Friday, October 31, 2008

They Played The Monster Mash!

Happy Samhain, Blessed Be. Enjoy some spooky musical treats :D 

Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers featuring Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane



Purple People Eater



I Put A Spell On You - Bette Midler



A Rather Haunting Rendition of Come Little Children





Hellbent a gay "horror" movie. :D

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

David Tennants Leaves Doctor Who!

We knew it was coming. But still, it is very sad. David Tennant has made it into my top three Doctors of all time thanks to the energy he brought to the role. Thank you Mr Tennant, you will be missed!!

But... in another story about the royal premiere of the new James Bond movie there was a picture which cheered me up...



I know... I'm a royalist and I should not be thinking about the future King and his brother in certain ways but... PHWOAH! That sofa looks big enough for three...

OK.... I apologise, I'm an awful person for even contemplating such a thing with their Royal Highnesses...

Home?



Mmmm... I'll have some pork katsudon please!!!!!!!!!!

I miss that place...

I Want A Dinosaur For Christmas!!

I now know that I want this for Christmas. I am truly, truly sad that I cannot be 5 years old again so that I could really get the best out of this amazing toy... :(

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Halloween Horror

Plan B is having a fancy dress party on Friday for Halloween. I won’t be attending, as fancy dress and Jae do not mix. I am still scarred from the time my Mum dressed me up in a box as the clock from “The Mouse Ran Up The Clock” and I had to spend the entire day at school standing up (although a few years back I won best dressed boy at work’s “School Days” day when I simply put on my old school uniform… yay!). The theme of the party is “Dead Musicians” and they encourage attendees to dress up as famous dead musicians such as “Kurt Cobain, John Lennon or Judy Garland” but with added zombie effects like white face paint and blood. Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong?

I can understand dressing up as a fictional character, such as Dracula or the Invisible Man, for laughs. Nobody is likely to be offended by Herman Munster knocking on their door for treats. *QUE MUNSTERS THEME TUNE*



Dressing up as a famous person, even those who are deceased, also seems like truly innocent fun. But dressing up as dead versions of those who have killed themselves, been murdered or died through addiction problems seems to me somewhat more than just simply macabre.

Would I be happy if I saw someone walking around dressed up as my Grandad’s rotting corpse? Or as my Auntie Melly with a pale face and drip tubes hanging from their body? No. So why on Earth are people actually encouraged to dress up like the dead body of someone who was not only real but has family members still alive? Will there be anyone doing a Heath Ledger this year holding a bottle of pills (well not at a Dead Musicians party but you know what I mean…)??? Or is just the long term dearly departed who get to be so disrespected?

Even as I write this I think I’m being a little harsh and somewhat prissy but really when you think about it, isn’t it a little disturbing? What do you think?

Monday, October 27, 2008

Who Am I?

So there I was cyber stalking MT (Facebook is my friend [privacy settings cannot stop me...], I was thinking he'd probably aged badly... how wrong could I have been!), when I suddenly started getting nostalgic about the "olden days". And I don't mean about school (which I hated) nor do I mean my social life (which was great don't get me wrong). I mean about who I used to be. My inner self. I know that sounds incredibly like "up my own arse", pop psychological nonsense but how I am now inside my head is totally different to how I was then.

I spend my entire life thinking about the mundane. Be it thinking about catching a train, or answering the phone at work, or what I'm going to blog about tonight (not on this blog of course, I just make this stuff up as I go along... ;) ). How's that different to before, I hear you cry? When I was a teenager, I was a dreamer. I spent my time dreaming, imagining. And I'm not talking practical dreams, I'm talking imagining scenarios just for the sheer fun of it. Dreaming of a different world, just to pass the time. Entire series of movies played out in my head in the ten minute walk from school to my house. Or maybe, if I was thinking of real things, I'd be digesting the latest political story I'd read in the paper or pondering on my latest obsession (or MT, my constant obsession... sorry Jim, I love you! But I'll never stop fawning over my favourite football player...). I just don't do that anymore.

I tried giving myself some time at lunch today to let my mind run wild but found it had become very difficult not to think about money, or work, or the journey home. I've gotten rusty.

