I grant you permission to prod my neck or clasp my wrist. Indeed, I do still possess a pulse for I remain alive and nearly well.

I haven’t been ill, not really. I’ve been suffering from a malady known as overwork-itis and I am the cause of this affliction. I’ve worked 10 out of the last 13 nights, with tonight being my final night - number 11. Go me. After that, I’m off for a couple of weeks to catch my breath and catch up with you guys.

So much for my 100 post thing, you might possibly be thinking. Well, I am here to tell ya that 100 days hasn’t passed yet. I can still catch up. How do you know I won’t snort a shit load of crystal meth and stay up for 6 days and nights, doing nothing but blogging?

You know this, because I’m telling you, I shan’t be ingesting any horrible, crappy, man-made shite! This hippy don’t do class A drugs no more, anyway!

But I can still catch up. I haven’t counted to see how behind I am, but I’m sure its not an insurmountable number. This hippy is a hippy that can do! And does! And will…!

Fuck, I might start buying into my own hype. Naw, I’m far to cynical and clever for that. Besides, its not like I’m actually selling anything. Everything I do, I do for you, for free! When’s the last time you got an invoice from this hippy?

I wouldn’t know how to charge for this shit, anyway. Just send me your credit card numbers (and don’t forget the 3 digit signature strip number too) and I’ll buy myself something pretty, on you.

Wouldn’t you like to buy me something pretty? Like a Porsche? Nothing says you love me like a finely engineered German sports car. And I’m going to be 45 years old in January, don’t you think I’m ready for a mid-life-crisis mobile?

And speaking of gifts, I’m sure I’m not the only one who you’re shopping for because it’s Christmas soon. That means this hippy’s holiday shopping guide will be coming soon too. As a fervent consumer of everything, I am well-placed to help you choose gifts for people I’ve never met…as long as they are cool people, but if you’re reading my blog, you must be cool and everyone you know is cool too. It’s simple math, really.

Are you digging it? Groovy!

As many of you who follow my blog know, I usually hate other people’s blogs, but recently I’ve discovered one I quite like.

You all should check out trannyfattyacid.blogspot.com

I’ve been reading this blog for a few weeks now and I’m very impressed with the standard and quality of the material posted there. The author spends a lot of time researching his subjects and checking his facts; more so than most of the newspapers I read daily and you know I read nearly all of ‘em!

What drew me into the TFA blog were his posts about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

I expect there aren’t many people left on the planet who haven’t heard the tale of the little British girl who went missing in Portugal last May. And that’s just about the only fact surrounding this case that anyone can agree on…that this little girl disappeared.

The circumstances of Madeleine’s disappearance, however are entirely another matter and opinions and recollections differ on this wildly.

The Portuguese police believe that little Maddy died in her parents’ holiday apartment that night, while her parents would like us to believe she was kidnapped by a stranger.

I didn’t like the parents from the get-go. I thought their explanations for leaving three very young children alone in their room every night, while they dined were lame and self-serving. I don’t have kids, but if I did, I would never, ever think of leaving them unattended, especially in a hotel room, in a strange country! Back in June, this was my opinion and I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t been charged with willful neglect of their children.

As the summer went on, and they were paraded daily for photo-ops in front of the world’s media, visiting the pope and touring the globe, their holier than thou attitude really started to piss me off. Also, I had been considering the possibility of their involvement, prior to them being named as official suspects in their daughter disappearance.

I debated writing about the case here and had to restrain myself from doing so on several occasions. Its not really appropriate material for my blog and I doubt any of you would disagree.

Instead, I channelled my interest in the case to other online outlets, specifically the Mirror newspaper forums, where up until recently, views and information on the case were freely shared and expressed. They’ve since cracked down on what people post and it is far less free than it was a week ago.

One of my discoveries on the Mirror Forums was the TFA blog. He writes extensively on the McCann case and is far more informative, factually accurate and balanced on the subject than the national newspapers. I’ve recommended his blog to a few people I know and they’ve also liked it, so I decided to big TFA up here on my site.

