Toneboy's blog

Last Of His Kind

2012-05-29T17:36:00.000+01:00

September 1993. I was about to begin life at university, and at the same point Chipper Jones was making his Braves debut. He's been part of the Major League club ever since, and a member of the organisation as a whole since June 1990. This autumn his playing career will come to an end.

22 years with one organisation doesn't come without some memories, even if they started in unusual fashion for me. Remember an age without the internet? Well somehow I managed to get through to the 1996 season without being aware of Chipper's place in the team, so while finishing off my final coursework at university in 1996 a late night game against Pittsburgh saw a graphic appear with "3B - C. Jones". Now there might be other reasons that I wasn't happy to see that then, but for the moment let's just say that Terry Pendleton was the third baseman I had always known to that point and be done with it.

(By the way, even though I picked one up, I obviously hadn't read the Sports Illustrated report into the Braves' 1995 World Series win by then. And it was a long time before the VHS tape of the series made it's way into my collection. To be honest I don't even know if the 1995 World Series was even shown on British TV.)

By the following year the newly formed Channel 5 was showing Baseball live twice a week, and I even started to have a few friends sending me links to game reports at something called ESPN.com. This was a new world, where games could be seen more easily and information about those games was more readily available to those of us on this side of the Atlantic.

(Possibly the start of the end for the beloved Sportspages bookshop off Charing Cross Road in London, but I digress.)

By the time 1999 came round I was in a new job where I frequently got Thursdays off. Those days off and being in my 20s meant I was frequently seeing whole games to the very end. Many of those were Braves games, and if there was one season which gripped me it was 1999. The Braves lost Andres Galarraga for the season to cancer, lost Javy Lopez to a knee injury, and effectively lost Brian Jordan's power after he broke his hand. What was so special about Chipper Jones? He only put the team on his back, culminating in a September series where he effectively beat the rival Mets on three straight nights almost single-handedly.

You talk about learning more about the player, it was there. One Sports Illustrated feature showed a candid man, willing to admit to personal mistakes and being open to be challenged by new coaches. Future press clippings would show a variety of answers: earthy, eloquent, pithy, mischievious. He's no saint, and he's not perfect, but as the star player on the team I loved it was hard to do anything than support him completely. His National League MVP year of 1999 wouldn't have a perfect ending though, as the Braves ended the year by losing the World Series to the Yankees. Chipper hit the only Braves home run of the series, and nearly tied the decisive game 4 up, but his powerful line drive went just the wrong side of the foul line against (the now legendary) Mariano Rivera.

When I finally managed to get to Atlanta the following year you couldn't help but seen Chipper's name being predominantly featured on the merchandise stands, and yet the Palace fan in me was all too well-aware of his impending contract expiration. I held off on buying anything significant with "JONES" and the number 10 on it, just in case. Looking back it seems odd to think that I thought that way. Besides the legacy he was building, the Braves offered him 90 million reasons to stay.

This year will be the last though. In recent years injuries have betrayed Chipper, and while he is no longer elite he has still continued to be professional and the face of the team, a quiet leader of men who's influence is shown in the team's record without him. He's been with the team since I was fifteen, and part of the Major League team for longer than I've known most of my best friends for (most of whom I met in my late teens).

It won't quite be the same without him. I suspect none of my teams will have someone who stays in one place the way he has again in my lifetime, I just hope he gets the fitting professional ending that his career has deserved.

No Post This Month

2012-04-30T21:34:00.001+01:00

Sorry everyone, no post this month. Just been busy I'm afraid and the end of the month came round before I had the chance to write anything. Will be back in May, promise!

Maybe It's Me?

2012-03-31T20:57:00.004+01:00

Introduction: I've probably never felt so conflicted about writing a blog post. I've drafted, re-drafted and even considered not writing this one at all, but I think there is something to gain from writing it and sharing it. What I obviously hope is that it becomes something positive, and something to act as a springboard towards better things and a better place.

Quite an odd thing happened on my last visit to Selhurst Park two months ago. As security was tight for the visit of arch rivals Brighton access to local pubs was quite restrictive. Prior to confirming that attendees were Palace fans and ticket holders for home sections of the ground, the policeman by the bar of the pub I was in asked the barmaid if I was a regular. Thinking my annual visits would lead me to make other arrangements, the barmaid instead said, "Yes, I've seen him in here before."

Perhaps it was being kind, perhaps it was the need to have customers a full three hours before the game kicked off, but I was still somewhat astonished. I visit once a year and the barmaid still recognised me? It wasn't quite the landlady of my Gran's local recognising me at my Gran's wake a full eight years after my last visit, but it was still pretty good.

Do you know how many pubs I'd have that kind of a welcome in where I live? Let's try zero.

Okay, pubs in Scotland tend to be very different. Absolutely no football colours for the most part, many with caged windows and noted affiliations. Perhaps it is part of my shy nature, but they don't look particularly inviting. But that's not the point I'm really making, it doesn't matter if you're talking about a pub, a restaurant, cafe or coffee house, I'm not a regular at any kind of establishment like that. The only places I'm a really a regular is at the closest-to-home take-away and my hairdressers. I suspect knowledge of my name extends to whether I've ordered by phone before visiting the takeaway or if my hairdressers are looking through their appointment book.

It isn't just establishments though, it is people too. I've gone through a time where I feel I'm known to people just as "Lorraine's husband" or "Chloe and Jemma's Dad", which although nice, doesn't make me feel particularly cared about as an individual sometimes. As a result of this I sat and stewed for the entire month of February, looking at my phone and counting the days that it didn't ring, beep, light up or show any other form of communication coming in my direction. Frankly it was a pretty stupid and worthless exercise that did nothing for either my self-esteem or any of my friendships.

February became March and I continued to grumble, moan and dwell upon how I was becoming less and less important to people around me (plain wrong), how I'd never really had a best male friend in Scotland (as if anyone replaces your best friend, regardless of geography) and how things weren't likely to improve while most of my friends faded away (because if you're a pessimist like me you don't think about a time when even the worst situations bottom out and start to get better). All of this was stupid and self-defeating.

Quieter times in your life do come with some advantages. Sometimes more time to think is a good thing, and sometimes it is a bad thing. In the early stages for me it is bad thing, as time to think breeds negative thoughts. Eventually I tend to get to a more considered position, and in this case I thought about how I treat my friends as well. Would I ever want them to feel left out or not cared about? No. Have I ever made them feel left out or not cared about? I doubt it, I'm clearly the perfect friend. Err, no. I'm clearly an idiot who forgets his own inadequacies.

In the same pub where a barmaid said she recognised me I had one of those private moans to my best friend. As a good friend would do, he listened, and then in the nicest way possible pointed to a time in his life where he didn't hear very much from me and indeed wondered if we would drift apart as friends. In the coming days I figured out when it was (when he had a work placement/gap year and I was finishing university and trying to figure out what on earth was going on with my life), and then called him to ask him about it and ultimately apologise for it.

