gonna try with a little help from my friends

I've just got back from my weekend jollies away visiting friends.

I left Ramsgate at around 2pm on Friday and got back at 9pm on Sunday so I had a pretty long break away, the whole weekend virtually.

My first port of call was Chichester. My friend Sam is the Bars and Entertainments Manager at the Students' Union, and I'd rung him a few weeks ago asking when would be a good time to visit Chichester (usually shortened to Chi), and he's suggested Friday as it was the Graduation Ball. I went, I saw, I had a few drinks, and I saw a few old friends.

On Saturday in the spirit of Lord Bargain and Ka I met up with a fellow blogger, this one was Phil, from Bournemouth (I do know Phil though). It was good to catch up with an old friend who I haven't seen for over a year and nice to chill out. We did Pizza Hut, Serenity at the cinema, visits to loads of DVD and games shops in Bournemouth and Poole, and had a good chat and a catch-up.

On Sunday I returned to Chi for a game of footy (this used to be a sunday tradition at Uni) saw a few more old friends and then came back home. All in all I did 420 miles in the old car. Not bad.

For those of you who read my blog regularly you'll remember that a while back I was pining a bit for Chichester and the life I'd left and I wrote this post. After this visit it's clarified things quite well. Chichester has changed a lot and it's not what I rememeber. The University where I spent my time studying and working for 5 years is changing into something completely different to the place where I had so much fun and from what my memory recollects. That was the past and I'm better off for it. I left just before the Student's Union moved into their new building (which I had a part in designing) and before a lot of changes to the way the University was developing. I think that if I'd stayed I would've ended up hating the place and that I would've had to leave or have a bit of a break down as it doesn't have the same identity as the place I loved. I guess I need these little visits to confirm this to myself.

One thing I do miss is the friends there. I keep in regular contact with a handful of them but there are more that I forgot about and have lost contact with. This was brought home to me when I learned that not one, but two of my old friends had given birth! So congrats to both Hannah and Erin! I am a bit sad that I didn't know about this but I've just emailed another friend, who I never contact but who I saw today, and asked him to send me lots of peoples emails and phone numbers who I've lost contact with.

On the drive home I had a glow about me and I felt that everything is going to be great.

Now off to bed for some well-earned sleep.

I've been working all week and I'm, Just living for the weekend

SwissToni has been telling us all about how terrible certain days of the week are....but now we get to one of my favourites...Wednesday. It is the day that divides the working week and from now on all I'm doing is thinking about the weekend.

So what's so special about this weekend?

Well I'll be going on a road trip down to Chichester to my old Uni's Graduation Ball (featuring Nemone, The Cut-up Boys, and loads of cheese I'm sure). I've still got good friends down there, namely the Bars and Ents Manager, Sam, who is gonna put me on the guest list which means I save myself£25, and let me kip on his sofa. I'm gonna leave work around 2ish and so I'll get there before the afternoon has ended, and I'll get to catch-up with other peeps in the Chichester area.

On the saturday I'll be heading down to see Phil of Freespurge fame down in Bournemouth. I think we'll be watching Serenity and also having a few beers no doubt, but I'll see what else he's got planned for me as I haven't seen him for over a year, also he's going one better than Sam and gonna give me a fold-up bed...5-star all the way.

Then on Sunday I'll head back to sunny Ramsgate knowing that I've actually had a good weekend [although a bit tired from driving nearly 400 miles]

[Wednesday is often reffered to as "hump day" because of its position as the middle day of the work week. If the work week were a hill. Then Wednesday would be the crest. It is all down hill from there. (Whether the down hill ride is a coast or a descent into a swamp is left to the individual.)] - http://www.indepthinfo.com/weekdays/wednesday.shtml

You know that I've been drunk a thousand times,and these should be the best days of my life,

If you've been in your town centre on a friday or saturday night then you'll see large groups of 18-30s drinking alcohol. Fair enough, they're old enough and have worked hard during the week so they're entitled to relax. But what about the increase in binge drinking? Those levels of drinking are the cause of many other ills of society, such as violence, vandelism, sex attacks, but what about the other ill-effects? What about the harm to your relationships and what about the harm to yourself.... Physically and mentally?

This brings me to my little poser today. Obviously the blame for drinking too much lies first with the individual but it must also lie with the suppliers, the pubs and clubs, but what about the people like me who serve the drinks?

I am on the frontline and actually see the results of alcohol consumption. Last night I was at the pub and first one guy punched another guy whom he thought was insulting his girlfriend, and then their girlfriends got into a argument in the toilets. Luckily I went in there [pervert] and tried to get them to calm down upon which they broke into a fight which I had to separate. They hadn't drunk a huge amount but the friction of too many people drinking caused it.

I also see those quiet drinkers who are in there everyday drinking large amounts, and no doubt doing themselves harm.

In other areas of life I try to be ethical and moral....but what about this area? I've worked in bars for 5 years, have seen what alcohol does, but I still work there. Technically I am a drug dealer.

Is it morally right to work in the alcohol industry when I see what harm it causes?

I've seen so much, I'm goin blind, And i'm braindead virtually

Surprise surprise....a new report by Dr Aric Sigman, who is an Associate Fellow of the Surprise surprise....a new report by , who is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, is out claiming that TV is bad for children and can stunt their brain development. The next few paragraphs have been lifted from Yahoo News:

"Television viewing is also now linked with stunting brain development in the child's frontal lobes leading to reduced impulse control and increased antisocial behaviour."

"Teachers are under pressure to vie for the child's attentional resources which have been damaged by exposure to fast changing screen images. This leaves teachers facing a generation of children who find it more difficult to pay attention and thereby learn but also exhibit poor self-restraint and anti-social behaviour," Dr Sigman added.

Even moderate amounts of viewing can dramatically increase their risk of myopia, slow down their metabolic rate and may trigger premature puberty, according to Dr Sigman. It was also found to lead to a "significantly elevated risk" of sleep problems in adulthood, causing hormone changes, which in turn directly increase appetite and body fat production and damage the immune system leading to a greater vulnerability to cancer.

I can believe parts of this report but there are other parts that are sheer scaremongering and making assumptions to appear to tie in with conclusions they already made.

I think it boils down to being lazy. If you sit around watching too much telly, and not exercising of course you're going to experience slowed metabolism, sleep problems, and increased appetite. I get that if I spend even one day loafing around, so imagine what it's like for a growing child. I suppose this report would be an easy solution to the problems facing our children, and we could ban television and save the children but not all television is bad.

The main problem is the sheer dirge of programmes on offer to children and adults alike. If what children watched was regulated by parents and guardians, then TV would have a great place in society, instead of somewhere filled with gardening and makeover shows, puppets talking gibberish, and mindless soaps.

The brain is a muscle and needs to be exercised, if you don't exercise it, then it will cease to function to 100%, or somewhere nearing that amount. I've had times when I've not stretched my mind, gone with the flow for weeks on end and not been able to cogitate or articulate to a level I know I'm capable. But I've corrected this by trying to read more or see more by either reading more books, catching up with the internet, talking to people outside of my usual spere, and also watching selected TV programmes.

There is a load of crap out there but there is also a lot of good on the old gogglebox. TV's primary use is as a form of escapism and it's secondary use is for education, therefore there will always be a load of shite to get through before you get to the good stuff. TV programmes are made as a source of revenue, simply there to make you watch the adverts in between. It's sad but true, and therefore TV for the masses rules.If there's nothing good on Telly then don't watch it. Turn it off, and better yourself. You're bigger than a machine.

I've got to go now......Neighbours is about to start!

Whoa, whoa, back-up

Yeaterday morning I got up at 8am thinking I would be the only one up as it was a Sunday morning, but there in the front room was my sister (visiting for the weekend) on the laptop doing teaching plans for the whole week. I made myself a bacon sarnie, and started running a nice muscle relaxing bath as I had a football match at 10.30am in Margate and was getting a lift with Dan at 9:30am.

