cha0tic stuff

OK my last entry gave you too much information about the effects of the Chinese I had last week.

It's caused me problems, besides the obvious. The fact that I lost my voice meant it was difficult to 'phone people about work, but I dealt with it & managed most of the calls I needed to make via text. Except having to deal with the muppets that can't reply via text & felt they had to ring back in reply to my texts.

Feeling crap meant that I didn't send some e-mails I should've sent. Yes. It kept lil' ol' net junky me off line. Sitting in front of the 'puter was too much like hard work compared to lying in bed moaning over a bucket.

Once I'd recovered a bit & could make calls there were a couple of people that suggested I should ring the Environmental health people & report the takeaway.

Dilemma. The problem might've been caused by a pasty I had from the station, it might've been caused by the food I had from the Chinese. There was no real way to tell.

Well. I could've sent the food container from the Chinese off to the environmental health people. This could've led to them closing down the Chinese. The Chinese which is 3 minutes walk away from my local & my flat. If that got shut down The next nearest Chinese is 15 minutes walk away. You can see the problem.

More book related stuff, you're all probably aware of, but it's new to me. Or I forgot I'd heard about it. Bookcrossing.com a way to make giving books away more interesting. It's similar to Where' George? in that it's an 'item released into the wild' tracking site. The idea is that you leave books in public places or donate them to charity shops. The books are given a Book Crossing ID number (BCID) which you mark in the book with some explanatory text as to what the number is about & the address of the the Web site The finder of the book then goes online & lets the you know that they've found your book.

OK the finder might not play the game, ahh well. It's a way to make giving away books more interesting & as I have to get rid of some books to claw back some space in this squalid little flat. I may as well turn it into a bit of fun. I'll be doing it the cheap way² to start with. Printing out the labels with the BCID & an explanation. I'll probably get a stamp later. It's still not going to be easy giving books away though.

1-This refers to an old joke about a duck that walks into a library, walks up to the counter & says "Books books, Books, books." (Said like a duck quacking) I'd be greatful if anyone can remember the rest of the joke for me though. My minds gone blank.

2-The Site sells bookplates stamps etc. to put in the books you 'release'. You don't have to buy them though to take part.

As you may or may not know. I spend a lot of time online. It's one of my hobbies, it's what I do of an evening instead of watching the telly. Because of this I find a lot of weird & wonderful stuff. Often I've been looking for something else & I'll end up on a completely different subject, due to following links off. Sometimes I'll be listening to the Radio as I mooch about online & wonder about something they mention. Google gets fired up & I'm off on a weird & wonderful exploration. Other times nice people online have links to stuff that catches my eye.

This afternoon I was reading a blog about Mooncups. I know. We've mentioned them before. People that comment on blogs is a good way of finding interesting new blogs. So I started checking the links. Some of the Commentors didn't have links, but one of them had put her E-mail address. Smudgepuss. That can't be a real name, I wonder if she has a blog named that? Google.

Hmm there is a Blog named that. But what's this top result here? A librarything.com User page My dilettantes' mind is side tracked.

What's this librarything about then?

Read read read. Oooh sounds good. Especially as you can access it from your mobile phone interweb thingy. This will be useful for me when I'm in a book shop. To prevent me buying a book again & spending my money on a new book, rather than a duplicate. Hopefully it'll also help me chuck some books out clear some space in the flat, by gettting rid of some books that I've read, but knowing what I've read.

You sign up (as usual) & then start inputting your books. There is a whole load of social networking stuff as well. The ability to nose at other peoples book collections & see who reads what you read. The free version lets you input up to 200 books. Or you can pay $10 a year for a subscription Or $25 for a lifetime membership. This seems like a good deal. You can also send memberships as gifts. looks like I've sorted a couple of Birthday gifts with this site :)

Oooh I need a pee. Oooh I need a pee. Oooh I need a pee.
*dash to the loo*
Ahhhhhhhh. The exquisite Relief...
...URKKH!
"What the fuck is that in the bottom of the bowl?"
Worry & wonder as the unstoppable flow gushes forth.
*Finish peeing*
"Oh my god, what the fuck is that?"
*Peers into the depths of the bowl, moves around so own shadow doesn't shade the contents settled there*
"It looks like... I dunno what?"
"It looks like... Worms, maggots, some new form of lime scale?"
*Remembers*
"OH, thank fuck for that! It's rice. I tipped the remains of the rice from saucepan into the loo before I washed the pan."
*Flush*
"Ah. Look it's gone. Phew"

I have 16 Strawberries, 1 Banana, 1 Orange, 18 Grapes & 1 apple inside me. This is because I have drunk half of a bottle of Smoothie that claims to contain 32 Strawberries, 2 Bananas, 2 Oranges, 36 Grapes & 2 apples.

I wonder how many apples there are in a pint of cider and does that count as a portion of my fruit & vegetables for the day? :)

Just the one show this week & after 3 days of January Blues Square eyed hibernating I was ready to hit the office, whilst The Crew did their thing with Trucks, flight cases & Black Boxes.

Ahh. The best laid plans of Mice & Men often go completely tits up.

A phone call from the promoters Rep. His car has two flat tyres, could I pick up a bit of shopping so the the touring crew get Tea, Coffee & some breakfast. OK, shouldn't take long.

Arrive at the venue with the shopping &... The dressing rooms aren't unlocked & any of the people that could get me a kettle aren't in work yet. AAARRGGHH. OK. Phone call, phone call, phone call. DIck about. Sorted.

Right off to the office. Hmm, the mood has left me. OK an hour round The Sales & back to the office. Phone Call...

"The Motorway is rubbish. I'm going to be later. Can you get me this shopping list of stuff please?"

