IPOD
RADIO
I feel like fried shit.
Currently doing round 2 with a crappy little head cold, Round one was a brief scrap about a week ago in which I emerged the victor, only this time it's brought its friend, the tickly throat, which must be cleared every few seconds. This, combined with a sudden chronic bout of IBS means I have been up since about 2am - it's now 5.15 am.
Just for the record and I may have mentioned this before, but I don't do man flu. I'm very much a 'shut up and get on with it' kind of guy, partly because it seems to be our unofficial family motto. In fact I started feeling the cold come back yesterday but still went to Alton Towers today for one of Pinklet's friend's 30th's.
(Holy crap that was a lot of apostrophes!)
{Yes but you know how we feel about proper use of language.}
(Yes, just short of a grammer nazi.)
{Well anyway, it was a nice segue into today's trip}
(Segway?)
{No thanks, I'll stick with my skateboard! BADUM TISCH!}
(Oh dear lord...)
So, up at 7, set off for 8 and arrived at the splendiferous Towers of Alton for about half ten. Turns out it's been a long time since I've been. Last time I was there, the Nemesis was the new ride. Of course I'd seen adverts for Oblivion and Air etc, so it kind of felt like I'd been more recently.
We met up with the birthday girl, (who was the same girl I converted to the chirch of Mike [mis-spelled on purpose - chirches are so much cooler than churches and need no fixed address...] so fervently that she told Pinks that she would hunt her down and kill her if she hurt me, lol) and went on Obvlivion - the world's first vertical drop roller coaster. It was pretty good. They spray a load of mist around the entrance to the tunnel under the drop, presumably to make it look cool, but it meant I had trouble seeing and I like seeing. It was really short too, once you'd done the drop, you came out the other side of the tunnel, turned a corner and that was it. Was it worth 50 minutes of queuing? Maybe not, but it was fun.
As we were queueing, the other members of the party arrived. Next was food and then on to Rita: queen of speed which uses magnets to propel the coaster along. The acceleration at the beginning is nothing short of incredible and lots of fun, but 'Rita'? Can you imagine the meetings?
Then we went on Duel, which is basically a ghost train with laser tag. A winning combination I feel. I was particularly pleased with my score of 33,700, which trounced the other guys in my car until we stopped and one of the girls had scored 36,400. Drat, beaten by a girl. (And didn't have to pay for the privilege! And people should say drat more. I'm bringing it back...)
Then we all went and had an old style sepia photo taken, dressed as gangsters. (Prohibition era Mafia types, not modern thug 'gangsta's'.) With my scruffy beard and piercings I looked every bit like I'd stepped out of Goodfellas - as long as it was Goodfellas Italian restaurant.
By then it was getting to the point where we had to decide what ride to queue for as it was likely to be the last of the day. Several of the gang were rided-out so to speak, but four of us made our way to Air. Air is the one where you sit in and then it rotates the seats back 90 degrees so you're in almost a 'Superman' position. We queued separately to get on the front row and after two of the girls sent a pair of couples packing after they tried to get on the front car after queuing in the normal line, we got on.
BEST RIDE EVER.
It's fucking awesome. I highly recommend it.
So then a 2 and 3/4 hour drive home, a curry, some Eddie Izzard, wine, a spliff then bed.
Then up again and here I am.
In other news this week I attended a freestyle martial arts class near my house on Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed myself, including laying on the floor and covering your head while the instructor hit you repeatedly around the head wearing focus mitts (target mitts, punch pads, whatever.).
But fuck me did I ache. For days afterwards. At one point I thought I'd put a shoulder out because it ached inside the joint. I won't be going this week due to being ill, but next week, definitely.
I also finished coding a little Javascript program that displays images, but in the same image space, one after another like a rotating advert. (which is what it will be used for.) I'm pretty pleased with myself about this as,
a) I wrote all the code myself from scratch.
b) It's not my job to work on the website really.
c) It's pretty flexible - it currently uses 5 images, but could in theory, use any number. I could also easily change the size of the images.
d) I managed to get it to fade the image in, then show it for four seconds, (again I could configure how long they display for,) then fade out, swap to the next image and fade in etc.
e) The fading in and out part was tricky, partly due to different browsers having different methods for opacity but I got it working for IE and Firefox - the script even tests to see what browser you are using and then uses the appropriate functions. I could get it working for Opera, Safari and Chrome... if I could be arsed.
f) At one point I had the image swapping and fade in-out as separate functions, because that was the only way it would work. The timing was difficult though - it would play through ok the first time but then on the second run you could see the images swapping before they'd fully faded out and it got worse the longer it ran. I was thinking about how to get it to start over ater one full run and then had a flash of inspiration about how to combine the two functions and presto! It worked.
g) For each image it shows, they each have their own link and alt attributes.
h) I even managed to figure out how to get it to stop swapping images AND fading in and out when you hover your mouse over it. Not only that, but it instantly goes to 100% opaque when you do, regardless of how far faded in or out it was at the time.
i) Although I did see Javascript versions of this sort of thing online, I decided to write it myself from scratch, (see point a) ) and my code is a lot shorter and simpler than those I saw. Occam's razor y'all.
j) It will be made freely available to anyone who wants it at some point, fully commented and ready to use.
Finally a paradox struck me tonight. I LOVE the act of typing. Love it. I like writing blogs or writing code and my head swims daily with ideas for stories, or parts of them.
So why the fuck can't I seem to get my arse in gear and actually finish writing at least one of my novels?
Currently doing round 2 with a crappy little head cold, Round one was a brief scrap about a week ago in which I emerged the victor, only this time it's brought its friend, the tickly throat, which must be cleared every few seconds. This, combined with a sudden chronic bout of IBS means I have been up since about 2am - it's now 5.15 am.