Everything was going to plan when my sister 'lost' all the work she had been doing. Apparently she was copying her files to another folder when they 'dissapeared'. I thought she was being stupid and ran a search for them thinking she'd maybe just dropped them into the wrong folder. I was wrong they had gone. I started a recovery programme to find the lost files in the clusters of her hard-drive and some came back but very corrupted. I was doing my best but by now it was 9:30 and I had to go to footy. I didn't have my bath, which was waiting there for me nice warm, taunting me, and so I chucked on some jeans and a t-shirt and when to Footy (incidently I strayed on the bench all match).

When I got back my sisters boyfriend had managed to get some more useable documents off the hard drive and it was a semi catastrophe averted....or so I thought.

I went onto the net on my PC to check my emails and one was a request from my friend Jo for some files from her website which I maintain. I went into my website directory which is in \my documents\sites to grab the files and SHIT....the folder was completely removed! Then it hit me. During the early morning I had downoaded several recovery programmes from my computer onto her laptop using her USB stick and obviously whatever virus/trojan had done that to her laptop had now done it to mine.

I was very pissed off but luckily because it's my web directory, nearly everything is on the web, and it's a matter of just downloading the sites from my remote directory. I've lost a few old files, or works in progress, but every so often you need something like this to realise that the web isn't infallable. I've left the PC downloading my folders (around 450MB worth) and when I get home I'm gonna back-up the ass offa my computer. I did read the Tao of Backup which puts backing up into perspective.

I guess the lesson of all this is make sure you've got everything backed-up that you can't replace. I've got Norton Internet Security 2005 on my PC and it has protected me constantly and not let a thing in so I'm annoyed this 'thing' has sneaked in. I ran a full system virus check but it came back with nothing so I hope it was just a file on the USB stick. If this has happened to anyone else and they've got some tips then let me know.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

At the moment I smell like a cheap man-whore.

I've been out shopping (pure hell) to buy a few bits and bobs for my sisters birthday (she'll be 27) and I really hate having to buy things when I don't know what I'm looking for. If I was better prepared I would've scanned the internet and got her stuff from there but I only remembered yesterday about her birthday.

Back to the man-whore bit. Whilst I was looking for presents I thought I'd try on a few men's fragrances.....8 different types later and I still ended up with what I got last time.

I used to get a bottle of CK Eternity for my birthday and that'd do me, but it's very expensive and don't get it anymore. Last time I got Versace - Blue Jean, which was nice and at £10 a bottle from Matalan, a pretty good deal for something with a 'name' attached to it. I did think about treating myself but at the end of the day I just stank of too many fragrances and gave it a miss, and went with the Versace again.
I wanted to know if any of you out there in bloggerland could recommend an aftershave that you personally use? Put it in the comments please. Cheers

How much is that doggy in the window?

I was in Tesco on wednesday and they've already got some Christmas stuff in store, such as cards and wrapping, and a few other gift ideas.

Every so often I come up with stupid ideas that could make me a millionaire, and I'm going to let you all into one I had a while back and was triggered by this foray into the festive season.

What do you think when you hear 'A dog's for life, not just for Christmas'?

My new slogan would be 'A dog's just for Christmas, not for life'.

The pitch for my idea would revolve around the fact that many people get dog's for Xmas but can't be bothered with them once the the shine has worn off, so why not just hire them out for Christmas and then take them back? There are so many dogs in Kennels and Rescue homes that there would be plenty to go around. Obviously a fee would be charged, and there would be the optional extras of hiring out baskets, collars, food bowls, toys, etc. and I think it would make a mint.

I'd give a percentage of the money to the kennels, who would also be saving money as they'd have less dogs to look after, It would be helping the dogs and making them happy, and it'd also be bringing happiness to families at Christmas time.

It's a foolproof plan and I can see no chance of it being a failure!

If all goes well then I could branch out to cats, then guinea pigs, etc.....endless.

They spun a web for me

There was a fairly large spider in my bathtub last night and I could've picked it up and put it somewhere else but I thought I'd let him keep his dignity and do it himself. Thinking back to something I'd read on someone elses blog (I can't remember who's) I fashioned my first 'spider ladder' which was basically a length of loo roll hung over the side of the bath. Using this the spider is able to crawl out... in theory.

Guess what?..... theory works! The spider was gone this morning and is probably coming up with plans to lay egg in my ears, or something as devious, honestly it was quite a big spider and was giving me evils.

Everybody knows, Badger loves...MASH POTATOES!

Hey I'm back!...for the moment.
I've had a hectic last week and was going to blog yesterday but ended up going on an all day piss-up to unwind from everything.

So, do you want to know what I've been up to?

Well as I mentioned before I work at a University and the new students, Freshers, arrived a week ago. It has been my job to organise and run the evening activities, as well as doing my normal daytime stuff. A few posts ago I seemed a little disheartened with the job but at the moment things are going great, all the new students are very nice, and I'm actually enjoying my job!

On friday I hired a coach to take us to the main campus for their Funky Friday shindig and I didn't have much to do apart from make sure everyone got where they were supposed to go and that they all got back safely. So I decided that I might as well have a few drinks as I wasn't really working. Quite a few Carlings (only £1.50!) later and I was a bit trolleyed but was having an f-ing brilliant time, but there was one thing that absolutely made my night.....

I got to see 'Bodger and Badger'!

For those of you who don't know, they're the stars of their very own show on CBBC, and have quite a cult status amongst students. They turned up and gave a brilliant live show (no apologies for calling them 'they' even though one's a puppet), and of course, for those of you familiar with them, they got messing with loads of mashed potato. I also got their autographs!

Everybody knows, Badger loves...MASH POTATOES!
He makes them into shapes and eats them every-day!

Bodger and Badger, Bodger and Badger.
La, La, La, La-lah,
La, La, La, La-lah

Bodger and Badger are never far away.

I'm now gonna check out what everyone's been up to.......

Tomorrow, Tomorrow,......

I will be blogging tomorrow. Laters - Adem

I've got few stories to tell.

Express yourself, Create the space, You know you can win, Don’t give up the chase

I went into work today at 3pm and just got back in a 11pm... and it's only a sunday!
I had footy at 10:30am and I was in quite a good mood though as we won our first game of the season. The mighty Preston Hellings had lost their first two games in the Thanet Sunday Football League, the first game 5-1, and the second 2-1, but today was our day and we thrashed York Arms 5-1, which helped our goal difference and moved us from 12th to 7th place.

It was made even sweeter as they were a very aggy team, and I admit we baited them a little bit and they took to it hook, line, and sinker, with them giving away fouls all over the place. We could've got more goals but at the end of the day, it was a game of two halves, and the best team won (how's that for cliches?)

I did receive a rather harsh foul upon myself as their no.7 (their right-winger and I was playing at left-back) decided to launch a flying tackle at my knee and try and snap it. Luckily my leg gave way otherwise it could've been a lot worse, but I only ended up with a bit of bruising and some stiffness.

Hopefully this is the turning of a new leaf for the season and we can carry it on. (still no goals for me though...I got 4 goals last season, but that was from left-wing and up front, maybe next week.)

I am the eggman, we are the eggmen, I am the walrus

One of the stupidest things I've ever done (a continuing theme)
Date: 9/1/05
location: Dlouha Hostel, Prague, Czech Republic

After a very drunken Saturday Night, now Sunday morning, of visiting bars and strip clubs I returned back to the hostel with Ian and Tom B, whilst Jonny, Matt, and Danny went to investigate the lower echelons of Czech society. It was our last night at the hostel, I was drunk, I had bought some eggs and bread during the day, and I had the munchies.

