There was a section of this blog I have just removed due to the fact it is now part of a technology website and I considered it a little cheap to use it on here too, however, it's now at
http://www.geeks.co.uk/11761-a-geeks-review-of-2009-through-the-tellybox
Great website and there's more stuff from me coming soon on it! Watch both this and that space!
Adam
Sunday 21 February 2010
Monday 15 February 2010
Just a quick update...
Working on some new material for this site, which hopefully should be coming soon.
Watch this space!
Watch this space!
Thursday 4 February 2010
The Best of Adam Almond (Part Two: The Rants)
Here is a selection of my rants/musings on modern life.
March 2009
Eulogy For Common Sense
TO OPERATE THE FOLLOWING PAGES LOOK AT THE TEXT AND MOVE YOUR EYES OVER IT WHILST TAKING IN THE WORDS CONTAINED THEREIN.
(Or…WARNING MAY CONTAIN OPINION)
I’m angry, I should be in mourning but I’m so incandescent with rage, so mad and incosolable with anger that I should be an 80’s alternative comedian. I am angry because something close to me has died. Not a relative or friend, but an ideal, one which we all once possessed as human but seem to have elolved beyond it’s use. This ideal, my friends, is COMMON SENSE! “Here lies Common Sense, RIP! (Rot In Pieces!)” reads the head stones and the average man, woman, and future scum is cordially invited not only to spit or stamp on, but to puke their reality TV infected, segregated, idiot vomit on it’s head stone. I’m not even certain, that half of what I just typed makes grammatic sense! Go back and read it for me and tell me. NO DON’T! That’s part of the problem! We rely too much on other people knowing things for us, doing things for us. I work (once again) in a certain popular fast food sandwich outlet, and the degree to which common sense has decomposed already seems impossible, but it’s happened. For example:
Customer walks into “Submarine Sandwiches ‘R’ Us” and peruses the over hanging menu boards over a foot and a half above clerk’s head and facing the same direction as them.
CLERK: Good day sir, what can I get you.
Customer looks at Clerk seemingly with disgust that he isn’t a robot who’s been programmed to read his fucking mind.
CUSTOMER: I’ll have that.
Customer then points at menu board over a foot and a half above clerk’s head and facing the same direction as them, seemingly at nothing. Clerk then turns on his heels and cranes his neck up looking at the same menu boards, but now can’t see which section or item the customer is looking at.
CLERK: Which one?
CUSTOMER: THAT ONE!
Clerk points at the first section of the menu board which is a single advertisment for a product.
CLERK: That one?
CUSTOMER: NO! THAT ONE!
Customer points more insistantly. Clerk then points at number two.
CLERK: That one?
CUSTOMER: NO THAT ONE!
And so it goes, for a moment or two until…
CLERK: What variety of bread would you like that on sir?
Clerk indicates the display of brad which is positioned so the customer can see and which has the name of each variety written in striking bold typseface as not to be confused with each oher. Customer points vaguely at one. Clerk’s view of which one is obscured by the back of the display [CAN YOU TELL WHAT’S COMING?].
CUSTOMER: This one.
Clerk then emerges from behind the counter and stands next to customer. He looks at the customer’s shoulder tracing the line from shoulder to fingertip with his eyes. He nods as if commiting it to memory and returns behind the counter.
CLERK: I’m sorry sir, but as a human being embued with sense, I deem you too stupid and facile to live anymore, and consider aiding your starvation to be of benefit to human kind more than cancelling third world debt, ending terrorism and the dissolution of OFCOM combined, I emplore you to go play in traffic while fiddling with matches in a flammable jacket and poking used hypodermic needles into your genitals. Have fun…and a nice day!
Ok that last bit only ever happens in my head. I wouldn’t dare do something like that. ‘Why not you wimp?’ I hear you yelling from rooftop, (quite why you’re on a rooftop is beyond me but hey ho you probably haven’t got the common sense to go inside!) The reason I would never do something that intellectually satisfying and cathartic is, the despotic customer would then take a few seconds to realise he’s offended by my remark and then complain to my boss or their boss, then I would be fired. I don’t want to be fired, for several reasons, it doesn’t look good on you’re CV, I happen to need this job, if I didn’t need to why would I do it? And finally it doesn’t feel very nice to be fired, and I know that!
So I play the game. I carry on serving this drooling maniac as he points and grunts his way along the line, selecting which items of food he would like to moronically drop down the front of his shirt. And at the end of it he toddles off and eats his food, and I carry on and repeat the cycle. (At this point I seem to have lost my trail of thought regarding the point I was trying to make.! Whoops! I think I need another coffee). I’m not saying every customer is like that. In truth, the vast majority of the people you meet in a job like “Quick Sandwiches” or “McDermot’s” are the average joe, who works 9 to 5 in a job he hates, or more often than you think, in a job dealing with the very same people. You can see it in their eyes, that hollow sense that they too are witness to the slow decay of the human race. We’re not evolving, we’re de-volving. Charles Darwin was right, he just got it backwards. Monkeys are what we’re becoming! As a kid did you ever fill a paper bag with dog shit, set it on fire, leave it on Mad Madga’s front porch and ring the door bell? Did you then hide behind her rose bush and giggle quietly as she stomped the flaming turd out?* Is that so different from two bonobo’s chucking their effluence at each other in a Metropolitan Zoo?
Human intelligence is in decline, everywhere we look there are reminds to not bang your head, fall down a hole, slip on a wet surface, or repeated jab a fork into your arm. There are adverts on telly reminding you to lock your doors when you go out. Packets of nuts display warnings that you might actually be buying nuts! Stereo manuals advise you to not attempt to fill with water and use it as a cup. Channel 4 disclaim that their latest documentary “Fucking Hell! What a Big Shitting Pair of Tits That Slut Has!” may contain strong language and scenes of nudity.
“And now on ITV1. The Jeremy Kyle Show, which contains scenes of morons arguing and a man goading them on to no viable, logical or healthy conclusion.” Now that’s honesty! How long before the news is prefixed by “may contain scenes of real events which some viewers may find boring or depressing”?