How did my best friend react to this? He calmly said it was nothing, that he understood, and that he forgave me. And you know why he did that? Because that's what friends should do. More importantly, that's what I should do, and if you want to use the present tense, it's what I should be doing. Did I ever care any less about my best friend? Of course not, but the thought of making him feel that way made me feel frankly ashamed of myself, in spite of how caught up I was in my own life at the time.

My best friend is a lot of things, but mostly he's smarter, kinder and funnier than I am. In fact most of my friends are smarter, kinder and funnier than I am. They're also more forgiving than I am, which only serves as a reminder to me that however often I think I have life figured out then I realise that I've got a whole lot more learning still to do.

Oh yes, and making amends and making adjustments, but I'm working on that.

Shifting Gears

2012-02-28T21:42:00.002Z

I've now been working on a shift pattern for nearly a year and a half and I thought this might be a good opportunity to discuss some of the pros and cons of the role.

When the position at my employer's was advertised internally I thought about it for a while before applying, and decided that the opportunity to work a four day week for an initial period of six months would at least be worth trying. Having an additional day home could help with childcare, and testing it while Lorraine was still on maternity leave seemed like a good idea. Maybe it would have a detrimental effect on my social life, but then I remembered I don't have a social life, and so I decided to apply for the role. My interview went well and I was offered the job.

The biggest change for me is in regard to time taken getting into work. We moved buildings in May 2011 and with that our team members got the chance to park in the car park at our new premises. For a day that started at 8am I used to have to leave the house at 6.25am to get the train in. On the same day I would finish at 4.30pm and get in at 5.45pm. Now I leave home at 6.40am to start at 7.30am, and after a 7.30pm finish I get around for around 8pm. That saves me 90 minutes every day, and if you throw in the additional day I don't travel into the office it saves me a grand total of seven and a half hours every week.

(That doesn't even begin to mention how I prefer to travel by car and listen to podcasts while doing so. The disadvantage? I'm reading far less these days. The advantage back again? I'm not a hostage to ScotRail and all of their peculiar foibles.)

The next advantage is time off. We work a four-on/four-off pattern, which effectively becomes five days when you switch from days to nights. On the flip side of that, you effectively lose a day to sleep when you switch from nights to days, so it feels like you only have three days off. Of course that still puts you ahead of anyone who only has a two-day weekend. The plus side is that you don't always need to take holiday to get away, as my extended weekend down South last year was taken without the need to take any additional days off.

What about the working hours? Well weekday days are much same, although you start later and finish earlier. However nights and weekends are great, as there is less noise in the office and less interruptions from colleagues, which I find preferable. What I do tend to find is that by the end of the final shift I am really tired. Fitting 44 hours into four days is hard, but in some ways I don't find that any different from working Monday-to-Friday did.

I remember when I was studying in London and had a season ticket at Palace I could never have envisioned wanting to work on weekends, however I've now come to enjoy it. I get peace and quiet to work, and as an added bonus I don't have to wear the usual business casual dress for work on those days. Jean and trainers = winning! We also don't have the usual fight for fridge space, or a queue for the microwave (if we need to use it).

Don't get me wrong, there are some downsides. Working nightshifts in the winter meant I rarely saw daylight. If Lorraine is working on opposite shifts we don't see very much of each other. However probably the worst part is when your daughter asks you, "Dad are you working on Saturday?" and you have to tell her, "Yes, I'm afraid I am working". The look of disappointment isn't much fun to deal with, no matter how many times you get to take them to and pick them up from school.

You also have the problem of familiarity. Remember how I mentioned that switching from nights to days only effectively leaves with you three days off? Well you don't consider that when you've just started your job, you still see it as four days off. Furthermore you never compare shift allowances with those of other employers, while inevitably the passing of time and the voices of your colleagues lead you to do this.

However the good points clearly outweigh the bad points. I might have a working week which is technically longer, but I make up the time in what I save from commuting in a different manner. I may miss some weekends with my family, but I make up for the time in other ways. There aren't many Dads who get to take and pick their kids up from school, and I love being able to do that.

I can't guarantee I'll always feel like this, but right now I love my job, and it would need to be a seriously good offer to make me want to give it up. Now about that social life...

Memories Are Made of This

2012-01-16T15:52:00.011Z

In 1997 for the only time in my life I was in America for Super Bowl Sunday. Hours before the Packers and Patriots clashed in New Orleans I was where I normally would be on a Sunday morning, at Church. I still remember the opening prayer: "Lord, we know you don't care about sports..."

Respectfully, I would disagree. Don't get me wrong, I don't think God cares about teams and scores, but the individuals involved? Oh, I strongly believe that God cares about them. And the fans involved. And for the life changing events that coincide with sporting events? God, in my view at least, definitely cares about those.

Every once in a while someone will ask me about a particular event, and more often than any normal person would do, I'll be able to reel off everything about it and even get down to the date it took place.

Now in all honesty, part of this is because I kept a diary for not far short of a decade (1988-1997), but a lot of this relates to sporting events and when they took place. Obviously most of these are Palace games, as from the time that I first started supporting Palace until my move to Scotland those games were what I planned my leisure activities around. I tended to always know who Palace were playing and on what dates, especially so during the time I was in London at university (1993-1996).

Regardless of where I was during those years, the card sent to me by Palace's box office which provided a handy-sized guide to the season's fixtures wouldn't be far away, and fixture dates didn't change much at that time (Sky and UEFA have a lot to answer for), so I tended to know most fixture dates off the top of my head. I always looked forward to Palace games, so I guess the dates became lodged in my head (which isn't so useful when you can't find things like your mobile phone or your keys, but can remember immediately tell someone who Palace played on a certain date and who scored).

There are certain stretches of games which I remember really well, like in February and March 1996. You'll have to take my word for it that I didn't look this up:

February 17th - Watford (H), won 4-0
February 20th - Tranmere (A), won 3-2
February 24th - Huddersfield (A), lost 3-0
February 27th - Birmingham City (H), won 3-2
March 2nd - Luton Town (A), drew 0-0
March 5th - Grimsby (H), won 5-0
March 9th - WBA (H), won 1-0
March 12th - Tranmere (H), won 2-1
March 16th - Grimsby (A), won 2-0 (the only game in March that I missed in this list)
March 19th - Luton Town (H), won 2-0
March 23rd - Portsmouth (H), drew 0-0
March 30th - Millwall (A), won 4-1

(Okay, I looked this up after typing what I remembered. I got the Tranmere home score wrong, as it was the away game that we beat them 3-2 and I got them mixed up. I also forgot when the game at Tranmere was, because for some reason I thought that took place in January despite hearing the Palace end singing "We're gonna win 3-2!" before the kick-off at Huddersfield. And I forgot the home Luton game, which was an awful game until we scored two late goals. The most memorable part of that game was a Luton striker nearly getting a shot into the Upper Tier of the Holmesdale. But everything else? That was spot on, trust me on this. Not bad for a five-minute task undertaken nearly 16 years after the facts.)

