GingerNinja.net

So we’re all sitting there at work when new-boy John suddenly exclaims
Forty-five quid for a hair-cut! Can you believe it? I’ve been robbed!
To which we all replied Don’t have it done then!
John just looked at us all and said But I already have, this morning!
and so began the saga of the haircut that wasn’t.

John’s hair looked no different from before and so we all made comments (alright, mainly me) about the hairdresser just waving the scissors about his head, ruffling his hair and saying done. To be fair, the back of his neck looked like the hair had been cut as it was all squared off but that was about it and John didn’t think to say anything when they held up the mirror for him. Turns out that John was only in there for ten minutes and most of that time was spent with his eyes closed enjoying having his hair shampooed and his scalp massaged with the hairdressers long hair wafting in his face - until he realised it was a bloke.

After further discussion, we finally convinced John that he should go and ask for his money back, but it turns out he’s a little bit shy about doing so. Reema is as incensed as Scott and I that he paid over the odds so volunteers to be the fake girlfriend to go with him and we discuss the plan. John then decides that I should go with them as I know what to say and how to get my money back from shops (thanks Mum!)…..

How stupid is it going to look with three of us going in there to complain about your haircut? say I.
But you know what to say! says John, panic seeping into his voice. OK, how about instead of Reema, you come with me? You could be my gay lover or something!
Dude, I am not about to go to a hairdressers and pretend to be your gay lover in order for you to get your money back on a haircut where they just waved scissors at you! say I, Besides, I am well out of your league!

And so it was that Reema dragged John to the hairdressers where he looked like a suitably henpecked boyfriend/husband whilst Reema raged on at the hairdresser, who when she had finished, apologised for the upset and offered a free hair appointment, adding that they gave John exactly what he had asked for: a light trim with not much off as he likes it left long. Reema turned on John with a face of thunder and said (through gritted teeth)
You mean to tell me that you asked them to take not much off and when you realised that you had paid £45 for this that you thought you should complain?
*sheepishly*  Yes.
You idiot! Come on!
And with that she thanked the hairdresser and dragged him out of the shop and back to the office.

Popularity: 16% [?]

I’ve been using iTunes for ages, in fact since before I even owned an iPod as I really liked the widgets in Konfabulator (as was) and AveDesk which were predominately related to iTunes and I always intended to eventually get an iPod anyway as I didn’t really like Windows based media players. And yes, I’ll admit it, I was also sucked in by the whole coolness of iPod.

Today, however, I started to play with the View menu for the first time and discovered some options that I didn’t even know were there. It all started when Jo announced that she wanted to get all her album’s into iTunes on her profile as she was going to purchase an 80GB iPod and iTrip so she had everything in the car. When I was mucking around with setting it all up, I found the MiniStore option in iTunes and quite liked it. As it was disabled on my profile, I had to hunt to find it and then I stumbled across something wonderful…..Album View and Cover Flow View.

For those of you who just had a WTF? reaction the same as I, here are some screenshots. The blue bit at the bottom of the screen is the MniStore in action, giving me recommendations based on what I am looking at:

The normal, default List View:

The rather cool Album View which groups the List View in a much nicer manner in my opinion:

The very gorgeous Cover Flow View in normal browser mode….

….and in full-screen mode:

In Cover Flow View, you can either use the scrollbar to move through your selection or mouse click on the album you want to scroll through it. Love the reflections and the immediate tactility of it all, much nicer than Windows MCE if you ask me. In a cannot see the woods for the trees kind of way, these are not only available from the View menu but also the three buttons immediately to the left of the search box. How on earth did I miss these up until now?

Popularity: 18% [?]

Yes, it’s been happening for a while, but I can finally tell you when I noticed that I was old. It was on Saturday 3rd March 2007 at approximately 2100.

Damon & Lydia held a St. David’s Day Party at their flat. The idea was for everyone to wear Welsh costume or similar. As I like to get into the spirit of these things, I duly purchased a nice polyester shirt made out of two copies of the Welsh flag and duly changed my name to Gildas (it means Servant of God and is the closest Welsh name to John which means Gift from God, Jehovah has given or God is forgiving. As is usually the case when I attend such parties, I was the only one who had made an effort. Lydia is Welsh, which is apparantly enough, Damon was wearing a small fabric leek badge on his shirt and Kevin had a whacking, great-big-circumcised leek on a string around his neck. Everyone else was dressed up in clubbing gear and so I looked like a numpty. Again. Tidy.

