Cricket Pictures

As promised here are a few pictures from the Cricket last weekend. I left my camera in someone's car and only picked it up today.

I'm off on a Stag-Do this weekend in Bournemouth so expect no new posts for a bit.
Chao

I got a sandstorm blowin' in my head.

Check out these sandstorm pictures from Iraq. I think I'd cack my pants....not only would I be in Iraq but there'd be a sandstorm to rub it in.

There goes the weekend.

It's monday, and I'm back at work. I had a fairly low-key weekend but did get to play a spot of cricket on Saturday. It was a 6-aside tournament comprising of 6 teams and our team came 2nd and I got a silver medal! It was a fun day and keeping in spirit with that theme we decided to start drinking at midday in order to bring some fluidity to our game....obviously it worked.
I did take some pictures but I left my Camera in a friends car, so I'll whack the photos up a bit later in the week.

You are the Sun-shine of my life...

I've always admired the Sun's moral stance and it's forthright attitude to put the worthy news before sensationalism. It's always 'news first', 'selling papers second'.

In todays paper we have another example of the hardhitting journalism that we've been accustomed to, with the paper's managing editor, Graham Dudman, saying

"We thought long and hard about publishing, and took the decision that they're such incredible pictures of the world's most brutal dictator... they were a compelling image that any newspaper or broadcaster would publish."

A US military source apparently handed over the pictures showing Saddam as "an ageing and humble old man" in the hope of dealing a blow to the resistance in Iraq, and destroying the myth of the all-powerful Saddam Hussein.

The Sun has never been afraid to tell it like it is and you've got to respect a paper that has shed light on the areas where other newspapers were to scared to go such as "Freddie Starr Ate My Hampster".


-----------
I hope you realise that I am being sarcastic in this post. The scary thing is that the Sun has a readership of 3 million, and often appeals to the lowest common denominator. With the reading age of the average British adult being seven, the Sun appeals to these folk with stories of 300 words max, and the omission of any words too sesquipedalian . My paper of choice is The Independant for those of you interested. Sadly there's no page3 girls in it.

Galloway Versus the US of A

I've just been watching the Senate hearing on Sky News....great TV.
Basically this Senate Committee put together a dossier and accused George Galloway MP (Respect Party) of receiving allocations of Oil (millions of dollars) from the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. But they haven't actually questioned Galloway or got him to put his side across.
A lot of the 'evidence' was found wanting, and much like the war on Iraq was built on some flimsy assumptions and hear say. Could it be that all this is a smokescreen? Something to try and divert from the already damning view of the illegal War?
This is the view that Galloway has put across and he has come out quite well at the moment after his appearance.

"l have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one sold one and neither has anybody on my behalf."

I am happy that Galloway has stood up and has the chance to talk to the Senate. It's a great platform for him to put across the anti-war argument and it may actually work in favour to have been accused as he has been put on a platform and can make a stance against the true criminal, the USA.
He denied that he had met Saddam 'many times' and said that he had only met him on 2 occasions.....exactly the same amount of times as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and maps - the better to target those guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war."

Company Crap

Don't you hate it when people you deal with make things really hard for you and in the end you just go along with stuff because it's easier? I get this sometimes and because I'm an easy going person I'll prefer to avoid the confrontation and find a work-around solution.
I manage a website for a friends band Ticklin the Pickle which I originally hosted a co.uk with the company BargainHost on a cheap hosting plan. 2 years past and I found a cheaper and better hosting agreement with the company 1&1 (very good). I tried to transfer ticklinthepickle.co.uk to them but bargainhosts servers were making it hard for me and I was unable to register the .co.uk and instead got a .org.uk whilst I was sorting out the transfer of the .co.uk.
In the end I had to renew the .co.uk with bargainhost for the sum of £16! And got them instead to forward the domain to my .org.uk one.
All this was going well until suddenly the .co.uk is not working anymore and now I've been told they won't forward anymore and I'll have to pay £12 to transfer the domain over to 1&1! I'll probably have to do this, which is very annoying.
So the rant of this email is companies that muck you around. If you are looking for a good company to host and register domain names with then look no further than 1&1

Single Transferable Vote

As promised after the elections (not part of my campaign) I would explain the Single Transferable Vote (STV) and it's benefits when compared to the First Past the Post system.
Here is the Outline from Wikipedia

Outline
The Single Transferable Vote, or STV, is a preference voting system designed to minimise wasted votes in multi-candidate elections while ensuring that votes are explicitly for candidates rather than party lists. In its most basic form, it works by allocating an elector's vote to their highest ranked candidate who has not already been removed from contention through either election or elimination.