Just for the record and I may have mentioned this before, but I don't do man flu. I'm very much a 'shut up and get on with it' kind of guy, partly because it seems to be our unofficial family motto. In fact I started feeling the cold come back yesterday but still went to Alton Towers today for one of Pinklet's friend's 30th's.
(Holy crap that was a lot of apostrophes!)
{Yes but you know how we feel about proper use of language.}
(Yes, just short of a grammer nazi.)
{Well anyway, it was a nice segue into today's trip}
(Segway?)
{No thanks, I'll stick with my skateboard! BADUM TISCH!}
(Oh dear lord...)
So, up at 7, set off for 8 and arrived at the splendiferous Towers of Alton for about half ten. Turns out it's been a long time since I've been. Last time I was there, the Nemesis was the new ride. Of course I'd seen adverts for Oblivion and Air etc, so it kind of felt like I'd been more recently.
We met up with the birthday girl, (who was the same girl I converted to the chirch of Mike [mis-spelled on purpose - chirches are so much cooler than churches and need no fixed address...] so fervently that she told Pinks that she would hunt her down and kill her if she hurt me, lol) and went on Obvlivion - the world's first vertical drop roller coaster. It was pretty good. They spray a load of mist around the entrance to the tunnel under the drop, presumably to make it look cool, but it meant I had trouble seeing and I like seeing. It was really short too, once you'd done the drop, you came out the other side of the tunnel, turned a corner and that was it. Was it worth 50 minutes of queuing? Maybe not, but it was fun.
As we were queueing, the other members of the party arrived. Next was food and then on to Rita: queen of speed which uses magnets to propel the coaster along. The acceleration at the beginning is nothing short of incredible and lots of fun, but 'Rita'? Can you imagine the meetings?
Then we went on Duel, which is basically a ghost train with laser tag. A winning combination I feel. I was particularly pleased with my score of 33,700, which trounced the other guys in my car until we stopped and one of the girls had scored 36,400. Drat, beaten by a girl. (And didn't have to pay for the privilege! And people should say drat more. I'm bringing it back...)
Then we all went and had an old style sepia photo taken, dressed as gangsters. (Prohibition era Mafia types, not modern thug 'gangsta's'.) With my scruffy beard and piercings I looked every bit like I'd stepped out of Goodfellas - as long as it was Goodfellas Italian restaurant.
By then it was getting to the point where we had to decide what ride to queue for as it was likely to be the last of the day. Several of the gang were rided-out so to speak, but four of us made our way to Air. Air is the one where you sit in and then it rotates the seats back 90 degrees so you're in almost a 'Superman' position. We queued separately to get on the front row and after two of the girls sent a pair of couples packing after they tried to get on the front car after queuing in the normal line, we got on.
BEST RIDE EVER.
It's fucking awesome. I highly recommend it.
So then a 2 and 3/4 hour drive home, a curry, some Eddie Izzard, wine, a spliff then bed.
Then up again and here I am.
In other news this week I attended a freestyle martial arts class near my house on Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed myself, including laying on the floor and covering your head while the instructor hit you repeatedly around the head wearing focus mitts (target mitts, punch pads, whatever.).
But fuck me did I ache. For days afterwards. At one point I thought I'd put a shoulder out because it ached inside the joint. I won't be going this week due to being ill, but next week, definitely.
I also finished coding a little Javascript program that displays images, but in the same image space, one after another like a rotating advert. (which is what it will be used for.) I'm pretty pleased with myself about this as,
a) I wrote all the code myself from scratch.
b) It's not my job to work on the website really.
c) It's pretty flexible - it currently uses 5 images, but could in theory, use any number. I could also easily change the size of the images.
d) I managed to get it to fade the image in, then show it for four seconds, (again I could configure how long they display for,) then fade out, swap to the next image and fade in etc.
e) The fading in and out part was tricky, partly due to different browsers having different methods for opacity but I got it working for IE and Firefox - the script even tests to see what browser you are using and then uses the appropriate functions. I could get it working for Opera, Safari and Chrome... if I could be arsed.
f) At one point I had the image swapping and fade in-out as separate functions, because that was the only way it would work. The timing was difficult though - it would play through ok the first time but then on the second run you could see the images swapping before they'd fully faded out and it got worse the longer it ran. I was thinking about how to get it to start over ater one full run and then had a flash of inspiration about how to combine the two functions and presto! It worked.
g) For each image it shows, they each have their own link and alt attributes.
h) I even managed to figure out how to get it to stop swapping images AND fading in and out when you hover your mouse over it. Not only that, but it instantly goes to 100% opaque when you do, regardless of how far faded in or out it was at the time.
i) Although I did see Javascript versions of this sort of thing online, I decided to write it myself from scratch, (see point a) ) and my code is a lot shorter and simpler than those I saw. Occam's razor y'all.
j) It will be made freely available to anyone who wants it at some point, fully commented and ready to use.
Finally a paradox struck me tonight. I LOVE the act of typing. Love it. I like writing blogs or writing code and my head swims daily with ideas for stories, or parts of them.
So why the fuck can't I seem to get my arse in gear and actually finish writing at least one of my novels?
Quick, naughty-at-work bloggery.
I'll have to do a recent picture round up when I get home as I don't have access to my pics here, so check again later for imagery.
Last weekend we went to Ely to go to a wedding of a friend of Pinklet's, which was really good fun. As usual, Zoe's dad broke out the whiskey when we got there - which was after two large glasses of red wine and then after a couple of at least triple whiskeys, he brought out a bottle of Lindisfarne Mead. I went to bed rather pissed after farting in front of her parents,
to a shout of "you're one of the family now! from the girl. I got to talk to some of Zoe's friends more at the do, which was nice. One of her friends is responsible for 'having the chat' with suitors, so I got the whole, "If you hurt her I'll hunt you down and kill you" spiel, which quite frankly, whilst I understand that friends want to protect friends, is all a little bit childish - two adults in a relationship are in that situation because they wish to be. If their feelings change, then they should discuss things and if it turns out one or both parties do not wish to continue the relationship then you discuss any issues with that and part ways with as much grace and dignity as you can muster on both sides.
