• 09:42 Off to the Post Office and then into Galway. Ta-ra!
• 10:48 Sat in the car with the laptop and a 3G dongle, while Landers attends a meeting. Wishing it wasn't so damn sunny - can't see the screen!
• 10:49 RT @LandersIE: Google Car in Tuam, Galway. twitpic.com/47dol
• 11:21 "Qua qua, da diddley qua qua, da diddley qua qua, da diddly qua qua. HOH!"
• 12:35 You and your continental time-travelling ways. It's only 12:35! :)
• 12:38 Paranoid that the two hours of CD playage will run down my car battery. Have started the engine.
• 13:11 Battery is down to 18%... hope the meeting doesn't last much longer!
• 21:20 Margaret is clearly VERY pissed off at having to walk around so much... #apprentice
• 21:56 Yeah, like Deborah is gonna be able to keep her gob shut next week... #apprentice
• 22:03 RT @iddictive #apprentice Does Nick have a crush on Ben?
• 01:42 Lying in bed next to m'baby.

• 12:08 I KNEW IT! #Heroes
• 14:54 I am rectifying the lack of "HOH!" in No Doubt's cover of "Stand and Deliver" by inserting them myself. HOH!
• 15:12 Off to the bank to pay (most of) the rent.
• 15:58 There is NO hell like that of the provincial Irish small town supermarket checkout.
• 17:04 Almost unable to believe that I am discussing both sweat and spit with different people at the same time. I feel about 13 years old.
• 17:52 As soon as I started listening to the new Madeleine Peyroux album, I started smiling. ? blip.fm/~554v5
• 19:48 RT @bengoldacre: EVERYONE please pls retweet, this is a very serious threat "CC All your Emails to #JacquiSmith Day" rly.cc/8C5Bo
• 20:28 Roasted Mediterranean vegetables, brie, a baguette with REAL butter and a glass of red wine. And it's all mine.
• 21:11 There's a really weird low, dense mist in the fields around our house... spooky!
• 21:22 twitpic.com/46adm - Difficult to get a good pic, but here's the spooky mist!
• 21:53 "Pivot! Pivot! PIVOT!" I heart Friends.
• 23:07 Stunningly cool version of "Stand by Me" - collaboration by street musicians from all around the world is.gd/7Xhe #playingforchange
• 23:49 Who knew Robson Green was so sweary!? Eff this and eff that, bollocks and the like. All over a bit of fishing!
• 01:02 I've just realised that it's nearly May. Where the fuck has this year gone?!

A few weeks back, I purchased this.

In case you're too lazy to follow a link, I'll tell you that it's a collection of stories by HP Lovecraft; a really cool edition, bound in faux-leather with gold print on the cover. Very hefty, and a fupping bargain too.

Lovecraft, as you may or may not know, is the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos - stories which involve ancient "gods" from before time, immense beings who live beyond the world we know. Sinister and creepy tales, full of foreboding and odd happenings. Cthulhu is one of the old gods from the stories. He is a gigantic humanoid, be-winged and be-tentacled, often depicted thusly:

Why am I telling you this? Well, in a strange (and in fact Lovecraftian) co-incidence, bimbling around the internet today I came across a site which listed unexplained phenomena. One of the items on the list is the Bloop.

Several times during the Summer of 1997, the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array (a network of underwater microphones, basically) picked up a sound. An ultra-low frequency sound. Well, that's what they're supposed to do, you may well think.

But this was was no ordinary sound. From Wikipedia:

"...it "rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km." According to scientists who have studied the phenomenon it matches the audio profile of a living creature but there is no known animal that could have produced the sound. If it is an animal, it would have to be, reportedly, much larger than even a Blue Whale, the largest known animal on the earth."

The sound originated somewhere in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, some distance from the west coast of South America.

In the general neighbourhood specified by Lovecraft as the location of the sunken city of R'lyeh, resting place of Cthulhu!

If this was a Lovecraft story, having discovered this information, I would have been compelled to mount an expedition to discover the source of the Bloop, and would come unstuck in some nasty way for daring to try to comprehend the mysteries of the unseen universe, either left insane or dead for my temerity. That's pretty much how every Lovecraft story ends. But they're still very cool, as is the Bloop.

You can listen to a recording of the Bloop, sped up 16 times so that you can hear where it gets it's name, on the Wikipedia page.

