Blank Sheet Of Paper - Panic

There are times when I haven't the foggiest what to write yet I think I should write something every day hence the Appraisal of the Day riff. I thought that if nothing else I could put that up, but because it is actually very laborious, I've stopped doing it. Although my machine has Xgig of memory it has about as much active memory as your average goldfish which is why I can't wait to receive my New Shiny Computer. Unfortunately New Shiny Computer has arrived but it is at my brother's in Hampshire and I don't know when I am going to see him next I will have to ring him sometime this week. So until I can get my hands on the bestie I'm stuck with this old and knackered warhorse. Mind you I shouldn't diss the current machine too much I might have a buyer for it, only he reads this blog, if he sees this post it won't do my negotiations much good!

I am still confused by my stats, all three counters give wildly different figures for the number of page hits, visitors that day, unique visitors first time visitors and returning visitors. I don't really know which one I should believe the most and they all have different features that are not shared with the other two but are quite useful. So I suppose I will keep all three for the moment but I do think it is an extravagance having 3 no 4 counters if you include the rss feed one.

I did manage to get myself a tag cloud. It is a self referential one though, my rss feed is through feedburner fed into TagCloud it took a wee while for the cloud to pick up on the feed but eventually it populated itself. I'm very please with myself because basically I hadn't the foggiest what it was all about, how are tags chosen for instance? I would never chose the word "unfortunately" as a tag because I use it so often, however I would use Dr Who, which isn't listed.

Richard Whiteley

MediaGuardian.co.uk Media Whiteley, the cosy quizmaster, dies at 61

Such a shame, Richard Whitely was a very good quizmaster and TV presenter. I don't really remember him on Calender as I preferred Look North on BBC1.

The report, though, has a tone of intellectual snobbery as if being a quiz master was in someway below the dignity of a Cambridge man? Why for heavens sake?

Don't broad middle market entertainments deserve having the best brains available working on them as much as high brow, niche programming? Richard Whiteley greatly entertained many people without talking down to them or taking the route of the lowest common dominator. His jokes were awful but he created an easy bond between the contestants, the guests, Carol Vorderman of course and the audience at home. I often watched Countdown if I was about when it was on. I enjoyed it as much as the next person and I'm useless as word games.

Birthday Party

I went to the surprise 80th birthday party of my uncle Tristram Cary today in Clapham where his niece lives. She and her husband very kindly hosted the party. My mother and I went down by train, unfortunately we were held up by engineering works on the line, the train had just gone through Hitchen when it ground to a halt, the driver explained what the problem was, a hazard of travelling on a Sunday by train I suppose.

Mum fretted and complained, I can't see the point personally, I had left a message on Jane's mobile, there was nothing more we could do, it wasn't that hot so we were not suffering like those people on the high speed train the other day. My attitude is stop worrying about it, it is not as if we could do anything about it, settle back and start to contemplate the infinite. We got to the party eventually, unfortunately we missed the surprise part of it but it was still very good. Tristram's son John had arranged the catering and had the most fantastic birthday cake made.



It is an EMS synthesiser, a very early small and portable synthesiser that Tristram helped to develop.


Tristram

Appraisal Of The Day

..... and particularly irksome is his use of "10-4" in place of the more acceptable "yes, sir".

The way of the Idle

I've found a new way of wasting time it's called WEBoggle I stumbled across it when flicking through some Girl Blogs I came across Mung's blog. It is a word search game and highly highly addictive. I can see hours disappearing while I try to spot words.

Another good site I've seen recently is a NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown.com it does exactly what it says on the tin. I'm more of a coffee and panatone girl myself but the site tickled me pink. Dave, now the happy owner of the futon, saw it and forwarded the link to me when he was googling on NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Right there is Glastonbury on the TV and I'm gonna watch it. Night all

This is more like it.

The weather here has returned to the English summer as I like it, it's grey, overcast and not overly warm - it's fantastic I can move about without breaking into a sweat I don't need to drink pints and pints of water and I can sleep at night.

I tested out the bed part of my new sofa bed last night, on my mum's suggestion, she said that before I had guests around to stay overnight I should find out what sort of discomfort I would be inflicting on them. I am happy to say that it was very comfortable and I slept the sleep of the innocent last night.

This morning I helped a friend, Si to move stuff out his flat along with some mates. Well at the start it was just Si and Art and me, we had moved most the heavy stuff by the time reinforcements had arrived but with them we got it all done and packed into the transit van within two hours. Although the weather is far more reasonable today we still had healthy glows at the end of it. Where Si lived you can see the building my flat is in, it was strange looking out of his window seeing the flat like that. We went to lunch at the local "cafe bar" which although most of the food is fresh prepared "straight from our freezer" wasn't too bad and cheap enough for you not to mind the freezer element of it.

I am now officially shattered cos I'm not used to hard physical graft so I am resting till til I can build up my strength again.

