4-5-1

Warning, this may turn out to be a rant!

I have been browsing the football forums following the 1-1 draw with Lyon tonight, and am somewhat amazed to hear Man Utd fans complaining about the use of 4-5-1, a formation which apparently has never worked for us.

Were they watching Saturday?!? We beat Arsenal 4-0, mainly because of the 4-5-1 system. Having a lone striker meant that the Arsenal central defenders, both well renowned, failed to pick him up, enabling Rooney to be freed up to play open football and make runs etc. I might even concede that they could have picked a better formation tonight the idea that 4-51 has never worked is absurd! It is also worth noting that Van Nistelrooy often played an effective 4-5-1 and it didn't stop him either!

So what was the problem tonight? I'm not sure, I didn't even see the game! And it doesn't matter. The point is that 4-5-1 is a very useful formation and fits very well with the current Man Utd squad, with so many attacking midfielders. Just because one game we didn't win whilst playing that formation does not mean that Sir Alex is stupid and has no idea anymore and should be sacked. Besides 1-1 isn't that bad a result!

Gah i hate football fans!

Hrmnmm

I appear to have stopped blogging.
Ah well.

Maybe it's just an extended holiday from blogging!

2008

I haven't blogged for ages. Partly because for a large amount of the last 4 weeks I haven't had much internet access, and also because I was away doing better things.

So here we go, another year begins. It's already 8 years since the millennium (or 7 if you actually celebrated it the right year) That makes me feel old, very old indeed. Anyway, I have resolved once again to have no resolutions this year, and therefore I am confident that I will keep to all my resolutions.

I have decided to blog about nothing. I am actually devoid of anything to say still!!! After a month! I suppose i should at least leave you with a song. Seeing as most of the 1 1/2 people who read this are girls, here's a Man-hater song recommended by a good friend of mine. Apparently when us guys turn out to not actually be plucked straight out of a fairytale, this is what you're supposed to cry along to, tears collecting in your tub of ben and jerrys that you know shouldn't eat, but you just can't help it...sniff sniff

Poppets

Gotta love 'em. Only 35p a pack at Mildert shop, which means that you can buy 3 for just a mere pounds, plus the few coppers rattling around your clothing/purse. I use purse, because it is my experience that the former will apply for most guys, or is it just me who always has currency in every pocket?

The wonderful thing about poppets is the unfunny 'memories' they have on the sides of the packet. eg. 'It took me 6 goes to win Trevor...He only lasted 3 days' with a picture of a hook a duck on the front, and '...or a Goldfish' written on the side. You know what, NO I DON'T REMEMBER THAT!!! GUESS WHY, BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED TO ME! I mean if they are going to go down the nostalgic route, they may as well go for things that commonly happen like 'remember that day it rained' or 'remember that time you ate something' Now there's memories that everyone is likely to have! Or even, 'Remember that time you read the poppets packet which reminded you of the time you read that poppets packet which reminded you of..... etc etc' Now at least that would provide the philosophers something to chew on.

Then again i suppose they could just give you something extra to chew on by cutting down on advertising and popping a few more poppets into each box, because as much as i like the rattle-it does mean it's half empty. Ahh the woes of this world

No One Sleeps...

No One Sleeps
Even You, O Princess,
In Your Cold Room,
Watch The Stars,
That Tremble With Love
And With Hope.
But My Secret Is Hidden Within Me,
My Name No One Shall Know, No, No,
On Your Mouth I Will Speak It
When The Light Shines,
And My Kiss Will Dissolve The Silence
That Makes You Mine.
Vanish, O Night!
Set, Stars!
Set, Stars!
At Daybreak, I Shall Conquer!
I Shall Conquer!
I Shall Conquer!

Electron Blue

I can't remember if I've blogged about this before. It's all about a coloured light which is a drug, and it's called Electron Blue. I was just trying to post the song on my audio blog but i've forgotten the password. However in looking for it, I came across some emails sent between me and Katherine around the 30th April 2003!! Eeek very old! It's funny reading back at emails i sent 4 years ago.

Anyways, here's some lyrics.

You're on your ear, the ocean's near
The light has started to fade
Your high is timed, you found the climb
It's hard to focus on more than what's in front of you
Electron Blue
Adventure rings with a page and
When it dawns on you,
It singes blue
Your buzz beginning to wane.

Adventure has laid its claim on you
It's all you want to do.
You
You know where to run
You run Electron Blue.

