« August 2003 | Main | October 2003 »
September 30, 2003
He's Coming Back... And It's About Time... (again)
First, I'm a little late with the news (I heard it on Saturday morning, but wanted to check it first), but Doctor Who will be returning to the BBC! On Saturday evenings! The only thing is, it won't start until late in 2005! Lorraine Heggessey, the BBC1 controller, has expressed an interest in it since she startted, and now that all the rights have come back to the Beeb after the Universal deal that buggered everything up (well, excluding some of the rights to monsters like the Daleks, of course) the course is clear! Obviously, they want to get it right, and the series is currently going to be written by Russell T Davies (Queer As Folk and various Doctor Who stuff) there is a hope that it could be good. Of course, giving the series to such a big fan might be a mistake... ah well - we shall get more info as it comes! I can't wait for this month's Doctor Who Magazine!
Onto personal stuff. The weekend was fun, though I didn't get much done... Sunday was good, but marred by me and James (the alpha males of the group) sparring for the top spot in the pack. Of course, he can have it... Andrew will still shoot us with his gun in Halo, whatever happens! Oh yes, Halo - not bad (as we saw from the demo) and multiplayer is fun. But it needs the return of Co-op!
James gave Nick an early birthday present in the shape of 'Do You Like Horny Bunnies?', a japanese hentai game. Should keep him from using all his new printer's ink on glossy pictures of Alison Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter...
Sunday night, after getting home, and realising that unless I get a few hours to draw the art, Butterfly isn't coming until the end of November if I'm lucky(!) I came up with a short flash that has lots of little animations (nothing spectacular) including some older stuff from I.T. comics... Watch for ...Ish 01 coming very soon!
Work, for a change wasn't bad, though the shock of having 14 new cases come in on one day is a bugger. I should keep my boss off my back though as I've sent lots through for closing! :biggrin
Just 4 more days to go... the weekend calls!
Posted by Badgers at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2003
An Okay Day...
No major disasters at work (though the death of Robert Palmer was a shock), and it seems that I have been mentioned in an offical report thingy... apparently the comments received in the exercise include many that said that the Technical Officer was very helpful, etc (I'll get the exact quote later) and as most of the replies were from the area I cover... gulp!
Of course, at home things are prone to go wrong... I mean, Jamius caught me online last night and nagged me on Messenger for half an hour... :talker. He is not sure about the voice for Dredd, but hey - Apart from the perfect casting of Sean Connery as Quatermain and the addition of Dorian Gray, LXG just sooo isn't The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen! I mean, Tom Sawyer? The car? The bloody car? Do NOT get me started!
Suki, the new dog, on the other hand is lovely - a black lurcher, she has a bad back leg (a visit to the vets today means that it will be x-rayed once she is spayed due to the possibility of damage froma car accident she was in a month or so back - a neighbour heard it crying in pain afterwards, before a passing driver took her to the vets - everyone thought she would be dead after that). She is thin and has a few skin problems, but nothing that can't be fixed. She is a nice dog, and she is staying. James ragged me on that, after I said I didn't want another dog in the house (not that it was my choice!), but look at him - the dogs still haven't been sold to the butchers and he still hasn't sold Marie into slavery - he has no room to talk!
Sigh. At least the weekend is here, and my financial reconfiguration will be complete by tonight. Which means life can begin again. And I might just respond to thse glances I keep getting since I got rid of the beard I grew as an experiment... an experiment that has been a resounding success and given me much empirical data!
Later, no doubt!
Posted by Badgers at 06:11 PM | Comments (1)
September 25, 2003
Hello Autumn!
And so the lovely weather we had (before the torrential rains!:biggrin) has gone, and while the skies are clear, it is cold. Very cold. Autumn is knocking on the door ready for it's usual October visit.
The two days off didn't go according to plan, but that isn't a surprise. I got roped into a trip to Blackpool to pick up a filing cabinet for the Community Action Group, went shopping (remembered to pick up 2000AD, thank you)and sat down to beat the JD demo and get the same scores as Andrew.
