I was gutted that I was too busy to pop over and see my idol the other lunchtime.
Anyway here is a bit of magic for all his fans!
PS I hear the film is crap!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Click
I was gutted that I was too busy to pop over and see my idol the other lunchtime.
Anyway here is a bit of magic for all his fans!
PS I hear the film is crap!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
Pub Quiz Help!
Nope - not a request... Here is a link to Pub Quiz Help the website!
That should keep my Dad and James happy for a while!
That should keep my Dad and James happy for a while!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
End of Hi-Def War?
BBC NEWS | Technology | Double disc might end hi-def war
This one is for Jase and Gareth!
Note to Jase: Further drooling over technology is suspended until suitable job(s) are secured!
This one is for Jase and Gareth!
Note to Jase: Further drooling over technology is suspended until suitable job(s) are secured!
Talk Like a Pirate...
Further to Gareth's post about "Talk Like a Pirate Day", I was tickled by this from the Pirate Guys:
Not to worry, only 362 days until the next Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th).
Someone get me a parrot!
Not to worry, only 362 days until the next Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th).
Someone get me a parrot!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Meat!
Lauren was in full octopus mode last night, so she didn't settle until about 10:15 pm. I had managed to set Sky+ to record the programmes I was interested in, and whilst Serena was blogging the story below, I crashed out in front of the telly and began to flick.
Nothing on the "entertainment" channels grabbed me, and I only lingered for a few minutes on the movie channels before coming bored.
We don't subscribe to Sky Sports any more (cost saving - the only person who watched it was Serena's Dad!) so the next channels I hit was the music ones.
I am not like Gareth in that I can't normally sit and watch MTV or VH1 (channels picked arbitrarily rather than based on knowledge of Gareth's viewing habits) so I was speed flicking and had to back up about six channels when something caught my eye....
Total Meatloaf.
Kerrang were dedicating a 30 minute slot to the "Meat", and so I kicked back and entertained Serena with my karaoke versions of various Bat out of Hell (1 and 2) tracks!
Nothing on the "entertainment" channels grabbed me, and I only lingered for a few minutes on the movie channels before coming bored.
We don't subscribe to Sky Sports any more (cost saving - the only person who watched it was Serena's Dad!) so the next channels I hit was the music ones.
I am not like Gareth in that I can't normally sit and watch MTV or VH1 (channels picked arbitrarily rather than based on knowledge of Gareth's viewing habits) so I was speed flicking and had to back up about six channels when something caught my eye....
Total Meatloaf.
Kerrang were dedicating a 30 minute slot to the "Meat", and so I kicked back and entertained Serena with my karaoke versions of various Bat out of Hell (1 and 2) tracks!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
White City
Exciting happenings in our local area in the news! A huge amount of money is being pumped by Ken Livingston to regenerate West London and part of this involves this project at White City. Apparently, a huge shopping centre is being built there, due to open in 2008.
This is a good thing, as the photo shows how it currently appears. Leaves a lot to be desired! The BBC TV centre is close by. As an aside, we've been meaning to go down there to catch a show or be part of an audience...maybe some day when we have babysitters!
According to the Beeb, it will be really big and have a lot of the major retailers, as well as restaurants and cinema. And importantly, it will have car parking!
People were on the news to say that it will be a disaster for Oxford Street because it is so close and will pull shoppers away. Well, I for one won't be sorry. Oxford Street is a nightmare, especially on Saturday. You have to walk for miles to get between the shops you want, you're exposed to the elements, it's so crowded that you can't move (you're pushed along by the swell of people, rather than going in the direction you want) and at the end of the day you have to struggle on and off public transport with all your shopping, as there's no parking.
Imagine doing that with a one year old! In fact, no need to imagine, as I've not been able to go with Lauren in tow. The one time I've been to Oxford Street this past year, I had to leave Lauren at home with Jase, otherwise I could not have gone.
So I can't wait for the new shopping centre! Somewhere to shop without feeling hassled, we'll have a cinema and the general area will undoubtedly improve with this coming to the area (which means our house value will go up - yay!).
Roll on 2008!
Monday, September 18, 2006
Now that's Entertainment!
The last couple of months of Saturday nights have had one highlight for Serena, Lauren and I.... How do you solve a problem like Maria.
Whether it is how we were brought up, or whether it was just well crafted I couldn't tell you, but we have really enjoyed this programme and were getting to the stage where we were shouting at the telly! (Especially when Siobhan beat Aoife in the semi-final.)
Justice was done in the end with Connie and Helena making the perfect last two and with Connie getting our vote for the Win! (Which she did!)
