...course it was only on Animal Crossing but still...

God that game is addictive...

An original idea by lyndlj of Blogland and nicked from Subs and Fatal too.

OK, the good and magical fairy Fantasmagoria has granted you three wishes.

But she is a feisty good fairy (as you would be with a name like that)

So there are conditions

Your first wish has to be about a person/people not related to you

Your second wish has to be about a place ... that you might like to live in or visit

Your third wish can be about anything not related to the first two wishes but is not allowed to be more wishes And your wishes have to be personal to you.

So

My first wish ... I wish my friend would finally get a grip of how good she is.

My second wish ... America for a holiday to see the sports.

My third wish ... that winning lottery ticket on a quadruple rollover.

Copy and paste on to your blog and post your answers

See more HERE

"One of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever."

Nope, not this blog but THIS

Umm, ok, so it's a chocolate Jesus statue from an artist who goes a bit "surreal" with foodstuffs.

Now, serious question, and I really mean that cause I'm curious, this isn't a mickey taking post.

WHY is this "One of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever"?

Had a bit of a cruddy night... fneugh.

Aaaaanyway, a post from Marika has given me some post fuel cause I remembered I keep meaning to remind people about the Blog Birthdays Calendar.

It's what it says on the tin, a list of birthdays for bloggers of this parish (and a few we miss...) that's open to the web. It just means we can check it out once in a while and do the real community thing... remember birthdays

So if you want to get added (and you don't have to be on my friends list, this is totally open) just either comment or drop me a PM

PS, I might make a little sidebar blog widget for this months birthdays... we'll see.

Well that was a mixed day!

Nice violent start to the day with some empire building on GTA Vice City, I do like that game

Insanely violent but so far I havent felt a need to go out and murder people to steal their cars...

The weather went insane mid morning, hailed so much it settled down and looked like snow!

It absolutely thundered down, the road was solid white, then it hissed down with rain and then.... went back to being dry... God, Britain's weather is weird...

Did a bit of housekeeping, PC cleaning and setting up the new monitor. It is very scary how the inside of a PC gets

One squirt of canned air and I'm trying to escape a dust cloud the size of a small country

Then I sat down with this:

Jeez Sminch, you were right, it is addictive and I've barely got started yet!

Anyway, blah, blah, waffle, waffle

Some good, nay GREAT news from the England football camp to warm the hearts of all the fans ahead of Andorra...

Frank Lampard Ruled Out

Hurrah, we've got a chance now!

Yes, yes, I'm still busy, just taking a quick cuppa break...

Just had a huge project thrown at me last minute...

*My best blue-arsed fly impression*

I was reading a book of Bill Bryson columns earlier and one was very topical considering my day's activities.

According to reports (admittedly a few years back) Americans walk on average 75 miles... a year.

It was all tied in to the fact the USAers tend not to go anywhere without their metal wombs even to the point of his next door neighbours driving to come for dinner...

I can't imagine being that sedentary, I walk a LOT and often, like this morning through choice.

It all began (cue wavy, hazy flashback effect) when I got a paper round at 13, I was suddenly walking a couple miles a day, which for a patently unfit child was a lot, especially as it was ALL on hills which was a nightmare, did build up the muscles on my legs though...

What it also did was give me a wanderlust, not in the sense of having to explore, merely in the sense of not liking being still, even at work I often walk to see people rather than the industry standard of ringing them.

If I'm stationery for too long I just get antsy, it's one of my biggest "traits" that I pace while I'm on the phone, and often when I'm just thinking.

It's an often laughed at trait as if I'm on my mobile to someone downstairs, or on the cordless house phone I'll tend to go out into the hall and and up making tracks between the front and back doors like a caged tiger.

Even now I walk a lot in going to and coming home from work, just to get to work I have a couple mile trek uphill and then the same down again, then the walk home, as I'm not the most energetic person when it comes to working out or participating in sports it's a great way for me to get some exercise, I can;t do without my exercise, I really cant.