Anyway, I told her that a) I've never dumped anyone as far as I can remember, (which yes, means I'm a sad git who gets dumped.) and b) when my 11 and a half year relationship ended, I helped the girl move into her new flat and went round to see her a couple of times to see how she was settling in. We stayed in touch for a while after before eventually drifting our own ways. I'm still in touch and with my last ex, who I consider a friend, and finally c) I'm literally the guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. I kill or harm no creature on this planet intentionally, and if I do by accident, (e.g. I step on a spider or something,) I apologise!
Anyway, after I'd told her all this, she decided that I was a rather splendid chap with nought but honorable intentions, so she went and had "the chat" with Zoe instead! Bwa ha ha! Oh and she insisted I come along to her birthday bash at Alton Towers next weekend, if only to make her stoner boyfriend feel less of an outsider.
The weekend before we were at the wedding reception of a colleague, which I may have documented previously, so I'll leave it there.
This weekend we have no plans and I'm really looking forward to doing as much fuck all as possible.
In other news:
Weds evening turned a bit strange. As I was dropping a colleague off who I give a lift to, I got pulled by the police. I thought it was because I was wearing a beanie, (laugh if you like, but I've been followed home once and the cop said it was because I "looked shifty in that hat". Nice to see he's got time on his hands to follow bald men around who wear beanies to keep warm...) and looked 'the sort', but it turned out my tax disc was 4 months out of date! Yes, I am that crap at organising myself, although to be fair, that's a new record.
Then my boss rang me to tell me my desk had exploded. We have glass desks and after most people had left that evening, one girl bumped into my chair, which hit the desk, causing it to shatter. Health & safety? Not at our company... They hadn't even cleaned it up either. (A colleague ended up doing it in the morning and was not pleased.)
Last night we had a rock band night, which I bought on Tues when I was off work ill. Yeah I know, but I was feeling rough. Anyway, out of the 8 we invited, only two turned up, (everyone else had good reasons though,) and it was the two I least expected as one had said she couldn't make it and the other hadn't replied!
My old housemate was the first and she spent the entire time on the drums and loved it! Then she left and my other mate turned up a little while later, pretty stoned, with ciders and wanted to give it a go. He played guitar for a while & did ok but then tried the drums and ended up collapsed over the kit, silently shaking with laughter at his own uncoordinated-ness.
Brilliant.
So... 'supwhichoo?
I'll have to do a recent picture round up when I get home as I don't have access to my pics here, so check again later for imagery.
Last weekend we went to Ely to go to a wedding of a friend of Pinklet's, which was really good fun. As usual, Zoe's dad broke out the whiskey when we got there - which was after two large glasses of red wine and then after a couple of at least triple whiskeys, he brought out a bottle of Lindisfarne Mead. I went to bed rather pissed after farting in front of her parents,
to a shout of "you're one of the family now! from the girl. I got to talk to some of Zoe's friends more at the do, which was nice. One of her friends is responsible for 'having the chat' with suitors, so I got the whole, "If you hurt her I'll hunt you down and kill you" spiel, which quite frankly, whilst I understand that friends want to protect friends, is all a little bit childish - two adults in a relationship are in that situation because they wish to be. If their feelings change, then they should discuss things and if it turns out one or both parties do not wish to continue the relationship then you discuss any issues with that and part ways with as much grace and dignity as you can muster on both sides.Anyway, I told her that a) I've never dumped anyone as far as I can remember, (which yes, means I'm a sad git who gets dumped.) and b) when my 11 and a half year relationship ended, I helped the girl move into her new flat and went round to see her a couple of times to see how she was settling in. We stayed in touch for a while after before eventually drifting our own ways. I'm still in touch and with my last ex, who I consider a friend, and finally c) I'm literally the guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. I kill or harm no creature on this planet intentionally, and if I do by accident, (e.g. I step on a spider or something,) I apologise!
Anyway, after I'd told her all this, she decided that I was a rather splendid chap with nought but honorable intentions, so she went and had "the chat" with Zoe instead! Bwa ha ha! Oh and she insisted I come along to her birthday bash at Alton Towers next weekend, if only to make her stoner boyfriend feel less of an outsider.
The weekend before we were at the wedding reception of a colleague, which I may have documented previously, so I'll leave it there.
This weekend we have no plans and I'm really looking forward to doing as much fuck all as possible.
In other news:
Weds evening turned a bit strange. As I was dropping a colleague off who I give a lift to, I got pulled by the police. I thought it was because I was wearing a beanie, (laugh if you like, but I've been followed home once and the cop said it was because I "looked shifty in that hat". Nice to see he's got time on his hands to follow bald men around who wear beanies to keep warm...) and looked 'the sort', but it turned out my tax disc was 4 months out of date! Yes, I am that crap at organising myself, although to be fair, that's a new record.
Then my boss rang me to tell me my desk had exploded. We have glass desks and after most people had left that evening, one girl bumped into my chair, which hit the desk, causing it to shatter. Health & safety? Not at our company... They hadn't even cleaned it up either. (A colleague ended up doing it in the morning and was not pleased.)
Last night we had a rock band night, which I bought on Tues when I was off work ill. Yeah I know, but I was feeling rough. Anyway, out of the 8 we invited, only two turned up, (everyone else had good reasons though,) and it was the two I least expected as one had said she couldn't make it and the other hadn't replied!
