It was a sunny day after a cloudy start. Not that I saw much of it, or remember it.

We always see host Mark Austin wearing trousers. Not because his knees are knobbly - that's my excuse - but because he believes bare legs would make people take his journalism less seriously. Doesn' t involvement in this show do exactly that?

The yellows are a team in despair; the blues have rigged up something of a shower. Looks like the yellows are in for a tough episode.

The reward challenge. Put on t-shirts with a letter on it. Make as many words from those letters in three minutes. Do it all on a log in the water. Let the countdown commence. Blues take an early lead, yellows draw level, blues go ahead to win 5-4. The reward isn't a Countdown teapot, but four tins of food and some equipment to dive for fish.

Usual over-baked reaction shots. We haven't had enough of those this week. The yellows are down as usual. The blues will be up, with tins of beans. Baked beans on rice. Yellows go for some motivational therapy, talking through their feelings.

The immunity challenge: recover a sunken treasure chest. It's not exactly high drama, the blues being far better at this than the yellows. Of five challenges, the blues have only lost one, and that on a technicality.

"Too much talking, not enough action" is the general view. Andy finds Simon's response interesting, suggesting Simon has Ambitions. The blues set up a crab-racing track, using strips of bamboo. 45 minutes later, we have a winner. Makes TOUCH THE TRUCK seem exciting.

Rats visit the blue camp overnight. Rat and bean pie, anyone?

The yellows expected to be able to get more provisions on the island, not just rats and fish. Someone really ought to tell them about the luxury villas on the north side. The blues spend the day luxuriating in the sheer tropicalness of it all. Anything for more sunny, hot shots.

Jayne of the yellows remarks that it's quiet. Charlotte, Adrian and Uzma have a bit of an alliance; Simon will jump between the two. Andy and James are more loosely allied with Jayne, on the grounds they're not with the three.

So to the voting booth, and it's wet. Whose torches had to be re-lit on entry? The voting: Jayne 2, James 1, Uzma 4. Uzma mentions how Adrian and Charlotte were keeping the whole camp awake with their nocturnal meanderings. "The team needed to gel, needed to have the right attitudes, and we don't have that."

Do get the strength up to waddle to the store. It's so much quieter at 10am than at 6pm.

Also clear the weekend's backlog of game shows: the last two episodes of Wanted, and episode three of Survivor (review above) And Channel 4's newie, NUMBER ONE; and WEAKEST LINK USA. Not that I can play along, it's all in one eye and out the other.

Cory:
well, it's true, it is sad. am I jsut not getting it, or is there not any?
Those of you going for the Regular Reader's Reward Points will probably have figured that I needed to take a couple of days off line, to attempt to sort my head out. I think it's worked, there's another post applying ribbons and bows to the package, and preparing a launch pad for the next few days.

Of course, being *off* line means I don't get to be *on* line, for fairly obvious reasons. And being off line means I don't get to post on line.

Throw into the mix a really, *really* virulent bout of flu that keeps me in bed for pretty much the whole of Monday and you get a distinct dearth of posts from this corner.

Normal service resumes as of about right now.

shimelle reckons that, these days, Het Grauniad is the newspaper of record. As that esteemed orgna publishes a full page expose of the Kaycee saga, and after a weekend of soul searching, I reckon it's time to move on. So, after the travels and travails of the past fortnight, what have I learned?

People are strange. Really strange. People are really bizarre creatures sometimes. People will say things, do other things, and mean third something else entirely.

Energy, once focussed, will not dissipate easily. If at all. About a third of the way down the MetaFilter thread that brought the hoax to light, someone gave a quote from MSCL. I don't recall who, I don't recall what. It merely registered that someone had dropped a quote from Angel Chase into a discussion that appears not to have much to do with the red-haired chick.

Yet this was a fictional creation who spoke in a language accessible to many. A character whose untimely loss was acutely mourned and hotly debated. A character that still attracts attention now, six years on.

(By one of the acutest ironies, the world learned of Kaycee's demise on May 16, the same date as MSCL also got the chop. Coincidence, if you believe in such things.)

And that people I don't meet can affect my life in tremendous, profound ways. But so do people I *do* meet. For the rest of this week, I'll be posting tributes to three people who have changed my life in ways unimaginable when we first met. Active listies are excluded from this calculus; not because none of them have taught me anything, but because it would be invidious to single out just one or two.

