Christmas In Summary, Cartoon Style
December 24, 2007 (No Responses)
A Vader Christmas?
December 22, 2007 (One Response)
I’VE SEEN A LOT OF STRANGE THINGS in my time. Really. But I wasn’t quite prepared for this.
This is apparently what passes for a ‘sexy’ Darth Vader outfit, although what exactly you could get up to in such an outfit is beyond my imagination presently; Damn - I am getting old. Poor sod in these photos looks like they need a toilet… badly!
Anyhoo - I was going to do my usually politically incorrect christmas greeting to you all, given the season that’s in it, but instead today I decided that I’d go with this weird imagery in order to actually let you know about a little christmas treat you can get yourself.
Well actually it’s probably more of a New Years treat given the timetable.
If you are a fan of the Family Guy show, and you loved Star Wars, then there is some pretty cool news afoot. The Family Guy team have done a special Star Wars themed DVD which you can pre-order at Play.com (or wherever you normally get your DVDs from).
Can you picture it yet? Peter Griffen as Han Solo, Chris as Luke Skywalker, Brian as Chewie and so on, but best of all… Stewie as Darth Vader!! You should see him in the vader outfit - it’s priceless. They rip the piss out of the classic Star Wars movie and if the teaser is anything to go by the DVD should be a hoot.
So, from all the lunatics still here at this asylum to all you lunatics who managed to escape - have a great whatever-you-call-it in your religion cult group creed crew and I’ll see you on the flipside in the New Year.
And remember - whatever you do, try your best to make it a politically incorrect christmas; they really are the best kind!
Alien Anthropology: Religion Is Dead, Faith May Yet Prevail
December 16, 2007 (16 Responses)
WE VISITED AN ALIEN WORLD this morning. It had been many many years since I’d seen the inside of a church, excepting of course the usual weddings and funerals that require perfunctory attendance but none of the usual alertness I’d associate with the giving and receiving of actual organised religion.
This morning SusiQ and I attended a mass (the reasons for which are not really central to the theme of this post) and as I sat there and looked around at the church, the audience, the priest, the whole interaction I was struck by how alien it all was for me. The church in question was one I’d frequented when I was a young boy growing up in Dublin, but by the time I was twelve I’d basically bailed on the whole organised religion thing and left mass and churches behind in the process, much to the distress of my mother.
And so it was that I found myself back in this church, with my mother as it happens and SusiQ, and the occasion provided me with an opportunity, anthropologically speaking, to observe the alien process in action and see for myself how things had changed in the decades since I last found myself in that church.
For starters, the audience congregation had changed dramatically. I’d say only 25% of the seats were taken up, and of those probably 90% of the participants spectators were at the over-sixty stage. I only counted two kids in the entire church and probably four or five middle aged or young couples, most of whom were eastern European by appearance. Attendances have dropped off significantly from when I was a boy.
My first surprise was when the priest stood up and announced the start of the service for ‘those listening at home’; they were broadcasting over a church radio network. An obvious progression I know, but still I wasn’t expecting it for some reason. As the priest droned on in the usual monotones I took stock of the churchgoers in the rows and rows in front of him and would liken them to robots, going through the well established and comfortable motions, rather than active partipants in any religious ceremony. They came in, sat down, switched off and performed when required. There was no real engagement as such.
Then of course it got weirder, which is only to be expected I suppose in an alien landscape… Read more
Beware: Paypal Scam Doing The Rounds
December 5, 2007 (6 Responses)
I RECEIVED the following email in my inbox this morning, which I immediately reported to Paypal and had confirmed by them as a phishing attempt to gain access to my credentials and password/financial information. It’s doing the rounds at the mo apparently.
I sussed it for a phishing attempt more or less immediately, but it was cleverly disguised in fairness, using all the right logos, language… hell if it wasn’t for the dodgy domain in the link address contained within the email I might have fallen for it. Well not really, given that Paypal would never ask for the details this email does, but still I’m sure there are folks out there who may be taken in by this.
Therefore I am reproducing the entire email here, including links, so that as many people as possible can be alerted to this phishing attempt. Please feel free to link to or cut/paste from this article if it will help avoid someone getting caught by the fraudsters behind this.
Original email follows: Read more
Our Cocker Spaniel Story Continues…
December 1, 2007 (3 Responses)
IT HAS TAKEN a few weeks, and there were times I thought it would never happen, but eventually Cosmo and Amber started playing together and now they get on like a house on fire. There was a collective sigh of relief when that happened because we were worried Amber just wouldn’t accept him after the death of her sister, Bonnie. A 10 year old Cocker and a new pup is not always the best combination, but in this case we either did everything right, or just got lucky. Either way, we couldn’t be happier.
The house will never be the same of course without Bonnie, and we had forgotten just how much work a pup is and, worse still, the bloody damage they can do in chewing everything that’s not nailed down… but it’s worth it.
Lots of people have been asking us for updates on Cosmo and his progress so for anyone that has been following the Cosmo story thus far I’ve uploaded a bunch of new photos into his gallery. He is now 3 months old and growing like a mad thing. I think he has the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a young cocker spaniel, so it’s highly likely he will be a very big dog when he grows into his frame.
He really is a typical mischievous, shifty and sneaky cocker spaniel pup though, so much so that he has earned the title of ‘silent bu deadly’ around here. It’s hard to catch him in the act, but so far he has managed to eat my telephone cable, kill my PC speaker system, eat some money (notes not coins!), destroy some guide books (he has a fondness for guidebooks about Paris for some reason!), dismantle his bed into molecular form, shred what was left of the carpet at the top of the stairs and much more… nothing is safe, but it’s fun to watch him grow up and I do believe Amber is happier now with the company. Read more
