Game of Thrones, Season 4

"I liked the product so much, I bought the company" to paraphrase Victor Kiam in his legendary Remington shaver commercials of the 80's.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I love me some Game of Thrones. I liked the TV series so much that I bought the books, on my Kindle Fire. Boy - is that an amazing series of books.

L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y. No, literally, he writes about legends.



The TV show is great, and I'm really looking forward to the 4th series, but if you can, I strongly recommend you buy the books. Well worth the time and money invested.

kthanxbai! Jumblerant

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Kano: A Lego Computer

I'm more of a computer user than a computer maker, but I do wish that I could get more into the coding of programs, and not be dependent on those people in IT to help me with all of my computer based issues.

Until now I hadn't heard of any way of building a bare-bones computer yourself. No doubt these have existed, but really, the website for Kano is just out of this world ~ http://www.kano.me

Kickstarter.com is a great way of finding new products and personally I have been interested enough in the product to put my hard earned money into funding the following:

99% Invisible, an incredibly interesting podcast that needed funding to create season 4
Monster Hunter International: Challenge Coins. Think challenge coins + vampires and werewolves
God Hates Astronauts - an insane comic book that, if I explained it to you, would have me incarcerated
The Monster Hunter International Employee's Handbook and RPG - a book load of artwork about MHI
And finally, ringbow, that was meant to be a finger based mouse, but turned into a rage infested tornado!

Anyhoo, Kano is a make it yourself computer;

What you get from Kano 

What you can make

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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One Excellent Ad

Some products are really hard to sell and need some serious innovation to get the branding and messaging across, such as gas, fabric conditioner and tissues.

Similar to the amazing Dollar Shave ad that I spoke about here, there is a new twist on tampons.

Enjoy!! (no seriously, it is enjoyable).



kthanxbai!

 Jumblerant

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Sugru - Making My Home A Better Place

** This post is in no way sponsored by Sugru**

I've always liked the idea of fixing things instead of throwing them away, and I despise just living with the problem because I just don't have the money to fix everything. And pay the mortgage. And buy food.

Recycling and reusing are very important to Her Indoors, and me, so anything that needn't be thrown away either sits around waiting to get fixed, or just gets used 'as is'. However, I came across a very interesting product recently called 'Sugru' and was looking into buying some.

Here is a short clip explaining the ethos behind Sugru - warning - there is a high possibility of dust getting in your eyes when watching this:



There is a large community behind the product and they happily share their 'How To' efforts on the website.
A product really needs to have good reviews for me to get to buy it on-line, and Sugru fit the description to a tee!

What I intend to do with Sugru and how:

1. Make custom fit ear-buds / ear phones for when I go hobbling round the block in a poor imitation of running.
2. Seal (again) the bath to the wall.
3. Fix plant pots to the walls. Or a deck chair. Or maybe the outside cupboard.
4. Show my Mum how to make handles and plugs easier for her to use
5. Plug the annoying hole in the cracked kitchen floor. And yeah, we bought the place like that.
6. And if I have any Sugru left at the end? I'm going to do a few of the '11 Ways to Improve Your Home'

So if I haven't managed to convince you that Sugru is the bastard son of super-glue and blutac, then here is a short list of things I intend to do with my 2nd and 3rd package of Sugru:

Fix the wife's broken sunglasses
Fix my son's favourite shoes
Reinforce the corners of my aquarium
Repair Upgrade my iPhone chargers, in the office, car and home:



If you have any further uses of Sugru, please let me know in the comments.

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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Game of Thrones Season 3

Its back, time to get the good wine out of the fridge, get the cheesy pops out of the cupboard and put your feet up for an enthralling Season 3 of game of Thrones.

Whats going to happen? I have no idea,. but it looks AWESOME







And for the more serious Game of Throne fans out there, if you haven't already seen them, a couple of sessions with the actors and producer regarding the new season, and seasons past.





kthanxbai!

 http://jumblerant.blogspot.com

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The Future Looks Good

In a world where everyone has their phone, iPod, laptop, and every other personal toy out there, Joe decided to see if the people out there still gave a hoot about their neighbour.

And he made a film about it. It looks pretty inspiring to me, not that I would ever take on such an endeavour!



It's nice to know that we're all still human underneath it all.

kthanxbai!

http://jumblerant.blogspot.com

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The End of Days - or Just The Beginning?

I have frequently quoted the grouchy old bugger known as Wirecutter over at Knuckledraggin My Life Away.  He is witty, forthright and his writing is highly entertaining.*

One of his recent posts started me thinking about how advanced our society is, especially as we are moving more and more towards recycling, reusing, garage sales and generally thinking twice before spending too much money on new items.

My truck has been getting worse and worse gas mileage and I have my registration due soon, requiring a smog check. Total cost for a full tune-up and smog check will run me about $500 - I've got the money but don't want to part with it if I don't have too. So today I wander down to my mechanics' garage (who I've bartered with before) to see how I can knock down the price.

