I've been watching on the TV and the claims being made inside Gaza about the civilians being killed. Listening to a conversation this morning between BBC News and a doctor in a Gaza hospital, the closest to any military personnel he reported were the police who were directing traffic.
It brings me to mind reading an account of a terrorist who mounted attacks on US forces and by the time soldiers kicked down his door he was sitting eating dinner with his family. The terrorists launching missiles over the border at Israil don't wear uniforms. Their families might not have their fingers on the triggers, but they support the murder that is going on. Gaza can't hide behind, "civilian deaths," it just doesn't wash any more.
My Hero
Yes, it's Family Guy. Well, Seth MacFarlane really. I've got the DVD collection of up to series 7 in the UK. By now the US are probably on series 10 or something ... not that I'm jealous or anything. Bwwwwwaaahhhhhhh.....
A small bunch of us are going to get together on New Year and watch it, but I thought I'd sneek a look at the bonus DVD before then. Well, it was my Christmas present to myself that I bought Mum to buy for me ... so I thought I at least deserved a look inside. After spending three days just sitting there, rocking back and forth looking at it, drooling over the cover ... hygine got the better of me and I wiped the spittle off and put one of the disks in the DVD player. Despite the abuse suffered at the hands of my mouth ... it worked.
Those who know me, know my BDSM tendancies and, yes, it was inevitable that I'd end up with the Peter and Lois night time set. The lack of dust on these two is because I'd just cleaned them after taking them down from the shelf in my office where they stay. Honestly! It's the truth!
Here's the man himself, MacFarlane. I'm not sure whether it was wise of him to host a question time after the live performance they did in Montreal. Some of those questions could be taken as casting some form of doubt over the audience ... but as I'm one of the fans, I won't take that suspicion any further! If you want to see what I mean, buy the DVD and help keep Family Guy from being canned again ... again.
Alex Borstein is ... so ... cool. The voice of Lois, among others ... I mean ... how voice actors manage to do what they do amazes me. Some days I have trouble even sounding like myself, but these folks can just breathlessly change voices several times before the hat hits the floor.
I still have one question though ... even though I believed I was prety clued up on things the other side of the pond, can someone PLEASE tell me who the HELL this character is? I just don't get the joke.
And the ultimate cool of cool ... Mayor Adam West is actually, really, truly, honestly, voiced by the REAL Adam West!!! How cool is that? I have to admit to having my suspicions, fueled mostly by seeing his name in the credits but, you know how it is. You start thinking, "Nah, that's too much of a co-incidence." But THERE he is!
A small bunch of us are going to get together on New Year and watch it, but I thought I'd sneek a look at the bonus DVD before then. Well, it was my Christmas present to myself that I bought Mum to buy for me ... so I thought I at least deserved a look inside. After spending three days just sitting there, rocking back and forth looking at it, drooling over the cover ... hygine got the better of me and I wiped the spittle off and put one of the disks in the DVD player. Despite the abuse suffered at the hands of my mouth ... it worked.
Those who know me, know my BDSM tendancies and, yes, it was inevitable that I'd end up with the Peter and Lois night time set. The lack of dust on these two is because I'd just cleaned them after taking them down from the shelf in my office where they stay. Honestly! It's the truth!
Here's the man himself, MacFarlane. I'm not sure whether it was wise of him to host a question time after the live performance they did in Montreal. Some of those questions could be taken as casting some form of doubt over the audience ... but as I'm one of the fans, I won't take that suspicion any further! If you want to see what I mean, buy the DVD and help keep Family Guy from being canned again ... again.
Alex Borstein is ... so ... cool. The voice of Lois, among others ... I mean ... how voice actors manage to do what they do amazes me. Some days I have trouble even sounding like myself, but these folks can just breathlessly change voices several times before the hat hits the floor.
I still have one question though ... even though I believed I was prety clued up on things the other side of the pond, can someone PLEASE tell me who the HELL this character is? I just don't get the joke.
And the ultimate cool of cool ... Mayor Adam West is actually, really, truly, honestly, voiced by the REAL Adam West!!! How cool is that? I have to admit to having my suspicions, fueled mostly by seeing his name in the credits but, you know how it is. You start thinking, "Nah, that's too much of a co-incidence." But THERE he is!
"V for Vendetta"
A masked man coming to the rescue of Evey Hammond. Of all the superheroes that could be real, of all the characters of fiction that could save us now were they to be alive today; V would be the one on whom I would most count.
The film is based on the comics by Alan Moore and David Lloyd set in a Britain occupied at the time by Thatcher; but the film is based on the Britain occupied by Brown. Moore has distanced himself from the film and, given the details on Wikipedia, I can understand why. However, they both accurately pin the blame for our society on ourselves. If we wished to see the architect of our suffering, we merely need to look in a mirror.
