Bemused

Google's choices not bullet proof

2009-07-28T00:34:00.003+01:00

We tend to think of Google as bulletproof and everything they touch turns to gold.

They have made some HIDEOUS decisions in the past, and none greater than the one biting their ass today - the offloading of their 5% stake in AOL which was originally purchased for a cool $1 billion.

We were all giddy at AOL when the transaction happened, both for the fact that we worked for a company worth $20 billion (5% x 20 = 100% for those having maths difficulties) and the fact that we MAY have an "in" to getting work at Google.

Neither really happened.

Today, Business Insider are reporting that Google has called time on the horrible experiment that is investment in AOL and sold their share for $283 million.

I wonder what Google's other stunning investments - Orkut, Jaiku, etc. - will have to do to get similar treatment.

HD and the gadgets it comes in

2009-06-26T13:14:00.003+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

I've been humming and hawing for ages about getting two new HD gadgets - a blu-ray player and a Freesat PVR.

Today there's news that Freeview HD will be kicking off in December. However, the march to terrestrial HD is long and winded and not free of problems, the main one being capacity.

Even though I have a wonderful (if dead) Humax Freeview PVR, getting any type of Freeview HD will require a new box, rendering my beloved (if dead) Humax 9200T useless.

So, do I stump up for a new Freeview HD box to receive a couple of HD channels, or do I stump up for a Freesat HD PVR to receive all the glories of satellite capacity? It's a no-brainer really.

I'm just wondering what USP Freeview HD is going to use to tempt people away from the higher capacity of Freesat.

Jetlag... finally

2009-06-01T15:52:00.003+01:00

I've been in three timezones in the past fortnight and jetlag has finally caught up with me, just when I need it not to.

Our trip from the UK to the Pacific Northwest was met with zero jetlag, similarly our trip from the Pacific Northwest to Toronto was sleep deprivation free. Only when we fly back to Blighty do I succumb to the dreaded sleepless night... just when I have to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed for work the next day.

As it is, I feel rough as houses - a bit queasy and quite tired - and not at all well-rested as you should be when back from holidays. Still, I'm glad I didn't waste a second day of the hols on jetlag recuperation.

End of the holiday

2009-05-30T20:56:00.002+01:00

I really hate holidays sometimes. About four days before they end, you know they're coming to an end, and it's long flights, jetlag and back to work awaiting for you. This really kinda marrs the end of the holiday for me.

I really enjoy the run up, as you're counting down the days and doing less and less at work, as you hand over your workload to colleagues. You also get the "going anywhere nice?" questions, followed by the inevitable "oh, nice!"

I guess my holidays are generally sullied some, as we're visiting friends and family and it's harder to leave them than it is to leave some faceless hotel you've called home for a few days.

It still doesn't make it any easier to leave Canada or Australia and return to a pokey two-bed flat and to work.

Off to the cottage

2009-05-26T17:59:00.001+01:00

So far, we've had a wonderful time in Seattle, a nice trip to Vancouver (marred by the worst hotel ever), and a wonderful wedding. Now we're off to the wilds of Ontario for a few days at a cottage, to relax, unwind and watch the rain fall.

The forecast is not terribly friendly, but as with most things - this holiday will be what we make of it.

Seattle trip comes to an end

2009-05-20T15:18:00.002+01:00

As I write this, we are readying for our return to Vancouver, to await our flight to Toronto tomorrow.

Having never been to Seattle before, I have nothing but fond memories and Sue's friends Peter and Caroline were lovely hosts, ensuring we saw all the sights there are to see. We tried local beer, and seafood, saw various tourist sights, hooked up with an ex-colleague of mine and just had a nice relaxed time.

I'm looking forward to getting to Toronto and having the wedding portion of our holiday, but Seattle was a very nice surprise indeed.

Another day in Seattle

2009-05-18T22:04:00.003+01:00

Today we actually headed into deepest, darkest Seattle.

I was on a mission to find the first ever Starbucks, for no other reason than historical curiosity. I really wanted to know why, in America's city of coffee, one shop rose above all others to become the international McDonald's of hot brown lovin'. The shop really provided no answers, but I did enjoy probably the best cup of Starbucks I've had in a while.

We also hit a place called Lowell's, which is a Seattle institution. I had one of "Lowell's rolls", an arctic cod roll with chips, all washed down by unsweetened ice tea. Sue found a local brew from the Pike Brewery and washed down some fish and chips with that. I think I could live here - unsweetened ice tea EVERYWHERE, decent local microbrew and the city of coffee. Only negative being the rainfall.

This arvo we're hitting a local mall to see what US prices compare to Canada and the UK.

Sunday in the hills

2009-05-18T03:01:00.002+01:00

Today we took a trip into the Cascade Mountains to a town called Leavenworth. In 1972, the townsfolk decided that in order to bring tourists in, they'd need to theme the town. From 1972 on, the town was Bavarian themed. The place looks like a Disney version of a German town, albeit with the Cascade mountains in the background.

We ate a a themed restaurant and had a so-so meal. We also tucked into some local made salt water taffy, and found a place called the Australia "Store" that sold random things, as well as Aussie imports. Just the thing for Sue.

It was a crazy day of driving, punctuated by some German grub.

Sleepy in Seattle

2009-05-17T05:39:00.006+01:00

Image by apete via Flickr

Had a really lovely first full day in Seattle.

Started off with breakfast in North Bend, at the diner that was used in Twin Peaks. Being a Peakie fan for years, this was a real kick. I had a couple of cups of "damn fine coffee" and took a bunch of photos to commemorate.

Later today we went to the space needle. Originally built for the 1962 World's Fair, it's like a shorter version of the CN Tower. The observation deck was about 520 feet up, which made it bearable for a non-lover of heights like myself.

While in the gift shop, I spyed a Seattle Sounders MLS jersey. It's their inaugral season and their shirt is sponsored by Xbox Live. $70 is a bit steep for a shirt with Xbox Live on it, but it would be a neat shirt to have nonetheless.

The other fun hunt we partook today was trying to find a Hertz to add a driver to our rental. We had a few wild goose chases, before eventually finding a branch downtown. That and the lack of being able to turn left almost anywhere in Seattle will be my lasting memories of the place.

Tuvalu is sinking and I don't want to swim

2009-05-05T15:27:00.005+01:00

Paraphrased Tragically Hip lyrics aside, the imminent global warming-induced eradication of Tuvalu is likely to have one overwhelming devasting effect felt the world over - the loss of the .tv top level domain, as TechDigest.tv (a website under threat) reports.

It may seem silly that all those .tv websites would actually go dark, but as Tuvalu is the country associated with the TLD, it's demise would also signal the .tv demise.

Apart from large chunks of TV based internet web sites going dark, we should also shed a tear for the people of Tuvalu, of whom I know nothing apart from their ownership of the .tv TLD.

Update: Thanks to the BBC, I now know that Tuvalu is made up of about six islands, roughly 4m above sea level and has 11,000 inhabitants.

My phoneline nightmare continues with BT

2009-05-05T10:22:00.001+01:00

I thought my nightmares with a phone company would cease when I left the horrible Talk Talk. I was wrong.

The switch over to BT which was heralded with much personal fan fare hit the snag of the landline not actually working. This was sorted out by a lengthy engineer visit on Saturday morning.

After that I had to call up the BT billing department and request they actually give me the services I'd ordered. You see I'd set up direct debit payment and the added service of free international calls. The initial bill had an extra £4.50 due to no direct debit set up and no hint of an international call pack. Talking to the rep on the phone, I had my BT order confirmation email in front of me, asking why I didn't get what I'd ordered and they'd confirmed.

Is it so hard for a company to actually do the one thing they're supposed to be good at? BT are a phone company, as much as they want to do the internet (don't even get me started on how horrible their packages for that are), they are the provider of landlines to the majority.

So far they've screwed up at every turn.

