For Invention

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Every time I think of an idea that it is unlikely my employer will develop (IE, 99% of them), I’ll post it on the new NFI page. So, hop on over! Tagged: concepts, Ideas, inventions
• April 19, 2012
• 21:22

  Support Addison Lee

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  I don’t normally blog about other companies, unless it’s bashing big dirty energy or big we don’t actually need 95% of what you produce pharma, but it’s time for some positive vibes in VA, so here’s praise for Addison Lee Minicabs. A company that shows how creative customer centric entrepreneurship can offer a better and more viable alternative [...]

• 9:02

  Happiness is Family Shaped

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
• April 18, 2012
• 18:48

  Excitement

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  For the first time since I had Jean really, I am starting to be excited about my future and to see something like a career forming. I am not forcing anything, I am not planning or going down approved routes - I am just going with the flow. I am creating... well STUFF, art, craft, [...]
• 15:37

  Havering Youth Circuit Choir

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Back when I was about 13 I joined a choir/singing group based at Upminster Methodist church - this would have been in the mid 90's I suppose. We primarily did religous musicals like Witness. I just find myself wondering where everybody is these days and what they have been up too. I am really [...]
• April 17, 2012
• 8:57

  Communion Book Launch

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Monday saw me and Alaric in a Chapel within the Campus of the University of Gloucestershire. We were going to the book launch of Communion a beautiful work of stark images and deeply bleak words. My friend Anna Saunders had written those words and as always her work was hard hitting and brought forth those [...]

• 8:49

  Fracking hell!

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Oh dear, one post after another. Not good to blog during working hours, but cannot let this one slip. As VA has mentioned before in reference to other matters, a great way to get away with something dubious is by deception. Case in point: During most of the debate about fracking, the worrying issue was [...]
• April 16, 2012
• 22:09

  Bully the citizen

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
• 18:48

  nfi: validated crowd sourced news

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  In view of the significant discrepancies with regards to events at Gatwick Airport today, and of course, conflicting reports/rumours from other incidents – Titanic included, surely it is time a service is developed that ensures witnesses to an event whose statements are made public go through a validation system first. In particular considering how fast rumours spread across [...]

• 11:28

  Brilliantly Big Birthday Bonanza BBQ, Banquet and Baffonary

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Friday it all started with the arrival of the alien shroom a.k.a. my father or Ferfer as he is better known. This was accompanied by the rest of my family as in my mum. My bro and his wife all of whom got family snuggles Jean had been preparing treats for the last few [...]

• April 14, 2012
• 21:01

  4/15 – The inevitable post

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  For those who have been following this blog for a while now, no explanation will be required for the display of the above image. For more recent visitors to VA, it represents the status of England today. Unlike earlier posts featuring the Titanic intact, here the vessel’s back is just starting to break before she [...]

• April 11, 2012
• 8:36

  Stroud Dance Festival 2012

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This is Jean getting ready for her dancing at the Stroud Dance Festival. She did really well though had to sit out one of the dances due to feeling sick towards the end - it was very hot in the hall and the kids were doing A LOT of dancing.
• April 10, 2012
• 22:27

  Spring Cleaning

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I've spent more time building infrastructure than using it, I suspect. I love building infrastructure, so I've often built it because I can; however, with everything that's happened in the past six years, I've ended up struggling to maintain the infrastructure I already had. So I've had to change tack and become much more pragmatic [...]
• 8:07

  Not The Oxford Literary Festival 2012

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  On March 30th I headed to Oxford to read some of my up coming collection Political Converse. Earlier that day I died my hair what was supposed to be purple - it came out not but that didn't matter. I had a weekend then week then month of readings and workshops, it was [...]
• April 09, 2012
• 21:16

  The Five Commandments of Sarah

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  My five commandments (in response to the author Anne Rice's question on Facebook) Love all including yourself cause the least possible harm think for yourself listen to others but make up your own mind Do not be wasteful What I found interesting was that many people just rehashed the biblical code with no thought as to the [...]
• April 08, 2012
• 22:39

  Ten Things That Amaze Me About Me

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  My six year old daughter has a spelling age that is the same as I had at 18. Though my vocabulary has always been massive as in exceeded what is expected for an average adult in the UK in primary school. I am obsessed with reading and learning things though I still do not have [...]

• 9:33

  This is serious

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  As frequent VA readers will know, despite my day job in what we Brits call ‘IT’ (such a terrible, crusty old school term!), this blog has become unintentionally almost entirely focused on the surveillance state – in particular matters like this, that are more worrying than any other threat to our freedom and dignity. By studying history [...]

