Stuff Archives

There is little, if no, political bias on this site and there is no intention to change that. I do, however, fully support Net Neutrality and respect all the companies that have come together today to protest against internet control.


Net Neutrality isn't just a US problem. If control of the internet is given to companies in the US, others will follow. “Title II” of the Communications Act provides legal foundation for net neutrality. Without it, Internet Service Providers will be able to block, charge or slow down sites that you visit. The internet exists to allow freedom of speech and expression. The internet should be somewhere you go to find and see what you want. Not what a company wants you to see!

Battle For The Net

So I took the plunge and went to Disneyland for the Thanksgiving holiday with William. I have to be honest, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't like it. I mean, I'm kind of done with all the roller coasters having ridden them in my youth. I was worried that the crowds would annoy me ... and they did, but it wasn't too bad that it ruined the holiday.

I only took 3 photos during the trip. I've still not turned into one of the sad muppets that needs to document their life on facebook or other social media. That's probably a rant for another day about the shit that people post online. Anyway, I hired myself a scooter so that I could get round the park and that was definitely the right decision. I probably would have been able to walk from one side to the other, but that would have taken all day and William employed the scatter method to his ride selection. Rather than doing what most people do and going to one of the areas in the park, going on the rides you want and move along, we just went back and forth all over the place.

Alright, so first question - what's better than California Screamin'? California Screamin' in the rain!


So this was on the last day. We knew it was going to rain. I'd been sensible enough to look at the forecast before we went on the trip and brought rain coats with us. Initially it was forecast to rain around 11:00, but that slipped on the day to around 3:00 in the afternoon. I can't actually remember what time it decided to rain, but we'd just split from Mike, Sue, Michaela and Johnny to have another go on the big roller coaster. They were a little more timid with their rides. It started to rain while we were in the queue for the ride and by the time we got on it, the heavens opened. We were either the last car or the last but one before they shut the ride down. I said to William that we got to do something not many people will ever do as it doesn't rain there very often and the ride shuts down when it does, but we rode California Screamin' in the rain. The girls behind us seemed to be enjoying it as well.

Talking of rain though, something I'd not really thought about, but when it rains, you generally just wear a jacket and that keeps you mostly dry. When you're on a mobility scooter, couple of things. First, if you left it to get on a ride, you had to sit in a puddle when you came back as water had collected on the seat. Second, that seating position that you ride the scooter leaves the bottom half of your body exposed. That, plus the fact that when you rode the damn thing the wheels were flicking up water into your genitals, I think I got the wettest I've ever got. I had to get my suitcase and change my jeans in the toilet at the hotel before we headed out.

OK, so thinking about it, the massive 3 photos I took were all taken on the last day. This photo was taken a little early (yes, the weather changed that quickly) in the queue for cars. Somewhat amused by the Butte Gas, obviously pronouncing it Butt Gas which I'm sure is the intention.


That was by far the longest queue we went in. The ride had broken down the previous day when we had an early pass into that park, so we had to queue with the rest of them when it finally opened. All the fast passes were gone more or less as soon as the ride re-opened.

Finally, the last ride of the trip. Yes, we were already soaked, so it made sense to finish with Splash Mountain.

The global phenomenon that is EastBayRag has become some big, surpassing Microsoft, Google and Apple combined that it's time to start its own Police Department. As crazy as it seems that something that started as one man's dreams has become so big and so popular that it needs its own law enforcement, but that's just the way it is.

What more proof can you need of such expansion than the arrival of the police barriers. The barriers that will be used to barrier off anything that needs barriering off.

EastBayRag has started counting down! A timer has appeared on the home page. What's that all about then? Who knows? But maybe, just maybe it's something important. One thing's for sure - you've got a long time to figure it out as it's quite a long countdown.

It never ceases to amaze me how inefficient government agencies are and their complete disregard for money. It doesn't really matter which country you're in, it's the same the world over. Complete bureaucratic bullshit!

