The Truth

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Posted from my HTC Desire HD, so apologies for typos and strange formatting ;)

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A Night Out!

Since the beginning of October, we had been planning on going out on the night of the 30th. The plan was simple - a local restaurant was hosting a fancy dress Halloween night of food and music and dancing, so at the start of the month, we booked out tickets - Kellie & Myself, plus Kerry & James.

We decided - for giggles - to go as Witches & Wizards. Nothing 0dd in that, except, the girls were going to be the Wizards, and us boys would be the Witches. The girls got costumes, but obviously, we needed something more special, so started sorting our dresses, tights/stockings/hats/broomsticks/makeup - the whole lot.

Those of you that have known me for several years will know that Dressing Up used to form part of my main hobby, that of Live Roleplaying. I used to love going, costumed up, running adventures - brilliant stuff. Sorting costumes and props for our night out reminded me how much I loved - and miss - LRPing.  What I didn't count on, however, was nerves. I've not been out in public dressed like a crazy in many years, and while I was looking forward to it, my stomach decided to be a bit nervy. I knew I'd be OK eventually, as we'd be with other like-minded crazies that would also look rather 0dd.

Yesterday morning - while putting the finishing touches to our costumes, the phone rings. It's the restaurant, telling us the night is cancelled due to lack of ticket sales.

Arse.

So, a flurry of activity between us and K+J, we start to figure where we're going to go instead. Using the powers of the Intarwebz, as well as local papers, we started to hunt. Page after page of "Events" and "What;'s Happening" and "Social Stuff" and we made an interesting discovery...

There was NOTHING else going on within 30 miles of us. Not a party, not a function, not a fancy dress screening of anything... So, with the girls being pissed off, we decided to see what movies were on. Don't Be Afraid of The Dark was the first scary movie that sprang to my mind, but it's not showing anywhere in Essex. Kent or London, yes, but Essex? No.  Paranormal Activity 3 was showing, but A) I've not seen the first two, and B) The girls refuse to watch #1 on grounds of it being "too scary".

Then the discussion shifted - let's wear our costumes to the cinema AND eat out somewhere. I was not impressed with this idea. I had chilled out a bit thinking "no need for costume" but at the mention of wearing it - in public, where no one else would be wearing theirs - I was not having none of it. At all. I could handle being dressed up with other dressed up sorts, but not going out for an evening dressed like it. Hell no.

I don't do "center of attention" very well at all, let alone out and about in Basildonia. So the other three all started sulking. "If you're not wearing yours, we're not wearing ours!" came the cries.

They tried Guilt. On me. Ha!

I pointed out that at NO point was I stopping them wearing theirs, that at no point would I have any issue with them being dressed up and me being, well, dressed, and at no point did I tell them I would feel left out.

But no, if Dan wasn't dressed up, they wouldn't be either. Again, the guilt didn't work, but they are grown ups - they can make their own decisions ;)

So anyway, I was up for several movies - Tin Tin, Contagion, The Three Musketeers, I'd have been quite happy with them. However, group of four, trying to get all four to decide on something = not easy. 3/4 thought Tin Tin was a good idea. 2/4 voted Paranormal Activity. And so on... Kellie put on a trailer for something called We Need To Talk About Kevin and said it looked interesting. I sort of wrinkled my nose - it didn't do anything for me. Kerry agreed with Kellie that it looked interesting, and James made the decision that THAT would be what we were seeing.

I, however, kept quite because I'd already "made" everyone not wear their costumes. I didn't want to tell them the film looked iffy.

So, first stop of the evening was Aroma - an All-You-Can-Eat Chinese buffet restaurant that is lovely. And James and Myself really do put that to the test - we eat all we can. I opted for a plate of MEAT, I skipped the noodles and rice and stuff, I just wanted MEAT. Us boys had, er.. three plates each, while the girls scoffed two. Then we had dessert. Om nom nom and indeed, nom.

Then we hit the cinema. Grabbed our Stupidly Oversized Popcorn and Bladder Busting Drink, went into the cinema and plonked our bums. Movie started.

Now, I am not by any means a film snob. Far from it, I tend to find Arty-Farty movies not to be my cup of tea. They may well be the greatest movies of all time, but they don't do anything for me. At all. And "indie" films also don't stoke my proverbial fire.

Ten minutes into the film, and it was all about focusing in and out, jumping between "now" and "then", using colour as a metaphor, having very quiet sounds play just out of your hearing... I thought "uh oh" but sat and remained quiet.

We Need To Talk About Kevin has received rave reviews. Star Ratings coming out of the wazoo. Stormed the crowds at Cannes. No doubt it did well at every other arty-farty film festival.

At one point, I noticed Kerry was asleep. James was doing the nodding-head-forwards thing. But I endured. Something might happen to interest me.

Kellie guessed one of the main twists five minutes before it happened on the screen. The ONLY character I liked in the whole thing meets a grisly end (which, I suppose, is the point) and in the long run, was depressing as f$ck.

So, screen goes black. I look at Kellie, I glare at James. Kerry makes a "What the f..." comment, and I'm SO with her. And everyone else in the cinema just looked at the person they were with, with the exact same expression I could feel on my face. The movie ended, everyone got up and walked out.

In complete and utter silence.

Nothing, not a word, not a cheer. Those three went for a pee, and I stood outside waiting for them. Another couple left, and she said to him "What was that film about, exactly?" and he just shrugged.

I am happy to report, that James did receive a fairly large amount of shite for his choice of movie. Flak here, flak in person, flak on Facebook, even flak on Twitter - which he doesn't even use! I can honestly, hand-on-heart say that I did NOT enjoy that film. No one in there seemed to. Maybe it was just us, maybe it was just that kind of film but I can't see how it got the reviews it got.

I suspect that at someone will probably come on here with their Anonymous hat on, and rip the crap out of me/us for our review of the movie. Feel free, in fact. You liked it, we didn't. You have your positive review, I have my negative.

I'm not telling anyone to not go see it. I'm sure some of you will prolly like it, or even love it. But we unanimously did not like it nor love it. And the same goes for James. We neither like nor love him any more.

And he will come here, make his case for his defence. Just ignore him. He has no say in movies any more.

Musical Monday #114 - Dragula

Well, with the clocks changed, Autumn is well under way, Winter is just around the corner (Unless you're in the US, in which case, start shovelling!) which means today is Halloween.

This date doesn't do much for me. I don't feel the need to dress up and roam the streets, nor do I enjoy giving kids MY sweeties - but being that I've got a busy afternoon/evening, there will be minimal sweet-sharing.