People seem to have no sense anymore. Can I not enjoy a take out cup of coffee from Café Nero with being told it may be hot, every time I look at the bloody container? Next time I will ensure that I order it cold as to eliminate any threat that I might burn myself.
ADAM ALMOND’S DOWNRIGHT AVERAGE DAY IN THE FUTURE!
I woke up to my alarm clock proclaiming “GET UP! WAKE UP! IT’S OK! YOU WEREN’T DEAD! JUST ASLEEP! NOW IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP! YOU ONLY SLEEP SO THAT YOU CAN FUNCTION EFFICIENTLY THE REST OF THE TIME!”, I switch the radio on, to listen to Chris Moyles which is punctuated every five minutes with the catchy jingle “YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE CHRIS MOYLES SHOW ON BBC RADIO ONE, 97 TO 99 FM, DAB, INTERNET, CIRIUS AND DISH. WARNING CHRISTOPHER MOYLES IS A PRESENTER WHO TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE AND EXPERIENCES. HIS OPINIONS ON THESE MAY DIFFER FROM YOURS. FEEL FREE TO CONTACT OFCOM IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING HE SAYS, ANYTHING AT ALL EVEN THE SHIRT HE’S WEARING WHICH YOU CAN’T SEE!”. I move to the bathroom and written on the floor is “ONE FOOT BEFORE THE OTHER!”. I turn on the shower when I turn up the heat a siren blares “WARNING THE WATER IS GOING TO GET HOTTER!” I step into the shower, on the window is a sticker saying “CAREFUL THIS FLOOR IS SLIPPERY WHEN WET!” I being to wash my hair the bottle of shampoo says “DO NOT DRINK!”. I get dressed in clothes that are emblazoned with “LEFT ARM” and “RIGHT ARM”. I leave the house and my key is magnetically drawn to the lock. I practically locks itself, just in case I forget. I go to the bus stop and wait. The bus turns, just underneath it’s number and destination is written “DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BOARD WHILE BUS IS IN TRANSIT AND THE DOORS ARE SHUT!” I pay the bus driver and sit down. The bus stops at traffic lights, the colours have been replaced and now read “SLOW DOWN AND STOP AS THERE MAY BE OTHER VEHICLES THAT ARE MOVING INTO YOUR PATH” for red, “ALMOST CLEAR” for amber and “YOU MAY NOW MOVE BUT BE CAREFUL NOT TO TRAVEL TOO QUICKLY AS THIS GREATLY DECREASES YOUR BREAKING TIME AND INCREASES THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOU MAY COLLIDE WITH SOMETHING” for green. I arrive at my destination. I wakj the remainder of my journey, pass a sign that says “WALK ON THE PAVEMENT, AS CARS TRAVEL ON THE ROAD”. I arrive at work, some wag has swapped the “PUSH” and “PULL” signs on the door, but I try both as one is bound to open it, in the background I can hear the culprit being shot by the police for endangering public safety. My job itself is filled with it’s own little signs and disclaimers to keep me safe that it would take me an entire shift to write them down so that I can take them home and memorise them. After work I feel like a quick pint to relax, de-stress and try to remember how many of the signs I can remember. I go to the bar and order a pint which comes with a leaflet explaining how exessive comsumption of alcochol (just over half a shandy a day, as the government reliably tell us) may get me drunk, and make start believing I’m Superman or go home rape my wife and attack my children with rusty cogs. I return home by bus and switch the telly on and crawl into bed. I start to drift off to sleep as I see on the telly a white on black image proclaiming “YOU ARE SAFE! BUT HAVE YOU LOCKED YOURE DOORS, WINDOWS AND LETTERBOX? ARE THERE ANY GAS ITEMS IN YOUR HOUSE RUNNING? ARE YOUR CHILDREN ON FIRE? IS YOUR WIFE BLEEDING FROM THE MOUTH, EYES AND NOSE? GOODNIGHT! SEE YOU TOMORROW!”
I dream of the good old days.
Scary eh? But it’s going to happen! I promise you, we need it, because we’re still killing ourselves with our own kettles and trying to eat with electric buzzsaws or putting bleach in our coffee instead of milk.
If you’re still reading at this point, then I’d like to thank you, I’d like to thank you for sticking with me, you probably agree with me that’s why you’re reading this, or I suppose it’s because I haven’t included that dsiclaimer that states:
WARNING THIS PIECE CONTAINS OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS ON THE DECLINE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. WRITTEN BY ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE LEFT ON THIS INCREASINGLY POINTLESS BAUBLE WE CALL EARTH WHO CAN THINK FOR HIMSELF AND DOESN’T NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT CARELESSNESS COSTS LIVES.
Just for those people, here’s a nice little paragraph that I’m certain you’ll enjoy:
Shit, fuck, bollocks, piss, bum, cunt, willy, fanny, goo-goo, ga-ga. Tits, SHINY, big brother, breathe in, breathe out, blink, arse, poo. Dear Ofcom, I would like to complain in the strongest possible terms. Poop, Roy Chubby Brown, Hip Hop, X Factor, Tim Westwood!
If you enjoyed that, Hollyoaks is on soon.
*I’ve only ever seen this in American TV programmes and films. But I’m sure that’s a different rant all together.
September 2009
Judge Arlene Philips (Someone Has To!)
The start of this year’s “Strictly Come Dancing” was never going to not court controversy, first off a few months back, Judge Arlene Philips was dropped for being too old, then came the signing of former winner Alesha Dixon, then they go and put it directly opposite ITV’s “X Factor”, prompting people to decide which of Saturday nighr’s myriad of colourful, increasingly befuddling television they wish to half watch. But seriously and honestly what kind of state is the nation’s collective consciousness in, when someone’s ability to judge a group of celebrities twirling and smiling for the nation’s affection and renewed interest int anything that they have to say or do, is called into question, prompting over 4,000 complaints! Can I please remind people, that at some stage in the series…YOU, yes, YOU MR/MISS “QUALIFIED TO JUDGE DANCERS!” get to vote them out of the show!
