Wide Open Spaces

jaybob @ 2008-07-12T11:22:00

2008-07-12T16:23:07Z

wishes he could be Michael Palin.

jaybob @ 2008-07-11T07:20:00

2008-07-11T12:21:27Z

is in one of those moods where he really needs to pee but is too lazy to go.

jaybob @ 2008-07-11T02:48:00

2008-07-11T07:48:51Z

is pleased it is the weekend. Nearly. 8 hours, 12 minutes to go.

jaybob @ 2008-07-10T15:33:00

2008-07-10T20:33:47Z

I hate targeted adverts!! No I don't want to sign up for ManHunt!! Grr...

jaybob @ 2008-07-10T07:47:00

2008-07-10T12:47:37Z

is mostly playing with speech bubble shaped post it notes.

jaybob @ 2008-07-09T14:09:00

2008-07-09T19:10:06Z

2 days until the weekend! Hurrah, any plans?

Conspiracy

2008-07-07T10:32:44Z

Firstly let me just state some facts: I used to be an X-Phile (a fan of the X-Files, and “used to be” is probably a lie) and even now find it hard to resist the urge to buy magazines such as Fortean Times.

However, despite reading many articles on the “fake Moon landings” and the case of the missing cosmonauts (supposedly lost in space) with great interest, I am not a believer in these conspiracy theories. I obviously do not have the information and evidence at hand to completely debunk them so I always maintain a healthy skepticism but, based on the facts known to me, I think they are nothing better than lies and misunderstandings.

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the July 7th bombings on London Transport (I refuse to call them 7/7 as I think that is just a silly, tabloidy thing to call such a serious event) and I’ve seen and heard a few conspiracy theories rehashed from that time mostly referring to this being a false flag attack. These deserve about as much attention as the 9/11 Truth Movement guys (September the 11th sounds so much more ominous than 9/11 don’t you think and given the circumstances I thus prefer the long form); i.e. NONE.

I don’t think that conspiracy theorists make up the theories because they are liars or nuts (ok… some are nuts). I think they just labour under two particular major misunderstandings:

1) they are unable to accept the fact that small groups of people and individuals can have such a massive, malign influence on so many lives. People would find it easier to understand a grand conspiracy lead by George W. Bush to destroy the Twin Towers in order to start a new war, using all the technology and power at his disposal, than believe that 19 guys armed with small sharp objects and some luck on their side could cause such havoc. It’s sort of comforting isn’t it, to believe that there is some major Government involvement with a purpose, rather than think that your lives are so susceptible to other’s whims. It’s a very scary fact but one we, and the Government, needs to come to terms with.

2) They have too much faith in the power of their Governments. The image of a Government firmly in control, able to manipulate events with ease and secretly planning a New World Order is one used often in the media. But this ignores the fact that the Government is a group of human beings. Humans make many mistakes. There is no way, I repeat, NO WAY that secrets as large as a Government conspiracy on the scale something like September the 11th would require could be kept a secret for long. The amount of people required to perpetrate some of the theories espoused would be astronomical. And we are meant to believe these people are going to just keep quiet??? Never. Secrets only work in small groups and/or where the reasons behind the secret are inherently just.

To be honest I feel as if those who support the 9/11 Truth Movement and other conspiracies are scared of facing reality. A reality where the Government cannot protect us, no matter how hard it tries, and where we are left personally responsible for our own lives and the lives of those we are directly involved with. These conspiracy theories allow them a comfort blanket, and if the consequences of the theories wasn’t so horrid then I’d say “let them have it, whatever gets them through the day”.

Alas these theories are, I’m sure, a terrible thing for the families. Some might embrace the warmth and safety of them; but others will be only further harmed by the continued espousal of these ideas. Imagine having a family member who died in a terrorist attack and then being told “Oh no, those planes were empty/didn’t exist.” Or being Jewish and losing a friend and being told this was a Zionist plot to bring about war in the Middle East. No one should need to go through that after all they have suffered already.

I believe that questioning the truth of everything you are told is healthy (if done politely and intelligently) but disregarding facts in pursuit of your own selfish need for reassurance in the face of other’s personal tragedy is almost criminal.

jaybob @ 2008-07-07T02:13:00

2008-07-07T07:29:35Z

thinks Space Oddity by David Bowie may be his favourite song. Darn you mother!!!

jaybob @ 2008-07-06T06:35:00

2008-07-06T11:51:54Z

Check out my London Gay Pride 2008 pictures at: http://ping.fm/NPUfl

Kentish Weekend

2008-06-30T13:52:28Z

Saturday Jim and I set off to Kent to visit the parental units. But first we had to get the car washed, and made a return to the Polish hand wash place down in Lewisham. My favourite from last time was topless, proving I was not wrong to assume he had a fabulous body. I'm liking this trend away from automatic car washes to more old fashioned versions... Automatic = bad. Hand wash = porn. Goodness.

