Thursday, March 31, 2005

[Yawn]

Quote of the moment:
"Good leaders do everything. The best leaders do nothing." - from Vince. Sounds exactly like my approach :p

Today was poops. Woke up about 3, which was oddly late, even for me. Possibly due to the jab I had yesterday. Among several niggles last night it made my thumb ache so much I couldn't game. Most distressing, especially when I've managed to keep Jimmy's GameCube on loan again.

When I went to the sorting office at 6pm as instructed by my employment agency, the guy on the temps desk (yes, they have a special one) didn't even have a Bell time-sheet. There was one for people from Reed though, Jimmy's choice. Might go there tomorrow later today. Anyway, had to turn around and come home. Arrived to find Zulu had thrown up on the hall carpet(and kitchen floor, but that could be mopped).

Had fish and chips for supper. Hurrah!

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Visa Versa and Pwetty Shoes!

Quote of the moment:
"Customer number 410 to your collection point window 22 please." - The Argos style number calling system in the U.S. Embassy.

Oh, the excitment: a trip to London, including a very slow tour of Grosvenor Square. It was a whopping £21.50 for a return ticket to Bond Street tube station (zone 1) from Chelmsford. A bad start! I joined the queue as instructed/recommended: not until 30 minutes before my appointment/ASAP. Since my appointment was at 10.30am, I queued outside the Embassy from 10am. I got in the door at 12.30pm, a short wait! Anyone trying it in the future should only turn up about an hour after their appointment time, when the security guard will walk along the queue and seperate out anyone with an appointment at that time and tell them to skip the queue.

Once inside it took another half hour before I was called to hand in my forms (taking 30 seconds), then another 1 hour and 45 minutes before I was called for 'interview'. The 'interview' was mostly just a woman asking - through a glass window with microphone - questions such as where I was going, why, what univeristy would I be going to, what was my parents view on it, etc. Other than that there was just a fingerprint scan on both index fingers, and I was gone in about 5 minutes.

During my second and longer indoor wait I was sitting next to a girl wearing some rather fine red Converse All Star 'sneakers' with archetypal rebel black and red striped socks. In a moment of utter boredom I started drawing them on the back of a spare photocopy of a form I'd already handed in, and lo and behold she sat there giving me odd looks but not moving her feet until I'd finished. We didn't exchange a single word the whole time! How rare! Anyway, the masterpiece(the front foot was done first, then the back filled in as an afterthought, hence the bad perspective and mid-way swelling to the right, poorly concealed by the laces):



Yes indeed, my genius knows absolutely nothing at all, let alone bounds. Still, at least I bought a cool T-shirt walking back along Oxford Street: BEAR FACED LIAR surrounding (obviously) a picture of a bear. More novel still is that it's yellow and the writing and bear are fluffy applique! Bizarre, I know, but at £4 it doesn't really matter.

When I got home I had to go to the doctor's surgery for my second Hepatitis B jab. Unfortunately they didn't have an adult dose, so I had to have two (pre-packaged filled syringe) child doses instead. On the plus side, the tiny needle point means it's barely noticeable, but on the negative (or possibly unrelated) both of them bled profusely such that I had red spots all over my sleeve by the time I got home. D'oh!

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Superpower Cut

My dear father decided to cut the power at the fuse box just as I completed my post last night, because he wanted me to be up in the morning. Thanks. We hates him, we does... Here is my attempt at remembering it. Pluck out his eyes, we must, hmmmmm?! Fish raw best is, my young padawan...

Quote of the moment:
"Sometimes when I'm confined with a small space, I weep." - I bet you do, Jim. With joy... (actually from the Ford Focus ad.)

I had an epic day. Jimmy came over at woke me up aroun 11.30am, and by 12 we were heading out to the gym. Despite the ill-omen of seeing Mrs Short, we survived the ordeal of weights training and un peu de running. I conquered Jimmy in a rowing-machine race, mainly because he started so fast that he slid off the seat!

We then utilised the swimming pool, where I demonstrated the correct way to play "Jaws"(underwater, with one hand up as a fin) and we both managed a length underwater. Jimmy then went to relax in the jacuzzi while I did 25 lengths plus a second and final underwater one. Go me!

We then returned to my house, recieved a delivery of one Thorne and set up the GameCube. After a warmup of Super Smash Bros, we had a retrofest all evening playing International Superstar Soccer 98. Hurrah! I played against a combined team (both playing together) of Jimmy and Will T, and, despite a heavy handicap AND rubbish teams, won 4 games to their 3. My best was a 5-0 victory for Wales over Argentina. LOL.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Lookie-lookie, I've got... Villy?

