March, I’m tried to think of a great rhyme for March that didn’t have either starch, larch or the grossly overused word: Arch. Sadly I couldn’t.

I suppose this was when the pain started in one than one way, as the foundation degee I was doing at the time, was taking up huge amounts of time. All the while this was causing me to fall asleep due to endless boredom with the whole endevour, so that’s when we also started to see of the more creative and dare I say, more random blog posts I had ever written. Even got Episode 2 of the podcast out during this time, so I guess it’s not all bad.

Each one was coming up with more and more ingenious things about being lost in the Artic tundra, which became the theme of the website as I posted so little at the time. There was the post which went into immense detail about simply meeting two ladies for a coffee. Other things which went on, was the bout of “Banaglore Belly” which basically called off a needed break from it all back to Manchester. Mind you looking back I spent a fair amount of time with Glyn, Kelly and Christine from Manchester over March as they also came down for a visit as well which was a welcome change.

A lot of the time during March I did nothing other than watch TV, work and then sleep. Kind of like what’s going on now really…

It was also the time that I had seen that film “There will be blood” with Daniel Day Lewis, the one where he drinks your milkshake! Christ that was an awfully horrible and sad film to the point you didn’t want to see any more, and yet it got awards?!?

Of course I couldn’t end the month of March without that wonderful picture of Jessica Biel, whose love one day I would hope to win without chloroforming her with my armpits;

And yet, she remains with Justin Tumberwood. Shame but as the french say….merde.

Wow, February. Err….

Actually a fair amount was going on this month of all things too considering as I said about January, not a lot’s meant to happen at this time. It’s all the hangover from last year with the big spend normally that’s the reason for this year, there was nothing in the slightest.

For instance, our good friend Matt Seymour had enough of England and decided that his time would be best spent in Aussieland with other people where he would engage women in sexual intercourse at least 15 times a day. He left and then informed us that he was detailing his adventure out there on his own blog thing.

It died on it’s arse in August but still, he was out there living it up. But despite my questioning as to why, (possibly he been possessed by the devil and had been vomiting green sludge) Matt is returning Feb 2009 and from then on, he will be thinking about what to do next.

Speaking of sexual encounters, we also had one in Wolverhapmton. I did write that Russ did wanted a glowing review for the band, and as it turned out, it wasn’t a push considering the fact that they walked on stage and even just tuning their equipment up made them a million billion times better than the horse-poo that came before.

So I wrote one. Tukazon if you remember I had said were great with the blend of funk with hip-hop and movie clips. They are still out performing now, but basically haven’t been able to see them since. Don’t read anything into that….

It was also about this time that the degree work was kicking into overdrive and would soon start to take over everything else I actually did. But that didn’t stop me from getting annoyed about things which didn’t matter, such as moaning about Valentine’s day, playing The Witcher and then seeing that Windows XP is better than Vista. Sorry, but if you try and so much as tell me otherwise after I wasted all that time going through it all, I will shoot you.

We all wasted a day talking about the earthquake that did f**k all. I remember that actually as well, as everyone wanted to start every conversation about the damn thing, and nothing bored me so much that day, it caused me to search the internet for an earthquake picture. How you can actually capture an earthquake in a picture was beyond me, so I just nicked the national geographic thing off the Argos website.

Gamers with Jobs featured the Lord of Leisure for the only time this year live and kicking due to someone falling asleep or something, and I have a nasty suspicion I will never appear on there again mainly as I am rubbish. But hey, it could be worse.

And to round it all off, I got on the Facebook and MySpace trains in a vain effort to appear like I was up to date with these stupid trends. One would be used, the other would fall into the place I put things where I don’t care about them. Never mind…

It seems the right time to do something like this as most websites, TV stations and anything strapped for anything worthy to do, compile a list of things in 2008.

Basically, a list of the dead is normally done, big events that happened and best of, I don’t know, dishwishers are all created for you to consume while the lazy broadcasters and writers are still gulping down that 15th bottle of vodka wondering why they are still alive. So with that in mind, let’s take a look back on the year of 2008 from the perspective of Ooh Sometimes.

