Tag: TV

WebTrends – 4th February 1999

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Email with TLJ:

S: Did you find out about the network setup of the servers today?

T: Yup, there is absolutely no connection between the internal and external servers – everything goes through a switch,

S: Do you know how this works? I don’t understand (cos I’m a dummy!). Diagram? Internal server=intranet? External=internet? Switch in-between?

S: I hope you are having a good afternoon and that the sun is shining in the windows somewhere.
” Take the sameness out of your days. Give each day a specific purpose. What do you want to accomplish at work that will bring you one day closer to your financial goals? How do you intend to keep yourself healthy? What fun things can you look forward to doing today? How can you make someone else’s day better than it might be?
For unsuccessful and unhappy people, there is often a boring sameness to their days. Is it Monday or Thursday? It doesn’t matter. Is it March or November? It doesn’t matter. Is it 3 o’clock in the afternoon or 10 o’clock in the morning? It doesn’t matter.
Everybody has the same amount of time each day. How are you going to spend your 24 hours today?”
Guo Nian!

T: Is this goodbye?

S: Celebrate the (New) Year!

T: was waiting for a call from the guy upstairs – need to show him some sample reports and go through what he wants, but he hasn’t called yet and I hope he doesn’t because I want to go home at 5, and I’d prefer to do it when I’m feeling a little less groggy.

S: Why you groggy? Hey – wanna go to Art Express after uni tomorrow?

T: I know you won’t get this til tomorrow anyway, but the news was filming in Martin Place today and I walked straight past the cameras without realising. I only realised when I saw the cameraman behind me. I think I was out of the shot anyway, cause I was walking along the left side of the path.
I was on TV when I was in 2nd grade (7) for this mini Olympics that our school held. Mike Willisee was hosting, and I was up-front carrying the banner for my team “Fantasia” – we were blue and gold. Then I was on TV because I had to pretend to be a reporter and interview this guy in my grade who had just won a race. His name was Dean and he was a really naughty boy. He had white hair and a husky, throaty voice and moles. Anyway, Aisan brought up the fact that she had the video the other night at the tour reunion video night, and I had fun reminiscing about it. We’ve got the
video somewhere, and I gotta say, I was cute in that video!!! I had long hair too.
Want to show you, but I don’t know where it is.

S: YES!!!! You have to show me – I wanna see you when you were cute!
Got in at 7.04 this morning – still no parking spot! Didn’t wanna get up this morning….
I’ll probably go to physio about 3.30 or 4.00 so I get out of there in a reasonable time – you wanna do something or wait til Thursday – or will you be out with your uni friends on Thursday?
Hope you are not feeling so groggy today baby.
Ciao-bella

Poems on this day – 19th September 1988

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Noisy Bastard Car

Twin carburettor, chocking fumes
Leather seats and furry wheel
Noisy bastard car consumes
More than you can see or feel
Jeez, I’m exhausted
Where’s my money gone?
Now my go-faster stripes
Have come undone

I Had A Feeling

I had a feeling I was on fire
I had a feeling I was burning alive
I wanted someone to put me out
To have a feeling I could survive

Harold Is A Wanker

Harold Bishop is a wanker
Herman Munster is a dick
Bergerac just isn’t funny
Blue Peter just makes me sick
Harold Bishop, we blame you
Cos we know you’ll take the blame
Why bother to watch another episode
When it really is just the same.

*The Week That Was – 6th February 1984

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Record of the week: DOA – Bloodied But Unbowed

6th February 1984
Knackered. Physics was alright. Maths was totally shit. Lunchtime was boring. I was depressed by now. Social Studies made it worse. As did H.E. Bus home was alright. Hill Street Blues was good – cheer me up. Chucked Andy out of the group.

7th February 1984
R.E. – no teacher. P.S.C.E. – Jim’s shit. Maths – shit. B. Studies – shit. English – good, right piss around. P.E. – basketball – quite a laugh. Told Simon about Andy – no practice Sunday. Grange Hill was good. Went out on bike, down the road and round about. Looks like a good film on later ‘Visions of Death’. Football on instead.

8th February 1984
H.E. – made some bread. Physics – did a mock practical – quite good. Spent 80p on sweets. R.E. was ok. English was ok. B. Studies was boring. Maths was shit. Went out on my ped again. Didn’t do much else really at all at all at all at all at all….

