robpannell.com

Today my manager worked out how to make a sound play on someone else’s computer over the network, without any trace of the program playing it, and at regular intervals throughout the day he deemed it appropriate to treat me to the theme from the original ‘Casino Royale’ film.

I worked it out eventually, then treated another of my colleagues to clips from ‘The Life of Brian’ and ‘Team America’

Anyway, on to fun Monday hosted this time around by M is for Misanthrope 

‘Do you have a piece of jewelry or other item that holds great personal significance for you, and that you wear or keep with you every day?  Show us a photo of your talisman, and tell us why it is so important to you’

And so here is mine:

Obviously my wedding ring would be the first thing that should appear here, as a symbol of the most important thing in the world to me. But as that’s a given, I thought I’d show you the second place piece. It’s a silver pendant which I’ve only acquired very recently, but still means a lot. Not only does the fish represent what means most to me beyond the world (God) but it was made for me by a good friend of mine who happens to be a jeweller. Thanks Rob!

(His name is Rob too, I’m not thanking myself…)

EDIT: Sarah suggested I should show you my wedding ring anyway & point out the dent which you can just make out on the top front edge. This happened when I scaled an 8 foot wire fence to retrieve a frisbee during an office picnic. I flipped over the top & as i came down my ring got caught on some of the wire. I’m lucky it didn’t take my finger off!

I’d never have my ring repaired, because each mark bears a memory which I always want to keep hold of.

Tonight was our church quiz night.

Upon arrival, a group of us who usually lose everything got together. We thought if we were a team, it’d give everyone else a better chance of being on the winning team rather than dragging them down with us.

We only went and flippin’ won!

So Sarah and I are now a box of flake chocolates & a bottle of Shiraz better off.

Score!

Well I’m proud to say that I upheld the 2 minutes silence at 11 yesterday for rememberance day. I even went further and did a whole 90 minutes!

Ok, so at the time I wasn’t really thinking about those who gave their lives. And Ok, so the silence was largely due to the exam I was sitting. But I did pass the exam making me a

So Yay! I did think about our war heroes later in the day to make up for it.

It was also Sarah’s birthday, so I had the rest of the day off work and we did nice things.

We started with a light lunch then combined a little geocaching with some mountaineering. Terrain 1.5 my bum!

Well, ok. Maybe 1.5 was about right…

We did a total of 9 caches which got us really muddy up to our knees, but we had a great time.

We headed home and scrubbed up, then went off for a pub meal. We had intended to watch the new Indiana Jones DVD when we got home, but in the end we were so tired we just fell asleep!

I like days like this.

P.S. Thought for the day:

When you abduct a feline, what do you call it (I don’t mean like ‘Bob’, rather the act of abducting it). I think you’ll find ‘catnapping’ is already taken…

I’m really overexcited!

The other day I bought a ‘make your own Morph’ kit and today I had a go.

I expected to be really really crap at it and although it’s no masterpiece, I’m still really happy with how good it turned out. It’s really depressing watching Peter Lord do it on the instruction DVD though, he’s so sickeningly good & fast!

Here’s mine:

And on the Obama front, things just get more and more exciting!!!

Obama dog: Purebred or mutt?

By CAROL E. LEE | 11/7/08 3:53 PM EST:
Asked what kind of dog he plans to buy for his two young daughters, Barack Obama said it’s a tossup between a purebred and a mutt like him.

“This is a major issue,” he deadpanned at his first press conference as president-elect. “We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog. But obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me. So whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household.”

The Chicago Tribune has reported that the Obamas are “leaning toward a goldendoodle,” a hypoallergenic hybrid of a golden retriever and a poodle.

Obama also acknowledged that the future first puppy has widespread fans.

Hosted by Bee Dancer:

 
“Post a picture of the one person/place/thing that most symbolizes the town or area where you live”

Here’s mine, I’m afraid I cheated and have 2 entries:

Meridian

Sisters

edit: I just realised that I didn’t read the whole assignment, I was supposed to say why I blog & why I keep it up.

