ArabiaTerra

Most of my spare time recently has been devoted to Oblivion, and surfing Shetlink of course.

Pineapple goes surprisingly well with pepperoni, the king of pizza toppings.

The only specifically Shetland traditions I am aware of regarding weddings is the procession (on foot) from the church to the hall, led by a fiddler and a man firing a shotgun into the air to frighten away the evil spirits. Sounds right up your street DS.

Back to the Soothmoothers buying up all the houses, how about my parents who live in Lerwick but are looking to buy a small house/chalet in Unst for summertime since the last winter finally killed their caravan (and all the other retired, mortgage paid couples doing the same in rural shetland). Are they equally responsible for the housing shortage? I personally blame the government (who else?) for failing to build enough council housing in the first place.

Most of the adverts which boil my piss are for things which I would not buy in a million years such as female sanitory products/face care products/hair care products etc (I'm male in case you hadn't realized). But when it is something that I might be interested in I do try to make a point of not buying the thing in the hope this might make them stop. It hasn't made any difference tho'.

WARNING!! The Dragon quiz above punts you to some sprootle spyware scanner page after the quiz. Use at your own risk.

Andi 'f*cking talentless' Mcdowell!!..Grrrrr!

Worst gig I ever saw was The Moody Blues at the playhouse in Edinburgh in the late 80's. I was 18ish and the rest of the crowd were that age in the 60's. Noone stood up till the encore. The music was good, just a turd atmosphere.

My Kingdom for a horsey...? One in the eye for you, saxon scum...? Once more onto the beach...? Off with her head...? Mad you say. MAD...? I'll get you, you Scots bar steward...? Off with his head...?

Kitten Kannon 2179ft. I Rock!

I couldn't find an e-mail address on the Youngs website but they did have an 'Ask the chef' box where you could talk to them so I told them what I thought of this insanity and that I would no longer be buying any of their products (not that I did anyway). I would like to encourage everyone else to do the same. If we don't let them know what we think of this stupidity then it will only spread and the next closure might be LFT or the Catch.

Google knows where, as to why, I was signing up for something a few years back and needed a pseudoname and I happened to have a map pinned to the wall beside the computer. ArabiaTerra was the first name on the map I liked and I've used it ever since, so nothing very profound really. PS. DarkStar, wasn't that the name of a Spectrum game in the eighties? DesignDesign software, I believe. (and what's this with all the DoubleCapitals?)

Google knows...

A story I heard once: A local DIY shop was doing a big promotion so they booked the Dulux dog as part of the publicity. The dog was duly despatched with handler but when they turned up at the boat, the handler was told 'All livestock must travel on deck' (this was many years ago, so probably the Clair or Sunniva). The (rather elderly) dog was placed on deck, in a cage and the handler retired to the bar. It was a hell of a night and when the boat docked the handler was horrified to discover the pooch dead in his cage. I'm not sure of the providence of this tale (one I heard in the pub) so it would be appreciated if anyone who does know could confirm/deny it. PS this is my 50th post, do I get a sweetie?

One down, two to go. Rumsfeld is toast! Democrats capture the House and Senate. I just hope they have the balls to launch a full and comprehensive investigation into the odious little turd.

I went to the Post Office to pay mine earlier this year only to be told I could no longer pay there. I e-mailed them to demand to know why? I have just received the following reply : So there you go. Blame the market.

I had a Pizza from the new Kebab place yesterday. Excellent, and very reasonably priced too, unlike the outrageous rip-off that is Osla's. Half the price for twice the pizza.

I have just finished reading a book called 'The Great War for Civilisation' by Robert Fisk. The author has been Middle East correspondent for the Times and then the Independant since the late seventies and the book covers all the conficts from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to the present and includes his three interviews with bin Laden in it's 1300 pages. It is a harrowing read as it reveals the true extent of the lies and hypocrisy of the West in relation to this subject. It almost makes me ashamed to be British. To contradict what I said in a previous post somewhere on these forums: We have never been the 'Good Guys' in the Middle East and the sooner we get our troops out and stop messing with the lives of these people the better. This is a challenging book, partly due to it's sheer size, but mainly due to the traumatic nature of the contents. Required reading if you are interested in the truth. While I will never condone suicide bombing in any way, I now believe I understand a little of the desperation which drives people to commit these crimes. As an example of the western media's hypocricy in this matter, I have yet to hear any of the news channels call the killing of these women 'murder' or 'terrorism' which it most assuredly is. Had it been Palestinians who had killed Israeli women those would have been the first words used. Remember the very Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip is illegal according to UN resolution 242.

...shall be the whole of the law. Aleister Crowley wasn't it?

Is anyone getting speeds of more than 2.2Mb/sec? I am with TalkTalk who charge £10 /month for broadband (the free offer is not available up here yet) if you also sign up for their phone service as well. They claim their service is 8Mb but I have never seen more than the 2.2 I got with BT. When I queried this they said I was getting the max that my exchange could currently deliver and that I would automatically be upgraded when a faster service became available. I can't reccommend them as yet as their customer service is crap (typical Indian call centre or 10p/min helpline) and I have heard terrible stories of delays in getting connected due to the massive over-subscription to their free offer. I missed that as I signed up before the offer was announced so got priority as an existing customer.

In-pat? Ex-comer?

That is sooo theraputic. Now, whats the name of my bank manager again?

Cool! And one in the eye for the creationists!

Splendid. That'll do for my Birthday!

touche I must apologise. I was a little bit pissed when I wrote the previous post and I went a bit overboard, but I do find that kind of language annoying. Anyway, I have to say that I fully support your windfarm proposals regardless of the type of transmission proposed. In fact it would still have my support even if you intended to use pylons the same size as the windmills themselves. (Though I am glad to hear you rule them out) The only problem I have with the scheme is the same problem I have with the whole world's response to the crisis of global warming, namely that it is far too little, far too late. You are proposing 300 turbines. Why not 3000? Surely we have room for them? Global warming is happening now and it will be bigger and happen faster than even the worst of the current forecasts. Every time the predictions are revised, every new bit of data points towards this trend. Did anyone else see that report on News 24 about the melting of the Siberian permafrost? Terrifying stuff. I really do fear that, in Shetland, we are already f****d, that by 2020 we can kiss goodbye to the Gulf Stream and our nice temperate climate and say hello to the next ice age. Hopefully I am dead wrong on this, but I fear the worst.