My old housemate was the first and she spent the entire time on the drums and loved it! Then she left and my other mate turned up a little while later, pretty stoned, with ciders and wanted to give it a go. He played guitar for a while & did ok but then tried the drums and ended up collapsed over the kit, silently shaking with laughter at his own uncoordinated-ness.
Brilliant.
So... 'supwhichoo?
Sheesh, it's been a while. Firstly and foremosterly...
Gigs:
Capuchin or Kitano rocked my socks. I wanted to be their frontman.
Sometimes knowing the band can be a good thing.
The good: (cheeky monkey,)
The bad: (pure distilled evil,)
and the...
Quizzical?
Anyway we had a great time:
And the next night, we got to see the legendary An Axe perform! For some reason I didn't take any pics... here's some others:
We stumbled on a random street party. I love Bristol for reasons like this.
This weekend we went out on Fri with friends and had an awesome evening, culminating in drunken Guitar Hero. The first version had THunderkiss 65 by White Zombie on it! I have to get that game so bad.
Sat we went to the wedding reception of a friend of mine from work. It was so awesome to see him so happy. He sang brown eyed girl to his new bride, but changed it to blue eyed girl when he remembered.
Here's my blue eyed girl:
I've also decided that I want to pursue a career in web development. I've learned some PHP and MySQL and I've just bought books on XHTML and CSS, which I do know a little of and Javascript, which to my surprise, I'm really getting into.
Further down the line, I want to learn Flash properly and actionscript and C#.
And finally, always end on a picture of a cat,
in a box or,
in the bath.
Gigs:
Capuchin or Kitano rocked my socks. I wanted to be their frontman.
Sometimes knowing the band can be a good thing.
The good: (cheeky monkey,)
The bad: (pure distilled evil,)
and the...
Quizzical?
Anyway we had a great time:
And the next night, we got to see the legendary An Axe perform! For some reason I didn't take any pics... here's some others:
We stumbled on a random street party. I love Bristol for reasons like this.
This weekend we went out on Fri with friends and had an awesome evening, culminating in drunken Guitar Hero. The first version had THunderkiss 65 by White Zombie on it! I have to get that game so bad.
Sat we went to the wedding reception of a friend of mine from work. It was so awesome to see him so happy. He sang brown eyed girl to his new bride, but changed it to blue eyed girl when he remembered.
Here's my blue eyed girl:
I've also decided that I want to pursue a career in web development. I've learned some PHP and MySQL and I've just bought books on XHTML and CSS, which I do know a little of and Javascript, which to my surprise, I'm really getting into.
Further down the line, I want to learn Flash properly and actionscript and C#.
And finally, always end on a picture of a cat,
in a box or,
in the bath.
SGUK FAQ:
In the absence of questions I've made up my own. New questions welcome.
Name?
Mike.
Why Narshada?
I saw it in Dark Forces 2 - (A Star Wars computer game; ultimate geekdom!) as the name of a city. It was spelled Nar-Shadda in the game but I liked the way it sounded. I like to imagine it's something like an old Celtic word for Heaven. (The real Celtic word for Heaven is 'Niamh' btw, pronounced 'Neeve'.)
Why SG?
I'd been toying for a while with the idea of joining so I could see hot, naked, alternative women, which I did. I stayed for the community.
What's a northern bastard like you doing living in Bristol?
Well I was born near Hull and grew up in Grimsby. Hull was voted the worst place to live in the UK several years running and Grimsby is about 35 south of there and the same, only smaller and without the awful accent. I don't like the area much and so when I broke up with a very long term Girlfriend and a friend suggested moving to Bristol, I thought, why not?
So you like Bristol then?
Yeah, I've been here about 4 years and every year it feels more like home. It has some great bars and shops, local interests and lots of festivals in the summer. Plus you don't have to drive very far to be in the countryside.
What's that on your face?
Usually it's about 3-14 days stubble, or if I'm feeling really lazy, a beard. Occasionally it's a coldsore, which I hate. If you see something odd on my lip, please don't ask the above as I'm probably feeling rather self conscious as it is.
What's that on your arm?
If you're looking at my profile pic, it's a line from "To a Friend" by my favourite band, Alexisonfire. It reads:
"I'll stay in time and watch you pass by..." which I just find incredibly beautiful.
Otherwise it's the Santa Cruz Screaming Hand by Jim Phillips.
Oh my left arm? That's a version of a cover for The Master and Marguerita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which I've never managed to get very far into, but I loved the shadow puppet image.
How do you put up with that awful girlfriend of yours? (Suggested by Pinklet.)
Having the patience of a saint helps. I keep it in a box next to the fridge. Otherwise I get stoned and imagine the music to the magic roundabout when she's talking, but make sure I catch important words so I can infuriate her when she asks me what she's just said.
What words do you live your life by?
"Fuck it." - I've made some of the biggest decisions of my life like that. I'd rather regret something I did rather than wished I'd done.
Is it true you have your penis on your chest?
No. That was the result of 13 pints at the Manchester meet, a conversation between me, Mistress_Paine and ReeRee and my odd sense of humour.
What's your favourite word?
Cadence.
What gets you angry?
Frustration. And traffic, which I suppose is the same thing.
Are you a geek or a nerd?
I prefer to be thought of as a geek.
What are you geeky about?
Star Wars, Douglas Adams, most Sci-Fi, Computers, Comics, Simon Pegg, Alexisonfire & Dallas Green, popular science... loads of stuff
Can you fix my computer?
Shit off. I do it for a living all day and don't want to sort out your issues in my free time. I even have a T-shirt warning people.
(Although in real life I invariably say yes and refuse any payment. Sucker.)
In the absence of questions I've made up my own. New questions welcome.
Name?
Mike.
Why Narshada?
