How thick would you have to be...?
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Friday, January 02, 2009
Sunday, May 27, 2007
What am I bid...?
A different slant on rip-off mobile phone charges. I was very pleased to see that my old mobile phone sold on eBay. And was somewhat surprised to see what it sold for...
Of course, as it was a bog-standard mobile phone, and not one of those Vertu diamond-encrusted ones which someone tried to nick on the motorway this week, the reason it sold for so much was that someone had been a bid ham-fisted with the keyboard when making a bid and then been, quite frankly, a bit scared that both eBay and I would hold him to it...
chance of me getting that much money out of him. But for a while, it did entertain other bidders...
Of course, as it was a bog-standard mobile phone, and not one of those Vertu diamond-encrusted ones which someone tried to nick on the motorway this week, the reason it sold for so much was that someone had been a bid ham-fisted with the keyboard when making a bid and then been, quite frankly, a bit scared that both eBay and I would hold him to it...
Hi i,m a freind of *** he is efin stupid portugse he is very sorry but he f*cked up I am english and just come back from the beech can we sort this out please yours in hope ALAN P.s. my e.mail is ************@hotmail.comAnyway, I didn't - partly because I'm kind and partly because there was no
chance of me getting that much money out of him. But for a while, it did entertain other bidders...
...but only ones who can't punctuate or spell. Does that count as positive feedback?is there a mistake on this phone over 1000 pound email me please im in stiches
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Enough, already...
Thursday: Title of final Harry Potter book announced...
Friday: You can already buy it on Amazon...
...despite the webpage being full of disclaimers that they actually don't know when it will be published or actually how much it will cost. And they don't know what the cover will look like.
Interestingly enough, 6 customers have already reviewed it, giving it an average of 4½ stars. I'm sure JK Rowling is beavering away in an Edinburgh café somewhere, this time only pretending her heating has been cut off at home, trying to earn the extra half a star. No doubt her editors, who have let her creep up from the 190 pages of the first book to the rambling, unnecessary 768 of the most recent, will let her do anything she wants this time as she is rich enough and Bloomsbury desperate enough to let her call all the shots. Which is a shame, because properly and objectively edited, they might have flourished on the quality of the writing rather than the hype.
There's a lot of discussion about whether she should kill Harry off in this book. Personally I'm hoping Harry has the good sense to broomstick through the back cover and kill her off.
How Christmassy am I???
* Have actually just noticed that Amazon now recommend you also buy the "Adult Version" at the same time...
Friday: You can already buy it on Amazon...
...despite the webpage being full of disclaimers that they actually don't know when it will be published or actually how much it will cost. And they don't know what the cover will look like.
Interestingly enough, 6 customers have already reviewed it, giving it an average of 4½ stars. I'm sure JK Rowling is beavering away in an Edinburgh café somewhere, this time only pretending her heating has been cut off at home, trying to earn the extra half a star. No doubt her editors, who have let her creep up from the 190 pages of the first book to the rambling, unnecessary 768 of the most recent, will let her do anything she wants this time as she is rich enough and Bloomsbury desperate enough to let her call all the shots. Which is a shame, because properly and objectively edited, they might have flourished on the quality of the writing rather than the hype.
There's a lot of discussion about whether she should kill Harry off in this book. Personally I'm hoping Harry has the good sense to broomstick through the back cover and kill her off.
How Christmassy am I???
* Have actually just noticed that Amazon now recommend you also buy the "Adult Version" at the same time...
...presumably this is full of swearing and sex and violence and 200 pages longer.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Off their trolley's...
I have now blogged twice about signs with bad grammar and no-excuse spelling but, worryingly, (or perhaps fortunately?) it seems I'm not the only one.
There's a whole "badgrammar" photostream on flickr where other like-minded people can gather and celebrate their pedantry.
So I'll put any future photo's their and shut up going on about it here.
There's a whole "badgrammar" photostream on flickr where other like-minded people can gather and celebrate their pedantry.
So I'll put any future photo's their and shut up going on about it here.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Blog Day 2006...
Apparently it's International BlogDay2006 today and it's all about the sharing...
For a start, there's the whole "interesting" debate. I find about five blogs interesting, primarily because they are not different to my own culture, point of view and attitude, because they are written by my friends. But this probably makes me insular and short-sighted and monomaniacal, so I shall broaden my horizons and recommend...
Found this because she was wittering on about mobile phone masts and I thought she was doing so from an "I-don't-use-a-mobile" standpoint. She didn't, but now she does. So she uses a mobile but objects to the masts. Apparently, mobile phones worry her because "common sense tells me that they can't be good for you."