Bright light at the end of the Talk Talk tunnel

2009-04-30T09:13:00.002+01:00

I managed to re-sign up with Be internet last night. I was worried that my connection would take 10 working days, as I was originally told. This would seriously impact trying to arrange things for our trip which is in about... 11 working days.

Thankfully I received a text and email today informing me that connection would be on the 6th of May which isn't even 10 calendar days. Oh joy.

On top of that, they're giving me three months free and refunding me the £40 cancellation charge. So I get to be rid of Talk Talk and their horrible service and get 3 months free internet for my troubles. Something's finally worked out for me.

Talk Talk phone problems

2009-04-29T09:42:00.003+01:00

My month long fight with Talk Talk is ALMOST over. My new account with BT was supposed to take effect yesterday, however there was a snag.

Checking the phone even this morning, there's no dial tone. The BT website assures me the account and line are set up. Having called 151, I've NOW been assured there's probably a fault on the line. I can't help thinking this is the telecom version of the flaming bag of dog poo left on my door step by Talk Talk.

I now have to plug in a corded handset into the sockets at home to test whether they work. I don't have a corded handset. So it's off to Tesco at lunch to find the cheapest corded handset known to man.

When that's sorted, they're sending an engineer around, so I get to take a day off work for that. Oh JOY!

All this and we're now internet-less at home, which doesn't sit right with me for a number of reasons.

Will this fight with Talk Talk - arguably the worst telecoms provider ever - ever end? And how much is it going to continue to cost me?

Shocking budget and a decade of pain

2009-04-23T21:26:00.004+01:00

It's been in the news for the last few months that Labour's uselessness during the good times has meant the piggy bank is empty now the bad times have hit, but today the BBC are reporting that we're in for almost a decade of fiscal pain, and that "it would be 2032 before government debt returned to the level of 40% of GDP that had been Mr Brown's target."

Thank you Labour.

Yesterday's budget was a travesty for anyone trying to eek out a living in this country with beer going up, petrol going up and even personal income tax going up, with a new 50% tax bracket. Of course, the rich are rich for a reason and this new 50% bracket is likely to cause more problems than it'll solve. As the Beeb points out (rather obviously):

"...if some rich people chose to leave the country and spend less in the UK, that would also lower tax receipts in other areas, such as VAT receipts, perhaps by as much as £1.5bn."

Makes me wonder who let these goons in charge of the empty piggy bank in the first place. I think news like what we received today is proof enough that the UK is now not the place it once was. With the country in such disarray financially, there's going to be all sorts of cuts to public spending as well, to make up for the horrific mess we're in.

Time to dust off my passport and get the hell out of dodge while my pounds are still worth something.

Repackage, reissue, reissue

2009-03-06T13:49:00.004Z

There was a time when "special edition," "deluxe edition," or "limited edition" sent well earned goose bumps up and down me. It was a 12" single or an album that was truly limited (i.e. deleted day of release) or deluxe or truly special in some "can't buy this from Wal-Mart" kind of way.

These days, those words are as over used as "brilliant" is on those tv ads ("buy the brilliant new album by So and So featuring the brilliant single ..."). I have to admit though, for bands I'm into, I've been suckered into buying more than my fair share of these releases.

Today, "special edition," "deluxe edition," or "limited edition" is attached to loads of releases, and reissues that really don't warrant it. A lot of the time these releases can be hit and miss, depending on what you're looking for.

Personally, I long for the rarities - stuff from the vaults, missing b-sides, single mixes, etc. Stuff I've known about but have never heard. Plying bonus discs with shoddy live tracks (I'm talking about you Joy Division) or demos (hello Cure!) is the easy and lazy way out in my books. I 'm also a sucker for a decent booklet, stuffed with photos, discographies, lyrics, liner notes etc.

A lot of these releases are aimed squarely at fans, and many are from older bands that still have a CD buying fanbase. I would say, hands down, some of the best reissue to date are from Depeche Mode. Not only do they cram their releases with some tasty extras, the discs have also been remastered as multi-channel SACDs. On last count, a reissue like Violator contained the multi-channel SACD version, two-channel SACD version, the CD version, the 5.1 DVD version, the DTS DVD version and the PCM Stereo DVD version on the two discs (that's six versions). There's also a specially shot video on the DVD about the time around the release of Violator. The collection is rounded out by a booklet with liner notes, and lyrics to the album tracks and bonus tracks. Wow!

Spotified!

2009-03-04T11:15:00.003Z

I've always loved music. It's what kept me going through my teenage years, and for a while there I was spending upwards of £100 a week in Berwick Street on the latest and greatest promos and CDs. Now my addiction has a new master and it's a lot cheaper than £100. I call him Spotify.

There have been LOADS of online music sites that have tried to sate a person's appetite for all things rhythmic, but most of the ones I've used have always had that little thing lacking. The other option has always been wholesale "piracy" which is always a double edged sword as it gets my goat that we have to pay over and over again for the same song (moving from vinyl to CD or buying a best of album).

Anyway, in the last few years I've been using Last.FM as my port of call for online music. Their player allows you to play tag radio. So if you want to listen to 80s music, you enter 80s as a tag, or ambient or synth pop. As long as there's enough material tagged accordingly you'll get a decent radio listen. If there's not, you can tag artists, songs and albums.

Spotify, however allows you to go one step further and listen to albums and singles by bands with seemingly no restrictions, apart from an audio ad every 20 minutes. The service is still in beta, so there's all sorts of things they could add, but what they have in place right now is amazing. The audio quality is pretty decent, the songs start right away and they have a playlist feature that allows you to collaborate with other Spotifiers to create "Now That's What I call a Playlist" (or similar).

Don't get me wrong, I still use Last.FM as it's been storing my music habits since 2003. Spotify even taps into that by allowing you to track or "scrobble" the tracks you listen to on Last.FM.

There's rumour an API will surface when the service is out of beta, and you can be rest assured that it'll explode just like Twitter did. My only concern is how the hell are they making money? I can't imagine one audio ad every 20 minutes is cutting it. They do have a paid service, but the only benefit seems to be cutting out the audio ad.

Since using Spotify, I've seriously begun questioning the need for a CD collection, something I never thought I'd contemplate. It's a decent piece of software that can make you do a complete 180 of your beliefs and perceptions. Good on ya Spotify!

RIAA and the underhanded fight

2009-02-24T16:16:00.008Z

I've been reading with bemusement in the press this week that the RIAA "forced" Last.fm to hand over details of people who have scrobbled listens of the new U2 album. Nice underhanded way to try and figure out who's pirating ... on the surface.

If I was a highschooler and wanted to one-up my fellow classmates, the easiest way would be to rename a bunch of MP3s to the song titles of the new U2 album and just play them, then do a "na na na" in their faces the next day... along with a "oh, I couldn't possibly let you listen before it comes out and ruin the experience". In this scenario, it was more than likely that big burly RIAA bouncer would be walking down the high school halls intent on taking down the little scheming braggart.

Thankfully, Last.fm have come out and said that a) the RIAA never asked for this info and b) if they had they wouldn't have received it.

This made me think that the tech press was obviously tipped off from a competitor of last.fm. Great way to sully the name of a great product - make up rumours that could jeopardise your freedom and watch the rats flock to delete their Last.fm accounts before the incriminating evidence can be used against them.

There is an easy way you can see who's listened to tracked named after the songs on the new U2 album. Just go to Last.fm and do a search on all 11 songs. The RIAA can easily do this, but to leap from seeing someone listened to a song with the same name to that person being a pirate and having downloaded the track is a leap of faith that no judge would see as an obvious logical step.

Crimbo in Oakville

2008-12-27T12:59:00.004Z

Well we made it to Oakville and magically had a white Christmas. It was a bit touch and go as Christmas eve was warming up and we weren't sure if the snow would stick around. As it was we had nothing to worry about.