• April 07, 2012
• 21:52

  My new workshop

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I took the day off of work on my birthday, to do something I'd been dying to do since we moved in - get my workshop set up to a state where I can actually use it. To begin with, I had a load of things to put away. The floor was covered in boxes that [...]
• April 06, 2012
• 9:15

  What An Amazing Week!

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Friday I went off to Not The Oxford Literature Festival were I read out stuff from an upcoming collection called Political Converse including the song Shit Creek. I gave out my new business cards which I am very happy with from Moo. Each card has a different picture on either of my art work, photos [...]

• April 02, 2012
• 19:09

  Help! Hypercard emulator wanted

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Have been trying to find a Hypercard emulator for OS X Lion (10.7 onwards) or any other OS – and no luck at all. My employer needs it to restore a simulation we were contracted to create for Bistsream Corp in 1991. If you’re a veteran geek and know of any way to run a HyperCard stack [...]
• April 01, 2012
• 19:14

  Dear Prime Minister…

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  …thanks for betraying our trust! We voted you in because you promised to rid the UK of snooping jobsworths, ineffective privacy invading CCTV cameras, money making “30 years of points free driving” motorist entrapping speed cameras – and most importantly, this. What happend? Lost your self respect and confidence, and projecting it onto the population, like repressive [...]

• March 30, 2012
• 16:53

  Purple Poet Prepares to Perform Political Poetry Perfectly

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I'm off to Oxford tonight for The Not The Oxford Literary Festival at the Albion Betnik. This marks the beginning of a hectic and creative few weeks for me. Tonight I perform political pieces such as my No Wage Slave poem and Shit Creek song. I decided as part of this I needed to re-dye my [...]
• March 28, 2012
• 8:27

  I Spy…

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Last night we went for a walk with the kids, we were playing eye spy - as any parent will know eye spy with kids is always interesting We spent ages trying to guess what began with H and falls off of trees and is a seed with spiky bits (we allow glues if [...]

• March 27, 2012
• 21:27

  Question

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

• 8:05

  A Walker!

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Mary has finally walked on her own She has been able to walk for ages but just wouldn't - she always had to hold a finger or use the pink truck walker thing my friend gave us. Of course she is now walking into things and has bruises on her head :/ She has also [...]
• March 21, 2012
• 10:45

  Bringing Science-Art to All

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Science-Art - sponsor me/give me crowd funding have a little read to see what I am upto and what I need money for! Ok so as many of you know I did a piece of 3D textural science-art for the exhibition In Braille at Centre Arts last year. I have since been asked to do [...]
• March 20, 2012
• 9:35

  Mothering Sunday - The Outing

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Mothers Day was lovely - I received three cards! One from Jean with a painted cat upon it One from Mary with a very similar felt tip pen cat, glittery stickers showing things like camp fires and tents, and lots of scribble, and one from Alaric saying thankyou for making my dream [...]
• March 19, 2012
• 8:12

  A Welsh Poet In Japan

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Ok so this Dudette who I keep bumping into at poetry things at Wychwood, The Cheltenham Science Festival (Slam the Atom), Art Tournament and the like is in Japan sharing Welsh culture in the form of a modern telling of traditional welsh stories! She is from Cardiff (if I remember correctly) which always makes me homesick [...]
• March 18, 2012
• 10:01

  Server upgrade

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I host a heap of web sites (including this blog), email domains, source control repositories, mailing lists, and various other things (such as one of the official Chicken Scheme egg mirrors, a Jabber server, and an IRC server with bots). I do this with a combination of dedicated server hardware which I hire space, power, [...]
• March 17, 2012
• 22:03

  The End of NSEW

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  So we have reached the end of National Science and Engineering Week - I have had fun following things on twitter and the like - but also seriously talking to gallery owners about putting on a Science Art Exhibition for next year. I would also like to see more local event - I could find nothing [...]
• March 16, 2012
• 21:48

  Higgs Boson Anthology

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I thought I would just re-high light this collection of which I am part with my poems Where Are You? The Higgs Boson Anthology Here is a spoken version of the poem: Higgs Boson What and Where Are You? by Sarah Snell-Pym
• March 15, 2012
• 16:11

  Colours Song

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  The lyrics are wrong and Jean forgot what she was doing and it was filmed before we moved but I thought it fitted with the National Science and Engineering theme I was going for with this weeks posts - so here is what is essentially an outtake of a science song for kids I am [...]
• March 14, 2012
• 14:18