If you use a mobile phone at all, you can't object to the masts. Even if they're near you.
End of.
Well not quite, because you also have to eat nothing but raw food, be open to "infinite possibilities", discover your "soul purpose" and "upgrade your life"....
Blog off.
Yup, it's well-known right-wing Daily Mail/Moral Maze/Question Time rent-a-gob Melanie Phillips. I disagree with virtually everything she says, particularly when she witters on about how crap education is in this country.
She's got a bit bogged down recently by only slagging off anything she might consider pro-Islamic, mainly, I guess, to publicise her latest book, Londonistan. (Not providing a link, in vain attempt not to publicise it any more..)
Found by chance, Alice's Rabbit Hole. Great rant about Virgin Mobile customer service with points of agreement on pedantry and an admiration of Lynne Truss.
Number 4 is Nottinghamshire Notes, which I just happened to find when I was looking for pictures of Mansfield Market Place. I'm from Mansfield and I just spent a week there with my family, walked through the market place twice and didn't notice that they had done anything to it. I must pay greater attention next time.
It's also got links to places I know I ought to have been to again and haven't for ages. For example, the Crich Tramway Museum looks like there's more to it than when my Gran and Grandad took me there 30 years ago...
This is the badscience.net blog, by Dr Ben Goldacre who writes in the Guardian. It doesn't really follow the recommendation rules, as I agree with most of it. Particularly about Brain Gym and Gillian McKeith... (And about mobile phone masts...)
1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting, preferably different from your own culture, point of view and attitudeLike I've got time to do all that...
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending on them on BlogDay 2006
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st)... etc etc (Blog Day Website)
For a start, there's the whole "interesting" debate. I find about five blogs interesting, primarily because they are not different to my own culture, point of view and attitude, because they are written by my friends. But this probably makes me insular and short-sighted and monomaniacal, so I shall broaden my horizons and recommend...
Found this because she was wittering on about mobile phone masts and I thought she was doing so from an "I-don't-use-a-mobile" standpoint. She didn't, but now she does. So she uses a mobile but objects to the masts. Apparently, mobile phones worry her because "common sense tells me that they can't be good for you."
If you use a mobile phone at all, you can't object to the masts. Even if they're near you.
End of.
Well not quite, because you also have to eat nothing but raw food, be open to "infinite possibilities", discover your "soul purpose" and "upgrade your life"....
Blog off.
Yup, it's well-known right-wing Daily Mail/Moral Maze/Question Time rent-a-gob Melanie Phillips. I disagree with virtually everything she says, particularly when she witters on about how crap education is in this country.
She's got a bit bogged down recently by only slagging off anything she might consider pro-Islamic, mainly, I guess, to publicise her latest book, Londonistan. (Not providing a link, in vain attempt not to publicise it any more..)
Found by chance, Alice's Rabbit Hole. Great rant about Virgin Mobile customer service with points of agreement on pedantry and an admiration of Lynne Truss.
Number 4 is Nottinghamshire Notes, which I just happened to find when I was looking for pictures of Mansfield Market Place. I'm from Mansfield and I just spent a week there with my family, walked through the market place twice and didn't notice that they had done anything to it. I must pay greater attention next time.
It's also got links to places I know I ought to have been to again and haven't for ages. For example, the Crich Tramway Museum looks like there's more to it than when my Gran and Grandad took me there 30 years ago...
This is the badscience.net blog, by Dr Ben Goldacre who writes in the Guardian. It doesn't really follow the recommendation rules, as I agree with most of it. Particularly about Brain Gym and Gillian McKeith... (And about mobile phone masts...)
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Does what it says on the tin...
The summer can't end officially until I've seen...
You have to wonder how many less obvious titles were mulled over in the boardroom before they finalised via the Plain English Campaign. I'm going for...
Please feel free to add yours.
More interestingly, I wondered what this approach might throw up if applied to other films. Would you have gone to see...
You have to wonder how many less obvious titles were mulled over in the boardroom before they finalised via the Plain English Campaign. I'm going for...
OphidiophobiaNo-Legged FreaksLord of the FangsThe Poisoned Adventure(Almost an anagram...)Slytherin'(Cash in on the Harry Potter crowd...)
Please feel free to add yours.
More interestingly, I wondered what this approach might throw up if applied to other films. Would you have gone to see...
- Bomb on a Bus?
- Prats on a Boat?
- Monsters in Space?
- Christians in Bedroom Furniture?