I think the problem is, I never give myself any free time. I'm always on my laptop, or listening to a podcast, or talking to someone. I never have quiet time to myself, just to ponder. I used to love my long walks around Folkestone, that was when I could truly let my mind run free. Maybe I should start getting off the tube early on the way to work and walk the rest of the way iPod free. Because I really miss dreamy Jae. He's much less boring that I am.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

It's Nearly Samhain!!



When I was little I had the biggest crush on Omri Katz... such a cutie... Trust me any man with that hairstyle is still the object of my intense affection. I've never been the same since MT cut off his similarly styled hair and went for the short look. Devastating.

Jim Reinvigorates An Old Youtube Classic

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Mormons Sex Posed

Mmm... you know my weakness for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Well it is not helped by the mormonsexposed.com website and it's evil calendar featuring hot Mormons!!



God darn those Mormons, they sure know how to recruit! Sign me up!

Two More Monster Movies

Well following on from The Host, I decided to check out two other monster movies I've been hearing about.

The first was Rogue



I'd heard good things and I wasn't disappointed. The basic plot is: a tour of Australia's Northern Territory ends in disaster (giant saltie attacks boat, all Hell breaks loose). But the acting is better than most B movies, and the CGI is pretty good too. I actually wanted the heroes to survive when usually I'm just praying the monster will get it over and done with quickly.

Speaking of which...

I followed up the pleasantly surprising Rogue with Shark in Venice. Now I'm a sucker for anything that has a shark in it, but if I'd researched this movie before watching I'd never have picked it up. The plot is basically a treasure hunt interspersed with random shark attacks in the canals of Venice. Sadly it is made by the same team behind the Shark Attack series and they have one terrible problem... they cannot edit a movie to save their lives. It's bad when you see the same boat go behind the main actor three times in one shot (almost as if they just kept replaying the footage...) but worse is how they handle the shark scenes.

Stock footage should have little place in modern movie making. But sadly Shark in Venice has so much shark stock footage it had me laughing out loud. One minute the actors are diving in a tight cave under the city, then the scene cuts to a shark which is not only quite obviously in deep ocean but is also surrounded by unusual tropical fish unlikely to inhabit the Venetian canals. Then it attacks and basically you get the same thing... leaving any suspense or drama to whither away.

Add to this some terrible acting plus a plot that was obviously written up on the back of dinner menu the night before filming and you have one truly awful movie. I stopped watching after half an hour, just as I did with Shark Attack 2. The B movie genre is crying out for a quality shark flick... we'll just have to keep on dreaming...

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Host



I read about this south Korean movie called The Host ages ago and thought it'd be right up my street. Giant rampaging monsters? Check. That is pretty much my street isn't it... ;)



Well I finally watched it today and was more than pleasantly surprised. The special effects were good, the acting was good. There was comedy and tragedy. There was an obvious use of the monster and the reaction to it as an allegory for democracy and freedom in south Korea, both in it's recent past and it's present.

Personally it's disappointing that we have brilliant movies like this coming out of Asia and we are still totally obsessed by the Hollywood scene. I know this is changing but Hero and the like are not the same as good, modern day Asian movies. And people... the Host is one of the highest grossing south Korean movies of all time! We need to get over our dislike of subtitles and explore the world of foreign cinema. It truly does bring up some gems... Love of Siam anyone? ;)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Turning A New Page



Tuesday I headed down the pub, reluctantly as I was quite tired, with Jim to have dinner and take part in the pub quiz. Jim and I were on our own once again and were expecting to do poorly, as is our record when it's just the two of us. So you can imagine our shock and joy when we came... first! Victory!!!


"Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat.”
Malcolm S Forbes


Won a nice £20.00 voucher. Mmm... which paid for dinner on Wednesday. :D Happiness.

Work. Work is... crap at the moment, I'm going through the "I still have absolutely no idea what to do and am embarrassed to ask" stage. It's my least favourite stage. :(

Today I was poorly so took the day off, but as a contractor I don't get paid if I don't go in. :(

Did allow me to write a long post about whether dinosaurs still exist or not over on my other blog. That blog has been quite the success already and I'm dead pleased with that.

Jim continues his vlogging career

Found out yesterday that the cool girl at work I'd be eyeing up as possible friendship material is leaving in a week. Hmph. Back to square one (Lewisham and Willesden). D'oh.

Check out this video below, it's awesome!!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hmm....

