Please rise for our national anthem... "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves"

cherguevara @ 2006-11-26T23:42:00

2006-11-26T23:46:48Z

Next time I see my GP (which is next week) I need to mention the whole Sunday=dying thing. I frequently feel flu-ish and have a dodgy stomach on Sundays, and by frequent I mean most weekends. I think it might be a food intolerance. My diet is rather rigid during the week as I usually have similar things for lunch at work and have tried and trusted meals in the evening. But from Friday evening onwards I’m more likely to eat out more and be more adventurous with my food. According to my food diary the only likely candidates are red meat or gluten. Personally I blame Thatcher.

I finish work for my holiday at midday on Thursday. For my sins I’m going to Leeds for the weekend to visit the parentals. They did offer to pay for the train but GNER want to charge me £120+ so I’m taking the tramp wagon (National Express). I have Londonish stuff planned for next Sunday evening so I’ll be back mid-afternoon Sunday, but I may not go to Leeds until the Friday. Everyone’s working and I’ll be at a loose end so I don’t want to spend Friday in Leeds just vegging out in front of the TV. But I could always visit the Royal Armouries (yay shiny pointy things!) and/or tear up and down the Penines at 90mph on the poof mobile. While I'm there I’ll have to guilt the parentals into buying me new clothes. This shall easily be arranged by taking the most moth-eaten clothes I own with me. Rar.

One of the things I managed to do today (despite feeling monged out) was create a Wiki for work. It was suggested by the evil Nolan in one of the God-forsaken customer service workshops. Creating a wiki seems easy enough, but the challenge was to find one that doesn’t need to be hosted on a web server, as doing so would bring down the wrath of Mordac preventer of Information Technology (our company has several of these characters). I’ll install it at work tomorrow, but I predict one of two things will happen: One of my minions (most likely Ben) will vandalise it and it’ll be picked up on by management who’ll insist it has to be deleted; or someone from another team who wants to earn brown nose brownie points will say it’s “against the Data Protection Act” (it’s not) and management will insist it has to be deleted. And then we’ll go back to the usual way of expecting product knowledge to filter through the company: osmosis.

Have your say on the route of the new London Cross River Tram. Go on, you know you want to.

Oh Woe Is Work

2006-11-22T19:58:06Z

Urgh, I seem to be coming down with the evil lurgy of death. *paints a red cross on the door* An earlier night than usual methinks.

Tomorrow we have the ungodly Customer Service workshop of misery at work. And we have to take it seriously because one of the directors is running it. It seems to be one of those “learn from a video” package, with accompanying 32 page work booklet with patronising questions and obvious answers (I’ve seen the work book and the answers). I think someone in the company saw an advert for the training package, spent a ludicrous amount of money on it and is now going to make as many people in the company see it to try and get as much value for it as possible. I’ll just have to settle for mocking it after it’s happened.

And on the topic of work, they’ve suddenly decided since the rest of the company is doing “something”, the Bermondsey site should have a Christmas party too. And which unfortunate soul is being made responsible for organising it? Yeah, I’m upper management’s bitch. A piss-up is out of the question because of the number of Muslim employees (damned minorities) and all the restaurants I’ve tried to book have laughed in my face when I’ve asked to book for thirty-plus people. I think we’ll have to have a New Year’s celebration in January instead, which works out better for me as I’d enjoy celebrating having survived Christmas. And briefly, in other work-related news there’s a “future fuehrers of CompuGlobal” thing I’ve been encouraged to attend in mid-December, and we’re stealing even more of Norwich Union’s files next month so we can sell them back to them at an extortionate price (anyone with healthcare plans with them should switch to another provider before we lose your files).

I’ve been so wrapped up in Other Stuff™ that I totally forgot about Canadian TV airing Atlantis before the US. Of course it’s taking aaaaaaages to torrent now. And I stayed in Wimbledonia last night so I wasn’t able to torrent Veronica Mars this morning, and as I’m still DVD drive-less (die Maplin, die!) I don’t have any fandoms to watch tonight. Woe. I could watch telly but it’s all reality TV shows and reruns *yawn*.

