The King Blues: Headbutt

Blast! Radio one has embedded this tune into my head my having a strangely limited playlist or a host of DJ's who don't bother to listen to the previous show. Either way have a listen to this delightfully British umm ballad? Takes a little while to get going but give it a least till the chorus. Plus the video has a monkey in it! Enjoy.

Kudos to the Cinemark in Huntington Mall

I just found this in my pocket from a few weeks ago.
It's strange because I don't remember getting having an "Adult Weekend" event. Especially not 2 for $15.00.

The Lovely Bones

I put "The Lovely Bones" into the category of films I like to call "Films that have misleading trailers to encourage mass appeal". It was not what I was expecting. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. My trailer impression was that it would be somewhat of a mystery flick with a creepy probably suspect and a frantic search by dad to find missing daughter. Turns out that wasn't the point of the movie at all (you'll have to watch it to find out what the point is).
Instead I was treated with a movie split between a family coping with grief and a dream-like interpretation of an afterlife.

While it wasn't what I was expecting, it was engaging enough to force me to stay awake just to see how the film played out (we watched it pretty late... and I fall to sleep at the drop of a hat) and yer, Stanley Tucci was excellent.

I give it 3.5 clicks out of 5 for giving me a movie with heart, drama and emotion when I wanted murder-mystery...in space...with a monkey fighting Tucci to the death.

Hmm.

Maybe that was a different trailer.

A breadcrumb

Hey reader,

Just wanted to say I'm still here just been a tad bit too busy to get on here and moan about stuff. I've been lifting furniture, taking care of a very sick cat and playing the heck out of "Heavy Rain". I have even been back to O'Skees for the meatloaf which was excellent.

Just in case you were thinking of renting Sherlock Holmes, by the way, I wasn't all that impressed. It would have been a lot better without Guy Ritchie at the helm and if it actually had a mystery. You'll be disappointed when (and if ) you make it to the end. There's not even a deerstalker in sight.

Back soon, y'all

Allclick

O'Skees, St. Albans, WV

I seem to be over in St. Albans a lot recently and I'm frequently looking for a new place to eat. So, this week I decided to check out O'Skees. The type of food sounded good, the website looked good and lo and behold the WV hot dog blog had been there also and as the review was posted up on the wall in there I thought it was probably a good one.

When you walk in you might think a bunch of vandals had broken in and decided to destroy the walls but look a little longer and you'll notice it's the signatures of probably everyone who ever set through the door. There is even a wall for those who managed to eat the "Big O" which, as you might have guessed, is a massive dish of some kind. I think it's a burger.

The menu had a load of choices including salads, burgers, sandwiches, ribs, specials (beef tenderloin tips the day I went), wraps, soups, subs, fish, hot dogs and home made pies etc.. and I went for a burger which was fantastic. Two big patties, a big bun and plenty of cheese. Two different kinds I think. While you wait you can even read all about local history as it is shellacked onto the table surface or just read the thousands of names on the wall. I chose to do both and learned a lot about the fire that burned down the old capitol building and the fact that "Mitzi" was here 11/19/09.

I'll be back for sure to check out the ribs or pulled pork sandwiches next time and maybe even some "Fuzzy Buttons" (I had to ask to find out what these were). If you wanna find it it's on Route 60 through St. Albans right next door to Enterprise.

Late night talk show: UK vs USA

Somehow I managed to miss this during the whole "Tonight Show" mess with Conan and Leno but here is a cool article that describes some differences in UK and American TV viewing audiences.

Basically, there is nothing like Leno/Letterman/Conan/(Lopez?) in the UK. Nothing that is five nights a week with guests and interviews and music. The article states that the guests would be scarcer which is actually probably true. There would probably be one or two A to B list British celebrities a week and then the other nights would be filled with Z list wannabes or obscure people you really don't care about....aka Z list celebrities.

