Philo_Vance

Cheers!! Never done nights before so will be an experience. Starting tonight at ten but annoyingly have to go and meet the boss at 6 to get some paperwork sorted so my plan of sloping off to bed about now for 3 or four hours is screwed. Tonight's in Canterbury, actually within walking distance from my house but I could be all over the south east in the future depending where the work is.

Not been in this thread before, hello.

As those of you who've followed my story (presumably none of you) know, I did nine years or so working my way through the ranks at Holland and Barrett, and ended up managing the one of the biggest stores in the south east. Was treated badly by the company in a variety of ways and eventually snapped and walked out about 3 years ago. I've spent the last 3 years trading in books and vinyl and sort of scraping by. To begin with I had plenty of savings- I'd been planning to buy a place with the girl I was seeing, and we broke up around the same time I jacked in the job. So I sort of half arsed it for a long time, making some money through books and records and topping it up with savings. Fast forward three years and the savings are gone and I'm not making enough through the online sales to get by. I've become a bit of a burden on my poor old parents who've had to lend me money, and to be honest I've totally lost motivation lately so I've not been working as hard to find stock to sell as I should have been. Really reached a crisis point to the extent that it's affected my relationship with my girlfriend and things have been pretty shit the last few months, entirely down to me.

So, decided to sort myself the fuck out and apply for some jobs. Chucked out some CVs yesterday, and to my utter surprise got a call this afternoon asking me to start tonight. Basically a roving shopfitter/merchandising job all over the south east, working nights. It's going to absolutely suck, but at least I'll be ok financially and feeling like I'm on me own two feet again. Got a call later on telling me I can't actually start till later in the week for various paperwork reasons, which was a relief since I didn't go to bed last night and I was on pint five when I took the call this afternoon. A 12 hour shift tonight would have done me in.

Other bonuses, it's going to be a pretty physical job so I should shed some of the 3 stone I've put on in the last three years. Plus it's one of those jobs where I can pick and choose when I want to work, by the sound of it, so I should be able to keep the books and records on the go as well.

Feeling fairly positive.

White pudding is also amazing. Don't see it round here a lot, sadly.

Weird beard are good. Very much in that current trendy category of unusual, really strong beers that you'll only want one of, rather than everyday drinkers, but some quality stuff.

Amazon is useful for second hand stuff. Shenmue 2 showing up starting at

There was no sign of it on eBay for less than

Yeah, I second that. If you're going for a cheap old console that just bombards you with classic first party titles, Gamecube is the one. Even off the top of my head it has -

 

Pikmin 1, 2

Zelda Wind Waker

Zelda Twilight Princess

Mario Kart Double Dash

Smash Bros Melee

Paper Mario 1000 Year Door

F-Zero GX

Luigi's Mansion

Mario Sunshine

Tales of Symphonia

Animal Crossing

Mario Party 4, 5, 6

Metroid Prime 1, 2

 

 

Then if you're after updated/3rd party stuff, it has the exclusive remake of Resident Evil 1, which is by far the best version of that game. It also had 2, 3, 0 and (I think) Code Veronica

Soul Calibur 2, Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes (again, the best version of MGS 1 and 2), Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic Mega Collection, and Resident Evil 4.

 

Fuck, when you list them off like that it was just an amazing little console wasn't it?

And Beyond Good and Evil. Absolutely cracking game, although it's a bark to get hold of these days.

I can never pick between SNES, N64 and GC for my favourite console, there's just so many great games for all of them, and so many personal memories. I can't imagine not having all three set up.

If you dont listen to this, you're a gaylord.

 

Alan Tam - Midnight Rider

 

If you do listen to this, and you like it, you're probably a gaylord.

 

I'll leave it to you to decide which camp i fall into.

Holy living fuck, that's the best thing I've ever heard. That's going in my car.

Edit. Actually forgot that I came in to post this:

Been to the Black Heart, don't remember if I tried any Kernel stuff there. Do they make Meantime or Camden Hells?

Nope. Kernel stuff is all plain brown paper looking labels, very lo-fi. Meantime is made by the Meantime brewery, getting really popular around London. Camden Helles is by the camden town brewery. Both pretty good, although I've gone off Meantime a little bit just through having had it loads. It seems to be the beer of choice at some of the big arts venues these days. Definitely keep your eyes peeled for Kernel beers though, you really won't be disappointed.

Has anyone tried any of the ales from the London based "Kernel Brewery"

 

Interested stuff from the guys there, as they started off on a small scale, but it's gaining some popularity.

 

Anyhoo, getting to my point.. I'm having a London Sour from them, it's less than 3% but has a unreal smell of a wine.

