A Happy Award!

I realise others have awarded me awards and I've yet to acknowledge them here, but jumping the queue is my wonderful girlfriend Lynette at A Blog In The Rough who awarded me this cool Happy Award last Monday.



Here are the suggestions

1. Link to the blogger who gave you the award on your post...

2. Write 10 things that make you happy...

3. Share it with at least 10 friends...Have fun!

Ten Things That Make Me Happy

1. Pizzas. They're brilliant. They're like The Transformers of fast food, totally customisable so you can never get bored with them. Even turtles love them.

2. Television. A constant companion throughout my life. It once broke down for a week and it was like losing my right arm (though I'm possibly understating the devastation and trauma involved).

3. Sleep, which I like more than anything in the world when the alarm clock's going and I have to get up for work.

4. Kebab calzones - a lethal cholesterol cocktail of a kebab wrapped in a pizza that I sadly only ever encounter in one fast food emporium in Manchester. For a while I thought that the decline and fall of the Roman and Greek empires was totally justified if it had eventually led to the culinary pinnacle of their foods merging in this way, but then I discovered donner kebab was Turkish so there went that theory.

5. Family. They're way cool.

6. Friends. Like family but, yay, you get to pick them.

7. Seaside. Coming from a seaside town, I very rarely venture anywhere near the seaside, but once I found myself alone in a faraway desolate land, where no life roamed and days dragged out for months (yes, for those familiar with it, I'm talking about Morecambe) and I found I really liked the seaside there because it reminded me of my hometown.

8. The Internet. I seem to spend way too much time on the internet, but that's because I like it so much. There's always something happening on it, 24/7, and it's full of useful and useless information. Plus, you get to type out your stream-of-consciousness meanderings and people throughout the world will read them, how neat is that? Also, without the internet, and the people I've met on it, I'm sure my life wouldn't be anywhere near as happy.

9. Vimto - my favourite drink of all time.

10. Saving the best for last, my girlfriend Lynette, who makes me happy in so many ways, on so many days, and just thinking about her can bring a smile to my face. If I had a happiness dial, then she'd be the one who made me realise it went all the way up to eleven.


Since I'm way too lazy to come up with ten people to bestow this award on (and also I fear them bestowing awards back, putting me even further behind with my awards acknowledgement), I'll leave them up for grabs for anyone reading this who wants to claim them.

Monday Movie Meme: Bugged Out

Feature Presentation...

MONDAY MOVIE MEME

This week Molly and Andy at the Bumbles Blog are asking all about movies with bugs, so here's my pick:

• Matinee (1993) - Which includes the cool spoof '50s sci-fi movie "Mant" (Half Man Half Ant All Terror)
• The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) - Fictional documentary warning about insects taking over the world.
• Monsters Vs Aliens (2009) - Features a cool-looking human/insect hybrid, Dr. Cockroach, voiced by Hugh Laurie.
• Vampire's Kiss (1988) - That crazy goofball Nic Cage eats a cockroach. Ewww.
• A Bug's Life (1998) - Cool Pixar movie, though I almost went for the similar Antz.

Sunday Stealing: The Pretentious Blogging Meme 2

You can play here.

Missed the first part of this meme, but I'll leap on for the second:

12. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now?

Twelve, including this one, though a lot of them are unfinished past posts that could be deleted.

13. In what medium do you draft your posts?

I just type them into Blogger.

14. How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

Not that often, usually when I won't have time to finish them.

15. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose?

I'd probably leave it to no one, since that way the output rate wouldn't change that much.

16. Are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?

No, I find most people's blog's unique and different from each other, which is another reason I wouldn't leave my blog to anyone.

17. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?

Yes, the fact that people read it.

18. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward?

I like to keep it pretty directionless.

19. Do you make any money from your blog?

No, it's a loss-making blog.

20. What blogging system do you use?

Blogger.

21. How did you come up your blog name?

I came up with a list of potential names, then got rid of all the ones that had already been taken, then the catchy ones, and this is what I was left with.

22. How many blogs do you have? What was your peak?

I've really only got this one (I've got another one relating to a novel I wrote that I've yet to post to, plus a hidden one my girlfriend started that I really need to post to sometime). That's as peaky as I've ever got.

23. Are you having as much fun as when you started?

About the same, though these days I'm doing way more blog reading than blog writing.

24. Where do you find other bloggers like you?

By checking out blogs.

