More photos !!!

The next batch of photos have been put up. So you can find out what happened at Leanna's birthday party, Ethel's birthday meal (Photos : Birthdays), and when I had my second haircut (Photos : Others).

Enjoy !

Interesting News and My Holiday

Before I begin this entry, I would like it to be known that whoever decided to use all the washing machines on a tuesday afternoon and not collect their clothes when they were done is the reason why I can't have any sleep tomorrow morning (have to wash all my clothes that I need to take with me).

Interesting News

There was I, thinking that there couldn't be any news more interesting than that of yesterday, when what did I find? Some serious, some unusual, and some just plain stupid.
Read and enjoy:
Firstly, if you thought America with the help of the CIA, FBI, NSI, NATO and any other 'international' body you care to mention, hadn't thought of enough offences for Saddam Hussein to have committed, up comes one for copyright infringement !

The book cover can be seen on the website of the artist. Whilst you are checking out his site, I recommend the 'Waiting for Parsival', and the 'Cascade'.
I was going to leave it at that, but got intrigued into his realm of "Mythic Naturalism" and ended up viewing all of his paintings, and even ended on his wedding photos ! There is no doubt about it, I am enchanted by his work, and so will have to have his website as a permanent link under my Cool Links page. So go visit it now !!

Getting back to the news, the US fails to avoid being headlined again when they are about to offer to buy Russian missiles and give medical aid in exchange for scrapping the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. This would then allow them to continue with the "Son of Star Wars" defence system unhindered by the russian treaty. Obviously, the rest of the world is on the edge of their seats to see what happens.
Now a bit of revenge on the chinese side, they banned the use of the Hong Kong port for a US warship. Let's see if a missile is now 'accidently' deployed in the direction of china by the said warship.
Even NATO is having a go at the americans, snubbing their plans for the aforementioned defence system. Are we seeing the demise of the american world power ?

Now for something a bit closer to home, UK police dogs are to be fitted up with bullet-proof vests. Apparently, the World Organisation Of Furry Friends complained that there was a strong bias towards non-furry police officers getting better protection in the event of firearms incidents.

Thought that your pornographic SPAM email sent to your boss last weekend could not be traced. Well, known about for ages, and only now taken seriously, a European Commission has found that the UK and the US have been working together on a secret email/telephone eavesdropping system using satellites and secret ground bases around europe. Encryption is now being reccommended for all companies and individuals who fear american intrusion.

OK, now that you've had your dose of news let's get on to:

My Holiday

As those of you studying in Mainz will know we have five days off uni next week. Add on to this the weekend before and after and you've already got nine. Now take a couple of days off at the end of the week before, because you've done the work for the lectures and there you have it - eleven days holiday.

Now if you think I was going to spend them here in Mainz doing (fill in space), then you obviously don't know me and my happy-go-lucky spirit !
Yep, I searched for the cheapest flights available back to England so that I could visit all my friends who are finishing their degrees now at Birmingham University. But that's not all, oh no. After various emails to and from Giulia, an italian girl that was here last semester (see photos), I was kindly offered her hospitality and knowledge of Rome to show me around this magnificent city. So again I go to the Ryanair website and buy myself some cheap tickets (30 Pounds/90 DM return).

So, if this diary becomes sparse over the next week, don't despair. I will return with a refreshened spirit, and hopefully some really good photos.

Ariverderci

Hospital Visit and Village Riots

Just another hot day here in Mainz, I don't know if it reached the 30s again today, but it sure was hot out there !!
And here I am in the computer room writing my diary :(

Hospital Visit
Well there had to be a downside to working in an electron-accelerator during my year abroad. Yes, that's right, they have to test me for radiation (leaks?).
Put off until a month before my contract expires I could avoid it no longer.
The way to the hospital was made more comfortable by the kind assistance of two attractive medical students who showed me where to go. On the map, the building I was looking for was straight ahead, however I was informed by the aforementioned samaritans that the building we were looking at was for people with contagious diseases and anyone entering would not be allowed out. Not the most comforting of things to be told when you first arrive !!
Luckily, the building I wanted was hidden around the back of the contagious one, so I was permitted to leave after they had finished with me :)
I will not go into all the details of what they did to / took from me, but suffice it to say that they can find out anything they want to about my recent history.
As a result I am not in a state to do my triathlon training tonight (what a pity!), so maybe I should go home and do some packing for my holiday (to be detailed before I leave).

Village Riots
Doing my regular visit to the news sites on the internet, I had just about finished my daily intake of UK happenings when an article jumped out and caught my eye like an Elianaian Handball player catches the ball.
Apparently, I have missed quite a lot of action this weekend. There have been some very violent racial riots in manchester (not too far away from birmingham), but what I didn't expect was the same in an innocent little town like Aylesbury !
Apparently I missed a very big party there. Let's just hope they finish it before I get back home.

