Archive for the 'General' Category

04JulI don’t #oneaday

Last week, when talking with my friend (and phenomenally consistent blog poster) Jen, aka Haly, brought up my blogs lack of updates and how I should get around to doing so.

The truth is that I wanted to, but for one reason or another I’d always end up doing something else instead. I’ve actually had plenty to write about, the football season, the World Cup, the latest video game releases, movies, people and more.

I originally intended to write a blog post a day for 365 days, this was going to be the challenge for 2010 in the same way that the IMDb Top 250 was in 2009. All was well until a #oneaday Twitter group intended on doing the same thing. Of course, I don’t have a problem with it all, it’s a free world and it was originally intended as a way to write smaller, but more consistent blog posts, more for myself than anyone else, but perhaps make them a little more personal.

The downside to other people writing was that, although unintentional, it felt like the magic of what I was attempting was gone, spread across the masses for many others to indulge in, and in return, I ended up being seen as *just another* #oneaday poster, and I didn’t want a group heading to what I was doing, so after a month I decided to stop and just post maybe a few times a week, but detail them more, but of course, without the structure of my intention, that fell by the wayside.

Now that we are essentially at the half-way point of what would have been my own challenge, there are very few posters still managing to post every day, Halycopter being one, which I’m both impressed by and also quite jealous of, even after a fortnight I understood what an undertaking it was going to be, sometimes struggling to come up with anything to write about then, so to be, at my count, 185 posts as of July 4th, is incredibly impressive.

This is the reason for the post, it was quite clear that I was updating daily and suddenly stopped, I wanted to explain why it fell away. I figure as I continue pay for the hosting that, even if it’s not too regularly, I should post at least something.

Thank you for reading,
NokkonWud

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29Jan2009 Awards: Part Two

Television

Television Show:

It only started right at the very end of the year, but it’s Modern Family, it’s hands down one of the funniest, best ensemble casts I’ve ever seen in a show. Even without the rest of the cast I’d put this show as the best juts for Ty Burrell’s performance as Phil Dunphy which is comic gold. Every single member of the cast holds their own, even the young kids and there genuinely isn’t a character I don’t love. If you haven’t seen this yet, then do so, it’s brilliantly funny.

TV Actor:

It’s easy, it’s Ty Burrell from Modern Family. Every single episode I will laugh at him, his face, his actions, his character… genius. It’s amazing he stands out so much when the rest of the cast are so good too.

TV Actress:

I’m going to have to say Kaley Cuoco, she’s really grown into her character Penny on The Big Bang Theory, she’s a perfect example of quality character development. She’s funny, sexy and has great comic expressions and has turned into quite possibly my favourite character on the show.

Movies

Movie:

Slumdog Millionaire if we’re counting movies I saw in 2009 (although I did see it in 2008), but if we’re talking a film I originally saw in 2009, then I’ll say Avatar. I’ll go with the latter for the sake of argument. I’ll say Avatar because it’s a film I really didn’t think I’d like, I thought the CGI would look wrong and that the cast would look awkward acting against such large CGI creatures and I was proven wrong on every count. It delivered a great story, brilliant acting and, for the 2.5 hours it was on, I really couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. It was a packed cinema, not a seat spare and not a single word was spoken by anyone, not even the kids. That’s the sign of a great movie.

Actor:

I’m surprised because it was the very first film I watched in 2009, but Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler really was rather fantastic. Everything about him fit in that role, the beaten up face and body, the voice, and watching him you genuinely believed that he’d been and lived that life and had gotten little return. He deserved his Oscar nod, but having not seen Milk, can’t say Sean Penn didn’t deserve it (as well as Sean Penn being one of my 3 favourite actors ever) but this really signaled the return of Mickey Rourke as a leading man.

Actress:

I’m in love with her anyway, but she was sensational in Julie and Julia, so I’m going to go with Amy Adams. I really hope she gets an Oscar nod for the role because she was brilliant, but all the press seems to go to, in fairness, probably the greatest actress to ever grace the big screen, Meryl Streep. It’s a great film which I absolutely adored, but for me, it’s really Amy Adams who was the star of the show.

