Angry Faic is present due to my neck feeling like it's herniated every single disc from my skull down to my shoulder blades. I've been up and sat at my desk since 0730 and we're now at 2255... I've spent about 15 and a half hours sitting at a desk wading through the stuff coming through the portal today.

Yes, last year's personal best of 498 Saves has fallen. I'm now somewhere around 748 Saves, with the official figures being released tomorrow. I've passed X-Naut and Major-punk on the Top Savours List, but must advise citizens that I have been passed by iscrulz. Please be vigilant, for he remains at large. Please consider him armed and dangerous and do not under any circumstances approach him.

But wait, there's more. I didn't just do this today, no! I had much more happen in my wonderful world this fine day.

1) I ordered a spangly new laptop, which will allow me to take Newgrounds with me to work, thus stopping any sarcastic comments about me using company machines for personal use. Trust me, it's worth it just to stop the hassle!

2) I won a competition. I received a cheque for £20 this morning for a magazine competition that I'd forgotten about entering. This will go towards the laptop fund... I only need to win another 29 competitions to break even now!

3) I had my photograph taken for the local paper - I was complaining about the state of the roads, as it's got beyond a joke to ride my bike along these ruts that have formed in the road surface. Cue face of disgruntled resident #27. This will probably get me disowned by my grandmother, as she can be weird about people wanting to be in the papers.

4) I did some good old fashioned DIY (Do It Yourself) *hur hur* Made a shelf to put my ever expanding DVD collection on and was testing to see if it fit in the alloted space, when my dad noticed that the shelf didn't fit flush to the wall - there was about an inch gap between the shelf and the wall in the middle, which was puzzling. Out conclusion is that the wall wasn't built straight in the first place. Fucking Cowboys! I then had to make a trip to the hardware store to grab a piece of wood, which was too long for the car. Cue me driving through town with a piece of wood sticking out of the passenger side window, threatening pedestrians.

5) You've never seen a lawn mown so fast in all your life. I managed to do that and get everything tidied up around it without missing a beat on the portal. Granted, the DIY Store jaunt did cost me about 30-40 points, but it's something to aim for during next year's Clock Day. I'm going to have to set my sights on the 1,000 Point mark, aren't I?

Oh and still no sign of that Blam that I've been seeking for two years on this date!

So, what's everyone else been up to? Stats? Events? Talk to me!

So there was a pseudo competition on the boards between gfoxcook and Bahamut about who had how many songs and how many artists on their iTunes collections. I felt that I had to wade in and throw my hat into the ring.

I CBFA to find the link of where this was, but I'm sure that either gfox or Bahamut will tell me where it was an I'll provide you with the link one way or another :P

Anyway, back on topic, what's on your iTunes? How long would your music last? How much file space does it take up?

I have 824 songs, which would last for 2.2 days and takes up 3GB of my hard drive space.

