Kind: Articles
Traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body.
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My Mum's Partner Slept With Sarah Michelle Gellar
I've got your attention now.
It's true, but it's not like you'd think. My mum's partner, otherwise known as Andy - or, sometimes, as Slightly Weaseldump - was working in the USA last week and when he was due to fly back his 'plane was cancelled by bad weather. The alternative flight offered would take him … -
Fry's Dog
Remember Jurassic Bark, Futurama series four, episode seven? It's the one in which Fry's dog, Seymour, left in the present-day when Fry gets cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the far future, sits outside the pizza parlour where Fry had worked, waiting for him to return. Turns out it's based on a true (sad) story, … -
Post-BiCon Disasters
It's not all fun and games, though. In fact, it feels like it's going to be one of those weeks.
When I got back from BiCon, I discovered that somehow, in my absence, my fridge/freezer has gotten turned down to the lowest setting, turning it from a chilled box into a room-temperature cupboard, and … -
BiCon 2009
This weekend, I was at BiCon 2009 (my third BiCon - I guess that makes it a tradition), and it was awesome. Here's a short summary of the highs and lows:
Travel
Worcester's closer than I remembered, and - once Claire'd gotten used to the Vauxhall Astra we'd rented - we made good time there and back. … -
Paul Isn't A Murderer
Much thanks to Ruth and Paul for running an awesome murder mystery party last night, and to Rory for snapping some great photos. We played Death By Chocolate, in which American tycoon Billy Bonka had been murdered, but by whom?
[warning: contains spoilers for the Death By Chocolate murder mystery pack]
Most remarkably, it wasn't Paul's … -
Ten Weirdest Sex Toys I've Ever Seen [NSFW]
This was one of my most-popular articles in 2009. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy:
A dirty-looking calendar I found at work (2011).
My beliefs about why it's wrong to lie to children about Santa (2009), complete with pictures of naughty elves.
An argument I had (2011) with the Office of … -
Board Games And Waterfalls
It's been a fun, full weekend. Highlights include:
A good Troma Night
In case you weren't following, Troma Night is on Fridays nowadays. We watched the fantastic 1945 film Brief Encounter, which I'd highly recommend, and Lava, which I wouldn't (although if you do see it, watch 'til the end: it improves, I promise).
Same about the early … -
I Hate My Job [seen online]
I laughed so hard, I had to share this story with you:
My job is so fucking unbelievable. I'll try to sum it up by first telling you about the folks I work with:
First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The … -
My Firefox Window
It didn't occur to me until somebody looked over my shoulder and commented on it, today, that I actually have an at-least slightly unusual layout for my Firefox window. I thought I'd share with you all the thinking behind the particular collection of add-ons and tweaks that go into my day-to-day web browsing:
I'm a big … -
Please Drink This Alcohol-Free Beer Responsibly
Huh? *
How am I expected to irresponsibly enjoy an alcohol-free beer? By selling it to people as "the real stuff"? It's certainly not by drinking it - you'd have to drink somewhere in excess of one-hundred and sixty-seven bottles of Beck's Blue, for example, to get the same amount of alcohol as you'd get in … -
Democracy At Work
Earlier this week, I had a strange experience, but it requires a little bit of back story.
Spend enough time with me, and you'll hear me gripe about the problems of our democracy: the faults of the plurality voting system, gerrymandering and it's long-term ripple effects, party politics, the motivations of politicians, and much more, even … -
Hoghton Tower
Claire and I just got back from a weekend in Preston, taking the opportunity to visit my folks as well as to (as is now traditional) go to the annual "Symphony at the Tower" at Hoghton Tower (which Ruth and I buzzed by hot air balloon on our way back from Scotland, earlier this year).
Highlights … -
Internet Explorer 8 More Popular Than 6
Today is a good day for the web. Internet Explorer 8, which actually has reasonably good standards support, is now more widely-used than Internet Explorer 6, which is horrific to code for (Internet Explorer 7 isn't much better).
It's always been hard to write good quality web sites that work in Internet Explorer 7 and below: … -
A Plague Of Seagulls
This summer, I've been tormented by three beasts, who I'll call Mr. Pecky and Mr. & Mrs. Squawky.
Mr. Pecky is a herring gull. Two or three mornings a week, between about 5:30am and about 6:15am, he'll land on the flat roof of the utility room, outside my bedroom window, and repeatedly peck at his own … -
Claire Goes To Pisa
So, last weekend Claire moved out of The Cottage and into her new flat, the top floor of a somewhat-slanted building on Queen's Road which I've tken to calling Pisa. I gather she's planning a flatwarming party in the afternoon - if you're on the Abnib Events SMS list, you'll already have heard about this, …