There probably is a market for it..maybe at the 6:00pm time slot or 8:00pm...the "After tea" time slot (tea the meal not the drink) because I actually really enjoy Letterman and enjoyed Conan too but they were both on late. I think one aspect that would turn off British viewers would be the depth of the interview. Most of the time with the talk shows here you can almost predict the questions:

"How's your family doing?"
"Now, you just for back from "INSERT LOCATION HERE" how was it?"
"You had a bit of trouble on the Flight/Car ride/Taxi recently didn't you?"

And then when we are about to discover something interesting or take the conversation to another level, its:

"Tell us about your latest movie/TV show/book/hand puppet"

Which is all we have time for because here comes a commercial.

That said, I am looking forward to Conan on TBS.

IPad: Yes I want one. But what would I do with it?

As some of you may have noticed Apple released a small, flat screen computing device recently for tech geeks everywhere to review. And the reviews are overly glowing on the whole so it looks like the "Itouch (But it's bigger!)" is going to a be a success.

Of course, I would love to have one. Just for the pure fact that I would look like a futuristic hero of some sort carrying the thing around or reading the morning paper on it.

When I think longer on it, however, I wonder when would I actually use the thing. I have an IPhone already so when I'm out and about and need to check my email/play a game/find out what string theory is I can semi-quickly load up the Internet on my phone and I'm sorted. Sure, it's a small screen and I might have to wait for it to load or scroll a lot but that's not really that much of an inconvenience. Plus I don't really want to have to carry around a device that won't fit in my pocket and can't make phone calls.

So, maybe I would use it at home. But if I want to write an email and surf the Internet I'm going straight to my laptop which isn't limited to "apps". All of which, by the way, have to be pre-approved by Apple, where as my computer can download...well, the Internet. Plus, I can watch and play Flash games, and can have multiple things going at once, and plug in USB devices, and use a mouse if I want to.

All that I'm left with for using my IPad would be long car journeys where it would seem like a great entertainment device. As long as you didn't want to watch a dvd you just bought, or a movie you just downloaded to your laptop.

For those without a smart phone I can see it would fill that Apple-y void in your life but otherwise folks, by an IPhone and a netbook and call me in the morning if that IPad craving hasn't gone away.

Wikianswers Return: The devil hates Geometry

I couldn't resist posting more of these because a) it's easy and b) they make me smile.

If you, by the way, know any answers to these questions be sure to let me know.

What was the average number of rooms in a hotel in the mid-1800s
(Just WHY would you need to know this and who the heck does?)

ID1626682895 asked What goes into space off of the sun
(Isn't that a question astronomers have pondered for centuries? The answer is, of course, Rainbows which makes as much sense as the question.)

What color is a bluish purple
(It's kind of purpley but with blue in it.)

What is the word for sailors overthrowing their captain and taking over the ship
(I can just imagine now, a group of rebel sailors on board a boat, huddled round a laptop asking this. "Ok, lads, go grab the Captain and tell him he has a ...Mut-tiny on his hands!"

How many hours in 121 minutes
(Come ooooonnnnn! It takes less brain power to work that out than it does to type it...doesn't it?)

If a guinea pig coughs is it bad
(Is there anything sadder than a guinea pig coughing?)

ID1204294227 asked How do yo say iam doing fine in italian and said it was the same as How do you say iam fine how are you 2 minutes ago

Current answer: You say, "I am fine, thank you. How are you?"

(Awesome)

Kh731 [0] wrote the first answer to Is it racist for a white person to put a scarf on their head 2 minutes ago

Current answer: not really

(Thank goodness I can stop burning all my scarves)

Friday silliness

Blogging is a funny old game. Sometimes I'll think up posts during the week and then dismiss them when I actually get the time to get here and post it. Other times I have 3 or 4 ideas when I'm at my computer and want to post them all at once, and on other occasions I'll just switch my blog brain off and forget about it for days at a time wondering why the heck I ever blogged in the first place.

It's Friday today and I find myself wanting to post two stupid things and one more thoughtful piece but I know that posting three at a time will empty the pool of blog posts in my head and they'll be nothing but a tumbleweed blowing about this webpage for a while.

So, I'll try and pace myself and just post a video of a cat today.