25. What’s your one wish when it comes to blogging?

That I had more time to do it.

Saturday 9: I Started a Joke

Here's my answers to this week's questions from the Saturday 9 Meme:

1. Tell us a joke that you think is funny. If you don't tell jokes tell us why.

A man dies, goes to Hell, and this demon's showing him around the underworld.

"You can spend the rest of eternity in one of two rooms," explains the demon, leading him into the first of the rooms.

The man looks around, and sees all the people inside, standing on their heads on a wooden floor.

"Okay, let's see the next room," he says, so the demon takes him into the second room, where people are standing, up to their ankles in sewage, drinking cups of tea.

The man thinks for a second and then says, "I prefer this room."

"Good choice," says the demon, handing the guy a cup of tea, and then starts to leave. On his way out he looks at his watch, and shouts out, "Okay, lads, tea breaks over. Back on your heads."

2. Where do you buy most of your clothes?

Clothes shops, though not one in particular.

3. Which famous person would you like to meet? Why?

One of the Jonas Brothers because then my niece would think I was cool.

4. What is your ultimate ambition?

To blog regularly.

5. Do you like to live in the area of your country or would you prefer something a little different?

I like living where I am, though I'd much prefer to be nearer my girlfriend.

6. Has a newspaper or television reporter ever interviewed you? If so, what were the circumstances and what did you think when you read or saw what you said?

A TV news reporter interviewed me about airport security the last time I visited America, but sadly I didn't make the news and my promising media career stalled.

7. What was the last CD/mp3 album that you purchased? How did you like it?

Embarrassingly it was the soundtrack to Glee, but I've not had time to listen to it properly yet.

8. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

White Wine In The Sun - Tim Minchin
Someone Keeps Moving My Chair - They Might Be Giants
Friday I'm In Love - The Cure
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Tori Amos
The Queen and The Soldier - Suzanne Vega

9. Do you or your partner usually begin intimacy?

My partner I guess, though occasionally I initiate an impromptu kiss and our heads invariably end up banging together.

Sunday Stealing: Lola's Holiday Meme

You can play here.

1. What is your favorite holiday show/animated show?

That would be Ziggy's Gift, a groovy cartoon from the '80s with music by Harry Nilsson. The Snowman, similarly antiquated but far more well-known over here, is also cool.

2. What holiday character do you think you're most like?

Santa, who also just sits around most of the year and only gets a day's work done.

3. What holiday character does your spouse think you're most like?

I'm spouseless, so I'll never know whether they'd have gone for Scrooge or The Grinch.

4. Favorite Christmas/holiday song?

At the moment, it's Tim Minchin's White Wine In The Sun, which I've been listening too way to much in the past month and which can be found at the top of this blog on my Christmas Tunes eight track (though I just noticed this morning that Neil Gaiman's posted a link to the video - which I'm way too lazy to do - on his blog). Before that, I'd have gone for Tori Amos's version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (also on the aforementioned eight track).

5. Most hated Christmas/holiday song?

Probably Jona Lewie's Stop the Cavalry, which is just a stunningly mediocre song that manages to keep being played solely because of its Christmas connection (either that or Wings' Wonderful Christmas Time).

6. If you have an all holiday music radio station when do you start listening to it?

I don't have one. If I did have one, the answer would be never.

7. If you have an all holiday music radio station do you love it or hate it?

I still don't have one, but I'm fairly sure I'd be ambivalent.

8. Have you ever wrapped yourself as a Christmas present?

No, somehow the idea never occurred to me.

9. Who is Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer's father?

Depends on the version of the story. Some versions having it being Donner (hope that's not where donner meat comes from; Ewww).

10. Do you drive your neighborhood or one near you at night to look at other people's holiday decorations?

No.

11. When you see a heavily decorated house do you think, 'oh that's lovely'? Or do you think, 'oh criminy, that looks like Christmas threw up all over their lawn'?

More the first, though the houses don't tend to be that heavily decorated in these parts.

12. Are you counting the days to Christmas with excited anticipation or dread?

With anticipation, though it's after Christmas when I visit my girlfriend that I'm actually anticipating; I might overlook Christmas all together (apart from Doctor Who being on TV of course).

13. When was the last time you had your photo taken with Santa? Did you sit on his lap?

Must be about forty years ago. I think I was sat on his lap, but I don't have the photo readily to hand.

