More Spaces Than Ever Before

Most people who chat to me via MSN will probably be able to tell you that my keyboard sucks. The space bar tends to be a bit reluctant to do any work so you would quite often have to decipherwhatexactlyiwastyping! However, Mrs-MaFt bought me a shiny new keyboard for Christmas (amongst other things) with, wait for it, a fully functioing space-bar! The possibilities are endless!!

See ya

MaFt

More Daftness

I'm sure that old-age is making me lose my mind. I mean, 26 years old IS pretty old really - I'm probably a third of the way through my whole life...

I did another stupid thing yesterday although not quite as girly as being scared of a spider! I was hoovering up in the lounge (ok, maybe it IS as girly...) and there was a big bit of stuff on the floor. The hoover didn't pick it up first time so I tried reversing over it, you know, just to make sure. It still didn't manage to suck it up into the spiders new abode. So I tried again, both going forward and in reverse. Still no luck.

So what did I do? I bent down to pick up this bit of stuff to make sure that it wasn't stuck in the carpet and after confirming that it wasn't stuck in the carpet I put it back on the floor and tried to hoover it up again. Why I didn't just put it in the bin when I'd picked it up I have no idea... Perhaps it was just to make sure the hoover was really working, perhaps I'm just daft... It can't only be me that does it, surely?!


Her With The Hoover

DaFt (my new name?!)

Spider!

T'other day, while I was tidying the cellar head and generally sorting out a mass of tools and junk that had been dumped there over the last few months or so, I came across one of these:



OK, it wasn't quite as cartoony as that, but artistic license allows me to use such images. I'm not a big fan of anything that creeps and crawls unless I can easily destroy it with a something the size of a BIC Pen - so this one was out of my league as it had a span of about 15mm; far greater than the preferred method of destruction. In my panicy wisdom I resorted to vacuuming the little blighter up. Problem solved, and how easy was that?!

It wasn't until later on that evening that I realised the spider could simply crawl back out of the bag/hose once I had switched it on... So much for my wonderful plan! It's amazing how thick we can be when we panic about something so pathetic as a spider.

MaFt

A Decade Has Passed!

Well, 10 days rather than 10 years... I'm still dead busy hence my complete lack of Blogness! But all is almost done! PW2 went really well and the decorating at the Mother-In-Laws is coming to a close. Once that's done I can get cracking on all the video editing that has been building up since Summer 2005...

That's about it really, nothing of interest has happened! I'll try make the blog a bit more interesting in the near future too!

MaFt

So Much To Do!

Both Mini-MaFt and Mrs-MaFt are ill... great... puke and poo everywhere! Seriously!

It has just dawned on me how much I need to get done this week! Not only have I work to do but I also need to get some decorating done at the In-Laws. Then on top of that, tomorrow night we're off to St Georges Hall in Bradford to see 'Love So Amazing 2' - a collection of modern worship stuff. Mum and Dad are singing so we're off to support them. Ro, Punk Worship bassist, is operating the projector for the night so he's gonna spam it with PW2 adverts so I'll have to get a photo of our massive promo!

I also need to get the laptop's prepared for various events at church this week: Thursday is Brigades Christmas event, Saturday is PW2 and Sunday I'm on the rota to project the normal worship service... Thing is, I can't get hold of the church laptop until Wednesday and I'm STILL waiting for people to send me what they want putting on it!

So, that's about all!

See ya

MaFt

Mini-Mrs-MaFt

Those who are a bit more alert may have noticed that for a while the sub-title for the blog has said "... dad of one (and another one on the way)..."

Well, here's the other one:



She's due May 1st 2007 :) We're well chuffed!

MaFt

Beat The System!

It's December tomorrow and that means Mrs-MaFt will soon be demanding I get the step-ladders out and risk life and limb balancing on them with Mini-MaFt running underneath me getting the Christmas Decorations up.

The Mother-in-Law has been sorting through their lights and all that lot over the last few days and found that most of them don't work - most of which they only bought last year. However, they bought them at the wrong time.

It got me thinking that if you don't mind having your decorations put up a week or so late every other year then you can beat the warranty system and show the big light companies that "you're the man". Well, here's my great money saving idea:

December 20th 2006: buy new Christmas lights with 12-month warranty. Put them up, get drunk and enjoy Christmas.

December 10th 2007: put your decorations up a bit earlier and if they don't work then they are still within their 12-month warranty period and you get them replaced. If they do work, then great, you've not lost out on anything!

For the following years: if you need new decorations then get them as late as possible to ensure you have some time left in your warranty to get them replaced the following year if things go wrong.

Dead simple isn't it? I have far too much time to think...

MaFt

Punk Rock 101

"It's stupid, contagious
To be broke and famous
Can someone please save us from punk rock 101
My Dickies, your sweat bands
My spiked hair, your new Vans
Let's throw up our rock hands for punk rock 101"
'Punk Rock 101' - Bowling For Soup

I had a message via MySpazz yesterday saying how the Punk Workshop I was running sounded like a great idea and this guy was going to try get some of his friends to come along.

Now, hopefully, it was a simple typo that was supposed to read 'Punk Worship' and the poor lad wasn't actually expecting a workshop on how to be punk...

In case I am actually mistaken and he WAS wanting a punk workshop then below is my quick guide on how to be punk depending on your age:


Young Punk:

• ensure your wardrobe consists solely of: atticus, lowlife, vans or black clothing
• deny you are 'emo'
• slag Green Day off for 'selling out' after releasing [insert any Green Day album title here]
• listen only to the latest 'cool' bands
• claim loudly that [insert last week's 'cool' band here] have sold out because they got radio airplay
• only go to see your mates bands and download their cd instead of supporting them
• have a MySpace page with your friends made up of bands you've never seen and your school chums
• explain to everyone that being 'punk' is about not following fashions and thinking for yourself then go around dressing the same as everyone else...
  

Old Punk:

• hate new punk rock groups for at least one of the following reasons: they have good quality recordings, they're in it for the money, they're too young, it's just not '77
• wear an old, tatty leather jacket with some dodgy 70's bands Tipp-Ex-ed onto it
• go on constantly about '77-'79
• show how much you 'hate the system' by working 9-5, 5 days a week, for a multi-national company that exploits cheap labour in China
• explain to everyone you meet that 'punk' is about not following rules or a fashion but then dress the same as every other punk and slag off various groups for not fitting the punk rules that, according to your own beliefs, don't exist anyway...
  
• never shut up about the time you saw [insert any 70's punk band here] at [insert any small pub name here]

OK, so that was slightly tongue-in-cheek, but some people annoy me! Having said that there are 2 'types' of punk person that I respect:

• 1) The young punk who'll go to see old bands and respects the fact that this is where their current 'new' bands got a lot of their inspiration from
• 2) The old punk who accepts that times change and will go to see and support the new punk bands

That's all for now, I feel I may have babbled! Anyway, it's not 'punk' to moan about stuff that's not government (old punk) or fashion (young punk) related...

MaFt

The Separation of Work & Home

It may seem kinda weird but since I've been working on a PC all day long at home I hardly ever seem to have any inclination to use my own PC! While this in itself is no big deal it just means that loads of stuff I need to do keeps getting put off - like the pile of camcorder video's I need to edit and burn to disc, websites I need to make etc etc.

I suppose it's like when I made drugs for a living at Nektar I never wanted to come home and make drugs. Now I work on a computer all day I hardly want to use one in my spare time. But, hey, at least I can make all the drugs I want to now!

MaFt

Damn...

MySpace Quizzes

Bugger...

MaFt

The Greatest Band In The World!

On Saturday night I, once again, witnessed the greatest band in the world playing live.

Scru', Jim and me headed over to Leeds Uni to catch the Rancid gig. Absolutely fantastic stuff! About 30 songs covering all their albums over the last 15 years as well as a couple of Operation Ivy songs thrown in for good measure. You can't beat the best punk band in the world coming back for their encore branding acoustic guitars - how weird it seemed but it sounded awesome.


Rancid

A good night was had by all. And a sober night too, flippin' £2.70 for a can of Carling...

MaFt

Just Warning You...

I've just switched to Blogger Beta where I can now add labels for each post that I make. So, I'm starting to go through all the posts to add the relevant labels to each one. However, if you subscribe to my RSS Feed then you may find that it suddenly seems to repost everything all of a sudden... This is because the posts have to be re-uploaded to add the labels and the feed thinks it's new...

So, sorry if you see lots of posts, but you have been warned!

