Neo's Ponderings

3:56pm: Happy Birthday!!
Wherever you are luv, have a happy birthday. :)

Miss you ((hugs))



Rxx

8:23am: Christmas
Merry Christmas Luv,

I hope you read this and are ok.

Miss you,


Richard ((hugs)) x

8:21pm: Not one really for LJ type quiz's, but I couldn't resist:
Take the quiz:
Which Newcastle United player are you?

Alan Shearer - The Legend
You are the legend in your town. People respect you, and bow down to you. You are a team leader, and expert in your field... Well done for being so great!!!

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

7:38pm: Feeling Crappy
Had a call from a close mate from work who I thought was joining another department, but has decided to take his redundancy.

Place will not feel the same without him. :(

I have always said I would also take any money offered from work, but this is knowing I'd get a hell of a lot more then most people.

The question is, what do I do afterwards? Done the same job for over 9 years now! Not that they'd ever offer myself redundancy, but hey ho.

Any job I get next, the easy option is either NEXUS or GNER, there's no way I'd be on the same wage I'm on now, I'd lose a few grand straight away on their starting wages.



I'm under pressure to move out, been about 3 years since I moved back in with my parents and I want my own place. A mortgage is out of the question as I can only afford £50K, and what the fuck can you get for that in this climate? Exactly. Nowt.

So, I'm resigned to renting a place, and I'm scanning online for places on a regular basis, but get this, my Mam though supportive is wanting me to quit my current job and is convinced I can do better.

We went through a budget and she tells me I could not afford to live on £1085 a month, which is what I'm getting at the moment from work.

My NUFC footie season ticket and a £61.50 travel pass and a £30 mobile bill are my current outgoings, thats if I buy no DVDs on a regular basis.

This leaves me with £238 and some pence per week to use for RENT and BILLS.

I have no concept of buying food and bills on a budget, so I think this is either my Mam's way of getting me to ditch my job, she's convinced I'm a computer expert and could walk into some high paid IT industry job, no Mam, it's just that your very thick when it comes to PC's and I fix very very easy problems that YOU have on a regular basis.

10:45pm: Bloody Technology!!
Soz if it sounds like I'm waving my penis, LOL.


A couple of weeks back a friend and I were talking and we got onto the discussion of 'top ten films', I have my own list on http://www.ymdb.com/hern/l15500_ukuk.html but this display's it as a top 20.

Anyway, we thought it would be an idea to watch the films on each of our lists, no footie is starting yet so it'll give us something to do.

Not in my ymdb top 20 is Nosferatu, but I wanted my mate to see it.

Now, I'm quite the snob when it comes to viewing films and I only have Nosferatu on vhs. The way I have my DVD players set up in my room means I can also copy from vhs to DVD, all I have to do is remove the end of one scart cable from my freeview (free digital TV channels, my american readers) box and put it into the back of the vcr. Sorted. The other end of the scart is connected to my DVD Recorder.



I have an AV Video Source box which allows myself to connect up 3 DVD players and the vcr all together via the TV.

After copying the film I went to place the scart cable back into it's original socket on the freeview box. But, when I picked it up there were sparks coming out of it! What can you do but let go! LOL.

I put everything back together and discovered that I could not record any digital TV channels via the DVD Recorder. There was sound but no picture, a black screen. Fuck.

Worried that I may have to record to vhs for the time being, not sure if I had any spare tapes around to be honest.

A phone call to a mate told me that the sparks were merely feedback as I probably had everything switched on, I had. He said that a pin on the scart cable has probably been bent and I should just line it back up again, as each pin controls various aspects, sound, picture etc.

But they were all fine from what I could see.

It took a few days to be able to borrow another Freeview box from a mate to find that the scart cable had damaged the scart socket on the bloody box, and the cable was ok. So it should bloody well be too, cost me about £25.

I've now narrowed it down to two different 'new' digital tv boxes. I'll be deciding overnight and when I gan to town tomorrow, either dixon's or argos will do.



There you go kiddies, the moral of this story is if you mess about with your scart cables, make sure you turn off the power first!

2:44pm: Well, it turned out that Florida was certainly not Horrida than Whitley Bay! But it started out rather badly :(

Arrived at the airport with my Mam and Dad and met up with my Brother and his family fine, neices dead excited about the whole thing. Whilst checking in we noticed there were 3 America guy's doing Passport
checks in the queue's, we thought great as it would speed up our entry into the US. We were wrong!