To put all of it in one post would be criminal as one thing I have learned is that long posts with writing tends to put people off their tea and dog biscuits. So let’s start with January…

January brought a number of things about into the world of wonder, such as the hopes and dreams of the coming year, trying to do great things. As we all know, this fell on it’s arse later on but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Some more friends were leaving shropshire for pastures new, The funky Starcraft 2 figure finally arrived in the post after 4 months, which was a massive signal that I needed to get out more.

The first podcast of the new year came out and it was quite something, featuring a load of rubbish as usual, but about trying to be uplifting because at the time everyone was so upset about the state of things all going up in price. Actually that financial downturn theme popped up time and time again in other posts, and recently it has made a re-appearance on these pages, as if it never went away.

I was also up for T**t of the year along with Gordon Brown, and various other political figures over at Wonko’s World. Granted that was by request but hey I wanted to win something for a change. That ambition rather failed.

On the social front there was quite a lot which is always surprising as January along with Febuary are often the most pointless months as nothing happens. That didn’t stop me from posting every so often saying it was a boring week or something, but at the time I had Guitar Hero 3 to keep me going, so all was well.

There was the lady friend’s birthday which we also pondered about art and the cold war on the same day thanks to one of the year’s only good films, Charlie Wilson’s Haircut. A trip up to Manchester to see his royal Glyness occurred where the phrase sexual T-rex was overused to great effect, and I rounded off the month by passing a Microsoft exam about something complicated.

Not too shabby really.

As you all know the only thing I do is read everything I write on OohSometimes.com because why on earth would you want to read anything else?

It seemed like a good thing to do to go back a year as basically I am leading up the new year article to see what resolutions I had made and failed, make up new things and round it all off with a review of the year. It was a nice trip back to the past when I wrote a hell of a lot more, and was basically a lot more funny than the bitter husk of a human being I’ve become. Then I came across a post which made the spider senses tingle.

Only wish I had some effects for everything to go wibbly-wobbly

Excerpt from “And We’re Back!!“

Either that or go mad for the sales which upon arriving back in the UK, seemed to be the top story that everyone was queuing outside the shops to get products which the shops couldn’t sell at rip-off prices before so they are selling to the gullible numpties convince they are getting a good deal when they are still being fleeced within an inch of their lives. They gave one example on the radio where a woman had bought a handbag for £200, convinced she had a bargain because it was down from £650.

And hadn’t everyone already spent enough to begin with before all this today? What about the credit crisis that the whole world in a grip of terror not more than one week ago? What’s happened to the cost of living going up, thus our stagnant wages affording less for us all?

And now we have greater money problems at the very height of things going wrong with various companies out of on their arse to sell the Big Issue to various banks and sleep rough. Can’t help but wish for better things to post about. Maybe writing about my elbows will lighten up people’s days?

Right now, my eyes are hurting as all day and I’m slowly but surely falling asleep as the most energetic things I’ve done all day is catching up online with a few people and then proceeding to destroy my life using World of Warcraft, bringing the mighty BrianPotter up to Level 54.

Some would say that that is not a very clever state of affairs and I should be out at the sales buying tat instead. But considering the fact that normally I’m tired from working over hot coals all day and this tiredness comes from being lazy once again, I’m willing to take the ridicule on this occasion.

But that’s what this Christmas time is for; doing nothing of worth and dreading that start back at work again.

Granted though this Christmas there has been more than just sitting down, because it’s been the time when I have been able to see a good number of people again that feel left behind since the move to Nodnol or London as other people may know it as.

There have been a good number of surprises over the last few days, some good, some bad, and it does cause the three cogs in the brain to start turning round as it may actually make for an award winning post. Granted the content may not be a surprise to some, but nevertheless, you never think of it, until you expereince it all yourself.

For now campers, I’m off to have some nice local Oswestry Fish and mushy peas. Enjoy the rest of your time, and more than likely, I’ll find more time to pull away from WOW to update on naughty. BYE!!

Merry Christmas to everyone today, hope you got what you wanted, and if not, just remember, the receipt for it’s probably hanging around somewhere so just have a quick look when everyone’s dead from eating too much Christmas pud, mince pies and maybe those tiny pastry things with cream in the middle.

But if they bought your present from Woolworths, well, never mind.

