This week's support

I've been on second line this week which means that someone else fields the calls and I'm their back up. So far I've had absolutely no calls this week.

which is nice!

B-Boy Championships

This weekend sees me at the 9th B-Boy Championships for a weekend of hip hop, spinning, MCing, more spinning, Scratching and more spinning.

Saturday is the single battles and they have popping for the first time this year. I'm looking forward to the latter more than the breakdancing.

Sunday is the team battles which are the highpoint as long as the rules aren't too strict.
The battles in 2002 featured skateboards, chairs, costumes amongst other things. Last year there was none of that which didn't make it all that entertaining.

If I don't seem the sort of person to spend all weekend at an event like this then I'm glad I'm surprised you. I've not missed an event in the 8 years it's been running so far, and don't intend to anytime soon.

the official site

Burnout 3 update

Well I've completed what I thought was the final grand prix only to be offered a 4 race series with formula 1 cars. This is proving to be too tricky for me. I'm only able to get points in one of the races. If you crash then that's pretty much it as the other cars leave you for dust.

I'll keep at it though.

The other site...

...is almost complete. I'm exactly 200/268ths of the way through and should hopefully have it finished in the next day or two. Now if I could just stop allowing distractions to get in the way.

Dentist's Again

Round 2 with the Dentist today - fillings and cleaning

The fillings were not too bad at all, the drilling was OK, the only problem was the nurse was a crap aim with the sucker thing and ended up attempting to vaccuum my tongue on more than one occasion.

It was the cleaning that was painful though. Some sort of ultrasonic brush which when put close to my gum line was more painful than any of the tattoos I've had done. I've been told that the new ultrasonic brushes you can buy are nothing like this. I'm glad of that, but will not be buying one anytime soon. I'm not that masochistic.

And the cost of all this enjoyment? £165 if you please.

I have one more round to go, in 2 weeks time.

Working elsewhere

I've not put much stuff on the site over the weekend because I've been working on another site, listing the coasters I've ridden.

I'll link it to this upon completion.

New Michel Gondry Video

Michel Gondry is one of my favourite music directors. He's the guy that did the Chemical Brother's video with the scenery passing the train window in time to the music. He has also done a couple of movies, the most recent of which was "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

Occasionally he dips back to music videos, the one below is for a track called "Behind" by a French act called "Lacquer". Whilst the track isn't all that great, the concept of the video is superb - a time lapse recording of a road trip from L.A. to New York.

Enjoy!

Behind video

Party Ben Sixx Mixx

This chap Ben has a radio show in San Fransisco and plays some superb mixed sets. Whereas most mixes are clubbing tune based, these are a mix of Indy, 80s & rap. So if want to hear Franz Ferdinand mixed with Faithless mixed with The Beasties then try here.

SixxMixx

Force and Styles

Listening to "All over the UK" tonight and reminiscing. How good were Force and Styles back in the day? Why on earth did they go and hand over the rights to all their tracks to Flip and Fill (who've only gone and ruined everything they ever did).

Back From Belgium

Another great weekend, no beer, but plenty of chocolate and waffles.
Bobbejaanland and Six Flags Belgium are both great theme parks, the latter will be better when they lose the Six Flags label.

Like the green aliens in Futurama, Corporate firms can really suck the life out of a park.

Away for the weekend

This weekend I'm off with the ECC to Belgium for a weekend of roller coasters, chocolate and alcohol.

Having never been to Belgium before, it'll be another place I can say I've been to.

Bootleg Music

Currently my favourite music download site is http://boomselection.info/ . If you like bootlegs and mash ups then this is probably the best place to go (that I've found so far).

Remember the old days of hip hop when rappers would battle rivals on their tracks. Well it looks like it's the turn of the ladies. The site has a Lady Sovereign track for downloading where she's absolutely ripping into Jenita, who I've never heard of.

The site also has some full length mixes for downloading, which take forever to download on my ickle ol' dial up connection. So why don't I upgrade to broadband? Two reasons.

1) I am hoping to move soon into my new home, if the stupid freeholder pulls his finger out and stops stalling the process (I'll moan about this in another post).
2) If I had broadband I'd not go out at all, and I'm supposed to be going to the gym more often.

So for now I'm persevering with what I have.