Charity Penguin Slide

2006-11-19T23:39:45Z

Torchwood. Meh. I’ve given it a chance and I’m just not as swayed over by it as everyone else is. I think it’s trying too hard. Or not hard enough. Either way it just doesn’t push my buttons. On the other hand I’m seriously enjoying “American Dad!”. I didn’t think I’d like it as everyone’s said it’s a cheap knock-off of Family Guy, but unlike Family Guy it doesn’t go off on weird tangents that stopped being funny after season three. I suspect this is because American Dad shares the same producers as Family Guy but isn’t written by manatees.

I think I need to add “a working DVD drive” to the list of things I can’t live without. Maplin said it’d be a week until the one they should have just replaced is repaired. It’s now a week plus a day. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the way they handled this in the first place and the only way they could have stopped me from bitching about it to their head office was to get it dealt with in the time frame they mentioned. I was pissed off before but now I’m just seething. Vengeance will be mine.

I’ve spent most of this afternoon suffering from a delayed hangover. I blame this on drinking since 3pm yesterday. Or the poisoned cappuccino I had at Canary Wharf this morning (the milk had gone off. Blah). Attempts to nap off the crappiness failed due to the weird law that everyone wants to text or call you when you don’t actually want them to. Damn my inconvenient popularity.

Whilst looking for work related books (“The Geneva Conventions and Your Minions For Dummies”) I’ve found some much coveted word porn in Foyles, the five volumes of Virginia Woolf’s diaries. Amazon haven’t had any copies in stock for as long as I’ve been looking so I was surprised to find them. I’ll have to buy some for myself as an early Christmas present.

That’s it for new stuff. Nothing bad at work, nothing bad with anything else. Life’s kinda dull when there’s no impending disaster.

Happy Monday

2006-11-13T22:46:58Z

I seem to be over my phase of blogging every single thing that happens in my day. Mostly because I’ve come to realise that my life isn’t very interesting to read. That and blogging requires effort *apathy*.

Maplin have made it on to my enemies list. I bought a DVD writer off them last weekend to replace the one that died during the recent PC-killing power surge. The new DVD writer doesn’t read most of my DVDs though so I took it back for a replacement yesterday. Except the manager fobbed me off and told me to they’d have to send it off to be repaired, despite one of his minions telling me they could replace it as it was before some 14 day limit. So now I have to wait a week (at least) for a replacement. As soon as I get it back I’m going to rattle off a strongly worded letter to their head office about statutory rights and decent customer service. Fucktards.

Work isn’t very interesting. We have a customer service workshop next Friday with corporate videos and role playing. I’m very much looking forward to it because you just know it’ll be cheesy as hell. Or like something straight out of Dilbert. And at the end of the month I’ve got a very, very long weekend off work (finish Thursday at noon and go back the following Wednesday). I have nothing glamorous planned, just Christmas shopping and mebbe a pre-spring clean of the house. And then I have a week off for Christmas. Yay. And then another week off in February. I’d like to go away somewhere different for a week but if the housemates are planning on moving then I’ll have to save all my money up for a deposit for somewhere else. Which would suck. In that case I could always work in Shoeburyness for a week as a get-away :oÞ

Eh, I had more to write but I feel the need to shower and sleep. May write more at work tomorrow.

Retarded Monkey Sex

2006-11-02T21:57:21Z

Daylight savings time seems to be detrimental to a lot of people's mental health. Loads of people seem more far more depressed than they were before last weekend. And the abrupt change in weather can't have helped. Damned nature *hands out anti-depressants as a Bonfire Night snack*.

South Park continues to rock my world with the latest episode "Go, God! Go! Part 1". Richard Dawkins come to replace Mrs Garrison on account of the latters misleading attempt to teach evolution ("It was thought up by Charles Darwin and it goes something like this: In the beginning we were all fish, OK? Swimming around in the water. Then a couple of fish had a retard baby. And the retard baby was different so it got to live. So retard fish goes on to make more retard babies, and then one day a retard baby fish crawled out of the ocean with it's mutant fish hands and it had butt sex with a squirrel or something and made this: retard frog squirrel. And then that has a mutant baby which ended up being a monkey fish frog. And then this monkey fish frog has butt sex with this monkey and then that monkey has a mutant retard baby that screwed another monkey and that made you. So there you go, you're the retarded offspring of five monkeys having butt sex with a fish squirrel. Congratulations."). The episode ends on a cliffhanger 500 years in the future with sea otters preparing for war with other atheists (part 2 next week! Yay!).