14. Do you make a Christmas list for your spouse or significant other or do you rely on them to pick your gift(s) without a clue from you?

I tend not to make Christmas lists, since I don't usually know what I want.

15. When do you put up your tree?

Not got round to doing it yet this year, but Christmas isn't really about the tree, it's about something far more important - the presents.

16. Real or fake?

Fake, preferably silver. That's the kind of tree I associate with Christmas from my childhood.

17. When do you take your tree down?

If I finally get round to putting it up, then I think it's supposed to be taken down on twelfth night, 6th January, though I'm not in the country then so I might just leave it up ready for next year.

18. Do you shop the day after Christmas sales? What do you shop for?

No, the only thing I shop for after Christmas is batteries. They're usually needed for something or other.

19. Is your work/office having a holiday party this year? Will you attend?

They had it on Friday, and, yes, I attended.

20. Do you have your New Year's Eve Plans set yet?

I know I'll be with my girlfriend, but beyond that I've nothing planned.

Monday Movie Meme: Good Vibrations

Feature Presentation...

MONDAY MOVIE MEME

This week Molly and Andy at the Bumbles Blog are asking all about movies about music, so here's my pick:

• I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) - Great comedy about some teenagers wanting to see the Beatles at the Ed Sullivan Show in the '60s by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale who later went on to give us Back To The Future (these days Zemeckis now brings us motion capture animation films such as Beowulf and A Christmas Carol, and Bob Gale is a writer on the Amazing Spider-Man comic book)
• The Blues Brothers (1980) - Two brothers wearing sunglasses are on a mission from God to put on a concert to save an orphanage.
• Josie And The Pussycats (2001) - Cool live remake of the '70s TV cartoon with a great soundtrack and Parker Posey.
• 24 Hour Party People (2002) - A tale of the Manchester music scene from the '70s to the '90s.
• A Mighty Wind (2003) - Cool fictional tale of folk concert reunions with a great soundtrack and Parker Posey.

Sunday Stealing: The 6 Ws Meme

You can play here.

Who...

Is easy to love?

My girlfriend Lynette.

Do you just wanna smack?

Myself, for dropping my phone on Thursday, since now it's in for repair and I'm not sure I can live without it.

Do you trust?

Myself. The Plastic Mancunian's blog told me to (though I'm not sure if I can trust it).

Do you talk to when you're alone?

Mainly my girlfriend, through the wonder of google chat.

What...

Dangerous things do you do while driving?

The most dangerous thing I do is the driving (I've failed my driving test seven times).

Are you allergic to?

I don't know. Never taken any allergy tests. Work tends to have a bad effect on me, though I haven't exposed myself to it too much.

Is Satan's last name?

I always figure he was a one name kind of guy like Bono or God.

Is the freakiest thing in your house?...

That would be me.

When...

Is it time to turn over a new leaf?

I guess now's the best time; no point in putting it off. Failing that, tomorrow.

Will you be all that you can be?

I think quantum mechanics implies that I'm always all that I can be (or the me of all the parallel universes is/are). Failing that, never, since there are things I could be that I'd probably not want to be.

Is enough enough?

About this far into the meme, though I suspect the questions will continue.

Do you go to the dark side?

When the light side gets boring.

Where...

Are your pants?

If you mean trousers, I'm wearing them.

Is your last will and testament?

It's in some cabinet downstairs.

Is your junk food stash?

I keep it scattered about in a few local take aways.

Is Carmen Sandiego?

In the world.

Why...

Was the Lone Ranger alone?

He wasn't. He had Tonto, and Silver. You can't always trust names - Dr. Seuss probably wasn't a real doctor.

Was The Scarlet Letter scarlet?

Was it blushing because of what it said?

Are musicians sexy and plumbers not?

Because musicians know how to make sweet music, while plumbers are just messing with their tools.

Are there no seat belts on school buses?

Because children heal faster than adults and also sue less.

Would you...

Swim the English Channel for a doughnut and coffee? If not that, what?

No, I really don't want to swim it; there are quicker ways across it. Well, maybe for five doughnuts, but they'd have to be really good ones.

Forgive someone who deliberately hurt you?

I could, though it would depend on the circumstances.

Rather believe a lie if it hurt you less than the truth?

It depends on the lie.

You still be alive if you were sucked out of an airplane window?

Yes, but I'm not sure how long for.