I blog because I am a creative person. I love writing and photography etc, but am not clever enough (or disciplined) to write a book. Plus no-one would buy it. So I blog instead. I also love to make people laugh, and occasionally I’m successful. I keep it up because it’s a great outlet, and you can share your thoughts with the world. Way better than a diary.

It’s great to look over past blogs remembering what previous parts of my life were like.

Today one of my colleagues received a phone call from one of our colleagues in Germany.

He saw before answering the call who it was and said “I gotta think of something German to say when I answer, it’ll be really funny”

He umms and aahhs for about 10 seonds, then picks up the receiver, puts it to his ear, then pauses for what seems like an eternity, whilst deciding which phrase to draw from his wealth of German vocabulary.

myself and another colleague are waiting with bated breathe when the silence is finally broken and he comes out with…

“uh… Hello.”

We nearly wet ourselves.

He did make up for it during the call by playing ‘Das Lied der Deutschen’ in the background whilst he answered the query…

Earlier today I once again confirmed my stupidity. I witnessed a Generator exploding in Burgess Hill. ‘Bang’ it went in a big cloud of black smoke. It was the result of a power outage which also caused the cancellation of the Microsoft exam I was supposed to be sitting.

My boss had an exam at the same time, so I’d left the car at Sarah’s Uni & he drove from there. The plan had been to drop me back at the uni after the exams and I’d go home with Sarah, but because they were cancelled our return was much earlier. S was in a seminar, so he kindly took me straight home.
It was at this point I realised that I had the only key to the car on me. This meant Sarah was at the Uni with the car, and I was at home with the key.

Bugger.

Thankfully my boss hadn’t left yet, so he kindly drove me back again by which time S was ready to leave.

Once we’d been home for a while, I’d happily settled on the sofa, tapping away at my computer when I heard a shriek.

“AAGGHH. There’s a dead mouse on my flute!”

A statement that definitely required investigation. Sure enough, there was a dead mouse resting on the end of Sarah’s flute case which was hung on the back of one of our dining room chairs.

Eskimos supposedly put their elderly on rafts and send them off into the ocean to die. It would appear that mice are now sending their elderly on a pilgrimage to climb to the peak of Sarah’s flute case to die in peace.

Well, it’s either that or the cat put it there, but frankly that seems somewhat far fetched knowing Boxer.

Sarah assured me that she’s not scared of or even bothered by mice, dead or alive, but that it was just unexpected, and so it would be best if I were to dispose of it.

After all this excitement we went to see the new Bond film. All the reviews were wrong. It had all the elements of a classic Bond film and was absolutely awesome. I was even won over to the theme which I’ve been swearing at each time it comes on the radio.

Daniel Craig is much truer to Ian Fleming’s Bond. I can’t wait for the next one now!

I’ve added an FAQ page to my website.

This was inspired today when my manager visited the website of an IT product manufacturer for support.

Their FAQ page did, as advertised, feature questions that were frequently asked.

It further qualified this by showing you exactly how many times each question had been asked. However, their was no sign of any answers to the questions. They simply acknowledged that people were asking them.

At last, a service that does exactly as stated!

I’ll be on the lookout for FAQ&A pages from now on…

As you may have gathered from my previous post, Sarah hasn’t been well this week.

On Thursday evening she showed signs of recovery by asking for a cheese toastie for dinner.

So off I go into the kitchen and grab the unbranded, very plasticy sandwich toaster kindly donated to us by my grandmother, who I think received it as a free gift when she bought a keyring.

What could possibly go wrong?

My suspicions were first aroused when the usual cloud of smoke emanating from the machine smelled of plastic rather than cheese.

The next clue was the orange glow visible through the ventilation gaps.

Next were the ‘fizz’ ‘pop’ noises.

And the finale was the bursting into flames in the middle of our kitchen worktop.

Having witnessed this spectacle, and waiting another 20 seconds or so, I think to myself “Oh hang on, this isn’t normal for cheese toasties!”

I unplug it, fill the sink with water and hurled it in.

Phew, crisis averted.

But wait, what does that label say on the bottom? (its bottom, not mine)

The 5th line down reads “Do Not Immerse In Any Liquid”

edit: Rest assured Sarah got here cheese toastie, I managed to heroically ‘fireman’s lift’ it into the grill during the blaze.