I know all I seem to post lately is Youtube videos, but I don't care, here's another one.

I saw this earlier, and loved it. First and foremost, it's a great version of a great song.

More than that, though, it's a really cool and interesting compilation. A guy went round the world with a laptop and some microphones, recording street musicians. Starting in California, he recorded one guy playing his version. He took the recording to New Orleans, played it to a couple of other musicians over headphones and they joined in, he recorded them and played their recording to someone else, and so on. Europe, Africa, South America - I haven't counted how many artists are involved but the overall effect is fantastic. Most of the musicians never even met each other.

It's from an album called Songs Around the World, recorded under the name Playing for Change. There is a DVD documentary about the making of the album, and the reasons behind it. More information here.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Seen on Gizmodo, as usual.

• 11:19 Just had my first taste of twitter spam. MrSweeties is sending links to his online shop to anyone who ever tweeted about sweets. Not cool.
• 15:51 Feeling a special glow after receiving an @ reply from @maggiephilbin
• 16:17 OK, I'll join in the hysteria - track Swine Flu with Google Maps: is.gd/uxcZ #swineflu #h1n1
• 16:29 Wish the weather would make up it's mind. It just rained torrentially for about seven seconds, and then the sun came out again.
• 20:22 Giggling at the amazing instant blender. #eastenders
• 20:33 Oooh Nigella! Marvellous.
• 02:04 No Doubt's cover of "Stand and Deliver" - Not hating this, but they missed out the "hoh!" bits. I loved those! ? blip.fm/~53ob4

• 10:50 I suppose I'd better get up, then. Great night with friends last night.
• 13:42 Being drowned at a car boot sale in Claregalway.
• 18:35 Had a lovely yesterday, and a lazy today. Just as well, I have a week of housework ahead of me...
• 20:21 I don't think I can think of a worse dessert than grapes drowned in creme de menthe... #comedinewithme
• 21:02 Man, I love the opening scene of Blade.
• 22:05 "Da doo! Mort the Jew! Had to Poo!"
• 22:12 "I was busy doing innocent, non-molesty things."
• 22:18 Just when I though Family Guy couldn't get any better, they bring in Brian Blessed.
• 23:32 twitpic.com/42fuk - Damn, this was supposed to have a description.

• 12:57 Jenny Powell used to be so pretty. Now she looks like a cross between Eartha Kitt and a gremlin.
• 12:59 Feel really bad now. Jenny Powell is lovely.
• 14:08 Seriously, the Social Welfare offices in Tuam and Galway need to employ someone to answer the phones. I'll do it!
• 15:16 Aardman Countryside Code advert - I love the horse leaning into the wind! is.gd/uiiB #aardman
• 16:50 Try these guys: @SpeshullEddie @QueenHillie @MaximusCattimus @HuwGrrant - well worth a look-see! #followfriday
• 18:02 First track on my new car CD - Sunday Morning by No Doubt ? blip.fm/~4wa8g
• 18:23 Am sure the god of rain waited until I got to the shops to start this deluge. Have never seen so much water fall from the sky in such a ...
• 18:55 Mmmm my fingers smell all coriandery. Yum!
• 19:40 As if it's twenty to eight!! Time flipping flies when you're doing nowt!
• 20:21 Cool, .com domains for under $1! Bargain! is.gd/ulKg
• 20:23 Oops, forgot the code. Cool, .com domains for under $1 with this code 99BUYCOM - Bargain! is.gd/ulKg
• 20:31 Hundreds of tiny spherical magnets for playing with. Want! is.gd/uklq #buckyballs
• 21:18 Ian Hislop - "They managed to find the one person who was not involved with the G20 demonstration, and killed him." #g20 #police
• 22:19 Watching Snake *Plissken*. ;)
• 00:16 For @Soyster, have some OLDSKOOL stuff! ;) ? blip.fm/~4x3bi
• 01:01 Music to go to bed to: Gwen Stefani's version of Almost Blue. G'night! ? blip.fm/~4x6do
• 01:19 Have been told I'm not allowed to go to bed until Landers does. So I'm still up.
• 01:20 Ah, now he's ready, we can go to bed. G'night again.

Ok, so I stole that title. But it's a good one!