And who am I?
I'm just a guy
I've got a story like everyone
But in your eyes
You looked surprised
And didn't know where to run
I looked to her
She's found the cure
Her future's already begun

Tomorrow's gaining speed on you
It's all you want to do
You
You know where to run
You run Electron Blue
You
You know where to run
You run electron blue

So bide your time
You'll feel the climb
Your high it builds like a lightning storm
It sings like pearls
You know that girl
And no one is any the wiser
So as if on cue.....
Electron Blue

Tomorrow's gaining speed on you
It's all you want to do
You
You know where to run
You run, Electron Blue
You
You know where to run
You run, Electron Blue
You
You know where to run
You run, Electron Blue

Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting

Except for those who aren't. Including me. In fact I am doing nothing. I have done nothing all morning! After a busy week and a half i thought i'd have a lie in! What with Ball and weekend away, meetings, work, 9am lectures and such like, it's actually quite a while since my last lie in!
Unfortunately I do still have lots of work to do, in particular, maths homework and a lot of Antarctica reading for tomorrow, a presentation for Tuesday, and then a research proposal and a write-up for the end of term. Yes I know, it's nothing compared to the mountain of work most 3rd students have right now, but it's still occupying a lot of my time!

It's crazy that there's already less than 3 weeks of term left!! Eeeek. It must be time to start playing the Christmas songs soon! Anyways, I'm gonna dash! I'll try and actually write something interesting tomorrow!

In Flanders Fields

'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.'

What does it mean to remember them? What is Remembrance Day actually about?

First off let me say, that I fully support the act of remembering those who have died in war, especially the huge numbers who died during the two world wars.

However, I think it is important for us to be clear about what we are actually remembering. Some people might say we are remembering all those who gave their lives for what they believed in, a greater cause than themselves. They died for their country, for freedom. I think this approach is a little dangerous, as many people have died for something they believe in, and yet, quite rightly, many of those are not celebrated. Many freedom fighters have come and gone, fighting for countries, religions, rights, freedom and 'the greater good'. Some of these have been heroes, and others villains, so I do not think dying out of conviction for the cause is enough to warrant ‘remembrance’. I am sure that many suicide bombers have blown themselves up with equal conviction.

So, conviction aside, perhaps it is the cause that matters. In reality what was the cause? Clearly in the Second World War, there was a point, a clear enemy that needed to be defeated, but what about WW1? Is there any explanation other than the reality that thousands of lives were wasted over a causeless war waged by the rulers and fought by the civilians? As Sartre said, 'When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die'.

A word people often use around such emotional times as Remembrance Day is ‘moving’. I suggest that Remembrance Day, and indeed every time we remember the people who have died in war, we should be moved. ‘Moved’ is not an instantaneous reaction or two minutes of tears. ‘Moved’ is dynamic. If we are moved, then what are we moved to?

90 years on from the ‘Great’ War, have we been moved by the events that led to the deaths of thousands of civilians? Have we learnt any lessons from these tragedies? Have we been moved into action to try and prevent further tragedies?

No. Instead Remembrance Day has become a cheap plug for our foreign policy and an excuse for the country to sink into detrimental Nationalism. As we remember the dead, there are others dying all over the world due directly to the choices of our country. Whether in Afghanistan and Iraq where our selfish ambition has led countries to the brink of civil war, or Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe where our selfish apathy and inaction has led to the breakdown of the very rights we fought to protect 60 years ago. I name but a few. There are many more places around the world, where either directly, or more indirectly (through arms deals and political agendas), we are going against the very things our veterans supposedly fought for.

If there is one thing that Remembrance Day should be about, it is about remembering the tragedy of human selfishness, and the virtue of human selflessness; and in everything we do, honouring the memory of those who have in the past have died in war, by seeking to ensure that as few names as possible are added to that list.

' Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.'

Christmas Shopping!

With Bonfire Night over, and Halloween all but a distant memory (being a week ago! lol) it's next stop Christmas. So close the curtains light the fire and wrap up warm, sipping at cups of warm cocoa. Well ok maybe not just yet! Besides we don't even have a fire.

It is only 48 days til Christmas! And with 8 major presents to buy over the Christmas period, that only gives me 6 days to think of and buy each one. Eeek! Factor in lots of minor presents at a lower importance level, that leaves me with approximately 4.83 days per major present! Which, taking into account four days postage for internet presents being sent, and assuming that half will be bought from the internet, leaves me 2.83 days per present!!

However, given that for 5 of the 7 weeks left, I only have 2 days available to shop, that factors the time down to 1.415 days per present. Assuming the trip into town to be a round trip, my effective time is 2.415/(2*pi) which takes it to roughly 0.225 days per present, which equates to 5hrs and 24 minutes effective shopping time.

