Tagline – in-depth movie reviews in 25 words or less.

Pah! Anyone can have a black credit card – all you need is a can of spray paint from Halfords.

There is nothing worse than when my father gets a bad attack of Cleaning Enthusiasm. He has one now. How he succeeds in creating so much dust whilst cleaning, I’m not sure.

Must say that my chances of promotion in itsagoal are looking slim. It’s very tight at the top, with just four points separating first and seventh. I lost today moving me down to fifth, two points behind the third place team (the top three are promoted), with just three matches to go. So whilst any of the top seven could be promoted, my remaining matches are all very tough, my away form is shaky, and I have major injury worries. Gah. Nico on the other hand, is cruising.

I know that at least a few of my regular readers listen to John Peel’s programmes on Radio One, so may be familiar with the work of The Caretaker. It’s extremely hard to describe – an ethereal, bewitching, slightly spooky and disturbing sound created from distortion and remodelling of old 20s and 30s ballroom and dancehall music. The closest to anything like this I have ever heard before is some of Vangelis’ music for Bladerunner, or Angelo Badalamenti’s music for David Lynch – I say “closest”, but neither are really that close at all, but you might begin to guess the atmosphere that is created. John Peel likened it to being stood in the rain outside a thirties speakeasy.
Olli Siebelt in his BBC review describes it much more succinctly than I could, and the BBC kindly provide a couple of RealAudio samples for you to listen to.
Admittedly, a whole 50 minutes of it may not be to everyone’s taste, but I don’t think that there are many who could resist “Cloudy Since You Went Away” thrown into an evening’s listening. And “Consigned to a Yesterday” should put the spooks on just about anyone.

Another top 30 UK blogs, this time compiled by Fraser. Really quite different results on this list, although I’m more-or-less in the same spot, ranked 23rd.
These things are interesting, but how useful?

With PITP2 this Saturday, I’ve been trying to read some of those blogs that I occasionally read, but not often enough, largely to catch up on what those people have been talking about so that when I get into conversation with them on Saturday, I don’t appear a total fool. I can cope with appearing a partial fool; that’s normal. But total fool? Oh no.
I recommend that you do the same. And are you going to be at PITP2?

Tom has a new recent referrers thingy. The only problem with it is that since plasticbag.org is a popular site and the thingy lists all people who have provided two or more referrals within the last 24 hours, the list of referrers gets quite lengthy, and I’m not sure it does any favours for Tom’s recently implemented design.

I’m considering shaving. There are several reasons for this, and I may yet decide not to. But one reason in particular is pushing me towards this (more on that *much* later).
I’ve been stubbly in a three-days-growth kinda way for about two years now. I just got bored with shaving, and Andrea (with whom I was almost living at the time) said she liked it – that was enough to induce me to forget the whole effort of shaving, and purchase a natty beard trimmer to keep it all reasonably tidy. If memory serves well, I’ve only been clean-shaven on one occasion since then, which was Brenda’s 40th birthday party. I was seeing Marianne at the time, and she said she rather liked the shaven look, although we stopped seeing each other about four days later (not sure that these two facts are linked, but I’ve never let that spoil a story).
Of course, the most important person to please is me. I have to admit that I hate shaving. I’ve never been one for wet shaving, as that’s just too much of an effort for a lazy bloke like me. So it’s always been dry shavers, and they are ok but boring. And whatever method you use, if you’re going to be smooth, you need to shave at least once a day. And that has always been the big advantage of the whole stubbly look – I can leave it for a day (or four) and it doesn’t really look that much different, which is great.
Full beard or goatee options are out as far as I am concerned. My beard has a healthy hint of ginger to it, and somehow I don’t think that would look right on my face. But it has to be said that (in my opinion) the stubbly look suits my face shape, which is a little more round than it was a few years ago (rather like my belly, which is a lot more round – a development that is undoubtedly not related to beer, and is more to do with changes in atmospheric pressure, global warming or something). However, since Bren said I looked like Wilf Brambell, the situation has been under review.
Whaddya reckon?

Luan has been having problems with text on a t-shirt that doesn’t align with her breasts. Or rather, problems with a bloke staring at it.
Robyn had men-staring-at-breasts problems recently as well if I recall. I have to admit, I’m not sure why it is that breasts are attractive – they just are, and in a way that is attention grabbing (although I find friendly eyes and a warm smile to be just as attention grabbing). Or at least, mostly they are. There are some unattractive breasts around, but I think it’s fair to say that they are in the minority.