I saw it in Dark Forces 2 - (A Star Wars computer game; ultimate geekdom!) as the name of a city. It was spelled Nar-Shadda in the game but I liked the way it sounded. I like to imagine it's something like an old Celtic word for Heaven. (The real Celtic word for Heaven is 'Niamh' btw, pronounced 'Neeve'.)
Why SG?
I'd been toying for a while with the idea of joining so I could see hot, naked, alternative women, which I did. I stayed for the community.
What's a northern bastard like you doing living in Bristol?
Well I was born near Hull and grew up in Grimsby. Hull was voted the worst place to live in the UK several years running and Grimsby is about 35 south of there and the same, only smaller and without the awful accent. I don't like the area much and so when I broke up with a very long term Girlfriend and a friend suggested moving to Bristol, I thought, why not?
So you like Bristol then?
Yeah, I've been here about 4 years and every year it feels more like home. It has some great bars and shops, local interests and lots of festivals in the summer. Plus you don't have to drive very far to be in the countryside.
What's that on your face?
Usually it's about 3-14 days stubble, or if I'm feeling really lazy, a beard. Occasionally it's a coldsore, which I hate. If you see something odd on my lip, please don't ask the above as I'm probably feeling rather self conscious as it is.
What's that on your arm?
If you're looking at my profile pic, it's a line from "To a Friend" by my favourite band, Alexisonfire. It reads:
"I'll stay in time and watch you pass by..." which I just find incredibly beautiful.
Otherwise it's the Santa Cruz Screaming Hand by Jim Phillips.
Oh my left arm? That's a version of a cover for The Master and Marguerita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which I've never managed to get very far into, but I loved the shadow puppet image.
How do you put up with that awful girlfriend of yours? (Suggested by Pinklet.)
Having the patience of a saint helps. I keep it in a box next to the fridge. Otherwise I get stoned and imagine the music to the magic roundabout when she's talking, but make sure I catch important words so I can infuriate her when she asks me what she's just said.
What words do you live your life by?
"Fuck it." - I've made some of the biggest decisions of my life like that. I'd rather regret something I did rather than wished I'd done.
Is it true you have your penis on your chest?
No. That was the result of 13 pints at the Manchester meet, a conversation between me, Mistress_Paine and ReeRee and my odd sense of humour.
What's your favourite word?
Cadence.
What gets you angry?
Frustration. And traffic, which I suppose is the same thing.
Are you a geek or a nerd?
I prefer to be thought of as a geek.
What are you geeky about?
Star Wars, Douglas Adams, most Sci-Fi, Computers, Comics, Simon Pegg, Alexisonfire & Dallas Green, popular science... loads of stuff
Can you fix my computer?
Shit off. I do it for a living all day and don't want to sort out your issues in my free time. I even have a T-shirt warning people.
(Although in real life I invariably say yes and refuse any payment. Sucker.)
Just a quickie.
I've had such a great day. Got up late, got ready and went out to the organic food festival. Lot's of free samples of cheese and wine and a spiced rum, some quinoa salad and a pint of honey beer that left me giddy. Then we saw our new downstairs neighbours play and the girl has a really good voice and did a couple of improvised songs based on things the audience shouted out - the first one being about not putting chemicals in asparagus! Then we saw my friend E playing with her samba band, which was really cool. There's something really primal about drums.
Then got a cheese and spinach crepe (my favourite,) to eat on the way home.
Now relaxing with a spliff and a cup of tea while eating wasabi peanuts, chilli sesame peanuts, bombay mix and pretzels and listening to a mix of Radiohead, MIA, Kristen Hersh and The Go! Team.
Later I've had an offer of a shoulder rub while I play Halo 3!!!
Life is good.
I've had such a great day. Got up late, got ready and went out to the organic food festival. Lot's of free samples of cheese and wine and a spiced rum, some quinoa salad and a pint of honey beer that left me giddy. Then we saw our new downstairs neighbours play and the girl has a really good voice and did a couple of improvised songs based on things the audience shouted out - the first one being about not putting chemicals in asparagus! Then we saw my friend E playing with her samba band, which was really cool. There's something really primal about drums.
Then got a cheese and spinach crepe (my favourite,) to eat on the way home.
Now relaxing with a spliff and a cup of tea while eating wasabi peanuts, chilli sesame peanuts, bombay mix and pretzels and listening to a mix of Radiohead, MIA, Kristen Hersh and The Go! Team.
Later I've had an offer of a shoulder rub while I play Halo 3!!!
Life is good.
Well this evening has been ever so slightly chock full of drama!
The main event started just as Pinklet got into bed and started reading The End of Mr Y. That was the point where our fire alarm went off. We went into the hall to check out the alarm and managed to silence the alarm, but it kept emitting a high pitched whine and the alarm kept going off whenever we switched the key back to his normal position. So I figure something is setting the smoke alarm off and I'm pretty sure it's not us. Hmm.
So I wander outside to check if I can see flickering at any of the upstairs or downstairs windows. Downstairs, the new couple are settling in. Upstairs... yup, there's flickering. And it's getting bigger. Time to get the cats out and phone the fire brigade. Pinks bundles the cats into their carry cases and we put them in the car.
We ring the doorbell and bang on the door of the flat upstairs, but it doesn't look like anyone is in.
The couple from the basement flat come up and their friend from across the road comes over and brings a fire extinguisher. The upstairs window is slightly open, so the guy from downstairs climbs up to see if it's something he can sort out. Nope.
The fire brigade turn up, get up a ladder and squirt through the window, you know - the way they do. They also decided they were going to bash the door in, so I decided I'd show them which one as there are three doors in our hall and two of them are ours. Best not to leave these things to chance. Two guys in breathing gear go in and open the windows and another takes in a big fan to blow all of the smoke out.
We stand talking to the couple from downstairs, who are really nice.
The lady from next door came home and was rather surprised to see all the lights. She mentioned that she'd spoken to the agent about water that seemed to be coming in from the top bedroom next door... interesting.