We opened some pressies, had some brekkie and went for a Crimbo walk. We meant to walk down the ravine behind mum and dad's house, but as the sled we had Emily on wasn't all that stable we amended our course to mimimise crying.

Dan and Tiff - who were absent for brekkie and walk - eventually got back and we finished opening the rest of the pressies. Now there's even more people - Emily, Sue, Jay and Tiff - the present opening takes even longer, which is cool as that's the main crux of the day.

It's been really nice being back in Oakville. Everything here seems to be so much easier - life in general. I think as we've had a tough time of it recently at home - no space now Emily's here, me losing my job - being reminded of a better way is sort of bittersweet for me. It's something I could easily return to and it would give Emily a better life. However, getting Sue to agree to move to Canada would happen the same time pigs started flying... when did life get so complicated???

Record company rip offs

2008-12-03T15:10:00.004Z

I mosied down to Fopp today at lunch to have a gander at all and sundry in the way of books, DVDs and CDs.

I was dismayed and a little horrified to discover a few things. For some reason Warner haven't been content to issue yet ANOTHER Smiths best of in two formats. They've now reissued the original singles on 7" format at £4 each!! For that price, you can pretty much buy the actual albums. Most of the b-side material is on one of the many many compilations (think "The World Won't Listen" or "Louder Than Bombs"). You need to either be stupid, a diehard Smithie or someone who can't handle listening to more than 3 minutes of music at one time to wanna buy these.

The other shocker I saw was yet ANOTHER reissue of Echo & The Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain". I bought the last reissue with four or five bonus tracks. Now they've tacked on a CD recorded live somewhere or other and jacked the price up from around a fiver to £18. That's around £13 for a throw-away live disc people - much like the Joy Division reissues.

The last disc I saw was "iSelect" by David Bowie. This was the CD that was free with the Times in the summer. The price on this throw away collection of tracks EVERYONE has? £19. That's right - £19. It's 12 tracks. You could buy "Best of Bowie" and a couple other albums and still have change from £19.

I had to leave the shop at this point. Why oh why does the music industry STILL think they can get away with these types of practices?

Expensive France

2008-11-26T23:19:00.002Z

I'm so used to having it drummed into my head that the UK is so uber expensive, only a dolt would live there that I actually thought our trip to France would be a pretty cheap affair.

Where do I get my info? This place is stupid expensive. As the Euro is currently hovering around £1 = €.90 (when you actually get money converted, not the crazy quoted official conversion rate that NO ONE ever gets), you start to see how expensive things are.... like beer at €6 a pint (x .9 = £5.40), or Fallout 3 at Game is €70 (x .9 = £63!!!). I paid £29.99 and I thought that was too much.

Petrol's even pricier here at around €1.16 per litre (x .9 = £1.04) when it's hover in the low 90p in the UK. There's other things are are expensive, but not in a direct comparison. Suffice it to say, blowing €50 a night on dinner for Sue and I is a one way ticket to the poor house. I'm having fun, but for my wallet's sake, I'm glad we're only here a week.

In Toulouse

2008-11-25T10:23:00.000Z

I've been blogging about it on my Emily blog, so I thought I'd mention it here that I've managed to break away for a bit of a break with Sue and Emily to the south of France. We're in Toulouse, as Sue is doing several days of lectures for school and I'm here as the manny, or Mr Mum as the case may be.

We arrived Sunday evening, and promptly went out for dinner, having checked into our hotel (pictured) and de-bagged.

Monday, the weather was rather unsightly, so Em and I waited until it cleared up in the apres midi and went for a wander, taking in a number of sights along the way.

Today, Sue has the afternoon off, so we're going to go for a mooch. The last couple of days, Sue's really only been able to leave the hotel to go for dinner, so the sightseeing has been quite minimal.

It's been nice to get away, but yesterday walking around town, I felt quite lost and dispondent. I'm not sure if it was because I was exhausted or if the thrill of seeing new cities has really left me. I couldn't even go shopping for comics or videogames because they're all in French, and I've pretty much given up buying CDs. It was just Em and I, walking aimlessly around town, stopping occasionally to take photos and to make sure Em was OK ("au quay").

Hope my "inner turmoil" bucks up by Christmas. I don't enjoy feeling down, and thought a nice holiday would do me the world of good. Maybe a nap would be a better idea?

Rudderless or just growing up?

2008-11-07T14:29:00.002Z

A lot of the things in my life I took for granted or kept me grounded, seem to have evaporated in the last couple of years. It's almost like I've had to redefine who I am. I realise when you become a husband or a father you get redefined anyway, but I'm talking more from a physcological point of view.

One of the many reasons I moved back to the UK all those years ago was to do with music - music was always a massive part of my life - from cataloguing, playing, collecting, etc. The UK was the hub of all things from wonderful used record shops, a vibrant CD singles industry, a close knit collection of amazing venues and all the music I loved was UK based.

Move on 8 years later and I no longer drop £100 every Saturday down Berwick Street on CDs.

It may seem lame and materialistic, but I don't really feel I'm the same person I was, and I guess as you lose one tether or hobby you should replace it with another. I guess it would have been a good time to do something outdoors, like take up cycling, etc. Instead, I seem to have rediscovered my love of videogaming.

Oh well. That, coupled with being a father and a husband means I don't really have much time for hobbies at the moment anyway, so losing one is probably not a bad thing.

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Now playing: Simple Minds - Speed Your Love to Me
via FoxyTunes

What's going on?

2008-09-01T12:38:00.003+01:00

Sometimes I wake up with the feeling that I will be doing the same routine - Groundhog Day - style for the rest of my life. The dread that instills is quite strong, I wonder how I get out of bed sometimes.

Part of it is stress I guess, brought on societal norms, job issues, family issues, etc. I can't really point the finger at what the rest is. Depression perhaps?

When did it all change? I remember waking up when I was younger hoping I'd live forever with the world at my fingers and a world of possibilities to explore. Now I get up, shower, leave the house, listen to the radio and fight back the tears.

Is there a definite moment in time where that last door closed behind me I wonder, never to be reopened.

Maybe I just need a complete 180 to my life, and pursue something else somewhere else.

When you open up those types of possibilities, it becomes even more depressing realising that if you could do ANYTHING, you don't know what you'd do. Be a rock star? A movie star? run a pub?

Maybe it is better the devil you know, put up with the misery of life and wait to die.

Oh cheery days.

Yet another problem

2008-08-13T11:35:00.003+01:00

As if life right now doesn't give us enough to worry about - falling housing prices, escalating food and petrol prices, the environment, Russia invading Georgia and the fallout from that, etc.

Now we have to contend with the death of bees!

Sometimes I wonder how I get the mental energy to get out of bed. For everything that's good there seems to be at least two or three bad things happening around the world.

The meaning of life

2008-08-11T11:44:00.003+01:00

Sitting on the train this morning, I was mulling over the meaning of life. I know loads of people have attempted this (including Monty Python) but far too often I can't get past the futility of it all.

I mean why are we here?

I can only surmise that we are here to leave the world a better place than the one we came into. Of course, this could be done on a personal micro level as well as a global macro level, depending on your sphere of influence.

Bill Gates (love him or loathe him) has given loads back to the community and made quite a positive impact on quite a macro level. I try, on a micro level, to be the best person I can be. This can be a full time job however, whether it's trying to be environmentally aware or turning the other cheek in conflicts.

In my personal circumstance, I question the futility of sitting on a train every morning to go to a job that I could take or leave to earn a crust that just about supports myself and my family.

Is this living? Is there something more?

With Emily here with us now, I wonder if she'll look back over her years when she's 70 and have no regrets, no wonder at what it was all for. As a father, I hope so. As I realist, I doubt it.

Need to up my game

2008-07-28T15:04:00.005+01:00

Having had yet another contact let me know they're now on LinkedIn, I thought I'd do a snoop on my ex-colleagues to see where they are now.