So it astounds me when I read that about America, turns out (as Bryson goes on to tell us) just 1 percent of US Highway budget goes on pedestrian access, some places dont even have pavements anymore.

Saddest of all he gave a story of a town I think was in Delaware (sorry, I left the book upstairs) where they spent 5 million dollars making the town centre a pedestrianised haven that had planners and architects cooing and making special visits to photograph it's attractive features (this speaks to me cause my local town has a very attractive pedestrianised centre).

They've now had to rip all that out because the public refused to park in the free municipal car parks about 4 minutes walk away from the pedestrianised area.

How mad would they have thought me with my round trip today?

So, I decided to keep up with my decision to make something of my days off and nip into town.

As it was a gorgeous day I also decided not to bother with the bus or anything but walk in.

And I am now fecking knackered!

4 miles or so in, a couple miles around the town then 4 miles back...

Phew!

It was lovely though, hot weather, not too sunny, clear and green, I even came very close to a squirrel at one point who just too one look at me and carried on hunting for food.

On the shopping front I managed to get myself a couple books I've been after from charity shops and a new bluetooth hands free kit for my mobile, the old one was, to be frank, a tad pants and I also managed to get it covered in black ink when a pen exploded in my bag...

It came with a phone holder too, cause everywhere is doing a big push on making sure everyone is legal driving etc, I didn't bother telling them I didnt have a car

Relaxing now, gazing out the window at the still gorgeous weather...

Ah well, can't complain.

If anyone gives a damn... See a couple posts down for the point behind it...

2) I played the Major General in the Pirates of Penzance - TRUE
My primary school production

3) As a kid I wanted to fly helicopters - TRUE
Specifically fighting ones, watched Blue Thunder and Wings Of The Apache and wanted to fly something that cool

4) I had a trial for the Plymouth Admirals American Football Team - FALSE
Another of those things I'd have liked to have done, always saw me as a running back but it never happened.

5) I once waved a Brazillian flag at Princess Anne - TRUE
She came to open a children's centre down here and our class had the job of waving the flags of all nations for her

6) I support the St Louis Blues Ice Hockey team - FALSE
Actually it's the Pittsburgh Penguins

7) I was found programming a computer as a 3 y.o. - TRUE
Yes... *geek blush* I was found reprogramming a game on our old Speccy 48k.

8) I've created websites for a local company and an artist who was in an NME top 50 unsigned artists feature. - FALSE
I'm not THAT good

9) I did English, Media Studies and Maths at A-Level - FALSE
OK... umm, own up time. Sneak question, I took English, Media Studies and R.E.

10) I was once a St John's Ambulance Cadet - TRUE
Fraid so, in the knitted jumper and beret... till I got kicked out...

Thank you all for taking part

OK, I can't be arsed meme...

I can't be arsed... to do too many things to mention

After being told off by Subz... if you haven't been tagged... you have now!

10 things, some true, some falser than Jordan's puppies.

Now I sit back and wait for nobody to play

1) I've got a half written sci-fi novel on my hard-drive
2) I played the Major General in the Pirates of Penzance
3) As a kid I wanted to fly helicopters
4) I had a trial for the Plymouth Admirals American Football Team
5) I once waved a Brazillian flag at Princess Anne
6) I support the St Louis Blues Ice Hockey team
7) I was found programming a computer as a 3 y.o.
8) I've created websites for a local company and an artist who was in an NME top 50 unsigned artists feature.
9) I did English, Media Studies and Maths at A-Level
10) I was once a St John's Ambulance Cadet

I shall try to be brighter from now on, that was a stupidly depressing post yesterday but I plead extenuating circumstances... Feel free to ignore it.

In other news... I'm glad I haven't sold my old MP3 player yet, forgot to charge my new one up!

It's a bummer, the mains charger I bought isn't working and it takes so long to do it off USB...