 

Completely different to anything I've ever had before. Would just be intriuged to know if anyone has any dealings or experiences with the Kernel.

Best brewery in the country, in my opinion. My local bottle shop has had virtually all of their stuff in and I've tried the lot, there's nothing they make that I'd give less than a solid 8/10. Some of their IPAs especially are absolutely incredible. If you're ever in north London, there's one or two places that have their stuff on draught, including the Black Heart in Camden. Cracking boozer.

I saw him in London about 3 months back as he was testing out the material for the new series. Looking forward t seeing how it's evolved by the time it airs.

Festival-wise, I'm off to Groezrock this year. The lineup's wicked. Iron Chic, Screeching Weasel, Madball, Snuff, Cro Mags. Plus from a mate who's been a couple times, the atmosphere's pretty good there. And it's dirt cheap compared to any of the UK festivals.

In other news, has anyone heard Menshevik yet? Members of Capdown and Vanilla Pod doing shouty 80s style hardcore. Very cool. I'm putting them on in Canterbury in 3 weeks, but given the attention they're getting it may be the last time I'll be able to do it in a wee pub.

Edit: Link

WCW/NWO Revenge is pretty great, still gets played a lot here.

Brewdog stuff's overrated imo. The branding is better than the beer. Good shout on the Mikeller though, everything they do is great. I'm also loving most of the Weird Beard stuff at the moment.

I've always liked you, Frankie.

Yeah, it's a bit awkward really. I reckon I could get away with the beard if I didn't have the white hair. But I'm certainly not going to dye my hair and I've never really grown a beard before and was quite keen on the idea. Doesn't seem fair to shave it off just because of a passing resemblance to a celebrity nonce case.

I fucking knew someone would say that.

Edit: Although someone else has said I look like Garry Bushell in it, which, quite frankly, is worse.

I've joined the realm of the bearded. I'm the one on the right. Obviously.

I've been out on the Thornbridge Jaipur tonight. Possibly my favourite beer. It's bloody lovely, and takes my legs clean out from under me every time. Which, despite all the fannying about chatting about the finer points of ale, is the actual point of drinking, isn't it?

That is odd. I suppose it draws attention to the case in an attempt to force further action. I wonder what (if any) compensation actually did make it to the family. Not that it makes a difference to what they'd endured, but it would seem odd to 'symbolically' award them such a huge amount and for them to get sod all.

Eh? It says the family were awarded $150 billion.

That can't be true. Millions, maybe, but $150 billion is impossible. The richest man in the world, Carlos Slim Belu is only believed to have around

Off to see Stewart Lee tomorrow, the matinee show. Missed him last time round, not seen him since the complete vegetable stew at the Royal Festival Hall. Should be good, he's never disappointed me yet.

I'm glad someone else is getting wound up by those.

I'm finding lately that the people annoying me most on facebook are people that I get on really well with in real life and don't want to delete, but whose online personae are totally different- and immeasurably shitter- than their real personalities. They'e also generally the sensitive types who'd get really offended if I were to delete them or call them on the bullshit stuff they're reposting. I've just hidden virtually everyone from my news feed.

Just had this doozy pop up:

"iv sead befor il say it agan things that go bump in the night im the one that dumps back".

I don't know what's worse- the spelling, the lack of punctuation, the hilarious typo that removes what little meaning the statement may or may not have had, or the fact that anyone that says 'I've said it before and I'll say it again' followed by some homily or platitude actually means 'I've just heard this phrase for the first time, so I'm going to use it over and over in the wrong context to try and make myself look clever'. It didn't work mate.

There's a girl on mine whose friend request I accepted purely out of politeness as she hangs out with some actual, proper friends of mine. Little teenage gutterpunk girl, throwing herself wholeheartedly into the sex, drugs and rock n roll thing. The other day she posted a distraught status about how hard it is only seeing her child once a month and being thought of as unable to care for it. Every day, she said, is a constant struggle, and she misses her baby more than anyone can possibly imagine.

All very upsetting, were it not for the fact that this status was immediately followed by an album of photos of her getting drunk and taking drugs with a bunch of scummy fuckers, then another status about how great it was being out of work and being able to drink all day, starting as soon as she wakes up. Great way to convince social services of your parenting skills there, love.

Also, the sad status about her kid was written entirely without punctuation in textspeak. Not a real reason to hate someone, but it winds me up no end. Textspeak developed because characters were at a premium when texts were expensive and it made it easier to type on a phone keypad. There's absolutely no excuse for it when you're sitting in front of a full qwerty keyboard.