A Horse Wrestler's Tale

an interesting video

2008-09-20T13:29:00.000+01:00

The following video is made up of photos taken one day apart for 17 years!.

A very long term project

Wow

2008-08-28T21:43:00.010+01:00

A great if difficult festival for a lot of ops people. many highlights for me personally, but i'm not about to share them other than to say I'm proud to be a part of the most wonderful group of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Sure, not everything went to plan, but the professional way everyone dealt with the matters at hand was simply outstanding. I didn't take any photos myself so I've borrowed these from the flickr greenbelt group, in no particular order. Everyone of these people (and everyone else in ops who I haven't found picture of yet) makes this the best of times, I just wish it could last for longer each year, instead of it seeming to pass faster and faster evey time.

"that's the guy causing all the trouble" says Doggit

I'm in shock

2008-07-25T17:17:00.003+01:00

I emailed a certain FOM aka DC about something this morning and got a reply before lunchtime, actually within the hour.... That must be a record or something

and immense thanks to him for replying so fast :D

From: "DC"
To: me
Date: Fri 25 Jul 2008 11:25 AM

-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: 25 July 2008 10:34

Must have caught him at just the right moment!!!

dumbing down?

2008-07-22T13:21:00.003+01:00

I wonder why they feel the need to say who is whom in the caption for this picture on the bbc news website.

Presumably the editor was thinking "people might not be able to workout that the pretty blonde girl on the left _isn't_ Robert Plant?".

Quite good

2008-07-21T23:19:00.001+01:00

Stuart's just shown me this

Hmm

2008-03-03T20:12:00.003Z

Ok, I admit this is a little weird, but why on earth would you want to buy an inflatable "friend" for your dog?. Sure, it will reduce those embarrassing "why is your dog humping my leg/shoe/some other inanimate object" type moments, but its bound to create many more "WTF is that for!!" questions, and if the real doggie in question is nowhere to be seen, I think there are inevitable conclusions you would draw about the person who owns one......

Seriously, are dogs really ever _that_ lonely

more details

Misleading snippets

2008-01-29T15:34:00.000Z

"... citing a study which estimates that beaver-tourism could be worth £101 per household".

scanning through some automated summaries, the above caught my eye. Somehow I was expecting a story about something else entirely. I'll get my coat...

2008-01-22T23:20:00.000Z

When Darth Vader goes for lunch, ala Eddie Izzard and some Lego

Happy Christmas

2007-12-17T22:35:00.001Z

In what seems to be becoming an annual tradition, I am making a brief appearance in blog-land to display my wares by way of displaying my homemade christmas card designs for 2007. 4 different coloured versions of the same design this year. Enjoy and happy holidays.

2007-07-08T00:53:00.000+01:00

An extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO who was
among the first British soldiers to liberate Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

I can give no adequate description of the Horror Camp in which my men and myself were to spend the next month of our lives. It was just a barren wilderness, as bare as a chicken run. Corpses lay everywhere, some in huge piles, sometimes they lay singly or in pairs where they had fallen. It took a little time to get used to seeing men women and children collapse as you walked by them and to restrain oneself from going to their assistance. One had to get used early to the idea that the individual just did not count. One knew that five hundred a day were dying and that five hundred a day were going on dying for weeks before anything we could do would have the slightest effect. It was, however, not easy to watch a child choking to death from diptheria when you knew a tracheotomy and nursing would save it, one saw women drowning in their own vomit because they were too weak to turn over, and men eating worms as they clutched a half loaf of bread purely because they had to eat worms to live and now could scarcely tell the difference. Piles of corpses, naked and obscene, with a woman too weak to stand proping herself against them as she cooked the food we had given her over an open fire; men and women crouching down just anywhere in the open relieving themselves of the dysentary which was scouring their bowels, a woman standing stark naked washing herself with some issue soap in water from a tank in which the remains of a child floated. It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for these internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post mortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tatooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity.

Easy Post

2007-04-28T17:12:00.000+01:00

one word away

2007-04-10T02:14:00.000+01:00

Looking through the blogs linked from 1iz's, I noticed that the order she had discovered them (or added them to the list) and how they were often truncated read like a short story. I filled in a few gaps and got to:

Angel Lane was One Pedestrian Away from John Davies and James when The World Turned Upside Down because Random Acts... caused Greenbelt Blog to pip [bhp] Wiblogs when Rachel thought Nearly Time was Fragile Tender, she realised A Blog Less Ordinary was Good in Parts although Horse Wrestler missed Sticky Indulgences before Dog Collars & Rabbit Corpses surprised Maggi. Meanwhile Jonny suffered Benign Narcissim about Peccadillo's continued Musing Struggling Dreaming about Chronicles Volume 2 that made OnEarthAsInHeaven look like The Cartoon Blog about Sarah Contrary and Sanctus 1. Wherever The Complex Christ surrounded Suburban Mediocrity, Ben Edson found Emmoworld discovering The Harbour of Ourselves struggling to Think Speak and Do although Reasons Why I'm Misunderstood helped Dave-F realise You Can't Control the Message so he Spread These Wings and flew to clearer skies.

Yes its late. that's my excuse.

Imagini - VisualDNA widget

2007-03-15T23:48:00.000Z

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

2007-01-23T00:22:00.000Z

This probably doesn't do my "Evil Twin" credibility much good. Although I am slightly more evil than 1iz, I am only equally as evil as Sally. 1iz, from her results, I suggest we switch loyalties from our current evil mastermind [no blog to link too, see she is soooo evil she keeps it hidden :) ]

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Moderate
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Farewell...

2007-01-02T01:20:00.000Z

Nothing more to add really.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

happy new year to my loyal reader. singular as most of the rest of you have probably given up on me by now.

And no, I didn't write this at midnight!. much later than that, although 00:00 seemed a more symbolic time.

hope 2007 brings you all love and happiness. or money/chocolate as personal preferences take you..

a "relaxed" SMF

Happy Christmas

2006-12-17T22:23:00.000Z

Well hello there,

It's kind of been a while since I last posted stuff. Not really sure why, other than general apathy, but hey, enough of that, I'm posting something now!.

Here are my Christmas card designs for this year. From top to bottom it shows the progression of the idea I had.

The starting version:
[Notice anything missing?. I didn't until I'd printed out 10, although it does look very minimalistic, which is kind of what I was aiming for anyways...]

