Not really a very exciting story (unless you like fossils) but anything with the headline Jurassic Beaver found in China definitely deserves a mention.

Not just weird but kinda creepy....

Actually, just wait til you see the creepy potato (tho is has a nice ending).

Let me just say that if you ever want broadband, DON'T choose UKOnline. Oh I admit that BT share some of the blame in this but still. Without going into details, I phoned up to find out why - after 4 weeks - I still don't have broadband and it now turns out I might have to wait another two week. I'm not happy.

The computer of the future? It may also be a quantum computer that works whilst it's not actually doing anything.

There will come a day where mankind wil have to fight for it's very survival against giant mutant killer chickens, you mark my words. It's only a small step away....

Virtually all my old friends from University are now married or about to get married. Of course after marriage come kids and it's got to the stage where I've lost track of who's having a baby, who's had one and who's already onto number two.

I felt a little guilty when I found the email from one of my friends on Saturday announcing the birth of her daughter as I'd forgotten all about her being due not long after Christmas. I opened up the email to read all about little Emma - when and where she was born, how much she weighed (a detail which seems vitally important for all parents although I've never understood why), who she takes after.



I couldn't help but smile as I read the email as it became clear how very much these new parents loved their little daughter. My smile faded as I read the very next line.

"She has unfortunately been diagnosed with Down's Syndrome...."

All of a sudden the little problems in my life didn't really seem very important anymore. For some reason I can't remember - just a day or two before - I had been thinking to myself what I would do if I found myself in a similar situation. I'd not been able to imagine.

I replied and did the only thing I could think of - offered whatever support I could should they need it. I've also spent this morning helping myself become a little less uneducated.

I spent the rest of the weekend in a thoughtful mood, thinking about my life and how lucky I am. It takes things like this to make you apreciate it sometimes. As I walked home from Miss C's last night - still in a thoughtful mood - I passed a homeless man. It was a pretty cold night so I stopped and fished out what change I had and gave it to him. I noticed that he seemed to be missing half of each finger on his hand.

"Thank you very much pal" he said smiling "Have a good night"

"You too" I replied automatically. Then the absurdity of what I just said hit me as I watched him huddle back under is small blanket.

Lucky indeed.

I did like this story. Colombia man jailed for four years for pinching a womans bottom. The best bit

"When he was arrested, she was given the option of slapping him, letting him go, or filing a complaint."

I would have gone for option one and taken a really good run up.....

I seem to have spent the whole day working at stuff but achieving very little. Like the four hours I spent trying to fix a laptop only for the person to say "Oh, I don't have anything on there I need anyway, you can just wipe it and reinstall everything".

Wish I could stay and post but come 5pm I'm out that door faster than a greased up poodle...

Happen to be watching a program about this on TV the other day and thought it was worth posting - Recover Your Life.

*edit* The link was wrong but fixed now.

Apart from a couple of days or half days waiting for delivery men to turn up, I've not had a proper break since Christmas (and I had to come into work 4 times then anyway) so a long weekend was just what I needed. I can't say it was exactly productive as I just spend most of it chillig with Miss C but it was nice. Very nice.

I also came to the conclussion that I needed to spend money. A sudden urge to splash out a little. What with all the expenses associated with moving into a new place and having less disposable income now that my rent has more than doubled I have to admit to being a bit wary about what I spend recently. The situation was made worse by everything seeming to come about at the same time - paying to take my old housemate to the football after I promised I would 6 months ago, a trip to see a friend in london, taking Miss C out for a meal on valentines day, a mediaeval night out with work. The list goes on.

Come Monday however I decided that it wasn't worth thinking about and I should go out and spend some of my cash. So now I have a new toy. And some new speaker stands. I just need to get the right aerial cable now and I'll be sorted.

At last I also have a bed! Yup, after five weeks of sleeping on the floor and then a mattress on the floor I finally have a bed. More importantly than having a bed is I now have an 'under the bed'. My bedroom just looks so much neater now I have somewhere to hide all my crap....

Will definitely post tomorrow tho. Promise. No really.
*skips of home* (in a manly fashion of course)

I'm having a nice long weekend and taking Monday and Tuesday off so what with still having no internet at home (stupid UKOnline *mumble*) I shall be absent from the blogosphere til Wednesday.

Back soon!

A new washing machine with a catchy name. Personally I save on ironing time by never doing any...