I'm being weird with my money. There are things I need, like a new DVD drive, underwear without holes in etc that I just won't buy. Then there a shiny useless things that I'd never get to use, like a bluetooth headset for Skype that I really want. I think I need to keep away from the shops for a while (apart from those that sell pants). Not sure I can do without a DVD drive though. 'puter fairs at the weekend I think (also avoiding anywhere that sells kittens).

Total Quality Mis-management

2006-11-02T08:23:28Z

I have failed to get tickets to China Power Station, as all the tickets have now sold out. I suck. I finally got a copy of Time Out through the post yesterday, seven issues into my subscription (fuck knows where the other six went, but they've refunded me for them) so I have lots of other ideas for stuff to do this weekend. I'm also the proud owner of a Zone 1-3 travelcard, one more zone than before. I want to start exploring London more than I've been doing so far (plus I can stop paying for train journeys to Wimbledonia to meet Mrs. LordOfMisrule).

We're being audited at work, both internally and by Norwich Union. They're analysing the processes involved and they want to "TQM" my department, so one of the company's project managers is coming in this morning with a stop watch and he's going to work out how long it takes to do requests, and ultimately how many staff we need so we can cut back on staff or charge the customers more. I don't like being scrutinised. It means less time surfing the net.

Now that I'm not poor I think I'm going to do some shopping for shiny things tonight. It'd be quite nice to have clothes that aren't ancient and/or have holes in.

Erk.

2006-10-30T23:30:00Z

My PC gimped out on me on Saturday. It suffered catastrophic hard drive failure, which has resulted in me using my 160GB hard drive as a paperweight and having to format my 200GB hard drive so I could install a working operating system. I won't buy a new hard drive to destroy until I've filled up the 200GB one. I think I need a new DVD drive though. Meh.

I'm not poor next month. Huzzah! I told the parentals I was a bit hard up and they've transferred quite a bit into my account. And my predicted cash flow deficit won't appear anyway as I got my wage slip today and I'm being paid for my sick days last month. So not only do I have money to eat but I have money to live comfortably and buy shiny things. Except I'm still going to be frugal and save up, for soon it is December, the official month of Shiny Things™.

My weekend was rather unadventurous in the end. I got the bus to Shadwell, walked to Whitechapel, then Wapping, then to Crossharbour and did some food shopping before coming home. Then I broke the PC. Well no, I think the power surge in the kitchen in the morning did something but had a delayed effect. Anyway, Saturday night was spent unglamourously trying to fix it, and Sunday I used the new London City Airport DLR branch!... Eleven months after it opened. I went to meet the missus as he was flying back from Scotland. And er, that was it. It would have been nice to have had a bit less stress though. Stupid PC.

Tomorrow I want to go to that dealie in Southwark, since John "Crow" Constable is an absolutely brilliant speaker and the whole thing looks quite fun (assuming I can sit out on any spiral dances). Will have to see who I can persuade to come along.
Anyway, Happy Samhain to you crazy, freaky beatniks.

A Grim Day For Musical Theatre

2006-10-05T20:11:58Z

Wicked was awful. Truly awful. I’ve never come so close to walking out of a theatre. It made anything by Lloyd-Webber look positively appealing in comparison. The story had a lot of potential but it was let down by the piss poor script, forgettable songs and random, painful key changes. One thing in it’s favour were the excellent cast, but the only thing that made me go back in to watch the second act was a morbid curiosity to see whether it would become so bad it would be laughably bad (it was). If I’d paid full price for those tickets I’d have been fuming (or maybe I’d devlop an overly enthusiastic sense of denial about it like everyone else there).
I’m rather weak. I’ve broken my self-enforced work porn embargo (I have four unread books I need to read).

While puh-chasing food and drink from the Tesco at Canary Wharf I saw a copy of Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories for £3.90 in paperback and I couldn’t resist, particularly since it was only yesterday that I was pondering when the paperback would be out. Definitely no more word porn until I’ve read what I’ve got *nods resolutely*.

I woke up feeling like crap today and decided to take the day off work. The place has seriously been getting me down and usually I feel guilty about calling in sick but not today. So long work ethic!

I’m really disappointed with London’s newspapers. The new TheLondonPaper is as right wing as The Sun, and in response to the release of the aforementioned free shit rag The Evil Standard has shifted so far right it’s now effectively a late edition of the Daily Mail. London’s such a diverse city and you’d think that one of the more liberal news agencies would take advantage of that. Still, good to see that Ken’s got one up on the Evil Standard. *adds some more candles to my Ken Livingston shrine*

Work Sucks (obv.)

