V/O

That Ginger Guy?

2010-03-18T02:48:00.000Z

Many thanks to EddieH for his nice comments on this blog recently.
I hope his essays don't herald the end of his own blog. I think my educative years aged 16 - 18 were the most grim I've ever had on this earth - be assured, life does get better!
Check his blog out at thatgingerguy.com!

Final Trainers for a while

2010-03-13T00:34:00.000Z

Oh man, I must STOP buying trainers. I don't think I've ever owned so many in my life. For whatever reason I've really started getting into the designs of them. I am not a fashionista, and I don't wear particularly trendy clothes, but I think wearing a cool pair of trainers makes you feel good. Some I don't wear if I go outside the house - not because I don't like them, but because I want to keep them clean and nice and new!

I've stopped looking at my Schuh wish list.

This is the last pair I will buy for some time. I'm talking YEARS, I promise!

Windows 7 PC

2010-03-13T00:26:00.000Z

Originally written in January:
I've been a buyer of Fujitsu Siemens PCs for the last 10 years (4 in total). I've also had an HP which was good too. Unfortunately, the most recent FS one I bought, which was fairly high spec at the time, is lagging, slow, hangs for ages and has never, I have felt, been as good as I expected from a new PC.

So it's about time I bought a new one - I got a high spec Acer Aspire M3802. Favourable reviews on eBuyer, and QUIET they say (has to be for me as I record in the same room). 4Gb RAM, etc. It's nice, but Windows 7 feels like going back to square one with learning computing. I've gone from XP to 7 without touching Vista. 7 won't let me install my audio editing software Cool Edit 2000, and has no Outlook Express - my favourite email program for the hundreds of messages I send and receive every day.

So a bit disappointed, as I usually am with new purchases. Do I expect too much?

One thing that is FANTASTIC is the search box in every window. So quick to find files now. Outlook 2007 is pretty good too (mainly for the search facility again), but I still miss OE.

The Beginning of the End of this Blog?

2010-02-04T03:49:00.000Z

I know it's not that important to you and that you probably don't care, but because of the way Google are stopping support of the way I publish this blog (FTP), I will no longer be able to update it.

I started it on the 18th of October 2004, and I will not be able to update it from March 2010, so about 5 and a half years.

It's followed me through some interesting times in my life - I have certainly changed in many ways since I started it. My parents divorced, I moved house twice, I changed jobs twice, I started a new weekend job, I resigned from the job, my business took off, I lost a great friend, I made new friends (at work, only one from the blog - a nice American lady whose name I've forgotten), and got a dog.

If I decide to continue with a blog, I'll post a link to it as the final update on this blog.

I really don't think I have any followers as such - no visitors who bookmark the site to check up on what I'm posting or anything.

The visitor statistics tell of strange transient searchers who find my photos of trainers interesting (hence the number of recent updates),
the Toys R Us jingle MP3,
the video I did off my TV of the house collapsing in Emmerdale,
why David Letterman wears white socks,
Harry Hill on You've Been Framed,
the photos I took when I went to Liverpool on the Beatles tour,
my list of all the things I ever bought from Tandy,
why Bill Buckley left LBC
...you get the idea - random stuff.

Anyway, I'll find out how to use another blog thing and let you know. By the way, if you do read this blog, please post a comment - even if it is anonymous. I know you click on the adverts because I get a certain amount of money from those every month, but no-one ever seems to leave comments. I suppose I feel a bit like I'm on a phone-in radio station and no-one's calling in.

Joel Ross

2010-01-07T04:49:00.000Z

Joel Ross used to be on Viking FM in the late 1990s before his move to Key 103 then Radio 1. When I printed (yes, I know) this page from the then brand new Viking FM website, I never knew he would become nationally known as one half of JK and Joel. This 3rd generation (photo of a print out) shows his curtain dyed blonde hair style he had then. One curtain seems to have been so heavy that he had difficulty keeping his head straight. Or maybe that's just his coy look.

