Holiday Photography #101

Took pics of some more Cornish  plant life yesterday, I must admit that I'm not much of a botanist and only took these because, as a designer, I found the colour contrasts intriguing, haven't a clue as to the names:

Holiday Photography #101

Whilst out on our coastal walk today I caught a flicker of movement in my peripheral vision, tracked it and spotted a what I thought was a bird of prey perched on a tower of rock below me... even with my telephoto lens attached I had a hard time getting a decent resolution shot:

At the time we thought it was a Goshawk but looking at the picture the colouration is not quite right... after a bit of googling it's a Kestrel :)

Holiday Photography #101

Arrived on the North Cornwall coast and the discovered that the beach next to our hotel is simply superb... I could spend the entire week combing every inch of it... got some good photos too.

Spotted this little critter in a cave rockpool

Away from the beach I did my usual 'get a closeup of some plants':

...and I simply had to get a shot of this Alpaca:

A much needed holiday...

Finally off on a week's break to sunny Cornwall... much needed after all the bullshit of this year so far and I was getting punch drunk and snappy at work because of it.

We stopped off in Barnstaple for an overnight stay and had a nice a nice meal in an Italian restaurant called Giovanni's, I had a chicken risotto which was very nice.

Haven't seen much of the town itself but it's interesting to note that the taxi driver who took us back to the hotel told us that Barnstaple is a dying town with little to no new commercial opportunities and pubs closing left, right and centre due to, and this is his opinion: "all the people living here who are on benefits aren't spending their money in the pubs due to the Government's austerity cutbacks, they're probably getting their booze from the cheaper supermarkets and staying in...". It's crap even during the tourist season even though Barnstaple is right in the heart of Devon's major tourism triangle of Ilfracombe and Croyde on the coast.

Still, the Wetherspoon pub there looked pretty busy to me, as was Giovanni's, which I recommend to anyone who is visiting.

We're off down the Devon coast and into Cornwall today for a week's worth of beach combing, walks and wildlife photography where I will continue my quest for the 'ultimate snap' :)

The MET switches tactics

Apparently the Met have stopped casing the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Nice bluff... the moment Julian Assange steps outside to finally go get a fresh pair of pants they'll pounce, arrest him then wonder why the hell they didn't think of this £12 million quid earlier...

2001: A Space Odyssey

Just watched it, Blu Ray version.

I think that monolith was just a missed component piece of some furniture from a highly advanced alien version of Ikea. I bet the owner was pissed to discover it was buried under 40ft of dust on a dead moon...

...and what is it with that foetus at the end? I've never really understood that.

5p Bag Tax

When our Government announced that all shops in the UK will be charging 5p for plastic bags from the 1st October I thought at the time "No worries, I use my own for when I go grocery shopping..."

But the reality of it hit me when I went into my local town to get some non-grocery items... without a bag.

At first the concept of paying for plastic bag didn't even come into my mind as I strolled nonchalantly towards the shops, I mean, we're all so used to just being given a bag to hold our purchases... so it hit me in Boots as I walked toward the counter with a deodorant stick in my hand, I paid for it and quickly declined a bag as I thought "Ah well, it's small enough to fit in my pocket."

Then I went to HMV, and, browsing through the Blu Ray section, decided to treat myself to their offer of 3 Blu Rays for £20. At the counter as I handed over £20 the girl asked me if I needed a bag, I indicated that I would and she, rather apologetically stated that "They cost 5p" and "Would I like a small or large bag?"... so I found myself fishing in my pocket for 5p and guess what? I didn't have a 5p coin and had to hand over a £1 coin, to which she then handed over 95p's worth of change to weight my pocket down! Now, across the country, THAT is situation most people will find themselves in come Christmas time!

Clearly it will promote cashless payment methods even more now (I chose to use cash because I happened to have it in my pocket). That, or people will hoard 5-pence pieces.

Next, Poundland as I needed some spray bleach, conveniently I'd chosen a large HMV bag so I was able to use that when I paid for my items but what if I'd gone straight there without a bag? I'd have come out with my purchases and 95p in my pocket and that is simply a damned bizarre thing to have coming out of a shop like Poundland!

Finally I decided to get some lunch from Gregg's and, yet again, into the HMV bag went the sausage rolls. "I'm getting used to this." I thought. When I emerged from the shop I looked around and noticed that loads of people carried re-usable bags, "I guess they're all adjusting too!" I said to myself.

