About Me - GAD123

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Belfast, N.I., United Kingdom
I first got on the net over 15 (2009) years ago and have had my own site for at least 7 (2009) of those years (a place where I could dump the misery of my everyday life!), you can see my fist efforts @ www.freewebs.com/gad123 and my current blog @ www.gad123.co.uk . I am a kind person, smart, (I know that is subjective) and witty, the dry, sarcastic type! I am told that I am easy to talk to and am very laid back. I enjoy playing poker, listening to any music, watching movies & American TV shows, love going to the pub, dancing on a Saturday night and am a bit of a nerd as I own a Wii, PS3 and built my own PC! I am a creature of routine, love the night time when all the exciting things happen, am a bit of an insomniac and love getting trashed at the weekends! If you want, you can catch me on MSN @ graham@gad123.co.uk! Take care and enjoy you browse around this GAD123 Page!

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Spotting Pancakes...

Today, February 28th is also Shrove Tuesday, which is observed as the day before Ash Wednesday or the beginning of Lent. Lent is a period of abstinence (As I know you are all aware), of giving things up. So on Shrove Tuesday, folks engage in celebrations and feasting. Now get together with your friends and family and enjoy eating all the pancakes you can! I personally am not giving anything up but if you are let me know.

 


Which Trainspotting Character Are You?

TODAY'S LINKS :: View What I am Currently Listening to in Real Time :: Probabely the best ass on the net??! :: MoBlog - My life in photo's :: Ha ha ha :: Join MySpace.com :: Crazy stuff from the bible :: The Weekly Fab Five: Weekly Computer Maintenance :: Screen Check - See you have the right monitor set up!

REMEMBER KID'S :: "Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!"

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Places I've Watched TV...

I hope everyone enjoyed Presidents' Day if you live in the United States, or even if you don't. I worked! Work has been really busy, had to do some stuff to my car, got hair cut, been hanging with Dimples, blah, blah. The short of it is I have been really busy so not had time to post but I have got my act together today for a short one. So here you go...

Ricky Gervais is cashing in on his seriously funny and weird podcast (a free, downloadable radio show) by signing a deal to sell future episodes via Apple and Audible.com! *sigh* Season Two, "with added drivel," will be sold from the 28th of this month. Each episodes will cost 95p each or £3.75 for the four-episode season. In the USA, they will sell for $1.95 each or $6.95 for the season. Which is, I suppose, fair enough. I personally think they are fantastic but will I pay for them, we shall just have to wait and see!

I thought I would list the countries I have visited in the world (I think that's them all), there are more than I thought:

Canada - Toronto (all over tho) x7
Scotland
England
Wales
Northern Ireland - I live there
Ireland - Dublin many times have an office there
Cyprus - Larnica and all over x4
Holland - Amsterdam x3
Brussels
Switzerland
Turkey
Spain - Ronda x2
USA
Lanzarotte
Grand Canaries
Tenerife
Africa - Gambia and Tunisia x2

Going to Vegas in the summer and want to go to Moscow in Russia and Tokyo in Japan next.

TV SHOW'S I CURRENTLY LOVE LINKS :: Trailer Park Boys :: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace :: South Park :: Lost :: Hollyoaks :: My Name Is Earl :: IT Crowd :: Location Location Location :: Gadget Show

REMEMBER KID'S :: "The meek shall inherit the earth, after we're through with it"

Friday, February 17, 2006

The Phoneless People...

Arrrggghhh! That's all I can say. I was at Dimples place last night and I left my phone there *sigh* I keep checking my pockets knowing that I forgotten something, then the realisation dawns!

I was fixing her laptop, I don't have a flash drive and my CD burner is broken so I had the bright idea of using my phone to store the programs I needed instead of downloading them.

