Month: October 2006

Monday Miscellany

1. Being linked from Dooce brings in a few extra hits. A few being something around the “60” mark, and certainly not as many as I would’ve thought… however the link was in her sidebar, not from the main content. I’ve had a similar number of ‘referrers’ from Reluctant Nomad (to whom I placed the link that Dooce linked to in the first place… if that makes sense).

2. My Google pagerank is 6, not 7 as I previously thought. Apologies to those who, when I mentioned the erroneous figure on Saturday, voiced their incredulity. I am sincerely sorry for wasting your incredulity, something which should be kept for REALLY incredible things… like Scotland beating France. Have I mentioned that?

3. Scotland beat France at football. Admittedly France did have the ball in our net a couple of times, but they were cheating, and we are the best team in the world. Or something. I don’t really care. We beat France. England couldn’t even beat that part-time team from Burger King.. um.. McDonalds… or wherever it was.

4. I did not watch Robin Hood. I will not watch Robin Hood. I have an irrational dislike of “popular” TV, this may be why I don’t understand all the fuss about that sci-fi programme that was on a while back, you know, the one with the dodgy production values and ‘star guests’ as baddies. Doctor How.

5. Still jogging. Sunday was harder than normal but then I don’t normally spend several hours in the pub on a Saturday, stumbling from bed 20 minutes before you are due to start probably isn’t advised either. Thankfully it was still the first week of the new block (of ten weeks) and the actual running time was low. Not so on Wednesday.

6.
Why the FUCK does it take 10 days to “process a form”. I’m adding Louise to my bank account as we don’t have a joint account. This hasn’t been an issue in the past but is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now and as the dribble of extra funds that we now have owed to us after the re-mortgage (which is almost complete, just waiting on first payment date) was presented to us via a cross cheque made out to, yes that’s right “Mr. Gordon McLean and Mrs. Louise McLean”… well our need to have an account that both of us can access suddenly leapt up the priority list.

Yes, I should have done something about this beforehand. Yet that still doesn’t explain why, having gone to the bank on Saturday morning with twenty-zillion different forms of ID for both of us, having completed the required form in triplicate, signing the form in our own blood, and providing DNA samples from the back of our eyelids, they still want to take 10 days to process the form. When I asked why the not-so-helpful wan… er.. assistant said that he wasn’t entirely sure but it had to go to the “central processing office”.

When I asked, with some vehemence, that that didn’t really explain why it would take so long he replied: “Well, I’m not exactly sure where it is but I think it’s somewhere south of the Quatanga Nebula, and hey, those little froolongs only have two fingers so maybe you should cut them some slack”.

Bemused and slightly befuddled I left the bank.

7. Thanks to all who left questions (well nearly all, some of you buggers just LOVE to be contrary). I’ll be tackling them over the coming weeks, and maybe keep a few back for the end of the month as we’re away to Spain for a sneaky week in the sun.

8. WE BEAT FRANCE. Sorry, this may take some time to sink in.

9. There is a possibility that I’ve fabricated one of the above items, part of it at least. However it’s quite subtle and I doubt many of you will spot it, but I thought I’d best be honest about it. There are parts that I made up.

10. I don’t really have something to add here but, well, by the time you get to 8 you sorta havta keep going to 10, right? You certainly can’t finish at least at 9, that’d never work. There are no “Top 9” lists (although maybe there should be?).

Blogmet

Despite being a little lacking in the “atmosphere” you get from a busy pub, the blogmeet went well. Thanks to everyone for coming along and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Double bonus with the football score!

As ever the time fairly zipped along and before you know it the streetlights are on and it’s dark outside. Never fails to amaze me that, the loss of four or five hours in the blink of an eye, maybe it was the Budvar… hmmm… A couple of new faces at this one, so thanks to Patrick and Peggy for coming along, and of course there are now a few “familiars”. Mind you one person had the affrontery to slope off halfway through the afternoon!!

I’ll let him off as he was heading to Hampden to watch Scotland beat France! Did I mention that already? You do know that means we are now the best team in the world (a conclusion we arrived it when Neil returned from the game, although I’ll spare you the logic… ). Ummm, enough of the football.

Amongst some SHOCKINGLY bad pool playing (don’t worry, Will and Richard L, I won’t tell anyone who it was) the conversation veered across the usual bizarre myriad of topics, Pitney, adverts on blogs, the obligatory camera porn discussions, recipes, reading habits, travel wishes and on and on and on. What a fascinating bunch of people us bloggers are!

Photos have already begun to appear, and a quick “thanks again” to the following people because, let’s face it, if no-one had turned up it’d just have been me, sitting on my own, reading the paper:

There was even a brief guest appearance by my wife, I hope everyone felt suitably honoured! 😉

Next one will be in Edinburgh, sometime in the Spring.

Blogmeeting

A final reminder then. If you are in Glasgow around 2pm (onwards), pop by the Radisson Hotel (the new one with the funky blue facade) on Argyll Street and head for the pool table. Bloggers will be there. You can usually tell who we are because of the cameras on the table, maybe even a laptop (although that doesn’t happen often).

