Last Night

So, MRI out of the way.

I should think for the uninitiated, an MRI is quite a daunting thing. You are shoved into a tunnel, just a bit bigger than yourself (how really really fat people fit inside them is a bit of a mystery) and are subjected to a mixture of roadwork noises and the kind of bleeps and blurts that you'd imagine disco biscuit fanatics of the Rave scene would be dancing to. Lying inside of it today, the 4th movement reminded me of that episode of Spaced where the guy who sold them drugs was last seen dancing to the bleeping of a level crossing. If the headphones had been up louder I might have struggled not to make some shapes, man...

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The wife.

Actually before I get onto the main point; someone the other day said to me. "Why do you refer to your wife as 'the wife' or 'the missus' in your blog?" Well, apart from the fact that she is my 'wife' and my 'missus', there's two perfectly reasonable reasons.

The first is the same reason as my good friend Rad. His wife or 'breadknife' as he calls her (he's from the East End you see so everything has to cockney rhyme, me old Ebeneezer) hasn't got an on-line presence, doesn't like the Internet in the same way as he does and thinks that her privacy is her business; so Rad keeps her identity at arm's length.

The second reason is purely for on-line security. The more people I don't know who read my blog or might have access to my personal info on Facebook (because of unknown friends associated with the game I now no longer play) makes me a little nervous. I'd rather these people knew as little about me as possible. There are lots of Phil Halls out there, but maybe not many with a wife whose name is the same as mine. Simple (not 'simples' as that fucking stuffed meerkat says).

Anyhow, the wife bought a replacement car today. A silver/grey Vauxhall Zafira on an 04 plate that had done 10k more miles than her treasured Doblo. But it looks like a pretty spotless car, drives well and didn't cost an arm and a leg. It also means that I get my car back (not that I'm doing a lot of driving at the moment, but it stops it being used as a dog transporter, which it really isn't designed to do unless in emergencies). She picks it up on Saturday lunchtime and is quite excited about it!

Yay for her!

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The wife - you know the one, I've mentioned her before - has used the Internet more in the last month than she has since it was invented. She doesn't like my keyboard either, but that's neither here nor there. She has noticed that this new computer does odd things. Odd things like ignore commands, doesn't print things when prompted and queries the legitimacy of words that even an American spell checker would accept.

What she hasn't noticed is, cos she doesn't have a Facebook account (and isn't likely to until Hell gets turned into a big pile of chocolate), is that Facebook doesn't like my new PC much either. For instance if I ask it to refresh the page it gets halfway through the act and then stops, leaving me the frames of the page but none of the content. it also seems to change its mind about what to display in 'most recent'. One minute it will have something from one minute ago and the next it's completely disappeared and I'm left with stuff that was posted anything from an hour to a week ago.

Another quirk of Facebook is this choice we have of Top News and Most Recent. As my good friend Roger pointed out the other day, "What is the point of Top News?" What I would like to know is how Facebook determines what Top News is? Why there is even a choice? And is it put there just to piss the users' off?

That said, I visited my MySpace page the other day and saw that not only has it attempted to copy Facebook, but it's done it so badly I just wanted to pluck my eyes out.

Once upon a time, I was on a Yahoo group with my friends and everything was relatively simple. Now even that has been made complicated.

And talking of complicated, the wife - you remember her - has been on line trying to insure her new car. She's been on various websites where she's had to register details to be able to get quotes. When they tell you on adverts it takes 2 minutes and is easy and simple - DO NOT BELIEVE THEM!

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It seems that I'm actually going to return to some journalism over the next couple of months! Totally unpaid, but for the love of it only. I'm going to be doing some articles and interviews with two of my favourite bands.

I shall be updating and doing a new interview with Sel Balamir from Amplifier to coincide with the release of The Octopus. It's Amplifier's new double album and I urge anyone who likes good rock music to go to their website and buy it. You can access it via http://www.amplifiertheband.com/merchandise.php, but only the digipak version is still available.

I am also going to finally do an interview with my good buddy Steve Messina of Blow Up Hollywood to help promote the band's current album, Take Flight and the forthcoming album, due in early 2011. For people who want to become acquainted with this more eclectic rock band, go to http://www.blowuphollywood.com/ - the first page you come to is the same image that adorns the T shirt I'm wearing on my current Facebook page pic. If you have any idea what it is, tell me!

I'm not doing either of these things for personal gain. I'm doing it because both these bands are worth patronising - they produce good music that hasn't been graced by the same PR machine as some shit bands that are out there have. Plus, it pays to have a look around for different kinds of music. people shouldn't be led by the nose by radio stations and what's 'hot'. 9 times out of 10, what's hot is normally not.

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Tomorrow, I'm going to do some baking again - this time for the wife (you remember her). I'm going to try a Traditional Scottish Sultana Cake, which, because I don't eat dried fruit sounds positively ugh. However, I wasn't aware that sultanas (or raisins for that matter) were traditionally Scottish; therefore is this a lie?