Appraisal Of The Day

SAC ****** is still immature and, at times, a scruffy airman, however, it is hoped that his recent marriage will offer him some sense of responsibility, and someone to do the ironing.

eclectech : the very model of a modern labour minister : a tribute to charles clarke and his id cards

eclectech : the very model of a modern labour minister : a tribute to charles clarke and his id cards

Saw this recommended on Plasticbag.org. Class absolute class

Can I complain about the weather again?

It's still too hot, I'm slowly melting here... 11pm and still 26.5 degrees. It has been hellish at work, we do not have air conditioning and we could do with it. The rumours are that the buildings were scheduled to have it but it was cut by some knothead to save money. Instead they told us to stop complaining and open the windows the air would circulate and we would stay cool. That's fine in principle but the cool air theory only works if there are no dividing walls or cabinets above waist height and of course we have loads of dividing walls, cabinets, IT equipment throwing out heat too. Eventually after much protesting and campaigning, management put a forced air system in upstairs. On Monday there was an email saying sorry but the forced air system isn't on and only the contractor can turn it on and facilities management team will ring them. Will ring them? Talk about being on the case. I spoke to one of my friends this afternoon he works upstairs, the forced air system still isn't on!

It's too hot to do an appraisal.

I'm going to my Mum's tomorrow to cook for her and my aunt see you Saturday!

Trip Down Memory Lane

BBC2 are repeating The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon. I know, I know, I can hear you cry "but it was only one a few months ago if that!" But I for one am glad they are repeating it, because the films themselves are of such ordinary subjects and their lives the programmes are showing a remarkable record of mostly Northern Edwardian life.

Some of my family come from Lancashire (not something you say loudly if you lived in Yorkshire for 15 odd years!). Preston though, not Blackburn but even if the buildings were different the culture was not, Wakes weeks, the factories and the mills, their workers the food and their lives, so the programme has resonance for me although my Great Grandmother grew up on a farm not in a mill town.

I've still got relatives all over Lancashire, when we lived in Yorkshire we would occasionally go over the Pennines to either visit cousins or to go to Tommy Ball's in Blackburn. Tommy Ball's sold cheap shoes in an old mill. All the pairs of shoes were linked together by string, not through the eyelets but through holes pierced through the heels. The pairs were then hung over long poles. Each floor of Tommy Ball's would be full of long poles with thousands of pairs of shoes hung over them, untangling a pair you were interested in was often a fustrating process. I can't remember if I ever got any shoes there I doubt it as they didn't cut the mustard fashion wise. The reason why they were cheap was because they were the end of lines, the unsold stock of a few years ago, the fashion mishaps - court shoes in camouflaged pattern anyone?. But they sold the suede desert boots my Dad liked and as he had size 11 feet he was always able to get a few pairs.

Outside the mill, they had a stall selling the typical examples of Lancastrian cuisine, meat and potato pies, sarsaparilla and dandelion and burdock fizzy drinks.

I haven't been back in over twenty years but I bet they still haven't shifted the camouflage court shoes though!


Gratuitous photo of Tom Finney in his prime with Preston North End for my Mum!

Worms

Wyndham the Triffid has been pondering on going green and getting older. Like him as I've got older I've got keener on recycling and reducing waste wherever possible.

The council in an effort to reduce the amount of Landfill tax they have to pay are encouraging us to recycle, reuse and compost. As I live in a flat I haven't got a green box to put my dry recyclables instead the council supply clear plastic bags, recyclable I hope. Every fortnight I stagger down stairs with a fullish bag of old cardboard, plastic milk bottles and the like for the bin men to collect. They will take newspapers as well but the council expect us to take our own wine bottles to the bottle bank, fortunately I've got three within spitting distance Unfortunately, though, they haven't got round to providing green bins for us flat dwellers to put our composting material into.

I would like to be able to do composting, for one thing it is very satisfactory to know that today's apple cores will be the potatoes or busy lizzies of the future but I can't, although there is a shared garden we don't have a compost bin. I did suggest once that we got one, at a house meeting many moons ago, but I was voted down on the basis that we didn't have the room (mmm the garden looks big enough for one to me) and anyway it takes ages for pizza boxes to break down.

I mentioned this to my Aunt Mary who is very green, she suggested that I get an indoor wormery
I am sort of tempted to do so but I'm worried about the smell, I'm not 100 percent convinced that they are completely odour free and I'm sure I read in The Guardian that there can be trouble with fruit flies as well as the smell. So I would be very interested to hear whether they do smell or if flies and other undesirables have been a problem. I did read it, click on the link to see the full article.

Appraisal of the Day

1st RO on SAC Pers Admin

"Under pressure SAC ****** tends to take the bull by the throat rather than by the horns".

Dr Who Again!

Wasn't Dr Who fantastic (I sound a bit like the teenager out of The Fast Show - Brilliant ) I thought the last episode was stunning, I didn't see the Bad Wolf explanation coming. Billie Piper was superb, the bit when she had absorbed the heart of the Tardis she portrayed Rose's fragility, other worldliness and humanity beautifully. I have only a couple of quibbles.