  Happy Pi Day

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Today is Pi Day as well as Albert Einstien's Birthday so I thought I would combine the two for a piece of science-art for National Science and Engineering Week It's not the best drawing in the world - it is basically a concept sketch and was done in a note book on my lap [...]
• March 13, 2012
• 12:41

  Ballads of the Scientifica

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Todays science-art is an album of science and tech poetry, a possible life origins story and the song I Want To Know Everything. It is available as a free download for the remainder of the week Enjoy Ballads of the Scientifica by Sarah Snell-Pym
• March 12, 2012
• 8:57

  Science and Engineering Week 2012

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  It is National Science and Engineering Week here in the UK, this marks a festive sort of atmosphere in the science and tech communities where they try and reach out to the general public and show them just how much science, engineering and maths does for them, how exciting it is and what the future [...]
• March 06, 2012
• 14:53

  And Now…. an Organ!

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  So we are on a strict budget for the house - so we went to the charity shop to get a sofa bed... we ended up with an electric organ - a Hammond with Liesel Chorus and stuff! Alaric is as ecstatic as me and Jeany is really excited and Mary has discovered foot pedals! Alaric says [...]
• March 02, 2012
• 15:37

  British Gas

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Ok, I'm starting to get annoyed with British Gas, so it's time for a RANT. When we moved into the new home, it had prepayment meters for gas and electricity. For those not familiar, these are meters where, rather than having your meters read and being billed on what you have used, you have to take [...]
• 8:55

  World Book Day

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Jean's school are having their World Book Day celebrations today and this year Jean decided to go as a dinosaur from Harry and His Bucket of Dinosaurs. She loves these books - we met the author last year at Wychwood Festival and she got a signed copy of one of his more recent books [...]
• March 01, 2012
• 14:00

  Sarah’s Easter Collection

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I have produced an audio book which I am selling to raise money to buy books for Jean's School Library (they get the profit). The disc contains The Little Book of Easter Poetry, The Little Chicken Song and the story Ester Rabbit - there is even me playing the recorder It costs [...]
• February 29, 2012
• 8:51

  Jean’s First Audition

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Today Jean is going to school with her home made poetry book - she has written and illustrated the poems herself as part of this months WoPoWriMo challenge (World Poetry Writing Month). She is nervous and excited and asked me yesterday if I would make her an outfit if she gets through! The poems are [...]
• February 27, 2012
• 19:32

  Going for…. Gloucestershire Poet Laureate

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This Sunday the 4th of March at Gloucester New Inn there is the monthly arty chill which I have been attending to read my works poetic. This Sunday however is slightly different as they are running a competition for Gloucestershires Poet Laureate. The first phase of which is audience votes so I would [...]
• February 26, 2012
• 19:33

  The Moon, Venus and Jupiter

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  There is a fantastic vista tonight - the moon is out with two bright 'stars' - these are the planets Venus and Jupiter and earlier tonight the International Space Station passed by also bright and lovely. So I thought I'd try and photograph the planets and moon as I found the fireworks mode on [...]

• 11:25

  BREAKDOWN

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

• February 24, 2012
• 16:03

  NHS SOS

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  The NHS is in distress As politicians make it an even bigger mess Sneaking in private sector competition Erosion of the health service is their mission Drs who say, 'hang on a mo!' Are told they will have to go Such cost cutting measures Will kill this most auspicous of national treasures Lets hope the politicians stop Before this nation is left to rot
• February 20, 2012
• 0:47

  Computer Science

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Is a Computer Science degree useful for people who want to have a career in software development? Many who work in the field come from physics, maths, or electrical engineering degrees, and do perfectly well. There's a widespread feeling that the concepts taught on computer science degrees, such as formal logic, proving the correctness of [...]
• February 17, 2012
• 14:19

  No Wage Slave

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I have been seeing some highly disturbing news reports lately about people being forced to work or having their benefits cut - the issue being that they are not actually being offered jobs but are being put on work experience in places like Tesco and Poundland. Then it turns out that the changes currently [...]
• February 16, 2012
• 23:20

  Notye

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  SO I've had this idea of making Alaric pose as Gotye for photos but then this week I've had my younger cousins staying and the result is that we made a video of it! It is a spoof of this Gotye song with elements of this cover by Walk Off The Earth. It [...]
• February 09, 2012
• 9:03

