Dress To Impress
Last few days have been a bit between recovering from my job interview and preparing for the next one. I hear from the one
from last week sometime in the week, and this Thursday I've got an interview with a
very well known company that most people hate but I don't mind. Anyway, I've been killing time by watching
Jarhead (which accurately captures the feeling of war by....not doing anything for two hours. I didn't like it), pimping
Technorati Tag Generator and getting headbutted in clubs (a story to be told at another time, but I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it's not my fault).
So yeah, about this other interview. I recieved conformation of it via voicemail, as I was busy at the time. Apparently I was due to go to Birmingham, but now I'm going to one in Manchester. In any rate, after a quick phone call, I recieved notification that I was on for another interview.
One line in the email troubled me.
"Business Casual Dress".
WHAT THE HELL IS BUSINESS CASUAL DRESS!?!?!?!
When speaking to the people I was applying with, it was one of the concerns voiced in my previous interview (other than for the fact that the online testing didn't run in Firefox). The dress code was "Smart Casual" for the evening meal, what is smart casual?
So I've taken it upon myself to create a spreadsheet/database for all business/casual wares type. But I need input. What type of clothes would you wear for the following?
- Formal
- Smart
- Smart Casual
- Business
- Business Casual
- Casual
Should it be popular, then I will put it online.
Technorati Tags:technorati tag generator, dress codes, jarhead, career
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
Technorati Tag Generator v1.5
A couple of posts ago, a few comments were made in the fact I don't have a
Paypal button on my blog. I've waned to the public pressure of them giving me money, and included one. It's half way down, under the "Give Me Stuff" banner. If you are rich, and like my Technorati Tag Generator, you may give me money. I'll try not to feel guilty accepting it.
Speaking of Technorati Tag Generator, I've updated it to version 1.5. John from Freshblog suggested that I make it compatible to a few other systems. So I have.
Behold Technorati Tag Generator v1.5. No huge changes, but it's now compatible with a multitude of aggregators. For ease, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Blinklist and Flickr are listed as shortcuts.
Click Here To Download (1 Meg)
Comments, queries and suggestions are all welcomed.
Technorati Tags:technorati tag generator, blogging tools, tags, paypal
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
One Night In St. Helens
I'm back from my job/assesment thingy and it certainly was interesting and challenging. Overall, it's been an exciting 24 and a bit hours. Here - in true chronological form - are the highlights.
Day 1
12:30pm: Arrive at the assessment centre. Three jobs to be filled, three of us there. I like those odds.
12:45pm: Four more people turn up, still pretty good odds for the jobs available: 6/14.
1pm: We are tossed straight into the deep end, with some verbal and numerical tests. I was the only one to mess up the example questions, doh!
3pm: Tour around the sight. Suprisingly very interesting.
4pm: Presentation on the IS team. Unsuprisingly very boring.
5pm: Arrive in hotel to find that I've been upgraded. Bonus! Unsure what sort of upgrade I've got, but it may be that I had my TV personally welcome me.
It may look impressive, but a HAL esque female voice greeted me with "Good Evening, Rice Wine". Resistance to kick in the TV was nullified by the fact that it had Sky Sports. Abuse Sky Sports by watching 2 hours of WWE action.
7:30pm: Go down for main meal. Order a Budweiser. Not to girly but not too lager loutish. Costs me £3.
7:30:01pm: Tab is opened for us. Doh!
8:00pm: Meal begins. Nice to see I'm not the only one who milks free food and orders steak, as everybody else does. Conversation topics are as wide and varied as Big Brother, Big Brother and....errr....Big Brother.
10:00pm: Meal ends. Catch last few minutes of football.
10:15pm: Informal chat about application process. You know you're with geeks when you hear this: -
Manager: "So what did you find tricky about the online application process?"
All: "You couldn't use firefox. You had to use Internet Explorer"
I'm in heaven.
11:00pm: Tab closes. Order more beer just before.
12:00pm: Retire to my room, switch on television. Automatically switches to Television X. How do they know?
1:00am: After watching ten-pin bowling for an hour I fall asleep.
Day 2
4:00am: Wake up call for room 131. I hear it.
5:00am: Wake up call for room 127. I hear it.