Who should retire?:

Uwe Boll. Seriously, fuck off and stop giving the impression that video games don’t have quality stories that can be made into good movies. You’re single handedly limiting an entire side of the media!

Music

Album:

The best album of 2009 wasn’t actually released in 2009, it’s Amy MacDonald – This is the Life, I listened to this album at least once a week. I absolutely love every single on this album, there’s not a single track that gets skipped. It’s a musical masterpiece for me.

Single:

Amy MacDonaTrack 6, Let’s Start a Band. It just builds up into the most amazing ending and it just gets me smiling and moving around.

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28Jan2009 Awards: Part One

Every year I do some awards where I jot down a whole bunch of things from the previous year that stood out, from games, protagonists, music and movies. I’ll be doing it a little differently this year as I plan to write something about each particular thing and plan to keep adding to them over the coming days. To change it up a little from the talk of games, the first area I’m going to cover is going to be football.

Football

Team of the Year:

I always feel a little dirty voting against Manchester United, but last year you really, really couldn’t look past Barcelona. I genuinely feel we should have beaten Barcelona and forgoing an injury to Owen Hargreaves and a ridiculous suspension to Darren Fletcher then we would have set up differently and, I’m confident, have beaten them on the night. Aside from that though, Barcelona really were a cut above the rest, from an insane number of goals shared across their three strikers, Messi, Henry and Eto’o to the complete domination of the midfield through the silky skills of Andres Iniesta and passing quality of Xavi. All over the pitch they had stars that performed week in and week out, they definitely deserved their plaudits.

Best Player:

Everyone seems to say that Messi was the best player last season, I really don’t agree, sure he bagged a load of goals but he doesn’t do it on his own. For me, both Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique stood out at Barcelona above anyone else last year. I do love my defenders, but for me, the mercurial Iniesta deserves it, he was the heart of the Barcelona midfield, rescued them against Chelsea (the biggest fix ever) and seemed to be an integral part to every single flowing move that Barcelona put together. If I could take any player at Manchester United right now then Iniesta would be the one, he just oozes class.

Honourable Mention:

I’ll go with Gerard Pique. I was always a huge fan of him at Manchester United and was incredibly dismayed when we opted to keep Jonny Evans, not a bad defender, but not one that I’d rate too highly, he certainly didn’t have the presence or reading of the game of Pique, who, since joining Barcelona has only gone on to prove me right, dominating the back line as well as being a real presence up front from set-pieces. Pique is good enough to have a starring role in any defensive line-up in world football, I just wish it was still ours.

Biggest Disappointment:

Without a doubt, for me, the biggest disappointment has been Anderson’s progress at Manchester United. He’s gone from one of the most promising young players in the world game to a player who is clearly terrified at the prospect of shooting, no longer goes in for tackles and often looks lazy as well as trying the killer ball a little too often. His passing ability and strength on the ball are still very good, and there’s no doubt that a lack of playing minutes has impacted him hugely, but in the last 24 months we’ve seen Anderson completely superseded by Fletcher, who has gone from being inferior to becoming a world class midfielder. I have no doubt that Anderson will leave Manchester United in the future, which I really should be more upset about seeing as he is so promising, and I have no doubt that at another club he’ll shine and become a real star, but he really needs to improve his attitude and work ethic as well as working on the finer attributes of his game.

Honourable Mention:

This is an obvious one, it’s the player I never wanted, and certainly never at the ridiculous price paid, Dimitar Berbatov. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s lazy, certainly not like many others would, we knew what we were getting, but he could perhaps try a little harder with his effort getting into the box, try a few more shots. He has been excellent at holding up the ball, he is one of the best around for it, but he should have adapted other areas of his game. A good example would be his pace, people think he’s slow, but he’s not, he’s actually pretty quick, but the nature of his game is to drop lower than the front man, which doesn’t happen at Man Utd because Rooney plays in a free role naturally. I never wanted him, we could have bought so much better for £30m and to think we passed on a £20m Fernando Torres to buy a £30m Berbatov is enough to boil my piss. Argh!

