3D Changes in domestic paste

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One of the gifts which Alex got for his third birthday was a packet of Ben 10 stickers. Ben 10 is, apparently, a kiddie superhero  cartoon character who can be found on Cartoon Network, pajamas, backpacks, t-shirts and indeed, stickers. I have no other knowledge of this Ben 10 character, because Alex is still too young for Cartoon Network.
That, however, has not stopped him from becoming a big fan of Ben 10.

The other thing you should know about these Ben 10 stickers is that they are those cool ones that move (ever so slightly) when you tilt them from side to side a bit. If your hands are fast enough, you can make Ben 10 look like he is having a fit. And anyone watching you will probably think you’re having a fit as well. But that kind of thing is funny if you’re three.
And stickers are great if you are three years old, because you can stick them anywhere you can reach: in your sticker album, on your wardrobe, on your window, the inside of the en-suite toilet bowl, your little sister’s head – anywhere.

Anyway, I am glad that I could identify who and what the stickers were, because being completely honest, the packet they came in wasn’t overly helpful:

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3D Changes in domestic paste – the perfect gift for any child’s third birthday

And, as if to explain exactly what 3D changes in domestic paste is, there are some fishes swimming around some conservatory furniture. Maybe they were thinking fish paste. I don’t know.
To me it looks like there was an incident in the printing department and random words and graphics dropped into the Ben 10 sticker packet machine.

Either way, the stickers are a hit and have mainly gone into his sticker album, where they are making explosions and shooting lasers at the Winnie the Pooh Flat shine on bedroom glue.

‘What are you people doing up here?’

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That’s what Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he wants to ask the Americans, during an address to an assembly of Uganda’s top lawyers on Saturday. “Up here” refers to space, apparently – specifically the moon.

“Uganda alone cannot go to the moon. We are too small. But East Africa united can. That is what East African integration is all about,” he said. “Then we can say to the Americans: ‘What are you doing here all alone?’.”

I’ve never been to Uganda, but I have spoken with some people there using the medium of the telephone. While Africa may lag some distance behind the rest of the world, in urban areas, basic stuff like telephones are a given.
Kampala, particularly, has a fairly decent telecommunications network, which makes me wonder why Mr Museveni can’t just call some Americans on the phone and ask them what they are doing on the moon. A quick google search of “NASA telephone numbers” gives NASA HQ’s number as (202) 358-0000. I think you add a 1 before that to get to the USA, if that helps at all, Mr President.

Even if they are currently all alone on the moon, just leave a voicemail and they’ll get back to you as soon as they return. And then they can tell you what they were doing up there.  You won’t need to spend billions of Ugandan Shillings (at 2207.50 to the US dollar) on a costly, dangerous and lengthy space programme, you’ll just have to cough up for an international phone call.

If you get Skype, it’ll be even cheaper.

“The Americans have gone to the moon. And the Russians. The Chinese and Indians will go there soon. Africans are the only ones who are stuck here,” Museveni said.

Well, yes. The Africans, certainly. And the Peruvians. Don’t forget them. And the Spanish. And the Saudi Arabians. But Saudi Arabia is a great place and they probably don’t want to leave anyway. And the Welsh. And the Swiss. Nice mountains; great cows. And the Malaysians – most of them have never even been outside Malaysia, let alone to the moon. And the… [continues ad nauseum]

SAMA winners

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This weekend gave us the 2009 South African Music Awards and I’m happy to report that several of the bands supported on this blog came through as winners:

But if Saturday night reminded us just how good SA music can be, we were brought right back down to earth by the final of SA Idols on Sunday. If you want to know just how good the standard of SA Idols is, then don’t ask me. I was just unfortunate enough to catch the last ten minutes in a poorly organised glance at what was on Carte Blanche at 7. I have now been put right off Mnet for life.

(For those of you interested, a duet by Sasha and Lee beat Jason into 3rd place, apparently.)

Added Ads

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I was gently going about my business yesterday afternoon, only mildly depressed by the scorelines of earlier football matches, when someone (I’m not sure who it was) tweeted about earning money from their blog and how they weren’t, but they felt that they should be. It got me thinking.

6000 miles…has always been about the content. And while you might not agree that it’s very good content, my ever-swelling numbers of visitors and feedburner stats would say differently. So – primarily as an experiment – I have added some Google ads to the site. You may have noticed that subtle massive bar thing across the the top of this (and every other) post. If I make this post long enough, you’ll see the one in the sidebar as well.
And while I’m bound by the somewhat Draconian Google AdSense Terms and Conditions from enticing readers to click on them, that’s obviously what they are there for. Many of my regular readers will be wondering where the excessive profanity, hacking/cracking, gambling, casino-related, illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content and the sales of beer, hard alcohol, prescription drugs, weapons and ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns) stuff has gone.
Well, I’m not allowed to do that sort of thing any more either.

Yes, the ads are a little ugly and yes, maybe I’m ‘selling out’ a bit by installing them, but since this blog already conformed to virtually every standard that Google wanted to impose on it anyway, together with the fact that I work damn hard at maintaining the site (you’ve had a post every day for February, March and April), I feel that if I can get some monetary reward from it – well great. 

I’ll also be putting ads onto my RSS feed at some point. Possibly.

Meanwhile, if any company wants to buy ad space on the blog, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I have a big local readership and would offer very reasonable rates to local (Cape Town or SA) companies: I might not be South African, but I do still subscribe to the Proudly South African approach to business. Except that I actually do things when I say I will.

Of course, as a scientist, I recognise that experiments can go horribly wrong. Only last week, I managed to infect over half the population of [suburb] with XDR-TB after an unfortunate incident involving them and some XDR-TB. Hopefully, by the time they track the source, I’ll have made enough cash from Google to escape to [nice place]. 
But if this doesn’t work out, for whatever reason, it – like me – will disappear pretty quickly. Lingerie, pictures, swimsuit, photos, amateurs, underwear, lacy underwear, bra, suspender belt, stockings, sexy ladies.

You fill up my senses…

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Today’s the day.

At 1315 BST, Sheffield United will kick off their game at Crystal Palace and about several miles away, Reading will kick off against Birmingham City. Between them, the results of these two games will determine who will be promoted into the Premiership.
This might not have a huge impact on your day, but it is already having a huge effect on mine. I can’t eat anything (apart from bagels for breakfast and a satsuma), I can’t drink anything (although, if I’m fair, I have managed a couple of cups of coffee) and I can’t sleep. But that’s because I have a teething daughter.

A touch of spice is added by the fact that the manager of Crystal Palace is a lifelong Sheffield United fan and therefore wants Palace to win (as it’s his job) and United to win (because of his emotional ties).
And before anyone says – “Well, how about a draw, then?”, that won’t be good enough for United. 

So – all to play for and it is thus, I sing the Oath of Allegiance:

You fill up my senses…
Like a gallon of Magnet.
Like a packet of Woodbines.
Like a good pinch of snuff.
Like a night out in Sheffield.
Like a greasy chip butty.
Like Sheffield United.
Come fill me again.

And now I must go, because my daughter is hitting herself repeatedly over the head with an orange  plastic cricket bat. That’s the influence of the IPL.