So I went home with one bag instead of three, there's environmental changes for the good happening right there folks!

It's not a major inconvenience as far as I see it, certainly not as much as our tabloid press has been banging on about it but it does require me to 're-adjust' my routine a bit. I've been told that some people haven't taken to it at all and staff have had items literally thrown back at them! That's not on at all, if you can't afford 5p for a plastic bag then you shouldn't be out shopping at all. Clearly it's a law aimed at improving the environment and that can only be a good thing.

I think this is as important as the law that banned smoking in pubs, that totally changed our lifestyles for the good and this will too.

Photography #101

I saw this wheeling around my place a few weeks ago so I rushed upstairs, grabbed my camera and took this, not many buzzards 'round this here parts...

FFS

Well that's us out of the RWC...

Well played Australia

Whoa!

Fuck me, stuck in a little posh style oasis.... I shit. You. Not, this place is majoraly posh compared to the usual pub related stuff I am used to ... bloody expensive beer though....

Out for a few sherberts :)

After one hell of a, well, hellish week I am out tonight to meet up with some old buddies of mine. To forget about work, to chill, kick back, sink a ton of beer and catch up on all the gossip.

I was up at 3.30am this morning, couldn't sleep, read for an hour, headed to work and was in by 6.30am, grafted all day, got super stressed and now I am tired, nerves are shredded, running on hopes and prayers and am hoping this evening will wash it all away... 

and I'll probably sleep until noon tomorrow!

Reign of Kings

Me and a mate of mine have been building like crazy in RoK, we're on a popular, well-run server and we've got one hell of a structure on the go!

Moody or what?!

We fully intend to continue building upwards, simply because we can't build outwards... the server rules restrict the size of our guild crest so subsequently our conquered territory is limited.

Great view though...

I can see mi'lord's house from here!

I've fallen off it, so I can vouch it's high!

Hopefully we can keep it going until the weekend when we'll got more members into the guild and wreak some righteous knightly medieval majestical havoc!

'Majectical'? Is that even a word?!

Lost in the written wilderness...

Haven't updated the blog in a while due to hangovers, work and total and absolute disappointment over England's loss to Wales last weekend... I literally lost the impetus to day anything except feel miserable.

I've gotten over it now, I think... plenty of time to prepare for two more days of alcoholism plus gaming and Rugby over next weekend ;)

We just need to bloody-well beat Australia.

RWC #12 (I think?)

Right, time to check out the Rugby pulse of Knowle village centre and see if any pubs are making an effort to show England v Wales, which, to me, is a bloody big game!

RWC Bad Dream

I've just had a bad dream:

England 20 - 25 Wales, 3 minutes left, England have a lineout on the Welsh 22... and then I woke up, FFS!

Lastest Hitman title delayed until march 2016

Article here

Delaying a game in order to fit more content into it? Wow, that's unusual... if it had been EA or Bungie, they'd have released it anyway and charged us for the content as an add-on download later on, probably around March 2016.

Cadbury Creme Eggs

I love Cadbury Creme eggs... I just wish they made them all year round, still, I suppose we wouldn't crave after them so much.

I've got to print, from what I can see, new artwork onto cast wrap vinyl for application to some large size wooden model eggs... I get all the best jobs!

Pic below is one that has the old artwork on, the wrapping looks a bit ropey but that can't be helped considering the shape.

Om nom! No wait... ahh crap, it's wooden!!

Take a step back...!

Well those last few posts seemed to make no sense but they backed-up the immense hangover I had throughout Saturday and some of Sunday. I literally have no memory of how I got home, the beer scooter strikes again!

We play Wales next Saturday, 20:00, at Twickenham and I'll be in a pub somewhere getting drunkenly stressed... again.

What is with England and sport that seems to send our collective national stress levels into the stratosphere? I'll bet all those Kiwis weren't bothered by their team's performance against the Pumas because they know that their team will pull out the stops when it matters.

Our lot will just keep running on the ragged edge, hoping for a bit of luck and a crap performance from the other side.

RWC #5

Next pub... they have a band in front of the dancefloor, actually, I tell a lie, we were in a previous place of alcoholism but it wasn't named... and long may it be unnamed you fuckers.... whuhaaaaay!

RWC #5

Fourth pub... at least I think it is.. bugger it, whatever... aaand booogey, yeah baby, yeah!

RWC #4

Okay we won, and got a try bonus... But, we played badly plus Fiji didn't plat that well themselves...