MaFt

Top 10

According to MediaMonkey these are my top 10 most listened to songs:

Welcome to The Black Parade- My Chemical Romance
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
The Darkest Places - MxPx
Blessed Be Your Name (live) - Punk Worship Band
Stars - Dude Fish
Punk Rock Princess - Something Corporate
You're Beautiful- James Blunt
The Story - MxPx
Friendly Fire - 3Dbs Down
Divide, Devoid, Devine - Chucky No Stars

What a mixture eh?! Wonder how different that list will be on my laptop... That's for another day!

MaFt

Izzit Cos I Is Black?

Well, the blog has gone all black n orange! My two favourite colours. Well, not my favourite colours, more my favourite colour scheme! More changes to come, this is just the start for now!

I'm finally gonna get around to updating my site - well, that's a massive over-statement, the plan is actually to just change the main page to make it either a link to the blog (regularly updated) or the main site (badly updated) - at some point I'll actually update the site a bit but since Mini-MaFt has been born I've not had much chance to write any songs so it's a bit pointless so far! Still, it'll get done.

I recorded the vocals for OPEN YOUR EYES last night which sound pretty good. Just a few more finishing touches and we should be able to get some samples up and get them off to the printers too.

Right, break over, back to work!

MaFt

All Up In Smoke

We had a bunch of people round last night for some fireworks. What started off as me, Mrs-MaFt and Mini-MaFt quickly ended up being both our families and a whole bunch of other people too! Still, I'm not complaining - it was fun and Sister-In-Law-H's neighbour made a fantastic corned beef and potato pie.

We'd bought some fireworks from Tesco - just kiddy ones so no big bangs or anything and so had Sister-In-Law-H. I got a text at about 5pm from Brother-T saying 'Got shit loads of big fireworks and rockets see you later'. Well, they were big and there were lots of them, however, they were just bigger versions of the kiddy one's we had bought! Brother-T was gutted that he'd spent forty quids on 'pretty-pretties' of which only two banged. The rockets were good though!

So, it just goes to show that just cos you pay more and they're bigger that that doesn't mean they're gonna be any better! The big-ass fireworks required us to be 25m away from them as opposed to the 5m ones we'd bought originally. So, even though they were bigger they looked the same cos they were 5 times farther away...

MaFt

Almost Recorded

Yo, spent most of the day in the crèche at church recording both the drums and guitars for the Punk Worship CD. We rn out of time for getting the vocals done so I'll be getting those done during the week either on my 8-track or down at Ro's... No doubt you'll be kept updated!

Anyway, I'm off to catch up on Torchwood.

MaFt

Enough To Drive You Mental!

Yesterday, wherever I drove I seemed to get stuck behind either a learner doing 20mph in a 40 zone or a bus that wanted to pull up every 100m at some imaginary bus stop. Why people don't give me priority on the road I have no idea...

Hopefully today will be better as there's no school traffic to get caught up in!

MaFt

Busy-ness

Had a pretty busy week last week! Monday we headed over to Blackpool to see the lights - I'm sure they get slacker each year... I remember the North end used to have loads of big displays at the roadside but there's only about 10 or so now. Maybe it's cos I'm getting older and everything seems much bigger and more fascinating when you're younger! Mini-MaFt enjoyed himself even though it was flipping freezing!

Tuesday was Niece-C's birthday party so that took up the best part of the evening then the day after was her actual birthday - so, again, another afternoon taken out! Working from home is great as it meant I could finish early in the afternoon then just make up the hours later in the evening!

I'm also enjoying Firefox 2 - particularly the in-line spell checker so as I type here it underlines spelling errors! Great stuff!

Then, my free time this week has been spent sorting out the stuff for recording the CD on Saturday and getting music sorted out for PW2... Busy busy busy!


OPEN YOUR EYES

Ta-ra for now, I have to get back to work ;)

MaFt

OPEN YOUR EYES

www.PunkWorship.co.uk will be recording a mini-album on November 4th with the aim of providing fundage for future PW events. And also to add a kick-ass CD to your collection!

It will feature 4 or 5 new recordings (more details later), a live track from Punk Worship earlier in the year; technology permitting, it should also have some special magic enhanced CD content including a video. There might also be a little extra there too....

So, why am I telling you this? Well, we figured that if a handful of people pre-ordered the CD at a special reduced cost of £5 (plus 50p postage) this would help us with the initial funding for getting the CD's duplicated and the artwork printed. Normal price will be £6 (plus postage) and all profits (around £2.50 at full price) will go towards future PW events which, at present, cost us around £300 (hire/purchase of equipment, admin costs etc etc)

I'll post details in the near future about how you can pre-order OPEN YOUR EYES either by cheque or through PayPal - keep checking www.PunkWorship.co.uk too as well as your inbox - what? you mean you're not signed up to the mailing list?! DO IT NOW: PW Mailing List


Open Your Eyes

MaFt

Lo-Fi.. Why??!

Today as I was walking around town for a bit I noticed more and more people walking round with music blasting out from their phones. Well, I say blasting, it's hardly loud - just more of an annoyance.

Back in the day the kids had ghetto blasters perched on their shoulders - they looked like complete tits but at least you could make out what music they were listening to. These phones may be alright as music players when you have headphones attached but through a crappy little speaker it's just pointless.

Maybe I just don't understand, you know, with not being part of the MySpace Generation - I never really got into MySpace and I doubt I'll ever get into listening to music in poor quality either...


Much cooler than hanging a phone around your neck...

MaFt

Finally started working!

Right, I've spent the best part of the day on my new job. Working on behalf of www.PocketGPSWorld.com. I've still got some bits to get used to and learn but I seem to be getting the hang of it so far. The good thing is I'm working from home so can listen to music all day long too! So, if you visit the site during the day you're actually likely to see what I'm listening to (on the left) as opposed to it saying "Nothing".

Also, Grandma died at 7am on Saturday morning. We expecpected it but it's like she was waiting until everyone had seen her before she 'let go'. Mrs-MaFt says that sort of thing hapens a lot - she's a nurse and deals wth death quite a lot. Well, she's not in pain anymore.

And, finally, we had our first practise for PW2 on Saturday morning too. We got through a bunch of songs that we did previously but have made a start on some new songs, including som eChristmas carols too! They sound great :)

Anyway, back to work!

MaFt

Feel Better For That

Well, I've got to admit I feel a lot calmer now I've actually seen Grandma. It was a long drive to get down there but was worth it. She was very drugged up on pain killers but we managed to get a few grins from her and an almost 'hello'. Thing is, I didn't want to leave - it was like an admission that that was it I suppose. I'dhave happily sat there all day holding her hand but to actually leave was both weird and pretty upsetting.

Still, she's had a long life, had her husband taken as a POW during World War 2 then lost him at a fairly young age (around 50 or so, I think), battled with three lots of cancer but remained optimistic for most of her life.

Not wanting to make this blog too morbid (what with the death of Tinkle the other week!) I'll talk about something happier tomorrow! PW2 is on it's way!

MaFt

Grandma, We Love You!

Well, I was going to be starting the new job today but we're now having to drive down to Reading. Grandma is essentially on her death bed so work has been cancelled and re-arranged for Friday.

It aint gonna be nice going to see someone and saying 'bye' when you know you'll never see them again. With her living so far away it's been hard getting to see her, but at least she got to see Mini-MaFt last Christmas and didn't stop talking about him for a week!

The chorus of that world famous Space Monkey Three song goes:

"Death comes around to all of us sometime,
At least in Heaven, there'll always be sunshine"

Take your suncream Grandma, and I'll see you soon.

Love Maff

Jobness

Thought I'd give you motley lot an update! I got a job! Starting from tomorrow I'll be working from home playing on the internet all day, every day! I'll givemore info tomorrow after I've read through the confidentiality agreement as to what I can or can't say about it!

Ta-ra for now

MaFt

Tinkle: August 2001 - September 2006

There was a stuck on a lamp post near our house yesterday saying:



We'd not seen her since Tuesday night andshe fits the description... Bit gutted really cos she was the first thing we got when we got home after our honeymoon so she was a part of the family from day 8. I know she's only a cat but it's still sad.

Here's a few pictures in memorium:





Rest in Peace, puss.

MaFt

Still Here!

I've had a few things going wrong this last week or so and now it's time for my excuses as to why I've not posted for 8 days!

First up my wireless router that I picked up for nothing melted. Yes, melted. Dunno what happened but it stopped working and a circlular bit of melted plastic appeared in the outer casing... I opened the router up and one of the capacitors had erupted it's innards all over. Fun! It took a few days to get a decent signal from my older wireless kit. Think I'm gonna save up and get a decent wireless router soon.