New Orange Commerical

Telecommunications company Orange are sponsoring cinema in the UK and every month or so they show a vignette before the film starts. In it a well known movie star is trying to pitch a new movie idea to a bunch of Orange Executives who take their concept and twist them to suit their mobile phone products.

To date we've had..

Roy Scheider
"The Columbian Connection", a piece shot as "Film Noir", is changed to "Film Oránge".

Carrie Fisher
19th Century period drama where 2 characters write to each other via letter is moved to the 21st century and they communicate via text messages.

Spike Lee
"Black and Blue", a movie based on the Boston basketball team and about colour is moved to Orange County and the team is changed to the Giants, who play in Orange.

Alan Cumming
Guy lost in Vietnam is rescued after sending text messages for help.

Sean Astin
Concept for a film set in New York becomes the fourth film in the trilogy, "Lord of the Ringtones - Return of the text message".

The latest one features Verne Troyer trying to sell a film about a man who has to overcome challenges in his life and includes references to "frickin'" and "1 million pounds" complete with little-finger-in-mouth pose. I think this has been the funniest one yet.

One reason why I think these ads work is that they don't outstay their shelf life, unlike most of the adverts shown in cinemas (the twenty year old thieving snake springs to mind). They're kept fresh.

Unfortunately I can't find any transcripts or downloads for those who can't get to a British cinema. Maybe in time Orange will correct this.

Supersize Me

Whilst I was down in Camden I thought I'd get out of the rain and go and see "Supersize Me". I'm sure there's no need to explain the film; every media outlet is currently reporting on it at the moment.

The film puts together a strong case for not believing everything McDs tell you about how good their food is, and is extremely educational and insightful. If I was Health Minister I'd ensure this documentary was shown to every school kid in the country. In fact I'd do my utmost to have it shown on prime time TV.

Whereas Fahrenheit 411 was excessively schmaltzy and a questionable view of it's clearly biased director, this was much more factual and there was a smaller argument for saying that the report was manipulated and one-sided. I mean how much clearer can you get than showing how much the size of the portions have changed over time than putting the cups alongside each other (a normal cup a few years ago is now a kid's size etc.). The only bit which I think is open to question is the experiment with the kids recognising pictures of famous people, naming Ronald McDonald but not Jesus. If you edit the footage to only show the "don't know" responses you can easily add weight to your argument.

Another interesting thing to note is that McDonalds have paid to show a commerical before the film which advertises a website saying what aspects of the film they agree and disagree. Given the impact this film had in the States, where they no longer sell super size portions, I doubt many people will be interested in seeing their argument. They've already lost!

For the record, I ceased eating McDonalds 3 years ago after reading "Fast Food Nation", although a few weeks ago I did have a Quorn Burger, but only because I was drunk and hungry at 2 in the morning following the Comedy Club on Thursday night. Yes, I agree I must have been drunk to have ordered the Quorn Burger of all things.

Halloween Mission - The Boiler Suit

I have an invite to a Halloween Party that my best friend is organising for next month, and as she's insisting on it being a fancy dress affair, I've started looking for my costume.

The plan is to go as Jason Voorhees, the ice-hockey masked killer from the Friday 13th movies. The costume itself should be pretty straightforward; a blue boiler suit, big boots, the aforementioned mask and a machete. I have some ideas for extra effects to make the costume a bit better but that can come later.

So, today was supposed to be the first attempt at getting the costume. I have the boots already, and I thought I'd go for the boiler suit today whilst down at Camden Market.

Now for those who don't know about Camden Market, it's the biggest alternative market in the UK and it takes place every Saturday and Sunday. I think a few hundred thousand people visit it each weekend, it's that big. It's as diverse as you'll get in London, with a mixture of Goths, Skaters, Punks and toursits (lots of those). You can buy pretty much everything, except as it turns out all-in-one navy boiler suits. I couldn't find one anywhere, in fact, I couldn't find anything close. Some old all in one ski suits was the nearest I could find.

I did however see some Guantanamo convict outfits, well the shirts at least. If I don't have much success on the Jason outfit then I'll consider that as a back up plan, although I'd have to figure out a way to dance in shackles.

Burnout 3

This game came out in the UK on Friday and I picked up a copy on the way home. Now it's been taking over most of my weekend. It's a great game and is insanely fast. It's very easy to play it for so long that you just fall into a "zone" and before you know it hours have passed.

An amazing game that is sure to gain major accolades.

