After the shooting
Considering what a great job has been done in Afghanistan, things are looking really good for the people of Iraq.
Monthly archives: February 2003
Juiced Moose
A little something to remind Mr. O of his Norwegian heritage- Moose in Norway have been eating fermented fruit from last Summer’s bountiful harvest and getting drunk.
“This is the first time I have heard that moose are getting drunk. But I assume that they react the same way people do to intoxication – some become harmless while others are the exact opposite,” said district veterinarian Paul Stamberg in Kristiansand.
Terrorism by other means?
I just posted this on the Sounds of Soldiers blog, and thought I’d share it here- The CIA and Special Forces have been given carte blanche to kill terrorist suspects anywhere in the world. Would they, could they, carry out such a hit in the UK? We have a couple of Death to the Infidel clerics, and an even larger number of politicised, but only guilty by association, lecturers and other Muslims. Back in the good old days, Jack Straw refused to extradite 9/11 suspects to a country where they would face the death penalty. If that happened again would we be faced with the prospect of black clad deniable killers loose in Brick Lane and the back alleys of Longsight?
Techno-vote
The US midterms last year used electronic polling, which was great from a geeky point of view. But there were errors, a lot of errors. I’ve screwed up enough software to know that a few things will go wrong, more the larger the system. But, when most, if not all, of the errors are in the Republicans’ favour and so many of the companies providing the systems are owned by their cronies, you begin to wonder.
via Michael Moore
Gesundheit
I’ve long asserted that I’m allergic to Daz. Now it seems I’m allergic to his parents (or their furniture, at least) as well. The chair response was an extreme version of the hayfever-y symptoms I’d been getting all weekend from the dust raised in the move.
Got basic CSS, don’t know anything about layers. Please feel free to send any and all information on.
PS Please ignore the upcoming emailed post about lack of Internet access. It doesn’t seem to have arrived. Oh well.
Comfy chair allergy?
Ian, your response to the chair sounds like an allergic reaction. Think this may be related to the whole masochism thing. Your body clearly rejects the whole idea of sitting in a comfy chair and demands that you return to your lumpy futon. Seriously though, if you actually felt a constriction in your throat it could be an allergy.
On the Mozilla front, I just moved to version 1.3 beta and the site works okay now. However I would recommend moving to CSS and layers and can provide tools to build the page (and advice on Blogger integration).
The Chair of DEATH
I can breathe! I like breathing, it’s one of the things that separates me from dead people. As part of the house move we went through the time honoured tradition of trying to beg, borrow or steal furniture. Daz’s parents came through, with a big ugly comfy chair for slouching and watching the TV. Except, well, it was a smoker’s chair and the stale fag smell has permeated to its very core (oh, okay, I exaggerate, but I wanted to use the word ‘permeated’ in a post). Within less than five minutes of sitting in the chair my throat started to constrict and I was wheezing. It got a lot worse when I went to bed, with the wheeze progressing to painful hacking coughs and a horrible death rattle/ water on the lungs noise when I tried to breathe. I was beginning to worry that, should I be able to fall asleep, mucus would flood my lungs and I’d never wake. That didn’t happen, but it wasn’t pleasant. The chair is going to be Febreze’d, vac’d and beaten into submission.
Thanks are also due to Alan and Steph for equipment and muscle loaned during the move. Sadly, not even a Vax could lift the stains on the carpet, but I did manage to keep a straight face when the nice lady from the agency said I had obviously looked after the house.
Plans to Puce up the website are on hold, due to my not knowing just what colour Puce is.
It’s good to see the SUA moderating its demands, John has agreed that he doesn’t really need a jacuzzi and he’ll just fart in the bath like everyone else. However, I feel I have to return with a few minor counter demands if this site is to be unionised.
-Spelling and grammar. That means you , Mr. O. Your ‘president’ has problems with the English language, but you’re better than him, so check before you post.
-Help with the Mozilla thing. It’s tables! Surely they are one of the simplest pieces of HTML going. Please don’t tell me Microsoft have screwed with tables.
