Saturday, 12 March 2011

The Beautiful Game

What a strange couple of weeks of football.

We have seen the artistry of Barcelona as they demolished an Arsenal side, making them look like a non-league side in the process.

We have seen some horrendous tackles - Jamie Carragher on Nani, Maxi on Rafael, Rafael on Lucas etc - all go relatively unpunished.

When I stumbled across this beautiful animation it reminded me exactly of why I love the beautiful game. Spurs fan or not, if you fail to love this, you fail to love all that is beautiful:

Does God Hate Us? Pt 2

Well, either God hates us or, as I have been secretly hoping for some time, Godzilla does indeed exist and has set about reaking havoc on the Japanese (and pretty much every country in the Pacific ocean) from his underwater lair....?

Obviously, this is bollocks.


However, I am greatly concerned for our dolphin and whale killing cousins. This is a natural disaster of epic proportions and with worries about the nuclear power plant ongoing, they are far from out of the water yet (excuse the pun).

I have embedded the following video as my way of wishing the sushi-munchers all the best at this horrific time.

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Cash and Carry Me Home

My hand greets whisky like a newborn child
Last night, I must admit, it got quite wild
now, morning's approached and I wrestle with a headache
That was spawned in hell by the devil himself
Now was not quite clear
But I wonder what shenanigans brought me here
While I'm cryin' out loud and I'm feeling quite sorry for myself
I need to check my health
Cause I have much to know about myself

I know we fuss and fight here a little bit
I've had a couple drinks well a little bit
I'm beggin' you
Just carry me home

I'm all on my own
Smashed up my phone,
Not sure of whereabouts
My mum kept on callin' me just tellin' me to sort it out

Mum look, readin' books and takin' tests won't take away the pain in chest
The aching limbs decide to vapor, sparked up your cigarette
Lookin' out the window at the world,
I just ain't ready yet

Such things just get me stressed,
Grey hairs are springin' up and I'm startin' to shake a bit
I'm still got some whiskey left, maybe I'll just take a sip

I know we fuss and fight here a little bit
I've a couple drinks for a little bit
I'm beggin' you
Just carry me home

I'm all on my own
I've kinda lost my throne, I'm absent from the scene,
I'm searchin' for a way in life, I'm lookin' for a theme
A plan or a scheme, a road to a better place
I'm splashin' water on my face,
Wake up lazy bones, please just take me home
I'm out of my comfort zone, the liquids wearin' off
Now I just feel alone

I know we fuss and fight here a little bit
I've had a couple drinks for a little bit
I'm beggin' you
Just carry me home

Thursday, 11 November 2010

It's been a while

Dearest reader-base,

I must apologise for the large gap between my last post and this one.
Either a lot has happened or I am extremely lazy!

I am lazy.


I am now IT Service Manager at work which has been a nice promotion but a little stressful at times. I am now going to aim to work my way through the ITIL v3 Qualifications to become a certified expert over the next 2-3 years. Doing this is likely to ensure what I do for the rest of my career and at what level I can do so.

I have just come back from the itSMF Conference at the Novotel in London. This is supposedly THE conference of the year for Service Management geeks like me. I have to admit to being more than a little disappointed.

What I found was an awful lot of self back-slapping and condescending speakers. I don't consider myself one of the best public speakers in the world but I am certainly better than some of the guys I had to listen stutter their way through sentences.
I can handle people being nervous about speaking in front of a large group of strangers  - not just strangers but like-minded industry professionals waiting for you to slip up. It is natural to be nervous and choke on your words etc.

What I can't handle is the content of the presentations.
These presentations are put together in a relatively stress-free environment where time and consideration may be given to the content. These presentations were to be delivered to people in similar roles in the industry, people looking for practical advice on how to overcome common problems. For me, the majority of the audience have a grounding in the theory so why waste your 40 minutes explaining theory. It would have been a lot cheaper for me to buy a book and maybe that would have been more insightful. I think this shows a lack of respect for the audience.

What did I want?
I wanted to explain how people overcame various problems that are common to all. What did they do to make a difference? What obstacles did they come up against? How did they overcome them? Which problems could you not overcome? Why not?
I want practical advice that I can take away and try.


What did I get out of attending?

It wasn't all bad - not by any stretch of the imagination.
I felt that the opening speech by Sir Ranulph Fiennes was possibly the most inspiring speech I have ever had the pleasure to hear. This man is a legend and I only hope that the itSMF make the video available to all of its members to view again.




Also, I have come away with some ideas and a positive outlook on the future. Certainly, it has inspired me to become a certified expert in my field, I want and expect my team to become ISO20000 accredited, and I want to leave my company with a long-lasting legacy in the future. I would be very proud to see my team collect an award on that stage in the future and I will do everything I can to make that happen.

Sunday, 25 April 2010

What would I like to do with my life?

A question that many people are asked with an expectation that they have an answer:

"What do you want to do with your life?"

Well, I am 32 years old this year and I still don't know. I know what I am doing and where that is taking me but I don't think that is the same thing.

I would like to DJ at Womb in Japan (http://www.womb.co.jp/) or Amnesia in Ibiza.
I would like to create the next top club anthem or write and release a tune capable of making the top 10.
I would like to cure the worlds ill and make a difference to some of our less privileged friends around the world.


The question is not "what do you want to do with your life" but "what are you capable of doing with your life" or possibly even "what boring mundane job would you like to do until you retire".

This is not to say that I am not happy in my job or that I don't appreciate the fact that I have a good job. All I am saying is that it does not bring an awful lot of excitement and,when all is said and done, my work will not have made a blind bit of difference to the progression of the human race. I mean an IT Service Management role will hardly set the world alight or cause people to stop and think.

I think I am reasonably influential and bring a lot more to enrich the lives of those around me than just IT. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am destined to work in IT and maybe, just maybe, I will have the opportunity to make a difference but it doesn't appear to be coming anytime soon.

The biggest problem, of course, is the fact that I am a lazy arse and will unlikely go out and search for that excitement that I so yearn.

See my last post.

It's been a long time coming....

Firstly, I would like to apologise to my loyal "army" of "fans".
I have proven not only to myself but also to you that as much as I want to commit to something and make and effort, my attention span will simply not allow it. Take this blog, which was designed to be a bit like an online diary. I haven't updated it for 2 months which kind of implies that I have done nothing and have no thoughts or burning issues.

The truth of the matter is unfortunately more depressing than that. The truth is that I am lazy and maybe the lack of large audience makes it easier for me to decide that my blog has no worth. However, this blog was not designed to rake in massive numbers of readers. This blog was designed to be a place for me to document my own thoughts regardless of anyone else's interest.

So, there you have it, I am a lazy twat.



Me thinking about contributing something to life

Monday, 8 February 2010

Arch Nemesis

I think I have discovered my enemy, my equal opposite, something just as annoying as me.
That's right. As annoying as me.

Amazingly (or not) it isn't a human. Only a cold calculating machine could be as annoying.

"What is it?", I hear you ask.

Well, I'll tell you.

You spend the best part of an hour filling in an internet form only for you to click "Submit" and watch the whole lot disappear before your very eyes and be replaced with a page saying "Error 404" or some other meaningless shite.
So you think "Ha! Fuck you Internet!" and click the "back" button (thinking you are clever and can beat your nemesis) only to find you are presented with the internet's version of a double forks in the form of a page stating:

"This page has expired" which if translated into English basically means "Fuck You Beckster!"