book: Fly By Night - Frances hardinge

'A wonderful and wondrous novel' indeed!

Lovely fantasy. Myra oops! heh hehMosca has grown up in a small village in a world where religions and politics have evolved in weird (only marginally more weird than our own world) ways. Mosca loves books and words though they are denied to ordinary people and guarded jealously by the stationers guild. Her journey into the wider world to the city of Mandelion is great fun for a reader and nothing dismays Mosca (for too long).
Excellent! :) A fantastic new world to explore.

This is one of Daire's books.
I think someone got it for him for Christmas.
Good choice!!

http://www.franceshardinge.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Fly-Night-Frances-Hardinge/dp/0060876271

I'm trying to catch up on recording books I've read.

book: A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

Explores how science was understood and developed by the people working in it.
What their mindset/thinking was and what were the big changes and which were the accidential(and misinterpreted) discoveries and missed opportunities.
A good meditation upon good scientific method :)

He succeds admirably with the goal of finding proper, not superficial (and hence satisfying) explainations.
Good book. Enjoyable read.

This is my Mum's book.She has a note in it about Kuala Lumpur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything

I'm trying to catch up on recording books I've read.

smoke alarm testing and "be quiet" feature

This smoke alarm in the kitchen has been in the wars.
I think the smoke mark (new) must be from fire officer Daire testing it!

It's "be quiet" feature never worked very well and the break in the face is because the "be quiet" part of the face was always too stiff to push though the switch did engage if it was hit VERY hard.
Nowadays smoke alarms (and CO alarms) seem to very alot in expense.
(Watch out for price hikes after fire/CO stories reported in media!)
And the design seems to have disimproved over last few years.

You can't get a "be quiet" (for a little while) feature any more?
Is this because of over regulation?
Or because it doesn't pay the alarm makers to put it in?
Without a "be quiet" our kitchen smoke alarm ends up disabled (battery out or covered) for a while when we do end up with smoke. And on occasion when we make a big mess in the kitchen with smoke the same has been done to the alarm in the landing.

We have a CO alarm in Daire and Kate's rooms.
We have a smoke alarm in stairs landing, in attic room and in kitchen.

book: Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz

I quite like Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books though they're plainly told action.
The characters are well done.

Perfect for Daire and friends I think :)
In some of Daire's stories you can see the influence of books he reads sometimes.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Angel
http://www.anthonyhorowitz.com/alexrider/books/arkangel.html
http://www.amazon.com/Ark-Angel-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0744583241

book: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates climb the 6,344 metre Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
The climb is tough (tougher than expected somewhat) and the description is gripping.
On the way down Joe falls and smashes his leg. OW.
Both climbers think Joe is almost as good as dead.

Simon stays to help Joe descend despite increased risk to himself and worsening frostbite in his hands. The descent goes well at first but ends in darkness with Simon holding onto a rope at a hold gradually giving way not able to communicate with or see what is going below with Joe who is dangling over an ice cliff unable to do anything,
Simon eventually cuts the rope.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Touching-Void-Joe-Simpson/dp/0099771012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_the_Void
http://www.touchingthevoid.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siula_Grande
Google Maps: Siula_Grande area




I am actually reading this one today.
Library book.
Picked it up and half way in before it's time to go to bed (but I'm obviously not going to get to bed on time YET again!)

View Larger Map

confessed user of WhereAmI (OSM gps data collecting helper app)

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WhereAmI

With v0.11 whereami (on nokia E65) crashes out sometimes, phone resets other times. The E65 has bluetooth stability problems I think. I have seen phone do this with other bluetooth and not whereami. I did not lose .gpx info with crashes. I used up all memory on phone one time and lost last .gpx trace I had done. oops! Check your kids haven't been snapping tons of photos with your phone before OSMing!

http://www.symbianos.org/admin.php?nav=bugs&n=144&oldnav=bugs

With v0.13a after an initial .gpx collect (and maybe GSM cellids) I have an issue with whereami.db :( Need to follow instructions in FAQ: http://www.symbianos.org/faq/r=projectlink%3D47 The .db is not fully corrupt though. maps load fine. When I flip into named items view whereami crashes out.

The etymology of porridge

Maeve and I went shopping today.
And made a GPS trace of Ballyogan Dunnes car park for OpenStreetMap.
We got loads of stuff.
Need food.
We have used lots of staples at home and Fionn's Mum & Dad are visiting Wed+Thur this week to mind kids in afternoons while Fionn has a training course in East Point (Where I'm working in Sun).
Maeve did a really good job as usual helping especially unloading stuff from trolley onto conveyor belt while I packed.
As well as minding shopping list.

Anyway, porridge is a funny word. I was wondering about the origins of it.
Porridge is from French/Latin pottage - leek soup. And associated a little later with oatmeal in Scotland.
Ahhh, "pease porridge hot" ? maybe
Fionn is good at making leek soup.
I made it yesterday.
Lots of potato.
Quite yummy.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=porridge
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/858168 "a type of porridge made from peas, pease pudding" and ""pease" was treated as a mass noun, similar to "oatmeal""

And yoghurt (while we're trying to remember which item of shopping I was thinking about the etymology of!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt#Etymology_and_spelling
From Turkish, related to word for to knead and dense/thick

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=sausage boooring meaning from salted

Interesting, on OSM after editing you can see the edits appear at further out zoom levels first.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.2593&lon=-6.1957&zoom=14&layers=B000FTF

Good weekend.
Long one with May bank holiday.
We stayed in Dub, relaxed slightly in a busy way.
Caught up on some housework.
Cycled with girls to Balawley park (trailgators).
Fionnuala did gardening work.
On Mon I added openable nest box to chicken coop.