Now, there are teams that can play badly, lose, yet win a tournament... we need to play waay beyond that..

FFS, roll the next game of totat stress...

RWC #3

I am the only person in this pub wearing an England away shirt... in fact, apart from my brother (who is wearing a plain white England Rugby top, sans sponsors) we are the only two people wearing colours for a RWC game, in this pub...

Read into that if you will... whatever.

RWC #2

Second pub... and they serve Carling :)

I skipped the other pubs I'd planned to crawl 'cos my brother txt'ed me and said he was in the pub we were going to watch the match in... sooo 4 pints in and all is good baby!

RWC #1

Arrived at the pub (a Wetherspoon) to start my RWC celebration to find that they're having a problem with the Carling tap, had to have a Carlsberg instead... not a good start.

Ahh well, at least a pigeon hasn't shat on me...

Ahh, you've gotta love the internet!

This is quite possibly the funniest conversation thread I've read in a looong time ;)

It started out with me, whilst writing an artworking guide, doing some grammar checking on whether I should use 'rooves' as the plural of 'roof'.

As usual I did some Googling and, as most people do, clicked on the top result... and what a top result it is! The arguments in the thread following the explanation is internet gold. I certainly shows how much humanity is heading down the toilet!!

The screenshot below is possibly the best troll I've read in ages:

If I'd been drinking tea at the time it would have been all over the keyboard.

Rugby World Cup fans urged to plan ahead for travel...

Yeah don't go for the 'Rugby Special' train advertised at Waterloo, if you do, you'll spend half-an-hour or more queueing when you could have caught other trains on other routes and been well on your way to Twickenham.

It's not the train itself that's the problem, it's the ridiculous organisation by the so-called 'security' people that will marshall you up one side of the platform then back down the other side so you end up back where you started next at a load of ticket barriers that aren't closed off thereby allow people to queue-jump in front of you.

Kegel Exercises

I found myself reading this article today because apparently exercising the kegel muscle regularly can considerably increase the intensity of orgasms. I, erm... ahem, read about that whilst trolling through Google News articles... but hey, who doesn't want better orgasms, right?

Anyway what you're supposed to do initially is to find the kegel muscle so you can isolate it for the exercise routine. You do this by peeing, then, whilst attempting to keep your buttocks and upper leg muscles relaxed, reduce the flow of wee, if you successfully manage to do that, you've found the kegel muscle.

I tried this and ended up peeing all over the toilet seat and floor.

Train Fail

The trains failed me this morning... I checked my London Midland app to see if my train was running and it indicated that is was, when I got to the station it was delayed by 15 minutes due to the train 'running late out of the depot' ... hang on?! Surely if that was the case the damned app would have reflected this, it's not like I live next door to the depot?!

The next train to arrived was packed like sardines so I waited patiently for the one that was delayed, and it had loads of seats available.

I got to work 15 minutes late.

...this is how I roll in life, it's THAT interesting.

Drinking & Playing Reign of Kings

Round my mate's place doing as the title says...

FTW

England v Ireland

Hangover aside (see my previous post) I did manage to take some pics and videos of the day, this one proves that you don't need to be a professional footballer to get the Sky crossbar challenge

Hangover from HELL

I have just about recovered from quite possibly one of the worst hangovers I've ever had... and I've had LOTS.

Said hangover being the result of one heck of a day's drinking in around Twickenham Stadium, some of London and back around my home town... I woke up on my settee 6am Sunday morning, TV still on and the remnants of a kebab all over me. How I got back from London, let alone purchased and ate a kebab is a mystery that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Sunday was a right-off... Monday and Tuesday were too although I managed to get to work, good job I was busy enough to forget about the pain and dulness

I've really only been able to be properly aware of my surroundings today and had enough wits about me to write this blog entry.

England v Ireland

Just spent a pointless 20 minutes queueing at Waterloo due to some idiot from TFL deciding to coral us and hundreds of othe fans at platform 22, we missed two local trains because of it.

Rugby Special Train? My arse.

Life Lesson #203

Never stand under a lampost

England v Ireland

Fucking pigeon just shat on me, all over my jacket and onto the collar of my brand new England shirt. Had rush back and change, fortunately I had another Shirt and jacket.

Not a good omen

England v Ireland

Off to old Londinium and to Twickenham to watch England's last warmup match against Ireland before the RWC.

I have to say that I am apprehensive, we really need to get that set piece sorted especially against a side that has quite possibly the best set piece game in the world at the moment.

