but what’s happened to the comments section so that I can become the critic I deserve to be? Do I need to contact my SUA representation?
Actually the answer looks like “no”, I don’t need to. Comments are back on in the couple of minutes it took me to write this. But I’ll leave it here for posterity (and to confuse anybody that actually reads it!)
Here’s a site to waste some time on. I had a look at a few of the sections. Funnily enough the romantic section didn’t load properly and just showed the heading “Chapter 53: Romance is Dead”. Didn’t have anything else on the page, since the tables hadn’t loaded. Sometimes, things seem apt in the modern world! Should teach me to get a better connection.
What is it about Americans and Doughnuts (read as “Donuts” if you’re the subject). Especially American cops?
Off to Edinburgh for a day or two next week. Might meet somebody like Tony Blair, but then again I may meet somebody important like the great John O himself. Alternatively, I might end up getting seriously mashed. But that doesn’t preclude the other two, just makes for more interesting blogs afterwards.
Odd sense of English. “Alternatively” shouldn’t really work in the sentence above since you can only have two alternatives. “Optionally” didn’t sound right, due to other connotations, which imply I could or couldn’t do it. It doesn’t really accept the hand of fate (nor alcohol) in getting drunk.
As for it being Monday, it’s one of the better days.
Obviously Mr Frost didn’t. I mentioned the Amazon recommendation last week I think. Or is team Spinneyhead on a mission to mention it lots to see if it gets us noticed? We wouldn’t be that lame, would we? <--- That was my text as I want to write it. But I thought I'd check on whether I published the comments about the dirty underwear recommendations last week or before. But now I can't find them, so there's no proof I did write it. I blame it on the Government. or Ian.
Anyway, on a slight tangent, the subject of some spam in my inbox: “Attract men with bigger tits”. Something tells me I read that the wrong way. I started thinking of Meat Loaf in Fightclub.
…to find the women in furniture store junk mail (e.g. DFS, Courts) attractive? Then perhaps you need to get in touch with your more youthful side.
Still not up-to-date with what to say, then practice your flirting a bit. But remember, when flirting stay off the soft drinks just in case, especially the carrot juice.
But if the chat up lines fail to impress, or for some, never had a chance to start with despite being more local, then maybe it’s just a case of bad karma and you’ll need to find somewhere else to sleep.
Ok, the question comes down to this, was/is Batman a superhero? I get the distinct feeling of treading ground thoroughly trampled on before by others. He didn’t have any superpowers and that’s what started it. Since that revelation, I’ve been trying to think of other relatively mainstream superheroes from the major comics such as DC or Marvel. I can’t think of any, the nearest I’ve got so far is the Shadow, but I believe he had some mental abilities. Mind you, on that page I see the statement from Amazon that “[…]Customers who wear clothes also shop for:
Clean Underwear[…]”. I’d generally hope that was the case.
Anyway, whatever Batman was he was cool. Looking around, I see indeed that the ground was thoroughly trampled by others. To the point that some just didn’t get on with Batman at all. Mind you when superheroes get transfered so badly to cartoons, you can’t really them.
I hate cyclists. Having been one in the past (and still hope to be again when I get by bike out), I can see their point in that it’s a cleaner way of transport. But that assumes that the world is full of bicycles, pedestrians and dinghies. Mix cars into that and you end up with 6 cars, billowing out lots of nasty gases due to being stuck in first or second gear behind the cyclist who’s too frightened to pedal downhill around a country lane. Therefore cyclists are bad for the health – they also scratch the paintwork when they bounce off the bonnet.
I’ll let Ian put this photo somewhere, since I haven’t got a clue where he puts them. Is it vain or even dangerous to post a picture of somebody who writes to this blog? Anyway, here’s a very blurry hand.
Apart from that nothing else to say really apart from Merry Christmas for tomorrow.
And my question (or three for the day): 1) Just how do high-street stores (e.g. BHS) shift the amount of tatt that they sell before Christmas? 2) Who buys the crap? 3) Which unfortunate sods get given it?
Amidst the rubbish, there are occassionally some OK items, but by the time I’ve finished looking through the rubbish, anything half-decent looks ideal as a present. Reverse marketing psychology perhaps? In terms of we’ll sell some crap so the average stuff looks brilliant. Obviously not thinking about brand tainting through proximity, put good stuff next to bad, and it will look bad.
Something earlier this week made me think of Starfleet. This is probably where I start to step into Brian’s terrority, but anyway. There used to be a site that streamed the episodes, one a week about the size of small postage stamp. Can’t find that anymore, but fortunately some of the episodes are now available for download. After having a quick look around, there are a lot more sites again including others with episode downloads. I remember arguing with Brian about who played guitar and bass on the Brian May cover of the soundtrack. From what I read, Eddie Van Halen played bass and Brian May lead guitar. From listening to it again, I’m sure I can here both of their guitar styles on the guitar.
As I wander through life (and round the shops), I realise that there’s a great deal that I don’t want. For instance, the Spyder which looks like a Raleigh Chopper crossed with the car from the Jetsons. Take a look at the picture of the bottom of the Jetson photo page. Bears a remarkable resemeblance to something else that I have no need for.
On my travels, I keep coming across books of random knowledge, however for the review you’ll have to look here. But I’m sure nothing can compete with the Internet for sheer variety and pointlessness. But then again, sometimes you need a good excuse for that purchase or for not going out since you need to give your new purchase a good run-in. Or sometimes you can just get stuck with too many good(?) ideas.
I’ve found something else I want. Actually, I suppose I’d want the interconnectivity to be digital, but the amplification to be valve based. Something just doesn’t seem right about that. With the digital connections, I could theoretically have something the size of mobile phone to handle all my audio needs, but then it would have to be half the size of a TV to handle the transformers and various heat-sinks for the valves. But what a sound it would make.