I’m really digging a hole here. I think it’s best that I stop now.

Only a draw in itsagoal today, so it looks like another season in division 12. sigh.

Vote Percy!

Another draw in itsagoal today, destroying my slim chance of promotion. So, another season in division 12 for my team. gah.

Lovely email from my old chum Liv today, who tells me that fellow former W2er Claudette is still working as a presenter on Spanish TV, doing a cookery programme and the international news, which strikes me as a strange combination.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO POTENTIAL PITP2 ATTENDEES – CHANGE OF PLAN:

After widespread consultation, here is the Final Solution – a plan for PITP2 that solves the problem of a clash of time and venue with the Pride March.

The plan is this:
date: Saturday 6 July 2002
meet at 12 noon in Soho Square
nearest tube is Tottenham Court Road

For those new to meeting other bloggers, we should be easily recognisable as the small (or perhaps large?) group of people that nobody is talking to, looking uncomfortable. (I’m kidding – honest!)

Nick Jordan and Graybo will probably be the first on the scene – anyone who is new or concerned about getting lost might like to contact me and we will entrust our mobile numbers to you.

The agenda? Eat (either what you bring with you, or foodstuffs obtained locally), drink (ditto), talk inanely with other personal publishing type folk. Repeat until people drift off. Feel free to bring cameras to record the day… just don’t point them at me.

Whilst this will not have the extensive verdant appeal of last year’s event (there is verdance, but less of it), it has the advantage that we will not be surrounded by people shuffling along in comfortable shoes (what’s the difference between Pride and a geriatrics convention?). It is also a central location, and the venue is such that as soon as three of us are gathered there, we will stick out like something that sticks out a lot.

This will, inevitably, not be to the satisfaction of some. To those people I say this: next year, YOU make the plan, ok?

Kudos to Meg for starting the ball rolling on this one and making the little gif. Thanks to all, especially Tom, who made useful comments and suggestions.

message ends. GSTQ.

Judging by the discussions and emails I’ve seen, there should be reasonable numbers at PITP2 – at least into the teens, I reckon.

I wonder if Tom means anyone in particular?

Oh dear. It seems that I’ve been inadvertently controversial again. It seems an explanation is called for.
Shuffling: in my (not unlimited) experience of being in large crowds moving along, there is generally much shuffling and little marching.
Comfortable shoes: in my profession, "queerosexuals" (to use Dan’s phrase) are far from uncommon, and most of the ones I know, male or female, would wear comfortable shoes. So I’ve corrupted the datum if you like.
So Pride could reasonably consist of a large number of comfortable shoe wearers moving along by means of shuffling.
Geriatric: n. an aged person. Many aged people shuffle and wear comfortable shoes. And what Chichester lacks in queerosexuals, it makes up for in geriatrics.

Granted, the similarities between Pride and a geriatrics convention are likely to end there.
But I’ll still buy Dan a beer if he shows up on Saturday.

Siiigh. Let’s see what else I can say that readers will interpret as offensive.

Saw a guy on the (late running) train home who was writing in a notebook. He was next to me, and I could easily see what he was writing. But I’ll not say any more about it here, as that would breach his copyright and you’d all moan at me for being nosy and looking over his shoulder.

In fact, I think I’ll spend the next 24 hours creating almost-content – just hinting at things, but not actually saying anything because if I do, you’ll read stuff into it that isn’t there. So I’m just going to give the most vague ideas here, and you smartarses can just try to figure it out for yourselves.

A day in bullet points:

• I spoke with some people
• I read some things
• I typed some words
• I carried out some tasks
• I listened to some music
• I listened to some words

I’ve just figured out why I’ve been so testy over the last couple of days – reduced coffee intake. Although, of course, we only get decaf here at work. But I have my first (very large) mug of coffee for today, and I can feel my mood improving already.
In fact, I’ve been so tired and irritable all week that I haven’t even been to the pub. Must put that right tonight.

Sad, but not entirely unexpected.

Whoa there! Triangular beefburgers? Why??

The Urinal Etiquette Game.

Is Nick carrying Mo‘s baby? We should be told.

Separated at birth?

Beer tonight with Paul F, Paul the other one and Ted, who were playing an unplugged gig with friends in Sadlers, as well as Ian, Sacha, Xena, Chris, Sally, Malcolm and Tim. The jam session was excellent – one of the best for a long while.

Off to PITP2 and FezFest. See you there perhaps?

Do not shove the pigeons.