Anyway, music was playing and when nobody seemed to care very much, I changed the CD for the Minstry of Sound Funk-Soul Classics and put on Cameo’s Word Up as it’s a firm favourite with the lads. The reaction from one of Lydia’s friends?
Ooooo, how very retro!.
Retro? say I. This is classic. I remember when it came out!
When was that then?
1986.
I was two.
I was twelve. Pants.

That was just the beginning. Turns out I would also much rather go to a nice restaurant and have a meal and some wine with good friends than go to a party at a house with loud music, weird cocktail’s and sit around trying to hold a conversation. When did that happen? Apparantly when I got old. Oh, boy!

Popularity: 12% [?]

For years now, the Oakfield Archers logo in both printed and on-line formats has been that of a scanned image of the official cloth badge used on all team clothing etc. I remember when I was a member of the club (in my late teens) that there was a decent print quality version of the logo in black and white that was identical to the metal discs used as both the medal & trophy centres and the official label badges, but I have been told that this has been lost over the past few years.

As part of the redesign, I figured that I wanted to move away from the traditional green and/or white designs that I see so many sites using and either focus on the club colours of orange and black as this is more in keeping with the identity of the club. I also decided that I should attempt to redraw the entire club badge from scratch in an attempt to give it a more polished look.

The attached images are the release candidates that I have been working on since I started the redesign a few months ago. I am not totally happy with the the orange banner, which was taken from the outline of the one on the cloth badge and heavily retouched, but otherwise I think that it is a significant improvement. There are two versions of the logo, one with a block font which visually stands out and one with an Olde English font which, as far as I can remember, closely matches the letterhead format of the club.

Popularity: 46% [?]

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on here and there has been a really, very good reason for this. Back on Thursday 8th March I woke up early with a horrible feeling of nausea as well as the distinct impression that if I didn’t make it into the bathroom I would be in serious trouble with the wife. An hour or so later saw me calling in sick which I thought would be only for a day but, as it turned out, I was also out for the count on Friday as well. Feeling slightly better on Friday night, Jo and I went to the cinema to watch Hot Fuzz as Jo had already bought tickets towards the start of the week and it would be a shame to waste them.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I actually felt good again, but by mid-afternoon I had a runny nose and the start of a cough. Saturday night had me experiencing some freaky dreams and in the words of Jo kicking my legs and jumping around all over the bed. When I woke up Sunday morning, I was aching all over with every single joint in my body trying to kill me, a streaming nose, dizziness and total loss of appetite. My lovely Sunday lunch (lamb) was duly put into the fridge and I was back in bed trying to sleep by 1600.

Another horrid night’s sleep saw me waking up some 18 hours later drenching in sweat and feeling even worse than the day before. This pretty much remained the case for the next two days or so when the night terrors, aching joints and muscles were replaced, on Thursday, with a hacking, mucus-ejecting cough and bad ear-ache on the right-hand side. Still, at least I finally felt like eating some chicken soup. A visit to the GP led me to discover that there was nothing that medical science could do for me as I had caught a nasty little virus that is doing the rounds at present and which absolutely nothing will shift. Duly signed-off for the rest of the week, I went home to collapse in front of the TV with all three kids as they had each started coming down with it the day before. Thankfully, Jo appears to have avoided contracting the plague at all so has been able to carry on running the house whilst the rest of us sit around, cuddling on the sofa and feeling very, very sorry for ourselves.

As it stands, I now have my appetite back, am eating properly and just have the remains of the cough and the, now much worse, ear-ache to contend with when I return to work tomorrow.

PS - No, Pete wasn’t there at Hot Fuzz because he is too busy trying to juggle his hectic schedule to actually commit to a date - with me anyway. Jo and I will probably see it again with Pete and Michelle at some point.

PPS - Yes, you did read that right. And, yes, the aforementioned Michelle is my own very dear cousin. *sigh* I’ll explain it all later.

PPPS - Happy Mother’s Day to any of you mother’s reading this.

Popularity: 12% [?]

After something like four years of me ping, punch, first of the month-ing Justin every first of the month he finally got me back today. I was sitting at my desk thinking that I should go and get him before he goes to a meeting and suddenly I felt someone touch my arm - it was Justin and he got me good! Well done, Bushmeister General!

Popularity: 18% [?]