Feel free to stop by and say hello, were not THAT scary a bunch… and yes, we’ll probably still be there in the evening too.

I wonder…

Does anyone come here expecting witty insights? Does anyone visit and cross their fingers that they will be dazzled by the lucidity and quality of my writing? Or do you lot just come here from habit?

Ach, I’m just glad you visit at all.

However, and this is in no way stealing an idea (perish the thought), I thought I’d try stimulating a little “community spirit”.

So, in the comments box, please suggest a title for tomorrow’s post. I will then select the title which appeals to me most, and will endeavour to construct some relevant words to match it.

One title per person only, please. Look, I know how over-excited some of you can get. So don’t go rushing into anything, OK?

The deadline for suggestions is Sunday at 17:00 (UK time).

HANDY HINT: To save any wasted effort on your part, here are some examples of what not to suggest.

  • “Are those curtains machine-washable?” – my most embarrassing sexual experience.
  • “Shit for brains!” – the 10 most useless prats that I have ever worked with.
  • “Automatics or gearboxes?” – a comparative study.
  • “Man of the match!” – my greatest sporting achievement.
  • “How did you get that texture into your dumplings?” – my most memorable culinary triumph.

Got the idea? OK, pitch!

Ohh yes, and I may use a few of your ideas. Artistic license and all that.

(ohh I’m sure mike won’t mind, will ya mike? mike? MIKE??)

Google Gadgets

Those nice people at Google have opened up their ‘homepage gadgets‘ and you can now use them anywhere. Excellent, I could have the latest Scottish news headlines zipping across the page, or maybe a game of hangman for when I post something you find boring, or perhaps the phases of the moon just be all spiritual like…

Or not.

Whilst it’s very generous of Google, I would hope that people show a little restraint. The multitude of eyesore-tastic widgets and scripts that abound in blogs is already something that constantly irks me.

Ohh the moon is in the third cresecent, ohhh my horoscope says I’m about to die, ohhh the weather where you are is awful…. I DON’T CARE!! Don’t get me wrong, some are handy, and lord knows I’ve fallen prey to ‘widget-itis’ in the past, it’s very much a case of “ohh shiny” for me sometimes, but this all seems, I dunno, so 2001… Haven’t we moved on?

Do you think I read the random quotes that zip buy in that tiny box? Do you think that Flickr box with it’s ever changing photos DOESN’T keep dragging my eye away from your content? I do not care to read your joke of the day!

So, Google Gadgets, clever? Yes. Likely to be overused in every way imaginable? Yes.

Or is it just me?

Life continuing

Whisper it, but I think we have a free weekend coming up!* Hopefully it’ll stay dry and we can get the last cut of the grass done, and maybe even a little shopping. After all, we’re rich.

Well not really, but the mortgage application is in the final stages, solicitor has appropriated** (got) funds and is paying off our current mortgage before handing us a wee cheque. That wee cheque is the reason I’ve been asking about PCs and digital cameras… Louise is getting something too but not for a while, the money will be set aside though.

I also need to go and hire a kilt as, the weekend after this, we are attending a birthday party for my mate Bill. Previous nights out with them have been debauched affairs, usually ending up with us all wandering back to someone’s house, in the rain, and deciding to wait for the sunrise. Which is all well and good during the summer months but I’m not so sure that drinking all the way through the night until 7.30am is wise…

Thankfully it’s “casual” kilt attire, so it’ll be a Ghillie shirt rather than the full blown shirt and jacket (and yes, I DO like the black one… hmmm).

More presently, I’m out jogging tonight starting the second block of the Jog Scotland programme. Another ten weeks and we’ll be running for 20 minutes continuously. Except I might not.

I mean I will be running but having ran, comfortably, for 15 minutes on Saturday morning, I’m wondering if I should move up a level. I’ll talk to the coaches tonight I think.

One problem is that I’ve spent the past ten weeks running with a group of people and, whilst we are all moving up to the next level, I’ve always felt that I’m running well within my limits (there is an obvious split in the group with a few of us always away out front, a bunch in the middle, and a couple bringing up the rear – this is no bad thing, everyone runs at their own pace). Thing is, if I move on now it’s a little.. I dunno.. like I’m saying “I’m better than you” which flies in the face of everything that Jog Scotland stands for, namely the whole “you are doing SOMETHING, which is better than sitting on your arse watching TV”. There is little ‘competition’ between runners and a definite team spirit has emerged as we all encourage each other as best we can.

So, I’m still not sure what I’m going to do. I could stick with the same group, but go out a couple of times by myself and push things on that way, but that would make a bit of a mockery of the Jog Scotland sessions. Or I could move up to the next level as I’m sure everyone in my current group would understand. The question then is, can I do it?? I had planned to up my running times a little during the ‘break’ between sessions but what with being ill and my Dad’s birthday and everything.. well, it just didn’t happen.

Hmmm guilt or progress?

* With the exception of the blogmeet on Saturday, obviously…

** There’s another blog post in the making. Why do certain industries use big long posh words for such simple things? I mean ASIDE from charging us more…