PKR gets better

I do like playing on 3D poker site PKR. It is a lot of fun and fully interactive. Uses up far too much of my laptops juice, but its worth it.

They've started sending emails when you win over $100. I thought it was a nice touch!

Sunday, April 08 EXCLUSIVE: "PKR Speaks!" Page 5 BREAKING NEWS: "Tourneys heat up" Page 6 TEAMWAK WINS BIG AT PKR! Poker world thrilled as Teamwak takes huge $210.00 tournament prize. "Fame won't change me" says Teamwak By Special Correspondent. PKR NEWS - Teamwak fought a field of 75 tough competitors to take 1st place in the PKR $10 Regular (6 seater) Tournament and $210.00. "It was an incredible display", said one observer, "everyone was on the edge of their seats". The result marks another big step in Teamwak's meteoric rise to poker stardom. "I predict big things from Teamwak", said a poker insider, "all the ingredients are there; skill, determination, guts - and a slightly funny haircut." Teamwak took 1st place and a $210.00 prize. Poker beauty makes TV debut! Page 3 PKR set to become #1 poker site! Page 7 Copyright © 2007 PKR Limited Home | Contact | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

And as for Glastonbury ticket, my angry email resulted in me being told it was a condition of their license that they sell couch tickets, and as I bought coach tickets then that is what I am getting. They will only give the tickets out mid-coach journey! Ridiculous!

Glastonbury Festival 2007

Horray! I got tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2007.

Glastonbury is the greatest festival in the world, with no other festival since the 60's capturing the fun and excesses of an outdoor music festival. And as one of the biggest festivals in the world, it offers some sights and sounds that are un-paralleled.

It has the whole hippy vibe going on that can be contagious. You cant beat sitting in a glade, or my the stone circle getting all at-one-with-the-universe. Cant wait!


Unfortunately, Glastonbury Festivals would only sell us tickets that had a mandatory coach journey attached to them. I had to pay £50 extra as the normal tickets were sold out. Now the website says the tickets will only be given out on the coach trip itself! They wont give the tickets to us before.

We were hoping to have a few extra days down south, but if we can not take a car, then how can we have a holiday? Public transport all the way? Fuck that! I have fired off an angry email. We will see what happens. As I have paid for these tickets, I firmly believe that these are my tickets to do with as I see fit. Not to be doled out to us like presents for good little boys when the organisors see fit!

Big Game Hunting

The title says it all.

Steampunk

I recently came across the phrase Steampunk online. Turns out its a recent style of re-imaging modern concepts, but setting them in the Steam age, around Jules Vernes time in the 1860's. As far as I can tell it seems to have started big when a Manga cartoon came out in Japan, charting the adventures of Steamboy, a boy who lived in 1860's London who is sent a mysterious steam producing orb from his uncle in America, to keep it from the evil O'Hara group.

http://www.bigredhair.com/steamboy/index.html

Seems that modern artists and animators are applying this concept to pop culture with suprising effect. I heard one artist did a serious of drawings of the video game Thief in this style.

These drawing are an artists take on the Star Wars world, in the Steampunk style.

http://ericpoulton.blogspot.com/search/label/steampunk%20star%20wars

Pretty damn cool, really.

Something reflective

I was sent this poem by email. As I can be a sentimental old git sometimes, I thought I would post it.

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near
Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they
Found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that
Copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One
Nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man's sole bequest to
Posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News
Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide
Presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now
The author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? ......What do you see?
What are you thinking.... ..when you're looking at me?
A ! Crabby old man, ....not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .......with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food.......and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice....."I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice .....the things that you do.
And forever is losing ............. .. A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not......... ..lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding ....... The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse......you' re not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am ....... As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, ........as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten......with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .......who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen ...........with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now. ..........a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty .........my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows.....! .... That I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now ........... I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide ........ And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty ........ My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other ......... With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons ........have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me........to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .......... Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children ......... My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me .......... My wife is now dead.
I look at the future ............ .I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing ........young of their own.
And I think of the years...... And the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man......... And nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age .......look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles.... ......grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone....... .where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass ...... A young guy still dwells,
And now and again .........my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys........ ...... I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living...... .... ...life over again.