To be fair,I remember listening to him on a train going through Yorkshire, and he was good. Even I had curtains back then. I just can't find any photos of them to put on here. Thanks for being there Joel!

Stay tuned - I have some great recordings of Joel from Yorkshire Coast Radio in what must have been about 1993 or 4 which I will upload to this very post when I have edited them!

Puma Mid Manga 917

2010-01-06T05:31:00.001Z

The Puma Mid Manga 917 trainers ended up in the sale, so they were £25 itstead of £45. I got a pair of size 11UK 'cos that's what I am in Vans, and although they initially felt too big, I ordered a size down and they were a bit too small. I read a review that the sizes were on the big side. So I've kept the pair that initially felt too big, but I've been wearing them all day and they feel perfect. I always think the sign of a good shoe is if you don't notice that you're wearing them. These are like that.

As an aside, shoe sizes are crazy. As someone once said, "The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from!".

I've taken some photos for you to see:

Future Footwear

2009-12-24T01:51:00.000Z

I would have bought a pair of these Gola Harrier multi coloureds in a flash, but no longer available in my size when I became aware of their existence!:

I think these are pretty funky too, Mens Puma 917 Mid Popart Trainers:

But my next buy may be something like these Vans Skink mid in black/red:

Onitsuka Tiger Tai Chi trainers

2009-12-24T01:43:00.001Z

I have tried some Onitsuka Tiger Tai Chi trainers, but the size UK 11 (which I am in Vans) didn't fit, so I went for the 12s, but there's like an inch of space at the toe - they'll get all stretched when I use them, so I'm still not convinced about these. The great thing with Schuh is that they do refunds up to 1 year from the date of purchase.

Converse All Stars Hi-Tops

2009-12-24T01:31:00.001Z

Everyone says how great Converse All Stars are, and I have a pair of hi tops and low tops, but I don't like them anywhere near as much as my Vans. The ends of my toes seem to get cold with that rubber toe protector bit, and of course they aren't as easy to slip on and off with them being lace ups. Yes - they do look good - a design classic - but not as comfy. If you have a pair, give some Vans slip-ons a try next time you're out shopping and see what you think. Then post a comment!

Vans Classic Slip-ons

2009-12-23T12:43:00.002Z

Vans (as a company) are clever - they make comfy shoes, but they do them in a huge range of colours and patterns. I now have 7 pairs of these slip ons, and they are one of the most comfy shoes I have worn. My latest buy has been a black red and cream logo check pattern.

There was a special offer on a pair of white and red check I saw last night for very little money, but they reminded me of something a waiter at the Little Chef would wear as his uniform.

Gola eBoy Hi-tops

2009-12-20T01:37:00.007Z

I'm one of these people who won't take my shoes off unless I'm in bed. If I walk around the house in socks, my feet get really cold quite quickly. So I just leave my shoes on. The benefit is that I am impervious to pain when standing on sharp things or spillages in the kitchen, and can immediately run outside to the gate for a parcel or whatever. Aren't I a clever sausage?!

Now that it's very cold outside (snowing in fact!), I don't wear my Vans classic slip-ons outside. They make my feet cold because they are thin canvas, and if they get wet, so do my socks.

So I've been wearing my Gola eBoy hi-tops. After a couple of weeks of wear, this is what they're like now:
They look great, and the only sign of wear (aside from the white soles going dirty) is at the crease of the toe as you walk - some of the graphic imprint is flaking off. It's not visible until you get really close though.

Criminals cause energy waste

2009-11-26T01:28:00.000Z

Could it be argued that criminals do not help climate change?

I've just walked down my street at 1am. I did not see another person for the full 30 minutes. Yet everyone's porch lights were on, allbeit energy saving, serving as nothing more than a deterrent against criminals. Goodness knows how many kilowatt hours were used just to provide me with the ability to see everything in orange.

Are they fitting LED streetlights in certain places? Surely this sodium orange has had its day?

Defra - are these your sausages sir? Shit radio ad

2009-11-22T21:37:00.001Z

What is with the Defra "are these your sausages sir?" radio advert about smuggling meat and dairy products into the UK from other countries? Mark Heap is one of the voices.

