Hiphopsideproject

Hi, I can count to 31 on one hand… can you? For those who said yes, congrats, for those who said no, try harder.

Well thats almost enough for introductions except to say I am Adam, you know the guy whose torso is seen in the back of many of Kim‘s foodie photos, patiently waiting to have his breakfast/dinner/tea . Your usual and delightful Hiphop writer is pretty busy, it being the run up to Christmas etc etc. So I thought I’d write something for you folks to read, so let me introduce this article…

The Leonid Meteor Shower

When I write this it is the 14/11/2009 (or if you happen to be in the US its 11/14/2009, WTF?) and on the 16th and 17th there will be the annual Leonids meteor shower… The “seeds” of this yearly event were laid down over 500 years ago by the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle in 1466 (cheers NASA) and due to the various geometries involved, *Deep Breath* the non-circular orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the non-circular and inclined orbit of the comet around the Sun AND the fact that the Sun is moving around the centre of mass of the entire Solar system *Breathe again*, we’ll be passing through the stream once more.

Thanks Jodrell Bank/Jodcast

As the meteoroids (sand and pebble size bits of dust) which form the debris for Temple-Tuttle’s stream whip into the atmosphere the streak of light they leave is the meteor.  Depending on where the Earth passes into the stream the number of meteors varies and this year, again according to NASA we’re in for a good show, something on the order of 500 meteors an hour.

Pretty much just go outside when its dark on the 16th or 17th at look toward Leo.  It’ll be low to the horizon in the North East around 21:50 (GMT) and rise there after. I mention 21.50 because that’s meant to be the peak of the shower.  Leo will continue to rise after this. Make sure you are in a fairly dark region so your eyes are more sensitive.
To figure out where you should be looking I highly recommend downloading Stellarium (its free) and check out the monthly nights sky, so you can see what else you are looking at.

Of course it could be cloudy which would scupper everything.

So thats my 2 pennies worth, I’m hoping Kim will let me do an astro post per month so if you like please comment “NERD” in the comment section!

Over the past couple of years or so I’ve found myself doing things that grown-ups do, buying a house, being accepted for credit, holding down a job etc etc. Not to mention the fact that my age seems to be increasing rapidly nowadays. Growing up scares me, I’m way too immature to be classed as a grown-up and I really don’t want that responsibility.

Being a grown-up means you have to abandon toys, doesn’t it? you can no longer be ridiculous, out spoken or colourful without being frowned upon.. Bah! Peter Pan had it right, sort of, but we’re unlucky enough not to have a Neverland reachable by British Airways (no MJ jokes, plz)… and no matter how long I keep my window open at night I really don’t think I’m going to be sprinkled with pixie dust anytime soon. There are a tonne of fantastical activities that we enjoyed as children that we can still enjoy today, they’ll make you feel tiny again. Woop! And now that we’re ‘grown-ups’ we can concoct believable excuses for our immature actions (but honestly, if it’s fun for you, why lie?) and even make these things more fun than they used to be!