More for me ;)

I DID feel that I would make an attempt at something vaguely Halloween-esque for music, but with my brain not braining, all that popped to mind was Rob Zombie - Dragula. Proper 90s rock/metal/industrial music that I love to bits.



However, as a BONUS, I decided that I would also post the song that has been in my head ALL DAY LONG. I have no idea why, I think it's just another random Earworm thing going on, but this is where my brain is actually at today:



I leave it to you, dear reader, to decide which is the better song...

Ooh How I Laughed

 

If you didn't laugh, you're going to HELL.

Strange Ukrainians...

As mentioned earlier this week, I enjoy poking in on my StatCounter every now and then to see what's what, and how the crazy freaks of the world are coming to my little corner of the world. I am pretty sure it counts as some form of addiction** and while I don't get anything out of it, except maybe the occasional chuckle, I check it every few days

So this morning I plonk myself on the sofa and log into StatCounter and the first page that loads shows my a graph of the last week of traffic.  I don't get much traffic - anyhting from 10 to 80 hits a day usually, but a lot of people seem to read the posts from elsewhere - Google Reader or Facebook or whatever I think - but the graph is generally pretty steady around those numbers.

Except this morning.

Did it get broked?

Usually, I only see that sort of spike when I post on Bethys birthday or angel day. I checked my blog to make sure I'd not set something inflammatory to post Friday - I hadn't - but thought I should check anyway. I assume it's the same with other platforms, but on Blogger, I can write a post NOW, but set it to post at a certain Date/Time in the future.

But I was innocent. So had to delve deeper. 400+ hits in one day is very strange, but it wasn't even a case of there being new content on here... I started to go through Fridays traffic.

That, my friends, is Saturday midnight, going backwards till midday Friday. See the jump? Between 2000-2100, 0ddness was loaded 384 times. Clearly someone was REALLY interested in reading the blog. That's roughly one pageload every ten seconds. Speed readers, maybe?

Digging deeper into the traffic report, I went to 8pm and started to go through the traffic, but on closer inspection, it was very very clearly some bot/spammer jobbie.

To save you clicking to embiggening, EVERY hit was from the same source, Kiev, Ukraine. All from the "Private Joint Stock Company Datagroup" and every single time, loading the December 2003 archive - which is when this incarnation of 0ddness came into existence.

Yes, I know this is quite boring to a few some most all of you, but I am sure at least one person might maybe find it interesting. Maybe. Just ONE.


**Strangely, as I wrote the word "Addiction" a song came on by Janes Addiction. Spooky!

Here There Be Moaning...

For some reason, the last few days, I've been cranky. Proper cranky. I don't know if it's my time of the month, if it's the fact the most sleep I've had has been around two hours (the 16-hour drug induced sleep-a-thon notwithstanding), or if it's the fact I am in constant pain - or, in fact, all of the above - but things have been bugging me.

The beauty of having the blog is so I can rant and rave and let off steam, but I've been holding back because... Well, I don't know why. It occurred to me at 5am, however, that I should post what I want, regardless of people moaning that I'm moaning, or thinking it's them personally I am moaning at. It's not you mate, it's me. If you think I am having a pop at you personally, I'm not. I have no individuals in mind while writing this post. But I need to write it because otherwise I am liable to explode. If you don't want to read me whining and moaning and whinging about nothing in particular, then please don't read the rest of this post!

Amusements

Bored and tired - clicky to embiggen if you can't read them!

Your Topic

For the life of me, I can't decide if this post is a good idea or a bad idea, but at 5am today, I mulled it over and thought "What's the worst that could happen"

Which is usually a sign of some form of impending DOOM of some description, but I figured, what the hell, it'll either be a laugh or interesting, or it will be an unmitigated disaster.

Not to be deterred however, I figured I'd put it out there. See, I have this cunning idea. Over the next few days or weeks or whatever, I will collect ideas from you lot to post about. Have a topic you want me to go on about? Let me know. Have something you want to know about, ask away.

I'm not sure if I am going to take every suggestion and write a post about it, or if I will take a load of suggestions then do a poll to see which is the most popular idea for a post, but we'll see.

While I don't like limiting things too much, I DON'T want to post about things that are very personal, and as a general rule, I don't do Religion or Politics. The really personal stuff is just that, it's personal, religion is kinda like throwing a puppy into a minefield, and politics just BORE me so much. 

If you've got an idea for something you'd like me to post about, then either comment on this post, email me, message me on Facebook, or contact me on Twitter. It's not like I'm hard to find! If you're not sure about crossing lines or whatever, then I suggest email so we can discuss it.

Additionally, I won't consider questions that people ask "anonymously" either - because I'm sure there is going to be some smart-arse that will ask a shitty/stupid question but do it behind the cloak of anonymity. Again, if you are worried about crossing lines or something daft, then email me.

Like I say, nothing may come of this, and only one person will make a suggestion, but none the less, we shall see. Being bored and tired does funny things to my brain after all!

Ahhh StatCounter...

Long have I been a user and, indeed, fan of my StatCounter. I don't rely on it, I don't stress over the numbers of people visiting or not visiting my blog, but use it just to be nosy.

See, I like knowing where people are coming from globally, I like seeing employees for big companies looking at my blog, I like knowing that there's some person in the middle of nowhere reading, but most importantly, I like finding out HOW people find 0ddness.

It's no secret - there's a tag in the cloud over there specifically for this very reason.  Over the years, I've done posts on people finding 0ddness in the most disturbing manner, and have even occasionally slapped up their IP Address and location for the world to see what gross thing you are hunting for - and, for some reason - believe you will find it here.

But I digress.  A twitter conversation with @CharleighBest this morning prompted me to have a lookie-see at what's been happening in the wonderful world of search, and I've decided to just go BLAM and plonk out all the most recent search terms.  Some of them are quite boring, but some are - as usual - very interesting...  For your viewing pleasure, I've bolded the more interesting ones. As usual, there are LOTS of people hunting for Gimme Gizmo/DRW Ltd - that information will be back on here once I've finalised some hosting stuff.

