Monday, March 20, 2006

Posted by Antz at 9:09 PM | Permalink | | |

Sunday mornings are usually spent either having brunch in one of the understated cafes in Leicester's West End or having a lazy morning in bed; not so this Sunday morning though. This weekend I find myself (along with David and our mates Rob and Adz) in the freezing cold surroundings of Silverstone Racetrack. We're not here for a Grand Prix or something like that, we're here for something much slower-paced; Robsta's taking part in the Adidas Flora Half Marathon and the rest of us are here to give him a little moral support.

I'm a veteran spectator when it comes to Silverstone Half Marathon's as David did the run as a warm-up for the London marathon last year. I was well aware that Oxfordshire in mid-March can be cold as ice if you're standing around waiting for the running to come to an end. I made a point of wearing loads of layers and my warmest gloves and hat. Sadly David and Adz didn't believe me when I told them how cold it was going to be. At least one of us was warm!

Robsta got round the 13 and a bit miles in just over 1 hour 50 and we managed to catch him twice as he went round the circuit. The first time at 9 miles and the second time just before the finish line (it's him in the red top in the photo). David declared that he'd rather run the half marathon rather than have to spectate it. Next year I'll just stay in bed; I've done my fair share of spectating.

Posted by Antz at 8:02 AM | Permalink | | |

Sunday, March 19, 2006

I've never been a real fan of card games. It's probably got something to do with my bro and I being sent off to bed early at family get togethers so that the 'grown-ups' could play exotically named card games way into the small hours.

David has made it his dedicated mission in life to get me into playing more cards and I have to admit over the last few years I've found a couple of games that I can handle to pass the time; namely Sh*thead and another one that I've completely forgotten the name of at the minute.

Over the weekend David dug out a poker set he got for a present last Christmas and set about getting a group of us to give poker a go. Over the last few weeks he's been glued to Challenge TV's poker coverage and has pretty much got the lingo down to a tee. Sadly the same couldn't be said about my poker playing which left a lot to be desired.

I can safely say that I've got my poker-face sorted. I can keep a straight face no matter how bad my hand is. I can bluff my way all the way to my last chip and if you couldn't see me pile of chips dwindling you'd think everything was rosey. Sadly the poker-face is the only thing I've worked out; it's gonna take a lot more work before I can hope to play the game and end up with any chips.

Posted by Antz at 9:01 AM | Permalink | | |

Friday, March 17, 2006

Having gone on the other day about how the BBC's Jamie Kane game was proving to be a great experience I suddenly run into a problem on the penultimate. For some reason there appears to be a bug in the game that just won't allow me to continue. No matter how much I sweet-talk the game's chat-bots they still won't let me finish the day's task. Bloody robots.

Posted by Antz at 9:00 AM | Permalink | | |

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The little counter on the index page says it's been 72 days since I last had a fag. I'm on the final stage of the patches and in just under a fortnight I'll be free of the NRT and ready to fend for myself.

The process of stopping seems to be getting easier but also tougher at the same time. Unlike during the first weeks the thought of lighting up isn't all I think about 24/7 but that means that when cravings do hit me they really make themselves known.

Luckily my resolve is strong, and anyway having done 72 days I'd be stupid to ruin all my hard work and go back to stage one.

Posted by Antz at 11:30 PM | Permalink | | |

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

It's a fact of life that as you get older birthday's become less and less of an event. It's all possibly something to do with the excitement of youth slowly being replaced with the relief that you've managed to make it through another year without major order failure.

Thinking back to when I was a kid birthdays were the the most magical of times. It always seemed that the whole day was about you; from the moment you woke to the second your head hit the pillow again that night everything about the day appears to be there to celebrate your big day.

As you grow older the magic gradually gets replaced by the ordinary. You come to realise that even during your one special day the world doesn't revolve around you any more. You still have a job to do, bills to pay and everyone else has a life to lead.

It's a shame that the magic is sucked out of birthdays as you get older. If anything I think birthdays should get more important as you slowly make your way through life; after all each additional year is an achievement in itself.

You should take the day off, make sure you're pampered, and eat and drink to your heart's content. Plus you should never find yourself in a position where you have to buy other people cream cakes on your birthday.

Posted by Antz at 7:15 PM | Permalink | | |

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that BBC Radio One were plugging some online feature about the death of a pop star called Jamie Kane. The 20 second trailers didn't go into much detail; in fact just enough to get you interested enough to visit the BBC's Jamie Kane micro-site. It worked... I clicked.