What else can I say but YAY!!!!! Get some nice wallpaper to get you feeling that monkey love as well....

The Tattooed Banana - a site for all you banana art fans....

You've not seen me ok?! I'm not here. Day off work - sofa delivery. You remember. And what a nice sofa it is too. Maybe I would have liked it to be a little more squishy - the sort you can sink into a bit. Can't have everything I guess and it does look great in my living room. Nice for sprawling on too.

Been a bit of a busy boy today to be honest. First valentines day in ages I've not been single and wanting to drown my sorrows in a bottle of JD. Ok, only the second ever where I've not been single but whose counting). So I thought I'd go to a bit of effort.

Got up early and headed into work. Not supposed to be at work (day off, sofa delivery - remember) but that is where the flowers that I planned ahead and bought yesterday were stashed. Head to Miss C's office to leave them on her desk before she arrives. Door's locked but a nice lady lets me in when she finally figures out why I'm stood there with a bunch of flowers ("I've been married 25 years" she says "day has lost all meaning to me now...). I'm tempted to give her one (a flower that is) but resist the urge of making the quite modest arrangement any smaller than it already is. Head home.

Later in the afternoon head back into work once again where the second bunch of flowers are still stashed. The obligatory red roses. Corny I know but I've actually never bought a woman red roses before. Seemed like the thing to do. Pleasantly surprised to find the CD that I'd bought for Miss C on ebay a couple of weeks ago (no expense spared you'll notice) had finally turned up. This was added to the flowers and card. Then it was round to her flat to let myself in using the spare key she gave to me for safe keeping. Flowers, card and CD left on the bed.

Now I'm just killing time at work before meeting her to take her for dinner at the restaurant I secretly booked yesterday.

Think I did ok all in all.

Actually, valentines day is a rip off and I don't really believe in it particularly. But I'm a romantic at heart and like to do nice things once in a while so why not today as well? The secret to really making a good impression is doing the same sort of things when they are not half expecting it tho.....

Mr Poons is back after a bit of a blogging absence and says I have to tell you about the badgers.

So, find out why the need help and then help the little black and white ones.

Happy birthday N. x

Anyone want to try it?

And a place not to visit on your holidays...

BlogMonkeys green tip of the day.

Also, interesting article.

You put this sort of stuff on the internet and before you know it you become a living t'interwebnet legend.....

Couple of months has gone by and once again it's time to post a link to a bit of musical genius by Mr T. Not only catchy but caries a powerfull message.

"...cos if you not somebody, then you gonna be somebody's foo'"

Yay - I have a sofa!! Now I just get to spend a romantic valentines days waiting for the delivery men from Homebase....

So for the second time in a couple of days I got tagged. It's like being back in the school playground 'cept I was so sneaky I was never 'it. Well, almost never.

Anyway quickly (before the person whose wireless connection I'm leeching notices), my five weird habits.

1. I pace a lot. I had a good walk around the room earlier at work today thinking about this.
2. I talk to myself whilst pacing.
3. I watch far too many cartoons for a man of my age.
4. I like eating sugar or golden syrup by the spoonfull.
5. I like dressing as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Ok, so I made that last one up as I ran out of things. Or did I...? No, I made it up. Or did I.. (that's from some TV prog but buggered if I can remember which.

I'm not going to tag anyone this time, I used up all my readers yesterday. ;)

Nice to see some countries planning ahead. Plus I know I've mentioned it a couple of times recently anyway but change your lightbulbs.

Actually there is some debate about the bulbs thing. Does the light give people headaches? Do they cost more (in terms of energy and resources) to produce. I don't know. Personally I see it as much as a way of changing peoples attitudes as saving energy. If they make the effort with this, will they start recycling more. Not leave things on standby. Not leave the tap running when cleaning their teeth. It's the attitude change that will eventually help.

I was never very good at DIY. Except painting - I was always ok at that and do find it pretty relaxing. The rest tho, I'm awful. Seem to have this mental block that stops me thinking things through clearly and it's at that point stuff usually goes wrong....

The nice men from Argos actually arrived at lunchtime. I must have been first on their delivery list I guess. So I decided to put my shelves together quickly and then I could pop out later in the afternoon and do something else constructive with my half days holiday.

The instructions looked simple enough and I set to work. For some reason it took me an hour and a half to screw in the 40 screws that needed doing (although a fair bit of that time was spent at the end trying to get the damn thing to stop wobbling and stand up straight. Tighten, untighten. Tighten, untighten etc..). Then it was time to put the shelves on.