The hostel was quite basic although there were shared facilities such as showers and a 'kitchen'. I've put apostrophes around 'kitchen' because the only cooking facility in there was a microwave, although strangely there were several pots and pans (obviously left by previous backpackers). What do you think I was going to use to do the eggs?

My first attempt was akin to poached eggs. I'd beaten the eggs added whatever spices were in the kitchen, and cooked it in a bowl for about a minute. It was okay but not quite what I was looking for. Then it hit me....a hard boiled egg (not literally coz that would've hurt!)

Through a bit of egging on (pun intended) and my lowered inhibitions caused by the alcohol, I decided to nuke an egg in the microwave. I put it in and turned the timer to 1 minute. Shock..after 30 seconds nothing was happening and I put my head right up against the door of the microwave to check for any changes. There was a hissing noise but that was it, and so Ian left the kitchen, and left me and Tom still watching.

BOOM! In what was one of the pant-filling experiences of my life the egg had exploded and I thought I'd been very bad. The microwave door had actually expanded outwards and I'd got hit on the head by it (maybe it wasn't too wise to be that close), and now with the door open smoke was billowing out and the whole inside was covered with egg and shell. I felt very naughty and quite scared, as were Tom, who had been sitting down, and Ian who had only just re-entered the kitchen to be greeted by the explosion.

Surprisingly no-one came out of the other rooms and I was left to have a nervous laugh, check the microwave still worked (it did!), and clean up all the fucking egg. We decided to retire to our dorm before anything else happened and that was that. We got up the next day went to the kitchen whilst everyone else was eating food bought from elsewhere, and had a bit of a secret laugh. The microwave was still a bit dirty but I'd gotten away with it.

We left Prague that day but I will always have that memory to put in my file of 'Things that could've killed me but didn't'. I've got plenty more of these types of experiences (I can be a stupid twat when drunk) and I'll share some more with you when I can.


------------------------------------------
I'm going to be very busy with work over the next 2 weeks as the Freshers are arriving on Sunday and muggins here will be working days and nights, so don't expect too much blogging from me, but I'll try.
Laters

I'm a joker, I'm a smoker.....

I've just got home from the pub quiz, which my team won!!!!!
It was made even better because we saved our 'Joker' till the last round...brilliant.

The prize was a bit crap though, 25% of a meal at the pub, but I shouldn't complain as I also won a prize in the raffle.......an out-of-date e#bottle of ale and a freeebie Grolsch T-Shirt!

Still it was all in the name of charity and around £160 was raised.

Off to bed now. zzzzzzzz

Wherever I lay my hat that's my home

Here's a bit of history for you....

1980 - Born in London (December)
1980/1984 - Lived in Sidcup till the age of 3.
1984/1986 - Moved to Doha, Qatar, till the age of 5.
1986 - Returned to England to live in Ramsgate, Kent.
1999 - Moved to Chichester age 18 to study at University.
1999/2002 - Completed my degree.
2002/2003 - Elected as Vice-President for the Students' Union (1 year term).
2003/2004 - Worked as Bars and Entertainments Assistant Manager at the University.
2004 - Moved back to Ramsgate.

Ramsgate has always been my home town and will always be the place that I grew up in but Chichester also has a place in my heart. The thing is that I loved my time in Chichester and spent 5 years there, but by the end of that time I was missing Ramsgate. I could've stayed but I had felt a rot settling in and had to leave to save myself. There was another reason for me to move back to Ramsgate and that was because my Mother and Grandmother also live there.

They both lived in the same house and this is where I moved back to. My Grandma was very ill and I think it helped that I was home to help my Mum whose responsibility it was to look after this bed-ridden old women, who had in her earlier years been the live and soul of the party, but in her latter years had been ravaged by Parkinson's Disease, stokes, and also arthritis . Sadly she died in December 2004, but I thank God that I was there to be able to be at her side at the hospital, to tell her I loved her, and to reassure her everything was alright. If I had still been living in Chichester I may not have been there for her and I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself. It was also good to be able to support my Mother at a time like that.

I am still living with my Mum, and we get by quite well, but it is times like now that I start to miss Chichester. I have got a lot of friends here but I only really see them at weekends so I think it is loneliness that is giving me these feelings for Chichester, where my life revolved around a place heaving with youngsters who are all experiencing something new, which in turn added something to my life. I am fed up with Ramsgate as it never changes, or maybe it is me that never changes. I am in a job where I spend most of the time by myself in a small office, and I think I need something new to put the spark back into me.

I'm looking into new avenues for job prospects and ultimately I keep coming back to the same areas. The only problem is that I can't commit myself to jumping into something, and it will ultimately have to be something which will start off working around my present jobs, the ones that pay the bills. Do I risk it all and follow my dreams, or do I stick with the status quo and keep doing what I'm doing?

The area I'm interested in is promotion and design. When I get the chance to work with Dreamweaver or Photoshop I become more animated and can spend hours working on something, perfecting it, and making someone else happy. I have mainly done small websites for bands, or people I know, and really enjoy designing something which has been transplanted from their ideas into something physical. I've just got an email from an old friend who needs a website for his band, and so I'm going to work on that later.

Another reason why these homesick feeling for Chichester have come up is that most of the people's sites I run are from Chichester, as it is where I learnt about t'web. I could honestly see myself living back in Chichester but what about the sacrifices I'd have to make to leave here?...my friends and my family.

At the end of the day nothing will probably come of this post and it will be resigned to history, but I will be visiting Chichester again on October 7th and we'll see what happens then. In the meantime I think this post has helped me a bit and I'll try and get my head into the correct mindset and try and be the person I was a few years ago, still me, but having more fun, and more self-assured.

Thanks for listening reading

The answer is blowin' in the wind

I finally gave in and got some questions from Phil. I asked him some last week and he's left a few comments on my blog along the lines of "...if you want any questions then just ask", and so I knew that he REALLY wanted to get some pearls of wisdom out of me, or make me squirm. The questions have really put me on the spot.

Bloggerland is full of people I have never met, but after frequenting their blogs on a daily basis I feel like I know them fairly well (well, what they decide to write about themselves). In the case of Phil, of Freespurge fame, I DO know him. We met at University (I was working for the Students' Union running one of their bars, and he was on the Exec Committee), and actually started our blogs at the same time, along with another friend Dave.

I [boasting] have kept my blog going along since that time (around 1 1/2 years) but both Phil and Dave disappeared, Phil in Jan '05, and Dave in Oct '04. I'd given up on both of them returning, but Phil made a comeback this Summer. So without further delay here are the questions and my answers.

Question 1.
Death sentence. Good, bad, or necissary? Discuss.

Catgorically my answer is 'no to the death sentance'. It is a very bad thing. I don't know the figures but I'm sure that there's been quite a few people on 'Death Row' who have been aquitted, who were proved innocent by new technology which wasn't available at the time of their detainment.

But some people are guilty, and some of very very bad things. Sometimes revenge will pop into my head and I'll think it was better if they died, a horrible death too, but what would that make me?

I'm sure executions help the families of murder victims, so they can gain 'closure', but in the long run will it ease their pain?

I do think there's something wrong with the prison system though and that some prisoners get off too lightly [watch out I'm getting all Daily Mail here!] and never have to deal with the crimes they committed, never have to meet the relatives of their victims. Could they still contribute to our society even if they are deemed monstors? What is the alternative way of paying their debt?

I don't know the answer to that but in the meantime I have to say no to the Death penalty.


Question 2.
What's the one thing that you wished you had said to someone but never did?

I think the person would've been my Grandfather on my Mum's side, who died when I was around 11. And I would've just liked to have said that I loved him. As a kid you take loads of things for granted and don't look to the future, just taking each day as it comes, and I wish I'd got to spend more time with him and been able to grow up with him as he was a great person. He was the first person i knew who died.

