All in the game

For windows XP, this is a pretty cool theme. XP has been crying out for a black theme and now it has it. It goes really well with windows media player 11. If Vista looks this good, then it will nothing short of utter disappointment. The only thing is you need windows SP2 installed which a bit of a bitch.

Give your desktop a spruce up with this site of wallpapers and icons. I like the wallpapers especially this one.

A mention for this dedicated poster who posts cricket videos in neatly packaged highlights. Keep up the good work man.

An image of Malvern theatre, one of the many ‘delights’ of Malvern.

The pond where I spend most of my days, Chillin out maxin relaxin all cool, And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school.

What do you blog about when you have nothing to say. I’m gonna blog about not blogging. Sometimes a guy has nothing to say, sometimes he can’t be bothered, sometimes an annoying sister forces a guy to blog even though he has nothing to say. So, hurray to all those people who are all blogged out.

I hate having to make political posts - not because politics is not important, but often it tends to achieve very little. The BBC has blanket coverage on it website and you can read about it here. Whilst it’s worrying to see the transportation through which I have and will travel attacked like this (this will not make an iota of difference to wheter I will travel on the tube, terrorist attack is still one of the least likely ways to die), It should not come as a great surprise, the underground system is, I suppose, the most vulnerable to attack. This is also a time to keep a sense of proportion and not overblow the impact of these attacks.

Sometimes watching the blanket news coverage that I see on the BBC, there is a sense I get of the reporters wanting to exaggerate and make it bigger than it is. The deaths of any people is terrible enough. I just hate it when reporters urge all their guests to somehow give them death tolls that are ever increasing. There is a mix of morbid fascination and bizarre self promotion in being the first to get the exact death toll. This is sickening. I think one of the ills of blanket coverage as opposed to bulletins are there are these tonnes of reporters all over the place who often arrive after all the action has taken place and thus have no live action to report upon but have the cameras ready to roll. Rather than taking their time to assess the situation and providing a cool and rational analysis, reporters are forced to parrot for hours on end the same thing they said 10 minutes ago as though it was new news. Thus if each time they are asked to report, and they have news in terms of increased death toll, or wild speculation on the perpetrators of the attacks or ill informed reports from the scene of the action, the greater the justifications of their jobs. Get all these stupid reporters out of here. For every ambulance or police worker there seemed to be ten news reporters parroting the same ill informed crap again and again. I think bulletins, followed by a news programme at a specified hour is more than sufficient. This blanket news coverage is not at all useful and at times like this, I believe, harmful.

I hope they catch the terrorists and try them appropriately. However, a sense of proportion is called for. In Iraq the joint actions of the Americans and British forces has estimated to have cost the lives of about 10,000 civilian Iraqis. These terrorist attacks, possibily caused by the presence of British troops in Iraq (wild speculation I know),have cost, so far, the lives of 38 Britons. Absolutely not a justification of the terrorist attacks but a sobering thought …

An exciting game as I have seen in a long time. Read about it here, here and here. For my two cents worth I thought the game was exciting as any and goes to prove that high scoring matches aren’t always the best and can often lead to a conclusion well before the end of the match. I hope England produce such helpful wickets during their test to nullify the threat of Shane Warne and also provide some heat for Harmison.

Also saw the Roger Federer winning Wimbledon for the third time in a row. I think Federer is overated not because he is not a fantastic player - he is skillwise, but the lack of serious competitveness is galling. Also that Andrew Castle (BBC commentator) seems to be trying to win the Federer ass-kissing award of the year, some of the comments are so fawning I was about to puke. I think he (Federer and Castle) is mentally fragile and whenever an opponent is able to match him for skill his character shows up his insecurities and weaknesses. Its just that his skill is far superior to other players out there, some of the shots he played were just not in the armoury of Roddick, who is worryingly no 2 in the world. I think its sad to see no real competition that he has to face. Its more a problem of the lack of proper coaching these days. It seems they just teach youngsters to slam the ball from the baseline rather than a more effective all court game. Almost to a person the player seeming to be produced is a baseliner that will pummel the ball harder and run the baseline faster. Also the two handed backhand has singularly reduced the effectiveness of half the potential greats out there. I think maybe a redesign of coaching is required. Start with kids of 12-13 when they can actually hold a proper tennis racket rather than the oversize monstrosities that kids appear to use. Teach them a all court game with some skill at the net. Then we may see some real tennis rather than ball bashing. In that sense I hope Federer is an inspiration for the game to start producing players with all-court skills.