Oh, and we gained a dog. Only for a night, we were looking after a rescued collie/spaniel cross - a beautiful dog and like the last dog we looked after, it will be a great pet for someone - friendly but scared of our pack (unsurprisingly). But don't be deceived into thinking that is the end of it - tonight we are getting another dog, but this one stays! A Lurcher/whippet whatever will be coming to stay with us, making the menagerie a total of 6 dogs, 3 snakes, 2 tree frogs and a tarantula. Of course, just one dog (old, deaf and blind but still able to bite anyone who isn't me) and Akumi (must get a pic online, especially the most recent one which shows how big she is getting) the spider are 'mine'.
Ah well, thankfully work hasn't been too bad what with two meetings and no major problems (for a change)... but there is still another day to go yet...! :lol
Oh and thanks to those people who are selling me Agatha Christie novels on Ebay...
Oh, and old misery guts is back online too! He seems happy enough in the current job... no doubt an entry will be forthcoming!
One last thing - I think I know how to get Andrew out on the town for a night. If we tell him he only has to buy one round... though we forget to say how big that round actually is! Hmmm! :drunk:drunk:rofl:drunk:drunk
Posted by Badgers at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2003
Note To Self - Remember to pick Up Last Week's 2000AD Since The Newsagent Didn't Deliver It...
Sigh. I did get the 2000AD Extreme Edition (published to promote some game or other...) instead. Well, the good news is that Judge Dredd - Dredd vs Death isn't too bad at all going by the demo. Andrew has been playing it like mad and is a 'Senior Judge' in one bit and gets a 'Judge Dredd' rating in another. I've played it through and I think the game will be fun, especially in co-op mode (sadly only 2 players but it will still be fun, especially for me and James in the evenings!).
Saturday was spent waiting in the que to get the game, and in the loft trying to clear some stuff out of the parent's bits and tidy it up a little. We didn't get far, but it still took hours.
James isn't back online yet, and as expected, didn't turn up at Nick's for the Operation Flashpointfest that was going on. He also missed Nick totally failing to get to grips with JD, shooting everyone and not making any arrests... and installing a new Lexmark printer/scanner/copier he bought from QVC without too many hitches (though the cyan ink in the cartridge was a little streaky).
Still, as James is starting his new job (finally!) today, we can forgive him - he was probably very nervous! After all, it's been a while, and the oportunities to drive into fields in a bus (on it's side) are slim in his new vocation! (Y'know, I have to take the time to put smileys into the MT script!). Good look, dude, and don't let the bastards grind you down this time!!!
Well, today and tomorrow I am having a couple of days off as I have way to much holiday time to come and need the rest. Not that I will get it as I am going to Blackpool this afternoon to pick up a filing cabinet for the local community action group thingy. Oh joy.
Finally, remember how I got the Alexander McCall Smith novels, and was looking forward to reading them? Well, The Full Cupboard of Life is as magical as the other books in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series (I know paying £8.99 for the original paperback editions is a bit much for you all, but they have just started re-issuing them as normal paperback size for £6.99 - and they are HIGHLY recommended!). I have just started on Portuguese Irregular Verbs (the first 'Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainment' and I can tell you that his humourous prose (subtly used in No.1...) is wonderful - the first chapter alone make me laugh out loud - the description of the three Professors playing tennis. Without knowing the rules (but they have perused an old rulebook and are sure that it is simplicity itself!) is so funny! Marvelous.
Enjoy!
Posted by Badgers at 08:11 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2003
Things Are Finally Looking Up...!
My financial status is about to get better... or worse, depending on your view, and Andrew has gotten the Dredd vs Death demo... I'm just in a que waiting to get it... if its not good, I will one very unhappy Squaxx dek Thargo!
Posted by Badgers at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2003
Some Weeks Just Get Better
Of course, some don't. After Monday, Tuesday was a breath of fresh air - no problems, everything running fine. Until Mum started recording the Andromeda season finale but recorded Sky One not Sky One Mix... sigh. Bye, Tyr, shame I couldn't see you off!
