Friday, 4 September 2009

Listless

You might have seen these before, but I saw this list on another blog and thought I'd steal it for my avid readers. It's very American, but still amusing. The ones in bold are those that I particularly enjoyed:

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That's enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

-How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I'm eating alone. Thanks for making me feel fat before dinner.

http://thefosterfollowing.blogspot.com/ is where I got this from, many thanks to them.

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

Where'd you go?

I stayed up till 3am last night/this morning, watching Ana Ivanovic painfully slump to a 1st round defeat in the US Open against unseeded Katernya Bondarenko. This morning, I'm left wondering just what on earth has happened to my dear old Ana. First up, I'll give you a quick biography, because her story, particularly in the early days, is quite interesting.

Ana is now classified as Serbian, but back in her youth Belgrade, her place of birth, was part of Yugoslavia. Inspired by the great Yugoslav player Monica Seles (y'know, the one that was stabbed), Ana memorised the phone number of a local tennis centre, and a star was born. It wasn't easy however - growing up, Belgrade was being bombed constantly, forcing her to train in the mornings only. In the cold winters, there were no facilities, so Ana used to train in an abandoned swimming pool. So, in a way it's a miracle that she got where she has.

She rose up and up the rankings, winning tournaments, battling top 5 players, getting to latter stages of Grand Slam events and making a name for herself, before last year, at the age of 20, she won the French Open and clinched the Number 1 ranking in the world. Great player, nice person, attractive - she was tipped to be the new tennis superstar.

Since then....freefall.
  • Wimbledon 08, 3rd round.
  • US Open 08, 2nd round.
  • Australian Open 09, 3rd round.
  • French Open 09, 4th round.
  • Wimbledon 09, 4th round.
  • US Open 09, 1st round.
It's been her worst year since she turned pro. She hasn't defeated a Top 10 player this year. She's only won back-to-back matches on six different occasions in the whole year. Just what the fuck has happened?

I don't think she has been "found out", necessarily. She's too talented for that. I don't think she's lost her drive or her motivation - she's only won 1 Grand Slam title after all, not 10. Injuries have been a problem, and I wonder about her knee, which was strapped up for a long, long time. My feelings are that she's become a bit confused in where she's going - and becoming World Number 1 at such a young age and after such a rapid rise perhaps hindered her long-term career rather than helped it. Coaches have come and gone, as have fitness instructors. This excellent article sums it all up better than I could. For once, an article about Ana that doesn't just go down the "ZOMG shes so fit" route, once you get past the title.

Whatever the problem, let's hope Ana gets it sorted. There's no Grand Slams left for her this year now, until the Australian Open she's pretty much done. Let's see what a rest does for her.




Friday, 28 August 2009

A boring long holiday post #4

Golly, I've neglected this. But now that I've started, I may as well inch towards the finish line. So, where were we? Literally? http://theriseandriseoftimlovejoy.blogspot.com/2009/07/boring-long-holiday-post-3.html Ah, okay. Just leaving NYC, driving upto Connecticut. I remember it well!

Ivan and I had already booked tickets to go and see some baseball in Boston, so when we left NYC we knew we would be driving up the East coast. Thankfully the weather was brilliant - still warm, but not the stifling heat it had been for my first few days over there. Instead of zooming straight up to Boston, we decided to take it easy and stay the night in Connecticut, or as I liked to call it, Connect-i-cut. After a fuelling stop at the marvellous Applebees, we set off. I'll be honest, as it was a 'driving day', there's not too much excitement I can share with you, and all I can remember from the day was a massive hold-up entering Connecticut bang on rush hour.

So, let's neatly fast forward to the early evening, where we had a great example of how life has been made just a little easier by our gadget friends. When we left NYC, we hadn't booked a motel in advance, and obviously we needed somewhere to stay the night. So sitting in a restaurant car park Ivan fiddled about with his sat-nav,"Kylie" (I shan't be telling you why) until we had a list of motels in the area. We found the one nearest to us - phone number duly provided. Quick ring on his mobile, and we had a room for the night, directions to it neatly mapped out as well. Awesome, and that all took us about 2 minutes. We got out of the car and went to dinner.

Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale in Madison, CT came highly recommended from a book Ivan had that highlighted the best eateries in each state. You know how when you're in a restaurant, everyone else's meal looks more interesting than yours? I ordered the hot lobster rolls, which were outstanding, whereas Ivan went for the fish platter. This led to an interesting few moments where he looked at the rolls with envy, whereas I looked at his platter (not a euphemism) with a mixture of interest and jealously. For the record, their fried scallops are marvellous, the hot lobster rolls even better.

To say disaster struck the next morning would be an exaggeration, but it felt like it at the time. I woke up horribly, ridiculously and overwhelmingly homesick. I had never felt homesick before, nor since, and it wasn't very pleasant. There was no point in telling Ivan, I didn't think, so all I could do was just try and soak it up as best I could and see what Boston would bring, and see what Fenway Park would bring, as that was where we were going later that night...

Wednesday, 26 August 2009

EU must be joking!

Guess what kids? Val Duncan from Wellington is back! Let's see if she's changed since her last effort. Clue: She hasn't.

I was once a firm royalist until I found out the Queen had willingly signed six treaties to sell us off to Europe. Why?