Here's my Outline.
On the Ballot Slip instead of just putting a cross next to the candidate you want to win, you put a '1' next to your first choice candidate, and then you can put a '2' next to your second choice, etc. You do not have to vote for every candidate, although you can be tactical and put the most hated candidate right at thee bottom of your list.

A quota now has to be reached and the most common is the Droop Quota which is simplified as

Now the votes have to be counted
Process A: Top-preference votes are tallied. If one or more candidates receive at least as many votes as the quota, they are declared elected. After a candidate is elected, she may not receive any more votes.
The excess votes for the winning candidate are reallocated to the next-highest ranked candidates on the ballots for the elected candidate. There are different methods for determining how to reallocate excess votes.
Process A is repeated until there are no more candidates who have reached the quota.
Process B: The candidate with the least support is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the next-highest ranked candidates on the eliminated ballots. After a candidate is eliminated, he may not receive any more votes.
After each iteration of Process B is completed, Process A starts again, until all candidates have been elected or eliminated.

I hope this gives you a gist of how it works.

The Scottish Parliament passed a bill which means the first-past-the-post voting system for local elections will be replaced with the single transferable vote (STV) and this could be in place by 2007. Charles Kenndy (leader of the Lib Dems) has also pushed for this and would like to see it implemented here as the proportion of Lib-Dem voters is not proportional to the seats they gain in parliament.

I suppose at the end of the day there will never be a party with 100% backing but I suppose it's better than one with only 35% of the votes cast (not even 35% of the population. I suppose it would be fairer if everyone had to vote, but you can't force anyone to do anything.

Well that's the end of that very interesting post. I promise a more fun one later.

I'm back

Sorry for the delay but I've been busy doing nothing.
I spent the weekend boozing and staying out late.

I think I've almost got it out of my system again and will be contrained in my activities now by a lack of funds.

BLIAR

When I got up today I whacked on BBC News 24 to check out the election results. There was still a glimmer of hope but Labour have won again, although by a smaller majority. (I had to laugh because there was a woman standing behind Blair who was wearing a hat with 'BLIAR' on it...the truth will always come out.)
I voted Lib Dem yesterday for both the General election and also my local Council elections. It didn't do much but there's still hope for the future with the gaps between parties getting smaller.
The constituancy I'm in is Thanet South and here are the results.

Stephen Ladyman Labour 16,660
Mark MacGregor Conservative 15,996
Guy Voizey Liberal Democrat 5,431
Nigel Farage UK Independence Party 2,079
Howard Green Green 888
Maude Kinsella Independent 188

Labour won by a mere 664 votes beating the Conservatives by 1.6%! Only 40.4 percent of the voters wanted Labour in and there's where the fault in the 'First Past the Post' system lies. Utter rubbish.

When I've got time I'll talk about the 'Single Transferable Vote' system which is a much fairer way of deciding who'll rule.

Cake or Death?

It's election day, the final reckoning, doomsday, etc, etc, after reading the main parties manifestos and checking out what they've got to say for themselves I think I going to vote for the Lib Dems. My ideal first choice would be Green because I'm a little worried about the fact that there won't be a world left if we keep going at this rate, and it'll be left for the monkeys to rule. The thing is that you can't expect big changes like that (Labour------>Green), the has to be some kind of middle ground, and this is where I think the Lib Dems come into it. Another point is that I don't usually favour one-policy parties (UKIP) but the Green party has started to take things a bit more seriously and has taken other factors into consideration.
One party that hasn't got much coverage is the 'Monstor Raving Loony Party' I think when Screaming Lord Sutch died they lost some momentum, but I've looked at their manifesto and here are a few of the gems.

Economy
We will issue a 99p coin to save on change.

Education
We pledge to reduce class sizes by making the pupils sit closer to one another and issuing them with smaller desks. Any MP whose constituency sells off a school playing field for development will be required to relinquish their own back garden as a replacement sports facility for the school. All future Deputy Prime Ministers will be required to be fluent in at least one language to encourage the education system.

Health
All foreign G.Ps in England and Wales will be taught the local dialect so they know when their patients feel Jiggered (Tired), Manky (Rough), Gipping (Vomiting) or have got somit rang with their Fizog (Face).

I think the 99p coin really swings it for me as so many things I buy end in this total e.g £9.99. It would mean I could pay with the exact money. Genius

When I was younger, so much younger than today...

It dawns on me that I don't get up to as many capers and high jinks as I used to in my distant youth. I'm more responsible, I only drink one night a week, I have hobbies, and I try and look after my money. Let's face it I'm turning into an old person.

