in ribbons and with bows

hi there


yes, just one of them showing off sort of posts, to be sure. i recently got some quite lavish items in the post, look you see, and as i have no idea what to do with them or about it all, well, here we are.

random items arriving via the post means we are indeed again in the world of Spiros, and his infinite generosity. he has really outdone himself this time, i must say. but, let me rather not just say, and show instead.

indeed, as beautifully captured in Commodore 64 mode, the generosity of Spiros has indulged me with both a ticket for some sort of event or spectacle, as well as some form of ribbon. although, now that i look, it is perhaps the case that the ribbon is not as clearly visible as i had hoped in the above picture.

mostly, i would imagine or simply suspect, you will be interested in the details of the ticket. well, from what i can work out, it's for something called Carnaval Encarnaceno 2019. although my google skills are somewhat rusty, from what i can make out this was some form of splendid event held in February in Paraguay, no less. nope, no idea what it was all about or in celebration of, perhaps it was organised to show off just how close they are to Argentina.

by the way, speaking of celebrations, some of you may like to be made aware of this being the first post what i have composed on my new(ish) tower pc, or just plain pc. yes, i found one at a quite agreeable price after some harm befell my other one.

how is this new(ish) one performing? so far so good; splendid, as point of fact. yes i am trying to look after it somewhat and thus far it has done all that i have asked or requested or instructed it to do. one really cannot wish for much more of such a device.

but let us set aside our mutual excitement about the pc for now and concentrate on the ribbon. a ribbon which i appreciate you cannot see all that clearly in the initial picture, but there is one other coming up now, sadly in the chosen form of the commoner, yes, ZX Spectrum.

the ribbon appears to have something in Arabic or Spanish on it, which i do not know what means. below that, however, is "Bateel" in functional English. one of them google search things informs me that this is some sort of coffee manufacturer or shop in Dubai, so presumably that other text is indeed Arabic and not Spanish. unless i have missed something on the news.

yes, there is all is, a little bit clearer in ZX Spectrum form, i suppose. although the ribbon is actually a sort of gold colour with a brown(ish) trim, not the yellow and green and red that ZX Spectrum mode believes it to be.

anything else in the post off Spiros? quite a number of things. the more interesting element of which was the 200 Marlboro, which i will very happily take care of, thank you.

well, that would be just about all of that. thanks as ever for reading, and if for some reason any of this has been of interest that's just grand, that is, to be sure.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

unknown region

hi there


just another post of some stats. please note i am not looking to show off or anything, look you see, it's rather just that from time to time there's a curiosity in the figures created by you, the readers of whatever it is that comes to my mind to place here.

and curious this is, in truth. it has me all a bit stumped. before you look, though, i would like to bring to your mind a particular saying. whereas i am not 100% sure if it is accurate or true, i've always liked the saying that we, the "human race", know "more about the surface of the moon that we know of the surface of the bottom of our oceans". likely true, as because of all that pressure and light business it is indeed easier to get to the moon than the bottom of an ocean. no, i did not say cheap.

yes, well, anyway, the stats of interest.

it is indeed that last one, 'Unknown Region', that has me baffled. whereas i am no expert with computers and that, my understanding is that those what block their computer identity, using "VPN" and such things, still generate a country of origin, even if they are nowhere near it.

my best guess, then, that those 22 people who visited this blog the one day were possibly at sea, either on some sort of boat or ship or possibly even on one of them massive oil rig things. even, yes, i suppose, it is possible that someone was browsing my blog whilst in the sky on a plane or helicopter.

as for the known regions, or regions that are known, well, interesting. if we assume for the moment that the Russian and Ukrainian visitors are them "hackers" what knack elections and that, bravo Italy for having such good taste. presumably the Americans are on here reading to learn more of the magic of The English Way Of Doing Things. your guess would be as good as mine as to why all of this is of interest to the people of France.

there was much merriment when i saw that just north of 200 people visited my site on the basis that it would feature something relevant to timotei shampoo. over the years i have championed their most excellent shampoo what had lemon shoved in it, as invented by Jason Donovan (yes, that one). sadly, the stuff is no longer on the market, which is why everyone now has really bad hair.

with respect to the other searches that brought you, the people, here, much like the last time i did some stats updates (or the time before) i am baffled as to what this "stage hand return revenge jedi" is all about. i cannot recall ever writing much about that particular Star Wars film, and i know of no myth or urban legend relating to the motion picture. also, Owen Paul? he is him what did that class one song, My Favourite Waste Of Time, but did not have much of a career after that.

no, not really a great deal else i can add to that. for whatever reason it is that you are here reading, except maybe them hacker types, my thanks as ever for doing so.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

blueberries, kale leaf and frizz

heya


one of the more frequent conversations i have, within my social circle rather than with myself, tends to commence with a contemporary asking of me "girlfriend, howdya git yo goddamn muthaf*****' hair to be so goddamn muthaf*****' fizz free, ya ho b!tch". yes, they do, look you see, tend to say this with something of a Wisconin drawl, or perhaps a New Orleans twang. this is despite the commonly accepted fact that, allowing for one or two lower class peasants, my social circle tends to be made up of affluent, middle class types from the posher provinces of our land. regrettably, the apparently irresistible urge to usher in the unsolicited Americanisation of our culture would appear to show no signs of abating.

in truth i am not particularly aware of my hair being either frizzy or frizz free. for the most part it just remains as is, really. certainly from time to time i would apply some rudimentary gel, if i were of a mind to somehow style it, but mostly i leave it just as it dries once i have engaged in a shower adventure of a morning.

there would appear to be a degree of pressure on me, then. but let it not be said that this comes from my contemporaries alone. far from it. over the last few weeks - months, perhaps - i have noted, and observed, strenuous efforts to campaign against whatever merits or attraction "frizzy" hair might have by the hair care product industry and their rather machiavellian marketing machine.