Anyways, one list, for your viewing pleasure, with bad words "censorsed" a little bit.

dye for eye test
how longs does it take leek to spoil
drw ltd
wii sex toy
what size headboard bolts do i need
big hippo
gimme gizmo uk
federal ministry of works cantract award cer
chav scum
sore red penis do i need doctor
gimme gizmo head office
drwltd
red bumps in the palm of hands n sole of feet , it doesn't hurt what is it?
0ddness blog
person banging their head against a brick wall
kings nightclub canvey
m and d's theme park scotland
dali elephants
salvador dali elephants
dali elephants
how to fold your cat
amarjit nahal
rude christmas cards
gimme gizmo news
gimme gizmo
how+to+make+a+dirty+vimto
zombie soldier
f**k my mum illegal
God help me....I am becoming an avid fb poker
happy birthday to my little angel
tweenie shoes
in love with my gran
0ddness
contract completion certificate form
salvador dali elephants
funny verruca
TELL TALE OF TWEENIES
magazine article template
will i get money from ivory coast
list of all people in rockstar video
tarja turunen on vacation
"photobucket.com/albums" "cleavage" OR "bewbs" OR "boobs" "me"
gimmegizmo
wednesday butt crack bloggapedia
kanada's death part 2
Jenna Westerbeck sunbathing
sumatriptain
china take away
in love with someone i just met online internet marriage
SEX MUSEUM AMSTERDAM
girls vs boys quotes
big hippo
dan english essex
gimme gizmo wakefield
rhod gilbert
thingsthatgetyouwet
zombie soldier costume
rhod gilbert girlfriend
grany bastard
queen i want to break free
hippo big
dali elephants
how much to see your boobs
tagged questions
we dont just embrace insanity here
prodigy invaders must die
gimme gizmo head office number
yaris sr
things that get you wet
i don't do my paper round
girls vs boys quotes
salvador dali
mouthwash "powered by blogger" -blogspot.com
sony ericsson tube speaker w995
sex big booty ass
gimme gizmo employee
armin van buuren's banners
flow chart photocopier
bounty head
drug dealer basildon
weebls waffle shirt
what is the most boring job you can imagine
contract certificate
watchtower
award certificates pixar
broken washing machine switch
gimme gizmo
gimme gizmo staff
gimme gizmo complaints
girl vs boy quotes
gimme gizmo shutting down
example of flowchart in pop quiz
i took a blue  x tacy pill with a monkey  what are the side effects
boooooobs
thins that make you wet
fat tapeworm
doing a paper round
gimme gizmo shutting down
real boobies
Friday 13,2000
comedy and curry at the cliffs pavilion
Have Fun Go Mad - Tweenies
do you iron pillow cases
Comedy Magazine Articles
"Fw: Fwd: Fwd: fwd"
what time are you closing
dear genitals
We ask that you allow at least 72 hours for the case to be investigated and we strongly recommend to
big thick jumper

Now, SOME of these items are actual blog posts or content of blog posts I've made in the past, some of them are comprised from different things mashed together. OK, most of them are like that, that's how the search thing works. However, getting all these things together makes some disturbing results... For instance, people in love with their gran, people wanting sex with their mum, side effects of a certain ecstacy tablet... Just.. Wow...

If you find yourself bored and want similar shenanigans, then I suggest installing StatCounter and having a blast (Like I do!)

How To Sleep

In less than an hour, I should hopefully have new medications to my name that will A) Reduce my Pain Levels, and B) Improve my Sleeping Ability.

Last night - after having a really really really really shit run of not sleeping for who-knows, I opted for a new tactic.  Take-As-Many-Drugs-As-Possible-And-Hope-For-The-Best.

The end result, I am happy to report, didn't end with me being rushed off in the back of an ambulance. Instead, at about half ten after taking two Amytriptyline, three Co-Codamol, and one Sumatriptain - washed down with a mug of warm milk - I felt decidedly groggy. We were watching something on the TV, but I never saw more than 20-30 minutes of it.

The next thing I know, Kellie is sat on the bed in the streaming sunshine, waking me up.  "You've slept ages - do you want to know what time it is?!" she asked with glee in her voice. I figured it'd be late morning, maybe even close to midday, but opted for not knowing.

It took a bit for me to wake up - I felt groggy and tired, but first things first, Mr Bladder needed attention.

I threw on some clothes, shuffled to the loo, shuffled downstairs and retrieved the coffee Kellie had made me.  The microwave smirked at me when it showed me it was 2.15pm.

Not only did I sleep, but I slept around fifteen hours.

I am NOT condoning this tactic to other insomniacs. Far from it - I know that is probably waaay too many medications to take in one hit, but desperate times/desperate measures and all that.

It's now half five. I'm still a bit fuzzy headed, and now my tummy wants it's breakfast, but as I am seeing the doctor in twenty minutes, I am not bothering to do anything else. I am sooo hoping he can prescribe something for pain and to help me sleep. I suspect we'll be moving up into a different band of meds now; lyrica, gabapentin - that sort of thing... But, we will have to wait and see.

Now we'll have to wait and see if I sleep tonight, or if my body believes it's had enough to last a lifetime...

Musical Monday #113 - Stay With Me Baby

Over the years, I've never made it a secret that the modern version of "singing" hacks me off. They take someone pretty/attractive, get them to "sing" and then churn it through a bit of computer software, and make them supply track after track and album after album. Shortly thereafter once the money train derails, they retire and the void they leave behind is filled with someone else of similar "talent"

That's not to say I hate all music - my tastes are many and very varied - but the general vibe from the chart is these people can't sing, how are they making money?!

Thankfully, we have music from The Past to keep us sane, and today I woke up with a proper classic bit of music I've not heard for a while, and as a side-note, I should point out: Don't read anything into it, it's just a song I like.

Lorraine Ellison was a PROPER singer. Her voice has a brilliant range, and has proper power behind it. I first heard this track in the film The Boat That Rocked, and loved it then.

After just two hours of sleep, my brain told me this is the song I wanted to hear today, and has been replaying it over and over again.

Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me Baby

Where did you go when things went wrong baby?
Who did you run to
And find a shoulder to lay your head upon?
Baby wasn't I there?
Didn't I take good care of ou?
No no, I can't believe you're leaving me
Stay with me baby
Please, stay with me baby
Ooh, stay with me baby
I can't go on
Who did you touch when you needed tenderness?

I gave you so much
And in return I found happiness
Baby what did I do
Maybe, maybe I was too good, too good to you
No no, I can't believe you're leaving me
Stay with me baby
Ooh, stay with me baby
Ooh, please stay with me baby
Remember you said you'd always gonna need me

Remember you said you'd never ever leave me
Remember, remember, I'm asking you, begging you, ooh, ooh
Stay with me baby,
Please please stay with me baby
Stay with me baby
I can't go on
Ooh stay with me baby
I'm begging you, stay with me baby
Stay, stay, stay with me baby...

You Are Feeling Sleepy...

Ok, that's pretty much a given at this point... Especially considering its 0347 on a Monday morning as I write this. The highlights of my night thus far has been a sleepy Tam bumping into things heading to the loo for a wee, and Gimli (the kitten, not the dwarf) sat outside our bedroom door moaning for attention.