It seems that I can now draw a line between being young and now (I'm only 24!) I used to wonder what age it was that this started to happen to 'young' people, at what age did things start to change? Now I know.....my age!

I no longer use the phrase 'when I'm older' as it seems that time seems to be moving quickly, and another year has past.

I do sometimes long for the escapades of past and I suppose the only real thing stopping me is responsibility. I have to go to work, I have commitments outside of work, and it seems I don't have enough time to do everything. The obvious solution would be to not work but this isn't viable as I need to pay for certain things like shelter, food, and the luxuries that I've been accustomed to.

So there we go responsibility is to blame. It's true. But one can't lead their lives without experiencing responsibility so the extra effort has to be made to find time and organise these escapades.

So farewell impromptu experiences, hello planned fun.

It's a bit harder to plan things than just go and do it but it's the only real way that I'll get to do more 'fun' things. Everyone has these timetables of responsibilities and it's hard work finding when everyone has these 'windows' in their diaries for participation in fun.

I'll keep you updated on any developments in the 'trying to stay young' plans. If all fails I'll keep working so I 'm able to fund my mid-life crisis and afford that sports car and the fit secretary to have an affair with!

If anyone's got any suggestions of fun group activities (not swinging) then please leave a comment.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

I had a very weird dream last night and it was one of those ones where you wake up quite a few times but immedietly fall asleep and back into the dream.
I was very disorientated at the beginning and somehow there had been some type of catastrophe and basically all power and communications had dissapeared and chaos had ensued.

I wasn't sure how this had happened but it had something to do with
birds (most notably seagulls!), very strange, some hitchcockian drama no doubt.

I ended up holed up in a flat with some other people (not sure who they were but I think they were friends). I noticed some nice cigars and I stole a few of each kind and put them in my pocket for later (they might come in handy).

I looked at my phone, but was told there was no signal. There was a flicker of a bar but that was it. It was then that I discovered my phone was in quite bad condition, the screen was cracked and scratched (how did that happen?).
Anyway it was at this time that I noticed a phone (which I was told belonged to Andy H) I looked on it and there was a long email on it.
It told be that several people had died (I think they were abroad) and they were mostly members of the band Moloko (well i saw a report about
Roisin Murphy) hmmm still quiet weird.

In the flat we had relative luxury (apparently there was power here and the fridge was fully stocked) the only problem was keeping ourselves secret and hidden. We left the flat once and when we returned there was a group of around a dozen people in there all preparing the food, they'd got in and I was expecting a lot worse, instead they greeted us and I thought we might as well just get along. The dream goes a bit more weird now and I think my imagination and recollection of zombie films cuts in as it involved a chase in icecream vans, someone getting bitten by a zombie, and that's
it.

I'm sure there's a lot I don't remember but keep an eye out for things like this really happening.

St. George's Day?

It passed by without a whimper. You may not even know it but yesterday was St. George's Day (the Patron Saint of England), a day for celebrating England. I think their should be a national pride and having a special day is a way to educate people about England and its history but there is something lacking about the day and their isn't the normal take-up on this day.
As mentioned in a previous post I had my fill of being Oirish on St. Patricks day but yesterday my local pub had english wine-tasting and was promoting Bombadier (a traditional English Ale) but their wasn't that buzz about it. I think the main factor that no-one goes crazy about it is because there isn't any money to be made and being English isn't a stereotype.
Maybe next year bombadier can do a promotion and give away bowler hats, or maybe Morris Dancer gear?

F**k the BNP

Well, the BNP released their manifesto today (well yesterday if you're gonna be picky about it). Usually the BNP are associated with being racists but I hope that the stupidity of their manifesto will shock people into doing what's right.
Their manifesto relies on no immigration, active servicemen standing guard at all major ports, and all ex servicemen carrying guns at home, etc, etc,
I may be a little pissed at the moment but I hope you all see my point of view.
Oh and also f**k Veritas!

-------------------------------------------------------
Update 18:20 24/4/05: Yes I was very drunk, still well done to me for censoring my swearing!
-------------------------------------------------------

Election Update

If you've read my previous post about the elections then you know I'm not too keen on the Conservative Party well I was watching 'Have I Got News For You' last week and an interesting fact arose.
Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, said that the Tories slogan 'Are you thinking what we're thinking?' was infact an adaptation of the slogan used by French fascist and founder of the National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen in his 1988 Presidency campaign.

“Notre programme est-ce que vous pensez” - “Our programme is what you are thinking”
Jean Marie Le Pen, National Front Party, 1988 Election
(Private Eye, 15th April 2005)

very interesting...