above are not one, not three but two "squirty bottle" vessels which contain a shampoo that pledges to ensure i remain free, or rid, of "frizzy hair". strangely i do actually happen to have three such tubes of it, but i thought it would be incredibly bourgeois (not to mention indulgent) for me to show off all the vast wealth i have in regards of this. provenance of this shampoo, a shampoo which promises much? i got it off of Poundland for the obligatory £1 a tube, so i am committed to the tune of £3.

my not unreasonable assumption (expectation) is that this shampoo shall ensure my hair remains as frizz free as those who elect to be part of my social circle apparently believe it to be. whereas i am as prone to acts of vanity as any of us, the truth is i really do not care what level of frizz my hair has. but, if it is a matter that is of importance to those who are important to me, then i do feel as though i have a duty to respect this.

do you know who has perfect hair? Spiros. a surprisingly significant percentage of the non-uniformed gentlemen he meets in public lavatories (or similar) with which he forms short term yet mutually beneficial friendships tend to turn out to be hairdressers, or otherwise employed in the salon industry. i have little doubt that they provide him with some outstanding tips.

that above is indeed an official portrait of Spiros, although at this stage it is not the official portrait. it is one which he has had specially commissioned as part of his generous offering of peace and a cessation of hostilities to the london black cab driver fraternity.

as regular readers are aware, some four or five years ago a london black cab driver cheeked Spiros. he has made it his mission to make them all pay for this outrage, with many being reduced to quivering wrecked tears when faced with his retribution. he is prepared to show mercy, so long as all london black cab drivers display this portrait in their hackney carriages. the portrait must be in a respectful frame, and has to be one regulation size larger that the obligatory portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II they have on display. should the portrait of The Queen be a 6 x 4, for instance, then the one of Spiros must be a minimum of a 7 x 5.

further, all london black cab drivers must pay Spiros a nominal (i would say generous) £5 per year royalty fee in respect of being allowed to use his likeness. should all of the cabbies agree, then Spiros shall show mercy on these fragile drivers, and leave them in peace. well, so long as routine audit reports (to be paid for by the cabbies) reflect that the portrait is being displayed correctly.

but, back to the shampoo, and the promise of frizz free hair. a pertinent, indeed perfectly reasonable, question would be as to just how this shampoo works the magic of making one have frizz free hair. apparently the natural inclination of the hair to spontaneously frizz is tamed by a dynamic blend of blueberries and the extract of a kale leaf, whatever that is. these are not just any blueberries or kale leaf extracts, of course. no. they are Californian, which means they are off of California. the American one, presumably, unless there is another place with the same name somewhere else.

just how is it that someone somewhere clocks or works out apparently (seemingly) random objects work wonders in areas that they are not naturally associated with? i mean, is it that them clever science types in labs, with their degrees and what have you, simply do random things like shove blueberries in their hair and measure the results? one presumes they have to do something to fill their time, now that the conventions of society forbid them from making monkeys smoke and prevent them from shoving soap in the eyes of rabbits.

perhaps it all came about by accident, i suppose. if nothing else California is celebrated (and envied) for his hedonistic, wild and comparatively easily accessible sexual freedom. maybe someone was just doing something really excellent, sexually, got carried away, started smearing themselves with blueberries and kale leaf extracts and later on noticed how remarkably less frizzy their hair was as they all mopped up.

no, i have no real use for any sort of official portrait, so i do not have one. for the sake of balance, or completeness, however, above is indeed a picture of me, in Commodore 64 mode. this is a relatively recent one, and does indeed show me just a few hours after using some of this frizz banishing shampoo. please, by all means, judge for yourself exactly how effective it is on the basis of this image. not that it matters much, i suppose, as for the next two weeks or so i shall be wearing my rather dapper, and quite fetching, easter bonnet. this is indeed as usual.

what i find most remarkable about this shampoo is how come it is even profitable to make. let us break this down. some company selects blueberries and kale leaf extracts in California, blends it into a shampoo, bottles and packages it, ships it from the USA to either the place of manufacture or straight to the UK for sale, and Poundland sell it for £1 a bottle? how is it that all are making enough profit off this to make it viable?

for a sense of perspective on how outlandish this is, i have just checked. if i wanted to send the simplest, most basic thing possible to the USA - a postcard, it would cost me a staggering £1.25 to send it airmail (delivery approx 7 days after posting) or a shuddering £1.10 to send it "surface" (ie by sea) mail (delivery approx 42 days after posting). how come they can make this shampoo and send it here for sale at a price lower than it would cost me to send them a polite note thanking them for their most excellent product?

it is not just the blueberry and kale leaf farmers (or whatever) of California who are valiantly fighting the war against frizzy hair. pictured above is some fancy new product, which has an expensive marketing campaign to ram it down the throats of all and sundry. this is some sort of "spray" that promises to rid you of frizz in your hair. it bloody well wants to, at £5 for a 50ml bottle, and even then that is it on a "special reduced price". normally the cost of it is north of £6. i would reasonably expect to have shampoo for one half of one year for that kind of money.

one really must wonder if all this trouble and effort is truly worth it. whereas i respect that some people will undoubtedly feel their life is better in direct relation to how little frizz their hair has, for the most part surely this doesn't make all that much of a difference. if my frizz they mean all sticking out and that, then i would have thought some gel or hairspray would have provided remedy long before people started shoving berry fruits in their hair to see if that sorted it out.

well, anyway, there you have my thoughts on the matter, and my current "state of play" in respect of frizzy hair. it would be quite a surprise, to me, if i ever visited this subject again in a future post, but you never know.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

come on, come on, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world

hey there


and so here we are, folks. this is what it has all come down to, look you see. death, demise and destruction - whilst not necessarily in that order - shall be with us all quite soon. or, at the least, it will be according to some. yes, those who justify any and all outlandish "worst case" prediction by using the qualifying word "could".

in this instance, we are at the end of days once more again due to those clever people what do them computers and that. why they cannot just do them computers and that in a sensible way is lost on me, but i am sure they know what they are doing. any of you who were far too young to experience the pains, the pleasures and the overall disappointment of the exciting named Y2K Bug can, at the least, experience some of the fun of that. this they can do tomorrow, if you are reading this the day before.

