Not sure where to put this
I need to know if I did the right thing.

A few hours ago I was talking to my pal with whom I've been friends with since we were in school. I've since moved abroad and I'm 6000-ish miles away. We keep in touch via MSN.
Today he started talking strangely, he wanted to ask a "serious question" but changed the subject quickly, stating that it wasn't important.
Not long after this, I walked away from the computer for a few minutes. When I returned, he was offline and he had said "right. i think it's time, if i disappear for a while... take care. it's been awesome. bye bye buddy"
I panicked because I thought he'd killed himself.
I searched for his phone number everywhere, on my old mobile from the UK, in address books, everywhere. I had nothing to go on, just a name and a vague idea of an address.

I decided to call the UK police over Skype at 3am GMT to track down my friend with only a name. Two hours later, I got a response from the police. He was ok. He was confused as to why I thought he was going to commit suicide, and why the police showed up at his house at 4am.

Did I do the right thing, or am I an idiot?
( Grokthought wouldn't pay that for Chinese 5-Spice, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 10:12, 12 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Happy Birthday QOTW replies
Today marks the first anniversary of enabling QOTW replies. In the past year, a whole community has sprouted from these replies. There have been many interesting threads in the replies. So what have your favourite QOTW reply threads been? Any particularly favourite Home Sweet Home threads?

I'm doing my big move today so don't have the time to go digging around, but for now, I'll leave you with the Flashwank thread.

Who knows what the next year may bring...
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 8:53, 4 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Morning all
I hope that this finds everybody suitably well and rested. Firstly, why the shitting fuck was I awake at 6am? Because I am a greedy, money grubbing whore and I'm off into work later for some beautiful overtime.

Dazzle me with how stupendously marvelous your Saturday night was, make me green with envy that I stayed in with a Domino's and Morrison's own Best Bitter.

TTFN.



(SpunkyMcSpunkbubble Diddled your nubbin on, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 6:59, 123 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Egads!
Teh /all is brokened! Abandon hope all ye who enter! *runs ascared*

I may or may not be in a rather odd mood tonight. Fun times.

I guess I ought to stick a HSH sign here as there is no evening thread.


( Captain V, Sat 11 Oct 2008, 19:03, 53 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Name my cat
Today I've adopted a new cat - PJM and I picked him up from the local sanctuary this morning.

He's a lovely cat, very large and very vocal. Sadly he's very, very thin and had been abandoned before finding his way to the sanctuary. The staff had called him Jimmy but it doesn't really suit him but at the moment we can't seem to come up with any really good names.

We've been through

Arthur
Errol
Oscar
Ian
Brian
Eric
Stephen
Albert
Malcolm

And each one has been rejected for various reasons.

So suggest a name for this cat please.

I'll post a pic here once he smells a bit sweeter - he's very bedraggled and dirty - he'd only been at the sanctuary for a day or so.

Added bonus points for names with literary references!
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Sat 11 Oct 2008, 17:20, 36 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Let's get deep in thought on this one.

Is it ever acceptable to clone STUFF?
( mike woz ere 7442200 & 7696970 getter, Sat 11 Oct 2008, 16:58, 6 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Good morning!


And how are we all today?
(Holy Cremola Foam Batman will be back on, Sat 11 Oct 2008, 9:38, 241 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Yay!!!!!!!!!
Stealth came home! :D :D
Ninja hasn't arrived yet, and Stealth is looking and meowing for him - I hope he's ok!
Meanwhile, Stealth is munching on fresh albacore tuna.
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Sat 11 Oct 2008, 8:11, 8 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

It's almost bedtime for most of you lot
but I had to tell you about my foray into gardening today.
I bought plant pots, lots of flowering plants and a bunch of herbs, and now have them all nicely planted in the pots on my patio.
(My friend owes me $60 but he's broke so I had him work on the patio - pulling weeds, putting down gravel etc etc).

Fortunately, Home Depot (US equivalent of B&Q) has a 1 year return policy, so if I kill them all I can take 'em back!
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Fri 10 Oct 2008, 23:21, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

many moons ago
someone posted a link to a load of photos of some woman, and on every photo her expression was exactly identical.

