...
Ok, I'm finished it now, so am free to discuss it and can read things about it and so on... I even checked out a link to a spoiler T-Shirt:
HARRY POTTER SPOILER T-SHIRT LINK
DO #NOT# CLICK ON THIS LINK OR VISIT THIS SITE
UNLESS
YOU WANT TO KNOW SOME OF WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE YOU READ IT OR IF YOU CAN'T BE BOTHERED READING IT AT ALL ANYWAY http://harrypotterpublicenlightenmentproject.com/
It doesn't give away #everything# but gives away a fair amount of the important stuff - and you can't argue that I didn't give you a choice about whether you want to see it.
If you click on that link and proceed on the site, you do so willingly and knowing full well that it will give stuff away - unlike people who post spoilers before the book is even published and/or before people could possibly have finished it...
ANYWAY
It's funny, but not as good as this one:
DOESN'T GIVE AWAY ANYTHING RECENT
http://www.threadless.com/product/844/Spoilt
Or maybe this one:
http://www.threadless.com/product/926/Moral_Of_The_Story
:-)
Sunday 29 July 2007
Thursday 26 July 2007
* Angel Wing Bruises
...
Went go-carting yesterday for Calvin [the other half]'s birthday; Hobbes [his teenage daughter] came too.
I was dreading it, mainly because I didn't know anything about it - he had decided that this was what he wanted to do for his birthday and he organised it all [don't panic, we got him stuff, he just wanted to do this himself].
He didn't spring his plans on us until after the huuuuge birthday breakfast and a while spent playing with the new games we got him [Family Guy and Destroy All Humans].
So all of a sudden, instead of the lazy day I thought we were going to have, I'm now plunged into one of my worst nightmares...
driving..., fast..., in an unfamiliar vehicle in an unknown place..., surrounded by cheeky wee neds bumping into me..., and being watched by a crowd all the while.
And that's pretty much what it was - at first.
First session, Hobbes and me were last to leave the pit lane and had problems doing so, due to the layout [the gap onto the track from where our carts were parked wasn't big enough]- so everyone else [4 neds and Calvin] [ooh, now THAT's a boy band name!] [or possibly a Daily Record cartoon strip] were already about three quarters of the way round on their slow out lap - so the neds went ahead and started racing while I was still on mine.
It's a bit intimidating being lapped and bumped at high speed by a bunch of competitive neds on your first time out, I can tell you.
However, I persevered and pootled along, getting to grips with the track and the layout and the handling and the speed, and was possibly the most courteous racing driver since Auntie Hamiltoe-nail held the steering wheel attachment at hand positions 10 to 2 and looked over her shoulder to reverse while playing a Playstation rallying game.
I just got used to checking behind me before manoeuvring [in case the cheeky wee neds bumped me again] and just let anyone who came up behind me get past.
At the end of the first session, I was glad to be finished but surprised at how I felt I had got used to it.
Unsurprisingly I had a pretty high average lap time [51.51] and my fastest lap was 40.06
BUT
Hobbes had the 3rd fastest lap time OF THE DAY SO FAR...!
She even beat her dad by 0.1 of a second...!
She got 32.10 and he got 32.20...!
Naturally, he put this down to her being smaller and lighter therefore the cart would go quicker for her with less 'bulk', and also her starting track position meaning that she had a pretty clear run without ned-interference... [ned-terference?]
But anyway, they are in positions 3 and 4 in the day's top 20 racers.
Calvin then tells me that he saw what the neds had been doing to me, and he had given them a pretty hard time on the track, and the marshalls had given them a bit of a b*ll*cking too, which was nice [for me anyway].
So we have a bit of a break between sessions and watch a couple of groups of speed-freak petrol heads giving it some, then it’s our turn again. This time, we're in a group with another family.
And this time, I did SO much better...!
I would even say that I enjoyed it...!
The race got red-flagged [stopped] for a while when the wee guy from the other family had a crash into the tyre wall that necessitated the marshall lifting the cart off of the top of it and back onto the track, so that messed with the lap times a bit, but this time, my average laptime was 45.19 and my fastest was 36.42...!
