Zola

Oasis "Wonderwall" I was about 2 years old when this was released in 1995, and only came across it a few years ago when I went to see Oasis in concert with a couple of Oasis die-hards. Quite decent albums, but their "Wonderwall" single is probably my favourite.

I do find it quite irritating when supermarkets decide to move all their stock around! If you're a regular patron you instantly know where the milk is, where the bread is, where the veg is etc. And then they decide to shift everything around so you have to spend twice as long trying to find the things you really need. I mean I understand the reasoning why they do it, especially when they put the popular stuff right at the back of the supermarket so that you have to go down the aisles and hope you don't get distracted with things you have no intention of buying in the first place. But quite often you can find yourself spending 3 or 4 times as much as you originally intended! I suppose that's one advantage of shopping online.

A Change is Gonna Come Faith Based Initiative 365 Days

I have tried to improve my upper body strength by visiting my local swimming pool early in the morning or late evening when it doesn't get too busy. I am pretty good with front crawl and breast stroke - 20 or 30 lengths with relative ease. The back stroke is okay too, although I always go into a mild panic when approaching the end of the pool because on too many occasions I have banged my outstretched arm against the edge of the pool. However, the real challenge is the butterfly! I couldn't master it as a kid, and I still can't master it now. Try as I might I can't synchronise my arms to leave the water while adapting the "dolphin kick" to aid forward momentum. Moreover, when I do find the rhythm I quickly tire and give up mid-length. I will keep trying because I know the butterfly is perhaps the best stroke for improving upper body strength

Liftoff The Hubbert Peak Ninety Miles Away

NSF Thurmont The Birnam Wood Third-Day Story No love for the first 7 or 8 episodes of S6.

Am going through a Wire marathon again, and am on episode 3 of S5 (It's been a couple of years since I last saw S5, and was fairly unimpressed with it). But the great thing about re-watching a show like The Wire, is that you pick up on things you didn't understand, or totally missed first time round. Also, the benefit of subtitles is a big help second or third time round too. Although the emphasis is placed on the newsroom, I did feel completely detached by it first time round; but now I feel a bit more invested, especially in the way journalists will fake stories just to get a headline above the fold on the front page. In one respect the fate of some of the journalists at the BS in terms of losing their jobs mirrors that of the working class dockers in S2: these white collar guys and girls are not immune from cost-cutting. I didn't like the McNutty jumped the shark big time in this season first time round, but perhaps my opinion will change now as I plough through the remaining episodes of S5. But my love for him as waned a great deal over the seasons to the point now where is a complete and utter attention-seeking prick! More later........

I chew gum, but only in the privacy of my own home or when I'm our running the streets. Chewing gum helps me concentrate, as well as preventing me from nibbling on junk food. But I can understand other people's irritation at "gum poppers", and so I never chew gum in the public domain.

If I was the dad I'd have a strong desire to slap the pizza into the smug kid's face and say "Get your own f**king pizza then, you lazy f**king ingrate!" But I guess it might get complaints

Sports films - you have a team down in the dumps, playing in front of an empty stadium, there's discord in the ranks and there's absolutely no chance they will make the finals. So a new but wily old manager/coach is drafted in and kicks the arse of certain lame egos in the team - there's the initial conflict and plenty of "don't you know who I am?" tropes from the handsome star player, but eventually everything starts to click, they start winning games, the stadium begins to fill, and typically they reach the finals. But at great cost because the star player is injured and is side-lined on the bench. The team is losing badly with only 10 minutes to go. The manager makes a decision and calls on the star player to get out there, despite his injuries. Said player trots awkwardly onto the pitch; there's a gasp from the crowd and some of the team players. But eventually they click as a team again, and star player manages to get the team almost on level terms. But ... and here comes another trope.... there's just 15 seconds to go.... the player's injuries are starting to tell...... the team is still 1 point/goal/whatever behind.... the ref calls a foul in favour of our team..... the ball ends up with our star player.... can he make it to the line/score the winning goal/slam dunks ..... there is hushed silence.... the clock ticks down ...... the star player is fighting back the pain....... he looks around the 50,000 crowd..... and instantly spots his ex-wife/children/girlfriend ...... he smiles...... and inevitably wins the day with only seconds to spare!!! The crowd go wild! The team goes wild! The PA guy goes wild! The wily old coach smiles a knowing smile before heading for the dressing room (my work here is done, he muses) Star player runs towards where his ex-wife/children/girlfriend is sitting and they kiss and hug! Credits roll Good grief!