-A floor to sleep on come Edinburgh Festival and/ or Hogmanay.
-Use of the swivel chair in all future negotiations.
I’m not a masochist, just too damn lazy to go and find another supplier for my broadband.
Today's Picture
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All Woman and I want to marry her
Ellen MacArthur has lost her bid to sale around the world as the mast and rigging have gone afloat in the South Pacific. A collegue of mine passed over the article in the Times and I have found it online. She is the bomb, even if she failed this time, she has more courage and strength than a so many others, male or female. She inspires the best in all us. Read her dispatch direct from the boat here.
“Just three hours ago I was having stitches put in my hand after cutting it open when a rope ripped through it in a manoeuvre. An hour ago I was cutting through rigging as if there was no tomorrow. Now even that seems irrelevant � no longer are we living each day for our 24-hour distance run or thinking about every aspect of boatspeed. Our attempt to break the 64-day record, the Jules Verne, is over”
Super Best friends
Just qucik before dashing off to the office, this morning the New York Times reports GW Bush has called for a second resolution mainly to help Tony Blair. Isn’t that sweet? They should just go full hog and rent a room together…..
On another war front, what is the Washington Times doing with an article about US strategy to win a South Korea – US war against North Korea? Time to get really scared. Did you notice the congestion charge has gone done a treat? Swine.
I have found another new band and I must admit they are really good. It was only a matter of time before a band took the name, The Postal Service. Good stuff.
Just my luck as the damn report can’t be saved to disk! Mierde.
Mr. Frost = Sound Advice
Unfortunately I have stuck by this bad decision due to idiocy and complete need for closure on the matter. BT will always suck, but hey, I am just countless of millions (dare I say if they are in the network boundries) of consumers stupid enough to committ to the largest provider out there. Brain replacement follows after pectoral implants…
In other news, I haven’t paid attention to the war on Iraq in 2 days and it feels mighty good.
Mr. Frost, please email me regarding ASP and FrontPage Server connections if you know anything about.
In other news, the SUA is on a broadbandnone sabatical to find out how real websites work. This may take two years.
Also, a grand hoopy towel day approaches on the 25th of May. Anyone up for a bit of hoopy nutrient gargle blasters?
Glutten for punishment?
Yet another Team Spinneyhead member has chosen to use a BT service (first Ian and now John) and is really regretting it. BT is the one of the most expensive companies for broadband that I’ve seen and adslguide consistently rate them as poor for speed, reliability and customer service. Both Demon and Pipex beat them on price and quality. I suspect Ian and John are masochists and get some strange satisfaction from bad service. Some of our many readers (ha!) may have noticed that Ian hasn’t posted much for a few days. I suspect that this is because he has to wait about a week and a half for BT to move his connection to his new house. As those annoying bank ads say “there is a another way”.
Post War
Time to move onto one of the best public supported radio stations in the planet: Hint – all the DJs are world travelled, old school and new school.
These guys are king. A bit of indie, some new wave and everything else in between. No cmmercials and a dedicated staff.
BT = hell
Ok. Time to move back to America. Things the Brits cannot do well = CUSTOMER SERVICE! Argghhhh!! Arrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!
I have taken the day off to make sure my broadband modem is delivered to my house and what happens? BT Broadband has lost my order and the earliest they can send out a new modem is on Thursday! Bastards! Bastards!
If I was in the States right now the customer service team would have been licking my feet to make up for the mistake! Oh, but on the other hand, I would have to deal with George Bush. Better customer service or George Bush? It’s a toss up.
Today's Picture
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CONGESTION CHAOS
Play this Flash game now – it has been put out by Ken Livingstone.
Sunday Part Dos – Music to Watch Life Go By:
I was beginning to wonder if everyone had left me on the site alone. Sniff!