I know the name of AOL carries a lot of weight, it's how you handle yourself when you get in the door that separates the boys from the... well unemployed.

It was with a heavy and depressing heart that I realised that everyone I've worked with seems to be flourishing since having left AOL, whereas I seem to be almost floating backwards in this great river of life.

It's spurred me on to begin anew to up my game, get a new job with a decent title and actually do some work that has a progressive feel to it, instead of filling in boxes and basically feeling underused.

Despondent

2008-07-02T11:51:00.003+01:00

Image via WikipediaI guess some people call it mid-life crisis.

You get to a point and realise you'll never be a rock star or an astronaut and everyday forks in the road are taken and doors of options close until you either get to where you want to be or live a life of regret wishing roads untaken were taken.

I've been feeling more and more unsettled lately with just about every aspect of my life - from the pokey flat I live in, to the dead end job I really don't enjoy.

Having worked in this job for over a year, not only have I realised I don't really enjoy it or want to continue, I've also realised I really have no clue what I actually want to do. I'm not sure what is more depressing.

I've had the odd couple of jobs that I've really enjoyed, and I really went above and beyond whilst doing those, but the last few years it's really been a case of clock watching and putting in the effort you need just to survive (echoes of Office Space anyone?)

Sue keeps trying to get me inspired to move to Australia, and maybe I need a complete shock to the system like that to find my inspiration.

I really don't know, but I do know that I walk around in a haze and it just gets more and more depressing with each day.

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Now playing: Underworld - Trim
via FoxyTunes

Random sightings in London

2008-06-23T13:14:00.001+01:00

In a city like London, stumbling across a celebrity while out and about isn't all that difficult - Rupert Penry Henry here, Krishan Guru-Murthy there.

This says not only a lot about the city, but also a lot about what constitutes celebrity these days.

The much harder game to play is stumbling across people you actually know - friends, acquaintances, etc. Meeting up with most people you know can be a logistical nightmare at the best of times, involving calendars, emails, mobile phones and random meet up points, so to stumble across one by accident can be quite refreshing.

This random sighting has happened to me now three times in the last few months. Arguably, they've all been my wife's friends, but they're people I know and can hold a conversation with.

If only all get togethers could be through the medium of happenstance, life would be one wonderful accident.

Working that Long Tail

2008-05-16T16:16:00.001+01:00

Having perused the blogosphere yesterday I came upon the fact that an album I loved from the late 80s was reissued recently with a load of bonus tracks, taking the original 10 song track listing up to a value-at-twice-the-price 21 tracks.

So, today and yesterday, I decided to trawl my local record shops in search of "Pop Said" by those Welsh troubadours, The Darling Buds. Shock of shock, as they're not gansgta rap or in the immediate top 10, the CD was nowhere to be seen IN A RECORD SHOP.

I had no option, but to high-tail it from the Zavvi Megastore on Oxford Street and log on the web where myself and other lovers of the long tail can purchase whatever we want whenever we want.

I have to say, if I did find it in a bricks and mortar Video Game / DVD shop (let's face it, that's all HMV or Zavvi are now), I would have probably been forced to shell out around £12. A handy search of the web not only got it for me from Play.com for £7.99 but I also managed to find a number of discount codes dropping the final assault on my wallet closer to £7.00

Target acquired and next week I'll be bopping along to the grooves of The Darling Buds début effort... no thanks to the local record shops.

Depressing as...

2008-04-14T14:59:00.003+01:00

Everywhere I look in the news and on people's faces, there's tales of gloom. Inflation here, drain on that, it's enough to make you give up.

Having read the paper today, there was a tale that blended the sky-high price of petrol with the sky-high price of food materials, with the conclusion that nothing is coming down in price any time soon. Farmers' costs are up, not enough food is being grown for food (thank you bio-fuel) and the end supermarket price is enough to make you cry.

£1.10 per litre of petrol, a loaf of bread is now over £1. It's just purely depressing, especially at a time of property depression and uncertainty in the market in general.

If this were a video game, I would have given up months ago and hit reset. Maybe the outcome would have been different.

Deal or no deal?

2008-02-05T11:27:00.000Z

Sometimes you come across something so shocking, it takes your breath away.

Recently, I bought some Sainsbury's basic coffee. It was a whopping 79p for a 227g packet. How bad can it be I asked myself. It's not instant, it's the brewable stuff.

Well, I've answered that question today. It can be really really really bad. I'm not sure there's any phrase I can use to describe it, like a wine lover would describe wine, but I can bandy about terms like burned ash or disgustamundo, and that seems to aptly sum up the taste of this vile creation.

I have to say that although it was only 79p, it was 79p badly spent. I will be ditching this vile excuse for a morning ritual, and sticking to stuff that costs, looks, smells and tastes more expensive.

The Heat is on!

2007-12-29T10:00:00.000Z

Made it to Melbourne to see my old flat mate Lambros.

We took in the sites and sounds and bottled water shops of the city centre and surrounding subdivisions and areas, which they call suburbs here.

The nasty thing about the day was the weather. It got up to around 35C during the day with no real wind or anything. Even in the evening, coming out of shops and restaurants, it was so warm it felt like someone slapping you in the face with a warm towel. I'm used to the UK summers where it cools down enough in the evening it gets nice. Here it goes from 35C to 28C in the evening. Not good.

I think I can personally put my hand up and claim responsibility for the drought, what with all the water I drank yesterday. It's a dodgy situation, this heat, a drought and humans needing to stay lubricated.

Today apparently isn't going to be much better, as it's scheduled to get up to 36C. I guess I've got another day of squinting and headaches ahead of me. Who, in their right mind, ever claimed this was the favourable type of weather? They must be mad!!

Mobile worries

2007-12-28T10:40:00.000Z

When Sue and I signed up for new phone contracts, we both opted for 3 as you can use your monthly minutes abroad, as long as your on a sister 3 network. As Australia has a sister 3 network, we thought it would be quite handy for x-mas.

I've been using my 3 mobile to call the UK and Canada via a UK number and unfortunately my alloted minutes hadn't been going down as I was checking them. This, obviously, was leading my imagination to believe I would arrive back in the Uk to a bill rivalling the price of a flight to Australia.

Behold, when I woke up this morning, my alloted minutes had dropped by about 55 minutes and all seems well. A number of emails to the 3 customer help people seems to confirm this, so I am free to call the UK without incurring any international charges.

Hurrah!

Flight East

2007-12-27T22:05:00.000Z

Arrived this evening in Melbourne, after a 59 minute Virgin Blue flight from Adelaide.

Having done the recent epic flights, 59 minutes was nothing! Didn't even take my shoes off or need the night nurse.

Virgin Blue now has satelite TV on their flights. Oddly, you can watch it free for about 15 minutes then you have to pay $5 for the rest of the flight. Good if you're flying more than 59 minutes!

During the free preview, I managed to catch a classic Arsenal match between the Gunners and Southampton. Of course, true to form, Soton lost 4-1 with LeTissier pulling out the solo Saints goal. Tickled me that I could be so far away and still feel so close to home.

Lambros met me at the airport in his much talked about over the years white Mazda 323.

There were loads of people mingling at the gate waiting for loved ones (a real oddity for me as I usually ... well always travel international and that would be a no-no!) and I was a bit concerned that I might have sailed past the guy. Not to fear, he was waiting for me near the front door.

We've got plenty of fun in store for the next few days, having consumed a couple of beers (Coopers, naturally) and a souvlaki already tonight!

Hoping to catch a Melbourne Victory football match but I have my suspicions this trip doesn't coincide with a home game.

In Oz (incorporating my frying adventure)

2007-12-22T08:30:00.000Z

We made it to Oz last Wednesday and have a nice relaxing time since we've arrived.

We went down and stayed at this little fishing town called Kingston which is making it self over as a tourist attraction. It's a stone's throw from another town called Robe.

