Manga Meets Matt Groening

Ever imagined the Simpsons and Futurama as Japanese Manga cartoons? Someone has:



Oddly unsettling isn't it?

Steven Wright

No, not the BBC Radio DJ, with his Sunday Love Longs crap, but the oddly funny American comedian who says things like:

It doesn't matter what temperature the room is -- it's always room temperature.

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.

If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?

And my favourite:

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

Read his musings over at http://twitter.com/stevenwright

When I'm drunk...

... I like to take photos of other people wearing my glasses - apparently:











I only realised this recently when I noticed all these specky gits on my phone camera.

Its bordering on a fetish really, isn't it? The power of alcohol. Spot which is me?

Batgirl Spotted In Valencia

Apologies, dear reader for my absence of late, but I have been on a mind bending, liver busting fortnight's holiday.

It all began with 2 good friends who came to visit and ended with a 4 day, 16 man stag-athon featuring a particularly unconvincing Batgirl. In rural Spain. The locals were suitably unimpressed.


The real joy was discovering Valencia on the second night (no comedy drag superheroes in tow this night). In between ordering 16 Jack Daniels & cokes, I realised what a cool city this is. Fantastic architecture melding with trendy cafe life, plus some superb places to eat (as well as drink). There was a thumping concert on in the bullring when we arrived, and the following day we shook off our hangovers to go and watch the World Touring Car Championships at the motor racing circuit.


Great Stuff. Anyway Millsbomb is slowly getting back to normal, so expect the usual tat shortly.

Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann, as you all must be aware by now, was abducted from Praia Da Luz in Portugal some 10 days ago. She will be 4 years old today.

One avenue that the authorities are investigating is that Maddie may have been taken across the Portuguese border into Spain. There has already been a widespread awareness campaign by groups of expats in various areas of Spain and Gibraltar.

You can help by posting a picture of Maddie in your local shops, bars, restaurants, wherever.

Sky News website has a useful poster for people to download and print off.

Unfortunately at the time of writing this their website appears to be flooded with requests for info, so the link is temporarily unavailable.

Update: The Liverpool Echo has a poster available for printing/emailing here.

If you think you have any information, no matter how insignificant, please call the Portuguese investigation team on +351 218 641 000.

A Mother's Journey

I stumbled across this today, it is the 2007 Pulitzer photography winner. The series of photos are entitled A Mother's Journey. I don't normally post stuff like this, but I just found it utterly compelling.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/newsroom/swf/april07/mother/

Time Lapse

This is quite beautiful, its made by a chap called Ollie Larkin.

Whacky Races

The next time someone complains about the driving in Spain, show them this, its from a busy junction somewhere in India.

Helping Hands

One of the nice things that people tend to forget about the internet is that, despite it being the hugest commercial platform, it remains at heart all about communication and co-operation. Honest.

I was reminded of that these past few weeks when our server was struck by the digital equivalent of herpes. Try as I might I could not get rid of the virus, nasties kept re-appearing much to my displeasure.

This clearly put me a particularly pleasant mood all week from which my co-workers benefitted:

"Google It", "Fix your own f***ing printer", "Read what it says on the screen, you muppet" etc...

Well now you find me in lighter mood, skipping on my way to work and stopping to smell the flowers. The reason for my cheerier disposition? I managed to cure the bug on the server.

I would like you to think that I am a capabable, multi skilled IT kinda guy and that I did this on my own with just my vast intellect and good looks as my tools. But the truth is there are fantastically knowledgeable people out there in internetland who are beyond generous with their time and supremely patient with webmonkeys like me.

One such place (where I found myself begging for help) is the forum over at CastleCops.com. There I received direct help and instruction from several security experts as well as the odd experienced user. In particular I would like to say a big thank you to Negster who gave me some top advice and showed me some great new geeky tools to use, such as SecCheck.

These people love dirty machines! So if you have a security or virus problem thats driving you nuts, pay them a visit. I'm glad I did. And so are my co-workers.

Spanish Property - My Investment Strategy

Every newspaper I pick up at the moment seems to have articles with headlines like The Sun Sets On Spanish Property or Has The Bubble Burst?

Basically the media are in a frenzy over the fact that a Spanish construction company's share price has dropped by 5%. The Telegraph is predicting a collapse, then an implosion:

Britons thinking about buying property abroad were told yesterday that the
predicted collapse of the Spanish housing market would create a golden opportunity to pick up a bargain.

But there was little comfort for the many who have already bought homes in Spain. More than 250,000 properties along the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca are British owned.

"The housing market in Spain is about to implode," economists at Lombard Street Research warned yesterday

Read the article

Loving this language. Are we all going to be squashed?

Chill Out

For buyers like myself these scare stories are great. Vendors reduce prices, many buyers are frightened away from the market. Supply - Demand. Bargain. In theory anyway.

Whilst there is an oversupply of housing product in Southern Spain, and much of it is overpriced, the demand is still present and constant for good value, good quality housing. Yes, buyers are more picky, they have more choice! But there are still plenty of them flowing over from the UK looking for a holiday home or a place to live.

No one has bought for a quick investment return in Spain for years, the market has matured beyond that point now. Go see Morocco, Turkey or Brazil for those "buy to flip" returns. Spain is a place to buy if your investment strategy is all about enjoying long summers, cold beers and not caring much about share prices.

Etoo - Crimeshare Chameleon?

ETOO, a company with a rather chequered past in the timeshare resale business are under the spotlight again.

The Daily Mirror tracked them down operating under a new offshore setup called the International Timeshare Resale Association.

So we phoned the Association with some simple questions. Simple Question
One: Is ETOO a member of the Association?

The strangely suspicious spokesman
was more interested in finding out who was calling.

Timeshare scams are so 80's aren't they?

Read the full article here.

Charity Begins At Someone Else's Home

Millsbomb would like to say a big thank you to Mark and Sorrell Lewis who invited me to their house last Saturday for one of the best evenings I have had since moving to the Costa del Sol.

The evening was a charity casino night in aid of Motor Neurone Disease, and was a great success. Not only did a large number of us get riotously drunk, playing roulette, blackjack and poker but Mark, Sorrell and their friends managed to raise knocking on a thousand Euros for the MND Association. Brilliant.

I particularly enjoyed getting fleeced whilst learning the rules to Texas Hold 'Em, then discovering I had won some riding lessons on a Shetland pony in the charity raffle. Now, thats a night out.

Bon Voyage

Jason Godwin tells me he is relocating to Majorca.

Jason is the man behind Infocasa - far and away the most popular and accomplished of the various real estate applications in use here in southern Spain.

Millsbomb would like to wish him well and hope that we catch up for a pint during one of his next monthly commutes.