She had over 60 processes running after start up, now it's sitting at just over 30, a nice clean install of XP then, I also cleaned up the registry, got rid of all the droppings left by installing and uninstalling programs and freed up about 10 gigs in hard disk space. I put Spybot on there, AVG and defragged. Just need to sort a firewall (Sygate are not supporting there free firewall anymore) because I got rid of Norton (it's not worth the money, not that Dimples ever subscribed or updated it) and to update XP, then I will be happy! I also gave here a little tutorial on all the wonderful things that you can do and set up the start menu, giving her a better UI! Anyway, I have owned a mobile phone for like 9 years and it's really, really sucks being without it, honestly like I have lost a limb and I wanna cry. Dimples is dropping it over after school today, thank god! She e mailed me this "How's ur cold turkey without your phone going? I am sure that you are finding it hard like I did. It's like a comfort blanket that you need there at all times and creates quite an unsettled feeling in the pit of your stomach when you don't have it."

Found This interesting; "If they have a guestbook, sign it. Compliments will always be graciously accepted and appreciated. Criticisms and reproaches are fine if you have a problem with something, but try to remain constructive and not be an asshole. No one is forcing you to give out your opinions, so if you don't have anything remotely positive to say, it may be best to keep quiet." And so it goes on...

This is cool, I posted the link the other day but as no one ever checks them out *sigh* I thought I would post it again as I am now using it. You will not see much below but I just installed the iTunes plugin and when I listen to tracks my chart will appear below. They also have good quality radio feeds and lots of info, groups, forums and all sorts of RSS feeds. Seriously I can't recommend it enough:

gad123's Last.fm Weekly Tracks Chart

TODAY'S LINKS :: Two Mad Geeks Blog :: Free online computer science and engineering books :: The Sunday Times Online - My fav paper :: Windows Vista Preview - I can't wait to get a new PC with Vista! :: Porn-o-maticT :: Marvel Comics

REMEMBER KID'S :: "The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson."

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Eight Points of My Perfect Smoke...

Valentines day is over, Dimples got me some nice things, like the Artic Monkeys CD and it's actually better than I thought it would be. My folks are back from their holidays and I am back at work and the balance has been restored.

Smoking, the brilliant and wonderful thing it is has finally got the blanket ban in public places that it deserves in England and quite right too as here in Northern Ireland a complete ban was already agreed for April 2007. It happened in Ireland a few years ago and in my opinion has really destroyed the whole 'crac' and Pub culture in Dublin. In New York where it has also been outlawed, it's a different story, smoking is cool again, driven underground, whole rooftops of clubs have been given over to smokers and hot girls stand outside bars and the like to attract customers of the smoking variety in, great.

Now being a smoker myself I agree that it is wholly unfair to put people who really care that much about there health in a position as to breath in my smoky fumes but I think that they should be given the option of where they go to get their kicks, put a sign up outside pubs stating its a smoking Pub and let them choose, after all it's a free country... Dimples hates smoking and I try not to smoke around her (it's tough tho, it's an addiction remember), except the weekends, when I have a drink and really enjoy my smoking. The obvious thing to say here is she knew I smoked when she met me and if she wanted a non-smoker she should not have continued to have a relationship with me. I know I will stop one day, so she does not have to put up with it forever! Anyway, what's going to happen is that pubs will have marques and garden areas with heaters outside for smokers and that's where everyone will stand because as we all know, it's the smokers that know how to party and have fun!

I have said this for years, I don't have any stats to prove it but I will say it again! It's the TAX from smokers who have supported the health service for years and if we all stopped the revenue (£4 from each pack) it generated will leave a huge whole in the budget and what are we going to do then? I know you will say that it's smokers and second hand smoke victims that are going for heart ops, cancer treatment, etc and dragging the health service down but folks I am afraid that just aint the case and you are falling for media hype! There is a correlation between second hand smoker and illnesses like cancer but not enough study has been done to prove it and in all honesty it is more likely a coincidence, remember, fit, health, non-smokers, non-drinkers, who have never lived with a smoker or frequent pubs and walk everywhere still get ill with cancer and have heart disease or lung disease! Smoking is not the only cause of illness and until we all starting eating healthier, drinking less, keeping fit and generally looking after ourselves, no one can say that my smoking is the cause of their ill health! Yes I know it stinks, blah, blah, blah but it's dam cool *tongue firmly press in cheek* Comments welcome guys.

