Software to Love

Ever bought a piece of software that you just absolutely love. Well, I hadn't either, until I came across this little item. Only $40, and since the moment I installed it, it's been a true love affair. The ever growing DVD collection is now (almost) all recorded in here, I can track which DVD's Anne and Tonks have stolen from me, and even send late notices via e-mail if I ever got sorted and put in my contacts on the Mac at home. And the fact that it just looks so damn good helps as well. Anyway, if this isn't a reason to buy a Mac, I don't know what is ;-)


Delicious Library

Man disgusted with his slow Ferrari (or more money than sense?)

If only I had the option of finding out.....

Man disgusted with his slow Ferrari - Autoblog - www.autoblog.com _

Online, you can find pretty much anything

And this might be one of the best bits (at least for a rainy day)

Monopoly Live

Someone was listening to me!!!!

After having nearly run out of match books over the course of my extensive (well, back and forwards to Atlanta) travels, someone came up with a solution that allows you to legally pack your lighter in your suitcase. Now, why it's illegal without this little gadget is a complete other story, and will get me going on the conspiracy theories again, which I know no-one ever listens to, or reads for that matter.....

Anyway, I have a feeling this will be ordered pronto, and hopefully someone told the guys in the TSA it's legal before I get arrested. If you don't hear from me for a while, you know where to look.

Zippo Cargo Case

Countdown has ended

What I thought was just the usual showbiz nip into hospital for a quick byepass op (or soemthing like that), but no, it seems this was a little more serious, and Richard Whiteley popped his clogs. Countdown was the staple of my youth - the program that made you think after you had just got in from school, made you shout at the TV, and that your Dad was as addicted to as you were. And without the annoying sniggers when someone asked for "a p please, Bob".


BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Tributes paid to TV host Whiteley

Back in town

Been travelling a bit lately, hence the lack of posts. Atlanta wasn't as hot as I think Denver has been, so that was a nice change. We did get one of the best lightening storms I've seen though, made all the more spectacular by being so high in the hotel.

I noticed Bellamy thinks he's coming back to Newcastle to play, but I don't think that's going to last very long, especially with Celtic rumoured to be negotiating the return of the player on another long term loan deal. Unless of course, we fail to sign a striker before the season starts, in which case we may well need him.

So, I get a full weekend in Denver, with a trip up to The Highlands tonight for dinner, which should be cool. I'm hungry already. No Mr Bland though - he jetted off to Oz to try and frighten the natives. Glad to see he can still write witty emails, despite being upside down....

Sirius Gets Radio One!!!!

What could be better than driving to work listening to Chris Moyles, pretending your back home without the rain? I might even have to start going the long way to work now. No longer having to feel guilty about streaming the taped radion broadcasts over the work network and eating up the bandwidth.

I'm so excited I might just go shopping this weekend.....

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | BBC Radio 1 set for US audience

Queen gets an iPod

Which I can imagine her using every day. Not. Sounds like Prince Edward ran out of ideas for her birthday, and someone told him they were cool. Anyway, the story in itself was pretty boring - the best bit was the image from Engadget below

Football Violence a thing of the past?

Well, it definitely calmed down back in England - it must be a good 15 years or so since I got pelted with bricks and bottles at the Mackem away match. You hear rumours now and again, but the only violence I've seen in recent years has involved messrs Bowyer and Dyer, fighting over when they should pass the ball.....

Anyway, the point of all this is the usual entertaining Fiver had a report today of some interesting Argentinian game disruption, copied below. Maybe they're just practising before another fruitless attempt to take back the Falklands?

If you want blood, you've got it. No, the Fiver isn't about to grab its air guitar and perform an unforgivable AC/DC tribute in its old school uniform, instead it brings news of events in Argentina, where football violence is more widespread than Diego Maradona's pre-op stomach.

With battles between gangs such as Boca Juniors' 'La 12' and River Plate's 'Los Borrachos del Tablon' (The Drunks at the Bar) as common as Sunday-morning vomit on the streets of Britain, players and officials are expected (OK, asked) to behave in exemplary fashion. But in Tuesday's Libertadores Cup quarter-final between Boca Juniors and Guadalajara, they didn't. Not by a long shot. Which is why Boca boss Jorge Benitez, who spat on an opposition player as the match degenerated into a mass brawl, has been forced to resign.

Trailing 4-0 from the away leg, Boca were eager to score fast but didn't. By the 79th goalless minute, they were in no mood to see Guadalajara forward Adolfo Bautista remind the home fans of the score by waving four fingers at them. So several players jumped him. That sparked (isn't it great the way some stories just tell themselves?) an almighty hoopla during which Boca's Martin Palermo - who famously missed three penalties in a single game for Argentina a few years back - head-butted an opponent in the neck. Of all places.

Fans obligingly joined in, heartily lashing all manner of missiles at the Mexicans. One enraged clown even scaled the five-metre fence to run onto the pitch, punch Bautista and then flee with the help of as-yet unidentified club officials. As police escorted Bautista away, a helpful ballboy rushed up to offer him yet another memento of his trip to Buenos Aires - a thunderous kick in the rear.

Somewhat inevitably, the ref abandoned the match. "The board of directors have decided to accept the resignation offered by Jorge Benitez," Boca president Mauricio Macri stammered today. "The game did not finish in the way we wanted and we apologise ... we may suffer footballing defeats, but it should never be in doubt that we are sportsmen, gentlemen and good hosts." Why, who could ever doubt it?

