Fave Pic of the Week

Don't you love it when sisters play nice?

Source - LikeCool.com

YoYo iPod Charger

iYO YOYO from Peter Muungano on Vimeo.

Want one, want one, want one.

Little known fact/confession time. When I was younger, I was pretty addicted to the old yoyo. I could even do tricks (and yes Heidi, this was after I learned to complete the Rubik's Cube ;-) Come to think of it, I wasn't even that young when I finished - definitely late teens when I purchased my last one - maybe a trip to Toys R Us is in order (if those sort of places even still sell real toys these days).

Best Suitcase Ever

Unfortunately, it's just a Samsonite concept at the minute...

iPhone Coasters

Some people have some great ideas, and these iPhone coasters fit into that category. And, you can even buy them here (not sure what the going rate for coasters is, but $60 sounds a little pricey to me)

Cramer is Smart

He often goes a little crazy, but his shows are fun, and often full of decent investing ideas (but do your research before you follow blindly). Sometimes people forget he's actually a bright guy behind all the showmanship etc. Take a look at his passionate appearance on CNBC a year ago, basically predicting the current market situation (and when I say basically predicting, I mean him using phrases like "the banks will go bankrupt")....



I've spent way too much time this week thinking and trying to understand exactly what's going on with the markets, so this weekend I'm going to do my best to avoid it. I need some smiles....

If I ever move back home

I'm going to need this umbrella. It's one way to make you smile when it rains outside.

Tina Fey Glasses

One thing about an election, it does tend to make SNL a little funnier than normal (and anything that gets Tina back on there can't be a bad thing)

Letterman - A True Classic

I always loved Letterman - he runs the late night talk show of choice in our house (although I do occasionally get a craving for The Word on drunken Friday nights). But last nights episode was a bit of a classic (if you live under a rock, John McCain decided he needed to fly back to Washington and bail on Letterman at the last minute).

Just for the wife

mccb classics, originally uploaded by poca-traça.

Real minis make us both smile, so 3 of them seem like a great way to start the day. One day we'll get one of these, and fit it in the corner of the garage for sunny day blasts around town.

Shoes and Phones - the perfect wife gift

And it's only 22 bucks...

What dreams are made of

Perfect for gate crashing parties, traveling to unknown destinations that you're not sure have your favorite drinks, or just for dragging into the office on a Friday maybe, the Mobile Bar is available (but it's not cheap).

Chocolate Football Finished

P1040239.JPG, originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

It only took me 9 months, but I officially finished off the last of my full size footy last night. Good job the next trip to England is already scheduled, otherwise the Cadbury's withdrawals could be kicking in.

Taking the wife out for a spin

I never normally drive that fast when Heidi's in the car. I think I'm scared of a reaction like this....



(this is Ricardo Patrese and his wife - he used to be a Formula 1 driver, so he knows what he's doing)

Oh, and Todd got to drive a GT-R - very jealous, just hope it's coming down to Pueblo in a couple of weeks.

Audi R8 Spider with a V10 Engine

It sounds even better than you can imagine, so turn up the speakers....

AIG Meltdown

So the markets are going crazy, everyone's 401k is taking a nosedive and some of the big companies are disappearing off the face of the earth. It must be getting a lot of press back home as I've had a call from my Dad making sure we're ok, at the insistence of my Gran, who must have taken the "meltdown" word for it's literal meaning.

Anyway, to try and lighten the mood a little, here's one of the famous AIG ads that ran out here a little while ago. Kinda ironic is a bit of an understatement given this weeks mass panic, followed by mass bailout

Really? Are you sure?

Things are getting increasingly weird over here in the run up to the election. I think this must be my third now, so I should be getting used to the lies and stuff that flies about, but I'm not. Maybe it's the four year break in between, or maybe it's just getting a little bit more ridiculous these days.

So, one thing that kinda worries me is that the American people appear to be seriously considering a person who would be VP to the oldest ever elected President (I think anyway), who appears to not only have very little (by which I mean none) foreign policy experience, but has hardly even been out of the country. I realize there are lots of cool things to see in the US, and I've spent plenty of time visiting various wonderful places here in the last 11 years, but I've managed to throw in a couple of foreign trips as well (and that's without counting the trips back home). I would hope that someone who has a decent chance of becoming the President over here (especially in a time of war for goodness sake) would have at least popped over to Europe, or Asia, or maybe China. Shit, even just for a few beers in Oz would do at this point (highly recommended trip if you ever get the chance).

Of course, the Republican party trotted out a list of countries that Palin has visited when someone mentioned her lack of foreign travel (the list was Kuwait, Germany, Ireland, Iraq and Mexico). Not extensive by any means (even my mother has been to more countries than this, and she didn't go abroad for the first time until we all saved up and went to Spain for a family holiday - I was 19 at the time), but at least she had been about a little. And then of course, the real details emerged. Kuwait and Germany - yip, I'll give her these - she went to visit Alaskan troops who were stationed there, both covered in the one trip from what I can tell. Ireland - turns out it was a refuelling stop on the way to Kuwait. That's like me claimining I've lived for 5 years in Chicago just coz of the number of times I've been stuck at O'Hare waiting for United to sort it's shit out. Mexico - family vacation, so not sure how much she really learned about foreign policy on that trip (although there is a chance she realized that other countries use a different currency, but even that is debatable, as the last time I was down there, I used dollars all the time). For the benefit of people back home reading this, Mexico to the US is like Costa Del Sol to the UK - 3 hour flight, cheap beer and food, sun etc etc.

