Top Bands

The Grauniad has an online piece about Mark Ronson and his top 100 (98 actually - Stevie Wonder listed twice and only 99 entries) bands.

so copying his idea I am going to come up with 10 of my favoured bands.
In no particular order.

The Beatles
The Brand New Heavies
Slipknot
The Rolling Stones
Pendulum
Depeche Mode
The Prodigy
Fleetwood Mac
Queens of the Stone Age
The Foo Fighters

Mactini

This is comedy gold

Mactini - the future is here. Thank you Peter Serafinovich

800 years old.

800 years of university life and all we get is a badge. I would have liked an 800 pound bonus.

Gin and stuff

Well, as it's the holiday season i've had to start spending money I don't have on presents for peeps.

first up - Gin.
I like this stuff - it's tasty.
if anybody wants to send me some - please do.

Travel Woe

It's time for the annual pilgrimage to the Land of My Fathers/Mothers (my family has always been a Matriarchal one after all).

The journey goes something like this:-
Wander down to Cambridge Train Station and get hassled by the ticket inspectors for my ticket/ID.
Wait 30 mins in a bloody uncomfortable seat for an inevitably late train to Peterborough.
Get on train and stand all the way to P'Boro.
Change at P'Boro and wait 25 mins for East Coast train to newcastle.
Stand for all journey to North-East.
get off the train a lot colder but enjoy the experience of being in a train station that is a stunning piece of architecture.

and for all of this journey I have to pay £80+.
now, here's the problem.
I know it costs a lot to get where I am going, but to pay £80+ to stand for 3.5 hours seems a bit wrong.

Get it sorted please Mr. Government - otherwise nobody will take the train in a few years (maybe that's the plan?)

rossinisbird: God?

rossinisbird: God?

that might be the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

heh.

random annoyances

right now there are several things that are annoying me lots.

1 - Zimbabwe. The cholera epidemic there is no joke. Mugabe is still treating the country like his personal fiefdom and denouncing the white former overlords as scum (which some of them are, no doubt). I was talking to a South-African woman I know and we got talking about how southern Africa is a mess because the minute they declared independence they decided that rather than helping their country the ruling class would just asset strip the country to make sure their families were covered.
If they had oil the US and UK would be in there like a shot.

2 - The end of Woolworths. Sad really.

3 - Unemployment. This might sound very harsh (and I do intend it to be). I live in Cambridge which has a massive Eastern European population. These workers are here to make money from a strong economy (no issue with that) - but, if we are starting to make loads of people unemployed then surely we should be concentrating on keeping the UK citizens in a job, rather than the economic migrant work force?

High-level Geekery

Oh my god.
for the nerd/geek among us (alright, me) there are two major things going to enter my life in 2009.
First one is the Watchmen movie. The webisodes and the trailer look amazing and remarkably true to the source material. From a personal point of view I am looking forward to the Dr. Manhattan character - the only "super" in the book and pretty much my favourite comic character ever.

second is the new Star Trek movie - I hate to say it - it looks immense. Simon Pegg is in it as Scotty and it looks all tech'd up and shiny. I know I am a huge trek nerd - but I really am looking forward to this.

anyhoo - weekend is here.
going to relax with my new shiny toy. bring on the fun

Genius and pain

Well, as announcements go it was another pronouncement of doom. Went to the doctor who told me that they may have to remove another part of me for testing/biopsy. Joy. I am getting tired of having bits cut out of me.

on more positive news I've taken to reading the Grauniad online. They do have a set of talented writers (also a lot of wankers - Look up WKL Louise Taylor for further proof).

anyway - my favourite column now is written by Raphael Honigstein on the Bundesliga. Have a link to his current article.

"Positively Pornographic Finishing" - I loved that quote.

edit - just noticed this on the guardian site.

"Ronaldo beats off Messi and Torres" to scoop Ballon d'Or

and yes - I added the quotation marks.