The Eight Ball [8Ball]

Should be:

• 2-3 minutes in length
• something everyone knows
• a crowd-pleaser
• mostly vocal (no more than 8 bars of instrumental solo (no long lead-out or lead-in)

Or, this.

Other suggestions are welcome.

SeealsoanothersuperbowlpostIliked.

I covet a biscuit from my childhood. To address my problem, I must know its name.

The biscuit is thus: ridges of biscuit outside, with a thin layer of orange (or apricot) flavour on the bottom, and a circle of chocolate (about 5mm thick) on top.

A crude artist might draw it as such:

As with all good biscuits, I believe it was made by Griffins.

I remember it being off the market for a few years, then back, and then gone again.  I don’t expect it’s around now and I can’t find it on their website.

Anyone remember the name?

Or, if you prefer.

Point, chuckle, and then donate. (Hey, I’ve got 11 days to go.)

This is my every-three-yearly charity drive. Last time I tried it, my boss made a sizeable donation on the condition I never do it again. (Sorry, Andrew.) Two countries and three years later, I’m at it again – and you should make a donation to prostate cancer research in my honour, because otherwise we just go on not talking about it until Rubber Glove time.

You can't make this shit up.

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We don’t have internet at our new flat yet, but there’s a neighbour who does, and has (in my mind) actively chosen to share it. Trouble is, there are much stronger signals between me and said neighbour. (I have a 3G data stick, but it’s pre-dialup speed, and doesn’t really work any more consistently.)  I’ve found that I get signal on-and-off at the highly scientific measure of “1-2 bars out of 5″.

I currently have my laptop sitting on a little folding chair in front of the couch, and it seems I get a pretty consistent wireless signal there. Hooray! However, it’s not the most comfortable way to work, so I picked it up and moved it onto my lap – and the signal went away. Now, I had been reading things offline for the last few minutes, so it’s more likely the signal went away during that period, and it just so happened to be that when I picked it up, it was in a downtime. Alternatively, it could be that one foot forward – or backward – is right out, and I have to have it exactly where it was.

(The laptop, back on its stand, is now getting internet again).

It’s all in how you hold your tongue. First time you made that great shot (and sunk the 8-Ball on the break, which, in Canada at least, isn’t an instant win), you had your tongue out, or in your left cheek, so you superstitiously believe that a factor directly under your control was the influential part, when you know that it was probably a combination of external factors (friction, dust on the table, “cleanliness of the balls”, butterfly-flapping-its-wings-in-China, etc).

I could go looking for other parts of the room where I might get more reliable signal, or I could just stay on my little chair and hope.

I walked from the train station to my work with my boss on the first day, and that is now the way I walk every day. Similarly, I walk home from the train station the way Fern showed me. There may be a quicker or more enjoyable route, or a different approach, but many people get stuck in what works for them and either blind to, or unwilling to invest in, alternatives. This generally makes sense, as you can assume that a better alternative would be reasonably obvious: if there was a short-cut to the station, I would see dozens of people veering off the path I share with them each morning, and probably poke my nose around to see what was going on.

I always try and park as close to my destination as possible in a car park. If, after a couple of orbits, there’s nothing obvious, then I’ll radiate further outward. Two observations arise from this: on the walk in, there are almost always half a dozen people leaving from closer spots (if only I’d arrived two minutes later!), and if I’d just parked in the first spot I saw on the way in, I’d probably have got in faster.