Artists:
AC/DC (28 Songs)
Ace of Base (1)
Aerosmith (18)
Alice Cooper (140)
Alice Deejay (1)
All Saints (1)
Amen! UK (1)
Andrew W. K. (1)
The Animals (1)
Apollo 440 (10)
Ash (1)
ATB (1)
B.B.E (1)
Babybird (1)
Backstreet Boys (1)
Bad Company (2)
The Beastie Boys (1)
The Beautiful South (2)
Bellini (1)
Ben E. King (1)
Billy Idol (2)
Black Sabbath (1)
Blink 182 (1)
The Bluetones (1)
Blur (13)
Bon Jovi (1)
The Boomtown Rats (1)
Boston (1)
Bowling For Soup (1)
Brian Adams (2)
Buzzcocks (1)
The Cardigans (1)
Cast (1)
The Chemical Brothers (1)
Chuck Berry (1)
Chumbawamba (1)
The Clash (1)
Cream (1)
Crowded House (1)
The Cult (1)
Dario G (1)
David Bowie (1)
Deep Blue Something (1)
Deep Purple (2)
Def Leppard (2)
Derek & The Dominoes (1)
Dio (1)
Dire Straits (2)
The Divine Comedy (1)
DJ Dean (1)
DJ Quicksilver (2)
DragonForce (1)
Eddie Cochran (2)
Electric Six (2)
EMF (1)
Eric Johnson (1)
Eve6 (1)
Faith No More (1)
Faithless (1)
Fatboy Slim (10)
Flogging Molly (1)
Focus (1)
Foo Fighters (62)
The Four Tops (1)
Frank Sinatra (2)
Free (1)
Gala (1)
Gary Moore (1)
George Thoroughgood & The Destroyers (1)
Gun (1)
Guns 'n' Roses (14)
The Hives (1)
Iggy Pop (1)
Iron Maiden (16)
James (1)
Jamiroquai (2)
Jennifer Paige (1)
Jeremy Healy / Amos (1)
Jimi Hendrix (1)
Joe Satriani (1)
Joe Walsh (1)
Journey (1)
Judas Priest (1)
The Kinks (2)
Kiss (20)
The Knack (1)
Led Zeppelin (2)
Lion (1)
Lou Bega (1)
Louis Armstrong (1)
Lousie (1)
Lynyrd Skynard (2)
Madness (5)
Mansun (1)
Marilyn Manson (1)
MeatLoaf (18)
Metallica (11)
Moby (1)
Moloko (1)
Monaco (1)
Motley Crue (1)
Motorhead (1)
Muse (1)
N-Trance (1)
Nickelback (2)
No Doubt (3)
NRG (1)
Ocean Colour Scene (1)
Offspring (32)
Pearl Jam (1)
PF Project (1)
Pink (6)
Pink Floyd (1)
Poison (1)
Priestess (1)
The Prodigy (1)
Queen (39)
Queens of the Stone Age (2)
R. E. M. (1)
Rage Against The Machine (1)
Ram Jam (1)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (56)
Rednex (1)
Reel Big Fish (37)
REO Speedwagon (1)
Ricky Martin (1)
Robby Williams (1)
Rush (1)
Sash (3)
Shadow Puppet Heart (1)
Shaft (1)
The Shamrock (1)
Shania Twain (1)
Shed Seven (1)
Sheryl Crow (3)
Slade (1)
Space (1)
Spectre General (2)
Spin Doctors (1)
Stan Bush (3)
Stardust (1)
Status Quo (1)
Steppenwolf (1)
Stiltskin (1)
The Stranglers (1)
Stretch & Vern (1)
Sum 41 (1)
Sweet (2)
System of a Down (14)
T. Rex (1)
The Tamperer (1)
Tears for Fears (1)
Tenacious D (12)
Thin Lizzy (19)
Thunder (1)
Toto (1)
Touch & Go (1)
U2 (1)
Ugly Kid Joe (1)
The Undertones (1)
Underworld (1)
Van Halen (2)
Velvet Revolver (27)
Vince DiCola (6)
Wierd Al Yankovic (33)
Wheatus (1)
Whitesnake (1)
White Zombie (1)
The Who (3)
Yngwie J. Malmsteen (1)
ZZ Top (1)

So that's 172 Artists at present. I haven't even added Michael Jackson or Bach yet :P

So, what's on your iTunes?

As you might know, I've been away for a short break with my lovely girlfriend to the Lake District. This was our first holiday together and we both had a wonderful time, thanks for asking.

Where is the Lake District?
The Lake District is a large national park, taking up most of the county of Cumbria. To get there by car, we had a 4 hour journey through the Midlands up the M6, passing such scenic locations as Liverpool (Hi Bahamut!) and Manchester.

We were staying on a caravan site in a village called Grange-over-Sands. It's about as far south as you can get in the Lake District without falling into the North Atlantic Ocean and meeting the same grisly fate as the Chinese Cocklers, who were caught by the surprisingly fast rising tide and sadly drowned.

