Scoville Units Unite

So the election is tomorrow, what’s been happenning in Dundee West.

Well as of now my only contact has been 3 hand delivered Lib Dem leaftets and a personally addressed SNP letter.

The three Lib Dem leaflets all contained their usual bunch of lies, damn lies and irrelevant and massaged statistics.

A letter from the SNP, surely that would be a reply from Jim Barrie to the question I asked him about the Digital Economy Bill on the 15th of April. No such luck, it was just a standard mailing about more local Champions. Champions at what? Dundee Amateur chess championship, someone who has completed 3 levels of Hero Quest? Who knows. So as of today I have still not received a reply to my query.

What was most confusing is if it was a standard electoral mail out they go to everyone, or everyone in a certain criteria, so why did others I know not get one?

Speaking of stuff bunged through the door, I have had no Royal Mail delivered leaflets or our polling cards yet. An email to the Returning Officer confirmed I am on the Electoral Register but that is the second time in 3 elections I have received no polling card. Hopefully Labour haven’t snaffled it as part of some systematic Fraud effort.

I took part in one of the Online Quizzes to see which candidate best reflects your views. Worryingly the Lib Dems came out top, this was clearly due to only they and the SNP responding.

I emailed the rest of the candidates asking them to complete it (more to see what the independent stands for – if anything at all). The Tory got back saying he had filled it in and was curious as to whether he had lived up to expectations. I wrote back to thank him for completing it and inform him that I was surprised to see agreement on 4 issue, but sadly he had came last in politics matching.

Finding the link for the post I see Jim McFarlane of TUSC has completed it now too, so will go check his answers, I assume they will be closest though (yep). On question 1 he appears to have made a typo Ordinary people did not create this economic crisis and should be made

The independent who is apparently standing for fairness and democracy against sleaze and unaccountability? So far he hasn’t filled out the quiz to keep potential MPs accountable to their claimed positions.

I will as usual pop along early before work to vote. For the evening I will probably stay up til about 2-4 watching it online then get up about 6-7 to catch up on late results. There’s nothing as sweet as watching a vile Tory lose their seat live on TV. Thankfully having not lived under the rule of a Tory MP I have not seen them lose live either. Hopefully Philippa Stroud will be one who is shown losing live on telly. I did have the option to go to the count in Dundee but you only really get news there and on a TV plus I’d have to get next day off work.

Malcolm Rifkind

Forsythe, Portiloo, Mellor and Rifkind

In my quest for something to read on the bus I noticed Ben Elton – Stark at the top of the novel/comedy pile. That’ll do thinks I.

I got the bus to work and read some. Then read some more on the way home on the bus. And still wasn’t in to it.

The writing so far has been truly awful. I read something mildly interesting and looked at the bottom of the page to see it was the land mark century – page 100 before something amusing happened.

About 10 pages in I seriously considered writing to Ben Elton and asking for my 20p back.

Anyway, why am I writing a mini ramble so early into a book? I had a quick glance at Amazon and noticed it was averaging 4 out of 5. What the hell? I then looked at Wikipedia which notes it was commercially and critically successful in the United Kingdom and Australia. and sold over a million copies.

Really?

Really??

The characters so far have been woeful. Page upon describing them from an authors perspective, it reads like a first years essay at school:

Jim was wearing his flares. Flares were out. He figured that they would come back round again and so he was ahead of fashion. He thought he was cool – but he wasn’t. He remembered meeting the woman and how it had went. Now he was going to see her again and wanted to impress. So To that they could have SEX. He liked SEX and thought about it a lot. But he was pretending to be who he was to get some SEX. The last time they met there was a discussion about some boring fucking subject which the reader is not interested in. He had briefly considered taking position A. He then thought about position B. But because the character was a fucking moron he couldn’t answer before the woman (with boobs) said something that meant she blatantly supported position B. I like position B he had then said. Wow he was in there! Except they didn’t have SEX at all. In fact she went away in a taxi later. But that was ok. Tonight was date 2 and he was sure to have SEX after that. Oh here are two random characters who are also annoying. They will discuss SEX and drugs and some random tangent to the plot which is a mystery and will probably make the book even more boring on a second read.