It’s not often I recommend blogs, I think this is only the 2nd one I’ve endorsed since I started blogging, the first being the rather excellent Post Secret blog. I know your surfing time is valuable, but check out TFA’s blog. If you’re interested in Madeleine McCann, it’s an excellent place to get the real story that the mainstream media is ignoring.

The question we should all be asking is: “why is the MSM so unbalanced when it comes to the McCanns?” I wish I had the answer for you, but I’m in the dark on this one too.

The UN’s International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC as it is known, has issued the starkest warning so far on the expected effects of climate change. Check out what the “newspaper of record”, the NYT has to say about it by clicking RIGHT HERE.

The group, who were co-winners of the Nobel Peace Prize this year, along with Al Gore, have said that if we don’t get our shit together and soon, we’re all going to die.

Ok, perhaps those weren’t the exact words the panel used in their report, but trust me, that’s what they meant. Our continued consumption of all the resources mother earth has to offer is screwing up the planet and we won’t be able to recover from this one.

The report says that we all have to take some dramatic action to avert this looming environmental disaster.

As if!

Sure, China will stop building their coal-burning powerplants at the rate of a new one every week.

Of course, people will junk their gas-guzzling SUVs and sports cars in favour of bicycles.

And we’ll all charge our iPods less frequently and sit around in dark rooms, not watching TV.

Let’s face facts; no one is going to change their lifestyle in the slightest to preserve the future of life on the planet. Why would we? We like our modern conveniences, our central heating, our air-conditioning, our refridgerators. We love our computers and televisions. We love nothing better than taking a joy ride in our big, combustion motor propelled vehicles and our cheap Easyjet flights that cost less than train journeys. We like our fresh seasonal fruit and veg, flown in from whatever country is currently in season. I had some fresh sugar snap peas last week that came from Latin America – who would want frozen or tinned?

The IPCC should be commended for the work they are doing, but let’s not live under any illusions that the recommendations they’ve made will be widely adopted. They won’t be. We’re fucked. Seriously. Fucked.

Some of you will be frightened by this, but most of us will take it in our stride and go about our days like nothing is wrong. Works for me!

What’s the point of worrying about something you can’t prevent? Climate change, global warming, whatever you want to call it, seems as inevitable as death and taxes, though once we’re all dead, there will be no more taxes. See, there is a bright side.

I would suggest you all turn your central heating (or aircon) up to full blast, fill up your tank with super-premium petrol and go for a long drive. Leave your lights on at home and throw all your glass, paper, plastic and cardboard in the non-recycling bin. If we’re all going to have to die, we might as well enjoy the ride while we can, so smoke ‘em if you got ‘em and that includes fossil fuels!

Recently, I purchased a Slingbox Solo. I ordered it from Amazon and set it up a couple of weeks ago.

For those of you who don’t know what a Slingbox is, please allow me to explain. A Slingbox is a device which you connect to your audio/video sources and to your home network and it allows you to place-shift your viewing on a computer, in your home, or anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection and it also allows you to control the source device.

I’ll elaborate: I have a SKY+ satellite receiver and DVR (Digital Video Recorder) in my living room, connected to my flatscreen TV. I’ve connected the Slingbox to the SKY+ and my network and the Slingbox takes the raw TV signal and compresses it, then streams it onto my home network, to be received by, say by my laptop, wirelessly in any other room in the house.

Are you getting the idea? In theory, I should be able to view my Slingbox outside of my house, but I am having some port forwarding issues which I’ve yet to resolve, because it goes through two different routers before reaching the internet.

The Slingbox Solo is a very simple looking device, with connectors on one side and some blinky lights on the other side. There are no buttons or controls, the idea is to connect it, configure it and forget about it, everything else is done via the software you download, called SlingPlayer.

I connected my Slingbox Solo to my SKY+ via an S-video cable, as its the highest quality output signal available. My SKY+ is an original V1 Pace unit, feeding my TV via SCART, but the S-Video output mirrors it. This means the Slingbox Solo only sees whatever the SKY+ sees. If someone is watching the TV at the same time, you both have to watch the same programme.

I used a normal RCA stereo phono cable to connect up the audio from the SKY+ to the Slinbox Solo and connected the power supply. I also put the IR blasters above and below the SKY+ IR receiver as these provide the remote control functionality.