The sound mix - the music and the sound special effects drowned out half of what Rose was saying during the denouement. Of course it did not help that my mother finally decided that after ignoring the series up until now she had watch the last episode and kept asking questions at critical moments.

The other quibble was leaving Capt Jack behind, it seemed out of character I had got the impression that the Doctor had realised that Rose had resurrected him so I wouldn't have thought that they would have left him behind. Also he made such a good companion, great character and very easy on the eye. I hope that the Doctor meets up with him again during the second series. I don't know what I'm going to do to until the Christmas Special but it is my birthday in a few weeks time and I now have a DVD player. Hint hint to any family that are reading this.

Appraisal of the Day

2nd Reporting Officer's comments
The club he runs recently raised money for a local disabled person to have an electric chair.

3rd Reporting Officer's comments
I think I should point out that the electric chair mentioned by the assessor has wheels and is used to help the owner to get about. As far as I am aware Cpl ****** has no homicidal tendencies.

More on the Cat

I said (more) that I would publish a photo of the cat when she emerged. Well she did finally, but would she pose for a photograph would she heck as like.

She did this.

and then she did this

I swear as I started pushing the shutter down she turned away.

She wasn't much better when I returned her to my Mum on Monday she wasn't having any of it. She jumped into her favourite spot in the raised flower bed and waved her bum at me.

She was a lot better this weekend, I went over yesterday afternoon for dinner so I took my camera with me, this time she played along I even got action shots.

Kitty is fascinated by water and loves playing chicken with it. She follows my Mum around the garden whenever she waters it. When Mum does long range watering of the beds Kitty hunts the water like she does butterflies and balls of strings or wool!

And finally the cat at rest.


It is now about 11:30pm and the thermometer is reading 26C this is daft!

Topless Madness

I know that every other British blogger living south of... oh say Benbecula has been blogging on about how hot it has been been over the last two or three days but I don't see why that should stop me from having a moan as well. I'm not a natural summer person as soon as the outside temperature creeps over 20C I start to wilt. The sole aim of my life turns to trying to cool down. I currently have a desk fan running in my living room in the vain hope that it will cool the room down, I'm not sure it is working too well I've just looked at the thermometer in here and it is reading 27C and it is 9pm.

The heat saps me of what energy I have so my sloth like tendencies come to the fore. I went into my bedroom to get a book earlier, it took me half an hour as I had to have a wee rest on my bed to summon up the energy to pad back to the living room and slump on the couch to read the book I then promptly fell asleep and I missed The Archers.

Hot weather like this also wreaks havoc with my dressing style as well, having been a goth I still have an affinity with black clothing, in fact if you have been shopping in Peterborough or Cambridge and heard a not unattractive 30 something woman ask the shop assistant "this is nice but do you have it in black?" there is a good chance it will have been me. But black as we all know is not a good idea in the blazing sunshine we have had over the last few days, so I am forced, in an effort to stay cool to wear the fashion atrocities that normally hang at the very back of my wardrobe that I have never quite got rid off because, quite frankly I forget that they are there one year to another. Currently I am wearing an old grey tee shirt that is too short for my liking and washed out of shape on the first wash and a red flowery skirt that I bought to turn into patchwork but never got round to doing and just happens to fit me. The chances of me going outside in this ensemble is nil unless the building goes up in flames as it does nothing for me and I have an image to keep up.

I'm not the only one suffering from sartorial inelegance in this heat, I have observed unadvised crop tops on the too chubby and too old grey bra straps showing along side the spaghetti straps, the occasional socks and sandals being worn with shorts that were probably purchased sometime in the late 80's. Fat middle aged men suffering because they thought "hey, summer's here, time to go out in my replica football top" Big mistake - those things are like wearing plastic bags in this heat. But the sight that I have seen the most is that of the local Chavs going topless showing off their tattoos, tops stuck into the tops of their cut off jeans. In the morning they went out pale and wan, this evening they are returning, tinny in hand, tomato red.

We Brits just can't cope with hot weather our towns and cities become places of fashion horror as soon as the sun shines. I went to Milan last July for my summer holiday it was so different there. The Italians seem to be able to cope much better, linen suits and skirts, cotton tops, sunglasses and the very sensible policy of staying out of the sun at the hottest part of the day, having a leisurely lunch in a kerbside cafe in the shade.

Appraisals of The Day

2nd Reporting Officer on Cpl Pers Admin

"His confident attitude and open humour made him a popular individual who had a refreshing attitude to life and an open adoration for Cilla Black, which I could never understand".

1st Reporting Officer on Cpl Pers Admin

"She has provided much needed stiffening to the section during the tours of two unremarkable SNCOs".

1st Reporting Officer on a very Junior Officer

Hopefully he will mature into an engineer, but at this time the best description of him is a well spoken twit.

So What's It All About Then?

Thought I would create an about me post so that I can link to it in the side bar. The profile that Blogger give is ok but that's it.

