Darwin
Posted: Wed 31 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »Sometimes you just have to wonder what goes through people’s minds. In this case, that of a man who decided to let his 7-year old son drive the car on the M5 motorway – from the passenger seat. Dad had been drinking, but just how much do you have to drink before that seems like a good idea?
Battling On
Posted: Wed 31 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 6 Comments »Interesting idea in a story in the Guardian today. Apparently Peterborough council has had a problem with fights between “goths” and “chavs” in the city centre, and has tried to defuse it by sending them off to shoot at each other in local woodland.
In a lot of ways I hope it works – if a scheme like this can release some of the inter-clique tensions, and also take that tension out of the town centre where apparently it’s also been affecting other members of the public, then it may even be a good thing. Of course there’ll also be the lobby bleating on about how it promotes guns and blah blah blah, but if it’s done as an obvious game along with adequate safety information etc., I still think it’s probably going to be beneficial.
Being organised
Posted: Wed 31 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts Leave a comment »One of the sadder aspects of my life is that I still actually own – and use – a FiloFax. Thankfully they no longer seem to have the “yuppie” overtones of the 80s, which is no bad thing. I have used electronic organisers too, but find that invariably they’re a pain in the arse, and that I can’t be arsed to go through all the gubbins in order to simply write a note, or a reminder, or just look up a phone number.
In some ways I’m just so not a techie. But I digress.
The only time when a Filofax is more of a pain in the arse than something electronic is when it comes to the diary. I’ve just bought a new diary for 2006, and so I’ve got to trawl through 2005, making a note of all the important dates, anniversarys, birthdays, etc., and make sure they’re carried forward into the 2006 one. I’ll also then make sure I archive off (for which read : open the binder and take out the pages) all the older stuff, which has the happy side effect of making the bloody thing less heavy again.
At some point I really should also go through and tidy up the addresses/phone number pages too, as some have been in there for four years or so. But I can’t be arsed. Maybe while I’m away.
Time Flies
Posted: Tue 30 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts Leave a comment »Yes, another post under the “time flies” banner. I really should make it into a category title – but then I’d look even sadder than I already am.
Anyway – while I was in Oxford I finally got round to buying a new pair of Cat boots from Oxford Boot Store, which is a bit of a return to form, as it’s where I always used to get my boots when I lived in the area. I knew I hadn’t had the other pair all that long (well, in Cat boot terms, anyway) and thought I’d look back on d4d™ to see when it was I got them.
So I looked back, and it turned out that it was in June last year, and I had to get the new boots in time to go for the wedding where Herself and I got together properly for the first time. Hard to believe they’ve been going as long as we have.
Lost – A Prediction
Posted: Tue 30 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts 5 Comments »OK, so we’re now four weeks in on “Lost” (Ok, five weeks in if you’re watching the next episode on E4 too – but I’m not, so it doesn’t count for purposes of this post) and I’ve a couple of predictions and thoughts…
Read the rest of this entry »
All quiet on the d4d™ front
Posted: Tue 30 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™ 1 Comment »Yesterday turned out to be one of those “can’t be arsed” days. I turned the PC on to get the emails, and then turned it off again. No idea why, but I just wasn’t in the mood to do much at all. Mind you, isn’t that what bank holidays are for?
It may be a bit quiet here next week too – we’re away for the week, so while I will probably leave some stuff to go up during the week, I’m not sure what else will be going on. Just have to wait and see, I suppose…
Muzzled
Posted: Sun 28 August, 2005 Filed under: Animals, Thoughts 1 Comment »Every so often I get accused of being far too derogatory about my fellow human beings – primarily because I apparently decide that they’re “all” (for which read “the great majority”) effing stupid, and normally with more feet than IQ points. On a charitable day I might allege that they’ve more digits than IQ points. But that’s about as far as it goes.
On the other hand, I sometimes believe that I still actually over-estimate the intelligence, common sense, and general willingness to continue living. Or at least living with a full complement of those aforementioned digits.
Today’s example…
If you were to see a bloody huge German Shepherd dog tied up outside a supermarket, with no owner in sight, would you approach it, saying “Oh, what a cute dog?” Possibly.
If the same dog were visibly pissed off and growling, would you still go up to it? Probably not.
If the same dog, as well as being pissed off and growling, was wearing a very solid muzzle – and let’s bear in mind, here, that German Shep’s aren’t listed under the Dangerous Dogs Act, and so don’t have to be muzzled in public – then would you go near it? Almost certainly a resounding “fucking hell, no” is the reaction here.
But no, as I came out of the supermarket, two stupid twats were trying to stroke it. Despite growling, hackles, and barking through the muzzle. Fortunately the owner came out just after me, and suggested that perhaps the twats should fuck off out of it before he decided to just take the muzzle off, and let the dog have some fresh meat. If you’d seen the owner, you’d have believed him too.
The point of this is that I was actually considering taking Hound down, and doing the same thing – she gets anxious and snappy when strangers come up to her, so I’d definitely have muzzled her, but I did think that having the muzzle on would suggest to people that she shouldn’t be approached. See what I mean about over-estimating now?
Windy Ridge
Posted: Sat 27 August, 2005 Filed under: Animals Leave a comment »Oh God, Hound has the farts. And trust me, they’re really really bad tonight. I think I may have to leave the computer for a few minutes…
Oxford
Posted: Sat 27 August, 2005 Filed under: Sweary, Thoughts, Travel 5 Comments »A quiet day today with not much planned, so I ended up going over to Oxford. I haven’t been there in a while, despite growing up (well, as much as I’ve ever grown up, anyway) in the area and so on, so I figured I might as well.
It was kind of weird being back in the city, actually – a lot has changed, including the infamous Cornmarket re-paving project that ran somewhere around £4.5m over budget. Mind you, from the state of people in Oxford, I can see why the council tried to make the centre “safer” and pedestrianise it – there’s just an amazing number of fuckwits who either dither out into the road for no good reason, or the shit-for-brains cunts who walk (fucking slowly) three abreast, thus meaning faster-moving people have to go out into the road instead.
Oh, and the woman with the five kids and a double buggy, saying “I’m going to belt someone in a minute” to her mate? Got news for you, love – you’re the fucking problem, not the solution. Shift your arse, stop talking to your mate who also has a double fucking buggy, and start looking where the fuck you’re walking, you mouthy scabarse.
So, what were my feelings about the place? It was nice to go back for a quick visit – and I managed to get some new Cat boots, among other things – but Jesus, I could never live there again. Too many people, too few IQ points – kind of sad, for a place renowned for its students and colleges.
