Stuff Archives

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.

This is something I meant to write weeks ago. Totally forgot about it, but then saw it again on the Premiere League season review. During the game near the end of the season between Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion, the commentator made the following comment about The Baggies - “They're playing Russian Roulette ...” - Liverpool then scored and the commentator added - “... and they've just shot themselves in the foot.”

Given the alternative, I think I'd happily take one in the foot.

As we head into a long weekend here in the good old US of A, I found myself home early on the Friday putting up another bird feeder. Seemed like a golden opportunity to get out the video camera and create another masterpiece.

Look for the “Bird Feeder” video options on the Other Videos Page.

The big question is how long it will last before it breaks? You know it's going to. The next question is whether I should create a pulley system for the next generation bird feeder? This seems to be the more sustainable solution. Finally, bonus points if you can name the theme tune.

No sooner had I written the previous article about my camera being cool, as it offered the potential of exploding batteries, than I turned on my xBox 360 to find that it had broken. Nothing so dramatic as blowing up, but it put three of the red lights on the front of the console which, after much googling, turns out to be a general hardware error. I can bore you with details about how to get the xBox to show you sub error codes, but you can find that elsewhere if that's your cup of tea. What is relevant here is the fact that this display of three red lights is knows and “the three red rings of death” which sounds to me like some homosexual Russian roulette game.

Still, far be it from me to turn down a challenge, so I decided to probe the three red rings of death further. Soon to learn that you can abbreviate this to rrod (red rings of death). OK, so I'm on top of the lingo, but what about the actual problem? Some further googling identifies a large number of potential fixes from wrapping your xBox in towels in order to over heat it to microwaving it. I actually think all fixes are valid as it seems that the problem is due to M$ using cheap parts in the xBox that last about long enough to see you through the warranty period. It appears the chip design and the way the heat sinks are attached are not the best and cause the motherboard to warp. I suspect the towel or microwave trick work as they temporarily bend the board back - don't know as I didn't try either of them.

Instead, I went with a solution provided by P!nk Thr3@t from i-hacked.com/360fix. Far more fun as this involves dismantling your xBox and changing parts out (well connections rather than parts). Also, the name of the game is to be left with spare parts that you take out of the 360 - now how many times have you taken something to bits, put it back together and had bits left over?

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical, however, I guess if I were to do a video, my name would be “f@t 0ld Bl0k3” which probably doesn't have the same punch as P!nk Thr3@t - maybe 30 years ago ....

Here's my series of pictures until I got bored and stopped taking any:


In case you're wondering though, it did work. Or so far so good anyway, my 360 is back up and running.

I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a new camera. I know the economy's not doing too well and there's a lot of uncertainty out there, but here's the deal - applied to the government for some bail out money, paid myself an obnoxiously large bonus and still had enough to buy the camera. Just doing my bit to make the world a better place :)

Anyway, what's cool is that I read the manual and in it there was a note for the remote control - "warning - battery may explode if abused." How cool is that?

I spent an hour or so yesterday calling it names and telling it that it would never amount to much, but nothing's happened so far. I intend to subject it to a lot more abuse over the weekend and we'll see what happens.

Wow - what an exhausting week. Really busy at work, not going to bore you with the details of that, but one thought that keeps crossing my mind is that the effect of this economy is to take the same amount of work and give it to fewer people. Anyway, before I get dangerously close to talking about something important, time to get back to the inane.

First, was on a call at home in the evening and whilst pacing around, I looked out the window and saw what I thought was a male downy woodpecker doing what woodpecker's do - pecking wood. It was climbing up one of the pine trees merrily woodpeckering away.

On closer inspection, it seems that this is actually a red-breasted sapsucker. The photo above is a bit blurry as the light was fading, but at least I now have a photo of him.

Next was a quick visit to the hospital again. Yep - couldn't quite make it a quarter without popping back in for a visit. Not a recurring problem - this visit was for a new and exciting problem. I've heard a few people say that a boil on the bum is one of the most painful things you can have. I don't know whether or not that's the case as I seem to have got something like that on my inner thigh rather than my bum. Bloody painful though, but appears to be healing so I won't dwell on that.

Right, next to the little one - he's been poorly. Some kind of bug I think. The only real knock on effect to me is occasionally waking up in the night and having to say “Karen - I think you need to go see if William's OK again.”

Then there's the birding society that I joined to see if I could find where interesting birds are. Managed to get a tip on a tufted duck that we were able to get out and see this Saturday.

Now, the interesting challenge is trying to find a single bird in a huge lake with absolutely thousands of ducks on it. Thankfully, it was more or less the first bird I saw as I walked to the lake (I'd started walking down whilst Karen got William out of the car). I caught site of it just before it went out of view under the near bank. Karen's approach was more interesting and that was the process of elimination. All I could here as she approached was “is that it? No. Is that it? No. Is that it? No .... ” seemingly answering her own questions. My fallback approach, had we failed to find tufty, was to look for the other people with binoculars and camera's at the lake (rather than the local residents) and see where they were looking. If you are interested you can see more pictures of this and other birds from this visit to Lake Merritt.

A busy week, but what has all this got to do with the title? Well, one of the birding messages came through with a link in it to someone's site. Being the nosey kind of person that I am I decided to go check it out. I was pretty impressed with some of the stuff that this guy's done and put together. See what you think voicewhiz. If you're a Simpson's fan like myself, I'm sure you've made the connection to the title. (Either that or I'm just way off base again).