... me thinks someone at the British Humanist Association sent the BBC a press release about their bendy bus anti-God campaign. To be honest I find it a disturbing development. Last year, when I first saw a Christian advert on a bus, I was greatly annoyed at the trivialisation of the subject. Now atheists have joined this silly, gimmicky fad.

I'm an atheist, Christians are the sorts of people who put up adverts... mainly because they are often after our money. Those without belief should not be following them in this pathetic, base attempt to appeal to those who probably don't have an interest in it either way. It's hardly going to make you think...

"There's probably no God". Oooo... insightful.

Monday, October 20, 2008

We Interrupt This Broadcast

After Jim's blog (which he has now removed, the cheek!) which made me green with envy at it's beautiful design Jim has moved on to new social media/Web 2.0 heights... he now has a vlog!! Am I jealous?? YES! I haven't even got round to doing a podcast yet... I'm so 2003.

Check out this little opening musical number using Jim's super cool technology...



And if you want to see his first vlog and subscribe check out his youtube page. Check it out he's even got a "drama" comment in the style of 13 year old girls everywhere. LOVE IT! :D

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Hmm...

Friday we spent drinking down the local as Jim perved over the barman and I attempted not to. I'm good. Yeah... right...

Saturday... so Maggie's breakfast is becoming a Saturday morning ritual but this time Dennis, Nal and Hemal were there waiting for us and we all had breakfast together. Humourously, they ordered 20 minutes before we arrived yet we still got our breakfast before them. And whilst we got everything we ordered they were missing vital ingredients. After the waitress spilt coffee down the leg of the guy sitting next to us I thought they'd be more careful but not before scolding Jim on the hand with hot tea. All in all, another great breakfast... Maggie's style... :D

Friday, October 17, 2008

Catchy Uppiness

Tuesday night Jim and I joined a few folks down the local for the pub quiz. With much cheating, stupidity and merriment we took 2nd place (and the winning team got double points on one round so we would of won if they were playing fair. ;) ) . That beats our last best placing at Christmas; third. Onwards and upwards. I think it was helped by there being a sci fi round. :D Aced that.

Wednesday... erm... after two nights out I had an early night. Ah sweet sleep.

Thursday... pub for meal then home for telly watching.

Work is alright at the moment except for the mean tenants and the boredom.

Got paid today. Sure I got last paid last week too but I couldn't get any money out. Today I skipped around Tesco's in Hammersmith Mall singing Money Money Money as I picked up breakfast, lunch, snacks and Coke. Goodness.

On the way home Lewisham and I sat opposite Toby Anstis. She was very subtle about exclaiming... "Oooo... he looks like Toby Anstis" followed by "IT IS TOBY ANSTIS" (he was literally directly opposite us, if he didn't hear her he must have been deaf). This was then followed by her loudly relating how much she used to fancy him. After that we moved on to other exciting topics which Lewisham was happy to spread around the carriage. At one point a child started singing "Twinkle twinkle chocolate star" causing Lewisham to turn to me and loudly declared "Oh I bet you like chocolate stars Jason!".

The shame. In front of a celebrity too... *shakes head*

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Sex At The Tube Station

Last night Jim and I had dinner around Gloria and Gus' house as they are soon to head off to Grenada for six months. I'm not jealous. Much. Caz was there too so it was sort of another mini "locals" night out. Gus cooked us some wonderful Caribbean cruisine, Jim will have to tell you what the pork was but it came with yams, sweet potatos, plantains and green bananas plus, of course, rice and peas. Mmmm.... it was gorgeous. This was followed up by much wine, a Crème brûlée and a homemade cherry cheesecake. I loath cherry. I LOVED THIS CHEESECAKE! That's how good it was. It was absolutely the nicest dessert in the world. I find a lot of cheesecakes have a citrusy sort of bite to them, but this one tasted fresh and delicious.

Anyway... today at work felt a little better than yesterday even though I sit in the middle of the room with no one near me as the other four desks on my pod are "broken" in various ways. :( On my trip home I nearly bit Lewisham's ear off, I was so pleased to talk to someone who wasn't a tenant!!

