Random Musings - Day #120

London Bridge
For many years, I had a dream of working in London Bridge (SE1) but it has failed to materialise until today, albeit for one day. The main reason is I can literally hop on a train and get to work in 35 minutes, good times. But there's always a reminder of why I don't like working in London these days. The train was packed from London Bridge (You are better off going from Cannon Street if you can.

My brush with... tallness
...in the form of Jodie Kidd. She was with Capital Radio promoting a share of 15k with vitamin water. I didn't understand why but you should never look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Postcodes
Here's the thought of the day. 90s boyband, East 17 were so-called because it was the postcode of the area they were brought up. But did rave outfit, SL2 originate from Slough? David Brent would be so happy if that were true!

April Fools Wrap-up

Here's what happened when I sent a text out claiming I was moving away with the statement at the end (where you should scroll down or you miss it), saying forward it on to 10-20 strangers or you turn into a pumpkin (i.e. it was a joke).

[NF1]: You loon! lol :-)
[NF1]: PDA phones display differently - gives me the edge hehe
[F1]: No way seriously! I wish you all the best though.
[F1]: I almost believed you. Glad you're not going.
[F2]: OMG! thats mad! I hope u have a great time out there and hope to meet with u again before u go. if not take care.
[F3]: Umm... It is a surprise to me. I will respect your decision and wish you all the best. I might not see you after the end of this month...
[NF2]: Ha ha good one!
[NF3]: Ha. But on the iphone it all shows up at once! Ya don't fool me son!
[F4]: That is a surprise. Will call you and miss you when you go! thats a big decision.
[F4]: (After been told). Hate u! I was despressed when i got that message u were leaving.
[F5]: Really? or April Fools?
[F5]: You prize nutter!
[F6]: What!!! That is a surprise. I have family there. Good luck and please stay in touch.

Note NF = Not Fooled. F = Fooled.

Random Musings - Day #119

Rent a space
I saw an article in the newspaper discussing working from home. Working from home would be ideal but you do get isolated (cabin fever) from the outside and arguably some skills will go stale. So getting into the office, any office is good for social aspect, discussing ideas. Hence the novel idea of renting desk space. This is more suitable for the freelancer. An example can be seen advertised at gumtree and deskspacegenie. A couple of others include: sohodeskspace and rentadesk (not to be confused with Rentaghost).

Cheap tickets
I've done an impersonation of my dad... looking for bargains for the sake of a bargain. lastminute.com brought back their "When it's gone it's gone" special. Once again, tickets were sold out in about 10-15 minutes but this time, I got 4 tickets for a play called Sparrow Heights, which starts on May 12 at the Greenwich Playhouse. It cost 24 quid in all (4 pound booking fee). Now the question is who do I take?
Once again, i'll have a look at Avenue Q for June, as well.

Sobering Times in Bahrain
It looks like Bahrain are pushing for outright ban of alcohol. Some pubs and bars have already closed down as a result much to the anger of this blogger.

Dance
Talking of Greenwich, there is the Greenwich Dance Agency, which also includes yoga as once of its courses available.

UK Singles Chart
Tinchy Stryder Ft N-dubz are the new #1 with the song appropriately called "Number 1" leaving La Roux are denied at #2 and last week's #1 Calivin Harris is at #3.

Lady Go...
Thought of the day, Lady GaGa took her name from the Queen song, "Radio Gaga". It wouldn't be a total surprise if we someone rebrand themselves as Lady Goo Goo as a tribute to Goo Goo Dolls.

Random Musings - Day #118

Vitamins
I've been told having even the one-a-day multivitamins might put over the limit for certain vitamin types. 'Overdose' on certain vitamin types may cause problems. I can understand thinking on this. I was looking at buying omega-3 supplements. There was a standard and high strength. It was same price but there were only 45 high strength capsules whilst there were 100 standard capsules. I thought the standard capsules are better value. More importantly, what would stop me from taking 2 at a time to get the desired high strength dosage. However in each of the bottles, it says that a number of categories meet the GDA (Guidance Daily Allowance not to be confused with Greenwich Dance Agency) Hence taking 2 tablets would mean I'd taken twice the limit.

