Crazy Purple Rubber Squeaky Octopus

Spreading my tentacles everywhere, because everything's interesting, for a while.
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Friday, May 31, 2002

Hmm. I've seen the response to my recent actions, and I could respond, but I'm not going to. It'd be far too easy to get into an inter blog slanging match. You probably won't ever hear the whole truth either here or there, unless I'm provoked by comments here. I know he's not a bad person, or ever intended to annoy me, and though I may personally have been infuriated, it's not my intention to turn people against him. I see no reason to go into the details, I just felt the need to do what I did, and I stand by that decision. As people often say, and rightly so... "It's my blog, and I'll do whatever I like with it." Why did I make it public at all? I have my reasons. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it.
:: Steve Benway 3:53 AM [+] ::
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Thursday, May 30, 2002

so I headed separately early today to close the job centre and was absolutely shattered because the inside the all-night running this thing . Then it turns out the woman that I say each week is moving to another position within the centre, it is a shame could have found of all the people who have had to see their shoes and most pleasant. so anyway I have an interview tomorrow is a fleet patrol car rental company. Additional Hathaway received tomorrow until remaining back.
When I left the job centre I wandered round town of looking for reasonably priced printer scanner and word processor printers and scanners it turns out a quite cheap and that word processors and as stupidly expensive 400 and something panels for Microsoft Office when all I want is word. The crazy


So now you're sitting there thinking wtf is he talking about...hehehe. Well, the above piece was written entirely using a speech recognition program that hasn't been trained to know my voice and accent yet. Makes you think though... it can be easy enough to learn a foreign language when all you have to do is read it, but hearing it spoken is entirely different. I have a couple of friends in the chatroom who understand me well enough in the chatroom, but on the occasions we've done voice chat, they've not understood my accent at all (check out the link on the left "Benway Speaks") They probably have much the same experience as this software, understanding a fair bit, but a lot sounding like complete rubbish and making no sense at all.
Here's the big test for it though... to see if it can recognise a certain three words I pronounce a certain way that always make the americans I've spoken to smile or outright laugh...
little metal tackle
Hehehe....two out of three ain't bad.
:: Steve Benway 11:24 PM [+] ::
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002

So here I sit, typing todays post on my funky little laptop. I just spent 2 hours downloading and installing the windows updates from the microsoft website, so along with the firewall I run, security should be pretty tight now. Pity dialup's so bloody slow though.
I'm gradually changing my view of Windows XP, to a degree at least. 128 meg minimum is still way beyond a joke, but I found after doing away with the stupid default configuration, and running pretty much everything in classic mode, it's actually very pleasant to use. I can't believe the default setup though, it's utterly ludicrous... hides everything, so you have to go hunting for it. I also don't care for the single window method of using widows. When I open a folder, I expect it to have it's own window, so I can drag and drop stuff. That probably comes from all those years using Workbench on the Amiga, but it's how I like to work, and it's now how this thing functions.
A useful piece of info for people who don't have central heating. If you find yourself getting cold in winter, sit an Athalon 4 equipped laptop on your lap. It gets VERY warm. Nice though... I'll probably never have to turn the thermostat up again.
:: Steve Benway 11:55 PM [+] ::
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Tuesday, May 28, 2002

I went shopping today, and look what I came home with.



It's a Sharp PC-GP10-CM.
AMD Athalon 4 1.1GHz, 256 Meg Ram, 20GB HD, CD-R/RW + DVD, blah blah blah. Sufice to say, it'll do everything I need it to do, and I won't be stuck in this uncomfortable chair while I'm doing it.
Now if I can just get my head around Windows XP. It's completey freaky after Windows 98, and I can't honestly say I like it. It seems to take a lot of control away from the user. Still... most likely it's not so bad, I just haven't figured it out yet.
For now though, I need to sleep. Haven't been to bed yet, and I'm far too tired to be messing with something I could easily screw up.

:: Steve Benway 1:51 PM [+] ::
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Monday, May 27, 2002

Okay, I`ve hit my limit. You're going to see how extreme I can be when my patience with someone runs out, so to that person, I say this.


There's only so much presumptuous behaviour, misguided assumption, spamming of guestbooks/maps, name dropping and pissing up lamposts I can stand. I'm sick and tired of the off topic rambling inapropriate fucking war and peace length monologues in the chatroom that no-one gives a shit about and that bore everyone senseless. Kudos by association is no kudos at all, you have to contribute, or it just doesn`t count. Stop living vicariously through the lives of those around you, get your own damned content, and stop assuming that others will be happy to do your work for you.
I`m turning my back on this particular character, because they`ve annoyed me once too often, though knowing this person, I doubt they'll ever understand why. I'm past caring. All links to them are removed, and if they would remove links to my stuff, that would be preferable.