Question 3.
You're in a room with all the world leaders of Earth. You've been asked to speak on behalf of the masses. What you say next will change the face of Human society, what is it?

I would probably say:

"One Love! One Heart!

Let's get together and feel all right.

Hear the children cryin' (One Love!);

Hear the children cryin' (One Heart!),

Sayin': give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel allright;

Sayin': let's get together and feel all right. Wo wo-wo wo-wo!

Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love!);

There is one question I'd really love to ask (One Heart!):

Is there a place for the hopeless sinner,

Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?

One Love! What about the one heart? One Heart!

What about - ? Let's get together and feel all right

As it was in the beginning (One Love!);

So shall it be in the end (One Heart!),

All right!

Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;

Let's get together and feel all right.

One more thing!

Let's get together to fight this Holy Armagiddyon (One Love!),

So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom (One Song!).

Have pity on those whose chances grows t'inner;

There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation.

Sayin': One Love! What about the One Heart? (One Heart!)

What about the - ? Let's get together and feel all right.

I'm pleadin' to mankind! (One Love!);

Oh, Lord! (One Heart) Wo-ooh!

Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;

Let's get together and feel all right.

Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;

Let's get together and feel all right"

Good enough for you?

Question 4.
Name a book that changed your life for good or for ill.

This is a tricky one. I suppose it could be something as mundane as a story book at school, thus enabling me to actually read and write, but I think I'll go for 'Stupid White Men' by Michael Moore, a critique of the 2000 USA elections where he believes Bush was fraudulantly elected as President. I know some of it biased and to get the whole story you will need to read a few more books from different sources, but it opened me up to the fact that USA is not A-OK (sorry Trong Van Din), and the problem's associated with politics.

Question 5.
Of all the women you know, who's the one you want to sleep with most?

Fuck me, what a way to put me on the spot. I love women, that's a fact, but the strange thing is that there hasn't been anyone I'd want to sleep with for quite a while. I've been off the scene for a bit, but I do go out and see women whom I'd like carnal relations with, but it is just lust, pure animal hormones, seeking some sexual gratification. I could probably give you 50 names of those types of women. But I can honestly say that there's no one that I'm "keeping my eye on", no one I really want to get involved with, and so to cop out of your question, there's no one I want to sleep with....at the moment.

But......I'm sure someone will come along, who'll turn my head, someone I least expect ,whom I'll want to get to know better, discover who they are, grow to love each other and then......

FUCK LIKE RABBITS!

I don't like cricket, oh no, I love it

England have beaten Australia to win the Ashes!

I've been watching the tests over the series and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. I must admit that I only watch International matches and don't watch any county cricket.

There were more highs than lows and many of the matches have been edge of the seat stuff, but I think that the end result was correct as England have shown that little bit extra.

Brilliant!

[I know this is a bit of a weak post but I'm not really in the blogging mode. I have been checking out and commenting on other blogs though so don't worry.]

Question time

Questions for Tom
1. Using advanced technology and satellite tracking you can order a 'hit' on anyone in the world. Who would it be? (no one will know you did it)
2."Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me". Have you ever been bullied or been a bully?
3.Which is your favourite Spice Girl and why? (Posh, Ginger, Scarey, Baby, & Sporty)
4.What Superpower would you like and would you become a SuperHero?
5.Pick 3 songs to be played at your funeral

Questions for Phil
1. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
2. Blondes, Brunettes, or Redheads?
3.How will the Third World War Start and End?
4. What's your view on 'designer babies'. Would you play god and create a 'perfect child'?
5.If you could have written one song and lived off it's profits which song would it have been?


Remember to update your blog with the answers to the questions, offer to interview others in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Laters

Coming soon...

I'm still thinking of some questions for Phil and Tom. Watch this space.

Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies

There's been a lot of questions around bloggerland lately, and I admit I was feeling a little left out. But luckily Lord Bargain has leapt to my aid and has given me 5 questions to answer. So here we go.

1. Describe your journey to work.

I have 2 jobs so I'll describe my journey to them

My first job is 2 miles away. I usually drive. Quite lazy, I have cycled a few times before but I've slipped back into getting there quickly. It takes 5 minutes, time for a couple of tracks on the CD player, and then I'm at work. Not a very interesting story.

For my other job I only live 30 seconds away so I usually leave 3 minutes before I'm meant to start. I walk (obviously) and I'm there pretty soonish.

2. You’ll starve unless you eat a dead human being. Which bit of them do you eat first?

Leg or Breast mmmmm....Oh that's a Christmas question, not to be confused with becoming a cannibal. The obvious thing I'd ask is 'what is the situation?', and I would probably want to know that before I made this decision but I won't delve into that too much and will instead assume that I've got to pick a body part.

I love meat and I can never refuse a bit of rump steak so my choice would have to be the rump, the buttocks, call it what you will, but I think that would be the best bit. I've seen the film 'Alive' many times and that's the bit they go for. Apparently it tastes a lot like chicken....

3. What’s your favourite Disney movie?

My fav of all time is 'Jungle Book'. When me and my sister were kids, we used to visit family in Northern Cyprus on our summer holidays. They used to have siestas in the hot afternoons, but us being hyperactive kids needed to be entertained whilst they were all napping. They had a collection of 'English videos' that would come out and we would watch them mesmerised. They included 'The Fly', an old copy of Wrestlemania 2, and also 'The Jungle Book'.

These would get played on rotation but invariably only one of these could I call a classic and a favourite. I'm not a big Disney fan, and a lot of their creations piss me off but with The Jungle Book you get something great (incidently it was last film personally overseen by Walt Disney). It's built around a great story by Rudyard Kipling (although some of the darker elements are removed, is full of great characters voiced by great actors, and is chock-a-block with magnificent songs.

Who would have thought that a bear could come out with this classic:

"And don't spend your time lookin' around

For something you want that can't be found

When you find out you can live without it

And go along not thinkin' about it

I'll tell you something true

The bare necessities of life will come to you"

4. In what circumstances is a “shoot to kill” policy acceptable?

Are there any circumstances where this is acceptable? This is a question that arose following the death of Jean Charles de Menezes (23/07/2005) at the hands of the Metropolitan Police when he was wrongly suspected of being a terrorist. And it has been raised again when the USA adopted a "shoot to kill" policy in the wake of violence following the devastation of Huricane Katrina.

I've had to think long and hard about this question. What would I do? I could take the Utilitarian viewpoint and decide on the 'greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people', is it worth sacrificing one life to save many more? What if de Menezes was a suicide bomber? Would his death have saved innocent lives? Of course he was innocent, we know that now, but what if?

There are too many questions to be asked, and hindsight is a wonderful gift, but after all the things I've seen I would say that a 'policy' of death is not acceptable under any circumstances. How can yu tell someone they've got a greenlight to kill people indiscriminately. Do they have a set of guidelines in this policy about what the person has to be doing to get killed? And how do you gauge such a thing?

Every decision we make in our lives is effected by the situations we are in. No two scenarios are the same and so there must be flexibility in the laws we uphold and the policies we make.

So to answer the question I would have to say that a "shoot to kill" policy is never acceptable but if someone was threatening me and it was me or them then I'd probably do what I could to survive.

5. The music police will erase every song in the world except five of your choosing. What do you save?

Oh my god, what a toughie. You really saved the hardest question till the end. I'm always terrible at these type of questions..."what's your favourite film?", "Best album of all time?"..etc I think you get the drift.

I'm sure that I'll remember a few classics after a while but I'll just go for it now as I'm sure if I don't decide soon then the music pigs will delete everything.

1.End Of A Century - Blur (something to reminiss to)

2.The Day I Tried To Live - Soundgarden (something to rock to and play air guitar)

3.Jump Around - House Of Pain (something to jump around to...obviously)

4. I'm So Tired Of Being Alone - Al Green (something to get your groove on to)

5.Wise Up - Aime Mann (Something to think about to)

It was really hard to pick a set of 5 songs because new ones kept popping into my head. I hope you like some of them.

