Poker Night

As mentioned in a previous blog I was going to have a poker night. It happened last Saturday and I think it was an overall success. Luckily I only lost £8, with a few people losing a bit more and a few winning a fair bit more (£40).

Due to the clocks going forward (BST)I went to bed at 4am and had football the next day. Next time I think we'll arrange it for a friday so it can truely be an all-nighter.

Rugby Sevens

On Good Friday me and the boys entered a Rugby 7s tournament. Every Easter we go and watch the Rugby which takes place at the Thanet Wanderers Ground, and every year we say "We should enter that". It's a great day of drinking and rugby, and this year it happened.



We got there very early (10am) and had a few games of touch rugby between us (and a few beers). The games kicked off at 1am and in our first game we romped to a 49-0 victory. There was quite a long time before our second game and when we did eventually play we lost 19-0 but were happy with the performance. We went out after to celebrate and ended the evening at 12:30am. It was a great day and thanks to all the guys who decided to play for team 'Fats and Smalls'.
If you want a larger 1600x1200 jpeg (1.2MB) of the team photo then click here
P.S. Jonny broke his collarbone in the first match, and so was our only real injury.

No Updates Yet

Sorry but I've been having too much fun and so I haven't blogged for a while.
I'll put something up in the next few days.
Chao

20 Questions

Check out 20Q.Net. It asks you to think of an item and then asks you 20 questions to see if it can guess what you picked.

20Q.net is an experiment in artificial intelligence. The program is very simple but its behavior is complex. Everything that it knows and all questions that it asks were entered by people playing this game. 20Q.net is a learning system; the more it is played, the smarter it gets.

Poker Night

I always try and go out on the Friday and Saturday Evenings as they are the only real evenings when I am not working or have prior commitments, but the problem is (now I sound old) everything is so expensive and it means I'm continually broke. The prices of beer will be going up in the next few weeks thanks to 'The Budget' and so I decide that if I was going to spend money I'd rather do it in my own home and with my friends.
So the idea came that it would be good to have regular poker nights where we get a few crates of lager (very cheap in the supermarket) and spend a few quid gambling (certainly less that a night out).
When I do something I like to do it properly so voila....

I bought this baby from DrinkStuff.com after searching for a long time on ebay and not finding what I wanted. The Poker table is a reversable/foldable felt covered sturdy plywood design that sits on the top of a regular table and the chips are quality 11.5 gram ones supplied with cards, dice, etc in a sturdy metal case.
All of it came to less than £70 which is is around 2 nights worth of drinking, so not a bad trade.
The first Poker Night is pencilled in for this Saturday so I'll report on the SUnday how it all went.

P.S. It's Texas Holdem.

St. Patricks Day

Well for those of you who didn't know it was St. Patricks Day yesterday, the Patron Saint of Ireland. It's a day to celebrate all that's Irish, but usually ends up as an excuse for Guinness to go into merchandising overdrive and for everyone to drink themselves silly.
I ended up going to the local pub and indulged in being Oirish (cue terrible accent) and fell into Guinness's marketing ploy whereby for every pint you bought you got a token and once you'd collected 5 tokens you got a silly hat and a few badges.
I never drink guinness but I'm glad I did last night - look at all the free stuff (not really free when it's £2.70 a pint!) I got!

P.S I've always heard the rumours and I can confirm that Guinness does make you poo very dark! No photo evidence for this though, sorry, maybe next year.

A View From Home

I had an hour off yesterday between one job and another and I really needed some fresh air. I decided to go down to the westcliff and have a stroll by the beach and I also decided to take my digital camera with me to take a few shots. In the olden' days (it was all fields round 're) I used to be quite wary with taking pictures because it was so expensive to get the film developed and this would result in me creating a hierarchy of what I thought I could actually justify taking a picture of, meaning I haven't got a huge collction of photos. Now I just snap away freely on my 128MB card and when I get home I upload them onto the PC and print of any I want to. Brilliant.
Here's a few of the pictures from yesterday at around 3pm. As you can see it was quite anice day and the sun was constantly trying to come out. "The sun has got his hat on hip-hip-hip-hooray, the sun has got his hat on and he's coming out today."

Les Rythmes Digitales

Around '97/'98, I can't really remember when but I know I was in the 6th form at school, I discovered a great album. The album in question was Les Rythmes Digitales - Darkdancer. I'm not sure where the impetus to buy the album came from, be it reading some review or just liking the excellent cover artwork but needless to say I think it was a good investment.

I hadn't heard any of the tracks before but I bought it on impulse. I don't think a huge amount of people in my sphere (not literally) have really heard of the guy behind Les Rythmes Digitales, but his name is Jacques Lu Cont, a faux frenchamn who's really from Reading and whose Mother usually calls him Stuart Price. It's a cracking album and so far I've only met one other person who owns the album, this was whilst I was at University.
If you want to listen to samples go to amazon where the nice guys have made snippets of all the songs.
You may be wondering what the point of this post is but I just thought it'd be good to point a few people in the right direction. Another reason is that he has teamed up with a lady called Juliet, a philedelphia based artist, and has helped produce her new album 'Random Order' and I've just heard her song on Radio1. It's a little more dancey (I think Dave Pearce is 'Championing it') but it's definitely worth a listen so click on the link to hear a 30-secong ram sample of Juliet - 'Avalon'

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

There's been a fair bit of news on the web about the 'new' Star Wars film which apparently comes out some time in May, but something I'd really like to see is Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy which comes out on April 29th.

I've seen the TV series and am currently listening to the original audio series which I've got on my PC. If you haven't heard, read, or seen it then you have missed something special and very very funny, and you should correct this error as soon as humanly possible.