Finally, I had to connect the SlingBox to my network. The SlingBox only outputs ethernet, there is no built in wi-fi, which is fine if your router is next to your television. Mine isn’t, which meant using some sort of bridge.

My first try was an Airport Express from Apple. They are normally very robust and dependable units and this was a cost effective way to do it, but it didn’t work very well. I don’t know why.

I connected the AE to my network in WDS mode, connected the Slingbox Solo to it and within a minute, the Slingbox was connected to my network. I was able to configure the Slingbox quickly and was watching my SKY+ on all my Macs in fairly good quality.

It didn’t last, the bandwith dropped dramatically, and at least once a day, the Slingbox would lose its network connection, though it appeared the Airport Express was still connected to my network. I had other network problems as well, losing connections to my different computers and other Airport Express units, used for music streaming, were having dropouts too. Resetting the Slingbox and associated AE unit restored my connection and got the network working again, but the same problem happened every day.

When I disconnected the Slingbox and AE, my network performed fine, so I decided to connect the Slingbox another way.

I bought a set of NetGear HomePlugs, which do ethernet over powerlines and they are a total revelation. You plug them both into the electrical mains and they find each other automatically and create a durable and robust ethernet bridge between the two locations. Once plug is connected to my Airport Extreme, the other is connected to the Slingbox. Within seconds, they were connected and so was the Slingbox and its held the connection continuously since I connected them. These things are very cool!

I’m still having slight problems with my network; it grinds to a halt and loses the internet about once a day, but then comes back. I think I need to set it all up again, as my base unit is still looking for an AE in WDS mode and its not there anymore. When I have the time, I’ll reboot all the units and reset them up from scratch. That’s how it was before the Slingbox, so it should go back to being perfect again.

I’m also determined to sort out the port forwarding, as it would be cool to watch SKY+ from outside my home, either live TV or recorded programmes. The SlingPlayer software includes a virtual remote for the SKY+, which means you can duplicate any remote command with a simple click of your mouse. Very clever!

There are other models of SlingBox available, some offering more connections for more devices, others offering digital and analogue TV tuners. For my needs, with one main TV source, the Solo was perfect. I’ve got shitty freeview reception here, so a tuner was pointless and there’s no need to connect it to a DVD player, because most computers are already DVD players!

If I wanted to watch SKY in another room, I could have a second box installed, which I would have to pay for and I would be charged a tenner a month for the privilege. It wouldn’t be connected to my main SKY+, which means it would only receive live tv. Also, it would be in one fixed location, like my bedroom. What if I wanted to keep an eye on the news, while cooking dinner?

The Slingbox is a cheaper, more flexible solution, it offers great picture quality, at full screen resolutions, anywhere inside my home. When I can view it over the internet, which I am certain I will do one day soon, it will complete the package. It’s a welcome addition to my A/V arsenal!

Thank you for dropping by tech-geek corner!

I know, I know. I haven’t been here in a fair few days.

No excuses, except for my catch all; “I’m rubbish”. Further explanations will not be offered.

I’ve squandered a fair bit of time this week, being a bit of a tech-geek, sorting out some things around the house. One of those things was my Slingbox, which is now reliably working on my home network, but I still haven’t sorted viewing outside of the house. More on this later.

I’ve also had a bit of a play around with Logic Studio, or rather the bits of it that I have installed. I still haven’t received my replacement installation DVD, so much of the included extra content is out of my reach. Today’s post hasn’t come yet, so there’s still a chance it might arrive before the day is out.

Add to that the normal bullshit I have to do every day and you’ll see that I’m pretty busy most days.

I did get to screen an excellent film yesterday, “American Gangster” and I can highly recommend it. It’s the story of Frank Lucas, a Harlem based businessman, who’s business was heroin importation, marketing and distribution. Lucas basically re-invented the heroin trade in the late 60s/early 70s in a very innovative and creative way. He was also quite brutal, but only out of necessity.

