Saturday, November 25, 2006

My word, what is this dark and vaguely sinister-looking pie


its positivley the pie to enjoy while you are reveling in the horrible misfortunes of others.


its a Schadenfreude Pie a kind of doppleganger to humble pie!

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004492.html
one of my pet peeves at the moment is airport security after the 'terrorism' incedents and the way they are making normal everyday peoples lives a nightmare with petty rules that dont work, this is a new meme that im going to introduce to the blog - stupid storys regarding airport security either experienced by me, others i know, or i find on the web.

i thaught this one was fitting as it involved my other favourite thing in life PIE!

http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/eye-of-the-consumerist/does-the-tsa-consider-pie-a-dangerous-liquid-216421.php

Personal story of the day: having flown out of Heathrow T3 recently i was cueing for the first level of rent a cop security (that demenes rent-a-cops) who were checking that no-one brought more than 1 bag aboard. so there is a guy behind me holding a breifcase and a 33 LP, the lady rent-a-cop decided the 33 constituted a peice of baggage, and would not let the man cross between security barriers untill he put the 33 into his bag. the problem being that the breifcase was smaller than the record (presumably why he was carying the 33) when he pointed this out to the security, the security lady pointed out that he could not carry the two peices of luggage onto the plane, so either comply by puttinmg the record in his bag or surrender it. whence forth the security lady pointed out that if he bent the record in half it would fit into his bag. he became cross at this statement and pointed out the obvious that by bending the recod in half he would render the record useless. but security would not budge on their position

point taken. either surrender the record, break it and take it on board so the gentleman broke the recod in half and gave it to the security lady.
whilst fuming all the way through security

Friday, November 24, 2006

Sophe Lux

ive been listening to her stuff for a few hours and she truly rocks. Tbh i havent digged something like this since i bought the album 'music for movies that havnt been made yet'



the reviews say it all

"The lovechild of an unholy union of Lord Byron, Kate Bush, and (Peter Gabriel era) Genisis- But only if said unholy union were perpetuated by mad romantic scientists in goggles!"

"Songs about hypnosis, sleep, sonambulism, robots, paranoia, revolutionaries, computers, and consumerism. Tounge and cheek and cheeky, the quotable Nietzsche as a way of life."


http://myspace.com/sophelux
well, another doha moment, got 3 out of 4 of my boxes of shipping, the one missing box was typicaly the 25k of books i really wanted/needed.

also missing from my received boxes was 200+ dvds (including the boxed sets of the outer limits and the twilight zones), my video camera & a number of very personal items with much sentimental value.

i hold no hope on receiving any of this stuff back, excluding the one box of books (as that was a whole box thats gone awol and may turn up somewhere) as the shipping agency localy are saying its highly likley they were pinched by customs, luckily i took out insurance on the whole deal on door to door shipment but no doubt that the whole insurance deal will be a nightmare.

on the upside i now have some clothing to wear, some books to read and some dvds to watch. 3x12hr late shifts at work. and my aramex account works in double quick time having received notification that the care package that my mother sent me has arrived in doha, however it being friday i cant collect it today but will attempt to tomorow.

yours
M

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Aljazeera compound - weapons watch
steyr aug



the weapon of choice for defending my virtue.

also saw a lot of MP5K's this morning too. surprisingly with the magazines out too.

as the boys and girls saddle up for a trip to the middle east the office fills up wit the neccasary baggage for a war torn news zone, by the printer is a flack jacket and two balistic helmets. note the strappy sandles too!




best news of the week -

Richard M. Nixon, who resigned in disgrace in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, will appear on the coin in 2016.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/20/news/dollar_coin.reut/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

there minting a richard nixon $1 coin. whoop big up the trikky dikky coinage.

if you know me then you know i will be buying a boatload of theese - got to love the uber suber baddy of us politics who effectivly ended the vietnam war and opened negotiations with china whilst simultaniously alienating the us voting public with watergate & being chronicaly drunk most of the time.
my alter ego for today will be

Fabio Capello lead coach for madrid.

god i lve tv, ive just been asked to improvise a voice track for the sports dep. so for anyone watching today the voice of the translator you hear is me!

looks like they pulled it for the breaking news assination
well good news all round here

1) my shipping has finaly arrived out of customs after nearly 2 & 1/2 months, im getting it tomorow or the next day: im sure most of the stuff will be broken or missing but at least its here.

2) a second slashdot on qatar living - its starting to feel like im technorati.

bad news: it took me 1 1/2 hrs to get to work as they appear to have dug up the city bound road between kalifaha stadium junction and sports roundabout: took me nearly an hour to mak2 the 1k journey. god bless the asian games

plus pikkies of the comedy night with rob & karen

Monday, November 20, 2006


well im back at work 3 days of madness off, thursday night i cought up with the canadians starting at garveys then ending up at ozzy legends - then ended up with the compound kids drinking till 4am.

friday. bbq preporation - typical doha moment - tjhe gas i bought for my new bbq doesent fit the regulator they sold me that was next to the gas bottles - typical doha - lesson learnt- assume nothing in doha. up till 4am great party lots of lovley friends around the pool for shrimp beef & chicken. lots of chats with great people.

sat hungover. stayed in during the day had a quiet one with the compound kids till 1am

sun, slept late, went shopping for some food for the upcoming monster marathon week thats incoming, phoned kathrin and had a long chat about london whats happening, the jazz scene, projects etc. and then went to the comedy with michael, sue karen & robby filby & others, laughed my ass off at some very non P/C comedy had a very good night well worth the 85rials.

monday morning - woke up late - its raining - headed to work at 12.15 took me 45mins to get to work, and still had to walk some too in the rain as there was a pileup at tv roundabout, mental note - driving in doha doesent improve in the rain. saw 4 accidents this morning.

that brings me to now, at work at my desk in the newsroom, thinking about you dear reader, where your from what your doing on this slightly rainy doha day.

ive been sitting on my step thinking about doha and my life here, i have some beautiful friends, even if this town is a mad highbreed of a one horse western town and a scifi film, with driving from madmax, the things that irritate me about here the beaurocuracy, the lack of culture the madness of the driving, all things being equal its not bad here, there are a lot of worse places that i could have ended up in. i work with some amazing people with skills and charisma to die for, im doing a job that others would kill for, for a station thats building an international reputation, bottom line i think im going to be happy here. its just that ive missed my friends and collegues from the uk and am still missing the culture.

.M.