Sunday 31 August 2008

Scream

No not the film, just my reaction to those bloody people who seek to make your internet life a misery.
I had a music file in an AIFF (Apple) format, which I couldn't play so I opened up my music converter program and found I didn't have the right codec, so I download it and it tells me it'll only run with an updated version of the main program :(
So I search for a program update (the original has served me well since 2003) and I find one to download, install it and install the new codec and convert the file.
I play the file and it's just 3 minutes of buzzing even though I know it was a music file from the person who gave it to me.
Then I try to go the net to see if I've got the right version and my browser (IE) starts throwing up virus messages :(
I know from experience that it's one of those browser hijack programs that tells you to download some crappy anti-virus programs because you've got thousands of viruses, even though you just have the one dodgy trojan.
Trouble is with these is it's a long winded process deleting them, so I've had to reset my IE and run a few removal programs with multiple shut down / restarts before it's clear.
So I've wasted over 3 hours to get a program which doesn't work properly and the new version is not as easy as the original.

So aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!

Saturday 30 August 2008

Lego JFK

Ethnic Cleansing


Found this picture at http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/
You'd think that Prince William might be concerned that the outboard motor has disappeared, even if he wasn't worried about the guy steering the boat.
Must be true it's in the Sun.

Spiders


Are Spiders secretly taking over the world?
We seem to be inundated with Spiders everywhere at the moment, if you don't go in a room for a couple of hours you walk straight into a web, every time I walk out of the front or back door I walk into a web.
Every time I have a bath or shower the spiders have taken over, fed the cat and there was a web built in her bowl, every time I go out in the car the wing mirror spiders have covered it in webs.
I went to hang some washing out and every peg on the line has its own spider and attached web.
I don't normally jump when I see one but the other night a largish one crawled out from behind the computer screen and started walking towards me.
They seem to have taken over every modern appliance and made it their own.

Now I know what the World Wide Web actually means.

All Balls


Sat through an episode of "Golden balls" today for the first time in ages, for anyone not familiar with the programme it is a British game show where lying and cheating could win you money, presented by former comedian Jasper Carrot it basically encourages the worst sides of human nature.
What the game comes down to at the end is they win a pot of money and 2 contestants go head to head and have the choice of "Split" or "Steal" to take the prize, if they both choose Split they share the prize, if they both choose Steal nobody wins anything, and if one splits and one steals the one who chose "Steal" pockets all the cash.
I vowed not to watch it again a few months back after a polite young lad who had been completely honest throughout the game believed the other contestant (a 20 something girl) that she was going to split the prize (about £25 grand).
He revealed his "Split" ball and she had chosen "Steal", so he goes home with nothing and she takes the lot, he just sits there looking crestfallen and Jasper wraps up the game.
I remember thinking "I hope someone stabs her on the way home" and I'm pretty mild mannered compared to a lot of people.
I understand the logic of the company who make this, as they get an hour long teatime slot with probably a lot of viewers and most days it doesn't cost them a penny as the greedy contestants usually both choose steal and both go home with nothing.

Anyway back to today's episode, the wife was watching it for the first time and asked me to explain it to her which I did "greedy bastards lie to each other and go home with nothing" sort of summed it up well I thought.
Certain similarity with today's game as a Mr Honest type got to the final against a guy who needed money for his upcoming wedding, the pot was £40 grand and Mr Honest says his piece and they even shake on a split and it comes to the reveal, Mr Honest has split and the other guy has stolen.
Now he just sits there looking sorry for himself, at this point I would have been over the table smashing this guy's face to pulp (which would have made great telly).
Can anyone who has just been robbed of £20 grand say they wouldn't be a little upset, because that's basically what had just happened.

Didn't see this episode below but the least he could have done was call her a lying c*nt (maybe he did and they cut it?).

Infections-R-Us

Oh well the missus finally got out of hospital alive :)
She caught the obligatory infection, which happens after every op she's had, despite all their new anti-infection initiatives (Fortunately not the MRSA type infection that they gave to my dad).
So the 5 day stay turned into almost a month, and now she has to have a nurse turn up at home every day for the next month to treat the unhealed wound (sigh).

Another thing she brought home was a stinking cold, which she passed on to me :)
Strangely although I'm pretty infection resistant I managed to develop just one symptom, a bad throat which has actually been quite funny as the main effect has been to change my voice every day, by day 3 I was doing a really good impression of Lee Marvin doing "Wandering star" :)
By day 4 I was the singer from Crash test dummies (if you remember that song "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"), sadly it's returned to normal now so my "voice-over" career is over before it began.

Monday 4 August 2008

Visiting Time

Just another thing to get the "ripped off" feeling brewing.

The wife has spent a lot of time in hospital over the years, so I've spent a lot of time visiting her.
The maternity unit at Southend used to be in a different hospital at nearby Rochford, where you could stay most of the day and the parking was free with many available spaces.
About ten years back Rochford hospital was closed and the maternity unit was moved to Southend General.
It was always a problem to park there due to a lack of spaces, which was made worse when the extension was built to house the new unit.
At least you had the option of staying all afternoon if you'd made your way there by bus, or if you had took the car and found a space it was £1.50 a day to park.
The current situation is even less spaces and a rising scale of parking charges from £2 for 2 hours upwards, the visiting times have changed to two slots of two hours a piece forcing you to leave the premises in beetween.
So if you travel by bus by the time you've got home it's time to come back for the next visiting slot, so it's pointless using public transport which is pretty expensive these days anyway.
The roads around the hospital are all yellow lines and parking restrictions, and each road is patrolled by a team of traffic wardens and recently you never fail to see at least one policeman sticking cones in various places?

So to be a good husband and visit my missus for the four hours a day available it costs me a minimum of £4 - £5 a day or over £30 a week.

Also makes you wonder where the money goes, as the hospital services seem to decline all the time, the wife's dinner today was one slice of extra thin ham and some lettuce leaves!
There's a lack of nursing staff (my niece who has no medical training was working there at the weekend as a nurse to make some extra cash).

Sunday 3 August 2008

The Op

Well the wife has had her operation and everything went well :-)
A total of 4 ovarian cysts were removed, one very large 35cm x 20cm x 20cm (Rugby ball), one about 5cm round (Tennis ball), and 2 smaller ones.
Slightly worrying is that some parts had to be left behind, part of the large one was attached to her bladder so the skin of it was left, and although one ovary was removed the other remains.
This is good in the sense that she won't need to have HRT treatment, but bad in that the cyst problem may reappear as this was the ovary that the large cyst eminated from.

She seems in good spirits even though they've taken away the Morphene now and she's feeling the pain.
Another reason not to wear a bikini, as they had to make two incisions this time, one from Belly button down, and another on the twice opened scar (where she had the ceasarian and hysterectomy) due to the size of the cyst being too big to get out of the first cut.

Her stomach is battered and bruised looking, but she's glad it's done.
Hopefully no complications or infections, and she'll be home in a day or two :-)