Mouthwash doesn’t freshen breah apparently
I was reading an article in the times2 today and apparently mouthwash doesn’t freshen breath but can actually make it worse. Mouthwashes have a high level of alcohol in them which reduces the amount of moisture (saliva) in the mouth. By doing this it allows bacteria to grow within the mouth as there is not enough saliva to fight it off and therefore increasing bad breath. The only way to reduce this is to brush and floss twice daily.
Well I found it interesting…
What to do?
I am at a half-way house at th moment. The domain for thehardcorelife needs to be renewed in 2 weeks time (I think) otherwise I lose. The thing is though, do I really want to keep that website online? I mean I don’t get up to a lot of that stuff anymore and the website is outdated with a few security flaws in it. It most definitely hasn’t moved with the times (more admin login doesn’t even work anymore!).
This could be the time that thehardcorelife.com goes down for good. I am probably going to keep the web space and possible register another domain. By doing this it might encourage me to update my PHP, XML and HTML knowledge so that I could build some sort of portfolio and maybe publish any articles I write on it (along with this web blog of course).
And talking of this blog, I think this needs an upheaval as well. Maybe better focus on it’s topics and try and get a few more readers. I don’t think I have even mentioned on here yet that I am probably going to be specializing in distributed systems and looking into doing research into security for my dissertation.
All things to think about anyway.
What a legend
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7187497.stm
(I seem to be getting lazy and just linking to other sites instead of doing some sort of writing myself, let me know if anyone wants to learn about binary exponential back off protocol :p).
Doing the happy dance
I think I have failed to previously mention that I have a first round interview with Accenture on 5th February down in London town. Was a bit of a surprise to get an interview as I buggered up the application by not completing it properly as I thought there would be an opportunity to have a review and go back and change the application at the end, but this wasn’t possible. This is for a summer internship.
What I am actually doing a happy dance about is the fact I have a phone interview with HP. This was another surprise as I kept getting e-mails from them saying I had not finished my application (when I quite blatently had and submitted it). It turns out there is another section to the website and you have to fill out a questionnaire for it…oops. Either way I now have some sort of interview for HP for a year-long internship. Yay!!
Colin Murray
What a radio DJ. Colin Murray is a DJ at Radio 1 who does the 22:00 - 00:00 slot on a weekday, but use to do the 13:00 - 16:00 slot with Edith Bowman. His evening show is really good and tends to play a lot of obscure music, which the average listener has never heard and it all tends to be pretty damn good.
Anyway he does this feature called Mobile Disco where he plays an hours worth of music non-stop (and it is pretty non-stop). This feature is surprisingly good and today he was playing songs that made it to No. 2 in the charts. Pulled out some absolute crackers and would recommend going to the listen again section on the Radio 1 website. Alternatively listen to his evening show, which is again available online.
One final thing, happy new year.
Quite possibly the last entry of 2007
Better make this a good one then.
I have arrived on the other side of Christmas with a nice layer to me and enough leftovers for a few days worth of turkey sandwiches. It wasn’t all plain sailing though: for some reason the fan for my process (Intel Core 2 Duo) decided to partially detach itself causing overheating and random dying of the computer. This took me a while to diagnose (as it was not overly obvious).
Christmas day bought the standard presents; a few clothes and a pair of pajamas (think my mum wants to make this some sort of tradition) and some chocolate. Oddly though I was also given a hammer. I believe this is some sort of hint as my house is not in the best state at the moment so this can obviously be fixed with the use of a hammer (apparently).
During this festive period I have managed to compile a list of films a managed to miss in 2007 and it is my mission to see every one of these in 2008. If you cared they are listed at the end of this post.
Unfortunately this time of year also means exams (the joys of education). This year they are actually worth something (50% of my degree supposedly…) so I am making a concerted effort to do some revision. This has consisted of a week of revision coupled with a week of eating and drinking far too much.
So I leave you with a “Happy New Year” for 2008 and the hope that this blog will actually improve in some way and guide itself in a more focused (better) direction with a serious reduction of posts in the “Miscellaneous” category.
The Films
I am Legend
Once
The Assassination of Jesse James
Zodiac
Knocked Up
Run Fat Boy Run
American Gangster
The Golden Compass
The Last King of Scotland
Tell No One
Death Proof
It is the season to be jolly….
I have been away for a while, but this is down to me leaving my wireless adapter at my house at university rather than bringing it home and me being too stubborn to buy a new one (I need to do this as Belkin wireless adapters are shit to say the least).
I am feeling pretty skint at the moment but this has nothing to do Christmas shopping. I actually decided to spend the last bit of my money on a PS3. It should arrive tomorrow and I am hopeful that I won’t have wasted my money. I just need to think of a way of buying Christmas presents when I have no money…
On a separate note, I have a first round interview at Accenture for a summer placement. Would be amazing to work for them over the Summer and would teach me a lot. Got a long way to go though application wise.
Interesting Fact
You are more likely to be left brain dominant if you drag the pen when you write.
Mafia’s 10 commandments
Police raided the home of Salvatore Lo Piccolo (new boss of Sicilian Mafia) and found a “10 commandments” for being a good mobster.
- No-one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
- Never look at the wives of friends.
- Never be seen with cops
- Don’t go to pubs and clubs
- Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife’s about to give birth.
- Appointments must absolutely be respected.
- Wives must be treated with respect
- When asked for any information the answer must be the truth.
- Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or other families
- People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.
Munir Akram - a legend…well maybe not
Absolute classic quote by Ambassador Munir Akram (Pakistan representative at UN) while being interviewed by John Snow for Channel 4 News today about the state of emergency in Pakistan. Unfortunately it is not on youtube, but it is on the Channel 4 website (at the date of posting) if you want to watch the interview - the interview
John Snow: But how can it be serving the national interest to be representing a government that has been locking up errr perfectly normal civilian politicians, judges, lawyers, human rights activists,…
Munir Akram: This is obviously your opinion, I do not share that opinion. I believe that the detentions are preventive in nature. To prevent the kind of disruption we’ve been facing for several months. The errr objective is the stability and progress of Pakistan and we hope that we shall return very soon to normalcy. There has been no no major blood shed, no no crack down of the nature that is usual in such situations. Pakistan, I think, is a country that is committed to democracy and we shall see she shall return very soon.
John Snow: But forgive me ambassador, I’m not talking about opinion. It is a fact that Imran Khan, an opposition politician, has been arrested. It is a fact that *can’t spell name*, human rights activist, has been arrested. It’s a fact that television stations have been put off the air and that their journalist have been arrested. Those are facts, not opinions.
Munir Akram: Certainly, but this is an emergency - it is not a picnic.
*John Snow looks puzzled and confused - is that all he has to say on the topic?*
(I found it funny anyway, maybe you have to watch the video to get it).