Then, the cd player in Mrs-MaFt's car decided it didn't want to grip the cd's anymore. So, after stealing some torque screw-drivers from Brother-T I had the thing opened and tried to fix it but to no avail. Seems that when it couldn't grip a cd it assumed that it assumed that slot was empty so when you added another one (it holds 6) it tried to forde it into the same slot thus knackering the whole thing... Also, the tinymechanical bits that grip th cd didn't appear to want to work anymore. Hunting round I found out that Ford wanted £250 for one!! Get stuffed! Ended up getting a 1cd version off eBay for £80 including postage.

It doesn't help that Ford make their stereo's too big and with non-standard connections so the best bet was to get a Ford one. Also, the dash in Mrs-MaFt's car is all silver so we wanted a silver one to replace it with. Most are black or grey so it was 'fun' trying to find the right one!

So, there'smy excuses! I'm off down to Northampton tomorrow for an interview so I'm gonna get an early night!

See ya

MaFt

Complaint of the Week

Working in a complaints department can be pretty depressing but every-so-often you get something that makes you literally laugh outloud. Take this example: someone wrote to complain that a 'half-day jeep safari' excursion they went on was misrepresented as it was not a Jeep, but a Toyota Land Cruiser. Apparently a Toyota with a sticker saying 'Jeep' is not good enough...

To give him credit though he did have some other complaints too but the bulk of the letter appeared to be describing the difference between a Jeep and a Toyota Land Cruiser!

Ta-ra for now

MaFt

Bradford - City of Surprises

One thing I love about living in Bradford is the fact that you can drive around randomly and one second be in a busy village and then the next in the middle of nowhere with fantastic views all around.

I went for a drive earlier with Mini-MaFt up to Denholme and then after that I just took random turns (I had my Sat-Nav with me in case I got lost!). Halfway between Denholme and Oxenhope I stopped off and took these 2 photo's:





So, If you'er ever in or around Bradford just head out of town about 5 miles in pretty much any direction and you'll get some damn good scenery!

See ya

MaFt

Weird...

Dunno what happened t'other day... Tried blogging from Opera Mini on my phone but it only seems to have done the title and not the content!

Anyway, I'm temping at Thomas Cook for 8 weeks in Customer Relations - it's amazing some of the things people complain about...

Tired now, going to bed! More later

MaFt

back to work!

International Failure!

Well, I didn't get the job with Yorkshire Water so I'm still on the hunt for jobs!

Went to town today for the Bradford International Market - t'was very very busy and had lots of stalls but all we ended up buying were some sweets for Mini, Mrs and myself... Ah well, we're just not international people! Some piccies below from my new 3 mega pixel phone (spot the Peter Kay reference ;) )



MaFt

Back Again

Well, my computer is running again and has officialy been 'pimped' - see below! I'm still trying to get hold of a PSU that will fit inside though...


Officially 'pimped'!

MaFt

Hope exits stage left

Not had much luck finding a new power supply so am just gonna rig it up to a normal one and leave it on the outside for now. talk about pimp my ride! it'll look just as bad as some of those 'cars' that they deal with on there... i can understand americans doing it to hide their lack of personality but english people?! i thought we were more advanced than that... obviously not, we'll be suing our kids soon for loss of earnings during child birth. i'm sure i've already seen that on judge judy. maybe i'm as bad for actually watching that show! laters, MaFt

A possible result...

Been up to ccl computers earlier today and they're gonna try get hold of a psu for me. nice chaps! on the way up though brother-n phoned to ask if i could look something up online for him... couldn't have rung at a worse time really! oh well, hopefully i'll be up and running again soon seeing as i sent out an email to 801 people yesterday promising i'd update my Garmin sat nav site tomorrow! doh! it's scary how much you rely on computers as i was planning on printing out my application form so i could refresh myself with what i wrote to help at the interview on monday. bad timing in lots of ways! see ya, MaFt

Bang!

My power supply on my computer went bang this morning... normally this wouldn't bother me cos it's dead easy to replace a power supply. however, when you have a diddy little computer like mine with a stupid shape and size power supply things get a bit tricky... i've tried it with my mum's psu and all is well so i know it's just the power and not anything else. so, now begins the hunt for a power supply for a biostar ideq 200v small form factor case! let the mobile blogging commence! MaFt

Wrong Name

OK, so the name of the blog isn't really that accurate butI've been away! After getting back from a week in Alcudia (Northen Majorca) we headed off down to a village called Catchall which is about 5 miles from Lands End. It's a hell of a drive down there! Therefore I'm gonna leave theblog until I've recovered from too much driving and holidaying...

Still, I got back to see I had a letter from Yorkshire Water asking me to come for an interview and assesment too. Things are looking up on the job front!

MaFt

Thought i'd try...

Just on a mini bus heading back home after a week in majorca. eventful journey going, mini bus crashed and we had a delay of two hours with the plane... great! weather's been good, mini-MaFt's had a great time and the beer's been cheap too! i'll write more later when i'm more awake. oh, and i'm still looking for a job unless Yorkshire water have got back to me while i was away! wonder if this mobile email blogging will work this time! MaFt

LongTime

Blimey, I've not blogged for over a week! In fact, I've hardly been on the computer for a week...

Been busy doing other stuff like doing some recording for Mr Flett and spedning time mixing it all etc, decorating at the in-laws, looking and applying for jobs and watching Family Guy. I'm pretty much done with the mixing, got a bit more decorating to do and still need to find a job; but after that I promise I'll post a bit more!

In other news, isn't the weather still great? We're off to Shibden Park again tomorrow, apparently there's some rides there that I missed last time. Me, Mrs-MaFt, Mini-MaFt, Mrs-L and Mini-Mrs-L are going so should be good. It's supposed to be 31 celsius tomorrow - now that's hot! That's nearly 90F for you oldies out there.

Talking of oldies and people not understanding modern terms, I heard once that nearly 90% of people thought that 'blogging' was the same as 'dogging'. If you don't know what 'dogging' is then just do a google for it - for some reason I don't feel inclined to hunt out a link for you...

See ya

MaFt

The Plan For Today

By wearing a red t-shirt I can claim that my red, sun-burnt face is merely a trick of the light reflecting from my clothes...



MaFt

A Few Recent Piccies

Thought I'd do a lazy blog entry and just stick a few recent photo's up here... (hint: clicky for biggy)


Mini-MaFt in the sun


Broadways Not Ready at the 1-in-12, Bradford


Jess the dog moving too fast for the camera

Sorry, none of me ;)

MaFt

What's The 'Plus' For?!

I had my 'interview' at the Job Centre Plus this afternoon. What a complete waste of time! The guy didn't even pretend to be interested; I was expecting at the very least a false-front but no, not even that.

He did a job hunt for me but didn't pull anything up, that is unless I wasnted to be a bean-picker in Eastbourne or a cleaner in Rochdale. Neither of which apealed to me and, besides, I haven't had the training. I have to go back to 'sign on' next Monday and then once every two weeks after that. Hopefully by then I'll have found something more appealling than going back there! I can only hope...

So, the great job search continues! I'm signed up to a few agencies and looking every where I know so there must be something for me! No doubt I'll keep you updated!

Ta-Ra fornow

MaFt

Red Red Wine

We were at a 90th party yesterday and Miss-L on our table was drinking some red wine. Her younger brother came over to try some and found it pretty repulsive. I too find red wine repulsive but it reminded me of the one time in my life hen I enjoyed some red wine.

When I was at Uni, Shoetree had a habit of buying expensive bottles of red wine and sitting drinking them over a couple of consecutive nights. I had a habit of buying massive bars of chocolate and eating them over a couple of consecutive nights. One night, Shoetree decided he'd nick my chocolate... So I threatened to nick the last bit of his wine if he didn't give me it back.

"Yeah right, you're not gonna do that cos you don't even like red wine" is what he said.

I couldn't resist the challenge, so I braced myself , took his glass and finished his £15 bottle of red wine. Damn, it was disgusting! However, Shoetree was shocked and actually gave me my chocolate back! I felt really tight though for finishing off his wine so I let him keep the chocolate.

Revenge is sweet, and that is the only time I have enjoyed red wine! Just thought I'd share that with you.

MaFt

Innit Init

Innit hot? Or should I say init hot (with one 'n'). I got told off by my mate, Ro, for spelling 'innit' with two 'n''s in the middle in a text. Apparently you should only put one 'n' "cos den u got mor spce in yr txt to tlk crp init".

Yeah, whatever...

So, anyway, it's hot, in(n)it? Thought I'd share that with you in case you hadn't noticed!

