…starts off sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.
So, ANYONE that knows me knows that I absolutely love John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, the tale of massive carnivorous plants taking over the world. There was an awful film made of the book in 1962 and then a really good, if flawed, version made in 1981 by the BBC and which I was shown at school and became my entrance in to the world of Post Apocalyptic fiction.
The BBC announced earlier in the year that they were remaking the show and it was broadcast over Christmas on the TV. I assume hot on the heels of the success of Survivors earlier in the year (and the second series returns imminently, I think!)
It was a British / Canadian effort by the BBC and Prodigy Pictures. Maybe this was the reason why Canadian actor Jason Priestley was involved. And going into it, he was the thing I was looking forward to the most. I’ve never seen 90210 or any of his other ‘teen’ stuff so I’ve not been tainted like most people, but the one thing I’ve seen him in was the absolutely amazing episode of Jeremiah where he played a clever, yet ultimately, psychotic killer in what was probably the best episode of the whole series. And in Day of the Triffids he was going to be playing my favourite character, Coker.
Firstly, the effects in the show were pretty good for a British show with a not too unbelievable airplane crashing into the heart of London within the first few minutes. That’s definitely one area where it excelled the original series.
I was wondering whether Mr. Izzard was ever going to speak after spending the first few minutes wondering around and looking awesomely mischevious. I love that one of the first things he did was a Barney Stintson style “Suit Up!” I was actually quite surprised with his acting in this. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t have to say too much really but it was good compared to the rest of the things I’ve seen him in. I think it was also the fact that he played it so over the top and, almost, pantomime villain-esque. Although I kinda liked that.
The show opened with (and KEPT flashing back to) Bill Masen’s mum getting stung and killed by a Triffid in Zaire. This explains why he constantly tells us that ‘with me it’s personal!” The flashbacks were almost as annoying as the amount of times the lead lady in Survivors kept going on about her son.
The lead characters Dougray and Joely had near on no chemistry, I remarked to Bex that this was probably because he’d not got a John Duttine-esque beard. But for some reason I just didn’t get them gelling together. In fact I would say that Josella had more of a relationship with Eddie Izzard and in all honesty I was willing him to make some move – which he did unsuccessfully. Darn!
Torrence’s role was hugely extrapolated, most likely, due to Izzard being in that role. And that sort of started the stem of where it wandered slowly away from (and on occasions returning to) the orignal story. While I liked Torrence’s role, it sort of relegated the prominence of the Coker character and meant that we never really got to see Coker’s transition from leading the gangs to realising it was a bad idea and setting up the Isle of Wight tearaways. Which I liked. We also never got to see the period where Bill and Jo were dumped in seperate parts of London and didn’t know if either were alive. But that was slightly replicated with the whole ‘Bill is dead, you stay with me’ bit I guess.
Things I liked with the show:
* Eddie Izzard filling the toilet up with life preservers and surviving the crash. Probably not realistic. But still, genius!
My irritations with the show:
* In a similar trend with the film “The Day The Earth Stood Still” we changed the main underlying theme to the fact that the Earth is going to die because of global warming.
* Considering that both Bill and Jo were so aware of the consequences of what a Triffid can do how many times did both of them venture out (and half the time in a DARK FORREST!) without eye/skin protection? Also, and this applies to other movies too… When you’re in a car, close the freaking window!
* The complete removal of the scene where Jo and Bill find a luxurious apartment to spend the night in, ‘liberate’ a nice bottle of wine, some nice clothes and spend the night chatting, getting to know each other and basically living. It was a nice break in the story, time to appreciate that whilst everything had gone to crap they still had company and also showed the relationship between the two. Because I, personally, just didn’t believe them getting all lovey-dovey with each other in the remake.
* The religious manor. Which I think was Tynsham in the original? In the original they were good people who were just way too misled. In this version they’d turned into sacrificing killers. Or at least the head Nun had. A pop at organised religion? Most likely. Necessary? Yes.
* The triffids… They were useless, cumbersome plants in the book. And there was a good reason, they didn’t really pose that much of a threat to the sighted as you could see them coming. But in this the triffids could pretty much kill everything as they moved with insane speed and had tentacles that could move up floors of buildings. They, obviously, thought that the originals weren’t menacing enough – I guess. But wasn’t that the point. They weren’t menacing, per se, just clever and knew how to get their food.. by disabling the human race’s sight.
* The ending… just no. Now they live amongst them? Oh, well, I guess it means it leaves no avenues open for further butchering of the story in further episodes. Yay?
Oh well.. I am probably on my own in not liking it.
…When I’m back in 15 minutes, I wont forget you are.
Okay, so I just realised that I haven’t posted for near on two months. I am so bad. I blame it on the fact that I so very rarely get to use my actual computer/laptop. As my main computer is now my insanely awesome Boxee/XBMC setup and my laptop is primarially used for Rebecca to play Cafeville or any of the other bazillion Zynga games.
Anyways, it’s that time of year. Christmas! I’ll admit, having a little kiddie does make it slightly more exciting and my 17 hour trip to Toys Я Us the other week sure brought back some memories of when I remembered walking round looking at all the new LEGO toys and wondering what I could build with my bricks! I also remember looking round all the bikes and cars and imagining driving around the backyard playing in a police car. Ahhh, t’was fun. Oddly TRU doesn’t seem to have changed at all in the time since I was used to go there as a kid and what I see now with my retail hat on was a store with awful fixtures and staff that were more interested in checking out the young mums, or in one case their own colleagues than providing any resemblance service. Anywhos!
This Christmas I’ll be doing the following:
Wednesday 23rd. Sam is coming to pick us up from Manchester to take us to Leicester where we’ll be spending Christmas Eve and Day with my family. Then Boxing Day morning we’ll be getting the coach down to London and spending the next few days with Bex’s family. The worst bit is the coach ride back for me will be over night and I’ll be going straight into work the following morning at silly o clock! Oh well, the things we do for love!
Seen as I haven’t posted for a while here are five four songs I’ve been addicted to lately…
The Yeah You’s – 15 Minutes Hold on, it may be a rocky ride
Oh, I hope I’ll be satisfied
But I will try, give me 15
The new ‘Feeling’? Some cheerful music anywho. And somehow related to Crishna’s work or something. I can’t remember what it was, but glad that she introduced me to them. This was their first single but the other stuff is good. Although I have to wonder why there is so much bra showing in Getting Up With You! Is it me or is the talk show host in this video someone from TV?
Absent Elk – Poker Face (Cover) P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)
P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)
An awesome cover of Lady Gaga’s annoyingly infectious song. Although this version is the one I play the most and it’s also got a SNAKE and a LIZARD that Amelia loves! They also do an awesome cover of Ace of Base’s All The She Wants.
College Humor – If I Were A Bro But you’re just a bro
So you don’t understand
Why when you take a shower
You only get a job from a hand
Hilarious parody of Beyonce’s song by the awesome College Humor. Doesn’t hurt that Sarah Schneider is awesome!
Howie Day – Don’t Dream It’s Over (Cover) Now I’m walking again to the beat of a drum
And I’m counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only the shadows ahead barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and relief
I have a weird thing for Howie Day, I know I should hate him but I quite like his songs. Here he’s covering everyone’s favourite song by the awesome Crowded House.
…but the film is a saddening bore, for she’s lived it ten times or more
So over the last two weeks or so I’ve downloaded and worked my way through the two series’ of the award winning BBC series Life on Mars. Now I’d never got in to Life on Mars when it originally ran a few years back, mainly due to the fact that I very rarely watch any TV through an aerial TV opting to watch downloaded stuff and also due some to the fact that I very rarely enjoy UK police programmes. What can I say, I must fall for the glitz and glamour (and unrealistic-ness) of the US shows. Are you telling me that CSI’s don’t solve the cases?