I’m seriously considering sending 4,000 complaints saying that the general public are too ill informed, and unqualified to judge them! All the voting lines should play a recorded message that says “Thank you for your vote, as you have no idea what the fuck you are on about or have any clue how to judge a dancing competition your vote has been put on a pile near an open window. Please keep watching as after the Ten O’Cclock News we will turn on a desk fan and blow all your collective votes out of the window and the winner will be decided by whoevers name lands on a chalk X in the car park! By the this call has cost you 75p! Feel happy now?”
If neccersary I will man the phones!
While we’re on the topic, the BBC’s decision to move “Strictly” up against “X Factor” is just a natural thing that has run for years and years now, I was seriously confused when both channels timed their soaps so that people get to see them all. Competing for ratings has been happing forever and a day! Let them fight it out! See who has the better show, or rather, how many more idiots would rather watch people prancing about, or belting out another power ballad. Make it it’s own show! I want to see Bruce Forsyth and Simon Cowell in a one on one fight to the death, my money’s on Forsyth.
As for my thoughts on the shows individually? I don’t watch neither. Or rather when I do it’s usually on the Sunday afternoon repeat, because let’s face it, Sunday telly, before 7pm, is awful.
One final, albeit tangental note, how awesome is ITV’s “The Cube”? A show that makes walking in a straight line, seem like it’s what people used to do on “The Krypton Factor” (come to think of it, there obviously was some walking in a straight line involved, but I think you get what I’m saying). The tasks on the show are fantastic because they seem simple enough that a lobotmised child could get their head round them, but in practice some of them are brilliantly, deceptively difficult. Try this one, take a cup or any kind of small object, smaller than one of your feet, taller than about 8 inches and strong enough to support your weight. Now stand on it with one foot and raise your other foot. Now stay “hovering” , without support for about 20 seconds. Go on try it. I bet, if you limit yourself to seven or eight goes, the longest you’ll reach is around sixteen or seventeen seconds.
March 2009
Eulogy For Common Sense
TO OPERATE THE FOLLOWING PAGES LOOK AT THE TEXT AND MOVE YOUR EYES OVER IT WHILST TAKING IN THE WORDS CONTAINED THEREIN.
(Or…WARNING MAY CONTAIN OPINION)
I’m angry, I should be in mourning but I’m so incandescent with rage, so mad and incosolable with anger that I should be an 80’s alternative comedian. I am angry because something close to me has died. Not a relative or friend, but an ideal, one which we all once possessed as human but seem to have elolved beyond it’s use. This ideal, my friends, is COMMON SENSE! “Here lies Common Sense, RIP! (Rot In Pieces!)” reads the head stones and the average man, woman, and future scum is cordially invited not only to spit or stamp on, but to puke their reality TV infected, segregated, idiot vomit on it’s head stone. I’m not even certain, that half of what I just typed makes grammatic sense! Go back and read it for me and tell me. NO DON’T! That’s part of the problem! We rely too much on other people knowing things for us, doing things for us. I work (once again) in a certain popular fast food sandwich outlet, and the degree to which common sense has decomposed already seems impossible, but it’s happened. For example:
Customer walks into “Submarine Sandwiches ‘R’ Us” and peruses the over hanging menu boards over a foot and a half above clerk’s head and facing the same direction as them.
CLERK: Good day sir, what can I get you.
Customer looks at Clerk seemingly with disgust that he isn’t a robot who’s been programmed to read his fucking mind.
CUSTOMER: I’ll have that.
Customer then points at menu board over a foot and a half above clerk’s head and facing the same direction as them, seemingly at nothing. Clerk then turns on his heels and cranes his neck up looking at the same menu boards, but now can’t see which section or item the customer is looking at.
CLERK: Which one?
CUSTOMER: THAT ONE!
Clerk points at the first section of the menu board which is a single advertisment for a product.
CLERK: That one?
CUSTOMER: NO! THAT ONE!
Customer points more insistantly. Clerk then points at number two.
CLERK: That one?
CUSTOMER: NO THAT ONE!
And so it goes, for a moment or two until…
CLERK: What variety of bread would you like that on sir?
Clerk indicates the display of brad which is positioned so the customer can see and which has the name of each variety written in striking bold typseface as not to be confused with each oher. Customer points vaguely at one. Clerk’s view of which one is obscured by the back of the display [CAN YOU TELL WHAT’S COMING?].
CUSTOMER: This one.
Clerk then emerges from behind the counter and stands next to customer. He looks at the customer’s shoulder tracing the line from shoulder to fingertip with his eyes. He nods as if commiting it to memory and returns behind the counter.
CLERK: I’m sorry sir, but as a human being embued with sense, I deem you too stupid and facile to live anymore, and consider aiding your starvation to be of benefit to human kind more than cancelling third world debt, ending terrorism and the dissolution of OFCOM combined, I emplore you to go play in traffic while fiddling with matches in a flammable jacket and poking used hypodermic needles into your genitals. Have fun…and a nice day!
Ok that last bit only ever happens in my head. I wouldn’t dare do something like that. ‘Why not you wimp?’ I hear you yelling from rooftop, (quite why you’re on a rooftop is beyond me but hey ho you probably haven’t got the common sense to go inside!) The reason I would never do something that intellectually satisfying and cathartic is, the despotic customer would then take a few seconds to realise he’s offended by my remark and then complain to my boss or their boss, then I would be fired. I don’t want to be fired, for several reasons, it doesn’t look good on you’re CV, I happen to need this job, if I didn’t need to why would I do it? And finally it doesn’t feel very nice to be fired, and I know that!