Anyhew... we made it to Lympne and settled into the parent's house, Jim did his usual computer fixing whilst I enjoyed watching the boring programmes I dare not watch at home. Jim and Tony went out to get supplies for dinner and bumped into Paul O'Grady at the local farm shop. As you do (he's a local).

We had a lovely BBQ with some gorgeous steaks bought in Greenwich. I mean... really gorgeous. They were scrumilicious.

Saturday night we watched Doctor Who and Big Brother as a family with Beth and her friend Amy chatting NON STOP throughout driving me crazy... AH!!!

Sunday Jim made a humourous error of wondering if there was a fishmongers nearby, which caused my entire family to descend into mocking him... well they do live by the sea, in a fishing town!!! :D George, Jim and I headed into town and went to the harbour to get some fish for dinner and bought some computer games in town. Stopped off at the service station near my parents village to pick up a Starbucks. If I'd known there would be a Starbucks, a HMV and a WHSmith in my village I'd never have moved to London!! :D

Dinner was gorgeous, fish cakes.... Kenyo, those recipes will be on their way soon!!

Good weekend really..

jaybob @ 2008-06-28T05:06:00

2008-06-28T10:21:49Z

Hi! Join Plurk, it's brilliant!!! http://ping.fm/Ahfz8

jaybob @ 2008-06-24T05:00:00

2008-06-24T10:14:46Z

is not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!!!

jaybob @ 2008-06-21T08:41:00

2008-06-21T13:55:25Z

Thinks he should spend more time learning Thai

jaybob @ 2008-06-20T08:04:00

2008-06-20T13:18:27Z

It's Friday! Let's go home...

So....

2008-06-20T13:17:29Z

Alexandria was removed from the Big Brother house as a birthday present to myself. I slipped Big Brother a couple of pounds to arrange it. It made my day. A new house mate enters the house today.

There is a guy at work who I feel so sorry for. He has never done customer service before, and his degree (a good one) is in microbiology (he's on holiday here, so don't complain that degrees don't get you good jobs ;) ). He's very smart, and very articulate.

Sadly he has one minor flaw. His honesty and willingness to treat customers as grown ups. He tries to reason with them, as if they are reasonable people. He is polite, and even sympathetic. But he also expects his customers to act like an adult.

This is unreasonable expectation, but it fills me with joy to hear him trying to explain to a customer that although he appreciates that the goods were 5 minutes late, there is little reason for them getting so very angry when they could discuss it like civilised people. It is a wonder that he is not so jaded by working in service that he can still hold out hope for an intelligent conversation.

Bless him. I like that optimistic attitude. It makes me think there might be some hope for humanity yet.

jaybob @ 2008-06-18T02:17:00

2008-06-18T07:31:10Z

It's my birthday... but I have been without internet at home for two days.. Cold turkey not good...

Euro 2008 Experiment: The End

2008-06-17T09:59:58Z

After my last update I lost both matches. So no more money left. Game over. :(

jaybob @ 2008-06-17T04:45:00

2008-06-17T09:59:03Z

One more day until my 7th 19th Birthday

A Birthday Weekend

2008-06-16T07:58:47Z

On Saturday Jim and I headed down to Lympne to see the family. We had a nice lazy day hanging around the parents house, saw Doctor Who (review later on Dreaming of Chong Nonsi) and had a family gathering around the telly to watch Big Brother.

We stayed the night in "my room" (lies, it's George's former room and no matter how often Mum refers to it as my room I will not accept it ;) )

The next day was lazy to start off with, with Jim being rather too helpful around the house. Gave Tony his father's day gift and card (a Greek phrase book to feed his continuing Crete obsession and a £10 Waterstone's voucher).

Rather late in the afternoon the family began to arrive. Uncle Nick and Auntie Martine came bring with them Rhys (the first of the birthdayers, 16 on Tuesday, and he is now getting huge as is the Kay way. Wow.), Fran, Nan (the second of the birthdayers, she turned 70 on Friday), Great Aunt Joy and Auntie Shena (a relative of my Grandad). Then Uncle Graham turned up, which was an unexpected surprise; he doesn't often grace us with his prescence.

Of course there was also Mum, Tony, Jim, Beth and George plus me (the third and final birthdayer who is 19 for the 7th time on Wednesday). Tony put the BBQ on and a very large meal was had by all, supplemented by Jim's rather delicious potato and crab meat salad thingy. Yum.

After stuffing our face with that we then had the birthday cakes, plus other desserts. My families eyes are far larger than their stomachs.

Presents were good, I was pleased to make my Nan angry with the nice voucher we got her for M&S (in my family it's seen as a mission to annoy others by giving too much).

I thought I escaped this practice but as well as my Stephen King book (Blaze), Mum also slipped £40 into my card. Sneaky. I was not amused. She has this thing about spoiling me, and I don't like it.

But a good day was had by all and for once I wasn't chomping at the bit to escape. We had some good funny family stories (such as my Grandads rather awesome last car drive through London before his death... it involved a crash, fire and a missed plane).