Oh, just happened across this page. A bit of a refresher.

'Fat Lady Sings'

Update ! Update !

Have reached my 1000th visitor (ok, admittedly it was me checking that my diary entry worked ok, but anyway).

Yippeeee !!!!

The Explanation and Other News

Finally back to normal, I thought I'd take this time to tell you what's been happening:

Explanation
As some of you will have no doubt noticed, my other website stopped working last week without warning.
Despite my efforts to resolve it, I realised it was nothing to do with me, but instead someone with über-authority had closed it down.
A bit miffed, I went to visit the person responsible (I recommend her bread recipe) to ask firstly why had my site been closed down, and secondly why I had not been told about it by email (I found out from the visitors who could no longer see my site).
Well, after a brief encounter it was explained to me that I was not an organisation (well look at my web address now, what's that after my name ".org.uk" ! ) and she shut it down just like that. Well it took me a while searching the web high and low (and in all other dimensions as well) for space to put my site on, but in the end I realised the best solution was to pay to host it and get all the things I wanted.
So, the long and short of it is, I'm now to be found here at http://www.marcuslloyd.org.uk.
And the story to be learnt from this little saga: Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth.

News
Short update on what's happening.
We are in a sudden spurt of birthdays at the moment, what with Kjell having his last saturday, Leanna yesterday, and Ethel today. So, all together now "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Kjell, Leanna, Ethel, happy birthday to you".
Of course with so many birthdys at the same time, it was inevitable that not everyone would be able to go to everyone's party, and as there is a spanish party on a boat on the Rhine tonight as well as a BBQ party in Hechtsheim, we'll have to see which one was better :)

Anyway, now should get back to prepare myself for later (makeup takes such a long time - only kidding).
Have a good night

Wow !!
Got lots to say and no time to do it in.
Later today I will explain what happened to my old website, what's happened since, and what will happen in the future (yep, I'm divining again).
til then

Thought about checking out how I'm rated in the google search engine. Unfortunately there are many famous people of the same name as me, so that I don't turn up on any of the pages. However, funnily enough, there is a spanish guy called Marcus Lloyd who does graphics. Some of them are quite cool. But anyway, in case any of you are wondering, no, it's not me :)

I would have loved to be able to tell those not fortunate enough to be living in Mainz that the weather here is better than summer, except that now it isn't any more. In fact it's annoying. It's still got that hot sticky feel to it, but it rains as well. Reminds me a bit of Singapore.

Anyway, I went off to Haarlem at the weekend, and you'll be able to see what I did shortly (once I've collected the photos from the developers).

Have a cool night

Due to unforseen circumstances my diary couldn't be updated until now. Hopefully this will not happen again.

Whilst looking up information about Italy in the CIA factbook as always, I happened to mistype the webadress, so instead of cia.gov, I went to cia.com, quite amusing really.

Another interesting development, is ever since mentioning the icelandic website of Fanný Rósu that I visited, I have been having visits from people in iceland to my webpage. Unfortunately none of them have written in my guestbook as yet, but hopefully next time...

Well, got to get off to class now, see if anything interesting happens later :)

A couple of new sites have been searched out and selected only for you. They can be found under the link "Cool sites : Others". I recommend you take a look at them.

That's it for today, over and out.

Brand-spanking-new news.

Randomly found an icelandic website, and I like it. Might need Geir to do some translating for me though...

More dictionary words and weird news

After discovering that I was a "Giri" in Spain, I was soon to be informed that we also have a word for those tourists that come to the UK: "Grockles". I would therefore like to take this opportunity in welcoming all the grockles to my country and wishing them a pleasant stay :)

Talking about dictionaries, whilst surfing away (as you do) I came across this cultural dictionary, and for those of you yearning to learn proper english (of the london variety), there is a description and examples of Cockney Rhyming Slang (especially for you, Geir). Oh, and here's a more fuller list, although what slightly worries me is that it is based on a canadian site.

Now to the news bit. Spookily like a scene from George Orwell's "1984", the BBC (I know I keep mentioning them, but they are the ones that seem to have all the breaking news) reports that there is a planet-eating star out there, not too far away, and it's hungry for more. Start fulfilling those life-long ambitions now, you don't know whether you'll have time otherwise :)

Another new development. Fed up of email claiming to be sent, only to find out that it got lost on the way and there's nothing you can do about it? Well now there's a solution. P-mail. Yep, that's right, a new network protocol has been set up to allow pigeons to transfer packets of data (eg emails). The benefit of this, you may ask? Well, if your message doesn't arrive on time, you can actually 'shoot the messenger' instead of hitting the computer :) How thoughtful.

