Mondrak just tagged me on his blog. Anyway, the idea is to write 16 things about yourself, and then tag 10 people afterwards saying why they are tagged; and you can't tag someone who's tagged you.
Here goes:
1. I have more than slight OCD tendancies. My CDs, books and computer games must be in order. It drives me to distraction if they aren't. If I see something out of place I must correct the error.
2. During my school years I once scored 95% on a Physics exam and came top of the year at Home Economics. I used to bake every weekend with my mother whilst growing up.
3. My favourite tipple is Jack Daniels and either Diet Coke or Pepsi Max. In the past it used to be Pineapple Bacardi Breezers and before that it was Rum and Coke. I'm also very partial to particularly good Single Malt Scottish Whiskeys. If I have to drink pints I would prefer Belgian, not UK brewed, Stella Artois, Grolsch or Turborg.
4. Although I don't consider myself a Star Wars fan I have watched all 7 movies with varying degrees of enjoyment, and am currently enjoying the animated Clone Wars series. I much rather prefer Star Trek.
5. Tasha, my dog who died earlier this year, was named after the Star Trek: TNG character Tasha Yar. Amazingly enough, one of my friends, Roy, named his dog Tasha at about the same time. We hadn't discussed it beforehand.
6. I have a very self-effacing, almost shy, personality and dislike meeting new people. However, most of my really good friends I have known for a very long time. Even though I'm still under 40 I have a number of good friends that I have known for more than 20 years and a couple that I have known for over 30.
7. I grew up listening to Queen, Blondie, Bruce Springsteen and Abba. Even though my main tatstes are now much heavier I still love listening to Queen and am in fact listening to Freddie Mercury at the moment.
8. I love trivia and have even appeared on a TV Quiz Show. The show was 15-1. I was awful and got knocked out in the first round.
9. I collect Cows and have over 50 fluffy/soft toys as well as a collection of mugs, little figurines and other paraphenalia.
10. All the PCs I have owned over the years have all been self-built. I have never bought a ready-built system. I currently own 3 full systems and a laptop. My first PC was put together from parts I bought from CCL Computers; a company I still use today.
11. I am the oldest of 5 children. My mom was the youngest of 7. I have 2 younger brothers, Douglas and Jonathan, and 2 younger sisters, Sharon and Catherine. I get on fine with both sisters and Jonathan. The elder of the two brothers I haven't seen or spoken to for a few years. This does not cause me any concern and in fact all our lives are better for the lack of contact.
12. Growing up, I had 2 dreams; neither of which have come true. I wanted to be a professional footballer, but serious injuries to my ankles and knees scuppered that dream. Although, in truth, I probably would never have been good enough. My second dream was to be an astronaut.
13. I'm superstitious and amongst other superstitions, I will not walk under a ladder if I can help it. However, I don't have any hangups about the number 13 and rank it as one of my 3 favourite numbers alongside 3 and 7. In fact, I finally passed my driving test on Friday 13th.
14. I'm an avid sports fan and although I support particular teams I will still watch most sports regardless of the teams or individuals involved. As an example, 3 of the best football games I have ever watched didn't involve my favourite team.
15. Coming from a relatively poor background I've never had huge sums of money and have rarely travelled. In fact, I've only ever been abroad once in my life; a school trip to Germany when I was 14. I would love to visit Egypt, Calgary, Boston, Chicago and New York. However, I doubt I ever will.
16. I've just registered to do a degree with the Open University. I had originally thought of studying towards a BSc in Computing and Telecommunication Technologies but have decided that I'm going to study towards a BSc Open Degree instead. This leaves the choice of courses and modules more in my own hands and means I have more freedom to study areas that interest me more, such as Astronomy and Forensics. Although, I intend to stick to a core of Computing modules.
Tagging:
1. Chrissy. I've become platonically closer to Chrissy over the last six months to a year and would be interested to read what she had to share.
2. Geoff. Chrissy's husband comes across as an enigma at times.
3. WrongMark. Mr Adams tends to be forthright in his views. It'd be interesting to see what he would share.
4. Colin. One of my regular weekend roleplaying buddies must have stories to share.
5. mcphee. The amount of things he has been must be approaching legendary status.
6. PickledPixie. Pixie is a very private individual. I doubt he would share, but it would make interesting reading.
7. Mojo. Another private individual. There's bound to be things we don't know.
8. Kelly. Probably my best friend in the entire world. She's the person I would ask to be my best 'man' if I ever got married.
9. Pewari. Life with 2 small kids isn't all she is about and she is bound to have some interesting facts to share.
10. Wil Wheaton. Wil keeps a blog and growing up in show business must have been interesting. Although, I doubt he reads my blog.
My back spasmed whilst I was in town with Chrissy earlier and I've been in varying degrees of pain ever since. It was blinding agony when it happened to a dull ache when I got back to Chrissy's and got a heat pack on it. It still feels a bit tight now and is also still twinging occasionally.
I took the car in for it's 2nd annual service this morning. Since the service was going to take a couple of hours, they were nice enough to give me a courtesy car. It was a new Vauxhall Corsa and although it was handy I wasn't impressed with it. I can't even put my finger on why I didn't like it.
