Picture the scene: we’re sitting in the departure lounge at Gatwick airport this afternoon waiting for the EasyJet flight back to Aldergrove. Over the tannoy the flight was announced, and before parents travelling with children or people with special needs, purchasers of EasyJet Speedy Boarding were called.
And a small handful of self-important looking business people shuffled to the desk.
I couldn’t help but glare at them. It’s not normally my nature, but how self-involved are these people, who need to sit their fat arses down on a plane before the rest of us? Or do they purchase this to qualify the fact that they’re flying low-cost?
Anyway, the other boarding groups were called and Mrs L and I discovered that we were two of the three people in boarding group...
I’m doing a bit of work on a website for someone I know which is hosted with UTV Internet.
I’ve hosted (commercially) with UTV Internet in the past, and I must say I’m not impressed. At all. I placed a call to their support team this evening at 6:30 and it took a full 8 minutes for someone to even answer the phone. When it was eventually answered, it was by a frighteningly unhelpful person who first claimed no knowledge of the problem, passed the buck to another department (but didn’t transfer the call) and then told me the person I needed to speak with was on the other line.
“Fine,” I replied. “please ask him to call me. Your support desk is open until 9:00pm and I’m calling from home, so he should be able to reach me when he’s...
Ouch! I noticed the Google ads were displaying an advert at the top of the page tonight (I’m not allowed to click on them - part of the terms of service), saying “To Hell With Our Customers”. So, I took a note of the URL and followed it.
Somebody doesn’t like the Donnelly Cars dealership in Belfast!
The page I linked to above is a Wiki, a user-generated site that virtually anybody can edit, although I doubt they’ll be letting Donnelly Cars edit it any time soon! I particularly liked the “Ask for Paul for some free hot air!” offer - I might actually do that for a laugh!
But *ahem* on a serious note, this is a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Whoever is posting this page dislikes Donnelly’s enough to pay to advertise it - do the search and...
I’m no fan of organised religion at the best of times, but this article by Steve Pavlina gave me some food for thought. Musing on the wealth of the Catholic Church, Steve estimates that they have several billion dollars worth of gold alone:
According to United Nations World Magazine, the Church has several billion dollars in gold alone, and when you consider their massive worldwide real estate holdings, their artwork collection, and their tax exempt status, the amount of wealth controlled by the Catholic Church is staggering.
Whatever the true figure, the fact remains that the Catholic Church is unimaginably wealthy. Do these riches sit untouched, hoarded somewhere while people are starving, destitute and in despair all around the world?
Maybe I’m missing a major piece of the...
OK, so I went a bit quiet after my vasectomy a few weeks ago. Rumours of my demise were greatly exaggerated (thanks Aileen and Parnell) and I’m still standing.
It’s actually been a busy few weeks, so me and my sore plums just had to keep on moving with little time to rest. Most notably (and to my frustration), we were shipped to Amsterdam for a couple of days courtesy of the sister-in-law.
My reactions to Amsterdam are mixed. As a red-blooded guy, the legends of the Red Light District and the er…liberal attitudes appealed to me. On the flight across, we read about how the legalisation of the area had led to a safer place for punters and prostitutes alike.
I wondered how this would play out in real life, and was disappointed to discover a seedy dive with crowds of youths...
Mrs L wrote about PostSecret back in September. It’s a site we keep going back to, partly because it’s an open door into people’s innermost secrets.
In public, people tend to conform to societal norms. Don’t they? But while many people give the impression of normality, there are often thoughts or emotions that they leave repressed for fear of looking stupid or weird.
PostSecret allows people to lay out their unconventional side for all the world to see. Of course, each ’secret’ is posted anonymously, which means people have no fear of reprisals or ridicule from friends/family/co-workers. Basically, you create a home-made postcard with pictures and words and express what you’re feeling. Often the people who submit these make fantastic pieces of art...
You know how it is, you’re out for the night with a hot girl and you end up back in her bedroom. Did you remember to bring protection?
How long before this sort of thing becomes a reality?
Link leads to a video which may or may not be worksafe. It just depends on whether your employer has a sense of humor!
Funny, Relationships,...
What’s up with the sudden disappearance of Northern Irish bloggers?
JoBlog has disappeared overnight, Paul at the Northern Irish Magyar has shut up shop and now Mr Jimmy Porter at Desolate Row has disappeared. All have been replaced with the finest in blog spam now and I’m not sure why.