Another day off work I'm still very, very tired, and keep falling asleep after any strenuous exercise. There's a two-pronged approach to beating this; eat plenty of complex carbohydrates, and wait for the weather to change.
It's about the twelfth straight day where we've had heat and humidity, and while Philip Eden reckons there's a change on the way, I'll believe it when it arrives.
Complex carbohydrates are more simple to explain: I missed roughly a day's food on Monday, and haven't quite replaced them since.
It's a very strange recovery process from this cold. The nose is just about back there, but there's something spoiling the head. Perhaps a slight touch of altered consciousness. Not convinced I like it...

Who he? A major shock just after breakfast; it turns out that the previous owners booked a window cleaner each month. And neglected to tell me. So I see a strange man outside my back window. Totally unexpected, and enough to send me into a brief coughing fit. He won't be back, by agreement.

A quick trip to the supermarket just after lunch, stock up on things and avoid having to buy so much on Saturday. It's a thing worth doing.

Remember Jeffery Archer? If only we could forget! He's back in court, for the sequel to a trial first fought after the 1987 election. Back then, he won £500,000 libel damages from a tabloid snewspaper. Since then, allegations have surfaced that he'd concocted a diary to create a false alibi. It's on these charges that Archer - now a Lord - is standing trial.

Foot and mouth Day 100, with fresh outbreaks in Settle, N Yorks; Clitheroe, Lancashire; and in north Cheshire. The backlog of animals is building up again, and there are fears that things will get significantly worse once the politicians have the election out of the way. Who here is surprised?

New look Put the finishing touches to the new colour scheme for this site. For those of you watching in black and white, it's mainly orange with a hint of yellow; and a bit of orangey-brown behind the mail and quotes. I like it, and that's what matters.

Sara:
it has been debated and noted that it was in fact that the England changed the words AFTER America came into being,
Whoa, whoa and whoa again!

1) "It has been noted." By whom? This is a scholarly claim, can you provide properly researched sources?

2) "After America came into being." This is a very broad swathe of history, covering the time between early English forays across the Atlantic in the early 1500s right through to the Dominion Wars in 1773-8.

3) Most importantly, the dictionary for the English language was not widely respected until Samuel Johnson's publication in 1755. Johnson's stated aim may have been to record common use, not prescribe; his result was to lay down "correct" spellings.

While there were widely-used spellings before this date, there is no way that a present-day researcher can state which is *the* correct spelling for a given time period. Often, there *was* no correct spelling - witness the number of ways Shakespeare's name is recorded.

In short, then, there was no widely-accepted standard before the US began to claim her independence. Therefore, the claim appears illogical.

they spell them the american way, and not the english way,
On the other hand, there are sources that suggest both English and Colonial writers used what are now known as the English spellings.

Eric Geyer:
It was Noah Webster who proposed dropping the 'u' in colour, back in the first half of the 19th century.
Let me see what Encyclomedia has to say about Websterspit:

"While teaching in Goshen, N.Y., in 1782, Webster became dissatisfied with texts for children that ignored the American culture, and he began his lifelong efforts to promote a distinctively American education [...] Webster's principle (enunciated later in his dictionary) "grammar is formed on language, and not language on grammar." Although he did not always follow this principle and often relied on analogy, reason, and true or fanciful etymology, his inconsistencies were no greater than those of his English contemporaries. He spoke of American English as "Federal English," always contrasting the superior usage of the yeoman of America with the alleged affectations of London. The first edition of 'An American Dictionary of the English Language' was published in two volumes in 1828, when Webster was 70 years old. It comprised 2,500 copies in the U.S. and 3,000 in England, and it sold out in little more than a year, despite harsh attacks on its "Americanisms," its unconventional preferences in spelling, its tendency to advocate US rather than British usage and spelling, and its inclusion of nonliterary words, particularly technical terms from the arts and sciences. (quote ends)

Furthermore, Eric's source suggests that this was a pet project of elements opposed to literacy in the US around 130 years ago, some time after the US as we know it came into being.

Which does suggest that this really *is* a quirk of these United Stations, and argues against the original theory.

---

Sara Lou :)
>Do huh? How could "Z" possibly be pronounced other then...well..."Z"???
in case nobody has answered yet, it is weirdly pronounced 'zed' here in England.
Actually, it is these strange United Stations who think that "zee" is an acceptable name to end the alphabet. This is not good enough, sounding awfully like B, C, D, E, G, P, T *and* V. Why add to confusion by having a ninth letter sound like all the others?