Reminds me when I used to work in a office and one of my colleagues sitting next to me was on the phone to a customer going over an IT problem. My colleague was clearly approaching the red-zone in the patience stakes because she began rolling her eyes, tapping her pen on the desk and gripping the phone in clenched fingers. After a further 15 minutes of being "calm and helpful" the conversation came to an end and she slammed the receiver down before shouting a stringful of rather unsavoury words. But unbeknown to her was she hadn't put the receiver correctly into its cradle and the line was still live. So when she could hear the customer's voice on the other end of the phone saying "Hello?" her face went red, and began uttering "OMG" several times. Ultimately, the customer made a complaint to management and because all IT Support calls are recorded, she was cautioned for unacceptable behaviour. So, kids, always make sure your phone line is dead after a call!

I like noise, but only in the right places (i.e. rock concerts, sports venues, festivals, night clubs etc), but I get really aggravated when people can't shut the hell up in cinemas, theatres, museums or libraries. Fortunately, where I live it is very quiet, especially the neighbours. But when I was a university I lived in a dorm with another couple of girls. They were fine to live with; however the girls next door used to party in their room nearly every night; and if they weren't partying they were making quite loud "sex noises" during the night! Glad I moved out after 6 months.

I spent a weekend with my parents a few weeks back, and my dad suggested we watch some idiotic films that he grew up on during the 70s and 80s - namely "Earthquake", "The Swarm", "Empire of the Ants", "At the Earth's Core" and "The Land That Time Forgot" i was quite taken aback to see the likes of Henry Fonda, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston et al, appearing either in starring roles or cameos in some of these films. Earthquake, was probably the best of them, but not by much. The special effects throughout, were pretty dire and cheap; and none of them were particularly scary or memorable.

"The West Wing: The American Presidency as Television Drama" - Peter C. Rollins Am a huge fan of this American political TV drama that graced our screens way back in 1999; but trying to find a decent book that gives some insight into the show's workings are few and far between. This book shows early promise, although mostly random essays analysing familiar tropes running through the early seasons, mostly from the pen of key writer/creator Aaron Sorkin. Sometimes the analysis really digs far too deep to becoming almost anal with itself, and I found myself skimming past a few pages. But overall it's a pretty good read.

Much has been said here about the schoolkids in this season, and rightly so. But my heart also went out to poor Bubbs, who never got a single break throughout the season, and in some respects his social standing and outlook in life, is considerably lower than that of the kids. He tries to be enterprising through selling t-shirts rather than drugs, but still gets slammed and bullied by lowlife; and again when he calls out for help from the police they let him down - intentionally or otherwise. He even attempts to take his own life at the police station for inadvertently/indirectly killing his friend, Sherrod. The look of helplessness and self-loathing on his face when he talks to Bunk, pleading with him to lock him up for his own good, is gut-wrenching; and I couldn't help myself but shed a few tears for his dreadful plight. He doesn't have a bad bone in his body; he is not a bully, he is not aggressive or belligerent; he tries to be helpful, polite, friendly despite the fact he is a junkie. He is also quite educated too (in season 2 he knows what a cleat is, as well as how to tie a boat knot; which is something McNulty isn't capable of). He is an excellent CI for both Greggs and McNutty, with the latter expressing his admiration for Bubbs by giving him $20 a time for "admiring the work". But to see Bubbs in the hospital in the final episode of S4. He is sitting there all alone other than a nurse dressing a nearby Christmas tree. His friend and sponsor, Walon, arrives to comfort him, but Bubbles breaks into floods of tears while Greggs looks on before walking away. My God did I cry over that scene, especially given the significance of Christmas. I just wanted to reach out to Bubbles and hug him and reassure him that everything would be okay. But I hated Greggs for walking off. I don't know what her reasoning was, but I hated her for it; especially given that when she was shot in S1, Bubbles was beside himself with grief for her. But when the tables were turned she came across as not really giving a shit for him - probably thinking "damn I lost my CI!"