Right, I'm off to see Broadways Not Ready now with their new line-up - should be good!

See ya

MaFt

Parkour

One of the beauties of not working is not having to worry about how late you go to sleep. So, last night I ended up watching a documentary called 'Jumping Britain' which was all about this new(ish) craze called 'Parkour'.

Parkour originated in France and seems to have picked up s steady following in the UK. Now, imagine mentalist freestyle skating/bmx, jumping between buildings, over walls, down stairs and through gaps - now imagine it without any bike or skates: that's Parkour. The site, Urban Freeflow, has a tonne of pictures, info and videos on it. Check it out, it's pretty impressive! Or do a google for 'parkour' and see what wonders you find.


Photo's from Urban Freeflow.

MaFt

The Grand Finale

Well, that's it, all done! We've had out last supper with Nektar Therapeutics UK Ltd - and what a blast it was. We had a meal at the ChinoThai in Bradford - a top meal it was too! Followed by a fewdrinkies in Lloyds next door afterwards.

Unfortunately I had to leave early to get Mini-MaFt else, in the words of Mr-B, "there would have been carnage". It's weird to think that I may never work with these people again, but I'm trying to get a barbeque sorted for over Summer to catch up with everyone. I can but try! So, another chapter in my life over! Best get on with editing Brother-A's wedding video...

My plan forMonday is to head to teh Job Centerto sign on - I hope there aren't too many scum-bags there... I've only been in there once before and I felt dirty when I left!! Maybe it's got better, who knows!

See ya

MaFt

Update

Thought I should update you all! The site is closing so as of Friday 30th June I will be officially redundant and unemployed :(

Went out for a few beers yesterday and then had today off. Tomorrow will see us signing everything we need to sign and then Friday we're off for a meal and some more drinks.

It's weird... I'm gonna have to find another job. I might try it Yosser Hughes style:

GISSA JOB, GO ON, GISSA JOB!

Later

MaFt

Forgot to Mention My New Best Friend!

I had a reply last Friday from my new friend in California, Jazz-Fairy. See previous post: I Am Jack's Headache.

Here's the reply (again, the name has been changed):

Hi Matthew,
Don't be headache. This is Jazz-Fairy, I have been in Nektar more than 8 years. I work in R&D manual filling group in Building 4, California, USA. I am glad to talk to you by email in UK. Your e-mail is really fun and impressed me that you are a very kind person and boss.

My boss (another Matthew) didn't approve my Monday PTO. The problem for me is how I cook the breakfast Sunday middle night and work 7:15 AM Monday morning. I am really headache now. I will be fine and I am always peaceful.

You have a good day!

Jazz-Fairy
Office: 650-xxx-xxx
Cell: 650-xxx-xxx

One thing remains unanswered though... why would you need to cook breakfast in teh middle of the night? Isn't it more appropriate to cook it at breakfast-time in the morning before going to work?! These Oriental-American types crack me up!

MaFt

Slight Change of Plan

After a brief text exchange last night with Brother-A I don't think I'll use the intro I did the other day. Looking at it again it's not really appropriate for the wedding video! I might keep it on the DVD as a 'deleted scene' or as a hidden extra :)

Anyway, we have a meeting today at 2pm where we shall find out our fate... Off to the pub for a last supper of chip butties (bread) and Carling (wine).

MaFt

Crashed The Wedding

I've finally got around to starting Brother-A's wedding video! If you recall from previous episodes of the blog they were due to be wed in Mexico just as the hurricane hit last October. In the end they got married over here in Bradford.

So, take a look at this to see the intro for the video!

MaFt

Ta-ra For Now

Well, we've been sent home from work cos there really is nothing else to do! Just need to wait until the meeting on Monday/Tuesday (still no one really knows...) then it's pretty certain that we're all gonna be redundant!

Have a good weekend, I'm gonna shut down this incredibly slow PC and go take Mini-MaFt to the park for a bit!

See ya

MaFt

I Am Jack's Headache

I'm in wind-up mode today. I think it's gallows humour setting in!

I had two emails from an employee in America asking for some time off:

Subject: PTO second half year/1 day emergency off

Hi Matthew,
I got a call last night that I have guests from south California this Sunday and the following Monday. I will take Monday 6/26/06 off for my emergency PTO. Sorry for the short notice. Please approve.

I have 3 days PTO in August
I have 3 weeks PTO this October instead of December, 2006.
I have 2 days PTO in September.
I will try to fix the date and let you know and approve.

I am very headache because all my friends not inform me more than 1 week for their visiting.

Jazz-Woman (name changed to protect the innocent)

I had one soon after explaining the mix up:

Hi Matthew,
I sent to a wrong person. Please review and approve 1 day PTO.

Matthew Morley,
Sorry for the confusing.

FYI.

Jazz-Lady (name changed to protect the idiot again)

It would appear that Jazz-Dudette was supposed to send it to her boss, Matthew, and not me. Yet another example of Microsofts Auto-Assumption feature of Outlook. Remember kids, "assumption is the brother of all f**k ups"

Well, anyway, I couldn't resist so sent off these replies making out that I had not seen the second one until later on...

Hi Jazz-Girl,

Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem for Monday 26th. However, I only seem to have you down as 1 PTO day in September… I will look into this and let you know my findings. Hopefully it will not make me headache either.

In the mean-time I sincerely hope you are no longer headache and hope you enjoy the time you spend with your friends from Southern California.

Yours,
Matthew

... and then a few minutes later...

Hi again Jazz-Mistress,

It appears that I too was headache and made a mistake in who you were. I thought you were someone else. This is why our figures for September did not match! Who is headache now?!

Please ignore that last email as it was not you who I thought you were! Oh headache.

Enjoy your weekend.

Matthew in Bradford, not in California!

I hope they have a sense of humour! I wonder if they'll reply? They're about 7 hours behind so I won't get anything until later anyway. I think I'll have to set up a sarcastic Out of Office reply for when we all get the chop next week.

See ya

MaFt

Woman-ness

Mock me as much as you feel fit for I believe I am turning into one of the female persuasion... Ya see, yesterday I spent about £110 on new clothes! Well, actually I spent a tenner on new clothes as £100 of it was from a Debenhams gift card from work. While I'm on the subject of work we may have an extra day until we all get made redundant - no one is really quite sure when 'big boss' is coming over next week! It's either Monday or Tuesday.

Debenhams isn't cheap ya know, the stuff I got I could have probably got equivalent items for about £60 but still, it wasn't my money so I'm not too fussed. I'd give you an exact list of what I bought but even if I could remember then I feel that would be far too girly! And I'm not a girl. I could prove it too by posting a photo of my Nether-regions, which is near the Netherlands, but my camera decided it didn't want to work any more... How convenient that was!

Not much to do at work in the run up to the day of the great "Goodbye you lot". Could you tell? Everyone sees to be aware of this and are even considering letting us have a few days off just so we don't waste electricity and run up huge internet bills watching the World Cup live on the BBC website.

Anyway, I'm off for a can of pop!

MaFt

Vista Sunday

Bit of inactivity on the blog... sorry guys! Been having a play with Windows Vista and Office 2007 on my machine at work. I had to get the IT guy to get me some more RAM and a 2nd hard drive though so I could run it (just) and dual-booth with XP so I can still do a bit of work as well!

What's it like? well... erm... it's ok. It's just another operating system - it looks nice though but you need a bloody high-spec PC to get it going well! It's very 'graphical' which obviously uses a lot of resources. Office 2007 has some very nice features though. Still, I think I'll stick with Windows XP and Office 2003 for now. At least until I can afford to have a serious upgrade on my home PC.

Also, had this sent to me: George W Bush 'singing' U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' thanks to Telefiend for that one!

See you guys!

MaFt

Long Weekend

13 days to go...

Had a great weekend! Saturday was spent relaxing in the sun listening to the football on the radio for a bit then headed over to Halifax for a bit of shopping while it was quiet. Mini-MaFt isn't far from walking now, he managed 2 steps and can toddle about for a while if he's holding onto someones fingers.


Mini-MaFt posing in his England kit

On Sunday the weather continued to be officially 'rather hot' on the MaFt scale of warmness. Mrs-MaFt had a set of 2 nights to do at work so in the afternoon while she had a nap I headed down to Brother-T and family's house with Mini-MaFt. Sat about in the garden drinking a few beers and playing football with the kids and going on the slide. Ended up staying for quite a while before getting pizza for tea and heading off home.