Ross insists that 'zed' is not a word, but I personally do not see how it could not be.
Let's ask Susie Laine. Oh glittery guardienne of the dictionaries..?

of course, some esteemed british citizens actually admit that 'zee' makes a lot more sense than 'zed' since the sound of Z in words is usually 'zee' and not 'zed'.
Well, there is that, but the reverse position allows us to take the Bob out of people who think that EZ is an acceptable contraction for "easy."

---

Jaeda:
Well i knew you pronounced "Z" as "zed" in some other countries...because with french, when you sing the alphabet song, it's "zed" but for christ's sake...we call it a "double - u" when that's never how it's pronounced...it should be called a "wuh"...this has made my brain tired...
We're getting US editions of The Weakest Link at the moment. Anne is in trouble. She can't pronounce Berkshire correctly, muffs the airport code for Toronto (it's Why-Why-Zed,) confuses a derby and the Earl of Derby. And, worst of all, she can't even pronounce That Chemical Element.

Anne Robinson, go listen to www.geocities.com/weaver693/aluminium.mp3 Yours is the weakest pronunciation. Goodbye.

Meet le grand fromage The new boss, appointed in February and due to take formal control next April, comes round on a tour. A genial Irishman, knows nothing about IT, but knows enough to let us alone. I trust.

Fourteen phone messages waiting when I get home. One suggesting that I come round some time today or tomorrow. This is pretty pointless, seeing as how he's got the wrong number. Two commenting that the message is an outtake from TWL. Well, duh. That's the object. And eleven (eleven!) non-messages.

The weather still hasn't broken properly, remaining defiantly sunny most of the day. This just won't do. I really need some rain, and soon.

Survivor 4 Yellows win a reward challenge that looks like something out of THE CRYSTAL MAZE's Aztec zone. They get live chickens. Stop trying to pretend this is BIG BROTHER, it's nowhere near as fun. Yellows also win a very badly-explained vote off challenge. Blues lose former WANTED tracker Sarah Odell. Does anyone still care? I don't.

Sara Lou :)
-->yeah, prices look pretty good. oddly enough, theprices from the US to the UK are much more expensive, but still not quite as expensive as they could be :)
Odd. Given the amazing lack of intelligence exhibited by many leisure travellers, and customs officers, and game show contestants, one would have thought they would be *giving* these seats away.

I have permanent leave to stay in this country now. that is, if I don't leave the country for more than two years at any one time *groan* Ross and I are going to find out about getting dual citizenship so that we don't have to worry about this ever!!
The alternative is that you *could* rescind your declaration of independence and return to colonial status...

>Has he thought of applying for THE WEAKEST LINK yet?
-->LOL he'd robably do much better than most of the contestants!! hehe
Exactamundo!

Another icky day Not quite as weak as yesterday, but a slightly later lunch means I'm quite giddy. Need more carbos.

Problems with a PC that's being built from scratch. I'm not convinced I've got the right drivers, but whacking acceleration down to minimal seems to cure the trick. Question for the panel: what *does* monitor acceleration do, actually? And does it have any effect on a PC used once in a blue moon to check email and process documents? mail me

Lamb to the slaughter 1 The farmer made into a scapegoat for the ongoing foot and mouth crisis looks set to be prosecuted. Bobby Waugh says that Northumbria Police anticipate charging him with feeding unprocessed food waste to pigs, and failing to notify disease in pigs. While this will no doubt satisfy the media and government obsession with blaming someone, it will allow the real criminal - the over-intensive farming methods that have been encouraged over the past 40 years - to escape scot-free. Is anyone really surprised? No party this side of the Greens has seriously proposed reforming the rich subsidies paid to farmers; and for a problem that delayed the election a month, F&M has been curiously absent from the campaign.

Lamb to the slaughter 2 Timothy McVeigh, the alleged perpetrator of the Oaklahoma City bombing, has requested a stay of his planned judicial murder. Following the discovery last month of previously concealed evidence, his legal team has reversed tack and demanded the Federal Bungling Investigators and Department of Injustice be held accountable for every step. The greater question, surrounding his actual guilt, remains unraised.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer End of season 5, and it's a cracker. Not only is it a goodly complex and confusing episode in its own right - complex Buffy episodes are good, right - but it ties up a lot of what would otherwise be loose ends dangling from earlier in the series. An item that's been in the basement for the past five months suddenly turns out to have a use! The ending is suitably obscure, and we await season 6 with interest. *****

Sara Lou :)
Canada says 'zed'? I Mean, I know it was french, but I just always assumed, for whatever reason, that Canada pronounced it like us..
Canada 101: Canada is not the USA.