So I play the game. I carry on serving this drooling maniac as he points and grunts his way along the line, selecting which items of food he would like to moronically drop down the front of his shirt. And at the end of it he toddles off and eats his food, and I carry on and repeat the cycle. (At this point I seem to have lost my trail of thought regarding the point I was trying to make.! Whoops! I think I need another coffee). I’m not saying every customer is like that. In truth, the vast majority of the people you meet in a job like “Quick Sandwiches” or “McDermot’s” are the average joe, who works 9 to 5 in a job he hates, or more often than you think, in a job dealing with the very same people. You can see it in their eyes, that hollow sense that they too are witness to the slow decay of the human race. We’re not evolving, we’re de-volving. Charles Darwin was right, he just got it backwards. Monkeys are what we’re becoming! As a kid did you ever fill a paper bag with dog shit, set it on fire, leave it on Mad Madga’s front porch and ring the door bell? Did you then hide behind her rose bush and giggle quietly as she stomped the flaming turd out?* Is that so different from two bonobo’s chucking their effluence at each other in a Metropolitan Zoo?
Human intelligence is in decline, everywhere we look there are reminds to not bang your head, fall down a hole, slip on a wet surface, or repeated jab a fork into your arm. There are adverts on telly reminding you to lock your doors when you go out. Packets of nuts display warnings that you might actually be buying nuts! Stereo manuals advise you to not attempt to fill with water and use it as a cup. Channel 4 disclaim that their latest documentary “Fucking Hell! What a Big Shitting Pair of Tits That Slut Has!” may contain strong language and scenes of nudity.
“And now on ITV1. The Jeremy Kyle Show, which contains scenes of morons arguing and a man goading them on to no viable, logical or healthy conclusion.” Now that’s honesty! How long before the news is prefixed by “may contain scenes of real events which some viewers may find boring or depressing”?
People seem to have no sense anymore. Can I not enjoy a take out cup of coffee from Café Nero with being told it may be hot, every time I look at the bloody container? Next time I will ensure that I order it cold as to eliminate any threat that I might burn myself.
ADAM ALMOND’S DOWNRIGHT AVERAGE DAY IN THE FUTURE!
I woke up to my alarm clock proclaiming “GET UP! WAKE UP! IT’S OK! YOU WEREN’T DEAD! JUST ASLEEP! NOW IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP! YOU ONLY SLEEP SO THAT YOU CAN FUNCTION EFFICIENTLY THE REST OF THE TIME!”, I switch the radio on, to listen to Chris Moyles which is punctuated every five minutes with the catchy jingle “YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE CHRIS MOYLES SHOW ON BBC RADIO ONE, 97 TO 99 FM, DAB, INTERNET, CIRIUS AND DISH. WARNING CHRISTOPHER MOYLES IS A PRESENTER WHO TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE AND EXPERIENCES. HIS OPINIONS ON THESE MAY DIFFER FROM YOURS. FEEL FREE TO CONTACT OFCOM IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING HE SAYS, ANYTHING AT ALL EVEN THE SHIRT HE’S WEARING WHICH YOU CAN’T SEE!”. I move to the bathroom and written on the floor is “ONE FOOT BEFORE THE OTHER!”. I turn on the shower when I turn up the heat a siren blares “WARNING THE WATER IS GOING TO GET HOTTER!” I step into the shower, on the window is a sticker saying “CAREFUL THIS FLOOR IS SLIPPERY WHEN WET!” I being to wash my hair the bottle of shampoo says “DO NOT DRINK!”. I get dressed in clothes that are emblazoned with “LEFT ARM” and “RIGHT ARM”. I leave the house and my key is magnetically drawn to the lock. I practically locks itself, just in case I forget. I go to the bus stop and wait. The bus turns, just underneath it’s number and destination is written “DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BOARD WHILE BUS IS IN TRANSIT AND THE DOORS ARE SHUT!” I pay the bus driver and sit down. The bus stops at traffic lights, the colours have been replaced and now read “SLOW DOWN AND STOP AS THERE MAY BE OTHER VEHICLES THAT ARE MOVING INTO YOUR PATH” for red, “ALMOST CLEAR” for amber and “YOU MAY NOW MOVE BUT BE CAREFUL NOT TO TRAVEL TOO QUICKLY AS THIS GREATLY DECREASES YOUR BREAKING TIME AND INCREASES THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOU MAY COLLIDE WITH SOMETHING” for green. I arrive at my destination. I wakj the remainder of my journey, pass a sign that says “WALK ON THE PAVEMENT, AS CARS TRAVEL ON THE ROAD”. I arrive at work, some wag has swapped the “PUSH” and “PULL” signs on the door, but I try both as one is bound to open it, in the background I can hear the culprit being shot by the police for endangering public safety. My job itself is filled with it’s own little signs and disclaimers to keep me safe that it would take me an entire shift to write them down so that I can take them home and memorise them. After work I feel like a quick pint to relax, de-stress and try to remember how many of the signs I can remember. I go to the bar and order a pint which comes with a leaflet explaining how exessive comsumption of alcochol (just over half a shandy a day, as the government reliably tell us) may get me drunk, and make start believing I’m Superman or go home rape my wife and attack my children with rusty cogs. I return home by bus and switch the telly on and crawl into bed. I start to drift off to sleep as I see on the telly a white on black image proclaiming “YOU ARE SAFE! BUT HAVE YOU LOCKED YOURE DOORS, WINDOWS AND LETTERBOX? ARE THERE ANY GAS ITEMS IN YOUR HOUSE RUNNING? ARE YOUR CHILDREN ON FIRE? IS YOUR WIFE BLEEDING FROM THE MOUTH, EYES AND NOSE? GOODNIGHT! SEE YOU TOMORROW!”
I dream of the good old days.
Scary eh? But it’s going to happen! I promise you, we need it, because we’re still killing ourselves with our own kettles and trying to eat with electric buzzsaws or putting bleach in our coffee instead of milk.
If you’re still reading at this point, then I’d like to thank you, I’d like to thank you for sticking with me, you probably agree with me that’s why you’re reading this, or I suppose it’s because I haven’t included that dsiclaimer that states:
WARNING THIS PIECE CONTAINS OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS ON THE DECLINE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. WRITTEN BY ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE LEFT ON THIS INCREASINGLY POINTLESS BAUBLE WE CALL EARTH WHO CAN THINK FOR HIMSELF AND DOESN’T NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT CARELESSNESS COSTS LIVES.
