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With all the wars, politics, economics, poverty, celebrities etc - we need more fun.
Every so often we hear of wonderful acts of kindness and people being good en mass. Although I have never gotten around to joining him, I have great respect for Danny Wallace. In 2002 Danny started a cult which, at the time had no purpose. He simply placed an ad in a local classifieds publication Loot with the words: “JOIN ME, send one passport-sized photo to…” followed by his address. Soon after Danny met his first Joinee by the name of Christian Jones. He was “a do-er”. Soon many others sent passport photos and, still not knowing what they were joining, they were still willing to join. Soon members began to question what it was they were joining. Soon after Danny set out his first task for his Joinees: It is better, think I, always to make happy, those gentlemen who are in advance of you in years!”
Soon after Danny received an email from Joinee Davies. He told of how he and four other Joinees had “the most exciting day in the name of Join Me.” They found several old men sitting on deckchairs and brought them cups of tea, and of course took pictures of the events. Later they paid for a hamburger for an old man in McDonald’s. Later they found an old man in a bar and asked “Can I make you happy?” This old man had no money to get the train home so they kindly gave him £38 for his fare home. At this point Danny knew he had found his purpose, even if it was only to “make old men happy.” The aims soon changed.
In some ways I feel bad for doing this. I’m not sure if I should…
I spent the evening playing Grand Theft Auto with my bro, crashing the Cheetah, the PCJ-600 and the Sanchez when I suddenly remembered “Top Gear! What time is it?” It was 7:30pm. “Phew.” I still had time.
Yes I was looking forward to watching Top Gear. I do thoroughly enjoy the show and would watch it if it’s on and I happen to be watching TV, which isn’t very often but thats not the point. But today was different - they were showing Richard Hammond’s high-speed crash that happened in September ‘06. So naturally we made it a family affair - even my mum sat down to watch it.
I’m assuming it did get some pretty high viewing figures, but does that make it right? I feel I should watch the rest of the series to make up for it. I’m pretty sure I won’t, but I want to. They did do a good job of keeping us hanging. Leaving it to the end of the show. The story about how they managed to fix a road in 24hrs was a bit crap and long. An interesting topic, maybe, though they could have perhaps cut it a little shorter.
Then the moment came. Before showing the clips Richard talked us through what was happening. First run. Then second run, with the afterburner. Each time I saw the clips I felt scared myself. The sound of the engine and the sound of his voice. After the second run Richard felt amazing, so much adrenaline and he felt “so alive.”
They had the track until 5:30pm. It was 5pm, so why not give it another go, eh. Then it happened. Scary indeed.
I really think Richard has handled it so well. The press, the hassle, the questions, and finally, watching it back and having to talk everyone through it.
He has even written a blog post about it on the Top Gear website. Like he said to Jeremy Clarkson after the clip was shown, “Can we never mention the crash on Top Gear again?” he has reiterated this in his blog post saying “Now that we’ve spoken about it on the programme and shown the footage, maybe this crash business will start to fade into the distance.”
I look forward to seeing Richard race around a deserted road in a fast car again soon.
For those who didn’t manage to see the show:
edit - The video seems to have been removed (surprise surprise!), Here it is via Digg Mirror
Microsoft Windows Errors - in Haiku
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
A collection of handwritten ‘ToDo’ lists
World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion
[youtube]eAhfZUZiwSE[/youtube]
This is unbelievable! A car drawn in MSPaint - great choice of backing track.
[youtube]ElrldD02if0[/youtube]
Are you struggling with undesired same-sex attractions? Maybe you have been a Homosexual for a long time, but now are searching for a way out. You have come to the right place! Love God’s Way is offering hope and help to people seeking freedom from being Gay. We believe and we have seen in thousands of lives that this freedom is possible through the power of our C.H.O.P.S program working in our hearts and minds.
Struggling, undesired, searching for a way out, hope, help, freedom from being gay…
The above is an excerpt from Donnie Davies’ site www.lovegodsway.org. It is quite undecided whether Davies is a genuine comic, or a genuine tosser. Whatever he is - he is brave to be so anti-gay. C.H.O.P.S stands for Changing Homosexuals (into) Ordinary People. Donnie himself is a reformed homosexual and likes to quote Oscar Wilde apparently a reformed homosexual also.
By letting people know that “God hates a Fag” I am doing Gods work, I’m preaching.
He had a myspace page until this morning, strangely enough, and some of his videos have been removed from YouTube, though there are are some there now. He is very proud of his song ‘The Bible Says’ by his band The Evening Service. It can only be taken as humour with lines like “The Bible says, plain as day, with a man, you shall not lay.†Followed by the chorus; “God hates a fag, God hates a fag, If you’re a fag, God hates you too.”
The biggest give away that this is an act is the section of the site listing ‘gay‘ and ‘safe‘ bands. Each
category definitely has some questionable choices. By ’safe’ does he mean they are definitely not gay, or good wholesome Christian music? Either way, the Dresden Dolls and Cyndi Lauper are safe. But watch out for The Scissor Sisters, Interpol, The Doors, Phish, The Strokes, The Killers, Metallica, Sufjan Stevens, Jay-Z, Nirvana, Frank Sinatra, Arcade Fire, Audioslave, and of course Elton John.