In the Six Nations they kicked us all over the park and won comfortably, I don't see that happening a lot today but what I do see is them shoving our scrum back and challenging our lineouts.

I feel the need... the need to numb myself with alcohol.

Autumn Mellow Fruitfulness

Now that we're approaching the latter half of the year it'll soon become necessary for me to wear a jacket... this is great as it doubles the amount of pockets available.

Here is a lump of vinyl...

I've just weeded it out of a load of cut jobs, it's fresh vinyl... and it smells lovely!

I love the smell of vinyl :)

Fast food or healthy food... makes bugger all difference sometimes.

Boy, I have been shitting through the eye of a needle this morning, clearly it was something I ate last night.

I'm thinking that if I'd gone to Five Guys and gotten a burger last night whilst walking through my local shopping centre yesterday evening I probably wouldn't be in this situation now.

However at the time I didn't because I had no cash on me and couldn't be bothered to go to a cash point plus I had some sweetcorn and asparagus in the fridge that I wanted to use up, "a healthier choice" I'd thought to myself.

So I cooked the sweetcorn and asparagus and had them with some breaded chicken, oven cooked straight from the freezer, all were cooked properly and tasted great. Granted, the asparagus was a day or two over the 'use by' date but they smelled and looked fine and had been stored in a tupperware dish in my fridge rather than left to rot in their original cling film packaging.

So I felt better for eating a supposedly healthier meal and being richer by around £10 (Five Guys burgers are ridiculously expensive but soo good!)

That ended around 11.15pm when I was roused from my slumber with a dash to the bog... then two more this morning after I got up, one of which was preceded with a very uncomfortable walk from the train station to work.

When England play Ireland at Twickenham tomorrow I'll be there and I'll be the one making a beeline to the burger vans!

That's A LOT of trees!

According to new research, there are 3 trillion trees in the world, or roughly 420 per person...

So now, on my regular travels I shall claim ownership of trees I like, up to a total of 420.

I love trees, I used to climb them a lot as a kid (and fell out of a fair few as a result) the world was so much more interesting from the top of a tree.

Trees - pine fresh!

My opinion of the new Google logo (2015)

Hmmm... I'm undecided, I think it makes them look too much like a toy manufacturer (although if their new self drive car is anything to go by, anyone would mistake them for precisely that!) Apparently it's more optimised to scale better on mobile devices so that's fair enough, as the previous one had serifs they do tend to break up more at smaller sizes and lower resolutions, plus the single G version with all colours on looks good:

Much better for devices with little to no screen real estate. On the whole I can see why they're doing it, to morph the brand better across a greater diverse of screen technology.

Of course if Jony Ive had gotten involved that logo would have been inlined to make it way thinner, and had a pink grad through it before you could say "Google it..."!

Anyway, it's brave new world for the chocolate factory in terms of brand identity, it will be interesting to see how well it will fair for them :)

FU ICC Media People

For all you ICC profiling people out there who no longer support the Epson GS6000 Stylus Pro:

This was printed on a polyester canvas which will be wrapped around
a picture frame, and it was printed using a generic ICC profile!

Still around, and still printing awesomely on pretty much anything printable! FU all!!

I say that because I can rarely find ICC profile for new media these days, they all seem to have a hard on for the SureColor series and HP's Latex printers.

Empyrion: Galactic Survival

I've been playing the pre-alpha of this game for a few weeks now and I'm loving it, more so than Reign of Kings which I've taken a sabbatical from because they recently decided that even the community servers had to be flattened in order to accommodate a fix to remove a bad bug, which pissed me off because I lost a castle that I'd spent an entire weekend building.

Anyhoo, back to Empyrion, I've now got a good base up and running and a couple of spaceships in my collection, hopefully the devs are competent enough to not have me lose this base in future updates!

This is my farm... ohh arrr!

Crafting is very in-depth, much more complex than other survival games I've played, trouble is, that can get frustrating in terms regularly of sending me off on a tangent when all I want to do get my sodding ship finished.

Not sure what I was thinking when I created this but it does kick ass... or NPC towers

The game is very early in development - you can't visit certain parts of each planet (the poles are closed off), vegetation just looks like it's been plonked down half-assed and the ship flight control mechanics are very sludgy.

