• 12:53 Have had a lovely lazy couple of days with friends, including several bowls of fantastic seafood chowder. NOM!
• 15:37 Chowder is even better the next day. Über-nom!
• 17:41 Who could have guessed Max Clifford has a soul?! is.gd/pqec

• 16:40 Sat in Supermacs awaiting chicken.

• 10:18 I've been up for 45 minutes and I haven't brushed my teeth. Naughty me!
• 15:12 Testing a java app called Jitter for tweeting via my mobile phone.
• 16:07 Fiddling with Garageband with our Electric Guitar.
• 16:08 Wondering why electric guitar was given capital letters in my last tweet. Is it a person? No.
• 20:16 On my way to spend the night at the Duggans'! With Maynards Sours.
• 23:02 Doing instances galore.
• 01:08 RT @robsellen: would like to hit 2000 followers... anyone wanna RT that? :o)
• 02:23 Finished instancing. We won, lots. Woo!
• 02:26 Downloading iUpdates and going to bed. Nuh-night!

• 17:20 Someone come and take these Discos away! I've eaten 3 packets already, and I want another one...
• 18:31 Browsing Berlin on Google maps. Roll on May!
• 20:17 Hoping my hunk-a hunk-a burnin' love makes it home in one piece...
• 20:54 Wishing I had been motivated enough to make carrot and coriander soup. Longing for a bowl right now...
• 22:32 How much toast can one man eat? Let's find out!

• 22:02 Kevin McCloud looks *far* too convincing as an old lady...
• 22:51 The poor unfortunate man who was killed by bears sounds like a character from South Park. is.gd/oN2K

EDIT: He's gone. Dunno if he deleted himself, or all the flags did their job. Result, either way.

----

I wouldn't dream of telling anyone what to do, but personally, I have just flagged both this blog AND user.

Hopefully, one flag will be enough - but I bet he'll have more than one by the end of the evening.

• 20:07 Ewar Woowar is in Stenders!

• 13:27 Trying to figure out why the dogs smell of wet dog, when it's not wet outside...
• 18:41 I am in possession of bikkits and milk. I has a happy.
• 18:45 Chocolate digestives (strange name for a bikkit, no?) and bourbons.
• 18:55 Watching Huw stalk one of Landers' shoes.
• 19:12 Huw is being a nob again. Stupid nob.
• 23:37 Oh good gracious, I need a wee.

Ok, I know I only just posted about Prop 8, but then I found this, and had to share it!

Kathy Najimy, Jack Black, John C Reilly and more with their spin on Proposition 8. Very funny, and worth a look!

So, while bimbling around the internet this afternoon, I stumbled across a youtube video which I will share at the bottom of this post. It's about Proposition 8, the change in the California State Constitution which was voted in late last year restricting the definition of marriage to the union between a man and a woman, essentially voiding the 18,000 gay marriages that were registered since it was legalised.

There are arguments for and against gay marriage, but personally I don't think legally recognising the committed union of two men or two women is going to make that much difference to anyone who isn't involved in that union.

It's not final yet; the whole thing has gone to the Supreme Court, and they are deliberating now. There's been a lot of campaigning going on, on both sides of the fence. Soy posted one funny example on her blog, and here is the one I saw.

It makes the whole thing about people, not policies. It's not about the fact that these people are gay, it's about the fact that they are in love, and have expressed that in the way millions of people all over the world express it: they got married.

For more information on the Prop 8 saga, try wikipedia.

• 16:31 Hoping that the fire burning it's way through the peat bog near our house doesn't get much closer...
• 17:33 Wondering how you pronounce "Bon Iver". Is is like "Ivor the Engine" or is it some strange foreign word like "Ivay"?
• 17:54 Aha! It's a corruption of "Bon Hiver" - Good Winter in French. Pronounced "Bon Eevair".
• 18:08 Ew ew ew! Hand and blender collide in Supernatural! *shudder*
• 22:59 The fire on the peat bog is still going...

Catching up on season 4 of Supernatural, I just witnessed this scene:

I wish they'd gotten a better looking guy to play the Chief, though. Oh well.

(Season 4 Episode 12, if you're interested.)

• 11:45 Going to wash my car.
• 15:45 Hoping my lovely washing that I just hung on the line doesn't end up in that field full of sheep. It's quite windy...
• 20:31 Not liking the creepy Eastenders advert I just witnessed.

Yeah, I'm a fatty. I'm a bit surprised at the "very high" violence though! I thought I answered in the negatory for all the violent questions...