Dear Verizon,

Dear Verizon,

Please, please please stop showing your commercials for 3G coverage (with your annoying slogan of "There's a map for that") in West Virginia. Firstly, it's just plain misleading. Secondly, you see that big ole white space in the eastern part of the state? Yep, that's West Virginia. So please give it a rest.

Thanks,

Clickers.

Decisions, decisions

It's Friday which means Pizza night at my house but what a dilemma I have on my hands today...Papa John's AND Pizza Hut both offering any pizza, any crust, any topping for $10! Chris James, please tell me what to do!!

(P.s. don't tell me to get a Domino's instead because they closed the one near me just to later release a new recipe and taunt me personally).

A lot happened

Well, since my last blog post a lot has happened. We took Ms. Allclick's father to the emergency room and found out he needed a triple heart bypass last week. This then turned into a quadruple heart bypass while he was under the knife. He is doing well now and recovering slowly at home.

Going to the hospital reminded me of a few things. The first was that I really should take better care of my heart and, you know, exercise it once in a while. It's funny when people say "Remember, the heart is a muscle" and I'm thinking "well, I don't work out my other muscles so that really doesn't help much". But in the last few days I HAVE been actually working out so here's hoping I can keep it up.

The second thing I'm reminded when I go to a hospital is: I never want to be in a hospital. I never want to wear one of them gowns, have blood taken from me ever hour, take new pills every day, pee in a plastic container (when not on a long car journey), or any of the other hospitally things. Just remembering that should keep my healthy I hope.

Having seen the government run hospitals in England and seeing the For-profit hospitals here I'm really surprised at how crappy they are here. I expected to see shiny new wards with flat screen TV's and modern phones and thermostats that were not invented by Franklin, and robot nurses...and maybe, just maybe soda machines that actually accept wrinkled dollars. I guess all those things would trim the profit margin.

Ahh...that's better

Sick and knowing someone

Yer that's me right now. Fighting off a cold. Not the "Ted Bundy" kinda sick but it's stopped me from feeling like doing things like blogging, tidying and well everything outside of just sitting and eating bagfuls of Cadbury Mini-eggs.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw in another blog post about social skills because I'm fascinated by them and I'm one of those guys that won't just do something the same way over and over again just because it's always been done that way and so I like to examine why us humanoids do things the way we do, over and over again.

Today I'm intrigued by the concept of knowing another person. Not in the biblical sense, mind you, before those of you in the back of the room start snickering. I mean how much should you really know someone else? When it comes to partners we are basically expected to know everything. Where they grew up, who there idol is, what is the favourite type of ice-cream etc.. and in this situation knowing these things and remembering them doesn't freak them out. In fact it comforts and sometimes impresses them.

But let's say you meet a new person. They tell you a couple of things about themselves and then 3 months later you meet again. You say something like "Oh, and how is your dog doing now? And have you finished that class you were taking? Did you end up going to see Avatar in the end?" and you have probably weirded them out.

Those "rules" are pretty simple to follow. Where the line blurs is with friends who you are close to. I think this is probably more true for guys..when talking to both guy friends and female friends. If I suddenly told my friend Geoff I remember his shoe size, ice cream flavour and first pet name I'm certainly heading into weirded out territory. Equally I'm probably getting a restraining order against me if I approached a female friend and recalled what dress she wore to the prom and what the colour of her toothbrush is without the topic of conversation being about either of these things.

So, how much should you really know about a friend (and more importantly admit to remembering)? I think I can stick to these guidelines:

1) It depends on the friend
2) It depends what you know
3) If they ain't talking about it, don't bring it up.
4) Don't ask, don't tell.

More wikianswers

I just couldn't resist clicking "Recent Activity" and sharing some more questions that we are all dying to know the answer to such as:

Will you get high if you shoot suboxone?
(Ah, the considerate drug taker takes time out to check that he's not wasting his time.)

How much does 16 ounces weigh
(hmm...about 15 ounces but a bit more?)

What is happening to the earth forests
(I demand to know! Someone better own up!)

How much wood would a catnip joke troubles with water in the joke Which time would as you not ask him not to do I hard try to talk here in english sorry
(I hard try to understand in English also, sorry).

