Archive for the ‘Other’ Category



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Two Girls, One Cup – A fan’s critique

Monday, December 10th, 2007

Not since Weebl.com’s Badger, Badger, Lions and Tigers (only in Kenya) or the excellent dub of All your Base are Belong to us have I seen an internet phenomenon sweep as far, or as wide so quickly as Two Girls, One Cup (2Girls1Cup). Unfortunately for reasons beyond my control, I’m unable to link to the actual spectacle as it goes against the extremely high mora standard that HD911 has tried to stick to since its inception, however a quick google search will yeild results in seconds. I must say, it is most definitely NSFW (Not Safe for Work), and NSFSC (Not safe for Stomach Contents), nor is it in anyway cool, but its worth seeing none the less.. Neither I, nor the other managers (and there are hundreds of them) here at HD911 endorse or take any responsibilty by damage (mostly vomit) caused during the watching of this fantastic clip.

But this isn’t my point, the video in question is old news, it came, shocked and left endless destruction, similar to the Asian Tsunamis of December 2005. Well sort of anyway, but I know better to suggest on a world scale they’re anywhere near as important for that would be a sensationilst, unfathomed and utterly false statement, but it was great none the less.

This school report (faked or not, I don’t know) came to my attention recently, and even days after reading it for the first time I’m still in fits of laughter. It’s not gross or disturbing in anyway, just a critical review (in a true film review style). I challenge everyone to read it, and if you don’t find it as funny as I did, then I owe you a Mars Bar or something. I’ve linked straight from Halogrid forums for these partly because they also provide a great insight into this wonderous beast, and mostly because I’m just plain lazy.

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Update: I’ll host them myself, damn forums.

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Post Move (finally)

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

This is the first post from the new internet connection, I know it hasn’t been all that long, and I shouldn’t complain about a week, but I’m an addict, and a filthy one at that!

Just sat down after a lazy Sunday, the first in a long series, in the new house. Last weekend (as you know) was hard, moving boxes/furniture for 48 hours, and yesterday was much the same (possibly even longer) after a trek to the rubbish tip, a trip to Ikea (in Essex of all places), and 6+ hours of moving & driving, and of course another trip to McDonalds (my second in two weeks, and also in almost a year). However, today has been laid back, all we’ve done is eat, drink (lots), do the shopping and pick up the rent deposit checkcheque (damnit, I’m oozing American) from the old house.

It’s the best feeling, sitting here with a cheque in my wallet for the full amount of the initial security bond, a huge relief too as it covers almost two thirds of this months rent at the new house which is awesome, as I wasn’t looking forward to having to raise the money for rent from my pay alone. This was a good thing, as there was a fair few marks on the walls that definitely weren’t there when we first moved in. But it got me thinking, who gives the full security bond amount back before properly checking state of said apartment? But really, it wasn’t all that bad, but I had expected to lose £150 or so for painting!

We’ve been in Twickenham for over a week now, and its been great so far, though I’m still getting used to having so many locals and not having to travel or walk more than 10 minutes to get to one. I know it hasn’t been long and we can’t expect to know the area back to front just yet, but I’m still finding little chestnuts around the place that make the new hood even more excellent, like this:

The Ingenuity of some astounds me

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Australia – A New Leaf

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007


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The king of the woooorld

I realised I forgot to post an update the other day after the fiasco of fighting the London Transport system to get to Australia House to vote only to work out we’d forgotten our Australian Passports. I mentioned that at that the time it was almost a landslide victory to the Australian Labor Party and Kevin Rudd, its leader, well soon after this was official, and if you haven’t heard already (I wouldn’t be surprised, its not exactly world news, though I did see it in small print in the free morning paper), Kevin Rudd is the new Prime Minister of Australia, at least for the next few years anyway.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a very political person, and I shouldn’t push my point of view (as I don’t really have one), but since coming into power Mr Rudd has made some very interesting statements that will no doubt have a huge impact on Australia in the years to come. Once again, I’m not getting this information from reputable source, or even the Australian news, but tids and bits from family, friends, and London papers. Since coming into power, he’s:

  • committed to signing the Kyoto Protocol , and get Australia on track for reduced Carbon Emissions
  • said “Sorry” to the Australian Aborigines for past atrocities such as the 1960′s White Australia Policy
  • committed to pull an increasing amount of troops out of Iraq
  • talked about the scrapping of the Work Choices legislation (apparently the most unpopular government legislation passed in the history of Australia)

Now, I was thinking, what a way to come in, make sweeping changes, and completely reverse pretty much every unpopular policy from the previous opposition. I don’t think there’s a better way to rock the boat, and get all the fans and neutral voters alike, on side. It’s like the rich kid at a high school throwing around beer or $50 notes or something. Interesting stuff.