Just for those people, here’s a nice little paragraph that I’m certain you’ll enjoy:
Shit, fuck, bollocks, piss, bum, cunt, willy, fanny, goo-goo, ga-ga. Tits, SHINY, big brother, breathe in, breathe out, blink, arse, poo. Dear Ofcom, I would like to complain in the strongest possible terms. Poop, Roy Chubby Brown, Hip Hop, X Factor, Tim Westwood!
If you enjoyed that, Hollyoaks is on soon.
*I’ve only ever seen this in American TV programmes and films. But I’m sure that’s a different rant all together.
September 2009
Judge Arlene Philips (Someone Has To!)
The start of this year’s “Strictly Come Dancing” was never going to not court controversy, first off a few months back, Judge Arlene Philips was dropped for being too old, then came the signing of former winner Alesha Dixon, then they go and put it directly opposite ITV’s “X Factor”, prompting people to decide which of Saturday nighr’s myriad of colourful, increasingly befuddling television they wish to half watch. But seriously and honestly what kind of state is the nation’s collective consciousness in, when someone’s ability to judge a group of celebrities twirling and smiling for the nation’s affection and renewed interest int anything that they have to say or do, is called into question, prompting over 4,000 complaints! Can I please remind people, that at some stage in the series…YOU, yes, YOU MR/MISS “QUALIFIED TO JUDGE DANCERS!” get to vote them out of the show!
I’m seriously considering sending 4,000 complaints saying that the general public are too ill informed, and unqualified to judge them! All the voting lines should play a recorded message that says “Thank you for your vote, as you have no idea what the fuck you are on about or have any clue how to judge a dancing competition your vote has been put on a pile near an open window. Please keep watching as after the Ten O’Cclock News we will turn on a desk fan and blow all your collective votes out of the window and the winner will be decided by whoevers name lands on a chalk X in the car park! By the this call has cost you 75p! Feel happy now?”
If neccersary I will man the phones!
While we’re on the topic, the BBC’s decision to move “Strictly” up against “X Factor” is just a natural thing that has run for years and years now, I was seriously confused when both channels timed their soaps so that people get to see them all. Competing for ratings has been happing forever and a day! Let them fight it out! See who has the better show, or rather, how many more idiots would rather watch people prancing about, or belting out another power ballad. Make it it’s own show! I want to see Bruce Forsyth and Simon Cowell in a one on one fight to the death, my money’s on Forsyth.
As for my thoughts on the shows individually? I don’t watch neither. Or rather when I do it’s usually on the Sunday afternoon repeat, because let’s face it, Sunday telly, before 7pm, is awful.
One final, albeit tangental note, how awesome is ITV’s “The Cube”? A show that makes walking in a straight line, seem like it’s what people used to do on “The Krypton Factor” (come to think of it, there obviously was some walking in a straight line involved, but I think you get what I’m saying). The tasks on the show are fantastic because they seem simple enough that a lobotmised child could get their head round them, but in practice some of them are brilliantly, deceptively difficult. Try this one, take a cup or any kind of small object, smaller than one of your feet, taller than about 8 inches and strong enough to support your weight. Now stand on it with one foot and raise your other foot. Now stay “hovering” , without support for about 20 seconds. Go on try it. I bet, if you limit yourself to seven or eight goes, the longest you’ll reach is around sixteen or seventeen seconds.
The Best of Adam Almond (Part One: The Lists)
From now on my blogs will be posted on here, looks a little better don't you think? Better than Facebook anyhows.
So for a kick off here is a selection of my previous ones. A kind of "Greatest Hits" compilation if you will. I like a good list as much as the next geek. Here's a selection of a few that I've written in the past
April 2006
Computer Games of the Future
How much time do we waste doing pointless things? When push comes to shove, procrastination sets in and you find yourself washing up for your entire flat or drinking dangerous amounts of coffee because going into the kitchen to put the kettle on gets you away from the computer. However, I have discovered a new form of procrastination…retro computer games, easily and freely downloadable trips down memory lane. I can now play games such as Super Mario Brothers All Stars and The Legend of Zelda III, games I haven’t played since I got my first PlayStation in 1996. So now rather than reviewing the snoozefest of Brokeback Mountain for university I have began a quest to save the magical land of Hyrule for the evil Gannon/Aghanhim, or attempting to form the ridiculously long winded rescue mission of Princess Peach using a short fat Italian plumber who doubles in size whenever he eats mushroom! Still though, I have not played anything resembling a SNES for years. I love it. So much better/satisfying than half the computer game tripe that's around nowadays (god that makes me sound soooo old!). I have created a list of games that would not surprise me if existed or are in development right now.
• BSM Road Rash III Turbo - Race the latest Nissans and perform death defying stunts while staying within the speed limit and highway code.
• Premiership Pundit - Take on the role of Gary Linekar or Alan Hansen and provide the BBC with overly friendly and irrelevant punditry on the best/worst of this year's premiership season.
• Council Estate Sin City 3001 - Take on the role of god (or the housing agency) in this hilarious games where you can control the scum of Britain. (Collect 30 ASBO's to progress to the next level)
• (One of my faves and one I play regularly) Avoid anyone with Sky telling you spoilers for the latest series of 24, because you haven't got sky and have to wait until about September for the fucking DVD - Does exactly that!
• Rest Home III - Revenge of the Werthers Original Gang - Shoot em up. (Rumble pack not recommended!)
• The Uneducated - Be a nursery teacher and try not to lose the will to live as you realised this is not really what you wanted to do with your life, but seeing as though becoming a social worker failed for then this is the "next best thing".
• The Last Resort - Try to find anything the drinkable at the end of a party whilst avoiding the White Lightning that those scallies who gatecrashed, so thoughtfully left behind.
• Don’t stare! - Spend a day in a sixth form avoiding the gaze of "special people".
• Don’t Laugh! - Sit in a hospital waiting room in the early hours and try not to laugh at the stupidity of people who jammed their head into the kettle or something.