Web designing is doing my head in. Other than that, one word for the day: ZWAN! Billy Corrigan is back and it is happy Billy this time around unlike the Smashing Pumpkins where he was just sulking all the time. I finally managed to get my hands on some ZWAN tunes today as their album and single aren’t due out until the end of the week and it’s highly impressive stuff! The one song I think they performed on TOTP last week, “Honesty”, is worthy of buying the entire album. This is the kinda of stuff that puts Coldplay and all those other “emo” (hahahahahaha – just kidding – see rant below) bands into the first division.
THe other music been downloading, err I mean purchasing through online channels via those great pay-for-listen sites, has been this: Sunny Day Real Estate, Long Wave, Dave Matthews and an old school band called Moss Icon. Now most people don’t know Moss Icon as only three people on Kazaa, myself included, have any of their songs. May I suggest to all that it is well worth your while to grab a hold of one song and have a listen. No harm no foul.
Tomorrow is Monday and I will be working from home awaiting glorious broadband. Drool, Drool, Goodbye 56K, hello SuperKazaaing.
Today's Picture
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Sunday Sunday
Ok. The world must be out of synch today. Mike Tyson, the one man super freak extravaganza, won his fight last in a mere 49 seconds! My thought is the other guy was actually scared by how Tyson looked with his new tattoo more than anything else.
I have been on a 24 hour internet-athon since yesterday morning and my eyes are killing me. I never realised how so many people that blog are REALLY REALLY boring or mentally whacked! Yes, it does sound a bit harsh, but can you really enjoy reading about every single interaction a person had during the course of a day? That’s why Spinneyhead is so good. There is more meat on the bone so to speak. You are never hit with too much detail and the links are consistent throughout.
Viva La Spinneyhead
The SUA will return tomorrow.
SUA policy statement and Web Update
Well I must admit that after a hard days work with my fellow union members building support for a new and improved Spinneyhead, we are all exhausted. Negotiations are due to resume on Monday, but it appears after the CEO’s consolatory post yesterday regarding a new colour schemes and fonts, progress is finally being made. The SUA will monitor closely to determine if this is just an attempt to stall website improvements, but given the honesty and general niceness of Ian P., we are inclined to believe this gesture could lead to long term improvements for readers and staff alike. We did stop asking for the $30k Jacuzzi with built in DVD, so we are doing our fair share as well.
In other news, I have managed to spend the day trawling through the bowels of the web looking at other Blog sites and the general depravation global computer linking has caused. I guess this will sum up how I wasted a perfectly good Saturday:
Myth: There are bigger problems than Masturbation, like drugs and AIDS.
Reality: Experts estimate that there are at least 150,000 Americans masturbating RIGHT NOW! Masturbation costs American businesses at least $3.14 billion in lost productivity every month!
Think about it, 3.14 billion daily. Just for the record, that statistic was brought to you by Americans for purity. After perusing all around the net and evaluating current trends in web design, I do believe the Spinneyhead management team are on the right track, but should look towards something like SourBob or even better, a website so full of good design and happiness, Katie is Good, cause she rocks and to me at least, represents all that is good about blogging.
During this quest for the “real” web, e.g. people that actually use it just to have a voice and not worry about hits, Portal of Evil proved invaluable. Man oh man, talk about the worst of the web and really there is no competition. I have been to midget hooker websites and the occasional gangsta white boy from mobile, Alabama. Please note, Mobile is an actual town in Alabama, and yes, the state is one big trailer park.
Now for something that is pissing me off something evil! What the f*ing hell is “emo”? As a teenager and young adult over in the early nineties we used to listen music called Indie and Punk. No labels, just some good old middle class white boys from the suburbs with some misplaced angst never meaning no harm. Well, well, my man over at Fourfa has gone as far to label seven types of “emo”, ranging from old school punk to the Smashing Pumpkins. The website even provides “emo” fashion tips, etc. My plea to the “emo” scene: Leave my f*ing Fugazi, Minor Threat, Longwave, Smashing Pumpkins and every other good guitar indy band well f*ing alone or there will be a big can of whoopass opened on your skeazy arses. Whoever was paid money to come iup with the term “emo” and then build a scene out of it should be shot. Scum. I am afraid to listen to my own downloads now. Twits.