And I LOVED it, almost nearly all the time. At the other times I got really annoyed and wound up by it. But mainly love. Yay! However I’ve started watching the “sequal” The bits that I really loved were:
* Seeing parts of the show and recognising them as they are all ‘just around the corner.’ Well as around the corner as 10 odd miles is, but you know what I mean. I don’t know whether I would have felt the same if I didn’t know the area, but it just felt like a welcoming atmosphere. But saying that, I’m not even sure if it was just seeing buildings I recognised because when Sam returns to 2006 you see the Beetham Tower and I just didn’t like any of the 2006 (beginning or end of series) parts. Maybe it was just the allure of the sepia toned terrace houses, or Annie?
* Gene Hunt. What can I say… he’s homophobic, racist, a heavy drinker and smoker, misogynistic and a general all round bastard. An armed bastard as he frequently points out. And yet there is something about him that just makes me love him. I don’t think it’s the same reasons as Bex likes him, though. I think deep down I’ve always loved characters that bend the rules a bit, but are actually really decent people. Or at least we hope they are.
* The relationship between Sam and Gene, whilst I never found it ‘ship‘ worthy I really thought it made the show. Whilst at times it annoyed me that Sam would say things that were obviously just intended to wind him up… aren’t the best relationships like that?
* Annie. She was just so cute and adorable. And well, who wouldn’t love her in a nurse’s outfit!
* Spotting ‘future’ stuff in the past. I loved seeing either intentional or not CCTV cameras, new lightposts, boxes for NTL and other such things that wouldn’t have existed in ‘73.
* Time travelling.. I’m a huge time travel fan. If done right.. And up until the end, it pretty much was.
* I’m a huge fan of police procedural shows.
However, I really hated:
* The ever-constant and ever-increasing towards the end “breakdown” moments where Sam was cracking up. I just found them particularly annoying. Seeing things in his tv, hearing things over the radio.. Grrr! Yes I know that was due to the storyline, but it was just one thing I really didn’t like.
* The fact that the road to Annie & Sam’s relationship was so rocky and he just kept saying the wrong thing or backing away at the wrong moment. Yes, I know that is how UST works. But I hate UST. Just bonk and lets get on with the show! Find the bad guys and smile at each other in happy ever after!
Anyways, I’ll keep watching Ashes to Ashes for a few more eps and see if it gets better. Otherwise I will thank Bex for introducing me to this awesome show and forget about it’s sequel!
Wow, it’s been a while. I’m so crap at keeping things updated. But then I kinda blame the fact that I don’t really get a lot of time on the computer, with it being mainly used as a media centre to watch Gigglebiz and Timmy Time. For me that is, not Pud!
So, what has happened since the last time then?
* Bex and Pud have moved in. Three of us sharing the space of a matchbox. Not as cramped as we first thought to be honest and we’ve not managed to kill each other yet. Well, not through space anyway! My little flat now looks a little more homely, I have a proper freezer so can store food for more than three days and have many kiddie toys to trip over. But all in all it’s good fun.
* Went to Salford Quays, which was cool but also a little disappointing. It’s like Manchester’s answer to the Docklands, I’m guessing. And whilst the area is really nice and the Lowry / Imperial War Museum are imposing and nice buildings there just isn’t that much there. The main shopping attraction is The Lowry Outlet Mall which was pretty much a collection of shops which weren’t brand named and sold ’stuff’ at comparable to high street prices. I mean, the Cadbury’s Factory Shop had things at prices more expensive than Tesco. WTF? But other than that it was really nice, if a bit windy. But, hey, this is the north so what did we expect?
Apart from that my days are filled with work and the less said about that the better!
Oh and I’m now 27!
And of course the Office episode the other week (Niagra) was OMGADORABLE!
I apologise for not updating over the past few weeks but I have been insanely busy. No, really. I know, something is actually happening in my life for once.
* Work has been going okay. Better than it was earlier in the year anyway. I have a huge task that was undertaken over the past few weeks to get all the shops to 100% planogram and 100% SEL standard and it was probably 90% sorted so far and I’ve got till Wednesday to get the last few bits done before the area manager comes round and shouts at me at why it’s not done. The past few days have been absolutely shocking though as we’ve had sickees galore and the shops have looked like a bomb has gone off in them!
* Last week I had both Amelia and Bex up, which took up a lot of my free time. Or pretty much all of it! Which, of course, is not a bad thing. We took Amelia bowling with us which was much fun. I ever won a game! Chris and Emily both seemed really taken with the Pud and the Pud seemed to love both of them too. Which is nice as it means she wont be too upset if they babysit or whatever. We also went to a rather nice pub that was by the bowling place and had a lovely dinner. Burgers FTW, obviously!
* The next day Chris, Em, Bex and Pud picked me up from work which saved me the bike trip home and we went to see the Aviation Viewing Park at Manchester Airport as the Pud wanted to see some planes. All I can say is that it is a complete waste of money and absolutely useless. But then considering it’s a MAPLC venture should I be that surprised? £8 for the 5 of us to go and park in the car park. Once there you can walk up to 2 different planes that are parked on the grass. You cannot, however, go near enough to touch or look at them properly as you have to stay behind the fencing. We attempted to eat something at the at the restaurant (that surprisingly didn’t look like an SSP outlet!) and found that they didn’t accept card so we thought bugger that. There was an aviation shop which sold model aeroplanes. A small snack bar that sold drinks and bacon cobs. There was the Concorde experience where you can go look at Concorde and see it’s history etc. However you had to pay a further £5 each to go view this. So, basically, our £8 got us a parking space as there was nothing else that we got once inside the viewing park. What value for money!
* Me, Bex and the Pud went to the Trafford Centre to have a walk round and let Pud play with the fountains and what not. Was nice and we bought some Krispy Kreme’s from Selfridges and I got to see the new WHSBooks that we’d opened in Selfridges. They definitely don’t do as good a job as we do in travel!
* We all went house hunting as Chris and Em are looking to rent a place of their own at some point and saw a really nice 2 bedroom absolutely massive flat for £475/month. Bex wasn’t really a fan of it but I thought the fact it was massive (I’m not exagerating on that one) was really nice and could see myself living there but managed to curb my temptation to say to Bex move up here now and we’ll rent this!
* We walked to some letting agents in the Northenden area and found one which was quite helpful, one which was nowhere to be found and one who was literally a man behind a messy desk in an upstairs back room of a converted house-to-offices arrangement, no pictures up of what properties he had and a “I’ll be your mate and find you a house, I’ll definitely have whatever you’re looking for” attitude. I said to Bex, this really isn’t the kind of man we want looking after our lettings! He’ll lose our contract on his desk, for a start!
* After this, though, Bex and me did have a big conversation about her moving up here which she has been floating for the past few weeks and I’d told her before to make sure she’d thought through seriously as for me it’s great that I get the one’s I love with me 24/7 and I hate the fact that at the minute with my once monthly visits that I miss out on so much of Amelia’s growing up. But for her and Pud it’s such a huge move. She’ll be 300 odd miles away from her parents and Han who have been hugely supportive of the Pud and would obviously not want to lose their current “30 minute drive away” situation. It’s also a long way away from her friends (not that that is such a bad thing considering some of their influences in her smoking/drinking habbits!) But it IS such a huge move for her and (although I really don’t want it to) if it does go sour, she’s lost her flat and is stuck in the middle of northern-ness! But it does seem it’s going ahead, even if we all have to cram in to my little flat for a month or so whilst we find someone to rent this place and find a house of our own. Extremely exciting and yet extremely scary at the same time. I can only imagine what it’ll be like for Bex moving to a foreign land!
