He's a crying, walking, sleeping, talking...
...living doll! Yup, good ol' George "Dubya" Bush has been immortalised in, erm, plastic according to this news report. I love the quote from Mark Morford :-

"There he is, all faux manly and squinty and artificially buffed up, his gull-wing ears toned down and the thin-lipped brow-furrowed monkey confusion so common to his scrunched little face apparently erased."

I guess it might prove useful for Voodoo practioners to stick pins into....

[Listening to: 1200 Micrograms - Mescaline ]

It goes up to 11 - that's 1 louder, innit?
Apparently EU versions of the iPod are quieter than US ones, due to some stupid french law. Annoyingly, this has been applied to all European iPods. So use this utility to boost the volume of the MP3s without altering the MP3 files themselves.

Waking up on Tuesday morning
Well, I'm slowly coming round for my first morning back at work after the long weekend. I feel like I did nothing but eat the last three days. Barbecue on Saturday afternoon, big meal at Dr Watson's restaurant Saturday night (making it a 4 steaks day!). Another barbecue on Sunday afternoon, and a roast beef dinner at Alison's parents yesterday. Oh, and pie too...

The iPod is working out really well, although I am finding the touch-sensitive buttons a little too touch sensitive. Could be just me. Other than that, its well worth the money - it currently holds 973 of my MP3 tunes (including some big 75-80min tracks) and I've still got over 21Gb of space left. Also got all my contacts from Outlook on there too. Battery life is enough to get me to work and back for 2 days (and thats a journey time of 2hrs 10mins each way each day!).

[Listening to: Wayfinder - Release me (Nectarine Demoscene Radio) ]

And he shall have music wherever he goes...
Got myself an iPod to listen to when I'm commuting to and from work. I'll let you know if its any good after the holiday weekend.

Wanna ride my Chopper?
In the next few days I will be the proud owner of a classic 70's Mk1 Raleigh Chopper. Yay!

[Listening to: Astral Projection - Anything Is Possible]

Is there a Doctor in the house?
Well, after a few blog entries over the last few weeks about building a float for the Hythe Venetian Fete, we actually did the parade yesterday. You can see the float here and as a special treat to my regular readers, a picture of me dressed as Doctor Who (the 4th Doctor Who, Tom Baker) right here (although I was on my break, having a beer, so you don't quite get the full effect

[Listening to: Elwood - Experience ]

No internet web thingy!
Web access at work isn't workling - you might not even see this post I'm typing!

On Yer Bike Mate!
Just ordered myself this bike helmet (in black). Looking to get back into my downhill moutain biking again. Big Air!!!

UPDATED : Was pointing to picture of the wrong helmet. Doh!

[Listening to: Makke - C64 Megamix (Nectarine Demoscene Radio) ]

Something broke
Something has broken in my webpage layout - sometimes you have to scroll left and right to read the entries. Will try and get this fixed next time I have some free time.

[Listening to: Tim Forsyth - Knucklebusters Pt1]

Grab yer coat love, you've pulled!
How good is your pulling power? Put yourself to the test here

Busy weekend
This weekend was busy but fun...

Friday went out in London with Alison, who travelled up here to meet me from work. We had a bit of a walk around before stopping in at All Bar One on Kingsway. After that we went to New World in Chinatown for a bite to eat.

Saturday went grocery shopping for the big lamb curry I was cooking that night - all from scratch with fresh ingredients. Took about 3 hours in total to prepare and cook but the results were well worth the trouble.

Sunday was another barbecue day and more construction work on our Venetian Fete float. Tiring work but we're pretty much ready now.

[Listening to: Purple motion - Death rally menu (Nectarine Demoscene Radio) ]

I'm a Badger
Ok, so maybe I am a big kid after all, but I figured that rather than spend money on t-shirts with clever geek slogans on, I could put them on little home-made pin badges. So I got a Badge It! machine

[Listening to: BlackStar - Lazy Jones Remix]

Beautiful Song
Tune of the day award goes to Radix - I Realize - you can download it here

The lyrics are from a poem by Kim Ault and are as follows :-

If I could gather all the stars and hold them in my hand,
the colors I would then possess would not be half as grand
as those which I have seen when I look deep into your eyes,
or come across when I have kissed your lips, I realize.
If I could ponder all the truths men sought since time began,
they would not teach me more than if I were to touch your hand
For truth to no one you have touched appear as simple lies
And nothing could be truer than your touch, I realize.
If I were given lasting life as only God could do,
I'd shun it all and turn away, if I could live with you.
For even God has never known the immesurable size
Of the love that's within my heart for you, I realize.

