Some of the most difficult--and certainly the unhappiest--problems are those concerning housemate and co-tenant relations

Do boyfriends or girlfriends get keys to the place? What if they "move in"?

"Excuse me Mr and Mrs Fat, that'll be £100."

Cinemas are one of those places that you tend to overhear people saying funny things, either with or without intention. Yesterday I went to see the last of The Lord of the Rings trilllogy (sic), and since I had gone with my girlfriend I found myself in the unusual situation of arriving before the adverts had started. I hate most of the crap adverts they show in cinemas (yes, I admit a rare few are good/funny/clever), and generally prefer not to see trailers. So there we were, waiting for something to appear on the screen, and I overhead the above comment from a gentleman sat directly behind me.

The point he was trying to make was that when travelling, passengers should be weighed along with their luggage. Therefore, lighter passengers can get away will a bit more weight in their luggage, and vice versa. I'm guessing that he recently had to pay for excess baggage.

So does he have a point? Well, baggage allowance does vary between airlines, and very roughly speaking 30kg is the limit. The airline may charge for luggage over this amount which could for example be £10 per kg. A person weighing 2 stone more (that's 12.7 kg. Thanks again, Google) than a passenger with ~10kg excess baggage is bringing an equivalent excess onto the plane without the potential extra charge of over £100.

Yep, he does have a point. But will they ever implement it? I think not.

Film was good, by the way.

Thanks, Fatso

I've just returned from a Metallica gig at Earls Court, which was very cool despite being stuck up in block 40 seats. Mind you, I only found out I was going earlier this week when an unwanted ticket was offered to me, so I guess I'm lucky I got to see them.

While we were waiting for the show to start, we got in a round of over-priced beers, and toasted the occasion. Judging by the reaction from the couple in front of us when they heard us, and my prior knowledge, I'd guess they are Japanese.

Although this was the first time I'd seen Metallica live, I knew that they'd enter the stage to The Ecstasy of Gold. Then, it was straight into Battery.

What followed was a mix of old and new (Frantic and Dirty Window were played from St. Anger, their latest album). The first encore kicked off with Kill 'em All's Seek & Destroy, and then the second encore led with One (...And Justice For All) with what I can only describe as an "Orgy of Pyrotechnics".

Travel home was somewhat slowed by the thousands of fans all trying to catch an underground train at the same time, but it all seemed to go fairly smoothly (helped along with the choice of West Brompton over Earls Court). I really should try to get to another gig soon, seeing as my gig-history currently comprises:

Summer 1996 - Eagles at Wembley Stadium, London

10th December 1997 - Foo Fighters at Royal Court, Liverpool.

February 1999 - Terrorvision at the Guildford Civic.

20th December 2003 - Metallica at Earls Court, London.

Sadly lacking, I know. I guess my excuse for the lull between '99 and '03 was Unplugged.

Par-tay

On Saturday night I went to my housemate's work's Christmas party. It was "strictly fancy dress" with the theme "Dress as a web site", and against my better judgement I left it until yesterday to sort out a costume.

The idea that had first come to mind was to simply plaster myself with pictures from b3ta, but this would have required a fair amount of planning, effort, and printer ink to do it well.

If at all possible, I wanted to make use of the beige suit (that's me on the left, Rich on the right) I got for ussu fetIIsh night when we dressed as dodgy vicars. The obvious idea was to go as The Man from Del Monte (and hence representing the Del Monte website) but I had been a bit optimistic about getting hold of a Panama hat at ten to five on a Saturday in Guildford (although I did manage to get the other prop: a carton of Del Monte smooth pure orange juice, and very nice it was too).

Without the hat I felt the costume wouldn't work, and gave up on the idea. All was not lost however, as a fallback plan came to me whilst sat at a table on the top floor of Ottakar's. We'd already tried using Google to search for inspiration, but found nothing. So I decided I could go as that very site, emphasising the fact that although it hadn't initially been of any help this time, in the end it was exactly what I needed.

I headed over the high street into WHSmith to buy some T-shirt Inkjet Transfer Paper. I was bemused to discover the new till layout had acquired one of those voice-driven queue system that I usually only have to suffer at the Post Office ("till number eight please" in an annoyingly happy and ridicilously intonated voice). Due to the till transaction process being a bit sluggish the sales assistant and myself had time to discuss the unfortunate limitation of the new queue system, and how it could be vastly improved by the introduction of voices other than the drab male and female announcers. Surely a robotic voice, or even an animal noise would make for a more entertaining customer experience? Anyway, I digress. All that was then left to do in town was to race down to Topman to pick up a plain white t-shirt.

When I got back home, I performed the Google search again (at the time it did not match any documents, although that could obviously change at any time in the future), and did a screen capture along with a capture of the main Google screen with my search typed in. These were to be the back and front prints of the t-shirt respectively.

The images printed out well onto the transfer paper (with the exception of the first attempt for which I forgot to invert the image horizontally. Arse.) and after letting them dry for 30 mins I successfully managed to iron on both the front and back print, only scorching them a little with excessive heat in a bid to make sure they stuck first time.

Costume done, ready to go. Luck smiled on us: we managed to catch the last train for over an hour, and made our way to the par-tay. I happily got stuck into the bottles of Rolling Rock, gratis, the obligatory french-bread-based-nibbles, and spent the first while working out which web sites everyone else had gone as. There was a good selection of ideas, ranging from subtle (like mine I suppose) to brilliantly over the top. Paul had made use of his day-glo t-shirt, whilst another guy had covered himself with pictures of various scantily clad women and FHM selotaped to his forehead. Good effort!

So, the drink was good, the food was good, the atmosphere was good, and the music was great. I claim credit for demanding Camisra's Let me show you, and thereby causing a mini-recreation of the clubbing scene in the Spaced episode Epiphanies.

A series of highly random songs, such as Beavis and Butthead's rendition of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (duhduhduhduhdurrrrrrrr), and Wierd Al's What if God Smoked Cannabis? (which I don't think the slow dancers realised was a parody) signified the "go home" message. We helped to tidy things up a bit and got a taxi some time after 5am. I finally managed to get to bed for 6, which I think justifies getting up after 3pm the following day...

Delivering "Little Bundles of Love", in a box, directly to your door.

Remember kids: pets aren't just for Christmas, they make excellent presents all year 'round!

Why not try PetsOvernight.com?

Yes, OK, I'll admit I've been playing GTA3. Hey, it's been a while.

With My Little Tiny Centimeter Steps I Won The Tree

While searching for a Thundercats video clip (pure nostalgia!), I found this page.

Have a look at The Lollipop Tree by one Mike L Mayfield. Genius.