We went for lunch in Robe at this "Seafood restaurant" which got the old taste buds tingling before we even got out of the car. I love fish and seafood and all that. To my dismay, the Aussie use of the word seafood restaurant apparently means chippie to us Brits. You could have seafood cooked one way - deep fried.

Choking back the tears, I ordered a spicy chicken wrap, expecting succulent bits of nice chicken. I got deep fried KFC style chunks of chicken. Not my day.

Later we went out for a pub meal. About the only non-fried thing on the menu was a Caesar salad which I duly ordered, only to be told it was a lunch only thing (apparently no one wants a non-fried meal for dinner). I then ordered the salt and pepper prawns, and in my ignorance was delivered a plate of breaded deep fried crustaceans.

Is it so hard to grill or BBQ a nice piece of fish? What is the fascination with the deep fryer?

The other meal we had was steak. Fair enough. It came on a bed of chips with a baked potato. The veggie table then had a 3rd type of potato if you weren't carbed up enough already.

I don't actually ever remember anyone waxing poetically about Aussie cuisine, and the only remembrance is the old "shrimp on the barbie". Maybe I can amend that to "shrimp in the fryer".

Coffee in Oz

2007-12-20T16:05:00.000Z

We're currently in Oz, visiting Sue's friends and family for Chrimbo.

It's an oddly warm time of the year, and every now and then a carol or a Christmas light will remind you what time of the year it is.

We just got back today from visiting friends down south in the fishing towns of Kingston and Robe.

Whilst there, I stumbled across this place called Mahalia Coffee. It's like Monmouth in London, in that they do their own roasting. According to their pamphlet, they send the roasted product across most of the country, either for retail sale or by the cup. I bought a bag of Australian Bundja Double Pass at around $18 for 250g (spot the guy on holiday!!!) Figured if you've come this way, why buy what you can get anywhere else.

In an ice cream shop in Robe, they were selling Robe Rock as confection. That just tickled me pink as I imagined oriental people describing it to a police officer.

Rooftop Illnesses

2007-11-26T15:46:00.000Z

You know when you have something wrong with you and you automatically fear the worst?

I did a search on Google for my symptoms today and it looks like I don't have neck cancer, which is what I thought I had. Turns out it may be shingles, or adult chickenpox (according to the symptoms and the rather graphic images). Apparently you can only get it if you've had chickenpox, so check on that one.

I read the wikipedia entry as well as webmed.com (I think) and from what I can tell I won't die, but I might be contagious, so I guess it's a good time to FINALLY register with a local doctor. This week's gonna be fun!

Oink RIP

2007-11-16T21:57:00.000Z

Ok ok, I know the news is about a month old, but I do miss the old piggy. That's not really the point of this post though. Since the demise of the pink palace (or actually, slightly before I think), I'd started getting into the phenomenon known as the mp3blog. This is basically where people offer tunes to download to backup a bit of editorial copy they've written.

So, for instance, if I was waxing poetic about a new remix of Duran Duran's latest single "Falling Down", to punctuate my musings I'd post a link to the mp3. Some of the new versions of music players actually allow you to subscribe to these blogs and scrape the tunes from them (ok, I mean Winamp 5.5).

Now my forte is currently 80s remixes that are harder to find than duck's teeth. Most of the collections around take the popular stuff, sure, but no hits collection will give you 9 mixes of a track, or the b-side or the b-side remix or the promo only remixes. This used to be where Oink excelled and now I'm happy to say that apart from the stuff I'm looking for, I've actually discovered a few new mixes of tracks I didn't know about and am actively searching out new artists when I pop into HMV.

Getting it out there!

2007-10-21T20:59:00.000+01:00

I've found this amazing web site called Music Nerds.com where you can write reviews of album with track by track commentaries and they'll actually pay you for you contributions! The amount is not much, but if ads on your page are clicked on, you get more.

Anyway, I've written two so far - one for Weird Al's "UHF" and one for Pet Shop Boys' "Actually". I posted the Weird Al one to Digg and just got an email from Music Nerds that it also appeared on Fark, which is just awesome.

So I'm going to write a few more, submit a few more and hopefully have a fun time talking about the music I love. If I make a few bob in the process, well that's just dandy!

Can't stop the Fopp!

2007-10-18T15:41:00.001+01:00

Walking through Covent Garden today, I was over the moon when I discovered Fopp has reopened. Rumours of HMV having difficulty with landlords, etc. have proven to be unfounded and the best record shop in town is back in business.

Can't wait to devote a nice lunch time to perusing the DVDs, books and CDs and coming away with a few winners.

It's ain't easy being green

2007-10-05T16:22:00.000+01:00

Trying my darndest being a greenie, as I want a planet for my kids to grow up on.

Everywhere I look it just depresses me how much waste there is and how no one seems to care. At work, everyone prints EVERY THING out! Talk about your horrendous waste there.

Then there's the kettle situation. I saw a great ad years ago that said you can really reduce the electricity you use if you just boil the water you need for your drink. Every time I'm in the kitchen some "Good Samaritan" is busy boiling away two full kettles for no one. Next person comes in for a cuppa and reboils BOTH full kettles.

Out and about, all the bins near work are full of easily and OBVIOUSLY recyclable materials - paper, paper, paper, plastic bottles, etc. Why are these not being dealt with properly? I read about a guy in Ottawa actually getting busted for recycling glass and other materials in peoples' trash. It should be them getting busted for not-recycling, not the homeless man trying to make 10c/bottle and saving the planet from us.

I just wonder if we, as humans, should actually be here. We're turning this planet in to our own private rubbish tip and not a lot of people seem to care. It's the whole "not my problem" and "someone else will deal with it" situation. I don't think so and the next few years will prove me right.

What year is this?

2007-10-04T14:52:00.000+01:00

I got a newsletter from Ticketmaster in my email and have to question what year it actually is.

Lead off news is tickets for Buzzcocks go onsale soon. Not content with them? How about Teenage Fanclub or Spice Girls.

Man alive. I guess it proves the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Actually I think it proves how out of touch with reality record labels are becoming that people are still flocking to bands who broke up YEARS ago!

I can't see bands like Hear'Say selling out their 30th anniversary shows in 38 seconds for some reason.

Radiohead's new pay what you want album

2007-10-01T16:11:00.000+01:00

I know you need a fan base before you can go it alone, but I'm really enjoying Radiohead's new attitude, now they're free of the shackles of EMI (so would argue it was those shackles that allowed them to get the place they are today).

Their new album In Rainbows is getting set for release either on 2x12" vinyl/2xCD or download. The vinyl/CD box is quite pricey, but comes with LOADS of stuff. The intriguing option though is the download.

As the band are basically label free, they can do what they want and what they want is to offer the album for download on a pay what you want basis. Essentially, you can get the new album, DRM-free for free (if you want to be really mean).

Canadian musician Jane Sibbery did this a couple of years ago and found that given the option of setting your own price, people actually did.

I have to say that 99p/c/whatever a track is a bit steep, and I enjoy picking up the odd CD at Virgin or HMV for £4.99, and would be comfortable paying that. Why CDs were ever £15 is way beyond me.

I'm intruged enough by the new Radiohead proposition that come 10 October, I'll be over their site downloading it and giving them what I deem a proper amount of coin for an album.

Link: RadioheadLP7.com

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Flexible (Remixed Extended)
via FoxyTunes

Death

2007-09-26T17:21:00.000+01:00

One of the crappy things about getting old is that your friends start dying off. When you hit around 70-80, you start to look like last man standing. This I've seen first hand from my grandparents.

There's a crappy step in between that I forgot about until recently - when your mates' parents start dropping off. C's dad died in 99, R's dad died back in 2001, and now F's mum last week and I just found out about L's dad today.

