Getting sweaty

I was thinking the other day - how is it that your skin is waterproof, which is obviously very ueful when you take a shower for example, but sweat can get out? Is it just me that finds that somewhat odd?

Also, how come when you open your eyes underwater your head doesn't flood from water coming in through your tear ducts? Or through your ears?

It's all very strange.

This needs some thought, and maybe some investigation on wikipedia.

My IT department are bastards

I got in to work last Friday to discover Facebook has been blocked at work.  I'm distraught.  I don't have the internet at home (long story) so I'm now restricted to using Facebook mobile, which is fine for checking who's poked you and for sending / recieving messages but that's about the limit.

 

I've just discovered they've also blocked blogger.com, which is inconvenient, although not the end of the world (the fact I'm posting this and am at work is evidence that they can't shut me up!).

 

It's so pathetic - they've made us all redundant so we're basically just working out our notice, and now we've got nothing to keep us occupied in any slack time / breaks - there's only so much enjoyment to be had from flicking rubber bands at people making coffee in the little kitchen across from my desk.

 

I can obviously understand why they do it, but that's not the point. 

 

Anyway, I need other things to do.  So far I've come up with:

 

• Sculpting things out of blu-tack, or, in the absence of blu-tack, bogies.
• Forwarding my phone to the emergency phone in the lift for shits and giggles
• Writing blog posts
• Thinking up ways to kill the IT department (I'm thinking goat poison in their tea)

Notice how none of the things to do involve work?  :o)

Toast

So, toast. I can't believe I've been doing this for nearly two years and haven't dedicated a post to toast already.

Toast is, of course, amazing. I could quite happily live on toast with peanut butter (and tea or milkshake), although I'm not sure how healthy that would be.

Most people think toast is a relatively new idea, but it has in fact been around almost as long as man. It's steeped in history is toast, and in fact has been pivotal in some of the most important moments in history to date.

Many people believe Marie Antoinette, Queen consort to Louis XVI, once said "let them eat cake" in response to news that there was no bread for the poor to eat. This is, in fact, erroneous - there was in fact a cake shortage, and the actual response was "let them eat toast".

Toast is also key in the history of Nazi Germany. "The night of the long knives" in 1934 is a somewhat misleading name for the assasination of the SA on Hitler's orders. Although it is true that around 85 people were murdered, the event should really be called "The night of the burnt toast", as it was burnt toast that enraged Hitler so much that he deemed the slaughter of Kohl's SA necessary.

I could give other examples but we'd be here all day.

Nowadays of course, toast generally appears in popular culture as opposed to mass murders (although I'm sure Harold Shipman liked the odd round of toast), generally in comedy (Red Dwarf, Peter Kay etc.). Even so it doesn't seem to get the recognition it deserves. Which is sad. Next time you're enjoying toast, remember how special that bit of warm bread is.

I'm off for some toast....

Leaving, on a jet plane

I have no problem with flying, other than the food and the lack of stuff to do on a long flight, natch. It's a perfectly safe way of travelling.

Obviously things do go wrong occasionally, and I'm sure we're all familiar with the standard crash position of head between your legs. Most people think tht the crash position is supposed to stop you coming to harm, but that's not actually the case. Apparently (and I have no reason not to believe this is true) the position is designed to protect your jaw so your body can be identified by your dental records. Which is nice. It's definitely something to talk about next time you get stuck next to a nervous flyer on a long-haul flight.

Madness I tell you, madness!

I was about to write something but before I do, something else just popped in to my head - if Holland is the Netherlands, does that make Dutch towns Nether Regions? Hmmmm.

Anyway, moving on (quickly) - people say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, but I'm not so sure. I went drinking last Friday with a load of people I'd never met before other than through chatting to them online. That to me seems like the first sign of madness - I was fully expecting to be given some robes and a suicide pill before the end of the evening.

As it turned out it was a great evening - I got to meet some very nice people and chat about bees, which is always the mark of a good night. Ok so I fell asleep on the train and ended up with a fifty quid cab fare home but these things happen.

