Confusion Reigns Supreme

Staff Day tomorrow, the monthly one with all the meetings. Standard levels of boredom will be lifted, though as before the meetings the Big Boss from London is coming to see us, and we will have the "Class 3B, 2008" style formal photo out on the lawn. I'll have to see if I can dig out a semi-decent tie, I haven't worn one of those for about four years!
Then there will be the fun and games of seeing me trying to squirm out of lunch with the Boss (curly sandwiches and orange juice, anyone?) in order to either do some shopping or disappear down to the pub.

Started clearing up my desk. I never knew I had so many copies of Rock'n'Reel and Mixmag!
Looks half decent, now. Just got to clear the boxes out from underneath (possible fill one of them with all my CDs to bring home - I'm not going to make that mistake again!)

...today was just as expected.

Got up this morning with a feeling of despair - no money until tomorrow, no ciggies and only lager and bitter in the fridge.

No visitors today, so no Sunday roast, but mum did do a lovely gammon steak with 'taters and veg, which was exquisite. My gods! Do people still use that word?

The dogs were disappointed by that, because they usually get the left-overs for their lunch. There weren't any today.

And this afternoon I've just slobbed around on me blog.

Peaceful, quiet Sundays. Don't ya just love 'em?

You Are Classical Music

You are a somewhat serious person who enjoys studying subjects deeply. Art of all kinds interests you, and a good piece of art can really effect you emotionally. You are inspired by human achievement, and you appreciate work that takes years to accomplish. For you, the finer things in life are not about snobbery - they're about quality.

Sort of almost right, I s'pose.

Feckit, it seems to be a popular thing to do, so what with me seeing a bandwagon ready to be jumped upon, here I go!

You may ask me three questions and I shall try to answer them. Things that you would like to know about me or my life, my past my future, what makes me tick, what makes me sick. From the mundane to the serious - fire away and I will endeavour to answer for you... but I make no promises!

Bring it on!

Mum's just asked me a rather pertinent question.

"What do you do on that thing all day?"
"Just chatting miv me mates" says I.

"What, all day?!"
"I've got a lot of mates..."

ho-hum, I'm a geek.

I didn't spot that two questions had been left out of that last meme.
Questions 25 and 26 have now been inserted and answered.

You Should Visit Costa Rica

Costa Rica is the perfect place for you to get in touch with your inner beach bum. Relax on the beach, go for a bit of surfing, or try to communicate with the monkeys in the jungle!

How wrong could you get?
Beach? Surfing? Me?

As I've said before, it must be meme season!

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
Set of jump leads - unused as yet.

2. When was the last time you threw up?
Can't recall, which is probably due to the reason I last threw up

3. Whats your favorite curse word?
Shit

4. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
Erm... Mum.
As for the other two, can I count my dogs as people?

5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Sleeping.

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Reading my friends' blogs

7. Have you ever been to a strip club?
No. Never seen the appeal, strangely.

8. What is the last thing you said aloud?
Rossi's crashed! HAHAHAHA!!!

9. When is your birthday?
Late March.

10. What is the best ice cream flavor?
Toffee Ripple. Mmmmmm

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Cider. Too much thereof.

12. What are you wearing right now?
Slacks and a Dr Feelgood t-shirt from their 1990 tour. Still fits!

13. What is the last thing you ate?
Cheese and pickle sandwich.

14. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
Gotta be kidding. I'm finding it hard enough to buy food!

15. When was the last time you ran?
This morning. Had to get to the smallest room pretty sharpish.

16. What's the last sporting event you watched?
Moto GP at Assen. Hence the sudden outburst of "Rossi's crashed!"

17. What's the last sport you played?
Darts, a couple of weeks ago. I lost.

18. Who is the last person you sent a comment/message on myspace?
I'm not on myspace.

19. Ever go camping?
Once. 1985, International Youth Year I shared a tent with German, Dutch and Polish teenagers. Interesting...

20.Do you have a tan?
Why would I want to give up my "pale and interesting" look?

21.Have you ever lost anything down a toilet?
No.

22.What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate

23.Do you use smiley faces on the computer a lot?
Who, me?

