We’re two weeks into Movember, and it’s time to take a little look at the progress of the upper lip adornment. Or, as it’s been put to me, that thing on my face. This is a really important cause. Here are some things you might not know about prostate cancer • 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK – one man is diagnosed every 15 minutes • A man will die from prostate cancer every hour – more than 10,000 men will die of the disease this year in the UK • You are 2.5 times more likely to develop prostate cancer if your father or brother has had it • Occurrences of prostate cancer in men are comparable to the rates of breast cancer in women At the time of writing I’m ranked as the 63775th highest fundraiser in the county but I want to do better than that! You can donate to the cause at my MoSpace – http://mobro.co/markgeveritt Right, that’s the series stuff over, now, on with the photos… First off, here are a couple of snaps from, Day 1… And here’s two from just two days later… And from Yesterday, Day 12 I’ll be honest, it’s getting a bit itchy now, but I’m going to stick to the rules and not trim it – just comb it. I actually think it looks better in the whole head-shot than in the close up. And it does make me look older and quite serious. Or that may just be the lack of a smile. Next time I’ll smile. What do you think? Looking good? Or looking like an idiot? Comment below and let me know.
Festive Cheer – Not
A colleague who shall remain anonymous (unless you’re from work, in which case you know exactly who this comes from) sent this very cheery Christmas message in advance of the festive season. Thought I’d share it to get everyone in the mood. I am conscious that I am bit late this year in sending around the my Christmas message (it normally appears in July!) – but Halloween seems as good a day to do it as any, based on my well known view of the forthcoming festive season. What brought this whole horrible episode to my mind was the fact that the Christmas lights in Oxford Street (that’s in London if you were not sure, as opposed to the Chipping Sodbury Christmas lights – which might in fact be marginally more impressive that the London ones – Jeremy Clarkson would probably turn those on, if he was not concerned about being electrocuted in the process by some reactionary socialist disability rights terrorists group – sorry I digress!) – are being turned on just after the weekend, and I can only think badly of the poor sad people that turn out on a drizzly Monday in November to watch this remarkable spectacle! I simply can’t imagine that anyone here would be so desperate to see something so crass – I suppose if Robbie Williams were performing it might be marginally more interesting (Oh! he is – I take it all back……..how do I get a ticket…NOT) – but someone turning a light switch on can’t be that interesting I would not have thought – still whatever floats your boat. Anyway I always thought someone from Coronation Street always did it – and it was part of their contract – Cliff Richard was in pantomime at the Northampton rep. theatre one year – I didn’t go and see that either, just so that you know. The other thing that brought it to mind was all this ridiculous happiness and merriment about going to Leicester football ground and paying £40.00 of your earth pounds for the privilege of eating turkey and Christmas pudding and putting on a paper hat – what has got into you people!! It is the usual culprits I notice – Happy bloody clappy Christmas bunnies – bah Humbug!! Still I am sure you are all looking forward to it – such wonderful fun for all concerned – reading a Christmas Carol (that’s by Charles Dickens – if you were not sure – not the Charles Dikkens with two k’s – he’s the dutch one) in front of the fire with a warming glass of hot grog – magical isn’t it. I shall not be sending Christmas cards this year – I shall be donating to charity – have not decided which one but as the willow tree in our back garden has just been chopped down it will probably go to homeless birds or something
It’s “Movember” – Follow my “mogress” here
For those of you that don’t know, Movember is a fund-raising imitative aimed at raising awareness of “men’s health” issues, in particular prostate cancer & testicular cancer, and raising money for charities working to fight them. Prostate cancer kills over 10,000 men in the UK every year, a similar number of men to the number of women killed by breast cancer – and yet prostate cancer receives a lot less publicity. Movember is trying to change that. Testicular cancer if far less of a killer – it only killed 75 men in 2010 – but it does leave thousands of men infertile each year. The idea behind movember is that men around the world grow a moustache throughout the month of November and post pictures of their upper-lip adornment for the world to enjoy (read, laugh at). Also, it’s a celebration of that once fashionable and so cool it ought to be brought back male facial growth. And in case you hadn’t quite guessed, I’m movembering this year. You can donate to my efforts on my Mospace, and follow my ‘mogress’ on this blog, my facebook and my twitter.
