Monthly Archives: January 2012

This is what is really wrong with the World

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God Almighty will you look at that. That is a before and after picture when cooking some ‘Marks & Spencer’ Bacon rashers this morning. It doesn’t need a lot of explanation, but on the left is the pre-cooked rashers which tempt you from the shelves with promises of yumminess. On the right is the cooked rasher. It is the size of my fucking thumb!

Needless to say the second half of the pack was also cooked for breakfast. I was still bloody hungry afterwards as those 12 Rashers probably only equalled the amount of meat you’d get from one normal one.

I keep saying to MBH to stop buying food from M&S. I don’t think it’s very good. Used to be but not any more.

I think this is pretty damning evidence to back up that request.

Fucks sake that was a bad start to my day.

Good Grief a Birthday is coming up

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I never draft posts. Maybe I should start? I do think of things to write but they sit in my brain until I actually get the chance to put them down. Normally when writing a post I’ll just do it, check the spelling and upload. A total stream of consciousness. But I’ve noticed I forget to blog about some things and spend long moments thinking “What the hell was so funny about Chicken again?”

I have no idea what’s funny about Chicken btw.

But maybe I’ll start drafts. Thinking about Chicken is not a productive use of time.

Anyway, my birthday is coming up and I’ve managed to mentally make this a ‘big one’. I’m also driving MBH crazy as I never like to do anything on my Birthday. No parties, no nothing. I’ve never been a big one to celebrate my own. This drives her nuts as she thinks Birthday’s are the MOST AWESOME THING THAT EVER HAPPENS!!!

“Now don’t say ‘No’ but…”

“No!”

[sad face]

In twelve years I’ve learned that if a sentence starts with “Don’t say No…” then it’s something I should immediately say no to before she get’s too invested in it and it just turns into an argument. Patiently listening to the pros and cons and then saying no never works.

“Good God you’re ridiculous and you’re being really unfair! I’m trying to do something nice!”

“It’s my Birthday isn’t it? I’m supposed to be able to do what I want aren’t I?”

“But I wanted to arrange a nice holiday for us”

“You want to go on holiday, not me, it’s a present more for you”

“….that is beside the point.”

“Okay, I always wanted to visit Iceland. Seems an interesting place”

“…would you rather not go somewhere warm with a beach?”

“Good Grief…”

I’m also apparently the worst man in the World to buy for because I’ve already bought everything I need. Deeper questioning on this got me the reason: spending weeks (or months) saying ‘Boy I really need to get a new x’ or ‘ My y needs replacing’ or ‘Getting a z will really make things easier’ and then, you know, eventually buying it means she has to cross it off the list of Birthday presents. Which by all accounts solely consists of things I’ve said a dozen times I need to get.

So explain to me how men are supposed to be really bad at present buying?

Case in point. I’m looking to buy a 4S. Which means she get’s my 4 (for nothing). I had a look at Vodafone etc and when I stopped laughing at the ‘offers’ decided that I’d buy direct from Apple (as I’ve done the past two times).

“I can give you half the money for your new phone”

“Really? That’s very sweet. But you don’t need to”

“It can be your birthday present!”

“So I’m paying for half my Birthday present?”

“…”

“Good Grief…”

Anyway, I’ve stopped the questions and debates about going on holiday for my Birthday (because who wants to go to most places in January??) as her Birthday is a month later and I’ve told her I’ll take her to London for the week. She’s only ever been on a flying visit and I lived there for a good few years so it should be fun.

Still no idea what she’s getting me though. I’m actually getting excited to see what she comes up with!

Not shocked

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“Twitter is now officially speaking out against Google’s new search features that give prominent placement to content from its own social network, Google+.” (ATD)

Why would anyone be surprised at this? Google is an advertising company with a main focus on maximising revenue and keeping people using Google. Search just gets the advertisers the views. Forget about any ‘Don’t be Evil’ monikers. They’ll do what they need to do.

Must try Bing again actually.

Page One: Inside the New York Times

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I think this was on TV a while ago, and I missed it. But it was a good compromise choice for us to watch tonight (it was either this or a fight between some lovey dovey thing or a Norweigian film about WW2 – opposites attract thank goodness).

