Would you like a little dessert?

Well here we are, we've survived Christmas. I just hope the same can be said for my bank balance after the sales. I was touch and go myself for a minute just now as my colleague told me she was thinking of getting a £125 bag and a £150 purse in the sales and had to grip the desk to steady myself against the desk. I nearly collapsed when she said that those -are- the sale prices!


I've been spoiled this year and had two Christmases. (You know it's been a strange time when you have to think of the plural of Christmas.) I had one in Bangor and one back in Brockham. Somehow there was more food in the meal paid for and cooked by students. But then in a Dickens-esque moment we did have goose at home. I can now inform you that goose meat lies somewhere between duck and beef in flavour and look. If you can imagine that you've got a better imagination than i have; I struggled to do so when I was eating the thing.

I was out last night to celebrate Anne's (aka the Munchkin's) 21st birthday. We had a great time in the pub, but why oh why do pubs need to be so smokey? Yes people, it's soapbox time! It's a disgusting habit from which I refrain, so why must I have it inflicted upon me when I want to go out with my friends to the only easily accessible venues? I do not like the smell of cigarettes on me, and because I'm not constantly surrounded by it or am spending £5 a go to poison myself and deaden my senses I can smell it on me for ages afterwards. It's so overpowering that I have trouble getting to sleep. I can smell it on my bedding for days after. I can smell it on me now and I've showered since and am wearing absolutely nothing that I was wearing last night. There are enough warnings about the dangers of smoking and every year 5 million deaths are directly attributed to smoking making the second most common cause of death after cancer. With all this information and warning out I find it not only stupid that people continue smoking without even trying to quit and mind-boggling that more people start smoking every day.


I keep discovering e4 are showing late night reruns of 'Smack the Pony', only the createst sketch show ever invented. More importantly the DVDs are available for the first two seasons. Though strangely, not in England... the show's country of origin. But in Germany, on their version of Amazon. Until I finally resort to buying them I have reruns and YouTube:



I hope Sallyann reads this post.

An Average Medium

Okay, so It's been a long time since I've posted, I hope the three readers I have forgive me! Wish I could say I've been off having many adventures and enjoying myself. Alas, dear reader, I must confess that I have simply been enjoying a period of no ongoing assignments by sitting on my ass!

Though on Saturday I went on a "field trip" (I say that just because I don't want to say 'ghost hunt') with the speculative analysis society to Plas Teg, supposedly the most hanuted house in Wales. I've been there before and had a good time on both trips, mostly because thy didn't involve screaming, fear and running through forests. Don't think we're a bunch of Yvette Fieldings people, we were running from the local chavs at Gwyrch. Not the most pleasant experience, not least because I stepped in a very large puddle. Least I didn't fall down a hill like Nicola!

So yes, the evening sessions at Plas Teg have been taken over by a new group as the previous group were stealing things and fixing events to make it seem the paranormal activity was happening. The head of the group introduced himself as a 'spiritualist medium', which should have set of a few alarms really, and explained that this was their second night running trips round Plas Teg, which isn't much better than a self-confessed spiritualist medium. The guy had an air of Derek Acorah around him, he rather lived up to this.

We set about business as usual with a bit of a tour round the building with talks about the rooms and just seeing if anyone would make their presence known. Sallyann and I found a very cute cat in the drawing room, sadly this is how we discovered that Sallyann is not just allergic to live cats, ghost ones make it hard for her to breathe too. As we were making our way upstairs most people had a feeling of swaying or rocking while standing on the stairs, we were then told that the wood for the stairs was taken from an old ship, which was interesting to learn. We then made our way to the upper floors and the bedrooms and after spending time in the rooms it became fairly obvious that the whole atmosphere was very different than in the previous visit. The best example of this was in the 'Twin Poster' room, where there are the spirits of two children who were very active before. This time, however, while they were still there, the young girl (Emily) was runing all over the place when we first went in, after we got settled and started up they were almost drowned out by something else and spent their time hiding amongst the curtains. Apparently the new group had been moving items in the house back to 'their rightful locations', whether or not this is responsible for the change in atmosphere I don't know.

When the whole of both groups (the Spiritual Friends Association and the Speculative Analysis Society) were together in the great chamber pretty much every member of the SA soc. were very much aware of a spirit right in front of the 'Spiritualist Medium' that he seemed completely oblivious to. The SFA also, so I'm told, used the speaer system to pump low frequency sounds into one corner of the room were a number of people stated feeling ill and unsteady. Oh, but the cat back back to see us, that was nice.