X-Factor 27/10/12 – Live(ish) blog
I’m a bit late to the ‘live’ part of this live blog (by which I mean I’m writing as I watch the show, cause, let’s be honest, you need to do something while watching). And I might have to stop if Lily wakes up, starts crying and therefore needs a cuddle to go back to sleep. But anyway… It’s Halloween week, but I think they’re missing a trick. Skyfall was released yesterday and it look like the contestants all went to the première (bastards), so shouldn’t it be Bond week? Kye was first up this week, singing a Robbie Williams classic. The one he usually opens up his shows with. And he had to rehearse it in from of the man himself. Bet he felt shit about that. I expected it to be shit but it wasn’t as shit as I expected. Not good though. Union J went second. I’ll be honest, it kind of passed me by and I was only half listening. But that was enough for me. Shit. Sometimes I wonder if the judges are watching the same thing as me. How could they praise them for that? Oh, and Louis, you need to find a new catchphrase. “I think they could be the next big boy band…” What, has Simon already been on the the blower offering to manufacture them into it next year? 20:59 – Oh my god. It’s Rylan. Should I take this chance to go get a beer? 21:00 – Lewis Hamilton – you’re a lucky, lucky boy…. 21:04 – Sorry, still don’t ‘get’ Rylan. I mean, how many songs can you get through in two minutes? 21:07 – That dress Tulisa is wearing is really quite tight, isn’t it? Looks painful to be honest. Having said that, I’m not complaining about it 🙂 21:10 – Ella’s great. But very samey. And now she’s doing one of my favourite songs, but it lacks the energy and sheer passion of the original. I know she’s the favourite, but sorry, I can’t see her winning. 21:14 – One thing that annoys me about X-Factor is the way the crowd reacts whenever a judge offers an honest critique or makes genuine points that help the performer improve. Anything that isn’t gushing praise is greeted by boos. Why? I don’t understand it. 21:22 – I like Christopher, and if the rumors of the phone vote polls are true so do a lot of people (they reckon he’s topped the polls every week), but can he really win it? And if he does, will we hear even less of him afterwards than we did of… er… that one, you know… and… er… thingy. Yeah, those two. 21:28 – Gary just called Tulisa “Fag Ash Breath”. Now that’s entertainment. I think that Tulisa’s problem with Maloney is that he isn’t ‘urban’ enough. Either that or maybe he’s admitted to her that he’s seen that video of hers that came out in the summer. Perhaps that’s why he shakes all the time when he sees her. 21:35 – District 3 next. And they murder one of the best songs of all time – Every breath you take by The police. Not only do they sing it out of tune and at the wrong speed, they ‘mash it up’ with some other shit. Hated it. Hate them. Shit. Shit. Shit. 21:37 – Thank you Gary Barlow. I’m sick of bloody mash-ups too. Oh, and Nicole, the five eyeballs thing is Clockwork Orange. Do you have no cultural knowledge? 21:43 – Holly Willoughby has just tweeted in on the whole “”Fag Ash Breath” thing by informing the world that her breath smells of Tequila. Well, there are worse things for it to smell of. 21:46 Jahmene sang for Samuel L. Jackson, officially the coolest man on the planet. I don’t life will ever get much better than that. This boy is class. He’s singing Killing Me Softly. And singing it well. 21:48 – Best performance of the night. So far ahead of the other it’s untrue. Only James Arthur comes close. It’s nice to see the judges gush this much when its well deserved. 21:54 – Jade. Good song choice. But she looked lost on that stage on her own early on. Then the bondage dancers came out and I think it put her off because her vocals suddenly got worse. In fairness though, if six girls in silver catsuits started dancing around me with ropes, it would put me off first. 21:58 – Apparently “Freak Like Me” is a song that Jade listened to when she was ‘growing up’. Shit, I feel old now. Thanks. 22:04 – Can I go and watch Boardwalk Empire yet? No, not yet, James is on next. 22:07 – James Arthur. Nothing more to say really. 22:09 – Okay. If I must. This guy is great. If he doesn’t win (and I don’t think he will for some reason) I think he’ll be the real big winner from this year. I’ve loved everything he’s done so far. Just incredible. 22:13 – Well, I enjoyed that. Writing about it as much as watching it. I think we’ll end up with Christopher, Jahmene and James in the final. Yes, I don’t think Ella will make it that far. Semis at best. I just think people will tire of her. One thing is clear though, Jahmene and even more so James are streets ahead of the others. Robbie is on the results show tonight. He must have a new album out or something. Well, that’s a Chrissy present for Sandrine sorted at least.
