Been quiet lately

Life and stuff just kept me away from blogging.

Not a whole lot ot report. Saw a few shows at the edinburgh festival and pretty much enjoyed them all, pish weather somewhat ruined the day out factor earlier in the month though.

Bookwise, things might seem a bit quiet. I have made progress on the sorting out the who and the where to approach re publishing. It really is a long shot but one has to try. Literary agents will be my first port of callm with the exception of MacMillan New Publishing which is only publisher I know off that has a department desgined to take submissions by unpublished writers. It's not sent yet, but even with the worst dilly dallying it will be sent off this week. If you don't hear anything within 12 weeks, you haven't been successful.

Composing a covering letter and a synopsis is far more of a challenge than writing the book was. Had a bit of a mental block, but it's coming together.

If I can get those off to a couple more literary editor types this week as well I can look forward to getting back to writing something more enjoyable next week and hopefully leave this current state inertia.

Quote that wot I liked.

I read as much as I can, and quite often I'll be reading something of a philosophical/political persuasion and think ooh I like the sound of that. It sums up something you've been grasping to understand in a few sentances or even better says something profound that hitherto wasn't even on your radar. At this point I often think I need to note this down and share it with other people. Usually however I forget which page it was on and as i'm in the middle of reading I don't stop there and don't exactly forget about it but don't have the patience to go looking for it. Today however I was fortunate enough to be finishing more or less at the page where i saw latest thing that grabbed me.

It's from Power by Bertrand Russell and is as follows....

...,"Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think he is the King, and yet another will think he is God. Highly similar delusions, if expressed by educated men in obscure language, lead to professorships of philosophy; and if expressed by emotional men in eloquent language, lead to dictatorships. Certified lunatics are shut up because of their proneness to violence when their pretensions are questioned; the uncertified variety are given the control of powerful armies, and can inflict death and disaster on all sane men within their reach. The success of insanity, in literature, in philosophy, and in politics, is one of the pecularities of our age, and the successful form of insanity proceeds almost entirely from impulses towards power."

In answer to my last post...

...two goals in the last 5 minutes says it can, superb!!

So it wasn't a demolition job but more positives than negatives so far. We'll do better this season than last that is for sure, just a matter of by how much. Top 6 or better be hard work and require a good dose of good fortune. 7th is my current prediction, could still use a couple of new faces.

So far so good...

...can it continue?

With largely the same bunch of haddies as last season we won first game of the season with an organsied display that was night and day compared to the performances at the same ground the previous season. Looked significantly fitter, more organised and willing to play football through the midfield passing the ball about and not treating it like a hot tattie and hoofing it into corners.

Long way to go to proof of having turned the corner but initial signs are good. Tomorrows game at home to ICT will be another good measure of how we are doing. They have traditionaly been awkward opponets for us at Fir Park, something like 1 win in 6 visits for ourselves. They tend to be big, pyhysical, in your face, sit back and try and hit you on the break. If we can dictate the game and come away with 3 points tomorrow and I'll be more than willing to believe we can be top 6 material this season, with a bit of luck and certainly not likely to be in any sort of relegation mire.

I suspect unless some more new recruits can be brought in 7 or 8th will be more likely but we should a least be contesting it until the death. A couple of good cup runs would also more than make for a good season.

Should the Olympics be held in China?

Now to balance what might be seen as an implied cultural bias I would add that I would ban Great Britain and the United States from hosting the Olympics on political grounds. Not that the ideals of the Olympics mean very much in this day and age, but as well as the human rights issues it's barely safe for the athletes to compete apparantly?

The following seems to form the core of the base for the defence.

"If anything, the Games can only be a catalyst for constructive dialogue in a complex and sensitive transformation that is taking place in compressed time," he said.

"We believe that in the past six years the Olympic Games have had a positive impact in a number of areas such as education, media regulations and on environmental standards."

Amnesty International seem more sceptical.

Rather depressing news

Not yet confirmed, but just goes to show we are still insisting on fucking up this planet we live on and there aint no planet b, we really should take more care.

It maybe the first in 50 years, I'd wager we won't be waiting that long for the next.

Sectarinism in Scottish football.

I think we can agree that it tends to revolve around Rangers and Celtic. Yes I have seen a notable section of Hearts fans sign sectarian pish. I hear Killie fans sing a version of Hallo Hallo, although to be honest if they sign the phrase 'up to their knees in fenion blood' I couldn't be 100% certain. I have heard Motherwell fans in the past sing that, though not in at least ten years.