In addition, the majority of my Christmas shopping will be done accompanied by Rachel. Unfortunately, any time spent shopping with her results in a split between her buying presents and me buying presents, and (being kind to Rachel!!) I shall set that at a 1:1 ration, lowering my present time to 2hrs and 42 mins per present.

Finally the overall time T is a function of 5 variables, l, c, t, f and q which relate to the time spent reading the Christmas list, time spent consulting with other family members about who's got what, time spent thinking of ideas, time spent finding the product and time spent queuing in the shop respectively. The equation is roughly shown below.

Assuming the majority of my shopping will be done for my family, it is possible to compute the variables above.

l within our family takes a value somewhere in the region of 0.5
c is related to the number of people in the family, and is usually roughly (n-1).0.166
f can be taken as 1.
q takes either the value 0 if bought online, or the average for Harrogate shops, which is roughly 0.2. I will assume as before that half the presents will be bought online, giving an average q of 0.1

Substituting these into the equation gives an available thinking time (t) of 1hr and 25mins. I'd better get started!

A glooming peace this morning with it brings

Here follows the second blog of this latest stint. With a suitably gloomy title. You can tell the seasons are changing in Britain when you wake up to a chilly morning, blowing a gale and you've had sun and rain by midday! And so autumn begins its long dark descent down into the depths of winter, and with it, the sun drops lower in the sky turning orange as it glides along the chimney tops.

It is of course Bonfire night (hoorah!) where we all celebrate the death of a man, executed for trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Perhaps one of the earliest Terror threats to the capital? I wonder how the event was used to promote the agenda of the Government at that time?Hrmm. Anyways all November 5th makes me think of these days is V for Vendetta. And that made me think about Hugo Weaving which is a cool name, and how he just sounds like Elrond the whole time! Elrond got me thinking about Lord of the Rings and quicker than you can say ' my precious' I was thinking about the Council of Elrond, and how much Frodo annoys me. Keeping on that train of thought i tried to think of a film i liked him in, and dismissing Deep Impact i settled for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which is a good film, but not really because of him.

Anyways, as one thought follows another, I considered the other actors in that film, in particular Kate Winslet, which of course led me to think about Titanic, arguably her most famous film. Then i was reminded about how annoying Leonardo DiCaprio is! (Close to James Blunt) However I also considered the fact that loads of people say how good he is in a couple of films, and i contemplated the fact that Romeo and Juliet is a good film despite him being in it. I particularly like the closing lines at the very end. And so i thought to myself, why not name a blog after it, and spend most of the blog explaining it!

Under duress!

Yes I'm back. By unpopular demand. I have been persuaded to blog slightly more regularly. I'm afraid this is not accompanied by any scene change or new layout, or even flurry of news. But i will try and blog at least once a week! For my loyal reader! lol. Emphasis on singular.

So quick sum up....back at durham...POS awesome...lectures hard...room tidy!...life's good. That'll do for now! Bedtime, then out of the house from 9:30 am til 10pm, oh the joys of packed lunch AND tea!

Nice speaking to you again!

In your head

For the first time in quite a while, I shared my bed with a couple of guests the night before last. In fact, have I ever shared my bed before? Well yes is the answer, and everytime it has been with something small, fluffy and cuddly. The last two nights I have been sleeping with the affectionately named 'Strawberry' and Sweety. Seeing as Katherine is away, I have been put in charge of looking after her most treasured cuddly toys, and considering the amount of TLC they are used to, leaving them in a cupboard is not enough. Sure there was a bit of a fight over the covers, and yes, it was a bit of a squeeze, but in the end it all worked out fine.

I decided to test the sound on this pc yesterday by playing a song. Unfortunately i picked the most catchy song ever written which has been going round and round and round my head for over a day now! Garrrr, it's quite teeny-boppy-emo so you'll probably enjoy it!

Have a listen (and a watch)
http://www.pcplanets.com/videos-17752-Zombie.shtml

True Love

Read this: http://www.teamhoyt.com/
And watch this:

Just to make sure I don't go a full month

without blogging.

I have been very busy of late. Mostly planning for the 24-7 prayer event we're running at the moment. Hence I have not blogged for ages. So to tell you about my last month, i wrote a poem.

There was once a family from 'gate
Not one of whom was called Kate,
They went to the lakes,
Ate copious numbers of cakes,
And all put on a little weight.

Now one of this family 6-strong,
Had a girlfriend who tagged along,
When all of the others went home,
They stayed on for a bit of a roam,
and walked nearly as far as Hong Kong

Well ok, maybe not quite that far,
But they did venture to Wastwat-arr
There they did eat, drink and hike,
including great Scafell Pike,
Before driving home in Her car.