Right, hi-ho, hi-ho and all that, it's off to work I go! (and thankfully with music!)

Answer the following questions using only song titles:

Are you female or male: Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Describe yourself: The Guy With Computer Knowhow - Arrogant Worms.
How do some people feel about you: Waste of Time - Hurley 77
How do you feel about yourself: More Than Useless - Relient K
Describe where you want to be: Runaway - Bon Jovi
Describe what you want to be: Invisible Man - Queen
Describe how you live: Going Nowhere - Oasis
Share a few words of wisdom: Be Yourself - Audioslave

Been reading LJ is taking a break from blog, I reckon I should do the same thing, I look at my blog and it just doesn't seem to be what it was before.

I'm not sure what it is, is it me? If you listen to some people I'm boring and a waste of blogging space anyway (cmon, people have been telling me I don't blog right for over a year).

Also I've been finding it harder to comment, I WANT to comment on people's blogs, I just can't seem to get my brain to think of anything good enough to say and then I keep thinking I'm being anti-social and wondering if anyone actually gives a toss anymore.

I'll see, maybe give it this week and if I don't feel better ASAP I'll try shutting down for a bit.

Sorry, crap post, move along, nothing more to see here.

Jeez, today has just fluffed by in a daze, nothing has really clicked and it's all been a blur.

Travel to and from work was a nightmare, thankfully the trains are back next week but for the last few weekends I've been taking coaches, means I spend around about 10 hours out the house each Saturday and only work for five...

At least getting into town meant a good run of the charity shops few more books to add to the pile by my bed!

However... there was the problem of the do-gooder cluster trap.

The area with the charity shops in is a mini-town centre/shopping street on the way to work, bout the length of a couple footy pitches and lined with shops.

The problem is it often gets raided by the Charity Hunters, the small group of people in colourful tabards that hang around trying to lassoo you and drain your wallet for good causes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a skinflint, I'm not a bastard, I understand these charities all do great work and yes, they need our help.

But what I object to is people standing every 20 feet trying to guilt me into giving money on the street, and it's certainly not a few bits of change in a jar, now it's signing you up with all your bank details for a direct debit...

It comes to something when charities seem to be the worst ones for stooping to whatever means to get your cash...

So it's confirmed, Bob Woolmer was murdered.

Which leads me to a simple question without a simple answer.

What the hell is happening in sport to make it THIS important?

It's not just cricket, although the fact it's reached this most staid of sports is a bit of a shock.

Football is almost notorious, whether it's a stabbed fan, the recently killed police officer or the infamous case of Andres Escobar, the Columbian defender assasinated after scoring an own goal in the World Cup.

Now though it seems to be spreading, but I just don't get it.

Part of me hopes it's actually non-sports fans, gambling syndicates or hooligans who want an excuse to cause trouble but I have seen an increasing amount of people treating sport like... well, I'm gonna be controversial here, like it's something important.

I love sport, I really do, I get withdrawals in the close season for football and I have a brain filled with meaningless stats, I will snaffle up any sport on tv like Heather Mills diving for fivers, I can give you the rules for Football, Cricket, Rugby (both types), Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, American Football, Athletics, Motor Racing, Golf, Tennis... Sport is a passion for me.

But it's not an obsession.

It's almost heretical for a Liverpool fan to question the words of the late great Bill Shankley but in his quote "football isn't a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that" I think he would have been best served to have stopped half way through.

Sport is playtime, sport is simply organised messing about with your mates, kids spend years being told not to roll around in the mud fighting over a ball then get to go play rugby, which is organised rolling around in the mud fighting over a ball.

For me sport is ruined when you get the "win at all costs" mentality, the blame culture, the overbearing feeling that it's becoming a business and a life for everyone involved.

I will be upset when Liverpool or any of my sports teams lose, that's natural, the high of winning, the low of losing. I don't however feel I need to BLAME someone, I don't rant and rave, I don't hide away, or cry, or scream, or take it out on someone.