Yay!
Hobbes's average was 45.92 with her fastest being 37.29 and Calvin the Topper of the family won with an average of 38.96 and a fastest of 32.32.
Oh yes, and the title of this post?
2nd session, I'm totally gunning it, foot to the floor and not lifting it all the way up and round the flyover and just coming on to its off-ramp... but I misjudge the racing line and hit the tyre wall on the right-hand side, which ricochets me onto the tyre wall on the left hand side, all the while with the speed of gunning it and coming down the off-ramp.
And so what with the speed and the impact, I rattle around in the seat, bouncing off of the moulded padding on each side until I get control back after the 2nd hit and gun it off again to the next hairpin bend...
I have pretty bad posture so my shoulders are a bit rounded anyway, plus they're forward what with me gripping the wheel... so my shoulder blades are sticking out... and are now rattling off the padding...
So at the bottom of each of my shoulder blades, I have lovely little bruises that look like little wings...
But they're not injuries, oh no... they're badges of honour...
:-)
Went go-carting yesterday for Calvin [the other half]'s birthday; Hobbes [his teenage daughter] came too.
I was dreading it, mainly because I didn't know anything about it - he had decided that this was what he wanted to do for his birthday and he organised it all [don't panic, we got him stuff, he just wanted to do this himself].
He didn't spring his plans on us until after the huuuuge birthday breakfast and a while spent playing with the new games we got him [Family Guy and Destroy All Humans].
So all of a sudden, instead of the lazy day I thought we were going to have, I'm now plunged into one of my worst nightmares...
driving..., fast..., in an unfamiliar vehicle in an unknown place..., surrounded by cheeky wee neds bumping into me..., and being watched by a crowd all the while.
And that's pretty much what it was - at first.
First session, Hobbes and me were last to leave the pit lane and had problems doing so, due to the layout [the gap onto the track from where our carts were parked wasn't big enough]- so everyone else [4 neds and Calvin] [ooh, now THAT's a boy band name!] [or possibly a Daily Record cartoon strip] were already about three quarters of the way round on their slow out lap - so the neds went ahead and started racing while I was still on mine.
It's a bit intimidating being lapped and bumped at high speed by a bunch of competitive neds on your first time out, I can tell you.
However, I persevered and pootled along, getting to grips with the track and the layout and the handling and the speed, and was possibly the most courteous racing driver since Auntie Hamiltoe-nail held the steering wheel attachment at hand positions 10 to 2 and looked over her shoulder to reverse while playing a Playstation rallying game.
I just got used to checking behind me before manoeuvring [in case the cheeky wee neds bumped me again] and just let anyone who came up behind me get past.
At the end of the first session, I was glad to be finished but surprised at how I felt I had got used to it.
Unsurprisingly I had a pretty high average lap time [51.51] and my fastest lap was 40.06
BUT
Hobbes had the 3rd fastest lap time OF THE DAY SO FAR...!
She even beat her dad by 0.1 of a second...!
She got 32.10 and he got 32.20...!
Naturally, he put this down to her being smaller and lighter therefore the cart would go quicker for her with less 'bulk', and also her starting track position meaning that she had a pretty clear run without ned-interference... [ned-terference?]
But anyway, they are in positions 3 and 4 in the day's top 20 racers.
Calvin then tells me that he saw what the neds had been doing to me, and he had given them a pretty hard time on the track, and the marshalls had given them a bit of a b*ll*cking too, which was nice [for me anyway].
So we have a bit of a break between sessions and watch a couple of groups of speed-freak petrol heads giving it some, then it’s our turn again. This time, we're in a group with another family.
And this time, I did SO much better...!
I would even say that I enjoyed it...!
The race got red-flagged [stopped] for a while when the wee guy from the other family had a crash into the tyre wall that necessitated the marshall lifting the cart off of the top of it and back onto the track, so that messed with the lap times a bit, but this time, my average laptime was 45.19 and my fastest was 36.42...!
Yay!
Hobbes's average was 45.92 with her fastest being 37.29 and Calvin the Topper of the family won with an average of 38.96 and a fastest of 32.32.