I apologise for any and all typing mistakes. I’m typing on my back with my laptop resting on my chest and it’s hard to see what keys I’m hitting!
one step I make an imprint, two steps is commitment B
..I’m a lost cause, not a hero. But I’ve got to prove them wrong, it’s me against the world.
Here is some songs that I really love at the moment.
Chris Daughtry – Poker Face I wanna roll with her, a hard pair we will be
A little gambling is fun when you’re with me
Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun
And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun
Chris Daughtry, the American Idol dude. Covering Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. A song I can’t stand but here I actually like it. Maybe it’s the way he says Poker Face, I dunno. There’s something sexy about it. That’s all I know The cat also really liked this song as she stopped pawing at the dressing gown and looked at the laptop. She knows.
Eskimo Joe – Childhood Beahaviour I know it seems hard
To be around
But I know it’s going to change when the baby comes out
Headaches start when I try to stop
The lovely Eskimo Joe, from the new album Inshalla, apparently about the time that the lead singer decided to give up smoking and drinking whilst his girlfriend was pregnant. Wasn’t what I thought it was about, but once I found out I guess the lyrics makes more sense!
This is one of them songs that I have in my collection that isn’t typically what you think I’d listen to and yet I love them and as soon as they are on I am instantly transported to some tranquil place where nothing really matters. I guess it doesn’t hurt that I am a fan of both Jason Mraz and James Morrison and find both of their voices melt me.
Lifehouse – Breathing Cause I want nothing more than to sit
Outside heaven’s door
And listen to you breathing
Is where I wannhttp://www.buhsnarf.net/wordpress/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=821&message=1a be, yeah
Like the artists above, I could listen to Jason Wade’s voice all day everyday. Anyways, http://www.buhsnarf.net/wordpress/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=821&message=1this song is just lovely.
One of my never heard of them until Last.fm suggested them to me. I also like the song “The Thrill” which is a bit Killer-esque kinda. Good name for a song, although I don’t have any Kates that I hate, afaik.
Whilst I’ve been looking after Amelia whilst Bex has been working this week I’ve been taking some photos of the cat, the pretentiously named Lucy Madison!
And my personal favourite one was as I got my laptop out to start putting some photos I had taken of my journey down (and to watch some TV *ahem*) she decided that I, obviously, wasn’t paying her the correct amount of attention. So she did what a cat does best….
And if you didn’t notice from that last picture I’ve got myself a new laptop. Well, I say got, but I’ve not paid for it. I’ve decided that on my renewal for my phone that I’d not get a new handset this time as there just anything out there that really grabs my attention at the moment. Android is still not mature enough, I don’t like any of the S60 5th edition phones that have come out so far (namely the 5800 or the n97) and all of the latest S60 3.2 phones are not really that much of a step up from my battered n85 so I’d be merely getting a phone for phones sake. So I’ve decided to get a laptop, or should I say netbook?, for myself instead. I went for the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v which is a beautiful little machine that weighs next to nothing, has a decent sized keyboard (I’m typing this on it now and the reduced 8% from a full size is not hugely noticebale) and I’m pretty much averaging the speed I’d normally get on my old laptop (The Dell Latitude D600.)
To be honest, the main reason for getting it was that my previous laptop has now completely died, wont boot, wont POST, wont do anything except for turn on the lights for a few seconds and then die. Oh well, it served me well and did a good job for what I paid for it what must be 2 or 3 years ago. And now I have a brand new one for free!
The specs of the machine are pretty much what you find in most netbooks:
An Intel Atom processor running at 1.66GHz/533MHz FSB.
1GB of DDR2 memory
Intel Graphics (GMA950)
10.1″ TFT with a max resolution of 1024×600
160GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Wireless 802.11g
3 Cell Battery
So far, the problems I’ve found with the laptop are:
The touchpad. There is a YouTube video on this saying why they came up with the design that they have. But I’m not a huge fan, I think I’ll end up getting used to it. But I’ve always used touchpads with one finger resting on the left hand button ready to click and I’d never really gotten in to the whole tap to click that is present on laptops. That doesn’t work on this netbook as the two buttons are part of the actual touchpad. So I’m trying to teach myself to use single tap for left clicking!
There is no status indicators on the laptop, except for power. The power light is very beautiful and all, but in terms of usefullness quite low down on my list. I mean, if the computer is on I kinda know it as I can hear the hard drive’s (actually whisper quiet) whirr and I can see the screen on. Scroll lock and number lock are fine without as there is no number pad and let’s face it who the hell likes scroll lock these days. However, the ones I really miss are wireless connection status and hard drive activity light. So if you see me putting my laptop to my ear it’s because I’m trying to find if the thing is writing to the drive or not.
The speakers. I know you’re not gonna fit huge booming speakers in a tiny little netbook, but the volume isn’t very huge even at full volume it’s not enough to fill a room whilst you’re doing the washing up.
The pre-loaded version of Windows that came with the computer was massively overloaded, but a clean install and it boots up loads quicker. I’m not sure whether I’ll put Linux on it or not, as I’ve heard that the power management on Windows is a lot better. We’ll see.
* Crishna is in America. So jealous. She’s in the same convention centre as Grace Park. Insanely jelaous! You can read about her comic-con adventures here… Good times.
* I got last weekend off, yay. Considering I’m meant to be working 1 in 3 weekends lately it’s been pretty much every weekend. Oh well. Guess it’s the curse of not having kids and/or being the big boss! In true me style I spent it down south and down there with the insanely cute Amelia and gorgeous Bex. Bex was working all weekend so I babysat Amelia both days for a few hours and it was insane amounts of fun. On the Saturday we went for a walk along the Thames, played on the park and ate a Subway. Pud loved watching the boats although was a bit irked when some random kid who was fishing decided to show her a full, live fish fairly close. Also some big tanker went by and blew it’s insanely loud horn which she loved and pretended to be a large ship’s horn for the next few hours. Which, thankfully, due to the park having a climbing frame shaped like a boat meant it didn’t look I was walking round with a psycho child. Well, not too much anyway On the Sunday we dropped Bex off at work and caught the train to Greenhithe (for Bluewater) and went to Whale of a Time which is basically an old warehouse turned into a massive kids play area. With massive tunnels, slides, bouncy castle and my personal favourite… a BALL POOL! The place is split into two sections a 1-3yr old and a 4-11yr old. Being responsible and knowing that Bex would kill me if I came back with a damaged child I thought I’d play it safe and plonk her in the 1-3yr old area (even though I’d been told she could go in the big bit.) After about half hour she was bored, having none of it and wandered into the 4-11yr old section… I looked up and saw a sign that said “Parents are allowed to enter – at their own risk!” Bonus! I spent the next two hours climbing up stairs that were way too small for me, going through tunnels, getting stuck and generally having an insanely awesome time. But BOY did it make me a sweaty pig. I spoke to the manager at the end of the day as I’d ran up a tab for my credit card for food and drinks and said that I didn’t mind if she charged me the £4 entry fee also as I’m sure I’d had just as much fun as Pud did! We then got into a really nice conversation about how it’s sad that some of the parents just sit there eating, drinking and talking and not getting involved with chasing the kids round and I have to say that apart from one woman who ran in to rescue her kid who was shit scared of a slide I was the only 11+ person in there. Obviously, that also meant I got my own little gang of kids who followed me around and thought I was insanely cool. Kids are great for boosting the self esteem! How the hell do these kids have this much energy, though?! I loved looking after her for the two days and didn’t damage her once! :p I also learnt how to do my first few nappy changes (!) and found out how difficult it is to walk around town with a buggy. I’ve also got a huge respect for the people, like Bex, who through no fault of her own have been left with a little toddler to deal with on her own. I mean, she’s had to do this for over 2 years and I can ONLY imagine how tiring it must be. Hopefully I can try and help on the days when I’m down, I mean really it’s the LEAST I can do. It’s a shame I can’t do more for her, because I know how much she appreciates the breaks. However, I’m still of the opinion that those that have a kid because it’ll get them the benefits and then sit everyday watching Jeremy Kyle whilst flat out not even bothering to get a job “because it’s easier to stay at home as I get benefits” should be forced to work. *rant* It was annoying that this weekend we didn’t get much alone time (me & Bex that is) but I knew when I’d booked the tickets that it was going to be a short, knackering visit as I would be getting the coach there after working an 8 hour shift, so woke up at 3am on Friday, worked 5-1, and got the coach to Bex’s arriving at 11pm. And then with Bex working on the Saturday and me walking about 600miles pushing the buggy I we both flaked out about 10pm. And then the 23.30 coach back to work and doing the 5.00-13.00 shift straight after jumping off the coach and boy did I look bad on return to work.