Quote of the moment:
Peter Pan: I remember you being a lot bigger.
Captain Hook: To a ten-year-old I'm HUGE.
- Hook. How... Rob?

I forgot to mention that my sisters and mother disappeared to go skiing almost exactly 48 hours ago. So, it's just me and my dad, clearing out the freezer gradually, meal by meal.

Argh. My dad spent over 5 hours - FIVE HOURS - trying to look up, on the internet, what MRC's middle name is. I couldn't believe it. I said I should phone and ask around 8.30pm, but my dad said 'Not during suppertime!', then after our supper he decided to search. At 2.30am he finally gave up, having failed. In case you were wondering, I'm supposed to include it on my visa form because I'm using him as a reference. Foolish American slugheads!

I had a pretty epic day, doing absolutely nothing. My viewing schedule went thus:
Hook - classically naff and americanised.
Earthsea - quite entertaining, although with Danny Glover as a wizard I had a vague expectation that Mel Gibson would appear to shoot smiley faces in some bad-guy armour.
Tsunami: Anatomy of a Disaster - Absolutely dire. Said "No-one could have predicted what happened next" then went on to describe how refraction curved the tsunami waves around the opposite shore of Sri Lanka to that facing the epicentre. Errr... refraction is GCSE physics. Besides, if asked "Would the wave spread out past the island or would it split on the edge and continue with a sharp edge straight onwards?" even PODGY should get it right!
BBC News - nuff said.
The Queen's Castle - rather interesting, plus opportunities to laugh at Guardsmen.
The Games Live - tonight's male event: sumo wrestling. Craig Charles was the heavyweight at 83kg. I SO could have owned at that.
Enigma - quite good, though not enough maths for me...
All the President's Men - a classic, and not just for the informant codenamed Deep Throat :p

About 1am I got off my arse and did a load of weights in front of the TV, followed by some core strength stuff. I have also told Jimmy to take me to his gym in only 5 hours time. Hopefully he'll choose to go later in the morning. Still, it should give the idle tubby chap an advantage against superfit, superactive me, eh?!

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Paddy's Profile

Quotes of the moment:
"Oh yeh, if any of you have a Britta water filter, you can filter dirty cheap vodka with it, and it actually works. See, I knew there was a point in a university education." - Rob owns.

Jimmy says:
we can as long as you're on a leash the whole time

You bet we can ;)

It was my last day at Tesco today. [Sobs]. I forgot to say "It's been emotional!" - D'oh! That was amply compensated by Dr Who, which was pretty cool in a Casanova low-budget-camp-and-proud-of-it way.

I noticed when looking at Paddy's profile from his gap year blog that he was actually second to get a Blogger account after La Podge:

1st = Koel: 2922991
2nd = Paddy: 2926280
3rd = Rob: 2982232
4th = Jim: 2982462
5th = Prill: 2986649
6th = Will P: 3020710
7th = Vince: 3035724
8th = Kaz: 3169260
9th = Will T: 3171079
10th = Jimmy: 3181733
11th = Anna: 3194477
12th = Hawwy: 3395490

Funny how when Paddy 'finally got' a blog he got a new account: 4091923!

In other news: Another classic Helen Bromley quote from earlier in the evening, to a guy Dixie was talking to:
"I wouldn't go too far with her, mate, she's got HIV!"

Friday, March 25, 2005

Arse Fez

Quote of the moment:
"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity."

I didn't actually have to go to work today because it's a bank holiday, so my boss was somewhat surprised to see me! Lee, my KEGS-going colleague, reckoned I should be getting it as a paid holiday day AND getting paid for coming in at the Bank Holiday rate of time and a half. That means 2.5 times the normal amount, or £12.50 per hour! LOL. Probably not true though. I hardly merited it anyway, I was totally zonked.

I signed Jamie Oliver's petition about school food sucking. I am a mindless sheep. Join me.

Haha... I'm watching The Games and Jonothan Morris just lost his trunks diving! Classic view of his arse on nationwide TV before he yanked them up quickly. LOL.

[Edit 00:22 - I've just watched The Contender: it's now 2 out of 2 for the 'underdogs'. A convenient hyping during the show to produce that impression? Surely not?!]

I'm Not A Pheasant Plucker...

Quote of the moment:
I'm not the pheasant plucker
I'm the pheasant plucker's son,
And I'm only plucking pheasants
Til the pheasant plucker comes.

I'm not the pheasant plucker
I'm the pheasant plucker's wife,
And when you're plucking pheasants
It's a pleasant phucking life!