And now back to my apathetic pedestal in the clouds.

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Australia Shop

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

With the intent to go to Australia House and vote in the Australian election we braved the below 5 degree weather and headed into central London. The minute I got on the bus, it occured to me that we’d forgotten our passports, and wouldn’t be able to vote anyway (hope we don’t get a fine this time). No matter, we had another agenda for the day. And that was to venture to the Australia Shop by Charing Cross Station.

We’ve been talking about the things we miss from back home (99% of which is junk food), and it wasn’t until recently that I realised there was an Australia shop in London, and we’ve been looking for an opportunity to go ever since. And it was a great thing too, like three kids in a candy store we tore the store apart and walked out with show bags full of Twisties, Burger Rings, Vegemite, Warheads, a Cherry Ripe, Mint Slices and Pizza Shapes. Apart from the sheer cost of buying imported, bottled beer, I’d have bought a carton of Coopers Vintage, Stout, Sparkling and Pale ales too.  Ah well, maybe Australia Day.

Michaelangelo’s David, with Shapes, more clothes and no penis

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Political message from the Political Apathist

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

The Australian Federal election is coming up on November 24th 2007, with what looks like a landslide victory for the opposition, and this may be a good thing.

Kevin Rudd, the Incumbent

Kevin Rudd: The Incumbent

I thought I’d preface this post by saying I don’t really give a hoot(aus: horrendous expletive) about Australian politics, even less so since re-materialising aross the other side of the world all but half a year ago. I’m a person who, like most Australians my age (from what I’ve seen) has no real political agenda, and as such am perfectly happy to follow in my parents footsteps, because thats what mindless drones do. I should also make note of the fact that because I don’t have my own political views (thus my new title, the Political Aphathist), the one sided view and pros and cons for that view expressed in this post will either make no sense, be next to intelligible, or be down right bigoted and/or selfish. So if your a communist, or easily upset by fanatical ramblings, stop reading this post, relax and prepare yourself for Guiness Thursday.

You see, though it breaks my heart to see them win *sniff*, it must be the ALP’s turn for a quarter of a dozen years (being 3) in the spot light. And I can see a couple of reasons for this, and here comes the selfish part. Again, excuse my complete lack of understanding here, but in the period after the float of the Australian Dollar in 1983, it experienced a slump by more than 30 %. This trend continued throughout Bob Hawk and Paul Keatings rule (proof needed), and apparently things increased steadily after the Liberal party came to power in 1996/7.

This incredibly fool-proof and obvious trend leads me to believe that while the dollar is being once again driven into the ground over the next few years, I’ll be slowly building a stock pile of British pounds (I’ll be conservative and say £2936.33), and then I’ll return home, and purchase Dalkeith. And while I’m there I’ll make use of this lovely new Broadband infrastructure, FTTN (Fibre to the Node), we’ve been promised.

Bob Hawke: The True Aussie

 Bob Hawke: The one true Aussie

I can only hope we have a new Australian legend as a prime minister like Bob Hawke in the 1980′s:“His academic achievements were possibly outweighed by the notoriety he achieved as the holder of a world record for the fastest consumption of beer: a yard glass (approximately 3 imperial pints or 1.7 litres) in eleven seconds” [1]

See, nothing fanatical to read here.

P.S: Incumbent had nothing at all do with what I thought it did.  This has proved to be a learning experience for all

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Guiness Thursday

Friday, November 16th, 2007

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Not often does such genius strike a person on the midst of a Wednesday afternoon, I might even say it may have been my Eureka moment. I invented Guiness Thursday, a day that exceeds all other named days, including Good Friday, Easter Monday and others such as Ash Wednesday, which until today I believed was named because of the bushfires that spread accross Victoria, Australia on Wednesday, Feb 16th 1983. What irony.