Anyone know where to find them and the animation someone made of the photos with the face mapped in exactly the same position in each frame.

EDIT: A szearch for woman's face is no good either, and the prospect of trawling through 349 newsletters isn't good, so hopefully someone might have it favourited (is that a word? Of course it bloody isn't)
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 10 Oct 2008, 17:59, 7 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

So
The daythread hath become rather on the slow side, and it's the evening by my reckoning, so here we go.


(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Fri 10 Oct 2008, 17:50, 114 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

It's my first b3ta birthday
and I'm using it as an excuse to go to the pub, hurrah!

\o/ \o/ \o/
(man_d is being watched by experts on, Fri 10 Oct 2008, 14:53, 6 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I need new reading material.
My favourite genre is recent post apocalyptic stuff, i.e. the aftermath of nuclear war/global disaster. I've read:

The Stand
On The Beach
The Road
The Handmaids Tale
Hammerfall
Dies The Fire

and loads of others along those lines.

Any recommendations?

Edit: Ooooh, just found www.empty-world.com
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Fri 10 Oct 2008, 14:13, 24 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Time for a QOTD I think
Have you ever changed your b3taname? I was piston_fixed for a while, and then piston_bloke, but got bored and changed it back. What about you lot? Or, if you've never changed your name, how about a little game of I have never?
( jim_bob can herd cats., Fri 10 Oct 2008, 13:58, 13 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

What, no HSH thread?
Might as well...



Hungover, at work, on a Friday morning. How're you lot?
( jim_bob can herd cats., Fri 10 Oct 2008, 8:55, 385 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Last wek's QOTW is closed so I cannot reply
I thought I'd stick it here instead.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that read and replied to my post.

I'm having a pretty shitty day and reading the replies has me sitting here with tears in my eyes.

Funny how a bunch of internets peoples I've never met can be better friends than people I'd known for most of my life.

And just to make clear- Kurt wasn't a friend. When we were kids his family were friends with my best friends family. We just used to taunt each other like any boys and girls do at 6 or 7-ish. I'd run into him a couple of times over the years but it was totally random that he found and helped me.

Of course, we were friends after that. Many a beer has been bought for him.

thanks

xoxkittyxox
(misskitty reeks of sex and turpentine; laudanum afternoons, Fri 10 Oct 2008, 3:13, 3 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

feck
ive just remembered, my 5 year old nephew gave me 19p from his own pocket money for my birthday if felt so,there has been no word invented to describe what i felt, my god i feel a bit cockish now for not remembering that,

also ive promised my friendgirl that she can have whatever she needs whenever she needs it, be it money, a place to stay, anything in fact
( weaver., Fri 10 Oct 2008, 1:56, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

As it's a large pic
I'll just post a link to it instead...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 9 Oct 2008, 21:38, 8 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Horrible!
Yesterday, we scattered the last of mums ashes in the Pacific, then I said goodbye to my family who were going back to England. When I got back to my apartment, my kittums were missing and they've still not come home!
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 19:28, 12 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Ahem.....evening


I'll just pop it here.

Nice pic TGB!
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 18:30, 216 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I can't find the adapter for my beard trimmer
and the battery has run out, so instead of trimming it I'm combing it into silly shapes...

anyone got any suggestions or requests?
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 17:44, 12 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Feel free to ignore
I won't mind. My spak-tardly account of yesterday. Rocked up to the tube station for 9:30am, no trains for 10 mins...that's ok I have plenty of time to get there, get off to change for central line, someone's been taken off the tube at Bank sick on the train before mine so they've shut down the central line at bank. Call brother to find out quickest way, advises Jubilee, so get back on northern to London bridge. All jubilee trains are stopping at West Ham instead of Stratford, kick bits of London bridge station for a bit. Get tube 10 mins later into Stratford which goes as slowly as possible. Tube is partly overground so get countless phone calls enquiring where I am and when I'll be at the homestead. Get to central line platform, hear announcement that three trains ahead the driver has decided to reverse and as such there is another delay on the central line. 20 minutes later I'm on the right train which then stops at the station before mine for an eternity without reasoning or explanation. Receive very dark looks from lady opposite for using creative language in explaining situation to one of my brothers on phone. Get to my stop and get cab to homestead, no space in road to actually drive up it, so run very very fast to house in time to see funeral cars arrive. So 2 hours, 40 minutes wasn't bad for a one hour 15 max usual trip.

