But what if I don't like spam?

No, not a link to Monty Python but to a (or should that be an [I am never quite sure]) hilarious and gorgeously written post by Steve, for more info check this out - SPAM

have fun

In the air tonight*

One thing I have heard several times is that Milton Keynes has its own smell. Whilst this could be a USP¹ in many a marketing strategy, I want it to be said here and now that I don't believe this to be true. Milton Keynes does not smell!

However, several times a year there is a smell to Milton Keynes.

Let me introduce you to the CMF. Now the CMF hails from beyond the west side of Milton Keynes and is infamous. You see, despite what you were all thinking CMF stands for the Chicken Manure Farmer. Every so often, when the air is ripe right, Milton Keynes is covered by the acrid smell from a freshly spread farm, the CMF's farm. His use of chicken manure may help his plants grow to GM proportions but it also means that most of MK has its windows closed. Whilst this is good, with regard to global warming and reduced heating bills, it does mean that many would be thieves find takings lower than normal.

*This isn't a plug for the former drummer, turned frontman, turned solo artist of Genesis, although if you really want to you can check him out here In your ears tonight
¹Unique Selling Point for all those who haven't been to the BS school of marketing

Qumana

Well hopefully you'll be able to see that I am also trying out Qumana. And I suppose I should also have said that the previous post - which I have just copied within Qumana and then been unabel to post into here, so one down so far. However, can't say I tried that with Windows Writer.

Still we'll see if this gets posted and then give them both something a little harder to do.

Powered by Qumana

Windows Live Writer (Beta)

Now I have been looking for an offline blog writer for a while, not sure if this will work but I'm going to give it a go. We'll see what happens.

Obsessive Star Trek book compulsion

I have realised that I am very obsessive in some of my behaviour. Well actually in a lot of my behaviour, but that is by the by, I am talking about something specific here and now.

We have been trying to de-junk our lives a la life laundry, yeah OK the programme was on in 2002 and I am only now starting to clear things out. Well the clearing has been going on for a while so I’m not that bad. Anyway, part of the clearing has involved getting rid of any old paperbacks or other books that I have either read and don’t want to keep or that are just no good.

So I made two piles one for books to read and then get rid of and another to simply get rid of (the theoretical third pile of books I want to keep were already on the shelves). This is where I discovered my obsessive behaviour; I was virtually unable to put any books into the ‘get rid of’ pile. This has left me with a pile of ‘Star Trek’ novels to read and then get rid of. Even though these novels aren’t the best stories ever written, by a long shot, I seem unable to simply bin them – I have to read them first. Still I am almost onto the last couple now having read the vast majority I had.

Roll on September when I should be near the end of this trek (sorry couldn’t resist the pun) and can look forward to reading something with a little more depth again.

Could it be true?

For the first time ever I am about to go on holiday from work without piles and piles of stuff left undone. I have one more week to go and I have finished all the major jobs that needed doing. I have one pile of commissioning to do next week and that is it, however even s quarter of that is already done.

The rest of my time can be spent being creative with a couple of other projects I am working on, getting them up to speed and coming up with formats and content ideas - which is the part of the job I really like.

I would like to take credit for such organisation but I must admit that it is all down to Mr David Allen and his Getting things done book. His concepts and ideas have really helped and turned this procrastinating, unorganised creative type into a... well let's just say more organised. To go along nicely with GTD I have also been aided by the ideas and templates from the people at D-I-Y planner, although I still use lots of digital devices and online Web 2.0 applications (that's another story soon to be told) I have moved to pen and paper for my main planning... I may even be moving toward a simple notepad in the near future, I'll let you know.

So if you have a little trouble organising yourself then the above two links come highly recommended.

Heartfelt apologies

Are sent to whoever it was the RSPCA were trying to wake up as they attempted to forward the call from my wife concerning the bat in our bedroom at 2:25 am. When the bat flew out she simply put the phone down while she was on hold.

Bat, man Awakes!

I was woken in the middle of the night, 2:25 to be precise by a commotion. As I became self-aware – nothing so advanced as the Skynet system in the Terminator, simply the move from dream state to consciousness – I noticed something moving around. My first thought was that there was a moth zooming round the bedroom. The weather has been very hot and humid the last few days and therefore the windows have been kept open. I could here a definite fluttering of wings and it sounded like whatever was fluttering, was going round in circles, this is typical moth behaviour. I then heard my wife say that there was a bird in the room. At this point any remains of sleep vanished and I was fully awake. So I jumped out of bed and went over to the light switch, at this point the whole family was awake and wondering what was going on.

I turned on the light and immediately saw this small, dark object flying around the room. It was either a very large moth, although I was beginning to have my doubts, or a very small bird, of which there aren’t many where we live. Another reason I was beginning to think it wasn’t a bird was that it wasn’t making a noise, no sound at all.

I rushed over to the curtains and opened them in the hope that whatever it was would fly out. It then occurred to me that this might not be either moth or bird but perhaps a bat… how Goth is that? My thoughts were confirmed as it landed on the curtain and took a breather before starting again on its continual circumnavigation of the bedroom.

Now, being a natural history expert; having watched most of Sir David Attenborough’s back catalogue, it struck me that perhaps bats were similar to moths and they could be confused by the light in the bedroom, and that was why it was flying round and round. So I turned off the light and listened intently. The bat didn’t change its course. Then I remembered that bats weren’t like moths as they had a very advanced sonar navigational system – again leant from David and his documentaries. However, at this point I was beginning to wonder whether Sir David actually knew anything about bats and other animals. You see the window was wide open and any navigational system worth its salt should have detected that and informed the bat that here was an exit. Instead the bat several times approached the opening only to turn back upon reaching it.

Bats are protected species in the UK and so I couldn’t, ethically, attack it with a tennis racquet. I did hear my wife telephoning someone for help, but I’m not sure who it was, I will however find out and relay it to you at some point. At this point the bat landed on the curtain, so I rushed over and turned the curtain around so the bat was facing the open window. With its advanced sonar working it then flew off between the two panes of our sash windows. We like the old look and feel of wooden sash windows but at times like this I can see the appeal of UPVC single pane boring windows. However, the bat then had an amazing show of intelligence, well amazing considering how stupid it had so far been. It climbed down between the panes and out the bottom, and flew away.

Tiredness caught up with me and I immediately turned off the light and got back into bed, making the mental note to check who my wife had called on the telephone. Who had been awake at 2:30 on a Monday morning and who would have had some connection with bats?

Kaiser Chiefs v Man Utd

Friendly fixture on Man Utd's pre-season tour

Tuesday, 18 July 2006
Friendly Match
Kaiser Chiefs v Man Utd, 19:15

I predict a riot.

How cool is that?

Not content wit being a pop star and a pilot, Gary Numan now enters the world of podcasting. But not just any podcast. This is a great podcast with Noel Fileding of The Mighty boosh, hence the title of this post. So if you want a podcast with a little fun thown in then chack it out.

Direct download here

Intital page here

Have fun :-)

Meanwhile I have to try and finish everything that I should have done at work before the weekend starts.