I must have heard this advert several times A DAY on LBC for the last 3 YEARS.

Is this really the best way to spend tax-payers money? How many people smuggle sausages into the UK anyway?

I read on a forum that someone spoke to a Defra rep at a trade fair about smuggling sausages with relation to this omni-present radio commercial and the rep had no idea what they were talking about.

New Labour - New Britain.

Topping up my Three mobile broadband dongle

2009-11-22T04:44:00.001Z

So, I need to top up my Three USB mobile broadband dongle. So I log in. The card that's on the account has expired, so I add my debit card. It warns me it will take £10 every time a new card is added. That's ok, 'cos I need to add £10 of credit.
Submit card.
"It takes 7 days to register a new debit card to be able to use it for top-ups. You can add a credit card if you like...".
OK, so I add my credit card - I need this topping up NOW for use TOMORROW.
"It takes 7 days to register a new credit card to be able to use it for top-ups".
Argh!
So I walk to the newsagents to get a £10 top-up voucher.
I come back, activate it, then notice both my cards have now already been accepted, so I now have £30 on the account!
And they've added over 2,000 free text messages.
It's bloody crazy.

New in November

2009-11-04T03:16:00.001Z

I have just used a Lynx product for the first time since I was 11. Now I smell like a schoolboy.

It's only schoolboys who use Lynx isn't it? All these TV ads saying the Lynx 'effect' makes you irresistable to girls, but the average age of users is probably 13.

I calculated how much money I take home from work each weekday, and my silly spreadsheet was totally wrong. I manually worked it out to be about a quarter of what it said, and about a pound more than minimum wage. And there was me, swanning around thinking I was Simon Cowell! <errr errr> (family fortunes X noise)

5 Years of Blog

2009-10-26T23:37:00.000Z

Almost forgot to congratulate myself on 5 years of this blog!
At least one post per month.
Yeah!!

Goodbye Geocities

2009-10-26T23:24:00.001Z

Geocities was the site I first used to learn how to desigen websites. It must have been back in about 1997. I remember working through their "how to write HTML" help pages on a Saturday afternoon as a teenager. Very exciting!

I had a site for my hospital radio show I used to do while I was at school. But in those days domain names were hundreds of pounds, so I had to read out this hilariously long email address geocities.com/Arena/SunsetStrip/3084 or something because you weren't allowed a custom address back then.

Thank you Geocities.

As someone said, the sites on Geocities are like the cave paintings of the internet.

Mysterious Cities of Gold DVD Box Set

2009-09-20T02:44:00.002+01:00

I'd been umming and ahhing about whether to buy this for the last two weeks for £39.99 from the HMV website (where you get all the exclusive extras in the box). It was out of stock - stock due in 7 days.

I clicked refresh today to see if it's in stock, and YES it is! BUT it's now £49.99! Argh!

Silly me always waiting too long and thinking things through too much.

It has happened 3 times this week. I saw a nice pair of stripey Paul Smith socks on figleaves.com, bookmarked them, thought about buying them (£14 - which works out at £7 per sock), decided to buy them, and they were no longer on the website (or any others I could find). The other time was a nice chair from Boss Design - again mentioned several years ago on this blog. I want another one. I asked if they were still made back in April. They said yes. I bottled out. I asked this week. They said they may be able to cobble one together from spare parts...I am waiting for them to get back to me, but it doesn't sound too good!

Gola eBoys - to splurge or not to splurge?

2009-09-20T02:10:00.004+01:00

Now it's getting cold, I'm wearing my Gola eBoy hi-top trainers shown in a recent post. They are so cool. But now I want more. At twice the price, the ones below are tempting me.
Someone suggested I should think about the £10 sale pair of Vans I got, and how, if I bought these, the average price of each pair of trainers would be just £45. Clever! I feel so guilty splurging on extravagances like these. I have lived on no money for at least a year now so I am out of practice in spending, and shoes seem to be the only thing I'm buying.

