There are 119 readable entries.
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And 116 are archived entries.
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And 336 comments in total
The total amount of Karma votes on this site is 108
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Mark has made 118 entries
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Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Tis that time of year when we say goodbye (and for some good riddance) to 2003 and welcome in 2004 with the traditional party's and orgy's.
As a fitting ending to 2003 i have some good news and some bad news...the first being that we (we being the motorist) have a new ally in the form of the Tory government, seems they are finally taking note of the poor persecuted motorist and the growing discontent of the nation and have promised that SHOULD they get in to power they will do away with automatic points for speed camera related offenses unless they are completely justified (i.e doing 50 along a road outside a school) and that all speed camera's will have to have a justifiable reason for being where they are..or where they intend to be.
They also plan to do away with the problematic speed humps..or traffic calming measures as the police like to call them as they apparently cause more deaths than they intend to try and save, my view however is that this would very much be a welcome change as the little bastard humps don't half knacker your suspension after a while...so lets all have a change of pace this forthcoming election and vote the bloated, lying, top heavy Labour government out and see what the Tory's can do..unless your quite looking forward to having your life run by the equally bloated, lying, top heavy and tremendously corrupt European Union.
The bad news is that..and to be honest i was waiting for it to happen...the car has had it's first bit of damage.(When i say first i mean to the body, not including the damage to the tyre last month)
Now i'm not going to sit here and type endless amounts of blame directed at the wife as that is unfair and likely to result in my bollocks residing elsewhere other than between my legs. It was caused by a momentarily lapse in concentration..as they always are..and resulted in a 2in long scratch and scuffs to the drivers side door and has left the door with a very slight crease.
It is possible to get rid of 90% of the visible damage and the scratch could probably be reduced to a deep scuff so all is not lost.
Not the best way to end 2003 so i hope that's the last of the nasty stuff and we all have a pleasant 2004.
To you all i say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Posted by Mark @ 07:34 PM GMT
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Just wanted to be the first to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, in about an hour i will be picking up Felicity from work and heading on south for our 200 mile visit to see my parents for Christmas and then we will be heading back on Boxing Day.
Sorry to my friends if we don't get to see you while we are down but you will more than likely receive a text/phone call to wish you all the best on the day and we will see you soon so From Me, Felicity and Bump we wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Posted by Mark @ 12:16 AM GMT
Monday, December 22, 2003
We went to see the midwife today and she did a quick examination of Fliss's stomach and confirmed that she is probably around 15 weeks pregnant, then she got the ultrasound and homed in on the baby's heart beat and we heard a lovely, healthy, quick moving baby.
It's then that the reality hits you...when you get to actually hear the little thing's heart beating away at ten to the dozen....just one question though, do all unborn baby heartbeats sound like KnightRiders KIT on steroids?
Posted by Mark @ 11:37 AM GMT
Sunday, December 21, 2003
It is my sad duty to report that i have lost 2 of my Clown Loaches.
How i am not entirely sure but i'm pretty sure it was some kind of asphyxiation.
The day previous to their deaths i had topped up the water in the tank and replaced the mixture in my co2 canisters, i also placed in the tank a bag containing moss peat in the hope that this would eventually push the Ph down naturally and create a more black-water environment for the fish.
The next day i came down stairs to find all the fish gasping at the surface, as all good fish keepers would do in my situation i panicked and ran around flapping my arms before calming a little and deciding what to do, most of the fish recovered within an hour of the lights coming on except for 2 of the Clown Loaches, which were in a very bad way.
I did a Ph check to make sure that had not crashed and sent the fish into Ph shock but that was fine (fine meaning it had not changed since the last test) so i blamed the co2 units for causing a crash in the oxygen content of the tank overnight (and for those wondering how, it's all to do with photosynthesis...quick synopsis....during daylight hours fish need oxygen and plants need co2, during nighttime hours fish need oxygen and plants need oxygen...so....during the day the co2 system feeds the plants with co2 and the plants in turn as a by-product produce oxygen but during the night time the co2 system still produces co2 but the plants only absorb oxygen and as a by-product produce co2...get the idea....co2 overload at night, causing a crash in oxygen content thus causing fish to gasp and become stressed..and as a side point, my co2 output cannot be controlled as it's not co2 gas on a regulator but rather a natural, fermenting compound that produces co2 as it breaks down.)phew!!!