Okay, So I'm now expecting a flurry of comments saying how much of a fool I am to believe such nonsense and to warn me off 'dabbling'. Does 2 count as a flurry?

On subject matter more people may hopefully appreciate, I found the video to 'Lithium' by Evanescence on Youtube. The single is due to be released on the eighth of January. Till then, enjoy....

Sente Kiteway; friend or foe?

I have just watched Newsround (yes people, a 20-y.o. who watches Newsround. It's the only news I can bear to watch.) and apparently today, Tuesday the 17th of October 2006, the National Trust are running a blog related scheme. They're asking people to submit their blog posts from today to be kept in a special place so that people in the future may have an idea about what our lives are like. It's like a time capsule without all the strenuous digging! So if you're reading this in the long distant future thanks to the National Trust, Greetings. Head over to my blog and see what you missed out on!

If you're a more regular reader, one of the 3 out there, it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry. I'd like to say it's because I've been in the middle of a hotbed of activity. It feels like I have, but as soon as I try to explain all the wonderous things I've been up to there never seems to be enough to realisticly have been as busy as I have! Did that make sense? No? Good. This is my blog after all.

But look - I have the internet. It's not stolen this time people! British Telecom are actually behaving. The home hum in all it's plastic white shinyness is operational!



Sexy!

But at least now we're not preaying for clear weather when we want to use the internet so we can hop onto the people at number 15's connection. Why do people invest in wireless networking, have the knowhow to put it together but not spend the twenty seconds it takes to include a passphrase?

In else news I have successfully completed my first essay of the year and had it handed it in 25 hours early! Yeah, I'm a total geek. But it makes me feel better knowing that I have that window in case anything drastic happens like my computer developing issues like spontaneous combustion. And, hey, with Microsoft who knows! I always get the giggles when I run something from 'Microsoft Works'. But my computer lives on and the essay on the use of Sign Language in Chimpazees was handed in. Funfun.

Now that we have the internet I have taken the time to get caught up with the goings on in Perplex City. For those of you not familiar with Perplex city watch the following short video:



Or head over too the website. I hate not being able to long in for periods of time as I miss all the excitement. I'm finally all caught up today and I'm going to let you in on the fact that I am shocked to the core. I know they're not real people but I have spent over a year now regularly reading about these people's lives, helping them with puzzles and problems. All I can is my heart really goes out to Scarlett and Violet, it must have been terrifying everything that happened in the lighthouse basements (Quirky Acuity and The Scarlett Kite archives from Oct 2006 for details.) Violet chased by an unknown entity talking some pretty weird and crazy stuff, breaking her and needing a total blood transfusion for radiation poisoning. Scarlett trapped in the dark trying to construct an electromagnet to open an exit and having to shoot her sister's attacker, whom , it turns out, was an innocent guy. Now they've been to Viendenbourg and returned with evidence that their fature, master of the Perplex City Academy, is quite probably responsible for it all. After what happened with Anna a few months ago I'm a little worried about where this all is going. I am slightly concerned that third power agents may start making their prescence more 'known' at Earth events.

That was all probably very strange and worrying for you. Yes this is all about fictitous people and events. but yes it really did leave a mark on me. Why do people, or at least me, got so effected by fictitous things like this. I think it must have something to do with length of time and exposure and regularity as I'm the same with TV shows. Well certain TV shows.

But yes, I hope I've piqued your interest in Perplex City. The puzzles are all fun, you meet people even though it's mostly net-based. There's also thepossibility of winning £100,000 for finding the Receda Cube. I've agreed to advertise Perplex City around Bangor. So I should be making card drops and stuff round the place so keep your eyes open if you want to take part.

BT: It's good to balk

Okay this is is currently going to be pretty much a bitch fest at BT's expense. All those already uninterested should leave now and return for later updates. On the other hand if the bitching makes me feel better you may be rewarded with some joy at the end. So you may want to stick it out. Up to you.

I have magically found someone on Friar's Avenue who does not feel it clever to have security measures on their wireless internet. Some nasty evil part of me hope's they're on dial-up but if they were I doubt I'd be costing them any extra money as they'd already have to be connected. But yes now one week after our supposed activation date for the shiny white plasticness of the BT Home Hub and we are still internetless. There have been many phone calls lasting anything up to an hour to their 'Help'-line(s) and I somehow get the feeling we are no closer to cyberspace.