Which he got, as it was something to do for ten minutes.

There's a very good chance that you're actually reading this at a respectable time if the day, but rest assured it is very late/early, my alarm will be screaming in a little under three hours, and I have all four kids home tomorrow thanks to half term.

Why am I still awake? I have NO effing idea. I'm hurting quite a lot (ie, shit loads); another busy few days is making my body scream every which way. I'm exhausted too, completely out of energy. If the house spontaneously combusted at this point, I'd call the Fire Brigade and let them drag me out by the hair.

It goes without saying ny pain killers are doing precisely NOTHING at this point.

Oh, and I had a pee about half an hour ago too. Upon returning to the bedroom, Kellie had taken that 40 second window to roll into the centre of the bed, bundle the ENTIRE duvet into a Dan-shaped lump, and spread herself across the entire viable sleeping surface.

I tried to slide in beside Duvet Dan, but it wasn't happening. I considered pouring water over the pair of them, but instead opted to disturb her just enough to move her backside back to HER side if the bed.

On the bright side, tomorrow (Tuesday tomorrow, not Monday tomorrow) I've got a doctor appointment for a medication review. Bring on the pain killers that, ya know, KILL. PAIN.

Next week, the clocks change back to standard GMT for daylight savings, and everyone mentions this is "the good one" BUT as I tried to explain, being a stupid Insomniac, there is no "good one" as they are, in fact, both shit.

Clocks Forward: Two AM becomes Three AM. You lose an hour. That's an hour of sleep I won't be able to catch up on, especially if I'm only getting two hours of sleep.

Clocks Back: Two AM goes back to One AM. That means I have to lay in bed trying to sleep for ANOTHER hour, tossing and turning and trying - and failing - to ignore the clock.

So, when you rub your hands in glee as October means "the good clock change" keep one thing in mind...

Us insomniacs have all the time we need to sit in the quiet and plot, not to mention execute, our sinister revenge...

Location : 40-52 Heron Dale, Basildon, Essex SS14 1,
Posted from my HTC Desire HD, so apologies for typos and strange formatting ;)

Pause

More Amusements!

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Tagged: Sleeping

Stolen from Mme Totty Posh...

 1. Do you ever go to sleep to simply dream?
When I DO sleep, I don't often dream, but when I do, they range from strange, to violent, to waaaay out there...

2. When you’re really tired, what are some things you do to make sure you stay awake?
Doing "stuff" mostly, pottering around the house.

3. What’s most likely to cause you a prolonged period of not enough sleep?
Insomnia. I actually don't remember the last time I went to bed, fell asleep and stayed asleep - let alone woke up and thought "Wow, I feel great!"

4. When you’re going through a prolonged period of not enough sleep, what parts of your daily routine are likely to change, and how?
I don't really. I seem to function on too-little sleep 99% of the time.

5. In what ways does your personality change when you don't get enough sleep?
When I am REALLY tired and in pain, I want to kill people and have no patience with almost everyone.

6. Who in your life seems regularly not get enough sleep?
Kellie - thanks to me tossing and turning and muttering & Gemma (the 0dd Sister) who also has insomnia.

7. When you're sleeping, do your closer friends tend to be male or female?
My friends don't change their sex depending on how little sleep I get... Am I missing something here?

8. If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would it be?
To predict winning lottery numbers without fail.

9. In a dream, is your past something that you can go back to?
I sometimes dream my past - hospital stuff, mostly - but usually, it's just my brain seeing what shit it can pull out of its hat.

10. Do you ever dream about the future?
Yep, I went through a phase of "seeing" air disasters in my sleep, and them happening days later. Hasn't happened in a while though... Otherwise, I find myself doing stuff that I had dreamt about, and realise, as I am doing it, that I've done it before.  If that makes sense.

Observation...

Clicky to Embiggen
Post in comments if you find it or not - just don't give the answer!

Amusement

Musical Monday - The List!

Today, I am mostly pretending to be alive, functional and intact. The truth, however, is that last week I was a very busy banana. Despite feeling "a bit rough" I did my usual, and tried to push on through it, doing stuff that didn't really need doing there and then, on top of all the usual daily stuff...

The end result? This weekend, I've hardly slept thanks to the pain. Proper fighting-back-the-tears pain, keeping me awake pretty much all night. Aside from dozing off for a bit here and there, I didn't sleep last night. To sum up, I feel like hell.

Despite this, I did a bit this morning, but am just taking it easy for the next couple of days. On the bright side, I DO have a doctor appointment for next week to get my painkillers sorted. Painkillers that, actually, don't, so I am getting the GP to help me out. I've tried everything on this "level" of pain killer, and it's doing nothing. Even Amatrypityline, which I dreaded starting because of how it affected me, has done nothing. For about a week, I was hopeful - I was sleeping to the point Kellie had to wake me up in the morning, and I was functioning during the day.

A week later, I was back to staring at the ceiling in the dead of night and pacing around the house trying to ignore the pain in my back and legs.

So, while I am flopped out knackered with the concentration levels of a sickly grasshopper, I decided to - of all things - catalogue the history of my Musical Monday posts. According to the title, I am currently on track 112. But that is wrong.

Shockingly.

A couple of times while posting, I mis-counted which has messed up the tally. On top of this, aside from one intentional repeat of a song, a few times I posted multiple songs on a Monday. Once or twice I've clearly lost the plot and posted twice on the same day by accident, but once or twice I've posted three or seven songs in the same post.

The actual count for Musical Monday songs is 129, or 128 if you take away the repeated song. I'm quite proud of that. The first song, Three Doors Down - Landing in London - was posted in February 2007 after missing Bethy, and it kinda went from there. Since then, I've covered pretty much every genre... Classical, Rap, Metal, Dance, Trance, Country, Pop, Instrumental... I've posed songs I love, songs I hate, songs with meaning, songs stuck in my head and songs I know everyone else will hate.

I'm going to create a seperate section on here to keep a complete list of the Musical Monday posts, mainly for my own benefit so I can double check I'm not doing doubles, but for your viewing "pleasure" here's the list here.

FYI: Items marked (!!) mean they are counted wrong - either a repeated count or mis-counted. Items marked with a + mean there were multiple songs posted on that entry.

