Fun Site of the Day

I've recently been pointed at Goodreads.com to enter in books you've read/want to read/are reading and compare with friends - not unlike a Facebook app which does something similar but without the flinging of sheep and rampant poking (ooer, missus)

I'll add the link in to my sidebar here at some point for ongoing reference, but thought I'd offer it to you as something a little more sedate than the latest Flash, Sturm and Drang site for the latest Hollywood blockbuster... so without further ado - my profile

Snippiness

If I've been short with anyone today (well, more than usual) then apologies, I've not been feeling too great today - but the weekend is here at last so plenty of time to wind back down...

A little light chaos

There's only one thing worse than waking up in the morning, feeling grotty and late for work, and that's waking up in the morning, feeling grotty and realising if you move right now then you'll get in on time...

Welcome to my morning. I probably shouldn't have bothered ;)

In The News

So, RIP Heath Ledger and hello the UK Police Force marching in protest over pay.

One is a sad event that has come as a great shock to us all, and the other is the unexplained and unexpected death of a young actor.

I'll no doubt upset people by saying this but who will be policing the police march? It seems worrying on a huge number of levels to have people who do such a dangerous and thankless job being screwed over by the Home Office. I'm rather more worried about this than the tragic death of a talented actor who I've enjoyed watching and will enjoy watching through the wonders of film and DVD for years to come.

Priorities people!

Another day, another resignation

kind of running out of people to do basic support tasks here folks...

Could these be related?

From the weekend's local government clippings service:

HOME SECRETARY SCARED TO WALK ALONE Jacqui Smith has admitted she’s too frightened to walk around the streets of London late at night. Her comments follow Labour claims that crime is down compared to the 1990s when the Tories were in power.S.Mail p5, S.Mirror p6, S.Indp p23, S.Times p1, S.Express p15, NOTW p2 and Monday papers

and

KNIFE SCANNERS AT SCHOOL GATES TO CURB CRIME Airport-style metal detectors will be installed at hundreds of school gates under sweeping measures to confront the growing problem of teenage knife crime. Their introduction at the toughest secondary schools will be announced next month by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and forms a core element of the government’s new violent crime action plan. Meanwhile, the S.Telegraph reports violent youth crime is up a third in three years. Observer p1&5, S.Telegraph p1&5 and Monday papers Independent p6, Express p22

surely the two couldn't possibly be interlinked? *cough*

Bouncy Networks

We used to have a saying when supporting the network of a particular location that its network provision would "bounce up and down faster than a whore's drawers" - but compared to the grief I'm getting from my home connection at the moment that was a model of stability. It makes playing EVE an even more perilous occupation than usual due to the threat of imminent disconnection at all times. I've checked the hardware and software at my end and can't find anything wrong, so now I'm finding myself putting off phoning the customer support as I have limited strength for battling the scripted first-tier support.

Oh well...

LANtastic day

Just had a long day at a friend of a friend's place at a gathering of people with xbox 360s and a desire to shoot each other senseless while wearing bright primary colours. Great fun. Exhausting, and a two hour drive back afterwards, but a much needed change of pace I'll look forward to joining in with again in the future.

Now, if my ISP could just sort out their DNS server's timeout problems I'd be a happy bunny all round...

I really must get a pack of these - image swiped from B3TA - see links to the right...

Back From TopGolf

Just had a very pleasant evening in the company of two siblings and a friend playing TopGolf despite the rain and wind (ah the wonders of heaters) before back to eat homecooked chicken curry and play games/watch DVDs. Just back now from dropping people home, got a long day's LANParty in the morning...

This Amuses Me

Bring Me More...

The Spectre of Hamlet with Rolled Up Newspaper..?

POLICE BAN ACTORS' SWORDS

Devon and Cornwall Police have classed actors' plastic swords and guns as dangerous weapons and banned them from a production of Robinson Crusoe. A spokesperson admitted that the case was 'unusual' but maintained that replica weapons are used to carry out crimes. Reported in: Express p37, Mail p29, Telegraph p8

Am I alone in being utterly bewildered by the stupidity of this decision? I'm sure there's more to it, but reading this in this morning's LGA news clippings makes me despair...

I think you should be warned... I am casting my eye around and noting odd personally descriptive tics of those around me and filing them away for pasting to random background characters in my stories...

Planes, Trains and, well if you live in West London you know the rest

I seem to have been one of the last people in the Heathrow/Hounslow area to know about the plane crash landing this afternoon. I mention this only because I work under the approach path (though not as close as my wife), and because my youngest brother was heading that way to see his girlfriend off to australia (long story).

So you can imagine the *hmph* feeling of calling out to the wife when she got in from picking up our daughter from her after-school art club only to get a dismissive "oh that, yes - not really a crash that."

Its like throwing a Schadenfreude party and finding you haven't invited yourself...

Insert Witticism of Choice

testing, testing... is this mike li-*bzzzzt!*

*thud*