Yesterday I was in the freezing depths of our data centre working on some Novell/NT/Connect:Direct interaction - which failed handsomely due to software conflicts on the PC. Doh!

Today I am working from home - remotely configuring some firewalls and implementing some SNMP stuff on a new site we are going to support. Excellent stuff.

Todays first link is a desperate attempt to make me some money. Go and signup here and start earning cashback from everything you buy online. Does give you horrid popups, doesnt install anything on your PC - you just visit the vendors using that site and hey presto, you get some money back. I've been using it since (checks account) the 11th October 2004 and so far I have already earned over �64 back. Every little helps :)

Todays superb link is here. The best getaway EVER!. Enjoy...

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[link]   Posted @ 10:40

it's a bloody cheek! People putting bets on my blog updatedness (is that a word?). What I should have done is put a bet on the 100/1 and then updated immediately - I would have cleaned up nicely!

Found a great video to watch here! How they do not crash into each other. Well - it just beggars belief.

Also this. Typical! Soon will come the day when we see "frickin' dolphins with frickin' lasers on their frickin' heads" roaming the seas randomly attacking pleasure boats...

In other news... a PC I built for someone is having problems. Its an Athlon XP 2200 on an Asus mobo, with a GeForce3Ti gfx card and a RTL3189 network card. For some reason, it keeps blue screening and then failing to boot into Windows again. The only answer seems to be to go into the BIOS setup, press F5 to return everything to default, save and exit, then select to use the last working setup in the XP boot menu! I'm stumped and the only answer I have is to strip it down and rebuild from scratch. Any ideas?

I also need ideas on what to get Chandler for his fourth birthday. I have his Xmas stuff sorted out already but could do with some suggestions unless I fall back on DVDs... What would interest a 4yr old? Anything goes providing it isnt messy and something that would allow him to sit down and do something quietly would be good. Oh and it would be good if it was something that was for him exclusively so that his big sister can't play with it and suck all the enjoyment out of it :D

On Sunday I bought myself a new pair of trainers. I managed to find a picture of them and they are shown below - but mine have got black instead of red. And at a bargain price - as always...

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[link]   Posted @ 10:05

Following the stream of protest comments, I suppose I should update this here blog shouldnt I?

I'm currently in bed typing this and watching "Ong Bak", which I was recommended I see after I was so enamoured of "Born to Fight" that I saw at the FrightFest. Gotta love these Thai action films.

What you all seem to want to know is what I have been doing these past few weeks, so I will start with the short visit to Cornwall. Shell's mum and step-dad were staying in a holiday cottage in Trelash (note: don't try and get online directions from The AA Website as it has no idea where Trelash is. Google however, does.) The cottage sleeps 10 in 5 bedrooms - so it was pretty huge but very much in the middle of nowhere (apart from next to a field of cows and a pig barn).

Anyhow, we drove down there on the Thursday afternoon (the 15th) and stayed til the morning of the 17th. On the Friday morning, we visited Tintagel Castle to climb the mount and look at the ruins. I was OK on the way up, but the steep and uneven steps on the way down freaked me out. I had the chance to go up to the courtyards but the mass of steps put me off, so I took the dog back down with me instead :) My fear (I would say phobia...) of steps is all due to when I smashed my leg up back in 2000 walking down the stairs. I can manage normal stairs without too much problem, providing no-one is mucking around on them and I'm not carrying anything. But these steps were a disaster!

The views from the top were pretty amazing though - the surf smashing all around the little peninsula and the slightly eerieness of Merlins Cave. Great stuff.

We then moved onto Boscastle. Back in August of last year, the small fishing village was pretty much destroyed as floods ravaged their way through it. If you live in the UK, you would have heard about it on the national news. Anyway, we saw the repairs and rebuilding work that has taken place and there isnt much left to see of the devastation it left behind. Apart from the water level indicators up near the eaves of lots of the houses. It was a serious bit flooding...

The Friday evening saw us all dressed up and having a Murder Mystery evening. We played Murder by Candlelight. It was excellent. You need a couple of people who can ad-lib and keep the momentum going and work from the scant details the plot sheet gives you. In all it took about 2.5hrs to run through and the included eating time throughout. At the end, we all had to make our accusations and I accused Shell of the murder - and I ended up being right. Maybe I'm in the wrong job!