This is my second, smaller, hopefully more manoeuvrable spaceship

The constant need to replenish oxygen and food bars is a bit annoying because they go down too quickly, which affects game balance because you're too distracted trying find food and manufacture oxygen to enjoy the scenery and explore. I'm hoping that future updates will 'slow' them down just a bit. Although having said that, I do think that they are an important part of the playability as this is a survival game and after all, the whole point of survival is to find items to, well, survive!

The devs are promising a lot in future updates like a fully working galaxy for instance, which is a big ask when the game has seamless exits and reentries to planets, God knows what the processing and data size requirements will be from a technical standpoint if they expand it galaxy wide... I guess we're trusting the devs with that one. However, if it does work out okay it will be awesome to be able to seamlessly fly from one planet to another in a massive multi-system universe... this game might even be the replacement to Freelancer that I've been searching for ever since Microsoft dropped it's development (and let's face it Star Citizen isn't going to be released anytime soon with all the faffing around they're doing).

My rooftop garage, complete with oxygen station...

Empyrion is hugely addictive, I often find my oxygen bar flashing red because I've been so embroiled in figuring out how to build my ships I've forgotten to replenish it prompting me to rush to the nearest oxygen station. I'm at the stage now where I've built so much stuff and taken so much time to build it all that I'm fearful of losing it. I have a huge list of game 'backups' that have array of confusing names, this is where the dedicated server part needs to come in so my progress is out there in the cloud rather than on my PC's local hard drive, the results of my addiction need a decent save point system!

In terms of stability for a pre-alpha it's pretty good, the only two bugs I've found is it hanging when I quit out (forcing a Windows 'searching for an answer to your problem' 'close' dialogue box) and a situation where I lose power cells when I try to mass load them into my water and oxygen generators (pro-tip to work around this bug: just load them one by one instead).

Definitely worth a go for £13, especially for the building system, it really has great potential.

Key Inmarsat rocket flight from Kazakhstan 'a success'

Congrats to UK based Inmarsat for their rock launch... all those hours playing Kerbal Space Program paid off then eh? ;)

Rewind Festival #4

During the Rewind Festival we went to a Silent Disco, it was basically a large marquee full of drunk people all wearing headphones, all singing along to one of two channels of music two attendant DJ's were playing out wirelessly to each headphone (which is selectable via a switch on one of the cans). They are lit green for one channel and red for the other, more colours seen means that one of the DJs is playing the catchiest song!

It's quite bizarre really when observing whilst not wearing headphones, no music heard, just dozens and dozens of yelling voices...



Imagine if they had this back in the eighties? Everyone would be weighted down with heavy headphones and tripping over each other's wires!!

Rewind Festival #3

More content from Rewind 2015, this one is my recording of Midge Ure's Vienna, I think it was safe to say that at this point during the day I'd imbibed enough alcohol to cause a small army to collectively stagger into a ravine during a drunken forced march... hence the swaying camera work ;)



Midge Ure was awesome by the way, a brilliant songwriter, musician and a great showman, I am surprised that he didn't headline.

Random Thought #238

I think it's important that you eat the unheated contents of a processed food tin occasionally so that, if an apocalypse happens and you have the luxury of one to eat, it won't be as much as a shock...

Other food tins are available ;)

Beginning to feel human again...

After 48 hours of dancing and alcoholism I am finally beginning to feel normal again... what a weekend though! Will definitely be doing that again...

I have to sort through all my pics and videos and will post some soon...

Here's a taster:

It's Pimms O'Click at Rewind 2015!

Rewind Festival #2

I'm off to the Rewind Festival today... 3 days of beer, 80's music and dancing with thousands of other drunken like-minded forty to fiftysomethings, with perhaps a smattering of bewildered-looking teenagers and twentysomethings mixed in :)

We're going in a camper van so that should increase the comfort level somewhat plus I've purchased a wristband for access to the posh loos so I can have a crap in relative clean comfort.

Aside from that there'll be queueing, probably some mud, expensive beer and gut busting fast food to contend with but it's all worth it to see Belinda Carlisle live :p

Now off to get my funk on!

Rewind Festival

Wellies - check

Imodium tablets - check

That's me sorted for the Rewind Festival :)

Thanks Tesco

"Every little helps..."

My arse.

The days before the Web

Ah I remember those days:

When, in conversation with someone, they took what you said as gospel instead of 'Googling' it and correcting you.

When people actually talked to each other in the pub, rather than gawping at their smartphones to check their failbook wall updates or responses to their Favourited entries in twatter.

When we could remember place names, phone numbers or shopping lists, instead of relying on the 'cloud'.

