Giving up phish for Battersea Cats

Good deed of the day:

I am giving up Ben & Jerry's in favour of a Battersea Cats and Dogs home Kitty Cabin. £10 a month (just about my normal B&J spendings) are going towards saving some fuzzy, cuddly kittens - not to mention reducing the lard-belt that is my midsection.

YEY, I'm a good person!

A picture of what to expect from the Harry Potter Theme Park in Florida

This is a promo pic for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter:

You know what I find is the most interesting part of this promo picture? The sky. That sky creates much of the mood and expectations in that picture. The warmth of the light from the fake Hogwarts and the authenticity of the snow on the roofs, is all thanks to that dark sky. The problem is: you would never get that sky in Orlando, Florida. Ever.

In Britain? Hell yes.

So it makes me wonder: Are they going to make a fake sky? Or are Harry Potter fans going to melt in their merchandise robes and hats under a scorching sun? I think the latter.

They can fake the pine trees and the rocks and the snow, the buildings, castles, bridges and lakes - but you cannot fake the British weather.

High time to bring the Harry Potter Theme Park back home to Britain

"... the fact is that Harry Potter is not American. He is British. Where is Diagon Alley, where they buy wands and stuff? It is in London, and if you want to get into the Ministry of Magic you disappear down a London telephone box. The train for Hogwarts goes from King's Cross, not Grand Central Station ..."

THANK YOU BORIS!

The London Mayor Boris Johnson writes in his weekly Telegraph column about the need to "exploit out intellectual property" and build a British Harry Potter Themepark

Finally someone from some form of British authority has reacted to the murder of J.K. Rowlings magical world. I never understood why there was a need to recreate Northumberland and London in Orlando, Florida when you could do it somewhere in the UK. The world of Harry P is not supposed to be in tropical heat (fake snow on the roofs of Hogsmeade in +28 C - I mean, are you kidding me?) Being one of those hard core Potter fans that re-read the entire series at least once a year and falls asleep pretty much every single sober night to the soothing voice of Stephen Fry (who does an excellent job with the audio version) this is something I will fight tooth and nail for. Not only because there is no way in hell that I could afford going to Florida. Harry Potter is my bible - and you know how stingy people can be about their religion.

Surely we cannot afford to do this with any government funds in the current economical climate, but there must be enough geeks with money to fund this? Boris, I advice you to give Richard Branson a call. Or how about Simon Cowell? Or J.K. Rowling herself? Why would these proud Brits not be willing to put some money towards this? The amount of money an English, substantially more authentic, Harry Potter Themepark could generate is scary.

"The Greater London Authority (GLA) is said to be “highly receptive” to any possible bids," - The New Civil Engineer

This made me giggle in the silent section of the Drill Hall library

nicked off Sands Media Services blog

Doesn't it suck when even your mother's man is out of your league

Its not exactly news that I read gossip blogs. And its probably not really a splash that I hate celebspawns that have been given everything just because they have the DNA of some famous person. There are however some exceptions. If your mum is Demi Moore and you still end up looking like Bruce Willis, then you deserve some luxury as compensation.

How was your Saturday night?

In a bar, you sometimes have those nights, where there are just a few highlights in an overall shitty night. Last night was like that - just without the highlights. Douchebag United decided to have their annual clubmeeting in my bar. Oh the joy.
I had people throwing garnishes - a hen party that started a cucumber fight, and when all the cucumber AND mint was on the floor they went for the ice. Then some promoter with half of Essex in tow was 1 hour and 20 mins late for his bookings - just because you require VIP treatment does not mean you can act like a diva. On top of this another hen party dressed up as "Pink Ladies" where the maid of honour, straight out of Newcastle with the manners to boot, had the audacity to ask me "Can we have free drinks? Can we have free shots? Can we have half price drinks then? But its a hen party, can't you give us anything for free? " The answer was No, No, No and I don't give a flying fuck.

And these were the nice people.

B-b-baby I'm a rockstar

Dr Geoff Ellis has done some research for UKTV Gold (why the television fee has gone towards this I have no idea), and come up with a connection between when you are born in a sibling group and the likelihood of success in certain areas.
Apparently the eldest child are over 3.5 times more likely to become a rock star than their younger siblings. Three quarters (75%) of the study sample of rock stars were oldest or only children with a personality that include being ambitious, energetic, people pleasers who crave attention.

Before one starts waving these numbers off as bollocks - it does make sense. As an eldest child, hopefully anticipated by your parents, you have all the attention from parents and relatives and you are the star of the show. Then, all of a sudden, without you even realising it, you have been demoted to a mere support act as a new baby arrives. Studies have shown that this shapes kids for life, and it is true! If you take away the rock star part of it, I am all those things. So it seems I have the statistic on my side. I guess all I need now is to be discovered.

"When all the data is considered together, a simple Chi-square test suggests than there is a less than 1% chance of the relationship between sibling group and role type being down to chance alone. When Rock stars are considered in isolation against the rest of the sample group, the probability of the results being purely random are reduced to less than one in a thousand."

I told ya, b-b-b-baby I'm a rockstar...