Anyway, i went out and got a pump and an air stone plus a timer so that now, when the lights go out, the air pump kicks in and creates the necessary oxygen for all and then an hour before the lights are due to come back on the pump switches off so that the co2 can build up again to feed the plants for the day.
After all that though i have still not ruled out the peat being a part of the cause as when i took a look at the tank water it seems to have a lot of tiny particles that could be peat fibers..and they could of been a contributing factor to the asphyxiation so if i intend to use the peat again it's going to have to go into a power filter with plenty of filter wool either side to 'polish' the water before it's returned to the tank.
I almost forgot how much fun fish keeping was!!! 
Posted by Mark @ 08:19 PM GMT
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Yes i know i'm a bit late with the whole 'we got Saddam' thing but this post is really more to do with the fact that there's been talk of giving him the death sentence for his crimes...now normally i would agree but not this time.
The problem is that this whole trial could become a staging area for Saddam and give him much needed coverage for his fanatical supporters to cling to and fight for and secondly and i believe more importantly, he will become a Myrta to those fanatical supporters and again give them a reason to fight for..i say let the little bastard rot i jail for the rest of his miserable life in a cell with only the most basic of facilities to keep him going, stripped of his wealth, stripped of his self importance, stripped of his dignity and stripped of his ability to become a symbol to those who would plot more atrocity's against us...so who's next?, anyone seen Bin Laden?
Also i just found out that that child killer Ian Huntly got 2 life sentences for the girls murders and i say thats great...but if there was ever a reason to hang someone, this was one of them!!
Posted by Mark @ 09:24 PM GMT
Friday, December 12, 2003
It is indeed true, The nurse confirmed today that Fliss is pregnant..it is possible that she could be up to 3 months gone, although that is not set in stone yet.
We are both still in shock i think but we are very happy and i feel it was about time 
..now all we need is some names, so if you have some suggestions (and please keep them clean ect..), as we don't know whether it's male or female at this point feel free to put both male and female names up.
Posted by Mark @ 07:29 PM GMT
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Arse!! there's nothing worse than needing money for general living expenses and then finding yourself being sent home early because your job is dependent on seasonal trade and it's really quite, time for me to actively search for a new job i think...i did however find it rather amusing while i was at work to see that one of our food suppliers had sent us a seafood catalog with rather exotic fish on the menu.
As you all know..or should know, The Sealife Centers are very much focused on wildlife conservation, including the protection of Sharks and Whales and Dolphins ect so how amusing is it to get a catalog with things like Shark Steak's, Strawberry Grouper, Marlin loins steaks, Swordfish ect...you would think that the guy who sends these catalog's out would stop for a minute and think 'Are they really going to be interested?'.
I for one am not a big on eating fish so as opposed to being insulted, which i'm not, i just think it's a bit pointless.
I'm still amazed at the amount of people that come into the center, enjoy looking at the fish, sign the conservation forms and then walk round to the restaurant and order 3 fish and chips, 2 scampi and chips and a fishwich burger..did they not get the point..and more to the point, why the hell do we actually sell it? 
Posted by Mark @ 07:27 PM GMT
Monday, December 1, 2003
Well, i have decided to carry on with my intermittent journal but it's a shame i lost everything that was posted previous to the Harry Houdini disappearing act of the rest of my journal.
Finally got round to watching Matrix 3 the other day...damn fine movie, much better than the second and i really enjoyed it...actually had me on the edge of my seat at points, but i went to see it on my own so i could be a geek and not feel embarrassed about it 
although it was 'supposed' to be the very last instalment, they so left it open for a fourth (little chinky girl asks the Oracle if she will see Neo again, Oracle tells her she will...or that's what i read it to mean).
I also saw Terminator 3 as well last night, getting a bit long in the tooth is Arnie...and the Terminator franchise but hay, entertaining at least...but again i feel was left open for a fourth, although the fourth would be more based on the battle between humans and machines and with the right director could be made the best out of the last two (not as good as the first, the first is still the best.) 
Posted by Mark @ 10:05 PM GMT
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