Ceefax Is Dead: ‘Goodbye Note’ Discovered On Twitter -(via HuffPost)
Must say, I’m somewhat sad to see Ceefax come to an end – even if I’m as guilty as everyone else for it’s demise having not looked at it for years. I suppose to some extent it was a precursor to the internet and the way it gives you news, sport and gossip on demand. Still, the parody sign off that emerged on twitter is quite funny. Twitter: via HuffPost http://huff.to/TPyTS3
MailOnline – Think YOU are being overstretched in the office?
Here’s a few, the full story and all of her photoshoot is here. Bet she’s loads of ‘fun’, if you catch my drift… Seriously – how the hell does she do this? via MailOnline
Summing Up Politics
Saw a great quote from a 75 year old in Chicago in respect of the US elections yesterday that neatly sums up the problems with not only US Politics, but politics the world over, including here in the UK. "I’d like to get to the bottom of what’s really right for this country, and that’s kind of hard while they’re all calling each other names." Now, I’ll admit that some of the name calling has lessened with the Tories and LibDems cooperating in The Coalition, but the name calling between the government and what currently passes for an opposition in the form of Labour, is, if anything, getting worse. I’d love to see our elected representatives agreeing occasionally, rather than disagreeing for the sake of it, which seems to happen so much right now. I just don’t think I ever will.
BBC – Phil McNulty: Brilliant Bale has world at his feet
I don’t usually agree with McNulty – in fact, I don’t know why I bother to read him – but I do agree with this. Gareth Bale was fantastic last night. Shame he can play for England, we could use someone like hi. BBC – Phil McNulty: Brilliant Bale has world at his feet.
Rovers going for an Indian
So, I looks as if Blackburn Rovers are set to become the latest Premier League club to get foreign owners, with Indian farming company Venkey’s Group all but ready to complete a takeover from the Jack Walker Trust. They will join 8 of the other 19 premiership clubs who are owned outright by foreign nationals, with a further 3 being part owned abroad. That will leave only eight clubs wholly in the hands of British owners. In other words, there will be more clubs in England’s top division owned by people from outside this country than within it. And they call it England’s national game. I for one am glad that when Jack Hayward put Wolves up for sale, he held out for a British buyer. Everything points to Steve Morgan being in this for the long haul and not as a play thing. I fear for the likes of Birmingham, Chelsea et al for when their foreign sugar-daddies get bored and ship out, leaving the clubs in the kind of mess Pompey currently find themselves. For the record, the wholly foreign owned clubs are (from wikipedia) : Aston Villa (USA) Birmingham City (Hong Kong) Chelsea (Russia) Fulham (Egypt) Liverpool (USA) Man City (UEA) Man Utd (USA) Sunderland (USA) And the part foreign owned clubs are : Arsenal (USA 29.9% & Russia 26%) Blackpool (Latvia 20%) West Ham (Iceland 40%) Leaving Bolton, Everton, Newcastle, Stoke, Spurs, Wigan, Wolves & Albion in British only hands.
Android Market Surpasses 100,000 Apps
Here’s a report from Mashable about this… Android Market Surpasses 100,000 Apps. …to quickly quote from the article… Android has just rocketed past a major milestone: 100,000 applications available in the Android Marketplace. The announcement was made with just a tweet from the Android Dev Twitter account. “One hundred thousand apps in Android Market,” was all the tweet needed to say to spread the news. The search giant recentlyexpanded the Android Marketplace to 20+ countries in an effort to kick its developer ecosystem in high gear. Now, I know Apple’s app store has nearly three times as many apps, but with Android growing as quickly as it being on such a wide variety of handsets, you have to say that any developer that is ignoring the Google offering, is simply shooting themselves in the foot and losing potential customers.