I went into Chelmsford to visit Bell Employment today. I didn't realise until I got there that they're actually in the same building as Dace's music shop. Most people might say WTF, but I'm sure Jimmy, Will T and Kaz will be awed. Having had little luck with the previous agency, this one (which has much more physical stuff and fewer office jobs) has got me a job for Wednesday! It would have been Tuesday but for my Embassy visit, which may well take all day. Anyway, w00t! It's in the Post Office sorting depot on the outside of Chelmsford. Unfortunately it seems I'm going to have to cycle there at least once in the first week because my female relatives are skiing and my dad's going to stay with my granny.

After going to the agency I went shopping. I found Abhorsen in Waterstones. Hurrah! It was on 3-for-2, so I also got Sabriel, the first in the trilogy, to replace my battered and non-matching old edition, and a 50th anniversary edition of The Eagle of the Ninth. What a classic! I also bought a 60 CD metal case for taking the pick of my crop to university, and, because I needed to buy something to get out of Tesco's carpark, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb:



More impressively I managed to cook supper. Go me! I did have some supervision since my mum was in the kitchen reading the paper, but I made mashed potatoes and slightly burnt potatoes with baked beans. Complicated, eh?!

My achievements, however, were dwarfed by Zulu chasing a pheasant in the wood opposite us into the wire fence and thus catching it trying to take off! Impressive...

[Edit 06:17 - I've just given up on my visa forms for this night(morning). I've just spotted that the final one requires US dates instead of the UK dates needed on all the others. Great. Anyway, I need to validate one online and it wouldn't come up with a little barcode for me, so I have to do that again anyway. I've spent all night on it already, I CBA now.

In more interesting news, I forgot to mention that I picked up my sisters and Helen Bromley from Dukes in Chelmsford around 1am, and apparently the highlight of the evening was Helen getting annoyed with Dixie over her advances towards Will R(STILL!) and pouring a bottle of Smirnoff Ice over her. Hehehe...]

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Form-Filling Fun

Quote of the moment:
"Please mark your order of preference for ALL residences." - Cardiff accomodation form. D'oh! Took me ages to work out what came next after my first one. Obviously after about number 10 of 19, I listed them in random order on the basis that it'd never get that far, especially as I'd already picked all the large halls. Still, it was annoying when my first choice is pretty big and I'm pretty certain I'll get it. Sigh... Unfortunately I couldn't bear the paranoid thoughts of 'What if you don't...?' so I had to spend 2 hours reading the booklet and marking them on everything important. Yes, I'm very sad. Anyway, here is my first choice: Senghennydd (Senn-Ghen-Ith: Ghen like in Ghengis) Court. Hurrah!

All that time I was supposed to be filling in my visa application forms. The stupid things are acrobat files, and thus can't be saved, only printed. Since I had no printer connected to this pc, I needed to connect it to the house one, which required restarting the computer after installing the drivers. That meant copying all my carefully inserted answers, one by one, into a .txt file and saving it to at least not have to type it all out again. I still have to go back and enter it all, so that I can print it out and take it to the embassy on tuesday. I have an appointment at 10.30 - the advice from Camp America is to take a good book.

On the plus side, I did manage to take my medical form to the Felsted Surgery to be filled in by Dr Slack. My whole day was full of exciting forms.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Today Was... Green?

Quote of the moment:
You are worth $2,142,090.00 on HumanForSale.com. The average value for a male is $1,843,349. - W00t. I'm so valuable.

I nearly had a job. Unfortunately the company who asked the agency for a temp then found someone from a different department to fill the gap, and cancelled the contract, so I got up early and shaved this morning for nothing. D'oh!

I attempted to go to the job center at Stansted Airport, but failed to find it. Impressive, eh?

As a bonus, some random joints are acting up. Both knees and the knuckles (the ones joining the fingers to the palm) on the third and fourth fingers on my left hand are aching and stiff. How handy!

Describe yourself using one band and song titles from that band

Created by naw5689 and taken 22784 times on bzoink!

Choose a band/artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band:Green Day
Are you male or female:King For A Day
Describe yourself:Basket Case
How do some people feel about you:Geek Stink Breath
How do you feel about yourself:Brain Stew
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend:Good Riddance
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend:Waiting
Describe where you want to be:Welcome To Paradise
Describe what you want to be:Redundant
Describe how you live:Hitchin' A Ride
Describe how you love:Jaded
Share a few words of wisdomNice Guys Finish Last

Create a Survey | Search Surveys | Go to bzoink!



Green Day are so versatile!

Monday, March 21, 2005

Anyhoo

Quote of the moment:
I'm down in a well
Now I'm up in a tree
I am the monkey and you can't stop me


New Weebl and Bob: Anyhoo. It's awesome :D

While watching My Parents Are Aliens, I saw an advert for Weebles! Those toys that caused the renaming of the Wobbl and Bob DVD. SHAME ON THEM!

