The cable TV’s back

I rock. no really. I do. I’m this close to getting an ecommerce site up and running for a client… It’s taken me the best part of a day, but i’ve done it. nearly. And a mailing list application too. Just call me Mr. PHP. Actually, don’t. Really. Paco will do. Zank evuns for open source…

(see above and click for bigger, if you so fancy) Photostitch couldn’t tell arse from elbow of the view from our roof. I feel reassured about the place for humans in photographic collage again.

Big day tomorrow, we’re having another in our series of “sophisticated dinner parties” and, after consulting my mum by skype about the menu, shall be preparing some kind of regional feast. Maybe photos later.

Lots of good news from the PAPÁS crowd today. Email me if you’re interested… and it’s also nice to see Arturo and me Dad getting along famously in the comments section.

I’m chuffed when I score over 400 in a scrabble game. In this game the tile fairy came up trumps and I got zincs on a triple with the z on a double letter netting me 110 odd, then a couple of bingos. My tiles are blue… Final score: 504

Dubious words include: goral, maes, skaw and ala, but they’re all valid.

This blog’s been a bit abandoned of late more due to an overload of work and little time to update it but in brief, saw Carrie Fisher’s show Wishful Drinking last Thursday. I hope to get round to a review. Not impressed would be the gist of it, but at least she put on the Danish pastry wig and recited the Help me Obi Wan Kenobi ‘monologue’… Almost finished Life on Mars series II and am looking forward to Ashes to Ashes. We’re off to Portland for a bit and have found a dog/housesitter. Yahoo!’s on and off… And some new sites to show off coming soon. Hasta pronto!

It should in fact have been called the Mystery of the Trullian in UC Davis. I was on the ever-marvellous flickr.com and saw he’d posted a photo of a chair just like the one I was selling so I pounced on the chance to comment. He wrote back, his name’s Chris Lewis. He’s from Trull, he went to Richard Huish 6th form college (as did I), he’s at Bristol Uni but is on his year abroad thing and has an American girlfriend. He chose UC Davis over UC Santa Cruz because Davis had a better website (D’oh!) and the Taunton photos he posted originally were part of a web design assignment at Uni. He rates Taunton over Sacramento for entertainment (Agreed). He also owned the same (OfficeMax) chair as me, but only got $20 when he sold his as opposed to my $25, but the cost of living is different in SC… he now owes me 1 x Milk Chocolate McVities HobNob and our paths may cross in the Wetherspoons pub in East Reach… It’s a funny old interweb

All our furniture now has price tags on it and things are flying of the shelves like shelves. While I was packing things up I came across this Spanish children’s book “Yo, el perezoso”. I bought it in the Skyview flea market a few years back. It translates roughly as “I, Sloth” and I’ve scanned it in for posterity. Have a read of it here.

I finally managed a new minor film review (in the sidebar if you’re using a decent browser), and I’m trying to get back into my blogging groove, but I’ve got a fair bit of “chamba” on at the minute- translating movie scripts, site updates and getting my head around a WordPress e-commerce site.

This is also a test post to see if I can get a LightBox plug in going. Sorry if it screws up the RSS feed as I might need to keep editing this entry.

Yay, it appears to work. Click on John Craven to see another John in a balloon. Make sure the entire page has loaded first mind for the full ajaxy fun.

Despite eight questions about 80s Mexican football… I can’t take too much credit myself though. The only question I got that no one else knew was “What was the title of Kiss’s first album with no make-up”. Comment if you’d like to know the answer… We met Memo who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music. And a musical encyclopaedia in his backpack. “We’re going to win, even if we have to use PRI tactics” I was informed. Anyroad we raffled off the prizes between us: A DVD player, T-shirt, beer glass and baseball cap. And we kept their biro. We got the t-shirt which is what we wanted. Go us… It was a very different beast to your usual UK pub quiz, which is invariably held on a quiet night to try and drag people out. First off, multiple choice. Kid you not. 2ndly cheating is not frowned upon. 3rdly, the questions aren’t read out, you have a 2 page, Times New Roman, 12pt badly formatted question sheet and fill it in while the music blares out around you. 4thly, the 80s were a very different beast in Mexico / the US, the 80s I remember were all about one-hit wonders and pop tunes, last night we were tested on our knowledge of: Heart, Ratt, Asia, Rush, Kiss, Styx, Foreigner, Journey and any other powerchord obsessed hair band. A fun night all the same even if I was a little out of my league.

Also the date has been announced for the next Pocilga Beat Fest party thing. Invite only I’m afraid. Looking forward to that one.

We didn’t make it to the Da Vinci Code the other night, more’s the pity . But it’s still looming, maybe tonight… Lots of design stuff on at the minute and a weekend getaway with horses, nature and jacuzzis is planned so we shall see. Latest project? ViveAjijic- click for the (pointless) flash header.