They say never talk about politics or religion, but they haven't been in our office....

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Dear Mr Brown

You know something, you have a bloody hard job running this country and what thanks do you get, - absolutely none....

and why should you, you are ruining this green and pleasant land and (a la Uncle Bryn - "I'll tell you for why"

1. 10p tax
You have cut the lowest band tax meaning we all pay more tax, with the lowest earners suffering the most, not a good move.

2. Knife Crime
When are you finally going to change the law and make it more than "a slap on the wrist offence" to carry a knife, how many more people need to die before you make it illegal to carry a knife, I know of 2 people that have been murdered in the last 2 years, the last one to die was not fighting, not caught it in a drugs war, not at a football match, but while he was cashing up a days takings at the Matalan stored he worked as store manager.

3. Immigration
While I don't share the same views as a fellow blogger who shall remain nameless, I still think we have a problem here, we allow almost anyone into our beloved country with no requirement to work although every right (under the EU) to claim benefits, rumours are that this money is then sent back to their country of origin where the rest of their family live (and spend).

I welcome all people who are prepared to work for a living. The USA don't (or didn't) have a welfare system or an NHS, you don't work, you don;t have any money, you get ill, you pay for your treatment. I'm not saying we need to be this ruthless, but something needs doing. This Mr Brown, is why the "right wing parties" are winning seats left, right and centre

4. Credit Crunch
People being given 10 times their salary for a mortgage to get them on the property ladder, then losing their house when their "fixed rate" deal ends, credit card companies giving people £200k limits when the earn £10k a year, Northern Rock giving loans to anyone to realise these people can't afford it and then requiring the tax paying public to bail out the forementioned bank.

5.Petrol Prices
Don't even go there - £1.15 a litre, how much do you (read - government) make from the taxes from petrol, oil has reached a record high price per barrel, but the oil companies make billions, the government probably make the same, and we - the consumer, suffer as a result, and what can we do about it, use our bikes, public transport etc, if that's possible I'm sure we would (cookie), the other option, join a sodding facebook group or strike, none of which have much effect.

You know, I sit here probably like millions of others and say "I could do a better job of running this country", but I guess you said that years ago when interest rates were 15%......

But I wouldn't vote for you.. EVER

Yours sincerely

Damo

Anyone else have anything to add?

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On a good note and completely unrelated however.....

I told you so......

Britains Got Talent - Signature



Sha'Mon

And the Winner of Britain's got talent (2008) is....



We'll See...

A Perfect Day

Yesterday can only be described as a perfect day...

The release of GTA IV on the was only the start of it.
I managed to "land" a freebie day for myself and Bossman Gunn, never mind Golf, Cricket or Footy, this was the dogs danglies.

A day at Palmer Sports Racing at Bedford Autodrome.

That's me that is !!!

The day basically consisted of ragging cars you (I) could never afford around tracks at speeds that would probably kill you.

After dragging myself out of bed at 5.30am and driving to the Gunns's house, we set off for Bedford arriving at 8.00ish.

We were greeted by some lovely ladies who took our details and directed us to our table where we were given a full cooked english Breakfast.

30 minutes later we were given the safety briefings and watched the welcome video, then were let loose on the track.

Bring on the Vroom Vroom !!!!

First up was the Caterham 7


Secondly the Jaguar XKRs (My least favourite as the onboard computers took the fun away from spinning the car out of control - Safety dictates apparently)

Third was the single seater Formula Jaguar


Forth - Palmer Jaguar JP1 - Which I managed to spin (twice)

Fifth - Fun in the karts, (no photo)

We then broke for Lunch... then more fun

The afternoon started by off-roading in the Land Rover then back to the car

Porsche 911 JP3


The final session was in the Renault Clio Cup Racer


We then headed back for the trophies of which I won bugger all - I did manage to come 4th overall (out of 66) which has made me all nice and fuzzy inside - Read "SMUG".

...Now then, Does anyone have Ron Dennis' number.

All in all an absolutely brilliant day and I can highly recommend it for everyone (except SWMBO cos it costs too much).

The guys at Palmer Sports are brilliant, everything is planned with what seems like military precision the food the driving, everything...