Got into Sanford Airport at 5pm their time and we only recieved our luggage by 7! Must have had one guy on it with only one arm or something :(

Then there was the snaking queue's to get through immigration, everyone had to have their finger print taken and a photo. FFS. Another hour getting the 2 hired cars sorted added to the wonderful experience. Not. We got 2 cars, a smaller car with 4 seats and a larger van which could hold 7, the bigger car we also hired a Sat Nav too. In England we received directions to the Holiday Agency where we could pick up not keys to the Villa but the security code the front door! But, the holiday was about to get worse. I had brought my mobile with me, and my Dad too, I suggested that since we were splitting up for the first journey that my Brother driving the mini-van should take my Dads phone in case we get split up. 'Not neccesary' came the reply. Not managing to have a look at the Sat Nav myself, I knew my Brother would be able to work it. Another mistake. First off, it took over an hour to find the holiday agency, and of course by the time we got to it, it had closed for the day, no problem as they had lockers out front, and we had the combination to one of them so we could retrieve the security code for the villa. Now, the bits of paper inside the locker had our 'FULL' villa address on, and off we set,
following behind my Brother with the Sat Nav, and no phone each. Two hours later we are still on the fucking road! Eventually we got to the villa about 23:00 that night. Turns out my Brother was putting in 'Santa Cruz' into the Sat Nav instead of the bloody zip code and we visited a few different Santa Cruz's that evening. Idiots!

Friday:

In the morning, feeling slightly better that we had arrived, we managed to have a proper look around the new house, we just went straight to bed, we were knackered, :( We drove to a supermarket in the morning to stock up on supplies and beer and just headed back to the Villa and spent the afternoon in the Pool. The place had a 50" or more Wide Screen TV which was bloody marvelous and a pool table and air hockey table in the garage! Massive the TV was, we had no TV guide of any description and didn't really watch that much, :(

Saturday:

We went to the Magic Kingdom, by now my Brother was better with the Sat Nav by then.

SATNAV:
Having not seen any in England I was surprised at how tiny it was, about 2 inches square and a touch screen with sucker for the window and it was powered by the cigarette lighter in the car. Wonderful bit of kit, but at first we worried as around the villa there were new roads which were not programmed in so now and again it would say "Re-Calculating" LOL.

Had a fabulous time in the Magic Kingdom to boot.

I will say this, there are lots and lots of beautiful american women!

Sunday:

We went out shopping and found an outdoor Mall and I had my first experience of looking at and holding 'Unrated' DVDs that I can only normally order online, I didn't come across the greatest of selections but I came away with Hostel Unrated and Season 3 of ER.

Monday:

My favourite from the last time, and still is, the theme park Universal Studio's, mainly for the Back to the Future ride, it still is brilliant. There is a new Shrek 4D ride which was very very good, you wear these 3D specs and sit in a seat that moves around, onscreen Donkey sneezes and you get wet etc. Fantastic fun.

When we were last there, they were building the Terminator ride and this year we could finally do it! Another sit down and wear your 3D glasses, it was worth the wait though! We found that in Disney and Universal you can buy these 'fast-track' tickets so you can jump to the front of the queues, last time we would often have to wait about 60-90 mins in the queues! :( Disney's were different, can't remember how much they cost, but you put a card into a machine for a ride and it gave you an hour's window to

come back to later to the front of the queue. Only one at a time though. Universal's was different, you paid $35 each, which wasn't expensive, 16 rides so it worked out at about £1 each to jump to the front of the queue, this you could do again only once, but only if the guy in charge swiped the fast track card, but they never did! Loads of times my Brother and I would go onto the rides twice, heh heh.

Wednesday:

I'm not a big fan of Seaworld but we went, not keen on their captivity. But had a great time too, the dolphins especially a highlight. They had this amazing rollercoaster on it called the Kraken which my Brother and I went on 4 times in a row! It was a top harness one where your legs dangle. One of the best rides I've ever been on.

Thursday:

Shopping again, and I managed to pick up Jeans for £7 and a pair of Chino's for £5!! Paid £35 for a similar pair in Markie's the week before the holiday, what a rip off!

Friday:

Busch Gardens which we had done before was as good as I can remember, the rides especially a new one called 'Montu' which is now my favourite Roller Coaster.

Saturday:

This day we went to WetNWild, but made the mistake of going on a weekend and it was some local 'youth day' too, the place was too packed so we only stayed a few hours. That night we went to a place called
'Sizzler' which was so unbelievably cheap for steaks, and an almost bottomless salad bar which so much fruit and other stuff, incredible.