what's going on? alas no sexy name this time, just a general problem called the "possible" GPS malfunction. due to a design flaw, or lazy programming, some GPS devices could malfunction as of forty two seconds past fifty nine minutes past eleven pm in the measure of universal coordinated time (UTC), or if you like just before midnight is reached on April 6 2019 UK time.

blimey, sounds quite serious. and it probably is more serious that i am making out, but also i doubt that it is. what's the short, plain speak version of the issue? let me try.

older variations of GPS devices rely on a "binary coded" (which is to say all that 1 and 0 instead of using other numbers or words nonsense) timestamp to work. such devices can (and this is broadly defining it) only handle or store 1024 such "units" of coding, with one unit lasting about an earth week. sorry, people of Mars, you are on your own. anyway, this means that such GPS units have to "reset" themselves every 1024 weeks, or roughly every 20 years. such a time is now with us, then.

impact? no one is entirely sure, so the word "could" is being used to describe all sorts of possible disasters which may befall us. for instance, some nuclear missile installation somewhere might malfunction due to the reset, and it could, presumably for a laugh, elect to randomly fire off all atom loaded rockets in its confusion, just for a laugh. or people with really, really old sat nav devices might find they do not work, go "oh bother" and find that they have to spend £50 or so on a replacement.

what troubles me about all of this is how everyone is assuming we are going to be, or intend to be, right big fannies if and when this happens. my own lifestyle relies a fair bit on using GPS, in truth. however, should i wake on April 7 (allowing for no nuclear holocaust) and find that it doesn't work, i believe i shall not start running around in panic, screaming, naked, smearing myself in assorted excrement at the insanity of it all. it is more likely that i shall just have to put on my big girl pants and work out another way to get to where i need to be.

it has been a while since i consulted the relevant volumes and texts, but from what i recall of history them explorers had a hunch, or superstitious suspicion, that land laid beyond the horizon, so they just lived a little and sailed in that general direction, hoping for the best. also, when we went to the moon, basically all we did was saw it in the sky, built an enormous rocket and twatted it one in the general direction of what we assumed was some sort of planet capable of landing on. to my knowledge, thousands of years of explorers are recorded as either being successful or failing, with none of them being described as "likely to have discovered such and such country, but the lack of GPS technology prevented them from reaching their dream".

anyway, let us see what happens with this latest computer glitch. or not, if we all end up dead as a result of it. remember, it could happen..........




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

heya


and so another month, look you see, so another update on my calendars for all of you who prefer to use mine than simply invest in your own. whilst some may accuse you of being cheap in doing so, i say you are right, there is seldom any folly in being financially prudent.

it is now April, or if you will april, then. having boxed myself into this business of giving some partial, or possibly accurate "facts" about each month, best i continue to deliver.

such is the way of many things that it feels obvious to state, but yes, april, indeed the calendar, were all northern hemisphere (as in north of the equator) inventions, and are so centred on it. oddly, no one is entirely, as in 100%, sure of the origins of "april". best guesses are that it relates to some long forgotten or now seldom used tongue which had a word what sounded like "april" and meant "birth", or "open", or possibly "renew". basically, calling it "spring" without just saying "spring".

other possible origins are that certain words in Greek which reference Easter sound a bit like they could be spoken in english as "april", or from some Roman era Latin word for a goddess of love or mothership or so. well, anyway, it is what it is, and what it is is april.

there you go, the calendar for the month that is this month, so long as you are reading in April 2019. i have observed - noted, even - that a number of monthly calendar posts get popular after the month. go figure.

indeed, that is the Winnie The Pooh one off of the kitchen, with the titular character looking all Easterish, i suppose.

yes, the title of this post references one of the most famous works of art to be connected to april, the literary work what is The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey "Randy" Chaucer. this line is from the General Prologue To The Canterbury Tales, which is a most strange title as it is not like there are any other prologues in the work to confuse it with. no, absolutely no idea why the differentiation was required, go find some wanky sixth former to ask about it.

does anything irk me about The Canterbury Tales? yes. effectively and essentially it is page after depraved page of utter filth, celebrating all sorts of sexual ambitions and proclivities but with particular emphasis on nun shagging. nothing wrong with this at all, but how come when "Randy" Chaucer does it we are all expected to fawn over it as high art, but when the modern Chaucer equivalents - independent Dutch and other such Scandinavian territories filmmakers - do the same it is labelled obscene?

ah, yes, the "retro car" one i have in my shed. this month it is the turn of the 1986 variation of the Ford Sierra. little comment is needed from me, the fact that it was designed by someone with a Frenchie name and was named after Spanish mountains yet still became the UK's 10th most sold car of all time speaks volumes of our occasional lack of imagination. at some point in its existence, every single Ford Sierra driven in the UK had played in it a tape of No Jacket Required off of Phil Collins what was bought at a motorway service station.

something i introduced last month was "memorable dates" for the month. we have Easter, in terms of Good Friday (not the Bob Hoskins variant) and Easter Monday, but i am not going to give those dates. here instead are some things of interest

8 - it's a very happy birthday to Izzy Stradlin out of Guns N Roses, English cricket legend Alec Stewart and occasional pop star Julian Lennon.

14 - 36th anniversary of the USA release of Flashdance, a film that revolutionised, or if you like completely changed, the way we look at welding and general steel work.

15 - 36th anniversary of the USA release of Lone Wolf McQuade, staring Chuck Norris in a film that did very, very little to revolutionise, or if you like completely change, the way we look at welding and general steel work.

20 - on this day in 1968 British MP Enoch "Chalky" Powell invents racism, opting to debut it in a Parliamentary sitting. it does not go down all that well, but also not as badly as perhaps in retrospect it should have.

23 - the 43rd anniversary of the release of Black And Blue by The Rolling Stones. at the time this was celebrated for marking the debut of divorce enthusiast Ronnie Wood in the band. in better informed modern times, it is celebrated because it is the Rolling Stones album what has the biggest visible image of Bill Wyman on the cover.