I think of the years ...all too few......gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact......... That nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people ..........open and see..
Not a crabby old man. Look closer....see. .......ME! !

I've decided to take early redundancy from work!

I cant believe it. After 14 years I have decided to take an early redundacy/severance package and leave my job for the Government in the Department for Work & Pensions.

Its been crap for a number of years. There is a total freeze and pay and progression after the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced as an election promise he would cut the number of civil servants there was. He pledged to reduce the DWP by 25% over 3 years. Hence the freeze in pay & progression. The killer was I had gone for promotion in a promotion board and passed it. I was even notified of my passing. Then the announcement. Because the board hadnt finished running they cancelled it! And now promotion chances not been for 3 years.

So they offered me £27000 to go and I have taken it. The only problem is I have no idea what I am going to do next. All I do know is I have a chance to try something new. So I am.

A couple of months bumming around should do it. I am a training officer/consultant by trade so I am going to try a bit of self employment doing that. But I also fancy doing a bit of extra work which I have done in the past. So try my luck and see if I can make ends meet doing something that I might enjoy. If it all fails I will wave the white flag and re-join the rat race again, but until then... who knows!

Wish me luck!

Triton

You know I love moons. This is Neptunes moon Triton, as seen by Voyager 2.

Another cracked chunk of rock, but with ice volcanoes!

Nice.

The Witches Broom and Head nebulas

Pretty!

:)

The Pale Blue Dot.

This is from a famous speech the legendary author and cosmologist Karl Sagen once gave. It is quite beautiful.

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."

Funny cats

And why not?

Snow day in Harrogate

Its been snowing!!

It doesnt do it often enough, so I grabbed my camera and started snapping.

Enjoy.

Sometimes the sky is the show

Hope this fantastic photo works. Click on it for a better image.

"Sometimes the sky itself is the best show in town. On January 26, people from Perth, Australia gathered on a local beach to watch a sky light up with delights near and far. Nearby, fireworks exploded as part of Australia Day celebrations. On the far right, lightning from a thunderstorm flashed in the distance. Near the image center, though, seen through clouds, was the most unusual sight of all: Comet McNaught. The photogenic comet was so bright that it even remained visible though the din of Earthly flashes. Comet McNaught continues to move out from the Sun and dim, but should remain visible in southern skies with binoculars through the end of this month. The above image is actually a three photograph panorama digitally processed to reduce red reflections from the exploding firework."

Above the clouds

Another day, another cool photo. Comet Mcnaught see in the sky above an observatory in Hawaii.
Nice!!!

Camels

Cool photo. Enjoy.

Delurking Week

Its delurking week where apparently everyone who visits blogs should come out of the dark and say hello!

Anyway, heres more moons than you can shake a stick at.

Microsoft v General Motors

I was this this by email. It made me laugh

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate - their computers!

Camera Phones

These new mobilephone
cameras are great. You can capture amazing pictures instanly. Cool stuff!

So here are a few photos that were on my phone. Includes a Catherine Wheel at my brothers Bonfire Night party, A straight Flush I had in poker (surely the most beautiful thing ever!), and a couple of sunsets taken from my car when driving, lol

Happy New Year

This is Matthew (3)







And this is Harry (6), my two dear Nephews







And on Christmas day morning, three big fat chickens invaded my parents garden. The boys thought it was fantastic! The wierd thing is, that nobody around here keeps ckickens (that we know of), and we cant figure who they belonged too! I felt sorry for them and gave them a bowl of my Dads Bran Flakes. They stayed the night, then like Kieser Sozee (pff!), they were gone!

Hope 2007 brings you all that you hope it will!