On Sunday we rang BT and were told that the broadband help desk people didn't work weekends and she "wasn't at liberty" to divulge any information about activation dates. We rang again on Monday and I spent 45 minutes talking to someone in India with little knowledge of a/ phone ettiquette, b/ what he was talking about or c/ the English language. People meeting any of these conditions should not be employed on help lines. Help lines are much more helpful if both parties speak the same language and at least one of them is trained in a job giving them helpful knowledge. During our phone call we made spurts of progress when he managed to tell me meagre snippets of information and I trained him on the basic operations of your common or garden personal computer and why the things he asked me to do were illogical and senseless given the nature of the problem. Then he finally divulged that his computer was saying that "the order is incompleted" sic and we should really be talking to Order Management. So he gave me their number. An 0845 number. I refused to have to pay to require about a service that should have already been provided so was transferred. Which is how I met lovely Scottish lady.

If you are a Scottish lady who works in Order Management for BT I would like to profess my undying love for you. You were nice and polite and demonstrated knowledge about the issue, computers and the English language. I wish I had your name so I could nominate for employee of the month, after Indian man you were a welcome breath of fresh air! Yes she even had nicer hold musak to which I listened while she spoke to the engineering department for me and found out that they were haveing 'routing problems' and it should be sorted in 2-3 days. The more astute amoung you will already have realised that nice Scottish lady was told misleading information by the engineering department and those days have already run out.

Keira rang back yesterday. She did nice phone voice for BT as she even rang the 0845 number. The were not very apologetic and then said that there was a tag on the line. A tag we were told had been removed when we first had problems with the internet ordering now 3 weeks ago. Needless to say we were not very impressed and made this unequivocally obvious without being rude. Though I think we are now making it our mission to simply bore BT into submission so they will give us the internet. I sent them an e-mail today asking for an activation date and details of how to recieve reimburement for the money we are spending on phone calls to them and on electricity going into a Home Hub that is, for all intents and purposes, useless. More e-mails and phone calls will ensue, have no fear.

On the plus side we were cheered to no end by 'Cheesey Pop Night' on The Hits. They even showed 20 Steps songs back-to-back and in chronological order. Sadly I knew all the words. There was also discussion of who in Steps could actually sing well. I kept saying that Faye Tozer could. Cat didn't believe me until number 20 "I Know Him So Well". Even after I pointed out that Russell Watson ('Opera-man') asked her to do a duet with him:



In other news I got my grubby little mitts on 'The Open Door'. I don't think it's as good as 'Origin' or 'Fallen' but it is still an excellent CD. I also interviewed for a voluteer position on a project working with the psychiatric ward at the hospital. I should here soon if I got the place. Fingers crossed please readers.

Deja Vu all over again.

I now live in a house. Not that I didn't before, but this one's in Wales. I have all unboxed everything, except the printer. My printer still lives in its box. For some reason when packing in the summer it must have felt like a fantastic idea to put my toothbrush charger in the printer box. I spent ages looking for it and had given up when I saw a white cable poking out the printer box.

Well Cat, Kiera, Sarah and I all live in perfect harmony in a house that Anthea Turner would alsmost be proud to call home. We spent two and a half hours scrubbing the oven clean. Now we're not going to make it dirty - merely because we then promptly discovered it doesn't work. So we're getting a new shiny beautiful one. Till then we're eating things that are microwaveable or hobable. We also discovered that we couldn't get broadband because the previous portugese tennants paid none of their bills (apparently they didn't get enough happy breaking things and not cleaning others). So Kiera has spoken to BT three times, twice requesting a call back and then the final call in which we finally proved that we aren't portugese and we will pay our bills. Somehow arranging us being allowed the internet involves speaking to SEVEN separate departments of BT. Terrific.

We seem to spend much time with music TV playing, which is how we have made a glorious discovery. Well a discovery, and two epiphanies; but one thing at a time. Meatloaf covered Celine Dion's 'All coming back to me' and did a bang up job:





Epiphany the First: Meatloaf and Celine Dion should do a duet - possibly of 'It's all coming back to me'.

Epiphany the Second: Meatloaf and Celine Dion can't do a duet - they are the same person!

Not entirely sure how we came about that last one but it made sense at the time.

We also have to construct a board of humourousness - random sayings from the "House of Storm plus Alex". Today's selection "...more porous than a penguin."

The North American House Hippo

Okay, I have recently been interrogating all my friends to see if they remember the House Hippo. Everyone I spoke to thought I was slowly but surely going mad. Well madder. I even asked my sister about it becasue I can distinctly remember it being on in an ad break while I was watching TV with her. She gave me that look you give stree preachers behind their backs while they're singing KumBuyYa at the top of their lungs in the middle of a busy high street on the last market day before Christmas. (Okay after that I'm starting to think there might be something in the whole 'going mad' defense.)