Yesterday I had the day off work to watch Mini-MaFt while Mrs-MaFt slept. Ended up going over to Shibden Park in Halifax with Mr, Mrs and Mini-L. Had some dead nice ice cream and plonked the kids (Mini-L is a few months younger than Mini-MaFt) on the various swings and slides after having walked around the boating lake that seemed to be surrounded by ducklings! Mrs-L had just got a new camera so was in 'doting parent' mode - I just referred to her as Jonathan after a guy at church who used to take pictures of everything and everyone... It has to be said that she wasn't impressed with that! Still, she got some good photo's - just hope she can figure out how to email them to me. We got back and let the Mini's play on the field while we sat on the rocks and had a few drinks.

Today I came to work...

MaFt

The Countdown Begins

Seventeen days to go until Big Boss comes over from America to decide whether we will all lose our jobs.
Seventeen days to go for management here to try get funding for a management buy out.
Seventeen days to go until there's a good chance I'll get a bit of money.
Seventeen days to go until I may need to find another job.
Seventeen days to go until games 5 and 6 of the 2nd round of the World Cup.

MaFt

Toys Just Aint How They Used To Be

Remember the days when you bought a new toy with your £6 of birthday money and rushed home, ripped it out the box, played with it for half a day then left it forever in the back of your cupboard? Well, those days are long gone. Not just because you can't get any toys for £6 any more but the whole getting it out of the box and playing with it now requires a masters degree in engineering and psychology...

Why do toy makers insist on putting those horrible little ties all over the packaging? A kid just wants a toy to play with right away! By the time the adult (trust me, it's even hard for an adult to get the damn toy out of the box) has removed the toy from teh box the kid doesn't want to know anymore...

What makes it even more frustrating is when they not only put the tie there in the first place, but twist it with a pair of industrial pliers and then stick it down with sellotape as well! I mean, Mini-MaFt is 1; he wants to play with a toy bus that plays music not have to work out how to carefully extract said toy from the grip of the box and ties.

It took us 15 minutes to unpack the bus last night! Bring back Zoids is what I say - box, bag, toy. Dead simple!

MaFt

Happy Birthday!

Mini-MaFt is one today, can't believe how fast it's gone! I can believe how tired we all are though... We had a party for him on Saturday so we were shattered from that and then, to finish off the night, we went to a friends engagement do as well! Still, it was a good weekend. I'm gonna have to remember to update his site again, not done it since March...

More posts later, bit busy at work - lots to get done before the end of the month that I've just been putting off as long as possible... My own fault really... Athough it's nice to blame someone else so I'll blame the mental guys on the busses that always sit next to me.

MaFt

Sand, fivemiledrive and Geek Time

Yesterday's BBQ was good! Mini-MaFt discovered sand, and how funny it makes your mouth feel when you eat it... I also had the nicest pork burgers ever! Seriously, that's no exaggeration! Turns out they got them from a butchers near where my mum works so I might send her to fetch some when she's back.

Anyway, a couple of recommendations for you. First up is a great little CD from the UK punk/emo/rock band fivemiledrive called 'Houston We Have A Pop Song'. A very well done EP with a varied selection of songs on it - it's 3 tracks but each one is unique enough but still having their own sound. Check them out if you like that sort of thing!

fivemiledrive - 'Houston, We Have A Pop Song'

My second recommendation is for users of Firefox and FTP. There's a great little extension called 'fire FTP' which essentially turns Firefox into an FTP client. Great for uploading your website while you're at work ;). Get it for free here: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/684/.

That's all for now

MaFt

BBQ Time

Knocking off work in 45minutes for the annual company barbeque! SHould be good as the sun's come out now. It was miserable this morning though, hardly barbeque weather! Although it pee'd it down at the MaFt 'n' Family annual barbeque last year but that didn't stop us! Alright, people were indoors but me n Pete still slaved away cooking in the rain outside.

Mmmm, free beer :D

MaFt

Celebrity Auction

Well, the 'Help Save Kia' auction seems to be off to a fairly good start, but do please bid on some of the other stuff!

Last night I watched 'X-Factor - Battle of the Stars'. ITV are clearly not content with the more generic 'Celebrity Reality-TV-Show' name like everyone else does, no, they have to show off their amazing talent at their 'Name A Program' department. 'Battle of the Stars' is a bit of a misnomer - they're hardly battling, merely singing karaoke. They're not even singing at each other - just one after the other. ITV appear to be able to come up with original names for their celebrity programs, but how about coming up with some actual original programs too? Not just ITV though, everyone else as well - I'm fed up of Nanny-house-of-tiny-celebrity-big-brother-chef-island-surviving programmes - the odd one or two I can cope with, but please don't make it a yearly, tortuous plan... TV's bad enough as it is...

Still, Chris Moyles made me laugh with his 'Mum, Simon Cowell likes me!' comment.

MaFt

It Begins!

The great eBay sale has begun...

http://maft.co.uk/kia

Help Save Kia!

maft.co.uk/kia

Help us pay our vets bill!! You may notice though that there's nothing actually on eBay yet... but there will be soon!

MaFt

Poor Cat

Kia, the loveable tubby fluff ball, got wolloped by a car yesterday... When we got back from work she was laying pegged out on the doorstep and i wondered why she wasn't rushing to get indoors. We soon figured it out when she couldn't stand up and her back end went limp...

After a quick clean up (it's hard for a cat to wipe their bum when they can't use their back legs!) and a check for any obvious cuts or breakages I got her down to the vets. Today she had her dislocated hip popped back in place and they've been having to squeeze her bladder as it appears to have been damaged with the impact/crush. They're hoping the bladder will mend itself but they're not 100% sure yet. Now, I don't usually claim to have any psychic abilities, I'm more of a large than a medium, but I foresee a rather large vets bill. Especially as I've just found out she needs to stay in for a few more days too!

I have a cunning plan though to get financial help for the vets bill: flog some useless crap on ebay with a great big sob story about Kia along with lovely cute pictures to go with it. Someone will bid, well, if someone pays a tenner for a 'lonely chewit' (I kid you not) then someone's gotta buy some junk to help out a loveable little(ish) cat!

I'll post links once I've decided what to sell; I may have to sell my rubber TomTom Go - a lovely little item given to me by TomTom themselves. Basically a stress ball in the shape of a TomTom Go. I wonder if there's a market for dead batteries with interesting history...? Any idea's would be appreciated!



Ta-ra for now

MaFt

PS - Barnze, don't say 'I told you so' about owning cats cos I'll only come hunt you down and do cyber-graffiti on your blog :oP

Kicking Up A Fuss

Who needs 'The Da Vinci Code' when holding a night of punk worship appears to cause as much contraversy:

"Punk strikes wrong chord

SIR Sunbridge Road Mission holds a "Punk/Rock Worship event" (T&A, May 4), I know that Sunbridge Road has always been a church of lively Christian witness.

I am old enough to have listened to preaching by Fred Mitchell, one-time Darley Street chemist and Sunbridge Road stalwart who died in an early jet airliner accident as he returned from visiting a missionary enterprise in China.

Many young folk will gladly rock and roll in clubs and also, if encouraged, in church. But punk?

The weekly supplement of a provincial newspaper recently carried a nasty, sneering photograph of Johnny Rotten, punk pioneer. An article appreciative of the punk movement referred to a ground-breaking punk song Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.

I recall a 13-year-old lad whom I taught more than 25 years ago pleasant-natured, willing, though not very bright. He was persuaded, perhaps by an older punk enthusiast, to do as that song suggested.

His behaviour, his whole nature, changed. I hope that punk ideas and practices did not wreck his subsequent life.

Douglas Hartley, Irving Terrace, Clayton"

A few responses have been sent so we'll see if any get published:

"Sir, as one of the organisers of the Punk Worship event at Sunbridge Road Mission I would like to respond to the comments made by Mr Hartley. Rock and punk music are very closely associated but the fact is, that the phrase 'punk' is to do with one's lifestyle. It is common knowledge that being 'punk' is about going against the grain of the world and breaking from the mould of the world - not sniffing glue as in the Ramones song you mentioned. Therefore, the 'punk' element of the night was not only the style of the music, but also about going against the world's non-Christian standards and actually worshipping a living God. The fact that 'punk' is associated with negative connotations is what we want to change and that change started last Saturday. The theme of the evening was about going all out for God and not caring what the world says about you, about putting God first and understanding that God accepts our worship and praise in whatever format we offer it. It's about worshipping God with music and an attitude that is uncompromising, radical, militant and loud. Why? - because some of us were made like that!" - MaFt

"I read your letter with interest. I agree that the Sex Pistols are not a band that I would want preaching in my church. However, your argument may be a little dated these days - things have moved on quite a lot since 1978.