[Listening to: radix - i realize]

A better command line
The power of Unix command line utilities for windows - go get CygWin
Requested by Joel

Cool toy of the day
Andrea R. James has made a fun little tool that lets you make little stickers for your blogs/websites. You can play with it here

Fire Escape Under Construction
I've added a Web Fire Escape to this site, for all those of you reading my blog when you're supposed to be working! You can choose where to escape to here

Getting the MAC address on Windows XP
WARNING : Geeky blog entry If you need to get the MAC address of your network card under Windows XP, you can do one of the following 2 things:-

For Windows XP Pro Only

Click Start.

Select Run.

Type in command.

Click OK

Type in cd\ and press Enter to bring you to the C: prompt.

Type in getmac and press Enter.

The MAC (or hardware address) will display

For any version of Windows XP

Click Start.

Select Run.

Type in command.

Click OK

Type in cd\ and press Enter to bring you to the C: prompt.

Type in ipconfig /all and press Enter.

The MAC address in labeled as the Physical Address

[Listening to: Fluke - Atom Bomb (Straight 6 Instrumental Mix]

Hints for a happy life

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

You should not confuse your career with your life.

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

Never lick a steak knife.

The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

Your friends love you anyway.

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

[Listening to: Anthrax and Public Enemy - Bring The Noise]

Another internet worm doing the rounds
There's another nasty internet worm doing the rounds and it affects home users just as much as corporate users. I suggest you lot update your antivirus programs, and think about getting a firewall installed (and use it to block port 135)

[Listening to: Jarno Beumer - Noisy Pillars (2002 remake)]

Oh the horror of it all!
Ok, you can add The Evil Dead Trilogy and The Nightmare On Elm Street Collection box sets to my horror film shopping spree....

Down with Shrubbery!
Why oh why do sandwich bars insist on putting lettuce in sandwiches, whether you want it or not? My prawn mayonnaise sandwich contains this noxious vegetable matter, despite there being no mention of it on the pre-packed sandwich container ("Prawn Mayonnaise on malted brown bread"). If I wanted to eat plant matter, I'd be an elephant...

[Listening to: Dj Tiesto - In search of sunrise 2 ]

Spooky
Picked up a box set of the Halloween movies yesterday. Should keep me amused for a while....

[Listening to: Beastie Boys - Intergalactic [Rayner UK Drum-N-Bass Remix]

Sort your life out
Well, credit cards have been paid off, house has been tidied (by my brother, admittedly), and building insurance is being processed (which is good, cos apparently its a legal requirement!). Will pay off the other outstanding debts when my money has cleared at the bank, and then I will have the clean slate I've so desperately needed.

Feels good to finally get organised - I can almost feel the pressure lifting...

[Listening to: - Prodigy Presents The DirtChamber Sessions Vol. 1 ]

Go forth, little hobbits
In a wonderful parody of Yahoo! Maps, you can now get a map and directions from Bag End to Mordor.

[Listening to: Jean Moiree - Playa De Ibiza (Club Mix) (P O W E R S H O U T ! Pure Trance!) ]

Back from my travels
Back from France and now having to run around sorting out everything that needs sorting out. Proper blog entry later!

Holiday time!
Yeah, I'm on holiday so no updates to my page for a while! Not near my laptop right now, so no cute little picture here either....

See y'all back on Monday 11th

Plans to take over the world Part 2
Registered the domain niceguyuk.com before anyone else does! Should be active in 24 hours time and point to this page. Should also have email set up on it too

[Listening to: Sky Dee - The Ride (Flow Mix) ]

PANIC!
Off on holiday tomorrow, and I am supposed to be outta here at 3pm this afternoon. Still gotta get my hair cut, pack, get cat food and flea spray.....eep!

[Listening to: Diablo - Hop She Goes (P O W E R S H O U T ! ! ! ! Psychedelic Goa Trance) ]

Chicken and Egg (pie)
Which came first? Weebl and Bob or HomeStarRunner? Both are simplistically drawn Flash animation cartoon characters with a penchant for talking unintelligably and eating pie. So who gets to sue whom (especially since Weebl has reached the dizzy heights of MTV stardom) ?

UPDATE : Move your mouse over the animated Weebl to hear him talk!

Have your say
As an experiment, I've added a new feature to my blog that allows people to post comments back to me. I say experiment because if I see it abused, I will remove the facility.

To use it, simply click on the little comments links under each post (will either say "No Comments" or show the number of existing comments) - it'll give you a little form to add comments with.

Use it wisely, and have fun!

Microsoft vs GM
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on...

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon".

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by asingle "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

BUSH: SADDAM HAD URANIUM ON AMAZON.COM WISH LIST
Sought Banned Weapons, Free Shipping
Read the rest of this shocking report here

Last day at work
Yup, its my last day at work before my holiday. Hopefully today will go quickly. Alison finished yesterday, lucky girl, and is off to see Robbie Williams in concert at Knebworth, so she'll not be back until the small hours of this morning