The rest of the week has been full of downs too, but today was nearly full of more than that - three people decided they wanted to be in my space while driving - one on a roundabout, one on a perfectly straight bit of road and the other in a car park. Muppets. The lot of them.
Yesterday I had the joy (!) of a meeting that was dull until it suddenly came to pass that there was something that only the fieldwork people could do... so now I have another meeting next week at Queens Park Hospital. Sigh.
Oh, and this week I found that the Chicago Rock is now shut like the Works above it, for refurbishment. Is this 'new clubbing experience' going to be long-mooted joining of the clubs? And if so, will they keep the kiddies upstairs while us adults get down to the good music in the basement? No doubt this will put a slight crimp in going out plans as there is not a lot of other places as good as the rock (to put it mildly!), and it might be rubbish once it is finished... we shall see...
Later, people - Peace Out.
Posted by Badgers at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2003
Only a few more years to go...
Oh, to be a bus driver, flitting from firm to firm, job to job with not a care in the world. But no, I'm a local authority Technical Support Officer (Sensory Impairment) and I need the job to continue my current phase of debt realignment. And I get calls from stupid old women who shout angrily down the phone that they don't want any equipment, nothing on the TV or door or anything and moan that the phone call costs them money and that we used a first class stamp to send the letter about the appointment (which she had already cancelled a month ago, but not with me, and anyway the appointment wasn't made until last week) and that she had been told we could do bugger all for her anyway and had been taken off the books and complained that she couldn't hear me (a bad throat at this end I am soooo sorry!) so did we get the bloody message this time - I said thanks, yes we did, and we would now stop trying to give her free equipment that would let her hear hear her TV better, her doorbell when it rang and of course, the telephone that she obviously couldn't hear. I then went for a half hour walk in town to get de-stressed. I very nearly wrote a letter to her stating that her case had now been closed, that I would not contact her again, even if she asked for help from my service, and here is a couple of quid to pay for the bloody phone call. Oh, and that the stamp on the letter was bought by me, and the cost of it and the £2 came from petrol money given to me by my mother for taking her shopping at the weekend, and had in no way come from her precious bloody taxes. At least I managed to stop myself from going round and unscrewing her head. Some people just rub me the wrong way. And you have never seen anyone so easy going as me.
And Andrew thinks I have such a cushy job. This from someone who goes off to put up shelves as a job, has Friday afternoons off and snipes you in the back of the head on the Halo beta while you are telling Nick how to get to the end of the first level. Oddly enough, James has already stated that he doesn't want my job, even if I gave it to him. I'm starting to think that if Andrew thinks it is so nice and fluffy, he can bloody do it! I'll put up all those stressful shelves in hair dressing salons!
Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. But it shows just what I can go through - and that was just this morning when I went in to work... before 9.30... don't get me started on the rest of it!
Breath deep, thats it... in... out...in... out...
Of course, Sunday wasn't the day I had planned either - Jamius is back from Cornwall, and no doubt he will have one hell of a blog/review to do for his holiday from Hell. Andrew has won a reprieve for a couple of weeks from looking after his Americans and decided to shoot us in the back us as usual.
I also made a decision. I am going to pay off my credit cards (or nearly pay them off) with a cheap loan, and finally find some money staying in my bank, even after paying bills, shopping and Ebay fees... I might finally get a life (if I don't go too wild) and definitely discover what savings are. It's not the best way, but I don't want to waste money on the Lottery every week, and a beter job is not in the future, and it will work.
On a brighter note, remember the Badgers flash by TheWeebl at Newgrounds? Well, it seems he did the music with friends - his site has kinda run out of bandwidth and he's selling a CD with that and other tracks (like the soundtrack to his latest, scampi)... Oh, I need to be doing Dark Tidings next year... that has a CD single with the opening and ending themes just waiting...