30 - 216th anniversary of the USA buying Louisiana off of France. forgive them the waste of money, this was all before anyone clocked how the French scare easily, and as such you can take anything you want off of them if you just turn up and say "boo". preferably with a Bavarian accent.

right, that's me all done with this. have a good month.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random bowie - for the more chronological fan

howdy pop pickers


and so what next. that's an interesting question, if only for me, look you see, now that i have ostensibly completed writing of all recognised Bowie albums and a few that were not officially seen as his albums as such.

for now, then, and before i waffle on, here's all editions, or if you like episodes, what i have done of random bowie. and for those who like nice neat piles, here are the links in chronological order in terms of the way in which they were released, rather than the order in what i wrote them. for good measure, and for the sake of completeness, i have included a lengthy rant i wrote in defence of Tin Machine quite a few years ago.

should you be of a mind to do so, simply click on a lyric that took my fancy off of that particular album and you will be taken away, via the magic of the internet, to that album's write up.

i saw a photograph of jesus

and the day will end for some as the night begins for one

got laid by a young bordello who was vaguely half asleep

bipperty bopperty hat

songs of darkness and disgrace

putting on some clothes i made my way to school

when they said sit down i stood up

in the cellar of a church with the door ajar

took him minutes, took her nowhere

and once i could never be down

don't you wonder sometimes

maybe we're lying, then you'd better not stay

learn to drive and everything

don't ask me, i don't know any hallways

tremble like a flower

i'm gonna write a poem in a letter

the power of voodoo

when i believed in nothing

i'm grey and blown to hell

my friend don't listen to the crowd

all our friends now seem so thin and frail

do you like girls or boys

sleepy time bashful but nude

or seven ways to die

you say you'll leave me and when the sun is low

all the corners of the building

here i am, not quite dying

something happened on the day he died

doesn't matter, i've seen everything, anyway

your turn to drive

well, there you go, for those who asked for it. or indeed those of you who read one or two of them, found that for some reason they were interested in more but simply could not be bothered (or find the time) to search for further. 

it would, no doubt we can all agree (partially at least) for me to avoid too much sixth former wankery about this whole thing. let me avoid, then, any such discussion of catharsis, or "coming to terms" with or "healing" of the loss to the world of a chap i never met and yet his music meant and continues to mean so very much to me. 

but, that said, any thoughts? yes. i have thoroughly enjoyed repeated plays of each album, selected at random, one each month over the course of the last two and a bit years. this has done little but reaffirmed my love of the overwhelming majority of the music he produced. sure, there are one or two albums that are now unlikely to taste the insides of my stereo again - Young Americans and Let's Dance, i look at you. but to balance that, i have rediscovered just how much i love some of them - the inexplicably unpopular and wrongly slated Tonight, for example.

do i get to do some dedications in respect of all these episodes (editions) of random bowie? well, why not. firstly, if i may hope, then i can only hope that Charlie Watts has enjoyed some of these volumes, for he spoke eloquently and kindly of Bowie's death. fans worldwide were reassured when Charlie declared that Bowie was "not some sort of genius", and further seemed quite perplexed and generally annoyed with people being sad at his passing. 

another dedication? sure. let us be honest - the reasons anyone gets into rock and roll are to avoid having to get a proper job, to get loads of money, fame, sex, drugs and what have you. once all those are achieved, all you can hope for is a reaction. Bowie got plenty of those, with the last one accomplished in his lifetime being in 2014, with the speech he gave Kate Moss to give on his behalf. one plucky braveheart reacted admirably to that, courageously threatening to delete his entire (never clarified if legally obtained or not) Bowie collection off his laptop in protest. a mere two years later this open minded, tolerant Scottish national resurfaced to comment on Bowie's death, expressing how delighted he was that the "Unionist c***" was dead, and further said that he hoped it was a really excruciatingly painful demise. well, except he did not use "excruciatingly", with that word perhaps being far too complex for his observed vocabulary, 

one lingering disappointment is that, to date, no one has stepped forward and claimed or requested the smart "heroes" stamp and postcard i offered at the time of doing that album.

it's still available, if anyone has any interest. don't go leaving any personal details here, though - rather leave a message or something and we will work out a way to contact and connect, perhaps by that facebook business, and i will happily send it on. should no one want it, well, someone will somewhere. maybe.

mostly, predominantly, though, this has all been for me and for you. i am just a simple fan, writing about music i have loved and shall continue to love, on the off chance that some, any or a bit of it has been of mild interest to anyone out there who feels the same. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

commodore 64 car wash

hello there


if it was, or is, look you see, the case that there was a game called carwash or car wash made for the Commodore 64, then sorry. should you have come here looking for more details about a game what i have never heard of, there will be none here.

this, rather than what it is not, is rather just another example of me refusing to withhold from you, the reader, any or all exciting things which happen or occur as i try to make my way through life. it's all a matter of perspective of course, but i would respectfully suggest that if your life is pretty much mundane, routine and dull, then a visit to the car wash is truly indeed an exciting detour.

yes, that one picture is it, alas. i had made one of them animated "GIF" things, in Commodore 64 mode, of them massive roller things brushing down the windscreen. for some reason, however, it did not save on the phone. no, i was not prepared to spend somewhere either slightly north or south of £4 once more to go through it again just to try and film once more.

without much in the way of doubt it is entirely possible that i shall visit a car washing mechanism facility once again. if i do, then perhaps i shall be able to capture a more moving visual of it all for you. but, for now, this shall just have to do.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some reading

hello reader


so, some more reading, look you see. having read a further two novels, or if you want this to sound all posh and that "tomes", it has come to the time where i reflect on them, on the off chance that someone, anyone is particularly interested in my thoughts.

in sticking with a belief that continuity is a strength, the standard here would be to display an image of the books which were, or have been, read. this would then be followed by some spoiler free observations, with that it turn followed by further, if not quite deeper, comments on each.

let me not disrupt belief, continuity or strength, then.

the really splendid thing to say here is that Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh is truly brilliant. a wonderfully constructed mystery / thriller type of thing, and indeed the best advice i can give right now is to rather stop reading this, find a copy of the book and just read it. somewhat less splendid, but not awful, would be Ghost by James Swallow. this is the third in a series of books featuring a protagonist inexplicably called Marc Dane, and overall there are just too many tired flaws to see me go out of my way to praise anything good in it.

