Misc

There are 33 posts filed in Misc (this is page 2 of 2).

Left-handed nuggets

In the usual strange way, a random conversation cropped up at work this week about being left-handed. I recalled that I had recently read something about left-handed people having a shorter average life expectancy than those who are right-handed. This is the sort of story that usually appears on the BBC News site, so I typed in my search for "left handed" to try and find the story. I had no luck, but I was fascinated to see a large number of wonderful nuggets of knowledge instead! Did you know that left-handedness was common in the Ice Age? Or that most walruses are right-flippered? Or even that couples turn their heads to the right as they kiss? All good little gems to be recalled at the pub as necessary.

England +1 Scotland +0

Spotted this on a news feed at work today – an MP from Kent is trying to get the time zone for England and Wales moved forward by an hour to be in line with central Europe in order to prevent road deaths. Scotland vetoed it in the past but now that we’re devolved, that might not matter!

Crush those bottles!

It’s a difficult habit to get out of. You finish your drink, screw the lid back on the bottle and throw it in the bin. The trouble is that the bottles are incredibly strong when sealed and are very difficult to crush. If you’re not recycling (and we haven’t been up until now as there isn’t a ‘plastic bank’ near us by foot) then at least save some space in the landfill by crushing the bottle before sealing it up again!

The Ross Gazette

My lovely wife grew up in Ross-on-Wye, a beautiful town in rural Herefordshire. A couple of weeks ago, after returning from our honeymoon, we spent a weekend in Ross and whilst there I got my hands on a copy of the fine Ross Gazette.

This publication is legendary among people from Ross and I had heard many things about previous headlines such as ‘Riot!’ when a handful of sixth-formers gathered by the river with a stereo and a bottle of Strongbow, but I didn’t quite believe it. That is, until I saw the 2 September issue. The article on the right completely cracked me up – imagine the look on the policeman’s face when he heard the tale of the canoe-bound umbrella thieves. Classic.

The cream of the crop, though, was to be found on page 11. ‘The Lea Show Results of the Fruit and Vegetable Show – 2004‘ was something else. Imagine being the winner of the ‘arrangement incorporating a kitchen utensil’ category! Marion Martin and Sarah Williams, I salute you!

Apology

Over the past couple of months I’ve been having to deal with an increase in the amount of blog spam I’ve been getting. Basically, evil spammers are writing comments on the blog that link to various sites (casinos, porn, etc) in order to increase their ranking in Google. This version of Movable Type doesn’t really have a very good way of getting rid of comments en masse, which can be a pain when you have over 20 spam messages.

To combat this, I recently installed the excellent MT-Blacklist plugin, which gives you the features that MT should have had in the first place. However, MT-Blacklist is frighteningly easy to use and unfortunately I have tonight deleted the last 20 legitimate comments made on the blog.

All I can say is that I am sincerely sorry to any of you that have contributed your thoughts here. Hopefully this will be a lesson learned and I will be much more careful in future – please don’t be put off!

Body pump

Having managed to get out of work on time today, my better half persuaded me to go to her regular Monday night Body Pump class. My body has suddenly remembered about fifty muscles that it forgot were there (or didn’t think existed in the first place).
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Shopping bags

Why oh why does every shop seem to think that I need a massive bag for every individual thing that I buy? I think I’m turning into a grumpy old man as every shopping trip seems to get me grumbling these days. Heal’s on Tottenham Court Road was the worst offender today; I saw the checkout girl going for an elaborate shopping bag in which to place a small box of shower curtain rings so I quickly tried to head her off by saying “Don’t worry about a bag, thanks.” Somehow between my lips and her ears this must have transformed into “A small paper bag for me, thanks.”
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My weblog – welcome!

Welcome to the applecrumble.net andrewdoran.uk blog! At the time of writing, this site is only accessible at its IP address as its name hasn’t found its way around the internet DNS servers; if you’re reading this today then welcome – but how did you find it?!

I’m starting this blog as I feel that I need somewhere to speak my mind, somewhere to comment constructively on things that are going on instead of ranting at people on a television screen, somewhere to post the odd photo or two and somewhere to link to all of the wonderful websites that seem to come my way.

My friend Mat is also starting a blog so it’ll be interesting to hear his take on things, especially after a fun night out with our friends.

Looking forward to updating the blog!