In one of his video message put on Youtube yesterday he says “…its a wonderful message, a message of Jesus love, he does love you but god hates you and thats just the bible” I’m not quite sure what that means.
Whatever he is he’s good at it and seems to have quite a fan base from both perspectives, and plenty who just hate him. I think he’s growing on me - as a comedian. Plenty of theories to go around.
Does this say something about the Christian church or this mans morals as a ‘Christian’.
Bottom line - no man can really be that superficial, can they?
I got off the bus and reached for my phone to check the time - it was gone.
I had done it again. I had left my phone behind.
I checked my pockets about 6 times each. Trouser front and back pockets, coat front and inside pockets. Multiple times. No phone. It was gone. I got to the end of my street and ran. Not quite sure what I was running for, but run I did. Then I was stopped by a few friends getting into their car off to play a gig in a city not so far away. Telling the story, he lent me his phone to call the house of the friend I was with on the bus to get his mobile number, write it down, only to remember his phone had died suddenly a few hours prior.
Having planned a relaxing night with a bottle of wine and a movie I just couldn’t relax. Eventually rolled a cigarette and took the 5 minute trek to the video rental store, then the off-license, then the kebab shop.
Half way through the movie I was relieved to eventually receive an email from my pal saying he had my phone. Indeed a huge relief! I am still feeling extremely relived. When I get that phone back I will caress it gently then promise never to let it out of my sight again! NEVER!
When two people realise they are are both going in different directions and constantly questioning the direction in which the other is heading, is it a sign that they are “falling out of love”? It seems to be happening in my case. I don’t want it to happen. We do not have the same interests nor do we strive for the same goals. I am happy for the person in question. However, I will remain my sarcastic self. I will remain in my own beliefs. One should not have a problem with the other. I have no problems. When you grow up with someone all your life and are so close to someone it can take a small amount of adjusting when they begin to change their ways. Adjusting is all it will take. Things will change.
Its funny how people change. It is possible. I see that. People can indeed change. I respect every bit of the change in people. Determined, devoted, driven, motivated, and with enough faith, people can and will change. So much so, that those close to them do notice these changes, and they must if the changes are the be vast enough. To see it happen before your very eyes can be a hard thing. It is quite hard at times. There will be conflicts. But each should respect the other still.
The conflict will pass. These things always do.
It seems to be that throughout the whole of January people talk about their new year’s resolutions. Whether they have still managed to keep to them and if they have given up. Then there’s the people who go through the whole month saying “another of my new resolutions is to…” 3 weeks into the month.
I do have some. Some I plan to start in a few weeks/months and one or two I have started. Though for the most part, I don’t generally bother. This year I hope to quit smoking - but I’m postponing it for a bit - definitely by 30th April though. Another is to ease up on my alcohol intake. I guess I have made some headway with that one. Thirdly I plan to blog more - that one I’m certainly doing.
Another is to watch more movies. At one point last year I said (though I put it down to having had a few drinks) I want to try watching a movie everyday for a year. This will never ever work out, so i quickly scraped it. This year though, I am going to watch more movies than before. This week I watched three. Three great movies. The Last Kiss (Zach Braff), Brokeback Mountain and The Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith). I enjoyed each one. Each time I do something that I don’t do very often, then do it three days in a row it just makes me want to do it every day.
However, my new plan is to watch all of the movies that have been nominated for an Oscar this year. I have 30 days to see as many as possible. Certainly the main categories; picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor/actress, original screenplay. So far I’ve seen 3, out of 58! I reckon the hardest category will be ‘documentary feature’ and ‘documentary short’, but I have until this time next year.
I have made a list of all 41 movies with Oscar nominations. those in bold I have seen. Check my progress here.
I just noticed that my last 4 entries have fit nicely into the ‘annoyances’ category. This is not supposed to be a blog of me complaining about all things small and only significant to me. No no no. For the next week I will only post happy thoughts :)
I do not like using my mobile phone to make calls, not when I get free txts at least. In fact, let me rephrase that - I do like making calls rather than sending txts, the reason I don’t most of the time is often due to the high cost of mobile calls.
I have heard of a great invention by the name of voice-over IP. Apparently through software applications, such as Skype, can make cheap to free calls anywhere in the world.
I have heard some people referring to it as ‘VOIP’, pronouncing it phonetically, but I think that just sounds silly.
Unfortunately it also needs some hardware in the form of a microphone, or a headset, which seems to be the more popular, and more practical method. However, I have a problem with these headsets. Each one I have tried I haven’t liked for one reason or another. Generally the problem is related to the sound not being great for the person on the other end, or it is uncomfortable.
I did once spend €10 crediting my account only to have most of it taken from me as it wasnt used within six months. My problem right now is that I do not have access to a landline telephone - except in work and when I go to the parents house on a Sunday. Neither of these, however, can be abused.
Conclusion: Get a headset!
Granted I don’t spend a considerable amount topping up my phone each month, helped by the fact that my txts are free, but I like talking to friends and want to have the ability to do so, without paying a lot of money.
Not being sure where to start, I’d love to hear what headset you use and what you think of it compared with others.
Why is it that Telephone and PC/calculator keypads have to be different?
Does no one else get pissed off at keying phone numbers wrong?
[update]
It turns out no one knows - but there are theories.