I had a rare messenger conversation with Timmy two night ago. He's currently in Los Angeles, having been to San Fransico to be locked in Alcatraz (sadly not permanently :p). He's now in LA and is going to Fiji tomorrow, then after a week flying to Auckland in New Zealand. Six weeks of travelling New Zealand will be followed by another six weeks in Australia, then (budget permitting) he'll be continuing to south-east Asia! Impressive, but not as impressive as that Timmy got taken to a lap-dancing joint by a couple of guys from his hostel. :D

Last night I got a phonecall from Le Podge at about 2am. It took her about 5 minutes before she realised what the time was... sigh. Having kerfuffled for a fair while Podge decided she needed the loo, so I turned on the tap in the sink in my room and tortured her. Mwahahahaha!

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Return of the Mini-Lexcinator

Quote of the moment:
"Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap." - Some lucky person's performance review, printed in The Mirror. Sounds familiar!

My grandparents, uncle, aunt and newest cousin Lexcie came for tea to celebrate Vicky's birthday. Lexcie is still amazingly cute. She has enormous blue eyes and fine blonde hair, just like her mummy, and if she's on your lap she reaches up in case you have glasses on. If not, she grabs your nose. If you do, she grabs them, pulls them off your nose and then waves them around like a little flag. Because she was hungry by the time I was holding her about 6pm, she tried to eat mine as well!

On Harry's theme of word counts, up to and including my last post I have a total of 59,003 for this blog. 59k/209 posts = 282 words average per post. Reasonably concise, I thought!

I've just made my UCAS choices. Cardiff firm, Bath insurance 'just in case' because my dad was being paranoid.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Heroes

Quote of the moment:
"Wales 32:20 Ireland" - Wales won the Grand Slam: every one of their Six Nations matches and thus the overall title. Hurrah! Obviously next year I wouldn't be able to get away with this sort of glory seeking because of my uni's location. I would be ceaselessly mocked by the actual Welsh students because England came 4th and they won. Still, it won't happen again for at least 25 years!

Will has instructed me to say something about Owain Glyndwr, last King of Wales, being a dude. I can't actually remember why. Anyway, poor Willy got rejected from Edinburgh. Sympathies duly extended.

I saw Tom Cruise in Tesco. Honest. He had a bit of a rusky accent, but he was the right height and looked bang on apart from being pale. I reckon it's method acting. Obviously in his next film he has to go into a supermarket and find a cloth to wax his car with.

My present for Vicky for her 18th birthday today: a boxed set of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge on DVD. That notable Baz Luhrmann lover Koel would be proud of me.

Finally: a lesson in what heroism really is, from someone who earns less per year than David Beckham, a supposed hero, does in a day.

Blogging, Year Two

Quote of the moment:
"Operator, get me the number for 911!" - Homer, naturallement.

It's my blog's birthday. So Prill would say, anyway. Yippee. To celebrate (or just possibly as a total coincidence) I have a huge list of stuff written on my arm to blog about. Lucky you!

First, there's been awesome weather for the last couple of days. Score. I was so impressed that I cycled there in just my shirt, without even my lovely woolly hat.

Second, I had to go to the doctor's surgery to get my first Hepatitus B jab, which for some reason I need for summer camp.

Third, I handed in my notice at Tesco. When asked why, I said "Er... my parents are moving soon. Mumble mumble mumble..."

Fourth, the very saucy (boom-boom) Branston Pickle fine-cut pickle jars have "Easily Spread" blazoned across the packaging. I failed to contain a lengthy dirty chuckle.

Fifth, a small boy (age 5, maybe?) decided he wanted to be my assistant while his parents cruised the aisle, so I gave him an opened pack of PG tips boxes to put out. He was so proud of his achievement that he declared "I could work here easily!". Child labour is the way forward.

Sixth, the deputy manager, Emma, (who is incidentally short, blonde, 28-ish, worthy of a Harry FAWWW and keeps mocking me for forgetting my paycheck) reminded me on her way past as I was leading a customer to find the coconut milk(!) that I needed to lug some surplus Coke back into the warehouse. The lady I was helping, presumably some sort of office manager, told me that if she treated her staff like that they'd revolt. I was puzzled, since it was harmless apart from the obvious implied like you forgot your paycheck. The customer walked past me again about 5 minutes later and told me that she'd spoken to Emma and told her she ought to apologise for treating me so disgracefully. I nodded very seriously, took my trolley back out into the warehouse and ROFLED. I then went and stuck my head through the door of Emma's office to apologise in case she was annoyed, and made her snort with laughter in the middle of some management phonecall. Mwahahaha!