Actual funeral was very nice if they can be described as such. I didn't look around that much inside the church, but it's estimated by my brothers that there were around 200/300 people in there. I cried like a baby when the opening music started and continued snuffling at certain poignant bits. The eulogy was delivered by one of my dad's friends who's known him for around 20 years and he pinpointed him exactly right. The actual crematorium bit was over in less than 10 minutes so I barely had time to start crying all over again as the curtains were whisked across and we were ushered back to the cars.

Got through the meet and greet bit afterwards by only walking up to people I wanted to speak to to thank them for their role in his life or the funeral. Faaar too many old women walking up and saying "I bet you don't remember me...Ooh I bet you don't." got a bit wearing, so I resorted to "No, give me a clue or I'm finding someone else to speak to". Apparently I haven't changed a great deal in 20 years.

Everyone finally left an hour or so later and we were presented with a mountain of food to take home. We ate some of it, but managed to ply it off on neighbours as my mum hates wasting food.

I've now quit smoking, which probably accounts for why I'm feeling a bit more rubbish than usual today, but I promised him I would, along with some other stuff that I'm determined to honour.

Think I'll stop rambling now.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 16:20, 18 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

No HSH thread yet?
Thursday already woo!

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 9:03, 300 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

[early QOTD question]
We've got some great usernames around here.

Tell us why your username is what it is.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 8:35, 75 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

[late QOTW entry] Mix Tapes
Not Mix Tapes as such, but more like Everything-Torrents.

Once last year, when searching for goodies to BitTorrent, I discovered a set of Torrents of every single tune that had made it into the top 40 from 1965 to 2003. I found this when searching for a particular mp3 I had been trying to search for for 9 years (since I discovered what mp3s were and how easy it was to download them). At first, I was glad to have found the mp3, but a bit more digging around revealed that they had a set of Torrents of all songs that made it into the top 40 for a given year. My curiosity got the better of me. At first, I downloaded only the ones from around the time-period of my childhood but soon downloaded the lot.

Out of curiosity, I decided to browse through seemingly random songs from my early childhood. Some songs were familiar, but some I had completely forgotten about until I heard them again. One thing about music is that it tends to bind with memories from when you hear it. If it's a tune you've not heard in ages, it brings back things you are likely to have forgotten. With me, that was often the case.

My early childhood was a bit of a mixed bag to say the least. Many things had happened that at one stage I had either hoped I'd want to forget, or things that just didn't seem to make sense. Listening to these forgotten songs unleashed lost and disconnected memories that shed light on the things that had gone on before. For the first time, I was able to objectively look at my early childhood and fit everything together like a giant jigsaw - it explained why I was the way I was and why some things happened. I also remember long periods of being bored or under stimulated.

I now have very lucid memories of my early childhood, and can see with an adult's perspective the way a kid sees the world with a kid's perspective. Although nothing can truly prepare me for being a father, being aware of the way I saw the world as a kid now makes me look forward to rearing kids of my own.

As a bonus, I finally discovered the name of the song I danced to the first time I plucked the courage to ask a girl to dance at a school disco. I didn’t know what it was so couldn’t hear it again. I had heard it on the radio a few times, but never caught the name. Finally after 15 years of searching, I found it.

Length? It's honestly not worth placing 13 DVDs worth of mp3s in WinAmp just so I can make a crappy length-joke.

EDIT: This was pearoasted here.

( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 2:15, 3 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Don't you hate it when you lose at poker?

( Dave Trouser ; the people's choice - 75% agree, Wed 8 Oct 2008, 23:52, 10 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Information time

( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 8 Oct 2008, 18:26, 11 replies, latest was 16 years ago)