Wednesday 28 October 2009

The sense of anticipation.

In 1995 a friend at uni lent me a book by Robert Jordan which I loved and quickly read the remaining 5 books that existed at that time in the series. Over the next 14 years at varying times 5 more books have appeared in the series which was going to be 12 in total. Book 12 was published yesterday and should be with me today or tomorrow. I am going to read it very slowly. It has taken so long for a number of reasons mainly being that the author died of cancer in 2007 and another author has been working from his notes. It truly will has been a test of patience but hopefully well worth it.

On the other hand the next book in the George R R Martin series which are by far my favourite has been been put back until 1st October 2010.

Monday 26 October 2009

Norwich City 4 lost to UEA 2: 6-5

Eventually the youth and vigour of playing against 18- 21 year old students told and we made too many errors against a distinctly limited team. On a personal level I managed to score 4 goals and played well in attack against a naive defence. Two of these were penalties from good inside passing from me to a running team mate who was then fouled (although I missed two as well) and the other two goals were from over commitment by the defence when they tried and failed to intercept the ball leaving me all alone with the ball next to the post on two occasions. In defence it was a bit different where my player had a good shot but I could not keep close enough to him to stop it. Maybe should have re-adjusted the way that we defended as the rest of the players were big and quick but technically limited.

Friday 23 October 2009

Nick Griffen

The leader of the BNP, the far right extremist, was on Question Time last night tyring to persuade people that he was nice and cuddly and not a Nazi but failed and failed quite spectacularly. Much has been made of his views on Holocaust denial, but he won't tell you them as he believes he would be arrested in France!! He did however keep referring to a English indigenous people (the English Aborigine) who can trace their ancestry to migrating to the UK after the last Ice Age 17 000 years ago. This however is a ridiculous notion for three reasons.

1. There have been waves of immigration through history (Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Normans, Huguenots) so to say that you can accurately trace your ancestry and say you were not related to any of these is a joke

2. Everyone has 2 parents, 4 grand parents, 8 great grand parents, 16 great great grand parents, 32 great great great grand parents, 64 4great grand parents, 128 5great grand parents, 256 6great grand parents, 512 7great grand parents, 1024 8great grand parents 2048 9great grand parents assuming they are all different people. How can you know that they are all "indigenous English"

3. I have 23 chromosomes from each parent so about 11 from each grandparent, approximately 6 from each great grand parent, 3 from each great great grand parent and 1 from each great great great grand parent meaning that you are about as genetically related to your ancestors as you are to the person sitting next to you.

What an idiot

Monday 19 October 2009

Blithering Idiots

Channel 5 advertisement.

Something it is killing the hippo population, carcasses are turning up and scientists are confused about what is killing them. Is it a virus, a predator or something more unexpected. Watch CANNIBAL hippos tonight on five. Way to give away the ending. Muppets

Sunday 18 October 2009

Norwich City 4 lost to Norwich City 3: 8-1 or 6-3

The reason that they are the third team and we are the fourth team is that as a team they are better than that although this game was all about the fact that they know us so well that knew the team weaknesses and were able to exploit them with out having to work them out as the game went along. The inclusion in their rank of two second team players also helped. It was just a case when they were able to be a little bit better, the shots went and we tended to rush so that everything hit the edge and went wide or rushed the pass or dropped the catch. Little things but over an hour they added up. On a side note the referee seemed to think that it was a 6-3 scoreline but I am fairly confident it was 8-1 but he is the sole arbiter of fact and whom I to argue.

Sunday 11 October 2009

Strange old week

Went to the dentist for a check up who recommended a softer toothbrush and a mouth wash to help protect gums but the mouthwash makes everything taste of wax (or at least what I assume wax would taste like)

Had a message saying the car is fixed and now heading for the paint shop.

Have had most of the furniture in the kitchen between having the walls painted and the new carpet fitted. The old one appearred to have had its backing turn to sand. Apparently the floor is very uneven which might have contributed to the old one rucking up as it is hard to stick it down. It is nice to see a profesinal at work - all the correct tools and knew exactly what he was doing.

Direct Line have confirmed that they will not be pursuing the council for the cost of the tree falling so it will be on my insurance - losing two years no claims and the excess of £175. They have whimped out despite all the evidence I provided with them as well as mis-representing the case by stating the tree blew over when in fact it snapped. My bid aginst the council has been referred to their insurers so we shall see although they sent me a bizarre letter talking about personal injury -despite no-one being injured.

Norwich CIty 4 beat Norwich Stingers 2: 7-6

A strange game. We scored with the first shot of the game. Built a comfortable lead then watched the opposition take a 6-5 lead, scored twice and then to retake the lead and then tried to lose it with one member of the team continuing to make a number of risky passes more suited to being a goal down than a slow and predictable attack that is careful, after all they can't score if they don't have the ball. The Stingers website reported the game thus:

Disaster struck in the Stingers 2 game, with Stingers 2 falling behind within about 10 seconds. It didn’t get much better when five minutes later we were 3-0 down. We battled through the first half and managed to close the gap slightly, the score 5-3 to Norwich City 4 at half time.

After the break Stingers 2 seemed to go up a gear, with some excellent attacking and defending we brought the scores level. With about 10 minutes left, everything looked good with us edging out to lead 6-5, but unfortunately Norwich City followed with 2 more goals to leave us 7-6 losers

Friday 2 October 2009

The Ig Nobel Awards given out for stupid scientiic research

Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the faeces of giant pandas.

Medicine: Donald L Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for more than 60 years.

Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).

Physics: Katherine K Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.

Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for creating diamonds from tequila.

Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country - Prawo Jazdy - whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence".

Public Health: Elena N Bodnar, Raphael C Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.

Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.

What Zen does not teach you

Do not walk behind me as I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me for I may not t follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact just piss off and leave me alone.

No one is listening until you fart

Always remember you are unique as so is everyone else

Never test the depth of water with both feet

If you think no-one cares if you are alive or dead then watch what happens when you stop paying the mortgage

Before you criticize ssomeone you should walk a mile in their shoess so that way when you do criticze you are a mile away and have their shoes

If at first you don;t succeed avoid skydiving

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will waste everyday sitting next to the canal.

If you lend someone £20 and never see them again its probably a fair trade

If you always tell the truth you bever have to remember anything

Some days you are the fly others the windscreen

A closed mouth gathers no foot

There are two excellent theoires for arguing with women but neither work

Generally if you lips are moving you aren't learning

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it

We are born naked wet and hungry, get a slap on the arse and its all downhill from there.