whereas i shall do my best to limit such, please note that a fabulous *** SPOILER WARNING *** is now in full effect for the remainder of this post. but, honestly, all you probably need to know is in the paragraph before this one. assuming my deft formatting is in place.

to start where i did with these two would be to start with Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh. and why not.

in respect of the all important provenance of my copy, as is becoming the standard that would be Tesco. whereas their "2 for £7" deal of splendid on books has long since changed to a less than splendid "2 for £8", they still have novels randomly priced at £2, £3 and sometimes £3.50. i am quietly confident that it was the latter, or if you like 50p south of £4, that i invested.

plot? a young new mother is coming to terms with both being a mother and the fact that her parents have died within the last year, separately but apparently by suicide. certain events and happenings start to make her believe that the deaths of her parents were maybe not quite so open and shut straightforward affairs as the police had initially concluded......

i am really reluctant and hesitant to say much more. other than the price, what attracted me to this novel was that i had read one by the author before. whereas for the life of me i cannot remember what it was - possibly I See You - there is an inescapable sense that i had that it was very good. this is just sheer brilliance. all twists and turns and red herrings and such time up very well for a consistently excellent read, with that consistency going all the way through to a highly satisfactory conclusion.

there does not feel like much more i can say without risking spoilers. also, i would perhaps just repeat myself (again), saying how excellent it is. let me rather leave it with the highest recommendation i can give you all, then. just read it.

slightly less good news, alas, in terms of Ghost by James Swallow. whereas it is not all bad, this just could have been much better. that's in terms of actual content and, most importantly, presentation.

yes, provenance. again this was Tesco, and i am almost sure it was their centralist £3 book of the week. but if it was £3.50 i dare say i would have paid, as i can remember getting all excited, recalling that the first of this series, Nomad, was really good. and that the second, whatever it was called (also one word title) was not bad.

of plot? Marc Dane and his merry band of well funded, not at all shy of killing people for the greater good organization called Rubicon are at it again. in this instance they are accidentally drawn into a massive, global plot to cause chaos, indeed "hold the world to ransom", via means of.....computer hacking and taking advantage of how we have made everything reliant on computers and something called an "internet". if it's on the internet, to be sure, then it can quite easily be hacked and controlled by someone else, no matter what it is or what "security" is in place.

yes, i hear the yawn. it seems that the go-to "bad guy" for many, many plots these days is "computer hackers" and the great evils of relying on internet connected computers for anything. even people what have been President of that there America place find it a most attractive plot device. who knew that Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free Or Die Hard if American) would be the greatest source of inspiration for 21st century writers? in the case of Ghost, they also pretty much borrow the fine resolution to the problem posed in that film, which was when John McClane memorably sorted it all out by twatting a helicopter one with a car.

Ghost is supposed to be a pacy thriller, but at times it feels far too long and drawn out. this is because it is, really. there are Dickensian length chapters here, which just leaves you bored and distracted. i am surprised the editor or publisher did tell Mr Swallow to go back and chop it all up into much more agreeable chapter lengths. the much loved mother of a dear friend of mine once summed it up perfectly, she said that the perfect length for a chapter is "one that lasts exactly as long as you need to sit on the loo".

i persevered with the novel, for i can never bring myself to ditch one, but i am not convinced the resolution or payoff was worth that which i had invested. the overriding arc of the "series" of books, the supposedly righteous Rubicon Groups vs the presumed evil shady institution called Combine, really is going nowhere fast. there are hints that this will all be dragged out further, but in truth i am not sure that i am particularly interested. but watch me get all excited and make the purchase as and when the fourth volume is published.

anyway, that is about that. one really, really, really good book, one that i felt obliged to read and i bet that i end up reading the next one too. make of this what you will.

many thanks for reading, and as ever hopefully something here has been of some use to someone somewhere!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

partially good pointless

heya


it is an unavoidable, and yet for many quite happy, truth that i must surely be on the downward slope with my days. there is no possible way, look you see, that i shall survive to double my present age, and so this is all now well into the second half as such. of course, that has to be tempered with the fact that, according to proven scientific fact i am immortal, due to no empirical (only presumed circumstantial) evidence that i can in fact die being shown.

anyway, the point here is that as i go on in years i find myself being most content with the simpler, less challenging things in life. which is how come, i suppose, i am drawn to regular viewership of the television show Pointless.

for those of you unaware of the show, the contestants (starting with four pairs of them) are presented with questions that have many answers. they must guess the least popular or well known answer, so as to score the lowest score and win. being pointless wins you money. yes, it is a touch like golf, except for the lack of balls, sticks, a course and mostly sand.

quite a few people i know, and further am aware of, do not like the show at all. this is purely because of the hosts. often they have been described as a couple of cosy, aloof, smarmy smug twats. whilst i can totes see that, they don't particularly bother me. for a start, at least 50% of them are related to someone out of (the london) suede, so they can't be all that bad.

one episode of this show in particular pleased me. this is because some of the answers to questions were one that i approved of tremendously. like, to commence, this one. although as we shall see, the answer which pleased me a good deal is somewhat incorrect.

the question was of "musicians and singers what had left bands". i say musicians too, for in the previous round one Pete Best was possible answer, although on display here are, so far as i am aware, just singers. and indeed, it is the bottom one which pleased me most. it is always splendid to see the name of David Lee Roth randomly crop up on my tv. bravo, then 18 people, what identified him as being the singer with Van Halen, when Van Halen were decent.

i didn't catch the first part of the show so they may well have qualified this, but still i am not entirely convinced that David Lee Roth is a correct answer to this question. all the other answers were people what had left bands and not returned. my basic understanding is that Roth left Van Halen, Van Halen clocked that they were nothing without him, and so by his grace he agreed to return. unless someone can tell me different, at the present moment Roth is once again a member of Van Halen, propping up the lesser members with his vast talents.