PITP2 and FezFest. I’m not even going to attempt to link to all the people that were there, but old and new faces seen (and mostly spoken to) included Luke (bon voyage), Catherine, Catherine’s lovely sister Alison (further evidence of the fact that all people called Alison are lovely), Mo, Nick, Darren, Tom, Tom, Cal, Paul, Paul, Dan, Adam, Vaughan, Ian, Jonathan, Simon, Meg, Brooke, Sasha, Matt, Glaswegian Gillian, Stuart and Cass. Fine folk all.
Conversation topics included:

• Blogging: what next?
• Blog archives: how useful are they? How can they be better organised?
• Blog formatting: should there be a new paradigm, and if so, what should it be? (I should point out that the word "paradigm" wasn’t actually used by anyone – if anyone had used the word, they would have been fed to the pigeons)
• Pigeon shoving: a new sport?
• Is being a thirtysomething better than being a twentysomething? (undoubtedly)
• Burger King vs MacDonalds
• Trains vs buses
• Oxford vs Cambridge
• Living in small cities (a good opportunity for me to use the C word extensively)
• The price of beer (now officially cheaper in London than Chichester)
• …and lots more, very little of which is related to blogging (a good thing, in my view).

And I was lucky enough to get a Yoko Ono CD from Luke’s great CD giveaway lucky dip. I say lucky, as if you’d seen some of the other CDs in there….

Once I eventually got home last night and tucked up under EvilDuvet II, I had a very bizarre dream involving a couple of blogging types. I was travelling into Chichester on the train in the company of Simon. We got off the train, and I walked up on to a grassy hill by the station (about where the multi-storey car park is) where we met Sarah, who was sunbathing in a one-piece black swimsuit (behaviour less typical of Sarah is hard to imagine). Simon produced a rather blunt looking table knife covered in jam and stabbed her, which was mildly shocking, and then made off on foot. But it was ok, because he was apprehended by a policeman (played by Dan) on a grocer’s bicycle, wearing a traditional uniform complete with cape. Meanwhile, Sarah and I caught an open-topped double-decker bus to West Wittering where we planned to do some whale watching, but on arrival found only a holiday village filled with very old people (well, at least that bit was plausible).
I really mustn’t eat BK XL Bacon Double Cheeseburgers so close to bedtime.

Oh god, I’ve just remembered that there were about a dozen cameras yesterday. Cal should have a photo of me with blurred eyebrows (my face still hurts from doing that – I’m not even sure why I was doing it).

PITP2 and FezFest: the pictures -

• by Cal
• by Simon

I’m sure there will be more. I’ll add them here when they appear so that you can point and laugh.

On a happier note….

I have a simple wish – that customers would actually believe what you tell them, especially when you are speaking to them with the benefit of years of experience which they do not share. Perhaps some people’s faith in business has been so badly tarnished by the few who abuse their trust that that trust has been destroyed.

Not much to say today. What about you? Have you got anything to say?

eBay buys PayPal. A good opportunity to remind you about the support this site section of this wonderful website.

Ian writes about the other event that took place on Saturday.
I had a conversation with a friend recently in which we discussed the way that the Union flag and the Cross of St George had been reclaimed from extremists and ultra-nationalists as a result of the Jubilee celebrations and the support for the England soccer team. For a while it seemed as if, simply waving a St George flag, you would be branded a xenophobic extremist, when of course this isn’t the case for 99.9% of people who wave such pennants. Thanks to the flag-waving of the last few months, proclaiming your English or British nationality is now a socially acceptable thing to do, which in my view is a Good Thing.
"How is this linked to Mardi Gras?" I hear you ask. Well, reading Ian’s account of the day set me thinking to the way that so many people use their heterosexuality as a badge, in the same way that xenophobes and racists have used the flag of St George as a badge (in fact, I think they are often the same individuals). That can’t be a good thing, can it?

No early morning update over at nickjordan.co.uk. The world holds its breath.

In my morning post this morning: an invitation. A proper one. On card. Hand written. In a hand written envelope.
I’m so glad that some people still do things properly, although it does show the rest of us up.

We’ve just got the car back – 25 days after the accident.

Lunchtime timewaster: Online Battleships.

Most "foreign" beer actually brewed in the UK. Except my favourite brew, Sagres.

Gah! It looks like Brighton may not have a manager for the start of the season in just one month’s time.

Beer last night in the company of Paul C, DA, Kearn and Kev, as well as the Could Be Good unplugged trio.
I sense that one of those minor changes is taking place at the moment.

Lunch time timewaster: another Battleships game (pointed out by several people, including Deceased Kenneth and Arseblog).