I'm not naming this person, to save their dignity, but if they decide to leave remarks in the tagboard, you'll know who it is.
:: Steve Benway 6:18 AM [+] ::
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Sunday, May 26, 2002

Go David Coulthard. It's so good to see someone besides Schumacher winning a grand prix, and at Monaco too, my fave race.
This'll make my sister and her fiance very happy too. He works for Ilmore, the people who make the engines for the McLaren team, and they've been having a pretty rough time, 'cuase everyone blames the engine for the team's poor performance this year, when the truth is, it's simply a crap car. Everyone on the team knows this, but they're not going to admit it, when they can blame the engine makers who aren't a part of McLaren.
In other news.... er... oh, there is no other news. I got up, watched the race, and then went back to bed, so writing this is my first task of the day.
Ah, here's some news... kind of. I have somewhat mixed feeling regarding two of the people in my local shop. I like these two a lot, very friendly, and always happy to chat given the oportunity. They've both found new and better paid jobs, so I'm happy for them, 'cause the staff in that place do get treated very badly by the management. In a purely selfish way though, I'm a little sad too. I'll miss them, 'cuase they always brighten up the otherwise dull experience of grocery shopping.
:: Steve Benway 9:02 PM [+] ::
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Saturday, May 25, 2002

The guy in the flat below me certainly isn't too smart. He's had his music up loud for the past hour... loud enough to drown out my tv. Why does this make him a dumb asshole, apart from being annoying? Simple, if he wants to play 'annoy the neighbour', he stands no chance against me. My stereo sits in this big wooden unit that gives it a super mega sub-bass kick... it rattles the whole flat. Oh and the Roland MC303 that can produce the deepest bass noises imaginable. That's not the most important thing though... and I don't know why he didn't think about this... I live ABOVE him. Like... duh!
:: Steve Benway 8:40 PM [+] ::
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Friday, May 24, 2002

Check out the new guestmap over on the left. It's like a guestbook, but shows your location on a world map. Nice one Jack, I just had to copy you.
:: Steve Benway 10:51 PM [+] ::
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More stuff down the side there.
Maybe I'm getting a bit carried away with the layers and iframes, but using them makes it so much easier to add little bits that I want to be permenantly viewable, while being able to update them easily and not have to go to the template to do it. It also uses up less space, and keeps the actual size of the template itself down. Totally screws things up for anyone using Netscape 4x though, but too bad. The nicest thing about using iframes like that is you can cram massive ammounts of info onto one page, without the reader having to click links and go to other pages, or get annoyed by popups.
Oh, just in case no-one's noticed, I do actually update the blurb bit, but all the new stuff's at the bottom. Nothing earth shattering, just a few random factiods.
:: Steve Benway 6:48 PM [+] ::
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Thursday, May 23, 2002

I just read in a magazine that AOL are switching from Overture as their default search tool to Google. I'm a little puzzled by this, as having just gone to the aol homepage and run a search, the results appeared to come from Inktomi, so perhaps it's the default search tool for people running the aol software. Anyone know if that's the case?
Anyway, if it's true, this has to be very good news for a LOT of people, 'cause we all know how google loves blogs, and a lot of people use aol. It'll be very cool for me personally, 'cause several of my webpages rank very highly on google, like this one. That's my page, right at the top, and it's doing rather nicely :-)
:: Steve Benway 6:27 PM [+] ::
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Screwups aside, last night was really rather educational. I've been rather lazy in my attitude towards web design of late, just sticking with what I know, and not expanding that knowledge. However, in my efforts to fix the things I'd messed up, I learned a few new thing, stuff that gets talked about a lot, but that I've not bothered to learn anything about, ie layers, iframes, and a couple of style sheet features... oh, and how to mess up forms button colours. Thing is, I can't say I've ever really needed to know any of these features, and functionality wise, still don't... but they can make things pretty.