Sunday:

Universal island of adventure. Spider Man and the Hulk rides were a brilliant highlight to this theme park and I think it's now better than the normal Universal one. The Spider-Man one was where you had to wear these 3D glasses and it was a ride were you sat down in a car which moved about, a thin plastic
glass in the car in front of you so when Spidey jumped on the car you felt his weight and when he pointed at you it looked just as if he was looking right at you, LOL.


Tuesday:

MGM this time and we did the Tower of Terror, another fun ride which has changed slightly from the last time but only in that it drops you more times, LOL.


Wednesday was the worst day as it was the second last day of the Holiday and by Thursday, the really last day, we just wanted to be home as quick as possible as it is such a long day to get back, :(

9:32pm: The Offside Rule - explained for Women
You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till. Behind the shop assistant on the till are a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you must have. The female shopper in front of you has seen them too and is eyeing them with desire. Both of you have forgotten your purses. It would be totally rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to pay for the shoes. The shop assistant remains at the till waiting. Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and sees your dilemma. She prepares to throw her purse to you. If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper and buy the shoes! At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and, "whilst it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse and buy the shoes! BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been thrown", it would be plain wrong to be in front of the other shopper!

NOW DO YOU GET IT?!!

9:18pm: Something I have actually been doing: SHOCK!
I upgraded my phone recently from a Samsung d500 to a Sony Eric k750i. Primarily for it's 2 mega pixel camera and I found out that you can download themes for the phone, these are not just wallpapers, but you can get themes with all the buttons changed, colours etc. So I thought I'd give it a go and create my own, there's a number of decent software about and I came up with this one:

http://www.zedge.net/?p=themes&item=58881&myaup=2-1-1

Within 24 hours it had been downloaded about 20 times, and as I write this about 275 people have burdened their computers with the file. What they do afterwards is unclear, but it would be cool to think that there may be people out there using this on their phone.

If anybody has a K750i, I would love some feedback on it!

I started out originally submitting a NUFC one but it kept being deleted, and it took a while (as the Mod's on the site are lazy) to find out but they don't allow English FA badges due to copyright reasons. I only created one as the ones on the .Net were shite.

So, I'm currently thinking about doing a second one.

I found it easy to do as I pulled apart lots of other themes into Paint Shop Pro (a wonderful program!) to see how they were created.

But, why did I use a theme from an obscure Finnish Metal group? Well, I'm a fan of their music, but I'm not one to get dressed all in black and wear make-up. LOL!!

Recently at their concert in Newcastle, I must have been the only guy there in a blue denim jacket! LOL.

8:58pm: :(
So, why the long gap between posts?

Who knows, to be honest, I've done nothing exciting at all, my routine is the same all the time.

Yes, I could have posted about all the footie news etc, but I doubt I'd have been able to post anything original about it.

17 days to go until Florida though which is my main focus at the moment!

I was planning on buying an IPOD whilst out there, but I have found out that the price is pretty much the same as here.

So, I plan on maybe buying a Digital camera. I already own a 3.2 mega pixel one, but it's HUGE! A smaller and more powerful one is what I would love.

4:50pm: Mostly just been doing nothing except watch TV and sleep if I've not been at work lately. Obviously had a great time at the Villa match. :D

When my Brother was up for the week with his Family my Parents called a 'family concference' but wouldn't tell us what it was about.

But, it turned out to be good news, they want to have a family holiday in Florida, and it's been booked for May this year! Thankfully after the footie season and we're back a few days before Englands first game in the World Cup. :D

All I have to do is turn up with spending money and a suitcase.

We're getting a 4 bedroom Villa as there'll be 7 of us, and our own private pool, LOL!!

It'll be my Brothers Wife's first time in America and of course my two neices, they are so excited about going to meet Mickey Mouse, LOL!!

11:24pm: Well, am gannin to villa like tomorra, staying wi me brother for the weekend, back on the sunday.

Only because I can stay wiht him, and I'll be doing the same when we play Birmingham at the end of April.

Giong to be strange though as I'm going to the match on my own. my Brother couldn't get time off work, the bastadrs!Q :(

12:29pm: Bit of Penis waving today I'm afraid, here's my new setup in my room, I've got 3 DVD players linked up to the TV, One of them is the DVD-Recorder which I can rip the Freeview box too, and I can view a DVD whilst doing so on 2 other players, I can also tape from vhs to DVD, and vice versa too. :D

My subconsious penis' too, erm, I mean remote controls, and a close up of the DVDRecorder. :D

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I was out all day on Wednesday, I did a mid-shift at work and then went out with work mates to the Theatre to see a sing-along-Sound of Music. I've never seen the film, nor did I really have any intention of going, but this sounded good fun and it was. Before the performance we were all given a bag containing items to hold up during the film and wave about etc. One of them was a party-popper which we used when the main leads kissed. I was dressed as a Nun, I'll post a picture when I see a mate at work, I did some myself but of work mates only. It was a right hoot, and I want to go to the Rocky Horror one next. :D



Good news about Souness getting the sack, but typical Toon, no time for any signings, even on loan. FFS.