Being a fan of family guy some of the latest episodes have been some of the best and most random efforts. I particularly like the sarcastic twitterings of stewie, the baby born with the personality of upper class 1930’s English playwright (you know the one I am talking about). Listen to some of his better efforts here and here. I particularly like the the first one where is voice goes higher and higher, pure genius. I think I find him funny not so much for his sardonic wit as much as his pathetic state. I may upload some of his better efforts later on and discuss some of the other tv shows that I enjoy.

On the eve of the third one day match between England and Australia, the mood seems to have decidedly turned. Common consensus appears to be that Australia have found their feet and will steamroller England in the remaining matches and eventually the entire summer. What seemed to be the prevailing wind of their waning powers, see Atherton, has turned around to include such ominous quotes as

Having seen a lot of Australia these past three years, I do not buy into the theory that their powers are waning. Personnel have changed but only in Jason Gillespie has there been any discernible ease off the throttle. If there is a difference, it is the way they play. The batsmen score quicker than ever, which brings the entertainer tag along with a hint of vulnerability, but the bowlers frequently resort to long spells of attrition.

by Mark Nicholas in the Telegraph. Though I am a bit wary about his opinion as this could just be an attempt to land another commentating job for the Australian cricket summer. I remember him commentating on the India-Australia series down under. Why?

However, such a turnaround does indicate a certain lack of belief among the media and the public about the possibility of actually defeating Australia. I am still of the opinion that England’s bowling attack is extremely potent and has the capability of doing serious damage in the tests. Remember Australia, especially this batting line-up, haven’t played a decent, sustained and potent pace attack for well over 10 years, since the West Indian pacers were roaming the planet.

On a slightly different note I want to rant on a little about sky sports’ cricket coverage. This is particularly pertinent as from next year all cricket coverage on UK screens will be only available on Sky. Though overall they do a good job in getting the balance of commentary right, there is still some room for improvement. I find Botham, Hussain and Gower are extremely comfortable in front of the camera and seem to have things to add that have some insight and relevance, though occasionally Botham seems to go on some random rant against the ’system’ that can, in equal parts, be confusing and aimless. But special mention must be given to Bob Willis. He has got to have the most boring voice on tv - a cross between a bus droning and an older bus droning. He seems to constantly negative, even seeking to turn good pieces of cricket into bad play by the opposition. When his face is on tv, he often appears as though a dead rat has just died in the room but not before it has had a million babies that have torn into his flesh and are slowly eating his inner organs. To a lesser extent David Lloyd’s commentary can be a bit bizarre, seemingly relying on phrases and statements that have no meaning and perhaps he just made up. As evidence I present the time when in the charity game, between asia and the rest of the world, with the score at something around the 130 mark at the 14th over with 4 wickets lost, he went on to proclaim that asia were in a bit of a ‘dish’ but would easily surpass the 200 mark because the pitch was flat and there was a full crowd in the stadium. But perhaps most bizarre are the times when on an interview panel, like a post match analysis, he often responds to the interviewers question by looking straight into the camera often to the point of turning his back to the interviewer asking the question. Though endearing for short spells this can get extremely annoying over long periods of time. I think Sky have to seriously consider shedding some of the less impressive commentators and poach some of the Channel 4 commentators that are going to be out of work. Atherton would be a useful addition.

Just check this link about an open letter to an american education board highlighting the absurdity of their stance on teaching creationism in schools. I especially like the graph - pirates vs global temperature - huh?