Colours 2
Posted: Fri 26 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 5 Comments »I’ve been doing a bit of research into the colour-switcher up at the top of the page, following on from the question I asked earlier in the week. Basically, I started wondering which colours were the most popular (although I was pretty sure that yellow, as the default, would be highest) and least popular.
At the time of writing, the results are :
| Colour | No of uses | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | 2548 | 94.58% |
| White | 83 | 3.08% |
| Pink | 26 | 0.97% |
| Blue | 17 | 0.63% |
| Green | 8 | 0.3% |
| Red | 6 | 0.22% |
| Purple | 6 | 0.22% |
| Total Number of Records : 2694 | ||
I’m actually quite surprised how few people use alternative colours, and also that bloody Pink comes in so highly – it’s the colour scheme that I personally loathe the most (although Red comes a close second).
I may have a bit of a twat-about with some of the colour-schemes to make them a bit less offensive, but I don’t know – haven’t decided yet. It’s a thought for the future, anyway.
Ten Years On
Posted: Thu 25 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts 3 Comments »It really doesn’t seem like ten years today since Windows 95™® was released, does it?
Computers have changed radically in those ten years, and – in some ways – so has Windows. But still, bloody hell, ten years?
Then again, I realised last night – during a conversation where Herself discovered I can reel off all the letters on a keyboard in order without any prompting, and decided that as such I’m “irredeemably sad” – that I got my first computer 25 years ago. A cute little ZX80. Quarter of a century ago.
I’m just going to go off and have a cry now. Where’s my zimmer frame?
Forward Planning
Posted: Thu 25 August, 2005 Filed under: Music Leave a comment »There are days where I can be almost worryingly organised. Fortunately, they are few and far between.
Today, though, I’ve actually booked us tickets for the V festival. In 2006. Yes, tickets for a festival in a years time. How’s that for organised? In fairness it’s mainly because a) they’re selling them at ’05 prices instead of ’06, and b) because I’ll never remember in time when they go back on sale next June/July and sell out in three hours.
Of course, it could also turn out that the line-up next year is utter crap – but that’s the chances you take. Besides, I’m sure there’ll be more than enough there to keep us amused.
But all the same, dear christ, it amounts to being worryingly organised.
Vroom
Posted: Thu 25 August, 2005 Filed under: General, Travel 2 Comments »Yes, the new car got picked up last night – and very nice it is, too. And just in time too, as Herself is away to Somerset this weekend to help the charity we work with. They’re doing a “holiday weekend” which should be fun.
And I get to look after Hound.
Two Years On
Posted: Thu 25 August, 2005 Filed under: General, Music, Thoughts Leave a comment »Blimey, looking back through the archives, it’s now two years to the day since I saw Massive Attack last. It doesn’t seem anywhere near that long – time flies when you’re having fun. Reading through the archive for August 2003, it also means it’s just over two years since the house was broken into, and two years next month when I moved in to the next house, which turned out to be my last one in Manchester.
It also means that it’s now a year since I heard from a long-term friend who I fell out with. I didn’t write much about it at the time, but may do later in the week.
Colours
Posted: Wed 24 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Thoughts 8 Comments »I’ve just been norking about with one of the colour-schemes for the site, making it so it’s not quite as loud and nasty as it was. All of which made me wonder – which colour-schemes do people actually use?
So go on – which one do you use/prefer? Mine’s “worksafe” in general.
Coming to a phone near you
Posted: Wed 24 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, News, Thoughts 1 Comment »A couple of places this week have been talking about a new form of advertising, which sends out information from an advert billboard by Bluetooth to a mobile phone. Dubbed Bluecasting, you do have to have Bluetooth enabled and turned on on your phone in order to accept the data, but all the same it does make me wonder a bit.
First of all, as Bruce Schneier says, what’s to stop someone from sending a phone virus in this way, and secondly, would you trust information coming from an advertisement? I know I wouldn’t.
Personally, I always have Bluetooth switched off on my phone (and it needs a passcode in order to activate it) – but I suspect I’m in the minority on that score. A lot of people seem to leave it on all the time – in fact, 14,000 people accepted the data from the prototype adverts – although that was “only” 17% of the 87,000 Bluetooth enabled phones detected by the adverts in a two week period. To me that just seems like a great way to end up with a carked phone. But hey, what would I know?
Resetting
Posted: Tue 23 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky 4 Comments »Back in April we got Sky+ installed, and in general it’s been pretty good. OK, I still don’t like it as much as the TiVo we’ve got upstairs, and there’s some *cough* “functionality” on Sky+ that drives me up the wall (the inability to go back and see whatever was on while you were looking at the Sky+ menus, or programming something to record, for instance) but yeah, in general it’s been OK.
Over the last month or two though, we’ve been getting some problems – recordings had been coming up with “failed”, and the Sky+ box had managed to lose about 15% of its available space. I think it was the “failed” recordings that had actually succeeded, but because the box said “failed” it wouldn’t delete those items. But anyway, we could see that there was a chunk of space that we couldn’t access or record over. Unsurprisingly, after a while this was getting to be fucking annoying.
A couple of weeks ago we did a “Sky planner rebuild”, which restored some of the space (if anyone’s interested, if you hit Services, 4, 0, 1 Select in order, you get to a ‘secret’ menu with some options for doing this kind of thing. It doesn’t invalidate your warranty, but you do do this stuff at your own risk) but then it rapildy lost the reclaimed space again.
So on Sunday night we got rid of the last stuff that hadn’t been watched, went back to that ‘secret’ menu, and did a full system reset. It’s an easy task, but do make sure to write down all the stuff you were going to record, because it kills everything.
At the moment we’re back to having the full 100% back and recordable. Only time will tell whether the same problem occurs again. I hope not.
On a TiVo vs. Sky+ note, it’s also worth saying that I’ve had TiVo now since February 2003, and it hasn’t needed to be reset or reorganised at all. We’ve had Sky+ less than six months and it’s already needed a kicking. So, another cross in the Sky+ account.
Stag
Posted: Mon 22 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »Apparently it’s not just the costs of a marriage that are going up, but also the average spend at stag-dos and hen-nights, although men supposedly spend more than women (an average of £35 more, to be exact).
Quite honestly, I’ve never yet been on a stag-do (although bizarrely I have been on a couple of hen nights) – they’re just not something that really appeals to me, but then again, the entire “drink ’til you puke, then drink some more to wash away the aftertaste” concept has always been a bit beyond me anyway.
Supposedly it’s now the “done thing” to go off for a stag do in a foreign city – Prague, Amsterdam, etc. etc. Personally, if I’m going to those places I’d rather see something of them, instead of being the ubiquitous “Brit on the Piss”, or anything even close to that stereotype. Maybe that makes me boring, or an old fart – to be honest, I don’t care. What it does make me is (on average) £500 better off for every one I’ve never been on.
