Categories
Computing IAMOWIM Music

Sore throat blocked nose blah blah blah

Last night I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, trying to make as little noise as possible so that I wouldn’t prevent Karen from sleeping. Eventually I thought better of it, and decamped downstairs and flopped out the sofa bed.

For over an hour I lay there, my brain whirring and bouncing, constantly providing me with stimuli and imaginary matters to keep me awake. This often happens when I am a bit poorly. On more than one occasion, I remember seeing that there were new replies to a post of mine on an internet forum, so I had to check to see what they’d said. All of this was in my imagination, of course, but it was highly disruptive.

Eventually I took a short break, went to the toilet, had a glass of water, and told my brain to behave itself. I went back to bed and made a conscious effort to stop thinking. Apparently this worked.

But the reason why I put fingertips to keyboard is this: at some point during my ceaseless thrashing, my brain came up with an awesome band name. Or maybe it would be an album name. Either way, at the time it seemed like the best band name ever, and I would have switched the light on and written it down, but I felt that it would be counter-productive in the whole “getting to sleep” project.

This morning, I managed to remember the band name without too much head-scratching, which came as something of a surprise. Even more surprising, it still seems half-decent in the cold light of morning.

And what is this band name that you are teasingly withholding from us? I hear you say.

No Bears At All

Now I just have to figure out what it means.

*UPDATE: Google tells me that this phrase exists in a book called The Bears on Hemlock Mountain – maybe I picked it up subconsciously at some point? More likely, it’s just a coincidence.*

Categories
Uncategorized

Another gem from our local Freecycle group

> My kids desperately need a Working dishwasher, as they are fed up being the manual alternative.
>
> And I must admit I fed up with yelling at them, when all I get back is I’ll do them later.

“Kids, do the washing up.”

“No.”

“I said do the washing up!”

“No. Buy us a dishwasher.”

“Yes, master.”

“And we’re bored of tidying our rooms. Build a robot to do it for us.”

“Yes, master.”

“My books seem to be scattered all over the sitting room floor.”

“I shall hire a cleaner, my liege.”

Categories
Blogging

Turnover

The oldest version of this site on archive.org is from January 2003, more than five and a half years ago. Of the 42 sites on my “blogroll” back then, 15 of them are still active. And a further 4 of them were written by people whom I happen to know are still blogging, albeit at a different location.

This is a higher percentage than I was expecting.

Categories
Displeasure

Another absurd Freecycle posting

> Hi, I am looking for a bigger TV say from 28″ upward. My small TV is too small for living room!

I was tempted to reply to this with “Hi, I’ve got a 42″ plasma screen that I don’t use very often, about once a day at most. I’d be willing to give you that for free. You can have my Blu-ray player as well, if you think you could find a use for it.”

Categories
Displeasure

The stuff you see on Freecycle

Included as part of a “various items” posting:

> An item that l cannot describe except it is something that you can buy in clinton cards or birthday. It is basically a plastic thing that you give as a little present for a friend – Hope this makes sense

Also known as: a piece of plastic tat.

Categories
Parenting Photos

Camera

camera

Bernard’s been taking quite an interest in photography lately, so Karen has donated her old digital camera. It’s working fairly well, and the absence of complicated features is an advantage, though he still hasn’t quite got to grips with the user interface. I’m really looking forward to seeing the kinds of photos that he takes once he “gets” it.

Categories
Photos

Swans don’t like dogs

swan

swan

swan

In Richmond Park.

Categories
Maisy

Probably not spayed after all, then

Maisy has spent most of the afternoon rolling around on the floor, sticking her arse in the air and making peculiar growling noises. This is the feline equivalent of standing in the middle of the shopping centre shouting “what does a girl have to do to get some DICK round here?”

So, yeah, it looks like she hasn’t been spayed after all then.

I know, I know, “she’s going to be so embarrassed when she grows up and reads this.”

Categories
Photos

Stumpy

stumpy

I have very subtly allocated this goose the nickname of “stumpy”. He has the most awesome hop.

Categories
Music Gear Photos

Hanging guitars

My guitars

Left to right: Epiphone SG and Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz (in the sitting room), Aria Sinsonido fretless and Richwood RD-18-EQ (on adjacent walls in the Man Cave) and a Yamaha BBG4SII (on the opposite wall in the Man Cave). The Aria is on a custom-built mount, but the others can move about as my mood dictates.

Not pictured – my Jim Harley P-bass copy. Those who are regular watchers of my Flickr account will have seen a photo of it recently. I keep it in a soft case because I very rarely play it.