Punk has become a very community based scene, that actually does a great deal of good - charities such as the Syrenthia Savio Endowment and Take Action! are operated and funded by punks to help combat cancer, suffering, suicide and depression. Long before I was a christian I was attracted to the punk scene by the brotherly love often demonstrated within it.

If punk IS such a bad thing, then surely it makes sense to get these people into church, to tell them that there is a better way? If a nation a glue sniffing, rebellious youths began to serve God, wouldn't that be a dramatic change for the better in this world?

I agree that punk was founded in rebellion against the world order - but maybe you have forgotten that the founder of Christianity was nailed to a tree for being a rebel too." - Chris

"Hi, I have just read your letter on punk striking the wrong chord. Punk is and always has been about standing up for your beliefs, modern punk and hardcore music is based around politics, loving your friends, loving your family and making the world a better place, many of today’s hardcore punk bands are what is known as straight edge which means they abstain from alcohol, drugs and promiscuous sex so how is this a bad example to set to the youth of today?

Your ideas of what punk is somewhat upset me as you seem to have based it around one band that being the Sex Pistols and most likely one man namely Sid Vicious, Sid was a drug addict and battled many demons but to say every punk is like that is ridiculous, its like saying everyone who kicks a football is a cocaine addict because Robbie Fowler was.

As Christian Punks we try to show the world that there is another way, a better way to live your life, a life with God, we do this through a medium that people can relate to that being punk music.

I’m sure if you had attended the punk worship night at Sunbridge Mission you would have seen the positive effect that punk music can have on the world and I expect that your views would have been very different.

Please come along next time a punk worship event is held and see for yourself the good that it can do.

Thank you" - Steve

Laters

MaFt

Mmmmm, Ice Cream!

You can't beat a third of a tub of Carte D'Or Ice Cream :)

MaFt

Video's Again

If you want a smaller version of the video I posted the other day, i.e. one that's not 45mb, then head over to http://blimation.com/temp/maft/ - Bli has kindly saved me some time by shrinkyfying the video and hosting it for me :) Cheers fella!

MaFt

As Promised

Here they are, the promised newspaper cuttings:



And, in other news, my car keeps doing weird things... Not long after I set off I put my foot on the accelorator and the rev's drop and I don't get anywhere - this is most annoying when I pull out on someone only to have them get kinda mad at me for driving like a learner... I've no idea what it is but I've tried Red-Ex cos someone said it could be something sticking in the fuel line or something but that doesn't seem to have made a difference. Anyone have any other ideas?

MaFt

PS - Barnze and I highly recommend Vans footwear. If you think it sucks then you're just a sorry loser.

Punk Worship Video

If you're on dial-up just stop reading here!!

Take a look at http://www.maft.co.uk/worship/media/reign.wmv for a 4minute video to get an idea of what the Punk Worship was about - it's 45mb so be warned!! Not sure if it will stream but if you have anything over 2mb broadband then I suspect it should. If not then right-click and download it.

MaFt

Oh Yes!

Punk Worship on Saturday was amazing! Gruff and Mrs Gruff came up from Bristol, CHris came up from Sheffield, Steve came over from Manchester and Jim and Dianne came over from Lincoln/Wakefield too. We had over 100 people there and it was fantastic seeing so many young people just going all out worshipping God in a kick-ass punk stylee.

Feedback has been brilliant:
"...was a real blessing..."
"...could be a start of things to come..."
"when's the next one?"
"...everyone just let go of themselves, you could really feel the Holy Spirit..."
"amazing, absolutely amazing"
"...church as you've never seen it before!"

There's a few photo's on the Christian Punks forum (clicky here) and we made it into the T&A on both Friday and today. Friday's article is below and today's is just on the T&A web site for now - I'll scan it in and post once I get he actual paper.



Like I say, I'll post todays report once I've bought a paper and fired up my scanner again! I'm still overwhelmed by the response - especially from the older folk in church. I made a quick video clip to show them in the service on Sunday what we'd been up to and, to put it in the words of our friends the chav's, "dey woz well impressed, innit"

Laterz, innit :)

MaFt

Times Have Changed

Last week I got a letter in our local paper, The Telegraph & Argus, about the punk worship night on Saturday. You can read it here if you want. A couple of days later there was a brief paragraph about it in the 'news in brief' section - I'll try scan it in and post it here too. Then, today I got a phone call from a reporter from the T&A about the punk worship night.

Her questions were very specific and always came back to one thing: how many people would be 'dressed up as punks with mohawks, tattoos and piercings'? That was the exact phrase she used, 'dressed up'. Made me laugh but I kinda felt sorry for her too... I don't think she really listened when I told her people don't really do that anymore. Don't get me wrong, I know they're around but the current generation of punks don't go for the mohawk and leather jacket look. We go more for the baggy, skater clothes; the Vans and Airwalks rather than the Doc Martens.

Punk Rock is more of a style of music than a 'fashion' although there is a massive fashion based around the genre (as much as the people involved try to pretend it's not fashion). But to assume that punk is just about the mohawk is a bit naive, isn't it?! Especially when it's a church event - she didn't seem bothered about what we were doing, just what would make a 'cool picture'. Still, the nice reporter said she would try and get an article in on Friday as publicity for it so I can't complain at that!

MaFt

MaFt Punk

Thought I'd blog this! I had an image sent from a band in Richmond Virginia that I thought was pretty cool! The band are called True Liberty and the image is clearly a rip off from daft punk's logo, but I liked it :D



MaFt

Dontcha Just Hate 'Em?!

Don't ya just hate people who get in the way of scientific research? They just spoil everything! I'm not talking about the Animal Liberation Front (I'm not linking to them cos they don't deserve it) or the terrorsists who steal the corpses of relatives of people are even slightly involved in vivisection... I'm not talking about the beurocratic folk who delay the building of new research centers or the agency's that decide not to provide grants to particular research projects.

I'm talking about Bli. He won't lend me one of his shiny new kittens to test if Kittensoft bog roll really is as soft as a kitten. One day you'll realise the error of your ways when you have some bogroll that scratches your piles and then you'll wish you hadn't hindered this valuable, scientific research. Perhaps, then, you'll wish you'd lent me a kitten to save me having to travel to foreign countries to source kittens that are treated far less favourably than Ebony & Liquorice's would have been. Perhaps, then, you might just think "oww, this bloody hurts" and forget all about my maniacal 'scientific' research while I struggle to win the coveted 'IgNobel Award'...

Perhaps...

MaFt

Pinkness

I just got these off ebay for £24.17



Pretty funky eh? I always mock people who stay up late just to get something from ebay, now I'll just have to mock myself!

See ya, and nighty night!

MaFt

Kittensoft

How do they know? I mean, in this day and age of companies being sued for false descriptions on their products, how do they know that their toilet paper really is as soft as a kitten? I might try it out just to see, but unfortunately I don't know anyone with a kitten - offers anyone? I could do a test to see if it is Catsoft - making use of both Kia and Tinkle as test subjects.



Surely though, the degree of softness depends on personal reasoning? What may be soft on my arse is not neccesarily soft on yours. Just how soft is Kittensoft on The International Scale of Soft Things? The International Scale of Soft Things is pretty complex, as you can see below, but no matter how hard I look I can't see Kitten on there. Cat is on there if you look hard enough but not Kitten - maybe Kittensoft is a trademark for something that is actually Catsoft? Who knows...?



I wonder if Kittensoft bog roll has on its packaging "Not tested on animals"? Maybe it isn't tested ON animals but surely part of their tests should be using animals on peoples rear-ends?

Frankly the whole idea of Kittensoft bog-roll is a bit weird... even to me!

MaFt

PS - Barnze, it's not made from kittens, it's just as soft as them ;(cheers for the idea too)

Getting Closer

Time seems to be wittling away for the Punk Worship night! It's in 2 weeks on Saturday! It's been through various phases since our initial idea back in June/July of last year and it's getting pretty exciting if I'm honest! I've just had a call that our 6foot by 2foot banner is ready - if you want to see it you'll have to come on the night!

I also found these guys: Sounds of Salvation - a band of 10 who do Ska-Worship down in Reading. Pretty cool actually!
See ya around

MaFt

Time To Be Childish

I found this: Glossary For International Recruits

Apparently it's a glossary for foreign GP's put out by the Doncaster NHS Primary Care Trust. Why am I mentioning it? Well, it has 14 different words for 'penis' including my all-time favourite of 'todger'!

MaFt

Smashing!