Have you read that the BBC now want to charge a blanket licence fee for PC's? Apparently anything capable of receiving live or virtually live broadcasts is considered TV receiving equipment and therefore needs to be accounted and charged for. It's a bit harsh, don't you think? You can read more about it here.

I got tagged by Catpee for a MeMe. So I have to write 8 points detailing what my perfect lover must be/have/whatever, so here goes:

1) She's to be intelligent, able to grasp and wrestle with ideas
2) She has to GET me, I am a little off the wall remember
3) She's got to be able to not take herself or life too seriously, there is a time and place for everything
4) She has to be thoughtful not just in terms of 'us'
5) She's to be a bit weird and wacky
6) She has to be sexy, dirty and open minded (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
7) She's got too be a music lover
8)She has to be clean and tidy - Very important!

I think I am meant to TAG 8 people now but who will post this?!

TODAY'S LINKS :: MoBlog - My life in photo's :: Cute crap :: escher + legos :: True Facts :: New T-Shirt Hell Shirts

REMEMBER KID'S :: "Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again."

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Mad Dogs and Tired men...

So last night was yet another sleepless affair, it was about 4.45am when I nodded off and until then I lay awake with mad dogs running round in my head. I hate mad dogs but they throw up some interesting thoughts. Last night I mulled over my school days, being bullied from P1 through to leaving by the same person - I seen him a few months back, he has made it I tell you, a security guy in Tescos, karma? - being dyslexic and how let down I was by the whole system.

This is a period of my life that I have tried to block out, I never think about it because it's so depressing to me but I think discussing Dimple's working life has made me confront it, after all she is a secondary school English teacher! It was not really until early 20's that I started to believe in myself, that I was not dumb, ugly, a wimp, a sucker or what ever else I was branded and I started to weed out the crap in my life.

Anyway, if my school years where different and maybe I was not such a loner or a simp, I think I would have been a straight A student, stayed at school, went to Uni, got a great job, been unhappily married and have a couple of brats as children. You see, even tho those things did not happen does not mean that I am unhappy, full of regret or that I even hold a grudge (in the same positions, with the same knowledge, I would make the same decisions again because they where the morally right decisions to make), in fact, I would say that this way I am a better person. I understand the world we live in so much more, had what I think was a privileged childhood, seen the world, understand and empathise with people and am reasonably happy most of the time. You see it's because of those events, the times I was not selfish in forwarding my own life towards 'normality' and ultimately unhappiness that I am now in a unique position and able to make mature, informed decisions leading to 'hopefully' a healthier life, filled with joy, laughter, fun and possibly more.

I am a normally weird geeky guy, I have an average life, earn an average wage and have had a middle class upbringing and that, my friends, is what I wanted in life, just to be average and happy! Nothing too complicated, to difficult, to help out who I could along the way and make a little difference to someone's life. I hope I have done all that and my conscience is clear (judge that God) but where do I go now?

Well there is Dimples, I am going to enjoy walking the path with her, who knows where it will lead but as I always say, it's the journey that counts, not necessarily the destination.

TODAY'S LINKS :: The Line Game we all played at school :: MoBlog - My life in photo's :: Karl Pilkington's Rockbusters :: The Luxor - Hopefully where we are going for summer hols! :: Join the social music revolution at Last.fm :: Help with bullying :: The Law of Karma

REMEMBER KID'S :: "I used to have a handle on life, but it broke."

Happy Valentines Day Dimples...

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? (Sonnets XVIII)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Help me out guys...