6:00am: Wake up for the third time in the night. Not through a wake up call. Have a nightmare that Bam Margera is trying to break into my room. Develop intense hatred for Bam Margera.
7:00am: Wake up, have a rubbish shower and head for breakfast.
7:30am: Breakfast. Recieve (well...nick) a "complementary" copy of the Guardian. I'm chuffing in it! Technology section, page 4.
Notice, they edited out my pimp for Civ 4, and also for Technorati Tag Generator. The bastards. Still tired, even after a rubbish breakfast.
7:50am: Text my mum to say I am in the Guardian. Use loving terms such as "mummy", "love" and finish with an "x".
8:05am: Get a text from a very concerned housemate worrying that I called him "mum" via text. Apologise and send the text again to my mum.
8:30am: Head to the assessment centre. On the radio was the Jungle Remix of James Blunt. Cue manic laughter.
8:55am: Saw somebody I knew from university working for where I'm applying. I used to pick on him (well, if you walked around the uni with "Extreme Programmers", you kinda deserve it). Both simultaneously scared and happy (in the "if you can get a job here, so can I" school of thinking).
9:00am: So begins the main part of the assessment. I'm going to skip over this, as it's relatively boring, and they're running another group of people in March through the center, I don't want to give too much away, as you could be nicking my job, and I don't want that.
5:00pm: Head home, wishing everybody good luck, though I kind of hope it's not that good luck. I feel so dirty.
And there you have my 24 hours. I actually managed to slip in the fact I'm in the guardian into my interview, which is nice. I hear back next week, wish me luck!
Technorati Tags:work, career, guardian, james blunt, technorati tag generator
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Unlike the Murphy's, I'm not bitter
The Bloggies have been announced, be it a couple of days late, and - for the first time in two years, I'm not amongst them.
To be honest, I'm not suprised. It was more luck than anything else for the past two years, and my tagline this year has been rubbish (note to budding tagline writers: Include a year, it makes it funnier as - to be honest - this year's taglines aren't up to previous years).
That may not sound too sportsmanlike, and it probably isn't. But I'm actually not bitter or anything. Good reason too. And here's why.
Behold my stats for this month. See that 603110? That was 401560 last Sunday, when Technorati Tag Generator came out. Due to the fantastic amount of people who love it (a big thank you to all of you), it's completely destroyed my bandwidth for this month - which has a limit of 1000000 - and, whilst I'm nowhere near the limit now, given the fact that when the bloggies were last year I had 3000 visits in a week, and if the majority of those downloaded Technorati Tag Generator, then I would of probably owed 123-reg a lot of money, and of been unable to pay it as I'm skint at the moment, they would of left a horse's head on my pillow and come around and break my thumbs. So I'm kinda happy.
But - as new father Jonny Billericay said on my post, "Nobody I voted for is up". It's not technically true for me, as Diamond Geezer is up for best british blog (which is well deserved - and vote for him or I'll cry), but I honestly thought Neurofern was a shoe in for a nomination, what with her posts from the 'I don't mind talking about rude stuff' school of blogging, and also I expected Ally to be there as well, as her blog is brilliant, and should be on every blogroll in the history of the world.
Right, I probably will be unable to blog for the next few days. Wednesday I'm going to St. Helens to be locked up in a hotel for an interview. I'm so nervous as this could lead to a job that could affect the rest of my life (hopefully for the better). Wish me luck!
Technorati Tags: technorati tag generator, bloggies, blogging, bandwidth issues
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What time is it?
Last night was amusing, as we went to
Mood, which is located just off of Concert Square in Liverpool, we started late (9:30-ish) and headed straight to it. The night started slow to begin with, as the bar was fairly empty and not many people were dancing. The DJ was just playing random rubbish and pimping
Chico from X-Factor, who will be 'performing' there on Valentine's Day. I know where I'm not going then.*
Certain things crack the night into motion. Last night was around midnight, maybe a little later, when the DJ messed up and the music stopped. The DJ then tried and cover his mistake by talking to the crowd, but not before Me, Tom and Will started an ECW-style "You Fucked Up!" chant directed at him. He heard us and wasn't impressed. Neither is my voice this morning as between that, and finding it funny that I should shout "MINGE!!" (in a B3ta Buffy Swearing Keyboard Stylee) at every given opportunity last night, my throat hurts.