Still, this is what supporting the Black n Whites is all about isn't it. :(

7:55pm: Finally got our Broadband sorted out on Friday afternoon. :D

It's only a 256k connection, but a hell of an improvement over the measly 33k I was getting before.

I've got Google Earth which is great fun, and downloaded a few Movie Trailers.

Any suggestions, apart from the obvious, you perv's, of what I should be abusing my connection with next? LOL!!


I thought I'd be in a great mood, I've painted my bedroom, my Mam helped by doing a couple of walls, and my new carpet is coming on Friday, the new Bed on Saturday.

But, I still feel down, and it's that fucking football team. I don't really care that there is no-one out there to take over, but please, just go souness please. :(

The News of the World had Shearer, Roeder, and Clarkie taking over, yea, a very nice rose-tinted fan's dream, well, maybe not, but it would be 'something'. :(

Off now to view Series 4 of 24 I got on DVD on Saturday for £18. :D

7:29pm: Lets all laugh at ...
On the first of February I'm getting dressed up as a Woman and going into town.

With friends at work we are (stupidly?) going to the Theatre Royal to take part in a sing-a-long Sound of Music.

I booked my ticket a couple of months ago when it seemed like a good idea at the time. I am rather hoping that I won't be able to get a Nun outfit in time!! I plan on getting dressed at a friends house in Gateshead so I won't be on the Metro for too long. Imagine if I'd chosen to wear a nazi uniform and got onto a busy Metro with lots of ethnic minoritys travelling into town from North Shields. LOL!!

Nothing much really to report of what I've been getting up to except that I was due to go and see the Finnish Metal group HIM on Friday at the Carling Academy but it's been put back until April as the guitarist has broken his wrist, :(

On my day off on Friday I'm going to finally be able to ditch the Dial-Up-Tramp online image as we are finally getting Broadband in. Don't be too happy though, it's only up to 256k, but a hell of an improvement over the 33k we are using at the moment. :D

8:13pm: Not been up to much lately to be honest.

Can't remember much about my Birthday, I went out drinking all day with my Dad and his retired buddies.

The Christmas Meal we had at the Magnesia Bank pub was amazing. Well worth the £45 we paid each.

Eek!

Apart from money and clothes for Christmas, best pressie was some Venus Fly Trap seeds from a mate.

I've always wanted some, and I have access to a 'propergator' so I can grow them straight away, and not have to wait until it's warmer.

CD's I've bought recently:

HIM - Dark Light, I go to see them in a couple of weeks.
Funeral for a Friend - Hours
The Darkness - One Way Ticket

For Christmas I got the Iron Maiden CD 'Numbers FROM the Beast' and the new Eurythmics Compliation CD.

I've missed you's all, and will be going through my Friends list shortly. :)

7:04pm: Not the greatest of news. but...
This has cheered myself up. Been lonely today, doing nowt but watch TV or surf the .net.

I read a fan website about Kate Winslet and on the message board the Site Admin posted about not having access to an article about Kate in an English newspaper (She's from Texas), I scanned the text in and posted it. www.discoverkate.com

She's now added the text onto the main front page mentioning my name. LOL!

So what I hear you cry! Well, it's cheered me up and that's the most important thing. :)

I rarely post on the message board as it's full of teenage girls, there should be more guy's on there and we should be allowed to post things like 'Pwoar!' etc. LOL!

4:10pm: New DVDs
Not bought much on Shiny Disc lately, but I did receive King Kong Region One 2 Disc set.

I'd forgotten what a great film it is.

Dad and I are really looking forward to the remake too.

Also received The Descent too. I've heard good stuff about this and am saving it for Saturday night. :D

Went home sick from work yesterday, I could feel the Flu coming on again. Was having trouble breathing on the phones at work, :(

Took today off as well, but I had to get out of my pit before 7am just to phone in sick. FFS.
They wouldn't let me do it the day before. Wankers.

I hate going to the game on Saturday knowing we are going to get beat. Similar feeling as the man u Semi-Final last year. All that way to Cardiff knowing we'd lose. :(

And what's with these 17:15 k.o's. I'll not get my Tea till about 8pm. I may faint before that. LOL!