Also, I'm "moderately" treacherous?! I can cope with the moderate fraudity fraudism fraudness fraudulence being a moderate fraud; I did steal this from Soy after all...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Nickerless just posted about Thin Lizzy, which reminded me that I didn't blog about the gig this year, which was in February. Naughty me

So, we had a very good time, I got rather drunk and was VERY poorly the next day. Here is some pictorial evidence:

Compare and contrast me trying to look sober and only managing slightly crazed, with the marvellous sober me from last year. Alas, my belly is too big now to fit into my Thundercats tshirt.

• 10:52 Off oot for a walk along the prom in Galway.
• 14:00 Almost unable to believe what a nice day it is!
• 14:41 The view from Salthill Prom. twitpic.com/28u2r
• 15:20 Being disappointed that a bar advertising Amstel doesn't actually serve it.

First and foremost, I am vindicated. The stuff I've been using in the laundry IS fabric softener, not detergent. Have not been a complete numpty after all.

Secondly, we have had a bloody lovely day out in Galway, walking along the prom at Salthill. It was like the middle of summer, despite some people walking round all bundled up like it was baltic. Photos may be forthcoming later.

Thirdly, as some people have already noted, Google Maps has been updated to include Streetview for the UK. You may not find this very exciting, but I've been anticipating this for some time. Why? Well, I'll tell you. My little brother was stood outside my parents' house when the camera car went past! He's famous! They use magic (or computers) to blur out faces and number plates and stuff, but it's him. I'm not linking cos then you'd all know where my parents live, but here's a screencap:

Interestingly enough, the freak cat is peeking out from under the car, and her face is blurred out too. Not sure what that's all about! She could have signed a disclaimer for them, she's got thumbs after all.

Further to my post about Limp Bizkit, I would like to share this gem which was festering in the depths of my iTunes library.

Ladies and gentlemen (and Nick), I give you...

Cookie.

• 13:11 Being disappointed at the end of "Sunshine" again.
• 15:56 I wish they wouldn't do a massively overlong recap at the start of every single bloody episode of Supernatural.
• 18:10 Having mixed feelings about No Doubt premiering their cover of "Stand and Deliver" on Gossip Girl...
• 18:31 CJ de Mooi is a cunt.
• 22:58 Best line on FM tonight? Either "He's really strong for a skinny guy" or "Fuck me in the face, it's Connie Huq!"
• 23:33 Have been doing something very silly. Doh!

Landers just commented that he thinks he might be developing an allergy to the washing powder we're using. He has itchy knackers. I'm sure he'll thank me for sharing that.

We discussed this possibility. We discovered something.

I've been doing the laundry.

I've been using the correct amount of washing powder. I've ALSO been mistakenly using concentrated liquid soap as softener.

Je suis un twat.

EDIT:

No, I'm not! I was right! It IS fabric softener! His knackers must just be sweaty.

Oh lordy lord, what a wonderful idea for a website!

Scanwiches.

I was quite tempted to scan some crisps the other day to email them to Soyster, but imagine having to clean your scanner every lunchtime!

The other day, I spent some time going through my iTunes library, doing some housekeeping. Tidying track and artist names, inserting album artwork, that sort of thing.

In the course of my wading through the many MANY tracks I never ever listen to, I rediscovered the marvel that is Richard Cheese. He does lounge music covers of well known modern rock songs, and he's frickin' hillarious!

If you are unschooled in the ways of Limp Bizkit (or, as my friend James calls them, Floppy Cookie), first off, listen to these:

[Disclaimer: these tracks may contain some naughty words!]

Limp Bizkit - Nookie

Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff

Then, get a load of this beauty!

Richard Cheese - Nookie/Breakstuff

"Limp Bizkit choo-choo, come on and take me hoooooome!"

• 13:13 Being excited about Peggle on the 360. Because I don't already have it on my Mac or my DS, obviously.
• 15:33 Being gobsmacked at www.cooliris.com/ - Flickr never looked so good!
• 16:22 Feeling bad that the dogs are getting excited that I'm putting my shoes on. I'm only going the the no-very-supermarket!
• 17:07 Just had to pick Huw up, put him on my lap and tell him to stop being a nob.
• 17:49 So far, so boring with the iPhone 3.0 software.
• 17:53 Best thing so far is Push Notifications - which they announced last year. Some cool stuff for developers to play with, though.
• 18:07 Being amused that Apple are so pleased about cut and paste in iPhone 3.0... It shoulda been there from the start!
• 18:16 Ditto MMS, and SMS forwarding.
• 18:28 WOO! A2DP!!!
• 23:26 Orf for an early noight.