Insoles
I was disgusted to see how badly marked up the price of insole support for feet are. Nothing less than 23 quid in boots. There are cheaper ones if you can find them.

Sir Ryan Giggs?
There is a site that petitioning for Ryan Giggs to be made a knighthood. Mind you, you can just call him sir anyways, just like Sir Les.

Sore back?
I've got a sore back! I've got some Deep Heat but there is a similar product called Deep Freeze that does the reverse! Salonpas is a patch that gives heat relief to aches as well. Although I don't think it as readily available. Similarly, Ammeltz is similar to Salonpas except it is in roll-on form.
Back to backs! There is some medical advice about sore backs available.

Random Musings - Day #117

Vicks
Apparently you are not supposed to stick vicks up your nose. The reason is that the petrolatum base might accumulate in the lungs and cause inflammation called chemical pneumonitis according to people's pharmacy. Many people including myself have put vicks just on the inside of the nose, just to get the scent. Due to its strong scent, it disguises any nasty surrounding smells. For example, in a morgue as in Silence of the Lambs. There's even a weird sexual use for it but it's not recommended.

Fitness vs Diet
I read in the newspaper that research suggests that fitness should exercise than diet. I would have thought they go hand in hand. I presume the thinking is that at least when you exercise, you are burning off calories. Mind you this is old news

Coconuts
There was a funny picture of an asian taxi carrying a load of coconut husks. It's amazing that the little taxi didn't topple over

Cup Finals
The FA Premiership finishes very late on May 24 and the FA Cup Final is on May 30.
Unusually, the Champions League Final is not the final game of the season as it's on May 27.

London Marathon 2010
I clean forgot about trying to apply for the London Marathon yesterday and now due to traffic, it's unavailable. Highly disappointing. Here's a report

Scotland
I want to try the Caledonian Sleeper from London to various locations in Scotland. But I'd love to go even further up north. Inverness is probably the main city in Highland Scotland. But if you go there, you have to visit all the surrounding areas. I'd go up to Wick. Nearby is the furtherest point on mainland Britain, John O'Groats. That's another 4 hours by train. Then there's the Orkney and Shetland islands.

Random Musings - Day #116

Crazy Golf Championships
This started as a joke when I looked up Hastings and what to do there. One of its features is the World Crazy Golf Championship. I think you do have to be a member of the BMGA (British Mini Golf Association). All I am thinking is I'd love to see Tiger Woods take part one time!

Crazy Dream
I had a dream where I fell off the platform at my train station was laid out on the tracks for a moment. Fortunately, the usual crap train service that there was, no train came to run me over. However, as I got up I got told off by two workmen for being on the track. But one of them did help me back on to the platform.

London Marathon
Ethopian Samuel Wanjiru won the Men's event and German Irina Mikitenko won the Women's event. But it's really all about fun runners and even the celebs. I showed up at the 3-mile point and saw the runners go by. The only famous people, I saw was Peter Andre and hot-looking Katie Price.

Random Musings - Day #115

Family
It's good to catch up with your relatives every once in a while, exchange information and general hang out.

Man Utd's second half revival
Well history repeats itself as Man Utd came back from behind, this time by 5-2 and it all turned around on penalty given that shouldn't have at 0-2.

BTW What's the difference between Alan Shearer and Newcastle? Alan Shearer will be appearing on Match of the Day, next season.

Kimbo Slice
As my cousin said, "His team thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread" Well Kimbo Slice is a real street-fighter from the Bahamas. There's loads of youtube videos littered around of him action.

Horse racing
Now some people might say it is cruel sport, especially if they fall over. But it was absolutely amazing how Tony McCoy managed to get his horse, Hennessy to win from nowhere.