The Me Me Me Section

Age: 39

Starsign: Astrology is nonsense, a sop to the credulous but if you are interested - Leo

Live: With Simon my husband in King's Lynn. I moved in Easter 07, so I now live in not quite flat Norfolk, close to the sea side, Sandringham, fields and fields of lavender.

Loves/Family: Simon and I got engaged on 15 December 2006, we got married on 27 October 2007. We are expecting our first child in late May 2009

Job: Civil Servant, nuff said. After 14 long years I am got what the CS call Early Release so I am now, as of today retired from the Civil Service but I am not 'unemployed' until January '10 because I am getting Statutary Maternity Leave.

Money: Not enough I refer you to the Job entry.

TV: Mainly BBC2 or Channel4 - League of Gentlemen, Blackadder, Newsnight, Bremner Bird and Fortune, Doctor Who, CSI if I remember, Horizon, Equinox, Grand Designs, Little Britain, The Fast Show, The Mighty Boosh. We are enjoying Heroes, Hyperdrive and Star Trek reruns at the moment. The Daily Show rocks.

Radio: There is only one radio station Radio 4. I've been listening to it for years, the first thing I do when I get home it turn the nearest radio on, then as I visit each room in the flat I turn the radio on in there, I've even got one in the bathroom so that I can listen to Radio 4 when having a bath. Having said that I'm currently listen to Radio 5 live as Any Answers is on 4. Particular favourites on R4 are; The News Quiz, From Our Own Correspondent, The Now Show, Sorry I Haven't A Clue, The Archers (there is no script you know!) PM, Today, Broadcasting House. Ways to improve R4 get rid of Quote Unquote, Home Truths (the BBC took it off the air, the might of the humble blog eh ;) ), Any Answers, You and Yours, and please do something about the Sunday evening line up it is so dreary. I know it is back to work the next day for most of us but I don't want to be uplifted or bored to death, I want to be amused how about repeats of the Goon Show or Round the Horne?

Favourite Comedians: Bill Bailey, Eddie Izzard, Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Hardy, Jenny Eclair they are always worth watching or listening to whatever they are in, the Mighty Boosh.

Drink: If it's got alcohol in it I'll give it a spin at least once. Having said that I prefer real ale, my father was a member of CAMERA, red wine and campari and orange juice, cuba libres and mojitos are nice too. I don't like Advocat, alchopops and anything that tastes of aniseed. Non alcoholic drinks - strong coffee, weak tea, grapefruit juice, Irn Bru. Currently almost on the wagon

Votes: Every election since the age of 18, not that my vote has ever counted for much as I've always been registered in safe Tory seats. I don't like New Labour but I really loathe the Tories. Voted Lib Dem last time just so that my vote could help eat away at the Tory margin.

Education: Loads, studied Physics and Astronomy at Uni didn't get my degree though which is why I'm a civil servant. Has my education come in useful in my work? Yes, I'm not an engineer but I know when I'm being given engineering bullshit.

Fears: Spiders, really scared of them. Feet and the things at the end of them, my idea of torture would be a pedicure, the thought of it makes me feel poorly.

Reads: The Guardian, Private Eye, Q Magazine actually I cancelled my subscription to Q I remembered why I stopped reading it last time. Far too up the arses of established bands and "safe".

Dislikes: Well, you guess, I'm a fessed up Guardian reader, on the political compass I'm in the bottom left quadrant it should be fairly obvious which isms I'm against. Oh and I can't stand replacement Upvc double glazing in period houses ugh.

I would like to learn to fly a light aircraft but it's too expensive.

Prompted by some questions from Kate Weston.

Music: Some of the bands that are not listed in my profile (I ran out of space) that I also like are: Oasis, Interpol, The Three Johns, The Smiths, Primal Scream, The Kills and The Killers.

Musical Skills: I can't play an instrument I had some piano lessons but didn't really take to it and was taught to play the recorder a little at primary school but I never took to that either. Sometimes I wish I had stuck to piano. Though in my idle daydreams I wish I was a guitar rock goddess playing in a band whose influences included the Pixies and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Poetry: mmm I've never really got poetry, I did modern, post WWII poets for O level Eng Lit so have never been properly introduced to them. I prefer prose and plays.

If you have any questions about me you would like answering, well, ask them I'm not a mind reader. If they are not too crude, rude, yicky or too personal I will answer them, probably.

Last Updated 27 March 09

Read the Label

I suffer from hayfever, it is always at its worse in June and recently it has been building up to its annual climax, so this morning, knowing that it would be bad I took a tablet. By the time I got to work my eyes felt like someone was sticking pins into them, so I took another tablet. I buy the anti histamines that are take as required so I am not worried about popping them into my mouth as the day goes on cos they are not really strong enough to do any damage. That didn't stop the prickling feeling so I resorted to my next trick which is it to use a can of pop as an ice pack. It is wonderful not only does a can of cold pop pressed to the eye and the nose reduce swelling and prickliness it also helps the allergic reaction.