Oh yes, and the title of this post?
2nd session, I'm totally gunning it, foot to the floor and not lifting it all the way up and round the flyover and just coming on to its off-ramp... but I misjudge the racing line and hit the tyre wall on the right-hand side, which ricochets me onto the tyre wall on the left hand side, all the while with the speed of gunning it and coming down the off-ramp.
And so what with the speed and the impact, I rattle around in the seat, bouncing off of the moulded padding on each side until I get control back after the 2nd hit and gun it off again to the next hairpin bend...
I have pretty bad posture so my shoulders are a bit rounded anyway, plus they're forward what with me gripping the wheel... so my shoulder blades are sticking out... and are now rattling off the padding...
So at the bottom of each of my shoulder blades, I have lovely little bruises that look like little wings...
But they're not injuries, oh no... they're badges of honour...
:-)
Saturday 21 July 2007
* Harry Potter spoilers are mean. Just. Plain. Mean.
...
... Why?
... Why would you do that?
What possible pleasure can you get from giving away plot and ending details before the INTENDED MARKET [i.e. children] could possibly have read it?
Ooh look at you, all big and clever and ironic and post-modern and superior and patronising, all this hype and fuss over an over-long not-written-by-a-literary-genius kiddies story about magic, you are SO much better than the pathetic kid-ults who are openly and unashamedly reading a children's book, I know, why not PROVE how much better than them you are by spoiling it for them by revealing the important bits in public? That'll show them!
#sigh#
I respect your right to free speech.
I respect your right to have an opinion.
I agree that the media frenzy has gone overboard and that there are other, more important things going on in the world.
From an adult reader perspective: please respect my right to be able to chose what I read, when and where I read it, to read it as the author intended and get to the plot points as part of the journey and enjoyment, and to switch off from the real world every once in a while by reading fun stuff.
From a parental perspective: stop and think about how it feels, as a child, to have something monumentally exciting that you've looked forward to for aaaaaaaaaaaaages ruined before its even happened.
Because that's what you've done.
I've been lucky so far, I've been able to avoid seeing or hearing spoilers. I don't even know how accurate any of the spoilers have been, nor how many of them have been seen by children [I would expect that at least a few have been unable to avoid them].
Publicising information about the book which ruins it for anyone is just mean.
Publicising this information where children will see it is cruel.
Why not add in about there being no Santa or Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, or that Big Bird is really a guy in a suit and Elmo is an old dressing gown wrapped around a big black guy's hand?
While you're at it, why not just tell them the facts of life?
Sex education in all its hormonal stickiness, you'll never be a star athlete or award-winning actor so forget that as of right now, you will instead end up in a menial unfulfilling job in a life where debt is the norm and people cheat and are rude and selfish and will ruin things for you just for their own pleasure; life is hard and cruel a lot of the time and there's no magic to solve things with, just hard work, endurance, and sacrifice.
In fact, why not just send the kids out to work?
Might as well make themselves useful and start earning their keep, rather than hanging about the neighbourhood or school and 'playing' or 'reading' or 'learning' all day.
Well, why not?
According to you, childhood means nothing.
It is, according to you, OK to ruin childhood.
Everyone has to grow up sometime, might as well be now, and you're just helping them see reality and life for what it really is, aren't you?
Oh, PLEASE...!!
Childhood is being eroded away so much already: look at how they dress and act and what they own and know and do, compared to 30, 20, even 10 years ago.
Yet even a simple pleasure like reading all 600-odd pages of the last part of a series of magical children's stories that have helped raise interest in books and reading across the globe and finding out for yourself how the whole thing ends - even a sweet little thing like that can't be kept sacred.
Sad, isn't it?
...
... Why?
... Why would you do that?
What possible pleasure can you get from giving away plot and ending details before the INTENDED MARKET [i.e. children] could possibly have read it?
Ooh look at you, all big and clever and ironic and post-modern and superior and patronising, all this hype and fuss over an over-long not-written-by-a-literary-genius kiddies story about magic, you are SO much better than the pathetic kid-ults who are openly and unashamedly reading a children's book, I know, why not PROVE how much better than them you are by spoiling it for them by revealing the important bits in public? That'll show them!