Day 1 was spent mostly getting accustomed to the freedom of living alone for five whole days. The journey was horrendous, with spray on the motorway reducing the speed to 50mph, due to poor visibility. Once there, we explored and planned what we would be doing through the holiday.

Day 2 was when the holiday really started - Windemere is the largest of the lakes in the UK and we took a boat trip, with a video to follow soon... The trip was to the north of the lake, where we walked up a reasonably sized hill - about 2 miles in length and something around 1,000 ft above sea level - estimates based on how far we actually got. It was so good that we actually had to go back on day 3.

Day 3 had the other attractions that Lakeside had to offer - an aquarium / wildlife centre and the views of the old steam railway. Plenty of scope for protecting endangered animals and a good dose of industrialisation to go with it. Not quite a trip to the Motor Museum that I was hoping for, but maybe next time :P

Day 4 and we wnet back south to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The weather wasn't exactly spectacular, but we made a decent day of it. Though we didn't go into the Pleasure Beach itself, to join in the adrenaline fuelled fun, we did find some decent attractions, such as Ripley's Believe it or Not, which was amazingly informative. Of course, no seaside holiday is complete without a trip to the beach, which we spent most of our time dodging the incoming tide.

Day 5 was the trip down the M6 again, back to base. Bumped into a few soilders from the Royal Logistics Corps, who were moving a tank back south. That was certainly one of the best things that I could have bumped into and it certainly raised the spirits seeing that and the horrendous traffic jams that were in the opposite direction, while we were cruising at about 75mph.

We're back now and we did it in one piece as well! Now all that remains is to plan for next year's jaunt.

Okay, so we can embed videos in our blogs.

I feel so high tech now and I'm willing to embrace the new technology while showing off this wonderful offering. I hope you love it as much as I do...

Well, it's been quite an eventful brithday, I'll admit. I've done an 8 hour tour in the office, with my new T-Shirt on (see below), a decent workout at the gym and seen a few relatives. That's where the normality has flown out of the window completely for today.

I was expecting to have one birthday flash submitted by my friend Bahamut. He obliged here and I was mightily impressed.

Enter Afro_Stud. This guy has presented not one, but two birthday flash for me.That's incredibly touching, to say the least. Hehe, I'm touched :P

As the more astute of you will notice, I've also changed my aura to Neutral, in celebration of my birthday. I'm back in this colour, which has served me so well these past 4 years, possibly for good. I haven't decided.

Big thank yous to Afro_Stud and Bahamut, you've made me smile, to say the least. Craig, if you could oblige with about another 6 responses, I'd be most grateful :P

I'm not talking about the motorsport... not the Bahrain GP and Lewis Hamilton's return to earth, with a bump, anyway. I did see one of the most harrowing crashes I've ever seen. video link below the driver image, about 1/3 of a screen down. I don't want to spoil the surprise for you all.

One present left to open and it's from my girlfriend... Night all ;)

So as any followers of my ranting and raving about various disciplines of motorsport will be aware, my viewing of NASCAR started over a month ago, with the 50th Running of the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida. That season is already 5 weeks old and, while my driver (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) hasn't won a race yet, he's one of the hottest races on the circuit, with 4 top-10 finishes. He would have had a clean sweep of top-10s, if it wasn't for some incidental contact with his spinning teammate, Casey Mears in the second race of the season at Califonia. He got the car repaired and ran race-pace with the rest of the pack, even though he was 30-something laps down.

Still, I managed to cost my lovely girlfriend more sleep than myself this morning, as I got up at 0430, local time to watch the Australian GP. A lovely sunny day, where the brightest talent in the long line of British F1 drivers for a very long time was taking his position at the front of the grid. Lewis Hamilton drove a near-faultless race to lead the standings, while most of his rivals came into trouble of some sort. You've got to laugh at the Ferraris, as they really had a torrid time, despite the fact that all of the pundits were saying that it should be their race today.