In case people are wondering (mind you I’m expecting no-one to be reading this blog today, hopefully they have something better to do), I actually wrote this post a few days ago, because just like last year, I’m away from the normal place of work and instead am back in Oswestry, more than likely right now I’m on the floor under the influence of questionable substances, all the time laughing at shiny things. Then maybe watch Doctor Who and Wallace & Gromit later on.

Last year, I wrote about the fact that you would have the January sales to look forward to, along with New Year’s Eve getting absolutely wasted, stealing a traffic cone and weeing on someone’s car after today’s blessed day off from work (The more cyincal way of looking at Christmas, but that view does seem to be gaining weight with people recently).

But instead the sales already started before christmas, the ongoing terrorism that is the financial market will make sure that no-one spends for some time to come, and more and more people lose their jobs. Does that mean the terrorists are going to be annoyed that they’re not in the news? Robert Mugabe seems to be annoyed, now proclaiming that Zimbabwe is his and it’s soon to be renamed Mugabeland, the crappest place on Earth next to Milton Keynes.

I suppose it’s rather a terrible thing to be down on today of all days to remark on so many things which have become a cause of “concern”, but let’s be honest, here in the western world at least we have family and friends to remind us of great times. Money comes and goes, but at least there are people out there who you may actually like. Have fun and remember, It’s not all bad campers.

Music from the Ooh Sometimes Podcast

Every year it’s the time of giving and for once I give something which a) I didn’t make and b) is all far better for it. It’s been a huge amount of time since the last Ooh Sometimes podcast turned up on these fair pages, generally waffling about body parts unknown and making a mockery of the latest games.

Last year, there was a best of… which had a fair amount of good bits, which as it turned out, wasn’t a bad show. So basically I have placed some of the best music from the podcast into a nice small zip file of about 78MB in size for you all to download and enjoy for this year’s Christmas treat.

Ho ho ho and all that other stuff!

Perhaps this will not be in keeping with the festive mood which should be in the air but I wanted to write this post just to get some things off the man breasts. I suppose it won’t make much sense really, and in the grand scheme of things, people will disregard it as a piece of writing and more the dribble falling out of someone’s mouth made into sentences. But I suppose I had to get this down, even if only to make some small part of my aching body feel better. A little bit of history to start this all off with is in order first;

I was born in London though never really lived here until 6 months ago when coming down for a new job and possibly to progress further in a field than wouldn’t have been possible elsewhere. Everyone knows that London possesses opportunities and experiences you can’t get anywhere else, that is why many people come here.

I came down with ideas that it would be filled with fun days, great nights and hopefully things would begin to look up, far more than they had done in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I was aware of some of the differences that come between London and where I came from, sunny Shropshire, and I didn’t have any illusions it would be easy.

But when I got here a few months ago, even I had not prepared for what was to come and in fact not a lot of people believe it either.

People, work, money, money and then even more money with booze to top it all off with, it all revolves around the fact that unless you are famous or indeed just lucky enough to be rich, you are most welcome in the capital, whereas the majority of people fall silently into the good night without so much as a fart or even heaven forbid, a thank you for working double your hours for free.

And so because the title of Lord of Leisure doesn’t come with state funding (at least, not yet) let’s assume we are all in the working group of the population here.

It seems that on one hand you are encouraged to progress and on the other, heaven help you if you try and go above your station, or make a mistake, as we are constantly reminded by our taskmasters, you are replaceable. They will simply remove you and get some other poor sap to work the long hours, threaten them with the fake pressures and loss of money and the cycle repeats over and over.

Someone once wrote “Evil prospers when good people do nothing” or words to that effect. In quite a lot of places here in the capital, there are plenty of evidence of this type of evil growing in power. So why is no-one angry?

Why aren’t people concerned that this is the environment we all live in? Maybe it’s people’s indifference is what is making this a worse place, like good soldiers we have simply gotten used to it. It’s the way it is. Such a wonderful answer without giving anything away as to why it is the way it is. It’s been like this for all time, and it will be like this always.

Then I start looking at the bigger picture for once. It would be nice to think during these financially harsh times that people do take the time back and live for themselves as opposed for their taskmasters. But instead the overwhelming sense of what would happen if they had no money coming in lingers in the air like a bad smell from a dog’s bottom and no-one wants to take that chance, so are more than happy to carry it on as long as nothing bad happens to them.