24. Do you drink your soda from a straw?
No.

25. Last time you travelled by bus?
Home from work sometime last year. Unfortunately spoiled by having to deal with a group of rampaging feral youths (little shites)

26. What do you never leave the house without?
Closing the door

27. What are you doing tomorrow?
As little as is humanly possible, though I may start cartooning again.

28. Where is your mom right now?
Sitting next to me knitting bootees

29. Look to your left, what do you see?
A glass of cider.

30. What color is your watch?
What watch?

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia?
Ayres Rock and kangaroos

32. Ever ridden on a roller coaster?
Yes, but only a very tame one.

33. What is your birthstone?
Bloodstone

34. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive through?
I try to avoid if at all possible.

35. What is your favorite number?
Never really thought of it, but 37 is definitely not it.

36. Do you have a dog?
I have 2. Penny - 7year old beagle/some sort of terrier cross - and Paddington - 14 year old Newfie.

37. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Don't know. Wrong number!

38. Have you met anyone famous?
Ed "Stewpot" Stewart, Sally James, Sandra Dickinson, and a few others...

39. Any plans today?
It's the weekend. I never rarely plan anything for the weekend.

40. How many provinces have you lived in?
Erm... I'm guessing this quiz originated in Canada, then. The answer's none, I've only ever lived in England

41. Ever go to college?
Go to? Yes. Studied hard at? No.

42. Where are you right now?
Here.

43. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
Work and lack of a decent salary.

44. Last song listened to?
Big Rock Candy Mountain as performed by Seasideman - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZanRKcBpyc
Cheers, Tom!

46. Are you allergic to anything?
Hard work?

47. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
My black suede boots.

48. Taste in your mouth right now?
Slightly acidic and a bit papery

49. Are you jealous of anyone?
Anyone with a decent job.

50. Is anyone jealous of you?
I very much doubt it.

51. Do you love anyone?
I've pretty much given up on that concept.

52. Do any of your friends have children?
Yes.

53. Do you eat healthy?
More to the point - do I eat?

54. What do you usually do during the day?
As little as possible as hard as I can.

55. Do you hate anyone right now?
Oooh! Have you got a couple of spare days?

58. Do you own any big sunglasses?
No. I can't stand them, they make me look stupid.

59. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
No.

60. How did you get one of your scars?
Tripped over a flower tub in the beer garden down the pub.

Well, if the dogs can do it and get away with it, I guess so can I...

...paaaaarrrrp!...

I know, I know, I know, it says on my profile that I'm a bit of a boozer.
Heck, you can see that by the tone of most of my posts.
I'm trying TRYING my bestestest to be senstibubble, but...

I haven't been to the pub of an evening for a frotnight and I get text messages asking if I'm still alive...

So I went to the pub this evening to show them that I am.

The buggers have only stocked themselves up with 16 different ciders...

How d'ya think I's feeling now?

*hic*

...that I buy New Scientist to learn something I didn't already know.

I totally forgot about a VERY special day on Tuesday.

HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY, BIG FELLA!

Paddington, the pure-bred Newfoundland is now 14 years old and still going strong!

...To lose one arm is unfortunate, to lose two seems like carelessness.

So that's all my astronomy textbooks going in the bin, then.

It's getting early now, so I shall have to sign off and trundle my merry way up the wooden hill to dream of dongles and plug-and-play.

OI! I know what some of you are thinking! *tsk!*

Does it reset itself to "Stupid" every now and then?

I've just tried to go to Google's homepage only to be told that, despite it being my default homepage, it DOES NOT HAVE A RATING.
So how has that changed since the last time I visited all of, oooh, maybe five minutes ago?

Bunch of a**e!

Yes! I WILL be back blogging from the office soon.
There is such a simple way of bypassing the system at work, I can't believe I haven't already done it.

I just need to wait for pay day (can't come soon enough!) and then I will be investing in one of these dongle thingies

Nice to see that one of their main selling points is that it comes in one of three colours . Mind you, if they'd offered four the website for picking your own design would have had a rather more *ahem* interesting address.

It was lovely and sunny today, if a bit breezy, so I went to my usual watering hole for lunch and sat out on the patio so I could enjoy a couple of smokes in peace.

I drained the last of my first course from my glass and went to stand up to get another, when suddenly one of the bar staff called over to me asking if I wanted a refill. Obviously I couldn’t decline and she trotted off to pour my next pint. I didn’t realise they did table service in that pub! Or maybe it’s something they only lay on for their best customers. Saved me the hassle of battling my way past the only other person out on the patio!