Reigning world champion, Kimi Raikkonen wasted a great opportunity, by passing Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen down the inside with far too little braking space. Kovalainen just eased off, letting his countryman overshoot the apex and dive into the gravel trap. You would have thought that the McLaren Driver was the reigning world champion and that Raikkonen had just started only his second season in F1.

Felipe Massa in the sster McLaren fared slightly better, picking a fight with a grizzled veteran, David Coulthard. He scythed up the inside and Coulthard didn't see him until he had made severe contact with the sidepod of the Ferrari (see the image for further details). Massa continued, only to have his suspension fail later on.

Rubens Barichello almost killed one of his refuellers, Jock Clear (who is no stranger to getting mown down in the pits - something similar happened last year, I believe). Barichello's lollipop man, who tells him when to leave the pit stall lifted the lollipop when Barichello was still taking on fuel.

As if that wasn't enough drama for the first race of the year, Timo Glock, driving the Toyota had a nasty incident, when he caught some air (only a couple of feet, but that's plenty) and literally tore the suspension off the car as he landed. I suggest that if you want to see any of that, check YouTube for some highlights!

I returned to bed at around 0630 to catch up on the sleep I'll need to get me through the last 4 days in the office until Easter. Woke my girlfriend up getting back into bed and she didn't get much sleep at all, but she's up now, playing Guitar Hero at almost 11pm, so she's still doing alright :P

As many of you lot know, I'm a fan of cricket and all things involving dressing up in white, in the middle of summer and running round on a pitch, chasing after a small, red leather ball while trying to get as dirty as possible.

Practice has been going well this year - I've only had 1 bruise so far in 4 training sessions (that's probably tempting providence though :P) And the 2-hours a week is certainly leaving me with good expectations for the coming year.

I have hit a small problem though - the main tool of my batting arsenal has finally given up the ghost. I was feeling quite good in the nets, batting reasonably well, by my standards, and I was given a chance to really hit one on a pull to my left. The general sound of a good shot is a solid wooden 'thwack', usually accompanied by the bulging of the net and my ego. The net bulged, but me ego didn't, as I heard a decidedly wooden splintering noise... I retrieved the ball and tossed it back, only then consulting my obviously wounded weapon. See the pictures below for the damage.

The split from the front to the back also took with it the armour tape, which probably had kept it together for some time. While I'm quite impressed to be able to break a bat, just by hitting a ball, I'm also dismayed, because the bill for a new bat is going to be quite high. This last one cost me £30 over 3 years previously. For a quality bat, I'm talking somewhere in the region of £50, so that's a $110 bill if you'd like to factor that in across the pond.

How much do quality wooden baseball bats cost these days? I suppose that they should be cheaper, as they don't take so much to make, being all one piece, with maybe a cloth or tape grip. Cricket bats have at least 3 pieces, in the handle, body and grip, with an optional protective coating over the face, which got split on mine.

It had served me well over the past 3 years, though I wish I had served it better, by scoring more runs. In the end, the runs scored was 147 from this fine piece of willow in three years. I know that might not sound like much, but I'm intending to put behind me the problems that were caused by the number of ducks (0s) scored with that bat, when the new one arrives.

So I missed about 24 hours of internet connection yesterday and today. I left the office at 5pm and there was joy and good progress with my stats. I felt quite good and looked nicely into a well structured gym session.

I returned home to find that the internet connection had died at home. Not good. So as a result, most of the evening was spent trying to find other ways to entertain myself. Thankfully, The Science of Discworld came to the rescue and my sanity remained in tact.

This morning, I awoke and tried in vain to restore the connection, for my morning stats and emails. NOTHING!

Not to worry, I'll go to the office slightly earlier and use their connection, to satisfy my craving. Traffic has been unuaually bad, due to the river being 5 metres higher than normal and the main bridge into the town where I work is operating a traffic light system, only allowing 1 direction of traffic across at any one time.