Also read about the experience of a black teacher in Japan. I like the hilarious ‘kids in japan are perverted‘. The punchline by the twelve year old japanese kid had me in tears of laughter for about a minute.

A tired link to famous movie quotes. These lines are made famous by the context in which they were said, but they have become so repeated hardly anyone knows the context and become just cliched pieces of crap.

Just saw a documentary on the BBC about an African School in Uganda.
It gave an insight into the struggles of education in a provincial Ugandan school. Crippled by debts, the headmistress is forced to ask students who haven’t paid their fees to leave the school. Thus begins a fairly ruthless expulsion of students who haven’t paid the fees. Read the background to the story here. It was fascinating to watch a show where kids were trying to break into the school to achieve an education. As the headmistress says:

The moment you are educated it means a good job - it means everything.

Particularly frustrating was the story of Eddie who was orphaned at five to parents dying of aids and was struggling to pay the fees, when he gets hit by malaria but still tries everything he can to pay the school fees. Puts into perspective how lucky I am to be able to finish my education after having spent the best part of four years bitching about it.

The programme was an excellent insight into a world that would otherwise be unseen but raised a couple of questions in my mind. Who the hell is in charge of programme scheduling at the BBC? Putting it on at half past midnight hardly seems of any use to anyone at all. I thought this was an excellent opportunity to market this as a reality tv show that seem to be a dime a dozen. I believe if it was played in prime time, it would be an excellent counterpoint to programmes like Big Brother that show the boredom and levels of moronity that seems to permeate reality tv shows. This documentary seems a hundred times more real, showing people having to deal with problems greater than the aimless, pointless, worthless, crap they have to do on other shows. Given that they are not showing it at any reasonable hour, why the hell should British people be paying for a set of programme makers travel to Africa to make a tv show for British tv that no Britisher is going to watch. If the attitude is: the public don’t give a flying crap about some African kids school, then why the hell make the show that won’t be seen. If you ain’t going to give the show a decent run, then why bother making it at all. At least they should allow the free downloading of the programme from the net. I have finished ranting for now, but I am tired I may have a second wind in the morning in which case I will post some more.

After the graduation came the inevitable goodbyes. Being one of the friends’ (Sheriff, happy 21st!) birthdays, it provided the perfect opportunity to get together for perhaps the last time (i keep forgetting about the graduation itself). We met at Nando’s, a fine restaurant. It proved the perfect place for discussion of the past and our forthcoming future, ‘huh’? Typically conversation seemed to drift into bizzare directions (mostly by my initiation), with ideas about the writing of a new novel- a heady and exciting story of an Anglo-japanese undergraduate student solving disturbing mysteries of the wierd goings on in the college library - with sexy results (search the page for sexy results). What’s wrong with me, I promise I have no affinity for the college library, oh who am I kiddin’, Library - let’s never fight again.

Of course, being Imperial graduates (though not for a few days yet), every aspect of the course was disected and analysed. Particular delight seemed to be expressed at my nightmare presentation. With all the things done, it seemed as though people were starting to return to their normal selves again, but the long term effects of chronic exam addiction is not known. Damn, that’s a weak joke, sounds like something an extremely boring person, who was just learning English from a language that nothing do with Inglish would write.

Finally, we went to see ‘Batman Begins‘. A thouroughly enjoyable movie, though there was some debate as to why an opera house would be placed in the middle of the run down part of town, if you are taunting the poor by putting down an opera house to show them what they are missing, you deserve to get shot, right?

Above is a photo taken outside the cinema theatre (an important picture of a close friend is missing and will be added when i get the picture of him - I know, its ‘fucked’ up). Click on the link below the photo and go to the flickr site to view notes that I have attached to the faces. For some reason, IE seems to f up, the position of the photos and margins, for best results view in firefox.

Friends

update: received the new pic of the other dude and am adding the picture into it. click pic to visit notes on it.

Zaid included