Gotta love those purple scrollbars :)
:: Steve Benway 4:56 PM [+] ::
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*Sigh*
So much for the funky new menu system. Something wasn't right. I'm not sure if it simply didn't like loading new pages into itself, or if the script was clashing with other scripts on the page. Either way, it kept locking up, refusing to slide back in, and so obscuring the chat window.
One swift redesign, and the chatroom's functioning again. Not as fancy as before, but I've still managed to use one design for various screen resolutions, allowing everyone to watch more than one cam at once, and not just people using hi-res.
Also on the plus side, it now has purple scrollbars. I know how much you liked that idea Kylie, so I couldn't resist :P
:: Steve Benway 3:59 AM [+] ::
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Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Phew! That took some serious doing.
Completed a major overhaul of the webcam chatroom. Both hi and low res users now utilise the same system, and the main menu has been moved from the right to a hidden, sliding frame on the left. Users now have to hold their mouse over the scrollbar on the far left and the menu will slide into view.
This is bound to confuse a lot of people, but the space it saves on the screen is impressive, and means I no longer have to update two separate menus each time someone adds a webcam.
Sadly, this system doesn't work with Netscape 4x, though it may work with Netscape 6. However, since very few people use Netscape these days, it's a small price to pay. At a later date, I'll include a version of the room for Netscape users, though this won't be nearly as technically impressive.
Finally, I'd like to say a big thank you to Jodene, who pointed me to the site containing the DHTML scripts used, without which, I wouldn't have been able to do this.
:: Steve Benway 7:56 PM [+] ::
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Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Okay, this may annoy some people, but I have to do it. I've been reading quite a few comments and opinions about Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. A lot of people are saying the acting sucks, and I have to agree, but the storyline is crap? Uh... have you people missed something here?
There's a huge but subtle subplot going on behind the scenes, and if you haven't spotted it, you haven't been paying close attention. To the casual observer, it seems that a lot of things happen for no apparent reason, both in episodes 1 and 2, but look a little closer and ask some questions. Why do the Trade Federation attack Naboo? Why do they then in episode 2 attempt to kill Amidala? Why in both cases are Jedi sent to intervene and discover that all is not as it initially seems? Look at the droid army conspiracy. It's been set up by the same person who has most to gain from subsequntly destroying it. There's a huge and subtle manipulation of the circumstances going on here. It's very clever, but you have to pay attention. I could go into more detail and spell it out, but for the sake of those who haven't seen it yet, I won't.
Suffice to say, this isn't the original Star Wars series, that much is clear, but contrary to what people seem to think, it's vastly more complex and subtle. Star Wars is no longer a fairytale set in space. It's grown up, and if you read between the lines, you'll see what's going on. The big difference is, it's not being handed to you on a plate.
** Sits back and waits for a hail of abuse from people saying "Are you calling us stupid?" **
:: Steve Benway 7:58 PM [+] ::
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Ok, I think I see what's happening here. As soon as I hit publish, the server re-activated my blog. I've just sat clicking the links to various other blogs, and all the ones on the blogspot server are showing as not found. I'd suggest to anyone having this problem that you post something to your blog, and it should start working again. I wonder if this is a deliberate tactic by blogger to weed out all the unused blogs that aren't being updated any more, or if it's just a technical glitch.
:: Steve Benway 6:50 PM [+] ::
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Oh hah! Blogger has a sense of humour. No sooner did I publish that last post than it started working again.
:: Steve Benway 6:42 PM [+] ::
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Damnit!!!
The blogspot server's been down for hours. I've been trying it every half an hour for the past 4 hours and still getting "page not found". Good job I don't really have anything interesting or important to tell you. If this keeps up though, I guess I'll just have to move this blog over to one of my website's servers. What a pain in the arse.
:: Steve Benway 6:39 PM [+] ::
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Monday, May 20, 2002

Dalnet seems to be playing silly buggers tonight. I can't get into the chatroom. Ho-hum. Guess I'll just keep trying.
In other news, I saw Star Wars episode 2 today. Apart from some slightly dodgy acting in a couple of places, it's quite awesome. Visually in fact, it's nothing short of breathtaking. Highly recommended.
:: Steve Benway 10:15 PM [+] ::
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Sunday, May 19, 2002

Gran Turismo 2 rocks.
Say what you like about a 33 year old male who can waste a whole day playing racing cars on a playstation, but I love this game. Since I don't drive, and am never likely to be able to afford a fancy car, even if I did, I like to live out my dreams from time to time, thrashing these four wheeled beasts around the track, and usually crashing them.
So anyway, I've had this game for ages... since the day it was released in fact, but I still keep finding new challenges. The thing is, there are literally hundreds of cars, all tuneable and tweakable, and every so often I come across a car that's simply a bitch to drive. There are several that've been sitting in my memory card for a couple of years now that I've never been able to drive in anger, simply because they drove like hairy old dogs. Well... today I sat down, loaded them up, and tinkered with the settings till I made the damned things go right. You probably couldn't give a monkeys about any of this, but I'm very pleased to say I now have a very drivable TVR Speed12 (scary car), Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and Monte Carlo Mini. If you've ever played the game, you'll know that out of the box, these cars are totally crap, so I'm rather chuffed.
:: Steve Benway 10:13 PM [+] ::
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Saturday, May 18, 2002

I've made some changes to the introduction page and main menu of the chatroom. The only effect this will have on regular chatters is that newcomers are less likely to ask the usual annoying question "How do I see the webcams?" Those that do, can now simply be directed to click the item at the top of the menu marked About The Webcams(in the yellow box), which explains it all fairly clearly, and should save us all having to type the same old answer.
Anyone asking the question, and refusing to read the info provided can basicly be told where to get off, especially since it was already explained in the introduction. Why should we waste our time when they can't be bothered to read the info?
:: Steve Benway 10:43 PM [+] ::
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Friday, May 17, 2002

