My local gas station reminds me that I'm pumping guaranteed gasoline.

Which is nice, because running the risk of accidentally pumping peach tea does get annoying after a while.

I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that Lifehacker used a photo of mine in one of their articles today. So that was nice of them.

In which I flap on about things I like about America. Today? Spelling.

Ask any Brit and they'll tell you American spelling is the spawn of Satan and jolly well not right at all. I'd agree. But I consider myself a fairly lazy writer and wholeheartedly approve of any and all shortcuts to get words on paper. And America is every lazy writer's dream.

Americans seem to have a perpetual war on vowels. A war, quite frankly, that I can get behind. Those pesky buggers just take up far too much space in words anyway. Who can be arsed with them?

Take that letter a:

encyclopedia vs encyclopaedia
medieval vs mediaeval

And this letter e:

aging vs ageing
argument vs arguement
judgment vs judgement

Have it letter o:

maneuver vs manoeuvre

See ya letter u:

color vs colour
favorite vs favourite
honor vs honour

You see how much time I save on any given day right there alone?

America has also thankfully reversed the British trend of lets add extra letters to words because wouldn't that be fun. Again, I approve.

draft vs draught
plow vs plough
check vs cheque
program vs programme

They're onto something, those Americans. Spawn of Satan their spelling may be, but it sure saves time and effort.

Baking my first cake at the weekend took me back down nostalgia avenue. As any kid who ever got the mixing spoon from their mum can tell you, cake mixture in a bowl is the stuff of legend mate. Legend.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure why people bother actually popping the cake in the oven.

What other food stuff actually tastes less good when it comes out? None. Only cake mix is like that. My suggestion therefore? Just get a big spoon and eat it out of the bowl instead.

I can't believe I waited all these years to give baking a whirl. There will be more, many more and it looks like 2010 is the year I become ruler of the kitchen.

Or, er, something.

I've never liked the name of this blog and always thought it was a bit crap really. So now I've just renamed it to, well, something probably equally as crap actually.

But hey, at least kevinspencer.org matches the domain name at last. So, er, yeah, nothing really to see here then. Just thought I'd mention it.

You know, as you do.

Like most geeks, I read about today's iPad announcement with some interest. I mean I do like the odd Apple product after all.

My initial gut reaction: underwhelmed.

But then again, I think I'm probably not Apple's target market. Don't get me wrong, it looks lovely and if someone wanted to buy me one, I'd say thanks with a big grin on my face. It just doesn't do anything I can't already do with the devices I already have. And I think that's why I was left with a meh feeling.

I have an iPhone and I love it. It's become like a second computer to me. An ultra portable device with which I can make calls, surf the web, read email, tweet, watch video, read books, take photos, and play games. And it fits in my pocket. In short, it's convenient.

The iPad, to me, is basically just a much bigger version of that. Except it won't fit in my pocket. Which isn't all that convenient. I'd have to tote it around in a bag. And I already do that because I have a laptop. A portable device with a bigger screen, more horsepower, and more storage than an iPad.

Now, if I was in the market for a netbook, if I didn't have a laptop or a smartphone, I would probably be extremely excited by today's big announcement. But I'm not in that market at the moment.

However, ask me if I'm kicking myself for buying my girlfriend a netbook for Christmas. Go on ask me.

In which I flap on about things I like about America. Today? Plugs mate.

Simple thing plugs. You... (wait for it) ...plug them in and behold, the magic and brilliance of electricity can be yours for the use thereof. But not all plugs are created equally. Some are, in fact, better than others.

In America, plugs are really quite tiny. Which is good. I like that. The kind you get is entirely dependent on whether your gadget requires grounding. If it doesn't then a simple two prong whatsit is all that you'll need.

If it does require grounding then you'll get a slightly larger plug with a third grounding prong thingy. Both plug into the same wall socket. Which is nice.

So let's recap. American plugs are small. And I like small. So that works out rather well doesn't it.

Now, the British design is somewhat different. Somewhat larger lets say. In fact, compared to its American counterpart, it's an absolute giant among plugs. A giant I tell you.

Just look at that thing. Three giant prong doodlies, so large you could have someone's eye out with those things. I believe the British plugs are closely modeled on medieval battlefield weapons.

They're full of fuses, wires, nooks for small animals to live in, and a place where electricians like to keep their bacon. Which I feel is bordering on the ridiculous. Electricians don't even eat bacon.

So, size does matter kids. Smaller is better. After having used both types of plugs for many years, the American plug is far easier to carry around. Just a little less handy for beating up a burglar with.

I woke up at 2:30am last night and found myself wide awake. So obviously, as you do, I took that opportunity to watch the last 6 episodes from season 5 of Lost. I'm now all caught up and ready. Ready for what you may ask? Well...

Remember kids, the final season of Lost begins on February 2nd. And good lord do they ever have a lot of work to do to tie up all those loose ends. They already had enough of them hanging out there without adding some Jacob death and that darkshirt/non-Locke bloke into the mix.

I'm going to reserve judgment on the series as a whole to see how well they end the wild ride we've been on for the past few years. If they manage to pull it off* I'll venture that Lost was one of the best things on TV ever. We'll see.

* that's what she said.

I won't say it's necessarily the most effective means of promoting a gig, but it sure is the best one I've ever seen. I can't imagine the amount of time and effort involved. A true fan that's for sure.

Stumbled upon completely by accident when taking a wrong turn in downtown Phoenix earlier today.

And because I suck, I completely forgot Sonic Youth were even playing at the Marquee.

Hey, guess what, it rained yesterday. A lot. Now for most of you, a thoroughly justified so what? will be in order. But this is the desert, and it doesn't rain here.

So, when that wet stuff falls from the sky, it's a little out of the ordinary. It makes the evening news. People talk about it. People look out their windows and stare at it. For someone from England, this makes me giggle. It's just rain.

But when the heavens open here in Arizona, they open. The ground is so dry that it can't soak it up quickly enough. So we have little mini floods and newly created water polo fields where none previously existed.