1 - Three Doors Down - Here Without You
2 - David Gray - This Years Love
3 - Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan
4 - Bare Naked Ladies - Lovers In A Dangerous Time
5 - Junkie XL - Beauty Never Fades
6 - Chumbawumba - Tubthumping
7 - Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby
8 - Looper - Mondo '77
9 - Rammestein - Fueur Frei
10 - The Vapours - Turning Japanese
10+ - Incubus - Turning Japanese
11 - Armin Van Buuren - Zocalo
12 - Unknown Artist - Magic Carpet Ride
Un-Numbered - Brittany Murphey/Paul Oakenfold - Faster Kill Pussycat
13 - Dido - Thank You
14 - Poison - Every Rose Has Its Thorn
15 - The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
16 - MISSED 16
17 - The Fray - How To Save A Life
18 - They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
19 - The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance
20 - Robbie Williams - Angels
21 - Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
22 - The Firm - Star Trekking
23 - Semisonic - Secret Smile
24 - Aerosmith - Eat The Rich
25 - Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance
26 - Kirsty MacColl Ft The Pouges - Fairytale of New York
27 - Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
28 - The Wallflowers - Everybody Out Of The Water
29 - Carly Commando - Everyday
30 - Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
31 - Metallica - Enter Sandman
31(!!) - Nickleback - Rockstar
32 - Joan Jett And The Blackhearts - Bad Reputation
33 - Liquido - Narcotic
34 - The Who - Who Are You
35 - Moby - Everloving
36 - Guns n Roses - Paradise City
37 - Three Doors Down - Landing in London
38 - Jon Bon Jovi - Learning How To Fall
38.5 - Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
38.5+ - Sugababes - About You Now
38.5+ - Kate Nash - Foundations
38.5+ - Scouting For Girls - Heartbeat
38.5+ - Basshunter - Now You're Gone
38.5+ - Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot
Intentional Repeat - Armin Van Buuren - Zocalo
Un-Numbered - Otis Redding - These Arms Of Mine
39 - OneRepublic Ft. Timbaland - Apologise
40 - Jon Bon Jovi - Destination Anywhere
41 - Bird York - In The Deep
42 - The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
42(!!) - The Who - Baba O'Riley
43 - Damien Rice - Grey Room
44 - Boo Radleys - Wake Up Boo
45 - Born Ruffians - Hummingbird
46 - Matthew Ryan - Follow The Leader
47 - Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
48 - U2 - Numb
49 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow
50 - Elena Kats-Chernin - Eliza's Aria
51 - September - Cry For You
52 - Kleerup Ft. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
53 - Florence And The Machine - Kiss With A Fist
55(!!) - Dogzilla - Without You
55(!!) - Scooter - Jumping All Over The World
56 - N-Trance - Set You Free
57 - Hoodwinked - Be Prepared
58 - The Script - I'm Yours
59 - Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By The Way
60 - Miley Cyrus - See You Again
61 - Iron Maiden - Hallowed By Thy Name
61+ - Aerosmith - Mama Kin
61+ - Guns n Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
61+ - Partners In Kryme - Turtle Power
62 - Scooter vs. Status Quo - Jump That Rock
63 - The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
64 - Westworld - Sonic Boom Boy
65 - August Burns Red - The Carol of the Bells
66 - Tom Lehrer - The Element Song
66+ - Amateur Transplants - The Drug Song
66+ - The Animaniacs - Be Careful What You Eat
67 - Nick Cave - People Ain't No Good
68 - Armin Van Buuren - Going Wrong
69 - The Prodigy - Omen
70 - Patrick Wolf - Accident & Emergency
71 - Pussycat Dolls - Jai Ho
72 - Mazzy Star - Into Dust
73 - Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere
74 - Murray Gold - Doomsday
75 - The Muppets - Mahna Mahna
76 - Doctor Who - The Judoon Song
76+ - Doctor Who - The Dalek Song
77 - Bon Jovi - It's My Life (Slow Version)
78 - Hellogoodbye - Here In Your Arms
79 - Stiltskin - Inside
80 - Scooter - The Sound Above My Head
81 - Susan Boyle - Wild Horses
82 - Shaggy - Mr Boombastic
83 - Daniel Merriweather - Red
84 - Black Eyed Peas - Imma Be
85 - Weebl - Baby Baboon
86 - Wyclef Jean - Wish You Were Here
87 - The Verve - Love is Noise
88 - Limp Bizkit - Rollin'
89 - The Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
90 - Kylie Minogue - All The Lovers
91 - Sonique - Feels So Good
92 - Whigfield - Saturday Night
93 - Technohead - I Want To Be A Hippy
94 - Flo Rida - Club Can't Handle Me
95 - Enrique Inglesias - I Like It
96 - BoB - Airplanes
97 - Eminem Ft. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie
98 - Yolanda Be Cool - We No Speak Americano
99 - The Beatles - Come Together
100 - Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
101 - KRS - Sound of Da Police
102 - DJ Phil Ty - A Kay A
103 - Bear McCreary - All Along The Watchtower
104 - Lady Antebellum - Hello World
105 - Faithless - Don't Leave
106 - Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts
107 - Queen - I Want To Break Free
108 - Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias - Heads Down, No Nonsense, Mindless Boogie
109 - Placebo - Running Up That Hill
110 - Mika - We Are Young
111 - John Murphey - Kanadas Death Part 2 (Adagio in D Minor)
112 - Nine Inch Nails - We're In This Together

Quite possibly the strangest album of ALL time!  Anyways, at some point today, a tab will appear at the top of the blog, so this list is only a single click away!

Musical Monday #112 - We're In This Together

No, I'm not doing a track from Kick Ass this time... BUT this song does actually follow in that same vein. That's not the reason I'm posting mind you!

This is one of those songs from my late-teens/early twenties. Nine Inch Nails fall into the "Industrial Rock/Metal" type music and me being me, that's another of the genres I enjoy listening too.  Loud. This is a song you have to listen to cranked up, with lots of bass.

I won't lie - the only reason this song is on my mind is thanks to the trailer to The Avengers - which, I have to say, looks bloody brilliant (see, super-hero slant!)  I saw the trailer last week and thought "Wow! I love that song!" I suspect a lot of people will be looking for this song again - either my age people that have rediscovered it thanks to the trailer, or younger sorts that have never heard it, seen the trailer, and now like it.