Canada 102: Not all of the country speaks French. Francophones are mainly confined to Quebec, parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and those south Avalon next to St Pierre et Miquelon (still part of France.)

Canada 103: See Canada 101.

Canada 104: US spellings are deprecated in polite company, as being the sign of a mind influenced too much by that province to the South. See Canada 103.

Canada 105: The last letter of the alphabet is pronounced "zed." See Canada 104, or any episode of "Sesame Park" (see Canada 103.)

francophones? what's that?
Canada 106: Francophones: people who speak French. See Canada 102.

Into town A drowsy wander round the city, helped along my way by some heavy showers. Pick up some US$ to use in a couple of weeks - most things will go on the credit card, but I'd like to have a good stash of cash for life's essentials. Like pasta salad and yoghurt at Newark, or coffee and doughnuts on the Belt Line.
Other stuff: last year's Big Brother book is remaindered, and mine for a quid; a card to leave behind for mother's birthday is also there. And singles from Lee Ann Womack (sans the Sons Of The Desert - shame!) and Three Doors Down. Yes, it appears Kryptonite *did* get a UK release. No promotion, just slipped out and then into the bargain bins. Mine for 49p.

Dating Spike Well, not quite. To a convention of Dr Who fanatics, where the guest speaker is (obviously) James Marsters, who plays Spike in Buffy. That well-known Dr Who spin-off... Anyway, he's a right rip-roaring laugh, nowhere near as nasty as his character. He confirmed that there *will* be a change to the opening credits in season 6, but we all knew that Tony Head (Mr Giles) is reducing his involvement to spend more time with his teacups. And that you really shouldn't believe everything you see on television. More than that, he wouldn't be drawn. Grr.

Massacre in Nepal Jaws head floorwards at news from Nepal. The Crown Prince Dipendra turned a shotgun on his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwayara, other regals and servants, and finally himself. It's understood the massacre followed a disagreement over the Prince's choice of wife.
This is a bizarre and shocking thing to happen to any family; for one of the most powerful and respected royal systems on the planet, it comes as a genuine tragedy. Comments to the effect that a similar event might profitably happen here are insensitive.

Jonathan:
No kidding? Really? What on earth did I say? I'm glad it helped, though.
Something to the effect that this will end, life will resume, trust me, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. The sort of optimism that sounds impossible when you're there, but does usually turn out to be so.

What it was important for me to understand was that in those previous relationships, I really wasn't in love. Because I was so screwed up inside I wasn't yet ready to love anyone. I really loved the 'ideal' far more than the person at that point. I hated myself at that point, and didn't feel that I deserved to be loved.
Interesting... very interesting. There are some points with which I can empathise, others I will have to trust you on. The really annoying part is that there are some in the middle, which might fall into either category.

Dear Lord, am I glad that I'm done with that part of my life. That I finally learned some self confidence. And, even nicer, I found someone who loves me for me, and that I love so very dearly. My Shana darling. Now *there's* something I didn't expect to see here, he fibbed. I'm ever so glad you're both happy, and happy together. Hugs and Hurrah!s all round.

chelle:
i just want to say first off that i'm enjoying the posts about the not-exclusively-online people in your life, iain. (i say it like that coz, even online people are real, to me.)
This is part of the point that gave me such a problem the other week; that while online people *are* real, offline people are *also* real, but often in a different way. Confusing the two causes problems.

it's inspiring me maybe to write one or two of my own.
Part of the reason was to remind myself of some of the funky friends I've had over the years. I could easily have turned a concise three-parter into seven, maybe eleven parts. Part of it was to provide some sort of catharsis to all the pent-up emotions. And part of it was just because it felt the right thing to do, for reasons I don't need to investigate.

If it feels good to you (and this is the collective you, not just chelle) go do it.

> To chelle and (if she's still here) to Demeter, for support beyond the call of duty.
i wouldn't say all that.
I would (:

what i said/did, i felt was appropriate, nothing more, nothing less.
Merely appropriate or not, I got a huge amount of support out of it. Heck, if chelle can do this *without* really trying...

*hugs*
Hugs and Hurrah!s back.

Sara Lou :)
I am glad you're healing. and I know its been a really difficult thing for you to go through
It's a long haul, and it's not necessarily over, but it feels like most of the changes are permanent ones. And some of them may even be for the better.

it would have been for anyone, but I know that you loved Ali a hell of a lot.
There is a part of me that will always love Ali. I met someone who caused me to stop and think about what I want from my life. Who set me thinking of things I don't usually bother with, and discussing topics that matter. That must be a good thing, surely.