Then I overhear the Firemen say the word 'cannabis'. This time I know it's nothing to do with me. It does, however, explain the odd comings and goings at all hours.
So, after a while, one of the guys from upstairs turns up on a bike and he looks about fifteen, (I'm assuming he's older,) and he's wasted. This should be fun.
The Firemen are calling their supervisor because they can't establish the cause of the fire, other than to say it was some appliance, which is now melted, which is odd because just after they'd put it out, they said it was a pan of fat. Not only that, but they've also called the police.
Another of the guys from the flat turns up and he looks more pensive, but then I guess I'd be if I knew the police had been snooping around in my dope factory.
Anyway, so now we're knackered, but have no hope of sleeping just yet while the rest of their door gets removed and people walk up and down the stairs.
Fun huh?
The main event started just as Pinklet got into bed and started reading The End of Mr Y. That was the point where our fire alarm went off. We went into the hall to check out the alarm and managed to silence the alarm, but it kept emitting a high pitched whine and the alarm kept going off whenever we switched the key back to his normal position. So I figure something is setting the smoke alarm off and I'm pretty sure it's not us. Hmm.
So I wander outside to check if I can see flickering at any of the upstairs or downstairs windows. Downstairs, the new couple are settling in. Upstairs... yup, there's flickering. And it's getting bigger. Time to get the cats out and phone the fire brigade. Pinks bundles the cats into their carry cases and we put them in the car.
We ring the doorbell and bang on the door of the flat upstairs, but it doesn't look like anyone is in.
The couple from the basement flat come up and their friend from across the road comes over and brings a fire extinguisher. The upstairs window is slightly open, so the guy from downstairs climbs up to see if it's something he can sort out. Nope.
The fire brigade turn up, get up a ladder and squirt through the window, you know - the way they do. They also decided they were going to bash the door in, so I decided I'd show them which one as there are three doors in our hall and two of them are ours. Best not to leave these things to chance. Two guys in breathing gear go in and open the windows and another takes in a big fan to blow all of the smoke out.
We stand talking to the couple from downstairs, who are really nice.
The lady from next door came home and was rather surprised to see all the lights. She mentioned that she'd spoken to the agent about water that seemed to be coming in from the top bedroom next door... interesting.
Then I overhear the Firemen say the word 'cannabis'. This time I know it's nothing to do with me.
It does, however, explain the odd comings and goings at all hours. So, after a while, one of the guys from upstairs turns up on a bike and he looks about fifteen, (I'm assuming he's older,) and he's wasted. This should be fun.
The Firemen are calling their supervisor because they can't establish the cause of the fire, other than to say it was some appliance, which is now melted, which is odd because just after they'd put it out, they said it was a pan of fat. Not only that, but they've also called the police.
Another of the guys from the flat turns up and he looks more pensive, but then I guess I'd be if I knew the police had been snooping around in my dope factory.
Anyway, so now we're knackered, but have no hope of sleeping just yet while the rest of their door gets removed and people walk up and down the stairs.
Fun huh?
Good grief.
Head on over to this thread for some booze-leading-to-unconsciousness mirth. Bwa ha ha.
Anyway, it's been a busy old day. We had our second part of the Mystorical tour today. The first Mystorical tour took in Wells, Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury and was also the time I asked my lovely assistant, Pinklet out.
Well, this time we went further afield to...
Stanton Drew! Oh yeah baby! Well anyway, near that funny little house I posted a pic of in a previous blog, I saw a sign for a stone circle, so we went and checked it out. It was pretty cool - just in the middle of a field, along with some cows and sheep.
On the way in there was a little honesty box asking for a £1 donation, (we were honest,) and a little leaflet, telling you what they knew about it, which really wasn't much, but to be fair no one had ever excavated it or anything.
Someone had left a little crystal in a hollow, and someone else had left a penny, so Pinks left a penny too.
Next stop on the tour was:
HORSEWORLD! OK, ok, not strictly Mystorical in the classical sense, but Pinks had mentioned wanting to go and it was on the way - or it should have been, only I wasn't sure where the turning was and missed it as it was supposed to be the first stop on the tour. Oh well, we got there in the end and saw horses:
as well as goats, donkeys, ferrets, pigs, ducks and some very vocal guinea pigs!
Then it was on to:
Lacock - favourite for period drama makers everywhere. This is where the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed, amongst others. It's a very pretty little village and the whole place is a National Trust site. We stopped for a pint, checked out a craft fair and a wonderful old barn
before zipping onward to...
Avebury! What's that I hear you say? Two stone circles in one day can't be done? Well we did! Not only that, we passed a white horse cut into the hillside on the way! There are two more white horses in the area (we didn't see those,) as well as Silbury Hill and a long barrow burial mound (didn't quite have time for those either.).
The ones at Avebury are pretty impressive though - the main ring encircles half the village and the stones are pretty hefty. Pinks thought this one looked like a chess piece or a tiger:
And I apparently look like I have patterns coming out of my head.
We ambled home, having covered 111 miles and got chips and watched The Dark Crystal. A good day.
Cya!
Head on over to this thread for some booze-leading-to-unconsciousness mirth. Bwa ha ha.
Anyway, it's been a busy old day. We had our second part of the Mystorical tour today. The first Mystorical tour took in Wells, Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury and was also the time I asked my lovely assistant, Pinklet out.
Well, this time we went further afield to...
Stanton Drew! Oh yeah baby! Well anyway, near that funny little house I posted a pic of in a previous blog, I saw a sign for a stone circle, so we went and checked it out. It was pretty cool - just in the middle of a field, along with some cows and sheep.
On the way in there was a little honesty box asking for a £1 donation, (we were honest,) and a little leaflet, telling you what they knew about it, which really wasn't much, but to be fair no one had ever excavated it or anything.