Anyway, the music came back with a surprisingly good dance remix of Poison by Alice Cooper (which is fast becoming one of my favourite songs ever - the original, that is) and we continued dancing. Half the group had left to go somewhere else during the outage, so it was just Me, my mate Will, and housemates Tom and Guy left. The fun really started there as we met three girls who, whilst probably not girlfriend material, were certainly a lot of fun.
These girls were insane! I had a massive arguement with one of them on the fact that I have never seen Grease (and I have no desire to, I have a penis, I refuse to watch it) with the only words of the arguement for both sides were "But it's Grease!". They also came up with a dance that was called the "Baby, baby, cot death" which was just cruel. But the funniest thing by a country mile was that there was this couple who were trying to get it on on the dancefloor, these three hounded this couple, as they were being annoying towards us, and finished them up by dousing their romantic flame with a bottle of water over their heads. That'll teach the love struck bastards.
In other news, I've finally got my hair cut. I actually really liked my old hair, but I have a big interview next week and I was getting called "Buffon" by my house mates because of my afro. It was time for a change and....I don't like my hair now. It's my own fault, as I asked for it to be cut in that style. Now I realise how it doesn't suit me.
I'm just not sold. I reckon it needs to be an inch or so longer (story of my life). Comments and - more especially - complements are well and truly accepted!
* Incidentally, I'm trying to score tickets for Liverpool vs. Arsenal. Lo and behold, for the first time ever I am actually hoping I'm single on Valentine's Day
Technorati Tags: mood, liverpool, clubbing, haircut, poison, grease
I'm Like an Animal in the Bedroom Department. It got me Kicked out of Ikea.
Last night, for the first time in nearly a year, me, Tom and Guy (my housemates) headed to
Rawhide. Admittedly, it was a last minute thing, as I said I wanted to go as I had a bad day in work. It was only a fiver, and though the price of beer meant that I didn't really get wasted, I was drunk. Drunk, on comedy!
To be honest, it was more light laughter than laugh out loud funny. Us three find different things funny, with Tom prefering clever humour, Guy preferring southern humour and me...well....I could find the funny side of a fire in a children's cancer ward. What I'm trying to say is that, with four comedians, there's was a chance that we'd each find one funny (which is good), but there's a chance that we'd not find a comedian that we all liked (which was bad).
That was not the case with the third act.
It was a new guy, who's name escapes me (it was something like Andrew Morris) who was absolutely hilarious. He was a ginner (a bonus), had a funny voice (also a bonus) and played a guitar (bonus city), I had to lean on Tom at one time as my sides were hurting, tears were streaming down my face and was laughing myself hoarse.
We almost didn't make it though, as nobody blooming told us it was at The Royal Court. Rawhide has a habit of moving around the place, as I've seen it at 4 different venues (University, Rawhide Club, The Royal Court and Bar Celona). We ran around all four, finishing off at the Royal Court at around 7:50. Thank god the show started late.
All in all, a good night was had by all. Couldn't afford it every week, but it was a nice little treat.
In other news, anybody know what's happening with the Bloggies? Should of been announced today, and I've heard nothing.
Technorati Tags: bloggies, comedy, rawhide, liverpool
The Simpsons Maker
You know when you have a good idea nicked from you?
Ever since the South Park character creator, I have been contemplating - nay - plotting a way to make one that does similar with The Simpsons, and - unfortuantely - somebody beat me to it.
I should also mention at this time that - currently residing at home - I have a picture of four of my mates drawn as Simpsons characters - which is so much cooler than this. Nevertheless, here's my best attempt at making me as a Simpson Character (by best attempt, read "at 12:30, half drunk".)
I went for the beer, and - whilst I don't like the shirt - I prefer it to the belly. I think I look like a grown up Rod/Todd Flanders though.
In other news, now that it's after the "two day cycle" it takes for news to pass across the internet, Technorati Tag Generator has been well recieved, with it appearing on the front page of Del.icio.us for ages, which was nice. I had an email (well, 3) from Merrick giving me all sorts of pointers to my program. As such, I have taken most of them on board and released TTG version 1.2! It's very similar, but it's got a funky new icon, a help file, and the code has been cleaned up a fair whack. Again, feedback is most appreciated.
