Stuff Archives

I'm really not one for politics, but I can't help reading all the news around Baroness Thatcher. It seems there's a big split between those who admired her and those that couldn't wait to celebrate her death. One thing's for sure, she's struck an emotional chord with many people who will remember her long after her death.

At the end of the day, that's probably the biggest tribute to a politician as it means they made a difference and I don't think anyone would disagree with that. I'm not sure who it was that first said when they were asked if it worried them the number of people that booed them, responded, the only thing I worry about is hearing silence. It's certainly something that applies to Kyle Busch ..."you know who I am".

I bet this is the only article that mentions Margaret Thatcher and Kyle Busch together!

I will say that I thought the interview with Tony Blair that I heard on the radio was incredibly good at giving praise to someone who, from a political standpoint, has a number of opposing views. My position, if anyone really cares, is that I think she made an overall positive difference even if I didn't agree with everything she did. That said, I generally don't agree with everything any politician does.

The one thing I will say is that I'm in complete awe as to what she achieved. There's a lot written about her humble upbringing as the daughter of a Graham shopkeeper and how she made it to the top of, what was then, a mama world. To become one of the most powerful political figures in the world. I have to admire her success.

R.I.P.

I'll be honest straight off the bat and say that I first saw this video on Tosh.O, but I found myself going back to it because there are just so many things in the video that make me laugh. Including the song itself that I oddly found myself humming away. You can play the game of how many things can you see that are just plain wrong, but you get to a very high number very quickly and you're best just giving up on that one.

(Original video removed due to account suspension)

I will admit that I'm somewhat disappointed though. I do a lot of traveling to Texas and I could have swung by. Where was my invite for the party?

If you're interested the song is “Quack Like a Duck” by “GOAT and your Mom” But I don't think we'll be seeing it top the charts anytime soon.

Not sure whether this whole thing is scripted, but I still found it funny.

Going to be honest, I've often wondered what it must be like to be one of the top drivers on the road knowing that you could put anyone into the wall with minimal damage to your own car. Must be tempting every time you get cut up on the freeway.

When two things you love come together, what can go wrong? Famous last words I'm sure, but we will reserve judgement for a couple of months as in May, Iron Maiden are to release a beer. Sad as it is, I'll have to buy a couple of crates just to see what it tastes like ... let's face it, it's going to take a couple of crates to decide if it's good or not. I imagine it's going to come at a premium price as well, but what do you expect these days?

Iron Maiden's Trooper Beer.

I figured I'd try out my new art talents - bit of sketching mixed with some water color work. Did a quick one of William playing on the xBox.


There may have been a slight trick to this ... but that's for me to know!

This blog was very close to being called “Mr O's lucky escape” as I toyed with the idea of bringing my new shorts to Vegas, but elected not to. So, for the first time in 27 years I bestowed my legs upon the world. One of the things that makes me laugh is that I actually worried about what color socks to wear. And even tried on both white and black before electing to chose black. The fact that I look like a complete tool regardless of the socks is completely irrelevant, but it felt like that might be the icing on the cake sort of things, so I tried on both pairs and solicited William's feedback. He did find it rather amusing that I was wearing shorts as he'd never seen me wear them before.

The reason I elected not to call it Mr O's lucky escape is because I did wear a bum bag (a.k.a. fanny pack) around Vegas. Basically I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to look like a cock regardless of what I wear, so it really doesn't matter.

The pictures were taken with a 10 second timer and yes, I was trying to find an appropriate pose. Thought it might add to the knob factor ... but not the Sainsbury knob cheese that Owen found.

It's one thing to lose your AAA credit rating, but seriously, have things got so bad that you'll eat anything?

Trust Mr O to find this wonderful picture.

Today's biology lesson is about testicles. Quite amazing things really, but I've been focused on their ability to self regulate their temperature. Everybody knows the old excuse about coming out of cold water making everything shrink and that's because they try to crawl back into your stomach where it's nice and warm so they can keep at their optimal temperature. It's like the old testes have a draw sting similar to the one you have with window blinds to lift them up and down, they pull them up to get back into the stomach. However, it's the opposite that I've been focused on this last week.

