Following links...

Today has been fairly miserable. Last night went badly wrong for me - just when it all seemed to be going really well - and the ensuing emotional crash left me, well, down (he understated).

Anyway, the result is I haven't actually got out of bed yet. Instead, this evening I've been trying to learn more about the people I list as 'friends' here on LJ. I've been reading all the posts each of my friends has marked as 'memories', to get some idea of who they are, or what interests them, etc.

This has led me into the first major link-following expedition I've done in months... possibly even years. You know, those sessions on the web when you follow a link from something you meant to read to something related, then from there to something interesting, then from there to something weird, and next thing you know you're reading this in one window:
So at the centre of every butterfly, the fractional part of f(x,y) is close to the fractional part of f(x+1,y), and also close to the fractional part of f(x,y+1). In other words [...] the partial derivatives of f with respect to x and y are both integers at the centre of each butterfly. (here)

And this in another:
The main problem with this account is that her focus is on trying to prove that she was wearing panties and that they were stolen - which is not the part I have trouble accepting. Unless I've missed something, there isn't really a lot on why she thinks the guy who stole them was an alien, except that his face looked wrong... (here)

This kind of increasingly surreal clicking around is what made the web fascinating for me 6 years ago. I must have forgotten about it at some stage, probably when I started working as a web developer and running UK Fetish Info and generally got excited about the web as a serious tool for communication. Yes, it is, but it can also be fun, not to mention educational in a wildly irrelevant sort of way. It's nice to rediscover that now, when I really needed something to distract me from my current frame of mind.

By the way, my friends are fascinating people. Not that I ever doubted that.

Oh look, it's the middle of the night

Just got the 4am email from my webserver telling me that it's run the log analysis scripts. Mainly, this lets me know that I've failed to go to sleep at anything resembling a sensible hour. Yay for depression, and all the fun things it brings.

sometimes i stay up really late being bored

sometimes i stay up really late being bored

(from this site, from a comment in kaet's journal)

...and rest

Suddenly I know I'm going to be able to get to sleep. *gone*

National ID cards - last chance to object!!

From www.stand.org.uk:

10th Jan 2003
Hands up everybody who's really excited about the introduction of universal Identity Cards for every man, woman and child in the country!

No?

Well, that can't be right. Lord Falconer says that in one of the widest ranging consultations conducted by a government, they've been fair swamped with positive endorsements of the Government's Entitlement Card plans.

With just a few days to go before the end of the consultation, the Home Office is saying that overall the public's reaction is hugely positive.

( more info, including a Very Simple way to object to the proposed scheme (load website, tick boxes, click 'submit') )

American Patriotism

A mix of spoof and serious posters (takes a while to load - there's a lot of them)

( One of each that I particularly liked )

(no subject)

 

There are some very poignant images on this site...

( why was i left here? )