Seventh, according to The Times yesterday the US 'ambush' on the car with the Italian hostage was actually triggered by a satellite. The satellite detected this vehicle racing through Baghdad, pinged it and got no response(all coalition vehicles have 'black boxes' which would send back an identifying signal, originally designed to stop attacks by friendly aircraft). The satellite therefore classes the vehicle as suspicious and flags it up to the local US HQ, which directs the nearest patrol to mount a temporary checkpoint to stop and search the vehicle. The vehicle fails to stop for the checkpoint and is fired upon. Personally I think the level of techonology involved is pretty awesome, although not as good as the hyper-responsive combat-capable prosthetic limbs being trialed by US soldiers who have had amputations after injuries in Iraq.

Eighth, in The Mirror today is the story of a man who was acquitted of drunk-driving because doctors testified that he is a full-blown sleep-walker. He did all of the following while asleep after a drunken night out(and taxi home): went outside, got in his car, drove it off, crashed into a lampost, crawled out, walked home, went back to bed. When police traced the car to his address he woke up and answered the door, complete with cuts on his face and bloodstains down his t-shirt. Impressive...

Ninth, it's my sister's 18th birthday today too. Pfft, irrelevent eh?!

Friday, March 18, 2005

One Chance...

Quote of the moment:
"I had an equally weird one where I was part of some gang and got caught up in some shoot-out in downtown Detroit (along with the obligatory metal mash fences and brick buildings with broken windows -- wow, my scenery renderer isn't bad)" - The dream of the Lexcinator.

My parents seem to have decided that they'll keep this house until Sarah has left school. That not only means that I'll be here during Uni holidays, it means that in school term-time my parents won't! For example, between the start of September and me going to Cardiff, it'll only be me and Vicky in the house. Hurrah! (Even more worryingly, it'll only be Vicky if I don't return from the USA before the start of September.) So, a pre-Uni party is due, methinks! :D

I phoned the Medical centre at the Regular Commissions Board today, to check whether being rejected from the Army because of my knee would stop me joining the OTC. The Senior Medical Officer said that in theory, OTC's are part of the Territorial Army, which has the same fitness rules as the regular army. However, he said, because the OTC's cannot be sent to war and are really university societies, people have been let into them despite ACL repairs. This depends on the commander involved, but he seemed to think Cardiff UOTC would be amenable. Hurrah! I thus have a good (not 100%, but over 50%) chance of getting in. Score.

He added that in fact, despite the automatic rejection for ACL repairs, two officer applicants in the last year have successfully appealed against the decision and been admitted to Sandhurst. This involves an individual assessment of the knee, in which overall fitness is not really relevant and the focus is on whether the knee is favoured at all on assault courses or similar activities. He agreed with my suggested plan of reapplying at the end of university, having done as much adventurous training as possible in the OTC to prove myself worthy of the appeal. So, I'm not beaten yet! I have a chance still...


Click this - the background WAV of the Braveheart soundtrack is so budget it's funny
"One chance... just one chance, to say to our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!"

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Join The Cult: Admit You Love Me!

Quote of the moment:
When is someone going to invent an emoticon for "I've just realised I'm talking to myself again"? - Me.

Since my cunning plan was hatched, the following people have realised that they love me and they can't deny it:
April
Jimmy
Anna
Emma

Come join my minions! I'm offering the promise of everlasting PIE!

I got a whole load more Visa application stuff in the post today. Apparently I have to download my application form from the American Embassy website. The problem is that:

A) The website is dire, and doesn't give you what you click on the link for.
B) When it eventually directs you to an affiliate page with the forms, you have to pay $19.95 to access their database of downloadable forms. You can then access them whenever and however many you want. NOT HELPFUL. I only want one form, and I probably only want it once! Bah humbug...

[Edit 01:36 - Oh yes, and I went swimming. 28 lentgths in a cracking 35 minutes. Not bad given that it's a 33.3 metre pool.]

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

The Housemaster & The Housemaster's Wife

Quote of the moment:
Lisa Simpson - "Mr Burns, I hardly see the point in destroying our meagre possesions."
Mr Burns - "You're right! Smithers, lets go home and smash something tasteful!"

I got a phonecall this morning about a possible job. Hurrah! I still need to email the agency (Pursuit Recruitment) my CV. D'oh! Anyway, it'd start next Monday, if I get placed.