And if it wasn't enough to know fixture dates in advance you'd have the season review videos to confirm them afterwards. You would watch back and think, "Why wasn't I at that game?" and then I would remember where I was instead (not that I had a great inclination to go to Grimsby's Blundell Park, but to give you one example when Palace were winning there I was at home in Hampshire seeing my family and friends for the weekend).

Anyway, I do remember more than just scores, scorers and other obscure events. Here are a few examples of remembering dates in some part due to sporting events:

I found out I was going to be a Dad for the first time just prior to flying down for the Crystal Palace v Norwich game in 2005 (16th April 2005 - , although I flew down the day before so I actually found out on the 15th).
On the day that my now wife was first hospitalised with her diabetes after we were together I came home and unwound while not really watching the France v Italy World Cup Quarter Final (3rd July 1998)
I had my hernia operation on 19th September 1996, which I remember as it was on the Thursday following Palace's 3-1 over Manchester City, which took place on my Dad's birthday. (The game was memorable for a great Palace performance and also for being the only time that I've sat in the Player's Lounge section of Selhurst Park.)
I attended the Silk Cut Challenge at Arundel on 21st September 1985 and stayed at my Dad's, which is what reminds me that going out for lunch the next day was the last time I saw my half-sister for 25 years (photo from Friday's play - it was also when I had my two-day flirtation with being a vegetarian, but that's another matter).

A lot of these dates are ones which can now be looked up online, as you can tell from the links above. There seem to be databases for everything, from football results, to cricket scorecards, to just simple calendars which help to confirm that a particular date fell on a particular day (without recalling all the fixtures that month I still have a mental block about whether Palace beat Millwall in 1996 on either the 30th or 31st March, a 1996 calendar confirms it was the 30th - this actually doesn't make sense as it was my favourite day of a horrible year for me).

Having been to lots of football matches you do hear people mention dates of events in their own lives, and if (like me) you've been to lots of football matches you can't help but think about what scores took place on or near those dates. Thankfully my friends are gracious with me, and tend to laugh at me kindly instead of brazenly mocking me.

Of course some dates are significant enough to be remembered by themselves (e.g. when I got engaged, got married, my children's birthdays, when I became a Christian, etc.), and others where I remember the sporting dates because of other events (e.g. Palace playing at Charlton on 26th September 1993 because that was the day I started university, or the Cantona incident taking place on 25th January 1995 because of a letter I received the day before).

So without sounding dismissive that is how I tend to remember dates. It is almost certainly a shallow way to do so, and arguably it isn't that important to remember these dates anyway, but I do tend to remember dates and that's the way that I do so.

And that Super Bowl Sunday's date? 26th January 1997, which I happen to remember because I flew into California on Monday the 20th. Even now there are still some things I haven't forgotten.

One Year On

2011-12-21T17:09:00.001Z

Last December was a pretty torrid time for me, as I came to grips with the loss of two family members. They were very different, but both were very special to me.

The first loss actually came in November. As the temperature dropped and the snow fell we had to say goodbye to our family dog, Cookie. We were lucky enough to begin looking after him when he was around seven years old in 2002, and then even more fortunate to get to look after him for the last eight years of his life.

That was a pretty life-changing eight years. Lorraine and I went from being newlyweds to dog owners, to a parent of a baby girl and eventually (a few months before Cookie died) parents of two girls. At each stage Cookie was a loving, loyal dog. He loved Lorraine more than anyone and he wouldn't let anyone between him and her when she went out for a walk with him. I will always honestly believe he would have died for my wife, because he completely lived for her.

His last week wasn't pleasant, starting with a trip to a vet's, an overnight stay, a pickup that seemed to offer hope but which ultimately showed the hopelessness of the situation. It gave us a few days to prepare ourselves for the inevitable, as well as give us a chance to say goodbye. Thankfully as time goes by happier memories supercede the final week, but part of me won't ever be able to forget that. Lorraine and I were there when we took him to the vet's for the last time, and for all the love and loyalty he gave us I can't regret that. He at least deserved to pass away in the company of people he loved, however hard it was for us. After he passed away the vet gave Lorraine two tissues and then passed me the rest of the box.

And yes, I still miss him.

Just a week later, as Scotland came to a standstill amid freezing weather I was unaware that I was losing my paternal grandmother. Due to the weather I was at a friend's flat and out of mobile phone battery when she passed away, and due to a number of factors I did not find out about her passing for another two days.

My Gran was an amazing woman, albeit one who sadly due to geography and family commitments I hadn't seen for five years. As the years went by I tried to make sure I called her more often, and it was always a pleasure to speak to her. Her mind never seemed to have left her, but physical ailments I hadn't seen had diminished her life somewhat.

She was consistently kind and generous. When she met Lorraine for the first time she instantly gained a place in Lorraine's affections by supplying her with a complete album of childhood photos of me. Perhaps more importantly though her opinion of my Mum never changed, regardless of whether she was married to my Dad or not. She thought the world of my Mum, and was more than happy to have her own opinions about people (I'd like to think I'm the same in that regard). She was pithy, witty and always had wonderful stories to tell, but wasn't full of self-importance and was every bit as good a listener as she was a story-teller.

It wasn't until after her death that I found out that my Gran and my Dad didn't have a particularly normal mother-son relationship. For reasons of her own choosing, my Gran never revealed that to me. I didn't reveal that he and I don't have a normal father-son relationship either, as I would have hated to have offended her. Regardless of her own feelings, she was prepared to let me make my own mind up. I wish I'd been honest with her in that regard, just for the sake of being as honest with her as I was with myself.

I miss her too, and wish I'd been there more for her, but there are things in life you can't ever change, however much you'd like to. Most of all I wish had met her Great Granddaughters, who I think she would have adored, and who she would have been adored by herself.

Facebook and the Beautiful People

2011-11-10T22:30:00.002Z

When I was seven for reasons unexplained to me I switched schools. On my first day there happened to be a girl who was also moving to the same school as me. Her name was Sarah and I remember her striking blonde hair for some reason, and I think she had ribbons in it, although I wouldn't put my life on that. We chatted in a reasonably friendly manner in reception before we were sent to the same classroom. At that point she managed to fit in right away and I began eighteen months of misery as the permanent "new kid".

Nearly thirty years later and we have a new equivalent of this. It's called Facebook.

"Are you on Facebook?" people will ask, and I had to reply "yes", because I was. But I really wished I wasn't. However if someone stealing someone's phone and impersonating them on Facebook is "Frape" then I was somewhat "Frapped" on the site due to a few people that I wouldn't be in touch with any other way.