2006-10-03T22:22:51Z

I'm seriously stressed and wound up about work. Today I was:

Chewed out off for deleting e-mails over two weeks old, when it was the Pointy Haired Boss's decision (against my strong objections).

Bollocked for sending "the wrong kind of report out" on a daily basis for the last four months on orders of my boss's boss. Again I've pointed out frequently that we should have been doing something else but no one ever listens to me.

Told off for being defensive in e-mails that are essentially attacking me and accusing me of being inept without any basis for their objections.
Plus I think they're gearing up to turn the Tin Dog into some sort of metallic canine sacrificial lamb to appease the great deities of Stevenage. Which I won't let happen. I can see why my counterpart in customer services has taken three weeks off because of stress. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm still not paid enough to deal with this shit as I'm still on the basic clerical minion wage. I have to dress nicely for the theatre tomorrow so I'm going to go to work late and call into an agency at Canary Wharf. It can't hurt to see what they've got for permanent jobs.

ION: Had to reinstall XP due to crappiness with Vista. Vista is shiny and cool, but the limited functionality of RC1 is quite repressive. XP is still hateful, and like the last time I reinstalled it I've had to format a hard drive and I've lost lots of cool stuff. Hopefully with the SATA drive I'm getting next month (in addition to other bits and bobs) I'll be able to run a dual boot system. In theory.

London Rain (sucks)

2006-10-01T12:52:05Z

I'm not sure what's up with the weather but hopefully this is the tail end of Hurricane Buffster, which is currently wiping Stevenage off the map at this very minute.

Very little is worth mentioning, hence the lack of update. Good telly is back (in the US anyway), which is a good thing. And damn Grey's Anatomy for manipulating my emotions for another season! I'm still sad that Stargate SG-1 got cancelled though.

Work persists in being "blah" (courtesy of Stevenage), but it looks like I may get my pay rise soon (in theory). I'm getting fed up of being poor and I want to buy shiny things for people for Christmas.

I have practically free tickets to see Wicked on Wednesday. I got a spare ticket for Jon but he's being crap and hasn't replied to my text so I'll probably fall back to one of the many people on my reserve list (with Casp at the top and the Sock Puppet of Love somewhere near the bottom).

Erm, that's about it. Once again I'm waiting for the rain to stop so I can go out and do Stuff™.

"Elephant and Pig DNA Just Won't Splice"

2006-09-26T21:54:24Z

Or so the old song goes. But what about an iPod and WMP?

Yeah, so despite importing my old iTunes library it's lost all my purchased music, and Apple won't let you download it again for free (or even at a discount). So now that I'm DRM free I'm switching to Windows Media Player, as my next MP3 player won't be an iPod. Plus I'm starting to see many of the bugs in iTunes 7.0. And everyone's flagrant Apple wanking is starting to get tedious. But will my iPod work with WMP?

Boringly the answer is "yes". It works fine, despite both being designed to like each other about as much as neighbouring Middle Eastern states. Even on the experimental and temperamental Vista/WMP11 it works fine. And in future if I can't torrent it I'll just buy the CD.

Children of Men was a great film. If you’re childfreelike me then it’s a vision of an ideal future. Sure, the coffee shops you have frequent may get blown up but there wouldn’t be any kids to annoy you! Obviously the rounding up of anyone a bit foreign isn’t nice though. I also watched Me, You And Everyone We Know this evening. Despite some enjoyable moments it was a bit crap.

I’m quite worried that the tag cloud on my blog has gerbilling in big letters. I’d better start tagging non-scary things.

Cloudbusting

2006-09-25T13:17:33Z

How annoying. It’s the last day of my long weekend and it’s pissing it down.

My plan is/was to go to Oxford St, buy a new book and then go to the Imperial War Museum. Annoyingly this doesn't look like it's going to happen so I'll go to Canary Wharf for coffee and cake (mmmm, cake) and then see what Books And Stuff (Etc) has to offer. After reading heavy sci-fi I want something that doesn't take itself too seriously, but I'm still in a fiction mood. I'll probably get something by Will Self or Neil Gaiman. I'm still off to see Children of Men with Tom this evening. I was invited to see it yesterday with other friends but I was disinvited by omission (you know, that thing where they still go but neglect to tell you where and when).