Timely with the Leveson inquiry going on in the UK right now as well. MBH had said on Sunday after reading the papers “Well all the ‘news’ I’ve just read in there I read about last week online”. There’s the crux of the problem with the Newspaper industry. How do you stay relevant in an atmosphere of instant reaction on Twitter and Blogs? I think there’s still a need for serious journalism. The Murdoch Empire may have tarnished the profession in the same way that packaging debt derivatives has tarnished the Banking profession. But there’s still a need for good investigative journalism. It’s finding who are those journalists as well – getting to their voice through the billions of others who want to have or need to have their own say. Investigative and longform journalism is something I will always seek out. At least I heard about ProPublica from that documentary. I don’t think I’d come across them before so I’ll have a look at what they’ve been producing.

Interesting to watch though and definitely would recommend it.

Afterthought: I laugh to myself whenever Bloggers call themselves Journalists – at best Columnists or Opinion Writers but I have seen nothing that comes close to Journalism yet.

There’s common sense, then there’s business

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Have I ever bit-torrented (that a word?) a TV show when there’s been no physical way for me to see it on TV, or when our beloved TV companies decide to stop or pause broadcasting half way through a series (Firefly)?

Absolutely.

Now the entertainment industry would think me evil-of-evils for this and if I were in the US likely to sue me into oblivion. But seriously, sometimes you just cannot get it any other way. Mind you sometimes you can’t even use bit-torrent for that. I’d love the box-set of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. No chance of getting them in Europe and I think the only option is Amazon US, but I haven’t tried to buy them yet as I hate the anticipation when ordering through Amazon UK only to get the ‘Yah we don’t ship to Ireland for that’.  Also my arse cheeks clench at even the thought of shipping costs for some things from the US.

For Music I just don’t bother bit-torrenting. I have internet radio, Youtube and can buy single tracks on iTunes so the delivery mechanisms are there for me. I just don’t buy full albums as I don’t need to for one or two tracks. Not as if I could go into HMV to buy one of Creedance Clearwater Revivals singles or a Marc Bolan track. The last track I bought was the other week – AC/DC ‘Highway to Hell’.  Tribute band only as the lads still refuse to license to iTunes. Not a bad version. I’d been humming the opening riffs all day one when we were out shopping (irritating MBH no end) and decided I needed the full track for backing music.  3 mins and it was on my iPhone. MBH was delighted (not) but I called it much needed cultural education, and you can’t argue with culture – fact.

But anyway, back to TV shows which were a disaster sometimes. It was either a tweet or a news item that caught my eye yesterday and I saw that Netflix was launching in UK and Ireland. First of all was the utter shock that Ireland was included in the launch – never normally happens. But then a thundering train of thought shot into my frontal lobe ‘Hang on, Netflix is supposed to be feckin awesome’.

€6.99 a month for unlimited viewing of TV Shows, Documentaries and Movies.

Fucking sold! Couldn’t get my credit card details in quickly enough. It’s a no-brainer. I would have paid more (but please don’t put the price up). It now sits on my iPad and the Apple TV and I expect to resurface sometime around September. Some of it is dross, but some of it is making me make lot’s of excited squeaking noises.

It’s just common sense. Meet a demand. Delight customers. Don’t try to put barriers in the way because you think it suits your business model. I hope the launch goes fantastically well for them.  Of course any free time I have is shot for a while. That’s not good. Also if my cable goes down I’ll be giving an earful to the cable company with a little more venom. Finally it builds up a profile of suggestions for you based on what you watch. That’s a great idea but MBH wishes to partake. I’m not sure I like the idea of her selections being associated with me. Shame you can’t have different profiles for households.

“So yeah we have Netflix now”

“Yay! Does it have Real Housewivessss on it??”

“Abso-fuckin-lutely not”

“Aw, have you looked?”

“Yes” [lies]

“I’ll have a check”

“It’s not on there!!”

It’s not. Thank God. But maybe we need to have some deeper conversations about cultural education…

I like Cheese but not this … ick

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From Wikipedia:
 

Derived from Pecorino, casu marzu goes beyond typical fermentation to a stage most would consider decomposition, brought about by the digestive action of the larvae of the cheese fly …  Those who do not wish to eat live maggots place the cheese in a sealed paper bag. The maggots, starved for oxygen, writhe and jump in the bag, creating a “pitter-patter” sound. When the sounds subside, the maggots are dead and the cheese can be eaten.

 
[Bleurgh!... ad infintum]