• Real Bass fishing - Spend a weekend on a boat with a casual acquaintance and think "I could be doing ANYTHING else rather than this"!
• Nostalgia 4 - Not as good as Nostalgia 1!
• Football spectator 4 - Take control of angry football fans in this realistic strategy game (Available on Xbox live!)
November 2008
What follows is a list of "facts" about the James Bond films...
Dr. No (1962)
• The process of “toppling” as described in the novel and film bears no relation to the actual process of toppling which involves using a crane to remove an enitre floor of a skyscraper and placing it gently on top, intrestingly that is also how the idea for popular, but dangerous, game Jenga was thought up.
From Russia With Love (1963)
• The LEKTOR machine, the film’s “McGuffin”, was made into a toy, but had to be banned when someone bought one and converted it into a WWII Enigma machine, and was accidentally donated to the British War Museum.
Goldfinger (1964)
• The famous opening sequence in which 007 electrocutes an assasin by throwing an electric heater into a bath, was entirely accidental. Calvin Lowe, the stuntman in question, was fortunately unharmed, but is no able to operate electrical devices through mere touch alone. Calvin also switches the Christmas lights on in his home town of Chipping Norton…unintentionally, by walking through the town centre, the day before they’re officially switched on.
Thunderball (1965)
• The scene where Bond sucks a jellyfish spine out of Domino’s foot, a foot made of quorn had to be made, as Connery was going through a vegertarian phase at the time. He’s OK now.
You Only Live Twice (1967)
• Little Nellie, 007’s “IKEA” helicopter, proved such a hit, that “Blue Peter” showed viewers how to make their own. However were forced to apologise two weeks later, following reports that childeren were falling out of the sky. One child, had been found head first and feet in the air in marshland near Whitley Bay. The received 30,000 complaints from people who neither had kids or helicopters.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
• George Lazenby was so good as James Bond that the producers felt that one was enough to cement him firmly in people’s hearts and memories.
• After being the first strong independent Bond Girl, Diana Rigg (now Dame Diana Rigg) feared she would be typcast so pursued other roles such as feisty crime fighter Emma Peel in The Avengers.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) • Connery’s return as Bond was a total accident, he wandered on to set in quite a state, ssemingly drunk, although he blamed it on stong sleeping tablets.
Live and Let Die (1973)
• Sean Connery was considered a little too old to carry on his tenure as Bond. So producers plumped for the fresher face of 45 year old Roger Moore.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1975)
• The Weather Girls were approached to write and record the theme tune, however their offering “Golden Shower” was quickly turned down and a song was written for Lulu instead.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
• The iconic Union Flag parachute, was a late addition. The stunt man was not supposed to have a parachute. But someone had forewarned Calvin Lowe of the plot and packed his own.
Moonraker (1979)
• Cashing in on the success of films such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Alien, The Deer Hunter and The Graduate, it was decided that Bond would go into space. The original treatment included Bond facing off against Space Nazis. With Bond now working for the Galactic Action Gang. The gadgets seemd rather pointless.
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
• The Citroen chase down the mountain was due to the film makers not being able to afford another Lotus Esprit following an incident where Moore had left a cigar burning in the ashtray, causing the car to explode killing two stuntmen and seriously injuring a third, Calvin Lowe.
Octopussy (1983)
• Seemingly learning their lesson after the “Little Nellie” furore sixteen years before, Blue Peter refrained from showing veiwers how to make their own Acrostar Minijet, as seen in the opening sequence, and instead showed the, how to make a crocodile submarine, this backfired when 5 childeren were captured, killed and turned into shoes and handbags.
A View to a Kill (1985) • Due to budgetary constraints the Eiffel Tower scenes were actually shot on Blackpool Tower, Blackpool. To make it more like France, garlic was rubbed on to the celluloid film before processing.
The Living Daylights (1987)
• At 57, Roger Moore decided to hang up his Walther PPK and move on and a search for the next 007 was on…many people auditioned, including; Pierce Brosnan, Hugh Grant, Michael J. Fox (When he was stirred, not shaken), Robert Lyndsay, David Jason, Ringo Starr and Jodie Foster.
Licence to Kill (1989)
• The drugs in the cocaine plant sequence, hence Benicio Del Toro’s incomprehensible accent in The Usual Suspects.
Goldeneye (1995) • The title of this film is named after James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s Jamaica home. Other films that employ a similar titling system include: Arlington Road; Murder at 1600; The Twilight Zone; The House on Haunted Hill; Xanadu and Zardoz.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• Actual phone control BMWs were marketed as promotional items for the film, however they were banned as in the days before it was against the law, whenever someone rang them on their phone in the car, they accidentally answer their control phone and careen into bus shelters, houses, off bridges and into each other.
The World is Not Enough (1999)
• Robert Carlyle can’t feel pain in real life, which is how he was capable of repeatedly headbutting people in Trainspotting and how he could drag broken glass across his knackers in The Full Monty’s deleted scenes.
Die Another Day (2002)
• In order to celebrate 40 years of the 007 films, they made one of the worst ones yet. UP YOURS FANS!
Casino Royale (2006)
# Daniel Craig was derided for wearing a life jacket on the day he was announced as Bond while on a speed boat across the Thames...why such a media frenzy? For "Thunderball" Connery had to wear arm bands! Roger Moore couldn't fire his gun with yelping! And Pierce Brosnan was always worried about his fucking hair!
Quantum of Solace (2008)
After Quantum of Solace there are only three other original Ian Fleming titles to be used. They are "Risico", "The Hikderbrand Rarity" and a full remake of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
March 2009
25 things I didn't even know about myself.
If you're on Facebook then you like me will have at some point recieved something like this asking to write down 20 or so secrets abouit yourself...yeah, I'm going to let people in on my dark side!
1) I refuse to accept the existence of lavender.
2) I am a one man band and spend a lot of time playing with my organ.