This is not a quote, just me paraphrasing the style. It goes on and fucking on. I was going to drop it but am curious as to whether he learns to write by the end of it hence earning the 4 stars of praise.

Once more into the breach.

Quite silly video about Hero Quest. Awesome.

I was recently contacted by someone else who had received legal threats from First Search Consultancy. They have since edited and re-published their post about First Search Consultancy.

I recommend reading it. Ryan also says he has a recording proving the claim made by a number of people online and in person that they say they can guarantee first place in a search on Google. This is of course not possible to do and any company claiming so would be obtaining money from customers by deception.

You can tell it’s an election because Labour and the SNP showed their face in the city centre today, so probably time for an info post.

Well, unless there are any last minute changes or anyone withdrawing at the last minute (ooh err missus) the line up for the election in Dundee West looks like:

Liberal Democrats – John Barnett
SNP – Jim Barrie
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition – Jim McFarlane
Labour – Jim McGovern
BNP – Ian Murphy
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party – Colin Stewart

What is most apparent from first glance is that it is an all male list, in Dundee East there are 3 female candidates out of 6 candidates. Given the make up of the local elections where the SSP was the only party to approach any kind of gender balance it is unsurprising.

So the choices:

Liberal Democrats – John Barnett

Lib Dems must be on a bit of a bounce following the leadership debate. I have had two pieces of material so far, both of them having their fantasy land graphics they use everywhere misleading the public over the voting results/opinion polls. Expect the next ones to use the result of the polls of those who watched the leadership debate.

Lib dem 50% (top of graph) Labour and Tories 25% each (sitting at 2% on graph) – it’s a one horse race only Lib Dems can win here. I wouldn’t put it past them.

SNP – Jim Barrie

Jim is a councillor in the West End so should he win there should be a by-election in the ward in the near future. I wrote to him 2 days ago about the Digital Economy Bill and have yet to have a reply.

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition – Jim McFarlane

Jim has previously stood for the SSP in the seat. Really involved in Unison.

Labour – Jim McGovern

Spent some time on the payroll vote. Caught up in expenses scandal which left him looking really out of touch. Didn’t get back to me over Digital Economy Bill and then sent misleading information. Probably knows he’s out of a job on May 7th.

BNP – Ian Murphy

First fascist arsehole to stand in the seat. Let’s hope he gets bit by a dog should he make the trek from Southern Scotland up to the constituency. Looks like they failed to put in their form in time if they ever intended to- yay! The Facebook group opposed to them standing in Dundee West had over a thousand members.

Conservative – Colin Stewart

Yet another product of the Conservative making factory at Dundee Uni.

I hadn’t noticed But Stewart Hosie (MP for Dundee East) voted for the Digital Economy Bill meaning that 100% of the SNP MPs who voted supported it. I have written to Jim Barrie (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the SNP in Dundee West) asking for his view on the bill (email sent on 15th April).

Jim McGovern was too lazy to show up to the debate or vote either way. The vote had a 38.2% turnout. Look out for he and others lecturing in the media about vote apathy in the near future.

Speaking of Jim McGovern I had a letter from him.

A quick timeline
22nd March I write to him asking him to oppose DEB and what he intends to do.
7th April he doesn’t show up to debate.
7th April I get letter from him.

This letter was not to do with the DEB (still waiting Jim) but was his Election called, I’m not MP *cough* vote for me *cough* excuse to use up his branded stationary to all constituents. Pretty insulting right?

The content of the letter was even more so:

I will not be able to ..deal with constituency casework over the election period.

Liar

MPs are able to work on cases for constituents if the constituent understands they are not doing so as an MP and agree for them to continue on work.

So not only does he ignore my letter, he doesn’t turn up to the debate I was asking about and on the day of the debate writes to me with incorrect information.

Last night was the final straw.

Having spent several years as a member of the payroll vote he eventually started being a constituency MP.

He voted for authoritarian measures like storing massive amount of information on citizens and then tried to block information about where he has been on taxpayers money using privacy as his excuse.