Sounds good to me!
Organ-ised
Posted: Mon 22 August, 2005 Filed under: Health 3 Comments »
The BBC this week is launching a season called “DoNation“, designed to make more people sign up to be organ donors. I’m not sure how useful it will be – but anything that gets more people to sign up is a good thing in my book.
Personally, I believe that the organ donation scheme should be one where you have to “opt out” rather than “opt in” – although on the BBC breakfast programme this morning there was a spokesman for the NHS who said that it shouldn’t be this way, because the donation of organs was a gift from a person, and as such should be seen that way, rather than a requirement. And when it’s phrased like that, I can’t disagree. All the same though, when you see how many people don’t sign up “because it’s too much effort”, you do start to wonder just how simple it has to be in order for people to do it. And if the situation were reversed, how many would actually “make the effort” to ensure they weren’t on the list?
In order to make things “easier”, the NHS has even sorted out a way to register online to be on the organ donor database. It’s an amazingly easy thing to do – one set of information, and that’s it. Or you can sign up by calling the NHS on 0845 60 60 400. Go on, it’s worth it.
Reality
Posted: Mon 22 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts, Weirdness 1 Comment »Just as we lose one piece of reality TV shite, yes, along comes another.
Is there any chance that people are going to get sick of these reality series? Personally speaking I’ve never seen the appeal of Big Brother, and as for the self-publicising aggrandisement that is Flop Idol/ Lame Academy/ Y? Factor/ Flopstars/ so forth, so fifth, it’s pretty much beyond me too.
A bunch of (loose terminology) singers, all doing covers, with no coverage given to those who can a) show any true originality, b) posess the skill to play any musical instrument (I suspect the triangle is beyond most of ’em) or c) show any talent or skill – like, say, song-writing. It’s just a variation on “money for old rope”.
The *cough* winner of the last Y? Factor admittedly managed a Number one single and album, but since then has already been dumped by his record label for not fulfilling his potential. Quite what the potential was, I don’t know – except as that aforementioned old rope merchant.
And as Herself said while watching bits of it,
“I bet there’s psychologists all over the country saying ‘I recognise that one – knew they’d be on something like this”
Slashing and Summary
Posted: Mon 22 August, 2005 Filed under: General Leave a comment »Well, today is truly not a summer’s day. It’s chucking it down – not quite a thunderstorm, but equally not far off. Still, at least I can just sit in the office and watch other people get wet. Much more fun.
The weekend was actually fairly busy in the end – failure to find the other two car dealerships resulted in us ending up just going for the car we were 98% certain to be getting anyway. Well, I say failure to find, but it actually amounts to “could see on the other side of the dual carriageway, and when we tried turning round there was no feasible way to do so without travelling round another four miles of Reading’s inescapable one-way system, so we thought ‘fuck this’ and went home”
So on Thursday we become the owners of a slate-grey Focus 1.6. It’ll do all we want, and should be a lot more fun.
Other than that, I finally got out and had a proper drivbe on my own. A lot of people had warned me that it was weird doing the first bit of proper driving without an instructor burbling “slow down, turn right, change gear, blah blah blah“, but to be honest I didn’t have any real issue with it at all. Still, it was fun.
I’m sure I’ll burble on more about these things later, but for now for some reason I’m just not in the mood…
Mr Big
Posted: Sun 21 August, 2005 Filed under: General 1 Comment »Caution: Criminal Mastermind at work.
Funniest thing all day.
Accessible?
Posted: Sat 20 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts Leave a comment »Would someone remind me why the blue blazing fiddly fuck I’m bothering to use Access at all? I’m realising more and more what an amazingly useless user-hostile bucket of fuckpigs it really is.
Sodding thing. Piece o’ crap.
Car hunting
Posted: Sat 20 August, 2005 Filed under: Resolutions, Travel Leave a comment »Over this weekend, we’re going to be looking at getting a new car. Not a completely brand-new “fresh from the garage” one, but a car that’s new to us, at least. Currently Herself has a Ford Fiesta, which is fine for her but for me is – let’s say – comical. I’m 6’4″, and built like the proverbial shithouse, so a Fiesta is kind of cramped and compact. Which is phrasing things tactfully.
Anyway, we’re going to be looking at going up a size when it comes to cars – we’re pretty sure of what we’ll be getting, it’s just dependent on fun stuff like price.
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll write more about it after the weekend, but yeah, that’s the kind of fun stuff that this weekend holds for us.
Badger
Posted: Fri 19 August, 2005 Filed under: Health, Thoughts 1 Comment »Over the last week I’ve been feeling – to put it tactfully – rougher than a badger’s arse in wintertime. It started last Friday on the train, where it was chuffing freezing thanks to an overzealous application of the air-conditioning. Probably going from train to smoky pub didn’t help in the long run, but anyway, by the end of the night my throat was feeling decidedly dodgy. Ah well, it’d been loud and smoky, it’ll wear off I’m sure.
How wrong I was. Saturday it was worse, and by the time I got home on Sunday I was beginning to sound like some kind of 0898 chatline porn bint, I was so husky. Generous dosings of paracetamol and so on have meant it’s eased off a fair bit over the course of the week, but now it’s Friday evening, and I’m back to feeling rough.
Sore throat, plus additional cold stuff (sneezing and snot, primarily) mean it’s likely to be another couple of days feeling blocked up and shitty.
I’m not going to make out it’s flu, or anything “male” like that – it’s just a bummer that I feel like shite. Ah well.
And why is it that these things always kick in on a weekend, rather than during the working week?
2,900
Posted: Fri 19 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™ 1 Comment »Somehow I’ve now managed to write a grand total (according to WordPress) of 2,900 posts on d4d™
That really is going some – just under 1,000 posts per year of d4d™’s life.
I really, really need to get out more, don’t I?
One Born Every Minute
Posted: Fri 19 August, 2005 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News 3 Comments »Sometimes you just have to wonder about people, don’t you? Today’s Barnum moment comes courtesy of Cornwall’s Trading Standards (although how they got involved, I’m not quite sure) and the story in the BBC today about a letter scam that’s been doing the rounds.
Basically, the letter comes with an enclosed Jack of Spades playing card, and tells the gullible fuckwit, sorry, recipient that they’ve been cursed, and that in order to rescind the curse they need to rip the card into quarters, and send it back to the sender wrapped in a £10 note. Now, duh, I’m sorry but send that to me, the fucker’s going in the bin.
Cursed? By post? Excuse me while I fall off my chair with laughter.
Quite honestly, anyone who does send the card and £10 back bloody well deserves to be fleeced. Call it a stupidity/gullibility tax and be done with it.
