What's Doing

Add this to the list of things that Bobo shouldn’t be looking at any time soon.

Still, it is quite funny. Although still not as funny as the duck, to whom many thanks for that link.

Today I am mostly listening to Anoraknophobia and am actually back at my desk after what feels like several months in the wilderness [our records show it was three and a half weeks in Accrington].

In ex-pat news, I have recently conversed by e-mail with one Mr Warren Sprau who is currently in the same city as me (who’d a thought it, eh) and we shall be meeting up in the near future for a refreshing beverage or two.

In further ex-pat news the wife and I have a hot date with Mr Stott tomorrow night, who is in town for a few days after an incredibly glamourous sojourn in Morecambe.

And our final part of "They-went-away-but-then-they-came-back" news is that I shan’t be having a beer with Mr Falconer next week as he is visiting London whilst we are in the South of France.

I’m back from Accrington, for a while at least, and the Fast Show is on UK Gold. All is well in the world for the time being.

This evening’s episode included the tip-top classic sketch where Ralph tells Ted that his wife is dead ("Tomato, Ted Aubergine, Your, Potato, Wife’s Turnip, Dead. "). Oh, how we laughed. Which just goes to show that I need a holiday, or more Fast Show DVDs.

This week I shall mostly be eclectic. On the train from Euston to Preston I have been listening to;

• Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
• Macy Gray – The Trouble With Being Myself
• Evan Dando – Baby I’m Bored

Now, sadly, I’m back in the world of the cloth cap and rain. I’d better get on with some work.

Today is now officially Spinal Tap quote day here in the "Grim Up" North.

To paraphrase Not the Nine O’Clock News – "Whenever two or more are gathered together they shall recite the lines of St Hubbins, Tufnel and Smalls"

Ever eager that you, dear reader, can join in the fun, here are the web sites we have been using as cheat sheets;

IMDB
SpinalTapFan.com
Frequently Unasked Questions about Spinal Tap

The last one provided the exact content of my favourite line from the movie – "I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem _may_ have been that there was a stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf."

To put the tin lid on it, the air conditioning in this building doesn’t work. Which is a bit of an issue as there is glass everywhere.

Suffice it to say that it is now half past three in the afternoon and the temperature at my desk is in the low twenties (centigrade) and rising.

Bugger.

Although this page is called my diary it is a more of a jotting pad. A place where I can make notes and asides, and where the occasional reader can leave some well meaning banter. If you haven’t – shame on you. Just position your cursor over the word ‘Comments’ at the bottom of the article, click once and type away in the window that pops up to leave me a note.

But its not a daily chronicle of my life. I never really thought it would be. The 70’s throwback lent me Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal in the 70s by Andrew Collins and I was reading it on the train to Preston this morning. It almost inspired me to turn this page into a journal, until I remembered the woeful attempts I’ve made in the past to keep a diary. Luckily most of them have been thrown away or burnt.

But still, the odd "Got up, had breakfast, went to work, came home, tippy tapped, went to bed" type entry wouldn’t go amiss. At the very least it would remind you that I’m still alive.

So, this morning I got up at a quarter to six, finished packing my bag, was on the Northern Line by twenty past six and was safely on the seven thirty London Euston to Preston express. Whilst on the train I read the Guardian, fixed some code and listened to the following music;

• Marillion – Anoraknophobia
• Prefab Sprout – A Life of Surprises
• Turin Brakes – Ether Song

After a thirty five minute, thirty pound taxi ride I arrived at work.

And it was still as dreadful as when I left on Friday. Bugger.

This one is for Mr Rath, a vasectomy story to rival his own. That scaryduck is one funny chap I tell you.

Now, enough of this frivolity and enjoyment. I’m off to design a data model for a query handling system. The joy, oh the joy.

I was also going to point out that I’m not alone in my sadness. But Ciaran has managed to bugger up his archives. So I can’t put in a permanent link to his complete and utter lack of content on the 22nd and 24th of April. Mind you, the preceding entries could probably do with a bit of pepping up as well.

Bad boy, fix it now.

As an alternative to hardcore language issues may I direct you towards 300 reasons why we love The Simpsons.

The. Greatest. TV. Show. Ever.

Today’s language dilemma of the day is – how do you spell web site?

Should it be two words or one? Should there be any capitalisation because its a noun? Or should I really not care. Obviously I care, because I am the grammar police.

Asking some "authoritative" sites on the net give us the following results;

• Dictionary.com says one word or two. So they are no help.
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy has no opinion either way. So they are no help.
• Everything2.com is firmly of the opinion that it is two seperate words. But they rejected a post I lovingly wrote about a year ago so I shall ignore them in a fit of pique.
• Ahem, Microsoft Word, ahem is happy with either one word or two. So they are probably wrong, as usual.
• Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia, entitles its entry with only one word but does mention that the two word version is a valid alternative.

So there you go, a conclusive result. No one really cares. Except the grammar police of course, and we are still watching you.

As Wikipedia is the coolest site, at least in nerd terms anyway, we will take its lead. From now on I will use website, but tolerate the use of web site by those less englightened.

This whole exercise does of course raise the question of exactly how exciting my life is. The current answer is – not very.