#sigh#
I respect your right to free speech.
I respect your right to have an opinion.
I agree that the media frenzy has gone overboard and that there are other, more important things going on in the world.
From an adult reader perspective: please respect my right to be able to chose what I read, when and where I read it, to read it as the author intended and get to the plot points as part of the journey and enjoyment, and to switch off from the real world every once in a while by reading fun stuff.
From a parental perspective: stop and think about how it feels, as a child, to have something monumentally exciting that you've looked forward to for aaaaaaaaaaaaages ruined before its even happened.
Because that's what you've done.
I've been lucky so far, I've been able to avoid seeing or hearing spoilers. I don't even know how accurate any of the spoilers have been, nor how many of them have been seen by children [I would expect that at least a few have been unable to avoid them].
Publicising information about the book which ruins it for anyone is just mean.
Publicising this information where children will see it is cruel.
Why not add in about there being no Santa or Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, or that Big Bird is really a guy in a suit and Elmo is an old dressing gown wrapped around a big black guy's hand?
While you're at it, why not just tell them the facts of life?
Sex education in all its hormonal stickiness, you'll never be a star athlete or award-winning actor so forget that as of right now, you will instead end up in a menial unfulfilling job in a life where debt is the norm and people cheat and are rude and selfish and will ruin things for you just for their own pleasure; life is hard and cruel a lot of the time and there's no magic to solve things with, just hard work, endurance, and sacrifice.
In fact, why not just send the kids out to work?
Might as well make themselves useful and start earning their keep, rather than hanging about the neighbourhood or school and 'playing' or 'reading' or 'learning' all day.
Well, why not?
According to you, childhood means nothing.
It is, according to you, OK to ruin childhood.
Everyone has to grow up sometime, might as well be now, and you're just helping them see reality and life for what it really is, aren't you?
Oh, PLEASE...!!
Childhood is being eroded away so much already: look at how they dress and act and what they own and know and do, compared to 30, 20, even 10 years ago.
Yet even a simple pleasure like reading all 600-odd pages of the last part of a series of magical children's stories that have helped raise interest in books and reading across the globe and finding out for yourself how the whole thing ends - even a sweet little thing like that can't be kept sacred.
Sad, isn't it?
...
Tuesday 17 July 2007
* go on go on go on, etc
...
Today I saw a woman
Who looked like Father Ted
It must have been because
She had grey hair upon her head
A pure white high necked blouse
And high necked jacket that was black
But she wasn't saying 'feck erse girls'
Or I'd think of Father Jack
Today I saw a woman
Who looked like Father Ted
It must have been because
She had grey hair upon her head
A pure white high necked blouse
And high necked jacket that was black
But she wasn't saying 'feck erse girls'
Or I'd think of Father Jack
Sunday 15 July 2007
* ... "man-eating badgers" - WTF...?!
...
check out this story...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm
"UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said:
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area. "
well, that's nice to know...
check out this story...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm
"UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said:
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area. "
well, that's nice to know...
Saturday 14 July 2007
* When you're gone, you're gone
...
What’s the difference between kidnapping and abduction?
OK, so that sounds a bit like the opening or feed line to a joke, but really - what is the difference, or are they both the same thing? And if they are, what are the criteria for which one is used and when?
According to http://www.dictionary.com/, kidnap is defined as:
"To steal, carry off, or abduct by force or fraud, esp. for use as a hostage or to extract ransom"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kidnap
And their definition of abduct is:
1. To carry off or lead away (a person) illegally and in secret or by force, esp. to kidnap. 2. Physiology. To move or draw away from the axis of the body or limb (opposed to adduct).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abduct
So it looks like they both essentially mean the same, given that they are each given as a definition of the other.
Anecdotally, I can’t remember the last time I heard about a ‘kidnapping’ – think about it, it always seems to be described as ‘abduction’.
Is it because ‘kidnap’ contains the word ‘kid’ therefore implies the involvement of wee little children, so abduction is preferred because it has no implied or inferred age limit?
Is abduction used because kidnapping [by the definition given above] ‘especially’ involves a hostage or ransom situation?