Many newspapers today have reported on the new machine that's been installed in Blackwell's bookshop in Charing Cross. It's a fancy printer dubbed the "Espresso" that will print and bind a book for you while you wait. There's a catalogue of almost a million books available - mostly old stuff where the copyright has expired, but some new stuff too. It all depends on who owns the rights, and they're apparently working on deals with many publishing houses to expand the content available.

Basically, if a book is out of print, there's a good chance that this machine can make a copy for you there and then. It's the end of the concept of "out of print".

The machine runs at about 100 pages per minute, and the company that makes it is working on an even faster version. Once the pages are printed, they are bound and glued with a proper cover and you have a perfectly usable book. Prices are based on the number of pages, or the shelf price of current volumes. Other units have been installed in the USA, Australia and the Alexandria Library in Egypt.

While I think it's a fantastic device, I'm not sure it'll be very popular. There's been people shouting about how this is the end of the independent bookshop; why would people hunt for copies of books when they can get a new one printed? Well, personally, I quite like old books. I enjoy browsing in second hand book shops and that's not gonna change just cos I have the option of paying over the odds for a brand new copy...

[From Gizmodo]

Well, it IS still Friday, just about!

From here.

In 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Telescope, to facilitate the viewing of the dark places in our universe. So...

1. Do you believe in Life On Other Planets?
Yup. It's statistically unlikely that we're the only ones out there. But, as others have said, I'm not entirely convinced they've managed to traverse hundreds of thousands of light years to annoy/probe us.

2. If you met an ET, how would you feel?
I'd be bloody surprised!

3. Do you believe that Mankind belongs among the stars?
We're a race of explorers. We go places, whether we belong there or not!

4. Do you think we will colonise another planet in your lifetime?
Hmm. That depends on your definition of planet. I reckon we'll have a permanent base on the moon in my lifetime, and perhaps even on Mars. Even if there's no life there, there's mineral deposits...

5. Would you be prepared to accept the challenge of being a colonist on another planet, with all the possible hardships involved?
If the planet was similar to Earth, yes. But I wouldn't like to live in a bubble on Mars. I need fresh air every now and then!

• 11:44 Parsley! twitpic.com/3tn5u
• 11:45 Coriander! twitpic.com/3tn6o
• 11:47 Basil! twitpic.com/3tn80
• 13:45 Potential birthday gift for the Father-in-law: is.gd/u4CS
• 14:53 Twitter is not very well. I'd advise everyone not to change their username, profile pic or wallpaper any time soon...
• 15:13 Burning a new CD for the car and then I'm offski into townski!
• 16:49 RT @iGalway Google Street View car is in north Co Clare today. Please RT twitpic.com/3tw7c
• 19:49 Why doesn't Syed look *anything* like the rest of his family?
• 20:16 I think I might do some baking. Scones, anyone?
• 20:49 I have a No Doubt live tour DVD blaring on the telly, and I'm baking. This may be heaven...
• 21:05 Man, that's some good baking/dancing music. There's flour *everywhere*.
• 21:08 "I've been here before, but I've never ever felt this sure..."
• 21:13 Ok, so now I have slightly overdone scones... damn.
• 21:36 No Doubt are doing the Imperial March, which is very cool and all, but all I'm hearing is Peter Griffin.
• 21:44 Et voilà! Sconage! twitpic.com/3umcb
• 22:11 The finished articles. twitpic.com/3uobl
• 22:42 Watching "Irreversible". Fucking weird, & it was making me feel sick even before the guy got his face smashed in with a fire extinguisher...
• 22:49 The camera work is awful, it's like you're doing cartwheels all the time. Giving me motion sickness! Worse than Blair Witch! #irreversible
• 23:08 Not watching any more of #Irreversible. I'm no prude, but I don't need to see rape and face smashing in quite that much detail, thanks...
• 23:34 I think the beer I'm drinking is making the scones in my tummy expand...
• 01:38 In bed with Snake Pliskin. G'night!

We planted some herbs a few weeks back, and they've all sprouted nicely. A little too nicely in fact, and they need thinning out.

Rather than just chucking them away, I thought it would be nice to give some to friends. So, I've been keeping my eye open for suitable pots whenever I've been out, and not had any luck. Nothing in the cheapy shop in town, nothing in Lidl.