But the best thing about the film is the website, where you can persuade people to go and see it (even though it will be utter toss of the highest order), by leaving them a personalised voicemail narrated by the totally bona fide (or possibly a fairly convincing sound-a-like) Samuel L Jackson.
How can I resist?
Monday, July 31, 2006
One flew over the Junk Mail filter....
Now, I would never normally admit to finding anything in Tina's junk mail remotely amusing or entertaining in any way, consisting as it normally does of such things as...
However, I have obviously let my guard down, (it must be the holidays), because I have to admit this is very addictive, requiring, as it does, skill and precision and dexterity etc, and not just being a poor quality video of a bloke up a ladder with a kilt on, which was the last thing she sent to 237 unsuspecting friends and family...
*edit: I didn't kill the dog either...
- Fwd: Would you hold the ladder? Note: forwarded message attached. I thought this was really funny...i hope you like it as much as i did! Tinaxx or
- Fwd: FW: Mates Note: forwarded message attached. Is that a rag doll....or really a person? Txxxx or
- Fwd: FW: Tennis Note: forwarded message attached. This is good fun! My record so far is 11...I only had a quick go...honest! Txxxxxxxxxxxxx or
- Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Bubble wrap Note: forwarded message attached. I personally found this quite therapeutic...have a pop! Txxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
However, I have obviously let my guard down, (it must be the holidays), because I have to admit this is very addictive, requiring, as it does, skill and precision and dexterity etc, and not just being a poor quality video of a bloke up a ladder with a kilt on, which was the last thing she sent to 237 unsuspecting friends and family...
*edit: I didn't kill the dog either...
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
About 9 months late...
When I was in New Zealand last summer (did I mention that I had been???), I took some short film clips using the rudimentary video function of my digital camera. I tried to upload them to the NZ Blog at the time but the technology was having none of it, so no-one got to see them.
Well, now there is You Tube! There may have even been You Tube then, too, but I hadn't got around to how it worked... Well, now I have, so here are two short clips from New Zealand last year. The Maori Experience and the The Bloody Hell That's A Long Way Down Skipper's Canyon Experience...
A much more interesting use of You Tube, as Andy pointed out to me in email, is the ability to scavenge other people's videos and forcibly remind others of them. Most particularly, very bad 80s pop music, such as this...
Oh yes, it's the slow motion doves, the billowing curtains at the open window of the moonlit country mansion, the inexplicable martial arts dancers, the back-combed, backlit hair, the strange alien people with light up eyes. Enjoy....
Well, now there is You Tube! There may have even been You Tube then, too, but I hadn't got around to how it worked... Well, now I have, so here are two short clips from New Zealand last year. The Maori Experience and the The Bloody Hell That's A Long Way Down Skipper's Canyon Experience...
A much more interesting use of You Tube, as Andy pointed out to me in email, is the ability to scavenge other people's videos and forcibly remind others of them. Most particularly, very bad 80s pop music, such as this...
Oh yes, it's the slow motion doves, the billowing curtains at the open window of the moonlit country mansion, the inexplicable martial arts dancers, the back-combed, backlit hair, the strange alien people with light up eyes. Enjoy....
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Wayfaring.com
I have been introduced to Wayfaring and am not really sure how much use it will be yet.
But I've "done" Easter...
You can click and zoom in and look at satellite images and see photos and link to websites etc. You can also show routes you have travelled, but I haven't worked out how to do that yet...
A much more interesting use for it is the Jacktracker - mapping Jack Bauer's movements during the Day 5 of 24..
(It did highlight the fact that I have been to two restaurants called Belinda's during the holiday - one in Arundel and one in Bude. Which is probably more restaurants called Belinda's than anyone needs to go to.)
But I've "done" Easter...
You can click and zoom in and look at satellite images and see photos and link to websites etc. You can also show routes you have travelled, but I haven't worked out how to do that yet...
A much more interesting use for it is the Jacktracker - mapping Jack Bauer's movements during the Day 5 of 24..
(It did highlight the fact that I have been to two restaurants called Belinda's during the holiday - one in Arundel and one in Bude. Which is probably more restaurants called Belinda's than anyone needs to go to.)
Friday, April 07, 2006
"Maybe I LIKE the misery..."
...© Mrs Doyle, Father Ted.
Couldn't pass this...
...without thinking that it would be the perfect place for her!
Couldn't pass this...
...without thinking that it would be the perfect place for her!
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Near a tree, by a river, there's a hole in the ground...
Right, time to respond to Andy and his comment about people feeling it necessary to advertise what they have been listening to on their blogs.