There are shedloads of broken links on this site. I really must get round to fixing them.

Ah, so ambiguity triumphs where decisiveness and proactivity fear to tread. But there will be more opportunities, I’m sure.

hmm. Sometimes ambiguity is better than the alternative.
No, actually, that’s not true. Not knowing is always worse than knowing. But knowing that things aren’t how you’d like them to be is never a good thing either.

Whatever. The sun is out. I’ve got loads of work to do. Best get on.

You know, in a way, you simply have to admire this guy. I sometimes think that it is a shame that the inexorable spread of Western-sponsored democratisation and electoral standards and systems mean that there will be fewer completely barking mad despots in the future. Especially not ones with Amazonian bodyguards.

Bren and Greg dropped round last night, which was very nice indeed.
I’m not a bundle of joy at the moment. But, as usual, my problems pale into insignificance against other people’s. So thoughts to sis-not-in-law today, as her mum is unwell (in fact, thoughts to her mum would be more appropriate).

Woo hoo! Off to the Chichester Real Ale and Jazz tonight. Which is, of course, noted for the complete absence of any jazz at all, but there is plenty of ale and even a sausage or two. Can’t be bad.

A conversation the other night with the only person I’ve actually met as a result of them randomly visiting this site set me thinking about my tongue-in-cheek title: I *really* don’t know you people. Why *are* you here?

Beer. bzzzz.

Working another long day. 13 hours so far, and still at it.
Found out today that my very first girlfriend, Jill, is to be married. Congratulations are definitely in order.

Oh, the train is coming near, the whistle’s blowin’ … WOOHOO WOOHOO (Daffy Duck, 1944)

Loooong day ahead. Long weekend all round really. siiigh

Hmm. When I post to this site via Waplogger (which I used for the two posts below) from the middle of a field, it doesn’t seem to publish my ramblings properly. This may be a good thing. However, I shall investigate.
Meanwhile, I’m very very tired and a little sunburnt.

I’m shattered. And it’s far too sunny and warm to work. But I must press on. guh.

I’m definitely going to buy a big bag of cherries in Waitrose on the way home tonight.
And I’m definitely going on holiday, some time very soon after 18 August (have a plant fair then which I must be here for – as I organise it, it would be unseemly not to be present).

I spent most of the afternoon helping dad to cut back a particularly rampant hedge and remove the rubbish. I can’t say that we picked the best day to do it, but it needed doing urgently. At the end of the task, we were both hot and covered in dust, filth and scratches.
But I got my bag of cherries on the way home (as well as punnet of gorgeous nectarines), and when I got home I got straight into the bath (well, not straight away – obviously I filled it first). But the holiday urge is becoming irresistable.

Hmmm. Probably good advice. Best ignored, clearly.

It’s hot. I’m pondering. And there are thunderbugs everywhere. These things combined do not make for a good mood.

At last! Brighton appoint a new manager.

Anyone who can receive it and is up at that ungodly hour might like to tune in to BBC Southern Counties Radio tomorrow around 6.45am when regular Grayblog comment writer Charlie is being interviewed and having some of her music played.

The boy lives in the past.

You have to ask – Why?

Ho hum.
But who knows what is around the corner?

There is no better way to lift the spirits than to buy music:

• Roots Manuva – Run Come Save Me
• Fluke – OTO
• Mark Kozelek – What’s Next To The Moon

It’s not often that you see a giant bee get on a bus.

Tonight was one of those nights when I needed to be cheered by friends. So biggup to Aris, Arron, Paul F, Kristian, Trev and Katie. You know, it’s funny, but even after all this time, W2 still feels like home from home.

Still need cheering up. My mood hasn’t been helped by having to put a rocket up Barclays plc this morning.
So, know any good jokes?

Inspiration.

The Shuttleworth Collection profiled.

Millport has been an excellent comedy on Radio 4. And the good news is that there’ll be a new series in November.

Questions:

• Why did IBM make it so hard to put the fixing screws in to the CD-ROM drive on my PC?
• Why do LG make CD-ROM drives that you can not open in order to clean the object lens?

Time for a new drive, methinks. An excuse to buy a CD-R?

A good match – shame Sussex lost.

I seem to have a footprint on the underside of my left forearm. How?