OK, so this particular issue that's got me riled relates to the UK government. To be specific Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC). I received an email from HMRC telling me that there was a message for me on my online account. I had signed up for the green option, so would no longer get letters in the mail (something I've done with pretty much everything I can). OK, so go to the website and try to log on. Interesting, they've implemented secondary security where it sends a code to the mobile phone you have on file. Click the button, wait and ....... nothing happens.

OK, so what do you do now? Well, click the help link and it tells you to call the help desk and if you provide them with your social security number and the phone number on file, they will get you access. I tried to call the help desk and got the message “we are unable to help you at this time ... click”. Not even a queue, just straight disconnected.

Not to be deterred by a failure through the second avenue, I thought I'd try a third and sent them an email asking how I was to access the account given that I was not being sent an authorization code and when I called the help desk, nobody answered and it just disconnected. The email came back saying I needed to phone the help desk and have my National Security number with me to validate my identity. So basically some intern didn't bother to read the actual message and just cut and paste the default message. So no help there!

I tried to call a few more times and still no queue, too busy.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I tried to log in again and it sent me a code. Great! Party Time! No. I entered the code and then a message comes up "Unable to validate your identity". Please contact the help desk. Are you fucking serious?

I finally got through to the help desk today some weeks later. The IT help desk said there's nothing they can do about my issue, it's a new system they don't control and they don't know why the website is telling people to contact the help desk. They told me to call the tax office and ask them what to do as they could access my messages and let me know if there was anything critical.

I called the tax office and they said they were unable to help me and I needed to contact the IT help desk. For fucks sake! Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. The woman on this help desk at the tax office said she was cross with the woman on the other help desk for passing me off to them. She also said that because I lived overseas I couldn't file my taxes online. I pointed out that I'd been filing my taxes online since the option had been available and that the IRS mandates that I do them online being an overseas taxpayer. This seemed confusing to her, but after she researched it, she did indeed note that I had managed to process my tax return online. Unfortunately, however, she is not able to help me and has told me to call the IT help desk again.

I can only imagine the billions of pounds the government has spent on this online processing in order to have something setup that doesn't work. And the amount of money they are paying for people to sit on help desks and provide absolutely no support whatsoever.

As it stands, I have HMRC sending me urgent messages to an inbox I can't access and mandating that I complete my tax returns online on a system I can't log onto. You would have thought they'd do everything they could to take money from me to pay the morons they employ!

The season is over and I still can't believe it. Not only did Leicester win the Premier League, but they absolutely dominated it. It's crazy to think that we had a chance of winning, but winning by 10 points is ridiculous. If the odds on us winning the title were 5000/1, can you imagine what the odds would have been on us winning by 10 points.



Nope .... it's not a fantasy. I keep looking and yes, we did indeed win the league!

Well, I'm still in shock at seeing something I never thought I'd see in my life - my beloved Leicester City winning the Premier League. It's crazy to think that any team has been able to take on the might of the big clubs, but the fact that it's Leicester makes it all the more special.



So much has already been written or said about this feat, that I'm really not going to be able to add anything. Last season was our first season after returning to the Premier League and we were firmly rooted to the bottom until an amazing end of season rally that saw us safe. Starting this season with odds of 5,000 to 1. The cost of our squad being around £22M compared to someone like Manchester City at £280M. The amazing story of Jamie Vardy playing for Fleetwood in the non-league a couple of years ago and now looking like he could take the golden boot. Crazy to think that it would even be conceivable that we could win. Well, ha ha, I guess 5,000 to 1 inconceivable.

I have to be honest, my reaction was to spend most of Monday crying after I watched Chelsea hold Spurs to a draw that finally gave us the title. Disbelief and joy .... at least I was working from home. Working may be a stretch if I'm being honest, but hey .... this isn't likely to happen again (maybe famous last words).

The interesting thing is that there's been talk on the Premier League coverage here in the States about Hollywood spending time with Leicester to make a film about the Leicester story. Not sure how true that is and I've not heard anyone say exactly which studio it is that's interested, but presumably it will be made into a film at some point. Kind of like Cool Runnings or Eddie the Eagle except with the underdog actually winning.

