Stuff Archives

Been a long time since I've posted a blog, I felt I'd share a quick experience with everyone. Hopefully most people will have noticed that it was Easter last weekend. As is the tradition on this day, at least in the US anyway, all the kids go and do an egg hunt.

Stupidly I agreed to go along to the local one that William was participating in. I guess there's a first .... and last for everything. So we trundled up to the location of the egg hunt. Found a parking space and proceeded to make our way into the park. Karen then figured out we were late, which was news to me as I hadn't been aware of a time we were walking towards, so she ran off with William to get him setup. I lost sight of them and proceeded up the hill to the milling crowd on the assumption that this was where the action would take place. My instincts were correct - this was indeed the right location and I was soon reunited with wife and child. My job was to man the camera and take pictures of the little one as he foraged for eggs in the designated area.

The designated area was a rectangle marked with yellow tape. Several next to each other in order to separate the kids. Apparently there were instructions surrounding the event - only kids in the designated area and a six egg maximum. Well, the whistle went and all the parents dived in. Rule number one out the window. In fact, it was too hectic that I didn't even get a photo off. Shortly, William came back as he couldn't find anymore eggs and Karen went in with him and that's when I took this first picture:

So the above is after it had started to calm down. Now, we only found out the rules after the event had completed. Upon returning, I asked William to walk back in and then come back towards me so I could take a picture and you will notice that his “haul” is a little over the six egg limit.

Interestingly, all the above actually took less time to take place than it did to write this article. All the fun was to happen next - bouncy castles, kids playing, parents talking to each other and all that good stuff. Well, so I'm told. I told Karen she could stay as long as she wanted which, surprisingly was about an hour and a half. I went back to my car, switched on the radio and fell asleep listening to it.

Next year, I'm working on cutting out the middle man and simply staying in bed.

I guess I'm about a week or so late posting this, but have had other things to do. Well, if you call playing video games and generally worrying about work given the economy, other things. So, Mr O and myself went to watch a couple of NASCAR races at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Very exciting for me given that I’m following Juan Pablo Montoya and got to watch his car blow up in Fontana and see his team mate take him out in Vegas…. Hmmmm. Also, can anyone say “five in a row”? Jimmie Johnson managed to win both the Sprint cup races we saw and looks like he’s going to be in the running for another title.

Alright, enough of the sports report and now onto more irrelevant things. It’s difficult to miss the fact that Danica Patrick has entered stock car racing. She’s doing about 12 races in the Nationwide series and I think going full time next season – we’ll have to wait and see. It was pretty apparent that there was a lot of interest in her at the race track. The longest lines were at the #7 Go Daddy stall and there were a lot of people talking about her. She’s a pretty good drive as we’ve seen in Indy Car, but I wouldn’t say out of the ordinary. I was trying to figure out whether the interest in her was because she’s a woman or because she’s an attractive woman and that many people were hoping that they would get lucky if they ever met her. Based on this last premise, I was rather pleased to snap the shot below. Kevin Harvick had just passed Danica to put her a lap down. I was rather pleased with myself for this one as it’s a picture of Danica in the lucky dog position – one I’m sure that many have dreamt about. Now the best thing about this picture is that if you look carefully, you can see a bit of Busch too. (Oh but for school boy humor).

All that pales in comparison, however, if you do an actual search on pictures of Danica. Below is one such example that I found which, is far better to look at than my blurred picture and a couple of double entendres.

Oh well, continuing the theme of irrelevant, I did snap another picture that lends itself to the caption competition. It’s been almost three years since I’ve posted a picture there, so I’m quite pleased I got one. Feel free to take a look and add a caption to the Caption Competition Picture #3.

Last, I’m sure there are thousands of people out there waiting for the photos to be posted. I’ve sort of processed most of them, but lethargy got in the way so you’ll have to wait another week before you get to see these.

Seems a few people I've spoken to haven't seen this, so I figured I'd post it. A fine showing from the British Bobsled team even if I say so myself.

Congratulations have to be given to Jimmie Johnson for winning his fourth consecutive NASCAR championship. Obviously Jimmie's been on the edge of his nerves since his bad luck at Texas - not necessarily worried about whether he was going to bounce back and win his fourth championship, but rather worrying about whether or not he will get recognition from EastBayRag.

Clearly achieving something that has never been done before in the history of your sport is good, but until it's been ratified here, does it really mean anything? Being serious for a minute, however, I am actually pleased for Jimmie, Chad and the 48 Lowes team. Given how close the competition is, this is a very big achievement.