The first alternative:
[Santa can see again, although he appears to be opting not too...]

[Several other minor versions were created, but I forgot to keep copies, so we'll skip right along to...]

The final version:

[then I was trying other colour combinations and came up with...]

Something a bit more sinister:

Have a nice Christmas and a make sure it's a relaxing time too!

well well well...

2006-10-01T16:24:00.000+01:00

here I am a couple of hundred miles away from my evil twin and what do I find in my possession...

some people will just leave these things lying around anywhere won't they :)

Ops in the background

2006-09-04T18:47:00.000+01:00

A Small collection of photos with members of ops in the background. If you spot more leave a comment and I'll add them.

some images from the flickr that caught my eye

2006-09-04T18:42:00.000+01:00

"I don't care who you are, get off the racecourse! ;)"

Kittenwar! May The Cutest Kitten Win!

2006-07-27T19:59:00.000+01:00

Kittenwar! May The Cutest Kitten Win!

Something caught my eye enough for me to post a blog!

Its nothing sinister

Only a brief emergence from the shadows...

2006-03-27T20:26:00.000+01:00

You Are Rowlf the Dog

Mellow and serious, you enjoy time alone cultivating your talents.
You're a cool dog, and you always present a relaxed vibe.
A talented pianist, you can play almost anything - especially songs by Beethoven.
"My bark is worse than my bite, and my piano playing beats 'em both."

The Muppet Personality Test

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

You Are 40% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Happy Christmas

2005-12-18T20:14:00.000Z

This is my last post before christmas, and its going to be quite short.

Happy christmas everybody.

I've decided not to send out christmas cards this year, and the money I would have saved will be going to Christie's, a charity that supports Christies Hospital in Manchester, one of Europes largest Cancer treatment hospitals.

This therefore is my electronic christmas card to you all.

ps. We have snow (it works on my pc, but it might not be working on internet explorer. If its not working, then there is a single snowflake in the top left corner of the screen. if it is working, you should be seeing a minor snowstorm across the page. download firefox to see it)

Shiny Shiny: iPod Boxer Shorts

2005-12-14T21:03:00.000Z

yet another in whats likely to be a long line of pointless ipod add-ons.

only $22, hunky model probably not included

ps Sally, if no one buys you one (an ipod not the ipod boxers obviously) for xmas, treat yourself they don't cost that much :)

the ipod cross

2005-12-05T21:55:00.000Z

You know you want one

So what does google think I need?.

2005-11-07T20:05:00.000Z

Shaun needs the funding to support training the people working with him
: excellent idea. train everyone I work with to work my way.

The sudden and unexplained outbreak of zombies is just what Shaun needs.
: No thanks, we've got enough zombies already. Seriously, why would anyone want more?.

Shaun needs to sort out his life. "Google knows me so well"
Shaun needs to be banned. "Hey! If you dont like the blog, you dont have to read the
blog"
: somewhat alarmingly, those last two already had the comments in "". They seem like things I might have written though.

Shaun needs Money
: while more would be nice, I think I already have enough for the lifestyle I'm happy with.

Shaun needs to send Sterling approved text. (Text should have logo)
: Ok I will try to do that in future. BTW who is Sterling?.

Shaun needs to place guild info onto a CD for John and bring it to the
: bring to the what?. If it told me where to bring it I might try to.

Shaun needs more experience with City in Europe, although by rights he
should have more under-21 caps under his belt. I cannot understand why David
Platt ...
: Apparently I don't have enough European experience to play for England yet. I'm trying hard. I've been to Copenhagen + Roskilde in DK, Amsterdam + Alkmaar in NL, Paris, Italy, been through Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I'm getting there. Give me a few more years, and I'll have it covered.

Shaun needs service report form 4a
: I've filled in forms 1-3a-f, sections x,y and z, and they still want me to fill in 4a. Sigh.

Q: Coach, do you think Shaun needs to add weight? Being eighteen years old that is kind of natural. Since he graduated, he has already added eleven or
: I've checked, and I think I have enough weight already thanks.

Shaun needs $25000 for his "gene therapy" treatment in China so we are holding an auction to help him raise these funds.
: I'm worried now. Whats wrong with my Genes?. They seem ok to me. Would like a trip to China though.

naughty bunny

2005-10-19T22:12:00.000+01:00

Ok so I don't blog that often but every now and again I come across funny things worth sharing and these two caught my attention on someone else's blog. Saw all the baby bunnies and thought that was the funny bit. After a couple of minutes of gazing whilst waiting for something else to load, the second part of the joke suddenly hit me....

This second one amused me too.

You know when you've spent too much time in GB OPS when...

2005-09-17T13:30:00.000+01:00

...you leave an answerphone message on your parents answerphone and end the message by saying "Shaun, Out" as if it was a radio message...

Greenbelt '05

2005-09-06T21:51:00.000+01:00

2004's GB kind of passed me by without registering, and the only bit of the festival I can really remember is watching No More Horses on mainstage. And some great alcohol-lubricated conversations. This left me feeling quite sad/depressed/drained at the end of that festival.

This years was sooooo much better. Its was greatly helped by the wonderful community, laughter and friendship within the ops team, especially the interrupting cow (which also works quite well as a knock knock joke), and countless moments of mirth shared with truly fantastic people. If only I could remember why some of them were so funny at the time....

There were inevitably some low points too, for me the loss of the bandstand was the worst, as it didn't feel as if there was a central focus to the festival anymore and quite a few other people shared similar sentiments if truth be known.

The lows were swiftly brushed away by the highs though, and the absolutely best bits of the festival for me personally were (best first):

Becoming so totally immersed in the music whilst Emiliana Torrini sang on mainstage that everything and everyone else around me faded completely into the shadows. I could easily have spent the rest of my life just listening to her infectious voice.
Juliet Turner playing two songs just for the ops team in the white room.
Making new friends. Martin (who I have known since Dean Park days), his wife Sally, Becky, Zoe, Anthony and Dave (again known him from the Bandstand days at Dean). They came as early birds and helped myself and Stick with sign putting up (and moving about), and were really warm, friendly and welcoming whenever I joined them later over the weekend (normally in 4))
The Organic beer tent. Spent way to long in there, so much so that I only drank 4 of the beers I bought with me
Seeing old friends again. Met up with Gayle, Steve (now "Orc Walker" for some reason?!?), Mark and others I went to school with. Its great to see them again after all these years, and to catch up with them again.
lots of other little things too numerous to remember, or too personal to share.
and this kind of made me smile to, when the girl I had spent most of the weekend trying to get to know better revealed that she was actually more interested in the cute barmaid in the Org Beer Tent. Typical :|

Again I felt very sad as tuesday morning dawned over the last morning, although this time is was mainly regret that it would be several months until I saw some of those faces again, and almost a full year before we return to that priceless little corner of Cheltenham.

took stuarts quiz thingy and...