Why don't I like Facebook? Because it marginalises people. You want to put something witty up? Sure, go ahead, but if your face doesn't fit don't expect it to be recognised, or liked, or commented upon. It'll just drift away into nothingness. If your face fits then go ahead and virtually sneeze before you see how many people rush to comment "Bless you".

With all the moving around I did as a kid it took me a hell of a long time to become comfortable with myself. What I don't really need is a reminder of how I was never really that popular, and how I don't really matter to people I'd even go so far as to say are still pretty important to me.

Friend requests hold a similar stigma to me. The fact is that I haven't been desperate for friends since I was eleven, and I'm not in any hurry to change that now. I'd like to say that I've never sent a friend request to anyone, but that wouldn't be true. There are a few people who I've unfortunately lost touch with who I jumped at the chance to maintain contact with, but that's about it. There are plenty of people who I've seen about who I've thought about adding and just decided against it. They've obviously seen me yet haven't decided to add me, so they're clearly not bothered about me, why should I be so about them?

Of course that does lead to the awkwardness when someone suggests that you add someone as a friend. I once received one of these e-mails through from a particularly good friend, and given that it was a particularly good friend I actually acted on it, whereupon the request to my friend's friend sat dormant for months. In how many ways can that be awkward? If you're me you automatically assume that someone didn't like you after all. I mean, everyone's on Facebook all the time, aren't they? What would take someone so long to add you?

(This is typically where my wife reminds me that I'm oversensitive, which to me becomes another reason why I shouldn't be on Facebook.)

And then you get the people who are in it just for the statistics? "You've got 400 friends, well I've got nearly 450!" And how many of those are friends exactly? I had a clear out on Facebook once and in doing so deleted someone who was what I would call a "collector". It took her a few weeks to try and add me again, at which point I remembered that she and her husband had gone so far as to move house without ever telling Lorraine and I. I was actually able to choose to ignore her permanently.

Someone suggested recently "Can't you unfriend or ignore people who you don't like?" Chance would be a fine thing, but you can't avoid them. Those people are everywhere and can't be avoided. What I love on Twitter is that I occasionally have to dodge a retweet of something Grant Wahl has written, or possibly a random opinion I might disagree with, but they're few and far between, and those people you don't want to hear from are simply ignored, or if it comes from someone you previously liked, they get to be unfollowed.

Facebook keeps trying to add features, and in doing so found more ways to get under my skin. It used to be that your "People You May Know" list could have people permently banished from it, and I wasn't shy about using that. At some point they changed it so that you couldn't ignore people, and along the way I know there were plenty of people who couldn't stand me (and to be honest I felt the same way about them) and I could no longer ignore them.

And then there was what began as Facebook places, and soon became a way to say "I'm out with friends and you're not". Again, fun if you're popular, less so if you're not. In fact if I'm completely honest looking at those kinds of comments made me utterly miserable.

You see Facebook is there for the beautiful people, for those people who might genuinely have 400 friends, who people want to befriend. It isn't for people like me who just go about our daily lives and attract little or no attention. If you type in "Better to be hated" into Google you're offered alternatives such as "ignored", "irrelevant" and "loved for what you're not". I'm past trying to be someone I'm not, and if being myself gets me ignored or makes me irrelevant to people then I can't change that. Again though, what I don't need is a reminder of it.

At 1am on Wednesday 26th October I finally thought that enough was enough. I could chip a few "friends" away here, pare the notifications even further back and even change my password to effectively disable my access, but no, I really needed to be rid of something which made me feel so worthless, and instead cancelled my account (although I wish I'd taken a screenshot of the "These people will miss you" page, because as of this moment none of them have). I wondered if I might have regrets, but that would be a matter of time.

Two weeks later and I don't feel any regret, in fact I wish I had done this years ago. I've spent more time since in actually talking to old friends, and trying to keep in contact in a more earnest fashion. This has been so worthwhile that again I wish I had done it earlier (Facebook or no Facebook), because friends don't exist in a list, they exist in reality, and deserve more than a "comment" here and a "like" there.

SingStar Tennis: A Follow Up

2011-10-30T14:36:00.003Z

In the unlikely event that anyone wanted a follow up of how the first ever game of SingStar Tennis went, here are the scores from the first game.

It took place between myself and my best friend Neil when he visited, with the contest actually taking place on Friday 7th October. As a kind host I let Neil "serve" first and therefore pick the first song. The songs and scores were as follows (person choosing the song, or "serving" is brackets):

1) Queen - We Are The Champions (Neil)

Neil won 7497-7181, Neil leads 1-0

2) Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out (Tony)

Tony 6363-6050, 1-1

3) The Scorpions - Wind of Change (Neil)

Neil 8554-8377, Neil leads 2-1

4) Kelly Clarkson - Since You Been Gone (Tony)

Tony 8129-3762, 2-2

5) Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds (Neil)

Neil 8089-7492, Neil leads 3-2

6) Toni Braxton - Unbreak My Heart (Tony)

Tony 7693-5391, 3-3

7) Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever (Neil)

Neil 8501-7696, Neil leads 4-3

8) Black - Wonderful Life (Tony)

Tony 9198-8791, 4-4

9) A-Ha - Sun Always Shines on TV (Neil)

Neil 8718-8507, Neil leads 5-4

10) Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You (Tony)

Tony 6873-6137, 5-5

11) The Proclaimers - Letter From America (Neil)

Tony 7537-7535, Tony leads 6-5 (break of serve!)

12) ABBA - The Day Before You Came (Tony)

Tony 8778-8211, Tony wins 7-5

Neil figured out afterwards that I had been much more tactical (honestly, "Who Let The Dogs Out" is a song we bought for our daughter), so I don't think he'll ever mention hating a song again. As he refused to sing Shayne Ward's "That's My Goal" as a forfeit I'll obviously have to buy him a Kelly Clarkson CD as a joke present to remind him of the fact that I beat him by 4367 on that one song.

I would also like to thank The Proclaimers for providing the most exciting SingStar moment to date (Scottish geography, literally FOR THE WIN!) and for ABBA for writing the most dependable song that I'm still unbeaten on (because almost nobody has ever heard of it).

SingStar Tennis

2011-09-30T22:02:00.000+01:00

Next week should be a good week. My best friend is coming up, and seeking family friendly entertainment for the evenings with my oldest daughter it is likely that SingStar will get an airing. Or two. Or possibly fifteen.

So with that in mind I've thought of an idea for a bit of fun between myself and my best friend: SingStar Tennis.

Here's how it works. We both love playing in the duel mode, where we both sing at the same time and whoever gets the highest score wins. With SingStar Tennis I pick six songs and he picks six songs, and we each take turns to hold serve. If we get to 6-6 then we select shuffle, singing off against each other with a randomly selected song.

The winner gets to choose a song for the opponent to sing as a forfeit.