Anyway, Xmas presents. I've been buying some. This time of the year is expenseive!

• December 6th - Chandlers Birthday
• December 25th - Christmas (Shell/Rhiannon/Chandler)
• January 4th - Shells Birthday

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[link]   Posted @ 23:25

I haven't updated for 2 weeks, so here is a quick update:

Erm.
Bought several Xmas pressies
Went to Cornwall for a couple of days

Thats crap innit? I'll update better later this week.

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[link]   Posted @ 16:22

Another week that is. After a fairly uneventful few days (Tuesday/Wednesday with the kids, Thursday and Friday back at work), I managed to survive yet another weekend.

The weekend was topped off on Sunday evening with a visit to the Bristol Bierkeller with Mr Martin and Mr Paul. The reason for the visit - to see Skid 'Fucking' Row!

The first support band were called "Chick Shit" or "Grip Shit" or "Brit Stick" or something. Good drummer, good bassist, good guitarist, good singer - but it just didnt work. Especially when they followed up by HEAD-ON and quite frankly they were awesome. Check out their website and d/l their available tracks - if you like your music hard and heavy, you will not be disappointed.

After a little delay - Skid Row came out and quite literally pounded us with class. The new lead singer (replacing the nutty Sebastian Bach) has both the voice and the attitude and commands the stage.

They are all (well the 3 of 4 remaining band members who were there) looking older, but they hadn't lost any of their gusto and presence. With the amps up high, they attacked our hearing with "Monkey Business", "18 and Life", "Piece of Me", "Slave to the Grind", the original and new-punkish versions of "I Remember You", "Get The Fuck Out", some new ones from the new album and they finished it all off with a lengthy (and incredibly lively) version of "Youth Gone Wild".

The Bierkeller once again proved itself an excellent venue for getting up close and personal with a group of very talented musicians. They could see us, we could see them and they played it up perfectly. (Much better than the 'M�tley Cr�e' gig a few weeks back according to and Mr Martin).

Thunder is next on my list next year... my ears might have recovered by then :)

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[link]   Posted @ 15:17

Friday

Friday saw me driving up to London and I arrived at Eddies around 10.30, so we jumped on the train and made our way into town, too late to catch all of the first film. The day saw us revisting the back collection of George Romero - Night of The Living Dead, Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead - these have all been rated before, so I'll skip them.

First up of the new films was his new "Land of the Dead". Zombies are roaming the planet and humans survive in protected enclaves around the world - but in the minority. Romero comes up trumps with a film full of political comment (that all other zombie films appear to miss). Dennis Hopper stars along with Asia Argento and John Legulazumo (or whatever). Cracking film and I'll go along with Eddies score of - 7/10

Next up was "A Bittersweet Life" which is a Korean film based around a gangster that makes a call of judgement to show mercy, but it comes back in spades to bite him on the ass. Excellent film, some great action but dragged a little in the beginning - a very respectable 8/10

The last film of the day was Jake Wests "Evil Aliens". We skipped this one, but did get to see two of the female cast making out outside! People either loved this or hated it.

Saturday

Saturday was kicked off with "Do You Like Hitchcock?" a "made for TV" movie from Dario Argento. Excellently filmed, pretty obvious twists and based on a great idea - 6/10

Next up was "Dead Meat" an Irish zombie film. Following the spread of infection from diseased cattle, humans are infected. What follows is a "by the numbers" zombie film with the added bonuses of "incomprehensible Irish guy", killer cows and a final stand. 6/10 from me - good idea and some great comecy moments.