We were all so much more 'genuine' in those days, it's hard to explain what that means but the closest explanation I can come up with is we were less like drones slaved to a huge network of computers like we are today. I mean if I need to find my way around I go to TomTom on my smartphone, or if I need a friend's phone number I look it up in my address book on my smartphone/computer etc. The fact that I can look up my personal information anywhere at anytime is pretty awesome but somewhat lame at the same time because I really should be able to recall most of it without help. The Web is giving us collective lazy brains.

I know, I know, I'm sounding like some old fogey - complaining about 'new fangled computers' and 'when I were a lad...' etc. etc. but I feel qualified enough to speak up for the forty somethings in this world who knew what the modern world was like before the Web but sufficiently after gas lamps in the streets lighting the way for carts and horses. Where it was sophisticated enough for us to enjoy our leisure time but not so sophisticated in our working lives, forcing us to be proactive in order to get stuff done.

Now I'm off to download another book onto my Kindle.

Mike Tindall - Rugby Legend

Mike Tindall is a Rugby legend, he has the scars to prove it, is married into royalty and is a thoroughly all round great dude... and every time I see him the OS X logo pops into my head...

'I've had enough of the Kardashians!' - US news anchor walked off set during live broadcast in protest at Kylie Jenner's 18th birthday coverage

BAHAHAHAHA!!

This man should be given an honorary knighthood...

Elder Scrolls Online

I've been hitting ESO hard this weekend because I moved all my gaming PC's components into a brand new case - a Corsair Obsidian 450D. The old case didn't have good enough heat dissipation because the PSU and graphics card were too close to each other... every time I played ESO the top and back would be red hot, I'm not surprised the PC didn't transform into a molten mass sooner!

Anyway this case is bigger and channels air movement much better so now I can continue my marathon ESO sessions :)

As usual, Zenimax continue to outdo themselves for graphics:

I spent ages staring at this waterfall, even got surprise attacked because of that!

Sunset over Bankorai

and a good morning to you sir...!

Whilst headed toward work on my daily morning commute I noticed a guy walking towards me, he was dressed in typical builder's garb - hardhat, hi-vis jacket, paint-splattered cargo pants and hobnail workbooks. He had a roll-up ciggy in his mouth and carried a cup of Greggs coffee, as he passed me he said 'morning' quite loudly.

I was surprised but recovered quickly enough to mumble 'm-morning' in response before he got too far away.

I have to say that it cheered me up somewhat because usually everyone around me silently shuffles off the train looking miserable, then head en-masse through the ticket gates and disperse to their various workplaces continuing to look miserable and nary a word of how well the morning was fairing is ever spoken from anyone. Mind you it would probably get a bit grating having loads of people say 'good morning' to me every day.

This guy though, probably without a care in the world, had his nicotine and caffeine fixes and was off to go and build stuff, fair play to him! I just wish I could be like that in the morning.

Photography #101

This is an example of using a slow shutter speed and water is a great subject matter for this type of photography. Taken at a lovely seaside village called Sennen Cove, I've been there twice for holidays and had a great time there.

Photography #101

Here's another pic of a Long Tailed Tit, I took it from a bird hide at Centre Parcs Longleat... yet another great example via a telephoto lens.

Soo cute!

Is our universe FAKE? Physicists claim we could all be the playthings of an advanced civilisation

Typical Daily Fail article...

However if we are indeed part of a huge video game, then the alien controlling me has probably fallen asleep from sheer boredom...

Yawn...

Note to Google...

Stop asking me to add my mobile phone number to my account for so-called security reasons... I know that you only really want to so you can sell it to a bunch of marketeers so they can bother me with unsolicited phone calls.

This is the thing that pissing me off about social media, they just want to be ultra nosey and poke deeper into our lives in order to fine-tune targeted advertising, they couldn't give a fuck about us personally, it's all about making money for the shareholders... we're just cattle to be milked.

That's why I don't go on facebook, Mark Zuckerberg can fuck off.

A question of immigration...

You know, it's just occurred to me that if I travelled to France right now I wouldn't get in because my passport is out of date, they'd stop me at passport control and strong-arm me back to Blighty.

So my question is this, why the fuck is it so easy for thousands of immigrants to wander into France and cause such chaos in Calais? I mean, if I went to France I would go there with no intention whatsoever of causing trouble yet they would not let me in because of a small piece of documentation that has a past date on it.

Just goes to show how fucked-up this world really is.