Now if you don't mind, I'm away to clear up my sore throat and practice all the Kelly Clarkson songs my best friend can't sing.

Not So ProUd

2011-08-30T23:07:00.000+01:00

One of the interesting things that struck me about the recent UK riots were the origin of those in Tottenham. Tottenham was where my University campus was. I say "was" because it is no longer there, as Middlesex University closed the campus in 2005.

At the same point as the riots were beginning a Middlesex Alumni magazine sat in my pile of mail I had to get round to. I knew it wasn't urgent, so I left the Alumni magazine for a while. The front cover boasted of a new campus in Mauritius. This goes along with a campus that was previously opened in Dubai.

Can anyone point out to me whereabouts Mauritius and Dubai are in Middlesex? No, I didn't think so. Furthermore it wasn't just Tottenham that was closed, Enfield and Bounds Green were also dumped without any ceremony.

Among the various columns I read and programmes I watch I see plenty of people who are proud of their university associations, including that of Purdue, the American university in Indiana that I follow in sports ("Cradle of Astronauts", don't you know?). Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees donated $2M to the university a few years ago and famed Astronaut Neil Armstrong still maintains ties to the university which he graduated from in 1955.

Am I proud of my university, one which abandons the local community and goes chasing foreign investment? No, I'm absolutely not. The more I read about the university and think about it the more I realise why my parents had concerns about me going there.

(But Adam Ant and Dermot O'Leary went there, so that's okay!)

So keep presenting Trent Park as the image of the university, while still milking students to buy more books, incur more costs in accomodation and offering precious little in terms of practical support, both for the present and their future. The numbers that really matter are pounds and pence, not the student body. Given the choice of Purdue or Middlesex I know which one I would prefer to say I graduated from, for I know which one I am prouder to be associated with.

However loosely that may be.

Remembering the Shuttle

2011-07-31T07:31:00.002+01:00

This month saw the final Space Shuttle mission. While most of the 135 flights passed without fanfare I still remembered and treasured the memories of Columbia's initial flight as one of my very first memories. Consequently I grew up with the Shuttle missions, to me they were how Astronauts travelled to space.

Of course besides the spectacular launches, memorable photos and multiple toys there were the tragedies. As much as I remember the original Columbia launch I also remember one Tuesday night in January 1986. When I began watching the BBC evening news with my parents I felt I shouldn't be watching the Challenger launch, and yet I couldn't turn away. Even now repeats of that fateful flight brings the same reaction.

What I remember seeing as a ten year-old boy has over time become somehow even worse to watch, because now we know it wasn't just an accident, it was an avoidable accident. We know what Morton Thiokol advised about launching at such low temperatures, and how what happened was basically what they had said might happen.

In addition to that the flight also had Christa McAuliffe on board, a civillian teacher. Because of her involvement in the teacher in space program her death is remembered with more poignancy than her six colleagues (although the others were sons and daughters, many of them parents, like McAuliffe). Her father, Ed Corrigan, reportedly held the anger and bitterness at NASA to the day he died. As a Dad of two young girls I can understand that feeling, although thankfully not the depth of the pain and suffering. I hope I never do, I couldn't think of anything worse. You don't want to deny your kids fun and adventure, but not at that price.

When Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in 2003 the feeling was similar again, although it was a developing situation that I once again could not turn away from on that Saturday afternoon (in the UK). Again it appeared that NASA had been somewhat cavalier in regard to Astronaut safety.

As time passed the Shuttle took to the skies again, and thankfully there were no more accidents. As my own family grew technology moved in different ways, and NASA's HD film gallery allowed me to share some of the memories with my eldest daughter. I told her when the final ever launch would be, but unfortunately she didn't get to see it. Thankfully the NASA website was there again so we could share the sight together.

When I think of things I would have liked to have seen take place I usually think of sporting events, but of non-sporting events I would have loved to have seen a Shuttle launch. I loved visiting Cape Canaveral when I went there in 1991 with my parents, and I would have loved to have gone back to see a launch with my girls. Sadly the Shuttle's time has come. Hopefully's NASA's next adventure isn't too far away, and hopefully one day I'll be able to take my daughters to see Kennedy Space Center for themselves.

Jemma Turns One

2011-06-30T17:58:00.005+01:00

The youngest member of the family turned one at the weekend, so I thought some pictures of the first year of her life would be a nice way to celebrate the occasion. As always all photos are from my Flickr Photostream.

The first thing Jemma learned was how much her big sister loved her...

... even though she would try to steal her bed...

... but she actually preferred her own Moses Basket.

The girls continued to be best of friends...

... while Jemma became more adventurous...

... and enjoyed the ballpit she got for her first birthday.

My Suggestions for New SingStar Releases

2011-05-31T16:43:00.005+01:00

So after much waiting the PSN network is back with us and playing games on a Playstation 3 can return to some degree of normality. Then you read that Andrew Lloyd Webber songs are available for SingStar and you have to think that there must be some better options than that. So with that in mind here are three better ideas (at least in my opinion, if you disagree please suggest something different in the comments).

SingStar at the Movies

Wouldn't this work? If they can have other vague categories along with more structured ones like Motown then why not go down this route? You could easily find 25 great songs with cross male/female appeal from movies, or if you like 24 and John Waite's "Deal For Life" from "Days of Thunder" (I think I'm the only person who likes that and thinks it should be used in a cheesy party political broadcast).

SingStar: Beautiful South

Extensive back catalogue, and arguably even bigger if go back to the Housemartins and include them as well. Mixture of songs sung by men and women, quirky, funny stuff, and more than a few songs that a lot of people know. Certainly more than some that you see on the SingStore, mentioning no names (*cough* Eoghan Quigg *cough*)

SingStar: Eagles

My ultimate choice for the a new SingStar addition. An extensive back catalogue, full of classics, and also the ability to go into the solo work of the likes of Don Henley and Glenn Frey as well. Okay, so you're not getting any songs with female lead vocals, but that didn't stop them making SingStar editions for Take That or Queen, and arguably the songs are universal enough to appeal to everyone. I think this is clearly the the one which could have the most universal appeal (and unquestionably more than anything by Busted which presently exists in the SingStore).

Have any better ideas? Suggest them in the comments.

Thoughts on the PSN Security Breach

2011-04-29T22:57:00.001+01:00

If, like myself, you own a PlayStation3 then it is more likely than not that you are on the PSN Network. Having seen what has happened in the last week, like me, you might be somewhat displeased with what has occurred.

To summarise Sony's own posts on the matter they experienced an intrusion into the PSN network between the 17th and 19th of April. Then on the 26th of April they informed us that there had been a loss of personal data, including user's addresses, passwords and possibly credit card information. Seemingly it appears that passwords and credit card information was stored in an unencrypted fashion.

When I look through comments on Sony's official blog I am amazed by two things. Firstly, some people's first concern seems to be when the network will be back up and running. Secondly some people are surprised that people are upset with Sony. If a network is unsecured they cannot possibly reopen it as yet, and if that unsecured network has critical unencrypted data on it then I think people have a right to be upset.