Courses
Posted: Fri 19 August, 2005 Filed under: Resolutions 2 Comments »It’s taken a long time to get round to happening, but I’ve finally signed myself on for a course or two from September at the local FE college. I’ve been banging on for a long time about OU stuff and the like, but well, I can’t deny it, I’ve just never really found a course that interests me that much – particularly if it’s going to be something I’ve got to keep on doing for five or six years, one way or another.
On an introspective front, I know I’m far too flighty, and my interests range too far, for sticking with one subject to be of much use or long-term benefit for me. That’s just being brutally honest – by the time I’ve studied something intensively for six years, I’m not likely to want to look at that subject again for at least a similar stretch of time.
So as a kind of halfway house, I’ve gone for a shorter course. The entire thing will take the best part of a year, but it’s in three modules of about 10 or 12 weeks at a time, which should help a lot on that score.
And the subject? Well, in line with a few plans we’ve got for the next year or so – of which more at a later date – I’m going to be starting off with a course on Book-keeping and business finances. Kind of scary, kind of grown-up, but also most definitely something that should come in useful what with one thing and another…
Hotel Chocolat
Posted: Thu 18 August, 2005 Filed under: Health, Resolutions 1 Comment »I know I mention this company on a semi-regular basis, but I still think that the stuff Hotel Chocolat do is – in general – bloody fantastic.
Herself got me one of their “Ultimate Chocolate Dipping Experience” boxes as a thing for me for passing that bloody driving test, and we opened it tonight. Wow.
The dried strawberries aren’t up to much – they rarely are – but the rest is fantastic so far. And of course if we really push it we’ll just get some small fresh strawbs when we have the rest of it over the weekend. Maybe even go to the local pick-your-own place. Hmm, now there’s an idea…
Posting the Changes
Posted: Thu 18 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 1 Comment »So, Royal mail are planning on changing the way posted items are charged for in one years time, and basing it on size and weight. This could be quite interesting – a small heavy parcel will cost more to send than a large light one, for example.
Of course, it’ll also be a thousand times more confusing. If there’s no simple rule ( i.e. First Class items under 60g cost 28p, or whatever ) then most people simply won’t know what to pay for postage. I suspect Royal Mail are hoping that either they’ll just pay over the odds “to make sure it gets there”, or that they’ll use Post Offices more.
The second option is more likely to be the one that people go for, but there’s a problem with it – Post Offices are fucked up, with normally huge queues already. So how will this scheme make them any better?
Showing Restraint
Posted: Thu 18 August, 2005 Filed under: Photography, Thoughts 3 Comments »Last weekend while I was in Manchester I made a very bad move. We went in to the Jessops camera store, and I had a serious look at the three main contenders on my Digital-SLR list. For those with a short memory span, the list is
The main thing I’m still unsure about is whether I should go for a more “entry level” SLR like the 350d or the slightly more advanced/complicated 20d. The 350d is currently running at about £650 including a lens, and the 20d is about £1200. Oh, and the Fuji is closer to the £2000 mark, which is the main thing that puts it out of the running in my estimation.
Anyway, I looked at all three, and I think I’m most likely coming down in favour of the 20d. But we’ll see.
And in the meantime, I did manage to show some restraint, and actually not just buy one and the hell with it. This may be more of a problem next month, when I’ve been paid an obscene amount again…
Cashing In
Posted: Wed 17 August, 2005 Filed under: General 1 Comment »I see that the government is already trying to help party contributors advertisers and corporate entities by introducing the ‘2012 Act’ or (more properly) the Olympics Bill, which (among other things) would “make it illegal to combine words like “games”, “medals”, “gold”, “2012”, “sponsor” or “summer” in any form of advertising”.
Technically, this would also mean that you could get fined for using the sentence “We do not sponsor any of the medals in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games”.
Again, I wittled on about this last year for the 2004 Athens Games, where they had a very specific and detailed policy for ‘all’ hyperlinks relating to the games. But this legislation is whole orders of magnitude worse. With luck, it’ll get changed and amended in the meantime.
Observant
Posted: Wed 17 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts 6 Comments »A week ago, I got my replacement Switch (sorry, Maestro) card – the old one had been in my wallet for a year and was bent/cracking to within an inch of its life. That’s about normal.
Anyway, I got the card, and just shoved it in my wallet, as usual. Nothing special. I’ve used it since, so the old card is now a piece of worthless (and cracked) plastic, and I’ve got to re-remember my new card number, which is a bit of a pain in the arse, but I’ll do it. Such is life. At least they didn’t change the PIN this time without telling me they were going to. Always a good thing.
However, I did do one thing differently. Not consciously, because I’ve only just realised it today. But I didn’t sign the back. Oh whoops, oh bugger, oh chuff, I hear you cry. And yes, you’d be right. Except, and here’s the thing – I’ve been using the card. Not just online, but in shops. And I’m sure I’ve done at least one transaction where I’ve had to sign it, rather than using the PIN.
Which all goes to show, I suppose, just how few places actually check signatures etc. in the first place. It’s a bit worrying really, isn’t it?
Whoops
Posted: Wed 17 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts Leave a comment »So, it’s slowly emerging that the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes was even worse than had previously been speculated. I’ve suspected that this story was going to be a nightmare (and have said so previously) and now it looks like going roughly the way I thought.
So now the media are already asking “what went wrong?”. I’d be more tempted to ask “what went right?” – because the answer to the former is “everything” and to the latter is “nothing”. Let’s look at the list…
- Menezes wasn’t positively identified as the suspect when he left the building, because the relevant officer was having a piss. Good start
- Menezes wasn’t wearing a heavy coat, and was actually wearing a denim shirt/jacket
- Menezes perhaps ran to catch a train that was already at the platform
- Menezes wasn’t warned he was being followed, or given a warning before being shot
- Menezes wasn’t positively identified as the suspect, although it seems that assumptions were made that “someone else” had identified him
Is there even that much of a resemblance between the two men?
Suspect :Target :
The entire thing is a catalogue of screw-ups, errors, and mis-communication. With no warning being given, 8 shots to the head, and that (according to the leaked documents) he was being held down by a community police officer before being shot, surely this just looks more and more like an execution?
Safari
Posted: Tue 16 August, 2005 Filed under: Travel Leave a comment »Looks like – well, in some circumstances at least – the Comedy Smart Car and it’s ilk are at risk from more interesting things than just ‘everything else on the road’.
Helpful
Posted: Tue 16 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Weirdness Leave a comment »According to the BBC, a road in Oxfordshire is to be closed for resurfacing on Thursday. This is the full “story”
Drivers are being warned that a part of a road in Oxfordshire will be shut for resurfacing work.