It's good to see that Di's back on the front cover of the Express. I was getting withdrawl syptoms after their mammoth coverage of anniversary. Truly the "World's Greatest Newspaper"!

Right, back to fiddling with Movable Type until the apocalyptic rain stops.

Sunny Afternoon

2006-09-22T13:36:53Z

I’m just killing time on t’interweb before the lunch time rush has died down at Canary Wharf. I need buy word porn (books), anti-histamines (god damned fleas) and, of course, coffee. I also need to buy some pens as I stole my own weight in post-it notes from work yesterday (many pretty colours) but I don’t actually have any writing implements at home. D’oh.

I’ve had the chance to get used to Vista and I love it. But some small issues: It takes up a huge proportion of my RAM even with no other programs running. 1.2GB of the latest DDR RAM should be sufficient to run an OS and any RAM intensive program sufficiently. However it whines under duress of running software like Photoshop or any decent game. But I suppose I can buy another gig of RAM instead of a new hard drive next week. The other issue is the GUI. Although aesthetically pleasing it looks like XP has swallowed the bastard love child of Mac OS X and Linux. That isn’t a bad thing, as it has the best of all three worlds, but I don’t particularly like the native Mac OS and I find Linux impossible to use and pointless. Office 2007 is still sexy as hell though.

I have a weekend of complete and blissful inactivity planned. This isn’t to say I won’t do anything, it just means I can be as spontaneous as I damn well please. Ditto for Monday *chants “Day off! Day off!”*. And I seem to have figured out why I’m so damned lazy recently. There are lots of things I want to see and do, like films at the cinema, but I avoid them as I worry that if I go it’ll be crap and I’ll have wasted what little free time I’ve got. It’s a cycle I need to break out of. But not today. Maybe tomorrow :oÞ Coffee now.

Coffee for visas (an update of no importance)

2006-09-20T21:12:46Z

From lordofmisrule.net:

Today one of my minions at work asked me to write a letter for the Home Office so she can extend her visa. In exchange I got a free latte and a bar of chocolate. I’m not entirely sure it was worth the pay off as it’d mean she’d be in the country a few more years but I just can’t say no to coffee.

Speaking of work, I have Friday and Monday off. I’m feeling a bit stressed and burnt out, and I’m still being paid peanuts so I’m going to re-evaluate my escape plan. As I’ve whined about for a while they’re using the ploy that I’m “interim” admin organ grinder (the dancing monkeys being my minions) so they won’t pay me fully until they’ve advertised the role externally and done interviews etc. When they finally get their arses in gear and start advertising I’m going to look for something else. If I get a better offer for more money with another company (hardly an impossibility) I’ll take it. And if they decide they want someone else for my job then I’ll already be looking for something else. In the meantime I have lots of time off to take so I can relax, catch up on reading and do the whole “exploring London” thing.

cherguevara @ 2006-09-18T00:46:00

2006-09-17T23:46:35Z

I don't see the point in developing 64 bit processors and operating systems when other hardware manufacturers (eg. Netgear [twunts]) refuse to make 64 bit drivers for their software. I've spent most of the evening arsing about with Windows Vista's 64 bit flavour (RC1) trying to get my soundcard and wireless network card working. After giving up I installed the 32 bit flavour and everything works perfectly. Grrr. Vista's pretty though so it's worth it.

Will write more tomorrow. I haven't had the inclination to blog much lately. Been too busy doing work stuff, being tired from work stuff or just being away from t'PC. Sleepy now.

cherguevara @ 2006-09-10T21:44:00

2006-09-10T20:44:20Z

From lordofmisrule.net:
With everyone indisposed I think I've done a good job of spending time by myself this weekend.

Yesterday I tried that coffee shop on Mile End I found last week. It's nice, but it does get rather busy. I took advantage of the nice weather and walked to Canary Wharf where I de-camped for more coffee, more reading and lots of arsing about with my PDA (worst. purchase. ever). The evening was very sedate. I was planning on attending the PN moot but in terms of my credibility spending the evening on my own, watching Futurama was the least damaging option available.