The only downside? I'm now left with a copy of Burnout 2 that I'm unlikely to ever play. One for the charity shop I think.

Bar 242 Comedy Night

OK, my first plug for something.

Once a month a local bar, near where I work, has a comedy night. It has had them in place for a number of months now (they used to be twice a week) but the attendance of the public has been pretty shocking. The place does advertise but people don't come.

Last night, the evening was headlined by Tim Vine who was throwing jokes out faster than you could keep up with, something he's well known for doing. There were 3 others before him, who varied from pretty diabolical to pretty funny. From an audience point of view I think there were around 20 people there and its a shame as the event deserves more.

So, if you're at a loose end on the first Thursday of each month get yourself to Bar 242 on the SE corner of Blackfriar's Road and Southwark Street.

Best Joke.
(paraphrased). "I went up to Scotland with Easy Jet" and was going to fly back with BA but he didn't want to fly with me. Kept going on, "I aint flyin' on no plane, crazy fool".

Best Heckle (Tied)
"I apologise, I said you look Jewish and you're not"
"You look funny but you're not".

"Anyone got any questions" (He was dying at this point)
"Do you know any jokes?"

Something else that tends to happen at these nights, is that I always seem to end up quite pissed; I suspect something to do with the amount of wine our group gets through. On this particular occasion, I staggered home at 3 a.m. having just missed the hourly night bus that takes me home. The downside is that it takes me forever to get home on the night bus as I live at the final stop, the good side is that I can fall asleep and be woken up by the driver when he gets there.

New Hollywood Action Hero

This footage has been sneaked out of a movie agents in the states, I suspect to build up some hype for his impending debut.

One to watch out for perhaps!

Audition

Things you may have missed at Legoland

These kiddy parks may not be as innocent as first seems.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > North County -- Mature images Legoland builder's inside joke

Bouncy Castle Tricks

I discovered the following at this weekend's trip to Southport.

Post to Post
Person A leans against the left hand post facing the post opposite.
Persons B & C then run at full speed from the left hand side of the castle to the right and throw all their weight into the wall.

Result - Person A is launched across the entrance way of the castle face first into the post opposite.


Through the wall
Person A leans against the right hand wall.
Persons B & C then run at full speed from outside the bouncy castle into the side of it.

Result - Person A is launched unexpectedly across the castle into the opposite wall.

The European Coaster Club

A few years ago, I decided that I got fed up with beach holidaying and wanted to do something different. I've always liked theme parks and would visit Alton Towers every year, so I decided to see if there were any holiday companies that specialised in theme park holidays.

Other than Virgin holidays to Florida I couldn't find anything but I did come across a couple of Coaster Clubs which arranged trips abroad. Bingo! So they'd do all the work and I'd pay and go along.

There are 2 main clubs in the UK, the Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain and the European Coaster Club. I wrote to the first and got no reply, not the best start. Then I saw the chairman of that club on a documentary and to put it bluntly he played up to the camera and looked like a dick. He's the guy who wears a suit with a coaster design and has a "coaster-handshake". So I was turned off this club.

Coincidentally, the other club was touring Scandinavia as I was looking to join and I was reading the reports which were being posted daily to their website and I decided that this looked like the better club to join up to.

This was 3 years ago. Since joining I've been to France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Spain and all over the American West Coast. I've also been to most of the parks in the UK.

Along the way I've made some great friends too!

Anyway the point of this post is to say that I'll be away this weekend to Southport to visit a couple of parks up there that I've not been to before.

The European Coaster Club

Work today

Not the best day today. Spent the afternoon with the client and discovered that they were wanting to put some changes in for the weekend without running them past the team first.

They wouldn't have worked, so I had to remain in the office to rewrite the pages to help them out.

I won't be in the office tomorrow to see the work through (see next post for reasons why) so someone else is going to have to pick it up.

Now this wasn't an interesting post to read really, was it?

Dentists

A workmate had brought some chocolates back from Florida for us all to eat. I bit into one and heard a crunch, it turned out I'd broken my tooth. So a quick call, and I was off to the dentists to get it patched up.

100 pounds later, it's fixed and not surprisingly there is more work to do in my mouth, so I need 2 more visits.

Fortunately, the dentist wanted to do some root canal work which would have set me back another 300 pounds, however he couldn't find the nerve to work on as it had retreated. Hurrah for my natural defences. I saved myself a small fortune there.