* Even though we didn’t get a lot of alone time we did get quite a lot of big and deep conversations in this weekend which (I think/hope) has let the both of us understand each other a lot more and try and work out what it is that we do that pisses each other off. I also found that Bex is struggling with the long distance thing big time, which is nice to know that I’m not on my own. But I think she’s got the shorter end of the stick as she’s never done it before whereas I have. And it’s weird (but very good!) that I’m in a relationship with someone who seems to be into me as much as I am into them and is not afraid to show it. This kinda freaked me at first but now I find it so comforting. It calms my paranoia and means that I don’t worry when she’s out, or the fact that I have a beautiful girl who lives that far away that I have no idea what is happening. With trust being the downfall of one of my previous relationships this is something that makes me feel incredibly happy and content. *ahem* Anyways, enough gush!
* On the Saturday night we went out with one of Bex’s friends and her boyfriend. We went to TGI Fridays which I haven’t been to in ages. The night was quite good, food was nice. The waiter was awesome and had a wicked afro! Unfortunately the company wasn’t brilliant. The boyfriend was great, pretty geeky like myself. The friend..? Well, really couldn’t get along with her. Very miserable and negative and I just can’t like anyone that can drink and drive, especially with a kid in the car. Yeh, she probably wasn’t over the limit.. but I think people should be strict tee-totallers when they drive. But that’s probably just me. Anyways, at least I got that over with and I did enjoy the dinner, although no dessert as all the others were full and Pud was getting a little tetchy as it was getting on for 10 o’clock.
* I’m finishing work on Thursday afternoon and am then off till a week on the following Monday. W00t! Can not wait. Will be spending some time down south for definite. Will hopefully visit Crishna at the beginning as had to cancel last time, see Bex & Pud after that and then on the Friday we’ll be driving up for my little sister’s wedding which I am insanely excited to be attending. She’s marrying Jamie who she has been with for quite a while and who are childhood sweethearts (Awww!) and also the parents of the insanely cute Lois It’s being held at a hotel in Hinckley which looks very nice and will start at 4pm which means at least I don’t need to get up *too* early to drive up! I think that Amelia is coming with us too, so it’ll be a chance for my family to meet Bex and Amelia which is both cool and scary. But hopefully everyone will be pleased all round and HOPEFULLY there wont be too many family fallings out. Although I’m sitting on a table with my Dad, step Mum, Chloe & Haydn and Syd. So basically the non-Colebourne side of the family :p Let’s hope it all goes well, anyway!
* Have just returned from Bingo with Chris & Em.. Really I played Bingo, I had to sign up and everything. It’s actually quite fun, but bloody expensive for what it is and smells of old people and there were people there that you could tell went in EVERY single day on their own and knew all the others that did the same and sat there with little portable laptops playing (bizarre!) Before that was a carvery and pudding which was so filling that we changed our original plan from Lazer Quest (which we are pretty awesomely crap at) as we wouldn’t have been able to run! It’s becoming quite a regular thing us going out though which is pretty awesome as they are both dudes
…’cause I’m flipping gosh darn sick of all the S words you put me through
I apologise for the lack of updates, but it’s the usual. Lots of work and on my days off I’m usually buried into a pillow! Today I’ve got up fairly early (8am) to try and get some bits done that I’ve put off for the past week. Book tickets for going down to see Bex and Amelia at the weekend, sort out Utility Warehouse telling me that I’ve not paid them, buy a remote control for my Boxee box. And type up some things for work that I’ve been asked to do so by my boss.
* My Boxee setup for my TV has slowly started taking shape. I have a Fujitsu box, behind the TV, connected via DVI > HDMI straigh into the TV. The Audio out of this box goes straight into the line in on my main computer so that the sound comes out of my old but still very nice sounding Cambridge Sound Works speakers The new version of Boxee has split the screen up more from just Music / Videos / Pictures and then relevant Internet “Applications” in each section to one central place to find all Internet services. This is selected from the “Applications” submenu. Some of the awesome applications that I use pretty much daily are; Apple Movie Trailers, BBC iPlayer, cnet.tv, College Humor, Digg Videos, Facebook Photos, Geekbrief.tv, Google Videos, Joost, Last.fm, Mevio, On Networks, Onion News Network, Revision3, YouTube.
* The past two mornings I’ve had an early morning phone call from my dearest, yesterday was a lovely one that made my heart melt and todays just made me laugh. Yesterday as I was stacking some totes I got a phone call from Bex who told me that the Pud wanted to speak to me. Apparently she’d asked Bex to ring me (which is firstly pretty awesome!) and then proceeded to tell me that “I will love you forrrrrevvvver!” and then randomly waffled on for a little bit. Tres cute. This morning Bex rang me up to tell me “your daughter is a pain in the ass!” (It is cute being Daddy Brett, her words not mine, obviously ) Apparently Pud had decided that this morning whilst Bex was in the bath that she was going to eat some chicken nuggets. Straight from the freezer. When confronted she said “I love chicken nuggets, these are VERY crunchy!” Apart from the fact that Bex had to take her to the GP/Walk in Centre/Hospital I have to admit it was so funny. I’m sure I should have been angry, but how can you not laugh at that?!
* Work is going kinda great and kinda crap. I’m really getting to the point of losing my mind at times and at other times am loving the challenge. We’ve had our first case of actual staff with swine flu as of this week which is fun.
* Getting excited for my Sister’s wedding which is coming up very soon, 7th August. I’m excited because it’ll be the first time I’ve seen most of my family since Christmas of last year and also because this’ll be the first time that Bex will meet the whole family. I think what I’m going to do as I’m down with Bex for the week before hand as I’ve awesome-ly got a week off of work before the wedding. So I think I’ll rent a car for the Friday / Saturday so that we can wiz up to Leicester on the Friday for the wedding which is at 4pm and then stay over in the lovely hotel Friday and wiz back down to Kent on Saturday night.
From College Humor, one that has no doubt done the rounds, Web Site Story. A musical I can get into! Also pretty awesome that it got references to OAR and Jason Mraz in <3.
“Why are you guys gay lords?
Because we are theater majors!”
Minesweeper:The Movie
“What’s his problem?”
“His Dad died in a minefield!”
However, hands down, one of the ultimate College Humor vids is this awesome and insanely funny take on flame wars.. With Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Flame War!
“How’d this garbage make it to the frontpage?
Users from their site came and Dugg it up.”
Star Trek: Confusion!?
“We can’t go there because that planet existed a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away!”
And a parody of Beyonce’s If I Were A Guy.. If I were a girl…
“If I were a girl I could mess with the guys.