I've had a pretty gnarly fever of over a hundred for a few days due to an infection (that thankfully appears to be gone now). If the old testes have a draw sting that they use to pull themselves up into the stomach, mine have let it out to hang out with my knees for a while due to the temperature I've been running. It's like their down there just chilling out, sunglasses on, sipping a cocktail from a coconut and relaxing in a big old wrinkly hammock.

It's almost freaky though as you kind of have your regular hang level and when you see it somewhat different, it catches you off guard a bit. I found myself automatically cupping them and sort of thinking “hey buddies, you guys OK hanging out all the way down there? .... don't want you to snap nothing or anything like that.” Obviously that's not going to happen, but the thought does occur.

Anyway, as I said, everything back to the same old same old and probably a bit of TMI, but hey!

Trying to get back into the habit of writing a bit more of what's going on, particularly when it's interesting ... well, maybe slightly interesting as a passing remark. I was up in Chicago at the beginning of this week and it just seems that every time I go there something happens - had to fly back and go straight into hospital just over a year ago. Last time I went I was diverted to Des Moines and when I finally got in, I only lasted a day before I had to fly out again (was supposed to be there for a week) due to a need at a client.

This time the being there went without a hitch, it was the leaving. My flight took off, then started shaking a bit and the captain made an announcement that the landing gear was stuck down and that we had to return to Chicago as opposed to carrying on to Dallas. Presumably we made an emergency landing as we were greeted by the fire trucks and ambulances that chased us to the end of the runway until we confirmed that we were OK. Now, I don't profess to being an aeronautical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know that of the two positions landing gear can get stuck in, down is definitely the one I prefer to hear about. The landing was fine .... which you can probably guess as I'd probably not be writing this otherwise.

Anyway, trundled off to the second plane. Next thing there's an announcement that there's a mechanical issue on that. Off to another gate for a third plane that did eventually get us to Dallas. Well, half of us - not sure what happened to the others - either frightened off or they got another flight. Minor problem though as I only got to my hotel at 2:00am and had to be up at 5:30 to go to a client and deliver a presentation. And not just any presentation, a sales presentation to a new client. Thankfully that went fine thanks to an excellent team, so off to return as had to get back to the Bay Area.

We drove to Dallas Love Field to drop off one of the guys who was also heading out, then went to lunch and then to DFW to drop me off. I have no idea why, but I checked my phone when I was curbside to look at the flight information. I really don't know why I did this, but it turned out I was booked to head back to San Francisco which is fine except for the fact that my car was in Oakland as that's where I'd left from. A call to my trusty assistant who admitted a boo boo, discussed a couple of options and decided to get a flight into Oakland .... from Dallas Love Field. Drove back over to that airport and tried to check in and the machine was having none of it. Back on the phone with my assistant how had now got me on the right flight, but the wrong day. Another quick change later and I'm on the right flight.

Everything from here went smooth. I did fall asleep waiting for my plane and woke up as they were boarding, so there was a close call there I suppose, but all was good.

It's interesting .... I've always been Mr Skeptical, particularly when it comes to urban myths or legends, stories that seem just a little bit too unbelievable. Notable ones where when we used to go fishing over in Ireland, there were rumors that folks from Germany were stealing pike to smuggle back and eat. Similarly, there are stories of the people from Eastern Europe that have come to England taking carp from the fisheries to eat. I've always taken these with a pinch of salt.

However .... the most ridiculous story of similar theme was when I first came to the States. There was actually a news item from a concerned group of one description or other over the safety of mustangs. The wild horses that is, not the cars. The news article commented that people from the UK were coming to the States and killing horses to take back to England and eat. I can't remember if it was claimed it was a delicacy or not, but I scoffed at such a thought .... for one thing, I could possibly see that you could get a pike into a cooler to smuggle back, but I wasn't quite getting my head around how you would get a dead horse onto a plane. Suddenly I feel stupid for not giving the report more credibility given the amount of horse meat that seems to be being sold in the UK as beef right now.

Perhaps I need to be a bit more like my brother who believes every story he's told.