Year: 2000

Bizarre competition: Unscramble these numbers to discover the fax number of a famous American actress (seriously):

0 1 2 2 3 4 5 5 7 8

Actors get stale after a while because they start to parody themselves. This is a truism of Hollywood. Notable examples of tics / clichés that actors have been forced to overcome by directors include Bruce Willis being told not to act so Bruce Willisy in Twelve Monkeys, and George Clooney being asked not to drop his head and look up at people from under his eyebrows.

Notable plasticbag.org clichés:

• Starting every post with the word “So”.
• Ending every post with an ellipsis (three dots).
• Overusing <blockquote> and <ul> (unordered lists).

So if you’ve noticed any more – drop me an e-mail…

It’s nearly midnight, and I have only one remaining day of holiday. It’s like some kind of torture, if you ask me. I’ve just got used to being relaxed and being able to fill up my day with whatever the hell I like (if only that didn’t involve quite so much day-time television), and now I’ve got to get ready to go back to work.

I’m kind of dreading it, for a variety of reasons. I’ve had some very sensible conversations with people during the last couple of weeks, and I’m feeling suddenly very professional – but with this professionalism comes a certain amount of resignation and a slightly jaded feeling that I didn’t expect.

Katy is still in America. Intelligent girl that she is, she has already been and seen five movies. Lucky kitsch… [Q: What did Katy see in America? A: High Fidelity, Keeping the Faith, Bring It On, Saving Grace and Whipped]

On [NEW SEX TOY]

• Acknowledged fact: Lance Arthur [glassdog.com] is a god.
• Acknowledged fact: Lancelog is great.
• Acknowledged fact: Lance has launched some new mini project. It is called: “[NEW SEX TOY]”
• Acknowledged fact: It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Momblog goes to Confession. My confession? I found her story hysterical. Here’s a couple of quotes:

“Now, as every good catholic knows, confession is something to be avoided at all costs. Never do you willingly go to confession, even if it means that the biggest sin you have to confess when you finally do end up “confessing” is that “it has been 25 years since my last confession.”

I was trapped! I was sitting in the middle of the pew. I would have to trip over Adam, Anna, Mark, and my mother if I tried to escape from my seat. Besides, what kind of an example would I make for the kids if I wimped out? What believable excuse could I give them for my mad dash to the door? Okay. Trapped!”

Big Brother UK:

Two slightly alarming new stories from the BBC: Big Brother climax watched by 10 million and Big Brother set to return.

Christ. I’ve started waking up at around midday. I don’t own an alarm clock because I just don’t normally need one, but the prospect of automatically waking up at 9am at the moment to get to work (on Wednesday) is seeming increasingly remote.

Thank God:

Taking advantage of my absence, timeout.com launches the London Shopping Guide. Also launched is the redesigned homepage and Travel, London, London Tickets, Shop sections. I’ve had a lot of involvement in this stuff – and I’ve really enjoyed working on it.

Sorry, old chap, but aibophphobia isn’t a palindrome…