My power shower finally died on me a few days ago, whilst in mid shower! Checked the user manual and ultimately Google, for troubleshooting tips, which I went through one by one, but with no joy at all. So decided rather than get a plumber out, I thought I'd do the job of replacing the unit myself. Fortunately, the model was still available, but I chose a slightly more expensive unit. But first had to make sure all the wiring and inlet/outlet valves matched exactly as my existing unit otherwise it would have been almost impossible to simply replace one unit with another and expect the pipework & wiring built into the shower wall to marry up. Quite a daunting task, but with the help of Google/YouTube and the installation manual, it was pretty straightforward. Although I did have to do this on a bright sunny day because I had to switch off the electric at the consumer unit box just to be absolutely sure; as well as the water supply too. I also wore one of those headlight things just to give me a bit more light for the intricate work of rewiring. Took about an hour to do the job: could have been done a lot sooner but I was checking, double-checking, triple-checking the wiring and plumbing just to make sure everything was in the right place. And then the big event of turning on the electric and water supply! I was expecting a problem, but fortunately the new shower came bursting into life with no drips/leaks and no power outages. That said, I did remove the cover again and check there were no leaks within the unit itself, but it was dry as a bone. So all good there. Doesn't seem to matter how many times you repair things in one's home, there will always be something else that fails.

I'd like to sit this one out if that's okay: I just don't have the will to think about this season

Some people do this as part of a setup purely for it to be captured on camera and then uploaded to SM either for the laughs, or depending on the actions of the person on the receiving end, a hate campaign or evidence for a law suit if things get ugly. I have read quite a lot of similar incidents here in the UK whereby you get Moron #1 being an intentional, but cunning jackass to someone in say a supermarket car-park, while his/her buddy, Moron #2 is secretly filming the incident in the distance. So best not go ape in case you're caught on camera

I am not a straight female but would endorse your thoughts. That "dress" doesn't do her any favours in the slightest, which is unfortunate because I do admire her in a lot of ways. And the toe just ruins the aesthetic further.

Perhaps I need to be a little more patient and let the show unravel at its own speed. I guess it's a little unusual to try and cram in so many lead characters into a premier season with only 6 episodes.

Three episodes in and I have to confess to having very little empathy for most of the main characters, with the exception of Rick. But even he seems a little one dimensional. Shane reminds me too much of Erik "CHiPs" Estrada - and right from the off I knew he was going to be a loose cannon somewhere along the line, as well as having his eyes on Lori. So what he did to Ed was no big surprise other than to emphasise the Alpha Male trope in much the same way they have done for Merle and Daryl Dixon. And I really don't like/trust Lori - seems like a bit of a bunny boiler in the making (this is my first run-through with TWD series, so you regulars out there might be wondering what the hell I'm on about, lol) I just couldn't quite invest myself into any of these characters thus far, and the episode was a little flat compared to the well measured Pilot. I will continue watching, but already I'm losing interest primarily because of all the low hanging fruit masquerading as familiar tropes, that are starting to appear throughout the season thus far.

The wonderful film"Gigi" (1957) had a song called "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" sung by Maurice Chevalier. A lovely, sweet song for a nice, childhood film. However, I rather suspect such a song would be quite inappropriate these days for very obvious but unfortunate reasons.

I'm a complete noob to TWD world, and only found out about it via the Romero & Evil Dead forums on the web. Despite the critical and public acclaim I did have reservations, thinking it would be a Resident Evil or Night of the Living Dead spin-off. However, episode one surpassed my expectations - definitely not a fast-paced action/gore fest with jump cuts and loud dumb music etc. In fact I was surprised at the complete lack of a score, other than the end credits, coupled with a slow-burn characterisation and story arcs. It is also a little more thought-provoking than than the manic but incredibly funny "Ash Vs Evil Dead", which I realise is a different sub-genre, but it was good to see some subtle/sombre moments which offered some empathy to the walkers. Yes, there were a few nitpicks, but I'll worry about them some other time. But for now TWD has grabbed me by the throat and Episode two is next on my list.

I'm a big fan of Season 7 and the latter parts of 6. But as for 5, I'd cut straight to the chase with The Supremes way ahead, then Wafare, Separation and Shutdown. Everything else in 5 is a complete and utter aberration / abomination

Gaza Access Jefferson Lives Pity we're limited to just 3 votes - season 5 is just bad on so many levels: quicker we're through the better.