I walked to the Wharf again today, had coffee, read a bit. I then took my favourite form of transport to the South Bank - the Thames Clipper. There's something very cool about tearing across the Greenwich Peninsula and The Pool on those dealies. At some point in the near future I'll have to take one all the way from Woolwich to Embankment. Just because. Anyway, my destination was the ~~Dead Marine Life~~ Oysters & Seafood Fair at Hay's Galleria at London Bridge. It was cool, but I didn't indulge. I'm wary of seafood as I'm of the belief that it'll either be bland or minging (as that's how my mother cooked it), so I can't eat it without someone there holding my hand and reassuring me it'll be nice. After that I strolled down South Bank enjoying the weather, taking photos and oggling the hot tourists *wants*. In the end I walked as far as Lambeth Bridge before wandering through Westminster and then up Charing Cross Road to Tottenham Court Road. From thence I got the Tube back, where some Asian woman was intently reading the back of a packet cheese. Yay for the weirdness of London.

Caring for the Environment

2006-09-08T20:11:06Z

From lordofmisrule.net:

IMG_0665
Originally uploaded by gratuitousincontinuity.

We have a slight flea problem here at Misrule Motel, Bar & Grill. Actually no, it stopped being slight a few weeks back. Now it qualifies as a serious infestation. My housemates have tried to deal with it in a softly, softly approach by buying flea repellant for the cats and using some natural plant oil flea spray. That approach hasn't worked, as the bite marks on legs will testify. So today I bought the most vicious, destructful biochemical agent I could buy (legally). I got some costly Rentokil stuff that actually has a warning on the back about it being harmful to the environment (pictured). It's the kind of stuff that raises the global temperature 0.5C just by making one can, and one application will permanently damage the ecosystem in a three mile radius; all greenery will turn a disturbing shade of grey, little bunnies eyes will melt out of their sockets and all living organisms will be sterilised instantly. Sadly I don't think it'll do the trick as the cats need to be treated properly. But hopefully it'll give me some reprieve from the non-stop itchfest I've been enduring lately.

I've had a bit of a pants week at work. We did what the Soviets would call "purging" and got rid of all the ineffective employees. Except we didn't hire any new. Oops. This led to a stressful week of struggling with the work load, and on top of that all other departments have declared war on everyone else. In the end we've come out smelling like roses, and we've got even more staff than ever from Monday so hopefully all will be well.

Going to take my camera out and have another sightseeing weekend. But right now it's time for beer and food.

Morrissey The Hamster

2006-09-03T21:19:08Z

Morrissey The Hamster
Originally uploaded by gratuitousincontinuity.

OK, "he" is actually called Rosie, but since I'm looking after her for a week I think I get to rename her.
And there's something a bit Elfy about this photo. It must be the small rodent next to a long tube.

Gadget Porn!

2006-09-03T21:01:34Z

From lordofmisrule.net:

I've forgotten how much living in Sal's flat has made me wary of rodents. OK, it's a hamster, in a cage, but every time I see it out of the corner of my eye I'm convinced I need to roll my socks over my jeans.

Today I bought a new PDA. I've been after one for a while as I want to do things like update my LJ (and now my blog) and do work stuff when I'm out and about, and I'm too lazy to carry a laptop everywhere with me. Plus what's the point in budgeting for Shiny Things when I just spend it on going out and stuff? So after some deliberation and research on t'interweb I got a Palm T|X. It was £250 in Waitrose but I got it £70 cheaper elsewhere (somewhere I said I'd never shop *cough*PC World*cough*). Obviously for that price it's not the best, but it has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and all the applications I really need. And it's got better specs than my first two desktop PCs. The only downside so far is that I can't get it to connect to our home wi-fi network. I suspect that's due to how our network is set up as I've been able to use it on our neighbours' unsecured networks. I've entered the key in correctly and it's definitely WEP encryption but it's just not working. *sad face* Will speak to Marcus when he gets back from his hols.

I took a walk down Mile End Road today. I've been through by bus but never taken the time to walk. I went as far Whitechapel (to pick up the PDA) and on the way I found a coffee shop near Mile End station that's trendy, cosmopolitan and most importantly: not a chain. It's open 'til 8pm as well, which is good, particularly on weekends when I feel like reading well into the evening. I'll take great pleasure in sussing it out next weekend with a book and my new shiny device. I may also take my camera and do a bit more scouting as there were some amazing buildings there. Plus I'm intrigued by the sign I saw pointing to "Frank Dobson Square". I wonder if it's next to Mo Mowlem Mews?

I really must get round to customising this blog at some point. I've learnt the tagging and template system of Movable Type and now I'm just being lazy. Or spending all my spare time reading Judas Unchained. Stupid addictive books. Anyway, shan't make blog shiny and cool now as I'm going to cook the rest of the nummy ostrich burgers I bought yesterday from B'rough Market.