What happened? Anyone know? Is this some kind of conspiracy against NI bloggers? Am I next?
No...
Today Mr Levee introduced me to PostSecret, the best blog ever (except The Levee Breaks of course!)
For an inherently nosey person, the thought of being able to read peoples deepest, darkest secrets is so appealing to me. In fact it is almost addictive. People have admitted to affairs, being gay, taking drugs and so much more.
The basic premise of the blog is that people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
As a parent, this one is one of my favourites and I fully intend to use it on my boys when they grow up.
Go on, have a nosey and let me know what your favourites are.
Blogging,...
I came across this list of 10,000 reasons civilisation is doomed. It seems to be an open list of all the reasons people think civilization (as we know it) is on the rocks. Among the contenders:
Overpopulation - over time, larger population v non-renewable resources. Seems like a no-brainer, but no-one’s stepping in on this issue. Why not?
Capitilism - because profit isn’t the purpose of life. Everybody trying to make a quick buck at the expense of everybody else - amateur property developers, suing your friends and neighbours, etc.
Avarice in the hearts of apathetic consumers who feast on fried fat, luxury cars, and infinite unnecessary gadgets when millions die annually from malnutrition, murder, and disease. How can one purchase thirty pairs of shoes, $100 meals, and...
I came across the following quote on a website tonight:
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.
I have my own thoughts on what it means, but I’m finding it hard to put in words. Anybody care to help out? Translation please!
(via World of Inspiration)
Discussion, Inspiration,...
The rumours are true then. The Ho-Ho is gone. Flattened in the name of modernising the Dublin Road.
Back when I were a lad, my and the girlfriend lived in India Street off Botanic Avenue. We had our pick of dodgy chippies to eat out of, but the Ho-Ho was one of our favourites. In those days, it had those cheap Van Gogh prints that were all the rage (about a fiver each in Au Naturale on Rosemary Street) and crappy white plastic garden furniture for the sit-in crowd to eat at.
We were students at the time and we’d actually head down to the Ho-Ho once in a while with a couple of rounds of buttered bread, order up a curry split and have a curry fried rice sandwich.
Now, Paul Rankin may claim that he invented the Curry Fried Rice Sandwich, but the honour is actually shared between me...
Have you ever fancied a spot of trampolining while buck naked? If like me this has always appealed to you, but you don’t want to scare the living daylights out of your next door neighbours, then check out this site.
The object of the game is to keep your nude trampolining dude on the trampoline, while performing as many moves and stunts as possible. I managed a poor score of 490 before falling off and breaking my neck, the highest scores achieved are over 6000, so I have a bit of a way to go before I will reach the leader board.
No...
I am a firm believer that the eighties were not good to anyone. Look at those fashion and hair disasters…. absolutely no one looked good!
If you need reminding, or just fancy a trip down memory lane, then check out I Love Eighties Music and you can watch all your favourite eighties bands looking less than sexy.
A few favourites of mine are Abba’s - Super trouper, Alannah Myles - Black Velvet, Aswad - Don’t turn Around and Aerosmiths - Janies Got A Gun.
Thats just the As, it could take me weeks to get through this site!
Abba, Aerosmith, Alannah Myles, aswad, eighties,...
If ever a website made you want to cringe with embarrassment, Black People Love Us will do the job every time.
Warning to the humourless: This is a spoof website.
Sally and Johnny are a middle-class white couple who find that they are well-liked by black people:
We are well-liked by Black people so we’re psyched (since lots of Black people don’t like lots of White people)!! We thought it’d be cool to honor our exceptional status with a ROCKIN’ domain name and a killer website!!
The pictures on the homepage are of Sally and Johnny ‘hanging’ with their black friends. Brilliantly, they are at the center of the group and all their black friends are laughing at their jokes. Underneath this, they have a set of testimonials from their “real life...
Prepare to wet yourself laughing. The Leader Of The Free World takes the U2 classic and makes it his own. Pure class!
As seen on Break.com
Discovered on The DIY Rockstar
Funny, George Bush, Music,...
I was browsing through the book section in a second-hand shop in Ballymena on Saturday, when I came across this bargain:
You’re probably wondering, “How did he resist?” Believe me, it wasn’t that difficult! I wish I’d read the back cover to get a feel for the story, though…
books,...
I was watching Corpse Bride with the kids recently, and was completely struck by the similarities between slimy Lord Barkis and our permatanned Secretary of State, Peter Hain. It’s quite sinister really.