Technorati Tags: technorati tag generator, simpsons, south park, blogging tools, blogging, tags
I Wish I Was Making This Up
But, this honestly occurred one day during my job (not saying when). Heavily edited to avoid any possible libel.
Rhys: Good morning you're speaking to Rhys, how may I help you?
MrsX: Hi can I check details on an account?
Rhys: Sure, can I take the number?
MrsX: Yes, it's 1234567890 (obviously not the number)
Rhys: And your name?
MrsX: Mrs X
Rhys: Erm....I'm afraid this account is in the name of a Mr X.
MrsX: Yeah, he's my husband.
Rhys: Well we'll need to speak to him first.
MrsX: What? Surely you can speak to me!
Rhys: We can't I'm afraid. We need to speak to your husband.
MrsX: Well he's not in.....
[knocking heard and door slamming]
MrsX: No wait, he's just come in, let me get him.
[More rustling, slightly deeper yet feminine familiar voice heard]
MrX: Hello, this is MrX! I believe you wanted to speak to me about my account.
Rhys: [Trying hard not to laugh] Err....yes. Can I do a few data protection checks?
MrX: No, why should I? You're denying me access to my account! Good Day!
It's sad to think that MrsX is probably on more money than me at the moment.
Technorati Tags:work, call centre
Other Weekend Shenanigans: Silly Bugger Saturday
Despite making
fabulous blogging software, I had a fairly unproductive weekend. There were some highlights. Friday, after work, I headed to the pub for a few drinks (as one of my mates was up for the weekend). What followed was one of my housemates getting hammered and us losing them, convincing ourselves he was in the casino, and much drunken gambling to consolidate our loss. Again. I then went to get some food, and - here's an example of just how dangerous I am on a night out.
[Rhys's stumble into a takeaway at 3am, Hardman Pizza]
Rhys: Heh heh. Hard man.
Burly Turkish bloke who probably shouldn't be anywhere near food: Yes mah friend?
Rhys: Chicken in a bun please mate. With plenty of.... [mocking tone] ....salamayonaise.
BTB: Sorry mah friend. Only pizza.
Rhys: I don't want pizza, I want chicken in a bun, and certainly not after last time. Good day to you sir!*
[Rhys grumbles out of the takeaway to Gemini across the street. Another Burly Turkish Bloke greets me]
BTB2: Yes mah mate!
Rhys: Err.......pizza.
Suppose you had to be there.
Saturday was a typical Silly Bugger Saturday, i.e. watching football and making stupid bets. I also had some mighty fine Cajun Chicken from a pub, before spunking some money into a fruit machine after developing chronic depression following the Man United result. As my mum reads this, I'm not saying how much I lost, but it was a fair whack.
As well as that, I watched the conclusion of the Darts, in which 21 year old Dutch Legend (at least in our house) Jelle Klaasen won the world championship. The fact that he's a darts man, his missus is alright and he's only £60k richer than us now means we like him, but what - I think - inspires us most about him is that he took only 4 years to become world champion.
Brilliant!
I always participated in less popular sports at school because I couldn't be bothered with the lifetime of dedication, and I became good at them instead of the one's everybody was good at. When sports day came around, my name was the first on the sheet under "Discus". Even with darts now, my average per throw has probably picked up to above 40, maybe 50 (I've thrown two 100's today already, even with the pub ceiling leaking over the dartboard). But the main stumbling block - like most things in my life, is dedication. That's why Klaasen is brilliant.
David Beckham's has said "He's always wanted to play fooball all his life", mine is "I'd play a bit of fooball, but then go down the pub, maybe go to university, see the world. You know, that sort of stuff". The fact that Klaasen says to me "start playing darts now and you'll be world champion by the age of 26, then you can spend the rest of your life doing other stuff" makes him a true sporting hero.
That, and his girlfriend's pretty fit.
* I honestly did say that
Technorati Tags:technorati tag generator, weekend, alcohol, gambling, darts, jelle klaasen
Technorati Tag Generator
It's been one year since
Technorati introduced
tags, a method for categorising posts on blogs on the internet, further increasing the popularity of metablogging and the decentralised web. Sounds like a good idea, but - with me being lazy - I put off tagging my posts, as it was an extra 2-3 lines of code added to every post. It's not a problem if my blog was a
Wordpress one (don't start all you WP whores), as categories have been popular for ages, but for us
Blogger,
Livejournal (I think) and
Myspace bloggers (amongst others), it's a pain in the arse.