Lazy

i'm usually pretty good at keeping my blog up to date but lately I've been a bit lax. I apologise and have fallen foul of this major faux-pas. I like it when people read my blog and when people leave comments, this was one of the reasons of joining blogexplosion.
For those of you who don't know, Blogexplosion is a site where you register your blog and surf other people's blogs. The way it works is that you click on a button to randomly surf other peoples' blogs. You have to spend 30 seconds on the site and then you can move onto the next site if you want. For every visit you gain part credits and these can be redirected in your account so that when other people are doing what you're doing then they will be visiting your site. So the more sites you surf, the more visitors you get.
So after all this work I leave my blog untouched for a week and have maybe lost a few visitors....terrible.
I hate it when sites are updated, not neccesarily blogs, but any site, it's lazy.
Let's see if I can change.....and find something interesting to blog about.

If there's any topic you want me to talk about or any questions you have then post a comment here, I'll give due consideration to all (If I can be bothered)

Not a good way to start the morning

I woke up, I'd had a good sleep, I had boiled eggs for brekkie, I'd got dressed, I'm just leaving the house and it's then that I spot something familiar on the road, something very familiar, that shouldn't be there. Shock, it's my driver-side wing mirror glass!.......again!
I think everyone can accept that you might lose a mirror once, but now it's the third time! And they all happened in different places! If it just happened on my street then maybe I'd fold the wing mirrors in at night, but it's happened twice in another town too, this is the first time at my house.
The last time it happened I had to replace the motor that controls the mirror at that had got f**ked too. I suppose this time it's only the mirror but as they cost about £6 a pop it's an expense I don't really need.
It just pisses me of that people will drive past, knock off my mirror, and not give a shit about it.

Heineken Glasses

Hey, I need the money so I'm selling some of the crap that's accumulated around the house. Ebay is the obvious option and I've been using it for a while now but it seems that everything I sell goes towards more crap that I buy. So why not help me out. I know this is a blatant money making exercise but I might as well broaden the spectrum of people looking at the item.
My new items for sale are 24 Heineken Pint Glasses!

If you want to make me some money then click here for the link to ebay.

Elections

Well it's all go on the whole elections front with coverage on in the newspapers and on TV.
The thing is that I don't know who to vote for. My feeling are that Labour and Conservative are basically the same and there aren't a huge amount of differences between them. At the end of the day I'm sure that they lost the motive behind their initial formation and could be called anything. Labour was born out of the trade union movement with the aim of giving a political voice to the working classes. I'm sure that the MPs know all about being working class.
One Party that I definitely won't be voting for is the Conservatives, or Torys as you may know them (the term "Tory" comes from the Irish Gaelic word for "bandit" or "outlaw"). I am shocked by their slogan 'are you thinking what we're thinking' and their views on immigration, preying on the xenophobia of many of the population of Britain who view immigrants as a problem that will eventually cause the downfall of 'our country'. One of the posterboards that caused a great outcry was one saying "it's not racist to impose limits on immigration". My simple reply to this is yes it is.
We are a country built by immigrants and we wouldn't be the country we are today without people who have come to this country from other shores and contributed to it. It seems that people might need to scrub up on their history and learn a little more about the world.
There are quite a few people who feel this way and have altered the posters.



The only good soundbites I've heard have come from the Green Party and their pledges to cut pollution. What! A party who are actually altruistic in their pledges! Amazing isn't it. Still they probably won't a huge amount of voters and it seems everyone is quite short sighted and are only in it for 'me, me, me.'

I know this post has been a bit wayward without any real structure but I hope you get the gist.

Pah, who believes in democracy anyway? Why do we all need a say?

Scarey Stuff.

I've just booked a few flights for a daytrip to Edinbrough through EUJet who fly from an airport, Manston, just a few miles from my home. They've been doing an offer lately where they had 50,000 seats going on sale where on the first day there were the tickets cost £20 each way, the next day they were £15, the next £10, the next £5, and today just 1p! Of course you have to factor in tax and the fact these seats are only for flights on a tuesday, wednesday, or a thursday. Well I got 3 return flight for £113.43 (not the 6p I hoped it might be!). But even more shocking was when I recieved my confirmation email.

"This email has been sent by a robot"! A robot actually sent me an email...amazing...but a little scarey when you read the second sentance: "Please do not reply to it". Why not? Is this a thinly veiled threat? I just have visions of 'Robby the Robot' from 'Lost in Space' typing these emails. He's been out of the limelight for 50 years and has developed some very disturbing personality disorders. It doesn't bare thinking about..........."Danger, Will Robinson!".