Well, enough talking, got to get on with...erm...restructuring my website :)

Flids and Media Differences
I first got aroused (careful now) to the existence of flids by Andy (physics, birmingham) when in an email he claimed that if we didn't answer it we were "flids". Being innocent and forever wanting to learn, I set about searching on the internet for the meaning of my life. Little did I know what I was going to encounter. First we have the woven norwegian tapestry page, but despite its obvious initial appeal, it does little to clarify the matter. Could I therefore be a gene described in much detail here? Somehow I doubt it. I think I found the correct explanation, but unfortunately I don't speak danish, so I have absolutely no idea what this page is talking about. Wierdly, it's also a goddess of ireland, but seeing as I'm a bloke, I think I'll give that one a miss. For those of you interested in music, there is a site for audio-flids. The search continues...

Reading the latest news flashes on the BBC website, came across an article that surprised me. It talks about the spanish medias reaction to crown prince Filipe's norwegian girlfriend Eva Sannum, and the possibility of their marriage. In fact the words they use to describe her are:
"does not have the most suitable name, does not belong to an ideal family, has not received the correct education to be a princess, has to share a flat to make ends meet and work to pay for her upkeep and studies.".
Now I know there will be some of you feeling shocked that the media may portray a person like this. However, all you need do is to look at the newspapers in the UK to see that this is tame ("page3" is what it's famous for).

Well, I'll get back to eating my Haribo teddy-bears. 'til later.

Help in using Linux in the ZDV

A little help is at hand in the form of moi.

You know how when you're in the linux-pool at uni and you visit a webpage, that not all things work properly (ie buttons don't work, or clicking on my pictures doesn't enlarge them)?
Well, that's because Javascript isn't enabled. "Well, how do I enable it" I hear you ask. Listen and learn:

I presume you are in the linux pool, or at least using linux.

1) Open up netscape navigator (4th link down the left of the desktop), be careful not to click on the icon more than once, as it sometimes takes a few minutes to load, and you don't want lots and lots of browser windows open. Of course, if you are reading this on the internet, you've already got a netscape window open!

2) At the top of the window there are 5 headings (File, Edit, View, Go, and Communicator). Click on "Edit".

3) From the drop-down menu that appears, click on "preferences" (at the very bottom).

4) In the window that appears, click on "Advanced" in the left-hand pane.

5) On the right hand side of this window appear a few options. Select the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th options ("Enable Java", "enable JavaScript", and "enable Style Sheets").

6) Click on "OK" at the bottom-left of the window, and Voila !! You've finished.
Now go to my pictures pages and click on the photos to get a bigger picture !

OK, now that that's over with, let's hope that people will come up with suggestions/problems of their own that they want resolved. Who knows, I might have to start up an "agony aunt" page :)

Quick update, as the sun is shining down on the campus, we've got a bit of time to kill before the Valencia - Leeds match, so I think it's got to be a visit to the lawn outside the kulturcafe for me.

The email page is now working perfectly. You can send me emails from my website now, and keep me up to date on your contact details.

Also on this page is a link to the SMS page. Here you can send an SMS to my phone (albeit only 45 characters long).

So there's no reason not to stay in contact any more :)

The advantages of Germany
One thing about the germans. They like their holidays. In particular their national ones. Yes, yesterday was mayday, and just for a turn-up for the books we started getting some summer weather as well. 25 degrees, not to put a too finer point on it. Just out of curiosity you might like to see what the weather was like in Spain at this time. So we (Mavi, Marilo and myself) decided to take our books and papers outside onto the grass and do our revision in the sun. Apart from the obligatory chatting that goes on in such situations, the work was going on okay until we stopped for lunch. Sandwiches stacked high with lettuce, tomato, brie, ham made for a very picnicy atmosphere. The only thing missing was the ice cubes to go in the drinks (that reminds me, must go and buy some). After that, and what with all the shops being closed, I cycled off to get us our desserts - cornettos. On my return the weather started to change a bit, first of all turning a bit windy and then the sun disappearing for a bit. Well, the most part of the day was excellent anyway.

World News
Looking through the BBC website news section, I happened across some information about the protests that were going on throughout the world on mayday. Did you see anything? Were you involved? If not, why not? Apparently there were clashes in London, Berlin, Melbourne, and even Zimbabwe. And to think that there I was blissfully ignorent of all this whilst eating my sandwiches. Talking about sandwiches, do you know where the name derives from? Well you better check here then.

Other things going on:
The "email" page isn't yet working properly, please be patient.
If anyone from Physics or Chemistry is interested in joining a class on "Physical Aspects of Molecular Gastronomie" send an email to the usual address and the details will be provided.
Just randomly choosing a search for the word "loco" (meaning mad or strange in spanish) came across the following website. Enjoy.

Well that's about it. Must get on and translate a text about a chilean film from german into spanish. Sounds easy, doesn't it !?!