Well here to prove that I wasn't lying through my teeth, may I present... The House Hippo:




Isn't it cute. I just wanted to leave half eaten packet of Wotsits around the house in the vain hope of tempting them out of my lost mittens, wherever they may have nested in them. But when ever one of you says "You shouldn't believe everything you hear." And I go "Yes, remember the House Hippo?" You are now expected to understand. After rewatching the advert it would seem I saw it while on holiday in the States. So you are all forgiven for thiniking I was mad.

In other news my new phone arrived yesterday. I got an LG Chocolate I'll give you a second video - just to spoil you:



Yes, it is just sex with a dial tone. I'm very excited about it. I will be spedning much time personalising it when I get to Bangor. I'm going up on Friday Returning to the Welshness. Means I'm going to spend my time tomorrow boxing up my life.

Well I'll blog again when I have unboxed my life.

How fat can Tuesday be? Really?

Well here we are again,

I've been trying to think of anything amusing that has happened recently I can relate to you now. Nothing is scurrying to mind, so I'm just going to start talking and see where we end up.

Over the weekend I went to the Mardis Gras in Cardiff. Why on earth someone thought putting 'Fat Tuesday' (i.e. Shrove Tuesday) on a Saturday in the middle of September was clever escapes me. There were absolutely no pancakes involved and it chucked it down, but still a great day to be had. Including perfomances from Big Brovaz (obviously the junkie's out of prison), Infernal ("Frrrrrrrrrrrooooom Paris to Berlin....), two fifths of Blazin' Squad (Somehow, even though I hate them passionately, I knew the words) and a host of gay 'celebrities'. I did make one new find I quite enjoyed the musical stylings of a group called Swich 22, the self titled Superheroes of Pop.

Oh and a brand new boyband that takes manufactured pop to a new extreme - taking old members from now spilt up boybands and smooshing them into some insanely contrived amalgamation of evil. All pecs and scantily clad pretty boys singing about the women they 'fancy' while all probably boinking behind stage between sets. You gotta love it. I's almost ashamed to admit that I did. They were called 'Upper Street' and were constructed of Bradley from S Club 7, Jimmy from 911, Dane Bowers of Another Level and an ex-member of New Kids on the Block who shall remain nameless. Mostly because I can't remember it. Feel free to let me know if anyone out there has any clue.

Sadly I couldn't find anything on YouTube for any of these bands. So much for them wanting to have every music video ever made on there! What I did find though after searching 'Final Fantasy' was a rather amusing parody of a FF random encounter. I have been playing a fair amount of Final Fantasy VII recently, trying to level characters up, so it is relevent. Also - can 9 hours in one day be considered a fair amount? Answers on the back of a postcard...



Oh and the Wales Millenium Centre had a stall that I used to hide for much of the rain chatting to Karyn (Hello Karyn!) and eating their sweets. So I feel complled to give the a mention as way of thanks. Go to the WMC, it's fab. Also they're having the Russian Ice Stars perfomming Swan Lake on Ice. Thus you should go.

Cheating Amazonians

Greetings fair cyberspace travellers. Welcome back to anyone who may have had my blog already inflicted upon them. I would like to say that I have spent the little while away from posting to reflect and grow or at least researching new postage. I haven't. I've been on yet another X-Men bender. In my defence ... it was the X-Men.

It all started through a conversation at work. My old friend Richard, who I have known since I was like four, works in the same place as me by sheer coinkidink and due to one thing or another we have managed to discover that we share the comic book mutants as our secrent shame/pleasure. But for all who are interested in slightly cheaper goods off Amazon take heed. We got to talking about the 'Age of Apocalypse' event and the assorted characters that were included/missed/added and -ofcourse- the graphic novels. Well I have the first book of the epic and want them all. Richard taught me of the existance of the 'New Age of Apocalpse' limited series.

Well I went straight to Amazon and ordered the Complete Epic bk.2, The complete New AoA and a DVD called Eating Out. Well I got the confirmation e-mail but it said that I might not get it till after I go back to Uni because one item wasn't in stock. Well it just gave me dates - luckily the Interent doesn't hold THAT much personal information! So I rang up to see if there was anyway I could be guarenteed the other items before then. Well turns out he couldn't find the button that would do that either (apparently it should exist!) SO, after some fiddling, the offending item was cancelled one other item was reduced by £5 "for all the trouble" and I was given free delivery that I no longer should have qualified for. Not too shabby, and all because I couldn't see the words "not currently in stock". So yeah, word to the wise, balls up your internet purchases to get it cheap!