Food and Racism
We made a joke that it's a bit biased and racist to like say green peppers over red peppers. But imagine that being taken the wrong way! Imagine Jamie Oliver get in a scandal preferring red bananas over yellow ones. It's discrimination-like!

London Marathon
That's tomorrow, I was in it and my running-blog. On the way home tonight, I saw a number of Cancer Research people walking along the road in Charlton. I am going to try and get down there tomorrow and have a look.

Random Musings - Day #114

Giselle the Gambler
Not only Giselle is a supermodel, it looks like she's a gambler too. A good one at that because she's reported to have won a million dollars backing Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan.

Hugh Jackman's Apology to chickens
In a TV interview for the movie, X-Men Wolverine, Hugh Jackman agologised for decimating the chicken population largely in part due to the diet of steamed chicken and veg.
Oddly enough discussed about that at work. I need a more high lean protein diet myself. But that does take discipline but distractions like offsite work doesn't help at all. You rely on the food in shops and that's a lucky dip! Also fruit is apparently promotes fat as fruit is naturally high in sugars.

Pub Quiz Machine
Played one of those pub quiz machines whilst at a gig for Red13. Sport is normally my forte but I did get the question about Johann Cruyff and him playing for Barcelona wrong.

Random Musings - Day #113

Today is the often overlooked St George's Day. George is the patron saint of England

Random Musings - Day #112

112
112 are an R&B act from the 90s. 112 is also emergency number used in Europe.

Liverpool II
The main reason why it was difficult to get any hotel the previous night was of course the Liverpool-Arsenal game. In fact I was charged 65 quid for the B&B. I thought it was expensive and not surprisingly in the cafe below, I saw a little poster saying prices from 20 quid. But it was practically the ONLY hotel in Liverpool not fully-booked, so they were probably entitled to do that. Furthermore, I am sure the same problem would have occurred tonight as the WWE are in town tonight!

Random Musings - Day #111

111
111 is apparently the perfect number, it is also 7 in binary... lucky?

Liverpool
I went up north for work and missed my designated train (fortunately, the ticket is saver return and hence can take any off-peak train) by 5 minutes. I badly wished for that train to be late. No. Worse yet, the next train an hour later was late by 40 minutes. So I was waiting well over 90 minutes. Not pleased. It always the case if you miss one train, invariably the next one is either delayed or cancelled.
Because of this I had to franticly find the telephone number of the hotel I was staying at (particularly the last hotel I stayed at, had a check-in time of between 4-8pm). Inconveniently, work didn't supply me the number so I had to look it up on the phone in the end. The hotel was City B&B. I phoned them and fortunately someone would wait for me.
I didn't get to Liverpool until 11pm. The taxi was interesting. I almost freaked him out when I said where I wanted to go to. It was almost as if I asked 'Could you take me to Thamesmead?' from London City Airport! He did take me there and told me the area was a dive! Anyways, it was eerily quiet and yes a bit derelict. Anyhow the hotelier was nice enough. Mind you, he didn't take card, so I had to get some cash but the man was nice enough to escort me to the cashpoint machine in town. So that was cool. He did make a remark (although in a friendly tone) that some guys after football games check in at midnight without forewarning, which luckily enough I did.

Random Musings - Day #110

Britain's got fixed... err Talent
Shaheen Jafargholi appeared on Britain's got Talent and performed in the end two songs. The original song, "Valerie" was actually poorly sung. The kid wasn't sung in time at all and actually Simon Cowell was right to stop him and ask him a second song. He sung "Who's loving you" by Michael Jackson. He nailed it, which makes for good TV.
However, it turns out much to my disappointment that he played Michael Jackson in the musical about him. So I smell a rat... definitely a roust. Even if it wasn't played up for TV, I don't think it's fair that someone like him (no matter how young he is) who has already has had some success in the entertainment business should be allowed to take part in this competition. I've read in the newspaper that he also has been in Torchwood and Casualty. Oh look he's got an IMDB entry. Not impressed!
I really hope Susan Boyle wins... unless she happens to have been singing on behalf of Lesley Garrett or Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

24
Probably a spoiler but we've reached episode 18 of 24/7. There's a huge twist. So if you want to see my thoughts on this, you'll have to highlight the space below.