So I did something about it.
Behold the Technorati Tag Generator. It's quite a simple program that allows you to generate HTML code for tags from a list of words. It also allows the creation of prefixes and suffixes (which can be saved) which are added to the code at the beginning or the end (this allows different styles to be made). Once the code is generated, it can be exported to any HTML editor, by copying it to the clipboard.
The installation comes with full source code (in JustBASIC).
Click Here To Download (1Meg)
Should you like it, please let me know, and link to this post. Any questions please leave in the comment box (I think that it's fairly self explanatory, I'd like somebody who may not be a computer whiz to see how they fare with it if that's okay).
EDIT: Please, if you have any comments, drop me an email, rather than leave a comment. Comments are generally missed (especially as Haloscan only displays the last 500 comments, so it could be deleted), whereas I'll read every email I recieve.
Technorati Tags:technorati tag generator, technorati, tags, blogging, blogging tools
He's Hot. He's Spicy. He Tastes Great......
What's your spicy food level?
Me? I love spicy food. Back home, we occassionally participate in "Phaal Challenges", where we eat the hottest curry we can in our local curry house - the chicken phaal being the holy grail, which is so hot they don't put it on the menu (only regular commentor Sibz can stomach more than a mouthful, my nose and eyes run if I have some, so I stick to my safe balti).
Outside of that, I am very disappointed with a lot of "spicy food" on the market being, well, not that spicy. Chief offenders are Asda curries, my work's canteen (who have now just given me a two month contract extension, bonus!) and the main offender: Mr. JD Weatherspoons, who's curry on Curry Thursdays - whilst tasty - do not replicate the atomic bomb through the sphincter feeling that good curries provide.
Another principle offender is the stodge that pizza takeouts serve up, as well as those by some major
supermarkets. A lot of the "hot and spicy" pizza's are not actually, hot and spicy. Usual toppings are red peppers, pepperoni and "spicy" beef. None of which make my mouth water. And they should be stopped under the trade description act.
Except for one, little backlit pizza place in city centre Liverpool.
Me, Guy, Tom, Mike (my housemates), Paul (an ex-housmate) and a bloke who knew Mike went out for a few drinks. Mike, Tom and Mike's mate wanted to stay out, with myself, Guy and Paul wanting an early night. Instead we headed for some food, and decided to share a pizza between us. One hot and spicy pizza, with ham instead of green chilli's.
The good news was that we got the ham for free. The bad news was we also got the chillis - seeds and all. I wish somebody told me this before I took a bite out of it.
It was hot, very, very, hot. Not a good type of hot that radiates throughout your body after a satisfying curry, oh no. This was like concentrated hotness localised in the mouth. It didn't make me cry, instead it made my mouth sweat. No good came of it.
Instead of a usual stroll up the hill, I had to jump in a taxi to get back home for some milk (note to new curry eaters: lager and milk are the way forward, water makes your mouth even hotter. I managed to get some kip in the end, but not until 1.
The fact that it's still burning, is probably not a good thing.
In other news, today is Trogday. Three years to the day that Trogdor first graced our monitors in a cartoon that was funny, innoffensive and timeless. I was singing "Trogdor was a man, infact he was a dragon-man. Actually he was just a dragon." all the way to work, and am wearing my Homestar Runner T-shirt which Sarah bought me to work today (Friday is dress down day, though the fact it's got homestarrunner.com written across my back, thus making it technically illegal as you're not allowed advertising on your t-shirts). Hence the picture, where I'm in need of a haircut and more sleep.
If that makes me a tired, geeky, hairy little panda, then so be it.
Lets. Play. Darts.
Afternoon everybody, hope everyone is okay.
A couple of days ago, after my housemates had finished their exams, we decided to go out and celebrate with a few drinks in the pub. It starts like most nights do, with a few darts in our local. I don't know why, but recently we're playing a ton of darts (probably due to the fact it's on the television at the moment), and I'm getting quite good (why, only last night I won the title of "Daily House Champion at Accumulative Killer Darts*"). We have a bet now that the first person to throw a 180 (which, now that we're scoring at times usually between 40-100) gets three pints. Anyway, the reason why I seem to get better now is because I was told "you're more accurate if you flick your wrists", a lesson in life if ever I heard one.
