If you've been following Angharad's Magnum opus you may be aware that a few years ago I had the daft idea to compile a spreadsheet summarising every EAFOAB episode... which gradually grew to include lots of additional information such as character lists, memorable quotes and the occasional humorous episode number. My grateful thanks go to PS, who helped with about half of the summaries from 1 to 1000.
Spotted courtesy of the "Geeks are Sexy" blog, a set of rather impressive photo manipulations to illustrate what (live action) female versions of a trio of Avengers characters and a trio of Dark Knight characters could potentially look like (links to original source) - the series is dubbed "If women ruled the earth"...
So, it's that time of year again... heading off to relatives, eating too much, drinking too much, and generally enjoying the time off work while collapsing in front of the goggle box (TV).
Is fate conspiring against (British Cycling) Team Sky?
Following on from TdF winner Bradley Wiggins and Head Coach Shane Sutton getting up close and personal with cars, Mark Cavendish has now collided with one (albeit this time in Tuscany rather than Manchester or Lancashire) and suffered a bruised arm.
In among the various ballots running in addition to the federal ones yesterday, several States were voting on the issue of same-sex marriage (the first to offer a vote on the issue).
It appears as though a significant portion of the Eastern portion of the US is going to get a bit wet and windy with the arrival of Sandy over the next few days. Wikipedia has further information over the storm's current status and forecasted impacts.
If anyone's in an affected region (or knows someone that is), stay safe and we'll see you on the other side...
Definitely one from the weirder side of the news - Hong Kong property tycoon Cecil Chao has offered HK$500 million ($65 million) to any man who can woo her away from her lesbian partner. Gigi Chao has eloped with her partner to France and the pair have had a church blessing.
If that wasn't bizzare enough, she's not cross with dad. "I'm actually on very, very loving terms with my father. We speak on a daily basis. He just has a very interesting way of expressing his fatherly love."
Apparently today (September 19th) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Lulu have used it as an excuse to have one of their famous flash sales.
Until Friday (21st) you can get 15% off any order with the code "PIRATA".
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Alas Neil will be taking no more small steps anywhere. He died earlier today at the age of 82, apparently from complications following heart surgery three weeks ago.
Just in case anyone's wondering where EnemyofFun has disappeared to... he's got caught up in events that took place a long time in a galaxy far away :)
Courtesy of a post he made to Google+ this morning:
Sorry for being absent for so long in my writing...I assure you nothing bad has happened. I've actually kinda got sucked into Star Wars The Old Republic. I did writing almost 5 pages of my latest chapter for Season...here's hoping I can take some time off TOR to actually finish off the chapter :)
I've now been entertaining you all with my mixture of witty, inane, sometimes over-analytical and occasionally pertinant / well thought-out comments for just over three years now, believe it or not...
Just got back from a nice walk around the local area, checked the news to see if the TdF had finished...
...and yup, it had and there were no unforseen calamities, so we ended up with the perfect result as predicted for the past few days: Cav won the stage, Wiggo won the race, and Froome was second.
I've just noticed on the hit counter at the bottom of the page that we've now exceeded 23 million hits (plus an extra 9,000) since 16th June 2005. Yay us! :D
That works out at about 3 ¼ million hits per year, nearly 9,000 hits per day, 370 hits per hour or 6 hits per minute (have I ever mentioned I like playing around in spreadsheets?)
This has to count as one of the most bizzare stories ever to come out of the world of sport:
A female Indian athlete who won a gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games appeared in court on Friday charged with raping her former lover who has alleged that she is actually a man.
Pinki Pramanik was remanded in custody for 14 days to await trial on allegations that she repeatedly raped her female live-in partner.
It appears as though the US Anti Doping Agency can't leave Lance Armstrong alone - they've written a fifteen page letter to him littered with yet more allegations dating as far back as 1996, claiming a "pervasive pattern of doping" over many years.
Unsurprisingly, Armstrong has hit back: "I have never doped ... These charges are baseless [and] motivated by spite ... These are the very same charges and the same witnesses that the Justice Department chose not to pursue after a two-year investigation."
The Danish Folketing has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a full ecclesiastical marriage service in the national Evangelical-Lutheran church for homosexual couples, to be instituted as a full, official marriage equal to that of heterosexual couples.
After a lengthy and sometimes heated debate, which ran some three hours over its expected time, 85 members voted in favour of the law, 24 against and with two abstentions.
There's an interesting comment piece in today's Indy. It mainly deals with gender roles in the workplace (so arguing from the WISE / MICE point of view1), but could be applied more widely:
Yes, well, erm, I've notched up another milestone on my journey through life. In years gone by, I'd be exactly half way through my allotted three score and ten, but with the way both longetivity and statutory minimum retirement ages keep rising, I might still be as fit as a fiddle and in work by then. I can but hope :)
So... thirty five years I've been on this planet (well, I will have been as of about 5:45pm tonight, as mum will frequently remind me at this time of year!) - here's to many more.
You might want to move your keyboard out of the way so you can bang your head against your desk in desperation at this...
It's about what you'd expect from many African politicians - effectively putting the onus of the blame for the spread of HIV onto women (presumably under the impression that it's completely impossible for their menfolk to control their philandering ways).
The synopsis of what this latest politican to make a completely bonkers statement on the issue can be neatly summed up in this tweet:
You may remember several weeks ago, one of Bailey Summers' original songs from Jem got a very positive reception. At the time, only the lyrics existed.
When I read it, I started to get the inklings of a tune, and with Bailey's permission, have attempted writing some music for it (my first attempt at composing since GCSE Music in 1993-95!). Bailey approves, so now the next stage is to publish it here, in the hope we've got some arrangers / musicians / singers who can take Bailey's words and my melody / chords, and work some magic with them.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
