Christmas Badgers

It's the last day of September today. Can't believe how fast the year has gone so far... Mini-MaFt is almost four months old, I've been in this job, and by far my favourite, for over five months and it'll soon be Christmas!

It's Christmas now according to the few high street stores that have started their Christmas displays - and I'm sure there'll be more of them soon too. However, I'm not going to waste a whole post talking about how early shops get their Christmas stuff out cos no doubt if you click on the 'Next Blog' button there'll be a plethora of such posts. So I'm gonna be different and talk about Badgers.

Badgers are cute anaimals that live in the wild in Britain - they tend to hide away and only come out to be hunted. In my whole 25 years of life I've only seen one badger; it was dead on the side of the road somewhere in Kent.

There are three types of badger as high-lighted below:

1: Solid Badgers

Solid badgers tend to live in forests in houses that they call 'sets'

2: Liquid Badgers

Liquid Badgers are much more healthy - you don't get the fur stuck in your teeth and they make you feel all nice and friendly after a few

3: Gas Badgers
Gas Badgers are quite excitable and it's hard to find a photo of them in their natural state. They live near mushrooms and can be seen in action on this web site

Have a good weekend!

MaFt

Sandwiches? Everyone Likes Sandwiches

Barnze: Here's a bit of trumpet-punk for ya: Five Iron Frenzy - "At Least I'm Not Like All Those Other Old Guys"

So, last night after Steve-The-Builder had left we snuck/snook/sneeked (what the hell is the past tense of the verb 'to sneek'?) anyway, we went up to the attic with the aid of Steve-The-Builders ladder which he had mistakenly left behind. Thankfully, he wasn't growing weed in our attic, or any other illicit substances either. However, there were the bodies of three children that have been missing since 1944. They're not in a good state, as you'd probably expect. We assumed he was going to hide them behind the plasterboard so no one would ever find them but then they suddenly lifted their heads up, stared at us (we could see down their eyes into the darkest depths of hell itself) then disappeared with a puff. I have no idea why Steve-The-Builder also kept a puff in our attic - I presume to blow the dust away when he's cutting up bodies, ahem... i mean boards. So, it turned out to be a wonderful trick of the light through the new Velux window. If only Scooby and Scrappy had been around, they'd have twigged soon enough.

MaFt

The preceding post contained scenes of mild peril and should not have been read by small children. It may have contained some untruths too. Maybe.

Five Iron Frenzy

Even though they split up ages ago, Five Iron Frenzy are currently my favourite band. I've been listening to them on my mp3 player non-stop for the last 3 days now... Check them out if you like a bit of perky ska-punk, along with the singers new band: Roper

MaFt

HERE ME NOW!

Hello. Nothing really to report other than I left Thunderbird sending a big email this morning and forgot to close it (Norton takes ages scanning outgoing emails with big attachments so I had to leave it for a while). No big problem really, just means I can't check my email online cos whenever there's a new one it'll get downloaded straight away! Doh!

Last night I went for a curry after work with Leon (aka Tyke from Barnsley), Dave (aka DTN from Lancaster) and Thea (from Holland). It was very nice, and cool to meet Thea (never seen her before, she was staying with Tyke for the week) and good to catch up with Tyke who I've not seen since going to see Bowling For Soup last year! After curry we then went back to our for a bit to play with the cats before they went to a gig in Manchester.

So there, that's it! Boring eh?! Hopefully there'll be more news on the attic upgrade but Steve-The-Builder took the ladder down and we can't get up to see. Hope he's not growing weed or carrying out any other illegal hobbies while we can't check up on him...

Happy Birthdays to Mr-A and Dad - 27 and 59 respectively.

MaFt

i First, u Last

iFirstAid

This is quite a cool idea - you can download mp3 files from St John Ambulance to use on your mp3 player that tell you how to administer various types of first aid.

Nice idea in theory, but if I was lying damaged in the road and some random person came along to help me I'd expect them to have a bit more knowledge than "Oh, I downloaded my first aid skills from the internet". I can just see them listening to the instructions while carrying out the first aid - rather than actually learning it beforehand. I'm doing a St John Ambulance first aid course in October so I might just tell them I'll download the instructions and have four days off work instead...

Put my life in the hands of some iPod fashion victim? I'd rather eat a tomato...

MaFt

PS - I don't like tomatoes

Mmmm, Pie!

This is suitable material for an episode of 'Weebl and Bob' - all about pi(e)

Clicky here

MaFt

Just Wondering...

My brother, Mr-A, told me recently that he feels obliged to read my blog cos he has Thunderbird set up to use the rss feed and it pops up everytime I post.