I almost missed this one if it wasn't for hearing a ticket offer on The Bone (local radio station) going into work one morning. Chickenfoot were playing at the Greek Theater in Berkeley (or Bezerkeley as the band were trying to get the place renamed). Chickenfoot's a new band of old heroes - Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith - all of whom have had distinguished careers on their own. I've heard their music and I really like, so it seemed like a good concert to go to. Found out that one of the guys at work was going, so he decided to sell his ticket and get two more and we went together (well, sat together anyway, we traveled separately).

Interestingly, his single ticket was further back from the stage. Not sure if we just timed it right when there had been some returns, however, we ended up with a couple of seats in row 6 - can't complain at that. In fact, the only thing I can complain about was the walk from where I parked my car - traffic was horrific getting to the venue due to its location in Berkeley and when I got there was told the disabled parking was full and so was the nearest car park. I was somewhat lucky that a space opened up on the street so I only had 4 blocks to hobble instead of 6 from the next nearest parking lot.

Enough grumbling, the show was fantastic. Mark who I was with commented that there wasn't a wasted note in the entire evening and I have to agree with him - it was really impressive. There were a couple of things that really made if for me - the first was that the band themselves were clearly having a lot of fun, Hagar commented a couple of times that he felt like he was the luckiest man alive to be doing what he was doing and there was no reason to doubt him. There was a fantastic dialogue between Sammy and Chad throughout the show with input from Mike. Joe didn't say much, but he doesn't have to - when you can play the guitar that well, you really don't need to say anything.

The second thing was that I've had a desire to catch a drumstick thrown into the crowd ever since I went to my first concert some 27+ years ago (Iron Maiden on March 5th 1982 at Leicester De Montfort Hall, although technically the first band I ever saw would have been The Rods as they were the support at this show). Well, 27 years later and a seat in row 6 and I got lucky enough to catch one of the (many) drumstick's Chad tossed into the crowd. I have to add the “many” comment as Chad did indeed generously impart many drumsticks which did increase my chances of getting one. Never-the-less, it was a clean take (all those year's playing as a goalkeeper not wasted) and given that I only have one free hand, that was pretty cool as there were many fumbles with all the other sticks that were being contested followed by a scramble on the floor to find it.

The only thing I disagreed with during the evening was in the middle of the set when I felt compelled to scream “42 Montoya” at the top of my voice. I doubt he heard me, but Sammy started it when he dedicated the song “Turnin' Left” to “the driver of the number 48 .... Jimmie Johnson.” The song itself makes me laugh as it has a chorus of “we go round in circles” which seems more than appropriate. Don't know if Sammy would have had the chance to see the qualifying results, but Jimmie did make the pole for this weekend's race at the Monster Mile (Dover). And I certainly wouldn't be someone to bet against Jimmie achieving what is now being called “The Chase 4 History”, however, my man Montoya is alongside Jimmie for the start of the race and you know he's going to take the race to Jimmie. Guess we'll see tomorrow who wins on the day, but I suspect we won't know the Champion until we close the season at Homestead, particularly given the number of drivers that have a realistic chance of claiming the title.

I feel moved to report the story that I'm sure everyone has already heard about which is that of the police hunt in Papua New Guineau for the sex cult leader. Apparently the leader of a sex cult promised local villagers a bumper banana crop if they had sex in public. The cult leader avoided capture by using two of his wives as shields before making his escape.

I've searched the web, but can't find any pictures. What I really want to know though is whether he disappeared into the bush?

My latest attempt to get some of the stimulus money has failed! I learned yesterday that the government was doing this cash for clunkers program where they would give you between $3,500 and $4,500 for your old car so you could part exchange if for a new economic vehicle (over 22 mile per gallon - US gallons before you start wondering why the number is low).

I thought this made sense and it was something that I should look into given that the affectionately termed “pile of crap” that I'm driving around in is falling to bits. Well, turns out that my heap of junk doesn't qualify as a clunker. Apparently it should perform at 19 mpg and a qualifying clunker needs to be below 18 mpg. I feel that there should be some kind of appeal process where I can get my turd mobile means tested. One look at it and anyone in their right mind would class it as a clunker, but no.

I guess there's truth in the saying “should have bought a V8” for more reasons than just the power.

A week ago I went to see Whitesnake and Judas Priest in concert. (Either the penny's dropped now or it's not going to).

Get a real job
Anyone ever talk to you about a career when you were at school? I know that's all out the catflap now with Gen Y and the Millennials, but there was some sense of needing to figure out what you wanted to do in your career when I was at school. Far be it for anyone to suggest that you do something flippant like join a rock and roll band. Interesting then that some of these bands have been performing for circa 40 years. It would be interesting to see what the current generation thinks about the fact that these guys have been around doing their stuff for that long ..... particularly in the current economy now the fear has been put into this generation that it is not the employer that is privileged to have them on board, the privileged is for one to have a job.