------------------------------------------------------------

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below asking to be interviewed.

2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.

3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

We at war with terrorism, racism, and most of all we at war with ourselves

I've not been very animated lately. This, I think, is due to a lack on input from myself, and also a lack of output somewhere. I haven't really been investigating the world and have simply been going along for the ride. I've stopped reading lately, I don't know why, and most of the information about the world I've been getting is from TV snippets and the BBC website. So it's not been too mentally challenging and usually the majority of the news is the same and comes to the same conclusions.

I was kick started yesterday when I was reading I, Brummie's post from Sunday and it did raise some vitriol in me. Not against Graham, but against George W. Bush, the subject of the post.

I just can't believe the stupidity and incompetance of Bush. I've had this feeling towards him for many years now, basically since his election when many doubts about him were raised, and then after 9/11, the war on Iraq, Kyoto, and now Hurricane Katrina, the feelings in me are even stronger.

I would suggest you read Graham's post as I agree fully with what he has to say but I'll end on his last point...

14.In Conclusion, Bush's management of this situation has been appalling - and by any reasonable standards, grossly incompotent.I would say, that by any reasonable defintion, it borders on gross misconduct. Can we look at the presidents contract? Can he be fired for gross misconduct? If someone can lose their job for say, looking at porn on the work internet (and it has happened, but not to me)....doesn't the incompotence that leads to the loss of thousands and thousands of human lives lost due to gross incompetence count as gross misconduct? Why isn't that a sackable offence? less than a decade ago we saw the example of Bill Clinton almost losing his job because he had sex with a woman who wasn't his wife - and right now, thousands die because of the President Bush's gross incompotence and gross misconduct, and I don't see Kenneth Starr anywhere, writing a report at the cost of millions of dollars to get Bush impeached.

It is so true. I'm sure he must have a contract somewhere and the first point should be that the President cannot be a dick. but sadly..

Bush is a dick

I had a dream, last night I was blind. And I couldn't see color of any kind

I would say that most people are not racists, after all the world is getting smaller, and we are one big global village. But isn't it strange the assumptions we can make depending on someone's colour or nationality?

(thanks to Retroboy who linked to this image from The News Blog)

mmmm.....

I’ve seen so much, I’m goin blind, And I’m braindead virtually

I don't watch a huge amount of TV and there's never anything that I have to watch. If I get to see a particular programme that I like, then brilliant, if I miss it, then no probs. I watch TV when I've got free time and want to relax, but I don't arrange my life aound the old goggle box.

One thing has changed that and it's Lost. I started off by watching the 3-episodes combo on E4 and have watched every episode now, every week. I suppose it helps that it's on a wednesday at 11pm on E4, in that I don't normally go out midweek, and so don't have to go out of my way to watch it.


Anyway, I've been watching it, and I do like it, but it seems that the last couple of episodes have been a bit drab. The first few were brilliant, loads of suspense, weird shit going on, etc, and it got me hooked, but the last couple have been a bit boring, only tying up a few loose ends. When I watch something for an hour (darn those adverts) I want some kind of payback, I want to know more things, I want to be left on a cliffhanger, so that next week I get the money shot. I know things will pick up and I can't wait to watch all 25 episodes, but damn it I want to know more stuff now!

I could easily borrow the whole series from a friend of mine, but I think that would ruin it for me, my wednesday nights, and also I'm sure I'd end up revealing the ending and pissing off quite a few people. So I'm gonna stick with it and hope it picks up soon.

Back Soon.

Hi all. I'm still alive, but I've been quite busy, and haven't really found the time for blogging. I'll be back soon though when I'm inspired.
Laters

Adem

Wash your dirty mouth, Your dirty mouth, Watch your little mouth

I swear and cuss but I'm usually careful about the circumstances and surrounding when I go into 'potty mouth' mode. In the past I've tried to keep my blogging language fairly PG but I've seen that over the last few weeks a few swear words have crept in.

Sometimes I do swear in a throw-away mannor when there's a suitable word that would be an adequate alternative, but I guess this is a sign of the times that so many profanities have lost their strength and shock value (I sometimes wonder what words will replace the now common place !#{&!@&^*@, #@!@&^*@, and !*!%@&^*@

I don't do it to be big or clever but I find that only certain words can express what I'm thinking and usually these words are profanities. So in praise of these words I'm going to make my "Top Ten Swear Words". Borrowing from Slightlydrunk.com just hover over the bold words (such as !@!@-8;^*@) and the real swearwords should appear.

1.!@!@-8;^*@
2.!£24t%$^*@
3.(%^$*&(£_)
4.^**&£"$%@:
5.@:£$%**&$
6.!@!%^?!
7.?+_(%**£

You may notice that I've only got 7 words in my "Top Ten" so I'm opening the floor for comments to contribute to the list. Be as imaginative and dirty as you like, and maybe we'll start a revolution.

-----------------------------

In my web browsing I've come across a few choice swearing sites you fellow swearers may find interesting. Swearsaurus & Viz Profanisaurus

Swing when you're winning

I haven't blogged for the week and I'm a bit sad about that but to be perfectly honest I haven't had a huge amount to blog about. I've been off work for the week as I had holiday that needed using up but I haven't gone anywhere, just stayed at home. I did do a few things that I don't normally get a chance to do although they're not very exciting.

On tuesday I played golf. My local golf course is pay-and-play so there's no membership needed which is good as I only play golf around 6 times a year. The course is divided into two 9-hole sections and I usually just do 9 holes but this time I did the whole 18 with Jonny and Pub Tom. In the end we were out for about 4 hours (with a pint halfway through) and the weather was fantastic. It took a few holes to get my swing back and in the end I was happy with my tee shots and my putting but my middle game was absolutely dreadful. Practice makes perfect but at the end of the day it's only a game and I don't have to be perfect at it (luckily my friends are as crap as me too!)

On Wednesday daytime I went ten-pin bowling which was fun too, although there were loads of kids around. I played 3 games with Jonny (who has taken the week off work for the same reasons), and won the 1st game with a 150 score, but then lost the next 2 games with scores of only 99 each time. I must say I'm not crap and I played the first game properly but for the 2nd and 3rd games I used my spin technique which is basically showboating and very aesthetically pleasing. I get the ball to swing out to the gutter, straddle the lane, and then swing back in. I enjoy this style immensly, and so did the group of german teenagers in the next lane, who were in awe of my flair bowling. That said though, I did lose the 2nd and 3rd games, but as I previously said, it's only a game.

So an eventful week is nearly over and I'll be back to work soon after the weekend. exciting eh?

We're all going on a summer holiday

I've won something!!

Lord Bargain is going away somewhere for his hols, and challenged us to guess where he was going for the prize of a specially made compilation CD (this prize was suggested by Swiss Toni).

LB is going to Toronto in fact, and the 2 nearest guesses were Guantanamo Bay (my guess) and New Orleans (by Spinsterwitch).

I must admit I wasn't taking it too seriously when I said Guantanamo Bay, but hey I'm sure to get a cracking CD for my efforts.

Will Tiffany be on it though??? I Wonder?

Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour

Some of you may know that I play for a local Sunday League football club, Preston Hellings F.C., well this weekend we went away for our annual 'tour'. Previous years have included trips to Brighton, Calais, Somerset, and Shrewsbury, to name a few, and this year I volunteered to help organise it.

The 'tour' is basically the chance for everyone to get away for a weekend, sometimes play a game of footy, but definately to get pissed, think of it as La Manga circa 1996, avec Gazza. After consulting the players it was decided that we should go camping somewhere in the south of England, and so I set out to find a campsite that would accomodate a group of 13 men. This is where the trouble started.

