Sam Walton's Tumblr

The esoteric, eccentric, ramblings of an old fellow trapped in a young mans body. Expect cynicism and unseemly outbursts of rage interspersed with the occasional, exceptional, insight...

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Gin & Tonic!

As a student, I spend a lot of my time drinking. I guess I’m reasonably well qualified, then, to make a comment on this most important of matters! Whilst Beer is my staple I do, on occasions, ‘play away’.

I would therefore like to introduce you to my drink of the moment, the humble, yet oft maligned, Gin & Tonic…

(An image, for the hard of thinking)

An old persons drink, perhaps. But there’s something inherently enjoyable about this classic combination. An enjoyment which has only been magnified by the recent good weather. Slightly bitter, slightly herby or slightly fruity depending on the gin, light, and hugely refreshing.

Unfortunately I’ve been stuck with Gordon’s Gin at the moment, for my finances are stretched. I’ve learnt to love it though. Whilst it’s not a ‘top-shelf’ spirit and though it lacks some of the refinement of its counterparts (Bombay Sapphire, for example) it certainly has character! And if I’m drowning such a spirit in tonic water the quality doesn’t have to be that fantastic.

It’s not a drink for getting drunk, but for me, it’s a truly social drink. Sophisticated to boot! (And, as I’ve found, cheap enough when you’re out!)

2 days ago

R-R-Reboot!

I finally got my new theme working, so it’s time for a long awaited site reboot.

I’m aiming to be a bit more regular in my posting, once a week I hope, though I’ve yet to decide a day to publish.

Check my new “about” page for more information (click the ellipsis in the description)!

This reboot will be a marked departure from my previous postings, both in terms of content and in terms of linguistic style. A bit more eccentric, shall we say.

Anyhow, must dash.

4 days ago

Tumblr Themes and IE

So I’ve designed a new theme, nothing fantastic, it’s just plain and elegant in my opinion. The layout works perfectly in Firefox and IE until I try and run it through Tumblr… then IE only renders half of the content.

I’ve checked the code and I can’t find any unclosed tags so I can only assume it’s IE which is playing up. It renders wonderfully in Firefox!

The layout is a relative positioned div which works as a container, 3 absolute positioned divs within that and one fixed div, external to the container, that acts as a footer.

Any ideas what it is about Tumblr that makes it happen?

2 weeks ago

Ah, A Photograph!

Bokeh! (Xubuntu 9.01):

So, I decided to mix things up and beautify my desktop. Conky, Gnome-Do and a nice wallpaper was all it took! Shame about my low resolution… a new monitor is imminent!

3 weeks ago

The Talkies

Paul Gogarty from the Greens cursing in the Dail (via accountforposting)

2 months ago

David: ah, did you consider the arctic roll?
Sam: Unfortunately not, it's often disregarded without good reason.
David: this is true and has led to the downfall of the said roll in the 21st century, its popularity is now estimated to be lower than hitler's
Sam: Which explains why the economy is in such dire straits.
David: basically credit crunch
Sam: Which is ironic, as the arctic role is a decidedly soft pudding, without any crunch at all.
David: yes, yes indeed, poor little roll

2 months ago

An Open Letter to Arch Linux

Dear Arch,

The time we spent together was amazing, you taught me so much about the inner workings of a computer, you taught me to be patient and to accept that if something’s gone wrong, it’s probably my fault. You ran quickly and you required little resources, but it just wasn’t working.

I couldn’t cope with cleaning you up every time I accidentaly said yes to something I didn’t understand in Pacman, I couldn’t cope with the stress of trying to make you play nicely with my other bluetooth enabled devices, and don’t get me started on sharing the internet with another computer.

We had the best of times, we had the worst of times. The thing is, I’ve found someone else… It’s me, not you, you didn’t do any thing wrong, I just couldn’t learn to love you completely. And if we’re being honest the new one is beautiful.

She just works, she even plays nicely with my bluetooth devices. Chances are you’ve seen her around, her name is Ubuntu. Being with her is like returning home, it’s comfortable. I don’t need to clean up all her config files, or make sure that I’ve read the latest post about the latest upgrade. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a hobbyist, it’s time to settle down with someone who understands what I want to do and helps me to do it.

I’m sorry.

Yours sincerely, Sam.

3 months ago