It turns out that Jamie Kane is the lead character in the BBC's first large scale alternate reality game; a game where you get to discover the truth behind the boy-band pop star's death in a helicopter crash in the North Sea. A death that turns out to be much more than a simple accident.

Now, as you might guess from the boy-band-style content, the game is really designed for late-teen girls. What got me interested was the amount of detail the Beeb has gone to to make the whole thing believable. For a start 'Jamie Kane' recorded three album's worth of (fairly poor) tracks, did interviews for Top of the Pops and Radio One and has what appears to be years of photo-shoots on his sites.



On the subject of sites, the Beeb has gone to town creating special sites for the adventure. Not only does Jamie have his own official and unofficial websites, so does his former group and several members of his family. In addition to them there must be at least a further 20 sites set up to deal with various aspects of the game during it's 14 day life-span.

You get to meet a whole host of characters involved with Jamie through Instant Messenger chats, his forums and even one or two phone conversations with other fans. Of course the other fans are all bots of one kind or another but it's surprisingly interesting stuff.

If you've got 20 minutes a day for the next two weeks it's worth checking out www.bbc.co.uk/jamiekane/

Posted by Antz at 12:06 AM | Permalink | | |

Saturday, March 11, 2006

This weekend I'm giving the bathroom a very needed lick of paint. It's not a big enough project to call it redecorating as all that's involved is treating the walls with stain-blocker to deal with some water stains and then repainting the room... and as the space is only about 2 x 1.5 metres the project is hardly on a par with painting the Severn Bridge.

Everything was going fine with the DIY until I was doing the second coat on the ceiling and suddenly, as if from nowhere (or possibly the roller I was using), a huge splat of paint hit me in my eyes.

I'm stood there, up a ladder, unable to see a thing and with my eyes stinging like a wasp has been attaching my face. I shout for David to come and help me, which he does. Not before he suggests that I look like an albino version of Alice Cooper though. Charming.

Posted by Antz at 10:19 PM | Permalink | | |

Friday, March 10, 2006

Amnesty, Iansa and Oxfam are jointly compiling a petition to show the world's concern about the spread of the arms trade. The 'Million Faces' is a visual petition; their aim is to collect one million photos and self-portraits of people from around the world. The photos will be presented to the United Nations in New York later in 2006. So far 901,576 people have added their faces to the campaign. Why not make yourself number 901,577.

Posted by Antz at 8:57 AM | Permalink | | |

Monday, March 06, 2006

I thought that over the last seven years I'd have found every single bit of tasteless 70s wallpaper in my house and removed it but it seems I was wrong. While removing the radiator in the hall over the weekend so I could repair the wall I came across this very fine example of classic 1970s wallpaper.

Posted by Antz at 6:22 PM | Permalink | | |

The much touted blizzards and snow storms that everyone except the weather people said was going to hit the East Midlands failed to arrive. We made it through the weekend without having to eat our own limbs and also without getting stranded for the entire two days in the car. It looks like the meteorologists were right all along.

Posted by Antz at 8:25 AM | Permalink | | |

Friday, March 03, 2006

Several times today people have mentioned that the snow that's been falling over the last few days up north is going to hit the East Midlands. There seems to be much talk of "oh no, I'm not going out in the car this weekend, what if we get stuck in the snow" and "what? Go out for the day and risk getting stranded?".

Judging by these conversations we're all about to be buried alive in metre upon metre of freshly fallen snow and probably be forced to eat our own legs just to stay alive. Family members, stuck in basements, will have to draw lots to choose which of them will be the first to be eaten. You get the idea.

The only trouble is that no one who knows anything about all things weather-related is predicting any snow. The BBC? No, the Met Office? No, the Weather Channel? No. So where are these people getting this secret snow-related tip-offs from?

Is there some secret underground weather forecasting network (underground as in clandestine not as in beneath the surface of the earth; after all I imagine the weather below ground level is pretty stable) giving people the wink about top-secret weather reports? It's a mystery. How can so many people be sure it's gonna snow when people who are trained in that kinda thing are so sure it's not?

Knowing my luck I'll get stranded in my car during the weekend and end up having to eat my own legs to survive.

Posted by Antz at 5:29 PM | Permalink | | |

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

When it comes to the great Apple verses Microsoft debate there is always one clear winner when it comes down to matters of design; Apple always wins. A rule that is clearly proved by this video parody which showns what would happen if Microsoft got its hands on the iPod's packaging.

Posted by Antz at 3:20 PM | Permalink | | |

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