21.1.10

Read that Graph CAREFULLY

Everyone here knows that I find it difficult to respect a man who feels able to spend $1,600,000,000 on his own job interview expenses but even Obama needs some protection from the badly drawn graphs and charts. Even the Financial Times can get it wrong!

Here is a graph cut and pasted from yesterday's Financial Times:

obama_rate_wrong

How about the corrected version where the vertical axis is NOT chopped off just below the half way point ... no such a drastic change over the year is it?

obama_rate_better_mega

This post was also uploaded to Duncan's Diacritical Discussion

DW

Online Scam Artists

A genuine and honest friend suggested a long time ago that we keep in touch via one of those social networking sites. So I joined. Nothing happened for a long time and me and the friend used the site now and again.

Recently, the volume of messages has increased and I have been getting messages from well known scam artists: they are usually in the Philippines or Ghana.

This evening a young man said he loved me and wanted to call me honey. I went along with it and as I expected he told me he was a student but his exams, yawn, were next week. Oh and misery me he didn't have any money for his fees. Yawn, yaaaaawwwn.

I asked him how much and he told me. So I suggested I pay for the whole term: hang it, make sure he doesn't suffer. It was four times what he asked for and when he asked me if I was sure I said it would be my pleasure!

He turned his cam on and he was half naked (top half!) and I asked him to do a bit of a dance for me and he did. Entertaining stuff and it showed that at least he was prepared to work for his money a little bit.

I stopped chatting to him and deleted him from my list immediately.

Don't fall for these lies. They are not students, they are not going to take an exam and they are not anything remotely resembling what they say they are.

Clown and of course he isn't going to get any money from me!

DW

20.1.10

JK Rowling known everywhere!

I am living and working in rather a remote place at the moment but this conversation took place this morning.

The decorators are in and one of them asked me, Are you British?

I said, Yes I am

He replied, I knew it. I knew you were British because you sound like Harry Potter!

I said, You'd better be careful and pretended to cast a spell in his direction. He then asked where my magic wand was!!

Great fun!

DW

19.1.10

Everything comes to he who waits!

Forty years ago? Fifty years ago? I can't remember but I do know one thing, I used to listen to a short piece of music on the radio and have longed to know what it was called ...

I THINK it used to precede the Today programme on Radio 4 all of those years ago. It doesn't last long. However, how does one hum or tra la a piece of music when one has no musical talent at all? If I tried to explain the piece of music to anyone they would walk away from me thinking that all plots had been lost.

Well, here I am minding my own business and letting my iPod meander down my 1,308 songs and tunes and when it got to this piece, I had to write and tell you Eureka:

Badinerie from Orchestral Suite No 2 in B Minor by JS Bach

THIS is the piece I fell in love with all those years ago and I recommend you find and listen to it now.

DW