A few nights ago Claire and I were lying in bed having deep marital discussions on the topic of cartoon characters, two questions were raised:

1. If we are to be a cartoon character, which would we be?
2. How many women cartoon characters are there?

Claire decided that she would be Road-runner (because she is cunning like that!), and myself Danger Mouse (because I like climbing into red post-boxes). However we could only think of a handful of female cartoons, this also dragged up the validity about the blonde Smurfette being the only female Smurf in the village.

Julie also posted a blog entry of further cartoon confusion a few months back, in which she questioned the species of Goofy - it was concluded he is in fact a dog.

What cartoon would you be? Can you think of any more female cartoons?

“The red car and the blue car had a race; all that red could do was stuff his face; he eats everything he sees; from trucks to prickly trees but smart old blue he took the milky way; he’s looking for a chocolate treat; fluffy and light; cos he knows it won’t spoil his app-e-tite; mmm mmm MMMM!; oh no! the bridge has gone, poor old red just can’t carry on; but smart old blue, he took the milky way.” –Milky Way Advert

Over this past month I have overcome one of my greatest fears… databases (no, not big leaves!). Ever since my Adv-GNVQ course in IT at College where I was and tortured and angst-ridden by Microsoft Access I have steered well clear of databases.

Where previously the JLSNet website ran using flat text files, I finally plucked up the courage to look at MySQL and create a simple content management system for the website, it was soooooo easy, I do not understand why I did not do it ages ago! It did not take me too long to migrate all the old text files, with a little parsing help (thanks Ben!), and so now the majority of the JLSNet website runs from a MySQL database.

This new found excitement for databases also spurred me on to move my blog completely from MSN Spaces onto JLSNet. Initially I had grand ideas of writing my own blog management system, but on discovering the free PHP blog engine from WordPress, an amazingly powerful, but super simple to use management system for web logs, I decided to use that instead. I have now migrated all my old MSN Spaces blog entries and comments and old JLSNet news and forum comments into this brand new WordPress blog on the JLSNet website, I have also crafted a template to make it fit in with the rest of the website.

I am however going to keep the MSN Spaces blog going, I have set up WordPress to email MSN Spaces a snippet of the blog and a link each time I publish a new entry, I have done this just so it will update the little star on my MSN Messenger Card as I add a new blog entry.

What I have learnt recently: MySQL databases are not that scary and SQL statements can be easy used to move data around between tables, for example:

INSERT INTO table_jlsnet (title, blog, comment)
SELECT title, blog, comment
FROM table_msnspaces
WHERE Year(date) > 2004;

I can’t believe I have an SQL statement in my blog, still, not quite as geeky as Alli’s AutoCAD code!

“Patience is the quality you admire in the driver behind, but not the man in front!” –Unknown

Last Saturday myself, Claire, Ben, Dave, Emz, Lis, Jon, Sacca, Cwaig & Sarah all met up in Lewes to watch their stunning parades of fire and mega large firework display. The town is famous for its annual Guy Fawkes Night celebrations on the 5th of November. In Lewes this event not only marks the date of the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, but also commemorates the memory of 17 Protestant martyrs who were burnt at the stake in the town during the Marian Persecutions of 1555-1557.

The afternoon was a bit of a rush as we had to get there well before 5 in order to find somewhere to park before they shut the town to cars. We all managed to park and found a very nice little pub for some grub before heading into the heart of Lewes and the celebrations. The parades were, as always, vibrant, exciting and full of music, although we had to stand up for quite some time and had the constant fear of bangers going off in close proximity, there was a lovely old dear next to me who kept grabbing me every time there was a BANG! I don’t think Claire was too concerned about her though. What Claire was concerned with was the fact that she got a burning ember fall in, and frazzle, her hair, she was not best amused!

After the parades had passed we had to retrieve a lost team member (Jon got totally lost!) and then headed off to the finale firework show up on a hill above Lewes. They were beautiful and went on for ages, so long in fact that we started to get neck-ache from staring up at the illuminated sky for so long. At the end we had a quick warm up by the fire and we all then attempted to depart our separate ways while fighting against the Lewes traffic bundle. It was a really fun evening and nice to see everyone together.

“There’s millions says Geoffrey all under one roof, it’s called Toys ‘R’ Us, Toys ‘R’ Us, Toys ‘R’ Us!” –Toys ‘R’ Us Theme Tune