A section of Wykham Lane will be closed between the A361 Bloxham Road and White Post Lane for one day on Thursday.
The county council said to avoid confusion with the continuing closure of the A361 at South Newington there would be no diversion signs.
The emergency services and those residents who live within the closed area, will still have access.
Now OK, I’m sure that’s useful – but where is it in Oxfordshire? – No town is given! The only location it reveals is that it is (I assume) somewhere near Stoke Newington.
So perhaps not as helpful as it could’ve been…
Updating
Posted: Tue 16 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Sweary 2 Comments »Ah, that was one (thanks, Gordon) – Windows Bloody Update.
At work I’m using Windows XP, along with all the latest updates including the dreaded SP2. It’s not too bad – and I might as well get used to it, as the new PC I’m going to be building is going to run on it too. Anyway, I did all the updates the other day, and then got nagged every ten fucking minutes to restart the computer.
I didn’t want to restart the keffing thing, as it was in the middle of doing that log analysis, and I didn’t want to have to restart that either. So I kept on saying “no, do it later” – everyone in the office could tell when I was clicking it, because the comment of “No I don’t, now fuck off!” got louder as the day wore on.
But now, thanks to Gordon and his link, I have fixed it for the future. If anyone else wants to know, do the following :
Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc -> Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations.
Fuckin’ brilyunt.
Drafts
Posted: Tue 16 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Thoughts Leave a comment »You know, sometimes I really think I should set myself up a proper list of draft posts, just for days like today when I’ve got about 8 things I know I was going to remember to write, but of course now I’ve forgotten what they were.
Maybe I should just carry a notebook around – or, hey, use some of the pages in my filofax – now there’s a novel idea! It just gets so frustrating sometimes, knowing there were things I was thinking “Yeah, I’ll leave that ’til tomorrow to write about”, and now thinking “What the fuck was it I was going to say?”.
So yeah, I may just end up with a little notebook or something (or use that Filofax) to get some more productivity out of all this. We’ll see.
Repellent
Posted: Tue 16 August, 2005 Filed under: Health, Weirdness 1 Comment »This story contains one of the creepiest things I’ve seen in a long time. The first “Mr. Afghanistan”, a body-builder. And is it me, or is he actually gold?
Personally I’ve never been able to see the appeal in bodybuilding, particularly to this kind of extreme. It’s just grotesque.
Quite, Quite Barmy
Posted: Mon 15 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Travel Leave a comment »I love this story, which perfectly illustrates that we really can be quite cracked on occasion.
A family were travelling on the M11 in Kent when a gust of wind blew the 10 year old child’s cuddly toy out of the window. The family turned round at the next junction (which shows a degree of common sense, rather than the “oh, we’ve got to stop straight away” method that many seem to adopt) and discovered that the toy was in the central reservation. Again, rather than being brain-dead and trying to run across three lanes of high-speed traffic (which I know has been done before) they carried on, but called the highway police. ( I don’t know, but I suspect they didn’t even use 999 to do so – all due respect for them being sane)
The motorway police, being utter barmpots, managed to rescue the toy by setting up a “rolling road-block” to protect an officer walking onto the central reservation to pick up the toy. In effect they closed an entire section of a motorway to pick up a kids toy, and then post it to the family.
Mad as Cheese, but definitely a great story!
“Food”
Posted: Mon 15 August, 2005 Filed under: General, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »The weekend in Manchester was actually really good, despite the weather taking on a rather soggy turn on Saturday.
One place we went that I hadn’t previously visited was the food hall in Selfridges, which was definitely worthwhile. (and resulted in the purchase of some fantastic cheeses. I could’ve spent far more than I did, but decided to be good, for once) However, there was one small section that was just manky – which was the part run by Edible.
Edible specialise in foodstuffs that most people would go “yuck” at. Giant Ants, Snake Vodka, Thai Green Crocodile Curry, that kind of thing. Fair enough, I don’t mind the ants per se, and several other things – but really, coffee beens that’ve been passed through an animal already? I’ll pass, cheers. (pardon the pun) As for Hornet Honey, again, I just don’t see the attraction.
Maybe I’m getting boring in my old age, but while there’s a certain gross-out factor in Edible’s stuff, I really don’t like the attitude that goes with it.
Lost
Posted: Mon 15 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »I wonder if Channel 4 are currently shiteing it a bit, what with having spent millions on “Lost“, only for there to be a plane crash in Greece that killed all passengers. Will Ep. 3 of Lost be shown on Wednesday? Who knows…
Gobsmacked
Posted: Mon 15 August, 2005 Filed under: Travel 1 Comment »In my travels to and from Manchester this week, courtesy of the oft-maligned (and sworn at) Virgin Trains, I was truly amazed to realise that both my journeys were actually on time. It’s unnatural. Maybe they knew it was likely to be my last long-distance trip with them, considering the events of last Thursday.
So yes, all went well – with the minor exception of the pissed Irish twat who thought “Quiet Zone” meant “get pissed and keep on trying to sing your way through the four hour journey”. But well, that’s what headphones were designed for. (I should point out that in the “Quiet Zone” (which never is) you’re also not supposed to use personal stereos or mobile phones, but my headphones are linked in to the laptop, so I kind of squeeze through that one)
Content Management
Posted: Sun 14 August, 2005 Filed under: General Leave a comment »In my spare time, as well as working on a couple of websites and so on (Yes, Si, I know, yours is one of them – no excuses other than just generally being crap, though) I’m slowly working on the concept and initial code for a photographic content management system so I can do a photoblog as well as the stuff within WordPress. It probably won’t site on d4d™, because I do want to keep them seperate (and I’ve a buttload of webspace just sitting around doing sod-all) but the ideas are slowly coming together for how it’ll all work.
However, I think I really do need to get out more, rather than working on geeky stuff like this all the time. Ah well, maybe one day…
Banned
Posted: Sat 13 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 1 Comment »Earlier this week there was a story about whether an Islamic preacher can be kept out of the UK despite his avowed intention to return. As part of the surrounding coverage, there was talk about the UK government “banning” certain Islamic/Islamist groups.
When will governments learn that banning something doesn’t make it go away? Instead, it just goes underground (Oooh, sorry, connecting “Islamic radicals” and “underground” isn’t the wisest move, is it?) and becomes even more removed and secretive.
Banning anything makes it more glamourous and attractive, a sign of “rebellion” etc. etc. Whether it’s a chart single (think “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, for a perfect example), a “sport” (cock-fighting, dog-fighting, badger-baiting, the list is endless), firearms (now an increasing problem – and yes, I did nearly say “exploding” problem – since the banning of handguns after Dunblane) or anything else – as soon as its banned, it becomes impossible to police.