But as I said it was a bad day for hayfever and the can had warmed up sufficiently for me to drinks its contents so I popped another of tablets thinking they would relieve me of the torment, I gave it an hour and they hadn't. I took another couple of anti histamines at 2pm ish by three my eyes were still tormented but I could hardly stay awake. I was about to pop another tablet when I noticed what the packet said. "One a Day" "DO NOT EXCEED DOSE" well that explained the sleepiness and I pointed this out to my boss as my head sank towards the keyboard, it's not everyday someone overdoses on anti histamine.

Though I do have to point out it is 9:15 pm and I do actually feel fairly awake, but I would have posted this at 6 if I hadn't fallen asleep

Girls With Blogs

I joined a webring Girls Blog UK the other day and I've been approved, which is nice. I haven't properly flicked through the blogs yet, but I look at some over the weekend.

I've been busy rearranging the living room now that the futon is dismantled, the bike is out downstairs to go to a Charity Shop on Saturday, the armchair has gone to in front of the balcony door, it blocks a little of the light and all of the road so all in all it's an improvement and I've moved the Ikea box so it is against the box and hey presto I've got floor space shame I don't like the carpet!

Appriasal(s) of the Day

2nd RO on Sgt Eng Tech AV

"A keen angler who would rather catch fish than try to out drink them".

Not quite sure what that one means any ideas please let me know!

And because I missed yesterday and it could describe my typing at times

Her typing, whilst energetic, will keep the makers of Snopake happy for a long time.

Updated 17 Oct 08

I then left the webring sometime in 2007 having decided that webrings were so 2004

Big Blogger 2005

Big Blogger 2005

Found this via Troubled Diva's site. Can't stand Blg Brother but this seems a hoot.

Futon

I'm slowly dismantling the futon, it's fairly easy the screws are not impossible to undo, they shouldn't be as I put the thing together in the first place it was woman and screwdriver in perfect harmony, a sight to behold I tell you.

I'm doing it slowly as there are about a million and a half things I would rather do instead including blogging about doing nothing, staring into space, listening to the radio, viewing my paltry hit stats, thinking about how I can get more.

Now it's strange I look at other sites and see their stats, I think "oh poor thing only 7596 hits" me I look at mine (I have three to pick from 165, 211, and on stat counter 308 I like the stat counter one best!) I think "come on babies, increase" when I went through 100 I was dancing round the room, well I punched the air it's a totally different reaction I cherish each one of these hits as a treasure but I don't feel sorry for myself as I've got so few! It's quite addictive looking at the logs, trying to work out who the viewers are, I've sussed a few including the one I got from Adelaide this morning that's my cousin Emma But the others; who are you? what do you do? If only those IP addresses could talk to me.

But to get back to the point of this post it was an excuse to put this picture in - a friend of mine was down in London yesterday afternoon he went to the national history museum and sent me this photo to my mobile.



I've not worked out how to get the internet facility on my mobile to work so I can't moblog yet, so I took a photo of the message with my digital camera. I quite like the idea in a multimedia sort of way.

New Sofa

new sofa 16 june
Originally uploaded by janegoth.

My new sofa has arrived, my first ever sofa I should say, for the last few years I have been sitting on an extremely uncomfortable futon. The delivery men had to take the front door to my flat off its hinges to get it in the flat, perhaps I should have ordered the smaller one.

Now I've got to dismantle the futon. I've donated it to a friend, I have warned him about its uncomfortableness but he doesn't care.

BBC NEWS - Missing Dr Who Dalek found on Tor

BBC NEWS England Somerset Missing Dr Who Dalek found on Tor I'm tempted to say something about "only in Somerset" but that would be sliding into cheap and easy regional stereotypes plus I do not know enough Somerset jokes. I know plenty of fenny benny jokes but they aren't really funny when you come to think of it.

I have to point out I am not a native of Cambridgeshire although I have lived here for ten long, long, years. I was born in London, I've lived in Portsmouth, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Syracuse in New York State, Sheffield and now here. I can't say that any of those places are "home" for me. I went to primary school in Edinburgh but I've never had a Scottish accent so I was English to my school mates. I do support Scotland though I remember the 1978 World Cup I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland were there, England weren't I didn't stand a chance!

In Harrogate, I committed the ultimate sin as far as the natives were concerned of not being from Harrogate so I wasn't made to feel welcome there: this is a local spa town and tourist spot for local people, you get the sort of thing. Syracuse, well we were only there for one year, but I had a great time. I was 16, I learnt to drive, went to the Senior Prom, the whole Sandra Dee thing except without John Travolta, though I did go out with my first proper boyfriend

I liked Sheffield a lot, I went to university there and stayed on afterwards, then I got a job with my current employer so it was back to Harrogate for a few months and then down here.

Cambridgeshire.

It's too flat and they can't put a decent head on a pint of beer, but the weather is better.

RAF Appraisal Of The Day

Remarks of the 3rd Reporting Officer.

