I got to thinking about my old school today and a very timely link from Pewari meant that I could search for an archive photo of my own school. A US publishing company has collated thousands of high school year book photographs, along with pictures of school buildings into a huge searchable database. This past year they’ve extended the database to include Europe and other parts of the world (they even have Wales and Scotland listed as separate countries ).

It’s intended to be a paid for service but while it’s in beta you can search for free at World School Photographs.

English is a funny old language. When an area of a city is populated by the (mostly non white) poor, it’s called a ghetto. If it’s populated by (mostly white) rich folks it’s referred to as exclusive.

When people move to another country in search of a better life they’re called economic immigrants. Unless of course they’re moving from a predominantly white, western country. Then the term is ex-pats.

When English speaking people move to another country they’re applauded if they learn even a smattering of the local language. When people move to English speaking countries they are expected to speak faultless, accentless English from day one. I know several Asian doctors who have lived in this country since their early twenties, speak better English than 98% of the population and yet still have patients who turn to the nursing staff and ask “What’s he saying? Can’t understand a word he’s saying”.

Despite criticism [of the BBC at least], journalists continue to use the term “… no-one has claimed responsibility for the attack” rather than the (to me, preferred) “admitted responsibility”. And I’ve noticed that “asserted responsibility” seems to be gaining a little popularity recently, as in this Washington Post article.
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The challenge is STILL on to complete the list of guests on Peter Kay’s Amarillo video for Red Nose Day.

Star spotter extraordinaire David and emailer Chris have so far identified nearly everyone, the few left to name are bolded.

[Introduced by Jonathan Ross]
Peter Kay
William Roach and Anne Kirkbride
Keith Harris [with Orville] and Bernie Clifton [with Ostrich]
Max and Paddy [Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness]
Jimmy Saville and Sally Lindsey [“Shelly” from Coronation Street]
Some little people:
   Big Mick [thanks to emailer sunskirty]
   Can you name the rest?
Jim Bowen and Mr Blobby
Danny Baker and Heather Mills McCartney
Geoffrey and Bungle from Rainbow
Parkie [Michael Parkinson] and Ronnie Corbett
Tony Christie and Justin Moorhouse [thanks to emailer Chris]
Shaun Ryder, Bez and Brian Potter
Brian May and Roger Taylor [from Queen]
Sooty and Sweep
Ghandi and a tennis player which might be Mike Read or Cliff Richard (but we don’t think it’s Sir Cliff]
Shaking Stevens
The makeup artist is “Leo Sayer” according to David]

A donation to Red Nose Day is in the offing has been made but it would be great to complete the list – if you can name the missing celebrities, let me know!

Update: Richard from Lost Pilgrim has cannily bought the CD single containing the official list of those appearing in the video:

Peter Kay, Bernie Clifton and That Ostrich, Keith Harris and Orville, William Roach, Anne Kirkbridge, Sir Jimmy Saville, Sally Lindsay, Bez, Shaun Ryder, Albert Wilkinson, Trevor Jones, Craig Salisbury, Big Mick, Nick Read, Patrick McGuinness, Bungle, Jeffrey Hayes, Roger Taylor, Brian May, Michael Parkinson, Ronnie Corbett, Ramakant Shah, Trevor Payne, Heather Mills McCartney, Danny Baker, Sooty and Sweep, Tony Christie, Jim Bowen, Mr Blobby, Shakin’ Stevens, Lee Lard, Lucy Walker, Chloe Bell and The Drovers Line Dancers.

Thank you Richard!

The challenge is to name all of the guests on Peter Kay’s wonderful miming to Tony Christie’s (Show Me the Way to) Amarillo. Only David has so far bitten the bullet.

Here’s his list – the ones we still need to identify are bolded.

Peter Kay
William Roach and Anne Kirkbride
Keith Harris [with Orville, or is that Cuddles?] and Bernie Clifton [with Ostrich*] **
Max and Paddy***
Jimmy Saville and an actress from Coronation Street?
Some little people [one of whom could be Rusty Goffe?]
Jim Bowen and Mr Blobby
Danny Baker and Can’t Recall Her Name
Geoffrey and Bungle from Rainbow
Parkie [Michael Parkinson] and Ronnie Corbett
Tony Christie and unknown
Shaun Ryder, Bez and Brian Potter
Brian May and Roger Taylor [from Queen]
Sooty and Sweep
Ghandi and a tennis player, apparently
Shaking Stevens

There’s an extra £10 donation to Red Nose Day in the offing if we can get a complete list of those appearing in the video – if you can name the missing celebrities, let me know! Put us out of our misery! If you can go a step further and name the makeup artist then I’ll double it.

p.s. Apologies to non Brits who must find this all very tedious. Then again, I’ve watched that video about 15 times now and I still giggle. Maybe it’s a Friday thang. And anyway it’s for charity. *Flicks hair Miss Piggy style*

* did that ostrich ever have a name?
** I’d have added Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog…
*** David, who are Max and Paddy?

