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October 30 DSTSo, the clocks have changed once again...and now it feels truly wintery. It is dark at five, the weather is grim, the days are short and the leaves are finally giving up the ghost and stacking themselves into bonfires everywhere.
Which, by the by, is an exercise I never understood. Surely it would be better to use said leaves as compost? or just leave them? Such a lot of effort to prevent a perfectly natural and beneficial process - sure, rake said leaves off the grass so that the grass doesn't die while they rot, but leaves are everything a tree needs! COMPOST THEM! rather than just sending all that carbon dioxide straight back up into the sky whence it came. Tree spends a year getting all that carbon out, and you spend a few hours putting it all back in.
So yeah, daylight saving time. As I was saying...
October 27 Free HugsI think more people should be doing this sort of thing, and the world would be a better place. Call me a sap if you wish, but I think it's a bold step to take for someone and just look at the impact it's had.
Incidentally, the ban in the middle was imposed because of the lack of public liability insurance, in case someone got hurt. Call it a desperate society, a nanny state, political correctness taken to extremes? I do. That is a tragic state of affairs, when you can't hug someone without insurance.
Roll on Juan Mann!
Comment Reply: organictwiglet
This was the first time I saw it, so you must've simply meant to show me... October 26 Burning Question...Many years of pondering and lack of inspirtation have led to the following, final, crucial and totally earth-shattering question...
How DO they stick the non-stick layer to the pan?
Any other burning questions anyone has? October 23 Advert MusicDon't you just HATE it when some company slaps some perfectly good music into an advert, and hence totally ruins that song for everyone forever? Albatross, by Fleetwood Mac, for example: sure, its not my favorite song in the world. But now whenever I hear it I think of an advert - hell, I don't even know what the advert is even for. I just know that it is off an advert, and that drives me up the wall.
And now that I've started on music, I might as well add a little about memories and music...appropriate for my mood at the moment. Old MusicOr rather, music from a long while ago. Always a bit strange, the sort of things that rear up from the long-forgotten, dusty corners of your mind when they hear the music that laid them down. Old thoughts and feelings, glimpses of images, from years and years before.
Echoes, is how I described them. Echoes of the past. They snag on chords, catch on scents, lurk around places, and you never notice. Until, that is, those same notes, smells and locations set them free.
And then you see.
Comment reply: Jenny Mohan
Well the entry wasn't exactly negative or positive, simply neutral. It's your slant on it that is all depressive and denting  October 19 Déja VuSo I got an e-mail today from Bristol University, saying that they had recieved my application.
And with the e-mail came the first shivers of anticipation.
This year, I. Need. A. Place.
I suppose if I get one, it'll be unconditonal though  and that will be good. My fingers are crossed. I ask only that you cross your's too, just this once.Cars, Road Design, etc.Two main points to this entry. Unusually for me, I'm going to talk about roads and cars - things in which I normally have little interest save as means to an end. More usually for me, I am going to complain loudly about things that probably have perfectly good explanations. Exception being the price of my car insurance: I am not impressed with the whole insurance-costs-equal-to-value-of-car lark.
1) The British road network is very impressive and all, but some things just have to go. The M25, for example, is a prime point of bad design - just because London is the capital doesn't mean that it should have a gigantic 8-lane car park around it. If I'm honest, it wasn't too bad today - it only slowed me up for about 9 hours or so (where by '9 hours' I actually mean 'half an hour') - but in the past its been a nightmare. What is with all the roadworks? Can they not build the thing so that it doesn't need maintenence works every 15 miles or so?
The other thing that needs to go is Hindhead. Whose clever idea, exactly, was it to get some traffic lights and bung them in the middle of a motorway anyway? True - they have discussed building a tunnel, but that is all that they have managed to do and they started discussion about it when I was 13. For reference, they started talking about changing the Hindhead Problem in 1987, before I was born. It's impressive, what the united front of the government can do to solve a problem.
2) How expensive is running a car?! In the last week I have gotten bills and fees to the tune of over £1000 in various forms; insurance, road tax, MoT testing, petrol, whatever. Ironically, the road tax is what is paying for all those roadworks that so plague everywhere I seem to go, and ironically none of these roadworks are happening where they really need to - i.e where there are many potholes and tyre-shredding broken edges, in all the roads around my house.
And on that note, does anyone know if you are supposed to notify the RSA or someone else about these things? Or do they come by and inspect everything? October 12 Locks, Alarms and SecurityI general, I think, household security serves two purposes:
There is no way that window locks, door locks, 8 sets of chubb keys, padlocks or burglar alarms are going to keep out a 'professional' thief. Bolt cutters, lockpicks, saws, cameras, prodders, powercuts, whatever the means - they will come in, and put your valubles in a swag bag. The only reason they haven't is because there aren't enough professional thieves practising something so outdated as breaking and entering houses, when they could be making millions off of carousel fraud or ram-raiding Tesco Expresses etc. Admittedly, though, the latter wouldn't make you millions. The reason for all this sudden enlightenment and understanding of the futility of household security measures is that I just broke in to one. My house, as a matter of fact, but the point is that, using only materials available on my patio, I managed to get entry to my house without a key. In fact, I managed to enter my house (and my car, in which I had locked my keys) without breaking anything using the following:
The yoghurt, however, was mainly there for encouragement as I needed to get into the house to put them in the fridge. They played no technical role. I'll leave it to you to decide how using these items gained me admission to my house
Comment Reply: alex Its quite simple really. You stop the car, turn the engine off, turn off the radio, put it into neutral and put the handbrake on, open the door, carry out all your stuff, lock and shut the door and realise that the keys are still in the ignition. October 10 Result!Well, Farnham hospital rang me earlier, and they said that they don't want to offer me a permanent post.