I played darts again last night, but only stayed for an hour or so, as I was fantastically hungover. I sat down to watch Hyperdrive, and am now considering sueing the BBC for the half hour I wasted. Seriously. It was billed as "the new Red Dwarf", it's more akin to "The Bastard Child of My Family, 2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and that rubbish Doctors comedy, set in space, written by gray tadpoles.". Seriously, do not watch it, it's as funny as leprosy.
My Civilization 4 patch (despite a rest of it in the last couple of days) is going well. I stole a lot of text off Wikipedia for the Civilopedia entries, and the town names, unique units (gone for miners, no hill movement movement costs and -50% build time). Only a few of the graphics need to be put in, and it's ready to go.
Finally, Wonderful Electric has added me as a friend on my frappr map, which is wierd, as I didn't know I had one. I probably got one when I joined Ally's map. Either way, it's there, so you may join, and make me seem popular.
*Accumulative Killer Darts is a variation of the game Killer, which I am laying claim to invent. In it, you get three lives and player 1 throws a score. player 2 then has to beat that score or he loses a life. Whatever player 2 throws, player 3 has to beat or he loses a life, and so on. I favour it over regular killer due to the fact that it favours high scorers and is quicker.
Oceans Three
"Blackjack is beatable - so we beat it. We beat the hell out of it."
One of my favourite books is Bringing Down The House. In it, it details the true story of six M.I.T. students who come up with a system of playing blackjack so that - whilst not completly flawless - they end up tens of thousands of pounds richer. Towards the end of the book, the story turns sinister, whereby Kevin (one of the students in the group, who is the central protaganist of the story) gets blacklisted by the IRS, barred from every casino in the world, and becomes a nervous wreck. It's a gripping tale and, although impossible to carry out now, it does explain how they did it.
Last night, three of us went out for a bit of a "post relationship/exam" gamble (hell, I've got a two week period post a breakup where I'm allowed to do things like that, so I thought I'd better use it). We bet as a team, each putting £30 into a communal pot. We sat down as a three, and - whatever happens - we have a laugh. Lines such as "Hit me baby one more time", "I could so use a BJ right now" and the annoyingly common "12?!?! What use is that??" bring smiles to the table.
We had a horrible run of luck to begin with, usually hitting 12's and 14's, with the dealer seemingly always drawing aces, it got so bad that our pot dropped to zero, so we each invested in another £5. Now we were being more successful, with us clamouring back to £40 for the pot.
We took stock, we were still down, but not by much. An executive decision was made, and we carried on gambling. We had a new rule though, in that we only bet a maximum of £20. As we were betting £6 per hand (3 hands of £2), if we won more than £15, we kept £10.
We had the most amazing run of luck, sometimes we took cards 'for the team' (i.e. sacrificing one hand so that the other two can win - stupid idea but it occasionally worked). We had favourable splits, doubles and the dealer was always hitting 5's and 6's. After another half an hour the pot was up to £80.
This is where it got scary.
For some reason, the end of "Bringing Down The House" kept flashing through my mind, the beatings in darkened rooms, the losing all your money etc. I actually became quite scared - not because we were winning life-changing amounts, more because we looked like (and were) working as a team. The croupier looked so angry at us, so, I decided to quit whilst I was ahead. There was no complaints from my team-mates. Our luck was going to run out soon, either that, or we were going to get battered.
Overall, I got back £25 (the other two got £10 more, as they had staked more), with £5 left to take to roulette.
Fiver on red.
We lost.
Things I don't miss about being a student #1
This year, for the first time since 1998, I have no exams in Janurary.
People my age got known as the "Guinea Pig Generation", in that every major change in the exam system happened to us (Compulsary SAT's in years 6 and 9, AS Levels, Modular GCSE's), so we got tons of exams to do. They definitely get worse when you go to university. Late night sessions, past papers, last minute cramming and the eternal question of "Just what did the lecturer say for the last 4 months?" are a staple for the student diet. I've never done an all nighter, but I had a 4am finish once before (though that was because of the fire alarm not working, and beeping every 45 seconds, and me literally fall asleep on my desk. It's a funny story, as sat the exam, went to the pub with Sarah, got absolutely wasted and fell asleep at 6pm, was woken by Sarah at 7, had chinese, and then woke up hungover at 2am. Not good). These killed me, as you put yourself under so much pressure for two weeks, and everybody crams.