Some news I forgot to convey: A couple of weeks ago my parents went back to Wellesley House to be interviewed as prospective Housemaster candidates for the junior boys house, Yr5 and Yr6. Since their only rival was a single bloke, they got the job(despite my mum's inability to arrange flowers for the chapel). Unfortunately the house is on the small side, with only 3 bedrooms, but apparently there's a spare dorm on the other side of the wall which is currently used for storage and could be converted in the holidays. We'll probably get a house nearby as well though, having sold this one, partly just to keep the surplus furniture in, since the lower floor at least has to be smart and uncluttered for dinner parties and meeting prospective parents. [Rolls eyes]

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

The MPW Munchkins

Quote of the moment:
Emma - "I've just remembered why I've never never felt compelled to watch it(Little Britain)."
Will - "Yeah, I know."

I missed Mort! I forgot it totally until about midnight, when I found Will T's missed call on my phone. I was supposed to be there tonight to see him in his cameo appearance. D'oh!

In other news: Paddy has finally departed on his tour of the world. Poor 'the world'. The trail of destruction is being documented! I note Prill's rapid reaction speed in changing the link. We are not worthy, webmistress.

Other other news: I spent from about 3pm to 2am 'tidying my room', with only a break for supper. Well, I got delayed because when I cleared my oversized tuckbox of rubbish, I felt like painting the carved in name silver. It was looking dull as just wood showing throught the black paint. This required emptying all the stuff out of one cupboard to find my old Warhammer paints. D'oh! Very good tidying! I then spent ages afterwards trying to clean the brushes, most of which had been put away unwashed about 5 years ago. Oops! My room is now, however, clear and rearranged. Shame I only get three more months in it!

Now, for your viewing pleasure, some more photos. This lot are from results day, when I went up to Cambridge to collect my envelope and re-live the halcyon days of yore.


The Center for Masochistic Personal Whipping:


See!


I joined my posse (the GCSE students who worshipped me as a mysterious deity) for the midday sports session in the Leys sports hall, where we played an appallingly bad game of indoor hockey with a tennis ball, then headed back to the pool table, aka the student sofa.

Andrew and Kenny:
(Cartman and Kenny)


Michael:
(Stan)


Sophie:
(Wendy)


Sophie again, still trying to avoid the camera:


Tom:
(Kyle)


Put little cartoon hats on them and they'd be indistinguishable from the South Park characters. Well, almost. Stan and Wendy (Michael and Sophie) are at the holding hands stage, which is very awwww, but I'm not sure about the size of Kyle(Tom)'s mum:

Monday, March 14, 2005

Smithers! Release The Hounds!

Quote of the moment:
"What about a fat peoples' parade? They could call it Lardy Gras!" - Billy Connolly pondering why more groups don't follow the example set by the gas Mardi Gras parade in Sydney.

Today I managed the incredible feat of finally writing an introductory letter to my Camp Director. I was supposed to do it soon after the information pack arrived - well, that was only 3 weeks ago!

Having reclaimed my laptop again briefly last night I managed to upload some more photos. Following on from the (rather dull) shopping ones, I have some from my photo extravaganza walk:


Still snow on the ground at 11am. How handy!


Zulu wonders if the camera is edible:


How can Dorothy follow the yellow brick road in this weather?


The cowardly lion attacks:


Cry havoc! Let slip the dogs of war!


Zulu strikes a noble pose:


Zulu is following the scent... of Ben's arse:

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Shopping Agency

Quote of the moment:
"A maths A-level! I think you can forgo the basic numeracy test." - It's good for something then!

I went to a recruitment agency open-day this morning. Go me! I haven't got an instant job, but they reckon to get something within the week. Hurrah! Well, hurrah for the money, boo hiss for the having to go to bed before the dawn light. Bum clouds!

On the tests I got 3 mistakes in 5 minutes typing, which isn't that bad, and 27/30 on the computing knowledge one. It was mostly 'what do these initials stand for', easy stuff, but a couple of admin software ones which I was stumped by.

Having left the agency I spotted the SALE sign in ART and went in for a browse. I emerged with a rather fine framed picture of Clint Eastwood in the graveyard in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly for a mere £15:


Damn, it feels good to be a cowboy.

I then went into Argos and bought a new set of weights to add to my set(also for £15), since I've reached the limits of my current weights, split between the main bar and the hand ones, and I can't be arsed to chop and change them every night. Unfortunately they've changed to silver ones now, but pfft, I'm not much of an aestheticist. Besides, maybe gold and silver are a fashionable pairing?!

A small box:

But a heavy one:

The originals:


In other news, Prill has made a huge post out of my witterings. I'm so flattered, sweetie darling!

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Top Hat, White Tie and Sneakers

Quote of the moment:
"You know I could have been in the NSA, but they found out my parents were married." - Martin Bishop (Robert Redford), Sneakers.