Cpl ****** biggest problem would seem to be his inability to ignore a pretty female face! While I admire his sentiments, he is frequently distracted from his primary task and this is reflected in his numerical assessments and promotion recommendation. If he does not respond to counselling, we may have to resort to bromide in the tea!

Musical rellies

It appears that my uncle is not the only musical relative I have down under. My cousin Chris is in a band that plays in and about Adelaide. Chris Dewin

Update the link to Chris's site seems to be down I will fix it when Jane gets back to Oz.

30/7/05 - Finally got the link to work.

Appraisal

I probably won't be able to do much tomorrow (today in fact) as I'm returning the cat to my mother's and then we are going out for dinner with my Aunt. So I'm sticking up the appraisal now.

RAF Appraisal Of The Day

1st RO on SAC FFTR

"To conclude, SAC ****** has decided to terminate his life and career within the RAF for employment with the police force".

On which the 3rd RO comments:

"Contrary to the 1st RO's belief, SAC ****** wishes to terminate his RAF career, not his life".

1st Undiscovered Gem

(To the sound of a muted drum roll)

Come on down Urban Chick ta da

Further to my last post Ms Urban Chick applied for the post of undiscovered gem. Having had a look at her blog I can recommend it especially the wonderful post about being fitted for a bra at the purveyers of support to royal bosoms - Rigby and Peller.

Blogging

There are positively zillions of blogs out there (ok zillions is potentionally an overstatement but zillions sounds so nice). Blogger.com has a button at the top of my blog saying "next blog", press it and you will be taken to a random blog in their database. Potentially it's a way of finding new and interesting blogs, but there is so much dross out there it's seriously off putting.

I am not dispagarging the bloggers whose beliefs I disagree with or whose writing I find dull or uninteresting. No what I find depressing are the number of "corporate blogs" which are just links to commercial sites selling everything from self help books on colon cancer to tax attornies to Hotels near Nowheresville, Arkansas. Then even worse are the blogs trying to sell porn, please no... if I want internet porn I can do a seach for it. 67,600,000 sites out there for me to look at if I google "sex" and maybe 100,000 of those are educational. Finally, and this is a personal gripe which probably marks me out as someone who is "getting old," are the unreadable blogs written by semi illiterate teenagers who think that mashing txt language and fReEfOrM cApiTaliZaTIoN is the way forward for the English language. No, kiddies it's not - it just makes your blog unreadable.

But wonder of wonders, for the sake of this blog entry I thought I would have another go, after 10 straight psuedo blogs and 3 porn selling ones I hit on a sweet one by a couple blogging the birth of their first child for family and friends and Godless Mom in the Bible Belt, a blog I would like to investigate more.

It's very hit and mix, I do click on links of the blogs I like and so forth but I would love to discover a gem that no one else has.

The Lady Killers

I've got round to adding some links to some of the blogs I read on a regular basis, I will add more as and when. I also added a link to Tristram Cary who is married to my Aunt Jane. Tristram wrote the film score to The Lady Killers and a lot of incidental music for Doctor Who in the 60's and 70's. Jane and Tristram are over in Blighty at the moment visiting family and friends.

Crossdressing Women

BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Army women

Just heard a feature on Radio 4 about women who crossdressed in the 18th century. Not for fun, but because they wanted to something that was prohibited to women at the time for instance join the armed forces, or the choices available to them as women were not appealing, seamstress, prostitution. They ran great risks because if caught the penalties could be high, the French favoured burning at the stake. The guest interviewee, Vivien Morgan, talked about Hannah Snell. who after her husband deserted her in 1747 donned male clothing in order to search for him. She joined the Army but quickly transferred to Royal Marines. She was able to hide her true sex until in 1750 when she choose to reveal she was a woman.

Breaking out in Cats

I'm cat sitting for my mother, so the little darling is here in the flat leaving little cat footprints all over the place and using me as a trampoline for her early morning exercise. Remember the picture I posted of my nice new kitchen floor? Well thanks to Kitty taking a scunner to her litter tray it looked like this last night I was not a happy bunny.

I swept it up and changed the litter so the little horror should have nothing to complain about now. I will post a picture of the cat when she emerges from under the bed.

Appraisal Of The Day

Comments of the 2nd Reporting Officer - SAC P&A Clk

"Recently he was drinking late with a fellow clerk when he decided that his friend had had too much to drink - so he had him arrested by the RAF Police. I feel a more appropriate course of action would have been to take his friend home".

Appraisals

One of the first people to leave a comment on the blog was Palace fan thats going to be a Dad. Palace Fan has a joke of the day, fact of the day and baby news of the day. A nice idea I thought I might nick some of those ideas myself, though not the baby news of the day as I'm not going to get pregnant just to fill a blog!

What I thought I might do is use some of the funnies I get sent. Hey, why write something myself when I can recycle someone else's work? I am a sloth!

You may have seen the comments that have been allegedly culled from staff reports. A classic one is about an Army Officer "His men would follow him anywhere but only out of curiosity" I got sent a list of RAF ones so here goes

• Appraisal of the day.