This year however, my evenings are spent leading the Welsh to total world domination on Civ 4, and the occassional blog, and I'm so happy.
I'm not completely unneffected. Living with two fun-loving students who have suddenly become workaholics is tricky, which meant my first weekend of singledom was spent either playing Mario Party, Darts, watching the FA Cup and a fairly quiet night out - which consisted of a few drinks in the Flute in Liverpool, and watching two fruity gentlemen carrying out perfectly choreographed dance moves to "Don't You Wish You're Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me?", with a girl (who's arse could only be described as "bulbous"). Don't get me wrong, it was nice, but I'd be lying if I said that was what I expected my weekend to be.
Nevertheless, I'm glad I have no more exams. That, and the fact that my bank account is slowly going up means that - although I miss my student days - I'm not entirely disappointed they're over.
In other news: I have toothache, and it kills.
Sweet and Sour
I've had no intention of blogging this week, as I've been very busy. It's been quite emotional and demanding week for me, and my free time was mostly spent leading the Welsh to a glorious victory in
Civilization 4. Admittedly, I'm failing miserably. I'm not a fantastic Civilization, but not a horrible one either. I managed to bring down the Indians, who destroyed Caerdygygion, Abergwyngregyn and Colwyn Bay, so now Delhi, Bombay and Madras are all under Welsh rule.
I'm sure you're all pleased to know that.
Anyway, a few updates on what's been happenning in my life, and this site, in bulletform!
- First, the 'sour'. Me and Alyson have agreed to separate. At times, I throw my hands up and say at times I was an insensitive arsehole. But in the few days since we've split up, I've been doing a lot of thinking. The fact that there was a sizeable distance, the fact that I probably wasn't ready for a relationship and we weren't 100% compatible meant that it was never going to work. I'm unhappy, as she still is that fantastic, but in a way kind of accepting. Ironically, I think we've texted each other more than when we were going out, and her mum still wants to meet me. She reads this site, so I hope we can still be friends.
- The 'sweet' refers to my career, as I have been accepted for the assessment centre for a certain well known glass maker based in St. Helens. I had previously done a psychometric test with the company, and honestly thought I had messed it up. Thankfully, I didn't, and they want me to go on a two-day assesement course at the end of the month. If all goes to plan, then I'll be working in the Information Systems department in the company (which is ideal geographically for me, as it's based in the North West of England, so near to most - if not all - my friends and family). If it doesn't go to plan, then I've managed to get a two day hotel break and food for nothing.
- As far as this site goes, you may of noticed some RSS feeds. I've decided to catch up with the rest of the internet and include some RSS feeds. I've joined Feedburner, who will manage my feed, which is located here.
In work, as there is around a 6:1 Female:Male ratio, there's quite a lot of ladies mags dotted around. I picked one up in the past week, After reading about how to make your periods more predictable, I saw a Roller Coaster Tycoon pinball machine! How cool is that? Maybe we'll see other games converted to pinball form. I'm hoping for Grand Theft Auto: The Pinball.- I've grown to like Myspace. Originally, I found it slow, irratonal and clumbersome (and that's just some of the people on it), however I've grown to like it like an unloved child. A couple of bloggers have already added me, and I'm just announcing that you lot can do so too. Though I want to know if there is any way that I can get an RSS feed from this blog onto Myspace (considering they don't allow javascript).
- Finally, I'm having computer issues. I have two partitions on my harddrive (henceforth known as 1 and 2). Windows was installed on both partitions, but I generally use partition 2. I deleted the windows installed on partition 1 of my hard drive, but Windows hasn't registered it as gone. So, when I start up, I have to catch the boot menu before it automatically boots to installation 1. Is there any way/program I can use so that I can automatically boot to partition 2?
Right, that's your lot today. I promise there won't be another 5 day break. Vote for me in the "Best Tagline Category" in the bloggies to make doubly sure.
Third Time's a Charm
The
Bloggies are back! For the past two years I have been nomiated for the "Best Tagline" Category, and crashed miserably to
much better opposition. This year, I hope to be nominated, and have also nominated. Here are a list of the categories and blogs I've gone for. It's by no means complete, as I don't read many middle eastern blogs. Also, I've given nods to blogs which I like, as opposed to famous ones.