Personally I am amazed that Sony did not at least encrypt passwords and credit card information. Looking into encrypting these details is not difficult. I am not careless with my own data and security details and I am personally appalled that a company the size of Sony should be careless with this in this manner. It is an astonishing abuse of trust in my opinion.

At this point in blog comments someone will say that the hackers are to blame. I don't think they're angels in this, but the responsibility to at least encrypt data starts and ends with Sony.

When the network comes back up will I stop playing on it? In all likelihood no, but I'll not put credit card details on the system again. It has also prompted me to carry out a further password audit on every account I have on every site and service I have on the internet. Unfortunately it seems that my details are not safe with anyone, and that if other companies will not take responsibility for it then I have to do my utmost to protect myself, and by association, my family.

My Top Three Twitter Peeves

2011-03-31T22:04:00.000+01:00

Had to mention something this month, and as I'm running short of time this topic will do, especially as it is fresh in my head.

Up until the last few days I have had two big Twitter peeves, but upon further thinking that has become three. In reverse order they are:

3) Duplicated Content

Frequently caused by users who have some kind of automatic feed publishing to their twitter account. While slightly irritating when journalists posting a blog post which is repeated shortly afterwards this is worst of all when some companies use this. I had to unfollow one online store recently which for some reason was tweeting every entry to one of their competitions. It all became a lot of clutter, so unfollowing became the only choice for me.

2) Tweet Chats

A slowly growing, very annoying trend, especially when they take place overnight (UK time). I typically wake up to 80-100 tweets, given that my interests lead to me following people in America. However when one of those users has a tweet chat which single-handedly increases that count by about 50 it reaches overkill. For me this is what chatrooms were invented for, not Twitter. If I want to follow up later I can hopefully get a transcript somewhere.

1) People Retweeting Secondary Accounts

This really winds me up, because frankly it looks desperate. There is nothing like an account mentioning another account (whether it be personal cause/business/etc.) in a casual way, only once they've done it five or six times you follow that link and find they have less than twenty followers. If I haven't followed within one or two mentions I'm not likely to, why continue to try to blundgeon me with this?

Of course they can't stop there, so they still pound away with repeated mentions of the second account, and even get to the point where they retweet their own tweets from the secondary account. What is it they say about people who talk to themselves?

(I know, it's the one way to guarantee you get a sensible answer. Ignore me.)

Remember the era of great All-Rounders?

2011-02-22T22:15:00.000Z

I had to write this, as looking this up on the internet found next to nothing. Nothing! There were thousands of people there, and I was one of them, back in September 1985 who gathered in Arundel to see the world's best Cricket all-rounders compete in the Silk Cut Challenge to see who was best all-rounder in the world at the time.

This was the second such event like this. The previous one took place in Taunton in 1984, where I lived with my parents at the time. For some reason we ended up seeing the one hours away from us in Arundel. I know, it makes no sense. If we'd have waited a few more years we could have just seen this in Hong Kong, where the event eventually moved to.

This one took place on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st September 1985, and I was there on the Saturday with my parents. My parents wouldn't have me missing school for anything.

So who was in this?
Only the cream of the crop of a class of All-Rounders. Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee, Viv Richards and (with supporters who annoyed everyone else), Imran Khan.

Khan's supporters annoyed everyone?
Oh yes, running on the pitch, being noisy and generally acting in ways that weren't seen as gentlemanly. For some reason they wound me up, to the point that eighteen months later I gleefully remember Philip DeFreitas hoisting the smug Oxford graduate into a stand full of his supporters at Edgbaston. And I still remember that moment, nearly 24 years later. Joyous.

No Australians?
Australia were represented by Simon O'Donnell. Not exactly a great era for Australian cricket this. However I do remember one O'Donnell six ending up in the beer tent over my left shoulder with a resounding smash.

So who won?
The possibly least likely candidate, South African Clive Rice. He won the year before too, so it was hardly a fluke.

How did he win?
This is what is hazy, because for the life of me I can't find my programme, so I can't verify the rules. I think the basic gist of it was that each player bowled two overs to each batsman. Therefore each batsman got either fourteen or sixteen overs to bat (sorry, can't remember the full entry list either).

I do remember that when Rice batted last it was likely that he had to score well and not get out to win. I don't remember the exact formula of this but basically runs and wickets were good, dismissals while batting were not.

Anything else of note?
This was around the time that Botham and Richards were being represented by Tim Hudson, and wore a striped black/green/yellow/red wristband to signify this. For some reason my parents were sure that something had happened between Hudson and the pair this weekend, as Botham and Richards were somewhat edgey while signing autographs during a break at the event. I don't know if Botham and Richards were any different from their usual persona (Botham's autobiography, "Don't Tell Kath", doesn't appear to mention anything taking place at Arundel), but Richards wasn't keen on people standing behind him, ushering kids to the side of him as he expressly didn't like "people standing behind me". (Personally, knowing this would have made me bowl more spinners to him. It probably would have been futile, but who knows?)

So you were a stalky kid? Get any other autographs?
Robin Smith was a fielder that day, and I got his autograph. The fielders had numbers on their shirts, which I certainly don't remember seeing before that point.

Anyone else acting up?
It's the only time I heard Dickie Bird in person, and he didn't strike me as being particularly friendly either. I guess he had business to attend to though when walking through a crowd.

Any other observations?
That Cricket ground in Arundel is beautiful. One of the most scenic sporting venues I have ever been to.

Would this event be worth resurrecting?
I'd say so. If every form of Twenty20 can be foisted on Cricket fans then why not? The all-rounder pool might be even more shallow now, but I'd suspect it would be just as fun as this event was.

Any other reasons for remembering the event?
Yes, but that's for another time...

The Custom Music Monster

2011-01-17T17:09:00.000Z

I have a slightly hazy recollection of this, but if my memory serves me rightly Madden 2004 for the PC featured a little nugget which I still appreciate to this day: the ability to add your own music to the game. Sure you had to move music to a particular directory, but it really wasn't a big hassle. The ability to customise had begun!

Of course this meant much more to those with a keener musical ear, like my best friend Neil. He soon good a music converter that Electronic Arts offered and was putting custom music in everything, from various Need For Speed games to his own organ music in the NHL series.

Just over two years ago I bought a PS3. I slowly but surely built up a small collection of games, replacing those which I had for years in different guises on the PC. I thought the launch of NHL 10 would be the ideal time to replace my trusty old copy of NHL 2004, and wow, how pleased would I be with the final version. While I would ideally prefer commentary from Jim Hughson I could overlook that for the most complete custom music solution I had seen to date.