My CD collection is spread about the house. There are a hundred or so singles in a box in a cupboard in the attic, there are about 80 CD's in the stand in the lounge and the remaining 400 or so albums are in storage cabinets in the attic. Every so often I grab a handful or CD's from the tower in the lounge and swap them for a handful of CD's from the attic just to mix things up a bit and provide some variation. Generally I need to go up to the attic to find a CD that I want to listen to (at least until I get a network sorted out and a media player connected to said network) seeing as only 15% of my CD's are easily accessible at any one time.

Last night I fancied some music and reached for the CD's in the lounge and grabbed at random - I pulled out The Offspring's 1994 album, 'Smash'. I've not listened to this for ages and had forgotten how good an album it actually is! If you've not heard it then go check it out, you never know, you might enjoy a slice of classic 90's American punk rock. I put it on in the car again this morning - great way to start the day!



MaFt

Teethgrinder

Mini-MaFt, having recently acquired some top teeth, has got into the habit of grinding his teeth. It's one of the few things, along with cotton wool (it squeeks, it's bloody awful!), that succeeds in making me cringe! I've asked a few people at work who said their kids did it for a while but not for long. So, with any luck he'll stop soon!

Until then, I'll just have to entertain myself singing Therapy?'s great 1992 song, Teethgrinder:

This feels good, nothing can stop me
Every nerve pumping hard through me
Every thought rushes at full speed
This false smile grates through babyteeth

(I'm a teethgrinder) Teethgrinder (In my sleep I grind my teeth)
(I'm a teethgrinder) Teethgrinder (In my sleep I grind my teeth)



MaFt

The Peoples Petition

http://www.thepeoplespetition.org.uk

Sign up, help us all benefit from medical research!

From the site:

"Like almost every human being alive today, I benefit from medical research using animals. Apart from this I have no vested interest in research. I'm not a doctor or a researcher. I don't work for a drugs company or own shares in one. I don't even have a scientific background.

I wanted a way to show people who carry out medical research that I value and support their work and that I want to see this important work continue in Britain.

To do this I approached the Coalition for Medical Progress with my idea because they shared my view.

The UK has some of the strictest controls on the use of animals in medical research in the world. You can find out more about these standards here.

If you share my belief in the value of this research then I urge you to add your name to The People's Petition."

The Dangers Of Smoking

Man killed in cigarette accident
"A hospital patient being treated with a flammable gel for a skin condition has died after being engulfed in flames as he lit a cigarette."

Blimey, wouldn't that have been a scary thing to see?! Just imagine nipping out through the fire exit for a short-cut to the car park and seeing this bloke up in flames? Just goes to show there's more than one reason for having hospitals as no smoking areas...

MaFt

Almost Easter

It's almost Easter and I've clearly given up regular blogging for lent!! I'll get back into it just as soon as I've devoured my weight in Cadbury's Creme Eggs.

Soon enough the easter bunny will be laying his eggs all over so kids can remember that Jesus died on a cross in order to take away their sin... or something... Just where did the bunny come from?! There's no obvious link between death on a cross and a cute furry bunny that, strangely for a mammal, lays eggs. Eggs made of chocolate. And they say religion is hard to believe? Look at what secular society has made easter into - now that's hard to believe! Chocolate-egg-laying rabbits? Get real!

Maybe the colour of the chocolate is supposed to remind us of the colour of the wood used in the crucifix? No, can't be that cos we get white chocolate eggs now... Oops, can't call them white can we - the PC brigade wil be onto us, erm... cocoa-deficient chocolate eggs. I heard once that the egg is a symbol of new life and thus is used to remind us that with Jesus taking our sin away we are given new life. OK, that makes a bit of sense but when was the last time you saw a baby rabbit grow out of a chocolate egg? And it still doesn't explain what the rabbit is for.

Thinking a bit deeper now, there's that lovely phrase "shagging like rabbits" - maybe that's the link between new life and rabbits? All that shagging must surely bring forth numerous offspring as I'm yet to see the Durex Bunny squaring up to the Duracell Bunny I can only assume that there is not viable form of rabbit contraception freely available to les lapins as the french would say.

So, there you have it - that's where the easter bunny comes from (no pun intended). He brings forth new life to remind us that Jesus did something for us and helped to invent chocolate.

MaFt

PS - see how easy it is to get side-tracked with secular commercialism and forget the real reason behind Easter? I challenge you to get to church over Easter and seek out for yourself what it's all about!

Projects Projects Projects!

Ey up, I'm back! Not that I've been anywhere, just having a break from blogging. I've been busy finishing off the Punk Worship site and doing some work on another site I've been asked to do. Various parts of my car now function: i got a new speaker which was a bugger to find seeing as Ford decided to make their own shape speaker so standard ones won't fit unless you spend about £15 on convertors for them... Thank the Maker for eBay! I also have a fully functioning heater too - apparently a common fault in Fiesta's. Mr-DM (not Danger Mouse) bought me some wiper blades cos he was sick of mine squeeking (cheeky sod, but thanks mate!) and, finally, I stuck some Red Ex into my fuel-tank to stop the thing from juddering and generally being crap when it's cold.

So, onto my next projects! I spent a while trying to find a holder for my mp3 player (Creative Zen Xtra [I upgraded it to a 60GB drive though]) that I can use in the car. PDA holders are no good as they cover the buttons on the side of the player... Seems I would have to dig deeper; I found some nifty things by Brodit that looked great and would have done the job. However, the total cost would have been well over £50. I then found this thing:

Which sells at a slightly lower £20 but would need another £15-20 of attachments in order for it to hold the Zen Xtra. I still think £40 is a bit much for something to hold an mp3 player. So, instead, I've decided to make my own holder based on this thing that fits in the side of my Ford stereo but which will be better (cos I made it) and a LOT cheaper! Mr-S has said I can use the engineering workshop on my dinner hours to get it done! Should be fun, if it doesn't work I can always spend some money.

I'll post some designs later on. That's all for now, I'm off to catch up with other people's blogs!

MaFt

Small Update

Just to let you know I've not forgotten about you all! Expect a rise in the frequency of posts regarding the punk worship night as it gets nearer. I'm currently getting the ball rolling with regards to publicity etc and also starting to work on a better version of the website other than one that just shows up a random flyer...

In other news, my emial server has been taken off the blacklist at SpamCop so I can email people who use SpamCop now! Excellent :D

See you around,

MaFt

Me Again

Just a short update to let you know I'm still around! For those who knew what was happening you'll be pleased to know that my Dad has had a succesful operation to remove cancer from his colon. He's now stuck in hospital for a couple of weeks to recover - he's well chuffed that he didn't need a colostomy bag though!

Also, I've just found out that my email server is blacklisted by SpamCop so I can't email Gruff at Christian Punks cos it gets rejected. I've had a response about it from my host (the wonderful BlackFoot Hosting) who have said it was due to another user on the same server being a bit naughty. Thankfully I've not got some sneaky virus that sends out millions of emails without me knowing! What do people get out of sending spam?!

Laters

MaFt

PS - we got permission to do the punk-worship event! It'll be happening on Saturday 13th May - flyer below:

Clinical Trials And Tribulations

From Drug Company TeGenero's website:

"TGN1412 is a promising novel approach to addressing the medical need in ... inflammatory diseases, which require long-term therapy without severe side effects."

I think they may have found one side-effect though... quite severe too!

My thoughts go out to those involved - and remember kids, there's no such thing as easy money! Shoetree, you have been warned!

MaFt

Oh Yeah, One More Thing...

If you feel generous you can vote for Mini-MaFt in the Happy Tots competition either by calling 09011511165 or texting "BRTOTS 1165" (without the quote marks) to 88010.

Calls and texts cost 50p and you'ev got until Friday 17th. Cheers :D

MaFt

Break

I'm taking a break from blogging for another week or so. Very tired and got loats of other things that I need to get done!

See ya soon

MaFt

Weetabix - The Strongest Soaker-Upperer

Mini-MaFt has taken to having two Weetabix for supper and one for breakfast. This is actually more difficult than one would think. First of all there's the obvious question of do you mash it up then add the milk, or add the milk and then mash it up?

Logic tells you that a smaller surface area should contact more milk in less time so you should mash up the Weetabix before adding the milk. However, the effort and time needed to mash up a dry Weetabix is far greater than that required to squidge up a milk-soaked Weetabix as shown in the graph below. So, maybe it's better to pour the milk first...