Some day, I will return to St John's. This is a given fact, it's written into my will that ashes go off the top of Signal Hill one sunset. I would, though, like to return sooner than that, to provide a bit of closure and investigate the old town on my own terms. I will probably need some support there, as you never know what spectres might be around the next turn. And it won't be too soon, not before other commitments (Hi Jae; hi Cory) are fulfilled. But it will happen.

Courtney
Good to see you put a positive spin on all this controversy.
I met someone who caused me to stop and think about what I want from my life. Who set me thinking of things I don't usually bother with, and discussing topics that matter. That must be a good thing, surely. Even if it turns out she doesn't exist.

I read a link you sent last week about the whole scandal and I was just appalled.
Amazed, jaw-droppingly shocked, certainly. But not outraged. I wouldn't usually make medical claims, but it's clear that the perpertratix needs medical attention and a good psychiatrist.

Besides, you ain't heard the last of this one. CNN and the NYT have already run pieces, and now Good Moaning America, The Toady Show, Silly Jesse Raphael, and Datelie are all sniffing around the story. They say a problem shared is a problem halved; from this level of interest, I'll have about 0.0001% of the original problem by next weekend.

But what you said about Angela and the quote, I really dug that. this list has so much heart
I think it always will. So long as someone is prepared to share what makes them happy, what makes them sad, what is irritating them, or what prickled them, we'll keep that heart moving.

Playing catch up Sleep in till well after 8. This is very unusual - I've had WANTED to get me up for 7 every weekend since moving here, but a combination of Friday night's rave next door and the aftermath of the flu mean that sleep is called for.

Do all the stuff I'd planned for last weekend, like change the bedding, and spend an hour in the garden chopping the plants back to their path lines. The process generates three carrier bags full of litter, one bag more than when I last did the task on May Day. Hope next door's cats don't usurp the carriers before the binmen come.

First time through the Top 40 on digital radio, and yes, they do put up the correct spelling of every single track. Great idea. Shame the show itself is utter turgidity.

This week's charts

Second week at #1 in the US for the remake of "Lady Marmalade" by a bevy of young hopefuls, and still on airplay only. Janet's "All For You" remains the global #1 for the seventh week, while Atomic Kitten score the big international breakout, "Whole Again" rules that roost for the second straight week.
Confusion reigns in the US, where Tool's "Lateralus" remains #1 on the official chart. But there's a big question mark, as Eva Cassidy's "Songbird" is registered as the actual biggest seller in stores. It's not eligible for the big list, as it's more than two years old. No such problems in the UK, where Shaggy scores his first #1 album with "Hot Shot."

#1 (22) SHAGGY FEATURING RAYVON - Angel [wk 13, #1]

#2 (#3) DIDO - Thank You [wk 14, #2]

#3 (#4) DESTINY'S CHILD - Survivor [wk 11, #1]

#4 (#2) JENNIFER LOPEZ - Play [wk 8, #2]

#5 (10) DJ PIED PIPER - Do You Really Like It? [wk 2, #5]

#7 (#1) S CLUB 7 - Don't Stop Movin' [wk 6, #1]

#9 (14) BLUE - All Rise [wk 2, #9]

12 (36) EDDIE GRANT - Electric Avenue [wk 2, #12]

13 *46* TRAVIS - Sing [wk 1, #13]

14 (15) ATOMIC KITTEN - Whole Again [wk 18, #1]

16 (18) 3LW - No More [wk 2, #16]

17 (25) SUNSHINE ANDERSON - Heard It All Before [wk 2, #17]

18 (29) CHRISTINA AGUILERA / MYA / LIL' KIM / PINK - Lady Marmalade [wk 4, #18]

19 (28) EMMA BUNTON - What Took You So Long? [wk 9, #4]

32 *NE* MYA - Free [wk 1, #32]

34 (35) TRAIN - Drops Of Jupiter [wk 4, #34]

36 *NE* OUTKAST - So Fresh, So Clean [wk 1, #36]

37 (44) SOULDECISION - Let's Do It Right [wk 3, #37]

38 (39) NELLY FURTARDO - Turn Off The Light [wk 5, #36]

39 (42) DEPECHE MODE - Dream On [wk 5, #16]

40 (41) WESTLIFE - Uptown Girl [wk 12, #3]