whereas one pleasing answer is normally sufficient to have me satisfied and pleased with watching, it is always simply super when a second one comes along. in a later, or latter, round, this is exactly what happened with these ones relating to all that Star Wars business.

should we move away from the accepted fact that Star Wars Episode VIII : Surely They Will All Just Pay To Watch And Worship Anything Called Star Wars is the ultimate pointless answer, the ones above are quite interesting. for a fan, even in passing, most of those answers would be known, but the fun, or if you will challenge, is in considering which of those answers would be the least well known.

yes, these images are all off of the BBC. and indeed, as far as i am concerned, i have a vested financial interest in this, since i am one of the apparent few what pays their tv licence. my understanding would be that as i have paid for this show to be made no objections shall be raised to me using images thereof for not for profit information purposes. besides, i dare to speculate that all their legal types are still rather busy ascertaining what exactly it is they are liable for in regards of Sir Jimmy.

does Pointless ever disgrace itself? oh my word, yes. here is where the accusations of smarmy and smug come into it. a recent episode featured two of them vicar types, or priests, who got into the final. look at how the short smug one and the tall smarmy one decided to torment and terrorise them with options on the final question.

everything about that says "oh, look, we have religious types, let us humiliate them with some questions on the quasi poster boy for atheism". why would you do something such as that, either to members of the clergy or members of the public watching? anyway, them vicars were clearly well versed with the ways of their natural enemy, as they got an answer that only 1 other person did. probably the subject of the question himself.

no, you are right - Bullseye has not featured here for a bit. absolutely no way is Pointless being showcased here as a replacement, for it is complete sh!t in comparison. i just have not seen much of the magic of Bowen on tele lately, perhaps they have stopped screening it on repeat or maybe now it only comes on after i have been to bed.

what were the pointless answers to them Star Wars questions? well, none had pointless answers as such, but you could have scored 4 with one of them.

so, in the realm of the people who get called up and asked to answer questions for contestants to guess at on Pointless, one less (fewer?) people knew who played Boba Fett than know what band David Lee Roth was (the most important) part of. that is quite a statement. i am not certain what the statement is saying as such, or what it means, but still.

well, anyway, that is pretty much all i have for you on this particular subject.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

caught yourself a trick down on sunset and vine

now then


one of those sorts of posts which may or, look you see, may not be of interest to you, the people. i dare say that what shall be on show here is already on show in other corners of the internet. but, having said (or typed) that, these are pictures what Spiros sent, which makes them rather special.

indeed, yes, Spiros has from time to time sent me any number of "special" pictures. these are usually of a nature which are decidedly not suitable to be shared here, no matter how much enthusiasm he has for whatever gentleman (normally uninformed) that he's formed a short term but mutually beneficial friendship with. with some delight i can say that there are no such concerns regarding content of that nature here.

and what we have here, then, is, or are, selective highlights from the somewhat legendary and partially well known Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

nice one Spiros, for going and seeking out for me the David Bowie star. this is quite a gesture off of him, for the Hollywood Walk Of Fame is bloody massive, so it is, to be sure. how massive? somewhere north of one mile in length, or if you are one of them metric enthusiasts just north of 2km. that's a significant area to look across for one particular star, and Spiros expended some valuable drinking time to find this one for me.

just what is the Hollywood Walk Of Fame? well, if you are unaware of it, the above picture tells you most of what you would need to know. it's a strip of fancy marble, gilded tiles on Hollywood Boulevard, resplendent with stars showcasing the name of the most celebrated of celebrities.

i, or most likely we, back in the 80s looked from the UK to the USA at this with a sense of awe and wonder. everything about it seemed ace, with big, massive mega stars being treasured in such a way. our glances were almost certainly tinged with jealousy. and why not? whilst our friends in America got to celebrate the likes of Jack Nicholson and what have you, what would we do similar? put stars down on some random street in London, emblazoned with names such as Jimmy Tarbuck and Leslie Crowther?

yes, that is the star what celebrates Chuck "Chuck" Norris. usually he would of course be associated with the class Star of Texas what he wore as a Texas Ranger in Walker Texas Ranger but this is a nice touch.

it was rare to be growing up in the 80s in the UK and encounter Chuck. most of his films were either cut to ribbons by our draconian, prudish censors, or simply refused a release. every now and then one sneaked through, though, and i was well impressed with films such as Delta Force, Invasion USA and the most smart Code Of Silence. on many instances the internet has chosen to celebrate Chuck Norris when it is not busy with Rick Astley, which is nice.

do we have anything comparable to the "Hollywood Walk Of Fame" in England, or the UK? sort of. there's a kind of "blue plaque" thing, where buildings of some significance get a round blue plaque on which something noteworthy happened. in truth there are only a few decent ones, and they are the ones which reference The Who, Bowie and Hendrix. other than that, i suppose we just dish out knighthoods and lesser honours to those we want to celebrate, rather than placing stars on the ground. the main difference, i suppose, is that a knighthood or lesser title cannot be tarnished by a tramp, vagrant or similar soiling their trousers or otherwise disgracing themselves whilst standing on it.

that there is the star in place to celebrate Alice Cooper, not to be confused with Alec Cooper or even Alice Copper. he's one of Spiros' all time favourite musical acts of all time. and why not, really. whereas, despite his lavish stage shows, he is not quite so extrovert to be on my top list, his music is absolutely boss it is, to be sure. from what i recall these days he is less music, more golf, but never mind.

just what was Spiros doing to be in the vicinity of Hollywood Boulevard to take these pictures? mostly as ever that is classified stuff, i fear. however, yes, a great deal of his reason for being there does indeed relate to the highly anticipated 42nd anniversary celebrations to commemorate the release of San Francisco by the Village People. and why not.

more stars? sure. here's one in celebration of a chap whose two biggest films i had the pleasure of re-watching earlier on this year. as early as it is in the year still.

indeed, Eddie Murphy. having watched Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop once more recently, i really do have an inclination to just watch them again. both are just that darned good, really, and a lot of the reason why they are so is the Eddie factor.

am i permitted to say who it is wearing the red shoes and who it is wearing the blue shoes in the pictures? no, i am not.