Comments of the 3rd Reporting Officer - Generally very sensible in his outlook, he has been involved in a few bizarre incidents, mainly associated with beer and bicycles, which have resulted in him sustaining some personal injuries. I'm glad to report that such incidents are becoming far less frequent, mainly because he now shows a more reasoned and consistent judgment, but also because people are less prepared to lend him their bicycles.

Guardian Unlimited | Arts Friday Review | Sad songs say so much

Guardian Unlimited Arts Friday Review Sad songs say so much

I love lists like this, it's fascinating to find out what other people rate or don't rate.

Quick! Think of a Title.

I'm going out tonight for a formal dinner, so this will just be a short post as I sit here waiting for my hair to dry.

As I don't have a silk dressing gown to lounge in I am using an old long skirt as a sort of boob tube dress thingy, very glam I must say.

I've created an email me link I might see if I can find some fancy image for it over the weekend.

Anyway must go and create miracles with make up.

Jane Cary

Jane Cary
Originally uploaded by janegoth.

My Aunt

This is an experiment

And you are being tested on.

Sit back dear reader and relax. This is the first blog posting I've done when drink has been taken I want to see how poor it is. You see I'm dyslexic and very self concious about it I want to see how poor I am at blogging when drunk, this is important as I will not always blog when sober. Oh and this is at least the third edit even when pissed I'm a control freak.

I told my Mum and my Aunt about the blog tonight. They were interested but not interested enough to get the URL out of me. That will come.

It's their fault that I am confused but they did give permission to stick their photos on here so blame them not me.

Blog Wars

I am a great fan of the blogs of Becky EnVérité, Siobhan Curran and Miss K. All three produce beautiful looking websites/blogs, are far better writers than I am and create fantastic pictures to illustrate their blogs/sites.

Today Ms E and Ms Curran have been engaged in a battle of posts over who produced the first trannie blog, Becky has claimed to have invented the indifference engine so that she could be the first t'blogger and Siobhan to have been blogging in the middle ages!

However I think they may have been both pipped to the post by Joanne Nicholls who has found evidence in Cave-tgirl paintings. (Click here. You have to scroll down a little to see what I mean but it's worth it)

But I would like to point out is that although Becky may have invented the "indifference engine", the first computer programme was written by a G-girl... come on down Ada Countess Lovelace

UPDATED 17 Oct 08


Link to Trannifesto removed as the blog no longer exists

BMW v Skoda

I was lucky enough to get a lift to work this morning. The colleague who picked me up is a very sweet kind lady, but not shall we say the most up to date about cars.

As we were driving round a roundabout a old scruffy B reg 5 series BMW shot out in front of us.

Me "Ah well, maybe 'cos it's an old car he doesn't care."

Kind colleague: "Or because he's driving a BMW, they seem to think they own road."

We drove on for a few moments

Kind colleague: "Or it could be Skoda drivers, I always get the two confused, their badges are so alike."

General Pinochet

It looks like the Chilean justice system is doing all it can to bring General Pinochet to book. Having seen him wangle his way out of house arrest in the UK, charges of human rights abuses, murder and kidnapping (more details), A judge has stripped the general of immunity with respect to charges of tax evasion.

I went to Chile in 2002; it was a fantastic experience, one I never thought I would be able to have. Being British we were onto a winner, everyone seemed to like us. Either because Jack Straw had had Pinochet arrested, or because good old Jack had refused to extradite him to Spain or because we had beaten the Argentinians over the Falklands, relationships between Chile and Argentina have been extremely frosty at times. The last reason was not often given though.

But that was before the Iraq war I wonder what reception we would get now.

I'm Getting One Of These Babies

Well not the sexy flat screen but the rest of it is coming my way in about a month's time. Through the good offices of my brother I will soon have a new 'puter. Can't wait.

Update - the picture has disappeared rats

Work

First day back at work after a week's holiday. Always a bit disorientating, I normally try to forget what it is I do there as soon as I leave the office, this usually works if I'm away for more than a couple of days. It means however, if my boss tries to tell me what I missed while I was away, the morning I get back, I am sat there staring at her blankly, while my brain whirrs furiously as I desperately try to remember what it is exactly they pay me to do. I need the morning to compress down from that feeling of being as light as air and back to the one of being a wage slave working for the man.

My usual compression method is to start wading through all the e-mails sat there waiting for me on my computer. 108 this morning, that's not bad for a 4 day week. Most of them can be deleted immediately, a few are work ones for latter reveiw and a few decent funnies worth keeping or forwarding. I found this one moderately amusing.




By this time it's normally all coming back to me, then I trawl through the intranet to see if there is any thing I should know about as a caring sharing line manager and more importantly if there are any jobs worth applying for.

Then I get the trays out... and I'm back to work.

Although I have just wittered on about work, this blog will not be work related for several reasons.

• Although what I do has interest to me it will not be interesting to you. Trust me, it's not even that interesting to me, certainly not enough for me blog about it.