Want to know how to stir up the UK blogging posse in one easy lesson? Start a “Best British Blog” competition.
Reasons why this is a bad idea:

• how the hell do you define what makes a good blog?
• what is a blog anyway?
• with so many different subgenres, surely this is like saying "let’s judge the best foodstuff"
• "Our panel of judges will assess each blog in terms of design, the quality and personality of the writing, and the originality of the links." So design listed before content – is this significant? will people using standard Blogger templates be penalised, even if their content is excellent? and what is an "original" link? we all spot links on other sites and borrow/steal them for our own.
• is this competition going to lead to some people adopting a prize-friendly style instead of their natural form? and will people be linking the Grauniad like mad? (let’s face it, this is only intended to drive traffic to the Grauniad site – look! they’ve already got a link from me)
• the most vexing question of all – will the thought of £1000 prize money encourage us all to abandon our principles and enter anyway?

I’m waiting to see how things pan out over the next few days. It already looks like Tom is going to start a boycott campaign.

Oh great. In the latest Blogpop rankings, I’ve slipped to 25th, below inkiboo. Although it rates Nico above Meg, so you have to wonder.

OK, I’m going to enter this competition. The lure of £1000 is too great. Although how I’d ever cope with the stigma if I won, I just don’t know.

I think there is too much emphasis on providing low cost homes for key workers. Whilst I understand and sympathise with the needs of these people, little mention is ever made of other low-paid workers who are just as vital to the community and who are often even less able to afford to buy housing.
A Grade D nurse living and working in this area will be on a salary of £16405 according to the RCN, including a special cost of living allowance. That’s nearly 25% more than I get as a manager in horticulture – and my wage is typical, judging by adverts I see in the trade press. And I earn considerably more than workers such as those who have been striking recently that work for local authorities, maintaining the infrastructure that supports our everyday lives. And they earn more than many people who work on production lines, in farm fields, in shops and offices.
With a one bed flat in Chichester now costing not less than £95000 (five-and-a-half times the nurse’s income), none of these people can afford to buy a property.
There is only one effective way to solve this. It is not to pay these people more, be that in wages or housing allowances – all that will do is to feed the housing market still further, and drive prices still higher. Nor is it to introduce longer term mortgages of 40 or 50 years duration – that will have the same impact on property prices, but will also lead to debt in old age for a generation. The ONLY solution is to release more land for building, and fast. By dramatically increasing the supply of houses, prices will fall and property will become much more affordable. There will be greater choice and availability.
And 200,000 is peanuts. Independent estimates I have seen suggest that a million homes are needed by 2010 (see below) – so today’s initiative goes only one-fifth of the way to that target within half the time. When will someone wake up to this?
Related:

• Government stifles development by failing to provide supporting infrastructure
• Number of households in UK exceeds number of houses – Shelter estimate 90000 council or housing association dwellings must be built each year for a decade
• South East England Regional Assembly – Planning – the unelected quango that, following Mr Prescott’s statement today, will be taking planning powers from your elected county councils. Whatever happened to Labour’s pledges on democratic and accountable local government?

It seems that AOL Time Warner really *are* not doing as well as they should.

Beer last night with Bren and Greg. bzzzz.

Happy birthday to Tom, who seems to have been having a problem getting a handle on the whole concept of turning 30. Well, for me it was great. I had one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had, in spite of having to work the whole day, largely because I was surrounded by my brilliant friends. And since then, I’ve felt more empowered, more sorted, even if the feeling does not entirely reflect the reality.
If you’ve had a thirtieth birthday, go and talk about it at Tom’s 30th Birthday Project.

My grand plan for tonight – fill out the forms (all four copies…grrrr) for the planning application for my new windows, and take them to the planning office tomorrow. However, I’ve just discovered that the office isn’t open on Saturdays. grrrrrrr.

I’m being less verbose this year. Last year I posted an average of 60KB of text to my blog each month. This year I’ve only posted around 51KB per month so far.

To make up for the lack of progress with the window planning application today, I’ve been ultra-productive in other areas. This morning involved an extensive shopping trip around the city, leading to purchases at Waterstones (watch the “current reading” list), Army and Navy (a long-sleeve t-shirt and a brilliant new jacket, both reduced by 50% in the summer sale), some odds and ends (highly exciting – I won’t bore you with them) and a birthday/housewarming gift (the selection of which was a little prolonged as my first choice gift wasn’t available).
After all that, I came home, had a spot of lunch, and then stripped the kitchen bare, washed the walls down (a major undertaking), removed the abominable blind from the window, and slapped on the first coat of ivory paint. It’ll need a second coat as the original colour shows through (you’ll find it on Dulux colour charts labelled “Hideous Pink”). I’ve also to paint the ceiling, replace the light fitting and fill a couple of holes I overlooked in the wall alongside the fridge. And then there is the small matter of the replacement taps, the new floorboards and new carpet – but I promise you, it looks a hell of lot better for a lick of paint!
Now to head to the Chinese for a takeaway, then freshen up and head down to Brookes for some light refreshment.

