(no subject)

I would just like to state for the record that NTL are bastards. I've been looking into the cost of getting my new house cabled up and I was investigating the channels I'd actually want. Having narrowed it down to Sky One, E4 and maybe the Sci Fi channel I started looking for details of the cost. And it turns out that I don't get a choice. It's all or nothing with the exception of the premium movie channels.

I had considered going down the ADSL route and getting Sky Digital which is cheaper, I think. Again, no-go. They don't do ADSL in my new area, so NTL it is, then.

So I thought I'd make the "Please charge me lots of money" call now and try to book a date for installation. Only they're shut. No 24 hour sales line. Not even a Sunday sales line. Which means that a bank holiday sales line is kind of unlikely, too.

Still, at least when I'm not renting I won't be bound to a stupid contract that insists I keep a BT phoneline despite having a perfectly good NTL line. That's a minor saving, at least.

(no subject)

I used to hate having my photograph taken. The whole pose-and-smile thing feels so fake and uncomfortable that even now I rarely agree to it. There aren't many photographs of me that I'm happy with -- apart from those I take myself. The wonderful thing about a digital camera is you can look at what comes out, go "ugh" and make it disappear forever immediately. No negatives, no torn remains of the photograph - just gone, straight away.

And with the freedom to do that comes the freedom to play around until you get something you ARE happy with. Like, for example, this picture. Okay, so it's the terrifying "neutral stare" that Ang referred to. And my ankh got cut off. But apart from that, this is kinda cool.

Even if it does seem sort of conceited to be saying so.