Everyone thought this was just going to be a punt into the area…
4o yards out…. Not bad for a central defender!
Final score 2-0. “We’re going up with Jimmy & Willy!”
Sam Allardyce was sacked because he didn’t play exciting enough football for a club as ‘big’ as Newcastle United. He was replaced by ‘Geordie Messiah’ Kevin Keegan. Let’s see how how Sam’s last six games compared with Kevin first six…
Allardyce
Fulham 0 - Newcastle 1
Newcastle 2 - Derby 2
Wigan 1 - Newcastle 0
Chelsea 2 - Newcastle 0
Newcastle 0 - Man City 2
Stoke 0 - Newcastle 0
Overall - P6 W1 D2 L3 F3 A7 GD-4
Keegan
Newcastle 0 - Bolton 0
Arsenal 3 - Newcastle 0
Arsenal 3 - Newcastle 0
Newcastle 1 - Middlesbrough 1
Aston Villa 4 - Newcastle 1
Newcastle 1 - Man Utd 5
Overall - P6 W0 D2 L4 F3 A16 GD-13
So the teams that Keegan has faced may be a bit tougher than Sam, but where’s the improvement? Was it really worth starting again mid season with a man who has no idea tactically?
Big club? Six points from the relegation zone and dropping like a stone…
Derby, Fulham & Newcastle to go down anyone?
All together now…
“Moonpig Dot Com!”
Who can resist the charms of the moonpig advert?
Hmmm…
There is one around these parts who can’t help but dance to the moonpig.com advert jingle.
It is therefore in his honour that I present the moonpig mp3, taken directly from the moonpig.com advert theme tune with the help of my old friends vixy.net & YouTube.
Just click on the picture to download. Enjoy!
From the BBC News homepage, and in turn taken from a ‘Have Your Say’ page asking if was unethical to drink bottled water :
“I’m not that happy drinking London tap water because it’s been recycled so many times.”
Peter Blake, London
And the water you get in your Evian bottle Mr. Blake? Well that’s been doing the water cycle since the dinosaurs too, so why is that OK?
I’m listening to The Feeling’s new album ‘Join With Us‘!
As their debut ‘Twelve Stops And Home‘ went straight into my Top Ten Albums Of All Time list this is big news. Full review to follow (probably) but initial impressions are generally favourable. Phew…
Being the OS whore that I am (XP, Vista, OSX & XP within OSX running in this household don’t you know…) it was inevitable that I was going to end up playing with Linux.
Mum’s old computer arrived just before Christmas and with it being half-term I thought I’d have a go. Initially i was concerned because it’s an old, slow bit of kit which, despite having a network cable attaching it directly to the Livebox, refused provide an internet connection.
I downloaded the latest Ubuntu disc image onto the Mac and burned it to CD. Then I changed the boot sequence on the old PC so I could boot off the CD and watched as Ubuntu smoothly installed itself…
I was delighted to see that the old machine was running more quickly than with XP, and was surprised to see Firefox, Open Office and a range of other pieces of software already installed and ready to go.
Firstly I had a click around to see what was where. It all seemed fairly straightforward, and it was obvious where everything was. Another great thing was that the computer was now on the internet - no connecting to networks or configuring required. Just on the internet. Simple.
Just as when I first started playing with OSX I wanted to see how things work behind the scenes and that seems fairly simple. In short, I’m initially impressed. Or at least I was.
If I was to ever start using Linux properly (on a main, everyday computer for example) there would be some things I’d have to be able to do. Internet. Sorted. Office apps for Work. Sorted. Simple graphics. I’m sure there’s something. Music - I own an iPod. I looked at this issue before installing Ubuntu and I knew that iTunes wasn’t available. There were others though, so once I’d had my first bit of a play I looked into this.
Amarok & Banshee were both recommended in a couple of places. As I understand it they both allow access to iPod features and although you can’t play AAC tracks they are both pretty good. Not perfect, but good. I can settle for that. So I downloaded them both and extracted the archives. And that’s when I hit a wall.
Banshee had an install file so I tried that. Nothing. The install text file gave instructions I’m going to have to sit down and read through very slowly - it’s not obvious…
For example, from the Banshee FAQ :
Q: Where do I get avahi-sharp?
A: Avahi.org (http://avahi.org/), specifically from this page http://avahi.org/wiki/DownloadAvahi. If you are using Ubuntu Dapper or Debian Unstable avahi sharp is fixed. Issue the command apt-get install libavahi-cil.
Q: Why do I get the error don’t know how to handle application/x-id3?and/orQ: My MP3 files will not play?
A: This is caused by not having MP3 support in your version of gstreamer. For Ubuntu Dapper, sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 should do it.
It seems they’re very helpful on how to download and very helpful on how to use, but swimming in techno-babble when it comes to installing…
Amorak had almost nothing - a text file telling me to see the website for installation details and that’s it. So I went to the Amarok website and found installation instructions in Portuguese & French but not in English. I looked elsewhere and my very basic understanding suggests that I have to install five or six other pieces of software before I can even think about making Amarok work. So I gave up.
It might be that I’ve been spoiled, that I’ve had everything done for me, but this is rubbish. I know it’s free but surely I should be able to just download a program, identify the “install”, “setup” or “run” file and that’s it. Or am I missing the point of open source? Do you really still have to be an enormous tech geek to extend it? Isn’t just being a normal geek enough?
This computer’s staying here in my office so I’m going to have Ubuntu to play with for the coming weeks and I’ll see how I get on. So far, it seems that the operating system itself is very easy to install and use, but it’s a right pain to add anything to it.