Everybody is linking to this, a list of 100 albums that, according to the compilers, you should throw away. I only own two of the albums: Heaven or Las Vegas by the Cocteau Twins, which is a very good album if not the best that they ever did (which is probably Treasure or Blue Bell Knoll – ask me tomorrow for a different answer) and Songs In A Minor by Alicia Keys, which I can honestly say is an excellent album, even if I did buy it for sentimental reasons.
I have no plans to throw either album away.
I’d say to anyone reading the list – don’t throw away your albums. I have a copy of Beverley Craven’s eponymous album, and much as I detest it now, I wouldn’t throw or give it away. It represents a time in my life when my outlook, expectations and tastes were different to the way they are now. I’m sure that 12 years from now I will detest the Amon Tobin album that I’m listening to as I type this, but I won’t throw it away. Maybe I’m just a hoarder.

Rodney writes brilliantly on the subject of the Best British Blog competition. And on the subject of the Speaking Toliet Ghost. No, really.

Beer tonight with Bren and Greg, with sightings of Arron, Guy and Tim W.

Sunday. A day for:

• watching cricket
• staying in bed until noon
• sitting in the garden, reading the newspaper
• going to the park
• recovering from the night before
• visiting a museum or gallery
• wandering around the shops
• enjoying a hobby
• having dinner with friends or family
• heading down to the beach for a paddle
• going for a walk on the Downs
• sitting in a pub garden

Not a day for:

• going to the office to do paperwork

guh.

Presented for discussion: children soon to be able to watch 15 and 18 certificate films.

Paris sur la mer? What do you think? Could Chichester have a beach along the bank of the Lavant? Would have to be in winter, as the Lavant is dry at the moment.

I want one! (featured in an article in today’s Independent, which doesn’t seem to have been reproduced at their website)

Hmm. I come tenth on Google for this search, which is mildly disturbing.

Is blogchalking useful? When some weblogs are collaborative and international (remember Eurotrash?) and some other blogs are written by expats (we have had so called GBlogs that have Aussie, Dutch, Kiwi and Irish authors, for example), is categorising a blog by the location of its author any use? Even for British blogs written by British passport-holders, the content is often not location-specific, and in fact the location of the author is irrelevant.
So why blogchalk?

What would you do if someone was leaving irritating comments on your website, and about you on other people’s websites? Imagine that blocking and ignoring them was not really working.

Incidentally, this is not about me. My comment contributors are being lovely (at the moment).

See? I warned you that he is a nasty piece of work.

Sleep well.

After WarChalking, BlogChalking and even PubChalking, I plan to begin ChalkChalking.
This will involve me carving bloody great horse symbols into the side of any naturally occuring, turf-covered large piles of chalk, such as the South Downs, that I happen to come across. I advocate that you do the same.
Or have some people done this before?

It’s his birthday. So tonight I shall have a beer to celebrate.

Cal gets his Uni results – a 1st! A full month to go before I get my CIM results.

Potentially useful.

How carrots helped to win the war.

Right – I’m off work for the rest of the afternoon to let young ladies run their fingers through my hair.

I hate to bring the subject up again, but….
Fundamental difference between the Guardian weblog competition and their book competition (which Neil likened – link to follow): books are completed before judging commences, before the competition is announced. Weblogs are ongoing projects (mostly) that continue to evolve and develop. In a way, this competition (aside from all its other flaws) would have been better if based on a snapshot of weblogs at a certain point in time, preferably a point in time that was not released to blog creators.
Ag. Too tired. Another time, eh?

Beer (well, cocktails actually) with: Paul F, Ted, Nicola, Kate, Sarah, Nic, Kearn, DA, Joel and the newly pneumatic Mich with sightings of Hamish, Ruth, Dave W, Guy and other picture postcards.

Can they leave nothing alone?

Nothing much to say today. I’m sure I’ll get more verbose later.

Just when I was beginning to think that this would be a quiet but rather dull night at home, flopping about and not doing much, my neighbours across the road start a domestic in the street. Top value!
Blonde woman who lives at 183 left with her boyfriend about 30 minutes ago. Shortly after, woman with long raven black hair’s boyfriend turned up on his motorbike and went in clutching a video. About twenty minutes later, she stormed out, followed by him. He snatched her car keys from her. There was yelling. She pushed him. He pushed her. More yelling. She stalked back home and slammed the door.
Since then, they’ve been in and out of the house at least three times. There is much pacing about, raised voices and arms waving.