Okay. Let's take a deep breath, and tackle this sensibly:
  • The European Communities Act (1972) enabled the UK to accede into the European Community and incorporated European Community Law into our legal system.
  • The Single European Act (1986) seeked to establish a common market by the end of 1992.
  • The Maastricht Treaty (1992) effectively formed the EU, and created the Euro.
  • The Amsterdam Treaty (1997) was a biggie, relatively speaking. It enabled increased power for the European Parliament, and the formation of the CFSP.
  • The Nice Treaty (2001) reformed the EU, including modifying the weighting of votes cast.
  • The Lisbon Treaty (2007) has not been fully endorsed yet, but it intends to change the workings of the EU, creating a President of the EC and increased involvement of the European Parliament.
God, that was boring. The point is, I don't think any of those treaties have "sold us off to Europe." A bigger involvement in the EU, more influence for the European Parliament and a larger sense of a Europe-wide community - sure. But we're still our own little island, aren't we? It wasn't Europe who beat Australia in the Ashes, and the last time I looked England still had a national football team (albeit with an Italian manager!).

Anyway, why the Euro hate? I love the Eurovision, I love some of the beautiful cities (as does Voley, clearly), I love the Swedish women...

Blimey, that was all a bit serious, wasn't it? Time to non-think!

Is her German ancestry getting the better of her at last?

I don't know why, but I find that sentence strangely racist. Maybe it's just me.

Does she want to go into history as the last serving monarch of the once Great Britain?

She quite clearly won't. What are you talking about? No-one has said otherwise?

We may never have another government because you can't have a government unless you are a country, as a state we have no country and we are ruled by the EU Commission.

I'm trying to think up something funny to say here but I'm struggling. The last time I looked, England was still a country, and our legislature was still our Parliament. When did we suddenly become ruled by the EU Commission?

You can't have a monarch if you have no kingdom, a state has no kingdom. What is going on here?

You're asking me!

There was an article today on Sky about drugs being out of stock. Are the big pharmaceutical giants putting sanctions on us to stop us trying to pull out of the EU?

I can't find that on the Sky News website. And I'm not sure pharmaceutical companies have that much influence, do they? Goodness, sorry, this is a bit heavy and serious isn't it? The problem here is that this letter is nonsense, but not quite silly enough to completely ridicule.

Maybe we should stop fighting other countries and join forces with them, it appears we may have a mutual enemy in the World Food Organisation, the Bilderberg Group and the European Union.

Let's stop fighting the Taliban, and join forces with them to tackle....the World Food Organisation. Right. And I wouldn't worry too much about the Bilderbergs - they meet once a year, and the only reason everyone gets awfully excited about them is because we don't know what they talk about. Probably tits and football, like all other blokes.

It's a rotten world out there and it's time we made a noise about it.

(end of letter)

Go and have a lie-down Val, I don't want you worrying yourself all the time like this!

Things to worry about: Murderers, rapists, paedophiles, maniacs, nuclear weaponry, North Korea. Those last three are neatly tied together.

Things not to worry about: World Food Organisation.

Sorry folks, I realise this hasn't been too funny - perhaps I'm losing my touch. C'mon Slarkie - give me some decent ammo!

Ewarwoowar's Day Off

I've blogged far too much over the past few days, so after this entry I'm going to take myself off away from the computer for the day and read - you know that lovely feeling when you have a great big pile of books to get through? Perfect for a rainy day outside.

I'm currently wading my way through another Steve McQueen biog, this is the 3rd I've read on him so far. After that it will be a book about football tactics (no, really), then Horace Panter's autobiog. Then, and only if I'm feeling brave, I might try Catch-22 again. I tried reading it when I was 18, and got so bogged down I abandoned it after only about 30 pages. Everyone I've spoken to though says it's well worth sticking with it. We'll see.

Anyway, I have nothing of interest to say today. So here's some pics you may enjoy. Coming tomorrow...a brand new exciting thing!

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EDIT - Amusingly once again most of them can't fit on this blog here. Click on one of these pics, that will take you to my photo album to see the others.

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

The Daily Fail

I'm 99.9% certain that this is a wind-up, but I'll post it here regardless. If it is indeed a WUM, shame on the Mail for not realising. And if it's real....


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EDIT - Ooh, looks like it's too big to fit it all in on here. If you click on the picture itself, you should be directed to a screen that has it in all of it's glory.

Fantasy Football Leaderboard

And thus Gameweek 3 has finished. Big result of the weekend was last night, where Liverpool suffered their second defeat of the season against the Villa. I found that tres drole, but let's not get too carried away - there is a long way to go yet. The same can be applied to our Fantasy Football league of course - let's have the leaderboard so far.

1) Clunge FC (Dylan) 145 UP 2
=1) Melchester Rovers (Daniel) 145 UP 4
3) FATHEADZ BOYS FC (colby) 138 DOWN 2
4) Tommy Tank FC (Mitchell) 132 DOWN 2
5) Fantasy FC (Rob) 131 SAME
6) Boddy Dazzler FC (Darryl) 127 UP 4
=6) Cynical Ben (Ben Judge) 127 DOWN 2
8) Crem de la Prem (andy) 120 DOWN 1
9) Renford Rejects (Patrick) 109 UP 3
=9) Dynamo Sawyer (Richard) 109 DOWN 1
11) IsTonyDaleyElectric? (Shaun) 107 UP 2
=11) Warrior's XI (arun) 107 UP 3
13) The Lamplight Tandem (Jon) 104 DOWN 4
14) Miller-Urey XI (Don) 92 DOWN 3