Finally, today, I decided to nip into the "garden centre" which is on the way into town. I use the quote marks cos it's a tiny place, not much more than someone's back garden really. I'd never been there before, but I wish I had!

I had a look round, but couldn't really see what I was looking for. All the suitable pots had plants in already! So I went into the officey place where you pay, and asked the woman behind the counter. She asked what sort I wanted, and I explained, and she told me to follow her, which I did.

She took me behind one of the hut things where they grow the plants and there was a massive stack of pots of all shapes and sizes - including some that were just what I was looking for! She sorted out some for me and handed them over.

"How much do you want for them?" I asked.

After a slight pause for thought, she said "Just light a candle and say a prayer for me the next time you're in church."

How nice is that?

On my way back to the car, I ended up picking up some compost and three little succulents (three for a fiver - bargain!), so she did make a bit of cash out of me, but she was so nice I didn't mind. I do wish I'd been in more often; we're moving soon (hopefully!) and I don't suppose I'll ever need to go there again.

A couple of things made me sit up and pay attention today.

First up, a guy with INSANE balancing skills: 22 bricks, on his head, two at a time, in a tower.

Also very clever, but in a totally different way - dolphins.

Bored out of their not-so-tiny minds in an enclosure, what do they do? They invent a totally new toy to play with. Bubbles that behave like no bubbles you've ever seen before. And then they teach each other how to make them.

How amazing is that?! Wikipedia has some info on the physics of the bubble rings here.

• 11:36 Ugh. Feeling headachy and full of catarrh. Think am allergic to Wednesdays.
• 12:32 BOL! And also eww. Australian anti-'flu campaign - warning, do not watch while eating lunch! tinyurl.com/qi0019 (via @qikipedia)
• 12:46 I know, lets hoik a car up to the 94th floor of a building for a press conference. Recession? What recession. is.gd/tRd7
• 13:27 Testing a different image sharing site... post.ly/M2y
• 13:46 Ok, Posterous is a bit shit. I'll stick with Twitpic for now.
• 16:42 Watching the cat hide from a stuffed mouse. Nutter.
• 18:38 I prefer the old Ruby. The new one is a total skank. #supernatural
• 22:27 Twitter is fucked tonight. The website is sooo slow and I can't fiddle with profile pictures.
• 23:50 "Wa naaaay!"
• 00:55 Being horrified by Bizarre ER on BBC3. Bone filing! Filing bones! Gah!

This is an advert from Australian telly, urging people to get flu jabs. People sneezing, in extreme slow motion, set to opera music, with what I suspect is digitally added snot.

They all look really emotional at first, then they just look funny.

• 15:11 Trying to get Growl to work with the desktop version of Tweetie.
• 18:11 Some stunning pictures of Saturn, as seen on Gizmodo: is.gd/tuKs
• 19:16 Curry is ordered. Am suddenly ravenous!
• 20:58 You know you're a grown-up when you have sweets left over after a trip to the cinema.
• 21:13 Looks like I'm the only grown-up, then, eh? Oh well, more sweets for you lot to share!

• 10:51 Wow! Coriander grows like something that grows really fast!
• 11:44 Huh. "Stand and Deliver" is *not* a new No Doubt single, it's just for Gossip Girl and the tours. Bah.
• 01:26 Date went well, drink and a movie, and he came back to mine. Result! ;)

• 12:56 Do we REALLY only get an advert from Postsecret today? is.gd/8t0
• 16:43 No, he went to jail cos he was an unregistered, unlicensed illigal immigrant! is.gd/tiVf
• 17:00 Ugh. IllEgal.
• 17:04 "A unique photographic record of Obama's first 100 days." Why? It's not like he's *our* president...
• 17:09 Just learned that "Noisettes" is pronounced as in the chocolate - Nwas-ettes, not Noys-ettes.
• 22:51 Ooh Dogma! Marvellous. Did you know Jesus was black?
• 22:54 It's time to move when the seam of your jeans has cut off the circulation to your bollocks. I'm going to bed.

• 10:15 How can I have indigestion 12 hours after eating? Surely have digested everything, no?
• 16:00 Hmmm. Supermarket or WoW, Supermarket or WoW...
• 20:58 Jeez, the Casualty special effects budget has been cut slightly...
• 22:48 Does anyone else find it disconcerting that Brian has Seth MacFarlane's real voice?