Misspent youth, and all that! Kellie loves it too (she's seen them live, the b!tch) and I think we should have this as our first song at the wedding... Place your bets ;)

Nine Inch Nails - We're In This Together Now

I've become impossible
holding on to when
when everything seemed to matter more
the two of us
all used and beaten up
watching fate as it flows down the path we
have chose

you and me
we're in this together now
none of them can stop us now
we will make it through somehow
you and me
if the world should break in two
until the very end of me
until the very end of you

awake to the sound as they peel apart the skin
they pick and they pull
trying to get their fingers in
well they've got to kill what we've found
well they've got to hate what they fear
well they've got to make it go away
well they've got to make it disappear

the farther I fall I'm beside you
as lost as I get I will find you
the deeper the wound I'm inside you
for ever and ever I'm a part of

you and me
we're in this together now
none of them can stop us now
we will make it through somehow
you and me
if the world should break in two
until the very end of me
until the very end of you

all that we were is gone we have to hold on
when all our hope is gone we have to hold on
all that we were is gone but we can hold on

you and me
we're in this together now
none of them can stop us now
we will make it through somehow
you and me
even after everything
you're the queen and I'm the king
nothing else means anything

Musical Monday #111 - Kanada's Death Part 2

Once again, I am afraid I have to do Musical Monday with a Kick-Ass (movie) piece of music.  Like last week, I posted waaay in advance, so now, three weeks later (for you), it's still only one day since we saw it! hehe

This, however, isn't just from Kick Ass, and it's not so much a "song" as a bloody haunting bit of music.  I absolutely love it, and it was going to be last weeks track, but Mika won that coin toss.

This is the sort of track I love - I can't even explain WHY or what it is about it... There's a track from one of the Doctor Who episodes that I love, in a similar sort of vein, but couldn't say WHY I like it so much.

Apparently, it was originally from the movie Sunshine (which I have never seen), but it was reused in a scene in Kick Ass which is a slow-motion distressing/emotional rescue... Slow motion gun-shots trying to save lives... The scene is heart-wrenching, but this track just adds to it.

The first video here is just the music, John Murphey - Kanada's Death Part 2 (Adagio in D Minor):




The second video is the actual scene from the movie. DO NOT watch this then moan at me about people being shot and stabbed. The music kicks in properly from when the fire starts and goes from there.  Absolutely brilliant.

How I Was Made

Witchcraft!

OK folks, optical illusion time.
Clicky the picture to embiggen it, then follow the instructions. No, it's not one of these random "Oooh made ya jump" thingies, it's an optical illusion most of us have seen in one form or another, but this one just makes your head melt.

Clicky Me!

Confessions of a Paper Boy

For the last few weeks and months, I have been doing a paper-round. Originally, it was Dominics, but he got hacked off with it, but I kept doing it anyway for the little (teeny tiny!) extra bit of money each week.

Over the weeks and months of doing it, I have been gritting my teeth, putting my head down and plugging away at it, but now, finally, something has snapped and I've told them enough is enough.  The reasoning?

Well...

First up, you need to keep in mind that this is a "kids" job. You also need to remember, this is the free papers, so people don't pay for them and every house gets one unless they specifically state "no free papers". Delivery is once a week, usually Thursday but I generally did it Friday morning.

Each week, 225 papers were delivered the front door, and usually multiple leaflets were added to the pile in multiples of 225 - two or three leaflets (450/675/etc) at a time. These leaflets had to be put together, and then added to the papers.

Time taken? Just putting leaflet in papers was about 60-90 minutes.

After that, the papers then had to be loaded into the trolley and then dragged around the streets. Generally, that many papers didn't fit in one load into the trolley, so 150 or so papers with 150/300/450 leaflets were then dragged around and delivered door to door to door. Once the trolley was empty, it was a case of walking all the way back home - remembering where you've gotten to - and then reloading the trolley and going BACK again, and finishing up.

This is generally a two hour job in itself, so between leaflet sorting, packing and delivering, I'd be looking at three and a half hours or so. 

The pay? VERY rarely more than £10. OK granted, this was "Kids Wage" but the reasoning behind the wage was that the job took an hour.

These time frames I've given are ME doing it, and I don't knob around or anything, I just get it done and dusted.

But you know what, it's not even the length of time versus the pay. I did it mainly for the exercise. But I draw the line at rude people.

And you know what, the world seems to be populated with people that moan and whine and bitch at someone for something either out of their control or something so minor, you would expect someone like that to have a coronary watching the news.

Cases in point...

My Paper Is Wet!
Yes, that's because rain or shine, I have to deliver a shit-ton of newspapers. So, when I take a paper off the top in the rain, it might be a little damp. By the time I've folded it and stuffed it through your letterbox, it will have gotten damper. Your paper, the paper before you, the paper after you - ALL damp. I've not done it intentionally, it's the RAIN. This also leads me on to;

My Paper Is Torn!
If your paper has gotten damp (see previous) then sliding through a metal or plastic letterbox is going to split some of the paper. Also, if your letterbox doesn't open properly, or if you are one of these bloody people that HAS to have a letterbox lined with stiff bristles, even DRY paper will get torn in that. The other cause of torn paper?

You Let My Dog Rip Up The Paper!
OK, I don't check each house or door for a mutt. If you DO have a dog that shreds things going into the house, put up a sodding sign. If you don't want your dog to shred it either A) Keep the dog away from the front door, or B) Put up a letterbox guard. I don't post the paper with the intention for your dog to shred it up. No sign, no notice, the paper goes in and Spot the Dog has a paper lunch

You Stepped On My Grass!
Yes, I did, and you know why? Because your letter box is so far off to the side it's either step on your grass or levitate above your lawn and deliver it.

You Looked In My Window!
Just because my head is facing your door - you know, where your letterbox is - it does not mean I am trying to peer in and see what is in your house. If I am peering in YOUR house, then the other 224 houses also need to be warned.

I Don't Want The Leaflets!
The leaflets are part of the paper. You want the paper, you have to have the leaflets. You're not obliged to receive the paper, just say "Please don't deliver it any more" and like magic, the paper and leaflets from the paper will stop.

I Don't Want The Paper!
Now, my previous point stated that if you don't want it, just say politely that you don't, in fact, want it any more. Leaving a shitty note? I'll carry on delivering it intentionally. Throw your paper outside your front door? Yep, still going to deliver it. I'm a spiteful shit. If you ask nicely that you would like me to stop delivering, then fair enough, I will make a note and stop.

In future, please consider your paper-person. He or She is delivering in sweltering heat, freezing cold, strong winds, ice, pissing rain... That trolley or that bag they are lugging is heavy and there's a good chance they have to make a second journey yet. Be nice, be polite, don't be rude. They get paid a pittance, and have to put up with a lot of rude, arrogant and generally grumpy people, just to deliver your free newspaper.

Bloody Broadband...

In other rant-worthy posting... Orange Broadband were great. Brilliant, even. Never had a problem. NOW however, I have a problem. With them, rather, as they are now shit.

My connection speed is supposed to be 20mb. The "most your line can handle" is 15mb. This last week, if I have reached FIVE I've been lucky, but this evening...

THAT, ladies and geeks, is three and a half.  Reasoning?  Oooh yes, because of internet traffic in the area, they are allowed to throttle our connection. Which the user agreement states I allow because it ensures a fair distribution of all services to all users.

