Boring pastimes

The two most boring things I've ever had to endure are ballroom dancing and American football. I just don't get ballroom dancing as a spectator sport, it seems like it's possibly an OK thing to do if you like that kind of thing, but to me it's about as much fun to watch as paint drying, and some of the Latin American dancing is really just over made up women showing off. American football, on the other hand, would be OK to watch if they didn't keep stopping every 10 seconds. The whole game is so disjointed that it's virtually impossible to maintain any interest whatsoever. It's even worse if you're actually at a stadium watching a game as they also stop at frequent intervals for TV commercials too if the game is being televised.

Maybe if they could get those dainty ballroom dancers to play American football we might have something that could be worth watching.

Obama's big moment (and the fat lady)

I watched the inauguration of Barak Obama this afternoon on the internet, and I have to admit that to my surprise it was quite an emotional experience for me. Not because I'm a fan of these ceremonies, and neither am I particularly impressed with the significance of these occasions. What really gave me the first big lump in my throat was from when I was watching the behind the scenes feeds that CNN were showing. And the particular piece that got me was where Obama was seen walking alone through the Whitehouse corridors seconds before he was announced and emerged to face the waiting crowd. The look on his face was screaming 'yes, this really is happening to me and I'm going to savour every last second' - you just knew that this was a really magical moment in his and a lot of other peoples lives.

Unfortunately as the ceremony moved on, and before the swearing-in began we were subjected to an excruciatingly painful din being emitted from a huge fat lady in a very odd looking hat. I think she was attempting to sing a song called America but she was clearly way out of her depth. Her name was something like Urethra Wanklin and she wailed on for what seemed like an endless period of time. It's a shame someone didn't have the foresight to simply drag her off and do us all a huge favour. Hopefully though, someone will be severely reprimanded for her attempts at ruining Barak's big day.

Endurance was obviously the name of the game in this ceremony as some kind of preacher (another very large person) was produced and rambled on and on for ages about God, God, and (yawn) God. Why Americans love ramming religion down everyones throats is beyond me, and it really does take the edge off these occasions. For a while I was actually hoping that God did exist and would throw a little thunderbolt down at this chap. Not enough to kill him of course, that really wouldn't be good, but just enough to stun him so that the events could finally move on to the eagerly awaited climax.

So, fat ladies and preachers all finally dispatched, we had the swearing in and poor old Barak fluffed his words a couple of times, and so I think did the guy who was feeding him, but who could blame him. He was living his dream in front of millions of people all hanging onto his every word, and anyway it only went to prove he's human. Finally he turned to his wife Michelle and gave her a kiss - and I got another lump in my throat.

Stupid planning rules

A friend of mine has just been refused planning permission to build onto his house, and the reason for the refusal is that what he wants to build is 50cm too wide. It's hardly going to make much visual difference, and in fact none of the neighbours objected, but some moron in the local council has decided this is unacceptable. Of course if he was to simply go ahead and build it anyway he would almost certainly be told by someone that it had to be pulled down. I've also recent heard of someone being refused permission to fit widows in his house that were 'not in keeping' with other houses in the area.

How can planning officials and councils be so petty about such relatively trivial issue towards people who are genuinely trying to improve their properties while at the same time they are happy to allow others to let their home get run down and shabby without penalty. Wouldn't it make sense to penalize anyone who allows their property to become run down, or allows their garden to become overgrown, or fills their driveway with scruffy beaten up cars. These people are the real nuisance and can cause no end of annoyance and aggravation to everyone around them and, because they can get away with it, have no motivation to stop doing it.

Wouldn't it make sense to either reward people who keep the general appearance of their homes up to a certain standard a financial benefit, or give those who don't, a financial penalty. Maybe if we had a process of this kind we'd have more neat and tidy neighborhoods, happier communities, and the planners could spend their time making the communities work better rather than simply handing out petty and arbitrary rulings on things that no one is bothered about.

Cheesy footers

I really hate those annoying and supposedly 'meaningful' messages that some people are fond of appending to the bottom of their emails. One I saw today read, "Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons." - what a complete load of crap! What does it mean?. I suppose it's saying there is always some good to be found somewhere in your world everyday and all you have to do is look for it and you'll find it. I don't think so.

Try telling that so some poor sod who's just been told he's going to lose his job, or anyone who has just been told they have a terminal illness, or even worse, to an Iraqi mother who's just found out half her family has been wiped out!

I assume the people who use these messages feel that in some way they are promoting a positive feeling and are acting like nice little morale angels and dispensing their profound statements and making the world a better place. Actually I think all they're really doing is completely pissing off everyone who's not happy, and annoying the heck out of many of the rest of us that already are (happy).

Don't do it!

Yikes it's cold!

We've just been through one of the coldest periods I can remember over the last 25 years (or more!). It's been below freezing for almost two weeks until today and although it meant we had some very bright sunny days, it was a welcome change to finally see temperatures approaching double digits at last. I guess it shows how we're just not used to these low temperatures, but it really has been the main topic of conversation almost everywhere you go, and has prompted quite a few unexpected things to happen and others that have had to be dealt with.

At work we had freezing underground pipes that caused buildings to be closed, and at home we needed to heat places we normally don't worry about. I was even getting worried that the wine in the garage might get too cold and start to crystallize! In fact the heating has needed to be on constantly since Christmas which is really unusual here.

Anyway, at last the poor old fish in the pond can finally relax from the fear of being frozen alive and the ice on the pond became thicker and thicker as the days went by. Right now the ice has all gone and the fish are happily swimming all round the pond.

LCD Screens

Maybe I'm just unlucky or maybe it's a consequence of being an early adopter but... I've had two LCDs pack up on me in the last few weeks, one being a 26" LCD TV and the other a 19" monitor.

I'm particularly upset about the monitor, a Dell, as it was only about 18 months old and just outside it's warranty period, either way not exactly an old age and I'd barely had my money's worth! I just won't by a Dell again.

The most recent failure, today, was a 26" TV which I'd bought about 4 years ago when they were still pretty expensive. New it was about £750 and I'll probably be able to easily replace it for about £300 with a new TV which will probably much better technically. I really don't mind this failure anything as much as the Dell and realistically I'm quite happy to replace it.

The thing I noticed with both of them is that they are basically impossible to fix from the amateurs point of view. A few years ago if I had a problem with a TV I could just whip the back off, poke and prod around for a while, and nine times out of ten fix the problem. With these sets there is no chance of that. Everything seems to be hidden away behind metal shielding that invariably can't be removed, and even if it could, who knows what would lurk behind?

Oh well, I'll probably give them away to anyone that's interested and has the inclination/skill/determination to do something with them, but not me. I'll take the easy way out and just buy replacements, but then I'm sure that's just what the manufacturers want.

Eco Nazis - parking

It really annoys me the way the eco-nazis are trying their hardest to piss-off just about everyone that doesn't see the world how they do, and the fact that they are being allowed to get away with it.

The latest stupid idea seems to be emission based parking charges! - what the hell is that all about. People are actually being taxed even more for not using their cars. London councils have decided that it's a good idea to base their parking charges higher for people with cars they deem to be more 'polluting' at a higher rate than those they consider to be less polluting. What an absolute load of rot. Why not go the all the way and base parking charges on how much pollution was generated producing the cars - that would be a good poke in the eye for all those smug self righteous idiot Toyota Prius drivers.

This would seem to be a completely discrimatory tax that has nothing to do with addressing the problems of removing congestion from the streets which is surely the problem most people would like to see addressed.