where did time go?

I remember turning 10, then 17 was years away and the point where I could learn to drive.

I reached 17 and driving was the least of my worries

at 25 I got my first job in IT, learned to drive, and started smoking, in roughly that order.

I by hit 30 and didn't give shit about driving, life was hard. Driving was something not fun, I was single and had been for too long.
,
I turned 31 and panicked, My god I was in my 30's

33 I got married, my first child was born before I was 34

40 was a blur, I vaguely remember where I worked and how my life was different.

At 43 I was divorced and expecting my 3rd child!

In less than a fortnight I turn 45, I have 3 children, 1 divorce, a new girlfriend (at 44 do you say that) and my own business that is faltering, but which I have invested my life savings into.

I know I have a good product, and a novel new way to promote and fund it, seems no-one is interested, they'd rather pay a pittance for crap or a fortune to get screwed by a big corp. meanwhile, with clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you.

Postcards people, where next for petey?

Duke Numem : Forever

Was taking "forever" to come out, it's a standing joke now.

So a group of fans decided to release Duke Nukem : Eternity

I reckon it looks OK, not tried to play it yet though.

I used to enjoy the original Duke Nukem game, so this is now on my "things to try" list.

There's a video here of it

This is great : if sport was reported like science is today

Science is reported as if no-one knows anything, and is dumbed down, this article shows how ridiculous that can seem by applying it to football.

http://uffish.net/archives-new/2010/06/if-sports-got-reported-like-science.html

arc90 readability button : now for Opera Browser

Those lovely people at arc90 produced a readability button for firefox

http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

Now useful as this is there was no setup for Opera, so I took the "best setting" IMHO and made a button generator for Opera for it.

Readability for Opera : Click on that link and the Opera "My Buttons" panel willopen, drag the readability button onto your task bar where you want it.

This is maybe not the best solution for everybody, and I know Opera has style sheet overrides for pages that display terribly (e.g. small yellow text on black, my pet hate) but it helps me, so I thought I'd share. Maybe someone from acr90 could produce a better button generator like on their own website, rather than this one which simply is based on my preferences.

Perhaps when I have time I will try to produce something similar.

The Baseballs - Strike

Well Cool album, I was lucky and got a UK pre release copy to review, read my review here.

The Baseballs - Strike - Album Review

Temple Newsam Woods

Just a couple if pictures from our walk today.

The woods were carpeted in bluebells and looked spectacular.

And I rather liked the reflections in this picture looking through one of the bridges.

Fog lights and rainy days

I see this all the time, and it bugs me, people who think that if it's a bit rainy they should put their fog lights on.

I think in all my 20 odd driving years I have only had cause to put my fog lights on twice, in both cases the fog was so bad I couldn't see more than 100 yards (think metres youngsters) in front of me.

The highway code lays out the law as to when you should use fog lights, it's perfectly clear.

Highway Code : Driving in adverse weather conditions.

Especially of note is this section.

236

You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.

This old road safety film featuring former Blue Peter presenter Peter Purves explains in more detail why using fog lights in rain is a bad idea, perhaps it should be re-broadcast?



OK, Grump over, carry on!

It must be true

I read it in the Daily Mail



Linky

Ah the good old Daily Fail

As up to date and current as ever, This story look familiar?

Daily Fail

It should do, I blogged about it in November 2008

http://therealteardrop.blogspot.com/2008/11/welsh-road-sign-mix-up.html

The BBC story I got it from was published just the day before my blog post, if you compare the text from the Mail and the BBC you can see a lot of similarities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm

Of course the Daily Mail would like to see the BBC shut down, which does beg the question, where would they steal their stories from then?

For posterity, and because I suspect they will remove the story soon, here's the text as it currently reads on the Mails web site. They can hardly do me for copyright when the blatantly ripped off the BBC in the first place!

It seemed like a simple request.

Swansea Council sent an email to its in-house translations service to have a road sign - 'No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only' - translated into Welsh.

The only problem was that the Welsh translator wasn't in at the time. An automated email response was sent to council officials who believed it was exactly what they needed.

But in fact it stated: 'I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.'

Unaware of the real meaning of the message, authorities had it printed on the road sign under the English.

The council has since taken down the sign, which barred lorries from a road near an Asda supermarket, after Welsh speakers spotted the mistake.

A council spokesman said the sign was removed as soon as it was notified of the blunder.

But it's not the only bilingual sign gaffe in Wales.

In 2006, a sign for pedestrians in Cardiff read 'Look Right' in English and 'Look Left' in Welsh.

Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in the same year were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an 'inflamed bladder'.

Hetchell Crags and Pompocali

Hetchell Crags, (also commonly known as Thorner Craggs) just 6 miles from Crossgates is an impressive set of cliffs popular with rock climbers. We went to find it, and the strange place which is Pompocali.

After a false start, having not been there in over 15 years, we parked up and one fairly short muddy walk later we found the crags.












































After a brief explore it was on to find this place I had heard of, Pompocali. No-one seems to sure who made these strange earthworks, and pictures where few and far between.

Some people believe they are spoils from the local Roman quarry, although there are theories the earthworks are older than that. If the Roman theory is accepted, there still remains the puzzle as to why build something so complex simply as a spoil tip, each section is pyramid stacked, layer upon layer to provide stability and longevity.

This is an aerial view from google maps.

But the true scale can only be seen at ground level, with children for scale.

Simon's Cat

New Video now available, extended Snow business now with Part 2



Love it.

Spot the hippie

points but no prizes



I guess my "friend" who thinks I am a communist will be certain of it now ;)

(yes it was a fancy dress night)

(no most of it wasn't "costume" but my own clothes)

(I did decorate the jeans, with Alex's help)