Monopoly world edition - vote for London

London is 4th on the list of word cities with only 3.1% of the vote (as I type this) behind Montreal, Paris and Capetown.

Why not add your vote?

Link to Monopoly world vote

Lolz - carrot shaped

moar funny pictures

Dave Gorman - America Unchained

I watched Dave Gorman's America Unchained road trip documentary film on More4 this week.

I found out about it after finding his photoset on Flickr when searching for photos of the southwest USA whilst in my own post holiday glow.
Part of our holiday was spent in Moab, Utah to visit Arches National Park.
Dave spent a week in Moab.

If you're at all interested in back road America or the fight against the homogenisation of the corporate world then you'll love this.

If you've enjoyed "Are you Dave Gorman" (Are You Dave Gorman? on amazon) or "Googlewhack Adventure" (Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure on amazon) then you'll enjoy this.

It is a very different concept to the other 2 - and yet you still get it in Dave's style.

I loved the graphics and the subtle humour throughout. It inspired me to start planning my next road trip of the USA.

I made a decision on my first step if I ever win the lottery - pack off to the states for a grand auto tour for 6 months. I will however get a more modern car!

If you don't get More4 the film is out to buy on DVD on Monday (I've included a handy link to amazon here). It is well worth a watch.

His book will be out in May. I've pre-ordered it from amazon already.(Get it here:America Unchained: One Helluva Coast-to-coast Anti-corporate Adventure!)

Owee - Stephen Fry Broken Arm Update

Following on from the news that he had broken his arm;
Stephen Fry has posted some x-ray images of his broken arm on his blog.

The x-rays suggest that it was a pretty serious break and it must have really hurt.

Look at all of those Pins!

Stephen doesn't actually say much about the break itself - but does imply that the injury hit him pretty hard.

Ow! Get well soon Mr Fry.

Lol dog

I'm developing a soft spot for LOL cats and now also LOL dogs.
A bit late to the game I know - sorry!

moar cute puppy pictures

The Shortlist

Last week I wrote about sausages
Here's the list of possible next research topics

• Window Frosting Film
• Trip to the South West of the USA
• What digital camera?
• What mobile phone?
• Integrated Fridges

Let me know in the comments if there is something you want to read about.

Stephen Fry has broken his arm

BBC news are reporting that Stephen Fry has broken his arm during filming in Brazil.

He was in Brazil filming "Last Chance to see" watching a manatee being released into the wild.

He's back in the UK after treatment - so here's hoping he's feeling better.

It may be good for the blogosphere since he may have time to write some more wonderful engaging blog posts.

Get well soon Stephen.

Broken Glass Image from matticgn's Flickr Photostream under a creative commons license.

The best pork sausages

The Problem
Where can you buy the best Lincolnshire sausages in London?

The Solution
Borough Market!
Mountain's butchers from Boston otherwise known as the Boston Sausage Company have a stall there on a Friday and Saturday. Perfect for your hit of Boston goodness when you can't get back to the motherland. (They also do a mean haslet)

The Background
I originally hail from Lincolnshire - the home of the Lincolnshire Sausage. I grew up with sausages at least once a week! They really are nothing like the plastic [my description of them] sausages you see in the supermarkets which are strangely smooth, flavourless and greasy. The Linconshire style ones you can buy from the chains are bett-er but they still aren't like the ones I grew up loving. Mainly because the meat doesn't have the coarse texture you get in a true sausage.

I've been especially spoilt in that I grew up in Boston where there seem to be at least 3 butchers that make fabulous sausages. My most favourite being the ones made by Carl Dunham. The other good ones are Bycrofts and Mountains - "The Boston Sausage" that I re-discovered in London (still not as good a Dunham's ones in my opinion - but absolutely worth traveling across London for).
The photos are of some Dunham sausages that I stocked my freezer up with while visiting my family at Christmas. They make a great toad in the hole. We had them for tea tonight - they were scrummy.

Macworld Expo - was the Apple Keynote worth it?

So the keynote is over and it had the expected stuff I guess.

The New MacBook Air is a beautiful thing.

There are some issues with it that stop it being the perfect workhorse principally the lack of cd/dvd drive, minimal number of ports and the fact that the battery can't be replaced.

You've got to admit it is mighty pretty though. I don't feel the need to get one.

I'm hopeful that the announcement of Time Capsule will mean that I can start using time machine with my own NAS. Here's hoping!

Waiting for Macworld Expo

I've no idea why - my Macbook pro is very recent and I don't need anything.
I suspect it is simply due to the buzz surrounding it at the moment.
Maybe I've just jumped onto the bandwagon!

[Image courtesy of Jacci Howard Bear, About Desktop Publishing, http://desktoppub.about.com].

Future Topics

I already know the first areas I'm going to write about over the next few weeks.

• Window Frosting Film
• Trip to the South West of the USA
• Boston Sausages in London
• What digital camera?
• What mobile phone?
  

If you have a preference please let me know in the comments

Terms of Reference

I spend a lot of time researching things because:

• I'm an analyst (IT systems mainly)
• I'm a bit of a gadget lover
  
• I'm a prodigious shopper
• I need to be sure I've got the best deal
• I need to be sure I've got the best item
• I need to know the best way to do something
  

I felt that other people out there don't necessarily want to spend the time that I do on figuring out the best of everything.

I'm going to treat all me research like I do feasibility studies at work - I'm going to document my findings.

The topics will be quite random - about whatever is most important to me at the time but you can guarantee they will be varied and they might just help others too!
I spend a lot of time on the internet with my faithful laptop so you don't have to.