NHL 10 allowed custom music for menus and - for the first time that I could see - individual game events. This sent me scurrying to my .mp3 collection and Audacity, ready to pare down the Three Amigos' "25 Miles" in the style of Rob Fox and all kinds of blue songs for my best friend with a St. Louis bias.

Now FIFA 11 has followed suit (eliminating the need to rid FIFA 09 of any evidence of Duffy) and Gran Turismo has done likewise (in admittedly clunky fashion). Does it get better than this? The difficulty now is in making the choices, not in putting up with what comes with the game. Some examples of individual events/playlists are as follows:

FIFA Menu Music
The Lightning Seeds - "Life of Riley (Instrumental)"
Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean - "Hips Don't Lie"
Black Eyed Peas - "I Gotta Feeling"
Bubba Sparxxx - "Back In The Mud"
Maroon 5 - "Wake Up Call"

NHL Blue Playlist
Eiffel 65 - "Blue (Da Be Dee)"
Chris Isaak - "Blue Hotel"
New Order - "Blue Monday"
Elton John - "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (my best friend hates this)
Erasure - "Blue Savannah" (see above)

NHL Off Ice Mix
Blue - "Song 2"
The Doors - "Light My Fire"
Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"
Girls Aloud - "Wake Me Out"
Guns 'N' Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine"
The Lightning Seeds - "Sugar Coated Iceberg"
Monaco - "What Do You Want From Me?"
Spaundau Ballet - "To Cut A Long Story Short

What custom music do you add into the games you play?

The Problem With Joan Harris

2010-10-20T16:39:00.000+01:00

Disclosure: At present I'm in the middle of watching series 4 of Mad Men on BBC4. I'm behind America and anyone who has been watching on torrents by quite a way.

Since I first heard about the drama series Mad Men (BBC4 if you're in the UK, AMC if you're in America) I have consistently heard one character mentioned above all others. Whether she's referred to by name, hair colour, her job, or - most likely - her figure, you'll probably know who I'm speaking about. The curvy one, the office manager, the redhead, Joan.

Call me odd, but she doesn't do anything for me. Now this isn't anything against Christina Hendricks, the actress who plays her. The appeal, or lack of it, comes from the character herself. Joan is sure of herself. She gets what she wants. She is determined, forthright, rarely smiles, bitchy to people who she either doesn't like and who she doesn't have time for. She knows she's popular, and has that cocky, hip-shaking swagger that goes along with it. Furthermore she doesn't look as if she would be easy to get along with. In other words, she's the kind of girl who used to make my life a misery at school.

Is Joan without appeal? No, and she's certainly a character who plays her part in the rich tapestry of the show (as her brief absence in the latter half of series 3 showed), but in my mind this has been shown when the outer veneer has been removed and what lies beneath the surface is shown in greater detail. There are several examples of this, the most notable being:

Her exit from Sterling Cooper in a flood of tears when her idyllic future was seemingly falling apart in series 3.
Her frustration at being separated from her husband at the start of series 4 (N.B. Bonus points to Mad Men for not showing him to be a complete scumbag in this episode as it would have been so easy to do - lots of shades of grey in this programme that I love).
Her genuine distress as Roger Sterling's two heart attacks in series 1.

Nasty, not smiling, robot Joan, not attractive. Not to me anyway, sorry for not being conventional.

And I know I advocate Betty "I didn't even cry when my father died" as a more attractive reason for watching this programme. I can't explain that. Sue me (unless you live somewhere where you can actually sue me, in which case I'd prefer that you didn't).

Getting Back the Writing Bug

2010-09-28T22:17:00.000+01:00

Not that you would ever know it from here, but I've regained the writing bug again. I'm trying to write various different pieces here and there, whenever time allows, mostly for the fun of it. I still really enjoy writing and when I get back to it I wonder I don't do it more often (with the usual reasons coming to the fore: family, job, commuting, other commitments).

So with that in mind I thought it might be interesting to put in some writing tips from some of my favourite writers. Here they are:

Mark Twain (19th Century American author, writer of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"): To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

Peter King (Sports Illustrated NFL writer): Write every day. Write unpaid at local weekly. Then write some more. (source)

Bill Simmons (writer for ESPN.com, author of "Now I Can Die in Peace"): Work in a bar or a restaurant. Learn about people, get up at noon every day, go to bed at 4 a.m. every night, hang out with people who are just as confused and directionless as you are, drink and smoke as much as possible, throw wads of money around after shifts like you're a drug dealer, date somebody with no long-term potential, and live like that for six months. It will be the best thing you ever did. (source)

N.B. I'm pretty sure he also made a point that he asks prospective writers who they are reading, and then bemoaned how no-one reads anymore. Can I find this point anywhere? No, of course I can't. (And I probably don't read enough, especially fiction.)

Will Leitch (former editor of Deadspin, author of "Life As A Loser"): I'll give you the same advice Roger Ebert gave me in college: "Just write, get better, keep writing, keep getting better. It's the only thing you can control." (source)

And although I couldn't find anything definitive by them on the subject, I'll throw a mention out to a couple of my favourite other writers, J.D. Roth (Get Rich Slowly), David O'Brien (Braves beat writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution), Nigel Roebuck (formerly of Autosport) and Gina Trapani (formerly of Lifehacker, now of Smarterware.org).

I've Been A Busy Boy

2010-08-31T23:27:00.000+01:00

I need to make a shout out. Bill Simmons, irreverent sports journalist, you were the only person who even hinted at how different it was having two children in comparison to having just one. Simmons pointed out, in sports terminology naturally, that going from one child to two meant that he and his wife switched from running a zone defence to a man-to-man defence.

And that's certainly the case. Lorraine and I had really become used to having one child around, worked with it, and ran everything accordingly. Now things are a little bit different, as this blog post testifies!

I'll have something bigger and better next month!

Facebook By Numbers (Redux)

2010-07-22T22:42:00.000+01:00

About eighteen months ago I tallied up my then 40 friends on Facebook and broke it down. Now I've crossed 100 friends I'm doing it again, and probably never again because it is getting tricky and time-consuming to compile now. Anyway, here goes:

By nation:
Scottish - 65%
English - 21%
American - 13%
Other - 1% (Hi Sally!)

Male/female:
Female - 67%
Male - 33%
Other - 0% (insert your own joke here)

I know you all so well:
Not met 4%
Met once 2%

Where I know people from:
Former work - 52%
Former church - 35%
Current workplace & current Church - 0% (nice!)
Fellow supporter of by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen - 6%
Met through my parents - 3%
Uni - 1% (Hi Gill!)
School - 1% (Hi Simon!)
Own family - 1% (Hi Charlotte!)
Other - 1% (Hi Pat!)

I'd guess that about 60% of my best friends are now on Facebook, although one of my friends did take the decision to close his account there (which at least got us in touch with each other - I was worried I had offended him!).

Another Family Announcement

2010-06-30T22:05:00.000+01:00

To let you all know about the birth of our second daughter, who we've named Jemma Leah.