Thank you lots Mr Palmer, (and an even bigger thanks to our host)

Birthdays and the Beeb

Firstly a very happy birthday to my (oldest) little princess Lauren, who was 12 on Tuesday.

Secondly - I have become addicted to 2 BBC TV shows.

TV SHOW #1 - The Apprentice

16 "real" people each with an equal chance of getting a job working for Sir Alan Sugar with a "six figure salary"

This programme makes me laugh, cringe and almost swear at the TV, when I say these people are real, they are normal members of the public who have applied to be humiliated on national TV in front of millions of viewers, and boy do they get humiliated, by each other and even more-so by the cockney former barrow boy Mr Amstrad.

Personally, I can't understand how some of the contestants have managed to get to the positions they claim to be in (Barrister, International Car trader, Bank Manager... )

It's a shame to see the talkative Simon get fired. He's a genuine bloke and has/had a genuine job works as a Senior Satellite Television Engineer" and was the project manager. He liked to be in charge and make sure everyone knew it. His team then lost and he took the hit for it.

Next weeks "firee" - Lucinda.

The winner of the show, my money is on Alex


TV SHOW #1 - Gavin & Stacey

Centres around Gavin, his mate Smithy, Stacey and her mate Nessa.

Gavin meets Stacey on a night out, they fall for each other, fall in love and so it begins.
This show is so funny and so real it hurts, I absolutely love Rob Brydon who plays Staceys' uncle.

The show has just finished the 2nd series, I have no idea if there will be a third, but it's definitely a must buy DVD for both series, half an hour an episode, 6 episodes a season, would make a good couple of nights viewing.

Note to Colin: There I have updated my blog to make you happy.....

THIS...... I LIKE

We all know Music/Video/Software theft is a crime. Only today Virgin Media made it into the news by announcing it will be working with the "British Phonographic Industry" (BPI) to stamp out illegal downloaders.


Its refreshing to see then, that the very same level of corporates who are doing their very best to stamp out this kind of illegal activity. Have been busted for running pirated software on four of their servers.

How were they found out you wonder?

"An IT department employee requested assistance for the use of a product called Ideal Migration. When technical support looked into the case, they discovered that the key used to activate the software was a pirated version".

From Zeropaid

I wonder what illegal software Mr Branson has on his virgin network.

Earthquake

I'm not going into it too much as there's no point. as my fellow bloggers Cookie and Tao give it their techy slant

There was an Earthquake, it woke me (and SWMBO) up.

We went back to sleep

The End.

(Global Warming, the demise of the HD-DVD, Apple - who know why it happened)

That Fat Lady isn't Singing Yet.

It was announced last week the High Definition DVD war was over with the HD-DVD camp giving up and going home, (with the ball).

Good news for all you XBOX 360 owners, Microsoft have just slashed the price of their HD-DVD drive to $49.99 (£25),

I know it'll a matter of time before HD-DVDs are as easy to get hold of as Betamax videos are right now.... But

• Could this actually be a turn around
• Could this be a clever marketing trick by the HD-DVD people in their quest to dominate.

Current (but for how long?) HD-DVD Partners

Put it this way, I'm still not going to rush out and get that shiny new Blu-Ray player just yet.
Then again, Im not going to rush out and buy the Xbox HD-DVD Player either.

We'll see.... again

The War is (almost) Over

*** GEEK ALERT***

So glad I didn't go all iPoddy on this oneIt seems like the next generation format war is almost over

I have always taken a (slight) interest in the gadget/computer wars.

First the Spectrum vs Commodore 64 (I had the Spectrum(s) 16k, 48k and the +2A)
Then Atari ST vs Amiga A500 (I had the Atari STe)

Thankfully I missed the VHS/Betamax war so only the VHS was available.

The PS2 vs Xbox was a dead cert (if you dont coount the Xbox Media Centre) (PS2 here)
The PS3 vs Xbox 360 have both seemingly lost to the Wii (How ???) (Xbox 360)
The DVD +/- was settled by combining the 2 (Yippee - I have have a dual burner)

The latest war that is close to ending is the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. If I had an interest in moving to HD, I would have gone for HD-DVD, I've no idea why, but wouldn;t have gone with BluRay as its backed by the wonderful Sony who have brought such delights as Betamax, Minidisc memory Stick etc.