Ok, I've finished reading my book, am back online, and back in chat.
My aoplogies to those who've missed me, but sometimes a person just needs to conecentrate on something else for a while, if only to keep everything else in perspective.
For the record, it was an excellent book, though I won't bore you with more details.
:: Steve Benway 10:29 PM [+] ::
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Thursday, May 16, 2002

Who'd have thought a book could keep me offline for a whole day? Well, it did. I'm reading Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, which is basicly a detailed hostory of the battle of Stalingrad in WWII. It makes for pretty fascinating reading. I find myself utterly amazed at the orders forced upon the soldiers, both by Stalin and Hitler, who in their mogalomania were completely detatched from reality. The Russian solders were especially afflicted with stupidity and idiocy among their generals, and the rule was you weren't allowed to do anything but kill germans ot die. Retreat, and be shot as a traitor. Get captured, and if you escaped, you were shot as a traitor. If the men with you deserted/surrendered while you stayed at your post, you were shot as a traitor for not shooting them. Lunacy.
Have you seen the film Enemy At The Gates? A friend of mine saw it, and didn't like it, saying it was silly, that the Russians were machine gunning their own troops, and it was too far fetched. Well, from what I've been reading, I'd say the film didn't go far enough. There were cases where maybe 300 troops were forced to attack the german lines with very little in the way of weapons, or in somce cases entirely unarmed, while behind them would be a line of NKVD in TANKS, who'd fire on their own men if they faltered. For the record, the main storyline of the film is most likely fictional. The Russian sniper really did exist, but the duel between him and the German sniper from the sniper school being sent to hunt him was a popular myth among the troops. The whole sniper movement among the Russians was very popular, every little detail being reported back to the Kremlin, and in none of these reports was there any mention of the German teacher from the sniper school. Pity really, as it makes a very good story.
:: Steve Benway 8:17 PM [+] ::
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Tuesday, May 14, 2002

It's a pretty widely known fact that I love Ferrari cars.
My love of them has nothing to do with their current success in Formula 1 racing, nor their long history of building sports and racing cars. Quite simply, it comes from watching Magnum PI on tv back in the 80s. Seeing him driving around in one of these...



a Ferrari 328. Okay, so his was a GTS, and this is a GTB, (he may even have been in a 308, they look the same), but whatever the case, I was in love, and still am.
You can take your Testarossas, F40s, F50s, 355s, 360, and 575s, and shove them. In my book, there's nothing quite as drool-worthy as a 328. This however, comes very close...



It's the new F60. *Drool*
If someone out there would like to buy me one, you'll make me very happy.



So anyway, being in something of a car frame of mind, I've been playing Gran Turismo 2, and after a LOT of tinkering, have finally made the `69 Corvette Stingray handle, well... kind of. Initially, it simply refused to do anything but go in a straight line, whereas now, it may well have masses of understeer on the entrance to a corner and oversteer on the exit, with a love of spinning out under power on hairpins, but it finally corners. Talk about a hairy ride, but I love it. All those great handling japanese cars just get too dull after a time, so using something that handles like a dog is much more entertaining. Oh yeah... it looks great too.
Pity there's no Ferraris to play with though.
:: Steve Benway 6:23 PM [+] ::
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Monday, May 13, 2002

So much for going to watch spiderman. It would seem I was misinformed with regard to the release date, by about a month. Oh well.
:: Steve Benway 9:02 PM [+] ::
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Speaking of crap, in a more literal sense, check out this story in Jodene's blog. And no, I'm not saying Jodene's blog is crap, before you start wondering... far from it. Go check it out, you'll see. I nearly laughed my head off.
:: Steve Benway 11:46 AM [+] ::
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Oh crap!!!
Seriously, don't ever let me write my blog and check emails while running a bath again. I just went out there, and there's two inches of water on the floor. I hope it doesn't come through the ceiling downstairs. Oops.
:: Steve Benway 10:44 AM [+] ::
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Tagboard and comments? Is that too much? Will people be confused and not know which to post in?
I dunno... some people may not be too sure, but it makes pretty good sense to me. I tend to look at the comments as for talking about the current topic, assuming it's not completely dull and is actually worth commenting on. The tagboard... I love that thing. It's kinda like a slow motion chatroom, no specific topic, and wide open to general insanity. This is just my view of course, everyone else might see it completely differently. Do what you like with it : )



So anyway, the flat's all cleaned up, the boilerman's just serviced my boiler, and the bath's running. Once I'm done in there, it's off into town to see Spiderman. Woohoo. I've only been waiting 10 years.
:: Steve Benway 10:28 AM [+] ::
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Sunday, May 12, 2002