It’s great spectator sport. I’d hate to be involved though.

Oo – door slammed again. Oh dear oh dear. looks like he’s dumped. Mind you, with a hairstyle like his, I can’t blame her.

UPDATE: he’s just stormed out the front door (she yelled something and slammed the door behind him), got on his bike and drove off up a cul de sac. A few minutes, and he’s back and lets himself in.
This is waaaaaay better than Big Brother!

Someone called Graham Spencer has just won tickets to a live gig for Radio 1. It wasn’t me.

Happy birthday to Charlie, one of the most beautiful and lovely of all Graypies.

I’m working on a new and exciting project for this website. I spent a large chunk of yesterday evening doing research for it, checking how much it would cost and how difficult it would be to implement (that is, I was researching it when I wasn’t watching my neighbours!). Watch this space – I think it is going to take me about a week or maybe two to set up, but I reckon it’ll be worth the wait.

In case you were wondering (you probably were not), there is a timestamp issue with this site at the moment. All posts are being timestamped as GMT, not BST, even though my Blogger settings are for London time and on the Blogger server they show up as BST. Blogger claim they are “working on it”.

ummm….Is the BBC sponsored by mmO2?

Mike on BlogChalking.

Neighbourhood Watch: he’s back. Looks like he has a peace offering from the Chinese takeaway too.

I think my monitor is on the fritz. Either that, or the entire web is developing a pale blue, washed-out look.

My CD-ROM is definitely buggered. sigh. And my washer-dryer isn’t working too well either. How am I going to pay for all these broken things?
Talking of paying, the new gizmo that I’m working on is going to cost around £8 per month. And to allay Paul F’s fears, I’ve found a way to do it legally.

Neighbourhood Watch: he’s just left. The Chinese food must have been alright, because he got a goodnight kiss on the doorstep. Darn – and there was me waiting to shark in there!
I notice I’m not the only one watching all this – looks like 185 are fascinated too.
Strange – he keeps walking away and then going back. She lets him in, kisses him again. Then he leaves again and then goes back. These people are very very strange.

Sad news that I failed to report the other day: Oddbins in South Street is to close. The company has been bought out by a large French chain, and they are closing all the smaller stores and rebranding the larger ones. This is a great loss to Chichester city centre – it is by far the best off licence and wine merchant (yes, better than Arthur Purchase for wines, in my view) and offers great customer service. More worryingly, it means I no longer have a source of Sagres beer.

Been busy today. So not said much here. And not got anything to say now.

…which is actually quite close to the mark. Try the Pull-o-Meter test yourself. via Parallax View.

Neighbourhood Watch: he’s back again, he’s certainly determined. He has just taken his jacket off and stuffed it in his bag, which he seems to have dumped in the alley which runs behind the house. Then he cleared his sinuses by gobbing all over his shoe (niiiiice), looked through the frosted glass of the front door, and then walked off towards the city. I’ve realised that he’s very young – 21 or 22 tops. And I see her drinking in town occasionally, so I guess it is possible that I’ll bump into them in town tonight.

Neighbourhood Watch: they were in when I got home, and have just had a pizza delivered. Anyone who wants to sponsor a webcam for this should click on the “support this site” link in the navbar.

Beer tonight with Julie, Caroline, Bren, Greg, Wendy and Paul R (happy birthday for Sunday!). And the loveliest barmaid in all of Christendom – shame she’s seeing someone.

Quiet today again. Looking forward to tonight’s party.

We haven’t had a Romanian story for a while.

Great party. Slightly jaded this morning. Full report later, though I seem to recall trying to use Waplogger, but not being able to remember my login – a sure sign of excess consumption of red wine.

I hadn’t spotted this. I can’t say it has had a huge impact on the traffic here, but it does prompt the “why?” question.