Tony Almeida kills the head of the FBI department and needs the bioweapon cannister to give to the people he is working for. That is unknown. Also unknown is who is working for. Most people in the forum thinks he's been bad all along. Initially when he turned out to be working with the ex-CTU gang, Bill and Chloe, he admitted his character wasn't 100% clean, which left the way for a turn back to the evil side. I forgot about that particularly as he's been working with Jack Bauer.
Who may be helping him. Janis? Well she's not done anything of any significance. Chloe? She's disappeared. Apparently new character Cara Bowden played by Amy Price-Fisher is going to be a co-conspirator.
However, I am beginning to like the sound of the idea of.... Kim Bauer? Why? Reason #1, She said she has been looking for Jack Bauer, which naturally gives her an excuse to be in the area. Reason #2, Tony asked about Kim, possibly to make sure she is in place. Reason #3 and perhaps the important reason, a decent plot-line for Elisha Cuthbert.

Hull
Along time ago, December 11th 2008, I told my workmates that Hull City would get relegated even though they were in 7th position at the time. Much to everyone's merryment, they won their next game. However look where they are now, 16th and plummeting fast. If only I had the sense to put some money behind it. I think it was like 5/1 at the time.

Random Musings - Day #109

Whatever happened to...
There was an 80s tv police drama, called C.A.T.S eyes, which followed a trio of women. Of course, I remember Jill Gascoine and Leslie Ash. But I also remember Tracy Louise Ward who is Rachel Ward's sister and she starred in the Thorn Birds with Richard Chamberlain. Anyways it turns out the Tracy is these days, the Marchioness of Worcester. Lucky her!

UK Chart
1. I'm not alone - Calvin Harris
2. In for the kill - La Roux
3. Poker face - Lady Gaga

Random Musings - Day #108

108
108th day of the year so let's look at the number 108, Energy 108 was a radio station in the 90s devoted to dance music exclusively, based in Canada. In London, the 108 bus is the only bus that runs through the blackwall tunnel from Lewisham to Stratford.

Random Musings - Day #107

Of all the gin joints...
Of all the places in the world, the NY Times have in their infinite wisdom have decided Deptford is the happening place to be in London.
In similar news, Belvedere maybe the new Afro-Caribbean of the South-east as a new afro-carib pub/hotel/bar is opening next to the station. This is in addition to a West Indian store that opened a year or two.

Twitter's First Millionaire
... is Ashton Kutcher. He now has a million followers. Of course, Ashton is married to Demi Moore and I mentioned she really liked that video of Susan Boyle on Briain's got Talent. I've seen it now. That woman has an amazing voice.

Lady Gaga
It's the first time I've seen her interviewed. She is definitely a bit quirky and quiet at the same time. Jonathan Ross actually did a good job interviewing, getting her to chat a bit. Because initially I feared we could have had a Meg Ryan moment.

Random Musings - Day #106

Technoviking, I know someone that dances like that. Here's video evidence.
Someone was showing me a video of side crow in yoga. It kind of reminds me of a baby freeze in breakdancing circles.

There a hole in South Africa that is a mountain above the green. You can win a million dollars if you get a hole in one. Apparently you would need to drive the ball 500 yards to get it on the green.

Shame that the formidable Sir Clement Freud died yesterday
Yet to check out Susan Boyle who was on Britain's got talent. Even Demi Moore was falling over herself over it

Random Musings - Day #105

Middle of April already. I went down to the driving range and let rip. On the way, heard on the kmfm radio that you could go work for them, well for free on the 'evening republic' show. That's now cheap labour for you!