Following "Dead Meat" was "The Neighbour No. 13". It kept me going for about an hour and then the whole thing lost me and it became quite tedious - 4/10

Next was "Wild Country" - a werewolf film based in Scotland. Excellently made, with the cast and crew on hand both before and after. Nice idea, spooky goings on and a fairly predictable ending. CG was pretty ropey, as were the werewolves but still gets a 6/10

Then was Ti Wests debut "The Roost". Evil dead with bats formula, excellently done and considering the budget and small crew was pretty good. Hopefully this young American guy will be funded in the future and we should see some cool films from him. 4/10

The final film of the day was "2001 Maniacs". Modern day version of "2000 Maniacs" and excellently done. Nice set of gore, decent effects and some good laughs. It was so cheesy it was ace :) 6/10

Sunday

Sunday kicked off with "The Collingswood Story". Not scary, not gripping and bland through and through - 3/10

Next up was "Marebito". Trying a little of this and little of that, it ended up being utter twaddle. Probably means a lot to hard core J-movie fans - 3/10

"Red Eye" was up next, replacing "Boo". No horror, but excellently done thriller. After being gripped throughout the film, it ended up a little "Scream(y)" which was disappointing - 7/10

Next up was the muchly hyped "Nightwatch"- the first of a trilogy from Russia. It's a sort of Lord of the Rings meets Matrix meets Underworld in a battle between good and evil. Truly excellent - I was gripped from beginning to end and am eagerly awaiting the followups "Daywatch" and "Duskwatch". Don't get the R5 release -
wait for the R1/R2 which will have the most exciting subtitles you have ever seen - 9/10

"Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist" was the last film of Sunday and quite frankly it was pants - however, it was astoundingly better than the Renny Harlin version. With some hideous CG (probably due to never being finished for production) and some odd effects involving
the possessed youth (watch for the "skateboarding effect" in the temple... 5/10

Monday

Monday kicked off with "Born To Fight". Out-bloody-standing! Real stunts, no wires, etc. Truly eye-opening and a great story with "balls to the wall" action and comedy elements - 9/10

After watching the brilliance of "Born To Fight", we were subjected to "Day of the Dead 2:Contagium". The worst acting, terrible lines from several of the cast but hilarious to watch. Especially the zombies who rationalised and discussed their predicament! 4/10

The Thai film "P" followed from brit writer/director Paul Spurrier. Excellent stuff. This was a local film for local people but it appealed to us in bucket loads. A young girl ends up as a prostitute to fund her grandmothers medicine. The magic her grandmother has
taught comes in useful apart from the fact that she forgets the the 3 rules - leading to all sorts of problems - 8/10

The penultimate film was "Antibodies". A german film about a rural policeman seeking to discover if a serial killer arrested in the city was responsible for the death a young girl in his area. Some great references to "Silence of the Lambs and a serial killer that
gets into his mind and wreaks havoc. Expect a Hollyood remake of this - 8/10

The last film of the festival was the Australian "Wolf Creek". Based on "true events", this charts the demise of 2 english back packers and their Aussie friend as they attempt to travel across Australia. There was a good amount of time building up the characters and when
the violence kicks in - it catches you by surprise. Brilliantly done - but could have done with being either longer and deeper or shorter with more action - 7/10

We got back to Eddies around 00.30am and I started my trek back home - finally arriving home around 02.30am. A great weekend of films, some great films and roll-on FrightFest 2006 (although I missed Shell terribly, especially as she was ill while I was away)...

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[link]   Posted @ 21:07

Here at work, we have some hedges. Lots of hedges in fact, but one in particular stands out as worthy of mention*. I walk past it from the car to the door everytime I go in or out of the building. The odd thing about this particular hedge is this: during hot weather, it smells of dog shit and during rainy weather, it smells of vomit. I do not know why it does this, but I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter and also wangle a little theology into it.

What would be natures reason for doing this? Defence? Sheer bloody mindedness?

If everything is created by an all powerful sentient being, why would he/she do such a thing? Is the aroma attractive to certain creatures but only offensive to humans? And why dog shit and vomit? Why not Earl Grey Tea and Chocolate Milkshake...Hmmm, now there's an idea!

And if it evolved such a mechanism - WHY? Seriously, why?

And how come it smells like shit one day and vomit the next? Surely it would have been easier to evolve into either a shit-smelling hedge or a vomit smelling hedge! Or did someone find the shit-smelling hedge and cross-pollinate it with a vomit smelling hedge, altered it molecular setup and made it depend on the weater? If so, I need to find them to create my Earl Grey/Chocolate Milkshake hedge :)

Quite frankly, it makes me heave when I walk past it. If I had one in my garden, I would burn it to the ground. If my neighbours had one, I would 1/ question their sanity and/or nasal performance and 2/ burn it to the ground.