I have a last●fm profile which gives you personalised charts showing what you have just listened to. It works by installing a plugin (Audioscrobbler) to Windows Media Player (or whatever other player you are using) which watches your playlist and uploads it to a server somewhere. It's all "opt-in" so it bypasses the hassle which Apple has just had spying on i-tunes users' listening habits.
You can then use an RSS feed to add this information to a website, and that's how it appears on this blog. I've chosen to show you only the most recent three tracks I've listened to:
a) because you then can't see the full horror of my listening habits, and...
b) last●fm classes "recent" as about 24 hours, so even that disappears soon.
But... it only tracks what you have listened to on your computer... and so provides a completely false record of what you are actually listening to. I listen to most of my music in the car or on my i-river (like an i-pod, but better...) or around the house.
The music I listen to on my computer tends to be very random and it's often stuff that I have downloaded (legally!) or tried to find online for a specific reason. I listen to so little on the computer, despite having nearly all my CD collection on there, that if I listen to an artist twice, they appear at the top of my weekly charts. The other week it was Tears for Fears, because I had been talking about Donnie Darko. You make the connection.
Anyway, Andy got me thinking about my vinyl collection. My singles are all in the loft, about 500 of them (some of them picture discs and flexi-discs and 33rpm EPs) but my LPs are still on shelves in a spare room, even though I no longer possess anything to play them on. Most of what I still want to listen to, I now have digitally in one form or another, but I had a fun half hour looking through the gatefold sleeves and feeling the static as I took the albums out of their inner sleeves for the first time in about 16 years.
Not being in the least bit ashamed of my wide (and sometimes crap) taste in music, I am quite happy to share that the last piece of vinyl I ever bought was The Riddle by Nik Kershaw...
...which is in here with the rest of the stuff - a real slice of naff 80s!
I have a last●fm profile which gives you personalised charts showing what you have just listened to. It works by installing a plugin (Audioscrobbler) to Windows Media Player (or whatever other player you are using) which watches your playlist and uploads it to a server somewhere. It's all "opt-in" so it bypasses the hassle which Apple has just had spying on i-tunes users' listening habits.
You can then use an RSS feed to add this information to a website, and that's how it appears on this blog. I've chosen to show you only the most recent three tracks I've listened to:
a) because you then can't see the full horror of my listening habits, and...
b) last●fm classes "recent" as about 24 hours, so even that disappears soon.
But... it only tracks what you have listened to on your computer... and so provides a completely false record of what you are actually listening to. I listen to most of my music in the car or on my i-river (like an i-pod, but better...) or around the house.
The music I listen to on my computer tends to be very random and it's often stuff that I have downloaded (legally!) or tried to find online for a specific reason. I listen to so little on the computer, despite having nearly all my CD collection on there, that if I listen to an artist twice, they appear at the top of my weekly charts. The other week it was Tears for Fears, because I had been talking about Donnie Darko. You make the connection.
Anyway, Andy got me thinking about my vinyl collection. My singles are all in the loft, about 500 of them (some of them picture discs and flexi-discs and 33rpm EPs) but my LPs are still on shelves in a spare room, even though I no longer possess anything to play them on. Most of what I still want to listen to, I now have digitally in one form or another, but I had a fun half hour looking through the gatefold sleeves and feeling the static as I took the albums out of their inner sleeves for the first time in about 16 years.
Not being in the least bit ashamed of my wide (and sometimes crap) taste in music, I am quite happy to share that the last piece of vinyl I ever bought was The Riddle by Nik Kershaw...
...which is in here with the rest of the stuff - a real slice of naff 80s!
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Remember, Remember...
...the fifth of November.
But this year make sure you call it Guy Fawkes' Night. That title has been reclaimed, because it's the 400th Anniversary of the attempt he and a bunch of Catholics made to murder the king and blow up parliament. What we have been celebrating all these years with a bit of bonfire toffee and some sparklers has suddenly become a shed load of serious, with people on News 24 talking of "regime change" and "terrorist assassination plots" as if it were Iraq.
There's actually a "stop the terrorist atrocity" game on the BBC Website.
Anyway that doesn't dwell in your mind if you go to Mayflower Park in Southampton for Bonfire Night. The first issue being that there is no Bonfire, so scrub that and let's call it Firework Night instead.
Pre-display there's a fair you can have a go on. I failed to win a cuddly bulldog from one of those grabber machines. Surprisingly, the dog seemed slightly too heavy or the grabber jaws were just not tight enough. I wonder if that always happens?