2005-09-06T21:35:00.000+01:00

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern

54%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

50%

Modern Liberal

46%

Classical Liberal

46%

Neo orthodox

21%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

21%

Reformed Evangelical

11%

Fundamentalist

11%

Roman Catholic

11%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

I've no idea what its significance is mind

My computer exploded

2005-09-05T12:46:00.000+01:00

Not sure why but as I was playing a game last Friday, there was a large bang, a puff of smoke and a kind of tczzzkzkscht!### noise from under the desk and the powersupply to my pc died kind of horribly.

Hence why I've not posted sooner since the festival.

All fixed now, and the only casualty seems to be a slightly dodgy connection between one hard disk and the mother board. Its worked long enough for me to copy everything on it onto a different disk (see liz there is a need for a terabyte of HD space afterall...)

Festival fever

2005-08-23T19:17:00.000+01:00

Its fair to say that the majority of people who are linked from this blog are actually now on site and openly commenting that I've not posted anything recently.

bucking that trend, I thought I would post from the festival itself. Which none of them have done yet..... Wonder how long until they notice I have ?. Probably a while although I will save a choc chip muffin for the first one of them to post a comment!.

Its been nice and sunny today, which has allowed lots of stuff to be done. I'd be more specific, but I wasn't paying much attention to be honest, and can only see the back of front desk from here.

Probably more windy tomorrow which will be fun but our squad has grown to 12 for that so I can supervise from the comfort of the production office.

Joke Zone

2005-05-24T18:34:00.000+01:00

A police officer pulls a guy over for speeding...

Officer: May I see your driver's license?

Driver: I don't have one. I had it suspended when I got my fifth DUI.

Officer: Can I see the registration for this vehicle?

Driver: Oh, it's not my car. I stole it.

Officer: The car is stolen?

Driver: Yeah. Oh, but come to think of it, I think I saw the registration in the glove compartment when I was putting my gun in there.

Officer: You have a gun in there?

Driver: Yes sir. That's where I put it after I shot the lady who owns the car. She's in the trunk.

Officer: There's a BODY in the trunk?!?

The officer tells the man to hold on, backs off carefully, and calls for backup. Quickly, the car is surrounded by police, and the captain approaches the driver to handle the situation.

Captain: Sir, can I see your license?

Driver: Sure, Officer.

Captain: Hmm, this license is just fine. Whose car is this?

Driver: It's mine, officer. Here's the registration.

Captain: Could you slowly open the glove compartment, please, so I can see if there's a gun in there?

Driver: Yes, sir, but there's no gun in it.

He opens it, and sure enough, there's no gun.

Captain: Would you mind if we opened the trunk? I was told you said there's a body in there.

Driver: No problem.

The trunk is opened, nothing in there but a spare tire.

Captain: The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn't have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glove compartment, and that there was a dead body in the trunk.

Driver: Yeah, I'll bet he told you I was speeding, too! "

Lost in translation

2005-05-04T22:44:00.000+01:00

Should you ever need to explain what some of the common British slang terms actually mean to those from far off places, you might find this website useful. Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK

Even if you don't its quite relaxing to browse through when you have a few minutes spare. You might even discover some new ones to use in conversation!.

Beer makes you clever: official

2005-04-29T18:29:00.000+01:00

Good news today for all those who, like me, dapple in the odd drink or two. Beer makes you clever. Its official. Its even on the BBC news website so it _must_ be true.

There is no mention of whether certain brands or flavours are more beneficial than others. Personally that is an experiment that I am prepared to be a lab rat for. Although I might need to call in reinforcements for some of the alcopops and the like.

On its own this is perhaps not too beneficial, however if you include the following recent research articles, beer is less fattening than wine, helps you to escape avalanches, and helps you to fight off cancer, alcohol consumption is positively beneficial.

Make mine a double!!.

Is this how iPod shuffles are made :D

2005-04-01T11:30:00.000+01:00

Think Geek's iCopulate

# Features of the iCopulate™ include: Works with any second generation iPod® or later with a dock connector (will not work with the iPod Shuffle®)
# Transfer audio tracks and files directly, faster than real time
# Includes one 1.62 volt watch battery for up to 8 months of sustained iCopulation™
# Support for single track and album transfer, entire playlist transfer, or transfer of all songs and files on the device
# Unique, ribbed, Latex sleeve surrounding embedded electronics for enhanced iPod® safety and increased user comfort
# Includes one 8oz tube of non-toxic strawberry scented iLube™

Other similar items available for today only from here at Think Geek

After much thought....

2005-03-15T22:23:00.000Z

...answers to Sally's [slightly more than] Five questions ;)

1. What makes you really angry, and how would we know?
People making decisions on my behalf (that I am perfectly capable of forming my own conclusions/decisions about) without consulting me first. Pretty much anyone trying to limit and/or restrict my [human] rights to have my own identity and opinions, to believe and like or not like what I decide to etc. I'd go on but I've stood on this soapbox before.

To be honest I can 't really think of anything else at the moment. I don't really get angry about much. I guess I feel frustration much more often. Theres a big long list of things that frustrate me....

I think I broadly come in two states, "laid back relaxed" and "I'm going to kill someone [or break something]". The is a large amount of pressure relief space in the "laid back relaxed" state so its very rarely that I flip into the other mode. The transition is rapid however and its unlikely that you would know until you found the trail of dead. That or very loud thumping music. Probably mainly the latter :D

2. If you had to describe yourself for an on-line dating agency, what would you say?
There is so little chance that I would ever do this kind of thing. Very very small. Well in fact its _never_ going to happen. I will try to answer it though.
"Quiet, reclusive, thinker. Reads lots of books and always listening to music. Hates being the centre of attention. Doesn't do sunday mornings. Can be very internalised, and reluctant to lower barriers. Likes Cats."
I don't sell myself very well do I?. ISTP fits quite well I think.

