Passing the 300000 views mark.
Even though I post a lot of rubbish, I’ve now astonishingly passed the 300000-views mark.
My friend A. has nearly passed the 1000-views mark!
Car Bomb in London
A car bomb in Central London did *not* explode in the early hours of the morning thanks to the police.
Thank you, police!
The best LOL I had though was when reading this snippet:
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain faces “a serious and continuous threat”.
He added the public “need to be alert” at all time
Yes, I nearly forgot that Scotsman Gordon Brown is now our Prime Minister!
I never said a proper good-bye to our Tony who resigned as Prime Minister 2 days ago.
Bye Tony! You did a SHIT job.*
*apart from Northern Ireland
Hello Gordon!!
/me waves
Off to Edinburgh Tomorrow
I’m going to drive there tomorrow. It will be a nightmare and *really* stressful, as I’m also working until 6pm.
So, I’m going to have to:
- get up early (8AM or something)
- get everything ready
- wrk wrk wrk
- quickly make sandwiches for my trip during my breaks
- set off hopefully 6.30pm the latest
At least once I’m there I’ll be living totally on my own, so I can organise my day/when I eat/what I do etc. completely independently.
Edinburgh Countdown
I’m going to drive up either Friday after work, or Sat. first thing in the morning. I’d like to be back Friday night though, so I can get up on Saturday and get stuff done.
The only problem is that it’s an 8-hour drive or so, so if I leave here at, say, 7pm, I won’t get there until 3AM 
Not ideal, but I might just do it. I can’t wait to see all my post and my lovely flat! And my lodger is moving out tomorrow 
/me stocks up on ProPlus
Computer Nostalgia: Psion 5
Quick post on the Guardian technology blog that caught my eye: Psion: the last computer.
Apparently, the Psion 5 is 10 years old today. I used to have one of those, and so did anaj (remember transferring files via the Psion’s infrared? taking it to parties, and such, hehe 
). I bought mine in Cash Converters on Holloway Road, in 1998 I think it was. Nifty little thing. Sold it on ebay a couple of years later.
Glastonbury Coverage on the Beeb Website
I caught some of the Arctic Monkeys’ set on Friday night on the telly (I think it was BBC2), and went to the BBC website to check when the rest is broadcast (or repeated).
I found out that they put up 40 of the live acts up on the website, and you can watch it up to 1 week after it was originally broadcast (that one-week thing is similar to Channel 4’s 4od, which nota bene I still haven’t been able to get to work, so I stopped bothering with it). The BBC site is pretty cool though (just make sure you *don’t* install the bloaty fuckware RealPlayer – instead, go for this Real Alternative).
Earlier, I watched the Maximo Park Glastonbury gig (yus!). Their set is roughly 30 minutes’ long and features most of their hits, though they didn’t play Our Velocity (it might have been an encore – only the main set seems to have been uploaded). It’s definitely *much* better than watching some fan’s mobile phone video recording of a gig, such of the type you can find on youtube.
Some points about the Maximo gig:
- Paul Smith looked a bit pudgy (stop drinking those beers and eating those pies you sexy beast )
- they introduced ‘Apply Some Pressure’ like this: “This song is about staying with a belief in something or other, it’s called ‘Apply some Pressure’”. which made me think of my friend Andraco, because he quoted some lines of this song on his blog.
- The keyboarder looked hot (I remember him from the £3 – Maximo club gig we went to – he jumps around and is really energetic, I love that!)
I’m also just now watching a little bit of Bloc Party, but they’re shite live! I’ve seen a few gigs of theirs on the telly, and they’re really crap live. Though I do like their albums.
Note also that the Arctic Monkeys’ gig on the website only features one song! It says underneath:
Now Playing: Arctic Monkeys – ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’
(Sorry, we only have permission for one track)
WTF? I wonder who’s responsible for that. I’m quite disappointed as it looks like the Monkeys don’t want their stuff to be broadcast for free. Greedy fucks £££££££££££. There again, they were never particularly ‘alternative’ in their attitude, it’s just that their music happens to be quite cool and punky (well, I don’t have the new album as I heard it’s not as good).