Yeash. I must be ill or something. Just finished cleaning the kitchen and bathroom. This place is in serious danger of becoming presentable. Very tiring work though, as the state of the place was quite shocking. It's hard to break the habit of a lifetime... and I've always been something of a slob.. hehe.
:: Steve Benway 11:53 PM [+] ::
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Yeah, no post for saturday. What can I say.... I was asleep. Over the whole 24 hours, I was awake for about 4 hours. After going to bed and sleeping for about 10 hours, I woke up with a pounding headache, so went back to bed and slept it off. Before you say I had a headache for sleeping 10 hours, no... that's pretty normal for me. Anyway, having been oblivious to the world for a whole day, I have nothing interesting to tell you, except to mention the new tag board... but you've already noticed that. Feel free to say whatever you like in it... it's just there for a bit of fun.. So anyway, what's happening in the world?
:: Steve Benway 2:44 AM [+] ::
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Friday, May 10, 2002

Electricity is a wonderful thing when you have it, at a terrible thing to rely on completely when you don't. I'm getting ahead of myself though... let me start at the beginning.
I always enjoy riding on trains when the weather's nice, watching the english countryside go past the window, and generally relaxing, so the trip to visit my sister was a pleasant one from the start. We then spent the day chatting, tinkering with the computer, playing with Shannon (my 6 year old niece) and generally having a good day. As is the case when having fun, time flew, and it was while we were sitting and laughing at the Italian national anthem being played by Shonnon's Barbie computer that I realised it was quite late. Then I remembered I needed to get electricity cards for the meter, as I was running low... and didn't have the necesary card to buy them with me. It was a bit of a mad rush as my sister drove me to the train station, and by the time I saw what time the next train was, I realised I wasn't going to get home in time to buy cards from the local shop. Oh well, I figured... I'll just go online when I get home, till the electricity runs out, and then go to bed.
The train ride home was uneventful, though it must be said, not nearly as pleasant as the one going there. There's something a little chilling about travelling at speed, when you can't see a thing out of the window. So I got home, and then remembered the last time my electricity had run out... and that after phoning various service helpines to try and find a local vendor of the cards, I'd been told to try the shop on the next estate. Thing is... I couldn't remember exactly what time the place had closed at. What the heck... I decided to try my luck. This was actually something of a worrying journey. Now I'll happily wander this city's streeets at 4am with not a care in the world, but going onto the next estate at 10:30pm... a place that's been blacklisted by all the local taxi firms as simply too rough, and having to walk several dark alleyways to get there, I was more than a little on my guard. Shouldn't have worried though, as I didn't pass a single person, and even better, the shop was still open.
So here I am now, coke in hand, cig slowly burning away as I type, and an electricity meter with enough credits to last several days. A happy ending to a happy day. Now... time to go and see who's in the chatroom.
:: Steve Benway 11:06 PM [+] ::
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Thursday, May 09, 2002

Oh... did you know there are dishes in my kitchen waiting to be washed since christmas... or to be more specific, christmas 2000.
What does this word 'domesticated' mean?
:: Steve Benway 3:11 PM [+] ::
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Now I'm just procrastinating. The 'to do' list for today consisted of going into town to check bank balance (done that), go buy frozen food (done that), take all the rubbish out of the kitchen (umm), and do the laundry (eek).
Quick, think of something for me to distract myself with, so I don't have to get up off my arse and complete my given tasks.
The simple fact is though, I have to complete those tasks today. I'm off to visit my sister tomorrow, and being down to my last clean shirt, I HAVE to do laundry before then. To do the laundry, I HAVE to take the rubbish out of the kitchen because it's piled up in front of the dryer. Hmmm. A solution for the future might be to buy more clothes, so I don't run out as quickly, or get a bigger flat, so there's more space for the rubbish. Hehehe. Am I serious? *Raises a single eyebrow and doesn't answer*
:: Steve Benway 3:08 PM [+] ::
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So I'm sitting here watching High Fidelity again. Yeah, I know... you've probably seen it... saw it ages ago even, but hey, I catch on pretty slow sometimes. I only came to buy it because they were doing another buy 3 for £15, and I'd picked up two 'must haves' and needed a third. I'd heard a few people say it was pretty good, and figured I'd check it out.
Very clever film. The writers had it all figured. Everyone's had at least one relationship that worked out like Rob's, and god knows, there are probably millions who's lives work exactly like his does. In that way, I guess I feel a little manipulated by this film. I can sit here and totally relate to where Rob is at... all his failed relationships, frantic thrashing around trying to deal with yet another breakup, trying to rationalise it all... and that annoys me. They know people will relate to this, it will appeal to them, they will go and watch it, and later, they'll buy it.
Don't get me wrong... I love this film, it's a great film, but I can't help feeling like my emotions are being manipulated for the sake of making another buck. "Lets make a film about someone who's life is all fucked up by relationships. Everyone can relate to that. We'll make a fortune" I feel used and dirty after watching it... like I've fallen for their little ploy.
There... I'm done talking crap, so feel free to tell me I'm full of shit.