I must jump back in time for a bit, to Wednesday night, as I excitedly rushed home after my moment of revelation, to make sure said idea was indeed as original and ingenious as I thought it was. A quick google search, left me slightly shattered, as it returned four results, but I was happy to discover that whilst the term had been phrased before, it definitely didn’t appear to be in common usage. And everyone knows the first and foremost rule of just about anything, and thats if you like an idea, copy it and make it ten times better. So I did, and on we go.

Guiness Thursday is a momentous occasion, as it doesn’t attempt to rival any of these religious holidays for importance, but attempts to enrich them, forming a union in which pleasure time can be enhanced by grouping said days together, whereever possible. Every Thursday, I will endevour to enforce a strict Guiness policy for myself and my collegues and anyone else who’ll join.

This shall bring enjoyment for all who believe in the new way. And certain times of the year we will benefit greatly from its creation. Take Easter Week for instance, usually we have Good Friday thru Easter Monday off work. With Guiness Thursday, we’ll have an even better Easter Weekend, with a classy lead up to the festive period with a Thursday afternoon of several pints of Ireland’s finest. In fact, and I don’t mean to offend anyone here, in a few hundred years the meaning of the Easter weekend may well just change, in that Good Friday is good for the fact we enjoyed Guiness Thursday so much.

You see, Guiness Thursday is not just a childish notion, nor is it a passing phase. It’s an ideal, and aims to make everyones Post-humpday just that much better, for the improvement of man-kind.

Please, join me, and post stories of your Guiness Thursday exploits. I’m interested in feedback of all kinds.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYMoz0zdag[/youtube]

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A while between perversions..

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

I’ve been so preoccupied by things this last week, with work, freelance/personal work on the side, having a buddy over from Australia and just doing what I normally do, that being nothing. And this got me thinking, not only has it been a while since I’ve last written, its been a while since I’ve last contributed any perversions. Now either I’m going to have to go out and find/photograph some more London-isms, change the title of this page, or keep living the lie and not live up to to the original idea behind this blog.

But I do have something, its something that made me burst out laughing like a weirdo whilst walking around the streets at lunch time. I was just on my way back from Subway (my first sub since leaving Aus… soo good) when walking back toward Piccadilly (close enough), and imagine my surprise when directly in front of me, on the facade of the building across the road I saw, “THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PAIN”.

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 The Royal Institute of Pain

Of course, my happines was short lived as I approached the corner and I realised what I was looking at wasn’t a house of heavy metal, Rammstein, Torture or S&M.  Quite the opposite in fact, it was The Royal Institute of Painters (in Water Colour).  So I straightened up, wiped the smile off of my face and stopped laughing, on the outside anyway.  I see things like this all the time that i really need to have a camera on me 24/7, but unfortunately I can’t do that at the moment.

At least not until I get a Nokia N95 8GB, which I would have got all ready if Vodafone hadn’t got an exclusive release of the phone for the next few months to try and do whatever they can to shadow the O2 release of the Apple IPhone, if thats even possible.  In fact, I would have just got a Vodafone contract already, if their accounts weren’t so darned expensive and their plans so awfully restrictive. But that’s a post for another day.

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Wine Show – Islington

Monday, October 29th, 2007

This weekend we went to the UK Wine Show at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. For the price of only £8 each you get 7 hours of free wine, port and cognac tastings, as well a heap of cheese, crackers and other buscuits. Like a kid in a candy store, this was a great oppurtunity to indulge, and indulge we did. There was wine from all over the world and we tried wine from Australia (of course), France, Spain, Italy, Greece, California, Argentina, Chile and various other places I can’t remember

As one would guess, unlimited wine samples rapidly leeds to a messy crowd, and I was rapidly heading toward TMD status. The highlights of the actual evening were some nice French Champagne, a busty red from Greece, one of the nicer Penfolds Bin’s, some Tawny Port and Remy Martin Cognac. The Wines of Australia stand had some old delights from home that I’d missed, like Xanadu and Madfish, so it was good to have them again.