3. What did you have in your test tube today?
I think I set the steady march of scientific progress back by atleast six months today. I mixed this compound (nice white shiny crystals), with this other compound (also nice shiny crystals) then added a bit of solvent and some hydrochloric acid and heated it for an hour intending to produce this really novel anti cancer drug but instead formed an intractable gum, or as it is known in chemistry circles, sticky black stuff. I decided then that it would be better if I put down the chemicals and stepped away from the fumehood. So I did.

4. Which are your 5 favourite bands of all time?
This is the hardest question for me to answer. Very very hard. Actually not that hard to write once I got into it, but still hard to choose. I have so many bands and albums to choose from and so many ways of grouping them into favorite 5's that it is well nigh impossible to choose the top 5. It depends very heavily on my current mood and the time of day, and the weather, and all kinds of other factors too.

Top 5 bands by number of their albums I own.
The Smashing Pumpkins, The Levellers, The Beautiful South, AC/DC, Metallica

Top 5 bands I never saw live but wished I had
The Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Pulp, Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine

Top 5 bands I have seen live
Therapy?, Bush, Carter USM, Bjork, The Polyphonic Spree

Top 5 weird Scandanavian artists:
Stina Nordenstam, Emiliana Tourini, Bjork, Royksopp, Sigur Ros

Top 5 Singer/songwriters
Bob Dylan, Jewel, Tom Mcrae, Beth Orton, Kate Rusby

Top 5 folk/country
Bob Dylan, Kate Rusby, Cara Dillon, Levellers, Laura Cantrell

Top 5 things to listen too when I feel like crying
The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Kate Rusby, Jewel, Beth Orton

Top 5 things to listen to when I need to escape
Blur, Muse, Gomez, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Reindeer section

Top 5 I've bought this week
Ameliana Tourini, Beck, Idlewild, Eels, Belle + Sebastian

Top 5 albums when I feel the need to break things
Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, The Ramones, Sepultura, System of a Down

Top 5 rock/metal/thrash/grindcore/goth
Marilyn Manson, Muse, Pantera, Metallica, Pearl Jam

Top 5 bands that sound like Pearl Jam,
Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Nickelback, Creed, Pearl Jam

Top 5 female artists
Beth Orton, Kate Rusby, Jewel, Norah Jones, Laura Cantrell,

Top 5 male artists,
Bob Dylan, Tom Mcrae, Nick Drake, David Bowie, David Gray

Top 5 Antipodean Bands
Silverchair, Crowded House, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, Nick Cave and the bad Seeds

Top 5 bands with People who used to be in other bands
Zwan, Foo Fighters, The Breeders, Gorillaz, The Reindeer Section

Top 5 who I've not included so far but really should have
Tori Amos, Turin Brakes, The White Stripes, Starsailor, PJ Harvey

First 5 Top 5 songs I could think of. (needed atleast twenty probably many more)
Name (Goo Goo Dolls), Disarm (the Smashing Pumpkins), 74-75 (the Connells), Paint it Black (Rolling Stones), Teenage Kicks (The Undertones).

Top 5 album names
Daisies of the Galaxy (Eels), And She Closed Her Eyes (Stina Nordenstam), Origin of Symmetry (Muse), Hats Off to the Insane (Therapy?), Jar of Flies/Sap (Alice in Chains)

Top 5 bandnames
Airstar, Belle + Sebastien, The Cooper Temple Clause, Kings of Leon, Soul Asylum

And to finish a Top 10 bands I've seen at Greenbelt
Billy Brag, Moby, Love Lies Bleeding, Never On a Monday, The Polyphonic Spree, The Porters, Griff Pilchard, No More Horses (when on the bandstand playing their first ever gig), Rick Wakeman, Angel Orange

5. Tell me about your very first Greenbelt, and how you came to be involved in the Bandstand?

I first went to greenbelt when I was 17, in 1990. I had just started going to a local church cyfa group and went along with 30-40 friends from there/school. Only a couple of very laid back YG leaders meant it was great. It was also my first time away with just friends and no parents. It was great!. I slept very little that first year, never getting to bed before dawn it seemed
I remember getting there late on the wednesday evening with the advanced party and finding the best place to camp, then fencing off a large area for the rest of us. Then there was a [moderate!?!] amount of alcohol consumption, that night and over the next six days. Then we went home. To be honest I remember the next years festival much better and much more fondly but hey it was still fun the first time.
That first year we spent loads of time just wandering round and round and round the village. Those days you could just walk and walk in the same direction and end up in the same place, having met loads of great people doing just the same. (I kind of miss that loopy walking with the current R/C site). We'd end up where we started, but it would always be different when we got there. We always seemed to end up (or start) at the bandstand or in the other fringe venues. Some of our friends were playing in bands that played in many of the venues over the years, and were even on mainstage a couple of timest. Might not have been this first year, but they were Detritus and Seventh Angel. Loud metal/goth stuff. Great times. Still see some of them each year at the festival. Some of that initial group of friends still goes to the festival and we always seem to meet up even if only for a short time. A few of them are also venue managers now which is strange. Its also hard because I have lost touch with many good friends, having moved away from home when I was 18 to uni and now more northerly. I rarely go home and I'm terrible at keeping in touch. Even with family.
Back to the first one. I've never been particularly engaged by the seminar side of the festival and I guess it stems from those first years at the festival. GB has been, and always will be for me, about the music and the people you meet. The more religious sides have never been particularly engaging or enticing for me. Having said that I have had some great spiritual revelations there, none of which I really want to go into here. There weren't any that first year, but then I wasn't there looking for that kind of thing either. We spent long hours sat in front of the bandstand, listening to all kinds of music, some good, some dreadful. Some even worse than that!. But thats what we did for the next 4-5 years. Sat around and watched music being tortured but more often played well and relaxed in front of that little stage. It played centre stage in my GB experiences for many years there after, and still to this day to be honest. I even fell in love for the first/last time in front of that little stage. Something that will follow me the rest of my days.

