Year: 2008

Another meme today, while I watch Red Sonja for probably the eighth time 🙂 This one’s borrowed from Dawn the RetardedRugrat :

MOUTHOLOGY :

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice ?
Erm – what’s salad dressing ? 🙂

Q. What is your favourite fast food restaurant ?
KFC – because I can have reasonable confidence that the meat was actually chicken at some point.

Q. What is your favourite sit-down restaurant ?
The Carvery just down the road from where I live. Haven’t had a good excuse to go there for ages though.

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant ?
On average, about 10% but it depends on how good the service was. Surly people will be very lucky to get tips, Smiling cheerful people get extra.

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of it ?
People might expect me to say pizza here but I’m actually going to say cheese sarnies for lunch 🙂 I like a bit of variation though on my dinners.

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice ?
Ham & pineapple, Ham & mushroom, Ham & pepperoni, Ham & …

Q. What do you like to put on your toast ?
I like toast with my butter. Not had cheese on toast for ages …

TECHNOLOGY :

Q. What is the wallpaper on your computer ?
Lara Croft on apps desktop – yes, I’m ashamed but the picture I would like on there is buried on a hard disc that’s in an inactive machine at the moment … And it was a misclick that got the Lara Croft piccy on there – honest !

Q. How many televisions are in your house ?
Only the one and I’m waiting for it to break so I can have an excuse to upgrade to HD.

BIOLOGY :

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed ?
Right handed. I thought about trying to learn how to bowl left handed to get around the shoulder problem but I just can’t get my head around the whole body motion of bowling the wrong way.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body ?
Not that I know of … Apart from one of my teeth when it was falling apart.

Q. When was the last time you lost a cavity ?
Da tooth that was falling apart. Continuous pain made it a relief, I didn’t get any sleep the night before.

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted ?
Really heavy item ? Probably my 28″ widescreen CRT telly from a few years ago when I got it. Lifted it out the box all on my own, which was a Really Stupid Thing to do 🙂

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious ?
I don’t think so. Not even when the cricket ball broke my nose, although I may have gone black for an instant there.

BULLSHITOLOGY :

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die ?
Not particularly, because I’d start second guessing myself about it. And I’ve figured that second guessing something tends to provoke it into happening anyway.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to ?
I contemplated using my second name (Robert) when I went to uni but didn’t carry it through because people would call “ROB!” and I wouldn’t have a clue who they meant.

Q. What colour do you think looks best on you ?
Black, cos of the contrast with blond(ish) hair and pasty white skin 🙂

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake ?
Sooo glad (???!???!!) it was a fly and not a wasp or a bee.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life ?
Not that I know of – never been put into that position. Although hopefully by acting daft I’ve helped people out of deep depression at times.

Q. Has someone ever saved your’s ?
No – never been in that position. The nose was bad but I didn’t need resuscitation.

DAREOLOGY :

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100 ?
No harm in it – easy money.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for £200,000 ?
I’m not that desperate for money …

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000 ?
Muahaha – I’d Facebook instead 🙂

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for £250,000 ?
Hell yeah – I’d even give the photographer back a couple of thousand to compensate him for the cameras that would shatter upon capturing me naked 🙂 Would that muscle pose be with gut sucked in or left out ? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000 ?
No. That’s too close to sadomasochism and self-abuse for my tastes.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000 ?
This is a death penalty question … I have to say that I’m not against the death penalty. There are people out there who society should not be exposed to and there’s no way to integrate these people back into society. But it’s a very final judgement. What if the court is wrong ? Whichever way that goes, I would not want to be the person doing the deed.

DUMBOLOGY :

Q. What is in your left pocket ?
The hanky I use to clean my glasses. The biohazard hanky gets kept in my right pocket.

Q. Is Napolean Dynamite actually a good movie ?
Not seen it, have no intention of seeing it … Sounds like overhyped, which usually means Rubbish.

Q. Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house ?
Short carpet in living room, wood floor in bedroom. I prefer the wood floor, the dust collects up in bunnies that are easily dealt with. Carpets are harder to look after.

Q. Do you sit or stand in the shower ?
I stand.

Q. Could you live with roommates ?
I used to – but I got sick of it after 6 years. Living on my own is fine but I would like to share a house with someone special again. However shared accommodation outside of a relationship is something I’ll be avoiding.

Q. How many pairs of flip flops do you own ?
I have work shoes, trainers, old shoes, shoes with spikes in but no flip flops.

Q. Last time you had a run in with the cops ?
I bounced my dad’s car off a copcar on Xmas Eve a few years ago … But we got it put down as their fault because he pulled out of a junction too close to me.

Q. What do you want to be when you grow up ?
An Astronaut ! It might be a little late for that now and my shoulder might keep me out of the programme.