Sigh.
However, the DID say that they would be happy to take me on a temporary basis, as a fill in for sick people, people on holiday, etc etc amen, which the lady on the phone said would be 3-4 shifts a week. Sure, its not ideal, but it IS a job and it IS in the medical sector, and I WILL get paid and therefore WILL save for uni. Pending my CRB check, of course, which no doubt will cause me to lose the post as all my seventeen undeclared convictions take precedence over my dubiously acquired credentials, seeing as half the convicitons are for bribery and blackmail within the examination boards.
Obviously.
Crucially, if I get an offer with an interview, I can say that I have been working in the medical sector before I go and work in medical research for three months, and then go on a medical expedition for 3 months up a gigantic mountain. Which, all in all, isn't a bad resumé for a med student. Best thing of all, it gives me a hugely flexible (if short-notice) timetable, through which I can play heaps of badminton and set fire to litres of paraffin.
So yeah. RESULT! October 09 Catfight!There was me thinking I lived in a peaceful neighbourhood. Not so - I was sitting innocently and unintrusively in the conservatory when I heard something akin to a distant, high pitched chainsaw cutting through a tree. I ignore it, thinking that the sound is exactly as it was, and yet it continued, in multiple pitches, sounding exactly like creatures in terrible pain. I went outside and was confronted by my cat (Fatpuss) yowling at some impudent, bell-collared intruderpuss. As I watched, intruderpuss yowled back, continuing the racket I'd heard from inside.
It appeared to be some sort of yowling contest to which I did not know the rules. Each cat would take turns to yowl for varying lengths of time, and each at a different pitch, and each cats stance would change accordingly, and each cat stare unwavering at the other. Suddenly, and without warning, Fatpuss lunged and they both ran about ten metres, before beginning a whole new yowling contest.
However musical it may have been, I had no desire to continue passively listening (besides, I couldn't just watch my cat fight this acoustic contest without support now could I?). If you can't beat 'em, join 'em...I let out a long, fatpuss-pitched yowl of my own, which due to my lung volume being about the same volume as my cat, lasted far longer and much louder than IntruderPuss' feeble attempts.
And they both clammed right up and looked at me, and waited in silence until I'd finished. And then IntruderPuss had the sheer nerve to yowl back at me. Naturally, you'll all understand that I couldn't have such defiance within MY territory, but before I could unsheath my claws and unleash the yowl to end all yowling, Fatpuss sprang and chased IntruderPuss into the bushes.
Good work, team. Victory was ours.
And no, I'm not bored at home. How could you think such a thing?
 Comment Reply: Ben Damn right, although I have more hobbies than I need currently. What I need is something that actually takes up my time...I suppose on second thoughts I should have gone with Malicious Moggy or Fiendish Feline October 08 Pineapple Juice, and Sell-by DatesA day or so ago I had the fortune to drink some pineapple juice, and very nice it was too. I did think it was a strange colour as it neared the bottom though, but I simply presumed that it had oxidised in the manner of apples and so that wasn't a problem. And I was right, it wasn't a problem. I finished the carton, and put it on the side, and happened to glance at the sell by date.
"APR 06" it said in big letters. Only seven months out of date then. And you'll never guess what...I'm not ill, or collapsing under the force of some terrible late-developing toxin, I'm not crippled or throwing up, and it tasted damn good.
So all the fuss about sell-by dates, the panic and focus of customers not finding them to their liking, is it all worth it? I know that in our household, things are generally fine if they are within a week or so of the sell-by date, and they don't smell bad. We evolved to know when something we are eating is harmful, and so if something tastes good in general it will be.
Obvious exception, of course, is food poisoning. Raw meat doesn't get used more than one day past the sell by date - the manufacturers are hardly going to allow only one days grace before people start falling over are they? Remember the overprotective nannying of health an safety laws, think of the desperate fear people seem to have of "the Germs". You drop some food on the floor, the GERMS are on it, they are waiting for you, they will kill you! Unfortunately, it isn't so widely known that you'll put more microbes on the food by picking it up with your hand than it ever picked up off the floor. I don't see people rushing off to put Cillit Bang! on their hands though, do I? Or drinking it, for that matter, seeing as you have more microbial cells in your body than cells in your body, by a factor of over 100 if I remember rightly (which I might not - although it could easily be more, not less)
Urgh. Paranoia about food and cleanliness. I played in the dirt as a child, I no doubt ate things I shouldn't, and was out and about a lot. As a result, I almost never fall ill - never had the flu, get a cold perhaps once every year or two, and suffer no ill effects from drinking pineapple juice that is dark brown at the bottom and is seven months out of date. People spend too much time worrying about what will go wrong if they don't buy the sterile, irradiated brocolli instead of the loose, 'germ-infested' variety. Or if they go out and climb a wall, or go for a run, or play with elastic bands without wearing googles as stipulated by Health and Safety laws.