Apart from that, today’s been a bit of a non-event, all told, and my colleague left the office at four without telling me. I only found out when I handed my key in at quarter past five and saw what time he handed his key in.

Ho-hum.

I can no longer hear the telly over the dogs' snoring. Time for me to start doing likewise, methinks.

Catch y'all tomoorow!

I've lost a couple of files during my irregular computer clear-up that I want to use as alternative profile pics. Oh well, I know where I got them from, I'll just have to trawl through that site again in search of replacements. This could take some time.

Sounds like a chore, doesn't it? But it's not.
I know they are hidden somewhere in one of my favourite webcomics, so it should be fun revisiting.

"Which comic?" I hear you ask plaintively. OK, maybe not, but it's Narbonic, by Shaenon K. Garrity, from whence my wallpaper came. I'd forgotten how addicted to it I used to be!

EDIT: I've added the daily Tooncast of the strip down there . It's about two years in to the six-year run. Enjoy!

More of today's memory madness...

This morning I went to make myself some coffee, but I couldn't find any filter papers, so I thought I'd nip in to Sainsbury's at lunchtime for some filters and bikkits. Good plan.

Lunchtime eventually drags its feet my way and I troop off out to lunch.

Via Sainsbury's - you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?

Searched high and low along the tea and coffee aisle, but it would appear that they don't sell the basics any more, it's all sachets of cappucino, mocha and latte.
Bought the bikkits, though. I hadn't forgotten them.

Got back from lunch hung my jacket over my seat and sat down, and there staring me in the face, right next to the coffee machine was an open pack of coffee filters. Where the hell did they appear from? I decided to do a bit of work before I put the coffee on.

Mistake!

4pm comes around and I still have no coffee, so I settle for a nice cup of "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" as a certain captain would say *ahem* and carry on with my work.

4.45 I finish up the job that I've been doing all afternoon and remember to drink that cup of tea (by now room temperature.

5pm I shut down the office and put my jacket on to go home only to find in my pocket an unopened pack of bikkits. D'oh!

Still, at least I know I'm well stocked for a long boring day tomorrow!

...but here must be something about me that attracts them like, well, you get the idea.
Just been pinged by this young lady:

hello my belove cuter
,How are you?hope you are fine and in perfect condition of health.i am loving,romantic,fun and kind,i come online to serch for a mature man that understand what true-love and marriage is all about.and I like your profile at (www.blog.co.uk) and will like to establishe a serious relationship with you because after going through your profile,

i pick interest in you out of billions of people in this world but i hope you will not turn me up side down by my request. In addition, you can contact me directely with
my email address as to enable us discuss further on this matte.
(jenniferokoiji[at]yahoo.com)

and i can give you my picture and more about me.
THANKS AND WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU SOONEST.

YOURS IN LOVE,
Miss jennifer

Sorry, Miss jennifer, but if I add you to my harem you'd be lucky if I'd have the time or energy!

1. Who's the black sheep in your family?
Me.

2. Do you take your coffee black?
No. Tea, yes if it's decent tea, but I have whitener in my coffee.

3. Do you own a Blackberry?
Nope. Never wanted one, either

4. Which black forest would you rather eat - cake or ham?
Cake. Every time.

5. Have you ever had a black eye?
No, but I've given my brother one before.

With a capital "F".

One of the consultants (the helpful one) and I will be running the office alone tomorrow, as th deputy boss has graciously opened his gardens to host our annual sports/social day. Woopee.

I don't know why my colleague's not going - I'm sure he has a note from someone, though.
I'm not going because I have more interesting things to do. For one there's the grass. I need to make sure that's growing at a steady rate...

No doubt I'll get a full account of what matey's house is like when they all get back on Thursday. I know several are only going along to have a bit of a nosey. Apparently this bloke's house is quite grand, or it certainly sounds grand by the address. Just the house name and the village. That's it, his entire address is X House, Y Village, Wiltshire (or somewhere). Obviously that's not his real address, I wouldn't be stupid enough to give that out
Sounds a bit ostentatious to me. I'm not too keen on places like that. You'd never catch me giving my address as something like "NotBob Manor, Leftham-by-the-Wayside, Herts." or the like. Houses should have numbers and street names and fings.