 
The whole, worthwhile post, can be read here.



kthanxbai!

*if Wirecutter turns out to be a group project for a psychiatry research paper out of one of the smaller universities I wouldn't be too surprised...

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iPad is high quality

How would you show that the iPad is the highest quality machine ever built? Get a world renowned pianist to play something on it. In public.



Real or fake? What do you think??

kthanxbai!

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Mazel Tov to doubletapper

Doubletapper has been voted 'Best Foreign National Military Blog' at milbloggiong.com
Considering the competition for the position and the fact that there was only 1 foreign blog winner - he did done good!

Obviously, the fact that he shows many pictures of gorgeous IDF female soldiers in uniform, and with their rifles, in no way influenced the judges.

kthanxbai!

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Carpet is expensive

As a kid growing up in Trumpton and Chigley, my sister and I used to visit our friends on a Saturday afternoon and get bored with all the board games within minutes.

As most Saturdays in the UK in the '80s were rainy we had to stay indoors. How can you turn a boring TV room into a great game? Crocodile infested carpets!! Great fun until you break a leg. Or a sofa.

But this guy is taking it too far.



kthanxbai!

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I gone bin and dun it

I made good on my promise yesterday of getting more exercise.

Image via Wikipedia

Not only did I get up early - or as we used to say in the military "at the crack of sparrow's fart" - and drove off into the misty valleys that surround our home.

I dropped the car off at the garage after I'd been informed that the 200,000km service it was going in for would cost around $350. I then made myself a steaming cup of Turkish coffee, walked out of the garage, turned right and started my walk to the office.

Then I realized that going left actually made more sense, turned around and started walking that way instead.

On my little walk I listened to a podcast which had me laughing so hard that I had stop walking at some point to catch my breath. Answer Me This is a great weekly show that combines audience participation, standard jokes and general nonsense but be warned, strong language is rife. But it is sooooo funny.

I walked and walked and enjoyed the sun, the diesel fumes and the looks on people's faces as I cracked up laughing. All good fun.

When I got to the office I was hot and sweaty. Lucky for me 'the office' is in fact a volunteer job in a charity's main warehouse so everyone else there was sweaty too. I started heaving boxes and putting orders together and pretty soon I was up to 11,000 paces on my pedometer (it measures paces, not the location of pedophiles).

Another couple of hours passed and I was up to 15,000 paces.

By the end of my work day I was up to 22,000 paces, over twice the daily recommended exercise for an adult.

So I walked back to the garage to pick up the car where I was informed that the service cost twice what they said it would.

I smiled, nodded and looked at my pedometer - 31,000 paces.

Its good to realize what is important these days.

kthanxbai!

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Between friends

So what is 10kg?

98.0 newtons

50000 carats

352.74 ounces

22lbs

7716 scruples troy

10 liters of water

My baby boy, Jack

In fact it was this afternoon in the local mall that I had an epiphany. Actually, it was backache but I'll call it an epiphany for now.

Mrs J and I had a late breakfast / early lunch at the mall whilst waiting to meet up with the Sister-in-law. I decided to go and see my friend and barber Moody who works on the same floor as the cafe we were eating in. To give Mrs J a bit of time to eat her breakfast I said I'd take Jack along with me.

So far very simple. Taking a 10 month old baby to see my friend 150 meters away. When I got there I was knackered (or cream-crackered if your from Essex). I'm used to working in a warehouse moving heavy boxes around but this was just pain-pain-pain!

As I struggled back to Mrs J with Jack on my shoulder I realized what my issue was. Its not that I'm overweight, which I am, or that I am unfit, which I really am, but rather that I now understood physically what my body was feeling already being at least 10kg overweight.

Carrying Jack had instantly added the 10kg in one go to the 10kg I have slowly been adding to my body over the last few years.

I finally understood what I was putting my joints, my heart and my muscles through every time I started doing something.

Normally at this point I'd just use it as an excuse to never leave the couch but I feel now that I really have to either turn this blubber into muscle or get rid of it.

From now on I'm going to try harder, push further and really try to lose the weight. I'm starting with trying to get 10,000 paces every day. You can follow my alleged progress on the Walker Tracker widget near the top of the blog.

All words of encouragement warmly welcomed as are any hints and tips you may have.


kthanxbai!

Get streamlined

We recently moved and in the process of packing and unpacking, we managed to get rid of a lot of irrelevant rubbish that we had been hoarding over the years.

Over at SoBe Organized there is a little home truth being told;

It's Not About The New Boxes

It's not about the new boxes, folders, files or colored labels we buy. It's not about the new resolutions we make to 'be organized now!', it's about the moment we realize that a streamlined life is one with minimal stuff. It's about making tough decisions over what will be thrown and what will be giving away. It's about finding your shoulders soft and relaxed as you enter an uncluttered space. It's about finally realizing that less really is more.

Image via Wikipedia

So let's get out there and clean up our space and our lives!

kthanxbai!

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