Unthank and beyond

Come awa in an hae a look roon.

2008-02-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

As a postscript to our recent Burns night i'd like to add this link to the Glasgow based Scots Language Centre website. It seems to be a pretty comprehensive, although new, site with information about the Scots language and links to various sources of Scots language information (both in and about Scots). i hope this will make up for my lack of spoken poetry at the Burns night and will be of interest to you all. just click the picture.

& here's a link to an online Scots dictionary in case you want to translate any words....

Västerås: 'Artificial' light

2008-02-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

Inspired by an exhibition i saw at Västmanlands läns museum (Hans Alenius: Nattlandskap) , i've taken some pictures of both Västerås and Stockholm by night, giving some interesting results... Next stop Glasgow!

Västerås: natural light

2008-02-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

stockholm by night

2008-02-02T06:46:00.001-08:00

they spelt whisky wrong......

2007-12-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

91%DRUNKARD

Looking for x ray tech schools?

thanks Christian!

.

merry Xmas Vesteross!!

2007-12-19T07:07:00.000-08:00

Above is a picture of the xmas card that i'll be sending to some people this year. it's a picture of the rather pretty Västerås allotment site (in north of the city) as seen from a motorway bridge which passes overhead. i've laminated it as being an inkjet print it is liable to scratch easily. i'm quite proud of it!

i'm not sure if i should let people see this stuff.....

2007-12-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

morph-o-rama

2007-12-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

2007-12-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

Today............. CATS!!!!!!

2007-10-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a favourite of mine.....

and episodes 2, 3, 4 & 5. Lovely!

I get the impression that this is somehow rude..

& finally, the stuff of nightmares......(click the picture)

many people are buying one for each side of their bed....!?!?!?

2007-10-26T03:31:00.000-07:00

Perfectly placed for bleary-eyed knee-capping of your partner when he/she takes an unexpected trip to the toilet during the night.

i saw spiderman 3 and it reminded me of this.......

2007-10-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

2007-10-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

Best of the rest.......

2007-10-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to upload some of the photos I took while i was on my trip to Västerås unfortunately the cd that i burned them to isn't being recognised by my computer!!!! Booooo!! I still have some photos, however, but they were taken over just a couple of days rather than the 6 weeks i was there. My girlfriend still has the other photos on her computer & i will add some of the to this blog in good time. Meanwhile i hope you can enjoy these......

DAMN!!! now Blogger says there is an error and i cannot upload my pictures. it's just not my night.....

the beginnings of an October blogging blitz

2007-10-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

i have sadly neglected my blogging responsibilities and will now embark on an adventure in blogland, time permitting.

here's a couple I (well someone else perhaps more talented than I) prepared earlier....... watch the first one with the sound on.

- also, did you know that the spell check on this blog program doesn't recognise blog as a proper word? mmmmmmm.......

Where Muppets go to die.......

2007-09-04T06:06:00.001-07:00

Swedish Haggis

2007-09-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

Well ok it's not haggis. However it does look alot like haggis, and it tastes like haggis. It is called PÖLSA (pull-sa), and it's a traditional Swedish food which is eaten with boiled potatoes and picked beetroot.

I do like a bit of haggis sometimes so i was intrugued to find out what this tastes like. it is very much like haggis , although it is a lot wetter (more like porridge) and it is less spicy. it comes in a plastic wrapper and in a tin and kind of melts as you cook it (again like haggis). The main ingredients are minced beef, liver, heart, onion, and barley, mixed with stock, black pepper, and marjoram.

I think it would go nicely with some beer, although i didn't have any at the time, more's the pity.

Ulrika's cat is the pope!!

2007-08-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

Ulrika's cat is the Pope!! I have photographic evidence......

Västerås

2007-08-16T02:16:00.000-07:00

I'm now in Sweden for the next five weeks. For those who don't know, i'm visiting Ulrika in Västerås. for those who don't know where that is, here's a map.

I've already been here for six days and have been exploring a bit. i'll be posting photos and info as i go. for starters i'll post a photo of me and Ulrika at Vallby, which is an open air farm museum, posing in front of a mirror ball thingy.

Ulrika's City Garden

2007-08-16T02:05:00.000-07:00

Ulrika has a garden on her balcony. it's full of the delights of the countryside but in minature.

completely lazy blog no.1

2007-07-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

click here for more
warning contents may make you sick

beards

2007-07-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

!the following is out of date as i have shaved my beard off, but i spent about an hour writing it so it's going on my blog anyway!

I'm a part-time beard grower. I've always had sideburns of some length or another, but my other facial hairs have usually been kept in check, although i frequently don't shave for up to a week. I've possibly never grown a beard because it makes me look older but i'm beginning not to really care about that. Anyway, the point of all this is that i've been combing the web for beard related sites and there is some interesting stuff.

the best place to start is all about beards. this is an excellent website with comprehensive coverage (geddit!!) of all things hirsute. there is a great deal of info about various types of facial hair, pictures and discussion on hairy topics. The gallery offers a insight into the world of the beard grower, with comments from the owner of each picture. The comments range from touching (a man dedicating his beard to his dead friend) to scary ("I grew my beard because: "no beard = no man". I see the world through my beard" says Kribba from Sweden whilst walking into a doorway). There are also different sections of the site covering many subjects from the rules and running of beard growing competitions to attempting answer questions on the mysteries of the beard.