If Lucas had used his considerable intelligence and business skill in any other industry, he would probably be starring as the boss on the TV show, The Apprentice, as he was truly an entrepreneur, but he didn’t. He chose heroin and the film does not shy away from showing the harm that smack does to its users, but it also makes the point that the anti-drug stance is almost as big an industry as the drugs trade and if black market trade in illegal drugs went away, so would the associated law enforcement and other ancilliary businesses.

The film tells a complex story in many shades of grey and certainly you will admire a lot about Lucas, though his brutal outbursts never let you forget the path he chose. It opens here in the UK tomorrow, if you get the chance, it’s worth seeing.

It comes back to something I’ve said on here more than once, that the world wide black market in drugs is capitalism at its most basic; simple supply and demand. There is a huge, never-ending demand for substances which alter your consciousness, always has been, always will be. Cigarettes and alcohol, the legal drugs, just don’t cut it for some people and where legitimate sources don’t deliver, illegal supply lines will emerge. As long as people want something, someone will be there, ready to provide it. This is about as basic a truism as you can find about capitalism.

Our economy and political system is build upon the foundations of capitalism, yet when it comes to the issue of illegal drugs, we are in deep, orchestrated denial. Prohibition doesn’t work and if I can site the usual example of when America banned liquor, the result was an organised crime structure that still exists today. People wanted booze; people got booze. They’ll realised then, you couldn’t stop free trade, so they opened the doors to a regulated, taxed and legal system.

If heroin were legal, Frank Lucas would have been on the cover of business magazines as a hero and legend, in almost the same way that Starbucks reinvented coffee. He also probably wouldn’t have shot all those people in the head. It’s something to think about. Well, for me anyway.

Hey.

Yeah, you.

YES, YOU!

Hi there.

Thanks for dropping by.

You’ve reached the northlondonhippy’s happening website and that makes you very cool.

If you’ve come here today for something genuinely entertaining, informative or interesting, you’re bound to be disappointed. Today, all we are offering is lame excuses and an invitation to explore the rest of the site. There’s some good stuff buried just below this apology and even deeper if you can be bothered to dig.

I’m letting the 100 posts thing get away from me, I can see my post count slipping away. I’m off for the next week, though and I’m bound to come up with something in the next seven days. I’m aiming for 10 posts of an indeterminate length and subject, but we all know how well my aims pan out.

I’m still adjusting to existing in daylight and I’m still catching up on my sleep. By the time I’m feeling nearly normal, it will be time to get on the nightbus again, metaphorically speaking, of course.

I’ve just been chilling out for the last couple of days, sorting out real life bullshit that is as tedious as it sounds. I’ve still got more to do as well and I want to have some fun too.

I need to have some fun! I’ve earned it!

Fun, this week is not going to involve hard drugs and whores, no matter how much you beg me, but playing around with my new copy of Logic Studio. I spent most of yesterday trying to install it, but one of the 8 installation DVDs was corrupted, so I’m not there yet. Apple were cool when I phoned them and the DVD they think is damaged is to be replaced. I should have it in my hot little hands in a few days. Then, lucky me, I get to re-install most of it again. It will take around 4 hours, but once that’s done I’ll have all the content I should have, loops, instruments, etc. Groovy!

Now, all I need is some talent, but I’m sure they have a pill for that. They have pills for everything!

Perusing the internet, as I do, seeking inspiration and of course, cannabis related news, I stumbled upon this little gem, which can be found on quite a few news sites. I’ve opted to use a link to the Reuters News Agency website, as news agencies, especially Reuters and AP, are normally the most unbiased organisations.

Here’s the topline of the report:

“A study of more than 5,000 youngsters in Switzerland has found those who smoked marijuana do as well or better in some areas as those who don’t, researchers said on Monday.”

I told you it would do your head in! Just imagine how hard it will be for governments around the world to spin this one away!

The evidence in favour of cannabis continues to mount, as witnessed in my “cannabis truth series”, but the fuckers with the power have no interest in truth and seek only to suppress it. Luckily for you, you’ve got me and “truth” is my middle name.

Ok, I don’t have a middle name, my parents couldn’t be bothered. See how goddamn truthful I am!

(Read the northlondonhippy’s cannabis truth series. Go on, learn something cool!)

Welcome to a lazy Sunday with the hippy.

