People Were Killed?
Nobody told me.

It's all just a game anyway

Day 79: Musik för barn

(to be sung to the tune of "Jolly red nose"):

Nose, nose, jolly red nose
what gave Paolo a jolly red nose
nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and cloves
thats what gave Paolo his jolly red nose

As Paolo has taken to drinking a Tazo Chai during the afternoon I thought I would post the above as most of the ingredients mentioned are containied in his Chai (only the nutmeg is missing - and I did invite him to add some nutmeg as there is a pot of nutmeg on the coffee counter - but he declined).

Bittersweet Symphony
Weekend Report (Belated) - Well, only Sunday really.
I was planning on heading home from gf's to get some stuff done, but since it was a nice day we decided to make the most of it and go enjoy the sunshine somewhere. There were a couple of things to take care of first. Gf and son had to go to Mass, since they are of that persuasion, which runs from 10am to 11am. This was working out fine since gf's car had to go to the garage to get some clunking checked out. So, the solution was there for all to see. I would take the car to the garage while she was attending the Karaoke event. She would have my car, and pick me up shortly after 11. All was right with the world.
Off I went, pretty early, to the garage. Dropped off the car, was to be finished by 2pm. As the time was quite early still, only 10:20 or so, I decided to walk to the nearby park. This was a 15 minute walk and I wasn't sure of directions, but managed to get there okay. There's a pond in the park, so I sat on a bench beside that admiring the surroundings. As I looked over, there were a couple of footbridges painted in a pale blue, and behind that was an area filled with half a dozen different types of trees in various colours. A pretty neat situation to be in really, very picturesque. A couple of ducks flew overhead, and then a couple of pigeons landed mere feet in front of me and proceeded to go into some mating ritual which involved a rotating dance with necks entwined, followed by touching beaks in what only can be described as a kiss. The male (presumably) then jumped on the female's back, at which point they flew away together. Although this was probably the female changing her mind, I was quite pleased since this avoided watching the sordid business and allowed me to just concentrate on the beauty of nature.
I realized at this point that I was a victim of the Playstation generation. Us 80's kids have been indoctrinated into requiring constant sensory input to avoid boredom. As I was watching the scene unfold, I was thinking how much better it would be if the ducks were fighting, and when a duck won a fight they would get an weapon upgrade, and you'd see the hardest duck that had been there for years, with it's laser beam generator attached to the side. And the ducks could shoot bigger animals and steal their bodies.
Anyway, I decided to walk to the edge of the park in anticipation of gf arriving. It was just after 11 now, so she was going to phone and see if I'd maybe got finished at the garage and headed home. So, near the exit, phone went. "Hello", said I, in my cheerful, fulfilled mood, "How are ya?". Tears were the response. As all sorts of things were in my mind for what could be wrong, and the feeling of dread hit the pit of my stomach, I gently but firmly asked what was wrong. Apparently my car had been broken into whilst parked outside the Chapel. Some junkie monkey had smashed the passenger window, ripped out the stereo, damaging the dashboard as much as possible in the process.
As I tried to tell her everything was okay and figure out how to get back, given that two cars were now effectively off the road, the phone was going. She was calmed down a bit now, and I'd organised a lift, so took the other call. "We've got a system down" was the message waiting, "Can you do something about it?".
Sometimes you wonder if real life has realized you're enjoying yourself and decided to kick you in the nuts.

Referential Integrity
So, probably more suited to TF, but let's have a look at this nonetheless.
While we're in the middle of ostracizing our military operations for not behaving in a way acceptable to our common sensibilities, such as pissing on inmates and killing kids, its becoming clear that our media is there protecting the Geneva Convention and making sure any contravention is reported.
Oh, wait, that was last week. This week the media is the enemy, they lie and are caught out by profit seekers due to their quest for the latest scoop.
No, wait, it's actually the Brits that are good, the media is fine, it's just the Americans that are bad.
Ah, bollocks, as it turns out, we might be the bad guys too.
Luckily our government is here and will sort it all out, just as soon as it finds out about it.

Fortunately, our "special relationship" will not be affected

I give up.

Okay gmail users - bit of a phishing alert.

I got an email offering unlimited invitations


Gmail Team
to me
More options 3:11am (7 hours ago)
Dear Beta Tester,


We are glad to bring you some new features to enhance your beta testing experience here at Gmail. Some of these features include:

� Checking your e-mail via telephone, anywhere in the world.

� A simple, easy to use spam manager where you can filter almost any kind of unwanted e-mail.

� Ability to create unlimited invite codes for all of your friends, so that they may too experience the wide range of diversity of Gmail.



We are proud to announce that all of these features are now available to current beta testers. Unfortunately, we will not be offering these services to members that receive an invitation from this special service. You can activate these features anytime by visiting http://activate.gmail.com/

We encourage you to send your feedback, suggestions and questions to us. But mostly, we hope you'll enjoy experimenting with Google's approach to email.

Speedy Delivery,

The Gmail Team


Unfotunately, this is just a phishing exercise to steal gmail accounts.

Did I fall for it?

Umm, yes - the lure of unlimited accounts was just too much.

It did lock out my account, but a quick secret question and I was back in, and changing the password.

I'd assume it's an automated password change, every time I log in now I need to type a .gif word from the screen, since the hackers are obviously auto-logging in and locking the account (kinda).

Altogether, pretty neat code, email is in good english, web page looks good. Good phish by offering the gold plated invitations to us greedy webbers.

If you see my account on ebay, it wasn't me!

The first bite is with the eye
Sometimes I'm in the mood for a dessert after lunch. I do, however, have some things that I just don't like such as rhubarb (Spawn of the Devil) and Banana Cake/Loaf (Too close to fruit for my liking).
So. My invention today was. Take 1 Mars Bar(tm), regular size. 1 Bowl of tepid lumpy custard. Slice the Mars Bar in half longways, then lengthways. Take two sections of the prepared Mars Bar and place in custard, retaining the rest of the Mars Bar for a friend. In my case, I don't have friends, so I ate it.
It is quite sickly, and I would only recommend it in the face of these adverse conditions where you NEED a dessert and no palatable alternative exists. So, emergency use only.
Oh, for the perfect dessert, remove as many of the lumps as you can.
Or get Apple Caramel Crumble with Custard from another source *droooool*
Hope this helps,
A