I'm always in shock when this happens, as a) it's a crappy thing to happen to my mates, b) I knew their folks and it's a loss and c) it drums home that it could happen to me (or you).

The most shocking thing I think is that I've kinda prepared myself to be the Last Man Standing^TM when I'm 84, but this death of a mates' parent thing sorta sideswiped me.

Preparation is all well and true I guess for the expected, you just gotta handle the curve balls when life throws them at you.

Hockey Night In ... England??

2007-09-25T20:24:00.000+01:00

When I moved back to the UK in 2000, I wanted to re-embrace my heritage and discard all that was North American. How foolish. Britain in the naughties is more American that probably even Canada now.

Having shed that idea, I decided not to turn my back on several decades of Canadian upbringing and actually relish the things that I held dear to myself over the years. This went from music - like Platinum Blonde, Pursuit of Happiness, Chalk Circle, etc. to Tim Horton's coffee and even hockey. I used to be a mad hockey fan, watching Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday on a small 10" black and white telly in the family room.

It was a colliding of lives when the NHL announced that for the first time ever, two of their teams would play regular season games outside of North America. Where oh where would they go? To a hockey loving, NHL feeding country like Sweden or Germany or even Russia? No. They're playing in England, the country where the word hockey evokes images of girls in skirts and curly sticks. To be more precise, they're playing at what used to be called the Millennium Dome.

The two teams involved are both West Coasters - the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks (nee Mighty Ducks). The Ducks just won the Stanley Cup in June, so we get to arguably see the best hockey team in North America.

I'm pretty psyched, a lot more so than I would have been in 2000.

Goes to show time doesn't just heal all wounds, it also makes you grow up.
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Now playing: The Pursuit Of Happiness - I'm An Adult Now
via FoxyTunes

Morosey

2007-09-20T16:08:00.000+01:00

Sometimes when the demons aren't taking up all my thoughts, I wonder why we are here and what the point of it all is.

Bear with me.

Everyone know that global warming, climate change and an incredibly dumbfounded apathy on most people's behalf is going to turn this planet into Venus' SLIGHTLY cooler neighbour sooner than later. The fact is I feel my hands are tied and any changes I try to make are a drop in the bucket when colleagues leave PCs on for extended periods, the rubbish bins in parks are full or recyclables and supermarkets just over package like crazy. Still I plod on.

Also entering my consciousness is a worry that the economy is eating itself from the inside. In another generation or so, people will wonder why there was ever a high street or shopping precinct when everything is either downloadable or purchasable off the internet. This came roaring home during a rather limp walk around Virgin Megastore today. There's nothing inspiring there, no "wow! gotta have it". There's used to be. All the time. Now everything's moving to the internet and these shops on life support limp on, blissfully unaware that their time is almost up.

The thing that got in a funky mood today was an article in the The Ecologist magazine about soft drinks and bottled water. Basically, whatever goes in my mouth is going to kill me. From sweeteners like Aspartame (which breaks down into some amazingly carcinogenic ooze) and Sucralose (which is better, just) to the fact that reusing plastic water bottles (you know, recycling the home way) is liable to get you ingesting all sorts of evil chemicals that were present in the making of the plastic bottles.

Here I thought the do not reuse warning was a sly attempt at bottled water people to just get you to buy more bottles. I wonder, as I reuse the same bottle about 4 times a day at work, what the option is. I guess pint glasses.

Stopping to wonder why I get out of bed sometimes, I guess the only solace is that as much as I try to better myself, I am slowly killing myself.

What's the story, mourning tory

2007-09-11T16:21:00.000+01:00

I originally became a Tory because I believed their core principals - laissez faire economics, small government, lower taxes, let the market sort itself out, etc. etc.

It was with a stunned and dropped jaw that I was reading the Times today where the Tories, under David Cameron, want to impose more legislation and taxes onto shops and stores, infringing on their core beliefs all the way to the bank.

"Firmly committing the Conservatives to raising taxes..."

The first headline grabber was the imposition and creation of a car park tax for large out of town supermarkets. Tories and tax creation do not go hand in hand - EVER! Then there was public scolding of shops like Tesco selling goods below cost. If they're taking a drink every time they sell a product, that's their bottom line and their problem.

I know it impacts on the little guy and his ability to shift product, but the more specialised shops will always come out trumps over the shop that has a spotty 16-year old as the most knowledgeable person in the place.

Having said that, society today doesn't cater much for the person who can't buy all their needs at one shop. We don't have time to go to the bakery for our bread, the butcher for our meat, the green grocer for our veg. Those of us who strive to get home to our families before 8pm are already having a hard enough time of it.

"The Tories are at sixes and sevens on tax."

We've suffered years of Labour's regime, promising us a better place, yet raising taxes each and every year (with not a lot to show - better hospitals, lower crime, better road conditions? Nope).

The only light at the end of the tunnel has been the intrinsic Tory policies. Sadly, with Labour shifting more to the right, it looks like the Tories have shifted a bit too far to the left.

Times Link

Spam as real email?

2007-09-10T10:08:00.000+01:00

Perusing the spam folder in my gmail account, I couldn't help but wonder what life would be like if those 650 emails were actually legit.

I think I would have quit my job ages ago, as I've been offered free houses on most continents, luxury cars and loads of get rich quick schemes, mostly from Nigerians.

Who would I spend my time with? Well, as I'd be hung like a horse and gagging for it ALL THE TIME (thanks to what seems like an unending supply of viagra), I would apparently have an unending supply of hotties who are also continually gagging for it to choose from.

Odd that most of the spam plays upon most of the seven sins - avarice, lust, vanity, and most importantly sloth. Who wants to work for a new home or that new CD when you can win a lottery or a luxury island for nothing? Get everything you ever wanted and the only movement required is that of the mouse button.

Nope. I think I'll keep the spam right where it belongs, even if "Paris Hilton is hot for me right now".

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Now playing: John Taylor - I Do What I Do (Theme For 9 1/2 Weeks) (7'' Version)
via FoxyTunes

Priority shift

2007-08-22T17:22:00.000+01:00

For most of my adult life (and I classify that as the years I've had my own money, whether pocket money or from a job), I've been a collector. As a collector, that inherently means you NEVER part with anything.

Now when I say I'm a collector, it's not that sad type that doesn't part with anything. I've thrown out the usual stuff - burger wrappers, limited edition coke tins, etc. It's just the collectible stuff that's stayed with me - records, comics, CDs, limited edition board games, etc.

Now I've hit my mid-30s ... and well, for a few years now... it's become more imperative to me to have a clutter-free existence, and this has meant parting with a large number of "things" I've collected over the years.

Why?

The basic answer is a lot of the stuff I don't use any more. I haven't hooked up a turntable for over 7 years, so why keep a garage full of vinyl - even if the collection is chock full of rare white label 12"s and promos? Likewise, there's also a dearth of stuff I look at and scratch my head? Who the hell ever thought it was wise to buy the début Right Said Fred album? Who?

As I get older my priorities have changed I guess. I used to pride myself on a 400-strong DVD collection of which I never watched. Now I just rent the DVDs I want to watch from Tesco. Sitting in front of the telly with the rented DVD looking at my wall of DVDs does make me wonder what I was thinking, why my wallet didn't stop me and how I can offload discs that cost me around a tenner each and are now being given away free on Sunday newspapers.

I think the age of being amazed by that great find in the used record shop is now firmly a thing of the past, but it was fun while it lasted and I've got the crates of vinyl, the boxes of DVDs and the plastic-wrapped comics to prove it.

Now I just need to offload.

Another Fopp Bites the Dust

2007-06-29T16:18:00.000+01:00

It's with sadness and dismay that I read today that Fopp, the cool funky CD, DVD and book retailer has bitten the dust.

I was only shopping their earlier this week and actually have that CD in my CD player.

Having scoured the web for info about the chain's demise (supermarkets and the Internet, as every other CD retailer is claiming), I came across an article that brought a nostalgic tear to my eye.

