This is another lifehack for you, although one which I'll admit is strange and personal to myself.
When it comes to internet browsing I'm still a Firefox person, but that doesn't mean there aren't things I would change. My worst habit at the moment is to keep lots of tabs open, which increases memory usage and also bloats (and sometimes even corrupts) a file called sessionstore.js. Therefore every once in a while I'll copy and paste all the addresses I've got in tabs into a Notepad document and then start a new Firefox session, clearing both memory and the sessionstore.js file.
Of course what you really don't want to happen is for Windows to apply an update and restart your computer. Bad times. Really bad times. I could blame Microsoft, and when I'm being irrational I do, but it is something I can change myself, and indeed have now done. I have done so in the following manner:
1) Stop relying on Notepad. It offers no form of autosave. It does odd things with line breaks. Frankly it's a woeful piece of software, which I've become too dependent upon because it is quick and handy to use to keep notes on. I know other options are available, but I have chosen to rely more on Wikidpad for keeping simple notes on. It too is simple to use, but features an autosave feature. I only have one page setup on the wiki on my laptop, as it is only meant for short-term use.
2) Keep a backup of sessionstore.js separate. This is simpler, I use SyncBack to sync a copy of this file once a day over to Dropbox. This means that if necessary I can pull this back to my main Firefox profile directory, fire up Firefox again and load up the tabs I did have open. Hopefully I won't need this again, but it isn't a large file to sync over to Dropbox and is a small price to pay for a bit of extra security.
3) Use online tools to effectively bookmark articles. For too long I've kept notes of addresses I've found interesting or wanted to look back on later. I didn't like when Diigo took over Furl, but after using their service for a while it still effectively does the same thing and if I had used Diigo before I used Furl I suspect I wouldn't have missed it. What I now need to do is to move my presently unsaved bookmarks to Diigo. It isn't even a service I need to worry about shutting down, as the bookmarks are effectively backed up by RSS to my own inbox.
So that's a personal quirk of mine, and how I'm working around it. Do you have any odd lifehacks, or a way to make this lifehack better?
Friday, 27 July 2012
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Update Time
I've had a busy time of things lately with my youngest daughter now reaching the grand old age of two, so I thought this would be an interesting time to review a few prior posts.
A Few Personal Lifehacks
Ah, backups... I've changed again! Remember how I started with weekly backups stored locally, and then advanced to daily backups? Well now I've gone a step further, and have finally started backing up some items online with Amazon Web Services. This is because I've had failures with both internal and external drives, and so therefore I opted for a third level of backup. Some photos - especially those of the kids - are too valuable not to be kept elsewhere.
Backups as a whole are an area I tend to think about a lot and consider a great deal. I know I consider my data too valuable not to back it up and keep those backups up to date.
The Problem With Joan Harris
We've now had five series of Mad Men, and I'm still not overly keen on the character as a person. Great series to show the acting talents of Christina Hendricks though. I have a new respect for her as an actress, although I still think no actress matches Elisabeth Moss on the show (Kiernan Shipka might get there one day, but not just yet).
I found season five of Mad Men quite odd. Brilliant at times, frustrating at others. I've seen some reviews which felt the whole series was brilliant, and yet I felt a little bit disappointed by it. And yet I'm still wondering where it ends up going in season six, and who'll feature, how they'll feature and even what year it will begin in. If it is 1968 that augurs well in my book.
vBulletin's Venture Into Blogging
Seems a bit odd to me that this continues to be the most popular post I've written, and by some distance. I haven't written about vBulletin for a while but I think as a whole the vBulletin team have lost their way. What was a simple forum software is now a massively bloated content management system. The overall package, which used to weigh in at a manageable 10Mb, now hovers at the 30Mb mark (which does matter for some of us). Where products like Wordpress will update quickly and simply through a wizard that even downloads the software package for you, the vBulletin upgrade is somewhat more laborious in comparison.
I still don't trust it as a stand-alone blogging platform (duh, I'm blogging here after all) but I can see how it makes sense when used with a forum (as I've tested myself over at Braves-Nation.com). Unfortunately the implementation isn't great, there is no uniformity in regard to tags that might see more linking between posts written by separate users, and once again, there's a mammoth amount of bloat there. Pity, it could be so much better and leaner. Unfortunately the way vBulletin has been going recently I can't say I'm hopeful of improvement, and I've even been considering switching to Xenforo.
My Top Three Twitter Peeves
Can I add one to this? People asking celebrities to retweet their causes, all... the... time. But you know what's great? Whereas another site (that won't be mentioned by name) consistently does things to annoy their users Twitter seems to find ways to make things better. However it wasn't until recently that I discovered that you can turn off retweets by anyone you're following. It's a game-changer, something else which enables you to get Twitter working the way you want it to.
A Few Personal Lifehacks
Ah, backups... I've changed again! Remember how I started with weekly backups stored locally, and then advanced to daily backups? Well now I've gone a step further, and have finally started backing up some items online with Amazon Web Services. This is because I've had failures with both internal and external drives, and so therefore I opted for a third level of backup. Some photos - especially those of the kids - are too valuable not to be kept elsewhere.
Backups as a whole are an area I tend to think about a lot and consider a great deal. I know I consider my data too valuable not to back it up and keep those backups up to date.
The Problem With Joan Harris
We've now had five series of Mad Men, and I'm still not overly keen on the character as a person. Great series to show the acting talents of Christina Hendricks though. I have a new respect for her as an actress, although I still think no actress matches Elisabeth Moss on the show (Kiernan Shipka might get there one day, but not just yet).
I found season five of Mad Men quite odd. Brilliant at times, frustrating at others. I've seen some reviews which felt the whole series was brilliant, and yet I felt a little bit disappointed by it. And yet I'm still wondering where it ends up going in season six, and who'll feature, how they'll feature and even what year it will begin in. If it is 1968 that augurs well in my book.
vBulletin's Venture Into Blogging
Seems a bit odd to me that this continues to be the most popular post I've written, and by some distance. I haven't written about vBulletin for a while but I think as a whole the vBulletin team have lost their way. What was a simple forum software is now a massively bloated content management system. The overall package, which used to weigh in at a manageable 10Mb, now hovers at the 30Mb mark (which does matter for some of us). Where products like Wordpress will update quickly and simply through a wizard that even downloads the software package for you, the vBulletin upgrade is somewhat more laborious in comparison.
I still don't trust it as a stand-alone blogging platform (duh, I'm blogging here after all) but I can see how it makes sense when used with a forum (as I've tested myself over at Braves-Nation.com). Unfortunately the implementation isn't great, there is no uniformity in regard to tags that might see more linking between posts written by separate users, and once again, there's a mammoth amount of bloat there. Pity, it could be so much better and leaner. Unfortunately the way vBulletin has been going recently I can't say I'm hopeful of improvement, and I've even been considering switching to Xenforo.
My Top Three Twitter Peeves
Can I add one to this? People asking celebrities to retweet their causes, all... the... time. But you know what's great? Whereas another site (that won't be mentioned by name) consistently does things to annoy their users Twitter seems to find ways to make things better. However it wasn't until recently that I discovered that you can turn off retweets by anyone you're following. It's a game-changer, something else which enables you to get Twitter working the way you want it to.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Last Of His Kind
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.
Monday, 30 April 2012
No Post This Month
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!
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Maybe It's Me?
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.
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.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Shifting Gears
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...
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...
Monday, 16 January 2012
Memories Are Made of This
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:
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.
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).
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.
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
One Year On
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.
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.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Facebook and the Beautiful People
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.
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.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
SingStar Tennis: A Follow Up
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).
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).
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