Weekly Quote - W/E 24/10/09

"And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He di not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." - The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Blog Action Day 09

OK completely missed this one - a sign of my hardened heart and less caring about the world or a portent of my making less use of my hotmail account - you be the judge!!

For those not in the know Blog Action Day is an annual event where bloggers all over the world post on a single topic, a different issue is picked each year, always something that has a global impact, such as poverty.

This year's topic was Climate Change, and from all accounts the day was a success - I'll hopefully be up for it next year, but I'll spare you the half-hearted posting that I could make and instead link you to some of the posts highlighted by the team.

Some of the bloggers included

Gordon Brown

The White House

The Spanish Government

Change.org

TreeHugger

and Daily Blog Tips

Have fun reading!!

Word of the post: August –adjective

1.	inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religious drama.

2.	venerable; eminent: an august personage.

Weekly Quote W/E 17/10/09

"I would fight a duel for a trifle, for an insult, for a blow; and the more so that, thanks to my skill in all bodily exercises, and the indifference to danger I have gradually acquired, I should be almost certain to kill my man.' - The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas

Gandalf - no, not that one.

Here are a few images of my snake, who I had for many years. He was a Garter Snake from America and I had him because he was the only reptile my Mum would allow because he didn't eat dead mice or chicks as most lizards and snakes seem to do!!

As most snakes are he was quite solitary but it was fun to watch him slide gracefully around his tank and we got to do some fun things to - here are some pictures of him enjoying his favourite hobby, swimming in the bath!























One real advantage to having a snake was that you got to see cool things happen, like the flickering tongue as he prowled around. Another cool thing was that they shed their skin, leaving behind a fun memento for you to keep as an owner. Snakes usually use something to help them 'slough' as it is called, in this case a rock and a toilet role tube we used to add a bit of environment and variety to his tank, we also used palm trees from an old 'Tracy Island' set!!


















Incidentally I named him Gandalf before the films came out, so definitely a case of 'before it was cool!' for the ol' snake.

Word of the post: Vapid –adjective

1.	lacking or having lost life, sharpness, or flavor; insipid; flat: vapid tea.

2.	without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious: a vapid party; vapid conversation.

Weekly Quote W/E 10/10/09

" 'It is required of every man,' the ghost returned, 'that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.' " - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Unlimited Bowling

Yesterday I rediscovered the joy of unlimited bowling. I hadn't hit the lanes for quite a while, partly because of business and partly because the prices have skyrocketed over the past year or so to make a game of bowling a rare occasion if at all attempted.

Now having time (and fortuntely money) on my hands I decided to hit the lanes with a friend during the day time and see how much we could get out of the Unlimited bowling.

For those unfamiliar with the concept it runs like this: you pay a set price and for that you get three games of bowling, but if the lanes are still available (and if you go just after lunch like I did they usually are!) you can keep on playing until the bowl gets busy.

We expected to pay around the usual price for three games (an extortionate £13!!) but actually got the deal for £9, which was quite good we felt. We carried on for a record 18 games straight, giving us a value of 50p per game!! It was great fun and after a shaky start we managed to recover form and averaged about 100 points a game with my top score being 130, still shy of my personal best 170!

Anyway, if you're free in the day time it might be worth checking out - there are also discounts for booking online which I hadn't noticed before, which also give pretty good prices.

Well better go now - my hand and arm are really achy!!

Weekly Quote W/E 03/10/09

"A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible." - Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

Dreamscape

Well on my degree we did look at dreams and how they can inspire and reveal stuff about your psyche and all that. I don't often dream, or at least I don't often remember my dreams, and usually they're just nightmares about having to repeat my teacher training or somesuch. Anyhoo I have had one or two more interesting REM sessions of late and I thought I might share some with you to fill the void between quotes - so here's one I had recently: I've added my own thoughts as to the mystic interpretation.

I was starting a new job, which I didn't really know anything about (1), nor did my colleagues, who seemed to be mostly made up of old school friends of mine. It was hard to keep up with the talk and demands of our boss who seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, Ricky Gervais. (2)













We were all sent to meet up at a location to start work, but I wasn't really paying attention when the directions were given out and everyone scattered before I could ask for a lift. I got into my car, trying to remember where to go. I drove off and in a guess I entered STOKE into my Sat Nav - which also activated the Hyperdrive in my car, transporting me there instantly (3)












Once I arrived in Stoke it was clear this was not the place, I drove around to check, then phoned one of my friends to get directions. It actually turned out that we were on some kind of farm in an obscure Welsh village (one beginning with 'Llan') and I tried to hide my lateness, but of course with hyperdrive technology even being slightly late was big trouble with the boss.

Soon after I woke up!

Interpretations:

(1) I am currently unemployed
(2) I watched The Office and Night at the Museum recently
(3) Star Wars and Mass Effect have a lot to answer for!

Word of the post: Facet –noun

1.	one of the small, polished plane surfaces of a cut gem.

2.	a similar surface cut on a fragment of rock by the action of water, windblown sand, etc.

3.	aspect; phase: They carefully examined every facet of the argument.