Oh, and check out the latest Retarded Animal Babies while you are there... it may be the best yet (even after the last one!), but be warned, swear words and mildly offensive stuff within! Magic Missile!
Ah well, off to bed now, and to try and get a Dream Diary entry for tomorrow! And to listen to my Smile.DK CD for a while. And to invent a device to unscrew annoying old ladies' heads with less hassle...
Posted by Badgers at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2003
Covenant Forces Detected!
I'm glad that's over! To be honest the last two days have not been that bad, apart from one person not being in (again) and a problem with something that we don't deal with, but which means I'm personally having to spend money again to get something repaired. Don't ask - and you wonder why I have money problems...
The best thing about this week has been having a Smile.DK compilation i the car - and at home! This Scandinavian group only seem to release in Japan/Korea/Hong Kong, but are still very popular as they have contributed so much music to the Dance Dance Revolution/Beatmania/Dancing Stage series of games... You will also be treated to a classic track when (if!) I get round to finishing Butterfly... Catchy as heck! And rather cute! The songs too! I sure hope nowhere local has a Smile.DK karaoke on... (Heaven help you if I become a club DJ!)
Close on this was the trip to Derbyshire for the Technical Officer's Meeting - nice weather, a slightly large amount of Smile.DK on the car stereo (!) and an hour or so at Denby Potteries (sadly with no money!).
Also, the parents found a copy of The Doctors on DVD at the local Poundland cheapo store - its the US release so it's NTSC, but for a quid...
And the worst thing? Hmm. all those bits between 9-6 I think!
BTW - Halo PC looks pretty good... and it plays good too! Dredd vs Death is going to have to be special now...
PS - Remember the UFO sighting I didn't get excited about last week? It seems that the description (a disc with a yellow dot in the middle) was accurate... but it wasn't an alien invasion - it was a rather novel model glider flown by Dale Bolton, a member of the Ribble Valley Model Soaring Association (link to news here with picture of Dale and the 'saucer'). Looks cool!
Posted by Badgers at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2003
That's It, I Quit!
No, not really, but if I have any more problems with smoke alarms... I put one in for a man who can be very annoying, that's was nothing compared to the walls of his bloody house! under the plaser is a lot of seriously solid brick. One screw went in fine, the other - first it hit brick, then the plaster started crumbling... I had to drill a deep hole into the brick and then use a monster screw to hold the main light/power unit up. And then came drilling through the wall above the door... after the one on Thursday/Monday, I thought this would be a pain, but I had no idea... sigh. This and an annoying fie officer who is asking about a fire alarm for someone who had a fire in the last couple of days (an I only saw on Thursday to order it...) Bigger sigh.
Luckily, yesterday went far better in Derbyshire, despite getting caught behind the sort of driver that leaves three car spaces ahead of him on the motorway - a commendable thing when we are not caught in a traffic snarl-up and not moving! And as for his top speed of 50 in the middle lane when traffic started to move... and his habit of putting on the brakes hard when a car passed him on either side... Even getting stuck behind a broken down truck on the slip road going from the services to the motorway for 20 minutes didn't cause a problem. Not having much money so I couldn't come back from Denby Potteries with some goodies irked a bit, though. The meeting was good though, and I could even put in my tuppence! I learned a few bits of information too, which put me in my boss's good books...
Ah well - now I'm knackered and I'm gonna have a sleep before I come back to work on the new Flash menu for the left side of the page (hopefully this will keep Jamius happy when he gets back!), and perhaps even some work on Butterfly...
I might send a help ticket to Digihosters first though to get DB_File back at .com so I can get that side of things going...
Posted by Badgers at 06:37 AM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2003
A Quiet Weekend, Apart From All The Shooting
Not actual shooting - just me and Nick using AI backup in Raven Shield. It makes a big difference! So does not having mr Grumpy and Mr Whingey - it was quiet and fun - and we didn't get sniped once (well, some of the terrorists in RS did give my team a grenade to catch in a smalll room).
