ABC said:

My last ESB restoration project has been mostly saved by the 1985 CD pressing and the 7FN LP's transfers... Do you believe it ?!! I think it's really not serious. If these transfers had no cracklings they probably filled almost the half of my edit.

Just shows us again that newer isn't always better. The SE soundtracks are proof of that! :p

It was one of those toys with a plush body and a soft plastic head so they didn't pull the head off but the woman at security grabbed it off her and pushed her fingers into it's eyes and squeezed it's head in.

The girl must have been about 2 years old and clearly at the toy as 'little friend' stage. It was obviously a favorite toy that she didn't want to let go of so snatching it off her and doing that in front of her must of been terrifying.

Why they couldn't have turned it into game I don't know.

I would have told the girl that the scanner machine was a little train ride or something like that and took her mind off it that way (surely the scanner would have picked up anything inside).

They frisk random people after going through the detector (usually about 1 in 5).

One woman had to take thigh length boots off (nothing kinky they were gum boot style wellies because of the snow but she had a time trying to get them off).

I ended up being frisked myself. The last time I flew I had lost a lot of weight due to ill health and they made me take my belt off so I had to keep my trousers up with my hand going through (as a boy I used to travel in my kilt which would be impossible now).

Having a stranger snatch her hand while some mysterious machine ran all over her mum must have been confusing too.

It was horrible and under the circumstances completely pointless seeing as Gatwick was closed at three and most of the other London area airports and Luton were closed before then. They must have known none of us were actually flying anywhere.

I used to travel all the time, and from my experience, American airports have been absolute hell since late 2001. It was always a relief when I was sat down and buckled into the flight that would take me out of the country; or always a great stress when the airplane bringing me back into the U.S. was getting ready to land. I have only passed through UK airports a handful of times, but they have always been extremely pleasant experiences in comparison to those American airports.

But your experience sounds pretty rough, Bingowing.

It is such a stress to travel anymore, I am just fed up with it. I'd probably travel by plane more often if this wasn't the case. As it is, I'd rather just drive (my least favorite mode of transportation).

Man, I haven't been on a plane since 1998, which was pre-heightened paranoia. I think it just depends on the person you get, as some would be more reasonable than others, just like border crossings.

It's going to be a bit difficult as in almost four decades this is the first Christmas I haven't been with my mum and sister (not to mention the first since my nieces, my godchildren were born etc) and it's one of those rare times you can everyone together.

The weather up here has got a bit extreme I haven't seen snow like this since I was really small.

you can't see where any of the gardens begin or end or where the road and pavement are it's just one thick sheet of snow dotted with impressive snow men and houses.

Where did all the sledges suddenly come from?

Not expecting to be here all the Christmas decorations are packed away in an impossible to reach place (haven't needed to put them out for almost six years). But nature has provided a festive vista beyond all notions of tinsel and lights.

James May's series where he takes extreme measures to try and re-introduce the toys of his youth to a new generation is a real pick me up.

I missed it first time and if any of you get a chance to see it I highly recommend it.

Bingowings said:

James May's series where he takes extreme measures to try and re-introduce the toys of his youth to a new generation is a real pick me up.

I missed it first time and if any of you get a chance to see it I highly recommend it.

I have the first 6 downloaded, but haven't watched yet. Can't wait to see the Lego house episode. I've seen an article about it, along with a picture, sot hat was a bit of a spoiler, but that's ok.

Lego was a off really as he freely admits that the company is still going strong and it's far from ever being British.

I can't imagine making a house out of Stickle Bricks (originally from Denys Fisher).

Tonka would have made sense but Tonka would have lacked the building element.

Trumps and Fighting Fantasy Books could do with a bit of a rival and bedroom computer game programming but I doubt if James would get that.

It's hard to imagine that a whole generation grew up playing successful computer games that were written by slightly older kids in their bedroom.

That would be educational and almost anyone with a bit of training could do it.

It's not easy being green, but yellow ain't no picnic either.

TV's Frink said:

It's not easy being green, but yellow ain't no picnic either.

Are you dealing with jaundice? :p

I've got a severe case of Groening-itis.

I wish I wouldn't have decided to get the cheapest lip balm I saw. It tastes bad and it's so hard I can't apply it very well.

I miss my extended family already. And my cheesesteaks. Even my tomato pies. Hell, just the east coast. Shit, even their convenience stores are better - I mean, Wawa? Where the hell are those on the west coast?

Oh yeah, we were on vacation and surprised the family by showing up at the Christmas party. Had a blast, if you can't tell.

Well sir, speaking of delicious food, I live in Alabama, which means I live right smack in the middle of barbecue country. There are a lot of things about Alabama that I dislike, but that isn't one of them. Mmmm....

Apparently the Olympic torch was in my town on Tuesday. Whatevas.

KAKAPEEPEE !!!

If you think about it, all math is just dealing with ones. There is no such entity as ten - it is a collection of ten ones. Two plus two is, in reality, one plus one plus one plus one.

vote_for_palpatine said:

If you think about it, all math is just dealing with ones. There is no such entity as ten - it is a collection of ten ones. Two plus two is, in reality, one plus one plus one plus one.

Doesn't "10" mean 1 'tens'....not 10 'ones' ?

vote_for_palpatine said:

If you think about it, all math is just dealing with ones. There is no such entity as ten - it is a collection of ten ones. Two plus two is, in reality, one plus one plus one plus one.

So what you're saying is that ultimately math is binary, which means there are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't.

Also think about the fact that our preferred method of arithmetic is in base ten, because our species first learned to count with our fingers...all ten of them.

I've always preferred:

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't care.

Got a message from Hotmail just now entitled: "Thanks for using Hotmail for 10+ years!"

In part, the message says "You've witnessed many dramatic improvements to Hotmail since it launched."

HA! HAHA, even! Every time they make an "improvement", it gets a bit worse. For the first SIX YEARS, I could count on one hand the amount of spam I got in an entire year. (and I used that address for absolutely everything) Then they did a big overhaul and their spam filters became the dumbest ones on the planet. They even mark messages from themselves as 'dangerous'!

Ripplin said:

They even mark messages from themselves as 'dangerous'!

Maybe they are.  I wouldn't open those...