More to follow…
Attention must be brought to this which was spotted on sale in Seychelles by Sandra, a friend of mine out there. Details of this exciting find can be found in her blog.
Don’t you just want one…?
And why aren’t they available at Woolies?
(It’s actually supposed to be called Path Car - it’s a typo! Even better!)
Today the Government has promised that :
“…each child will have access to “at least five hours of high-quality culture per week.”
before stating that :
“The idea of the scheme we’re putting forward is very much for schools and local authorities to come forward with their plans.”
In other words they’ve come up with another pleasing sound bite without any thought given to how these five hours are going to be shoe-horned into an already overcrowded curriculum, leaving schools and local authorities to waste time trying to second guess the Governments ideas so they don’t get another bollocking from Ofsted.
And another thing :
“Some of this could be delivered in the school day, but also we want to give young people the opportunity to do more out of the school day.”
How long before the school day is extended?
Get the children in school so that the parents can work longer hours earning more tax for the Government money to spend on big houses and playthings to keep the children busy because after all those hours working to make life ‘good’ you’ve no energy to enjoy it.
It gets worse…
This post is taken almost entirely from this article on the BBC Website…
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says they must forget about the title and focus on finishing fourth in the Premier League.
Rafael Benitez’s side are 19 points behind leaders Arsenal and are in fifth place behind arch-rivals Everton.
Gerrard said: “We’re facing a big challenge to finish in the top four and we’ve got to forget about the title and focus on fighting for fourth place.”
“There are a lot of teams around us who are in good form and playing well.”
He added:
“It’s important that we don’t let our standards drop.”
Too late for that Stevie G… Much too late…
“Should you invest £2 a day or use it to buy lottery tickets? Maths makes the decision obvious. Suppose you invest two quid every day at the reasonable rate of 10%. It will take you almost exactly 50 years to accumulate £1m. To earn this same £1m in the National Lottery, you would (on average) have to match five numbers and a bonus ball, at odds of 2,330,635-to-1.
If you spent two quid a day for 50 years you would total just over 36,500 tickets and would thus have only a 1-in-63 chance of making that million pounds. However, the available image of immediate wealth subverts this rationality.”
Taken from a very interesting article on the BBC website…
As soon as someone says “I’m not a rascist but…” you know they read The Daily Mail. Despite this, I’m going to start by saying I’m not a prude. I don’t believe that someone who takes drugs should be condemned and/or ignored. But I don’t think that the drug taking itself, or the consequences, should be ignored either.
Newsround was on CBBC this morning and they featured an article on Ami Winehouse winning five Grammys. Fair enough. However the reason she wasn’t there in person was given as this :
It’s the same on the CBBC Newsround website (from where the above quote is taken).
It’s all very Auntie Beeb isn’t it? I obviously wouldn’t expect them to explain in detail that the Visa problems were caused by her arrest in Norway late last year, or the fact that she’s in rehab, or that she’s had to be moved to a hospital because she’s in such a bad state that rehab can’t cope with her medically, or that police are currently investigating a video or her using a crack-cocaine pipe, but some mention of the fact that if she wasn’t a drug addict there wouldn’t be any visa problems would surely have been a good idea. It’s not just a joint every so often is it?
How about this?
“Amy had trouble getting the paperwork, called a visa, to fly to Los Angeles because of the problems she is having with drugs. Although she was later allowed to fly to Los Angeles, she decided not to go.”
It’s not heavy handed, but it makes a point. It was continued heavy duty drug use that caused the Visa problems, not just because she forgot to date the form…
She’s a troubled lady and I hope she gets better soon, but isn’t it also a good opportunity to point out to children that with drugs there are consequences unless you’re very careful? Or am I being a prude?
Ami Winehouse (pictured) is 24.
Sadly I missed the week itself but this Adbusters Slow Down Week Film is relevant every week…
In order to stop the film from playing every time this page is loaded I’m now just linking to it.
Click on the still to see it - it’s well worth it!
One of the things I’ve found myself enjoying doing is watching TV with my MacBook on looking up information about people and places I see. TV’s more interesting like this!
Tonight it’s Antique’s Roadshow from Ulveston, the home of Stan Laurel. So I started looking up Laurel and Hardy because I didn’t know that much about them.
This picture was taken in 1956, a year before Hardy’s death. It’s taken from this blog entry which links to YouTube clips of the pair appearing on This Is You Life.
One of the reasons why I love the internet is its ability to act as an enormous encyclopedia. I’ve learned a lot this evening about two fascinating characters and that’s down to the net. Yes you can waste hours playing, but it doesn’t have to be like that.
I spent vast parts of my youth trawling through encyclopedia sets, and now I have the internet…
Ever wondered what I’m like when I find myself demonstrating making a pancake in front of 120 children and 20 adults on the back of about five minutes notice?
The first 12 seconds is oddly messed up but otherwise here you are…
Jamie has nothing to worry about methinks.
So they say…
James
Brown
A. Cole
Upson
Ferdinand
Young
Bentley
Hargreaves
Gerard
J. Cole
Rooney
Not bad…
Rooney on his own up front supported by J. Cole -odd. Rooney doesn’t like/play well in the role.
Young & Bentley on the wings is excellent. Upson we’ll wait and see.
David James is, whether we like it or not, currently the best English keeper so that’s OK.
But. Wes Brown over Micah Richards?!? I sincerely hope that that’s false information…
I’ll be watching against Switzerland. And hoping. Come On England…