This film is based on the novel by Douglas Adams, and stars Martin Freeman from The Office as Arthur Dent, along with the always excellent Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Mos Def as Ford Prefect. Other notable names are Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, John Malkovich as Humma Kavula, Alan Rickman providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Stephen Fry as 'The Book'.

I'm really glad that the lead has gone to an Englishman, and I think Sam Rockwell can get away with playing the character Zaphod. Stephen Fry as 'The Book, a brilliant choice, Alan Rickman as Marvin...yes, he always plays someone with that dour monotonal voice, excellent choice of casting so far. Stick Bill Nighy in there, yes so far so good. And then....who shall we get to play Ford Prefect...this is a joint UK/USA venture....I know....The hip-hop star Mos Def! What? I know that he started as an actor and then went into music but I don't know if he can pull it off. I know Hollywood is a cynical place and films are actually only made for money and not for any artistic premise (see the Star Wars rip-off preludes) but I suppose the money it brings has been able to bring together a good cast of actors (minus rapper Mos Def) and I hope the film does well and hopefully brings people back to the original Douglas Adams, the original novel, the TV series, and other Douglas Adms books such as Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Please enjoy.

.

Mercenaries

Ok, I've seen this advert for a console game called 'Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.' It's been on the TV 3 times on Channel Five and I can't help thinking (or wishing) it was a joke. Basically they have shots of the game showing your Mercenary blowing things up and these are interspersed with your regular US voice-over man saying blow something up/blow something else up/blow it up some more/ etc etc etc, I think you get the gist.
The first advert was on at at 6pm so I'm sure kids will be watching it and deciding maybe they could be the next Mark Thatcher prodigy.
The thing that gets me though is that it's like the adverts you would see in the Robocop and alike films from the 80s.
Ha, I would laugh then but it's really happening.

Lost Souls

I was just about to leave for work this morning when I realised I'd had the same few CDs on rotation in the car for quite awhile (A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step / Q - Best of 2004).
I picked up The Doves - Lost Souls and made my way to work. The CD is absolutely amazing and I'm sure it sounds even better because I haven't listened to it for about a year.

The Doves have got a new album out 'Some Cities' but I have to admit I don't know if I'll buy it. I think I'll be happy with 'Lost Souls'. Check it out.
I've got a little piece of trivia about Doves - I heard this when their debut album came out on the Mark & Lard show on Radio1. I didn't quite believe it, and those of you who used to listen to the show will understand why. Ok, are you ready for it?....Before they were Doves they were.....Sub Sub, who had a classic hit with "Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)". Luckily they decided to then pick up their guitars and make this album. Don't believe me? Check out Amazon and the accompanying Editorial Review.

Howz Ur Spellin?

Well I just took my The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid. I usually pride myself on actually being able to write a decent sentence devoid of 'txt speak' and do get quite annoyed when people write shite. See below for my rating.

Advanced

You scored 86% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 66% Expert!
You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels' questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score.

New web idea!

How about......catsbums.com

There's got to be some freaks out there who'd pay money for that type of stuff.

Britain's Bongoing Mad!

Well last night it was the provisional regional qualifying rounds for the special olympics and in the 'get pissed and play Donkey Kong Bongo' there was some stiff competition, not surprisingly, provided by the Thanet entrants.
The limited genepool has been the main factor behind Thanets' outstanding achievements in previous years but a lot of praise has to go for the entrants themselves and their dedication.
Below are just a few pics of last nights event and if you click here you can watch the ladies playing with their bongos.

The Streets

A couple of my friends are going to see 'The Streets'. Some people rave about him and some people hate him. I myself don't really sway either way, musically speaking. But whilst reading in todays Independant supplement 'Review' I found this little gem.

Mike Skinner, the new Ian Dury/Dostoevsky/George Formby/Tommy Cooper (delete where applicable)

I wonder if he'll put it on his promotional posters?

Whoa!

Whoa that was a bit freaky. I was just typing away and I had my TV on in the background. Murder She Wrote came on BBC1 and I had to give a little chuckle that I was typing away to the Murder She Wrote theme! Funny.

Cool Band Names

I was out at the weekend and it seems that after a few alcoholic beverages I get some brilliant ideas and tell myself to "remember that one for the morning, it's a corker, whatever you do don't forget it". Now usually this applies to ideas for making money, but last weekend I'm sure I came up with a brilliant name for a band. I don't play any musical instruments although if someone asks I'll reply that I occasionally play the pink oboe" but I reckon you could have no talent but have a good name and at least someone would listen to you on a whim.
One band name that comes immediately is Dogs Die In Hot Cars, They are quite a cool band although I've only heard a few of their songs.
Another good one, although slightly disturbing is And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
I can't think of anymore at the moment but if you can then why not put it in the comments of this post.
I'm sure none of them will be as good as the one I thought of....and then forgot!

To Baldly Go......

Last night I found a few old photos hidden in a brown envelope. One of them was of me with my flowing locks when I was at the ripe old age of 17 (circa early 1998). I guess quite a few people go through that stage when they're younger and have a go at growing their hair, and it annoyed my mum too.

Well now at the ripe old age of 24 I've got my male-pattern baldness down to a tee, some grey hairs, and generally not able to do much with the old mop. So last week I just shaved it all off and I'm quite happy with the results and I've got my bouncer impression down to a tee.
Now the root of my problem is too much testosterone. Apparently (according to my extensive research!) I must be genetically programmed for baldness, and so my chemical receptors in the hair follicles covert testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. This chemical causes the follicles to produce thin, downy hair which can't hide my scalp, and hence leaves me with a naked noggin!
Apparently the sure fire way to avoid baldness is....wait for it....castration! Well it'd definately stop that pesky testosterone but I kinda like having testicles!

Here's another pic I found and it's of me on my 18th birthday (Dec 1998)with my friend Rach. See I had hair then too!