I’ve been trying EverNote 1.0 Beta for a couple of days and so far I’m impressed:

EverNote makes it easy to store and quickly access all your notes — handwritten memos, web page excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more — on an endless, digital roll or paper.

Windows only I’m afraid. It’s a great tool for the link bloggers among us, have a look at the features. There are Firefox Web Clipper and Thunderbird extensions too but I’ve not tried them yet, too tired.

I keep it open on this machine throughout the evening, throwing in notes, ideas, links, etc. as I go along, knowing that it’s automatically saving at regular intervals. How does it compare to Microsoft’s OneNote? [I use that on the other machine.] The jury’s still out but once I have a chance to explore all the features and extensions this weekend I’ll keep you posted. I’ll also install it on the machine upstairs so that I can test the Ink note feature. I know that this is aimed at Tablet PC users but I’ve found using a Wacom tablet & pen with OneNote very handy for quick notes (especially when on the ‘phone and not able to type something quickly with one hand).

The biggest difference of course is that it’s currently free. OneNote retails at around £70 / $87.99 but you can pick up (legal) used copies for much less through the Amazon market place and so on (I paid around £15 for mine).

Anyway, more later when I’ve had the chance to explore.

I’d be interested to hear what tools you guys use and recommend – not just for blogging. Those that are free are especially interesting!

Those of you who won’t be watching the rugby all day tomorrow might need some alternative distractions (and besides I’ve a shedload of links to cross out on my list) so:

Can you persuade Sanjeev to give you five cans of Pringles? Hint: you can pose questions and ask him to do things using key words. All great fun. If you’re stuck, let me know.

The greatest show on earth but I got bored with Holly after a few minutes. Or maybe it’s just late and I’m tired [via].

Enter a short word in AmazType [such as Wales or Daisy] to search Amazon for book/cd/dvd titles and get a purty picture [via Katherine].

And finally, I’ve just downloaded eLibPro [via Andrea] in the vain hope of cataloguing my books at some stage. Don’t watch this space.

You remember I said I’d signed up for My Blog Log? Well that means I can which follow which links you guys are clicking on as you leave.

And it’s hotting up this Friday afternoon as we go head to head : the post about Peter Kay’s Amarillo video for Red Nose Day vs the Let’s get Manly blogging again poll.

We currently have

Peter Kay’s Amarillo video in first place with 46 clicks
and
the Let’s get Manly blogging again poll in second place with 24 clicks

Could a single blogger beat a great British comedian? Go vote now!

p.s. If you’ve enjoyed the video – donate!

p.p.s. Manly, I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you putting a few of your archives back up so that those who have not had the pleasure of knowing Manly and his love spuds can become acquainted?

p.p.p.s I’m betting there are dozens of people with webspace just itching to let you have a manly segment all to yourself rather than relying on Blogger (me included). Now there’s a thought to ponder over a pipeful of fine shag this fine rugbyfestful weekend.

Many of you will know of Manly’s now defunct blog(s). Yes I know, not even an archive to ease our aching hearts.

But wait! He might be persuaded to start a new blog. All he needs is a little encouragement.

So vote below and send a little bloggy love to Manly, let’s get him blogging again eh?

Huge thanks to [Not Safe For Work] Flip for posting a link to the very funny Peter Kay’s contribution to Red Nose Day : Amarillo.

[Aside: am I getting old or is Parky really a fine figure of a man in this clip? Phwooooar.]

Ahem. Back to the clip: How’s about this – I’ll donate an extra £10 to Comic Relief on behalf of the first person able to name everyone the highest number of celebrities accompanying Peter Kay. Now there’s a challenge. Wish it could be more but I’m all donated out.

If you can’t name them all but enjoyed the clip anyway, you can still donate to Comic Relief and help poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa.

The headache that since Saturday has been in various states ranging from nagging in the background to full blown migraine has finally disappeared -huzzah!- so I’m celebrating with another early night.

In the meantime:

GoogleFight, plenty of good fun to be had.

Or you could create your name in hieroglyphics [via Morgaine]

Oh Manly, wherefore art thou. Again.

The Welsh-Hindi (Windi? Helsh?) link.

Why tables for layout is stupid

A new site all about the Mac Mini for Razor and Adrian.

Autostitch – “the world’s first fully automatic 2D image stitcher. Capable of stitching full view panoramas without any user input whatsoever.”

I’m off to think about Amber‘s new meme: Name 3 things you have seen in a move or on TV that you would like to try yourself.

Night night.