It has however, all but won this time. Whether or not this is due to the PS3 with its built in player I don't know, but the HD-DVD manufacturers have thrown in the towel and the film companies either backed Blu-Ray from the start or have switched 75% of the new releases on High def will be Blu-Ray.
How do I get my hands on a free PS3?.

*** GEEK ALERT OVER ****

Another Ipod

Far from being iPoddy, I was fairly happy with my Pink, 4Gb, original style iPod, especially since the battery upgrade, however my I was forced... Forced I tell you, into having a new 160Gb Black iPod Classic.

Mine

I say forced, it was actually given to me, brand new, gratis, free, no exchange of money, and definately not stolen etc, by someone who is almost my new best friend.

I have managed to "legally backup" and transfer some of my movies, music, TV shows and podcasts over to it, and still have 125Gb free.

...Wow

I didn't realise the iPod only plays .mp4 movie format, stupidly, I presumed I could just transfer my avi files (legal DVD rips of course) straight to the iPod without too much hassle.
Oh No - I have to convert them first.

I used "A-One Ipod Video Convertor" to do the conversions, can anyone suggest something better, my favourite price is free, but cheaper is not always better.

I need a holiday so I can sit in the sun all day while SWMBO reads her Sophie Kinsella books and I watch Simpsons, American Gangster, Family Guy, Transformers, Debbie Does.. (not that one).

I need a use for my original "Pinky", and the 3 broken grey ones I bought off eBay for £25 will repaired... and sold back on eBay.

ITIL v3
In my quest to further my career, I have spent the last 3 days doing the ITIL v3 foundation course, ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is the standard IT in all organisations are keen to adhere to.
This is all good learning procedures in a classroom, but trying to put it into practice is another thing.

I also took the exam which requires 26/40 to pass. I took 2 mocks and got 28 on both (dangerously close).

We were told by the lecturer, passing the foundation course means an extra £2k on your salary (£15-£20k if you get the diploma). Who in their company would get an extra £2k as simple as that.

As my role as Service Desk Manager (along with a ton of other stuff "The Goona" and "The Conster" give me, I'll if I can put (some of) ITIL into practice

By doing the course, I have learned I am also the following,

• Service Level Manager
• Problem Manager
• Operations Manager

I'd say that's a £100k salary easily, but I wouldn't take the drop...


I'll find out if I passed in a few weeks time.

Nag Nag Nag

That's all people seem to do to me,

They say if it's not one thing it's your Mother/Mother-in-Law

Firstly
Massive congratulations to my Work Wife (Laura) and her bloke (Gaz) on the birth of their first baby (of many I hear !!!!).
'Erin Sophie' arrived a little early on 24 January weighing just 1lb 15oz.

I haven't blogged about it as I wanted to get her permission fist (Lauras' that is not Erins'), the Nag on my last blog has given me that authorisation.

Our only problem now is getting Laura to do her own collection.

Well done darling, now hurry up back to work as we have no I.T. Chick.

Secondly

My Mother-in-Laws' friend asked about getting free music for her children, as this is not something I do, I have had to ask a few friends who do this kind of thing.

The best bet for this is to use something called Bit Torrents, all you need for this is the "client" and the websites that list the .torrent files. I can't go into too much detail here as the legality of it all is still in question although there are stories of the BBC using the torrent technology to allow people to download content, we'll just have to wait and see. in the meantime, google for bittorrents for more info.

That's it, "Is there anything I can do for anyone?"

I have an Xbox Baby,
(but first...)

......I had a brililant comment today from someone in relation to my "Boycott Asda" post.

Blogging is a funny old thing, done by people wanting to have a rant at someone or something, want to tell the world about their lives or just have a little corner of t'interweb, I like to do a bit of everything, nothing too full on, just a place to have a laugh and not get too serious.

...Back to the post in question,

Long story short, Back in March 2007, our Xbox circle of mates all wanted to get a new game on release date, we went to Asda who refused to sell us 8 copies...... I blogged about it telling readers to boycott Asda as they have "ruined our lives....".

