Yearly Archives: 2006

Sunday Roast: what is a stolen drug dog doing in my house?

Slightly later than planned (my bad – blame trashy chick lit), I bring you something to wile away what is left of a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I was always concerned by jelly (jell-o) as a kid, but that was because of my allergies to the colourings and flavourings – at least I never mistook it for toxic waste.

Just when the Crazy Canalman is looking forward to a retirement cruising round the waterways of Great Britain, it looks like they are going to be closing some of them. Timing never was a family strong point.

Thank you everyone who sponsored me for this years Race for Life – here’s what you were supporting.

Despite every character I’ve ever RP’d ending up as a barmaid in some dive or another, I’ve never actually worked in a bar (though I’ve flirted wiht the idea a time or two – getting thrown out of the last establishment I was tempted to work for has kinda dampened my enthusiasm) but even after one night the smoke gets to me – so it’s good that a recent study has shown that since the smoking ban in Scotland, the health of bar staff has drastically improved. Bring on the ban in Britain England (thank you for pointing that out Moose)! It would be so nice to come home from a night out and NOT have to shower the smoke smell out of my hair before I stumble into bed. Not to mention not inhaling enough carcinogens and tar on a night out to pave New York.

In yet another stunning blow to civil liberties, scientists are suggesting tagging air passengers in order to combat terrorism. If you will excuse me I’m off to live as a hermit on some remote Scottish isle. At least there I’ll only be at risk from terrorist sheep and I think I like those odds.

I’ve been meaning to link to the MangoFalls Digital Project for some time, but I just kept forgetting. The situation is now remedied. I love the idea of this project – old slides and images are scanned and a new one presented daily. Some beautiful, quirky and down right amazing pictures come to light. Each one has a story that is just begging to be told. In fact, if you are a writer stuck for inspiration, you could do worse! (There is an RSS feed because I’ve subscribed to it, but it is a little buried. In fact, your best bet is to hop on over to 9rules photography community and nab the feed from there. It’s worth the investigatory work).

I’ve loved Mata since I first saw Mittens and Snowdrop way back… Certain people can still be brought to helpless giggles by well placed “I can smell your brains” comments. Anyway, he has a new strip – Trouble Down the Pit. It’s a classic story – angel meets devil, angel needs a place to live, fun, frolicks, and Cyber Ninga’s. Because why not? (Does contain religious imagery, sarcasm, and general light satire. Don’t click if you are easily offended – or have no sense of humour, though if that is the case what are you doing still reading my blog! – or if you do click, don’t come back at me with pointy sticks. Please?)

I’ve never been a fan of David Blunkett (then show me politician I AM a fan of these days) but I will admit his diaries make interesting reading.

I haven’t linked to, or talked about, movies in a while. That’s partly because this summers movies have sucked (apart from The Departed, that was good. Oh, and Children of Men, and The Queen, and The Assassination of a President) and partly because I got out of the habit of watching movie trailers. Well, I got back into the habit in a big way yesterday and here are a few that caught my eye (apologies for if I am out of date on any of these):

  • Eragon – what is it with Jeremy Irons and fantasy? Didn’t D&D put him off? Either way, this looks good, if only for the chance to see John Malkovic chew the scenery as the supreme bad guy. He does do such a good bad guy.
  • The Good Shepherd – I’m not sure what it is with me and spy’s, but it’s something that fascinates me. I could never do the job – for starters I abhor violence – but still I’m hooked on the genre. I blame my brother and a child hood of making me watch Bond movies.
  • Hollywoodland – Adrien Brody and Ben Affleck among others? This just looks totally delicious.
  • Freedom Writers – this might be one of those times when I’ve been suckered by a good track on the trail. Very Dangerous Minds but who DOESN’T like a nice stirring story of kids overcoming their backgrounds? And by writing? Grumpy sods 😛
  • My First Wedding – there are no excuses but this trail did genuinely make me laugh. And snigger. So every now and then a girl needs not to think at the movies! From the look on Moose’s face when I mentioned it this one might be a rental however.
  • Edmond – from the trail I could be watching large chunks of this from behind my hands (lots of icky violence) but William H. Macey going psycho? That’s gonna be good cinema.
  • The History Boys – and lastly, The History Boys has been getting a lot of press attention over here. It’s done well at the various festivals. And it has a good cast. I’m looking forward to it.

And to finish, all good things come to those who wait…

RSS Feeds

I have a question for you all and I want you to answer. If you are a lurker who doesn’t want to be seen in the comments, fair enough, use the contact form to email me, but I do want answers.

What sort of feeds would me to provide for Bright Meadow? The sidebar contains three RSS feeds – full content, comments, and my flickr feed. I also have set up a summary feed but I don’t publicize it because 1) I don’t want to confuse people with lots of options and 2) I personally can’t stand summary feeds.

But I know there’s at least six of you out there who use the summary feed (strange people!) and I have to ask – are there more of you who would like to use it if I gave you the option?

Missing, one cupid. Reward for his discovery

I sit here, cup of tea in hand, staring in incomprehension at a javascript file trying to work out why it isn’t working (there’s a comma or something missing somewhere, but I’ll be damned if I can find it), and I ponder where have all the good men gone?

Seriously. Where have they gone? I know they must exist because I see my friends hooking up left, right, and centre. So why am I stuck here, sitting alone on my double bed, writing a blog post when there are much more fun things I could be doing on my double bed?

I go out – every night this past week I was doing something. I have a social life, maybe not as thrilling as some, but still not crazy-cat-lady standards. I meet people. I meet men. Yet nothing happens.

I’m getting antsy here fellas!