Someone had left a little crystal in a hollow, and someone else had left a penny, so Pinks left a penny too.
Next stop on the tour was:
HORSEWORLD! OK, ok, not strictly Mystorical in the classical sense, but Pinks had mentioned wanting to go and it was on the way - or it should have been, only I wasn't sure where the turning was and missed it as it was supposed to be the first stop on the tour. Oh well, we got there in the end and saw horses:
as well as goats, donkeys, ferrets, pigs, ducks and some very vocal guinea pigs!
Then it was on to:
Lacock - favourite for period drama makers everywhere. This is where the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed, amongst others. It's a very pretty little village and the whole place is a National Trust site. We stopped for a pint, checked out a craft fair and a wonderful old barn
before zipping onward to...
Avebury! What's that I hear you say? Two stone circles in one day can't be done? Well we did! Not only that, we passed a white horse cut into the hillside on the way! There are two more white horses in the area (we didn't see those,) as well as Silbury Hill and a long barrow burial mound (didn't quite have time for those either.).
The ones at Avebury are pretty impressive though - the main ring encircles half the village and the stones are pretty hefty. Pinks thought this one looked like a chess piece or a tiger:
And I apparently look like I have patterns coming out of my head.
We ambled home, having covered 111 miles and got chips and watched The Dark Crystal. A good day.
Cya!
"There is... something... waiting... for. me. In the... darkest... part of... my i-magination!"
Over the last 30-something years, or perhaps more like the last 20-odd years of my life I've been working on a personal grand theory of philosophy, which is to say I'm trying to figure out what it's all about on a personal level. I'd say I'm probably no closer now than when I was 23, but I've learned a lot along the way and my thinking has taken several tangents, only to come back to a central thought pool, sifting through ideas as before. This has involved reading little actual philosophy, although some, and reading many things that while not strictly classed as philosophy per se, are thought experiments of one sort or another, even (or sometimes especially,) when they are given over the course of a narrative as a kind of metaphysical sub plot.
Favourites include the Hitchhikers series and of course the two completed Dirk Gently novels, all by Douglas Adams, God's Debris by Scott Adams (no relation as far as I am aware,) Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman and most recently, The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas.
All good books to get you thinking.
"I'll stay in time and watch you pass by... I'll draw a line and hope you take my side..."
I've promised myself that I will have my short sci-fi novel, The World of Work, written by the end of the year. I'm hoping to have another bash at NaNoWriMo again in November, and hopefully this time I'll win. Last year's effort fell way short at around 18,000 words, but still not too bad for a first attempt, so I might even try to have TWOW (yeah I know it's a bit too close to World of Warcraft, but hey...) done for November. Just to be clear, 'done' means a finished first draft with no editing, as described in NaNoWriMo and their guide book, "No plot? No problem." which I recently bought. I remember the thrill of just writing - letting whatever came out onto the page, to worry about later and it was very liberating, so I'm going to follow their advice. It seems to make more sense to just bash the first draft out and then rewrite, rather than rewrite and edit as you go, which leads to projects stalling almost indefinitely.
This will lead as a springboard for my other two, probably longer novels, (Currently entitled Clownfish and Domain respectively, although they may change as Clownfish tells you nothing about the story and Domain may have already been used by James Herbert I think.) which I hope to one day have finished as well.
"You shouldn't have to fight alone... it's nobody's battle but your own..."
Yesterday we had a semi-impromptu indoor picnic with several friends, which was lovely and the first time they'd all been to the new flat. The cats were ok with new people and pottered about while we talked and ate and drank. Later we went to the pub with a few of them and had a couple of pints, (well, I did,) and then bimbled home to eat some leftovers.
Today my tummy hurt a lot.
Bah. IBS sucks. I'm having to try and go back to a 'no wheat, no fat, tiny portions' diet in order to lose the 50 stones in weight I've put on since living with a feeder and also to stop having nasty IBS attacks.
"I tell myself it's all in my head... but I'm pretty hard to convince."
I love living with animals again, (two cats and one simian,) even though Mim and I are still locked in our little power struggle. I hope I come out on top or I could be in trouble.
Still it means you get welcomed home like this:
So I bid you adieu for now, to embark on the beginning tentative steps of what will hopefully be an exciting literary journey. If anyone shows interest, I may put chapters in coming blogs, provided no random bastard nicks it.
"Oh!... there's no relief... Oh!... this world can offer... Oh!... there's no relief... this world can offer me!"
Over the last 30-something years, or perhaps more like the last 20-odd years of my life I've been working on a personal grand theory of philosophy, which is to say I'm trying to figure out what it's all about on a personal level. I'd say I'm probably no closer now than when I was 23, but I've learned a lot along the way and my thinking has taken several tangents, only to come back to a central thought pool, sifting through ideas as before. This has involved reading little actual philosophy, although some, and reading many things that while not strictly classed as philosophy per se, are thought experiments of one sort or another, even (or sometimes especially,) when they are given over the course of a narrative as a kind of metaphysical sub plot.
Favourites include the Hitchhikers series and of course the two completed Dirk Gently novels, all by Douglas Adams, God's Debris by Scott Adams (no relation as far as I am aware,) Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman and most recently, The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas.
All good books to get you thinking.
"I'll stay in time and watch you pass by... I'll draw a line and hope you take my side..."
I've promised myself that I will have my short sci-fi novel, The World of Work, written by the end of the year. I'm hoping to have another bash at NaNoWriMo again in November, and hopefully this time I'll win. Last year's effort fell way short at around 18,000 words, but still not too bad for a first attempt, so I might even try to have TWOW (yeah I know it's a bit too close to World of Warcraft, but hey...) done for November. Just to be clear, 'done' means a finished first draft with no editing, as described in NaNoWriMo and their guide book, "No plot? No problem." which I recently bought. I remember the thrill of just writing - letting whatever came out onto the page, to worry about later and it was very liberating, so I'm going to follow their advice. It seems to make more sense to just bash the first draft out and then rewrite, rather than rewrite and edit as you go, which leads to projects stalling almost indefinitely.