• I don't want to betray confidences, even by accident.

• I want to keep some mystery about myself.

I do work with a lot of engineers though!

More Dr Who

I watched Dr Who Confidential this morning on the net. In it, Russell T Davies who was scriptwriter for the episode, spoke about how the episode was about redemption, however I still feel that the ending was a cop out. By regressing Margaret Slitheen back to an egg, RTD avoided dealing with the issue of whether the Dr would send Margaret back to Raxacoricofallapatorius to face what by her account would be a slow and agonizing death. The Doctor never had to confront the reality of being complicate in her murder.

However my quibbles aside it was still an enjoyable episode, Annette Badland looked like she had a wonderful time taking part.

Been Playing.

Around with the blog today. I added a stats counter last night then decided that I should try out some others to see which one I like best, had the most usable site etc. So far I've got almost no hits but that is to be expected I've only been doing this a few days, I'm afraid that most of the ten vistors so far have been me.

I have also added another link but that is not exactly ground breaking news is it?

I've tried the email to blog but so far it does not seemed to have worked.

Update I've just found out why and will try to tackle the problem in a second once I've figured it out.

I've also spent a lot of time looking at other blogs and reading the advice that there is on the net on how to write a good blog. Content, clarity, good spelling and grammer, think of your target audience.

I need to start doing things in that case.

Dr Who

Whoa! the daleks are back next week, can't wait. And we have finally got some evidence that "bad wolf" has a meaning beyond an in joke by the Dr Who producers.

The episode itself was a bit with "One bound they were free" a tactic so beloved by Flash Gordon and the other cheesy 1930's serials the BBC used to show during the holidays when I was nubbit but a youngest.

Actually that's not quite fair, although the way the writer got our heroes out of danger was a bit of a get out - Margaret Slitheen regressing back to an egg, the eppy itself did try to tackle deeper issues.

• Relationships - Rose and Mickey.

• Crime and Punishment - The Doctor and Margaret although lightly done and not really going into the issues on whether capital punishment is correct or not it did touch on it which considering this is light entertainment for a Saturday evening was about as much as one can expect, after all the aim is scare young children not to upset them.

Phew

You'll be pleased to hear that



It's a weight off my mind!

I recommend visiting Becky's website it's beautifully put together, very funny and a far better blog than mine.

But just one word of warning don't visit if you think that men who wear dresses are weird and need help.

Guardian Unlimited | Arts Friday Review | The sickness of singalong

Guardian Unlimited | Arts Friday Review | The sickness of singalong

windowend

windowend
Originally uploaded by janegoth.

I'm testing to see if this works.

And it does, using Flickr, very simple I like it

Net porn plan labelled 'obscene'

BBC NEWS | Technology | Net porn plan labelled 'obscene'

This is an interesting one, there is an argument that says yes put all porn on .xxx. It would make porn sites easier to be blocked by those who want to block them and could stop stupidities like the firewall at my work being set up so that no sites in a foreign language can be seen which is daft! The reason I was given when I queried this was that the site could contain naughty words in that language and they didn't have the computing power to translate foreign language sites that were accessed before allowing or blocking so they just blocked.

The counter argument runs though that one person's porn is another person's valid and healthy interest. As it says in the article "the religious right in the US might be motivated to make any site with any "adult" content move to the .xxx domain." There are a lot of sites out there that could be considered as adult sites because, although they contain no porn whatsoever, their subject matter could upset those of a "nervous disposition" or those with Mary Whitehouse tendencies. For instance websites that deal with transgendered issues.

I'm not actually that fussed about it, I think it is a relatively good idea but there are risks attached as the article says but I don't think it is an obscene idea, that's just hyperbole.

Photo

Another first, I uploaded a photo to the blog. I did this because I wanted to put a picture of myself in my profile but it did not seem to like the idea of linking to a picture on my hard drive so I had to;

1. download Picasa and Hello (I like picasso btw seems a nice quick and dirty photo manager),

2. using Picasa send the photo to Hello,

3. from Hello publish the photo to the blog, hence the picture of me below looking rather foxy I must say, well for me, amazing what a bit of makeup and a load of computer manipulation can do for a girl,

4. then copy the link for my photo into my profile.


Jane

Now I'm going to look for links to go in the side bar.

Well that worked

Managed to get the first posting done without too much pain but still not worked out the spell checker...

Been playing on Yahoo instant messenger with a friend of mine the audibles are great fun to a couple of infantile fools like what we are!

This is a first

Well, I've read so many blogs now I thought I would have a go myself. This is most definitely an experiment I don't know the software how it works or why I'm doing this blogging thing. I doubt that anyone will read this, no I know that no one will read this as I have no intention of telling anyone about it.

Well not at the moment.

So why blog? So I do not end up as unforgotten, that I have a presence on the web? Vanity? Probably both and the chance I might meet or at least talk to suitable chaps who read the Guardian, scrub up nice and like real ale.