And then there's Iraq. You think, well, at least she's been to Iraq, supporting the troups, finding out about conditions on the ground, learning what's really going on and talking to people who have ideas on the best way forward. Don't get too hasty though - it turns out that her "visit" was actually just her stepping over the border from Kuwait, without actually leaving the checkpoint area. So that's like she was maybe inside Iraq by a couple of feet tops, and 5 minutes?

Anyway, it's all on CNN if you want to read the news coverage of it.

So, that's pretty scary in itself (and if I could vote would be enough to have me running a mile), but I think what is really getting to me is that it doesn't seem like the Republicans have really learned anything in the last 4 or 8 years or whatever. I mean, they've lied about lots of stuff with varying degrees of consequence (even after they decided to recategorize weapons of mass destruction to include other stuff apart from nuclear weapons, they still didn't find any, even after they were "certain", and they "must be in mobile factories moving from city to city"). It's like they find it impossible to learn, either from what works or what doesn't work. They have an agenda, and a mission to get back into the White House, and whatever it takes is what they'll do to get there. I just want someone in control who is actually smart, listens to different opinions, is able to make sensible decisions and learns from the times they screw up, so it doesn't happen again. Oh yeah, and preferably hasn't made a deal with the devil to get in in the first place. Is that really too much to ask for?

OK, politics over. I'm going to take a nap and dream of fast cars.

Don't Worry

Courtesy of Matt, via Tumblr.

(and sorry Mam, just pretend the swearing isn't there.....)

Flying Astronaught

If anyone finds this in the run up to Christmas, and you haven't got a clue what to buy me, here's your answer.

Get in someone's head

Not sure who's exactly, and definitely not sure about the sheepskin type interior going on, but for the people out there that need their very own hiding place inside their home, this could be the answer. The link for this is here, but you'll need to click around to find it as they have masking on all the sub pages of the site. And while you're there, you can check out some of the other slightly weird stuff (like Man with Prick sculpture - "The penis of this sculpted a man is completely out of proportion to the rest of his body. While proud of his huge member, the man is unable to move because of its staggering weight." Apparently)

I'm pretty sure none of this stuff is sold at Ikea.

Life Improvements

Today, my life improves in the following ways:

• decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• significantly improved battery life for most users
• dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• faster installation of 3rd party applications
• fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
• improved performance in text messaging
• faster loading and searching of contacts
• improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

Actually, that's just the list of improvements my iPhone is getting, but as it's an integral part of my life since I got it, I'm sure the improvements will be a direct pass through.

Sales 101

This post is especially for my gorgeous wife, who spends more time in sales than I think she'd prefer (but she's damn good at it if the commission checks and rewards are anything to go by).

Basically, what upper management does is sit around and decide that in order to increase sales, they need more cold calls, more meetings and bigger pipelines. Pure genius.

Full Post is here

T-Shirt of the week

Available here.

She can have as many t-shirts as she wants, as long as she doesn't win.

IKEA coming to Colorado!!

Details will be announced this morning at a press conference, but I know of at least 2 households that are going to be extremely happy about this.

IKEA coming to Colorado - The Denver Post

Walker to leave Sunderland board

Pete's on his way out. Nothing to do with the turmoil over at Newcastle of course, but looks like we're going to have to add in an extra trip a little further south when we go home now.

BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Sunderland | Walker to leave Sunderland board

Quick List

As always happens, I end up saving a load of stuff to post, and then having such a large backlog that it never gets posted. So, the quick link version of a post..... Click at your peril

Giant spider attacking Liverpool? (I'm just surprised it hasn't been nicked yet ;-)

6.1lb Carbon Fiber Wheels? Yes please..

A cool caravan, if that's even possible (and the inside definitely looks better than the outside)

Wish I was there (actually wish the helicopter crash hadn't actually happened...)

My favorite car of the week (but the wife is _never_ going to let this sit in the driveway)

Golf course on the roof?

DIY Photoshopping made just for me

BMW, I love you, but sometimes you break my heart

It's fast, and furious, and Vin is finally back

Please come here (and without a doubt, winner of the best pedals in the world)

The big sneeze

Best keg design yet

And if you got through all that, congratulations, pour yourself a drink....

Showers Forecasted

I'm a big believer in the shower we finally got installed in our bathroom (Kohler Rain Tiles, lots of space, lots of water) but this actually looks pretty cool. Technically it can be an almost bath one way, and a full on shower the other.

Friday Post for self

I realize I've been a bit of a slacker for posting not much on here in recent weeks. I will try harder, but the will to jump on the computer when I get home at night has somehow left me, and I've been doing other stuff (like reading, you know, books and stuff).

Anyway, this is purely for self gratification, and to remind me at some point in the future that one of these things might be fun ;-)


Drifting the GT3 from EmilGH on Vimeo.

King Kev has left the building

After the mystery surrounding the last couple of days, it's not really a surprise that he's gone. I'm kind of dumbfounded now - the club is once again the laughing stock of the nation, we're managerless a few weeks into a new season, and I can't imagine who would actually want to walk into this job given the circumstances of Keegans departure (he stated he was forced to have players in his squad who he had no interest in).

As usual, it's always exciting being a Newcastle fan, but I'd take a few years of not quite as exciting for some decent progress and playing on the pitch, rather than in the papers. Whoever gets the job next, good luck, you're going to need it.....