This will lead as a springboard for my other two, probably longer novels, (Currently entitled Clownfish and Domain respectively, although they may change as Clownfish tells you nothing about the story and Domain may have already been used by James Herbert I think.) which I hope to one day have finished as well.
"You shouldn't have to fight alone... it's nobody's battle but your own..."
Yesterday we had a semi-impromptu indoor picnic with several friends, which was lovely and the first time they'd all been to the new flat. The cats were ok with new people and pottered about while we talked and ate and drank. Later we went to the pub with a few of them and had a couple of pints, (well, I did,) and then bimbled home to eat some leftovers.
Today my tummy hurt a lot.
Bah. IBS sucks. I'm having to try and go back to a 'no wheat, no fat, tiny portions' diet in order to lose the 50 stones in weight I've put on since living with a feeder and also to stop having nasty IBS attacks.
"I tell myself it's all in my head... but I'm pretty hard to convince."
I love living with animals again, (two cats and one simian,
) even though Mim and I are still locked in our little power struggle. I hope I come out on top or I could be in trouble.Still it means you get welcomed home like this:
So I bid you adieu for now, to embark on the beginning tentative steps of what will hopefully be an exciting literary journey. If anyone shows interest, I may put chapters in coming blogs, provided no random bastard nicks it.
"Oh!... there's no relief... Oh!... this world can offer... Oh!... there's no relief... this world can offer me!"
Life continues apace, which is definitely better than the alternative, as my stepdad used to say.
The flat needs a lot of moving around, but we're officially in now, seeing as we got the last few boxes of Pinky's crap from her old house, apart from some sieve thing and some food in it and a camping kettle she left, she informs me.I'm really not sure how we'll cope without a fucking camping kettle, so I guess I'll have to drive back there and get it. "But it whistles," she says. Well that makes all the bloody difference then. If it wasn't for the fact that I want the sieve to strain my beloved supernoodles, I'd tell her to cram it.
(She's watching me type all this btw, so it's not like I'm talking about her behind her back - she knows what a pain in the arse she is.)
Right, piccys:
The bedroom, before it got filled with 6 tonnes of Pinky's stuff.
Lounge
The lounge again, with a view of our nice green wall, which may end up with a mural on it.
Your amazing neighbourhood Pinklet, trying to be classy...
...and failing.
Hobbes, being a camera slut.
Mim, who has the eyes of a Balrog and defies gravity in odd ways. (not that there's a normal way as such.)
I rest my case. This is crying out to be a lolcat, but I've drawn a blank. Any takers?
"I are most displeased."
Hobbes with his patented and semi-permenant bewildered look.
Contented Mim.
An odd little house I saw on the way to Chew Stoke the other day. You can walk around it in 5 seconds or so and it's on a little triangle of grass inbetween the junction of three roads.
I walked into the lounge and saw a random piece of thread which wierdly, was in the shape of a treble clef. Odd coincidence or proof of a worldwide conspiracy of musicians, trying to take over the planet?
You decide.
The flat needs a lot of moving around, but we're officially in now, seeing as we got the last few boxes of Pinky's crap from her old house, apart from some sieve thing and some food in it and a camping kettle she left, she informs me.I'm really not sure how we'll cope without a fucking camping kettle, so I guess I'll have to drive back there and get it. "But it whistles," she says. Well that makes all the bloody difference then. If it wasn't for the fact that I want the sieve to strain my beloved supernoodles, I'd tell her to cram it.
(She's watching me type all this btw, so it's not like I'm talking about her behind her back - she knows what a pain in the arse she is.
)Right, piccys:
The bedroom, before it got filled with 6 tonnes of Pinky's stuff.
Lounge
The lounge again, with a view of our nice green wall, which may end up with a mural on it.
Your amazing neighbourhood Pinklet, trying to be classy...
...and failing.
Hobbes, being a camera slut.
Mim, who has the eyes of a Balrog and defies gravity in odd ways. (not that there's a normal way as such.)
I rest my case. This is crying out to be a lolcat, but I've drawn a blank. Any takers?
"I are most displeased."
Hobbes with his patented and semi-permenant bewildered look.
Contented Mim.
An odd little house I saw on the way to Chew Stoke the other day. You can walk around it in 5 seconds or so and it's on a little triangle of grass inbetween the junction of three roads.
I walked into the lounge and saw a random piece of thread which wierdly, was in the shape of a treble clef. Odd coincidence or proof of a worldwide conspiracy of musicians, trying to take over the planet?
You decide.
We now have internet access at home.
Well, I do anyway, I've yet to figure out why Pinky's Vista based laptop is being an arse. It might just be Intershit Crapsplorer. We'll have lovely, lovely Firefox on there ASAP.
We were going to see the Dark Knight tonight, but not sure if we will have finished eating our tea in time to go. I recently got a 2 for 1 cinema tickets card for Vue cinemas through work, but Dark Knight is not one of the films listed.
Right. tea's ready. Proper update soon. (Maybe later this evening.)
Well, I do anyway, I've yet to figure out why Pinky's Vista based laptop is being an arse. It might just be Intershit Crapsplorer. We'll have lovely, lovely Firefox on there ASAP.
We were going to see the Dark Knight tonight, but not sure if we will have finished eating our tea in time to go. I recently got a 2 for 1 cinema tickets card for Vue cinemas through work, but Dark Knight is not one of the films listed.
Right. tea's ready. Proper update soon. (Maybe later this evening.)