Q. Who is number 1 on your top 8 ?
The family up norf.

LASTOLOGY :

Q. Last friend you talked to ?
The delightful IT Girl as part of figuring out some IT arrangements for a change that’s coming …

Q. Last person who called you ?
My boss, to tell me that he wouldn’t be in work yesterday. The actual answer is different – but I think the boss one is funnier 🙂

Q. Person you hugged ?
Craziequeen, far too long ago.

FAVOURITOLOGY :

Q. Number ?
The number 3, representing a Beginning, a Middle and an End.

Q. Season ?
Cricket season 🙂

CURRENTOLOGY :

Q. Missing someone ?
I miss having someone special around, to share everything with. Whether that be good times, bad times or just to be able to make laugh on the spur of the moment. I also miss the Eve group, because it was an excellent break in the routine to go hit the Wishing Well pub for an evening every once in a while to have an out of game natter.

Q. Mood ?
A little bored, there’s only so many times you can watch Red Sonja before you can play it in your mind’s eye while listening to it off the telly.

Q. Listening to ?
Red Sonja 🙂

Q. Watching ?
Red Sonja 🙂 Rise is also on the SkyPlus box with Stargate-Atlantis and a half dozen Star Trek DS9 episodes. Next dvd to watch is Return of the King.

Q. Worrying about ?
Whether I’ll get decent sleep tonight or if insomnia and a 2-3am sleeptime routine will continue when I don’t want it to.

RANDOMOLOGY :

Q. First place you went this morning ?
Bathroom …

Q. What can you not wait to do ?
There’s something happening with work next week, which should be good fun. I can’t say what it is though because people might get annoyed with me for all the wrong reasons.

Q. What’s the last movie you saw ?
Cinema – Babylon AD with Vin Diesel.
Telly – Red Sonja’s credits are rolling at the moment.
DVD – The Two Towers extended version. (Much better than the cinematic)

Q. Do you smile often ?
Oh yes 🙂 And I got a few smiles and a big grin out of The Blonde With No Name today.

Q. Are you a friendly person ?
Yes, although there is a demon in me that gets out when I’m angry or driving.

Danger – part of this post will include a rant 🙂

I’m going through a change in electric & gas supplier at the moment, away from the so-called British Gas (they’re actually owned by Germans I believe). A decent amount of time ago, BG were producing adverts that translate to “we’re really green and eco-friendly, we give people energy saving lightbulbs. For free”

It’s a fine sentiment, for a bribe … Did it work to keep me with them as a customer ? Nah. Someone young and pretty came knocking at the door saying another company could provide the goods cheaper and I’m a sucker for a pretty face. It did help though that BG had been steadily raising the rate they’d been charging.

Customer service is everything – and BG really blew any chance they have of getting my business in the future with the phone call I got telling me that I was stupid for going to the company I’m now with. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s someone attempting to bully me.

Oh – back to the lightbulbs. Energy saving bulbs is something I’d like to move towards and I thought the bribe might be the perfect opportunity …

Just one problem.

The bulbs BG tried to bribe me with won’t fit – and I can’t get a suitable light fitting (flush ceiling fittings use screw, not bayonet) at places like Argos ! Ah well – time for plan B, which is to keep getting old type lightbulbs to replace the ones wot go PoP. At least old type non-energy saving bulbs don’t contaminate your living room with Mercury if the seal breaks on them.

Anyway – British Gas. Fine company, masquerading under one country’s name when they’re really owned by people in another. Amazing customer service, as in they will amaze you with their poor conduct when you dare to leave them. I’ve been with them twice, will never go near them again.

Other news – I might be closer to a laptop change – Firefox ended up having a fight with Windows last night, leading to a few Weird Problems. Hopefully it’s fixed, although it needed a couple of System Restores to sort things out. I still have a functioning Start Menu at least, which was one of those Weird Problems. With the various hardware problems this laptop has, it’s one straw away from being replaced – it’s just not worth the hassle of a full system rebuild.

Oh – I ended up being in the position of being in the same place at the same time as last week’s encounter with Cute Artist Girl – she wasn’t there this week though. Time to go back to hoping for a glimpse of Miss L, a chat with Miss A and a shared Big Grin with The Blonde With No Name.

Been doing that shopping without buying anything again today …

There’s a new revamp of the centre of Bristol that opened last week – the Cabot Circus development. What they’ve done is take an area of the centre of Bristol that was getting rather run down and neglected and turned it into a shopping centre. Complete with cinema and a couple of the decent name department stores slotting in alongside lots of clothes shops, munchie shops and curiosity shops.

Not a bad little collection. They’ve anticipated the weather too, with glass overhead providing cover from the elements. The engineer eye couldn’t miss seeing that they’ve been smart with the design, by not totally enclosing the area with the glass ceiling, there’s gaps to let the air in with drains overlapping the gaps to keep the rain out.