The party. Yeh, the party. Right.
Well, let’s start out by saying that I am still, technically at least, drunk. I can’t remember the last time I drank that much (and I’m struggling to remember this time, to be honest) but I do know this: the party was excellent.
It was a combined birthday party and housewarming for Charlie, at her home in Brighton. The only people I knew before I arrived were Charlie and her friend Marie (and Blini the cat), but during the course of the evening I was introduced to a huge number of people (most of whom I soon forgot the name of – I wish I could retain names!) that included Rich, James, Chris (nice haka), Steve (a blogger!), Angie and Phil – these people being the ones I spent most of the evening talking with. The weather was perfect (it was more of a gardenwarming than a housewarming), there was plenty of excellent food on the barbeque (though, bizarrely, hardly anyone ate anything before about midnight) and there were enormous quantities of wine and beer. I have no idea what time we called a halt (I know that I was fighting a losing battle with sleep by that stage – gone 4am I think), but the whole night consisted of great conversation, laughter, massage, toe sucking and – well, just about everything you could wish for at a good party.
Those who stayed over all surfaced (somewhat blearily) quite early today, and we all did a bit to help clear up. Then we sat around in the garden eating croissants and pain au chocolat and drinking coffee, and generally trying to bring the world back into focus.
I left around lunch time, and walked into the centre of Brighton (succeeding in not spending money in the shops – top result!) to meet up with Neil, Emma and Emma’s dad for lunch. This was followed by a stroll along the Esplanade in the very hot sun – there wasn’t even a breeze to take the edge off the heat. We sweltered along to the end of the Palace Pier, where Emma and her dad rode the rollercoaster (whilst Neil and I, wusses that we are, looked on). Then we retired to a beachside bar to watch the thronging (and bethonged in some cases) crowds – the beach was packed.
A top top weekend.

Yesterday, as I sat on the train to Brighton, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation (they were almost shouting) between two people (a man and a woman) who were comparing their drug habits. They seemed proud to have been addicts for more than ten years, and derided someone, saying “she’s not an addict, she’s only been a junkie for two years”. And they didn’t have a good word for the “filth” and the “screws” either. How strange to discuss this in such a way and in such a place.

Sometimes, if I think of something to write here when I’m away from a computer, I set a reminder on my mobile phone. Obviously, at some point during the very drunk stage of last night’s party, I set myself a reminder for “people watching”. I have no idea at all of what I was going to say.

I really do not want to be at work. It’s far too hot – I’d rather be flopping in the park.

Is it my imagination, or is the web more interesting in the winter?

For those following the exciting saga of my dysfunctional CD-ROM drive at home, you’ll be pleased to know that, thanks to some fraternal assistance, it is now functioning. It took a while to figure out how to open the case, but we got there in the end, and two attempts at cleaning the lens were required, but seem to have been successful.
Much of last night was spent playing with .dlls and WinAmp plugins, but I seem to be winning.
And in other news, the highly exciting project I’m working on for this site is progressing. I expect to launch it at the weekend or early next week. Watch this space.

Whilst I was fighting with my PC last night, the local constabulary were arresting someone outside my door. Couldn’t determine what he had done, and I couldn’t exactly linger in the doorway without being obvious. Shame, as I was eaten up with curiosity.
Earlier in the evening, a policeman had looked in my door and asked me if I was alright. I had my front door wide open to try and let some air through the flat, and I guess it might have looked like I’d been burgled (my hall isn’t that messy, though!).

I’m not sure that I want to know. via Nico.

Secret project has just taken another small step forward. I’m *REALLY* getting excited about this.
Meanwhile, it’s bloody humid. There are some very threatening clouds around, and the weather forecast on the Beeb shows lots of storms nearby, but nothing to break it here yet.

Cocktails tonight with Arron, Guy, Aris, Kearn, Chris, Paul F (and, yes, I would wear a jacket like that. In fact, I do. Check that you can’t be heard across the car park when the back door is open.) and Ted, with sightings of Dave, Terry, Hamish, Nik, Kristian, Helen N and Helen N’s mate Helen. Someone else might have been there, but I can’t be sure (arf!).

Aha! This explains why Sarah hasn’t answered any email today.

Is it me, or has there been a marked increase in 404 errors at news.bbc.co.uk since the restructuring of the site?

Pet hates: customers who ask for discount. Why should I give them a discount? The price on the product is fair and reasonable, and the product is in A1 condition. In a time when online price comparison is easy, you can not afford to be anything other than fair in pricing. The prices set are reasonable, reflect our costs and, ultimately, are intended to provide a profit to reward our efforts. So why challenge it? Because ours is a small business, and they think they can get away with it. Would they ask the checkout operator in Tesco to discount the price of a tin of beans? Somehow I doubt it.

Secret project is currently undergoing rigorous testing. All seems to work fine, and the launch is scheduled for this weekend.

Hmm. One of my Thievery Corporation CDs is missing – it’s not in its case. Slightly worrying. Anyone borrowed it?

Approved.