Spamalot

I've just been wondering whether you can tell more about someone by just how much spam we get, and by whom we're getting it from. I seem to be daily bombarded by tesco.com - having a go at me to make sure I send Mother's Day flowers via them (which I won't, even though I am very, very pro-Tesco, as it just doesn't feel right), dabs.com and play.com. Food, drink, computers, DVDs. Sounds about right... :)

Exam results!!

Not mine though.

I haven't had to sit an exam in a number of years... :)

But my students do. I'm currently in the process of hauling them all in to "discuss" their results so far. Just the kind of thing I really hated when my shoe was on somebody else's foot. Now, I have my own shoe and a mixed-up metaphor. That'll show'em.

Internet Catz

They seem to be everywhere now - Internet Catz. I see them linked from all kinds of sites. Here are some of my personal favourites...

Bootiful Boycott

Wow, it's been a long day today. The trains are playing up at the moment so while I headed over to Huddersfield for the usual weekend at Sally's, Transpennine Express weren't willing to help be come back as easily. The trains were barely running last night (engineering at Selby), so I waited until this morning to come back. After being woken by Sally at a less-that-usual 6.30am (sob), it was off to the station for the semi-usual 8.12am. It gets to Hull for 9.36am, one quick taxi and I'm not usually late for work. But not today... No, the engineering is perversely from 7.30am-9.30am and 4.30pm onwards, just to make sure commuters are stuffed. :) So it was a train as far as Selby, then a bus to Hull. I got home roughly 10.30am, and to work just before 11am. Luckily, my Monday teaching only starts at 1pm, but I'm still a bit peeved.

I'm also peeved at Bernard Matthews and his turkeys. I'm not a big believer in food scares, and I'm not worried by this bird 'flu business. In fact, short of taking a lovely stroll across the countryside, stumbling across a dead bird and them rubbing it into your face, I don't think we're likely to catch it. But shifty companies do get up my nose. So along with Terrys and O2, Bernard Matthews are now on my 'black list'. :)

House of Cards RIP

Recently, I bought and started re-watching the BBC series "House of Cards". I always enjoyed it - some great acting. So I'm very disappointed to hear that Ian Richardson - the politican who "couldn't possibly comment" has passed away :-( The story is here.

He was also the voice of "Death" in the recent Hogfather.

Road Pricing Proposals?

This seems legit so I thought I'd mention it (Thanks for the e-mail Paul). See this link for a BBC article about it a couple of weeks ago. Seems the numbers have changed since then.

Sarah Kennedy was on about this proposed car tax scheme on the radio, apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax. The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000 people had signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

This is from the 10 Downing Street's website. [Might be worth finding the link through their website]. Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition. (JAMES EDIT: You *do* give a lot of address info).

Democracy in action?

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non-working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill. If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

Nothing, really...

But if you look at it from a different angle, you realise just how clever this is. This is Julian Beever's work. I was sent a few examples the other day and while I've heard of him before, I couldn't resist posting something here.

What's wrong with the picture?