Incidentally, when looking at the parts of the world where the gallery entrants originate from, the most enthusiastic beard growing populous seem to hail from the UK , Sweden and Australia, although i have a sneaking suspicion that lack of internet access may be holding back hordes of hairies from the less developed parts of the world.

this is a website about a beard growing pact. it's a bit touchy-feely but it somehow reminds me of Fight Club none the less. there is a new pact starting in late 2007, so watch out International Money Corp.

apparently James Hetfield (of Metallica) has a beard and it has been accused of being a terrorist. find out about it's history here.

that's enough about beards for now. next week i'll be tackling merkins. maybe.

Uncyclopedia

2007-07-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

I found my way to a site called Uncyclopedia. it is a record of all things incorrect and was created by Oscar Wilde(!).

According to the authors, Scotland's national anthem contain the lyrics:

Get tae buggery

Oot o' here

Afore a skelp yir airse.

And Sweden's ex-prime minister Goran Persson is "a wicked God floating through the Universe in the form of a vast ocean of greyish-green flesh, blubber, blistening mouths and tentacles that collided with our world in 1344".

and to top it all off, the whole thing is approved by the Kansas State Board of Education. Apparently.

Other interesting Wiki sites:

have you ever wondered how to make a hipporoller? well try howtopedia .
or do you need a new purse? make one from duct tape. instructions at wikihow.

alternatively you may want to know the 99 names of Allah (although there appears to be only 15, maybe i'm missing something).

maybe you need to know the enemy. try conservapedia or creationwiki to swot up on the 'facts'.

finally, perhaps you may simply need some tongue in cheek black history or be planning for that trip to the shetland isles. either way there is a wealth of knowledge out there. be warned though it might not all be true.......

time becomes a...... well, you'll get the picture.

2007-07-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtubedoubler.com/

death of a glowstick

2007-07-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

Ok It's actually an advert and if you look at the other things on the blending list, they spookily coincide with releases of various products and films, but this is cool and would be great for parties (& maybe cocktails).

http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=glowsticks

Ulrika

2007-07-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

Today is ULRIKA DAY!!!!! Happy day Ulrika! X

the proof is here.

& here.

& here are some famous ulrikas from history

Ulrika Knape

Ulrika Jonsson

Ulrika Pasch

Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar

in fact, help yourself........ here.

they're great aren't they? i know which one i like best.

stencils

2007-07-03T11:02:00.001-07:00

they don't make 'em like they used to.....

2007-07-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

this is fun. thanks to kieran for this one.

errrr, news.

2007-06-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Today is Tony Blair's last day as UK Prime Minister. Yay!! He's also quitting his job as an MP and is off to save the Middle East (from the Arabs). You can read more about it here, and here, and probably in his new book which will probably have a foreword by an American president.

here is another take on the subject.....

Good news

2007-06-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ulrika has phoned and she's safe and back home in Sweden. I'm so happy that i'm going to post some pictures of the pretty flowers that we saw on our ill fated trip.

You may have noticed from the pictures but not all the flowers are so pretty; some are damaged, some are dead and decaying. I thought this was as beautiful as anything else i saw. When we looked closely at the plants, the death of the flowers was followed by new growth. Ahhh, nature. Ye cannae whack it.

Where's Ulrika?

2007-06-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Ulrika and i went for a trip to the highlands and visited a garden called Crarae. It was a lovely place but also very big and full of large plants. I lost Ulrika. Can you find her for me?

it was always going to happen...

2007-06-18T11:29:00.001-07:00

this is my friend Alan forgetting that he doesn't know how to ride a skateboard. he's got a PhD, mmmm.

shuffle

2007-06-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

a collection of some of the characters that were in the 'youth' zone at the Glasgow Mela 2007

beer in the gloaming

2007-06-12T13:39:00.001-07:00

mmmmmm, beer.

west end festival

2007-06-12T13:31:00.001-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6739189.stm

this is a link to photos of the west end festival that someone else took.

panoramorama

2007-06-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

here's a couple of panorama pictures i took whilst i was dandering about town last week. the first was taken on the steps of the Royal concert hall & the other was taken sitting above the 'green beach' in Kelvingrove park. it's a bit quiet, which is unfortunate as it can be dead groovy and exciting (ehem), so there may be more to come from this one....

the canal

2007-06-05T10:21:00.001-07:00

i went for a walk today along the canal from Maryhill to the city and took a few photos. the first is of a Dookit (dove cot) and there's a lot of these scattered around Glasgow. Quite ramshackle things but they have a lot of Glasgow about them. they look a bit post-apocalyptic to me.
the second two are of a mural on a building in the industrial Port Dundas area of Glasgow. the place is almost deserted of people apart from these folks. see if you can spot the real bloke amongst all the figures, it's not hard. really.

my first blog....

2007-06-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

in the words of the great Blog Marley "I'm blogging, i'm blogging, i hope you like blogging too". It went something like that....

Anyway, I've started this blog as all the best people seem to be doing it and I don't want to be left behind. The name is a reference to the book Lanark by Alisdair Gray. I live in Glasgow and it may be the best book ever written about the city.

The picture to the left is a t-shirt I made for my brother. It's his 33rd birthday tomorrow and that's what he'll be getting for his birthday, so shhhhhh, please don't tell him until I get a chance to give it to him.

have to go now but will update this as so as I've got something interesting to say....