can one see things other than stars on the ground as they wander Hollywood's Walk Of Fame? with this being Hollywood, sure. look, a really smart statue.

unless i am quite mistaken, that is a super ace boss statue of Bruce Lee, the martial arts kung fu legend considered to be one of the greatest of all time. i in particular enjoyed that one movie he made where he went to that island to be in that tournament and absolutely knacked everyone.

does Spiros still engage in kung fu and other martial arts? well, kind of. he will, of course, never give up his greatest passion, which is classical, traditional Greek style man on man wrestling. but as for kicking people in the head whilst making high pitched noise and other similar kung fu moves, he really tends only to showcase this as and when a London Black Cab driver really asks for it.

the Hollywood Walk Of Fame is, of course, not to be confused with that other celebration of celebrities in the area, that one where celebrities put hands and feet in a cast and that is then all in the ground. so far as i recall that one is all happening outside something called the Chinese Theatre.

stars often turn up for, erm, stars at most unexpected times. like, for instance, the one above, in celebration of David Hasselhoff. you would assume that it was awarded for his deft, boss performances in shows such as Knight Rider or Baywatch, or for his outstanding musical career. even, maybe, for his omnipotent internet presence. but, no. The Hoff's star turned up around the time he was inadvertently cast as the "great political healer", when he unified Germany. probably.

those childhood memories of how special and glitzy these stars are is somewhat tainted with these unfiltered times we have. as it turns out, these stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame are not so much "awarded" as they are "paid for", with one simply having to pay a quite trivial US$30,000 a year ("per annum") to have one in place.

which means, in theory, absolutely any bellend or has been with enough latent royalties kicking about in their bank account, assuming their accountant has not borrowed it, could have their very own star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

yes, that's the star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame for Sting, the noted Geordie. alas, there are no notes or anything near the stars, so i am unsure if he appears on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame for being the third best member of The Police, or for his celebrated cinematic career, with particular emphasis on Dune.

if it "only" costs $30,000 a year to have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, then surely we could all club together to have a few more British legends feature. this is all the more true with what a spectacular success our economy shall presently be, which will no doubt feature a most favourable exchange rate. surely there are enough of us only too happy to commit the requisite funds to ensure that a Robin Asquith, or Macbeth era Keith Chegwin, had a star on display?

the only real risk is that, i imagine, you never can tell whose star your own star shall appear next to. it might turn out that you are in exalted company, or it might be that your star is placed next to someone that you would really rather it was not.

someone out there somewhere will wish to see this Phil Collins one, so there it is. i am quite surprised to see how shoddy this one is, what with the tip of the top star cut off to make way for a drain cover, or what is possibly something to assist wheelchair bound people, like a ramp i guess.

actually, i have just done some quick calculations. for US$30,000 you could get a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, or you could (at current market price) buy 4,385 copies of Vernon Wells in Commando on Blu Ray. or 2, 448 copies of Mad Max 2, starring Vernon Wells, also on Blu Ray.

will it ever be that i walk the Hollywood Walk Of Fame myself? it is a lovely thought. i have many most smart friends living out in the States, and it surely would be class to visit them. also, where better to smoke Marlboro Red than in America? hopefully i get there one day.

let's say that's that for this, then. as ever hopefully this has been of some interest to someone somewhere.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the dead tower and the (partial) resurrection

01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101


yes indeed, look you see. as you may well have clocked from that outlandish and outrageous introduction, this is, to be sure, one of them computing like digital posts what i do from time to time. one of them ones that i do, from time to time, to help out those what, like me (a bit) know "a bit" about computers and that, but far from all required knowledge as and when something goes wrong.

and, in this instance, things went quite wrong. my pc, one of them "desktop" or if you like "tower" things, sort of kind of went right ahead and died. well, maybe not. if we are to use medical terminology, it all went into a sort of comatose, vegetative state, as in "lights on nobody home" was what happened when i switched it on.

how then am i able to write this if the pc is dead? well, this all happened just prior to Christmas, when i tried to change a DVD Recorder drive, but there is no evidence to suggest that action in itself was the fault. since then i have been using one of them "laptop" or if you will "mobile computers" to do all of this stuff on.

but did i get the tower fixed? well, that would rob me from telling and you of hearing the whole story, would it not. however, yes, i am still typing all of this on one of them more mobile computing devices, which should tell you enough.

first then, a history. maybe wallow in some nostalgia, or otherwise engage in sentimental hygiene once more. as i recall this pc is around ten years old, purchased either in late 2009 or quite early in 2010. the funding of it was interesting. my former, and much beloved fondly recalled place of verk, had a jolly good idea to issue us staff some shares and that. however, the regulators and the tax man took quite a different approach, and so my employers were more or less forced to purchase from us the shares what they had given us gratis. it so happened that i required a new pc at the time, so before anyone else could step in and do something or other with shares, cash, etc, i went ahead and invested.

despite the fact that this tower had travelled far, and i had not done much to maintain it or look after it in any way ("disc defrag" and "disc clean up" just take too long), it had been a pretty good servant. excellent, in fact. sure, it had got ludicrously sluggish and slow for the last year (or two), but i just chose to ignore that. also i ignored the wheezing sounds it made from time to time, and by from time to time yes of course i mean "whenever it was on". so yes it came as quite a shock when it just flat out stopped working for no apparent reason, right after i changed the DVD Recorder drive some four times within the space of five days.

that is an image of inside the tower then, and yes of course in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode. whereas i was, am, comfortable doing stuff like adding a DVD Recorder (obviously), adding RAM (whatever that does) and plugging in a video card, what goes on with the "motherboard" and the hard drive were, are, something of a mystery. and it seemed like it was the hard drive that was the issue, for when i powered up and some lights came on the front of the tower the one light of note which did not was the "HDD" one, which i took as being the disc drive with the operating system and data on. oh, dear.