Car parking there works well, the entrance sucks the cars off the M32 before they clog up the rest of the city. Before Cabot Circus, all the cars would tornado round the city streets in the hunt for a space in one of the myriad car parks spread around the centre. Getting out is more of a problem though but that’s due to Bristol drivers not knowing that they shouldn’t sit on yellow boxes blocking people’s exits.

Did I buy anything today ? Nah. It’s too close to birthday and Xmas season to risk upsetting someone by buying what they’ve already acquired. Patience Mode to On.

I’d already had breakfast at work, with the lovely Angela joining us too which was a pleasant surprise, so not too much lunch needed. Which was probably a good thing seeing as the various “Insert-Coffee-Shop-Name-Here” places in Cabot were packed. So I nipped off to the other large shopping centre in Bristol where I ended up watching someone again …

I like a bit of hot chocolate and the place I went hunting for it has had a bit of a Chinese invasion. Chinese girl on the till wearing a t-shirt with a bunny on it. Chinese lad with spiky hair doing the coffees and the hot chocolates. Chinese girl “in the back” (figuratively speaking) doing the washing up. What I noticed was the energy these three brought to the job, especially the one with the bunny.

If you can imagine 3 people doing the work of five, that’s how bouncy these three were. If there’s one characteristic the Chinese people seem to share, it’s to throw themselves into whichever task is before them wholeheartedly. It shows by how they seem to ration the minutes in the day, getting as much value as they can out of each and every second. It’s an admirable characteristic, although it does show me up for the lazy person that I am.

They didn’t appear rushed though, Spiky Lad had a big smile when he came over with my Toastie and Bunny Girl was very patient with me when I was having trouble making out her accent. I think she was hyper to my hypo. The sad thing though is that the new shopping area looks to be drawing trade away from the older area as people look to the New Thing. BB’s didn’t have any queue, whereas I walked out of the “Insert-Coffee-Shop-Name” places in Cabot due to huge queues (at 2.30 ish). Hopefully that will balance out over time.

Time to get back to book/game plus iTunes – I have a challenge this weekend, to try and get the “Recently Played” to over a 1000 different tracks. It’s now sitting at 892 different songs played over the last 14 days, for a total of 2 days 14 hours. There’s 1700 tracks for iTunes to choose from on this laptop, so I think I have a decent chance to hit that 1000.

PS Now playing Antmusic by Adam and the Ants.

Wonder if there will be a Cute Artist Girl at the new shopping area in the centre of Bristol …

It opened last week and my curiosity will probably take me there this weekend 🙂

what a cool romatic story!

you must go back at the same time, same place

Mall trip tonight – acquired one thing for gaming, didn’t bother acquiring a couple of other things I might have … Partly cos the record shops don’t seem to want to sell the cd’s I’m after.

One of the things I like to do when at the Mall is to sit with my dinner and watch people go by. Discreetly and without staring of course, so I don’t end up being slapped. It seems kinda peaceful to be still amongst the bustle. I tend to go for nice quiet spots away from the noisier Mall Denizens.

Imagine my surprise when I realise I’m being watched … Tonight’s spot just happened to have a rather cute young lady not too far away. Funny that 😉 However, I think it was me getting watched more than the other way around. It started with a curious sensation of being watched, which was kinda natural because I was at about 1 o’clock to Cute Artist Girl’s eyeline.

And then the notepad comes out … I’m not quite sure what she was up to as the notepad was accompanied by a biro. The pen strokes didn’t seem to be the type of writing pen strokes though, they seemed to be the longer, more sweeping strokes of a picture. (Did I mention that I try not to stare at people ?) I don’t mind being watched, I take it as somewhat of a complement that someone finds me interesting enough to keep an eye on. For a fairly private person I do love having attention.

All good things have to come to an end though and it’s a weird coincidence that when I started to get moving, Cute Artist Girl gets moving too ;-). That notepad had been away for a little while too.

I didn’t get a name, I didn’t get a peek at that notepad but what I did get, from halfway through when the notepad was out was a shared smile. Brightened my day 🙂

Go for it 🙂 I seem to remember though a meme on your site Dawn a little while ago that I think I was going to borrow but not got around to yet …

Must peek 🙂

Loved some of your answers Pete.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to borrow this and use it on my blog.

it’s been a while since I last did a Meme.

Thanks Dianne 🙂

I guess those colours kinda fit … Although I’ve usually had more of an aptitude for figuring out machines than for figuring green things.

I like ham on my pizza and occasionally have bacon on it too … But they tend to bun the bacon when they put it on pizza.

Green – life, nature, fertility, well being
Blue – youth, spirituality, truth, peace
I found these meanings on a gemstone site – I think they suit you

I really enjoyed reading this. loved/related to many of your answers.

you can get bacon ON pizza ya know 😉

you’re quite adorable.