So, this is basically just an open question: do you still feel obliged to read? Even after posting the 'super hero' photo?

MaFt

(Worm) Holes

We have a bloody great big hole in our landing wall. Our perfectly good landing wall. A hole... This is now the point of no return in "The Great Attic Conversion". Apologies for the naff quality of the photo but I still haven't turned my PC on yet so I emailed this from my phone:


The Hole

A great thing about Blogger is that you can, if you so desire, set the date and time of the post to whatever you want. Useful for when you're doing a 'learning a new thing everyday' blog and you forgot to post one day... ;) So, just to make you aware I have now got my hands on a time machine and am writing this from the future. The future isn't actually orange - it's pretty much the same but you've all aged more than me. However, to avoid drawing attention to myself I've decided to set Blogger to use 'Old Time' dates (that's what we call 'The Past' here - we're so crazy in future world) so no one will ever know.

Take care back there in Old Time.

MaFt (the capital 'F' is for Future)

Gone Phishing

Dunno why but I decided to follow up on one of those "Your PayPal account needs updating" spoof's. They certainly look the part. Just write any old bollocks in the sign in page and you get asked to input the following:

"Update Your Paypal Account:
Enter Your Information

Your Address Information - Begin building your profile by entering your name and address as you have it listed for your credit card or bank account.

First Name:
Last Name:

Address 1:
Address 2:
(optional)
City:
State:
ZIP Code: (5 or 9 digits)
Country:

Home Telephone:

Work Telephone:
(optional)

Credit Card - Update your credit card for your security

Name on Credit Card:
Card Type :
Number on Credit Crad:
Expiration Date:
Card Verification Number:
PIN: (Why is your PIN required?)
Bank Routing Number:
Bank Account Number:
Mother's Maiden Name:
Social Security Number: "

Why would anyone fill this out? I mean, there must be some people that do else the spoofers wouldn't carry on!

The bit that made me laugh most was when you click the "Why is your pin required" link it gives you this:

"Why is your PIN required?

From December 10th 2004 PayPal requires your Personal Identification Number. This is the latest security measure against: identity theft, credit card fraud and unauthorized account access. PayPal will verify it with your bank records for your own protection.

If you provide a wrong PIN your account will be suspended for unauthorized account access. Due our latest security improvements PayPal became a global leader in online payments."

How cheeky are these people...?

MaFt

Windows

No, I'm not on a mission from Microsoft, but just telling my dear readers that we now have a window in the attic. However, Steve-The-Builder has removed the loft ladder so I couldn't get up to see what else he did yesterday... I'd also post some photo's of the work so far but my computer is turned off ready for when he starts knocking walls down and has to switch off the electrics.

I hate turning my computer off! It freaks me out every time! I don't know why though, I think I just got used to it being on all the time and panic that it won't start up again later on... If I had wood I'd touch it (that sounds a bit rude) in the hope that it will assist in restoring power to my PC. Question for you: where does the phrase 'touch wood' come from? I could google it but can't be bothered - today I want the moon on a stick.

Take care

MaFt

Sleeptastic

At half past 18pm in the evening last night I went to lie down for half an hour with Mini-MaFt. Next thing I knew Mrs-MaFt was waking me up and saying "It's quarter-to-ten", "really?", "Yes".

My first thought was "I have never been this late for work..." and then it slowly dawned on me that it was 9:45pm not am and I was still fully clothed! Bizarre. Still, At least I caught up on a bit of sleep!

MaFt

It Begins

Well, Steve-The-Builder made a start. He pulled up all the old bits of flooring (and after all my hard work!) and cut a hole in the roof to bring in a 17 foot long piece of timber for the new floor. Along with that and a bunch of other bits of timber he's pretty much built a new frame for the new floor to sit on - the new level floor that doesn't slope down 5 inches across 10 feet!

The royal family came around again the other day and King Bli made use of my scanner (his being from 1825 and encorporating ye olde scsieee thus meaning it couldn't be used on his fancy little shuttle system). He was scanning in some pencil drawings (him being an artist and all that) which looked pretty impressive, I may upload one or two small versions of them, particularly the dragon/dinosaur thingy one... I'll get permission first though (either cos I'm nice, or stupid).

Mini-MaFt's in his own bedroom now, this is ace cos it means he now manages to sleep through from about 9pm until 7am - no more tired MaFt & Mrs-MaFt! Huzzah!

Ta-ra for now

MaFt

Delays Already!

In true builder-style, Steve-The-Builder has delayed starting out attic by one day. It could have been worse though - he could have come early! I didn't manage to clear everything out of the attic last night... According to Steve-The-Builder he'll be sorting out the Velux window as his first job.