A very scientific graph

This brings us on to the second problem: just how much milk? you pour what you think is the desired amount of milk then mash up the Weetabix. But, by the time you've toddled along to Mini-MaFt the Weetabix is as dry as a really dry thing so you add more. Still, it's too dry. Pre-empting further milk-soaking you add more than you plan to but this time the Weetabix is fully saturated and will hold no more milk. Then all you get is a load of milk with some bits of Weetabix mixed into it... The Weetabix/milk mixture is at the ideal ratio for a tenth of a nanosecond and if you miss that then you've no chance... Thankfully Mini-MaFt will eat it anyway!

Some alternate uses for Weetabix include, but are not limited to: ladies sanitary towels, nappy life-extenders (stick a Weetabix in there and the nappy will soak even more up), a cheaper alternative to Pig Mats for chemical spills, an edible ink-blotter, an oven cleaner (have you felt how abrasive they are? just don't get it wet). Feel free to add more of your own suggestions.

MaFt

When Head Turns To Mush

I've just spent the last few days revamping my geek site (www.GarminPOI.co.uk) and updating the POI list. After fighting with html, php, cgi, inline frames, png files with alpha channels, javascript to make the aforementioned png files work in Internet Explorer and a bit of troubleshooting involving the mailing list script my head now feels like mush.

Just thought I'd share that with you and wish you a happy weekend in the cold. Hopefully you'll be warmr than I am in my car at the moment due to my heater not working :( Still, it's the weekend so I can nick Mrs-MaFt's car!

MaFt

Long Time!

Just realised today that I've been doing this blog for over a year! The first post was February 16th 2005. Such a long time ago! I talked about Jenga and builders at Leeds Uni. Beat that for excitement!

I also just realised that yesterday was pancake day. Tosser... or rather I'm not a tosser - so maybe forgetting it worked to my advantage!

Lots to do so I'm off!

See ya

MaFt

Dammit

Don't you just hate it when you were about to say something great, wonderful and world-changing and then forget what it was? Kind of like when you rush upstairs 3 steps at a time to get... oh... what did I rush upstairs for? Usually to solve the latter I can go back downstairs and carry in with what I was doing before I'd rushed upstairs and after a while it'll come back to me; I can then walk carefully up all 13 steps (don't ask why we have 13, I know most only have 12 but our house is cleary special) nice and slowly in case my memory gets left behind again. Problem solved, nice and simple. However, I can't even try that approach this time cos I can't even remember what I was doing when I thought of this wonderful thing to write about!



I'm sure I must be losing my mind... I found these marbles on eBay Australia, I wonder if they'll work as a replacement?

MaFt

This Old Chestnut

Am I a man or a monkey? Was I made like this or did i evolve from nothing? I believe I was created and that mankind is seperate from the animal kingdom. You may say that I am a creationist, however, I simply believe what the Bible tells me.

Two articles have caught my eye today, the first being in The Register and titled 'Creationists Want Your Children'. Basically the Royal Society are getting fed up of the fact that more and more people are denouncing evolution and believing in either biblical creation (i.e. Genesis 1, God created the earth in 6 days and had a break on the 7th) or intelligent design (a mostly American idea that essentially takes the religion out of creation in order to get it taught in American schools - legally nothing to do with religion can have any say in anything to do with the state ['separation of church and state']). If evolution is such a fool-proof theory, as the Royal Society claims it is, then why get in a little hissy fit over something so 'pointless' as creation or intelligent design? Or is it more along the lines that they've realised this 'theory' of evolution isn't all it cracked up to be and people want a bit more explanation. Such as, how did the first organisms actually come into existance from nothing? OK, so, with creationism there is an obvious element of faith that God created everything, from scratch, but the biblicl account also mentions a global flood - something that has been mentioned throughout many cultures even those that do not acknowledge the Bible. Little facts like this help to show the accuracy of the biblical record. So "creationism requires faith therefore it's not real science" - I've been told that before. However, belief in evolution requires even more faith: faith that the first organisms mytically appeared with no explanation, faith that the right kinds of genetic defects actually were beneficial to the organism and not harmful, faith that those mutations could actually be passed to the next generation... I actually think it's easier to believe that everything was created* as opposed to just randomly appearing by chance. Maybe that's the easy way out, but it makes sense to me.

* actually, more like every type was created - I'm not discounting the fact that species change over time - they just don't change into another species...

The second was on the BBC news site claiming that churches should back evolution. Ha! As if! I really can't see the church turning round and saying "actually, the bible is all wrong, evolution really did happen and Jesus was a monkey in a blue sash and a beard". Not likely. Apparently intelligent design is a threat to 'real scientific teaching' - well, I'm sorry but real scientific teaching should involve teaching all possible theories not just saying 'our theory is right, yours is wrong'; especially when the so-called 'theories' can't actually be proved (time travel hasn't been invented yet).

Like I said before, do the evolutionists see creation as a more powerful 'threat' to their precious little group than they initially thought? Seems to me like they're beginning to realise that we don't always take their word for it. When I was at uni many lecturers would often come out with unprovable and, frankly random, sayings like 'this of course proves evolution' when talking about the massively complex blood clotting factors - to me though it just proved that the whole lot was designed and created, I mean could all the inbetween states actually function correctly as a working system if it evolved gradually? Probably not...

Well, that was quite a long post for me! If you want to know more then take a look at Answers In Genesis or, for the biochemically minded, get a read of Michael Behe's book "Darwin's Black Box"

See ya

MaFt

The Smoking Ban

Seeing as no one has asked for my opinions on this matter I thought I'd share them with you anyway. If you've been living under a rock or in a tree for the last few days (or don't live in the UK) then you should have heard that the government have passed a bil stating you can't smoke in enclosed public places (unles you're an MP cos the Houses of Parliament are classed as a Royal Palace so are not covered by the ban). The definition of an enclosed public space is pretty wishy-washy and will need some work but other than that it's fairly straight forward: It will be illegal to smoke in a pub, club, restaraunt, hire-car, company car, bus, taxi, ice rink, bus shelter, portaloo etc etc etc.

Initially I thought 'huzzah' cos people will be healthier as they'll all obviously stop smoking and join the gym and Britain will be a lot less smelly. However, thinking a bit more about it, are the people that smoke really going to stop just cos they're more limited in where they can smoke? MaFt thinks not! Why? Cos it's an addiction that's hard to break; especially if you don't want to in the first place.

I think it'll lead to worse health for most smokers in the UK. Instead of going t'local and spending a tenner on 4 pints and having a few fags they're more likely to nip t'co-op and spend a tenner on 12 cans (about 10 pints) and drink themselves to a stupour in the comfort of their own home. You may say "well MaFt, that's their own health they're ruining so nothing has changed" but I say what about smokers with kids? If they're in the house more often smoking more for fear of persecution and/or prosecution hwo will that affect the health of the children and others in the house? It can't be better for them... surely?

Still, it's probably too late to change and remember kids, the government knows best.

MaFt

Animations

If you like random, weird or surreal animations then have a look at Bli's animations (http://www.blimation.com/htm/animation.htm) - particularly the Bystanders ones.

Check it out, innit!

MaFt

Here It Is (Brace Yourself, It's A Big Bugger!)

Here's my tooth. Or rather my ex-tooth as it is no longer providing any tooth-like functions. However, it does look nice sitting by my computer monitir...



MaFt

The Tooth, The Whole Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth

Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! The numbing was standard to begin with (2 big needles intoo the gum) but then he said "this one will hurt" - not "this MIGHT hurt" but "WILL hurt"... I'd like to be able to show my manliness and high pain threshold, but it hurt like buggery when he stuck that needle into the roof of my mouth!

Ten minutes later I was back in his chair, shaking like a small child surrounded by bears, tigers and closet monsters, and then the fun began. My tooth wouldn't budge. Stubborn little thing it was, so he had to pull out the next set of pliers. I swear they were about seven inches long ('all the better to sever you with, my dear' and then he told the assistant (the big burly manly one, not the attractive slim one) to grab my head while he twists. So, I had this big brute of a lady grabbing my head, and a skinny, sarcastic little dentist with some seven inch pliers shoved in the back of my mouth trying to yank a tooth out. Eventually it came out and I then had to bite down on some cotton wool* to soak up the blood for twenty minutes.

* This was the worst part to be honest! I have this weird fear of cotton wool... it's weird, but it squeeks! Eugh, horrible stuff!!

I'm so hungry it's unbelievable! I sucked on a Milky Bar last night and had a bit of bread but if I put any effort into chewing then it makes my hole bleed. Today I'm going to eat soup and bread :) I'll try post a picture of the offending tooth tonight - I tried emailing one from my phone but it's not working for some reason...

MaFt