Heres the comment, (it's an exact quote so dont slag of the improper use of grammar or spelling).

soryy but i think ur so childish, why would you want to buy 8 copies anyway, your obviously some weird computer geek, get a life, how the hell did asda ruin your life by not sellin them to you. grow up you sad little person

Wierd computer geek
You got me there, I'm a geek, as are the IT people I work with, of which 13 of the 15 also have Xboxes, as are most of my geeky friends, in fact a lot of people I know. I love gadgets/computers and technology (embrace it baby).

Get a life
I've got one of those, - I go out (in the real world) I drink Stella/Jack Daniels/Magners, eat curry, pizza and all other forms of crap, go out drinking in the real world, have a job I love, a woman (I love), 3 children (I love) family and friends. (I love/tolerate).

I have a life and it's f*cking brilliant

Grow up
Who defines what is "grown up", childish I may be sometimes (as my real life fiancee will confirm), but grown up I definately am, I have responsibilities in life which determine that I am grown up as do most adults, I just also have fun.

Anyone else care to confess to being a a wierd, childish computer geek. (Tao, Lee, Cookie, Gaz)

Sad Little Person
I couldn't be any happier, 6 foot 2 and 15 stone

Rant Over - meet Miss Geeky Junior(ess)

Hello Is that Xbox Support, My Daddy won't let me play

By the way comment poster, AOL isn't the best ISP, Windows Media Center isn't brilliant, you should use Firefox as your browser rather than IE 7 and you didn't have to click on my blog when searching for an "Asda" image in Google - Now thats Geeky, and I also have your ip address 172.202....... but instead of all this, chill out enjoy or don't read my blog, it's a bit of fun.

The start of a new year ....

Its been a mad few weeks here in Damo World, New Job (at the same place), spanking Taos' arse online (so to speak), Leah being "wired up", family crappy internet connection problems, I don't know where to begin.....

So I'll begin with Leah

Leah has been to the Glenfield hostpital this afternoon for some tests on her heart, nothing major, just ECGs and scans.

Long story short, but SWMBO (Mummy) suffers from a heart condition known as Long QT, long story short, each heartbeat consitsts of P, Q, R, S and T intervals, (the beep you hear on heart monitoring machine). SWMBOs the time between her Q and T is longer than normal. Long QT Syndrome. The problem with this condition is that it's hard to detect but can kill people instantly, as well as being trigger by sound, sleep or noise, once it is detected however, it can be "treated" with Beta Blocker tablets or by fitting a implantable defibrilator.

Although quite rare, Long QT is gainng a lot of news recently. Marc-Vivien Foe who collapsed while playing football was said to have died from Long QT, and more recently Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell, another footballer has been rumoured to have had the same condition, which tragically, he also died while playing football.
I digress

As this condition is hereditary, SWMBOs mother, grandmother, 2 great-aunts, cousin and uncle have all been diagnosed with it and sadly her sister died 10 years ago from what was later attribued to Long QT. All those diagnosed are now under consultant care and genetic testing at the Glenfield hospital. We took Leah to have some tests today, this consisted of having an ultrasound type test to look at he heart chambers followed by an ECG. The ECG showed a Q-T interva of 405 which they stated is very low and not even borderline, although this sounds like good news, Long QT doesn't really show up until a child reaches 10ish years old.

The final test heas Leah wearing a 24 hour ECG, 3 pads are taped to her body and a reader is hid.... in her nappy, this will take her heart readings over a 24 hour period which will then be analysed further.Let's just hope she has my genes...

Called to Duty
Once again my sleep, my free time and my social time has been ruined, once again the Xbox is to blame, For the last few months I have been playing Call of Duty 4. For the last 4 weeks, I have been playing this very same game online and can admit, I am addicted.

Tao seems to think he kicked my arse, however as he has a "red ring" (try the cream Tao), I'm going to practice while he is Xboxless.

Now "Everybodys Uncle" Steve is Internetless thanks to SKy Broadband, it gives us all a chance to catch him up too.

