In fact you are better with the whole thing, especially your blogs – no convoluted thinking required to understand why you say what you do and without a required outcome. Lets hope Sunny parties for the rest of the year.

Your #162 on that other thread. Had me in stitches.

I only wish I had asked El Cid to explain what he meant.

Brownist: What do you mean?

“Only two or three. It is just that one keeps popping up.”

Okay, I think I know who you mean…he actually visited my blog in the summer and left a nice message…must have caught him on a good day.

It’s a real shame that some individuals spoil it for the rest of us, who actually are willing and able to hold a decent conversation.

How many other people have been ‘banned’ by PP in the past…it seems i have missed quite a lot?

The thread was becoming fairly sterile.

And you used it.

I got bqack yesterday from three amazing nights in LAs Vegas… now planning to go crazy for new years eve… oh YEAAAHHH.

Hope you lovely people are having fun too!

“I’ve just read your recent comments over at Terrywatch. Cheers!”

I keep asking Terry to produce some evidence, but he seems unable to do so. It will not stop me asking mind. I think that I am one of the few people he has not banned yet.

The Dude,
I’ll keep my eyes open for you in the new year. Best of luck getting rich.

Rumbold,
I’ve just read your recent comments over at Terrywatch. Cheers!

Everyone else.
Thanks for the comments and links!

Thanks for your story Dave S.

It’s a black thing Dave.
“Uh-ahh, you cant tell me NUH-thing”

Well, I have a reasonably wide variety of black friends and can’t say I’ve noticed any such tendencies among them!

Originally coming from a white middle class background myself (we weren’t rich, but we weren’t poor either, though we never went on expensive holidays or had any particular luxuries more than music lessons), all I can say about money is that it ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.

A load of bloody hassle, and for what?

My dad hung himself because of work pressures (no joke I’m afraid), and he could have so easily taken retirement two years early and jacked in his largely pointless corporate job.

I guess having a dad who committed suicide because of failure to realise the futility and pointlessness of the never-ending quest for the much fabled “financial security” has somewhat shaped my views on a lot of things: money, work, the corporate machine, my relationships with other people, consumerism, what I want out of life, the importance of finding happiness right here right now and so on.

Yep, nothing like a horrible and utterly pointless death very close to you to wake you the fuck up about there being so much more to life than working non-stop for a wage, or placing any allegiance with corporations.

If it wasn’t such a shit thing to go through, I’d highly recommend the personal learning experience side of having a family member commit suicide. (Although if it wasn’t such a shit thing to go through, I wouldn’t have learned as much from it either.)

Oh bugger… now I’ve gone all serious on what’s supposed to be a non-serious thread. I guess you were probably joking anyway!!

Still, all I really wanted to say is that people matter a fucking LOT, and that money, possessions and job titles matter absolutely jack shit in the grand scheme of things. With good friends, you become the richest person alive.

Dutch government firework safety ads featuring a spoof Islamist terrorist group have been criticised as insensitive…

Bungle of MCB thinks its amusing so cant be that bad!

It’s a black thing Dave.
“Uh-ahh, you cant tell me NUH-thing”

Money is just a tool to get you somewhere – seeking it in itself is a fairly pointless activity, and a rather good way to find unhappiness.

How about just make the most of 2008, spread the happiness around, and when a bit of money comes into the equation just see it for what it is – a facilitator of some aspect of your life.

The credit crunch won’t affect you much if your life is about people, not things. There’s no boom-bust with friends!

So that’s gonna be one of my aims for 2008: practise what I preach and make sure everybody around me knows how much I value them just for being themselves and being my friends. You can’t put a price on that!