In this case, any savvy “radical Islamic priest” is also going to be able to say “look how dangerous we are, the government tries to silence us, and yet we’re still here”. Being banned just adds “glamour” to the group, and then the longer they continue unabated, the more it looks like they’re the ones who are winning in this supposed War against Terror.
Weekend
Posted: Fri 12 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Travel 1 Comment »This weekend I’m away up to Manchester to see friends. It’s the first time I’ve been there this year, and it’s going to be quite fun seeing the old place again.
There’ll still be a couple of posts to go up over the weekend though – don’t you just love the delayed publishing stuff in WordPress?
Übercreepy
Posted: Fri 12 August, 2005 Filed under: Weirdness 1 Comment »via GreenFairy comes one of the creepiest things I’ve seen in a long time.
The Egg Babies are individually hand sculpted in polymer clay. The babies range in size from 2 to 5 inches.
The eggshell underscores the fragility of the life of a baby in the womb.
Yick, Yick, and thricely Yick.
Eventually
Posted: Thu 11 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Resolutions 7 Comments »Well, that’s one success that was well and truly deferred.
Test One was back in ’98, down in Dorchester in Dorset. I failed horrifically, having stalled the car on a hairpin hill curve while on the way back from Weymouth to Dorchester. And rolled back bigtime. Not an auspsicious start.
Test Two came three months later, and put me off driving for a very long time, by the forty-five minutes I’d spent with every other road user trying to kill me. It was market-day, and (among other things) I was nearly side-onned by an idiot coming out of a side-road, rear-ended by a speeding coach, and narrowly avoided a slow-moving (OK, Stationary) skip on a blind corner.
Test Three was in 2003 in Manchester. Another failure for “failing to do proper observations”. I still argue the toss on that one, but well, it’s all in the past now. Bizarrely it again involved a skip, but this time on a junction so I couldn’t see round the fucker. I pulled out to see round it, and then went. The examiner said I should’ve stopped at the line. The response “Could you see round that fucking great skip? Because I bloody couldn’t.” didn’t go down well.
Test Four was in April this year and failed due to fucking up my clutch control at a junction. Unimpressed, but fair to fail me on it.
Test Five was taken in June, and failed for exactly the same reason as Test Four, bizarrely. Not the same junction, but exactly the same fault.
Test Six was today. And yes, at fucking last, I’ve passed. Halle-sodding-lujah!
Twat
Posted: Thu 11 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Sweary 4 Comments »There’s always at least one cunt in any party, isn’t there? You know the sort, sneering at everyone else, deciding they’re all a waste of space, and generally being a snide fuckmonkey cunt.
In my case, yesterday it was Ken and his comment.
suggest you rename site
SELF-OBSESSION FOR DUMMIES
Well, I’d suggest that either a) Ken sticks his head back up his arse, and farts, or b) that if he’s going to fucking sneer at other people, perhaps the marmoset-cocked wonder should learn some proper English (like wot I knows) and consider use of words like “I” and “your”, which make the comment at least look literate, if still somewhat fuckwitted.
Cunt.
The Report
Posted: Wed 10 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Thoughts Leave a comment »Well, it turns out that in three years d4d™ has had 6,376,116 hits, and shown 2,214,576 pages. Not bad going at all. The full report is is here. There are a few days where there appears to have been no logfile created or moved, so the figure is probably slightly on the low side, but hell, I’m more than happy with averaging 2.1 million hits a year, or 738,192 pages.
In some ways it’s really hard to believe that d4d™’s been that busy, particularly when I think about it just really being a personal site. d4d™ started off as a little thing to see if I could keep a project going – I’d had the idea, but at the time (and still, to a greater or lesser degree) I was great at having the ideas, and far less good at carrying them through. d4d™ was a thing to prove to myself that I could keep on with a project past the initial stages.
Sometimes I’m still not sure if I can – I keep feeling that d4d™ is really still in those “initial” stages, even after three years. I don’t know what the future holds – and when I look at the differences the last year has had, I don’t want to know what even the next 12 months hold in stall, because I’ll just go with it, and have a good time.
In truth I never really believed that d4d™ would take off – perhaps that’s what made it easier to continue. Three years on, and I’m still enjoying writing it, and keeping up with new ideas. (although I know I haven’t innovated that much this year yet. There’s stuff in the wings though, although whether it’ll be ’05 or ’06 before it happens, Gawd only knows at the moment) So whatever else goes on, I’m pretty sure d4d™ will still be here to celebrate its fourth and fifth birthdays too.
And a big thanks to all those who do read, comment, pass on the word, whatever. Thanks is too small a word, but for now it’ll have to do.
Time
Posted: Wed 10 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 4 Comments »Bloody Hell, this log analysis takes some time. I started it running four hours ago, and it’s still plodding through…
Considering I’m using a PC with twin 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 processors and 1Gb of DDR RAM, that’s one shit of a lot of computation.
UPDATED : It finally took from 9.15 to 2.30 -5 and a quarter hours. That’s a lot of work.
3
Posted: Wed 10 August, 2005 Filed under: D4D™ 6 Comments »Yes, d4d™ has now been being written for three solid years. I’m having problems believing that myself, but it’s true. Over 1,000 days, and coming up to the three thousand posts mark, which is pretty good in anyone’s book.
Of course, there are plenty of blogs that’ve been round far longer than d4d, and thousands are better-written, better-designed, whatever. But still, I’m pleased with how it’s gone over the last three years.
D4D™ didn’t have a party this time like it did last year, but there’s that kind of acknowledgement of growing up. I’m currently running a log-analysis to see just how busy d4d™ has been over that three years, and I’ll post the results once the PC has wheezed it’s way through the 110Mb of zipped-up logfiles, including all the DNS lookup and so on. I think it’ll probably be a fairly big figure though.
Anyway, onwards and upwards to the next year, three years, five years, whatever.
Abandonment pt. 2
Posted: Tue 9 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Following on from last week’s post about the 15year old girl who was left alone in the UK when her mother decided to move to Turkey after a holiday romance, I see that the mother has now put in an appearance.
No, not in the UK to answer any form of enquiry about why she did it, but instead on Turkish TV, telling how she’s so in love.
“We really liked each other and saw each other every day and when I went back to England I promised I would come back because I want to be with Ali.
“I did everything I could and got back within three weeks. I came back to stay with Ali because I love him.”
No expression of guilt about her daughter, nothing – just self-centred selfish behaviour. Grrr.
Barking
Posted: Tue 9 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Weirdness Leave a comment »In a fit of “Mad as a bath-full of hippos” insanity comes this effort, letters sent by the stadd of an American sex-toy store along with a shipment of vibrators to some women in Iraq.