Goal of 2009:

This should be easy, but it’s really not, there are 5 goals that come to mind, 4 of which are Man Utd, 3 of those scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. The none Man Utd goal was by Maynor Figueroa of Wigan, a free-kick quickly taken from his own half which beat Sorenson off his line. Another is the free-kick by Ronaldo against Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final which stands out for two reasons, the fact it was over 40 yards out and secondly due to the commentators line, “Too far out, even for Ronaldo… Oooohhh”. The other goal by Ronaldo in the same game also stands out, a text book example of the counter-attack.

My second favourite though was Federico Macheda, a goal that was not only of the highest skill and quality, but a goal that arguably won us the title last year at a time when we were wobbling more than ever. Receiving the ball on the left hand side of the area, Macheda flicks the ball back underneath himself before quickly striking the ball around Brad Friedel and into the far right hand side of the goal. To win the game. In the 92nd Minute. On his debut. At 17. Brilliant.

The winner however should be no surprise, a Ronaldo wonder strike that rightly won the official UEFA goal of the season award. In need of a win after a poor first leg against Porto, Man Utd needed an away goal, step forward Cristiano Ronaldo to rifle hom a goal from 40 yards into the opposite top corner to progress us through to the Semi-Finals of the Champions League. Breathtaking.

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27JanSick, Ill and Shaky

I’ve not been sleeping well, not for a while. I will go to bed, often incredibly tired, yet wake up wide awake a couple of hours later, completely unable to sleep and end up waking up, this has actually been quite handy when it comes to watching the Australian Open Tennis, but for very little else. I’m now waking up at around 3.30am-4.30am with alarming regularity, this is also a problem I had prior to starting work and seems to have come back. Last night was no different, absolutely dead on my feet, blurry eyes, fuzzy head, you know, the kind of feeling you have when you know that you absolutely, positively must have sleep. Imagine this happening several times a day and that’s currently where I’m at.

For the last few days I’ve complained about being cold. Very cold in fact, whether its in a hot shower, in a hot room or even wrapped up in layers of clothing, so I know I’m not exactly in tip-top condition. Today I had to clear one of the two remaining piles of gravel that were stopped short at the end of last year, firstly due to wind, then of course the snow. It was rather nippy outside, which didn’t help, so I wrapped up warm, overly warm really because I would be shifting an awful lot of gravel, thick socks, t-shirt, jumper, second jumper, hoody, thick jeans and gloves. Again, I was cold. I ended up shifting all the gravel, I genuinely didn’t feel bad, got in, decided that I’d like to get some dinner prior to playing football on the night, took off my clothes to put them in the wash and have never been hit so quickly with the feeling of sickness in my life. I was actually dripping with sweat, shaking and felt like I was about to throw up for absolutely no reason at all.

I hate being sick, quite fortunate then that I seldom am due to a rather bad-ass immune system that has stopped me getting pretty much everything ever, the last illnesses being about 5-6 years ago when I had Labyrinthitis and a cold in the same year. I’m sure that whatever it is that I have will wash over soon enough, but I really don’t like being bad.

The positive side of course was that I managed to get several hours of Mass Effect done this morning which, due to the lack of sleep through the night has lef

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21JanHairdressers

Does anyone else really hate going to the hairdressers? I personally loathe it, always have done. This is no slight on the dresser of hair at any salon, be it a gentleman’s barbers or a more well known salon, and at times I have really enjoyed myself, but it just takes so damned long!

The irony is, many of the times I’ve been I’ve never actually had anything else to do that day, so I’ve never really been in a rush, but I always feel that I could be doing something in that time.

I suppose it’s the idle, pointless banter back and forth, the kind I do enjoy online, little discussions here and there, that annoy me, not that it’s anything but nice, but it’s just a little… meaningless.

Of course the result of this is a disgraceful lions mane of hair or a quickly buzzed head, neither of which I actually like too much, but both probably preferably to wasting a couple of hours sitting around and listening to the same conversations.