They lost. Never mind.

Next week is another game, next year is another season, there'll be more cups, more awards, more silverware.

I've discovered a lot of fun can be had with fans of all teams if there's a simple understanding, I came in the Monday after the Liverpool 0 - 1 Man U match and had a long chat with a couple Man U fans in the building. They admitted a draw would have been fair, I admitted that, as usual, our lack of a killer touch was the defining factor.

There was some gentle ribbing but nothing more, and yet sometimes, fans have made me feel uncomfortable, have made me want to avoid them because they cross the line into gloating and over-exuberance.

Over that 90 minutes, you won. There will soon be another 90 minutes, and we might win, it's the nature of the beast.

A lot is made today of having a good work-life balance, making sure you make time for the important things outside of work, a lot of people could do with a sport-life balance too.

There is no reason for sport to become a literal life or death scenario, it's simply not that important.

I've had to add an hour onto work today which means leaving the house over an hour earlier...

Which of course means waking up an hour earlier...

I'm hoping I don't fall asleep and end up in Cornwall...

Great, another mega-splogger...

Strangely "how to be an annoying splogging bastard" doesn't seem to be on his stupidly long list of alleged "blogs".

Had a training course thing on User Generated Content today and it was very interesting.

UGC is basically a fancy-ass term for anything that comes from outside work rather than from stuff we've commissioned and it's becoming massive.

To be fair I knew a lot of it, the fact with YouTube and blogs people are starting to take things into their own hands, the internet has made sure we get what we want, when we want it and how we want it.

They also covered the fact mobile phone cameras mean we have eyes everywhere and people are turning being in the vicinity into a career, turns out the footage being bandied around of the July 7th arrests (the half naked guys on a balcony) was sold for around £60,000...

It was nothing I didn't know, I felt in my fricking element when he started talking about what could be done in Photoshop, I was thinking "I can mock that up... and that... and that..."

We got shown some great hoaxes, times the news outlets have been screwed over a faked pic... always funny, maybe I should do it

Had to be careful when things turned to blogging though I don't ever really mention work on here, certainly not in specifics or in a bad light so I should be ok, but the more people who don't know this is here from work the better. (although with how boring I've got lately the few people know alltogether the better!)

Now I have to co-host a presentation on it for the station on our "away day"... eep.

Yes, I'd like a primetime radio show please...

Did it again this morning, woke up early with my head spinning like it was on channel hopping mode, throwing all manner of things, some real, some imagined, some impossible, some undesireable.

It's not a great start to the day, setting me up for work by being disorientated and unsure of a lot of things including me.

Bah, one day I'll actually sleep well and wake up without one or more of worry, stress, unhappiness or annoyance.

Soz, grump post, I'll be ok once I'm awake enough to cloud my brain over and pretend it's not there.

If you're wondering where you might have heard the music from my last post sampled...

OK, so it's not for everyone...

Yes, Yes, I know it's a black screen, couldn't upload an MP3, blog seems to be playing around so I hunted on YouTube (I didnt upload it), but it's about audio not visual...

Try making and eating this culinary delight...

Hot dog sausages...

cored and filled with squirty cheese...

then wrapped in bacon...

then fried...

then BEER battered and fried again...

Get the recipe for disaster HERE and a story of someone actually MAKING them HERE

OK, how insane is this.

Couldnt get to sleep last night, 2.30/3 was probly my drop off time... and I woke up at 7.30...

We're not even talking dozey opening of eyes, it was total, open eyed, active brain BAM wakeup.

I get up that time for work and feel dozey, half asleep and totally lost... I wake up at that time on my day off after MUCH less sleep... and feel totally awake and ready to... well, as it turns out lug a dozen half ton bags of coal around!

Bet I'll be asleep my early afternoon now...

"Scooter Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, was found guilt of perjury, obstruction, and making false statements -- or, as the White House calls it, a press conference." --Bill Maher