Apparently today (September 19th) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Lulu have used it as an excuse to have one of their famous flash sales.

Until Friday (21st) you can get 15% off any order with the code "PIRATA".

Alas Neil will be taking no more small steps anywhere. He died earlier today at the age of 82, apparently from complications following heart surgery three weeks ago.

Source: NBC News.

Obituary (BBC News)

Just in case anyone's wondering where EnemyofFun has disappeared to... he's got caught up in events that took place a long time in a galaxy far away :)

Courtesy of a post he made to Google+ this morning:

Sorry for being absent for so long in my writing...I assure you nothing bad has happened. I've actually kinda got sucked into Star Wars The Old Republic. I did writing almost 5 pages of my latest chapter for Season...here's hoping I can take some time off TOR to actually finish off the chapter :)

So now you know :)

Just got back from a nice walk around the local area, checked the news to see if the TdF had finished...

...and yup, it had and there were no unforseen calamities, so we ended up with the perfect result as predicted for the past few days: Cav won the stage, Wiggo won the race, and Froome was second.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/18946960

Congratulations to all three!

Next stop: a certain quadrennial sporting event... which starts on Friday evening for most, but Wednesday afternoon for the footballers (!)

This has to count as one of the most bizzare stories ever to come out of the world of sport:

A female Indian athlete who won a gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games appeared in court on Friday charged with raping her former lover who has alleged that she is actually a man. Pinki Pramanik was remanded in custody for 14 days to await trial on allegations that she repeatedly raped her female live-in partner.

Source: AFP (via Yahoo)

Spotted on Google+, shared by a prominent Googler (Kristoffer Sorensen):

The Danish Folketing has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a full ecclesiastical marriage service in the national Evangelical-Lutheran church for homosexual couples, to be instituted as a full, official marriage equal to that of heterosexual couples. After a lengthy and sometimes heated debate, which ran some three hours over its expected time, 85 members voted in favour of the law, 24 against and with two abstentions.

Source: Politiken.dk

Apparently, the reason the Folketing can rule in this way is that the Protestant Church in Denmark is a State Church.

Yes, well, erm, I've notched up another milestone on my journey through life. In years gone by, I'd be exactly half way through my allotted three score and ten, but with the way both longetivity and statutory minimum retirement ages keep rising, I might still be as fit as a fiddle and in work by then. I can but hope :)

So... thirty five years I've been on this planet (well, I will have been as of about 5:45pm tonight, as mum will frequently remind me at this time of year!) - here's to many more.

Cheers! :)

You may remember several weeks ago, one of Bailey Summers' original songs from Jem got a very positive reception. At the time, only the lyrics existed.

When I read it, I started to get the inklings of a tune, and with Bailey's permission, have attempted writing some music for it (my first attempt at composing since GCSE Music in 1993-95!). Bailey approves, so now the next stage is to publish it here, in the hope we've got some arrangers / musicians / singers who can take Bailey's words and my melody / chords, and work some magic with them.

Just in case those of you in the US thought your politicians had cornered the market in spouting nonsense in their campaigning against gay marriage, one of ours has apparently decided that it opens the door to bigamy and child marriage...

Ho hum.

The story's featured in the Huffington Post.

A recently arrested chap in Thailand gives a whole new meaning to the term "Panty thief". How about a collection of 10,000 pairs of women's underwear?!
He's been convicted of breaking and entering but not theft, as (perhaps unsurprisingly) nobody's reported their undies disappearing...

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2012/02/14/thai-man-10000-pairs...

Breaking News on Google+ originally shared this post:

Washington becomes 7th US state to allow same-sex marriage, as Gov. Gregoire signs bill into law Olympia, Wash., USA

+KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reports that Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed Washington State's gay marriage bill into law. The measure takes effect June 7.

If you've followed my occasional ramblings over the past couple of years, you may remember I once embarked on the foolish quest to compose a spreadsheet containing summaries of all the "Bike" episodes, together with some other relevant background information.

PS and I worked together to get the first 1,000 done, then I largely took over until the 1280s whereby my life got busier and I fell behind.

YouTube themselves are helping this interesting dance sequence (titled Miracle on 42nd Street) go viral, and it is getting a lot of attention.

I wonder if any of the males on "Strictly Come Dancing" or "Dancing with the Stars" would be brave enough to follow in the footsteps of Zac Hammer here... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZqz94ODz18

This has to be one of the most bizarre cases I've ever read. Boyfriend didn't want children so used condoms. Girlfriend did so saved the sperm they contained, cryogenically preserved them, then at a later date defrosted the little wrigglers and had twins via IVF. Unsurprisingly, when the ex-boyfriend found out, he wasn't exactly pleased...

Ex-girlfriend hid sperm and used for in-vitro pregnancy: suit

Oh, and look at the page filename for the tabloid version of the headline...

Those of you who've been here a few years may remember a devilishly difficult Christmas tune acronym quiz I've run over the past few years.

As it's still November, I thought I'd share with you the answer sheet - so allowing you plenty of opportunities to download it, abridge it and save a copy with the answers removed to try out on your friends / family / neighbours / colleagues etc.

Lulu seem to like having regular offers - they've just launched another one for UK readers, which is valid until 11:59pm Friday.

20% off site-wide, up to a maximum discount of  £100.

The code is: EARLYSHOPPERUK305

So if you've been procrastinating over the possibility of buying one of Maddy's books... :)

Here's an alternative bit of waffle about the GabyCon - this time from my perspective :)

Having attended my first GabyCon last year and enjoyed it so much, I readily signed up to this year's. Despite not having ridden (rode?) a bicycle for the best part of 16 years (since going to uni), I was brave / foolish enough to volunteer to take part in this year's bicycle ride. But more on that later.

On the one hand, it's a 16 GB USB flash drive.

On the other, it can also be used in a completely different 'port'.

I'm not entirely sure who'd want to pay $140 for this, and would you really want to use it for one purpose after using it for the other purpose?

Needless to say, there's plenty of joking in the "Best Rated" comments.

Read more to find out what I'm wittering on about: Here's the article (in the Daily Wail, of all places!)

A couple of interesting videos that YouTube decided to recommend to me.

First up, a witty animation (in the style of BUPA adverts) looking at gender stereotypes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWS2atEmc

I would advise you stay away from the comments though - there's some troll feeding going on (one commenter equating feminism and lesbianism with satanism. Oh dear...)

Second up, "What's wrong with Gender Roles?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swcXk-uqqLk

Oh, and Lizzie appears to have attracted a much nicer bunch of commentators :)

Doesn't time fly? I apparently first signed up to BCTS on 24th July 2009.

Looking back through "Track", my first 66 comments (including several on the first day!) were all in response to a single story (albeit different chapters!).

1 year 48 weeks ago I posted my first blog entries and found some other stories to comment on.
1 year 33 weeks ago saw me inflicting you with my Christmas Tunes Acronym Quiz (did I ever give out the answers link?)
1 year 26 weeks ago saw my first two stories arrive.

(Yup - it really seems to be the season for birthdays and anniversaries!)

I have it on good authority that the person responsible for these characters (and many more)...

...has a birthday today.

And not just any birthday... it's one of the milestone ones. (No, this person has definitely not arrived at their End Of File!)