9th February 1984
Art – Ok. P.E. – slaughtered Chesh at badminton. Social Studies – not bad. Business Studies – cut my thumb on a typewriter. English – ok. Fuck all to do at home at the moment. Reading Paul’s fanzine at the mo’. Ped just ran out of petrol or something.

10th February 1984
Did my English exam today – don’t think I did too well. English was a laugh. About 30 of us got caught smoking today. Burdet was lippy to Brooke and has got to see Crud. H.E. – boring. Maths – shit. Played football at lunch – good laugh. Art was ok. Business Studies was ok. Physics was alright. Jim’s decided to go vegetarian. Quite an eventful day so far. Watching telly now – well, there’s not much else to do.

11th February 1984
Got up at 8.15. Went to Poole. Saw Burd. Saw Lisa, Justin etc. Got some vivisection posters. Bought DOA LP. Met Paul around 3.20 and didn’t do much. Went to Arts Centre with Fish, Gilly and Paul. Quite a laugh. Came back home – played records, watched telly. Watched the horror movie – was fuckin’ shit. Talked til about 2.30.

12th February 1984
Woke up 10.30. Played records. Played darts and cards with Paul. Didn’t do a lot. Took dog for a walk. Took Paul back to Wareham. Not a lot on telly tonight. Read book most of the night. Couldn’t stay up for Sgt Bilko.

Whatever You Want – 29th November 1982

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17th Jun 2025 – I discovered that on this date I was watching the new UK TV channel, inspiringly titled Channel 4, and it’s wild and crazy, Keith Allen-fronted show Whatever You Want. I know this because the vision of watching the Birthday Party in a live performance of both The Fears of Gun and Hamlet (Pow, Pow) was so entrancing that they stuck with me forever.

For a 14-year-old me, this appealed with its over-the-top performance and mind-bending music. I think I was already familiar with Hamlet (Pow, Pow), but perhaps not The Fears of Gun. My memory isn’t so good in this case. The Birthday Party’s music still captivates because I just don’t understand how it was created.

*The Week That Was – 8th June 1981

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Single of the week: 999 – Obsessed, Vice Squad – Resurrection EP

8th June 1981
Anarchy in the UK on John Walker’s show
JW taking JP’s place

9th June 1981
TOO DRUNK TO FUCK IS IN THE CHARTS AT 36

10th June 1981
Went to rounders
I am great

11th June 1981
A good day
Nothing happened though

12th June 1981
You’ll never believe this but I watched telly

13th June 1981
England 1 – Germany 2
Won 10, Lost 5

14th June 1981
BLOODY HOT

This week’s chart-topper is: Smokey Robinson – Being With You

The Week That Was – 7th January 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

12th Oct 2021 – Each page of this diary had a small write-up on some important or legendary footballer and re-reading a lot of these names was a trip. Just seeing the name would remind me of the teams I was familiar with them playing for. Players were brutal and ugly in those days, playing on muddy and messy pitches. The sport was highly revered but was without the crazy amount of money that sponsorships and advertising brought once the Premier League began – which is also around the time I lost interest – though there are other reasons involved for that too.

7th January 1979
Granny beat me at Happy Days
But I beat her in Trumps

12th Oct 2021 – Trumps or Top Trumps was really popular around this time, a card-collecting game where you chose your best stat hoping to beat your opponents. Topics may be types of car or military vehicles. Unsurprisingly there is a website for Top Trumps, so possibly it is even popular now for any child who doesn’t have a phone. And come to think of it, many mobile phone games employ similar systems of scoring as TT too.

For Happy Days I had to go search and finding this picture I’m guessing this is what I was playing with my Granny. She was always Granny, never Gran or Grandma. I can’t imagine it but I hope playing this (and winning) gave her some affection for her grandson. The board doesn’t trigger any memories but the jukebox counting design feels familiar. Look at all the American words I was already subjecting myself to. Nerd, cruising, drag. After exposure to Grease last year I was getting to be all about the leather jacket.

8th January 1979
I am able to watch Danger UXB because there’s no school tomorrow
HEEYYYY!

12th Oct 2021 – Again, a quick image search triggers memories of this show. Otherwise, I’m lost. I was particularly anxious at times during this show as the soldiers would race against time to disarm bombs. Hard to imagine how they got so much mileage out this premise. 13 episodes and that was it – something I always liked about many UK TV shows. Concise and well written.