One of my friends from those days, by the name of Steve Croxton, went away for a year in 94/95 to work with/at oxford youth works. There he met up with a certain former chair of the festival, who was in those days leading up the GB fringe (RIP). Jude L was recruiting volunteers for that summer's festival, especially the fringe and Steve volunteered us for the job. I think there were six or seven of us that year who were lured by the offer of a free ticket to the festival in exchange for a few hours work on the bandstand. It was more like a few minutes of work every hour then loads of time to watch bands. Pretty much what we had been doing up till then, but this time we got a free ticket for doing it. It was a fantastic gig!. Over the festival I became friendly with Paul D (him of winnie the pooh story fame), and at the end of the festival, Kaz who had been running the Bandstand, asked the two of us if we would like to run it next year between us, and we jumped at the chance. Little did we know then that for every year (95-2003 minus the first at the RC) we would be doing the same. They were some fantastic years for us and hopefully everyone else who came, relaxed and spent enjoyable moments in front of our little stage over those years enjoyed it as much as we did. For a few of those years it was largely unsupported by the festival at large, but we still managed to get it there every year by borrowing kit or on a couple of occasions paying for it ourselves. It endures. Looking back at the huge number of bands who have gone from playing our bandstand to playing on bigger stages at the festival and beyond or in a few cases rushing straight from headlining mainstage to play to 2000+ six inches away on the bandstand (all star united to name the first I can think of), its made a great and continuing contribution to the bredth of music at the festival. Long may it continue.

If I'm not hidden in the depths behind front desk doing signs (please can I get a window this year, it dark in that corner), thats where I'll be.

Overcoming inertia

2005-02-15T23:00:00.000Z

I've been quiet on here recently. No particular reason, just didn't feel like saying much. Can't say that I have a lot more to say tonight, but if I don't post something I'll never get round to it and that'll be the end of it.

So, some things I've seen, heard or read recently.

On a t-shirt: "Men are from Earth, Women are from Earth: Deal with it!"

My desk: Its been untidy for the last six months, now its clean and tidy with only two computers and a printer on it, and an empty bottle of wine (st emilion red, v v nice, although perhaps unwise to drink the whole thing in one sitting...)

Listened to: James Blunt "Back to Bedlam". Great album of acoustic guitary stuff. Sort of a haunting mixture of David Gray and Tom Mcrae. I'd highlight my favorite track but I like them all...

Heard: Emiliana Tourini. Another great album. 1/2 icelandic 1/2 italian, sings a bit like bjork, sounds a lot like stina nordenstam or billie holiday. love it.

Read: loads of books. probably getting on for 12 since christmas. scifi to the last. escapist stuff. different worlds. far off places. two different books about first contact with aliens. both aliens utterly different. both revealing similar insecurities in our own existance. neither had obvious endpoints. revealing.

Watched: ER last night. ray liotta starred. enters er with stomache pains 11.24am. dies 12.05pm from liver failure. alcohol. find out in realtime 40 minutes why: painter, wifes death, blames self, young son, starts drinking, kills stranger, prison, drinks more, lonely isolation, grasps own mortality, touches someone elses life fleetingly, forgivingly, dies. I cried.

Slept:

2005-01-31T20:33:00.000Z

Where did it all go?.

2005-01-03T19:46:00.000Z

So there I was quietly watching TV when I noticed the date. 3rd Jan already?. This means I have to go back to work tomorrow. where did my restful two weeks of holiday goto?. It seems like just yesterday when I was tidying up at work for two weeks off, and now I have to go back in already.

On the plus side I have hung some nice new pictures up on the wall at home (pics to follow possibly) and cleared out six big bin bags of rubbish, and bought a DAB radio. But thats about it. Oh and I've read three thick sci-fi books, must be close to 1800+ pages worth, so its not all been wasted. I must have slept sometime too.

Happy New Year I guess

2005-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

Yes newyears eve, and I'm sat alone at home on the computer typing a blog. Sad isn't it. I'm not even been drinking. Just can't be bothered with it all really. That or no invites out anywhere. Everyone I know has gone away somewhere for the week, and I'm sat at home. Oh well.

well its exactly midnight now, as evidenced by all the tons of high explosives [fireworks] that have just started going off all round my house, none of which are anything to do with me I hasten to add. Still nice to look at though. I thought pets were supposed to be scared of fireworks. Mine are sat on the window sill watching them.

What can I say?.

2005 already. [/me sighs and opens a celebratory can of stella, then wanders off into a dark corner to polish it off:D ]

happy christmas everyone

2004-12-23T19:11:00.000Z

Hi there,

Been too busy playing halflife2 for the last few weeks to post anything much on here, so apologies for the silence, although its unlikely to improve before next year as I am off to my parents for christmas tomorrow and they don't have an internet connection now that my brother has moved out of home.

Anyways its christmas now, and here is an electronic christmas card I have drawn for everyone.

Have a great time over christmas everyone,

SMF.

[/me shakes head in disbelief]

2004-12-14T17:44:00.000Z

I think some people need to get out more....

The Hamster's Valhalla - or Stories at dinner

2004-12-11T22:57:00.000Z

I've been on a work course this week, at a place called Cranage Hall learning [more?] about the drug discovery process. Quite informative but the most uncomfortable chairs I've sat on in a while. I think it was a combination of the chair and the fact that we were working in syndicates and had to keep twisting round to see what was on the projector screen.

As we sat down to dinner on the first night we started sharing stories and anecdotes. The guy sat next to me in all innocence revealed that he wanted to get a pair of silk pajamas. This was unanimously greeted with laughter from the girls sat round the table and to be fair the blokes too. In hindsight I don't think he should then have mentioned the bunny slippers but I guess these things slip out when you are desperately looking for a new avenue of thought.

Much laughter and gentle teasing followed. The wine was flowing freely which only encouraged us further....

As the conversation meandered on, Ros mentioned that her daughters' hamster had recently passed on, and that she had put it in the box with the other one from last year ?!?. We just had to ask more. Apparently when the other one died about a year ago, she asked her daughter what she wanted to do with it, but she couldn't decide so it was put to one side in a nice box. We wondered if later in life Ros's daughter would be given the box which by then would have accumulated several more furry bodies, and what emotional consequences this would have.

However we then discovered what the original choices for funerals had been. Ros had offered burial in the flower border, under a little headstone or a full Viking Funeral Pyre with a little longboat made from lollysticks and cremated whilst floating on their pond. Now that would have been some way to go. We spent the next twenty minutes discussing little hamster-sized swords and what hamster Valhalla would be like. All the sunflower seeds you could stuff into your cheeks probably.

This was when we noticed that all the other tables of people on the course were talking about sensible things to do with work and suchlike and giving us some strange looks.

We retired to the bar to continue into the small hours.

Actual Reality?