Manchester wasn't bad, but I just said sod it and overspent. I needed three Strangers In Paradise graphic novels! And when I saw the Lenore books... I also picked up four Alexander McCall Smith novels - the 5th book in the No1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and the Irregular Portreguese Verbs trilogy.
Of course, today I was at work and it was, as ever, a bugger. So much so I'm booking a week off in October. And don't get me started on the wire for the smoke alarm I finished installing...
Oh, and last week it seems a cigar-shaped UFO was seen over Burnley... hmmm...
Posted by Badgers at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2003
Another Week Over...
...and deeper in debt. I'm beginning to wish I was a bus driver. At least I could just chuck in my job if I got cheesed off with it. Still, not being James, and not being as low a form of life as somone who drives buses into fields (on their sides) and then dreams of doing the same to trains, I can't do that. Nor can I go on holiday for a week to Cornwall. Still, James has, and good luck to him - we won't be hearing from him again! Well, for a few weeks, at any rate!
Still, he asked me to go round to look after some stuff after work, and manages not to be there... then gloats that he ahs already got some stuff downloaded that I haven't. Sometimes I wonder why I keep him as a friend. He's more use than Nick, true, but far more annoying. But I haven't tipped a bus into a field!
Today's high point has been a cute squirrel that ran madly through traffic near Burnley General Hospital and gambolled around on the pavement before going through the gates. The highlight of the week (if I don;'t include some of the nice female eye-candy that has been around recently - the sort that James, as a bus driver, used to ogle, but now misses as he sits on his arse on the internet all day!), had been sorting out the next Flash I'm doing, and making a start with the script planned, and the art ready to go. It may take a week or two, though, as I want to try and make it special. And no, it's not I.T. related!
Towmorrow I dash off to Manchester to spend what is left of my money after having to shell out £70 for the dogs to have pills, etc. I'm sure ctas are cheaper! Jamius managed to wangle £20 from us too for painting the house... sadly he didn't realise that if he could do it as a job (he's 'shit-scared of ladders' to use his own words!) he could make a bomb as locally painters charge up to £250 just to do the front or back of the house. His loss! And he didn't want to help me start up my book shop, either...
Catch you later!
Posted by Badgers at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2003
When Someone Pinches Your Chair...
...You know it's time to go home! Except if you are me, you go off to see an old woman with a telephone problem.
I got home and found James still here painting (I got revenge for yesterday by telling him he had missed a bit... the front!)
I am sooo happy to be home... just 2 more days to go! Shame I don't have any money now I gave Mum £70 to pay for the dogs going to the vets...
Posted by Badgers at 06:39 PM | Comments (3)
Just What I Needed...
...James turning up at eight in the morning to start painting the bit of my mum and dad's house that the other painter hadn't been able to do for various reasons... and I really didn't need him harrassing me about the time I came downstairs (I'd been up since 6.00 but doing stuff that had to be done!). Still, I had got home knackered yesterday and slept all night like a log. He on the other habd had been online downloading till eek past cripes o'clock in the morning! I wish I hadn't introduced him to the newsgroups now...
But I think this is his revenge for posting the link to the cool Badgers flash animation on Newgrounds... wish I could have done that! Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushroom... etc!
Still, yesterday wasn't too bad despite breaking my drill while installing a smoke alarm and two people having the decency not to be in... I still finished after 6pm though!
Ah well. I have also been asked what the diet I am on is - well, it isn't the dreaded Atkins Diet... its closer to the new Blaine Diet... drink water, eat little. And exercise. At 6 in the morning (not this morning as my neck hurts!). Then go back to sleep until 8am. And forget whatever dreams I'd had overnight.... I'm so depressed that James is suddenly getting so involved in that page - and having dreams about Catherine Whittaker! Eep! I must try to remember a dream and not fall asleep! I must zzzzzzzzzzzz....
(Entry made at work instead of having my lunch break... just so you know!!!)
Posted by Badgers at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)