I only realised from looking at the IMDB listing that Sneakers also featured River Phoenix in one of his last roles. Just for Koel, that one. Looking at his profile I then noticed he was number 203 in the listing, a pretty high billing. I got curious and discovered that number one(000001), presumably because the founders liked him(?!) is Fred Astaire.

Blogger has had a litte makeover. There's now a blogger blog to house the geek updates. How rare! Speaking of which, new Weebl and Bob. Rob loved it, which just warns you that it has some rather sick humour. You love it really.

[Edit 1:56am - This, by the way, is post 200 on this blog. Yes, I am indeed a very sad, post-counting geek. If only Blogger statistics would get up and running again I could save myself the trouble!]

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Results Day, Take 2

Quote of the moment:
P1: 88
P2: 72
P3: 56
M2: 48

- My results.

Total mark(including previous results): 435

435/600 = 0.725

0.725 x 100 = 72.5%

I AM INVINCIBLE!

K, so it's only a B. Nonetheless I am invincible!

I got 48 in M2! That's less than last summer! D'oh! But on the other hand I pulled P2 up from 25% to 72%. P3 also rose from 25%. So it was pretty schweeeeet.

So, now comes the great deciding. But you thought I was going to Cardiff? Now that the Army have automatically rejected me because of my knee, I need to find out if I'm automatically rejected from the OTC too, since that's a major part of Cardiff's appeal.

I also need to get a job. SIGH.

Mwahaha... Di-do-do-do-di-do... I am invincible... Di-do-do-do-di-do...

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Leave PC to the police

Quote of the moment:
"A former lieutenant colonel says the ban on sexual relationships between men and women in the Armed Forces is "outdated" and should be scrapped." - BBC news.

She was in the nursing corps until they were amalgamated into the logistic corps. Perhaps back there away from the front line it wouldn't matter so much, but in the artillery and engineers, who are in the actual combat area, having relationships between people in the same command structure that could interfere with the running of that structure is blatantly foolish. This is particularly true of relationships between officers and other ranks, because officers have to treat everyone equally. That obviously wouldn't work if they were going out with one of them.

Relationships between people in the army who don't actually work directly together can work (as shown on Soldier, Husband, Daughter, Dad) but that obviously restricts the roles available to people in the same regiment. More importantly, what if two parents are both sent to war? What happens to their children? Let alone the problems of peace time postings to seperate places, that one argument prevents it. Would she recommend placing those children in social care, or does she expect the Army to provide for them out of its repeatedly slashed budget? Otherwise one of them will have to be removed from their unit just before it goes to war, so that the carefully trained team is incomplete. How handy!

Coming soon: political correctness advocates urge Army to accept disabled recruits!

Shooting Pool with Paddy

Quote of the moment:
"They're all going to taste oblivion... which tastes just like Red Bull."

"I'm a pacifist, I don't carry a gun."
"You're a what?"
"He's something comforting for little children to suck."
"No dude, that's a paedophile!"


- Red vs Blue.

I failed to blog yesterday (how tragic!) because Paddy summoned me to his house at 2am, just as I was about to. Halo 2 on Xbox Live followed, as well as some snooker on his new snooker table. It's pretty vast. It takes up most of the ground floor of the extension. :D

I got home about 7am, slept until 1pm, then phoned Paddy sporadically until he woke up and came over for about 2.30pm. Looked for wallet in amazingly similar way to that desrcibed by Emma. Hit Freeport Pizza Hut, stuffed ours crusts stomachs. Staggered around Freeport, looking for anything travel-related Paddy might need. Both bought Vans. Mine are a comforting shade of black and were a handy £29. (I am now one of the official fans of Timmy B and his Vans. Score!)

Went to Paddy's house again. Played more Halo 2 and snooker. Lost consistently at snooker, but won all subsequent games of pool. Watched Red vs Blue seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. Ate popcorn. Shot some more frames. Got whipped at Dead or Alive 3. Strategy of picking fighters on basis of girth deemed foolish. Returned home at a very reasonable 3am. Scanned blogs with very bleary eyes.

What I was going to write about yesterday:

An Italian female journalist was bought free from her captors in Baghdad. As the Italian secret service agents rushed her from the exchange point, they hit a mobile US Army roadblock. They drove straight at it and were promptly riddled with lead.

Morons. The woman has actually claimed the US was targeting her because she writes for an anti-war newspaper.

  1. The troops were not aware of the Italian operation. Probably because Italian security is so lax they couldn't let their own people know.
  2. The car drove at the roadblock. Just like suicide bombers do.
  3. The US troops should get commendations for good shooting. 3 out of 4 passengers were hit, 1 fatally, 1 seriously, one slightly(the woman). The car, needless to say, was stopped.
  4. The Italians should never have given in to the terrorists in the first place. There are talks with terrorists to end the violence(as Rob has mentioned the US doing). Then there are morons who by paying up cause more kidnappings.
  5. The Italians haven't conducted a succesful operation since the invasion of Abyssinia.

