New York Thunderstorms

Who the hell is Michael Grieve?

Posted by Jon Grant at 10:33pm on Friday 5th June 2009.
Tags: michael grieve, stalker
Is he some kind of stalker or something? He has attempted to add me on every single "social networking" website there is going, and I have rejected him on all of them, but seriously, what is his deal? Does he do this to other people too? Or do I just have my own personal stalker here?


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Why your bags always take forever to come out at Edinburgh Airport

Posted by Jon Grant at 4:35pm on Thursday 4th June 2009.
Tags: BBC News, airport, baggage, edinburgh, link
I've never understood why it takes upwards of 30 minutes to unload and drive your luggage the 100 yards to the conveyor belt at Edinburgh when other airports (Southampton being a good example) can somehow seem to get your bags there before you even enter the terminal.

I guess this would explain it: Air worker 'dodgem' drivers fined. And while those two guys have been sacked, I don't doubt that it will be a deeply embedded culture in the place and it just so happens that these two got caught.
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Is It Going To Rain Today?

Posted by Jon Grant at 12:02pm on Monday 19th January 2009.
Tags: b3ta, rain
Time for another "inspired by B3ta" ten minute website!
  * IS IT GOING TO RAIN TODAY . COM - Probably a
  bit more complex, but with some reverse IP
  lookup for location and parsing the BBC weather
  site, a fair stab is possible.
So here it is: Is It Going To Rain Today?
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Edinburgh Drivers Are Crap

Posted by Jon Grant at 3:49pm on Wednesday 3rd December 2008.
Tags: accident, driver, edinburgh
Warning: I'm annoyed so this post may contain venting and/or bad language!

On Monday evening, I'm driving the family back from a trip to Tesco on a route I've driven hundreds of times. We approach a T-junction, driving straight across (from right to left on the top of the T), and we have a green light. Literally just as we cross the line of the junction, the light goes amber. Suddenly there's another car coming from the opposite direction turning right across in front of me. I stamp on the brakes but unfortunately am unable to stop in time and hit his front passenger side.

The other driver (an off-duty policeman by the way) says he had a green filter arrow to turn right, which I don't dispute. Many times I have been in his position and traffic continues to cross for a few seconds after the filter light goes on, which indicates a problem with the traffic lights... but since when do you ever just blast across a junction when turning right without even looking? Filter or no filter. Imagine there was a bus that could only make it half across the junction and therefore was blocking the road for his right turn. By his reasoning he would just drive straight into the side of the bus?!

Unfortunately due to him being a copper, he knew all the right things to say. It was like hearing him reading from a script the way he recited his story of the accident. Fortunately it seems pretty cut-and-dried and my insurance company believe I'm in the right.

So yesterday we get a replacement hire car, and today I drove out to a nearby shopping centre at lunch. I'm driving happily down the road; there are no traffic lights and no junctions this time, it's a completely open road... and some stupid bint comes from a concealed entrance on the left and cuts right across in front of me, trying to turn right.

I slam on the brakes (getting used to that maneuver) and managed to stop about 3 foot before hitting her, horn the crap out of her, and she just looks straight ahead and drives off with a guilty look on her face. It's so icy today she is lucky I was able to stop.

Seriously, are Edinburgh driving instructors all smoking crack or something? I've honestly never seen as many bad drivers anywhere as in this city. Twice in the past I've been in accidents where the other driver basically drove into me, and twice now some idiot has pulled out in front of me either actually or nearly causing an accident. And what the hell is up with that retarded "I'm signaling right on the roundabout but actually I'm going straight across" thing? Where the hell do these people learn to drive?

They should run some sort of "bad driver report" thing where you can report people's number plates and if they get a certain number they get 3 points on their licence. Maybe that would get the bloody idiots off the road.
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Maschinenfest 2008 Review

Posted by Jon Grant at 11:56am on Monday 13th October 2008.
Tags: germany, holidays, krefeld, maschinenfest, music, review, trip
Maschinenfest - Winterkälte
Winterkälte - Image by Jairus

So Maschinenfest was last weekend, and it was a lot of fun! We saw a lot of bands, did a lot of dancing, drank a lot of beer, and saw a little of Germany!

Some parts were a little disappointing though; for example some of the newer material by bands that I haven't seen live for a while wasn't quite up to the level I had hoped. MS Gentur and P·A·L were fairly big let-downs for me. I'm not sure if it's just that I remember them much better than they really were last time, or if it's the fact that it's now about eight years later and they have mellowed and/or changed style. Maybe it's both!

On the other hand, we discovered a few bands that I hadn't heard of before that were really good! Two that particularly stick in my mind were Scorn (from Napalm Death! awesome) and Enduser, and in the end that's what it was all about for me.

The last night, after all the bands were done, turned into a random party with everyone - including the staff - letting off steam. There was a guy in a gimp mask, and another wearing only a cardboard box! This was probably one of my best memories of the weekend and I had an amazing time. There are rumours it may have been the last one, but I sincerely hope not, as I'm already planning to go back next year!
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