These two clubs are the ones that are most predominately associated with being a protestant and a catholic club respectively. Times they may be a changing and on the whole large sections of their support might be putting a lot of that hatred behind them. I dunno, incidents in hospitals on evenings of old firm games say there is still a considerable problem.

But with regards to latest controversy about singing of certain songs which are deemed offensive. Surely it is not any problem to deal with that? With police, stewards, CCTV and many fans willing to stand up and say that certain individual and groups are singing offensive songs why is it not the simplest procedure to have them banned?

50/60000 fans watch these two clubs week in week out, every match they play in Scotland is an all ticket affair. At games away from home where it's generally conceded the worst elements seem to come out there is generally more demand than there are seats available. Both clubs as far as I know have a balloting system, they hold the details of fans and supporters associations who recieve tickets or certainly could. Should their fans step out of line it should be a simple matter to track who purchased the ticket and ban them, for life if they should be a repeat offender.

If both clubs are serious about the problem of sectarianism within their support, a problem which is more than just a problem for two football clubs to deal with, rather than just paying it lip service they should be doing exactly this.

Oh what might have been!

A bit disappointed with my showing in the Pro Evo tournament last night, but it could all have been so different. It started well, actually it started badly, the previous night one of the main organisers broke his ankle toboganing at X-scape and the whole event was for a while in danger. As it was it was a bit of a shambles at the beginning but despite getting off a bit later it got going and I started my first game well.

2-0 up inside the first ten minutes, my opponent pulled one back before half time. An early goal in the second half put me right back in the driving seat but my opponent wasn't for chucking it and fought back and with about 15 minutes of the match(pro evo time not real time) managed to force an equaliser. I looked in danger of blowing a game I had twice led by two goals. In this goalfest though I always felt confident of scoring again and duly did with about 7 minutes left and closed out the game to win 4-3. Sadly it would be the highpoint of my tournament.

After a short break I was back for my second match, buoyed by having got an early win I went into it full of confidence. Wintry conditions were order of the day and a tight and tense affair was soon under way. My opponent in this game was a harder nut to crack but I also was keeping him at bay, I'd went closest to scoring but with 5 minutes of the tie left a 0-0 draw looked inevitable. Still I forced a corner and was looking for the one goal that would surely win it when disaster struck. The screen went blank and resolutely remained so, the judge was called for and the overworked and clearly stressed out official looked unsure what to do and ordered a replay. Needless to say the replay didn't go so well, another tight affair was on the cards and 35 minutes in the pattern was much the same when my opponent managed to get in behind my defensive line but the attack seemed thwarted as my came came out and collected the ball at the edge of the box as my defenders harried and denied a clear shooting opportunity. Then it happened, my keeper stood up, ball in hands and crept to close to the edge of the box, dropped the ball right at my opponents strikers feet and he didn't look the gift horse in the mouth and crsiply stroked it home for 1-0. Open mouthed in shock I couldn't believe it, I had looked away to make a comment to someone, I don't think it mattered but a crucial advantage had been gained. As I chased the game I conceded a second midway though the second half and it was all over. Feeling slightly hard done by I could only shake hands with my opponent who had played well and made the most of the rub of the green.

At this point I'd have liked a short break to compose myself but before I could rise from my seat my next opponent was ready to play and it seemed churlish to refuse. Again no mug at Pro Evo he secured a 3-2 win to almost certainly put me out of the contest. With one game left I really only had pride to play for, I won my last game 2-1 which left me tied with two other players on 6 points but alas my goal difference wasm't good enough to scrape the second place needed to progess. A 0-0 draw in the second game would have been enough.

So I can't deny I'm disappointed at how it went, it was still enjoyable but I felt I was good enoguh to be in the last 16. In my opinion everyone in my group was a capable player, but none truly outstanding. I include myself in that assessment, the biggest disappointment was that in the next stage I would have been scheduled to play one of the two players that went on to contest the final. I didn't expect to beat them but I wanted to test myself against them and a dodgy PS2 or copy of the game denied me the chance. Am I bitter? Nah its far to trivial to get that upset about, but if it ever comes up in conversation you can be assured I'll moan like a champion about it given the opportunity :-)