All I had to do was slot these little plastic suckers into the holes on some little metal supports stuck on the main frame. Easy. Hmmmm. The first went in smoothly but then the second wouldn't fit. That's the point I should have stopped to think. Instead I resorted to brute force. The little bit of metal held up quite well considering. Then it bent.

Again this is the point where I should have stopped to think. But no, I grabbed the bit of metal and started bending it back into place. It snapped off.

I wasn't a happy bunny.

At this point I did stop to think (after texting Miss C who told me to "not do anything rash and she'd help me fix it later"). I popped off and bought myself some of this stuff that 'sets like steel in 15 minutes'. Ok, maybe if steel is slightly bendy. However after three hours it was pretty solid so I went to put the shelves on and test it (I was a little nervous, the shelves are glass). As I go to lay the shelf I suddenly realize that it won't fit and I've actually put the whole darn thing together wrong.

An hour later it was however finished and looking good. And the silver lining (tradition says there has to be one)? Well, whilst in Homebase getting the glue, I noticed they had a furniture sale on. There is a rather nice leather sofa I'm off to look at this lunchtime.....

I actually have work to do at work! Damn inconsiderate of them really, cuts my blogging time down to virtually nothing what with having no interwebnet at home either at the moment (soon tho, soon....).

Not much time to blog again today as I finish at 10:20am so I can be home ready for my first furniture delivery. Exciting! Well, not really. I'm getting a mattress but still have no bed to put it on. A desk for my computer but no chair to sit at it. Some shelves. Ok, they are actually useful as I can finally move my stereo off the floor (which I'm sure the people in the flat downstairs will appreciate).

Bunni tagged my yesterday with this - 8 things I'd want in my ideal partner. I don't usually do these and I'm not sure I can find eight straight off but I'll give it a quick go. It could so get me in trouble but never mind...

1. A redhead. Don't ask why, I don't know. I just like 'em.

2. Tall. Don't get me wrong, I like short women too. Maybe it's because I was always a leg man and tall women just have more leg? Well obviously not just more of one leg or they would lean to the side and keep falling over. Anyway...

3. Like cartoons. I still watch them, I still love them. Someone that would happily watch a couple of hours of Spongebob and Pinky and the Brain with me is alright in my book. Which leads me onto....

4. Be in touch with their inner child. I let mine out frequently.

5. Easy going. I try never to get stressed by the little things. Or even the big things if I can help it. I'd imagine anyone that did would find me annoying as they could well mistake my easy going attitude for apathy.

6. Not afraid to do something stupid once in a while. I used to be very shy. Always worried what other people thought about me. Then I got better. I'm not saying you have to do stupid things all the time but I reckon everyone should have a moment of madness at least once a month.

7. Have a high sex drive. Nuff said.

8. Wants me as well. Seems obvious I guess but finding your perfect partner doesn't mean that they feel the same about you.

So maybe there are other things I'd like as well but those were the first that sprang to mind. Now I have to tag a few others. Not sure I have enough regular readers for that so I'll just pick a few people from my blogroll....

Michelle
Mia
Angela
Kel
Krista
Mike

D'oh, work calls. Sorry if I missed anyone that wants to do it too...

You know how sometimes the days seem to pass so quickly that before you know it months have been and gone? It had been a year since I'd last seen my best friend Rach and longer than that since I'd last been to visit. Far too long in my opinion. So I jumped on a train on Saturday morning and headed down to London - a journey which for some reason takes an hour longer than it used too. One of the mysteries of rail travel I guess...

I also had a mission for this visit too - to get me some culture!

Rach had kindly booked us some tickets to the theatre so we stopped by to collect our tickets and then went for dinner at a nearby place called Smollenskys. Have to admit to being a little dissapointed as the jambalaya I ordered seemed to be missing half of the things that were supposed to be in it. Chicken chile might have been a more accurate meal description. We were also supposed to get 10% off with our theatre tickets which I'm unconvinced they took into account but unfortunately we were running late and didn't have time to check.

A short jog to the theatre just after a large meal and half a bottle of wine is not the best way to get ready for a show. Of course I had less of a problem as I wasn't suffering from the seemingly female only condition of 'pretty shoes that leave your feet a bleeding mess'.

Yes, they were pretty tho Rach.