Currently I’m checking out the Editors gig. I don’t think Editors are that great, and the singer’s voice reminds me of Alan Partridge, oh dear! Still, they’re much better live than, say, Bloc Party. Maybe their music translates better onto a stage. Actually they are quite cool.
BTW Editors also remind me of some 80s / early 90s gothic and new wave bands, which isn’t a bad thing. I got a similar vibe from the Klaxons’ album (Myths of the Near Future), which BTW is great too! I just love British bands at the moment – over the last 2-3 years or so a lot of excellent postpunk /post-wave / indie+art rock has come out of Britain. I really don’t like Britpop and such, I find Oasis, ‘Madchester’ (Stone Roses etc.) etc. rather dull. But Maximo, Fratellis, Noisettes, Long Blondes, Kaiser Chiefs (the new album, not the old one! the old one sucks), etc. etc. and I’m happy
PS: I phoned my mate Dave earlier (to prepare him and his missus for my imminent arrival in Edinburgh), and I ended the conversation with:
See you later, daaahhhling!
Good god! I’m starting to take on London mannerisms (down here, people call you either ‘daahhling’, ‘babe’, or ‘love’). I’m really looking forward to going to Edinburgh though. It’s just so annoying that the good jobs are down here, but the good people are 8 fucking hours away! It’s killing me 
Get 250 Free Business Cards
Seeing that I’ll soon have a new job, with a shiny new job title and a shiny new academic title, I thought I get some business cards printed. Not really to use them professionally (my new employer will get those done separately, i.e. with their logo on it etc.), but for my own personal use (to give to friends and families).
Someone gave me a business card of theirs when I was in Italy, and they had it done free on the Vistaprint site. You can get 250 business cards for free – all you have to pay is postage (which in my case was £3.62).
The catch? There is no catch (apart from their displaying their URL on the back of the cards). It really is free, but from when you go to the site and choose your card, to the actual checkout/payment, they really cleverly try and make you ‘add on’ ‘really good offers’ to your free cards. They try really hard to push all sorts of ‘good deals’ onto you, including various deals for quicker shipping.
If you resist all of those ’special offers’, and if you manage to get to the end without accidentally selecting any of them, you really do have a good deal with 250 free business cards for £3.62. Mine won’t arrive here for at least another 3 weeks (I picked the ’slow 21 days shipping’ option), but when they do, I’m going to be quite a happy bunny
I’m Going to Buy A Bike Tomorrow
yus, because for my new job, I’ll have to cycle into an office. It’s about a 10-minute-bike ride away, and you can walk it in 30 minutes.
This is the one that I’m thinking of getting.
Everything Really Happening at The Moment
Unlike at Techno Paul’s, where Nothing Really [is] Happening at the Moment , everything is really happening at lenina’s headquarters.
So, the shorter my blog posts are, and the less I reveal, the more is actually happening behind the scenes.
I’ve got so much stuff on my plate at the moment you wouldn’t believe. For instance, when I go to Edinburgh next week, I’ll have to
- buy a new lawnmower
- cut the grass (I fear it’s way too long, as my lawnmower broke down adn I don’t know if Ross (wee neighbour’s boy) has actually bothered to borrow a lawnmower from someone else in the meantime
- buy a sander
- sand all the rust off my car, get the car serviced
- have my thesis bound in hardcover and hand it in somewhere (though where I don’t know – library?)
- throw all my thesis-related files and folders out (yusssssssssssss)
- see all my friends (yusssssssss)
- generally adjusting to all sorts of things
- various other things that can’t even go on the list!
So, I might not be up to my usual posting self over the next few weeks. I’m starting the new job on Mon 23rd July I think, and until then I’m going to be well busy. I’ll try and maintain my 1-a-day habit though, but if it’s getting shorter and more tedious etc., you’ll know why
Oh, and my BF bought an old Toyota Celica today. WTF.
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