• 19:07 Sitting in the dark cos I can't be arsed to get up and turn the lights on.

• 14:30 Reeling from the revelation that the baby in Nanny McPhee looks like Al Murray, Pub Landlord.

• 10:19 Stew is cooking away, smelling great. Can't wait!
• 11:04 Playing with the gabillion Mash Ups I downloaded last night.
• 22:07 Rediscovering my love for Richard Cheese's "Lounge Against the Machine".

I've had a lovely day today!

Got up early to do housework and prepare dinner cos we had friends coming over. We had beef stew with dumplings (and roast potatoes, by special request), with chocolate brownies and custard for pudding. We were all stuffed silly! Everyone had seconds of everything, so I assume they weren't just being polite when they said they liked it.

We had a lovely long chat, a bit to drink, and watched the rugby - go Wales!

After the rugby, we had buttered porter cake, which is a mildly spicy fruit cake, quite dense but not as dense and malt loaf. Very nice with a cup of tea! And then our friends went home.

Nothing terribly exciting, but we just had a really nice time. A lazy evening sorting out album artwork in iTunes, sat next to my baby on the sofa, and soon to bed.

As close to heaven as you can get on earth.

• 14:22 Fiddling with iTunes.
• 15:07 Oh Morrissey may look like an old man now, but he still sounds good...
• 17:23 Discovering the wonder of Spaces in Leopard.
• 20:12 I am currently having cold feet. Literally, not metaphorically.
• 20:36 Argh! Annie Lennox is looking far too scary and intense for something as lighthearted as Comic Relief.
• 20:48 Being delighted that the "We...are...your friends" song is remixed by Justice!
• 22:04 Noel Gallagher has snap on lego hair.

She carried on! She kept saying "well, if I'm wasting your time, you don't have to reply".

So I blocked her.

So she posted a comment on my profile pic instead, saying she was sorry, and she's not bad person.

I've deleted it.

I just had a private message.

"Hola, estas ocupado? me gustaría hablar contigo "

I managed to get the first bit - "Hello, are you busy?" But Landers had to help me out with the second bit - "I'd like to talk to you."

Me: "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish."

Her: "Uuu, my English is terrible, so bad"
Her: "I can understand everything that you say but i don't think that you can understand me"

Me: "What can I do for you?"

Her: "only I want to talk whit somebody, I'm very bored"
Her: "but if you are busy, don't worry, it's OK"

Me: "Well you've already taken up this much time, you may as well carry on! What's up?"

Her: "but if you are busy, don't worry, it's OK"

Me: "Well then, you've totally wasted my time. Thank you so much."

Her: "Wow, That so hysterical man, sorry for wasting your valued time"

Me: "Well, stop it then."

---

Honestly, what was the point of all that?!

One Halloween, Landers and our friend Rebecca were in Asda shopping for pumpkins, costume bits and random party food, when they witnessed an asian man with a trolley full (as in, full) of blocks of butter, bags of sugar, frozen chips, and a single tube of Smarties.

The only thing they could surmise is that he was making some sort of cake consisting of butter, sugar and chips, decorated with Smarties.

And lo, the tradition of the Diwali Chip Cake was born. They make one every year.

They don't taste very nice.

EDIT:

I found a picture! It was from a very very very old phone of mine so it's tiny.

Just got back from the treasure trove that is Lidl with lots of lovely things for eating, including a sample of each of the new Walkers flavours at cut price. The Fish & Chips flavour taste like a nasty version of Scampi Fries. The Crispy Duck & Hoi Sin taste like the Hoi Sin is off. That is all so far.

A great big massive THANK YOU to whoever it was who said Lidl "Freeway" Cola tastes like real Coke - it sort of does! More like Pepsi, in my opinion, but certainly drinkable! And less than half the price! And the diet stuff is a quarter of the price! Truly amazing. I'm a bit of a coke snob and would never have tried it if it wasn't recommended.

Kinda reminds me of this:

• 14:48 Coveting chocolate digestives.

Oh, how this made me giggle!

Top 25 Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians.

I have no idea who some of them are, but flippin' heck, they're right!

Dana Carvey! Even sounds like a lesbian!

I cannot stress this enough - if you are at work, you're probably not going to want to click this link. Also, beware if there are kids around!

I found it in the process of googling for "gay wallpaper". Ah, the wonders of google.

Lurid Digs is a blog in the vein of Lolcats and Failblog, but dedicated to the study of the decor in pictures men post on their profiles on sites such as Gaydar. And it's frickin' hillarious. There's a little comment under each picture, and some of them are fantastic! It's quite scary how many of them have rooms full of stuffed toys and the like.