Best Application For Weblogs
W.Bloggar: Every year I vote for this, and it never even gets nominated. It's a fantastic editor that everybody should use.
Best Australian/New Zealand Weblog
Neurofern.net: Think this counts as an Aussie Blog, as she practically lives there. But it's great.
E-Blog: Well I couldn't show favourtism, could I?
Best Asian Weblog
Icciv's notes in Japan: Again, like Fern, voted because she's there. And it's a good read.
Random Thoughts of a Disenchanting Mind: Came across this blog via blog explosion, and I like it. Probably because he's a Man Utd and WWE fanboy, like yours truly.
Best British/Irish Weblog
Ducking For Apples: Ally sprung up in my comments over the past year, and she has a fantastic blog with tons of readers. Would go into the best kept secret category if she had fewer readers. Nevertheless, it's a brillaint website, and she's a mighty fine ebayer too.
Diamond Geezer: A blog that I've been reading regularly, but only recently linked. How he keeps coming up with daily posts is beyond me. I try my best to post daily, and cannot manage it.
Confuzzlement of a Sazzle: Sarah's been blogging regularly this year, and in my opinion it's worth a nod here.
Best American Weblog
Today's Five Things etc.: One blog that I've actually started reading religiously, despite linking for ages. Been missing out!
Uptonia.com: A blog that started up again this year after a short absence, I for one am glad she did.
Perfectly Flawed: Another blogger from my dim and distant past who's started up again. (Christ, who's next? "Whatever I Say" Katie? I'm hoping so!). But I digress, Merrick's blog is brilliant.
Best Tagline On A Blog
The Gospel According To Rhys - "A self depreciating blog, just not a very good one.": Please. Third time around.
Best Food Blog
Burning Down The House: Admittedly, the only food blog I know, but surely the fact they have numerous posts named "Best Sandwich Ever" surely means they're collectively breaking the boundary for culinary delights.
Best Kept-Secret
Blackpool Or Bust: Some of the most intelligent writing is on this blog. As well as a large usage of the word 'cunts'.
Best New Weblog
Rachel In North London: Found her through Ally. She started blogging after the London Bombs, and has briliant writing on it.
Well they are my nods. I mean, some of them are long time readers and friends, a few are not. But, in the past 12 months, I've enjoyed the blogs above the most. If you decide to vote for me, that will be nice. Of course, I'm not going to get my boobs out or anything if you do. Just that it would be nice.
Regrets
Christ, talk about a depressing title for the first post of 2006. Alas, it's true, but it's regrets about one thing, and one thing only.
New Years Eve night.
Like Middlesborough FC, they're so full of promise before, and end up so dissappointing. With the exception of New Years Eve 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004, I haven't had a fantastic one. Usually the parties are maticulously organised, which adds to the dissappointment.
Last night, I didn't have a party to go to, and the screenshot to the right was taken at 8pm New Years Eve, looks like that was my evening. I had debated with Sibley whether I wanted to go to Liverpool. I said know, and I was regretting saying so. That was until around 9pm, my mum said we were invited to a house party at the end of the street, and we were going.
I toddled off with 4 cans of Export at around 10, and arrived.....and was surrounded by chavs. Some of which I knew from Eirias, and who were a few years younger. I had no problem with them. I some of which - the more drunker ones - were not.
But there was this one girl who could only be described as a virus. She was from Rhos on Sea, and was around 16 years of age. She wouldn't leave me alone, and was completely sober.
Midnight came, and fireworks which were probably on the UN's WMD list until recently were set off. After a few happy new years to my mum and dad, I went into the dining room, and nursed my 8th beer in the corner. It's one of those parties that despite the amount of alcohol I drunk, I wouldn't get pissed, as I was miserable.
I thought a lot about what would of occurred in Liverpool, the fact that the lads were out, pulling, pissed, pancakes and (from an email I got this morning) porn. I also looked at myself, sat in the corner, with the virus in a this Rhos-On-Sea/Scouse accent calling me frigid for spending the first seconds of 2006 not dancing and having 'fun'. And then, came a realisation.
I sure as hell regretted not going to Liverpool.
