Found on eBay

Another 'Found on eBay'.

Quite like Boris's article on Prince Charles, I particularly like his Mail bashing, as I can't stand the putrid stench that eminates from that paper. The reason d'etre for it seems to be to stir up as much public panic as possible and then in the same issue to say "look how much better we are than those people who live in that place called 'abroad'". Its a waste of trees, that propaganda filled publication, apparently staffed by mentally deficient bigots with too much time on their hands. The editor should be tarred and feathered, frequently, perhaps it could be made into a roadshow visiting a different town each week, with the ocassional public pelting of rotting fruit and veg to add some variety.

I agree with Boris's comment

Go on Charles: you keep firing off those green ink letters to ministers; you keep going with the unfashionable causes; keep babbling away to the herbaceous borders; don't stop caring about Tibet and the Book of Common Prayer; don't worry about the treacherous toads who defect to a self-interested media. The Prince's actions are completely harmless, and sometimes useful.

I do appreciate that Charles has a public life and in sometime represents Great Britain on the international stage, but he also is entitled to an opinion. Also, apart from a growing number of private citizens agreeing with his opinions, so far I haven't seen an opinion of his that is really controversial. If he was a junior politician, a journalist or an author no one would complain, possibly no one would even comment.

I found an interesting website/blog called PostSecret. According to the site

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

I thought that it may have been funny, but it isn't. It is a little thought provoking though, so I thought I'd share my find.

Colonel's Original Recipe vs. Popcorn Chicken

This blog is now available in two flavours!

There's the 'Colonel's Original Recipe' which you have come to know and love, and now there's a whole new 'Popcorn Chicken' flavour. The 'Popcorn Chicken' flavour is in respose to the comments I have recieved that the blog is difficult to read due to the low levels of contrast. In respose to this feedback I have created a higher contract style 'Popcorn Chicken' with a serif typeface.

If you wish to compare the two click on the tiny unobtrusive tabs at the top right hand side of the blog.

The styles are persistent so once you have decided whichyou prefer just leave it there and every time you visit you will return to the flavour you last left it in.

Please let me know what you think. I am planning to do another one somewhere in between the two in the not to distant future, but will hapily adjust 'Popcorn Chicken' to suit visitor preferences.

Fashion for Bloggers?

Can there possibly be such a thing as fasion for bloggers? I'm not entirely convinced, but Martin has suggested (in a round about fashion) that there are blog aware fashion items like the tee-shirt pictured.

That particular shirt is for sale on the J!NX website but a quick search of the web finds quite a lot of other sites with blog related fashion items.

Most of these are geek sites like ThinkGeek and J!NX, but there are others out there. One of the better non geek sites is SnapShirts where you create your own word cloud based upon the contents of your blog and they print it on a tee-shirt for you.

So does this mean that there is going to be a huge fashion market for bloggers in the near future? Perhaps. There are a lot of bloggers out there and I'm betting that a reasonably large percentage of them are willing to buy blog related clothing and accessories.

Long, but funny - I had to post it.

Mr Baker,

As an employee of an institution of higher education, I have a few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel. After your consistent and annoying harassment of myself and my co-workers during the commission of our duties, I can only surmise that you are one of the few true genetic wastes of our time.

Asking me, a network administrator, to explain every little nuance of everything I do each time you happen to stroll into my office is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of precious oxygen. I was hired because I know about Unix, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to myself and other employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of "cut and paste" for the hundredth time.

You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality
than you ever will. You walk around the building all day, shiftlessly looking for fault in others. You have a sharp dressed useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle.

Seeing as this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation, however I have a few parting thoughts.

1. When someone calls you in reference to employment, it is illegal to give me a bad recommendation. The most you can say to hurt me is "I prefer not to comment." I will have friends randomly call you over the next couple of years to keep you honest, because I know you would be unable to do it on your own.

2. I have all the passwords to every account on the system, and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I am going to publish your "favourites list", which I conveniently saved when you made me "back up" your useless files. I do believe that terms like "Lolita" are not usually viewed favourably by the administration.

3. When you borrowed the digital camera to "take pictures of your mothers b-day", you neglected to mention that you were going to take pictures of yourself in the mirror nude. Then you forgot to erase them like the techno-moron you really are. Suffice it to say I have never seen such odd acts with a ketchup bottle, but I assure you that those have been copied and kept in safe places pending the
authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (Try to use a spell check please, I hate having to correct your mistakes.)