…I hope that when you use this vibrator you realize that Americans do not hate you or your country. We are a kind and loving people who just want everyone to live freely and without oppression….
Utterly, totally, 100% barking.
Security
Posted: Tue 9 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Waiting at the station for today’s train, an announcement came over the speakers that suddenly struck me a little differently to usual. It’s the fairly standard fare about
In this time of increased security, please do not leave your belongings anywhere on the station or the train. Help us to not have security alerts by taking care of your posessions
OK, I’m paraphrasing a little, but all the security alert announcements say the same thing about not leaving your stuff around. Now yes, that’s fair enough – an abandoned package can always look a bit dodgy and so on.
But what struck me was this – if we’re now dealing with suicide bombers, surely they’re not going to leave the packages around? In fact, aren’t you also now going to be looking out for people who clutch their bags to them, or keep on fiddling about with them?
Not really a shock
Posted: Mon 8 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts Leave a comment »The BBC today has a story saying that one in four applicants for jobs in the financial industries have lied on their CVs. Having worked with a bunch of financial types over the years, I really can’t say I’m surprised – most of them seem to have a “can-do” attitude to bullshit that’s second only to that of advertising and marketing execs.
Based on a study of 3,000 CVs, the group found the biggest lies involved academic qualifications, previous jobs, gaps in employment and directorships.
Then again, I don’t think that kind of attitude is limited to just financial applications. But I do wonder what percentage of estate agents have lied on their CVs. And with estate agents, is it to be expected?
35mm
Posted: Mon 8 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Photography, Thoughts 1 Comment »I’m going to be slightly hypocritical on this, as I don’t use a 35mm camera myself, but I do think it’s pretty sad that Dixons has announced it is to stop stocking 35mm cameras once their current supplies run out. A lot of new photographers go straight to digital cameras now (I know, because that’s what I did) but that doesn’t mean there’s not still a large demand for 35mm cameras.
Many camera companies are having trouble at the moment with continuing to manufacture their 35mm range, and are all heading towards making only digital cameras. Maybe this is progress, the gradual removal of a film standard in favour of digital. Maybe it’ll just make 35mm cameras a more “professional” choice – but I know I’d hate to see them die out altogether.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Posted: Mon 8 August, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Well, last night we finally got round to seeing “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory“. And loved it.
It sticks pretty closely to the book, the only real addition being that Willy Wonka now has a bit of a backstory showing why/how he became so interested in chocolate, and some of the motivations for it all. Which actually worked pretty well, it has to be said.
There are so many bits that stick in the mind, the squirrels are fantastic, the Oompa Loompa songs had me howling with the way they’re done (and how impressive is it that there’s only one guy playing all the Oompa Loompas?), the TV room referring to 2001:A space odyssey, the sheer beauty and accuracy of the portrayal of the Bucket household, and many others.
A couple of small points jarred, such as constantly referring to chocolate as candy, (the film seems to be set in the UK, but one assumes it needed a couple of points for american audiences to refer to) and the use of a ten-dollar bill for Charlie to buy the chocolate bar, which seemed like an odd piece of continuity error, but these are minor jars, nothing major.
Johnny Depp is fantastic as Wonka, with a role that must have been at least semi-influenced by Michael Jackson. I think that really Tim Burton was the only current director capable of making the entire thing seem as weird, dark and magical as it appeared – he has a vision that seems so in tune with Dahl’s original, always enjoying the multi-layered stories with a slight “adult” tinge while maintaining the child-friendly appeal of the main story.
But all the same, I do think the show-stealers were the squirrels and the Oompa-Loompas…
Magpie
Posted: Mon 8 August, 2005 Filed under: Animals 3 Comments »One small interesting event over the weekend – we had a magpie in the chimney. Luckily (for the magpie) we haven’t yet got round to properly blocking the chimney, so it came right down into the fire-space which luckily (for us) has a board over it to block draughts etc.
Of course, if we hadn’t had the board, either a) the magpie wouldn’t have fallen down the chimney in the first place, or b) we’d have come home to an insane magpie flapping about, a moronic (and slightly insane) Hound chasing it around, or c) home to a dead magpie and a very smug cat.
Instead we got home to a quiet house, with some weird noises coming from the fireplace. Taking the board out, lo and behold, there’s one dazed (and surprisingly placid – I think it’d gone to sleep, as it was dark) magpie. We put the board back, opened the patio doors so the cretinous corvine could fly out, locked Hound out of the room, and took the board out. Of course, the bird then flew the wrong way, bashing itself on the ceiling too, but then got the hint, and flew out of the open doors, and chuffed off just fine.
So all in all it went well, and was just odd. But it does make me wonder how a stupid bird can fall down a chimney in the first place.
Purchasing
Posted: Sun 7 August, 2005 Filed under: General, News, Thoughts 4 Comments »You know, we really shouldn’t go out sometimes. Yesterday’s plan was “a couple of plants for the new office” and “possibly a new bed for the Hound”. Oh dear, a plant-shop and a pet-shop. Cue lots of other things.
We ended up with :
New Hound bed, food bowl, collar, two toys, and a 30kg bag of food. Oh, and dog-shit bags. Lovely.
The office has a trio of passion-flowers in one pot, two spider plants (although they were an in-house transfer) a begonia, a polka-dot plant, and a leafy thing whose leaves turn all flame-coloured round the edges. There’s also a “rude plant”, (where the stamen just looks rude – photo to follow at some point) another polka-dot plant, a couple of leafy things with no name as yet, a money plant, and a gardenia that’s gone a little bit mental.
However, I’ve come to the conclusion (yet again) that I really shouldn’t be let out with a wallet sometimes.
Banksy
Posted: Sat 6 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts Leave a comment »I’ve written stuff about him before, but I do like a lot of the “art” stuff done by Banksy.
His latest escapade, painting on Israel’s “security wall” is typical of his stuff – making a point, but with a certain amount of humour. Well, it made me smile, anyway.
Abandonment
Posted: Fri 5 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »One of the regular “summer season” stories that get carried by the media are the “Home Alone” ones where children are left behind while their parents bugger off on cheap holidays. I’ve never been able to understand the thinking behind doing this – but then again, I don’t have kids, and if I did then perhaps I’d understand more. *grin*
All the same though, it’s just not something I can figure out. But even they pale a bit when you read about one selfish bastard loving parent who moved to Turkey, leaving her 15 year old daughter on her own in the UK. You just have to wonder about the mind-set that would allow anyone to do that, don’t you?