Before you tell me I'm talking rubbish, I've been thinking a bit. My logic on this is completely faulty. I bought the video without really knowing what it's about, so no devious manipulation there. Also, it's true that any good movie, book or whatever will produce an emotional reaction, often by having content matter that the viewer/reader can relate to. So, yes, I was indeed talking crap.
Doesn't stop me feeling manipulated and used for some reason though. Maybe it's just the subject matter. I'm often left with a bad taste in my mouth when I think of my various failed relationships, as I know it wasn't 'all her fault'. Perhaps I don't like being reminded that I can be a total bastard. Whatever... it just bothered me. *Wanders off muttering to himself*
:: Steve Benway 11:50 AM [+] ::
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Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Yesterday gOdOfMiScHiEf asked the question "If you had a choice of being rich *OR* famous, which would you choose?" I answered fame. It'd be nice to be rich, but if it had to be one or the other, I'd take fame every time.
I want the whole world to hear my music, to look at my art and to read my short stories and sketches. I want everyone to know who I am and what I'm about. Indeed, to some degree, I've succeeded. A ballpark figure for the number of people who've heard my tunes is 50,000, which is not to be sniffed at. Go to many of the major search engines and look up webcam communities, and very often, the first web page listed will be mine, meaning I can wander into a great many webcam chatrooms and people know who I am. I have one of the most highly viewed webcams on the largest free webcam community out there, so a heck of a lot of people know what I look like. No riches then, but a certain ammount of notoriety in certain areas. It makes me feel pretty good.
So here's the thing... clearly, online I'm a major attention seeker, yet this is totally at odds with the attitude I expressed in my last post. I really hate people intruding on my time, space, and privacy in general. Isn't that nuts? I want the whole world to know me, but everyone to leave me alone, unless I invite them. I guess what it comes down to is what I concluded on Eric's blog. I want to be God. That way, everyone will know of me, but no-one can reach me. Total control of my own reality. Yup... that'll do nicely thank you. Now, on your knees and worship the mighty Benway.
What do you mean "kiss your ass?"
:: Steve Benway 5:57 PM [+] ::
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Tuesday, May 07, 2002

No peace for the wicked.
I'm an antisocial person, as a rule, and generally make it pretty clear that I don't appreciate people knocking on my door, or coming round uninvited. I value my privacy. So why is it poeple just won't leave me alone lately? A visitor last night... albeit, not someone I see very often, so I was pleased enough to see him. Then tonight, just as I'm sitting down to eat dinner and watch a movie, Mr Can-I-Use-Your-Computer turns up at the door.
*Sigh* Perhaps I should put a sign up on my door. "If you weren't invited, go away!" Maybe that'd do the trick.
:: Steve Benway 9:29 PM [+] ::
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Monday, May 06, 2002

I'm finding myself very amused by a commercial that's on tv lately. "Sonic The Hedgehog... only on Nintendo Game Cube"
Mmhmm. Do you remember the huge battle between Ninteno and Sega a few years ago? They both had their flagship titles, Mario on the Super NES and Sonic on the MegaDrive, and the idea of one company's character appearing on the other's machine was inconcievable.
It seems Sega is paying the price for its arrogance, with regard to supporting its customers. They did a wonderful job of selling the MegaDrive, making millions of dollars in the process. Then the rot set in. Next up was the MegaCD add-on. It didn't sell quite as fast as they'd have liked, so they stopped supporting it, leaving all those people who'd bought it high and dry with no software. Next up came the 32X add-on. I myself bought one of these, and guess what? After just a few months, sales weren't as good as they'd have liked, and they stopped supporting it. Thus, myself and however many others were stuck with a machine and very little software.
By the time they released the Saturn, people were wise to their attitude, so it's little surprise the machine bombed... and again, they withdrew support. I don't even need to tell you they withdrew support for the Dreamcast barely a year after it's release, to concentrate on publishing software for other peoples machines.
I truly hope they feel the sting of it, producing a game featuring their old flagship character, for their arch rivals. Serves them right too.
:: Steve Benway 7:25 PM [+] ::
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I think I successfully managed to offend a friend today.
It reaches a point when you just have to put your foot down with people, and for me that happened today. Usually, if I don't answer my phone, it's because I'm sleeping, so to ring it, then ring it again 5 mins later, and still get no reply, and then ring again another 5 mins later... its the height of ignorance. With the trouble I have getting to sleep, to knowingly wake me is not going to get a you a pleasant response. Needless to say, that`s what this person did.
Anyway, they wanted to know if they could use my pc to go online for a couple of hours in the week. Well excuse me, but if this person can't see fit to pay their own phone bill, especially after I bailed them out with their last bill, and then thinks they can use up my online time, keeping me from my own online commitments, so they can chat to some woman in america.... they've got another thing coming.
There's a difference between being a good friend to someone and allowing them to take liberties. This person has now crossed that line, and I won't stand for it. I don't mind having him come here to check his email or whatever, but the rest, no... I allowed him to do this when he was in a tight spot before, and it was inconvenient to me at best, but the position he's in now is through his own doing, and that's simply not my problem.
:: Steve Benway 4:22 PM [+] ::
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Sunday, May 05, 2002

OMG!!!
I've seen some pretty dodgy, not to mention totally obvious scams online before, but just get a load of the email I just recieved.