9th January 1979
Return to school postponed
WO!

12th Oct 2021 – Still improving my American language skills, I hadn’t yet learned how to spell Woah!

10th January 1979
Ipswich 3-2 Carlisle
HEYY!

12th Oct 2021 – WOAH and HEY are my attempts at being the coolest cat in deepest Dorset. There was no one to impress except my own maturing ego.

11th January 1979
Still no school and I ain’t going tomorrow cause it’ll be stupid

12th January 1979
A boring day
Nothing to say
It rhymes It rhymes

12th Oct 2021 – Here I am, already on my poetic journey. I must’ve been bored with the snow already.

13th January 1979
Previous scores 5-2, 6-1
Ipswich P-P Villa
Blurp!

12th Oct 2021 – At this point, football and Ipswich were my primary concern. Something that would change somewhat during the course of this year.

The Week That Was – 31st December 1978

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

31st December 1978
Snow started falling yesterday
HEYY!

2nd Aug 2021 – My first memory of snow, though it is likely I experienced it previously when I lived in Cumbria. About 4 or 5 feet of snow fell over a few days and hung around for ages as the temperature stayed around freezing. I built huge camps by the garden hedge, reenacting great trench warfare battles with pine cones as grenades. My machine gun also finding the target of the British soldiers. As with football teams, I always sided with the team in blue, obviously not knowing the real history behind the wars. It also made me want to side with the underdog and to try to appreciate the other side of a story. This was probably helped along by a continual stream of British movies celebrating victory against all odds, an attempt to counter the decline of the Empire since the end of the second world war.

My brief research indicates that there was snow around Dorset until February at least. A child’s dreamland!

1st January 1979
Watched the zany goings-on with The Didn’t Quite Make It In Time For Christmas Show

2nd Aug 2021 – That’s Kenny Everett and Rod Stewart – and this is what people looked like in 1979! Other guests were Leo Sayer and Hot Gossip. Punk had definitely not gone mainstream yet!

2nd January 1979
Tried some tricks with rubber bands
HEYY!

2nd Aug 2021 – Not sure what I was doing with rubber bands here but my mum taught me how to tie rubber bands together to make them longer. In summer I would tie four together and shoot dead the flies that had come in through the open windows during the day. Their blood-splattered remains smeared across the walls and ceiling.

3rd January 1979
I rolled a snowball about 3 feet high but later I smashed it with Kung Fu kicks

3rd Aug 2021 – Kung Fu was a pretty popular TV series and I was always in awe of when the guy gripped the molten pot that burned images of a dragon and lion onto his arms. I think I checked out the show again a few years ago and like many things, it’s best left good in the memory of the past. Looking for the attached picture tells me the show has been revived this year. Hmmm….could be good. Could be terrible.

4th January 1979
‘Blue Peter’ were talking about diaries
HEYY!

3rd Aug 2021 – No one who saw it at the time will ever forget Peter Purves exclaiming ‘What a lovely pair of knockers!’ about a couple of door handles. A further search for this has the phrase spoken by Simon Groom – see how fallible our memories can be?

5th January 1979
I found out that Saturday’s match wasn’t on
HEYY
What do you mean Heyy

3rd Aug 2021 – I was writing HEY on most pages of my diary because I loved watching Happy Days and also thought the Fonz was so cool. It was as close as a prepubescent could get to being a potential rebel. It was the nearest we got to seeing punk rock on the TV most weeks. I notice most of my diary this week revolves around TV. At this time we cherished these shows as they mostly were only on once a week and life was planned around things you wanted to watch.

On Saturday’s I would usually play football for the school team – I was centre forward, wishing to emulate my heroes Trever Whymark and Paul Mariner. Talking of which, as previously mentioned I think I also asked the hairdresser to cut my hair like the Fonz – which also never worked out well for me or the hairdresser.

I think in this case the match I was talking about was the Ipswich game as this would have still been school holiday time.

6th January 1979
Ipswich P-P Carlisle
BLURP!

3rd Aug 2021 – Ipswich had won the FA Cup last year and I believe did very well in 1979 too, winning the Cup Winners Cup and possibly the First Division (though that may have been in the following couple of years). These were days before big sponsorship deals and the names of the competition changing every year depending on who provided the money.