Good to see everyone, and I'm annoyed to now be here back at work. Grr...

Euro 2008 Experiment: Mixed Bag

2008-06-12T07:30:21Z

The first match between Portugal and Czech Republic went my way but the second match didn't. Nevertheless, thanks to some good odds, I'm still up and have put £17.50 on each of the two favourites today.

The Euro 2008 Experiment: A Fresh Start

2008-06-11T10:38:27Z

So with the aid of my spur of the moment £5 bet (taken from my first winnings on the original £4 bet) on Spain, my experiment limped on another day...

Spain won, so I put all the money onto Sweden. And they won too! Woo... leaving me with the grand total of £24.05.

I've split that up on today's games, £12 each. Fingers crossed today goes well!

jaybob @ 2008-06-10T12:14:00

2008-06-10T17:27:35Z

loves this sort of thing... http://ping.fm/GSuY2

Big Brother: He's Got A DISABILITY!!!

2008-06-10T12:51:08Z

I honestly don't know how Mikey felt about Mario's outburst, perhaps he takes this sort of thing in his stride, but it made me very uncomfortable.

Mikey, in case you don't know, is the first ever blind housemate on Big Brother. He has a job, as a radio producer, and appears to be a lively individual with plenty of friends.

So when Mario began his rant about how Mikey takes priority over everything because of his disability I felt slightly confused. Mikey is blind, not mentally disabled or physically incapable of doing things himself. Sure he might need some friendly assistance, but I wonder how he feels about being treated like a child. Personally I also think it was bloody wrong to put Mikey and his blindness at the centre of an argument.

Perhaps he does accept this kind of thing in the spirit it was meant. It's obvious Mario means no malice, nor does he mean to condescend. He is concerned for a friend. But I can't believe people still react to people with a disability in this way.

Maybe it's because I was used to being around the mentally and physically disabled (thanks to my families line of work) from a very young age that makes me feel very uncomfortable about this sort of treatment.

What do you guys think? Another thing that really annoys me is the way some of them speak to Mikey, as if he was a "bit slow", as they say. Being blind does not suddenly lower someone's ability to comprehend language. Grr... rant over...

Here's an interesting article about the reaction to Mikey's blindness... http://ping.fm/DZFSG

Euro 2008 Experiment: Disaster!

2008-06-10T07:19:06Z

So France went and drew against Romania and the Netherlands thrashed Italy meaning I lost both matches!!!

Thankfully I made a mistake a couple of days ago which means I'm still in the game... I had beat £5 of my winnings on Spain, who play today, accidentally. So all my hopes rest on Spain tonight, if they don't win then I am buggered.

And so early on as well... d'oh!

Another Blog Post? Already???

2008-06-09T14:32:02Z

So along with the increase in blog posts around here, other things are happening in my life. I’m applying for new jobs in a bid to increase my salary, some of these jobs are offering silly money for a position exactly the same as the one I am in currently. That is a good sign. And customer service is not a part of the business world likely to be too adversely affected in any downturn. Sure there will be less jobs, but there will still be jobs going. My dream of changing jobs to something that interests me more has been placed on hold. I have a better dream now, and all I want is a job which will help fund that dream. If it pays more, then count me in! And a change will do me good. I’ve been looking at CVs today and there are all from people my age and I have far better employment histories than them… so I don’t feel so bad about moving on after 3 years here.

At the same time I am doing my utmost to work out ways of making even more money, from gambling (see my Euro 2008 experiment) through paid consumer surveys and even crazy competition applying (50 competitions entered this weekend).

Sadly my moral stand against too many adverts on blogs is going out the window. Once I’ve settled on an advertising programme that is not too intrusive (I hate those sites that have Google ads between their posts and stuff) I will be adding it to my blog. I apologise to you, Dear Constant Reader, for this capitalist invasion of this personal diary but I promise to try to put any money earned to good use. But those reading this via a feed reader do not worry… I will not be doing that annoying thing of “more after the cut off” that is becoming increasingly common on other feeds in order to force readers to visit the actual website. That is silly from a “reader relations” view point and I am just very thankful to you for reading!

And in great news… I am really losing weight. Last week I discovered I had gone down a notch on my belt. Today I found that, although not quite so comfortably, I’m down another notch!!! I haven’t had any alcohol in weeks (a couple of pints since getting back from holiday), and chocolate is now becoming a warm and fuzzy, but distant, memory. And yes I am still eating! 3 meals a day, and good meals too!

So there you have it guys… changes are in the air…

Things to do this month:

1) Be up to a “tourist” level of Thai speaking by end of the month (greetings, numbers, dates, basic questions and answers).
2) Apply for at least 20 new jobs.
3) Start actually using my savings account.
4) Spend as little money as humanly possible.
5) Lose a stone by the end of the month
6) Pretend that I am not 25 this month. Let’s call it 19 + 6.