We allow the politically correct brigade to tell us what to think, what to say, what is acceptable in our society. Well, screw them; who gave them the pen and the right to write the rule book? Not me. Our problem is that these morons are now in the positions of power, in the ministries and offices that make the rules, manipulating the day-in-day-out politicians like puppets by how they word and aim their thoughts and ideas. It is clear to anyone with half a mind that our society is just like a stack of dominoes; at some point it will all come crashing down around our ears with only a very few left standing.
But who will pick up the pieces?
The situation is hopeless. As long as we are guided by people in ivory towers who force us to live the ficticious strait-jacket that they write, and have police that think they have the power to make the laws we live by, then we are lost. The powder keg continues to simmer under oppression ... one day it will explode and the pieces of the world that those in power have so carefully built up will shatter in to a million pieces.
By the way ... it's a great film. Stunning cinematography. Superbly put together.
The film is based on the comics by Alan Moore and David Lloyd set in a Britain occupied at the time by Thatcher; but the film is based on the Britain occupied by Brown. Moore has distanced himself from the film and, given the details on Wikipedia, I can understand why. However, they both accurately pin the blame for our society on ourselves. If we wished to see the architect of our suffering, we merely need to look in a mirror.
We allow the politically correct brigade to tell us what to think, what to say, what is acceptable in our society. Well, screw them; who gave them the pen and the right to write the rule book? Not me. Our problem is that these morons are now in the positions of power, in the ministries and offices that make the rules, manipulating the day-in-day-out politicians like puppets by how they word and aim their thoughts and ideas. It is clear to anyone with half a mind that our society is just like a stack of dominoes; at some point it will all come crashing down around our ears with only a very few left standing.
But who will pick up the pieces?
The situation is hopeless. As long as we are guided by people in ivory towers who force us to live the ficticious strait-jacket that they write, and have police that think they have the power to make the laws we live by, then we are lost. The powder keg continues to simmer under oppression ... one day it will explode and the pieces of the world that those in power have so carefully built up will shatter in to a million pieces.
By the way ... it's a great film. Stunning cinematography. Superbly put together.
Singing at Standen
Standen is a property currently owned by the National Trust. The singing was done by The East Grinstead Choral Society and they were seriously full of voice! In the house itself a handful of the choir were singing various carols as we looked around the house, which was large enough to be out of earshot of the choir very quickly!
Once the magic time came, aproximately forty strong, the choir assembled outside and sang for about three quarters of an hour; the leader in good humour and well spoken, quite comfortable in addressing crowds of people. I'm not sure if the audience reached its planned seventy strong as it was a second evening put on as the demand for the first evening had sold out very quickly indeed. I had completely forgotten and written off the evening until the phone went unexpectedly to offer me tickets.
A cup of very mild mulled wine warmed the body while the singing warmed the soul. The audience collaborated on tunes such as, "Good King Wenceslas," "O come, all ye faithful," "Away in a manger," and, "Once in Royal David's City." Now, I'm not exactly a God fearing person but evenings like these are certainly something to take the soul out of the rat race, get the self out of the four walls and in to pleasent company where there is scant threat of getting slashed. Or if some lout did decide to down far too much mulled wine, the most they have to hand is a paper cup.
The Choir itself bid the audience a Merry Christmas with a medley of up beat tunes which even included the likes of, "Rudolph," and, "Jingle Bells."
Once the magic time came, aproximately forty strong, the choir assembled outside and sang for about three quarters of an hour; the leader in good humour and well spoken, quite comfortable in addressing crowds of people. I'm not sure if the audience reached its planned seventy strong as it was a second evening put on as the demand for the first evening had sold out very quickly indeed. I had completely forgotten and written off the evening until the phone went unexpectedly to offer me tickets.
A cup of very mild mulled wine warmed the body while the singing warmed the soul. The audience collaborated on tunes such as, "Good King Wenceslas," "O come, all ye faithful," "Away in a manger," and, "Once in Royal David's City." Now, I'm not exactly a God fearing person but evenings like these are certainly something to take the soul out of the rat race, get the self out of the four walls and in to pleasent company where there is scant threat of getting slashed. Or if some lout did decide to down far too much mulled wine, the most they have to hand is a paper cup.
The Choir itself bid the audience a Merry Christmas with a medley of up beat tunes which even included the likes of, "Rudolph," and, "Jingle Bells."
1852
Apparently, it appears that one of the reasons why the UK economy is in such dire straits is that the various social security departments are still trying to pay Christmas Bonuses from 1852. No, I didn't photoshop it.