Max is, as I type, sat under my car growling and chewing on a mouse.

I went to let both the cats in and rather than running to the door at full speed like they normally do, they both sat near the fence and looked at me. Then I noticed that Max had something in his mouth.

I called them over, and he trotted up to the door with his tail in the air, obviously very proud. "You're not bringing that in here!" I told him, and shut the door.

He put it down.

It tried to run away. It was still alive. Poor little thing.

Max grabbed it in his mouth again and it squeaked.

I've got no problem with cats catching mice and birds and eating them, but I hate to see them playing with them. I know, I know, it's their instincts, and he's probably done it a hundred times and I've just not seen him, but I don't have to like it.

So I opened the door and shouted at him. And he ran away. So I threw my slipper at him. And he ran faster.

I got Hillie to fetch my slipper (which she gave a damn good chewing on her way back, thanks Hillie!) and proceeded to chase Max round the house three times before he ran under the car.

Which is where he is now.

Growling and chewing. Sounds disgusting!

• 12:32 Ridiculous verdict in the Pirate Bay case. Totally mixed messages. Jailtime and fines for the founders, but it's OK to leave it up? Eh?
• 12:43 So, is Google gonna be next? I doubt it somehow. Great comment on the Pirate Bay verdict: is.gd/sVD5
• 13:01 Oh my, John Craven looks so OOOOOOLD!
• 14:40 Stoopid job application which wants a stoopid photograph. Why? WHY?! I look so rough today.
• 18:13 OMFG, the BBC is totally misrepresenting TPB on their news bulletin. It's a fucking SEARCH ENGINE!
• 19:08 Sandi Toksvig is so lovely. My new celebrity mom. Sorry Nigella!
• 22:17 Full of Thai green curry and cola. They left bits of lemon grass in the curry. Was chewy and wrong.
• 22:26 No Johnny, no! I loved that idea until you mentioned poo.
• 22:28 I didn't think this could get funnier than the Vegas humping the Gorman, but I was WRONG! BOL!
• 23:25 Time for an early night. Night!

From here.

17th April 1970 saw Apollo 13 return safely to earth after a mission into the unknown!

So, let's have a space themed Friday Five

1. Did they really go to the moon or was it all filmed at the BBC studios in Shepherds Bush?
Of course they really went. It's conceivable that they could get away with such a deception back in the 70s, but I think it would have come out by now. There are far too many people involved in space exploration for it to be kept under wraps.

2. Just how you would feel wearing an astronaut's suit and have to wee down a tube?
I'm not particularly claustrophobic, but I don't think I'd like to wear one. Also, the idea that all that was keeping me from a nasty death is the suit... not fun! As for weeing, I can hold my bladder for a long time - I'd wait!

3. What would you miss most while floating about on the Space Station for a month?
Aside from Landers, I think I'd miss my bed!

4. Would you pay to be one of the first space tourists?
I would pay, but I wouldn't pay what they're asking!

5. Have you seen a rocket launch for real? How awesome was it?
Nope, but I'd love to. They look spectacular on the telly!

I found this really interesting, so I thought I'd share it.

According to Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo, some stuff should be listened to in mono to really appreciate it. His reasoning is based on the fact that when stereo sound was first introduced, it was way overused and basically ruined some of the music it was supposed to improve. It sounds more than plausible.

The case in point is Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I for one am gonna keep an eye out for a mono version of the album to give it a listen and make my own mind up.

Take a look at the full article here.

So, the verdict in the Pirate Bay trial was announced this morning.

In case you're in the dark, the Pirate Bay is a search engine which indexes torrent files - a type of peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing protocol. Basically, you don't download whatever it is you want, you download a small file which helps you find other people who already have what you want, and you get it from them in lots of tiny pieces.

That's an important point: you don't actually download any material, copyrighted or otherwise, from the Pirate Bay. Urged on by movie studios and record companies, their servers have been raided by the police, and no evidence of pirated material was found.

The trial was largely farcical, and the prosecution were forced to drop large portions of their case against the founders of the website on day two of the trial because their claims were simply wrong. They did not understand the mechanisms involved, and were made to look ridiculous on more than one occasion.

Anyway, today the verdict was announced, and the founders of the site were found guilty of "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws". They have been sentenced to a year in prison, and ordered to pay fines and damages of €2.7 million. They intend to appeal this verdict, and in Swedish courts this process commonly takes up to six years. They are confident the conviction will be overturned.