Bye bye Bill, he's off to the BBC

2009-09-12T18:55:00.000+01:00

So the great Bill Buckley has gone to BBC London 94.9.

It's a lovely day here, but I'm on my own, so feeling at a loose end. I don't need to do anything in the garden because we have a pair of gardeners who look after it now. I do have to water the new turf next to the new path, but only once the sun has gone down.

I might eat a Snickers bar.

Yes. I'm eating it now.

Bill Buckley leaves LBC overnights

2009-09-02T02:48:00.004+01:00

LBC's hidden gem Bill Buckley announced he's leaving weekday overnights next Wednesday.

This means I will be re-thinking my sleeping habits! Who will replace him?
Not much new talent on the cusp - Nick Conrad is too young to be interesting, and Marcus Churchill has already been on LBC and has views I do not agree with which aren't condusive to a pleasant evening's listening.

When I first started listening to LBC, Iain Lee was doing drivetime. Now I'll probably only ever listen to a bit of James Whale in the background when I eat my dinner. It's all rather formal and news-driven now, which is boring because they discuss the same things again and again. I enjoyed the unpredictable straight-to-air sessions with Iain Lee and Clive Bull. I suppose when management get Anne Widdecombe to act as a fill-in presenter, they've given up caring what the listeners think.

I will miss Bill.

Will LBC miss me?
(I fear not, as I don't need to: buy OAP chairs from the Chair Centre, any Sky subscription packages, ever want to use any no-win-no-fee solicitors, ever smuggle sausages through customs, ever bid in the 'how low' auctions, etc.)

LBC Presenter Hand-overs

2009-09-02T02:16:00.001+01:00

The part I enjoy the most is presenter hand-overs - mostly betwen Clive Bull and Bill Buckley. There's real warmth between those two, and it's a pleasure to hear.

Tonight however, Nick Abbot (sitting in for Clive) chatted to Bill Buckley. You can tell they aren't mad keen fans of each other, so there's an underlying tension of formality and unease.

On the topic of water meters, Nick quotes Ken Livingstone's advice of "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down"
Nick then advises, "if you let it mellow for too long you can grow potatoes in your toilet".

On the topic of oysters (Bill had just been to some sort of oyster tasting party)
Nick opines, "I had an oyster once, and it was like the sea had coughed up in my mouth"

Maybe you had to be there (if so, download the podcast from today) but those two rattley old puffin comments made me laugh out loud.

As an aside, I met Nick Abbot a few times in person in the office at Virgin Radio, and although it was about 9 years ago, he didn't seem grumpy or as ratty as he sounds on LBC today. But he was getting paid a large amount to play music there. He was highly amused that I thought the station was computerised (it wasn't - it still used CDs and Sonifex's future of tape carts - 'discarts' (3.5" floppy discs that acted like carts).

Vans Slip Ons - conclusion

2009-08-30T15:32:00.002+01:00

Vans slip ons made in Vietnam seem to have a wider fitting at the heel (so they feel like they are slipping off on each step) than the Vans made in China. A difference to the extent that I had to send a pair back because they didn't fit.

Antioch

2009-08-30T00:40:00.000+01:00

Everyone knows Antioch in California because of the weirdo people who kidnapped that girl, but I know it as the name of the spider in the Rock a-fire Explosion animatronic show! (named after a shopping centre where one of the first sets was installed).

Dave Gorman, commercial voice-over on Homebase TV ads

2009-08-30T00:31:00.004+01:00

I'm glad Homebase has seen the error of their ways and ditched Dave Gorman (a comedian who few people have heard of, let alone recognise his lispy-forgettable voice) from their TV adverts.

Surely paying him as a 'recognisable voice' did not pay off. He's not immediately associated with showbiz, glamour or DIY. Best have a generic voice-artist I would have said. And cheaper.

He gets some great reviews on Chortle, including, "Smug, bland, self-satisfied wanker". Other reviews are less kind, calling him "a monumental bore".