_{*I am concerned that I am talking about hedges and that you may think I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. I haven't spent a lot of time. But some. Hopefully, the need to talk about this subject should never arise again and I can mark this down as a lapse of intelligence for the day. Thankyou}

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[link]   Posted @ 13:54

Saturday saw Shell and I going to the fair city of Wells (or it might be a town) to attend "Rail Wells" - a local model railway exhibition, where she was working for the day.

Afterwards, she drove to Plymouth, where we stayed at the Copthorne Hotel for the night before setting off on the Sunday morning for The Monkey Sanctuary nr Looe. The main reason for going there - to visit her adopted Capuchin Peppy. I've got loads of pictures, so I will upload them this evening (along with lots of others) into the gallery and link to them later.

It was a great weekend. Nothing is better than turning off your phones for 2 days and spending all your time in the company of the person you love most. We've decided to do it more often.

I had my photo taken for HPs Smile campaign and my picture is now on the web.

Lovely eh!

In sadder news, when we got home from our break, there was a letter for Shell, telling her that her sponsor dog from The Dogs Trust, Henry Ramsey, had passed away due to the onset of Cushings Disease/Syndrome. Please visit The Dogs Trust and assist them in their tasks.

In memory of Henry Ramsey

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[link]   Posted @ 13:10

So then.

I was 34 on Wednesday and what a great day I had :)

Woke up early, to find that Shell has bedecked the dining room with balloons and banners and all my presents out on the table (fully wrapped) and crikey! what presents they turned out to be...

Got some Hair Trimmers, chocolate, HMV vouchers, Topman vouchers, a magnetic dartboard (which has proved very popular) and some other bits and bobs. From Shell I got:

Prada Jeans
Nike trainers
Bench T-shirt
YSL T-shirt
Kickers cardigan
Bench coat
12 pairs of designer socks (Calvin Klein, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Hugo Boss, Ted Baker, etc, etc)
and some more designer T-shirts that I can't remember.

A fashionable and expensive haul of presents. Plus I had cakes and also sausage and mash for my birthday dinner at Shells parents in the evening! A top day.

This weekend, Shell and I are off to visit her adopted monkey "Peppy" at The Monkey Sanctuary in Looe. Gonna get my camera charged and ready for lots of monkey pictures :)

I also have loads of pictures from the past few months to add into the gallery - but I think I will need to speak to my hoster to get some more web space...

In the meantime...

My life has been rated:

Click to find out your rating!

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[link]   Posted @ 12:56

Another week gone by and no updates.

The weekend before last and last week was spent with the kids. We went on a couple of outings - to Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole in order for Rhiannon to see a cheese factory, a sweet factory and a paper factory - fun and educational - that's me :)

Wednesday night I drove up to Luton airport to pick up Shell. I was hoping for one of those "running towards each other and sweeping her off her feet" scenarios, but unfortunately, as soon as Shell had got off the plane she started throwing up, so her approach into the arrivals area of Luton was slow and painful and not a romantic meeting after all.

She loved the holiday, won the "Miss Santa Susanna" title for the week and got a fantastic tan. I'm dead jealous, as I was nicely tanned before she went and now I look pasty instead... Ho-hum!

Friday night saw me at the Back Bar (my local) as Balance of Power were playing and once again - they rocked.

Saturday saw the start of my birthday celebrations - I will be 34 on Wednesday 10th. 34!!!. Eek!

A couple of mates, Shell and I went to Brean Leisure Park and we partook of the rollercoaster, go-carts, "Xtreme" and the "Sizzler" (an octopus ride). We then went back to Weston, ate at the Cabot and then went home to change before hitting the town. A good time was had by all and made a great start to my celebrations. We staggered home around 3am, tiddly, tired and danced out...

Sunday, Shell and I were picked up and taken to nr. Honiton so Dave could have his birthday present - an 1hrs microlight flight, while Su, Shell and I lazed in the sun. Great recovery for the previous night :)

Wednesday is my birthday (1yr away from being 1/2 dead) so I will update later this week with present details, etc.

Oh - and the backless thong? Crap. Uncomfortable, fits weird and Shell doesn't think she'll ever wear it (unless she gets a low cut backless dress!). That'll teach me...

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[link]   Posted @ 15:13