On the way home at Canary Wharf I did my usual trick and took a wrong turn in the station and ended up going out the Upper Bank Street exit. No one goes up that way. I saw one other person coming down the escalator. Compared to the chaos at the other end of the station it was like being taken into a different time and place. As I was about to get on to the escalator I saw a couple standing around the side, not quite out of sight. They were standing up, not even discreetly against a wall, and having sex. I obviously didn't stare but I have to say in the few seconds it took me to register what they were doing, I didn't get the feeling either party was enjoying themselves. Bizarre...

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mmm... Maggie's again...

After going without food for an mindboogling 36 hours (except for a chocolate biscuit at work) I was pleased to arrive at Maggie's cafe in Lewisham today and devour their cheap all you can eat breakfast. Yum, yum, yum. HAPPINESS.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Charles Dera: As Usual


Due to a severe lack of male totty at my new job I'm having to resort old pictures of Charles Dera to keep me happy. The worst thing is that now that he's doing straight porn all the new pictures of him involve naked women... hurrumph!

The Downsides

My posts about my new job have been fairly bubbly and positive, because I feel fairly bubbly and positive about it. But it's not all happy times.

Willesden and Lewisham are really my only "friends". I don't have a laugh with anyone else, most of the people there are either the bland drones I grew used to at Three Valleys Water or are just not my sort of people (like the rude, misogynistic Jehovah Witness who says he's off to Bible class just after going "Look at the arse on that" when a female colleague walks past causing me to clench my fists and stop myself from beating him... either be a Jehovah Witness or be a player... you can't be both!!). Euroffice certainly did one thing right, it contained some of the most fun and most interesting people I've ever met. And I miss them terribly, even if I know that I made the right choice to leave. I'm terrible at keeping in contact as I have no money or phone at the best of times so if any Eurofficers are reading this pass on my fondest regards to everyone... miss you all loads!

I just wish there was someone there on my wave length... at least most people at Euroffice could comprehend my idiosyncracies even if they still thought I was bonkers. At this new place I don't think they can even comprehend some of the stuff I'm reading at lunch... and that's not to say they are stupid, it's saying they live on a totally different planet.

Oh well, otherwise things are ok there, most people are nice at least, which is better than nothing.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Company

I've just starting rereading Company by Max Barry. I can always derive pleasure from reading books over and over again, Stephen King's It is read at least once a year for instance. Love it. Company is one of those books which really is amazing and stands up to repeated readings (even if it is stained with some sort of brown substance which concerns me somewhat...). It's so easy to read, hilarious and has a really quirky and interesting premise; what if you had no idea what the company you worked for did?

Speaking of which... having just started a new job myself I've begun to observe a few things about my new place of work. There's Tia (names changed to protect the innocent) an aging lady originally from the Caribbean whose booming voice fills the office every time she's on a phone call. There's Croydon who sits directly opposite me and spends her entire life just laughing. Willesden and I have been taking various, amusing multiple choice questions about Data Protection and the Disability Acts. Amusing because they feature such questions as "Which of these is not a disability:

1) impaired vision without correction
2) impaired hearing
3) pyromania"

Hmm... can I phone a friend??

Lewisham is enjoying herself quite a bit on reception and is desperate to stay there dropping not too subtle hints every two minutes whenever in a managers presence along the lines of "Oh I love being on reception" or "I think I could stay on reception forever and never get bored".

The sense of compliance at Plan B is worrying. As I was training on a different floor to my department today I came back to my desk at two minutes to five to switch off my computer. Switching off my omputer two minutes before five (when I had nothing else to do on it!) appears to have been a cardinal sin, causing some to let out a gasp and others to whisper warnings of what happens to those who break this rule.

A high level of fear seems to prevade the office, but I quite like that. It'll keep me on my toes and make sure I don't lapse into terminal boredom as I did at Euroffice.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Shark In Venice!!!

Could you imagine a better movie??

I'm already breathless with excitement at the prospect...

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Maggies In Lewisham

Today we visited Maggies cafe in Lewisham and were pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's in Lewisham, but it offers the most delicious cooked breakfast I've had in a long time. The toast was cooked perfectly, the rest was absolutely divine and the tea.... oh...