I found it strange that ITV were so threatened by this show... Football and other commitments meant that the BBC move it round the schedules nearly every week, and ITV dutifully moved the X-Factor audition show around to match minute for minute. I just don't see why they felt they needed to do that as X-Factor isn't even at a voting stage.
So what else has tickled my fancy recently?
As previously commented A Town Called Eureka on Sky has been good fun, and I am delighted that Spooks has returned for a new series. I am even more delighted as the Hallmark channel on Sky have just kicked off a rerun of Spooks Season 1, which I missed!
Whether it is how we were brought up, or whether it was just well crafted I couldn't tell you, but we have really enjoyed this programme and were getting to the stage where we were shouting at the telly! (Especially when Siobhan beat Aoife in the semi-final.)
Justice was done in the end with Connie and Helena making the perfect last two and with Connie getting our vote for the Win! (Which she did!)
I found it strange that ITV were so threatened by this show... Football and other commitments meant that the BBC move it round the schedules nearly every week, and ITV dutifully moved the X-Factor audition show around to match minute for minute. I just don't see why they felt they needed to do that as X-Factor isn't even at a voting stage.
So what else has tickled my fancy recently?
As previously commented A Town Called Eureka on Sky has been good fun, and I am delighted that Spooks has returned for a new series. I am even more delighted as the Hallmark channel on Sky have just kicked off a rerun of Spooks Season 1, which I missed!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Chop
OK, it's not exactly a suprise, but yesterday's announcement confirmed what we suspected.... No jobs for the London Project Team.
So I have the choice between Voluntary Severance or Redeployment.
The latter means you get stuck on a list of people with no jobs and get matched to a vacancy. You get very little say in what vacancy you get matched against, so I am not inclined to pick that option.
The former means I get a pay-off of approx half a year's salary (not certain on the tax implications) and need to find a new job.
Looks like I will out of work come November!
So I have the choice between Voluntary Severance or Redeployment.
The latter means you get stuck on a list of people with no jobs and get matched to a vacancy. You get very little say in what vacancy you get matched against, so I am not inclined to pick that option.
The former means I get a pay-off of approx half a year's salary (not certain on the tax implications) and need to find a new job.
Looks like I will out of work come November!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
A message to Sally!
Welcome to the wonderful world of Blogging!
I had to laugh reading you blog in more detail last night.
I love the piccie of James asleep. That is a view I have woken up to far too many times in my 33 years. I must dig out some of the older pics for you to laugh (I mean look) at.
I have also been watching A Town Called Eureka. It is great.
I am having a bad relationship with my PDA... I have decided that it doesn't love me anymore, so it sits on it charger looking forlorn whilst I leave it at home. I think I need an upgrade, but budgets do not permit.
Road signs being "girl friendly"... Hmm interesting. We talking about making them pink and furry? (Just Kidding).
Serena and getting lost used to be a regular occurrence when we moved to London (poor dear). For her birthday a few years back I was planning to buy her TomTom GPS System and whilst it was on back order she got horrendously lost and returned home in floods of tears. She demanded that this would not happen again and she didn't care how much it cost, she was buying SatNav. I was harsh and told her she couldn't buy it and proceeded to get a serious earful. In the end I brought my proposed surprise to an end and told her I had already bought one for her and was just waiting for it to be delivered. Again that triggered floods of tears (fortunately the good kind).
For those of you wanting to know more about James' Beau (or should that be Belle?) then I have added a permanent link to her Blog on the right.
I had to laugh reading you blog in more detail last night.
I love the piccie of James asleep. That is a view I have woken up to far too many times in my 33 years. I must dig out some of the older pics for you to laugh (I mean look) at.
I have also been watching A Town Called Eureka. It is great.
I am having a bad relationship with my PDA... I have decided that it doesn't love me anymore, so it sits on it charger looking forlorn whilst I leave it at home. I think I need an upgrade, but budgets do not permit.
Road signs being "girl friendly"... Hmm interesting. We talking about making them pink and furry? (Just Kidding).
Serena and getting lost used to be a regular occurrence when we moved to London (poor dear). For her birthday a few years back I was planning to buy her TomTom GPS System and whilst it was on back order she got horrendously lost and returned home in floods of tears. She demanded that this would not happen again and she didn't care how much it cost, she was buying SatNav. I was harsh and told her she couldn't buy it and proceeded to get a serious earful. In the end I brought my proposed surprise to an end and told her I had already bought one for her and was just waiting for it to be delivered. Again that triggered floods of tears (fortunately the good kind).
For those of you wanting to know more about James' Beau (or should that be Belle?) then I have added a permanent link to her Blog on the right.
Deal or No Deal - US Style
So how do the Americans take the Noel Edmonds fronted quiz show and convert it into a format that works for the US?
