Glastonbury Was Shit

It’s rained every year I’ve been there, including the torrential rain and thunderstorms two years ago, but it was just too much this year. There were hours when it didn’t rain, in fact we had a full half day when it was really quite nice; but the mud had zero chance to harden so even when the weather wasn’t too bad, it was a major slog getting anywhere.

On top of that we plonked our tent on top of what became a puddle and while that shouldn’t have bee a problem, the youngfella didn’t take care of it like he was told, so we ended up getting a big soggy. Luckily Sista brought a spare, but even that leaked a little bit so we weren’t madly miffed when Stena texted to say that the Express was cancelled and could we make our way to Fishguard, pronto.

And let’s be honest, the line-up wasn’t great either. The Killers were good but way, way too quiet; and although we thought that was the wind, apparently it wasn’t, they really were quiet for some reason. The Manics were good fun, but I spent a good half an hour of it trudging through mud trying to get to a toilet. Shirley Bassey was fun, as were the Marley Brothers, but it wasn’t… Glastonbury, you know?

So no Glastonbury for me next year, I’m taking a fallow year to see if Sista’s theory that I’m a jinx is true. If it’s not, I’ll go back the year after. With a camper. It’s a cop-out, but I get to bring as many clothes as I want. And it’s dry.

We saw lots of interesting things over the weekend – notably the Browne-Clayton Column, which so intrigued us we had to go back to Wexford to figure out – but the things we saw most of were Nolan Transport lorries. We knew we were going the right way on the road to Rosslare because there they were; ditto Fishguard on the way back.

You know the ones: white tractor with Movin’ On on the sunscreen, red trailer with www.NolanTransport.com in massive letters on the curtain. You thought you were seeing the same one over and over again, right? No. See the key facts on their website: 420 tractors, 900 trailers. They’re no Eddie Stobart, but by god they’re not far off.

Well done to the lads and lasses in Nolans for building such and impressive fleet!

Microsoft offers Vista downgrades

Chortle. If that’s not throwing in the towel!

SiliconRepublic.com: Companies bothered by Vista incompatibility with their existing business software can ease the transition by availing of Microsoft’s new downgrade options, and switch back to XP until all software conflicts have been resolved.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Is a complete, grammatically correct sentence according to Wikipedia. To buffalo means to bully, confuse, deceive or intimidate apparently, in addition to the two meanings you were probably already aware of. So the sentence is roughly equivalent to:

Bison from upstate New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.

Poor buffalo!

Google AdSense Optimisation Muppetry

Google offered to optimise one of my sites a few days ago, for the second time. The first time my revenues took a dive so I was naturally sceptical, but they’re sinking all by themselves now anyway, so I said I’d give it a shot. The attached is a screenshot of the very first suggestion in their optimisation list. I haven’t included a thumbnail because you really need to see the full size image to appreciate the sheer stupidity of it. I can only imagine what my users would think or do if I tried to implement this idiocy.

I despair of what Google is becoming, I really do. In the past month I’ve had to threaten them with the Data Protection Act several times over multiple implicit refusals to delete an AdWords account; I’ve had a very frustrating conversation with them over a leak of someone else’s private data to my email account, that demonstrates carelessness and ignorance about privacy; and now they throw this shit at me. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to start dumping Gmail, Calendar, etc. They’re hardly leading the field in anything but search anymore anyway.

The New Bruce Lee

Cute baby stuff is almost as bad as cute animal stuff*, but there are always exceptions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAdJjgau5vk

Thanks osarusan.

* Are you listening b3ta? Enough with the cute crap already.

Beer

If you’re around in three hours, drop into Tom Barrys for a pint. Or if you won’t be finished work until later, drop me a line to find out where I am.

Do I file this under Entertainment, Business, Art? Education? :)