peck72

I should have known that as soon as I wrote that I'll update this coming weekend, there would be absolutely no chance what so ever that I would. So sorry about that.

I'll begin with the promised news. On the 7th of September I will be getting my long hair (which hasn't been cut since 2000) cut off and the beard that I've had since the age of 18 shaved off, all in the name of charity!





The cause in question is to raise funds towards building schools for the Dalit people in India. I have set up a Facebook group with more details about my temporary madness and which will contain many pictures of my hairless state after the event. Details for sponsorship are on the Facebook pages as are details of where I'll be doing this, so any visitors are welcome. If you want to know anything more about the event or more about why I'm doing this then please comment  here or e-mail me.

On other news, yesterday was the Mathew Street Festival in Liverpool which I've finally managed to get along to see. It usually seems to happen that I'm working when its on and so can't get to it. Technically,  I was working yesterday but finished at 08.00 so I was able to stay up and after a quick shower and change of clothes head back into Liverpool with Anna.
Our first port of call was the Tate Gallery on the Albert Dock for the Gustav Klimt exhibition. Really enjoyed the exhibition even if some of his more famous pieces (such as 'The Kiss') are not there because they never leave Vienna due to their fragile condition.

After the exhibition we wandered up into the centre of Liverpool to see some of the festival and to look for some more of the Superlambanana sculptures dotted around the city. The weather was perfect, so wandering from music stage to music stage amidst the crowds of people was incredibly pleasant and relaxing. It also helped that our route took us past the my favourite comics shop which meant that I could pick up the 'Brief Lives' Sandman graphic novel as my anniversary present from Anna.
On the way home, we dropped in on my sister and got to see her wedding video and look through the official photographers pictures of the day. I was horrified to see that on the video, during the ceremony, you can see me over Claires shoulder grinning like a loon. Ok, it was a very proud moment seeing my little sister getting wed but even so I could have held a little decorum, surely ;)

And so then back home and an evening catching up on tv which having been up since 4pm the previous day really was all I had the energy for.
Definitely a day very well spent.

And to finish, a meme pinched from greygirlbeast.

Go here (UK) or here (US) and see what was on the top of the charts on the day you were born and every birthday thereafter. Learn just how astrologically-musically lame your life has been. If you want, add in your own favorite No. 1 hit single of that year, wishing that your birthday had been cool enough to have that song be #1. Share your findings with your unsuspecting friendslist. Put it behind a cut.

Once more it's taking far too long to get around to updating this blog even when I have lots happening in real life to tell people about.

Firstly, bad news. My nan has been recieving radiotherapy for cancer in her throat and lungs over the last two weeks with a more speculative aim on treatment than one which is definitly going to do any real lasting good. We're all hoping for a good outcome but the realism is sitting at the back of the mind saying "This may not go the way you want it to." We can but wait and see.

Good news, graceunplugged, (my everloving wife, for those who don't know) is going to South Africa at the end of June with her new job to work (probably) with a church ministering to people suffering from AIDS. To say she is looking forward to it is something of an understatement. The only downside is that I'm not able to go with her. OM will pay for her to go (since it is her job to make all the arrangements for the people going on these trips, it will help her to actually go on one) but it would cost me somewhere in the region of £1000 to go too and unfortunatly we just don't have that to hand. This, combined with the short notice mean I'll just have to keep the home fires burning till she gets back with all the stories.

As for my news, I spent all of last week shadowing the Tissues department at work with the view to seeing what is involved in issuing the product out to hospitals. We got to see the whole process from start to finish, begining with a retrieval from a dead donor. This was probably the most interesting part of the week since it's unlikely I'll see anything like this again (although I have since been thinking of appling for a job there since the job as a whole is a great deal more interesting than what I'm doing at the moment).
The team retrieved sections of skin, both knee joints, both femoral heads (the round ball at the top of the femur that fits into the hip socket) and the Achilles tendons from the back of the calf. It really is a bit strange seeing a person dis-assembled in front of you but also very comforting to see how professional and dignified a process it is. I've been an organ donor since I was 18 and have always said that they can take any usable parts of me once I'm dead (not before, obviously) and seeing how this was done and then the care taken in the processing and storage of the tissues before they go out to hospitals for surgery has only reinforced that.
All the tissue is processed in clean-room enviroments to avoid any possible contamination and so when observing it I had to be all gowned up. Fortunatly, no pictures exist but I'm embarressed enough by my ungainly attempts to get in to the suits without touching the outsides or the floor. I'm assured it is an aquired skill but even though i thought I was a little more gracefull than that.
All in all, a good week. I'm a lot less concerned about the impact that the changes to my current job will have when we take up the issueing of the bone and tissue and I know some of the Tissues staff much better now.

To finish with a few meme's. First, one pinched from greygirlbeast

Your results:
You are R2-D2

R2-D2 72% Yoda 71% Chewbacca 69% Obi-Wan Kenobi 67% Qui-Gon Jinn 67% An Ewok 63% Darth Maul 62% Lando Calrissian 61% Luke Skywalker 59% Han Solo 57%

What you lack in height and communication skills, you make up for in industriousness, technical know-how and being there when others need you most.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Test


And now one pinched from trixie_chick

You scored as Either. You brain is neither specifically male nor female dominated in the way you perceive things and as bad as this sounds it can easily mean that you are capable of combining both limiting gender aspects to your advantage. Rather than being genderless you are possibly able think freely. This does not nec. mean that you are bisexual or androgynous or indecisive, though it might. Either 75% Male 57% Female 43% Neither 25% Should you be MALE or FEMALE?* created with QuizFarm.com

and lastly, one in honour of having seen X3 last saturday (quick review - could have been much better but I suppose it could have been much worse as well. Bryan Singer had better turn in a cracking film with Superman Returns though to merit deserting the franchise)

You Are Iceman

You tried to live a normal life, but it just wasn't possible A bit of a slacker, you rather tell jokes than cultivate your powers Powers: turning self and others into ice, making ice weapons, becoming nearly invisible

I quite like the answers given by these three, whether thay are accurate or not is another matter altogether though.