Once upon a time there was a magical land called Berwick Street, Soho. It was here that a music nerd like myself could spend (waste) and entire day scouring racks of CDs, singles, promos, rarities, 12"ers, etc. in the hopes of finding that elusive release you were after, or better yet - something you didn't know existed.

As the road was a mecca for muso geek, it was lined, not with gold but with used record shops. From Mr CD to Reckless, Sister Ray to Selectadisc - these were names to be admired, names which drew Pavlovian responses from the people they wanted as customers.

Sadly, as with many other music retailers, the buyers have stopped coming, and more importantly, the interesting, the promo and the rare are all drying up as well. Why pay £40 for one exclusive remix or b-side that was only released on a green vinyl 7" in Latvia, when you can pay 79p for the track at iTunes?

The collectability and rarity was part and parcel of spending hours and hours in these treasure troves.

Not only have the physical stores closed, the quality staff, all knowledgeable, many tattooed and even more in need a decent meal or bath will all be gone as well. No longer can you shoot the breeze discussing an elusive 12" single you're after or the amazing gig at the Rainbow or Marquee club that was only available on CD in a limited number, and thus demands the £300 price tag.

There may not be a whole way of live that's become extinct, but it's close. The lifestyle and geeky nature captured so eloquently by Nick Hornby in High Fidelity is a pleasure the kids of today will never now.

It saddens me deeply.

Back in the great white north

2007-05-28T04:03:00.000+01:00

so it's been just over 24 hours since we're arrived in the Great White North and I've already drunk more beer and bought more DVDs than the last month combined.

Off to Sarnia tomorrow to visit old haunts and old mates and eat and drink more the ensure that NONE of my clothes fit anymore. Never fun!

I get pings when I come back of what I gave up when I moved back to the UK, but there's just something underlining existence here that just rings wrong, like everyone's living in a Theme Park or something. There's something that's just too fake. Maybe it's the ludicrous size of the houses or the wide roads or the Canadian accent that I do find grating sometimes.

I dunno.

I love this country and the start it gave me in life, but I do wonder if I could ever move back. Sure there's space and things are cheap, but some of the stuff I'd be giving up is actually quite entwined in my person now.

Too heavy for this time of night. I need to sleep to shake off this jetlag.

Pay Day

2007-05-25T16:00:00.001+01:00

I don't know why it bemuses me so, but today is pay day (well in lieu of tomorrow which is a Saturday). It's the first time I haven't received an AOL pay packet in over 6 years and it feels both fantastic (as the amount is more) and odd (as it's not from AOL).

To ease me into the new world of non-AOL pay, I did receive my final PubOps oncall pay from AOL today as well, so two pay cheques this month. Just in time for holidays too.

Does it get any better than that?

Almost time for holidays!

2007-05-23T12:45:00.000+01:00

I've been at the new job now for almost three weeks, so naturally it's time for a holiday!

Fly out on Saturday with Sue and cousin Ben and friend Tina for our two-week (one fortnight) Canadian adventure.

Looking forward to it. It can be quite stressful starting a new job and the propect of taking some time off just as I start has been the light at the end of the stress tunnel.

Fun times ahead as we relax, sleep in, drink beers and frolic in a completely different time zone.

Something Fruity

2007-05-08T16:23:00.000+01:00

One of the nice things about starting a new job in a new area of town is checking out all the area has to offer - where's the best pub, where to go for lunch, where can I get postage stamps, is there a newsagent nearby, etc.

Having moved to Holborn work-wise, the area is besieged by fruit and veg vendors at lunchtime running their wares from a market stall.

Last week, with much gusto, I took them up on their offer of healthy grub only to have the hardest banana known to man (it COULD have been used as a weapon), the soggiest, pappiest apples ever and asparagus that was actually mouldy.

This week, with must less gusto and much more trepidation, I visited Mr. Fruit Man and purchased some raspberries and apples (5 for £1, class!)

So far, resounding joy from my £2 outlay! The razzies were actually really sweet (and not mouldy - I was expecting that) and the apples are actually rock hard as they should be.

My faith in the small businessman is restored.

Day 4 at the new job

2007-05-03T17:14:00.000+01:00

Well I feel like Hannibal Smith today. It all seems to be coming together, so I love it! (cue smarmy cigar chomping activity).

I'm still getting my head around almost everything, but I've been meeting with people in different departments, been given assignments and have ALMOST got this commuting thing licked. The route home is almost solved, but the route to work needs some ... work.

Today is the first production day I've been involved with and it's quite interesting to see the machinations of getting an international journal of repute published (Toronto Sun notwithstanding).

Started in my "pastures new"

2007-05-01T11:57:00.000+01:00

After a long seven week notice period and a week off for...well, I took a week off and don't need a reason after six years... I finally started my new employment yesterday at Economist.com

Still trying to come to grips with EVERYTHING, as one can imagine. From the new corporate environment, to the intricacies of the job and the local haunts - from coffee to lunch. It's all important.

As far as the job goes, the title Producer can mean soooo many things. You ask someone in the theatre, or a musician or even me, and you'll get loads of different answers. I'm trying to figure out which hat from the producer's pandora's box I'll be wearing most. From the first 10 or so hours of work, it looks like I'll be mostly wearing the Project Manager / Documenter of what needs to happen hat, which is cool and a nice change from the Coding Monkey hat I wore at AOL for the last year.

More later.

Vista sista!

2007-04-28T17:23:00.000+01:00

After many months of waiting, I've finally got my "free" Vista upgrade! Only cost me £12! Not too bad for free.

Now I get to spend the next Four Hours (according to the installer) setting it up. Not all my apps will work (or so it promises) and there's loads of updates to do, but I should have a working version of Vista Home Premium by days end.

Nouveau Jobbo.

2007-03-07T11:03:00.000Z

Having put my CV up on Monster over X-Mas, I was uncertain whether my unique skill set garnered from too many years at AOL would actually make me wanted in the greater job market.

In hindsight, I need not have worried. Since that fateful day in December, I have been inundated with phone calls from a myriad of recruitment firms offering me interviews with companies all over London.

I've been to a couple of interviews, turned down a couple of position, and said no to contract work (I like being an employee and having benefits).

After many fake doctor appointments and illnesses, I have finally decided - after much trepidation - to make one of the new positions I have interviewed for.

As of yesterday, I am no longer an employee of AOL UK, I am "working my notice period". I should start my new job, as Web Producer at The Economist in late April / early May. Hurrah. A new job at quite the prestigious publication.

After six years - as of yesterday - at AOL, the scales are finally falling from my eyes. I haven't been treated well here. HR are a joke and are interested more in keeping the company happy than any HUMAN relations. I've learned a lot, but mostly by accident and on my own dime. No, I don't think I'll be sad to see the back of this place. Only regret I didn't get in the last round of redundancies. Still, the falling scales are invaluable, I could have been here doing this job at 50 and wondering where my life had gone.

New PC. Done.

2007-02-25T10:57:00.000Z

This weekend, I finally dropped all pretenses of being an uber computer geek and bought myself a fully boxed, put together, plugin and go computer. AND to rub salt in my cool quotient wounds, I bought it from PC World.

Is anyone still there or are you all mourning the death of what made me me? I know I am, a little bit.

The PC is a kicking machine, shuts down in no time, has two processors (which must be good, right?)

To claw back any credibility, I did get it for a good deal, and bought just the base unit, so I didn't get suckered into any of those low-rent monitors PC World try and hawk. How can they sell top spec PCs and then top it off with monitors that don't even have DVI (ah... feel that? my inner geek is returning!)

It's nice to finally have a copy of Windows that the WGA agrees with and I've got a legit copy of Vista on it's way too. Oh, and if you haven't experienced Windows Media Centre Edition, what are you waiting for? It's the missing link, dragging the PC into more of a living room machine. Great for all your MP3s and video you may have acquired from the web.