I should muck around with twitter when I get a free moment.

Random Musings - Day #104

Is it me...?
You can figure out if a web server is down and it's not just you by going to either down for everyone or just me or down or not. This reminds me an old 24 spoiler site called 'isitonyet.net'. Sadly it is no more.

Market Comparisons
Looks like meercats are not the only game in town. There's a Fixture Ferret kicking about too.

Random Musings - Day #103

Street fighter IV has recently come out. And funny enough the Street fighter movie of 1994 starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue was on tonight. It was based on the Street Fighter II. There was one character missing from the movie that was in Street Fighter II game. That's today's quiz question.
Also interesting is that there is Street Fighter movie already out (not released in the UK for some reason).

Random Musings - Day #102

Calvin Harris is the new #1 with I'm not alone. Lady Gaga slips to #2 and Ar Rahman and the Pussycat Dolls stay at #3. Tiger Woods didn't win the US Masters. Angel Cabrera from Argentina won his second major after a three-way playoff.
Easter Sunday been and gone. Neither Heaven nor Hell will what anyone can possibly imagine, irrespective of whether you believe or not. That said, Hell maybe just emptiness, nothing...

Random Musings - Day #101

In the UK, 101 is a phone number use to report non-emergency issues.
I've been watching Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and 24 and vegging pretty much. Well ok I did go out a couple of times.
Did you know Michelle Ryan who guest stars in the latest Doctor Who, knows about the no nonsense Israeli martial art of Krav maga. She mentioned it when she was on the Justin Lee Collins Show

Random Musings - Day #100

100 & Good Friday
It's funny how Good Friday falls on the 100th day of the year.

Random Musings - Day #99

99!
There's a weird wikipedia article on 99. To brits, a 99 is simply an ice cream with a flake bar stuck in it. 99 red balloons is actually better sung in German as 99 luftballoons.
99p is only 1p less than a pound. But shops sell goods at 7.99 than 8.00 because it sounds a lot of cheaper with the significant.

Lincoln IV
Getting there and back from London has been a total lottery. There is a direct train from London to Lincoln but that runs once a day, Monday to Saturday. Using National Rail, to figure out times have been next to useless, as it tries to space 30-40 minutes between connections. You can easily do it in 5 minutes, particularly as connecting trains run on near enough the same platforms. I got home tired and forgot to post!

Random Musings - Day #98

Lincoln III
I've been up and down the Steep Hill a few times. That is one serious hill to get up (takes 5 minutes plus). But it's good to know that i can do that after going to a gym. Tonight is the first night I've ventured south of the railway tracks. I was put off by someone telling me the 'polish' food there sucks. There's a nice looking pub called the Ritz. I flotated up the Brayford Waterfront. There's a cinema and lots of nice restaurant including Nandos. I didn't see Barge on the Brayford, which is popular. The Holiday Inn overlooks the waterfront as well as the university.

BT cables pulled
A serious cable damage incident came about because some idiot/contractor drilled through the fibre optics in south east london. Hence very few people around the area have broadband access at the moment.

Don't swallow
Apparently oral sex is more likely to give you throat cancer than tobacco and alcohol.

Random Musings - Day #97

Lincoln II
It looks like nothing is open at 8am for breakfast. Even though the previous night, I did see cafes offering breakfast. When I cam back this morning to my horror, they were only open at 10am. Short, late, lazy breakfasts!

Chips
Giving chips for lent is not as simple as first thought. Lately, people having been leaving chips because they cannot eat them. I hate seeing chips going to waste. Plus in a pub in Lincoln, you could get a hamburger and chips for 1.95. Cheap as chips!