ALHAJI YAYANG
Tel: 871-762535915
FaX.: 871-762535916
Lagos, Nigeria.


ATTN.: THE MANAGING DIRECTOR / CEO.
Alternative e-mail address:


Dear Sir,


REQUEST FOR URGENT (CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP OF THE TRANSFER OF
US$46,560,000.00 (FORTY SIX MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THOUSAND
UNITED STATES DOLLARS ONLY).


I hope this letter will not embarrass you since we have not had any
previous communication. I got your reference from the Nigeria Exports
Promotion Council (NEPC) and went further to have it confirmed by your
country’s trade department under private inquiry that is not related to my
aim of writing you this letter.


I, on behalf of my other colleagues from different Federal Government of
Nigeria owned parastatals decided to solicit your assistance as regards
the transfer of the above stated amount into your bank account. This fund
arose from the over-invoicing of various contracts awarded in my
parastatals to certain foreign contractors some time ago.



We as holders of official positions in various parastatals, were mandated
by this new civilian government to scrutinize all payments made to certain
foreign contractors by the past military government and we discovered that
some of the contracts they executed were grossly over-invoiced, either by
omission or commission. Also we discovered that the sum of $66,560,000.00
(Sixty-Six Million, Five Hundred and Sixty Thousand United States Dollars
Only) was lying in a suspense account, although the foreign contractors
were fully paid their entitlements after executing the said contracts.


We all agreed that the over-invoiced amount be transferred (for our own
use) into a bank account provided by a foreign partner, as the code of
conduct of the Federal Civil Service does not allow us to operate foreign
accounts.


However, we have succeeded in transferring some of these money, precisely
US$20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million United States Dollars Only) into a
foreign account in GENEVA (SWITZERLAND) last week. But unfortunately, the
provider of the account has severed all forms of contacts with us as he
has refused to adhere to our earlier mutual agreement insisting that the
total amount be paid into his nominated bank account before disbursement
will take effect. If for US$20M (Twenty Million United States Dollars
Only) we are not compensated, how can one guarantee full compensation on
remittance of the balance of US$46.560M (Forty-Six Million, Five Hundred
and Sixty Thousand United States Dollars Only).


We are therefore seeking your assistance based on the balance amount of
US$46.560M, which can be speedily processed and fully remitted into your
nominated bank account. On successful remittance of the fund into your
account, you will be compensated with 25% of the amount for assistance and
services and 5% set aside for expenses contingency.


This transaction is closely knitted and in view of our SENSITIVE POSITION
we cannot afford a slip, I assure you that this transaction is 100% risk
free. We will avail you with our identities as regards our respective
offices, when relationship is fully established and smooth operation
commences.


I am at your disposition to entertain any question(s) from you in respect
of this transaction, so contact me immediately through the above telephone
and fax numbers for further information on the requirements and procedure.


Please note that the DEAL needs utmost confidentiality and your immediate
response will be highly appreciated and we will use our own share of the
money to establish a lucrative firm in your country.


Yours Truly,


ALHAJI YAYANG



So... I wonder how many people who've recieved this email think it's been sent in error, but through greed and stupidity, actually give these people their bank account details. The craziest thing about it is... it came from a yahoo email address. Like... Duh!!!


:: Steve Benway 12:44 PM [+] ::
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Some stuff you should know about Verisign.
This is just one of MANY such stories that have come to light regarding Verisign, and many bloggers are now banding together in an attempt to bring this situation out into the open.
:: Steve Benway 12:23 PM [+] ::
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Saturday, May 04, 2002

Discovered by arryana... you must try this. Go burn some trees, cars, people, seeing-eye dogs and anything else that moves... or doesn't. Wonderfully warped fun :-)
:: Steve Benway 6:59 PM [+] ::
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New Tune. MP3 download available for a limited time.


As promised last week, here's my latest tune for you to download. (Again, better to right click and select 'save to' than to left click)
Storm On The Plains mp3
This track sounds awesome on CD, through a decent set of speakers, though I'm not entrely sure the mp3 format does it justice, deadening some of the more subtle sounds. Still... I was listening to it on my Amiga, which wonderful machine though it is, doesn't have the best audio capabilities. It should hopefully sound better through a pc sound card. We'll see.