What year was Dick a dum dum by des oconnor released
(This one just made me laugh for so many reasons but couldn't the poster have just put this in the google search bar instead??)

Why is a tattoo permanent and suntan not
(I can just imagine this person holding a skull stencil on their arm outside on a hot day)

And finally...

How can you not ejaculate early
(Actual Answer:"When your drilling your girlfriend just pretend shes your mother")

Browsing

The Internet has such a wealth of information. I remember even just a few years ago it was often difficult to find answers to problems ranging from plumbing issues to car repair. Back in England I remember struggling particularly with a leaky faucet and I had to sign up to a forum and wait for plumbers to return my question. These days most questions I have about such things are already asked and answer, especially when it comes to video games or visa issues (not the mastercard rival...though probably that too). A website that is often awful at answering questions, however, is wikianswers. I never have any luck there and usually get a much better answer at Yahoo answers. I did find this awesome question though today on wikianswers. I can't wait to click on it and find out the answer...

What happens to a person who marries someone knowing that person is already married?

Let's find out!

If you see any other great questions being asked please share and we can all have a good chortle together!

Wolfman

Just before the second round of snow kicked in this evening we decided to pop out to get some air and catch "Wolfman" a Werewolf tale set in Olde England. Well, not that Olde but pretty old. It's actually a pretty scary film, with genuine scares; Not just the old trick of cranking up the volume to deafening levels whenever a door opens slightly or a bat farts or a butterfly flaps it's wings. It was actually pretty graphically bloody and gory so it was a real shame a dad decided to bring his two young boys in the theater to scar them for life.

Overall a fun scary romp. Best watched with the lights out.

Last Chance Harvey

We were in the mood for a movie last night and while my last DVD was on it's way to Netflix (which seems to take longer and longer these days) we decided to check out this Romantic umm comedy/drama from last year. It was free after all and I had a humidifier to put together.

It stars Dustin Hoffman as a yank heading off to London to attend his daughter's wedding and Emma Thompson as a lovely Brit with a perfect speaking voice for...getting people to answer surveys at airports, and speaking to her mother a lot on the phone.
Hoffman is down on his luck and while trying to cheer himself up in the airport bar runs into Emma Thompson who is also trying to raise her spirits from the seemingly boring and frustrating life she leads. It's a sweet moment as they talk and flirt like mature adults and the story continues from there, following them both over two days as they help each other see past their problems.

As Ms. Allclick made note of, it's a mature movie aimed at older audiences and a type of movie that doesn't get as much attention today as it should, due presumably to it's lack of CGI and jokes about drug taking, being naked, throwing up, or stealing Mike Tyson's tiger.

It was a movie that serves as a nice break from the last few I've seen (Trick R treat, Whiteout, Daybreakers) and certainly a good choice for valentines day.

Be prepared to perpetually ask "How tall is Dustin Hoffman again?".

Today's events

Courtesy of WSAZ.com here are today's events in our region:
Hope you like Zumba!

Lottery Scratch Card secrets revealed!

Yes folks, here it is! The biggest secret in the world of lottery scratch cards...

The Odds...are on the back!!!

Yes, that's right, on the back of the cards it tells you the odds of winning! Hehe!! Now we can all win!!

In case you didn't know there was some sarcasm in the above statements. It is true, however, that the odds are on there. It's also true that every gas station employee in a 5 mile area of my house has never noticed this.

A few days ago I went in to purchase some and as usual I was misunderstood...

Me:..and can I get some scratch cards please? Can you pick out the ones with the best odds for me?

Employee: Oh..no sir. I do not pick out lottery cards for someone else. I have a hard enough trouble choosing them for me. I will not pick out cards for you.

Me: No, no I mean look on the back at the odds and give me the cards with the best odds.

Employee: Oh. It tells you the odds?? (employee goes into a frantic search to look on the back of all the scratch cards).

In the end he turned out to be friendly and wished me good luck but obviously I upset him when he thought I asked him to use his luckyness to select cards for me.

Maybe he thought I'd sue.