Does kidnap suggest an element of pre-planning to the act?
Does abduction suggest a more opportunistic or spontaneous event?
Or is it just that ‘kidnap’ sounds a bit old-fashioned and Robert Louis Stevenson-ish, and/or abduction is deemed to be a more emotive [and therefore sensationalist and headline/attention-grabbing] word?
Cynic, me…?
}:->
What’s the difference between kidnapping and abduction?
OK, so that sounds a bit like the opening or feed line to a joke, but really - what is the difference, or are they both the same thing? And if they are, what are the criteria for which one is used and when?
According to http://www.dictionary.com/, kidnap is defined as:
"To steal, carry off, or abduct by force or fraud, esp. for use as a hostage or to extract ransom"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kidnap
And their definition of abduct is:
1. To carry off or lead away (a person) illegally and in secret or by force, esp. to kidnap. 2. Physiology. To move or draw away from the axis of the body or limb (opposed to adduct).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abduct
So it looks like they both essentially mean the same, given that they are each given as a definition of the other.
Anecdotally, I can’t remember the last time I heard about a ‘kidnapping’ – think about it, it always seems to be described as ‘abduction’.
Is it because ‘kidnap’ contains the word ‘kid’ therefore implies the involvement of wee little children, so abduction is preferred because it has no implied or inferred age limit?
Is abduction used because kidnapping [by the definition given above] ‘especially’ involves a hostage or ransom situation?
Does kidnap suggest an element of pre-planning to the act?
Does abduction suggest a more opportunistic or spontaneous event?
Or is it just that ‘kidnap’ sounds a bit old-fashioned and Robert Louis Stevenson-ish, and/or abduction is deemed to be a more emotive [and therefore sensationalist and headline/attention-grabbing] word?
Cynic, me…?
}:->
Saturday 7 July 2007
* Yay...! Another comment got posted...!
...
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/my-compliments-.html#comment-75167334
but read the actual post from Scott Adams first - it works and was well worth commenting on.
Luv-u
xxx!
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/my-compliments-.html#comment-75167334
but read the actual post from Scott Adams first - it works and was well worth commenting on.
Luv-u
xxx!
Friday 6 July 2007
* Check me out, I'm a published author now!
...
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/how-to-be-creat.html#comment-74979594
OK, OK - so it's just a little comment on an article... but hey, it's the Dilbert guy who approved it, so give me my wee moment of pleasure...
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/how-to-be-creat.html#comment-74979594
OK, OK - so it's just a little comment on an article... but hey, it's the Dilbert guy who approved it, so give me my wee moment of pleasure...
Thursday 5 July 2007
* mahna mahn-bleurgh
Great big thick bitty-wool fluffy knitted scarf folded in half, wrapped around the neck with the 2 loose ends pulled through the loop where the middle of the scarf is at the front = a Muppet has vomited all down your chestal area.
These scarves aren't knitted; they are produced by bulimic Muppets...
These scarves aren't knitted; they are produced by bulimic Muppets...
Tuesday 3 July 2007
* what it the sound of one siren wailing?
Are there waaaaaaaay more sirens than normal or am I just more aware of them...?
Or is it just that I'm home during the daytime just now and they've always been there even if I haven't been here to hear them...?
And while we're on the subject of heightened security alert after the Glasgow Airport Attempted Al-Quaida BBQ on Saturday just there...
Why do I get the feeling that this site was started ironically:
http://www.johnsmeaton.com/
... but people are missing the point and taking it deadly seriously [pardon the pun]...?
Mind you, like it says in the comments section - only in Glasgow do suicide bombers need police protection...
Or is it just that I'm home during the daytime just now and they've always been there even if I haven't been here to hear them...?
And while we're on the subject of heightened security alert after the Glasgow Airport Attempted Al-Quaida BBQ on Saturday just there...
Why do I get the feeling that this site was started ironically:
http://www.johnsmeaton.com/
... but people are missing the point and taking it deadly seriously [pardon the pun]...?
Mind you, like it says in the comments section - only in Glasgow do suicide bombers need police protection...
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