.... random rants and rambles. no agenda. yet.

Does anyone out there take echinacea daily to ward off colds? I do, amongst other things, or I did, until I found out that taking it daily might not actually be a good idea because it means your body might just get used to it, so it kind of won't work any more. Oh dear. So I stopped taking it daily, after doing so - and being illness-free - for a few months, and guess what? A day or two later I started to get a sore throat. There was nothing for it but to start taking it again.

I am a slave to herbal remedies. Agh!

When I explained this to C this morning, we agreed that my immune system is a bit unhinged, so I need to be "restored to my factory settings" and go back to my default, echinacea-free self (what kind of conversationalists merge geekisms with herbalisms, I don't know, but it suits us fine and we understand each other!). Does anyone know how long this might take, just out of interest?

Whilst on the subject of factory settings and defaults, my PC tower is due back today, sometime within a 10-hour "I'm afraid we can't confirm what time it will be with you" window. Apparently, "The engineer found "bad sectors" on the hard drive. Which has been replaced." So all of that palaver and chasing of tails and miscommunications and lost ties in gardens was their fault? What a surprise.

And will I get an apology? I doubt it. And by default, this means that the Evil Computer People are going to get a long, annoyed letter from me. When I have a moment, anyway.

Posted by j at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Brilliant, eh? C forwarded me the above advert, along with a load of others which were equally mindboggling, if not more so. Here are three of my favourites (email me if this kind of thing trips you out too and you'd like me to forward the original to you)...

Clever!

Scary! "It's not loaded, officer, honest!"

And... ouch. They should probably have that one in London, especially if it's still as ridiculous as it was when I lived there, and millions of people crammed into buses as if there was no tomorrow and they didn't actually need to breathe or anything basic like that. Oh no.

Posted by j at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because a) we want to grow potatoes again this year and b) it sounded quite fascinating, C and I went along to the local Potato Day today. As my dad often says, you don't know until you try.

Ignoring warnings to pre-book seed potatoes because of the rush, we were rather alarmed to arrive just after noon to find the finish time had been slashed to 2pm from 4pm and someone had chalked "HURRY, GOING FAST!" on the sign outside. Clearly, they're mad for potatoes in these parts, so we rushed inside, to be greeted by a lovely but very serious lady who talked us through basic Potato Politics and warned, "these ones are new, so we don't know what they're like," as if she was worried that they might grow teeth and attack us in the night. I resisted the urge to say "they're potatoes."

And we bought some. Woo!

Posted by j at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

In no particular order (I'm clearing my Firefox tabs!)

3) Green tip of the day: build your own fridge!

2) Don't let Tony Bliar become President of the EU! Sign the petition here!

1) Finally, apparently this made Joe think of me. I wonder why (!)

Posted by j at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a long, boring and drawn out series of emails with the Evil Computer People, who of course didn't answer any of my questions or even get my contact details right, this morning my PC tower was taken away to London by a huge man with a blonde mullet, who looked like a cross between a wrestler and an 80s action movie star. I can't decide which.

But anyway, the above is kind of irrelevant (especially the part about the mullet) because the point of this post is to ask for advice, not ramble on about delivery men.

I gave up on my PC weeks and weeks ago, and have been using the laptop since. It's been fine, especially as I added a second monitor to it, which has helped my posture because I have RSI and hate laptops for that reason. The departure of my PC spurred me to pimp up my laptop even more, and today I tried plugging in an extra keyboard. But it wouldn't work. I've tried doing it with 2 different keyboards, both with an USB/PS2 adaptor cable, and both with all the right drivers etc, but it won't work!

So does anyone out there know if I am missing something really obvious, like disabling my laptop keyboard or something else that I can't seem to do?! If so, I would be happy to be embarrassed by your comments in the comments box.

I thank you, and goodnight!

Posted by j at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's amazing, the amount of crap that people have thrown on the canal to try and break the ice:

Well, it didn't work. Not even this Christmas tree worked (I know, I know)...

To be fair, though, it probably doesn't weigh nearly as much as it used to, seeing as it's so old and shrivelled and crispy now. Poor thing!

In other news, C and I have realised with much fascination that as our house is south-facing and we live on a hill, we're also on "the right side of the valley". This means we get plenty of sun but if we look out of the window over to the other side of the hill (a mile or so away), everything's frozen and freezing and might as well be in another country. Seriously.

And yes, I know - I'm meant to have blogged about the fifth and last Geocache that we found a week ago. So here is photographic evidence:

Doesn't he look proud?! And so he should, because it was hidden in a really-hard-to-find place, in the middle of nowhere, with lots of rocks and bushes and not even a path. Well, we had to get rid of that blasted Mickey Mouse travel bug thingy that we've had for waaay too long... the Geocaching people will not be happy with us! Now we are travel bug-free and relieved (I wouldn't let C pick up either of the two that were in the cache!)

