Chris

Are Souled Asylum still on the go?

Clachan Yell. Best ceilidh band I've seen in the area, really energetic and have a great bounce to the tunes (some ceilidh bands just feel like they're going through the motions). They were awesome at our wedding.

On the subject of peat levels I got a wee taster bottle of Smokehead a while ago. It smells amazing but it's completely and utterly undrinkable. Record breaking peat levels are just stupid. Make something that tastes nice instead.

Black Swan Bit late to this but finally got round to watching it after having it recorded for a while. Much darker than I thought it was going to be (should have known with Aranofsky) and also didn't realise there'd be so much sexy times in it. So that was a nice surprise, especially with Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman. That aside it's a spectacular and tense film, very clever without being too smug or patronising to the audience with an awesome set piece ending. Deserved all it's praise.

If you pasted all the stats into a pivot table you could change the columns and the the rows for the visualisation at a whim and the chart would update automatically. They're pretty powerful for that sort of stuff.

Pivot tables? They seem to be the answer to everything Excel related these days.

Mark Reynolds has been called up the Scotland squad.

Man Utd's innovative new formation:

My postie pulled off a stellar effort last week, worthy of a Yodel delivery. I ordered a bunch of electronic components and a textbook. The jiffy bag was obviously bigger than the letter box, yet I came home to see some bits of sticky address label stuck on the front of the letterbox. I thought that was a bit strange but there was no delivery card through the door and no sign of the package. I wandered through to my kitchen and just happened to glance at the back door where I noticed a package leaning beside the window next to the door. Sure enough there was my jiffy bag full of electronics left outside for hours and full of puncture holes because he'd tried to stuff it through the letterbox first. If I hadn't noticed it then it would have been outside all night and got soaked. Everything in the bag appeared to be OK apart from one tiny on/off switch on the main board which had been snapped off by the attempt to squeeze through a small metal rectangle. Rendered the whole thing useless.

All the fucking plastic, paper and card that surrounds a formal shirt when you buy it. Also shirts that come with ties. I have dozens of ties that I never wear. I realise that it's possible to buy shirts that don't have an accompanying tie, but sometimes I just want the shirt that comes with a tie. Fucking Next have even started putting tieclips and weird neck clip things in with their shirts. More useless tat I'll never use. And in one last formal clothing related hate, I only seem to be able to buy trousers that are too short or too long. And that's before you take the Next size lottery into account. Both these trousers are 34 inches you say? Yet one pair I can put my fist in between my belly and the waist and the other pair I can barely close. It's not as though these are measured using some arbitrary vague unit of measurement. It's fucking inches! Why are they different sizes!?

Guardians of the Galaxy Massive ball of FUN from beginning to end. Best Marvel film so far.

It's really an embarrassment that Celtic have been knocked out of Europe twice but are still in Europe.

As about the only person I know who didn't put him in their fantasy team I'm feeling pretty good right now.

A.N.Other, Gilks probably as he's been the incumbent bench warmer for a while and I imagine McGregor and Marshall are still 1 and 2 in the pecking order. I have huge admiration for Gordon as a keeper and absolutely expect him to be Scotland's no1 again IF he can stay injury free. But he hasn't played for two years and now he's got a call up to an international squad after 2 games for Celtic. Just feels too soon for him, let him get 6 months of first team football back under his belt first.

Scotland cannon fodder against Germany: That defence Not sure what Craig Gordon or Callum McGregor have done to earn a call up, aside from being spotted in green and white for a couple of games.

Will probably just go with "an appointment". What with moving house and babies I've enough going on that I'm covered. Probably find a supermarket/phone booth to get changed in after as well. I think I'm mostly frustrated because I haven't even made up my mind if I actually want this job or am better of staying where I am.

Went for an interview, spread across two days. There was a 4 hour assessment centre on day 1 and a presentation and interview on day 2. Was told they'd make a decision that day and let everyone know. All fair enough (though the assessment centre was pretty brutal, like sitting an exam for a course you've not attended). Then get a call from the agency today that they want me back for another fucking interview. On a Friday. No chance can I take a 3rd day off at short notice without raising suspicions so I now have to try and arrange to go to an interview in a suit and tie then turn up to the office for casual Friday.

Man they've really kicked it up a notch since I left...

Inkscape - http://inkscape.org/en/

Agreed, but sadly might be only option as so few places do short rents and allow pets.

House hunting. Holy fuck. Sold our current house so now have 8 weeks to find somewhere else to live or we're crashing at my parent's. I don't want that to happen if I can at all help it. Main problem is we only want to stay in one location and there's fuck all coming on the market big enough and in our budget.

Really enjoyed Dishonoured. Think Dave still has my copy so might have to get it back from him and play it again.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. The micro terror seems to still have a loud reputation, so might skip that. AC4 is a possibility, though may be a bit jangly. There's a Gretsch 4 watt box that might work but has no tone control. The Yamaha one seems interesting. How is it with pedals or do you just use the on board modelling? Think I might have to pay some shops a visit and try some out.

It's Rogue Trooper you filthy Norts!

Considering ditching my Dual Terror and 1x12 cab for a small, bedroom friendly combo. Anyone got any recommendations? Would almost exclusively be used for practicing at home and recording. Even switched down to 7W the Dual Terror is a bit loud and I just don't feel like I'm getting the best of it in that situation. Would also like something in a smaller package for saving space.