No, no not like that I mean
When we get a nice dinner Ill make sure they buy.”
And (theoretically) you can now leave comments with your Open ID, Twitter or Facebook account details so it’s linked to you and pulls your picture etc. Awesome. Oh, and the webcam works again as it’s now connected to my media centre TV. w00t. Watch me at some bizarre angle!
Anyways, I must toddle off and get a couple of hours sleep.
Today was my day off. Yay! I’m gonna try and keep work related stuff to a minimum in this post as it’ll most likely make me start talking in ALL CAPS, but to say it’s not going brilliant would be an understatement. In short we’ve been told that it’s most likely that one of us managers will be let go at the end of summer and that we’re all fighting for our jobs and also someone raised a grievance over me, yay :/
Today I discovered that version 30 of the firmware for my Nokia n85 was released. I quickly and smoothly upgraded over the air and after a 7MB download my phone was restarted, firmware installed and back to the home screen. All went well apart from the fact that Nokia Messaging now needs to be re-installed and has left an empty hole on my home screen where it would normally inform me of who has emailed me recently. Great.
The past week I’ve had my heart set on changing the current setup of one computer feeding both my VGA monitor and also the HD TV and using it in a “TwinView” setup to watch TV and also surf. It’s worked fairly well but after some annoying glitches with Miro and some annoying flickers on the screen when playing flash video and after having a search round I decided upon either a Boxee or XBMC setup on a small base unit which I would site by the TV. I’d recently been donated a Fujitsu base unit which was fairly quiet, quite streamlined and was a not too bad spec (1GB RAM, 2.8GHz Celeron.) Loading Boxee and XBMC on it proved a little of an ordeal as the graphics card (an onboard Intel job) really couldn’t keep up with it… Popping the case open I discovered it had 2 x PCI slot and an AGP slot but was one of them bizarre half height jobs. Searching online I could not find a half height AGP card with DVI out to save my life, or at least not at a decent price as I wasn’t going to be playing Crysis on this! Anyway, walking by Computer Exchange this evening I noticed an AGP card that had a fairly slim height but with a massive bracket. A bit of sawing and cutting later I’d made myself a half height nVidia 6200 card. Not the best in the world, but certainly up for watching TV.
So, after bashing around with a few scripts and everything so that the box connects to my Ubuntu box where all my media is and adds the new torrents downloaded by my rss reader I’m slowly getting to a point where the TV is a TV… but better. And still no TV license because I don’t watch any terrestrial TV. Rock on Rev3, CNET and similar.
The past few weeks have been hectic with the stuff I mentioned briefly about work. I’ve also had lots of little jobs that should have been sorted by myself ages ago to sort and general other stupid little tasks which end up taking up more time than you’d think they would. I finally got round to buying myself a bike this time last week. From the Halfords at Handforth Dean. It’s a town and trail bike which the man at Halford’s told me would be best as the tyres are thinner than mountain bikes so less resistance and seen as I’m only going on roads it makes sense. So in the past week I’ve biked every single day to work, saving £2.20 (or £3.60 if on peak,) and also making myself fitter.. Hah! But so far this week I’ve done just over 40 miles at an average speed of 8.4mp/h and a top speed of 19.6mp/h which was obviously as I was going down hill. The only down point seems to be the achey bum, but I’m sure it’ll get better! My legs today, because I’ve had a day off, are acheing like buggery but I’ve been told by everyone I’ve told that this is a good thing. I’ll believe that when I’ve got legs like Linford Christie (yes – that is how outdated my athletics knowledge is.)
The last week of June I’d had a week booked and decided to spend it down south with the Bex and Pud. This was the longest we’ve spent all together and involved me doing a fair bit of babysitting and parenting which was pretty awesome. We went to Margate, which although the Apprentice described it as a hip and upcoming destination… It’s not. It was one of the most dilapidated place I’d seen for a long time. But it was still a nice day and I managed to attract about five little kids from their parents… I’m not sure if it was my awesome child friendly skills, or the fact I had a bag of dolly mixtures. I’m going with the last bit. It was such a nice time and even though there was some arguments and other such dramas overall it was brilliant to be down there, to have a week without worrying too much about work. To relax with my gorgeous girlfriend, to be pampered and to have fun with the insanely sweet Amelia. Also whilst down there Bex pretty much tied me up and said I must watch Firefly… AMAZING. I don’t know how I’d gone so far without seeing it. Really I don’t. Watched the whole series and Serenity (which I wasn’t as much of a fan of) but it was amazing. I obviously fell for Kaylee and also had a soft spot for Inara
We also made our first of (hopefully) many roast dinners. She knows the way to my heart…
And finally, some super news… On my last three trips to Greenwich (a town I absolutely love and try and make us visit everytime I’m there) I’ve walked by a shop on the road from the station that has been advertising that it sells “Stationary.” Everytime I go by I’ve wanted to graffiti the sign to it’s correct spelling, but being a wuss I’ve never done it. Thankfully the owners, or some braver soul than me, has finally changed it. I think that something that daft should not annoy me. *forced smile*
…I’m at the corner just in time to see the bus fly by.
Twenty years ago in a home not too far from here I was watching the best kid’s program that ever existed, Saved by the Bell. I’ve seen every single of the 87 episodes, including the 19 College Years episodes. I’ve also seen a few of the New Class episodes, but they just don’t cut it without the original ‘gang.’ I spent my early life emulating Zack Morris, trying to be cool and Time-ing out things and lusting after the lovely Kelly. *sigh*
So, I’m officially broke. Not sure how I did all the maths wrong, but I’m skint. If anyone knows how to make some money, preferably through the Internet that wont interfere with my ‘job.’ Or, if anyone has a job for me that pays well, treats me good and is preferably down in the south near all the people I love send your answers on a S.A.E. – because I can’t afford to reply back
Last night I saw Lewis Black at the Manchester Comedy Store. Lewis Black has been one of my favourite comedians for coming up to 5 years or so. I’ve written about him before (and included five of my favourite acts) so when Crishna text me the other week with “Urgent! What are you doing on monday night?” and I called her and found that Black was playing in my current home town I had to pay the £8 and go. Even though I had no one to go with – I figured if Crishna was brave enough to go to an Eskimo Joe gig on her own I could manage the Comedy Store on my own.
I’ve never visited the Comedy Store before and I think when Bex and Crishna (or any one else that appreciates good comedy and comes visit me!) come up next we should definitely go and Chris at work raised some interest in going too, only was working yesterday.
When I visited yesterday I spent £2.60 on a pint of Coke (wtf!) and sat in between two couples which was extremely annoying but once the lights went down it was fine as it was show time and out came Mr Black. The opening, I’ll admit, was quite poor. He explained he’d never been to Manchester before and attempted at some UK based humour, but being a guy who bases the majority of his stuff on the US political system or general US living it was a little naff. Whether he thought that the UK wouldn’t have heard of him and so wouldn’t understand the US centric jokes I’m not sure. But within a few minutes he got on to American stuff and here he came into his own, with much shouting of FUCK! or WHAT THE FUCK?! and his other explosive anger moments. You could tell he wasn’t used to playing to such a small venue, much more used to being in a venue holding the thousands as opposed to Comedy Store which I think at a push holds about 150. Although, it was kinda nice. I was literally three rows back and, in all honest, heard him better when he wasn’t talking at the Microphone. It was *that* close. By the end of the show, I was in no doubt that this man was approaching the far limits of his sanity and was, even at 60, the most frustrated man alive. Loved it. I didn’t realise he’s actually listed as one of Dara Ó Briain’s influences. Awesome.
