Oh, and using your mobile phone in public to play your "choons" is like, so 80's and back then we had proper ghetto blasters.  And people used to breakdance around them, something that takes skill and practice, instead of just dribbling all over the screen as your batteries run out.

I had cause to wear a hoodie top recently, and they're fucking ace.  Restricts your side vision so you're more easily mugged, and also blinds you to traffic.  If only more of the useless generation we're dragging up on the welfare teat would wear them.

Listen to this man.  Discuss below.  I'm sure he'll have something to say about under 11's having to be in car seats by law.  When will the madness of this nanny state end?  Will I be getting a personalised "lifestyle coach" that comes by my house at 10:30 each night to check I'm already in my jim-jams, I've brushed my teeth and making sure the lights are off by 11?  A personal conscience monitor that polices my dreams when I sleep?  A bottom inspector to make sure I've wiped properly?  And who the fuck is paying for this?  Ah yes, that'll be me.

Had another chat with CAB last night about the whole Oyster card thing.  She finally conceded that yes, a government having detailed logs of where you've been and at what time could be a potentially dangerous tool if the government wanted to abuse that trust, through negligence or deliberate targetting.  How long before unregistered cards are phased out?

Oh and stop bombarding me with anti smoking and anti drinking ads, on TV, on billboards, on the radio; what's next - voices straight into my head?  The stop smoking ones wind me up with their sanctimony to the point where I start to fancy starting smoking again, and the anti drinking ones just piss me off with their scare mongering "are you in control of yourself, bad things like rape and murder happen to people who've had a half a shandy, you know".

My guitar's got a new set of strings on and I did righteously RTFO last night.  Mmmm new strings.  No progress on any MFC entry so far, mostly because piano is too damned hard to fake on guitar.  Also noted that one of the channels on the ADC has stopped working.  Bugger.  Still, it's under warranty.

Once again, Helen Daniels has been cruelly assaulted, this time in the locked shed downstairs where I was forced to leave my bike by the fascist Residents Association.  So either it's an inside job or some fucktard left the door open and the estate monkeys took the opportunity.  Stolen: bike seat & post (again), rear mudguard (again), front and back light (again), crudcatcher (again), sum total of ~100 notes to replace them. 

Observant readers will note that this is the second fucking time in ~4 months that Ms Daniels has been cruelly abused.  And this time they smashed at my gear levers, gave the back wheel a good kicking (that's a Kryptonite lock, you fuckwits; it'll take about an hour and a hacksaw not your size nines and a run up) and it looks like they took a hammer to the handlebars.

Called the police: "Would you like a crime number, Sir?"
"No, I would like you to come around and start asking questions.  You know, like police do."
"I'm afraid we don't have the manpower to do that Sir"
"I bet you would if I didn't pay my council tax and I denied access to the bailiffs"
"I can't comment on that Sir"

If I catch any of the little fuckers in that shed there'll be a crime number alright.

Currently at work I am doing stuff in C++ again.  VS6.0 (don't ask), realtime data acquisition.  Verrry interesting but I really do have the been-there-done-that's on it.  Write a multithreaded realtime data interface that buffers input so it can be written in a readable format once, and you've written one a thousand times.

Off away on business this week again, and I am astounded by other divisions lickspittle work ethic yet again.  This isn't levelled at $SMCSH really, mostly the sales and management echelons that infest companies like lice.  So, when it's just me travelling, I'll leave after work so you get a full day's effort out of me before I travel.  Then I do a full day for the client, and travel home after that.  When you're tagging along we leave at lunchtime for the trip out and again on the trip back; "it's important to be fresh in front of the client".  Ah yes.

Attn- Bookshop owning infidels: if you notice that in one shop, you have been selling large tranches of a given authors work, do you not think it prudent to re-stock those that you've sold, and possibly order in other works by said author?  I mean, if someone's obviously buying up the entire back catalogue, they might like to complete the set.  Because if you make the customer request the order, they're just going to go to Amazon instead.  Also, unless someone's just walked out the door with the last copy, you should not have only books 3 and 4 in a series.