Today I have been trying to understand feminism, to be honest I have been trying to understand it for a long time and how its relevant in today's society. Now before I go any further, this is not very well thought through and I have left so, so much out but I am trying to get it posted before lunch is over, so I have not covered everything and probably never will. I also don't know how many of you will agree or give me jip for this but I am going to stick my neck out anyway! I am sure Dimples will set me straight.

I was directed from this at Joanne's Blog to the Wikipedia description of Feminism, which I duly read, digested and guess what... I am still no clearer. Yes I do understand what women went through to get where they are today and that should never be forgotten, I also understand that there is still, even tho we are in the middle of the first decade of 2000, oppressive things that happen to women in certain parts of society, religion and in specific countries because they are women, but lets not get carried away here, men get dumped on too. I am not inherently or cognitively oppressive to women and see them as equal but I do feel like I am being tarred with this brush and the feminist movement is painting me as a bad person, just because I happened to be born with a cock.

This prompted me to look at Masculism and it raises some interesting points that you can read up on if you wish. What I took away from it was that we now have a "culture that conditions males to feel bad about being male".

I have had a completely different experience from what feminists seem to be pissed at. I am currently Office Manager for an advertising company and guess what, my boss is a women, my last job was as a Valuer for an estate agency and guess what, yeah, my boss was a women. Shocking aint it??! So I have seen the other side of the coin and I will tell you now, women can be tough and can make it in the business world if they so desire. The ladies in question have been good at what they do, ambitious and ruthless. Dare I say that feminists should stop complaining and get some ambition, take the men on in the powerful positions game because I am sure you can make it too. Well maybe, if you spent less time moaning!

Now that may all seem a little harsh but I am trying to make a point and that is, what are we men to do? How are we to treat women? Today you want to be boss, tomorrow you want to be made to feel secure and cuddled and god forbid we get it wrong and suffer the lecture of the feminist. We get it wrong because there is no consistency, today a feminist, tomorrow a little girl lost. *sigh* Can we just not all live together, recognise that men and women are physically and mentally different, with individual personalities and put our energy in to making a better tomorrow instead of trashing ALL men? Right, put your lasers on kill and come and get me ladies...

TODAY'S LINKS :: Tutor 2 U - Supporting Teachers & Inspiring Students :: It's a Wonderful internet :: Independent World Television News :: GWAR - Old School :: Porn Hentai - Muuhahaha :: Learn Texas Holdem

REMEMBER KID'S :: "Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Interwebnet and they won't bother you for weeks."

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Life's hard...

Well, it's been a day of bashing my head against a brick wall, Royal Mail are still on strike and messing up my working day, I miss my folks, tho they come back on Monday, Dimples is ill, in fact everyone is ill (get well soon peeps), this week could not go any slower, I am not sleeping, 2am last night I decided to go to bed am I stupid, it's windy and I hate the wind, it all sucks! I am off on Friday to Monday and get to spend some quality time drunk with Dimples, catching up on sleep and playing online poker, so it's not all bad! Anyway what right do I have to complain, I have an F'in great life and should probably be more aware of this. Roof over my head, food on the table and money in my sky rocket but it's just never plane sailing, is it? Something, somewhere, somehow and someone has to throw a spanner in the works and I am powerless to change that, tho I try to! Makes me sigh... Here's some interwebnet news:

After the pixel site is this the next big money spinning (no pun intended there then) idea, it's Site Spin! The idea from a UK student is for you to paid a $1 to get your site listed on his home page random web page generator, simple and effective. There is one downside tho, he only takes payment via PayPal so I will not be listing my site! It's a bit like Stumble Upon without the filtering, good luck to him!

TODAY'S LINKS :: General Grievous Blog :: Chewy Blog :: 101 Dumbest Moments in Business :: Cooking using your Mobile Phone :: Free entry in to the $1000000 First Prize Poker Tournament

REMEMBER KID'S :: "MOP AND GLO - The floor wax used by Three Mile Island cleanup team."

