Aren't fire alarms brilliant

We've just had a fire alarm at my office so we were kicked out for twenty minutes in the freezing cold.  Great.  When we got back to our desks a secondary alarm was still bleating for around twenty minutes around 6ft from my desk.  Great!  It's like torture.

Is that how those in Guantanamo Bay feel???

Oops, practise makes perfect

I tried to trim my beard last night and cut it too short, it now links like I just haven't bothered to shave.

It was not until this morning when I realised what'd done. I'd forgotten to replace the beard guard. Doh!

New jagged Alliance

http://www.jaggedalliance.com/en/

New Jagged Alliance available on the 9th of Feb. Will it be any good? Trailers look reasonable although graphically not amazing. That was never the point of the original game though. It was more based on tactics storyline and humour.

Terrible state of affairs

The Daily Mail website is the most popular news site in the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16743645

Data suggests the UK's Daily Mail had 45.35 million unique visitors during December, inching the site ahead of the New York Times with 44.8 million.

Pappy's review

As I think I mentioned before it was a trial show where they ran through some of their new material often with script in hand.

Was it good? They've certainly been better, but I did find myself laughing out load for 70% of their sketches.  We enjoyed it.

They've got a lot of work to do before the new material is usable for Edinburgh but if someone wanted to complain then hey, it was only £10 each.

And to top it off, as we were in the queue to get in April spotted Robin Ince going in. He wasn't there for Pappy's though.

Cheeky so and sos

Before going to see Pappy's last night we popped into a small chain Italian for a bite to eat just off Leicester Square.

April managed to fund a really impressive meal deal Half price food and a free bottle of house wine if you order a started and a main each. Not bad at all. Well...

The wine wasn't great, my starter of lobster ravioli was more hardly cooked than aldente. The rest of the food was canteen average at best. Oh well we're getting a lot for half price and it was quick.

Then the bill came and they'd added on the cost of the wine. No oroblem, they swapped our bill straight away. Then we spotted that they'd already added service. This isn't a problem, but they'd charged service at the full undiscounted amount. Nearly 10 quid! We ended up giving them 5 for a total bill of 35.

Quite reasonable in the end for the location. If very, very cheeky.

FFS- What a bunch of idiots

I'm trying to speak to my tax man as they've messed up my tax code yet again.  I've been on hold on the phone listening to the same two stupid songs for 29:25 and haven't spoken to anyone yet.  Idiots!

Children spotting

There were problems on the train this morning. No idea why but I was going to have to stand. That’s when you start looking for children and loiter nearby. No, not in that way… I look for children as they usually get off at Sevenoaks and I can jump in their grave.

Ha, ha.

Jobs for the boys

The LMA (Lloyd's Market Association) has a new Chairman. Previously it was Barnabas Hurst-Bannister, he is now getting replaced by Rupert Atkin. Jobs for the boys?

Not a bad choice for the name of my first child though.

Rupert-Barnabas Clark

Shall I tell him?

I was asked by my rugby team captain to help the club with their stats.  I did them last year and they're in the most unusable format imaginable.  This year was pretty much the same.  I'd made a start on them but am pretty busy at work so couldn't really put much effort in, but then I received a text on the way home saying that he'd already done them.  I've had a quick look through and the top scorer has the incorrect number of points.  He's not a data guy so I don't want to bust his balls and if I mention it he'll get me to do the lot. 

Anyway, i'm only annoyed as I haven't scored yet.  Only played 6 games this year though so not that bad.

Finished

I finished the Clash of Kings this morning.  Now to get the Game of Thrones on Blu-ray and force April to watch it.  So far she's enjoyed the first season of Deadwood, two more ready to watch.  And the first couple of discs of Broadwalk Empire.  Hopefully she'll realise that there's more to TV than Don't Tell the Bride.

Pappy's tonight

I'm off to see Pappy's tonight at the Leicester Square Theatre.  They're trialing new material so might be a bit hit and miss but it's only £10 so can't really complain.

http://www.pappyscomedy.com/

Not as short as I thought

Just picked up the 3rd book of the Song and Ice series and was relieved to see that it was only 569 pages long.  Don't get me wrong the books are great but they are terribly heavy and a pain to carry round.