It appears that there are hardly any campsites that will take on single-sex groups, or even just large groups, damn! After ringing-up or emailing all the campsites in Bognor Regis, Chichester, Southsea areas plus a few others dotted around that could actually boast being near anywhere that we could have fun, we turned to sites nearer the Ringwood area, as our Goalkeepers missus is from that area. It was looking pretty bad as this time, but luckily last Tueday, Dean (Goalie) managed to find a campsite that would accomodate us!

The campsite in question was actually attached to a pub called the 'Sir Walter Tyrrell', a bonus, but it was miles away from anywhere else, so we would have to make our own entertainment, but at east we were getting away. phew.

Everything seemed to slot into place for the weekend, and I must say that I had an excellent time. It could've ended up completely different with everyone getting bored out of their skin, but fate helped us in that it seemed we'd booked in when a busy weekend had been planned by the campsite owners. Karaoke had been organised for the Saturday night, which involved everyone's names getting jotted down to sing various random songs (I was lucky enough to have the female part in 'Time of My Live'), and we drank a lot as we had all put a fair bit into the kitty. A good evening by all, but not the end, for the next day was the 'Rustic Games'!

The team by the Rufus Stone

The Pub had arranged the rustic games, along with various stalls, whack the rat (a sexual euphemism no doubt), a hog-roast, raffle, and tombola, etc. We entered 2 teams of 6 people, Preston Farmers Phats and Preston Farmers Smalls (we had previously convinced them that the F.C. stood for farmers club, as our club crest has a tractor on it), which divided the club members depending on their weight.

The events were: Welly Throwing, Horseshoe tossing, bobbing for apples, egg catching, and the infamous Tug of War.

We all put up a good show, even winning the prestigious Tug of War (Phats), but were beaten into 2nd place. After the awards ceremony we made our way back to civilisation, but had made a good impression because the Landlady invited us back next year, along with the promise of a game of footy against a local team.

I've now got the rest of the week off, but have got nothing planned, so I'm gonna spend the day fixing an old computer, checking up on people's blogs, and doing nothing too exhausting.

Does everyone have a different take? Are you just cool and I'm just baked?

I finally caved in a got the James Blunt Album 'Back to Bedlam'. It has been at Numero Uno in the charts for a while now so it must be good........mustn't it?

A complete and utter blunt??

First Listen...
Well I've listened to it now, all 10 tracks, and it's quite good, although there is something nagging at me that I feel like I've heard a few of the songs before, not that they're rip-offs but some of the soings are a bit same-ish. I can't quite put my finger on it but if you've heard it you might know what I mean.

A while later....
Ok, I've listened to it a bit more, and actually listened to the lyrics, and I must admit that some of the songs do do it for me, and I think it's one of those ones that I 'll listen to when I'm a little lonely and want a few songs to wallow in.

I couldn't do better myself though so I'll stop now.

Got any comments on it???

Brando, "The King and I", And "The Catcher in the Rye"

Well I did my little bit for the environment, I made fire! I've got loads of weeds, bramble bushes etc in the back garden and a lot of this got dug-up or cut back at the weekend, but I was left with a lot of crap. We do have a green collection by the council every other Friday but I had way too much.
So I got it all and burnt it!!!! ha ha ha, I did it responsibly though in a garden incinerator and even got this nice picture by taking a picture of one of the air vents with my camera in macro mode.

I think nature paid me back though because I've got a horrible cold now and am steadily running out of tissues......

What else should I be, All apologies

Jean Charles De Menezes, dressed in casual denim, left his flat, got on a bus to Stockwell tube station, bought a ticket, picked up a free copy of Metro, ran to get on the tube, sat down, and was then shot 7 times......

more info here from ITV News

If you but this record your life will be better

I've just listened to.....

Hot Hot Heat - Elevator

and

Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman

very good indeed.

Watching the people get lairy, is not very pretty I tell thee

All the talk lately has been about the new revised licensing act and how this will spell the end of Britain as we know it. I'm caught in two minds about it and often the argument is that if we lengthen hours people will come out a different times, go home at different times, and as their drinking will be spread out then they won't binge drink. I don't think I really agree with this because I know what British drinkers are like (i've worked in pubs for over 5 years).
Another thing is that the Pubs have had to apply for what hours they want and actually most of the pubs in my area have applied for licenses of 7am till 1pm. They are only going to use the 1am extension on Fridays and Saturdays, and will only use the 7am for special occasions, usually sporting occasions such, which could've been useful for the 2002 World Cup in Japan, or the Lions tour in New Zealand. For the rest of the time they will stick to normal (11am-11pm) hours, because who wants to work late at night?

What does this mean? It means that everyone is still going to be leaving the pub at the same time, except maybe drunker! I suppose the only real way to avoid this would be to actually introduce 24 hour drinking, whereby there is no opening or closing, but this was on offer to all licensed premises and hardly anyone took it up.

Now I was reading an interesting article in the Observer on Sunday which basically compared the French way of drinking to our way of drinking and commented that our current culture in Britain is that of drinking to get drunk, whereby the French drink to complement their meals, to relax, and to indulge in philosophical debates. Maybe this view of the French way of life is slightly off but you have to admit that the fact that I am talking about this and ways to make people behave themselves shows that we, as a collective, have a drinking problem.

Because I haven't been drinking much beer lately, I've found I can get a bit pissed quite quickly but I've lately been switching onto soft drinks when I think I've had enough. I have in the past gotten completely mashed (many times) and embarrassed myself by my complete lack of control, incohherent slurring, incomprehensible flirting, and uncontrollable hurling! I don't do this anymore (much) but I know that when I go out with a group of lads I'll get back onto the pints and do stupid things.

On Saturday I was going around to Tom and Nikki's for a BBQ and I decided to instead take a nice bottle of Rose wine instead of the usual crate (Portugese Rose Table Wine, selected by Asda, £2.54!). My decision for this was that I fancied something crisp, refreshing, and not at all bloating, and I also had a football match at 10:30am on the Sunday. I must say that I thouroughly enjoyed myself and liked the wine too. I did finish a bottle by myself but when you compare that to the amount of beer I would've drunk then I think I did quite well.

If I knew the answer to the problem of binge culture then all would be Kool and the Gang, but I don't. There has to be a culture shift and view drinking alcohol as something that must be done responsibly, but shouldn't be taboo. Maybe if wine was introduced to the dinner table when we're in our early teens then we wouldn't see young urchins in the park supping on cheap cider?

I hope I given you some food drink for thought on a very tricky subject, ..... now I'm off to get pissed on some Super Strength Lager and harrass some old people.

MacDonalds, MacDonalds. Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Rut

I'm working at the pub again today, this time from 3pm-7pm, and then I'm off out to the last night of Broadstairs Folk Week. To satisfy my ample food requirements I decided to go to Pizza Hut after I had finished my other job, and indulge in the Buffet Lunch which is basically an ' Eat as much as you want' offer. This would mean that I will gorge myself on pizza now, and then I won't be hungry for the rest of the day....brilliant.

Now the thing is that everytime I've been in the Pizza Hut restaurant there's only been girls working there (usually 17-19 year olds). This is not a problem except a previous time I went there with 3 mates and I came up with a Porno scenario for a film called 'Pizza Rut'. All the usual cliches came up (pun intended) and it means that everytime I go into Pizza Hut the same thoughts come into my head. I know this is typical for you guys out there, I usually rate every woman of whether I'd sleep with her or not! I know it sounds terrible and degrades women to mere sexual objects but it's a primal instinct that all men have (plus I'm not getting any!).

So now I'm a sexual deviant as soon as I enter Pizza Hut. Not physically but mentally ,and it puts me off my food! So there's the problem, not a great one, but one nevertheless. I bet they keep the ugly ones in the kitchen!