She was born at 1.34am on Friday 25th June and weighed 5lbs 12oz when she was born.

Beautiful at birth, just like her big sister.

My Favourite Music Videos

2010-05-26T21:05:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd put these together following a recent podcast I listened to which spoke about some of the host's favourite music videos and how they were put together. One of the ones they mentioned was Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" which won plaudits for telling a story (another song did as well, but as they were unaware of the story the song was telling I've decided to overlook that one, especially when a better example from a similar era would have been Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach").

So anyway, here are my favourites. I don't claim that these are the best of all time by any means, but they're my favourites and ones which I like/remember for one reason or other. At least until an hour's time when I remember some ones which I've missed and end up repeating this post in a few months. Apologies in advance for any videos with lyrics, ones which may disappear and any which don't allow embedding (thanks for nothing, Sony).

Weird Al Yankovic - "You Don't Love Me Anymore"

If you haven't seen it before just watch it. Hard to pick just one Weird Al one, as I've enjoyed that many over the years. This one narrowly beats out "Amish Paradise" though.

Dire Straits - "Walk Of Life"

Only listed because when I was ten I probably wrecked my parents' sofa trying to recreate everything that takes place in this video. Special shoutout to the guy with the tambourine, who just beats out Bez from the Happy Mondays as looking the most out of place among any musicians ever.

Los Del Rio - "Macarena"

Actually listed for comedy value, having seen this at University about 10,000 times.

("Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!")

David Gray - "Be Mine"

Because I like people who can laugh at themselves.

Spandau Ballet - "Gold"

Everyone knows that the girl in the video is Sadie Frost now, right? Okay, now we've got that neccessity out of the way this video is mainly here for the song, and for the bongo playing which I've re-enacted on the steering wheel of probably every car I've ever driven (err, at least the ones I didn't learn to drive in).

(Embedding disabled, sorry.)

Delta Goodrem - "Lost Without You"

Not sure quite what it is about this video, but if I catch a glimpse of it I have to see it through to the end. I'll put this down to the atmosphere/ambience of the video and the little details like Delta taking her shoes off to play the piano.

(Embedding disabled, sorry.)

Dido - "White Flag"

Everyone knows I love this song by now I guess, but I love the video too. Not sure I had ever seen anyone make a tracksuit top look this good before this point either (and then Holly Valance smashed that in a Prison Break cameo). Lots of good little details to look out for there too.

(Embedding disabled, sorry.)

Gwen Stefani - "Cool"

My favourite video, for the combination of song, storytelling, creative content (what I've learnt is called "Match Cut" technique) and Stefani's willingness to go back to her natural hair colour (via a wig from what I've read).

What are your favourite videos? Any glaring ones I've missed? Post them in the comments.

A Time To Review

2010-04-28T14:29:00.001+01:00

Far too often I'm spending time talking about things on this blog, and they get left there and never mentioned again, so on this occasion I thought it would be nice to review some of the things I've posted and what I've learnt since I posted them.

March 2010 - Backups

Yep, just a matter of days after posting about requiring a backup plan I needed to refer to it. It also led to me discovering some flaws with it, and that a weekly backup wasn't enough.

Due to a problem on my hard drive which began on the Thursday evening I had a backup which was nearly a week old. Fortunately it has been a quiet week, but I saw that just backing up weekly wasn't often enough. I needed a daily backup too. Not one which caught up everything, but one which would get anything important I had worked on in the past week.

So I added a daily profile to SyncBack, set it to only back up my documents and settings (as the main user on the computer), skip over large files like music files and video clips (which can usually be replaced easily, especially if burned from a CD) and again add the settings from the original weekly backup profile. This has ended up leaving me with an additional backup which comes in at around 5Gb and hopefully meets my needs. If you don't mind though, hopefully I won't need it too soon.

April 2009 - PS3 Games

Just needed to update this, especially as I've taken a bit of time this week to catch up with some time on what I would say are now my two favourite games: Madden NFL 10 & NHL 10. These are just two awesome games, with NHL 10 narrowly edging Madden as my favourite due to the fantastic feature where you can add in your own music for special points at the game. Of course I've not really done much with this, and certainly haven't added this in when ~~Palace~~, er, the Ducks score.

April 2008 - Nurses Pay

My wife got paid today, her lowest pay in about eighteen months. Can I figure out why she got paid what she did? Absolutely not. In the words of Toyah Wilcox, "It's a Mystery".

May 2007 - Must See TV

Okay, that's a really tenuous link. Anyway, here's the point. Mad Men is fantastic, and I cannot wait until series 4 beings.

A Few Personal Lifehacks

2010-03-30T08:15:00.004+01:00

I love Lifehacker. I can't remember when I first discovered it, but once it led me to Google Reader it became the first thing I read through it and it became the first feed I subscribed to there. They are always posting useful tips from around the internet.

So in honour of their from the tips box section I thought I'd follow in due course. I was going to make this a list of my favourite shortcuts, but then I thought that would be a) Not expansive enough, and b) Incredibly dull. So anyway, here goes nothing.

Lifehack 1: "You own your phone, your phone does not own you."

Discovered many years ago in a book called Clutter Control this is very simple. Basically you pick and choose when you answer your phone, don't feel obligated to pick it up just because you're there.

This is a great way to eliminate needless phone calls, especially when there are so many junk callers out there. They can't get to speak to you if you don't pick up the phone. And don't recommend the Telephone Preference Service, not when so many companies work internationally and consequently out of their jurisdiction.

(N.B. This is also why I ask most friends to call my mobile first. I'd get them to call the house phone, but I'm not paying the £600-£800 that BT want each month to show a caller's ID.)

So if you call me and you get no answer, don't take it personally. I'm at home, not working. Or failing that, call my mobile. I'm still friendly to my friends.

Lifehack 2: Keyboard shortcuts

Very, very handy time saver in all kinds of computer programs. Here are my top five:

Open Windows Explorer: Windows key + E.
Open a new Firefox tab: CTRL + T.
Copy...: CTRL + C.
and Paste...: CTRL + V.
Switch programs: ALT + TAB.

I think most people know these already, but they are every day timesavers for me.

Lifehack 3: A backup plan

I pulled this originally from a Lifehacker post, but here's my current backup plan.

Using SyncBack, I get the data from my Documents and Settings folder and copy that over to my external hard drive. To limit possible clashes I eliminate the following data:

.lnk files
*ntuser.dat* files
*parent.lock* files
*UsrClass.dat* files
thumbs.db files
Any directories named Cache or Temp

I presently run this once a week. In addition to that once a month I move these to a monthly folder and allow the backup to recreate itself from fresh (which has been handy in regard to making sure that I've got old copies of files on some occasions).

At some point I suspect I'll incorporate an online element to this, but that's presently a wait and see option.

If you like these posts let me know and I'll consider another one in future, thanks.