And as he was bitching about Twitter (good on him) I noticed today that twitter has definitely jumped the shark… My employer is on there… You too can follow them *rolleyes*
I should mention (as I’ve just found it on Google) that my Dad and step-Mum have a website selling ‘Home Accents & Gifts.’ You can check it out by clicking on the banner below:
I apologise that the website is awfully coded and looks daft in Firefox. Maybe he should have gotten his only son to design it for him?
…The last thing needed is a wage-fuelled riot, ‘Cos they don’t really care.
Bonsoir mon Dr Pepper drinking cuties!
I’ve had a hectic and good/crap past few weeks, in true me form I’ll put it in bullet points.
Spent this weekend down in London with the gorgeous Bex and insanely cute Pud. I somehow managed to swingle that I’d be off on the Friday so it meant I got a long three day weekend, the second in as many weeks. Truthfully I think I deserve it after the insane amount of weekends I’ve worked in the past few months (read nearly every weekend) and the fact that I put more hours in than any other person in the business. I also deserve it because I actually spent the whole of last week on nights with a schedule that went something like this:
Well, at least I did my fourty hours in the week, even if they were technically over four days as I only worked a few hours on the Friday :p After the joy of working from 10 the night before I thought it would be excellent to go jump straight on a five hour coach ride. Foolish. Actually the coach ride down was pretty un-eventful and I didn’t really manage to get any sleep although I did read the whole of James Patterson’s “Cross Country.” It’s the first time I’d read Mr. Book Brand and I have to say I actually really enjoyed it, I must have to of finished within the five hour journey! It was one of the brand spanking new coaches too which made it all good as it had awesome air con, nice leather seats and one of the TV’s which shows footage from the front camera of the bus so that sad people like me who are used to driving can see whereabouts on the journey I am!
Whilst down there on the Friday Bex and Amelia came and met me up in London, we went for some food, played in the fountain at Trafalgar Square, walked to Leicester Square, headed to Hamley’s for the Amelia, but she’d fell asleep by that point so we headed back to Charing X and to Chav Central, er, Gravesend That evening we watched Britain’s Got Talent. I narked through the whole lot Saturday we went to Greenwich to have fun in the park because it was roasting. I played for ages in the park, then we ate at a Noodle Bar, but not Noodle Time. The food was okay, rice not so much. They didn’t accept card so I went to the cash point, was pre-occupied and walked away without taking my money, returned literally ten seconds later and it was gone. So there was £20 down the pan ;( Went home, watched Planes, Trains & Automobiles which is my favourite film, ever, kinda. Sunday was spent just chillin’ with my Pot Noodle Family and then catching the coach back home. Unfortunately this coach was driven by some random Scouser who had managed to bash his air conditioning unit to the point (with a screwdriver, I was watching) that it was stuck on 29c! Meant roasting all the way back.
Obviously Amelia was just cute throughout and I even got a few kisses, biiig hugs and “I love you”’s… Yep, I’m smitten I also got a lot of jumping on my manly parts so I’m kinda stuck with a high pitched tone!
Work has been going up and down. I really like Nicola, she has the social skills of a, er, something with none. But she gets the job done and, unlike actual manager that is returning this coming Monday, actually supports me. Which is really good. We’ve managed to get the shops looking really good whilst she’s been here, it’s a shame she can’t stay here, but all good things must come to an end.
The week before, bank holiday weekend, Bex came up here which was really nice. I (we?) cooked a Sunday roast! Went out for the Saturday night with Chris and Em from work which was really nice as it’s the first ‘couple’ date I’ve been on for… probably forever! We started out at a nice steak place, then went to play pool for the rest of the night. All good fun and really good company. Hope we can do it again, soon.
Okay, that’s pretty much me for now.
did she ever marry… Oh what’s his face? B
* Picture is ’stolen’ from a flickr user who had set their photo to CC. Rock on!
Because I’m lazy and because I’ve got a really achey tooth, here’s a lazy entry….
1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
Don’t do proms over here, but have never really been to anything like that at school either. I’m sad?
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
Afraid not.
3. What was your 1st alcoholic drink?
What was that orange-y alcoholic drink? Reef?
4. What was your FIRST job?
Paper round for Mr Singh… first ‘real’ job was working for Mercury News Shop (Northcliffe Retail.)
5. What was your FIRST car?
Ford Fiesta. G reg. With the registration DRE. Dr Dre
6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
Rebecca
7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
Oddly my boss, as she rang me. Early.
8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
My first teacher that I remember was a lady called Miss Summers (no shit) who I fancied for so long and imagined she’d be called Mrs. Cook. What, I was like 6!
9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
Amsterdam, with Charlotte, her Dad and two brothers.
10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?
A guy called Racheet. He moved away and we stayed in touch for a bit then it faded. Sadly no ;(
11. Where was your FIRST sleep over??
I haven’t the foggiest.
12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
Nicola, my boss. She wanted to know where some fittings were.
13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
I think my cousins, where I was a paige boy. Possibly?
14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
Shouted at myself for not putting my phone on quiet last night.
15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Bowling for Soup – Nottingham’s Rock City.
16. FIRST tattoo?
Haven’t got one, don’t want one. Don’t like them.
17. First piercing?
As above.
18. First foreign country you’ve been to?
France.
19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?
All Dogs go to Heaven.
20. When was your FIRST detention?
I think it was in year 10 or so…
21. What was the first state you lived in?
None of them? Leicestershire?
22. Who was your FIRST roommate?
Michelle & Alex in Chilwell
23. If you had one wish. What would it be?
For unlimited wishes, obviously!
24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance?
Tact
25. Who do you think will be the next person to post this?
Everyone in the world on Facebook.
I have to say these were pretty shitty questions overall. Let’s try another load that I found…
200. My middle name is: Adam, after Adam and the Ants. My mum actually wanted to call me Brett Adam and the Ants Cook. Thankfully my Dad stopped her.
199. I was born on: 14th October 1982
198. I am really shy/loud: Shy
197. My cell phone company is: Orange – they suck.
196. My eye color is: Malteaser Brown
195. My shoe size is: 10.
194. My ring size is: Er? Fat?
193. My height is: Five feet something.
192. I am allergic to: Peanuts
191. I was born in: Leicester Royal Infirmary
190. I live in: Wilmslow, Cheshire
189. The book I am reading: Lord of the Flies
188. My bed: …in my bedroom?
187: One thing you hate about yourself: My achey tooth ;(
186. My favorite childhood memory: Er, I haven’t got one. How sad.
185. My first pet’s name was: Bill, a fish.
179. My favorite Holiday was: Er, France or Cornwall… One of the two.
177. The last song I downloaded: Lifehouse
176. Last song that made me cry was: Can’t say I’ve ever been moved to cry by a song!
175. Are you taken or Single: Taken
174. If your taken, by who: Ms. Chubb
173. Do you like being single/taken: No, I hate it. :rolleyes:
170. What did you do last night: The same as I do everynight – try to take over the world, one WHS at a time.
142. Love at first sight: That’s not really a question, is it?
141. Luck: of the Irish?
140. Fate: John Locke believes in it. I believe in John Locke.
139. Yourself: Me, myself and I!
138. Aliens: Gotta be life on other planets, I mean Athena must be out there somewhere?
137. Heaven: It’d be nice. I’d never get past the bouncers though.
136. Hell: I’ve already started piling on the sun tan lotion in preparation!
135. Ghosts: Maybe, maybe not.
134. Horoscopes: …are for people who have no life ;P
133. Soulmates: No, because no one is 100% the same. There’s people who I’d say are pretty close to believing everything I believe, or people that are similar to me or people that I am insane friends with… but there’s no “one” person for everyone.
