Just been watching Changing Rooms on BBC America. No, that doesn't make me reflect on the manliness of my tv viewing habits. Come on chaps, remember after all, this IS America so you can imagine what is available to watch on TV. In fact a peanut could imagine what is on tv over here!

Meanwhile back somewhere near the plot.....

They did the usual thing of going to people's houses and changing them into something of (usually) great taste. But my issue with the whole thing is about the husband/boyfriends part in all this. At the start when they get into the other people's house to appear to discuss with them what the room should be turned into, the male (who will no doubt be working AND responsible for any mishaps along the way) seems to fade from view. The women of the piece get on with what colours go where, and what would look "Great, painted over that antique wordwork...etc". The chap just seems to go into the background like an extra in a movie. Once the end of the show arrives, the man is simply there for TVBackup. That is, if the woman doesn't like it, or isn't 'telly' enough, they can ask him, in his obviously limited and tasteless world, what HE thinks. But according to BBC regulations, they must try and ask the woman at least THREE times what she thinks of it all. Even if she is slowly turning red, growing horns, and sprouting paint stripping devices from the ends of her arms, as they, er.. sorry SHE makes her initial assessment of the now altered room.

There is something about the show that you cannot resist. Nobody, and I mean NO-ONE can watch just a bit of that show. Once you watch the demographically stereotypically correct couples exchange keys, with a big smile from Carol, you are hooked. You never think it's going to look like anything and feel just a twinge of smug satisfaction and fake sympathy, when it looks completely stupid, and the woman (not the chap) hates it with a vengance.

They also have an American version in which they usually start in houses that look like they have already been done, and seem to not want to annoy anyone in them, so all they ever do is paint something and make everything completely reversible.
Tame. 2/10

Tried using one of those little keyboards for a PDA to write a few entries. Did battle with the supposed innocence of the kittens. You know how it is, they 'innocently' explore exactly the thing that fluffyness and little wet noses would do well to steer clear of. I'm sure in the same way that cats have become domesticated, they have also an uncanny sixth sense when it comes to, things to softly (but with EXACTLY the right amount) of force, knock over/interfere with/lick so that the owner has to throw it away or give it to them to finish off!

You could say they get a feline about it, chortle.....

Anyway, the little keyboard worked surprisingly well, as long as there were no fluffy bundles of inquisitiveness about. Could tap away for as long as I didn't need a number, or a punctuation mark of any kind. There are only letter keys so all the other symbols have to be shifted in some way....hmm....this is boring I can tell.....

In the end I gave up, although probably during my working days I shall endevour to try this again, due to the hours I have to travel.

Wow, just think how long and boring this can get then?

Wow, actually managed to get to my first International Car Show. It was not quite what I was expecting. The bestest thing in the whole wide, cooler than kewl world was the REAL BATMOBILE!!! Well, the link doesn't really show it off THAT greatly, but I think it DID deserve 3 whole exclamation marks!!! (again)

The rest of the auto show was surprisingly sort of, well, you know....just cars really. Was like having a load of car dealerships all next door to eachother, but without the walls. Obviously my S.U.V. gland is severely damaged, because there was not an ounce of stir, in any part of my er... well....I think you get the idea... I tried to revive it by visiting the allegedly exotic car sections, but that was merely fewer cars that appeared to cost more. As for the supposed glitz of the whole thing, well, perhaps it was my 'out-of-townedness' that made sure the non-existant celebrities at the show were lost on me. I should have taken a camera, so I could take a pic of Batty's little runabout, complete with rocket powered bit on the back. So you could see how much money the moblie phone company had spent on the stand, and how bored the bleach blonde, smile smeared, leaflet ladies looked..... Always next year.....

Someone thought the earlier photo shoot comment was a bit over the top and I quote.

Were you going to have a photo shoot (how very la di da!) with Maury Perpins? "smoil et the cemera Maury"

Well, I thought it was extremely funny. Brits only on this one I'm afraid.....big raspberries all round then!

Ok, there must be some law of the universe or something that has the rules regarding download speeds. No matter how big the file, where the server is, or how much you have still to obtain, a file always remains the same time from completion. If it starts off at twenty minutes then that is how long it will be until the very last moment. The servers all get together and decide to throttle the bandwidth the exact percentage that the file has downloaded.

So, with ten percent gone, they throttle it ten percent. When you reach ninety-eight then it is ninety-eight percent restricted. See how it works now?

Blimey, bloomin' blinkin' eck! As Dick van Dyke from Mary Poppins might have said...or is that 'Maury Perpins'?

In a sadistic conga line of fate, I seem destined NEVER to reach an area that exists in legend only. I always thought America was full of what ever you want, when ever you want it, but alas no. Trying to get anywhere without a car is insane! Takes 5 hours to do a hundred miles, on a bus!

Excuse me while I go away and shrug a lot....

demoscene.org

Firstly let me just say that I cannot get on with work right now as it involves a photo shoot and it's way too dark right now.....good, I don't feel quite as guilty as I did previously...

Onward to today's topic which is once again shopping. I popped out for a small battery (you know, the type you put in a watch) and thought it would be a great excuse to go to Radioshack. I used to quite like going to Dixons in the UK, as they sell all the stuff you like, but nobody really knows anything about what they have available. Expect for an encyclopedic knowledge of every insurance scheme since the dawn of time! RadioShack even sells all the little bits of things you need, right there in the store. Bit of wire for a speaker, bulb for the fridge, battery cover for a gameboy. So this beats Dixons, as they only stuck to the completed mass produced, sell them for six months-reduce them after four, and then never sell them ever again because they were a terrible idea anyway, type of things. But alas, it seems RadioShack is EXACTLY the same as Dixons. Only one difference. Now there are a near infinite amount of little things that the sales person can have absolutely no knowledge of at all.

After waiting for a very long time to be served by the slightly more animated sales person of the two, I was told that I should see the other one, as they knew more about it. The reason I did not choose the 'other' person was that every time I go in there they seem to have some sort of zen like thing going on with the cash register. I go in there, and they are deep in thought looking straight at it. Even the person that was being 'served' by them seemed annoyed at the hypersleep sales technique. I witnesses three (yes THREE) phone calls come in during my fifteen minute wait, and they were ALL put on hold. Then later one of them would pick up the phone and ask why the person was waiting, say yes, and then put them back on hold.

Somebody please tell me I am missing something?

See what I mean? This is not Data! And that ain't Spock! Try others, you will be absolutely astounded at the non-lookalikedness of nearly all of them!!

Is this the results of the forbidden liason between these? Sorry, but it made me laugh :) I always thought the idea of a lookalike, was to in effect..er... LOOK LIKE the person.