Ouch:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/02/border-staff-asylum-seekers-whistleblower

So here it is. After quite a bit of work, this is my first proper post from my Perl script for sending updates to Blogger. Needed a bit of final debugging, but hopefully it's working now. It comes in two main parts - first an object oriented module encapsulating methods to authenticate and send data to Google. This makes use of LWP::UserAgent, but isn't as hard as it sounds, once you've built up the courage to read the basics in the Google documentation online. The module also holds the basic data required - username, password, blog id that kind of thing. The second part is a user application which manages some nice things like commandline switches, config files, and specifying which text editor you want to use (or using standard input if you want).

Well, assuming it works, I'll post the source online somewhere. I'm sure the Perl is quite amateurish, but you have to start somewhere - and this is the first time in a while I've managed to finish something that's helpful to me so I guess I'm quite proud really. Even if it is just scratching an itch and not the world's most important coding project.

Now what's my next Perl project going to be?

Thaw? What thaw? Moel Famau in the snow yesterday was like walking somewhere in the Alps. Fun, but a little scary in parts.

Sitting on top of Moel Famau eating mince pies and drinking hot chocolate in the snow! Pictures to follow later.

From "Change in Byzantine Culture" on classical literature:

The allusive commentary on current affairs that the literary fiction of the empire masked with antiquated vocabulary and traditional subjects was thoroughly undersotood...by its readers...such manipulation of the familiar texts...might...suggest political sensitive ideas to contemporaries.

I'm gobsmacked. The Guardian - as in used to be the Manchester Guardian - has a piece today on top 50 TV dramas. At 26? Coronation Street, where the reviewer notes "it's probably too late to catch up from the start of the Yorkshire soap..."

I'm lost for words.

Another good final chapter summary from "Change in Byzantine Culture":

The reemergence of urban life, with its attendant revival of the provinces in Byzantium during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, contributed to the decentralizing tendencies of the state. This is reflected in the culture by the introduction of popular elements, especially in art, literature, and communal pastimes. Concurrently, with the shift toward feudalization, the status of the bureaucracy of the centralized state declined. The virtues of the new military aristocracy became socially dominant, permeating even the image of the emperor.

Daily dose of Byzantium (from 'Art and Liturgy' in the Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies):

Though the liturgy profoundly influenced the choice of themes, Byzantine liturgical imagery always maintained its independence from a precise liturgical moment or interpretation. By linking past, present, and future through the sacred image, this art aimed to provide a contact with the divine that paralleled, rather than merely illustrated, that offered by the liturgy itself.

Some pictures from the trek home last night. I think I must have caught almost the last cross river bus out of Liverpool. That got me as far as Birkenhead. Then it was a 7 mile walk back home - accompanied by dozens of other commuters - watching cars and buses spin out on the roads as we walked. The trees are Birkenhead Park, which looked beautiful in the snow. Couldn't resist snapping a picture.

Buses still off, so have been at home today. The roads are like ice rinks.

More pictures in the snow.