Kat Maul's bunny suit
When Kat Maul invited me over to give her a hand, she said it was going to be fun. She said that she had a bunny suit for me to play in.Yeh, right.
Wielding hammers around may be Kat's idea of fun but I beileved that the day would be spent doing banging of a different nature.
I mean ... the damn thing didn't even have any ears!
Blood Doner - Phoey!
When I was in my late teens, I was introduced to blood donation. I worked in the local Council where I lived and as a group we would all tramp down to the blood donation sessions set up in the local sports hall.
I continued to donate blood in Sheffield but had to stop when I began hormone treatment. It was some years later and when my dosage was lowered I was allowed to resume donating again.
Well, last month, in disgust, I stopped being a donor. The blood donation service just obviously can't cope and has more donors than it needs.
It started earlier this year when I had an appointment. The appointments are to help the blood donation process fit in with your life ... in my case, lunch times. I was frog jumped in the queue by someone who didn't and I was forced to go to another van where I had to wait in the queue ... even though I had an appointment. The result ... I was late back to work. The employer had already been gracious with the time taken to get there, etc., etc. and the end result was treatment like this.
Well, recently I had another letter drop through the letter box. The following morning I called up to make an appoinment. Apparently all the appointments for all the sessions had already gone and there was no telling how long I would have to wait to give blood. Furious, I resigned from the blood donation system. Well, they must have too many doners to be able to afford to treat people like this; my common as muck O+ blood will stay in my own veins.
I continued to donate blood in Sheffield but had to stop when I began hormone treatment. It was some years later and when my dosage was lowered I was allowed to resume donating again.
Well, last month, in disgust, I stopped being a donor. The blood donation service just obviously can't cope and has more donors than it needs.
It started earlier this year when I had an appointment. The appointments are to help the blood donation process fit in with your life ... in my case, lunch times. I was frog jumped in the queue by someone who didn't and I was forced to go to another van where I had to wait in the queue ... even though I had an appointment. The result ... I was late back to work. The employer had already been gracious with the time taken to get there, etc., etc. and the end result was treatment like this.
Well, recently I had another letter drop through the letter box. The following morning I called up to make an appoinment. Apparently all the appointments for all the sessions had already gone and there was no telling how long I would have to wait to give blood. Furious, I resigned from the blood donation system. Well, they must have too many doners to be able to afford to treat people like this; my common as muck O+ blood will stay in my own veins.
My saviour
This is my saviour. A bar of Green & Blacks Almond milk chocolate. When all things are falling in around my ears, this really gives me a reason to live again.I've had my job threatened, more Union hassle than I can handle, my credit card cloned, suppliers letting me down accross the board, trips back and fore to the post office, a love life that is badly in need of a cardiac rescusitation machine and on top of that extra things going on in the sidelines.
I've really felt like life has been falling down around my ears lately. I'm working the Christmas shift this year (I get the usual bank holidays off, but we're usually down to half staff for the period) we take it in turns. I've been keeping a bad chest at bay and now my back is playing up. I went to the GP and it is a case of, forget the medication but there is a relaxation class on Tuesday nights so I've got to investigate that.
Well, between taking a quick picture of that chocolate bar and sitting down to type this post, the bar is now no longer in existance. However, there are two more just like it downstairs. But they are for Christmas and Mum would happily chop my fingers off.
Oh well. Where was that class again?
Cloned
Well, it looks like HSBC has come up trumps, spotting the credit card fraud committed on my card before it had the chance to cause any damage. I'm not purchasing any specialist card protection services, but still HSBC were on the ball, telephoned me and got everything moving immediately.
Bad timing, but, well, what more can I do? I won't detail how they managed to catch the first cloned transaction, but needless to say I'm very grateful that they caught the problem this fast. I'm also a cautious person by nature and am knowledgeable about IT, so it has come as a surprise that this has happened, but the speed with which this was caught has saved a massive headache undoing all the damage that could have happened.
Now I've just got to sit and wait for a replacement card.
I suppose the only good thing that has come out of it is that some twat somewhere is going to fork over good money for some cancelled credit card details!! Har, har!!!
Bad timing, but, well, what more can I do? I won't detail how they managed to catch the first cloned transaction, but needless to say I'm very grateful that they caught the problem this fast. I'm also a cautious person by nature and am knowledgeable about IT, so it has come as a surprise that this has happened, but the speed with which this was caught has saved a massive headache undoing all the damage that could have happened.
Now I've just got to sit and wait for a replacement card.
I suppose the only good thing that has come out of it is that some twat somewhere is going to fork over good money for some cancelled credit card details!! Har, har!!!