Right well after that missive I wish to entertain you with what, IMO, is the full proper and correct use of gum equipment - keeping me happy. OR as my Munchkin put it : "ooh... what rhythmic men!"

Own up, who calls Amy Lee when pissed?

Well, the time is finally nigh. Evanescence have finally returned with an all new album. Well nearly, you have a few weeks to wait for the album to be released. 'The Open Door' is released early October. I'm very confused on the exact date as the band's website quotes the second but CDWow tells me it's the third. (EDIT: I lie, CDWow now list the 2nd as the reslease date. Maybe it was all a conspiracy of misinformation. To what end remains to be seen. I have been watching too much 'Alias'!)

But I have now heard (and watched) the first single, 'Call Me When You're Sober'. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, it's quite different territory for the band even though it's still very obviously them. It's not as open to interpretation as most of their previous songs but I'm still not sure that it can -definitely- be the song of a spurned lover. I think part of it goes out to Ben Moody. Though that does open the can of worms of whether they were actually a couple. Also Amy's voice does seem to have improved, if at all possible, she may not be showing it off as much but there's something to it I just can't put my finger on.

So now, as my gift to you, I present you with the video. I have dubbed this video "Little Red's Revenge". Now enjoy, take notes like good little boys and girls (don't want to have lost any skills when you get back in September) and discuss.



And aerial dancing - ooh the excitement.

Topless Sunbathing!

Well well,

Whiling time away at work again. I still don't know what we did before we got the internet here. We probably had to talk to one another, shock horror.

But on my travels through cyberspace I dicovered WackyInventions.com which was good for a laugh. Most of it, as I'm sure you can probably guess, was utter pants. Some of them litterally were pants! Flatulence Deoderisor my arse, if you'll excuse the pun.

So I enjoyed myself looking at some of these peoples' brain farts until I spotted something that, worryingly, struck me as fantastic idea. Topless sandals.

"Topless Sandals?!" I hear you cry. Go on please cry it, its so much better with audience participation. Yes my friends topless sandals. Basically they consist of a strapless flip flop, available in a variety of sizes and designs, that you stick to the soles of your feet. The stickiness is guarenteed to last a year and doesn't transfer anything to your feet. Supposed the guy came up with the idea to simulate walking barefoot but while still protecting the soles of your feet. As much as I do enjoy walking barefoot, I seriously doubt that slapping a slice of adhesive rubber to the bottom of your foot will accurately simulate it!

No the bit that got me was no more funny funny tan lines on your feet. Now this confused me only on the line that I don't even normally think about tanning. I don't sit around attempting to get a tan, they just kind of happen as I wander around business as usual. But the concept of not having strap marks on my feet had me interested. Then I discovered a demonstration video... I just had to share it with you!


Well, TTFN you scrummy bundles of love fluff!

This is not my life.

Well,

I have abandoned MSN spaces. My myspace turned into a boring "this is my life, love me love me please" popularity contest. To be fair, it always has been. After seeing my friend's blogspot and the greater humour and less cry for attention I decided to jump onboard.

So as my welcome I invite you all, yes all two of you that may be reading this, to remember your youth. (Tying to steer well clear of any Sandi Thom-esque lines. If you want to be a punk rocker do something about it and not just bitch on the radio!) When it was still considered remotely safe to be allowed to walk home from school on your own and play in the street (or wherever) with your friends. And when cartoons were still good, so you didn't have to any of those things. Well I'd hope you went to school, and so had to walk home.

Anyway, decent cartoons. What was your favourite? Thundercats? X-Men? Spiderman? Aladdin: the Animated Series? How many of you long to be able to watch these again? I know I do. Now imagine my geeker joy overload when I discovered The Cartoon Time Warp. I'm already planning how to best distribute my student loan when it comes through to maximise the number of beloved shows I can get. Luckily he offers a discount on large orders. Yes this guy is offering to help you 'back-up' your DVD collection. One way to get round copyright, say you're selling backup copies for people who already have the DVDs but want to make sure they can still watch their shows if something happens to the bought copies. Genius. Lies.

So yes if you want to get your hands on some nostalgia and don't mind some copyright fraud make a wish list and head straight over. I see myself ordering the complete He-Man and She-Ra. I'm sad. Deal with it.