Monday, February 06, 2006

Saturday Night Fever...

Monday again. Hope everyone had a good weekend. On Friday I had the pleasure to go to Saturday Night Fever. We (Dimples and I) ate Thai beforehand and then hit the Grand Opera House, a lovely venue in Belfast but as Dimples put it, very small, London is better, blah, blah, blah! It was a great sing along evening, even if it was hammed up and the timing was a little off! I want to see Trainspotting now!

Saturday evening was a Pubbing / Clubbing / Tequila drinking affair and much merriment was to be had. Tho I must state, the barmaid serving in the VIP room or whatever it's call in Play, Boom Boom Room or Sumo Lounge was useless and I hope she woke to find all he hair had fallen out on Sunday!

Today I left my rents off at the airport, they are going to catch some rays and chil out, so I am all alone this week!

So the stats for January 2006 are sitting at 4,985 visits. It's not to bad looking at last year on a monthly bases but my goal is to create good content, enough to attract 100,000 visitors over the year, that's twice what I got last year and roughly an average of 8,400 a month. Lets see how it goes...

STAT WHORE 2005:

January'05 - 1649
February'05 - 2016
March'05 - 2539
April'05 - 2760
May 2005 - 3914
June 2005 - 4732
July 2005 - 4773
August 2005 - 4562
September 2005 - 3789
October 2005 - 6301
November 2005 - 3929
December 2005 - 3804

Total = 44768

TODAY'S LINKS :: Saturday Night Fever :: Pandairo goes all Hell's Angels! :: What do you think of the new site images created by Pandairo? :: MoBlog - My life in photo's :: Should I get this house? :: Get your daily dose of Commodore 64 nostalgia :: Big Brother Photoshop's and other nonsense Blog :: Create a temporary e-mail address that will forward all incoming mail to your usual e-mail address :: Sniff Petrol :: All Dimples, Dimples and more Dimples *sigh*

REMEMBER KID'S :: "Say "NO" to drugs. That will bring the prices down."

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 and Poker Bots...

I read around the subject of PC's and software a fair bit and know enough to get myself into and out of trouble, so when I purchased my new machine 2 years ago I made a decision that I would not update windows or any of the software as long as everything worked and I encountered no problems. That has been the case now for those 2 years! When Microsoft released SP2 and all the horror stories arose I smugly smiled knowing that my little box was purring along just fine. That WAS until last night...

Are you waiting for a scare story, well you aren't going to get it I'm afraid. IE7 Beta 2 has came out and I wanted to check it out but though it was time to bite the bullet and update. 2 hours later everything was updated and working just fine. I turned off the automatic updates, the firewall and reset the security settings and checked over everything, of course and yes indeed, it's great. In fact my PC seems to start up quicker and is definitely snappier! Lets see if it continues to run stably over the long term tho, obviously I will keep you posted on that!

Now to the point, Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2. I only used it for 5 minutes and looked at the settings but its grand, like a stripped down IE6 mixed with the best of Firefox i.e. Tabbed Browsing. Now that does not seem a too in depth review but I think 'they' have produced exactly what 90% of people want and use, ergo, it does what it says on the tin.

I nearly forgot about the Bots. This was something I knew about but until I read an article e mailed to me by Kayeso (cheers dude and you should really reprise that blog) I never knew that I could actually be playing one. I still think that it would be easy for the gaming site, software or tech peeps to spot one or someone using one but this is an eye opening article none the less.

TODAY'S LINKS :: New T-Shirt Hell Shirts :: MoBlog - My life in photo's :: Yahoo's Sites of 2005 - Unfortunately Mine Isn't There! :: Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian :: Short Stories - Can Dimples Find One To Read To Me?

REMEMBER KID'S :: "Love makes the wildest spirit tame, and the tamest spirit wild" Alexis Delp