Neil Hopcroft

“If there’s anything being a Mac user has taught me, it’s never to read potentially insightful commentary that might challenge my worldview”
(from a completely irrelevant article about minidiscs)

Today I learned more about the dark underbelly of Cambridge culture. South, heading upstream from Baits Bite Lock, beyond the A14 bridge. The first exit from the towpath back into ‘civilisation’ takes a cut across the fields to Fen Road.

Its an innocent looking road on the map, isn’t it? But no, that is not the whole story. This is farmland that has now been turned over the mobile homes. Not the kind of mobile home a nice family of four rent for a week over summer, these are real homes, people lived crammed into these things.

“Vacant plot” “Loose dogs” Trailer trash.

Now, thats OK, its not a lifestyle for me, but I can understand that it probably works for some people. What amazed me, though, was the creativity of some of these people – walking back toward town the class of the places went up, they started looking somewhat more permanent, people would actually both cleaning the outside of their vans. But then, there are places where they’ve bricked over the outsides of the trailers, so they’re kinda like houses, except they are entirely the wrong shape. Then, further, there is a small fenced community, a suite of three bricked trailers behind eight foot iron fencing that looked like it cost more than the place it was protecting. But then, I’m guessing the SLK in the drive was worth more than half the estate anyway so maybe they needed the iron.

It didn’t feel unsafe there, even given the latent intolerance oozing from all directions, just not my England. And it makes me think – if I feel disenfranchised from this country, I wonder how some of these people feel about it?

Further into town, through the dodgy industrial estate where they refit stolen motorbikes with new identities, and sell on office furniture they found in the skip, over the railway and on to Green End Road. And thats when it all starts making sense. I’m back on my territory again. I’m home. For what its worth.

This morning I woke to someone outside shouting “Get inside, I’ve had just about enough of you” in a Crass accent.

…by which I mean the kind of northern accent that I associate with poetry like this:

“Don’t take any notice of what the public think,
They’re so hyped up with T.V., they just don’t want to think.
They’ll use you as a target for demands and for advice,
When you don’t want to hear it they’ll say you’re full of vice.”

I hope this isn’t a big feature of the coming months, there are better ways to start the day.

The good news is that its not Rome Burns that were the cause of my concerns from the gig last week….storming gig in Sheffield last night. It helped that the room was nicely set up for live shows, the stage being a lot higher than the normal six inches you get in the corner of the pub backroom, and it had a decent quality PA.

But that wasn’t all, the gorgeous toripink joined them on bass, which really buiked out their sound nicely, and somehow seemed to improve the dynamic of the band. More of the same, please.

They were followed by Deviant (UK)…who had lost their guitarist to a burned out clutch somewhere across the road network, I think I’m jinxing headline guitarists to automotive incapacity at the moment. Must figure out how to put that talent to practical use….but they managed to put on quite a decent show none-the-less, not that I was paying much attention catching up with everyone I’ve not seen for far-too-long….

There were a few surprise faces – it was good to see charlie_mouse. Then theres that weird situation where you’re meeting someone who knows who you are but you’ve no idea about them or their context for how they know about you. Later information suggests this was probably ant_girl, but maybe not.

“this year’s most important fashion statement – Duct Tape is my life“

Anyone know of a good diffing tool that’ll produce nice-ish html output? I’ve used BeyondCompare previously which is OK, but are there other similar tools? (this is intended to fit into a build farm system to create automated diffs of build logs, GUIs are certainly non-essential)

If you wanted to feed ducks in north cambridge, where would you go?

Feeling somewhat guilty about generating hundreds of slices of stale bread for landfill and considering better uses for them – which I guess is really the problem I’m trying to solve.

Anyone got any recommendations for a bike shop in Cambridge? I’m after a decent quality entry level pushbike, plus lock and hat and lights, plus whatever else I need. Would probably prefer to go to a local independent shop rather than a big chain, but I’m not very bothered. Its been 10 years since I’ve ridden but it seems like a good idea to start again now.

“…thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re talking about my burrito‘”

Thetford today. They seem to have obfuscated the town centre for some reason, I drove all the way through the place without seeing one sign to the centre. Eventually I followed something called “Services vehicles only” and found a car park.

Its an odd little place, full of bad quality stone buildings dating from early 1800s, and a bit of ugly concrete infill. For some reason there was a bunch of familiar bits to it, I was particularly disturbed to find a pub that we went to for an alternative night while I was living in Norwich. Which in turn brought back memories of Claire the cute goth who I never plucked up courage to talk to properly. Oh well, she’s probably living in a drug crazed hell in darkest Norfolk…but if you know different, please feel free to pass on my email address.

The was, disconcertingly, also a hotel I last saw in Winchester. It seems a little odd to have gone to the effort of moving it so far, it had such a nice location where it was before. I wonder why? It had let itself go a bit, too, more weeds in the car park, strange little pine constructions for trailing plants. Maybe it was its twin?

Last week was the Rome Burns gig on wednesday, they were supporting Devilish Presley….it was good to have Stoo back on guitar for this gig only, and they fitted on the stage this time. The crowd wasn’t bad, considering that most people were likely to still be recovering from Whitby. For some reason (and despite enjoying the music) I felt weird, like I didn’t really belong there. I’m hoping thats just a passing feeling, and that its not something about the venue, or the cambridge scene, or Rome Burns themselves.

Anyone interested in a lift up to their Sheffield gig on saturday? Any sheff-based people likely to be about for it?