When we'd done that, we went for a walk on the moors and got a bit lost - as we usually do - which was slightly scary* but excellent for the old stress levels, because if all you can see is this...

... what is there to worry about?

* In my view, the scariest things about moors are boggy bits, which must be crossed either by running lightly or walking very slowly and carefully, depending on various things, just in case you sink in the mud or get chased by a spook. Running aimlessly in a blind panic screaming "CLAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEE!" is not advised, because it means you'll lose your sense of direction and henceforth your mind.

So yeah. there are some things to worry about on moors. Luckily, that day was bog-free.

Finally, because this is turning into a really long ramble with no aim, if anyone is thinking of going to see I Am Legend [warning: link makes a noise!], I thoroughly recommend it. Me and C went to see it at the local cinema the other day, and it was SCARY. So scary that we both screamed in places, which was a bit embarrassing, especially as there was an old lady there on her own - on her own?! - and stuff. C was freaked out because no-one told her there were flesh eating zombies in it (you've been warned!) and even more freaked out by the fact that I knew, and I still went along and watched it.

I can be brave sometimes.

Posted by j at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an example of typical office life a la Team H@Do*:

He seems to be fixated by my desktop wallpaper, which is this fantastic photo of C doing a snow angel (you're never too old!) a couple of weeks ago**:

Oh, the wonders of modern catology.

* Feel free to visit our most excellent website. No, this is not a shameless advertising ploy. We do do free stuff too!

** Note to self: SORT OUT FLICKR! SOON!

Posted by j at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ce kindly - and rather excitedly, it must be said - emailed me this:

"Have found Bloons 3!!!! (seeing as you put 1 and 2 on your blog). Its more difficult - can't get past 18!"

So there you are - that's everyone's Friday afternoons sorted then! Aren't I nice?

Have a good weekend, SHD fans.

Posted by j at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I looooooove Valentine's Day kind of despite myself, largely because I looooooove C and it presents an opportunity for me to do ridiculous things to remind her so.

However, I know not everyone shares the looooooove. So if you don't, this is for you:

Posted by j at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, I know another cat-related post. I'm sad like that. But mostly, I'm too tired to finish off my next post about Geocaching and stuff, so this is a lot easier (and by mentioning it now, I HAVE to finish it).

So anyway, this is an appeal for more wise words from my cat fan friends.

Now that we're apparently "proper cat owners" according to A The Mad Cat Lady, we've started feeding another cat. C has decided that he should be called Brian - he's almost definitely a boy because he's ginger - and he's really, really shy. Bless. He's also really, really hungry, definitely the biggest cat eater we've ever seen, and practically wolfs down bowl after bowl of food as if he's a dog, which is kind of worrying but what can we do?

Anyway that wasn't the question. My question is a bit weird: How do you know if cats like each other or not?

I ask because Harrythecat is rarely seen with Pussy, and if he does see her, he doesn't look very happy at all. However, he and Brian like to have staring competitions, which I didn't think was meant to be good, AND they like sitting together in front of the house; a mildly amusing image of much gingerness, which I thought was... good?

So what does that mean? Harrythecat always seems to sit higher up than Brian, which might mean that he's the dominant one? Or maybe it's all part of the mind games masterplan, and, as C says, Harrythecat has sent Brian round to milk us for all we're worth because he's worked out that we're soft and I'm a bit neurotic and also quite stupid because I let him sit on my arms while I'm typing, which sometimes really hurts, like he's doing now.

... or maybe it means nothing at all?

And I know I need to get out more, but I need to know!

Posted by j at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Having animal co-workers is great!

When Harrythecat isn't sitting on my mobile phone or my diary, he is trying to pin my arms down so that I can't type, or can only move the mouse a bit. C thinks I should turf him off, but he is honestly too cute. He's also quite funny. Just now, when I banned him from walking over my arm for the 5th time this afternoon, he shot me a positively horrified look, stalked over the desk to his princess cushion (oh, yes!) and sat glowering with his back to me for several minutes. Priceless.

And Harrythedog? He only cares if there's food around... if not, he just kips. And farts. Not forgetting the farts! Oh, and after a particularly long day, he will stare at me crazily, barking urgently at intervals, until I shut down my computer and give in and take him for a walk ... a walk that we BOTH need.

The best thing about furry colleagues? They don't argue over whose turn it is to make coffee.

Posted by j at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the office...

Me: You know, I think I became Deaf during the International Year of Disabled People.

C: How very organised of you.

Posted by j at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seriously.

Posted by j at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Longtime blog readers will remember Harrythedog's successful (and quite brief) movie career* while I worked out how to edit digitally. And then I learned enough, and he retired. But today, for one day only, Harrythedogactor is back to celebrate the snow.

I also took zillions of photos, and will stick some on Flickr when I get around to it!

* If you're at all interested, most of them can be seen here, I think.

Posted by j at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

After a dodgy start, I can confirm that it is SNOWING in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd.

Thank you and good afternoon!

Posted by j at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)