We'll see how it goes! Nothing much else to report I'm afraid!

MaFt

Final Preperations

Well, tomorrow is Day 1 of 'The Great Attic Conversion'. Well, not really a conversion, it's still going to be an attic, just a nicely re-floored and boarded out attic in which we can keep things that won't fall through the ceiling into the bed. I still have a few bits to remove before Steve The Builder makes a start - namely the drawers, shelves, spare roll of carpet, spare laminate flooring, the dartboard/backboard, the chair and a bunch of other odd little bits. Tonight will be quite busy...

I'm hungry now so I'm off for some food. Then we get champagne and nibbles this afternoon - this was cool to hear this morning as I thought it was Friday and not today! Depending how generous they are I may be pushing my bike home tonight!

MaFt

PS - be kind to the cats

Dedication Weekend

Friday: Jim arrived and we went to see The Chucky NoSTARS and Fineapple at Rio's. A reasonable number of pints were drunk and had a great night. Oh, and Jim spilled his pint on the merch desk... doh!

Saturday: Did some shopping with Mrs-MaFt, mini-MaFt and Jim. Forget to get my watch strap fixed which had snapped a few days before (I'm currently using my posh 'going out' watch - just don't want to knacker it!). Dave The Nut arrived early evening and we stayed in listening to music, watching The Toy Dolls live DVD and chilling out with some beers. Oh, and Jim spilled his beer on the table/floor... doh!

Sunday: 00:03 I picked up Mr & Mrs Shoetree from Bradford interchange and droppped them off at my mum and dad's seeing as our house was full!

Sunday: In the real morning, we got ready after bacon butties for breakfast and put mini-MaFt in his Dedication outfit (it was actually a Christening outfit but no one knew the difference ;) ). Had the dedication service, the church was packed (about 80 or 90 extra people in there!) then went to the pub for food and drinks. All my mates finally went home and we got to oopen lots of presents on behalf of mini-MaFt. My personal favourite was the signed drum head from The Toy Dolls :)

Well, that was my weekend, how was yours?

MaFt

PS - sorry it's a bit rushed but we've got some psycho dentists drilling into the roof at work for some stupid reason. It's stupidly loud and really annoying! I'm outta here for some toast.

Wahey!

We (Nektar) got recommended: Inhaler may replace insulin shots

MaFt

You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys

I wish I was a monkey.

Bag of Peanuts = 50p. A monkey could easily get through a bag of peanuts in under a minute, let's say 50 seconds for the sake of argument. So that's 72 bags of peanuts per hour or cash equivalent - £36 an hour. I wouldn't say no to that.

I wish I was a monkey.

And, in other news, everyone here at work is eagerly awaiting the results of an advisory committee for the FDA with regards to the release of Exubera - the world's first inhalable insulin. Fingers crossed - let's hope they give it a "yes". Even then though, the FDA would have to formally approve it for sale.


Monkey? I can only wish...

MaFt

The Last Sweet

Don't you just love it when you screw up an empty bag of sweets and then realise there's actually one more cola bottle in there? Bliss!

MaFt

Helpful Heroin (H)addicts

I never though I'd say this but I'm happy that prices for drugs have gone down to as little as 50p for ecstasy and £5 for a party pack of crack and heroin (see here).

Why am I happy? well, with drugs that cheap they won't need to break into as many houses or cars to fuel their habit. If all drugs were two-for-one then we would halve crime in Britain. I should be an MP, do ya think?

MaFt

Sorry...

OK, so apologies for not being here for quite a few days! I've been redesigning Mini-MaFt's website which took longer than I thought it would.

We got one of them-there GPS Sat Nav thingy's for the car - what a great invention! Now I can't get lost so long as I know before-hand where I'm going to. And even if I don't know where I'm going it'll tell me where I am. What made it handier was when I added the locations of 7129 speed cameras and traffic light cameras to it from a site I found called Pocket GPS World.

That's about it really, got a music practice tonight to go through the songs for the service for Mini-MaFt's dedication next Sunday and that's all for now!

You shall no doubt be hearing about my GPS escapades some time in the future, but for now you'll have to make do with the mundane things of my day-to-day life...

MaFt

Banjo Boxer

We got one of them George Formby grills yesterday. It's great, you put your chicken in and it sings "When I'm Cleaning Windows" while it cooks. Shame it only has that one song cos I can see it getting annoying after a while. However, it does have a USB port so I can connect it up and put some new music on it. Maybe a spot of "Happy Go Lucky Me" will be less annoying after a while? It's sure as hell better than those George Foreman ones. I mean, who wants to be punched in the face while you're cooking your steaks?


The George Formbyman Grill

MaFt