I suppose the credit crunch has done much to knock people in many respects. Don’t want to spend any money, go anywhere, do anything, just in case there are further bad times to be had. People are being more reserved and well, I know you could argue: About time. We’ve had it good for far too long and maybe it’s good that we all realise there are consequences to our actions.

But there is another side which I failed to consider: fear. No-one’s spending, which buggers the politicians’ plans over, which means less money going into companies back pockets and because they answer to shareholders, they have to give dividends regardless, which means people are sacked to keep the margins nice, which means less people spending, which after a cycle of all this means things are worse. It’s Groundhog Day without Andie McDowell,which actually is not a bad thing but the point is, that is where we are at now.

And now it’s the fear of losing everything which is now driving us all to work far more than we should. Thing is, now it’s expected of us to do far more normally. What happens when the workload becomes too much for too little?

Right now, the whole lot is just so confusing to a simple person like me, and maybe that is why this waffle is more “waffly” than normal. Then again most things are confusing, like why every tube train smells like wee and vomit even after being cleaned twice…

Something which recently came up in conversation with my imaginary friend Ted, was that I don’t keep in touch with anyone any more. And actually as it goes, it’s 100% right.

When I was back in sunny Shropshire, I spent all sorts of time on the phone to various warlords arranging the next civil war in Africa, or simply asking if anyone was bored and wanted to go somewhere and cause another traffic accident.

But since being down in London, I have contacted only three people regularly and they are all from my family. Others of course have been left in the dust, bringing up concern by well, three people in Manchester and two in Shrewsbury.

Don’t get me wrong of course, there have been others which have talked to me in the meantime as I happened to have left MSN or Steam online, but aside from that, it appears everyone else has been perfectly fine in the lack of communication.

But that is the very essence of Human nature. Unless you have a vestured interest in someone, you only give them as long as you have to if they are around you. If they are not there in front of you on a regular basis, then after about 5 minutes, you get bored very easily and start playing with that new yo-yo you were saving for a special occasion.

We naturally are very lazy creatures, and being the Lord of Leisure, I have immense expertise in this field and can spot a lazy bastard at 3 paces, because further than that and that means I have to strain myself to look and that goes against the entire ethos of being “leisurely.”

That being said, I haven’t been as active as I should have been and to that end that was more the reason why behind the Twitter feed came to be added to practically everything that I have credentials for, Facebook, the blog and soon the washing machine so you can be updated as to when the spin cycle starts. It was kind of a get out of having to any real work in terms of writing as it’s 160 characters to use and you can sum up your mood very quickly.

I have even started trying to write to various people in order to try and appease others that I’m still technically alive. I do say technically because the time goes on work, some now semi-professional blogging for a computing publication for at least another week providing they don’t get annoyed with the jokes about special people I’ve got lined up, the gaming podcasts for Eggmen have started becoming more regular and the last thing is frankly being leisurely.

Not an awful lot else actually comes up, except maybe when there is washing to put in and maybe some ironing, but that’s what Sundays are for, because there’s bugger all else to do. Well bugger all else around the UK the majority of time, however being in London you can’t really say that. There are tons to do every day if you want to look around, sometimes even for free in the case of museums where if you have trouble sleeping, they’ll sort you out a treat.

Problem is, I really don’t want to. I really don’t want to trudge around the streets of London to find things to do along with thousands of other nutters considering it’s that time of year where people buy tat for loved ones they hate, when I’m perfectly happy at home warming my cockles (perhaps too much) which drinking some more Magners cider and watching Top Gear. In some ways that now makes me the most boring person next to a corpse, and some would argue the corpse moves more.

So after that waffle, what was the point of the post? I suppose it’s an admission that I need to do more to keep in touch with people and perhaps stop being the Lord of Leisure. Oooh, that’s going to be hard.

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/it-fud-blog/

In case people are wondering why I never write anything for Ooh Sometimes at the moment, it may be because I’ve begun writing blog posts for Computer Weekly about a mass Office 2007 deployment I am doing at work.

Yep, I’m writing for a respected computing publication now for a short while, shouldn’t there be some form of cake or something? And at this point am I meant to laugh in a evil manner, swish the cape and escape in the air ship with the damsel in distress?