OK. I can deal with that. So I take dictation of the shopping list over the phone. Doesn't sound too bad. Grab one of the crew to give me a hand & drive me there. Head off to Sainsburys, as I know that some of the stuff on the list isn't available in the walk-to-able Tescos. The Tescos I know the layout of really really well. As that's were I normally shop & the Rep' mentioned Sainsburys as the place to go. He does this shit all the time, so he must know that they've got the stuff on the list.

*SIGH*

Yes they have got all the stuff on the list. But. It's spread all over the store in relation to the list. The List starts something like, Bread things, Spread things (Olive spread & Spreadable butter), Wine, Bottle of Vodka, Runny Honey, Branston, Mayo, Sliced Meats, Cheese, Fruit. yadda yadda yadda. All Stuff that bands like to be ready & waiting for them in their dressing room 1

It's a strange Supermarket to me, so I'm not completely au fait with the layout. Yeah I know the Fruit & Vege tends to be the first thing you see when you walk into a Supermarket.2 They aren't the first thing on the list though. This means I have to wander back & forth across the store in a really inefficient manner, looking for the things on the list. 3Plus I've done this sort of shopping trip before. You buy the stores basics range & the Rep whinges at you. Because he knows the band are going to whinge at him. No band like to see the cheap stuff in their dressing room. It reduces their status in their own eyes. So you buy the brand name stuff & then the Rep whinges at you because of how much it's cost in relation to their budget. Talk about being caught between a rock & a hard place.

Anyway. I get the stuff back to the gig & a whole load of other petty stuff comes into play that I really don't need to bore you with. I assume I've got away with it, but by now, the urge to do the office shit has fled. I'll just have to get in earlier tomorrow & sort it then. I'm off for a pint, as I've got time before a couple of blokes turn up for some wages they're owed. What's the point of going home now? None. I'll just do a bill & bugger off later.

OK, a whingey entry. Mostly because it wasn't what I'd had planned for the day, but we're a service industry, so we "Make it so". If I'd known it was going to turn out like that I would've just got one of our 'runners' in. Someone who does this shit all the time.

So. How did my day come good? I knew what I'd bought & where I'd put it. I also know how bands behave. So once they'd gone I hit the dressing rooms & ended up with a ruck of cheese they hadn't touched, sliced meat they hadn't touched, most of a jar of coffee, untouched honey, untouched Branston, untouched Mayo. Basically a shit load of free food. All of the type I don't normally buy. I am in butties for the next week. All I have to do is get the bread.

OK I realise It sounds really scabby. Living on someone elses leavings, but such is the wasteful nature of the beast called 'The Music Industry' I have no qualms about foraging on its left overs. My upbringing taught me to abhor waste, my student life taught me the value of foraging. Yeah. Free stuff is cool.

 

 

1-There is a whole series of posts about this sort of crap. I'll get round to it one day. Red M&Ms taken out of the bowl is just the half of it. I have seen "This breads to small" moments cf "Spinal Tap" with my own eyes.
2-I have heard two theories as to way this is so. The first is that you walk into all that fresh, real food produce & it makes you feel good about the store. The second & more prosaic theory, is that Fruit & Vege have a high bulk to value ratio. This means they are placed near the door so any ne'r do wells that are thinking of dashing in, grabbing some stuff & rushing out only get away with heavy, low cost stuff. If the Spirits were near the door they could bugger off with 5 bottles of Premium spirits & have over a hundred quids worth of stuff. I dunno. Let me know which is true if you work in a Supermarket.
3-This then got me to thinking. Wouldn't it be nice to have a piece of software, maybe on your phone, that you could punch your shopping list into. In the normal way that people think about what they need<P>"Oooh I need some toilet Roll, A Sponge cake, Bread, Broccoli, Coffee, Tea, Cheese, Milk, Jam. etc."<P>The Software would reorder your list so you could just zig zag round the store. Up aisle 1, down aisle 2, round the corner into 3, back round into 4 etc. picking up the stuff in the right order. Ahhh. No supermarket is going to do that, as you wouldn't be wandering round looking for the Marmite & pass the Angel Delight & think."Yum. I've not had Angel Delight for a while, let's just throw one of those in the trolley as well. Oooh Now I need more milk. I'll have to go back past all this stuff again & maybe throw more nonsense in the trolley I don't really need, but that's caught my eye."
 

Over Christmas whilst staying with My Country Xmas Host (CXH) I watched a lot of TV. Recorded on his clever Hard Drive recording machine thing. A lot of 'Family Guy', which I'd not seen before & found very funny. Plus selected episodes of 'Dr Who' so I could get the whole of the Cybermen storyline. It was great to be able to watch episode straight after episode & just enjoy the whole story.

It being the quiet time of year for our work I've become nocturnal, sort of hibernating & square eyed. The amazing internet has provided me with Crafty TV & Peek Vid I've watched whole seasons of 'Torchwood.' Caught the 'Dr Who' episode where Torchwood is set up, so know why The Doctor is an enemy of the state referred to in another episode.

I've also watched three series of 'Black Books' as Lil' Sis' said it was worth watching (It is) I do like The Misanthropy of the Shop owner & the realistic amount of drinking & smoking.

Finally I watched a whole season of a programme called 'Heroes', which I think if I'd watched week by week I would've rapidly been bored by, but watching the whole thing in one go it made sense & was pretty good. I do need to find out about the Nuclear bomb now though.

I'm almost tempted to get a TV now, but I'd need a clever Hard Disc recording thingy to go with it, so I could just tape a series, then watch the whole thing all in one go, once it was finished. Nah. I think I'll just keep trawling round the interweb.

In other news, I'm just about starting to get used to the fact that on the Mac, your menu options are at the top of the screen, not at the top of the window.