The interesting thing is that they have not been ordered to take the website down. Now, given that the website is the whole reason for their prosecution, isn't that a bit odd? They're being punished for creating and running the site, but they're allowed to carry on doing so if they want.

That's like stealing a telly from Comet, going to prison for it, but being allowed to keep the telly in your living room. It's mental! If it's wrong, it's wrong - this half-hearted slap on the wrists seems designed to appease the companies involved in the prosecution, while not actually doing anything to impede the alleged offences. Maybe the judge uses torrents?

And as for the actual charges, "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws" is a bit vague, isn't it? Yes, the site indexes torrents, and yes, a large number of those torrents are for copyrighted material, but not all of them are. The website has a legitimate use other than for downloading pirated software, music and video. There is plenty of original content and copyright-free software available to download via torrents.

At the end of the day, the bittorrent protocol was not invented for piracy, it was designed to enable people to share large files or groups of files quickly and easily without incurring hefty usage charges from their internet service providers. It has valid uses. Many TV companies use it for their on-demand services. The online game World of Warcraft uses bittorrent to send out updates to the game. If they just put the updates on their website for people to download, every time the millions of people who play tried to download it the internet would come to a standstill. Imagine the load on the various servers around the world as millions of people tried to download such large files simultaneously!

What's more, you can search for torrents using ANY search engine. Even if the judge had ordered the site closed down, it wouldn't make the slightest difference to the levels of piracy on the internet. A torrent file has the extension .torrent, so you can go to Google, pick a film or an artist, type in the name with the word "torrent" after it and you'll get hundreds or even thousands of results.

Maybe Google are next on the hit-list. And if not, why not?

I think this is really cool.

A little girl who had to have her lower arms and legs amputated due to meningitis has become the youngest person in the world to have those prosthetic legs athletes use fitted. And doesn't she look pleased with them!

The article says she was up and running on them in no time, and that they are a vast improvement on her previous prosthetics. They look to be really difficult to balance on, but then I always think they look really graceful when you see athletes running on them in the Paralympics - maybe we'll see this little girl there in a few years' time!

Seen on Gizmodo.

• 11:45 Sat in the waiting room with the rest of the dolescum.
• 11:58 You take a number, you sit down, you wait your turn. Whose fault is it if you miss your turn? Bloody knackers.
• 22:55 Hillie's been rolling in something nasty again... *retch*

• 01:50 Even Will Young can't dig Horne and Cordon out of the pit they've dug themselves...

I've been such a crap blogger the last couple of weeks. Oh well. Twitter and Youtube and KitKat, oh my!

I even fail at being on the dole. I'm currently signing on, and the money I get pays the rent, while we live off Landers' wage. This is all well and good.

BUT, we had visitors last week, so I didn't go to the post office to get my money on Thursday like I was supposed to, nor on Friday, and then we had a bank holiday on Monday, and we went to see some friends yesterday, so finally today I went in to collect my hard-skived cashola, and was told that I should have gone in yesterday at the latest, and it was no longer available. Doh!

I should be able to get it sorted tomorrow, but even so. Dole fail.

Here are some more fails, courtesy of the lovely people at failblog.org.

Landers reacts like this when I scare him:

And Eddie does things like this on an almost daily basis:

Seen here.

• 22:40 Going to bed. Before 11. On a Friday. Woo!

Feeling generally meh for no apparent reason, so have a video I edited.

Face to wall action at it's finest.

• 15:36 Trying not to fall off the cliffs! - Photo: bkite.com/06hO2
• 17:47 Eating fantastic seafood chowder and mussells. Finally! - bkite.com/06i12
• 21:44 Nobody rolls their eyes as good as Margaret. #apprentice

• 14:10 Sat at Knock airport, waiting for our friends to arrive. It's rammed!

• 16:20 The Grand National - what a farce! Again.
• 19:22 Oh, lordy lordy, I love Total Wipeout!
• 03:33 Oh my shit, I've got to go to bed! WoW = World of Warcrack!

