hotdog

today, I bought a large hotdog as comfort food. it was sooo tasty... except I accidentally asked for cheese, even though I disagreed with them charging me 15p for it, so didn't mean to.

the 'point' of this is, see - as I was walking along the road eating it, feeling a bit glum, I passed a 3 piece jazz band who were playing on the side of the road. their music was pleasant, and my gaze followed them as I walked past. at which point, one of the singers said/sang "hotdog!", and the song ended...

I smiled, and as I walked off heard the happy sound of a voice saying "and the next song we're going to play for you is called... hotdog", and the music started up again.

east 17 and coco pops

last night, I came home and slumped down on a big soft chair. my flatmate was watching 'east 17 re-united' on the telly, and I was debating whether or not coco pops would make me feel happy or even more sick. at that point, a coco pops advert came on tv, with the line "coco pops with milk make a bowl full of fun", so I decided to have some.

last night I dreamt that there was another similar band being reunited, only they were all girls (kind of like 'the collective'), and there were 5 of them - one of whom decided not to take part. so I was the honourary band member for the evening, which was great fun. except only 2 of them knew the dance moves, the rest of us were making them up. plus I didn't know the words we were miming to as they played through someone's iPod.

part way through, we all realised it was going belly-up, so decided to make our escape. we ran off the stage to one side, hoping the fans would think it was part of the act and that we would run on again the other side or something... at least, until it was too late for them to catch us. unfortunately though, half way down the stairs we were met by two female fans - one of which had dark hair and was brandishing a car aerial, saying that she paid good money for her ticket, and if we didn't go right back up there and perform...

so we did. *shudders*

James Dixon

wow. check out James Dixon's new album, 'sometimes'.

'rebs', 'summer rain' and 'time will hurt' should be enough to sell it to you. a couple of the tracks haven't been produced as well as I think would do him justice, but it's well worth a listen. I'll find out how to get hold of a copy for you, if you want...

Eritrea is free

on thursday, Eritrea celebrated 16 years of independence from Ethiopia. I was in Ethiopia when they first gained independence (I think), and remember Mum and Dad buying me a t-shirt which read "Eritrea is free".
on reading it, the colonialist in me was probably rubbing his grubby little mits with glee...

and on the down side, Eritrea still has no free press.

underneath

listen to the most beautiful yorkshire accent in an incredible song - underneath the stars. it's by kate rusby.

then remind yourself just how good underneath your clothes is, by shakira. not as good though.

and while you're at it, dear mr president by pink is somewhere in between the 2...

faster firefox

to speed up firefox - here's some ideas...

1. type about:config in the address bar and hit return. then filter to network.prefetch-next. double click it so it says 'false'.
2. right click on the about:config page and select new -> boolean. name it config.trim_on_minimize and make sure the value is set to 'true'.
   
3. on the about:config page, filter to network.http.pipelining. double click it so it says 'true', then double click on network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and enter a higher number like 40. set network.http.proxy.pipelining to 'true', too.
4. lastly, right click anywhere and select new -> integer. name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to “0″.

here and here are where I last read these, and explain them a bit more.

snake still eating alligator

for some reason (anyone know?) this story is top of the bbc's 'most popular stories'. it's from october 2005, and contains the brilliant quote:

"clearly if they [snakes] can kill an alligator
they can kill other species"

Prof Frank Mazzotti

Gav's hedgehog

cat with bow golf

this is one of the best games I've ever played...

thanks "d_of_i"!

naked dave

thanks 'naked dave'

magic 8 balls

ever wonder where their mysterious powers come from..? read this


also, check out cat archery golf!

dream

had quite a bit of cheese before I slept last night, and then...
neil fox broke the law. well, as far as I know, he didn't actually break the law - it's just that the police were looking round his farm up in norfolk, next to weybread pits. he wasn't too pleased with it, as they were poking into all of his barns, so he thought the clever thing to do would be to get in his car and drive off. I joined him, as we sped away, on the run from the police. I suggested he simply parked the car at the next-door sailing club and waited 'til it all blew over, but he was certain they'd find him there. so we headed down to a canal, right by it, and he was preparing his yacht to set sail when suddenly from underwater, a police car drove up - and in true movie style, so did about 4 others, we were surrounded - trapped! I'd told him he should drive slower, oh well...

what do you get..?