The perfect toy for a mid-life crisis?

Whether thats true or not, I still think I want one!

You *Can* Hemi a Big Wheel : Jalopnik

Birthday Night

So once again, the wife excelled in keeping me completely in the dark over both where we were going on our "date night", and the fact that I had an extra present to open when we got there.

She sneaked me off here for dinner, where they served us the most tender steak I think I've ever had, delivered raw with a very hot stone to cook it on yourself. We also had something else (which I can't remember what it was called) which had lots of olives in, and also tasted pretty damn special. Apparently they had ran out of the best thing on the menu, but to be honest I can't imagine anything tasting better than the steak. Another trip there is definitely in the plans.

And then we sat down and another present appeared on the table, despite the fact that my remote control for the iPod I got in the morning had made me smile all day. Of course, it was spectacular. The whole night was planned out, so after dinner, we hit Best Buy and Circuit City to stock up on games and movies for my new toy, and then Cold Stone for dessert. A pretty perfect day all round, topped by the perfect evening.......

Gizoogle

Oh how I laughed. Put in your company name here and see what Snoop Dog thinks of your web site. Translate your life, and pretend to be cool and hip with the youngsters once again (although saying as I'm officially over the hill I have a feeling this won't work for me)

Gizoogle - Fo all you beotches who wanna find shiznit

United Getting Desperate

So a relatively quiet post-season so far (apart from Robert whinging again) has been heated up by the knowledge that Souness has decided to go after an old guy who used to be the best in the world?

Magpies Target Pele

Seth's Blog: Small is the new big

Still ill, but made it out of bed today, and being in America, logged in to check emails etc. Came across this link while trying to catch up on what has happened in the world over the last 5 days. It made me smile as it seems like the company model we're using (so far) is the new black, and that can't be bad.

Seth's Blog: Small is the new big

I'm sick

Not of life, which has been great lately, but I think I've caught the nastiness that has plagued the wife all week. And the worst bit, I'm meant to be heading down for the annual joint birthday party with Tonks at Fado's. I'm betting everyone will still have a blast, but would have been nice to be able to turn up to my own party (even if it is early).

Anyway, off to take some NyQuil and hit the sack.

Searching Engines

So I read this the other day and decided I'd try it out, and see if I was invisible on the web. The conclusion I came to was that either a) I was a previous death row inmate recently freed, or b) I didn't exist in Googles world. This sort of disappointed me a little, given I can find a few other people (and I know I'm not the death row inmate unless I've managed to completely block it out of my mind) - I did "find myself" eventually, but just by chucking in some work stuff so my presentations and course at DistribuTech and IEEE came up.

Anyway, thinks took a turn for the better today, when I realized Yahoo pulls up the blog! I can now rest in peace (sort of, until Google gets around to crawling through it).

Drinks machine 'cuts time at bar'

Cutting time at the bar? Surely a bad thing, right? But, after further review, it actually means spend as long as you want at the bar, but get your drinks quicker. Now if only you could buy one for your house, and have some nice person come round and stock it up whenever it ran out - no theres a service worth considering.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Drinks machine 'cuts time at bar'

Stereophonic-tastic

So at about 11pm last night, I realized I was in the middle of an absolute epic of a concert. It was like the Perfect Storm - everything coming together at once. There was one of my all-time favo(u)rite bands, who, having previous headlined the not so small events such as Glastonbury (100,000 people, 100,000 tons of mud), decided to grace Denver with their presence once again. You'd think they'd do Red Rocks, or at the very least the Fillmore, but no, they happened to play The Bluebird, which I think on a good day might hold 300 people (this is the bit where Neil corrects me with the precise number - I'm waiting). And it didn't even sell out.

So, there was space to stand, I could smoke whenever I wanted without moving, there was a waitress wandering around taking drink orders, and if you fancied a dance, you could get to the front with about 10 steps (as proven by Rob, Lauren and concert king Neil). I was even on the guest list thanks to my fantastic wife and her fantastic friends (although I bottled the asking to go back stage bit as I'm shy like that, and it was a school night). The band looked like they were having a blast, the sound was fantastic, and Stereophonics are one of the few bands who I've seen who continually sound better live than on their CD's.

So it got me thinking about what would I consider my best all-time concerts apart from this one. As my best man Pete kindly pointed out during his speech, we've been to a few over the years, some substantially better than others. So here's the list (not in any particular order), with a couple of reasons why it's in the list.

• INXS - Summer XS Tour, Wembley (London) - they were great, the support was great, and I made a brief appearance on the subsequent video/dvd release (if you watch with a microscope).
  
• Coldplay - Red Rocks (Denver) - it rained, we got a limo up and back, we got soaked, danced around, sang our heads off, Heidi made a DVD of it, and it was Coldplay at Red Rocks
• Deacon Blue - Various times and places - Real Gone Kid, live, with the whole crowd singing every word - need I say more?
  
• Simply Red - City Hall (Denver) - first time I realized that bands and singers could sound better live than on CD's
• Black Grape - Downstairs at the Uni (Newcastle) - small, hot, sweaty and jumping around to every single song. The only time I've ever had to ring out my t-shirt when leaving a concert.
  

That should do it for now - I'm pretty certain I've missed a few, so you never know - I could update the list at some point.

And just to prove how close we were, Neil sent me this pic. Please keep in mind the singer is actually only 3ft 2 inches tall, so we were damn close ;-)