27 December 2008

A Weird Boxing Day In The Footy...

It was a weird Boxing Day in the weirdest Premiership season I can remember.

It's a season where three or four bad games can alter a club from title contenders to relegation fighters and managers from local heroes to people who need sacking badly (Personally, I think managers have it too hard- one should not get sacked for losing the final of the Champions League).

I caught a fair bit of the Villa-Arsenal game. It was a spectacular goal that levelled it for Villa and I, for some reason (I'd usually support Arsenal in this encounter, but I generally support Arsenal in their encounters, unless they're playing West Ham, of course).

Great one for the Hammers, wasn't it? 4-1 against Pompey at their ground is a brilliant result. They should have kept Redknapp...

Man City did a great job against Hull. I guess their manager is safe for the time being. Come the transfer window in January, they're going to be spending like a thing that spends a lot (thank you, Messrs. Whedon, Curtis, Elton, Atkinson et. al). Perhaps next season they'll be the richest side in the Championship. ;)

Man U certainly left it to beat Stoke- it should have been a walkover.

It's going to be an interesting title race- it could go to any one of five or six clubs. For the record, I will now make my preferences clear.

Come on you Reds!

Gaza airstrikes

The Gaza Strips has suffered its worst airstrikes since 1967, as you've probably read on the news sites.

It seems to me that this is the lead up to a full-scale invasion by Israel, who are probably getting sick of Hamas.

It's going to be nasty whatever happens. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected.

24 December 2008

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone an enjoyable and safe Christmas season.

Praise the Lord for the birth of his Son, that our sins might be forgiven and that we might enter his Kingdom!

20 December 2008

US Election Analysis

I was going to do one, but it's a bit late now.

If anyone still wants it, please let me know.

19 December 2008

Punditry

A job that requires no qualifications and which you can't get sacked from for excessively poor performance.

So, I'll be here for a while yet... ;)

14 December 2008

Misuse of the word "since"

I'm getting annoyed with people constantly using "since" in the same sense as "like".

For example, an advert for the Quantum of Solace video game has a reviewer describe it as "the best since GoldenEye". I suspect that's one of those ripped out of context quotes, but still it's the word since that bugs me.

Let's say that each year, the number of cider bottles drunk by Dave is counted. These are the results:
1997- 61
1998- 23
1999- 30
2000- 8
2001- 24
2002- 25
2003- 15
2004- 21
2005- 32

Now, you could say that in 2005, Dave drunk the most amount of port he's drunk since 1997 and express alarm over his alcohol consumption levels. However, he's only drunk half of his 1997 level.

The current recession has been described as the "worst financial crisis since the Great Depression". However, it's nowhere near the Great Depression- financiers aren't jumping off skyscrapers, for example.

Please, to everyone in the media, put this in perspective.

06 December 2008

Covert-81


I expect that this will go up at AJJE Games over the next couple of days, so I had better advertise it now.

Covert-81 combines three of the areas at I have a great interest in- RPing, espionage and the Cold War, in the form of a play-by-post RPG.

The year is 1981. Détente is in ruins after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. With the SS-20 missile deployment in the Western USSR and the planned NATO counter-deployments, a new, seemingly hard-line US president and a rapidly arming USSR, it seems that nuclear war is closer than ever.

Behind the summits and the rhetoric, shadowy operations are going on. Two black-ops organisations, one on each side of the East-West divide, battle to gain the advantage in this global struggle.

Choose your side: Section 91, dedicated to protecting Western freedom and democracy, or Chameleon, aiming to ensure the triumph of Marxism-Leninism.

Inspired by such works as Firefox, The A-Team, MacGyver and the Tom Clancy novels, but with the benefit of hindsight and better accents, Covert-81 is a tale of espionage, high-technology, betrayal, danger and really, really bad hairdos.

If you're interested, please email me at silenthunta@hotmail.com

(yes, that's a "Backfire"- from the DIA Military Art Collection)