MMM I bet they're looking forward to the 'Meat Feast'!

Someone said give peace a chance. And, that's all that we're saying while we're sitting on the fence

I've just got home from work at the pub, doing a 4pm-9pm shift to get a bit of extra pocket money, and something really pissed me off today.

I was behind the bar and I wandered into a conversation several of the locals were having, well one of the locals was giving his view, and a couple of others were listening and nodding their heads. I normally think people are entitled to their views and if they say stuff I normally don't agree with then I usually let them have their say and think to myself that they're a bit ignorant but they're allowed their free speech.

This may sound a bit arrogant coming from me that I believe that my view is normally right, but in many instances I am! The subject of this conversation was Muslims in Britain. Quite topical I think you'll agree, and something that could provide a heated debate, but from a group of un-educated, Sun-reading, xenophobes I think you can guess what the primary arguments were.

They were going on about 'Muslims' on the dole and getting thousands in benefits, when many Brits were getting nothing. They argued that we shouldn't allow mosques to be built in England as Church's wouldn't be allowed to be built in the Middle-East (do they not remember where Christianity was founded?). And the final insult was that he said he'd like to go around with all people that felt the same as him, and blow up all the Muslims! I was shocked and appalled. IGNORANT LITTLE CUNTS! (pardon my French)

As I said previously, I'd normally allow them their views but in this case, on something close to my heart, I had to step in. I told them they couldn't just generalise all foreigners under the tile of 'Muslims', and that their views were completely wrong. Not all Muslims are suicide bombers, or benefit cheats, or pledge allegiance to Satan. They said that Muslims hated Christianity and would do anything to destroy 'our way of life'. I said that Muslims were nothing other than normal people who have a few different beliefs but generally believe in many of the same things as Christianity. This guy, we'll call him Frank (because that's his name), couldn't understand my point of view and told me in no lesser terms 'to fuck off if that's what you believe', what a tosser. In fact I was happy to and couldn't stand to be in his company anymore.

I have a BA in Study of Religions, an A-level in Religious Studies, and I'm also half Turkish-Cypriot and half English, meaning that I know a fair bit about Religion, both Christianity and Islam, along with many other religions, and the social aspects surrounding them and their history. In other words 'I know my shit' which means that I hate ignorant people that don't. Well actually I can understand some people's ignorance and where it stems from but when they won't accept there is another way, then it really gets my goat up.

For those of you who don't know much about Islam then here are six basic believes shared by all Muslims:

1. Belief in God, the one and only one worthy of all worship (Just like Christianity)
   
2. Belief in all the Prophets and Messengers (sent by God, including Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, not forgetting Muhammad).
3. Belief in the Books sent by God.
4. Belief in the Angels.
5. Belief in the Day of Judgment (Qiyamah) and in the Resurrection.
6. Belief in Destiny (Fate) (Qadaa and Qadar in Arabic). (Note that this does not mean one is predetermined to act or live a certain life. God has given the free will to do and make decisions.)

It doesn't sound too different for Christianity does it?

I believe that our multicultural Britain is a better place due to the immigrants in it, who have been arriving for many years. I love it that people want to come to our country.... we must be doing something right. I also love it that we have freedom to pursue anything we want to. Although I'm English I do feel an affinity with the 'Islamic' countries and I suppose my heritage has meant that I've tried to educate myself to learn more about the world and it's cultures and that all societies and lifestyles are equally valid as long as it's members and citizens are treated well and are free to purse other options if they want to.

I don't agree with suicide bombers, or terrorism, and have been stunned by recent wave of attacks in Britain by people who are trying to change 'our' way of life, a place I'm quite happy in. But is this any different from us invading a country and trying to force our way upon them? I know Saddam Hussein was a tyrant who didn't treat his people well and that many were abused by him and wished to overturn him, but does this mean that they should all want to live a way of life like ours, a life with democracy?

I can't answer that last question but to reiterate a previous point all lifestyles and societies are equally valid as long as it's members and citizens are treated well, are free to purse other options if they want to, and don't try to impose their way of life on other societies.

That's the end of my little rant, but please try to educate yourselves about your surroundings and the world you live in. It's a much smaller place than it used to be and you're bound to rub shoulders with groups you wouldn't normally meet.

FUCKERS!

FUCKERS!

I'd just writen a long post and there was an electricity surge which turned the PC off! and the Recover Post thingy didn't work!

FUCKERS!

It's oh so quiet

It's oh so still,
You're all alone,
And so peaceful until......

Bugger all happens.....B-O-R-I-N-G!

I've just not been up to blogging lately, but don't worry I've still been reading blogs and posting comments.

I've got something to put in you

I did not, I repeat, I did not go to Gay Pride! It occured to me that at the end of the last post I wrote "I'm off to Brighton tomorrow, so I'll blog over the weekend". It didn't occur to me until yesterday when I was travelling down that it was the Gay Pride march today, and I had told loads of people that I was going down to Brighton for the weekend. I can imagine them all thinking "that solves quite a few questions, he always did have good taste, and was always first to put YMCA on the jukebox".

I was only there to see Ollie Hodder (my friend Andy's brother) play on Brighton beach as part of the Lee Sounds Unsigned tour (from the people that make jeans) which has been showcasing the best unsigned talent. He got the chance to play after sending in a demo and if all goes well he could be playing at the Leeds Festival.

I'm really tired now as I stayed in a hostel and there was a women in the room who snored constantly, so here's a brief account of my day.
-Got to Brighton
-Saw Ollie play on the beach
-Went to the pier, almost sure I got a haemorrage from the mental waltzer, but I did win some toys on the sideshows (I'm honestly not gay).
-Had some drinks
-Went back to the pier, no haemorrage this time.
-Had some more drinks
-Saw TTP play at the Casablanca Club
-Went to bed.
-Got woken up by snoring woman
-Went to sleep
-Got woken up by snoring woman
-Went to sleep
-Got woken up by snoring woman
-Went to sleep
-Got woken up by snoring woman
-Went to sleep
-Got up and went to swimming pool and had a swim and a shower.
-Left Brighton

I did have a good time there but left this morning around 11am and so avoided the March and could leave Brighton fairly quickly avoiding all traffic.

I've just been to Broadstairs because it's the first day of the Folk Festival, but for a change I didn't drink and instead drove there.

I'm off to sleep now as I'm still tired and I've a footy friendly tomorrow. If we do well then I'll tell you about it, if we do shit then you'll hear no more about it.

Laters.

I just don't know what to do with myself

I must say there's not really much going on. As some of you may know I do 2 part-time jobs, one is at a University, one is at a pub. I've been quite busy at the Uni job as it's only 6 weeks till the freshers arrive and I'm trying to sort out loads of stuff before they arrive. On the other hand I'm not really doing much at the Pub. Shifts are on a rota so can vary from week to week, and for the next few weeks I'm virtually doing bugger all there, as I've only put down for a few shifts. I do enjoy working there but sometimes when I get my wages I wonder if it's really worth it. At that job I'm on minimum wage, £4.85 an hour, and I think to myself "is worth working a whole evening and getting £20?" I'd rather have some time to myself.

So now I've got some more time to myself and there's a few web-projects that I've been meaning to do but haven't got around to, but still they elude me. Instead I'm enjoying watching TV, playing on Football Manager 2005, and generally not doing anything constructive. I have got a few things planned but nothing life-changing.

The sunday league team I play for have got their first friendly on Sunday which I'm looking forward to but I'm sure we'll lose as we're all out of shape and quite a few of the team are injured, but it'll be good to get back into punting a ball around with a hangover. Incidently the club website is one of those web-projects I was talking about. I've been working with my friend Chris to create a database so that all stats can be filtered into the site and all pages will update after the previous match info has been input, but we've both been lazy on that and so I hope we can get it done before the season starts.