Do you prefer…
129. Hugs or Kisses: I prefer hugs – because I don’t give them willy nilly they mean a lot
128. Drunk or High: Neither?
127. Phone or Online: Online, I can have three conversations at once.
126. Red heads or Black hair: Red heads.
125. Blondes or Brunettes: This one could get me in trouble. But the other half is a deviation from the rule
124. Hot or Cold: Cold.
123. Summer or winter: Winter.
121. Chocolate or vanilla ice cream: Half baked.
120. Night or Day: Evening. Sunset *sigh*
119. Oranges or Apples: Orange. Nom nom nom!
118. Curly or Straight hair: Curly if brown or red, straight if black or blonde. Bizarre, I know.
116. Abortion: Depends on the circumstance.
115. Backstabbers: Why not? Everyone needs a hobby.
114. Parents: Er, yes?
Last time I…
103. Went out of town: Out of Wilmslow, er, the other week to Liverpool. Out of the North West, the other week to Bexville.
102. Had food: Hot Dogs. Nom!
101. Seen someone I haven’t seen in a while: Saw an old supervisor from Liverpool randomly flying out of T2 the other night.
100. Cried in front of someone: I’ve never cried in front of anyone.
90. Who is the ditziest person you know: Half of my workforce? One of them seriously asked “Where is Europe?” the other day.
89. Who makes you laugh the most: Pretty much all my friends, I like them for their comedic value – even if they don’t realise they are funny
87. The last movie I watched: Role Models – Stiffler
82. What I don’t understand is: Women!
80. The most unsatisfactory answer I’ve ever received is: “We’re updating our records – it shouldn’t happen again”
79. Something I will miss when I leave home is: Er, I’ve already left. The thing I miss the most is always having my Mum and Martyn close by
78. The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: Having Bex up at the weekend, my sister’s wedding, the summer.
77. The thing that I’m not looking forward to is: Bex going back?
76. Tomorrow: Work, work and maybe some more work!
75. Today: Clear up some bills for the house, get some new shoes as the previous ones had more than 5 holes in them and got absolutely pissed on by the lovely rain.
74. Next Summer: Is more than 12 months away. Would want to be living down south, but I’ve been saying that for the last 3 years, so I imagine I’ll be even further up north!
73. Next Week: Monday off! Tuesday – Saturday, in work. ;(
67. People call me: Brett, Mr Cook, Brettles (old school people), Brettney (Leah), Mole (Internet people) or Mr Mole, Mr B (some old-work people) or just B.
66. The person who knows the most about me: I’d say my Mother of everything up to current. But possibly Charlotte up to 3 years ago.
60. The most difficult thing to do is: Think of new and interesting answers to these questions. That or dry clothes in this flat!
59. I have gotten a speeding ticket: Yes, in Chilwell Nottingham. Now gone off my license, though.
56: My Zodiac sign is: Librarara
55. The first person I talked to today was: As above, my boss.
54. First time you had a crush: My first crush? I think was a girl called Leanne?
53. The one person who can’t hide things from me: I’m fairly unobservant, so anyone
52. Last time someone said something that you were thinking: I don’t think anyone is as gutter minded as me to do it
51. Right now im talkin to: Crishna Simmons.
50. What is your dream job: Thought I had one, but I don’t ;(
49. First job: Mercury News
48. I have a job at: WHSmith Travel @ Manchester T2
47. I have these pets: A little kitten – kinda
46. I hope: for peace?
45. The worst sound in the world: My work phone ringing.
44. The person that makes me cry the most is: No one?
35. Florida or Hawaii: Hawaii, LOST!
33. My favorite piece of clothing is: Any of my awesome geek-y tees.
32. My favorite sport is: Formula 1
31. Last time I cried: When I hurt myself as a kid?
30. My friends are: lovely?
29. My computer is: in need of an upgrade, but serves it’s job… Linux based goodness.
27. Last person I got mad at: I’m sure it’d be one of my staff.
22. The all-time best movie is: Oh, a hard one.
21. The all-time best thing in the world is: Lazing in bed, all warm and snuggly!
18. The most annoying person you know is: Paula at work?
17. I lose respect for people who: Are abusive.
16. The movies I have cried at are: None… if I could cry I would have at Wall-E
15. Friends: Yes!
14. Favorite website: Google Reader Oh, that’s a cheat? Daily WTF, Digg, All About Symbian and other similar stuff then.
12. And tonight, I want to be: Matthew, tonight I will be Stephen Colbert!
11. The worst pain I was ever in was: When I split my head open and had to have stitches ;(
10. My favorite word is: Awesome.
9. My room is: Small…
8. My favorite celebrity is: Jon Stewart
5. My weakness is: my knees…?
4. What I like in girls: all sorts?
3. Had your heartbroken: Well, she ran off with my best friend.. What do you think? God, I miss him
2. One thing that makes you feel great is: A nice latte.
1. You filled out 200 questions because: Crishna was ignoring me :p
And I’ve just upgraded Wordpress with their awesome online updater.. Worked like a charm – times have changed from the days when I first installed and got phpBB v1 working on my webspace!
This week has been abso-fucking-lutely knackering. I am so God-damned tired and I still have three days till I get a day off. Thankfully, I’ve got the whole of the bank holiday weekend off so that I can see teh Bex – but I fear I’ll be too knackered to do anything except demand that she cooks for me :p
Work is finally getting sorted, possibly. Last week I had three refits all happening at the same time and then my old/new/not back yet boss had the cheek to slag off the store standards when I’ve got 3 less managers than normal (store manager, other sales and books) and an Ops manager that sits in her office all day and never offers a hand and then demands that my staff run her up bits of paper or go and help out in support areas, argh! But anyways, must rise above it.
Just watched the Office and… yay! I hate that everything is currently going into a season break, that’s the last office of S5 now and another show that has ended on a cliffhanger, although nowhere near as huge as the Lost cliffhanger. OMFG!
I don’t really have a lot to say as not much has happened in my life in the past few days.
* I’ve had a haircut and paid £18 for it. I feel robbed because it looks and feels just like it does when I go for a haircut at a normal place where they charge £6. But when I was walking round Wilmslow this afternoon I only noticed the high-end barber shops. Apparently the hairdressers I used was one that is big with the big footballers and is Ronaldo’s (?) lucky barbers. But then pretty much every shop in Wilmslow is visited by a famous person all the time.
* I have just watched the finale for Series 5 of Lost and I have got to say… OH MY FREAKING JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR OF A GOD! Wow, that was one amazing episode. And how anyone can dispute that this is the best TV show currently airing (and possibly of all time) should just go and immerse themselves in watching the seasons back to back and enjoying the ride through Lindelof and Cuse’s mind!
Obviously if you haven’t watched the two hour finale ‘The Incident‘ don’t read on! Go watch it now and then come back.
* Locke is dead, however there is a new version of his body that has been inhabited by this creepy new character known merely as Samuel or Jacob’s Enemy.
* Jacob is much younger than I expected and, thankfully, isn’t Christian Shepard. He does, however, posess the same powers that Richard seems to have of never getting older. I loved Locke’s reference to Richard not aging. Slight nod to the fans methinks.
* Jacob and “Enemy” watched the Black Rock appear. I love how they manage to tie everything together.
* Jacob was there at all the key character’s big turning points. Kate first stealing, Sawyer starting to write his note, Jack first screwing up and then fixing someone, Hurley leaving jail, Sayid losing Nadia and the best… Brining Locke back to life after he fell out of the window. Sorry, was pushed out of the window. Are we to assume that Jacob has some sort of Heroes’ like powers?
* Bernard, Rose and VINCENT return!
