Nick Gibbins

The Garklet Lexicon #2

A few updates since last time: dog A dog. After an enjoyable cream tea at the Station House in Burley last weekend, he’s finally worked out that not all furry quadrupeds are cats. This was helped by the three dogs that were sitting near us – after about an hour of ‘no, that’s a dog’, he seemed to get the difference. This is of course a phenomenally interesting thing to have happened; I teach my students about various concept learning algorithms, and it’s great to see the young lad starting to compete with the cutting edge of 1980s AI. sboo… Read More »The Garklet Lexicon #2

Lazing on a Sunday afternoon^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmorning

It’s the letter-music meme that’s doing the rounds: Reply to this post and I’ll assign you a letter. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter. Post them to your journal with these instructions. gave me “c” for “consultancy agreement which I appear to have lost all motivation to draft because I am full up from having LIVER! for lunch!” C’est Filon / Humphrey Lyttleton and his band. While Bad Penny Blues was probably the most successful of Humph’s records released by Parlophone (it charted in the top twenty in the UK), this… Read More »Lazing on a Sunday afternoon^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmorning

The Garklet Lexicon

Up rather early this morning with the sound of a vomiting . Cot disinfected, bathed, and laundry on, and it’s still not yet 7am. Still, at least he’s still cheery. Anyway, as much for our benefit as for yours, here’s the young lad’s current (consistent) vocabulary, as well as we can make it out. gat Any furry, four-legged mammal, most commonly a cat. dak, duk A bird, most commonly a duck. dada Daddy. Or Mummy. Or Alex. Or, in fact, any person. bana Banana. baya A vehicle (including aeroplanes) bala Aeroplane bu-bow Bubble. Or any round, see-through and pretty thing… Read More »The Garklet Lexicon

A question of manners

So, what is the correct response when your senior colleague comes into your office with a half-bottle of undrinkable Cava that he then proceeds to spray over your ceiling, walls, whiteboard, chair, and floor? Especially when his response is to giggle like a maniac? This was before 9am, by the way. My office now smells of stale cava…

Liveblogging Eurovision: A sudden realisation

There’s no Malta in the final! Or Ireland! We’re doomed… Edited to add: no, there are 43 countries voting – we might yet avoid nul points. In fact, San Marino (population 30,000) have just given us six points. *Why* are San Marino voting – they’ve got the population of two Aberystwyths!

Liveblogging Eurovision #16 (Russia)

Another good start. I think that the Euro-power ballads are starting to blur into one strangely-accented song about how love is all we need, and we can all do better if we give peace a chance (etc). I wouldn’t vote for it.