*Shudder*
Posted: Mon 13 February, 2006 Filed under: Sweary, Weirdness 3 Comments »McVities have introduced – sit down before reading this – new flavours for Jaffa Cakes. There’s now Lemon & Lime jaffa cakes, and blackcurrant Jaffa cakes.
In the name of all that’s holy, why? The clue is in the name – Jaffa Cakes, meant to be made so the orangey bit tastes of Jaffa oranges. That’s why they’re called Jaffa cakes. What the fuck do you call a Lemon and Lime variant? It ain’t Jaffa, that’s for sure. Maybe “Kir Cakes” for the blackcurrant ones, or “Cassis Cakes”. Only then people wouldn’t realise that they’re alternatively-flavoured Jaffa Cakes.
Oi, Mr McVitie – Get your hands off our proper Jaffa Cakes, and leave ’em alone!
Windmill
Posted: Mon 13 February, 2006 Filed under: Getting Organised, Photography 3 Comments »For the first time this year, I managed to go out for a while yesterday with the camera in tow. Of course, it would have to be on a day when the weather was truly manky and foul, but there we go, beggars can’t be choosers.
Anyway, because of where we were, I wandered over to the village of Brill and got some photos (albeit grey and rainy ones) of the windmill there. I’m quite pleased with them, although it’s still more about learning the idiosyncracies of the new camera, and all that gubbins, before we go off to the Lake District in a couple of weeks time.
But anyway, it was good to get out a bit more with the camera – definitely something I intend to do more of as this year progresses.
“Not Me”
Posted: Mon 13 February, 2006 Filed under: 1BEM, Weirdness 5 Comments »You know those Securicor vans with the really loud “BEEP BEEP BEEP! Caution, this Securicor vehicle is REVERSING!” alarms? They’re useful because, well, Securicor vans are supposedly fairly secure, have no back windows, and thus the driver can’t see out the back. So if you’re standing behind the van, the poor sod can’t see you, which could cause thumpage.
I’ve just been looking out the window at work – well, the reversing alarm’s loud enough I can hear it from across the road, through the window – and watching two blokes just miss getting squished because they’d somehow missed a) the announcement, and b) the connection that it might be linked to this purple van with Securicor written all over it, that was reversing towards them.
What was even better was that these two then start having a go at the driver! Like it’s all his fault that they’re a) deaf, b) blind, and c) fucking stupid. You just couldn’t make it up.
Half-Ton Man
Posted: Sun 12 February, 2006 Filed under: Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »I realise it was on earlier this week, but last night I finally got round to watching Channel 4’s Bodyshock programme “Half Ton Man” about Patrick Deuel, who was admitted to hospital weighing 76stone (over 1,000lbs).
Thankfully the programme didn’t focus just on Deuel, but on other people who had similar weight issues, including one man who had managed to lose nearly 30 stone in weight, only to put it back on again, and then lose it. It made for fascinating viewing, but at the same time I found it remarkably sad. All the people involved talked about their need for food being similar to an addiction, but it was the guy who had lost, then regained the weight that summed it up for me.
“I got down to 150lbs, and went out to have a celebratory frankfurter. And one turned into two. And two turns into three, and into four. And of course you’ve got to have the frankfurter with fries. And the fries have to have cheese on”
“Other people who binge on food might put on 5lbs, maybe even ten. When I have I binge, I put on 20, 25, even 30lbs”
That’s exactly the same reaction as an alcoholic – one drink is never enough. It turns into two, three, four, the bottle.
I found the programme sad, but it also made me wander wonder (sorry) about the partners and family of the people involved. In Deuel’s case, when he got married when he was 40-odd stone, but at that point he could still walk, stand up, and so on. Over the next ten years though, he ended up laying on a bed, unable to move, unable even to turn himself over. A huge mass of fat, still eating – the doctor in the programme said that just to maintain his weight, he must’ve been eating 12,000 calories per day – and doing nothing else. In that situation, you’d think that at some point the wife would turn around and say “Hang on, don’t you think this has gone just a bit too far? Can’t you see this isn’t doing you any good?” – to at least say something to them, not keep on feeding them…
Moving PCs
Posted: Sat 11 February, 2006 Filed under: Geeky, Getting Organised, Thoughts 1 Comment »Over the weekend I will, with luck, be moving stuff over (at last) to a new PC. It’s not confirmed yet, as it depends on a couple of checks, and making sure the sodding thing works this time, but well, I’m optimistic. No idea why, but I am.
Anyway, as part of this process I was looking at what stuff I’ve got on the old PC, and what I’ll actually be wanting to move over. And quite honestly, the answer’s “Not Much”. I’ve got a whole load of stuff on there that I’ve used, or experimented with, and have then never used again. It’s just that I’ve also either a) never bothered to remove it, or b) removed it and been left with bits of unwanted crap that the uninstall process left hanging around.
There’s also a fair amount of stuff that I just don’t use any more. For example, DreamWeaver. I used to use it, and found it useful in a lot of ways – particularly for removing all the code cruft that Word puts into HTML pages. (At this juncture I should point out that various clients have given me Word documents with content in, or that they’ve had as “their website”, and which have then been converted by me into something that actually is a website. I’ve never used the “Save as HTML” option from any Micro$oft product.) but that’s the only thing I use it for.
Yes, there are programs and files I’ll be moving over to the new PC – TextPad, TopStyle, Crimson editor, that kind of thing. As well as all my photos, and all my music. But there’s one hell of a lot of stuff too that’s going to be either left on the old PC, or simply deleted when I format the old one later on…