The thing is, I basically learnt that by grabbing life by the balls you can have a lot of fun.

So, whether it's badger baiting with David Attenborough, poking sharks or throwing rocks at wasp nests, just get out there and do it, before you miss your chance. Otherwise who knows what you'll miss out on.

Next time on 'stating the fucking obvious....'

Wasps

It's a lovely day, I'm sat in the garden in the sunshine the morning after an almighty pissup that saw the best part of an off-license consumed by about seven people. We've tidied up, done the washing up and got the barbeque back out for a nice healthy breakfast of burgers, sausages and more lager.

Of course, days like this are always marred by one of the most pointless creatures on the planet (no, not Jodie Marsh) - wasps.

Just what is the point of them. They fly around, trying to go for a swim in your pint and stinging people for no apparent reason. The little shits. Bees I don't have a problem with, they pollenate flowers and make honey (for more information on this see Eddie Izzard's 'Unrepeatble' DVD), and spiders catch flies and make gravy. Wasps however should all die.

Mind you, it wouldn't be summer without them would it, and you can always get them pissed on Vodka and watch them fly shakily across the beer garden. Which is always good for shits and giggles.

Badger badger badger badger

I went to a wedding yesterday, out in the sticks at some golf club or other. It was a lovely sunny day and a good time was had by all. Even the groom.

A few of us had to leave early (ish) as we had a bit of a drive and a Metallica gig today so we jumped in the car and headed off down one of the country lanes back towards civilisation and a lack of golfing slacks. As we came around a corner we saw something fairly large in the road. Too big for a fox it took us a couple of seconds to process what we were seeing, and then all three of us in the car shouted in unison "it's a fucking BADGER!".

We've all always wanted to see a real badger, and there it was, jogging across our path! It's only taken 29 years but I can tick that goal off my 'things to do before I die' list. Happy days indeed

Social networking - killing social lives?

I'm currently a member of three social networking sites on the web - MySpace, Facebook (poke!) and Fridaycities London, which you probbaly won't have heard of but that doesn't matter because you can only join if you're invited. Fridaycities is more like a forum than something like Facebook but you have a profile and stuff like that too.

The amount of time one can spend interacting with people in various ways on these sites is quite scary - you can easily rack up a good few hours an evening - especially if a decent topic of conversation comes up on a forum type site like FCL.

The thing is, it's so easy to spend huge amounts of time on these types of sites that you could potentially end up spending more time interacting with people online than actually interacting with people down the pub. Which is sad.

I would head down the pub, but I've got to check to see if anyone's poked me on Facebook....

I'm back

Yeah yeah, I know. It's been far too long since I last posted, but you get to read this shit for free so you can't really complain if I don't write for a few weeks can you? No.

I guess part of the problem is that my creative talent is currently being stretched across a number of outlets - there's the blog, the email I send out to my work colleagues every week, a website that I post on fairly regularly, the pub.... Lame excuse? Probably, but apparently I'm Emo, which I suppose would at least explain the apathy.....

So this week I've been looking after my brothers cat, and it's been a complete nightmare. I've looked after cats before and had no problems, but my brother's cat, Hector, is a complete bastard. Seriously, I'm ready to kill him - I've already considered giving him away to the first person that wants him. I've compiled a list to show what I mean:

Hector's crimes

• Crying every time I shut a door behind me for some peace and quiet / to eat dinner
• Biting me
• Biting my girlfriend
• Malting (whilst sitting in the bath)
• Drinking my milkshake from my glass
• Putting the laces of my converse in the milkshake after I stopped him drinking it
• Headbutting my hand whilst I was pouring out his food causing me to spill biscuits all over the floor
• Trying to eat my sunglasses
• Shitting on my brothers' bed

Yes, that does say shitting, not sitting.

So, if anyone wants a free Persian Blue please let me know, I'll stick him in the post.

Norwich Union scare tactics

I've just seen possibly the most threatening advert in history. IT was for Norwich Union insurance. Basically there was a family playing in the garden with Ross Kemp looking at them, then he turns to the camera and says something like "Family are the most important thing in your life".