Anyway, the Lacetti needs to get the spark plugs changed and the rear wiper also needs replacing. They need to order those in and will get back in touch with me. I was also advised to take it along to Kwik-Fit to get a puncture in one of the rear tyres repaired and to get one of the front tyres replaced; due to wear. I got the puncture fixed but unfortunately will have to go back tomorrow to get the front tyre replaced. They had no suitable tyres suitable in stock and are having to get one in from another local Kwik-Fit.
I also got hold of a PC copy of Need For Speed Underover today and was pleased to see that they've ditched the Pro Street style gameplay and gone back to the Underground, Most Wanted and Carbon style of game. I've only played it for about 30 minutes or so and can say that I'm fairly pleased with it so far. I will probably also get hold of the 360 version sometime in the future; although that may be as a used game for about £15-£20.
England, currently ranked 10th equal by FIFA, produced a fine display to beat the country that FIFA ranks as second best in the world.
A goal in the first 25 minutes from Matthew Upson put England in command of the game. However, a mix up between Scott Carson and John Terry just after the hour allowed Patrick Helmes to score and fetch Germany back into the game. England still looked dominant and good chances went begging to Darren Bent and Shaun Wright-Phillips before John Terry popped up in the last 10 minutes to seal the win with a header.
I spent today babysitting Chrissy's kids for her whilst she's in London on business. I picked her son up this morning, and after having lunch in JJ's Cafe in Egremont we watched Ratatouille on DVD before going and picking up Chrissy's daughter. The kids watched Hoodwinked on DVD when we got back to the house whilst I prepared snacks for them. Geoff arrived back home just before 5pm and I left for home just about 5:30pm. The kids were pretty much quiet and no real bother.
Reg Varney, who played happy-go-lucky London bus driver Stan Butler in 65 of the 74 episodes of the 1970s sitcom On The Buses died over the weekend. He also starred in the earlier series of The Rag Trade and Beggar My Neighbour as well as appearing in the three On The Buses spin-off movies. He was 92 and is survived by his daughter.
On June 27th 1967 he made the first ever withdrawal from the world's first voucher based cash dispensing machine; at the Enfield Town branch of Barclays Bank
The complete series of On The Buses is available to buy on DVD from Amazon and Play.com amongst other retailers. Although, it would be cheaper to buy the series by the individual seasons. The 3 movies spinoffs are also available to buy as box sets from Amazon and Play.com.
One thing that I forgot to mention last weekend was that Microsoft's Windows operating system turned 25.
Anyway, if you're interested with where Microsoft are headed with Windows 7 there's a first look here. You can get news about the next version of Windows here. There is also a blog on MSDN about the engineering process involved, it's available here. Wikipedia have a page dedicated to Windows 7, available here. Finally, Paul Thurrott has a page dedicated to Windows 7, located here.
Just a link to a pretty good flash version of Tetris.
Been in bed virtually all day with a headache and temperature. I feel considerably better now for the extended period in bed.
I saw the new Bond movie this evening. In my opinion Quantum Of Solace isn't as good as some of the older Bond movies but I feel it stands up as a pretty good film in it's own right.
As with Casino Royale there isn't a plethora of gadgets and the franchise has got back more to the nitty-gritty of fist fights and shoot outs without the need for the gadgets. Some of the stunts were quite breathtaking, whilst others were simply over the top.
You can tell that the producers have noticed the success of the Jason Bourne films and reacted accordingly. That's definitely not a bad thing. Bond, as a result, stands up as an action hero in his own right. I'd probably rate it at 7/10 and feel it's probably every bit as good as Casino Royale.
I recently received an email from my webhost stating that my hosting was due for renewal in a little under 3 weeks time; Sunday 30th November to be precise. Anyway, the last couple of times it came up for renewal I had a look around before deciding whether to renew or transfer to another company. However, this time I have been more than happy with the service that Compila have provided that I haven't bothered looking around. I decided just to renew and it has cost me just under £45 for a further 2 years of hosting. An added bonus of staying with Compila is that they will renew my domain registration for free.
Fifty things you might not know about President-elect, Barack Obama:
- As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
- Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
- He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
- He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
- He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
- He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
- He can speak Spanish
- He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
- He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
- He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
- He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
- He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
- He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
- He has read every Harry Potter book
- He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
- He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
- He is left-handed - the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
- He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
- He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
- He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
- He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
- He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
- He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president - he didn't
- He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
- He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
- He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
- He uses an Apple Mac laptop
- He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
- He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
- He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
- He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
- He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother
- He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
- He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
- He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
- He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
- His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
- His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
- His favorite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
- His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
- His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
- His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
- His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
- His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
- His house in Chicago has four fire places
- His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
- His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
- His speciality as a cook is chilli
- While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
- More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
- Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
- In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations
- More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
- Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average North American eats more bread than that in one month!
- Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
- Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
- Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
- Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
- Newborn babies can choke on bread.
- Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 240 degrees Celsius! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
- Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.
In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
- No sale of bread to minors
- A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
- A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
- No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
- The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.
Got home from roleplaying about 1:30am this morning and more or less went straight to bed. I was asleep not long after 3am; I remember listening to the 3am news on the radio. Anyway, I woke up a few times this morning but really wasn't feeling great so went back to sleep. It was finally just after 1pm this afternoon when I finally emerged from bed. I really didn't feel like getting up but thought I better had. As a result, I've felt pretty tired all day and am just going to sit and watch a wee bit of wrestling before calling it a night again. It'll definitely be this side of midnight tonight.