ASBOs for all!

2006-09-02T00:18:30Z

From Shakespearean Sock Puppet Theatre:

Blair proposes ASBOs for babies (Daily Mail)
There's something so cool about a FASBO (ASBO for unborn foetuses). I wholeheartedly support ASBOs for babies and small children. I loathe yuppies who take their fertility drug induced freaklitters to my favourite coffee shop, where their hellspawn proceed to be loud, annoying and messy. And let's not forget the Tit Nazis - mothers who are militant to the point of offensiveness about breast feeding their crotch fruit in public.
But failing FASBOs there's always post-natal abortion (I support PNA up to 160 months).

Incidentally you should read the comments for this story. Daily Mail readers are so easily wound up. Either Blair's not doing enough or he's creating a fascist "nanny state". I love the riled up comments from the "ex-pats" too. The funniest ones are when they're foaming at the mouth over immigration and they sign their name with another country at the end (usually Florida if you're Richard Littlejohn [cunt]).

cherguevara @ 2006-09-01T22:12:00

2006-09-01T21:12:07Z

After drinking far too much on Monday and Wednesday nights I've spent half this week with a fucking awful hangover. Couple this with the lack of sleep from being out boozing means I'm tired and in no mood to attend the booze-orientated social events I've been invited to this weekend. Will probably be all reclusive, which is good because I'm being bipolar, easily irritated and emo.

I'm rather pleased that we're getting rid of some of my more troublesome minions at work and replacing them with people who'll be more competent and less annoying (I hope). Still no word on when I'm getting a pay increase for being supervisor. Twunts.

That's about it really. Am cat and hamster sitting next week. Might nip to Borough Market and buy nummy food for the week tomorrow (or eat the menagerie).

Tired. Bed.

cherguevara @ 2006-08-31T08:23:00

2006-08-31T07:23:39Z

Must not mix drinks, must not mix drinks, must not mix drinks...

She's dead you know...

2006-08-29T19:35:16Z

From Shakespearean Sock Puppet Theatre:

I'm thrilled to bits that the Daily Express is devoting part of it's front cover and three pages (minimum) inside to a special 9th anniversary "Diana Dossier" every day this week. "A unique insight into the many unanswered questions which still surround the death of the People's Princess". "People's Princess" sounds a bit too Communist for my liking but these news stories are vitally important. If the Express doesn't have Diana on their front page at least once a week I forget that she's dead. And the bribes Al Fayed is making to Richard Desmond must be doing wonders for the porn industry. Anyway, I was bored at work today and made a Diana desktop collage of all my favourite Diana front pages. Will also be using the laminator at work on my Diana Dossier.

Walking Disaster Area

2006-08-28T12:58:31Z

From Shakespearean Sock Puppet Theatre:

A hurricane alert has been issued across parts of Florida as George Bush prepares to visit areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. (Sky News)
So. American authorities finally see Bush the way we do.

Who the fuck is Lilly Allen?

2006-08-27T22:42:25Z

From Shakespearean Sock Puppet Theatre

OK, so Nucleus didn't quite work out so I've switched to Movable Type, because I'm Six Apart's bitch. I thought it'd be a safe bet for LJ crossover plug-ins but erm, apparently not. The ones available don't work in updated versions so if I want to cross over to my LJ I'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Urgh. Minor effort is too much effort.

I don't get modern pop culture (which is probably why I'm so fascinated by history). But one thing that really confuses me is celebrity-worship. Take this "Lily Allen", for example. I have no idea who she is yet she's on the cover of this week's Time Out and by other media she's lauded as the saviour or anti-christ of pop music (at least until Pete Doherty gets out of rehab).. I blame the media. If you ask me they should get back to writing more stories about Princess Diana. That I can understand.

I finished Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton today. It wins points for being 1100 pages long and good enough to keep me gripped throughout and enough to read the concluding book (which is also a hefty 1100 pages long) but I kept thinking "this would have been so much better if it was written by <insert kick-ass author's name here>. I'd still recommend it though if you like a good space opera.

Right, time to see if the housemates and honoured guests have stopped looking like spazzes with eye-toy or whatever it's called.

(this entry is brought to you by being burnt out from fighting with Perl all day and too much cider. Mmmm, cider)