Now before this great tale had begun,
There was a long weekend of great fun,
This time Tim was the 'guest',
As they set off on a quest,
To Filey to sit in the sun.

Other places were visited too,
Including a theme park that's also a zoo,
Not forgetting Beamish,
where if your squeamish,
the dentist's definitely not for you.

Once home, two weeks gone now,
i kept myself busy somehow
letters and phonecalls galore,
emails, meetings and more
not even a single row!

And so as the rhyme gets worse,
I leave you with this final verse,
Tata, good day,
I'll be on my way,
As 'What a waste of time' you curse.

Summer Days

Nearly a month since I last blogged-so what's new? Well I've gained a sister-in-law! Apart from that, very little is new.

So instead of wittering on about my life, i'll hand over this space to a good friend of mine.

Trapped

don't undress my love
you might find a mannequin:
don't undress the mannequin
you might find
my love.

Charles Bukowski

The Ending to Harry Potter!!!

Right, heres the news. Joanne is having a few problems finishing the book, and so came to me for a few ideas. I've narrowed it down to 3 possible endings, so here goes. Maybe if you could just vote on your favourite and i'll let her know what you guys think before the weekend.
Cheers

Ending 1...

‘…Harry glanced behind him; Snape and Voldemort were catching up. He kept running as fast as he could, pushing his way through the busy London rush hour crowd. He got to a small alleyway between two office blocks, and ran inside, and hid behind a green wheelie bin. He sat and watched all the muggles going by, completely oblivious to what was going on around them. After a few minutes, he figured he must have lost them. He got up, but at that moment there was a flash and two black figures appeared in front of him. Snape and Voldemort both raised there wands at him, ‘So, it ends here Harry’, Voldemort snarled. ‘Cruciatus’ he yelled, and Harry was filled with an immense pain. It was like every muscle in his body was shrieking at him in agony. He howled in pain, as the noise and pain inside his head grew louder…there was a ringing…a loud ringing in his ear…BANG. Barry Rotter smacked his alarm clock and it promptly stopped. Barry sat up, still trying to catch his breath. The alarm clock said 7.25am Monday 16^th September. With a huge sigh of relief, Barry realised there was no such thing as Voldemort, Hogwarts, not even Ron or Hermione. He smiled to himself as he examined his scar-free forehead-it had all been a dream.’

Ending 2...

‘Harry reached into his pocket desperately trying to find his wand. He fumbled around, where was it, it was always inside his left pocket. Then he remembered, in the carriage, he had taken his wand out of his pocket as it was poking him in the side. With a despairing sigh he looked up at Voldemort who was now approaching him down the long flight of stairs. On either side of the staircase, a black empty chasm lay waiting. In one last desperate effort, he ran at Voldemort and tried to wrestle him to the ground. Just as he reached Voldemort, with a flash of his wand, he disappeared, and Harry went flying off the side of the staircase into the black abyss. Reappearing on the small platform on which Ginny was stood, Voldemort turned to her with an evil smile on his face. Ginny was still staring at the blackness, which had engulfed Harry. It was over, all her worst fears had been realised. There was no hope. She sunk to the ground in tears, as Voldemort lifted his wand and the last thing she heard as she closed her eyes was ‘Avada Kedavra’’

Ending 3...

‘ Voldemort spoke in a cold crisp voice ‘You heard the prophecy, none can live while the other survives…Let’s see who wins, between the Dark Lord, and the young boy, Harry Potter!’ All the death eaters stood around, sniggered and whispered to each other. Neville, Ginny and Ron stood behind Harry tembling. Harry stepped forward, and held his wand up, pointing it at Voldemort. Before he could utter a spell, Voldemort took out his wand and shouted ‘Avada Kedavra’ A bolt of light seemed to emit from the wand and hit Harry right in the chest, he fell to the ground and did not move again. ‘Nooooooooo’ Ginny yelled, as Harry’s body slumped to the ground. Voldemort cackled ‘That’s it children, shows over, now it’s your turn’. ‘Not so fast’ yelled Neville as he stepped forward and brandished his wand. Voldemort looked incredulously at Neville ‘What do you think you can do against the Dark Lord’. Neville shouted ‘Avada Kedavra’ and Voldemort collapsed in a heap. Dying on the ground, he whispered ‘But…Harry…the prophecy’ Neville replied ‘That’s where you were wrong. The prophecy was about me. As you know, I too was born on the same day, and I too, have parents who 3 times escaped Voldemort.’ ‘But what about the scar?’ Ginny said, looking puzzled. She continued ‘The scar was where Voldemort marked Harry, and the prophecy mentions it. Where’s your scar?’. Neville turned and grinned at her, and with a twinkle in his eye replied ‘That…I will have to show you later!'

