Be Excellent To Each Other

Brilliant! Well done!

That's fantastic news!

Just had my research proposal accepted - whoop!

Huzzah! What was your proposal? I'm hoping it was something cool like "A study into the relevant merits of axes vs swords in gorilla combat" or "A long term study into the effects of cocktails, exposure to tropical climate conditions and hammocks on research staff", or, at the very least "How many boiled eggs can Bob from Accounts eat in five minutes?".

Excelelnt!

I'm looking at shared identity that is manifest in activities.

Research question: What is the nature of the shared identity and what functions does it serve?

Activity : Playing in a heavy metal band.

I get to go to a couple of band practices and write about their group dynamics.

Nice.

Easy. (I hope)

Just found out that Hundred Reasons and Hell Is For Heroes are playing a gig in Manchester in November wherein they both play their debut albums in their entirety. Fuck yes! This will also give me and Mrs B an excuse to wander around Manchester's more salubrious bars (Odd Bar and Cask will definitely be on the agenda) getting drunk for a weekend; assuming we can get tickets when they go on sale tomorrow morning like.

You should go and visit my friend's most excellent clothes shop, Vintage Twists in Affleck's palace, too.

Amazing! I saw Hell Is For Heroes play a gig with Biffy Clyro ten years ago in a room of a Glasgow nightclub, to an audience of max 100 people. It was brilliant and the first time I'd ever heard of Biffy Clyro. Pretty sure Hundred Reasons kept cancelling their gig that I had tickets for, is it the lead singer of Hundred Reasons that has Crohns disease? I have a vague memory that was the reason for the cancellations.

I have no doubt Mrs B will drag me there, she spent time in Manchester when she was younger and always loved Affleck's Palace.



I'd loved to have seen Biffy in a venue that small, we saw them in the SECC a couple of years back and even in that terrible aircraft hanger they still managed to put on one of the best gigs I've ever been to so I imagine they'd blow the doors off such a small venue. Actually I also saw them at the Academy and they were excellent there as well.

Not sure about Hundred Reasons cancelling stuff, to be honest it's more Hell Is For Heroes that we're excited about seeing as they split up ages ago and we only managed to catch them live once before that. Although I do really like that first Hundred Reasons album so they'll be excellent too no doubt.

Bet you I don't get tickets now after all this chat...

Not sure, but the lead guy from Glassjaw does.

I saw Hundred Reasons before they'd even released their debut album. It was the spiciest, quickest washing machine curry ever.

I'm totally convinced I'm just being really dim here, but that second sentence there might as well be written in Swahili for all the sense it makes to me.

I think he's being 'funny'.

Yes, I get that; I just don't understand the joke. Someone help a brother out here.

We're only allowed to talk about games.

I saw them before they were good.

They were shit.

Ah, you're right, it was a Glassjaw gig that kept getting cancelled. I must have seen Hundred Reasons as well then.


Oh, sorry I didn't realise you knew Glasgow. The venue I originally saw Biffy in was The Garage, in a wee room upstairs. First and only time I've been in there but that's another story
Was pretty great, seeing this unknown band live and becoming a fan, then seeing them support someone in the Barrowlands, then playing a stage at t in the Park and so on until finally they were headlining T in the Park and selling out huge venues. I even saw them do a wee acoustic set in Borders in Glasgow which was incredible, that was about 9 years ago. Sadly, I haven't really kept up my love affair with live music, but I'd love a wee blast from the past like that gig you've mentioned. Good luck getting tickets!

When you first mentioned that, I pictured Nick Berry!

Kudos nonetheless.

Oh, and fuck you! I wanted to see them back then. Even went to a festival in Nottingham. Had to leave early to get my train. They were awesome before that album came out. Before EP3, as I recall.

Finally saw them when they were rubbish. With Cave In supporting.

Supporting.

I saw Cave in support the Foo Fighters and subsequently bought a couple of their albums. Antenna was fantastic if I remember rightly!

Antenna's good, aye. Listen to Jupiter though! Top three album of the decade.

£12 on Amazon for the CD... eBay is not much cheaper either.

I'll see if I can find it by some other means.

I have it twice on CD and once on vinyl

That's worth at least £24 right there!

You could say that.

I also have the pretty rare Moons of Jupiter EP .

Anyway, check this out!

Yeah. That's ace! I like it a lot.

Nice. In 1999-2000, they were untouchable.

Why did they change their name?

I was supposed to go back to work today after my two weeks paternity leave but my boss has just called and they don't want me back in until Monday. Isn't that nice?

After all the slagging off I do too.

Contract is in the post. 3 months to begin with and then, hopefully a permie role as a team member is retiring in September and I could be taking over most of his stuff. And the person who MrsA is doing maternity cover (which is how we ended up here in teh first place) for isn't coming back to work.

So, that's a vehicle to a mortgage soon, maybe. Which emans I've really got to finish painting the house in Oxfordshire.

You can buy me presents and shit like that for saturday

You'll get your presents at the house warming and not before.





Yay!

Brilliant!

Whose wedding?

Nothing to see here.

We're definitely not stitching you up into a wedding at the cottage.

Congrats!

It's still in the post.

I've been given two accounts to manage. Cripes.

I wrote a VBA thing and it worked! hurrah! Times saved: 10 minutes!

Hmm, the second one I did seems to have the effect of lobbing data all over the spreadsheet, and leaving a gap of c1000 rows. Oops.

Job contract here, a bit more money than I thought it was going to be, which is nice.

Nice one Mali, about time.

Excellent. I look forward to the celebratory drinks you buy at the quiz

Excellent.

Damn good show Mali. Bet you're relieved after all the delays.

Great news Mali, well done x

Thanks, all. We're both really pleased, and I think I truly deserve a new mountain bike now. And the budget for getting the 306 through the MOT just went up, much to MrsA's delight....