I also failed to have a go on Froggit, probably the least thrill-seeking of all the rides. Paul and Dominic had a go though..
(Well, you try getting a decent photo. I deleted twelve others of people I didn't know because I had counted wrongly...)
Nikki and I decided to be officially "soft"...
It's not that I mind fast moving boisterous rides, but I tend to avoid seeking the additional thrill of the ride having being bolted together off the back of a lorry that morning by whatever the politically correct term for gypsies is this month.
(There is a spelling mistake above, as is, of course, mandatory on fairground notices and on pub menus.)
Still more excitement before we get to the fireworks. Annoying local radio Wave 105 was there too with annoying local radio DJ, whose name escapes me. He was broadcasting from a very small trailer in which there was hardly room to swing a cat, never mind room for the very awful ABBA tribute band he had brought with him to do symmetrical dance routines. But they tried, bless them...
At least it wasn't The Cheeky Girls, like it was last year.
Finally to the fireworks. Regular readers of this blog - yes there are some - will be aware that my camera is really bad at taking photos at night time where I have to use settings other than the completely automatic ones. But here goes...
Oooooooh!!! (A bit blurry...)
Aaaaaahhhh! (A bit colourless...)
Hmmmmmm... (Not really all on the picture...)
Ouch! (A bit overexposed...)
And then they were all over. It was universally agreed that it wasn't as good as last year, not because of the absence of The Cheeky Girls, but mainly because the fireworks were a bit rubbish. Even the tea was weak and not very hot. But the Russell's overpriced bacon butty was good! I include the photo below to celebrate that one piece of good news, and also to mention the man who stood in front of us for the whole display, talking into his mobile phone telling his friends he was standing near Russell's Burger Grill. He missed most of the fireworks looking for them.
They never did turn up...
But this year make sure you call it Guy Fawkes' Night. That title has been reclaimed, because it's the 400th Anniversary of the attempt he and a bunch of Catholics made to murder the king and blow up parliament. What we have been celebrating all these years with a bit of bonfire toffee and some sparklers has suddenly become a shed load of serious, with people on News 24 talking of "regime change" and "terrorist assassination plots" as if it were Iraq.
There's actually a "stop the terrorist atrocity" game on the BBC Website.
Anyway that doesn't dwell in your mind if you go to Mayflower Park in Southampton for Bonfire Night. The first issue being that there is no Bonfire, so scrub that and let's call it Firework Night instead.
Pre-display there's a fair you can have a go on. I failed to win a cuddly bulldog from one of those grabber machines. Surprisingly, the dog seemed slightly too heavy or the grabber jaws were just not tight enough. I wonder if that always happens?
I also failed to have a go on Froggit, probably the least thrill-seeking of all the rides. Paul and Dominic had a go though..
(Well, you try getting a decent photo. I deleted twelve others of people I didn't know because I had counted wrongly...)
Nikki and I decided to be officially "soft"...
It's not that I mind fast moving boisterous rides, but I tend to avoid seeking the additional thrill of the ride having being bolted together off the back of a lorry that morning by whatever the politically correct term for gypsies is this month.
(There is a spelling mistake above, as is, of course, mandatory on fairground notices and on pub menus.)
Still more excitement before we get to the fireworks. Annoying local radio Wave 105 was there too with annoying local radio DJ, whose name escapes me. He was broadcasting from a very small trailer in which there was hardly room to swing a cat, never mind room for the very awful ABBA tribute band he had brought with him to do symmetrical dance routines. But they tried, bless them...
At least it wasn't The Cheeky Girls, like it was last year.
Finally to the fireworks. Regular readers of this blog - yes there are some - will be aware that my camera is really bad at taking photos at night time where I have to use settings other than the completely automatic ones. But here goes...
Oooooooh!!! (A bit blurry...)
Aaaaaahhhh! (A bit colourless...)
Hmmmmmm... (Not really all on the picture...)
Ouch! (A bit overexposed...)
And then they were all over. It was universally agreed that it wasn't as good as last year, not because of the absence of The Cheeky Girls, but mainly because the fireworks were a bit rubbish. Even the tea was weak and not very hot. But the Russell's overpriced bacon butty was good! I include the photo below to celebrate that one piece of good news, and also to mention the man who stood in front of us for the whole display, talking into his mobile phone telling his friends he was standing near Russell's Burger Grill. He missed most of the fireworks looking for them.
They never did turn up...
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Where has New Zealand gone?
I've finished posting to the New Zealand blog now I'm back, but you can still see it here, or by clicking the link on the right. I posted a few things when I got home, so you might need to catch up!
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