They had the most delicious food as well, Cath had roast duck breast, and I had Caramelised Shallot, and Goats Cheese tart with heaps of vege’s on the side.

After leaving the show, we walked straight down the road to the Walkabout pub which is always a classy affair, and this was no different. Several pints and a few shots (this crazy South African bought me three shots of tequila at the bar for taking a photo of him and his girlfriend), and the night was almost over. Not before trying some horrible nasty shots in test tubes bought from Test tube girl:

I’ve included a blanked out photo to protect anonymity:

 

 

And then destroyed it, who needs anonymity anyway

 

Had the biggest sleep on the train on the way home, which was totally excellent. Pretty good night all up.

 

 

Heeeey!!!

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Ubuntu 7.10 – The Install

Friday, October 19th, 2007

Enter... The Dragon

“Gutsy” the Gibbon

People pondered about issues with the release of Ubuntu 7.10 – Gutsy Gibbon, it’s been going on for months now. Some said they’d gone against the cause of Ubuntu and tried to cram too much, too quickly into this release, and that this move could be a disaster, creating bugs, and instability and put a stamp of disapproval on it’s name.

Some were wrong…

I’m a manual man, manual transmissions (yes, I’ve had mostly Auto’s, this doesn’t matter), manual labour (err), manual sex, manual manual, etc. I’m a manual, get your hands dirty kind of guy when it comes to linux too. I’m well seasoned with the fact that there’s a bunch of stuff that hasn’t worked automatically in the past, and chances are won’t be perfect in the future.

The Fight of Linux

 

The fight… No more

Upon installing the latest instalment of Ubuntu, I completely expected to have to:

  • Spend an hour installing, configuring and automating wpasupplicant and my wireless drivers, so that the wireless would just work, when and where I needed it.
  • Trawl through countless google pages and config settings to setup dual monitors just perfectly.
  • Stuff around with different video card drivers until I found one which compiz (the flavor of 6 months ago, with effects similar & better than Vista’s Aero or MacOSX’s visuals) would function correctly, then spend more time setting up and getting compiz right.
  • and so on…

That’s the way its been for me for at least the last few years, and I was prepared for the worst. To my surprise, Everything just worked, no more manual configuration on Wireless, its finally up to a level of Windows XP or there abouts where you select the network you’d like to connect to, supply a password and bam, your on, all the time. No problems.

A simple task, but being missing/broken for so long

In fact, since installing it three hours ago, in which the whole process took at most 30 minutes, I’ve been sitting here ever since twiddling my thumbs wondering what I can break just so there is actually something for me to do.

At this rate, I might actually get stuck into some of this work I have to do….

As I said in my previous post, this version is a keeper, when I installed Feisty, nothing really jumped out on me, it was up to date, and had a few more features, but still had the same problems as the last few years where not everything worked, quite as well as it should. This is definitely proof of a move in the right direction, stabilty, integration and ease of use and install are paramount in allowing non-savvy users to be able to use and enjoy it if they so please.

Now, if only I still had access to a Gentoo Box…

Too much time..

Those Spanish?! have far too much time on their hands!

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The move to Twickenham (Living it up in London)

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

We’re in the process of finding a place at the moment in Twickenham, to move out with our two American friends. This has advantages for all as, firstly we get to move out of Hounslow, they pay less rent and council tax, and we get to live it up, the London way. Shared living!

Hounslow to Twickenham

But why Twickenham? After all, our new house is going to be at most 4 or 5 miles away from our current house, which seems like a bit of a waste when you consider the need to buy furniture, pay bond, pay 6 weeks rent, get Sky/Interent & Phone line installed, and the list goes on. It’s all about the location though, Twickenham has pubs, restaurants, and upmarket food supermarkets, Hounslow has a discount mall, and a shed load of transport links to London. This is London though, there’s supposed to be a pub (a good pub, that is) on every street corner. Thus the move to Twickenham must happen, ideally though, I’d like to be closer to the city, and somewhere on the tube line, but I’ll go with the flow.

Bring it on!

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