Clicky!

Taken from their "About" page:

---

"For us at Luriddigs.com the charm of amateur pics has never involved the vulnerability displayed by the model's self-willed nudity. As soon as a JPEG has fully loaded in our browser, we immediately begin to scour the image's background in search of clues and signs that are a thousand times more intriguing than bare butts or engorged genitalia. Interiors are like handwriting, and for those who know how to decipher the mishaps of furniture meeting form, many secrets are revealed. Join us inside, while our snooty panel plumbs the background life of the Net's most audacious and careless interior designers."

Bane of dancefloors everywhere, but hey, if these guys like it, it can't be all bad...

Invented by Nick.

The idea is you think about places you've been that feature in song titles. I can currently think of two three four, and two of those were stolen from Nick. I'm hoping more will occur to me as I go along.

Places I have been:

"N17" - The Saw Doctors

"Galway Girl" - covered a million times, no idea who the original is by

"Paris to Berlin" - Infernal

"Abergavenny" - Marty Wilde

"Lost in France" - Bonnie Tyler

"Big it Up (The Birmingham Crew)" - Joe Hunt

"Fields of Athenry" - no idea

"We're going to Ibiza" - The Vengaboys

"London Calling" - The Clash

Um...

"Woking on Broken Glass" - Annie Lennox?

and on a related note:

"Surrey Seems to be the Hardest Word" - Elton John?

Can't think of any more...

Yesterday, we were sat in the lounge playing WoW, when Hillie came slinking in, looking very sheepish.

Landers called her over to give her a fuss, and then exclaimed "Where has your head been?!"

It was all greasy and gross, like she'd had it stuck in a chip pan. And that wasn't far wrong.

Landers had cooked sausage and egg muffins (and bloody lovely they were, too!), and then put the used oil from the frying pans in one of those plastic cartons you get from a takeaway on the counter.

The carton was exactly where it had been left, just considerably emptier. There was some oil on the counter, but not much, and none on the floor.

I can see clearly what had happened. Hillie had been in the kitchen, smelled this lovely sausagey eggy fat, and decided she wanted some.

She'd stood on her hind legs and strained and strained to reach the tub with one of her front paws. She'd caught the lip of the carton, and it had flipped up on edge, chucking oil all over her head, and then dropped back down where it was.

I can just imagine her sat in the kitchen for ages, thinking "Oh god, they're gonna know, they're gonna know! How can I wash my hair without them noticing?"

Mucky cow.

And to top it all off, I let her out for a wee this morning and she's come in stinking, having rolled in something really nasty and black and sticky. Again.

Bath time.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the invention of the Compact Disc. I was surprised it was that long ago - I'd have guessed more like 25 years at the most. The first audio CD release was actually Billy Joel's "52nd Street" in 1982 - although at the time there was only one CD Player available, so I doubt it sold many copied in that format! It wasn't a widely used format for a fair few years after that.

While they're not perfect, they revolutionised not only the music industry, but also the computing world too. Before recordable CD-ROMs were available, your main choice for portable storage was the floppy disc - 1.4MB! Woo!

I suppose the time of optical media might be coming to an end. I still use CDs in my car, but I actually can't remember the last time I used a CD for data purposes. I even installed my operating system using my iPod as a virtual drive. Many new "netbook" computers don't even have CD drives built in. Flash storage is so much more convenient. The size increases provided by DVD and now Blu-Ray have prolonged the format, but with the current trend away from physical data storage it's just a matter of time before optical discs go the way of cassettes. Many new televisions are ready to connect to your computer and act as a display for all your downloaded movies.

But of course, when you talk about CDs, you think music. So, what's the first audio CD you ever bought?

Mine was the Michael Jackson album "Dangerous", in 1991.

• 15:43 Deciding that the people who make Innocent smoothies are NOT inncocent. They charge too much and put cocaine in them to make them addictive.

We bought premade pizzas today, in a fit of laziness. Landers chose a barbecue chicken one, and I chose a Chicago Town type thing which is made with fresh dough and rises when you cook it. I've had them before and they are very nice indeed.

However, there was no room in the freezer. So, remembering when I've defrosted meat in the fridge and how it takes aaaages, I figured the pizzas would be ok in there for a couple of hours.

Apparently not. Totally defrosted and limp.

Anyway. Landers put the oven on to preheat, and then I got up to go an put the (floppy) pizzas in the oven. Cue reading the instructions for estimated cooking times.

