David, thank God you're back!

And so return from a thrilling Engineering trade show in Birmingham with my delightful workmates who I know and like. Whilst there, I learned two important things:

1) Engineering, as a discipline, does not attract good looking people to work within it.
2) My major comeptitors don't have any jobs going at the moment.

There's a strange pleasure in wandering back to your company stand and seeing the expression on your boss' face when he asks "Where have you been" and you reply "Pitching to the competition for a better job than this one." Poor dear, he didn't know what to say. One of the few pleasures of my job is that I reckon I can do that sort of thing and they still won't fire me. Sadly, however, that's not a reason to want to stay.

Tremendously good book read: 'Carter beats the Devil'.

I may go to the Birmingham game this Sunday, after Cambs (assuming K de C is still alive, still haven't heard back about the proxying thing). What's the best way to get from Cambs to B'ham?

Because she was rude to my sister...

Some years ago, my sister worked on a comic project with Amy Jenkins, the woman who created "This Life", the TV show about lawyers shagging in Islington that was on a few years ago. Amy, it turned out, was a supremely arrogant woman who couldn't bear to be questioned or challenged, and instead surrounded herself with sycophantic media yes-persons who constantly told her how great she was. I'm sure you can imagine how well she got on with members of my family.
The relationship finally broke down when she flipped at my sister (who is completely harmless & towards whom I feel very protective, as she's a true innocent in many ways), and screamed obscenities at her as my sister had the temerity to suggest some changes on a script Amy had written.
Since then, I've rather relished sending Amy up in little ways - posting abusive reviews of her work online etc, and I've had a rather fun idea of another windup.

Amy Jenkins has a chick-fic book coming out later this year called "Funny Valentine".
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0340750545/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-1039060-7449442

As this book is currently on pre-order, it means that Amazon can take a pre-booking for it now, and that pre-order can be cancelled long before they actually send it, meaning that nothing has to be paid for it. Amazon also list "people who ordered this book also ordered the following..."

Now I know that Amy checks her reviews & sales lists, and I rather think it would be funny to ask as many people as possible to try and create false links between 'Funny Valentine', and hopelessly inappropriate books. Amy thinks of herself as astonishingly cool & hip, and so hopefully she'll be rather irritated by looking at the "people who also ordered..." list and seeing what her readership also buys.

So the plan is:

Could as many people as possible who use Amazon add "Funny Valentine" to their shopping baskets when buying stuff - or even create shopping baskets of dodgy stuff, just to link Amy's book in. It'll register as a 'bought', but you can cancel it well before Amazon ever send it out - immediately after ordering if you so please.

Currently, I'm trying to create links to Adolf Hitlers 'Mein Kampf', "Dirty Laundry" by Penny Birch (another friend of mine, oddly), and "Conrads Quest for Rubber" by Leo Frankowshi (An astonishingly shite book, truly appaling wish fulfilment fantasy - you can borrow my copy if you like).

Go on, help out.

It'd make my sisters day to see this happen :)