Lunchhour
Posted: Fri 5 August, 2005 Filed under: General 1 Comment »In the last hour while I’ve been on lunch, I’ve managed the following :
- Booking two places on part-time education courses for September
- Booking tickets to see Dan Cruickshank and Jo Brand (on different days, I should add)
- Ordered a new Switch card, as my current one is heading for Bendsville and Crack City
- Bought and eaten lunch (best to not forget that one)
- Bought two cards, one for Brother’s birthday and one as a good luck thing for a friend starting a new job on Monday
- read another 50 pages of my current book
and
Lazing on a Friday afternoon indeed.
microCash
Posted: Fri 5 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts 4 Comments »Yesterday I suddenly realised I wasn’t as organised as usual, and didn’t have the change necessary for buying my train ticket. (All due to the bloody carpet fitter insisting on being paid cash rather than cheque, but that’s another story entirely) Anyway, it made me think about technology that would actually be useful – in this instance mPay, or mobile (or in fact micro, depending on who you believe) payments.
The basic idea is that you have an extra chip in your mobile phone that is basically a payment system, and can either be used in a similar way to a Switch/Maestro card, where money comes directly from your bank account, or alternatively you can have these small amounts added to your monthly phone bill. The system is in use in Japan already as part of the DoCoMo network where it’s known as iMode (I wonder if Apple will sue for that brandname?) and seems to be taking off.
I know it would be a nightmare to implement at first, as there’d be one hell of a lot of infrastructure to put in place. Then again, a similar (although slightly more low-tech) method is already being used for car-parking in Edinburgh, so maybe there’s hope for the concept yet?
C4 in trouble
Posted: Thu 4 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts 5 Comments »I wish I could say I was surprised by the news that Big Brother has become even more extreme, and has received complaints today about one participant’s sex antics. Big Brother has always prized the exhibitionists, the people who will happily make cunts of themselves in order to grab hold of their fifteen minutes of fame. And as an extension of that, each series will be more extreme than the last – if the people in it only do the same as last year, it won’t be “newsworthy”, and won’t get their faces/arses/tits/whatever in the papers. It’s always going to get worse. Now that one of the munters has apparently been seen wanking (or at least simulating it – and to be honest, the media won’t care whether it’s true or made-up) it won’t be long until there’s a couple “caught” shagging without cover.
At the same time, Channel 4’s been fined twice in the last two days for naughtiness within advertising – the first one was for having an advert “starring” Davina McCall within a programme presented by her. Apparently this is a breach of the advertising rules, which I didn’t know – and, in honesty didn’t care about either. And then they’ve also been done for Richard and Judy supposedly endorsing Red Bull. Red Bull must be ecstatic about it – not only did they get the freebie plug on air, but then it’s featured as a brand-name in the story about the fine. Talk about free publicity…
Belt Up
Posted: Thu 4 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 2 Comments »Apparently, in June 1,800 drivers were stopped in four counties for not wearing seatbelts. The seatbelt law has been in place for more than a decade now, and yet still people don’t wear them – quite honestly, I’m surprised that the figure is as low as it was.
Now it’d be nice if the same could be done for the immense number of fuckwits I see every day still using their mobile phones while driving…
Plod
Posted: Thu 4 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts, Travel 3 Comments »A while back I wrote about the useless police presence that had been placed on Bracknell station since the London bombings. At the time I really wasn’t impressed, and my attitutde on that score remains the same still.
Today, precisely four weeks after the bombings on 7th July and two weeks after the abortive ones on July 21st, there’s supposedly a massively increased police and security presence in London in order to prevent any possible attack. (which means, of course, that instead it’ll be tomorrow, or it’ll be in Birmingham or Edinburgh or somewhere – basically anywhere that isn’t London) And today is the first day since those bombings when there’s been absolutely no police presence – nor, in fact, any ticket inspectors – at Bracknell station. The mind boggles sometimes.
60 Years On
Posted: Wed 3 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 1 Comment »Sixty years ago, the US used atomic weapons against Japan. The BBC has a set of photos of Hiroshima now and then, some of which are really quite affecting.
Oddly enough I was watching an episode of West Wing from Season Five a couple of nights ago that talked about nuclear weapons. (It was “The Warfare of Genghis Khan, should anyone care) Within it, they said that the US was still the only country to have actually used a nuclear bomb in anger – which is true, of course, but I’d never actually thought of it like that.
TOTP
Posted: Tue 2 August, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts 2 Comments »Skytower will be utterly unshocked to hear this : the ‘new’ Top Of The Pops has already managed to alienate/lose half its original audience.
Colour me utterly, utterly unshocked. If nothing else, Fearne Cotton should be replaced with a park bench. It’d be a lot more animated, quite possibly a lot funnier, and definitely a whole order of magnitude more intelligent. Particularly if it had any bird shit on it at the time.
Euphemistic
Posted: Tue 2 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts, Weirdness 1 Comment »Why is it that we (well, the media) currently insist on glamourising stupid/dangerous activities by giving them “cool” names?
Recently we’ve had the shit about “Happy Slapping” (AKA “Assault” or “Rape”), “Deferred Success” (AKA “fucking it up” or “failing”) , “Joyriding” (AKA “stealing a car”) and too many others to mention.
Now we have “tombstoning“, which is correctly known as “Being a twat and jumping off a cliff into the sea, not knowing what awaits”.
Why does the media think these things need glamourising by use of these euphemisms? Or is it just to make the truly stupid think they’re cool by joining in with the next “big thing”?
Shite
Posted: Tue 2 August, 2005 Filed under: Health 2 Comments »While I do think that the idea of the home testing kits for bowel cancer are a good idea, one quote in the news sent my mind off on a little alternative trip.
“To use it, you just put the stick into a lump, then send it off to the testing centre”
Now there’s one place I really wouldn’t want to be in charge of opening the post…
Effnic
Posted: Tue 2 August, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 1 Comment »I’ve been thinking a lot (ok, a bit) about the latest news regarding stopping and searching people based on their ethnic background, which was in all the news and papers yesterday. Personally, I don’t understand the entire aspect of “we’ll do it more based on whether we think you’re Muslim or not”, which seems to be the main thrust of the argument.
If you’re publicly targetting one sector of society more than others, then any potential threat will do itself up to not fit in with that stereotype. In fact,the police are probably less likely to catch anyone using this method than they are by just saying “We’re increasing the likelihood that anyone could be stopped and searched at random”.
Of course, the Metropolitan police have always had a bit of a preference for singling out certain ethnicities for their stop and search programmes and so on. So I suppose it shouldn’t really be a surprise that they’d seize (pardon the pun) on this set of events as an excuse to target the same sections of the community that protested last time the stop and search became overly politicised.
</cynic>