* Again the phrase “Live together, die alone” was used, uttered by the sadly departed Juliette as they go to rescue bloody Jack.
Bits I didn’t notice on the first watching…
* Kate was on the rob with her soon to be fatal boyfriend. Tom? Ted? I really can’t remember his name, just that he ended up as a Dr.
* This is the first finale from what I can remember that didn’t involve Sayid kicking some serious ass, but instead saw him shot by the tosswanker Roger “Workman” Linus.
How the fuck am I going to wait till 2010 for this show to come back!? What the hell guys!
I’d comment on all the insane homophobia and cringeworthy-ness in The Apprentice this week, but it was just too funny to watch Mona fumble her way through telling us that Kent wouldn’t want “The Gays” and asking that man/woman (seriously, what was she?!) what sex she was, I didn’t think she could top her awful “Pantsman” presentation (seriously, if you’ve never seen that – watch it!) Sadly, there is no clips up on YouTube yet of Mona’s other cringeworthy stuff. Whoever thought she was good as a front woman needs shooting!
Only 7 days now until the Bex comes up here, sadly without the little Pud who I miss so much Just gotta find something to keep us entertained now and maybe buy some food to put in the cupboards!
I don’t really have a lot to put today as I’m pretty knackered and haven’t had anything non-work really happen. I’m slightly pissed that I’ve gone way over minutes for this month and Bex has ran out of freebie texts so it’s been limited to a few phone calls from work and texts and what not. But c’est la vie. Damn Orange and their stingy plans! Also, I’m really cursing the n85 lately, at the moment it still suffers from immature firmware and whilst there seems to have been updates for pretty much every other device that was released at the same time the n85 is still stuck on it’s v11.x firmware. Which, according to Steve Litchfield from AAS, is a buggy number. I want a v20, or 21! But no matter how many times I click Check for Updates it comes back with none available.
Some of the huge problems that still occur on a day to day basis:
* Random call disconnects due to “losing the signal” when you’ve not moved or done anything. This also occurs when using Mobile Internet, sometimes the connection and signal strength will drop to 0 for about 2/3 minutes then come back at full strength.
* Sometimes, even in full signal, you can’t make a call with “Connection Error” being displayed.
* Crashes within the music player on changing track, fine now that I use my Sansa player for walking to work. But back when I was commuting between Liverpool and Manchester every day having the phone full on crash and having to remove the battery whilst trying to concentrate on driving up the motorway could possibly be considered as dangerous!
* Will NOT save the voicemail number, so everytime I get the message popping up that says “1 New Voicemail(s)” and I hit “Listen” it then prompts me to enter the number for Voicemail, tells me it’s saved it and then dials and promptly loses it! Considering when I’m at work I have both phones on me and people trying to call both I do get quite a lot of Voicemails it’s a pain in the ass. Hell, even the work’s 6300 which runs S40 does this!
* Any photos looked at with the computer drop out of “Captured” in the phone and fall into the “All” group, where it’s lumped with contact photos, album art etc meaning it’s a pain to search through. Also means I *never* have anything under the months views! What is the point of the new software, just having the old Gallery was better. I mean who tags photos on their phone?!
* Video capture is HORRIBLY jumpy when used with location data. It’s possibly as it’s trying to get a GPS fix, but has ruined a couple of videos of Capturing funny “in the moment” moments, Amelia and, also, Lois. Grrr!
Anyways, I mustn’t moan as I’m stuck in this contract for the next 12 months! But I *really* fancy the 5800, so maybe if Ovi Store turns out to be any good I’ll have a look at getting one on the cheap from eBay or something at some point in the future. Or I’ll probably just stick with the n85 until I’m up for renewal as I loathe to pay for phones. Especially when I give them my business every month! :p
We’re currently moving our stock room from landside to airside at work, which started with all the racking being moved, so all the stock is on the floor and now we have the laborious job of hand balling all the stock through the x-ray machine and taking across to airside. When it’s about £500,000 worth of stuff it’s gonna take us a while!
Anyways, I’m cooking kebabs, veg and potatoes… yum!
I turn pale when she walks by, I am lost in her eyes B
I know I’ve littered my last few posts with pictures… but I’ve been insanely busy with work and… well, I’m lazy! Here’s another one anyway. Love it.
So the past week I’ve been an eco friendly kinda guy and commuting to and from work via the train and walking. Oddly the largest part of the journey is the mile and a bit walk to the train station, which takes about 20 minutes at brisk pace and 35 on the way home where I have to climb up the hill on “Cow Lane” (no, really.) Once I get to the train station it takes 7 minutes to get to the airport. Something backward about that, I think. But I think once I’ve sold my car I’ll invest in a cheap push-bike and bike to the station, where there is bike lockups and then catch the train thus cutting my whole house to work time to about 20 minutes, very acceptable. Plus I figure this will get me trim and in shape (well, apart from the eating crap part of my life!) But it will build up my legs and arms, which is good. Even if I do have a fat belly which I do thank all my colleagues for continually reminding me of! Cheers guys! :p
Other random news:
* Nicola (new temp boss) has gone on holiday for 2 weeks. We’ve gotta keep up the awesome work that we’ve been doing whilst she’s been here to convince the airport and area manager that we’re not just awesome because she’s here but that we’re awesome generally. Hopefully we can do this as the stores look amazing lately and we’ve had 3 consecutive audits of store standards (on my 3 shops I might add ) of 92, 93 and 95%! I think Nicola has been what the terminal has needed and I’ll be sad to see her go at the end of it, but hope that we can keep up the momentum once OldBoss comes back. I’m sure we will as 90% of the guys have worked hard to keep it like this…
* I’m now officially a house dweller after signing up for council tax. So that’s now Gas, Electric, Water and Council Tax taking money off me every month. Greedy bastards!
* More of my family have signed up to Facebook. I can’t go anywhere these days
* Re-watched the amazing John Duttine-bearded Day of the Triffids last night. I can’t wait till the BBC’s new version comes out. It has Eddie Izzard which is beyond awesome, although as Torrence :/ Joely Richardson and it also has Jason Priestley who whilst did do 90210 which we can’t really let him off for was AMAZING as a psychotic bad guy in the other Post Apocalyptic show that I love, Jeremiah. Which was pretty much what The Tribe should of been. But anyways, I’m just hoping that the BBC don’t screw it up like they did with the re-imagined version of Survivors last year.
* Just on a post apocalyptic note; Earth Abides by George R Stewart is pretty damn awesome. I need to get myself some more books for reading on the train too! I think I shall join my store’s Book Club!
That’s pretty much it, I lead a fairly dull life! It’s true…
Did you fall in love or did you just wanna get some? B
26 years old. A geek working in retail. Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex user. Watcher and listener of many Podcasts. Lost Addict. Nokia N85 owner. Tube lover. Talks about crap. Lover of much music. Eternally poor. Part time web hacker. Kinda-multi-lingual. Cynical & sarcastic. And, quite possibly, everyone's favourite Mole.
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…starts off sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.
…When I’m back in 15 minutes, I wont forget you are.
..I’m a lost cause, not a hero. But I’ve got to prove them wrong, it’s me against the world.
The cat also really liked this song as she stopped pawing at the dressing gown and looked at the laptop. She knows.
It’s being held at a hotel in 
…’cause I’m flipping gosh darn sick of all the S words you put me through
…I’m at the corner just in time to see the bus fly by.
.jpg "Tickly Spider")
I don’t really have a lot to put today as I’m pretty knackered and haven’t had anything non-work really happen. I’m slightly pissed that I’ve gone way over minutes for this month and Bex has ran out of freebie texts so it’s been limited to a few phone calls from work and texts and what not. But c’est la vie. Damn 