• 09:21 Preparing for an epic WoW session!
• 10:45 Argh! Forgot my mouse! Hope I don't have to do any swimming...
• 11:14 False alarm, my mouse was hiding in my bag all along. (Disclaimer - computer mouse!)
• 11:25 Being annoyed that Address Book doesn't have the cool Bluetooth features in Leopard that were there in Tiger...
• 16:17 Doh! I just spat on my keyboard while trying to blow a hair off it.
• 23:20 Going for an early night, and leaving 3.1 downloading...

• 18:01 Seth Rogen looks very odd without his beard...
• 18:09 Not quite believing what I just saw happen in Zack and Miri...
• 20:06 Oooh it's like Kat and Zoe in reverse!

• 13:29 Lorne is dead! :( is.gd/q3Tp
• 14:27 Huw is being a nob again. Nob.
• 14:38 Huw must have read what I was typing. He has now curled up in kidney warmer position.
• 14:50 Aaaaand we're back to nobbery. It's my own fault for disturbing him by sneezing.
• 17:14 I have "Proud Mary" stuck in my head, for some reason. ? Big wheel, keep on turnin'....
• 18:45 Please consider supporting my brother and his mates in JOGLE 2009 - please donate if you can. is.gd/q84T (Please ReTweet!)
• 21:32 Those are some MASSIVE canapés!
• 22:07 Anton Du Bek looks like a parody of himself.

What is JOGLE 2009, I hear you ask. Well, I shall tell you.

JOGLE (I like to pronounce it "joggle") is the name given to fundraising events that involve getting from John O'Groats to Land's End.

Such an event has been organised by my brother and two of his friends in aid of the British Heart Foundation. They aim to cycle from John O'Groats to Land's End at the end of May. According to Google Maps, that's 889miles, and if they were going by car it would take them almost a day. They're aiming to do it in 8 days, not counting getting up to Scotland and back from Cornwall.

Oh, also, they're probably going to be dressed in scrubs.

That's them before a sponsored run they did last year.

Personally, I think they're mad. But I've sponsored them anyway, and I'll try to give them a bit more too, closer to the date.

There's a group on Facebook, a JustGiving page and also a fancy widget that BCUK won't let me post at the moment.

If you feel able to donate a bit of your hard earned/claimed dosh for a good cause, and to really spur these lads on to reach their goal, click on the JustGiving link and take it from there. I know the economy is bad, but charities are feeling the pinch just as much as everyone. If 50 people give £2*, that's £100 going to a great cause. They accept most cards, and paypal too. Don't forget to tick yes for Gift Aid if you're a UK tax payer!

*£2 is the minimum amount available on the JustGiving site.

I missed an important event in a friends' life because of stupid stupidness.

She said last week she was having an operation "next" Friday.

I was all set to send her a message tomorrow wishing her well, only to discover she had the op last week!

This week. Next week.

This Friday = the coming Friday. Next Friday = the following Friday.

This Friday = 03/04/09. Next Friday = 10/04/09.

Am I right?

On a related note, my primary school headmaster used to use such phrases as "Tuesday week". I think he meant "a week on Tuesday" (as in, next Tuesday), but I was never sure. And still am not.

P.S - She's recovering well, by all accounts! She was home the next day. The NEXT day, not THIS day!

While this story about a pub landlord who was discovered dead in his home this morning is obviously very tragic, I can't help wondering why on earth the journalist felt the need to point out that the Gards are treating the death as "suspicious".

I should bloody well hope so! He was tied to a chair!

I was sad to hear that Andy Hallett died the other day.

He was the guy who played Lorne (aka The Host) in Angel, the Buffy spin off. He was a great character. A green-skinned demon who could read people's emotions and future in their aura while they were singing. Appearing very shallow at first, he became an integral part of the team, and was shown to be much deeper than everyone thought. He had some cracking one-liners, and lightened the mood of the show considerably.

According to Wikipedia, his role on Angel was his first and last acting role, although he pursued a singing career after the show was cancelled. I personally didn't rate his voice, but maybe he was directed to sing a certain way in the show.

Shortly after filming the last episode of Angel in 2004, he developed a tooth infection which led to a case of cardiomyopathy. He was in and out of hospital over the next five years, before finally dying on the 29th March 2009.

How shocking and sad that a tooth infection can lead to fatal heart disease. He was 33 years old.

Here is his first appearance in Angel (I think!).

And here is one of my favourite scenes, where we meet his mother (with the beard).

• 14:36 Having a headache. Ouch.