The show itself - Nights at the Circus was very good. As was the leading lady, Natalia Tena. Singer, actor, accordian player, trapeze artist. All that and she got her jubblies out!! Or so I'm told. I of course had my eyes closed.

*cough*

All I can say is if this is what getting cultured is about, I'm all for it.

For a while now I've been contemplating the idea of having a little flutter now and again. Not on the horses (tho I did win a few quid on the Grand National last year) but just in general on whatever takes my fancy. After hearing a mate tell me how he'd won sixty quid the other weekend on a three way footy bet, I decided to take the plunge today.

Quick bit of looking around and Bet 365 was the online bookie that took my fancy. So I'm all signed up and my first (huge) £1 bet has been placed. For those that are curious, it's on the Millwall v Sheffield Wednesday match this weekend - Millwall to be leading at half time but Wednesday to win. I had to bet on Wednesday to win or Miss C (a fairly big fan) would do unpleasant things to me I'm sure.....

Wish me luck (with the bet, not Miss C).

"Love is but a +2 broadsword away".

A self described vampire that was a candidate for governor of Minnestota has been arrested. Under his leadership he says they

"...would use impalement to execute murderers, rapists and terrorists."

Quite vampire like. But them he says

"As governor, terrorists and criminals will live in fear of me, while the people of this state will be able to live fear free."

Surely everyone should live in fear if he was being a proper vampire overlord?

A worrying story if true (and I shall point out that all I can find are exact copies of the same story with no links to the actual statment). Apparently female soldiers in Iraq died of dehydration because they stopped drinking water to avoid having to go to the toilet at night and risk being raped by make colleagues. This was also apparently covered up vy the military.

The US army's sexual assault prevention and response page is also worth a flick through. I was quite surprised to find a page called "How can I reduce my risk of becoming a sexual assault offender?".

The Bush Commission page is also interesting to see what is being investigated....

Sorry, been playing far too much Dawn of War lately and phrases such as the one above and "Die heretic!" are now stuck in my head for at least a week.

Anyway, I was refering more to this computer virus which most people should be aware of as come tomorrow it starts eating files on your computer. So just to be on the safe side, go home tonight and run a virus scan. If you don't have any virus software or it's not up to date then you can use this peice of software. We use it at work all the time - it's free and it does the job.

I don't actually have any anti-virus software on my machine at home so I best do this myself actually. Not that I've been online at all lately to have caught any viruses but still...

As I mentioned the other day, my mum has been sending me five pound notes throught the post in order for me to get something nice for the flat.

I phoned her last night and she asked if I'd got the third one she'd sent (it's not arrived so I may have to lie about that next week) and then asked what I was going to buy with the money.

"I don't know" I laughed "I have so many things to get. Take your pick!"

"But what specifically are you going to buy. What about your desk?"

"Ummm, that's reasonably expensive mum."

"How much"

"About a hundred quid"

"Oh. What about your coffee table?"

"Sixty"

"The CD rack?

"Twenty five..."

"Ah...."

Bless her. No idea what things cost nowdays. I'm expecting tenners through the post shortly however.

Nifty Flash pop-up book about a robot and dinosaurs.

Epileptic fit sir? Right this way....

Having little in the way of entertainment in my new flat I mainly sit around on the floor playing computer games. I was getting a little bored of the ones I've been playing so had a delve into the big bag of old games I have sat in the corner of my bedroom. Ah, there's some classics in there. My gaze settled on the box for X-COM Apocalypse however.

I remember back about 8 years ago when my brother used to regularly come down to visit me. The entirety of one such weekend visit was spent playing the original X-COM game - and I do mean the entirety. Quite how we managed it I'm not sure because for those of you that don't know it is a turn based game. I think we gave ourselves a squad each and after carefully selecting each characters moves would hand control over to the other person. That meant only one person at a time was playing but it certainly kept us occupied. The main reason for this is the game is just such a classic!

With these fond memories in mind I dug out the CD and went to install it. You know you might have problems with a game when it tells you that it wasn't designed to run on Windows 95 but I thought I'd give it a shot on XP. No luck. Kept telling me my CD drive was too slow (Ummm, no. Just 52x speed was unimagined in those days) and other problems.

So last night I set my spare computer up and installed the wonder that is Windows 98. How much faster to boot and shutdown! Anyway with some slight fiddling I now have an evening of 256 colour graphics and advanced gameplay to look forward to.....