what to do, then. i took out "bits" and put them back in, to see if that would make the whole thing magically work, then. no, it did not. some consideration was given to popping along with it all to one of them computer and pc menders, but that is quite risky these days. one can never be sure if them pesky, mischievous Russian hackers might have sneaked some mucky, filthy videos and images on to my computer without me knowing about it. about, say, 300GB or so of the stuff. whereas i would totes of course never ever have anything to do with such things, it might be that the mender, and the custodians of the peace in our society, might have a wildly inaccurate interpretation as to how such stuff got on my computer in an entirely unsolicited ways. plus, of course, these days we all keep strictly private and confidential documents of a personal nature stored on such devices.

i just kind of left it in a corner, then, figuring either it would work out how to fix itself, or i would do something with it "eventually". as it turned out, just a couple of months after "the crash", a dear old friend - one who has known me since the 70s - got in touch. i recalled that he was quite the wizard with computers and that. also, that he would be "understanding" of any nonsense placed on my computer by Russian hackers, and could be trusted without question in respect of any personal information.

my enquiry as to whether or not he would care to have a look at it was greeted with a most enthusiastic yes, so long as i obeyed the unwritten code of incidental computer mending. that is, if i wished for my computer to be blessed with his skills, then i must ensure that when his doorway was passed i presented him with three bottles of exotic sounding beer. such terms are something that i would consider most agreeable, and so i presented him with the above.

was this the first hard drive related adventure in error this pc had experienced? not really. it was not all that long after i got it - perhaps a year or so - that a peculiar message came up, giving every suggestion that the hard drive was about to fail, and that i should act now. this i did, after carefully removing any and all files what Russian hackers might have placed on it, by taking it to a mender, as my familiars who might know what to do were on the other side of the equator. quite far over on the other side. in that instance, with it all working, i simply paid the mender to "clone" the apparently about to crash 500GB hard drive onto a shiny new 1TB hard drive, which he did, and it had been all plain sailing since then, right up to it all bombing out.

i should point out, for i know that he is an avid reader, that yes, indeed, i do have another familiar who is most smart with computers. also, he has known me since the 80s. we shall refer to him as Codename Flinty, and of course i would have asked him for assistance and i dare say he would have provided, just that he is about somewhere slightly south of 250 miles from me.

anyway, let us now celebrate the familiar somewhat nearer, who in the interests of fairness we will refer to as Codename Atari, for reasons that would make sense to him and to me if not to some Japanese corporate concern. he graciously accepted the customary offering of three exotic sounding beers, commenting after the fact that the one which appeared to be some sort of tribute to Apocalypse Now was in particular splendid. as it should be.

wasting no time, Codename Atari did all sorts of splendid things so as to understand an work out just exactly what harm or distress had befallen my pc. i shall not bore you with the explicit details, as to do so might give you misleading ideas on how to fix your computer that could make it worse if it is an entirely different issue. but what i will highlight is one of the best things that i have ever seen. Codename Atari, right, took apart one of his computers (he has many), got some special wires out and effectively "jump started" my pc off of that one. it was amazing, man, really cool. but, alas, did not fix the computer.

it did, however, give him valuable, critical information about what had happened, what the consequential problem was and the best way forward. the technical terms are all a bit much for me, but in short either the power supply to the pc or an aspect of the motherboard was "completely f****d", as it were, with a "short" or some loose wiring totally knacking it.

oh dear, i said, and oh no. but not all was lost. Codename Atari said the hard drive was in fact perfectly fine, despite my lack of maintenance and care. in theory all i had to do was purchase one of them "external hard drive cases", pop the hard drive into it, plug it into another pc and extract any and all data that i wanted to from it. presumably whilst doing so being careful not to accidentally copy or back up any files what Russian hackers might have added.

it was so then that i was instructed to leave and purchase such casing. which i did, as can be seen above. as an act of kindness Codename Atari indicated that he could assist me in putting the hard drive into the casing, but further indicated that i should not be a big fanny or a gaylord about it and just have a got at it myself. so, i did.

finding a suitable casing was straightforward enough. Codename Atari provided me with some links to consider, ones that were cases designed for my shape and size hard drive. all i had to do was purchase any of them which struck me as being the right price and the preferential form of delivery. something of a rudimentary review was undertaken by me who did not really know what qualities i was looking for, and soon enough one was purchased for south of £15.

actually the appeal with the one i picked was it seemed to be quite literal "plug and play". the other drives on offer seemed to wish for me to mess about connecting wires and similar within the casing and to the drive. this one featured a simple slot to add the drive on, being not entirely unlike how one might shove a USB stick into a (working) computer.

but yes, when the kit or set arrived i did go a little fanny with it all, contacting Codename Atari and seeing what he suggested. once again the advice was not to be a big fanny and just have a go and setting it up. so, i did.

most happily, it all went together just fine, and powered up with no problems whatsoever. yes it was a little tricky and fiddly to connect it, but no i did not have to use force. also, getting the case to close up after i had taken it apart was a little annoying to, but done.

with that all done, all which remained was to plug the newly created but yet still (hopefully) populated drive into a working pc. in doing so, i had to hope that both the data on the drive was there and available, and that plugging it in to another pc would not somehow total the pc being plugged into, for i am now running quite short of spare computers. off i went, then.

victory! the "new" external drive picked up, and i was able to see all my files (and the ones what presumably Russian hackers put on). well, with some patience. as it turned out there was some 930GB of data on the drive. this took the computer what i plugged it into somewhere north of one hour to "index" or sort and list, as it were. but, all good.

what is there in this story for you, the people, to take away with you? a bit, i guess. should you have a computer what has died, it might be that like me you go "oh bother" at the prospect of the fear that you may not have gotten around to backing up important stuff. this is not so by default. quite a few things can go wrong with one of them computer things. hopefully if this fate or harm befalls you, it is so that luck rides with you, and the information and data can still be accessed.

as for where to next, well i do not know. i suppose at some stage i shall get a new PC, or one of them "refurbished" ones. this will depend entirely on me being able to get a Windows 7 one set up. no, oh no, i am not having anything to do with Windows 10. the very fact that such proper computer luminaries, such as Codename Atari, will not have it within any discernible radius of their own devices pretty much tells another story.

my thanks to all involved with this story, and that does indeed include you, dear reader.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!