2004-12-06T23:01:00.000Z

I woke up at some unearthly hour this morning, and feeling tired, I reset the alarm clock and went back to sleep. I then woke up a bit later on and got up and was getting ready to go to work when the alarm clock actually went off and I really woke up for the first time.

Atleast I think I did. What if this entire day has just been some strange dream and in actual fact it is still sunday night/monday morning and I still have a full day at work to do?. How would I know the difference?. Does it make much difference either way. Probably not, but you never know.

I had another dream the night before that was very clear and rememberable. It was also the kind of dream where you wake up briefly and then are able to drift back off to sleep and re-enter the same dream. This one was one where I was lost in a big hotel, and I could not find my room. I remember walking up and down stairs, round balconies asking directions and then getting lost again and running down endless corridors, even ending up outside at one point trying to find whether there was another building I could get into.

I eventually ended up in a pub wrapped in my duvet without having ever got back to the room.

It probably means something really significant, but I can't fathom it out. Answers on a post card.

Sleep interupted

2004-11-29T22:49:00.000Z

I'm a fairly light sleeper normally, such that I rarely sleep the entire night without waking up a couple of times. More often than not its because certain felines have [re]appeared on the bed. I don't mind this, though it has caused me to be able to identify which cat it is without putting the light on.

Scully always jumps on at the top of the bed nearest the door, then walks or leaps over me so that she is on my right as I lie. She then curls up on the pillow next to me and goes to sleep. Which is very scary if she has managed to get all the way on there without me noticing as I discovered on sunday morning when I opened my eyes to discover her peering intensely into my eyes from about three inches. I woke up fairly rapidly thereafter as you might imagine.

Valen on the other hand is a bit more timid. He always jumps onto the bed down near my feet and walks around me to get to where he wants to get. He always sleeps by my feet, or on the odd instance between my feet if I happen to have moved such that my legs are apart. This does mean that he is sometimes accidentally kicked into the night when I roll over.

I can also tell who is who by touch, Scully has slightly wirey fur, whereas Valen is much softer. It is also possible to tell who is who when they lick my fingers, as Valen's tongue is raspy like sandpaper whereas Scully's is softer some how.

Another bar joke

2004-11-26T16:34:00.000Z

just read this one somewhere

f(x)=3X+6 goes into a bar and asks for a sandwich. Sorry replies the landlord, we don't cater for functions...

This blogger has the flu

2004-11-24T16:16:00.000Z

I don't know whether it is a combination of the late nights and alcohol or sleeping in the coldest bunk room, but I have gone down with the flu. This is only the fourth time I've been out of bed since monday, and I'm not sure if its a good idea yet. Oh well.

Had a great time at Dalesbridge with all the other ops people last weekend. It was really good to catch up with every one and share experiences of the festival again. It seems like ages since we were all there but its only been a couple of months really. Still its reassuring to learn that many of my friends were experiencing the same kinds of emotions and concerns, and finding new ways to expand and learn from those shared thoughts. Some of the best bits were watching everybody play with the stress carrot whislt sharing.

Oh and we won the quiz too. So it just goes to show that all those evenings in watching Big Brother were worth it afterall Liz

Now I am just left with the sadness of it being another five months until we all get the chance to meet up again in another part of the country.

Home is where there is nothing to do

2004-11-10T19:44:00.000Z

Its official, I live in the least uk's least cultured town or borough.

I have to agree with the surveys view as well, we have the lowest culture density in the UK. No theatre (not that I would go to a theatre if there was one mind), no cinema (which I would use), only one museem (about Silk of all things).

On the bright side, we do have lots of trees, open spaces, proper countryside right outside the window, as much fresh air as we want all the time, no parking nightmares, or bad traffic jams, so its not so bad really.

Subliminal music. and cats

2004-11-04T21:01:00.000Z

Having just discovered the frustration of having typed a half page of blog only for the sever to swallow it and throw out some truely pointless error message, this is going to be shorter than it was originally.
--------------
Music plays a large part in my life. Its the first thing I hear in the morning when I wake up,
not withstanding the cats meowing which could mean any combination of the following: "feed me","give me some water", "let me out", "let me in", "give me some attention", "hello", "its dark out still", "sorry, did I wake you up?", "you are asleep on my bed, get off", "thats mine too!", "I've got something sticky on my fur, please let me rub myself against you to wipe it off", "are you pleased to see me?", "look, its a dead [insert appropriate rodent/bird/frog/worm/insect] that I've just caught for you", "its raining outside", "I'm wet, so you need to be wet too", "coming through", "play with me", and probably "feed me some more".
Music is also the last thing I hear before drifiting off to sleep at night and given that I sleep with the radio on, I'm sure it is secretly brainwashing me to buy all of these cds [/me gestures towards shelf unit over there, sagging under weight of hundreds of cds]

It does however keep me company and make the house seem more lived-in than it would otherwise. The problem with sleeping with the radio on is that the music enters your mind directly without your knowledge, and you find that the next day you are humming a song that you can't remember hearing before.

A couple of songs that have joined me recently in this manner are
Little Yellow Spider by Devendra Banhart

and Everything I've got in my pocket by Minnie Driver

Both albums are quite different, but each in their own way are fantastic. Devendra has a strange story-telling way of singing, painting with music I guess. Whereas Minnie has a very clean singing tone, that is strangely hypnotic.
This got me thinking about how my musical tastes have changed and evolved over the years, from its early heavy metal/thrash/grindcore/speed metal origins to the mellow nature of the music I now prefer. Even so I don't think there is a single album on those shelves that I couldn't slide into the cd player and lose myself in completely for a while. There are many that I wish I could disappear into completely.........

Grrrr Postmen

2004-10-30T07:40:00.001+01:00

The post office have decided to introduce some new features to the mail delivery. The "great" thing about the post round here is that it seems to get delivered now sometime after 12pm, instead of just before 9am like it used to. Not really a problem as I am out at work so its still all there when I get back in afterwards.

However the only day of the week when they do manage to deliver the post bright and early is saturday morning when it comes at about 7.30am. Or in other words, my day off, when I was sleeping in having been out for a curry the night before. Grrrrrrrrr.

To make it worse, it wasn't even for me, but a box for the neighbours who were away.......

And don't even get me started on the fifteen items of junk mail leaflets that he pushed through beforehand. I signed up to the do-not-send-me-junk-mail list and I get nothing addressed to me any more. All of it is stuck through the letterbox as "specially hand delivered by the postoffice" and not addressed to anyone in particular. I was tempted to shove it into the postmans "letter box" but he had a close escape.

