Head Rambles

Grandad July 22nd, 2008

I have spent the morning over on Bock’s site.

Andrew J Hanlon

I have been reading the full story of Andrew Hanlon, and his death on the 30th June last.  It makes for very disturbing reading.

The facts, as far as I can ascertain are:

• Andrew Hanlon [20] from Dundrum was shot down and killed in Oregon on Monday the 30th June.
• He was unarmed.
• He was shot seven times [twice in the arm, three times in the abdomen, once in his thigh and once in his back] by police officer Tony Gonzales.

Tony Gonzales

• Gonzales was suspended with full pay after the event.
• The medical examiner refused to give a copy of the autopsy report to the family, who will have to wait six weeks for information about the causes of his death.
• Gonzales has since been arrested on allegations of two charges of first-degree sexual abuse and three of third-degree sexual abuse.
• There is a disturbing lack of information from the authorities who are examining the case.

There are some very disturbing questions here.

• Why was an unarmed man shot seven times?
• Why was he shot in the back?
• Why are the authorities being obstructive?

I suggest you head over to Bock’s site and read for yourself.  It is disturbing reading.

Andrew was laid to rest on Monday.

But in the meantime, his family not only had the expense of bringing Andrew home, but have an ongoing battle ahead of them to uncover the truth.

Andrew’s family have set up a fund to help with their costs.  If you’d like to contribute, these are the details.

Account name: Kate Hanlon re Andrew Hanlon Home Fund

Account number: 08376045

Sort code: 93 13 30

Bank: AIB, Terenure, Dublin

• America , Smoking
• Comments(19)

Grandad July 21st, 2008

Whenever I go abroad I like to bring back some seeds.  This may sound like a strange thing to do, but surprisingly some varieties are illegal difficult to get here.

A few weeks ago, I was rooting around and I came across some we had missed out on in our planting frenzy two years ago.

Just for the laugh, I popped them in water for a couple of nights and then planted them in two seed trays.

They all died.

Except one.

Jean Claude popped his head into this world about six weeks ago [weighing in at a healthy .026 of an ounce].

For a long time he just sat there in the seed tray and didn’t do much.  So a week ago, I transplanted him into a huge pot.

He has me scared now,  He’s growing like the clappers.

Not only is he growing, but he is sussing out the lay of the land.  He would stand there looking out the window.  Half an hour later, he would be looking at me.  Another hour would pass and he’d be looking at Sandy.  Anyone would be nervous of that kind of carry-on.

I had visions of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and fed him some meat.  He didn’t like that, which was a relief.

Yesterday afternoon, I put a stick in the pot.  When I got up this morning, Jean Claude had wrapped himself around the stick for some reason.  I’m not sure if he is trying to digest it, or maybe he’s expecting a gale?

He doesn’t look anything like the normal plants we grow, so I checked the packet.  It was all in French so I had to do some research.  Jean Claude looks like  Convolvulus [that's Bindweed to you lot], but according to my research he is a Morning Glory.

This has me very confused.

I always though a Morning Glory is what most of us men wake up with?

 
Jean Claude

• Around the house
• Comments(20)

Grandad July 20th, 2008

Herself: What did you write about today?

Me: Where?

Herself: On your site thing.

Me: Nothing.

Herself: You wrote about nothing?

Me: No. I didn’t write anything.

Herself: Why not?

Me: I had nothing to say.

Herself: That never stopped you before.

Me: That’s true.

• Blogging
• Comments(27)

Grandad July 19th, 2008

I got an email the other day.

A company had been trying to collect the balance on an outstanding account, and they wrote an apologetic letter to say that there were insufficient funds in my Mastercard.

This didn’t surprise me.  What did surprise me was that that account lasted so long.  There must have been a lot of cash in it at the beginning.

So I gave them the details for Jeanette Pasquale of Bordeaux, which is an account I haven’t used before.

That worked very nicely, and they wrote to say they were mailing me the details, and that it was very important that I print off that mail for my records. 

The mail duly arrived, and then I went to print it.

I must explain my setup.  You see, I have a junk room an office where my broadband comes in the window.  That is where I have my printer.  I also have an old PC that I found in a skip, and the printer is connected to that.  So that PC has to be running, before I can print anything off my laptop.

I went in and gave the PC a kick, as that is the way to get it to work.  I then went back to my armchair and waited.

I heard the PC whirring away, and it gave the loud beep that means it is nearly ready.  I usually give it another minute or so before I try to print, so I waited.  It gave another loud beep.  That shouldn’t happen.  I waited and it beeped again.  This was getting annoying.

I hauled myself out of the armchair and went into the junk room office to see what was going on.

The PC was starting up nicely, but as soon as it got as far as showing something on the screen, it would switch itself off and on again and start the whole process from scratch.

Fuck.

I kicked it a couple of times, but that didn’t have any noticeable effect.  This was getting serious.

I rooted around, and found a CD in my candle collection [an upside-down CD is great for standing candles on, as it casts all sorts of pretty lights around the room].  I scraped the wax off and stuffed it in the PC.

That seemed to do something, as the next thing it asked me if I wanted to repair my PC.  I said yes, of course, so it churned for a bit and then printed ‘C:>’ on the screen.  That’s all.  Just ‘C:>’.  What the fuck use is that?

I tried typing in a few things, like ‘fix windows’ and ‘repair windows’ and ‘fuck you, you shit’ but none of it worked.  So I removed the CD and kicked the PC again.

The PC went back to launching itself again, but this time, it did something different.  It went into a routine where it claimed it was fixing things.  What the hell?  I left it to it.

A few minutes later, it started making those noises that sounded like programmes loading, so I went back in to see what was going on.  The little bollix was working perfectly!

I printed off the email.

I gave the PC a last kick for luck, and it switched off.

I will never understand these things.  Why does a PC work, and then not work?  Even more importantly, why does a PC not work, and then work?  It doesn’t make sense.

Nothing makes sense these days.

• computers
• Comments(26)

Grandad July 18th, 2008

I get quite a few mails from various bods around the place looking for links or ‘a mention’ or whatever on this site.

99% of them go straight in the bin, along with the bills and other crap.

I got another one yesterday, which I actually read because it stated [and I quote] “A fellow blogger has pointed me in your direction at my own peril!”.  A fellow blogger?  Hmm.  The “at my own peril” bit intrigued me.  I seem to have a bit of a reputation, so this was obviously personalised.

I shelved the mail, because I was very busy putting pretty little pictures all over my comments.

Then my Google Reader lit up with a post by Sabrina.  Hah!  She had been targeted by the same crowd.  She obviously isn’t such a kind and gentle soul as me, because she got annoyed and said so.  In fact she was so pissed off, she wrote another post shortly after.  Sabrina goes up in my steam.  She is clearly even crankier than I am, and that is some achievement.

In fairness, I got a mail shortly after from the original crowd, apologising and saying they hoped I wasn’t annoyed [too fucking late!].

The odd time I do mention a product, if I happen to like it.

I think I may have mentioned Guinness once or twice in the past.

I have written about Cully and Sully and their pies.

I have written about Elie’s Freehand Pipes.

None of these has asked me to write about them.  I wrote about them because they produce things that I like.

If you want me to endorse your products then that is fine.  Just write to me.

I only charge €100 per word and I guarantee to write at least 500 words, though I can’t guarantee that they will be favourable.

I will, of course, ask for [and expect] a lifetimes supply of your product [or the equivalent in cash if it is tampons or something like that].

Otherwise, you can fuck off.

Or I’ll set Sabrina on you.

• Blogging
• Comments(28)