Way's World

Friday, 28 January 2005

Ivan Noble

Ivan Noble isn't famous. He's a science & technology writer for BBC News.

In August 2002 he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. Rather than hide away, he decided to tackle it head on, and he's written a web log sharing his experiences (here).

Unfortunately he is now too ill to continue, so the link above takes you to his last entry, which was written ahead of time. It's a heavy read, but it's well worth taking a look. If you can spend the time to read the logs in order, please do - they show the last two and a half years of a very determined, very brave man.

++ UPDATE ++

Sadly, Ivan died on Monday 31st January, 2005, aged 37.

Saturday, 22 January 2005

Karting Endurance Challenge

As I mentioned last Saturday, I took part in a charity karting endurance race today. It was organised by our local radio station, 2CR FM, in conjunction with the Wessex Raceway. As the event was being broadcast live on-air we had to be ready to start at 8am, and after suiting up in our race overalls and a quick safety briefing, we were off!

There were four teams, each headed by one of the personalities on the morning show - Graham Mack & Richie Firth (DJ's), Surfy Chick Sal (the producer), and Andrea (the newsreader). I was in Richie's team, and as he's always getting grief from Graham we were determined to do well.

   

We had teams of ten people, running two karts each. As it was an endurance the race was run over a 90 minute period, and each kart had to have at least 9 driver changes - for each change not made, two laps would be deducted from the teams overall total.

Karting is supposed to be a non-contact sport but inevitably there were a few bumps and bashes. A few drivers got black-flagged, meaning they had to come in for a ten second penalty stop, but all in all it was a good clean race.

Our team members each took 2 stints at the controls, and after 90 minutes the chequered flag came out and we waited for the scores...

Unfortunately Grahams team won, but we weren't far behind, finishing second overall.

Everyone who took part said afterwards how much fun they'd had, and all monies raised were donated to Graham's chosen charity, The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths. All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday!

Thursday, 20 January 2005

Mr Potato Head

As far as I can remember, I have never had a Mr Potato Head. However, that is about to change as Hasbro introduce the first ever Star Wars related Mr Potato Head - Darth Tater!!!!

He comes complete with a lightsaber, cape & helmet, as well as the usual Mr Potato Head accessories like mouth, eyes, and nose... I WANT ONE!!!!

Sunday, 16 January 2005

Canada minister in pizza scandal

This is from the BBC's website:

"Canada's immigration minister Judy Sgro has resigned over allegations that she agreed to help a pizza shop owner avoid deportation in return for free food. "

I'd give them all the help they needed... ;)

Saturday, 15 January 2005

Lord Of The Rings - A summary... 8)

I've just seen this clip - it had me laughing for ages... 8)

Forthcoming Radio Appearance

Next Saturday our local radio station, 2CR FM, are holding a charity karting race day. It's going to be broadcast live on air (although I'm not quite sure how a kart race comes across on the radio!), so if you happen to be near a radio at 8am (yes, 8am... on a Saturday), listen in and find out how we're doing!

You can listen over the internet too, by clicking here.

Sunday, 02 January 2005

You learn something new every day...

...and here's 100 things we didn't know this time last year, courtesy of the BBC!

Saturday, 01 January 2005

Create your own Ausweis!

If only they'd had internet access in "The Great Escape" - this site would have saved them so much time...