New Spam Trick
Admittedly Norton catches and deletes most of my spam nowadays, but I have noticed that the B@stards are trying a new trick.
I was checking my webmail, which has more stored on it than usual, as I haven't reinstalled Outlook yet following my disk death of last week. It uses Squirrel Mail which displays 15 mails per page and I am well onto 3 pages needing downloading.
I processed the new stuff, being my own spam filter - i.e. deleting all the Nationwide emails telling me to update my account details and those offering me improved sexual performance (how do they kn0w?). Once I was done filtering and reading the message I wanted to keep, I noticed I still had "1 New Message". A bit odd, so I refreshed and nothing appeared.
OK, I jumped to page two... nothing. I jumped to page 3 and BAM. A new piece of spam dated 2002!
I guarantee it hasn't been sat their for 4 years, and I find it unlikely that even Blueyonder's mail servers are that slow.
So what are the implications for the "semi-savvy" user.
They download their mail and delete the ones they don't recognise (being "savvy"). Outlook Express etc still tells them they have one new message, but they can't see it. (Thier inbox contains hundreds of read messages sorted by date - they don't tidy into folders / archive). Confused they decide to let Outlet Express show them the new message by clicking the "Next New" button. BAM... the spam messgage is opened by Outlook Express from the very bottom of their Inbox, where they never thought to look. Now that opening triggers all sorts of nasty things.
I haven't seen this before but it can't be that new an idea can it?
Edit:
This gets weirder:
I was checking my webmail, which has more stored on it than usual, as I haven't reinstalled Outlook yet following my disk death of last week. It uses Squirrel Mail which displays 15 mails per page and I am well onto 3 pages needing downloading.
I processed the new stuff, being my own spam filter - i.e. deleting all the Nationwide emails telling me to update my account details and those offering me improved sexual performance (how do they kn0w?). Once I was done filtering and reading the message I wanted to keep, I noticed I still had "1 New Message". A bit odd, so I refreshed and nothing appeared.
OK, I jumped to page two... nothing. I jumped to page 3 and BAM. A new piece of spam dated 2002!
I guarantee it hasn't been sat their for 4 years, and I find it unlikely that even Blueyonder's mail servers are that slow.
So what are the implications for the "semi-savvy" user.
They download their mail and delete the ones they don't recognise (being "savvy"). Outlook Express etc still tells them they have one new message, but they can't see it. (Thier inbox contains hundreds of read messages sorted by date - they don't tidy into folders / archive). Confused they decide to let Outlet Express show them the new message by clicking the "Next New" button. BAM... the spam messgage is opened by Outlook Express from the very bottom of their Inbox, where they never thought to look. Now that opening triggers all sorts of nasty things.
I haven't seen this before but it can't be that new an idea can it?
Edit:
This gets weirder:
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Sword of Damocles
I've just been invited to two meetings....
Thursday 4pm... "Important Annoucement - WM Operations Restructure"
Friday morning... My boss wants us to have a 1 on 1 to discuss the implications of the previous day's meeting.
Move over Damocles!
Thursday 4pm... "Important Annoucement - WM Operations Restructure"
Friday morning... My boss wants us to have a 1 on 1 to discuss the implications of the previous day's meeting.
Move over Damocles!
Word of the day
Sorry, today's Word of the Day cracked me up....
Courtesy of Red Dwarf it is one of Serena's favourites!
Courtesy of Red Dwarf it is one of Serena's favourites!
Regrets?
Well there has been little to blog in the last few days, since I have been too busy to have much of a life.
I was just catching up on some celebrity gossip over a Decaf Cappucino when I read the following interview with Kirsten Dunst, discussing her break up from Jake Gyllenhaal.
How much is she going to regret being quite so candid?
At least Alex may be in with a shot!
I was just catching up on some celebrity gossip over a Decaf Cappucino when I read the following interview with Kirsten Dunst, discussing her break up from Jake Gyllenhaal.
How much is she going to regret being quite so candid?
Jake and I couldn't last. He's a stay-at-home boy and I'm an out-on-the-town girl. We tried to spice things up - we had sex in cars, in the bathroom and even by the sea. The only place we didn't have the guts to try was in a walkway in a hotel because we thought we might get kicked out if we were caught.
At least Alex may be in with a shot!
Monday, September 11, 2006
Sorted
Well we had a fun weekend...
What with Lauren walking, fixing the computer (pretty good success) and Serena studying it wasn't too much of a drag!
I'll write more later.
What with Lauren walking, fixing the computer (pretty good success) and Serena studying it wasn't too much of a drag!
I'll write more later.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Next CCL Competition
This fortnight's CCL compo is a piece of piss!