Okay... updating this post.
I just downloaded the thing, and it does indeed sound fine on the pc. So... all technical aspects aside, let me know what you think of the tune. It's very different from the last one, as I'm trying to get a lot more variety into the new CD.
:: Steve Benway 3:13 PM [+] ::
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Not the most wonderful way to start the day. I woke to find a court summons on my doorstep for non-payment of the local council tax. Ho hum. I was expecting this, and could do without it... but no panic. I can deal with it without having to go to court. It only came about because the council workers who deal with this shit leave you on hold for 30 mins, and I wasn't gonna run up my phone bill waiting for them. A trip to their offices when I'm next going into town is all it'll take. Why didn't I do that before? *Shrugs* These people are a bunch of incompetent assholes, and the less contact I have with them the better.


On a lighter note, I had a phonecall from a woman doing a survey regarding public attitudes towards local govt elections, and decided to take the time and answer her questions. As a rule, I don't waste my time with phone surveys, as they often just result in a ton of junk mail, but NOP, the people doing this thing are a respectable organisation, and it wasn't just some marketing thing. As expected, it proved highly entertaining, my attitude towards local govt being somewhat cynical... heaven knows what her colleagues thought, 'cause by the end of the questions, the girl was almost falling off her chair laughing. Good fun :-)
:: Steve Benway 2:08 PM [+] ::
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Friday, May 03, 2002

While on the subject of superheroes....
Heaven exists, and for this weekend, it's in Milton Keynes. There's a sci-fi fair on at the main shopping centre, so I went along to take a look. Now a few people who know me well will know that I collect Marvel comics, and in particular, Spiderman. Trouble is, ever since the Forbiden Planet store closed down a few years ago, there's been no-where local to buy decent comics, and the shop in the next town is, in my opinion, a load of rubbish. So anyway... the first stand I came to had a mass of spidey comics and other goodies, but better yet, a decent selection of t-shirts. I stood there for 5 mins checking them out, and had just selected one I was gonna buy when the guy running the stand came over.
"Those are pretty nice" he said. "You won't find them anywhere else around here," which I knew to be true, "But have you seen THESE?"

Ohhhh myyyyyy. I don't normally spend more than a few pounds on t-shirts and the like, and these were expensive, but I just couldn't help myself.
So after buying the shirt, I stood there talking to the guy, and asked him where they were based. My jaw dropped when he told me...
Fanboycomics are based about 20 minutes walk from my home. The website isn't much to look at, but having seen with my own eyes what they stock, I know I'm gonna be a regular customer.


After chatting with the guy, I wandered around a bit, and took a look at the other stuff. On a separate part of the same stand they had a selection of old computers and video consoles, and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw they had a Vectrex video game system. This is a wonderful piece of kit, british made dating back to the early 80s, and something I've been hoping to add to my collection of old compters and video consoles for a long time. So I asked the guy how much it was selling for, as there was no price tag. When he told me how much, I totally understood why. £380!!! Yikes! I know they're collectors items, and yeah, I want one pretty badly... but not that badly. I beat a hasty retreat and went home, before I saw something even more desirable, and equally unafordable.
:: Steve Benway 11:58 AM [+] ::
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Thursday, May 02, 2002

Hehehe...
Hero Machine is so cool.

What do you think? Is it me?
:: Steve Benway 3:40 AM [+] ::
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Wednesday, May 01, 2002

Bleh.
Tired. Very very very VERY tired. So tired I can't sleep.
I got up yesterday some time around 9pm, and I'm still up. Spent all night rebuilding that tune, then tried to sleep around 8am, but was interrupted by the phone before I could drop off. A friend who I rarely get to see is in town this weekend. I wonder if she'll bring chicken again... hehe. Anyways, after chatting with her, I couldn't sleep, so got up again. Went for coffee with my mum around 2pm, and got home around 5ish. Went to bed, and was just dropping off when the phone rang. Got up to answer it, but they hung up before I reached it, so went back to bed. Just dropping off again when the bloody phone rang AGAIN!!! It was that friend of mine who has the habit of turning up just when I don't want company. At least he didn't just turn up at the door this time. Went back to bed, but obviously, couldn't sleep having been so comprehensively interrupted. Bollox!!
Someone come sing me a lullabye? That, or bring me some industrial strength coffee. Reality gets seriously warped after a while. Yeah, I know, it hasn't even been 24 hours yet, and my personal record is 3 days, but still, I'm feeling pretty addled.
:: Steve Benway 7:29 PM [+] ::
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Interesting.
I took the loss of that tune as an omen, telling me it wasn't good enough, and that I should start again... so I did.
I was finally able to recreate the original core of the track, the initial fluke that started the whole thing. The rest just wouldn't come to me though, so I did something entirely different with it, and I must say, I'm very pleased.
It's a very complex piece, though not in the sense of being full of little sqeaky bleeps and other effects. There are chord structures in there that are completely beyond my understanding... I just know they work :-)
:: Steve Benway 5:42 AM [+] ::
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