Tangent, I know. But relevant too, in a way. Breakfast time now... October 05 Christmas Time!!Quick guys! Head out, buy those gifts, buy that Christmas Pudding, get those cards and gifts. COME ON! It's almost Christma--wait. It's only October. Still well over one-sixth of the year to go.
Bearing that in mind, why is it that today I saw the first Christmas displays (a Santa cake - a CAKE. Don't cakes go off or something?) today at work. It seems a great shame to me that my thumb is bleeding, and I'll write more in a moment.
It seems a great shame to me that Christmas has become such a commercial venture as opposed to an actual celebration, whether you wish for the religious side of it or not. Not only this, but even shops with offers completely irrelevant to Christmas already seem to be trying to feed and feed off the hype.
"STOCK UP FOR CHRISTMAS!!" one shop window boldy declared, "WITH 20% OFF ALL BIRTHDAY CARDS!!" I suppose the purpose of big window displays is to make people stop, and it certainly made me stop - long enough to re-read it and wonder just what illogical, disjointed thought process was going through the sign designer's head at the time of writing. No doubt we can expect more fantastic advertising campaigns from them in future.
End of line.
Quick explanation due to popular demand: My thumb was bleeding because I, previous to the writing of that blog, had been working at Waitrose. At Waitrose, I was putting some cheese on the shelf when the sharp edge of the shelf above sliced into the base of my thumb nail. It bled, I put a plaster on it which I later removed, and it was all good.
I was innocently writing this blog several hours later when I merrily caught the self-same point on the side of my desk. I'll give you three guesses as to what happened next. Another Interview...And I daresay this one went significantly better than the last one, by merit of not making and stupid job-description mix up, and the interviewing panel not enquiring as to whether I'd disappear in January or not. I'll find out whether I got the job or not next week sometime.
Until then, allow me to moan, groan and grumble about the four sets of roadwork traffic lights I had to go through to get to Farnham this morning, and how unbearable it would be to have to drive in the rush hour every morning. And allow me to elaborate on the constant rain that permeates every interview I take, as well as the horribly crowded, messy streets of Farnham town centre (no offense to anyone living there, of course, although I'd question why you were living in the town centre itself).
But roll on the interviews, I say - not in the 'didn't get the job' sense obviously, but more along the lines of rehersals for any interviews I might be lucky enough to get from the medical schools to which I have applied. Everything rests on that UCAS application now...no pressure. One AAB offer. Thats all I need.
Surely that isn't too much to ask? *looks hopeful* If I don't get in...what do I do then? I can hardly take another gap year. Not a nice feeling, to have all your eggs in one basket. Or, rather, your entire future career and therefore the shape of the rest of your life in one basket.
As I said. No pressure. None at all... October 02 The '##censored##' ExplanationSome of the more astute amongst you may have noted that the previous entry was mysteriously entitled "##censored##" rather than the original planned title of "Chicken and Cooking". This is down to some strange quirk of msn spaces. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that when I attempted to publish my perfectly innoccuous, swearword-free entry that a message came up:
"This entry contains prohibited language. Please remove the prohibited language from the entry."
There were a host of '##censored##'s in the text, covering the word 'meat'. A word which no longer seems to be a problem, so I have gone back and edited them. The title "Chicken and Cooking" is apparently far to subversive, rude, and innuendo-laden to contemplate allowing.
##censored##Right, the last two days have been riddled with cooking-related meat suggestions, so I will now go through every meat in turn, and come to the conclusion that chicken is the best. Because it is. Let's face it.
So yeah. Chicken. Just don't eat it raw. Because raw meat is disgusting. Edit: Changed all the instances of the word 'meat' to ##censored## in an attempt to remove prohibitions. Edit: No effect. Changed them all back. October 01 CommentsSo, I checked my space last night and found a total of 5 comments had been left on the last entry (admittedly, of which two were double posts). Now, not counting double posts, I have a total of four comments on one entry in under 24 hours.
A commentary of this magnitude is practically unheard of on this relatively unfrequented space, and so I was wondering: What is it about a blog entry that attracts comments? It seems that in the last one the key reference that made it so easily commentable was, apparently, cooking - but surely this cannot always be the case. Is it questions? Insights? Humour? Crap poetry? Thoughtful argument? Demented ranting? Mistakes? (spelling mistakes maybe...anyone ever corrected any mistakes here?
)Do tell... |
- I picked no locks, prodded no catches, and the door had a catflap through which there was no way in hell I could fit (as in, head wouldn't go fit, let alone body).|
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