He gets caught in the expenses scandal by spending £200 on a DVD player (having already bought a computer), £900 on a desk and putting in £500 for petty cash whilst also claiming 20p and 30p for rubbers and pencils.

He hasn’t responded to my mails about the Digital Economy Bill and last night couldn’t be arsed turning up to hear the debate or vote.

I can’t remember if he voted to extend the time to imprison people without charge but he has just not voted against a bill to cut people off the internet on accusations of breaching a minor criminal offence.

The only thing I can remember him doing of note was call the Royal Family parasites.

I have been kind of swamped lately so haven’t been updating this much. What hasn’t helped is I used to think oh post that up and expand in a blog post. I find myself compressing things into Twitter instead.

So random media etc I have been enjoying over the last wee while:

Films and TV

Kick-Ass

Does what it says on the tin! Really enjoyed it, was a bit longer than expected. Unsurprisingly the Daily Mail have went apoplectic with rage. Surprisingly by accusing the makers and fans of being paedos or some other weird projection from the reviewer.

I think the basis is that adults occasionally dress in school girl outfits to be sexy and as there is a girl in the film of 11 (played by a 13 year old) wearing one they are trying to make her look sexy and hence promote paedophilia or something. Missing the step that maybe she wears it cos she is a child…

Youth In Revolt

Quite funny, enjoyable and would definitely watch again. The closest Hollywood has come to the premise of Science of Sleep in a long time.

Music

The most recent albums of Fun Lovin Criminals and Frightened Rabbit are the last things I have bought. Both were really good. Missed going to see Fun Lovin Criminals tour though, first tour I have missed in about 10 years.

Books

Recently been reading some books by Kathy Reichs. She writes stories about Brennan. In the TV series Bones, she writes the stories of Brennan who’s character writes books about Kathy Reichs. Most amusing.

Just finished Craig Murrays Murder in Samarkand this morning and it was really interesting. The very fact that he makes himself sound like a total dick in various places makes you inclined to believe the rest of the stuff he is writing about (no matter what that scum sucking torture advocating cunt Jack Straw says to the contrary).

Food

I grabbed a bottle of Eristoff Vodka when I saw it cheap. It suddenly appeared on the shelves of supermarkets with large amounts of shelf space. Given the faux Russian style of the labelling I was put off (normally a sure sign of shitness) but it was quite nice. Certainly better than Smirnoff.

I popped into Duke’s Corner having heard really good things about the food. I got a burger and it was pretty meh. Friend got some chicken thing with nice big chips. After eating the chicken they tucked into the chips to find then still uncooked in the middle. Slightly concerning after eating chicken. If you can’t even cook chips how can you manage a food that is notorious for giving food poisoning if not cooked correctly.

Since then I have heard even more good reviews so hopefully it was a one-off. Will go again at some point for a second chance but it better be really good to get back to even favour.

Last night at Duke’s Corner I sampled the DQ vodka and it was immense. Will definitely look forward to buying a bottle at some point.

This morning I was digging through old posts, spotting errors etc when I noticed one about Blackwoods going into administration.

It appears they have licenced their vodka to Blavod

I repeat, Blackwoods vodka is now available again. This stuff is amazing. Must buy.

Developer Day Scotland Agenda has been announced and looks really good.

I went last year and thought it was excellent so was looking forward to this year. Only one clash and one empty slot for my preferred items I voted for so a good result for me.

Right now my plans would be for:

1. HTML 5: The Language of the Cloud
2. T4 and How it Can Be Used for Code Generation in Visual Studio 2008/2010
3. Web Standards are Broken, and it’s Getting Worse OR Defensive Programming 101
4. Decide on day
5. Domain Specific Languages – What Are They and Why Should You Care?

I was wanting to dig into HTML 5 soon anyway. We use T4 for part of one project at work but I haven’t even looked at it. Web standards is obvious but I tend to code very defensively so am interested in the other option in that slot too. Any of the slots in 4 apart from Silverlight would be both of interest and something I wouldn’t normally look at. I had been interested reading Ayendes posts about Boo but know nothing about it so good chance to get an introduction into them.