Robert Hampton

Another visitor! Stay a while… stay forever!

October 2003

3rd October 2003

Is this thing on?
Posted by at 10.08pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Time for an "I’m still here" post then.

Nothing much has been happening, to be honest. I could write all sorts of stuff down here, but it would either be mundane day-to-day things ("got up, went to work, worked, came home.") or horrible stuff ("You would NOT believe the size of the poo in the toilet at work! I tried three times and it just wouldn’t flush!") and frankly, there are more than enough journals like that already.

The Star Trek TNG box set I bought last week is broken, too. Ho-hum.

4th October 2003

Cockup
Posted by at 11.14pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Within These Walls is the story of Stonepark Women’s Prison, in which there’s not only women’s lib, but a lot of danger and a lot of bother.

Call me a sad bastard if you like, but I have a bit of a soft spot for It’ll be Alright on the Night. Brilliantly, someone’s gone and digitised a whole load of outtakes and stuck them on a website. You’ll need DivX to see them though.

6th October 2003

Contribution
Posted by at 7.39pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Today I learned that, even in my lowly position, I have a contribution to make to the company I work for.

The central heating system in our office was not working, and a few of my colleagues were complaining about the cold. I took it upon myself to try and get the boiler started up. The central heating boiler is located in a little side room with some other equipment. Mere mortals such as myself are not really supposed to touch it.

Much twiddling of knobs later, it became apparent that the boiler didn’t want to play ball. That’s when I saw the button marked RESET, and a metaphorical light bulb was illuminated above my head. At home, the RESET button is the button to push if the central heating system stops for whatever reason. The office heating system must work the same way, I thought. So I pushed it and pushed it and pushed it some more. Nothing.

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Darn
Posted by at 11.55pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Blueyonder‘s postcode checker gives me this:-

Unfortunately blueyonder broadband Internet and Digital TV are not available in your area

Hmm. I’m sure it used to say, "not yet available in your area." A small but significant change; have they just given up? There’s something slightly perverse about a company called Telewest Broadband telling you they can’t sell you broadband in an area served by Telewest Broadband.

8th October 2003

Celebrities: is there anything they don’t know?
Posted by at 8.04pm | Uncategorised | 1 response

There’s a bit in Back to the Future where Marty McFly, having travelled back in time 30 years, is trying to convince a sceptical Doc Brown that he is from 1985:-

Doc Brown: Tell me, “future boy”, who is president in the United States in 1985?
Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.

Doc Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?! Who’s Vice President? Jerry Lewis?

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16th October 2003

Dog Bites Man
Posted by at 11.56pm | Uncategorised | 1 response

I love the new house. There are no scumbags playing football outside at 1am, no scallies letting off fireworks continuously. Best of all, there’s a Merseyrail station at the end of the road, so I can be in town in 12 minutes.

Other than that, nothing is happening. I seem to have entered a bit of a bland phase.

I spent £80 on DVDs yesterday.

18th October 2003

Statistics
Posted by at 12.02am | Uncategorised | No responses

I currently have 67.2 megabytes of MP3s in the “TV Themes” folder on my hard drive. That’s, um… quite a collection I’ve got there. I even have the crappy version of the EastEnders theme from 1993-ish when it went all jazzy and violin-heavy.

I feel like a local radio DJ. Have you ever noticed how local radio DJs will always play an old TV theme at some point during their show? Usually to introduce some stupid phone-in competition where the caller at the other end of the line has to say the Phrase that Pays to win tickets for Busted or something. I hate that.

Delay
Posted by at 2.42pm | Uncategorised | 1 response

OK, I’ve stopped pretending that the Me and Links pages are coming soon. They aren’t.

There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one being that the images for the Links page are saved in RISC OS Draw format, and my Acorn computer is currently in a box somewhere, so until I can get it out…

As for the Me page, well… I want a picture of me that doesn’t look like a police mugshot of a convicted murderer.

20th October 2003

Attention all Men!
Posted by at 7.43pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Check out the second picture on this page. If you’re not careful, that could be you!

23rd October 2003

Nuts and Gum – Together at Last!
Posted by at 9.46pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Two fictional universes that should never collide, even in book form: Star Trek: The Next Generation and X-Men. Amazon can’t even be arsed putting the right picture up.

I’m tempted to buy this, just to see what it’s like.

24th October 2003

beepbeepbeepbeepbeep-pssssssht-clunk-ding-ding
Posted by at 7.52pm | Uncategorised | 1 response

Being late for work seems to bring out the athlete in me. Overslept this morning, stumbled out of the house late, ran to the station to find the train already in the platform with the door close alarm sounding.

I’m proud to say I leapt through those doors like a gazelle. A heavy-set gazelle with a wonky tie, but a gazelle nevertheless.

27th October 2003

Ick
Posted by at 10.09pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Chicken & Leek Cup-A-Soup — not nice.

28th October 2003

Adventures in Public Transport, Part V
Posted by at 7.36pm | Uncategorised | No responses

For the second night in a row, I’m over half-an-hour late home thanks to a problem at Sandhills. This is (I think) the 4th or 5th time in the last month that the service between Hunts Cross and Southport has fallen apart.

Worse still, there was a busker on the train. Perhaps one of the worst aspects of the London Underground, exported to Merseyrail. Great. :-/

The Weakest Link
Posted by at 11.25pm | Uncategorised | No responses

Save Iain Duncan Smith — no comment necessary from me, just follow the link.

29th October 2003

Polly Ticks
Posted by at 7.47pm | Uncategorised | 1 response

It’s very immature and mean-spirited to take pleasure in someone else’s misery. It’s probably an indicator of the selfish times in which we live, dogged by an "I’m All Right Jack" mentality.

So I shouldn’t really laugh at Iain Duncan Smith’s misfortune — but on the other hand, it is very funny. :-)

30th October 2003

The Clash
Posted by at 8.16pm | Uncategorised | 1 response

Digital TV gives you more choice: tonight, QI on BBC Four clashes with Harry Hill’s TV Burp on ITV1. I’m sure they’ll both be repeated ad infinitum during the next 7 days, but it’s still annoying.

(wants a Sky+ box)

31st October 2003

Trickless and Treatless
Posted by at 10.44pm | Uncategorised | No responses

So, that was Hallowe’en…

…and that’s it over with. We only had one Trick or Treater knock on our door, so I ate the rest of the sweets. :-)