Now the unenviable task of rebuilding my old PC on the new one begins. Sort of like rebuilding Pompeii after Vesuvius. Do I bother?

What's that smell?

2007-02-05T00:32:00.000Z

I was on the train today back from Victoria and was reading Canada Post, the free rag for Canadians living in the UK.

Most of it is HIDEOUSLY out of date, but there was a brief article on Sarnia and some oil fire that had been burning. They've decided to let it run its course and all that, but it got me thinking back to - of all things - the horrid, horrid smell of Sarnia's Chemical Valley. The ripe stink of oil and plastic and all those oil-based products still haunts my olfactory senses to this day.

In fact, while I was reading the article on the train, my memory obviously kicked into overdrive and delivered a remembered dose of the stink to my nose. Man it reeks!

To add the ironic level to this event, I was hanging with my Sarnia crony Fraser today, discussing places to take my wife when we visit (she has not had to pleasure of a Sarnia trip yet). His overwhelming "must see" was the stink of Chemical Valley... then chips under the bridge, Ice Cream Galore, over to the States, etc, etc.

Weird how life works some times.

New PC

2007-01-05T00:24:00.000Z

After DECADES of being what in the trade is known as a "homebuilder", I've decided that I finally want to buy myself a new PC that someone else built. I want the OS already there, I want the hard drive run through, the memory compatible with the video card - all that!

In my hunt for this elusive beast, I've realised that one of the things I was trying to avoid - the INCREDIBLE amount of research needed to acquire the perfect machine - is just as intense in the pre-built market as it is in the home build market, maybe more so.

When I was building my own machines, I could scrimp here or spend stupidly there, opting for a terrabyte of storage for the sake of a slower CPU. What I've discovered in the pre-built market is "nothing's free". If that amazing machine is cheap, look under the hood, the parts will be too. On board graphics that don't allow DVI, or an LCD screen that's analogue only.

It's all a huge headache, but a fun one as it's dumping me in the deep end of the market and I'm having to learn to swim, now with added sharks (in the form of dodgy spec machines).

I'll keep you posted and hopefully post (soon) from the new 8th wonder of the world!

October means jack the prices up!

2006-10-03T15:24:00.000+01:00

I was out and about yesterday - as were most people - and my favourite coffee shack, Caffe Nero, decided to use October to jack their prices up. This was at first quite jarring, even though it amounts to only 10p per cup of their hot brown loving.

They've had the lowest prices on the high street for some time and any increase was seen as an affront to this secret pact we had - I'd patronise them and they'd stay relatively low priced. Of coures, I felt betrayed, but soldiered on.

At lunch time, I mosied to Tesco to get a sarnie and a ludicrously low-priced bottle of Pepsi Max (41p). True to form, Tesco had decided to use October to jack their Pepsi Max price up to 45p.

Now I realise to combined outlay of these two products amounts to roughly 14p, but I find it quite interesting that both items have been low priced for ages and then - in some sort of odd synergistic twist - are both increased in price on the same day.

I think the cosmos is slowly conspiring against me.

Pi$$ed off

2006-06-27T10:59:00.000+01:00

Ok, this morning bleary eyed and so tired, I decided to try an alternate route into work.

Normally, it takes just under an hour to get to work, with a couple of changes here and there going through Clapham Junction, the busiest and crappiest train station in Britain.

Today, I decided to venture to Sutton as I heard tell of a fast train to Victoria that stops only at Clapham Jct. Normally, this destination would take me 30 mins from Wallington.

When I got to Sutton there was a 20 minute wait for the next train of ANY description heading to Victoria via Clapham. Not a good start.

Then I spotted a train to Wimbledon. I figured I could make it there and then take the tube. The tube's always quick isn't it, and besides I could take Clapham Jct and it's annoyances out of the equation.

Got to Wimbledon and changed to train #3 of the morning, heading to Earl's Court where I changed to train #4, just over 45 after having left Sutton and a full 75 minutes since leaving Wallington.

The whole journey from Earl to Baron's Court was spent fuming at how I had left for work hours early and was arrived almost on time.

I'm sure there are people out there who commute hours each way every day, but that's their choice not mine.

I tried an experiment and it failed. Miserably.

FreeHealthy guide to being ripped to the tits at concerts

2006-04-10T16:34:00.000+01:00

There a sect of people out there who believe you can't enjoy a concert without being higher than the ceiling. Of course, with tickets to MAJOR events costing upwards of a week's rent, wouldn't it be better to actually make the most of the event and have lovely lasting memories?

Anyway, here's my cheap, healthy guide to being ripped to the tits at a concert:

1. Don't go to the concert
2. Don't do drugs
3. When a mate asks how the concert was, scratch head and reply "I didn't go."

There you go. Saved yourself some braincells and a whole wodge of cash and had exactly the same experience... except your clothes don't reek of ciggies.

Another plus!

Three's Company

2006-02-28T10:13:00.000Z

They say bad things always happen in threes and this week is no different. Three of Hollywood's beloved actors of a simpler age have all found their demise within a few days of each other.

First to go was Three's Company's Mr. Furley, Don Knotts. Many would argue they thought he'd been dead for a long time already, but surprise appearances in films like Pleasantville put paid to those rumours. Of course, they're rumours no more.

Second to go is Darren McGavin. Probably most famous for Kolchak: The Nightstalker, which many view as the precursor to "The X-Files", there's a whole generation that will know him as "Nottafinger", the dad from "A Christmas Story," one of Canada's best loved homegrown films, as well as Billy's dad in "Billy Madison".

Today, there's news that Dennis Weaver has hit the bucket. He starred in one of Steven Spielberg's first big screen outings, "Duet" as well as the detective series "McCloud".

All of these guys had been receiving a pension for years and years, so it's not that much of a surprise that they've finally met their end, but as actors I grew up watching, it's a bit of a sad news day.

Sarnie YEAH!

2006-02-24T13:40:00.000Z

Having spent my formative years in the backwater that is Sarnia, ON, it's always with an incredulous grin that I greet the mention of the town in popular culture.

A couple of years ago I was in a small cinema in London's West End watching Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine" when the scenes in Point Edward and Sarnia came on. I was punching my fists in the air and grinning like a Cheshire cat and no one around me knew why.

A similar feeling came over me last night when I was watching the Paul Gross / Leslie Nielsen comedy "Men With Brooms". It concerns an underdog curling team trying to win the big game for their deceased coach. One of the teams they have to crawl over to get there? Sarnia! Hey hey!

For such a nothing town, there's always a load of odd references to it and that keeps me just a little more connected with my childhood.

Why do I get out of bed?

2006-02-14T11:34:00.000Z

Some days are just hideously crap you wonder why you woke up.

Today, I got to my local train station to find the London bound platform was closed due to vandalism. Great. Petty little thugs with nothing better to do than hang around train stations pulling up tiles means a whole stream of disgruntled commuters.

As I was on the train to Sutton thinking that London life and me were about to part ways, I read in the Metro (always a bad thing in the mornings!) about more and more misery (drug dealing in a pub frequented by Prince William, savage army beatings in Iraq, etc.)

Argh.

Just when all hope seemed to fade and the thoughts of staying in the UK seemed unbearable, I read about some horrible new gang in the States that has over 100,000 members, mainly from Ecuador and such. They're brutal, worse than the Mafia and moving more into profiteering.

Maybe the UK isn't that bad after all?

Mint is evil!

2006-02-13T17:51:00.000Z

Everytime I eat mint, I sneeze. Whether it be gum, lozenge style hard candy or what have you, I sneeze. Yet, even though this happens I am drawn to the luxuries of mint like a moth to a flame.

Add to that the fact that mass consumption of most mints sweets - gum, lozenge, etc. - results in a laxative effect, and I'm a sneezing shitting machine.

Is there any help? No! I'm addicted!