If you don’t think there’s a resemblance between the two, watch the movie and you’ll see what I mean.
Corpse Bride, fun, Funny, Peter...
If you thought crash test dummies had it hard, spare a thought for the stick men (and women) of the world…
Flickr has an amazing set of images showing stick figures in danger. You honestly couldn’t begin to conceive of the number of ways a stick person could be mutilated or injured. Of course, it’s only a matter of time before someone decides to take the protection of stick men under their wing.
I wonder if you can get grant funding for that?
Art, fun, Funny,...
Paint the front of your house with lamb’s blood, lock up your first born son and lead my people out of Egypt, Moses. Word reaches me that the classic 10 Commandments movie is about to be re-released.
Check out the updated trailer.
fun, Movies,...
I discovered a great multimedia site this evening, Interact 10 Ways.
Try out the Information Interactive page, which starts off with a photo of a man. Click anywhere on the picture and it will zoom in on the area, revealing a photomosaic of other pictures. After a while, you end up immersed in a never-ending stream of pictures.
From its content to its visual components, a photograph is filled with information. Choose a point on an image and delve deeper into it, linking one idea to another in a never-ending chain.
The Light Interactive lets you move around a 3D photomosaic box, setting the target on any object zooms in and reveals a picture. It’s a freaky little parallel universe….
Best of all is the interactive caption set. You view a gallery of pictures and can either rate...
EatLiver.com is a bizarre name for a website, especially one which has a gallery of almost 1,000 hilarious pictures found across the Internet.
They’ve got truck-lifting Russian girlfriends, a psychiatrist who leaves his business card on high-rise office ledges and warnings about stepping out on the ice.
Still, my favourite two so far are the ones I’ve included here - the Chuck Norris Action Jeans (straight out of the catalogue) and the Baby sign. No Sleep, No Free Time, No Fun. Next 18 Years.
Well, I don’t know about “no fun”, but the rest is about right!
fun, Funny,...
Mr Levee recently posted about the new phenomena that is Google Idol.
We spotted the Pomme and Kelly videos early in the contest and knew they would go far. It seems that we were right and this week Pomme and Kelly became our new Gidols and were presented with the grand prize of $250 (which they are going to donate to charity!)
The girls entered the contest as just a bit of fun, but have found themselves drawing the attention of the worlds media and have aquired thousands of fans in just two and a half months.
Getting more attention than they bargained for, the girls controversially removed all their videos except their Google Idol entry from their website and asked that anyone with downloaded copies keep them off the internet.
If anyone is checking out the Google Idol site, make sure to...
I came across The Levee Breaks on Blogshares tonight, and saw that it was worth $7351.19.
Great! Pity it’s not real money!
Blogging,...
Mrs L and I have spent most of this evening laughing at the unfortunate people who have submitted video clips of themselves to Google Idol.
The idea is, you do a video of yourself lip-synching to your favourite tune - and you can ham it up as much as you want - and then upload it to Google Video. Then you enter by submitting your video on Google Idol and wait for the votes to roll in!
The saddos in the picture above are doing their spoof version of Europe’s The Final Countdown. Our favourite Gidols (yes, they have a name) are Pomme and Kelly and their version of Respect. A quick search on Google Video reveals that they’ve got a whole back catalog of classic lip-synchs! If you do one thing today, go and vote for Pomme and Kelly in the competition!
Hold up! They’ve got...
Yeah, that’s right. After a terrible snubbing at the Irish Blog Awards (in which, in fairness we didn’t push readers to vote for us), my better half and I have won the Holks on the Fill “King and Queen of the Blogworld” award!
Hooray for us! We’d like to thank again all the people who voted for us and to Pastor of Muppets’ imagination for hosting the event and keeping the booze flowing…….
No...
I’m curious what you guys think about this. Back in December, when we went to Rome, I was held back by Airport security at Aldergrove. I was a bit surprised - this had never happened before - but I went with the flow.
The security guy took my backpack and opened it up, taking out my digital camera, the two iPod shuffles we’d brought, mobile phones, an assortment of batteries for the camera, spare XD cards and some guidebooks about Rome. Oh, and Joe Cahill’s biography, which I was reading at the time for a review here. Once the bag was emptied, it was also swabbed inside for testing.
Between myself, Mrs L, Sister In-Law and her boyfriend, there’s been much heated debate about whether the Cahill biography was the catalyst for this. I am not so cynical, I thought it...