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20JanSome fears never leave

I still remember the only real place that has ever scared me. It was dark, dusty and through the raggedy old curtains rested shapes that could be mistaken for any number of horrible things that rattle around the depths of your mind in times of fear. I’m not saying it’s the only time I’ve ever been scared, it’s not, but it’s the thing that scared me most consistently throughout my youth.

My grandmother and grandfather, or ‘Papa’ as I always called him until his death little over a decade ago, used to run one of the countries (at the time), three CIU Convalescent homes in Broadstairs, Kent. It was an intimidatingly huge, at times rather ugly, but always entertaining place that was busy all year round and jam packed full of lifes more interesting people, from the former Navy men and survivors of the two Great Wars who were only too willing to tell you these amazing stories of courage and brotherhoods to sweet shop workers who would fill my head with stories of Willy Wonkas chocolate factory type settings. I don’t think it would be stretching too far to say that some of the people who would holiday at this home for periods of a week or two at a time were some of the most interesting people anyone could ever want to meet.

I used to love it there, it’s one of the really, truly happy places in my lifetime, three huge gardens with summer houses, bowling greens, golf courses and ponds, three snooker tables, darts, dozens of huge fish tanks, and so much more, it was somewhere I would want to go at least once a year and I enjoyed it so much that it was worth the 6 hour journey each way every single time (of course it helped that I was a child and couldn’t drive.) For all its wonders and people there was always one place that would scare me. Upstairs there was the main flat where my grandparents would live, it had everything you’d expect from a flat as well as my own bedroom which was kept especially for me all year round. There was another private, smaller flat where my Uncle and my grandparents youngest child would live, another place where I’d spend a lot of my time, making my way there in the early hours of the morning and play on his Amiga 500 on classic games like Skidmarks, Sensible Soccer and Kick-Off.

It was the place between these two safe houses that would worry me. The flats were separated by a winding, darkened corridor of lefts and rights, each straight section being quite long, all in all it would take about 45-60 seconds to walk it, and in the longest section of this hallway was a curtain that was a thick, haggard almost shiny, heavy material, similar to those curtains your assembly hall at school probably had, and behind it was all manner of things that would be kept there for storage such as some hoovers, spare tables, spare chairs and more. I of course always knew that these things were there, but it was always the worry of something much more sinister, knife wielding maniacs, prisoners who’d broken out of prison, Pennywise the clown from the IT movies… There were any number of things and there was not one single day I’d pass that curtain without my mind racing by with all different ways I could be mutilated.

What’s worse is that I could never mention it to anyone because I always knew that given the opportunity, one of my family members would only be too willing to capitalise on my fear and come leaping out like some homicidal maniac, leaving me stood there, shaking, probably urinating myself.. or worse.  Of course nothing ever happened, but the mind is a powerful thing and until the day my grandparents left that place, I was unable to ever simply walk past that damned curtain, it was always at full speed, or if I was with someone, with them between me and the curtain (hell, if someone is going to try and kill me then I ain’t going first!) The mind is a truly powerful thing and it is without doubt t

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18JanA day out in Liverpool

In a bid to get out the house today I decided to keep my father company on a trip from here to Liverpool, where he had to go look at a job at a Boots pharmacy store, re-commission a boiler that he was unable to fix last week after water made its way into the gas mains in the high street.

Well, it didn’t exactly work out, we drove the 175 miles to get there only to find out water had once again made its way back into the gas mains meaning it was impossible to re-commission and therefore a wasted journey, meaning we turned back around and drove all the way back home. The reason for water back in the gas mains seems to have come from a burst water mains rather than what British Gas originally assumed, which was a case of the heavy snow filling up.

All told we were there for around 30 minutes, enough time to look at the job, close off a pipe, grab a drink and make our way back home. Thankfully Liverpool didn’t disappoint and were only too willing to live up to stereotype, because after 15 minutes I saw a lad getting bundled into the back of a van for shoplifting… from B&M Bargains of all places. The shame.

Sadly I was to ultimately be left slightly disappointed from the day out, I wasn’t able to see any girls still in the pyjamas, something I was told to expect from my Liverpool based friend, LeoWyatt. Never mind, there’s always next time.

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