Gone have the days where we compare acheivements and game points, its all about your Ranking in COD4. (I'm ranked 29 - which is frankly 'Shite')

New Job

With the departure of "Lord Orange" from our workplace (Leaaving do photos coming soon)- it was time for people to raise their game and step up a peg or 2.

"Goona" and "Scouser" have filled his bright Orange shoes, I have managed to secure me a new (additional) job, I am now.....a Service Desk Manager (Incorporating my old job as Solution Delivery erm "Manager").

That's it enough said, it's work and that's all there is to it, I enjoy it, it's great etc etc, and 13 of the people in the office have Xboxes.

We have plenty to talk about.

That Was The Year That Was

Another year has passed us by in the blink of an eye, for me it's been a year of change with the arrival of Leah, the 2 weeks in Hospital and 7 months (up to now) of physio. Looking back on last years resolutions I acheived 1, a couple of nice tries and a couple of not a chance.

• Save for the future - I stopped using my credit card(s)
  
• Learn something new - Nope
  
• Get fit - I managed to lose 20lbs after my "knee issue"
  
• Give up smoking* - OK this was a cheat
  
• Re-gain contact with family members - Haven't managed to do this due to my ever growing family.
  

New Years Resolutions for 2007

• Get Fitter - not only do I need to work on my previously infected knee to get match fit again, I aim to lose a further 20lbs fat and gain 10lbs muscle
• Sort the house, garage and garden - SWMBO wants the house decorating, the fence fixing, the decking done in the garden and the garage sorting.
• Lose Mr Angry - I admit I get a little angry and agressive some of the time (driving, queueing, walking, talking, watching Derby County lose etc), I call these my "Daphne" moments and plan to "Chill" in 2008. In fact the only time I am competely at ease is at work. Where I should be the most stressed.
• Spend time with my family

Spending 7 months at home did my head in, I think I can also admit it also did SWMBOs head in.
it was great being at home with Leah (for me) but frustrating that I lost my independance (Driving, walking etc).

Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all and here's to a great 2008.

Damo

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Santa Baby on her trustee sleigh

The 2 SWMBOs

It only took 3 hours to open Leahs presents

Where's Leah?

Fuddle
Is this even a word? I hear it every day at Christmas, and today, was our fuddle at work.

Every christmas time, our token IT Bird Laura arranges a "fuddle" and secret santa. Today must have been one of the best feasts of all time, we admit we're goot at I.T., but we're bloody brilliant when it comes to making food, we are bloody great

Food from all over the world (and Burton) were brought in, we started at 12.00 this afternoon and almost all felt like sleeping by 2.00 as at 10.30 tonigh,I stillhaveno desire to eat, we didn't manage to finish all of the food which means we can carry on tomorrow (Damo eating Veggie Samosa at 8.30am for the second day running).

One must do these things and I got a lovely bottle wine of from my secret santa too...... Thanks Steve !!!!.

Present today were;
Damo 'Fajitas' Byrne, Luke 'the Cake' Johnson, Laura 'Cheesecake' Smith, Ash 'Banoffee Sister' Earp, Dave 'Ninja Dip' McD, Ade 'Chilli' Hyomes, 'Fiji' Keith, Kosher'ief 'Ainsley' May, Colin 'Welshy' Ward, George 'The Greek' Makasis, Anthony 'Red Bull' Lort, Rob '' Gamble, Andy 'Ramsay' Rooms and Amerjit 'Desert Storm' Singh.

Im Not Pi$$ed

Cookie recently had his works Christmas Do AND a reunion with the Royal Mail Old school.

Let's just hope he didnt get as pished as the following clip shows, taken back in April when I managed to make a little drinky sesh.

Cookie.... Comments please !!!

Needless to say he was still trying to act sober when Mrs Bigfootcookie called...

My Water Babies

I finally had the chance to see Leah doing her water babies session this week, Waterbabies teach babies to swim in a fun way, and boy Leah had fun, she even swam underwater.

I swear I'm having the maternity leave next time and SWMBO can go back to work after 2 weeks off.

My 2 SWMBOs

Mothers group (+1 father)

Happy swimmer

Leah has learned to close her eyes when mummy says"Ready, 1,2,3, Go"