I finished my last shift Saturday morning, which technically means I worked the first 7 hours of my first day off. That, in my mind makes it an actual 1/2 day off. I’m off all day today, but back at work again tomorrow night. Does this make sense? I’ve got a day and a half off. So what am I doing with all that time?

Sleeping mainly.

I had a 4 hour nap on Saturday in the late afternoon into early evening, woke up for a few hours (and for a Japanese takeaway) and then went back to sleep around midnight and up again at 6:30am this morning.

If you are wondering why I haven’t posted anything until now, I hope that answers your question. I also hope I’m not approaching proper blogging with detailed explanations of my fucked up sleep patterns and takeaway menus. At least it wasn’t lunch!

As today is my only proper day off in the last week, I’ve got to do all the real life shit I’ve neglected while I was working. I’ve got to run a few errands, do some stuff around the house and I’m hoping to have the time to finish installing the last of my big software purchase last week.

Specifically, I’ve got a full, boxed copy of the new Logic Studio, purchased at the upgrade price, because I have Logic Express. I think there are 6 DVDs or so to install, which means its probably going to take a couple of hours or more to transfer all that on to my hard drive.

After my next 2 shifts, I’ve got 9 days off and my plan is to put a fair bit of time into learning this new application and laying down a song or two. I even have a couple of things in my head, so I won’t be starting from scratch.

I haven’t done anything properly musical in around 20 years, though I’ve recorded some incidental music which I’ve used in videos and things. For example, the background music on my nlh deluxe graphic promo is taken from something I recorded around 3 years ago, when I first got Logic Express. It was a test recording and not meant to be anything more than that, but it worked for my purposes and there were no copyright issues, since I wrote it.

The cool thing about the music I am hoping to record next week is that I have some lyrics and melodies already that I want to play around with and I’m going to try to sing.

I’m not a singer and I can’t sing a note, so this should be fun. I’m going to attempt to find my voice.

The most inhibiting factor to this is that singing, unlike guitar or keyboards, can’t be hidden with headphones; you have to sing out loud. That means my neighbours will probably hear me, only without the benefit of any guiding background tracks. Oh, they are going to get a right laugh out of me!

If I really do come up with any music, I’ll post it here, don’t worry and you all will be able to download it for free. It’s not like a record company’s going to give me a contract! I’m not that deluded.

Ok, so I took a couple days off. Sue me! I’m still ahead on the post count!

I’ve also been working lots this week and not sleeping enough. I could make loads of excuses, but none of them matter. It doesn’t matter why I haven’t been here; all that matters is I haven’t been here.

Maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, keeping up with this “100 posts in 100 days” doohicky. Who’s to say? The proof will be in the pudding, or you could insert your own cliché if you don’t like mine.

Yep, you’ve worked it out already. I don’t have a particular topic today so I’m just going to ramble on.

“Ramble On” is a great Led Zeppelin song and in only a couple of quick clicks, iTunes is pumping it out of my speakers. Man, I wish I had tickets to see them for their big reunion concert! I bet some of you fuckers out there have tickets! Wanna bring along a crazy, north London based hippy of question moral standing?

Of course you do!

Or you could sell your spare ticket on eBay for like a a trillion-gazillion pounds! Though bringing me along would provide you with a lifetime of memories and you can’t put a monetary value on that!

For me, Led Zep music and weed are forever linked. I didn’t really get their music until I first got high, then it all made sense and I was forever a fan.

Do any of you know anyone who scored Led Zep tickets legitimately, through the online lottery? I’ve yet to come across a single person who did, perhaps you have? Answers on a postcard, please.

I’ve got a couple of days off after tonight and I’m going to put some serious energy into providing you with some high quality content. I’m going to have to, to make up for this abortion of an entry you’ve just suffered through.

On behalf of HippyCo Industries Ltd (a division of HippyCo Enterprises Inc), I would like to apologise for the substandard product provided to you today. Here at HCI, we strive to create amusing, informative and entertaining content for you to enjoy and on this occasional, we have not succeeded. If you would like to receive a full refund for the cost of your subscription, please get in touch with our customer services department. Unfortunately we cannot refund the time you wasted reading this shite. You’ll never get that back.