Thank you for your time, and I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow.

One word of this to anybody, and all of your little twisted repugnant obsessions will be open to the public. Never f--k with your systems administrators, because they know what you do with all your free time.

Sincerely,
Ted Brewer

I recently found out about the BBC's Great British Design Quest. Seeing as the the Dyson vacuum cleaner is out of the running I've voted for the World Wide Web. Firstly because without it you wouldn't be reading this, secondly because the excellent Dave Gorman is its spokesperson in this quest.

Jetski Lessons

Followed the link to the clip of Richard Simmons on Whose Line Is It Anyway? on Andy's blog.

Have to admit it is very funny, and as one good deed deserves another I too have to share.

The Funniest Thing

Well the funniest movie trailer I've seen in quite a while. You'll need Quicktime 7 to view it (and you can get it from here), the trailer is for a movie called Happy Feet, its about 21Mb in size so mobile users should give it a miss until they get home.

"big roughneck respect to all the bad boys and all the bad boy crew"

Hallelujah

I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Maybe I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen

I've been listening to this quite a lot over the past few days, so much so that I've been humming it continuously. The references for the first two verses are pretty obvious, but what are the next three about? I've been trying to figure it out. Maybe there arn't any. Perhaps its just the writers personal experiences, but if anyone knows if they do reference some text or event I appreciate a commecnt with the explaination.

If you are wondering why I have been listening to it so often (apart from it being a great song) its because it is used on the Soundtrack of two movies I've seen recently, 'Shrek' and 'Lord of War'. The 'Lord of War' version seems to have a full orchestral backing, but a quick check on amazon suggests that it isn't on the soundtrack.

The soundtrack to 'Lord of War' was composed by Antonio Pinto and if you are a fan of acoustic guitar music inspired by a range of European cultures then by all means grab yourself a copy. I personally quite like the subtle variation between the first and last tracks.

If anyone knows the actual recording used in 'Lord of War' please feel free to point me in the right direction. I know that there is a Leonard Cohen version and a Jeff Buckley version but it isn't either of those.

The Next Canon EOS Digital?

Just kidding, but funny nonetheless.

Lord of War

My first impression was Nicholas Cage playing the same old Nicolas Cage role, slightly depressed, slightly cheecky, naer-do-well. But on reflection this really is an understated, honest exploration into the character of a gun runner.

There were a number of aspects of the movie that felt very familiar and this wass probably down to the fact that the script was written by Andrew Niccol who also penned The Truman Show and Gattaca, and in many ways 'Lord of War' is very similar in mood to Gattaca, to the extent of sharing some of the same actors.

Lord of War

Plot: 14/20
Acting: 15/20
Production: 16/20
Entertainment: 28/40

---

Total: 73/100

What is quite different from some of the other films both Cage & Niccol have made is that it is almost impossible to connect with the central character. Most of the other characters are easy to relate to and make some kind of connection to, but Cage's character Yuri, is deliberately difficult to empathise with. It is an interesting and effective plot device which I thought made the film interesting and edgy. The mood altering soundtrack is also very effective, subtly lifting and lowering the viewers mood throughout the movie. It adds another dimension to the experience and is a distinctly good piece of work in its own right.

Whilst it is not the best movie I have ever spent two hours watching I would definately recommend viewing it if you come across it as it is worth a view.

2005 Blogged: Dispatches from the Blogosphere

First of all this 'book' was nothing like I expected it to be like. I'm not sure what I expected it to be like, but this wasn't it. I was however pleasantly surprised.

Tim Worstall has put together and interesting collection of articles from around the blogosphere. It is an good read once you get into it, but it does take some effort to get into the flow as it is quite dry reading to start off with. One you have though, the individual blogs become like characters and you follow their progress throughout the year. The fact that Tim uses a few blogs regularly gives the collection a structure around which he drapes a few choice entries from other blogs.

By the time I had finished reading it I felt quite uplifted, but I have no idea why! It just turned out that way.

It's Been A While

Apart from being a pleasant enough song by Staind, it is also a representative of the duration of time elapsed since my last post.

I have been working on a few additions to the blog which I hope to have online soon, but I'm determined to get back into the habit of posting on a regular basis, and hopefully will be posting again regularly soon.