So unless I'm much mistaken, Norwich Union are basically saying if you don't take out their insurance they're going to send Ross Kemp around to kill your family. Which is nice.

100th post

That's right kids, this is my 100th post! It hardly seems possible that this blog survived that long! It just proves people will read any old shit on the internet really doesn't it?

I'm going to quickly have a rant because I'm so very fed up with South Eastern Trains - they really are shite. I used to think "oh well, at least they're better than Connex" but this morning I decided they aren't (well, except for the fact that they're not French I suppose).

This morning I was trying to get in to work, it was cold and I really fancied a nice cup of tea (because I'm that rock 'n' roll) and the train was over half an hour late. Then they decided that because it was late they'd stop it before it finished it's advertised route.... Apparently some cock-smoker had jumped in front of a train in London, which is almost a valid excuse, although personally I don't see how it can take half an hour to hose down a train and sweep up a few bits of body.

Anyway, I'm going to stop ranting now, back to my happy place!!! So I'm looking at buying a new laptop, and I've decided to finally take the plunge into the unknown and buy a Mac. Expect a few posts about how that goes sometime in the not-too-distant future....

So, that's basically the 100th post over and done with.

How to destroy unwanted (or wanted) documents

I discovered a new way of destroying office documents today. Forget shredding, I actually made a certificate completely disappear! How? Simple really. Take one laminator, turn up to the hottest setting it has, and feed a document in to the front. Twenty seconds or so later, you have no document. Seriously, the certificate went in the front and nothing came out of the back, it just got smaller and smaller.

It was quite interesting to watch, although the fact it was my only copy of the certificate made it somewhat less amusing than it should have been. Mind you, the people who ran the course will probably laugh their arses off when they see my email requesting a new one on the basis I melted the original.

There is of course one drawback with this method of document destruction – you get through laminators in no time….

[EDIT]

Since I posted this I've managed to have the laminator dismantled and the document retrieved - the laminator is ok but the certificate is somewhat crinkly. I'd upload a photo but the upload's not working - I've probably broken the proxy server now. Ever had one of those days? I'm off down the pub....

Sky high

There was a thing on the news earlier about this glass-bottomed walkway thing the Americans have stuck on the edge of the Grand Canyon. I know the Grand Canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world but a glass-bottomed walkway 1,200 metres above nothing? Fuck that! I'm sure the view's amazing but you would not get me on that thing for love nor money.

Obviously I'm a big wuss but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who couldn't give a shit about looking straight down at over a click of nothing, so I give it a day or two before someone starts charging tourists twenty bucks to walk the loop with their camcorder....

I'm back!

It’s been ages since I posted anything, and for that, I’m sorry. It’s been a busy old time recently, what with week long piss-ups (erm, I mean week long training courses), and gigs and all manner of other shit.

Talking of gigs, Metallica are coming up – tickets on sale tomorrow morning! Seeing as I missed out on seeing Metallica for free last time they were in London I’m going to be doing everything I can to get my grubby little mitts on tickets for this show, especially as it’s at Wembley Arena. Is it just me that thinks the new stadium looks like a giant bear trap? I certainly wouldn’t want to meet the bear that’s for sure…..

Anyway, normal service will be resumed very shortly.

Yes, I am a geek

My boss gave me a new task yesterday - spec out the kit I want for my new workstation, Obviously being a professional sort of chap I enquired about my budget, the reply being "don't worry too much, but obviously within reason". So, effectively as long as I don't start requesting liquid-nitrogen-cooled quad core processors and the like I've pretty much got free reign.

To put this in to context, that's like putting a kid in the Haribo factory and telling them "You can eat as much as you like, as long as you're not sick in the starmix".

I've checked the Alienware site, but I'm not sure I can get away with £3,500 PC's. Especially as I want two. So far, I've specified two desktop PCs with at least a Gig of RAM, decent processors, four flat screen monitors (two for each machine) and the necessary graphics cards, keyboard splitters etc.

I'm expecting my IT department to begin laughing any moment now......