Cue realising that my pizza is supposed to go into a cold oven.

As I said, I've had these before. Je suis un twat.

EDIT: I just read this back, and I think it might possibly the most boring thing I've ever written.

I wasn't going to do this, mainly due to laziness. But then I went and looked at the entry for Brad, and I couldn't not post it!

It's very simple. Go to urbandictionary and look up your name. Stolen from many people.

---

The top entry is pretty accurate:

1. Brad
Derived from Brad Pitt. Sexy male that encourages female wet dreams.
adj. that guy is so Brad.
verb. (female) that guy just made me Brad on the spot.

---

Then there's one that sounds kind of difficult:

2. Brad
The act of tying ones ballsack above the penis. Normally in a bow.
Pete: Man I hooked up with Mandy last night and she insisted I Brad myself. Weird.

---

I like this one:

3. brad
filipino slang term for male friend or dude (short for brother)
brad paki abot ng yosi.
meaning: Dude,pls. pass me the cigarette

---

I'd like to think this one is true:

5. Brad
The guy everyone judges before they know him. The name of a person who is outgoing and is never given a chance. The guy who you can fight with and he still won't stop being your friend.
Ti: Your a dick Brad! Brad: Yea so? still gonna hang here.

---

And last but certainly not inaccurate:

17. brad
A noun used to describe someone who is, or acts very homosexually.
When I went to jail, I knew the majority of the people were very brad.

---

• 11:36 *GASP* You can get Peggle for the DS!

Honestly. Did the people who made this even look at it?

Although I suppose it would be appealing to some people.

Oh, and NotBob? Your productive life ends this month...

EDIT: Mine ends now. I just discovered Peggle for the Nintendo DS. It was nice knowing you all.

So, on the way back from the horsepiddle with Landers, we could see what we thought was a wall of rain in the distance.

As we drove into it, however, we were delighted to discover that it was snow! Massive snowflakes by the billion. It made our journey home a bit longer, but it was well worth it for the view.

It even settled a bit on the fields! It looked like a hard frost, very pretty. The sheep and newborn lambs sounded a bit confused though, there was lots of baaaing when we got home!

I took some pictures, but the batteries were going in our good camera, so I was hurrying and some of them are kinda blurry...

I love this one. What looks like a shadow behind the tree is actually just an absence of snow where the tree blocked the wind. Click to enbiggen.

Look! I'm so excited I didn't finish the title with my usual ellipses!

I just got to level 80 (the current level cap) in World of Warcraft! Woo! Finally!

I'm a pretty casual player, so it's taken me a while, but damn it feels good.

To celebrate, here's something I discovered earlier. There's an area called the Storm Peaks, and on a quest chain there you get disguised as a Viking type person. This disguise persists even if you get on your mount, something that normally cancels things like that.

My character is a Druid, and Druids can shapeshift. They don't have flying mounts, they turn into a bird.

So, while I was disguised, I shifted to bird form, and THIS happened!

That's how Bananaman used to fly! How cool is that?!

Cheer's for the CSS help, Mr Spencer!

In other news, I only realised last night that my car is advertised by those annoying "Come On!" puppet things.

In my defence, it's an Opel, not a Vauxhall, but even so I feel a vague sensation of disgust.

Meh. I'll get over it, I'm sure.

Quite possibly the best meme ever, courtesy of Soy.

Here's mine:

To Do This:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

My links are here:

Band name
Title
Photo

My nephew Jake was 3 years old on Thursday. He's a cheeky chappy, big for his age (we bought him a leather jacket for christmas, and had to get one for a five-year-old) and full of confidence.

At the moment, he loves having his picture taken. To the extent that he HAS to be in every single photo if someone has a camera. For my mom and dad's anniversary, my sister (his mom) bought a picture frame with a cutout in the shape of the word "family" and put a different picture behind each letter. There was her and her husband with Jake, my other sister and her husband with their three kids, me and Landers, my brother and his girlfriend, a nice picture of my brother who died, and one of the foster kids my parents look after long term. Apart from the one of my dead brother, Jake was in every single picture, at the side (you can't see him cos of the shape of the frame).

So, around the same time, Jake drew a picture of a spider on a cool magnetic drawy thing he has. He was very proud of this, and wanted his mom to commemorate it by taking a picture. She's just posted it on Facebook.

I haven't included it in this post because I wanted you to read the story before seeing it - I wanted you to get the full effect.

Are you ready?

I present to you my nephew, Jake.

(Incidentally, his initials spell his first name! How cool is that?! It says a lot about my sister, does that.)