British Steel
My next interesting contemplation is the fact that Judas Priest fly the banner of “British Steel” based off the heavy metal term. Now, I lived in Sheffield for a few years which is (or was) the home of the British Steel industry. That industry is long gone and I do wonder whether the UK has made more money exporting heavy metal, particularly with groups that led the charge in the 80's NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal). As sad as it may seem, this may actually be true.

The Rebel
Now, during the concert I thought it would be good to stand. Unfortunately, we were at the front of the seating bit and the folks behind us didn't want to. It's hard to explain the layout, but we were the second row of the back bit of seating. I was on the end of the row and next to me was a gap then a 3 to 4 foot high concrete wall for the steps that lead down to the lower level. Being considerate, I got up and walked over to the concrete wall so I could stand and not block anyone's view. Unfortunately, jobsworth didn't see it that way and came over to me to get me to stand in front of my seat. I tried to point out to him the error of his ways, but he was having none of it. There may have been a time in my life that I would have pressed this issue further, but on reflection I guess I'm really just a 40 odd year old chartered account from Leicester ... and not a hard man of rock living life on the edge without a care ..... I returned to my seat quietly and sat down.

Hobo
I lied at the beginning, I'll give one more hint to make the penny drop. I don't understand what's wrong with the word “hobo”? One of Whitesnake's biggest hits “Here I go again” contains the line “like a hobo I was born to walk alone”. My guess is that somewhere along the line, somebody thought this line was either being misheard or that people didn't know what a hobo was and the line was changed to “like a drifter I was born to walk alone”

There's been several posts on this site as to my creativity (or lack thereof) around setting up bird feeders, most recently in the bird feeder antics article that features a video of my spinning feeder. A really bad thumbnail of that picture shows how it startedbut I strongly suggest watching the video if you have the time.

So, in that last article I pointed out that it was likely that the spinning feeder solution would not work for long and I was correct. It spun and fell off. Time to create the pulley system. I don't have any video or pictures of the initial pulley system that was put into place unfortunately. That said, it worked extremely well.

Not being satisfied with a working feeder, I decided to make some modifications to it. You will already note the slinky that's around the pole. This is to stop squirrels climbing the pole and getting to the bird food. Believe it or not, this works extremely well and is very funny to watch (shame I never have my video recorder when it happens). The squirrel climbs to the slinky, pauses to try and figure it out, then proceeds only to be lowered slowly to the ground. Alright, squirrels sorted, it was time to take on the jays. We have both scrub and Stellar's jays in the garden that seem to hog the feeders. They have access to the big feeder, but I wanted to make this one exclusive for the little birds, so I came up with the idea of encasing the feeder in chicken wire. I created a prototype and it worked, so I decided to go into production and create a case.

Works great, until one day I was looking outside the office window and saw ....Sorry about the angle as the picture seems to highlight the bushes, but if you look closely you will see that there's something missing. Yep, my contraption had collapsed under its own weight.

Refusing to be deterred, I've decided that it only needs stronger rope to hold it up. I've therefore strung it up. Next problem was the feeder looked like it was going to drop through the bottom of the chicken wire, so I've strung up the feeder inside the case that is stung up to the pulley (i.e. the feeder house is now suspended inside the cage. I haven't taken another picture of this yet).

My guess is that the pole will snap next with all the weight on it, but we will have to wait and see ...

Well, it's finally come to it. I had to go to my first concert on my own yesterday as I couldn't find anyone to come with me. Now, I have to admit that the reason I was going was to see Slayer that, even for some metal fans, may be a little heavy. That said it was a festival (Mayhem Festival) with Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Killswitch Engage and Bullet for my Valentine on the main stage and Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, Job For a Cowboy, God Forbid, Behemoth, All that Remains, The Black Dahlia Murder and Whitechapel also performing. Surely everyone could find someone in that list that they have on top of their minds to go and see. And if that wasn't enough, there was the Metal Mulisha freestyle motorcross team performing stunts .... how could you say no? (I may have the lineup slightly wrong as I have to admit I was a little late getting to the event so only really caught Trivium and the guys on the main stage).

I'm probably biased, but I thought it was a fantastic event. Was really impressed with the bands I saw. The only slight nag I have is that I would have liked to see Slayer perform last rather than Manson but that's probably because I'm more of a Slayer fan although some of it is down to the fact that it's not going to get any louder or faster than Slayer, so it does seem a little like it's a wind down at the end.

Anyway, the place was packed, but not with people I know. “Billy no mates” rides again! Does this mean I'm forever condemned to be the last of the headbangers or is there hope out there? I think this will be the subject of this week's vote. I guess I'm happy regardless .... so long as I can reign in blood.