Spoons

There's a bix box of spoons in the kitchen at work, and because it's on top of the microwave and I'm too lazy to move the box I tend to have to reach up and rummage through the box to get a spoon to stir my tea. It struck me today, it's like the worst tombola ever. You have won..... A SPOON! A cheap plastic spoon at that.

Jesus I need to get out more.....

Queues

I don't know what it is but I seem to have an uncanny knack for being able to choose exactly the wrong queue in the supermarket. It happened today, I chose the shortest queue and got stuck behind some stupid bint who wanted to check the prices on half her shopping, kept changing her mind about what she wanted and spent five minutes trying to work out whether all her packets of Twix' had the same number of bars in them. Seriously, what's all that about?

The thing is, it's not like this happens once every now and then, it's every time I'm in a shop - I either end up behind the bastard who decides to pay in pennies, or I get the till operator who's obviously been doing the job since about five minutes before I got there, or they need a price check on a grape.

The thing is the 'scan it yourself' lane is just as bad - I start scanning my items with a smug 'this is easy this, any mug could do it' look on my face and without fail I scan something, the screen displays a message saying I'm a fuckwit and a big red light on a pole starts flashing to make absolutely sure everyone within twenty feet of me can see I can't cope with scanning a few groceries. I then have to wait for a member of staff to come and bail me out, during which time I could have gone through a normal till.

I did consider doing my grocery shoping online, but that's a different story. Supermarkets? Arsemarkets more like. Meh!

Toe nails and God

I'm sure it's obvious from a quick scan through my previous posts that I often think about things that really aren't desrving of that much time, and, inevitably, I've been at it again. I've been considering why it is that finger nails grow so much more quickly than toe nails. I seem to be forever cutting my finger nails in order to ensure I don't end up with talons that would make an eagle owl jealous, but toe nails just seem to say 'Meh, we'll grow later, we're busy doing secret toe nail things'.

The thing is (and this is where you'll think I've totally lost the plot but bear with me), whilst pondering the differences in finger and toe nails, I realised that this discrepancy in growth rates can be used to finally prove the non-existence of God.

Seriously, think about it logically for a second. Scientists would argue the discrepancy is due to evolution, probably something to do with needing long claws on your hands to attack prey whilst needing shorter claws on your feet so you can run away when you (a small baboon for example) attack a larger predator (say, a hippopotamus). Your local vicar on the other hand will argue evolution doesn't exist and that we were all created by God. Now, I'm fairly certain that when creating man God wouldn't have thought 'I know, for shits and giggles I'm going to make finger nails grow four times as fast as toe nails', it's just not the sort of thing that would cross your mind is it?

Therefore, my hypothesis is that evolution must be the cause, and as evolution doesn't leave room for the whole creationist argument, God can't exist, Q.E.D.

Of course, this is just a theory, it may be God was in a jesting mood the day he decided on growth rates for nails, hair and teeth.

Paranoia

Where I work the gents are just along from reception, and recently I've started to experience a weird paranoia. I've started to wonder whether the receptionists notice how long people are in the loo, and whether they sit there wondering just why someone was in there for 12 minutes....

Do they notice when people come out looking slightly pale after a particularly troublesome forest, for instance? Receptionists know everyone and everything, and I wouldn't be suprised if our receptionists know the ins and, more specifically, the outs, of peoples erm, business.

I really do need to stop worrying about things like this, maybe it's finally time to go support the freeing of those whales that are trapped under the ice. Oh hang on, that was 1988.

Getting older

I'm feeling old today. Normally I feel old because lots of my friends are loads younger than me, but today it's because it's half eight in the evening and my hangover still hasn't cleared.

I seem to remember when I was younger hangovers could be cleared with a couple of tablets but these days even a combination of fruit smoothies, tablets, bacon sandwiches and lying very still doesn't seem to work...

The worst thing is that, being old, my brain stops functioning too (except the bit that generates paranoia) so even simple tasks like making dinner suddenly become complex feats way beyond my grasp. As for writing a blog post, that's all but impossible. Which is why this post sucks. I'm off to drink strawberry milkshake and lie very still.