Please don't disappoint me...This fortnight's puzzle prize is a fantastic Cyber Acoustics A303 iPod Docking Speaker System that sound great in the home or on the road! They are ultra stylish and will impress and amaze your friends with pure audio quality! To win them all you have to do is solve our puzzle…
You’re driving a bus. At the first stop 9 people get on. At the second stop, 2 people get off and 12 get on. At the third stop, 6 get off and 8 people get on. At the fourth stop, 4 people get on (I think this is a typo and should read off) and 3 people get on. At the fifth top, 12 people get off and none get on. How many people are left on the bus?
As usual, answers on an email to answers@cclonline.com. Best of luck everyone!
PS No one I knew won the hat compo, but B was the correct answer!
Flakey
CRAP!
Our main PC has been a bit flakey recently and crashed a few times whilst gaming and did the odd "funny boot".
To resolve the issue I decided to reinstall Norton System Works, which was always pretty good at tidying up after crashes.
Midway through the install the System Died and it isn't wanting to wake up.
I need to recover the Shared Docs folder, but beyond that the C drive can be wiped and started again....
Basically this is a bummer.
Our main PC has been a bit flakey recently and crashed a few times whilst gaming and did the odd "funny boot".
To resolve the issue I decided to reinstall Norton System Works, which was always pretty good at tidying up after crashes.
Midway through the install the System Died and it isn't wanting to wake up.
I need to recover the Shared Docs folder, but beyond that the C drive can be wiped and started again....
Basically this is a bummer.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Weird stuff
Firstly according to Google Weather it is rather cold here at the moment:
And secondly there is a new shop in Shepherd's Bush near my bus stop called "The Brain Warehouse". I'll try and grab a photo tomorrow.
And secondly there is a new shop in Shepherd's Bush near my bus stop called "The Brain Warehouse". I'll try and grab a photo tomorrow.
Format Wars...
Anyone who has talked technology with me in the last month, will not have been shocked by the delay of the Euro launch of the PS3 as I have been predicting it.
Just reading a couple of news sites made it perfectly clear that Sony was way behind in building the PS3 and wouldn't have enough (more than 5 million units needed) for a glocal release. Even more scary is that they may only manage 1 million units for November, which would mean the US would only get 500,000 or so (demand there was predicted to be 10 times that number).
However, does the delay mean that HD-DVD will get a head start over Blu-ray?
I had been predicting that Blu-ray would win the format war, solely on the back of the PS3.
Most consumers are smart enough to wait for the format war to settle down before buying new kit and I reckoned the Christmas rush for the PS3 and its built in Blu-ray player would result in a big enough market share to kill HD-DVD pretty quickly.
Even more weird is the concept that Blu-ray will win in Japan and the US, but Europe and Oz will pick HD-DVD. Not a problem for film distributors, as their content is localised anyway, but hardware manufacturers won't like it. In the end I expect that Blu-ray would be forced upon us by the Japan/US technology market.
Anyway, Sony has fumbled the ball and it remains to see if this could be their undoing.
Just reading a couple of news sites made it perfectly clear that Sony was way behind in building the PS3 and wouldn't have enough (more than 5 million units needed) for a glocal release. Even more scary is that they may only manage 1 million units for November, which would mean the US would only get 500,000 or so (demand there was predicted to be 10 times that number).
However, does the delay mean that HD-DVD will get a head start over Blu-ray?
I had been predicting that Blu-ray would win the format war, solely on the back of the PS3.
Most consumers are smart enough to wait for the format war to settle down before buying new kit and I reckoned the Christmas rush for the PS3 and its built in Blu-ray player would result in a big enough market share to kill HD-DVD pretty quickly.
Even more weird is the concept that Blu-ray will win in Japan and the US, but Europe and Oz will pick HD-DVD. Not a problem for film distributors, as their content is localised anyway, but hardware manufacturers won't like it. In the end I expect that Blu-ray would be forced upon us by the Japan/US technology market.
Anyway, Sony has fumbled the ball and it remains to see if this could be their undoing.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
Free Competition....
CCL Online are running a free-to-enter competition.
The competition is as follows:
You email your answers to: answers@cclonline.com
I have submitted my "correct" answer! :P
The prize for this puzzle is a 1GB MP3-DJ Vivid. A stylish number from the guys at Genius. It integrates a MP3 digital audio decoder, FM tuner, flash memory, built-in microphone, and OLED display all in one. This really is a cracking prize for one lucky winner. Check it out here!
The competition is as follows:
You email your answers to: answers@cclonline.com
I have submitted my "correct" answer! :P
Something a bit more manly!
Can't let my wife steal the limelight too much!
After 15 months it is time for a change!
After 15 months it is time for a change!
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