What I find interesting is the concept of American studios trying to figure out how to make the best film about Leicester's triumph. You just know that some producer's going to be looking for ways to embellish it even further beyond the amazing story that it is. I look back to films like Robin Hood where they conveniently relocated Sherwood Forrest in relation to Nottingham and just wonder if someone's going to be asking questions like “has Leicester City always played in Leicester?” which, at first glance seems like a daft question, but given American sporting teams just pick up and move States, it's the sort of thing I can imagine them asking. “Well, I was thinking that if we based Leicester in London, we can make this great local rivalry with Tottenham and Chelsea. Maybe have them all located close to each other. It'll make it so much better as we can show Chelsea helping their friends ...” I don't know. Maybe I'm still drunk on the euphoria, but I'm sure that there will be considerable poetic license throughout the film. But I already know I'm going to be buying the box set, so I guess it's just a matter of waiting.

I suffered yet another suitcase failure on my travels. This trip to Seattle. Just to digress for a minute, I had lunch with colleague at this vogue restaurant and the waitress was very pretty in that very noticeable way ... skirt just a little too short, top see through and unbuttoned just a button too far and, let me say, with a large chest. She was very attentive to us and kept passing by our table to lean over an pour water. I guess it's not too difficult to pick out the two guys on expenses that can be worked for a bigger tip, lol.

Anyway, back to the story which is irrelevant, but another colleague offered to stop by and pick up some Duck Tape that I could use to fix my suitcase. Well, I don't blame him for this, but when he saw the Union Jack Duck Tape, he obviously bought it for me as shown below.



Well, the question that sticks in my head is what the hell would you use this tape for anyway? Is America planning to deck the country out in Union Jack Duck Tape in celebration of the Queen's 90th birthday?

Who knows? But I don't seem to have another use for it.

It's been debated for a long time that playing video games to excess can cause someone to lose the ability to tell between the game and reality. Those that propose this as being a big problem generally point to the violence in games and that it can cause people to want to do nasty things to other people including killing them. An alternative analogy is that playing driving games can cause someone to be reckless when driving in the real world. Even is not leading to accidents or worse, there are cases of those where playing games has cost them in the real world ... of note is the former Liverpool David James who had an addiction to PlayStation games.

So where is all this leading? Well, as most people know I've been playing Clash of Clans for quite a long time and, more recently, Clash Royale. Both of these games are heavily monetized by the maker SuperCell. In both games you spend real money to buy gems that you can then spend in game to progress faster. Without going into the mechanics of each game, Clash Royale allows you to use your gems to open chests and get cards faster as shown in the picture below.



So how can a simple tablet game affect you in reality?

Well first, I need to explain that this is purely an accident. I was at the NASCAR race in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago with Owen and obviously it was so fascinating that neither of us could take our eyes off the track for a single moment. I really don't know how this happened, but I must have slipped, accidentally zoomed with my camera and hit the continuous shot button as I seem to have a whole series of photos not related to the race. Now clearly I would have deleted these photos immediately, but I couldn't help looking at this one ....



.... and thinking .... how many gems would it take to open that super magical chest?

For the fifth year running, I give you the best, the amazing, the brilliant ..... and still undefeated champion .... me!

This was by far and away the closest competition ever. Owen actually tried so I had some competition and, going into the last week, I was trailing by one point. But as with Owen's beloved Liverpool, we have to bring out the word “choke”. Two weeks ago, Owen had built up a 57 point lead and looked like a dead cert to win the competition, but poor performances in the last two weeks let it all slip. The leaderboard shows that I finally came through to win by 19 points.

Let's see what next year brings. I suppose the first question's going to be whether or not anyone else plays with me or if I'm going to be doing it alone. I don't much like this new format for the championship, but I have to admit that it made for an interesting last race of the season. I was supporting Harvick for the final, so a big shout out to him and congratulations on the championship.