All I can say is its a good job its bonfire week

Grrrr Postmen

2004-10-30T07:40:00.000+01:00

Sad news. John Peel has passed away

2004-10-26T13:51:00.000+01:00

I got back from lunch just now to check the bbc news website to sadly discover the announcement about John Peel's death. I feel very hollow now.

Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies

I've listened to his shows on Radio1 for the best part of the last 20 years of my life, and his genuine passion and enthusiasm for music in all its various forms was fantastic especially when compared to his fellow DJ's and all the other playlisted music that pollutes the airwaves today. Forever pushing the boundaries and never afraid to play bands and the non-mainstream music that noone else would touch, the airwaves will be sadly diminished by his absence. My CD collection has been greatly influenced by the music I have heard on his show and I will personally miss that variety and exposure to new bands/music immensely.

There is a huge hole now in radio that I think very few people could fill, and its likely that I'll never find another radio show that will have such a big impact on what I listen to. (Andy Kershaw or Steve Lamaq come the closest and they are miles short). I now don't think there is any reason for me to tune into radio1 again, as it feels thats Tom Petty's song the last DJ pretty much describes what John Peel stood for and fought against.

Well you can’t turn him into a company man
You can’t turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don’t understand anymore
Well the top brass don’t like him talking so much,
And he won’t play what they say to play
And he don’t want to change what don’t need to change

There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey…

And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ

Well some folks say they’re gonna hang him so high
‘Cause you just can’t do what he did
There’re some things you just can’t put in the minds of those kids

As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you’ll pay for what you used to get for free

There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey…

And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ

Well he got him a station down in Mexico
And sometimes it’ll kind of come in
And I’ll bust a move and remember how it was back then

And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey…

And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice.
And there goes the last DJ

We miss you John, and the music you championed for so long will miss you even more.







His favorite song seems the fitting way to finish this longish blog entry



The Undertones - Teenage kicks



Teenage dreams so hard to beat,

Every time she walks down the street,

Another girl in the neighbourhood,

Wish she was mine, she looks so good.



[Chorus]

I wanna hold you,

Wanna hold you tight,

Yeah teenage kicks right through the night

(Come On!)



Im gonna call her on the telephone,

And have her over cos im all alone,

I need excitement and i need it bad,

Cos its the best ive ever had.



[Chorus]



Teenage dreams so hard to beat,

Every time she walks down the street,

Another girl in the neighbourhood,

Wish she was mine, she looks so good.



[Chorus]



Im gonna call her on the telephone,

And have her over cos im all alone,

I need excitement and i need it bad,

Cos its the best ive ever had.



I wanna hold you,

Wanna hold you tight,

Yeah teenage kicks right through the night

(Alright!)



I wanna hold you wanna hold you tight,



Get those teenage kicks right through the night yeah!

Alright.

Where have I been?

2004-10-23T20:27:00.000+01:00

Liz, Ok, ok I'll post something. Anything to be a more active poster than Mr Cullen

So where have I been. Well, nowhere really. I just could not think of anything to post. Well I still can't but I'll try. I do find it quite hard to open up and talk/post about stuff, even if its just what I have done today. Thats just the way I am I guess. Everyone else appears to find it much easier to disclose what are often very personal subjects/topics. I don't tend to bring those kinds of thing into the open in any situation, especially in the very public blog universe. Although I do see some parallels between myself and a few of the other infrequently blogging bloggers in this little circle of ours.

Over the last week I have been building a new pc from bits, which went very smoothly, apart from when I accidentally connected the harddisks power cable across the live-earth connection whilst it was switched on, resulting in a blue spark, the pc shutting off and a few choice words to flood the room. Fortunately the only victim of this accident was the 13amp fuse in the power supply's plug and not the expensive and very electrically sensitive pc componants.

I think I now have everything installed and running as it was on the old system again. It takes ages to reinstall and configure everything from scratch, especially when there is 150Gb of it. Not going to run out of space for a while on this new system though as it has > 0.6Tb of storage space.

2004-10-07T22:59:00.000+01:00

I settled down this evening to watch Ray Mears doing one of his Bushcraft programmes. He was trekking across the Masai Mara with a native Masai warrior, who was going to show him some of the Masai survival skills. They settled down for the night, making a traditional masai camp, which effectively involved chopping down some really sharp thorn bushes and making them into a big hedge. They sat down by the fire and started to have some food. The Masai warrior reaches across the camp to poke the fire into life and what do I spot on his wrist?. A wristwatch. They seemed to live about 700 miles from the nearest road, in mud huts, with no electricity or any other obvious modcons, so why on Earth would they need a wristwatch?. Its not as if they need to worry about being late for meetings or anything is it?.

8am : Sun rise. Get up
8.05am : Check to make sure no one has been eaten by Lions in the night
8.15am : Breakfast
9am : Tend herd of cows and make lunch
11am : Meeting with Lions to discuss their concerns re Project Wildebeast
2pm : Pose for visiting film crew
3pm : Networking with the Hyenas
5pm : Go home for tea
8pm : Eastenders
10pm : Bed

what every ipod owner needs

2004-09-30T22:06:00.000+01:00

Knowing that there is at least one I-pod owning reader of this blog, I thought I would share with the world at large the latest state of the art accessory for the i-pod.

So without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you, the I-pod Cozy. Available in several different animals including bear, dog, mouse and most amusingly bunny rabbit and fox, .

The ways of lvoe

2004-09-25T22:59:00.000+01:00

Typos bend the mind in strange new directions. Take this one from Sally's blog: the ways of lvoe, which got me thinking as to what the ways of lvoe could possible be, and who lvoe might have been.

Some deep-thinking philosopher, probably sitting on a remote hilltop in a far-off land, pondering life, existance and coming up with important insights into the deeper depths of the human mind.

Things like :
the way to happiness is ...
always do this before/after that
check your boots for scorpions before putting them on
eat plenty of fruit/vegetables
and so on.

In the context of the blog, the ways deal with the path to happiness in married life. This kind of thing I guess, What women wish their partners to say more often, and the reverse. This is probably the most important though: Always make sure there is chocolate in the house.

Then it occured to me how different my line of thoughts would have gone if it had been a different typo using the same letters.