A seperate story: 'Black boys are failing! Put them in special classes quick!'.

Incorrect. Inner-city children fail because inner-city schools suck. The pupils are mostly black in these areas. Black boys need special treatment = wrong. Inner-city schools need the money wasted on regional planning authorities and bureaucrats planning government targets = right. Another point raised was the lack of a proper father figure in many black households. Ditto, a problem in sink estates, race = irrelevant. Moral of the story: living in the country applies a strong force via a leg-shaped pendulum to any buttocks in the vicinity.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Harrison Ford!

Quote of the moment:
"I'm sitting in the bar of the (something) hotel and I can see Harrison Ford!" - Koel on the phone just now. Impressive! She sounded rather hysterical about it. Apparently she was so excited she had to call someone and breathlessly tell them about it. As the resident pseudo-film-buff, I was chosen. Go me. I did instruct her to get something signed, but I don't know if she'll remember in her ecstatic glee!


Koel... Koel, I want you like a rare Egyptian Ankh...

My exam results are out on Thursday. Zoinks, Scoob! I'd pretty much managed to forget about it!

PS: Please note the lack of suggestions that Koel was so excited she felt like crying :p

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Boromir, Steward of O2

Quote of the moment:
"31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in." - One of several reasons to be proud to be British, courtesy of Yahoo Office Attachments and Vinnie.

Spotted today in Tesco: Mr Chamberlain and the Lee sisters. Fortunately I managed to avoid their notice. Particularly fortunate that I didn't get a
"HI WILL!"
from Alie. Phew!

Spotted in The Times, in an article about celebrity advert voiceovers: Sean Bean is the voice of O2. As in "See what you can do: O2". Hmmm...

"Give me the phone Frodo. I MUST have the phone! It is the only way to save Gondor!"

Perhaps O2 should start their own rival to Orange's Lord of the Ringtones?

The Haribo Conspiracy

Quote of the moment:
"Excuse me, do you you have any Haribo snakes?" - a three year old in Tesco. I knew it. There's a secret plot by Haribo to take over the world.

I also saw Jim's mum in Tesco. Aye carumba!

There was some proper snow today, enough to be still thick at 11am, so that I could go stomping through it when I took the dogs for a walk, in my lovely green wellies. Being childish is awesome.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Jilbab Jesting

Quote of the moment:
"Today's decision is a victory for all Muslims who wish to preserve their identity and values despite prejudice and bigotry.

The decision of Denbigh High School to prevent my adherence to my religion cannot unfortunately be viewed as merely a local decision taken in isolation.

Rather it was a consequence of an atmosphere that has been created in Western societies post 9/11, an atmosphere in which Islam has been made a target for vilification in the name of the 'war on terror'."
- Shabina Begum, talking about a Court of Appeal ruling that she should be allowed to wear her Muslim Jilbab dress instead of school uniform:


Shabina in her Jilbab outside the court.

Interestingly the ruling actually said that the school had made a procedural error and is actually allowed to ban pupils wearing non-uniform dress because it has a specific Muslim uniform.

That's not the point of my little tirade though. The point is that she came out of the court and spouted a load of blatant propaganda. Prejudice and bigotry? Imposing your religion on other people is bigotry.

Coincidentally her brother belongs to an extremist Islamic group, banned in Germany and Egypt(where it tried to mount a coup), that advocates turning the entire world into a Muslim state. I'm sure the speech she read out was entirely of her own composition.

Of course, when extremist Islamic groups do run countries, as in Afghanistan, girls her age aren't actually permitted to attend school!

All Your Rhapsody

Quote of the moment:
"This movie has warped my fragile little mind!"

Jim has come up with an absolute gem. All hail to the genius that is Jim! It's a brilliant Bohemian Rhapsody remake of All Your Base! Hurrah!

Reminds me of the good old Starter Up Steve days!

In other news, I had a haircut today. Revolutionary! I would post a picture but my dear sister stole my laptop away again, ending the brief flurry of pictures. As if coursework matters compared to decorating my blog posts!

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Starmix

Quote of the moment:
"Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world addictive taste of Haribo!"

Mmmmm... Haribo...

Mmmmm... Starmix...



The site I got that from is an absolute classic! It's called Boarders' Boxes and sells 'Tuck'! I found it through Google Image Search, I'm not actually a regular...

Anyway, Starmix is better than Maoam!