I've also been trying to organise a club weekend away. Last year it was Somerset, the year before Brighton, the year before that France, and this year it looks like we'll be going to brilliant Bognor Regis. I couldn't arrange a game there so instead we'll be camping and going out and experiencng all that Bognor has to offer (I'm going to enjoy going to Shieks Nightclub, now called Club Vision, as I enjoyed many a student night there) . It may actually be good that we haven't got a game as last year we were clubbing to around 3am and had a game at 10am, Paul Merson eat your heart out.

In a response to Lord Bargain's last post I think I'll try and come up with a more cerebrally enhancing post next time, something to educate and cause debate.

I'm off to Brighton tomorrow, so I'll blog over the weekend.

Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol* C-C-C-C-C Cocaine

It's been a quite uneventful weekend as I've had friday and monday off work to make a long weekend. Nothing new to report except that I drank too much vodka on Saturday night and had a hangover all day on Sunday leaving me feeling like Nic Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. I drank 3/4 of a litre bottle of Stolichnaya by myself whilst I was around Dan's, felt okay that night, but the next day was terrible. I felt better by 8pm and Tom came around and we played on Pro Evo for about 3 hours and I ate about 5 Breakaway Bars.
p>
TTFN

*I only had this, by the way.

01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01000010 01101100 01101111 01100111

01001000 01101001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101110 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110000 01110101 01111010 01111010 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00101110 00001010 01001100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00001010 01000001 01100100 01100101 01101101

01000011 01101100 01101001 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101

You spin me right round, baby, right round like a record

My mixer arrived today in cracking condition and I've tried it out and it all works. It's a KAM BPM Junior and cost me £21 (+£10 postage) and seems to be a good mixer to start my DJing with. I also got the decks out of the loft but I can't find the styli, cartridges and headshells I had so I've had to order some more off the internet along with a couple of RCA phono leads.

I've also went on the hunt for my vinyl collection and I've got a few classics in there which remind me of the mid/late nineties (Industry Standard - Industry Standard Vol. 1 (What You Want) / Double 99 - Ripgroove). A bit chavvy now but I still like them.

Hopefully the bits and bobs will arrive by the end of the week so I can give the vinyl DJing a go at the weekend. I'm sure I'll be terrible at first but it'll fun to have a go.

Bang bang you shot me down. Bang bang I hit the ground

A supposed suicide bomber was shot dead on Friday after being chased by 3 armed men and not stopping.

Call me stupid but I'd probably run if I was being chased by 3 strangers. Witnesses said that the man was chased, tripped whilst boarding a train, was pinned to the ground and received 5 shots to the head. The witnesses also commented that the man was of Asian origin, possibly Pakistani.

It now turns out that this was completely unconnected with the recent terrorist activity and Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair has apologised calling it "a tragedy".

Is it a reflection on our post-terrorism xenophobic attitudes that several of the witnesses assumed that the man was a Pakistani when he was actually a Brazilian? Are all Pakistanis going to be labeled as possible terrorists?

I don't know the amount of times I've had to run because I'm late for a train, running all the way to the platform. Anyone knows that train stations are busy loud places, and if I hear people shouting then I may give them a cursory glance but will usually choose to ignore them as they probably want to start an argument which will result in me getting a kicking.

I was questioning of Friday that maybe the man was just an innocent person late for a train, and it seems I was right.

Read the BBC article here.

If I die before I wake. At least in Heaven I can skate

Yesterday I went to the Sprite Urban Games at Clapham Common and it was quite nice to get away to the 'big smoke'. After parking a few train stops away from Clapham (we had been advised it'd be too busy to park in Clapham) and then travelling to Clapham we found that there were LOADS of spaces and we could've saved ourselves LOADS of time.

After our long journey we got to the common (advised Chris not to go for a pee in a bush as some people might get the wrong idea) and entered the fenced off area where the Urban Games were taking place. I must admit it was a lot smaller than I imagined and wassn't that busy but I still had a good time but after about 3 hours we'd seen all we could and made our journey home.

I must admit that all the stuff going on was pretty cool and makes me want to go out and buy a BMX and do some tricks, but I know I wouldn't be very good at it. I got quite a few photos but it was quite overcast so the colours didn't come out brilliantly.

My compromise is that I'll become really good at vinyl DJing and then my more adventurous mates can do all the tricks. Here are some photos from the day, I think they'll explain it better than I can:

P.S. We did see this cool thing.

Hey girls, hey boys, Superstar DJ's, here we go!

I have no musical talent but when I was at Uni I used to do a bit of DJing. The equipment I used was a Numark CD Mixer and Player, not as prestigious as vinyl, but I still got to learn mixing, got a crowd going, and got to listen and play a huge range of music. It widened my musical taste and although I've never played a musical instrument I could hear music in a completely different way and felt that I could understand it better.

Another thing I got to learn about was PA Systems, how they work, what goes where, specific types on cables, connections, and also general troubleshooting and making the audio sound good. I had a good time doing it and I was able to pass on my knowledge to a handful of other students whom I was able to teach how to mix and how to become an ok DJ.

When I left Uni I wasn't able to DJ because 1) I couldn't afford the equipment 2) I didn't really have the time 3) I couldn't be bothered DJing for anyone else as I wouldn't have the freedom to play a wide range of music that Uni provided.

I pretty much mastered CD mixing and I did get hold of some vinyl decks a few years back for free but I've never got around to actually using them. This is going to change and I'm going to be 'cool' 'cooler'. I've just bought a mixer on ebay and have got quite a few records so I'm going to start learning to mix vinyl as a new hobby, just for me.

In a response to my last post this is going to be my effort to make some 'real music'.

Music makes the people come together

Could you imagine a world without music?

It's amazing how music can reach you in ways that no other form can, and how it is constantly all around us. The only problem is that there is perhaps sometimes too much music that a lot of the 'real music' has been drowned out or polluted by polished, clean, manufactured, commercial music. I do enjoy a vast amount of music that is available in the mainstream on the radio, downloads, CD, or TV but as I've said they're too clean, tweaked in studios till they are considered as near perfect as they can be.

What I really enjoy is when the music is stripped down and reduced for the live gig, the freshness that comes from hearing a song that will never be heard the same again at anytime other than at that gig, added to this is the energy coming from a band on form and enjoying it, and also the unlimited possibility of where the track will go, the quips added by the vocalist, and most off all the thing I love is the audience interaction where you are truly involved in an almost tribal experience. This is something that cannot be achieved whilst sitting at home listening to a song that you know will always end on 3:34 and will always remain the same. Some songs are brilliantly recorded and I could listen to them again and again but just imagine hearing it live.....ooooh.

I feel that I've been deprived of my fix of 'real music' for quite a while now as I haven't been to a gig for quite a while and this is something I'm going to change (I did go to a Uni Ball which had cools bands but I didn't go specifically for them). I'm starting off with going to see my friend Andy's brother Ollie play an acoustic set in Brighton on the afternoon of August 5th, and then I'm going to see a funk band Ticklin The Pickle (I run their website by the way) play in the evening at the Casablanca Club. From small acorns they say, and so I'm planting my gig seed here and hope to add a few more over the summer, maybe even seeing a few bigger bands.

Out on a windy common, That night I ain’t forgotten

I'm off to the Sprite Urban Games on Saturday taking place at Clapham Common, which should be good. I've never been to one of these things before but I've seen some of it on TV, played Tony Hawkes on the PS2, and I had a BMX when I was about 7, so I'm pretty much an expert! I'm sure if I wanted to I could be "utterly bodacious" much like my friend Chris who has a skateboard (but can't ride it).
On show at the Urban Games will be skate, BMX, FMX, and Breakdancers. There's loads of other stuff going on too, and I can't wait to get my camera out and hopefully take some cracking photos. Hopefully they'll look a bit like these.