Emo Claus

Emo Santa
Originally uploaded by dazzer67

Well Christmas is over for another year and the world has taken to heart the message of good will to all men (but hasn't extended it to female political leaders - perhaps next year).

I have managed to have a nice time, a good break and am now well into the swing of creating some resolutions for 2008, but before I go there I'd like to say a few things about Christmas.

Once again Santa brought me Dr Who on DVD and I am also now the proud owner of a moleskin diary and notepad (I feel so cool I've had to turn up the central heating). In the sales I managed to pick up a couple of bargains. The top one has to be The Doves CD Some Cities, which I manged to pick up for just £2. I also picked up A Scanner Darkly and The Man With Two Brains for £3 each.

So onto 2008, what am I going to do? Well I'll leave that for another post. If I leave putting up my resolutions till at least five minutes into January 1st I will have already the broken the ones I wasn't going to keep anyway.

Panto season at the optician

Well I needed my six monthly contact lens check this morning and so made my way to the local opticians. What I didn't know was that panto season had just started there. The optician, one I hadn't met before, did the check up in a traditional camp panto stylee that would have made Ricky Gervais in Extras proud. The highlight of which was the phrase, 'would you mind opening your legs.' Let me add that this was in order for the eye apparatus to be moved closer to me on the chair.

I apparently have very interesting eyes, in opthalmic terms, but I'm sure I've heard that line used before somewhere.

However, all is in order and I can continue with my monthly contact lenses for the foreseeable future. My next visit will be at the height of the seaside special season so I will expect drunken laughter, too much sun cream and lots of sunglasses.

Intelligence reports

Okay, I'm not going to do a cheap gag about US and UK intelligence, but what I am going to mention is the big issue of trust. Before the coalition decided to invade Iraq, the world was told, based on information in Intelligence Reports, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and could launch a significant attack in about 45 minutes.

Now we are being told that Iran, isn't making any WMDs, and if it decided to, it couldn't do it until about 2015 at the earliest. (That's the year, not quarter past eight.) And so as I sit here, sipping the rapidly cooling cup of tea, I am not left in a state of peace, assured that the world is a much safer place.

Trust is an important issue and the world seems to be losing it big time.

Intelligence?

Weekends consist of resting

Crashed 1
Originally uploaded by dazzer67

Well I wish there was more I could do but between trying to complete NaNoWriMo and other home type things there is very little time. When I do get a moment it is a cup of tea and a quick rest on the bed. And here is the proof, a comfortable position and a nice rest.

We ran out of Coca-cola

And so I needed to find a new mixer for the glass of vodka I had just poured. In the end I used the cooled bottle of Fanta Fruit Twist that was in the fridge, and it was very nice too.

Of course the Vodka is for purely medicinal purposes while I am suffering from the worse case of man flu since the last one. Whilst suffering the plague I tend to watch TV, the path of least resistance et al.

So I have reacquainted myself with Scrubs and later on, if I can't sleep I'll be watching F/X Murder By Illusion - I saw that years ago and thought it was good so I'll ruin the memory by watching it again later.

I may also watch the Mighty Boosch again so I can recite the dialogue when I actually watch it on Thursday... oh I wish I felt better.

Champagne on your Golden Grahams - The Boosch are back

and 'I'm steamin'

Check out the first episode on the BBC three website. Even, perhaps follow this link and it might just work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/broadband/mediawrapper/consoles/threeplayer/bb_rm_console.shtml?pack1-boosh_s03_ep01_16x9

Spelling test

My spelling is not the best, you only need to read this blog to find that out, however I enjoy writing and so perhaps I shall improve over time. In the meantime, while I am writing I often need to check things out with those nearby, hence this conversation:

'Is Charles Dance spelt D-A-N-S-E or D-A-N-C-E?'

There is a laugh, at my expense, before the reply.

'D-A-N-C-E'

'Thanks, is Danse Macabre, spelt D-A-N-C-E or D-A-N-S-E?'

Another laugh before,

'D-A-N-S-E'

'Thanks, is Strictly Come Dancing crap?'

Somethings don't need an answer.

Some issues with the BT Home Hub

I thought this may help one or two people and save a bit of time.

• To get our Home Hub working wirelessly we had to change the channel it was using from 1 to 11
• Sometimes Internet Explorer won't allow you to enter your password for the Home Hub, for some reason IE7 isn't very compatible with it. Use Firefox... as you should be anyway
• Make sure you are always able to connect to your Home Hub via the Ethernet port in order to fix things
• The BT engineers are very helpful and friendly and patient

If you have any issues, leave a comment and I may be able to help

Just when you thought the internet was safe

So our Wi-fi router is playing up - I think the firmware update failed - and now doesn't want to work. So my significant other calls the support team to sort things out. They tell her that the first step is to reset the router, hold down the reset button for about 30 seconds...

Hold on, don't they read my blog?

http://dazzer67.blogspot.com/2007/10/ever-had-one-of-those-doh-times.html

... so guess what I have to do when I get the time, and that is even before I sort out the actual issue.

It is at times like this when the tea tastes particularly cold, and perhaps even a little bitter. So at times like this I turn to a bottle of cola.

I've been a little busy

And it has been great. I think I have been hibernating for the past " 'kin years " as the policemen from the Young Ones once said. But now I am enjoying a kind of renaissance.

However, this morning I have a little headache, a headache that I haven't had for quite some time, and so, with my lovely tea I will be adding a vital ingredient... some paracetamol.

Last night I satyed up far too late, which is probably why I have the headache, that was due to needing to finish something at very short notice while keeping the family happy and watching Heroes. Each week it just gets better (only on series one so don't spoil anything please) with revelation after revelation, great.