I'm not a big tea drinker, but when I took a sip of my first cuppa I was in love. It tasted just like the tea my Nan used to make (and still does but she hasn't made me a cuppa in a while!). Absolutely lovely. And the best part was the refills offered by an Irish lady (Maggie perhaps?) who threw some milk and tea in the general direction of the mug and somehow managed to get 80% of it in it!! Amazing aim that. Sure the breakfast, table and floor also had it's fair share of tea but it hardly mattered.

Lovely.

Friday, October 03, 2008

First Week Is Over With

My first week at Plan B is over and I'm starting to get an impression: I bloody love this new job. And I saw how much the permanent staff are on and I thought "I want some of that". The lowest pay figure is still more than I was on before. I really want to excel.

Today I did some call outs, and got to actually speak to the "customers" (I don't want to use the correct term as I'm trying to be subtle about where I work on here). After working with demanding customers in retail, these folks are diamonds. Sure there will be a lot of unhappy people but at least I know these people who are shouting at me have rather unhappy lives and thus have some sort of excuse for their rudeness. I think I did quite well today. Fingers crossed.

Willesden had me crying with laughter whilst the two of us were doing some training together when she told me of her phobia. She is scared of.... sloths. SLOTHS!! Of all the crazy arsed phobias that is the funniest I've ever heard.

After work we have a team meeting and... free alcohol. That was always the saving grace of my last job. Can this job get any better????

Lewisham and Willesden (my two fellow trainees, in case you were wondering) had me cracking up after work and we had a quick tipple in a nearby Belushi's pub where I spat alcohol all over them as they made me explode with laughter. Willesden's friend told me I had a posh voice, the fourth person this week to say that to me. Bless them, they have no idea where I come from... fucking Snodland ain't it? ;)

Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Incredible Hunk, Volume 1, Issue 10



Marco Dapper brought to you by popular demand... alright Steve asked me to post more pictures after being silly and asking whether I'd ever featured this gorgeous hunk of a man. Well, Dear Constant Reader, you know I have... this boy has the whole package. Yum.

Yoinked from Flickr

Sweet Potato Crisps = Orgasm

At lunch I had a pack of sweet potato crisps and finally completed my life. That's it. I'm done. I need do nothing more. I've eaten sweet potato crisps and am at peace with the world.

The trip home was horrid today, the District line was delayed by 5 minutes but instead of being patient me and my traveling buddy decided to take the Piccadily then the Jubilee. Stupid decision.

About three days ago my fellow trainees found out I liked men when they asked me the name of my "missus" and I told them it was Jim. But today was the real coming out day... people in the office asking me how tall I am. I think it's taken them four days to get up the courage to talk to me, and that question has been bugging them. Plus I had the seemingly inescapable question asked of me, by my less than tactful fellow trainee and traveling companion (who shall forever be known now as Lewisham), are you top or bottom??

How inappropriate. :D

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Jason Discovers True Happiness



I had completely forgotten about this show!!! I used to love it more than I can describe. Happy days!

Cracks Appear

I've finally started to find the downsides of Plan B. At least two of the three managers appear to be icy, cold automatons hell bent on using their laser vision to burn holes into the backs of their staff's heads. Now hopefully this shouldn't be too much of a problem, I remember what everyone once told me about my last manager at TVW and her reputation but it turned out that if you are good at 1) meeting stats requirements and 2) kissing arse then you'd be fine and I was. ;)

The staff appear to be incredibly disheartened by the place but again the reasons for that seem to be a previous lack of training, experience and good higher level management practice, but that seems to have changed for the better now.

I spent the day listening in on the phones but got so bored of it that I persuaded Matt, the guy who has had to put up with me now for one and a half days, to let me have a go messing around on the system and I finally started to enjoy myself. I think he was a little shocked that even though I'd had no system training I knew my way around the system. What did he think I'd spent the last day and half doing? Day dreaming? No I was learning every key stroke in an effort to ensure that when I got a chance I impressed him. I'm no fool.

Sure this is Plan B, but we need to put things in prospective. This job is, for the first time in my working life, one which is actually to do with the course I was studying at Brighton University back when this blog began. I took the job because I had no other options and I really didn't think about the fact that this job might be the stepping stone I need to actually begin a career in the industry to which I once aspired.

But of course with that comes the nerves. I really want to ensure I keep this job and am desperate not to make a mistake. I'm only a temp and my position is this not secured. Fingers crossed I don't mess up, this company seems to be one I'd like to work for...