Got into the office and turned on the computer, to find that the internet at work is down. Coincidence? No - I'm supplied by a different ISP at work to at home, both of whom are experiencing problems. By lunch, when the connection was still down, I fled the office, to try and get access via home, which had come back (I told work I would print their emails, because mine was working)

The connection was finally restored at about 1530, meaning I've gone a whole 22.5 hours without a connection. It's worse than the redesign, because I couldn't use anything on the internet at all.

How the fuck did we cope without internets?

Well last night was the works Xmas party for the masses at Haywood Developments Ltd. We left our base in Worcestershire at about 1130am to make the trip down various motorways and Welsh country lanes.

With the New Developments manager acting as chauffer and myself as co-driver / DJ, we set off. The Admin assistant, Matt played his face about how long the journey was - about 4 hours by car wasn't that bad, so long as you could keep yourself occupied.

Anyway, we arrived at our destination and had a couple of hours to kill - over drinks number 1-3 of the evening, while getting ready. Aside from the drinking, getting ready consisted of applying a little gel and after shave. Job's a good un!

A minibus trip later, we arrived at a place called 'Tafern Beca', which would be my base for the next few hours at the very least. Cue the introductions to bussiness associates, who I haven't met in over 2 years with the company. The plesant conversation is mainly an aside, as we slowly become drunk.

The meal itself was the traditional Xmas 3-course spectacular - soup, turkey dinner, then a choice of dessert - I had a Mint Cheesecake, since I'll be eating all too much Xmas pudding and Mince pies over the next week :P This was washed down with another 4 Southern Comfort & Coke combos. Very tasty.

With all of the meal finished, we were herded into the bar, where a few more drinks were poured and I was overjoyed to see a pool table. Feeling a little of the effects of the alcohol, knowing that I'd passed my normal limit of about 6 drinks, I tried to take my mind off things with a few games. I proceeded to beat Kevin, the Regional Manager, followed by myself and Matt beating Sarah from Sales and Dylan the site forman in a doubles match.

Desperate for revenge, Kevin placed a drink on the table and 50p in the table. He was paired with Alan the Architect. I didn't have a partner at that point, but didn't care, as I broke and potted a red... follwed by 6 more and then the black. There was an almighty cheer, as I'd truly found my place within the company, by achieving my first 7-ball victory ever.

A few decent battles followed on the pool table and I moved onto a respectable 12th drink. I was losing control of my legs and speech and was getting pissed off about it. The crowd appeared to have lost interest in the Pool table as well, which was depressing. One of the guys who I had managed to beat off the pool table earlier said to me that the best thing for me to do was to be sick and give me some control back. A poor choice of words, as it made me feel sick, so off I went to the Gents.

I'm not pissed off about being sick, more by the fact that I couldn't test if I would suffer a hangover in the morning from the drink which I purged from my system. Whatever was left didn't affect me and I'm now free for Xmas, which is an amazing feeling. The drive back was fun and I'm not feeling any effects of the drink either. Time to go down the Gym!

Happy Xmas everyone, I'll see you in 2008!

So for the first time in about 12 years, I've been ice skating. The first of the list of bad ideas I had was to wear my Colorado Avalanche top, because that only made me look more of a prat when I inevitably fell flat on my arse during my first three laps.

Still, the number of falls was considerably less than I was predicting, with only a few bruises this morning causing minor niggles. By the end of the night, I was turning laps of about 45 seconds which, considering the number of times I've visited the ice rink (2), isn't bad at all.

Of course, my best mate had to show off by turning fast laps and making it look relatively easy. I was spending some time causing a nice pile up in turn one, as a guy and his girlfriend moved from the inside to the outside, just as I was trying to make the turn. I turned sharper and just about made the pass. Sadly, I didn't quite avoid blade-to blade contact, with the guy, so we both ended up on the ice, and his girlfriend fell on top of him. A shame, but I think he enjoyed it :P

To compound it all, when I took my right boot off, there was a massive blister on my biog toe, so I can't walk properly this morning. Oh deep joy.

Still, the Avs won last night, although it was only over the Oilers :P