• Visit Theme parks
  There’s nothing better in this WORLD than riding roller coasters, wearing mouse ears & running around with a sugar high.
  Grown-up Bonus: Go on your favourite ride over & over without being dragged away, head home when you want!
• Invest in a Hula Hoop
  It might take you a little time to figure out how to use it again, but when it finally clicks you’ll have a whirl of a time. I personally own this fluorescent beauty. Alternatives are roller skates, pogo-sticks and skipping ropes.
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re doing it for exercise!
• Build forts
  Draping sheets over chairs and making a den used to be one of my favourite things to do. I used to pull all the cushions off the sofas and line the walls (extra defences), and I’d take in snacks, teddy bears and a book and hold out in there until the enemies retreated.
  Grown-up Excuse: Cleaning!
  Grown-up Bonus: Apply your structural knowledge to create even better constructions.
• Camp out in the living room
  It still feels exciting to spend a night camped out on the living room floor, watching movies and improvising a mattress from sofa cushions.
  Grown-up Excuse: Broken Air-conditioning, the cat threw up on the bed.
• Eat so much ice cream that you throw up
  This sounds so negative, but it’s not. It’s probably not the best thing for you, but omg, it’s such fun to stuff your face and have a ridiculous sugar high. Head to pizza hut for their ice cream factory :)
  Grown-up Excuse: Tummy bug, no one will believe you were dumb enough to eat too much ice cream ;)
  Grown-up Bonus: You can eat well more now!
• Run around the woods pretending you’re on an epic adventure
  You could even go so far as to take some nerf guns and declare all out spongy warfare!
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re on a nature walk
  Grown-up Bonus: No curfew!
• Spend time day-dreaming
  Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create. – Albert Einstein
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re thinking over a realllly difficult task
• Make ice-lollies
  Bonus points for making rocket-shaped ones!
  Grown-up Bonus: add vodka!
• Make weird and wonderful concoctions in your kitchen, pretending you’re doing science
  Mentos & Soda-water & haribo sours & rum = some kinda twisted mojito.
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re following a recipe, it’s your kitchen!
• Create the most amazing midnight feast you could ever have imagined, think the food-fight scene in ‘Hook’
  Remember when you used to set an alarm at sleep overs when you were tiny? just so you’d all get up for a midnight feast? You’d never hear it, and it would all fail. Alas! You can now feast in the wee hours, and that feast can be fucking amazing.
  Grown-up Bonus: You can splurge on really ridiculous food for the feast!
• Dig up worms
  If you never did this as kid it probably sounds super odd, but if you spent your days scouting out the longest worm in the garden then this is for you! Don’t eat them though, we’re past that.
  Grown-up Excuse: It helps with composting!
• Dance to the superman song

  Grown-up Excuse: You’re just doing aerobics, duh

• Invent your own language
  I talk in random languages to all the cats I know constantly, and if I don’t know the words to a song I’ll sing in tongues. It’s stupid, fun, and ridiculous. Perfect!
  Grown-up Bonus: You’re now old enough to actually be convincing when telling someone that it’s a real language o.O
• Dress up like a fairy princess/cowboy/bear/robot
  When I was little my dressing up box was bursting at the seams, I think it’s time to crack it open again and start sporting ridiculous outfits on a weekend. FunFun!
  Grown-up Bonus: You can invest in key pieces for your dressing up box!
• Have a conker tournament
  Perfect time of year’s coming up for collecting conkers and having an all out conker war. Jazz them up with fabulous coloured laces! yeh!
  Grown-up Bonus: You can spend even longer making your conker the hardest, now, several coats of varnish should do it!

Have fun x

Recently I’ve been lusting after a calculator watch. I have no idea why. I’m ridiculously tempted by this pretty casio number…

It’s amazing, and I need it in my life. Thing is, I don’t wear watches. If I got this watch, though, I would become a watch wearer. Without a doubt. Other things that have been on my mind lately include a flip HD (which is penciled in for the 1st of August! hah!), some new luscious green nikes (which will be bought as a reward in a few weeks time), and various summer dresses (again, I don’t wear dresses… whut?! I should start).

What things have you been lusting after lately?

How about a mario themed room? And I don’t mean like, a duvet cover and lamp shade…

via here and here

So I still can’t believe how few people use the omnificent open source power that is Firefox made by the wonderful Mozilla company. Once you fox, you honestly never go back. Downloading firefox is the FIRST thing I do on a new pc or mac as it just makes life a hell of a lot prettier.

As a webdes too, I know the attrocious rendering power of other browsers *cough*IE*cough*, and I’m at the point of putting ‘this site is best viewed in firefox, IE browsers can go f**k themselves’. Anyway, not only does firefox help protect your wares better by having a superior set up to IE, but it also comes with loads of ace add-ons for fun filled, more productive browsing experience.

My favourite add-on of the moment is firebug, the all singing all dancing HTML & Css monitor. I contantly use this! I’ve also got the stumble upon tool bar, a nifty download bar which results in no annoying ‘download manager’ window, and some built in RSS features – this is just on my work PC, my home version is full of twisty turny funness!

So yes, if you’re not a convert – become one. No better time than the present really, with the imminent full release of firefox 3 there really is no excuse to use that ugly IE browser anymore! *sigh* My work would be cut down 10 fold if it weren’t for IE hacks!

Of course, if you’re not a firefox fan why not try some other open source alternatives? you can get safari for the PC now, or there’s flock (the ultimate social browser). Hell, I don’t even wanna get into the linux browsers.