"I went to offer him the expereince of an expereinced, mature woman, wise in the ways of vole[s], in case there was anything he wanetd to know for his wedding night"

...the ways of voles would have been very strange indeed

Now thats a strange liquid

2004-09-23T22:15:00.000+01:00

The three most common states of matter are solid, liquid and gas. Related to this is that these properties of a chemical substance usually exist such that its melting point is below its boiling point. Take water for example. It melts at 0°C and boils at 100°C. Ok, a fairly normal chemical.
These guys("Law-breaking liquid defies the rules") have just found a mixture of chemicals that starts of as a liquid but as you heat it to between 40-70°C it solidifies, then re-liquifies as you cool it down again.

This would be like taking a cup of water and heating it in the oven and taking out a cup of ice!.
Quite amazing really.

2004-09-19T22:32:00.000+01:00

A Brief Glossary of Theatrical Technical Terms

Actors	Persons who insist on moving and/or talking when you are trying to illuminate them
Audience	Persons that occupy the lavatory and bar at inconvenient times
Band	"Musicians" who turn up three hours late for the sound check and blame you
Bar	Sensible place to look for engineer
Barn Doors	Used to stop animals in a barn escaping
Bar Steward	Anyone or anything of which you disapprove
Bleeding	Adjective applicable to almost anything
Boom	That made you jump
Bulb	Something you plant in the garden
Channel	Very expensive French perfume
Check	American method of payment
Colour Magazine	supplement to Sunday newspaper
Cross-fade	Vanish in an annoyed manner (much used by producers)
Cue	Long line of persons waiting to get to the lavatory or bar
Cyberlights	Vicious metallic adversaries of Doctor Who
Dimmer	Less intelligent
Director	Tells you where to park your car
Engineer	Person who performs the impossible, usually yesterday, and 25% under budget
Flies	Something to remember after visiting the lavatory
Flown Bar	Place to look for an engineer on an aeroplane
Follow Spot	Chase around after the dog
Fuse	M6 bolt used as "safety" device in equipment
Gaffa Tape	Alternative to nuts, bolts, safety chains, hook clamps, scaff, insulation, blackwrap, etc...
Iris	Flower grown from a BULB
Leko Lantern	Welsh Spotlight
Light	Not on time, anywhere south of Oxford
Microphone	Something for singers to aim away from
Mixing Desk	Place to make complicated drinks
Musical Director	Welsh Clergyman who sings
PARCan	Leaving your car outside the venue
Plug	Persuade critic that you play is better than anybody else's
Producer	ridiculous person who demands the impossible, usually yesterday, and 25% under budget
Profile	Abrasive instrument used by person paid to do so
Prompter	Not so late
Pyrotechnics	Producers method of communication at times of stress
Rank Strand	Very smelly beach
Refuse	1) Replace broken M6 bolt 2) Say no to producer, usually just before being given last pay packet 3) The empty Pizza boxes and Beer cans ;left at the end of a show
Socket	Hit it with your fist
Spill	What happens to beer if you are careless with it
Spot	Quantity or refreshment
Stage left & right	Everyone else's right and left
Tabs	Brown stripy cats
Teasers	Ladies who remove their clothes on stage
Technical Rehearsal	Chaos. Useful for producing nervous breakdown in Producer, who may then let you get on with your job in peace.
Throw	The effect of musicals such as "The Sound of Music"
Trackspot	Follow the dog, using a magnifying glass
Upstage	The art of demonstrating how much better an actor you are than someone else
Varilight	Sting of low voltage lights for Christmas Trees
Wings	Paul & Linda McCartney's Band

You think you know someone then...

2004-09-14T23:08:00.000+01:00

Two good friends of mine from work returned from a couple of weeks of holiday today to announce to the world that they got married whilst they were away. You think you know someone really well, and that they are dead set against marriage and then they manage to pull something like this off without anyone suspecting a thing.

Anyway, belated congratulations to Barry and Sarah on their recent wedding.

They know how to live the high life though, as demonstrated by their honeymoon location, a small 2 mile x 3 mile windswept island off the west coast of Scotland somewhere, reachable only by a submerged causeway to one island and then a rowing boat to get to their island. Now that's what I call remote.

2004-09-12T21:28:00.000+01:00

I'm always amazed at the near-reality levels of realism that can be acheived with computer generated images, as these two examples show. Soon it will be possible to completely artificially generate images that are indistinguishable from the real version. Some would say that we are there already. Who's to say they are wrong...

Returning home

2004-09-10T23:18:00.000+01:00

Its been almost two weeks since Greenbelt finished, and I've finally managed to spend more than a few hours actually at my house. This means I might actually get to unpack things, pack tents away and put my feet up. Bliss.

First off I was at mum+dads, which mainly involved sleeping until lunch them watching dvd's and reading a few books. Very relaxing after the hectic days of the festival. Then I watched as my brother started doing DIY on his new house. It was very strange to see him sanding and painting the walls and ripping out the old kitchen.

I guess that we have now both completed growing up, having finally moved out of home (I left at 18, he left it another 13 years before deciding to start out into the big wide world) it is more strange for mum and dad to have the family home just to themselves. The peace and quiet will probably come as a nice change for them :)

I briefly came home on sunday but only stayed for a few hours as I had to go to a conference with work. Typically the weather was absolutely fantastic mon-thurs, just as I was forced to spend each day shuttered up in a lecture theatre with no windows. To cap it all, the conference centre bar was closed for refurbishment. Arrgh.

Today I was back in work to try and catch up with the 127 emails that had accumilated during the time I was off. Most were about things that had already happened whilst I was not there, and so were pretty much pointless at this stage. I wish there was some way that could make emails expire after the meeting/actions the contents refer too has expired, a best-before-date if you will, so that I have less to sort through. It would have saved me several hours of torment today......

How the blog got its name.

2004-09-08T21:49:00.000+01:00

If you are wondering why its called the horse wrestlers tale, here is Snowy making the initial capture of said horse at Greenbelt the other day. Mind you it had been running free for quite a while and made another bid for freedom just as Liz and I arrived on the scene. As the horse darted for a gap in the barrier, I cut it off with a solid rugby tackle on the front legs. Having been fed a sugar lump or two to calm it down, the horse was escorted to the doping sheds for further investigations, before being released back into the wild.

In the beginning

2004-09-05T01:02:00.000+01:00

And so it begins. If I can get near a computer for the next few days otherwise its going to be quite empty until thursday