Which is why, in six months time, I am going to tell them exactly where to poke their internet connection. We can't do anything online - it's even taking ages to blog - and streaming through iPlayer or similar is just impossible. WoW? Nope, too slow to do anything so that's out the window too.

Screw you Orange, you've finished my day of brilliantly.

I'm Not A Murderer

OK World, picture the scene.

It's 7.15pm on a breezy Autumnal evening. The roads are busy, and yours truly is clumping along one heading home. I've had a long day, I'm tired, I'm sore, and I've just escorted the boys to Scouts in order to pay for their camp this weekend.

It's getting dark, granted, but Clay Hill Road & Timberlog Lane are both A) Busy, and B) Well Lit. I am walking at my usual pace, and being a big tall lad, my pace is fast. Kellie can't keep up with me, the kids (except Tam) can't keep up with me. I am plodding along and on the phone to Kellie, but being windy, she can't hear me properly, so I stop to talk to her sheltered beside a wall.

Now, I am NOT a blend-into-the-crowd kinda guy. I'm tall, fat, have long hair, and currently, I am stomping in my boots while wearing shorts and have a black thin jumper on. Oh, and Sunglasses, as I forgot to take them off earlier today.

Anyways, I stop to talk to Kellie and while saying goodbye (See you soon baby, hope you're OK, love you lots, bye, byeeee) a woman goes past me, also on foot. I finish up talking to Kellie, reply to a Tweet, and head off in what happens to be the same direction as The Woman.

She's about the same height as Kellie, so 5'2, 5'3 or so. Little legs. I am a full foot taller. Long legs. As Kellie and myself proved at the weekend, for every step I take, she has to take two or three. So the laws of physics dictate I am walking faster than her.

Now, to be honest, I start out paying the woman no heed. I'm pissing around on my phone (I forgot my headphones and bored) and clomping my way home and obviously, catching up with her. I realise that she is now watching me over her shoulder.  Meh, I carry on, still poking around the screen of my phone, but now I am aware she is watching, I'm not glancing up at her.

And all the time, catching up.

The distance closes fairly quickly, not like I'm running after her, but her Little Legs are no match for my Long Legs.

Still watching over her shoulder, she suddenly breaks into a run.  For all of five seconds, just to put some distance between me and her. Great, NOW I'm pissed off. Clearly, being that I am a man, walking in the dark, wearing sunglasses and boots with shorts, I MUST be a murderer.

Granted, she may well have had some traumatic experience in the past, but we are not in Axe-Murderer Territory: Cars, Vans, Cyclists, Chavs - all are present.  There's no lull in the traffic, there are no dark alleyways in which I can whisk her, there are no places to park to bundle her into the magic invisible van I own. At this time of the evening, these are BUSY roads, both with traffic and people.

Every couple of minutes, I am again "too close" and she runs forwards for a few seconds. I wouldn't mind, but her hand is clutching a mobile phone - if she's THAT fearful of her life, why not call the police. No, she doesn't know me from Adam, the thing that has really hacked me off is she has gone straight to "Frightened Rabbit" mode and not done any of the other stuff you would expect. Turn and confront, cross the road, flag down a car for help, ask one of the people cycling past us for assistance, knock on one of the MANY front doors we are walking past... Hell, fake making a phone call.

So now I am self-conscious of appearing like a psychopathic axe murderer and attempt to slow down - but I can't slow down enough, so NOW I am walking like a weirdo and still catching up with her. I "stop to do my shoe lace" but soon catch up again, but I'm now pissed off that she - by her stares and fearful runs - has made me feel like I AM guilty of something.

Women - please, if someone looks different to the normal - and in this area that means a baseball cap, designer tracksuit and flashy trainers - don't assume they are a prowling monster after the blood of a female. If you're scared, DO something about it. I would have actually rather been confronted by her, or a police car, or a person she's asked for help, instead of being made to feel like I was stalking her and planning her demise. I would rather have had the opportunity to say "No love, you're old and not my type, and my wife would kill me if I bought home a victim" than to know there is some woman out there peeing her knickers thinking she had a close encounter with a monster on her way home.

Of course, a BETTER thing to say would have been"No love, you're old and not my type, and my wife would kill me if I bought home another victim"

Predators

Sometimes, Kellie says things that tickle me.  The sort of thing that she stumbles into and makes me chuckle.  Quite often, she says something that just makes me wet myself. And then proceed to use against her over and over again until the knife-drawer is opened.

Once she's out of arms reach, IE, at work, then she's fair game again.  The "Things She Says" series of blog posts are always chuckle-worthy, and even she sits and reads them giggling to herself... Probably A) Knowing that she said it and I heard, and B) That it's just going on the pile of excuses to kill yours truly.

However, I am not to be deterred.

Last week, we were watching one of these blokes that goes it alone in the wilderness, doing the whole survival thing.  Survivorman is quite interesting, but we both prefer Bear Grylls and his Man vs. Wild series, but none the less, we sat and watched him do his survival thing.

This episode was set in the Canadian Boreal Forest, far to the north of the Americas, snowy, cold... Northern Canada. The chap is talking about how harsh the weather can turn - cue images of snow and ice - and that everything is struggling to survive.  He then moves on to the large mammals that live up there, and that while there are plenty of bears, it's not the bears that scare him but "another large mammal during it's mating season" that often kills people defending it's territory or chasing down a female or whatever...

And the screen flicks to this:

Dangeous...

OK, Northern Canada, cold, snow, ice, swimming mammal, highly dangerous during mating season... Kellies brain took all these facts - especially the part about Canada and came out with the following answer...

"Kangaroo"

I had to pause the program. I couldn't see, I couldn't breath, I was in fits. Within a millisecond of the guffaws escaping my mouth, she knew what she meant, she knew what it should have been, but it's NOT what she said.  Before any of you Upside-Down-Australian-Convicts point out that Kangaroos CAN swim, that is not the matter that is being debated.  I know they can swim. However, swimming, living in the frozen Canadian Forests and killing people on a regular basis I think it a little out of their league.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Aw Poor Kellie" but you need to realise she is with me because she loves me.  THIS is what she loves really...

And the final icing on the cake, that part that actually makes this ALL the more amusing - while writing this post, I was looking for some stats on both the springy giant rat, and the rage-filled death-cow, and find that someone has done a fantasy-battle type thing of Kangaroo vs Moose.  If you were in doubt over which was the killer and which, well, wasn't... Then it's worth a read ;)

For Your Amusement

Haven't posted any random amusing images of late, so voilà! They all clicky to embiggen too :D

More Bloggers!