10:55pm: Ouch!
I was at a mates on Wednesday night and he's got 2 cats, one of whom is rather friendly.

Anyway, I was stroking one of them, as you do, and it went onto it's back exposing it's tummy.

Well, what can you do but tickle it. The little bastard clawed at me in a friendly playful way but I was caught on the inside of my finger right where it bends.

I never noticed it on Thursday when I was typing at the computer, mostly because I was drunk after the pub, but I'm certainly feeling it now. Ouch!


Totally my own fault of course, but I'm certainly learning how much I bend my finger all day.

LOL!

11:39pm: You can't go wrong with this:

The Bell and Bucket Puz Quiz, every Thursday Night.

50p to enter.

At half time there's always a bit of scran on.

Tonight there was potato wedges, a huge bowl of them, yorkie puds, and pieces of sausages, about an inch long. Gravy too.


We only came 3rd or 4th in the quiz out of about 7 teams, but we did remarkably well in the music quiz which always knackers us.

:D

11:03am: Had an up and down day yesterday. Started out with the funny news about Roy Keanes departure from manure, then the shooting of the Policewoman upset me. Hope they catch the fuckers. :(

9:51pm: I should really get rid of it...
EDIT: Just realised I already posted this last week. I tend to log-on on a Thursday night after the Pub-Quiz, oops. LOL.

I submitted my god awful lj user pic to hotornot.com the other week, currently at 6.6 which is less then the previous photo I used which got a higher rating. Fickle internet people!

http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=KMBLRQN&key=XMA

Often when I've been online I end up clicking away on that site dishing out ratings. I have to stop, can be adictive. LOL.

9:57pm: *MAJOR EDIT* First entry was a bit shit.

I had a half day holiday at work on the Sunday, finished at 2. The Concert started at 7 that night so I had an early Tea and got an early Metro into town, with the crappy Sunday service I got an early delibrate one just in case. Had a couple of bottles of lager in Gotham Town, my old works pub, I think I've only been in once this year, I HATE the place, but I miss it so much sometimes! LOL.

Managed to get to the Arena about half six and joined the many queues.

Had a wander around and bought myself an Alice Cooper T-Shirt and got into my seat just after 7. Twisted Sister whom I'm afraid I'd never heard of came on and did a fantastic show and had a bit crack on with the audience which was nice. They must have been on about 90 mins! Then there was only about a 15 minute break before Alice came on and it was bloody brilliant! He did his full stage show where a scantily (spelling?) clad Lady comes on and whips him, gets him in a straight-jacket and be-heads him!

He started with the Department of Youth, I'm 18, and one of my favourites, Be My Lover. :)

Towards the end one of the guitarists did one riff of his guitar, and we all knew he was about to sing Poison. :D
Not sure how much hearing was affected though, when I left the Arena I popped back to one of the Merchandise Stalls and bought a Bandana, I could hardly hear the girl serving me, sounded all muffled.

Fortunately I'm ok now. :D

I definately want to see Alice again, he comes to the City Hall often, but I'm always unlucky as it's sold out constantly.

Try better next time!

11:32pm: HotorNot.com
I entered an old picture a couple of years ago, and I averaged out about 6/10. Fuckers.

New picture entered, http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=KMBLRQN&key=XMA

Currently at 6.6. :D Using my LJ picture. :)

11:24pm: We had a fun time at the Pub Quiz last night, but a film question really pissed me off.

Can't remember the exact wording of the question, forgive me, I've had a few to drink, m drunk, it was about Bladerunner, and the Quiz Masters answer was Cyborgs. Our team put down Replicants which was my answer. We were marked down wrong.

Er hello? I just had to have a quiet word wtih teh tieh QM. FFS.

I hate it when I get a film question wrong, same with my Dad, but I get even more annoyed when the fucking guy running the quiz gets it wrong too.

Though we did come 2nd out of about 5 or 6 teams, that one question wouldn't have won it tomnight, u but it's the bloody principal
!

:(

3:57pm: A friend of mine who's having similar problems sat with me at work the other day, it was quiet-ish on the phones so we were able to have a good chat about stuff. Made me feel a lot better. :)

I've got Friday and Saturday off work as usual, and I'm only in for 4 hours on the Sunday.

Not sure if my LJ goes back as far as February or March, but during that time I bought a ticket for the Alice Cooper concert on Sunday! :D

Just in case, I've booked a half day holiday for Monday 7am - 11am, don't fancy getting back around Midnight then having to get up at 5am. LOL.

The same night the Bloodhound Gang are in town too, how dare they have a concert the same night! Buggers. :(