Stuff Archives

I've been pondering the decision as to whether to buy a GoPro or not and have finally succumbed to their mass marketing and got one. It arrived a couple of days ago and I thought I'd try it out yesterday. If anyone doesn't know, a GoPro is a very small video camera that is used to record high speed sports. They come in waterproof containers so they can do surf boarding, wind surfing, mountain biking ... you get the picture. They're often used in cars or on motorbikes which is why you get to see all those crash videos on YouTube. I bought mine for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is fishing, particularly given the small size etc.

Anyway, so I figured I'd give it a spin as I was working down in San Jose so used a suction cup to mount it to my car. Figure out the suction cup doesn't work on the dash, but great on the winDSCreen. Remembered to go into the setup and change the camera to operate upside down and away you go. Now, these are small functional cameras build with size and portability in mind, so the camera itself doesn't come with a screen. You can connect with a mobile phone (which I did) that will show you what the camera sees and you can turn it on off and change settings etc.

Off I popped down San Jose and was quite surprised as to how much was going on around me. I had a random driver holding his dog out the window with sunglasses on, a car come screaming by me closely followed by one belonging to the California Highway Patrol. The patrol car won ... something about flashing lights must make the car go faster ....

On the way back, changed battery and set off again. Very boring drive back, nothing happened, but you can't win them all.

Suffice it to say that when I pulled the files off the camera I found an excellent video of the drive back, but only a photograph of my garage door before leaving. Somehow I had taken a picture on the way down instead of starting the video and ended up missing anything of any interest whatsoever.

Better luck next time ... assuming I don't just put it in a drawer and end up not using it. Time will tell.

So, I find myself alone with William as Karen is traveling for work and I thought I'd try my hand at shopping at the supermarket. Now, I've done this before several times and I do remember strange things happening. Memories of gibbering in the corner due to not understanding some seemingly unwritten rules on how to shop and what to do with trolley etc.

This time was no exception.

I will actually say that the whole shopping experience went quite smoothly, but then again, I only got 5 items. So I went to pay. First thing I noticed is that there aren't any people on the checkout. I knew this existed in the express lane, but not in the others. Even though I only had 5 items I decided to go to a full lane as I had a trolley. Beeped everything through, paid for it fine, bagged it and popped it back into the trolley and off I went.

I noticed this odd rustling behind me as I made my way to the car. What appears to have happened is that I had bagged my goods and not fully detached the bag from the others and had created a plastic bag chain sort of thing. Ever seen those picture of women that have toilet paper stuck down their nickers and have left a trail behind them. Well, kind of the same thing.

Looking on the bright side, we now have a lot of bin/trash liners.

I'm really not one for politics, but I can't help reading all the news around Baroness Thatcher. It seems there's a big split between those who admired her and those that couldn't wait to celebrate her death. One thing's for sure, she's struck an emotional chord with many people who will remember her long after her death.

At the end of the day, that's probably the biggest tribute to a politician as it means they made a difference and I don't think anyone would disagree with that. I'm not sure who it was that first said when they were asked if it worried them the number of people that booed them, responded, the only thing I worry about is hearing silence. It's certainly something that applies to Kyle Busch ..."you know who I am".

I bet this is the only article that mentions Margaret Thatcher and Kyle Busch together!

I will say that I thought the interview with Tony Blair that I heard on the radio was incredibly good at giving praise to someone who, from a political standpoint, has a number of opposing views. My position, if anyone really cares, is that I think she made an overall positive difference even if I didn't agree with everything she did. That said, I generally don't agree with everything any politician does.

The one thing I will say is that I'm in complete awe as to what she achieved. There's a lot written about her humble upbringing as the daughter of a Graham shopkeeper and how she made it to the top of, what was then, a mama world. To become one of the most powerful political figures in the world. I have to admire her success.

R.I.P.

I'll be honest straight off the bat and say that I first saw this video on Tosh.O, but I found myself going back to it because there are just so many things in the video that make me laugh. Including the song itself that I oddly found myself humming away. You can play the game of how many things can you see that are just plain wrong, but you get to a very high number very quickly and you're best just giving up on that one.

(Original video removed due to account suspension)

I will admit that I'm somewhat disappointed though. I do a lot of traveling to Texas and I could have swung by. Where was my invite for the party?

If you're interested the song is “Quack Like a Duck” by “GOAT and your Mom” But I don't think we'll be seeing it top the charts anytime soon.

Not sure whether this whole thing is scripted, but I still found it funny.

Going to be honest, I've often wondered what it must be like to be one of the top drivers on the road knowing that you could put anyone into the wall with minimal damage to your own car. Must be tempting every time you get cut up on the freeway.

When two things you love come together, what can go wrong? Famous last words I'm sure, but we will reserve judgement for a couple of months as in May, Iron Maiden are to release a beer. Sad as it is, I'll have to buy a couple of crates just to see what it tastes like ... let's face it, it's going to take a couple of crates to decide if it's good or not. I imagine it's going to come at a premium price as well, but what do you expect these days?

Iron Maiden's Trooper Beer.

I figured I'd try out my new art talents - bit of sketching mixed with some water color work. Did a quick one of William playing on the xBox.


There may have been a slight trick to this ... but that's for me to know!

This blog was very close to being called “Mr O's lucky escape” as I toyed with the idea of bringing my new shorts to Vegas, but elected not to. So, for the first time in 27 years I bestowed my legs upon the world. One of the things that makes me laugh is that I actually worried about what color socks to wear. And even tried on both white and black before electing to chose black. The fact that I look like a complete tool regardless of the socks is completely irrelevant, but it felt like that might be the icing on the cake sort of things, so I tried on both pairs and solicited William's feedback. He did find it rather amusing that I was wearing shorts as he'd never seen me wear them before.

The reason I elected not to call it Mr O's lucky escape is because I did wear a bum bag (a.k.a. fanny pack) around Vegas. Basically I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to look like a cock regardless of what I wear, so it really doesn't matter.

The pictures were taken with a 10 second timer and yes, I was trying to find an appropriate pose. Thought it might add to the knob factor ... but not the Sainsbury knob cheese that Owen found.

It's one thing to lose your AAA credit rating, but seriously, have things got so bad that you'll eat anything?

Trust Mr O to find this wonderful picture.

Today's biology lesson is about testicles. Quite amazing things really, but I've been focused on their ability to self regulate their temperature. Everybody knows the old excuse about coming out of cold water making everything shrink and that's because they try to crawl back into your stomach where it's nice and warm so they can keep at their optimal temperature. It's like the old testes have a draw sting similar to the one you have with window blinds to lift them up and down, they pull them up to get back into the stomach. However, it's the opposite that I've been focused on this last week.

I've had a pretty gnarly fever of over a hundred for a few days due to an infection (that thankfully appears to be gone now). If the old testes have a draw sting that they use to pull themselves up into the stomach, mine have let it out to hang out with my knees for a while due to the temperature I've been running. It's like their down there just chilling out, sunglasses on, sipping a cocktail from a coconut and relaxing in a big old wrinkly hammock.

It's almost freaky though as you kind of have your regular hang level and when you see it somewhat different, it catches you off guard a bit. I found myself automatically cupping them and sort of thinking “hey buddies, you guys OK hanging out all the way down there? .... don't want you to snap nothing or anything like that.” Obviously that's not going to happen, but the thought does occur.

Anyway, as I said, everything back to the same old same old and probably a bit of TMI, but hey!