"what do you get the person who has everything?":

the person who has everything should get... burgled.

also, see this

women, wine and song

"who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long."

Martin Luther

yesterday's attack

on sunday, 45 people were killed when a car loaded with explosives drove into the labour party building on silent street, Ipswich. it was the second suicide attack in mainly british area in the past week.

a car bombing in the same area last month killed 140 people, the bloodiest attack since the recent announcement.


<sub>actually, it didn't happen in Ipswich - it happened here.

most popular stories in the uk:
monday
"Madeleine father sure she is safe"
sunday
"Madeleine gran appeals for return"
saturday
"Madeleine reward rises to 2.5m"
friday
"Madeleine parents 'won't give up'"</sub>

africa

have a read of some of these articles from the bbc on various situations in various countries in Africa:

• Clinton - reducing the cost of aids drugs
• Ethiopia - winning the tussle with starbucks
• Liberia - the comfort of a rusting roof
• Uganda - someone's story

also, I'd like to take advantage of the fact you're reading this to just say how good God is. how good it is to be a Christian, and how good it is to be a part of the church I go to. a man I know from town who doesn't have a house got beaten up on thursday. some 'youths' dislocated his arm, kicked him about, urinated on his sleeping bag and through his passport, driver's license, photos of kids and £1.50 into a pond in the park.

he regained conciousness in hospital. he checked himself out the next day to discover he'd lost his stuff, and has nothing. he turned up at my church this morning, and to the credit of people there, he was cared for. a few people who knew him welcomed him, and he left not only having heard that God loves him, but havin been bought a blanket, a sleeping bag, and food for the next 5 days or so. he's coming back this evening, too.

to hear one lady say to him "I'd let you stay with me, but it's just me and my daughter" was incredible. that is the heart of God. as humans, we can't do everything. in fact, more often than not, all we can do is make a tiny difference to perhaps as much as one whole person. it's only God who will be able to fix the whole world and put things right, but that shouldn't stop us trying.

it shouldn't stop our hearts from breaking for others. it shouldn't stop us from crying at the state of things, but it should encourage us to press on through this life, knowing that there is a God who cares for us more deeply than we will ever know. it should inspire us to 'love', even when that doesn't mean 'convert'.

my God is good. all the time.

thou shalt always kill

have a listen to this song, here. some great stuff said, especially the best review of the beatles I've ever heard...

"the beatles, just a band"

_{thanks mark for introducing me to it and G for making me recognise it}

Steve and I said...

"if God is a god of second chances,
we must be people of second glances"

...there's a preach in there somewhere. ask me


this day, I have been mostly struggling to convert a coaxial signal to RCA. whatever that means (it's not a euphamism)

dream 9-10 May

last night I got really angry. angrier than I've probably ever been. in a dream. Gareth and I were putting crosses into the ground for graves at the African Village, and I was doing the manual work. Gareth was texting, or something... I asked if I was putting them out nice and orderly-ly, and he said yeah, that's fine. when I'd finished, he said I'd done it wrong, and we had to do it all over again. I was angry, but it was only a dream, not actual Gareth!

I also dreamed I was in Northgate school to do a lesson, so had my 'badge' on. I then eneded up sneaking about with a load of pupils, and climbing on the roof etc, where the skips were. suddenly, although it was during the day, I noticed the searchlight of a helicopter above me, so snuck back inside and climbed down. I made sure as I left to mention casually to the secretary that I'd seen a helicopter, and she made comment that some shifty bloke had been seen clambering about. I forced a surprised expression on my face and said 'oh, really?' as I left...

then I awoke

internet folk

from a comments under an online video of highlights from fifa world cup final 1966:


4 comments

torchimortchi: lol england win only by stupid ref
they win with a goal that was not a goal

tallulah: Do you know
my dad was born the same year england won the world cup (1966)

starwarz24: Awsome
That's so cool!

WannaBeHick: englands days of greatness!
wish i was there!


some people are useless

ebay

today someone found my ebay account details and started messing me about. gRr with a captial r. I've now changed my passwords (...or have I?) so that the same fool won't get into my email, but it's mighty frustrating...

chatty Cathy

if chatty Cathy was really unhappy
would anyone actually know?
or would she just say it all was ok
and shoulder it all on her own?