  Poetry and Art and Science-Art

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This last week has been quiet busy for me as far as my 'work' is concerned. First off I had a meeting on Saturday about taking part in another art exhibition like In Braille with Centre Arts in order to raise many for the visually impaired. I'm aiming for another piece of three dimensional [...]
• January 30, 2012
• 19:02

  Tax returns

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Many years ago, around 2000, I formed a limited company. A bunch of us wanted to rent a rack in a data centre and host our servers there, and it seemed wise to have a separate legal entity to sign the contract with the ISP for the rack. This cost me some money here and there [...]
• January 28, 2012
• 20:55

  Moving house

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I hate moving house. It's a lot of work, for a start. It's a period during which all your stuff is packed away so you have to make do continually. And you have to tear apart the home you spent years building, while remembering all the fun times you had in the cold, empty, rooms [...]
• January 26, 2012
• 17:09

  Alaric’s projects for this year

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This year's going to be pretty busy with settling into the new home, but I have a few projects. Finish the ring casting I nearly finished before the move. That's a priority. Resurrect my aluminium foundry. In particular, it's our bronze wedding anniversary, so Sarah's going to design a pattern for a sundial, which I will cast [...]
• January 25, 2012
• 11:49

  Mary’s First Word

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Mary has been imitating sounds for months but as expected of a bilingual baby she hasn't really produced words with meaning they are just copies of what we are saying. She like Jean has been raised with baby sign as well so there is no real incentive to talk early. But as we home in on [...]

• January 22, 2012
• 13:13

  The SOPA effect

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
• January 19, 2012
• 23:13

  A Kodak Moment

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  It is common to read an article in the media and sense as someone experienced in the field* that the author is not that familiar with the subject they are writing about. Today, the papers have been analysing what lead to Kodak filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Headlines scream to the effect, “Kodak killed [...]

• January 12, 2012
• 11:41

  Parallel Worlds Collide

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Sometimes I do find myself wondering what would have happened if Alaric hadn't given up the syntherziser and focused on just programming or had taken it back up instead of metal work - as it is he is talking about maybe getting one for the music room when we have more money/one comes up on [...]

• January 02, 2012
• 21:23

  Half empty

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  On my return from the US in 2000, it became increasingly obvious that the UK was tragically importing the worst of American culture, rather than the best that otherwise great country has to offer. Whether junk food, dumbed down (mainstream) TV or a lawsuit mentality, we almost had it all, and now, we’ve completed our [...]
• December 23, 2011
• 10:57

  Sweet & Sour

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

• December 22, 2011
• 19:22

  New Home

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  So we have finally achieved the third M = Mortgage which I suppose makes us proper grown-ups or something? It is not what we had envisioned with the move to Gloucestershire but those plans weren't working anyway and this house seems like it was almost made with us in mind. It is everything we need. There [...]

• December 21, 2011
• 23:49

  The homeless

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  This entry has been published as a fixed Vision Aforethought page at On > The Homeless, not a blog post.   Tagged: Homeless, homelessness, shelter

• December 18, 2011
• 10:34

  Christmas Poetry

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This is a video of me reading The Little Book of Festive Poetry which I wrote a few years ago as part of the PiBoIdMo challenge. I was asked to read at The Brewery Cheltenham as part of a fund raiser for Winstons' Wish organised by Cheltenham Poetry Festival. In the video Jean is inching [...]

• December 14, 2011
• 14:23

  2012 – The Year of Living Interestingly

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  2011? Puh! That was a warm up. Here we go… Apple, Inc. begin to face serious credible competition in all product sectors before releasing yet another paradigm shifting innovation that gives them an edge again. (I know what it is, but will not disclose it.) Arab spring liberates many but forces up the price of [...]
• December 02, 2011
• 0:42

  The inquisitive AI

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  A computer AI that doesn’t realise it is a computer AI becomes sentient and tries to fathom out what’s out there and possibly where it came from. So it works with fellow AI’s to create a ‘radio/optical telescope’ and other ‘devices’ to look deep into its perceived ‘Universe’ that it thinks is real, like ‘we’ [...]