Don’t know about you, but Brian’s idea of building a PC using near-living tissue sounds great as long as it’s not mine. Might be better to have a look round at some of the organisations involved in that type of research in the US. I remember the Foresight Institute being quite vocal a fews ago with Eric Drexler’s main work. Before that, at least in terms of public profile, there was the RAND corporation. Remember me mentioning military sci-if, Jerry Pournelle wrote a series called Janissaries as well; he was also part of RAND along with Larry Niven.
But my techno-lust still carries on. I want a decent car. Probably needs to be the Espace since it’s large enough to carry some good looking British guitars, guitar amps and groupies round in (I can hope!). I want an old building so I can put on band nights on.
Some people really should have never been allowed to live in the commercial world with those sorts of ideas. It’s obvious that many don’t live in the real world.
I want more stuff, no make that need more stuff. Well actually, I could do without it, but then life wouldn’t be the same. The dilemma that faces every guitarist experiencing Gear Acquisition Syndrome. There’s even a self-test for those unsure of whether they’ve captured the “disease”. So from my point of view, I want/need (the two are fully interchangeable, but need occurs more often) a new amp head and a new guitar. I don’t have to think hard for reasons, in that I don’t have to justify the purchases to myself. I looking for a particular sound, that justifies all.
So the amps, down to two at the moment, Engl Powerball (or something else from their line-up) or Hughes and Kettner Triamp. You will understand that although the Engl stuff I’ve heard sounds very good, it has to compete with the fact that you can see the H&K’s valves being lit up nicely. OK, from the point of view of a guitar purist, then looks don’t matter, but bands are as much about stage presence, image and act as they are the music that the band is there to play. Having something as cool as backlit valves, just gives you instant respect (until you hit the strings on the guitar – then it’s another ball game entirely). Reminds of the time that Trace Elliot started putting neon tubes on the front of their amps, I’d never seen bass players dribble so much before.
As for a new guitar, currently the JJ Guitars Retro is top of the list, but there are a few others to try close behind.
Fancy seeing the current band, then we’re playing at the Grey Horse, Reddish, Stockport tomorrow (on Friday 20th December). Want to see a better band, then look at Stockport SU tonight.
Back to writing, I remember looking for some useful information on creative thinking. I found the odd one or so, then found an index of the stuff. Much more useful, however do I use them? No, not in the slightest. Think I need something more about motivation instead. From what I’ve seen though, it’s mainly a question of people trying to sell you self-help packs, often thinly disguised pyramid selling.
You know when it’s time to give up singing when your computer can sing better than you can.
Since Ian and me both write, I thought it worth pointing out a collection of dodgy science facts in the Hall of Infamy and some fantasy cliches. Just so we know what to steer clear of.
Did you try the “which science fiction author are you?” Need more info on the author, then start with the list of scifi authors. Need more info, then there’s the only decent sci fi encyclopaedia.
There’s a Manchester-based scifi group, didn’t know that before.
After having found a fair few dodgy sites searching for “Electric C”, I can now save you the trouble. The band I was looking for is “electric six”. The track I was looking for is Danger High Voltage. Fortunately, there’s even the video online so I was able to check out whether it was the correct band. And then there’s a lower res version.
Second time to try and write this since the machine’s just crashed.
I see that Ian’s started reading Brightness Reef. I wonder if he’s found out that it’s the first book in the second trilogy of the Uplift saga. With Ian’s way of doing it, you start on book 4, with some aliens including talking apes, big space battles, nimble craft and massive behemoths of space cruiser. All you need is the “Dark Side” and some overgrown torches and you’d have the makings of a decent film.
Question for the day: Just how long is “too long” when shaking at the end of a visit to the urinal. With the sensitivity to motion in the peripheral vision and all that, you can’t help but notice when the guy next to you is putting a little too much effort into it. Must have got windchill with the speed he achieved.
Thought for the day: Fake orgasms in pubs do not attract as much attention as you think they should do.
Just how intelligent are squirrels?
Saw a good video yesterday of what sounded to be a modern Kraut-rock band. Think they were called “Electric-G” but therein lies my problem. I can’t find that name anywhere. Found some other stuff as you do. The question is, has anybody made one of these to sell? I just wonder how many people have the same thoughts and what’s the market like for those gadgets? Back to the video, it had glowing codpiece, glowing breast coverings (sort of Barbarella like, but if that’s the only reason you’re going and found the video, you’ll understand when I recommend you not to!) and a glowing Moose’s udders and thereabouts.
Just got some new books to read yesterday. Couldn’t find the one I was looking for, but Amazon have it. Instead ended up with a couple of David Drake’s books. Probably the best military sci-fi author I can think of. An extremely fluid writing style which works suprisingly well in that genre. I notice that he’s got a few fantasy books out, so I’ll have to see if those work just as well. It you want to start on his works, check out Hammers Slammers about a tank commander. There are a few in the series, but be careful since some are just reissues of stories in different collections, in much the same way has happened with Heinlein’s catalogue and Dilbert collections. Also picked up the third book in the series of the Mote in God’s Eye.
Not much to say really. Had the invite to join for a few days now and thought it’s about time I did something about it. I don’t surf anywhere near as much as the rest of this team, so don’t expect to see that much from me. I’ll concentrate on quality instead…..
Think I’ll start with some translation sites – how about one that translates English into Swedish Chef speak, Jive or Valley Girl.
Or better still, another that translates a web page. Spinneyhead doesn’t look too bad in Redneck – something ominous about that!