As I am sometimes driven to insane acts of kindness, I thought I would start today with one...

Wait, who's laughing? Exhibit A, Posh Totty broke her bloke. (EDIT: While it is possible Posh broke her bloke I did in fact mean Blog. Being that it's so rare I make such hideous mistakes, I've left this on here for prosperity! Don't ask how I fixed her bloke...) I fixed it.  There, act of kindness. Her blog might be veryveryveryveryveryvery VERY pink, but I still fixed it.  Granted it now belongs to me now, but that is not the point...

My point is that I occasionally come across other bloggers who's blogs catch my eye for, well, whatever reason. Don't know why, can't say what it is about them, and being the fine upstanding citizen that I am, I share them with you lot so you too have something to do when bored.

First up, we have The Life of a Hippyish Dad. Now, there aren't too many Father bloggers out there - not compared to your women sorts, so it's nice to see another DAD blogger, but nice to see one that thinks the rest of the world is full of crazies. Now, usually I don't link to blogs that need updating, but I have poked and nudged Neil to update, so fingers crossed ;)

Farmers Wifey is just that - a farmers wife. In fact, her blog caption is "I'm just trying to get through the day without losing the chickens or bogging the tractor" which is enough to tickle me. It's farm life, family life, all with that particular slant that amuses me. And if you're reading 0ddness, then you probably enjoy that slant too...

Last up, we have Seaside Tracie who I admit, I know through the "wonderful" world of CHDs. However, I also admit I've only just realised she's blogging. Bad Dan. However, like me, her blog is full of stuff she likes, stuff that amuses her, occupies her time, and generally blogs whatever the heck she likes!

So, dear reader, I suggest you click on those linkies and go say hello to the wonderful people out there!  Now go, shoo! I need to eat my dinner!

Construction: Done!

After goodness knows how many years of 0ddness having the same template, and how many years of being bored with it and going to change it, but chickening out at the last minute, I have finally done it.

It has to be said, it wasn't a hard thing to do - all the new Blogger templates and oojamiflips* that you can fiddle with now made it mostly easy and virtually painless, and aside from a few issues here and there, I can safely say it is finished.

I like it.  That is saying something to be honest, as quite often I change it, decide I hate it, then either revert it to the original one, or sulk about it and change it over and over. I used to love one that had a brilliant bit of artwork on it, but that was old original blogger and became thoroughly incompatible with the changes they did, but I moved on.

And, incidentally, that bit of Artwork is now my background on my other computer.

Anyways - there is currently no banner-title-thing on her because I've begged asked nicely to have a new one made so that's a work in progress, so bare with that for the time being. The mobile version of 0ddness should also be pretty and nice to look at too, so fingers crossed when you access it on your mobile, it'll be nice there too.

You'll notice I've also ditched the tagboard. It was getting spammed, none of my friends used it very often, and it just made me sad that the only time it got messages was someone telling me they weren't a spammer - only to find their blog was a spammy blog.  Ugh.

I'm not sure how many people actually read 0ddness via the site itself any more either... I've never been one for counting traffic for the sake of it - I like looking at the numbers just so I know A) that people ARE reading, and B) the interesting ways people trip face-first into the blog. I suspect most people read via an RSS Reader, Facebook or some other way.

If you're a reader, feel free to say hi in the comments section - even if you've never commented before, post in the comments section, say Howdy and let me know you're here.  I had one reader that kept to herself add me on Facebook a while back (I'm calling you out, Sue!) which was a nice surprise, so if you're too shy to comment on here, then prod me on Facebook! Alternatively, you can find me and add me on Twitter.  Facebook, Twitter, either way - there are links on the right to both - cunningly marked as "Facebook" and "Twitter"

Feedback on the new layout/design is appreciated, even if you don't like it... Kellie is going to have a pokey prod around with it in a bit too and give me her two pence worth, and once it is done, there will be a new banner up. Hopefully this layout will keep me happy for a while now!



*Oojamiflips (OO-JA-MA-FLIPS): Part of the systems of thingamajigs (THING-A-MA-JIGS), wotsitcalleds (WOTS-IT-CALLEDS) and doohikeythingies (DOO-HIKEY-THINGIES)

Construction

Due to Miss Kellie having fiddled with the Template on her Card Making blog, she's rattled my cage for MY template... You know, the one I keep threatening to change...

Well, after sodding around with the template tools in Blogger, I think I've found something I like. So it's going to change in a bit.  Apologies if you don't like it - but most people seem to read via Reader/Mobile or RSS anyway ;)

Still - bare with it while I prat around with it - it WILL be finished shortly, but it might undergo some rough-and-ready changes before it's finished.

MIA

It has been noted that my presence has not been felt in various places of late.  And there's a reason for that.

Mostly, I've been off of Facebook. Originally, it was because everyone was crying and sobbing over their news feed changing, and how they were all doing a /RageQuit and taking their toys and going to play with someone else.  And some people DID go and see someone else.  But you know what they did?

They didn't stay... The people that went to Google+ are all still on Facebook. In fact, my Google+ wall/stream/feed thingie is no busier than it was before everyone spat out their dummies.

Funny that.

However, aside from poking my nose on Facebook here and there the last couple of days, I've not missed it. I've not seen something on there and wished I'd seen it earlier. In fact, my Facebook news feed seems to be pictures... Over and over and over, motivational, amusing, rude... But loads and loads of pictures. Mostly, the same ones being shared from different sources.

Oh, and hoax-spam, plenty of that too. Facebook going to start charging? Wow... People still fall for that?! Really?!

Never mind.

I will be back on Facebook, but not yet. See, the problem is, you're not out the woods yet.  Everyone that spat out their dummy because something changed a bit, you've not seen NOTHING yet.  I was looking at the new Facebook Profile stuff earlier, and I tell you what, if you got angry over a redesigned news feed...

Let's just say, you might want to start stocking up on the sedatives NOW.

And the funniest thing is, that's not the last change - there are other things happening on there this year. And probably every year till it shuts down, because change keeps things fresh.

Anyway. I AM alive, I AM fine and dandy and aside from just being busy, everything is OK. I just can't handle a hundred people posting rage on Facebook for days at a time over something that is A) Free, B) Not a necessity and C) COMPLETELY out of your control.

The work front is a little stalled at the moment - still waiting on a course to open up for me to sign up for with the evening slot available. Just a case of checking each day and hoping for the best. Still nervous and still excited but it's all good!

Now if you will excuse me, it's nearly 8pm, I'm a hungry boy and need to figure out if dinner is being cooked by me, or elsewhere and delivered... *ahem*