There is nothing wrong with being single. Single is my default state, livened only by short periods of not-single, and I enjoy single. Independence means a lot to me, but just every now and then I’d like to be single through choice and not because it is the only option available. Or even someone to share that independence with occasionally, now there’s a daring thought!

Are my standards too high? Too right I’ve got high standards! I’m quality goods here! It’s not everyday you get a package like this – brains, damn cute smile, eyes that could stop traffic, a blog that (all honesty aside) kicks ass, and my breasts… Well, they are not unimpressive if I can say so myself.

So I carry a few extra pounds and have an inferiority complex the size of Outer Mongolia, but screw you if that matters! I’m 24, have a damn amazing screwball sense of humour, and just might surprise you… If you can’t see that then, well, your loss.

And, sadly, mine as well. I know you’re out there somewhere, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to turn half of Hampshire inside out just to find you.

I don’t ask for much. To be able to hold a conversation with me. To make me laugh. Not to mind when I write out our life for the delectation of the Internet masses. To just sit there and go ‘yes dear’ when I’m ranting on about something and nothing. If you’re not stomach churning to look at and are the owner of a good pair of collar bones then all the better.

But, alas, such paragons of manly virtue are very thin on the ground. All the men of my acquaintance are:
1) Taken
2) Gay
3) In another country. Been there, done that, several times. You’re gonna have to be extra-special goods to make me go there again. Or, you know, just real cute 😉
4) So bottom-feeder-ish that, well, come on. See my previous statements about my sheer goddess-ness! I’m just worth more.

Where are all the good men hiding, can someone tell me that? I’m not that scary. I promise not to shackle you to marriage, kids, and all that jazz. I just want someone to make me laugh and to be there when the day hasn’t gone quite to plan.

Oh, and the occasional bit of sex wouldn’t go amiss either.

Is that really too much to ask?

Hexed out?

Anyone know what happened to the second season of Hex? They just started showing it on Sky Three on Thursdays at 9pm – this week, nada. It’s completely disapeared from the listings for some reason. Bit of a bummer when you consider they were only on episode three!

I kinda want to know what happens – yes, the show is crappy, but I’m still curious as to how it all pans out. I know I could get the DVDs from Play for £15, but frankly? I don’t want to spend the money because it’s not like I’m gonna watch them over again.

So yes, any one know why Sky Three just stopped mid season? Their website is being very unhelpful 🙁

Sunday Roast: build a better mousetrap and the terrorists will build a better mouse

This weeks title bears no real relevance to the Roast at all, I just liked it and wanted to use it. It appeals to my sense of the absurd (and if you’re wondering, yes it is a quote from our dumb cousins across the pond) – come on, terrorists are using mice now? Robot mice? What are they going to do, eat all the cheese?

Anyway, enough American mocking because, fun though it is, for some reason large numbers of my readership normally fail to see the funny and get all annoyed at me. I don’t want hate mail – it’s no fun 🙁

Yes, Cas is in a silly mood today. And talking about herself in the third person which is never a good sign…

Curly Durly always made some pretty groovy cakes for birthdays when we were growing up – my favourites were the tipper truck where the truck bed actually tipped and cascaded sweets all over the table and this beautiful piano cake – but even she never made something as impressive as this Discworld wedding cake. The Discworld doesn’t scream matrimony to me as much as the traditional white with two figurines on top, but still – good cake.

Lelia is one hell of a lot braver than I am. I saw MySpace and ran away in screaming terror. She saw MySpace and like any good anthropologist would, decided it needed investigation – read her field notes.

How to survive a plane crash. Doesn’t really need much more introduction, does it?

There is now a penguin robot in existence. Do I have to spell out how freeking happy this makes me? 😀

I’ve played with the idea of creating an online shop a time or three (what’s stopped me is that I have nothing really to sell – the jewelry, notebooks and quilts I make, I make on a commission/request basis) and the instructions for Shopify and PayPal integration always scared the crap out of me. These instructions to mod WordPress into a shop seem (slightly) less scary and have the benefit of using WordPress which we all know and love.

See, it’s not just my American readers who don’t like my US-bashing, it upsets the Federal government as well!

I like science when it proves something I already believes: scientists have shown that black tea really does calm you down. I’d always thought it was the combination of the act of taking a break, making the tea, and holding the warm mug, as well as what was in the mug in the first place. Nice to know that millions of British people haven’t been party to a mass generational cultural disillusionment.

In the latest reported case of politician foot-in-mouth syndrome, Jack Straw announced Muslim women should not wear veils which cover the face.
…
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Yes. I think you can work out the response from there on your own, don’t you?

Not just a good minion, but a talented photographer as well. What I want to know is how you got that cat in there in the first place Jay! Is it a habitual haunt, or did you just block it in with books?

Which five bloggers would you love to meet?
A question impossible to answer without offending the people I didn’t mention. Suffice it to say, if you comment on the blog I’d love to meet you. I’m not going to list you all because you know who you are. Plus I know I will forget people, not because I don’t love you, but because, well, I have the memory retention of a brain injured goldfish.

Because it illustrates why I am actually happy in my new job and enthused about the work I am doing: five tales of the trouble former prisoners have on leaving prison. Hopefully, the new team that has been set up (and which I work for) is going to be addressing just these sort of problems.

Apparently I’ve stolen Moose’s blogging mojo. Entirely unintentional, I assure you! I’m not really sure what I can do to remedy the situation either – I can hardly be blamed for being so wonderful now, can I? I considered taking a break from blogging, then realised that you can probably take altruism too far. I refuse to feel guilty however, refuse I say!
And she also assures me in no uncertain terms that her site is *not* pink, it’s a nice lavender colour. It looks pink on my screen…

And on that note I shall finish and run away to buy a new VCR before Moose comes chasing after me with an unripe banana. Have a lovely Sunday everyone 🙂