Random Musings - Day #96

Lincoln
Currently in the Cathedral city of Lincoln. The Cathedral itself is on a hill and fortunately I am staying on the hill at the Bailhouse hotel, which has amongst other things an outdoor heated pool (though I did check it was rather cold) and free wifi. Mind you, my room doesn't some of facilities mentioned on the website (e.g. dvd and tea facilities). The restaurants and cafes in the Bailgate seem upmarket than the ones down the hill in the city centre. In fact there were a couple homeless people sitting outside shops. So quite the variety there. I went and ate at Fourteen and had a lovely soup and sausages/potatoes.

Who is Bill Bailey?
In nearby Nettleham, there is the Bill Bailey Memorial Playing Fields, which is home to non-league Nettleham FC. I was thinking surely this can't be named after the all-round funny guy/troll/klingon Bill Bailey. He's not dead yet. Sure enough, it isn't. Bill Bailey was born in Somerset! Another amazing fact is that Axel Rose is also known as Bill Bailey.

Home Office Porn
The Home Office website had a link to a porn site caused by the fact the external link's domain expired and got bought by a different dubious company.

Solaris
0xdeadbeef (which is can be a hex value if you wish) looks like a good place to gather and demonstrate vulnerabilities with Solaris systems.

Tennis
Looks like Laura Robson may have suitable competition in the years to come in the form of 14 year old Madison Keys won on her WTA debut.

Random Musings - Day #95

Got very drunk last night, tsk. Still feeling the effect. Not sure if my drink got spiked.

Also i notice someone tried to request a password on my poker account. I am always weary when that happens. On the surface, it seems nothing untoward. Unless there is a common way to construct the password... If you request the password over and over again. You may get a pattern.. Interesting I've just done it twice and notice the password starts with 'tmp' and has 9 characters in total.

Weird, I am on a National Express train and yet I feel so swedish (ip address = 217.28.34.132 (nsabfw1.nsab.se).

Funny how Luton won the Johnston Paints Football League Trophy and yet may well not be playing in the football league next season hence unlikely to defend it. At one time those hatters beat the mighty Arsenal in the league cup final of 1988.

Lady Gaga stays at #1 with Pokerface. Noisettes and "Don't Upset The Rhythm" is at #2. Ar Rahman and the pussycat dolls are at #3 with "Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)"

Random Musings - Day #94

Grand National
Well it's the GRand National horse race today. Well in about 5 minutes in fact. I've gone for Offshore Account, Brooklyn Brownie, Himalayian Trail, Southern Vic, Golden Flight and Cerium (that was 500/1;)
...

Random Musings - Day #93

When I last looked the highly touted Europa Gym was still open for business.

Earn money fast by dancing (if male)
It looks like guys can get paid to dance because of so many women wanted to take ballroom dance classes after strict come dancing that they are sans partner. However I would take the article with a pinch of sale because the article was doing the rounds last month as in the evening standard and it looks like the same company, Simply Dance Partners were interviewed.

For your security
There's a useful benchmarking tool for Cisco routers and firewall.
Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) can be used to automagically set up system for specific jobs, e.g. DNS, mail, web, etc and autogenerate a policy for it.
Here's a precursor 'build your firewall rulebase' guide.

Random Musings - Day #92

Just been having a look at next year Trinidad carnival and the dates that will be on Feb 15 and 16, 2010.

Open Source Vulnerability Database (osvdb) gives a comprehensive list of vulnerabilities that there has been.

Random Musings - Day #91

April Fools
April Fools Day is apparently not supposed to be a day long (only last until noon). Played a text joke, where I wrote something drastic but after some carriage returns, state that it was a joke;) The message on most screens chop off the message to read the first part only. However iphone and certain PDA's are immune to this.

Sutherland's about
I watched an interesting show about queens of British Pop. They included Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, Marianne Faithfull, Suzi Quatro, Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush. The mysterious Bush was born in Bexleyheath but now lives in Devon. It's interesting that Donald Sutherland found time in his movie shooting schedule to appear in a couple of Kate Bush videos.