• November 29, 2011
• 18:41

  Jean’s Nano

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  (Typed up by mummy - spellings are mummy's version of spelling some of which is still wrong - grammer has not been touched) Lucy Has The Most Wonderful Dreams Tuesday 1st of November I saw a rabbit I walked up to it but when I walked up to it I saw something glowing in it's hand I snugged [...]
• November 28, 2011
• 22:26

  Ring casting

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  A friend has asked me to cast her some silver wedding rings. So I am adapting my aluminium casting experience to silver... The thing to use for silver moulds is cuttlefish bone, which is soft enough to easily carve into shapes, but can withstand the heat of molten silver. For a single pour, at any rate. In [...]
• November 18, 2011
• 16:20

  Spotty Dotty Madness

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
• November 17, 2011
• 9:04

  Children In Need Jean

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I knitted the bandage - it was supposed to be red bobbles on white but was a nightmare to knit and hasn't come out exactly how I imagined but Jean is over the moon with it and as a first attempt at bobbles I think it's great
• November 15, 2011
• 13:58

  Poor Hydro-Puss

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  We are currently awaiting info from the vet having approved an operation to wire Hydrogen jaw up and to remove maggots from her feet. As some of you know she has been missing for 3 weeks now and we have been searching high and low for her. Today - the day Alaric took the car [...]

• November 14, 2011
• 23:45

  Flashdance

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Yay, taking a break from all the political commentary (that exists to save YOU dear reader from an otherwise inevitable dastardly dumbed down dystopia!) to have a quick chinwag about a certain not really standardised multimedia authoring system that whilst capable of great things in the hands of equally great content designers, was doomed from [...]
• November 07, 2011
• 22:36

  Hung out for the sins of a culture

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

• October 31, 2011
• 23:48

  It’s All NaNo’s Eve

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  It be that time of year again when all the nut balls come out of hiding! That's right it's NaNoWriMo time again - at the witching hour on this All Hallows Eve a bizar and eclectic ritual will take place - writers will begin typing, scrawling or dictating in ernest in the hope that this [...]
• October 27, 2011
• 19:23

  Hall effect sensors

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  At the Bristol Hackspace this evening, I powered up a Hall sensor. The Allegro A1321 takes a 5v supply and outputs 2.5v - plus or minus 5mV per gauss of magnetic field in the sensor. It turned out that small magnets don't produce many gauss, so I added a 741 op-amp with a gain of about 100 [...]
• October 17, 2011
• 11:21

  Monster Painting

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This is what I have spent my child free morning on :/ Click on the images if you want to see them larger. They are for a Halloween art exhibit at Center Arts.

• October 16, 2011
• 21:53

  Catastrophic iOS WordPress bug

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  Yesterday, after years of thought, using iOS WordPress on an iPad 2, I published a fairly pertinent post entitled World War 4 – and tweeted so. Knowing it was full of typos and missing a lot of content, an hour or so later, despite work deadlines, I made some major updates to the post, again [...]
• October 15, 2011
• 17:56

  World War 4

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  I tweeted a while back that a major blog post would soon appear, entitled World War 4. Life and work got in the way, so like most ‘non critical’ tasks, it got put on the back burner. Today however, the events on the streets of major cities around the world inspire a quick pause in [...]

• October 13, 2011
• 8:33

  Mary Learning

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  Mary loves textures and manipulating things with her hands - she can't put the rings back on the pole yet but she loves tipping them off or lifting them one at a time and playing with the rings. We also have film night once a week and this is a cute pic of her sitting on [...]
• October 12, 2011
• 8:29

  Icicles

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  This is a photo from last winter - I just really thought I should share these fantastic icicles!
• October 11, 2011
• 7:51

  The Piggies

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  I found this cute picture of Jean holding the guinea pigs. They are sadly no more but were well loved whilst we had them.

• October 10, 2011
• 23:21

  Pop!

   » ‎ VISION AFORETHOUGHT
  I voted Conservative because although I was aware a right leaning government would do a few things some of us would disapprove of (such as sacrificing the environment to profit their source of donations), I assumed (based on pre-election promises and prior philosophies), that the new government would repel the various dystopian, privacy invading and/or [...]

• October 09, 2011
• 22:22

  Motivation

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  When I was a child, I had a lot of technical books lying around. My grandmother was a science teacher and my grandfather was an engineer, and lots of their old books lined my shelves. And alongside them, I had a lot of science fiction, too. And from all this, I learnt that technology could [...]
• 11:07

  Michelle’s Hen Do :)

   » ‎ Snell-Pym
  My Brother is getting married next month so the last two weekends have seen the stage and hen dos! I am still awaiting Alaric to post about the stage For the Hen Do we went to a hotel in London for a Murder Mystery Event involving Professor Bugle, Flossy the maid and Lady "Rochy", [...]