Just reading the back cover and have spotted that it's part 1 of 2 of part 3 of a 7 part series. Let's hope I can finish, not like the Wheel of Time.

50% exercise

Over the passed month i've exercised 50% of days.  Over the passed quarter only 34.7%, but that did include my honeymoon and the week leading up to the wedding where I did virtually nothing.  But from the time I got back to now it's 43.9%.

Not bad really.

Doh, yes, doh!

Just tried to get some peanut m&ms from our snack machine and the bloody thing got lodged between the glass and the mechanism.  Doh!

It's okay, there must be some control in place that works out if the item has been dispensed or not as it didn't take my 70p. Yes!

When this happens it blocks any more selections from that position.  Then the brain wave happened.  I could order a kit-cat which sits just above the m&ms and that will hit the m&ms on it's way down and give me both.  Doh!

It brushed passed the m&ms and I only got the kit-kat.  Nice try.  The system has got me down.

Stats galore

20,000+ page views since July 2009 Unfortunately the vast majority are from internet bots trawling through random web pages.  I mean, my Steve Gutenberg post was fine, but not that good.  If anything it was inappropriate.

I can almost smell it

Only 175 pts left out of 5,000 till I get my hands on the £50 reward from You Gov!  3.5% left, should be done in another 3 to 4 surveys! 

Galaxy Quest, what a film!

In the end April didn't need much convincing seeing Galaxy Quest. As it turns out She is also a fan. I knew I married the right person.

We went to Trinity, Tunbridge Wells, a converted church that is now a trust run cafe / theatre that holds around a hundred and fifty people. How many people turned up? 12 at a push, but like us they were fans of the film. I must have seen it 6 or 7 times before in fact it was on TV in December so I watched it then but I have never seen it in a cinema. I must have laughed out loud twenty times during the screening. But luckily I wasn't the loudest, that was a guy a couple of rows back who must have topped the 100 laugh count.

The second film In Time with Justin Timberlake was surprising good too. I'm pretty sure it's made by the same guy that made Gattaca which was one of the first DVDs I ever bought back in 1998. The film did turn silly towards the middle and end but I enjoyed many of the interesting ideas that were shown during the film. Definitely worth a viewing for a sci-fi fans.

Very tempted...

...now to get April to say yes...

http://www.trinitytheatre.net/Whats-On/1000-/Galaxy-Quest--In-Time--Sci-Fi-Double-Bill

Looking for a funny geek podcast?

Elvenquest on BBC radio 4. Speak to Kris if you want a link to the previous 2 series.

Idiots

Just had a call from a recruitment consultant wanting to know if I was interested in a job spec he sent me a few weeks back.  This is all in spite of me telling him that I would get back to him with regards to any job specs if I was indeed interested in them. 

I wasn't, so I didn't.

I was in my office at the time so could really speak to him anyway, so it was a short conversation.  Straight afterwards I received a text wishing me a good 2013...

What an idiot?  Was it a mistake?  Or was he hoping that I would have a poor 2012, only getting better in 2013 when I start looking for a new job with his consultancy?

Idiot

275 pts left

Only 275 Yougov points left before I get my well deserved £50 from Yougov.  That's around 5-6 more surveys.  Was it worth it?  No.  No bloody way, but glad i've persevered otherwise the previous 7 years would have been a waste...

Longest beard ever

At least it is for me anyway.  It's been 19 days since my last shave and to my surprise I haven't had too much mickey taking passed my way.

Wave Machine

Last week I went to the gym 4 times, but on Friday I decided to go for a swim instead of using the machines.  This was mainly due to me having no clean kit...  The one time I happen to fancy a swim, it's the day when 2/3 of the pool is taken over by fat women jumping up and down in the water.  I was initially annoyed as there was only 1 lane for 3 people swimming, but then the other two chaps left and it was just me, with 15 fat women jumping up and down in unison it makes for quite a tricky swim.  Who needs a wave machine?

Pretty 'cool'

Pretty cool

http://youbentmywookie.com/wtf/awesome-fallout-3-pip-boy-3000-ipod-dock-12660