Monday, August 31, 2009

Noel Gallagher Leaves Oasis

Well, it finally came to this. Noel Gallagher walking out on Oasis after one row too many with brother Liam.

Well I'm glad to say I did get to see them last year at one of the opening shows of this tour, in Sheffield. It was a great gig, though the seats we were in were rather shit, to be fair but still that communal sing-along is one great feeling and experience.

People might slag them off and say they should have packed in after What's the Story. To me that is people following the 'cool' opinion. And, I disagree with it. For me, all of their albums have been fantastic.

I know, they didn't 'crack the USA' and they're bickering/arrogance filled the papers but so what? They were a truly great, massive, iconic band who produced some of the finest songs ever made. They sold millions of records, set records and defined an era.

Oasis have also provided me many happy memories, lots of singalongs in particular one that stands out is singing Don't Look Back in Anger at Pete's stag do; five or six of us arm in arm in a crowded nightclub in Nottingham.

So, for all the joy they've brought me and no doubt will in hopefully future solo projects or a Noel-less Oasis (who can picture that? Not me.) I say thank you for the good times...

The Arena, Middlesbrough



Me and mate Keith arrived here nice and early last night to boogie on down, enjoy a few more drinks and have a good time. However, it seems that Nazis have taken over and following a long wait in the queue they demanded to see everybody's ID. We didn't have any and that was that, fun over. It was over the top in my opinion and a very disappointing end to the night.

We ended the night in Chicago Rock Cafe.

Truly awful.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My All Time Favourite Song - Part 3

A quick follow up.

I've been having a really good think about this and listening to some serious amounts of music. Where to start?!

There are just so many! From Abba's SOS to the Walker Brother's The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore and everything in between.

There's a very small selection on this Spotify playlist...

spotify:user:kingchief1000:playlist:3LuXGMLrqQbCaRlPU3tiP3

...which will no doubt grow and grow.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Phone Saga

Let me tell you a tall tale about my mobile phone. I could do with getting it off my chest.

I had a thoroughly miserable time yesterday arranging the update of my mobile phone.

It all started a month or so ago when my current contract came to an end with Orange. I currently have a Sony Ericsson k810i which I am sure you'll agree is now ancient. I did my research, took, and ignored people's advice and took the plunge on an iPhone 3GS from O2 on a £45 a month contract.

I knew it was out of stock at the time but I thought yeah that's too bad but great, it's popular, it's the phone to be seen with. So, all well and good.

Well, a week or two went by and it still hadn't arrived. I explored the Carphone Warehouse website for a number to ring but it was constantly engaged. So, I gave up and it got to the point maybe early this week where I actually had a momentary thought of "Oh yeah, I ordered an iPhone and it's still not here and I've done nothing about it." That's how great my mind works.

Anyway, I tried them again and eventually got through where I was put straight onto the world's most complicated automated phone system. There must have been 15 button presses before I finally reached the stage of inputting my order reference.

After inputting that 10 digit number I was told,

"The order reference number you have entered is...invalid!"

"Arrrrgghhh!!"

I hung up and started again.

20 minutes later I finally got through and it was as if I had been connected to the identity theft illegal immigration hotline! The guy wanted my account numbers, debit card numbers, my driving license number too. That can't be right can it?

Apparently because O2 want to do these security checks before issuing the iPhones out. It's not a child you know! It felt a little bit ridiculous so I cut the guy off mid account number and said I would sort it myself face to face with "a geezer in a shop" as I so eloquently put it.

So that was it, iphone order cancelled and left stuck with my current handset still with Orange.

Now then, when I ordered the iphone, I handed in my 30 day contract notice to the guy at Orange who advised me at the time that to transfer my existing number to a new network I would need a PAC (Port Authority Code) Number so he sent me one out. It arrived but I thought nah, sod it, I'll just have a new number. At the time though he said "It's ok if you don't use it just let us know and we'll cancel it." so I thought fine, in the bin it goes. Oh no...

In the back of my mind then yesterday whilst on the phone to Carphone Warehouse and cancelling my order was this whole PAC number thing. I rang Orange and was connected to a young guy who seemed to have absolutely no idea what I was talking about and in the midst of explaining it all for the third time he tried to offer me a Pay as You go phone at the end of another 30 day notice period?!!? He put me on to a lass who explained the PAC number thing. I shouldn't have been sent it apparently. Orange are great aren't they?

She then put me through to the upgrades dept to see what they could do once I'd explained most of the above to her.

In the end after much hard selling and what was no doubt an 'imaginary approval from my line manager', I've managed to bag a LG GT505 for £19.60 a month. It cost nothing and comes with 200 mins talking, unlimited texts and 500mb internet usage which seemed alright to me.

I finally put the phone after maybe 2 hours of ringing, holding, button pressing and explaining but I was happy I'd finally sorted one.

It arrives Tuesday and will be getting a thorough analysis on here.

Now this is the kind of blog post I will be doing a video of in future methinks. I could have told this much better so I will give it a go at some point this week.

Might get a haircut and shave first though.

Aviva Advert

This advert has been a huge source of amusement over the last week...



"Green Arrrmy!!!"

Saturday, August 22, 2009

HTML Amazement

I found this thing astonishing.

If you visit this website here... Fujinonbinos and then right click and view page source, you'll see a load of 8pt font sizes giving you the impression that somebody really, really wanted the font to be at 8pt size.

Oh no, some geezer has made the remarkable observation that if the page source is turned on it's side, it looks like this...



Which happens to look very much like this...



Now, the view above is taken from the Fuji Headquarters in Saitama on Google Earth.

Put them together and...



How the frig did they work this out?!! Mental. Just mental.

All found from the b3ta newsletter.

If you don't read it, you should, it's fantastic. Do it here.

My All Time Favourite Song - Part 2

Well it turns out that I misinterpeted Keith's favourite song of all time. Although Rocking All Over The World was given a mention, it was actually this...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Thanks Glen

Thank you for the promotion via your various status updates, tweets and blog and a very big HELLO if you're visiting the site via Glen's link.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

My All Time Favourite Song - Part 1

This debate got going last night back at my friends Robbie's house and when I was asked what my all time favourite song was, it stumped me.

What is my all time favourite song? I literally don't have one!! I like so many songs but I don't have one that stands out above all the others. Or do I?

What better excuse then to do some blogging and analyse my favourite songs.

Robbie's answer was, quite unbelievably, this...



And Keith's was, yes, you've guessed it, Status Quo...



...neither of which I am particularly fond of.

I couldn't have even told you who sang the Vandross song above until last night and the Quo song is well, just what it is, an overly simple party song that, whilst it gets me out of my seat, it doesn't say or mean anything to me emotionally. Whereas to Keith, he associates it with a particularly happy time - Boro lifting the Carling Cup all those years ago.

More on this very soon.

Old at 26



Ouch! It was a like a punch to the stomach entering the world of Middlesbrough pub, "The Crown" last night.

I'd heard plenty of people mention "The Crown on a Monday" but never gave it a shot until last night.

Dear me. I was easily one of the oldest in there and it hurt my pride quite a bit!

Still, £1.50 a drink, a top laugh and some serious amounts of clunge.

I shall have to go more often.