100,000th Comment

News of absolutely no consequence, as the Lazylaces funds cupboard is bare in terms of sorting out some sort of prize, but congratulations to "JhInG" for making Lazylaces' 100,000th Comment. Against all the odds it wasn't someone saying 1st, or selling "Rolex" watches (although the Anti-EvilSpamMonkey code seems to have nailed that particular problem for now). Of course this news is of no interest to anyone except people obsessively interested in statistics (pretends this doesn't apply to self), but I thought I would share it with you all anyway. You can move along now. Nothing to see here...

Entry 2189, Tuesday, October 3rd 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(28)

The Second Door (Coming Soon)

Puzzle fans who's brains aren't cowering in a corner fearing more over-use may remember "The First Door", a tricky online puzzle released back in June. Well you'll be pleased to hear, although maybe your brain will not, that I received an email last night advising me that the Second Door will open soon (9th October - and yes, I do know, we swap the month and the day in UK format dates). So here's that, short and to the point, email in full for all you puzzlers out there:

The quest will continue. The Second Door will open. Soon it will be time to begin again. New doors await those who wish to open them. 9/10/06 - http://www.thefirstdoor.co.uk/ The Door Will Open...

[subbed by The First Door].

Entry 2186, Tuesday, October 3rd 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(82)

Site News : Alternative Address

Since I did the last big batch of work to Lazylaces virtually all of the problems loading the site, the error messages that occaisionally appeared, and the problems with my web host's servers, have disappeared, and what's more the site has been working at rocket pace compared to the old days (imho). Anyway over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a problem sometimes cropping up with accessing the site, which I think other people have seen too (I've had at least two people email about this). Anyway I figure the problem may be DNS related (which means there's not much I can do about it), as each time it happens to me I've found I can quite easily get round the issue by using the site's alternative address. So I thought I should share the alternative address in the public domain (I don't normally use it) for you to bookmark for those days when there is a problem. The alternative adress is:

http://lazylaces.brinkster.net

Don't worry though, I'm still staying at the lazylaces.com address, the alternative is just there was those days when the original one is not working (OK, I guess technically it is always there, but you know what I mean).

Entry 2178, Saturday, September 30th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(7)

Daily Show: Bill Clinton vs Fox News

Combative (which I did not even believe was a word, but my friend dictionary.com says it is)! Bill Clinton imparts some interesting views/news and gets mad all at the same time. Which does the US media concentrate on? I think you can guess correctly. The Daily Show does the business once again, doing an excellent job of pointing out the foibles of the media circus. This is my favourite TV show at the moment (we only get it with a day's delay here), even if there is a new series of Spooks on now.

Entry 2173, Friday, September 29th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(31)

America

My second link for musical Friday (woohoo Friday!), this is my absolute favourite track du jour, America by Razorlight. I've loved this for a while (off the album), but I understand this is the latest single release (at least in the UK). Enjoy.

Entry 2171, Friday, September 29th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(7)

Chasing Cars

Woohoo! (Musical) Friday is finally here again... First up today is Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, which is very nearly my favourite song du jour, and is Jennifer's current absolute fav (at least it was when we last talked about it, my baby may have changed her mind by now though, especially after I introduced her to the genius of Pink Martini). Anyway, absolute, second, tenth, whatever fav, it's definitely worth a listen this Friday. As always Jennifer and I would also love to hear what you are loving at the moment so feel free to mention what music you're listening to at the moment in the comments, preferably with a link to some audio, so we can all share in the experience.

Entry 2170, Friday, September 29th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(22)

EvilSpamMonkeys

Apologies to everyone if you've seen more spam than usual in the comments, the EvilSpamMonkeys have changed their tactics and are really going for it, "Great Site. Nice Work" indeed. The only response is for me to also update my tactics for responding to spam, so expect to see some changes to the comments system soon (especially if you post URLs). I started work on this last night and hope to have it finished soon. I know that the ultimate solution is for me to require registration to enable commenting, but that's not really a route I want to go down as it's intrusive, annoying, and lots of extra work for me to administrate (lazy as ever you see!). Anyway in the meantime I'll be deleting it as I see it, and you guys be careful what links you're clicking in the comments.

Entry 2154, Friday, September 22nd 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(19)

Lazy Style

I spent a large part of the weekend updating the stylesheets for Lazylaces because, well... just because really (hence the lack of posts yesterday). Sometimes you just fancy a change don't you? Oh, and I remember what started it now - I hadn't tested the site on my Mac for a while and some of the site was looking a bit weird so I ended up working on a complete revamp of both the lazy blue and lazy red themes. As with everytime I start tinkering things got a bit out of hand and it took a lot longer than expected so it's not ready quite yet, I still have some testing and tweaking to do, but watch out for an update on the site sometime this week. In the meantime I added a special background for the upcoming Talk Like A Pirate Day which I'm very happy with :)

Entry 2145, Monday, September 18th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(10)

Prepare To Be Boarded!

Arrr, i might have neglected t' celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day in pre'ious years, but I'm not goin' t' make the same mistake this year, I'm mightily lookin' forward t' it. So this is just a quick reminder for you all t' brush up on your pirate 'ocab prior t' this Tuesday (19th September). It would be great t' see some pirate speak in the site comments :o) Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

Translation:

I might have neglected to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day in previous years, but I'm not going to make the same mistake this year, I'm really looking forward to it. So this is just a quick reminder for you all to brush up on your pirate vocab prior to this Tuesday (19th September). It would be great to see some pirate speak in the site comments :o)

Entry 2144, Saturday, September 16th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(33)

Zero 7 : Crosses

I've been a fan of Zero 7 for sometime now, and for the last few weeks their latest album has been my iPod soundtrack of choice for walking across London to work early every morning (not walking across the whole of London you understand, just the bit between the railway station and my office). Anyway I've just found the video for the track "Crosses" online. Cool. Not my favourite track, that would be "Today" (you can find it on the media player on their site), but a cool video none-the-less.

Entry 2142, Saturday, September 16th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(12)

Holy Wars

After spending the whole day either drinking coffee or the wonderful thing that is blueberry juice (that I discovered for the first time in the supermarket this morning), I now have unfeasibly large amounts of energy, and I'm feeling restless. My attention span has dwindled so much I just can't sit and watch another crime drama on television, even if I am normally addicted, or play another point and click game (again - addicted normally), so trawling youtube for short clips of nonsense seemed like a good idea and I came up with this gem: The Holy Grail vrs. Star Wars mash up. Excellent. Anyway I hope I come down from this fruit-sugar induced rush soon. I'm off to find cocktail recipes involving blueberry juice now....

Entry 2140, Saturday, September 16th 2006, Filed In Stuff
Comments(8)

My Cubicle

It's musical Friday and the last day of the working week for most of us, so what could be better than a little ballad about the joys of the work place? [subbed by Hamish].