3) I hosted a show on short lived Freeview channel "UKPlop" in which twelve strangers were locked in a house with no toilet, and the ensuing public excretions acted as nomiations for eviction based on which housemate they most resembled, as deemed by an expert panel judges consisting of Gok "How to be Patronised While You Have Your Tits and Muff Out" Wan, Gillian "Will Rifle Through Shit for Money" McKeith, and Richard "I Used to be on Dragons Den Me, WAHEY!" Farley. The show was called "Have I Got Poos For You?"
4) Previous actors who have played Me have been, Clint Eastwood, DB Woodside, Morgan Freeman, Free Willy and Leo McKern.
5) Im really 2ft tall and live inside myself operating a series of levers and pulleys.
6) Only smokes cigarettes, because wood shavings are too addictive.
7) I am an anagram.
8) I can recite Pie to three letters.
9) My biggest fear is the letter D.
10) I can list all of Eamonn Holmes DVDs
11) I write "The Jeremy Kyle Show"
12) I posess the unique ability to predict the present.
13) I go into seizures whenever I hear the Animal Hospital theme.
14) I am totally deaf but percieve sound as text floating out of speakers, people's mouths and the air.
15) Painted and decorated the White House with a small bottle of Tipp-Ex, and wallpapered inside with one the roller ones.
16) I often dream of a time when the planet is run by Daddy Long Legs'
17) I used to work for a company making fetishwear, but didn't want to get tied down.
18) I have a tattoo of Fiona Phillips on my ankle, she has one of me on her back.
19) I WANT to believe it's not butter but has yet seen any evidence.
20) I am plagued by nagging doubts that I have ankles.
21) I took a bullet for some but gave it back.
22) Didn't bother filling out the 1901 census.
23) Took part in a chairty racist beating for breast cancer.
24) Has watched "The Weakest Link" so many time I shout "BANK!" whenever anyone asks me anything at all.
25) Lives in a jewleybox in Boston.
So for a kick off here is a selection of my previous ones. A kind of "Greatest Hits" compilation if you will. I like a good list as much as the next geek. Here's a selection of a few that I've written in the past
April 2006
Computer Games of the Future
How much time do we waste doing pointless things? When push comes to shove, procrastination sets in and you find yourself washing up for your entire flat or drinking dangerous amounts of coffee because going into the kitchen to put the kettle on gets you away from the computer. However, I have discovered a new form of procrastination…retro computer games, easily and freely downloadable trips down memory lane. I can now play games such as Super Mario Brothers All Stars and The Legend of Zelda III, games I haven’t played since I got my first PlayStation in 1996. So now rather than reviewing the snoozefest of Brokeback Mountain for university I have began a quest to save the magical land of Hyrule for the evil Gannon/Aghanhim, or attempting to form the ridiculously long winded rescue mission of Princess Peach using a short fat Italian plumber who doubles in size whenever he eats mushroom! Still though, I have not played anything resembling a SNES for years. I love it. So much better/satisfying than half the computer game tripe that's around nowadays (god that makes me sound soooo old!). I have created a list of games that would not surprise me if existed or are in development right now.
• BSM Road Rash III Turbo - Race the latest Nissans and perform death defying stunts while staying within the speed limit and highway code.
• Premiership Pundit - Take on the role of Gary Linekar or Alan Hansen and provide the BBC with overly friendly and irrelevant punditry on the best/worst of this year's premiership season.
• Council Estate Sin City 3001 - Take on the role of god (or the housing agency) in this hilarious games where you can control the scum of Britain. (Collect 30 ASBO's to progress to the next level)
• (One of my faves and one I play regularly) Avoid anyone with Sky telling you spoilers for the latest series of 24, because you haven't got sky and have to wait until about September for the fucking DVD - Does exactly that!
• Rest Home III - Revenge of the Werthers Original Gang - Shoot em up. (Rumble pack not recommended!)
• The Uneducated - Be a nursery teacher and try not to lose the will to live as you realised this is not really what you wanted to do with your life, but seeing as though becoming a social worker failed for then this is the "next best thing".
• The Last Resort - Try to find anything the drinkable at the end of a party whilst avoiding the White Lightning that those scallies who gatecrashed, so thoughtfully left behind.
• Don’t stare! - Spend a day in a sixth form avoiding the gaze of "special people".
• Don’t Laugh! - Sit in a hospital waiting room in the early hours and try not to laugh at the stupidity of people who jammed their head into the kettle or something.
• Real Bass fishing - Spend a weekend on a boat with a casual acquaintance and think "I could be doing ANYTHING else rather than this"!
• Nostalgia 4 - Not as good as Nostalgia 1!
• Football spectator 4 - Take control of angry football fans in this realistic strategy game (Available on Xbox live!)
November 2008
What follows is a list of "facts" about the James Bond films...
Dr. No (1962)
• The process of “toppling” as described in the novel and film bears no relation to the actual process of toppling which involves using a crane to remove an enitre floor of a skyscraper and placing it gently on top, intrestingly that is also how the idea for popular, but dangerous, game Jenga was thought up.
From Russia With Love (1963)
• The LEKTOR machine, the film’s “McGuffin”, was made into a toy, but had to be banned when someone bought one and converted it into a WWII Enigma machine, and was accidentally donated to the British War Museum.
Goldfinger (1964)
• The famous opening sequence in which 007 electrocutes an assasin by throwing an electric heater into a bath, was entirely accidental. Calvin Lowe, the stuntman in question, was fortunately unharmed, but is no able to operate electrical devices through mere touch alone. Calvin also switches the Christmas lights on in his home town of Chipping Norton…unintentionally, by walking through the town centre, the day before they’re officially switched on.
Thunderball (1965)
• The scene where Bond sucks a jellyfish spine out of Domino’s foot, a foot made of quorn had to be made, as Connery was going through a vegertarian phase at the time. He’s OK now.
You Only Live Twice (1967)
• Little Nellie, 007’s “IKEA” helicopter, proved such a hit, that “Blue Peter” showed viewers how to make their own. However were forced to apologise two weeks later, following reports that childeren were falling out of the sky. One child, had been found head first and feet in the air in marshland near Whitley Bay. The received 30,000 complaints from people who neither had kids or helicopters.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
• George Lazenby was so good as James Bond that the producers felt that one was enough to cement him firmly in people’s hearts and memories.