Altitude Sickness

Or maybe it was just the drink...

Last night i spent the evening in the highest inn in the UK. Tan Hill Inn stands 1732ft above sea level, and holds the Guinness World Record for being the highest licensed pub in the UK. Interestingly, the owner of the pub also holds a Guinness World Record for having the loudest scream ever recorded-about 130 decibels i believe.

Anyways, as my good friend Matthew Porter is getting married this Saturday, it was his stag thingy, so we went up yesterday, spent the evening in the pub then went for a long walk today. Twas good fun. Quality food, quality ale and quality service-and nice comfy beds! There was hardly anybody staying there, so after our meal at about 9ish we went through the the lounge area that had guitars, banjos, a drum, and....an accordion!!! So we sat around playing over a few pints-my best contribution was coming in on every D chord on the accordion, as it was the only chord I could cope with. Ooh then the bar man bought down a harmonica, so that was fun.

Then once we were all sick of our talentless noise we moved back through to the bar, and chatted to the lonely Bar man (Andy). We stayed chatting in the bar 'til about 1.30, (Last orders and licensing laws don't mean much that far from civilisation). We even pulled our own pints (Very exciting!). Then in the morning we had cooked breakfast and left.

Am back home now, feeling very low (altitude-wise). Now I have to go and plan the next phase of my social life-oh the trials of popularity.

Back Home

I am now...all be it a little later than expected, home. Ahhh it's good to be home, however the prospect of 3 months here doing very little does not excite me much, so I'm off to try and find a job! Here's how bored I got last night.

201-Can you hear the screaming?

It has come to my attention that I have now passed the 200 mark-In fact this is blog no. 201. This being significant because it is the number of the room directly above room 101, where it is virtually impossible to sleep at night because of all the screaming from the people below. The same would apply for room 102, were there not a stairwell between 101 and 102.

Anyway, on this momentous occasion, just a few friendly facts and figures to add to the enjoyment of this wonderful moment.

Did you know...
1) This blog has been going for just over 1 1/2 years. In that time, the Earth has orbited the sun roughly 9.453 times
2) The title of this blog has never begun with U. Furthermore if you put all the first letters together, they spell the opening section of a very well known book.
3) To date, 354 different people have read this blog, that's more than one every 2 days!
4) Every single blog has been written whilst wiggling my toes
5) Each blog has been as utterly ridiculous as this one! (With a few exceptions!)

Right, must go and do a bit of nothing before I become too busy

Security

Nothing can ever be safe. There is nowhere we can run or hide, nothing we can do to ultimately ensure safety. When I was a child, I thought that when I was older, I’d just live in a house with huge lasers and sensors to find and kill any spiders or other bugs that came into the house; that way I’d be fine! I’d be safe from the things I didn’t like. The sad truth is that we can never achieve safety. How many films involve people trying to run to safety but being followed or pursued? Today I watched the Bodyguard, which is kind of along those lines; others include Bourne Identity and loads more I have forgotten the names of (one with Harrison Ford springs to mind…). Anyway the point is that I think one of the scariest things in life is that no matter what we do, we can never be truly safe.

All the money in the world can’t prevent tragedy. Having millions of bodyguards doesn’t make you invincible. How is it possible to have security when nothing can be safe? Simple. By not placing our security in such things. Why place security, value and worth in things which we could lose tomorrow? It’s really easy to feel secure because of friends, relationships, possessions, money, abilities, self-image, and perhaps it’s even easier to feel insecure about all of the above. Ultimately these things are all expendable and could disappear at any minute, as could we.

I want to be like Horatio Spafford (great name!). He was a Chicago Lawyer in the 1860s. In 1870 his only son died at the age of four from scarlet fever. In 1871, all of his investments and life savings were destroyed during the Great Chicago Fire. In 1873, the family planned a holiday in Europe. Horatio was delayed by some business, so his wife and four daughters set off first, to be joined later by Horatio. On November 22^nd 1873, the ship carrying the five women crashed and sank, killing 226 people, including his four daughters. When his wife reached England, she sent this telegram ‘SAVED ALONE, WHAT SHOULD I DO?’. As soon as was possible, Horatio boarded a ship to sail to England to be with his wife. As the ship passed the spot where the shipwreck had occurred, he wrote this song-‘It is Well with My Soul’

I wonder, if I too went through what the Spafford family did, would I be able to sing, let alone write that song. I wonder what it actually means to find security in something outside of the known. Is there a way we can have a security that can never be taken away?

I think the answer is yes.