Still, should be alright for me, as matey who's staying in the office with me is the kind of guy who'll put his head round the door about three pm and say "You might as well go home, now" - YAY for short afternoons!

I’ve just realised today that I have done a vair, vair silly thing.
Last week one of our more helpful consultants came around and upgraded the software on my work’s PC, or rather he gave me the discs and I did it myself because he knows I’m not computer illiterate *ahem*. I now have to relearn how to use Word, among other things, as I was using the ’03 package and now I have the ’07 package.

It don’t half look different. Where’s all the functional bits gone? Why can’t I scan something directly into Word like I used to be able to? And guess what my first job with it was? Yup. “NotBob, could you scan this in as a Word document, please?”
Poo.

Anyway, the silly thing that I did is actually what I didn’t do.
I didn’t sneak a copy onto my lappy – so that I can occasionally work from home, you understand *ahem*. So now if I do what I’m doing at the moment - compiling a post for posting later – I will have to save it in the old format.

And I will have to remember to do that every single time I leave my lappy at home like I did today.

And here’s me with the memory-span of a goldfish.

I would just like to say firstly that, having seen the footage of the alleged "Worst Cover Ever", I actually disagree with what the learned members of the jury decided.

The intention of the post, however, was lost due to me being too stupid to hold back for a while and actually think about it and do a bit of research. I was too caught up in my own incredulity at the thought of Ms Dion even thinking of attempting to pull off a decent version of that song. For that, I apologise.

I fully understand that these things are entirely subjective, and that some people may even have enjoyed it, much as some people must have enjoyed what I personally consider to be truly the worst cover ever - The Scissor Sisters' murderous attempt at "Comfortably Numb" *shudders*.

I am not particularly keen on the works of Ms Dion and her song-writing/choosing team, though there have been one or two occasions where my stance toward her has mellowed - I just can't think of them at the moment.

I fully apologise for thoughtlessly posting what I did without thinking through what the consequences would be.

Her version's still crap, though.

Celine tops 'worst cover' poll

Celine Dion performed the world's worst cover song, say music experts

pa.press.net

Celine Dion is responsible for the world's worst cover song, according to music experts.

The Canadian singer received the ignominious title for her rendition of the AC/DC track You Shook Me All Night Long.

Dion, 40, has never released the song as a single but performed the "musical offence" at a Las Vegas concert six years ago.

A Sugababes and Girls Aloud version of Walk This Way, which had been a huge hit for Aerosmith and rappers Run DMC, came second.

Westlife's 1999 cover of the ballad More Than Words by rock band Extreme was third in the list compiled by Total Guitar magazine.

Will Young's cover of The Doors' Light My Fire, which reached Number One in 2002, and an easy listening arrangement by The Mike Flowers Pops of Oasis ballad Wonderwall completes the top five.

Experts also delivered a verdict on the most successful cover versions.

Jimi Hendrix's cover of the Bob Dylan song All Along the Watchtower topped the list, followed by The Beatles' rendition of Twist and Shout, first recorded by the Top Notes.

The Guns N' Roses version of the Wings' song Live and Let Die, Nirvana's cover of The Man Who Sold the World by David Bowie, and Muse's Feeling Good, made famous by Nina Simone, are also in the top five.

Source: msn.com

When a cover is good, it can sometimes be truly excellent, but a bad cover is usually a total disgrace.

Woke up at 7, this morning, but I didn't feel like doing much. I turned on my PlayStation and had a few races on Wipeout Fusion and gave up at noon when I started getting frustrated.
It has been a lovely sunny day, but the wind was making the tree outside my bedroom window sway worryingly. Extremely worryingly. The council won't do anything about it now that we have managed to persuade them that it is their responsibility, but it is far too tall for the location and on more than one occasion falling branches have damaged our house. We don't want the tree taken out completely, just brought down to a safe height, but the council won't touch it because in their words "it is a healthy tree". Healthy it may be, but it is also a bloody hazard. I'm rambling now, back to today.

Bruv, SIL and neice came over for lunch. No earth-shattering news there.

After lunch, we had a few drinks on the patio, until it was decided that it was far too windy to stay out,so we've slobbed out all afternoon in front of the telly.

Pretty boring, eh? Well, I did say it was a lazy day. Back to work tomorrow (oh lucky me...)