• After being the first strong independent Bond Girl, Diana Rigg (now Dame Diana Rigg) feared she would be typcast so pursued other roles such as feisty crime fighter Emma Peel in The Avengers.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) • Connery’s return as Bond was a total accident, he wandered on to set in quite a state, ssemingly drunk, although he blamed it on stong sleeping tablets.
Live and Let Die (1973)
• Sean Connery was considered a little too old to carry on his tenure as Bond. So producers plumped for the fresher face of 45 year old Roger Moore.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1975)
• The Weather Girls were approached to write and record the theme tune, however their offering “Golden Shower” was quickly turned down and a song was written for Lulu instead.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
• The iconic Union Flag parachute, was a late addition. The stunt man was not supposed to have a parachute. But someone had forewarned Calvin Lowe of the plot and packed his own.
Moonraker (1979)
• Cashing in on the success of films such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Alien, The Deer Hunter and The Graduate, it was decided that Bond would go into space. The original treatment included Bond facing off against Space Nazis. With Bond now working for the Galactic Action Gang. The gadgets seemd rather pointless.
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
• The Citroen chase down the mountain was due to the film makers not being able to afford another Lotus Esprit following an incident where Moore had left a cigar burning in the ashtray, causing the car to explode killing two stuntmen and seriously injuring a third, Calvin Lowe.
Octopussy (1983)
• Seemingly learning their lesson after the “Little Nellie” furore sixteen years before, Blue Peter refrained from showing veiwers how to make their own Acrostar Minijet, as seen in the opening sequence, and instead showed the, how to make a crocodile submarine, this backfired when 5 childeren were captured, killed and turned into shoes and handbags.
A View to a Kill (1985) • Due to budgetary constraints the Eiffel Tower scenes were actually shot on Blackpool Tower, Blackpool. To make it more like France, garlic was rubbed on to the celluloid film before processing.
The Living Daylights (1987)
• At 57, Roger Moore decided to hang up his Walther PPK and move on and a search for the next 007 was on…many people auditioned, including; Pierce Brosnan, Hugh Grant, Michael J. Fox (When he was stirred, not shaken), Robert Lyndsay, David Jason, Ringo Starr and Jodie Foster.
Licence to Kill (1989)
• The drugs in the cocaine plant sequence, hence Benicio Del Toro’s incomprehensible accent in The Usual Suspects.
Goldeneye (1995) • The title of this film is named after James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s Jamaica home. Other films that employ a similar titling system include: Arlington Road; Murder at 1600; The Twilight Zone; The House on Haunted Hill; Xanadu and Zardoz.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• Actual phone control BMWs were marketed as promotional items for the film, however they were banned as in the days before it was against the law, whenever someone rang them on their phone in the car, they accidentally answer their control phone and careen into bus shelters, houses, off bridges and into each other.
The World is Not Enough (1999)
• Robert Carlyle can’t feel pain in real life, which is how he was capable of repeatedly headbutting people in Trainspotting and how he could drag broken glass across his knackers in The Full Monty’s deleted scenes.
Die Another Day (2002)
• In order to celebrate 40 years of the 007 films, they made one of the worst ones yet. UP YOURS FANS!
Casino Royale (2006)
# Daniel Craig was derided for wearing a life jacket on the day he was announced as Bond while on a speed boat across the Thames...why such a media frenzy? For "Thunderball" Connery had to wear arm bands! Roger Moore couldn't fire his gun with yelping! And Pierce Brosnan was always worried about his fucking hair!
Quantum of Solace (2008)
After Quantum of Solace there are only three other original Ian Fleming titles to be used. They are "Risico", "The Hikderbrand Rarity" and a full remake of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
March 2009
25 things I didn't even know about myself.
If you're on Facebook then you like me will have at some point recieved something like this asking to write down 20 or so secrets abouit yourself...yeah, I'm going to let people in on my dark side!
1) I refuse to accept the existence of lavender.
2) I am a one man band and spend a lot of time playing with my organ.
3) I hosted a show on short lived Freeview channel "UKPlop" in which twelve strangers were locked in a house with no toilet, and the ensuing public excretions acted as nomiations for eviction based on which housemate they most resembled, as deemed by an expert panel judges consisting of Gok "How to be Patronised While You Have Your Tits and Muff Out" Wan, Gillian "Will Rifle Through Shit for Money" McKeith, and Richard "I Used to be on Dragons Den Me, WAHEY!" Farley. The show was called "Have I Got Poos For You?"
4) Previous actors who have played Me have been, Clint Eastwood, DB Woodside, Morgan Freeman, Free Willy and Leo McKern.
5) Im really 2ft tall and live inside myself operating a series of levers and pulleys.
6) Only smokes cigarettes, because wood shavings are too addictive.
7) I am an anagram.
8) I can recite Pie to three letters.
9) My biggest fear is the letter D.
10) I can list all of Eamonn Holmes DVDs
11) I write "The Jeremy Kyle Show"
12) I posess the unique ability to predict the present.
13) I go into seizures whenever I hear the Animal Hospital theme.
14) I am totally deaf but percieve sound as text floating out of speakers, people's mouths and the air.
15) Painted and decorated the White House with a small bottle of Tipp-Ex, and wallpapered inside with one the roller ones.
16) I often dream of a time when the planet is run by Daddy Long Legs'
17) I used to work for a company making fetishwear, but didn't want to get tied down.
18) I have a tattoo of Fiona Phillips on my ankle, she has one of me on her back.
19) I WANT to believe it's not butter but has yet seen any evidence.
20) I am plagued by nagging doubts that I have ankles.
21) I took a bullet for some but gave it back.
22) Didn't bother filling out the 1901 census.
23) Took part in a chairty racist beating for breast cancer.
24) Has watched "The Weakest Link" so many time I shout "BANK!" whenever anyone asks me anything at all.
25) Lives in a jewleybox in Boston.
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